#tsshw

[sarah--writes-blog]

Shifting Cycles

Anon: well i absolutely love any werewolf keith :D

A/N: Happy Birthday Keith! You are a precious bean, and this Halloween fic is dedicated to you <3

Keith was getting twitchy. Maybe his little moon tracker app on his phone was wrong. Maybe the full moon was actually tonight. That would explain the muscle spasms running up and down his back and the coarse hair that was starting to peek out of his arms and chin. Maybe he should call Kolivan.

Kolivan had become Keith’s impromptu mentor, ever since they both discovered their lycanthropic qualities. He easily adopted Keith into his pack, taking him under his wing (or paw), and teaching him the ways of being a werewolf.

But Kolivan was gone this month. This was evident by a number of times Keith got to voicemail. He often went on recruiting missions and territory markings to solidify his pack, and just before a full moon was the perfect time to renew their scents in the area. He can’t be bothered with just a pup, Keith thought to himself, scratching idly at the side of his cheeks. So he scrolled through the rest of his contacts, wondering who else he could call for advice.

Hunk was a no-go. Ever since Keith had accidentally given him that scare about a year ago, the big guy was a bit unsure about the whole werewolf situation. Lance was in the middle of a family reunion, he shouldn’t be bothered. Allura and Shiro actually had adult jobs and lives they had to tend to, and Pidge was away at a hacking convention, and that left her brother, Matt. Not Keith’s first choice, but no doubt he’d be knowledgeable. He dialed and watched his yellowing nails as the phone rang.

Matthew Holt wasn’t used to getting calls from Keith. When he looked at the caller ID, his eyebrows furrowed. “Um...hello?”

“Hey Matt, it’s Kei-”

“You sound like you swallowed a blender! What happened?!”

Keith huffed a bit. His voice always got rough and gravelly around this time. “It’s just...part of the whole wolf thing. Which is what I called you about.”

Matt twirled in his office chair and looked at his calendar. “Isn’t the full moon tomorrow?”

“That’s the problem.”

“Why on earth did you call me, then?”

Keith explained the whole reasoning he’d gone through a minute earlier and got Matt’s sympathies. After a decent amount of back and forth and some quick texts and replies from Pidge and Allura, they got the scraps of an answer.

“We can probably assume that since you’re still a pup, you’ve got some variation in your cycles,” Matt explained, “And if they’re anything like more womanly cycles, they should straighten out as you get older.”

“So...what does that mean for me now?”

“Means you’re probably changing a day early, Keith.”

The werewolf clenched his teeth and tried not to sound distressed. He had always had someone beside him during these changes before, but this would theoretically be his first change alone, and that scared him more than the change itself.

“Alright....” His claws tapped on the table nervously, “Do you, uh...shit....I dunno how to ask, but-”

“You want me to come over.”

Keith could hear the small smirk on Matt’s face when he said it. But he nodded. “I’d owe you one.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You’ve saved my ass a few times, it’s about time I saved yours. Will you be okay for about an hour while I finish this project up?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll be alright. Just don’t take your sweet time getting here.”

“I won’t. Just gotta grab some stuff that might help,” Matt’s voice softened into a more comforting tone, “You’ll be okay, alright Keith? Just a little ahead of schedule. Do what you would normally do, I’ll be there soon.”

Keith’s shoulders relaxed a bit at the softer words, “Okay. Thank you.”

The boys hung up, and Keith’s long wait began. An hour truly wasn’t that long, but this time it felt agonizing. Every little action he took to occupy himself only seemed to last seconds. He even managed to do the dishes, clean up his laundry, and tidy his small living room, and he still had forty minutes left.

At the half-hour mark, Keith started pacing around. Forty minutes in, his clothes started to feel too tight, and he changed into his large shifting pajamas. Forty-five minutes in, he began to panic at the itching that was covering his body. At fifty minutes, when Matt still wasn’t there, Keith was convinced that he’d abandoned him, and he’d have to shift alone. And at fifty-five minutes, he was in the darkest corner of his home, watching his hands crackle and break as tears streamed down his cheeks.

