#there are a couple hundred writers out there and you decide to be an anonymous coward on MY blog

[taegularities]

oh but he IS a fucking asshole. fucking other women before they got married just because there's no label between him and oc isn't enough???? (while he's clearly CLEARLY approaching oc and fixing things between them, duh) so you have to fucking ruin his redemption arc because surprise surprise he had an illegitimate son. so many other things to plot yet you always have to pick the shittiest one, fuck you

??? LMFAO??????? who ruined your day, babe? where do you get all that anger from, for a fucking FANFIC? if it doesn't suit your taste, then find something you like elsewhere? he coped with heartbreak by sleeping with one (1) woman while they were broken up (not even together) and yes, the 19th century will make ppl have babies bc there was no contraception. you wouldn't be whining if this was a modern day fuckboy jk fic. he was allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted to before he even fell for oc or approached her.

i always pick the shittiest plot? then wtf are you still doing on my blog and why haven't you gotten lost wayyyyy before sending this ask? i'm confused. like are you okay. do you just like being upset or… i'm not sure. either way, be a cunt somewhere else, there's enough shit to deal with and i so do not have any patience left for shit ass rotten people like you lmfao this is for you

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #326: WIND from the EAST

November, 1990

Earth's Mightiest Heroes have just fought their newest opponent. Now the Invincible Iron Man has to pick up the pieces. Good luck, Shellhead.

For some reason, the combination of the cover text and everyone being flat on their ass except one person who all hope now lies with against a fiendish foe gives this cover a retro feel.

I can't point to a specific example, it just has an older energy to it.

Anyway. Have you ever noticed that if you squint, the distribution of red versus gold on Iron Man's armor kinda sorta forms an I? With the Iron Panties and the chest piece forming the crossbars? A neat way to give him that superhero initial thing.

Last times in Avengers: Uh. There's been a lot of filler. John Byrne quit over editorial interference and there's been a couple writers since, all doing their own wheel spinning. So we get to the point where the most important last time in Avengers was Avengers Island getting sunk in Acts of Vengeance.

Remember how Michael O'Brien had spent a lot of money getting a new meeting room table for the Avengers, only to be told that Thor wanted to salvage something instead? Yeah, we open on the Avengers making a new meeting table.

It's kinda awesome.

Thor and Sersi forge the big A inlay, with Sersi heating up metal scavenged from girders of the mansion destroyed by the Masters of Evil and Thor Mjolniring the shit out of it.

The Avengers actually let Michael O'Brien help (probably to ease the sting of completely wasting his time before). O'Brien had a table top hand-carved from black basalt scavenged from the sunken Hydrobase.

So the new table is going to be a bit of the previous two bases. With the whole team chipping in to help assemble it. At least, everyone listed on the cover. Quasar has apparently dropped out between issues. Or Larry Hama doesn't want to write him.

But anyway, Thor and Sersi make the A sigil. She-Hulk gouges an A-shaped space in the basalt with her fingernails. Iron Man visits from the West Coast team just to put together all the communication and display systems for the table. And Cap supervises.

As far as throwaway downtime sequences go, I quite like this.

Since the Avengers are incorporating their history into the new table, Sersi decides to give Captain America a little gift. He had a scrapbook of Avengers adventures that was lost when Hydrobase sank. Sersi used a mysterious Eternal space-time bending process to recreate it.

That's nice of her.

While looking at a Daily Bugle photo of the Avengers fighting the Masters of Evil in issue #6, Iron Man almost says he was in that fight before doing a verbal backspace.

Iron Man: "Look at that front page photo from the 'Bugle'... the old Avengers battling the Masters of Evil! That was some fight we -- uh... I mean, you were in!" She-Hulk: "Sure, dude. That was the other guy in the tin suit, right?" Iron Man: "Absolutely. We are all well aware of the death of the original Iron Man..." She-Hulk: "... and you're just another anonymous employee of Stark Enterprises!"

I still have no idea why Tony is pretending he's not Iron Man to his Avengers friends. As a running subplot, it's not going anywhere. It's just repeating Iron Man saying that he's totally not the same guy they had three hundred adventures with and whichever Avenger he's talking to going 'riiiiiiight.'

Speaking of running subplots, there seems to be some conflicting writers on whether Jarvis suffered permanent damage to his vision after being beaten half to death by Mr Hyde.

Some writers still portray him wearing it. In this comic, Larry Hama has Jarvis call the eyepatch silly.

Anyway. Plot.

Big, buff black superhero Rage rings the doorbell of the Mansion construction site and says he's here to sign up to be an Avenger.

Jarvis tells him that one doesn't just show up and ask to be an Avenger. Factually incorrect, Jarvis. A lot of people do that. Like Hawkeye. But Jarvis also says that there's a lot of security checks and testing that one must go through.

Rage sees this as a runaround and just kinda walks in despite Jarvis.

Captain America comes to find out what the hubbub is and Rage asks the pretty legitimate question of why the Avengers don't have any African-American members.

Geez, this is a question that comes up somewhat frequently. You'd think that it would sink in or something.

In an in-universe sense, the Avengers just kinda form teams based on whoever is available. In an out-of-universe sense, it's a very legitimate criticism to lob. Why don't the Avengers have reflect the diversity of America better? Didn't the Avengers used to have a black chairwoman? What happened to her? Oh, an old white man manipulated her out of a job? That's a bad look.

Captain America responds, hey, what about Black Panther and Falcon! I have some black friends!

And Rage goes, they're not here, are they? And more specifically, he points out that Black Panther is a rich king. And that Falcon only joined the team because the government demanded they meet equal opportunity standards. (Wait, how do you know THAT?) Anyway, it sounds like Falcon is retired or something at the moment?

(Neither of them mention Monica. Who, y'know, led the team!)

Captain America: "You're beginning to tick me off, Rage... First off, nobody just walks in and gets to be an Avenger -- no matter if they're white, black, yellow, or green, for that matter!"

Again, factually incorrect. Starfox showed up from another planet and asked to join. And the only hurdle that required was for him to change his name because Reagan said so.

Captain America: "And just what can you do that qualifies you to be a super hero in the first place?" Rage: "What can I do? I've got super-human strength... I'm virtually indestructible -- And I believe in truth, justice, and the dignity of man."

He raises a good point.

And I like his look. The leather jacket look would definitely make him look unique on the line-up beside all the more superhero-y outfits. But having RAGE on the back of the jacket does meet superhero branding guidelines. Also, luchador mask. Pretty cool.

I don't love the codename Rage though. Superhero codenames that are just Noun are my least favorite.

Anyway, Rage accuses Cap of judging him by his appearance and thinking that he'd be bad for the Avengers' image.

Sersi and the rest of the Avengers wander out to see what's going on and Sersi sees Rage gesturing dramatically at Captain America.

So just as Rage is accusing Cap "I bet you think that I'll resort to violence at any second!", Sersi goes oh no, I bet that guy is going to resort to violence and full force blasts Rage with eye lasers.

Everyone remember that this is all Sersi's fault.

Despite Cap yelling at Sersi to not do this thing, Thor and She-Hulk assume that they're in a fight scene now and rush forward to escalate things further.

She-Hulk: "C'mon and pick on somebody your own size!" Rage: "Is that a challenge?"

Rage didn't start this. But he's not about to de-escalate either.

Cap manages to get everyone to simmer down.

Captain America: "There's been a terrible misunderstanding! Rage wasn't attacking me, he was trying to make a point... in fact a very valid point about perceptions!"

Sersi defends herself saying that she felt a lot of hostility in the scene before she eye lasered and Cap has to explain to the millennia old woman that conversations can be angry sometimes.

Rage decides that Actually, he doesn't want to be part of this "stupid organization anymore", which is more than valid.

Rage: "All you ever do is bash cosmic menaces off in some alternate reality or battle bad guys who have nothing better to do than destroy your headquarters! Nobody cares if super-villains fight super heroes! That don't mean diddly-squat to some kid in the inner city... I just want to use my powers to make life better for mankind, and if you don't know it, most of mankind is the little guy who never gets the benefit of your heroics!"

Then he slams the door behind him and walks off.

Hm. This is also something that comes up with the Avengers a lot. The idea that stopping alien invasions isn't Real. It's an argument that makes more sense as an out-of-universe argument than an in-universe one.

It doesn't matter to the little guy that the Avengers stopped a giant metal space man from eating the Earth? That's what we're going with? That's a dumb thing to say.

Benefit of the doubt, maybe this is more a statement of intent from Larry Hama about what kind of Avengers run he wants to do. As opposed to the cheap shot it usually is when some random person says that Avengers don't deal with Real Problems.

I do have to say, I like what Larry Hama did here by starting the issue with the Avengers being all chummy and building a table together and then assuming the worst of an outsider.

Paints the Avengers as maybe being a little clique-ish. Like maybe they need a new person to join and shake things up a little.

Anyway, Iron Man missed all of the Rage stuff but he shows up to tell them that Plot is happening.

Interspersed with the Rage conversation, there's been other stuff going on with Raymond Sikorski, National Security Council guy and liaison to the Avengers, arranging for Lt. Ramskov, hero of Chernobyl, to get a bone marrow transplant from Dr Estivez at Metropolitan General Hospital to treat his leukemia.

The man very heroically braved Chernobyl to shut down a steam pipe that was blasting radioactive vapor into the atmosphere, despite knowing his radiation suit would not be sufficient to protect him.

Problem though. Nobody told Dr Estivez so she is positively alarmed when a crane drops a man in a big containment suit with a radiation symbol on it.

She is further alarmed to hear that Lt. Ramskov has received experimental treatments at Tyuratam. Which is a space center and not a hospital.

These are legitimate concerns. But before you go thinking Dr Estivez is a total voice of reason, when she's giving Lt. Ramskov a look-over, she notices the containment suit is pumping sedatives and muscle relaxants into his bloodstream, she decides to disconnect the pump without asking why.

Granted, her objection is that she can't operate on a dude with unknown drugs in his system but... c'mon. Don't just pull things loose from a containment suit!

Without the drugs, Lt. Ramskov wakes up and starts glowing.

And then he melts through the floor.

... I feel like everyone in the room should get tested for radiation exposure.

Anyway, Sikorski decides this boondoggle should be the Avengers' problem and calls them in. And that brings us back around to Iron Man telling the rest of the team about Plot.

And as the Avengers investigate the hole in the hospital floor, it turns out I was wrong. Ramskov didn't melt through the floor. There's no sign of melting. No increase in the background radiation level. Iron Man sciences that it was quark manipulation what done it.

I don't have enough of a science brain to figure out what that means.

Ramskov's handler/escort, Ms Zhukova tells the Avengers that they better not kill Lt. Ramskov, Hero of the Soviet Union, on American soil! That'd be most bad!

Captain America has to tell her that the Avengers don't really make a habit of killing.

At least in these times. Superhero comics have changed.

Dr Estivez tells She-Hulk that the containment suit and the way Ramskov was kept drugged into a catatonic state leads her to believe that the Soviets were aware of Ramskov's abilities and were trying to keep America from finding out about them.

Ms Zhukova is shocked. Offended even.

And then there's an earthquake and the floor collapses, sending Dr Estivez, Ms Zhukova, and She-Hulk down into the pit beneath the hospital.

Well, She-Hulk is obviously fine. She fell through an entire building once, on purpose. The other two women might get hurt, though.

Iron Man and Thor leap into the pit and save the two normal women. She-Hulk declines being caught because "I could fall twice this distance and not muss my hair!"

And she falls to the lowest subbasement. Which looks like a sewer but She-Hulk calls it a conduit tunnel. She spots some footprints on the floor and goes looking for Lt Ramskov.

Thor and Iron Man want to deposit the two normal women back up in the hospital but both insist on joining the search for Ramskov. Zhukova because she is responsible for him and Dr Estivez because Ramskov is under her care and this is a medical problem!

So the two heroes land in the conduit tunnel and, like She-Hulk, start following the footprints.

Meanwhile, Ramskov. He is still hallucinating his backstory, miming turning a valve as he remembers trying to shut down the steam pipe back in Chernobyl.

But the flashback thickens! In his memory, he sees two mysterious figures in lead suits, dismantling a device attached to the reactor. Ramskov chases them because messing with the reactor could lead to a total meltdown!

... I thought Chernobyl had already melted down. But even still, it was not a situation that would benefit from being made worse.

Ramskov is still hallucinating backstory when Thor and She-Hulk find him. And since She-Hulk happens to be carrying a half-melted pipe she found, Ramskov sees the two heroes as the two lead-suited figures from his memory, who assaulted him with a crowbar and a wrench when he cornered them.

Ramskov punches She-Hulk in the head so Thor retaliates and Mjolnirs the Hero of Chernobyl in the helmet.

Meanwhile, Iron Man is walking with Ms Zhukova and Dr Estivez. The doctor repeats what she heard about Ramskov receiving treatments at the Tyuratam Space Center and now Iron Man is suspicious about this whole thing too.

He begins to ask if Ramskov is part of a special weapons program but then there's another earthquake. Iron Man tells the two women to stay put and goes to check on Thor and She-Hulk.

Where he finds them flat on their asses, as on the cover.

Ms Zhukova and Dr Estivez both refuse to listen to Iron Man, though, chasing after him.

Zhukova: "I cannot let them endanger the integrity of Ramskov's containment suit!" Dr Estivez: "He's still my patient, too!"

You could at least hang back a safe distance but no. They chase right up to where Iron Man is and where Ramskov is glowing and just making physics weep.

Iron Man: "Ramskov is emitting energy in wavelengths that don't exist on any scale! He's dismantling vector bosons and doing things to gluons that should never be done!"

That sounds bad!

Still reliving his memories, Ramskov tears open his containment suit as he tore off his radiation suit after it was ripped by the two men in the past times. Which just intensifies the energy he's putting out in the present.

I hope Thor and She-Hulk's gluons are okay.

Meanwhile, Rage is still in this book.

I figured he'd wind up joining the A-plot but it seems he's got his own subplot going on right now.

Rage walks up to a building that a drug dealer called L.D. 50 operates out of and tells some prospective customers to beat it because business is closing its doors.

Some of L.D. 50's men come out and try to shoot Rage with bullets from their guns for scaring off the customers and not gtfo-ing when they told him to.

Rage does his best Luke Cage, just walking through the gunfire.

I sorta wonder whether Rage exists because Luke Cage wasn't available to use. There's some overlap in powerset and the names rhyme. But Larry Hama is clear on what his inspirations for the character were and Luke Cage was not mentioned.

The muscle run upstairs to warn their vocabulary rich boss that some bulletproof dude is causing trouble. To his credit, L.D. 50 actually thinks of a possible way to deal with a bulletproof dude. Just throw him out a window.

But Rage didn't need to go upstairs to shut down L.D. 50. He pulled a Cage and now he's pulling a Sampson.

Rage: "This tenement was condemned by the city, but drug money bribed the inspectors and the misery of the people furnished it in luxury... It's about time it all came tumbling down!"

Then he shoves the load-bearing columns and the building starts to collapses. I can see why it was condemned.

I guess that's Rage dealing with the Real Problems tm that the Avengers don't have time for.

Next time in Avengers, the dimension of badly-drawn rocks, apparently. But actually next time, hopping back over to West Coast Avengers for some Great Lakes Avengers! Woo.

Follow @essential-avengers for more excitement noises. Like and reblog and comment and leave money for me under rocks. Any rock will do. It doesn't have to be badly-drawn.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

you leaving those tags about how the thing literally called a “like” means people dont like your work and actually means someone is a bad person for not “bringing you more customers” was funny enough, but after seeing your shop its fucking hysterical

Wow, great misreading there. What I said is that it's an acknowledgement and bookmark. That's it. It's usually people new to tumblr who expect it to be like Twitter, where you see likes. You don't see that here because this is a blogging site, not social media. Likes are.unseen unless someone goes to your blog and you have likes available. Otherwise, it's a simple bookmark for someone to go back to. It's why so many newer accounts here have no posts and have likes available, and there are thousands of likes. Not a single reblog because they don't know how the site works.

Those who have been here awhile know likes are unseen. I've seen pinned posts where some folks mention they reblog nothing but their own stuff, or don't want to crowd their followers' dashboard with things, like artwork or writing. They will often make likes available to view, but only very rarely do people go in there. I don't have my likes available because they are bookmarks for me, posts I share with my husband because doesn't have a tumblr account. I reblog everything I like, and usually delete the likes after sharing them with him. Again, I reblog anything I like, or queue it for later.

Not once did I mention liking things makes someone a bad person. That's your spin on it. What I said is the likes are useless to artists and writers. Reblogging is how we share things here. It's the equivalent of word of mouth. It says "Hey, look, check the work out! This artists/writer made something I want to share so others can see it!" That's what we as artists and writers need, not a simple nod like someone passing you on the sidewalk. Reblogging someone waving flags and signs and bringing attention to something.

As for seeing my ship and being amused by what I said, I'm going to assume you're either impressed with the hundreds of hours invested in design and work, or you find my work unworthy of your attention and feel obligated to tear me down about it. For the latter, don't bother. I have five commissions I'm working on, bringing it to nearly a dozen commissions this year, and my shop is mostly bare due to people purchasing things last year. I've been too busy with commissions to work on making new inventory, so it just free digital downloads and a couple of quilt tops and table runners I made last year. Quite a bit of my inventory sold. Mocking the work is a waste of time best suited to admiring what's in the gallery section of my website. Now, it's hysterical due to the high quality of the work and the way you feel it speaks for itself about how beautiful each quilt is, thank you.

Now, why in the world did you feel it was necessary to come into my inbox and leave this message? No need to answer, just something to contemplate. You need not give word to every thought you have, nor do you need to inform everyone of your opinion. However, the next time you decide to be rude, find the courage to say it without hiding behind the mask of anonymous. If you think your words are important, say them with your whole chest and don't be a coward.

[jiminiesfavouritecolourisblue]

Yo, sorry to be a bother to you but I would like to ask a favor (tho you don't need to do if you don't want to, I am not your responsibility, I just thought I'd try).

So basically, there is a blog called "chaibts" which encourages anons to harass and bully content creators, their latest target being a minor (she's not the first nor will she be the last one). Saying shit like "this is the most attention you’ve ever had, be thankful! is it disturbing that a couple of people are sending you asks, calling you out? you find it disturbing that there are people “keeping tabs on you”? ah, the irony of a yandere and assault writer. 🥰" (I cannot send the screenshot since I asked anonymously).

You are free to investigate this yourself, but it had gone so much worse to the point that the writer being bullied is getting rape threats (AGAIN SHE'S A MINOR) and those that bullies her were using the excuse that they're only doing so because they're responsible adults who don't like minors on the site. This is truly horrifying to see, as there is a place for them that encourages to do so.

Again, she's not the first one nor she's the last. The cult-like behavior is baffling, they even had the pride to boast that they were successful in bullying someone off the platform before, and she's next. Unfortunately, that's becoming a reality. Again sorry for dragging this to you, but just feels bad really.

Thank you, and if you ever decide to report the said account due to hate speech, please ask your followers to do it too. Thank you.

I have heard about this blog and spoken to other writers about it, to be completely honest with you I think it’s just disgusting. People come here to find a safe place to be themselves and to get dragged for it is just awful.

Everyone who writes yandere or fics that are a dubious always puts in warnings from what I’ve seen, I think people need to understand there is a clear distinction between fiction and reality and no one in their right minds wants what’s depicted in those stories. If you don’t like what’s written, don’t read it, no body is forcing you to, but you can’t tell someone what they can or can’t do or give them hate for it, especially when there are hundreds of trigger warnings there for you to see

A lot of writers also put “minors DNI” or age warnings, but obviously you can’t control if someone who’s not of age reads your work, that’s their choice all you can do is say I don’t advise it. If that minor were then to ignore the warnings all you can do is either ignore or block. Just to show how naive I am I always assume everyone who interacts with me is of age but maybe I need to be more careful

I feel like anon run blogs are just a way to fuel hate while hiding behind anonymity so there’s no way of being held accountable of what’s posted, it’s cowardly and yeah I think if it’s upsetting people it needs to be reported and I hope people are. It’s not fun to be mean, it’s not fun to hurt people, why do it? I just don’t get it

[afterthegreatunknown]

I got tagged by @gellavonhamster. Thank you for the tag! This was very fun to do!

Fanfic Writer 20 Questions

1. how many fics do you have on ao3?

117 fics. I used Anonymous before, and due to how it works, I’m not including them in my work count.

2. what is your ao3 word count?

277,879.

3. how many fandoms do you write for and what are they?

Currently, the Persona series (main focus is Persona 1 and Persona 5), and ASOUE/Snicket-verse (I’m lumping ATWQ in due to a lack of works written for it). Past fandoms included Final Fantasy XV, Law and Order, Once Upon a Time, and others not worth mentioning here.

