#when i choose a ship name for the riptides i will put it on these posts

[xxthunderthedragonxx]

more

first thing to do when you meet an alternate universe version of yourself is. to be gay about it i guess

[oh-look-its-lia]

LIA'S RIPTIDE OC MASTERPOST :D

For those who are interested, here's some lore about my OCs! I kept everything as short and concise as possible (mostly) but it's still super long, so prepare yourself accordingly should you choose to continue on.

Esther 'Ink' Copperplate (Shadar-Kai, Paladin/Sorcerer, she/her), Captain of the Atlas Pirates.

She and her family escaped the Shadowfell and came to Mana when she was around 7. Her parents really wanted her and her brother Jasper to join the Navy so they could be 'successful'. Jasper was all for this plan, but it never really interested Esther. This created a rift in the family, Jasper being the favorite child, Esther being ignored and left to fend for herself most of the time.

Her safe place on her home island was the local tavern. She'd go there to listen to adventurers stories and daydream about getting off this island.

When she was about 12, a new pirate crew (the Merrythorne Pirates) stopped by. Their navigator, a blue tiefling named Terrance, caught Esther's attention immediately. He was working on one of his maps and it was beautiful. Terrance was happy to tell Esther about cartography, and even gave her the nickname 'Ink" because the vitiligo spots on her skin looked like the ink splotches on his own hands. He even colored in her spots with the colorful inks he used to help show her what a unique and beautiful thing they were.

Ink got very close to this pirate crew. She thought of them as family, more so than her actual blood relatives. She'd tell them about her successes, her struggles, even became Terrence's unofficial protege because she loved mapmaking so much. She often asked if she could just join their crew and get off this horrible island, but Captain Merrythorne insisted she had to finish school first. Once she was 18, she'd be allowed to join.

When Ink was 15, Jasper joined the Navy. He was always a conniving little snake, so he made his way up the ladder quickly. He'd write home about all his glorious achievements and any time he visited, he'd make sure to point out that Ink had done nothing her parents could be proud of. She couldn't wait to join Merrythorne's crew.

Almost a year before her 18th birthday, she wandered down to the tavern, hoping to see Merrythorne and his crew again. When she got there, she saw no pirates, but her brother who was wearing Terrance's pirate coat. The coat was terribly damaged, sleeves ripped off, tears in the tails, and a bloody stained bullet hole through Terrance's signature compass rose that had been embroidered on the back.

Ink immediately knew what had happened. Jasper had killed her mentor and friend. She avoided her brother like the plague, her only interaction with him before his visit ended was him giving her Terrance's coat, "So you always remember what happens to pirates in the end." (yeah Jasper's the worst-)

The next time Merrythorne and his crew came around, they let her join early. She fit in perfectly, taking Terrance's place as navigator. It took Ink a while (cause traumaaaa) but slowly, she started to notice she was happier on this ship than she'd ever been on her home island. Life felt exciting and she always looked forward to what might happen next.

Terrance's death took a toll on her though. She became obsessive about keeping her crew safe, tracking every single navy, pirate, and bounty hunter ship she found out about meticulously. She kept all this information in a ledger, and having this information actually saved them more than a few times. She ended up getting so good at this tracking ordeal that other crews asked her to go over their charted courses to make sure they wouldn't run into any trouble.

She did other little things to try to put her mind at ease as well. Terrance had shared with her his little superstition that putting a braid in someone's hair was a good luck charm. She always kept her hair braided, and did the same for any crewmate that would let her. (Basically she has ocd, and things like the braids and picking at the spots on her hands or tapping all 4 corners of a map before beginning work are her compulsions.)

Ink was living her pirate dreams, having the time of her life . . . until her 20th birthday.

Merrythorne's crew LOVED celebrating birthdays. The crew cared so deeply about each other, so getting to celebrate someone's mere existence was always a delightful event. This particular birthday, Ink received a magic ledger that never ran out of pages from her crew, and she was ecstatic. So excited, in fact that when Merrythorne said they were going to spend the day partying in Allport, Ink forgot to check if it was safe to do so.

Everything was perfect until around sunset, when Navy busted down the doors of the tavern they were in and took Ink hostage. Two crewmembers died in the scuffle, the rest escaping back to the ship.

Ink woke up in a Navy prison. Jasper was the one who had orchestrated her capture, because she'd been a massive thorn in the Navy's side for ages, and he wanted the glory. Ink had accrued a massive bounty by this point from stealing Navy information so she could warn pirates of ambushes.

There's a lot of dramatic dialogue here in her full backstory that I might post the link to when I go through and make sure it's ready, but basically Jasper tortures Ink to try and gain the location of the rest of her crew. He does this by cutting into her spots with a knife and painting them with her own blood. Jasper would often ask Ink about her visits with the pirates just so he could ridicule her, so he knew about Terrance and his efforts to show Ink she was enough. So of course, the best way to tear her down was to sour those memories.

This whole time, Ink stays silent, praying that her crew will leave her behind, because she can't take it if they go down because of her. Much to her dismay, she hears her name being called by familiar voices who are fighting their way through the prison to get to her.

The escape is a bloodbath, Navy soldiers and Ink's friends falling dead left and right. Only Ink, Merrythorne, and 2 other crewmembers make it to the lobby.

I should now mention, Ink has never been able to use ranged weapons. She's terrible at it. Can't accurately fire a gun for the life of her, so she uses a longsword instead.

Before the few survivors of the Merrythorne pirates can escape, Jasper manages to grapple the captain, holding a knife to his neck. He hesitates, having never killed someone before. His senior officer is screaming at him to finish the job, but he just can't in that moment.

In the fray, a pistol skitters to Ink's feet as she turns to see Merrythorne get captured. Having no other options, she picks it up and fires at Jasper in a desperate attempt to keep Merrythorne alive. She aims for her brother's head, and while she doesn't miss, she also doesn't hit her target. The bullet goes through Jasper's chest, and as he goes down, he slices the captains neck open. Merrythorne is dead.

Ink and her two remaining crewmates manage to escape, though her friends decide to retire not long after. Ink keeps the ship, (which I have yet to name, so if anyone has ideas, please tell me!) but has no crew. She also keeps the pistol, in hopes that one day she will be given another opportunity to confront Jasper and hit her intended target.

SO! That was incredibly long winded and crazy (apologies). I promise these next few introductions will be shorter. Now I get to tell you about the crew Ink builds so she can keep running her whole intelligence operation.

Tobias (Toby) Carlo (Half-Warforged, Artificer, he/they):

While Toby is not Ink's first mate, he is the one she found first. He is a half-warforged due to working with extremely toxic materials ruining many of his internal organs. They look like a completely normal guy on the outside, but if you get within melee range of them, you can hear all the mechanical sounds of their warforged parts.

He met Ink after his workshop exploded and she hid him from the police. He makes all sorts of devices and weapons illegally to help oppressed villages liberate themselves from the Navy. They are the crew's Master Gunner.

Levee Loch (Aasimar, Bard, she/her):

After sailing with Toby for a bit, he and Ink came across the Blue Royale casino, where they found Levee on a terrible losing streak. She's in impossible amounts of debt with no way out, so Ink smuggled her out of the casino after waking her from the trance.

Levee proved to be very adept in skills Ink lacked in, and became the First Mate. She keeps the crew (and captain) on task in return for Ink's protection from people looking to collect her debts. She doesn't make friends easily, but after a while, she becomes very close with everyone on the crew.

Jericho Sweet (Half-Elf, Fighter, he/him):

Jericho is an ex guard. Of who? I have no idea, but he realized being "well off and successful" was nowhere near as fulfilling as just having fun. Whomever he was hired by had a lot of secrets, so when someone would leave their employment, they'd have their memory wiped, just in case. He met Ink the day he had been dishonorably discharged and sentenced to imprisonment for life because he tried to steal from the treasury for some extra gold before he disappeared. She of course helped him fake his own death so he wouldn't be hunted down for memory erasing and imprisonment. He's a very positive and loving person, but in an ominous way. "You will succeed, it's written by fate!" Sort of deal. He's the Master at Arms.

Plat Slaughter (Tiefling, Cleric, they/them):

When Ink ran into Plat, she found them uncannily familiar. Turns out they're Terrance's niece, (I don't know if there's a gender neutral term, but they are more fem presenting, so I use niece.) and shared some relatively strong resemblance. Ink finds out that Terrance was the black sheep of his family, looked down on by everyone else for leaving the nice life his parents had built and joining a pirate crew. Plat loved Terrance so much, so when he left and wouldn't say his reasons for going, they started to do some digging. They found that their grandparents had built their empire on deceit and blackmail, rather than the good morals that they always said they were committed to. They abandoned their family much like Terrance, and joined Ink's crew as the Surgeon.

Alva Honeywell (Human, Wizard, she/they)

(There's more context needed to explain Alva's backstory, so bear with me.)

Ink does not have a bounty poster. This is because Jasper has sold her bounty privately to a hunter named Agate Oleander. (Jasper is also going against Navy protocol to do this and would be demoted or fired if found out.) Agate developed a very powerful spell to enslave the will of her crew, making them mindless puppets who do her bidding. This makes her deadly because her crew have no way to disobey orders because of morals or fear or anything else. (there's also cool mechanics like a shared hp pool where if you kill one they all die but I don't need to get into that now.)

Alva was one of these crewmembers. During a close call when Agate ambushed Ink, the Atlas crew managed to take captive one of Agate's hivemind. it took a long time and a lot of work, but they finally broke the spell on her and she once she'd recovered, they became the Pilot. They are a generally cold and stoic person, but they have a big soft spot for animals.

Creep (Changeling, Barbarian, he/him)

While the Atlas pirates had been at sea for a while, they found a random guy in the kitchen. No one had any clue how he got there as they had not docked for many days and there were very few places for stowaways to hide on the ship. Ink tried to talk to him, find out what he's about, but he wouldn't say a word. All he did was explore the kitchen until eventually he started pulling out cooking supplies and raising his eyebrows as if to ask for permission to use them from Ink. She let him do whatever he was doing, and he ended up cooking dinner for everyone. It was really good food, so they happily adopted him onto the crew as he didn't seem he wanted to leave. No one knows if he has a 'real name', because Levee said "what a creep," once and it stuck. Anyway, he's the Cook.

Needle Noble (Tabaxi, Monk/Warlock, she/her)

Needle is ex-navy. After she graduated training she was put under the leadership of one of the most vile and unkind admirals in the entire organization. She eventually got so sick of the terrible treatment and cruelty that she murdered the admiral in his sleep and had to flee the Navy entirely.

She didn't want to join a pirate crew, but Ink was the only one around who knew how to make someone truly disappear, so she begrudgingly became the Boatswain. Needle wasn't a team player for a long time, but Jericho made it his mission to befriend her. She and Jericho became best friends and she grew to love the rest of the crew as well.

Jasper Copperplate (Shadar-Kai, Rogue, he/him)

"Lia, why on earth is Jasper here???" you may be asking. Well, WAYYYYY later into the story, some events happen. It heavily involves @lui-del 's characters, so I won't get into too much detail as this is just about Ink and her crew.

Further into Ink's story, Jasper manages to imprison her again. Agate (the bounty hunter from earlier) gets her pay, and Jasper is left to do what he will with Ink and claim all the glory for taking down the Navy's biggest pest. Captain Maine (Lui's character), rescues Ink from her inevitable execution and takes Jasper hostage as well. The following events leave Jasper horribly injured, and instead of killing him like Ink had planned, she decides to do the unmerciful thing and forces him to join her crew as the Cooper.

He heals from all his injuries without the help of magic, which means he needs a leg brace to walk and has a lot of noticeable scars. It takes a very long time for anyone on the crew to consider Jasper a friend, however, they never leave any crewmate behind, so he's never used as bait or left behind when things get dicey.

After months, possibly years of Jasper living on Ink's ship, she finally asks him why he killed Terrance. She knew his bounty wasn't 'dead or alive', so he'd have been worth more brought in still breathing. Jasper's pretty shocked by this assumption, because he didn't kill Terrance, and he never claimed he did. All he'd done was inform her of the tiefling's death. Someone else in the crew Jasper was a part of was to blame, and Terrance had only died because of a misfire. The reason Jasper thought to bring Ink his coat was because he saw it as an opportunity to get praise from his parents for doing his job well and to make Ink feel small and worthless for the life path she'd chosen. (He was the worst brother ever guys.)

After that point, the two understood each other completely, and they start to try and mend their relationship because they finally see each other's value.

Also at some point Jasper adopts a cat named Chocolate Chip.

RAMBLE FINALLY OVER!! That's pretty much everything about Ink and her crew! If you read all this, you're insane, and I love you. I hope to sketch all of them eventually, so I'll add to this post when I do.

(also if anyone would like to draw these little guys I will be so unbelievably happy. I don't have reference for many of them, but I draw Ink a lot and post her on Twitter @ ohlookitlia)

Thanks so much for reading! :D

[toadslug]

I FINISHED IT!! Here are my silly opinions for the silly dragon series 🥰 Character names, explanations, and template below the cut:

★ Favorite character: Clay

Clay has been my favorite character since I read his book!! I think his character goes a lot deeper than how some of the fandom treats him (his character arc is amazing), and he's also just a really nice guy.

★ Liked by everyone but me: Queen Ruby

I have no idea why I don't like her 😭 I think the way she treated Peril just kind of pissed me off when I was a kid and I've never been able to shake the grudge (it's not her, it's me). I almost put Bumblebee here instead... I can't blame her for acting her age, but her babbling can get tiring.

★ Didn't like at first: Fatespeaker

I considered putting Glory here, but I only started to hate her when that was the popular thing to do (I'm back to liking her now dw). I immediately didn't like Fatespeaker... Probably because I was rooting for Sunny x Starflight at the time 😬 I PROMISE I'm not like that anymore omg. I was probably nine years old. I've come to value Fatespeaker a lot more; her character is surprisingly interesting to pick apart.

★ Would like to know more about: Hailstorm

There's so many characters I want to know more about!! Gill!! Tau!! Riptide!! Moray!! Osprey!! Sora!! Literally any MudWing character!!! BUT... I went with Hailstorm. I adore the supportive big brother energy he brings, and seeing him trying to fit back into IceWing society (and maybe go through a teensy identity crisis) would be interesting.

★ Least favorite character: Sky

Honestly, I don't really have a least favorite character? There's Whirlpool, of course, but that's too easy. I ended up choosing Sky 🤷‍♀️ I liked him enough in Dragonslayer, but he kind of annoyed me in The Flames of Hope. I feel like he became a lot louder and more brash.

★ Like the design, dislike the character: Vulture

His dragon skull tattoos and the gimmick for them is so sick?? Why is this grandpa more stylish than me and everyone I know??? His design is great, but everything to do with him and his crime ring felt a little out of nowhere to me. It's been a while since I've read Darkness of Dragons, so maybe I'm just not remembering everything? But yeah. I wish he had a more satisfying storyline.

★ Like the character, dislike the design: Luna

I like Luna! And I like how she looks on her book cover, too (the rendering on her is drop-dead GORGEOUS). But the rest of her appearances in canon art... ehh.

These shades of green are making me feel things. And the spots on her wings look kind of awkward to me.

★ Favorite ship: Jambu x Pineapple

I was really close to putting Clay x Peril here because of how OBSESSED I was with them as a kid (shout-out to the Demons Peril PMV by Echosplash Animations that saved my life); however, Jambu x Pineapple is the only ship in the series that got me kicking my feet and giggling. The flashback to them cuddling in the hammock melted my heart 💖 Luna x Swordtail, Tamarin x Anemone, and Mangrove x Orchid are also my beloved. Honestly, though, I'm not that involved with shipping anymore.

★ Would never befriend IRL: Sundew

I like Sundew as a fictional character, but I would be slightly scared of her if she was real. She probably wouldn't like me.

★ Would befriend IRL: Umber

He seems chill. I don't think he'd prod me to do stuff or talk, and I like people like that. People who can just let you exist... I feel like he'd tolerate my humor, too.

★ Similar personality: Clearsight

I am NOWHERE near as girlboss as her, but I can relate to constantly worrying about future situations that may or may not happen 😁😁

★ Least favorite ship: Burn x Scarlet

Sorry toxic yuri ☹️ I just don't ship Burn with anyone.

*This template wasn't my idea; I took the original template and modified it to my liking.

[hookedonapirate]

Summary: The Jones brothers are polar opposites. Liam's the safe and honorable one, straight-laced and straight as an arrow. The good son.

Killian's the dangerous one, the bad boy with tats, leather jackets, a motorcycle and a questionable past.

The only things they have in common are panty-melting sea-blue eyes, the flat they share in Storybrooke and a rare blood type.

Oh, and apparently their taste in women.

Or rather, one woman.

Feisty.

Blonde.

Gorgeous.

Green-eyed Goddess.

Killian saw her first, but she chose his brother—the nice guy over the playboy. And even though she’s dating his brother, it doesn't make him want her any less. If that's not bad enough, she moves in with them and he has to pretend he's not completely in love with her. His life could not get any worse…

Until Liam dies in a tragic motorcycle accident.

Leaving each of them with one half of a broken heart.

Now Killian and Emma are left helping each other pick up the pieces.

Just as they're beginning to learn how to live in their new reality, another riptide pulls them further into the deep end when she finds out she's pregnant with Liam's baby.

Notes: So I made this post on Tumblr the other day, and then this fic happened. If you haven't seen the tags, please read them before starting this story or becoming invested because it’s very angsty. First of all, this starts out as Swan Jewel? I don't know what their ship name is or if there is an official name, but yes, Liam and Emma are in a relationship in the beginning, and I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If you're not comfortable with that, I highly encourage you to hit the back button.

Thank you @ultraluckycatnd​ for looking it over!

This story was inspired by Baby Mine by Kennedy Fox, and I loved the book so much and thought it was very much underrated. I’ve wanted to write a fic like this for a long time now because it’s one of my favorite tropes, but after I read that book, I just had to write my own take. Also, I made this post about a Baby Yodarita drink last year when it was trending and since the beginning of this story starts one year prior, 2019 and since Killian is a bartender, it was a perfect way to include the prompt.

The title comes from the lyrics of the song, Lay By Me by Ruben. The particular line goes like this:

"I hope you know through the rising tide That I'll be here and you can lay by my side"

If you've never heard it, I recommend giving it a listen. It's an amazing song and very fitting for this story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFJbLzEtoZw

P.S. In case you're unable to read the shoulder tattoo in the picture above and are wondering what it says—

"There is no happiness without tears

No life without death

And no true love without heartbreak"

Rated: Explicit for smut (including sexual fantasies, masturbation, implied and detailed sex, etc.) and language (lots of F-bombs).

Also available on: AO3 FF.N

Chapter 1

“Late again?” Liam chides when Ruby waltzes into work as if everything is completely normal. As if she’s not an hour late for her shift. 

  For the third time that week.

  She gives him an apologetic smile, but Killian knows she’s not actually sorry. 

  He’s just wondering who she was with this time.

  “Won't happen again, boss.”

  “Damn right it won’t. This is your third warning. Next time, there will be a write-up,” he admonishes.

  Frustration creases her forehead. “Geez, would you just chill? My car broke down.”

  Liam crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes at her. “So, you mean to tell me your car has broken down three times this week?” he asks, holding up three fingers. “And on either of these occasions, you couldn’t pick up the phone and give me a heads up? Did your phone break, too?”

  She flashes him a look as though the answer to his question is obvious. “I told you my car’s a piece of junk. And I tried to call, but no one answered.”

  Killian fights off a laugh, knowing for a fact Ruby is bluffing. At least about calling tonight, since the phone hadn’t rung in the past hour. But he could easily check to see if she’d called on the other two days on the bar phone’s caller i.d. to find out for sure if he really wanted to. 

   “So get a new car. Don’t you make enough from your tips and the hourly wage I pay you?”

  “I make enough from my tips,” she replies with a sarcastic smirk, “but I have more important things to buy.”

  Liam rolls his eyes. “Like what? More six-inch heels, low-cut tops and short skirts?”

  Ruby lets out an exasperated sigh. “How do you think I get good tips—by dressing like a Catholic schoolgirl?” She twists her lips and presses the back of her long, red-painted fingernail to her chin, pondering her own words for a second. “On second thought, that actually might bring in even more tips. Besides, you should be paying for my work clothes. Maybe then I could afford a new car.”

  Liam scoffs. “You want me to pay for your outfits?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Ruby's eyes widen, as though she’s shocked he declined her request. “Why not? Can’t you claim them as a work expense?”

  He nods. “Alright, fine. But if I’m paying for your work attire, then I’m choosing what you wear. Sound good to you?” he asks, knowing damn well she’ll never go for it.

  Unsurprisingly, she shakes her head. “Absolutely not. I ain’t wearing no damn polo shirt and black slacks. I like my low-cut tops and short skirts, thank you very much.”

  Liam sighs and cups his forehead in his hand to indicate she’s giving him a headache as he turns around and walks toward his office. “Just get to work, Ruby.”

  She wraps her apron around her waist and mimics his words in a mocking tone, “Just get to work, Ruby.”

  “I heard that!” Liam hollers.

  “I could be already serving customers if it weren’t for my pain in the ass boss riding me every two goddamn seconds!” she shouts, hoping he heard that too.

  Killian chuckles to himself as he rings up a customer for his drinks and hands him the change.

  “That dude seriously needs to get laid,” Ruby huffs. “Maybe then he’d back off a little.”

  “Ha! I doubt it,” Killian comments before taking another drink order.

  Ruby heads to the dining area to wait on customers. She knows Killian’s not wrong to doubt Liam’s ability to show a little mercy. He’s worked for his brother for two years, longer than anyone has ever been able to stand working for him, and he’s never once seen Liam be lenient, not even to his own brother. He runs a tight ship, and Killian doesn’t see that ever changing. Liam has owned this bar for five years and takes his job very seriously. 

  Killian’s just glad he only has to work here for another six months. Or at least that’s the plan. He’s about to graduate from Storybrooke University and get his degree in engineering. As much as he enjoys working for his brother, or rather listening to his coworkers complain about his brother behind Liam’s back, he doesn’t plan on spending his entire life making drinks.

  Liam emerges from his office an hour later and announces he has to take off for a while to run some errands. Killian’s confused because this is Liam’s night to manage the bar. He dedicates the majority of his other time performing administrative tasks during the week.

  “What errands do you have to run on a Friday night?” Killian asks, his words laced with suspicion.

  “Just some errands I promised someone I’d take care of. You’re in charge while I’m gone.” He pulls on his jacket and leaves Killian behind the bar with a confused expression on his face, wondering what his brother is up to. 

