#what if i catch the attention of someone that thinks fic writers are content providers?

[ngtskynebula]

We should talk more about the fact that nowadays' fandom makes us, fanfic writers, kinda... afraid of publishing and getting notoriety.

When I publish a fic, I want my readers to comment on it, talk about the plot and its character development; I wanna discuss my headcanons and gush over my ship and, all around, have a good time.

But I'm afraid. I'm afraid someone won't understand my story, or that they'll be too impatient to wait for the "problematic" aspects to make sense in-story, or that they won't be able to understand the story's nuances, and they'll harass me.

Cyberbullying's so common and encouraged in nowadays' fandom, I'm deeply afraid for myself... 😓

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[grognaksdonahue]

her ghost, it haunts me still

an unfinished and unedited trognak troy introspection blurb taking place during the last stream grognak was a part of :(

It’s been a week since Troy woke up with five broken ribs, two lung punctures, and a head devoid of answers. He remembers being in a plane; he remembers waking up in Pillbox. All details between the two events refuse to resurface, so a gap of black sits there, mocking him.

For a while, he’s able to quiet it and throw himself into work, even distract himself with another unique character in Los Santos, but when the following Tuesday arrives, Troy finds himself sinking back into the allure of the mystery. Tuesday is the day Grognak normally appears around town, gravitating towards Burgershot, which increases the chances that the two will meet; then, Troy finds himself whisked up in whatever adventure awaits them. A day with Grognak is never dull, and Troy has never felt so alive since she walked into his life.

But with this last encounter, he’s never been so close to death, and he doesn’t even remember how he got there.

He discovers a half put-together Posy while on shift, confined to crutches, and she’s exasperated to learn that she’s the only one who remembers anything before hitting the ground. Steven is useless — as he always is — in providing information, fervently denying any involvement in the plane situation at all. It didn’t sit right with Troy, convinced his friend was repressing the memories of it. He doesn’t budge, and the issue flatlines for the time being.

He soon messages Grognak with the thread-thin hope that she remembers what happened, but with her condition, there’s no guarantee she’ll even remember the plane either. Although Posy was the first of the crew to be tossed out of the plane, she seemed to harbor more answers than anyone.

“She’s married!” Posy suddenly exclaims while the two are searching bushes outside of Burgershot — in pursuit of Grognak’s gamer glasses.

A small etching of his memory returns, but its sole purpose seems to ignite the pain through his bones. He remembers plummeting towards the ground, arms outstretched and legs flailing. He feels like a starfish out of water — which explains why he feels like he can’t breathe. He doesn’t know why he’s falling or when he’ll feel the agony of real life again. There are tears from his eyes joining the night sky as stars; Troy floats in limbo. But he's not floating, he's simply in the middle of cutting a hole in his memories. It frustrates him, it hurts him even now, but at this moment, it’s not what his mind pays attention to.

She’s married.

Those words wedge into the memory like some fucked up word association game, they sink in right when he smashes to the pavement. His body takes the brunt of the impact, but his head still suffers in the aftershocks. He feels the bones in his chest crumble and curl into his lungs, puncturing in two places. He unintentionally inhales on impact, which causes his lungs to expand and meet the protruding bone halfway. The rogue ribs tear through the tissue and tendrils of nerves, and if Troy could think straight, he might fear his lung might deflate. It burns everywhere. Not even the blood gurgling in his throat or out of the blooming wounds can extinguish it. The black patches in his vision linger like they're never going to go away. They never do; they only sink into his brain and blot out the entire experience. He could die right now if he really tried. His whole body is practically begging him to.

But none of it, none of the bones shattering or flesh-ripping, none of the fear of falling out of a plane or the dread of finally landing, lives up the utter devastation of finding out the love of his life belongs to someone else now.

The funniest part (in the most tragic way) is that Grognak was probably the reason Troy fought to stay alive as hard as he did. And it was hard.

“I feel like I’ve just been stabbed in the gut,” Troy downplays. “I think I need a milkshake.”

I need hard liquor. I need a cigarette. I need to get this goddamn knife out of my back. Those are more accurate mantras orbiting his dented skull.

Posy shouts something out of earshot, made incoherent by a nearby vehicle’s sputtering, chugging to stay in motion it seems. Troy turns around to see Grognak barreling towards the Burgershot in a rusted camper van, hand firmly on the horn. As much as this entire situation weighs on Troy’s shoulders, slowly crushing him into a shell of what he once was, something always flutters and bursts in him when he sees her. Momentarily, he’s alive in her glow as she struts towards him.

Troy often wonders how she does it, walks into someone’s heart and claims it as her own. Makes the serious type in this city soft. Makes the crazy crazier. Makes him someone he doesn’t recognize. Before her, he was content in his ambitions: start a farm, have a family, live the ideal life -- a conventional one. He had some friends and a kind demeanor, but nothing anchoring him to his own feelings. How much he could feel. For one person, especially. What he would do in order to just be in the presence of that person. No matter the occasion, from scaling the tallest crane (twice), to having the worst day of his life and not having anything to show for it but fractured ribs and a broken memory, he didn't know he had it in him to love this hard, and love this tragically.

-

Not me writing this after calling out the Trognak writers for this exact angst adhajdfdhsj

once again, this is an unedited stream of consciousness type fic that I exclusively write at 4 am. might finish this, but I write so slow and I am so behind on Whale streams that I feel like the moment has passed. Probably will write something new soon once I catch up. I like writing Troy and will probably do it more.

[the-prophet-lemonade]

do you have any advice on getting a story to be seen? i made an ao3 account not too long ago so no one has seen my fic at the moment but i was wondering if you had any tips on that, or would i just have to wait?

hello! i can’t claim to know what makes a fic popular as it’s 99% luck, but i can speak for the remaining 1% that has worked ~reasonably~ well for me in the past. 

i think there are three key elements to getting a fic “seen”: marketing, branding, and presentation, and they’re all very important. this post got very long, so please find everything under the cut! i hope it helps :-) 

i. marketing

fic marketing may seem a bit narcissistic if you haven’t done it before, but trust me on this: it’s the best way to attract readers and you deserve to promoted your story as something you worked hard upon!

drumming up hype for a fic is great. you can do this by posting on social media, providing sneak peaks on your twitter, involving yourself in the fandom community and discussing your wips with other fans, and just generally being excited about what you’re creating. engaging with other people’s writing is also a great method to help boost your own stats … get involved with reading other work and leaving comments for other people, because they will be more likely to return the favour! when someone comments on my fics, i often go and check out their profile and see what they’ve written, as it’s highly likely we enjoy the same things! 

making promos is one of my favourite ways to engage with people about fics. once i post a fic/new chapter to ao3, i also crosspost promo posts with links and graphics to my twitter and tumblr. you will need a good hook to get people interested, but also an eye-catching image that summarises the story pictorially can be a great asset (you don’t even need photoshop, just a nice moodboard will do!). when using images however, it’s always important to think how the image size will appear in tumblr’s dimensions and on your own blog … make sure it’s not stretched or the resolution too low, and create something with a good visual flow i.e. the title appears first, then the necessary information, then any teasers or extracts. you need to make your fic post stand out on someone else’s timeline, which may already be filled with a bunch of other fic posts, jostling for attention. make it neat, clean, informative, and professional.

make sure to use the tagging systems efficiently for your chosen social media platforms: only the first five tags count on a tumblr post, so choose them wisely (i.e. use the key fandom tags first and save your personal blog tags for after), and only two hashtags count on twitter before it’s marked as spam, so go for the ship tag!

creating your own fic tag on twitter can also be fun, and i’ve seen a lot more people doing it lately too. you can encourage people to tweet along with a specialised hashtag and then you can find their reaction and engage with them later, which once again expands your fandom circle and will increase engagement on tweets associated with your fic.  

another trick i’ve learned is utilising time zones and understanding the demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach. i am very careful to post my fics at certain times of day in order to reach key people e.g. i will try to hit either europeans or americans during the evening, as this is when most people are home from work and wanting to read fic. as a european myself, especially involved in fandoms with high levels of european fans, i usually post during the early evening for CET time zones i.e. 7 or 8 pm and i tend to find this works for me. 

with tumblr, i often delay my promo posts so that i post when it’s likely to get maximum interaction (you can see when your blog is most active using your tumblr analytics) … use your queue if need be! 

i also take care in reblogging/retweeting my promo posts at certain times of day too. i will usually bump the post just before i go to bed, so as to grab americans in their early evening, and then i will bump it again in the morning when i wake up, to catch australians and west coast americans still awake. i then usually keep bumping my promos once a day for two or three days on my social media to cast a wide enough net to catch as many people who might be interested, as not everyone checks their timeline every day and social media swallows up posts so quickly, especially tumblr which is not built for original content creators to do well (lol). i will usually bump a promo post 5 - 7 times before retiring it and this is a model that’s worked well for me in the past, especially for droplets, which would get 500+ notes per chapter!  if you’re anxious about this, know that most people will only see your post once or twice because tumblr moves fast and swallows posts up very quickly, and sometimes people need reminders to read if they decide to save things for later when they have more time

ii. branding

the benefits of branding mainly come from experience, so it’s a tricky thing to utilise if you haven’t published fic before … but there are still tricks worth trying! 

certain fic writers will attract readers to new fics just because their name is attached to it, and people know the sort of story they’re getting, they know how it’ll be written, the sort of tropes that will appear, that sort of thing. obviously, building up this sort of brand requires publishing a lot of work, and so it must be said that practice makes perfect: the more you write and publish, the more your fics will be seen and your audience will grow. people will regularly see your username in the tags on ao3 and be more inclined to click on you as someone who reliably produces good content. it’s important to remember that everyone starts from the same place and works hard to improve their craft; success doesn’t just come overnight (unless you’re in the right place at the right time) and any creator will tell you that compliments to their talent aren’t what matters, but instead, it’s compliments to their dedication and hard graft. 

another key thing about branding is how you present yourself online. the most important thing in my opinion is cohesion across your social media platforms e.g. having the same username on ao3 as you do on tumblr/twitter/wherever you promote your fic. having an easily navigatable blog with working hyperlinks and archiving of your fic work is also great. basically, building a clean interface for people to engage with your work is vital! having the same icon and username across all your social media makes it so much easier for readers to navigate between your fics and your promo posts … basically, the easier you can spell something out, the better

branding is mostly to do with how you advertise yourself, rather than the particular fic, although much of it overlaps. get your name out there by engaging with other writers and making friends and appreciating their work! this is often the best way to get inspired, plus you get to meet some amazing people. i recommend trying out for zines and big bangs and writing challenges, as these are good ways to show your work to already-established audiences. also, make yourself available by interacting with commentors or by opening up your inbox on tumblr to anons. try linking your social media and your inbox as hyperlinks in the authors note of your fic

iii. presentation

this is really fundamental and is often the main reason people will close out of your fic and not read to the end. people want to read fics that are easy to digest and have had care put into them. this includes a lot of things:

correct tagging i.e. are the tags coherent and not just rambling? are there appropriate trigger warnings in place? have you unnecessarily tagged every side pairing under the sun, rather than just the main relationship?

grammar and spelling. goes without saying … people are more likely to read things that look professional and have had care poured into their preparation. make sure you know how to use speech punctuation. revise how to use commas. avoid epithets (especially racially-aggravated ones). get yourself a beta if you’re worried, because betas are godsends!

paragraphing. so many people will close out of a fic if it isn’t correctly spaced. double spaced paragraphs look best on ao3 and i often won’t read a fic if the paragraphs are too long because it hurts my eyes to read. make sure you’re starting new speakers in new paragraphs. new ideas deserve new paragraphs. basically, every time the “camera” changes, you should be starting a new paragraph. not just a new line. 

summaries. i see so many fics on ao3 with summaries that are either apologising for being bad at summaries or apologising for a fic being bad/being a first fic, and like … stop this! own what you have written, no-one else will have written it the way you have and you should be proud of it. if you’re saying in your summary that it’s a bad fic, i’m not going to click on it as a reader. instead, utilise your summary to get people hooked … good hooks can be written a load of different ways, but the best ones i see often involved a snippet from the fic as a taster, and then a couple lines of blurb. get people excited! 

titles: i’m personally more likely to click on a fic where the title is either (a) correctly capitalised or (b) is clearly chosen for its aesthetic or meaning (i love long lower case titles with parentheses lol). choosing a memorable title is really helpful, especially one that can be shortened or abbreviated for social media (e.g. for hashtags)!

all this being said, traffic on ao3 is a crytpid at best and obeys little in the way of rhyme or reason. you can put blood, sweat and tears into marketing your fic, but sometimes, just being in the right place at the right time (writing for the right niche) is what does it, so being a fic writer requires a lot of patience. first and foremost, write for yourself. write what you want to read and enjoy doing it, because if you get sucked into obsessively checking stats, it’s only going to disappoint when you don’t achieve what you want to achieve. 

just keep persevering and keep writing and appreciating each and every person who takes time in interact with your fic and its promos … because ultimately, all it takes it that one reader to fall head over heels in love with your fic for everything to change. for now, just be proud of your work and keep writing!

