#this is gonna be multi chapter but i still have to plan out the rest of it since i dont have much planned out rn

[bagelthatwrites]

Somewhere Sunrise (Begins Another Day)

Chapter 1: Unfortunate Mishaps

Summary: Reagan Ridley tries to be prepared for situations, but the job always manages to surprise her.

Especially when she's thrust into another universe, and stuck figuring out how to get back.

Fandoms: Undertale (2015), Inside Job (2021 Cartoon)

Notes: (thank you to my good friends @pastelkonpeito and @maddestmewmew for beta reading this chapter!! also another thank you to hen again for helping me improve the pacing !) Also this takes place briefly after part 2 of the show, and after the true pacifist ending of Undertale.

WARNINGS: blood mention, possibly death, also swearing

~~~

If you knew anything about Cognito’s head robotics scientist, it’s that she’s been on this job for over a decade.

The job came with many problems and risks, be it near death experiences, dealing with cover-ups and disappearing accidental witnesses, or nearly losing an appendage or two.

But out of everything Reagan Ridley’s done and been through, she didn’t think she would spend her last moments like this.

The machine had taken months to finish, endless all-nighters spent programming, and connecting wires, and checking and rechecking the blueprints to make it perfect. 

The companion watch took just a few weeks to properly sync to the shiny, new transporter… 

And it malfunctioned. And it took her with it.

~~~

It was a decently quiet night in the building, and the cool wind from outside somehow seeped its way through from the windows to the quite sizable space of Ridley Labs, though it never affected Reagan, as she was used to the drafty windows. Never got the damn things fixed.

Her best friend and co-team leader Brett Hand shivered, though, used to the rest of the building being room temperature. 

As Reagan installed the last few panels onto the transporter core, Brett took a minute to look around the lab again.

It was in its usual state, messy but somehow organized enough. Fitting for her, isn’t it?

“Alright, we’re almost ready.” She lifted the welding mask and switched off the propane torch, turning to him. “Brett, do you have the watch?” “Oh- yeah.” He handed her the device. “So… what does this do again?” “Were you even listening the first time?” She muttered, and waved her hand dismissively. “Well, the old teleporter was broken and out of date, so I took the liberty of building a new one. This one syncs to a watch- the one I’m holding here- to take the wearer to and from their destination. The machine serves to make sure that the watch works as intended, and to actually choose your destination.” She patted the machine, and put the wristwatch on, adjusting it.

“You’re here in case something happens to me.” She pointed to Brett, and walked back over, putting her hands on his shoulders. “...If I’m gonna be honest, you’re the only person in this place that I’d trust if anything happened to me.”

“Awww… Reags!” He smiled bright, pulling her into a tight hug. “Me too.”

“Put me down, you goober, or we won’t be able to start the experiment!” She laughed out and smacked at his arm.

He placed her back down and she turned to activate the machine and the watch. “Alright. I’ll start with a decent location… somewhere just outside of DC.” She pressed a few buttons on the machine.

“But… what if you can’t get back? You might have to walk for a while…” Brett commented. He widened his eyes. “OR! I could come and pick you up!” She snapped her fingers. “Exactly.” She presses a button on the watch.

“Alright.”

The transporter vrrrr’d to life, and its sounds echoed across the lab in a pleasant symphony of machinery.

“It’s working!!” Reagan couldn’t hide her excitement, her eyes lighting up as a smirk appeared on her face. “Brett, it’s working!”

Brett squealed in corresponding exhilaration as the watch lit up in unison.

The excitement of the pair was short-lived, as the wristwatch elicited short shocks.

“Shit.” Reagan struggled to get the watch off, as she felt the teleportation tech do its magic. “I can’t- shit, fuck, it’s stuck! I can’t get it-”

And she disappeared in a flash.

Brett’s phone buzzed, and the call was from…

…Reagan. He sighed in relief and clicked to accept the call, only to see a screen of white.

“Reagan????”

Reagan comes on screen, hair whipping in the wind (wind????????).

"Brett! Are y-ou getting this tr-ansmi-ssion!?" The audio and video were cutting out, but Brett nodded. 

"List-en to me! I d-on't know wh-er-e I am, but no m-atter WHAT, you have -to keep the m-achine running! I seem to- to h-ave gone to a- different area than intended-”

She pushed her hair out of her face and looked around, squinting in the foggy winter wonderland- if she remembered correctly… it was supposed to be… September.

Oh god.

“I-I.. I-’m th-ink in a di-ffere-nt uni-v-erse! And it's hailing b-" A piece of hail flew down and nailed the scientist right in the temple, causing her to fall over into the snow. 

"Reagan? REAGAN!?" Brett brought the screen closer. 

"Aw- SH-IT, I... there's sn-ow getting into the wa-tch a-nd I-" Reagan's eyes drooped slightly, and they both noticed blood dripping down her face from the deep cut, now very prominent on the side of her head. 

“Shit- Th-this is go-ing a lot w-or-se th-an I th-oug-ht it wo-uld! If I c-an get th-e wat-ch to-”

…She couldn’t…

Reagan felt herself getting weaker. There was blood dripping down into the snow now.

The situation was getting worse. The situation was unsolvable.

"...Brett... if I don't su-rvive this... I j- just want you to know that I'm sorry... for ev-eryth-ing. You w-ere a... a good fr-iend." Reagan felt herself getting more lightheaded, and the watch glitched and crackled as the weather worsened the condition. 

"Reagan, why are you apologizing..? Hey- no- listen, you'll come back, you'll be okay, I promise- REAGAN?" Brett teared up and clasped his hands worriedly. The transmission was almost lost. 

"...G-oodbye, Br-ett." The screen cut out as white overtook the transmission video, and the small screen finally displayed "SIGNAL LOST". 

"Reagan? REAGAN!" Brett called out, but no one answered. 

He felt his stomach twist.

…She…

…

He failed to keep himself stable on the edge of the desk, starting to slide down and sit on the floor.

