#there aren't enough fics about them

[batbusiness-schooldropout]

Au where Lan Qiren goes to Yiling

Lan Qiren: Wangji, beloved nephew, who is like a son to me. I have been to Yiling and-

Lan Zhan: How is Wei Ying?

Lan Qiren: It's rude to interrupt. But he seems well. Except for the part where he claims to be the biological mother of an absolutely sweet little boy

Lan Zhan: Yes. A-Yuan. He is very sweet

Lan Qiren: Quite. While under normal circumstances, I would dismiss his claims as a joke only funny to him, Wei Wuxian's refusal to change his answer, as well as his ramblings about how difficult the birth was, has managed to plant a seed of doubt in my mind. Wangji?

Lan Zhan: Yes Uncle?

Lan Qiren: I remind you that lies are forbidden

Lan Zhan: Yes

Lan Qiren: Tell me then. What are the chances that he is telling the truth?

Lan Zhan: Higher than you would like

Lan Qiren: I see. And if Wei Wuxian is, by some curse or miracle, a mother, what are the chances that someone besides you is the father?

Lan Zhan: ......Lower than you would like

Lan Qiren: I see. And what are the chances that you have both eloped and refused to tell me, the man who raised you?

Lan Zhan: We wouldn't dare Uncle

Lan Qiren: Ah. So you have possibly made the cutest and best boy I have seen in years and saddled him with the title of bastard? I did not raise you to be so disgraceful. You will, of course, do whatever you must to atone for this egregious behavior and bring A-Yuan to Cloud Recesses. Hurry before he picks up his "mother's" poor manners

[youling-the-ghost]

Since apparently sfth and Foil Arms and Hog are beefing now, I just want to point out that fa&h actually has their own canon fandom tag.

If they can have one, why can't we :(

[rochenn]

"postmortis bad times uh oh" please!!!

Ahhh the good old hitting Obi-Wan with proverbial hammers type of fic 😌 It never gets old.

We saw how on Mortis, the Son bit Ahsoka and somehow infected her with that weird possession-like darkness. The premise for this fic is "what if Obi-Wan also carried that infection unknowingly even after leaving Mortis and things get Worse?"

This one is me trying to write something relatively short with the same vibes as watching an animal (very) slowly succumb to rabies. Written through the eyes of Cody, Ahsoka, Anakin, and eventually Dooku, more or less in that order. I really like how weird and vague the whole Mortis thing is and I've always wondered how things could have gone differently - like if the Son had decided to latch onto Obi-Wan or if other characters were confronted with this type of thing. So this is an exploration of that. Also another excuse to put Dooku (and everyone, really) in some amount of peril lmao

Tiny little bit of Obi-Wan and Ahsoka interaction under the cut

���Master, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but…” Ahsoka fiddled with her braid, tracing the familiar sequence of beads and gems on the pad of her thumb. You've been acting strange lately, she wanted to say, but Obi-Wan’s sharp pallor made her swallow the words. “Are you alright?”

He wasn't looking at her. In fact, he hadn't looked her in the eye all day, now sitting still like the statues by the Temple’s entrance. When he spoke, he directed his gaze to the window above her head.

“I fear I might be coming down with something.”

She craned her neck to the round mosaic. Red and orange shards arranged to lend warmth to the room, interspersed with green, almost vine-like patterns. A peaceful image. And yet, she shuddered, overcome by a terrible feeling.

“Have you told the healers about it?” she wagered, turning back to him. “I'm sure they can help you.”

He couldn't seem to look away from that window. “I hope so, too.”

[doghartzy]

thinkin about the deweys . as always

[skippygiraffee]

Hi, I'm the Raileon anon from a while back. Thank you for answering my ask! I loved reading your thoughts, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for some more. You mentioned Leon and Raihan were both fascinating characters to you separately as well, and I wanted to ask why you felt Raihan was fascinating? I have my own reasons ofc, but I'd be delighted to hear yours as well.

I absolutely never mind, thank you for the ask!! (even if it takes me a while to answer things sldjfksjf). genuinely I love talking about these characters, all the SWSH characters (and SuMo) really, and talking about Raihan is top tier for me. under the cut because it's both long and I have included images from the manga as little Raihan treats :3

in regards to Raihan, what a character, yeah? when I got this ask I immediately went into chat with @beammeupbroadway and we had the following exchange (she's the Furby icon, I'm the first message):

and to elaborate a little, we're all introduced to Raihan in the framing of him being Leon's rival, and we're not really reintroduced to him until midway through the game. so for a while we're left with this impression that Raihan is the hotheaded rival to Leon, setting them up with the same sort of framing as like Hop vs Bede (which is more a rivalry than with the player I argue) or even Red vs Blue (certainly with the Charizard and the color imagery at play with both Raihan and Leon's designs). Raihan is, at his core, a peek at what someone looks like when they grow up in the shadow of someone else.

