#was going for a time loop thing in my 9 words does that read

[formosusiniquis]

what if i said multiples of 5 for the writing asks 👀

What if you did say that? Most of them are below the cut cause I don't know when to shut up 💕

and here are the writing asks for anyone else who wants to send some

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

Angst, like just the straight up angst tag for some reason I'm worried is going to deter people from reading so I end up softening it with something else instead. So it's always fluff and angst or angst with a happy ending.

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

Enemies to lovers, Soulmates, Fake Dating - this was the hardest one to answer. It's like getting asked what your favorite book is and you don't remember how to read or what books look like.

15. What's your favourite plotless fic you have written?

This describes half of my catalog, plot I do not know her it is only vibes.

I'm gonna go with the bells, the joy (together in darkness) my Stobin hivemind fic which is plotless in the sense that it's more of an exploration of new Stobin unity and what a hivemind with humans would even look like. And any time I get to write Steve and Robin I have a good time

20. Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Many at the same time, it does not work for me but it is what I do all the same. My writing tracker (where everything goes once more than 10 words have been written on a project) has 33 entries currently from the last year or so that are unfinished and in varying stages of progress. But if I start something and don't finish it immediately esp one shots they tend to get abandoned on the pile.

At least until they're lucky enough to grab my attention on a procrastination re-read and I finish them in one sitting (looking at you have your cake)

25. Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go?

For me personally, I have unfortunately realized I have to have the whole thing or almost the whole thing completely written beforehand. I think I may be used to be able to publish as I wrote (like back in high school when I was writing The Mentalist stuff on ff.net under a pseud none of you will ever find). But with my chronic pick it up and abandon it once i'm bored disease I'm just to bad about actually finishing stuff. (RIP mi media naranja some day I will at least post the other chapters I have written that I've felt too bad about posting since it's been so long. but also i still want to finish you)

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

I hate saying it didn't happen, because if it's a Wip in my folder there's always a chance I'll finish it one of these days. And I'm so one track minded that I rarely make massive changes to fics once I start them that drastically alter the plot from what they could have been.

That said it's been so long since I've written anything for Vandal that I feel pretty safe describing this Wip that will possibly never see the light of day.

It was one of those fics where the title comes to you first, y'know. So it was going to be called intricate rituals and it was a soulmate and magic au, convoluted already I know, where soulmates amplify your natural abilities through proximity and touch. Gabi has found hers in Jenna and Sam is a little upset about it. So he performs an ~intricate ritual~ that's supposed to bring his soulmate to him. This is of course where Peter comes in and they bond interpersonally but never touch because of character anxieties and social taboos so they don't realize they're soulmates for ages. There was probably also going to be a miscommunication element where they've touched but not touched like a hand through a shirt not counting it has to be skin on skin contact.

35. Thoughts on writing challenges/contests.

I enjoy them! I always end up trying (and usually failing) nanowrimo every year. I've participated in both a big bang and reverse bang now, and am currently white knuckling my way through this year's steddie bang. I like a challenge to get more creative and a deadline and accountability to actually finish something with some plot.

40. Write a 9-word fic.

Eyes met for a first time, Steve's first time.

[rageserenity]

It's 2024. Are you still thinking about movieverse!Cherik? Because I am.

For the past several months, there's only been a very slow trickle of posts/fics in the xmcu cherik tag. Let's try to breathe some life back into this incredible pairing!

With one clear winner of my poll, here's thirty prompts for the thirty days of April. (This is a super chill, laid-back event---do these in any order, interpret them as loosely as you like! Create in any medium! Fic, art, gifs, meta, incoherent screaming about the otp…all winners in my book.)

The only rule here is to cherik too close to the sun. Alright. Here are the prompts.

Mutual Pining

Doesn't really even need elaboration! Write that horrifically slow slow-burn. Gif every time McAvoy made insane fuck me eyes on screen. Make a playlist of songs about impossible love.

2. Alternate Meetings

There are endless quotes about how these two complete each other in a way no one they'd met before or after ever did. How else could they have met?

3. Erik Has A Telepathy Kink

This is basically canon. Let my boy get freaky!

4. Canon Fix-It

All the times Fox fucked it up. There are endless options.

5. Hurt/Comfort

Put them in that Situation. Put them in that Blender. Break them apart and put them back together ❤️‍🩹

6. Canon Compliant

Draw that missing scene! Gif your favourite cherik moment!

7. Beach Divorce

Make it worse. Make it better. Show it to us exactly how it was. Break it down in a 3,000 word meta. Go wild!

8. Domestics

Sometimes you just want to see them doing normal couple things. Erik put the gun down.

9. Found Family

The real heart of x-men!

10. Time Travel

There are SO many possibilities here. Stick them in a time loop. Give them a chance to change their past.

11. AU

Love a good AU!

12. There Is Only One Bed

Had to get this one in here. What better way to amp up the tension?

13. Genosha

By some miracle, cherik actually did end up together at the end of 2019s trash bag disaster Dark Phoenix. We aren’t making a big enough deal about this.

14. Declaration(s) of Love

Who says it first? How do they say it and when? Have they said it…without saying it?

15. Jealousy

Need I say more.

16. Reunion

These two have absolutely no chill.

17. Soulmates

Classic prompt, had to get this in here too.

18. The DOFP Aircraft

The TENSION here. Break it down for me. How does Charles feel about his injury? How does Erik feel about his injury?

19. Gay Mutant Road Trip

You already know.

20. Body Swap

SO fun when people have superpowers.

21. First Kiss

When? How? Who initiated it?

22. The Mansion

Mansion!content is a genre of its own.

23. Conflicting Ideology

Give me your theses. Who’s right? Can they ever reconcile completely? Write a fic where it drives them apart.

24. Sebastian Shaw

A trope unto himself.

25. Team As Matchmaker

They had to have known something was going on, didn’t they?

26. Cooking

Charles deserves a good meal. Also, imagine Erik using his powers in the kitchen. The sheer domesticity…

27. Hurt No Comfort

Plenty of scope with these two 🥲

28. Growing Old Together

Giving Sirs Ian Mckellan and Patrick Stewart their props as well!

29. Making Up

*pushes chess board across the table* sorry babe

30. Charles Xavier Did More For Mutants Than You'll Ever Know

Rising to each other’s defense. Only I can insult this man.

I will be tracking #revivecherik to reblog stuff! Here’s a fic collection for the same. Let’s get this ball rolling! Please feel free to send me an ask if you’ve got anything to say! And most importantly, let’s all have fun 😁

*I know a few of you preferred something like a gift exchange because of the commitment factor—I’m super down to organise a tiny one for the handful of us! If this promptathon doesn’t flop horribly, we can hopefully do a whole bunch of stuff :)

If you read this post all the way through, please reblog for reach! Thank you! Hoping you participate come April.

Shoutout to @inmymagnetoera for reaching out and helping with this!

[luckykiwiii101]

Not So Sugar&Spice And EVERYTHING Nice After All…

(Read till the end!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I HATE to break it to you but, you’re going to have to get ready to accept that you’re NOT going to live the life of your dreams.

DROP those endless list of desires you’ve piled up over the years or months you’ve spent on this app.

Those years and months speak dangerous words, words that you finally have to hear. But it’s not my fault it’s come to it.

You’re NEVER going to get what you want. Save those vision boards for nap time, because that’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing them. Yes, in your LITERAL dreams.

Ouch, that’s got to hurt.

“I’ll try to enter the void state again tonight.” Yes. Exactly. You’ll TRY again. And you’ll try again the night after that, and the night after that, and the night after that. And it will NEVER end. You’ve been at it for a while now.

“I’ll try THIS method tonight.” Yeah, and you’ll be looking for a new method by tomorrow. And so on, and so on, and so on.

Same goes for your manifestations.

“I’ll persist later!!!” Yes. Exactly. You’ll persist “later.” Later as in, next week? next month? next Year? Seconds turn into minutes, minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months turn in to years, and years turn into decades, and decades turn into small little segments of your tragic little life, spent doing what? Trying? Procrastinating? Sulking? Or living the life of your dreams? Call it Russian roulette, but YOU’RE the one holding the gun to your head.

The cycle never ends. The tragic thing is, it starts with an undisciplined, lazy & hopeless person. And ends with the same undisciplined, lazy & hopeless person.

Why?

Take a wild guess. You’ve tumbled onto tumblr, figured out that you could live the life of your dreams, and did NOTHING about it, other than TRY.

Well, trying was never the answer.

All you ever had to do was just change your PATHETIC assumptions, into more….ideal ones.

Changing your assumptions are COMPULSORY! Not to rain on your parade, but this is a rain parade from hell. Purely tragic. Maybe you’ll start applying to get out of this endless loop.

And sorry to crush your hopeless little dreams, but you aren’t going to get ANYWHERE if you don’t change them. You are NEVER going to enter the void state. You are NEVER going to be a master manifestor.

Looks like that 9-5 is going to land you on highway 95.