(Under the cut due to length.)

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Because the top five fics aren’t ASOUE/Snicket-verse works, I won’t link them, but I will explain enough for the general idea to be known.

Monkey Men (Persona 1 and Persona 5), 68 kudos. A work focusing on the characters Masao ‘Mark’ Inaba and Ryuji Sakamoto, who are associated/are compare to monkeys in their perspective games, eventually meet, talk, and bond over well, being monkey men (it makes more sense in context).

Hundred Percent Bitter (Persona 5), 68 kudos (again). A work focusing on two characters, Ryuji Sakamoto and Goro Akechi, talking about love, with a too late realization from one of them that fits the title all too well.

But it Rings, and I Rise (Persona 1 and Persona 5), 68 kudos (again!). Two characters, Naoya Toudou and Sumire Yoshizawa, talk to one around, realizing they have a bit more in common than it initially appear, for they went through a life event that changed them forever.

Egotistical Showoff (Persona 1 and Persona 5), 58 kudos. AU Fic- a P1 character, Hidehiko ‘Brown’ Uesugi, f*cks up the timeline by accidentally meeting Goro Akechi, who was seconds away from doing what canon intended him to do (and be). Comes with voice doppelgangers and fatherhood.

Unfinished (Once Upon a Time), 50 kudos. An unfinished (hehe) fic that is an AU/Canon Divergence where Pinocchio/August Booth decides to stick around to be Emma Swan’s older brother, and things go wild from there with other divergences that don’t reflect/affect this divergence. Much.

5. do you respond to comments? why/why not?

I try make sure to respond to comments! I really appreciate the feedback, because after all, someone took time of their day to read my work, and they enjoy it to where they comment on it!

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ASOUE/Snicket-verse wise, Recognition. There’s other ASOUE/Snicket-verse stuff that I can call angsty, but Recognition is the angstiest of all. But if I had to pick one fic with the angstiest ending of all my fics, it’s is the mentioned Hundred Percent Bitter Persona 5 fic. Wrote it in mind to be that way, too.

7. do you write crossovers?

The closest I got to writing a crossover is a Law and Order fic title Lose-Lose Situation, which directly takes dialogue from Hiimdaisy's Persona 4 fancomic (a parody comic of the Persona 4 game itself).

8. have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

No. I got a few comments telling me of mistakes I accidentally looked over, but those were well intended and I felt were not made to be hurtful.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Nope. I don’t think I’m cut out for it. I think I’m more likely to write a fic where it’s the morning after, all cuddles and mundane couple/domestic things.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so. I haven’t check.

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

12. have you ever co-written a fic?

Also a no.

13. what’s your all-time favourite ship?

ASOUE/Snicket-verse wise, AO3 tells me it’s Hector & Captain Widdershins with three works (I love how it’s the platonic relationship that is my favorite ship for this fandom). AO3 also tells me for Persona, it’s a Persona 1 ship: Ayase Yuka/Mayuzumi Yukino (F/F) with three works (Japanese valley girl equivalent and a former delinquent being [eventual] girlfriends is quite the combination).

14. what’s a wip that you want to finish but you don’t think you ever will?

Unfinished is the big one, because I lost a majority of my drive to work on it, which makes the title very fitting (it sucks too, because I have loads of ideas on diverging the fic from OUAT canon more and only a few got into the final product before I stopped writing for it). ASOUE/Snicket-verse wise, the one that fits the closest is something I call, ‘The Chaperone’. I’m currently rewriting it, and it’s a struggle because I’m still debating what of the OG ‘The Chaperone’ fic can work in the rewrite.

15. what are your writing strengths?

*shrugs*. I write the best when writing smaller works, like ficlets and drabbles, but I’m not sure if that truly counts. I think my strength would be plot? I make sure the plot makes sense from start to end for the readers to get hints (if I drop them), and make sure the conclusion feels natural and not coming out of nowhere and underdeveloped.

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

I got many, but the biggest one is to make sure no one is out of character. That meme of ‘he would not f*cking say that’ is in full effect here (unless it’s meant to be a humor/crack fic, then that goes out the window deliberately). I like to think I got better over the years, especially in the Persona fandom.

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I say done in small doses with an accessible source that isn’t Google that is trustworthy, it’s good. In my case, I frequently do it with Spanish. My dad is Mexican and thus speaks fluent Spanish, so I go to him for help (asking casually though). I also have old notes from official dictionaries/books use to learn Spanish, but don’t use it unless I can’t ask my dad.

18. what is the first fandom you ever wrote for?

OUAT. They were posted on a sideblog I eventually deleted, and I can’t really recall what they were about (that’s probably for the better). Interesting enough, the first fic to be posted on AO3 is still an OUAT fic: If Found Please Return. It’s my take of an August and Jefferson scene in the episode Hat Trick shown in promotional photos but cut in the final episode.

19. what’s your favourite fic that you have ever written?

ASOUE/Snicket-verse wise, I got Not Quite a True Platonic Declaration of Love, Recognition (linked in question six) and it’s sequel Reunited, and Don't Think I've Forgotten. These fics I put more time and effort than I originally planned, so that’s why they’re here. Recognition holds a special place in comparison to the others, being one I re-read time to time.

Other favorite fics will have to be Monkey Men, for Mark and Ryuji are some of favorite characters of the Persona Series, and a Final Fantasy XV fic I wrote title Best Not To Question It, for it was inspired by a real glitch my sister and I witness when she was playing the game that had us laughing our ass off (and thinking of that memory now, I still get a chuckle from it).

20. who do you tag?

Because I don’t know and have many people to tag who I feel would want to do this, I say anyone who sees this, and wants to do it, do it.

[outerbankspreferences]

Go To Sleep - Drew Starkey

Word Count: 786

Request: 

Anonymous said:

Request: drew starkey imagine where he gets super drunk and hes makes super sexual jokes (most aren’t jokes) or he gets horny when he’s drunk and y/n’s just like no and she takes care of him and stuff

Warnings: Sexaul comments, shitty proof reading.

MASTERLIST

A/N: I hope you like this, send me more request. It takes some time to fill them because I work full time and iI’ve had serious writers block, but I’m trying to get back at it. And I mean, who doesn’t love the thought of drunk horny Drew??

Drew had gone out to watch the game at a bar with a couple of friends and you were staying home. The two of you had been dating for a couple of months and spent almost all you time together. You thought it would be good if Drew spent some time with his friends with out you. After much convincing Drew decided to go with out you. Drew didn’t want to spend anytime away from you, he always enjoyed the calm and laid-back energy you gave off. If he was being honest you had been making him extra horny all week, but you kept blowing off sex stating you were too tired, or had things you needed to do. He told you he wasn’t going to be late, and that he would stop by your place to sleep there. You liked that he felt so comfortable at your apartment. You offered to pick him, but he declined opting to get an uber home with his friends. You knew things must have been going well when he hadn’t texted you all night. You were happy that he was out enjoying himself. It was coming onto to midnight and you couldn’t stay up any later waiting for him, so you opted to text him and head to bed. 

Y/N: Hey love, hope you’re enjoying yourself; I’m going to bed. Love you <3. 

You waited a couple minutes and then went into the bathroom to start your night routine. It didn’t take you long to finish and when you came out you had a text from Drew.  

Drew: I’m having a great time, but I would definitely enjoying myself a lot more with you 😉. 

You laughed to yourself. Drew was a very affectionate person anyways, so when he was drunk it was dialed up to a hundred. 

Y/N: I’m sure the boys are doing a good job keeping you company. Drew: They’re not as good as you, what are you wearing? 

You sent him a photo of you in your sweatpants in the bathroom. You laughed to yourself, teasing Drew was always fun because it made him all whiney.

 Drew: You know that’s not what I meant. Come on baby, let me see the gorgeous body 😉.

Drew: I’m leaving the bar soon, be ready for me when I get home 😉 Love you. 

You figured he would forget about it on the car ride home. You had neglected him a lot this week. Not out of spite, but because you’d been so busy. Drew called for an uber and said goodbye to his friends. He had to try and hide his hard on from the drive and act sober. He may be an actor, but not when he was drunk. Drew talked the guys ear off the whole time, and practically jumped put of the car before it was stopped at your place. He walked up to your apartment unlocking the door with his spare key.  He stumbled into the kitchen laughing to himself, kicking off his shoes. You had heard him unlocking the door not fully asleep until he got home, and you knew he was safe. Drew went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth before changing into pajamas. He came into the bedroom laying in bed observing your sleeping frame. He cuddled close to you dn you could feel his boner through his clothes. He started to place sweet kisses on your shoulders. “Are your awake baby?” He whispers and you let out a small moan. “You are the sexiest person I’ve ever seen.” He spoke into your ear gently nipping at it, knowing it was your weakness. Even drunk, Drew could make your panties soaked. You weren’t to have sex with him when he was drunk, and you weren’t. you knew he wouldn’t do that to you. “Drew, go to sleep love.” You spoke, turning to face him. He took the opportunity to start kissing you. It was kind of sloppy, but in a sexy way. He didn’t push too much, more just being needy. “No Y/N, I need you love.” He whispered between kisses. Slowing grinding onto your more to get some friction going. You could smell the alcohol on his breath and in made you wrinkle your nose. “We can do it in the morning I promise, just not right now I’m too tired.” You told him cuddling into his chest. Drew couldn’t turn down a good cuddle session especially drunk. He pulled you closer kissing the top of your head. “Okay, but I’m holding it to you in the morning.” He told you before nodding off to sleep. You made up for it the morning.

TAGLIST:

lemur46  fttayla @drewstarkeysbitchh

[webcomixwastaken]

So I just learned that there is a significant amount of fanfic readers who withhold comments and kudos until a WIP is completely finished because they want to "make sure" that it's worth their approval.

As a writer, this floors me. Because... this is how you kill a fic. I feel like I sound like a broken record here because this has been repeated on the internet for years, and years, and years: feedback and encouragement fuels your fanfiction. It takes hours to write what you read in minutes. Writing is a craft that involves gestating, drafting, revising, editing... and in a good chunk of cases, sending to betas, waiting for betas, absorbing beta feedback and then revising and editing all over again. You know what you get when you don’t support your fic writer? Unfinished stories. Which is ironic because some of these “I’m reluctant to kudos” readers cite WIP abandonment issues as the cause?? But writers interpret silence as “Oh, people don’t like this. People don’t want this. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing it. Maybe I suck, actually.” And with those seeds sown, they’ll give up what used to excite them.

Isn't that sad? Yes. Yes it is.

"You should be writing for yourself, for the art!" I know. I do. I have hundreds of thousands of words that have seen very few eyes other than mine -- 2 polished novels of which one has been shelved after fighting in the query trenches and the other still eking it out, 1 hot mess of a first draft awaiting cleanup before it too gets rejected by a bunch of professionals, a couple of WIPs in varying degrees of progress that I do intend to return to and finish, even more than I reached 50k+ words but have decided not to return to, dozens of short stories. All within the past decade and I consider myself slow compared to my peers. And this doesn't even count my fanfic which adds at least 400k+ more words to the pile and can’t (since I post to ao3) be monetised or published traditionally. Every paragraph is already a passion project.

Also, when I see a strong sub-to-hits ratio that doesn't match the kudos-to-hits, I know that people are interested but for some unfathomable reason, avoid actual interaction. Oh, so are we just a statistic to you? Yeah, because you choose to be. Commenting turns you into a person we get to interact with and imagine when we write the next installment. I absolutely have usernames and DPs in mind when I write and look out for them in the comments when I update. If you comment, we will quite literally be writing for you.

For free and during precious leisure time, may I add.

There has been exactly ONE time where I truly regretted my comment+kudos but a single unusual instance isn’t going to turn me into a snob. Even fics where I’ve lost interest or realised it’s going a direction I don’t really care for, I often click that kudos button because a) I know the effort it took to write this and b) ANONYMOUS KUDOS IS AN OPTION. Another bizarre reasoning I saw was “it’s still my username if I’m logged in”... so log out! Or open incognito mode! Also, the point of a username/online account is that you’re not using your actual identity, but one you’ve made up? Social media has blurred this but I don’t think your ao3 account needs to be an ultra-serious extension of yourself. Like, it’s the internet. Not real life. (god am I revealing myself as an old cringeass millennial?) 

Also, hate to break it to you -- people are paying less attention than you think. I have to tell myself this all the time. Unless you’re like, Naomi Novik, people probably aren’t clocking your handle crammed alongside chickennugget47 and superhomestuckywholockcrossing (wow I really am dating myself with this)

Anyway. I’m not going to demand you kudos or comment. But just adding to the over-exposed, oft-repeated, and old-as-fuck fandom discourse that doing so almost always benefits both reader and writer than no. So seriously consider it, please.

[razieltwelve]

My Origin Story

I’m often asked about how I got into self-publishing. It’s something I’ve talked about in previous posts, but I want to talk about it again. It’s been years since I started, and I think time has given me something of a different perspective.

I’ve wanted to be a writer for a long time. However, I first began to take my writing more seriously in high school. I started posting my writing on the internet under various pseudonyms, and I gradually honed my skills. I won’t say I was good back then, but I steadily became less horrible. It still wasn’t something I showed to people I knew in my everyday life, not even to my family. My writing was, in my opinion, still too rough and raw to present to others, except via the anonymity of the internet.

Fast forward to university. I continued to improve my writing as best I could. In fact, I devoted most of my spare time to writing. It was at this point that I began to write fan fiction. Now, I can already tell what some of you are thinking, but writing fan fiction was honestly the best decision I could have made at the time. Fan communities are wonderful things. You don’t have to be the best writer to be welcomed, and you can get access to a far larger amount of critique and advice than you would get as some random lone writer on the internet.

My writing improved markedly during this time since I was now getting regular feedback. Now, obviously, it’s true that most fan fiction readers aren’t professional writers or critics. Sometimes, all you get is “I like the bit where people got stabbed”. Yet amongst all of the one word reviews, random hate messages, and simple but welcome words of encouragement, you do meet people who are genuinely interested in helping you improve. I’m talking about detailed reviews that can be pages long, covering everything from sentence construction to overarching plot critiques.

In my Honours year, I finished my first novel. Before you ask, it’s not something that I’ve published although I do intend to go back and fix it up one day. What mattered wasn’t how good it was. No. What mattered was that I actually finished a novel-length story. It was a bit of mess at times, but it was 100,000 words of original fiction. Sure, it wasn’t great, but it was mine. I actually printed it out and had it bound in a manner similar to my Honours thesis.

During my PhD years, I continued to write, and I began to submit my short stories to fiction magazines while sending out inquiry letters to agents and publishers about my longer stories. Over the four years of my PhD I wrote three novels and many short stories.

And this is where my origin story takes a bit of a dark turn.

Do you want to know how many short stories I got published?

Zero.

Do you want to know how much interest I got from publishers and agents about my longer stories?

Zero.

That’s right. I got absolutely zero interest from anyone about my original fiction.

That’s not a good feeling, let me tell you. It can be very disheartening. I might have thrown myself into fan fiction with a bit more enthusiasm then because at least there, in those communities, people liked what I wrote. Despite all the rejections from publishers and agents, I could at least say that in certain communities, my writing was well-loved and respected.

After bashing my head into the proverbial wall for a couple of years, I began to look into self-publishing. If my writing was genuinely good, then surely I’d be able to sell at least a few copies if I self-published. I wasn’t going to get ahead of myself and predict best-seller status or anything, but I had to be able to sell something, right?

I spent the next few months studying the market and learning how to make eBooks and design covers. Finally, I was ready. The very first book I self-published was The Last Huntress. That book was a labour of love. I pored over every sentence. I obsessed about the characters and the setting. I promoted it as best I could via the communities I was a part of, and then I sat back and waited for the magic to happen.

That last part, the bit about the magic? That was sarcasm.

There was no magic.

In that first month, I sold something like 17 copies.

All told, that translated to around $6.50 for me.

Staring at that result was not the happiest moment of my life. I did the mental arithmetic. Even if I increased my sales a hundred fold, it still wouldn’t be enough for me to make a living via writing. Heck, I could increase my sales three hundred fold and it still wouldn’t be enough.

Luckily, my years of unrelenting failure had somewhat numbed me to this latest failure. I decided to try again. The sequel and some other stories actually managed to do a little better, but that was hardly saying anything. It’s kind of like how if your leg has been cut off, you probably won’t feel the pain of a broken finger all that much.

After a full year of massive failure, my knee decided to explode because of course it did.

Cue surgery.

Cue misery.

Cue six weeks with my leg locked straight in a brace.

Sitting on my couch with my leg propped up beside me, I decided that I wanted to write something different. No more serious fantasy. No more high fantasy. My humorous fan fiction was what had first endeared me to readers, so maybe it was time to write something funny. Besides, it might take my mind off the fact that I had weeks of my leg in a brace to look forward to along with months of physiotherapy.

And don’t even me started on how awkward it was to have a bath or use the toilet.

I was throwing around ideas for what kind of story I could write when a scene came to mind: a necromancer being forced to beat his own wayward creation to death. All I really had was that one scene. It sounded pretty funny to me, so I started writing just to see where it would go.

Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf is what that idea became.

That book sold more copies in a month than all of my previous books combined had managed in a year. In fact, it managed to outdo all of my previous books combined several times over.

I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to see those numbers rolling in. It wasn’t a bestseller by any means, but it was the first time that I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t wasting my time, that maybe I could actually do this.

Things have changed a lot since then.

I’ve written more books, and although they’ve had varying degrees of success, they’ve all done so much better than I could ever have imagined during the doldrums of that first year. Humour, it seems, is what I’m best suited to, along with slice of life, and I’m more than happy to embrace that. I’ve even been lucky enough to have some of my books turned into audiobooks.

So there’s my origin story.

It’s easy, I think, to only remember the things that worked, but it’s important to remember the failures too. Writing isn’t an easy thing to do, especially if you’re aiming to make a living out of it. People can be cruel. You’re going to get reviews from people saying that you’re awful, that your story sucks, and that you should quit writing. But you’re also going to get reviews telling you that your story made someone’s day, that you made someone smile, that they can’t wait for the next book.

I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without those years of failure and disappointment. One of the most important qualities to have if you’re going to write humour is the ability to laugh at yourself and to make light of both the very strange and the very mundane. Moreover, a writer should be honest with themselves if they want to improve.

You can argue with reviewers. You can argue with critics. But you can’t argue with $6.50 worth of sales in a month.

I suppose that’s why I tend to be quite sympathetic to the underdog in my writing. I am one. I know what it’s like to put your heart into something and come up empty handed. I had that happen to me for years. I also know how important it is to celebrate the little wins and the small triumphs. Sometimes, they lead to bigger things, and sometimes, they’re all you have.

Well, that’s it. That’s my origin story.

It’s not exactly glorious. It’s filled with more than its fair share of failures. But it is my story. Mine. And that matters. Anyone who tells you that there isn’t some luck involved in the writing business is crazy. Luck is definitely a thing. But just being lucky isn’t enough. It takes years of hard work to become good enough to make the most of that luck, and it takes a certain level of idiocy/stubbornness to keep going despite everyone slamming doors in your face.

It’s a good thing, then, that I’m a lucky, stubborn idiot.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here. Also, just in case you missed it… The Sheep Dragon is out on Audible now! Get it here. It’s 26 and a half hours of fun, humour, and adventure!

[charmedseoull]

Interview with sugamins about her work House of Cards (Ao3′s second most hit English work and most hit BTS work)

Before You Read the Interview

Archive of Our Own Transcript

Reddit Transcript Part 1 / Part 2

House of Cards is documented within the Top 50 Most Hit BTS Works on Archive of Our Own Project, otherwise known as T50BTS, by Charmedseoul. It is the second most hit English work on the Archive of Our Own platform, most hit BTS work, and 16th most hit work overall. It centers around the internationally popular K-Pop idol group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) with the main characters being Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook. This work is being documented for historical purposes for the Fanlore website with its own page. Charmedseoul is a BTS-focused anonymous historian who plans to eventually document each of the top 50 most hit BTS work on Ao3 as in depth as this one. If you are in contact with any of the authors of these works, please contact her on Twitter @charmedseoul or on Tumblr @charmedseoull.

Parts of this interview have been edited with links to Fanlore and Wikipedia pages for understanding. Any information in [brackets] serves for further clarity for readers and elaboration of information.

Disclaimers: This interview contains spoilers for the BTS Archive of Our Own work House of Cards. The story’s Archive of Our Own tags contain violence and gangster activity, along with discussion of prostitution and drug use. The full tag list is:

Alternate Universe - Gangsters

Gang Violence

Violence

Drugs

Drug Use

Explicit Sexual Content

Explicit Language

Blood and Gore

Blood and Torture

Gambling

Gunplay

Undercover

Disturbing Themes

Homophobic Language

Attempted Rape/Non-Con

Xenophobia

Dom/sub

Threesome - M/M/M

Drug Addiction

Dubious Consent

This interview discusses an 18+ mature work and Not Safe for Work topics. Please read this interview at your own discretion. You are responsible for the content you consume.