His heart caught in his throat as he choked up, tears falling, the lab now dreadfully silent.

~~~

“Oh goodness…. Frisk! Get the first aid kit!”

[rambleonwaywardson]

Update!

The TTMAB epilogue is drafted and has already been through many rounds of edits, so get ready! I know it's been a long time coming now (compared to how quickly the rest got posted), but now I'm taking an extra day or two to make sure it's exactly what I want it to be.

I'm planning to get it out to y'all in the next few days. In the meantime, thank you so much for sticking with me. This is by far the longest thing I've ever written and the first multi-chapter fic I've managed to complete, and I hope you all have fallen in love with this story as much as I have. Here's an extra little sneak peak:

Bucky crosses his legs and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, still looking up as if he can see the entire universe if he only squints hard enough. “We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?” “Have we?” Bucky looks over at Gale again, scoffing in disbelief, but he finds Gale hiding a smirk as he presses his cheek to his knee, watching Bucky. His hair is messy again from running his hand through it, the gel never holding for long, and Bucky rolls his eyes, reaching a hand out to ruffle it some more.  “It’s worth it,” he says matter-of-factly, letting his eyes drift back to the stars. Gale scoots closer and lets his head fall against Bucky’s shoulder. “It’s our life,” he agrees. He doesn’t need to emphasize the our; it’s as if there was never any doubt in this universe that his life would be John’s and John’s would be his. “Sometimes I can’t really believe I made it here.” “You were never gonna take no for an answer.” Gale doesn’t know exactly which part of Bucky’s life they’re talking about. He wasn’t going to settle for less than the astronaut corps. And he wasn’t going to settle for less than Gale either.  “I said sometimes,” Bucky mutters, but there comes a point, no matter how badly you’ve always wanted something, where it doesn’t feel real anyways. He doesn’t quite know what he did right to make it to this very spot, even if he can trace his exact path, every single step and crossroads and difficult decision. Sometimes, all he feels is fucking lucky.

[decks-writing-blog]

Whatever the Fuck Benrey Is: Chapter One: Never Stayed Dead

Summary: Following the events at Black Mesa, Gordon ends up learning more about Benrey. He might even end up liking him eventually.

[A/N] This was supposed to be a one shot about Gordon and Benrey starting to get along; the start of a slow burn that still feels complete as a stand alone. And then I was gonna do more one shots along their relationship journey, each feeling complete on its own. I've done this with ships before to great success but uh... that didn't happen here. It just kept going until I had to start splitting it into chapters at which point I was invested in it. I have nothing planned so it might end up meandering at some point but that's okay, I'm working on chapter 7 now and still going strong and still enjoying writing it so the journey will take us wherever it ends up taking us.

Also, I know that Benrey seems to most often be portrayed as basically not taking damage from things but like, in the series because of how G-mod works, blood still sprays from him sometimes so I have chosen to interpret that as he takes the damage but then heals from it really quick. Which lead to other ideas that end up being rather important to how I write Benrey.

~

Upon getting hired at Black Mesa, Gordon hadn’t thought too much about the housing provided to the employees. It was a top secret research facility out in the middle of the New Mexico dessert, mostly buried under it, and a long multi-hour drive from the next nearest bit of civilization. Said bit of civilization being nothing but a small town that didn’t even have an airport. So of course the job had come with a place to live, anything else would’ve caused getting to and from work to take longer than actual work or require him and everyone else to camp out in the dessert above the facility. Now though, upon fast walking away from the Chuck E. Cheese – with Tommy’s birthday party over, capping the nightmare at last, he was finally free – he really wished he had a place to stay in Tuefort too.

Whether the living area in Black Mesa was still intact or not was hard to say for sure. But even if it was, based off the state the rest of the facility he’d seen had been in, likely it had been overrun with aliens and military goons, leaving it a horrid mess. One he wouldn’t want to clean up or just live next to even if the option had been available to him. Which it wasn’t thanks to how long the drive down there was when he didn’t even have a car currently.

Did he even have a job at Black Mesa anymore? If so did he want to keep it after all that? Even if the answer to either of those was ‘yes’ he didn’t want go back right now for sure. Not until someone else cleaned up the mess. Which should take a while, meaning he had plenty of time to think about it for now.

Instead he kept walking, trying not to think about anything other than finding Tuefort’s one hotel, if he could just remember where it was. He should still have his wallet on him under the HEV suit and thus some money, hopefully enough to rent a room long enough to figure things out.

Dressed in a blood splattered suit of what was essentially orange armor and with a hand that was hopefully not too obviously a gun at first glance, he got curious looks from passersby as he made his way down the sidewalk. There were quite a few people about too; the town was abuzz. Likely that had something to do with the military flying over to get to Black Mesa. Luckily, despite their intrigue, no one stopped him to ask questions about who he was or what he thought about the military. Tuefort’s one claim to fame was being a weird place filled with weird people so he could hopefully continue to pass as a normal type of weird person that had nothing to do with anything important. So he avoided eye contact as much as possible and held his gun hand close to try to disguise it as such.

He’d have to do something about it eventually though. Walking around with a gun for an hand might not be illegal – this was America after all, gun laws were way more lax than was probably wise – but it sure was weird. People would ask about it for sure and he didn’t want to talk about it. Could anything be done about it though? Was taking it off and replacing it with proper prosthetic an option? … If not then he would have to…

“Hey.”

He jumped, snapping to face the ally he was passing by, pointing said gun arm at the figure leaning against the wall within. Quickly, he lowered it; he couldn’t just go around pointing his gun at anyone who startled him even if the voice had sounded uncomfortably familiar. Except well, it wasn’t just the voice that was familiar.

“Benrey!” Gordon snapped the gun back up. “Why aren’t you dead? You’re supposed to be dead.” It was a struggle to keep his voice down but he didn’t want to call undue attention.

“What? Who told you I was dead?” It sounded like a genuine question but with Benrey who could possibly tell if he was genuine about anything?

“No one. We killed you or… or I thought we did.” He should’ve known better though, huh? Benrey never stayed dead.

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re a cheater but I’m better now. So where you headed? Off to steal something?”

If Gordon shot him, how much trouble would he get in? … Probably more than was worth it considering Benrey couldn’t die, not permanently anyway. “No. I’m looking for a hotel ‘cause I need a place to sleep for a while before I try to find out if any part of Black Mesa’s still operational and if I also still have a job there if so. I don’t have time for you so I’m just gonna leave now.”

Maybe it was a mistake to turn his back on whatever the fuck Benrey was but Gordon didn’t really care anymore and did it anyway, resuming heading down the sidewalk. If Benrey wanted to kill him, he would do it and Gordon couldn’t do a single thing to stop him apparently. So he was just going to do his best to not let Benrey bother him and hope that would convince him to finally leave.

“You’re headed the wrong direction.”

Gordon skid to a halt, turning to look back at Benrey as he stepped out of the ally. “What?”

“Hotel’s down that way, on the other side of town.” Benrey pointed in the opposite direction Gordon had been heading.

“Are you sending me in that direction so I’ll walk all the way to that side of town, find no hotel, forcing me to walk all the way back to this side of town again before I finally find it?”

“No. Why would I do that?”

“Because you want to make my life a living hell.”

Benrey stared at him in silence for a several seconds. Had his eyes always been that yellow and Gordon was just now noticing or was it a new thing? “Whatever, I don’t care if you believe me or not. I’m just trying to help an old pal out. Which I didn’t have to do after you cheated to beat me up. Uncool, man, uncool.” Well at least he wasn’t unphased by his defeat. Not that him being bitter about it really helped Gordon much. If anything that was bad as it gave Benrey all the more reason to target him.

“You know what? Fine. If you know where the hotel is, take me there, lead the way.” Gordon flourished his good arm in the direction Benrey had said the hotel lay in.

“Why? You planning to steal something once you’re there?”

Far too tired to play this game, Gordon didn’t take the bait. In hindsight, he should’ve never responded to such nonsense, it’s clearly what Benrey wanted. Well, with defeating Benrey for good off the table, Gordon was done playing his games. He wasn’t going to be a fun target anymore. “If you don’t know the way, that’s fine. I’m fully capable of finding it on my own.” Though he would really rather just have someone bring him there, even if it was Benrey, so he could finally get a shower and a full night’s sleep that much sooner.

More of that silent thoughtful stare, his pupils narrowing to slits. How Gordon had ever missed the fact that Benrey wasn’t human was a mystery. What was he though? Gordon would love to know but at the same time it was Benrey. No doubt he’d make any attempt to study or experiment on him a massive pain in the ass.

“I’m waiting. You gonna lead the way or no.”

“Well uh… I don’t know where it is exactly,only that it’s on the side of town closest to Black Mesa, which is over that way.” He pointed again and it was indeed the direction Black Mesa lay in.

“Great, awesome, thanks for the help.” Gordon started in that direction. If it was a trick, he’d already been walking so long already it hardly mattered. And if not, it’d get him to a place he could rest that much sooner. So it was probably worth the risk.

“You’re welcome,” Benrey said as he fell in step with Gordon, sounding as if he hadn’t picked up on the frustration and sarcasm at all.

Gordon turned his head to look at him, intending to tell him to leave but bit back on it. It wouldn’t make him leave and might give him opening to be more annoying. So instead he clamped his mouth shut, turned to look solely where he was going and kept walking. His only hope of escaping Benrey was no longer being a fun thing to play with and that meant he had to do his best to ignore Benrey and all his attempts to be a nuisance.

The silence between them held for maybe a grand total of two whole minutes before Benrey broke it. “So when’s your hand gonna grow back?”

Gordon took a breath to respond but again bit back on it. He wasn’t raising to the bait. Benrey was trying to make him angry by bringing up his missing hand again.

“I mean I know humans heal slower and stuff, it’s why everyone’s always taking my juice, ‘cause they’re impatient and don’t wanna wait, but it’s been days now so it should be starting to come back, right? Unless it can’t ‘cause the gun’s there now. I could cut that off for you if you want. Unless you wanna keep the gun, it is pretty cool. You have to promise not to steal anything with it though.”

Gordon should stay quiet, really he should, Benrey was talking nonsense, again. But even with how exhausted he was by the events of the last week, or however long that nightmare had lasted, he couldn’t just not be curious. “What do you mean ‘everyone’s always taking your… juice’?”

“I mean they’re always taking my juice. What else could that sentence mean?”

“What are they taking your juice for?” And what did he even mean by ‘juice’? But one question at a time.

“To put in health packs and stuff so they can heal up real fast when they get a boo-boo. You should really pay better attention when people are talking.”

Gordon skidded to a halt, too shocked to be annoyed by the implication he hadn’t been paying attention. “You mean the healing stuff in the health stations and health packs that Black Mesa makes are filled with your… juice?”

Benrey continued on for a couple more steps before realizing Gordon had stopped. He turned back to face him. Before he could get a word out though, Gordon interrupted.

“And before you accuse me of not paying attention again, I am paying complete and total attention. I just want clarification because I was told it was just a compound one of the teams in Black Mesa invented in a lab. There was never any mention of any juice from any… whatever the fuck you are.”

Benrey frowned, smacking his lips a couple times in seeming thought. “I told them to tell people. But yeah, they take my juice, mix it from something to make it go further and last longer, then put it in the medkits and stuff.”

He could still be lying, trying to mess with Gordon through making him believe he’d injected himself with Benrey’s ‘juice’ a fuckton of times over the years and especially in the last week. But on the other hand, he did undoubtedly have some crazy regenerative properties, healing from gunshot wounds like it was no problem, so of course someone in Black Mesa would try to harness and use that if they could. And from what he knew, a not insubstantial amount of Black Mesa’s funding had come from selling those medkits, often through shady channels if the rumors were to believed.

The realization that Benrey had been at Black Mesa as far more than a security guard wasn’t surprising as he was the exact kind of thing many of the scientists there liked to poke, study, and use. What was surprising though was that they’d managed to contain him. Congrats to them, if only they’d managed to keep him locked up.

Shaking off the shock, Gordon resumed walking. Though he moved slower than before; he was tired and not done with this conversation. So this time, Benrey falling in step next to him was exactly what he wanted. “Okay, knowing I’ve been injected with your… juice is kinda gross. I guess how gross depends on what exactly you mean by ‘juice’. Is it your blood or… or… where do they draw it from?”

Benrey shrugged. “Why do you wanna know? Gonna try to steal some to grow your hand back faster?”

