#this was an edited fic I wrote and decided to share with y'all

[yanderemommabean]

Have Yandere alphas Suku and Yuuji with omega reader Smut

(Reader has pussy but this has They them pronouns used! Some dirty talk, pussy slapping, and some forced orgasms and dubcon themes! All characters depicted are 18 and up! I hope you enjoy!)

Honestly, you have  no idea how things got this bad. First you were all having a nice little chit chat after a nice swim in the pool, then the next thing you know, you’re being held against Sukunas chest, arms to your sides, as Yuuji taunts and teases. 

Sukunas massive cock was spearing you open, eyes rolling back as every thrust was calculated and aimed to make your brain melt with pleasure, all while the other two act more or less unphased as they begin asking lewd questions. 

Your voice hiccups, trying to speak, but your face is so red as Sukuna pounds away even harder, biting and kissing along your neck to coax out more of those addictive little noises. You really had no idea how much these two craved you, how they wanted to breed you full over and over again, mark you as only theirs. It’s a good thing they’re getting started with that very lesson today and every day that follows. 

While Sukuna is usually the mean one, Yuuji is just being cruel, coming up to whisper in your ear as he teases your clit and feels you twitching and throbbing. “What if I used my tongue? Hmm? Would your perfect little pussy like that, Y/N? “ 

You can only yelp, wincing in pain mixed with burning pleasure when Yuujis hand comes smacking down again and making you see blinding white. “I said- would your greedy, slutty cunt want my lips on it? Hmm? Think if I tongue fuck you with Sukuna balls deep you can squirt for us?” 

You’re  just gasping for breath, brain malfunctioning as your cunt spasms and clenches, making Sukuna groan and purr in delight as he begins to drag out his strokes. “Oh ho ho, they want it baby brother. I can feel them squeezing me for all I’ve got. “

You whimper, pathetic and fed up, eyes slamming shut as your face burns a deep scarlet. You aren’t a whore! You aren’t! Not...Not like THAT anyway- 

"N-Not..not a-" you try  to protest, but it's cut off when Yuuji's tongue curls inside of you, slipping between Sukunas cock and your fluttering walls as you gasp and feel that burning coil tightening once again. There’s no way-no! That’s so-

Your brain malfunctions, feeling Yuuji's tongue swipe around in circles as Sukuna’s cock buries itself to the hilt, stretching you out and stuffing you like you crave. By the second, you can feel your resolve and composure melting away. 

"Mm hmm. Not a whore? Not a slut? Says the one creaming on our cocks and begging to be eaten out until they cry'' Yuuji snickers, using two fingers to stroke over Your clit a few times before he once again brings the palm of his hand down. 

"Now answer us. Answer ME. Do you want my mouth on your tasty little snatch? Or do I need to discipline you some more?". 

The heat in Yuujis words, the way Sukuna bit into your skin and rolled his hips so sinfully slow, staving off your orgasm once again. It's not fair- You aren't even given a real choice! You either agree or are punished until you say yes! 

Why does that turn you on so much?! 

"Y-Yes!" You more or less yelp, tensing up, feeling your breath being punched out of you almost when Sukunas hands come up to play with your nipples, that devilish smirk on his features as he meets Yuuji's eyes. "You heard them, Brat. Get to work. I want them covering my cock in their juices''.

Yuuji wastes no time, a drawn out groan passing his lips as he swirled his tongue around Your clit. He could never get enough of this, the taste, the way You moan and throw your head back, how you feebly try to push him away despite clearly enjoying it. It was so cute how you tried to deny yourself the pleasure the brothers could bring. 

“Love your sounds baby” Sukuna pants, looking down to see how Your stomach gains a slight bump with every roll of his hips. “Gonna make you so pretty, so round and full of pups. Fuck, you’re gonna be so full-”. 

“Pups?!” You whimper, trying to crawl away at that but being held down even tighter, your body forced to take the onslaught of pleasure as those filthy words make your stomach flutter. “W-We can’t! No! We-” You’re cut off, moaning deep and guttural as Yuuji's fingers are added, pressed directly inside of you. 

It’s too much, it’s too good, you can’t help yourself,  starting to have hiccuped breaths as Sukuna holds your hips firm. “We can. We’re going to. And you’re going to take it like a good little Omega.” 

The dam breaks. Sukunas thrusts, Yuuji’s mouth, the possessive and dirty words being growled into your ear- You come undone, pleasure so intense you have tears down your cheeks as you climax, slick spurting from your spasming cunt and covering Yuujis face. 

Yuuji is ravenous after that, pure alpha instinct taking over as he drinks in everything you have to give. Oh there’s no way in hell he’s ever passing on this experience ever again. He’ll tie You down and tongue fuck you that way if he must- 

Yuuji just snarls, holding your legs apart as his tongue drags over his slick covered lips. "Fuck! I want to see you knock them up- Quit moving! You're gonna stay right here and get that pretty pussy bred  deep ".

You can only mewl, your eyes rolling back as drool slightly dribbles from your lips, cunt clenching down /again/ and spasming as Yuuji holds your legs apart, watching as Sukuna breeds you possessively, like a beast staking a claim. 

And really, Sukuna is. To think You could ever have anyone else, it made both men incredibly, unstably jealous. 

"Fuck! Take it! Take it!" Sukuna nearly roars, being cruel like Yuuji as his fingers rub vicious circles around your sensitive clit, balls tightening and drawing up as his thrusts become more deep and greedy. “I'm gonna cum-Shit! Knocking you up, gonna breed you so fucking good-” 

His teeth latch onto Your throat, biting down aggressively as his cum spills into that warm, tight cunt, his cock pulsing and twitching with every rope he releases. 

Fuck.

He's ruined.  Nothing else could ever be as addictive as your soft, warm, tight cunt drinking all Sukuna has to give. 

"Fuck, just like that Y/N. You're doing so good. Gonna have that baby in you in no time, make you so round and soft and ours "

You take as many deep breaths as you can, chest heaving as sweat begins to cool on your skin. Words sound like water, everything is spinning, and all you can manage to make is soft little whines as Sukuna slowly slips out and watches as his cum leaks from your abused hole. 

Yuuji just smiles, pressing Your legs towards your chest as he presses his face closer to the mess, dragging his tongue up and down the cum covered folds, all while You hiss between your teeth and try to hide your face. 

“Mmm. It’s a shame your pussy hasn’t learned to hold onto every ounce of our cum…Guess we’ll have to train it then” 

-Mommabean (Hope you liked! Feel free to tell me your thoughts!)

[wispstalk]

wip wednesday

been tagged by various people over the past few weeks and didn't have much to share but now y'all get...

🚨🚨 IDLE IN THEIR THRONES SECRET BONUS CHAPTER 🚨🚨 i'm editing a version of my fic for my man, bc he wants to read my shit. but the problem is that my intended audience for the Oblivion fic is "people who have played oblivion" which he has not.

I made some mostly-minor changes to contextualize events/characters but Tanis's university B-plot warranted another chapter. Includes one microfic I've already posted, but the rest is new. fair warning: 4k words under the cut. tagging everyone who tagged me: @nuwanders @jiubilant @dirty-bosmer @sylvienerevarine @ehlnofay @everybodyknows-everybodydies (and a special shoutout to Talviel because I referenced her menus for the last section)

--

“Impressive, Apprentice!” Julienne Fanis, the Master Alchemist, watches with delight as the angry weal on Tanis’s neck smooths and seals over. “Sorry, Journeyman, isn’t it? Now that you have your staff. Traven ought to have bumped you up a few ranks after what you went through to get it…”

Tanis makes a noncommittal noise. He had thought, perhaps stupidly, that being ambushed by necromancers was only a test of his mettle. Only when he made an offhand remark to Delmar, the Master Enchanter, did the Elder Council fly into a flurry. The University has been abuzz ever since, and Tanis attracts stares everywhere he goes.

He rubs at the healed cut, which has begun to itch with a fury. “Trouble with spiddal stick,” he says, “is that it burns out the infection, and then keeps burning. But I thought with a pinch of frost salts—”

“Ah, but the cost…” Julienne’s eyes widen as Tanis produces a sizeable jar of salts. “Well! If we must be plagued with these Oblivion gates, I should count myself blessed to have a student bold enough to enter them.”

He offers her a half-grin and pinches some salt into his calcinator. “Or mad enough to go flower-picking in the Deadlands.”

“Well, should you decide the frost salts aren’t worth the risk, I’d try lady’s smock leaves. That ought to counteract the irritation.” She regards him, head cocked. “You seem to have a talent for healing. I’m more inclined to banecraft, myself, but I try to make my students understand that it’s not so different, is it? Here you’ve just made a healing salve from a poisonous flower.”

Yena would like this woman. “Just toyed around with it and got lucky. I’d like to learn more. Who’s the Master Restorationist here?”

Julienne gives him a strange look. “The University does not have a Master Restorationist. I teach apprentices how to make basic restoratives, and the Master Alterationist covers spellwork. But if you’re looking to further your studies, there is always work in the infirmary. I could have a word with the chief medic.”