House of Cards by sugamins is a multi-chapter Archive of Our Own fanfiction that follows police officer Kim Taehyung’s undercover operation into the gangster world of Haedogje Pa. Jeon Jungkook, shrouded in an air of mystery and dubbed “The Boy,” is the heir to this crime empire. Park Jimin lives with him, acting as a lover of sorts in a high, pristine penthouse apartment. The story follows the three and their complicated relationship where sex, violence, and drugs surround them. Kim Taehyung tries to take down the empire as his moral lines of black and white begin blurring into gray. In this crime-ridden alternate reality to Seoul, everything from the structure of the gangster world to the trust between three lovers is as fragile as a house of cards.

Now presenting the interview with sugamins, author of Archive of Our Own’s second most hit English work and most hit BTS work, House of Cards:

How did you start writing?

How did you get into fanfiction?

How much writing experience did you have prior to House of Cards?

Do you have any literary or artistic inspirations? Any other authors or works that have inspired you to create anytime before or after House of Cards?

How did you become an ARMY [ARMY stands for Adorable Representative MC for the Youth. It is the fandom name for fans of BTS, otherwise known as Bangtan Sonyeondan]?

I started writing fanfiction in 2012. But before then, I used to enjoy writing stories as a child and young teenager. I used to write and illustrate my own stories. I even had a sketchbook filled with my own comic book, which was terrible! But I've always been creative. It started with art and then I moved onto writing when I discovered I was able to be much more creative with my words rather than my pencil.

I first got into fanfiction through my years spent on Tumblr. I had always known that it had existed, but I had never really gone looking for it because I hadn't belonged to a fandom at that point in my life. It was back in 2012 when I stumbled upon an EXO fanfic that a lot of people were talking about (Arbitrage, you can find it on Livejournal.) I read it and then thought...wow, so this is fanfiction! From that point, I started reading more and more, mostly Infinite fanfiction. And then I decided to start writing with the encouragement of an old online friend, and here I am!

In terms of writing experience, I have never formally received education. I stopped studying English Language and Literature when I was 16, instead focusing on Art, History, and Religious Education (purely because I wanted to learn about philosophy and quantum mechanics) for my final two years at high-school. The only experience I have is through writing fanfiction. I started back in 2012, and I've developed a lot since then. I started off small, writing horror short stories and little collections. Brotherhood was the first 'long fic' I created. I was shocked that it managed to get so big because I had never created a story of that size before. Writing helped me gain experience and figure out what worked and what didn't work, what I was good at writing, and where I was lacking and needed to learn. I don't think you can really experience an art form until you start doing it. You can learn all about the techniques and the conventions, but until you pick up a pen and start writing or drawing, you won't ever know what it means to create.

My literary inspiration has always been Stephen King. Which is funny, as he has described himself as 'having diarrhea of the typewriter.' I think that applies to me sometimes. I am a bit of a wordy writer, though I've started honing it down for certain stories. Sometimes, a story needs to be floral and descriptive, sometimes, it needs to be punchy and direct. So, King was my major inspiration, especially with horror. I also enjoy the works of Poe and Lovecraft (I acknowledge the problematic themes in the work of Lovercraft and seek not to praise him as a person. He was a terrible person for sure, but sadly, he had a way with cosmic horror that is hard to find.) I also enjoy Chuck Palahniuk and the dark, seedy and overall zany stories that he has created. I like his style a lot!

In terms of inspirations for House of Cards, I was obviously inspired by the films Infernal Affairs/The Departed. American Gangster and Training Day were also major inspirations (and also because I love Denzel Washington's performances in both films. I mean, who doesn't love him?) But I also drew inspiration from other sources that were less focused on gangs, more focused on the dark, nihilistic state of the world around us. I couldn't recommend the TV series True Detective hard enough. It is one of the best series I have ever watched. It handles dark and disturbing content so well, and its fractured, unreliable story-telling and philosophical musing is some of the best I've ever seen on screen. I highly recommend checking it out, but be sure to check the content warning and triggers because it certainly isn't suitable for younger audiences and those with triggers. In terms of real-life content, I think Ross Kemps' docu-series are very good. Particularly Extreme World and On Gangs. His docu-series show the dark and disturbing side of criminal activity, the drug trade and more. 

I became a fan of BTS [Bangtan Sonyeondan] back in 2013. I had already been a fan of K-Pop for some time by then, as I had started listening to various K-Pop and K-Rock artists back in 2009. I knew of their debut, but I had seen hundreds of new acts debut by the time that they broke into the scene, and so I didn't pay much heed. Someone I followed on Tumblr at the time kept posting about how much she loved them, especially Taehyung [BTS V/Kim Taehyung]. One day, I stumbled upon a gifset of Yoongi [BTS Suga/Min Yoongi] being sarcastic in one of their first interviews. I thought he was funny, so I decided to check them out. At the time, they had recently released We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2 [BTS’s second music video release with their debut album 2 Kool 4 Skool]. I followed them from that point, and their first comeback [A “comeback” refers to when a K-Pop idol group releases new music, usually done twice a year.] was also my first comeback. I liked their music [BTS released Boy In Luv and Just One Day in 2014, both music videos of songs from their Skool Luv Affair EP.], but I liked them even more as individuals. I loved watching their shows [Here is a link to BTS’s schedule during 2014 when they had their first comeback. You can find the shows and interviews they were on there.], even though they are incredibly embarrassing to look back on now. They just had so much energy and looked to be having so much fun that I was having fun just watching them. I was a fan, I liked a lot of their songs and followed their activities. But it wasn't until they released HYYH Part One [Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa Part 1 (Korean) = The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 (This is the title in English), released with the I Need U and Dope music videos.] that I really became a fan of their music. I had already created a couple of small horror stories for the fandom at that point. HYYH Part One [The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1] inspired me so much that I created Brotherhood, my first 'long fic.' I joined AO3 [Archive of Our Own] and started posting there. I received so much support from fellow fans that I carried on writing, and the rest is history!

How has your experience being an ARMY [Adorable Representative MCs of the Youth, BTS’s global fan base name.] been? Did you ever leave the fandom then come back? How did you interact with others when you first got into the fandom and as you grew up?

How have you been since you wrote House of Cards? What have you been working on? 

Are you okay with talking about how old you are now and how old you were when you wrote House of Cards?

Before you even wrote House of Cards, what inspired it? Any TV shows? Music? Movies? Books? Ideas? It could be anything.

How did you start writing House of Cards? Did you finish the entire story then publish it or did you write it as you went? What was the writing process like?

Did you have any beta readers or editors? If you did, are you still in contact with them now? How did they feel about your work?

My experience being a fan has mostly been positive over the years. In the earlier days, back around when I first started writing for the fandom, it was certainly much more positive. I've received so much support over the years, not only in my writing but in my personal life from readers and fellow fans that being a fan of the boys [The members of BTS] really has changed my life. That's not an exaggeration. I doubt I would even be here now without those years having such a positive effect on my mental health. I've never really been the kind to interact with others and form cliques within the fandom, I just like being in my own space and interacting with everyone that comes my way, I guess?

These days, I'm not as active as a writer or in fandom spaces however. I feel like my time in the fandom has started to come up and I don't know how I feel about it just yet. I feel nostalgic for the time when I was first starting out in the fandom and I didn't really know much, but everything was fun. It doesn't feel so fun now, but I mostly contribute that to the effect that Twitter has had on shaping the fandom's growth. Twitter has never been a good place for creatives within fandoms because of issues with algorithms and such. Tumblr was always the better website for hosting artistic content for a variety of reasons. So, I think the fact that everything is on Twitter now has been partly responsible for my decline in engagement and overall enjoyment. I'm currently taking a break from Twitter. The next couple of months will be what makes me either stay or leave the fandom.

Since writing House of Cards, I've been an active writer in the fandom. Over the years, I've added quite a lot of stories to my AO3 accounts and various pseuds. My largest ongoing story is another gang story, set in the 1980s, called Valentino Summers. I actually started writing and publishing it on Ao3 just four or so months after I finished House of Cards—which is wild to think about. Finally finishing House of Cards seems like such a long time ago in my mind, and yet I'm still working on a story I created that same year! I like contributing horror stories to the fandom, especially in the Halloween period. I like publishing series in the month/upcoming weeks before Halloween—though I won't be doing so this year [2020].

When I started writing House of Cards, I would have just turned 22. It was inspired by the song 'Wires' by The Neighbourhood. I might be mistaken, but I believe that Jungkook [BTS Jungkook/Jeon Jungkook] posted a tweet with the song in it. [Jungkook did tweet about this song. Here is the English translation.] I had never heard of the band before, but my partner was a fan of their music. She sent the song to me and I was very interested in the lyrics, so I started discussing them with her. One thing led to the next, and then we had basically come up with the entire plot of the story. We just needed to create the characters. We spent a little while doing so, and then I started doing some research and started writing the story. There really isn't a grand backstory to House of Cards, it just happened so fast. We often come up with story ideas like that, and my partner is responsible for a huge amount of my stories. She has the creative visions, which I then turn into words. We make quite the team, haha~ The inspirations, I mentioned those in my previous answer regarding films and TV shows.

I published the story as I went, though I staggered the updates because I didn't want to post too frequently. I had the entire story planned out from the start——I didn't change a single aspect of the story no matter what I received in terms of feedback. I think a lot of readers assume that writers might tweak things if they sense the audience wants something to happen in terms of plot or relationships. Personally, I don't like doing that. I like sticking to my plans even if I know my vision might not be what the readers want. I think it's important for the story to be created the way I see it because my vision is what made me create it, if that makes sense.

The writing process was surprisingly smooth! You might not think it because the story is big and there are a lot of characters and plot threads to keep on top of, but it went smoothly for me. It flowed just as smoothly from start to finish as Brotherhood did. I never struggled once with writing the chapters, nor did I ever get stuck and wonder if I should change the content in order to make it easier to write. I'm surprised that I managed to complete it so easily because that's not the case with writing now! I tend to be a lot slower now, more deliberate and more open to changes in order to ease the process and the overall flow of the story. In a way, this change has been for the best. I do wonder what House of Cards would be like if I were to write it now, with my different approach to planning and writing. It would probably have a quicker flow, and the word count would either go down as a result of cuts, or go up because of additional scenes I would have likely included.

I didn't have any betas, which you can probably tell from the work. My stories are so big that I never wanted to put the burden of fixing them onto someone else. I know they are imperfect, oftentimes bloated things, but that's just what they are. I did try creating a story with another writer in the past, but it didn't go very well. She would often have conflicting opinions on things and would not have any leeway for anything I suggested, whereas I always had leeway to allow her to change things. Even to the point of completely changing the plot of the story that I had already started writing, and then allowing her to add graphic sexual content she didn't even want to be in the story. She actually stopped writing fanfiction randomly in the middle of us creating the story! She made a post about it being disgusting and nasty and then bowed out. I have no clue if she ever came back! So, my negative experience with attempting to work with someone else when creating a story kind of made me not want to have a beta. It's a wild story, I know!

House of Cards is praised for its realism and accuracy with weaponry, torture, sex, and violence. How did you research these things?

How did you come up with the gangster universe in House of Cards? How did you develop Haedogje Pa?

How did you name the original characters in House of Cards? Did any characters in particular take inspiration from existing characters in TV shows, anime, books, any type of media?

How did you decide on Vminkook as your main characters for the story? What do you see in their dynamic and them as characters?

Jimin is claimed to be one of the best written characters in the entire story. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

Taehyung is an especially dynamic character whose morals get tested time and time again in House of Cards. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

Jungkook is one of the characters that the readers spend the least amount of time getting a perspective from, but is incredibly well written in his character progression. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

When it came to various aspects in the story, I did do research. Most of it never really had an impact on the story itself. For example, I would be looking up gun models that are used by law enforcement agencies around the world and trying to find specs of them so I could learn how many bullets each gun held, or how much a magazine could hold. In action scenes, I didn't want my characters firing off 20+ bullets for a gun that—in reality—holds far less. That's a fact that doesn't really mean much to the average reader, but it meant something to me! I've always hated how many bullets fly through the air in action scenes in films and TV shows because I'm always wondering if it's possible with the firearms featured in the scene haha~ In terms of torture, I've come across the subject through various documentaries and TV shows about gangs, crime and serial killers. I didn't really do much additional research into the topic, beyond reading up on what I had come across to make sure it wasn't fictionalised for drama purposes. Obviously, there will be some lack of realism in my story because I couldn't possibly write a realistic portrayal of gang violence and torture when I have zero personal experience with it. My aim wasn't to give the story 'full' realism (I'll explain more about that in the next question) but to simply create a world that felt real, even if there were little aspects that had to be exaggerated for the sake of the story. Taehyung's behaviour when undercover certainly broke many procedures. The only thing working in his favour that allowed him to get away with it is that the crimes he committed couldn't be directly traced to him. But a real undercover agent would never do the things that he did on behalf of the gang. Basically, this means that the entire story is unrealistic! But of course, it wouldn't be very entertaining if Taehyung simply observed from the background and didn't dirty his hands. So, I had to bend and break the rules a little!

For the universe, I knew that I couldn't base it too much in reality. Because of basic Korean law, it would have been impossible for me to write the gang operating in the way they did in the story—especially with guns. Most Korean gangs tend to use other forms of violence and weapons in order to control their respective areas, rather than guns. My other story, Taste of Ink, has what I would consider a more realistic approach to gang activity—with the main weapons being knives, baseball bats, etc. and the main forms of violence being assault instead of flat-out murder. So, for the sake of allowing guns to appear in the story, I had to create a Neo-Seoul, so to speak. I took inspiration from Korean gangs, and mixed it with influences from other gang cultures in order to create 'Haedogje Pa.'

When it comes to naming original characters, I honestly don't put much thought into it. I like to use real names for inspiration. I often Google various Korean films I've watched and read the cast list in order to find interesting character and actor names. This is because I have a habit of reusing names sometimes. For example, readers of my stories might have come across a couple of Daesu and Goohee characters. Do you know where I got these names from? I picked Daesu from Oh Daesu - Choi Minsik's character in Oldboy. Goohee comes from the manhwa 'Let Dai' - he is the stubborn gang leader that actually has a good heart beneath his rough exterior. I ended up liking him the most by the end of the story, so his name is one that often comes to mind when I need to pick an original character name.

I never really consider real life dynamics when I'm writing because my stories are so detached from reality that it seems pointless including any inspiration from reality. I chose the three main characters simply because, at the time, they seemed to fit the character moulds the best. The other characters fit their respective characters so well (especially Namjoon [BTS RM/Kim Namjoon] and Yoongi) that I simply thought it was best to have Taehyung, Jimin [BTS Jimin/Park Jimin] and Jungkook as the three lead roles. I chose them more based on how I thought they could personally fit the characters, rather than focus on the dynamic. To use Taehyung as an example, I thought that he would fit the character of the informant in my story because in reality, he is intelligent and seemed like he would suit the role. For Jimin, I thought he would be a good choice for a character that some might think is vulnerable or even weak. He is actually very strong and the most important character for the plot progression. For Jungkook, I liked the thought of someone with such an innocent outer appearance hiding a dark secret.

I'm so glad that readers took to Jimin so positively on a whole. I know there are some that hated him, or that hated the fact I chose him for such a role (a 'negative' sex worker role). But Jimin is the most important character for the plot progression. It is through him that the entire plan finally culminates in the explosive finish. I wanted to treat him with care because I understood that his character could go very wrong if not handled correctly. It would have been easy for him to simply become nothing more than a sexual prop, should the story have focused too much on Taehyung and Jungkook as the key players. So, I decided to subvert it by giving Jimin the ultimate hand in the story and allowing him to have more control than Jungkook in the end. If Jimin had not decided to follow through with the plan, if he had decided to snitch or had simply refused to do his part in exposing the gang, the story would've ended drastically differently. But I also didn't want to write Jimin taking control of the entire situation at the end because it would've felt ingenuine. He is a character that has been deeply affected by a lifetime of trauma. I was worried that some might take my portrayal of his trauma the wrong way, and see him not as a character that has suffered immense mental damage but rather as an annoying, weak character that gets in the way of more 'interesting' dynamics. I'm sure there will be readers that think that. Mentally traumatized individuals are often seen in such negative light, be they fictional characters or real people. When writing his character, especially in the later scenes, I wanted to make sure the trauma he experienced would shape his behaviour. Writing the scene of him getting ready to leave, when he is taking his pills and he doesn't think he can do it, it was hard. It was hard getting into that headspace of feeling so powerless in the moment and knowing that freedom is in reach, but not knowing how to achieve it. He was a difficult character to write, but I think he turned out just right in the end.

Taehyung was probably the best character to write. I love characters that start off so morally upright and pristine, and by the end of the story, their backs are bending and close to breaking from the weight of their conscience and misdeeds. His character has many facets to him that made his perspectives so interesting to tackle. From his green days in the gang, where he is horrified by the violence he sees, to the changes in his psyche as he starts to become desensitized to it all. Fundamentally, Taehyung begins the story as a good man, a hero, but by the end, there is no black and white thinking. He has become grey, muddied from his time spent in the gang. Is he a hero for bringing them down? Would a hero do the things that he did in order to bring down the gang? He killed people. He tortured people. He threatened a man with a gun, a man he knew had a deepset fear of guns that would severely trigger him. I think it all depends on how the reader sees it. The hardest thing to write for his character was his troubled descent into the relationship between him, Jungkook and Jimin, and how it affects his thought processes and emotions. I didn't want House of Cards to be seen as a romantic story when I created it. If readers see it that way, they are more than entitled to their own interpretations. I cannot tell them how they can interpret my art, that is not my role as the creator. I don't know if I effectively portrayed the co-dependency between the three main characters as well as I would've liked. But I had never tackled such a story and themes before, and so it was all new to me.

I didn't know that Jungkook had the least perspective from the three main characters. Similarly, I never really put that much effort into creating and developing his character! Jungkook simply 'happened' in the moment. He would appear in the chapter, and then his character would basically take control of the scene. I never really knew what he was going to say or do beyond my rough plans for each scene. I just waited until he appeared and let the creative spirit flow through me. That's how he came to be! I've had that happen many times in the past with characters—they have a life of their own and I've no control over them. In my story, Brotherhood, Taehyung happened the same way. It was impossible to write his character in that story because he was so wild and free-spirited that it didn't feel right unless his behaviour was a total spur-of-the-moment reaction to the other characters and new plot points. But with Jungkook in House of Cards, I don't know why I didn't have him planned out like the others. It's interesting to think that he might've had a good progression when I never planned any of it in detail!

Were there any original characters you particularly liked writing or enjoyed?

When you wrote for the BTS hyung line, how did you determine their roles in the story and characterize each of them?

Is there a reason behind Namjoon saying “brother” or was it a consciously written character quirk?

When you handled more serious subject matter in House of Cards, how did you feel when writing it? Were you ever startled by your own work?

Was there any type of purposeful titling for the fanfiction chapters?

What was your reason for House of Cards’ open ending?

I liked writing Lim, the original informant that helped Taehyung join the gang. I like writing characters that come across as sleazy. In his case, the sleaze was all an act and wasn't true to his character; he was affecting it for the sake of creating a persona. But I enjoy writing absolute sleaze balls too—the kind of guys that have chest hair and wear gold chains and thick watches, who practically ooze oil. I just find them fun! Lim was a good teacher, even when he was rough around the edges. It was sad doing what I had to do to him for the sake of the plot. But I feel like Lim understood the game as well as everyone else, and so he knew he was running on borrowed time. 

Of course, I loved writing Bae Goohee too! He was an absolute bastard! I loved writing this figure that is spoken about throughout the story as a frightening man, one so brutal that the readers are already wary of him before he even appears in the story. I believe that Taehyung refers to him as a 'guard dog' at some point. I think Bae is the scariest character in the story for me because he is so ruthless and willing to do any order that the Jeon clan give to him. That kind of blind and unwavering devotion is frightening!

I also enjoyed writing Sungah and Jangmi. I think they're the only female characters in the story that have dialogue? Sungah has a great backstory that I unfortunately couldn't go into too much in the story, but it shaped her character a lot. I like how frank and intelligent she is—she holds her own even in a department filled with men that receive far more praise than she does simply because she is a woman. She also allowed me to add an angle about the unfair treatment of women in jobs that have power, drawing parallels with how Taehyung faces discrimination from his fellow officers when his sexuality is abruptly revealed during the investigation. As for Jangmi, I just liked writing about the wife of a mob boss! And not one that is simply a trophy wife, but actually has a lot of power and influence across the city. I wish I had been able to feature her more, alongside her husband, Jeon himself. But I like the scenes they appear in and I enjoyed writing them.

