#this is about me reading a fic and only realizing it was written -s3 cause everyone keeps referring to buck as chris' uncle or godson

[poughkeepsies]

reading 9-1-1 fics that were clearly written before certain canon events makes everything so much funnier cause they're written with certain details that the authors clearly thought would be unequivocal evidence of romantic buddie and/or bro-ified to make it realistic to canon but then 99% of the time the show will just throw in a scene later that is 1) that exact detail that to anyone else would only make sense if buddie is canon and 2) not overlayed with any no-homo message that could tone it down at ALL.

[spicysix]

WIP Focus

okkieeee so last year i did this little game a couple of times, where i'd make a poll with my WIPs and the most voted one would be my main focus until i could finish writing it

i've been having a very hard writing block the last months, since my obsession with ST dialed down, but i still have WIPs i'd really really like to finish. and lately i've been reading more, and that inspired me so i've actually came up with MORE fic ideas and it's been driving me crazy cause i can't focus on one to finish writing

so once again i'm here begging for your help

the fics in the poll are in order of which one i wrote most for so far and they're all planned to be one shots. under the cut you can find more info about each fic. you can reblog for a wider range!

birds of a feather

based on billie eilish's new song of same name, a soulmate!AU where you can feel pain when your soulmate gets hurt. robin had her theories, but they're only confirmed when she's stuck on the russion lab under the mall - steve harrington is her soulmate. how does she deal with that little bit of a character study on robin, will probably not be too long and won't stretch out further after the events of s3

illinoise

based on sufjan steven's song "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", i'm not actually sure exactly what i wanna do with this. i have two versions of this fic that i started, but the main thing is that it's through steve's POV as the Party grows and moves out and does things with their lives, but he and eddie grow a friendship through the years but eventually eddie also moves out and that's how steve realizes how he felt - it was more than friendship for him, he was in love. oblivious baby. again, i'm not so sure about this one, it's just that this song has touched me so deeply i need to write something for it

punk!steve

i talked a bunch about it here MANY months ago, but basically, spicy six moves out to a city with a big punk scene, jonathan introduces that scene to steve who finds a way to express his emotions through that music and the concerts and the culture as a whole, but without an extreme change of visuals. fic is told through eddie's POV, seeing steve finding comfort and finding himself in this new subculture, changing himself so subtly but also so obviously, and kinda falling in love in the proccess. i'm still not sure if anything's gonna happen between them in this fic, or if it's a pre-relationship, or if it's gonna be a throuple thing [eddie x steve x jonathan] but the ship is not the focus here

trains

based on song of the same name by porcupine tree, haven't written a single word for it yet but i really want to. i'm thinking cousins chrissy & steve who reunite every summer when chrissy spends it at steve's home, and robin is steve's bff of course so that's how they meet. i'm thinking robin's POV every summer waiting for chrissy to arive, and as they grow older they fall in love

[phiralovesloki]

20 questions for fic writers:

Tagged by the wonderful @idoltina!

If you're looking to check out any of my fics, everything is currently locked. That just means that if you go to my page, phiralovesloki, it'll say I have 0 works unless you log in. If you log in, you can see everything, no problem.

how many works do you have on ao3?

51

what's your total ao3 word count?

622,639

what fandoms do you write for?

I used to write for the Legend of Zelda fandom, but switched to OUAT in the mid 2010s (I took down all my LoZ fics, it's just OUAT on Ao3). I am technically still writing for OUAT but my document history begs to differ.

what are your top five fics by kudos?

With Affection, You'll Know It's Him, Rescue Me, Wishing for You to Find Your Way, and Coming Home to You.

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I used to! Eventually, I got overwhelmed by life and stopped responding. I do read every comment I get, and each one is very lovely!

what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

No Time Like the Present, which is I think technically canon compliant if you really squint at it. Essentially, there's a weird crossing of the time streams in Neverland, where S3 Emma bumps into S6 Hook and they have a really weird conversation because she doesn't realize he's in the future. The result is that when she finds the engagement ring in S6, she misunderstands his reluctance/caginess. I tend to write happy endings only these days (which LoZ-writer me would be really surprised by!), so this is probably the only angsty-ending I've got.

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Like, all of them minus the above? Probably Tell Him, because time travel shenanigans end up fixing a lot of ridiculous BS from S4 through S6.

do you get hate on fics?

Not usually. I've gotten a few comments over the years that haven't been very nice, but they can be boiled down to the affectionately named Charminator (who would scour FFnet fics and criticize their portrayals of David, it was very weird!), and the one time someone did not like that I wrote a completely AU fic where Leopold and Regina, two background characters, were happily married.

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I don't know what "what kind" means, but yes, I write smut! I've got some fics that consist of plots that are excuses for smut. I used to accept kinky smutty prompts in my inbox, although I took them down several years ago, sorry.

do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

So, funny enough, when I was a wee lil fic writer, writing in notebooks after my parents thought I was asleep, I wrote crossovers between the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and the Belgariad (@optomisticgirl). No true crossovers since then.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not quite. I've had a fic reposted on Facebook without my permission or knowledge, which caused a great deal of fandom drama when I found out about it and asked to have it removed.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. I forget which one, but someone years ago asked if they could translate one of my stories into Russian, and I said it was fine.

have you ever co-written a fic before?

Uhhhh ... I don't think so? (This is genuinely me not remembering.)

what's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't love this question, not because I don't understand where it's coming from (I do!), but because I feel like ships are often like books or movies or TV shows or even foods. Different things hit the spot differently, even if you love them equally. I think Emma and Hook from OUAT are definitely the pair that ate up the most brain space for me. But I've got a steady rotation of LoZ ships as well, including MaLink which is the one that originally got me writing fic. And Link and Midna also wrecked me emotionally and primed me for Captain Swan (and that's the basis for the OUAT Zelda AU that will never get finished at this rate). These days, thanks to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, I'm also just very certain that those versions of Zelda and Link belong together and I shrieked when we got to Hateno Village in TotK and found out that they're COHABITATING (there's only one bed!!!).

what's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Omg, same answer here as Tina, why don't you just @ me next time.

I've actually got 3, one of which is the Zelda AU that is almost 100k words long and is maybe halfway done. One of my new year's resolutions is to find the time to work on it.

Another one, which I really wish I could finish, but I don't see it happening, is a canon divergence where Emma returns from the Wish Realm without regaining her memories/Savior-ness. She's desperate to get "home" and strikes a deal with Rumple, where in order for him to send her back, she has to make Hook believe she's in love with him again, and then break his heart.

And finally, I have a modern AU where Emma fake dates her ex-best friend Killian in order to secretly date Neal, who's come back into her life very suddenly. This one is never getting finished specifically because 1) too many Captain Swan shippers are flat out uncomfortable with the Emma/Neal bits even though it would be a CS story, and 2) I am actually hoping to someday rework the main gist of it into an original contemporary romance.

what are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and plotting. Are you stuck with a plot point? hmu

what are your writing weaknesses?

Everything that's not dialogue and plot. My writing isn't flowing or descriptive or beautiful or anything. Sometimes I feel like I'm just writing down what's happening, what the characters are feeling, and what they're saying, and that's basically it. (LOL props to @lifeinahole27 who let me know that I fucking forgot to finish my sentence, oops!)

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for fic?

I can only speak English so I don't feel comfortable writing in another language for fic.

first fandom you wrote for?

Zeldaaaaaaa.

favourite fic you've ever written?

(Strong Bad voice) My fics are like my childrens: I love them all!

I think Powerful Magic is probably my favorite that doesn't get a ton of eyes on it.

tagging: @spartanguard, @iverna, @eirabach, @initiala, @lifeinahole27, and whoever else is up for it! If I've tagged you and you've done this or you don't want to do this, no worries, feel free to ignore. If I didn't tag you, but you really wanted to be tagged, then I'm tagging you and you can say so!

[olicitytropes]

Olicity Summer Fic Rec

Hey friends!

It’s been a while since we’ve done a rec list! We thought now was a great time to celebrate our favorite fictional couple, our amazing fic writers, and the start of our summer. So, if you’re looking for a good beach read to enjoy the sunshine with, we’ve got you!

The Strings We Attach  (chapters: 8/8)

Summary: Felicity Smoak knows that sleeping with the boss's son goes against the rules of her summer internship at Queen Consolidated in about a hundred different ways. She knows, but it doesn't matter.

Yours  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: A very quickly written prompt fill for the Olicity Summer Sizzle prompt "Jealous". Set in the summer after season 3 when Oliver and Felicity are on their trip around the world together.

Not So Innocent  (chapters: 14/14)

Summary:  "I thought you were literally the most innocent thing to ever exist but then you awkwardly ask me to teach you how to bang like a pro and holy hell but now I'm really, really turned on" a/u.

When We Were Young  (chapters: 8/?)

Summary: Felicity didn't expect to fall in love her last summer before MIT but she did and it was more than she ever thought it could be.

Oliver didn't ever think he would meet a girl where she would be everything to him. But than he met Felicity and everything changed for him.

august (livin’ for the hope of it all)  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Working at the surf school in her grandmother's small town wasn't quite what Felicity had planned for her final summer before MIT, but the arrival of her newest student, Thea Queen, and her very alluring brother make it summer she won't soon forget...

only you can set my heart on fire  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: He can’t help but smirk at her tone of voice. His main focus over the past two months has been memorizing every element of the woman underneath him. He’s tuned himself into her frequency, storing the cause and meaning of every type of hitched breath, moan and tone of voice. This soft, distracted murmur is rare but one of Oliver’s favorites.

(A small NSFW fic set in Bali during Olicity's post-s3 roadtrip)

The Bunker UST   (chapters: 10/10)

Summary: Pidanka told me that someone should tackle the UST in the bunker and all the sex that Oliver and Felicity will have there during the summer (... at least in our mind). So... here it is. There will probably a few chapters, gradually heating up ;) !!!COMPLETE!!!

The Summer People  (chapters: 14/14)

Summary: Genius IT girl, Felicity Smoak, takes a trip to the Hamptons to take care of her movie-star cousin's kids for the summer and meets billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, who's lost his way within QC and with his relationship with his father. Felicity's disenchanted with her current life, too. She's just left a job at Wayne Enterprises and attempting to regroup at the beach. Will these two help the other find themselves or will they remain lost in the disenchanting world of the wildly idle rich?

***Yay for Arrow in the Hamptons. Fluffy but has action and a bad guy. ;)

Venice Beach  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: After a one night stand, Oliver and Felicity find out they are kinda into each other. Takes place in Venice Beach, CA.

The Daisy Division  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Felicity Smoak owned the flower shop downstairs. And then one night in early July, Oliver started sneezing.

AU prompt: I rented the apartment above your flower shop and in the last two months you’ve gotten a new flower I’m allergic to so I keep buying bouquets until I can figure out which kind it is.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Oliver and Felicity make a stop on their roadtrip for ice cream. Antics ensue, and in an old fashioned ice cream parlor in the middle of nowhere, Oliver comes to a realization.

Fun in the Sun  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: During the post-s3 roadtrip, Oliver and Felicity go to the beach, Fun ensues.

Olicity Summer Sizzle!

Prompt: post-s3 roadtrip

Oliver and Felicity’s High School Reunion   (chapters: 4/4)

Summary: It's Felicity's high school reunion, and she convinces Oliver to go with her and pretend to be her boyfriend.

that’s how you get the girl  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Oliver has everything figured out - it's his last summer before college, he'll spend it with his best friend and he'll confess his feelings before they both go to their schools. 

But then Felicity gets a summer job at Universal Studios and, well. 

Looks like Thea's getting a season's pass.

