#too many characters to tag oh dear lord

[junglefurytrash]

Finished working on my Gacha Life 2 renditions of several members of the StEx cast for future edits and artwork! Think everybody turned out really well.

Probably going to make some of the others like the Coaches and 2024 cast in the future, but that'll depend on if I make edits involving them.

Pic 1: AV Trainyard Squad. Rusty, Pearl, Greaseball, Dinah, and Caboose. Pic 2: Post-2018 Electric Squad. Elektronic, Killerwatt, Socket (2018 Wrench), Zero (2018 Volta), and Dyne (2018 Joule). Pic 3: Pre-2018 Electric Squad. Electra, Krupp, Wrench, Purse, Volta, Joule, and my OC Charge.

[mitsua]

HELLO<3 I hope you are having a great day/night and feeling awesome♡♡

Today's my birthday! So is it okay if you wrote a short fic how the birthday celebration goes for F!Reader, the brothers along with the other characters in the game included? TYSM IN ADVANCE 🤍

THANK YOUUU!! AAAH I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOUUUU!! Happy birthdayyyy!! Hope I'm not getting too late haha

Hope you like it, a little present for you it is! <3

Birthday party for you

Warnings: none Genre: fluff & comfort

Series: Obey me! SWD? Pairing: MC × OM characters

MC's . . . FEM! Words' count: 0.64k

"Favorite food?" "Ready" "Snacks?" "Ready." "Presents?" "Ready." "Decorations?" "Ready." "Birthday hats?" "...do we really need to wear them?" Leviathan asked ashamed to use something so...weird? It seemed pointless to him if everything around the living room literally had printed, pasted or decorated with big letter saying 'Happy Birthday MC'.

"Yes! I've watched all about human birthday parties and this were mentioned a lot, so shut it!" Asmodeous argued with his older brother, punching him jokingly but hurting the purple haired one truly.

"Lights off! I told Simeon to bring her here after classes, which is anytime by now" Satan ordered to Mammon, who was the one closest in charge of the music and lighting.

"Yeah yeah, there." He mumbled grumpily. You see, Mammon had tried his best to convince his brothers to be the one to get you from school to this surprise party—but just as they know him, he'd get distracted on his way here and get you anywhere but the HoL—which is why he was in such mood.

After some minutes waiting for the door to open by Lucifer, who'd been the one leading the group of angels, humans and demons to the HoL, finally the clacking and struggling of the keys fitting opening the door were heard—just as Belphegor whisper-shouted to his twin to leave the cake alone.

This of course got the rest of the brothers scared as to Beel's uncontrollable hunger hitting right on the worst moment.

"So why are ya'll accompanying us to the HoL today?" You asked ignorant of the reason.

They all exchanged glances and a couple started laughing awkwardly, only feeding your curiosity and making you tilt your head in confusion, melting some hearts until Lucifer deigned to respond, "I thought it'd be a great idea to have them come for food here today, as I've put my brothers in charge of cleaning the whole house after Beel's last rampage, I thought they could see how impeccable they've left it."

To this you giggled, it seemed like valid argument since you were present the day Beel had ran out of food because a couple of the brothers hadn't read the labeled tuppers designed for each of them and had accidentally eaten everything at the end. 'Oh, how is it that they hadn't given Lucifer grey hairs yet? ...maybe he tinted his hair in secret?'

As you got lost on your thoughts, the oldest brother opened the door fully with a light push-party poppers going off and tons of colorful lights turned on, the six missing brothers coming out of their hidings holding different items. Mammon holding a headset to give off the whole 'DJ outfit', Leviathan had a couple of gift boxes, Asmodeous was holding his phone which you supposed was recording, and Belphegor was holding Beel back from the table.

Satan was the first to come closer to you and kiss your hand gently, "happy birthday dear."

Soon enough everyone came inside and Leviathan got on a fight with Mammon to put the best playlist for the party, Luke still hugged you tightly while smiling brightly to you, congratulating you endlessly.

Solomon made a portal where many gift boxes and bags were dropped from—tagged with the names of Lord Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon and himself.

You got really emotional with the demons', angels' and human's attention towards your special day, making you spill a couple of tears when they finished half singing-half reading the happy birthday song to you and telling you to blow the cake's candles before Beelzebub did it—making all of them to worry as if you did not like their singing or what had happened.

"I've got it, but I'll wish for a little something else" you confessed grinning, returning to your normal carefree and jovial self.

'I wish to celebrate many birthdays like this in the future.'

Hope you've had a beautiful and treasurable day!

All writings' rights reserved © 2024 Mitsua. (Credit to the respective owners of the pictures and tagged anime character.) ⌇ my navigation!

[asgardianhobbit98]

Of Kings, Crowns and Love (Thorin Spring Forge 2024 Entry)

accompanying art piece by @koyunsoncizeri here!! 😭🩷🩷🩷 it's gorgeous!

Summary: Thorin hears of Rohan’s king’s death, and how his son, moving back home from Gondor, is about to be crowned the new king of Rohan. Normally, Dwarves keep themselves out of the business of men. But something is stirring in the North, something dark and evil that seems to be connected to Gundabad and the fell lands of the East... and having some extra allies is not bad (as he’s learned on his quest to retake Erebor). 

The King under the Mountain officially invites himself to the crowning of King Thengel, where he meets not just Thengel and a mysterious man called Thorongil, but also the new king’s sisters. Falling head over heels for the oldest of the two sisters, Thorin finds himself no longer on just a political mission, but also one of love. 

Fandom: The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield / original female character

Tags: everybody lives AU, Dragon Sickness, PTSD, First Love, Courting, First Kiss, Romance, Love Letters, Baking

Word Count: around 9157

Notes: I want to thank the lovely moderators from @thorinsspringforge for this event and the support they offered us all! This was so much fun :3

I also want to give a HUGE shoutout to my artist @koyunsoncizeri who created something so so beautiful (please go check out their art piece for this fic and reblog and give it love!!), which helped inspire me to keep writing when I struggled!! Their talent and kindness knows no bounds! Thank you love 🩷

AO3 link to the TSF24 collection

AO3 link to my entry but you can also read the full thing in this post

Tag list: @fizzyxcustard @middleearthpixie @glassgulls @evenstaredits @knittastically @heilith @lathalea @way-too-addicted-to-fandoms @nowandthane

Part 1: The Coronation, Interrupted

Flower petals moved through the air like a gorgeous spring rain. Puddles of colours lay on the floor already. The people must have picked clean huge fields of flowers just for this very occasion, the newly ascended King thought to himself as he stared out over the sea of colours and smiles.  

They would do such a thing too, for him. For today was a joyous and important day in the Kingdom of Rohan. Their wayward and lost prince, Thengel, had returned to take over the crown since his father’s passing. There were, in other words, not just one thing to celebrate, but two.

The crown, heavier than it looked both with burden and physical weight, rested atop his long, golden hair whilst he smiled at unknown faces that saw not him, but his father; who clapped not for him, but for their own relief at no longer being without king; who were happy not for his return, but for their own leadership not disappearing with the life of their previous king.

The colours, the beautiful sight of the petals, was all loathsome to Thengel. He had had a nice life in Gondor. Why, oh why, did his father have to die so soon? He’d hoped to die in some battle before him. But here he was, forced to take the crown because his annoying brothers had skipped town the second they heard their father was on his deathbed.

No one wanted this bloody crown, heavy as it was in so many ways… No one but potentially the faces smiling back at him now. He knew no one. He trusted even fewer people.

Aside from… Morwen. His beautiful wife, stood next to him bearing an equally as heavy crown. Yet, she seemed to carry it with ease. Her beauty, her love, her kindness… They, Thengel thought to himself, were going to be what ruled Rohan. And Morwen, his dear beloved darling, would do it too, even if she would rather spend her time with their children: Theoden and Theodis.

Just as they were going to sit down and start the feast and be one step closer to ending this dreadful day, the large doors to the hall opened. A wind gushed through the place, forcing the petals to blow away from the feasts, some falling into the large beacons of fire to shrivel into ash…

A silence fell over the hall, every gaze turned toward the doors now wide open...

Dwarves.

Uninvited Dwarves. Six of them too!

Slowly, the leader, the one and only Thorin Oakenshield, King under the Mountain, slayer of Smaug the Terrible, and defeater of Azog the Defiler, moved through the hall and up toward the thrones. He avoided all gazes sent his way, walking with intent, determined steps, and with a look on his face that was anything but kind, at least in the eyes of the humans.

“I thought Dwarves were meant to have longer beards-“ With a quick, reprimanding tug at her nephew’s shirt, Maerwyn silenced Theoden’s whispers which were far too loud to be called whispers in all honesty. She stood together with her niece and nephew to the side of the thrones, watching everything play out from the sidelines, yet with equal curiosity as Morwen and Thengel.

Maerwyn, sister to Thengel and born with the same beauty and blonde hair, had been in Gondor with her brother almost her entire life. She mourned her father quite little, having never known him. Thengel was more her father than anyone else.

Thorongil, their mutual, closest friend, stood to her side too, looking amused by Theoden’s words. As a friend and not Theoden’s family, the ranger didn’t have to reprimand the child. So he winked at Theoden, rendering Maerwyn reprimand useless, of course.

Theodis, at an age now that her mischievous brother embarrassed her as she wanted to be as graceful and grown up as her mother, glared at Theoden.  

Once the six Dwarves reached the front, they each took a bow, staying down on one knee.

“We come to pay our respects to the new King of Rohan,” Thorin spoke. He, crownless as he was (and rumor had it he never wore his crown either), had a face everyone knew. He did not have to introduce himself. And he apparently wasn’t going to either.

Maerwyn glanced to Thorongil. As the older (though he didn’t look it) and wiser out of the two, she wanted to see what his reaction was to Thorin’s own invite to the occasion. He looked suspicious, but mainly surprised. Indeed, the ranger was right to be surprised. The Dwarves, as good of an ally as they could be, weren’t known to so openly approach Men for any sort of diplomatic meeting. This… well, this was certainly a surprise.

As Thorin raised his head to speak, his gaze flickered over to Maerwyn for a split second and she felt her heart do a somersault. No one had told her that the great Thorin Oakenshield was so… handsome.

“We come bearing gifts to rekindle a friendship between their people.” The Dwarves stood, upon which two younger Dwarves and one much older rounded Thorin to bow in front of the king and queen, presenting three boxes each. “Myrr from the people of Esgaroth. An embroidered Rohirrim symbol on a tapestry from the merchants of Erebor. As well as a divine set of new bracers and a dagger from the Dwarven smithies of Erebor. You could wish for no finer equipment, I can assure you,” Thorin spoke.

Morwen smiled and graciously bowed to accept the gifts.

Thengel, however… “So you have come to rekindle something ancient, indeed.” It sounded for a second as if this was his way of dismissing the Dwarves and denying a rekindling of allyship. But then: “Welcome.” And with that, Thengel sat down, with Morwen in tow, and the people in Edoras Hall continued to cheer.

The feast was grand. Tables laced with meat, mead, cakes and everything one could have hoped for had been prepared by servants for days before this, and it all looked as perfect as they’d hoped it would turn out to be. Before long, the lutes from bards filled the Golden Hall’s entire air with joyous music. People sung, danced, drank and ate to their heart’s content. It was a merry occasion once more.

The Dwarves stayed in their corner. All apart for Thorin’s nephews, who had found their way into the crowd of Men to sing and dance alongside them with ease. They’d found Theoden and Theodis, and had danced with the little children for a while before Morwen had sent them to bed. Now they were merrymaking with the adults instead.

The older Dwarves seemed less inclined to mingle or mix with the strangers. And it showed in their way of glaring and mumbling to each other each time someone had the ‘audacity’ of glancing their way or coming a little too close to their corner.

Thengel, watching his people’s merrymaking from the sidelines with a cup of untouched mead in his hand, found it only making him distrust these Dwarves’ intentions more.

“You look troubled, my friend.” Thorongil had appeared by Thengel’s side. “As new King, you should not have those frown lines on your face just yet. Leave that for your first duties.” A joke. But Thengel was far from a joking mood.

“They want something…” he muttered quietly. His gloves squeaked as he closed one hand into a fist. “I just know it. It’s just like those nobles in Gondor, Thorongil. They want things from me because I have power.”

Thorongil didn’t react at first, simply listening to the grumbling of his old friend. “Did I want something from you?”

Thengel scoffed. “No, but you are different.”

“Perhaps they are different too?”

Thengel narrowed his eyes at them, especially Thorin Oakenshield. Maybe he didn’t don his crown, but a crown he had. A whole kingdom that looked up to him and marvelled at his power. What could he possibly want from Rohan? Nothing good… It couldn’t be anything good…

Part 2: The Feast

Moving through the crowd, Maerwyn approached the Dwarves standing in their corner of the room. Her hands cupped a chalice of red wine, but it was not the reason for her seamless movement through the crowd. They parted for her, bowing respectfully. She was now no longer the daughter of the King. She was the sister of the King. Yet, that was not the reason for people to part for her so quickly and respectfully. Her importance to the kingdom had not changed. But rather, she, herself, was put on a pedestal by all who saw her, it seemed.

This, Thorin noticed as he caught sight of the woman approaching them. Her green eyes flickered between the vessel in her hands, and him, letting Thorin know her intent. Curious, he’d watched her, long since forgetting about the conversation at hand between his fellow Dwarves. Dwalin and Ori seemed oblivious to it. Balin was not, watching Thorin and Maerwyn’s looks to each other with curious dismay.

“It’s not worth it, Thorin-“ Maerwyn had interrupted a conversation as she approached, blinking innocently at Dwalin with an unsaid apology, to which the Dwarf only glared.

There was a moment in which Dwalin wanted to push forward and place himself in front of Thorin protectively, but Thorin was quick to stop that with a single hand gesture. Instead, he stepped forward to greet Maerwyn with a bow.

