#this is the shortest chapter thus far

[avionvadion]

side effect from the puppet magic

El: needs a cane to walk

Grim: becomes far sighted

Jack: asthma like symptoms

Vil: skin peeling

Jade and Floyd: Heart problems

Trey: is half deaf

Leona: IS AFRAID TO STAND STILL TOO LONG, AND THEREFORE CANT SLEEP

Why should Elmbe the only one who suffers 😀

Oh gods I could never curse Jack with asthma he doesn’t deserve that 😭😭😭 OCs yes but NOT MY BOY.

That said LEONA HAVING SLEEP PARALYSIS IS SO GOOD. I think Vil being scared of standing still too long would be good too since he’s a MODEL and models probably HAVE to stand still for photo shoots. LEONA HAVING INSOMNIA. THE IRONY. Jack COULD have insomnia too. He’s very particular about going to bed on a certain time. It’ll definitely interfere with his sleep schedule not being able to sleep because of the trauma of staying still.

I think Jade and Floyd should have the skin peeling when in their human forms since they’re Merfolk. Azul is gonna be so confused because since they’re merfolk their skin should be naturally moist (gods I hate that word, thanks high school) and shouldn’t be dry enough to peel at all yet it is.

…I hate drawing glasses, so I’m gonna make Grim deaf in one ear.

I’ll totally give Trey the asthma though. (Sorry, Trey, but the most exercise you usually get is baking, you’ll be fine.) Cater could be the one who ends up far sighted and has to start wearing contacts and/or reading glasses. (He would totally own this? He’d be like my eldest sister, with like five different colorful and differently shapes glasses that he’d change depending on his outfit.)

Hmmmm. Am I missing anyone??? Aside from Ace, Ortho, and Kalim.

AH, LILIA. Maybe like ghost pains kind of? He came SO CLOSE to being fully puppet. Sometimes it feels like his limbs are still wood and he has to jolt his arm or leg to snap himself out of it. His fingers ache where they had once been twigs. Sometimes his legs don’t move the way he wants them to. Other times he’s frozen still and he can’t move his mouth to speak and someone has to snap him out of it. Jade also probably gets this too, along with the skin peeling.

Just… really really creepy ghost pains. The trauma be REAL.

EDIT:

Thinking about it more, and the boys who suffer the most are going to be those who were wood the longest.

I don't remember the exact order of who got caught save for Jade, Lilia, Yuu, and Grim who were the first to get cursed, but those who were wood the longest will most likely share in phantom pains, insomnia, sleep paralysis, an inability to remain still for too long, and/or suffer a more physical aftermath such as potential anxiety-induced asthma as Fellow does imply that turning into a puppet makes it hard to breathe.

All of them will have nightmares. The majority will probably feel cautious/anxious about going near Amusement Parks. Grim will never be able to eat Apple-Core Popcorn or Fried Tuna again because of the bad memories it brings up.

Those who were wood shortest will probably jolt/jerk and rub/scratch at their arms because they just suddenly felt that awful sensation of being transformed out of nowhere only to realize they’re fine. Gidel escapes without out too much trauma since he was cursed just before the Hero Trio and Fellow went out in search of the "Boss" and was therefore the last one to get masked.

Ace, however, despite not being turned into wood, will be having extreme nightmares and guilt and anxiety.

For reasons that will be hinted at in the chapters I'm currently working on and will be fully revealed at the end of Book Two, he'll be blackmailing El into going to the Amusement Park with him- and thus blames himself when she turns into wood.

He already has nightmares from Riddle's Overblot when Eleanora fell into a temporary coma (though it hasn't been really shown that he has nightmares, his fear of her dying and getting hurt badly does make itself known in his protectiveness- which we have seen) but, because of his pettiness, she died. Even if only for a couple minutes, she was gone.

He's going to have severe nightmares about Eleanora dying again and again because of him, and her turning into wood being sold off as a puppet. Ace is going to despise puppets in all their forms, sock, wood, paper- etc.

And every time he sees her walking around with her cane, he's going to remember what happened at Playful Land. Ace, Ortho, and Kalim may have avoided getting cursed in this, and Ortho and Kalim are overall unbothered (Kalim being used to trauma and it just being par to the course, which is in itself its own trauma, and Ortho being a robot who merely just feels bad because if they had listened to Eleanora to begin with, none of this would have happened) but Ace?

Not only will he be blaming himself, but Deuce is going to blame him as well and beat the ever living crap out of him when he discovers Eleanora in another coma and Poma, our sparkly school nurse, pushing his unique magic to the limit trying to heal her.

It's gonna be rough.

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs masterpost

Because I can and I will. Someone already made a tiny one way back but I lost it idk if it was here or on reddit… And we’re so small that we have no tag… I can’t credit you sorry marchil warrior you are not forgotten. I’ll definitely updating this whenever I find a new crumb. We’ve already reached the 30 pics cap part 2 coming soon. They do interact a ton I suppose. As always it’s not because I put moments on here that I’m saying they’re inherently romantic blablabla.

Part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

My vision: Unstoppable force vs immovable object. Corrupt (money) bitter divorcee and corrupt (magic) hopeless romantic. Emotional constipation vs emotional intelligence. Streets savvy vs prestigious academic. Girl with the longest lifespan possible who has trauma over loss x guy with the shortest lifespan who has trauma over past romance. They would take their romantic interest to the fricking grave.  Halfling vs elf. Emotionally distant vs clingy and needy… Not that Chilchuck doesn’t seek her attention plenty ngl. By all means they are so incompatible and yet their dynamic is so delightful, opposites certainly do attract if Kui’s to be believed because these two constantly drift towards each other.

To me they're the embodiment of "If we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known". Oh actually that'd apply to Laios and Dunmeshi as a whole as well-

She’s his worst nightmare. Opening up to someone?? The audacity to ask that of him. She raises his blood pressure to dangerous levels. He would risk his life for her.

—

HIS WORST NIGHTMARE (what he needs). She's classified as a friend who won’t shut up btw Notice how on the dating sim chapter cover, the clicky hand is always on the choice he ended up choosing in canon except for two, Falin’s and Marcille’s. Meaning he may have hesitated on it, on telling her she was pretty? She’s front and center~

It’s notable that Marcille is the main victim of his teasing, he criticizes Laios and everyone plenty but teasing is done much more towards her than anyone else, and we can see that it is something he enjoys. Perhaps one of the things that put him in a good mood the most, besides alcohol and laughing at others in general lol. Here’s a post compiling a lot of that teasing: link

He often confronts her about things and teases/insults her but it's always without any real animosity, sometimes having problems with her actions but never disliking her.

She craves his approval? More likely than you think.

Chilchuck having a sparkly flustered Marcille on his mind and failing to pull her ponytail so she'd give him her attention the right way, then being devastated when she claps back lol. For as much as he teases her, she’s very much able to stand up for herself when it goes too far and to challenge him on some flaws he may have.

Marcille’s canon shapeshifter of Chilchuck is the most convincing one/last one standing! In which he was nicer because Marcille still had some trouble not seeing him as young and thus innocent. Which besides the whole age thing, her having an accurate but nicer version of Chilchuck in her mind is pretty flattering lol

In the earlier chapters they stick by each other the most, often sharing knowing glances and judging the other together. They share this complicity and "wow finally someone sane in this party" energy that none of the others have in quite that way. Comrades in disgust.

-----

He cannot escape her gossip, she will not rest until she knows all and has met his family and romanticized his life and relationships. She’s the one who pushes Chilchuck to be more open about himself the most. Which, we do also see her being jealous when Chilchuck opens up more to others instead of her, like pic below. Moreover, we see that she’s able to read him like a book to the point that it freaks him out!! Oh the horror of being known… Relationship goals, freak him out bc you understand him so well Oh can I just point out as well that they're the only ones who saw each other's succubus. Like wow knowing each other's most alluring form? Dayum

When doing her theory about what happened between him and his wife, the pictures where her roleplaying as his wife, like literally with her being a half-foot like in the changeling chapters and the mini chilchuck for a baby lmaooo. Which I just now realized that means Marcille’s question about if his wife has blonde hair is valid, we technically don’t know if he already liked blondes or if it’s an acquired taste. Give me a sec to recover from that-

But yeah Marcille is so people-obsessed that she catalogues every little detail about someone, like how Chilchuck complains when he has to wait after someone… She notices things and takes them in stride even if they’re flaws. (In first page, it's the bottom row middle panel)

She wanted to sleep in his bed when Izutsumi was being clingy and she didn't want to sleep alone <3

Here he goes to her to either help her stay upright or comfort her… Uncharacteristic of him but very sweet. What are you gonna do if she collapses on you big guy, collapse along in a show of solidarity?

He's been shown to make sure Marcille stays safe a few times as well, like below. No I will not accept "she's the healer of the party" as a full explanation. He really does get an arc, from not wanting to be anywhere near the battlefield to sticking by his party members. Unlike Laios, Senshi and Izutsumi they both tend to hang in the back in battles, I love how they often strategize together as well.

