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thegeminisage · 1 year ago

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17, 22, 23, and 35 for the fic writer ask game?

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

oh man i hate to get stuck on wording, but i don't really believe in writer's block!! i wrote a whole post about it here but the short version is that i believe when you are having trouble writing, summing up the general trouble as "writer's block" just makes the problem harder to solve. it's always down to something specific: do i not know where to go next? am i lacking joy in the craft? is there a big intimidating restructure in my future? (there is literally one of these on both my wips currently. kill me) so, to actually answer the question instead of being pedantic, step number one is ALWAYS to figure out EXACTLY why i'm not feeling it. when you figure out what the problem is it's a LOT easier to come up with solutions.

the other thing i do is manage my soundscape. this includes music - i have adhd, so the "right" music, preferably songs i can loop 1000000 times without getting tired of them, will make or break my productivity to a ridiculous degree - but it also includes ambient sounds. i really like this website because you can make your own mixes, and they have a whole section dedicated to fandom-based ones folks have made: inside the tardis, driving the impala, inside the jedi temple, whatever. (they have similar fandom-related atmospheres for video games on youtube. here's one of my favorites.) making one sometimes veers into productive procrastination, but when i'm having trouble getting started (often the hardest part) it usually does the trick. fellow insomniacs - they're also great for falling asleep, lol.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

not really. i don't have the same problem with first-person, for example, that a lot of other people seem to, and i like an excuse to do a different style or whatever. even things i don't normally read for, like non-con, is something i have written about happening in the past (not onscreen) when the situation calls for it. i have only two hard limits: omegaverse and aus. you won't catch me dead doing either one. i think the first is self-explanatory, but as to the latter: i think so much of characters is who they are and their history. when you write an au from the ground up - like, a flowershop au or whatever, as opposed to an au that just veers away from canon at some point - you are taking and rewriting that entire history, and those characters become different people, and my investment almost instantly tanks to zero. i know those people, i don't care about them, and i don't want to write them. i don't even read aus unless it's from an author whose fic i absolute die over...right now, i could count those authors on one hand, lol. fusion aus are a bit of a gray area if i like both properties in question. i did once outline a titanic au for [redacted fandom] and also an anastasia au for bbc merlin*. but that's because i like both the movie anastasia and the characters from merlin. and even then, it's only a tumblr post to exorcise it from my brain - it's never something i'd turn into an actual fic.

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

YOU MUST HAVE FUN. you must you must you MUST have fun. do not do the thing if you do not love to do it. if you do not feel joy when creating then it will come through in the work, like a cranky cook burning their food. if you are writing only for comments: don't. if you are writing because you think you will let down friends/readers/etc otherwise: don't. "write for yourself" doesn't mean don't share work it means write because it makes you happier, or because you'll die if you don't. DON'T DO IT if it doesn't bring you joy!!!!!

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

two things. i'm cheating a little sorry. the first thing is pretty simple and common villain advice: remember that in your villain's pov they are the hero, or at the very least are justified. very few good, well-rounded villains are out here twirling their mustaches and being evil for the sake of evil.

the second thing is DO NOT make your protagonists less competent in order to make your villain seem more scary. this will backfire on you every fucking time. if you want your villain to seem smarter and stronger you cannot simply just make your protagonists dumber and weaker. otherwise they look like out-of-character idiots. consider the character of theo in teen wolf's fifth season...regardless of how you feel about the character, especially in other seasons, it's hard to argue his introductory arc was well-structured. in just a few short episodes, he managed to break years-long bonds between established characters...because the writers decided to make those characters mistrustful and misunderstanding of each other for no reason. instead of ANY of these characters using their brains or believing their good friends, they all acted exactly as theo predicted BECAUSE the writers wanted theo to seem smart and good at manipulating people. but it's definitely NOT how those guys would have acted if they were real people, and theo certainly didn't manage to trick us, the audience - so they just look like morons, instead. (this is why season 5 is the worst season by the way.) never do this. figure out what your characters would do first and THEN use your godlike powers to come up with a way to manipulate them. you're in charge of this thing after all!!!

[ASK MEME]

*i looked really, really hard for this, for over an HOUR, but i can't find it :( essentially arthur plays the anya, merlin the dmitri, morgana the grandmama, and gwen the vlad. it's not a unique concept bc i found other people spinning the idea in less detail on tumblr when i googled it, but i can't find MY DETAILED WRITEUP and i'm mad about it lol. if anyone writes one link me to it. if anyone finds it on my blog on god i'll write you a less than 1k merlin drabble of your choice. hold me to it.

#thank you for sending so many!!! they were so fun to answer. i love to complain about theo teenwolf #liz answers asks #twisted-pride #ASK MEMES #liz loves writing

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undertalethingems · 3 years ago

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angellongtail said: People don't usually make aus to be in character, otherwise it'd just be sans with an outfit change. New thing have to happen sometimes. *spins around*

Also pretty sure people ran out of cool ideas for the original cast at some point.

uhhhhhh..... no??? i don’t think any of that is true.

It is 100% possible to write the most OOC takes while still technically being set in canon, and you can make an AU that’s pretty removed from canon while remaining true to its themes and characters. You can absolutely keep Sans’ base personality intact, but explore how a different setting might emphasize or downplay certain aspects of it. An Underfell!Sans might be more aloof and guarded, might tell meaner jokes; an Outertale!Sans might not like space as much because he’s trapped in it, but there’s some other field of science he’s into because he likes the process of understanding something. There’s plenty of ways to spin it without making sans a completely different person who happens to have the same name. But if you completely change a character’s personality, values, history, world--then how are they the same character anymore? Why should someone care about them if it’s only using “sans” or “undertale” for name recognition, and otherwise has nothing to do with the original game? in a lot of cases...? that’s not exploring the character in a new way, it’s just flat-out a different character.

and if it were true that people have run out of cool ideas for canon, then where is all the content exploring it? where are all the neutral ending fics, where are the fics exploring flowey’s runs and possible shenanigans, where are the stories that don’t focus on sans and/or gaster? There are some out there of course, but they’re few and far between compared to the AUs that only involve some version of Sans--that’s why i’ve been complaining! XD And I certainly haven’t run out! Do you wanna know how many ideas and projects i’m sitting on that are still things i want to explore? I have:

15(@_@) more papyrus bingo prompts to do/finish

an AU based on “The Thought” comic, focused on papyrus

a cracky sans-centered oneshot

more fusion AU stuff

a fic exploring the timelines getting Borked

Goner!Papyrus

The Integrity. comic

a real angsty reason for papyrus being able to go without sleep

the immediate aftermath of the bros surviving the collapse of their original world

more babybones content

And these are still based in canon and largely centered on the skelebros, who have been decidedly well-covered by plenty of other folks--and this is just my stuff. there are surely dozens more creators who have all kinds of awesome ideas for all the characters, but for one reason or another--they don’t have time to work on it, it doesn’t get enough exposure to become known, they’re too afraid to share it--it just isn’t widespread. But saying that there are no more cool ideas to do just feels... dismissive, of both my efforts as well as all the other people who are trying to make their way in the fandom.

so uh... don’t rule it out preemptively, y’know? you never know when the next cool story will come out, even after all this time ^^

#undertalethingem chats #Bad Opinion Zone #and before anyone accuses me of being cruel......#for the record 'bad opinion zone' is just my saltposting tag #it doesn't necessarily mean any of the opinions expressed are bad #even if i'm disagreeing with someone! it's more aimed at uh. my own opinions XD #but yes consider that list a sneak preview of all the plates i've got spinning. except that's not even all of them XD #i didn't include things that aren't stories >>#or stories that are mostly posted such as bark at the moon and unexpected guests #needless to say i'm gonna be at this undertale thing for a while XD #rotating ideas in my mind

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firelxdykatara · 3 years ago

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You’re doing a LoK rewrite, correct? Would be really interested in hearing how you plan on fixing Suyin’s character and the Lin-Suyin conflict because……. oh boy. Man there’s a lot to unpack there. This is what happens when we don’t let Toph just raise her fucking kids for the sake of pushing a stupid as hell narrative about working women and single motherhood.

I am indeed!

In... you know, the way I'm doing most of my big potential projects, in that I have a folder with some documents that have plot notes and... some day I may actually get full, finished fics out of them (h2o AU is in there, as is my voltron!atla fusion AU, and uhhhh my book 3 atla rewrite, and a few other things), so... but I will say that the docs I have for my LoK rewrite so far amount to roughly 4.2k words of just Plot and Character Notes, which may some day turn into words of Story, hopefully.

ANYWAY, POINT IS: yes, this exists, and I have Many Many Thoughts.

Including how the Gaang kids would shake out! Cause I know I'm doing Zutara, and maybe Tokka???? Although I don't wanna just leave Suki out either... maybe a throuple??? Or Sukka having an amicable breakup before Sokka and Toph get together--maybe she already has Lin by then, and Sokka helps support her through the grief of losing Kanto???? Idk honestly, I haven't actually figured any of that out definitively yet except that Aang was perfectly happy to settle down with an Air Acolyte from one of the rebuilt temples because he grew up and out of his crush on Katara pretty easily once he hit puberty and matured a bit.

UHHH none of which is actually an answer to your question, because it's a valid one! Which is why I've been sitting on this a while (10 days I'm so sorry) bc I haven't made any solid decisions but I've been letting it percolate around my head a bit. And the more I think about it, the more I really like the Sukka -> Tokka idea (and I don't want to kill off Suki since the kids all deserve their awesome Kyoshi warrior auntie in their lives, and also I want a Sukka kid to be besties with Iara [zuko and katara's youngest] so maybe she gets with someone else after she and Sokka split? I could be talked into Ty Lee/Suki actually, the more I think about it....), but obviously having a stable father figure and a Toph who is... not what LoK made her out to be will dramatically change the Beifong family dynamic.

That said, I think I actually have a solution. (I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do.) Toph has Lin with Kanto--and he passes away when Lin is two or three, which is why she has very few memories of her father. (Although none of this 'she doesn't even know his name until she's 50+ cause Toph didn't tell her daughters about their fathers' bullshit.) Sokka is there for her through it all (all of the gaang is, of course, but you know that it sometimes just hits different when it's someone you're also starting to fall in love with, especially when there are older and much more deeply buried feelings there that are now resurfacing, because at least in my version Toph was deeply in love with Sokka when they were teenagers, but he was in love with Suki and she also loved Suki so she didn't want to mess up anything about their family or the group dynamics by making her feelings anyone else's problem), they fall in love, get married and have Suyin.

(Sokka may jokingly refer to it as a shotgun wedding, but the truth is he wanted to propose well before he found out she was pregnant, his attempts just kept getting messed up in increasingly comedic fashion.)