Maerwyn couldn’t tell whether Thorin had done so to be kind to the sister of the King Thorin clearly wanted something from, or whether Thorin truly had meant his kind greeting.

Approaching guests was unlike her. She stayed in the background, sister to great men, daughter to Kings, doomed to be of a gender that was given little space or power in the Kingdoms of Men. Yet here she was, approaching guests of the King, her brother, without a care in the world. Confidence bloomed through her body, driven on only by the pure infatuation with this one Dwarf’s attractive face, curious whether the Dwarf’s heart might be as attractive too.

“My lady..?” Thorin asked politely.

“Maerwyn,” she replied. “King Thengel’s sister.” She curtsied politely before offering the cup she was cradling in her hands.

Thorin looked confused. She smiled. He smiled. “It is an offer of kinship and generosity to share wine from the same cup.”

“And who else has drunk from this?” Thorin asked curiously, though his voice held a little edge to it.

Maerwyn blushed. “Me.”  

Spurred on by this answer, it seemed, Thorin reached out and took a long sip, lips lingering on the cup as his eyes found hers… with intent. She watched with wide eyes, her blush gone but not because she was not feeling something. Rather, she was too surprised by the Dwarf’s obvious meaning to allow herself to feel anything-  

Then before she could say or do anything else, Thengel’s hand suddenly touched her shoulder.

She was silently goaded to leave, and so she did, her head lowered but a smile playing on her lips.

“You seem happy.” Thorongil said as he walked with her through the crowd.

Surprised he had approached her, Maerwyn nodded her head in agreement. “I’ve never met a man with such reputation.”

“Yes, reputation,” Thorongil said with a little glint to his eyes. “I am sure his reputation was what just motivated you to act.”

She blushed.

“Be careful, my lady,” Thorongil added quickly. “He is a man who has seen much, been through even more, and whose heart is darker than it seems.”

“I see darkness,” Maerwyn was quick to say, as if defending her own choices. Though, she knew, that one needn’t defend one’s choices to Thorongil. He was kinder than most: a man who had seen much and been through more. A man who, perhaps, could understand Thorin better than most. “But I don’t only see darkness. He can get out of it.”

“Few can.”

“Indeed.” Maerwyn put the cup down and gave Thorongil a pointed look. “Sometimes, with a little help, a person can do surprisingly much.”

Thorongil bowed his head. “Just be careful. You’ve only just met.”

Thengel watched Maerwyn and Thorongil walk away for a little bit before turning his gaze to Thorin. “Few dare come uninvited to a Coronation of an unallied King.”

“Yet here I am,” Thorin replied.

“Here you are…” Thengel said, pretending to ignore the three Dwarves behind Thorin tensing up, ready to step in and help. “Might we speak in private? Outside, perhaps, on the balcony?” Before Thorin could even respond, Thengel was already leading the way through the crowds. With a look back at Balin, Dwalin and Ori, Thorin offered a disgruntled look at Thengel’s behaviour, before following the new King.

The balcony was positioned to offer a view of the vast fields that made up Rohan. Hills upon hills of green grass that had sickened into a beige colour now that autumn was here.

Far, far away, the outlines of mountains surrounded them. Helm’s Deep, Thorin recalled from his studies, was somewhere there. Among many Rohirrim dark secrets one needed to pass to get to the lands of Gondor the quickest.

Thorin had to admit that the vast openness of the lands of Men made him uncomfortable. Sometimes, Thorin thought to himself, when he stepped out of Erebor, he thought the Sky would fall down on him, or that he himself would float up toward it. It was strange not to have anything above his head.

So whilst he could understand how this was a beautiful view, he didn’t quite share in admiring it the way Thengel was.

Though, something told Thorin that Thengel was merely biding his time so he could gather his thoughts and speak his mind without… offending Thorin too much. A bitterness surrounded Thengel. No man should be too overjoyed by a crown burdening their shoulders, or they would become bad kings, but this much bitterness revealed more anger than a king should have.

“You come here… uninvited,” Thengel began, repeating what he’d said earlier but with agitation in his voice. Thorin joined the man by the railing of the balcony, eyes only just managing to peak over at the view. He tried to stare at it to keep his mind at peace, to try and listen rather than see what Thengel was feeling. To anyone who might catch a glimpse of them, it didn’t look like there was any tension between the two. But oh… there was. “And you demand things of me.”

“Demand?” Thorin asked, astounded and surprised. “I merely wish for a fellowship between our people.”

“Fellowship… Wish…” Thengel grunted under his breath. “People always want things from me. It is never a courtesy call.”

“The burden of a king-“

“The burden of Thengel,” he was quick to interrupt and correct, glancing down to the Dwarf beside him. Thorin raised his chin, eyes curious, and also slightly annoyed at being cut off. “No man ever simply speaks to me. I was and will always be my father’s youngest son, destined to bring news to him of lords and ladies who did good deeds and who would like, very much, to be invited to his court. I escaped to Gondor to try and find peace. Yet it was only worse.”

Thorin understood his meaning. “And now you are back here.”

“And with only more people demanding things from me.”

“I demand nothing,” Thorin tried to reassure him. “I merely wish-“

“Wishing is the lordly way of demanding, is it not?” Thengel muttered. He turned to face Thorin, eyes crueller than they had need to be in this situation. But his trauma spoke for itself, taking control over Thengel in this moment. And quite honestly, out of everyone to understand that, Thorin would be highest on the list. His past did not come without its fair share of trauma. To remain King under the Mountain meant dealing with the Dragon Sickness that never quite faded, a constant vicarious battle between reality and his own demise. Yet, he couldn’t say anything to help Thengel.

Because Thorin’s belief was that there was no one who could help Thorin but Thorin himself. And therefore, there was no one who could help Thengel but Thengel.

“I will think on it.” Thengel interrupted what had turned into a really long silence where both Kings had stared into each other’s eyes. “But I guarantee nothing.”

Then, with a sigh, Thengel waved his hand and offered Thorin and his company a place to stay whilst they recuperated, and to enjoy the feasts and blah blah… The man was done with niceties. He was no fit for a king, but there also was no sight of any of his brothers. No one, it seemed, wanted the crown.

As Thengel left Thorin’s side, Thorin thought hard on Thengel’s words. A troubled man, indeed. But not without cause. If only Thorin had the communication skills to offer his sympathies, but he had a feeling nothing would come of it but two stubborn men butting heads. He wished, for a split second, that his dear friend Bilbo might be there by his side to do the talking for him. Alas, he was enjoying a peaceful life in the Shire, away from politics and kings.

Good.

The Hobbit deserved as much.

“He is troubled, he means no harm.” The voice surprised Thorin, who turned and watched that curious ranger who seemed to be in the shadows during this feast, yet stand beside Thengel on his throne, approach him instead on the balcony. Hands behind his back, rugged black clothes and cape hiding a toned body, Thorongil remained a mystery to Thorin.

“And who are you?” Thorin asked, his voice a little too pointed to call it a kind question.

“Thorongil is the name people seem to use.”

“Yet it is not your name?” Thorin asked with a furrow brow of annoyance. It was a normal question to ask. Why not answer it?

Thorongil stayed quiet, an amused look appearing on his face. He pretended to watch the view as well. Men really were fascinated by these green open hills, weren’t they? Thorin doubted they’d offer his halls the same admiration, as cruel as that sounded.

“How do you know Thengel?” Thorin asked instead.

“We met in Gondor. We fought together during battles at the borders of Mordor.” Thorin’s spine shivered at the mention of that foul place. “We became friends, I suppose. I never asked much of him.”

There was something in his words that made Thorin tilt his head.

“It seems to be the way to his heart,” Thorongil added. He glanced down at Thorin with a pointed look.

“You mean to tell me I should simply not ask anything of him? Have no purpose for being here? And what, leave without an allyship?”

“Your purpose would be to welcome a new king to your neighbouring realm.” Thorongil gave Thorin a pointed look. “Support will take you a long way, Thorin Oakenshield. I suggest, for now…” Thorongil turned to glance over his shoulder. When Thorin did, he’d only caught sight of Maerwyn’s dress flowing as she rushed away. “For now, you simply enjoy the company.” With a knowing look, Thorongil left Thorin alone.

Men were confusing. Worse than Elves, it seemed.

These were going to be some long days spent in their company.

Part 3: Early Mornings, Baking and Courting – All Somehow Wrapped in One

The festivities died down a long time ago. Yet, Thorin could only hear noise. Noise from his own mind.

He tossed and turned in his bed, far too big for a Dwarf to begin with. He felt like he was being swallowed by some deep dark hole that would drown him in screams and anguish and growls and pain and dragons and gold-

Thorin sat up with a sigh, rubbing the thoughts and the gold away from his eyeballs.

Sleep would not come to him that night.

With a cold sweat shining on his skin in the faint glow of candles, Thorin stood and put on some clothes that would render him anything but royal looking. Dark robes and a large hood to pull over his head. He meant to walk the halls until morning. To occupy his body and get rid of the restlessness that persisted in his bones whilst his mind surged with dark thoughts.

Fili, his blessed nephew who seemed to always have a third eye for his uncle’s moods, awoke in his drunken sleep. He and Kili had enjoyed last night’s festivities to the fullest.

Groggily, Fili turned and glanced at Thorin. “Uncle…?”

“Go back to sleep, Fili.” How Fili could sleep with Dwalin and Kili snoring as much as they were, Thorin had no idea. But the vast amount of mead Fili had had most likely offered some help.

“Are you alright?” Fili pushed.

“I am just fine. I simply want to go for a walk.”

He didn’t convince his nephew. That much was obvious. But Fili gave in and put his head back down onto his pillow. He fell back asleep instantly. Most likely, Fili wouldn’t even remember this conversation come morning.

Heading out, Thorin wandered the halls, as he had planned. His mind was still clouded, dark, and he truly had no idea where his feet brought him. He found halls that were riddled with cobwebs, unused. He found basements and servant quarters and large libraries. A crypt, too.

But he didn’t explore any of the areas. He simply… wandered.

Until suddenly, he collided with something soft. In his half asleep state of panic and anxiety, Thorin had not noticed someone roaming the shadows, much like him, dressed in dark clothes, much like him, and collided with the figure upon both taking the same turn.

“I apologise- My lady?”

Her hood had fallen back as she’d stumbled against someone. Shocked, Maerwyn stared down at Thorin. “Oh! My Lord!” Her cheeks blushed. Pale skin tinted with emotions she was not used to. “I humbly apologise…” She curtsied.

Thorin smiled. “Please, I should be the one apologising. I was not looking where I was going. I was a fool for not seeing your beauty a mile away.”

Shocked by his words, her beautiful green, almost yellow eyes flickered hither and tither for a moment as she tried to compose herself. “I… I thank you for your kind words, my lord. But I must ask… what are you doing out of bed at this ungodly hour?”

A chuckle arose from Thorin’s chest. Oh… that felt nice. It had been quite some time since someone earnestly made him chuckle. “I might ask the same of you.”

She blushed again.

He liked seeing that blush.

“I was on my way…” She interrupted herself. Her eyes betrayed her as it was obvious she suddenly got an idea. “Might I ask you to accompany me, my lord? If I may be so presumptuous, but I feel you might gain quite a lot from this…”

That was mysterious.

Thorin always thought that he had had quite enough of adventures for a lifetime. He’d dealt with dragons twice too many times in his life; he’d travelled Middle-earth in search of a home far too much… Though, he never quite tired of visiting the Shire.

But Thorin had little else to do that night, and wanted nothing more but to bask in this lady’s beauty for a little longer. So he nodded and gestured for her to lead the way to this mysterious thing that would help Thorin.

Edoras Hall was built atop a hill, with a view over not just the surrounding Rohirrim fields, but also a view of the town itself. It was perhaps in no way the same beauty as Gondor, with its vast history and great, white walls; but it was, to Thorin, the most beautiful sight in the world. At least right now. He was biased though, as the town presented itself to him as a backdrop to lady Maerwyn. Anything would be as beautiful as Erebor’s halls to him when lady Maerwyn was present.

Her golden hair braided to the side escaped her large, black hood which was cast over her head to prevent people seeing her leave. Why the secrecy, Thorin had no idea. But he found it elicited some sort of youthful rebellion inside of him that only further made lady Maerwyn enticing.

He was unaware that, already, his mind was distracted away from the worries of trying to create a friendship with the kingdom of Rohan, and the dark nightmares that plagued him.

Down the steps they hurried, into the sleeping town with shadows cast over their faces. The sun was beginning to wake, and although there were already a couple of people awake, Thorin felt himself escape himself. As if a freedom permeated his surroundings, hidden as he was. As if for once he wasn’t King Thorin, or Thorin Oakenshield, but someone Thorin had missed being a great deal; a younger, less known Thorin who could stand beside his father and grandfather and not be noticed too much – who could wander the merchant stalls in Erebor with his friends without anyone treating him differently.

And as they approached a little house in the middle of town, and lady Maerwyn removed her hood to glance back at Thorin, eyes making sure he had kept up with her fast pace, Thorin felt that although he was no one with a special title at the moment, hidden as he was, Maerwyn still found him special.

He’d never felt that way before. Accepted for who he was. Even Dwalin, his closest companion, could not see him without his titles. And although that was not a problem in and of itself, Thorin felt… warm. Nice. When seen as just him for a moment.

Taking off his hood as they entered the house, Thorin found himself, to his surprise, in a little bakery. The sweet scent of freshly baked goods and bread was already all around them. Bakers were amongst the first to wake in most towns. Here it was no different.

However, Thorin found that the owners looked a little more stressed than bakers usually did. Still, as they saw lady Maerwyn, they took the time to pause and smile in a greeting.

“Oh how I’m glad you’re here, my lady.”

My lady. So they knew who she was. Thorin was a little dismayed that his anonymity might go away- “And who is this with you?” Oh!

Maerwyn gestured toward Thorin, and to Thorin’s surprise, she answered for him: “This is a dear friend of mine. He wished to help.”