For the rest of the members, I had Namjoon and Hoseok [BTS J-Hope/Jung Hoseok]'s characters planned right from the start. I had also created plans for Yoongi and Seokjin [BTS Jin/Kim Seokjin], but I wasn't sure how much of a role they would play in the overall story. As I started writing them, I realised that Yoongi would play an important role in both Taehyung and Jimin's character development, and so he ended up featuring a lot more than I had expected. I planned their jobs and then let them influence how I would write them. Namjoon and Hoseok's characters came naturally. Yoongi's character completely took over his job role and basic description and became a really strong character that I'm proud of. Seokjin was a little trickier because he doesn't appear in too many scenes—but the scenes he does are integral to the plot. I needed to make sure that his character said everything he needed to in his limited scenes. He has quite the bombshell to drop after all! Seokjin was also tricky because I wanted him to have an air of mystery around him. I wanted him to be the kind of guy that not even Taehyung and his police connections would be able to unearth much about; a ghost in the system. I would've also liked for him to feature more in the story, but I feel like his character appeared in the essential scenes that the story needed. He was going to feature more in the planned sequel, being one of the first characters to appear alongside Yoongi. He was going to serve an important role, so I'm disappointed that I didn't get to show those scenes to readers.

With Namjoon, I wanted to portray him as a mature character, but not one that was conservative and stiff. I thought about having him say things like 'man' but that seemed too casual and didn't suit his character. 'Man' made him seem more like a surfer than a police officer. But when he said 'brother' in one of the scenes, I realised the word suited him better. It was fraternal, and it allowed him to show some affection towards the other characters without having to have physical contact with them. It's not the only Namjoon I've written that says 'brother' a lot. In Valentino Summers, Namjoon has experience with hippies in the neighbourhood that he lives in, so he also refers to other characters like Jimin as 'brother.' It just seems to suit him! I guess it's because I like creating Namjoon characters that are intelligent and mature, but still have a gentle and warm presence. I could picture him saying it in real life (I'm certain he already has!)

When writing serious subject matter, I'm surprised to admit that I was never shocked by what I was writing! I guess it's because I already knew that I was going to be handling dark themes. I wouldn't have tackled such subjects had I not felt comfortable doing so. Dark content isn't for everyone, and by that I don't simply mean consuming it. Creating it can be very difficult for some writers, and can even cause distress. It's not easy diving into a world that is filled with crime, pain and fear. It's even harder putting yourself into the shoes of a character that is suffering/has suffered. I was never writing in a desensitised state though. Far from it. I'm actually very sensitive to violence in reality. In fiction, it depends on the violence—but I'm usually not too affected by it. I've been a fan of horror since I was a child, and so I've seen a lot of nasty films filled with gore and 'shocking' deaths that never really had much of an effect on me. Unrealistic violence doesn't scare me. But when it comes to personal violence, that is always frightening to me. It's far scarier writing a scene where a character feels threatened by another character and doesn't know what is going to happen to them then, say, writing a scene of a character dying a bloody, ridiculous death in a horror story. Personal violence is much more realistic, therefore it is more unsettling to write. In House of Cards, the violence is very personal. It's in your face, it's inescapable for the characters that are involved in it. But at no point did I ever feel like I needed to stop writing because I was uncomfortable or scared by the content. If I had been uncomfortable, it would have been very reckless of me to continue writing the story.

My word of advice to fellow dark content writers: it's always important to recognise your own boundaries. There's nothing wrong with removing dark content from a story if you get a bad vibe or feel strange when writing/reviewing it. Always follow your gut instincts and never put out work that you don't like.

When writing stories, I vary between titling the chapters and leaving them blank. For House of Cards, I cannot remember the exact method for naming the chapters. Sometimes, the title comes to me when I am writing the plans and I have an idea that just suits the mood of the chapter. Other times, I have finished the entire chapter and I have to spend some time reviewing the content to decide that the title will be. In some cases, I have finished most of a whole story and I'm still not certain what to title it! I feel like with House of Cards, the titles came after the chapters were finished, or at least when they were works-in-progress.

There are some titles that really stand out to me. 'Nice Teeth' for example, is a really ridiculous title. Going into the chapter, I don't think many readers would've imagined what it could mean. 'Submachine Sodomy' is even funnier. I really can't believe I chose that as a title! I'll bet a lot of readers saw it and thought, "Oh no! Not another gunplay scene!" Luckily for them, it wasn't a reference to Jungkook's predilection for firearms in bed.

In terms of chapter titles that I really like: 'Delusions of Grandeur,' 'I Own This Fucking City,' 'Sleeping Dogs Bite' and 'Carpe-fucking-Diem.' I just feel like these titles are very well suited to the contents of the chapters. They are the kind of titles that have bite to them, that hint at action or an important plot point.

As for the open ending, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, I had planned to continue the story in a sequel that would pick up after the events of House of Cards, roughly a year on after the investigation. However, I did not pursue this sequel. I wanted House of Cards to end on an open note for the sequel to continue the story. When it comes to certain stories, I just feel that closed endings aren't always necessary. I often enjoy stories with open endings. With House of Cards, it didn't seem right just closing the book and saying it was over. There was still so much that needed to be explored. Unfortunately, I decided to not continue it. But I still think that House of Cards' ending fits the story.

Were there any scenes or moments or lines in House of Cards that you were particularly proud of or want to highlight?

If you were to write the Yoomin sequel to House of Cards, how would’ve that looked like?

How were readers’ reactions to your work in the beginning?

Did any reader comments stick with you in particular?

How did you take the criticisms and hatred towards House of Cards for its serious subject matter? When did those types of comments start appearing? Also, where did the hatred come from? Twitter? Tumblr? Ao3 comments? Did people harass you at all or hurt you? How did you heal from that?

House of Cards has a lot of scenes. I'm proud of most of them and I think I did the best I could when writing them. I do not really like the sex scenes, but that is because I wanted to write them in a dirty, sleazy way. If I could, I would change them. I like the action scenes, especially the Gold Monkey Casino and police raid scenes. Action scenes are hard to write! Fight scenes in particular are so tricky. I often sit there, choreographing the fights so I can describe them! I loved writing Yoongi's introduction to the story, when he walks into the scene wearing nothing but his underpants.

One scene that I really liked writing is the scene where Namjoon and Hoseok investigate the USB stick that Taehyung sends to them. I personally love Namjoon and Hoseok's characters. I always enjoyed writing them. In this scene, I liked getting to write them in a setting that was not the police department office. A scene where they got to relax and banter with each other, even though they were still working. They discover a horrifying crime ring in the city, but they are left with no choice but to keep it secret because they do not want to risk blowing Taehyung's cover. I do not know why I really like this scene, I just do.

In the sequel, which focused primarily on Jimin and Yoongi, the plans were to have them reunite through Seokjin—who has avoided jail time through a plea deal with the SMPA. They undergo a healing process together as they try to come to terms with what happened to them. Yoongi has a lot of unhealed trauma from his childhood, much like Jimin, which I only got to briefly touch upon in House of Cards. They grow closer from bonding over their traumatic experiences, and they become happier and healthier as a result. Taehyung and Seokjin were also going to be main characters, with Jungkook, Namjoon and Hoseok making supporting appearances over the duration of the story. It was going to be drastically different from House of Cards because it would be lacking in action and violence. It would have been much more intimate, with much more scenes of characters talking and discovering things about one another.

I cannot remember early reactions to the story, I just know they were positive. There was a lot of positive support from the start. As I updated and started to get more and more into the story, I received a lot of support on tumblr too. I started posting chapter previews there, as I used to get asks [On Tumblr, users are able to ask bloggers questions through an “Ask” function. This can be done anonymously or with their own blog username associated with the question.] requesting them. I got A LOT of asks on my original Tumblr from readers that wanted to discuss the characters and certain scenes. It was really interesting seeing just how much the readers were interested in the story, so much so that they wanted to learn even more about the characters and the universe I had created.

Through House of Cards, I have received comments and messages from readers that had addictions. They told me about how they recognised their own behaviors through Taehyung, and this helped them realise what was happening to them. Those comments stuck with me for obvious reasons. I have family members with addiction issues, and knowing that I could help some stranger I have never met before come to terms with their own addictive behaviours had a massive impact on me. Funnily enough, a negative comment stuck with me. It was not a bad comment, by no means meant to cause offence. It was a comment that was left on the story when I was posting the early chapters. I recall the reader asking when the story was going to pick up the pace because it was too slow. It stuck with me because, at this point in the story, Taehyung had already trained to become an undercover agent, had enrolled in the gang, had met and interacted with Jungkook, and had murdered a man. I was surprised that this amount of development had been seen as 'slow' by a reader, as I had thought the plot had been moving very fast.

I never really had any hate posted on the story when I was updating it. I got angry reactions when I had finished it. Because the story had not ended the way some readers had wanted, I think that was what caused the negative reactions. On my original Tumblr, I even got an ask about how an anon reader was going to write their own ending because my one was bad. I told them that I did not want them to take my story and change it like that. I have no idea if they ever posted the ending anywhere. The angry reactions were mostly from shippers, who were upset with the story not ending the way they had wanted. To them, I ask: what were you expecting from the story? I thought it was always obvious that Taehyung was going to do what he had set out to do from the start, so I do not think I misled readers at all. It was a story about an undercover agent taking down a gang—and that is what I wrote.

I know there was some animosity towards me on Twitter too. Twitter is a whirlpool of negativity, I am not surprised. Writing House of Cards made me appear problematic. My partner used to follow an author a long time back, who tweeted about me being problematic—despite having never interacted with me or admittedly read my stories. It was shocking to me that people were making assumptions of who I was as a person based on a story I created. I have never created stories with the aims of hurting or upsetting others. I am a very quiet and private person, and I hate the idea of hurting others. It was strange to me that people could assume me to be this cruel or even dangerous individual, intent on hurting others, because I created a fictional story. Do they think the same of script writers for television shows? Or film directors, who create films with dark subject matter? Do they think published authors are problematic people for writing dark and disturbing content? Do they think certain genres should not exist because they do not personally like them?

I do think it is strange that fan fiction writers are placed on these ridiculously high pedestals of moral absolutism. Fan fiction was created to be a space for creative outlet for marginalised individuals, particularly queer individuals. The heavy censorship of dark and unusual content is putting this entire ethos at danger. I understand not wanting to have certain topics included in stories because there is a risk that the content can be used for grooming or can be presented in a way that can negatively affect young consumers' perceptions (like pedophilia for example.) I certainly agree that there needs to be boundaries in place to stop the community from being flooded with such illegal content. But I think there is a difference between wanting to remove dangerous content, and wanting to get rid of content you do not like. Content can be problematic to you, but that does not make it dangerous, illegal, or bad. For some readers, the content they create is their way of dealing with trauma. Maybe this is not healthy for them. But that is their decision to make, not yours.

I orphaned the story because I did not want to handle the potential backlash. To put it simply, I do not handle negative criticism well. Not because I am stuck-up and think I am perfect, but because I am a very anxious person. Just reading angry comments makes me feel very uncomfortable, often nauseous. I know that House of Cards has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from readers, and for that I am thankful. But I had to distance myself for the sake of my own mental health. Since orphaning it, it exploded in popularity. I am thankful that I orphaned it because that amount of attention would frighten me a lot, haha~

What was your reaction to the fanfiction trailer by Sappiamur?

How did you come to the decision to reveal your real name in the end note of House of Cards?

How did you feel when you finished House of Cards?

How did you come to the decision to orphan House of Cards?

Did you ever anticipate the overwhelming fan reaction to House of Cards?

How do you feel knowing that House of Cards is one of the most read fanfictions on Ao3?

What do you want House of Cards to be remembered for?

What do you hope people take away from House of Cards?

Why do you think House of Cards became so popular?

I had to go back and watch it. It's been some time since I last have, and I'm still as amazed by it now as I was back then. The trailer is insane. I cannot imagine how much work went into making it. It's so good and it fits the vibes of the story to perfection. I think the first time I watched it, I was in shock. I must have repeated it at least 10 times in a row, just to make sure it was real and I wasn't imagining it. Then I think I screamed about it on my social media accounts, haha~ If you reading this have not watched the trailer, consider doing so. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Back when I first started posting fanfics, I used to get a lot of asks wanting to know my name, my pronouns, stuff like that. I thought by adding my name at the end of the stories, it would help cut down on these requests. But I also did so because I used to get a lot of asks referring to me as 'author-nim' and I didn't like being addressed by this honorific. I'm not Korean so I have no right to receive that honorific. So, I included my real name so readers could address me with it when sending me asks and interacting with me. I don't add my name at the end of my stories now, but my name is in my Twitter bio for those that want to know.

When I finished it, I felt relieved! I was so calm in the moment! Looking back on it, I can't remember much. But I do remember finishing House of Cards without any issues. The final chapters flowed smoothly, it all clicked into place, and I had a great time writing them.

I came to the decision to orphan the story after several nights of contemplation. I was considering deleting the story, along with a few others, but my partner and some friends told me I shouldn't do so. They suggested orphaning it instead. So, I did so. I didn't want to delete it in case readers that had started it had not gotten to finish it yet. I would've felt very mean robbing them of the opportunity to finish the story like that. I don't regret orphaning it instead of deleting it. I didn't want to destroy the story, I just needed some distance between me and the story.

I didn't anticipate it, and I still don't understand it! I'm shocked that House of Cards got the reaction that it received. Do I think it's a good story? Yes, I think that I worked hard to create a story that is enjoyable to read. But did I ever think it would get the reaction it did? Not in a million years! I thought that it would be one of my more popular stories because a) the pairings and b) the content. Gang stories usually tend to get a lot of attention because it's a popular genre in fanfiction. I just didn't expect it to reach such a vast amount of hits, kudos and comments.

I'm in shock that it is one of the most read stories on AO3. I don't think I will ever be able to create another story that will garner that kind of attention and feedback. It's a once in a lifetime thing, so I'm immensely proud of myself for achieving such a feat. But really, it's all because of the readers that it achieved such a goal. I'm so thankful for every single one of them.

I just want it to be remembered for being enjoyable, I think. I don't have any grand and lofty ambitions for the story. I think so long as the readers enjoyed it, that is all that matters.

I'm not sure what I would like readers to take away from House of Cards. I guess I want them to reflect on the idea of morality and that not everything is black-and-white. Good people can do bad things, and bad things can happen to good people. It's hard to answer this question because House of Cards isn't a story that I consider to have deep messages in it? There are no messages about acceptance and love and healthy relationships and such, like some of my other stories.

Honestly? I don't know what made it get so popular. I assume it's because of the pairings or the setting of the story. I know that a lot of readers say they love the story because of how well it's written, but I can't comment on that as the creator, haha~ I can't say my story is well-written as I'm not consuming it from an outside perspective. What I can say is that I do think I created a story that has a lot of twists and turns and betrayals, which I think adds to the enjoyment factor.

How are you now in 2020? Are you writing professionally in real life at all? 

How do you feel BTS fanfiction has changed over time? Since you’ve been writing for it for so long. 

Do you have any messages for people who may read this interview in the future?

I'm not writing professionally. I have self-published two books via Amazon and Lulu. One was a basic re-branding of my story babes in the woods. The other was a total rewrite of Brotherhood, which I called 'Brothers,' featuring a whole new setting and roster of characters. I published them as readers showed an interest in reading original stories. I have been considering rewriting House of Cards as an original work in the future, but I can't say for certain that I will do so.

Since I started writing, I think there's been a lot of changes in the fandom—not only in fanfiction but in general. There's been popular trends that have come and gone (I was around for the explosion of social media and text-based AUs, which I personally am not a fan of) but there's also been a lot of push for more inclusive content. I'm really happy by the amount of inclusive content that I see these days. Despite some pushback from non-queer fans that sometimes have an issue with queer subject matter (for example, trans characters) I think it's wonderful that artists of all colours, genders and sexualities are now proudly creating content they want to see, and not simply just what is 'in demand' from the fandom.

The message that I would like to share with readers of this interview is: stay healthy, stay happy, and most importantly, stay you. I also want to take this moment to tell them this - if you are considering becoming a creator, but you are worried about reception to your work, or that it might not be good enough, stop right now! Stop doubting yourself and just give it a shot! I was once like you, scared that my weird and niche interests and writing would be ignored or even mocked by the fandom because no one would like it. Had I not decided to take the plunge, my life would be so drastically different. I've made so many friends, fallen in love, and completely changed my life by creating fan content. It can be scary, but once you take the leap, you will find your feet coming down on solid earth without any danger.

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[heloisedaphnebrightmore]

Insecurities [Sam Winchester x Reader] - Requested

Title: Insecurities Pairing: Sam Winchester x Reader Word count: 2.1k Published: 4 July, 2020 Author: Heloise Daphne Brightmore Notes: I got this request about two days ago and honestly I was so excited to write this little piece. For some reason when I write, I tend to forget about people's insecurities, even though that's a very big part of our life, so I'm certainly glad I got this request. Thank you Anon :) Summary: You and Sam have been in a relationship for a while and love each other to no end, but your insecurities from your past relationships make things difficult. Request: [x]

You're an awesome writer! In the future could you right a Sam x reader where the reader had a past bad relationship, and her ex always made her feel bad for smiling. HOWEVER Sam loves her smile and he encourages her to smile more around him ❤️❤️ - Anonymous

Supernatural Masterlist | Masterlists

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Insecurities...

Insecurity is part of our every day life, still we try to hide it, not to show weakness. Insecurity is uncertainty, lack of confidence, making us feel anxious about what we do, what we say, how we deal with things. Everyone has insecurities, but some of the people might struggle with them more deeply than others. Of course, it doesn't mean one is weaker than the other. Insecurities should never be measured, as everyone feels differently.

You were one of those people who's insecurity affected your life greatly. You tried to hide it, not wanting people to know that you were less than confident. You were a hunter, a strong person, who dealt with monsters on a daily basis. You had to stay strong both mentally and physically.

Over the years you have developed an expressionless facade. You didn't want people to see your real-self, you barely ever smiled, you barely ever showed pain, you barely ever changed your facial expression.

Many people you encountered throughout your life, thought you were just smug and overly confident, but it wasn't true. You simply didn't want to show your true self to people. It made you feel weak, vulnerable and you couldn't let that happen, not in the life you lived.

There was only one person who you thought you could ever trust enough to let your guard down, but you were not sure of yourself just yet. He was capable of making you smile, even if seconds later you realised what you have done and rearranged your facial expressions. Smiling, laughing, those happy emotions have been taken away from you a long time ago. Other than feeling giddy from the inside, you never projected it to your surroundings.

Sam was working hard to get you to open up to him, but he never dared to push you. He loved you just the way you were, but god, was it hard for you to accept that. After all, past experiences affect someone's future and you still believed that you had to hide yourself from people, including Sam.

You were laying on the couch in the bunker, your head against the armrest as you were watching some random series on the telly. You heard quite footsteps coming closer, but you didn't take your eyes off the screen, simply waited for the arrival to reveal himself.

You didn't have to wait long as two big hands cupped your face from above you, turning your head to look up into his green orbs, ups-side down. Sam offered you a gentle smile, but you fought hard against yours to appear.

He saw the hesitation in your eyes and it hurt him, that he could barely ever make you feel happy, that he didn't do enough for you to smile, to laugh carelessly. He wished to make you happy, but he didn't know what to do anymore. He thought he was failing to show you how much he loved you.

He leaned down to you, attaching his lips to yours, hinting a soft, loving kiss on top of them. You felt content, you felt happy, you just wanted to smile. Without realising, you did feel your lips curve upwards with a content sigh leaving your lips. Sam returned the gesture, his heart beating fast against his chest seeing your carefree smile. However you quickly realised what you were doing and shot up from your lying position, quickly rearranging your facial expression.

You heard Sam's deep, heavy sigh from the side as he started walking around the couch and sat down beside you. He looked at the tv, collecting his thoughts, before he finally spoke up, his eyes fixated on his nervously playing hands.

"Do I make you happy?" He asked in the softest, most apologetic tone you have ever heard and it was breaking your heart to think that he wasn't aware of how much he has meant to you.

"Of course, Sam. I couldn't be happier." You placed your palm on his arm reassuringly, but he didn't look up.

"Are you sure?" He asked desperately trying to find a solution to your happiness.

"I couldn't be more sure. Where is this coming from?" You asked, even though you were hoping to hear any, but one answer.

"I don't think I make you happy." He started and this time his green eyes turned to meet yours. "I feel like you can't open up to me. I wish to see you smile, to see you laugh whole-heartedly, but I feel like you just don't want to let me in."