  Killian brushes off the thought, deciding to further question him later.

  Liam heads out the door, but not before scolding Ruby for sitting down at a table full of rowdy men, chatting (and not about the menu). She may be into women, but she flirts with customers regardless of their gender for the tips. 

  Ruby curses under her breath and gets up, moving to her next table to jot down orders.

  ~*~

  Emma sighs as Mary Margaret grabs her hand and pulls her into The Captain's Rum. Or more like, drags her in kicking and screaming. She doesn’t wish to be at this bar any more than she wanted to be at the last two. But her sister-in-law insists on the outlandish idea Emma’s going to find Mr. Perfect tonight. Or somehow get over her asshole of an ex-boyfriend after one night of drinking.

  And even though it's been two months since she left Neal and his thieving and cheating ass, and as much as she wants to get over him, Emma knows it’s not gonna happen for a while. At least not tonight.

  And yet, here she is.

  One night of drinking can’t hurt, she supposes. One night of forgetting everything. Of numbing her pain. Or so she keeps telling herself, but that could be the alcohol she’s already imbibed at the other two bars speaking.

  “So, how’s it going tonight, Rubes?” Mary Margaret asks the cocktail server once they’re seated at a booth. 

  Apparently, they know each other.

  “Well, no one's tried to manhandle me yet, so it's a start.” The tall brunette with red streaks in her hair leans over the table and murmurs, “Not a great start, but it's a start.”

  Mary Margaret rolls her eyes and laughs as she gestures at Emma. “Rubes, this is my sister-in-law, Emma. She just moved here from New York.”

  Looking at Emma, Ruby grins and sticks out her hand. “Hi! Nice to meet you!”

  Emma gives her a polite smile and shakes her hand. “Likewise.”

  When Ruby brings the chips and cheese Mary Margaret ordered, she places them on the table along with two empty plates. Before arriving here, Mary Margaret decided they would put some food in their bellies before they added more alcohol so they wouldn't get too drunk too fast and have to head home early. Well, that was Mary Margaret’s idea at least. Emma would much rather be home in the comfort of her bedroom watching Netflix. Or rather, her brother’s and sister-in-law's guestroom they so graciously let her sleep in until she gets her own place. 

  “Enjoy, ladies.”

  “Sure will,” Mary Margaret beams as Ruby leaves their table. She sips on some water as she scans the bar. Probably for potential suitors she can hook her sister-in-law up with, Emma surmises. “What about him? He's cute,” Mary Margaret remarks, her eyes trained on someone behind her. 

  Emma looks over her shoulder and arches a brow. “He’s cute if you’re sixteen. He looks way too young.”

  “Well, he’s drinking, so he must be at least twenty-one,” Mary Margaret points out.

  “He looks sixteen, and sorry, I don’t date children.”

  “Emma, he’s not a child, probably a college student. And you act like you’re so old just because you already graduated. You’re twenty-two,” Mary Margaret points out like she’s jealous and wishes to be so young again. But she's only a few years older—the same age as David.

  Emma groans. “No, thanks.” Her last boyfriend was immature enough as it was, and he was ten years her senior. “So, tell me, how are you and my brother getting along?” Emma asks, attempting to change the subject and get her sister-in-law to avert her attention from the college boys across the room. “Sick of each other yet?”

  Mary Margaret whips her head around and scowls. “Of course not. Why would you ask such a thing?”

  Emma laughs and raises her hands in defense. “Because I knew it was the only thing that would get your attention.”

  Guilt and apology flicker in Mary Margaret’s eyes. “Sorry, Emma.” She lays her palms on the table. “David and I are just worried about you, that’s all.”

  Emma sighs, frustration creasing her forehead. “I’m fine, I promise. Neal was an ass, and honestly, him cheating on me was a good thing. I needed the wake-up call, okay? I was blinded by love. But now that we're over, I can move on with my life. That’s why I let you talk me into bar hopping.”

  A slow, hopeful smile spreads across her lips. “I know, and I’m so happy you got out of that relationship, Emma. David and I both are.”

  Emma laughs. “I know. When I landed on your door stoop, we both had to stop him from driving all the way to New York to kick Neal's ass.”

  Mary Margaret nods. “True. He’s very protective of you.”

  Emma rolls her eyes. “I know. It’s both a blessing and a curse.” She takes a sip of water as she scans the bar. It’s the first time she’s been to The Captain's Rum, and everyone is so unfamiliar to her. New York is a huge place, especially compared to Storybrooke, but in this bar, it feels like she‘s back in New York. She swears everyone in Storybrooke is here.

  Ruby returns to their table to sit and chat. And steal some of their chips, double-dipping them in the cheese. Emma fights off the urge to laugh at this as her eyes wander past Ruby’s shoulder. 

  Huge mistake.

  The group at the bar counter disperses, revealing the most gorgeous sight she's ever seen.

  Holy. Fucking. Hell. 

  She loses a breath when she sees what she can only describe as a fine specimen. 

  Good Lord.

  Handsome features and such a delicious smile to accompany his perfect face as he chats with a male patron at the bar, she finds herself licking her lips.

  “What about him?” Emma manages when she’s able to find the words in her throat. 

  Mary Margaret’s eyes light up before she even looks to see who Emma is staring so unabashedly at. “Who?!” She and Ruby both turn their heads, their eyes following the path of Emma’s gaze until they land on the target.

  “You mean the bartender?” Mary Margaret asks, though, to Emma’s surprise, she doesn’t seem very excited; more like disappointed.

  Emma tears her gaze away from the bartender, as much as she doesn’t want to. But she couldn’t breathe when she looked at him and she needed to come up for air. “Yeah, why not?” 

  “Why not what?” Ruby asks as she looks at Emma, curiosity flashing in her big hazel eyes. “Because if you’re asking ‘why not jump his bones,’ then I can’t think of one good reason.”

  “Ruby, don’t encourage her,” Mary Margaret chides with a glare.

  Ruby frowns, confusion etched in her features. “Why not?”

  “Because… Killian is a player. Emma just broke up with her player of a boyfriend a couple of months ago. She doesn't need another one in her life.”

  “Um, excuse me, I’m right here,” Emma groans wryly. “And I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions.”

  “She’s not wrong though,” Ruby remarks. “He is a player. But a fucking hot player. Between the two of us, we’ve conquered all the women of Storybrooke.”

  Emma lifts a brow. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

  “Yep. Probably even some of the same women,” she winks, her words bearing no shame or remorse.

  “Ruby, would you stop? Besides, neither of you have conquered me,” Mary Margaret points out with air quotes.

  Ruby rolls her eyes. “Of course not. Prince Charming had already parked his car in your garage long ago.” She reverts her eyes to Emma. “If you’re looking for a relationship, he’s definitely not for you…” she leans over toward Emma, speaking softly, “but if you’re looking for a hookup to get over that cheating ex of yours, then he’s absolutely perfect for that. He’ll give you an orgasm sooooo hard, you’ll forget all about that scumbag. Then he’ll do it over and over again until he knows you won’t be able to walk for weeks.” Ruby grins wide. “Hell, you’ll forget your own fucking name for weeks.”

  Emma gulps, having to recover from the images Ruby implanted in her mind of the man on the other side of the bar. Once she recovers, she furrows her brows at the conclusions she’s drawn from Ruby’s graphic depictions of what a night with the handsome, dark-haired bartender would be like. “How would you know? Have you two—”

  Ruby laughs as though Emma just said the funniest thing she’s ever heard in her life. “Oh Gaaaaawwwwd, no! I don’t swing that way, honey,” she says, rising and waving off Emma’s words with a flick of her hand. “But I’ve seen the number Killian’s done on his conquests. People talk, especially the drunk, horny females who enter the bar. Plus, as I said, he’s my competition, so I have to know what he's working with… if you know what I mean,” she says with a wink.

  “Yeah, I got it,” Emma groans as Ruby saunters away. Why do all the hot guys have to be players? 

  It’s just her luck.

  Emma turns to catch another look at him. 

  God, he’s gorgeous. 

  Dark, wild hair, stubble on his chin and cheeks, and a fantastic body based on what she can see from her vantage point.

  “Emma! Don’t even think about it! That man’s trouble and you know David would never approve,” Mary Margaret explains, pulling Emma from her trance.

  She turns her head, glaring at her sister-in-law. “David is not my father. And besides, I’m a grown-ass woman! He can’t tell me who I can or cannot date.”

  Mary Margaret gives her a motherly look. “I know, sweetie, but this man doesn’t date women, he fucks them and then sends them packing. David only wants to protect you from guys like him.”

  “I don’t need his protection, okay? Or yours. I’m perfectly capable of looking out for myself.” Emma stands from her seat, and she’s not sure if it’s because of the alcohol still brewing in her system, or because her sister-law has expressed disapproval from both her and David, making this man seem like a forbidden, sinful dessert she’s dying to get a taste of, even though she’ll pay for it later. But right now she doesn't give a fuck. 

  She sucks in a breath and strides across the bar, ignoring Mary Margaret’s pleas and warnings.

  Her eyes are fixed on him like a magnet. He’s wearing a black v-neck that fits him like a glove and shows off a provocative amount of chest hair, his tight, firm muscles bulging as he wipes down the bar counter. His muscles aren’t inhumanly large, just big enough for her to imagine him picking her up and easily carrying her to his bedroom like she weighs nothing. Emma can feel her panties grow wet just from watching him work. 

  But even though she doesn’t wish to be told who to be with, she knows she should heed her sister-in-law’s warnings.

  What would one night of fun hurt, though? She’s spent too much time holed up in her New York apartment, wallowing in self-pity and heartache after Neal hurt her. She hasn’t been with anyone since then. And maybe she’s not looking to dive into a serious relationship right now. Or ever. Maybe she just wants to blow off some steam. And this man looks like he can handle such a task. She’s more than willing to find out. 

  Emma approaches the bar and stands in front of him, placing her hands on the counter. 

  “What can I get you, lass?”

  Well, fuck me sideways.

  He has a British accent too?

  She knows she should run for her life, but before she can talk herself out of it, he looks up from his task, and she feels like her feet are glued to the floor. 

  Ho-ly hell.

  He’s even more gorgeous up close.

  His arms are inked with tattoos she so badly wants to trace with her fingers, and his striking blue eyes sparkle as he stares at her, his smile showing off a set of pearly white teeth.

  Well shit.

  She couldn’t run away if she wanted to.

  ~*~

  Killian had been running back and forth behind the bar for hours, ringing up bar patrons, making drinks and engaging in small talk. It’s a typical Friday night at The Captain’s Rum; the place is normally busy on the weekends, especially since the bar is only a stone’s throw away from the university, and tonight is no exception. It’s crowded and loud, couples are dancing, and the women are scantily clad in either tiny dresses or short tops and skirts. As he’s grabbing beers and making cocktails, the bar continues to fill and grow louder. 

  He hands off drinks to a couple before moving on to the next customer. 

  “Hey Jones, can I get two Blue Ribbons?” his good mate, Robin, calls over the blaring music. 

  Killian chuckles and grabs the desired beers, popping off the caps before handing them over. “Taking it easy tonight?” he asks, leaning against the counter and gripping the edge of it with both hands.

  “Aye. Regina doesn’t like the hard stuff. She’s more of a wine person.”

  “Ah, I see.” Killian nods; he can definitely see that about Regina. He doesn't want to say this to one of his best mates, but the lass can be a little stuck up and quite bossy at times. She makes Robin happy though, so he keeps his mouth shut.

  He chats with him for a few minutes, finally getting a few minutes of reprieve. As Robin heads back to his girlfriend, Killian takes the opportunity to wipe down the bar top. But before he’s finished, someone approaches the counter. His eyes are still trained on his task, but he can’t miss the long blonde hair, pink lace and fantastic cleavage, seeing as the view is directly in front of him. “What can I get you, lass?” he asks, throwing on his most charming grin as he lifts his head.

  His smile is cemented on his face the second he looks up.

  Killian’s accustomed to seeing pretty women entering his brother’s bar and parading around in clothes that barely cover their essential parts.

  Yet nothing in the world could’ve prepared him for the woman standing in front of him on the other side of the bar counter.

  No, not woman. 

  Goddess.

  Emerald green eyes, soft pink lips curved into a shy smile, smooth creamy skin, long golden hair cascading over her shoulders.

  Good. 

  God.

  She’s breathtaking.

  Stunning.

  “What would you recommend?” she asks in a teasing tone.

  Fuck.

  Her voice is that of an angel’s. Pure and sweet and innocent.

  She looks like everything he doesn’t deserve but wants every... fucking... part of.

  “Uh… I um…” he stutters, scratching nervously behind his ear. He can’t form a cohesive sentence as he looks into those hypnotizing eyes. He wants to get lost in them, drown in them. “What are you… what are you in the mood for, love?” he finally musters, adding another one of his signature grins. “I can make you anything your heart desires.” What he wants to say is, “I can give you anything your heart desires,” but even that may not be true. As gorgeous as she is, he’s afraid he wouldn’t be the man she deserves. He’s never been the guy women like to take home to their parents, anyway. He’s the guy chicks like to have around for a good time before they eventually settle into a serious relationship with Mr. Perfect. He’s definitely no Mr. Perfect, more like a Good Luck Chuck, but at the moment, he feels like he could be fucking Superman for this woman. And he's only exchanged a few words with her so far.

  She arches a brow and it’s literally the most adorable and sexiest thing he’s ever witnessed in his life. “Anything?” He senses a challenge in her tone. 

  “Try me,” he encourages.

  She bites her bottom lip in thought.

  He lied. Now that’s the most adorable and sexiest thing he’s ever witnessed.

  “What if I said I wanted a Baby Yodarita?”

  He arches a brow, very much intrigued. “A Baby Yodarita? Never heard of it.”

  She laughs and the sound is music to his ears. “That's because I made up the name. But I figure it would be a green drink that looks like baby Yoda.”

  “So, I take it you’re a Star Wars fan?”

  “Are you a bartender?” 

  Just as he answers like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, since he’s behind the bar serving drinks, he catches her drift and flashes a smirk.

  Could this woman be any hotter? And yes, as he’s asking this question in his head, he’s picturing Chandler Bing and the way he would say it, emphasizing the word be. Gods, he hates that he knows that about Friends. He hates that he actually likes that show.

  “You don't really have to be a Star Wars fan to be a baby Yoda fan though. He's so cute, he's trending on the internet, haven't you seen?”

  He chuckles. “Aye, who hasn't?” 

  She plants her hand on her hip, donning a sultry smirk. “So, are you up for the task, or not?”

  He licks his lips and leans over the bar counter, his eyes locked with hers. He wants to ask her if she fell from heaven. Or if he just died and went to heaven. But he has a feeling cheesy lines wouldn't work on a woman like her. “I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific as to what task you’re referring to, love.” But who the fuck is he kidding? There is nothing he could do for her he would consider a task. 

  Only a pleasure.

  Blush paints her cheeks and she leans over, meeting him halfway until her face is mere inches from his. “I have a few in mind… but how ‘bout that drink, first?” 

  Bloody. Fuck-ing. Hell.

  Her voice is a mixture of sweet and seductive. He doesn’t know how she manages to pull off a combination like that. His eyes drop to her lips and he’s seriously considering kissing the holy fuck out of her over the bar counter, audience be damned. He almost groans just thinking about her soft, luscious looking lips pressed against his, but he swallows the sound before it leaves his throat.

  He lifts his eyes to hers. “Sit tight, sweetheart.” 

  “Okay,” she says with a smile and takes a seat on a barstool. “Oh, and a Cosmo for my sister-in-law.”

  “Coming right up.” It takes every ounce of strength within him to pull away, but somehow he does. 

  He has to take slow, deep breaths to peel his mind from the fantasies he’s already having of him and the blonde temptress watching him intently as he prepares her drink. 

  ~*~

  Emma snorts. She honestly didn’t think he would actually take her seriously. She was only kidding around. But he took her very seriously and eagerly accepted her challenge. And he did an amazing job.

  She stares at the green drink in amusement, impressed, to say the least. He brought it to her in a margarita glass with two lime wedges sticking out like ears. The stem is wrapped in a napkin tied with twine and clearly made to look like Baby Yoda’s coat. And there's a cocktail stick tucked into the twine like a sword. 

  “Well? How did I do?” he asks, eagerly seeking her answer.

  “It's so cute,” she comments honestly. “It looks great, but does it taste as good as it looks?” As she asks that question, she’s looking up into his gorgeous eyes. And she can’t deny she’s wondering the same about him. 

  Does he taste as good as he looks? 

  Before she brings the glass to her lips, he puts up a finger to stop her. 

  “Hold on.” He grabs a toothpick and stabs two cherries, one on each end, before sticking it into the drink, giving the baby Yoda a pair of eyes. “For the finishing touch,” he smirks.

  After she stops laughing, she takes a hesitant drink. Once she takes the first sip, her face sours and she blinks a few times as she swallows. “Wow, that’s strong.” She arches her brow, pinning him with an accusatory stare. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”

  He chuckles. “Aye, isn't that the intention?” 

  She nods and grins. “This will certainly do the trick.” She rises from the stool and reaches into her back pocket, pulling out her phone case wallet, which holds her phone and money. “How much?” she asks, pulling out some cash.

  He waves off her offer. “The drinks are on me,” he says with a wink.

  “Are you sure? I don't wanna get you in trouble.”

  “Trust me, I won't get in trouble.”

  Taking his word for it, she tucks the cash into her wallet. “Thanks for the drinks, Killian.”

  He arches a sultry brow, making her heart skip a beat. “So, you’ve heard of me, but I have yet to learn your name?”

  She laughs and points at the name embroidered into his shirt. “Yours is right there.”

  “Oh, that,” he chuckles, a light blush tinting his cheeks as he peers down and brushes his fingers over the letters. “My boss insists we have our names displayed on our shirts.”

  “Well, your boss sounds like a pain in the ass.”

  “He is, but I only have to work here for another six months. I’m graduating from SBU in the Spring.”

  She nods as a group of people approach the counter beside her. She glances over at them and shifts her gaze back to him, wishing he had more time to chat, but she knows he has to work. “It's Emma,” she makes sure to tell him before the counter becomes too overcrowded. “My name,” she clarifies, in case that wasn't obvious.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Emma,” he says sweetly, reaching over to shake her hand. When she slips her palm into his, she can feel the sparks from his touch, but instead of shaking her hand, he brings it to his lips and kisses the back of it.

  Oh, God.

  This man’s lips on her skin feel like heaven and sin. She has to clench her thighs to stop the throbbing she feels between her legs.

  Fuck.

  She feels the loss when she pulls her hand away and sees the loss written all over his face. “Well, I should um… I should get back to my sister-in-law,” she stammers after learning how to form words again.

  He scratches behind his ear and opens his mouth to speak before closing it again like he’s nervous about something. “Of course, love.”

  Emma swallows thickly and lingers a bit, patiently waiting for him to say what’s on his mind. 

  He must sense she's waiting for him because as she grabs the drinks and starts to back away from the counter, his voice stops her. “Emma?”

  Good Lord, she loves the way her name slides off his tongue.

  She cocks a brow, hoping he's about to ask for her number. Praying he does. “Yes?”

  “I um… can you come back here before you leave? Say in an hour when it slows down a bit? I’d love to chat with you some more,” he says sincerely.

  Emma purses her lips like she has to mull over his question. The offer is extremely tempting. But she has something else in mind other than talking. Something involving his hands all over her body and her legs wrapped around his hips as he's plunging into her. 

  And you know what? Fuck it.

  She’s sure whatever he has in mind is exactly what she has in mind. Or at least, close to it. “Sure.”

  His eyes widen in excitement and surprise, as though he wasn't actually expecting her to say yes. “Really?”

  She flashes him her sexiest grin. “Yeah, why not? I’ll see you in an hour.”

  “See you then, love. Enjoy your drink. May the booze be with you.” 

  She snorts and backs away from the counter, holding up her glass in salute before taking a sip. Their eyes are still locked before she turns around.

  As she walks away, she cranes her neck to see him still watching her, even as he's serving other customers. She winks at him and has the pleasure of witnessing that adorable pink blush coloring his cheeks and the smirk on his lips before she faces forward and heads back to Mary Margaret. 

  She’s not looking forward to the lecture her sister-in-law is about to give her, but honestly, she doesn't care. She's looking forward to returning to the hot bartender, hoping to go back to his bedroom. Or the restroom. Either will do, really. As long as she gets to have him.

  After Mary Margaret is done chewing Emma out and reminding her of what a player Killian is, and after she finally realizes Emma is going to do what she wants, regardless of what anyone says, they are able to have some fun. 

  Ruby keeps the drinks coming, and soon they’re tipsy enough to get up and dance among the crowd of gyrating bodies already on the dance floor. Emma glances over at the counter every now and then, and every other time, she catches Killian staring at her, sending shivers down her spine. And every time he tosses her one of his cheeky smiles, her stomach flutters with butterflies. 

  Emma's thankful Mary Margaret is plastered enough to let loose and not give her any shit because she has no idea what Mary Margaret would do if Emma told her she's going back to talk to Killian. Though she has a feeling if Mary Margaret were sober, she'd do anything in her power to make sure Emma stayed away from him. 

  When the time finally comes, they order an Uber, which takes much longer than expected. She helps Mary Margaret into the backseat and tells her she's staying for a bit longer and will catch another Uber when she's ready to leave. She doesn't dare mention Killian's name, or that she plans on leaving with him, for fear Mary Margaret will blabber to her brother. Because then he'll come marching into the bar on his white horse to find his sister with the bartender and embarrass the hell out of her.

  Mary Margaret's too drunk and in no shape to talk her out of anything, so Emma’s able to escape, knowing her brother will take care of his wife when she gets home. 

  Emma quickly shoots David a text to let him know his wife had a few too many drinks and is on her way home in an Uber and that Emma decided to stay a little longer but will be home soon. Which is a lie. 

  She hopes. 

  Before the Uber drives away, Emma slips her phone into her pocket before heading back into the bar. She's fifteen minutes late, but it's not like Killian can go anywhere. He’s the bartender.

  Once inside, she takes a deep breath and tucks some hair behind her ears, a smile playing along her lips as she makes her way to the bar counter. She has no idea what exactly will happen once she reaches him, but with a face as gorgeous as his, she’s pretty sure she would let him do anything he wanted to.

  She’s also pretty sure he could help Emma get over her ex. As they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. And that’s exactly what she plans on doing.

  As Emma nears the counter and spots Killian, the beaming smile on her face immediately falls flat.

  And her heart sinks.