The reverse is also sometimes true. Especially with how non-shy Marcille is with physical contact, interestingly she's way less delicate about saving others than him lol.

He’s the only one shown to flinch when she makes a noisein the bath which leads me to think he’s the one most flustered by the whole Marcille changing and bathing close by thing, it prob doesn’t help that he has great hearing but yeah, he seems to be hyperaware of her presence in those instances and overreacts.

"Come with me and braid my hair every day!" Meanwhile Chilchuck is fighting for his life holding her at an arm’s length

I can’t believe this is on his ADVENTURER’S BIBLE DESCRIPTION like that thing is one big paragraph about his whole character and you allotted that important limited space for this. Kui do you hear yourself

Part 2 here

[jestiamy]

arcobaleno adult heights via estimation based on canon (listing at the end if you don't care about how I estimate them.)

okay. first off, we only have the eaisest to estimate; fon. in the below panel, we see fon next to hibari;

fon is around the same height - he's in a pose that would make him draw himself taller (beginning of a fighting stance, better shown in chapter 371.) so I think it's safe to say they're the same height, without about an inch or two as a margin of error. and, luckily, hibari has a canon height: 5'5"

yeah. I wasn't expecting fon to be that short either

next is also pretty easy, since we see fon next to mammon a few times.

in both adult and baby form, mammon is consistently shorter than fon. I'd say about 2-3 inches or so. this places mammon about 5'4" (2 inch difference, fon being 5'6") or 5'3" (3 inch difference, fon being 5'5".)

let's round down, because I've already done this with fon so. consistency.

so, thus far, the chart is looking

Mammon: 5'3", Fon: 5'5"

okay, colonello is a little of a battle. the only people we see near adult colonello is iemitsu. unfortunately, colonello is laying the entire time in every panel we see him near iemitsu. he is, also, in pretty heavy perspective. luckily, I found this one panel where it wasn't as bad, and did some. messy. estimation of his height based off iemitsu (roughly outlined how many heads could fit in iemitsu, measured out colonello's heads the same, and accounted for the small part I couldn't measure and stacked that on top of colonello's count. seen. below. if that makes sense:)

and putting their height difference into a simulator-

colonello is, roughly, 5'11". and I do mean really roughly. so, this far, it's looking:

Mammon: 5'3", Fon: 5'5", Colonello: 5'11"

next is reborn.

reborn is also quite hard, mostly because his only measurements are iemitsu at a very long distance - and tsuna while they are both crouching.

I did not want to have to measure out iemitsu again. and, luckily, we're far enough in I can finally pull some of my ace cards out;arcobaleno line ups.

perspective is a little rough - but reborn and colonello are roughly the same height. the hat can confuse things a little, but I'd say reborn is about 1-2 inches off of colonello's height. (5'9 or 6'1.)

I know I've been scewing down so far, but eyeballing it and keeping perspective in mind - reborn seems to be a little taller than colonello. I'll still round down, though. so 6'0.

so, the list looks:

Mammon: 5'3", Fon: 5'5", Colonello: 5'11", Reborn: 6'0"

and, looking back at the lineups - verde is pretty obviously the tallest. like both times. by a pretty decent margin. despite always finding a way to loom in the back of crowds. probably 6'2" minimum, and like. 6'5" max. lets meet in the middle and say 6'3" ½.

uni is the shortest, and luce is unclear due to perspective. I do not want to chart out their exact heights - but if it helps for anyone else, uni seems to be three inches or so shorter than mammon.

skull: I forgot about him. he's roughly mammon and fon's height. I'd say he's probably between them - which, here, looks like 5'4".

lal mirch: I am So Sorry Lal. I forgot about her for a second. anyways, going off of these :

lal was at, like, colonello's chin. around mammon's height, likely. I'll say 5'3 because I Cannot make another height estimation chart. one was enough.

whole list:

Mammon: 5'3"

Lal Mirch: 5'3"

Skull: 5'4"

Fon: 5'5"

Colonello: 5'11"

Reborn: 6'0"

Verde: 6'3" ½

extra, assuming tallest possible heights for all:

Mammon: 5'4"

Lal Mirch: 5'4"

Skull: 5'5"

Fon: 5'6"

Colonello: 5'11" (still. lol)

Reborn: 6'1"

Verde: 6'5"

[gothushi]

pressure

pairing: rob x photographer!reader

warning: minor character death not descriptive

note: shortest chapter so far but wanted to give u a little bit of suspense;) don’t worry chapter four is already halfway written i pinky swear

word count: 2.5k

part 1 | part 2 | this is part 3! | part 4 | part 5

———————♡

Rolling thunder shakes you awake in the middle of the night. It reverberates in your chest as wind blows through the small clearing, but there’s.. something else.

A low growling, just like the other night.

It happens simultaneously with the thunder, igniting your natural instincts that something is wrong.

Your heart speeds up in your chest, an anxious feeling flowing in your veins as you listen. Over the sound of the rain hitting the fabric of your tent, you hear footsteps. Large, thudding steps as something walks through camp. This isn’t a big cat. Even the rest of the jungle nightlife is quiet, not heard unlike before.

Sitting up in your sleeping bag, slow to not make any unneeded noise, you try to figure out where the animal.. thing.. is going. It snarls, breathing heavy with large puffs of air, sniffing around closer and closer until its muzzle pushes against the wall of your tent. Just as big as your head, something is right there.

Your throat’s gone dry and your heart is pounding, hands starting to tremble as a nauseous feeling rises in your stomach.

And then it moves on.

Off to the other tents, it sniffs around, growling, and then fabric is tearing. A loud roar sounds before thunder booms, screaming that sounds like Lisa sounding out. You move before you think, tent being unzipped and you’re fumbling out into the heavy rain.

A dinosaur.

A fucking dinosaur.

John’s yelling about running, a gunshot goes off, but you’re frozen in pure primal fear. The dinosaur is at least three heads taller than you, scaly brown as it roars and charges at someone. But you run, taking off into the trees. You nearly slip several times, branches knocking into you, shoe’d feet slipping in the muddy trail.

An awful crunching noise and more screaming is heard behind you but you don’t turn back, too terrified to do so. The rain continues to downpour and it just makes it harder to see. The yelling soon blends with the rain and other jungle noises.

You run, and run, and run, until your legs burn and it feels like your insides are melting away. Adrenaline makes it feel like you run for forever, before you slip and knees make contact with the ground and bark of a tree trunk. Crawling around it, near gasping for air as the brush conceals you a little, your legs feel like jelly. It takes all but five seconds for it to settle in, you just seen a dinosaur, and now you’re alone in the middle of the rainforest in the dead of the night. The only thing that comforts you is the sound of the wildlife very much alive around you, meaning no danger is nearby currently. You’re alone and isolated now, and for a moment you consider going back, but you don’t even trust yourself to know which way to go.

Panting, you try to steady your breath. Tears burn at your eyes, spilling over and mixing with the fresh rain. What just happened? Was that really a… a dinosaur? Did you just hear someone die?

Your heart thuds in your throat, as it settles in that yes, it was a dinosaur. Yes, you probably just heard someone die. The horrific noises replay in your mind, jumbled together in a mess or fear.

But the jungle around you is alive again and full of wildlife. The tree against your back is rough, slightly grounds you in your panic as tears soak your face. The trembling of your legs settles in the longer you sit, thoughts racing. Do I go back? Should I just stay here? What if the others got hurt? What if they’re being chased right now?

Despite the downpour of rain, something catches your attention. Movement, somewhere on the trail. You force yourself to stand, leaning against the tree as your eyes strain against the darkness. A little rustle comes from somewhere, thunder rumbling high above before a flash of lightning barely illuminates the area, not enough to even see anything. You’re soaked to the bone, starting to shiver as the adrenaline leaves your system.

You want to call out, but that’s a stupid idea obviously. There’s just a small spark of hope that it may be one of the others. You hear it again, closer than before but it doesn’t sound the same as the loud heavy footsteps of the dinosaur. Furrowing your eyebrows to listen, you lean out a little, as if it’d magically make you be able to see.

A branch brushes against you from behind, making you startle and twist to look at it. Then, a step from the other direction where the previous noise was sounds and you spin back around.

Rob. He’s stood there, a couple feet away, staring at you in surprise. He’s just as soaked as you, a surprised expression.

You’re both staring at each other, wide eyed, rain dripping down your faces with heavy breaths puffing out. Your brain stops working for all but five entire seconds before you’re rushing forward, throwing your arms around him and lips crashing in a desperate, relieved kiss.

It’s unexpected between you both, but he immediately wraps his arms around you, as tight as possible, and the sensation of warmth is almost dizzying. Shaking hands grasp at the sides of his neck, his jaw, cradling him as you kiss, smothering him to feel he’s alive. Lips parting and heads tilting to accommodate each other. You were so worried he could have been dead, gasping against his lips, pulling back just the slightest. “You’re safe,” he whispers, “you’re safe.”