Throughout all of this, Republic City has been established, Sokka is Chancellor, Toph is something of a defacto police chief--mostly because, at the time, no one else was willing to volunteer, and she jokingly offered to whip the law enforcement, but unfortunately everyone else at the meeting took her seriously. However, she is also the founder of the probending league, and basically her feelings about law enforcement are complicated and she actively discouraged her kids from joining the force which is part of why Lin did. How else do you have a teen rebel phase with a parent like Toph? (Which, in this instance, means tough and firm but fair, with a 'you break it, it's up to you to fix it' attitude and very little desire to actually control her daughters and their behavior.)

Ah, but here's the rub.

Suyin is ten years old when Sokka dies, and Lin is sixteen. I'm not sure how he's killed--maybe by Yakone, to tie it into my plans for Amon and book 1. (Note that I'm not sure when the Yakone bloodbending trial happened in canon, but it doesn't matter. The timeline I'm gonna build will be completely different post-comet, and I'll eventually write it all down so that I can keep things straight.) Which would incidentally provide excellent means of having Katara have a very personal stake in the Amon conflict, and perhaps color the fight between him and Iara, but I'm getting off track. And I think Sokka being killed by Yakone, and Toph being unable to protect or save him, or deliver her own brand of justice to avenge him (because Aang is there to stop her and.... shit probably got ugly, I suspect she didn't talk to Aang for at least twenty years after Sokka's death--and this isn't to say I think Toph is particularly violent or murderous, but in that moment, she absolutely wanted to kill the man with her bare hands, and however much she may have regretted it afterwards, she took a very long time to forgive Aang for stopping her in the first place), is what results in Toph stepping down as police chief.

She didn't withdraw from her daughters or fuck off into the swamp or anything (words cannot express how much I hate that part of her canon history), but she did grieve for a very long time. Lin, meanwhile, felt like it was up to her to keep her family together, while also feeling a desperate need to... prove herself, I think. And because her mother was so adamant that she not join the police force, that's exactly what she does. I think Lin completely misread Toph's intentions, too, and believed that the discouragement was because her mother didn't think she had what it takes, when in reality I think Toph was scared of Lin losing herself in the job like she herself had begun to, and eventually coming up on something she couldn't change or fix and making the same mistakes she had.

(I think Toph and Lin have communication issues largely because they are both headstrong and willful, but where Toph thought she was giving her daughters the room they would need to make their own way, what Lin desperately craved was direction and she felt like that was something her mother simply couldn't understand.)

Suyin, on the other hand, fell in with a bad crowd like in canon. I think that what she desperately needed was attention, similar to Lin craving direction, and Toph was trying so hard not to be her own parents that she went a little too far in the other direction and Suyin began to feel like it didn't matter what she did, her mom wouldn't care, or get angry, or discipline her, or anything. Lin and Suyin butted heads a lot growing up, too, especially after Sokka's death, because Lin tried to rein in her sister's behavior and this was met with resistance and derision because Suyin felt like Lin was trying to be both mom and dad and she was neither but her big sister would never admit to being just as lost as she was and it made her furious.

So when Suyin is sixteen, and Lin is twenty-two and new to the force, The Big Rift happens. Lin catches Suyin and her gang, tries to apprehend her, gets a scar on her face in the ensuing conflict. But instead of abusing her power and sending her problem child off to her mother before fucking off to the swamp to avoid the consequences of her actions, Toph tries to actually fix things. Suyin cools her heels in prison for a while, because she was paralyzed by guilt at the time when she hurt her sister (a few inches lower and she could have slit her throat), and was still there when Lin's backup arrived.

Uhhhhhhhhhhh..... I'm so sorry I rambled for so long, BUT THE UPSHOT IS: I think Suyin learned a bit about culpability and taking responsibility for her own actions, Toph realized that her daughters had different needs than she did at their age (and I think a lot of the problem was that grief clouded her own ability to connect with her daughters, and in trying to not be her own parents she lost sight of how to be the parent her own daughters needed), and Lin, I think, had to realize that she had never fully processed the loss of not one but two fathers and had turned to her job in order to avoid actually confronting the grief that had overshadowed her childhood.

However, she did not forgive Suyin, at least not right away--and she wasn't forced or expected to. Suyin understood that she crossed a serious line, she took her lumps and did her time, and no one shamed Lin for her anger. I think, as a result, she had less reason to hold onto that bitterness, and perhaps by the time the story actually begins, she and Suyin are on much better terms, though I haven't worked it out exactly yet.

UHHH yeah I went on for days lmao. All of this is subject to change, too, depending on the needs of the story whenever I get around to actually writing it all down, BUT these are my initial thoughts, at least.

#atla #lin beifong #toph beifong #suyin beifong #tokka #lok rewrite #lok rewrite notes #precious-metal-girl #asked

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kaydeefalls · 3 years ago

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@andrea-lyn tagged me in this one, thank you! I needed a distraction today. :)

20 questions, writer’s edition!

How many works do you have on AO3?

205, which includes fic going back to, um, 2002. YIKES. That’s just about twenty solid years of my life in fic-and-vid form.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,193,124. I remember being privately psyched about hitting the 1 million mark last year, and now I’ve just...blown past it, by my standards. I have written a lot more words for TOG fandom in the past year and change than I have for anything else in quite a while.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Ah, let me see if I can do this math, because I also post vids on AO3 and I have a number of multifandom vids that skew my fandom totals significantly, and then there are the fandoms that wound up with multiple different tags (i.e. MCU vs. Captain America vs. Iron Man, etc). I think about 40 unique fandoms total? Or thereabouts. Enough that I’m not gonna list them all here, that’s for sure.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Logical Deduction (HP, Remus/Sirius, it will never not be hilarious that this is my most “popular” fic)

it's like one of us woke up (XMFC, Charles/Erik, still baffled by this one, too)

she's the one that they call old whatsername (Star Trek AOS, girl!Kirk, fuck yeah)

life is very long (TOG, Joe/Nicky + found family, luck of the timing in terms of posting)

ampersand (MCU, Steve/Bucky, this one pleases me)

I’m genuinely happy that my top five are in five different fandoms, that feels very representative of my fannish history.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, always, unless I accidentally miss one. Just to thank them, if nothing else (and frequently I can’t think of anything else to say), because feedback really does mean the world to me and I appreciate every comment so, co much.

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

I was more into writing angst in my younger days. Lately I feel like the world is depressing enough, if I’m going to put a story out into it I’m at least gonna give it a hopeful ending. So, probably one of my Remus/Sirius fics - let’s go with The centre cannot hold. IDK. Not really willing to trawl through my oldest stuff to find something angstier.

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

Most of them, honestly! I love happy endings. Picking The Pride Pact at random because it’s one of my most uncomplicatedly romantic/fluffy fics.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

WHY YES I DO. Mostly of the fusion sort rather than just randomly throwing characters from two different fandoms together to see what happens. “Crazy” is not my favorite term -- I don’t write crackfic, as a rule -- but most RANDOM on the outside is probably The Conspirator's Gift. X-Men fusion with the Brother Cadfael series, because...reasons.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not as such, and I’m incredibly lucky to have dodged that particular bullet so far. Harsh and not terribly constructive criticism, once or twice that I can remember, but I would not consider that hate.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Very, very, very rarely. My characters have sex, but not explicitly described onscreen for the most part. I don’t enjoy writing smut at ALL, it’s pretty much my least favorite thing to write (that I’m still willing to write at all, however vaguely).

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! It’s awesome.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, never. I have no idea how people come together to cowrite fics, I’ve never had fannish friends quite like that. It seems like a really cool process! Maybe someday I’ll have the opportunity, it would be fun to give it a try.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

That’s not how I work. I may only OTP hard for one ship per fandom, but never ask me to rank my fandoms against each other, that’s not fair. Right now I’d say Joe/Nicky, of course, because that’s the fandom I’m most active in, but all time favorite? God only knows.

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

Don’t you come at me like this. Fortunately, I rarely post WIPs when they’re still, you know, in progress. And I WILL fucking finish the Finn/Poe fic, goddamnit.

What are your writing strengths?

Character voices. Coherent plots. Bit of romance. IDK, I feel like my fics are pretty consistent in terms of quality. Whether it’s a quality you like or not is purely subjective.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Smut. Action sequences in general -- I CAN write them, but they’re a slog and I hate every minute of it.

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

It really does depend on the context. If the character is mostly speaking one language but includes a single word or phrase in another, I lean toward writing it out. Otherwise, just indicating that a different language is being spoken is enough, if the POV character understands it then please translate for the reader.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

X-Files. I was very young then. Those fics are NOT on AO3.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I hate playing favorites! The answer to this will change at any given moment. For the moment, for TOG, let’s just say lessons exquisitely crafted and move on.

Tagging, um, @knoepfchen, @werebearbearbar, @turtletotem, @ladynox, @brendaonao3, @lindstrom2020, @lyricfulloflight, and anyone who wants to play!

#fic meme #ask me anything

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poisonheadcrabsalesman · 4 years ago

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More therapy thoughts part 1/?

Behavior Theory Frameworks/Conditioning and What the fuck does Master Chief talk about in therapy?

Ramblings below - like a lot, like I spent too much time writing this and you should not read this

Behavioral Theory could work well as a framework with rehabilitating Spartan IIs if the case worker focused on Operant Conditioning Theory and Cognitive Social Learning Theory, which I talked about in this ask because I think I’m funny and this blog is an archive of me applying human behavior theories to video games.

Spartans have always been taught the mission comes first! Always! The 2s are indoctrinated from age 6-14 and then have that reinforced the rest of their lives. From the beginning they are taught to push themselves to the limits, earn their food by winning, form bonds with teammates but be ready to sacrifice them for the mission. The whole lives wasted vs spent conversation between John and Mendez after the augmentation surgery!

What the UNSC/ONI wants comes before their lives, the lives of other soldiers, civilians, AI etc. This constant conditioning of expectations and rewards has created the norms cemented in their minds. This becomes standard operating procedure.

Spartans are also an entirely separated social group, other people have made really great posts on how they are Othered and have their own way of communicating with body language. ODSTs hate Spartans, marines see them as cyborgs or saviors, and while they’re allies, Spartans are not seen or treated as human, by literally everyone. They are a means to an end, with the original goal being to maintain the UNSC’s position of power and crush the insurrectionists in the outer colonies, but uh oh Aliens!

Maybe the 2s aren’t as expendable as the 3s but the mindset and reinforcement of “mission first, people second” being repeated their entire lives is going to stick. So is the constant mistreatment and abuse from their fellow soldiers and handlers.