“I’ve never had a Dwarf in my shop,” the owner, flour all over their apron in her hair, said. “Sorry, that’s a strange remark to make. Please! I need all the help I can get.”

Maerwyn smiled and led Thorin toward the back of the shop. Washing her hands in a little basin, she got straight to work. This woman knew what she was doing. Baking bread was no difficulty for her. Thorin found this curious.

But he didn’t comment on it just yet. Instead, he was focused on his own work because…

He might be a skilled blacksmith. He might be a skilled warrior. And on the road, he was not a stranger to hunting with a bow and making some good meat stews. But… baking was not something he’d done much of. Bread was not something Dwarves never ate, of course, but… it just wasn’t something he’d baked himself before.

And so as he awkwardly tried to mimic what Maerwyn was doing, he found his dough lacked… Well, it lacked everything. It wasn’t really a dough. More of a piece of slime.

And much to his dismay, he caught Maerwyn glancing at his work and giggle.

“It’s alright. Here… just add some more flour.” Thorin watched her, finding his gaze locked on her instead of what she was saying and showing. Her teachings went over his head, blinded as he was by… well, everything about her.

So once she glanced at him with expecting eyes, clearly waiting for him to try once more but with the addition of all she’d just taught him, Thorin stumbled once more and created, again, a slime.

She chuckled. And blushed, clearly aware what had just transpired. “How about you just knead the dough? Your strength will do you good here.”

He did not miss her eyes subconsciously glancing at his arms, the muscles which hid beneath his tunic.

And oh was he suddenly extremely motivated to show her that, yes, he did have strength.

He kneaded the doughs so keenly and with such motivation that he most likely looked a fool. Yet, Maerwyn smiled at him and only encouraged and praised his work.

Before long, another person entered the shop: that ranger who was always lurking around Thengel. Thorin’s heart sunk a bit, not because Thorongil would ruin anything, but because Thorin had enjoyed having Maerwyn’s complete attention.

And why was he always around where Maerwyn was?

Jealousy.

Thorin was quick to realise that what he felt was jealousy. Truly, it was unbecoming of him. This lady next to her, arm sometimes brushing up against his, sending shivers down his spine, awakened sides of Thorin that had laid dormant for so long whilst he had done nothing but try and survive. For decades, his life was all about the Dwarves under his charge. His people’s redemption. His people’s survival. His own throne’s return. Now, suddenly, he cared about kneading dough and a lady’s arm brushing up against his.

It was… a welcoming change of pace.

And he did not want it to be disturbed.

“My lady,” Thorongil greeted. Maerwyn smiled and greeted him back… “Sire,” he greeted Thorin.

And then, to Thorin’s surprise, Thorongil took off his rings, washed his hands, and began helping the both of them too.

A comfortable silence fell over them all, and Maerwyn’s little smiles and blushes toward Thorin never stopped. Thorin found it curious, and his mind suddenly realised that he had no idea why he was making bread.

“My lady, my good sir, might I ask of you… why we are helping the local bakery?” Thorin asked as kindly as he could. He’d learned from his nephews that sometimes he was a little too… gruff. Grumpy was actually the word Kili had used, but he hadn’t liked that. Grumpy was what one called someone old. And Thorin surely wasn’t old yet?

Maerwyn giggled when Thorongil blinked in surprise. “You’ve not told him?”

“I fear I quite forgot,” Maerwyn chuckled. “My brother wished for all the people to have freshly baked bread come morning, as a token of his gratitude and as a celebration for their new king. But I’m afraid my brother has always lived the life of a nobleman, even in Gondor or out on the road, so he didn’t quite realise how much work this would be on the bakers. Thorongil and I decided we’d help out. But working with one’s hands can have quite a therapeutic effect, and when I saw the look in your eyes, my lord, I thought I’d bring you here too.” Maerwyn, a bit of flour on her cheek, glanced at Thorin with sheepish, almost worried eyes.

Had she gone too far?

Thorin smiled. No, she had not. Perhaps he might have reacted differently in another circumstance. Perhaps he’d even reacted differently had it been anyone but Maerwyn who had said these words to him. But Maerwyn with her beauty was a welcomed person to dig deeper into Thorin.

And as a matter of fact, Thorin was a little surprised that she’d seen through him so well. He’d not even realised himself that during these hours, Thorin had not once thought of Erebor or its riches. He felt lighter. Lighter than he’d done since he’d taken on the burden of being King despite the Dragon Sickness in his heart. It felt… nice.

She felt nice. Too nice, for him. He didn’t deserve that after all he’d done. Yet, here she was, put on his path to offer her empathy.

He didn’t want to let her go.

“I thank you, my lady,” Thorin replied.

The Dwarf King caught a look between Maerwyn and Thorongil. A conversation Thorin had not been privy to seemed to suddenly come to an end. Thorongil bowed his head in defeat at her, and Maerwyn looked a little prideful. Thorin adored that look on her face. It made her glow. She should be proud all the time, Thorin thought. Someone should make her feel like a queen. He would, if only to see that look again.

The bakers had bowed and thanked the three of them so much that it had taken them five minutes just to leave the bakery. Once outside, all three of them put their hoods back on and walked back to Edoras Halls in peaceful anonymity.

By now, the morning sun was shining down on the town, and people had awoken. The bakery’s freshly baked bread was a scent that prevailed in the entire town. And when Thorin glanced back before beginning to ascend up toward the halls, he noticed young boys and girls, given a pretty penny to help out, deliver loaves wrapped in cloth to the people.

It was a good day for the townspeople. And, truthfully, Thorin found a newfound respect for the king. Despite Thengel’s demons speaking for him, causing distrust toward Thorin, a kind and well-meaning person was revealed to him through this very ordeal. No king would have thought of spreading food to his people as their first order. Most kings would have thought of themselves.

Thorongil walked ahead, offering Thorin and Maerwyn some privacy. Whether this was intentional or not was not difficult to read. Thorongil had offered a knowing look to Maerwyn before suddenly picking up his own pace.

“I hope you feel better, my lord,” Maerwyn said, breaking the silence between her and Thorin. “You looked so forlorn when we bumped into each other earlier. I wanted nothing but to help you.”

“Few would feel that way,” Thorin admitted.

“Why? You deserve help.”

Thorin grew quiet.

“You speak not very highly of yourself.” The walk up those steps toward the hall made Maerwyn slightly out of breath, yet as she walked beside him, skirts in her hand to keep from tripping, she took deep enough breaths to speak to Thorin clearly. She wanted him to listen. To hear. “You saved your people. You gave them a new home. You defeated a dragon.”

“There are details no one speaks of,” Thorin intervened.

Both paused as they reached the top, turning to face each other. Thorongil disappeared inside ahead of them.

“What details?” she boldly asked.

“I am not myself.”

“We all have darkness.”

“You should not grow comfortable around me. I have days I am no person. There are days I have to lock myself in my room as greed and desire are all I feel. There is, and always will be, a curse on the wealth of that Mountain. And my family, my bloodline, is its prey.”

Maerwyn’s brow furrowed in worry. Not disgust. Not fear. But worry. Worry for him and his wellbeing. Thorin almost wanted to wave it off and tell her to stop being naïve, as he did with Dis, Fili and Kili.

But it wasn’t naivety, and Thorin could see that much.

She meant it.

“Then I will endeavour to find more ways to help you.”

More?

“This was for me?” Thorin asked, gesturing back in the direction of the bakery.

“The baking was for the people. But letting you help was for you, yes. There should be more things that could aid you. I will figure it out. I promise.”

“You have no reason to promise anything to me.”

“And yet I am promising,” she persisted, smiling. “The stubbornness of Dwarves is true, it seems. Yet, the stubbornness of women is equally as true.” She stepped closer, as if wanting to reach out, but her confidence failed her.

Thorin had wished she’d done what she’d wanted.

“You have some flour on your cheek.”

Because it would have meant her touch his cheek.

“So do you, my lady.”

And it would have meant he’d been able to touch her too.

Thorin and lady Maerwyn did not have many more moments where they could speak in private. So they made their own time to do so.

Somehow, without saying a single word about it, both had found a routine in going to that very corner where they’d bumped into each other each early morning, for a stroll around the halls and some peaceful conversation.

Sometimes, Maerwyn came with some new ideas to distract Thorin from the darkness inside him. She presented painting to him, though he really did not want to even try his hands on that. He was a blacksmith. Painting was too delicate for him.

She also presented writing to him. He did try his hands on that and so one fateful morning…

“I have tried my hand on writing something.”

Surprised that Thorin had done this, not because she did not believe in his artistic abilities, but because she was truthfully not sure he wanted to help himself, Maerwyn had paused in their walk to turn to him. “Have you?”

She wore a nightgown underneath a thick, large cardigan. And she looked as heavenly as always, to Thorin.

With a nod, he assured her that he had indeed done some writing, before presenting a note from the inside of his coat. “I would like you to read it and let me know what you think.”

“I am no writer,” she was quick to say, shying away from the note.

“You do not need to be to see what can be improved upon,” Thorin reassured her.

Slowly, she took the note from him and opened it to reveal his writing. “I adore your writing style,” she praised him immediately. Thorin smiled and watched her. Maerwyn had this peculiar way of finding the positives in everything. The beauty. The good. The kind. And then she would also voice it, whether in praise or to alert someone to what they were good at. It was quite a beautiful thing, and perhaps it looked like nothing out of the ordinary to most – why a little praise was just kindness, and many had kindness! But to Thorin… when paired with her beautiful lips speaking the praise… it was perfection.

Those very words were what Thorin had written in that note of his. Those very words were what lady Maerwyn were reading right now, her green eyes dancing over the words with a speed that spoke of a well-read mind…

And then she blushed and shifted on her feet, not out of uncomfortableness, much to Thorin’s relief, but… joy.

“Are… Do you mean these kind words?” she asked him quietly. “Do you really find me…” She trailed off, blushing.

“I find you beautiful, yes,” Thorin said quietly, but confidently.

She brought the note to her chest, pressing it close to her heart to show her appreciation. A smile graced her lips.

And then both simply continued their walk. But they walked closer to each other…

And their morning walks turned into their own private courting.

Part 4: The Battle of Love (and Alliance)

“Good morning.” With a curtsey and a smile, Maerwyn, dressed in a green dress that flowed in seamless gentle waves from her waist down to the stone floor, joined her family at the breakfast table. Guests were offered breakfast in their rooms, so these moments were the only ones they had between just themselves.

Theoden and Theodis sat whispering to each other about their day’s plans, clearly looking mischievous. Something told Maerwyn that they were going to spend the day following Fili and Kili again. The two younger Dwarves had turned into the children’s favourite guests quite quickly. And Maerwyn was pretty sure Theodis had a little crush on Kili, which was adorable.

As they caught Maerwyn’s curious gaze, both began to giggle maniacally until their mother told them off. Thengel sat in pure silence, not even having acknowledged his sister’s presence.

Queen Morwen kept sending worried glances to her husband, but kept her head held high and pretended in front of the servants that nothing was wrong.

But Maerwyn was not like the Queen. Silence and patience were not her virtues. So, she reached a hand over to Thengel’s arm, dressed in a silk shirt. “Brother, what is wrong?”

A servant shifted between them, forcing Maerwyn to lean back again, missing the agitated clench of Thengel’s jaw. As more tea was poured into Thengel’s cup, Maerwyn pleasantly busied herself with buttering a piece of bread. A smile graced her lips suddenly, remembering her Dwarf King now each time she saw bread.

“That,” Thengel said. The servant had left, and Maerwyn turned her gaze to her brother again to find him staring at her with a less than pleasant look in his eyes. He was almost scolding her. “That is my issue.”

“What?” Maerwyn asked, her smile gone. It seemed to calm Thengel down.

Thengel did not elaborate on his words, he only quietly seethed in his seat as he said: “I will not agree on a partnership with the Kingdom of Erebor.”

“What?” Maerwyn asked once more, this time astounded at what she was hearing. “But brother-“

“They are here for their own purposes. I am not blind to the reports of darkness up in the north. Things are stirring. Changing. And I know they are here for our support. I will not sacrifice my own men for the sake of Dwarves.”

Maerwyn stared at Thengel in shock. “What has their race got to do with this?”

“They can bury themselves deeper into the mountains if they wish.”

“That-“ Maerwyn took a deep breath. Her brother was a kind and honourable man. Truly. But he was so, so broken and so unsure of himself… She’d hoped Thorongil’s presence would lessen that, but Thorongil was not here right now. “I don’t understand, my lord. There are also Men in danger in the city-“

“And you know this how?”

“I have spoken to the Dwarves.”

“You have spoken to one Dwarf, you mean.”

Maerwyn grew quiet. “I don’t understand your point.”

“You are my sister. You should be on my side. This is a political game. Everything is. No one wants anything from us unless it has something to do with what they can gain from it. Don’t you see? He does not want you. He wants soldiers. Protection.” At this point, Thengel had leaned in closer to hiss the words straight into Maerwyn’s face. “He does not care for you, only for his own skin. He is using you, Maerwyn.”

Promptly, Maerwyn stood up. The chair scraped behind her loudly. Servants paused and stared at her. Theoden and his sister watched her in surprise. Morwen looked sympathetic, but she stayed silent. And that hurt Maerwyn.

“I will not have someone tell me what is and what is not true in my own relationships,” Maerwyn said as curtly as she could, her voice barely above a whisper as she desperately tried to keep her emotions at bay. She’d not noticed how her hands had fisted parts of her skirts in desperation. “Especially not my brother. And not my king. You have it all wrong. You are too blinded by your own self-centred view on life to see how your hurt is hurting others. Not everyone wants something from you. And not everyone will use me to get to you.”

She turned to walk away.

“You will not talk to him ever again!” Thengel ordered angrily, his own chair scraping behind him as he stood but Maerwyn didn’t turn to show she’d heard him.

Tears flooded down her cheeks as she walked with her head held high, as far away from her brother as she could...