His eyes flutter open, chest heaving. The first kiss was pure relief, intense calm, and the second one as he dives back in is more intense, full of passion. His hands grasp at your sides, fingertips pressing against your tank top. His tongue licks over yours, and if it weren’t for the instinctual fear coursing through both of you, it would have been arousing.

“I thought you were dead.” You mumble against his lips, panting for air, eyes flickering open to stare up at him.

Rob takes in a deep breath, shaking his head, “No. I’m okay.. Are you hurt?” His hands blindly paw at you now, trying to search for any injuries.

“No-.. I’m fine.” You’re shaking your head, swallowing the lump in your throat, “The others-.. did they-..”

“It was Lisa and Tim’s tent it tore into. I had to drag James away, but.. I don’t know. John shot at the damn thing and told me to run..” His voice trails off, because currently he isn’t sure what to say. He glances around the dark trail, before turning to look back down at you. You lean against him as the reality sets in again. The rain continues to pour down, and the darkness feels overwhelming. You both stay wrapped in each other for at least a minute before he speaks again, “We need to find shelter. For tonight, okay?”

Nodding, you pull back, sniffling with a deep inhale, “Yeah.. yeah. Um.. the river, do you remember that cave.. Could that work?”

Even despite the situation, a small smile flickers on his expression, hand petting over your sopping hair and smoothing it from your face, “Yeah, c’mon it isn’t far.”

His hand slips into yours, holding on so tight it turns his knuckles white, leading slowly with purposeful steps as to not fall.

—

Arriving at the river, the water is colder than the rain as you cross it, finding the jagged rocky area tucked against the cliffside. A fallen tree covers most of the entrance, and you’ll have to climb over to slip inside the small cave, but it’ll have to do for tonight. It’s chilly inside, the floor dry and dusty which sticks to your wet clothes as you crawl onto the floor. It isn’t very roomy or comfortable obviously, but Rob sits against the wall and holds you to his chest, arms tight around you as if still locked up with fear.

The adrenaline crash knocks you both out before another word is said.

—

Early morning you shift, watch reading 6:12AM. Groaning at the soreness of your muscles from the odd position, it makes Rob wake as well. It’s quiet for a few moments, shifting of limbs to try and stretch as sunlight peeks in from the entrance. Rubbing a hand over your face, you grimace at the dusty dirt stuck to it, sighing.

“Hey..” he murmurs softly, hand coming to rub over your back, “y’okay?” His brows furrow in concern, eyes tired.

A small nod, a hum, “Yeah.. just..” You swallow, finally glancing up at him, “Just not sure it’s settled in yet.. what’re we gonna do?”

A part of him wants to say that he doesn’t know, that they’ll figure something out. But the reality of the situation weighs on him, and he just glances over towards the cave entrance. “We.. go back to camp. See if anyone is still there, or if there’s any supplies we can get. Then.. we hike back to the car.” His voice is sure, but there’s a subtle waver there.

Swallowing again, you nod. It sounds like the most logical plan, and he is the professional here when it comes to the jungle so there’s no room for argument. There’s a few long moments where neither of you speak, the chatter of birds and other animals heard outside the cave, wind rustling the trees. His hand slides down your arm, to your hand, and gives it a squeeze, “C’mon, we’ll make it quick. We should be able to get back to the car before the sun sets.”

There’s just no use trying to navigate the jungle all by yourselves to search for anyone. Not on your own. So the best bet you two have is to get back to civilization and find help..

—

Arriving at camp in tense silence, it’s a grim sight. Two of the tents are torn apart, blood splattering the blue fabric, the flash of flesh catching your eye before you force yourself to turn away. No… Rob’s hand tightens in yours as he takes in the area, someone… Lisa.. mangled with nearly nothing left. He clears his throat and lets his fingers slip from yours, reluctant to let go, “Grab your stuff if it’s still there.”

The order helps, even as tears burn your eyes and a lump forms in your throat. Sniffling, you wander to your own tent which was untouched, kneeling down to gather your pack and camera bag. Slipping both over your shoulders, you decide to watch Rob wander around, stepping over some bags and finding his vest, pulling it on. He has to steel himself, steel his emotions because now the responsibility of getting out of here, getting you out of here, lays on him.

A small bit of hope still hangs in the air, hoping the others got away, that they’re safe, maybe they’ll have the same idea as you both. You stand by the edge of camp, facing away to look into the trees, senses alert as you blink back your tears. A warm hand slides over your shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze as he speaks, “C’mon.. Let’s go.”

—

The first few hours are hard. You’re both listening intently, not a word between you two besides the occasional ‘careful’, ‘easy’ or ‘take my hand’ from Rob. It’s nearing noon now, the air hot and sticky, making sweat gleam on your skin and soak into your shirts, breath a bit heavier from walking. Rob keeps his eyes out, flicking across the trail, ahead, to the side, the other side, glancing behind constantly. Unease settles between both of you, but now isn’t the time to talk about it.

—

The hours prove to not be enough in the day for this hike, because even with minimal breaks and a steady pace, the sun begins to set and a place to rest safely is needed. Walking along the thin trail, down a little hill, it’s quiet. Too quiet. Too still.

The surrounding chatter and chirps are no longer there.

Nearly stumbling over some roots, his hand tightening on yours so you don’t fall, you hear it.

A distant growl, blending in with the rushing of the river below the edge of the hill. A flock of birds squawk and scatter above.

Rob tugs you closer, lowering down to the ground a little on the edge of the path, keeping his eyes sharp as he looks in all directions. That instinctual fear sparks again, like your body knows deep down this is a predator you cannot face. Pounding footsteps are nearing at an alarming rate, chasing something, getting closer and closer.

A small animal jumps out over the path, and then the large body of the dinosaur follows, just in front of you both as it roars, crashing into a tree. You nearly gasp at the sight but hold it in, watching as the dinosaur stops because the small animal goes skittering down the steep drop, towards the river, blending in with the rocks and out of the beasts line of sight. Rob’s hand squeezes yours so hard it nearly hurts, but you’re holding back just as tightly, shaking. The animal turns, growling in anger, sniffing and looking around, its eyes pale.

It moves away from the edge, back to the path, huffing as it sniffs around. As it turns, its gaze flits over your own several times… can it not see you?

It smells you, however, catches the scent of your sweaty bodies as it comes closer, slowly walking as if it were stalking a prey. It is.

Rob’s breath catches in his throat, like he isn’t even breathing anymore. You’re not sure you are either. The animal comes closer, sticking its nose up to sniff, within five feet of you both now. Your body is absolutely frozen in fear, trapped where you stand half behind Rob, no choice but to just.. wait. Seeing it.. really looking at it.. it’s terrifying. Standing at least two feet above Rob, thick hind legs, rows of teeth bared and bloody as it sniffs and growls again.

You can feel the vibrations of its steps, until it stops. The tension and fear is palpable, thick, as its head tilts down as if it’s staring directly at Rob. But he seems to make the same connection as you, it can’t see properly, tracks by movement and smell. It snarls, breath hot and foul as its nose touches Rob’s arm. He’s tense as is, forced to not move even a single muscle, not even blink, as it sniffs and gives a low hiss in the air.

Several painful moments pass, before it pounces.

Its jaws part as the beast roars, and Rob moves before you can even comprehend it. He turns, back to the animal as he grabs you and just dives. Your ears pick up the snapping of a jaw, the grunt Rob makes before you’re both tumbling down the steep drop, rolling over rocks and dirt, the blurry motion of the world spinning before you hit the bottom, crashing into ice cold water, the world going dark.

———————♡

[creative-frequency]

Astarion x Reader: Contradictions and Other Counter-Measures Ch.1

Summary: If you want to spend some time with Astarion, you only have to say so. Though, it seems to happen just as well without saying anything.

Moments in camp during your journey to find a cure for the tadpole issue. You are a sorceress, daughter of the noble Caldwell family and Wyll's old friend.

Word count: 2067 Notes: Eventual romance, building friendships, camp shenanigans, game rewrite scenes, spoilers ahoy.

CHAPTER 1: Escape

The tavern sign creaks in the cool, windy night of the Lower City. The rain is calming into a drizzle after a full day of pouring torrent. Muddy puddles litter the roads and alleys of Baldur’s Gate. An errant step into one has already soiled your boots and the hem of your heavy cape.

You’re the only traveller on the road making your way towards the infamous den, hopefully looking like one with the promise of a cheap pint or blithe time on your mind. Though with the current dreadful weather, no one looks up from their feet or pays any mind to the hood covering your face.

And that is exactly why you chose tonight.

In your hurry, you fail to notice the pair of red eyes peering down from the tavern’s upper floor window to the street. They are already calculating possible openings for a temptation and chances for seduction.