it's stated in game he has different interests, hobbies, a career, but he's still Leon's rival Raihan. where his job as a Gym Leader and his work with the Hammerlocke Vault serve the narrative purpose of bringing the player closer to Leon and closer to solving the mystery of the Darkest Day, rather than things that allow us a better view of Raihan. not to discredit those moments, because they absolutely do allow us as to see more of Raihan, but I guess I want to argue that the game just uses them as a jumping off point to get to Leon. even Raihan's accomplishments as a Gym Leader and battler are framed within the context of him being so good he could be Champion of another region, but he can't beat Leon. from a world building and audience perspective I think it's interesting to see, but man, picturing that as how he's painted in Galar, in universe? where all of these insanely amazing accomplishments are pushed aside to market himself as Leon's rival I think genuinely ruined his self image, his self esteem, and the way he views anything he does. Raihan's social media presence got started because of Leon, even if he sometimes takes random pictures of sand storms, and the only thing removed from Leon is his love of fashion and history, but we don't even get to see a lot of that as the audience/player of the game because it's not relevant to the story in most cases, and definitely isn't relevant to Leon. this was definitely a little rambly, but at least right here I just think that like Raihan being literally overshadowed by Leon makes him fascinating to rotate around like a rotisserie chicken, because you take one whiff of that guy and you can tell he was spiced up with self loathing and angst strong enough to turn the average character into a straight up villain

ties to Leon aside, the little things about Raihan I adore ARE those little hobbies he has. fashion, history, social media all are super interesting, and ignoring the Gym Trainer battle with WEATHER EFFECTS INSIDE THE TAPESTRY VAULT aside it's clear he is a trusted expert on the matter. Sonia goes to him, even if it's a way to get the player closer to Leon Raihan is the one who grants access to the vault, and anyone who loves tapestries is immediately boosted in my books

his characterization in the manga is really cool, and I adore manga Raihan a lot. it's actually when I really fell in love with his character because he's given a lot of really neat moments, where he's kind of this key player in having everything come together. also he was a trouble maker when he was younger!!! which I think is a logical reaction to being pitted against the literal undefeated Champion for so long. but, allow me to picture that below:

I also love him spraying himself in the face with a potion after being poisoned by Eternatus in the manga. like yeah he's confused, but literally no other character is brought up, only Raihan which is funny to me

also him and Piers are just buddies!! which is neat, especially since in the post game of the base SWSH titles they're shown not to really have interacted that much

he's also super polite to Melony (my beloved Mummy Melony scene), and he's overall pretty fleshed out, with being both serious and goofy, while having this odd tension with Leon when it comes to serious moments

like it shows a lot of complicated things brewing under the surface for him, even in the manga, and I love how it keeps his characterization in tact, while expanding on it in a way that feels natural

I think in short, there's an argument to be made that Raihan could have been left as this one dimensional rival to Leon whose only purpose to push the player along their journey. a road block as a Gym Leader, a helper as the keeper of the vault, but nothing more. and yet he's a pretty fleshed out character, who has other stuff going for him. he could be so many things, and yet he's Raihan, the dragon guy who loves fashion, is a bit silly, but also takes things as serious as they need to be taken. who had a bit of a rebellious streak when he was younger, to the point Rose knows about it in depth. where, in game, he can flip from smiling like :3 to hunching over in the stadium yelling out moves. he's cool, like undeniably, but also not, and I love that skdjfklsfd. I think Raihan is a testament to the subtle ways the Pokemon writers can dish out characterization without explicitly writing things in, and I love him for it

[doom-dreaming]

Cheerful Oblivion

Thought that I was hungry for love… Maybe I was just hungry for blood. **********

I met a woman in a club once. Years ago. Can’t get her out of my head. If I didn’t still have the napkin with her number on it… Well. Would’ve been easy to assume I dreamed the whole thing up.

It was a miserable night to be out. Rain was coming down in buckets, flooding the streets. Could almost hear it over the music, pelting the roof. But there she was. Filling the entire doorway. No coat. No umbrella. Nothing but a black tank top and jeans that looked too tight to be comfortable. Soaked to the bone, dripping wet, faded blue-raspberry-bright hair plastered to her neck. She looked like she’d dragged herself straight out of the ocean. In hindsight, maybe she had.

********** England is only ever gray or green. The girls glitter, Striding glorious and coatless in the rain. I remember falling through these streets, Somewhat out of place, if not for the drunkenness… It makes my chest hurt to think of it, Not of regret, but of missing that… …cheerful oblivion… **********

I remember the way she stood there, caught under spotlight rays of blue and green, the rain on her face sparkling like diamonds… She looked like an angel. Could’ve been. Probably wasn’t. More than likely…something else.

She didn't belong there. In the club. I don’t mean that in a judgmental way. Maybe philosophical. She didn't really seem like she belonged anywhere. But I could see it in her eyes, almost fluorescent blue under the lights. To her, it didn’t matter where she belonged. What mattered was where she wanted to be. And she wanted to be there. In that club. On that night.

I’d never been afraid of being noticed by a beautiful woman. I craved it. Don’t we all? This was different. She was different. Never felt my blood run colder than the second our eyes locked. It felt like being hunted.

********** It was not all pain and pavement slick with rain, And shining under lights from shitty clubs, And doing shitty drugs, And hugging girls that smelled like Britney Spears and…coconuts… **********

She flowed through the crowd like water, parting the proverbial sea, leaving a wake of awestruck stares. If she knew she was the center of attention, she didn’t care. She was a full head taller than anyone else, a titan amongst mere mortals. Muscles rippled when she moved. Wet skin shimmered. I tried not to stare, I really did. Couldn’t help myself. I could’ve watched her for days.

She swept ashore at the bar, smelling like petrichor and oil slicks. Ordered a drink. Smiled down at me, sitting so small a million miles beneath her. There was nothing human about that razor-sharp flash of teeth.

She asked if I wanted another drink. Hadn’t realized I’d finished the one in my hand. I nodded. Couldn’t find my voice. Tab’s on me, she’d said. Not here for long, least I can do. After tonight, you’ll never see me again.