[laraslandlockedblues]

Ok actually I know the tags on my gif post I just did said I wasn’t sure when I’d be back, but I’m feeling strangely articulate tonight so here we go. Long-winded under the cut.

TL;DR - Real life is (and will continue to be) a busy bitch, a writer’s ego is a fragile thing, and my Lightning Struck series (Cullen/Evelyn) can now be considered on indefinite hiatus.

Hi! Yes, I’m alive and well and I really do appreciate the messages asking if I was all right and checking on me. You’re all too sweet and kind, and I’m so grateful for each and every one of you. Keep that in mind as this ramble continues, please.

This has been a weird year already, and it’s only March. Normally I’d be like “IT’S ALREADY MARCH?!” but no, this year...It’s only March. That’s how I’ve been feeling.

January started off with a weird mood for me. Over the holidays I had the usual  family stress and blahness that comes with adulthood, but a few fandom things happened too that put me into a rather...difficult headspace, shall we say. For one thing, I will say I’ve noticed I’m not the only one who’s pointed out that it feels like the fandom is dying. And it is. Which is sad. I feel like I only just got here - I’ve played DA for years but I only really started to interact with its fandom in late 2017, so for me it was still all fresh and new and exciting. Seeing that die down, compounded with the Tumblr wank, especially, was really disappointing.

As a creator, too, it was hard not to take that personally. It was hard not to take people moving on to other fandoms and interests and things as an indictment on my work. Rational brain knew that that was the problem, rational me knew that we were all just moving on because other things were catching our interest. It’s natural. But dumb, idiot writer brain was struggling with the fact that I was feeling like I was screaming into the void.

What bothered me more was that I even cared. I never once wanted to care about that. I always preach writing for oneself, and that’s why I write. But I hated  the fact that for a time I’d gotten so much feedback that I noticed its absence when it died down a little. And that’s not anyone’s fault, I’m not begging for comments or feedback, seriously. Again, rational me was shrugging and still wanted to write for me because it was fun and I enjoy it, but the fragile writer ego we all carry around inside us took a hit and began to doubt.

It stopped being fun. Especially because it wasn’t necessarily a total lack of feedback - it was, for me, a lack of feedback on what I was actually, currently working on. Over the holidays for some reason I began to get comments on WIPs that I hadn’t updated in ages - asking me for updates. Now, everyone has their own opinion on those sorts of comments, so this is only my own, and take it with a grain of salt and everything I just mentioned above.

It sucked. It absolutely, 100% sucked. Seeing the email notification that I got a comment would bring me so much joy - only to open it to see that it was a comment on something I hadn’t written for in a long time asking me when I’d feel like providing more content for that fic again. I began to feel like fic was a transaction and I was piling up debts. I started to feel like I owed fandom and readers what they wanted, instead of doing this for the reason I started in the first place - for myself.

I know that Rylen is niche. I know that fics that have very little to do with canon are niche. I know that Abby isn’t always super likable. I know that John is off-putting because he’s such a morally ambiguous OC who has nothing to do with DA and makes really shit decisions. I know all of that, and I’ve never expected any of those fics to get any sort of response, so the fact that they’ve gotten the response that they have still blows my mind and makes me insanely, insanely happy. And so I hated that I felt ungrateful, and that I was doubting my work, and that writing and fandom was beginning to feel like a labor and not something I loved.

The more I noticed I was struggling with working on updates, the more I started to think a break might be in order. When some RL stuff finally cropped up, the fact that I was sort of forced into a break was a blessing in disguise, to be honest. I leaned into the skid and let myself step back to reevaluate why I do this and what I want to get out of it. I fell into a new fandom and worked on random pieces of writing for it, which I threw into the voids of ao3 on a second account and only shared for myself and a few friends who were also falling into that fandom with me. I rediscovered the joy of writing and not caring what response I get. I reignited my love of crafting a story a certain way because I wanted to and not because I thought it was where anyone else thought it should go.

I remembered why I love writing in the first place - for myself.

And with that, I finally began to let go of some things, and let myself mull over decisions I’d been putting off or avoiding. I shrugged off the stress of expectation and “owing” anyone my time or effort, and I’m finally back to enjoying myself and my writing, free of doubt.

With that, I have some news, good and bad. The bad news first - my Cullen muse has left the building. I have waited, and hoped, and tried, but at some point he walked out the door and he hasn’t made an appearance since. That isn’t to say that I don’t still love his character or content about him, but personally, I can no longer write his POV or romance. The ability to do so has eluded me for months now, but I’ve accepted this sad truth at long last. Unless he’s trading banter with Rylen or Abby, his muse is no longer whispering in my ear. And that makes me sad, and for all I know he’ll reemerge some day, ready to help me write again. For now, though, that isn’t possible. Which does, unfortunately, mean that my Cullen/Evelyn WIPs are currently either abandoned or on an indefinite hiatus (I’ve tagged them appropriately on ao3 if you’re curious). If I do manage to return to them, I expect to only focus on Moments Passed and Miss Grey. As for what I’ll do about Beautiful Disaster...I’m not quite certain yet.

It did also mean that I was able to let go of something that had bothered me for a while as well. I’m almost positive no one noticed since it’s been kind of off radar for a while, but - my fic What Are the Odds has been orphaned. I’m still proud of it as a fic, but it came with a lot of baggage and my Cullen/Evelyn pairing was just ever so slightly OOC to the point that comments on it made me cringe. I’m a firm believer in not deleting, and so off to the fandom as an orphaned work it went, to be enjoyed without me having to be aware of it at all.

Now, the good news is - I do 100% still plan on writing Abby/Rylen. Their muses are still there and whispering to me, and I definitely want to continue working on the WIPs I have for them. At the moment After Rain might be slow to update (need to figure out how I’m navigating some canon plot to get me from point A to B to C to D and on). But I plan on trying to finish it as well as the others that I have for them. Abby/Ry live on, because I absolutely love them so much, and the idea of writing for them is back to bringing me joy.

I cannot make guarantees on update speed for the foreseeable future, possibly for the rest of the year. Currently RL continues to be a shitshow, as I was reminded today, and writing more than a sentence here or there has been difficult. In a few months I will also be moving, and once at my new destination I actually have a Big Project (a writing one I hope to be able to share here, if people are still around/Tumblr is still a thing) that I intend to make my full time focus. My goal has always been to be a writer, and while fanfic has been an amazing way to explore my writing style/storytelling/character voice, I have plans to get published. I’ll have a better opportunity to put those plans into realistic action later this year, which I’m actually really, insanely excited about.

If you have made it this far, THANK YOU. I love this fandom, and I’ve met so many wonderful, lovely, supportive, talented people in it and I have missed you all dearly during my time away. In no way was this a call out post directed at anyone in particular, and in no way was this a “woe is me, please give me attention” cry for help. I’ve just had a lot of thoughts and feelings during this break, and I actually wanted to sort of vocalize them because: 1) wow I already feel better after doing so, and 2) to let other writers know it’s 100% valid to need to take a break or occasionally get in your head about needing validation/feedback/wonder why we do this when it just feels like screaming into a fathomless void. It’s natural and normal and totally human, and if you’re feeling that way, find someone supportive to help you through and take a step back. Everything will be waiting there for you when you’re ready for it. And remember - do it for yourself because it’s something you enjoy.

xx

[marvelhead17]

Miracle (Original Female Character x Cable Fic)

Chapter 1  

Word Count: 7.7k

Inspiration song: Miracle - The Score

Disclaimer: All characters mentioned except my own are owned by 20th Century Fox/Disney. All songs and lyrics described and used in this story are owned by their respective writers/producers/performers.

Warnings to cover the whole fic: Graphic depictions of violence, use of weapons, mild to strong language, mentions of rape, mentions of pregnancy and miscarriage, referenced torture and psychological abuse/manipulation, nightmares and night terrors, sexual humour, sexual content.

Author’s Note:  The Italics used is this piece is sometimes in reference to Russian or foreign language used by characters. Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

She revved the motorbike’s engine to full throttle as she approached the scene, the group that was there had yet to notice her, and she smirked to herself.

“HEY! Pick on someone your own size!” yelled the metal giant, she noticed Deadpool smack him on the ass in some obvious quirky encouragement that she knew he just loved to do.

“Big CGI fight, coming up!” Deadpool cheered.

She was a few more yards away and decided it was the right time to make her big entrance. She gripped the handle firmly before pushing herself over the front with her feet easily, the bike flipped effortlessly at incredible speed and in the blink of an eye it hurtled towards the humongous man with the helmeted head; it hit him with great force and knocked him flat onto his ass.

“Who the fu-” he paused when he saw a woman of little more than five foot six resting on one knee before she stood up, smirking at him, his anger flared once again.

“Better yet, pick a fight with someone your own strength,” she stated.

“Look girly, I ain’t afraid of beating the living shit out of you the same as the rest of these fucking morons-” Cable and Domino were both curious as they stared at the woman standing before Juggernaut with such confidence, she was clearly insane, and given her size they believed she was as insane as Deadpool himself.

          “So why don’t you just high tail on outta here before I kill ya, huh beautiful?”

She rolled her eyes and then stretched her hands out before her and cracked her knuckles together, before moving to crack them individually in each palm.

“Let’s hope you’re stronger than Hulk was,” she sighed before placing her feet in a better position to fight, Domino and Cable gave each other a questioning look and both shrugged. She kept her eyes fixed on him, knowing her plan to rile him up had worked.

Juggernaut yelled another set of profanities as he charged towards her like a hurricane, his towering form disturbing the already fragile ground with each step, clenching his watermelon-sized fists as he aimed a punch directly to her face. As she had anticipated his rage she simply reached both her gloved hands out to catch his one, he faltered in confusion at her tight grip that had managed to stop him, and before he could make his next move she quickly turned around and twisted his arm, firmly tugging it passed her shoulder so that she could throw him over her shoulder.

His boulder of a body slammed with such weight into the floor that it caused a miniature quake to the surrounding cars and street. He was somewhat buried in the road from the impact and he could only lay there, still and stunned, as he tried to process what had just happened.

  “Hades?” Deadpool’s white eyes widened.

“Yeah it’s me, idiot,” she spoke angrily but looking somewhat relieved as well, “So Vanessa gets killed, and the first thing you decide to do is try to kill yourself a few times? And why do I have to get a phone call from your friend, instead of hearing from you, asshole?”

He rubbed the back of his head, avoiding her stare for a minute, “I- uh-­Sorry?” he said in a mock Canadian accent.

“Sorry? Wade, you think ‘sorry’ in that shitty accent is going to magically make things better?” her nostrils flared a little. “God, you’re a dick-wad,”

“How in the hell?” Juggernaut muttered from below her.

“Hey, it’s rude to interrupt,” she nonchalantly nudged his helmet with her foot, and his head simply rolled to the side as he was still in a daze, she turned her attention back to Deadpool. “Maybe you and Jughead could learn a thing or two about manners,” he frowned at her, “Or keeping promises,” she glared, making him rub the back of his neck again.

  “Sorry to interrupt the little reunion, but who in the fuck are you exactly?” Cable looked between her and Deadpool.

“Clearly she is associate of Wade,” Colossus nodded, crossing his arms, and she eyed him curiously.

“No shit, but what does that mean exactly? I still want to kill him just for being a huge pain in the ass, the question is does she want to do the same? Cause as much as I hate it, we need him right now,” his hand twitched on his gun as he gave her a once over.

“That’s a fair question,” Domino nodded.

“Wade, seriously? The other crap was already enough to hear about, but now I have to find out you’re hiding my very existence? That’s low man,” she shook her head and crossed her arms.

He held his hands out pleadingly, “It’s not what you think sis I-” 

“Sis?” Everyone repeated in confusion as they looked at each other.

  She stepped back suddenly as Juggernaut gathered enough energy to stand up again, turning to face them all furiously as he adjusted his helmet a bit, he growled. “If you’re related to that shit-stick, then you’re royally fucked sweet pea,” he grinned wickedly as he approached her a second time, she only rolled her eyes in response. 