But at just a minute left, there was a frantic knock at the door. Keith didn’t even have to get up, Matt let himself in and had their entire friend group in tow.

“Keith!” Lance was the first one to run up and tumble to his side, taking one of his trembling hands in his own. Shiro did the same, although he was much more graceful about sitting down and pulling Keith into his lap. Soon after, Keith was surrounded by his friends, and looking at Matt with confusion.

“H...how di-”

“Shh, hush, you’re busy.” Matt grinned, pulling out his water bottle for whenever Keith was ready, “I told you, I was picking up some things that might help. And friends are things.”

“We’re people, not things.” Pidge stuck her tongue out at her older brother, then turned to Keith with a soft smile, “He piled us all in that dumb Subaru Outback, and nearly got pulled over trying to get us here on time.”

Keith looked from face to face, all of them with friendly and comforting gazes. Except for Allura. Allura was storming around the house on the phone, yelling at someone with all the energy she could muster.

“I don’t care if you’re on an important trip, you do not leave a new member of your pack alone near the full moon!...Yes, he can handle himself, but look where we are now - you know pups have unreliable cycles!... I know plenty about werewolves, obviously more than you, Kolivan!”

Keith managed a smile before more pain shot through his middle, and he clenched his eyes shut. The pain was met with hand squeezes and reassuring words from everyone around him, even Hunk, who was close enough to pat his foot for comfort.

It would be a long, painful night, that was the truth. But it was also true that Keith had all of his friends close by, and he would be just fine with them around.

[sarah--writes-blog]

Warm Things

@unmeimiru: Took me a while to think of one. Here's a prompt for you: scarves and beanies and hot chocolate with marshmallows, Keith and Pidge.

“So you’ve never owned a scarf?”

“I have my little neck scarf-”

“No. Like a real scarf. For winter.”

“The Garrison is in the desert, I’ve never needed them.”

“Seems like you need one now.”

Keith huffed and crossed his arms, trying to ignore the fact that he couldn’t breathe out of his nose.

The paladins hadn’t exactly been quarantined and disinfected before Blue blasted them off into space. With three of them in contact with the entire Garrison and one of them exposed to new species and all the diseases they came with, it was impressive how long it took for the humans to catch a simple head cold. As soon as the first symptoms popped up, everyone was sprayed down with Altean disinfectant. But as the paladins learned in their biology classes, the common cold was notoriously hard to get rid of.

In the end, Team Voltron narrowed it down to Pidge being the one who brought it on board. Not because she had it herself, but the last time any of them remembered someone getting sick was in her robotics class - her partner for the project had it pretty bad.

The guilt Pidge had was what drove her to confront the victim of this strain of cold virus. Unfortunately, this victim was the most stubborn of them all. She found him outside the training deck.

“I don’t need a scarf. We’re in space.” Keith grumbled. He was in a particularly bad mood, ever since Shiro forbade him from training for at the very least a day so he wouldn’t spread it to the others. “Besides, scarves don’t actually help. They just get all gross.”

“Maybe not physically, but mentally they work pretty damn well. Here.” Pidge offered him her own scarf that she’d picked up on one of the more touristy planets. “It seemed to jump over me, you can be gross on this all you want.”

“No.”

“C’mon, fussypants. You can be gross on this instead of your precious gloves.”

That was a pretty convincing argument. Keith scowled and took the scarf, only just barely draping it around his neck. “I look ridiculous.”

“You look cozy,” Pidge smiled, “At least put it on right.” She tucked the scarf around his neck properly, satisfied that he looked a little less agitated.

“It’s....yeah okay it’s kind of cozy. And maybe it’s kind of helping me feel a little better...”

Keith stopped his rant and seemed to stare into the void. Before Pidge could ask which dimension he was looking into, his breath hitched, and he sneezed the squeakiest little kitten sneeze Pidge had ever heard. Her eyes went wide as he repeated the action twice more.