********** And with your mermaid hair and your teeth so sharp, You crawled from the sea to break that sailor’s heart. You only get one night upon the shore, So dance like you’ve never danced before. And the dance floor is filling up with blood, But, oh Lord, you’ve never been so in love… **********

I asked her where she was from. She laughed, a harsh bark of a thing that ripped out of her throat like it hurt. Nowhere. I asked for her name. She didn’t answer. But that animal grin flashed back, a bright white scar across her face. For no reason, I thought about moths. And flames.

We stopped talking. Kept drinking. Started dancing. God, the way she moved. Like a machine. Like a predator. Like a ballerina. Equal parts precision, power, beauty.

I couldn’t keep up. She didn’t seem to care. I was a prop. A plaything. An entertaining little toy, something to keep her distracted. From what, I didn’t know. But it didn’t matter. It felt like an honor.

********** And the mermaids they come once a year, They climb the struts of Brighton Pier, They come to drink, they come to dance, To sacrifice a human heart. And the world is so much wilder than you think. You haven’t seen nothin’ ‘til you seen an English girl drink… **********

I do still see her. Sometimes. In my dreams. In those hazy amber-clad memories. It’s hard to know what was real. Don’t know who she was. Or what she was.

Never did call that number. Not sure she’d really wanted me to. Probably for the best. I get the feeling that if we’d been in that club alone together… She would’ve eaten me alive.

And I think I would've let her.

[seventh-district]

Could've left me just the way you found me, but you came and put your wings around me. You went out of your way, to fix what you didn't break.

This song is so incredibly Sam & Darlin' coded and no one can tell me otherwise.

[lots of lyrical analysis below the cut] [there's also a short little fanfic blurb of them stargazing down there too (this post got really out of hand lmao)]

For those not fully caught up, note that the following commentary contains various spoilers for Sam and Darlin's stories.

Note: Unfortunately this song is gendered, using the word 'girl' several times. Which sucks a little bit for immersion purposes, not only for keeping Darlin' gender-neutral, but also because I see this song as a duet between them, and Darlin' obviously wouldn't be addressing Sam with the word 'girl' either. So! As with most songs on their playlist, we're just gonna mentally omit any gendered terms we come across.

Side note: Frustratingly, this is one of those songs that didn't really even need to gender the subject in the first place. No part of the story or message is lost without it. But alas, many songs are like that, and so the playlist-makers of the world shall continue to suffer. [/lh]

Anyways, preamble's over. It's lyric time now yay!

Sam's Part

I was a ten-year train wreck

Technically for Sam I suppose it was 13 years, but ten is close enough (and 'ten' admittedly flows a lot better in the rhythm of the song than 'thirteen' would.) Anyways, we're not here to split hairs, (I have to remind myself), we're just here to point out similarities.

In Sam's Dec. '22 HBW, he says "For the last 13 years or so I haven't had to care too much about how I look. Seemed a little redundant after turnin', considerin' I didn't wanna be around much'a anybody anyway."

I think he's mentioned or alluded to that roughly 13 year period of time more than once, but that's the one I remember best so it's the example I'm using. There's still about 4 Sam audios I've yet to listen to as of making this post, so if I'm missing some Key Lore I'll edit this later. But for now, I don't think Sam has given many specifics on exactly how bad things got during that time. Luckily, 'train wreck' is a pretty broad and subjective term, so it easily covers any degree to which he may have fallen apart during those years.

It also feels like a very 'him' way of quickly brushing over the details of his past/his hurt, as he seems to tend to do with Darlin', (not all the time ofc but it's still something I've noticed) putting his own hurt on the backburner to prioritize and attend to theirs. Even outside of his dynamic with them, I think as a healer, it's something he learned to do. And now he does it with everyone. Put on a brave face, compartmentalize things and unpack them later, etc. I could go on and on but there'll be time for that in other posts I'm sure. For now, lets get back to the song at hand.

With a last-call longneck

Due to personal reasons, I've yet to decide if I want to HC him as having used alcohol as a coping mechanism during that time. I don't recall him having mentioned alcohol much, if at all, (maybe one mention of whiskey that I don't have time to find right now) so I don't think it's necessarily canon that he did, but it's certainly possible. My personal preferences aside, I'll admit it makes for some good additional angst. (And- self-indulgently- it makes some other songs on my playlist for them more fitting.) So, for the sake of this song, let's imagine that he did.

I was searchin', I'd been hurt real bad

This one feels pretty self-explanatory given what Alexis did, (and, if you wanna get even angstier with it, whatever his family did earlier on in his life) so there isn't much commentary to add on my end.

I HC that in spite of 'not wanting to be around anybody', he- like Darlin- still had a tiny part of himself buried deep down that was, in a way, 'searching' for someone to find solace in. (No this isn't me projecting onto them both haha what are you talking about-)

Movin' on, gettin' sidetracked One step forward and five back

This is generally applicable enough that I don't feel the need to give too much of a specific example. Anyone who's recovered or is recovering from trauma knows this non-linear, back-and-forth struggle well already, and I'm sure he was no stranger to it.

If I were to give some examples though, I could point to Darlin's (and subsequently, Sam's) encounter with Alexis at the summit, or the shit that Quinn dredged up about Fredrick and threw at Sam in the interrogation room. Those are both more recent examples and I imagine these lines of the song to be coming from a place of him prior to meeting Darlin', but still, they're some instances where I'm sure he felt like the past was pulling him back in. I'm sure that there's been many throughout those 13 years that we were never witness to.