All I Know  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Sequel to Our New Normal.

Prompt from OlicitySmoaky: Oliver and Felicity finally take their honeymoon in Aruba in the "afterlife" (humor/angst/fluff).

OSS #13 Summer School AU  (chapters: 4/4)

Summary: AU. Oliver takes on his greatest teaching challenge yet: not making a fool of himself in front of guidance counselor Felicity Smoak. Uh, he means teaching geography to a summer school class of misfits lead by none other than his sister’s pain-in-the-ass boyfriend. AKA, the worst summer of Oliver Queen’s overprivileged life.

(Even if you’re away) I can feel your touch  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: When Oliver told Thea and Tommy that he had a girlfriend, one that lived some miles away from Starling, and they met online, of course the Queen heiress was skeptical. It sounded very much like a narrative made for hers and his best friend’s peace of mind. Now, months later, Oliver claimed his supposed girlfriend was arriving in Starling on the weekend. Thea was paying to see this. (Fifty bucks, exactly, according to her bet with Tommy.)

Come on Pretty Mama  (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Felicity and Oliver dive into their most grueling mission yet.... a relaxing vacation.

Sunny Days  (chapters: 2/2)

Summary: She tucked her pen back into her hair and stuck the order slip to the line-up in the kitchen window before heading off to check on another table. She was… cute. Not his type. Which was a good thing. A summer fling with some small town girl was on the list of distractions and temptations he was supposed to be avoiding.

(aka the one where Oliver gets sent to a small seaside town to do his court mandated community service hours and his life becomes a Nicholas Sparks plot)

First Impressions  (chapters: 14/14)

Summary: Modern Pride and Prejudice AU: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman in possession of a great intellect must be in want of job that requires its use.” But Felicity Smoak seemed stuck in the quiet beach town of Hertfordshire forever. Will the handsome summer tourist and his snobby best friend save her from another season of boredom or will Oliver Queen’s stuck up attitude make Felicity want to strangle him before it’s even over?

If you’ve enjoyed any of these fics, please send kudos, comments, and love to the writers :)

Sex High (chapters: 1/1)

Summary: Somehow the fact that she can now have this man, whenever she wants, has only fed the needy, greedy part of her that wants to be touching his abs all the time. Or: Felicity fears that being able to have sex with Oliver is addling her brain.

Tell Me a Story (chapters: 8/8)

Summary: When Felicity needs a date to her cousin's wedding, Oliver comes to her rescue. As the weekend progresses changes in their relationship develop. Began as another trope and turned into a beast of it's own. Rated M for later chapters.

[solllaris]

boys like you — bobby mckenzie. 

summary: despite only knowing him for a week, it never entered fallon’s mind that bobby might not be as genuine of a guy as she thinks he is. but that’s before the mean tweets challenge and now her mind is completely consumed with thoughts of him being a player. 

pairing: bobby/mc, mentions of bobby/lottie

word count: 2424

note: i cannot even tell you how long this has been sitting in my drafts just collecting dust. but!! the release of s3 really gave me the inspiration to finally finish it and after some editing i’m pretty proud of it! pleeease go easy on me b/c it is my first bobby fic so if he’s ooc please tell me and i’ll work on it. anyway i hope you guys like it!! :)

The strings of words on the page before her blurred together as her mind continued to drift. She was stuck in a never ending cycle of rereading the same lines over and over again, her brain never quite able to comprehend their meaning. The unwarranted, dangerous thoughts seared through her as her eyes, once again, shifted to the gentle lapping of the clear pool water against the coping. On any other Spanish night the sound of tranquil water would’ve soothed her to no end but the claws of self doubt and anxiety had sunken into her too deeply and there was no way for her to return. She was at their mercy and she despised it.

A loud resigned sigh huffed between the redhead’s lips, her berry colored lipstick having faded from the nights earlier festivities. She tipped her head back until it rested on the lounge chair she sat upon as she attempted to relax and loosen her tight muscles. The days busy events of the ‘mean tweets challenge’ and two boys — Rocco and Lucas — being dumped from the island had successfully wound her up until her nerves were shot. Yes, she was admittedly a bit sad to see the latter leave the Villa so soon but she was not as concerned about that as she was the challenge.

Her belly fluttered and twisted painfully as the tweet plastered onto the board flashed behind her eyelids. The words “player” and “Bobby” were never ones she’d even considered putting together before that challenge; but suddenly the ginger couldn’t drive them from the forefront of her mind and the seed of doubt in her body couldn’t be unplanted. It had sprouted its roots into her gut and raised tiny red flags where they hadn’t been previously.

Before, the teasing and little touches with Lottie had been easily brushed aside, reassuring herself that they were only friends; Bobby was a very friendly and affectionate guy to begin with, so it came as no surprise he was the same with his mates. However, as the redhead watched the way his muscular arms wrapped up her friend, peppering kisses to the top of her head to comfort her as Rocco left the Villa behind, she couldn’t stop herself from wondering. Was it all platonic? Did he really need to kiss into her hair? Did that simple act of affection mean anything? The questions were never ending, bouncing and ricocheting off either side of her skull until a dull ache began to split across her forehead.

Just when she’d snapped her book shut, the pages thumping together harshly as she swung her legs off the side of the chair, a tanned and defined chest came into view. He was still dressed in one of those wacky printed button-downs that only he could pull off. Only four buttons were done up, the remaining ones popped open and left his delectable pectorals on display for everyone to admire. His freckled cheeks were tinged pink from probably one too many drinks and she kind of hated how good he looked; it made it all the more difficult to be a bit distant and leery of him — especially with the way he gazed down at her, hazel irises holding all the affection and tenderness in the world.

With downcast eyes, she watched his feet move until he settled onto the lounge chair beside hers. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his widely spread knees and he was close enough to reach out and touch. The twitch of his clasped fingers suggested that the same thought had flitted through his mind, so she was a bit disappointed when he didn’t move towards her.

“Hey,” Bobby murmured in his sweet Scottish twang that the redhead absolutely adored. “Fallon, are you feelin’ okay?”

Fiddling with the paper cover on the hardback book in her lap, Fallon hesitantly glanced upwards to look him in the face. God, he looked so, so pretty in his outlandish shirt that hugged his biceps perfectly — like the seams around the arms would burst and unravel. His short dreads were a little disheveled from who knows what and although all of his physical attributes were beautiful, Fallon was always utterly enamored by his eyes. They spoke the words he couldn’t illiterate, the vulnerability that he found it difficult to express oftentimes. As he looked at her by the pool that night, the twinge in her chest worsened because how could he be a player and look at her like that?

“I’m fine, love, I promise,” Fallon reassured and forced a smile that she hoped solidified the white lie she’d told.

Bobby cocked his head a bit to his right and studied her, his gaze flickered over the entire expanse of her face. She knew he could see straight through her; he always could. “Are you sure?” A mischievous, teasing smile stretched across his face. “Usually I can’t keep you off me, lass. Practically jumping my bones all t—“

Fallon’s foot knocked against his leg, shoving him back lightly as she laughed for the first time in a while. “That is so not true,” She giggled.

He beamed at the sound of her musical laughter, his lone dimple cratering itself deeply in the surface of his flushed cheek. He quirked a brow and his innocent grin morphed into a lopsided smirk, “S’not what it looked like this morning in the sh—“

“I will shove you in the pool, Bobby, I swear.”

Chortling, he caught her hand that had shot out to strike his shoulder and ran his thumb along her skin delicately. The playful pool-side atmosphere slowly filtered itself out as the couple fell into a few beats of silence and his smirk faded into something softer, something that Fallon quickly picked up as concernment. The gentle but firm squeeze he gave her significantly smaller hand had her heart thrumming a bit more heavily against her rib cage and she knew the conversation she had been dreading was looming over them. Truthfully, she had hoped their short moment of joking with one another had successfully diverted the focus off of the distance she’d put between them the entire day, but she should’ve known better; he was a person of validation, craving it to ease the insecurities in his mind from past relationships, so of course he’d picked up on her guarded behavior and wanted to fix it.

Dipping his head low, Bobby pressed the softest of kisses to each of her knuckles and she couldn’t help but watch in awe of the man across from her. His lips lingered against her last knuckle for a few seconds longer than the rest and with a cute nuzzle of his nose to the back of her hand, he rose back up to look at her properly. Vulnerability was written all over his normally smiling face, brows drawn together to form a tiny crease between them, and Fallon despised the fact that she was the cause of his worry.

“What did I do, lass?” He asked quietly, barely to even be heard over the lapping pool water.

The clear-cut sadness in his voice sent a ripple of a throbbing ache through Fallon’s chest. She suddenly felt really silly for worrying about that stupid tweet because how much could an absolute stranger know about someone they’d never met anyway? It was complete stupidity on her part for believing a random person on the internet over the man she was undoubtedly falling for after only eight days.

Fallon set her book aside and dropped Bobby’s hand just long enough to move to the lounge chair opposite her, sitting so close to him that every inch from their knees to their hips touched. She pressed her cheek against his left shoulder as their hands found each other’s again, digits slotting together like they were drawn back by an invisible force.

“It’s dumb, really,” She admitted shyly, a tinge of shame coating each word. “I feel stupid for worrying about it.”

“M’sure it’s not dumb.” He shifted his body to face her a bit more, his free hand cupping her jaw reassuringly. “I never want you to feel like you can’t talk to me about how you feel.”

She tilted her head to the side and pushed her lips to the warm skin on the inside of his wrist where his hand held her cheek. “I know,” She hummed softly. “I just… I dunno why I didn’t pull you aside to chat about it. I guess I just needed some time to clear my head. Figure out what I wanted to say and how to say it.”

Bobby’s heart plunged dangerously low. The cogs in his head whirred startlingly fast as he immediately assumed the worst. He wore his fear and insecurity plainly on his freckled face and Fallon instantly squeezed his hand, beginning to backtrack before the poor Scottish boy had a heart attack.

“Hey,” She whispered as his hand dropped from her cheek. “I’m sure it’s nothing, okay? It’s just about that stupid challenge…”

Her soft, musical voice trailed off and loud bursts of laughter from somewhere in the Villa carried across the lawn to fill the deafening silence. The ginger haired girl studied the side of Bobby’s face and watched as his slender fingers slid over his plump bottom lip. His dark brows scrunched together in contemplation, recalling the mean tweets they’d read earlier in the day before realization dawned on his face. When he turned his face to look at her again, there was a subtle glint of disbelief twinkling in his amber colored eyes.

“Ah. The infamous player tweet, huh?” His bare knee knocked against hers and a small amused grin ghosted across his mouth in spite of himself. “You know me. Player is my middle name.”

Fallon’s stomach twisted and she was sure her expression mirrored the irritation she felt. Moving her leg away from where it was pressed against his, she pulled her body up off the lounge chair with a frustrated sigh but she didn’t make it very far. She’d taken maybe half a step towards the villa when his warm fingers latched onto hers, gently tugging her back.

In his haste to get her to stay, Bobby had quickly stood up to catch her. The hand that wasn’t softly stroking over her knuckles came up to rest on her jaw, tilting her head up slightly to meet his gaze. Fallon felt a tug at her heart when she saw how alarmed and afraid he looked, a vulnerability that she caught quick glimpses of in only the mere week they’d known each other. It made her physically ache to consider the woman before her and what she had said or done to make him feel so afraid to lose what they’d built together.

Her resolve softened and her very short-lived irritation melted away; she could never stay upset with Bobby for long. It was like attempting to be mad at a puppy—a physically impossible feat.