Do I have to run you over, leave you bedridden, not able to move a muscle, for you to just PERSIST. Because your mind is all it takes. Nobody asked you to run a marathon. Yet you’re actually running a marathon, in the opposite direction of your dreams.

Well, all I can say is, keep running.

At the end of the day, ACCEPTANCE is all that matters. Accept that you will never have anything you want, or just accept that you already have everything you want.

If this isn’t the wake up call that wakes you up!!! NOTHING will.

All I can say now is, if you’re still roaming this app by the end of February, I feel BAD for you. I’m not saying that’s how long it will take, but if it does, then yikes! And we all know one thing about Gossip Girl, I LOVE to wreak havoc. But you’re already doing that FOR me. So thank you, and goodbye. Now say goodbye back, along with your precious desires.

Too bad that your dreams are going to just stay as dreams.

Bye Bye.

(So not you, by the way):

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐(i’m sensing some sweetness coming! Good for May she deserves all the good things in this world!)

🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮(CRANBERRY IM SO GLAD YOURE OKAY! And i’m loving how this setup gives a new perspective to the classic Buckley-Diaz family vibes)

➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰(BUDDIE TIME LOOP???? BUDDIE TIME LOOP!!!! Cal its insane how with three words you’ve already got me hooked - you’re so good with inexplicable magic as a plot device so I’m so excited for your take on this classic! I’m already sure it’s gonna be absolutely phenomenal!)

Thank you for all this my dear!! And if any of these stories are finished by the time you get to these please know that the odds are good that I’ve already read them and loved every single word!

I hope you have/had a nice weekend! Sending lots of love!!!

Okay! So since I have completed two of the fics here, what I will do is give you 63 (combined total) of my next Gotcha For Gaza prompt fic (which I might have combined with an idea from @exhuastedpigeon ), with no context once again. Here's the emoji: ☠️

---

One reads Chip N. Dales. The other, murder victim. What on earth? 

“Athena!” Eddie blurts. He sounds intoxicated. 

“Eddie?” She gawks at him. “I got a call about a possible death at this address? Please let it just be your name tag.”

“No, no,” he shakes his head. “That was me. I called 9-1-1. But I’m not really dead. It’s someone else.”

Definitely intoxicated, then. And, from his demeanor, it must not be one of his closest friends who has died. Athena feels a surge of relief. 

“Eddie, who is dead?” She asks calmly. 

Eddie winces. “It’s Captain Gerrard.”

Well. That certainly complicates things, doesn’t it?

▪️▪️▪️

Eddie, a little wobbly, leads Athena into the condo. 

“Is this Gerrard’s house?” She asks. 

“No. Tommy’s.”

“Tommy?” 

“You know? Buck’s boyfriend? Pilot?”

“No, I know who Tommy Kinnard is,” Athena replies. “Just… What are you all doing here with your fire captain?”

As far as she had heard, they all hated the man. And as far as Buck had said, Tommy’s history with his former captain was also complicated. 

Athena has a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling about this. 

“Tommy hosted a murder mystery party,” Eddie says. “S’why I died.”

Oh boy.

Eddie leads Athena into a dining room with sleek, modern black furniture and some very strange wall art. Which is really not what Athena should be looking at. There are more pressing things. Like Captain Gerrard on the floor, swollen and lifeless, as Buck is hunched over him, performing CPR. Buck. The person with the least paramedic training in the room, other than perhaps Karen Wilson. Because for some reason, she is also here.

Athena takes inventory.

Gerrard. 

Buck.

Eddie. 

Tommy.

Hen.

Karen.

Chimney.

 Two men Athena has never seen in her life, but if she had to guess, are also firefighters. 

Everyone has name tags on. None of them say their real names. Characters, more likely.

---

75 for ➰ (OH YOU ARE TUNING IN HERE FOR A CRAZY PART!)

Tagging @steadfastsaturnsrings

---

He’s almost certain Eddie has never called him that before. Though he feels a soft familiarity accompany it. 

“How did you sleep?” He asks, voice low to avoid waking Christopher in the adjoining room.

Eddie’s lip twitches. 

“Good,” he answers. “I always sleep well beside you, Buck. You know that.”

Buck hums happily. 

“Same here.” Buck replies. “What’s the plan for today?”

“Well, whatever you want,” Eddie says. “I know you’ve got an itinerary.” 

Oh, does he ever. They’d done Morro Bay State Park and the nearby history museum yesterday. 

“So glad you’re on board,” Buck grins. “I’m thinking, estuary, let Chris see some sea otters, then head to the beach?” 

“Oh, and you have no interest in said sea otters?” Eddie teases.

“Okay, they’re cute, Eddie!” 

“I know they’re cute,” Eddie replies. “I’m certain you will both look cute gawking at them.”

“Well, then let’s get going,” Buck decides, rolling out of bed. “Let’s wake the kid!”

“You’re a brave man, Evan Buckley.”

“He loves me,” Buck waves off the concern. “More importantly, he loves sea otters.”

When Buck stands, stretching his arms above his head, he notices the old analog clock on the wall. Ugh, that thing. It looks like it’s from the 50s or 60s at least. Not at all fitting with the otherwise modern design of the hotel room. And it’s not even telling the right time. It reads 12:02. As if it’s just after midnight. Buck turns to look at the digital clock. 8:02 AM. Huh. 

“Was it telling the wrong time when we got here?” Buck asks.

Eddie coughs. Small at first, then growing. Like his throat is dry. 

Buck spins to face him. “You okay?”

“Fine. Fine.” Eddie insists. “What did you ask?”

“The clock.” Buck clarifies. “Was it telling the wrong time when we checked in?”

“I…” Eddie’s eyes dart around, like he’s trying to remember. He looks very confused. Too confused for the nature of the question. “I don’t know, Buck. I didn’t pay attention.”

“It’s weird,” Buck says. “It has the minute right. Just not the hour.”

“I think you might be too worried about a clock, Buck.”

“I’m not worried about it. I’m just curious about it. Do you think it’s for another time zone?”

“We can figure out the clock or we can enjoy our day,” Eddie says. “Starting with a big breakfast?”

Buck smirks. “You sure know how to get through to me.”

➰➰

Half an hour later, they’re sitting on a big patio eating a complimentary hotel breakfast. Chris looks mildly zombified, like he can’t believe he’s awake this early. Nevermind the fact he wakes up way earlier than this for school. Eddie is indulging in a very big breakfast - more than he’d normally go for, Buck thinks. He’s practically dumping sugar in his coffee. 

“You’re not going to sleep tonight,” Buck warns him. 

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Eddie shrugs. 

[spybrarian]

Twenty Fanfic Writer Questions

Tagged by @storyspinner91 a while back but I was in Australia!

Who'd like to play? I've tagged a few people in the questions themselves, but maybe also... @onlyshestandsthere, @expensivefate, @jayenator565, @commanderbuffy @geek-and-nina if you like?

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

19, which feels *wild*! 19!!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

221,606

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Willow! Just Willow, these days. Tanthamore have my heart.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

one night at the start of the end of the world - my Shattered Sea one shot, tender tender Tanthamore, and there's only one bed, and it's the birthplace of pillbug Kit, and the fic where I worked out how much I liked writing them looking after each other. I'm glad this one is other people's favourite, too.

more than just survival - my multichapter canon story about Jade as she grows up, from when she was a kid in Tir Asleen to what happens after they return from the quest. Also a 5+1 (five times Kit made Jade blush and the one time Jade got her back).

The Pieces - kinkverse modern au short stories, a collaboration with @acre-of-wheat and @swashbucklery. I've written The Spider, The Mile High Club, The Maintenance and The Holes.

kiss me, kill me - my Bone Reaver Jade au, Jade busts into Tir Asleen to kidnap the princess and ends up getting got herself, in so many ways.

I scream at your chest for as long as I must - a post canon one shot, just after they return from the quest. Jade grieves for Ballantyne and Kit learns how to walk with her though her grief.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I like to!

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

I don't know - I can tell you my darkest premises (probably the very canon divergent the cellar door is an open throat aka the barbed wire, Kit Jade and Elora in a dungeon au) but even the ending of that one finishes with a glimmer of hope.

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

Huh, I think with most of my fics I tend to go for hopeful endings over happy ones. I think my most *satisfying*, hopeful ending I wrote was Samaras (an Architect of Catastrophe story) that I wrote as a present for @wigster07. I'm really, really pleased with that one. It's about rebuilding after tragedy.

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

I haven't, and am very grateful for that.

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

Do I ever?! What kind? What *kind*?! The gay kind. Aside from the aforementioned kinkverse, I've also got a canon based smut series (my kissing fics!) called There's not a step we can take that does not bring us closer where Kit and Jade are inventing all the different ways they love being together.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? and 11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope and nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Also nope - although Juliette made [Podfic of] one night at the start of the end of the world where she read this fic GORGEOUSLY! It's there for download if you want to listen.