Not your fault, I was scared to fall

This line reminds me of their 'Cuddles and Confessions' audio. I don't think he ever explicitly said he was 'scared' per se, so afaik there's no specific line I can quote, but in that and every audio prior, he was obviously hesitant to admit, perhaps even to himself, that he was gradually falling for them. Even after the initial confession, there's certain limits of his (e.g. biting) that he carries for far longer, and some that I (and others) HC that he'll carry forever. So this line feels to me like him reassuring Darlin' that his reluctance isn't the fault of them, but his past.

Darlin's Part

You were the star in the pitch black Shine the way on the way back

We don't have any canon instances of them comparing Sam to a star, but I can see it being something they'd say (perhaps less poetically, but the sentiment would be there) one night while laying up on their roof watching the stars with him. Maybe they're dead-tired, talking nonsense with lidded eyes at the end of a long day, fighting sleep in favor of more time spent with him.

"What- what're you pointin' at Darlin'?"

Their hazy focus is trained on the brightest star visible in their line of sight, arm stretched out to the sky above them. "That really bright one, to the... to the left."

Sam does his best to follow their less-than-specific directions of 'to the left', their pointed finger doing little to help given the difference in perspective. Luckily, after all these years, he knows this stretch of night sky like the back of his hand, so it isn't hard to locate the brightest one. Ghosting his fingers up along their arm, he takes their hand in his and brings it back down to earth. "Okay, yeah, I see it now. What about it though?"

"That's you." They say, matter-of-factly.

"That's me?" He questions, humor in his tone.

"Mhm." They nod with finality, blinking slow.

Sam considers the odd statement for a moment before gently correcting them. "I'm uh, I'm pretty sure that's Sirius, actually."

They scoff. "I am being serious."

Sam stifles a laugh into their hair. "No- no I mean- like... what's another name for it... Oh! It's also called the Dog Star."

"C'mon Sam, at least call it the Wolf Star if you're trying to turn this around on me..."

He shakes his head and readies himself to explain further, but they cut him off before he can start. "But no- no, this one isn't about me. That's you."

He decides to play along, finding something endearing in their overtired nonsense. "Okay... then would'ja be so kind as to explain to this confused old man just how, or why that star is me?"

Their frown is audible in their voice as they latch onto the wrong part of his sentence. "You're not old, Sam. ...Do I need to tell Asher to kick the jokes down a notch?"

He smiles at their over-protectivity. "There'll be no need for that, now. Was just a joke, darlin', I promise."

They huff, but thankfully shift focus back to the prior topic. "It's... I dunno. It's just you, Sam. It's... bright. Light. Something warm, out there in the cold dark. Standing out amongst all the rest. Calling to me, stealing my attention. I... I didn't come out here looking for it, but there it is. ...There you were. In the dark. The only bright thing I'd seen in... fuck, in years. Years of chasing fleeting warmth, tripping over myself in the pitch black, falling into... places 'n people I shouldn't have. You were the light in that darkness. Even there, surrounded by the ghost of him. You outshone it. Your warmth didn't hurt. I didn't have to squint when I looked at you. You weren't the blinding sun. You were the brightest star I'd ever seen. You guided me back home."

In the back of their mind, they recall something they once heard, something about light, and time, and distance. Space. Something about... how you can see a star that's already burnt out, because it's light hasn't reached earth yet. The ghost of a star that's already died. Only still perceptible thanks to time, and distance.

They remember Sam's words, once whispered to them on this very roof.

"Whatever your choice is... I'm not gonna live forever. I made that decision a long time ago."

They think about dead stars.

They think about time.

"...-lin'? Darlin'?" Sam's calloused hand slides up their forearm, pulling them out of their thoughts. "There you are. Think I lost ya' for a minute there... you good?"

They look up at Sam, concern creasing his features, shadows cast across his face from the light of the dying stars above him.

They reach out, pulling him down into them. Burying their face into his collar, Sam's concern grows when he feels it saturate with tears. A human might struggle to hear their words, muffled against the thick fabric, but his hearing catches it just fine.

"Don't burn out too quick. Please. I still need you here. I don't- I don't wanna be left in the dark again. Please, please Sam. Don't leave me here. I'm not selfish enough to ask you for forever, but please. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet."

.......Whoopsies! Really, genuinely didn't mean to improv an entire scene there, good god. Also didn't mean to swerve hard into angst at the end but uh. that's what came out! so I'm rolling with it lmao. Aaanyways let's move on, it's getting late and this is a song analysis post, not a fic.

Out of nowhere, answered all my prayers

'Out of nowhere' reminds me of Sam's words from the same HBW video I referenced earlier. "You came into my life like a damn wreckin' ball. There was no preparing for that, clothing or otherwise." While those were Sam's words, not Darlin's, I still feel like they feel similarly to how suddenly Sam came into their life as well. (Not in a bad way, mind you!)

[the significance of 'answered all my prayers' edges into my own personal more headcanon-y/personal/OC-ified Darlin' territory, so we can just gloss over this one for the sake of at least attempting to keep this more universally applicable]

Picked up the towel that I threw in Took in a heart that was ruined

Again, largely self-explanatory I feel. (*proceeds to explain anyways*) I imagine that Darlin' was at the point of throwing in the towel, hellbent on a solo-mission to find Quinn regardless of the danger it posed to them. I doubt they were looking toward the future anymore, (to reference Sam,) fully willing to throw themself at their problems until they really did break.