“That is why I’m upset about it,” Fallon said quietly, making a conscious effort to keep her voice calm and level. “You keep cracking jokes about it but it’s not funny to me.”

His pretty, freckled face pinched in shame at the prospect of his thoughtless actions hurting her the entire day. “M’ sorry, lass,” He murmured. “It's just the idea of me being a player is so off-base that I thought it was funny. I forget sometimes we’ve only known each other for a week and you wouldn’t really know that about me.”

The redhead’s stare fell to the exposed skin of his chest where the top buttons were popped undone. She found herself instinctively tracing the clusters of freckles scattered along his sternum, collarbones, and pectorals—as if it were second nature and she’d been doing it her whole life; maybe she had been in another life and the familiarity of it bled into the one she was living.

When Fallon spoke again, she noted how her voice sounded tired. “You should’ve just told me that instead of laughing about it.” And then even weaker— “I was starting to believe that maybe you were just playing the game after all.”

Bobby’s thumb stroked along the curve of her cheekbone attentively. “Hey,” He hummed and the tenderness in the way his Scottish twang caressed that one word was enough to draw tears to her waterline. “Hey, baby, look at me.”

Embarrassment crept onto her cheeks and she felt her sun kissed skin burn against the palm of his hand but she obliged and the second her watery blue eyes peered up at him, all rounded out and doe-like, he felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. His brows scrunched together and his heart tugged. Seeing her cry because of him was absolute torture.

“I’d be the dumbest bloke around if I screwed us up.” The tip of his thumb caught the one stray tear that slipped over the rim of her lower lash line and he dipped lower to kiss it away. “I decree that you let me see that pretty smile of yours right now.”

The tiniest of smiles quirked up the corner of Fallon’s lips at his silly decree and Bobby frowned, clearly unsatisfied.

His expression softened into a loose smirk that reeked of mischief and the glint in his pretty eyes had her stomach flipping in anticipation. “Shame. I guess this calls for more extreme measures.”

With a brow arched in confusion, she started to curiously ask what these extreme measures were but the question died in her throat when he stooped to press his forehead against hers. The pace of her heart picked up in her chest and she was pretty certain she was holding her breath until the tip of his nose bumped hers. Fallon’s  breathy, blissful laugh filled the silence between them and his grin only grew wider as nuzzled her nose with his, back and forth a few times like an Eskimo kiss.

For a few content moments, her eyes fell shut and the worry weighing her down lifted. Bobby’s gentle Scottish lilt whispering a cheeky ‘boop’ had her lashes fluttering and she was met with one of his radiant smiles. There was no doubt in her mind that his smiles could rival those of the sun.

A boy like him with sunshine for smiles could never be a player.  He was sunshine embodied and he was the sweetest, most beautiful boy she’d ever known.

[kaypeace21]

Hey Kay! I was wondering... I'm thinking of writing a Byler fic. Is there anything that's missing from the current fic library that you think would be good to see, in terms of tropes, characterisation, things to explore, etc? I would also appreciate hearing from your followers. Just any ideas that people would like to see in a fic.

yeah sure ...

1)We need more povs from Mike’s perspective. (Almost all are from Will’s pov - let’s mix it up sometimes)

Mike in canon is the pinning-gay -(overly romantic) whipped one , but we never see it. And he’s pretty much never written this way! Mike in s3 has 6 drawings from Will on his wall  (he kept them up since s1-for years- despite replacing the poster on the same wall). Has even caressed extra drawings of Will’s that he’s kept in his binder.  In s1 wrote a whole story for Will about defeating a monster and giving the king it’s  7 heads (cause Will rolled a 7 when the demogorgan attacked him.) And as a Star Wars fan he had his own character be given a medal by the king (like how leia gave the medal to Han for his heroism.) He attacked people for insulting Will. Literally hates apologizing -but is quick to do so for Will . Boy ran in the pouring rain twice for Will- disobeying cops, the government, and his parents to do so. He initiates every byler moment (arm thing, hand touch, ‘best thing i’ve ever done’, ‘crazy together, right?’, always asking Will “what’s wrong?” or “are you ok?” etc). And was upset at Will dancing with a girl + insecure about Will replacing him -after he moves away.

-but 90% of byler fanfics (don’t get me wrong some are good) are from Will’s pinning perspective. Also do people realize Mike is clearly the more romantic/ emotional open of the 2 while Will is clearly the more emotionally closed off/aloof one?  He loves Mike too- but he’s def less obvious about his feelings- based on how he behaves. Will rarely opens up to people (Mike being an exception). But, it’s never written that way (usually it’s the opposite).  

2) as a gay women all the reductive stereotypes annoy me. it’s obvious when fic writers try to have the gay romance be modeled after het romance- and try to make one into the ‘girl’/ ‘guy’. Duffers don’t stereotype  Mike or Will but a lot of fanfiction writers do in order to make the gay romance resemble a straight one more (canon character traits, be dammed). Please, stop pushing heterosexual dynamics on gay and lesbian couples and trying to make one “the girl” and “the guy”. It’s very offensive and innaccurate.

Because he’s taller and most people head canon him as bi they make Mike a jock (despite in canon having horrible aim and not being able to run as fast as the rest of the gang). And Will (since most see him as gay) is weak/ sucks at sports compared to mike...despite knowing how to use a bat, shoot a gun, and being able to tear castle byers apart with his bare hands . Also nothing in canon shows Will likes to wear makeup and dress in drag (but it’s a constant thing that i’ve heard come up or heard others mention). It would be fine if he wanted to express himself in such a way. And if it only came up in an occasional fic it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s such a common theme that comes up (despite no canon evidence) that in most cases it just screams ‘straight writers trying to make Will into “the girl”’.  Not to mention the huge emphasis of their height difference (shows this too). It can get annoying calling him “short” & “petite” (a term used for women) when will isn’t even the shortest guy member- and now his actor is way taller than gaten (dustin) a bit taller (I think?) than caleb (Lucas) and barely shorter than finn (Mike’s actor). But writers even in future fics write him as short...ok? ya’ll really can’t let go of making Will “the girl.” Cause ya’ll incorrectly equate shortness to femminity. It’s tiring. Some writers straight up say he’s “pretty “, “feminine” or “looks like a girl” 🙄

3) it’s not byler if it’s unrequited- stop tagging it as such

4) more emphasis on Will’s passions(art, writing, horror movies). Maybe in his upbringing with Lonnie.And jon being a good bro to him. Will’s Mental health issues maybe ?

5) mike is a socially awkward, clumsy, unathletic, (caring) science/sci-fi /D&D loving nerd. In au whatever- but mike is not a bro-y jock, or a cool bad boy. 😂 plus , more writer mike would be nice to see

6) headcanon him all you want -but at this point it’s pretty obvious (to me at least) Mike never loved el,and was just lying/confused/ projecting Will on her. And El is/was also confused and never loved mike.   so it would be nicer to see that instead of Mike just ‘falling out of love’ with her. Mike is gay. people say in s3 Will saying “a day free of girls” is gay coded but everyone ignores Mike in s3 saying “BOYS ONLY”. same energy. writers even threw in a telemarketing joke so Mike says in s3 “El? no. sorry not interested.” And Mike has more rainbow refs than Will.  Boy is clearly gay not bi (way too much evidence to talk about here) .  They even  compare mileven to ted/karen who “never loved each other.”   The  writers make fun of mileven constantly and say over and over it’s not actually romantic - (if you choose to read just 1 link read this one  and get with the program) . plus, most Bi dudes  wouldn’t stop being attracted to a girl the more fem she gets (and only be attracted to her when she looks like a “guy”(specifically their guy friend).which yes the characters in s1 said over and over again that El looked like a “boy”/“will”.  And then they have him Makeout with her while putting up a  drawing of said male bff on the wall (cause now she looks less like him) and so he needs to look at said bro, to stomach the makeout seshes/ and in an effort to transfer said romantic feelings from guy friend to gf. Then push his gf’s hands off himself during the kisses- sing to stop kissing, and  kiss to mostly show off how straight he is. And without said pic- not kiss back and just keep his eyes open and not reciprocate. Nor would they have Mike equate het romance to something he thinks he has to do as a part of growing up . Bi dudes consider falling for a girl as simply romance not a foreign idea that has to be done cause there’s no other option and that’s ‘just what old people do’. Mike claims el is the only girl he’s ever had feelings for - but like dustin said mileven is “bullshit “ (stancy parallel -where nancy was not in love but faking it). So mike’s never been into a girl and is also into Will... so...

7) it’s the 80s they can’t just be open/ have pda in public (you could have gotten k*lled or beaten severely.) And most of their friends/fam would not take it well initially. (I think jon, Karen , and steve/robin would take it well... but not most of the crew.) although they’d all prob come around eventually . -Takes me out of a fic to have such historical revisionism when everyone is just totally fine with byler and they’re out to the public/strangers.

but that’s just me. What about you guys?

[b-rainlet]

📓📓📓📓

- the-scarecrxw

(Since you sent 4 of those emojis I'm gonna go off but I'll stick to one in this answer and make seperate posts for the others aksnsns)

I can't give you anything Jonathan centric (that isn't Tommy/Jonathan, one of my fave rarepairs) but Jerome features in lots of my AUs.

This one is one of my faves that's entirely self-indulgent and if it ever gets written it's probably gonna be the longest fic I ever published (Again: If it ever gets written):

I gotta apologize in advance, it's just a fun little AU I haven't put too much thoughts into in terms of plotting so this is gonna be A. Long, B. Messy and C. A little chaotic

- First off, you gotta understand that @nsfwitchy2 Me had some fun with a pretty nonsensical and definitely not canon-compliant AU where Jerome and Jeremiah have three Mums (Tabby, Lee and Barbara, who all date) and live with them and Barbara Lee as their little sister.

- Ecco also lives with them, she sees herself as both the twins' gf more than a genuine part of the family tho (for now)

- (Meanwhile at Wayne Manor Alfred and Jim date and are very tired parents of Bruce and his clone 514A, in this AU - and pretty much every AU - nicknamed Brook)

- (Selina kinda goes back and forth between living at Wayne Manor or at Lee's place)

- Also, everyone dates. The twins. The clones. Eccomiah, Jecco, Batcat, Valeyne, Wayleska, they're all fucking

- Which isn't THAT important for this particular AU but I figured I'd give a warning xD

- This is mostly my attempt to give Tabitha some more backstory? Just...how I personally see her character and how I could see her end up if things would've went differently after S2

- The google docs file is called 'How Tabitha started being a Mum while disregarding canon completely' lmao

- Like her current life involves having 4 kids (if you count Selina) and two wives and that's a hell of an AU and I just like to overthink things and play with the way things would have needed to have gone in canon to have her 'end up' like this

- Also I can see her struggling with having a family all if a sudden (that isn't a manipulative brother or a weird cult)

-Especially if that involves Motherhood

- So on one hand it's a 'S2 until now' fic, explaining what happened to her in my canon

- But also - mostly because I find that easier to organize in my brain - it's interwoven with a 5+1-esque fic of all her children calling her 'Mum' (and her getting emotional over that)

- So it switches back and forth between the past and the present but for rambling's sake, I'll start with the past

- She still leaves Theo behind and flees with Silver but she keeps Silver close instead of immediately sending her away

- And her and Silver get taken in by Fish after they leave Theo because they have nowhere to go and Fish loves taking care of strays

- (Fish, who probably didn't end up in Indian Hill but rather lives in hiding until she is ready to strike against Penguin)

- She refers to herself as Liza's Mother in canon, you can't tell me she wouldn't instantly adopt Tabby and call her 'Honey' and give her motherly advice while Tabby tries to be all bite but actually enjoys somebody taking care of her for once

- Selina🤝Tabby

'Trying so very hard all the time to not show how soft and insecure they are'

- Actually, I'd start diverting from Canon even sooner aksnsjd

- Well not full on changing canon, but I'd...pepper in some stuff

- Like some scenes of her back with Theo and the Maniax

- Mostly her talking to Theo about Jerome's planned murder, which, yeah, she knows it's been set in stone from the beginning but that doesn't mean that she isn't talking about alternatives where he doesn't get killed off

- And Theo's like "Don't tell me you're going soft. No one will miss him. He was just a boy. Not worthy enough to be remembered."