She dodged his fist and then kneed him in the stomach, taking the opportunity to step back before lowering herself to then spring up onto the giant’s backside and grab for his helmet.

“Let’s see who this really is behind the mask huh?” she asked, which only made the man let out a beastly roar as he grabbed around her figure, and tossed her like a ragdoll into the nearby building. The bricks scattered as they collapsed on top of her, letting dust and dirt distribute in the surrounding air, Deadpool screamed out and launched himself at Juggernaut with both katana out in full Kill Mode, only to also be cast aside with minimal effort.

This time it was Colossus who came forward, he managed to get a few strong hits at the giant’s face before he was matched with stronger enraged attacks, eventually being knocked to the ground and stomped into it over and over and over again. Cable and Domino backed away from the fight, fearful that they would both be hurt again, but with less of a chance of surviving the damage provided by Juggernaut’s more rage-fuelled pursuit.

The pile of bricks began to fall away as she climbed out, coughing from the dust unharmed but dirtied, she gritted her teeth and marched forward to the ongoing fight with murderous intention almost glowing in her eyes. 

“That’s it you shit bag, I’m done playing nice!” she yelled while pointing a finger at the giant, her eyes began glowing a dim violet from underneath their natural blue.

Juggernaut chuckled as he stood tall again; he ripped off the sleeves of his prisoner’s jumpsuit to reveal his unnaturally enormous muscles. “So am I,”

                          Hades removed her leather jacket and threw it aside, unveiling her surprisingly lean muscles. She let her arms rest on her sides before she clenched her fists, stretching the well-worn leather of her fingerless gloves as she did, and her eyes glowed intensely as she stared at him. Her muscles twitched visibly, before starting to increase in size, and the veins as well as old scars that she brandished also began to radiate in the same unnatural hue.

Domino, Cable and Deadpool all looked at each other before making a silent agreement that this was her fight, and they quietly made their exit, leaving Colossus behind with them in their search to find Russel. 

“I’m about to break you, little glow stick,”

“I’d like to see you try,” she challenged.

He charged forward and threw his signature punch, she simply dodged the assault and kicked him in the groin with extra force, which made the giant double over on his knees in pain, and then she elbowed him hard in the upper back to encourage him to fall back to the ground. This time though Juggernaut recovered quickly, he made a quick backhand that she couldn’t dodge and she spun on her heel before hitting the ground for a moment. That was the last straw for Colossus, who was already eager to give him a piece of his mind from his earlier assault.

“You dare to hit a woman? You disgust me!” he yelled, and then he landed a punch before he was tackled hard into the ground and dragged a few feet through the street, Juggernaut lifted him from the ground and attempted to crush his head, but Colossus fought back by grabbing the smaller fingers and bending them beyond their limits and the bones snapped making the fingers go limp.

“Commie motherfucker-” he punched Colossus straight into a nearby wall causing a crack and small pieces of rubble to fall down around him. 

She stood up irritably and faced the two men, finding that the metal giant had quickly steadied himself before angrily spitting out something, she eyed it carefully and realised he had spat out one of his teeth. He screamed and fearlessly ran into action once again.

He kneed Juggernaut several times before lifting him onto his shoulders like a pro wrestler in the ring and launched him into a parked bus nearby. Juggernaut pulled himself out from the wreck and turned himself around, taking hold of the bus with both hands before lifting it from the ground and turning to use it against the other man as if it were a giant baseball bat.

“Bozhe moy,” he muttered.

                  Colossus raised his hands in time so that the bus deflected away from him and into the building on his right. Hades was well impressed with the stamina and determination of the Russian man, especially as she realised how strong Juggernaut by comparison, and that came from her experience of fighting off the Hulk. She wanted so badly to intervene but was uncertain as the two giants were in the heat of the fight, and as strong as she was she knew there was a high chance that she might accidentally assault the wrong side in all the chaos.

Two figures came jogging down from the sloping hill nearby, and by her estimate they were only teenagers, one was dressed in a familiar yellow X-Men suit while the other donned a black outfit that better suited her bright coloured hair.

She watched as he grabbed a solid rod of metal and took aim at the Juggernaut hitting him twice in the head which had no effect as it clanged with his helmet loudly, the man raised his fist and slammed it down hard, Colossus was grabbed by the neck and slammed face first into the ground before being thrown into the lamp across the street.

The streetlamp snapped in half like a twig, leaving the electric cables exposed and sparking. Juggernaut stomped forward after him; he managed to grab hold onto one of the cables and pulled it with him as he was yanked away suddenly.

“I’m gonna melt you down, and make a cock ring.”

The two girls stopped just a few feet away from the action and Hades watched them curiously; he was hovering over his head and was about to be thrown again when a sparking chain was thrown by the girl with pink hair, it wrapped around Juggernaut’s feet causing him to stumble and drop him as he tried to balance himself.

As Colossus fell his hands grabbed at the prisoner’s uniform and tore the cloth of it to reveal Juggernaut’s ass. Hades came forward to see if she could help but stopped abruptly as the girl with short hair began to form what appeared to be a ball of energy around her; Colossus grabbed for the cable again and gathered enough energy to shove it into the entrance of Juggernaut’s ass.

Hades staggered backwards as the girl sent a blast of energy towards Juggernaut that sent him flying into the swimming pool just ahead of them, the electrical current flowed in the water deftly and sent itself throughout Juggernaut’s body causing spasms all over as it shocked him. She looked at them in amazement, and as he continued to thrash in the water, they all gathered together on the other side of the fencing, making sure that Juggernaut was finally put in his place. 

“That’s how we do it in Mother Russia,” he said smugly.

She approached them slowly before speaking up, “Where did the others go?”

“She’s right, where’s Douchepool gone to?”

“I think I know where to find them!” Pinkie led them around the building and they heard echoing over the creaking metal and wood burning in flames of a clearly angered boy.

                       “Stay back, go home Wade!” the teenage boy yelled out, as they rounded the corner they saw Deadpool fall to the ground in his ashened suit, whatever he must have said or done must have triggered him further.

                      “You can’t stop me, Wade!” angry tears were forming in his eyes.

“I got one more idea-” Deadpool pulled out what looked like a metal necklace that rolled itself out. “It’s just a really bad one- even for me,” he ended before wrapping the device around his neck, as it clicked into place a small red light turned on.

“Wade, what are you doing?” Domino asked with an uneasy look.

“Wade-” Hades started, moving forward in alarm.

“Alright. This is for all the marbles, kid! You’re gonna kill someone today...”

“Blessed are the wicked-”

“Then it’s gotta be me.”

“-who are healed, by my hand!”

  The older guy suddenly darted from his hiding position behind the slide, while Deadpool swung himself over the slide to pursue the cyborg, he had skidded across the dirt and gripped the gun in his hand; he yelled out ‘Fuck this!’ and aimed the gun towards the teen who had his fiery hands raised towards a perverted looking little man in a suit.

Time felt like it was moving at half of the speed as she ran after them, the sound of the gun firing echoed in her head as his body jumped directly into the line of fire, it struck him dead-on in his heart and she found herself stopping in her tracks completely stunned. His body fell to the ground rather clumsily after his heroic stunt and groaned before wheezily coughing.

“Tell me they got that in slow motion.” 

That’s one of his usual random remarks, that could mean he isn’t as seriously hurt as I thought, or is it only that much worse? 

                    “Ooh, that’s not good. No, sir.” He poked the gaping hole in his chest and blood spurted out, his head slumped over as he sat upright, he removed his mask and tossed it aside, revealing his dirty and sweat covered head underneath. 

The teen ran to crouch next to Deadpool; his eyes were wide in disbelief at what just happened. “You sacrificed yourself for me.”  The others all gathered closer to them, each person showing their own discomfort and grief given the situation, Hades was frozen in place as her mind tried to piece together what was happening.

“Yeah. And it was the best thing I ever did. I told you I care about you. You’re a good kid, Russell.” He wheezed but his attention was suddenly drawn to the ashy bear attached to the old man’s belt as it suddenly restored itself to its more cuddly state. “Hey, the bear, it worked.” He pointed. “Because of you.” He turned to look up at Russel who had tears forming in his eyes.

“No, Wade, because of you.” Colossus said softly, he bent down to Wade and started to pull at the collar around the merc’s neck.

“Stop, stop, stop, stop!” Deadpool said irritably before hitting his hands away and Colossus stepped back in surprise, “Just let it happen, okay?” he agreed solemnly, “I guess my heart was finally in the right place.”

  Cable glanced at the teddy bear and realised his mission to fix the future had worked, the price being Wade’s sacrifice, who lay back onto the floor and Russel grabbed a scattered brick or two to lay them as a makeshift pillow for Wade’s head to rest on.

              “Ugh. That riddle is so fucked up.” And everyone frowned slightly, not understanding what he meant.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Russel began but Deadpool shushed him.

“Don’t be. Don’t be. I’ve been trying to make this happen for a while. God, just please, just don’t leave me. I don’t wanna die without an audience.” He smiled lightly.

“We are not going anywhere.” Colossus shook his head.

“Oh, God, I hope The Academy is watching.” Deadpool sighed.

“Just rest, okay?” Domino said sweetly as she gently leaned down to touch Deadpool’s leg.

“Papa, Papa, can you hear me? Papa, can you find me in the night?” Deadpool sings softly before his head slumps to the side, no longer breathing. Russel stood up and he and the moodier teen shared a mournful look briefly.

  “You killed him,” Hades said numbly as she turned her attention to Cable as the others turned to leave, his cyborg eye glowing dimly to match the regretful human one.

“I didn’t mean to-” 

“‘Didn’t mean to’-?” she spoke through gritted teeth and her eyes suddenly flared up violet again. “Killing someone isn’t something you can pass off as an accident you piece of shit scum-” she seethed and started marching towards him, but a metal arm put itself between them to his relief.

“That is enough. We’ve seen too much bloodshed today.” Colossus spoke seriously.

“He was, he was the only family I had left,” her voice finally cracked, tears started to stream down her face and she collapsed into Colossus’s arm, he moved to support her easily in his arms and let her begin sobbing into his chest.

  “Before I go...” Wade coughs, catching everyone’s attention suddenly, “Sorry, I got a bit more in me.”

“Son of a fucking bitch,” Hades muttered as she gently pushed Colossus away from her, approaching the merc in disbelief, Cable found himself smirking at her cursing Deadpool.

“Domino. I want you to have my Adventure Time watch.” His coughing worsens, “Turns out that I’m the lucky one. Thank you.” he smiled and turned his head, “Hey, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I liked you better with your hair short,” making the teen touch her hair consciously, “I think we all did. Hi, Yukio!” he adds cheerfully.

“Hi, Wade!” she says happily, despite the given situation, making Wade chuckle in delight.

“And you... Chrome Bone. I haven’t always been the best friend to you. But you’ve always been that to me. So thank you. Say ‘fuck’ for me?” he asks rather hopefully. “Just once. Come on, we’ll do it together. It’s no big deal. Here we go. One, two, three. F... F... F...”

“Fuck.” Colossus managed with much effort.

“Wow! Enjoy hell, swamp mouth.” Wade chuckled in delight at his little trick, “Ah. And you, Cable. You get back to your family. You tell ‘em Wade says hi. And promise me. Promise me one thing. That you’ll start judging people, not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Wade said seriously.

“Jesus.” Cable grumbled and shook his head, closing his eyes.

“R-Dog? There you are. Hey! You’re a superhero now, bubba. That’s why it’s high time that you had a super suit. This one is yours,” he paused briefly, “And you might want to get it steam cleaned, especially around the pants and let it out a little in the waist. But hey, look. Family is not an F-word. Alright? There’s one out there for you. Just keep looking, okay? Guys, for a second there... We made a pretty good team.”

  “Do you ever stop talking, asshole?” Hades shook her head slowly and crouched down next to him, her hand brushed on his wrinkled head gently as she looked over him with watery eyes.

“Hades– sis. I’m glad to have seen you again one last time before I go,” he weakly grabbed out for her hand, and she moved it closer for him, before he squeezed it. “Did you ever catch that son of a bitch?”

“I- no,” she said finally, “You said we’d do it together you dumb bastard, I came looking for you-”

“Wow, guess I’m dying as I was born huh? A huge fucking disappointment for everyone to remember.” He breathed out and swallowed slightly.

“Wade-”

“Oh, it’s so hard to go.” He chuckles, “I just love being around you guys so much. So, so much. Mm.” Hades squeezed his hand gently, “No, I can feel it now. Here it comes, yeah. I feel the soul exiting the... The husk. Yeah. Can you see it? Do you see that beautiful bright light? There it is.” He paused.