Addressing the cognitive distortions that come from their upbringing while also balancing the fact that Spartans are so fundamentally different from the way they developed to survive would be so much work, especially considering how much information on them is given to their therapist. The main distortion I would apply is minimization, making large problems small and not properly dealing with them, and specifically for John, personification, accepting blame for negative events without sufficient evidence.

Like these are grown ass super soldiers who can kill you in less than a second and calculate the amount of gravity in a room on the fly but then also can flounder when trying to comfort civilians or make small talk because their experiences and values are so alien to adults who had more developmentally “normal” lives.

Literally applying therapy to Spartans would be like, what was done to you was wrong, the ends do not justify the means, you were children and the adults in your life failed to protect you. You are a human person who is fallible and did the best you could with what you had. And the Spartan would say, “sounds fake but okay, can I pass my psych eval and go back to war now please?”

Jumping back to Behavior Theory

Different approaches to therapy under the Behavior Theory umbrella help modify negative behaviors with treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical behavior therapy that teach individuals adaptive coping like emotional regulation, distress tolerance, cognitive distortions, and interpersonal communication. And that’s just one framework under the umbrella of human behavior theories.

Social work therapy is different from psych as it approaches individuals with heavily researched, evidence-based theories and frameworks in a holistic viewing of person-in-environment, instead of a strong focus on internal psychology.

Social work looks at all the interacting systems, environment, history, and internal and external factors affecting an individual. One of the most useful frameworks is the Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Frameworks (BPSS) when helping a client. It helps with identifying all the intersecting factors, both risk and protective, that shapes a client’s lived experiences. The most important thing to remember is that the individual is an expert in their own life, they know their experiences best.

The hardest part is applying this to Spartans because they Are So Fucked, their lived experiences, their environments and systems and institutions interacting with them, and the amount of their personal information that is probably so classified.

BPSS is a tool to help social workers assess individuals and their situations by collecting info that is related to the presenting issues and current and past circumstances. Info like medical history, hospitalizations, substance abuse, mental illness, personal relationships, family history and background, culture and norms, education, legal history, spirituality and participation etc. is all under this framework.

For Spartan 2s most of this info is lost or classified and helping someone who has repressed every negative emotion they've had for the sake of the mission would be so much to unpack but that’s also why you’re reading the mad ramblings over an over caffeinated nerd on the internet.

Life Course Theory which looks at developmental milestones and the individual’s experiences versus the socially expected markers, how do you apply that to children who were taken and have lived such different lives?

While early adolescence is when “normal” development of thoughts of self and identity take place alongside the physical changes of puberty, Spartans were being turned into emotionless calculating weapons. Sorry John, no forming a sense of identity and peer bonds for you, go kill that Watts guy who betrayed us and joined the insurrectionists.

And now that I’ve gone this insane and opened 2 whole textbooks up, let’s get to Master Chief thoughts. If you’ve read this far thank you, I swear I’m normal, 2020 has just been a weird year.

Why the fuck did I think I could write a therapy fic on a guy with 20 minutes of actual dialogue across almost 2 decades of games?

I make fun of him and call him a himbo, but he’s smart, he knows he’s being used and there is resentment there that’s been building for years.

There’s also decades of trauma and combat experience, physical, and emotional abuse, the lack of a support network, lack of an identity, the biological factors and aftermath of the augmentations and injuries he’s received, a whole lot of grief and self-inflicted guilt.

The loss of a third of his peer group with the augmentation surgery, Sam’s death, the loss of Reach (the only place he’s considered home), Keyes, the Pillar of Autumn crew, Miranda Keyes, Johnson, Cortana. He cares about the marines who fight with him!!!

He just stands there and takes it and rarely snaps, and even then it’s just small cracks on the surface with fissures running deep. The few details I will pull from Halo 5 are Blue Team’s reactions to John pushing himself so hard from the beginning of the game, and the literal crack in his armor from the fight with Locke. Like dude.

John’s a leader and will get the mission done but he tugs on the leash. He’s earned enough of a reputation and uses it to get his way.

Halo 2’s “Permission to leave the station” with Mr. “I’m going to hand deliver a bomb to the fusion reactor of a covenant supercarrier and hope my friends catch me”.

Halo 4 is when we see him say no to a superior officer and then 5 is him going AWOL. Palmer literally points out that no one is going to stop him.

Halo 5 kills me for many reasons but John bringing up Halsey and what she did to him and also pointing out that he knows Halo 5 Cortana is trying to manipulate him with psychological tactics hurts.

He knows what’s been done to him!

I cannot remember which book it was but John isn’t used to working alone. He literally takes fire because he was expecting someone to have his back!

He’s lost without Cortana! She was in his brain! Y’all! I played Halo Combat Evolved on the original xbox when I was like 8 and I knew these two were meant to be together. From the moment they met they had great chemistry and relied on each other! Cortana literally goes after people who have it out for John! John wants her approval and shows off for her in one of the books.

I’ve already written too much here but like all of the games have John showing off for Cortana, making dry jokes, jumping out of things he shouldn’t.

The whole point of this rambling is to try and get my thoughts about how to approach John’s character under control.

And that’s the thing. He’s lost control. He’s lost people, he’s losing his position and being phased out as an aging spartan, a relic. John’s used to following orders and making some decisions on the battlefield but it was always short term.

He has no identity beyond being a weapon. Complete the mission, clear the LZ, get put in cryo. Rinse, repeat.

The timeline of the games are what I'm most familiar with but with the comics and books too it’s one long run from Halo 2 to Halo 4. Cairo station to the Dreadnought to the crash landing to Forward Unto Dawn to Requiem to “The Didact is Dead but not really but we’ll deal with him off-screen”.

I know Hood apparently gave John R&R orders before Halo 5 that he ignored and kept running himself into the ground. This is a man who has to keep moving and keep being useful.

I imagine him giving in and seeking help as a last resort to fix any problems he has with performing his duties rather than helping himself be healthier.

Any professional he sees is going to have to approach him like they’re approaching a self sacrificing feral cat, with lunch meat and quiet. This man needs to have his support network closer, set up long term goals, and do some serious, and most likely incredibly painful, self reflection on where he’s come from and where he wants to go. Get him out of that tin can and into therapy. I don’t have a nice neat ending because this was a ramble and also therapy is not neat and tidy. Thanks for reading my words about mr halo

#this is not coherent but it needs out of my brain #John - has different characterizations based on what media he's in #Me - my writing must be in character or I Will Die #also me - we don't talk about halo 5 but i will loot its corpse for bits of lore I like #im sorry for being like this #my writing #Therapy time #John 117 #this is not a halo blog #haha this was peer reviewed nonsense #thanks yall for enabling me #i have even more ideas for the infinity sitcom folder now

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duhragonball · 4 years ago

Text

Janwum Update: 16,141

I’m just gonna think out loud for a minute. Here’s a screencap of Chi-Chi for you to look at while you nod politely during my mad ramblings.

All right, so yesterday I was trying to figure out how Trunks could investigate Luffa’s backstory without altering history, and I considered some sort of alternative time machine tech, like the stuff they use for Parallel Quests, but then I realized they already have something like that in the SDBH games.

The plot of World Mission introduced this idea that SDBH runs on a simulated version of history. Beat and Note are Earthlings who just like playing video games, but the bad guy, Sealas, is trying to use the game as a model for the real world. He changes history inside the game world to see how it’ll affect the game world’s present, and this let’s him test out how his plans will work on the real thing. So the Time Patrol sent Trunks to stop him, and he assembled the Dragon Ball Heroes Team to help him defeat Sealas in the game. Then the tech they use to fight in the game world somehow gets used to give them real powers in the real world, and I have no idea how that works. The point is, it’s a simple matter for Trunks to use the SDBH simulation to investigate clues of Luffa’s origins. He can’t just relive the first 140-odd chapters of my fanfic, because he doesn’t know exactly where or when to go, but he could if he had that information. So this is perfect, I can have him pull an all-nighter in the Hero Lab learning bits and pieces of what I want him to know.

For my part, the biggest hassle I have in working DBH continuity in with Xenoverse continuity is the frequent use of Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta. They’re like alternate versions of the Goku and Vegeta we see in Dragon Ball Super, but they never really explain where they came from. The manga suggested that Chronoa summoned them from Trunks own memory, except he shouldn’t remember anything about Super Saiyan 4, or fusion, or whatever else. Even if there were a suitable account for this, I wouldn’t want to use it, because it defeats the plot of the Xenoverse games. Why should Trunks wish for a partner if he can just call up Goku and Vegeta whenever he needs help? An Xenoverse 1 even ends with Chronoa summoning regular Goku to pitch in against Demigra, so it just doesn’t work. So I’m sort of going with the idea that a lot of DBH stories happened, but without these “Xeno” characters involved.

I think that’s probably in the spirit of the concept. The SDBH games probably only used those characters to beef up the Time Patrol’s ranks, since Trunks doesn’t have a legion of OC’s to back him up like he does in the Xenoverse games. On the flipside, the SDBH anime hardly ever uses Time Patrol Trunks. They just want an extra Goku and Vegeta on hand, for whatever reason. And there’s no sign of Beat and Note, which is kind of weird, since they’re the stars of the game. These things are modular, so I think it’s fitting that I only use the DBH components I want, and not the ones I don’t want.

What was tripping me up was the idea that the SDBH game is somehow able to replicate events recorded in the Scroll of Eternity, like Capsule Corp. has the technology to read this cosmic document and write source code that’s compatible with it. I figure that it must have been a project designed by the Time Patrol. They wanted a simulation for training and research purposes, so they rigged it up within this arcade game. It’s mostly harmless, until a rogue Patroller like Sealas tried to exploit it against them.

The main side effect of all this is that I can’t see a lot of the goofier power ups from SDBH working in my continuity. Trunks had to go Super Saiyan God to defeat Mechikabura, which doesn’t really work with Xenoverse 1, where he has absolutely no idea what Super Saiyan God is. I watched some videos of a playthrough of World Mission and Beat discovers he’s one of Goku’s descendants, and so he eventually learns to turn Super Saiyan Blue. That’s not a terrible idea in a story where SSJ4 Gogeta is teaming up with him, but without Gogeta, I’m probably better off saying Beat doesn’t have divine ki, at least not right away.