"Sam, it has nothing to do with you. I love you more than I dare to admit. It's just sometimes hard to... express how I feel. I just..." You attempted to explain to him, but you didn't know what to say. The words just didn't come out. You were sitting, looking at each other for minutes before he spoke up.

"Just talk to me, please." His eyes were almost begging you as he took your hand into his, cupping it and squeezing it gently.

"It's hard to talk about it." You heaved a deep sigh, trying to collect your thoughts.

"I love you, Y/N. You can tell me anything." He caressed your face softly with the back of his hand.

"I know and it makes it even harder." You frowned, not knowing how to start. He didn't say anything, he was waiting patiently for you and you were glad he understood you so well. "A couple of years back, I was in a relationship. I loved him dearly, I would have done anything to make him happy. Back then I was cheerful, happy, there wasn't a day I didn't laugh around with a silly expression. You couldn't remove the smile off my face, it was stuck to it." Your lips curved up at the thought, but this time you didn't hide it. Your nostrils flared as you heaved a deep sigh.

"I wish I could see you so carelessly happy." He spoke in a soft tone, making your lips curve even higher.

"It's hard, Sammy. My boyfriend back then was my everything and I was in a pink cloud, walking six feet above the ground. Everything he said, I believed it. I was naive and dumb, but I just loved him too much." You explained, as you felt your chest tighten. "I thought it was a positive thing that I was always happy, that I was walking around with a huge smile across my face. I always liked people who seemed happy. There's just something inviting, something attractive about them." You got yourself into a more comfortable position, pulling your blanket over yourself as if that was protecting you, before you decided to continue. "But my boyfriend thought otherwise. We fought a lot. He got easily agitated and he hated how happy I always felt. He thought I was annoying for smiling all the time. It irritated him when I laughed at something. He was quite bitter most of the times, but I was just happy. That was just me." You leaned forward, hunching you back, hiding your face in your palm, trying to keep your tears back.

"It's okay." He caressed your back in a gentle manner, reassuring you that he was there for you.

"The fights were horrible. At first they started with simple warnings, which honestly made sense to me. 'Stop laughing all the time, noone will take you seriously.' or 'Can you just be more serious instead of giggling around all the time?' Things like this became regular comments in our daily lives and I believed him. I wanted people to take me seriously. But then it turned hurtful. He told me he hated my smile, the way I laughed, my voice when I giggled. Anything that was part of my happy moments, he tried to destroy them. And I let him. After a while, I just kept hiding when I was happy, I kept smiling less, I never even laughed again. Then it just escalated and I started hiding when I was sad or if I was in pain. It was just easier. I got used to concealing my feelings and it just stuck with me even after we broke up." You looked up at Sam, waiting for a reaction from him.

"There isn't a thing I want more, than to see you laugh whole-heartedly, holding onto your stomach, tearing up from happiness." He smiled at you, which you returned in a small curve.

"I wish I could Sam, but it's not easy to change. It will take time." You knew yourself enough to know that it would take a great amount of power from you to try to get back to your old self and you knew that you will not be hundred percent ever again. But you loved him with every part of your body and you were willing to try.

"I saw you smile. I saw it when you were sitting in the library reading a book. I might have peeked." He chuckled at the thought. "I saw you laugh, when Rumsfeld started licking your face, back when we visited Bobby. I heard you giggle when you were singing in the shower. I would give anything to see you carefree, happy with a big smile across your face." He cupped your face and caressed your cheeks with his thumbs gently, while giving you the biggest smile he could manage. "I love everything about you and I wish nothing but to see a smile on your face each and every day." He leaned closer, meeting your mouth halfway. His kiss was slow, but loving, giving all his attention to your lips. He smiled into the kiss as you let out a moan, which made you quietly chuckle.

"I want to hear more of that sound." He kissed you again, before he placed his forehead against yours, looking into your eyes with his deep green ones.

"I promise, I will try my best." You nodded. "It will take time, but I miss the old me too." You replied, knowing that you were to do anything in your power to get back even if just a fraction of your old self.

"You could start maybe waking me up with a smile on the morning. I wouldn't be against it." A goofy smirk appeared on his face and you playfully hit him on the chest.

"Don't get carried away." You warned him, but you didn't even realise your facial expression.

"I don't think I do. I'm loving the smile you are wearing now. It suits you perfectly." You finally realised what you were doing and wanted to quickly hide it, but he shook his head as if he understood. "Please don't." He spoke quickly as if he knew what you wanted to do. You heaved a deep sigh and let the happy smile stay on your face as you nodded at him. You were content, you were happy, you didn't want to hide it. It would take time to get yourself back, but you knew Sam was there for you and his support meant more than you could describe in words, so you just said the only words you could speak.

"I love you, Sam." You smiled and pulled him in for a quick peck on the lips.

"And I love you, Y/N. Smiling, laughing, giggling, chuckling... I just want you to be happy by my side." You wrapped your arms around him and hid your face in his neck, feeling comfort in his presence, knowing he wanted you just the way you were.

Notes: If you enjoyed it, don't forget to like and/or reblog the fic. Thank you :)

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[imagines-all-day-everyday]

Destiny

Requested by anonymous:

‘Can I have a request where the Witcher is hurt and the reader finds him and she does healing magic and she is healing him and when he wakes up he adores her and cannot get her out of his mind and in a way he felt like destiny put him there to find her and decides to do everything possible to keep her with him’

Warnings: fluff, violence, swearing

Notes: FIRST WITCHER IMAGINE FOR GERALT MY BBY <3

---------------------

“I think I figured out how we can slay it we just-”

“No need witch, I’ve hired someone else to do the job.”

“You - what?” *yn* exclaimed, her voice echoing through the large library. 

“Don’t look so surprised, you’ve had weeks to kill the bloody thing.” Zandah retorted back.

“Does the Mayor know? I don’t think he’d be too pleased to know his trusted advisor had gone behind his Mage’s back.” *yn* snarled as she stormed over to stand chest to chest with the man.

“No of course he doesn’t know, but this problem needs to be dealt with. The people are growing angry.”

“I told you I needed time, I don’t know what the creature is -” *yn* began, trying desperately to defend herself under the scornful eye of Zandah.

“Which is why I hired an expert in the field.” 

“An expert? What do-” *yn* cut herself off, her eyes widening in realisation. “A Witcher. You hired a Witcher.”

“Not just any Witcher. The white wolf, Geralt of Rivia.” Zandah explained as he moved past her to grab a book off the shelf causing *yn* to drop the numerous books in her arms onto the table. 

“Are you daft? The only thing the mayor hates more than Witchers are elves.” 

“Which is why I am going to tell him you killed the beast. That way we’re all happy, aren’t we?” Zandah explained as he stood up on a stool to reach for another book. “Sure you’ll live with the guilty conscious of taking someone’s credit and not being good enough at your job, but that’s a consequence I’m happy to live with.”

“And when is this Witcher coming to slay the beast?” *yn* huffed, forcing herself to ignore his scathing words.

“He’s already here and already figured it out what it was, he’s off to kill it now I believe.”

His words made her eyes narrow as she stared him down. Sensing her fierce gaze, Zandah turned on his heels to look down at her from his position on the stool. “Well? What are you still doing here? Don’t you have hymns to chant or something.”

Rolling her eyes she turned on her heel to exit the library. Not being able to help herself she flicked her fingers to the side as she moved towards the door. She smirked as the sound of the stool sweeping underneath Zandah’s feet followed by his shriek as he fell to the ground.

“I’ll get you for that witch!” He shrieked before the books off the bookshelf fell all around him with a satisfying thud.

“Sure you will.” She muttered under her breath, a satisfied grin etched on her face as she made her way outside and into the village square.

Once outside she began to make her way outside the square, towards her small cottage on the outskirts of the village. As she continued on the winding dirt path, she felt a sudden urge to come to a halt. 

The forest grew deathly silent around her once she came to a stand still. Turning her head, her eyes fell on the abandoned baker’s house a few hundred metres or so from her. The baker and his family had been the first of many victims. 

She didn't know what it was, but there was something inside her almost tugging her towards the small house. In all her decades of living, she’d never felt a pulling sensation this strong before. She may have abandoned the Brotherhood, but she still knew better to ignore a sign like that.

Giving her surroundings one last glance, she stepped off the path and began her way towards the house. As she grew closer she noticed a beautiful chestnut horse tied to a tree. A mare, she noted as she grew within a few feet of her.

“Hi girl.” She murmured, placing a gentle hand to the mare’s forehead. “Who’s left you out here all alone, hmm?” She continued, to which the horse whinnied gently and pushed her head against *yn*’s chest.

*yn* gave the mare one last pat before turning her attention back to the house. Inhaling sharply, she twisted the tarnished knob and opened the wooden door to step inside. From the outside it looked completely normal, but once you entered it was something out of a nightmare. Dried blood still painted the walls, floors and ceilings. The furniture was left abandoned and in complete disarray, adding to the evidence of the horror that had occurred inside the walls.

The vision of the family of five all piled in a heap in the living room with their entrails wrapped around their throats and their hands and feet completely severed, still burned freshly in her memory.

She was ready to hurriedly move past the living room, but the sound of a low moan made her freeze. She waited for a few moments in sickly silence to make sure she wasn’t hearing things when the same moan entered her ears.

Someone was here.

She edged towards the living room, curling her left hand into a fist in preparation to cast a spell, before peaking her head around the wall. The first sight that greeted her was a creature she had never seen before. It looked like a cross between a lion, a spider and an octopus. It was completely hideous and terrifying. A Svin, she realised.

It was also very much dead.

The next thing that caught her attention was a bundle of white hair peaking out beneath a layer of blood and guts. Another low moan.

She hurriedly stepped over the creature and kneeled down to reach the bundle of white hair, which upon closer inspection, she realised belonged to the very famous White Wolf - Geralt of Rivia. 

He was so caked in blood, she wasn’t sure what belonged to him and what belonged to the monster. What she did know was that he was injured and injured badly. 

“Fuck.”

---------------------

The last thing Geralt remembered was lying on a hard wooden floor, the Svin he had just killed beside him, with a huge Svin sized claw mark embedded deeply into his chest. 

The first thing he sensed as he came too was that he was no longer lying on a wooden floor, instead he was lying on a comfortable mattress. He groaned as pain seared through his chest. His eyes opened but his vision was so blurry that he could barely make out his surroundings. He instinctively moved to touch his wound but was stopped by a grip on his arm.

“It’s ok, just breathe.” He heard a gentle voice say. “You need rest.” 

He blinked a couple of times as a figure appeared above him. He tried to speak but all that came out was a grunt of pain. “Don’t try to talk, everything’s going to be ok.” The voice reassured him. He breathed out deeply as he felt a wet cloth press against his chest and gently clean the area.

“It’s going to be ok.” The voice repeated as a soft hand reached up to gently caress his cheek. “I’m going to look after you.” Was the last thing he heard before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

*yn* smiled softly as she watched the White Wolf slip back into a peaceful slumber. She leant up and gently tucked a piece  matted hair behind his ear. She turned on her heel and grabbed her mortar and pestle to begin grinding up some more herbs for his injury.

A loud knock at the door made her jump slightly. Hurriedly she wiped her hands on her dress before making her way to the front door. She opened the door slightly and peaked through the gap to see a man with a mop of brown hair on his head anxiously pacing outside.

He looked harmless enough.

“Can I help you?” She asked him as she opened the door further. The man’s jaw dropped when his eyes fell on her. He swallowed and ran a hand through his hair, a nervous grin spreading across his lips.

“Oh yes hello! I’m looking for the Mage, she lives here apparently.”

“Yes, that’s me, I’m *yn*.” She smiled, sticking out her hand politely. “Oh wow, when they described you I was expecting someone... um...”

“Older?” *yn* suggested.

“I was going to say wrinkly and fat but sure, older works.” The man stated bluntly, causing *yn* to raise a brow. 

“Uh - sorry what I meant was - I’m Jaskier, song writer extraordinaire.” He introduced himself, grabbing her hand flamboyantly before pressing his lips to her skin.

 “I’m looking for a friend of mine, he’s about yay high, annoyingly muscly and looks like he wants to kill everything in sight.” Jaskier continued, pointing his hand well above his head to indicate his height.

“Wouldn’t be Geralt of Rivia by any chance?” *yn* asked.

“Yes! Yes! That’s the one, you see I’m sort of his best friend and I think he must be terribly worried without me.” Jaskier explained, causing a small chuckle to slip past her lips.

“He’s inside, he’s sleeping though. He needs time to rest so the potion can take full effect and heal him.” *yn* explained, cocking her head inside as she stepped aside to allow Jaskier in. 

“Oh thank god, Geralt.” He gasped as he wondered in to see Geralt asleep on her bed. “This is what happens when he doesn’t let me come, he’s just way to over protective, he let me sleep in so I wouldn’t get injured.” Jaskier scolded, crossing his arms as he sent the blissfully unaware Witcher a glare.

“I’m sure that’s it.” *yn* nodded, turning her back so Jaskier wouldn’t see the amused smile on her features. She had a feeling Jaskier was more of a hindrance than a help to the Witcher.

“He’s going to be ok, right?” Jaskier asked as he watched her grind up some herbs. 

“Yes. The cut was not too deep, this will clear out any toxins left in his bloodstream.” *yn* explained as she rubbed the ground up mixture into the wound, muttering a cantation under her breath as she did so.

“It’s weird seeing him so - un broody.” Jaskier commented which caused her to let out a laugh. “I’m serious, even when he’s sleeping he usually looks completely pissed off.” 

“You spend a lot of the time watching him sleep then?” *yn* smirked, looking over her shoulder to glance at the bard.

“Ok well-” He stuttered as a small blush crept up on his cheeks. “I am very much into woman but come on you have to admit it’s hard to not to stare.” Jaskier defended himself. 

*yn* laughed and glanced back down at Geralt, taking in his facial features, the bard did have a point - he looked like a damn God. 

“You have a point.” She agreed.

-------------------

This time when Geralt came too, his vision was almost completely clear. He instinctively shot up, the pain in his chest dull compared to the burning sensation he had remembered. 

“Oh Geralt, thank heavens you’re alright.” The voice was not the sweet one he remembered, instead it was a very familiar one. 

“Jaskier?” He grunted as he moved to touch his chest. “Ah-ah-ah I wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to touch that... or be moving.” Jaskier spoke, hastily making his way into Geralt’s line of vision.

Had Geralt dreamt up that sweet voice and gentle touch?

He glanced around the small room, noting the numerous spell books and scrolls scattered around as he moved to heave himself off the bed. “You’re not supposed to get u- and you’re up anyway.” Jaskier sighed. 

“How did I get here?” Geralt asked. “Well-” Geralt turned to Jaskier once he detected the mischievous tone, to see an equally mischievous smirk on his lips.

“A very lovely Mage came to your rescue.” Jaskier grinned. Geralt grunted in response. “Her name’s *yn*.” 

"Where is she?” 

“See for yourself.” Jaskier spoke, still grinning mischievously as he pointed to the small window. Geralt followed Jaskier over to the window and peered out, squinting as the blinding sunlight hit him square in the eyes.

He blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted. Once they did, he felt his heart warm at the sight before him. In the small pasture that was next to the house, stood Roach and the Mage that Jaskier called *yn*. 

She was patting Roach and saying something to her. He watched as *yn* took a few steps away from Roach before she turned on her heel and jogged away. Sure enough Roach followed after her, nudging her in the back before galloping off to the other end of the field.

“They’ve been playing tag for the last hour.” Jaskier mused, “figured I could work it into a song somehow, could add a bit of femininity to your brutish ballads.”

But Geralt was no longer listening. Instead he found himself mesmerised by the woman before him. Usually he detested the thought of any other living being touching Roach, but the sight of this made him want to smile.

He let out an involuntary groan as a sudden wave of pain shot through his chest. “Geralt? Geralt are you alright?” Jaskier asked, hurrying over to support Geralt as he doubled over.

“I’m fine.” He hissed, wincing as another wave of burning pain rippled through him. “Hang on, I’ll go get *yn*.” Jaskier announced, making sure Geralt was back on the bed before he sprinted outside. 

He could hear Jaskier’s voice in the distance, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. “What happened?”

The sweet voice.

“I’m not sure, he was fine and standing and then he just doubled over.”

Geralt looked up and instantly locked eyes with *yn*. Her face was flushed and her dress covered in dried blood, no doubt his, but that did not make her any less beautiful. 

Goddess-like, Geralt decided. 

*yn* felt her stomach do backflips as her eyes locked with Geralt’s. Seeing him lying down shirtless was one thing, but sitting up? *yn* had been on this earth for many many years, but fuck - was it possible for someone to be that attractive?

“Fuck.” The Witcher suddenly hissed as a stabbing sensation filled his chest. All thoughts, sexual and otherwise flew from her mind, now her focus was back on his pain.

“Well firstly, he was not supposed to be standing.” *yn* scolded as she put herself back in Mage mode and hurried over to her medicine table. “Lie down.” She instructed as she grabbed the herbs. 

“There must be some of the Svin’s poison still left in your blood system.” She explained as she pushed the herbs forcefully into the open wound and muttered a stronger cantation under her breath.

“Fucking hell.” Geralt cursed as the herbs sizzled under her spell, melting into his flesh. 

“Sorry.” She apologised, before moving to his face. Geralt felt his heart beat faster as she brought her face right down close to his, so close that if he moved upwards, their lips would meet.

“No green veins in your eyes. You’re definitely clear now.” She decided as her she peered intently into his amber ones. 

“Thank you.” The sound of his deep voice made her break out of her Mage mode and made her realise just how close the pair were. 

‘For godsake - you’re a powerful witch with decades of sexual experience - pull yourself together and channel your inner sexual deviant!’ She internally scolded herself. 

“Anytime, Geralt of Rivia.” She smirked as she pulled away from him. “Nice to meet you, by the way.” She continued as she moved to place the empty bowl back on the table. 

“Nice to meet you too, *yn* of....?” Geralt queried as he sat back up on the bed, surprised to realise that the intense pain he had felt only moments ago was now completely gone.

“Nowhere, I don’t remember where I was born, I just remember all the places I travelled to.” *yn* explained as she floated over to the other side of the room to grab clean bandages.

“Before Aretuza?” Jaskier piped up causing *yn* to glance over at him in surprise. “Yes before Aretuza.” She nodded. 

“*yn* of nowhere... now that’s a powerful song - you don’t mind if I use that do you?” Jaskier asked her eagerly. 

“No, go ahead.” *yn* answered, stifling a laugh as her and Geralt exchanged looks. 

“So, you’re in the brotherhood?” Geralt asked her as he watched her measure the bandages. 

“I was - I left that life a long time ago, I was sick of advising King’s who didn’t want to be advised.” 

“And now?” He queried as she began to delicately wrap his wound. 

“Now I do this. I travel from village to village, finding places that cannot afford a Mage and offer my services for free.” 

“That does not bore you?” He asked, immediately regretting the words as they slipped past his lips. “Sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“No it’s ok.” She laughed quietly. “It does seem boring, but I’ve had three lifetimes full of excitement and adventure. I’ve been here for a few years now, the Mayor and all his subjects are very kind to me, well except his advisor.” She explained. 

“I’ve had my fill, I’m happy to just help people now. I’m sure that must sound quite pathetic to someone who hunts monsters for a living.” She sighed.

“It’s not pathetic, trust me.” Geralt comforted, placing a large hand on her shoulder. His actions made her cease her movements, glancing up from his wound to meet his eyes. She felt a blush creeping up on her cheeks as his fingers brushed against her skin. 

“I um-” She stuttered, breaking their contact as she pulled out of his hold. “You should be fine to travel now.” She murmured, glancing over at Jaskier sheepishly to see him staring wide eyed at the pair. 

“But... you’re more than welcome to stay the night if you need.” 

“Oh yes I think Geralt would absolutely love to-”

“No, we’ll be on our way.” Geralt cut Jaskier off, rising to his feet very suddenly, his face suddenly turning expressionless.  

“But Geralt-”

“Shut up Jaskier.” He hissed, gripping the bard by the shoulders and firmly guiding him to the front door. 

“Wait!” *yn* called, just as the two had opened the door. “Take this with you.” She said as she grabbed a small poultice off the table. 

“Apply it to the wound twice a day for a week, to ensure it heals nicely.” She explained, placing it into Geralt’s hand. Studying his vacant expression for a few moments, she leant up and placed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Safe travels Geralt of Rivia, and you too Jaskier.” She smiled, caressing Jaskier’s face briefly before dropping her hand to her side.

“Thank you, *yn* of nowhere.” Geralt spoke, and *yn* swore she saw a ghost of a smile on his lips before he disappeared through the door.

And just like a tornado, the pair had come and gone. 

----------------------

“Ok I think I’ve finally perfected *yn* of nowhere version three hundred and one, do you want to hear it?”