“You’re such a Drama Queen,” she whispered with a small smile.

“Oh, that’s the sun. Don’t stare directly into that.” He warned, as if they didn’t already know not to do that, “I just have a few final words.” The old man huffed out some air before he continued.

                  “Woodpecker. Gingivitis. Codswallop. Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” Russel and Hades both squeezed his hands as he finally became stiff, his eyes looking empty as they stared at nothing.

A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at Deadpool, Russel had already dropped his hand looking utterly wounded, she gently kissed the one she had in hers before laying it gently down on his chest and whispered to him.

“Goodbye Wade Wilson, you may have been one crazy son of a bitch, but you really did have your heart in the right place,” she slowly stood up, letting the tears fall down her cheeks, she managed to look up at the others and saw the solemn expressions that everyone wore. Well, all except for… Cable.

  His back was turned away from the group and he seemed to be holding the teddy bear close to his face, the others stood in silence while staring at Wade’s body, she frowned and made her way towards him as he had now raised his left arm and was moving something that began clicking mechanically and glowing an orange hue.

Hades was about to grab his shoulder but he vanished into thin air without a trace, she lurched forward almost falling as she grabbed at nothing, she immediately began looking around in confusion, her violet eyes glowing in concentration.

                              She revved the motorbike’s engine to full throttle as she approached the scene, the group that was there had yet to notice her, and she smirked to herself.

Hold on for a second, why does this feel familiar? She felt puzzled for a moment but continued on regardless.

“HEY! Pick on someone your own size!” yelled the metal giant, she noticed Deadpool smack him on the ass in some obvious quirky encouragement that she knew he just loved to do.

“Big CGI fight, coming up!” Deadpool cheered.

Here we go again. At least it feels that way. She shook her head and ignored the strange feeling.

                                                          * * *

  “Tell me they got that in slow motion.” he groaned. 

That’s one of his usual random remarks, that could mean he isn’t as seriously hurt as I thought.  She felt more at ease when he removed his mask and she noticed that his skin was still a healthy colour. 

The teen ran to crouch next to Deadpool; his eyes were wide in disbelief at what just happened. “You sacrificed yourself for me.”  They all gathered closer to them.

“It would seem I... Huh?” He removed a coin from his suit where the bullet should have been, the bullet was compressed into it, “Genuine, high-grade lead.” Then he gasped, “You time-sliding son of a bitch!” He looked at the older man, “You did this for me? Wait... You can’t go back. You used the last of your fuel. What about your girl, your wife?” he asked in concern.

“Now, my family’s safe. And I didn’t do it for you.” He added the latter irritably. “No, I’m gonna stick around for a while... and make sure the world doesn’t shit itself into oblivion.”

“No. You did it for me.” Deadpool smiled with a childish tone.

“No, I didn’t.” he grunted.

“You did.”

“I really didn’t.”

“Pretty sure you did.” He smiled at him cheekily.

“No, I’m positive I didn’t.” he sighed, already regretting his decision judging by the look on his face.

“Fine. All right, let’s flip a coin.” He held the coin up and shook it, “Okay? Heads, you did it for me. Tails, you did it for me.” He flipped the lead coin over his shoulder haphazardly and it landed a few feet behind him. “I’m not even gonna look, because you did it for me.”

“Say it again.”

“He did it for me.”

“Jesus.” he muttered and closed his eyes. 

“Yeah you’ve just made a really terrible decision, now everyone’s going to suffer for it,” Hades shook her head but she smiled brightly at Deadpool.

“We must get the collar off.” Colossus speaks up.

“Forget it. It’s no use. These collars don’t just come off.” He muttered.

“Wade. I have an idea.” Russel says as he pulls out a pen from nowhere and crouches next to Wade.

“No, no, no! Let’s not do that. Please! I’d rather die of cancer. Let’s just...” The others frowned at him, Russel moved the pen behind his head. “Oh, God! They do say the pen is grosser than the sword.”

“What do you plan on doing, decapitating him?” Hades asked, making the others frown at her thought, “If you put it back on his body it would grow back just fine, maybe with the help of a few stitches,” she shrugged, and then rubbed her neck awkwardly, Cable was the only one who cracked a smile. 

“We need the code.” Russel announced as he looked up at them from the keypad.

“Try, uh... Seven?” Domino shrugged. 

“Settle down, Captain Lucky. It’s not gonna be one number.” Russel pressed the button and the collar deactivated itself, loosening from his neck “Oh, God, that’s lazy writing.” Deadpool remarked as Russel removed the collar.

“I still got it.” Domino smiled, Hades looked over at her in curiosity.

“Put that back in your prison wallet.” Wade spoke to Russel then stood to look at the other man, “I don’t know how to thank you. But I do know how to hug you.” He approached the man with open arms.

“No.”

“Yes. Here we go. Bring it in. Come on. Pelvis to pelvis. Let’s go tip to tip. There we go.” He wrapped his arms around him as the man stood still, anger clearly seething from him, “The kids call this docking. Is there a knife in my dick?” Wade asked, making Hades laugh while the others seemed unsettled.

“There’s a knife in your dick. Yeah,” His voice rumbled.

“I’m just gonna back up now.” Wade let go and stepped back from him.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“No need to go full Yentl. Gonna pretend like that never happened. Let’s go home, Russell.” He nodded to the teen and they turned around to leave.

  “All you dirty mutants are gonna rot in hell with the boy! Your souls are beyond redemption!” a small perverted looking man in a suit yelled at them. Hades bent down and pulled a short blade from her boot and raised it at the ready.

“Let’s see your soul, perv!” Cable and Hades yelled at the same time, his gun already aimed at the man’s direction, they shared a brief look before returning their attention to the little man.

“No, no! No! No more! We’re better than that!” Wade stepped in front of them and waved his hands, “We’re better than him! No more senseless violence! No more bloodshed! We’ll let karma take care of him.” he insisted, and they slowly lowered their weapons.

“Karma?” Hades tilted her head. 

“The day of reckoning is here!” the man yelled again, from the side a yellow taxi drove recklessly over the rubble and ran the man over, stopping him short of his rantings and most likely killing him quite painfully.

“I’m gonna miss him. He seemed great.” Wade practically giggled.

  “Whoo! Courage, motherfuckers!” a young Indian man stepped out of the cab and cheered with his arms in the air.

“And karma, motherfucker.” Domino added with an impressed nod.

“Wade that’s a terrible joke to make,” she shoved him on the arm but he was too busy laughing to notice.

“I could hear you coming in the last thirty seconds.” Wade doubled over and placed his hands on his knees to steady himself, “I could barely keep a straight face.”

“I want some more.” The man stared at him with a wild look shining in his eyes.

“I bet you do, Brown Panther.”

“We should leave before Fuckernaut wakes up,” Colossus snickered childishly to everyone’s surprise.

“Good call. You guys coming with us?” Wade asked the girls.

  “No, we’ll get the kids back to the mansion. Besides, we’re X-Men,” the girl with short hair shook her head, crossing her arms.

“No, you’re X-People.” He poked her on her nose affectionately.

“You’re ex-hausting.” she rolled her eyes.

“I see what you did there. Puns.” Wade mused.

“Our door’s always open.” She offered.

“That’s kind, but I’m not ready to date again, let alone two women.”

“God you’re a douche.”

“Bye, Wade!” Yukio waved enthusiastically.

“Bye, Yukio!” Wade waved back.

The girls walked towards the children that were standing outside the flaming building, and the others turned the opposite way, walking together as if it was some planned event. And then Wade opened his mouth to begin a monologue with an invisible audience.

                      “What do you get when you take eight feet of chrome... one pinch of courage... a cup of good luck... a dab of racism... a splash of diabetes... a raging Russian and a wheelbarrow full of Stage Four cancer? Answer: a family. See? I didn’t lie about what kind of film this was. If there’s anything you take away today... Other than the need to Google, ‘What the fuck is dubstep?’ It’s that we all need to belong to someone.”

“Who the hell is he talkin’ to?” the old man grumbled.

“I’ve no idea, he’s done that for as long as I’ve known him,” Hades glanced at Wade briefly before shaking her head, “Might just be the voices in his head, pretty sure he’s got those.”

“I always find it very entertaining,” the Indian man beamed, suddenly appearing between her and Wade.

 “I’m sorry, you are?” she asked.

“My name is Dopinder,” he grabbed her hand and kissed it all-too-eagerly, “And may I say, what a beautiful woman you are.”

She yanked her hand back, “Yeah, don’t ever do that again, otherwise you’re gonna be one hand short,”

“S-Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself,” Dopinder looked nervous suddenly.

“Explains how you can hang around Wade,” she remarked.

“He’s my faithful getaway driver and wannabe assassin,” Deadpool wrapped his arm around Dopinder’s neck in a playful manner. “But there’s still a lot we need to learn before we get there buddy. Oh that’s right you haven’t met everyone yet!” He removed his arm from Dopinder, before stepping back to introduce everyone.

                          “The lesbian princesses back there were Yukio, the real-life Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, aka Best Superhero Name Ever,” he pointed to them as they gathered the children onto the jet.

“This is Domino, she’s luckier than a rabbit’s foot tied to a horseshoe that’s duct taped to the top of a four-leaf-clover on the hat of the world’s first original Leprechaun,”

“Hi,” Domino extended her hand and they shook briefly, “I’m gonna try and remember that for later.” she tilted her chin up to Wade and they shared a grin.

“But it’s just incredibly lazy writing if you ask me,” he added, making Domino roll her eyes.

“This fiery little man here is Russel,” He patted him on the shoulder a little roughly, “Well you’ve already seen what he does,” Hades and Russel nodded to each other.

“The battery operated, old and pretty fucked off soldier from the future, that must suck balls because I’m not alive in it,” he spoke in one breath, “Is Cable” he extended his hand and she took it, gripping much firmer than necessary, and then turning her attention away after giving him a stern look as if nothing had happened.

“And this, this beautiful metallic beast, is-”

“Colossus, yeah I know, X-Men are on the news enough to know who’s who,” she nodded up at him.

“You didn’t let me finish!” Wade whined, “Anyway, this is my new plaything Colossus.” He smacked him on the ass and it made a metallic ringing sound. “Oh boy that’s gonna leave a mark,” Wade shook his hand limply.

  “Hades, is it not?” Colossus questioned curiously.

“Her name is Hayden Jones, she’s actually a real softie and-” she hit him hard in his gut, causing him to double over while the others walked ahead. 

“What did I tell you about telling people my real name, huh?” she looked back up at Colossus, “It’s just Hades.”

“I- uh-” Colossus was stunned for a moment at the sudden violence, “Um, would you not wish to join Wade in living at X-Mansion?” he asked, he glanced over at Wade, clearly concerned if he was alright.

He recovered and started jogging over, “Hey what about Nathan-” 

“Cable.” Nathan corrected him irritably, “And I don’t need a place to stay; I can make it out on my own just fine, thanks.”

“Actually- it would be better to stay at X-Mansion, you see, cyborg-half would not settle well with too many humans, despite modern prosthetics existing.” Colossus raised a finger timidly.

“Well I definitely don’t need to be taken in like some stray, besides, I don’t have Cable’s problem of looking like the Terminator,” she gestured to the left side of his body.

Cable frowned, “What-”

“Still, is best that mutants stick together, safety in numbers and from enemies who wish to harm us or others,” Colossus interrupted him, and he frowned even deeper.

“I gotta stop ya there buddy, I’m not a mutant,” Hayden shook her head.

“Not a mutant? How do you have such power then?” Colossus gave her a once-over looking very concerned.

“Hint Tin Man: she’s from the Marvel Cinematic Universe not the X-Men’s,” Wade commented, which everyone ignored with a sigh. 

“Let’s just leave it as a tragic backstory with a deranged man trying to take over the world,” she suggested.

“C’mon Haydes let’s be roomies! It’ll be so much fun!” Wade got down on his knees and begged, lacing his hands together and giving her the best pout that he could muster.

                                                                * * *

                            After at least an hour worth of begging from one relentless Wade Wilson, Hayden agreed to the arrangement of living in the X-Mansion; this was of course to just make Wade shut up, as she still wasn’t certain how she felt about living in an institution, after the first she never thought she’d go back to one.

Before they could go however, Wade had to spend a good part of another hour trying to convince Dopinder that he couldn’t also live at the X-Mansion with them, but given how pathetically weak he was as a normal human it was easy to explain that it was too easy for him to be injured despite good people living there, he was disheartened but Wade knew it was for the best in the end.