  A busty blonde is standing at the bar, her hand running up and down Killian’s arm, her fingers tracing his tattoos. The woman is sitting on a barstool at the opposite side of the counter in a low-cut top that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination, and a skirt so short and tight it looks like it's been painted on. Killian’s standing in front of her, so his back is to Emma as he gives his full attention to the other blonde. It's almost time for last call, so it's now much quieter in the bar, and she's close enough to be able to hear their conversation.

  “What can I get you, love?”

  “A Tequila.”

  “Tequilas are trouble,” he says matter-of-factly.

  She moves in closer, biting her smile. “So am I,” she taunts.

  “I’m fully aware,” he replies with a chuckle. He tries to move, probably to make her Tequila, but she grabs his arm, forcing him to stay. Though, forcing is a bit of an overstatement; Killian doesn't seem to be putting up much of a fight. “Would you like a snack, too?”

  Mischief dances in her eyes as she licks her lips, ogling him like he’s the snack. “I’m looking at it, honey.”

  Emma feels like she's going to be sick. 

  The woman leans in and bites his ear and then pulls away slightly. “Last weekend was incredible. Can’t stop thinking about having my legs wrapped around you,” she giggles.

  Jealousy stabs Emma’s gut and disappointment shoots through her like a lightning bolt, bringing her back to reality.

  Mary Margaret and Ruby were totally right. 

  He’s a player. 

  Unable to listen to them for another second, Emma spins on her heels and dashes out the door so fast, she almost tramples over some guys heading in at the last minute. 

  She should’ve listened to the warnings, but she was too blinded by the attraction she felt for Killian. 

  God, she’s a fucking idiot. 

  Why does she always fall for the dangerous guys? The ones who are bad for her? Why can’t she just find a nice guy for once? Someone safe. Someone who won’t stomp on her heart and discard it like trash without batting an eye.

  She pushes open the door, tears stinging her eyes as she runs outside into the bitter, chilly night, hoping the Uber driver hasn’t taken off yet. But it's wishful thinking because she can't think of a reason why he wouldn't have left by now.

  “Ooof.”

  The air rushes from her lungs as she slams into a tall, solid mass. 

  Hands are gripping her arms to keep her from falling as apologies leave her lips. “Sorry.” She looks up at the man towering over her, Emma's eyes connecting with soft blue ones, which are full of apology. 

  He flashes a warm smile, his lips framed by a light brown scruff.

  “I’m the one who should be sorry, lass. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” 

  Shit.

  He has an accent too? 

  What’s with all the accents in this town? She’s noticed a lot of the locals here weren’t actually born here. Or the States. She didn’t realize how much she liked men with foreign accents until tonight.

  This man continues to apologize, but he doesn’t sound very sorry. At least not for crashing into her. “I was distracted,” he says with a smirk, giving Emma the impression she was what he was distracted by.

  Emma tears herself from the trance she’s in and glances at the side of the road, where the Uber once was. “Shit,” she curses under her breath.

  “Are you okay?” he asks in genuine concern.

  “Yeah, it’s just… my ride has already left. And I’m too drunk to drive home,” she sighs.

  Before the man can respond, his phone chimes from his jacket. “Excuse me,” he says apologetically, pulling out the device. He studies whatever’s on the screen with a worried expression, then looks up at her, his mouth slightly agape.

  “Everything okay?” she asks with an arched brow, starting to shiver as a frigid wind sweeps around her.

  “Um, yeah.” He glances at his phone again before lifting his gaze. “You wouldn’t happen to be Emma, would you?”

  She freezes and just stares at him, not knowing how to answer that. Or rather, why she should answer that.

  What the hell? 

  She's never seen this man before in her life, so how does he know her name? 

  Her heart pounds and she wants to run, but she's afraid she’s not sober enough for that at the moment. “How do you know my name?”

  He appears to be hesitant as he holds up his phone, showing her his screen.

  Emma takes it in her hands so she can get a better look.

  Her eyes widen when she sees a text from a Nolan.

  Nolan, as in her brother? Who else with the last name, Nolan, lives with a Mary Margaret and an Emma?

  Nolan: I just received a text from Emma. She sent Mary Margaret home in an Uber and is at your bar. Can you make sure she gets home all right?

  Her blood sizzles as she rereads the message. Then she reads the texts before it, a couple in particular sticking out like sore thumbs.

  Nolan: So… I have a huge favor to ask.

  Me: Sure, what’s up, mate?

  Nolan: The wife and sister are going to the Rabbit Hole tonight. Emma just moved here from New York after a terrible break-up and Mary Margaret is determined to hook her up with someone.

  Nolan: Think you have time to get away from work and keep an eye on my sister, make sure she doesn’t find any trouble? 

  What the actual fuck?

  Why is her brother having this man spy on her?

  Emma turns around and pulls back the hand still holding the phone, about to toss the damn thing.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t shoot the messenger, love,” he pleads. “I need my phone.”

  The endearment makes her shiver. Killian had called her love, too.

  She spins around to glare at the stranger. “David’s using you to spy on me?” she demands firmly.

  He holds up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t want to, lass, I promise, but I would’ve felt terrible if I said no and then, later on, found out something bad happened to you. I promise, I was only helping a friend and looking out for you.”

  Emma sighs and hands his phone back, knowing he’s telling the truth. She saw his responses to David’s texts and gathered he didn’t wish to put his nose where it didn’t belong or to stir up any trouble. “David always has been good at persuading people,” she grumbles.

  “Aye, especially when it comes to protecting the ones he loves,” he winks. 

  “Even so, he has no business spying on me!” she states louder than intended.

  “I wholeheartedly agree,” he states adamantly, making sure to express how much he was against this whole idea, to begin with.

  Emma crosses her arms over her chest, wondering how she never saw him at the Rabbit Hole when she was there. “So, you spied on me at the Rabbit Hole?”

  He shakes his head. “No, I didn’t get the chance to. By the time I got there, you and Mary Margaret were already gone.”

  Emma shakes her head and rolls her eyes at the thought of her own brother asking someone to spy on her. But she’s not surprised. “Brothers are so annoying,” she grumbles.

  He chuckles, and the deep, hearty sound warms her heart a little, despite the chill in the air. “Agreed.”

  She arches her brow, as though to ask him to expand on why.

  “I have one of those, too. So I get it.”

  Emma’s features soften, a small smile pulling at her lips. “Older or younger?”

  “Younger. He can be quite the ponce sometimes, but at the end of the day, I’d lay down my life for him.”

  “I usually feel the same about David… and then he goes and pulls something like this,” Emma remarks bitterly.

  “I take it he does this a lot?”

  “He did when we were younger. But then I moved to New York and he came here, so we didn’t see each other very much.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  Another gust of wind makes her shiver and has him removing his jacket and offering it to her. Even though she’s already wearing one.

  “May I?”

  She cocks a brow. “Won’t you be cold?”

  He shrugs. “I rarely get cold.”

  She gives him a soft nod. He looks like he’d be the type of man who knows how to stay warm, and therefore knows how to keep a woman warm. He has those big, strong arms and broad shoulders, and he’s very tall. She could picture herself being buried in his warmth, but maybe because she's currently freezing her ass off. “Thanks,” she murmurs when he goes behind her and drapes the jacket over her shoulders. 

  “It’s my pleasure, love.” When he’s standing in front of her again, he sticks out his hand. “The name’s Liam.”

  Emma smiles and slips her palm in his. 

  She was right. He is warm. Very warm. “I think David’s mentioned your name a few times.”

  “Probably not as much as he talks about you. In fact, I feel like I already know you,” he chuckles as they break the handshake.

  “Hopefully, he had good things to say?” She almost groans at the idea of David spewing a bunch of embarrassing stories about her from when she was a kid.

  “Aye. Very good things… well, mostly,” he admits. “But who doesn’t have at least a complaint or two about their siblings?”

  She nods in agreement. “True. I complain about him all the time.”

  He grins big and wide. “I don’t doubt that.” When his smile fades a little, he scratches his head as he looks at her, hesitant to form the next words he wants to say. “Well, uh… seeing as it’s,” he checks his watch, “almost two o’clock and not getting any warmer out here, how about I give you a ride home?”

  Emma twists her lips in thought. Normally she wouldn’t even think twice about rejecting a ride from a stranger, but there’s something about this guy that tells her he’s not a serial killer or rapist. There’s something pure about him, a vast contrast to the bartender inside. That guy screamed danger and sin, but this man standing before her gives off completely different vibes. He has a warm personality, which is very refreshing, and he has honest eyes. Besides, she may not be able to stand her brother and his antics sometimes, but he's always had good taste in friends. And if David trusts Liam enough to keep tabs on his sister, then he must be trustworthy.

  So with a feeble smile, she finally answers. “Okay.”

Tagging people who have shown interest. Let me know if you would like to be added. @itsfabianadocarmo​ @resident-of-storybrooke @onceuponaprincessworld @viajandosinalas @teamhook​ @captainswan-shipper88 @jamif @katielovesstarcrossedlovers @uhthreeyuh @lfh1226-linda @babyyouremyqueen @sthonour @julesep3026 @fairytalewhispersinmyheart @andiirivera @wefoundloveunderthelight @wickedsw4n @eleveneitherway @eherron14 @ouatpost @transparentclodsludgeweasel

[laur-rants]

Fic Update: Blood Wolf

Chapter 3

Fandom: Dishonored Ship: Daud/The Outsider. yes, I made that executive decision.

Rated: Mature to Explicit, Strong Violence and  Gore Ahead!!

Synopsis: Daud-Centric Prequel to Wolfbann. The story centers on how Daud turned, and his subsequent marking by the outsider and his formulation of the Whalers. Notes: There probably won’t be nsfw content in this fic, but it WILL be… violent. I want to play with my own boundaries of written violence and also Daud’s start wasn’t nearly as clean as Corvo’s. Their contrast on dealing with the werewolf transformation is one of the things I want to really explore, and Daud gets very close to falling off the wagon.

CHAPTER TAGS: Daud transforms. It’s horrible and wonderful all at the same time. There is a mild description of consuming a person, but I wouldn’t consider it cannibalism. Necessarily. Werewolves sometimes... eat people. AO3 link First :: Previous :: Next

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Dunwall, Gristol

Month of Clans -- 1820

Daud set up a meeting with the contract creator the next night. It gave him time to prepare, to consider his options and perhaps, to look a little less frightful for the person he wished to work with. The address given on the contract was nondescript; a small general practitioner's office, tucked away in Draper's Ward and identified by the universal dual-snake staff on the window. Daud chose to drop by after hours, of course; no need for others to see the owner conversing with an assassin. He had planted an earlier note to say he would be visiting unconventionally but the individual inside the office room still jumped when suddenly a whaler mask was knocking gently at the upstairs office window.

It was a small man with a round face and large eyebrows that greeted Daud, glasses getting pushed up as he quickly came over, unlatching the terrace doors and allowing the assassin entry. Daud slipped in, silent and stealthy despite the tremble in his hands and shoulders. He hadn't expected his client to be a doctor and quietly hoped the man wouldn't pay close enough attention to ask questions.

"Thank you for finally getting back to me on this contract," the man -- Misha Romanov, if Daud remembered the contract properly -- nervously said, looking over Daud. His eyes trailed from the mask and hood to the black clothes to the whaler blade at his side. He swallowed, clearly intimidated, walking around the office to physically put distance between the two of them. Daud tilted his head, clicking his tongue.

"You've never hired a hitman before," Daud remarked, posing it more as an annoyed observation than a question. It was clear; from the man's unease to the amount of coin offered, he was a novice when it came to dealing with and understanding the job he was asking for. Perhaps this was a bad idea after all; but Daud was here, and it would be ludicrous to turn around now. Might as well make the best of it.

"This is my first time, yes," Misha replied, choosing to busy himself with one of his displayed medical instruments instead of looking Daud in the glassy eye. "I have never had a need before. I try more to save lives, rather than take them, you see." He wrung his hands, then offered a small smile. "But now... my brothers are dead and I have no idea what happened to them, or their dogs. They were the only family I had left… I didn't know where else to turn."

"Misha Romanov then, right?" The doctor nodded, confirming what he knew. "What happened to your brothers-- before they disappeared?" Daud asked, his voice muffled behind the thick mask. Misha, emboldened by the question, answered as clinically as possible, recounting how his brothers had gotten into a dog fighting business over the last few years, completely sucked in, throwing money into dogs and gambling over Fink's wagers. It had been an obsession -- one that ultimately, they didn't return from. Naturally, Misha feared the worst and blamed Eustace and Howard Fink for their disappearance.

"I saw the one brother, Eustace, sulking near the cafe one morning soon after Adrian and Mikhail didn't return at their usual time," Misha supplied, "and that's when I knew I'd be powerless to get justice unless I hired an assassin. So I posted my contract and waited. And waited. I had almost given up on anyone taking the job, until you contacted me. Your interest in this hit is greatly appreciated."

Daud held up a frustrated hand. "Please do not offer appreciation, not until my work is done. I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I'm doing it because it's personal, and the pay is so low only someone like me would take the contract anyway. If anyone is the lucky party in this deal, trust me, it's you."

Misha blinked. "Oh? You… you know Fink?" He then blanched, his face going terrified. "You didn't work for him in the past, did you?"

"No, nothing like that," Daud said, taking a too-ragged breath. He could feel the sweat trickling down his neck, across his wounds-- even that simple contact burned. "I actually was contracted to kill Eustace's brother, Howard. The same day your brothers most likely perished, I almost died, too. Lady Luck herself is the only reason I'm still alive; the Fink brothers were into some deep, disgusting shit."

Misha blinked, adjusting his glasses before giving Daud a more thorough look-over. Daud stiffened under the gaze, suddenly self-consciousness, and he tried to still the tremor of his limbs.

"Are you well now? You appear in pain, or feverish."

Of course this guy could tell. Daud cursed him for being such an astute doctor.

"You're not being paid enough as a doctor if you can tell that just from looking me over," Daud sneered, hiding the rasp of his voice. This only furrowed the man's brow further, his tone growing serious.

"If you need me to offer medical assistance before the mission, I'd be more than willing to--"

"I'm here for a job, doctor. Not a diagnosis."

"Right, of course, of course… But, if you're still in a state when the job is over, consider it part of the payment. I can easily add it to the contract between us, mister…?"

Void-- "Daud. Just Daud." He said, annoyed. "No Lord, no mister, no honorifics at all. I'm an assassin, not a noble."

"Sorry, just trying to be polite. And you know my name, of course, but I can supply a business card if needed--"

"No. All I need is half payment up front, and as many details on Fink that you can provide." Misha nodded; he went to a dusty safe in the corner, opened it, and pulled out a small purse of 100 silver. Daud noticed very few valuables in the safe and wondered just how lucrative being a general practitioner was in the Draper's Ward. Or, perhaps, his gambling brothers had preyed on his meager earnings too, an addiction that drained the doctor and ultimately tore apart their family. He felt the urge to ask, to reach out and inquire, but he managed to keep his curiosity to himself. It wasn't important to the job, and it wasn't Daud's business to know how wealthy his clients were, or where they got the coin they paid him with.

Misha returned with the coin and Daud carefully pocketed it. Misha also handed over papers: they contained a few addresses, including one not too far from here. Daud frowned under the mask, his breath hissing out of the respirator.

"That's his home and work addresses," Misha explained. "I tend to see him at this cafe, Swinney's, down off Cashmere Ave in the mornings. I pass it on my way to the clinic in the mornings."

"That's quite a ways from here," Daud muttered, before he could stop himself. Misha just shrugged.

"The commute is long on foot, but it's what I can afford. Most nights I just stay here. Cheaper that way."

Daud said nothing. Just crumpled the paper in his hand before folding it up and tucking it away, next to his contract.

"Do not be surprised if this takes some time. Assassination is not easy, nor is it quick in the way you expect it is. I will seek you out once the hit is complete, understood?"

Misha nodded, and if he had any further questions, he didn't ask them. "Whatever you need to do, I suppose."

"That's why they call it 'wet work,' Romanov," Daud told him, a hint of dark humor coloring his words. Daud then took his departure, leaving Misha and the office as silently as he had entered.

------

It should be simple. An easy set up: an easy take down. Silent, efficient, no trace to let anyone ask after. Eustace Fink was not well guarded, not spatially aware, and he was incredibly routine. Textbook, really.

Instead, it was shaping up to be one of the hardest stake outs of Daud's career.

He had spent a few days setting up the kill, pulling himself through the motions. He cached any necessary food, plenty of coin, and a few changes of clothes. He knew where he needed to be and when. He had all of his equipment restocked from the black market right outside of the Distillery District, where nobody asked twice about his mask or his stance. It was all ready to go.

But of course it couldn't be that simple. Nothing of importance ever was.

It was the fourth night of his stakeout when it happened. As soon as he settled in to make the hit finally happen, his fever rolled him over like a riptide.

It came on quickly, the nausea. He hadn't expected it; for the last week his fever had been low-grade, barely noticeable. He had, effectively, learned to ignore it. But it came roaring back up as if it was the day he spent crawling out of the sewer. One second, he was relaxing, waiting for Fink to be alone in his own home; the next he was lurching, tossing the whaler mask up and over his head just in time to empty the contents of his stomach over the side of the roof.

It stank so bad he reeled, dry heaving again. He managed to keep the rest of it down, the sweat drenching his forehead as he wiped his mouth with the back of a clammy glove. He growled in frustration, his arms barely holding his weight, but he spent the extra moments to breathe, evening out his heartbeat and emotions. He looked over to the estate; Fink was alone. Daud felt his stomach flip again, making itself known. He swallowed back the sensation; it was now or never.

Sickness be damned, he needed to get this hit off.

He stood and his feet were surprisingly steady for the vertigo he was experiencing. Not that he was worried; Daud had stalked and successfully killed someone drunk before. It was a dare, one that Rulfio didn't think he would go through with, but he was even younger and cockier back then. A little head sickness was nothing compared to that job, but the thought of Rulfio sobered him enough to keep focused on the task at hand. He lithely jumped from the roof, heading to the Draper's Ward residence, as silent as a street cat.

He kept a bead on Fink even as he felt the sweat gather on his forehead again; something in his chest felt like it wanted to burst, and Daud vaguely hoped it wasn't his heart. He slipped on a roof tile, steadied himself, then listened intently, hearing Eustace's voice float up.

"I should be fine, but I can't help but think that I should be more worried about what happened that night. I mean-- I woke up and Howard was dead and so was that huge black magic brute. There was another person, dead in the corner, and so many unlucky bodies that didn't make it out alive… there will be questions soon. So many questions. How do they not smell it there under the Pub? Maybe the rats ate the bodies… how convenient if so. Nothing to investigate, nothing to convict. If the City Watch ever got wind of this..."

It took Daud a bit of processing to suss out if Eustace was speaking to someone else in the room, but no; the beat and cadence was reminiscent of someone recording an audiograph. If he listened closely enough, nearing the balcony door, he could hear the whirr of the machine, the click of the hole punch. His breathing hitched and his pulse thundered in his ear.

His prey was so, deliciously, tantalizingly, close. Daud stayed his hand, listening closely.

The machine stopped, pushing the card out and finishing the audiograph. There were footsteps, and Eustace walked out onto his balcony, his hands tight as he tucked the audiograph away in his vest, where he clearly thought it safe. His back was to Daud and the balcony door, lighting a cigar, the smoke curling up into the warm summer night air.

The wind roared in Daud's ears. It would be so easy to drop down, slit his throat, watch the blood spill over his gloves-- and suddenly he was aching for it, longing for the crunch of bones, the heat of crimson rivers running from a burst vein, the thrill of a new kill…

The thoughts were intrusive and revolting, nearly causing him to heave again. He still managed to hold himself together, not wanting to drown in his mask, even ignoring the persistent itch on his face. The rising threat of bile burned at the back of his throat but he swallowed it down, his grip growing tight on the roof's edge. He held his position and waited, patience baked into him from years of careful practice. Fink eventually finished enjoying his cigar, extinguishing the butt before turning back to his room.

Daud waited for Fink to pass under him. He then slipped down, his boots silent against the stone. He crouched, righted himself, and pulled his blade from his side. His thumb found the notch in the metal.

When Eustace Fink turned around to close the balcony doors, Daud was there, glassy eyes and muzzled mask glaring down at the second noble that had caused this nightmare of his to happen.

Fink opened his mouth to scream. Daud rushed him, faster than he's ever moved. A powerful hand gripped Eustace by the throat, silencing him and guiding him over to a wall far from any escape route. He felt like nothing in Daud's grasp, like he was a weighted bag that Daud had the displeasure of carrying for a friend. The man was larger than him, heftier, and yet Daud could take him and lift him with a single arm, his right hand still holding the blade he'd drawn. It was heady and unbelievable, Daud didn't know where this power was coming from but it surged through him like a rising storm. He tapped further into that tempest, slamming Eustace into the wall next to his desk.

The man whimpered. Daud snarled. Fink flinched and gasped and Daud almost laughed. He can't believe someone so weak-hearted tried to command a literal monster.

Or perhaps, a nasty little voice in his head supplied, the monster was the weak one... Show him that you are different. Show him what your Power is.

"You and your brother sure made a lot of enemies, didn't you, Eustace…" Daud growled out, his teeth feeling oddly heavy, morphing his words as he spoke them. They came out graveled and sharp and he suppressed the urge to lick his lips as he continued. "If I'm here, you have a bigger problem than the City Watch finding bloated bodies under a riverside bar."

Fink said nothing. Instead, he started crying. Of all things, the man wept in front of his soon-to-be killer. Daud almost recoiled in disgust; this man wasn't even worth the coin. He slammed Fink against the wall again, eliciting a startled yelp from him.

"Do you even know why I'm here, Eustace Fink?" Daud spat the name out like it was undercooked blood ox. "Do you know who killed your brother? It was the assassin who you thought was dead in the sewers when you woke up. Your brother's monster ruined me but I survived and if you value your life, you're going to give me the answers I deserve."

His voice grew in power despite the low whisper he spoke with. His words filled his own ears, reaching the room around them, and Fink gulped visibly. He looked Daud over, rasping against the hold that kept him in place.

"Did it mark you?" He asked, finally. "The Outsider's monster?"

"And if it did?" Daud threatened, mask dangerously close to Fink's face. "What does it matter?" He brought the blade up, his head tilting. "What do you know, Eustace Fink?"

"Ah, I-I don't know as much as Howard did! He found the original beast, not me! But it… they always changed. The curse was always passed down. There isn't a cure for it. They all went mad and eventually--" Eustace gasped and his words died as Daud's grip dangerously tightened. He recalled what Brimsley had said to him, the words burning in his ears.

"You're one now too, aren't you?"