Would straight from the source be enough for such a thing? The medkits and health stations could do a lot, up to and including healing bullets wounds as he’d learned the hard way, but they couldn’t grow back lost limbs. That had been stressed pretty hard in training to prevent people from getting too reckless. But even straight from the source could… “No. I may not like you but stealing your blood or… whatever you mean by ‘juice’ wouldn’t be something I want to stoop to.” Even if he did have some right to because it was Benrey who had caused his arm to get chopped off in the first place. “Gotta try to return to having some sense of morality now that I’m outta that nightmare. Besides, I doubt it would work. Unlike whatever you are, human limbs don’t grow back once they’re cut off. If you’re quick and the cut is clean enough it can sometimes be reattached but that’s the most anyone’s ever been able to do even with the medkit goo.”

“Wait, what do you mean? Of course it’s gonna grow back, it just takes longer ‘cause all your healing stuff takes longer for some reason.” Did he really not know or was he messing with Gordon, trying to get an angry raise out of him? Either way the only thing making it easy to resist the temptation to shoot him in the face was the fact so many other people were around and would see.

“No. It’s never growing back. It physically can’t grow back. My hand’s gone for good and there’s nothing I do can do to change that.” It was old news by now but saying it out loud made it more real somehow. A tinge of panic threatened to crawl up his throat and take his breath and thought away. A part of his body was gone, chopped off and replaced with a gun of all things. A tool good only for hurting and killing.

He had to stop walking and step to the side to lean against a nearby building so he could focus on just breathing. In and out… in and out… he wasn’t having a panic attack today. He was far too exhausted to put up with that. He’d freak out about it again later! Right now he just needed a place to rest and relax and that was the only thing he was going to be thinking about until he got there. Nothing else in the world existed but that goal.

It took a couple minutes but he eventually steadied himself. Full blown panic attacked averted – for the moment at least – he took one last deep breath before looking up again. Benrey stood before him, his expression unreadable as the watched Gordon. “You for real? It ain’t gonna grow back?”

Gordon was tempted to resume walking and hopefully leave him behind but… “You seriously thought it would?”

“Yep. But… I guess that explains why it’s been taking so long, huh? Humans are even weaker than I thought. Oops.” There was an emotion in his voice that his natural monotone made hard to place. “Guess you’re just gonna have to be Gordon Gunhandman now, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Don’t think about it too much! Gordon pushed off the building and resumed walking towards hopefully the hotel. He could be angry at Benrey for thinking the whole thing was just a prank, causing nothing but mild inconvenience, later when he had more energy. The sun was starting to dip towards the horizon, the sky darkening. In another couple hours it would set and the cold would creep in. Hopefully he’d be clean and in a real bed by then. While they were still walking though and to change the subject… “Do you give them your… juice,” gosh, he couldn’t believe they were still calling it that, “willingly? Like do they pay you?”

Benrey was quiet for a few seconds before replying. “They let me go wherever I want in the facility ‘long as as I cooperate.” Implying they’d otherwise force him to and then keep him locked up in whatever kind of cage they’d invented that could hold him. So no, he didn’t do it willingly, he just didn’t want to say that right now. And honestly, Gordon couldn’t blame him. Who would want to admit that kind of thing to their enemy?

Silence settled between them after that. Gordon still had questions but was too tired to try to find a way to ask them that might actually get him some sort of answer from Benrey. And perhaps, maybe, just maybe, Benrey was finally feeling guilty enough about the hand thing to make him uncomfortable enough to want to stop talking for once. That sure would be nice. Either way they didn’t exchange another word until Benrey pointed out the hotel up ahead. Thank all that was still good in the world, he hadn’t been lying about the direction.

It was old and visibly rundown on the outside. The inside though looked more modern and even if the carpeted floor looked like it could do with a deep clean, it wasn’t bad. In all it was all exactly what one should expect from cheap hotel in a small town in the middle of nowhere. To Gordon though, it might as well be the gates of heaven.

He beelined for the receptionist’s desk, before he got there though…

“Hello Gordon!”

He stopped, turning to see Dr. Coomer, Bubby, and Tommy, seemingly waiting for him as they stood from the plush chairs set off to the side.

“What took you so long?” Bubby said before turning his glare onto Benrey. “And aren’t supposed to be dead.”

“He doesn’t stay dead, remember?” Gordon interrupted before Benrey could reply and probably start something. “It’s annoying but there’s nothing we can do about it so try not let it bother you and maybe eventually he’ll get bored and go away. But why are you guys here?”

It was Tommy who answered. “Because Mr. Freeman, Black Mesa, isn’t exactly a cozy place to live anymore right now so um… we came here, looking for rooms. We wanted to invite you too but um… you ran off so fast we didn’t even know which direction you went in. But uh… it makes sense you’d come here, right? ‘Cause it’s uh… the only hotel in town. So we were waiting for you.”

“We weren’t sure if you had money to pay for your own room,” Dr. Coomer added. “So we discussed it and decided we would wait for you here to ask if you need the financial assistance. So Gordon, do you have need for us to pay for a room for you? We haven’t paid for our own rooms yet because we thought you might want to be our neighbor after all we’ve been through together.”

Gordon wouldn’t have thought they’d take the time to think he might need help affording a place to sleep for the night. They’d even sat here and waited for him after he’d rushed off and left them behind at Chuck E. Cheese. People going so far out of their way for him wasn’t something he’d ever experienced before. It was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes.

“They waited,” Bubby cut in before Gordon could do more than take a deep breath to hold back the tears, “I wanted to hurry up and get a move on.”

“He was about to get up and go looking for you,” Tommy said in an almost whisper that Bubby had to have heard though he seemed to be set on pretending he hadn’t.

“Thanks. I…I appreciate it a lot, like… yeah. But um… I should still have my wallet on me and its got my debit card in it so I should be fine. It’s uh… under the suit though. Which, I’m probably gonna need help taking off since there’s not a thingy to take it off anywhere here for obvious reasons. So uh, actually…”

“I’ll pay for your room tonight,” Tommy cut in as he trailed off.

“Thanks, I owe you one.” A big one because gosh, Gordon would just about kill for a real bed right now.

“What ‘bout me?” Benrey of course hadn’t left. “Do I get a room too?”

“Of course, I’ll pay for a room for you too.” Tommy didn’t sound at all bothered by Benrey’s presence. Not too surprising, they’d seemed to have been friends before the resonance cascade. Apparently things hadn’t changed too much.

“Well, let’s hop to it.” Dr. Coomer didn’t seem bothered either as he started for the receptionist’s desk. “Daylight’s wasting, as they say.”

Welp, seems Gordon’s time with the Science Team wasn’t done yet. He… didn’t mind though. Despite everything, he had grown fond of them and they’d been through a lot together. And they were willing to wait for him and help him out and willing to talk to the receptionist to sort out the room situation, meaning he didn’t have to. What more could he possibly ask for in friends?

“We’re currently in the middle of a big renovation project,” the receptionist was saying as Gordon, trailing along at the back of the group, caught up. “Between that and everyone here to attend the Cacti Enthusiasts Conference, there are currently only three rooms available. So, um, some of you are going to have share for at least tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” Dr. Coomer was apparently in charge of the transaction. Maybe not the wisest but it was probably fine. He turned to look at Gordon. “Hello Gordon! It turns out, some of us are going to have to share a room.”

“That’s fine. I don’t care.” They’d all been sleeping in the same room since they’d met anyway. Sharing space for a little while longer wasn’t going to hurt any of them. Just as long as Gordon didn’t end up rooming with Benrey anyway.

“Dibs on bunking with Feetman.” It was almost as if Benrey had just read that thought and decided to ruin the mostly good vibes Gordon had just been feeling because of it. “Gotta make sure he don’t steal nothing.”

Gordon lifted his gun arm, pointing it at Benrey’s face. He held it there for a grand total of two seconds before lowering it though. “Fine. I don’t care.” Getting upset was what Benrey wanted from him and he wasn’t giving him that. Never again. … And besides, revealing he had a gun for an arm and Benrey was some kind of something that wasn’t human would call attention to them from the authorities. Bad in general but after how many US soldiers they’d killed, lying super low for probably the rest of their lives was wise. So he wasn’t going to cause a scene. Even if that meant putting up with god damn Benrey. If Benrey killed him in his sleep then so be it, he barely cared anymore as long as he got to sleep properly in a real bed for several hours beforehand.

~

After some discussion it was decided Dr. Coomer and Bubby would share a room too and Tommy would get one to himself because he was paying for two of them and, “Sunkist will want to share with me when she catches up.” They weren’t neighbors but they did luck into all being in the same hallway even if one of them was way at the end of it while the others two were closer to the opposite side.

They all gathered in the far room first, ostensibly to help Gordon take the HEV suit off. The only one really helping though was Tommy, though Bubby did talk through what he knew of the suit’s built in fail-safes should it need to be taken off manually which helped a lot. Dr. Coomer offered to take it off for three Play Coinstm but not wanting to go into debt in a currency he had no idea the rules of, Gordon had declined.

Partway through the process he regretted declining that offer. The suit was designed to be taken off by a machine, the means to take it off manually had been an afterthought. A just in case the world ended and thus said machine had no power and/or had been destroyed. Not exactly something anyone thought was likely to happen given Black Mesa largely being underground, making it suitable as an impromptu bomb shelter, complete with a host of backup generators not connected to the main power grid. His strong hand being replaced with a gun made it even more difficult, resulting in Tommy doing most of the work of taking it off. Making it a mortifying ordeal; he needed help getting undressed like some kind of giant toddler.

But finally after way too long, the suit was off and in a pile on the floor next to him. He suddenly felt much lighter and less sturdy, like a slight breeze could blow him over. His clothes were a rumbled, horrid, sweat stained mess but he was free at long, long last. “Thanks Tommy, I owe you big time.”

“Don’t… don’t worry about it Mr. Freeman. But, um, maybe you should take a shower before going to bed. Not that um… just, you know… a thought.”

“You stink,” Bubby said.

“I’m afraid he’s right, Gordon,” Coomer said, putting a hand on Gordon’s shoulder, “you smell like you’ve bathed in the concentrated stench of all the locker rooms in the world combined.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Gordon could tell them that they all stank too because they did but sans the suit, he did smell substantially worse. Other than the part at the waist that could be moved aside to allow the wearer to use the toilet, his body had been encased in metal for days with no break. During which he’d been running around and getting his literal hand cut off and having the single most stressful experience of his life, resulting in quite a lot of sweat that had had nowhere to go. So he did indeed reek to high heaven and as hard the bed had called to him earlier, it was now nothing compared to his need for a shower.

“I’ll uh, go do that now. Thanks again Tommy for paying for the room tonight and uh, helping get the armor off. We’ll talk more tomorrow morning, I guess. Goodnight.” With a chorus of good night from the three of them, Gordon stepped into the bathroom.

Hot showers were always nice but this one was downright magical. Even the hotel’s cheap soap and shampoo felt luxurious and smelled divine. It was awkward using his left hand but he was getting used it to and thus fairly quickly got some sort of a hang on it. He could adapt, he could make it through this. The nightmare was over, he’d survived it, everything was going to be okay now.

He washed himself multiple times, trying to get rid of every bit of dirt and grim that had stuck to his skin. Rinsing and repeating until he felt rubbed raw, then he just stood there under the hot water. It would’ve been easy to stay like that for hours and hours if not for the way the hot water easing his sore muscles also reminded him of his exhaustion. If it were the kind of shower that doubled as a tub, he’d likely have just lain down in it and gone to sleep. So it was probably for the best that it was just a stand up shower as that would’ve been dangerous and awful once the water ran cold.

Instead, with a longing sigh, he turned the water off and stepped out. The provided towels were scratchy but clean so he barely cared. Once he was about as dry as he cared to bother making himself, he took one look at his discarded clothing before putting on one of the hotel’s bathrobes instead. It was also stiff and scratchy but it was be better than going nude because he’d rather burn his old clothes than put them back on. Tomorrow he’d coordinate with the others to get them all clean clothing.

Upon stepping out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth with just his finger – the hotel had toothpaste but no toothbrushes so that was another thing he needed – he took two steps towards the bed before stopping. Somehow he’d forgotten Benrey had called dibs on bunking with him.

“You steal that?” He asked as he looked up from where he sat on one of the room’s two chair’s next to the room’s one bed. It was a big bed but still… oh no. Maybe, hopefully, he didn’t need to sleep though.

“No, it comes with the room. You can and should go take a shower now too.” Gordon gestured towards it.

Benrey lowered the remote he’d been presumably flipping through channels with based off the fact that the TV was and playing what looked to be a infomercial. “Huh? Why?”

To get him out of Gordon’s hair long enough for him to fall asleep but also…“’Cause you’re nasty.” Even if whatever he was didn’t sweat and thus body order wouldn’t be as much of an issue, he’d been through some pretty disgusting places in Black Mesa and thus needed cleansing regardless. “And don’t put those clothes back on either also because they’re nasty. There’s another couple bathrobes in there instead. We’ll get clean ones tomorrow sometime. And when you’re done, if you’re gonna kill me in my sleep, please do me a favor and at least wait until I’ve slept for like… five hours before you do it, okay?”