Her mischievous grin was met with a glare that could destroy a galran flagship.

“If you dare...tell anyone...about my sneezes...”

“I won’t.”

“Fucking right you won’t-”

“If you actually relent and do as I say to help you get rid of this cold.”

They stared each other down for a moment, daring the other to act first, when Pidge pulled up her coms and hit the talk button.

“Hey everyone, Keith-”

“Pidge!”

“-he’s got this cold, and you won’t believe-”

“FINE FINE!”

Pidge snickered and put down her coms. “Good. Now follow me. You’re gonna need more than just a scarf.” She didn’t think she should tell him that she had to connect her comes to someone before anyone could hear anything.

Keith was lead to a much more secluded corner of the castle, where the lights weren’t blinding and the sounds were much more muffled. “Where are you taking me? What is this place?”

“It’s just the quietest and most secluded part of the castle. Without going in the air vents, of course,” Pidge replied, “I come here when I get migraines.”

“...I guess it is rather peaceful back here.”

The left hand of Voltron situated her fellow arm into a soft bean bag chair she’d stashed there for the heavier migraines. Once she was sure that Keith wouldn’t dash out on her, she left him to get more supplies to help his cold.

Keith simmered while he waited, wondering why Pidge was making such a big deal out of this. It was just a cold, not even some crazy galra virus. She was a huge worrier, just like her brother.

Matt. Keith’s face softened a bit. They still hadn’t found Matt. It was truly a miracle that Shiro was able to touch down on Earth after being captured, how much more luck would it take to locate one human in the entire galaxy? The entire universe? And then find another, her father.

No wonder she’s worried. She can’t lose anyone else.

Pidge returned, happy to see Keith still in the beanbag chair, even relaxing a little bit. Maybe he really was sick.

“This is what Matt and I used to do. He’d always get sick in the fall, and he liked these things, so I figured you might too. Here.” She held out a soft bit of fabric, and Keith’s scowl returned.

“A beanie. You want me to put on a beanie.”

“It might actually help your mess of hair anyway.”

Oh, she was good. Keith sighed and put it on, finding that the hat pulled perfectly over his ears, and the ever so slight weight on his head felt comforting. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. He looked to her next two objects, heart softening.

“How did you make hot chocolate?”

Pidge sat down cross-legged in front of him, offering a mug. “It’s not exactly hot chocolate, it’s the best I could do with all the Altean stuff, but Hunk said it was pretty close. And those are supposed to be marshmallows.”

The little white fluffy bits in Keith’s mug suddenly scared him. “Supposed to be?”

“Coran called them marshmallows, and they taste pretty close. But I can’t help but be skeptical.”

The two fell quiet as they sipped. For an alien equivalent, the hot chocolate wasn’t too bad at all. Keith found himself melting into the chair, muscles relaxing and brow unfurrowing.

“Your brother has good taste.”

Pidge watched her marshmallows intently. “Had.”

With a defiant sniff, Keith gripped Pidge’s shoulder firmly. “Has. We’ll find him, and I’ll return this beanie myself. Until then, you’ve got four substitute older brothers watching around the clock and filling in. I’m still on duty, I have a job to do, I get to be sick Matt for the day.”

The smaller paladin cracked a smile, and Keith mirrored it well. “You guys aren’t replacements, you know that, right? Or substitutes? You’re a different part of my family. You’re still my brother, just as Keith.”

“That’s probably a good thing. I’m not as smart as him.”

The two laughed a bit and took more sips of hot chocolate. Keith could feel his sinuses starting to warm up from the drink, opening up and feeling less pressurized. Maybe I should invest in warm things more often.

[sarah--writes-blog]

Happy Halloween Shiro

Anon: Halloween prompt: Deaged fic. Keith 6, Lance and Hunk 5 and Pidge 3. Space Dad Shiro. Trick'or'Treating. You can choose the setting and the costumes.