Eventually they had arrived, and now Colossus was giving Nathan, Hayden and Domino a tour of the mansion, they’d already been shown the room where they could practice fighting techniques, the gym where they could build their strength and maintain their stamina which was also fitted with an indoor pool hidden under the flooring, as well as the library if they were ever bored and needing something to read up on or use their computers for research.

They were reaching the final part of their tour after seeing the recreation room and kitchen area, and were informed that their own rooms where they’d be staying were just up the set of stairs just next to it; and the idea of taking a nice hot shower and throwing themselves into bed seemed rather appealing after the long day they’d all had.

  “Finally what the hell took you guys so long?” Wade skipped up to the three of them eagerly. “Actually, never mind, I don’t care. Sis you don’t need to get your own room you can bunk with me-” he wrapped an arm around her neck to try and hug her affectionately as they walked back to the rec room.

The rest of Wade’s jabbering was blocked out as she froze stiff where she was to focus on what she thought was something, no someone, prodding into her buried memories.

“Is something wrong?” Domino asked as she noticed her staying behind when Wade had walked on.

“I don’t know how crazy this might sound, but it feels like someone is trying to get into my head,” she scrunched her nose in discomfort and looked around the room they stood in suspiciously.

“Baldy McWheelchair must be home!” Wade exclaimed, Hayden only raised a brow at him.

“He means Professor Xavier, the man who guides X-Men and X-Mansion, a man I assure that you can trust,” Colossus explained, “He is ensuring that all of you are safe to stay around children and others that live here,” he paused, “It also allows him to understand any trauma of past so that you feel safe, and he can help provide any attentions you may require for specific abilities,”

“Well tell him to stop because it’s really starting to push my freaking buttons-” she hitched her breath as she felt the prodding sensation in her mind once more, making her eyes flare for a moment.

“How is she feeling it so strongly? It barely feels like a little itch to me,” Domino looked at Nathan.

“It feels like someone is diggin’ in where they don’t belong,” Nathan disagreed, actually scratching the back of his head a little irritably.

“I do not know, and it is concerning to hear that it’s troubling her this much,” Colossus said before turning to Hayden and noticing that she has disappeared.

  “That’s enough, do you hear me?!” she yelled as she turned yet another corner that somehow seemed familiar, although she had only seen it for the first time that day, she was following the cool-headed voice that was echoing in her mind.

She broke down a door and saw a bald man seated in a wheelchair, she immediately darted towards him with a raised fist while the other reached out to grab around the man’s neck. However, she was frozen just inches from him, unable to do anything but blink and move her lips.

“How in the hell?” she whispered with wide eyes.

“Hades-” Colossus stopped a few feet into the office, undoubtedly quite alarmed given the tone of his voice.

“Kid-” Cable stopped himself next to Colossus feeling dumbfounded; it seemed to him like the older man was fully capable of looking after himself.

“Thank you gentlemen, I’ll just need a word with young Hayden if you don’t mind,” he nodded and they backed out from the doorway, it closed after them and they stood together awkwardly. “I see that you have difficulty in trusting authority figures, it’s no wonder you tried to come in here and kill me,” Professor Xavier said rather amused. 

“Yeah well, I’m sure you can just scratch around in there and find out why,” she hissed.

“Yes I indeed have, and it’s terrible what they’ve done to you. But we are not here to harm you Hayden; we are here to help,”

“They always say that,” she spat.

“Please take a breath and relax yourself, you’re unnaturally tense,” he advised.

“I’d be less tense if you didn’t have me frozen like this,”

“Yes well, it was necessary to save myself wasn’t it?” he moved away from her and rolled his chair around her, “Do you know, you’re the first person who’s ever been this close to killing me since my accident?”

“No, I didn’t have the pleasure,” she said sarcastically.

“Ah you like sarcasm just like your friend Mr Wilson,” he smiled as he looked around to her face, “You should also know that normally under my powers a person wouldn’t be capable of being aware of their frozen state, nor be able to comment on it.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is, you’re very strong Hayden dear,” he laced his fingers together, “You’ve been in the wrong hands before, and I would like you to stay here with us so that that never happens to you again.”

“Is that my official invitation?”

“Yes,” he raised a finger, “But only if you can honestly tell me that if I release you right now, that you will not attempt to kill me again, as I will not hesitate on my part to stop you,”

“What? Oh fine, alright,” she breathed, “I swear I won’t try to kill you… again,”

He looked at her again and hummed, “Hmm, I can tell you’re being sincere, as much as it’s paining you inside,”

She felt her body loosen and she grabbed into the thin air, finishing her intended action from her frozen state, then regained her position by just standing in the room and then rubbing her neck from the strange aching she experienced.

“Th-thanks,” she swallowed and then turned around, opening the door hurriedly and surprising the men waiting outside, passing them without saying a word as they followed her back towards the rec room.

  “Hey there you are!” Wade greeted and stood up in confusion as she headed towards the front door, “Hey- wait up will ya? Where are you going?” he jogged after her as she exited the building.

“I don’t think I can stay here,” she stated, not even looking at him as she quickened her pace on the sidewalk.

“What, why not?” he asked.

“Because it’s not safe here Wade, I’m not safe here, and if I’m compromised then I’m putting everyone else at risk, you know that.”

“But you are safe here! He can protect you, we’ll all protect you-” he placed a hand on her shoulder only for her to shove it off angrily.

“At what cost Wade? I’m not asking you to do that for me,” she shook her head, “You’ve already done so much for me, and I don’t deserve it, okay? I’m a threat and I always will be,”

“And where exactly do you plan to go where you won’t be?”

“Anywhere but here.” She tried to walk a little faster but Wade was able to keep up the pace easily because of his height.

“This is the safest place you can be, it’s safer than my old place, they’ll never find you here I promise-”

“Wade, don’t. That professor guy was in my head just a few minutes ago. Do you really think I can stay in that place if I know that someone like him could easily get in there like that? I’ve had enough of that shit already to last a lifetime,” she shook her head and suddenly black spots scattered her vision.

“But he wouldn’t-”

“Wade-” she grabbed his arm and he spun to look at her.

“No, just stop being so stubborn for two seconds so that I can convince you-”

“No, Wade-” before she could finish speaking her legs gave in underneath her body and her eyes rolled back into her head, he just managed to catch her before she hit the ground completely unconscious. 

                         “Shit!” he shrieked, “Help! I need some help here!” He settled her on the ground and started flailing his hands in the direction of the mansion, and soon enough the other two came to investigate.

“Bozhe moy, what has happened?” Colossus looked at her with wide eyes.

“You guys wouldn’t happen to have a doctor inside, would ya?” Nathan scanned her with his cyborg eye and waited for an answer.

“Da, she’s inside,” he nodded, “We must hurry no?” Colossus asked Wade who was only pacing around and muttering about not knowing what to do.

Nathan didn’t waste any time as he lifted her in his arms, “Oh she’s not gonna be pleased with this,” he muttered as he carried her back to the X-Mansion, her complexion was almost that of a dead corpse by the time Colossus had lead them to the medical facility.

“We need a doctor, stat!” Wade screamed and the two that were in the room already looked at him in surprise. “Hurry! I think she’s dying!”

“Shut up, asshole,” Nathan grunted as he set her down on the examination table, “Now explain to them what happened, and for God’s sake do it calmly,” he nodded his head at them and crossed his arms.

“I don’t know! She was talking and then she grabbed my arm, her eyes rolled back and she passed out!”

“Alright, just stay calm,” the woman smiled and then pressed a button on the edge of the table, a noise was heard and then a panel came down from the ceiling and started scanning her.

“Ooh what’s this?” Wade peaked over her shoulder and then reached out and pushed a different button, a flash flared over the room and the woman pushed him away gently but clearly annoyed.

“Don’t touch that please,”

“What about this?” He looked over at the computer and pressed a button and the room went pitch black, the only source of light being the open door and the red LED scanning Hayden’s body.

“Alright, get out,” the woman said angrily, there was a sudden rush of wind and they found that they were all in the hallway outside, the doors had shut and the light had gone back on in the room.

“Very sorry for Wade’s behaviour, Dr Grey!” Colossus apologised through the window of the door.

“Nice going dickhead,” Nathan sighed and leaned against the wall, “May as well get comfortable, we might be here a while,” they nodded and sat on the floor or leaned against the wall as well.

____________________________________________________

>> Chapter Index <<  >> Next Chapter (2) <<

[kinkykinard]

Please please please don't see this as hate, because it is definitely not. Over the last few weeks I've noticed you blogged more stuff about commenting to stoires and reblogging them. I'm somebody who has a blog where I solely like stories, reblog them and write a nice comment to every single one. But there's a catch to that all: It takes time. And trust me, those post that say "It takes 10secs to write a good comment blablabla". They're wrong. I try not to copy my other reviews, ... (1/2)

Hello Nonnie,

Thank you for the ask, and know that I do appreciate all feedback I receive, whether it’s a more thorough, longer review like yours or literally just a reblog with a few emojis, a gif, or wordless screaming.

I would like to address several statements in your post and the reasons I don’t necessarily agree with them.

But there’s a catch to that all: It takes time. And trust me, those post that say “It takes 10secs to write a good comment blablabla”. They’re wrong. 

I won’t argue with you saying that leaving nice reviews takes time.  I take my time to write more thorough, thoughtful reviews whenever I can so I understand.  My point here, though, is that the reviews/comments don’t need to be extravagant.  A simple “this was wonderful, I loved reading it!” is MORE than enough.  Hell, even just a reblog is good.  Most of the problem lies in the fact that a story often gets a hundred or two hundred likes, and maybe 10 reblogs.  Reblogs are amazing, they help us reach a wider audience, with or without feedback.  Feedback is amazing and I/we cherish it deeply, but if someone doesn’t have time/can’t think of anything to say, even a reblog makes us happy.

… but it is hard to always write something new. Especially if you don’t have much time (I’ve to study quite a lot and work on weekends).

I shouldn’t have to say this, but while reviewing a story takes time, I guarantee you (I will die on this hill, so help me) that it takes longer to write a fic or make a piece of art.  Significantly longer.  Hours, days, weeks, months, years, orders of magnitude longer.  I don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone to take even five or ten minutes of their time when they have time to leave a comment.  Reblogs are instant, and no one’s trying to rush feedback.  I myself often reblog things as a reminder to read them so creators can get more attention in the meantime, and then go back later (sometimes days or weeks later) when I have the time and motivation, and write better, more detailed feedback.

Now I’ve written over 300 reviews and while I should feel kinda good because I hope to make writers happy, I’m not. Because I get nearly no response to feedbacks […] And that’s just as exhausting as not getting any feedback on a story. I actually stopped writing feedback for some months because I couldn’t manage it with other stuff and didn’t see the point in writing stuff that people don’t seem to notice.

This is where the argument becomes circular.  We’re not getting good feedback as creators because fans of our work aren’t receiving our undivided attention at times.  Now, I can’t speak for others because I don’t know what drives other writers, but I personally DO hope to interact with everyone who leaves comments on my stories when I get a chance.  Sometimes I don’t thank individual folks for leaving comments because I don’t get notifications and often forget to check on a story’s notes unless I notice someone reblog it again a while after I post it because, once again, I’ve got a very busy schedule outside of tumblr.  Besides that, many, many of us writers thank our followers, readers, and commenters by hosting follower celebrations when we get a chance because we DO want to give back to those who support us in a big way.  Besides this all, withholding commentary because you’re not getting gratification from every writer all the time when your commentary is thanking writers for the hours of blood, sweat, and tears that go into writing that you get to consume for free and they do not get paid to do…. is kind of uncool.  I wouldn’t presume to walk into a Michelin star restaurant, eat, and then not pay my compliments to the chef because he’s too busy cooking for other people for me to get a thank you back from him for my comments.  He provided me a great service, I had a good time, it’s literally the least I can do to say thanks, and the same applies here.

Because we’re human too.

And we all understand and appreciate that, trust me.  We also understand that commenting on stories can cause a lot of people anxiety, and that’s okay, too.  For those who honestly do their best - none of these posts and reblogs apply to you.  You are precious and wonderful and appreciated.  But for every one person who comments like yourself, there are thirty others that don’t.  That consume the content and walk away, patting themselves on the back for an hour’s reading well spent and don’t think twice about it.

Those are the people we’re trying to get to understand.

I hope this clears some things up for you, and I hope you find more of the gratification you’re seeking for taking the time to write reviews and comments.  If that’s the way it needs to be, then so be it.