Tanis blinks up at her. Yena would really like this woman. That was all the old witch ever wanted for him— a life as a healer. He wrote her off, could never tolerate working in a temple, but perhaps here…

“Excuse me, Master Fanis.” The reedy voice of a young woman cuts through the workroom. “Master Polus has requested Tanis Irathi’s presence in the tower lobby.” The grey-robed assistant does not wait for a response, but only ducks her head and shuffles out.

Tanis raises an eyebrow. Julienne Fanis gives him a tight smile. “One of Raminus’s little errands, no doubt.”

“Can’t it wait?” Tanis complains, and moderates the heat beneath his calcinator.

“You’d best go. Your reduction won’t go to waste, I’ll finish it.” Julienne sighs as she glances around the workroom. “I do hope you’ll keep attending lectures. I lose some of my most promising alchemists this way. The Council tends to take notice of mages with… certain skills.”

She throws a look at his swordbelt, slung over the edge of the worktable. He has, perhaps, made himself stand out. No one else wears a weapon around campus, unless he counts staves. And after what he went through to earn his, he paid the Master Enchanter to tip it with an ebony spearhead.

He leaves Julienne to experiment with his cache of Daedric ingredients, and makes for the tower.

—

Two days later, Tanis storms into the tower lobby, saddlesore and filthy with road dust. Raminus looks up at his arrival, and his face turns white when Tanis slaps a book down on his desk.

“You sent me after a book,” Tanis says, low and menacing. “So here is a book.”

“Er, Tanis, there—” Raminus clears his throat. “There was never any book.”

“There was never any book,” Tanis agrees.

“The Goblin with the Golden Arm,” Raminus reads from the cover. “Ah. A fiction. Consider your point made, mage.”

Tanis hadn’t put quite that much thought into it; he picked this one off the shelf because he liked the illustrations. “Give me that,” he snaps, and snatches it from Raminus’s hands. “So. What the fuck?”

Raminus takes off his spectacles and rubs at the bridge of his nose. “I’m truly sorry for the lie. Our relationship with the Count is tenuous at best, and Traven thought that sending a high-ranking official to Skingrad would alert the necromancers to our presence and drive them underground. After how capably you handled the necromancers that attacked you among the stave-trees, we thought you a good candidate for this mission.”

Praise, Tanis notes with annoyance, does soften his outrage. “Well, it’s done.”

“Please, tell me everything that happened.”

“Well, to start with, you told me to retrieve a book in the Count’s possession, so I rode all the way to fucking Skingrad, and—”

“I haven’t forgotten, Tanis. Just tell me what you found.”

Tanis had visited the castle once before, when he and Coradri closed the Oblivion gate outside Skingrad’s walls. He had known that Count Janus Hassildor was unlikely to grant him audience. But the castle steward, Mercator, was notably more unfriendly when Tanis identified himself as a representative of the mages guild.

Mercator informed him that the Count would meet him after dark, north of the mineshaft outside the city walls. So, after sharing a few rounds with the patrons at the West Weald Inn, Tanis made his way there.

“It was a trap,” Tanis tells Raminus. “Mercator and two of his friends met me instead. Summoned wraiths from thin air, cast a silence spell over me, and attacked.”

“My word, this is worse than we thought.” Raminus’s expression grows grave. “The Count sent him to kill you?”

No, Tanis continues, the Count arrived just as Tanis finished them off. Janus Hassildor was white with fury, or so Tanis thought— then he caught the strange glow to his eyes, his sallow cheeks. The flash of long canines as he gave Tanis an earful.

I suspected Mercator was involved with the necromancers, Hassildor said, but I would not move against him without knowing the identities of his allies. Despite what your Council may think, I would never throw in with such a cult.

“And he told me,” Tanis concludes, “the next time you want something from him, you come yourselves.”

“I see.” Raminus sighs and rubs at his jaw as he takes it in. “Tanis, please believe me when I say it was never the Council’s intention to put you in harm’s way.”

“Oh, piss off with that. I was four beers deep and had no fucking clue what was going on, but those three couldn’t have left a scratch on me.”

The Master Wizard lets out a humorless huff of laughter. “In any case, we are aware of Count Hassildor’s… condition… but it isn’t public knowledge. For that reason I didn’t share what we knew with you. We will not make that mistake again. And if Hassildor shares in our suspicions about this burgeoning cult, perhaps we can count him among our allies.”

Tanis folds his arms, skeptical. “And you lot aren’t worried that a vampire—”

“He hides his nature well, though he can’t hide it from the Council of Mages. We’ve come to certain accords. And if those agreements are strained of late, the fault doesn’t lie with you.”

“No shit.”

“You’ve done the guild a great service,” Raminus says. “And for that, you earn the rank of Evoker.”

Tanis blinks. While he grasps for something to say, Raminus unlocks the cabinet behind his desk, and comes around with something glittering in his fists. A silver chain with a pendant of citrine, carved with twin hands and the Eye of Magnus. When Tanis takes it into his palm, he senses the warding spell enchanted within it.

“Again, you have my apologies.” Raminus inclines his head. “I will speak to the Council.”

It bothers Tanis to find himself placated by this. Promote him, bestow some magical trinket on him, and he will gladly continue being a useful idiot for the guild. At least, he hopes, the Council will see fit to use their idiot well.

—

“Explain to me,” Tanis says, watching the ghost of his ancestor swoop and howl through the practice room, “how this doesn’t count as necromancy.”

Anaht’s nictitating membranes slide over her eyes in exasperation. “You do not want to get into this with me.”

“Don’t tell me what I want to get into,” he insists, and releases his focus, letting the restive shade return to the other side of the veil. “Say I’m attacked— bandits on the road, say, and say I kill the first one and make him get up and defend me against his fellow rogues and blaggards. That’s beyond the pale, and if I’m caught Traven throws me out on my ass.”

Her tail swishes with impatience. “Those are the rules, yes.”

“But dredging up my pissed-off card out of the ash is fine, and conjuring daedra— daedra, when they’re running thick as rabbits in the countryside— that’s all well and good.”

“Odd for you to be beating the moral drum,” Anaht says finely, “when I happen to know from Proctor Renault that you put your cohort to shame during the conjuration practical. A flame atronach, no less, while the rest of them were nearly bursting blood vessels just to call up a scamp.”

“Morals?” Tanis blinks. “Who the fuck said anything about morals? I’m a lout with a sword who does what I’m bid. It’s just that I can’t make heads nor tails of how you wizards think.”

Anaht relaxes then. “You will find,” she says, sweeping an arm for him to follow her out of the room, “that if there is a single thing that all wizards think, it is that we agree on nothing.”

In the Archives they find Tar-Meena, harried, drawing one claw down a list of requisitions, muttering to herself. “I need the key to the incinerator,” Anaht announces to the Master Archivist.

Tar-Meena throws Tanis a dubious glance, and speaks to Anaht in Jel, unaware that Tanis can parse it. “You are taking that one? Raminus’s hunter?”

“He was my hunter first,” Anaht sniffs, "and like any good hunter he knows when to be quiet."

With a skeptical lift of the brow ridge, Tar-Meena hands over a jangling ring of keys and returns to her work. Anaht leads him through the darkness and hush of the stacks, all the way to the end of the maze of shelves, to an unassuming heavy door.

More crammed bookshelves, to no one’s surprise. Sealed off from the carefully-controlled environment of the stacks, there is a window letting in the afternoon light, and a large round table scattered with a half-finished card game, books and papers, a mug of cold coffee dregs. It seems this vault of forbidden knowledge serves as a sort of employee break room.

No fires to be found, though, not so much as a reedlight. Like the stacks, this room is only to be lit by spell, with polished steel sconces on the wall to reflect the mage-glow.

“Why’s it called the incinerator?” he asks, drawing his reading glasses from his pocket.

“Yes, Arch-Mage,” Anaht says, taking a posture of mock obeisance. “We've found another treatise on the Black Arts, and we'll throw it straight in the fires.”

On the shelf before him, a veritable buffet of taboo: Necromancer’s Moon, Pathway to Lichdom. A journal purported to be authored by the Wolf Queen Potema. Even a title written in Dunmeris, On the Veneration and Summoning of Ancestor Guardians. The very spell he’d just opened his palm and offered his blood to learn.

And, tacked to one corner of the shelving timbers, a small folio: The Black Arts on Trial, by Arch-Mage Hannibal Traven.

“In the interest of being even-handed. A little joke among the scrivs,” Anaht says by way of explanation, then nudges him aside with her hip. “Now move, you big oaf, and let me look for something.”

He takes the folio with him and settles down at the table. The contents of this inflammatory writ are oft-bandied on the University grounds, but he’s never gotten around to reading it, what with all the… everything else.

While he reads, Anaht waltzes around the room, her tail jewelry jangling, occasionally plucking a book like a choice pear and stacking it on her arm.

“This gra-Kogg makes a lot of sense,” he says, holding a finger to mark his place. “Actually think her arguments were better than this other fella’s, but Traven’s conclusion doesn't consider her at all. Why include the debate, then?”

“Keep reading.” Anaht does not look back, but the tip of her tail shakes with mild amusement.