Her hands still clutching the skirts, Maerwyn found Thorin waiting for her in their usual spot later that day. A walk before lunch, around the small but still lavish garden that existed on the top of that hill, overlooking the Rohirrim fields like most views.

Yet, as Thorin bowed his head to greet her with a smile gracing his lips, he found she did not return a smile. In fact, she did not even pause her stride. She stared straight at him, well aware that he was there, but seemed to have arrived with a purpose and a determination that was not going to stop her.

It was part of what Thorin admired about her but-

He was not prepared for what was to come.

She strode over to him with such confidence and sad purpose he found no words. Nor did he find words as she leaned down and kissed him straight on the lips. Her fingers, which had clutched so tightly to her skirts earlier, held onto the sides of his face with a desperation yet gentleness that he’d never thought he’d feel before. Her touch seemed to activate some desperation hidden deep within himself, and he kissed her with a passion he’d never have used for their first kiss otherwise. It was on the brink of inappropriate.

But just as soon as they’d kissed, it was all over again as she recoiled in surprise at her own actions and stared at him with wide eyes.

“My lady?” Thorin asked, genuinely a little worried what might have prompted this.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered out aghast, before turning and rushing off.

It felt wrong to run after her, something in the way she’d looked at him told him so. So Thorin stayed put, trying his best to think of some reason for why this had occurred even if his mind was more on the kiss itself than anything else.

It was not until later in the evening, when Thorin sought Maerwyn out in her own chambers after not seeing her at any event during the day, that Thorin found out what was going on.

He knocked on her door and was let in by a maid who excused herself instantly, most likely on orders by Maerwyn. Said lady was sat in her windowsill, forlornly staring out over the Rohirrim fields and mountains. Curiously, her chambers were in the direction of Erebor, north.

“I apologise for this improper action, my lady, but when you did not attend lunch nor dinner, I worried for your wellbeing,” Thorin said, staying a courteous half a room away from her.

She at first didn’t react, nor did she turn her head to acknowledge that he was there.

She truly looked… sad.

“My brother is not going to agree to an alliance between our kingdoms,” she uttered monotonously.

Thorin sighed. “I know. He told me so earlier.”

Maerwyn turned to glance at him now, surprised at first, then even more sad than she’d looked earlier. Clearly, she’d hoped something she’d done might have changed his mind. “I am sorry. I think I am to blame.”

Now it was Thorin’s turn to look surprised. He crossed the room to reach her, gingerly taking her hand in his. “And why would that be?”

“I let myself get carried away. Thengel believes everyone is out to get him. Now he extends this anxiousness toward me.” She moved her hand away from Thorin’s. “He believes you are using me. I am sorry.”

Thorin soured a bit and grabbed her hand once more. “Then that is his issue and burden to bear. My original reason for being here is no more. I am here now, for you.”

A little smile graced her lips, but she didn’t dare to fully smile just yet. “But what of the darkness you spoke of?”

“Whatever is brewing in the North in those foul lands will brew no matter if we have extra support or not.”

“You might need us-“

“We will find some other way to beat it.” Before Maerwyn could try and say something anxious again, Thorin shook his head, “We will find some other way.”

She gave in and glanced down at their hands, letting her fingers intertwine with his. Two different people, two completely different sets of fingers, yet it felt so natural and perfect to hold onto him.

“I still am sorry.”

“None of this is your fault,” Thorin reassured. “Yet, you look sad not just because of this. Why did this hit you so hard, amrâlimê?”

“I wanted to help you…”

“You did.” Thorin smiled.

“And I’ve been trying to help my brother. But he is… If I cannot help, there is no purpose to me-“

“Do not say that,” Thorin was quick to interject. “My love, your purpose in life cannot be others. I appreciate what you have done and continue to do. But if you do not value yourself as highly as you value those that you help, you are going to go down a dark path.” He was quiet a moment, watching Maerwyn take the words in. “Disregard the King’s need for help. What is it you need right now to feel good?”

She squeezed his hand, staring deep within his eyes.

Thorin did not have to hear her words to know what she needed for herself, and from him to help her. With a smile, Thorin nodded his head. “Then come with me back to Erebor.”

…

Two Days Later.

…

Thorin kneeled in front of King Thengel. His nephews did the same a step behind him, whilst Balin, Dwalin and Ori were standing with their heads bowed. A public declaration of gratitude for the visit was occurring, and as King Thengel spoke his pre-practised speech, Thorin only half listened.

The tension that was in the hall was not just from everyone being fully aware that Thengel was going to publicly declare his denial to help Erebor and the people of Dale.

There was also tension because Thorin and Maerwyn would declare their own decision…

Secretly, Maerwyn’s maids were smuggling her luggage out through a back door and down to the horses and ponies. It was not like Thengel would or could force Maerwyn to stay. She was but a sister, so to speak, to the king and there were no laws granting him that privilege over her. However, Thengel might grow angry and Maerwyn’s kind heart would feel conflicted leaving on such notice. She and Thorin had already discussed it. It would be better to have the opportunity to simply leave whilst he was yelling at them rather than be forced to walk back and grab her belongings, giving Thengel time to use sympathy to make Maerwyn stay with him.

It sounded awful. Neither Thorin or Maerwyn wanted to talk like that about Thengel, truthfully, but his hurt and his trauma was evident in his actions. And they would be stronger than his love for his sister.

As silence fell over the hall, Thengel’s speech done, Thorin and his nephews stood back up again. The two kings bowed their heads at each other.

Then… “As for the proposed friendship between our peoples…” Thengel cleared his throat. Beside him, Morwen encouraged her husband with a smile. On the other side, Thorongil was peacefully watching.

Perhaps those two peoples’ reactions should have prepared both Maerwyn and Thorin for what was to come. But they were so adamant that they had all the information that they fell blind to what was happening right before their eyes.  

“I publicly declare that the Kingdom of Rohan is now an ally of the Dwarves of Erebor and the Men of Esgaroth!”

A silence followed his words. Until he smiled and laughed at everyone’s shocked reactions, and people suddenly cheered and roared. Lords and ladies clapped their hands in ecstasy, because an allyship was always good.

And Thorin… Well, whilst his nephews elbowed him in the side with happy looks on their faces, Thorin still was not quite sure this was real.

Not until Thengel approached and offered his hand to Thorin.

Slowly, Thorin shook it, and the two kings nodded their heads at each other.

“What changed your mind?”

“People told me to weigh the consequences. I’d not only lose an ally, I’d also lose family.” He smirked. “You thought I wasn’t aware of your and Maerwyn’s plans? I am King of these halls. I hear everything.” He sighed, letting go of the handshake. “I am trying something new, King Thorin. I hope you can prove to me that this something new will not end up as bad as I think it will.”

Thorin bowed his head. That was a promise he could keep. “Thank you, my lord.”

Thorin glanced to the side where Maerwyn stood, stunned and with her hands over her mouth in shock still. But she looked happy. And so he smiled at her, along with Thengel who had turned to check what Thorin was looking at…

Hand in hand, Thorin and Maerwyn led the entourage of Dwarves down the steps from Edoras Hall. The towns people had gathered to clap and wave the guests and their new allies off. Most looked shocked at the sight of their lady Maerwyn going with the Dwarves. But it was a silent message to all that Thengel’s sister had found her home.

Before either of them took the reins of their horses from the two stable boys standing at the end of the steps, Maerywn and Thorin turned to each other and kissed in front of all. A gentle kiss to publicly declare the truth.

Behind them, Theodis was waving at Kili with a blush on her own cheeks. Kili played along and sent an air kiss her way.

With people cheering them on now, Maerwyn and Thorin turned to Edoras Hall standing proud on the hill, and waved one last time at King Thengel, Queen Morwen, their children and Thorongil.

Helping Maerwyn up on her horse, Thorin took the reins from the stable boy to his own pony, but paused to glance back to this Thorongil one last time, curiosity in his eyes.

But he found Thorongil was suddenly gone, nowhere to be seen. As if his goal had been accomplished and he’d left the scene to keep doing whatever a ranger did…

Shaking his head at that, for some reason thinking that this was not the last time Thorin would meet Thorongil, Thorin climbed up onto his pony. He reached out for Maerwyn’s hand and rode with her beside him down the town of Edoras. Maerwyn glanced back once to wave goodbye to her family. A big smile was on her lips.

“Will you miss them?” Thorin asked her.

“I don’t think so. I have all the family I need right here.” She leaned over to press a kiss to Thorin’s lips…

comment cheat code:

❤️ - I loved it! 💛- Please write more for this pairing/fandom!! 💙- HOW DARE YOU?? /lh 🤍- don't reply to my comment, please (I'm shy/anxious/don't want to talk today/don't like the feeling of being acknowledged when reading on AO3) 🤎- showing support for this / extra kudos 💚- twas okay 🖤- meh... have read better

[tavina-writes]

Thanks to @thebiscuiteternal for tagging me! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 192 public works on AO3 at the moment, and a [redacted] amount unrevealed as part of various ongoing exchanges I'm writing for!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,244,211

3. What fandoms do you write for? I think I mostly write for MDZS at the moment, but Naruto is the major fandom I've spent the past ten or so years in, so it's always going to be my favorite. I also write for ASOIAF, various book fandoms, various other cdramas...etc.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Oh dear.

A Bolt of Silk - Naruto - 2,180

Prophet - Naruto - 1,889

My Teeth In Your Heart - ASOIAF - 1,833

Time Travel Tandem - Naruto - 1,593

It's not time that passes - Naruto - 1,521

None of my MDZS fic makes the list but I think that's normal! I've only been in the fandom for a year and a half, and I mostly write niche stuff so this makes perfect sense to me!

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

I answer comments sometimes! With irregularity because "answering comments" gets filed in the "send emails" part of my brain and I spend a lot of my professional life sending emails so it's more difficult to reply to comments. I also get concerned when I don't have a lot of say in response to a comment because I'm afraid that I don't sound too enthused when I respond with "Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!" or maybe get too infodumpy with my responses to some questions. In short I think I psyche myself out of responding to comments and I'm trying to do better about it.

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

Hmmm this is a difficult one. I don't think I go for angsty endings as much as I go for like, hopeful or not utterly bleak ones? I think that the ending for An Inherited Creature where WZL and JYL are still married and still stuck in Nightless City might be the suckiest ending, though the ending of maybe I'd make it alive where YZY and Madam Jin are just on the cusp of marrying their canonical husbands is on a level of aaaa re: how we know this story ends.

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

I DEFINITELY think this is A Bolt of Silk considering that right after the ending I wrote them a 6 chapter, 30k wedding epilogue where everything goes great!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Man. I would say no except sometimes I can recount really terrible stories. Mostly I think I don't get hate because my readers tend to be very kind, but I have, gotten some pretty odd and preachy comments at times. Once notably, when someone told me that I shouldn't've translated the nobility titles for a certain fic and kept them in the original Chinese, and I was about to respond with "my brother in Christ, we are in a Naruto fic and I am already stretching canon like a rubber band. Lets not make readers learn SO MUCH NEW WORD?" Or that one time when someone didn't. Read my fic but wanted to shill theirs in to me in the comments of my fic. But it's mostly odd and mildly entitled rather than hate commenting.

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

I DO write smut! This is a new accomplishment, but I have skipped right to the sexy sexy noncon/dubcon object insertion porn instead of uhhh any of the tamer things in between that and "literary sex scene where everyone is miserable"

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

I don't really write crossovers! I have a hard time figuring out how characters from one story would react to the characters of a different one. :(

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

A number of times yeah. It's bothered me before but like, mostly nowadays I'm just like "in the year of our lord 202X?????"

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! It sounds like it would be really flattering but also So Much Work since I write longfic so often.

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

I have occasionally but they've never really been posted. @autumnslantern very patiently listens to me yell about all of my fic ideas in her dms a lot though, which I consider vital to my writing process. Does that count as cowriting? :D

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

Man this changes by day. I'm also a consummate multishipper so I can't say I have an all time favorite and more just yelling about "ISNT THIS NEAT?" about the niche thing I've discovered recently.

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

God. I have no idea. If I've posted a wip I hope to finish it but I have no idea. Maybe some of my oldest Naruto works might never get done.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I handle emotionality, stories that occur over a long period of time, and atmosphere in a piece really well!

I also really like writing about grief and mourning, trauma, and trying to define ourselves inside difficult family histories. I enjoy writing about character histories, and how that informs their present, as well as complicated loyalties and internal conflict, but the jury's out on whether I can count those as strengths lol.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Man. Plot. Plot. Plot. The weakness is always the plot. I love a good parallel but a parallel is not a plot. Also at one point one of my fics was 30% man sitting sadly in a bathtub nearly dying by volume (like 3 out of 9 scenes in that fic was just this man having a bad time in a bathtub) and this is not a plot either lolll. I admire the people who can write a tightly plotted fic so much, godIwishthatwereme.jpeg. Also I'm perennially long-winded so I also think I struggle a lot with writing a 1.5k-2k fic where just, a snapshot happens. I love admiring other people's beautiful oneshots as well.

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

I don't tend to do this with dialogue though I'll include words from other languages depending. I feel like it's always so difficult to like, get the reader to know what you meant with [dialogue snippet in different language] but I've seen this handled really well in fic before so like, it does work!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh definitely Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong when we were in the pits of that 13 year translation of the work. I wrote like, speculative fic based on what we already had? But mostly scene snippets and outline ideas of what would happen instead of formal fic. None of that was ever published anywhere though. In terms of "Fandom Where I First Published Fic on the Internet" it's probably Katekyo Hitman Reborn I was really big on that fandom in 2014. You won't take me alive on where that fic is though lmao.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

In terms of best written and most beloved to me at the moment and also complete it's definitely but I'm not in charge of sorrow (so please don't ask me when). How will I ever get over NHS's post canon journey in that fic honestly.

uhhh let's see, @im-sublimey, @woobifiedvillain, @lgbtlunaverse, @cerusee and anyone else who sees this and wants to play? If you've been tagged in this game already sdjdgkah APOLOGIES.