I don’t plan on using Beat and Note much, but I would like to do some stuff with them later, but the trouble with that is that I have to write two characters who are pretty thin on personality. That’s not a knock on the games, the whole idea is to have fairly flat protagonists so the player can “inhabit” them better. All I really know about Beat is that he’s a natural at playing SDBH, and he’s a big fan of Trunks’ alter ego, Great Saiyaman 3. And all I know about Note is that she’s apparently not descended from Saiyans, and she addresses Trunks as “Master”. I think there might be an implied romantic connection between them, but they look pretty young in the game and the DB Wiki doesn’t seem to know for sure, so I’m betting that’s just fans reading into things. My big idea for them was to use older versions of the characters, maybe 17 instead of 14, or whatever, and that way they can be a little different from the official versions of the characters because a few years have passed for them.

The main reason I’m going over all this, though, is that I’m not sure if or when I’ll have a chance to circle back to any of this, and some of these details may never make it into the fic at all, so I wanted to make a note of it.

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morethanonepage · 4 years ago

Note

2 and 5!!

2. Why do you write fanfiction?

oh god who knows! bc i can! bc i’m too lazy to find characters/an audience of my own! bc i like the attention!

bc i think i could do a better job than literally every white man out there pushing their nonsense on the page/screen!

bc i believe SOMEONE needs to show characters the respect they deserve & treat them with empathy!

bc i just really, really like writing porn, sometimes!

bc expressing my own feelings is HARD and sometimes it’s easier to do that with fictional characters than ever face up to it myself!!

bc people read it!

etc.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

for john/chas, definitely Adrift -- it’s longer than what i usually do for them, it has a few sex scenes but they’re not gratuitous and it’s probably the best job i’ve done of using the sex scenes to reflect the shift in dynamics between them, and idk, it was really strangely easy for me to write. it’s a bit corny to say so but it genuinely feels like the first adult/mature bit of writing i’ve ever done (not in terms of it’s rating, just in terms of -- it’s approach and it’s treatment of issues).

for finnpoe i’m just -- still really proud to have finished Washington Square. It’s not a perfect fic (as the comments loved to point out to me lmfao) but i think it did what i always want fusion AUs to do -- to use the established plot framework to explore established characters but in a way that isn’t just an exact beat for beat retelling. (if it wasn’t so obviously based on notting hill i would’ve filed the serial numbers down and tried to get it published tbh, that’s how proud of it i am).

also my one and only real foray into gen fic, a strong enough foundation, is all about the world building and the family feels and just -- is really personal to me in the way i try not to let a lot of my fic be (especially with poe/his family, bc i do relate to their story so strongly, i try not to make that too obvious bc i’m always afraid of self-inserting into them too much). but i had a very formative visit to Chiapas when I was in middle school, and that’s right at the border with Guatemala and obviously the jungle and the history has a lot of overlap, so. I have a lot of feelings about Yavin IV.

oh also A Battle, A War, A Growing Up is literally the ONE alex/darwin fic I ever wrote and every time I try to write something else for them I utterly fail at it BUT i love this little thing to bits. i love the literary allusions and the insider DC knowledge (I drove on the GW Parkway often right after I graduated, when I was working at a nonprofit in Virginia). it’s also very personal to me on that level, i think, and i’m glad to have been able to contribute ANYTHING to such a tiny but wonderful pairing.

#Anonymous #fic writing meme

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ladylynse · 5 years ago

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Been on a Sherlock Holmes binge (movies/bbc show/books/etc). At some point I came to the startling realization that Marinette (or the way her thinking is portrayed) is very similar to SH (visually speaking anyway, movies/bbc wise). idk what to do with this?? Not sure if I'd like a xover (SH/Mari meeting would be so much genius)/AU (I seen lots of ML detective AUs but none of them capture that SH feel)/fusion (Mari as SH's descendant? SH as past Ladybug holder?). Your take? (Or free prompt?) Thx!

I haven’t actually read the books. I’ve seen the BBC show most recently, so I’ll focus on that.

For a straight up crossover--which is what I’d do because A) it’s me and B) I’m most familiar with the BBC show, like I said--I would probably put Marinette in London. The class has already done the one trip through the chunnel, and Alya might be able to convince a few people to go on a trip at some point when they’re on holidays if they aren’t going for school purposes, or maybe Marinette indulges in her stalking tendencies and goes to support Adrien at one of the many things he has to do. To be fair, though, that’s mostly so that I could show off that reasoning skill of hers without necessarily having to deal with Hawk Moth, as she could very easily get lost and wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean. You could put Sherlock in Paris--something else he got up to while ‘dead’ or dragged somewhere or sent somewhere under protest or whatnot--but then an attack by Hawk Moth would be a Main Thing, and you would need to have Sherlock reasoning Magic. Let’s face it, if Mycroft catches wind of what Hawk Moth can do, he’ll want to know How and Why and then make sure he can’t do it anymore.

I’d much rather have Marinette in a sticky situation where she can talk to Tikki under her breath but can’t necessarily transform because people have eyes on her, so she needs to use her wits to try to get out, as she always does when utilizing her Lucky Charm. Sherlock might be halfway through his rescue attempt when he finds her, not expecting anyone to get as far as she did. Adrien and his terrible luck could pull the victim card again, of course, but with Plagg, he’d be able to get out of wherever he was held--if he couldn’t transform himself without risking his secret identity, Plagg could go destroy something on his own and take out the entire block and it would be put down to some sort of bomb despite the fact that Sherlock is listing all the reasons that it is very much not a bomb, thank you very much, and he could tell you what it was if he could just get closer-- So, Marinette wouldn’t have as much opportunity to show off her skill. If Alya stumbled into something, on the other hand, while busy snooping out a story because she simply can’t help herself, Adrien and Marinette could work together while not transformed if you wanted to write mild shipping into the fic, since Alya being in dangerous would force Marinette to focus and she wouldn’t lose her head around Adrien, and he could be suitably impressed by how much she is like his lady while supporting her ‘as a friend’ without properly realizing that for him, that holds as much meaning as ‘as you wish’ from the Princess Bride.

I would take magic out of the equation if I did a detective AU, which they probably already do, but having not read them, I’m not sure. (That is to say, Marinette wouldn’t be running around as Ladybug and becoming as infamous as Carmen Sandiego, not unless it’s just a code name of sorts, since then she’s relying on magic as much as her wits.) Then it would really be twisting the setting and the characters, with Gabriel pulling strings behind the scenes, Alya bringing The Problem to Mari’s attention since Alya and Nino are getting death threats and the last one was a bit too on the nose for Nino to let Alya ignore it like the last few, Adrien being an Upstanding Citizen who seems awfully connected to things for not being connected at all, Chloe trying to make sure she’s the one hanging on Adrien’s arm and then disappearing in a Seemingly Unrelated But Really Not happening, Nino defending his best bud the minute Mari starts to make noises about Not Everything Being What It Seems, and so on and so forth.

Sherlock being a past LB could be combined with the descendant AU if you wanted, since then you could flip back and forth between past and present while having a mirrored problem unfold and start to come into focus as things get clearer and clearer since you could attack the same problem from two different sides before making it clear that they scenarios aren’t just relevant, they’re directly related and/or history repeating itself. That fic would probably require the most planning out of any of them because you’d need to know exactly what you were doing before you started writing so you could appropriately seed clues; even in the detective AU, if you thought of a good twist on things, you could probably work it in without much sacrifice. Or you could go more AU still and have the Ladybug Miraculous being a Lost Miraculous that wasn’t with the others, that Marinette found in an attic/somewhere similar or maybe was given by her grandmother Gina, and she could discover more about her past as she discovered the powers--and problems--of the Miraculous. I probably wouldn’t do descendant AU on its own without something more to tie in the plot because otherwise being a descendant doesn’t matter nearly as much, not unless Sherlock’s past problems/cases catch up with her, and that’s harder to justify.

(Feel free to send a separate three sentence fic prompt; I just couldn’t fit all that into three sentences.)

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #sherlock holmes #crossover #musings #fic ideas #ladylynse #asks #Anonymous

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the-kings-of-games · 4 years ago

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GX Month 2020

SUper late and I’m too lazy to do anything (as always), but this seems like fun to think about. So let’s go!

Day 1 (August 31): “Game on!” (It’s Judai/Jaden Yuki’s birthday today! Let’s celebrate!):

Jaden is a great protagonist. I love dumb but OP main characters, especially when they got lucky-go attitudes.

Day 2 (September 1): “Red, Yellow, Blue!” (Ah, the tier system at Duel Academy. Which dorm is your favorite?):

I’m attached to Slifer Red, lol. They got a cat for mascot, what more do I need? Also, they serve tempura for lunch.

Day 3 (September 2): “Rule the School” (These kids might be saving the world, but they’re still students with homework to do and exams to pass. Celebrate the school life today!):

Don’t know what to put here, but I was a terrible student because I didn’t study or do things in a timely manner. Do better than me, kids.

Day 4 (September 3): “Sometimes I Can’t Believe We’re Related” (10Join! Today is all about the iconic brother-sister pair, Fubuki Tenjoin/Atticus Rhodes and Asuka Tenjoin/Alexis Rhodes!):

I love this sibling pair! ^^ Alexis is really cool, and Atticus is so far out of the left field. I really thought Atticus was going to be cool like his sister, or edgy like Zane, but nah, this guy is, like, I just want to support my sister and play this ukulele. They make such a contrasting pair, so it adds to the humor.

Day 5 (September 4): “Pass The Salt” (No story is perfect. So what is something you wish you could have seen in the story of GX?)

I can’t think of anything.

Day 6 (September 5): “Going Down With The Ships!” (You know what I’m talking about. We all have an armada parked in the bay, but there’s that one ship, that one ship, that you would die for. Today is all about OTPs and OT3s!)

I really like Rivalshipping. I don’t really have that many ships for GX. 5D’s and Zexal are more of my jam.

Day 7 (September 6): “Bring the THUNDER” (Ichi! Juu! Hyaku! Sen! Chazz it up! Today the world does in fact revolve around Jun Manjoume/Chazz Princeton.)

HANDS DOWN, one of my two top choices for favorite rival. (Jack’s the other.) My favorite things about Chazz are his name, his energy, and that fact that he’s a baby brother. He’s so cute! ^^ I just want to make fun of him.

Day 8 (September 7): “The Power of Friendship!” (Favorite dynamic duo, two characters you think would have been friends if only they met, how friendship saves the day, or maybe a friendship fail. It’s up to you!):

Chazz and Pharoah, lol. I need Chazz to hold that cat and pet it. Why didn’t he? :’(

Day 9 (September 8): “Born to be Bad” (Inherently evil, brainwashed, misguided, or misunderstood. GX boots a colorful cast of villainy. Who’s your favorite bad guy?):

I haven’t finished season 4 yet, but Nightshroud.