Benrey opened his mouth to respond but before he could get a single word out, Gordon snatched the remote from him, earning a, “Hey, rude,” instead of whatever he’d been going to say. He then turned off TV before flipping off the light and crawling into bed, keeping the remote with him to make it harder for Benrey to steal it back. Benrey said something else, his voice a protest, but as soon as Gordon’s head hit the pillow he was already starting to drift off, making his exact words indecipherable. He’d deal with Benrey tomorrow, right now he really, truly didn’t care anymore.

Chapter 2: But You Owe Me

[amethystfairy1]

What I'm getting from the hermit-a-day-may s is that now there are a lot more characters in ttsbc mainly that we just have to wait to see more of

And they are all amazing as well so I can't wait

Btw what's next in the rotation for ttsbc?

(I really should start binging tt at some point cause rn I haven't and I found you through ttsbc but my finals are starting soon so I've decided I'll wait until they are finished, trying to be reasonable here, I should work)

I'm so glad you're enjoying all the new characters in TTSBC thanks to Hermit-a-Day May!

I will say, for a lot of these guys, they probably won't show up again in anything beyond minor roles in the background of our main storylines...y'know, probably. I make no promises, because my main promise to myself with both my AUs is that I'm gonna write what I feel like writing at any given time...that's why I've been able to continue writing both of them so frequently without feeling bored or burned out, I'm still just as thrilled and giddy and excited to work on my AUs as I was when I started them both!

Next for TTSBC? To be completely honest, I'm not sure 😆 I have a few multi-chapter stories in the works, one of which is done, another of which is nearly done, just gotta decide which one I wanna put out next.

I've mentioned in other places, but I'm planning to use the rest of May to work on TT while adding to TTSBC with the Hermit-a-Day fics! I'm just really in the mood to work on TT right this second for some reason, plus like 90% of the Hermit-a-Day fics take place in TTSBC, so it's not like that AU is getting neglected 😆 So once you escape finals then I think now would be a great time to start binging TT! Please read the tags as you do, I'm sure you've seen my rambling about how it's got some dark themes in it. I'm very proud of how it's coming out! I hope you enjoy it! 💖

[raainy-daze]

The Snatcher.

chapter one. ➼ [next.]

rise of the tmnt x gn!reader [PLATONIC], rise!leo x gn!reader

summary: someone keeps stealing everyone’s things. nothing they’ve stolen has any correlation, and it’s anyone’s guess why they’re doing it. as time goes on, the list of crimes grows longer. reader just hopes no one realizes it’s them.

a box of parts has gone missing from donatello’s lab, and needless to say, he’s furious about it. just one heist in, and it’s already quickly turning into everyone’s problem.

word count: 2,868

a/n: guess who’s back with his first multi-chapter fic y’all

i’m gonna have another post regarding my return from hiatus with more details on that and my writing plans around the same time i post this, so please do check that out if you care about this blog!

in regards to the fic: i like to call this one “in which the reader is full-on just kind of an asshole and steals everyone’s stuff for no reason”. so, if you just so happen to be a little shit, congrats! this one’s for you. reader is in a relationship with leo in this, but that’s not really the focus, and it isn’t really even explicitly mentioned in this chapter.

All was still.

It was well past dark in New York City. Of course, that didn’t mean much - it’s called the city that never sleeps for a reason. Above ground, traffic still raced on, people still yelled in the streets, the hubbub didn’t quit. But in some apartments, families closed their curtains, tucked their children into bed, and tried to ignore the clamor outside their windows.

Below ground was a slightly different story, however. Sounds were muffled by concrete, leaving the rush of cars and footsteps inaudible. Occasionally, you would hear the telltale rattle of the subway, but it was easy enough to ignore once you got used to it. Normally, in this strange home beneath the city, there would still be some sort of noise at this hour, but the Hamato family had retired a bit earlier than usual tonight. Splinter had even remembered to turn off the projector, which was rare enough to be notable. As far as the family was concerned, everyone was tucked into bed and sleeping soundly. Not a creature was stirring.

Except for one.

In contrast to the rest of the lair, the laboratory wasn’t totally quiet, nor was it totally dark. The machines which occupied the room produced soft whirring noises at all times, and had plenty of blinking lights to keep the room just barely illuminated. Most of it was a very dim light, but at the main desk with the most clutter, there was one brighter source. The computer was open to some Wikipedia page, and the light it produced fell softly on the face of a sleeping softshell turtle.

Normally, he would still be awake, working away on his various inventions. But this evening, he’d crashed far earlier than normal. Definitely unusual, but no one would be particularly surprised to hear about it. After all, he had gone without sleep for what? Three days now? It was only logical he would drop at some point, whether it be by his own will or nature taking over. He needed this sleep, everyone (except perhaps himself) would agree. It was a tad unfortunate, however, that he crashed when and where he did. For one thing, the desk littered with empty coffee cups and stray materials couldn’t be a very comfortable pillow, and far more importantly, he hadn’t had time to close anything down for the night. Some things were left running, and their batteries would likely be drained by morning. That was the least of his concerns, however. What he should, and likely would if he was conscious, be worried about was that nothing was locked. The door to the lab, the cabinets of valuable tools, nothing. His precious projects were left completely and utterly vulnerable, as he would find out when the morning came.

It was Friday evening, April 16th. The small clock in the bottom right corner of the computer read 11:24 PM.

That was when the Snatcher struck for the first time.

•°. *࿐

“I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here today.”

It was Saturday morning, 8:42 AM. It wasn’t unusual for you to meet on a weekend, but it was a bit strange that it was so early in the morning. Saturdays are for sleeping in, after all, but that hadn’t been an option this morning, thanks to Donatello. You’d been woken up bright and early at 7:00 AM by your phone blowing up with notifications, demanding that you get to the lair as soon as possible because Donnie had a “code red emergency that he needs everyone to meet for ASAP”. A quick check with Leonardo, however, revealed that there wasn’t, in fact, a code red (something on fire, someone bleeding, or an alien invasion). According to him, Donnie had woken everyone up banging pots and pans at an absolutely ungodly hour, and was very passive aggressive all throughout breakfast. All of that, and he was refusing to explain why until everyone was present.

So, here you were, sitting in the main room of the lair at this mildly ridiculous hour of the morning with everyone. And when you said everyone, you meant everyone. Yourself, April, and the guys were the usual given, as well as Casey Jr. since he showed up. Cassandra was sitting over on the far right next to Sunita, and even Splinter had been dragged to this meeting, though he appeared to already be drifting off. Upon arrival, you had been informed that Draxum was also invited, but had refused. You supposed Donnie didn’t have the authority to argue there.

“Will you get to the point already?” Leo groaned next to you. “It’s been hours.” Raphael and Michelangelo looked equally annoyed and tired, and you couldn’t blame them, what with the stories you’d heard earlier. You considered regretting taking extra time for breakfast and prolonging their suffering, but you couldn’t really bring yourself to. It was some damn good breakfast, and they ought to be used to this stuff by now.

Standing in front of you all, Donnie sighed. “All right, all right, you guys have no respect for a good monologue.” He grabbed hold of the whiteboard he had rolled out of the lab earlier and dramatically spun it around. You squinted, trying to interpret the scribbles made in dry erase marker, but quickly gave up. He would undoubtedly explain it all to you regardless.

“Last night, sometime between 10:30 PM and 4:00 AM, someone broke into my lab!”

Everyone stared at him blankly.

“Donnie,” April said, “I was just in there. Nothing looked very broken into.”

“Yes, nothing LOOKED amiss, my dear April, but one very crucial detail!” He pointed towards one corner of his whiteboard, at what you now recognized as a diagram of the lab. He circled a drawing of what appeared to be a box he had very subtly labeled “GPS PARTS”. “This box” -he gestured again for extra emphasis- “contained–”

“Let me guess, GPS parts?”

“LET ME SPEAK!” Donnie took a deep breath and returned to his drawing. “Yes, it contained GPS parts, very important GPS parts I just bought to use on my brand new upgrades to the navigational system in the Turtle Tank, more specifically the parts needed for the antenna, but I know you all start yelling when I go on science tangents, so for your sakes, I won’t elaborate.”

“Thanks, it’s much appreciated.”

Donnie made an expression you quickly recognized as the “trying to blow Leo up with his mind” face.

“And what happened to the parts, Donnie?” April asked.

“Why, thank you for asking. Well, this morning when I awoke…” Donnie took an eraser, held it up, and suddenly began erasing the box far more violently than he really needed to. “IT WAS GONE!”

Donnie’s yell woke Splinter up with a start. “Wh-” Sunita leaned over and whispered a quick summary of the situation. “Oh, that is what you are so mad about? You lost your, uh, things?”

“They weren’t lost, Father, they were clearly stolen!” Donnie was becoming more frantic by the moment. “I checked and double checked their exact position several times last night, to be perfectly sure I wouldn’t loose them! And yet, this morning, they were gone! And they had to have been stolen by SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM! Or Draxum.”

He waved an accusatory finger at… well, everyone. “Everyone present in this room was present last night for our Jupiter Jim: Atomic Lass Dies Again 2 viewing, as you all know!”

This was a fact. Yesterday, everyone in your circle had been invited (or dragged, in Draxum’s case) to watch the new JJ movie the second it came out on DVD. It had been fun, but you doubted anyone there expected to be a suspect by the next morning. Well, except for the perpetrator, you supposed.

“Are you sure, Dee?” Casey Jr. actually looked pretty concerned. He always seemed to take these things a bit more seriously, probably because he wasn’t as used to it. “I mean, you really think someone in this room would steal from you?”

“Oh, you sweet summer child, multiple people in this room have stolen from me. In fact, most people in this room have stolen from me. Some more than others.” He gave a pointed glare in Leo and Cassandra’s directions.

“Do you have any proof?” Cassandra glared right back.

“Yes, Cassandra!” Donnie once more slapped the diagram. “The fact that it’s gone! The fact that there is an outline in the shape of a box entirely free of dust! The fact that whichever one of you who did it (probably Leo) is an–”

“Whoa, whoa, are you accusing me? Your own twin brother?” Leo put a hand on his chest, commencing with his usual theatrics. “Dude, I thought we had a bond!”

“Leonardo, this would be far from the first time you’ve stolen my stuff!” Donnie pointed at him in response. “My tools! My clothing! Anything in my lab you thought looked cool! Even Penelope Platypus!”

“Penelope Platypus?”

“Don’t ask. Never ask about Penelope Platypus,” Raph whispered.

“Understood.”

“Okay, okay-” April stood up from her spot and walked over to Donnie. “Everyone, let’s just-”

“I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR PENELOPE PLATYPUS-”

“Donnie, let’s just calm down!” April grabbed Donnie’s arm and lowered it. “Do you not have any security cam footage?”

“No, April, I do not, because as I conveniently told you all yesterday, all my security measures are under maintenance!”

“Fingerprints?”

“Already checked. Whoever it was, they knew exactly what they were looking for and didn’t touch anything else. Believe me, I have been looking since 4. A. M.”

“Okay, what’s all the rest of this on your board?”

Donnie cleared his throat, but not before sending one last nasty glance his brother’s way. “Well, here I have a list of any possible motivation our thief could’ve had. Leonardo, mischief, Cassandra, mischief, Draxum, turning back into an evil supervillain stuff, Mikey, an insane level of dumb luck and obliviousness-”

“Okaaay.” April cut him off before he could go down the whole list, but you could just make out your own name below Mikey’s. Anything else written on the board, however, was pretty much lost to time thanks to Donnie’s illegible handwriting.

April picked up a dry erase marker from the bottom of the board, and began making amendments to Donnie’s notes. “Well, we know it couldn’t have been me or Sunita, since we left while you were still awake.” She crossed out both names. “Mikey also went to bed pretty early, but I guess he could’ve gotten up and come back downstairs.” She placed a question mark next to Mikey’s name. “If our thief did know what they were looking for, then who did you tell about these parts?”

“Well, I told you, of course.” April began making checkmarks as Donnie listed names. “I also told Casey Jr. when I was teaching him how refrigerators work.”

You decided not to ask.

“I mentioned it to Father, but I doubt he was listening, since he clearly doesn’t often.” He paused as he stared at Splinter, who took a full seven and a half seconds to space back into reality and notice.

“Oh, are we done? Wonderful, I’m missing the latest episode of-”

“No, Father, we are not done!”

“Also, we don’t get cable,” Raph pointed out.

“Alright, and that’s everyone?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“Alright. So we’ve got ten total suspects, two with a solid alibi, three with inside knowledge, and…” April muttered to herself as she read over Donnie’s guessed motivations. How she managed to read those, you had no clue. “... two with a reasonable motive. Not a lot to go off of.”

“Well then, on to my planned second step; I will now be questioning each of you in order from oldest to youngest.” Uh oh. “Father?”

“Uh- yes, Purple?”

“WHERE WERE YOU THE NIGHT OF APRIL 16TH?”

“... I believe I was here. I also believe that was yesterday.”