Astarion is beginning to feel nervous as he turns away from the window. This streak of cold, quiet nights is proving difficult for someone looking for, well… people to meet. If only he hadn’t agreed to the stupid bet with Petras and Dal on top of drawing the shortest stick. Travellers and tourists don’t go out in this weather unless they absolutely have to. He wouldn’t either if he had a choice.

When no one else enters the tavern for a while after you, Astarion decides to take another look at the night’s menu of patrons downstairs. It has been slim pickings so far, but there must be someone, who even barely passes the bar to be served for his Master. He cannot return empty-handed. Not tonight.

Astarion descends the stairs leisurely, an empty wine cup dangling between his slender fingers. He walks towards his usual stalking spot in the corner, a vantage point from where he can see the faces of those walking in, but before he can sit down, a commotion by the bar draws his attention.

You are arguing with the burly bartender and apparently trying to hush the towering man with frantic motions. He says it’s not ‘that kind of establishment.’ And he rather loudly tells you to order something or get lost. You shy away for a bit, gathering yourself and making sure your scarf covers the lower half of your face. Some of the other patrons are already shooting curious looks at you. The attention is the last thing you need.

And thus, Astarion alters his course to prowl closer.

He scans your voice and frame, even though it’s difficult to make any conclusions as you’re dressed in something resembling a loose and large potato sack with a hood. Quite the fashion statement, Astarion sneers and almost turns on his heels, just as a glimpse of something golden catches his eye.

Astarion’s gaze narrows and he can’t help the slight curve of a smile forming. So you were trying to pawn off something at the counter. How silly of you to think that any local establishment that happens to be located in a side alley would be willing to do some side hustle as a fence. In Astarion’s experience, this kind of situation usually means a delicious damsel in distress and someone with no touch into the reality of Lower City life.

Perfect.

Astarion has never heard of anyone finding gold at the bottom of a potato sack, but with the unlucky streak he’s had, he is willing to give it a try.

“Is there a problem, darling?” Astarion says in the smoothest, most calming tone his 200 years of experience in the art of seduction can provide.

The golden glimpse – a ring with an intricate pattern on its surface – disappears into your cloak with such sleight of hand and speed that Astarion almost wants to applaud.

“Of course not,” you mutter, glance at him, do a double take because burning Hells, he is gorgeous, and turn away quickly. This is just the kind of attention you were trying to avoid by choosing the not-so-complimenting outfit.

There is something familiar about you, but before Astarion can look more closely, the grumpy bartender clears his throat rather loudly.

“Is there something I can get you?” he asks, clearly telling Astarion to mind his own damn business.

“Well, since you’re asking, you could stop treating this lady so boorishly and pour us both a glass of red,” Astarion says and places his empty cup on the counter along with the required coin.

“I don’t–”, you start but Astarion silences you with a worried look that says ‘let me handle the brute’.

The bartender glares at the pair of you before picking up the coin and turning around to find a bottle of wine.

You swallow the rest of your protest and fiddle with your scarf, compulsively lifting it to hide the lower part of your face.

And it truly is an exasperatingly familiar face, Astarion thinks, tapping his slender fingers on the counter. He knows who you are, for some reason. Or knows of you. He just quite can’t put his finger on it. But, there is one thing he knows:

When he is hunting for a bag of blood for his Master’s supper, meeting someone Astarion thinks he might know is always a bad thing. Random travellers, excitement-hunting tourists and the dregs of society make for the best prey. No one will miss them for days.

“Now, would you do me the honour of telling me your name?” Astarion asks sweetly, settling into his most irresistible smile.

You tug the hood lower over your face, avoiding the inspecting stare, but Astarion can clearly see how your eyes are darting around, looking for ideas for a false story.

“T-Tav. I’m, uhh, a merchant. Selling… the local farmers’ crops down by Waukeen’s Rest.”

Potato sack woman, indeed, but also the saddest display of deception Astarion has seen in years. Your voice, however, doesn’t ring any alarm bells of familiarity, so he might as well continue.

“Nice to meet you, Tav. My name is Astarion,” he purrs.

The bartender sets down two cups of red wine with a grunt and a glare, and walks away to serve the patrons by the other end of the counter.

Astarion takes the wine cups and offers one to you. You accept it but don’t drink.

“What shall we drink to?” he inquires.

You shift on your feet, uncomfortable with the situation. It is not quite the reaction Astarion is used to receiving when pointing his charms and full attention at someone. You’re avoiding his gaze, hiding behind the hood and scarf. How annoying.

“Darling, is something the matter?” Astarion asks in a hushed tone that almost convinces you to trust him a little. He leans slightly closer, just into your personal space. “You obviously didn’t come here for a drink.”

Maybe it’s his uncannily sharp skills of perception or you’re just that obviously desperate, but the jury of your mind is frantically trying to reach an agreement – and, unsurprisingly, it turns into Astarion’s favour.

You turn to fully look at him. It’s his first win of the night, but still far from winning the bet. Astarion’s expression stays neutral with a very convincing hint of artfully crafted worry.

“I need to get out of the city. Tonight,” you say so quietly that barely any sound leaves your lips.

Astarion leans closer like a co-conspirator. “Is that why you were trying to pawn off that ring of yours?” he asks and sips the wine.

You freeze. “No. I wasn’t trying to–”

Astarion hushes your rising panic. ”You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” He draws an exaggerated thoughtful look at you and whispers: “In fact, I could help you.”

Your eyes narrow. “And why would you do that, good sir?”

“Oh, I like to call myself somewhat of a humanitarian,” he replies coolly, swirling the wine in his cup.

You still eye him suspiciously. Your scarf gradually falls, revealing red-painted lips. “Apologies for my wariness, but how exactly do you plan on helping me? The gates at the main road are closed for the night,” you point out.

Astarion shoots a humorous look at you. “Darling, there are other ways to leave the city besides the main road.”

You arch a brow at the suggestion. Unbeknown to each other, maybe both of your fortunes are about to take a turn.

“Such as?” you ask.

“Why spoil the surprise?” Astarion smiles irresistibly, leaning towards you, but you coil back.

“Can’t say I like surprises. Especially tonight,” you say and Astarion realises that he started reeling his catch in too early.

He places the wine cup on the counter and looks you in the eyes. Yours are surprisingly pretty – also beautified with skillfully applied makeup that doesn’t add up with the potato sack outfit. How curious. There must be a scandalous story to this and Astarion ponders forsaking his mission for digging out the details to sate his curiosity. If he hadn’t been on such an unlucky streak already, he probably would’ve changed his mind and actually pried for the whole story. It’s been years since anything piqued his interest like this.

“Very well then,” Astarion sighs, acting all exasperated at having to spoil the surprise. “My family happens to possess a portal for, ah. A quick escape.”

You twitch at the word ‘escape’ as your heart jumps – the reaction is so easy to read.

“Go back to the city? I barely made it this far,” you say quietly, brows furrowing.

“What do you mean?”

You realise you said too much and shut up for a moment. “Nothing. It was just a misunderstanding.”

Astarion would smile if the situation wasn’t so delicate. You’re too easy to manipulate.

“A misunderstanding? With who?” Astarion asks innocently with the appropriate amount of concern.

Just as you’re looking around for an escape from replying, the only door of the tavern is suddenly swarmed by three very loud Flaming Fist soldiers. Everyone turns to look at the door and you realise too late that your scarf has fallen again.

“There she is!” one of the soldiers yells and points directly at you.

You jump up from the bar stool and dash towards the stairs. Astarion turns curiously to look from you to the soldiers, but is suddenly met with the business end of a longsword.

Two of the soldiers run upstairs after you, the fugitive, as the largest one of them growls at Astarion: “What’s your business with her? And keep ‘em hands where I can see them.”

“Saer, surely there’s been a misunderstanding–” Astarion feels the sting of irony as he parrots your words. “I have no idea who the lady is. I was just buying her a drink.”

The soldier looks up at the bartender who shrugs and agrees: “He paid for them.”

As a testimony, your untouched cup of wine still rests on the counter. The soldier sheaths his sword.

“Now, this has been a tad too exciting an evening for myself, so if you’ll excuse me,” Astarion says and gets up to leave. He doesn’t fancy the idea of being thrown into a cell for the remaining night. Prison breaks are so exhausting and usually include wading through the sewers. Eugh.

The soldier doesn’t hear Astarion muttering as he is already marching after the others. But, he doesn’t even make it to the stairs when the heels of something quite large resembling a sack of potatoes land straight on his head. The man instantly falls flat on his bum from the impact, his armour rattling loudly.

You dash past the thunderstruck vampire spawn, spewing mild, ladylike profanities as you go and leave a faint blue stream of light in your wake. Your eyes lock with Astarion’s as you turn by the door to check if your pursuers have already recovered.

Astarion can’t help but burst into a fit of laughter.

On the following evening, he sees that the front page of the Baldur’s Mouth is graced by a photo of ‘Tav’, who turns out to be a progeny of the Caldwell family. And so he has his explanation for why you seemed so familiar and were carrying around a gold ring that is worth a house in one of the less classy neighbourhoods of Baldur’s Gate.