Day 10 (September 9): Free Day/Introductions (Tell us about yourself and your GX experience! Your favorites, why you like it, how you got into it. Or leave the day open to do whatever you want!):

I’m known as kappa. I got Hulu, and Hulu has almost all the YGO series excluding VRAINS and SEVENS which is fine because I also have Crunchyroll and the internet, lol; so, I watched all the YGO series simultaneously, skipping back and forth between series. I did not watch any of them in order. GX was number 5 or 6, but it’s the one series I’m putting off.

Day 11 (September 10): “Cyber Legacy” (No Yu-Gi-Oh! show is complete without a pair of brothers. Today’s stars are Sho Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale and Ryo Marufuji/Zane Truesdale!):

I love these guys! It was great to see them grow and become their own people. ^^ They had, I think, the most realistic relationship.

Day 12 (September 11): “But What If We Had Bikes?” (That’s right! It’s time for the GX crew to rev it up on their very own D-Wheels/Duel Runners!):

I CANNOT DRAW. SORRY LMAO

Day 13 (September 12): “And You Are…?” (Got a favorite OC? Or one you’ve been hiding in the closet? Introduce them to the world today!):

I only have a Rivalshipping OC baby. Her name is Mira Princeton, and she has Jaden’s brown hair and Chazz’s dark eyes (with a bit of a golden glow). Since both her parents can see spirits, it’d make sense that she can too, lol. Her companion is Yata-Garasu, a rare card that her mama won at a tournament. She likes pink and flowers. She is very close to Aster and calls him Uncle Aster. She’s four, and most of her life, she knows her dad as the “Slifer slacker but a really good duelist.”

I love her. :)

Day 14 (September 13): “The Perfect Formula” (He duels with the power math and science! Today, show the world that you still remember Daichi/Bastion Misawa!)

Bastion is a funny character. “Everything is science. I’m going to disappear for several months. Don’t forget to forget me,” I think.

Day 15 (September 14): “Insert pun here” (It’s meme day! Recreate your favorites! Make some shitposts! Be the troll you’ve always wanted to be!):

Bastion: SIr, I’m afraid your DNA is backwards.

Jaden: AND?

Day 16 (September 15): “Creation and Destruction” (The Gentle Darkness and the Light of Destruction. The eternal struggle. And also the Darkness that tried to drown the world. Huh. Feels a little unbalanced.):

It’s pretty cool to have darkness and light reverse, and then watch as darkness conflict with itself, lmao. The Light of Destruction would be a chaotic good, and the Gentle Darkness as chaotic neutral. (Don't quote me on that, I don’t do personality quizzes.)

Day 17 (September 16): “Putting the D in Destiny” (Pro duelist by day and crime fighting vigilante by night. Today is Edo/Aster Phoenix’s day!):

He’s great. I like him. He’s the precursor to Declan Akaba’s D/D/D archetype. Maybe not. Can you believe that he actually said “Shmaden Shmuki on national TV???? LMAO

Day 18 (September 17): “In Another Life” (It’s AU day!):

Currently trying to write a fantasy-ish AU in which Jun marries the Supreme King. Trust me, I have no idea what I’m doing.

Day 19 (September 18): “I Was Here Too!” (GX has a vast array of unique characters, some of which we only saw once. Pick a “one shot” character and show them off!):

I really like Princess Rose. She was pretty, and her spirit monsters care for her. I appreciate that.

Day 20 (September 19): Free Day 2/Support Fellow Creators (Show some love for your favorite creators, or leave the day free for whatever you please!):

Literally @ everyone whose work(s) and/or post(s) I’ve reblogged. Keep up the good work!

Day 21 ( September 20): “Prehistoric Predators” (The dino duelist with a fossil in his leg. Today is all about Kenzan Tyranno/Tyranno Hassleberry!):

Dino DNA is so funny; I’m sorry, Hassleberry, but I don’t like dinosaurs. At least you were cute as one.

Day 22 (September 21): “Stop Blowing Holes In My Ship!” (Some ships are popular and some are…not. Today is all about rare pairs and crack ships! Give those underdogs some love!):

Tanya/Bastion is kind of cute. And I guess Chazz/Atticus too. ^^

Day 23 (September 22): “And For Today’s Lesson…” (The teachers at Duel Academy have their work cut out for them, but they still take care of their students. Show the DA staff some love today!):

Fonda Fontaine!

Day 24 (September 23): “Legend of the Seven Gems” (Resurrect the greatest light in history today with Johan/Jesse Anderson and the Crystal Beasts!):

Johan is very cute! I’m so glad they gave him a Southern accent in the dub. ^^ It makes him extra soft and lovable. I can’t believe that Johan/JIm is called Cowboyshipping, but I love that name so much.

Day 25 (September 24): “For The Glory of Academia!” (We got to see Asuka/Alexis and Edo/Aster over in Fusion Dimension, but what about the rest of the cast? Show us some Fusion counterparts today! What are these dorks up to and what part do they play in the war?):

I’m bad at rewriting canon. ^^: Sorry.

Day 26 (September 25): “Dream Team From Overseas” (Austin O’Brien/Axel Brody, Jim “Crocodile” Cook, and Amon/Adrian Gecko. Today is all about them!)

I absolutely love Jim Cook, from him being Australian to having a crocodile as his best friend to getting burned with a mysterious object to cowboy hat. xD

Day 27 (September 26): “Duel Monster Spirit Day!” (The world of GX is full of spirits. Do something fun to celebrate your favorite!):

Mine would be Scapeghost and Rose Garden Maiden!

Day 28 (September 27): “Gold Eyes in The Darkness” (Today’s all about the Supreme King! Unleash the Darkness and create your content!):

I like his aesthetic. I’m into Chazz/Supreme King for sure.

Day 29 (September 28): “Don’t Forget Me!” (Have an underappreciated character you wish you’d seen more of? Give them some love today!):

Miss Dorothy! She’s wonderful, she’s friend shaped.

Day 30 (September 29): Free Day 3 (Share anything. Anything at all. It’s free game.):

The Chazz/Supreme King fic I’m working on: The Supreme King’s Husband (Prologue)

Day 31 (September 30): “Gotcha!”:

Is this a Pokemon reference? O_o

#kappachyun muses #yugioh #yugioh gx

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experimentaldragonfire-fics · 5 years ago

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experimentaldragonfire’s SU Fic Rec List

Stuck at home? Running out of stuff to read? I figured I’d put together a semi-comprehensive series of fanfic recommendations so that all the hours I’ve spent on AO3 over the years can be considered at least vaguely useful. A lot of these are quite old, so if you’ve only read more recent fics, you might find something that you haven’t seen here!

Please feel free to add your own links and recommendations--I personally would love more reading material! This list will focus on SU fics, but I’ll probably make more for other fandoms going forward if anyone’s interested. Bear in mind that, as I’ve mentioned, since many (most) of these were written a while ago, they might not represent exactly how the plot of the show progressed (though they now provide a pretty interesting look at the older fanfic tropes/theories!)

Also, upfront: most of these, when ships do appear, are Lapidot or PearlRose--clearly, I’m very narrowly-focused on what I read. And if one of your fics is on here and you want to be tagged, let me know and I will do so!

Steven Universe Fic Recs

General (None or canonical/background/multiple ships):

histories by avulle (T, F/F, Gen)

“Pearl (pearl) is born in what would have been the year 100,492 BCE. (She is not older than the entire human race—but only just.)”

An introspective look at the Crystal Gems through the years, written in a style that’s practically poetic and absolutely gorgeous.

Inferior Blue by hTeDruknenPotaT (M, Gen)

"Your name is Lapis Lazuli. Lapis is a fun thing to name your child when your last name is Lazuli, and when your name is Lapis Lazuli, blue seem like a nice color to dye your hair. It's fortunate that blue is your favorite color, that you manage not to despise it after all the blue you've been surrounded by all your life."

Lapis Lazuli meets a strange young boy who helps to heal the scars of her past.

The first time I read this fic, I stayed up until 5AM and cried into my pillow through the final chapters. And it continued to make me cry every time I reread it. Massive angst warning, but if you can handle fics that are beautiful but tragic, this is for you.

capacity by broken_halleluiah (G, F/F)

After a routine council meeting, Pink Diamond insists on repairing a broken piece of equipment. The result is far more than she bargained for.

A fic speculating on the nature of Pearls in Homeworld society, written well before we got to see any of that in canon. As such, it isn’t entirely in-line with later canon, but is still entirely worth reading.

Breaking Down by PTlikesTea (M, multi)

Rose's world view is shattered by a black market pearl and the realization that everything she knows about them is wrong.

An extensively long series of shorter mostly-self-contained stories exploring a version of Homeworld society where Pearls are considered as little more than disposable property. Major warnings for Pretty Much Everything--definitely keep an eye on the tags--but this is an iconic series of works, started in 2015 and predating many of the later revelations about canon Homeworld.

A Gem and Her Pearl (Rose) by Potential Violet (G, gen)

Blue Diamond forces Rose Quartz to get a pearl, changing Rose's life, the pearl's life and the course of Gem history. All relationships begin somewhere, this is the beginning of Rose and Pearl's.

Another take on Rose and Pearl’s meeting, and the status of Pearls in Homeworld society (there’s a bit of a theme here with these recommendations). Again, predates most canon revelations regarding the topics, and predates all of the canon information about the Diamonds.

Pearl, Interrupted by AceyEnn (E, multi)

In August, Steven Quartz Universe was born.

In August, Rose Quartz died in childbirth.

In December, Pearl decides she can't handle any of it.

Or: Pearl Tries To Kill Herself And Ends Up In A Therapy Group Run By Her Best Friend's Mom (Well, One Of Her Moms).

Human AU focusing on Pearl dealing with Rose's death--or rather, not dealing with Rose’s death. Major content warnings for suicide attempts, self-harm, etc (please read the tags), but overall a very well-written story. Still updating, despite being first posted in 2016!

Lapidot:

in which Peridot is Not At All Surprised by the sudden appearance of a new waiter by gaySpaceRock_exe (G, F/F)

Peridot meets the new waiter at her regular restaurant and immediately falls head-first in love.

Cute and fluffy, what more do you need in a fic?

Homesick by DrPaine (G, F/F)

An encounter at the Galaxy Warp.

Short oneshot predating the Peridemption/Barn Arc, can be read as friendship rather than romantic.

Observation by DrPaine (G, F/F)

Peridot is a technician, meant to catch every detail. Not something she’s very fond of, but making yourself aware of your surroundings can be helpful, when you’re slipping into troublesome thoughts.

Incomplete but very much an introspective look at Peri’s character as perceived back in 2015-ish. Not as much focused on romance as on concepts of identity and anxiety.