Daud's body lurched. His grip loosened, freeing Fink as that nausea filled him again, along with a different sensation, one where his head, his chest, his limbs wanted to burst, his skin scorching him all over.

"No," Daud rasped out, his eyes far away. "I am not--" He stared at his gloves; his vision blurring dangerously. When Fink tried to crawl away, however, his sight caught the movement, head turning sharply. In a flurry, the blade was singing through Eustace's heels; the tendons sliced like butter and Fink collapsed, crying out. The blood pooled around his ankles, the smell of it sharp in Daud's nose. Eustace stayed prone on the floor, whimpering, his face rapidly losing color as shock set in.

Pathetic.

Daud hunched over Fink's form, his breath ragged and heavy. Eustace stared at him, eyes wet and terrified, and Daud felt his seams unravel, his body falling apart.

"It's happening? Here, now? Oh Void, oh Outsider's eyes…" Fink continued to babble, crying out for the fabled god of the Void, as if such an entity existed, could even save him from what was happening. Daud opened his mouth to refute Eustace; it came out as a splintered roar, words failing him.

"Where is your god, Eustace?" His voice boomed, but he did not know where the words came from, not when his mouth was making such unearthly noise. "You were the one who played god, killing assassins for your games, your bloody gambling coin. Did you think yourself honorable, setting such a trap? How many men died to serve you and your fucked up brother?"

Eustace paled and he looked so small, so tiny, so weak. To think this man and his brother succeeded as much as they had, enslaving unknowing participants for entertainment…

His head reeled in anger and rage. He pulled the man close, his hands curling into smoking, burning claws that dig deep into Eustace's clothes, ripping at skin.

"Stop praying to a god who won't listen! This is your reality! Now face your judgement!"

Daud ripped the whaler mask off and underneath was no longer the face of a man. A true muzzle burst from his face, black and filled with glistening, razored fangs. His wounds burned and steamed as his eyes bulged and he screamed, the pain of the last month consuming him entirely. Ribs cracked and bones shifted and he grew, his body doubling, tripling. His skin was tearing off and it felt so good, like he had been waiting his whole life, his whole existence, for this singular moment of unbridled ecstasy.

He roared and it was like the land, the sea, like the Void itself, shook under the sound of his cry. He laughed, eyes watering, filled with relief and pain and it was all so much, too much. He screeched, the sounding reminiscent of a dying whale, before his teeth slammed together like a crashing wave. Fink was still in his vicinity; he could smell the fear, hear the pleading, but all it did was anger him further. He didn't need this sniveling worm of a human.

A clawed hand grabbed Eustace and in the next second his body was in ribbons. Guts spilled and a head rolled and Daud felt his mind flee, the smell of iron and heat overwhelming his senses in a way he'd never known after a kill. Suddenly he was ravenous, he needed that blood on his tongue. He obliged his primal desire, ripping the man's arm off with ease, letting bone and fat and muscle fill his mouth with the heat of a fleeing life.

There was a scream. Daud's ears caught it and he turned, lip curling. He had nothing to say to the woman standing in the door, hair tied back and clutching her dress. The sound of her distress continued, unwavering. Daud stepped towards her, snarling.

She ran.

He was moving faster than he could ever have imagined, his legs possessing a strength that was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. His body moved on its own accord, spurred on by the thrill of the hunt, of the pursuit of prey and he was giddy, drunk off it. The house was a maze but his nose cut through the turns, following the fear and nausea, the horror of his unhinged rampage left in his wake. Walls and doors meant nothing; his body either forced its way through or smoked through openings, dissolving and coalescing in ways he didn't understand and spent no time dwelling on. He was consumed instead with the goal of reaching for and pouncing on his next victim, then the next. He caught sounds over the rush of his own blood; a tiny shrill voice here, a male voice there, the howl of hounds released upon him. All of them meant nothing; their teeth could not hurt him now. Their attacks were just pin pricks of lucidity within his fever dream, all dying or cowering before his unbridled wrath. Two dogs were bodily thrown, another bitten in half, still another tossed at a human handler, throwing both dog and man through a wall. He pursued, determined to not let anyone in the house escape. Not this time. Not after this hell month, not after everything--

A drop of water rippled through the chaos of his mind. The scent of the sea filled his nostrils, the sound of whales keened in his ears. Daud stilled, suddenly entranced, and turned his head.

A rune chittered and vibrated and sang on an ensconced shrine. The room was small, perhaps a hidden pantry; it had been revealed when Daud had thrown the body through the wall. Purple cloth fluttered from the disturbance of the crash and used candles scattered about the floor and table.

Someone was sitting on that table, cross-legged: someone lithe, dark, and still holding the ageless beauty of youth. Despite the slim, ethereal frame the person presented, Daud could sense the incredible shadow lurking just out of sight, the leviathan crying from the deep.

The figure smiled, his black, endless eyes glittering. He beckoned, and Daud obeyed. Like a leashed hound, he was irrevocably pulled under the waves, his huge body buckling before the sight of something greater, something far more ancient than he could ever fathom to be. He bowed his giant furred head and cold hands ran over his wounds, calming the persistent itch and smoothing away his month-long fever. Daud whined, giving himself over entirely as the figure held him close, arms embracing him like a long lost lover. The voice in his ears calmed his storm and soothed his pain and called him Home.

"Oh, Daud, beautiful Daud," the man cooed and Daud was enraptured, a whale's cry leaving him like a warbled gasp. The grip tightened on him and suddenly his body was melting away, the fur turning to ash to reveal his human skin underneath. He breathed, his left hand itching pleasantly where the figure held it, the other hand running smooth circles across his shoulders and down his back. Daud looked up into that ancient face and when it smiled, there was no warmth, no stars in those endlessly black eyes.

"I knew you would come back to me, Daud. After all..." the god's smile spread, breaking his face.

"...It was just a matter of time."

[inevitably-johnlocked]

What are some of your favorite long johnlock fics (like 100k+ words) ?

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: Do you have any recommendations for a hella long (80k-250k+) and hella angsty with hella good writing? Like any personal favourites, if you’re into heavy stuff ig. (Bonus points if topics include either one being suicidal, infidelity/cheating, and/or if there’s a redemption arc)\

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: What’s the longest slow burn fic you’ve ever read? Ive only been reading fan fic for 4 months, and i read one that had 150k words but i was wondering if there are longer slow burns?

@deerstalker143 said to inevitably-johnlocked: Hi, I really like your fic recs, and was wondering if you could provide a fic rec of long and sweet book-length Johnlock fics :D Thank you!

Hi Lovelies!!

OH GOD, you guys asked me these AGES ago, and I started a list and it just kept growing and growing and GROWING, especially since I’m reading a lot more really long epics these days, so it makes me happy to have a decent sized list for y’all now! I think now would be a good time to post them… and I know that people have been asking for them. So I’m putting these together since they’re long-fic related LOL Slow Burn List here if you’re interested in more!

NOVEL-LENGTH FICS: 100K+ FICS

See also: Novel Length Fics: 50 to 100K (Nov. 2018) (I do have a whole bunch more since then, so just ask if you want a Pt. 2)

Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w+ WiP || Fluff and Humour, Love Confessions, Romance, Snuggling) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion. {{This feels complete; the chapter count is listed as ? but I feel like it is done}}

The Heart In The Whole by verityburns (E, 101,650 || Post-TGG Canon Divergence, Drama & Angst, H/C, First Time) – Events after ‘The Great Game’ leave Sherlock dependent on his best friend and colleague. But John has a secret of his own…

The Cost of a Wish by slashscribe (E, 102,493 w. || xxxHolic Fusion || Spirits / Ghosts and Magic, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Soul Mates / Fated Lovers, Adventure, Immortal Sherlock, Powerful John, POV John, Frottage, Wish Granting, Angst with Happy Ending, Nightmares) – John has been plagued by a secret his entire life that has made him feel hopeless until he meets a mysterious, seemingly omniscient man named Sherlock Holmes who owns a wish-granting shop. Their meeting sets off a series of inevitable events that will change the course of both of their lives forever.

The Wedding Garments by cwb (E, 105,390 w. || Alternate Future AU || , Alternate First Meeting, Dating / Arranged Marriages, Romance, First Kiss/Time, Heavy Petting, Cuddles, POV Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn / Falling in Love / Dev. Rel., Nervous/Anxious Sherlock, Jealous/Cranky, Hiking, Vacation Homes / Honeymoon, Sherlock’s Family, Horny John/Sherlock, Patient John, Massages, Hand Jobs, Assassination Plots, Hand Jobs / Oral Sex) – This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It’s 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn’t need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.

Maintenance and Repair by patternofdefiance (E, 106,650 w. || FutureAU, Augmentation || Augmented John, Depression, Body Modification, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, Sci-Fi, Self-Care, Body Dysmorphia) – John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say:Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain. Part 2 of STATIC

A Study in Winning by Jupiter_Ash (E, 106,658 w. || Tennis AU || John POV, Dirty Talk, Mutual Pining, Misunderstandings, Happy Ending, Sherlock Speaks French, Switchlock, Wimbledon) – John and Sherlock are professional tennis players and it’s Wimbledon. One is a broken almost was at the end of his career, the other an arrogant rising star tipped for greatness. It should have been a straightforward tournament. It really should have been. How were they to know that a chance encounter would change everything? Part 1 of Tennis

Eyes Up, Heels Down by CodenameMeretricious (E, 107,845 w. || Sports Equestrian AU || Fluff, Angst, Humour, Rider!Sherlock, Groomer!John, Show Jumping, Slow Burn, Happy Ending) – Sherlock is a top eventing rider currently training at Baker Farms. John is the new groom who’s been told to steer clear of the surly rider and his horses. Part 1 of Baker Farms

between each beat are words unsaid by darcylindbergh, hudders-and-hiddles (T, 107,998 w. || Epistolary, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Angst, Happy Ending) – On their wedding night, John and Sherlock gift each other with the things they each said when the other could not hear, the things they each put down where the other could not see: a collection of writings that illustrate the way their love for one another has grown over the years. Part 1 of between each beat

Shatter the Darkness (Let the Light In) by MojoFlower (E, 109,683 w. || Genie/Djinn AU || Magical Realism, H/C, Kidnapping, Genie Sherlock, First Kiss / Time, Case Fic, H/C, Angst, Clubs, John Whump) – Fairy tales are for those who remember how to dream; not John Watson, broken and hiding from his bleak future in a beige bedsit. But then he discovers a lamp and finds himself in the dangerous riptide of an enigmatic man whose very existence is unbelievable, murder charges against his sister, and the growing pains of feeling alive once more. 

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF JOHN WATSON by skyefullofstars (T, 110,758 w. || H/C, Kidnapping, Angst, Violence, Whump, Nightmares, Murder, Drug Addiction, Torture) – While Sherlock grapples with his new-found feelings for John Watson, he faces a very real threat: John’s kidnapping and shooting at the hands of James Moriarty. And the knowledge that the love of his life is being used to test an addictive drug - at the risk of John’s sanity and life. Prequel to THE BOYS OF BAKER STREET. Part 1 of THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF JOHN WATSON

Breakable by MissDavis (E, 117,627 w. || Established, Fluff/Angst, Depression, Paralysis, Happy-ish Ending) –After John is seriously injured, Sherlock struggles to figure out how to help him, keep himself sane, and maybe, just maybe, get their life back to the way it’s supposed to be. Part 1 of Breakable Not Broken {{I love Sherlock’s characterization in this… it’s so heartwrenching but very realistic}}.

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

The Swan Triad by Pennin_Ink (T, 121,660 w. across 3 works || Swan Lake AU || Magical / Fairy Tale AU, Romance, Falling in Love, Pining, Psychological Torture, Transformation) – Sherlock and John grow up spending every summer together. Their mothers’ attempts to play matchmaker only fuel their mutual resentment and scorn. But then, one summer.

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship’s surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there’s more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin’ the eye, he has to choose… is it a pirate’s life for him?

To Light Another’s Path by BeautifulFiction (E, 128,654 w. || Post-TGG, Sick Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Drug Addiction / Recreational Drug Use, First Time / Kiss, Case Fic) – Teaching John to observe seems to be a losing battle, but when Sherlock falls ill and submits himself to John’s care, will he realise that there is more to life than the science of deduction? Meanwhile, there is a murder to solve, and John must try and convince Sherlock not to sacrifice his own health for the sake of the case.

The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.

Ten Days by Engazed (E, 137,208 w. || Rape/Non-Con, Post-TRF, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Case Fic) – Sherlock Holmes has been dead for forty months, and John is at last beginning to live his life again. But just when he believes he might be happy, his world crashes back down around him. John is named a missing person. Someone is pointing DI Lestrade in the wrong direction. And as the days pass, his situation only grows more dire. It seems like the disappearance of his best friend is the only thing that can bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. Part 1 of The Fallen

Colors by Quesarasara (E, 140,537 w. || Pleasantville-Inspired AU || Soulmates, Colour Bonds, Alternating POV, Angst, Fluff, Pining, Case Fic, Medical Procedures) – Everyone on earth is born with eyes that see in black, white, and an endless series of greys. When you meet your soulmate, you finally see the world in color. We’re all searching for the person who brings color to our lives. John and Sherlock are no exception. Part 1 of The Colors ‘Verse

How to Build a Heart out of Ashes by Teumessian (E, 144,931 w. || Changling AU || Slow Burn, Drug Use, Mentions of Child Abuse / Bullying, Mentions of Student/Teacher Relations, Uni-Age) – In an AU where a small number of the population become Changelings at a young age, at 17 John Watson believes he’s destined for Normal life but then the Change takes him and he is sent to the Baker Institute. There he meets Sherlock Holmes.

Midnight Blue Serenity by BeautifulFiction (E, 151,907 w. || Friends to Lovers, Gay Bar / For a Case, Drugs, Pining, Case Fic, UST) – When Sherlock infiltrates a club in order to track down a serial killer, his altered appearance is enough to make John question his assumption that Sherlock is beyond his reach. However, is he the only one who appreciates his flatmate’s charms, or is Sherlock at risk of becoming the next victim?

A Fold in the Universe by darkest_bird (E, 152,857 w. || O-John, A-Sherlock || Body Swap, Crossing Universes, DubCon, H/C, Angst, Happy Ending) – Alpha Sherlock and Omega John are in a relationship. Prime Sherlock and Prime John are not. So what happens when a freak fold in the universe switches one John for the other?

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role

The Quiet Man by ivyblossom (E, 157,369 w. || Post-TRF, John First POV, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Present Tense, Imaginary Sherlock) – “Do you just carry on talking when I’m away?”

Gimme Shelter by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (E, 159,368 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || 70′s Surfer AU || Period Typical Homophobia, Hawaii, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Professional Surfers, Gay John / Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, John was a Sailor, Misunderstandings) – All John Watson wants is the feeling of a freshly waxed surfboard under his feet and the hot California sun baking down onto his back. To finally go pro in the newly formed world of professional surfing and leave the dark memories of his past behind him as he rips across the face of a towering blue barrel. To lounge beside the beach bonfire every evening with an ice cold beer tucked into the cool sand beside him and listen to Pink Floyd and the Doors while the saltwater dries in his sun bleached hair. That’s all he wants, that is, until the hot young phenom taking Oahu and the Hawaiian shores by storm steps up next to him in the sand in the second round of the 1976 International Surf Competition. (PUBLISHED AS ‘The Sea Ain’t Mine Alone’)

Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn’t have much choice. There’s only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place

Sketchy by serpentynka (E, 184,053 w. || Post-TRF, Post-Mary, John Whump, Slow Burn Love Story, Case Fic, Art, Porn With Feelings, Switchlock, Travelling, Career Change, Family Secrets, Illness / Health) – What (and who) will be left when nobody cares about your Work? A slow-burn fic with cases, places, mistaken identities, unfair choices, essential changes, violent feels, blatant lies, fearless portraiture, family secrets, high-risk bespoke gifts, durable friendships, bedtime stories, foreign travel and tongues, sickness (and health), and the significance of things which are slow to unfurl – but cannot be ignored. Oh, and…porn. Part 1: Sherlock takes on an obvious case (barely a 4) and meets someone who will force him to re-examine what it means to see. Part 1 of Sketchy

Unkissed Series by 221b_hound (T to E, 184,168 w. across 46 works || Established Relationship, Ace Sherlock) – Sherlock returned from the dead a year ago. John returned to Baker Street six months ago. They’ve been in a couple since then. or at least, not NOT a couple. For two smart men, they sure can be dumb. Luckily, an art thief tries to drown Sherlock, Sherlock has a fever dream and things are about to change.

Fallen Series by Belladonna_Q, mamishka (T, 222,094 w. across 3 works || Winglock || Angel!John, Angels & Demons, Faes, Christianity, Changelings) – In a world where myth, mystery, and the supernatural flourish beneath the veneer of modern civilization, Sherlock is a master of magic as well as science and deduction. But there are some things that he cannot see, riddles he cannot unravel, even when they walk right beside him in the form of one John Watson…

The Gilded Cage by BeautifulFiction (E, 326,887 w. || Omegaverse || Omega Sherlock / Alpha John, Friends to Lovers, Dub Con, Reproductive Rights) – In a world where Omegas are the property of the elite Alphas, locked away and treasured by those wealthy enough to buy them, John never questioned his flatmate’s secondary gender. Sherlock Holmes was an Alpha through-and through. Wasn’t he? A chance discovery turns the world on its head, and John is left grappling to come to terms with Sherlock’s past as events conspire to threaten their future.

MARKED FOR LATER

Cake and Other Sins by  Indybaggins (E, 100,670 w. || Great British Bakeoff AU || Alternate First Meeting, Angst, Baking, Desire, Disability, Incest (Holmescest/Holmescest with John), Masturbation, Falling in Love, Oral, Outdoor Sex, Past Drug Use, Poisoning, Voyeurism) – Sherlock and John meet as competing bakers on The Great British Bake Off. There’s intense baking, lush recipes and enticing food. Mycroft, guilt, past sins in chocolate and gingerbread. And love. That too.

Minutiae (Or 156 Things I Know About You) by AtlinMerrick (E, 101,342 w. + || WiP, Marriage, Anal/Oral Sex, Domestic, Stand Alone Chapters, Humour, Prompts, Lovers, Short Stories) – Here, in no particular order, are some of the things John has learned about Sherlock, and some of the things Sherlock has learned about John. In the end there will be 156 mundane and unusual facts for each of them. (Um…I never stopped at 156.) (All chapters stand alone.)

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by weeesi (E, 101,463 w. || Post S3 / Post HLV, Pining, Alternating POV, Masturbation, John’s Nightmares, Mary is Not Nice, Love Confessions, Flashbacks, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, BJ’s / HJ’s, Shower Sex, Anal, John Deals With Feelings, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Injury, On Holidays, Implied Mystrade) – After Mycroft terminated his exile but before Sherlock could escape from the infuriating plane, John and Mary were whisked away by car to an unknown location.Sherlock hasn’t seen them for an entire year. He doesn’t know when he’ll see John again – until one day, he does.But, of course, nothing is simple.

Dog Days by All_I_need (E, 101,627 w. || Post-Baskerville AU, Experiments Gone Wrong, Fluff and Humour) – John has an accident in the laboratory of the Baskerville military facility. While they wait for the scientists to find a solution, he and Sherlock must re-examine the nature of their friendship as they navigate daily life and the Work, all while trying to answer the truly important questions: Is it okay to pet your flatmate if he happens to be a dog at the moment? And how exactly do you beg a self-professed sociopath for cuddles? Part 1 of Dog Days

The Bravery of the Soldier by bakerstreetgirl (G, 101,703 +w., WIP || BAMF John, John in Afghanistan, PTSD, Post-TRF, Case Fic, Sherlock Cares, Epic Bromance, Platonic Soulmates, Platonics, Flashbacks) – When a news story about a hostage situation in Afghanistan breaks, details about John Watson’s military service come to light that the doctor had kept secret for a long time. Sherlock is intrigued and John manages to surprise the British government. What John needs in light of this story and the PTSD responses it flares up, is a friend. Can Sherlock Holmes step up to the job?Deals mainly with John’s career and military background, plus epic friendship, BAMFness and a little bit of case fic. Part 1 of the Before Baker Street series

We Will Survive by anny (M, 105,960 w. || Viclock vs Johnlock, Past Viclock, Anal / BJ’s / Orgasms, Music, Jealousy, Case Fic, Social Media, Protective Mycroft, Pining John / Sherlock, Fluff, Weddings, Drug References, Drunkenness, Angst, Humour, Character Death) – After Reichenbach, Sherlock is back in London to face a new villain: Sebastian Moran. But he has to deal with John’s new life with Mary Morstan, and he soon understands that things between them have changed. With the arrival of Victor Trevor in Sherlock’s life, John will finally deal with his true feelings for Sherlock…

How Long? by TheBritishBourbon (M, 111,010 w. || Kidnapping, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Sherlock, Protective John, PTSD Sherlock, Flashbacks, Dark Themes, Implied Torture) – Sherlock never got to jump off the roof of St. Barts, he never got the chance. Sherlock was abducted and held for 5 years, but now he has escaped. What awaits him as he returns to reality? Part 1 of How Long Universe

Two Two One Bravo Baker by abundantlyqueer (E, 114,574 w. || Military AU || Afghanistan, War Story, Thriller) – Captain John Watson of 40 Commando, the Royal Marines, is assigned to protect and assist Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what appears to be a simple war atrocity in Afghanistan. An intense attraction ignites between the two men as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens everything they’ve ever known, but Sherlock is as much hunted as hunter, and everyone close to him is in deadly danger. Can he solve the case in time to save himself and John? Part 1 of Two Two One Bravo Baker Universe

Scotch Series by earlgreytea68 (M, 119,371 w. over 17 works || [Untagged, will tag when read]) – In which Sherlock asks Mycroft for a favor.

Did you feel it? : A soulmates AU by MorganeUK (G, 126,783 w. || Soulmates AU || Kid/Teen/Unilock, Protective Greg, Angst, Big Feels, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Mystrade, Injuries, Slow Burn, Anxious John, BAMF John, Protective John, Est. Rel., Happy Ending) – In a world where 0.01% of the population have a soulmate with whom they share pains and violent emotions… what are the odds that an ex-army doctor and an ex-addict detective open their heart and soul enough to found each others?Finally writing a twist on the soulmates trend… Hope you like it!

The Case of the Moebius Trip by Bitenomnom (NR, 129,218 w. || Time Travel, BAMF!John, Angst, Death, Post-TRF) – When John finally gives in and accepts a case for the first time since Sherlock fell eight months ago, he finds himself in a unique position: in possession of what his client calls a time machine, and desperate enough to give it a go. If it works, he could travel back in time. If it works, he could save Sherlock.