As for what you were running from, the paper offers no satisfactory explanation.

-

Next Chapter

My Writing Masterlist

[rachelbethhines]

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Davison 8th Review

Enlightenment - Novelization

This was fun. I enjoy the tv version of Enlightenment a lot and this is basically a direct screen to script adaptation written by the actual author of the serial.  Barbara Clegg; whom I've only just learned was the first woman to write for the show. It took this female co-created series twenty years to get a woman writer....Damn! Anyways, given how much of a visual spectacle the original episode is the novel is at a slight disadvantage. Especially since the author was obviously under some sort of page count limit/deadline. At only 12 chapters this is the shortest target novel we've covered thus far. However the writer tries to make up for the lack of detail and edited down humor by adding in more characterization. We get more on Tegan's feelings on Marriner, and you can absolutely tell this was written by a woman. Tegan is very relatable in trying discourage her stalker while still having to keep up appearances. The Doctor is spot on. The Eternals are arguably better realized in the book, what with them 'switching gears' so to speak between being animated or not. Even Turlough manages to not get on my nerves here, and even comes across as somewhat sympathetic as the narrator details his thought process as he goes though his redemption arc. Now that truly is a feat. However, while I enjoy these additions I still think I prefer the tv version. It's stylistic flare is what pushes it into classic territory I feel. But there's a enough substance to the core story that this novelization still remains one of the better ones I've read for the marathon.

[pentuppen]

The Devil You Don't [Dark Romance]

Chapter 28: The Truth In The Numbers

Hahaha my list of NPC's has grown longer, and I had a lot of fun writing this scene since its been a long time coming for our dear Renata.

“You want me to blackmail these men? To drag their life into the light in order to force them to do as I will?” She couldn’t explain in any way he would understand or likely even care, why this bothered her so much, but to her it was simple. If she did this, if she got back in this way, she would never respect herself again. She’d done some things in the past six months that would call into question her definition of respect, but nothing quite made her feel as dirty as when she was holding those pages, their sins blurring under her fingers like grease.

“Those four men can take away all that you worked for, you do not have the luxury of morals. But if you are still so childish as to not accept what you know to be true, allow me to make this pill easier to swallow my dear.”

He leaned forward in his chair, his human form much smaller than the cambion form, and yet he still managed to be imposing with just the steady glare in those eyes and the pointed sneer on his lips, his patience with her dithering not even on the shortest of leashes it seemed.

“You will do everything in your power to secure your place at the college. You are an intelligent woman, and thus far your obedience has meant that failure has never been a step upon which you have stumbled. Do not make me reveal the consequences of such now, Renata.”

[ahmedmootaz]

Would you like to play a Q and A game?

Out of all the chapters in Adventures in Parenthood! fanfic of yours, which was the:

1. Hardest to write and/or taking the most amount of time to write chapter vs easiest to write and/or taking the least amount of time to write chapter

3. Most fun and exciting to write chapter vs most frustrating and uncooperative to write chapter

4. Required the most planning, research and drafting to write chapter vs the most spontaneous, free flowing and struck by inspiration type of chapter

5. Longest vs shortest chapters (counting the chapters that were supposed to be one chapter but got too long and broken up because of AO3's word limit as one chapter)

Dear Anonymous,

Why, yes! I would in fact, like to play a Q&A game, thank you very much! I do like these sorts of Q&A asks, so allow me to thank you in advance!

Also, obligatory SPOILERS! for Adventures in Parenthood, in case anyone would like to read it spoiler-free!

Honestly, the easiest Chapters to write were the Chapters from 17 through 23. Those were the Chapters I first envisioned when I began writing the storyboard for AiP, and so finally getting to them made them very easy to write, as there wasn't a point where I needed to think of what came next; it all happened very naturally. As for the hardest Chapters the write, they have to be the Epilogues. As the Epilogues are at the very end of AiP, they have to be conclusive. They have to answer every question and leave no loose ends...at least, that's what I personally believe. One of the things that (sometimes) frustrates me with PM is the loose ends they leave, and while I get that (sometimes) it's intentional on their end, I don't want to have that happen with AiP, so I'm trying to be as thorough as possible...not to mention the Epilogues just happened to be written at a time when I'm pressed with lots of work and exams and such. It's part of why they take so much time to publish, not to mention it always feels like something happens in real life when I start getting into the swing of things while writing.

3. Again, I think the title for the most fun Chapter has to go to the Sweeper Saga. There was plenty of action, drama, and fluff, so it was diverse and plentiful, although a close second would be the Karaoke Chaos one, and I think the answer is quite self explanatory. The most fun part about it, however, was how it made a lot of people drop their guards and thus get doubly blindsided by the Chapters that followed, hehehe. As for the most frustrating or uncooperative Chapters...I want to say that all of them have been pretty cooperative, but for some reason the Epilogues just drag on and on and on...I wanted to release two Epilogues last summer, but as you can see, that just didn't happen. I suppose the most frustrating thing is that the circumstances that surround me when writing the Epilogues just aren't that conductive to writing quickly, ahaha.

4. Hmm...This is a good question. I think, from a research point of view, I needed a lot of research for When Fathers Cry and for Fathers Scorned as well, simply because I needed to know how much chlorine and blood loss a human can take to write some of the more...violent scenes there are. I think I needed to research some anatomy for Crimson Tears as well for obvious reasons, and I really needed to watch and rewatch Binah cutscenes for hours so I can try to get a grasp on a childish version of her and the actions she'd take in Arbitrary Emotions.

But the simples Chapter that I wrote in pretty much a day was Old Promises, Same Idiocy. It was completed really quickly and it was a simple prompt I wrote for a very dear friend at first before we realised it fit better as a Chapter in AiP to involve the A3 again. So it was quite spontaneous in both how it was written and how it was inserted.

5. Longest Chapter so far is Epilogue I at around 134,650 words, while the shortest is Old Promises, Same Idiocy; I think it was around 10-14K words. Something along those lines.

Thank you for the fun Q&A, Anon! Until next time, be well, take care, and see ya'!

[sam-reid]

🚨 what do you think is the best and worst thing Lestat and Armand ever did?

🧅 title of your favorite vc book but make it sound like a headline from The Onion

vampire chronicles ask game, part deux!

🚨 the best thing lestat did was maintaining his immense capacity to love, and particularly in loving louis. showing that despite everything that happened between them over the centuries, louis was his constant, his soulmate and grounding force (i'm using a blood communion excerpt because i love how domestic and sweet they are in that book):

worst: the SA in body thief is without a doubt the worst thing he did imo. you can understand the inherent problematic nature of him having to and revelling in killing as a vampire (as well as his many questionable choices), but lestat in a human body willingly subjecting a woman to that was just awful.

the best thing armand did? finding daniel in new orleans, thus beginning the chase and one of the best chapters of the entire chronicles. (bonus points for pushing lestat out of a tower).

the worst: it's gotta be the horrific frankenstein monsterification of claudia.

🧅 Singer Goes Too Far with Vampire "Gimmick", Worst Shortest Concert Ever Ends With Abduction

[shiningforcegirlpower]

Battle #11 - Laser Eye

If the Marionette was the overwhelming Mini-Boss, the Laser Eye is a Boss that lives up to its chapter name. The third and final battle of the third chapter (making it the shortest chapter in the game), is one that is a mix of staying put and knowing when and where to bum-rush.

Here's another required character that we won't use. Now, onto the details.

Allies - Tao (Level 14), Mae (Level 12), Khris (Level 13), Anri (Level 9), Amon (Level 8), Diane (Level 8) Enemies - 5 Lizardmen, 2 Dark Priests, 3 Pegasus Knights, 3 Dark Elves, 2 Silver Knights, 1 Laser Eye

The Laser Eye seems to always go first, giving its initiating sequence. Apparently counting down from "10 9" seconds. Meaning each round of characters moving is apparently 2 seconds. The Laser Eye needs 5 rounds to complete its warm-up, then on the sixth round, it will fire.

I started my usual tactic for this battle. I would always wait to see if I could wait out one Laser Eye blast to get weakened Runefaust enemies before bumrushing in to try to get rid of them. Usually, my Birdmen would be used to lure Pegasus Knights into the fire, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that with just Amon.

I begin to set up my gals, but then a Lizardman comes up to attack Mae. Luckily, the girls such as Amon and Tao help out and the three of them destroy it.

I set up all the girls in a block and send Amon out to see if I can scout a way to attack the Dark Elves without alerting the Pegasus Knights.

One seems to already know what I'm doing.

I put Amon back into the block formation, but the Pegasus Knight immediately attacks Tao dealing a worrying amount of damage. Next who's able to move is Diane, so I have her attack it, dealing 4 damage and gaining a level.

I'm going to take a break.

...

I forgot to save. WELP LOOKS LIKE I'M STARTING FROM ATTEMPT 1.5!

