#this is what becomes of my brain in the liminal time after napping off an 11-7 shift?

[see-arcane]

Ok here goes

The Red Book 📕

Unknown and Terrible 🌑⚰️

Long Night Drive 🚙 (if I ever travel again to the USA I am doing so again why are night roadtrips so eerie there what happened)

The Harker Records 🖤 🖋️

Death's Dogs 🐕☠️

The M.A.D Gods 😤

Bloody Anniversary 💒

Lady Luna Blue 🔵

The Red Book 📕: A collection of some more explicitly saucy supernatural works. I tend to kind of tiptoe around any direct sexual/erotic aspects in things I write, so this would be more like a writing exercise than anything else, just to see how I can rework (disdainful literati voice) ~smut~ into something meatier ha ha than just a one-and-done indulgence shot. I don't see this one being put together anytime soon, as, again, I'm still prone to side-stepping outright raunchiness versus innuendo. But we'll see what happens.

Unknown and Terrible 🌑⚰️: Short version? Jonathan Harker winds up as the new Dracula following a very bloody climax in Transylvania. He uses Scholomance magic to pull Francis' reincarnation bullshit out through his nose, brings Mina back as a new soul, and tries to get her back. It is very much about me being a petty prick and proving Jonathan and Mina = The Better Romance and the Better Tragic Vampire Lovers. Choke on it, Francis.

Long Night Drive 🚙: This one fittingly only seems to haunt me when I'm driving after dark on empty roads. The premise being a sort of liminal What If? What if someone started a long drive at night and neither the road or the night ever ended? What if the last wrong turn turned them off of Earth's road map and onto Someplace Else's? Ideally this would only hit the driver on a night of Importance. One of those 'things are crossing over' nights--and they crossed over in the wrong direction. Uh oh.

The Harker Records 🖤 🖋️: Oh, but this one gives me brain itches. It's hazy at the edges, but it'd be a sort of fusion between anthology and purposeful/linked Big Narrative. Basically, the Harkers and their friends start becoming unofficial monster hunters/recorders/aides. I always love when paranormal stories have it work out so that if you're stamped once by the uncanny, the uncanny continues to gravitate toward you. I'd like to see them interact with myriad eerie happenings across public domain horrors together. Peak couple's activity <3

Death's Dogs 🐕☠️: An examination of how Death has an abundance of dogs with various tasks bred into them. And how Dracula maybe crossed the paths of more than one spectral hound during his English holiday.

The M.A.D Gods 😤: Augh, it's gathered so much dust, BUT I STILL LOVE IT AND MY WEIRD NUCLEAR NEON YELLOW PANTHEON SO MUCH. The gist is that 1) The Universe was made by one entity basically ejecting the bulk of Its body mass away so Matter could happen and flourish 2) That shit's tiring 3) The Atomic God (named because It is responsible for every atom in the universe) closes Earth around it like shell/blanket for an eons-long nap 4) It creates two guard-gods, Maker and Breaker, to keep any cosmic horror jerks out of the neighborhood--It ditched them to make the known universe so It could have some peace, finally. 5) Hijinks ensue as Maker and Breaker dutifully chokeslam any Lovecraftian interlopers out of the galaxy and spend their free time watching humanity fuck shit up

Bloody Anniversary 💒: An unexpected meetup of various couples in various states of actually being in love, each celebrating their anniversary. One of these couples is older than they seem. And maybe not celebrating the anniversary anyone would expect.

Lady Luna Blue 🔵: Started out as alternative what-if for who the Pretty Girl in Piccadilly might be. She could still go that route, but I think my imagination has long since run off with her into more original territory. Lady Luna Blue is her professional name; at least as Victorian era mediums and mystics go. In-between card readings and seances, she catches the attention of something with much more supernatural weight than she's prepared for. And it happily takes advantage when she invites any 'wandering spirits' in.

[sassafrassrex]

It’s a ring, not a tower

So, lions as four cardinal points on a ring seems to be a fandom motif that's juuuust starting to gain traction in vld and..... yes? yes please? so much?? Viewing the castle/the Atlas in the space of a white lion, and from that, having Atlas closes the circle, with white, black, red, and blue as four points on a now-seamless cycle of bestowing and receiving. That's just such a good and hale way to regard it, as a relay of giving, from Allura to Shiro to Keith to Lance to Allura to Shiro to Keith to Lance to Allura to Shiro to Keith to Lance to Allura to Shiro, etc.