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

I've collaborated! I haven't done a true co-writing thing for this fandom but, there's the kinkverse series in which I'm in deep cohorts with Acre and J, the singing cowboy fic I wrote into J's (cowboy) take me away (tanthamore rdr2 au). I love them both - they push me in new directions, and the feedback loop of inspiration is an utter joy.

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

Tanthamore, hands down

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

I plan on finishing them all. Yes even Wyrm Jade/I'll be the sweetest thing to ever scare you, yes I know it's been a hot minute. I do have genuine plans to finish.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

Coming up with phrases/images that people remember, that's probably the part I get a kick out of the most. I think my pacing and character and words in general are all pretty good, but writing callbacks to earlier in the story, or getting the foreshadowing right, are two of my favourite things to play with.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I get repetitive - mostly I manage to catch this in edits, but ho boy do I know how to say the same thing over and over.

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

I'm not fluent in anything other than English so I haven't used dialogue in other languages in any of my fics - unless you count the Ancient Angoran in 'kiss me kill me'.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Dragonball Z, an epic written by hand in double spaced lines over several exercise books ;)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? 

I'm really proud of 'one night' and 'more than just survival' but there is a special place in my heart for Let's take a knife and cut the world in two and its follow up there is light somewhere (it may not be much light but it beats the darkness) - my Exorcist Jade/possessed Kit au. The strange not-canon, not-modern, some-mix-of-the-two world that I made for that one is my *favourite*.

[benevolenterrancy]

Fic author interview!

Thanks for tagging me @morporkian-cryptid I'm taking a leaf out of your book and being a bit late responding, oops ;;; (also, like my last one, posting this on my art/writing blog despite getting tagged on my other blog :P)

@meso-mijali @rose-of-pollux @yarrayora @sorrel-scribbles @auxiliarydetective @pazithigallifreya

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

76!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

667,467 apparently, which feels like way more than I expected. Then again, I also didn't expect to have seventy six fics on there either...

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Lost In Translation (7,256 kudos) An Overwatch fic. I was baffled when it did as well as it did while I was actively posting it and frankly I'm not sure how to deal with the fact that it's still head and shoulders above every other fic I've written. I think it must be from people sorting by kudos and creating a weird positive feedback loop.

How To Torment Cats (And Witchers) (2,124 kudoes) A very light-hearted Witcher one-shot with Ciri and Dandelion

Standard-Issue (1,143 kudos) Another Overwatch fic, this one about McCree's recruitment into Overwatch

Sunlight and Sea Foam (1,102 kudos) A Witcher mermaid!au. This one I'm still pretty pleased with, it was a lot of fun to write.

Mark My Place (952 kudos) A post-canon MDZS fic in which I get to lavish love on Wei Wuxian! A pretty impressive kudo count given that it's only a few months old

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

Generally I try to! I really appreciate getting comments and I want to let people know that <3 Fandom is the most fun when it's a community and the only way to get that is to actually connect with people. Also I personally appreciate it when an author responds to comments when a new chapter drops because it helps me keep track of fic updates, so I often do that too for on-going stories :3

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

I don't really go in for anything without a happy ending ^^;; Maybe In My Hands I Held The World purely because I didn't finish it and stopped writing in the middle of the all the hurt and never made it to the comfort? Or Promises Misconstrued just by virtue of it.... well, being what it is.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

We only believe in happy endings here!! I really couldn't narrow it down, I like a happy ending... The Celestial Shell Game was a pretty recent one MDZS fic that was just pure post-canon fix-it and reconciliation and lightly bullying the juniors

7. Do you write crossovers?

I do from time to time, but most aren't ever cleaned up or completed to the point of posting -- they're just Fun For Me fics.

My only completed crossover is a Torchwood/MASH fic called An Officer's Guide to Surgery, Shelling & Pterosaurs. It was honestly just a wild ride to write. Very proud of how that one turned out

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A bit, but not for years. The only one I specifically remember was someone who was very unhappy that I wasn't including individual chapter content warnings, I guess because they've never read a novel?

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

Not often, I am Very Ace, but it does happen occasionally. Bound and Held was my most recent one, which was really just 20k of pure kink exploration because Geralt and Dandelion just have the vibe

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so...

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

One! An old Les Mis fic got translated into Chinese years back :3 that was very flattering that someone would want to go to that amount of effort

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

Me and @meso-mijali will co-write stuff from time to time, but nothing that's ever made it to completion. I do use her relentlessly to help me solve plot dilemmas (or make new plot dilemmas, depending on how things are going)

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Could not tell you, 100% depends on sort of mood I'm in sorry xD I bounce all over the place. At the moment I am deeply into wangxian, to the surprise of no one following me on tumblr at the moment

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

Well, any of my three current fics I'd love to make some progress on >:/ but I'm still hopeful about getting them finished, albeit slowly and painfully. I have a Hogan's Heroes dating sim that me and @meso-mijali have been working on but the longer it goes undone the more I suspect it never will be *sigh* it took so much planning but it's hard to pick up again in the middle. I also had a Lupin soulmate au called Mosiac that I feel bad about dropping. I still quite like the concept but I'm stuck on where to go next with it...

15. What are your writing strengths?

Uhh... I dunno, there must be something because people seem to enjoy my work well enough but I'll be damned if I know what it is. I think I write high intensity, sensory-based scenes pretty well? At least I like doing them a lot. And I get complimented on my character voices sometimes, so hopefully that!

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing >:/ I will ramble and ramble and ramble and then need to go back and cull things until I have a fic that's even halfway readable. It's so hard to get good pacing down.

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

Big fan, I'm always here for a bilingual bonus. Either I understand it and get a little thrill out of it or else I just google translate it real quick. As for me writing it I generally don't because I don't want to fuck it up beyond reason... sometimes I might dabble with French if it's character appropriate.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Les Mis! I'm too terrified to reread anything from my Les Mis era because god only knows what my writing was like back then, but it was such a warm and welcoming fandom it's what finally gave me the nerve to starting engaging in fandom space as more than observer

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

...I'm not sure I have one, if I want to write about something I generally do, even if I don't get it to be "publishing" worthy... Maybe Hogan/Kinch? I really like that ship, but I've never written much Hogan's Heroes fic to begin with, I think I only have one published work, and I find it a hard one to write shippy things for

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

Huh... I'm not sure. There a number of fics I've written that I still really really like and will reread (the author's amazing! she knows exactly what I like!) I'm really proud of my Torchwood/MASH crossover, it's my longest fic and took the highest level of technical skill to write. I also tend to reread A Poet Under Pressure fairly often because I do love tormenting Dandelion u.u

[long-fic-tournament]

I have to cut 10 fics, so I’m doing two polls of 10 for the 20 lowest word count fics, and progressing the 5 most voted for fics of each poll onto the tournament. All word counts are accurate as of submission to the tournament.

Link to the other poll

Propaganda and links below the cut

1) Coppernaughts (series) - The LEGO Movie

it's sooo good just read it <3

2) Knight-Errant - Star Wars

He figured out a while ago happiness isn't a watermark or a beat; happiness happens in the middle of other things, a moment of perfect clarity in all the other shit. There's something romantic about the idea of being so lost or so damaged happiness is totally out of reach, but Arthur's never had the capacity for that level of melodrama.

No propaganda

3) This, You Protect - Captain America and the Winter Soldier

No propaganda

4) Minimum Height Requirement - Batman

The best Good Dad!Batman I've found. It loops all his kids into one cohesive narrative that incorporates their arcs and major story beats without Bruce being the uncaring jerk people tend to write him as in the comics nowadays.

5) Presque Vu - Inception

He figured out a while ago happiness isn't a watermark or a beat; happiness happens in the middle of other things, a moment of perfect clarity in all the other shit. There's something romantic about the idea of being so lost or so damaged happiness is totally out of reach, but Arthur's never had the capacity for that level of melodrama.

6) TALE OF A MARTYR IN XII PARTS - All For The Game

No propaganda

7) Mad Rat Twist - Mad Rat Dead and The World Ends With You

honestly i'm mostly submitting this one because it's one of the few things in my bookmarks on AO3 and a close friend wrote it. also it involves two relatively small fandoms and there have been people who only know about one reading it and wanting to check out the other one from both sides and i'm so proud of my friend!

but ugh! Mad Rat and Heart! i love them! they're zucchinis your honor! i need to read this one again it's been a while

8) ffucc - Final Fantasy XV

No propaganda

9) Our Freedom In My Sight - Shameless

This fic does a really good job of digging into canon trauma that canon just didn't bother to really address. The main characters did end up getting their happy ending in canon but when this was written, it looked very, very much like they weren't going to so this fic became canon for me (I say like I actually watched the show). It created justice and closure for characters that very much looked like they weren't going to get any. (As always, mind the tags. It deals with some very dark topics. There are definitely some triggers in this one. Actual triggers, not just squicks. Anyone that knows Shameless knows how bad Mickey and Mandy's childhood was. That's what we're dealing with.).