A/N: This turned into a very long drabble and I am not sorry at all.

Shiro took a huge breath. The kids were finally in their costumes, playing around with each other and admiring their new identities. He took a long drink of orange juice (“This is Shiro’s orange juice, Hunk. It’s got special adult drinks in it, you can’t have any”) and managed a smile at his parade of little ones.

Keith was the oldest and most compliant. He let himself be wrapped in a ninja costume, and was now waving around a foam dagger, pretending to hide in the shadows. “You can’t see me, I’m invisible!” He claimed every time someone tried to talk to him.

Lance was next, and a bit more squirmy than Keith, but patient all the same. He’d decided long ago that he wanted to be a cat, and tried to make his own ears and tail. When that ended in tears and a mess of glue and black paint, Shiro took him to the store and had him settle on a generic kitty costume. He pretended to hate it, but Shiro could tell by the way he meowed and pounced around that he really did love it.

After a long decision-making process, Hunk finally settled on being a classic witch, big-brimmed hat and all.

“But I’m a nice witch. Not like the one that hurt Hansel and Gretel. I have a house like that, but I don’t bake people.” He insisted to everyone who noticed or asked about his costume. Shiro was very proud of him.

Pidge didn’t see to care about her costume at all, much less what she was. After Lance nearly demanding that she bit a kitty like him, she put her little toddler foot down and simply shouted “Bones!” That’s how she and Shiro ended up being matching skeletons, or at least just the heads of them.

“Alright,” Shiro sighed, looking at his handiwork, “We’re gonna take a group picture and head out before it starts getting dark, okay?”

But of course, that was another project in and of itself, and Shiro settled on taking individual pictures and hoping that someone would catch them all together later. It was too much effort, and he wanted to get his little ones to bed at a reasonable hour.

He’d planned out a course for them to take - up and down two streets, potentially a third if Pidge wasn’t exhausted yet. With the path in mind, Shiro packed a bag of water and healthy snacks, and let them loose. Lance booked it out first, running far past the zone where Shiro wanted him to be. Hunk and Keith followed, and the three boys ran, not even stopping at the first house. They were just that excited. It was going to be a very long night for Shiro.

In the end, Lance’s kitty tail had fallen off. Keith removed his ninja mask, and Pidge was sleeping soundly against Shiro’s shoulder. Hunk was the only one with the sheer endurance to keep his costume on and continue running. It was impressive to all parties involved.

The five came up to the last house, the one right next to theirs in the perfect loop Shiro had planned for them. Hunk happily knocked on the door while the others stumbled up, looking very ready to tuck into bed and dream of all the candy they’d gotten.

“I’m tired, Shirooooo...” Lance yawned, dragging his feet and looking up at his guardian. Shiro smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Last house, promise. I think you’ll like this one.” Poor kids don’t even know where they are.

After a moment of waiting, the door opened and Hunk lead the chorus of “Trick or treat!” Then the realization hit, and the three perked up with more energy.

“Miss Allura!”

In the doorway stood their neighbor Allura, with her silvery hair and sparkling eyes. It seemed that she’d half-assed a costume just like Shiro, painting a third eye onto her forehead and calling it a night. She smiled at the troop of trick or treaters and brought out a large bowl of full-sized candy bars.

“Happy Halloween!”

The three boys were immediately rifling through it, trying to find their favorites as the adults talked for a bit.

“You did a good job with them this year, Shiro.” Allura said, smiling at the unconscious Pidge on his shoulder.

“They were good to me, not much fussing around. Lance was a bit upset that his costume wasn’t homemade, but he likes this one anyway.” he chuckled.

“Typical Lance. Here,” she pulled out two candy bars, “Pidge shouldn’t miss out just because she was tired. And you shouldn’t miss out just because you’re an adult.”

Shiro’s cheeks reddened a bit. Allura was always there looking out for him, whether it was emergency babysitting or little acts of kindness like this. “Thank you, Allura. Maybe I’ll be able to hide this from Keith somewhere.”