“Oh,” he says, squinting down at the afterword. “Reckon I ought to have seen that coming.”

“These will get you started.” Anaht drops her books to the table with a heavy thump, and delicately pats the top of the stack. Tanis grumbles; there has to be a dozen of them, and he’s already up to his ears in daedric research and work in the infirmary.

She perches lightly in the chair to his left. “Yes, Master gra-Kogg was a necromancer,” she says, and folds her jeweled claws beneath her chin. “But?”

“But,” he sighs, now seeing the point of that menacing bookpile, “that doesn’t make her wrong. Raminus has me running all over Cyrodiil flushing them out of their dens, but I don’t know a damn thing about how to fight them. Can’t interrupt their casting, can’t tell what they’re calling up, don’t know what they’re after.”

“If you insist on being the Council’s hunting dog, I will not have you go forth unprepared.” She taps the silvery-thin scar on the side of his neck, the one he’d earned while ambushed in Wellspring Grove, collecting wood for his mage’s staff. “So long as Traven invites the necromancers' wrath, we archivists will maintain this bulwark against them.”

“Oh, I'm sure it's all very noble."

She ignores the barb, tucking the books in her striped haversack and foisting it on him to carry. “Now come. Let us go to the King and Queen. You owe me dinner.”

Tanis follows her out the door. "What for?"

She swats at him with her tail. “You think I do all this tutoring for free?”

—

After dinner, he sees Anaht back to the University grounds and makes his way to Luther’s boarding house. Coradri is waiting for him in the common room, bouncing off the walls in her effort to rush him right back out the door.

“Good, you’re already dressed for dinner,” she says, breathless. “We have to get to the Tiber Septim Hotel now.”

“I just fucking— the Tiber? Are you trying to bleed me dry?” He lets himself be towed down the street, then digs in his heels. “The plaza district’s the other way, s’wit.”

“Ugh! This city is so big and stupid,” Coradri says with some venom, and steers him in the opposite direction. “Listen, it’s almost ninth bell and we have to hurry. I might have agreed to a private audience with the High Chancellor on your behalf.”

“It better be on his drake, then.” He looks askance at her— dressed in a billowy silk tunic, soft buckskin trousers, and an embroidered vest. “I see you’ve been helping yourself to my purse.”

“I knew you wouldn’t mind.” She dips into a little curtsy. “Can’t show up dressed like some Colovian poacher, can I?”

“You look nice,” he admits grudgingly, and they pass through the gates of the Talos Plaza district.

This part of the city is far more palatial than the Elven Gardens, where they have taken up residence for the past several weeks. The people who stroll the streets are aristocrats by their dress and bearing, and the ancient Ayleid architecture has been well-maintained.

Coradri walks into the sumptuous hotel as if she does this sort of thing all the time. The host identifies them as the Chancellor’s guests, and leads them away from the common dining room to a private balcony overlooking the square.

“Good sir. My lady.” The host drops into a deep bow. “Chancellor Ocato sent a page ahead to inform us that he has been delayed in Council deliberations, but will arrive shortly. He has requested that we bring out the first course while you wait, and a bottle of his favored wine— Tamika’s 415 vintage.”

A serving boy lays out plates of charred fennel and horse carpaccio. The host presents the bottle laid across her arm, then pops the cork in one deft motion and offers it to Tanis.

He takes it, baffled. The porter beams expectantly at him. “Ah, thanks,” he says. “That’ll… be all.”

Coradri erupts into laughter once the servers leave. “You’re supposed to sniff the cork.”

“How d’you know things like that?” Tanis rubs at his temples and stares at the spread before them. “Damn you, scribling. I split a slaughterfish pie with Anaht just before you dragged me here.”

“Tough luck,” Coradri says through a mouthful. “Have at the wine, then. I don’t want any.”

“And I’m already drunk,” he sighs, and pours himself a mug.

“You won’t have to talk much. You were too busy with your studies, so I went to the Elder Council without you. Waved Jauffre’s writ around a lot. Said I was a real Blade. Told them about Brother Martin, even. They won’t send us any legionnaires, I already know that, but I’m not giving up.”

“Fuck me.” Tanis takes a long drink. The wine— there is no other way he can put it— tastes expensive. It blooms at the back of his throat, deep and rich and mellow. “At least the wine’s good.”

“So’s the food,” she says, and reaches for another slice of horsemeat. “I’ve never had anything like this.”

Despite himself, he samples a bite from each platter. “Tell you what, let’s make a pact: after we win the priest his throne, may we never piss him off. Once I see how they live in the White-Gold Tower, I won’t want to go back.”

“Arensha,” she grins. “Do you think we’ll leave for the temple soon?”

“Ah… Raminus wants me to check in on some researchers. They’re excavating a ruin near Cheydinhal. But I can probably slip off after that. We could go there, take the Blue Road back. You getting bored while I’m playing at being a scholar?”

“No. I find plenty to do in this big, stupid city.” She props her chin on her hand and gives him a searching look. “But I miss Brother Martin. Don’t you?”

Tanis narrowly avoids choking on his wine. Just then, Ocato sweeps in, with a trail of attendants behind him, and burbles out apologies while dismissing his retinue with a wave.

The second course, a creamed nettle soup, arrives on the table just as the wizened, willowy Altmer settles into his seat. He greets them graciously and calls for more wine.

Tanis learned his etiquette from frequenting Cyrod merchants; whether it's tea or a full banquet, negotiation will not commence until all parties have sated themselves. Ocato makes polite conversation about the city’s various pleasure gardens and noteworthy watering holes, with Coradri’s occasional interjections to egg him on.

When the final course is cleared— a good two hours later— the real discussion begins. Ocato tents his fingers and looks to Coradri.

“I’ve kept you quite long,” he says, “but of course you didn’t come to the city to drink wine and listen to me blather on, so perhaps we can discuss the matter at hand.”

“Of course we can,” Coradri says. “And I hope the Chancellor will forgive us bringing him out so late, after working so tirelessly in the Council chambers.”

Tanis takes a long draught of wine to stifle a snort. Where does she get this shit?

“Nothing to forgive, of course,” Ocato says with a stately nod. "Your pleas before the Council haven't fallen on hard hearts, I hope you understand."

“The legion can’t be spared, I know, but of course the Chancellor agrees that the safety of the heir is important.”

“The utmost,” Ocato says gravely. “And of course I see the urgency of your request, but the generals simply will not divert the Legion.” He leans in and speaks lowly. “It’s no secret that the ranks have thinned since this crisis began. The Imperial Army has already pulled forces from the provinces, and that may yet cost us. Word has reached us of gates as far-flung as Black Marsh and Skyrim.”

“Of course we understand,” Coradri says. “I mean no insult to the Empire, Chancellor, but Irathi here is a legion in one. Six gates opened outside the cities, you’ll remember, and he closed each of them alone.”

Tanis opens his mouth to protest— Coradri had been with him outside Chorrol and Skingrad— but she stomps on the toe of his boot, the universal sign to shut the fuck up.

“Many of the counts and countesses have written to the Council of your deeds.” Ocato nods in Tanis’s direction. “And of course the whole of Cyrodiil is grateful for your protection. Quite a feat for one man alone.”

“In some ways, it makes him more effective,” Coradri says. “Irathi can move independently. Of course the Elder Council would have responded, we all believe that, but I imagine it would take some time to move enough forces to all six cities?”

“Of course,” Ocato agrees, then shakes his head. “With fourteen of us, the deliberations can go on for— well, I don’t have to tell you, do I? Once again, I do hope you can forgive my late arrival.”

“Of course we do,” Coradri says. “We wait at the Chancellor’s pleasure. The Mythic Dawn may not do the same, but no harm will come to the heir so long as Bruma is defended. And the Hero of Kvatch” —she gestures grandly to Tanis— “is the future Emperor’s own sworn sword.”

“You are the Hero of Kvatch?” Ocato’s eyebrows shoot near up to his hairline. “Of course! Who else could withstand such a trial? Then the Empire has you to thank not only for the security of its cities, but for its heir.”

With his hands under the table, Tanis has been counting off on his fingers. If they say it one more time, he’ll have a perfect round dozen. He likes his lucky numbers.

“Of course,” Ocato says thoughtfully, “as emissaries of the Blades, the council could grant you substantial resources in the army’s stead.”

“As an emissary of the Blades,” Coradri says smoothly, “I can assure you we would put them to good use.”

Ocato clasps his hands together. “It may take some doing— you’ve seen how the Council sessions can drag on— but consider it done. And I expect the Imperial battlemages would be quite interested to know how one man has come to run courses around them.”

A silence falls. Ocato regards Tanis with keen eyes, and Coradri gives him a small secretive smile.

“You… want me to tell you how I close the gates.”

“How you survive them,” Ocato says with a sudden fervor. “How you manage it alone.”

Gold— that’s what Ocato means by substantial resources. Enough for arms, for mounts, for mercenaries, and all he has to do is get to the other end of a story.

Tanis spreads his hands. “Of course.”