[vellatra]

I don't really know any characters from your story besides Vellatra herself, so how about #1, #8, and #9 for the most important character who is not her?

Oh dear! You know what, I'd never really considered who was "second-most important"! So I did some pondering... and mulled it over with my advisor and confidante (@reneethegreatandpowerful), and have come to the conclusion that Zac is second. HOWEVER! The story has a few different groups it follows, with their own side plots and stuff, so I have also included perhaps one of the more interesting folks from each of these groups. Thanks for the tough question! Those are the ones that help me fine tune stories. 😁 And now, your answers.

(Apologies - I committed the cardinal sin of using a "skin color" marker in this drawing, thereby turning him into Donald Trump. Sorry! 😅)

Q: Full name and occupation?

A: "I'm Zachary James O'Connor. Most people just call me Zac. I'm in training to eventually join the army in the Merfaen tiz Ornaru - if I don't find a way back to Earth first, that is!"

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: "My favorite pastime is playing video games! Especially fantasy swordplay stuff, like Zelda, Xenoblade, and Final Fantasy. They don't have electronics in this world though, so nowadays I tag along with Aileev and get into mischief with her, mostly." 😆 (Author's note: Aileev is Vellatra's teenage firecracker of a daughter. I'll have to introduce her sometime soon!)

Q: What is your greatest achievement, and why do you think so?

A: "I learned Flunibu, the Merfaen language, to a conversational level in a couple of weeks. Never thought I'd learn a new language that fast!"

Q: Full name and occupation?

A: "Vexina Katrina Fini. I'm a specialist in the natural sciences, and at the moment I'm on a government funded mission to investigate some strange phenomena near the edge of our solar system. ... Admittedly I've been pretty sidetracked lately! But Silen Fah is full of interesting new flora and fauna to discover, so I'm not too upset." 😁

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: "I enjoy reading up on the most recent scientific discoveries, and mulling over the unexplained mysteries of the universe. Did you know, for example, that nobody's yet come up with a satisfactory theory for how the mammoths were frozen so quickly and preserved so perfectly? The temperatures and conditions you'd need-"

Q: Ahem, next question! What is your greatest achievement and why do you think so?

A: "By a long shot, the discovery of this new world! No earthly scientist has ever been able to catalogue so many new species and geological formations as I have, and all thanks to a happy accident on our travels through space! I worry, though, that no one will ever find OUT about my achievement. I haven't found a way back home, or a way to send my findings to Earth.... But hope is not lost and I won't give up!"

Q: Full name and occupation?

A: "I am Fabian, son of Henry. I am a squire for Sir Galahad of Camelot."

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: "I enjoy practicing swordplay, hunting, and riding horseback when the time may be spared."

Q: What is your greatest achievement and why?

A: "I have done little worthy of renown as of yet, but I am only a youth. I trust that, in time, great things shall be done. Perhaps I shall become a knight of King Arthur's court? Slay wicked beasts? Save fair maidens? What the Lord willeth, I stand ready to do."

This is the second time I've typed all this out... sure hope Tumblr doesn't delete it all again! This is getting tedious. 😵

Anyway, it was fun to figure all this out! Thanks again for the question!

[tracingpatternswrites]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for the tag @theresthesnitch! This looks like the perfect distraction right now.

Username: TracingPatterns

1. How many works do you have on A03?

122 works across all fandoms.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

1,021,394

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Harry Potter, mostly Marauders.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Playing with Fire

Of Quiet Hearts and Thundering Dreams

Wilder than Mountain Thyme

Countdown

Hungry Moon

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try! It might take me a while but I do always try to respond to all comments that I get.

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

Oh dear, this was actually a pretty difficult choice. Many of my fics are quite angsty now that I think about it, but if we disregard the canon stuff, I think I'd say As The Tide Pulls.

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

I have a lot of fics with happy endings too. I'd say that most of my long fics end happily, but I think I would pick Wilder than Mountain Thyme just because I feel like it ends with hope and possibility.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes, but really not all that much. I did once have someone write a whole 'clapback fic' (their own words) based on one of my fics though so that was... interesting.

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

Er, yes? I mean. Absolutely yes. All kinds? Seriously, I mostly write M/M sprinkled in with some M/M/M. I love to write kink so I do that a lot, but there's some 'vanilla' stuff in there too.

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

No, never.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Someone once told me that one of my fics had been copied onto Wattpad as part of some sort of collection but by the time I went to look at it, it seemed to be gone. So. Maybe?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes.

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

I have! I've written wonderful things together with my friends and I love, love, love co-writing. It's so much fun!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I think I have to say Wolfstar just because it's the one I keep coming back to again and again and again. However, I do have a very soft spot for a lot of other ships as well.

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

I have so many ideas and my absolute aim is to finish most of them. However, I think the one I'm furthest away from completing is the one I started for the candyheart challenge last year.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't know. Smut maybe 😅 I feel like other people can answer this question better. I think I'm pretty good at working out plot holes. Most of the time that's a good thing, but sometimes it makes me get stuck on silly details. I'm good at angst too, I think.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing scenes with more than two people is a constant struggle for me. I think humour is another weakness, crack fic is not my thing.

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

I think that's fine, and I've definitely done it, but I'm quite picky with how to use it. Also, always ask for help from a native speaking. Google Translate is not your friend.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Lord of the Rings (but those are looooooong gone, I can tell you that much).

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This is an impossible question and I honestly don't know. I am honestly proud of a lot of fics that I've written. But alright, to be honest I think it might be a tie.

Wilder than Mountain Thyme because it's the most self-indulgent thing I have ever written. I poured my heart into that fic, and I'm really proud of the world building and the characters.

over blackened water because I think this is one of the best things I've written and I keep making myself cry whenever I re-read it.

Open tag - if you want to do this then please do! But I'm also passing on a no-pressure tag to @heartofspells, @puuvillaa, @mundrakan and @soloorganaas. I'm sorry if any of you have already done this and I've missed it!

[hirazuki]

*knock knock* For the 🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

What about...

that one thing you see in fics all the time

that one thing you see in fanart all the time (for totally unselfish reasons)

there should be more of this type of fic/art

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

?

Take care!

Hiiiii ♡♡♡

that one thing you see in fics all the time

So -- of course everyone fandoms how they want, to each their own, etc. -- but literally every fic I've seen about Mairon that has to do with him in the 4th Age in Valinor post-canon or even in AUs leaving Melkor's service earlier/joining someone else (be it a Feanorian, Maeglin, Celebrimbor, whoever), or any flavor of him not being his strictly canon dark-lord-doing-dark-lord-business self, tends to cast him as subservient and Very Sorry for everything he's done. I would kill for a fic where, despite changed circumstances, he is still fully committed to his beliefs. I would die for:

1. post-canon 4th Age Mairon in Valinor who is not sorry at all, would 100% do it again, wants to do it again dear lord please let him try again, the only mistake he acknowledges making is in the how he executed his ideals (because he's a pragmatist and there's no point in arguing facts, and the facts say he failed) not in those ideals themselves.

And/or 2. Canon-divergent AU where Mairon does choose to work with someone else (Maedhros, Maeglin, etc; though for me, personally, it would still have to be driven by loyalty to Melkor; motivated by wanting to save Melkor from the effect the silmarils are having on him, perhaps), but despite this still has the same views, opinions, beliefs, and approaches. The idea of trying to fit his modus operandi within, say, Himring's military or Gondolin's politics, that push/pull between his will and whoever he is attempting to cooperate with is ✨delicious✨ to me.

Idk, bottom line is that I find the idea of "redemption" far too often equated with servility which grosses me out, and is why I finally filtered out that particular tag on AO3 XD

On the other hand, I also don't enjoy one-dimensionally cruel interpretations of Mairon, and with few exceptions it seems to be either/or in this fandom so. I don't really read much anymore for a reason ^^;

that one thing you see in fanart all the time (for totally unselfish reasons)

(;ladkjfsdlkfj oh you ♡)

Portraits. And I honestly don't mean this in a negative sense! I totally get the fandom's preoccupation with character portraits, and I myself am very, very guilty of it too -- I think it's only natural that for book characters that we really only get things like "Tall" and "Tallest" as descriptors (thanks, jirt XD), everyone wants to explore and work out their own visions of what these characters look like. I just wish that in addition to that kind of standard portraiture, we also had stuff that was more detail shots (hands, ears, jewelry, etc), or artistically cropped/sections blacked out/stylized elements or patterns superimposed on the characters, or more abstract non-sexual nudity type of art; moodboards, etc. Idk how to describe it exactly, but fanart that is more suggestion/impression of the characters rather than a visual itemized list. Again, I'm also very guilty of this and trying to change up my own art to include more variety.

there should be more of this type of fic/art

Enemies to lovers, enemies to grudging companions, characters who are diametrically opposed to each other being put in circumstances that force them to work together, regardless of whether it's shippy/not shippy or if it'll last with long-term consequences/it's just a temporary situation and then they'll go back to being as they were, etc. For a story with such a large cast of characters with so many different affiliations, there is surprisingly little content of opponents having to team up together. Granted, I don't venture in the tags often and read very little, so I may be wrong, but the impression I've gotten from being a Silm fan for twenty years is that mostly everyone stays neatly in their designated fields (Feanorians, Doriath, Angband, Valinor, etc.). Like, get messy; please.

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Unsurprisingly, it's "they wandered far together under the stars or by the light of the sickle moon." The whole Nan Elmoth portion of the Maeglin chapter, really, is just full of such intense, obsessive yet intimate and genuine companionship, it's so raw, it makes me absolutely feral.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Can I say all of them XD You probably know by now that I'm very attached to my complexity and nuance, so I find any complaint both about how characters are being ruined by so-called woobification (i.e. in actuality just given a sympathetic interpretation) and ruined by being hated on (i.e. in actually just having their canon flaws and failings explored and expanded upon) so very, very tired. Certainly, there are interpretations out there that make characters far too meek/submissive and too cruel/evil for my tastes, but overall I've found that the people who routinely complain about it are far louder and more annoying than the people actually doing it, who typically mind their own business and are simply enjoying the characters in their own preferred way. I like my characters three-dimensional, fallible, and grey, and sick of hearing how they need to be strictly one thing or another.

[bettimbellis]

A Collage (of Yelling)

I saw someone do something like this to advertise their fic- they linked the fic, and then put in a little collage of various comment snippets. I can’t find the post to show off- someone please do let me know if you’ve seen that, I want to credit them. 

Either way, my Hollow Knight post-Black-Egg-Temple fic (linked here) has 209 comment threads on it. I’ve gone through and found some bits. These bits were mostly chosen for entertainment/intrigue value out of context- a lot of my favorite comments didn’t get in. 

Got some good reviews there, I think. Anyone wanna see the collection I have of Discord screenshots from folks yelling at me about this fic?  (Seriously though, thank all of y’all who comment, yell in the tags, whatever- I love it. Really helps keep the writing muse going, too.)

Image descriptions below the cut. 

[Image ID: a collection of bits of text placed on a light green background, in several groups. Text is as follows. 

Excuse me who gave you the right to hit me with this line at seven in the morning”, with an arrow pointing to the left. also it feels like there are many things to be concerned about lmao  God, Hollow is such a poor baby. A lanky wet cat left in the rain. Hollow, that feeling is love, dear, no need to feel so confused about it. Hornet, my sad dumb little spider baby, go to bed. in summary holy shit this is fucked sounds like stressTM can these characters stop being so relatable good Lird *smacks my face* Hornet. Hornet. the fuck HOLY FUCKING SHIT [all caps] It was so soft!!!! And then it became *so goddamn angsty-* *squints harder*  Wet rag is my new favorite character. *thunks my head on a wall* Gosh darn it Oro course you had to have integrity But also OW MY HEART?! SHATTERED?1 POOR BABY HOLLOW IM GONNA CRY Gosh dang. The last chapter was a little lighter, but apparently you were just holding back for this one.  (Chp. 3) I stg this whole chapter made my emotions whip back and forth between “awww :)” and “awwh :(” and “oh. Oh no baby do not think like that”.  Augh. just, augh. / ...except that bit at the end. ...except that last sentence, ‘cause, yeah. / *hides face in hands* this has been exhausting for everyone, apparently. Hollow knight or: when you are so touch starved that your standards for touch that you want are somewhere in the abyss that has spawned you.  Whatever the FUCK happened in the last section is Oh Lord Oh God What The Heeeeeellll Ohhhh My Goood No Waaayyyy... Will be waiting for the next chapter STARING at ao3...

i was so relieved to read this that i accidentally put my phone in airplane mode trying to respond “it is startled out of its pleasant memory-” pLEASANT???? PLEASANT!?! Hollow no. HOLLOW NO- / why does this for some reason almost feel like fluff.  My urge to keysmash at you is strong Just. God. Everything about this is so fucked in so many ways.

Something about this line just makes me want to. Maybe stab the king in the chest. Repeatedly. And then throw them off a bridge. Idk Actually many things about this chapter make me want to stab the king in the chest repeatedly and then throw them off a bridge. Because *holy shit* Hollow, honey, you have so much trauma. OMG ghost, what have you done [stressed emoji] Okay then. Well. Um. That’s a lot to happen.  God it’s such a mess Ah yes, the eldritch nonsense trying to approximate a living creature, my beloved PK you ass. PK you absolute ASS get over here I wanna hit you with something heavy-  oh / im immediately punched in the face okay thank you for that Right off the bat I am mildly excited about this chapter solely because you played with text formatting and that makes my serotonin levels rise. I don’t know why but thank you for that.  CONFUSION SOUP I’M FHDHDJFKFKGH I wanna join the cuddle pile :<<< let me in [holding Hollow gently in both hands] / I will get you all the fresh-dirt-scented soap Fucking superb you funky little vessels. Oh boy! Spiraling!