Of Stage Lights and Stage Fright by AcrylicPaint (M, F/F)

All Lapis wanted was to participate in the local production, but there was a minor element she hadn't taken into consideration when she agreed to take the leading role, and that was; dealing with the cute techie's constant staring.

That, and the fact she was beginning to stare too.

Human theatre AU, and an excellent completed multichapter fic. I remember that when I first read this, I was in high school and part of the musical, so it was a very topical read--and now it’s the height of nostalgia.

No Regrets by Raptor_Red (E, F/F)

No Regrets, or, the story of how Peridot tried to romance the blue-haired tattoo artist from the parlor across the street

A personal favorite! The writing in this fic is just so nice to read, and though I’m not usually a fan of tattoo artist AUs, this one really managed to make the whole concept make sense within the story. I can’t count how many times I’ve read this fic. Please read this.

12 O’Clock at Your Local King Soopers by InsomniacArrest (T, F/F)

Lapis works late night shifts, Peridot is somebody's overworked assistant, they both need more sleep and better people skills: the grocery store story.

Is it a Lapidot fic rec list if I don’t include 12KS? Probably the most iconic fic for this pairing, with good reason. Also, consider this a recommendation for literally everything IA has ever written--there are too many good fics to name them all individually, otherwise they’d comprise half of this entire list.

Of Meteors and Minimal Speech by Waypaststrange (moonbeatblues)(F/F)

In which things at the barn settle down, nobody speaks much, and strange lights appear in the sky.

Vaguely fluffy oneshot, very cute!!

Awkward Office Encounters by SilverEyedRukia (T, F/F)

Due to a broken down air conditioner on a scorching hot day the computers' overheated systems need fixing. Luckily for everyone a blonde technician is up for the job, but unbeknowst to them the IT nerd turns out to be someone they didn't expect her to be, especially not Lapis who kind of asked her out on a date already.

Human workplace AU, starts off relatively comedic but gets into Emotional Territory towards the end.

Camp Pining Hearts by kamanzi (M, F/F)

Peridot and Jasper return to summer camp after their freshmen year of college--this time, as counselors. Peridot is disappointed to learn that nothing is quite the same, especially her relationship with her best friend. Whose fault is this? She blames Jasper's girlfriend.

“‘Let’s go back next year and be counselors,’ she said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ she said.”

Human summer camp counselors AU that’s definitely long enough to use up some stuck-at-home-self-isolating time.

A Week by teamchaosprez (E, F/F)

Who knew that a single night of drunken sex could push Peridot and Lapis from being roommates with a mutual crush to regularly fucking and maybe - just maybe - eventually becoming girlfriends and standing up to the homophobia surrounding both of their family lives.

A human college AU focusing a lot on working through interpersonal relationships and coming to terms with emotions

Set Me Free by cym70 (T, F/F)

Being roommates gives Lapis and Peridot a lot of time to get to know each other and, despite their rocky history, they might just be able to make something entirely new.

A friends-to-lovers fic, post-Barn Mates. Very sweet!

Waltz of the Nian by QuickYoke (T, F/F)

Lapis doesn't understand fusion at heart, but she does know she's an unideal partner for it.

Lapis' relationship with fusion, and also Peridot. A fic that basically encapsulates the ideal of profound prose that makes you feel things, even if you don’t precisely know how or why.

Pushing by Like Hearts by mautadite (T, F/F)

“Sounds like you’re really counting on that road trip magic.”

(Peridot and Lapis do Midway City, and Empire City, and Plateau Ville, and all the places in between.)

Canonverse road trip, because every rec list needs a “the characters go on a long journey together and find themselves, and each other” fic. And because this fic made me feel so many emotions.

A thousand years (F/F)

I have died a thousand years, waiting for you.

Childhood friends-to-adult-lovers human AU, one of the fic tropes that always just punches me in the face with feelings.

#fic rec list #su fic recs #lapidot fic recs

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all-hail-stevinel · 5 years ago

Note

Breakdown spinel’s character ?😳

yasssss i was hopin for one of these!!!

How I feel about this character

Oh, Spinel is the absolute Love Of My Life! My fav character used to be a close tie between Pearl and Pink Diamond but once that stretchy bitch kicked Steven in the face to start her Villan Musical™, she basically bounced her way into my heart and took the top slot. I love her oh so dearly, not only for her Tragic Background™ but all the potential she has as a character. Shes so...traumatized, and it really resonated with me during the scenes where she was shaking because she thought Steven was going to leave her, (having irrational anxiety and explosive outbursts because of it hit so close to home) and the heartbreaking scene where shes hitting his shield until she collapses into tears. I used to be a really angry teen, having been abused and mistreated for so many years turning me into an angry, vengeful person that I hated being. So when I saw her collapse and cry “What am I doing? Why do I want to hurt you so badly? I’m supposed to be a friend… I just want to be your friend.” guys I shit you not that scene is my fav and it took my heart and soul along with it

All the people I ship romantically with this character

lol, do y’all really gotta ask? Of course shipping her with Steven is my main squeeze. I just really like their chemistry and the potential their relationship could unfold into, both in healthy and non-healthy ways. I do also like Spinearl, or spinel x pink pearl (i refuse to call her volleyball lol) but I’m really just in it for the art, its not something I’m overly interested in enough to read fic about or create myself. I do also ship AU versions of spinel with jasper, yellow pearl, our pearl, and garnet, but its really more of a passing thing than any actual interest. A personal fav tho is steven x Connie x spinel, bc I’m poly and LOVE ot3’s, so it all works out lol.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Oof, that’s hard to narrow down. Outside of romance with steven, seeing spinel interact with any other character is well and truly my fav thing. I just think she could provide such amazing insight into everyone’s lives, from Garnet, amethyst, all the pearls, the diamonds, and even jasper. Bc of her experiences as a glorified toy and her subsequent abandonment, I feel like there’s a whole hidden trove of treasures in spinels history and personality that could really resonate with other characters that id personally love to explore. Like, with our pearl there’s the unspoken history they share with pink and how she really abandoned both of them. With garnet, there’s the fact that as a fusion shes never alone, compared to spinel who now has to come with grips that she was abandoned for millennia. There’s amethyst, and the shared feeling of not being good enough and the threat of being forgotten. Even with jasper, if you go into the dark meta of why spinel is so strong and indestructible, mostly for Pink’s personal use like jasper was, there’s that to relate to.

but personally, i like the idea of her being depressed bff’s with lapis and peridot, lol its why i make them close in my fics

My unpopular opinion about this character

Ooooo im gonna start shit with this comment. Real stir the pot nonsense. Personally, i love all aspects of fiction, from the grotesque fucked up dead dove kinda horror to the fluffiest sweetest whump, all the way to the lusty smut. I love it all and love observing a character thru different lenses is mad fun but personally I feel the fandom was a little too hype to focus on the darker/yandere aspects of spinel rather than the potential she had as the most mature character on SU. i mean, did she lose her shit and try to murder a whole planet? Yah, but so have many other characters. What interests me about spinel is not only did she repent in under a day, she also made the active choice to leave the (semi)unconditional support steven offered her to seek her own growth, knowing that currently she was too toxic to really be a good friend and wanted to become healthier without his help, which is what actually drove me to start my own tumblr acct for it tbh. I’m not gonna police ppl and tell them what to write, im just gonna write the stuff I personally wanna see, which is how mature and self-aware spinel is rather than her more darker qualities.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I’m still holding out my breath for the last half of suf to come through, but just in case they don’t I really want a confrontation between Spinel and a stressed-out Steven. I want spinel to be the one to recognize the signs of steven feeling alone and left behind, leading to him acting out and behaving irrationally, something she could really relate to. I want to uncover more about the history of her creation and life with Pink, and for her to be the person who helps steven instead of asking him for help like every other character does.

#suf #steven universe #spinel #su #asks #meta #my personal opinions lol #dont @ me #i said what i said

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antihero-writings · 4 years ago

Text

A Touch of Song and Salem (Ch2)

Fandom: Hetalia (Firefly Crossover)

Summary: Earth got used up. They got used up. So the nations of the world had to flee into the black...but they'll only ever be half alive now.

America forgot how to smile at the academy...but maybe a day out planetside is all she needs. Hopefully the people on said planet won't try to burn her down.

(A fusion-style crossover with fem!America and Canada from Hetalia in the Firefly universe, cast as Simon and River during the dance and witch scenes of the episode "Safe.")

Notes: Written for my friend @ladynephthyss’ birthday!! The characterizations of the Hetalia characters are based on her characterizations of them!! (She plans on posting some Hetalia stuff soon, please go check her out!!)

We both love Firefly, especially Simon and River, and as I love writing fusion-style crossovers I thought this would be perfect!!

I’ll reblog this with links to Ch1, as well as reblog ch1 with ch2 soon!!

If you enjoy this fic, please consider commenting and/or reblogging!! It really means the world to me!!

Chapter 2:

Amelia doesn’t remember everything. She doesn’t remember every war between countries, every petty squabble between her family. She doesn’t remember all the things Jackson said when he was angry, and Roosevelt when he was calm. She doesn’t quite remember how she felt when it rained after too-long summers. She doesn’t remember the feeling of wildfire, of too-long winters where they had to eat the men after all. Of every man hunt over silly things like color, if we’d like to share everything after all. Not entirely. She doesn’t quite remember what it was to have fields, open and untamed.

She doesn’t remember Roanoke; she doesn’t remember Salem. She tries not to.

She doesn’t remember how the sea boiled, the earth choked, and the sky burned when they had to move off world.

She doesn’t remember what it felt like to burn.

She doesn’t remember everything from the academy. She doesn’t remember how school was more like that of fish; that they had to stick together or they’d be picked off one by one and devoured. She doesn’t remember how they shoved needles into her brain like toothpicks, and gobbled up the pieces, her thoughts appetizers—(so what was the main course?).

She, smart girl, sane girl, doesn’t remember sending letters made of jumbled notions, speaking of monuments and worlds they’d never seen, events to which they’d never been. A fraud in coded verity. She doesn’t remember laying, eyes open, knowing tomorrow would not be molded together out of sunshine, and rain, and open air, it would be sewn out of blood and their own brains.

What she does remember...fragments. A flash here. An emotion there. She sees ghosts. Some benign. Some…not so. And she’s not always sure what’s a ghost and what’s a figment, a figment of yesterday, or just today’s unlucky daydreams. Though perhaps she’s always seen them.

She feels things. Too much.

She doesn’t remember everything. All of American history is too much for one girl’s head.

But she does remember Matthew.

She remembers how much he risked to save her from the needles. She remembers the feeling of his arms around her for the first time since she left him—(all for the sake of a little knowledge…She hated how she could be so petty sometimes). The way he still, after all this time, smelled like maple, and freshly fallen snow, and cigarette smoke. How he saved her.