Attempt 1.5 - I once again moved Mae too close, but she and Tao can handle it.

Also it seems that the Pegasus Knights will always move once someone is detected to be in the sky and not on the land tile. It tries to make a move on Mae, but is too far. So Diane readies to aim and fire.

Which misses. Thus missing her level up.

Mae hits it instead. Thus - Getting a level up.

The Pegasus Knight harms Diane, but Anri gets her revenge by freezing its wings and causing it to perish. She even gets a level up!

She learns Muddle, which I've never found a use for.

Khris heals both Mae and Diane, getting a level up to 14, which will give her enough MP to get another heal level 1 in her wheelhouse.

I moved Amon closer, which triggered a Silver Knight to stupidly move where the Laser Eye was firing.

Haha.

I thought Amon would be able to get rid of the Dark Priest, but she couldn't reach him. She couldn't kill the Lizardman either. But did get some damage in before it and a Pegasus Knight attacked her and she was unable to fight anymore.

Mae got revenge by hitting a double spear attack against the Pegasus Knight.

Tao then got her revenge for her fallen comrade by unleashing her Blaze Level 3 to damage the Lizardman and destroy the priest.

While the Pegasus Knight hit her, it couldn't even get her health down halfway, allowing Tao to unleash another Blaze Level 3 against it and the Lizardman.

Mae wanted to destroy the Pegasus Knight, but knew it was best to keep on and clear the path to the Laser Eye. She annihilated a Lizardman with a deadly attack from her power spear.

Anri instead destroyed the Pegasus Knight with a freeze spell.

The girls continued forwards, Mae launching spears behind her as she charged towards the Laser Eye. The Dark Elves began to regroup to help their allies on the other side of the bridge.

A Silver Knight tried to cut her off and attack but... TAO! The blazing woman! She didn't even have to use her magic. She struck that Silver Knight, doing 9 damage.

This allowed Mae to continue charging to the Laser Eye to begin damaging it.

But the other girls weren't so lucky to get to the Laser Eye in time. Tao and Anri hunkered down in an alcove. Anri spotted a Dark Elf and tried to freeze it but... She was struck down. Diane, on the other hand, tried to rush to start attacking the Laser Eye as well. She was too far away from the Alcove. But also to far to begin attacking. Khris tried to reach her, but things went to fast. A Dark Elf ran out and attacked Diane. And the Laser Eye... took away her last two hit points.

It was down to our original three ladies, filled with rage at their fallen comrades who they tried to do everything to make sure they would not fall victim to the weapon. And even then they couldn't manage that.

Mae's next attack on the Laser Eye gave her enough Experience to level up.

Khris healed herself, but the two remaining Dark Elves took her down. Now we were left with our original two ladies.

Mae landed the last attack on the Laser Eye, and was ready to heal herself with her items and begin to attack while she waited on Tao to join the fray.

Tao attacked the Dark Elf that DARE come close to her, destroying it and resisting its attacks against her.

When Mae attacked the Dark Elf against her, she left it with only a sliver. That was fine enough for Tao, blazing with the fury of her comrades souls who got to get the finishing blow against it, deciding not to heal herself, as she was so enraged.

They gave the Lizardman the same treatment.

Mae then destroyed the Silver Knight in one hit, and turns out he was the boss of the battle. So... not getting the EXP for fighting the Dark Priest but Mae and Tao are already SO far ahead from the other ladies...

Meet Pelle. A Centaur who can climb up 90 degrees of Rock. You'd think he'd be a niche centaur who is good at moving in the mountains like the dwarves or archers (compared to the other allies). But nope. Just... another Centaur.

Would be great for the Centaur only run, though. The third character you get.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Writers Wrapped 2022

1. How many words have you written this year: 173,701!

2. How many works did you publish this year?: 23!

3. What work are you most proud of?: I think it has to be Unbroken - I had to get over a lot of insecurities in order to start posting it. I've been exploring a lot of difficult themes through this fic and, thus far, feel satisfied with how I've addressed them. I am also excited about how the plot has come along so far. I look forward to finishing it in 2023.

4. Favourite title you used: The fic title and chapter titles in Tête-à-Tête and Playing with Fire were the ones I had the most fun brainstorming!

5. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?: Oof. I don't think I directly pulled any song lyrics this year but I definitely had a ton of playlist inspirations.

6. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?: Janeway/Chakotay

7. favourite pairing you wrote for this year?: I do have to say Janeway/Chakotay because they continue to have my heart and soul. But I had the most fun writing the Janeway/Tuvok/Chakotay dynamic in Playing with Fire

8. What work was the quickest to write?: I'll be Your First if You'll be my Last, which was written/reviewed/posted in like 8 hours. (Thank you monthly Write-a-thon)

9. What work took you the longest to write?: I have agonized and nitpicked and annoyed my betas about like every paragraph of Unbroken - both the chapters already posted and the ones queued up.

10. How many wips do you have in your docs for next year?: Ahhhm errrr ah blerg... SMH3, AQ2, Unbroken, Lesson Plans, Threshold add on, Tuvix add on... er.

Basically, too many to count and a few that will come to me later 😅

11. What’s your longest work of the year?: Parent Trap clocked in at 76,082 words. Not as many as my all time favorite Eden's Deception's 90,990 from last year, but still quite proud of it.

12. What’s your shortest work of the year?: Gloves at a whopping 381

13. What wip are you taking into next year with you?: The WIPs following me into 2023 are Unbroken, Tête-à-Tête, Sailor Delta, Out of Reach, and Age of Aquarius 2

14. What’s your most common genre and/or trope?: Making my favs suffer 😈😇

15. Your favorite character to write this year?: Absolutely Tuvok and Seven. They are really facinating characters to try to capture in dialogue and POV.

16. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?: Kes - unfortunately I just haven't got a firm grasp on her character.

17. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?: I had a lot of fun with Poly Tuvok and KJ in October and I think i'd really enjoy doing more with them next year. I also keep coming back to the idea of dumping Mark Johnson onto Voyager and seeing how that would affect he and KJs relationship.

18. What's a fandom you want to explore next year?: Star Trek Prodigy and Strange New Worlds are two treks I'd love to dive deeper into. But I also have a few original projects That I think I want to devote more attention to.

19. Which work of yours have you reread the most?: I think this year, I've re-read Eden's Deception the most of any fic I have ever written. It really hasnt sustained engagement like I had hoped, so I'm unsure how much I should prioritize the rest of the series... But I have never been so satisfied by a thing I wrote. I continue to think it's the best thing I've ever written and still can't wait to continue that fic universe.

20. Did you do any collaborative works this year? (tell us which!): I have had a truly fantastic time playing in @voyagerihardlyknowher 's threshold AU sand box. it is so unique and charming and delightful and I have met some wonderful friends through that universe. 🥰

21. Did you write any gifts this year? (tell us which!): I gifted 4 Thresholdy fics to the Threshold AU peeps, 3 kinktober works to my favorite smut loving queens, Post-Prodigy and Post-Beyerverse oneshots for @gijane-7702, and 2 punishment oneshots to my Evil Writers Chat Sailor Moon Fandom buddies.

22. Did you receive any gifts this year? (tell us which!): A) SkyKingHaruka gifted me his Evil Writers Chat punishment, Dreams (which was intended to be a oneshot but evolved into something infinitely more delightful). B) @theredheadedcaptain gifted me and Erestorandfin Chimera, which had an very fun surprise twist at the end. (I also love how Red does J/C). C) @trekflower gifted me He's Got the Lobes - a bit of crack humor that still has me in stitches. D) and @jellybeansarecool gifted me Welcome Home - a threshold AU from Beyerverse that was adorable and heartwarming and I still melt when I reread it.

23. What do you listen to while writing?: A very random assortment of music. I have playlists for Unbroken, Threshold AU stories, Age of Aquarius, and I also have random songs that I'll play on repeat for certain types of scenes where the rythm or tone of the song helps me put the right words and pacing into place.

24. Favourite work you wrote this year?: Playing with Fire, which evolved from a kinktober prompt that got out of control. I had a spectacular amount of fun researching and writing it.

25. Favourite line/passage you wrote this year?: This is from a chapter of Unbroken that isn't published yet. I am really proud of the cadence and the simile: "The pain consuming her came on like a storm rolling over the plains. At times it was sudden and violent, ripping through her whole being, at other times ceasing suddenly, leaving all too brief relief in its wake. In the calm, with thunder rumbling above her, the anxiety about what came next built and built, like the tension before a lightning strike"

26. Biggest surprise while writing this year?: The community I've been lucky to gain through @theredheadedcaptain and I's writing group and the joy I have shared with everyone involved in @voyagerihardlyknowher 's Threshold AU have been the 2 best things to come out of this year of writing for me.