Oh this chapter hurts ‘specially bad. Because it wasn’t enough to be possessed and neglected and quite literally tortured and driven insane, now we gotta have more medical issues and amnesia-  I fuckign cried at this one, oh my god. Pain is always a tearjerker, but it’s nothing compared to someone who’s been in pain so long finally getting that first big moment of *realizing they’re wanted* and *heard* and *healing*  And I gotta say, (this is gonna sound bad) I really do love Hollow’s victim blaming. Or how it’s written. I love how you write characters in pain <333 “Oh, just a quick chapter to read before bed,” I thought to myself. “I will enjoy it and feel a normal and manageable level of emotions about it.” / ...Thanks for making me all teary in the wee hours, now I’ll never get to sleep! (...I mean this as praise.) Oh. Oh Hollow. So wrapped up in the need to be useful. So incapable still of seeing that their own gut-wrenching familial love might be returned in kind, whether they have some designated purpose for their existence or not.  Yeah. Relieved. / Oh, Hollow... You have already left kudos here :) [three times] / Have I ever been told the definition of insanity?  honestly the body horror was the /least/ disturbing thing in this chapter. not to say! that it was not disturbing - even then, less the horror and more the. context. i want to punch TPK. into a lake. that is on fire.

First comment of my first reread, and MAN. This opening hits just as hard the second time.  Keep in mind Hollow Knight was made by Australian people Hollow 100% deserves a nice date at the palace if they so wish. anyway, I feel very emo about Hollow, all the time.  HOLLOW IS LETTING THEMSELVES HAVE WILL, LET’S GOOOOOO Ghost is doing Fine:tm:, Hornet is doing Fine:tm:, Hollow is *actually* doing pretty well Good news! Hollow is an emotional wreck!  Hornet is doing sooo normal right now (lying).

TLDR; amazing story, glorious update, poor Grimm, I Am Desperate For Shield Lore, someone please tell Ghost it isn’t their fault, the entire gaggle of siblings needs a group hug, I Am Going To Put The Pale King’s Corpse Through A Shredder, and Hornet needs another good cry. 

anyways fuck you for writing this keep it up

[pippinoftheshire]

AO3 Wrapped [Writers Edition]

(Found this on Tumblr somewhere obscure so...)

How many words have you written this year?

How many works did you publish this year?

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

What work of yours has the most hits?

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Favorite title you used

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

What work was the quickest to write?

What work took you the longest to write?

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

What’s your longest work of the year?

What’s your shortest work of the year?

What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Your Favorite character to write this year?

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Which work of yours have you reread the most?

How many kudos in total did you get this year?

Which work has the most comments?

Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Did you write any gifts this year?

Did you receive any gifts this year?

What’s your most common category?

What do you listen to while writing?

Favorite work you wrote this year?

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Biggest surprise while writing this year

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

I Don't know why I decided to torture myself by doing this but here we go:

1. 150,849

2. 52

3. And They Call It Salvation (TMFU/Unfinished)

4. House Telcontar (LoTR)

5. Oh… either my series The Fallout (Mission: Impossible), which was more of a self-indulgent thing tbh; or my long running Witcher fic, On the Streets Of Novigrad.

6. And Our Love Shall Be Like The Stars (TMFU)

7. The only times I have uses song lyrics (This being twice, and only for Good Omens fics) were The Velvet Underground and Lauren Aquilina.

8. Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin (Sometimes Gaby joins this tag). Second place goes to Ethan Hunt/August Walker. By ONE FIC!

9. Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens)

10. Scales and Secrets (TMFU) I think it took me two hours.

11. The Finer Act of Kindness (The Witcher.) Though there are a few others who come a close second…

12. about six or seven 😊

13. On The Streets of Novigrad (Witcher)  By a long shot.

14. If I Could Turn Back The Time (TMFU). At 588 words.

15. And They Call It Salvation (TMFU), Narnin O in Duath O Ernil (Middle-Earth) and On The Streets Of Novigrad (Witcher)

16. Napoleon Solo is a Little Shit. (Thank you, Writing GOD!!!)

17. Oh darn… tough one… Either Crowley or Illya/Napoleon…

18. Bruce Wayne. By far.

19. I’d like to do more Aziraphale/Crowley next year, but also to try and get back into Sherlock/John.

20. Eughhhh that’s an embarrassing question! …It would be, I Can’t Not Love You (TMFU)

21. 1,530

22. On The Streets of Novigrad (Witcher)

23. No, sadly 😊 But it’s on the Bucket List hehe

24. I did indeed! 4 of them!

25. No. Unless Kudos and Lovely comments count- I got plenty of those <3

26. Like Fandom? I’m confused. If it’s fandom then it’s Man From UNCLE 2015…

27. Dear lord- I have far too many playlists on Spotify- tailor made for almost every fic… So uh… Music?

28. At the moment it’s either We All Have Our Shadows (BvS), or Scales and Secrets (TMFU)

29. Blarghhhh why are these questions so HARD???

llya does too, but he is far from willing to offer that up. Now, in the stillness, Illya takes his first uninterrupted look at the man he has been looming over. The dark curls mattered with sweat and blood… eyes the color of a summer sky… O’ bozhe but Illya misses the sky… the way it would unspool in an endless ribbon over the city. In his memory, the buildings are untarnished, the clouds drifting on a slight breeze as a little boy runs amongst the leaves in a park, blond hair shining in the sunlight. Nothing has hurt him yet. Perhaps nothing ever will… if Illya does not blink.

30. Probably just how kind everyone is. The fandoms I belong to- especially The Man From UNCLE one- are just such wonderful people <3

[myth-blossom]

Thank you for the tag, @cicaklah! Your picks were great and I’m adding them to my reading list <3

Rules: List ten books that have stayed with you in some way, don’t  take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to  be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

As a preface, I‘ve been a voracious reader since childhood. I typically prefer fiction and I remember more of the stories I’ve read than I do their creators and titles (to my great dismay). There came a point in my life when I wasn’t able to dedicate much energy to read for fun and instead focused on reading for my studies and my professional duties, which got to the point that I was getting quite burnt out on one of my favorite hobbies of all time. So I did think harder on this list than I should’ve because the past is somewhat weighted, but I’m hoping to add to my list of impressionable books and new memories in the near future.

In no particular order:

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - I like to joke about the *thorough* detailing that Tolkien often provides, but I really do love LOTR and the fantasy and lessons it offers. But what I love most about it is my mother and I read it together when I was young, and I was so engrossed in the pages that I would immediately point out where we left off amongst the many generous details.

Magical young wizard books & Chronicles of Narnia series - I’m tagging these two series together (and leaving the obvious young wizard title vague) because these were books my grandmother would read to us. It was nice to share these stories with her, which also led to her taking us to some of the films and sewing a witch costume for me for Halloween.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - I read this for a class on gothic literature in film and it left such a mark on me. I have many thoughts but I’ll only offer one recommendation: please give this a chance if you haven’t already.

Dracula by Bram Stoker - I also read this for the first time in the gothic class mentioned above. It was really cool to analyze the text and how the vampire legend has been adapted differently over time in media. Plus, I enjoyed the horror and spooky pacing.

Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White - like I said, I read many many many (did I say many?) books as a child. But one of the strongest memories I have is visiting the library, finding this book on the shelf, and being so engrossed with the story of the trumpeting swan. It’s nice to get caught up in a book like that.

Tortall Universe by Tamora Pierce (specifically the characters Alanna the Lioness, Kel, Daine) - Ironically, I bought a later series of the Tortall Universe before realizing I had the original books on my shelf, not yet read. I really wanted stories with strong female characters and these three were fun to read and explore the world of. 

The Prince and The Dressmaker by Jen Wang - this book, OH this book, I love it so very much. I read it in less than 24 hours. I should’ve savored it, but I was just that taken with the story. If you like graphic novels or want to give one a try, I would highly recommend this one.

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis - brutal is really the best word to describe this book. It contains a lot of triggering content (so please protect yourself, dear reader) and isn’t something I would normally pick, but it’s been nearly 7 years now and I still strongly remember the emptiness it left me with when I finished it.

The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey - I’ll be quite honest, I hardly remember the story itself. What I do remember is the show-and-tell that day from one of our book club readers. She shared stories from when she lived in Ireland and brought in items from her friends, and it was a lovely and emotional experience to witness.

Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman by Christopher Sebela and Jonathan Lau - As I mentioned, I found myself so burnt out from reading that it had been difficult to commit to a book for quite a while. Fanfiction really rekindled my love for reading and I decided to check out the Hitman comics. I was so happy to have the drive to finish a book again! I enjoyed the comics and the new headcanons they caused.

If you have a list of books or readings you’ve enjoyed, please feel free to share them! :)

[lucientelrunya]

Twenty questions for fic writers

Tagged again by the wonderful @forerussake, thank you!! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

10

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

446,816

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment only DMBJ and those are the only fics I've posted on AO3. I've written for other fandoms before and posted those on other sites, mostly HP and original works. I've also written things for Sailor Moon, Stargate, Lord of the Rings, Grimm and Stanger Things but never finished those, so they were never posted (and most are veeeeeeery long ago).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Like a lonely house (284)

The Crystal Menace (256)

Promise in the Dark (200)

We go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our tattoos (76)

Stolen Moments (54)

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

Yeah, always. Since I don't have that many fics on AO3 yet, it's not a lot to do and I love the interaction with readers, love hearing about their theories, what they liked and all that. And I want them to know how much I appreciate that they took time to write a nice comment and how happy that makes me! And as a reader myself I love it when authors answer my comments, too.

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

Ooof. Everything I write is angsty and hurt/comfort. But I guess the angsties one would be The Crystal Menace, because it's the first part of a trilogy and the ending is quite sad and gives a bleak outlook for the future. But it's not the real ending of the whole story, so I'm not sure it should count?

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

Hmmm, actually everything I write has a happy ending (you know, and if it's not happy then it's not the end). But I think the truly happiest ending would be Like a lonely house because at the end Zhang Rishan is truly happy for the first time in a very long time.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hmmm, very long ago one of my original ffs got a very unkind comment, but I'm not sure that should be considered hate, the person was still civil and I don' even remember much. So, I'd say no :)

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

I do. It's not always the easiest thing to write, but when the muse strikes, I greatly enjoy it. I'm not sure what different kinds of smut there are? I do write PWPs that are just about the sex, but I also do smutty last chapters to long-fic.

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

Uhhhh... I think I might have started one or two, once upon a time when I was a teenager. But I never got very far with those, my focus tended to shift a lot more back then. I don't know if I would write crossovers today, at least not classic crossovers. But fusions are very interesting, like putting characters from one fandom into the world of another fandom, replacing the original characters. Or at least a world very inspired by another fandom.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so, no. It's already such a small fandom and since I only do one pairing the audience is even smaller. As for the older stuff, well, I might love the stories but they were objectively speaking very badly written so I don't think anyone would want to steal those.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

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

Oh yes, almost all of my old stuff was co-written in role-play-style with someone else. But not big role plays, just me and my co-author creating characters and planning stories. Those were my teenage years and it took me very long to learn to write and do all the work all by myself.

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

Oh dear. I've had so many ships over the years and one I've written quite a lot is one I do not want to think about (because of the Terfling). I've been obsessed with FuBa for two years now and everything I've written since then is about them, so I'll say FuBa.

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

Definitely my Stranger Things ffs, those were the first things I started writing all by myself and I am quite proud of how far I did come with writing out a lot and not only the good scenes, but then my dad died and I couldn't really write for a year or something (until I hyperfixated on FuBa to kinda distract myself, I guess?) and the series kept on going and I didn't really like where it went, (I did mostly stop reading ffs after season 3 dropped), so I'm not sure I'll ever finish those.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I honestly have no idea. I just write what i want to read and kinda soldier on to get where I want to get.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

When I look at writing advice I always feel like I do everything wrong, but most of that advice sucks anyway XD. My weakness is definitely that I tend to get too many ideas and start too many new stories, keeping my focus on one and going through with it not easy. It gets easier when I post an ongoing fic, at least if I know people like it and are waiting for the next chapter :)

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

Hmmm, not sure about this. I wouldn't do it, I think, not even for languages I do speak. I can imagine different scenarios, like when a character ends up somewhere, where a language is spoken that the character doesn't understand. Mostly, if we are with that character, (first person, third person), we as the readers shouldn't understand the language as well and I would just say "says something in an unknown language". Because if characters speak a different language and it's relevant to the plot, then there has to be a translation and I personally would mark the dialogue as "spoken in X language", but still keep it english.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh dear. The first fandom I read was actually Stargate SG-1 and I think I wrote something for that? But it's so long ago, I'm not really sure. It might also be Sailor Moon, because I remember a weird crossovery story idea with Stargate. Who knows. That was more than 20 years ago ^^°°°

And also I remember a time when I had just learned to write and I wrote silly little one-page fairy tales that always ended with a happily ever after, so maybe fairytales are my real actual first fandom? XD

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Uhhh, this is a hard one because I love all my stories (even the badly written old ones). But it's Like a lonely house, I think. The first story I wrote (and finished!!) all by myself and my first story on AO3. And I still love most of it and re-read it frequently :)

Ooooookay, who to tag? Maybe @spinecorset, @daydreamorama, @elletromil, @lacommunarde, @s1utspeare, @kholran, if any of you want?

[ir0n-moon]

10 questions game

Tagged by: No one, I saw this while stalking a random inactive blog and thought it'd be cool for us to do it

1. What's your phone wallpaper? A photo of my irl boyfriend! Not posting it here for his own privacy but I promise you he looks very hot

2. Favorite singer? Our king of kings and captain of captains, Aurelio Voltaire

3. Favorite band? Nightwish! They honestly changed my life and their album Imaginearum came out at a moment when I needed it the most.

4. Favorite character of all time? Dear fucking lord this is a tough one. Everyone who follows me knows I adore Charles, but he's my favorite in the sense that I want to be with him! Regarding characters whom I relate to or otherwise embody what I'd like to be, there's too many of them to count.