10) Standard Deviations - Yuri!!! on Ice

it's the BEST time travel fic i've read! it starts with just viktor and yurio, but throughout the story yuuri, mila, and more all come back and cause enough shenanigans to give yakov a heart attack lmao

it's v lighthearted and makes me laugh more than almost anything else has tbh

(tldr if u don't go here: love interest & angry son go back in time and are eventually joined by the rest of their figure skating pals. they cause enough chaos that their coach faints countless times)

[tehamelie]

Garp isn't a funny man (Community 1.3)

Previous Post index Next

It's taking a lot of energy to restrain myself from just plowing through the show at this point. Writing about it is so much more challenging than watching it. I hope at least somebody appreciates my sacrifice. (Hi @pink-squirrel ) Why didn't I become a reactor Youtuber?

Community S1E3: Introduction to film

See, people get worried about Abed cause he watches so much TV, but here's professor Whitman who's EXCLUSIVELY watching Dead Poets Society on a loop. Yeah I figure it's playing in his brain constantly. But only the happy fun parts with the unconventional teacher encouraging students to act on an impulse for once in their lives, of course not the sad parts when the boys go too far outside of the bonds of conformity and the world punishes them, or even the great but serious parts with poetry reading at night in the woods.

But let's not get too far ahead of the plots. Next we encounter Pierce catastrophically failing to use voice command on his phone and driving the whole study group up the wall with this relentless effort to adapt to new, useless technology. I don't want to be a Luddite (and the Luddites had a good cause that's been twisted around by their critics anyway) but I'm entirely on Britta's side here. Because Big Tech is not on our side, not because it's just really irritating to have to listen to someone loudly producing the same error on their device ten times in a row. Well, not only that.

Jeff enters to spread the good word of Whitman's easy A grades. Annie is against it, and it feels like it's more about how it's making a mockery of academia than a question of how much time she'd have to waste on not learning anything in this class. Except when Troy wants in she immediately sees the educational value. And Shirley joins in cause loves Robin Williams.

But Abed does not, in a shocking twist. Well, it's not that shocking. He values good filmmaking and novel stories and he correctly points out there's an element of cheap drama at the cost of credulity that fuels most of Williams' movies. But come on, suspend your disbelief a little and enjoy the tremendous force of his performance.

Rest well, Robin.

And we find out how Abed's life and education plans are restricted by the struggles of his father. "9/11 was pretty much the 9/11 of the falafel business." Britta, of course, immediately rallies to help him rebel by paying for a $70 filmmaking class. I have no idea if that's unusually cheap or expensive for community college, and it's a different joke depending on which, but both are funny so whatever.

Shirley worries Mr Nadir is going to cut Britta's head off with a "salami sword" for, I don't know, talking to Abed while being a woman? It's such an outrageously racist thing to worry about based on just the vague impression she has that the man might be fanatically Muslim, I think the group is focusing on the entirely wrong thing when they just seem to object to the term "salami sword".

But then, it does set up the great joke of Jeff setting a timer and betting Pierce will top her racism within one minute. Which he does.

"Are we going to study Spanish or keep getting involved in each other's personal lives? Hey, Troy sneezes like a girl!" Kind of an uncharacteristic tone for Jeff - caring about what other people say and do and all that - but maybe it's just to remind us he'll do anything to not have to actually study.

I started organizing a thought that these spots of marginally weak writing that seems focused on delivering jokes above all else, could be how Community has its sophomore slump in the third episode. But then the intro played and I realized I'd spent an hour picking apart just the cold open.

Next in Dead Poets Society class we learn more about Shirley. She says she's at the school "To get a degree in business to sell [her] baked goods and whatnot on the Internet," which, what does any of that mean? A highly unspecific "degree in business"? That you'll need to run an online bakery because? And wait a minute, who the heck is going to order a chocolate cake from the Internet? Are you going to send them in the mail?

As it turns out, she's really here to start her life after 15 wasted years. That story she had to tell herself to get out of the house and go to school evaporates. She really does become fully alive, alive with intention and earnestness, and she deserves her A for that moment of truth.

Only when we stop stopping our lives can we begin to start starting them, indeed. Okay, I'd fail Whitman here for that tremendously uncreative line. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping couldn't do it worse.

Cue the standing on desks and accidents with collapsing desks. Ah, impulsivity is fun.

I like that Whitman sees right through Jeff. For being a word class lawyer, he's consistently terrible at being convincing. But it's nice Whitman wants to give him a chance anyway. He believes in Jeff, he wants him to have a genuine emotional moment in his life.

And the reveal, that the class is actually supposed to be accounting. That's comedy.

Over to Abed shooting a documentary. "It's like a movie but with ugly people." His dad shows up but doesn't talk to him, rather focusing on having a ridiculous argument with Britta, Could it be he has trouble speaking plainly with his son? No no there's never been a dad with that problem.

He seems to jump at the chance to disown him, in fact, and leave the mess of Abed for someone else to take care of. I guess he may just be speaking in anger.

Britta crying "They day I cut myself loose of my father was the day I finally started being *choke* happy" makes me feel such mixed emotions. One, great joke, II, I just want to hold her close, and C, also kind of just want to squeeze her.

The next day, I'm guessing, finds Jeff going into overdrive with his carefully calculated efforts to demonstrate his spontaneity. A Christmas tie with flashing lights, rainbow suspenders and bunny face slippers with bells on? The only thing matching his obnoxious tryhardness here is Whitman, who shows up to complain about Jeff drinking boring normal coffee before ordering a wedding cake. Yeah the act is getting pretty worn out. I'd like it if we saw at least a moment of him like, trying to listen to people, or just being sad, instead of giving the impression he spends every moment of every day relentlessly pursuing the most whimsical impulse.

And we get a whole scene of Pierce teaching Troy about deliberate sneezing. He wants to know more. This can't end well.

Back to Jeff flying a rainbow pattern kite and running through a finely choreographed scene of children playing. I think he'd actually have fun doing these things if he wasn't so desperately, overtly looking for Whitman's approval. And as Whitman continues to see right through him, wouldn't it be time to rethink this approach? Maybe Jeff genuinely doesn't know how to let his guard down and let the world in, even for a moment.

Cut to the study room where Abed gets everyone pizza. There's a whole subplot with Abed acting suspicious and spending too much money that's going to come together in a moment when he finishes the movie so I'm not worrying too much about relating it here, but in a vacuum this is a super weird scene where Abed seems to have fully disconnected from reality, barely interacting with people as they (well, Britta) desperately beg him to explain himself. Love the coffee delivery guy who has to stand there for what seems to him like an impossibly cruel, far too intimate family argument.

At last, everyone's there to see Six Candles just as Abed finishes rendering it. It's like he directed the whole series of events. Get it, because he's a movie director, and he spent the whole time directing his unwitting actors into giving the exact performances he needed to put together this movie to tell his dad he makes him feel neglected, unloved and guilty about his mom leaving them.

That would be a difficult thing to say in words, but it had to be said, and the men are now able to reach each other in a way that maybe neither thought they ever could, and they establish a level of trust, of compromise. That all happens immediately after the end of the film, before the tears dry, while the bright colors and snappy high-energy jingle of the COOL ABED FILMS logo still echoes in the room. Ah, the contrasts.

Cut to Troy sneezing like a big man, making Shirley jump while Pierce looks upon him with approval. Wait a minute, wasn't this episode about learning not to fake spontaneity? Yeah I realized that parallel just now.

But as this corruption of the innocent plot goes, I think the story of Troy's sneezes has the lowest stakes of any piece of dramatic storytelling ever written. I completely forgot how the show does that. Like, I remember the fun of all the extremely low stakes conflicts ("The stakes have never been higher" "Shut up Leonard"), but not how they make it work.

Like Jeff and Britta's kiss here. It's funny because Whitman is completely correct in his assessment that it's a turning point for their relationship (which is why he takes it as an acceptable act of day-seizing and gives Jeff the A), it does feel unexpectedly important for both of them, but where are the stakes? We may be led to believe this will be a Significant Romance, but that never actually happens. Their relationship gets more emotional involvement from Annie than from either of them. It's aggressively medium stakes drama all the way and it's beautiful.

The stinger, with Jeff teaching Troy and Abed about krumping, also beautiful.

[meggie-stardust]

20 Questions for fic Writers!

Tagging myself via @lucky-bishop because I'm half bored, half a bit loopy on benadryl... And same suggestion; if anyone else wants to do this, say I tagged you <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 73?! Wow that surprised me.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 403,636

3. What fandoms do you write for? These days, mostly Teen Wolf, but I've written a lot for Merlin, Percy Jackson, BBC Sherlock, Gundam Wing, and assorted others over the years.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1. Acts of Man (Merlin/Arthur, Merlin): On the morning of their Annual pre-Christmas Dinner, Merlin is shocked to find out that Gwen thinks his boyfriend, Arthur, isn't good enough. But after a glimpse into Merlin's quirky flat, Gwen realizes that she might not have the whole story. 2. Nightmares (Jason/Percy, PJO): Percy feels lost and alone after returning from Tarartus. And if that's not bad enough, he can't sleep without having horrifying nightmares. Luckily for Percy, Jason is the one person not avoiding him, and the one person that has offered to help. 3. Looking for the Thing We Lost (Stiles/Peter, Teen Wolf): But the thing is that Stiles had already been forgotten by everyone. 4. Here I Am (Stuck in the Middle With You) (Jason/Percy, PJO): Percy and Jason's mission gets derailed when they find themselves trapped in a room with no way out. Luckily, they find a way to pass the time… 5. Know How A Man Becomes a Beast (Stiles/Peter, Teen Wolf): Peter took a steadying breath and stepped into room. He held up his hands and walked forward slowly, the way he would approach any wild animal. “Stiles. It’s gonna be ok.”