“Merry Christmas” I wrapped it up and sent it with a note saying “I love you” by starrysummernights (E, 136,580+ w. || WIP, chapter missing? || Post S4, Slow Burn, Mary is Not Nice, Christmas, Fluff, Smut, Angst, Parentlock, Past Torture / Rape) – John has moved back into 221B with his daughter Rosie after Mary was killed, but things are not exactly comfortable between him and Sherlock. After everything that has happened, they are trying to become friends again…and maybe something more. What better time than the Christmas season?! Takes place after TLD.

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w. || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel.) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it’s a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Ten Days by Engazed (E, 137,208 w. || Rape/Non-Con, Post-TRF, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Case Fic) – Sherlock Holmes has been dead for forty months, and John is at last beginning to live his life again. But just when he believes he might be happy, his world crashes back down around him.John is named a missing person. Someone is pointing DI Lestrade in the wrong direction. And as the days pass, his situation only grows more dire. It seems like the disappearance of his best friend is the only thing that can bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. Part 1 of The Fallen {{I haven’t read this one yet so heed the tags}}

Emperor Tales of the Frozen South by cwb (M, 153,444 w. || Penguin AU || Adventure, Rituals, Fluff, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Gay Rights, Bonding, Antartica) – At the bottom of the world, two intrepid explorers make their way in the harshest of environments. An important journey must be taken, and prophecies fulfilled, but not before family meddling, political interference, and self-doubt threaten to alter the future of an entire species.If you know me at all, you know that this had to be done. Part 1 of Emperor Tales of the Frozen South

Skeletons by flawedamythyst (T, 174,262 w. across 3 works || Implied Character Death) – Sherlock’s refusal to talk about his past hides far more skeletons than John could ever have guessed at. Halloween-esque AU.

All the Best and Brightest Creatures by wordstrings (E, 188,426 w. || Case Fic, Action/Adventure, POV First Person, Alternate Canon, Romance, Hurt / Comfort, Love at First Sight, Asexuality, Kidnapping, Torture, Drug Use/Addiction) – Sherlock sent Jim Moriarty to prison for killing Carl Powers at age ten. This is the story of the consequences.

Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68 (M, 203,273 w. || Parentlock, Cloning, Kidlock, Dev. Rel.) – The British Government accidentally clones Sherlock Holmes. Which brings a baby to 221B Baker Street. Part 1 of Nature & Nurture

Free Falling by twistedthicket1 (M, 203,574 w. || Winglock, Fluff and Angst, Humour, Kidlock / Teenlock, Mystrade & Johnlock) – All Guardian angels are born with a Chosen human. When this child is born, the angel comes into being to protect and care for them during their life on Earth. For John Watson, all he cares about in the world revolves around his Chosen, Sherlock Holmes. Watching him grow up though, the angel soon learns that God must have had a sense of humor the day he decided to make Sherlock, as trouble seems to follow him like a magnet wherever he goes. John can’t decide what’s worse, the idea of losing his Chosen one, or the fact that he may be breaking the most taboo law of heaven as he disguises himself as a human to better protect and befriend the beloved detective he’s always watched from afar. He was meant to care for him. But what happens when caring evolves into something more? What happens when an emotion an angel is supposed to be incapable of possessing comes to life suddenly and viciously inside John’s chest?

The Jewel in the Tower by PoppyAlexander (E, 207,079 w. || Dystopian AU, Violence, Rape/Non-Con Elements, Mild Dub Con, One World Government, Class Issues, Assassin John / Geisha Sherlock, Self Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, Espionage, Miscommunication, Sexual Fantasy, Masturbation, Letters/Texting, Phone Sex, Infidelity, First Time, Blow Jobs, Dirty Talk, Injury Recovery, Panic Attacks, Frottage, Scars, Misgendering, Happy Endings) – In a contemporary dystopia, Unity is peace – despite the fact unsanctioned information, illicit currency, and every sort of danger flows unchecked in the world’s pleasure districts. John Watson, a weary hired gun, is assigned by the mysterious Mentor to investigate a subversive element lurking in the Icehouse, the world’s most famous House of Repose. As accustomed as he is to dealing with the unexpected, John is nevertheless woefully unprepared to meet the gem of the Ice house, Xie, the world renowned “drashaskaya,” the living work of art after which all other drashas are modeled. In sumptuous suites, amid trailing puddles of silk and fervent whispers in the night, John soon learns that nothing is as it seems in the floating world of London’s pleasure district. (PUBLISHED AS “At Night in the Floating World”)

The Good Morrow Series by greywash (E, 216,513 +w. across 5 works || WiP || Post-TRF Divergence, Horny John, Smut, Feelings, Negotiations, Christmas/Advent, Sherlock is a Mess, Relationships, Addiction Issues, PTSD, Therapy, Injury, Aging, Loneliness, Marriage, Family, Friendship, POV Second Person, Travel, Character Studies) – A post-S2 series where everyone has a lot of feels about everything and plausibility is stretched unto breaking. Also: fucking.

You Go To My Head by 7PercentSolution and J_Baillier (E, 257,765+ w. across 8 Stories, WiP || Surgeon AU || Medical Realism, Doctor John / Doctor Sherlock, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Addiction, Angst, Slow Burn, PTSD, Pining, Insecurity) – This series is an alternate universe one, featuring the exciting medical and romantic adventures of doctors Watson (senior neuroanaesthetist) and Holmes (neurosurgeon).

Radioactive Trees In A Red Forest by Maribor_Petrichor (E, 280,251 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Post-S4, Suicidal Ideations, Alcohol / Rx Drug Abuse, Coming Out / Bisexual John, Seizures, Past/Referenced/Implied Child Abuse, Hallucinations, Rehab, Celibacy, Sobriety / Relapse, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Psychological Trauma, Nice /Not Anti-Mary, John’s POV, Parentlock, First Time, Angst, Switchlock) – John Watson is what happens when a man can no longer see a reason to go on. John Watson is what happens when a man starts to let go. “It is what it is.” John Watson is what happens when what “it is” becomes too much to bear. This is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of John Hamish Watson.

Enigma by khorazir (M, 289,667 w. || Codebreaker / WWII / Imitation Game-Inspired AU || Case Fic, Espionage, Period-Typical Homophobia / Sexism, Pining Sherlock, Inexperienced / VirginSherlock, Implied / Referenced Drug Use, Non-Graphic Violence) – It’s the autumn of 1941, war is raging in Europe, German U-boats are raiding Allied convoys in the Atlantic, the Luftwaffe is bombing English cities, and the cryptographers at Bletchley Park are working feverishly to decode their enemies’ encrypted communications. One should consider this challenge and distraction enough for capricious codebreaker Sherlock Holmes. But the true enigmas are yet waiting to be deciphered: an unbreakable code, a strange murder, and the arrival of Surgeon Captain John H. Watson of the Royal Navy.

My Heart Is True As Steel by prettysailorsoldier (E, 316,207 w. || Teenlock, Case Fic, Rugby, Fluff, First Kiss/Time, Past Drug Use, Anal, Blow Jobs) – When Sherlock and John become roommates at a prestigious sixth-form college, they both get a lot more than they bargained for. Between Shakespeare, rugby, and not a small amount of murder, it promises to be a very interesting year, but there is much more going on than meets the eye. A noose is tightening around the duo, darker and more dangerous than anyone realizes, and it will take everything they both have to unravel it before they lose everything they’ve found.

NUTRISCO ET EXTINGUO by Zoffoli (M, 327,772 w. || Alternating Second Person POV, Post-TRF, Character Study, Romance, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Humour, Mystery) – “You haven’t said what you wanted to say.” Well yes, some things take you by surprise, and you’re not quite prepared for them. Like when your best friend jumps off a building in front of you.

Deflowered - Director’s Cut by Lorelei_Lee (E, 328,535 w. || Mafia / Mob AU || Rape/Non-Con, Dub-Con, Boss John/Rentboy Sherlock, Bottomlock, Virgin Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Jealous John, Prostate Milking, Sounding, Anal Beads/Plug, Anal Sex / Fingering, Spanking, Begging, Blow Jobs, Riding Crops, Begging, Romance, Desperation, Minor Character Death, Implied Self Harm, Violence) – It should have been strictly business. Being a Mafia boss with a sadistic sexual streak, John had long since realised that his playthings were in it for the money only. Being a masochistic rent boy, Sherlock seemed too good to be true. Little did they know…

The Men Who Talked Between the Words by Odamaki (E, 463,024 w. || Parentlock, UST/URT, Pining Sherlock, Grieving John, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Slow Burn/Build, Case Fic, First Kiss / Time, Implied/Referenced Suicide & Drug Use, Slow Burn, Sherlock Whump, Panic Attacks) – John expected to be a father some day; he expected to have the house, and the wife and the nice suburban job. Sherlock never expected to have children, in part because he never expected to make it past 30. As it turns out, you don’t get a choice. Crammed into Baker Street with a baby, John struggles with single-parenthood and his own fears, while Sherlock treads the fine line between doing too little and saying too much.

[im-fairly-whitty]

Caught in the Riptide – Riptide!Incredibles AU

I said this story was dead, but then I wrote another chapter for whatever reason and didn’t feel like it was fair not to post it for you guys. I suppose it’s more of an indefinite hiatus instead of completely dead.

[Chapter 1: The Offer] [Chapter 2: Old Friendships]

Chapter 3: Introductions

 When Tony had called Agent Gibbons to tell him he wanted to join the Taskforce he hadn’t known what to expect, maybe showing up at a nearby police station to fill out some forms or something, but certainly not being escorted in an unmarked vehicle to an undisclosed location. 

The car had seemed normal enough when it had pulled up outside of Tony’s house, but once he’d gotten in he’d realized that the interior was much roomier than it looked, with the middle row of seats facing the wrong way like a limo. As they’d driven the windows seemed to get darker and darker too, as if the tint was getting stronger, eventually keeping Tony from being able to tell where they were at all, no matter how hard he squinted through the glass.

“We’ll be at the base soon.” Agent Gibbons said, looking up from the device he was typing on as he sat across from him, some kind of slick portable computer that Tony had only seen the likes of in secret agent films, “You’ll want to have looked through your orientation packet before we arrive.” he said with a smile, nodding at the thick manila envelope he’d handed Tony at the beginning of the drive that Tony was still absently clutching to his chest.

“Oh sure, sorry.” Tony said with a nervous smile, looking up from the darkly tinted windows and getting a good look at the packet for the first time.

The thick manilla paper had a circular wave symbol stamped on the outside. Tony ripped the seal off the top and tipped the contents into his lap. A sheaf of papers, a lanyard with an ID card attached, several pamphlets, and a thin dark grey folded up jumpsuit. The last item to fall out was a black piece of flexible plastic with two holes...no, it was a mask.

Just like Supers always wore.

“You’ll want to get used to the mask.” Gibbons said, seeing him looking at it, “From now on your civilian identity will be under wraps, even during training. You’re to wear that mask at all times while on the base, don’t ever take it off, not even around the other recruits. While you’re working with other Taskforce members you’ll get to know and befriend them, which is fantastic, we want you all to be able to work with each other, but try to keep details like your name, address, and other personal details to yourself, alright?”

“Yes sir.” Tony said, nodding even though he wasn’t quite sure how you were supposed to be friends with someone if you didn’t even know their real names. He looked closer at the mask, which didn’t seem to have any strings... “How...?” he asked hesitantly, looking up.

“You just stick it on.” Gibbons said, not looking up from his tablet.

“Won’t it fall off?” Tony asked a little sheepishly. He tried to think but couldn't actually remember seeing any kinds of strings or straps on Supers’ masks in history books, he’d never really thought about it before.

“Trust me kid,” Gibbons said, tapping his screen, “Supers have been wearing cling masks for years, they’re old tech. I’ve never had one fall off my face, promise.”

“Wait, you’re a Super too?” Tony asked in surprise.

“Mask.” Gibbons said, looking up at him pointedly.

Tony obediently put it on, surprised to feel how secure it felt on his face, as if it were somehow sticky. He looked up and down, shaking his head side to side, but it stuck. He took it off easily, then put it back on. Well how about that.

He suspected the mask wasn’t going to be the only unexplainable thing he saw today.

“I used to be a Super,” Gibbons said, nodding in approval at Tony’s mask, “but I retired before Supers were outlawed. I saw things were getting out of control and I wanted to help in a bigger way than flying around stopping crooks, so I hung up my mask and got a job with the government. That’s how I’ve been able to help the Taskforce get started, I’ve got experience on both the Super and the Government side, which means I can bring them together.”

“That’s amazing,” Tony said, “what powers do you have?” he flinched a little at his own question. He might be on his way to be trained as a Super, but asking someone about their powers still felt dangerously taboo, like he was crossing a line, “I mean, if that’s okay to ask. Is that okay to ask?” he added hurriedly.

“Pyrokinesis.” Gibbons said, casually holding up his hand, which was now covered in flame.

The thin flickering orange and yellow light danced up and down the man’s skin with apparently no damage, even though Tony could feel the heat very clearly from where he sat.

“A cousin of your power actually, ability to manipulate fire at will, just like you can with water.” Gibbons said with a smile, curling his fingers into a fist of flame that blazed an intense blue before suddenly snuffing out, leaving a slightly singed smell in the air, “I just have to be much more careful with mine in enclosed spaces than you do.” he said with a chuckle, “Does mean I’ve never had so much as a sunburn before though, which is a perk.”

“I always burn really easy, I have to wear sweaters and sunscreen all the time.” Tony said, “That’s incredible.”

“I prefer ‘amazing’.” Gibbons said, looking back to his screen.

His device made a pinging noise and Gibbons smiled, “We’re here. Remember, keep your mask on, no real names, and keep your lanyard on. That’s how you’ll get in and out of all the doors in this place that you have clearance for. We run a pretty tight ship here so be sure to keep your wits about you.”

“What should I use as my name then?” Tony asked, slipping on his lanyard. His eyes got wide, “Do I get to choose my Super name?”

“No need,” Gibbons said, pointing to the lanyard’s card as Tony felt the car roll to a stop.

Tony flipped over the card, which had the same wave icon from the envelope printed on it, as well as the word RIPTIDE in all capital letters.

Agent Gibbons got out of the car, holding the door open for Tony as he stepped into the gravel yard of what looked like a high tech military base.

To his left were enormous metal hangers and warehouses, to his right a group of people in army camo jogged by in neat lines. Ahead of him was a cement path that looked freshly laid, leading to a brand new building that was all clean lines and impressive steel.

“Welcome to the Taskforce, Riptide.” Agent Gibbons said with a smile.

***

The kid was nervous, William could see that from the way he kept glancing around him as they entered the sleek new Taskforce training center, but Riptide also seemed to be intent on making a good impression, sticking right to his side and smiling at everyone they passed.

He really seemed like he was a good kid, which was perfect, William could use a kid like that. William would have normally had some other agent under him take care of a new recruit’s orientation, but Riptide was different. William had scouted the boy out himself and he had big plans for him.

“Pretty much all of your training will take place right here in this building.” William said, shepherding Riptide toward a door and demonstrating how to unlock it with a tap of his own lanyard, “We have state of the art classrooms, training facilities, and living arrangements for recruits who stay overnight during parts of their training, like how you’re staying the weekend. Everything you need will be provided to you which why you were told not to pack anything. If there’s something you need just ask any of the staff and they’ll arrange it for you.”

“That’s really kind of you.” Riptide said, staring as they passed a group of recruits, the masked teenagers in dark grey jumpsuits smiling and waving to him as they passed each other, “Say, am I supposed to be wearing jumpsuits like them? I got one in my packet right?” he asked as he waved back to them, then glanced down at his street clothes.

“You young people are our most valuable resource,” William said, “we’d be idiots not to treat you well. And yes, in the future you’ll wear your training uniform whenever you’re on the Taskforce campus. There’s special sensors woven into the fabric of each suit that will track your vital signs as well as readings from your power set that will help your trainers record your progress and help you reach your peak performance as you become more familiar with your powers.

“Today we’ll be meeting one of your coaches and then you’ll have a chance to change before having a meal with the rest of the recruits before your first round of training this evening. Which is why...” William led Riptide through another door into a huge room, the scent of chlorine washing over them, “we’re starting you in here.”

William had never been in the pool room, but the olympic sized monstrosity was every bit as bad as he’d expected. Riptide however lit up at the sight of all the water, an unconscious smile creeping onto his face as the kid stared at the crystal blue water eagerly.

“New kid!” came a cheery voice, and they both turned to see a slender hispanic woman with a whistle hanging around her neck walking toward them, “About time you showed up, been expecting you. Call me Coach Maralin.”

“Ton-” Riptide started to say as he walked over and shook her hand, but quickly caught himself, “I mean, Riptide. My name’s Riptide.”

“Power?” Coach Maralin asked.

“Aquakinesis.” Riptide said, standing up a little straighter.

“That’s right, Agent Gibbons has been making you out to be the next Splashdown.” Coach Maralin said, glancing over at where William was still standing near the doorway, as far away from the pool’s edge as possible, “The water won’t bite, Will.” she called with a smile.

William gave a dry smile, “I’m perfectly fine right here.” he called back, “I assume I’m safe to leave him in your care?”

“Sure thing.” Coach Maralin said cheerfully, walking Riptide to the edge of the pool and taking the papers and things he was still holding from the packet, “Now Riptide, we’ll get you all measured and tested tonight, but for now-”

William shivered as she unceremoniously shoved Riptide into the deep end of the pool, street clothes, shoes and all. And as a special training pool, suitable even for scuba training, that was a deep end that was a purely indecent twenty meters deep. Just the thought made William’s skin crawl.

Riptide’s head broke the surface of the water as he came back up, sputtering a little, but with a bright smile on his face, like he was actually enjoying it.

“There’s so much water!” Riptide cried excitedly, he dipped his face back into the water for a moment to look down, then looked back up, not even wiping at his eyes, “I’ve never seen a pool this deep, it’s amazing!”

“Can you breathe underwater?” Coach Maralin called.

“I...I don’t know, I’ve never tried.” Riptide said, sounding curious.

“We’ll save that for tonight then.” Coach Maralin said, making a note on her clipboard and pulling out a stopwatch, “For now I want you to get out of that pool without touching the walls or the edge. You’re only allowed to use your power and the water to get out.”

“Oh gosh, I don’t think I can do that.” Riptide said, sounding a little nervous as he looked around, “I can only move a little bit of water before I get tired and-”

“Less chat, more water. Timer starts now.” Coach Maralin called, clicking her stopwatch.

William waited for another minute, watching Riptide at first tread water in confusion, then get a determined look as he started swooping his arms through the water, moving much more than a normal person could possibly splash. It wasn’t anywhere near to what would be required to launch himself out of the pool, but the kid was clearly ready to thrash around until he figured out how to obey the coach’s command.

That was all that William needed to see.

He ducked out of the pool room and back into the hallway, able to breathe a little easier away from the cloying scent of chlorine. Let Riptide handle playing in water, after all, he’d need all the training her could get before his public debut, and he had a long way still to go if he was going to be ready.

***

Tony had been trapped in the pool for an entire hour before Coach Maralin had let him struggle up the side ladder like a normal person, leaving him trembling with exhaustion.

He’d known that launching himself out of the pool was beyond his ability, but had given his all while trying anyway, seeing that Coach wasn’t going to take no for an answer, only shouting him sharp encouragement the one time he’d tried to ask to stop. He loved swimming, being surrounded by water always made him feel electrified with energy, but today had shown him exactly how useless he was without training. 

After half an hour in the pool he’d started letting himself sink under the surface just to try and feel the water in a way he never had before, knowing that if he could just figure out how to grab the energy in the water just right he could tell it how to do exactly like he wanted. If he could just learn how to speak to it.

But for now he might as well have been trying to speak Chinese for all the good it did him, when he was finally allowed to climb out of the pool he’d glared back down at the water rippling innocently beside him. 

He knew he could figure it out. He hadn’t expected joining the Taskforce to be easy, and if this was what he had to figure out how to do in order to be the best Super and example possible for the Taskforce, then that’s exactly what he’d do.

But...not at this exact moment...

Tony ached all over as he tapped his lanyard card against the door he’d been pointed to, sighing in relief when the mechanical sliding door opened to reveal the bustling cafeteria. More than a dozen recruits scattered around the tables with their trays of food, even some of the staff eating at other tables.

Despite being exhausted (he hadn’t even had the energy to dry off before changing into his jumpsuit, having to use a towel the old fashioned way) Tony felt a buzz of nervousness as he headed to the buffet counter, taking a tray and loading it up with food as he glanced around the cafeteria

“Hey, new guy.”

Tony looked over as an African America girl elbowed him. She looked about his age and was wearing the same jumpsuit and mask that he was.

“First day right?” she asked, scooping some macaroni and cheese onto her tray as she blew some of her hair, of which she had a lot, out of her face.

“Uh, yeah, is it that obvious?” Tony asked with a small laugh.

“I know you’re a new face, the masks aren’t that good.” she said, rolling her eyes, “But no, we saw you in your normal clothes earlier. You can come sit with us if you want.”

“Sure, that’d be great!” Tony said, a little unsure, but following her over to one of the small tables where there were already three other kids. One huge boy who looked like he was barely able to fit in his seat despite looking only fifteen or sixteen, and two thirteen or fourteen year old looking asain kids who looked like they could be twin brother and sister.

They waved as Tony followed the girl over, but Tony hesitated to see there was only one open seat at the table.

“I could grab another chair?” Tony asked, looking around.

“No need,” the girl said, walking over to where the asain boy was sitting, looming over him with her tray, “Ollie, move it, you’re hogging chairs.”

“Aw come on, just make him pull up a chair.” Ollie said, huffing dramatically, “We don’t want to move.”

Ollie’s sister rolled her eyes and reached out to grab his wrist, and suddenly his seat was empty.

Tony blinked, not at all sure what had just happened. One moment there had been two siblings in two chairs, and now there was only one kid in one chair, and unless Tony was very mistaken they were a brand new sibling, looking just like the other two. They had a messier version of the sister’s pigtails and the brother’s bangs, and Tony couldn’t quite say whether they were a boy or a girl...

“We only need one chair.” the kid said, eating a cookie of their tray as if nothing particularly interesting had just happened, “We’re Double Vision, what’s your name?”

“I...Uh, Riptide.” Tony said, trying and failing not to stare as he sat down in the empty seat.

“Thanks DV.” said the girl who had brought him over, sitting down too, “My name’s Aura, and you’d better get ahold of yourself Riptide. If you’re gonna be staring at everyone new like that it’s gonna be a long day.”