5. Favorite book? A kidlit novel called La Domadora de Miedos by Guadalupe Alemán Lascurain. Not terribly obscure, but I doubt you'll find it outside of Mexico.

6. Favorite movie? Oh god. Again I can't decide on only one from my top four. It's tie between Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Imaginaerum (2012), The Little Prince (2015), and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Although Labyrinth (1986) is steadily climbing its way to have this become a top five lmao

7. Favorite actor/actress? I don't know enough about them to really feel drawn to any in particular tbh

8. Favorite YouTuber? This thing is really set out to be a nightmare for indecisive people right? For fun facts and education I love Ask A Mortician. For recipes I really dig Adam Ragusea and Super Pilopi. For witchcraft/spirituality I like Solitude of Alanna. Gonna stop there cause I also follow a handful of art-oriented channels and I couldn't even begin to choose just one.

9. Do you drink? Nope, but I like taking weed edibles now and then

10. If you were an animal what would you be? A mouse or a rat because I want to be carried inside somebody's pocket

Tagging: @gogomeaty, @twigg96, @the-gall0ws, @pan-flute-skeleton, @amaianita, and @karppy but PLEASE don't feel pressured to do this if you don't feel like it! Also anyone else who wants to join in, just say I tagged you, it'll be fine

[leatafandom]

🍒🍋🥝🍐

😝

Hello my dearest <3 Thank you so much, I got much further with my Spangel fic!!

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

I think my favorite would probably be two very sarcastic people interacting. I just enjoy that volley and writing it can be super fun

🍋 What’s your favorite spicier trope to write?

Oh lord, I'm so bad at knowing what tropes are. I generally enjoy writing a power bottom, with or without other kinks thrown in. Its always a delight.

🥝 What’s your favorite trope/AO3 tag to write?

Since I suck at tropes, I'll go with a tag. I think it would probably just be angst. I just enjoy writing that punch in the gut feeling and maybe making it better. I just enjoy exploring emotions and how they affect characters and how they deal with them.

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc…

Gabriel dying. I mean, I'm sure I could think of other things for many different fandoms, but like I will cradle him and protect him forever and act like it never happened until the day I die.

Thank you so so much for the asks dear! I'm so happy to be a bit closer to finally finishing another Spangel fic. It's been too long.

For Fruit Emoji Ask Game for Fic Writers

400 words written for the Great Motivation Experiment

[noswordinourlake]

5 Lines Tag

I was tagged by @failed221b-chill! Wow I can do the fanfic writing memes again huh? This is wild

rules: find five lines based on the prompts you are given, then change one of the prompts at the end!

I am. Interpreting 'lines' in the loosest possible sense here.

A Line About Butts

Across the room, Huan Hua, still in Shen Qingqiu’s assigned seat, has taken one bite of soup, turned virulently purple, and started choking.

“Oh dear,” Shen Qingqiu says, again on his way out of the door. “I wonder if Hallmaster Peng is allergic to mushrooms? How unfortunate.” Shang Qinghua is dumbfounded for half a second.

Shen-shixiong you asshole! You can't pin this on him!! That's the last time he'll try to do something nice for you!

shockingly for only having written SVSSS fic recently SQH calling Shen Jiu an asshole in my fic Plausible Deniability is the closest I get to butts so far! Am I letting the fandom down

all of the rest of these are from my WIP (my heart avoids itself) like a moon once married to the sea so I don't have to link it every time

A Sad Line

Of course this jinbu was familiar. He had saved up his night hunt earnings for a full half year to buy the jade, and knotted the tassel himself.

Shizun pales at Luo Binghe’s close inspection of the ornament, but pushes forward through the moment brazenly. “I doubt that my lord would—it was a personal gift from the artist. I suppose bamboo motifs are a common gift for Qing Jing cultivators. It may be that.”

Luo Binghe trails his fingers over the jade, feeling his own energy echo back to him, before he lets the pendant fall. “Yes,” he says, “I suppose that may be it.”

We're allergic to vulnerability and open communication here but I think this is uh. Pretty sad

A Furious Line

“I told you,” he says, voice as flat and cold and cutting as the memory of shizun falling, falling, “to leave him. Alone.”

She huffs, stomping a foot and jingling every bell on her many bangles in an angry chorus. “And this Hualing told the Junshang! It's too suspicious! I wasn't going to touch him, I just want to watch him for a bit!”

“And this lord told Sha Hualing that he is not an idiot. She will leave Huang Feng alone.”

“If you didn't want us following him around why did the Junshang put a spirit flag on him as flashy as a venomous peacock-tailed panther—”

Luo Binghe has many faults. He does admit this. He does not count to five before punching Sha Hualing so hard she almost makes it back to Two Hills.

A Line About Food

“This cultivator must admit to being deeply curious about what skills he might offer the Junshang that his other advisors do not have in plenty?” Shen Qingqiu asks. Luo Binghe’s dreamscape has transformed into a well-lit and welcoming receiving room, and a tea service sits on the table between them. Shen Qingqiu wonders if Binghe will expect him to drink the dream tea and then, immediately on the heels of this first thought, if blood gu can be transmitted in the dream realm. He…probably won't have to drink the dream tea, right? A receiving room needs tea, it's there for verisimilitude, surely?

A Line About Animals

The last three places he'd stopped for more than a night, Sha Hualing had showed up within the day. So far in his list of ignominious escapes, he has jumped out of a third storey window, stolen clothing off of an unattended wash line, and generated probably indelible mental trauma in himself creating a distraction by irritating and then setting loose a pen of geese (not even any kind of demonic fowl! Just regular geese!). Shen Qingqiu had thought, after the goose fiasco, his escape attempts could get no worse but this. Feels worse, definitely. Smells maybe about the same?

This was fun! I thought I was going to have nothing for the food prompt but then I ended up being surprisingly spoiled for choice. Also all these low EQ POV characters... Why are you making the emotional prompts so difficult...

Tagging (of course only if you want to) @tavina-writes, @cerusee, @livingmeatloaf, @yletylyf and an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in!

Prompts:

A Line You Think is Hilarious

A Sad Line

A Furious Line

A Line About Food

A Line About Animals

[jackienautism]

hi again!!! no worries about taking time with my asks, they are very long i totally get it!! rereading my last ask i realize there were a handful of times where i just. left out complete parts of sentences LMAO whoops. that will happen when you are typing and watching someone play a game at the same time.

anyway i finished my vw playthrough yesterday! my brother is almost done with his playthrough as well. he ended up siding with edie :) he also decided to buy his own switch so he can play on his own LMAO.

hmmm.. thinking about the fics i've read (since i hit part two on my deer playthrough i was playing more and reading fic less lol). immediately after playing i was like hm. this is great territory for time travel and time loop related fanfiction given the whole. divine pulse plus new game + mechanic. i'm sure there's interesting stuff related to this. and i was right. then i think i looked through some edelgard related tags, and then some marianne related tags? i was mostly sticking to one-shots and like. mid-length multichapter fics, and sending the really long ones to my read later list lol. saving those for when i finish at least the three lord's routes.

as for art, i was mostly just searching a character or dynamic i liked on here and going from there LOL.

yeahhhh. ingrid and felix's paired ending isn't Bad or anything but like after the b support i just. don't like the idea of them ending up together lol. and meanwhile any ending where ingrid has children bothers me? so. absolutely not to the sylvain ingrid paired ending. and honestly i kind of hate the whole.... 'oh she's always cleaning up his messes' thing that their c support (and other general interactions) suggest. like i do like sylvain but i am Not subjecting ingrid to him LMFAO.

i ended up reading some bernie/edelgard fanfiction and Really liking their dynamic in that which is. funny considering i've never seen their a support LMAO. as for dorothea and edie, i've seen their a support now thanks to my brother's playthrough!! they're sooo good. i think you're right about marianne supports with girls outside the deer?? which is annoying. let marianne interact with more girls she deserves it. and YEAH i did end up seeing the marianne lysithea supports and like. they're fine! but man there were so many interesting directions they could've taken those two and they just. didn't. very unremarkable supports imo which sucks extra because they could've been so good!

i got mercedes and annette to b support! so they had their fight and then the next time they see each other they are facing each other on the battlefield. which was very fun. i loveeeed creating scenarios like that caspar killing linhardt was also so :((( i was gonna have sylvain kill felix but he failed so bad annette had to kill felix too LMAO. and i had dorothea kill ferdinand which is :( and. for edie i had petra, claude and byleth all land at least one hit on her for maximum interesting dialogue.

i love how last ask i was like 'sylvain is going to end up alone because i can only pair him with byleth or dorothea and i'm not pairing him with dorothea again, and im either pairing byleth with claude or dorothea' and then i ended up. s supporting sylvain. idk what it was about claude.... i absolutely loved him as a character, but i was not feeling the romance at allll. like that's my dear friend claude.. as for dorothea, i was thinking that i probably want to s support her if i ever go for silver snow, because i think the idea of byleth and dorothea who both like. still really care about edelgard and maybe even regret their decision to side against her in a split second but hey it's too late to turn back now, right! getting together is just. so. there's sometihng about it. will i ever actually bring myself to play silver snow?? maybe.. i think if i dont let myself s support dorothea until i do, though, i'm more likely to play it, and i do want to see all the routes.. i also really wanted to see the dorothea petra paired ending.

i ended up with completely different paired endings than i initially anticipated, which i ended up really liking! aside from sylvain and byleth, and obviously petra and dorothea, i also got claude and hilda, which. LOVED their a support. i am an absolute sucker for characters who are both wearing masks of sorts calling each other on it.... also got marianne and ashe which was really sweet :) caspar and annette as well, which, again, i really liked and thought was sweet. i also ended up with leonie and shamir, which was good as well. honestly maybe one of the best endings for leonie, who i ended up getting more attached to than i expected during my playthrough. OH and ignatz and raphael, whose supports started strong but like.. his sister? ignatz marries his sister? okay. i wasn't aware i was doing the supports for ignatz and raphael's sister but. whatever. like i don't mind it, i wasn't particularly attached to them like. ending up together? but it felt like a cop out from making them romantic honestly.

circling back but MAN dorothea and petra's a support and paired ending.... i love them they're sooo good. dorothea is sooo special to me i love when she gets to be happy...... she deserves it!!

i ended up REALLY liking annette, way more than i expected to lol. very excited for the lions to see her sylvain and mercedes specifically. i thinkk i'm gonna recruit marianne again, since like. why wouldn't i recruit marianne. dorothea as well because. well. it's dorothea and i love her. i'm probably gonna recruit bernie because i didn't last time, and maybe ferdinand as well? i could get caspar since i hear he's got a paralogue with mercedes but, as much as i like caspar, i want to recruit some different people this time around and i'm already set on getting dorothea again lol.

i'll probably get leonie as well, and then either raphael or hilda? haven't decided yet. i like hilda, but i think my first real character defining experience with her being her literally dying for claude in CF (before i used divine pulse to prevent that lol) has like. solidified and defined my interpretation of her and i don't feel right recruiting her away from the deer. soooo funny to me that hilda 'i would never die for my friends' goneril is now stuck in this role in all of my subsequent playthroughs. i don't even know if you fight her in the lions route but i'm still not pulling her away from the deer and claude. sorry girl.

i like avoided using lorenz like the PLAGUE because well. i didn't have to use him. and i really didn't want to accidentally get a paired ending with him LOL. idk i feel like his whole lack of respect for claude was reallyyyy grating especially after a certain point. and the fact that the byleth c support is you going 'hey lorenz stop being weird to women??' idk. like i'm sure there's Something interesting there but i didn't care enough to look for it honestly he just has too many unlikable qualities and not enough charm or interesting stuff to make up for it. to me.

OH IGNATZ AND MARIANNE..... i loved their supports actually. they were so good. i keep forgetting about them and then remembering all of a sudden and going. oh those were good. the claude and petra supports were also good, as were annette and claude's! and i didn't see all of annette and ashe's, but they were sweet too. hmmm sylvain and marianne's b support was surprisingly good, as was his b support with hilda (once again. characters wearing metaphorical masks is sooo interesting to me and i love when they interact..). claude and marianne's were SO good i loved them. i love how marianne is in the ending tapestry/mosaic thing for VW too, especially considering the ending of their supports! leonie and claude's were good, marianne and hilda's were pretty sweet, and so were ashe and caspar's..... man i'm trying to think of what other ones i got. i want to like.. say how i feel about all of these but i don't want to spoil any you haven't gotten yet so! i think i'll just leave it there.

anyway! excited for the blions route! gonna go play with my brother again lol so he can finish CF and start his own playthroughs on his new switch, and so i can move onto the lions! as much as i love the other houses, going through this game twice i Have noticed that a lot of the early game stuff skews towards having the lions be plot relevant, and the themes and connections between the lions just seem. really deliberately woven if that makes sense. so i'm looking forward to seeing it all play out! i think before i play silver snow i'd have to do another CF route tho bc i can only go so long supporting the church before i feel the urge to not do that LMAO. anyway i hope you're doing well!!! have a good day/week, it's always nice talking with you and hearing your thoughts :)

HIII thank you so much for understanding! its very much appreciated :] and fdkndg no worries man, im pretty sure i understood what you were saying and all. but yeah that prob is gonna happen when youre watching someone else play at the same time, so no worries!