The two laughed and Allura dropped the bars into Pidge’s candy bag, just in time for Lance to stumble over and lean against Shiro’s leg.

“Can we go home now?”

Shiro adjusted Pidge and nodded. “Yeah, we can buddy. You guys can count your candy tomorrow. Let’s g- Keith!”

The ninja turned fast, eyes wide and frozen in the position of shoving multiple candy bars in his bag and his pockets. He had the face of sheer guilt. “Sorry Miss Allura...”

“You can keep them, Keith. I was just thinking about closing for the night.” She took the bowl away from them, just in case. Shiro sighed and started to collect the children.

“You realize you’ve committed me to a night of stomach aches and throwing up?”

“You did that to yourself the moment you let them outside the door.” Allura smiled and leaned close, giving Shiro a little peck on the cheek. “Happy Halloween, Shiro.”

[sarah--writes-blog]

Pumpkin Spice

Anon: For the Halloween week! Hunk introduces Allura and Coran to pumpkin spice.

A/N: This one was written around 2am, if that says anything about my brain on lack of sleep.

The Castleship touched down on Earth in the heat of July, giving Lance and Hunk two months to introduce the Alteans to Earth food before a curve ball was thrown into the game. Their plan was to divide and conquer - Lance more or less took the western hemisphere, and Hunk took the eastern hemisphere. Every night was a new food for the Alteans - sushi, curry, hamburgers, kolacky, empanadas, platanos fritos, any staple of a culture was at their table at some point.

But then there was breakfast, lunch, dessert, snacks, drinks, everything else! Even with working out and differing gravity, Allura and Coran were positive they’d gained ten pounds within a few weeks.

And then September came.

And the Pumpkin Spice Latte returned.

Pidge was adamantly against it, despite being a coffee drinker. “It’s way overrated and made too much of a big deal. Sure, it’s good, but it’s nothing to go crazy over.”

Hunk respectfully disagreed. “I mean, I hate the taste, but it’s become such a huge part of our culture at this point that we can’t not give them one.”

Thus sparked a trip to the local Starbucks, and the Alteans found themselves sat down in a quiet corner with warm cups of PSL in front of them. They waited patiently, not drinking until Hunk gave them a small bit of background information as he usually did.

“This is a pumpkin spice latte. Warm milk, some coffee, and...well, generally some pumpkin stuff? It’s kind of unclear, but they call it pumpkin spice and most of the United States goes nuts for it.”

Coran eyed the drink. “How did they fit a whole pumpkin in there? Those gourds you showed us were rather large.”

“No, it’s artificial flavoring. They didn’t juice a pumpkin, it’s not like carrot juice.”

“It certainly smells delicious.” Allura smiled, using the drink to warm her hands. She wasn’t entirely fond of the change in seasons down on Earth.

“Well, go on then!” Hunk sat down across from them, always eager to watch their faces. After a few really good reactions, he’d taken to filming them and keeping them for the team.

The Alteans tapped their cups together and sipped in unison. Hunk was very grateful that he didn’t have to warn them about hot coffee anymore, not after Coran’s burnt tongue.

Allura set the cup down and blinked. She stared at the cup, as if wondering if Coran was actually right and they managed to squeeze a big pumpkin in there. She sipped again, looking much more satisfied as her ears flicked in happiness.

Coran didn’t have nearly as calm of a response. “What did you call this again?”

“Pumpkin Spice Latte. It’s the pumpkin spice that you’re tasting.”

“Pumpkin spice...” he mused, a huge grin growing on his face, “This is probably the best drink I’ve had on this planet yet!”

Allura nodded with exaggeration, mouth too occupied with chugging to verbally agree. Hunk died a little on the inside, he hoped they would be on the anti-pumpkin-spice crew with him, but that didn’t matter all too much. They wouldn’t end up hyper-obsessed with it like the media was.

The paladins returned from an Earth-based air show of the Lions, and froze at the scene around them, or in Keith’s sake, the smell around him.