It's wonderfully inclusive, and validating for all four character perspectives. I mean it's gd serendipitous, it's weirdly perfect. It makes it impossible to see Blue as the "beginner" Lion, because Blue is a point on a circle. It's impossible to view Keith's and Shiro's bonds with Black as a zero-sum game because again, Black is a point on a circle. Allura moving to Blue isn't a demotion, Keith moving to Black isn't a promotion, Lance finally clicking with Red isn't "better" (or worse!) than what he has with Blue, it's all just balanced, lateral, cyclical movement. Which emphasizes the involved characters’ interrelationships as being unique and important and almost strangely consecrated(??) And it reminds that Allura and Shiro were never and never will be any less integral to the team, just because they fly the castle or the Atlas (because again, the white lion makes the fourth compass point on the circle). There's a place for each of them on this cyclical progression, like it's a huge wheel, spinning from white to black to red to blue to white to black to red to blue to white to black to red to blue to white, on and on and on.

The whole notion just goes straight to my sense of aesthetic and symmetry so. damn. much. Maybe it's a silly thing to get excited about but if you ask me, motifs matter (I mean look at tumblr and try to count the moodboards ev-er-y-where, for ev-er-y-thing). The difference between viewing something as perpetually cyclical, rather than linearly hierarchical, changes the way you think about it. It changes the definitions of progress and redefines what it means to grow. 

(Also, as far as motifs and mindsets are concerned, this one is probably much more salient and connected with VLD: the fandom, than it is with VLD: the show. Bc real talk, there's none of us who won't admit the Voltron fandom experience has been kinda... rough. But this is VLD fandom-made and it's awesome.)

Plus, it's an arrangement that resonates. There's a significance to those four colors together, there's a wider context in place for vld to fit into, with new implications to look at. Tbqh, it's probably a good thing they don't perfectly line up with circling the cardinal directions (black to the north, blue to the east, red the south, white to the west; you'd get a zig-zag, not a ring, but w/e), because otherwise my head might explode from too much aesthetic wonderfulness and symmetry.

Very important aside: Absolutely no slight to Hunk and Pidge for living the drama-free life of having one lion and sticking to that. Zero slight at all, there is a lot to be said for that connection and that honor in continuity and unbroken commitment. Yeah, this is a post celebrating cyclical movement between four cardinal points, but that's got zero capacity to detract from the equally important points of loyalty and constancy and devotion and faith that we have with Pidge's and Hunk's deceptively simple, unassumingly unbreakable relationships with their own magically bequeathed, giant, sentient metal spacebeasts. Okay? Okay.

But I love this Four Points on a Wheel motif that seems to be slowly cropping up (seemingly without much/any deliberate cultivation??) I love it and I hope it disseminates and infects every corner of fandom content. Bless all the arts and all the fic and all the meta and all the everything.

[allsassnoclass]

oh hazel the hand kisses prompts omg... mmh maybe “I was just holding your hand to convey sincerity and you said something I don’t have an immediate answer to, so I’m going to kiss your hand instead.” with mashton??

did you know that I love mashton???? because I love mashton. in case that wasn’t clear somehow. anyway here you go em <3

Ashton doesn't know if he'll ever get fully used to airports at the quiet, early morning hours between flights.

At this point they've been touring and traveling long enough as a band to have a routine down: Calum and Luke know what positions they need to be in to get maximum comfortable sleep out of the airport waiting chairs, Michael knows which snacks they can find in different countries that will offer them the best results, and Ashton instinctively checks for all of their carry-on luggage every time one of them moves.  They all know how to read arrival and departure boards, even in different languages, and their passports have collected different stamps from all over.  Going through security is an easy process that they have short-hand by now.

Still, airports at two in the morning are strange places.  They're the only people waiting at their gate right now, and everything feels hushed despite the constant traffic of planes outside landing and taking off.  It's a smaller airport, not one with a huge mall inside, but Ashton is thankful that their gate is at the end, offering a little piece of privacy while they wait suspended between the tour they just finished and their homes.

They've been traveling for a long time, and with the time zone shifts Ashton doesn't know what time it feels like or how much he slept on the last flight, but he's in that murky state of too tired to process properly but too awake to take a nap.  Calum and Luke are already curled up together and snoring softly, leaning their heads together in a familiar position.  They're cute like this, even though Luke is kind of drooling and they're both taking up too much space.