(Though some of her got left behind.)

She remembers how Matthew danced with her, long ago—though the occasions bleed together.

They never much liked parties.

She remembers sitting curled up with him, and a good book, by the fire, petting a dog with her toes. Thinking of home. Knowing they were close enough.

So when they take him…she forgets how to smile.

It’s a game, surely. Hide and seek. She remembers that, at least. She must be “it”.

That thought alone keeps her from breaking. Breaking. Breaking the world down, herself in it.

So she counts to ten, and she runs. Through the forest, each tree—(no sweet sap from them this time of year)—like scarecrows pointing no particular way, just there to scare off the birds, and maybe a sensitive child or two.

She remembers the farms, and the wind over the wheat, scarecrows like sentries.—Why do they say ravens are bad omens?—The farms, the plantations, and the songs gliding over them, songs of a home those working in the fields could never return to.

And she finds him. He wasn’t hiding altogether well. In fact, he’s with people out in the open, some strangers—Are they friends? Are they playing too?

“Found you~!” The smile returns. It’s okay. He’s safe. They can go back to dancing now.

The horror in his eyes tells her the world might just have to break after all.

“Amelia! Amelia, no!” He breaks free from the not-so-friends holds, grabbing her too tightly, pushing her away.

“Found you—!” She repeats the words, though the tone is entirely different, choked ang confused, as the men wrap their arms around her, and their grip is not kind, and they smell like blood.

Well…if they are to return to the needles…at least they will be together.

******

Matthew knocks lightly on the door to Arthur’s study and walks in, despite having been given no sign of welcome.

Arthur is sitting at his desk, his glasses on the tip of his nose, scrutinizing a book, his brow creased a little too hard.

Matthew sits in the chair across from him, and sets the letters down in front of him; the topic of conversation.

There is a full cup of tea on the table in front of Arthur.

Full? Yes. Steaming? No.

Arthur never lets tea go cold.

That alone would be enough to warrant the next words;

“Something’s wrong.”

Arthur looks up, those blue eyes stormy and perfectly clear at the same time. “Yes, I gathered that as well.”

“You called me in here?” France knocks lightly before marching in. Despite it being Arthur’s study, Matthew is the one who responds;

“Yes.” The Canadian is tapping his foot a little too much, a little too quickly, a dull ache in his bottom lip. “It’s about Amelia’s letters.…Didn’t they seem strange to you?”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one.” Francis sits by the bookshelf. “They seemed quite odd indeed. Especially the part about the Darbanville’s. We don’t know anyone by that name.”

“What do you think is going on?” Arthur’s eyes fix on Matthew.

Matthew looks between them, then at the letters, the words rearranging themselves on the pages. He hoped they wouldn’t think he was crazy.

“I think there’s a code.”

The two older men exchange a glance, slight surprise on their faces, then resolve. Matthew presses on.

“We get a few letters, then nothing, then this? …She’s trying to tell is something.” The knot in his stomach just keeps getting tighter, the ache in his lip sharper. “Something that someone doesn’t want her to say.”

There’s a moment of thought

“…What do you suggest we do?”

He looked down, fidgeting with his hands before looking up, fire in his eyes.

"We go get her.”

******

The moon is particularly bright this night. Not whole. Almost. Just a little bit off. Like them.

The moon. In the sky. Where it belongs. Something from a spellbook, that would turn them into wolves when drunk on starlight. Not just a dull hunk of rock in the vacuum-shield in front of them.

On better worlds this would have been a quiet night. There would be crickets and frogs, and a brother and sister would have smoked weed or tobacco, lying on the grass and named the stars. On better worlds they would have spoke of life, and politics, and absolutely nothing at all.

On better worlds Salem had ended.

But this is not a better world.

So everything is so loud. The shouts of a people who forgot they lived in a universe where superstition was just that renders the silence speechless. They speak of God, and broken little girls, and this not-Earth resonates with their tones. One word rings through the mob like gunshots, and everything sounds a little too much like yesterday.

The word, the yesterday it conjures, mix into poison in his veins, which turns to venom on his tongue.

Matthew marches up to the patron. A respectable man, with a sense of justice. A cruel man; a sense, yes, but he filled the blanks in the wrong order. The words a bitter demand, and not a plea. No desperation in his voice, no hesitation; his head is level, and he thinks the patron’s is too. The trade would be fair and simple. There’s still hope. There’s no reason to resort to anything drastic just yet. The anger in his voice is barely bleeding through;

“Take me instead. Take my life for hers.”

“The witch must die. God commands it.” He didn’t even ponder it in that thick, empty skull of his.

At those statements, the two fists shaking at his sides, want to take this man’s neck and snap it between them, singing an old war song, and throw his body over a cliff, letting hungry waves devour him, or better yet out the airlock, where he will float breathless into the void for eternity…or maybe just lead him into the fire they’re intending to feed his sister to.

He could do it. He wanted to. He could fly away on Serenity’s wings and never have to answer for such a crime. He’s killed better men in wars before. And sometimes outside them.

But, no. He must sit quietly, and watch, and wait for the end. Amelia may not be very happy if her brother killed a man in front of her. Or…

He tried not to indulge the thought that maybe she would.

And when he sees the other men holding torches, torches licking their lips, about to let them lose on his sister—

—Lighting a poor girl on fire for the simple the charge that there was a demon inside her, like we all don’t all have ten or twelve—

All that anger comes pouring out. And before he fully comprehends what he’s doing he runs to them.

“Get away from her!” that venom drips off his lips, his hands fangs, grabbing at their clothes and wrenching them and their orange beasts away.

One of them throws a punch at him. Matthew may look weak, but he has been in far worse brawls against far bigger men, in far darker streets, and these ones just so happen to intend to hurt his sister, so it’s no trouble for him to knock the three of them down.

Once they’re on the ground or clutching their faces he turns to the crowd, rage boiling in his gut—

—Why? Why? Why is it always her? Why do they do this to her? When she was just a girl who wanted to live her life in peace?—

“She has done nothing to you!”

Because she never did. She never did anything to hurt anyone, and they always found some reason to kill her for it. Some charge worthy of death. Some reason to light her on fire. They always do that with the good ones. She knows this better than anyone. And he says the words he always wanted to say, to all of them, sadness breaking through the venom—It was so simple, why couldn’t they get that seeing ghosts is no charge worthy of burning?—

“If she dies tonight it won’t be God’s will that killed her! It’ll be you! Your lunacy! Your ignorance!”

He stares out at them, and they don’t respond in word or action: they don’t try to refute his words, or pull him away. They just stare, their eyes blank, a court of zombies. They’re at a stalemate, neither giving up the floor.

And he does what he should have done long ago, what he should have every time, every time he saw her in pain, every time they persecuted her to the point of torture, or death:

He raises his heel, and takes a step back onto the platform beside her.

“That’s not gonna stop us.” Says one of them.

He resists the urge to say Never once did I think it would.

Amelia turns to him, and he expects to see fear and bloody memory in her eyes—

But she smiles. Like she had hours ago. Like nothing’s wrong. Like they’re still dancing. Playing war games. And she says, calling back to something he told her earlier today;

“Post holer. Digging holes for posts.”

He looks at the post behind them; the one she’s tied to. The one that just might be the death of her.

Post holer. For the ground.

Long ago she had ground. In America. When they caged her wild plains in with fences and wire and laws, plowing holes and raking lines across her amber fields, and it wasn’t always bad, some were nice, there were farmers who just wanted to make an honest living, a pair of explorers, once, who just to see a little bit of the world…

They weren’t always bad, no…but she’d rather be free.

And now they dug a hole, and put in a post to burn a not-quite-girl, with her golden locks, and her wild fantasies—wild fantasies like being happy, some day—this girl who, earlier today, was smiling for the first time since the academy. Some savage mob on an innocuous world dug a hole for a post to burn America down.

He wraps his arms around her, and she is warm, and she smells like hay, and summer, strawberries, and gunpowder.

There’s no hesitation, no pain, nor even anger in the words this time. They are sheer resolve:

“Light it.”

He is willing to die for her. With her. If they can die at all. If they can, it’d be fitting it’d happen out here on a twisted echo of a worse America.

They’ve spent too much time starving in the black.

“Time to go.” Amelia says softly. And the words are not pained or afraid…there’s almost longing there.

If this is it, if this is how things will end, he thinks, it’s not the worst way to go. Fire’s certainly better than water, because at least in fire you can breathe. It’s better than the cold, because the cold has a way of ridding you of feeling before the end. At least in fire you can feel something. Because the cold is slow, and makes you rather eat your friends after all…People don’t do that with fire. He always thought burning would be a fitting end for the Great White North. It’s not the worst way to go; by his sister’s side.

This will be how America and Canada end: on some nameless world, tied to a post, devoured by flames and ignorance. And…they’re alright with that.

Then there’s another sound. A sound that isn’t shouts or flames or anything natural. Something that sounds mechanical. If he was delusional he’d think it was the whirring of a ship’s engine.

He feels a gust of wind brush by him, and a bright light forces him to open his eyes, squinting.

“Well look at this,” Out of the smoke a voice breaks through, and he says it like he came upon a good game of cricket. “Looks like the twins have got themselves into a spot of trouble.”

Arthur is marching through the crowd holding a gun, Francis at his side.

“It appears we arrived just in time. What does that make us?”

“Ehh, how would le’Amerique say it?” France puts a finger to his chin as if thinking, then says in his best attempt at an American accent; “Big damn heroes.”

“Ain’t we just.” England does the same. Then, as he arrives in front of the platform, in his normal accent: “So sorry for the interruption, gents. But it appears you have something that belongs to us. And we’d very much like it back.”

“This is a holy cleansing, you cannot think to thwart God’s will.”

“…Would you be ever so kind as to direct your attention to the lovely lady hanging out of the spaceship with the rather large gun?”

Matthew did the same, only to see Ireland; red hair like flames in the light, another line of red piercing the air as she aimed the gun around, looking like she’d like nothing more than to pull the trigger. He’d been privy to such a look on her face only a few times, and he could confirm hesitation was not in her vocabulary.

“I’d like to introduce you to my sister. She has taken a liking to the girl currently tied to the post, and she might just be in the mood to kill one or two of you. So rather, it’s her will you ought worry about thwarting.” He backs up, speaking to the twins now. “I must say, the two of your’s ability to get yourselves into trouble is near miraculous.”

“…Yes I’m very proud.”

“Cut her down.” And there’s a sting to his words this time.

“She’s a witch.” The patron says, as if, upon hearing the words, Arthur will reply Oh? A witch? I wasn’t aware. Go about your business.