The specific use of 'ruined' hits hard here, because after everything they went through with Quinn, and especially after he recounted it all to Sam in that interrogation room, I imagine that they really, truly did feel ruined.

Showed me the past ain't a tattoo Loved me even when you didn't have to

These lines in particular make me sick with emotion every time I hear this song, because I feel like they hit the nail on the head for how Darlin' feels.

I'll be here citing various quotes all night that I feel showcase that sentiment, but we don't have time for that! So instead I'm just pointing to the entirety of 'Quinn's Aftermath' video, and leaving you with this single quote from it.

"Everything that he said reflects nothin' on you, and everything on him."

Equally Applicable Lines

And I don't know why Why you saw something in me, baby But you saw right through All the pain, and you came and saved me Yeah, I know you didn't leave me lonely Weren't the one that put the heartbreak on me Picked up the pieces It wasn't the mess that you made Could've left me just the way you found me But you came and put your wings around me You went out of your way To fix what you didn't break

Again, I think these lines are all pretty self-explanatory, and are just as accurate coming from either one of them. To me, at least, their entire dynamic is that they saved each other, in their own ways.

(But I will admit, the final verses about 'going out of your way to fix what you didn't break' are definitely conjuring up memories of Sam in the early days, literally going out of his way to visit and heal Darlin' after their fight with the two vamps. In general, his continued/repeated healing of them after they once again hurt themselves is the very literal definition of fixing what he didn't break.

But! While we may have more blatant examples of Sam being 'the fixer' so to speak, I think he'd argue that Darlin' has done plenty fixing of their own. Physical wounds aren't the only things that need healing, after all.)

-------

[shameless self-promo of my Sam & Darlin' playlist for those few of u interested enough to make it to the very end of this wall of text. if u liked this then u might like some of the other songs on there soooo maybe go check it out and maybe perhaps give it a follow so i can get a little serotonin boost or dopamine or whatever the chemical is that's released when Number Go Up. ...okay that's it i hope u enjoyed my fixation-induced ramblings! thank u and goodnight]

[itsjaywalkers]

what are your jegulus dressing up as for Halloween?

LOVE THIS KIND OF QUESTIONS i've already talked about this before but !! i'm happy to do so again !!

oby james and reg are horny ofc but also ridiculously cheesy. they'd go for something sweet but that they can turn a bit slutty if the mood strikes them. they'd go for grease (rizzo and kenickie over danny and sandy i think, i know what i said last time but . past me was wrong) or . matrix (neo and trinity) (reg loves those films and they'd look SO GOOD)

making ghosts jeg will ALWAYS go for actual paranormal or scary stuff, bc james is a nerd and reg loves to indulge him, even if he tends to complain in the process. they'd do billy and stu from scream, they'd do will and hannibal (and have a fight over it bc reg wants to do them bc he's very into the show while james would want to do hannibal and clarice instead), they'd do richie and eddie from it etc

nothing happens jegulus depend on their age and the state of their relationship. when they're kids they're not even matching, reg wouldn't even make that much of an effort and james would do a group thing with sirius remus and peter. when they're teens, they'd do legolas and gimli from lotr bc reg is very into it and would convince james to do it with him. when they're young adults it'd be something like . romeo + juliet or the corpse bride (emily and victor)

boxer au jegulus are always horny and cliche and lowkey cringy. as it's been mentioned before, they're the kind of couple that would go as the joker and harley quinn completely unironically, and also for the wrong reasons (james hasn't seen a single batman movie or read the comics but thinks he'd look very hot as the joker and regulus is simply enticed by the fact he'd be carrying a baseball bat). they'd also do angel + demon (james as the angel and reg as the demon ironically enough). i can also see them doing pretty woman or dirty dancing lmao

[drowning-in-webnovel-chapters]

Sometimes I want the character to be OOC.

Sometimes I want the canon character to be ground up into a paste and then poured into a mold of a slightly different character

Is that too much to ask

[enhanced-operatives-division]

Points at you. 10 and/or 11 for starstruck?

Two starstruck asks,,,,,,joy of joys,,

Part of an ask game linked here.

#10. What's an au you have for them?

Since them meeting at all is technically an AU i have 3 different ways that they do meet up. There's the one where Juniper ends up with the agency/adjacent to and ends up working with Reggie (have written a fic with this). The next one is Juniper surviving but basically going stealth and living as normal of a life as he can and ending up meeting Reggie through chance (most recent fic I've written). And then there's my personal favourite where Reginald "You're lucky my tracking skills are still up to snuff" Crane keeping himself busy after Phoenix was MIA and finding Juniper still alive (fic I want to write but haven't started mainly because it may end up multi chapter).

In terms of more AU canon bending taking them and putting them in a completely unrelated situation...I have a guilty pleasure Warrior Cats AU for IEYTD in general. Both JJ and Reggie have perfect warrior cats suffixes in their names already (Juniper and Crane) so they're called Junipersong (charcoal bengal) and Craneflight (tabby Norwegian forest cat). It's very silly but the amount of scenes I have in my mind for it...good lord...

#11. How was their first kiss like?

Augh my friend Imp wrote an absolutely excellent fic about it (tragically in the realm of unfinished Google docs) and I'm shaking their hand about it so hard. Basically Juniper kissing Reggie but he like wasn't ready/fully expecting it and Juniper absolutely panicking because he thinks he's misread every interaction between them both since they got closer. The second one is much sweeter though,,

[simplyjustadrain]

Lily knew what she was going to hear before Dorcas’ fingers ever touched the piano. 