“Sorry, I just, I’ve never seen anything like that.” Tony said, blushing a little and scratching the back of his head, “I’ve never really been around other people with powers before, I think it’s really cool, but well, what was that?”

“We’re twins!” Double Vision said brightly, taking another cookie off of Aura’s tray, ignoring her glare, “At least, we think we’re twins, no one really knows. We’re Ollie and Allie sometimes too.” As they mentioned the two names Double Vision’s appearance changed to look like the boy and then the girl again before settling back at the inbetween version.

“Built in back-up and disguises.” said the huge boy sitting on the other side of Double Vision through a mouthful of chicken, “Not to mention the telepathy.”  

“Yeah, well, back up isn’t always so great when you’re both small.” Double Vision said, smacking the huge boy’s arm, “You don’t need back up when you can knock down a whole building by yourself. We wish we could do that.”

“Are you...super strong?” Tony guessed, starting to eat his roll instead of continuing to sneak glances at Double Vision.

The boy chuckled, his laugh actually making the table vibrate beneath their trays. Even though Tony didn’t think it was that loud he could still feel the noise in his bones.

“Nah, my name’s Reverb, I do sound waves.” Reverb said, taking a bite out of one of the three hamburgers on his two trays, “I’m just big, I’ve only got normal person strength for my size. I knock stuff down by yelling instead, it’s way more fun that way anyway.”

“And what do you do?” Tony asked, turning to Aura, excited despite his exhaustion.

“I’d show you but it’s too bright in here.” Aura said, taking a drink of her orange juice, “Yall’d go blind or else I’d get in trouble from blowing out the lights.”

“She makes energy!” Double Vision said excitedly.

“More like types of light.” Aura said coolly, “All colors, all frequencies, all brightnesses. If a lightbulb can do it so can I.”

“Show him the purple light trick.” Reverb said, scooting a napkin across the table toward her.

“I’m not making blacklight in the cafeteria.” Aura said, ignoring the napkin.

“Pleaaaaaaase?” said Double Vision, splitting back into Allie and Ollie, presumably to maximize their pleading as they both balanced on half of their chair.

“Do it. Do it.” Reverb chanted, pounding his fists on the table, making all their trays jump.

“Will you guys shut up?” Aura hissed, but she let out a growly sigh and hovered her hand over the napkin on the table. The dark brown skin of her hand took on a muted purple white glow, and the white napkin underneath glowed a vivid bright white-blue color.

The others cheered and clapped as Aura rolled her eyes and scrunched up the napkin, tucking it under her tray. She looked over at Tony, “And lemme guess, you’ve got something to do with water, right Riptide?”

“Can you talk to fish?” Reverb asked, leaning hard enough on the table to make it creak.

“I have hydrokinesis.” Tony said, taking an overly aware sip from his glass of water, “I can move water with my mind.”

“Do it. Do it.” Reverb said, taking up his table banging chant again, Allie and Ollie joining him as Aura glared at them.

“I would, but I’m super tired right now.” Tony said quickly, moving to set his glass back on the table but thinking better of it as the trays kept jumping from the other’s banging, “It would just spill everywhere, I’m really not that good at it yet, I’ve never really practiced with it before now.”

“Booo.” Reverb said, giving Tony a thumbs down before starting into another hamburger, “You’d better catch up then Rippy, Aura and I’ve already got a few months head start on you. But yeah, they’ll keep you tired around here with how hard they work us, that’s for sure.”

“We’ve been practicing for years.” Allie said proudly, taking a handful of fries off one of Reverb’s trays, “Ever since we were kids.”

“How did you keep a power like yours secret from your parents?” Tony asked, looking over at them curiously, “My parents figured out I had powers when I was still a kid, I threw a tantrum and blew all the water pipes in the house.”

His parents had never exactly made him feel bad about having powers, but they’d never really talked about it either. It had just felt like an unspoken secret between them when he’d been growing up.

“Don’t got any parents.” Ollie said, taking fries from his sister, “We grew up with the NSA, that’s why we get to practice all the time.”

“That’s also why they get to use their real names, even if they’re not supposed to.” Aura said a little dryly, she glanced over at Tony, “Not a lot of parents want to deal with a super kid, let alone not knowing if they’ve got one child or two. You’d be surprised how many super kids end up left at police stations or in dumpsters. Those stories never quite make it to the news, but over half the recruits here were abandoned when they were still babies.”

Tony swallowed, glancing around the cafeteria again. That boy had horns, another had bright purple skin, a girl over there had wings and a scaly tail if he wasn’t mistaken. Were those the kids that had been abandoned at birth? Their parents too overwhelmed by a child who was obviously a Super when they lived in a society that had outlawed them?

Who had raised kids like Allie and Ollie then? Government agents like Mr. Gibbons?

“That’s why the Taskforce is going to fix stuff.” Ollie said, leaning in to his sister until they became Double Vision again, “That way Supers can do whatever they want! We’ll even be able to go to the beach!”

“You know, Supers are legal again.” Tony said, he knew that for sure after the research he’d been doing after Mr. Gibbons’ first visit, “You can go to the beach whenever you want, even if you’re using your powers.”

“Well, the Taskforce is what’s going to keep it that way.” Aura said, ruffling Double Vision’s hair, “With our example and everyone on the registration program everyone will stay safe and follow the rules and we’ll never have to hide again.”

Tony nodded, then started focusing on his food as the others drifted into much less serious chatter and gossip. He’d known in an abstract kind of way why helping the Taskforce was important, but actually meeting other Supers had made it far more solid.

He’d never even realized how lucky he’d been growing up. There were real people with real lives that had been really hurt the last time Supers had messed things up by letting things out of control, and there was no way that his own generation could mess things up a second time. In the future Tony wanted there would never be another child abandoned by their frightened parents just because they were born with powers like he was.

But he wasn’t going to be able to help anyone if he couldn’t even get out of a pool by himself.

Tony started shoveling his food into his mouth faster.

“Slow down, the food ain't gonna run away.” Aura said, glancing over at him.

“I need to get back to training,” Tony said, wiping his mouth, “Like Reverb said, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

-----------

(Credits: The Riptide AU was started by @edorazzi​‘s lovely art. For this fic extra thanks goes to @mistrel-fox​ as well for brainstorming help.)

[novemberhush]

J,O,R?

Hey! Thanks for your ask!😊

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

BT bloody S! (In case you can’t tell, I have absolutely no interest in K-pop! But for some reason tumblr seems to thinks I have and keeps reccing me posts and blogs about this band. I know some of my mutuals like them, but I don’t think I’ve ever posted about them in my life, until now.)

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Okay, so the song I got was ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy, which I really like, but I’ve never paid that much attention to the lyrics before. I had to laugh, though, when I actually listened closely to them (and googled them just to make sure I’d heard them correctly) and immediately thought of Steve Rogers and Stucky (Steve x Bucky)!

The line ‘I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations’ sounds a lot like pre-serum Steve (and actually post-serum too because he’s retained that shyness around women in many ways) and then ‘Taken away to the dark side’ instantly made me think of Bucky being captured and brainwashed by the evil HYDRA group. That line was immediately followed by ‘I wanna be your left hand man’, which given that Bucky lost his left arm, well, you can see why I thought of these two! There’s also mention of New York in the song and MCU Steve and Bucky are both Brooklyn boys, after all.

And then there’s the line ‘Oh, all my friends are turning green’, which just made me think of Steve’s fellow Avenger, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, lol! So, yeah, I never would have put that song together with that ship/those characters before, but there you go!

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favourite in fandom?

The first one that sprang immediately to mind was Shawn and Gus from ‘Psych’, although to be honest it’s always kinda surprised me that more people don’t ship them romantically.

Thanks again for your ask.😘

[yxkanna-a]

——— character question sheet.

▌real name: nicky maxwell lee ▌/real/ name: nick. nicky is a CHILD’S name >:/ ▌single or taken: extremely single in his canon but i have several quality ships on here which frankly is what he deserves ▌abilities or powers: despite being such a dumbass nick is super analytical and 97% of the time is pretty effective at rationally thinking through a problem he’s presented with (provided he’s already in that mindset and isn’t having to react based on gut instinct alone). he can save ur life which i guess is cool. he’s bilingual (english and japanese). he doesn’t have powers in his canon but he does have some in aus which u are free to ask about 👀 ▌eye color: dark green, reminiscent of pine trees ▌hair color: jet black ▌family members: a father he hasn’t seen or heard of since the age of five. a mother who meant well but never really had time for her sons. an older brother he’d kill and/or die for. that’s it ▌pets: none in his canon but he wants at least one kitty cat :( give him the ugly cat in the shelter who stinks and nobody wants ▌something they don’t like: people trying to manipulate him >:/ he’s not stupid, he knows what ur doing, cut that shit out ▌hobbies/activities: nick frankly doesn’t have time for hobbies but on the weekends u can find him in clubs drinking and dancing his lil heart out. he’s a decent drinker and a v good dancer ;) ▌ever hurt anyone before: let’s just say that he dishes as good as he gets ▌ever killed anyone before: none in his canon; verse dependent honestly. nick doesn’t wanna kill people. that sort of defeats the whole purpose of his job, y’know? but if he were put in a situation where it was himself or someone else trying to kill him, he’d choose himself, if u catch my drift ▌animal that represents them: an alley cat. comes and goes as he pleases, doesn’t really trust anyone, just looking for food. turns into a purring puddle when someone shows him genuine affection.... ▌worst habits: using his usual sarcastic tone w/ people he doesn’t know yet. driving like a maniac. crowding people sometimes bc his sense of personal space is a bit skewed. eating far too much ramen when he’s too lazy to make anything else oops ▌role models: his brother......! also his paramedic partner to some extent bc she’s a badass ▌sexual orientation: biromantic bisexual ▌thoughts on marriage/kids: he wants to get married one day but he has this idea in his head that he’s never gonna be bc people tend not to like being in a committed relationship w/ him for extended periods of time and it’s kinda fucked him up. he’s iffy about kids bc he doesn’t mind them but he doesn’t know how to act around them sometimes and he curses too much and he’s terrified he’s gonna turn out like his dad ▌fears: phobia wise- any kind of water he could possibly drown in, suffocation as a whole, being restrained, loss of control. on a more generalized level, he’s afraid of being abandoned or betrayed by people he trusts. he’s worried that nothing he does will amount to anything. he’s afraid of being alone, or being with someone and turning into the type of person his dad is, especially since he knows that he exhibits some of the same personality traits as his father ▌style preferences: simple t-shirts or graphic tees. skinny jeans. converse. leather jacket. tends to prefer black over other colors ▌someone they love: not 2 be sappy on main but his brother..... bonk bonks him on the ass w/ a cardboard tube... ▌approach to friendships: if they can stand being around him for an extended period of time and aren’t nasty w/ him he’s ride or die ▌thoughts on pie: eat up mothafucka ▌favorite drink: defaults to straight vodka, sometimes goes for a long island iced tea if he’s feeling sexy and dangerous ▌favorite place to spend time at: his fucking HOME on his COUCH where he doesn’t have to worry about anyone BOTHERING HIM or being all like “iS tHeRe A dOcToR iN tHe HoUsE??” NO, KAREN, THERE ISN’T, BC HE NEVER WENT TO MEDICAL SCHOOL, BUT SURE, HE’S THE NEXT BEST THING!!!! ▌swim in the lake or in the ocean: if u put a gun to his head and threatened to kill everyone he ever knew and loved he’d choose a lake bc it’s theoretically shallower and there aren’t as many things that’ll eat him in there and there aren’t riptides or anything, but also he doesn’t wanna swim in anything so pls don’t make him ▌their type: women who exude enough raw power to disintegrate their foes make his heart go badump badump. men who look all big and bad and could break him in half but are soft and sweet and kind w/ him make him swoon. he just wants to love and be loved, y’know?? he likes being able to quip back and forth w/ someone who doesn’t mind his sometimes abrasive sense of humor so that’s a nice plus ▌camping or indoors: indoors...... this motherfucker is a city slicker cut him some slack

TAGGED BY: @kodo-kai yeehaw TAGGING: HHHH idk if anyone hasn’t been tagged yet so if u see this and think it’s neato take it from me

[nomoremetaphors]

WASTED POTENTIAL: X-Men: First Class and the Death of Armando Muñoz

Or, How Racism F%#@ed the X-Men Movies

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am absolutely, ridiculously invested in the X-Men Cinematic Universe.  Or, more specifically, I’m invested in what the XMCU could have been, if it had been approached as a cohesive whole rather than a series of vaguely confused attempts at continuity and Wolverine cameos.

For me, the biggest moment of missed potential comes with the death of Armando “Darwin” Muñoz at the midpoint of X-Men: First Class.  People have talked, of course, about how his death was racist and doesn’t make sense -- because it was racist, and fundamentally, it doesn’t make sense.

To be fair, I don’t think the writers were being intentionally racist when they killed Armando off in the same scene where the movie’s only other black character defects to the side of the bad guys.  I don’t think they were being intentionally racist when they had a Nazi kill a black man, who, in the comics, is literally and demonstrably unkillable.

But they did these things, and these things were racist.

And to be honest, that racism kinda f%#@ed the franchise.  It’s not the only thing that did -- the decision to put ten year timeskips in between each movie of the second trilogy certainly didn’t help matters -- but I think that it’s the single bad decision that, if averted, would have changed everything.

Under the cut, I’ll discuss why Armando was such a significant character, and why his death shaped the direction of the franchise by destroying some pretty epic narrative possibilities.

(Trigger Warnings for: mentions of suicide, depression, trauma, real life racism, human experimentation.  Nothing more explicit than XMCU canon, however.)

Part One: Armando as Narrative and Thematic Lynchpin

For a character with roughly seven minutes of screentime, Armando has a huge amount of narrative and thematic significance, and his character relationships are some of the most fascinating in a film that is, by and large, about character dynamics and interactions.

Part 1-A: Armando and Alex, Charles and Erik, and Parallelism

First, you have to account for Alex Summers.  Alex is, narratively speaking, intertwined with Darwin, and I’m not just saying that because I ship the thing.  From the moment they’re both on screen together until after Darwin’s death, their stories are intimately connected.  Darwin’s death moves Alex irrevocably, though the final cut of the film fails to explicitly address that; it even has ripples to Alex’s own death, 21 years and 2 movies later, which visually and narratively echoes Darwin’s.

To make a long story short, Armando and Alex have a significant and almost immediate connection as soon as they interact.  Alex fears his mutation, and Armando sees everyone’s mutations as gifts.  In the next scene they're in -- Darwin’s last, unfortunately -- they've carved a space for themselves away from the rest of the group, playing pinball together.  Pinball, interestingly, was technically illegal, and therefore an underground practice, in most places in 1962.  It was, however, popular in Greenwich Village and Harlem, and given that Armando is from New York and Alex is a somewhat queer-coded ex-con, it makes sense that they’d be the ones playing.

That said, their body language speaks to a closeness that is deeply unusual given the short time they’ve known each other and the historical context in which this film takes place.  When things start to go south at the compound, Armando gets Alex’s attention not by saying anything, but by drawing his hand across Alex’s torso, physically directing his attention to the direction that Armando’s moving.

Alex spends the majority of that scene following Armando’s unspoken directions, actually.  If you follow Alex’s posture and eyes throughout the scene, you’ll catch several instances where he’s looking to Armando to see what to do next.  They even touch more than once during the fight.

Additionally, Alex winds up standing at Armando’s right hand during the pivotal part of the scene, when Shaw is making his “sales pitch” to the young mutants. You see Alex sway a little toward Armando, eventually positioned at his shoulder.  It’s all very King and Lionheart, and something that the small fanbase that ships them has caught onto.  

Then, we come to the biggest moment: when Armando makes the plan, communicates it to Alex with nothing but a look and possibly an offscreen touch, and pretends to defect with Angel.  You see the expressions shifting over Alex’s face as he goes from ‘betrayed’ to ‘understanding’ in the space of literally three seconds.  There’s a plan, and Alex is going to follow Armando’s lead.

This goes wrong, of course, because of Shaw’s mutation.  When Armando calls out Alex’s name -- his last word, actually -- and Alex uses his energy blast to try and kill Shaw, Riptide, and Azazel, Shaw uses his mutation to steal that energy, and to shove it down Armando’s throat.  When Shaw leaves with his lackeys and Angel, the scene’s ending focuses entirely on Alex and Armando.  Alex realizes that something is going horribly wrong, that Armando’s not adapting fast enough, and Armando looks at him, reaches out to him -- but neither of them says anything.

In my opinion, this character dynamic is a parallel and opposite to the Charles/Erik dynamic that so many people loved in XMFC.  They can communicate completely silently, and all their most important moments are silent, whereas Charles and Erik have their relationship take up the lion’s share of the dialogue in the film.  When Shaw uses Alex’s powers to kill Armando, Alex and Armando are trying to keep the team together.  When Erik accidentally disables Charles with a bullet from Moira’s gun, he’s taking up Shaw’s war and making Shaw’s offer to the team.

Touch, too, is used very differently in the two dynamics; for Alex and Darwin, it essentially begins and climaxes with touch, and ends with an inability to touch, and the utter destruction of Armando’s body.  When Charles and Erik’s relationship falls apart, Erik gets to cradle Charles in his arms before choosing to walk away from him.  

When you look at each character individually, you can also see clear parallels between Erik/Alex and Charles/Armando.  Erik and Alex are angry, with violence in their past: Erik’s trauma is pretty much the defining factor in the plot, and there is a deleted scene for Alex that explains that he once used his powers to defend himself from being brutalized in prison.  Armando and Charles are both de-facto leaders when the time comes to lead, and Armando is probably the closest thing to a functional adult among the young mutants; that said, actor Edi Gathegi has stated that he played Armando with his comic book backstory, which includes a history of depression and a suicide attempt spurred by a neglectful abusive mother, and the entire plot of Days of Future Past had to do with Charles’s inability to cope with the trauma inflicted on him by Erik and the ensuing decade of horrors that was the sixties for him.

Overall, whether intentional or not, the Alex/Darwin dynamic echoes and mirrors the Charles/Erik one, reinforcing the theme that solidarity is impossible -- likely an unintentional theme -- and the idea of the homosocial-bordering-on-homerotic relationship.

Part 1-B: Armando, his Powers, and the Historical Context

I also can’t write this post without pointing out that Armando is the first black male mutant of significance in the XMCU franchise, both in order of release and chronologically.  I cannot overstate, also, the relevance of a black man whose powers are literally just staying alive no matter what the world throws at him.  

People rightfully made a big deal about Luke Cage, another bulletproof black man in the Marvel pantheon, and how important it was to see him onscreen.  Right now, there is an ongoing and urgent public discourse about police brutality, and the way society undermines the personhood and the value of black lives.  

Armando’s death in X-Men: First Class makes no sense, because in the comics, he’s survived everything from being launched into space, dematerializing into an energy being, and being touched by a literal god of Death.  If anyone could survive Shaw, it would be Armando.  

Additionally, consider that this film is set in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  It only predates Freedom Summer by two years, and the Civil Rights Act by three.  Armando’s blackness and his leadership role in the team matter, on a thematic and contextual level.  A team of mutants -- long an allegory for all manner of oppressed populations -- led by an unkillable black man in the 1960s has immediate political ramifications for the setting, and for the present.

But the film refuses to recognize these things by killing him off and minimizing his relevance after the scene immediately following his death.

After Armando dies, we see the morning after, when Charles, Erik, and Moira return to the smoking wreckage of the Virginia compound to find Angel gone, Armando dead, and the rest of the team deeply, deeply shaken.  We see, in the background, the crushed taxicab that used to belong to him.  Charles and Raven have a brief conversation, where she tells him that Armando is dead, “and we can’t even bury him.” 

Erik interjects with, “But we can avenge him.”  This draws Alex’s attention immediately, making him sit up after having spent the majority of the scene somewhat curled in on himself.

After that, the final cut of the film doesn’t include any reference to Armando whatsoever, even when it would have mattered.  A single deleted scene set during Alex’s training montage discusses Alex’s guilt or innocence in the matter -- Charles tells Alex that if he doesn’t get this right, he could kill one of his teammates.  Alex reacts by stopping, saying, “He asked me to cover him,” and storming out of the bunker he’s using to train.

I understand that Erik’s trauma is the fundamentally important one for the plot of this film, but wouldn’t the movie be thematically fuller and rounder if it dealt, even implicitly, with Armando’s death and the effect it had on the others, especially Alex?  After all, as I said before, Alex and Erik parallel each other in a lot of pivotal ways, from their dark pasts to their weaponized mutations.  

Part 1-C: Armando and the Death of Solidarity

I mentioned earlier that Armando’s death reinforces the theme that solidarity is impossible, and I’d like to expand on that.  I wrote a little bit about it in my thesis, Never Let Anyone Tell You Different, but essentially, a major unintentional problem with the X-Men franchise in general and the XMCU in particular is that it always splits mutants into good mutants and evil mutants, often refusing to recognize that there is a huge grey area in between, and that the allegory mutants represent makes this idea of good versus evil genuinely harmful.

Armando’s death is the first real fracture in mutantkind, and first, last, and only time anyone actively tries to maintain a sense of mutant solidarity, or to keep someone from joining the ‘evil’ mutants out of desperation, anger, or fear.  Armando’s attempt to keep Angel on their ‘side’ of Shaw’s war is literally the only time in the franchise that something like this happens -- for example, at the end of the movie, Charles chooses to not fight it when Raven tells him she’s leaving with Erik, and in X2: X-Men United, neither Bobby Drake or Rogue try to convince John Allerdyce not to leave and join the Brotherhood of Mutants.  Finally, in X-Men: The Last Stand, Logan seems fairly ambivalent on the subject of Rogue leaving the Institute to seek out a cure for her mutation.

Basically, the only attempt at maintaining a sense of communality among mutants, to fight that ever-present categorical dichotomy, fails.  And when it does, it also divides mutantkind sharply -- by the end of XMFC, the X-Men are all white men, though one is a non-passing mutant and one has a mobility disability.  The ‘evil’ mutants consist of two white women, a white-passing Jewish holocaust survivor, an Afro-Latina former sex worker, a non-passing mutant, and a Latino man.

I don’t think I need to explain why that’s a huge, huge allegorical problem, but I will anyway: when you divide out morality by associating goodness primarily with white maleness, you’re prioritizing positive representation of white men at the expense of representing everyone else, and that has a demonstrable effect on the the way people perceive themselves and others.  We tell stories to define ourselves as human, and as parts of communities, and to learn how to be human, in a big way.