You always have my gratitude.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

What advice do you have about tagging? Cause I feel like that courtesy is starting to turn into another Holy War too and I don't like it. (Ie: if you didn't choose to warn for every aspect of the content you created, it's now Open Season on you and your fic. It's okay for Antis to come for you bc you were a Mean Evil Person who didn't Use Enough Tags.) What happened to Choose Not To Warn as a valid warning??

This is an interesting topic tbh, and it’s getting more heated because on tumblr, post tags also function as community spaces. (I’m not really going to address the ‘do you tag the ship if it’s a negative depiction’ debate here, but I have other asks about that.)

let’s be real: anti-shippers have absolutely noticed that non-antis advocate heavily for fic warnings. They personally would rather that content that needs warnings not exist at all, but because many people who don’t agree with antis do agree with warnings, they will exploit that. two easy ways to antis exploit warning systems:

going into a warning tag and harassing the creators of works in the tag, ie going into the ‘noncon’ tag and messaging the creators to tell them their work contains and normalizes rape.

going after creators for not using the 'right’ warnings, ie: two characters have sex while drunk & no regrets. The creator tags it 'dubcon’ to be safe, but someone starts a dogpile because the warning should have been for 'noncon’.

It’s very much a 'damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation. You can never win with antis: they will only be satisfied if your content ceases to exist entirely. (don’t bother to try to make them happy.)

What happened to Choose Not To Warn as a valid warning??

so for those who don’t use AO3: Archive of our Own has one mandatory tag and several options for it. we’re only concerned with the last two:

Major Character Death: one of the main characters of this story dies.

Underage: underage characters doing nsfw things.

Rape/Noncon: sexual acts are committed with someone whose consent is questionable, not given, or denied. (imho, this is a warning I would also use on dubcon. your mileage may vary.)

Graphic Depictions of Violence: graphic depictions of physical violence may make for distrubing imagery.

No Archive Warnings Apply: if your fic doesn’t contain a main character death, underage characters engaging in sexual acts, rape/noncon/dubcon, or graphic depictions of violence, you can indicate it by checking this tag.

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings: this fic may contain character death, underage sex, noncon, or graphic violence, or it may not. the creator has elected to not warn for this content, so the reader proceeds at their own risk.

If you click on a fic with 'no archive warnings apply’, you can be sure the fic won’t have character death, underage sex, rape, or severe violence. if you click on a fic with 'choose not to warn’, you can’t be sure the fic won’t have any of the above potentially upsetting content.  

Unfortunately, many people either don’t realize there’s a difference or choose to ignore it.

'why even have the option to not warn, though?’ because there are some reasons why a writer might want you to proceed with caution but not want to give specifics:

a warning would give away a major plot point of the story/they don’t want to spoil any part of the fic with a warning

they would rather the fic not appear in the warning tags

they would prefer to warn in their own words in the author’s note or summary

they’re not sure if archive warnings apply but want to be on the safe side

they just don’t want to warn

(fun fact corner~!: tagging fics with content warnings more specific than 'contains slash’ or '18+ only’ is more or less a post-internet fandom expectation. It wasn’t until 1999-ish that readers seemed to expect warnings for upsetting content and we’ve been wanking about them ever since. (for funsies, here’s a timeline of fandom meta about warnings; the earliest content is from an alt.tv usenet archive, posted in 1997.) tagging/warning is a fairly ubiquitous practice now, and I am of the opinion it’s better to warn than not, but warnings are still optional and AO3 honors that.)

That said: I personally think that 'choosing not to warn’ on tumblr is rude and/or potentially dangerous because tumblr doesn’t function well as a content archive. Unlike AO3, tumblr is terrible at content filtering. tumblr mobile doesn’t honor readmores (except in reblogs) and you can only search one tag at a time under most circumstances: therefore, things that are likely to be upsetting to a percentage of people should be warned for so that blacklists can catch it.

if you would prefer to not warn for content on tumblr, I’d recommend some of the following as possible workarounds:

flag the post as 'adult’ if appropriate, even if you choose to not include a warning.

explicitly mention that the work may have violence/abuse/noncon/etc but you’re choosing to not specify either way.

if possible, host the content off-site and provide a link.

alternatively, post your unwarned work to a blog that you’ve flagged as unsearchable, and therefore won’t show up in the 'search’ function.

another long post (should I give up on trying for brevity?), but here’s the short version:

tl;dr 1: antis often act in bad faith and it’s impossible to please them. tagging is just another excuse for coming after works they don’t like. tag at your own discretion and weigh negative feedback on its merits, not its emotion.

and tl;dr 2: choosing to not warn is still a valid option but people forget it’s a thing and get burned by it, so it’s best to be really clear about it (and if you’re a consumer, pay attention if someone says they’re abstaining from warnings!)

final note: please enjoy this 2006 LJ post explaining that fiction doesn’t have to be moral, depiction does not condone real behavior, nobody is harmed in the making of a fanwork and censorship is not the answer. 11 years of the same wank! some of the participants in today’s discourse were literally still in diapers.

[aftgonice]

Writing Tips - General - Pt.2

Welcome to the second part of my general writing tips. Remember that these are just a few things I learned until now in my X months of writing fanfiction, so take everything I say with a grain of salt and do some research of your own as well.

Also, I’m making a lot of examples from my own experience because literally all I know about writing I learned through experience, so I apologize if I seem self-centered but I have no other way to explain why I think these tips are important.

As always, most of these tips are mostly true for writing fanfiction, so keep that in mind as well.

Set the tone of your story

This is something I understood when I wrote the first chapter of my second-ever multichaptered fic, where I wanted to not only focus on the romance between the characters but also show and develop my POV character’s relationship with his parents. It was also my first fully-planned AU where I had entirely made up a character’s background instead of taking things from what I knew from canon.

The thing is, despite me wanting to focus on other things as well, it was a rivalry AU, so I had to set the tone of that because it would be the main feel of the story for the first few chapters.

What did I do wrong at first?

The first draft of the first chapter started with my POV character working at his family’s shop, and while that allowed me to introduce his family and the game he and his rival (whom my MC hadn’t met yet) were playing, it didn’t really set the tone I wanted to give the AU.

How did I fix it?

Simply, I moved that scene so that it became the middle scene of the first chapter, and I set the tone of the rivalry in the first scene instead, showing how competitive my MC is. Then, I had the rivalry (which was already there off-page, before my AU started) develop further in the last scene of the chapter, so that the tone I wanted to give my AU was already all there for my readers to look forward to in the next chapters.

See, by reading my first draft, you might have thought that my AU was going to focus a lot on my MC’s family, and while it kind of also did, it wasn’t what I wanted to catch the readers’ attention with. It also didn’t fit my MC’s personality, because he’s an angry, bratty teen, and showing him while he’s in a more relaxed environment is something I absolutely wanted to do, but it simply couldn’t be the very first impression that the reader got of him.

So, try to adapt this to your own story, ask yourself if there’s a particular atmosphere you want to give your work and how you can achieve that from the very start.

I’ve never done it myself, but another way to set the tone and atmosphere (especially in fantasy settings, I feel) is having a prologue. I think that is great because your prologue can be third person POV omniscient even if the rest of your story is third person POV limited, so you can start explaining your world in a way that it might be slightly info-dumpy but it’s much better than having a character tell the entire lore or whatever in a later chapter (this is something that often feels inorganic and I think is very difficult to achieve gradually rather than in a big info-dump, so if you have to info-dump, do it in a prologue).

Understand your writing style and keep it consistent*

*(at least throughout one single story)

This is not going to be something you figure out right away (at least it’s not like that for me), but at some point, after you’ve been writing for a while, you’ll notice there are things you tend to do with your writing. That’s your writing style, which can and probably will change in your writing life as you gain more writing experience. 

Do you use a lot of metaphors? Is your style flowery or more dry? Do you use a lot of descriptions or do you tend to focus more on introspection or dialogue? Or maybe a mix of all these things? 

Not one of these things is inherently good or bad, but it’s important to know yourself and the more you know what your distinctive traits as a writer are, the more you are able to use them to your advantage and understand where your strengths lie.

For example, if you know you’re not very good at descriptions (maybe it’s because you lack the vocabulary to do so, especially if you’re not writing in your first language, or maybe it’s because you have a hard time visualizing physical attributes and objects in a lot of detail), avoid them and keep them to a bare minimum and focus on what you know you do well.

Don’t be scared to delete

Sometimes you need to completely delete a good chunk of your work. That can and will happen, and it’s hard to let it go, but if you’re at the point where you know in your gut that you have to, DO IT. Just don’t actually delete it but copy-paste it somewhere because you might need some of the plot/characterization/dialogue. 

Actually, move things around but never actually delete anything you write. Even if it’s just half a sentence that you’re trying to fix while you edit, keep it there for a bit, until you’re sure that the new sentence is better. 

This goes for your outline as well: keep it around even if you have to change things as you go, until you’re absolutely certain that you won’t need that bit anymore (I mean, virtual space costs you nothing so you might as well keep that even after that in case because why not).

World building 

I don’t have a lot of experience with this but:

Don't introduce like 10 characters all at once

Don’t info-dump

Show don’t tell

Obviously not all stories need world building, especially if you’re writing canon-compliant or modern AUs.

Another thing I can tell you is: take your time. You won’t have a full world building after half an hour: you’ll still think up details as you go, while you’re writing your outline or while you shower or while you’re trying to fall asleep. When inspiration strikes, write it down. Doesn’t matter where, open your phone’s notes app, write it on your hand, but write it down because you’ll hate yourself if you forget it. Even if you can’t write it down (like if you’re in the shower - it happens to me all the freaking time) say it out loud. Literally talk to yourself and say what you would write in your outline were you sitting comfortably at your computer. This will make it easier to remember it once you can write it all down.

Names are good, use them

This is mostly a subjective point but there’s nothing wrong in using the character’s names instead of their qualities. The blonde, the brunette, the Russian, the Kazakh... I’m not trying to shame anyone here, but as a reader it’s very distracting to read a full fic where the character’s names are barely mentioned and they’re always reduced to their physical attributes or their nationality or their age. It’s not only distracting, sometimes it’s plain confusing. I read fics where one character was always “the teen”. Well, guess what, the other character was also a teen, so I never actually knew who the authors meant.

I know it can be difficult especially when writing same sex couples because their pronouns are the same. Who’s the “he” you’re referring to? But I personally find it much better to just repeat a character’s name when a simple pronoun doesn’t make the situation clear enough.

I feel like there’s also a POV problem if you keep writing things that your POV character wouldn’t think, provided you’re writing in first person (seriously avoid using anything BUT personal names or nicknames when writing in first person) or third person limited. 

There are a few cases when your POV character (POVc) would think of someone by a trait that defines them, for example hair color. Your POVc just met a group of people they’ve never met before. Maybe they even introduced themselves but POVc is like me and forgot their names right away, so they keep referring to them by things they know about them (physical traits, or “the one who almost broke my hand by shaking it” or whatever).

But would your POVc ever think about someone they know, their friend or their crush as “the blonde?” “The Russian”? Would you ever think about your SO by anything but their name? (Okay, I can kinda understand “my husband/wife” or something like that, but even those should be used sparingly and only in certain circumstances).

Basically, in most cases using anything but someone’s name is a breach of your POV limited and throws your story (even just temporarily) in third person omniscient. Of course, if that’s the POV you’re using, you have more freedom to to refer to your characters any way you like.

Don’t break your POV

While I’m at it, I might as well add this point here.

Don’t write anything from a person’s POV that they wouldn’t think/know. Of course this goes for plot points, but you should always ask yourself if it’s in-character that your POVc knows a certain name or fact.

For example, your POVc is a palace maid who was kidnapped and is currently held captive in a military camp. She would describe things she sees but she wouldn’t know military terms, or the names of every single weapon etc, so don’t use them.

Or your POVc is a teenage boy walking in a forest. Would he know the names of all the trees he sees? Unless for some reason he does (maybe he studied them at school or he just really likes nature and botany), then he most likely doesn’t, so don’t include tree names in your description of the forest.

There a few extra points that I want to make that have to do with posting your work more than with writing itself:

Politeness and common sense

Tag appropriately, especially when it comes to trigger and content warnings. If you don’t know why that’s important, there’s about a million posts on the internet that explain it.

Don’t bring your own work down. Seriously, there’s nothing more discouraging as a reader than reading the intro notes and seeing “I know this is crap”. I realize many of us were taught to be modest and belittling our own achievements is something we (might I add, girls especially) always do because we feel like it’s wrong not to, but avoiding doing it in a fic is a great starting exercise if you want to let go of this mentality. You don’t want to turn away potential readers because they think “well if the author themself doesn’t like their own work why should I even bother reading?”.