You exchanged a look with Leo. This was going nowhere - Donnie was just going to yell a lot, and eventually Cassandra was going to start yelling back, and then everyone would be yelling, and it would just be really loud. You pulled out your phone as discreetly as you could, and began typing.

was it you?

be honest i swear i won’t tell anyone

no!!! i went straight to sleep after you left

i didn’t go anywhere near the lab

i assume you wouldn’t be asking if it was you

well duh

should we tell him raph slipped sleeping meds in his coffee

no, that’ll just make it worse

raph wouldn’t do it anyways, he’s too nice

point taken

so what are we supposed to do

watch it play out?

you read my mind

You looked up from your phone, back at Donnie, who had moved on from Splinter to Cassandra. This would be fun.

“WHY THE HELL WOULD I TAKE IT? I WOULDN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!”

“YOU HAVE ONE OF THE TOP MOTIVES, CASSANDRA!”

“AND WHAT KIND OF MOTIVE IS THAT?!”

“TO SPITE ME!”

“TO SPITE– oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“SO YOU ADMIT IT!”

“I ADMIT TO NOTHING!”

“Oh my god, they’re going to kill each other.” You sincerely doubted you would see anything as entertaining as this for the rest of the week. It was pettiness at its finest, and you’d acquired quite a number of insults from watching fights this way. You knew it was only a matter of time until someone (Cassandra) threw the first punch, and then it was only a matter of time until someone (Donnie) threw the first explosive. But alas, it would be over too soon for that.

“April, you get Donnie.” Raph sighed as he stood up, and scooped Cassandra up remarkably easy. At the same time, April grabbed Donnie, preventing him from trying to hit Casey Sr.

“Look, Donnie, I can understand why you’re upset, but fighting isn’t really the best way to fix this.”

“But it is a way.”

“Maybe, but–”

“Don, I’ll help you find your parts.” April cut Raph off. She sounded pretty exasperated at this point. “Just stop screaming before everyone’s eardrums explode.”

“I was not screaming-”

“Yes you were. Now come on, I wanna see the crime scene for myself.” April began dragging Donnie off to his lab. Casey stuck her tongue out at him, and you just caught him flipping her off before disappearing into the lab.

Raph set Cassandra back down, and she muttered something that sounded a lot like a very targeted insult.

“Well, that was certainly… something,” Sunita commented.

“Something, indeed.” Mikey nodded.

“Okay.” Raph turned back to the group. “You know I trust all of you…”

“But you’re gonna accuse one of us of stealing some dumb science crap?” Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

“No! No.” Raph smiled sheepishly. “But, if it was any of you… Just, please give it back. He will not let this go, and I don’t know if our sanities will survive it.”

“Hey, hey, April’s on the case now!” Mikey chimed in. “I’m sure she’ll solve it in no time! She’ll catch our… our Snatcher!”

“Our what now?”

“The Snatcher! It’s what I just decided to title our resident thief.”

“We’re naming the thief?”

“Now, now, Casey Jr., every thief needs a good name.” Mikey patted Casey on the shoulder a couple of times, looking very proud of himself.

While everyone else was talking over the new name and what could’ve happened to Donnie’s stuff, you walked over to the whiteboard. You weren’t really interested in the lab diagram; you also weren’t sure what part of this required an entire corner of the board being dedicated to math equations.

You squinted at Donnie’s scrawled handwriting, trying to make out the notes at the bottom of the board. On the motives list, you found your name, which was just barely readable. It took you a few seconds to translate what was written next to it.

Scheming.

That didn’t sound too different from Leo and Cassandra’s “mischief”, but hey, it sounded better, so you weren’t going to complain. You’d have to ask Donnie what he meant by the difference next time you saw him.

You grabbed the marker and wrote down several notes regarding what had occurred last night. You had stayed in Leo’s room for a while before you left, so you could provide alibis for each other in that time frame. You hadn’t seen Cassandra on your way out, nor had you seen anyone else up. You wrote down the rough time you left, as could be verified by Leo, and wrote down that you had seen a light from under Mikey’s door.

Finally, you wrote “The Snatcher Case” at the top of the board, followed by “(y/n) was here :)” in the bottom corner.

You smiled to yourself before going to grab your things and get ready to leave. You were eager to watch this play out.

You couldn’t wait until you enacted phase two of your plan.

It was 9:57 AM, Saturday, April 17th. The Snatcher waltzed right out of the lair, and no one suspected a thing.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I definitely want to back up that anon who thinks jimin is still in the kitchen! In truth I think all the boys are and will be for a long time. I see chapter two as the introduction of their solo careers meaning "hey we are gonna be bts but also be ourselves sometimes too" I think every solo moment we've seen is the beginning which I'm for one super excited about. Imagine a wave of brilliant solo work one year and then phenomenal group work the next. Chapter two is barely a year in and it's already a visual and musical feast. I think jimin loves quietly preparing so he can wow us when he feels the time is right and while I too get tense with the constant radio silence I know it's cause he'll blow my mind the second he wants too. I hope people who feel as if Jimin didn't get a chance to show his true might feel comforted in that he will never ever stop wanting to gag tf out of us. And I think the sentiment holds the same for bts.

***

Exactly this. Up until a few months ago I thought this was well understood, seeing as how BTS has operated till now, but clearly I was mistaken.

For posterity’s sake, to beat this dead horse one final time:

Would it be nice for each member’s release to not have any of the issues they’ve had? Of course. But it’s possible to inform the company of said issues, address what we can for issues due to various platform errors not due to the company, while not losing sight of the fact this is only 2023. We’re still only in 2023. As in, we’re literally just one year into Chapter 2, none of the guys are older than 30, and they keep saying they’re in this for the long haul. And this is the same group that has shown over a decade that their plans are most often and best executed in multi-year stints.

It’s bizarre to think a member’s solo career is over or even damaged at all in any real way because of one or more problems that happened during their first solo release. It betrays such a myopic, winner-take-all mentality that you have to be in a very specific headspace to fully buy into.

Jimin is clearly happy and working. He’s not blind and is seeing what is working for other members and what isn’t. They’re all checking out each other’s solo endeavours from time to time, cheering each other on and I’d say making notes on what they too could try, what works and what doesn’t.

If there’s one thing that’s become clear to me over the years, and even more so in Chapter 2, it’s that BTS is a team. A real team. I’ve seen a lot of k-pop groups over the years and there is no group today, present or past, that would reach the heights BTS has if any of the members sought to harm or sabotage or lord shit over the rest, with or without help from the company. None of the BTS members would put up with that shit. Their egos are too big, they’re so obviously their own people, very ambitious and so aware of it that I really wonder if people actually listen to these men when they talk. They know exactly what they’re worth, and they trust that all the other members know it too. If BigHit showed any real favouritism, BTS is the last group to allow that if it’s not something they themselves have already agreed to.

They all know what they’re doing. And if they don’t, then they’re the only people with the tools to figure it out. All the angst and anguish over this or that happening in fan spaces, has no real effect on these men sitting somewhere in Seoul planning out everything they’d like to do as solo artists and as part of BTS.

That’s my takeaway after watching them for as long as I have. I could be wrong, but I’ve not seen anything to suggest that yet. I’m not sure how long you’ve been in the fandom Anon, or what you think about other issues, but it’s nice to see you and the other Anon share this perspective. It’s a view that’s widely accepted in the fan spaces I’m in outside of Tumblr, but one that is sorely lacking in this space right now.

For no reason at all, one Jimin that I hope one day shows up in Chapter 2, 3, or 4:

Sidebar - A friend (who isn’t religious) was asking another friend recently about religion, because she’s now desperate enough to seek divine intervention for Jimin to find blonde hair dye, and to love it again.

We all know his best hair colour is black, but it’s just as true that a solid case has been made for him being a natural blonde.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Okay, that’s it today from my gallery.

That colleague i mentioned the other day, the one that recently got into BTS and now biases Jimin, we’re meeting up this weekend with my other friend, the musician that watched the Grammys with me last year and fell in love with Jimin. That’s an example of two people still finding out about Jimin, falling in love with his music and him as a person, and starting to support him. None of the noise online actually has any real bearing on the impact of real life people still learning about Jimin through his solo music and through BTS, and becoming his fans maybe for life.

If anyone finds themselves feeling overwhelmed in fandom, please zoom out. Please take time away and get some perspective. Everything I’ve said is obvious, none of it is rocket science or gleaned from any special insight. The noise online can suck you in, to prevent that, please detach, go back to their recent and old interviews to hear what they each feel about Chapter 2 and their solo work, listen to all of what Jimin expressed during his promotions, the good and bad. You’d be left with fewer anxieties. At least, that’s the case for me.

Thanks for this, Anon.

[constantcrisis19]

20 Questions for Fic Writers (& Artists)

AN: I wasn't tagged, but I saw this and just had to do it!

1. How many works do you have on ao3(Tumblr)?

34 works on ao3

51 works on Tumblr

2. What's your total ao3 (Tumblr) word count?

559,311 words on ao3

84,623 words on Tumblr

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Honestly, whatever I'm into at the time (but I have a tendency to bounce around a lot) so I'll just list off a few of my favs to write for:

Call of Duty: MW2

Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

Rick and Morty

Teen Wolf

Stranger Things

Supernatural

The Walking Dead

4.What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What Is Meant To Be (Always Finds A Way) | Geraskier | 2,841 kudos

Tell Me Every Terrible Thing You've Done (And Let Me Love You Anyways) | Montgomery Gator & Gregory [Gen] | 2,425 kudos

The Goal Isn't To Live Forever (It's To Create Something That Will) | Winterberg | 2,035 kudos

Sometimes Peace Come From Painful Things | Winterberg | 1,252 kudos

It’s Funny Only Just A Moment (Can Reveal The Universe Intent) | Winterberg | 836 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't always respond to comments, since I usually leave that task to my co-writer (and partner in crime) Tibby. It's the most convenient way to do it because we both collaborate on most of the fics I post and they're much more comfortable with responding to comments.

But if it's a solo fic, then I can usually manage to work through my anxiety and respond to anyone who's kind enough to leave a comment because I genuinely love getting feedback, and seeing people enjoy my work really inspires me to keep writing!

Uhhh... That's gotta be my newer oneshot, Free Fall. It's a SoapGhost fic and a rewrite of the ending of MW3 (Yeah, you know the scene).

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I've got a few (cause I'm a sucker for a happy ending) but the one I'm gonna go with has to be The Goal Isn't To Live Forever (It's To Create Something That Will). It's a part of the list above and it's currently one of my only completed, multi-chaptered fics.

8. Do you get hate on any fics (Art)?

Unfortunately, yeah. I recently got a particularly rude comment accusing me of using chat ai to write my Geraskier fic, even though it was first published way back in 2020, before chat ai was even a thing that people used regularly.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yup. I usually stick to my comfort zone and write M/M stuff.

Though, in my longer fics, the smut isn't really the main focal point so I tend to keep it pretty tame.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Oh boy. My co-author has actually got me hooked on a crazy rare pair to the point where we wrote a whole fic for it (and are working on the second in the series). It's a Daryl Dixon/Dean Winchester pairing set in the TWD universe.

Nope, thank god.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yup! Someone reached out to me and asked to translate my FNaF: SB fic into Russian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sure have, but only with one other person.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Omg, no! I have to pick!?

Well, if forced with a gun to my head, I supposed I'd have to say Rinch (John Reese x Harold Finch from the TV series Person of Interest). I love the show and the characters and the story and the world building. It's just a pairing that I will always keep coming back to no matter how many other ships/fandoms I fall into.

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My KiriBaku x Among Us crossover fic. The main page, where I had planned out the entire fic, was accidentally deleted and I don't know if I'll ever recover from that since I'd have to rehash the entire rest of the story from scratch if I decided to one day come back to it.

However, that being said, I'm still holding out hope that I'll randomly get a burst of motivation for the story. Who knows.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'd say my strengths are writing angst, witty banter, and transition paragraphs (since my co-author often gets stuck going on tangents and writing really detailed scenes so they often ask for me to make a segue in order to get us to the next plot point, which works out for everyone).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My weakness is definitely in-depth, detailed scenes, hands down. It's kinda embarrassing, but my writing can sometimes lack the descriptive, engaging language necessary to make the story/situation/characters interesting (especially when it's decidedly not a writing day) and it often reads like boring exposition.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I am not fluent in anything other than English, but that doesn't exactly stop me from relying heavily on google translate in order to use other languages in my fics, especially if the character that I'm writing for prefers another language. Take Miguel O'Hara for example, who is canonically bilingual.