So, by killing off Armando, and with him, solidarity, the XMCU reinforces power structures that the entire concept of the X-Men as a mythos is supposed to oppose, which is, I’d say, not a good look.

Part Two: What Could Have Been

I want to take this time to talk, now that I’ve explained what’s wrong with the franchise as a direct result of Armando’s untimely murder, about what the XMCU could have been if he’d survived, or if he’d come back at some point after the attack on the Virginia CIA compound.

Option 1: No Death, XMFC-timeline goes off in other direction from the canon.  Armando survives the blast and goes on to lead the X-Men through the battle during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He makes an impassioned plea for Raven to stay, and for Angel to come back.  They may or may not, and Charles still gets shot, creating a bittersweet but ultimately hopeful ending for the movie.

Option 2: Post-XMFC, does not take into account Days of Future Past. Armando reassembles himself after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and has to deal with his own trauma, as well as the trauma that the others have gone through in his absence.  He still takes up the leadership role, especially when Charles starts to spiral.  The X-Men debut publicly after the assassination of Kennedy.  Alex gets drafted for Vietnam, winds up involved in anti-war protests, and Armando, as a public figure, has to balance being a mutant with being a black man in America during this period.

Option 3: Days of Future Past.  Instead of being sent back to prevent Mystique from getting her revenge on Bolivar Trask, Wolverine goes back to the past to prevent Armando from being captured by Trask Industries.  His mutation is the one used by Trask to create the Mark X Sentinels that destroy mutantkind in the 2018-2023.  He either finds Alex also trapped there, or Alex plays an important role in getting him back; additionally, they have to break Magneto out of jail for Reasons.  In this option, Armando can have come back or never died at all.  This can deal, allegorically, with issues like the Tuskegee Syphillis Study and the Henrietta Lacks case.

Option 4: X-Men: Apocalypse.  The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse includes Armando as the Horseman of Death, as a reference to his time as a death deity in the comics and because he was the first mutant to die in Shaw’s war, which is really just a modern iteration of En Sabah Nur’s ‘survival of the fittest’ doctrine.  Alex is War, Charles is an unwilling Pestilence, and Erik and Mystique have to lead a group of scared teenagers against Apocalypse and his Horsemen.  This would be a film about Love overcoming the end of all things -- Erik and Raven’s love for Charles would save him, and the connection between Alex and Armando would eventually break them out of Apocalypse’s hold.  Community and solidarity would prevail over the insistent, selfish individualism advocated by Apocalypse, which can provide a look at the idea of solidarity among and within oppressed groups -- like, for LGBT people, the often uneasy coalition between the LGB and the T parts, and stuff like that.

Basically, any of the movies subsequent to XMFC can be reworked to be better, more topical, and more interesting with the addition of Armando Muñoz.  Armando is a potential lynchpin and turning point, and the fact that he was basically thrown out in favor of typical focus on whiteness has been a major contributor to the way that the XMCU has set itself up for failure on its allegorical and narrative levels.

People might say that dealing with the things I’ve mentioned here would make people uncomfortable or make the movie harder to sell, but I’d like to point out that Logan dealt implicitly or explicitly with refugees, the exploitation of female and Latina bodies, and the weaponization and abuse of children, and it has garnered hugely positive reviews and a box office of over $540million worldwide, making it the third most successful X-Men movie ever, and it’s only been out for a month.  

This is doable.  This is something that should’ve been done a long time ago.  And this is something that those in charge of the next set of X-Men films should consider when they sit down to plot out the next phase of the franchise.  The X-Men films are capable of doing incredible things, narratively speaking, if they just step outside the ‘traditional’ superhero mold, either by diverting narrative focus away from white men, explicitly engaging with topical social issues, or both.

Overall, the death of Armando Muñoz is perhaps the clearest example of how a lack of care has made the XMCU into the least successful of the three major superhero movie franchises, and interrogating the what-could-have-beens could pave the way for fixing the very real problems that have dogged the franchise since roughly 2006.

I hope that they do.  We deserve better than we’ve gotten, as the audience, and these characters deserve better as parts of our lives.

As always, Murphy out.

[pajamaplants]

where my fob asks

right here babeyyyyyyy

honorable mention - what would you title a movie of your life?: either yellow or self-made man

our lawyer made us change the name of this song so we wouldn’t get sued - worst fob rumor you’ve heard?: uhhhhhh i mean i know the whole dick pic debacle and patrick has been arrested once (w the greatest mug shot of all time) but the llama shit going down now is hilarious and i couldn’t believe it was true when i first heard lmao

dance, dance - which member of fall out boy has the best style?: i’m gonna say patrick on this one based on soul punk era alone, but i think all of them have their moments

snitchers and talkers get stitches and walkers - long song titles or short?: short is compact and easier to say obviously but i’m a sucker for the long classic titles for sure

bang the doldrums - what do you think about irl shippers?: i think as long as people aren’t going up to the irl people and being creepy or harrassing them as if they should be with so-and-so and not with their actual life partner/whoever they choose, then it’s fine to think whatever you want. your own brain, your thoughts, their own lives, their privacy

disloyal order of water buffaloes - which is your favorite fall out boy lyric?: this isn’t even all of them but here’s a good chunk lmaooo; “i’m coming apart at the seams/ pitching myself for leads in other people’s dreams/ now buzz, buzz, buzz/ doc, there’s a hole where something was/ doc, there’s a hole where something was/ fell out of bed, butterfly bandage, but don’t worry/ you’ll never remember, your head is far too blurry/ put him in the back of a squad car, restrain that man/ he needs his head put through a cat scan/ hey editor, I’m undeniable/ hey doctor, I’m certifiable” , “oh, little girl, you got me staring odd/ or was that just a telescopic camera nod/ painted dolls in the highway, truck stop stalls/ lot lizards scales cool your nightlife moods/ all the rookies leave your badge and your gun on the desk when you leave the room” ,  “when all the others were just stirring awake/ i’m trying to trick myself to fall asleep again” , “it’s just the sweet weather and the peacock feathers/ in the morning it will all be better/ it’s not what it seems in the land of dreams/ don’t worry your head, just go to sleep” ,  “oh, i got the skyline in my veins/ forget your nighttime/ summer love on a gurney with a squeaky wheel/ and joke us, joke us/ ‘til lakeshore drive comes back into focus/ i just wanna come back to life/ spark my crazy head to keep your woman alive” , “i love you in the same way, there’s a chapel in a hospital“ , “and i’m so sorry but not really/ tell the boys where to find my body/ new york eyes, chicago thighs/ pushed up the window to kiss you off“ , “he glances at his peers sitting seven to twelve stacked/ on one to six, the gallery is hushed/ boys in three pieces dream of grandstanding and bravado/ the city sleeps in a cell, not withstanding what we all know“ , “drink down that gin and kerosene/ come spit on bridges with me/ just to keep us warm/ light a match to leave me be“ , “the sounds of this small town make my ears hurt/ oh yeah, you caught me but I caught you on worse/ they say, “you want a war? you’ve got a war” but who are you fighting for?/ the tide’s out, the ship’s run aground/ we drown traitors in shallow water” , “don’t laugh at me, don’t laugh at me/ no seriously don’t laugh at me/ it’s not funny/ i’m not joking/ it’s not funny/ i’m not laughing” , “and in the end, if I don’t make it on the list/ would you sneak me a wristband?”

she’s my winona - which celebrity do you look up to most?: alive wise, avey tare, daniel rossen, sean bonnette for a top 3, but passed wise probably john steinbeck, gustav klimt, and satoshi kon

what a catch, donnie - favourite artist that features in a fob song?: idk probably jay-z’s opening line in thriller bc it’s a classic or lil wayne’s bit in tiffany blews

where did the party go - bass lines or guitar solos?: guitar solos yaaass

centuries - which century would you most like to live in?: i like the current one i’m growing up in rn honestly, most up to date and as advanced as we can be for now, sorry if that’s a lame answer

the kids aren’t alright - if you could send a message to yourself five years ago, what would it say?: you’re loved, and soon you’re going to find the one you’ll love forever. it’s okay to not know. be kind and patient. never let anyone make you feel bad about yourself. change isn’t always bad. you’ll figure out more of who you’re supposed to be as you go along. in time you’ll become the person you’ve always wanted to be, but you have to treat yourself nicer

hold me tight or don’t - how do you think their next album will sound?: probably a continuation of their newer sound, but based off some of the new style in mania i think there’s plenty of room for experimentation and improvement. i’d be shocked if they went back to an older style, don’t think that’s happening. i think whatever they make it’ll be progressing off their past, but i just wanna be able to listen to it and truly be able to enjoy it. 

sunshine riptide - if you could say one thing to the band, what would it be?: thank you for the sounds of my childhood and for shaping my love of and taste in music

love you anna darlin!

[trulybreathe]

Music Tag

I was tagged by @riptide-hightide

Rules are to put your music on shuffle and list first 10 songs and list your favorite lyrics from each song.

It really liked the Kodaline Music as in half of the shuffle was their music.Also really crazy that no broadway shows were in the tag. So I will add what my top three favorite theatre songs are.

Here-2:00 AM Version by Alessia Cara Album: Know-It-All (Deluxe)

I'm sorry if I seem uninterested Or I'm not listenin', or I'm indifferent Truly I ain't got no business here

Beauty on the Breeze by Seafret Album: Tell Me It’s Real(Deluxe)

On a ship with no anchor and no direction to go, Yet we all have a room, we're staying afloat Could it be like this in my sleep The future's hard to receive

Unclear by Kodaline Album: Coming Up for Air(Deluxe)

I'm trying to learn and I'm dying to know When to move on and when to let it go A curious feeling no one can explain I just don't know if I'll risk it again When the future's so unsure When the future's so unclear

Duck Shoot by Rupert Gregson-Williams Soundtrack: The Crown

Not Applicable because it is an instrumental piece.

Drag Me Down/ As Long As You Love Me by Gardiner Sister (A Cover)

I'm under pressure, Seven billion people in the world trying to fit in Keep it together

Everything Works Out in the End by Kodaline Album: Coming Up for Air(Deluxe)

I never seen it coming I couldn't read the signs And now I know that it means nothing

Autopilot by Kodaline Album: Coming Up for Air(Deluxe)

I'm trying to connect with you To see the world the way you do Try 'n' understand what's in your head I'm hearing what you said

Lazarus by David Bowie Album:Black Star

(It’s the whole song is my favorite lyrics, but if I have to choose)

Look up here, I'm in heaven I've got scars that can't be seen I've got drama, can't be stolen Everybody knows me now

Better by Kodaline Album: Coming Up for Air(Deluxe)

Does it make you feel better? Cause it’s making me worse Does it make you feel better? Cause it’s making me hurt Does it make you feel good? When I’m falling apart? Does it make you feel good? And is it all in my head Or was it something I said? Somewhere in between Cause I’ve got my regrets And I’m feeling like death You don’t see what I see

Moving On bt Kodaline Album: Coming Up for Air(Deluxe)

Sometime in the future we can share our stories When we won't care about all of our mistakes, our failures, and our glories But until that day comes along I'll keep on moving on. I'll keep on moving on

Bonus:

My Top Three Favorite Theatre songs:

Charity from Daddy Long Legs performed by Paul Alexander Nolan

Just who is helping who You are free to go your way Whatever path you choose

Anybody Have A Map? from Dear Evan Hansen performed by Jennifer Laura Thompson & Rachel Bay Jones

It's a puzzle, it's a maze I tried to steer through it a million ways But each day's another wrong turn

Prologue from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 performed by the Company

There’s a war going on Out there somewhere and Andrey isn’t here There’s a war going on out there somewhere and Andrey isn’t here And this is all in your program you are at the opera Gonna have to study up a little bit if you wanna keep with the plot Cuz it’s a complicated Russian novel everyone’s got nine different names So look it up in your program We’d appreciate it, thanks a lot da da da da da da da da da Natasha!

I will tag all my followers who want to do it, but especially to @juuuliaw , @beyond-theyellowbrick-road

[hemsworths-chris]

tag games galore

heyo! i’ve been tagged in a shitload of tag games recently, but i haven’t had time for them. well, i’ve got some time on my hands now, so let’s go! 

NUMBER ONE: we rowed out across the hudson at dawn - shut up, sandhya

anyways, tagged by the lovely @gabrielledelacour​; thanks, love!

5 things you’ll find in my bag (wait what kind of bag is this)

my phone, and its accessories (adapter, earbuds etc)

a book (i dunno how large this bag is but)

lip balm

a pencil (or probably way too much stationary)

um shit i dunno i don’t usually carry handbags and stuff

5 things in my bedroom

books

books

MORE BOOKS

posters and shit

just school related stuff

5 things I’ve always wanted to do in my life

WRITE A NOVEL

discover something new!

make people proud

literally just have an unproblematic group of friends

find something to be passionate about :)

5 things that make me happy

amazing additions to tumblr posts in the tags

being with my friends

debating

listening to music (atm, preferably hamilton)

writing and reading incredible things!

5 things that I’m currently into

hamilton

harry potter

tumblr

actually studying for the amc 10 (kinda)

playing the viola!

5 things on my to-do list

learn html and/or calligraphy

study for literature

make new friends!

write up this fic i’ve had running through my mind for god knows how long

stay away from toxic people tbh

5 things you may not know about me

i type abnormally quickly

i can raise one eyebrow at a time

i will take algebra over geometry and chem/physics over bio any day of the week

my favorite youtube channels are vlogbrothers and lssc!

i do my a’s like “a”, rather that the more typical one that’s an oval with the line by it 

that was fun! next one: tagged by @ginnweasley​, @gentleginny, @oblviqte, @pomonasprowt, @ohremvs, and @peterpettiness; thanks!

RULES: you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to. put your music on shuffle, and list the first 10 songs and tag 10 people.

right off the bat: for the most part, i listen to hamilton these days, but i’ll be shuffling it from my personal playlist.

1. Lock Me Up - The Cab

2. Centuries - Fall Out Boy

3. I’m So Sorry - Imagine Dragons 

4. Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

5. All I Want - Kodaline

6. Absolutely Final Goodbye - Christina Grimmie 

7. This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race - Fall Out Boy

8. Politiclash - PAINT (Jon Cozart)

9. Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey

10. Riptide - Vance Joy

and also, some song recs! all the ones listed, and the following: literally everything by fall out boy, american money (BØRNS), electric love (also BØRNS), gasoline (halsey), cities (nat and alex wolff), in your pocket (maroon 5), maps (maroon 5), angel in blue jeans (train), boulevard of broken dreams (green day, of course), cake by the ocean (DNCE)

next! tagged by my favorite person in the universe, @bauqelaire - too good for this world, too pure.

1) last song you listened to: shit i don’t remember, probably something from hamilton

2) three shows on your watch list: sherlock, the late show with stephen colbert, maybe supernatural or supergirl or friends or something (i don’t watch much tv)

3) best concert you’ve ever been to: i mean i’ve only ever been to one, a katy perry concert in 5th grade with @hearing-from-my-lawyers and another friend. and while we’re being mainstream, it was pretty lit!

4) last person you hugged: probably my mom

5) favorite flower: orchid!

6) least favorite type of jewelry: anklets, i can’t stand them!

7) favorite band/singer: the cast of hamilton, fall out boy, BØRNS

8) if you could dye your hair any colour what would it be: my hair is black, so probably a shade of blue, or maybe green - any ideas? i probably won’t tho

9) greatest compliment you have ever received: i really don’t recall, sorry

10) if you had to choose 2 of your friends to live on an island with, who would they be: @hearing-from-my-lawyers and either the 1st speaker on my debate team, a certain rock (not dwayne lol), or @leonine13

11) you’re at a candle shop, what scented candle do you buy: prob vanilla cuz i’m basic

my questions: just do these, i don’t have time to think of more and they’re really good questions

here’s a long one! tagged by the amazing @boat-face-mcgee

rules: Copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers and put in yours, and when you are done tag up to 10 people and also tag the person who tagged you… and most importantly, have fun! 

a - age: 14


b - biggest fear: being unimportant, and bees

c - current time: 7:51 pm


d - drink you last had: water

e - every day starts with: waking up and wishing i could sleep longer


f - favourite song: wait for it, from hamilton (i think??? there are loads of songs that i love tbh)


g - ghosts, are they real: in a metaphorical sense, absolutely; in a real sense, i’ve seen no real proof for either side of the argument so i can’t judge


h - hometown: i’d rather not say, but it’s in Silicon Valley!


i - in love with: my family and friends :)

j - jealous of: basically everyone tbh, but esp people who seem to succeed at life and school easily; i mean, they put in effort, but it always works out for them!

k - killed someone: my innocence


l - last time you cried: this morning bc i’m pathetic


m - middle name: don’t have one


n - number of siblings: zero

o - one wish: to get into a good high school; alternatively, for lin-manuel miranda to randomly decide to reprise his role of alexander hamilton for the 8 pm performance of hamilton in sfo in late march (i can’t recall the date rip)

p - person you last called/texted: the best friend!

q - questions you’re always asked: are you in *insert some grade 2-3 grades higher than what i actually am*? bc i’m tall

r - reasons to smile: friends! sunshine! pandas! fluffy fanfics!

s - song last sang: idk


t - time you woke up: around 10:10 am

u - underwear color: ...blue...

w - worst habit: i bite my nails! it’s really bad but i just can’t stop!


x - x-rays you’ve had: 2, once when i broke my finger and once when i broke my toe

y - your favourite quote: “It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done ; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” -Sydney Carton (my problematic fave), A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (that quote was listed by @boat-face-mcgee, but i love it too! i don’t really have a favorite, though, since are so many i love)

z - zodiac sign (but also myers-briggs) : Sagittarius, ENFP

next one: also tagged by @bauqelaire!

rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better

relationship status: single, thankfully

favorite color: turquoise or navy blue!

lipstick or chapstick: chapstick

last song i listened to: i dunno, sorry

last movie i watched: part of the first indiana jones movie, i think

top 3 tv shows: atla, lssc, basically anything on the food network 

top 3 characters: (just three??? what???) sirius black, remus lupin, aaron burr, and since i can’t follow rules, finnick odair, june iparis, and hermione granger

top 3 ships: j i l y, odesta, blackinnon

books i’m currently reading: hamlet for school, and the fbawtft screenplay!

for this next one, i was tagged by @pickettandnewt

1 Song : the room where it happens, from hamilton

2 Movies : fbawtft, and moana!

3 Shows : the late show with stephen colbert, atla, friends

4 People : i’ll just tag 4 of my fave tumblr users: @peppermintparvati, @fjrebolt, @emmelinevvance, @nargles (feat. @lumox!) (oh and also my irl friends: @hearing-from-my-lawyers, @emofandomgirl, @leonine13 and @aweami543)

5 Foods : boba, mozzarella sticks, asian eggplant, malai kofta (i could swim in the stuff tbh), paneer paratha

there are a few more that i’ve been tagged in, but i’ve tried not do anything that i’ve done before.

tagging: @chodear​, @nargles​, @grriphook​, @mxrcusflint​, @emmelinevvance​, @bauqelaire​, @fjrebolt​, @snuffls​, @hearing-from-my-lawyers​, @lumox​, @padampatil​, @cedricdiggory​, @dailyprophet​, @jilys​, @hogsmecd​, @gxnnyweasley​, @pctter​, @pcnsypcrkinson​, @winterblackburned​, @jamespottuh​, @softprongs​, @tragedys​, and anyone else who wants to do them! you can do as many or as few as you want; i love you all!

[tadomodoka4-blog]

What are some of your favorite long johnlock fics (like 100k+ words) ?

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: Do you have any recommendations for a hella long (80k-250k+) and hella angsty with hella good writing? Like any personal favourites, if you’re into heavy stuff ig. (Bonus points if topics include either one being suicidal, infidelity/cheating, and/or if there’s a redemption arc)\

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: What’s the longest slow burn fic you’ve ever read? Ive only been reading fan fic for 4 months, and i read one that had 150k words but i was wondering if there are longer slow burns?

@deerstalker143 said to inevitably-johnlocked: Hi, I really like your fic recs, and was wondering if you could provide a fic rec of long and sweet book-length Johnlock fics :D Thank you!

Hi Lovelies!!

OH GOD, you guys asked me these AGES ago, and I started a list and it just kept growing and growing and GROWING, especially since I’m reading a lot more really long epics these days, so it makes me happy to have a decent sized list for y’all now! I think now would be a good time to post them… and I know that people have been asking for them. So I’m putting these together since they’re long-fic related LOL Slow Burn List here if you’re interested in more!

NOVEL-LENGTH FICS: 100K+ FICS

See also: Novel Length Fics: 50 to 100K (Nov. 2018) (I do have a whole bunch more since then, so just ask if you want a Pt. 2)

Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w+ WiP || Fluff and Humour, Love Confessions, Romance, Snuggling) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion.

The Heart In The Whole by verityburns (E, 101,650 || Post-TGG Canon Divergence, Drama & Angst, H/C, First Time) – Events after ‘The Great Game’ leave Sherlock dependent on his best friend and colleague. But John has a secret of his own…

The Cost of a Wish by slashscribe (E, 102,493 w. || xxxHolic Fusion || Spirits / Ghosts and Magic, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Soul Mates / Fated Lovers, Adventure, Immortal Sherlock, Powerful John, POV John, Frottage, Wish Granting, Angst with Happy Ending, Nightmares) – John has been plagued by a secret his entire life that has made him feel hopeless until he meets a mysterious, seemingly omniscient man named Sherlock Holmes who owns a wish-granting shop. Their meeting sets off a series of inevitable events that will change the course of both of their lives forever.

The Wedding Garments by cwb (E, 105,390 w. || Alternate Future AU || , Alternate First Meeting, Dating / Arranged Marriages, Romance, First Kiss/Time, Heavy Petting, Cuddles, POV Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn / Falling in Love / Dev. Rel., Nervous/Anxious Sherlock, Jealous/Cranky, Hiking, Vacation Homes / Honeymoon, Sherlock’s Family, Horny John/Sherlock, Patient John, Massages, Hand Jobs, Assassination Plots, Hand Jobs / Oral Sex) – This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It’s 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn’t need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.