“God, what is that?” He covered his nose with his hand, looking outright offended.

“It wasn’t me this time, swear it.” Lance automatically defended, but Keith shook his head.

“Not you. It’s that fuckin’...what’s it called...”

Hunk took a long, exasperated breath. “Pumpkin spice.”

A shockingly large amount of candles were lit around the room, all bearing a bright orange label. Little air fresheners made into the shape of hot cups hung from the lamps, also in the bright orange hue. And in the middle of it all, Allura and Coran sipped their large drinks, pupils blown wide.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Shiro sighed, going around to snuff out the candles with his metal hand, “I even like the occasional pumpkin spice latte, but this is ridiculous.”

“Yeah, we gotta cut you guys off, this is getting ridiculous.” Lance agreed and did his part in taking down the air fresheners. Pidge was much more unsettled by this. She looked closely at her alien friends, not liking how their hands were jittery. She knew coffee jitters, and these weren’t it.

“Guys....I think they’re drugged.”

That earned her many looks of confusion. Allura tried to brush off her accusation but jumped nearly five feet in the air when Shiro almost knocked over one of the candles. Everybody froze again.

“It’s like they’re on catnip, quinack...” Lance muttered as he waved his hand in front of Coran’s face. He barely followed it, desperately sipping at the drink.

Hunk blinked very slowly. “I guess we’ll have to wane them off like the rest of the world.”

[sarah--writes-blog]

Glass

Anon: Regarding the Halloween thing, Super painful transformations? Like maybe like a mermaid AU for VLD where like in the original little mermaid, each step feels like walking on glass, but their legs and feet actually start bleeding.

A/N: Happy Halloween Week! This is the first of many fics, all of which will also be posted on AO3! 

Warning: This one has more blood and graphic descriptions than are normally in my fics!

Matt took a deep breath and guzzled down the sickly orange potion. He’d spent too long mulling it over. He’d already gotten the potion from the Sea Witch Haggar, all that was left to do was drink it and keep up his end of the bargain - make the royal heir fall in love with him within three days. He could do that, right? He had to, or else he’d be drifting among the sea foam.

A small brunette poked their head out of the water just as Matt tossed the bottle aside. It landed near her head, causing Matt’s to link eyes and scowl. Of course Pidge had followed him! Well, it was no matter now.

“Pidge, go home!” He shouted, starting to feel his tail tingle, as if blood had been cut from it for too long. “I told you not to follow me!”

Pidge said nothing, only stared at him with hurt, fearful eyes. Matt always talked about the surface world, and how he longed to be up with the humans and walking on two legs. He’d even talked about a princess he’d fallen in love with. She never thought her brother would actually go through with all of this.

As the bottle hit the bottom of the shore, Matt’s breath caught in his throat. A stabbing pain buried into his hips on either side, as if someone wrapped him in wire and pulled it too tight. His lungs tried to take in air through his gills, but they had already started to fuse shut. Visions of suffocating clouded his sight, until he looked down. The water was tainted with red, and growing more saturated at the moment.

Pidge could only look on with horror. The blood from her brother’s transformation was hiding the graphic details, but she could only imagine the horrors swimming in there. The long, spine-like structure that made up his tail was being pried in half from the bottom up, opening him up like one would split a stick to obtain tinder. Salt water stung in his veins.

What was left of the steps leading into the water was nothing less than a crime scene. Once beautiful amber scales on Matt’s flesh were now dull and matte, floating in coagulations on top of the waves. Blood still dyed the water, and would eventually stain the sands a rusty brown by the end of the day. Shards of bone collected in the foam, until it washed up against a naked, seemingly human boy on the palace steps. Naked, broken, unconscious, Matt’s shivering body trembled while his sister could only watch with pain. His glasses sank to the sands.