The same kind of goes for accents too. I try my best to emulate how the words would sound if the character was actually speaking while writing dialogue. Take for example my SoapGhost fics, where both characters have a thick, distinct accent.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Unofficially (as in never posted): Vampire Diaries.

First fandom I posted to Wattpad (yikes) when I was like twelve: BBC Sherlock

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Jeez, another difficult question. Um... I'm gonna go with What Is Meant To Be (Always Finds A Way), for several reasons.

It was the very first fic that I posted to my ao3 account.

It was the first multi-chaptered fic that I'd ever completed.

I managed to finish and post the final chapter on my birthday (which was a pleasant surprise).

I love it so much that my co-writer and I are actually currently in the midst of lovingly revisiting/revising the entire fic to make it even better!

_____

That was fun! Now for the tagging!

@mistertiberius, @ghostao3, @captain-mj, @fogsrollingin

[ohanahoku-ao3]

Whumptober Day 12

For this one, I've got Chapter Two of the newly multi-chaptered Fiore & Sole, previously titled Stars and Butterflies. Be safe, check the triggers via tags first!

Mature - F/M - Stranger Things

A Flower and Her Sun

     Nancy stared at herself in the mirror as she stood with her shirt off, still partially wrapped around her hands. The new lines she’d carved into her stomach stood out, red and angry against her pale skin. Placing her shirt on the sink, Nancy reached out and ran a hand over the marks gently, swallowing hard. In a single moment of weakness, she’d cut. She’d fallen right back to the habit that almost broke her the first time, and she hated it. Her stomach rumbled, and Nancy stiffened, eyes sparking with rage. Her gentle touch disappeared with the rough way she grabbed at her stomach, her skin screaming in pain as she dug her fingers into the soft flesh.

🌻

     At the gym, Nancy handed out food with the other relief workers, watching as people’s weary eyes lit with gratitude. There were more people at the shelter every day as the ash and rot forced them from their homes. El and the government were working on it, making slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Still, with more mouths to feed at the shelter, they were going to run out of food sooner or later, no matter the promises the feds made about relief efforts. So when told to take a break and handed a tray with food, Nancy’s stomach flipped with guilt. She handed the tray back with a tight smile, uttering some excuse before escaping to the bleachers. She was hungry, sure, but what right did she have to take food from the ones that needed it? She had failed to kill Vecna, to stop his plan. She didn’t deserve to eat when their supplies were running low; she didn’t deserve to eat at all. She wrapped her arms around her stomach as it ached, and tried to tune the hunger out as she watched Jonathan pass out blankets to some newcomers.

     A lump of dread settled in her stomach. There was something else she was failing at, another reason why she didn’t deserve to eat. Things had been strained between them ever since they were reunited, and Nancy’s appetite faded away just thinking of it. Was she the problem? Were they drifting apart? Would it be best to let it happen?

     “Here, eat.”

     A mug was abruptly shoved in front of her face, startling Nancy into grabbing it automatically. She stared down at the vegetable soup before looking over at Steve as he settled on the bleachers next to her and leaned back against the seats behind them. His eyes weren’t looking at her, and when she glanced in the direction of his gaze, he was watching Dustin lead a group of kids in a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Goose.

     “I’m not hungry.” She set the mug down before wrapping her arms around herself again, leaning forward against her knees as she watched Holly chase after Dustin.

     “Well, that’s a lie,” Steve said flippantly. “I could hear your stomach growling from the other side of the gym.”

     Nancy pressed her lips together, her brow furrowing. Steve sounded nonchalant and uncaring as he said it, but she knew him well enough to hear the underlying concern, and it turned butterflies loose in her upset stomach. After all this time, after she hurt him so carelessly, Steve still cared about her. He still noticed her.

     “Come on, Nance. I know you haven’t eaten anything today.” His foot, resting on his knee, nudged her leg.

     “I’m fine, Steve,” Nancy murmured, ignoring the temptation to look back at him. “I just… don’t feel like it right now.”

     She heard him sigh before he shifted beside her and leant forward to gently place a hand on her knee. “Please, fiore. For me?” He asked softly, and Nancy had to close her eyes against the tears and memories the nickname brought on.

     Nancy giggled, trying hard not to move as Steve drew a new set of butterflies over her stomach. “Stop moving, fiore. You’re gonna mess up my work.” Steve said, grinning up at her from where he lay atop her lower half.

     “I’d stop moving if you stopped trying to tickle me!” Nancy retorted, grabbing a pillow and smacking him over the head with it until he laughed and acquiesced, removing his fingers from her sides. She laughed with him as she set the pillow aside, reaching down to fix his mussed hair. “What’s this fiore business anyway? You’ve never called me that before.”

     Steve grinned, and Nancy had a feeling he’d been hoping she would ask. “It’s Italian. It means flower.” He told her, drawing a line with a loop at the end for one of the butterflies’ antennae. He glanced up at her, a shy smile on his face. “That’s why I chose butterflies for you,” He told her, his hand brushing over her stomach gently. “Because butterflies are always found on the prettiest flower.”

     Nancy’s cheeks darkened with blush. Flustered, she responded in the only way she could think to draw the attention away from herself. “I didn’t know you spoke Italian!”

     Steve just offered her a shrug and a smirk, the smug idiot knowing exactly how his words had affected her.

     “That’s not fair.” Nancy choked out as her throat grew tight with the urge to cry.

     “Come on, Nance. When did we ever play fair?” Steve asked, reaching across her to pick up the mug, coaxing her fingers to wrap around the warm ceramic. “I’m not going to let you starve.” He told her, sighing as Nancy only stared despondently at the soup. “Eat, fiore. Every flower needs a little sunshine to feed it.” He grimaced slightly at his own words, pulling back as his gaze moved forward again. “Just eat it, please.”

     Nancy ran her hand over the new planets and stars she’d drawn on Steve’s legs, quietly contemplative as she listened to the soft whoosh-plap of Steve tossing a baseball up and catching it over and over. “Hey, Steve?”

     “Yes, fiore?” He answered, glancing down and smiling at her as Nancy’s lips stretched in a wide grin from hearing the nickname.

     “What’s the Italian word for sun?” She asked, her chin propped on her hand and her feet raised with her ankles crossed behind her.

     “Hmm, you’re lucky that’s one of the ones I know.” He told her, smirking as she laughed. “It’s sole.”

     “Sole.” Nancy echoed, her eyes lighting up. “I like it. That’s your nickname now. If I’m your fiore, you’re my sole.”

     Steve’s eyes widened, his smirk dropping away as his lips parted softly. He blinked a couple times, stumbling over his words a bit as he asked, “Why sole?”

     “Because you’re the center of every galaxy I draw,” Nancy said as she massaged the marks on his leg. “You’re the center of my galaxy.” She told him, looking up at him. She shifted to move up the bed, cupping his cheek and drawing him into a kiss that he eagerly returned, the passion mellowing to tenderness as they eventually pulled just inches apart. Nancy brushed a thumb over his cheek, her gaze on the radiant grin that she loved so much. “You’re my sole because you, Steve Harrington, shine brighter than any star I’ve ever seen.” She whispered, her eyes rising to meet his as they turned mushy-soft and misty.

     “I love you, Nancy Wheeler.” He murmured, pulling her into his arms and embracing her in the warmest, softest, and safest hug she ever experienced.

     “I love you, too, my sole.” She breathed, pretending not to notice as his grip grew tighter and her shoulder grew wet.

     The newest flood of memory had Nancy’s chest aching with longing and regret. She couldn’t stand to see Steve looking so stiff after his slip-up. He held himself so tightly, his shoulders curling towards his ears, and she nearly felt sick at the realization that his light was dimming in front of her very eyes.

     Nancy gripped the mug tighter, grabbing the spoon and purposely clinking it against the ceramic as she plunged it into the soup, loud enough to draw his eyes back to her. The relief in his eyes nearly made her cry, and Nancy offered him a wobbly smile. “Well, then it’s a good thing you’re here, sole.” She declared with considerably more confidence than she felt.

     Steve’s eyes went wide and vulnerable, and Nancy averted her gaze as she ate her soup, losing all bravado in the face of the sudden pressure in her chest. They were quiet as Nancy finished her food, neither one willing to break the silence or walk away from the other.

     Duck, Duck, Goose was given up for a game of What Time is it, Mr. Fox? and still they sat there together, letting time and opportunity pass until it was time to close the doors for the night. Then Nancy headed home with Jonathan, and Steve headed off with his bat, ready to patrol the borders. That night, they each earned a new scar, but only one of them bled.

[beckandthebois]

Day to Remember

I'm gonna be so real. I don't know how to write grief, but I tried so. This is another one of my late Whumptober posts. Tomorrow I'm planning on starting my multi chapter fic.

Also there are mentions of past character death.

Ao3

Character: It's Four, it's always Four

Day: 19, Flower Bouquet

The Chain was walking through Castle Town in Time’s Hyrule. It was always a boisterous place, with children running around and couples dancing. They were going to restock on supplies before heading out to find the group of black blooded monsters that some travelers had seen. 

Four was roughly content with himself. He had visited the blacksmith in town and furbished up the Four Sword, and some of Wild’s weapons. He’ll probably come back later to do the other boys weapons as well. They were all set to meet back at the central fountain by noon though. 

“I hope we can actually eat at a restaurant before leaving, no offense to Wild but I want something a little fancier than on the road pot cooking.” Legend said. 

“Like a grilled steak, or something cold like ice cream!” Warriors said, agreeing with Legend for once. 

Four was going to join in on their talk of food. Something that always got the Links to agree with each other. His eyes caught on a flower shop nearby. The brilliant colors and familiar flowers in one of the bouquets. It made him stop for a second, before he remembered something he couldn’t believe he had even forgotten in the first place. 

Suddenly, his whole mood shifted. Four’s shoulders slumped and his entire mind seemed to go distant, distracted, and guilty. The pink flowers were the same ones from so long ago. He sniffled, tears wanting to spill from his eyes. 

“Hey, Four, what’s got you so upset, the smith shop closed or somethin’?” Twilight said, smiling slightly. He seemed to notice Four’s shift in deminor faster than anybody else, and is trying to lighten his mood. 

“My Dad died ten years ago today,” Four spoke in a soft tone, like he was still at the funeral. Some tears finally fell through his eyelashes and rolled down his cheeks. “I can’t believe I forgot.” Twilight shifted to a softer look. 

“You didn’t forget,” Twilight says, matching Four’s tone. 

“Yes I did! I should have remembered days ago, if not at least when I woke up this morning.” Four says, and turns away from the flowers, he walks off, close to storming off but he can’t bring himself to put that much energy into it. He hears some of the others whispering behind him. 

Four finds himself gliding down one of the alley ways, few people here and there. There are footsteps behind him in sync with his, but he still won’t turn around, not till he ends up at a corner. Instead of turning he slides down on the ground leaning against the dirty stone wall. 

Twilight sits down next to him. Four has his legs spread out before him. Feeling defeated, him and Twilight sit in silence for a while. A couple of Four’s frustrated tears stream down his face. He wishes it was at least raining or something, but instead it was such a nice day out that even the dingey back alleyway was semi bright from sunshine. 

Four pulls his knees up to rest his forehead against them. 

“I didn’t know him for very long,” Four starts, “he died when I was five. He loved to travel. Apparently him and my mom were going to travel the world together.” Four smiled into his legs slightly, his grandfather had told him all kinds of stories about the two of them growing up. His smile faded as he kept talking. 

“She died when I was born though. So my father decided to become a delivery boy for my grandfather's forge. But he was murdered by bandits on the road. The bouquet in the flower shop looked like the ones at his funeral.” Four let silence envelope them again. 

“At least he died doing something he loved,” Twilight spoke softly, not trying to ruin the atmosphere they created. Four smiled again, picking his head up from his knees.

“Oh yeah, he always said the spirit of my mom was with him when he traveled, that the two of them would always be together, he really loved her.” Four paused for a minute. “He was devastated when she died, that’s why I’m closer to my grandpa, he raised me. My father was too caught up in grief for a long time. But whenever my dad was home from traveling, it was the best. From what I remember, he always made me smile and laugh.” Twilight couldn’t help but smile. Four didn’t talk about himself very often, so it was always nice to know more about their mysterious smithy. 

“If he was still alive, he’d probably be the one on this adventure with all of you.” Four said looking down at his feet, although his soft smile still remained. 

“What do you mean?” Twilight questioned. 

“Ever since my father was born he was supposed to present the sword at the 100th annual Picori Festival. The festival and the sword were what started my adventure. If he had delivered the sword he probably would have gone off to save Zelda too. And then to the rest of you I would just be his annoying kid he left at home.” Four’s smile widened as he thought of the scenario, his father being the hero. How would he interact with the other heroes, what would he think of them? He’d probably get along well with Wild and Hyrule. And of course the old man as well. 

“Well as fun as that sounds, I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else.” Four turned to Twilight, the older smiling brightly at him. “You clearly love him very much Four, even if you only knew him for a short while. I think he’d be proud of you, so don’t get too upset about not remembering right away, I’m sure he’d be happy knowing you were happy.” 