The funny thing was that she never liked jazz, she never thought much of it. No one really thinks about jazz, but when Dorcas Meadows talks, you listen. And it just so happened that most of the things that came out of her mouth were about jazz. So Lily had learnt, and she had listened, and she had spent the last five years listening, and learning, even if Dorcas wasn’t the one teaching her anymore. 

So she knew, there were hundreds of different possibilities, hundreds of different songs Dorcas could play - but really there was only one. 

Dorcas played exactly what Lily knew she would, because Dorcas had always been painfully predictable when it came to the things she loved, and music would always be one of them. A constant in her life, the revolving passion that gave her life meaning, even when others failed her. 

It started slow. She hesitated. Lily could see the tension in her shoulders bleeding into the polished keys, but her touch was soft. Delicate. Almost as if she was remembering the touch of something sweeter. She appeared to Lily as if she were fighting a battle inside herself, two pieces at war with what to do; her right hand moved on its own accord, soft notes hesitant yet familiar. Her left hand remained hovering above the piano, waiting for something even Dorcas didn’t know of.

The gentle chords rang out in the silence of the bar, Dorcas’ hands had finally regained some semblance of control, and the music evolved into something… something else. 

Lily could recognise a story when she saw one - or heared one. After all it was her job, to act, to feel, to tell the stories on screen. But that’s something she learnt in her short time as a jazz connoisseur, the art of storytelling. She’d used to be so small minded, turning to the screen for comfort, for familiarity, to watch over and over again the same stories and experiences being painted. But she found there was something so much more personal about a piece of music being interpreted differently by thousands, something so unique in the way you could be transported through your own story simply through the tune of a piano. She never realised the power of storytelling in its purest form, not until Dorcas walked into her life with a polyester suit, a concerning amount of vinyl records, and a level of ambition (some call it delusion) to rival Lily’s own. 

Dorcas taught Lily to see a whole new world of stories, ones that weren’t shackled by Hollywood beauty standards and technicolour boxes.  

Dorcas had the whole world at her fingertips, unlocked by little ivory keys and a dream that had been let go five years ago. 

The music was tinged with such a profound sense of nostalgia that Lily wondered whether it was actually Dorcas sitting next to her instead of her husband. It was tangible in the way Lily couldn’t explain how or why, but she could see a life planned out before her. Not her life, but some other Lily’s life, a life where she is happy. She is happy, and content, and dancing with Dorcas at a bar, a car park, a wedding. There are children and birthday parties and a sense of normalcy that Lily knew she’d never get in her own life. Lily felt the story with her whole being, she could taste it on her tongue, feel it warming her from the inside. She felt it like a pain in her chest and a blow to the head. She felt, so overwhelmingly the beauty of the world Dorcas was building for them, and even though Lily knew how it would end (and it would end) she couldn’t help but enjoy the painting Dorcas was creating. Lily didn’t know when Dorcas and her piano had become an orchestra, but she could hear the symphony with her own ears, and would gladly plead insanity if it meant she got to keep listening. 

She could feel, more than hear, that the piece was about to end. The story had finished a long time ago, and Lily knew how the reality ended. No matter how beautiful the stories may be, the curtain rises, the lights come up, and Lily is looking over her shoulder, realising the greatest love of all time is over now. 

Lily walked out the bar, arm in arm with her husband, James, and left the rest of her soul standing by the piano, along with the life of a different Lily Evans.

[pencap]

.

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Another song for My Girl, My Girl, My Girl

Honestly a lot of Half.Alive songs fit really well with Sorry, It's Locked in general. Like, I have one for Birdie and Tim in Crossroads and I have this one for My Girl. I don't know what it is about their songs, but they're just so perfect for this series, especially the quieter moments, you know? They're the exact kind of nostalgic/happy-sad vibes I want a lot of the quiet moments to have, i think.

Honestly, now that I'm really thinking about it, this song feels like it fits kinda the whole series, a little bit.

I never told You never asked 'Til I got older I kept it wrapped You had me holding up my past I came to know it's what I want so bad

For My Girl i think this just feels like if Jay had actually realised he was trans, like, got a lot further down that line than he actually will. It's like him realising how much he hid and now that Tim's pointed things out to him, he can look back on his life and kinda notice all the moments from when he was younger that were evidence of him being trans, even if at the time and for a long while after he didn't think twice about them.

And Tim did sort of ask Jay if he was trans, but the second Jay denied it he backed down and let it go. Sort of. He still sets up their forced fem and general fem sex stuff in a way that he hopes will make Jay feel more comfortable actually exploring his gender. But as far as Jay's concerned, or would be concerned if he lived long enough to figure it out, Tim never asked so Jay didn't tell him he was trans until way later on. As in, had Jay lived it would have taken him close to 5-10 years before he told Tim he was trans.

He would figure it out eventually, though. He'd take a while, but eventually he'd realise that what he wanted was actually to be she and her and Lark.

You know I wanna live to fast And die too young It ain't that bad Just don't look up I found my path is that enough?

This is kind of Jay's attitude to everything in my head. Like, i don't know it just is. He definitely lives too fast, and he's going to die too young. He downplays things a lot (though, he also makes other things out to be worse than they are? He's a bit all over the place) like, I'm pretty sure he actually says the words "It wasn't that bad" or "It's not that bad" in S,IL itself at some point, when he's talking to Tim about Alex.