- And later on she betrays him and goes 'I remember him'

- Anyway, they stay with Fish for a while but Tabby doesn't wanna keep Silver in Gotham

- So she sends her back to the school she went to before coming to Gotham with Theo (but makes sure their weird cult can't get their hands on her there)

- And Silver wants her to come with but Tabby says she has some unfinished business

- Aka she just doesn't wanna leave Barbara (who is in a coma atm, if Memory serves right)

- And Tabby's reasoning is that it's not safe in Gotham but really, she thinks she can't be responsible for another person

- "She needs a mother. A Family. I can't give her that." - "You are her family."

- So Silver's out of the picture and Tabby hangs with Fish until Barbara wakes up and they get together again (and never ever seperate)

- Also there's no Butch/Tabby because that was unnecessary as fuck

- And I gotta be honest, I haven't thought more about canon because Butch/Tabby alone makes my head hurt already but somehow they start dating Lee

- Who brings Jerome into the relationship because I sure am fond of Lee being Jerome's Mother (like as in, I have several wips with that concept alone not counting this one)

- Jerome probably came back to life after S3 and Lee fought to have him not be treated like a violent criminal but rather a child who was taken advantage of and after his release from Arkham (where she visited him and made sure he got some proper treatment) it seemed natural to have him live with her

- (But also he's still a criminal aksnsjs, you can see how much I thought about this)

- (Sue me for sticking to the heartfelt scenes and avoiding the mess that is plotting)

- Tabby and Barbara already had Selina and through Jerome, Jeremiah and Ecco were added et voila! Their Family is complete

- (Why exactly Barbara Lee exists if Tabby and Barbara have been non-stop dating since S2 I can't tell you, I simply think she is neat and I like the idea of big brother Jerome)

- (This AU? Self-indulgent? Why would you ever think that?)

- In the present however she is dealing with what is mostly referred to as 'feelings'

- Mostly panic at realizing that the bunch of weird children she's been living with are seeing her as some kind of parental figure

- Because suddenly they all call her 'Mum'

- Unsurprisingly the first one to call her Mum is Jerome at breakfast

- She's reading the newspaper and there's an article about a hostage situation the twins planned and he goes 'Mum, are you done with that? Can we see?'

- And they snatch it from her and argue about how they didn't even make the front page while Tabby nearly chokes on her coffee

- And of course she breaks down talks to her wives about it later while they get ready for bed because no one ever called her 'Mum' before

- Barbara's braiding her hair, while Lee's off to the side, getting ready for bed and it's very domestic and I am very gay

- But neither see it as a big deal because both of them have been called Mum before (by Jerome at least. Like. Immediately upon meeting them)

- So she's trying to be nonchalant about it because it's only a big deal if she makes it one

- While also not being able to deny the warm feeling that spreads throughout her body when Jerome keeps calling her 'Mum'

- Miah and Selina on the other hand are both hesitant to call anyone Mum

- Miah cause of Pride, Selina cause of her Mummy Issues

- But they both do at some point

- I think I have more notes on this SOMEWHERE but I kinda wanna have Miah call her Mum while he's ill (because we all know he'd be super fussy and want attention 24/7)

- So she humours him and while he's close to falling asleep - and she's totally not carding her fingers through his hair because she isn't soft or anything - he mumbles: "Thank you Mum" and she melts

- Selina would be more angsty

- Like, maybe it's her birthday and she disappears for a while (as she tends to do) but Tabby (who's closest to her) knows how hard this day is for her (since again her Mum isn't there with here and looks for her and brings her back home but doesn't make a big fuss out of her birthday

- Just...lets her be, gives her space but also lets her curl up close to her and maybe Selina doesn't call her Mum on that exact day

- But it's the day she realizes she wouldn't mind calling Tabitha her Mother, so she hesitantly tries it out a while later (maybe days, maybe weeks, however long it takes for her to feel comfortable with it) and they share a smile

- Then there's Barbara Lee, but she barely counts because she's a toddler and calls everyone 'Mummy'

- Even her father ajsnsnsn

- The last one would be Ecco because I have a very soft spot for Tabby and Ecco being close

- Ecco's rather formal with them for the longest time (she calls Barbara, Lee and Tabby 'Ma'am' for the most part because she may like them, but she doesn't think they see her as family. She's just the token girlfriend).

- So there's a scene where they connect, possibly over Tabby's hand and Ecco's head since I hc that Ecco gets headaches and migraines a lot (considering that she still gets shot in the head by Miah, like I said, this AU isn't necessarily the most bullet proof in terms of linear timelines)

- But so is Gotham so-

- So there's possibly a scene where Ecco's headache is getting super bad and no one's around (especially not Miah to dote on her) and Tabby awkwardly tries to bond by telling her about her hand and how she can't feel much (is a little clumsy with it) and Ecco immediately imprints on her like a duckling

- Maybe it's even the first time anyone reached out to Ecco in a way that feels genuine, especially without the twins or any of her (various) other partners being present so now she's willing to die for Tabby

- Which ends in her also calling her 'Mum' (while she keeps calling Lee and Barbara 'Ma'am' and Lee's so mad ajsnsjdj she was trying so hard to bond with this kid but couldn't quite get it right and you're telling her her socially pretty clumsy - but still wonderful of course - wife managed with just one conversation?? Slander

- And of course because I can't stop myself, there would be even more tidbits here and there of Tabby overcoming her previous way of living (as in, thinking caring or showing emotions is weakness) by having her reminisce a LOT about Theo

- For example by having Jerome climb into bed with her while Barbara's sleeping and Tabby is waiting for Lee to come home

- Lee works as a doc in the narrows which may be a little illegal, but the people didn't just stop needing help after her Queen of the Narrows arc was over, so I vote she keeps at it (and is held in very high regard for it by pretty much everyone)

- Tabby always stays up until everyone is home because she likes knowing where everyone is and that they're safe while Jerome has frequent nightmares and wanders around the house, so this isn't a rare occurrence

- And sometimes, they talk Theo

- "You miss him?" - "Don't know."

- "I wish he was still alive so I could kill him." - "....Me too." - "Which one?" - "...Both."

- (ajajsbssj this is all just copy pasted and cleaned up a lil', leave me and my pretentious way of writing dialogue alone)

- Tabby also has a lot of interludes where she thinks about what growing up with Theo was like/her childhood in general

- How she always protected him from other children bullying him and how they swore to have each other's back but how in hindsight, she was the one doing all the dirty work for him, helping him fulfill his dream and enact his revenge

- Realizing that he probably never cared for her, not like she cared for him

- There's also allusions to them having sex because you cannot tell me they did NOT have sex

- And it ends with Tabby realizing that she is quite happy with how she ended up, even if it's neither how she thought she would ever live nor what her old self would've even wanted, possibly seeing too many attachments as 'weak' judging by the way she canonly used Butch for convenience sake at first

- And yeah, maybe now she can provide the family - the Mother - somebody else desperately needs

- So she brings Silver home

[gellavonhamster]

for the ask meme: 001 for dark (even though i still haven’t watched it yet but i’m really excited to eventually) and/or 002 for beatrice/bertrand/lemony

001 for Dark:

Favorite character: Claudia - the cleverest player in the time travel game and the baddest bitch with an amazing character development

Least favorite character: Ulrich. Objectively speaking, he is hardly the worst person out there, but I just find him so annoying

5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Aleksander/Regina, Agnes/Doris, Hannah/Katharina, Jonas/Martha (I couldn’t care less about them for the first two seasons, but s3 changed my mind), annnd Bartosz/Silja

Character I find most attractive: AGNES

Character I would marry: do I absolutely have to marry into that horrible town? The 1950′s version of Egon seems like an okay option, I guess

Character I would be best friends with: Regina or Ines

A random thought: a fic I recently read opened my eyes to the fact that the snake biting its own tail - the symbol associated with the time travellers - could signify not only the ouroboros, in which the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning, but also (in its secondary meaning) the serpent, which seems quite appropriate for a story that has Adam, Eve, (the myth of) Paradise, and the (White) Devil, and wow... there are truly endless possibilities for analysis, what a mindblowing show (she said for the 100th time)      

An unpopular opinion: I... don’t feel as strongly about Noah/Elisabeth as everyone else seems to. That must be because we didn’t see much of them as an actual couple, it was mostly a grown man around a little girl (creepy) or a young adult around a girl who is still significantly younger than he (less creepy, but still a bit weird). They obviously loved each other a lot and deserved better, but I guess I just didn’t have enough time to get attached to them as a ship

My Canon OTP: Aleksander/Regina

My Non-canon OTP: I don’t really have one at this point, but the idea of  Hannah/Katharina is slowly growing on me... who needs cheating men, lol

Most Badass Character: Claudia (see the first point)

Most Epic Villain: I don’t think there are any clear-cut villains on this show, but if we’re talking those morally gray characters who cause the most problems, then probably Eve (sorry, Adam!)

Pairing I am not a fan of: the first ship I thought of is very spoilery, so I’ll just say instead that Ulrich/Hannah was an unhealthy trashfire of a relationship that made everything worse for everybody

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Silja (underdeveloped, needed more personality, I still love her though), Agnes and Doris (their subplot got neglected towards the end)

Favourite Friendship: weirdly enough, I don’t know? Everyone in this story just keeps screwing everyone over. But I enjoyed what little we saw of alt!Martha and alt!Bartosz together, and, if sibling dynamics count, Martha & Magnus.

Character I most identify with: I’ve definitely made this joke somewhere already, but Wöller because comic relief eye injury + I, too, never have a clue about what’s going on

Character I wish I could be: uhhh, no one? Maybe Claudia if I really have to come up with an answer (not pre-time travel Claudia, though).

002 for B/B/L:

When I started shipping them: god, I don’t remember. Some time after joining the ASOUE fandom and reading some fics and realizing that this is a possibility and I like this possibility a lot

My thoughts: I know I’ve said this before, but it makes canon less tragic (no love triangle) and MORE tragic (Lemony loses both people he loved) at the same time, and I think that’s beautiful. Also, each dynamic between each two characters within this OT3 is so interesting in its own way! There’s Lemony/Beatrice that must have grown from a passionate relationship of two dramatic and loving people who were probably too similar in their personality and not similar enough in their aspirations to what is basically the poet and the muse (probably because writing about a muse is not as painful as mourning a real woman). There’s Bertrand/Beatrice, which I see as a more mature and healthy, if less romantic, relationship of two people who share the same goals and the weight of the same crime on their shoulders and decide to change their lives together. And then there’s Bertrand/Lemony - two gifted men who got compared to each other (well, at least L sure got compared to B) even before they first met, and who, logically, must have been rivals, except that there is a lot of fondness in how Lemony writes about the man who married his ex-bride... inch resting..... what I’m saying is that it’s a facinating dynamic made up of three separate fascinating dynamics and they live in my head rent free  

What makes me happy about them: see above for fascinating dynamics + I like to imagine that whatever time they spent together was very happy for all three of them 

What makes me sad about them: oh, I don’t know, the fact that two of them die, and one is left alone and depressed? :))

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I think I liked, at least more or less, all B/B/L fics I’ve read, so I have no answer

Things I look for in fanfic: at this point I just look for fanfic, period. Also smut bc I can’t believe the closest thing to smut w/ this ship was written by me, of all people

My wishlist: I don’t see how this point is different from the previous one? Anyway, gimme all the fanfiction and fanart and headcanons and everything

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:  Beatrice with R, Bertrand with Ernest (Vera sold me on this ship :D), Lemony with his Kind Editor

My happily ever after for them: B&B both survive the fire, start looking for their children, run into L, and then all three of them together manage to find Violet, Klaus, and Sunny

[megan0013]

trollhunters: unfinished fic

stricklake - 2,080 words - drama, romance

written pre-s3. baby drama and jealous strickler and a prophecy and an unknown changeling working for morgana. at least, that was the original idea. i only wrote one chapter before scrapping it, so it’s really just baby drama. 