Four already knows that naturally, but it’s still nice to hear. His father would have liked Twilight, he thinks. His dad would have fit in well with the chain, but maybe not as a hero. But as a hero’s dad. 

Twilight stands up. Brushing dirt and, whatever else is on the floor of a dirty alley corner, off his legs and butt. He turns to face Four smiling lightly down at the little smith. 

“Whenever you're ready you can come back to join us at the inn. Just know that you don’t have to stew in your grief alone.” He turns and walks down the alley the way they came from. 

Four already knows he’s not alone, he never was truly alone on any of his adventures, but he must say he likes the company he has now then when his company was himself.

[novorehere]

Hey all! Just wanted to give everyone a bit of a content update.

I apologize for the lack of content for the past… year. I’ve been working through some stuff, and it’s been hard for me to find the motivation or inspiration to write. It comes in short bursts, meaning I’ve been (very) slowly chipping away at multiple projects at once. I just thought I’d update everyone on how things are going and make a list (partly for myself) of what I have in the works, what still needs to be done, and what you can expect from me in the future. Admittedly these are mostly obey me fics but I DO have other things tumbling about in my brain, I promise.

Opposite Day: 2/5 chapters finished, the rest 100% planned and around 30-40% written.

I’ve been sitting on an unfinished chapter 3 for almost a year now, and have written good portions of the other chapters in the meantime. This is the project I’m most excited to finish, and I feel bad for abandoning it for so long. Rest assured, I *am* still working on it, and am extremely happy it’s been so well received.

Untitled Simeon Comfort Fic: 75% finished.

Originally I wanted this written for his birthday (which was in February lmao) but as you can see that did not happen. I’ve got the beginning and end all written out, I sort of went off the script at the end with fun purgatory hall family fluff so the only thing I don’t have written is… actually the eating part. This will probably be the first fic I actually post, seeing as it’s the closest to completion.

“A series of Obey Me Vore Headcanons” Re-Write (Title Very WIP) 2.5/7 chapters re-written

This one I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here yet. I’ve grown increasingly unsatisfied with my original obey me headcanons list that I posted last year when I first got into the fandom. A. Because I hadn’t gotten very far into the story when I wrote it and didn’t get the full scope of the characters yet and B. (Most importantly) I feel like I really didn’t do the characters justice.

Since I originally posted it, there’s been a healthy amount of discussion on depth and nuance in vore media and reducing characters to tropes, etc. I’d like to re-write this series to focus less on physical aspects and “how they eat you” but rather more of an emotional and story driven story of why they eat you and their emotions and struggles that come with it. The obey me brothers are incredibly interesting characters, and I’d like to explore them in more depth and show you how interesting they can really be and why I love them so much.

This one might take a while to complete, but it’s gonna happen at some point. I‘ll keep up the original half-finished version in the meantime since I don’t want to delete it and ao3 doesn’t allow privating fics without orphaning them. I know it’s ugly in it’s current state, just know I’m working on it and the rest of those chapters will be overhauled eventually.

“Miss Em”: 80% written (kind of)

I’ve had this one sitting in my drafts for a while now. Originally I had plans to start another multi-chapter series but then Opposite Day sort of went to shit so I scrapped it knowing it was way too ambitious. But now I still have a mostly written Mammon fic in my notes app just sitting there and it would be a shame to just…leave it. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with this one, Maybe I’ll write the Beel companion piece to it that I had planned and just leave it as a 2-parter. Who knows. It’s really cute, and I want to share it at some point.

Untitled Obey Me mini-drabbles: 60% written

Honestly this wasn’t supposed to be a whole thing. I started randomly writing one day on a burst of inspiration and it turned into little mini “scenario slices” for all the characters and I really like how it turned out. I still need to write for two of the characters and polish up some others, but it’s a fun low-stress thing to work on in between projects. Also excited to share it possibly soon since they’re fairly short and shouldn’t take long to finish (but you know me…)

An unspecified ITWOM fanfic: 0% written, 50% planned

For those who aren’t familiar, “In the World of Monsters” is an amazing novel authored by @vore-toast that just recently received a fantastic ending and epilogue (Please read it! It’s fantastic!) And I really would like to write a little something for it to show my appreciation. I have an idea planned out, but details would involve spoilers so I can’t say much. I’d need to ask for guidance on what exactly to include since the things I would like to write about haven’t exactly *happened yet* but I’ve said too much already… hee hee. I don’t know when this fic is gonna happen, but I swear to you it will. And if my original idea doesn’t work out, it’ll be something. I WILL be writing for this series, mark my words.

Heroes Off-Duty. 0% written, ??% planned

Huh? That’s weird... That one’s not supposed to be there. Ah well, It’s not relevant anyway. Carry on.

[16magnolias]

Gonna pick a couple random numbers for the ask game- 22, 67

22. describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

Fun answer: Oh boy it’s a lot of squiggly arrows, a veritable Jeremy Bearimy if you will XD

Real answer:

I start with a lot of daydreaming.  All of my fics have stemmed from ‘what if…’ or ‘how?!’ questions.  The daydreaming takes up a significant portion of time.  In the shower, laying awake in bed, staring out the window doing dishes, etc.

At some point the daydream will start to solidify into a few solid lines/descriptions and develop a clear end and beginning.  This is usually when I delude myself into thinking it’s going to be a one-shot.

I start writing down my favorite/most important bits.  Could be on the back of a grocery list or junk mail, or more likely hastily typed into the notes app on my phone.

I continue daydreaming and noting the important bits until I have enough important bits to string together.

I sit down and write out all the important bits together on the computer and fill in the rest, spending a lot of time putting myself in the characters’ shoes and asking ‘What Would Character Do’ in this particular circumstance? And ‘Does This Sound Like Character’s Voice’?

I get stuck in a black hole of tweaking and editing and trying to connect this important bit with that important bit.  Sometimes this leads me to realize I need to add some more bits in to get there.  Plot ensues.  I’ve lost control of the narrative and it usually goes from a one shot to a multi-chapter story with side plots because I keep asking myself ‘what if’, ‘why’ and ‘how’.

I now have a clear end in sight. If this is going to be a multi-chapter fic, then by Jove - characters are going to develop, lessons are going to be learnt, and the ending is going to be happy ‘cause I’m in charge here and that’s how I like it!

Oh no. In order to develop character and learn lessons Hard Things happen. I must write emotional scenes and now I need music to help me get in the mood.

I fart around on Spotify and Youtube and find myself some mood music.

I write. Usually starting with the most emotional pivotal scenes, and then filling in the gaps to get us from point A to point B. 

Characters develop. Then they betray me by learning their lessons and developing too quickly and now I need to go back and undo something I did so my Big Climactic Moment will still be Big and Climactic and not redundant.

I take a pause and look at the big picture.  I tweak the writing so the big picture is consistent in terms of themes and pacing. 

I get distracted by life or tumblr or a really good book and then have to come back and reread everything I’ve written to remind myself of everything I’ve planned.

I edit and revise until I’m satisfied with both the chapter itself and its place in and what it contributes to the overall story. 

I post the chapter and repeat the above steps until the story is finished!

67. when have you felt the least confident?

Probably seventh grade gym class 

For real though, with my writing it’s usually when I’m tackling a heavy subject and I want to be respectful and real and do it justice.  Runner up is the opposite side of the spectrum - humor - because humor can be a very subjective thing and a punch line landing totally wrong makes me deflate like a discount bounce house after an elementary school field day. 

Thanks for the asks! :)

[forestshadow-wolf]

Blossoms of Love (Chapter 12)

Overtime

Pairing: soap/Ghost

Tags: Hurt/comfort, angst, hanahaki

Ao3 link || Chapter 1 || Chapter 11

"You're late." Laswell's voice sounded through the laptop speaker they were all currently crowded around.

They'd finished packing and made it to their original drop zone without much trouble. A second trip had been required in order to haul the rest of their salvaged supplies, which had taken them an extra couple of hours, but all in all they made good time. Setting up camp was easy enough as well. A central tent large enough to fit all five of them plus a table, three tents for sleeping, and finally they were able to set up communications to get in contact with Laswell.

"Yeah, we had some complications." Price informed.

"Mission status?"

"Still on, but we're gonna need a new exfil and some cash. We lost a lot of materials when we crashed."

"Copy that. I'll let you know when it's secured." Laswell confirmed. Price thanked her, and then they were confirming their current intel. The plan would be changing just a bit until they could restock what they'd lost. instead of hitting the location nearest to them, they would hike to the furthest location. It was set a just a bit away from civilization, and would be a covert operation. If they moved fast enough they could arrive by midday on the second day of hiking, then they'd have three days to observe guard rotations, gather what info they could get, and clean all traces of their presence. By the time they got back Laswell should have found them a new exfil and a way to get them their cash. "And one more thing, price. Eighteen hours ago Intel unencrypted information about a separate target near your region. Four hours ago it was decided that you would be taking the job, since you're in the area. Looks you're gonna be off base for a while longer."

"What's the word, Laswell?"

"A multi-national level terrorist, and human trafficking gang leader. No name, only a title. You might have heard of him, he started the arms war in Iraq." Price affirmed their knowledge on the subject. "They call him 'The Seller', Intel says he's flying out of turkey in thirty-eight days. You will have execute authority, but this is capture or kill and we want him alive." Price gave a noncommittal hum.

"We don't have the fire-power, armor, or rations for that. And barely any time, Kate, these things take time. And that's not even to mention that we have no jurisdiction there, we could be starting a war if we're found out."

"I know, John, but you have no say here, it's an assignment from General Durski." A low, frustrated growl came from Price, but he kept quiet, so Laswell continued. "Nik has said he has connections in Turkey, if I remember correctly." she directed the last part to wards the man.

"Yes, ma'am, to my knowledge they are all still intact."

Good. Then, I'll work with Nik to set you up with a private contractor, while you're completing this mission. That should remove some of the red tape for you. Intel is still coming in, I'll let you know when I have more for you." Price didn't say anything for a long moment. "Captain, please confirm your understanding." Laswell demanded.

"How much will we be able to trust this P.C.?" The captain asked, obviously thinking of a similar situation involving a Private military contract, and Soap had to admit he wasn't keen on repeating that experience.

"I'll set it up and employ them myself, they'll answer to only me." Price's mustache twitched as he mulled it over, not that he really had a choice on this, it was either accept or be tried in court for whatever crimes they could slap on them. "Captain, I need an answer." Laswell demanded.

"Fine. What's the plan?" Price gritted out, very obviously not thrilled.

"Sources say he's just outside Simak, just north of the border. You will fly out in thirty-seven days, to meet and confer with the P.C."

"That's not a lot of time, Laswell."

"I know." she plowed on, "the projected plan is simple, you will meet with the P.C., and go over the floor plan. Quietly infiltrate the territory, grab 'The Snake', and bring him in for interrogation."

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

@checkerscharlie @halb-nichts @heyitsropi @trekkie-in-space @lavenderstem @toasterduck23

[matchmadeinsevenhells]

Every option on that poll has me so excited; i would love to read any of them if you end posting!

Though the Lucemond war edition has me intrigued. What kind of flavor would that be, considering the whump Aemond put him through before the timeline diverges?

[Ask is about very well, uncle (an eye for an eye), a Luke POV multi-chapter Dance Canon Divergence AU where Luke gives Aemond the eye he demands at Storm's End]

Hi anon! Thank you so much for the question.

First of all, congrats! It seems most people agreed with you ;)

(the color stripe is once again to hide my own vote lmao)

I'm gonna put the rest of my answer under a Read More for MAJOR spoilers for the main fic and the planned-ish remix! I was rambling a bit so you get thoughts on both of the Lucemond remix ideas XD

So. the Lucemond remix hostage edition would have obviously diverged from the main fic rather early on when Lucerys is still a hostage in King's Landing. I think one of the main reasons for that divergence would actually be that Aemond's thoughts on Lucerys having stabbed out his own eye would just be sliiiightly more... hm. Leaning towards him actively seeking out talking to Lucerys? Which we saw in the main fic, just a bit, but it would start earlier and they would have quite a lot of talks(/"talks" where Aemond says a lot of angry things and Lucerys goes "...wtf dude" at him). That means a) Aemond might not as readily follow Aegon's command to beat Lucerys after getting the letter about Lord Borros, and b) when B&C come visiting, Aemond is still in the room. Which unfortunately means we get no actual rescue BUT a potentially injured Aemond. Things go from there...