Maintenance and Repair by patternofdefiance (E, 106,650 w. || FutureAU, Augmentation || Augmented John, Depression, Body Modification, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, Sci-Fi, Self-Care, Body Dysmorphia) – John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say:Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain. Part 2 of STATIC

A Study in Winning by Jupiter_Ash (E, 106,658 w. || Tennis AU || John POV, Dirty Talk, Mutual Pining, Misunderstandings, Happy Ending, Sherlock Speaks French, Switchlock, Wimbledon) – John and Sherlock are professional tennis players and it’s Wimbledon. One is a broken almost was at the end of his career, the other an arrogant rising star tipped for greatness. It should have been a straightforward tournament. It really should have been. How were they to know that a chance encounter would change everything? Part 1 of Tennis

Eyes Up, Heels Down by CodenameMeretricious (E, 107,845 w. || Sports Equestrian AU || Fluff, Angst, Humour, Rider!Sherlock, Groomer!John, Show Jumping, Slow Burn, Happy Ending) – Sherlock is a top eventing rider currently training at Baker Farms. John is the new groom who’s been told to steer clear of the surly rider and his horses. Part 1 of Baker Farms

between each beat are words unsaid by darcylindbergh, hudders-and-hiddles (T, 107,998 w. || Epistolary, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Angst, Happy Ending) – On their wedding night, John and Sherlock gift each other with the things they each said when the other could not hear, the things they each put down where the other could not see: a collection of writings that illustrate the way their love for one another has grown over the years. Part 1 of between each beat

Shatter the Darkness (Let the Light In) by MojoFlower (E, 109,683 w. || Genie/Djinn AU || Magical Realism, H/C, Kidnapping, Genie Sherlock, First Kiss / Time, Case Fic, H/C, Angst, Clubs, John Whump) – Fairy tales are for those who remember how to dream; not John Watson, broken and hiding from his bleak future in a beige bedsit. But then he discovers a lamp and finds himself in the dangerous riptide of an enigmatic man whose very existence is unbelievable, murder charges against his sister, and the growing pains of feeling alive once more. 

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF JOHN WATSON by skyefullofstars (T, 110,758 w. || H/C, Kidnapping, Angst, Violence, Whump, Nightmares, Murder, Drug Addiction, Torture) – While Sherlock grapples with his new-found feelings for John Watson, he faces a very real threat: John’s kidnapping and shooting at the hands of James Moriarty. And the knowledge that the love of his life is being used to test an addictive drug - at the risk of John’s sanity and life. Prequel to THE BOYS OF BAKER STREET. Part 1 of THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF JOHN WATSON

Breakable by MissDavis (E, 117,627 w. || Established, Fluff/Angst, Depression, Paralysis, Happy-ish Ending) –After John is seriously injured, Sherlock struggles to figure out how to help him, keep himself sane, and maybe, just maybe, get their life back to the way it’s supposed to be. Part 1 of Breakable Not Broken .

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

The Swan Triad by Pennin_Ink (T, 121,660 w. across 3 works || Swan Lake AU || Magical / Fairy Tale AU, Romance, Falling in Love, Pining, Psychological Torture, Transformation) – Sherlock and John grow up spending every summer together. Their mothers’ attempts to play matchmaker only fuel their mutual resentment and scorn. But then, one summer.

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship’s surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there’s more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin’ the eye, he has to choose… is it a pirate’s life for him?

To Light Another’s Path by BeautifulFiction (E, 128,654 w. || Post-TGG, Sick Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Drug Addiction / Recreational Drug Use, First Time / Kiss, Case Fic) – Teaching John to observe seems to be a losing battle, but when Sherlock falls ill and submits himself to John’s care, will he realise that there is more to life than the science of deduction? Meanwhile, there is a murder to solve, and John must try and convince Sherlock not to sacrifice his own health for the sake of the case.

The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.

Ten Days by Engazed (E, 137,208 w. || Rape/Non-Con, Post-TRF, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Case Fic) – Sherlock Holmes has been dead for forty months, and John is at last beginning to live his life again. But just when he believes he might be happy, his world crashes back down around him. John is named a missing person. Someone is pointing DI Lestrade in the wrong direction. And as the days pass, his situation only grows more dire. It seems like the disappearance of his best friend is the only thing that can bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. Part 1 of The Fallen

Colors by Quesarasara (E, 140,537 w. || Pleasantville-Inspired AU || Soulmates, Colour Bonds, Alternating POV, Angst, Fluff, Pining, Case Fic, Medical Procedures) – Everyone on earth is born with eyes that see in black, white, and an endless series of greys. When you meet your soulmate, you finally see the world in color. We’re all searching for the person who brings color to our lives. John and Sherlock are no exception. Part 1 of The Colors ‘Verse

How to Build a Heart out of Ashes by Teumessian (E, 144,931 w. || Changling AU || Slow Burn, Drug Use, Mentions of Child Abuse / Bullying, Mentions of Student/Teacher Relations, Uni-Age) – In an AU where a small number of the population become Changelings at a young age, at 17 John Watson believes he’s destined for Normal life but then the Change takes him and he is sent to the Baker Institute. There he meets Sherlock Holmes.

Midnight Blue Serenity by BeautifulFiction (E, 151,907 w. || Friends to Lovers, Gay Bar / For a Case, Drugs, Pining, Case Fic, UST) – When Sherlock infiltrates a club in order to track down a serial killer, his altered appearance is enough to make John question his assumption that Sherlock is beyond his reach. However, is he the only one who appreciates his flatmate’s charms, or is Sherlock at risk of becoming the next victim?

A Fold in the Universe by darkest_bird (E, 152,857 w. || O-John, A-Sherlock || Body Swap, Crossing Universes, DubCon, H/C, Angst, Happy Ending) – Alpha Sherlock and Omega John are in a relationship. Prime Sherlock and Prime John are not. So what happens when a freak fold in the universe switches one John for the other?

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role

The Quiet Man by ivyblossom (E, 157,369 w. || Post-TRF, John First POV, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Present Tense, Imaginary Sherlock) – “Do you just carry on talking when I’m away?”

Gimme Shelter by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (E, 159,368 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || 70′s Surfer AU || Period Typical Homophobia, Hawaii, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Professional Surfers, Gay John / Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, John was a Sailor, Misunderstandings) – All John Watson wants is the feeling of a freshly waxed surfboard under his feet and the hot California sun baking down onto his back. To finally go pro in the newly formed world of professional surfing and leave the dark memories of his past behind him as he rips across the face of a towering blue barrel. To lounge beside the beach bonfire every evening with an ice cold beer tucked into the cool sand beside him and listen to Pink Floyd and the Doors while the saltwater dries in his sun bleached hair. That’s all he wants, that is, until the hot young phenom taking Oahu and the Hawaiian shores by storm steps up next to him in the sand in the second round of the 1976 International Surf Competition. (PUBLISHED AS ‘The Sea Ain’t Mine Alone’)

Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn’t have much choice. There’s only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place

Sketchy by serpentynka (E, 184,053 w. || Post-TRF, Post-Mary, John Whump, Slow Burn Love Story, Case Fic, Art, Porn With Feelings, Switchlock, Travelling, Career Change, Family Secrets, Illness / Health) – What (and who) will be left when nobody cares about your Work? A slow-burn fic with cases, places, mistaken identities, unfair choices, essential changes, violent feels, blatant lies, fearless portraiture, family secrets, high-risk bespoke gifts, durable friendships, bedtime stories, foreign travel and tongues, sickness (and health), and the significance of things which are slow to unfurl – but cannot be ignored. Oh, and…porn. Part 1: Sherlock takes on an obvious case (barely a 4) and meets someone who will force him to re-examine what it means to see. Part 1 of Sketchy

Unkissed Series by 221b_hound (T to E, 184,168 w. across 46 works || Established Relationship, Ace Sherlock) – Sherlock returned from the dead a year ago. John returned to Baker Street six months ago. They’ve been in a couple since then. or at least, not NOT a couple. For two smart men, they sure can be dumb. Luckily, an art thief tries to drown Sherlock, Sherlock has a fever dream and things are about to change.

Fallen Series by Belladonna_Q, mamishka (T, 222,094 w. across 3 works || Winglock || Angel!John, Angels & Demons, Faes, Christianity, Changelings) – In a world where myth, mystery, and the supernatural flourish beneath the veneer of modern civilization, Sherlock is a master of magic as well as science and deduction. But there are some things that he cannot see, riddles he cannot unravel, even when they walk right beside him in the form of one John Watson…

The Gilded Cage by BeautifulFiction (E, 326,887 w. || Omegaverse || Omega Sherlock / Alpha John, Friends to Lovers, Dub Con, Reproductive Rights) – In a world where Omegas are the property of the elite Alphas, locked away and treasured by those wealthy enough to buy them, John never questioned his flatmate’s secondary gender. Sherlock Holmes was an Alpha through-and through. Wasn’t he? A chance discovery turns the world on its head, and John is left grappling to come to terms with Sherlock’s past as events conspire to threaten their future.

MARKED FOR LATER

Cake and Other Sins by  Indybaggins (E, 100,670 w. || Great British Bakeoff AU || Alternate First Meeting, Angst, Baking, Desire, Disability, Incest (Holmescest/Holmescest with John), Masturbation, Falling in Love, Oral, Outdoor Sex, Past Drug Use, Poisoning, Voyeurism) – Sherlock and John meet as competing bakers on The Great British Bake Off. There’s intense baking, lush recipes and enticing food. Mycroft, guilt, past sins in chocolate and gingerbread. And love. That too.

Minutiae (Or 156 Things I Know About You) by AtlinMerrick (E, 101,342 w. + || WiP, Marriage, Anal/Oral Sex, Domestic, Stand Alone Chapters, Humour, Prompts, Lovers, Short Stories) – Here, in no particular order, are some of the things John has learned about Sherlock, and some of the things Sherlock has learned about John. In the end there will be 156 mundane and unusual facts for each of them. (Um…I never stopped at 156.) (All chapters stand alone.)

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by weeesi (E, 101,463 w. || Post S3 / Post HLV, Pining, Alternating POV, Masturbation, John’s Nightmares, Mary is Not Nice, Love Confessions, Flashbacks, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, BJ’s / HJ’s, Shower Sex, Anal, John Deals With Feelings, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Injury, On Holidays, Implied Mystrade) – After Mycroft terminated his exile but before Sherlock could escape from the infuriating plane, John and Mary were whisked away by car to an unknown location.Sherlock hasn’t seen them for an entire year. He doesn’t know when he’ll see John again – until one day, he does.But, of course, nothing is simple.

Dog Days by All_I_need (E, 101,627 w. || Post-Baskerville AU, Experiments Gone Wrong, Fluff and Humour) – John has an accident in the laboratory of the Baskerville military facility. While they wait for the scientists to find a solution, he and Sherlock must re-examine the nature of their friendship as they navigate daily life and the Work, all while trying to answer the truly important questions: Is it okay to pet your flatmate if he happens to be a dog at the moment? And how exactly do you beg a self-professed sociopath for cuddles? Part 1 of Dog Days

The Bravery of the Soldier by bakerstreetgirl (G, 101,703 +w., WIP || BAMF John, John in Afghanistan, PTSD, Post-TRF, Case Fic, Sherlock Cares, Epic Bromance, Platonic Soulmates, Platonics, Flashbacks) – When a news story about a hostage situation in Afghanistan breaks, details about John Watson’s military service come to light that the doctor had kept secret for a long time. Sherlock is intrigued and John manages to surprise the British government. What John needs in light of this story and the PTSD responses it flares up, is a friend. Can Sherlock Holmes step up to the job?Deals mainly with John’s career and military background, plus epic friendship, BAMFness and a little bit of case fic. Part 1 of the Before Baker Street series

We Will Survive by anny (M, 105,960 w. || Viclock vs Johnlock, Past Viclock, Anal / BJ’s / Orgasms, Music, Jealousy, Case Fic, Social Media, Protective Mycroft, Pining John / Sherlock, Fluff, Weddings, Drug References, Drunkenness, Angst, Humour, Character Death) – After Reichenbach, Sherlock is back in London to face a new villain: Sebastian Moran. But he has to deal with John’s new life with Mary Morstan, and he soon understands that things between them have changed. With the arrival of Victor Trevor in Sherlock’s life, John will finally deal with his true feelings for Sherlock…

How Long? by TheBritishBourbon (M, 111,010 w. || Kidnapping, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Sherlock, Protective John, PTSD Sherlock, Flashbacks, Dark Themes, Implied Torture) – Sherlock never got to jump off the roof of St. Barts, he never got the chance. Sherlock was abducted and held for 5 years, but now he has escaped. What awaits him as he returns to reality? Part 1 of How Long Universe

Two Two One Bravo Baker by abundantlyqueer (E, 114,574 w. || Military AU || Afghanistan, War Story, Thriller) – Captain John Watson of 40 Commando, the Royal Marines, is assigned to protect and assist Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what appears to be a simple war atrocity in Afghanistan. An intense attraction ignites between the two men as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens everything they’ve ever known, but Sherlock is as much hunted as hunter, and everyone close to him is in deadly danger. Can he solve the case in time to save himself and John? Part 1 of Two Two One Bravo Baker Universe

Scotch Series by earlgreytea68 (M, 119,371 w. over 17 works || [Untagged, will tag when read]) – In which Sherlock asks Mycroft for a favor.

Did you feel it? : A soulmates AU by MorganeUK (G, 126,783 w. || Soulmates AU || Kid/Teen/Unilock, Protective Greg, Angst, Big Feels, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Mystrade, Injuries, Slow Burn, Anxious John, BAMF John, Protective John, Est. Rel., Happy Ending) – In a world where 0.01% of the population have a soulmate with whom they share pains and violent emotions… what are the odds that an ex-army doctor and an ex-addict detective open their heart and soul enough to found each others?Finally writing a twist on the soulmates trend… Hope you like it!

The Case of the Moebius Trip by Bitenomnom (NR, 129,218 w. || Time Travel, BAMF!John, Angst, Death, Post-TRF) – When John finally gives in and accepts a case for the first time since Sherlock fell eight months ago, he finds himself in a unique position: in possession of what his client calls a time machine, and desperate enough to give it a go. If it works, he could travel back in time. If it works, he could save Sherlock.

“Merry Christmas” I wrapped it up and sent it with a note saying “I love you” by starrysummernights (E, 136,580+ w. || WIP, chapter missing? || Post S4, Slow Burn, Mary is Not Nice, Christmas, Fluff, Smut, Angst, Parentlock, Past Torture / Rape) – John has moved back into 221B with his daughter Rosie after Mary was killed, but things are not exactly comfortable between him and Sherlock. After everything that has happened, they are trying to become friends again…and maybe something more. What better time than the Christmas season?! Takes place after TLD.

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w. || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel.) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it’s a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Ten Days by Engazed (E, 137,208 w. || Rape/Non-Con, Post-TRF, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Case Fic) – Sherlock Holmes has been dead for forty months, and John is at last beginning to live his life again. But just when he believes he might be happy, his world crashes back down around him.John is named a missing person. Someone is pointing DI Lestrade in the wrong direction. And as the days pass, his situation only grows more dire. It seems like the disappearance of his best friend is the only thing that can bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. Part 1 of The Fallen

Emperor Tales of the Frozen South by cwb (M, 153,444 w. || Penguin AU || Adventure, Rituals, Fluff, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Gay Rights, Bonding, Antartica) – At the bottom of the world, two intrepid explorers make their way in the harshest of environments. An important journey must be taken, and prophecies fulfilled, but not before family meddling, political interference, and self-doubt threaten to alter the future of an entire species.If you know me at all, you know that this had to be done. Part 1 of Emperor Tales of the Frozen South

Skeletons by flawedamythyst (T, 174,262 w. across 3 works || Implied Character Death) – Sherlock’s refusal to talk about his past hides far more skeletons than John could ever have guessed at. Halloween-esque AU.

All the Best and Brightest Creatures by wordstrings (E, 188,426 w. || Case Fic, Action/Adventure, POV First Person, Alternate Canon, Romance, Hurt / Comfort, Love at First Sight, Asexuality, Kidnapping, Torture, Drug Use/Addiction) – Sherlock sent Jim Moriarty to prison for killing Carl Powers at age ten. This is the story of the consequences.

Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68 (M, 203,273 w. || Parentlock, Cloning, Kidlock, Dev. Rel.) – The British Government accidentally clones Sherlock Holmes. Which brings a baby to 221B Baker Street. Part 1 of Nature & Nurture

Free Falling by twistedthicket1 (M, 203,574 w. || Winglock, Fluff and Angst, Humour, Kidlock / Teenlock, Mystrade & Johnlock) – All Guardian angels are born with a Chosen human. When this child is born, the angel comes into being to protect and care for them during their life on Earth. For John Watson, all he cares about in the world revolves around his Chosen, Sherlock Holmes. Watching him grow up though, the angel soon learns that God must have had a sense of humor the day he decided to make Sherlock, as trouble seems to follow him like a magnet wherever he goes. John can’t decide what’s worse, the idea of losing his Chosen one, or the fact that he may be breaking the most taboo law of heaven as he disguises himself as a human to better protect and befriend the beloved detective he’s always watched from afar. He was meant to care for him. But what happens when caring evolves into something more? What happens when an emotion an angel is supposed to be incapable of possessing comes to life suddenly and viciously inside John’s chest?

The Jewel in the Tower by PoppyAlexander (E, 207,079 w. || Dystopian AU, Violence, Rape/Non-Con Elements, Mild Dub Con, One World Government, Class Issues, Assassin John / Geisha Sherlock, Self Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, Espionage, Miscommunication, Sexual Fantasy, Masturbation, Letters/Texting, Phone Sex, Infidelity, First Time, Blow Jobs, Dirty Talk, Injury Recovery, Panic Attacks, Frottage, Scars, Misgendering, Happy Endings) – In a contemporary dystopia, Unity is peace – despite the fact unsanctioned information, illicit currency, and every sort of danger flows unchecked in the world’s pleasure districts. John Watson, a weary hired gun, is assigned by the mysterious Mentor to investigate a subversive element lurking in the Icehouse, the world’s most famous House of Repose. As accustomed as he is to dealing with the unexpected, John is nevertheless woefully unprepared to meet the gem of the Ice house, Xie, the world renowned “drashaskaya,” the living work of art after which all other drashas are modeled. In sumptuous suites, amid trailing puddles of silk and fervent whispers in the night, John soon learns that nothing is as it seems in the floating world of London’s pleasure district. (PUBLISHED AS “At Night in the Floating World”)

The Good Morrow Series by greywash (E, 216,513 +w. across 5 works || WiP || Post-TRF Divergence, Horny John, Smut, Feelings, Negotiations, Christmas/Advent, Sherlock is a Mess, Relationships, Addiction Issues, PTSD, Therapy, Injury, Aging, Loneliness, Marriage, Family, Friendship, POV Second Person, Travel, Character Studies) – A post-S2 series where everyone has a lot of feels about everything and plausibility is stretched unto breaking. Also: fucking.

You Go To My Head by 7PercentSolution and J_Baillier (E, 257,765+ w. across 8 Stories, WiP || Surgeon AU || Medical Realism, Doctor John / Doctor Sherlock, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Addiction, Angst, Slow Burn, PTSD, Pining, Insecurity) – This series is an alternate universe one, featuring the exciting medical and romantic adventures of doctors Watson (senior neuroanaesthetist) and Holmes (neurosurgeon).

Radioactive Trees In A Red Forest by Maribor_Petrichor (E, 280,251 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Post-S4, Suicidal Ideations, Alcohol / Rx Drug Abuse, Coming Out / Bisexual John, Seizures, Past/Referenced/Implied Child Abuse, Hallucinations, Rehab, Celibacy, Sobriety / Relapse, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Psychological Trauma, Nice /Not Anti-Mary, John’s POV, Parentlock, First Time, Angst, Switchlock) – John Watson is what happens when a man can no longer see a reason to go on. John Watson is what happens when a man starts to let go. “It is what it is.” John Watson is what happens when what “it is” becomes too much to bear. This is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of John Hamish Watson.

Enigma by khorazir (M, 289,667 w. || Codebreaker / WWII / Imitation Game-Inspired AU || Case Fic, Espionage, Period-Typical Homophobia / Sexism, Pining Sherlock, Inexperienced / VirginSherlock, Implied / Referenced Drug Use, Non-Graphic Violence) – It’s the autumn of 1941, war is raging in Europe, German U-boats are raiding Allied convoys in the Atlantic, the Luftwaffe is bombing English cities, and the cryptographers at Bletchley Park are working feverishly to decode their enemies’ encrypted communications. One should consider this challenge and distraction enough for capricious codebreaker Sherlock Holmes. But the true enigmas are yet waiting to be deciphered: an unbreakable code, a strange murder, and the arrival of Surgeon Captain John H. Watson of the Royal Navy.

My Heart Is True As Steel by prettysailorsoldier (E, 316,207 w. || Teenlock, Case Fic, Rugby, Fluff, First Kiss/Time, Past Drug Use, Anal, Blow Jobs) – When Sherlock and John become roommates at a prestigious sixth-form college, they both get a lot more than they bargained for. Between Shakespeare, rugby, and not a small amount of murder, it promises to be a very interesting year, but there is much more going on than meets the eye. A noose is tightening around the duo, darker and more dangerous than anyone realizes, and it will take everything they both have to unravel it before they lose everything they’ve found.

NUTRISCO ET EXTINGUO by Zoffoli (M, 327,772 w. || Alternating Second Person POV, Post-TRF, Character Study, Romance, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Humour, Mystery) – “You haven’t said what you wanted to say.” Well yes, some things take you by surprise, and you’re not quite prepared for them. Like when your best friend jumps off a building in front of you.

Deflowered - Director’s Cut by Lorelei_Lee (E, 328,535 w. || Mafia / Mob AU || Rape/Non-Con, Dub-Con, Boss John/Rentboy Sherlock, Bottomlock, Virgin Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Jealous John, Prostate Milking, Sounding, Anal Beads/Plug, Anal Sex / Fingering, Spanking, Begging, Blow Jobs, Riding Crops, Begging, Romance, Desperation, Minor Character Death, Implied Self Harm, Violence) – It should have been strictly business. Being a Mafia boss with a sadistic sexual streak, John had long since realised that his playthings were in it for the money only. Being a masochistic rent boy, Sherlock seemed too good to be true. Little did they know…

The Men Who Talked Between the Words by Odamaki (E, 463,024 w. || Parentlock, UST/URT, Pining Sherlock, Grieving John, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Slow Burn/Build, Case Fic, First Kiss / Time, Implied/Referenced Suicide & Drug Use, Slow Burn, Sherlock Whump, Panic Attacks) – John expected to be a father some day; he expected to have the house, and the wife and the nice suburban job. Sherlock never expected to have children, in part because he never expected to make it past 30. As it turns out, you don’t get a choice. Crammed into Baker Street with a baby, John struggles with single-parenthood and his own fears, while Sherlock treads the fine line between doing too little and saying too much.

from I am to see to it that I do not lose you. http://bit.ly/2IZBden via IFTTT