“For the last time, I don’t want to fucking hear it.” Geralt snarled, warming his hands over the small fire. 

“Oh for fucks sake, you know what Geralt? I’ve just about had it with you.” Jaskier huffed, during his guitar to the side and rising to his feet.  “Why don’t you just admit the reason you’ve been a grumpy sack of shit for the past two days is because you got scared that you felt something real with *yn* and ran away like a little wolf pup instead of giving it a go.” He continued as he moved to grab a loaf of bread from his bag.

“I don’t know what you’re referring to.” Geralt snapped back.

“Ok let’s not play that game Geralt. I saw that connection with my own two damn eyes. It’s like something out of one of my most popular love songs, like destiny.” 

“Fuck don’t you start with that whole destiny bullshit.” Geralt muttered. 

“No Geralt, don’t you start with that whole ‘destiny is bullshit’ thing, I know you believe it.”

Jaskier was right. Geralt did believe in destiny, whether he wanted to believe it or not. And there was something inside him, desperately trying to claw it’s way out that was trying to get him to go back. It was like he was being tugged back in the direction of the small village.

Back to her.

But Jaskier was right about more than that. It was true, the overwhelming feeling of adoration and fascination he had felt for *yn* had scared him. And the White Wolf was supposed to be scared of nothing. 

“Geralt... hello? Can you hear me?” Jaskier’s voice cut through his worries like a knife through butter.

“It would never work.” Geralt heard himself admit. 

“and why not?” Jaskier exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“You heard what she said, she’s had her fill of adventure and chaos, and that’s all my life is.” 

“Pfft.” Jaskier scoffed as he made his way back to sit beside him. “I saw the way she looked at you, if you’re trying to tell me that if you went back their right now and asked her to come with you that she would say no, then you’re out of your - ow!”

Geralt looked away from the fire to see that in Jaskier’s passionate flailing of his arms, he’d managed to cut the palm of his left hand. 

“Well that’s just great, the first scar I get happens to be from a bloody kitchen knife, can you pass the - why are you looking at me like that?” Jaskier cut himself once he noticed Geralt staring intently at his wound.

“I have an idea.” Geralt announced, a bemused smirk appearing on his lips.

“Oh no.” 

----------------

“Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh valley of plenty oh valley of plenty.” *yn* hummed to herself as she cleaned her medical tools. Ever since Jaskier and Geralt had left a couple of days ago, the song had been playing on repeat in her head. 

Sure, it was a catchy song but all it did was remind her of Geralt and she was thinking of him enough as it was. 

Surely she was not the only one out of the two that felt the connection? It was far too intense to be one sided. Right?

A knock at the door made her snap out of her deep thoughts. “Coming!” She called as she made her way to the front door.

“Geralt.” The name slipped out automatically as she stared wide eyed at the mountain of a man in front of her.

“Sorry to intrude, I think Jaskier needs your help and you were the closest village.” It was only when Geralt mentioned him that *yn* realised he was holding an unconscious Jaskier by the collar. 

“You’re not intruding, bring him and put him on the bed.” *yn* instructed, stepping aside so he could haul Jaskier inside.

“What happened?” She asked him as she hurried over to Jaskier’s side. 

“I’m not sure.” She heard him answer as she began to examine Jaskier.  

“How did he get this cut on his hand?” She asked him, noticing the small bloodied slit on his palm. *yn* glanced over her shoulder when her answer was met by silence to see Geralt dancing on the balls of his feet nervously.

“Geralt?”

“.... himself.” He admitted quietly.

“Himself?” She repeated, raising a brow once she was met with a nod. “And he’s unconscious because...?” 

A shrug.

“Alright, well I can dress his cut.” She answered, turning from him to hide her grin. Had Geralt really travelled all this way just so she could look at a small cut? 

The room fell into silence as she carefully wrapped Jaskier’s limp hand. “While you’re here I should look at your wound.” She stated, turning to Geralt who had now taken a seat on the table. 

He nodded and pulled his shirt over his head and *yn* was pleased to see that her dressings were still in place. She felt her heart rate increase as Geralt opened his legs for her to stand in-between them. She could practically feel the heat radiating from his body as she slotted in between his thighs. The pair fell back into silence as she began to work methodically on unwrapping the bandages. 

“Can I ask you something?” Geralt spoke up once she had begun to clean the wound with a wet cloth.

“Of course.” She murmured.

“How did you find me? Back at that baker’s house?” His words made her cease her movements briefly, glancing up at him to meet his eyes before looking back down at his wound. “I-I don’t know, I just felt like I had to go there. Like something was...”

“Pulling you?” He suggested. 

“Yes, pulling me.” She agreed quietly, avoiding his intense gaze as she manoeuvred around him to grab some fresh bandages. Her fingers brushed against his tanned skin and she felt his muscles shiver under her touch. She felt a sudden surge of confidence ripple through her and before she could question it, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Can I ask you a question, Geralt of Rivia?” She spoke, shooting him a small smile.

“Of course.” 

“Did you really come back here just for me to look after Jaskier?” *yn* asked as she finished tying the cloth around his chest.

“I think you know the answer.” His deep voice made her eyes flicker up to his amber ones, that seemed to be glowing even brighter than usual. 

“It would be nice to hear you say it though.” She murmured, taking a step closer to him so their lips were only a few centimetres apart. The energy in the room was so palpable, *yn* felt that her knees might buckle underneath her.

“I came back for you.” 

The second the words were uttered, *yn* leant forward and captured his lips in a kiss. The pair moulded together, as if they were always meant to be one entity, Geralt wrapping his arms around her frame to pull him closer to her. As the pair pulled away, *yn* swore she could feel her entire essence literally buzzing. 

A small smile appeared on his lips as he placed one hand on her lower back and another up to cradle her face. “Do you believe in destiny?” He asked quietly.

“I do.” She replied, swallowing nervously as he brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. “And I think I was meant to find you lying half dead and covered in Svin guts.” Her words made a deep chuckle emit from the back of Geralt’s throat. 

“I know you said you were done with a life of adventure, but I think I could really do with a Mage, and a better travelling companion.” He added, cocking his head to a still passed out Jaskier causing her to giggle. 

She smiled and hastily pressed another kiss to his lips, “I’m in.” 

A loud groan caused both her and Geralt to swivel around to see Jaskier coming too, gripping his head as he sat up in the bed.

“Fucking hell, please tell me you two are together and Geralt didn’t knock me out for no reason.” 

“Don’t worry Jaskier, it was for a good reason, a very good one.”

-----------------

As always, positive feedback would be super super appreciated and you can give it back HERE!

[unforth]

Hi there! I absolutely loooove the destiel fic collection and think that it's a genius way to expose fans to fics that might not always get as much attention on fic recs and when searching on ao3. I was thinking of trying to create a similar collection for another fandom and was wondering if you have any tips? Or if there's anything that you wish you knew when you started it? Thank you!

Hi!! Just for openers, sorry I didn’t reply to this yesterday, my mom’s basement flooded and took with it all my writing time, sigh. ANYWAY. On to the topic at hand. How to make a “faves survey” for another fandom, and have it resemble what I’ve made for Destiel? Well, here’s what I’ve done, hopefully some of it will be applicable to you...

1. This is the most important part: Do NOT let it become or be perceived as a popularity contest. Never release the raw stats (except perhaps to a small number of people who you trust to help you). Never announce a “winner.” Never share a ranked list. Never act as if more votes equals better. Never ever suggest in anyway that your purpose to find “the best.” Treat people and fics who get one vote with just as much fanfare as people and fics who get 50 votes. I do release a “top 20″ list just because so many people asked, but even then, it’s in alphabetical order, and meant more as a snapshot. Encourage people to vote for their favorites that aren’t already in whatever collection you end up making, and encourage people to vote for things they don’t usually see on rec lists. Aim for an expansive range of types of fics being voted for, and make it clear - no ship shaming (or secondary ship shaming, if yours is ship-based like mine, rather than being general to a given fandom) or kink shaming. 

2. Keep the survey super simple. People don’t read complex instructions, and they’re not going to want to rank lists or anything like that. You can see the one I use here. Feel free to emulate it, copy it, modify it for your own purposes. I used to just do boxes but people would routinely put in way more than 5/10, and while I didn’t really mind the extras, it greatly increased the amount of work I had to do, and since the survey routinely gets a couple hundred replies that I go through, I decided to make it a little harder for people to go over the limits. Don’t bother asking for people’s names or trying to validate the results. I’ve tried. People don’t want to put their names, and validation encourages people not to submit...AND doesn’t prevent cheating...so is really pointless. Just keep it anonymous, after four rounds I can say...that works best.

3. And, speaking of people going over the limits, and cheating...people will cheat. No matter how clear you are that number of votes don’t matter, no matter how much you insist that whatever data you’re collecting will only be used in so-and-so a way...you will spot people “cheating,” for various definitions of the word cheating. People who vote for their own works. People will submit multiple surveys. People will “ballot box stuff” for their favorite(s). People will list more than the maximums you’ve asked them to. People will submit works from other ships, and - though it’s never happened to me - if you make it fandom-general I’ll lay heavy odds at least one dumbass will submit for some other fandom entirely. It happens in different permutations every time, some more obvious than others, but it happens. And the conclusion I reached is...so fucking what? In the end, since the idea is to highlight as many different great works as possible...screw it. Let people vote for themselves. Let people ballot box stuff. Let people submit multiple surveys, or list more than whatever maximums you’ve set. In the end, since every work is treated as equal and one vote is worth as much as a hundred...if they’re cheating to up the vote count, it’s irrelevant, and if they’re cheating to vote for more works, then yay! more works to include! and basically the only thing I’ve found that reduces cheating is to make it absolutely clear to people that I’d really rather they not but ultimately I can’t stop them, so do their thing I guess? And it does help. I got less cheating each time I do it, or at least less that I’m able to catch lol. (as a side note - the one exceptions is the “works for others ships.” Those you can see listed on the “INELIGIBLE” sheet of the spreadsheet I link below, but I don’t add them to the AO3 collection.)

4. Spreadsheets are your best friend. You’re going to want some way to organize the data you’re collecting. I’ve got a public version of the sheet I use that you can see here. It’s pretty similar to my “private” version, except the private version includes actual vote counts, separated by which time(s) I did the survey that the work in question got votes. I mostly use that data so I can do comparisons over the years (“this year X works were added to the collection that were never in it before!”) and because I like numbers. However, depending on how exactly you plan to use the data, you may not even need to tally vote counts, and you could do one that’s more similar to my public version. Also, if you make an AO3 collection, you’re going to want some way to track which works you’ve invited, which have been added, etc., cause otherwise it’s just a nightmare to keep track of. (a little more on this later).

5. Decide how and where you’re going to share your data - as an AO3 collection? As a public spreadsheet? On social media? Maybe you want to make a side Tumblr just for it? Or a Discord server? etc. etc. Like, I’ve got a pillowfort group (though I hardly use it) and a channel in a Discord server (thanks again to the PB folks for making space for me!) with the AO3 collection being the main portal. You want to make sure that it’s advertised enough that people know it exists, and also be prepared that short term you’ll hear basically no feedback on whether people use it, and even long term it’ll be once in a blue moon and suddenly eight people will be like WAIT YOU’RE THE PERSON BEHIND THAT THING I LOVE THAT THING. In that respect it can feel a little thankless but I’ve definitely found that people do use it, it’s just that there’s no real way for people to let YOU know they’re using it (and, honestly...good? This isn’t really about us, after all, it’s about all these fic writers, the goal is to bring attention to them, not ourselves, we’re just a go-between for the writers and the readers.)

6. For making an AO3 collection, you’ll have to invite every single work individually. Some people have their accounts set to auto-accept invites, but otherwise whether the work actually gets added will depend on the authors. Some people will never accept the invite. Some people won’t know how to accept the invite. Some people will accept the invite and then subsequently remove their work. Some people have left these parts completely and will never even see the invite. That’s why it’s important to track who has added and who hasn’t, and periodically double check it (I double check every six months or so). For the people who don’t accept the invites for whatever reason, you can bookmark the item to the collection. HOWEVER, if you do this with your personal account, every single one of those bookmarks will be listed under your personal AO3, which is why I ultimately made the Faves survey its own account - it’s entirely to facilitate bookmarking. You can also use the “Bookmark External Work” feature to link to works that aren’t on AO3, and to tag them to whatever extent you want to. Here’s some examples of how I chose to bookmark external works.

7. Things will inevitably get complicated. Authors will change their names. People who do the survey will use shorthand you’ve never heard of for some fic you don’t know. People will misspell things and you’ll either recognize it even with the typo...or you won’t. People will vote for things that list eight different ships and you’ll have no idea which one is endgame. People will vote for things that have been deleted, or they’ll tell you it’s definitely on AO3 when it’s not, it’s on some other platform. The list of random things I’ve had to deal with is stupidly long and I’ve probably forgotten even more. Just...roll with it. Do your best. Ask for help (“Someone nominated a fic abbreviated as ABC to the collection and didn’t give the author and I have no idea what it is, help me Tumblr!”). And in the end, if you’ve done everything you can think of and you still don’t know...let it go. It’s just not that worth worrying about. And sometimes if you step away and look again in a few days you’ll figure out another way to search and it’ll pop up. But honestly I’ve got a handful of works I still haven’t been able to track down, and that one work that someone submitted that’s only available in Finnish and is explicit and behind a log-in wall on a small independent Finnish-only fic archive...well, I spoke to the author and confirmed the work exists, but otherwise...whelp, it’s not linked, and I did my best. That’s all you can do.

8. No matter what you do, someone somewhere will probably get upset about it. The first time I did the survey, when it got the most traction, I actually got a little hate, and I got some anons who were like “oooooo did you know that ~x~ is cheating” and I had a little “HOW DARE YOU NOT PLAY FAVORITES WHAT ABOUT MY PERSONAL FAVE?” and just...decide how you’re approaching the survey, and stick to your guns, and if anyone is a douche, hit the block button. And, related...

9. Transparency is most important imo. Not transparency for vote counts obviously, but transparency for what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it, and what you hope to accomplish. Make sure your goals are clear from the start (mine weren’t that first time, hence some of the problems I encountered) - if it’s to highlight as wide a range of works as possible, say that. If it IS to pick a favorite, say that too. Just be clear, and honest, and above board, and it should work out okay.

10. Side note...one of the saddest things about all this is that if you do it over an extended period you’ll see authors deleting their works. As such, I personally chose to download every work that gets a vote, that way it’s at least preserved. I then expanded that into a much larger archive that I’m still adding to all the time, trying to save as much Destiel as possible. But then, I’m an archivist at heart, whether you want to branch out in that kind of direction is up to you.

...okay, that’s everything I can think of. Hopefully I didn’t scare you too bad. I don’t know what fandom/ship you’re looking at but for perspective...first time I did the survey I got about 400 replies, and then the next two times it got about 200, and this most recent time it got about 300. I chose to do mine annually, on the assumption that gives some time for people to come and go for fandom and a lot of new works to get created, and I deliberately timed it for about a month after the biggest fandom event (the DCBB) that generates fics, to give people time to read those fics and consider them in their voting. For me, that means I happen to run the survey starting on January 1st, and I keep it limited to 15 days, since usually it tapers off anyway. But you could try experimenting with different schedules, or leaving it open all the time, etc., it just depends how much time you want to devote to monitoring and updating it. For me, I mostly want to do a big burst of work and then not have to think about it most of the rest of the time, lol.

So...questions? comments? thoughts? wanna tell me I’m dead wrong? I’m all ears, lemme know how I can help!

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Grey area (Sonia x F!MC)

Author's note: I've had part of this fic written for weeks but I just couldn't finish it; I was experiencing some serious writers block. But last night I got inspired and somehow manage to write all of it. I'm Brazilian who lives in Rio and I wanted to use that in my fic. My MC's name is Agatha. English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes. 

Summary: One year after the heist, Sonia wonders where Agatha is, and whether they'll meet again (WC: around 2,100).

Rating: pretty sure it's PG-13 (kissing, sexual tension but very light) 

tag list:  @nazariortega  @duchess-ash-flame  @lahelalove @poeticscolt @donutsgirl36 @queenkaneko @msjpuddleduck@quinnskelly @flyawayboo @brightpinkpeppercorn @choicesarehard@jlpplays1 @desiree-0816 @sibella-plays-choices @mfackenthal @unwrittennovel @shreya-mackenzie @emomoustache (I'm using my general tag list from my Nik and Jaime fics, feel free to ignore me and/or let me know if I got anyone wrong) 

Sonia was sitting on her usual table, at her usual bakery, having her usual breakfast. Nothing about the present day seemed anything other than ordinary. But as she put down her coffee mug, something caught her eye on the tiny tv screen against the wall, a picture she knew all too well by now: the empty case of the crown jewels of Monaco. She didn't even need to check the calendar to realize what day it was. It's been one year.

It’s been one year since Agatha and her crew successfully stole the crown jewels of Monaco, which went down on newspapers all over the world as the greatest heist in history: no traces left behind, and none of the crew members had been located yet. All of this was being said on the morning news, and Sonia smiled despite of herself as she started to reminisce about her last encounter with the criminal who completely changed the way she viewed the world.

After the night they spent together in Vegas, Sonia hadn’t seen or heard from Agatha, but that didn't mean she hadn't been thinking about the blonde thief; she still couldn’t believe she had fallen for a career criminal. How clichê was that? Her feelings for Agatha were part of the reason she hadn't gone back to work- she was too biased to be useful.

Sonia used to think it was so simple. In her head, there used to be the side of the law and the mischievous side. Everything used to be black or white, right or wrong. But as the law favored people like Ansel, and Agatha was one of the “bad guys”, how could she ignore the grey area?

After the security fiasco at Carlisle’s wedding, Sonia decided to take some time off from work. Her head wasn’t in it anymore; she didn’t feel like she could be a part of justice when she didn’t even know who the true bad guys were. As the reporter on TV talked about the heist, Sonia couldn't help but think about Agatha; her lips, her blonde hair, her green eyes, her stunning body… A warm feeling that had nothing to do with the hot coffee spread across her body at the memory, and she let herself wonder where the now multimillionaire thief might be. Sonia hated to admit how often Agatha crossed her mind, and how much she wished she could see her again.

When she got back to her apartment, still thinking about Agatha and absently smiling, Sonia noticed something inside her mailbox, something that wasn't there before.  She picked it up and frowned in confusion. "A postcard? Who would send me a postcard?", she thought to herself. 

It featured a picture of the famous black and white sidewalk design from Copacabana Beach- a couple of miles away from Sonia's apartment in Laranjeiras. At first, it seemed like there was nothing written on it. No date, no name, no address. But as she looked closer, Sonia noticed there was actually something: a tiny note on the corner saying "2 pm".

She glanced around but there was no one on the street, no one who could possibly know who sent this. She decided to just go up to her apartment and take a closer look at it, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. As she stared at it, eyebrows furrowed, something clicked inside her mind: "Wait, 2pm? People in Brazil don't write time like that. Could it possibly be…? No, I won't let myself think about it. It's not her. It can’t be."

As much as she tried to push her own thoughts away, it made sense. Didn't it? Or was it just wishful thinking? Sonia had always loved puzzles and solving riddles, and she was good at it. She was good at following leads and finding logical patterns when nothing seemed to make sense. But all her logical, rational side would disappear when it came to Agatha, and she couldn’t think straight anymore- one of the reasons she decided to step down from her job. She sighed and looked at her phone. 9:17am. She had a long morning ahead of her.

Sonia tried to distract herself from the stubborn clock that seemed to have stopped. After what felt like an eternity, the time finally came. She swallowed her lunch in five seconds, took a quick shower and headed to Copacabana Beach. As she sat on the bus, she let her mind wonder to the possibility that it was actually Agatha waiting for her.

As an ex police officer, she knew better. She knew it was probably a bad idea to follow an anonymous, almost ominous, instruction like that. It was most likely a trap, but that small voice inside her head telling her it could be Agatha waiting for her made Sonia ignore all the obvious red flags.

Copacabana Beach was crowded, as always, and most of them were tourists enjoying the hot spring sun and photographing the illustrious, breathtaking landscape. The beach was 2.2 miles long and she didn’t know where to wait, or whom to look for, so she just walked towards its most touristy spot: the sidewalk in front of Rio’s most famous hotel, Copacabana Palace. She sat on a table of a kiosk on the beach, with her back to the sand, enjoying the warm sunshine on her skin as she took a sip of the most overpriced coconut water in the city. 

Sonia began to meticulously examine the crowd; she would feel her heart skipping a beat everytime a blonde woman walked by, which made her feel pathetic. She checked the clock and it was 1:58 pm; she was already absently tapping her foot on the wood board and biting her lips, her head frantically turning from side to side, looking for any face she might recognize- but, mostly, for one face specifically. When she realized how quickly her heart was beating, she took a deep breath and counted to three. "You need to calm down and lower your expectations", she told herself.