[serenailith]

two + two equals four(ever) ii

chapter one here

in which hob sticks his nose where it really doesn't belong

on ao3

Hob sighs and rests his palm on Toivo’s head, scratching behind the great wolf’s ear as they stare at the door. The clock ticks away the seconds, the minutes, and closing time draws nearer. Never before has so much time slipped away before his Stranger appeared. He has always shown up, always arrived no later than eight in the evening. They may have parted after the calendar flipped to the eighth, but his Stranger always, without fail, spent the night of the seventh with Hob.

But…

12:01. After midnight, and no Stranger.

Hob swallows thickly and finishes off his glass of whisky. Toivo whines low in his throat, pressing closer into Hob’s leg, and rests his head on his front paws.

“Ah, it’s fine, Toi. We—we don’t need him, anyway, do we?”

“He’s a constant,” Toivo rumbles back, and Hob can’t argue with that.

Sighing, Hob rises to his feet and heads toward the bar. Toivo pads along beside him, easily winding his way around the humans and other dæmons crowding the pub. No one gives them a second look despite Toivo’s size. Why would they? A wolf is hardly unsurprising; there are odder dæmons. Lushing Lou’s had been a spider—a black widow, if Hob remembers correctly—and that Marisa lady has a golden-furred monkey.

After paying, Hob heads outside and pulls a silver tin from his pocket. It’s old-fashioned, carrying a case for his cigarettes, but Hob likes to think old-fashioned isn’t always a bad thing. At least his smokes go without being crushed in the case. Toivo’s lip curls when Hob lights a cigarette, and Hob blows out a heavy breath full of smoke.

They’re both feeling the loss, and Hob wonders if there is anything he can do. Any way he can apologise to his Stranger. Wonders if he will be left drinking alone in a hundred years’ time.

As they walk through the midnight dark, Hob ruminates over the last century. He had so much to tell his Stranger. He’d received a teaching degree—twice. Once as Rob Gelding for a uni in London in the fifties, another in New York in 1974 under the name of Gilbert Holden. He nearly got caught in New York; it was the shortest life he led thus far at only six years.

He’d adopted a dog and fostered two children, two boys. They were wonderful little ones, and they grew so fast in the three years he cared for them. It was only his immortality that prevented him from adopting them, as well. Children need stability, and that’s something he will never be able to provide, not for anyone. He’d relinquished them to the next foster parents and given his dog to the family down the street. He’d left Brooklyn with a broken heart and a vow to never put himself in such a position again.

He knew it was a lie even then, but it helped to ease the pain.

He’d had so much to tell, but his Stranger never showed up. Hob snorts and scrubs a hand over his face. How can one person hold a grudge for so long? It was a misstep, a piss-poor calculated risk that proved Hob was horrible at odds, but it shouldn’t have severed the… not-friendship as it had. They’d had an agreement, after all, and now his Stranger was going back on his word? All for what he considered an insult?

“Bah.”

“And you say I shouldn’t dwell,” Toivo remarks before sniffing the air. His ears flick, but then he relaxes. “We don’t need him, remember? Him or his dæmon.”

“Don’t we, though?”

Toivo doesn’t respond.

By the time they reach the flat, Hob has sobered and long grown exhausted. He readies for bed silently while Toivo lies curled up on his side of the mattress. Hob turns out the light before sliding in under the blankets, pulling them up to his chin. A warm nose presses to the back of his neck, then the wolf lets out a huff and falls asleep. Hob closes his eyes and drifts into the blank void that has greeted him since 1916.

It’s been seventy-five years since the dreams stopped, since a large swath of the population fell into eternal sleep or stopped being able to sleep at all. Hob himself has been lucky enough to avoid the worst of it. All he’s had to endure is a lack of dreams. It suits him fine enough—he’s had six hundred years of living. There are far more horrible memories that replay night after night, than there are good. Dreams are more often than not nightmares. So this reprieve is… Well, it’s a blessing.

The information comes from a weasel, the dæmon of a former maid to some eccentric old man named Burgess. The woman drinks and chatters on about the man who has the Devil locked in his basement. Everyone titters and ignores her after a moment. Burgess may be an odd duck, pompous and arrogant, but an amateur like him could never harness anything.

Everyone turns away, everyone except Hob. Toivo’s ears prick up when the weasel notices them watching. With a quick glance at his human, he inches closer.

“It’s true, you know. The man has the Devil locked up, inherited from his father, they say.” The weasel wipes his paws over his face and stares at Toivo with beady eyes. “Says he wants the Devil to make a deal, to fix his son.”

Hob frowns, mind turning over the new information. The name sounds familiar, and he struggles to figure out why. It takes a moment, but then he places it. Roderick Burgess, the father of Britain’s first test subject for something called intercision. No one really knows what it is, but everyone knows what happened to the poor Burgess lad.

He hasn’t been quite the same, has he, since the operation. No one sees him anymore. Apparently, he’s still alive, if the weasel is to be believed. The weasel inches even closer to the wolf when Toivo opens his mouth.

“What happened to the boy?”

The weasel blinks then blinks again. On his face is, remarkably clear, sadness and hurt. Disgust. “Intercision happened.”

“Yes, but what is it?”

The weasel gulps audibly and twists his paws over one another. “They—oh, my, this is—do not make me say it, please.”

“If you can’t, then don’t,” Toivo says gently.

“They cut away the boy’s dæmon!” the weasel squeaks, words tumbling out in a rush, paws covering his face. Without another word, he scurries back to his human, leaving Hob and Toivo fighting nausea.

Neither speaks as they hurry out of the tavern, into an empty alleyway. Hob leans against a wall and claps a hand over his mouth. They cut away a dæmon? How is that even possible? No, he doesn’t want to know. He’d much rather remain ignorant of the process.

The question, really, is why. Why would they want to separate child and dæmon? Dæmons are beneficial to humans; anyone would be a fool to think otherwise. After all, dæmons have been around for as long as humanity has. Dæmons are nothing to fear and everything to love.

Hob digs his fingers into Toivo’s fur and lets his head fall against the brick behind him. He must find out more. He must do something. There has to be something he can do, right? Therefore, he must figure it out and do it.

Right, then.

Loosening his grip on his dæmon’s fur, Hob takes a step toward the mouth of the alleyway.

He spends the next four weeks searching for an answer. Hardly anyone speaks of intercision, and those who do extol its virtues. They can’t explain why dæmons are bad or why the separation must happen; they only say that it’s what is best for the child, for society.

No one speaks of the Sleeping Sickness, either, though people keep dying.

Hob wants to throttle them all, but he keeps his composure until he and Toivo are alone in the flat once more. Each night, he rails against all that is transpiring everywhere, for it isn’t just London in which this is happening. No, it’s happening all over the world, and Hob is only one man. He can only do so much.

He sets off into the world to find anyone who can explain, because he isn’t getting any satisfactory answers in London. All he has learnt is something called the General Oblation Board has infiltrated the Magisterium. Hob knows, even if no one says as much, that were it not for the Board, this whole ordeal with incising dæmons from their children would not be happening.

The Sleeping Sickness is harder to explain.

A witch finds him in the deepest heart of Australia two years after the conversation with the weasel. Hob’s surrounded by the heat of summer, the silver glow of moonlight, a vast emptiness, and a sudden strike of fear. Her dæmon circles overhead, occasionally hooting, and she looks up to track his movements in the sky. After a moment, she turns her attention to—

“Hob Gadling.”

He swallows and pushes sweat-damp hair from his forehead. “I’m afraid I’m at a disadvantage, though it is, I presume, a pleasure to meet you.”

The witch smiles, a beautiful thing that he finds no danger in. “I am Meritta Vesa. We have heard word of your presence here.” Her smile disappears, and she gestures toward the ground. Hob keeps a hand on Toivo’s head as they lower themselves to the dirt. Meritta Vesa’s lips curve again, though this smile doesn’t meet her eyes, and she sits facing Hob. “You wish for answers regarding what they call intercision.”

“And the Sleeping Sickness,” he provides, and she shakes her head.

“That, I know little of. The realm of sleep is not within my purview to know, though I have heard rumours.”

She lets out a breath that could be mistaken for a sigh, and her gaze flicks up toward her dæmon. Hob waits in silence, nearly vibrating with his need for answers even if they bring more questions. After a few minutes of silence under the midnight moon, Meritta Vesa looks back at him.

“The Devil you seek is no devil, though he is in peril. Or so I have heard it said. What you call the Sleeping Sickness has more to do with this ‘intercision’ than first meets the eye. After all, how do you think they perfected the process?”

“But it’s not perfect, is it, not when the Burgess boy is so muddled from it? And I’m sure London isn’t the only place with intercision.”

“You are right. It happens everywhere. But it was worse in the beginning.” She glances at the sky; the moon washes her skin a lovely pale bronze, haloes her black hair that flows free around her angular face. Her eyes hold many lifetimes. “The process has been happening for longer than anyone knows, though we witches have listened for all information, no matter how small. Irrelevant.”

“Why?”

“Another thing I, unfortunately, know little of.”

“The Devil who isn’t a devil… He’s in danger?”