He’s been back in Arcadia for two weeks when he finally sees her.

Most of his time has been spent behind closed doors, debating the pros of certain defensive maneuvers and organizing the best possible attack strategies, and the feeling of confinement has been threatening to suffocate him for days now. He needed to get out of those caves, needed to breathe fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. And so he’d taken the opportunity to quietly duck out of what was supposed to be a quick discussion about how they could best utilize NotEnrique (that had somehow erupted into a Blinky and Claire squabble session) for a cup of tea at their – his – favorite coffee shop.

He chats amicably with the young barista as he orders his usual, explaining away his absence as a series of unfortunate familial incidents he’d had to attend to, before heading outside to his preferred two-top. It’s a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and he can’t think of a better way to spend his afternoon as he takes a sip of his drink and settles back into the chair.

Two hours and an embarrassing number of refills later the sun is halfway through its descent when he reluctantly pushes back. The meeting is bound to have broken up by now, and it’s best he gets back to his little hovel before anyone realizes he’s shaken the short leash they’ve been keeping him on. He’s halfway standing when the sound of her laughter suddenly fills his ears. He freezes, eyes wide and heart pounding as she steps into his line of vision.

The ground seems to sway under his feet.

She’s got on her scrubs and her auburn hair has started to fall out of her bun, there’s a smear of something that could be vomit on her shoulder, her glasses are smudged, and there are dark circles under her bright blue eyes, but that wide, cheerful smile on her face is infectious and Walt honestly doesn’t think he’s ever seen something so beautiful before in his very long life. He takes a subconscious step forward, and rams his knee into the very heavy metal table. The jarring pain is enough to snap him out of his stupor and that’s when he realizes Barbara isn’t alone, that she’s laughing with a tall, blond man he vaguely recognizes as one of the orthopedic surgeons at her hospital.

It’s nothing, he thinks just before the surgeon’s hand comes to rest on Barbara’s lower back. The grin she flashes the blond is enough to make Walt’s blood boil and he’s sidestepping the table to instigate (though he swore to himself he would avoid her at all costs) when he notices the way Barbara’s scrubs have smoothed over her slightly rounded belly. He stops and blinks. Barbara shouldn’t have a belly at all. Barbara is bony and thin and doesn’t have enough fat on her body to keep her warm in summer.

But Barbara does have a rounded belly that is made all the more prominent when her hand rests upon it just before she’s ushered into the café.The blood drains from Walt’s face.

Food baby? He hopes silently before shaking away the thought. He’s bared witness to Barbara’s binging after a long shift and this bump is nothing like those caused by cheeseburgers and cake.

She’s pregnant, obviously. But when? And how? He was gone a little over five months and the swell of her stomach is too big to be anything less than that. Unless, his treacherous heart twists, she was seeing the surgeon before he left? No, she would never do that. Barbara is loyal and selfless and would never subject anyone to the pain she felt when her husband had been unfaithful.

Which leads to the next question – how? Changelings aren’t able to reproduce. They have the equipment but shoot blanks due to the manipulation and magic done to their DNA and there has never been a documented record of a hybrid conception in any of the historical texts he’s read before.

“Oh hell,” Walt mutters to himself as the realization of what he’s truly done settles upon him. Not only has he somehow defied the rules of biology andmagic, but he’s also managed to drag poor Barbara into it in the most despicable way possible.

With the magnitude of his mistakes beginning to weigh on him, Walt takes a deep breath and forces himself into action before his knees give way. He’s lucky Barbara didn’t notice him the first time she’d passed by, but he doesn’t want to push it, so he steals one last look at her through the café window, nose wrinkling at the way the surgeon’s arm is thrown around her shoulders, before setting off.

If he wants answers, he needs to talk to Jim.

Which is why he’s hunched over Barbara’s kitchen table an hour later, staring blankly at the picture in his hands. He’d somehow managed to convince himself that it had all been a misunderstanding during his long walk from the café. A trick of the light or an awkward wrinkle in her shirt, he’d thought with certainty as he let himself into the kitchen through the garage. And then he’d spotted the sonogram stuck to the refrigerator and his carefully constructed denial had come crashing down around him.

The due date is listed as a little less than four months away. Counting back, Walt pins the window of conception to be the week prior to the night in which he had utterly destroyed his life. He hopes it happened during one of their more romantic interludes and not that quickie against the wall in his office, but he can’t quite figure out why that particular detail is so important.

Walt rubs his eye with the back of his hand and sits back in the chair.

It’s a girl, or so it says in white type just below the border of the sonogram. His heart keeps flip-flopping unexpectedly every time his eye catches the words and, though the phenomenon isn’t entirely unwelcome, the implications make him somewhat nervous. There have only been a handful of times in his centuries-long life that he has felt genuine affection for others and that attachment had never, not even for Barbara, manifested so quickly before. What he’ll do when he’s told he’s not welcome in his daughter’s life, he doesn’t know or want to think about yet.

“You know, it’s called ‘breaking and entering’ when you let yourself into someone’s house uninvited.”

Walt looks up to find Jim leaning against the doorframe, arms folded and frowning. They’ve come to a sort of truce over the past two weeks, Jim has even sought him out for advice on more than just battle strategy, but that doesn’t mean this is going to be a pleasant conversation for either of them and Walt figures it’s best to skip the pleasantries.

“You know, it’s called ‘being a dickhead’ when you see a man every day for two weeks and neglect to inform him of his impending fatherhood.”

Jim points at him and says grudgingly, “Touché.”

“Why don’t you have a seat and bring me up to speed?” There’s a hard edge in Walt’s eyes, one honed over the years by defiant teenagers and overly ambitious minions, and he slaps the tabletop across from him with a little more force than intended.

Jim hesitates a second, eyebrows furrowing, but ultimately decides it’s too late to ignore the situation. It was only a matter of time before Strickler found out anyway and, whether he likes it or not, the changeling deserves some sort of explanation. Unfortunately, his mother’s continued ignorance means the responsibility falls to him. As usual.

“She’s healthy,” Jim says as he pulls out the chair and takes a seat.

“Which one?”

“Both.”

Walter nods before glancing back at the sonogram. “I don’t see any horns.”

“She’s developing like a normal human.” Jim gestures at the picture. “Mom opted for the genetic testing a few weeks ago and everything came back okay. Nothing abnormal or weird.”

That’s a relief. Walt had been certain there would be mutations or deficiencies and had been comforted when the sonogram showed nothing obviously out of the ordinary. Hearing confirmation from Jim, however, is much more reassuring. “And Barbara?”

“She’s fine.”

The words are clipped, almost snappish, and Walt senses a bit of accusation in Jim’s tone. Barbara is obviously not fine, or wasn’t before, and the teenager blames him for it. “You’re sure about that?”

“Yes.”

Walt nods, watching Jim warily. “How did she react when you told her about your secret life?”

“I didn’t.”

“I thought not.” Walt sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “Will you tell me why?”

Jim relaxes slightly at the older man’s calm, neutral tone. He’d been expecting indignant anger on his mother’s behalf, but one of the reasons Jim had been drawn to Strickler in the first place was his openness and his ability to listen without passing judgement before judgement was due.

“She was scared,” Jim finally mutters after a long, apprehensive moment. “And I just… I know I should have told her, but she would have freaked and I didn’t want her more stressed than she already was.”

“Can’t fault your logic,” Walt concedes with a nod. “How much does she remember?”

“Nothing troll-related, and nothing about you after you put the enchantment on her. Everything else is still there.”

“She doesn’t remember how she got pregnant?”

“No.”

Walt groans and leans forward to cover his face with his hands. He should have stayed, should have finished what he’d started and waited until things had settled down. But he’d been in such a hurry to retreat, to run away from the guilt and the heartbreak, that he had left Jim to clean up his messes without argument and now… now he bitterly regrets that decision.

“She started acting weird a couple weeks after… that night.” Jim’s gaze drops to the table. “I don’t know if she talked to anyone about it, but she was super cagey around me for a while. That was pretty rough.”

“I can’t begin to imagine what she was thinking.”

“She finally told me about the baby and asked me if she’d been seeing anyone about a month later.” Jim shrugs, though he’s obviously troubled by the memories. “I was gonna lie, but she had this look in her eye and I just… couldn’t. So, I told her you two were dating but broke up when you took a research position in Greece.”

“And she accepted that?”

“Mostly.” Jim nods. “She wanted to try to get in touch with you, but I told her you were in some remote area and didn’t have access to a phone or internet.”

“She didn’t question why she couldn’t remember dating me?” Walt’s eyebrows quirk skeptically.

“I think, at that point, she was just relieved to know it wasn’t something more…” Jim grimaces and waves his hand to indicate the more-ness.

“Right.” Walt knows what Jim is alluding to and he’s happy to leave it unsaid. If Barbara wants to talk about it sometime down the road he’ll listen without interruption, but he doesn’t need her teenage son to elaborate just now. “How would you like to proceed?”

“Would you be cool with pretending this conversation,” Jim sits up a little straighter in his chair and smiles hopefully, “never happened?”

Walt responds with an amused, but undoubtedly negative, snort.

“Didn’t think so.” Jim’s nose wrinkles in disappointment. “Alright, let’s just tell her you came back from Greece last night and-“

“No,” Walt’s tone is firm and steady. “We are not lying to her. Not this time. She deserves the truth.”

“I knew you were gonna say that,” Jim groans and drops his forehead to the table with a thud.

“What time does her shift end?” Walter asks, ignoring the teenage theatrics. “Do you know when she’ll be home?”

Jim looks up, bewildered. “You wanna do this tonight?”

“There’s no time like the present, young Atlas.” Walter gives him a grim smile because, no, he doesn’t want to do this tonight. Or ever, really. Confessing his true nature to Barbara is terrifying, but the thought of her living this lie another moment is almost unbearable. “Trust me, you’ll feel much better once you tell her the truth.”

Jim rolls his eyes. “Doubt it.”

[cuteandtwisted]

hi wiss! not a prompt but i just read your birthday fic for Even and I found it so touching how you treat his MI with so much care. i don't mean to intrude but do you have an MI? it sometimes sounds like you speak from experience. Do you or someone close to you have a mental illness? and what did Even teach YOU?

Hmm. That’s an interesting question. Interesting because I don’t really know., because I’m not sure I’m articulate enough to answer it. Also it’s 8am and I still haven’t slept/been stranded in airports after 3 flights. And I’m typing this on my phone. It’s funny how I always leak and ramble about myself when I’m exhausted.