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, I try to, even it take a while -- at least on my newer fics. I haven't gone back to things from like 10 years ago to reply to old comments that I missed, but I try to keep up. I want people to know I appreciate the time they've taken to read and react to my fic, and you never know if you're going to connect with someone new and make a new fandom friend.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Give Me Pure Energy (Stiles/Peter): the alternative season 2 where Stiles craves some normalcy and befriends a new kid in his econ class, only to realize that maybe they both want more from each other than just a simple friendship. This is a super darkfic anyway, and has the kind of ending that's happy only if you're ok with all the awful things that Peter does during the fic... but generally, I like my angst with a happy ending so this is the best I can do.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Oh gosh, so many of my fics have happy endings... that's how I like em... uhhh. I'm going to go with one of my all time favorites:

Stuck Between Stations (Stiles/Peter): the one where Peter and Stiles are stuck in a time-loop inside The Wild Hunt.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I have been so lucky to not get much hate. If people are talking about my work behind my back, it's not getting back to me. And aside from an odd comment or two, I've gotten through about 20 years of fandom without having to deal with random hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes. I've written m/m, m/f, f/f, and, I think an m/m/f once... but I'm into all sorts of things and have fun writing about it

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I have in the past; a Harry Potter/BBC Sherlock x-over that got abandoned. I've also done a few prompt challenges that lead to crossovers/fusions like SPN meets MJN Air, etc.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? god, I hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, I have been so lucky to have a few of my fics translated into different languages. It's always such an honor, and I give full permission for people to translate my work as long as they connect it back to mine on AO3.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have but it's been ages. And I think there may be someone *cough*@punchedbymarkesmith*cough* that would be great to collaborate with if an opportunity presented itself...

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Steter it would seem. I've been reading and writing it since 2016...!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I fully intend to finish It's Only Forever, but I've used some of the ideas for it in other things, so I know it will be hard to get back into where I was going with it. I don't want to abandon it, but it's been a few years... le sigh.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm pretty good with dialogue, especially banter. I think I'm also great at taking a small detail from canon and using that to world build something different.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Oh, that's easy: action and mystery. I really wish I could write a good casefic or mystery plot, and I just can't. I have to distract and misdirect at the end... I have to do the same with the action, too.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I don't trust myself. I might confer with someone who speaks that language if it was really needed, but I would probably do something like:

"Wow, I can't believe you survived that helicopter crash," he said in Spanish.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Gundam Wing, followed my Newsies and Harry Potter.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I already gave a call out to Stuck Between Stations above, so I'm going to have to go with:

At This Truth We Have Arrived (Stiles/Peter): Five years after the death of Laura, Peter returns to Beacon Hills only to be confronted by the truth that the pack has moved on without him. But the fact that everything he once knew has changed isn't necessarily a bad thing; not when there is someone like Stiles who is so full of possibilities.

OR as my WIP notes for this fic say: "Peter is curious. They do something. Murder murder. Sex sex."

[invisiblegarters]

23.5 Episode 9

Last week: sapphic teachers, Aylin and Luna being adorable and confessing in morse code, kisses!

I dunno man. Eight hours a day could mean that we work two of them. I feel like I could handle that.

I say this every episode, but Sun and Ongsa really are cute.

Latte is still best dog.

I would snatch up the chance to do an exchange program if I were Ongsa. I did not have the opportunity as a teen but man, that would have been so great.

Oh Aylin. I love her. Those awkward smiles i'm dying.

Ongsa absolutely can't ride a bike.

I am so glad that Sun decided to start with a bicycle instead of a scooter.

Okay I know they gotta do their advertising thing so I'm not gonna say a word about the makeup ad. I'm not.

Okay one thing: I do think it's cute that Aylin wants to look cute for Luna. Not that she need the makeup for that, but you know.

Hahaha Sun I love you. I love that she's like "well my girlfriend moves faster than you two, I'm so lucky."

...is that not how it went?

Aw poor Alpha. I bet she feels so out of the loop.

I do love how concerned they all are for her. This show is so damn cute and lovely.

I'm sorry but can they just keep putting Ciize in those sleeveless shirts? Please? For me?

Aw that advice was good.

Okay this looks like an intervention though.

Dammit, Alpha! What did your teachers just tell you? Although to be fair I get her feeling cornered.

Oh my gosh this girl is so cute. Is she making octupi out of the sausages? ADORABLE.

Aw this family stuff is so great.

LOL okay this is hilarious. I think it's great Ongsa isn't going to have more time than one day to prepare. Girl is gonna stress herself into a heart attack if she gets any more time.

Ton is killing me with the second hand embarrassment my god. I am beginning to think that he only wants what he can't have. Or that he deliberately pursues girls that he knows aren't gonna ever take him seriously. I read a theory that he might be ace (or aro, or both) and my goodness I'd love that but I'm trying not to get my hopes up because I still feel like TonCharoen is gonna happen.

Welp that went well. I don't think Ton was being malicious because he's just not that type, but also Aylin just isn't comfortable. I don't think that Luna is in the wrong to want her to open up to her friends a little, but poor Aylin must feel so pushed.

Although a part of me does wonder if part of Aylin's thing is that she does want friends, but she's so used to being treated like shit for just being herself that she's ultimately decided not trying at all is better.

Oh hey this is very sensual for this show. Good for them!

I'm sorry I just got all caught up in my Aylin feelings again. She's hands down my favorite, I feel for her so much.

Next week: MORE NIDA AND BAMBAM. Bambam please get hit with a clue by four before this show is over I am begging you.

[oakashandwillow]

20 Questions for Writers

Tagged by @bywayofmemory

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 91. A couple of those are 3SF compilations.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 115,642

3. What fandoms do you write for? Narnia, mostly. Used to write some Supernatural, Doctor Who but mostly in crossovers. Once we get into 3SF or "i've written this like once" - Star Wars (Mandalorian & Andor/Rogue One in particular), Battlestar Galactica, original stuff, Alex Rider, The Locked Tomb, Mass Effect, DC Comics, Middle Earth (movies, all books, Rings of Power), MCU - a lot. Twilight because of my "what if Renesmee was not... what Meyers wanted her to be" series.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Whose Other Side Is Salvation. Narnia/Doctor Who. Susan and the Doctor run.

we have to go on living. Young Justice. He can't hold it together forever. Robin, post-Failsafe.

to go nowhere with you. Torchwood/Narnia. "Minotaur," Edmund corrects automatically. Edmund/Ianto, time loops, minotaurs, coffee, and rift archaeology of sorts.

give me a world, you have taken the world i was. Hardy Boys. Joe wakes up alone in the dark. Things get worse from there, which sucks, because Frank is supposed to be home from college for Christmas break today.

Secrets Kept. Young Justice. Artemis knows Robin's secret. Spoilers through Young Justice 1x08.

5. Do you respond to comments? I... am nowhere as good as I would like to be at it.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? ... considering all the Narnia and specifically Susan Narnia stories I write that is a hard call. Probably we have come to our real work. AU. When Peter and Lucy hunt the White Stag, Susan and Edmund are in Archenland. Things go downhill from there. It's pretty early in my fic career so it could be a lot better in terms of quality but it is probably the saddest ending I've written. In terms of saddest story that I'm actually proud of? Probably we should take warning, we should forgive each other. Narnia, Prunaprismia, the bitterness of loss and pride and decisions it seems like are the only ones you can make even though they aren't.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Do I.... do I write happy endings.

I suppose my Renesmee series has a pretty happy ending! between one June and another September. Twilight, Renesmee/Leah. Renesmee Cullen comes full circle and falls in love. Does not make much sense without having read the previous works in the series though.

OH wait i gave edmund/bacchus (Narnia) a happy ending in one year since i've seen the mountains. I can write things that are happy!