He's pretty sure he's not going to live very long though. That's his path, he doesn't want it to happen, he wants to survive this whole thing with Tim and go on with their lives after, but he's not fully convinced they'll get that. It's mostly just a nice thought for him.

Well I was getting used to what I thought was love It made me laugh I came undone 'Cause all I had Was not enough

Jay's understanding of If It Ain't Broken and everything that happened in that. Like, yeah yeah he knew Alex wasn't in love with him, but he did get used to their relationship and how it was, and that became what he thought all/most relationships would be in his life. And everything he had to give Alex 'wasn't enough' to make Alex love him back (or so he thought), and that did make him come undone a little bit, yknow? It fucked him up really bad, not just in the "oh poor guy he's so hurt and upset by it" way, but also in the "Oh he doesn't really understand boundaries and really needs to work on his ability to communicate what he wants properly" way.

I want you to move me I want you to move me Step into the moonlight Throw your weight in to me

Okay, so, this bit's like, lyrically it fits very well with Jay's inability to ask for what he wants and him just wanting Tim to do whatever so Jay doesn't have to deal with the embarrassment of telling Tim what he wants and why he wants it. He just wants Tim to make him do it.

On the other hand, this song is so very gently upbeat that something as serious as that feels inappropriate to connect to it. The mention of moonlight reminds me of the fic White Noise which is to be uploaded after this next chapter of My Girl. Jay and Tim go stargazing together and end up leaning against each other as they sit on the roof of one of their cars. They do this for Jay's birthday, and the gesture is incredibly moving to Jay, as it is a celebration of him still being alive that he had previously (in chapter three) assured Tim was not necessary.

I want your storms Shaking the trees I want your waves Breaking on me I want your knife To cut the seams When all the feelings Tie me up to be

This verse clearly would be a reference to Jay and Alex's past relationship, both in university and two years prior to My Girl, when they had sex for the first and last time since university. This works for both of those relationships, as both were hectic and turbulent and harmful to all involved. Storms that shake the trees often rend branches from their home trunks and can leave people with devastating injuries as well as a fear of storms that they never before held. Storm waves can do the same, dashing people upon rocks and causing clifftops to slump or crumble, dragging any hapless victims who may had been standing there to their deaths.

Knives do not typically come with storms, however often within Sorry, It's Locked Jay would make references and allusions to heartbreak by speaking about Alex holding his heart in his hands after having carved it from his chest with a knife. Alex was always insinuated to be careless with Jay's heart not only for having carved it from his chest (a bloody, gruesome and deadly action to take) but also because once he had Jay's heart in his hands he would continue to use the knife upon it. This was meant as a comment on how even after Jay had given Alex everything he had, even going so far as to allow him to claim Jay's heart as his own without giving anything in return, Alex still continued to cause harm to Jay simply because he wanted to. He had nothing more to gain from the damage he caused, he simply wanted to do it, so he did.

You know I wanna live to fast And die too young It ain't that bad Just don't look up I found my path is that enough? Well I was getting used to what I thought was love It made me laugh I came undone 'Cause all I had Was not enough

After the previous verse, the chorus takes on a new meaning, talking more about how Jay would have allowed Alex to destroy him in his entirety simply because he thought he loved him, despite how Alex hurt him and the knowledge that Alex would never love him back. He convinces himself that what is happening between them isn't 'that bad' and convinces himself that there is nothing better for him to look up and try to find. He is content to continue down this path of destruction at Alex's hands.

mutual destruction dude? Alex wasn't the only one at fault?? like, at all? he was just as hurt by their uni relationship as Jay was, probably more honestly.

My apologies.

I want you to move me I want you to move me Step into the moonlight Throw your weight in to me

Once again, the chorus takes on a new meaning when thought about in the context of Jay and Alex's university relationship. Jay and Alex's university relationship was built around mutually agreed upon power dynamics and dominance and submission, often with Alex physically moving Jay around as he pleased or 'throwing his weight into him' in order to hold him down. This was, of course, all at least mostly agreed upon by the two of them (although my understanding is that they should have spoken about it far more and far more freely than they did, as miscommunication between them did lead to situations with dubiously consensual elements)

Be my chain Where I stand Want to be my song When I can't dance Light my fire And burn the trees No, I won't get tired When I can't breathe

Okay. SO. one just generally i really like this line, like, yeah idk i just do. But like, i think it just works so well for both Jam and Jaylex, yknow? like, idk it's like all those ocean metaphores i use for Jay's relationships, with Alex being a stormy ocean that's dangerous and getting subby with him was like drowning whereas Tim was a calm, peaceful ocean and getting subby with him is like floating in a calm, warm sea.

"Be my chain where i stand" can either be "hey, you're tethering me to earth and making me feel more real and secure and safe because I can't just float away and suffocate in the vastness of space." OR it can be "You're fucking trapping me let me go, these chains are hurting me and i long for freedom. My wrists and ankles are raw from the shackles, just let me go." That last one can both be how Jay felt about Alex and that relationship back in uni, OR it can more specifically be Jay about how he can't ever seem to quite get over Alex and how his continued like, love for him is causing him pain because he knows the relationship was bad for him and he knows Alex will never love him back. well he thinks Alex will never love him back. He is wrong about that one tho lol

"Want to be my song when i can't dance" can also be both Jam and Jaylex. Like, chapter 2 of S,IL, duh, all those songs on the radio that just felt like they were making fun of Jay because of how fucked up his relationship with Alex was, and because he was daydreaming about getting to dance around the kitchen with Alex and wondering if Amy did that with him, knowing that he wasn't going to get that cute domestic stuff with Alex no matter how badly he wanted it. OR. it can be jam. it can be Jam inn chapter three of My Girl, because they are going to get to dance to the radio together like Jaylex never did and it's gonna be wonderful.