Long story short: I’ve never seen a therapist and my mental state is based on what I think I know/things I read. It’s all in my head pretty much, which I realize is the same as assessing yourself physically without going to an actual Doctor. Mental illness was always so taboo in my culture growing up. It was considered a curse, an impairment, a sign of weakness of character or of bad karma. And it didn’t only speak for you and your deeds. It also spoke for your entire family. Mental illness was something we only heard about but never got to live through. It was that thing that happened to others or to that one obscure/distant family member. It wasn’t exactly real and it wasn’t nuanced either. It was a death sentence so to speak. It was an ending in and of itself.

My first direct exposure to someone with a mental illness was to my uncle. He’s my father’s youngest brother and we’re barely 10 years apart. What’s most vivid about him in my childhood memories are his height, his silky hair, his talent for drawing, although he’s never had any training, and his tendency to smoke too many cigarettes and drink too many cups of black coffee. He also happened to be schizophrenic and delirious. His symptoms started around the time his parents got a divorce and his father (aka my grandpa) got married to one of his students (i know. Wtf). He got misdiagnosed and his meds fucked with his mind a lot. He never got to finish school or pursue his dream to be an artist. I’m always sad when I think of him because he is the perfect example of someone who could have been helped but who was cursed, not by his pained mind, but by society’s stigma. He always kisses my forehead when he sees me and it always breaks my heart when I remember how scared I used to be of him when I was younger. It wasn’t my fault, I later realized. Everyone around me kept telling me that i was to feel afraid. I often hear about him ending up at the police station and at the hospital, and I often heard my grandmother complain about how he ruined her life with his sickness. Terrifying, isn’t it? It doesn’t encourage anyone who might be feeling inadequate to ever speak up.

I personally started to feel /weird/ when I reached the age of 13/14. My parents said I read books I wasn’t supposed to have read when I was younger and that it messed with my thoughts and my mind. I loved philosophy, still do. Questioning my own existence became a thing I practiced religiously. At one point I was convinced I had superpowers and that I could escape reality whenever I wished to. Sometimes, it was pleasant but not really. Like being tickled. It makes you laugh but you don’t necessarily enjoy the loss of control. I thought I could control it, but then I realized that it was controlling me. Sometimes it was terrifying because I didn’t know what was wrong with me and Google wasn’t extremely helpful either. Later I realized that I was experiencing depersonalization/derealization and that I wasn’t that special. Recoiling into one’s mind to the point of no longer being able to perceive reality was something many others experienced. I was almost disappointed to learn that I wasn’t special.

I went through some terrible experiences around that time and my moods started fluctuating. I would go from elated to extremely down, never leaving my room. My parents were constantly traveling so they didn’t really notice. It didn’t help that I was an extremely proud, reserved, contrary, and cunning teenager. My mind was my best asset and I used to my advantage. Another thing that duped most was my ability to pretend that I was fine all the time. I could be crippled with sorrow and still have a smile plastered across my face. I could entertain groups of 10 for hours then go home and cry until sleep found me. I was proud, stubborn, ‘strong’. And strong people didn’t admit to feeling weak and needing to just sleep it off sometimes.

At one point, I convinced myself that I was bipolar. I even wrote it in my diary and my anonymous blogs back then. I didn’t know much about it. I just knew that my mood swings and my depersonalization episodes had to be attributed to something. Again, i never saw a therapist, so it was all BS. I also never splurged to the point of mania. (However, I do spend money recklessly sometimes. I do jump on flights at the last moment, buy the most stupid shit just for the heck of it, shove my tongue down strangers’ throats just to feel something, drink until I’m blind and throwing up against walls. I do feel larger than life sometimes, slightly invincible, convinced I’m special and have some insight into human nature, convinced i can see right through people and read their minds. I have my moments. But don’t we all?

I also do feel down sometimes to the point of not leaving my bed for days, ignoring everyone’s calls and messages, and just curling around myself in the dark. I do. I do. But don’t we all?

Control and pride are all I have, however. So you won’t find me whining about my feelings or my mood swings in real life.)

I kept entertaining my self-diagnosis and remained convinced I was bipolar until I first met a diagnosed bipolar person at the age of 17. I didn’t know he was bipolar back then, just that people called him ‘crazy’ and a ‘fucking liar’. I knew him as my boyfriend’s best friend/neighbor. I thought he hated me for the longest time. I even imagined that he was secretly gay and in love with my boyfriend. But he wasn’t. I asked him point blank why he hated me one day and he replied with “i don’t. I’m actually in love with you.” I still remember that day so vividly. My boyfriend and I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

My bf and I eventually broke up, after which he got shipped to another city, but I maintained my weird friendship with his best friend/neighbor. He transferred to my school when we were juniors and I took it upon myself to introduce him to people and show him around. He walked me home on Friday afternoons and made me playlists which we listened to on his iPod. We shared his earphones as we walked to my house. He started writing me poems and posting them on facebook. He called me his 'colombe’ which translates to 'his dove’ and he became fixated on me to the point of following me in the streets when I was out with friends. I remember the night he stood outside of a McDonalds with a cigarette between his lips staring at me through the window. I started feeling scared. I rejected his advances and his poems were dark and accusatory now.

He came to school with a bandaged wrist once and i was afraid of asking him what happened. My english teacher pulled me aside at the end of class that day and asked me if it was true that I had pushed him down the stairs and caused his wrist injury. I denied it because it wasn’t and i started feeling slightly terrified. The guy left a note in my bag that day and stopped me during recess to ask me to not open it until i got home.

I opened it as soon as I finished an exam early and went outside waiting for everyone else to come out. It was dark and chilly. It was November. The note he wrote me was another poem and it was written in ?blood? I was shocked and I questioned it as much as I could. It could have been red nail polish. It could have been anything. But why do this to me? Why? I didn’t understand. He came out of the school and i snapped and it was just the two of us in the dark. He had followed me outside but i was so angry and confused that i failed to see that it was just us two now. I asked him what the hell was going on and he said that he cut himself because of me and of how i treated him and that he wrote me a poem with his blood. I think i might have called him crazy. I don’t remember. I was experiencing shock in its purest form so I don’t remember everything I said.

And then he hit me. He shoved me hard against the wall and he hit me across the face, then he said that he loved me and that I didn’t understand. I still remember how the blow felt like nothing. The worst had already happened. I internalized that hit so much, and perhaps I still do. I was tiny compared to him. I can fight people, but I was shocked by how utterly powerless I was at that moment. My limbs had just stopped functioning. And to this day I still find it hard to let my guards down around men or anyone physically capable of overpowering me. Biology, and all. My best friend came out of nowhere and a fight broke because he had me pressed against a wall. Then we all went home. I never told anyone that he hit me that night. I was too proud. I still can’t believe that it’s something that happened to me.

I cut my bangs to the side that night to hide my bruise, and thankfully I have brown complexion so it wasn’t that bad. I avoided him like the plague after that, even when he crawled back to me begging for forgiveness. He later sent me long messages explaining his diagnosis and his bipolar and how he had developed an ‘obsession’ with me, how it wasn’t really him doing those things. But I couldn’t find it in me to forgive him. Being mentally ill doesn’t condone shitty behavior, it doesn’t condone physically assaulting someone. I don’t know. He traumatized me.

I developed some sort of stigma after that. I was kind of like S3 Isak (which is why i think the show changed me so fucking much) I 'chose’ to stay away from 'mentally ill people’ to 'protect myself’.

The guy in question did continue being a shitty person until everyone around town knew to avoid him. He played girls and called them sluts and lied about everything and everyone and he was just pretty horrible. And it took me some time to understand that it wasn’t because he was bipolar. It was simply because he was an asshole.

I did develop empathy for him later on when I stopped being so angry and blaming myself for everything all the time. I guess I realized that some have it harder than others? Maybe his shitty behavior was a byproduct of how he had been treated so far? Maybe it was his only outlet, his only way of lashing out against the world for 'inconveniencing’ him with an imbalanced brain? I don’t know. But i forgive him now. Because I’m sure he wasn’t always terrible. I’m sure he has lived through his fair share of horrible things. I’m sure those weeks he spent in bed were daunting. I’m sure people weren’t always gentle with him. I forgive him but i will never forget. Because some people go through hell and still choose to be kind. Because what he did, using his bipolar to justify his awful actions, is selfish and only perpetuates the stigma around bipolar.

I guess this is why SKAM changed my life so drastically? The only depiction of bipolar i had been exposed to was from this guy who traumatized me and all the crap on TV that either romanticized it or simply turned it into a trope and showed people who suffer from it as helpless and completely delirious with no chance of ever leading a normal life. I’m grateful for SKAM because not only did it erase my previous biased and erroneous views which were influenced by a rather unfortunate event, but it also made me do research and read about it and learn more. I fell in love with Even and his mind and his kindness and all the love he has in him. Life can throw crap at you, but you can still choose to be kind. And that’s what Even and his story taught me. Mental illness is not a death sentence and you can still be loved and happy

Back to your question, I guess, I still haven’t paid a visit to a therapist lol. I’m scared i might find out something about myself that i won’t like. I’m scared of being called out on my bullshit. I’m scared of leaking like a broken faucet. I get dizzy thinking about some of the crap I went through and I sometimes think it’s better left in pandora’s box, that it’s better to keep the lid on. I don’t know. Sometimes my life feels like some really badly written CW show. But I’m still happy with where I am today. Always. One day i’ll organize my thoughts and write something meaningful about the storms in my mind. But until then, i’ll borrow the voice of fictional characters to work through some of my personal experiences.

Sorry about the rambling. I’m SO angry at Delta airlines right now. I had to channel that anger into something else haha.

[katranga]

Part 1: The Miracle of Revision

Same disclaimer applies: Fic is for fun, and these tips are just suggestions!

Intro: Yes, you can write words!

Hello, I am back with more writing tips! This time I’m covering Motivation: AKA Can’t The Words Just Put Themselves On The Page? (As well as a detour into scene building, because that’s always helpful).

So! Stories need to be told. They aren’t going to appear out of nowhere, they need you to be seen and enjoyed by the masses!

So, just in time for NaNoWriMo, I figured I’d share my tips for actually writing the darn thing. I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, but I did write a 40k novella in a month once, and that’s aaaalmost the same lol. Anyway, for that I was kicking out about 2k a day, which is a LOT, and not what my usual word count per day just fyi. But that experience did convince me that I was fully capable of writing that much in a day—as long as I knew where I was going with the story, and just. didn’t. stop.

Don’t Stop Writing

That’s my main secret. Just don’t stop writing! Obviously you don’t have to write an epic in one sitting, but set a goal, and stick to it. Whether that be 100 words a day, or a 1,000. Don’t like going by word count? Set a timer. Write without stopping for 10 minutes. Or write one page a day. Anything is better than nothing!

Honestly, there are some days where all my “writing” is just—write a sentence, scroll through tumblr for 20 minutes, remember I’m supposed to be writing and get out a few more paragraphs, head back to tumblr to reward myself, rinse and repeat the whole day. On those days I’m shocked I ever get anything done.

But that’s the thing. Anything is better than nothing! 100 words a day is going to be a finished product eventually! Writing nothing will get you nothing.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Good

Now of course there’s the question: Cool, but how is setting a timer gonna help me?

Because you have to write. Take off your critique glasses and put on those author lenses! Don’t worry if it sounds good or not! First drafts are not about being good. It’s about starting.

Better writers than me have said editing it like sculpting, so the first draft is you getting together a huge hunk of clay that you can carve away and pick at later to make something beautiful. But you can’t carve air! And readers can’t read what you haven’t written. Try to keep that in mind.

So, so far we’ve got: set a goal, don’t worry about it being good.

Have a Map

To write without stopping for ten minutes, we need to know where we’re going, right?