As her breathing began to slow down, she felt soft fingers touching her exposed shoulder and a woman's voice behind her, talking in Portuguese with a strong American accent "Com licença..." Sonia turned her head and she could swear her heart stopped for a few seconds. "Do you know what time is it?" Agatha continued, in English, smirking at Sonia through her sunglasses.

"It's… 2 pm" Sonia somehow managed to answer, not even bothering to check if she was right. She stared in disbelief at the woman in front of her, unable to move. Her hair was shorter and darker, but it was her. It was Agatha.

"I'm right on time, then" she announced, walking around Sonia and sitting at the chair next to hers.

"You're here. I can't believe you're really here, Agatha." Sonia babbled, trying to convince herself. Agatha casually leaned in on her chair and stole a sip from Sonia's coconut, before placing her hand over Sonia's on the table.

"I'm really here. And for the rest of the world, I'm not Agatha anymore, I'm Emily. But I can make an exception for you." Agatha removed her sunglasses and smiled at Sonia, looking into her eyes. The ex security agent couldn't believe her instincts were right and that Agatha had found her.

"This hair suits you, Aga… Emily." Sonia commented, dumbfolded.

"Thank you. After my last job, I had to make some changes, keep a low profile. But I'm glad you enjoyed. And you look just as good as I remembered" Agatha said, letting go of Sonia's hand to tug a lock of the Brazilian's thick hair behind her ear, their eyes locked on each other.

But Agatha's gentle touch surprised Sonia, which made her jerk away from her hand. She looked down, breaking eye contact, and bit her lip. Agatha lost her smile, looking worried. "Should I… have not come back?" she tried to catch Sonia's gaze again, but she kept looking away.

They were both silent for a few minutes. Sonia tried to understand what she was feeling before saying something. She finally let out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest, and began talking with a tone that was something between angry and hurt.

"You're probably one of the most wanted criminals in the world. Interpol interrogated me for weeks, trying to locate you, and I know they haven't given up. You ruined my last job, and I helped you, and then after Vegas you just… disappeared. I should want to lock you up. I should want to handcuff you and call the agent who interrogated me and turn you away. But I..." she lost track of her thoughts, finally looking up to meet Agatha's gaze. She felt her heart melting. "I don't. At all. I should be feeling a hundred different things now and none of them should be happiness, or excitement. But here I am. And all I can think about is kissing you" she admitted, her voice breaking a litte. Agatha smirked at her.

"Well, you know I'm not against the idea of you handcuffing me. But maybe we're too exposed here" she teased, and Sonia could feel her cheeks blushing when she thought of their encounter during Carlisle's wedding, when she first admitted to herself that the thief had her smitten. Agatha leaned forward, her face coming closer to Sonia's, whose breath got caught in her throat as she felt the other woman's breath on her lips. "And I'm definitely not against the idea of you kissing me" she whispered, her lips almost touching Sonia's. She cautiously placed a hand on Sonia's thigh, and touched the agent's cheek with the other. The Brazilian woman felt her skin on fire where Agatha was touching her, and she let out a small gasp as the thief closed the distance between them, capturing her lips on a gentle kiss.

Sonia seemed to wake up from a trance when she felt Agatha's lips on her own. It took her a few seconds to react but once she realized what was happening, her whole body responded to the familiar feeling of Agatha's kiss and touch. Sonia put one hand on the woman's neck, pulling her close, and hugged her waist with the other. Agatha couldn't help the small moan that escaped her lips when she felt Sonia pulling her closer. Their kiss grew more passionate by the second and after a few minutes they broke apart, both a bit breathless, their faces flushed. Everyone around them was staring uncomfortably at the two women, but they only had eyes for each other.

"Now do you believe I'm here?" Agatha teased, placing a kiss on Sonia's cheek, who let out a small laugh before meeting her eyes. She placed her hand over where Agatha's rested on her thigh, running soothing circles on the back of her hand.

"I might need a little more convincing." She provoked, and Agatha smiled and bit her lips. She gave Sonia a quick peck on the lips and reluctantly pulled away, gesturing as to acknowledge their very public setting.

"Don't worry, I'll take my time convincing you. But maybe we can get out of here? I wouldn't want to break the law by committing public indecency, you know." the criminal joked, and Sonia laughed despite of herself, rolling her eyes. She was feeling light and content for the first time in months.

"My place is close. We can go there. But I have to warn you about something…" Sonia leaned in, letting her mouth brush over Agatha's ear "I still have my handcuffs. Maybe I should use them on you, just in case you're planning on running away from me again."

Agatha felt a shiver run through her body, despite of the warm weather. She tightened her hold on Sonia's leg for a second, holding back a moan.

"I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. But maybe you should cuff me, just to be sure… And then you can do whatever you want to me" she teased, pulling back and smiling seductively at Sonia. "What do you say? Let's get out of here?"

Sonia didn't bother answering. She grabbed the thief's hand and pulled her away from the uneasy looks from the people around them, clearly uncomfortable with their passionate display of affection, but the women didn't care about any of them. As they made their way to Sonia's place on the back of the cab, they couldn't stop smiling at each other.

Sonia wasn't thinking about the irony of it all. She didn't care that Agatha was on the most wanted list and that she once was a law enforcement agent. She had tried to fight her feelings ever since she and Agatha left that prison island together, but when she finally let go at Carlisle's wedding, she knew there was no going back. That was the first time she wasn't thinking about right or wrong. If the grey area meant she could go back to her place with Agatha and do all the things she's been thinking about since they parted ways in Vegas, then grey was her new favorite color.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Should schools reopen? (NYT) Across the political spectrum, there have been calls for the reopening of U.S. schools this fall. And understandably so: Remote learning went very badly in the spring. An autumn without in-person school would leave students further behind and leave many parents without child care again. The good news is that the experience in other countries suggests that it may be possible to reopen schools. Germany, Denmark and others have done so without causing big new virus outbreaks, as President Trump noted yesterday. But those other countries have taken two steps that the U.S. has not. One, they have first reduced the overall rate of new infections to low levels: Germany reported 35 new cases per million residents over the past week; the U.S. had almost 1,100. Two, some of those other countries have allocated new money for schools, as I heard after surveying some of my Times colleagues around the world. Hong Kong is covering the cleaning costs for its schools, Bella Huang told me. South Korea is helping schools open day care centers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or longer, Su-Hyun Lee, who’s based in Seoul, said. Germany is subsidizing laptop purchases for low-income students, to help them combine remote and in-person learning, according to Christopher Schuetze in Berlin. And Italy has sent money to schools to pay for more teachers, student desks, masks and other equipment, Elisabetta Povoledo, a reporter in Rome, told me. The U.S., by contrast, is suffering through by far the worst coronavirus outbreak of any affluent country, and the federal government has done little to help schools reopen.

United Airlines warns 36,000 workers they could be laid off (AP) United Airlines is warning 36,000 employees—nearly half its U.S. staff—they could be furloughed in October, the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus pandemic is hurting the airline industry. The outlook for a recovery in the airline industry has dimmed in just the past two weeks, as infection rates rise in much of the U.S. and some states impose new quarantine requirements on travelers. Airlines say they must shrink to match falling travel demand. American Airlines executives have said they could have 20,000 more employees than the airline will need this fall.

Pandemic Plunges Puerto Rico Into Yet Another Dire Emergency (NYT) As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, shutting businesses, killing the vulnerable and crippling economies, Puerto Rico has taken one of the country’s hardest economic hits. The pandemic has plunged Puerto Rico into its fifth dire emergency in three years, one that the government has struggled to manage. Thanks largely to hurricane reconstruction, Puerto Rico’s economy had been inching toward recovery after a devastating 2017 storm and the bankruptcy of the island’s government the same year. A civic uprising paralyzed the island last summer and led to the ouster of Governor Vázquez’s predecessor. Then a series of earthquakes shook the south side of the island in January, damaging homes and buildings, sending thousands to live on the street, and closing schools across the island. As of last week, despite guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that everyone should be washing their hands frequently during the coronavirus pandemic, the governor announced that because of a severe drought, parts of the island would have running water only every other day for the foreseeable future. Experts say this latest economic crisis has been even more difficult than the one that followed Hurricane Maria. On an island that already had the highest poverty rate in the United States, at least 300,000 Puerto Ricans have filed unemployment claims linked to the pandemic—out of a civilian labor force of 1.05 million—and many others are ineligible for aid because they are part of the island’s large informal economy.

Trump forgoes insults of past, calls Mexico cherished friend (AP) President Donald Trump, who has denigrated Mexican migrants and threatened the U.S. ally with crippling tariffs, welcomed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the White House on Wednesday, called him a cherished partner and claimed the countries’ economic and security ties were reaching new heights. Trump’s warm words were in stark contrast to the days when he called Mexicans “rapists” and railed against migrants entering the United States illegally. López Obrador had cordial words for Trump, too, saying that while they have disagreed, it was better to find common ground and avoid slinging insults. The meeting was billed as a celebration of economic ties and the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Fugitive Mexican governor apprehended (Foreign Policy) César Duarte, a former PRI party governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, was arrested in Miami on Wednesday, more than three years after he fled his home country after being accused of embezzling $4.2 million in public funds. On top of the corruption allegations, Duarte is alleged to have stolen hundreds of cows originally imported to his state to replace thinned-out herds following a damaging drought. Duarte now faces extradition to Mexico.

Anonymous letters providing solace in the pandemic (BBC) Medellin--When the letter arrived at Daniel Guzmán's doorstep, it provided him with a glimmer of hope during one of the hardest moments of his life. "Keep going, when this is all over, you will walk out of the house with your head held high and your heart willing to give the best of you," it read. It was signed simply "Niña Peregrina" (Spanish for "Wandering Girl") Niña Peregrina's was one one of hundreds of letters that have been exchanged by complete strangers in the Colombian city of Medellín during the country's months-long quarantine. The anonymous letter exchange is part of a project by a network of libraries in the city. Called "Love In the Time of Coronavirus", it is inspired by Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera. The novel tells the story of a couple who fall in love in their youth but who are forced to stop courting when the girl's father finds out about their secret relationship. For the next five decades they exchange love letters using pseudonyms. When the libraries in Medellín closed as part of the measures brought in to curb the spread of coronavirus, Bibiana Álvarez decided to play with the idea that García Márquez had laid out decades before. She and other community leaders put out a call for residents to send in anonymous letters of friendship, love or support. Whenever the team receives a letter, they decorate it and then send it on to someone who has also sent in a missive. The recipient is chosen at random and neither recipient nor writer are told each other's identity. "Writing has been incredibly powerful, [it acts] as a sort of catharsis, they can burn off steam, and they feel that they're not alone," she says.

Greece says it’s ready to reimpose restrictions (AP) Greek authorities say they are ready to re-impose public and travel restrictions next week, warning that safety guidance for the coronavirus is being frequently ignored. Stelios Petsas, the government spokesman, said authorities were “determined to protect the majority from the frivolous few,” adding that the government was likely to announce new restrictions if needed on Monday. Greece, which imposed strict lockdown measures, has kept infection rates low. But cases have crept up since restrictions were lifted and international travel resumed in recent weeks.

Hungary to review rules on travel to neighbours after COVID-19 spikes (Reuters) Hungary will on Thursday review rules on travel to neighbouring Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia where numbers of coronavirus cases have been rising, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said. The landlocked country lifted most of its lockdown restrictions and opened its borders to travellers from European Union states and neighbouring non-EU members in June. Austria issued travel warnings for Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova on Wednesday because of the worsening coronavirus situation in those states.

Demonstrations in Serbia (NYT) Thousands of Serbs demonstrated for a second consecutive night on Wednesday in response to President Aleksandar Vucic’s management of the coronavirus crisis and wider concerns over the state of democracy in Serbia. The protests were the first major pandemic-related unrest in Europe since the start of the crisis, and were met by a violent police response that some analysts said they had not witnessed in Serbia since the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, who governed Serbia during the 1990s.

Russia detains governor, accusing him of murdering entrepreneurs (Reuters) Russian security forces on Thursday detained a regional governor who staged an election upset against the country’s ruling party in the Far East in 2018 and accused him of organising the murder of several entrepreneurs 15 years ago. Russian security forces on Thursday detained a regional governor who staged an election upset against the country’s ruling party in the Far East in 2018 and accused him of organising the murder of several entrepreneurs 15 years ago. Furgal would be charged shortly, the agency said in a statement. He could face up to life in prison, if found guilty of the allegations dating from 2004-2005 that also included attempted murder. The agency did not detail the alleged crimes, but said four members of an organised crime group had already been detained and that people involved in the murders had provided evidence against him.

No Steps Forward, One Step Back? (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Donald Trump this week suggested that North Korea could be open to another face-to-face summit to advance the long stalled nuclear talks that were supposed to be a hallmark diplomatic achievement of Trump’s presidency. But on Thursday, his top envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, returned from a visit to Seoul largely empty handed: There are no public signals that the North Koreans would return to talks. The hot and cold nature of the talks is emblematic of North Korea’s longstanding strategy of opening up diplomatic channels with South Korea and the United States, and then abruptly closing them off and ratcheting up tensions to extract more concessions. Meanwhile, new satellite images show a flurry of activity at a previously undeclared facility in North Korea potentially used to produce nuclear warheads, as CNN reports. Some veteran North Korea watchers predict that the country will begin a new round of saber-rattling before the U.S. election cycle wraps up.

No screaming here (Foreign Policy) Japanese thrill-seekers have been urged by the operators of a Tokyo theme park to refrain from screaming on recently reopened rollercoasters, lest it hasten the spread of the coronavirus. The ban on screaming is part of a set of voluntary guidelines agreed upon by Japanese theme park associations as parks reopen across the country. Hoping to model good behavior for its guests, a video posted by the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park features two of its executives riding the popular Fujiyama rollercoaster in total silence. It ends with a plea to “Please scream inside your heart.”

Australia suspends Hong Kong extradition treaty, tells citizens to consider leaving (Washington Post) Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and offered an immigration pathway for residents fleeing the city, after several Western countries aligned with Washington, including Canada and Britain, introduced similar measures to confront China’s security crackdown in the city. As Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the measures on Thursday, the Australian government also issued a stark new travel advisory asking its roughly 100,000 citizens in Hong Kong to consider leaving the Asian business hub, citing the risk of arbitrary detention. Australia’s immigration move—which came after Britain, Hong Kong’s former colonial ruler, unveiled a sweeping immigration offer last week—welcomed highly skilled workers and talented entrepreneurs in particular, Morrison told reporters.

Severe bread shortages loom for Syria as fresh U.S. sanctions grip (Reuters) Syria could face severe bread shortages for the first time since the start of the war, another challenge for President Bashar al-Assad as he grapples with an economic meltdown and fresh U.S. sanctions, a U.N. official, activists and farmers said. Any major disruptions to Syria’s bread subsidy system could undermine the government and threaten a population highly dependent on wheat as rampant inflation drives up food prices. “There is already some evidence of people cutting out meals,” said Mike Robson, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Syria representative. “...If the currency continues under pressure, imports will be difficult to obtain and the months leading up to the 2021 wheat harvest may see real shortages.”

Virus projects renew questions about UAE’s mass surveillance (AP) Efforts by the United Arab Emirates to fight the coronavirus have renewed questions about mass surveillance in this U.S.-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms. Experts believe the UAE has one of the highest per-capita concentrations of surveillance cameras in the world. From the streets of the capital of Abu Dhabi to the tourist attractions of skyscraper-studded Dubai, the cameras keep track of the license plates and faces of those passing by them. While heralded as a safety measure in a country so far spared from a major militant attack, it also offers its authoritarian government means to track any sign of dissent. “There is no protection of civil liberties because there are no civil liberties,” said Jodi Vittori, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who studies the UAE. The UAE’s surveillance state can offer the parlor trick of finding your car at the massive, multistory parking garage of Mall of the Emirates, home to an indoor ski slope. But multiplied across the cameras watching public spaces, buses, the driverless Metro, roadways, gas stations and even all the emirate’s more than 10,000 taxi cabs, authorities in effect can track people in real time across Dubai. In the run-up to the pandemic, Dubai police launched a new surveillance camera program powered by artificial intelligence called “Oyoon,” or “Eyes” in Arabic, which will begin checking temperatures of those passing by, as well as making sure people maintain a social distance of 2 meters (6 feet) from each other. Dubai police also are experimenting with thermal helmet cameras for officers to check passers-by’s temperatures.

Egypt tries to silence its critics in the United States by jailing their relatives (Washington Post) Reem Desouky, an American from Pennsylvania, was unfairly jailed in an Egyptian prison. Mohamed Soltan, an activist in Northern Virginia who helped get her released in May, was himself once a prisoner in Egypt’s jails. But while both are now free and on American soil, the Egyptian government has continued to menace them, pressuring them to remain silent by harassing and threatening their relatives living in Egypt, say victims and human rights groups. Desouky’s brother is in jail without charge to ensure she does not describe her 10-month-long ordeal to the outside world or criticize the Egyptian government, she said. Five of Soltan’s relatives were forcibly taken by security forces from their homes last month, and his imprisoned father was interrogated. That came after Soltan filed a lawsuit in the United States against former Egyptian prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi, accusing him of overseeing the torture Soltan endured in prison. Human rights activists say that relatives of more than two dozen political opponents, human rights workers, pro-democracy activists, and journalists living abroad have been arrested in Egypt, their houses often raided by security forces. Family members have also been slapped with travel bans or hauled into security offices for interrogation, the activists say.

[theangriestpea]

Crowned : one

Summary: Two blonde princesses, two dark-haired princes, and one plotting marquess. Lily is in love with a secret admirer. Shanna doesn’t want to ascend to the throne. Jughead wants to spend the day writing poetry. Sweet Pea would rather be out on his horse. And Reggie just wants to be king. <ao3> <masterlist>

Pairing: Sweet Pea x OC, Jughead Jones x OC

Word Count: 5k+

Warnings: none!

Part One: Betrothed

“Shanna, Lillian, I have an announcement.” The King said with a broad smile. The two blonde girls looked up from their plates. Shanna had a mouth full of food as Lily was picking up a piece of meat with her fork.

His eyes glittered with excitement, “as of a week ago, you are both of age. And you know what a princess’ duty is when they become adult women.”

Lily dropped her utensil as Shanna nearly spit out her food. They knew this was coming, but not this soon.

“Shanna, I have promised your hand to Prince Forsythe of the Southside Kingdom.” The King said, observing the displeased look on her face with amusement. “And Lily, you will be marrying Prince Sweet Pea, also from Southside. This is to help solidify the bond between our two kingdoms. Our alliance is rocky at best and in order to prevail against any future war with Greendale, then we will need a combined army.”

Lily sat back in her seat at the news. “Really daddy? Arranged marriages? Isn’t that a little barbaric?” She was less than happy to be marrying the boy that she merely only saw as a friend and nothing more.

Shanna went back to eating, trying to ignore the disgust pooling in her stomach. “It is barbaric. I’m not marrying Prince Jughead. He’s a weirdo.”

“Shanna.” He said, his voice sharpening, “it’s not a negotiation. This weekend there will be a royal announcement during the annual summer ball. All of the nobilities in Riverdale will be there. Including your betrothed.”

“Okay but why does Lily get the cute one? They’re both princes.” Shanna grumbled as she stabbed a carrot angrily.

The King tried not to roll his eyes at his oldest daughter. “Because Prince Forsythe is the heir to the throne. Since you are the first born, you will marry him. Why are you protesting this so much? You knew this was inevitable.”

“I thought you’d hand me off to Reggie, not Jughead. Duke Mantle was driving a pretty hard bargain.” Shanna replied. Of course she had known she wouldn’t get to choose who she married, but the Mantles had been trying for the throne for years now.

The King snorted, “Please. The duke’s son was never a contender for your hand. Everyone in the kingdom knows how he treats that boy. I can only imagine how he’d treat you.”

Both girls let out sighs of relief. It had been rumored in the Northside Kingdom that one of them would be married out to Reginald Mantle and the thought made them both want to vomit.

A silence befell them. Shanna and Lily merely picked at their food while their father ate normally. They were both too angry to have their fate decided for them at the young age of eighteen.

Bile rose in Lily’s throat as she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that she’d never find out who had been leaving her little love notes around the castle. How she’d never be able to marry someone that truly loved her and not just for her status. She quickly stood up, leaving in a rush before vomit could escape past her lips.

Worried about her sister, Lav jumped up and followed after her. The King let out a disappointed sigh, continuing to eat his meal in silence.

Shanna quickly caught up to her sister, having just emptied her stomach into one of the many potted plants in the hallway. “Lils,” She said softly, pulling Lily’s hair back out of her face as she leaned over the large pot. “We’ll figure this out. We always do.”