8. Do you get hate on fics? I am extremely under the radar for almost everything honestly so no! And tbh I just don't have patience for that so would probably just delete and block if it was properly hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I've written some, though it's pretty mild!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Look, what haven't I crossed over with Narnia. Merlin (BBC), Doctor Who / Torchwood, Mary Poppins, The Dark Is Rising, The Library Trilogy. I've done Leverage/Supernatural and I don't even know what I've done in various 3SF rounds. If we're counting my RP days I had some WILD character interactions while playing Padme Amidala in particular.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I doubt it? Never checked.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Once or twice! And podcasted once.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Several times! Only one is actively published and available as a fic though. Winds To Catch, Narnia/Mary Poppins, with @siterlas and animus in the city on A03. A Very Long Time Ago @bedlamsbard and I did like... an alarming amount of words on a BBC Merlin/Narnia crossover in commentfic. (Alarming for me who mostly writes like, maybe 1-2k a fic, not for Bed who's chapters number easily in the multiple thousands of words.) @siterlas and zempasuchil and I once wrote a bunch of AU BBC Merlin RPF commentfic where we wrote both the actors as if they were in a show about Marx and Engels instead and also parts of the fake show that they were in. Definitely various Supernatural and Narnia commentfic across the years. Probably more? Have also written friend fic for Las with Animus and Z. I also did a lot of RP stuff over the years! Which is cowriting though not in the sense we think of with fic.

Actually I really miss commentfic. It's so fun. I sometimes get to do it a little in 3SF but most people don't even know it's a thing you can do these days I think alas. Very informal collaboration is delightful!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Yeah I can't answer that. I'm very bad at picking favorites, ever. If we're talking ships I actually write, Susan/Edmund (Narnia), Bo-Katan/Din (Mandalorian) and Kara/Lee (BSG) are probably my top three? But I love... so many ships.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I started a follow up to my Hardy Boys story and I've noodled with it occasionally and don't think I'll ever properly finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths? I have been told I'm really good at ending lines! I like to think I'm good at just character study.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. Who needs a plot. What is a plot.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I do not trust myself to get it right at all so I just don't overall.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Depends if we count doing RP in which case it's Lord of the Rings. If it's straight fic, Narnia.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? My favorites land in very different categories, so I think I will pick the first fic I wrote that I properly felt "wait, I think I can be good at this writing thing" and still gets received well. this temporary flesh and bone. Narnia. Susan/Edmund. Susan, Edmund, and the zombie apocalypse in England.

I shall tag. @svgurl410 @lyntergalactic @liminal-zone @callowyn @ravenlilyrose

[ccss10987]

Heist Gone Wrong

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43881277

Characters: Logan, Patton, Remus, Roman, Virgil, and Janus.

Words: 3,060

TW: I think it's all good. Let me know if I'm wrong

Notes: This is written for @lostinmyfictionaluniverses as part of the @sanderssidesgiftxchange I hope you have a fun holiday season and you get yourself a little treat. I would like to thank the mods for putting this all together. I had such a fun time writing this. I hope everyone who reads this enjoys this funny little art heist sanders sides one-shot.

"Does everyone understand the plan?" Logan asked, setting down his wooden pointer.

The group in front of him nods.

"Remus and Patton, do either of you remember what step 4 is?" Logan asked the two with a smug look on his face

"OOH!" Remus raises his hand quickly, jumping up and down in his seat.

"Yes, Remus?" Logan sighed.

"Kill everyone in the room and use the blood to cover where the painting was!"

"Maybe… go through the plan one more time, Logan." Patton said gently.

"That's what I thought. Step 1, Roman will create a forgery of the painting. Step 2, Janus will sneak into the museum accompanied by Patton. Step 3, I will hack into the security system and put all the cameras in a loop to make sure no one sees anything. Step 4, Remus will cause a distraction while Roman sneaks the forgery inside. Step 5, Janus finds the painting while Patton keeps all the other guards from finding Janus stealing the painting. Step 7, we replace the painting with the fake one Roman created. Step 8, we get out of the museum, and Virgil will drive us away. Step 9, we return the stolen art to the original artist. Are we all clear now?"

Once again, everyone nods.

"What's the worse thing that can happen?" Janus asked with a smirk on their face.

"You said that on purpose. I have a list I can read out for you, if you want." Virgil said, glaring at them.

"Okay, okay. Let's not fight. This is going to go perfectly." Patton told Virgil while standing in between the two.

"You can't say that either!" Virgil yelled, pulling at his hair.

"I'm sorry. Knock on wood." Patton said quickly while knocking on their wooden coffee table.

"So how is the replica coming along, Roman?" Logan asked, trying to change the subject.

"It's nearly there. It just needs something." Roman told him.

"Blood! Mucus! Slime! Some other questionable substance?" Remus suggested.

Roman scrunched up his face. "Ew. You're not helping."

"I will take a look at it and help you figure it out." Logan told him. Logan and Roman left the room.

"I started working on my costume months ago and am now done." Janus said, looking at their manicured nails. "In other completely unrelated news. Patton, you have a spare security uniform, right?"

"Yeah, you can have my spare. I'll go get it." Patton told him.

"I don't need it, of course. I simply want to compare the two."

The two left, leaving Remus and Virgil alone.

"I can't imagine this going well. I'm not even sure why I decided to do this in the first place. I'm gonna cause a police chase. We're all going to go to jail and I'm going to fuck something up-"

"Nah don't worry about that. If anyone is going to fuck something up. It's gonna be me, emo, but it'll be on purpose."

"Please don't."

Remus chucked and crept out of the room. "What a prick…" Virgil mumbled under his breath.

"I am not quite sure what you think is missing. It looks fine-" Logan said, staring at the false art.

"I don't want it to look fine. It needs to be an exact replica!" Roman was pacing around his studio, mumbling about all the details he put into the painting, trying to figure out what the art was missing.

"Roman, it does not need to be perfect. It just needs to look enough like the painting so we have the time to get away before we are caught. We have recovered works of art before without anyone knowing it was gone, and I have no doubt in my mind that we can do it again." Logan told him.

"Well what if it's not good enough!? What if my forgery gets recognized too quickly? We won't be far enough away from the museum when the police start chasing us. Maybe we won't even get that far. The security guards-"

Logan cut him off once more. "If everyone follows my plan, we won't need to worry about the security guards at all. Patton and Janus will have them distracted, most likely with awful dad jokes."

Logan didn't want Roman to know that he was also worried about the heist. It was his plan, after all. If something went wrong, it was his fault. He didn't plan for it and couldn't deduce a solution. Logan could not let Roman know this because he needed all the answers. Having Roman worry more wasn't going to help in the long run.

"Well you know what's best. After all, you're the smart one." Roman stated.

"Obviously. I am going to retire to my room now. Please try and get some rest, Roman."

"Will do, Specs."

In Patton's room with Janus, Patton was hunched over in his closet, pulling things out and throwing them on the floor.

"Are you sure you have this?" Janus asked.

"Well I might have given it to a coworker of mine…" Patton trailed off.

Janus pinched the bridge of their nose. "I can make do. This might surprise you, but I don't have a disguise ready.

Patton laughed nervously, still rummaging through his closet. "Oh really? I had no idea." he said as playfully as he could.

"Why did you give away the uniform anyway?' Janus asked.

"Well he spilled some soda on himself and I always keep my spare in my bag in case someone needs it. I told him that he could borrow the shirt. He was so nice and even said he would wash it before he gave it back to me."

Janus just nodded. Patton stood up and stretched his back out. Janus sighed, hearing the crackling of Patton's back. "Take this advice from someone who has chronic pain, you need to stretch more often."

"Yeah I know. I keep saying I will, but I never do. Just like me saying I should clean my room more often, especially the closet." Patton told Janus. He said this as he shoved the pile of clothes back into his closet.

"I should get started on that uniform so I can finish it before Logan stars nagging me."

"Good luck!" Patton called out while Janus left the room. He sighed, looking at the pile of clothes in the closet before closing the door. It was too much work to do to clean that up now. It didn't seem like a problem before.

Everyone had trouble sleeping that night. They were all worried about something not going according to plan, except Remus. He was just too excited to sleep.

It was the morning of the heist. Everyone was tired. Patton was still the first one up to start making breakfast for everyone. Logan was the next one down. Patton put on a smile for him. "Did you sleep well, Logan?" he asked.

"To tell you the truth, I could have slept better."

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, bud."

Janus came down just as Patton finished breakfast, followed by the twins, who all looked sluggish. Virgil was the last person to come downstairs, looking just as tired as everyone else, but that was a common occurrence.

"Based on everyone's faces, I deduce I am not the only one who did not get a good quality sleep last night."

Everyone mumbled in agreement, even Patton, trying his best to hide his drowsiness.

"No matter. I want everyone to try and sleep today. We will continue as planned. The more rested we are, the more successful this mission will be."

Everyone nodded and promised they would get some sleep before the heist. They had done this several times before, so why were they all so nervous?

Janus, Logan, and Patton were the only three who had tried to sleep before the heist. All three were unsuccessful.

Patton and Janus left a few hours before the rest of them to secure Janus' cover as a security guard at the museum. Patton had been working there for a while now. That's how they found out about the stolen art in the first place.

At the front doors of the museum, Janus took a deep breath. "My name is Dee Jordan. I am 31 years old."

"Why three years younger than you are?"