Have a plan. That 40k novella was the most planned-out thing I’ve ever written. And sure, it changed a lot while I was writing, but I had a beginning, middle and end set out for the characters. I had settings, I had plot points, I had characters in mind (and for fics, a lot of these things are already there for you!)

Know where you’re going. Have a vague plan. Preferably more nailed down than ‘they fell in love’ because uhhh that’s almost every fic.

Some questions to think of beforehand:

How are they going to fall in love?

When are they going to realize it?

How will they react? (To their own realization and/or the other’s confession)

What are they going to do about it?

Why are they falling in love?

That’s a good one for motivation—I know we all think our OTP should be together, but why should your specific iteration of the characters fall in love? I like being convinced!! And it makes for a stronger story.

Of course you don’t have to have it written down (unless you want to!), but if there are a lot of little details, or fun dialogue exchanges you don’t wanna forget, you can definitely jot those down, and then write towards those moments.

To help plan out a fic, I recommend Max Kirin’s How to Plan a Novel video. Now, you may not need to plan out a fic, but if you’re having trouble with inspiration (which admittedly, I rarely do anymore—I’ve just got too many damn ideas) this could help, because it starts from the ground up. Honestly, I love anything by Max, so if you’re gonna spend your time not-writing, you may as well be watching their writing videos!

And if you don’t know exactly how the whole thing is going to end, that’s fine. At LEAST have an end goal in mind for the scene/chapter you’re writing. Every scene you write should have a point. It should move the story forward (or just be cute fluff, this is fic we’re talking about).

But if the fic is about them falling in love/realizing their feelings etc, each scene should getting them closer to that moment where they confess their true feelings (or come to whatever resolution the story has been heading toward).

This usually means the characters getting to know each other better, sharing their pasts and secrets, being vulnerable with each other etc.

And each scene should build on top of the last, so that the ending of the fic could never have happened without all that middle.

Under the cut we’re digging into a scene from Voltron, to look further into scene building.

Scene Building

We’re getting into the nitty-gritty of scene-building, because having a clear picture of how scenes work will hopefully prevent you from writing yourself into a hole of “what is happening here on this day, what am I even writing” (which has happened to me plenty of times).

The beats to hit in any scene are obviously beginning, middle, end, which can also can be treated as

Intro (why this is happening)

Build up (how the characters are reacting)

Climax (peak of the scene/decisions made)

Denouement (how characters react to the resolution, which can mix in with climax for short scenes)

Let’s go over the PINNACLE OF ROMANCE that is the scene from Voltron S3 where Lance stops by Keith’s room for support. I know anybody who’s seen it has already obsessed over it, and there have been a thousand posts about it already.

But let’s talk about why it’s such a well set-up scene.

Background: Lance is coming to Keith because he feels like a seventh wheel now that Shiro can fly the black lion again.

This is building on previous scenes—Lance has been feeling insecure for a while, but now that there are six paladins and only five lions, he’s really feeling worried, and he wants some comfort. Just like he offered to Keith, when Keith was freaking out about being the leader. Lance wouldn’t have come to Keith without these previous scenes to build on.

So, Lance explains his feelings, show his insecurities to Keith and asks for help.

Now, a character in Keith’s position could do a few things:

Tease him for being vulnerable

Dismiss his concerns

Address his concerns and assure Lance he’s needed in the team

Now… Keith kind of does the second one, with a dash of the third.

(He does NOT do the first, which would’ve meant a serious downturn in their relationship development. Which isn’t always bad in a fic, there needs to be obstacles, right? Sometimes one character pisses another off, and apologies need to happen to strengthen the friendship back up.)

But that doesn’t happen here, thank god.

We get Keith Trying His Best.

This ties in to his characterization—Keith isn’t super great with words or emotions. He’s clearly surprised that Lance came to him (but pleased all the same). In dismissing Lance’s concerns, Keith is TRYING to ease them. He’s trying to help.

So the basic outline of this scene is:

Lance: Keith, I need help. (Math speech--more pilots than there are lions)

Keith: No, you don’t. (”Things will work themselves out.”)

Lance: Oh. Okay ): ): (”Okay. Thanks.”)

Keith sees that Lance is disappointed when he’s leaving, so he says the ICONIC line of “Hey Lance? Leave the math to Pidge.” Which roughly translates to:

Keith: You don’t need help :) :) :) <3

And then there’s the subtext of Keith wanting to tell Lance he’s an important part of the team, but he’s socially awkward so he doesn’t, blah blah blah, we all know that.

And a good scene usually has subtext, an underlying current of what the characters aren’t saying—especially if they’re bad with their feelings, or just holding them back (which is like every fic ever).

Now, we can debate over whether or not that convo influenced Keith into leaving to join the Blade, but in a fic, that would DEFINITELY be a cause and effect situation, because Keith would want to solve Lance’s problem.

Lance: There are too many paladins. You guys don’t need me :(

Keith: I’ll leave. Now there are five paladins again. All fixed! :)

Which is obvs not what Lance meant but HEY, stories have conflict.

So, to review:

Intro: Lance has a concern and wants Keith’s input

Build up: Math talk, Lance asks Keith for reassurance that he isn’t useless

Climax: Keith tells Lance to stop overthinking, things will work themselves out; Lance isn’t satisfied with that, which Keith notices

Denouement: leave the math to Pidge (Keith trying his BEST)

Aaaaanyway, the point of this tip is, if you know where your scene is going (AKA why you’re writing the scene and why it’s important to the fic at large) then everything will go a lot smoother for you!

Distractions--Get Rid of Them

The final tip is about distractions, and besides locking yourself in an empty room with a good playlist, I’ve got some helpful apps/sites that suck out any distraction. Obviously both free.

Fighter’s Block – Website, super cute. You decide how many words you wanna write, and you keep typing, or the dragon defeats you. A health bar goes down when you stop typing, and goes up when you keep typing, to keep those fingers on the keys. (Don’t worry, even if the health bar gets to 0, your writing will not disappear, and it’ll save it for a while, too.)

Focus Writer – Free downloadable app for your computer. Basically fills your whole screen with a blank page so you’ve got no distractions. Totally customizable, you can pick the font, upload a background pic, turn off spellcheck, set goals for the day that it’ll keep track of so you can set a streak. Saves your documents. Basically, if you don’t have MS word or any other writing program, you can totally use this for all your writing.

Both of these are really useful when you know what you want to write, but you just can’t focus. They help me, at least!

-

So, that’s all I’ve got! Again, this got way too long, but I hope it helps! If you’ve got any questions, shoot ‘em my way, and I’ll do my best to help out.

[kinetic-elaboration]

October 5: Complete Project List

I feel like I should have spent more time this week reading books and fic because my writing has not been going very well. I just feel so…uninspired. None of my projects are really, I don’t know, calling out to me. I don’t know why.

The only thing I’ve really worked on is my Bellarke High School AU, which I still like, though not as much as I used to. At least that’s something.

I don’t think this is actually going to be helpful but because I feel like I need to be organized and my go-to solution for when I lack focus is just to lay out all my projects in front of me and contemplate them, I’m going to go through my entire current writing folder and see if anything jumps out at me and excites me again.

I currently have 28 documents (though fewer than 28 projects because some of those documents are rejected passages or notes, etc.).

In order of appearance:

HAICG: I really do want to work on this again because it’s been so long and I feel guilty. Also because I had such inspiration and passion for it last summer/early fall. But it will probably require re-reading a big chunk of the fic to get into the style of it again and also I’m not really in ST fandom atm so it’s just...tiring to think about.

The autumn fic: You’d think this would be the perfect time to work on this, it being autumn and all (allegedly) but really I feel nothing for it right now. I still rather like the universe and I’ll probably continue to mess around with it in drabbles and so on, but it was originally conceived of as a multi-chapter fic and that’s…not going to happen anytime soon. It’s one of those ideas that feels very real in my head, strongly atmospheric, but when I try to pin down the plot and put any of it into words…I just lose a lot of confidence in it.

The party fic: I worked on this a few days ago, for the first time since summer, and it was a disappointing exercise. For so long I felt like this was still a front-burner project, even though I wasn’t actually writing it like at all, and now I’ve just realized how far my interest in it and inspiration for it has dropped. I don’t know…I guess I’m not so much abandoning it as seeming it with clear eyes. Low priority.

K/S affair: This really shouldn’t be in my current projects folder. I moved it over from my old projects folder a year ago during my last big ST kick with the thought I might actually work on it but I have not. It’s literally 5 sentences long.

K/S Aftermath story: I’ve been telling myself all year that one day I’m “just going to sit down and write this” and yet. Part of what intimidates me is that I actually did start it but I don’t think I like the beginning so I want to start again, but having a rejected opening puts so much pressure on all subsequent openings not to suck as much. So it’s become a mythical, monstrous thing.

Bellarke Beat AU: So I started writing this in the summer of 2016 during my last Beat phase and I really like what I have! But I haven’t touched it in so long… I tried once but I could see too clearly the seams between the two parts. I feel like one day I’ll pick it up and say “I want to finish this” and then it will be my priority project for a little bit and then it will be finished.

Bellarke Long HS AU: Oh gosh I used to think about this universe a lot when I was in law school. I never got any farther than writing some notes, not even a true outline, but I…just can’t call it abandoned. Initially it was going to be this very ambitious two-part thing but I still hold out hope I’ll write the short one-part thing version. Again, it’s an atmospheric fic that I’m not sure I can actually put into words…

Bellarke HS AU: The only thing I’ve gotten real writing done on in the last week. It’s currently at about 6k words and I’m on the last scene. I imagine it will end at about 8k. Probably my biggest priority if only because it’s the easiest thing I have going at the moment.

BFF Fill: The first sentence of notes on this is so pretentious it causes me pain and I’m the one who wrote it. Which doesn’t mean the actual fic will be bad. I hope. I don’t have a BFF deadline for a while so I’m not worried about it but also I don’t want to constantly do things at the last minute. I’m trying to move beyond that. Currently in the planning stages. I have general ideas and I think I need to distill them into a scene-by-scene outline before I can start writing. (It’s not that it’s that long…I don’t think…just semi-complicated in structure.)

Clarke, Sports Nut: I don’t know why this is a separate document. It’s in the same verse as the HS AU and I’m more than half sure it’s going to be a rejected one-shot opening but I’m keeping it around in case I want to expand it into an actual one-shot.

Dollhouse AU Notes/Chapter 1/Rejected Scenes: I still think this would be such a cool fic. BUT. Every time I start it, I hate it and I need to scrap everything I’ve written. I’ve trashed a huge amount of material by my standards and each time I reject something I lose more hope that it will ever be to my liking. Also, if I did write this for real, it would be an insane amount of work. And the audience for it would probably be small. And the truth is that I’m not sure I could put so much into the actual writing of a fic of this length and complexity for an audience of me. I’ll write smaller fics or even novellettes for an audience of me but some things, the return is just too small… so I don’t know.

Jonty Fluff Fic: I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time—I think it’s actually taken off of one of those AU prompts floating around tumblr—and I actually started writing it after 4x11 because I was so sad and this irredeemably fluffy, guilty pleasure, cotton-candy-in-written-word-form story made me feel better. But apparently I haven’t worked on it since July whoops.

Gina Magical Dystopia: I was going to write this two years ago but my opening sucked and then last summer I brought my notes back and tried to outline it but then I kind of abandoned it again. I’m not going to force it but somehow I think a desire to write it will come back to me sometime.