Pidge was only able to act when she saw him move. His body automatically convulsed to bring up the contents of his stomach from pain, adding more to the biohazard that had become the shores around the castle. But before she could even lunge forward, palace guards stepped into view, and she was forced to duck beneath the waves. She found a large rock jutting out of the tides and concealed herself, having to cover her mouth with shaky webbed hands as she could only watch what was about to happen to her brother.

The guards were calm, obviously not noticing the crippled pile of a boy on their steps. They had another purpose at this moment - escorting the princess for her daily sunrise stroll. They couldn’t have looked more bored until one of them spotted the red on their tides. “Princess, head back into the castle!”

“What’s the matter- quiznack, there’s someone down there!”

“Princess Allura, please-”

“Go get the doctor!”

Pidge finally saw what Matt meant whenever he talked about this princess. She was absolutely gorgeous, and at the same time could probably punch his nose into his skull. When guards tried to pull her away, she simply shrugged them off and knelt into the waters to be close to the boy, not minding as the blood seeped up her white dress.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” the princess asked, tilting Matt’s face up so she could look at him better. He immediately winced and hissed, every movement feeling as though glass had been shoved into his muscles. But when he opened his eyes, the pain faded, or was at least masked with a doe-eyed stare.

The princess smiled back if only to comfort him. “Don’t worry, we’re going to help you. The doctor is- quiznack, the doctor isn’t fast enough. Hold on.”

With ease, Princess Allura hoisted the ex-merman up into her arms just as a groom would carry his bride, and made her way up the steps. The remaining guard insisted that he instead carry the boy, but she was already pressing past him and going into the castle. Before they could round the corner, Matt hazily looked past the princess’s arm to his sister, still hiding behind the rock. With a drunken grin, he gave her a weak thumbs-up and disappeared from view.

Pidge was left in the waters, clutching Matt’s glasses and the bottle close to her chest. The transformation left her nauseated and dizzy, and though she knew he was alright, that didn’t mean she would leave him. With a determined huff, she slipped back into the water and swam back down into the depths. She’d heard that the Sea Witch Haggar would exchange information for hair, and it was time to figure out what happened to her brother.

[sarah--writes-blog]

Halloween Week Prep!

I’ve decided that I definitely want to do an event for October/Halloween! But for this to work, I’m gonna need to plan way ahead so I have time. So here we go!

For the week of Halloween (and potentially longer?), I will be posting October/Halloween themed fics from your prompts! They’ll be the usual Askbox fic length, but with those sweet Halloween vibes we all know and love.

Despite the season, I still won’t be doing anything with character death, and this unfortunately also includes zombies, but if your prompt can somehow twist it into a happy ending, fire away!

Here are some ideas that I had with the upcoming season! This whole event will be tagged tsshw, and I hope you guys enjoy! 🍁🍬🎃 

Creatures (werewolves, vampires, ghosts, witches, skeletons, demons)

Halloween Night (candy, parties, costumes, trick or treating)

Aesthetic: Spooky Edition (hauntings, blood, horror stories, graveyards, thunderstorms)

Aesthetic: Soft Edition (scarves, PSLs, crunchy leaves)

Sickfic Stuff (colds, infections, seasonal allergies, too much candy)

[sarah--writes-blog]

The Graves Were For The Leaves

Anon: Prompt: big yard. Lots of trees. Lots of crispy leaves on the lawn. Follow?

A/N: Oh look, a TAZ fic! Real talk, didn’t think it would go like this, but I love how it turned out.

Spoilers for the entire Balance Arc, right off the bat

Taako, Magnus, and Merle always made a point to visit those who helped them along their adventure. It helped the underlying fear that perhaps some memories could be lost again. Sometimes this meant visiting large towns that fought back against The Hunger. Sometimes it meant having tea and macaroons with bugbears.

And sometimes it meant visiting graves.

The tree that sprouted in the middle of Goldcliff wasn’t exactly a grave. The two dryads that had crawled out of it were still up and walking about. But the way the petals bloomed in the middle of the desert, the way the masks sat side by side at the roots of the tree, the way it was right in the center of the city once ransacked by vines, and most of all, the way it was always so still and quiet around the tree - it certainly felt like a grave. Especially in the fall.