The Lucemond remix war edition of very well, uncle however... yes, it would diverge from the main fic either right about now or even further in future chapters. Yes, that means Arrax is still dead, all that whump happened. Ouch. I'll be honest, the way I see/write Lucerys and Targaryens in general, I don't think that's something you can just forgive.

If anyone's counting, Lucerys' "debt" was an eye, and now he paid an eye and his dragon. So it's Aemond who now owes him a debt

And I also really think Rhaenys deserves to have her solo go/a round with different odds at Vhagar & Aemond.

If you add all these things together, the flavor you get is... well. I'll leave you with a mini-snippet:

“A dragon for a dragon,” Luke says quietly. “Is that not a fair trade between us, finally?”

“And yet you say those words commanding a new dragon, bastard,” Aemond hisses.

Luke twists in the saddle to meet Aemond’s eye, half swollen shut as it is. “My Father’s dragon.”

That shuts his Uncle up. Luke can practically see the scathing retort on the tip of Aemond’s tongue, and yet—they both sit astride the very proof of his Father’s love.

Only one of them in chains.

[theredcapeofk]

20 Questions

Thank you @silv3reyedstranger  for tagging me! Sorry for the delay, I needed to finish my Halloween fic first

How many works do you have on AO3?

22 with 4 still ongoing. This also includes 9 artworks (aside from the 6 in my illustrated fic)

2. What’s you total AO3 count?

177,544 words. Wow! I didn’t expect this much. Cool 🙂

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Supercorp

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My Eyes are up Here

Change my Direction

Gifts (My first posted Supergirl fic <3 )

It’s a Super Life

The Five Senses of Affection (I plan to update this one soon ;) )

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes. Always. Sometimes it’s hard to not spoil the rest of the fic when I answer questions, but I love it when you guys ask questions. I respond to comments because I like to exchange thoughts with people who comment, or simply thank people who took the time to write something.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

@silv3reyedstranger I don’t like to copy but your answer is exactly what I think, so I’m mostly gonna keep what you said.

I'm really not the biggest fan of angsty endings (because it makes me sad), so I don't write them. I'd much prefer piling on the angst throughout and giving them a happy ending. There's too much sadness and grief in the world already, I feel like everyone should get a happy ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I don’t know, they all end well, but since I need to choose one I'd say Don’t Leave Me because of what happens in the fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did, on Change my Direction a few chapters ago (which is basically a year and a half ago.). People(who had never commented before on this fic) had a lot to say about how I handled a specific chapter.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes I do (I think most of my stuff is rated E on Ao3 lol). I’d say mostly fluff. And…what would you call Kara and Lena have been longing for each other for years and finally decide to…? 

I wrote more kinky stuff I haven’t posted yet. There’s angry sex in a fic I’m working on

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I did. Harry Potter and Charmed, City Hunter and Cat’s eyes (1980s and early 1990s mangas by the same author). I used to draw crossovers a lot which was a lot easier than trying to figure out how some characters could meet. I don’t think any of my written crossovers were too far-fetched, but my art on the other hand…I had the Golden trio from Harry Potter meet Naruto characters, and Outfit exchanges(with Naruto and other mangas) a few times in my art.

“Recently” I had Kate Kane and her step-sister visit Kara and Lena in Suddenly I’m in too deep. And I will write crossovers again with other characters from the Arrowverse

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

No one’s ever asked, so not that I know of. I’ve tried translating my own fics once upon a time, but what a hassle lol. Although that was back when I was writing in French so translating to English was harder (and my English was not what it is today), maybe it would be easier to translate my current fics in French, but I don’t really see the point lol

13. have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes 2 with @lenaralanvers. One is Let’s let go of our Broken Hearts (she did the actual writing but we took decisions together) and the second we haven’t posted yet.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

My OTP? I don’t know. I’ve loved all my ships with passion, still do. I think RonMione, Linzin, Korrasami and of course Supercorp will always hold a very special place in my heart.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I hope I’ll be able to finish all of my Supercorp ones in any shape or form. Sometimes I just write down a short idea and it turns into a multi chapter fic. Or sometimes I write something I think could be huge, but it turns out to be a few paragraphs and it’s just as finished as the fics I post online. 

16. What are your writing strengths?

I’m not good at knowing what I’m good at lol. I think I’m good with fluff scenes and how people react with their senses (sight, touch etc)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions. Which is all the more frustrating because I usually get a very precise picture in my head but I can rarely show it with words.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don’t write entire dialogues in another language, just a few foreign sentences or words here and there. I like to keep it organic for the reader and this method is easier when it comes to including translation

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. I was desperately waiting for Book 5, and after theorizing for a while about serious plot points, one day I sat down to write goofy interviews given by the Golden trio to the Daily Prophet. The funny thing is, fanfiction came naturally to me, and I’m not sure I even knew the name of what I was writing then.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh that’s a tough one, because favorites tend to change. I can list a few that I love in chronological order (each one of these marked a milestone of some kind in my writing journey): 

Il était une fois à Shinjuku (the City Hunter and Cat’s eye crossover), 

A post Book 1 Korrasami and Borra fic (that I never posted anywhere so I never bothered to properly name it XD), 

My eyes are up Here 

The Five Senses of Affection 

and Don’t Leave me

tagging a couple of people if ya’ll wanna take part! @spaceman-earthgirl @lenaralanvers @chaotic-super @inkedroplets @guessimreallyhere

[practically-an-x-man]

1 (Desert Song), 2, 3, 8, 11, 14, 23, 29 for the fic asks :)

Thank you so much!!! I'll try to make my answers somewhat brief since it's late and I need to get to bed

1. Share a song that makes you think of [Desert Song]

I mean, the title IS a song (a very heartbreaking bonus release by MCR), and I do have a whole list of songs compiled for use in future chapters so I kinda want to save those for when they appear in the fic itself, but there's one song that reminds me of them but doesn't really fit the rest of the punk theme

Pruning Shears by the Amazing Devil

It's a wonderful song and tells the story of a future couple meeting at a party, the interactions between the two of them already remind me a bit of Billy and Quinn's dynamic, but there's one stanza that really strikes me (and would've been the choice lyrics for the fic chapter, if the song fit the theme)

And I'll watch her ruin her life and dye her hair bright colors Become someone's wife Forget the girl that she once was

It just strikes me as very very *Quinn*, and I'd love to include the song if it fit with the tone of the overall fic. I mean, I'm a punk and I love the Amazing Devil, but it's not exactly punk music itself

2. Do you read/reread your own fics?

All the time! I write the stories I want to see, and I love rereading them from time to time

3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Ugh, that's so tough because they all serve different purposes. Like, Smoke and Mirrors I love for its character development, Bolts and Blasters I love for its slowburn, A Love Once New is my self-indulgent rainy-day fic, Desert Song I love for its complex relationships and intra/interpersonal themes, the list goes on. I love them each in their own way, and I genuinely can't pick a favorite.

8. What project(s) are you currently working on?

Uh.... a lot. But most recently I've been working on new chapters for Taking Flight (still hyperfixated lol) and Heartstrings, with A Love Once New waiting in the wings (pun intended lol)

11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics?

Not really, I tend to get distracted if I write to music. I do have a playlist for my Sandman character Prometheus here, and my fics kinda end up being playlists themselves since I incorporate so much music into them, but I don't generally create a lot of playlists.

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

I'm actually gonna go with Desert Song. I tried/am actively trying to emulate the fast-paced action style of 6 Underground, and given the movie never got a sequel I'd pick this one to fill that void. The same goes for my other 6 Underground fic, Nom de Guerre - Desert Song is the better-written fic by far, but I think Nom De Guerre might have more visual elements that would adapt well to film.

23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)?

I tend to lay out a brief outline for my chapters so I know where to go, but I kinda just go off of general feel for the length itself. The only limitations I place on myself are that it must be over 2k words (which is easy to achieve now) and it must end in a good narrative way (since idk when I would next be able to update and I don't want to leave people unsatisfied).

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

Sure thing! Here's a snippet from a Wednesday fic that I scrapped after the controversy with Percy Hynes White. I still like the idea (in fact, I'm hybridizing the OC into a future fic with Michael Langdon instead), but I don't want to engage with any of the controversy regardless of its legal outcome.

“Calypso, that’s Greek, right?” Her Mona Lisa smile widened into something genuine, a blend of pure happiness and mild surprise. The distance in her expression vanished almost instantly. She wasn’t great at hiding her emotions. Everything showed on her face, as candidly as if it were written across her forehead. He found it endearing. “Right.” she agreed, “Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Atlas, the titan, and she was imprisoned on a hidden island that adventurers could only find once.” Then, as if it burst out of her in a flash of inspiration, “But I think I’m more like Hephaestus.” “Why’s that?” “He was the outcast of the gods. Cast aside because he was ugly. And he worked the forges.” She stared down at her own hands, and he remembered the illustrated gleam of the knife in his painting. “I work in the forges. Sort of.” Another of his questions answered, then. But that wasn’t what he was focused on. And he had a habit of speaking before his brain caught up. “You think you’re ugly?” Her gray eyes flashed back up to his own, emotion flitting across her face in an uncertain wave. She still couldn’t hide it, but that didn’t mean Xavier could read it. He wasn’t sure what to think, other than that she was clearly very, very lonely. And maybe didn’t even realize it. “I think I’m an outcast.” she finally answered, very carefully.  Maybe she did realize it, after all.

thank you so much for asking!! these were fun!!

Fanfic Writer Asks

[raccoonsmate4life]

I posted 449 times in 2022

That's 220 more posts than 2021!

263 posts created (59%)

186 posts reblogged (41%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@morganupstead

@chrisodonline

@eagerforthesky

@chicgeekgirl89

@raccoonsmate4life

I tagged 413 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#ncisla - 256 posts

#chicago fire - 117 posts

#stellaride - 60 posts

#kelly severide - 37 posts

#stella kidd - 36 posts

#densi - 34 posts

#stellaride wedding - 32 posts

#13x22 - 29 posts

#chicago pd - 22 posts

#13x21 - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 80 characters

#i published another post-ep the other day (different fandom) and it felt so good

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

This is not a drill.

I have been writing again.  Mostly Stellaride, but I am working on a Densi post-ep from last week and have a multi-chapter idea for Densi that I’m trying to plan out.  It’s amazing what a change in antidepressant protocol can do!

I haven’t been posting my Stellaride stuff on ff.net because the audience seems to mostly be on AO3, but I’ll post my Densi stuff both places.

Stellaride post 10x10

Stellaride post 10x11

Stellaride collection

Stellaride fix-it of Stella coming home

45 notes - Posted March 13, 2022

#4

I love Edit [Janko] Reagan

“Don’t look at me, you guys raised him”

47 notes - Posted April 29, 2022

#3

Please PLEASE tell me Mason wrote “Just Married” on Kelly’s car with post-it notes. PLEASE.

69 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

#2

“Kelly, the simple truth is that you are m a g i c to me. Whenever I’m at my lowest, you lift me up. You never leave my side. You are the goodest of men. And yes, we are taking a huge, crazy leap into the unknown, but we’re doing it together. And when I need to hear it, you’ll tell me, ‘you’ve got this Stella Kidd,’ and I’ll know that everything will be okay because it always is when I’m with you. I love you with everything I’ve got, Kelly Severide, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Stella, I decided a long time ago that if I was gonna be with you, I needed to be worthy of you, which seemed impossible. How do I become worthy of someone brave enough to show who they are inside and out? What makes me this better person that I keep hearing about is you keep me from locking things up. Instead, you made sure you really knew me. Then by some miracle, you still love me. Stella, I might never be worthy of you, but I promise to spend the rest of my life trying. And I love you.”

91 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Obv I went back and watched the Stellaride hospital scene like 15 times just now.  Things I loved:

- Stella being so worried she can’t even form a single complete thought

- the way she is afraid to touch him where he’s injured so she just keeps touching his face

- KELLY SEVERIDE WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES

- the way he tucks his head into her chest when she hugs him close

- the way he choked up when he told her he loved her

- the placement of his hands on her upper thighs when Boden walks in

- Kelly wiping his tears away as Boden and the detective come in

- DID I MENTION KELLY SEVERIDE WAS SO EMOTIONAL HE WAS BASICALLY CRYING??

- more face touching

- the way Stella cradles his head against her after they’re left alone again

YOU GUYS.  I just freaking love them so freaking much and they’re getting freaking married NEXT WEEK. 

98 notes - Posted May 18, 2022

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