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

Hi! So I feel like there's a lot of really great fics that have gone under the radar in the RWRB fandom, so to try to spread some love to those fics and their authors I want to recommend five fics under 500 kudos (as of posting this)! Also hoping to inspire some others to share.

In no particular order:

Sharper Head, Wilder Heart by Dawg1515: a canon-divergence fic where Alex is trans but not out, and the Queen decides to arrange a relationship between Henry and the First "Daughter." This author also has some other great trans RWRB fics.

As the World Falls Down by 3bowtruckles: another canon-divergence that imagines RWRB if it had happened in Covid times

i don't wanna be alone (so don't you get lost) by @saltfics: one-shot, monster apocalypse AU, Alex and Henry are still FSOTUS and Prince of Wales

Crowning Glory by schmulte: Princess Diaries 2 AU, need I say more? Also this author co-wrote a fabulous Bridgerton AU.

Here Comes the Sun by bibliosoph: Alex and Henry in NYC in 1969, for anyone who loves historical AUs. This is probably one of my all-time favorite fics and I can't believe it has less than 200 kudos.

I don't know/couldn't find the usernames for some of these authors but if people know them let me know and I'll edit this!

Encouraging @inexplicablymine @read-and-write- @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @suseagull04 @daisymae-12 (five people for five recs lol) to share some recs because I know y'all must have some fics you think deserve more love, but no pressure :) also anyone else who sees this!!

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Made Marion June Development Update: Schedule Edition, Straight Talk

[I decided to post our June dev update early, because I have some difficult things to say, but I hope this will get us all on the same page about what's happened with Made Marion since our Kickstarter.]

Hi everyone! I've decided to check in early with a report on our development schedule and some straight talk on some tough stuff. I hope this will help us all get on the same page and be excited instead of worried about Made Marion's development process.

First of all, thank you all so much for your magnificent patience and concern! This is definitely not how I wanted Made Marion's development to go or how it would have gone if things were still the way they were for our team back when we ran our Kickstarter. We have been seriously kicked in the teeth repeatedly, and I'd like to offer a better explanation and our proposed solutions and revised schedule.

I'm also sorry for the lack of pretty pictures this month!  There will be many available very soon when Robin's beta test is ready to go!

The Problems:

1. As of fall 2021, things were going pretty well! We'd just run a beta for Made Marion's prologue and my route outlines were shaping up nicely. Then things began to go wrong. I had some issues at home that took up my attention, and then my darn town flooded. Drat it, ok, lost a couple months, but we can get back on track in 2022...

2. Then 2022, for various reasons was a disaster for pretty much our entire team (I'm only going to talk about my problems here, because those are the ones it is mine to share). It ended up being basically a wash for development. Why wasn't that obvious from our development updates? Because of my brain. I contracted Covid in January of 2022 and a few weeks later, the Long Covid symptoms started. I was near-narcoleptic for several months. It was scary and embarrassing and I didn't know how to talk about it. So I was as positive as I could be. Around May, my body started to recover. I was able to live more normally and I figured that meant I could get back to development.

What I didn't know and couldn't effectively communicate was that the brain fog was still there. I was writing, but not in a straight line. I wrote scenes for all the love interests here and there, scribbled a bunch in my notebooks, but a full, logical route for Robin wasn't happening. And the problem with your brain not working right is that it's very difficult to understand that your brain isn't working right. I thought things were cool! So it appeared that I wasn't being honest about the status of development without me realizing it did or even fully understanding that development wasn't going well. I'm very sorry about that.

3. Around November of 2022 my brain started working better again, but I was demoralized and felt like I'd forgotten how to write. I "eased" myself back into writing with a huge fic, along with finally getting back to putting words together for Robin. I wrote words!  Lots of words!  Good words!  Yeah!  We pulled together as a team and got our enhanced demo out, which was a lot of work but was super exciting.

4. Feeling guilty about the wash that was 2022 and excited because of how much verbiage I'd put out, I created an ambitious schedule toward an Early Access release of all the Sherwood routes this fall. It was based on the amount of words I'd been putting out, so I was convinced it was doable. Some of you wrote in to Tumblr with concerns that it was overly ambitious. You were wonderful and primarily concerned for my well-being. You were also correct.

The Solutions:

1. I need to accept that I have a disabling condition that currently has no cure and that, although it has greatly improved since last year, means that I can't always work at my peak capacity. This is super tough for a high achiever with general anxiety. I hate even talking about it, but I want to be as transparent with y'all as I can be.

2. The schedule: I still wish to keep a relatively ambitious target schedule for the remainder of development. I think it is helping us all Get Shit Done(tm). I just need to be a little less ambitious. I still plan to release Early Access this fall and I'm still hoping for October (which was always tentative), but November may be more realistic. It depends on how well my body and mind cooperate over the summer, and on the individual situations of our artists. Early Access will launch with Robin and Will's routes. John is going to need to take more time. It will be worth it, because he will get the full attention and care that his wonderful self deserves.

3. The weekly mini-dev updates: I have started posting mini-dev updates on Mondays on Tumblr. This is the place to go if you want a more granular report of the progress we've been making, and I think they're going to be very helpful for maintaining clarity and helping keep us all on-task.

4. Beta: I have more detailed information about Beta in the Kickstarter version of this update.

Conclusion:

Looking back from here, our original release date estimate from Kickstarter was too ambitious even under ideal circumstances. That was my development inexperience speaking. The rest was a lot of IRL horribleness. However, the gang is back together now, and the game is now, actually, truly, progressing nicely once more. Going forward, I'll be able to post much more concrete progress and I think doing so as I write each route is a better choice than posting a bunch of specific completion dates that we may not meet. You'll be able to see our progress as it happens instead.

Notes and Goodies:

Robin's new expressions are in!  I love the way he turned out and Arrapso (a fellow perfectionist, err, high achiever) seems happier with him now as well.  Awesome!  I will post some previews on Tumblr soon, once I have coded a few of the new expressions into the game client.

John's role-playing choice has been re-configured a bit. I was previously calling it "conflict or compromise," but I was getting stuck on the "conflict" part because I didn't want Marion and John to be fighting all the time if you made those choices. It didn't seem like fun, or particularly in-character for John. I am now calling it "challenge or compromise."  Because John is kind and wonderful and protective but is also traumatized and stubborn and overprotective. Sometimes he needs to be challenged, and it won't always lead to an argument. I think this makes for more interesting choices and for John to have more room to be John.

I coded in Will's first use of his genuine smile expression (you get to confront him about his attitude early on in Robin's route) and am happy to report that it is SUPER EFFECTIVE.

For any of you Ren'py devs out there, I continue to evangelize matrixcolor.  It's relatively new, but you should absolutely check out what it can do. Previously, I used it to tint our characters a bit so they blended in better with evening and night backgrounds.  I also used it to sepia-tone memory sequences.  I've now used it to make images slowly disappear via transparency and turn our blood animation green instead of red for... spoiler purposes.  It is so easy and flexible, you should absolutely play with it!

I'll be reporting in later this month on our Beta test status!

[memberment]

The End Is Near

I'm sorry, but having running gags across my fics is so fucking funny to me. Like I think this is the third fic I've mentioned NO ONE wanting to get Clyde started on the topic of vampires since I first thought about it and it has made me laugh every single time.

I have another three where it is implied in some way shape or form that Bebe literally drives like a fucking lunatic (and does it well) b/c she loves NASCAR or wanted to be a NASCAR driver in some way shape or form (this spawned from a phoned in joke in Tweek's version of guide)

AND THERE ARE SO MANY OTHERS BUT LIKE THESE TWO MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD. (I'm thinking about this bc I'm working on the end and I have just implemented the gag of Clyde not shutting the fuck up about vampires (Tolkien and Craig are both annoyed by this.) LMFAO)

Anyways I'm 15.6k into book 3. Craig's chapter might be ridiculously long, but I am not giving him two LMFAOOO.

1:35 guys I'm doing something fucking insane rn LMFAO

3:42 okay, I just finished doing the insane thing. Do you guys wanna know how many words I wrote, in this the month of August 2024??

128,607.

This does not include minor edits, notes, or anything not SP related. IT HAS JUST BECOME AUGUST 20TH. I HAVE WRITTEN 770 WORDS SINCE MIDNIGHT. I'm laughing so fucking hard. Anyways. Decided I'm gonna be posting a monthly wrap up that's gonna have everything I've written the entire month. If I knew I was gonna be on AO3 longer than seven fanfics, I would've been doing this, but live and learn, right? Idk what I'm gonna post it on though bc that would abs fuck my word count LMFAOOOOOOO. Also ao3 posts only allow 500k characters, this single doc that contains 19 days plus four hours has 708240.

Maybe I'll just drop the link somewhere. This is literally insane behavior. BUT I ALREADY CAME THIS FAR LIKE I NEED TO SHARE THIS LMFAOOOOO

Anyways now I'm rereading Genesis bc I can't pick a fucking project so Genesis updates may or may not be here. Also, I am starting to wonder at what point does something go for horror elements to straight up horror. Because I fear I have definitely breached into horror territory with that one. LMFAO. Also I'm probably posting Tammy's chapter early because honestly I want these fucking intros out of the way SO I CAN GET TO THE STORY LIKE NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THEY'RE DRIVING ME INSANE. WE NEED TO BE ON CHAPTER THIRTEEN LIKE YESTERDAY. OR FOURTEEN. OR 25-26. screams.