Lily sniffed back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. She just felt so overwhelmed from the news, not knowing how the rest of her life was going to play out. “I got another letter today.”

“You did?” Shanna asked curiously, having not known that. The past few months Lily had been finding love letters addressed to her by an anonymous writer. “What did this one say?”

The younger princess sat back on her heels and took a deep breath. “That my eyes shine brighter than the emeralds in my tiara.”

Lavender held back a gag. “That’s so cheesy.”

“It’s so sweet!” Lily said, burying her face in her hands. “And now I’ll never get to be with him. I’ll be stuck with…with Sweet Pea the rest of my life. You know he doesn’t have the capability of writing love letters. He doesn’t have a romantic bone inside of his giant body!”

“Romantic? No. But sexy? Yes.” Shanna said with an amused look, “can’t imagine Jughead being any good in bed.”

Lily shot her a frustrated look, “how would you even know what good sex is? You’re a virgin.”

Shanna stiffened before she shrugged, “I can imagine. And the chambermaids say that the younger prince is much more…endowed.”

“Lavie, just because you want to be with a man that warms the bed of every of-age woman in the two kingdoms, doesn’t mean that I want to be.” Lily replied, clearly aggravated.

“I don’t want to be with him!” Lav protested, “I don’t want to be with anyone! I just want to be able to live my life without some man telling me how to do it.”

Lily pulled her hands away from her face and sighed, “Jughead wouldn’t tell you how to live your life, Lav. He’d let you rule as an equal.” She seemed almost disappointed that she wouldn’t be the one by his side instead.

Lav helped Lily up, grabbing her upper arm gently to get her back on her feet. “You know I don’t want to rule, Lils.” She said in a quiet voice. “I just want to ride Persephone off to some neutral land to just live out my days in peace with someone I love. No more corsets that are so tight that they crack my ribs. Or dresses so big that I can’t even sit down comfortably. Or only being able to eat certain foods with certain utensils. If I want to use my soup spoon for ice cream, then I can because no one is hovering over me telling me that it’s wrong and improper and that I’m less of a lady for doing so. And Christ, no more crowns!”

Lily offered her a sympathetic smile. Lav had always complained about becoming queen. She didn’t want the load of responsibility of hundreds of lives on her shoulders. However as first born it was her fate to ascend. Lily on the other hand, wouldn’t mind it so much. She had a knack for leading people. More so than her sister did.

“I know, Lav. Maybe if we find who wrote the notes, we can just run away together.” Lily said with a small smile.

Lav shook her head, “That’s your fantasy, Lily. Not mine. Thanks though.” She let out a sigh. “Let’s get some sleep. We have our fittings tomorrow for the stupid ball.”

|\/\/|

“Introducing Princess Shanna Elizabeth Owens of North Riverdale and Prince Forsythe Pendleton Jones the Third of South Riverdale.” The royal announcer’s voice boomed over the crowd as a Lav and Jughead stood arm in arm at the top of the grand staircase. They descended slowly in time to the soft music that played. On their lips were forced smiles for appearances as photographers took their pictures.

Their engagement had just been announced. Lavender felt like she couldn’t breathe under the choke hold of her corset. Jughead was just trying to keep his mind off of a certain other princess.

Once they were at the bottom, the spotlight moved back to the top. “Introducing Princess Lillian Elise Owens of North Riverdale and Prince Sweet Pea Jones of South Riverdale.” They repeated the walk down the staircase. Although Sweet Pea clearly had the most difficult time of keeping a smile on his face. More than once it slipped into a look of annoyance. Settling down was not something he wanted to do any time soon.

The four took their places on the dance floor. A new song played, one upbeat enough so that they could glide around in well-timed circles. Shanna did her best to not look totally bored, using her muscle memory to keep in step with the prince. Jughead noticed how distracted she seemed, especially when she laid eyes on Duke Mantle’s son. Her bright eyes seemed to darken considerably in an emotion he didn’t know her well enough to discern.

Lily was looking up at the dark prince who stood over a foot taller than she did. Unlike Shanna, Sweet Pea wasn’t bothering to hide his boredom. He hated dancing, he hated balls. The only thing they were good for was getting to bed a beautiful girl in an equally beautiful dress. The young princess’ eyes were focused on him but he could tell her mind was elsewhere. She was smiling but it wasn’t genuine. Clearly she wasn’t happy about their engagement either.

In fact, none of them were.

All four of them had been lectured on the importance of this alliance. The Southside needed food for their people. They needed funds for their army and to repair damaged roads as well as old buildings that needed renovation. Jughead had a duty to his kingdom as the next ruler. The Northside had money. Money that would fix all of the Southside’s problems.

The Queen of Greendale had been threatening war with the Northside for ages. The tension and strife between the two kingdoms was palpable. What the north had in money and riches, they lacked in manpower. They needed soldiers that were expertly trained in combat and soldiers that were capable of teaching their techniques to their own. The Southside offered that.

The Northern King had two daughters and the Southern King had two sons. It was an easy solution to both of their problems. The bad blood between royals was quickly drained.

The dance ended and both couples separated maybe a little too quickly. The girls both curtsied in mock appreciation for their partners. Lav made a beeline for the punch bowl that she knew to be spiked. It was Marquess Mantle’s signature move at any Northside ball.

Prince Forsythe moved to Lily, a soft smile on his face. “May I have this dance, Princess Lillian?” He asked, holding out his hand to her. Lily gave him a tentative look before grabbing his hand, nodding her head. She wasn’t sure why the first born prince would want to dance with her.

Deep down Lily wanted to go hide in a dark corner and try to look over the crowd to figure out who had been writing her notes. She didn’t care if it was a commoner or a member of the guard. She just wanted to be with him.

Jughead took her out back onto the dance floor and grabbed hold of her hip in his free hand. He held the other hand up so they could get into position to follow the music. He led her gracefully, letting her twirl in time with him.

His eyes glanced at the glittering tiara sitting neatly on top of her fair hair. “The emeralds of your tiara are shining very brightly under this light.” He said in a tone that only she could hear. She wore her green jeweled tiara in special hopes that her admirer would notice and say something. She had hoped and prayed that he’d make himself known. Suddenly it had all become clear and her swollen heart seemed to burst.

The man writing her beautiful poetry on embossed parchment was the same man set to wed her sister. She stopped dancing abruptly, pulling out of his reach. Jug watched her curiously, having wondered what her reaction might be to his compliment.

Lily picked up her dress so it was a few inches off the floor before bolting away from him, through the crowd of dancers, and out of the ballroom. Tears pricked her eyes but she willed them not to fall until she was alone and out of sight.

Meanwhile Shanna was drinking her cup of alcoholic punch. She was right in guessing that Reggie was going to spike it. He was so predictable. Her eyes moved to the towering figure next to her. His dark hard had to be gelled neatly in place to keep from getting into his eyes. Her mouth suddenly went dry.

She quickly found her nerve and quelled the butterflies in her stomach. “Poor Lily has to marry a troll.” She said, loud enough for Prince Pea to overhear her. He turned, eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Too bad Jughead has to marry a dwarf.” Was his reply, making her huff indignantly. Before she could say anything back, Marquess Mantle walked up to them.

“Your Highness, may I have this dance?” He asked with a petulant smile on his lips. He glanced at the prince as if to size him up. Sweet Pea let out an annoyed snort before going back to his drink.

Shanna took his outstretched hand, allowing him to guide her to the dance floor as a slow song started. She held back a groan as Reggie put his hands on her waist, pulling her close to him.

“Don’t you think this is a little inappropriate, my Lord?” Shanna asked, not even hiding her disdain as her hands went to his shoulders. “I am engaged to Prince Forsythe now. Or did you forget?”

Reggie just smiled, something cruel and sinister that made her stomach drop and heart jump with anxiety. “For now, Princess, but you forget. I know your secret.”

She tried pulling away from him but his grasp on her was too tight. “Reggie, you’re not telling the king what we did. You’re not telling anyone. You promised.”

“Right, I promised.” Reggie said, his tone alluding to the fact that his word had just been a joke to him. “You promised me the crown.”

“Please, it’s not my call.” Shanna said, trying to act like she wasn’t trying hard to get away from him. “My father decided that the Mantle heritage was best left out of the royal line.”

The young lord didn’t seem too pleased to hear that. His hands tightened around her. Shanna was sure that the only thing keeping her skin from bruising was the tough exterior of her corset. The steel boning protecting her delicate flesh from his biting touch.

At the refreshment table, Prince Sweet Pea seemed to notice the distress the princess was in. He watched carefully, his dark pupils honing in on how tense Reggie’s hands seemed to be.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Reggie hissed between clenched teeth. “The King thinks some Southside trash Prince is better? A Jones?”

Sweet Pea had come behind Reggie, overhearing his insult to him and his brother. He wasn’t really a Jones, not by blood. The King and Queen had taken him in at a young age. Still, the Joneses were family to him and he did not make light of someone insulting them or the kingdom in which they ruled.

“Excuse me, Lord Mantle, but I believe that trash prince is going to be King of Riverdale while the best you can ever hope for is the title of Duke.” Sweet Pea said proudly as he stood to full height. He used the handful of inches in difference to his advantage.

Reggie, wanting to save face, quickly let go of his captive. “Your Highness, I didn’t know you were right there.” Shanna took a step back, giving Sweet Pea a look that was a mix of relief and aggravation. She was sure she could have handled it herself.

“I was going to ask the princess if she knew where her sister was.” Sweet Pea said, lying. He had seen Lily run off during her dance with Jughead. He assumed Jug just confessed his feelings or something sappy like that. His romantic antics made Pea nauseous on numerous occasions.

“Lily’s not here?” Shanna asked as she looked around. “I thought she was with Prince Jughead.” Sweet Pea watched as she ran to the other Jones boy. He was speaking with a few other Lords, pretending to be entertained by whatever drivel they were going on about.

Sweet Pea looked at Reggie, glad that she had gone. “If I catch you speaking like that about my brother, your future king, or my kingdom again, then I’ll make sure your family is stripped of their sovereignty.” He said in a low, serious voice. His frame loomed over the somewhat shorter boy with a fiery look in his eyes. “And if you lay a hand on a princess like that again, I’ll do something even worse.”  

Reggie looked flabbergasted as Sweet Pea turned around and went to find perhaps a conquest for the night. It wasn’t often he was this far North. Most of the women here were new to him. He could use another notch in his bedpost.  

Meanwhile Lav was interrupting Jughead, “Prince Forsythe, can I please speak with you privately?” She asked, trying to not feel too much concern. Jug nodded towards the men he was talking to before allowing Lavender to pull him away.

“Thanks for that. I was pretty sure they were about to torture me with more advice on how to keep a mistress.” Jughead said, wondering what was up but also knowing it couldn’t have been that serious.

She gave him a frustrated look, both at the thought of him having a mistress and him not taking her concern seriously. “Where is Lily? You were dancing with her, where did she go?”

Jughead shifted his weight in an attempt to quell his nerves. The girls were very close, if she had perceived that he hurt Lily in any way then she’d probably lash out at him. Not that Jughead couldn’t take some verbal abuse, he would just rather not make a scene on the night of their announced engagement.

“She ran through the double doors halfway through our dance.” Jughead stated calmly, looking off into the direction where his favorite princess had disappeared too.

Lavender’s brow furrowed as she stared at him, “she ran? What did you say to her!?” Her voice raised enough to cause a few nearby nobles to give them curious looks.

The prince let out a soft sigh, “I merely said that the emeralds in her tiara were shining very brightly.” He didn’t know if Lily had shared his notes with her sister, but he had assumed that she had. It wasn’t a secret how close they were. They weren’t exactly known for having a lot of friends outside the castle.

Shanna’s hazel eyes widened, “you…you?!” She stammered, trying to put together the pieces of information she was receiving. Jughead was the one writing the notes? How?

Suddenly anger overcame her and she shoved him, “do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” She said, her heart swollen with pain for her sister. “You can’t tell my sister you want her when you have to marry me!”

Jughead didn’t budge, her force not nearly strong enough to set him off balance. He frowned as he looked down at her. He hadn’t realized how his admittance would affect either of them. Clearly he was wrong in outing himself. “I’ll make it up to you,” He said, confusing the reason for why she was so upset.

“Don’t make it up to me,” Shanna said in a low voice so no one else could hear her, “make it up to her.”

With a twirl of her dress she was turned around and marching into the direction where her sister had gone to. She knew exactly where she was hiding.

Lav went to a cupboard in the kitchen that they used to hide in when they were young to get away from their nanny and now more often times, their father. She could hear her quiet sobs behind the door.

She opened it slowly, peeking inside to see Lily with her knees up against her chest, crying so hard that her shoulders were shaking. “Lils.” Shanna said softly, crawling in with her and shutting the door back so they’d have privacy.

“It’s him.” She mumbled into her arms, “He’s the one that’s been sending me notes. I can’t believe it. I found him and he’s engaged to you.”

Lav couldn’t sit next to her because of how narrow the space was. She sat in front of her instead, in the same position with her knees up. “I know.” Lav said softly, “it was cruel of him to tell you. I made sure to tell him so.”

Lily was quiet for a moment, “no, I’m glad he did. It is better than guessing for the rest of my life.” She sniffed back snot that had built up in her nostrils, playing with the hem of her dress to distract herself. “What are we going to do?”

“You know I don’t care about Jughead, Lily.” Shanna said cautiously, “I don’t want to marry him any more than you want to marry Sweet Pea. He can write you all the love letters he wants, it doesn’t hurt me. Sometimes…I just wish someone cared about me like that. Then again that would make this all that much harder so it’s probably better that no one does.”

Lily wiped her eyes, hoping to fix her running makeup in the process. It didn’t help much. “Do you think…dad will reconsider?” She asked, “Maybe he’ll let me marry Jughead?”

Shanna was quiet, thinking it over. “I don’t think so.” She said truthfully, causing more tears to fall down her sister’s face. “Because I’m first born. I have to be queen. I don’t want to be, you know how shit of a leader I am. But…he’s a traditionalist. I don’t think there’s any use in even asking. He’ll just get mad. Maybe even call the whole thing off, in which you’d never get to see the prince because he’d be king of an enemy state again. I’ll have to marry Reggie. Please…God please, do not make me marry Reggie.”  

“I wouldn’t do that to you. You know that.” Lily replied with a frustrated sigh. “So you don’t care if me and Jughead…”

She shrugged, “do what you want. It’s not like I love him. I’d share anything with you. Even a husband.”

A ghost of a smile made its way across Lily’s lips.

|\/\/|

Shanna walked into the royal stable, letting the servant know that she’d be going out for a ride to clear her head. Her knees still hurt from being cramped into the cupboard with Lily almost all night. They spent the time hidden away from guests, giggling and talking about their future dreams that didn’t include their betrothed.

All she could think about was how much her sister must be hurting. It caused her to toss and turn all night as she tried desperately to find a solution. She didn’t have much success in thinking of anything.

The princess looked up, seeing the black head of a stallion peeking out from over a stall door. He snorted softly when their eyes connected. “Oh? Who are you?” She asked, the dark thoughts disappearing from her mind as she walked up to him slowly, not wanting to startle him with her excitement.

“Did daddy buy me a new horse and not tell me?” She asked, reaching out to let him sniff her hand. He leaned his head out further, and Shanna put her hand delicately on his snout to pet him. “Maybe an engagement present? What’s your name, huh?”

“His name is Hades. And he’s not your present. He’s my personal horse.” A sharp voice came from behind her. Shanna’s hand didn’t leave the horse as she looked over her shoulder to see the tall, dark prince. He looked strange in fitted jeans, t-shirt, and old boots. He looked the opposite of royal, in fact.

Hades made an annoyed noise when Shanna pulled her hand away from him, as if he missed the contact immediately. In contrast, Shanna was wearing full riding gear. Tight pants, jacket, a nice pair of boots, hair braided back, and even a pair of riding gloves hanging out the back of her pants.

Sweet Pea refrained from letting his eyes sweep over the skin tight pants that showed off her rear perfectly. He also didn’t look at how small her waist seemed in the way the jacket was tailored to fit her form…at least he tried not to. “I’d rather you not touch him.”

She gave him an offended look, “please. He wanted me to touch him, practically begged me to come over and get him a pet. Didn’t you, Hades?”

Hades seemed to nod his head, much to Sweet Pea’s chagrin. Shanna grinned. “You just wanted attention from a beautiful girl, huh?”

Sweet Pea forced his way between them. Hades nuzzled his back between his shoulder blades, making him to take a step forward closer to the princess. She gave him a skeptical look. “I didn’t peg you for an animal guy.”

“I’ve raised him since he was a foal. I watched his mother give birth to him. He’s not just some gift my father gave me because I bitched about wanting a pony.” Sweet Pea said angrily.

Shanna’s eyes hardened. “Are you trying to say I don’t care about my horses?”

“They’re just trophies of wealth to you.” Sweet Pea said hotly. “You and every other royal girl in the kingdom across the continent.”

“Excuse you, but you don’t know a thing about me.” She snapped angrily, “you don’t know my feelings towards my horses in the slightest. I may not have watched Persephone being born, but she is my everything. How dare you insinuate that I only see her as a toy and not a living creature, you stupid troll!”

She stormed over to the stall a few doors down, opening it and leading out a pure white horse. Persephone forced her head into Lav’s arms in an attempt to comfort her. She wrapped her hands around the horse in a gentle hug. “Looks like Dooley got you ready for me already.”

“You don’t even saddle your own horse?” Sweet Pea asked condescendingly. Shanna shot him another angry look as she led the white beauty out of her stall by her reigns.

“I do. Sometimes the stable hand gets wind that I’m coming and does it for me to get in my good graces. I’m future queen. Something like that goes a long way in my kingdom.” Shanna replied, her voice hotter than fire as she mounted Persephone.

Sweet Pea got the necessary tack needed to go for a ride himself. “I bet you don’t even know how to ride properly.”

Shanna looked down at him from on top of her horse. “What to bet?” She asked, her voice blossoming with a dark threat that was looming over Sweet Pea’s head. A threat he couldn’t ignore.

“A race.” Sweet Pea suggested, putting the saddle blanket on first. “To Sweetwater River. Winner has to clean the loser’s horse stall.”

“Fine.” Shanna said, having never been able to back down from a bet. “I’ll be waiting outside for you. Then we can start.” She guided her horse outside the stable doors, listening to the sounds of Sweet Pea mumbling incoherently to his steed as he saddled him up.

A few minutes later Sweet Pea joined her, lining Hades with Persephone. The two horses eyed each other, nickering at one another happily. The riders looked at one another, begrudging the fact that their horses seemed to be getting along a little too well.

“On the count of three.” Shanna said before counting down. Once she hit one the two dug their heels into their horses, sending them into a gallop.

The two raced neck in neck. Naturally Hades had more power being male, but Persephone held her own. At least, until three quarters of the way through, she started pulling back.

Shanna knew she wasn’t tired. She had raced her like this before against other horses for fun. She could easily make this trek. However, her mare insisted on slowing down despite her urging her to keep going.

Sweet Pea made it to the edge of the river, slowing down his horse and turning him around to see his opponent. The white mare trailed behind the black stallion. She shook her head and let out a whinny as she got to the river.

Displeasure ran across Lavender’s face. Her eyes narrowed in frustration. “That wasn’t a fair race. She wouldn’t run.”

“Don’t be a sore loser.” Sweet Pea replied in a bland tone. “Just admit that I’m the superior rider.”

“I’m not admitting shit.” Shanna spat back, turning Persephone around to be in line again with Hades. The horses nickered to one another once more. “Persephone, stop fraternizing with the enemy.”

Sweet Pea scoffed as he motioned for Hades to start the walk back. He started at a slow place to help him cool off. Shanna followed after him to do the same. “Want me to brush him down too since I’m cleaning up his shit?” She grumbled after him.

“I’m not letting you touch my horse.” Sweet Pea replied, not even turning his head to look at her. “You won’t do it right.”

Shanna reached over and pet Hades’ rump defiantly behind Sweet Pea’s back. “I know how to take care of a horse, you ass. God, I can’t believe my poor sister is stuck with you.”  

“Yea. Too bad Jughead will never care about you.” Sweet Pea said back, successful in his attempt to hurt her. No, her husband would never care about her. Not in the way he cared about her sister.

Sweet Pea heard her sniff and looked back at her, “you going to cry now?”

“Shut up!” Shanna snapped back at him, pulling Persephone away to take a different path back to the stable. “You’re insufferable!”

Once alone Sweet Pea leaned over, rubbing Hades’ neck affectionately. “Don’t go catching feelings, boy.” He warned him. “That mare is nothing but trouble.”

((Top image by @the-gargoyle-queen ; bottom image by @lilhemmo))