At the same time, you don’t have to fake complete confidence. By all means, write whether this is your first work in the fandom or ever, mention that the language you’re writing in is not your first, point out that your fic isn’t beta’d. Just keep a matter-of-fact attitude about it, and don’t be whiny about it (especially not where everybody will see it). It will make the reader feel better about your work and it will work wonders for your self confidence.

Visibility and feedback

Know when to post stuff so that more people will see it. It sucks to have to think this way, but the truth is, especially when writing for big fandoms, there are some “dead hours” where less people will see your content. Generally speaking I think the best hours to post on ao3 are between the late afternoon and something like 1 or 2 am European Time (basically when both the European and US/Latin American fandoms are awake and out of work/school).

Make sure you at least link your content on tumblr (you can also cross-post it so more people will see it), and tag so that it shows up in the tags page.

When it comes to feedback, brace yourself for comments or no comments. Everyone is lazy, and readers are too when it comes to leaving kudos and especially comments. This is a hard truth and there are ways to make readers aware of the importance of leaving feedback if they’ve enjoyed our (free) content, but we as writers need to be prepared for that. 

There are also types of fics that will get more comments based on their content. A really sweet fluffy fic that is lovely to read will get a different kind of response than a fic or a chapter with a big plot twist or something that blows the reader’s mind. That doesn’t mean that both aren’t good, it just means that the readers will have more to say with the second type of fic.

On ao3, a generally good kudos/hits ratio is 1/10, at least when it comes to oneshots, and a bit lower than that for chaptered fics. If you have more than that, congrats, you’re basically a god now.

Don’t get the lack of feedback discourage you from writing more. There are tons of reasons why people aren’t seeing your content or not interacting with you after they’ve read it, and it absolutely doesn’t mean that your content is bad.

If you feel like you can handle it, ask for constructive criticism. If you specifically don’t want that, mention it explicitly. Other than that, asking for general comments will usually grant you a few more than if you’re silent about it.

When readers do leave comments, even tiny ones, reply back. If you don’t, you’re rude and you’re not encouraging anyone to leave you feedback even if they enjoyed your content.

Whatever feedback you receive, don’t be discouraged and keep writing.

Other writing tips: (coming soon!)

Yuri On Ice edition | general pt.1 | plot | dialogues | characterization

[artificialqueens]

Not Afraid Anymore Chapter 3 (Pearlet) - Columbia

A/N: I would just like to forewarn you, this is going to be terribly cheesy and high key cliché and typically fanfic-esque.  I understand a lot of people might be rather sick of this way of writing but because I’m a baby writer I thought I’d stay in my comfort zone for my first fic.  Also, the middle/second half has slightly less pearlet so I also apologise for that but I needed to add some stuff for plot reasons (I picked Kurtis because those three usually get thrown around a lot in terms of ships). Sorry for the wait – Kisses xxx

Previous chapters: Prologue 1 2

Violet arched her back letting out a relieved groan and she stretched her muscles against the warm mattress as morning light poured through.  “Morning sleepyhead,” She turned her head and squinted her eyes open to see Pearl leaning against the door frame holding two mugs in her hand and a content smile smeared across her face.  Her naturally sleepy demeanour fit perfectly in this situation as she waited a moment before walking over and placing the mugs on her desk next to Violet.  In this time, Violet had decided to take her all in; She watched as a stray piece of hair tumbled out of the blonde messy bun, which was placed on the top of her head.  Pearl sat on the bed next to Violet, whilst she was still laying down staring into her eyes.  She reached up and used her finger to sweep the stray away from the other girls face before moving her hand around the back of her neck, and pulling her down so that her lips brushed against Pearls–

“Violet move over!”

Her eyes shot open when she heard the low grumble from beside her.  It was still dark outside but she could still see enough to notice Pearl lying next to her face down, with half her body hanging off the bed.  She furrowed her brows trying to think over what had just happened. Was she dreaming? It seemed real enough to her, but that wouldn’t explain why it was suddenly 5 am and still slightly dark outside.  She sat up and rubbed her eyes before slowly crawling off the bed being careful not to disturb Pearl anymore.  As soon as she stood up she heard Pearl stir and turned around to see her sprawling herself across the bed.  Violet smiled down at her and shook her head slightly.  Why is this happening to me? Violet didn’t understand why she was so compelled with everything this girl was doing.  As soon as they had separated, Pearl was still on her mind refusing to leave – invading her every thought. 

She made her way to the kitchen to cool off a little after her unexpected dream.  She refilled her glass from before as her mouth had suddenly gone dry when she was awoken.  As she sipped her water leaning against the counter, she heard the creak of stairs and her head shot up.  She saw a dazed Pearl with squinted eyes and a yawn falling from her mouth.  Her hair was still in her braids but half had fallen out… but she still looked amazing to Violet.  Makeup free, in shorts and a tank top and messy hair – there was something so refreshing to see her beauty so raw and natural.  She caught herself staring again and looked down to the ground when Pearl eventually spoke up.  “Listen, I’m not much of an early bird myself,” She began eyes still not opened properly, as she began to sway slightly “But I’m pretty sure this is a bit too early,” Violet bit her lip to stop herself from smiling perhaps too enthusiastically for someone awake at 5 am. 

“Sorry… I had a.. um weird.. dream,” She said still looking at the floor.  “It’s nothing, I just needed to stretch.  And besides, you looked like you needed the room on the bed,” Pearl half smiled and laughed lightly. 

“Well it felt, like, weird without you… kind of empty I guess,” This caught Violets attention as she looked up to the girl who was against a wall as if using it for stability.  She tried to fight a smile from appearing, but that didn’t restrict the light blush that was beginning to spread.  Pearl was gradually becoming more awake as Violet could begin to see her eyes peeking from under her lashes.  They shared lazy smiled with each other until the tension between them began to make Violet feel flustered.  “What time is it? It’s gotta be at least 5, like you said,” Violet asked looking around the room to find a clock but failing to do so.  “Half 5 actually,” Pearl said wincing jokingly.  “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been awake this early before – especially after not actually falling asleep till late,” She continued raising her eyebrows as if blaming Violet, to which she responded with a quiet giggle walking towards her before taking her hand.  “Come on,” She said, “Let’s get you back to bed,”

With that, she led Pearl up the stairs holding her hand behind her.  Pearl, despite being in an underwhelming state of fatigue, couldn’t help but notice the fact that when she looked up, she could see the shirt Violet was wearing riding up.  She quickly looked away but found herself wanting to look back, even for just a second.  When she finally decided that looking could do no harm because Violet couldn’t see her, it was too late and before she knew it they were almost in her room.  Although seemingly distracted, once she saw her bed she immediately let go of Violets hand and fell onto it, cocooning herself in the abundance of blankets and pillows that were scattered across her mattress and some that had fallen to the floor.  Violet giggled once again, looking at Pearls face squished together through the duvet.  The room was lit by just the spotted glow of fairy lights. 

Before she knew it, Pearl was fast asleep once again preparing to catch another hour or two.  Violet smiled at the sleepy blonde and decided to shower as she wanted to make it back home before her dad found out she had left.  She made her way to the bathroom, and after figuring out how to use the shower, she emerged in only a towel and returned to Pearls room in need for her clothes, before travelling back to the bathroom to get changed.  When she had her skirt on, she looked at the shirt Pearl had provided her and contemplated wearing it.  I guess it kind of matches… she thought to herself.  She could just give it back tomorrow.  She placed it over her head and tucked it into her white skirt.  She checked the time to see if she could still make it, although she’d probably have to leave in the next minute if she wanted to get back without a trace.  Violet turned back to Pearl who was now lying on her stomach with an arm draped over the edge of the bed and her mouth open against the pillow.  She had to admit Pearl did look cute like that, and it would be a shame to ruin such an adorable picture.  She decided to leave a note on Pearls door explaining everything, not wanting to disturb her, and left leaving the sleeping girl in peace. 

—–

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! Pearl hesitantly opened her eyes and began semi aggressively attacking her alarm clock.  When she had showered, and began to get ready for the day Pearl took out her braids from the previous day to reveal wild waves and curls.  She decided to wrap a silk scarf around the crown of her head to control it a bit more, but still chose to backcomb it furthermore.  When she was ready, Pearl quickly shoved her textbooks she had into her backpack and rushed out the door, not bothering to eat… which she would soon regret. 

Walking down the street, every now and then her music would be interrupted by her stomach crying out for food.  To her disappointment, she didn’t see Violet cruise past her on her way to school.  Without realising she kept glancing towards the road, hoping to hear a vague sound of Lana Del Rey playing from her radio in the distance, or to see he raven hair being blown behind her by the wind.  Instead when she looked across the road, she saw a group of boys she recognised from school as Kurtis’ friends all crammed into his car hollering and passers-by on the sidewalk opposite.  She found herself staring and was shaken out of her day dream when one of the boys hollered at her.  The all were whooping and slapping Kurtis on the back, making both him and Pearl turn deep shades of pink which even Pearls makeup couldn’t hide.  She quickly turned away to hide a slightly embarrassed smile and sped up her pace, hoping to escape the situation.  Pearl admitted she liked the attention, but wasn’t sure what to do with it.  It had only been a little bit and she was already overwhelmed and embarrassed easily, what would she be like if it progressed. 

She shook the thought from her head as she heard the car drive off in front of her.  Once she reached the gates, she stood and waited for Trixie who would normally arrive at the same time every day.  She checked her phone to make sure she hadn’t missed her; 8:35, she should be here by now.  Pearl looked around to try and find the girl, presumably all dressed in pink, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.  Almost jumping out of her skin, she turned around to see both her and Katya standing in front of her.  She was a little shocked by this, especially after her and Katya’s conversation yesterday morning, but didn’t want to question it as it was still too early to be confused even for Pearl.  “Well don’t just stand there,” Trixie said putting her hand on her hip.  “Where were you yesterday?” The two girls watched as Pearls eyes widened after realising she had abandoned the two to spend the day alone without warning.  “It’s a long story, but could I ask you a favour Trix?” She turned to her friend who was still giving her the ‘mother’ look, with her lips pursed slightly and her eyebrows raised.  Eventually she gave up and rolled her eyes, taking her hand off her hip.  “Okay so can you super quickly write a note saying I was sick yesterday? It’s just my homeroom teacher know my writing, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to read the scratchings Katya calls handwriting,” She explained earning a hurt and confused look from Katya besides her, shortly followed by one of realisation as she slowly nodded in agreement.  Trixie sighed before replying with a Fine as she walked past both of them, a smile cracking her frustrated mask as the three blondes walked into the school. 

Once they were in Pearl and Katya’s homeroom, Trixie was perched on Katya’s table whilst she and Pearl were sitting on their chairs.  “So where were you yesterday?” Trixie questions, writing the note with her feather topped pink pen.  Pearl leant on her hand and glared at the clock, sighing as she realised she couldn’t avoid this as they had time to kill.  She didn’t know why she didn’t want to tell everyone – it was sort of a little secret that only her and Violet shared.  Not to mention Trixie would probably ask to meet Violet, being the kind and friendly person she was, and Pearl didn’t know if Violet would want to.  Although she loved her friends dearly, she knew they were a lot to deal with, and not everyone can handle it all at once; that’s why it’s been them three most of the time.  Their friend Danny sometimes sat with them in the cafeteria, but he usually went with the potheads – only so he could get a joint whenever he could. 

“So, you remember that girl I was telling you about yesterday? Violet,” She asked lowering her voice slightly in case anyone decided to snitch on her.  The three girls leaned in as Katya nodded.  Trixie furrowed her brows in confusion, “umm wait what? Who? Who is this girl you speak of?” She asks. 

“The girl I was telling you about in class yesterday,” Katya says looking at Trixie,

“The hitchhiker one?” she asks and Katya just nods laughing slightly.  Pearl looked between the girls a little baffled.  This was almost the longest conversation she’d seen them have.  The longest being about homework, so it didn’t really count.  She shook her head brushing those thoughts away for later.  “Anyway,” She said, “Well she needed help finding her science class, so I walked her to it because I had science as well but when we got there we decided to ditch.  So we went to the park-,”

“WAIT! Our park?” Katya said looking kind of hurt.  “She didn’t sit on my swing, did she?” she asked almost panicked.  Trixie was giggling next to us looking between the note and the two girls.  “No don’t worry, we didn’t go anywhere near your swing, Katya,” Pearl said, putting a hand on her shoulder whilst shaking her head.  Katya let out a ‘phew’ and pretended to wipe sweat from her head.  “What did you do after that then?” Trixie asked, folding the note and handing it to Pearl to which she thanked her with a slight nod.  Pearl decided not to tell the girls about her staying over, allowing some of their night to remain between them, and simply said that Violet had to go home. 