I'm laughing. Here y'all go. It's 253 pages rn. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1inE_K8XDazRiUoTgNz2CtBOBp9kkdDk8yBzU8s444lo/edit?pli=1

NEVER FUCKING MIND IT GOT DELETED WOW LMFAOOOOOO

I JUST STRESS DOWLOADED LIKE ALL MY FICS BC IDK WTF JUST HAPPENED LMFAOOOO WOW THAT WAS SO RUDE

I HAVE A BACKUP BUT NOW I'M AFRAID TO POST IT LIKE WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TF

(4:59) I figured out how I'm doing this LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

alright I'm not doing it all at once though bc if I get flagged on here I'm gonna start TWEAKINGGG

but it's happening LMAO

6:27 there is now a Tumblr account with everything I have written so far for the month of august. One of the posts is literally the size of 45 pages worth of google docs. HERE YALL GO.

anyways I'm going back to being insane and rereading genesis goodbye

[that-tall-queer-bassist]

My Favorite Works From 2023

Hello!! These are some of my favorite works (fanfics or fan poetry) that i wrote this past year!

Consider this an author wrap up XD

Lovebird 

A Smalletho (Joel/Etho) Limited Life AU, with a bit of angst and a lot of fluff, featuring Love, the chicken.

This fic was a long time coming, and honestly? It was just so fun to work on, and I enjoyed every reread I did for editing. This is one of those fics where I just love the concept I came up with, and I think I executed it well!

"That sounds wonderful."

An Oli TheOrionSound/Joe Hills fic, set in my Spectators AU!

This AU is one of my favorites, and this ship was very fun to write! Oli and Joe are such characters and i love them dearly. I also love that os many people thought that the au was cute! I was not expecting as much positive feedback as I got and i'm very grateful for it ^-^

Everyone Knows He Has A Bad Memory

A poem inspired by with the time they had by my lovely friend @blocksruinedme (which you should totally read, i love it so much)

I wrote this before Vee had even posted the inspiring fic, and to this day it's one of my favorite poems that i've ever written. I liek the pacing, and the details, and the recurring line- i'm such a sucker for a recurring line, y'all have no idea. Overall I had fun with it, it made Vee smile, and I got to share my love of "with the time they had" with the world

It's never over with you, isn't it? 

A gift fic for @tiredfoxtf inspired by this artwork of theirs, and with a counterpart from my beloved @giddyfenix who wrote One touch away from going insane

I had so much fun working with Fénix on this, it's one of the only collaborative projects I've done in fandom, and honestly it was just a blast. I really enjoyed matching up those little details with him, and he just made the whole process so fun, i'm truly so grateful that we decided to do this together ^-^

Colors

A short poem about the colors of SmallEtho through Double Life!

I think I used imagery to convey a shifting in perspective, in their lives and relationship well, and im proud of how few words I needed to convey what I did. a whopping 67 words, and yet it still managed to hit people hard.

I'm very proud to have so much to show for my work this year, and Im looking forward to another amazing year with y'all, so here's to 2024!!

[shadowdianne]

Twenty questions for fic writers

(I guess I still am that xd let's see)

thank you for the tag love @waknatious

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Uhhh, this one will always be tricky lol; not every fic I ever wrote is on a03 as I did a lot of posting here that I considered too short to be posted back in a03 -i bothered y'all enough whenever I posted the fic batches there with those fics that were longer than... I think my inner rule was 1k?- so even if in reality I think the total sum between my two pseuds is close to 500 and something some of the old fics got deleted when i cleaned up shop and then there are more that are somewhat lost in here. So, let's just say that I have a ton of those visible on a03 and there's a bunch more that are, as my name suggests, in the shadows :P

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Again, tricky question xd But working with the numbers I currently can see and are visible for those that would want to check... 1,259,402 That doesn't sound right. heh *shrugs*

Edit: Ah, I think the reason why the number sounds weird is because the last time I did this question I still had like 15 or so I've ever since deleted. Plus some others so, again, the number is decieving.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

*Slight correction; wrote for* majority would be SQ as we know. Sprinkled with a little bit of SC, Shannara Chronicles, Rizzles... but the main ship and therefore fandom was SQ

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I've decided to not look into those stats xD Sorry. Last time i got this ask I did it and it only reinforced the little burn out gnome of how I wasn't good enough; my works were read and I was requested prompts long enough to know I was somewhat liked on some obscure basis but I never had that much luck on the kudos department. I believe that the fics at the time I last checked were SC, maaaybe Sabrina (?) -the one vaguely smutty pertaining Madame Zelda was uploaded there I believe(????) so it might have been that one, and some other one that wasn't about the main ship I wrote for. (the 100 one maybe?)

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

Back when I wrote and posted I did, yes. If at some point I missed a comment it might have been because I was swamped at the time with uni and work and I might have been far too focused on getting out the next prompt batch I was working on at the time but 99% of the time I responded to every single comment. I appreciate the feedback aspect of fandom, be that a reblog, share, comment or kudo or whatever other form and for those that commented, i hope you know that as much as I loved to tease you and generally torment you with my purple prose, i appreciated every second spent on leaving a comment.

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

*snorts* I have a bunch. I don't remember all of them like I used to but I think that I liked the ones I did back when we were loving the concept of a Dark Swan and I kept on having both Emma and Regina battle each other in the middle of Storybrook. There are a couple in which I know I killed either Emma or Regina in a very fantastical way :P Oh, and then there's the one I did with... was it Emma? Dying at the hospital. One that was an answer to Del's prompt that I decided to focus on the whole concept of the hospital bed. I think that one, for a variety of reasons, is the angstiest in terms of how it was thought off and written.

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

Uh. I honestly don't think I have a factual answer there; my fics were always written as sort of small windows into the worlds presented on them. As I never quite did long format fics there was never a real "true" ending there. Dunno, does anyone remember what would they consider a happy ending from me? xd

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did. Back when I wrote I always had a couple of trolls floating around on my tumblr inbox. I also had a couple more on the comment section but the main place was always tumblr. I sometimes shared the asks but I tended to erase the majority of them as soon as I saw them. The reason behind those asks is unfathomable to me but.... anyway xd I think i've written enough posts about how i felt about those lol.

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

*snorts, again* I tend to focus on teasing. Or, I did. I think I will always prefer the concept of leaving as much as possible of the actual sexual act to the mind of the reader and just put the... frame of it if you will. I'e written pwp tho, small snippets here and there -and words of desire, that series in where i solely wrote a smutty scene based on the words I got sent- I enjoy the process of writing something that is about feelings and how can those be explored and heightened based on the scenario and situation but I always prefered, again, to be a tease about it xd

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

The only fic I've written that I think would constitute as a crossover would be the Lara Croft and Wonder Woman one. It was mostly a joke but I had fun with it. However, whereas I don't mind reading crossovers I always tended to stay away from them (Not AUs based on some other IPs tho, that's different xd). The main logic behind it was that I'm, first and foremost, worldbuild based so if I wanted to create a logical explanation for x, y, or z that alone would eat up a lot of the story itself. And I prided myself on being able to write stories under 2k or less soooooo....

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yup! But some minor ones in some of those sites that the whole thing was scrapped, comments and all and you got notified through fb groups xd Considering I've been MIA for so long I doubt anything has gotte since.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I got asked a couple of times and gave my consent to one once but I think it never went anywhere,

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

I've collaborated with other fic writers ^^ (@stregaomega for example was and will always be the very fucking best) and it was awesome! But I tended to move more in the -I write one chapter and you do the next one and then I answer to that other one...- kind of scenario.

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

SQ for writing I guess!

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

I wrote the end of almost all of the fics that I left unfinished by the time I went byebye on the whole thing but then my fantastic burn out considered the -even today I think is quite valid- angle on how "it's been long enough since I started them so no one will want to read those." I scrapped almost all of them. I think I'll always get slightly sad about not finishing a bunch of the AU's tho. The Ministry of Hidden Stories series for example! I always loved a good Steampunk. And that other one in which Regina was basically Queen Mab. The name is eluding me. Drat. Well, that one. I had like 80 or something pages on the continuation of that one. But, *points at the beginning of this* welp.

16. What are your writing strengths?

(Also, thanks W for the acknowledgment there lol; I always wanted for the description to feel 'real' <3) As I always said; I don't think I had any. But it's true that I always enjoyed much more the in-between as W has said in her own answer there xd The descriptive moments, the movement of the character, the way they are behaving and the words they are not saying. I always found that dialogue was... harder to keep OC or to the point enough to be engaging but focusing on what one is saying and what another one is understanding based on the way they perceive the world was way much more interesting. Which resulted in loooong descriptive paragraphs lol.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

*sighs* Dialogues.