Bellamy/Jasper Fic: I have a lot of guilty pleasures (I probably wouldn’t feel so guilty for everything if this fandom wasn’t what it is but oh well) but this is probably the guiltiest. The original outline is from April 2016 and last summer I spent an afternoon at the coffee shop actually scene-by-scene outlining it, which means it is basically ready to start. I even wrote the introductory scene but then I scrapped it. The tone was okay but the actual substance wasn’t working for me. So I’d have to start all over. And again, audience of one lol, so there’s that. It’s the sort of thing that if it isn’t completely fun to write there is no point in putting effort toward it.

Jonty Dual Timeline: I had such high hopes for this!! And I still want to write it but I’ve become terrified of it. Terrified I’ve lost the tone, terrified I won’t be able to remember the ideas dumbass-past-me didn’t write down, and of course the passage of time makes the fears worse. It’s been months since I touched it. I think I’d need to sit down, re-read the entire thing, write down any thoughts I can salvage, and maybe rough-outline the rest. Then I can return to writing it.

Old prompt list/old prompt fill: Basically the appendix of this folder. By which I mean, it’s vestigial.

Monty S3 (original and edits): I’ve done one complete read-through of this fic and made some fairly big edits, deleting some parts, re-writing them, moving some things around. I feel like, except for the part in the middle where I made the biggest changes, it reads well. I like it. But I won’t post it until I’ve re-read the entire thing again, preferably in one sitting, and given that it’s 12k long I’ll need to devote a decent chunk of time to that. I’d like to say that this fic I’ve been working on for six months is done, so in that sense it’s ‘urgent,’ but on the other hand I don’t think it’s anything most people will notice.

Sleeping Beauty AU: A request but I’m getting kind of into the idea. Unfortunately (?) my ideas for it are getting ambitious and complicated. It could be so cool! Or it could be something that’s actually finished this decade and I’m just hoping these aren’t incompatible goals. Currently in the planning stages.

K/S comparison: Again, a fic I moved to this folder when I was back into Star Trek in Summer ’16 and feeling ambitious. Aaaaand I just looked at the last updated date. It’s from 2010. That’s wild. I am the slowest writer in the world. Or the most stubborn. Or both.

Story Idea Master List: self-explanatory.

K/S and Spock!Prime: Okay this fic is dumb because it’s FINISHED. It’s been finished for years. I found it in my old writing folder, complete, not posted, and I read it and thought it wasn’t horrible but that the beginning was…actually sort of horrible. So I thought I’d re-write that part and then just post it but it’s not working terribly well and increasingly I just feel like…is it worth it? The fic isn’t that good. But it’s not terrible and it is complete so… I don’t know.

…So yeah as expected this just confirmed what I already knew, that I currently lack inspiration or passion for pretty much any project. AWESOME.

[olicitytropes]

Olicity Tropetastic Awards: Season Three

The season of angst, assassins, and al sah-hottie is one we’ll always hold close to our Olicity-loving hearts. From their first date, to their first kiss, to their first time together, season 3 really gave us everything...including(arguably) the best hiatus fanfiction we’ve ever had.

Don’t ask Oliver to say he doesn’t love Felicity. And don’t ask us to say we didn’t love these fics. 

@tangled23works’s recs:

Memory Lane - @lupin72

Oliver and Felicity spend a night at a karaoke bar with Oliver telling Felicity how he knows for a fact that she can sing. Felicity realizes that she really doesn't remember Thea's birthday 

**Award: Best Karaoke+Fluff I’ve Ever Read**

Devil’s Backbone - @anthfan

What happens if Oliver and Felicity begin a physical relationship brought on by the catalyst of Sara's death, but acted like nothing had changed between them. One chapter per episode.

**Award: Best Canon Divergence/Fic You Need To Read ASAP**

The End of the Beginning - MachaSWicket

Tomorrow – and her stomach jumps a little every time she lets herself think about it – tomorrow, she and Oliver are leaving on some grand tour of the U.S. (And each other.) But first: sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. At least that’s the plan. To say she wasn’t expecting a knock at her door is putting it mildly. Because Oliver left her outside Palmer Tech with a sweet, lingering kiss, and he’d looked at least as tired as she felt.

**Award: Cutest, Most Realistic Olicity The Night Before They Ride Off Into The Sunset**

Only you can set my heart on my fire -  inlovewithimpossibility

He can’t help but smirk at her tone of voice. His main focus over the past two months has been memorizing every element of the woman underneath him. He’s tuned himself into her frequency, storing the cause and meaning of every type of hitched breath, moan and tone of voice. This soft, distracted murmur is rare but one of Oliver’s favorites.

(A small NSFW fic set in Bali during Olicity's post-s3 roadtrip)

**Award: Most Gratifying Olicity-In-Bali Fic**

@blondeeoneexox’s recs:

Caught in the Rapture - @bindy417

AU. Being the daughter of a ruthless and notorious crime lord, Felicity Smoak didn't think her life could get any worse. When her father unexpectedly sells her in marriage as a peace offering to his enemy, she quickly learns it'll take more than just her sharp intellect to survive. But what starts out as a sentence worse than death may actually be her only shot at freedom.

**Award: Most Beautiful Olicity Growth**

The Firebird - @supersillyanddorky06

Felicity Smoak stumbles upon a man dressed in black about to kill someone. The man takes an interest in her and she does not realize who he is. He is Al Sah-Him, the best assassin in The League, the crown jewel of the brotherhood, who is known for his lethal focus and killer instincts, brought up in the League itself.

What happens when he is taken completely with the blonde?

Assassin AU. Basically a what if Felicity met Al Sah-Him and not Oliver Queen story. Stuff will happen. Enjoy!

**Award: Most Amazing Felicity and Al-Sah-Him Non-Canon That I Really Wish Was Canon Because It Would Have Been SO REWARDING Fic**

P.S. Hong Kong: Was it Real?!? - @cruzrogue 

(This is off season 3 Flashbacks. When Tommy goes to Hong Kong he doesn’t go alone he takes his friend Felicity as the best information system being to help him locate Oliver Queen. Tommy may leave empty handed but Felicity gets to be a bride…)

Trope-tastic Awards: Week One

Fake Marriage!

(Olicity fake marriage stories! Pretending to be married, accidentally married, drunkenly married in Vegas and they don’t remember any of it)

**Award: Cutest Fake Marriage S3 Fic**

@allimariexf’s recs:

Once More (From the Top) - @writewithurheart

In the aftermath of his fight with Ras Al Ghul, Oliver finds himself somewhere unexpected: his hospital room when he first came back from the Island.

With a second chance to right the mistakes he’s made since coming back to Starling City, what will Oliver do to save the people he’s loved and lost?

Will he be able to change his past or will be he forced to watch history repeat itself?

**Award: Most Intriguingly Brilliant, Heartwarmingly Beautiful, Why-Can’t-This-Be-Canon Time Travel Trope**

We Should Just Kiss (Like Real People Do) - @dust2dust34

Prompt-inspired ficlets covering Oliver and Felicity's road trip after 3x23 "My Name is Oliver Queen."

Covers everything from the fluffiest fluff to silliness to gratuitous smut to ridiculous happiness to some angst.

**Award: Hottest Exploration of the Sweet, Smutty, Quiet, Happy! Domestic! Olicity Moments From the Summer of Olicity that we Deserved But Never Got**  

Long Time Coming - MachaSWicket

Felicity’s pretty proud of them both, that they follow up their frantic, almost-had-(probably-amazing)-sex-in-the-lair lapse in control with an actual, grown up, adult conversation in which they agree to keep their hands to themselves until they go on a couple of real, official dates. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. They agree that kissing is okay. And some, you know, associated behaviors. Because kissing involves touching and hugging and maybe occasionally some delightful friction. So that kind of… grinding is also acceptable. But they’re not going to have sex before their first date. Probably. Or how Oliver and Felicity turned all that blistering UST to RST. Finally. Spoilers through S3, including “The Climb.”

**Award: Sweetest, Most Emotionally-Fulfilling Use of Delayed Gratification (not to mention hottest)** 

@smoaking-greenarrow’s recs:

Confidence - itwasred

Olicity on their road trip after the season 3 finale, discovering each other. Felicity has some confidence issues that Oliver is quick to get her over.

**Award: Best Oliver Making Sure Felicity Knows How He Has Always Felt About Her**

Pacific Crest Trials - @imusuallyobsessed

After they drive off into the sunset and leave Starling City behind, Felicity and Oliver decide to go hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Felicity soon realizes that her vision and the reality don't match up, and Oliver does his best to convince her that backpacking isn't all that bad. Part of the Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, prompt: summer vacation.

**Award: Cutest Protective Oliver**

This One Time in College -  Vixx2pointOh

After we saw them drive off into the sunset, we know the travelled around the world....

In Thailand Felicity got drunk and started talking.....drunk Felicity shouldn't be in charge of talking....

**Award: Most Hilariously Drunk Felicity**

Daughter of the Demon - @laxit21,  mewmew666

What if in 1988 while traveling through Las Vegas Ra's al Ghul bumps into a nice waitress named Donna Smoak and they have one-night stand together? A little bundle of joy named Felicity Smoak is the result. In 2014, the Demon Head becomes aware of his youngest daughter's existence.

**Award: Most Unique Twist in Canon**

@memcjo’s recs:

Bury me in your Sins - @theirinrutherfords

Don’t involve yourself in the league of assassins and don’t fuck with the league of assassins. It’s a pretty easy concept, right? Well, it would have been if Felicity had known what she was meddling with. Now she has one of the league’s best assassins knocking down her door.

**Award: Best Use of Felicity Being in Over Her Head But Coming Out on Top**

Come Back When You Can - @smoaking-greenarrow

Felicity Smoak had accepted that her husband is dead. She's done everything she could to hold her family, her team, her city, and herself together. But five years after losing her husband, Felicity learns that things didn't happen the way she thought they did. And when Oliver realizes that he was lied to, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on the people who took his life away.

**Award: Best Use of Angst/Sorrow/Revenge Leading to a Happy Olicity**

Into Thin Air - @realityisoverrated-fic

Tommy disappears on his morning run. Two weeks later, Felicity is taken from the Foundry. Oliver is willing to sacrifice everything to get them back.

**Award: Best Use of Stubborn SmoakingBillionaries Facing Extreme Danger to Save Each Other in a HOLY SHIT~WOW! fic**

Try Harder Next Time - @hope-for-olicity

Set in Season 3 (I heart Season 3), Diggle confronts Oliver about letting Felicity go - yes, I can write the same story a different way over and over and over ;) This was Hope-for-Olicity’s 100th story as well!

**Award: Best Use of Diggle Sees ALL and is Tired of Oliver’s Shit**

A Nice Day for a Light Wedding -  sarcasticmama

A one shot based on leaked finale spoilers for Season 3 of the Arrow. Olicity! Written in between feedings with no beta. All mistakes are mine.

**Award: Best Happily Ever After Olicity Fluff**

Unasked Questions - @laurabelle2930

Olicity Smut ;) This one takes place during 3x20. It’s my take on what happened before we see Oliver staring out over the moon lit sands of Nanda Parbat. 

**Award: Best Use of Sexy, Bittersweet Olicity**

@msbeccieboo’s recs:

His Felicity, His Happiness - @oliversmuse

She just wanted to have a night off. A night where she could forget the trauma she had been through three months ago. But that night, everything changed. He saved her then kidnapped her. He was a mystery to her and she hated mysteries. They needed to be solved. She was determined to find out who was Al-Sah-Him.

**Award: Best disposal of Evil!Ray**

Adventures in Ivy Town - @it-was-a-red-heeler

Oliver and Felicity learn that there can be danger in the burbs, too.

**Award: Cutest Ivy Town fluffiness!!**