Also "When i can't dance i want you to move me" does fall a bit back to the whole Jay cant ask for what he wants thing, but I think it's probably in a softer way, yknow? Like, feeling awkward or lost in Tim's kitchen because he never got anything like this with Alex so he doesn't really know what he's doing. He's not good at romance even though he craves it, so he needs Tim to teach him the steps (both the steps to the dance and the steps to take to make their relationship work and be healthy)

"Light my fire And burn the trees No, I won't get tired When I can't breathe" again this just feels like the whole "ocean metaphores for both relationships but in different ways" thing. Alex was a distructive fire that made it hard to breath and Jay was so exhilarated by it that the adrenaline stopped him getting tired of it, even when it hurt him. Tim is like a campfire, all warm and glowing and you roast marshmallows on it with your loved ones, sure the heat still makes it hard to breath when you're close enough to it so you can roast your marshmallows (??? I think I'm using marshmallows as a metaphore for them having sex???) but it's not an all encompasing forest fire, there's more to this fire than just using the heat to roast marshmallows. You can just sit by it and swap stories, you can use it to warm up and recharge after a long, tiring day. Jay can never get tired of this fire, not because the adrenaline is keeping him awake, just because who could get tired of a campfire? they're so lovely.

I want you to move me Be my chain Where I stand Want to be my song When I can't dance I want you to move me Light my fire And burn the trees No, I won't get tired When I can't breathe Step into the moonlight Be my chain Where I stand Want to be my song When I can't dance Throw your weight in to me Light my fire And burn the trees No, I won't get tired When I can't breathe

Same

Be my chain Where I stand Would you be my song When I can't dance Light my fire And burn the trees No, I won't get tired When I can't breathe

Same

[wellzofyouth]

That one post of my mine predictably aged like fine wine. Never let somebody on comic twitter in the writer's room😭😭😭 Like imagine a 1 to 1 adaptation of literally any event?? -1b at the box office. "Who are these people???"

[seaslimes]

Every time I see those posts about the AO3 F/F to M/M ratios, all I can think is:

Okay, excellent point. But what if you just wrote it?

Like. Yeah, man, I'm sure it's discouraging to see raw numbers talking about how your ship doesn't get the rep it needs. But when you get down to numbers... sometimes the difference within fandoms is less than 500 more M/M works than F/F works. That's actionable. You can fill that gap with a fraction of the people liking / reblogging posts about F/F erasure.

Sometimes the gap is bigger. It's like, 1000 more works are tagged M/M. 2000, or more. Yeah, that's a big gap, but you could make it one less. If every person liking or reblogging a post about the disparity of ship fics on AO3, that number would shrink drastically, or outright disappear.

IDK. I write F/F. I write M/M too, as well as M/F. But I write F/F, and when I see that sorta post. It doesn't feel like a call to action. It feels like somehow, in some way, I'm not doing enough when I post up fanfiction for free about stuff I like.

It makes me feel like I should stop sharing my F/F work, that it doesn't matter, that people don't recognize the effort or love or time that goes into it. Even beyond that, I feel discouraged about the work I have put out, because thousands of words written all about an F/F pairing are only seen in that raw stat format.

"There's X M/M fics and Y F/F fics." Yes, I know, and that has to suck. But look at how many people wrote F/F fics! Have you commented on each of those F/F fics? Have you given kudos? Did you feel inspired to write or draw because of those F/F fics? That's what fandom is for. That's why we create. If that's not inspiring you to "close the gap" on those stats, I don't know what to say.

[welcometoteyvat]

whagghh can we see that hu tao xingqiu snippet wip?

Xingqiu slumps onto his desk, defeated. The deadline for a special volume of A Legend of Sword is scarcely three nights away, and yet he still hasn’t progressed past the first fight sequence. Every word he pens is inadequate, and the brush in his hand is crooked and sluggish, and another colorless midnight has almost passed, and still, he has nothing to show for it. His valiant unnamed hero claims a narrow victory against the Tai-Shogun’s cyborg samurai, and then—and then…

When Xingqiu’s eyelids flutter open again, the lantern by his window has dimmed considerably… He cannot have dozed off for that long, can he?

At least his father and brother are asleep. It would be best if they never find out about his sleeping schedule.

The shadow of his hand is so sharp against his lantern-lit draft. Xingqiu traces the ridges of his knuckles, a flickering black silhouette on the page beneath it. From this angle, it almost looks like a dragon’s mouth, one of the Natlan kinds… maybe he’ll be able to see one in person someday…

His eyes shut slowly.

———

ermmmmm embarrassing... this was supposed to be published with the snippet (so i could've just given you the full snippet since it isn't long anyways) but it's ballooned rather fast and I don't want to wait. also yeah this has no hu tao mentioned because unfortunately she comes in right after this lmao. also the hu tao xingqiu dialogue inspiration that struck me at 2 am yesterday left so now i have to reinvent the wheel (<- bad at banter). anyways i hope you enjoy <3 this idea was kinda random haha, i just wanted to write something from xingqiu's perspective and show how they bounce off each other really well LOL nothing much to it. I was going to change it into xingqiu + venti writers block (venti is one of the muses fr) but i haven't watched irodori thoroughly and decided to keep hu tao. anyways yeah hopefully i finish this thing soon lol