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

Uhm xd As someone that speaks more than two languages and has written stories in their mother tongue as well as a bunch on others.... I think I'm not entirely against doing it but I don't think it's that easy to convey a true relationship with being able to speak in more than one language. It's often used as a way of informing the reader -or in pwp bc, yknow, hot- but the linguistic side of my brain will always be at odds with that in some way xd I'm basically all for it but I think that there are ways in where it can be a little bit clunky; depending on how it's presented.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I always doubt between Bellice (Bella and Alice from Twilight) and some lost Glee fic. And there were some from Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura... I think that the very first one you can find under my pseud is a Bellice one tho so let's stick with that.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Not the best but I'll always pick Metallic Ink for that question. I really had fun with the worldbuilding there and will always hate that I run out of time to basically write more for it as it was a SuperNova fic.

--

It's far too late right now to do a proper tag so I'll leave this here and return tomorrow and tag anyone I find :P

[the-nameless-wacky-inventor]

💘🌻🎈📡☯️🪄(I had such a hard time choose XD) for the fanfic ask!

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

Like all of my old works but specifically Shooting at Myself and the Mad Ducktor Thingie. I haven't read them in a while but Ik they need a good looking at. XD They're still my top DT fics tho, so I assume it's not as bad as I'm thinking. XD

🌻what makes you want to give up on writing? what makes you keep going?

I don't know if I've ever purposefully given up on a fic or wanted to give up on writing altogether. Usually with fics it's just a sudden realization that I haven't touched my WIP in like three months, and as for wanting to quite writing altogether it's just like.... what else am I supposed to do with my day then?? XD

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

Oh I have no idea... succinct, maybe? Unless I don't want it to be, then I can go on forever about something. XD I'd say it's pretty fixed. XD Ik there's a few fics where the writing feels a little different somehow (Can't You Tell feels like that for some reason), but it's pretty much the same.

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

Idk! Ig I've never thought about what the fandom specifically gets out of it, it's more like what do I get out of it by the validation I get when people like it sslkjfsldkjd XD

☯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

It lets people share their ideas!! The whole reason I got an ao3 and tumblr was specifically so I could have input in the fandom and be able to show y'all the stuff I'd written. I'd been writing a lot before I got one, and finally I just decided I wanted to show it to everyone. XD I usually try to leave small encouraging comments on things when I have time, and I've found that reblogs are a very fun way to interact as well. Watch me tag an artist's post with ten keysmashes and then make a friend 'cause they appreciated that. XD

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

Usually for bigger fics it's just take a break. XD I love writing, but oftentimes finishing a giant one (Welcome to the Madhouse comes to mind first, actually- that was 50k words I wrote in a month) I'll let myself not feel bad if it's taken me a week or so to get back to writing. Looking back through my posting dates, I finished Where's My Mind in September and only have one other fic (that was like 2k words) that I put out that month. Which is pretty slow for me.

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

Hi my love

💝💌💘

Z, my darling!

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

I have to talk about My Hand Was The One You Reached For here, my first ever TLOU fic. The response to it? INSANE. I came here from a fandom where, especially recently, stuff about a father-daughter relationship wasn't getting much traction, so since I was used to a small response, I wasn't really expecting anything. I first made a Tumblr post about it, again, not expecting more than a handful of notes. After all I'm a fandom newbie who only came here because of the show, I knew close to nothing about the game. And then the post got thousands of notes in a matter of hours. People were dropping their own fics in the reblogs!!! I dropped mine on ao3 and it got more kudos & comments in a single day than my most recent Titans fics got in months!!! That never happened to me before. I've had popular fics but never to this extent, never so fast. So I was absolutely blown away. Thank you guys for welcoming me so kindly 🥹

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Since I'm currently splitting my writing time between two fandoms, right now I don't have anything started for The Last of Us, but I can list the ideas I will be working on once I'm done working on my Titans ideas.

Ellie forgives Joel by writing a song about it, based on Back to December by Taylor Swift - but before I get to that I want to watch the gameplay of tlou2 and torture myself since I don't know the full story. For science.

Ellie overhears the word "adoption" at school and asks Joel to explain it to her.

Another dancing fic, something based in Jackson, though I don't have a clear picture of it yet. Although I'm thinking about the kitchen. You know, another T Swift lyrics, dancing in the refrigerator light.

As for Titans, I'm currently in the process of writing the last two chapters of my newest multi-chapter Acrida, which is a time travel fic that can cause you a baby fever 🤭 but come on, which fictional father we all know and love would pass on a chance to go back in time and get to know his adopted kid when they were just a tiny little baby? There's some angst though, I actually wrote the heaviest scene today and I spent a good ten minutes crying. But I'll be keeping that under wraps and instead share something sweet.

The snowflakes falling around them became bigger. Few of them settled on his hair, one dropping right onto his nose and that was a game changer; Rachel's eyes grew round like dinner plates, lips forming a tiny ooh as she swatted at it with her hand.

"What's that?" Dick gasped, his eyes as wide as hers. "Snow? You like snow?"

She blinked at him a few times, entranced by the sound of his voice. Then she broke into a giggle, twisting in his arms as she laughed.

Dick tucked her closer to himself, laughing as well. She was the sweetest child, her sparkling personality already shining through, and her baby laugh could easily have the power to clear the sky off the heaviest clouds.

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

I once had this thought to rewrite my earliest fics because reading them made me cringe and I know I would have done them better now when I'm more experienced. But I decided against it because it shows the progress I've made as a writer, how much I've actually learned. So they'll stay cringe. If y'all want to binge my fics, start from the bottom so they get better instead of getting worse lol 😂

There's one though, where I only realized the issue recently. There's this collab AU fic for Titans I wrote with a friend. Huge thing, our best work to date, HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING (shameless self promo but fuck it we ballin) it's called Wicked Game. Recently, we started developing a sequel. Nothing written yet, only brainstorming and exchanging notes for now, but I realized recently that damn we really fucking put ourselves into a corner with that epilogue 🫣🤭

[shivunin]

Happy anniversary to me and AO3!!

Here is the aforementioned more coherent post. I have divided it in two parts: a little note and a silly and self-indulgent section (affectionate) where I give some of my fics fun lil superlatives. I'll add a couple little factoids to the latter section, too, just for giggles.

But before all that: I'm not gonna get emotional this time, but I have greatly enjoyed writing Dragon Age fic. I told myself three things when I started, all of them comically incorrect now ("I'm only writing this one story," "I will never write a soulmate AU," and "I will never write a DA2 story; no way could I ever hold a candle to what already exists") and I am so, so glad I was wrong on all counts. I have grown so much as a writer because of fic and I have met some genuinely remarkable people. If you have ever commented, written something in the tags, kudo'd, or bookmarked anything I've written (and especially if you have ever sent me a writing prompt, bless you), from the bottom of my heart: thank you. It has been genuinely incredible to share my love of this series with y'all, and I can only hope you have felt as glad of the experience as I have.

That's really all you need to know---that I'm glad to know you, in whatever sense that means. Thanks for sticking around c:

(and thanks to Cullen for scrambling my brain so thoroughly that I am still doing this a year later when I swore it was just going to be the one story lol)

Anyways! (she says, setting up the cake and candles and kazoos even though the room is otherwise empty)---

I was thinking about what to do for this anniversary that only I am keeping track of, and I decided (because of a trip I took when I was sixteen, which I originally recounted here, but which has no bearing on any of this so I cut it) that it would be funny to give my fics their own imaginary certificates. You know, like participation trophies. For my own entertainment (only a few though; there are twenty-three of them, and that's too many awards). Awards follow:

Best Punch: Your Fate for Mine; after I finished Trespasser the first time, I really wanted to deck Solas, so I let Cullen do it for me. It's the best one because it was the most satisfying to write C: (fun fact also: bless him, my husband proofread all the smut in this fic for accuracy lmao. special side award to my husband for being the best)

Best Kiss: Wander the Drifting Roads; nothing has yet felt as satisfying to me as Emma and Cullen kissing in the rain after all that time. I think about it Often. Also I wrote the first draft of this fic in roughly a week and a half---which is why it needed so much editing later :)

Most Persistent: To the Bone; because I swear to whatever higher power is out there, I tried so hard not to write a soulmate story but Salshira would not be stopped. In the end, I couldn't let the idea go and well, here we are.

Specialest Baby: Tidal Lock; because it is my special baby and the first fic I ever completed. I have a soft spot for it, and oddly enough it has the highest kudos: bookmarks ratio of my works at over half. It was extremely fun to write Cullen as a kid (he is soooo serious) and (for me) there's such a pleasant full-circle element to the narrative.

Best Smut: More than Memory; this one is my imaginary people's choice award, since it was received far and away the best of any smut I've written. I think, and it's just my intuition here, that it's on account of all the yearning. But maybe it's actually cus Cullen is, as always, a hot, hot mess C:

Hyperfocus Award: This one's a tie between Misericordia and Saccharine. As soon as I knew what to write for both of them, I achieved that beautiful state of not noticing the passage of time, anyone around me, the existence of my physical body, nor any of my pressing irl tasks. I wrote both of these in a delightful fog and then came back to it later as if seeing it for the first time. Extremely nice experience, 10/10, would recommend.