Michael sighs and Ashton turns his attention to him.  He's scrolling through his phone, circles starting to become apparent under his eyes from the weight of a full tour and endless travel.  Michael doesn't sleep well on planes, even worse than Ashton sometimes, and he's pale in a way that makes Ashton a bit worried he's going to pass out rather than fall asleep.  There's some juice sitting open but nearly untouched by him.  Ashton wonders if management would get him candy if he asked, but Michael is probably the level of tired that makes his stomach reject food.

"Hey," Ashton says softly, taking the seat next to him.  Michael glances up and puts his phone in his lap, scrunching down into his hoodie a bit more.  That's another thing about airports in the night hours: they're always just a little bit too cold.

"Hey," Michael says.  He rubs at his eyes, blinking at him, and Ashton is struck once again by how green his eyes can be.  "Time is it?"  Ashton shrugs.  Michael hums like that's an acceptable answer, like he understands that Ashton wants to live in a liminal space for a while.  In a world where so many of their moves are dictated by people telling them where to go and what time to be there and counting down minutes to the next show, it's a little freeing to have time to exist outside of that for as long as they can.  Airports before dawn can be a reprieve.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asks.  Michael gives him a tired smile.  "You should try."

"Pot calling the kettle," Michael grumbles.

"See?  You're too tired to even finish the phrase," Ashton teases.  He brushes a knuckle gently over Michael's cheek, something he'd never let himself do outside of this space, and Michael tilts his head to follow it.

"I don't like sleeping in airports," Michael says.  It's a conversation that they've had before under the florescent lights.  Ashton can take a certain amount of comfort in airports by now, but Michael can't relax long enough to let his mind shut off.  A mix between the unfamiliarity of it and the unsettling feeling of perpetual movement and newness throws him off more than hotels or dressing rooms or even the back seat of a van does.

"I'm right here," Ashton says.  "I won't let anything happen to you.  You can rest."

Michael tilts his head, laying it on the back of his chair in a way that won't be comfortable in a few minutes.

"You're going to go take a lap of the airport and use the bathroom and buy everyone snacks soon," he says wryly.  They have each other's routines down to a science, but it's still sends something fluttering in Ashton's stomach to hear Michael verbalize how well they know each other.

"Well, now you're just trying to get rid of me," he says.

"Yeah, leave me alone," Michael says.  He kicks at Ashton's shoe gently.

"If you insist," Ashton says, starting to pull himself up.

"No, wait," Michael says, grabbing his arm.  Ashton sinks back into the chair, raising his eyebrow.  Michael huffs, but doesn't say anything more, so Ashton reaches for his hand and interlaces their fingers.

"See?" he says, holding their joined hands up.  "Not going anywhere.  Come on, Michael.  Nothing's going to go wrong with me here.  Try to sleep?  For me?"

If the words come out a little too sincere, well, everything sounds a bit more truthful at an airport this early in the morning.  They're confessionals for lonely travelers, and part of Ashton, a part buried deep inside him, always feels a little lonely when Michael is this close.

Michael blinks slowly, looking at their hands then back to Ashton's face.

"I always sleep better with you near.  I sleep better in a hotel with you than at my own house most of the time."

Ashton gives himself a moment to take those words in, sure that somewhere his travel-addeled brain has messed the meaning up, but they keep coming back the same.  Maybe airports are confessionals for Michael, too.

He tries to find something he could say to express what that revelation makes him feel, but in the end he can only bring Michael's hand to his mouth and kiss it.  Michael closes his eyes and exhales.

"Come to mine when we land," he says.  "Please," he tacks on as an afterthought, but Michael is already nodding.

"I'd like that," he says, and it feels like he's saying something else, something that they'll have to discuss when they're both a little more awake.

"Come on," Ashton says, adjusting his position and tugging Michael towards him a little.  There's an armrest in the way, but they manage to find a position where Michael can lean against Ashton without getting a crick in his neck and Ashton can turn his nose to his hair and breath him in.  They probably look a little bit like Calum and Luke.  The thought makes him smile.

"Good night," he says softly.  Ashton can feel Michael's smile against his collarbone.  He doesn't reply, but he doesn't need to, because he gets heavier against Ashton until his breathing evens out, and Ashton follows him to sleep shortly after.