"Shush. I'm babysitting my nephew Declan, and I need the extra cash, hence the night shift job." Janus finished their mumbling, and they took another deep breath. "Alright, I'm in character. Let's do this." they said with a fake voice.

"Wow. That is amazing!" Patton exclaimed. He unlocked the door using his ID, and they entered the building.

Patton led Janus into the security room, where one of his coworkers was, waiting for his shift to start.

"Hey, Patty! I bought some donuts before I came here, do you want one?" Patton's coworker, Carl, asked.

"Thank you, Carl." Patton said before taking a chocolate-covered donut with sprinkles. "This is our new coworker-"

"Dee Jordan. It's nice to meet you. I won't have this job for long. It's just supposed to be an easy payment." Janus lied.

"Well, it's pretty dull. There's like nothing to do, and the alarms are always faulty." said Carl. "Do you and Patton know each other?"

"Yes." "No." Patton and Janus said in sync, respectively. Patton was not okay with lying to his coworkers. He had known them for so long.

"What do you mean?" Carl asked.

"What he means is we met here before, but we don't actually know each other." Janus said before Patton could speak.

"We should get started with patroling the museum." said Patton quickly.

"Alright. I'll see you later, buddy." Carl said to Patton."

The two started walking away from the security room. Janus turned to Patton and told him, "Next time that someone asks us a question, please leave the talking to me. I know you don't like lying."

"But, keeping information from people is still a lie." Patton huffed.

"It's not a lie if they don't have the right to know." Janus fired back. Janus sent Logan a quick text to let Logan know they had gotten inside with no trouble.

In the van a few streets away, Logan started to tap into the museum security cameras.

"Has anything gone wrong yet?" Virgil asked.

"For the hundredth time, no." Roman told him, inspecting his painting.

"Not yet anyway." Remus said.

"Would you three please be quiet. I need my full concentration. As long as everything goes according to my plan, we will be able to get away with this." Logan snapped at them.

Everyone was quiet after that, even Remus. The only sounds in the van were Logan's fingers tapping on the keyboard and Virgil's leg bouncing.

After a few moments, Logan got into the security cameras and put all of them on a 5-second loop. He was certain no one was on the looped footage and sent Janus a text saying step 3 was complete.

"Hey Patton, friend, buddy, pal, a synonym for a friend." Janus started.

"What is it? Did something go wrong?" Patton asked, worry in his voice.

"No, but do you remember what step 3 was?"

"Oh." Patton sighed in relief. "It was the distraction. I'm at least 87% sure."

Janus laughed. "That's a specific number. Too specific to be wrong. I'll meet Roman at the meeting point."

Janus got to the meeting point, a fire escape near the gallery the stolen art was in. Remus said the distraction was loud enough to drown out the noise of the alarm, so they opened the door. The fire alarm blasted, and Janus covered their ears. Roman wasn't at the door. They peeked their head outside and looked around. Roman wasn't in sight.

"What happened over here?" someone from behind Janus asked. This wasn't supposed to happen. Everyone was supposed to be wherever Remus caused the distraction. Something went wrong.

Janus turned around. "I heard the alarm go off, so I ran toward the noise.

"Ah, you must be new. This door is always a bit fussy. It scared me on my first night shift too. I swear the slightest gust of wind can cause it to go off. I'm Maddison, by the way." she said.

"I'm Dee." Janus told her. The two shook hands and jumped when they heard a loud boom and several crashes.

"I've never heard that one before. Let's go check it out." Maddison said. She grabbed Janus by the wrist and started running towards the sound. They found a giant hole in the wall. Everyone came to check it out, including Patton, who saw Janus at the scene and became very nervous. They weren't supposed to be here. Something went wrong.

"I cannot believe someone blew up a wall. Who would go through the trouble of doing this?" Maddison mumbled to herself.

"I didn't see anything on the cameras. I should have though, right?" Carl asked himself.

"I didn't see anything either." Patton said. It felt wrong to keep information from his two closest coworkers, but he knew he had to. He couldn't believe Remus would do something this extreme. Well, yes, he would. This came as a surprise to no one.

"What do we do now?" Janus asked, dumbfounded.

"We shouldn't call the police. They only make matters worse." Carl said. He gave Maddison a slight nod, who nodded back at him. Something suspicious was happening, and it wasn't just the art heist.

"You blew up an entire wall, Remus." Roman whisper-yelled to his brother.

"No way. I did not blow up the entire wall, just most of it." Remus said as a matter of factly.

"They know someone is sneaking in now." Roman told him.

"Then you better hurry up and replace the painting then." Remus told him as he started walking back to the van.

Roman would have argued more, but he was right. They had to finish this job now. Roman ran to the meeting point to meet up with Janus. The door was open, thankfully, but Janus wasn't there. Something went wrong. He couldn't wait for them. He needed to find that stolen painting as soon as possible.

Roman raced through the gallery, trying to find the painting. He eventually found where the artwork was supposed to be. There was a sign with the thief's name and their fake title, but no artwork. He sent Logan a panicked text explaining the situation.

"That was completely irresponsible, Remus." Logan scolded him.

"Hey, it was loud enough to drown out the fire alarm and caused all the workers to check it out." Remus defended himself.

"Including Janus. Luckily they left the door open for Roman. Unfortunately, someone stole the painting before we could."

"WHAT!?" Virgil yelled. He started mumbling to himself and spiraling into a panic attack.

"I'll help Roman get out of there. You help Virgil." Remus said. He wasn't stupid. He knew when it was time to get serious. This could have serious consequences.

"Not to worry, Virgil. This is a minor set back. We have to tell our client that someone else stole their artwork, and there is nothing more that we can do."

"They'll be disappointed with us." Virgil told him through shakey breaths and tears.

"No, they won't. I'm confident we got further than they expected us to get. Now, let's work on your breathing."

"Okay." Virgil mumbled.

Remus snuck into the museum through the open fire escape. He found his brother in the gallery where the art was supposed to be. "Alright, we need to leave before we get caught. Take the painting with you. We can't let anyone know we were ever here." Remus told him.

"Right." Roman said as he got up and followed Remus through the entrance they came in through.

The two made it back to the van without being detected.

"Okay, we will be here for another moment while I reset the museum security cameras. Then, we will be on our way back home. No one will know we were there. Janus and Patton will make sure of that." Logan said while sending a text to Janus and Patton to let them know the updated plan. The text he got back was far more concerning.

"Let's go back where we were and try to find the intruder." Maddison told Janus. She grabbed them by the wrist and led them away from Patton and Carl.

Once they were out of sight, Carl let out a sigh of relief. "I'll let you in on a little secret on why I'm not too worried about this."

"What's happening?" Patton asked.

"Do you remember when I told you that someone was taking credit for someone else's artwork here?" Carl asked. Patton just nodded. "Maddison and I were going to do something about that. We took the painting down and hid it in her car. We were going to say that the art thieves held us at gunpoint and threatened to shoot us if we tried to stop them. I really hope you don't think less of us."

Patton nodded once more. "I have a confession too." Patton explained everything he and "Dee" were doing but left everyone else's name out of it to Carl.

Carl called Maddison back to the hole in the wall and told them to bring Janus with her.

"Well I guess the cat's-" Janus started. "Meow." Patton interrupted.

"Now that you two are in on the plan, we can call the police." Carl stated.

Maddison started the phone call while Carl got the story straight with Patton and Janus.

The police came a few hours later and questioned all the security guards all individually. They didn't suspect a thing.

Janus, Patton, Carl, and Maddison all went home. Patton brought the painting to the original owner, who thanked him for returning it.

On the drive back home, Patton and Janus could finally talk without the fear of being listened to. "How come you didn't have a problem lying to the police?" Janus asked.

"I am surprised at you, Janus. It's always morally correct to lie to police officers." Patton told him. Janus laughed. "Too true." he said. A moment of silence went by before Patton spoke up. "You might hate me for this, but that spare uniform was in my bag the whole time."

[starburstsobsessions]

Rangers apprentice is weird man. Like the first four books I flew through SO fucking fast because they were truly this amazing well written exciting great experience trying and aspiring to be something better. Then . Book 5. So much changes. I’ve just got things on my mind

Book 5. Everything changed here.

Rangers apprentice book 1-4 actively was showing a fictional “fantasy historical” misogynistic society and showing how the main women are dealing with that and how they are persevering and are able to aim for high status outside of just royalty. The women are high profile diplomats and go on their own missions and in due time save the male protagonists (who are shown to respect them about as much as a ya boy targeted fantasy guy is going to). Evanlyn literally rescues will from death and lives in the worst elements thus far for months ALONE and having to take care of will and his survival ALONE. She does that! She sneaks on a ship to gain information ALONE she even orders the archer line !!! and she is shown to be truly powerful.

Lady Pauline and Alyss are both powerful diplomats with cunning words and are displayed as the highest of their order. They both are revered and put on a pedestal by the protagonists and are just as well powerful and treated as such.

and. And then book 5. It’s like a whole different series after book 5.