The hot desert weather evaporated all the water around the tree and touched each of the leaves to suck the moisture out of them as well. What was once a big luscious tree was now a large dormant stick, waiting for better weathers to come again.

The three Reclaimers sat down at the base of the tree and stayed in silence for a long while. After all the noise of their adventures, sometimes the silence was nice. The barren tree seemed to enjoy the silence as well.

Until one moment, without any set amount of time passing, the high elf stood up. The beach dwarf and the human looked up at him. Was it arbitrarily time to leave? Though Merle was the nature cleric, Taako seemed to have more of a sense for these things, at least with this tree.

But instead of a soft-spoken indication to move on, he put on a wide, buck-toothed smile, and large fuzzy boots magically appeared on his feet.

“I don’t know about you two losers, but I’m gonna crunch some motherfuckin’ leaves.”

The other two sat wide-eyed and stunned as the elf jumped high up in the air and stomped on the fallen leaves. The crunch was like he’d stepped on fantasy Doritos - a crisp and sharp noise that was almost orgasmic to the ear.

After the first stomp, Magnus immediately rushed in. He took the slow and sensual approach, letting his foot roll from his heel down to his toe with each step, shivering and giggling at the crackles.

The smallest Reclaimer had another idea in mind. He summoned Wind Wall and piled up over half the leaves into a mound before catapulting himself in.

The boys played in the dead leaves for as long as they sat in silence before. It wouldn’t have been as long if Magnus hadn’t issued a challenge to crunch every single leaf. Magnus wasn’t going to fail a self-proposed challenge. Merle wasn’t going to back down either. Taako simply didn’t want the good leaves to go to waste. So they crunched.

All that was left was the barren tree and hundreds of thousands of foliage bits, scattered into little bits and all stomped out. Just as when the IPRE crew arrived in the dimension, the centerpiece of Goldcliff was more lifeless after the boys visited. But at least this time, the graves were for the leaves.

[sarah--writes-blog]

Happy October!

Welcome to October friends! I’m getting super excited about my Halloween week! I just turned in some major projects and got some of my writing mojo back! 

So far I’ve gotten 8 prompts, meaning this will be a little more than a Halloween week! Here’s a little schedule to help get you pumped!

Oct 23 - Original Little Mermaid AU (VLD) Oct 24 - De-Aged Trick or Treating (VLD) Oct 25 - Discovery of Pumpkin Spice (VLD) Oct 26 - That Fall Aesthetic (VLD) Oct 27 - Leaf Crunching (Undecided Fandom - potentially HxH) Oct 28 - Out Sick on Halloween (VLD) Oct 29 - Werewolf Keith (VLD) Oct 30 - The Watering Can Incident (Undecided Fandom) Oct 31 - Halloween! No fics, go have a safe trick or treating / partying night!

Askbox is still open for these lovely prompts! I’ll be reblogging that post again soon.

Have a lovely month! 🍁🍂🍬🍭

[sarah--writes-blog]

Thank you to everyone who submitted prompts for Halloween week! I’ve got a nice stack of fics lined up, and I can’t wait to throw them at you! No more prompts will be taken, but I will definitely consider this for next holiday! 

In other news, I think I will not be doing NaNoWriMo this year. Which is super unfortunate, because even though it is rewarding in the end, the amount of stress it causes during the month is not worth it, at least in my college years. But that could free me up for commissions and fics that aren’t so intense!

I hope y’all are enjoying October and the nice fall weather my home state is on fire!

[sarah--writes-blog]

so do we send ask requests for your halloween prep thing? :D

Yes - just like you sent this ask! 

I’ve only got four so far, which is fine, but I really wanna just unload fics on you guys for the season. I love Halloween, and I know a lot of you do too! 

[sarah--writes-blog]

I may have only gotten three submissions for Halloween week but yall already knocked it out of the park, this is getting me pumped