Blue Ribbon, Gold Star: A Golden Bell Hung In My Heart; this one gets a special extra award because I think it's probably the best thing I've written so far (at least from a technical standpoint, but it has a lot of my favorite elements, as well). It's one of the few for which I knew what I was trying to write when I set out to write it, and I think I achieved it unequivocally. Also, you know. Presents :)

Tumblr Ficlet Award: lol I am not picking only one. Here're my top three ficlets, based on how pleased with myself I felt when I initially typed them out: Lock and Key (I loooooove a good hurt/comfort), A Fool and His Gold (love yearning, too), and A Bond Beheld (because it includes that knight/liege thing that makes the Cullen romance so!!!).

For posterity: Unless I finish this short fenris/hawke piece open in the other tab, my final word count last year is 516,937 which is....a shocking amount. I probably won't surpass that this year, which is fine. I had no idea I had at least 450,000 words to say about Cullen, but hey, here we are.

That's it for this year---and I have no idea if I'll do this again next year---but thanks if you've read this far! I really wanted an excuse to think back on what I've written this year and have a little laugh to myself :) Have a good Thursday and...yeah. Thanks for reading!

[electrospherevaults]

Since we are halfway through the year, and halfway through all the Fridays of the year, I've decided to push back the upcoming short and do a little self-assessment on what I've written thus far. This turned a bit more rambly and stream of consciousness, but feel free to read below the cut.

So, after 25 weeks, I have in total written 11 short stories, 10 of which have been published, which are largely complete and finalized! That's about 40-44% of the weeks so far with a published/written short! The most productive period was in the beginning, with a streak of 7 shorts written in a row.

There was also the participation in the SIGNALIS zine, which took a lot of time in March. I wrote two great pieces which were well liked, and I even shared them on AO3. I've also started editing the SIGNALIS fic ECHOS: The Silicon Queen, which is a really great fic y'all should read!

Then came the drought. As mentioned, March was a month devoted to the zine, so only one short story was written, which I feel disatisfied with; the ending was a bit rushed and I feel i could have worked on it further. Then, April really passed without a single story written, and May, which I had aimed to be a SIGNALIS-themed month on my writing blog, and to focus on writing Maiden on my off-time, also turned disastrous as only the pieces for the zine that I had finished back in March were published. Ngl, I'm disappointed with the output in spring, especially because the first June piece was planned a good deal early into May.

May especially felt disappointing because I had also participated in a writing marathon for the month, and I only walked away with ~12'000 words written for book 2 of the Defiler trilogy. Not a bad wordcount by any means, but when those words were produced in just the first week and then the rest was spent not writing... It kinda sucks, ngl

Alas, at least I finished the aforementioned Signalis short and published it on the first Friday of June, and I followed it up with another short in the second Friday, which I felt was really good. The third short I had begun last Friday, but I've been stuck in a rut about it; it is not coming along well enough, and needs some work. I was hoping I'd have finished it for today, but there is still no definitive ending and doesn't quite work. Worse, it seems to be getting bigger, so I am considering whether I might split it and publish it as a themed month instead.

With all that said, I have basically achieved my goal of writing one Friday short story about 44% of the time so far and I've still written a massive amount for all three books in the planned trilogy, which I cannot show. Speaking of not showing, two things that also stopped production were Tumblr going haywire on transphobia and discovering that posting my stories on Tumblr counts as self-publishing - which in turn means I cannot use those stories for competitions and submit them to literary magazines.

The latter especially has been a massive thorn on my sides, and can't lie I have not figured out some way to bridge the gap between the two. I thought that, maybe, by writing Signalis fics, I could then use my original writing to submit it online - but when output is severely lower than expected, what amounts to doubling the workload of what I was doing in the beginning in the year becomes near impossible.

So, in essence, I feel I'm in a production rut; writing itself is coming along, even though it's coming along slower than expected, but when I sit down to write a Friday short, I have to weigh internally if I should go and post this, or withhold it and consider adapting it for literary publication - which would not be as big a problem had I a job so I didn't have to think of earning an income through my writing as hard. The failure of May honestly made me reconsider about this year, and I feel I will refocus now in the remaining summer months on my neglected thesis, in an effort to get it done by September - and if I miss that deadline, finish and graduate by February next year.

As you can tell, I'm overwhelmed lol. Anygay, we forge on - the next short that started production on the 21st is (as of now) titled Empress, and if I can bring it to the finish in its current form, you can expect it next week to kick things off for July. I feel I will focus on writing shorter fiction and spend only two days max on writing a short for the challenge. There are 26 weeks left in the year, so if I could write 15 shorts more, I feel it would be a good output given the current output. Stay tuned regardless, I'll be seeing y'all around!

2024 Friday Writing Challenge Masterpost

Each Friday, at (give or take) 6:43pm (UTC+2), a new short story will be posted and shared here. Those will vary in themes and genre and worlds. Each one should be enjoyable without further prior knowledge. Enjoy!

Stories list:

Imbalance

Mostly Harmless

A Dance With My Clone

Sorry About The Inconvenience

Friends And Foes

Blossoming a wilder flower

Victory at Vineta [SIGNALIS fic]

FWD: RE: Relocation [SIGNALIS fic]

The Ocean Waves of our Home [SIGNALIS fic]

I Made You Breakfast

Coming Friday 5/7!

[To read my other stories, check here]

[blackbird-brewster]

Friday Fic Recs!

What I'm Reading:

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily - Tara/Emily - Will/JJ, WC: 87,394 Author: w00t4ewan (me)

Why I Love It: My partner and I have always loved reading aloud to each other as a way to wind down. Recently, I started reading them fanfic each night before bed and this week, we decided to start reading 'Fooled Around' together. They read it while it was being written, but sharing it together by me reading it to them has been really fun and wholesome. Although, we barely get through half a chapter before they fall asleep. So it might take a while to get through!

WIP I'm Excited About:

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 4502+ Author: ambiguousem

Why I Love It: Have you ever stumbled upon a fanfic that was SO incredibly, mind-blowingly good that after you read it, you needed to go sit on a swing in the park in the middle of the night, chain-smoking while listening to 'Mad World' on repeat? Because I sure fucking have, and this is that fic.

I just don't even know how to express how much I LOVE this fic. The author marked this as chapter 1/2 so there's still more to come and I honestly cannot wait. The writing?! The pacing!? The ANGST, oh GOD THE ANGST. I just.....wow. I literally couldn't write for about three days after reading this because I kept asking myself what was the point of writing when this masterpiece already exists?

On that note: AMBIGUOUSEM, if you happen to follow me, PLEASE, PLEASE, let me yell at you about how great your writing is. Can we be friends? Please???

What I'm Writing:

Oh god, I somehow have a handful of WIP currently and that is A Bad Idea for someone who's neurodivergence loves to start, but not finish, projects. *cries in ADHD*

That being said here are some of the main focuses I'm working on:

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 22,308

After leaving this fic on a cliff-hanger for the past seven years, I've decided to return to it so I can finally give the readers (and me) and ending! (slaps this fanfic like the hood of a car: This fic can fit an unimaginable amount of tropes in it!) So, I'm currently working my way through the original 10 chapters, tweaking and editing everything before I add new chapters!

Other Stuff I'm Writing:

Today, I'm working on a JJ/Tara smutty one-shot. It's been an idea that I've been thinking about for a while. I love Jara so fricken much, this is entirely self-indulgent. Although I know @phantomhag-666 and @gaelic-symphony are biting at the bit to read it (y'all are the real MVPs)

ICYMI: New Fics

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 8702

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 3143

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 39,104

Finally wrote a proper epilogue to this fic, which is incredibly important to both me and @otahkoapisiakii (Phoenix_Falls)

READ THE TAGS before reading!

Other Recommendations:

Past Friday Fic Recs: [Friday Fic Recs - Tumblr] || [CM Fic Recs - AO3 Collection]

Rec Lists: [JJ/Emily] || [Tara/Emily] || [CM Femslash]

My Fics: [Jemily] || [Temily] || [All]

[mahoushaymie]

Last Line Tag

Rules: Copy over the last sentence you wrote in your WIP. (Optional, tag as many people as there are words in the sentence)

Tagged by @emeraldhaze15

Surprise, it's not Sugar and Spice! Mostly because the next chapter is very much a mess atm and I don't feel confident in sharing anything from it yet. 👉👈 But I've decided to give SoS some love since I have put over 300 hours into it. There's really not much but please enjoy this lil' peek. 👀

He should start locking his door, but knowing her it would just end up being knocked down. Nothing could stop Anneliese Baker when she was on a mission. The woman was an immovable force, constantly on the move. It’s no wonder she got along so well with Fritz.

This will be Raeger-centric because I love him. It'll be a series of fics based on Ben Platt's debut album because those songs give me feelings and it's Raeger/Annie/Fritz and that's everything I'm willing to tell you. I have too many ideas and I am hoping this one comes to life.