OHH GOOOD. GLAD HE SIDED W/ EDIE AFTER ALL YIPPEEE but i suppose that was assumed right? glad it came true!!! and CONGRATS ON FINISHING YOUR VERDANT WIND PLAYTHROUGH!!!!! you play fast fdgndfg took me a good like 2 years to finally get back to it and finish it 😭 good for you! glad youre enjoying everything!

and yeah that makes sense ! glad that the game had you that hooked and stuff (eyeballs) but yeah it sucks that its between either playing or engaging w/ content... and that can be a difficult thing to decide sometimes jdfgfd YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABT THE TIME LOOP / TIME TRAVEL POTENTIAL!!!!! AND SPEAKING OF THAT? HAVE YOU SEEN AN EAGLE AMONG LIONS? ITS GOOOOD. its like 80+ chapters BUT ITS SOOO GOOD. i myself am only like ? not even a quarter of the way through but it plays on different timelines and time travel and stuff. and it has a HUGE focus on edelgard. def couldnt recommend it enough. makes sesne that you stuck w/ the shorter ones though... since it does get time consuming. any ones you read that you recommend :o? glad youve found a bunch of good ones regarding that concept though

AND NICE. MAKES SENSE. it just sucks that sometimes if th edynamic isnt very popular it gets difficult tofind stuff</3 esp art stuff. like. for example. i wanted to find som e marianne and lysithea stuff. and not even like romantically. i just want to see them together. and i couldnt find any art but i DID find a few fics but </3 sometimes i just wnat Them you know? and they were often accompanied by several other characters / dynamics. there were 2 that i rly liked though

I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT INGRID HAS ENDINGS WHERE SHE HAS CHILDREN!!!!!! IS THE GAME DAFT? IS THAT /NOT/ WHAT THEY ESTABLISHED AS SOMETHING SHES AFRAID OF? gosh dfkgnfdg jesus christ. and no youre sooo right abt the whole sylvain and ingrid dynamic. like. of course its funny to a degree and ingrid doesnt have to place all that onto herself but............ i think both the game and the fandom play it up a bit too much. but yeah fdgjdfg i totally understand why you wouldnt pair her w/ either felix or sylvain

OOOO i know bernie and edie is ? sort of popular? so im happy that youve enjoyed their dynamic, i still need to go through their supports myself</3 AND YIPPPEE glad you enjoy edie and dorothea together and that you liked their A support<3 yeah ): i like just didnt remember seeing marianne have supports w/ any girls outside the golden deer... which SUCKS bc 2 out of the 3 she only goes up to B. SHE DOES DESERVE IT!!!!!! and like. ive thouhgt abt this before but..... dorothea and marianne........ they both have themselves in their dislikes section........ thoughts in my brain. AND FOR REAL !!!! ABT LYSITHEA AND MARIANNE. THEY COULDVE DONE SOOO MUCH MORE AND YET THEY DIDNT ): and not only that, they dont even have a post timeskip one ?? which i feel they TOTALLY deserve. esp since lysithea's whole thing was like. enjoy lfie while you can! look at the positive! and then she DOES post timeskip! i dont knooow they couldve so much, like you said

and ah okay! i guess i shouldve assumed that you were referring to mercie and annette, just based on their supports and all. but thank you! but also. BOOOO. i get wanting to create a scenario like that but 😭😭😭😭 the sheer POTENTIAL of something like that though is SOOO good. i assume mercedes was w/ dimitri during that one battle where all 3 armies clashed on gronder field? i haven't gotten caspar and linhardt's special dialogue on the battlefield.... and i probably never will TBH. THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME LMAO w/ sylvain and felix. atleast in my CF run. i got their special dialogue and then sylvain was GONNA kill him but felix's pavise or some shit activated and ALMOST KILLED HIM RIGHT BACK!!!!! it was very unfortunate. glad annette was able to cover for him i guess though 😭 /AND/ YOU HAD DOROTHEA KILL FERDIE???? GODDAMN...... you are very strong my friend. getting special dialogue is fun but at the same time </////3 it makes me Hurt. does petra and edie have special dialogue together? i didnt realize that :o

OHHHH YOU ENDED UP S SUPPORTING SYLVAIN???????? THATS CERTAINLY A SHOCK FGNJDFGF i thinki believe ive seen your account? you hva e a bi sylvain icon right? if youre not comfortable w/ me saying that just lmk and ill remove it asap. BUT GOOD FOR YOUUUU FKNGFGDF I CERTAINLY WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT LMAO. and yeah i feel that for claude and byleth. i honestly cant say anything bc i had no intentions of S supporting him to begin with but. yeah. WHEN HE CHANGES FROM "TEACH" TO "MY FRIEND"...... I THINK THATS SO CUTE THOUGH. and ouuugh the potential of silver snow byleth / dorothea.... i like that concept a whole lot. i think you def should do that if you go down that route. but at the same time. are you even able to keep any of the black eagles in your class during that route? or does edie turn against ALL of them? i have yet to play so i dont knooow. nbut the potential scares me. since going against edie after gaining her trust is one thing, but to have to go against the WHOLE CLASS? very sad. but no ytoure absolutely right... i think theyd have a particular bond after going agsinst edelgard, and i think that may increase their relationship and all. they get to revel in that guilt together!!!! mmm, using dorothea as a reason to play it is dfngdfgk it gives you incentive you know? and i believe thats needed as a route like SS

yeah!!! claude and hilda's A support was very good... makes sense why theyre so drawn together and all. because, like you said, its interesting how characters who tend to put up a mask themself also tend to see through someone else's, especially if its a close friend. ooo didnt realize marianne could A support w/ ashe! or annette w/ caspar! thats very interesting. i knew abt leonie and shamir, i dont quite understand Why yet (since i have yet to see them) but. i suppose it makes some sense considering that shamir is sort of a mercenary? it was something like that right? i forgor. glad to hear that thats one of the best endings for leonie! i literally just recently finished VW and i already forget who leonie ended up w/ oops. andd getting attached to her is epic as well, bc i just couldnt get myself to tbh. ofc i like her and alll, but i just. eh. you know? I DONT EVEN REMEMBER WHO IGNATZ AND RAPHAEL ENDED UP WITH!!!!! NO WAIT I DO. NVM. anyway. i had no idea thats who their (ignatz and raphael) ending plays out?????? thats so :/ i get not everything ahs to be romantic but come OOOOON.... ESP SINCE WE DONT EVEN GET TO SEE RAPH'S SISTER??????? LIKE 😭😭😭 gosh. thats so annoyingg. but no youre right, them adding in maya like that is such just ..... like you said, a cop out. and it sucks. not all the endings are specifically romantic, like raph and lysitheas for example iirc, but CMON !!!!!!!!

RIIIIIIGHT....... in my playthroughs i tend to only get the supports of the characters in my house (as i also tend to use only those characters and maybe 1 or 2 recruits) but MAN. FOR MY AZURE MOON ONE I JUST CANT LET DOROTHEA BE ALONE...... SO IM GONNA GET HER TO A SUPPORT W/ PETRA AGAIN......... she deserves to be happy andd knowing that she has the potential to be alone makes my heart hurt.

annette is a real sweetheart. and i love her little songs dfkgndf and ofc her relationship w/ mercedes is real nice. BUT YEAAAAH GOOD RECRUITS AS USUAL.... im only on like the first chapter of the timeskip actuallly dkfgndg i havent played azure moon in a bit, i rly need to change tha.t. i actually havent played the game at ALL in a little bit, for reasons i wont get into, which sucks but </3 gonna try and get into the groove again soon. dont blame you for wanting to get different people, and yeah caspar and mercedes do have a paralogue together! it has to do w/ the death knight iirc. anyone you plan to recruit in place of caspar? or are you just gonna wing it?

OH guess the next paragraph answered my question mb. BUT OOOO HILDA... THATS VERY INTERESTING TO THINK ABT..... i totally forgot that she was like that in terms of dying and stuff... unless i just misse dhtat entirely? and i cant remember her dying quote / special interaction w/ marianne or byleth rip. BUT YEAH. I CAN DEF SEE HWY YOU DONT WANNA SEPARATE HER FROM THE DEER / CLAUDE..... they both already go soooo well together.... so i totally get it. aside from hilda literally dying for claude after saying she wouldnt ddo such things for them, what was your other character defining moments for her? if any?

LMAO LORENZ..... i like. gosh. i dont blame you at AALLLLL. his first impression is just so bad and ugly and..... iugh. i went through all his supports w/ the golden deer (except for claude's. i missed out on it. which. im not too disappointed abt LOL i can imagine he goes through some growth hopefully nbut i cant rly say that he truly does) and yeah... he has some redeeming qualities. like. hes a very caring and nice guy beneath it all. but you're right. his distrust in claude is so just annoying and UGLY if you really get down to it. /I/ dont like him either but going throuhg his supports w/ the deer made me appreciate him a littl emore? not by much though. i still think hes annoying. and honestly i dont even remember his A support w/ byleth LOL which probably means it wasnt that memorable. but yeah i dont blame you for avoidinig him at all costs lmao hes a really unlikable character imo lol. and as youve siad, his whole thing w/ claude rly puts me off

YESSSS IGNATZ AND MARIANNE'S SUPPORTS WERE SO SWEET.... I ESP LOVED WHNE HE SAW THE SUNSET AND THOUGHT TO HIMSELF "OH, MARIANNE WOULD LOVE THIS" THATS SO NICE AND CUUUUTE 😭😭 OOO i dind realize annette had supports w/ claude... interesting. i think i stilll need ashe and annette's A support but they were so fun dfngdfg esp them getting Scared together and stuff. i dont rly care abt sylvain very much but i do enjoy most of his supports. rly shows a different side of him, which made me realize just how strong of a character he is. character wise, i mean. but yeah! OHHHH CLAUDE AND MARIANNE'S WERE SOOO GOOD.... I ESP LOVED THEIR A SUPPORT AND HOW HE GAVE THAT STORY ABT HIMSELF AND ALL..... TO RELATE TO MARIANNE AND HER STRUGGLES W/ BURDENS AND SUCH...... i also got their ending (out of pure chance which i was VERY happy about)AND OHH YEAH, SO THAT WAS MARIANNE ON THE END ART HUH? i mauyube thought she was there just because of my game getting their ending but fkgnfg THATS SO CUTE !!!!!! I LOVE U MARIANNE . i vaguely remember leonie and claude's which sucks, ill prob have to go throuhg them all again separately since i just BINGED most of them during the end of my playthrough. marianne and hildas were good too.... i thought it was so cute how hilda got her to laugh so hard during their A support )): and i still need to get ashe and caspar's! and thank you for not wanting to spoil stuff for ): that's very nice of you, feel free to talk abt the ones in specific you rly liked! its ok if i havent gotten them before :] ill def just go through them again regardless! but, just so you know, ive gotten all the golden deer's supports w/ each other. excluding lorenz and claude. and pretty much all of the blue lions' supports w/ each other, i have just a few left

HAVE FUN W/ THE LIONS ROUTE!!!!! youre def right to say that white clouds is very heavily biased towards the blue lions... esp narrative wise... you'll. def see what i mean. even more so than the obvious. i wont say much but it regards edelgard. but yeah! like. sylvain and miklan... mercedes and the death knight... i swear there was more but my mind is drawing a bblank rn. OH aand ashe and lonato. imo it was clear that azure moon was meant to be the Bulk of this game. like. you were meant ot play this route and that's it. you're absolutely right abt it seeming deliberately woven. they rly dont try to hide the bias lol which isnt a bad thing ofc but. just seeing how much the fandom is prone to hate edie...... i blame the game's targeted narrative for that. AND I FEEL THAT L,MAO. being on the church's side is so just... it pisses me OOOFF tbh. i can only take so much of that. so i def agree that you plau CF again before doing SS or another one fkndgffg

HOPE YOUREDOING WELL TOO !!!! HAVE A GREAT DAY / NIGHT AS WEELLLLL. and hehe thank youu..... im glad you enjoy reading my thoughts, bc i feel the same about yours!!!! :D

[katetheworm]

Writing Questions Tag

thanks for the tag @emptyflowerpots ​!!! took a little bit bc finals are coming up and brain is filled with too much engineering lmao.

i’ll leave an open tag lol

what is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

hmmm, I really like the idea I have for a few original stories that have been worked and reworked and reworked again lmao. Specifically there’s this sci-fi horror story I’ve been working on recently (plan to make it an interactive story) and I really like the idea I have. I usually focus on fantasy stuff, so doing sci-fi and horror (two of my favorite genres, as well as a mixture of mystery lol) has been loads of fun. 

idk if that’s my all time favorite tho, since my main fantasy story will always hold a special place in my heart lol

what is your favorite part of being a writer? which parts could you take or leave?

I absolutely adore simply creating worlds and characters. World-building is both the bane of my existence and the most wonderful part of it. Being able to create an entirely new world filled with characters and history and lore and just everything is so fulfilling.

then the other side of this coin is that is takes me forever to actually do because I am way too much of a perfectionist to ever leave anything and not go back and change stuff lmao

what is your greatest motivation to write/create?

probably to be able to talk about it to someone lol. Like having an idea is one thing and i can talk about my ideas for ages, but actually having stuff written down that I can show someone stuff that I’ve written lol. That and simply being able to put my thoughts into words so they aren’t swirling around in my brain too much. I have too many other things that I need to think about lmao

what is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? link it if you’d like and can!

uhhhh would one-shots count? Because I haven’t actually finished a multi-chapter story yet... so I’ll go with one-shots. Probably Sleepy Times, an Aragorn fic that I whipped up super quickly but I really like it and think it’s cute lol

what is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

hmmm, I really like this one from part five of my fic Naud Bui Amarth, said by my lovely oc, Cefrey: “’Fate works in mysterious ways, do not forget that, dear ranger.’” It’s simple, but I think it shows her character a lot and idk, it was the first one I thought of 

which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? why do you say so and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

Without giving too much away, probably a character from another fantasy interactive fiction I’m working on, Aeron Alincar. He’s not the most... honorable character? Or I suppose he has his own sense of honor that most wouldn’t agree with. He’s very set in his ways, despite them not being very nice lol

if you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

oh boy, the very first story I sat down and wrote I was... ten? eleven? It was in ,y fifth grade english class and it was very much based on lord of the rings lol. I think she would be rather amazed at what I’ve done since then, especially with how much I’ve written since then. I think she would want to know all about the world I’ve created and if it’s still heavily influenced by lotr. As well as wonder how the hell I’ve grown to like writing and reading horror as well, I got scared so easily when I was younger lmao