“He is. The world is. This one, the next, all worlds that exist are in danger if something should befall him. I believe it best that you return to your London. Find him. Free him. He will be of use.”

Meritta Vesa rises to her feet, and the barn owl gives yet another hoot. Hob remains seated as Meritta Vesa readies herself for flight. Wishing him luck, she vanishes into the moonlight glow, and Hob exchanges a look with Toivo. They now know where to start, but not how to start. Hob swallows against the questions that will go unanswered, for Meritta Vesa is far out of sight, then rises to his feet. Brushing the dirt from the seat of his trousers, he and Toivo set off toward the town they’d just left behind.

It’s easy enough to get a plane ticket back to London. It’s only marginally more difficult to forge the documents he needs. Faking an ID to label him a member of the press is simpler than all the work he puts into creating a new life, so Hob doesn’t complain that it takes two days before all is prepared. He and Toivo do what is necessary to end the current life of Gilbert Holden before making arrangements for a lift to Fawney Rig.

A certain Roderick Burgess is hosting a gala, to which members of the most prominent presses have been invited, and Hob has made damn sure he was on the list.

Hob shows his badge, tries not to show his impatience as a man double-checks it against the paper in hand. After a long moment in which Hob worries he will be turned away, he’s beckoned forward, into the mansion. He clips his badge to his lapel once more and hurries-without-hurrying inside. The gala is already in full swing—loud chatter fills the spaces, and Hob and Toivo exchange a look. It will be almost impossible to find any answers here without drawing attention.

Time stretches on. Hob socialises and laughs though he doesn’t feel like it and pretends he isn’t here to potentially rescue the Devil from a man who wishes for more than he deserves. It’s harder than it should be, acting as if he is merely an inquisitive journalist intent on hearing more about how Burgess’s second son is offering up his daughter for intercision.

“He was right coerced into it, mind you, but he’s doing it,” the maid had said over her gin. “Maybe he’ll finally make that mad old man proud.”

Hob amends his plan: Save the Devil then perhaps the girl, if at all possible. He’d learnt enough from the 1700s, Hob did. Too many people he could have saved but ignored for his own selfish greed, his own desire for wealth.

The hour comes that the party should wind down, but it doesn’t. It seems, in fact, to grow even more bacchic. Despite this, a dark-skinned man appears in the doorway and calls for the press members. Hob shows his ID once more then follows the man who introduces himself as Sykes. Through the corridors they are led, and Hob presses his fingertips into Toivo’s fur. The wolf trembles minutely, and Hob swallows down the rage and fear.

Roderick Burgess meets them in a grand study. It’s opulent, dark woods and richer reds. His smile doesn’t meet his cold eyes, but he plasters it on anyway. It fades as he launches into his speech, the reason this group has come: Dorothy Anne Burgess has been accepted as a test subject for the latest updated process of intercision. The girl in question stands at her grandfather’s side. She shifts her weight between her two feet, gaze darting here and there as her dæmon, a small ferret, remains wound around her throat. A man coughs quietly, and she glances at him before stilling.

The man—Alexander, if Hob’s guess is correct—rests a hand on her shoulder and smiles gamely for the cameras now flashing. “Dorothy here is incredibly excited to be chosen. This will be a wonderful step forward in the process, in the curing of this country. Perhaps even this world.”

Roderick’s glare vanishes when the group turns back to him, and Hob frowns. He’s never seen a father look upon his son with such hatred. But no one else seems to have noticed, so Hob pretends he hadn’t, either. Pretends to be as guileless and mindless as the people he’s surrounded by. Roderick’s gaze lands on him then slips away. Toivo nudges Hob’s hand with his great head.

Burgess doesn’t trust Hob and Toivo, and they all three know it. The question is: How dangerous is Roderick Burgess, truly? If the weasel—the rumours—are to be believed, it wasn’t even Roderick who captured the Devil in the first place. Hob makes a mental note to keep an eye on Roderick anyway.

He doesn’t miss the calculating look as he passes Roderick on their way out of the study.

[paranormal-peri]

I just wanna say, I don't know what you plan for the future, BUT I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT THE CHAPTERS AREN'T LIKE 7K WORDS LONG. IT MAKES IT MUCH EASIER TO READ

I THANK MYSELF

MY ADHD ASS CANT SURVIVE THROUGH WRITING LONG CHAPTERS WITHOUT PROCRASTINATION AND LOSING MOTIVATION

Short chapters allow me to update often, and write faster. I work better in general with shorter chapters. I feel like I’m able to put more quality in it.

Froggie Croaks, (the longest chapter) is my least favorite because it was extended and actually meant to be longer. It used to be MUCH longer before I abruptly decided to split it, thus why the ending felt off for that chapter. The quality was lower and I wanna edit it, I probably will.

Birthday Cake (The shortest chapter) is my favorite, and I believe is the best chapter I have written so far. So shorter chapters just work better all over.

This however, makes there be more chapters, and so the chapter count is higher, and so it looks intimidating, but in reality it’s not too long.

The chapter count estimate is set to 50 rn. And it will probably be higher if I keep splitting chapters like I did with Froggie Croaks.

Because of this, I think it would make the most sense to turn the current planned storyline into a 3 book series. There is 3 arcs for the series, each with their own problems and need to contain different tags. So I probably will split it.

If I do, this means the actual chapter count of Paranormal Peri (at least for arc/book 1) would be around 20. Maybe 30 if I keep splitting things up. But I’m keeping the count at 50 rn till I get closer to the end of arc 1.

BTW

THIS MEANS I AM ALMOST 1/2 OR 1/3 DONE WITH ARC 1!

EXCITING! I GOT BIG THINGS HAPPENING CLOSER TO THE END! IT’S GONNA GET MESSY!

[sharenadraculea]

Half a year on AO3 - Retrospective

So, I‘ve now been on AO3 for a bit more than half a year, so I want to talk about what I‘ve written so far!

I‘ll go by number of hits

01)Made of Glass: my a/b/o-Naruto-fic and by far my most popular one! I was a bit hesitant about writing it at first but I really like it and writing it is a lot of fun! I love the worldbuilding, the mix of fluff and more serious topics, the characters… I also plan to do some art for it soon! 02) Ladies and Gentlemen: My first fic on AO3! I‘m honestly not a big fan of it anymore… I wrote nearly all of it within a few weeks in summer and it definetly was fun at the time, but now… shrug 03)What could have been: the first Warhammer 40k-fic on this list! I also really love this one, it‘s a very fun mix of slice of life and more serious plot I‘m planning. It‘s definetly going to be pretty long. 04)About Angels: This was my Secret Sanguinala gift for Mahaute (great author, go check out her work) and I really love the concept for it. But I also sat on it for two months before the reveal, so I pointed out every single flaw to myself and thus probally don‘t like it as much as I could have… I‘m honestly kind of surprised how well this one is doing. 05)Wildfire Blight: my one crossover-fic! I also really like this one, even tough I haven‘t updated it since November, shame on me. I do plan to post chapter three soon! 06)Godess of Monsters: I still really like the concept for this one, but I kind of lost the motivation to write… I do want to finish it one day tough. 07)Seal Bride: My record for fastest written fic (about 1.5 hours from idea to posting). I‘m pretty neutral about it, it was definetly fun to write but I often just kind of forget that it‘s there 08)The fight for Helwinter: Also a short one, very fun to write! I was definetly surprised by how well it was received, but I like it a lot. I really want to continue this series, but personal life keeps happening. 09)Something: Another one that‘s rather short, I wrote it pretty impulsivly after a discussion with a discord-friend about Harry Potter. I still like it, maybe I‘ll expand on the ideas and themes of it in a longer story. 10)Uprising with no winning chance: The sequel to Something and the shortest story so far. I‘m neutral about it. Definetly the story I forget that it even exists the most. 11)Heart of Hell: My third HP-fic and probally the darkest of all my fics so far. I was honestly I bit underwhelmed with how few hits it got in comparisson to my other stuff… which wasn‘t a great reaction. I really like this one tough! I love worldbuilding for it, I love the setting, love the vibe, the whole story is allready ploted out… it just takes a lot of energy to write, because of it‘s dark subject matters, but chapter three is in the works! 12)Very masculine masculine Warpaint: and last but certainly not least, my only Atla-fic so far (tough I plan to write more if I get good ideas)! I actually quite like this one, it has a pretty stupid premise but it was fun to write.

All in all I‘m very proud of the stuff I wrote! There obviously is more, I have quite a few WIPs that aren‘t yet a single chapter long. It has been really fun so far, 10/10 would highly recommend

[professorsaber]

Look, I'm not done with McFly July!

(This is probably the shortest one I've done thus far.)

[seabreezeraincloud]

The next chapter of Fates Aligned should finally be up this weekend! It's a short one, definitely the shortest thus far outside of the prologue, but still important. I think I've described it as a "transitional" chapter before, and yeah, that's pretty much what it is. I hope it'll be worth it after the nearly two-month hiatus.