Can't think of anyone to tag so I'll just tell y'all to have a nice day. ❤

Edit: forgot to mention this was written literally at four in the morning when I was on the brink of unconsciousness so unsure if this in particular will stay 😌

[igarbagecannoteven]

well well well! I'm curious about M, E for superhero au (another installment, not necessarily a sequel), G, S, then T and V as well! -hazel

hi there hazel! i hope you're doing well!

M: got any premises on the backburner you'd care to share? i have so many premises on the backburner it's a miracle my stove hasn't been crushed under the weight of them lol. one that i don't think i've talked about is that i'd love to write a "she loves me" au! i'm not sure if it's ever going to happen bc it'd be a longer project and also the logistics of adapting a stage musical to a fic would be tricky, but i think it could be really fun! there'd be the opportunity to have it be half epistolary fic half normal narrative which i'd *love* to do. plus it's an enemies-to-lovers story i can actually get behind and i think my dream goal is to be able to take that trope (which usually isn't my cup of tea) and write it in a palatable way in multiple fics through multiple strategies so that could also help with that project :)))

E: if you wrote a sequel(/another installment) to superhero au, what would it be about? so. not going to lie to you i've been a bit stuck on continuing this au (it's going to happen i promise i'm just not certain which direction i want to take the overall arc of the au) but! i have multiple fic ideas for it! the one involving all characters y'all have met so far is that i'd love to write a prequel of sorts that takes place when calum gets his powers for the first time and is sort of taken under ashton's wing (no pun intended lol). that's the simplest idea for a continuation i have; i'm afraid the ones revolving around malum are all rather complicated rn and i'm not certain how i'm going to go about it so i don't have hints on that front. (other than that there's probably some angst in their future, so uh sorry about that.)

G: do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? i tend to start off writing from the beginning and then things get a little haywire and writing chronologically tends to fly out the window at a certain point. it also doesn't help that i do multiple drafts, so even if the first draft was written largely from start to finish, i'm almost definitely not going to edit that way and then any scenes that get added or deleted in later drafts will have been written out of order for the most part.

S: any fandom tropes you can't resist? like, for 5sos in particular? ummm i'm not sure! i do like writing ashton as a caretaker figure which is a common trope i think, but i also really enjoy flipping that on its head as well (even though it can be a lot harder to write lol). also i'm not sure this counts as a trope but i love writing about the friendship between the different members! that's probably one of my favorite things about 5sos fic is that due to the group dynamics there tends to be solid friendships outside of a fic's main pairing and i just love friendship and writing friendship and reading friendship so much y'all.

T: any tropes you can't stand? oooohhhh yeahhh there are. lots. especially once we get down to a fandom-specific level. i won't go into all of them but my personal pet peeve (and the thing that makes me click out of fics the fastest) is when people write luke as being this really two dimensional airhead like nothing fills me with seething rage like that. it's especially frustrating when people use that as an excuse to write this character where if they were using she/her pronouns would be considered totally sexist and just straight up bad writing but because he's a guy it's "fine" and i just. hrgh. like i feel like some writers have decided that since luke dresses less along the traditional gender binary than maybe the rest of the group (if i'm using the wrong terminology plz feel free to correct me this is not my area of expertise) then they can just label him the "girl" in the relationship which is uh. problematic for multiple reasons! i've started trailing into vent territory so i'm going to shut up now and move on to the next question lol.

V: if you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose? ohhhhhhhhhhh this is a hard one! i'm pretty bad at pinpointing which styles i think i'd mesh with well so i'm just going to ignore that as a factor (unless anyone wants to perceive me and tell me who i'm most similar stylistically *eyes emoji*) ummm i have thought about how fun it would be to be able to play in the sandbox of @anxietycalling delete this transmission fic because the worldbuilding is so incredibly rich and endlessly interesting, but it'd be such a big act to follow i would never have the guts to even think about it lol.

fanfic ask game!

[ectolemonades]

Fic Writer Review

@floralflowerpower tagged me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Four!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

6,091

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Only Danny Phantom on ao3 at least, I will not reveal what past fandoms I have written fic for back in my deviantart days

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Okay considering I only have four fics I'm just gonna put them in order of kudos jwndflke

Local Barista Danny Fenton

Let's Make a Deal

What A Stupid Child

The singular prompt I managed to do for Going Angst Week

5. Which of your fic do you want more attention for?

Uhh tbh maybe Let's Make a Deal or the Going Angst Week prompt I did? LMaD was the first phic I ever wrote based on louroalka's demon au and honestly only want it to get more attention because that au is INCREDIBLE, the Going Angst Week one I'm just proud of how I wrote it even though it's really short haha

I'm really grateful for any attention my fics get tho! I know none of my fics are huge deals or anything, but I can't put into words how happy it makes me that so many people enjoyed my fic based on my Barista Danny AU!

6. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I always try to! I have a couple sitting in my inbox rn just because I'm super forgetful, but I want people to know that I'm acknowledging them and the fact that they decided to read/interact w my work means a lot to me

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Local Barista Danny Fenton because they were out of oat milk 😔✊🏼

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

I do! Back in the day The Bestie tumblr user Kateh @kirinda-ondo and I wrote some BONKERS and absolutely hilarious crossovers of stuff we were into, and we haven't really written anything lately (we kinda started plotting a rly interesting crossover tho) we have v silly conversations and crossover our favs

Not a fic tho but I did cross He-Man and DP in a doodle for Kateh's birthday yesterday because Orko and Danny would absolutely be besties and u can't change my mind

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not yet and pls be nice to me I am sensitive

10. Do you write smut? if so what kind?

I don't

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I haven't but anyone is more than welcome to!

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

Definitely back in the day w Kateh

13. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Me x Actually Allowing People To Read My Writing

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I started writing a lightly angsty ghost hunger fic at one point, I got writer's block right around when I was trying to wrap it up and edit it and tbh just haven't gotten back to it and idk if I will

I got bold w it and threw in Clockwork and Jazz and I think I gave myself anxiety on writing them in-character lmao

Love reading ghost hunger au just maybe not writing it idk

15. What are your writing strengths?

Active voice and I've been told I'm pretty good with "show, don't tell" and capturing emotions

Definitely active voice though, as a journalist that shit is drilled into my head and when I see passive voice an alarm sounds in my head even though I do not personally give that much of a shit

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Tenses, and the actually sharing it with people part gives me so much anxiety

In my creative writing class when I had to share my fiction piece (which I posted to my main blog if anyone wants to read!), I was messaging Kateh throughout my entire class/critique because I was so nervous I was on the verge of tears lmao

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's fantastic when it adds to the character or is important in some way! I feel there should definitely be some sort of research done to be sure things are being used correctly as well

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I didn't realize this question was coming up I guess I'll reveal now it was Sonic the Hedgehog back in my dA days

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably Local Barista Danny Fenton, I love telling funny work stories and it seems to have made people who read it happy!

20. What fic are you most proud of?

I really can't pick a fav because I'm really really proud of all my fics!

--

Tagging @amabsis and @omegasmileyface but y'all don't have to do it if you don't want to!!

[chamyl]

End Of Year Fic-Writer meme

This was originally an ask meme but I’ve decided I feel like talking so I’m just going to ask the questions to myself, lol 💖

What’s your personal favourite thing you wrote this year? Don't Look Now .

What’s your least favourite thing you wrote this year? BASIC .

Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write? I’m going to go with Let Sleeping Demons Lie , just because the amazing @entanglednow​ wrote 50% of it 💓💓💓

Which of your fics this year was most successful? How do you measure success, for a fic? E-rated fics get a lot more hits, but a lot less kudos/comments. M-rated fics go basically ignored. Chaptered fics get more hits, but a lower ratio of kudos/hits. F/F fics get a lot less hits. Like a lot. But the people who look for them and read them are so enthusiastic about them, it’s great. I don't know how to measure success. I guess it's a combination of how I feel about a fic + how I feel it's received. In which case it's be, again, Don’t Look Now .  Or, going by hits alone, my crack fic series takes the cake: Not That Bad When You Get Used to It .

Which of your fics do you wish was more successful? I thought First and Foremost was good, didn't get a lot of hits though, possibly because it's rated M.  But, like, I'm not entitled to people's time and attention. I write because I genuinely like doing it. And I'm happy to share, and the more feedback I get the more I’m inspired to write, but I don't obsess over numbers.

What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?  See answer below.

What’s your favourite piece of description or narration? I'm going to reply to both of these questions with the same thing: my absolute favourite has been all the stuff I'm putting in my unpublished human AU WIP. But I'm afraid that sharing will make me feel like I've accomplished something already and demotivate me. No gratification for me until I'm finished 😩

Which fic this year was most fun to write? Anything I’ve written with entanglednow, hands down. By myself, Forgiven.

If you could go back and change something about one of the fics you wrote this year, what would it be? Nothing, actually. I don't go back and edit mistakes on fics (unless they're typos, those I do edit). Not to get all Live-Love-Laugh on y'all but mistakes are useful to learn, and also to look back and see improvement. If you're deleting your mistakes you can't measure how far you've come.

What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year? I would love to say I'm going to try and take on less challenges/prompt lists and focus on free writing instead, but that'd be absolutely not true. I love structures of any kind way too much, lol.