The bell rang signally Trixie to leave them.  “Since when were you two best buds?” Pearl said smirking at Katya and leaning back in her chair.  Katya suddenly perked up and crossed her legs beneath her getting comfy.  “Well, yesterday in art when you abandoned us,” She began, inviting an eyeroll from Pearl, “We actually had a conversation rather than just small talk, and besides Kim wasn’t in either so she had no one she could sit with other than me,” Her eyes lit up as she recalled the previous day. 

“Anyway, you would not believe how much we have in common,” Katya said placing a hand on Pearls knee.  Pearl screwed her brows in confusion “Really? You and Trixie?” She said in incredulous disbelief.

“Oh no, we’re still polar opposites,” She said cracking up into cackling laughter. “But she’s really cool, and super talented,” Their conversation was cut short by their teacher storming into the classroom, constant ‘no bull-shit expression etched onto his face.  He glared at the class to get them to quieten down but obviously, a room full of 16 to 17 year olds aren’t going to give the desired response.  Katya turned back to Pearl “I mean you’ve seen her face, right? That kind of artistry is spectacular – beyond stunning,” Pearl raised her eyebrow at Katya as she became more passionate talking about Trixie. 

After homeroom had finished and the class was emptying, Pearl left the note Trixie had forged for her on the teacher’s desk.  As she was stepping through the door she heard him speak up “Miss Liaison, are you aware I am not stupid? And I also teach Miss Mattel so I am familiar with her handwriting…” Pearl froze, before slowly turning around, sighing.  “I’ll see you for 20 minutes after school Pearl.” He said still looking at the note.  Pearl rolled her eyes and ran to catch up with Katya.

“Hey, do you need to go to your locker by any chance?” She said sweetly batting her eyes at Katya.

“No, but I’ll go with you anyway because I’m a great friend,”

“Well, that’s debatable but okay…” Pearl said receiving a slap on the arm from Katya. 

Once they’d reached their lockers, which were conveniently placed next to each other, Katya began to open her locker.  “I thought you said you didn’t need anything from here?” Pearl said shuffling through her books. 

“I don’t but I also don’t want to look like a weirdo just standing by my locker,” She said as if it was an obvious reason.  Pearl turned and looked her up and down in curiosity.  “Katya, sweetie, you’re literally wearing a dress with knives on it…” Katya stared back at her expectantly.  Pearl laughed at her, realising she didn’t realise how ridiculous it looked.  “Hey, Trixie’s over there why don’t you head to class and I’ll catch up,” Katya’s eyes lit up at the mention of Trixie’s name, before nodding frantically and turning to run after the girl in pink.  Pearl just shook her head and got the remaining books she needed out of her locker.  Jumping back out of shock, she shut her locker door only to be met with a familiar pair of blue eyes.

“Kurtis… hey,” she said trying to control her breathe.  He just smirked at her eyes tracing over her face.  “I umm… I didn’t see you there… clearly,” She stumbled over her words.  He laughed lightly in response, leaning up against the locker next to hers.  “Listen, sorry about this morning the guys… can be a bit rowdy sometimes,” He explained apologetically, his confident exterior seeming to fade away, almost instantly being replaced with a slight timidity – that Pearl couldn’t help but notice.  She just shook her head and looked at the ground quickly before looking around the halls, not quite being able to meet his eyes again.  “Are you busy after school?” He said catching Pearls attention and gaze.  She smiled shyly at him, before her face dropped.  “What’s wrong?” He asked quietly and leaned in slightly.  She just shook her head “ah it’s nothing; Mr Haylock busted my ass for faking a note, I have 20 minutes after school,” She replied disappointedly.  Kurtis raised his eyebrows looking shocked. 

“It’s been barely 30 minutes and you’ve already got yourself a detention… I might need to step up my game,” He laughed and Pearl followed suit, appreciative of his humorous attempt of comfort.  “I need to go but I’ll see you around right?” He asked nonchalantly.

“Uh yeah! Sure!” She said, perhaps over excited. Kurtis laughed and strolled down the corridor, leaving Pearl’s heart beating faster than it should.  God he’s hot!

—–

It was lunch time now, and the three girls were sitting on the table that had subconsciously become theirs over time.  Katya was telling some strangely interesting, but equally as unbelievable, anecdote about her Russian relatives whilst Trixie listened contently, filing her nails and Pearl played with her food.  Her eye’s roamed around the cafeteria as her thoughts flickered between her interaction with Kurtis, and Violet.  She hadn’t seen Violet all day but somehow, she hadn’t escaped her mind since she had retold their previous encounters to Katya and Trixie.  As if her thoughts were a beacon, she saw Violet walk through the door on her own, looking lost and confused.  Pearl stood up to walk over to her when she noticed Danny reach her before her.  Violet looked startled by his presence, and Pearl assumed she felt uncomfortable with the sudden conversation by the way she held herself.  She avoided looking him in the eye, pretending to look for someone until her eyes landed on Pearl. 

“Hey Pearl are you okay?” Trixie piped up, bringing Pearl back to earth.  She nodded and mumbled something along the lines of I’ll be right back.  She strolled over to Violet and Danny, not taking her eyes of the raven haired girl.  Danny must have noticed that Violet was distracted as he turned around just as Pearl was reaching them.  “Oh, hey Pearl, I forgot to tell you – my guy got back to me about the gear,” This caught Pearls attention for a slight moment until her hidden excitement was interrupted by Violet.  “What do you mean by gear?” She asked naively.  Pearl and Danny looked at each other before they both looked at her.  “Umm… it’s not important,” Pearl says trying to act unfazed.  “Just something to help me…”

“Study!” Danny interjects before Pearl can finish.  She turns and looks at him again. 

“Sure… Study we’ll go with that…” She mumbled under her breathe before meeting with Violets eyes again, and judging by her raised eyebrows and folded arms she wasn’t buying it.  “Anyway,” She began rolling her eyes, “Pearl I need to speak to you,” She said placing her hand on Pearls arm.  She began to walk away with the blonde, before turning to look at Danny “It was nice meeting you Manny,” she said waving, causing Pearl to snort. 

“Umm it’s Danny,” he called out in the distance. 

“Thank god I saw you,” Violet said.  “I think he was trying to hit on me, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him,” she continued.  Pearl started walking her to their table but Violet took a detour to one of the vending machines.  Pearl leaned up against it and tilted her head to look at Violet as she slotted her coins in.  “You know he’s an alright guy,” She said feeling bad for her friend. “I’m sure he is,” Violet replied, “But I doubt I’d ever get with him,” this time letting out a giggle to herself as she collected her water.  Pearl laughed a little in confusion at Violets vagueness.  “What makes you say that?” She asked leading her towards her friends. 

“Well… I’d have to like guys for that to happen,”

Before Pearl could respond, Trixie and Katya had already noticed the newbie.  “Who’s this?” Trixie asked with a kind smiled upon her face.  “Katya, Trixie, this is Violet,” Pearl said, a sudden anxiety swallowing her.  Her palms were getting sweaty at just the thought of her friends not liking Violet and it was confusing her.  She’d only known her for just over a day, so why was she so worried? Surely she could be friends with her as well even if the others weren’t interested. 

“So you’re the infamous Violet our young Pearly here hasn’t stopped talking about?” Katya asked, adding her Russian accent to the way she spoke (Even though she hasn’t lived in Russia since she was 5).  Pearls eyes widened before both her and Violets cheeks were drowned in a deep shade of red.  Pearl stared at Trixie pleadingly, mentally begging her to say something as she had a knack to pull her out of embarrassing situations.  Trixie caught on quickly with this and interjected before Katya could make their introductions even more humiliating.  “What I think Katya means is, we’ve heard a lot about you,” Trixie says with a warm smile.  Although that wasn’t much better than what Katya has said, the way Trixie said it made it seem a lot better and more comforting.  “All good things, I hope,” Violet replied seemingly sinking in on herself.  Why was she suddenly so shy? She was completely different than the Violet Pearl met yesterday. 

—–

The rest of lunch went by quickly, with Violet soon becoming a little more relaxed around the others; although Pearl noticed she was still holding back slightly.  When the bell rang signalling the girls to make their way to class, Violet and Pearl walked to science together and took their seats at the back of Mr Haylock’s classroom. Pearl noticed Kurtis walk in and out of habit she looked up at the doorway to see who was there, only to be met with a wink and a dreamy smirk.  As the lesson went by, the two girls shared giggles and whispers whilst their teacher lectured on about cells or something – they weren’t paying attention. 

“I’m telling you he’s staring at you,” Violet whispered leaning in closer to Pearl so that no one could hear them.  Pearl looked down at her hands and twirled her pencil between her fingers whilst shaking her head lightly.  She couldn’t help the smile that was creeping onto her face, as she looked up only to meet with his familiar eyes.  She turned back to Violet before saying “Okay maybe you were right, but that doesn’t mean he likes me… does it?” She asked confused.  She’d never dealt with things like this before so she didn’t know the signs or what to look out for.  And seeing as Violet was beyond stunning, Pearl assumed that she did.  Before Violet could even answer, Pearl turned around after feeling a tap on her shoulder and was welcomed by one of Kurtis’ friends holding a note towards her.  She noticed his blonde curly hair but couldn’t quite remember his name; William? Willam?

She unfolded the note to see an amateurish drawing of Mr Haylock in a huge wig and ridiculous makeup, with ‘K x’ written underneath it.  She tried to stifle a laugh but only managed to quieten it to a giggle, which still managed to catch Mr Haylock’s attention.  He shot round and raised his eyebrows at her.  She was frozen in her spot, looking Mr Haylock dead in the eye whilst feeling the burning gaze of those surrounding her.  Suddenly the late May sun was feeling to hot and she started to fidget in her seat slightly as the teacher made his way to her.  “Passing notes in class are we Miss Liaison?” He said before snatching the paper away from her.  Violet could see the panic in Pearl’s face, it was obvious.  She brushed her fingers against Pearl’s, barely noticeable – but Pearl did notice, her body physically relaxing slightly as she clutched two of Violet’s fingers to relief some tension. 

“Cutting class, being late to lessons and now passing notes… Would you like me to change that 10 minutes to 20?”  He crossed his arms.  Pearl began to stutter an excuse, or rather an explanation, but was interrupted once again.  “Or maybe I should get in touch with your parents?” Pearls eyes widened in panic.  Her grip on Violets hand tightened until she heard a click and Violet grimaced.  “Wait no, Mr Haylock it… it wasn’t like that, I umm it wasn’t me!” She reasoned.  He raised her eyebrows and shook his head deciding not to believe her.  He turned around to return to the front of the class when the silence was broken.  “It was me,”

Mr Haylock looked up frowning at the class in confusion and annoyance.  It wasn’t one voice that said it – both Violet and Kurtis spoke up.  Pearls eyes shot between the both of them, what is happening? “Well? Which one of ya was it?” The teacher questioned, voice raised slightly.  Violets eyes shot to Kurtis as her hand wrapped properly around Pearl’s protectively.  Kurtis was looking at Pearl though, almost determined to be her knight in shining armour – and was willing to battle Violet for that spot.  “Sir, it was me; the new girls just trying to help her friend,” Kurtis said confidently.  He wasn’t wrong but there was an essence of tension in the room after his remark.  “Okay first of all, my names Violet,” Violet said rolling her eyes.  “And secondly, I did it, and I’m not gonna let Kurtis take the blame for me,” She said staring him dead in the eye.  She raised her eyebrow as if challenging him to fight back. 

Kurtis opened his mouth to protest but was cut off before a sound left his mouth “I don’t care which one of you it was at this point! You’ve both got 10 minutes after school for disrupting my lesson,” Both Violet and Kurtis sighed in synchronicity and Pearl looked at her hands, one of which still in contact to Violets, feeling partly to blame for the others getting in trouble.  “You’ll both join Pearl after school back here.  Now back to the lesson; if you turn to page 40…” Mr Haylock droned on but his voice eventually faded into the background as Pearl felt Violets thumb stroking against the back of her hand, making her chest feel light and floaty.  “Why did you do that?” She whispered quietly, still mad at herself.  “I could’ve taken the blame for you,”

“I know you could’ve,” Violet replied not looking at her.  “But I didn’t want you too, it wasn’t your fault,” She turned her head to look in the direction of Kurtis.  “And now you can introduce me to the guy who put that note in your locker yesterday,” She broke the tension by winking at Pearl, and grinning at her.