The writing changes. The characters change. The way background characters are portrayed changes. It isn’t heartwarming anymore.

Everything changes in 5-6, which should be a good thing but it isn’t. The characters respect is dropped. Will becomes some kind of instant disrespectful ladykiller as opposed to who he was. He’s a little bitch! Alyss gets kidnapped and mind controlled instantly and her role is merely damsel in distress who is also causing friction between Will and other women. What???? Huh??? It irked me so bad!

Book 7? Hoo boy. It’s not a fan fav. It started as if it was going to be great! And then it . Wasn’t. Were my expectations too high? A prequel was definitely the right idea but there was also ... so many wrong ideas it was just kinda... ehhhhhhhhhh idkkkkk

book 8 was WELL written again (though DEF with flaws, once again with the female characters) and it got my hopes up once again 😳 it was thrilling and the lines were powerful and the characters felt right again. That seemed like the downfall though.

book 9 was. Extremely boring. Pointless even. It had no real agenda. Tennyson could easily have been defeated at the end of book 8 and it would have been SO much more satisfying. Book 9 was genuinely pointless filler chock full of sad repeated jokes and not much else. What even was book 9???? Like it had a few fun things that could have been great. If it weren’t all thrown together for a page count.

I’m not done with book 10, and I’ve been dealing with a lot lately so it’s been hard to focus when I have been reading, but... it def isn’t there either. There’s no heart there’s no merit. More looping bad jokes and travel filler while the woman and suddenly being demoted out of their positions by like, Halt.

and like. Idk what everyone else thinks it just kinda bothers me. I bought them all after reading 4 because I went WOW this series is AMAZING I’m IN LOVE and I do have a ton of fun with it, I just wish things were different. That’s why fanfic exists I guess 🧍 ANYWAY don’t come after me rangers apprentice fandom I’m right!!!!

[bethanysnow]

My review as if people want/are interested in my opinion.

1 Own My Mind  

      I adore this song, it gets stuck in my head on a loop all the time. The sway of the song is so cool. Musically it sets the theme for the album, which I think is super important.

 2 Gossip - Måneskin feat. Tom Morello 

      I liked it when it came out, I have not been or got really into Rage against the machines so I dont have any point of reference for Mr. Morello. I think its a song some folks should take to heart~

3 Timezone  

    ITS A WALTZ AHHH ITS A WALTZ. I dont really like the “running like a mad dog” but thats for damiano to know and for me to sing along to.

4 Bla Bla Bla 

    It is not my favorite, but I love the imagery and the sorta toxic!Damiano vibe it has going on?

5 Baby Said 

     THIS SONG FUCKIING DOES IT FOR ME! It is uptempo and contains lyrics to a concept I will never experience. I love the lyric video of Vic, makes me think of what maybe might have been the inspo for it. Its just so good. That riff kills it.

6 Gasoline 

     I liked it live, and im not mad with what they did to it in post. I do think this is a song to be sung live. It doesn’t have the same umphf on a studio recording.

7 Feel

     This song gets me also. I love the song its very dancy and dancy songs are my weakness.

 8 Don't Wanna Sleep   

    The audible personification of mania as far as im concerned. So its great and really fun, but also cant listen if want a chill vibe.

9 Kool Kids   

    Damiano drunk recording this I think is so funny?? I like the live version, I like the studio, but I do think the versions should be thought about as separate entities? Then it wouldn’t trip people up so bad.

10 If Not for You   

    Again another waltz. I am a romantic at heart and I know I could never write lyrics like this. Oh to feel a 10th of this kind of love.

11 Read Your Diary  

   .....(Yandere!Maneskin) what?? I didn’t hear anything. I am also in agreement with @lifeofa-fangirl some folks need to listen to it again and...really pay attention.

12 Mark Chapman   

     I like the song, since I dont speak italian some of the meaning is lost on me, but I love the little blurb on spotify of like ‘whenever we sing in italian we think often of our italian fans’ and to have that be on the song named after the guy who was obsessed with john lennon and shot him makes me giggle as an outside perspective.

13 La Fine   

    I know a lot of people really like this song, I dont get it, its good just not for me.

14 Il Dono Della Vita   

    I wanna honestly put all the ‘ill ____ della vita’s together and make the ultimate playlist one of these days lol. I think this is one of my more favorite ballad-y songs.

15 Mammamia   

    its mammamia? I don’t know why its on the album??? I think it could have been a stand alone single and be fine, im not mad about it of course.

16 Supermodel   

   Same thing with this song, I think it could have just been a single and been cool. I will say as the song the radio near me plays more often than not it has grown on me.

17 The Loneliest

   I think this is a really good way to end the album. I think its a good sorta pat on the back and lets you drift off. The loneliest in its 90s ballad glory I think wraps up the theme well of what they went through over the last how ever long. I think its a good perspective to end on as well. The music video was great, feels settled I guess is the word to use.

[spiraledfaun]

8, 9, 20, 48 for the hypnosis kink asks :)

8. How do you feel when hypnotized?

I feel like, floaty, hazy, and overall there's like a gentle veil over my head and my thoughts. In general, I lose my filter, and my stream of consciousness becomes exactly what I say. When I'm in trance, I can still skip around to many different thoughts, but I loop them around, especially if they're in service of keeping me hypnotized. Mantras really help a lot.

9. How do you feel when you hypnotize someone else?

When I hypnotize someone else, it makes me really happy to see them enjoying themselves. I find hypnosis itself to be inherently erotic, but I only enjoy doing it to someone when they're enjoying it: Which By The Way, should be how everyone does it (even if in the negotiated scene or scenario, it's been agreed upon that some intense things will be happening). Sometimes I go down a little bit myself, but it's generally not hard to keep myself from trance space if I'm guiding or trancing someone else. I just. I always get really emotional about the amount of trust those I trance put in me to do a good job and keep them safe, and so that's foremost on my mind.

20. What's one tip you have for other hypnotists/subjects?

I have more than one, but if there's one single tip I have to choose, it would be this: Nothing matters more than what your subject needs in the moment. Nothing. Their safety is paramount. The hypnotist's safety is also extremely important (and aftercare for doms and Tists is also important), but they're not in as vulnerable of a position.

If your subject does not want to do something, it does not happen. If your subject wants to come out of trance, bring them out. If your subject is unsure or scared or anything, take care of them.

Make it extremely clear at all times (without killing the mood, obvs) that you will never do anything they do not want to do. Create an atmosphere of safety (and actually mean it), without insisting that they *feel* safe with you. Insisting that they feel safe despite themselves (especially in trance) can sometimes lead to problems, whether you mean it to or not. You are not a perfect human being. No one is. If you fuck up, they need to feel able to bring it to your attention. Shut that down by insisting that they feel safe at all times, and you endanger yourself and your subject.

Obviously, this isn't the case for everyone, because not all words mean the exact same thing to each person, but. Just respect your subject as a human being, generate an open, honest rapport, and you should be fine.

48. Who is one person in the hypno community you really admire?

Ohhhhh god um. I dunno, when I started reading, I was really into Trilby Else. I think they just write, and I'm not sure if they do anymore, but I do really admire them. @consensualdomination is also a great person, I tried her music track the other day and 🤯 🥵 I was *out*. He's a really great example of an ethical Tist who still enjoys having fun in naughty ways. :)

Thank you for the ask! ^^

[emma00fin]

Week 43

Reading Edible Economics

I had a bit of a break from reading the book, but now I finished a few new chapters of it. One of them, called Banana, was about developmental economics which I enjoy studying, so it was even more enjoyable to read about. Here's some new words that I picked up while reading: propagated, meagre, cog, perishable, subsidiary, laden, deftly, imbibe, steeped in, sublimated, retrenchment.

Listening to Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain

I really enjoy listening to podcasts on my free time, but I have had a really hard time finding any interesting podcasts in English. I decided to give Emma Chamberlain's podcast a go, and by doing some nit-picking with the episodes (by not starting from the first episode as my perfectionist self liked but choosing episodes with interesting themes) I am still content with the podcast series. Here's some of my thoughts:

Celebrity privacy (39 min) - Emma claims to offer a new perspective by being a B-list celebrity, but does really not state anything unheard of. All things said a layperson could have thought of.

Seasonal depression (50 min) - A very relatable episode. Emma was listing how she copes with seasonal sadness; as one of my coping mechanisms, I just started taking multivitamins with vitamin D and others in there. She also made an important note to remember to loosen up on the over-achieving during the winter hibernation time, as that will eat you up quicker than during the summer. She also brought up excluding yourself from friends & activities during the winter time as a side effect of seasonal depression: I was thrown a loop as I realized that has been a somewhat consistent problem of mine during the winter time, but I have never linked it with seasonal depression. The more you know!

HOURS

Listening: 42 h

Reading: 8 h 30 min

Spoken interaction: 3 h

Written and online interaction: 1 h 45 min (included the time it takes to write these posts, about 15 min each)

Spoken production:

Written production: 9 h

Total 64 h 30 min