“Quite frankly, I’m surprised you’re bright enough to notice. Yes, she is. But she’s our witch.”

His eyes aim at the respectable man, and they’re far more threatening than the gun pointing at his head. The words contain a venom related to Matthews, but it’s the way his eyes blaze that remind Matthew that he’s watched the world burn more than once;

“So cut her the hell down.”

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buckybarnesbingo · 5 years ago

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BBB Week 4 Roundup! Some good stuff lies ahead, so go find it!

Title: Just Before Dawn Collaborator: grimeysociety Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - Isolated or Trapped Ship: Bucky/Darcy Rating: Teen Major Tags: Brief mentions of animal cruelty, Fluff and Crack, Magical Realism Summary: One day, Darcy rescues a dog and then a gorgeous naked man appears in her living room that night. Word Count: 6148

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Title: The Stark Robo Sucker 5000 Collaborator: crazycatt71 Link: AO3 Square Filled: C1 - Sensation Play Ship: WinterHawk, Bucky/Clint/Steve/Tony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Fucking machines, exhibitionism, Dom/sub undertones, orgasm denial, wrist cuffs Summary: Clint & Bucky put on a show with the Stark Robo Sucker 5000 Word Count: 1174

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Title: Dummy’s faboulous ideas Collaborator: Menatiera Link: AO3 Square Filled: C5 - Sidekick Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Matchmaker bots, fluff Summary: Dummy is determined to help the people he cares for. Jarvis is concerned, Bucky is amused. Word Count: 744

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Title: Nutritional Value Collaborator: Judy_The_Dreamer Link: AO3 Square Filled: B5 - Bucky/Steve Ship: Stuckony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: a/b/o dynamics, PWP, power dynamics and kinks, past mpreg Summary: Sometimes the first taste is not enough and you find yourself hungering for more. Tony, Steve and Bucky come to terms with what transpired in Joystick. Word Count: 13,739

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Title: Let Someone See Right Through Collaborator: avintagekiss24 Link: AO3 Square Filled: B1 - Kink: One Night Stand Ship: Bucky/Reader Rating: Explicit Major Tags: drinking, implied mention of death, past infidelity, smut, sex, a little bit of angst, oral sex (female receiving) Summary: Two strangers meet at a bar on their birthday. Word Count: 4446

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Title: Darcy, Bucky and the Hundred Acre Wood Collaborator: grimeysociety Link: AO3 Square Filled: B5 - Sunshowers Ship: Bucky/Darcy Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Darcy and Bucky are transported into the world of the Hundred Acre Wood. Word Count: 2163

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Title: Into the unknown - Chapter 1 Collaborator: diner_drama Link: AO3 Square Filled: U3 - little sister Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Frozen AU Summary: Bucky has everything under control. He's the hereditary leader of a small and prosperous country. He lives with his beloved sister and her fiancé in a beautiful castle, and his people are safe and well. He also happens to be in control of the power of ice, but he's got that working for him now, so that's not an issue. But when he closes his eyes, he can hear a siren's song calling him from the far North. Word Count: 800

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Title: Taps Collaborator: Ribbonsflying Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Vulnerability Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: flashback to deaths of unnamed characters, some blood obviously because vampires, drinking blood Summary: Bucky nosed into Steve’s neck and rested his head on his shoulder. “Now I know why you refilled my juice without being asked.” “No, it’s because I’m a sweetheart," Bucky protested. Steve scoffed playfully. “Sweetheart, my ass. There’s nothing sweet about you.” Word Count: 2357

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Title: Petals - Chapter 1 Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - hanahaki disease Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Hanahaki Disease Summary: Steve Rogers knows what it's like to be sick. With actual illnesses that exist, like the asthma that always gets worse in the spring. But when he starts coughing up flower petals, rational explanations fly out the window. But is it really possible that he's contracted a fatal case of lovesickness? Word Count: 681

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Title: What About Us? Collaborator: pherryt Link: AO3 Square Filled: C1 - One Night Stand Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Canon Divergent, Tower Fic, A/B/O dynamics, explicit sexual content Summary: Bucky's come in from the cold, Steve is being Steve, Tony wants to throw a party and Bucky has no idea who the Alpha is who asked him to dance (or why, when Bucky's been hiding in the corner all night to avoid people), but it suddenly looks like more than dancing is on the menu. Word Count: 3091

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Title: The Road To You Has Been Fractured With Torment Collaborator: visionarygalaxy Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y4 - Bondage Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, PTSD, Dom/sub, Kink negotiation. fluff Summary: Bucky and Steve reconnect after everything they've been through, slowly and carefully. Word Count: 1284

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Title: and now, the end is near - Chapter 3: Three: Clint Collaborator: hawksonfire Link: AO3 Square Filled: C2 - Heat Ship: Bucky/Steve/Clint Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content Summary: A three-part tale in which our boys are content. Word Count: 4316

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Title: Petals - Chapter 2: Don't forget to tip your barista Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: K2 - pining Ship: Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: mild blood/gore sickfic ( hanahaki disease) Summary: Bucky wasn’t even supposed to be here this afternoon. He was supposed to be at the library working on his Urban Policy lab project. But that was neither here nor there; it’s not like Darcy had up and come down with the flu on purpose. Besides, he reminded himself, he could use the money. He could always use the money. -- War veteran turned grad student and barista Bucky Barnes has a thing for a certain Brooklyn twink. Word Count: 2791

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Title: And I Will Wend My Way With You Collaborator: mariana_oconnor Link: AO3 Squares Filled: Chapter 1 - B2: Bucky/Clint Chapter 2 - U5: Jealousy Chapter 3 - Y5: Hair Braiding Chapter 4 - K4: Sharing Clothes Chapter 5 - K2: Kink: Wall Pinning Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Fantasy AU, Mild Dub-con, Slavery, Violence, implied/referenced rape/non-con, explicit sexual content Summary: After four long years, Bucky's mission is finally complete. All he needs to do is leave the Hydra Empire and make his way back to the Kingdom of Brooklyn with the information he has obtained. He definitely doesn't need the added complication of a slave, especially not one as angry and handsome as Clint Barton. Word Count: 29,653

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Title: A Bad Day With Coffee Is Better Than A Good Day Without It - Chapter 1 Collaborator: Trashcanakin Link: AO3 Square Filled: B2 - Bucky/Clint Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Not Rated Major Tags: Pre-Slash, Mutual Pining, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Human Disaster Clint Barton, Deaf Clint Barton, Not Canon Compliant, Not Beta Read Summary: Clint has a terrible, no good, day... Bucky tries to make it better. Word Count: 2491

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Title: End Of All Days - Chapter 11: Part X Collaborator: Minka Link: AO3 Square Filled: U5 – AU: Adventurers/Explorers Ship: Stucky Rating: Mature Major Tags: violence Summary: Captain Steve Rogers had thought his military days were behind him, left in the bloody nightmare that was Saigon. Retired and working as a History Professor, the last thing he expected was to get caught up in a cataclysmic Slavic prophesy foreshadowing the end of the known world.With Cold War tensions running high, Steve finds himself in need of a guide and translator to get him behind the Iron Curtain and into the isolated snowdrifts of Siberia. It’s deep in the heart of Bucharest’s resistance fighters that Steve finds the ideal candidate, but swaying the enigmatic ex-operative known as The Winter Soldier proves to be complicated. Trust is hard-won, especially in the world of espionage, and with a KGB death squad nipping at his heels, the Soldier has countless reasons to stay presumably dead. As the lines between right, wrong and the supernatural begin to blur, Steve is forced to reconsider everything he’s ever believed, right from the sanctity of his own country to the very foundations of creation itself .--- Aka the Indiana Jones/Atomic Blonde lovechild of a fic that literally no one ever asked for but you’re bloody well going to get anyway. Word Count: 47,940

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Title: Siren - Chapter 1: Do you think I'm stuck up 'cause I'm always picking fights? Collaborator: Writing_mermaid Link: Tumblr Square Filled: C3 - Free square Ship: Bucky/Reader Rating: Mature Major Tags: siren AU Summary: Y/N is a mutant, a Siren, the last of her kind, with deadly dangerous powers and a hidden past. If most of the Avengers likes and get along with her, Steve doesn’t, and it’s getting worse when Y/N and Bucky become close. After all what can bring two broken souls together if it’s not a dark past. Word Count: 1479

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Title: What, Like It's Hard? Collaborator: DocOlive Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - crack Ship: Stucky Rating: Gen Major Tags: Legally Blonde fusion Summary: “Hey Buck, w-what’re ya doing with that?” Steve’s looking at him like he’s just grown a third head or something. Shit. What the fuck did I do now? “Sorry, pal, I was just trying to help out a little around here.” Bucky lets go of the handle, letting the big, ugly hammer drop to the floor. “Just clearing things off the floor so I could do a little cleaning before we drown in cat fur.”Big old viking shouldn’t leave his shit all over if he don’t want people manhandling it outta their way. -- Or, Bucky moves Mjölnir while he's cleaning, and doesn't understand what the big deal is. Legally Blonde meets the Avengers. Word Count: 559

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Title: Don't Forget To Write Collaborator: The_Alias (Artemis_Day) Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y1 - Secret Admirer Ship: Bucky/Jane Foster Rating: Teen Major Tags: secret admirer Summary: 'The tenth time, there is no note. Just him.' Jane has a secret admirer, but who could it possibly be? Word Count: 6072

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Title: The reason Nick Fury doesn't do vacations. Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y5 - Rescue Mission Ship: WinterIronFury Rating: Teen Major Tags: Vacation gone wrong, Happy ending, crack(ish), Hydra, mention of animal experiments, Angst and Hurt/Comfort Summary: Tony and Bucky wanted to go on a trip with their third Nicholas Fury. However Nick refused, Bucky and Tony got abducted and… Tony never thought he would see tigers in that state. Word Count: 5473

#buckybarnesbingo2020 #bbb2020 #bbb weekly roundup #bbb week 4 roundup

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ngame989 · 6 years ago

Text

“Été” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 2

Writing: @ngame989

Art: @toxicpsychox (make sure to follow him for bonus pics from the story!)

Editing: @bmc-nightfury, @seddm

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Summer is ending soon, and with the end of summer comes change, leaving Jackie Lynn Thomas feeling left behind. Can a certain pair of friends help her figure it out?

Comic Page

Masterpost

See below for the text, hope you enjoy!

“‘Mewni Welcome Soiree’, huh? The Echo Creek I know could never be this fancy, the fusion must already be rubbing off on it. It’s still no Paris, but c’est la vie.” Jackie grinned as her fingers traced the flier, one of many stapled haphazardly over the park, if not the whole town itself. All sorts of events and musical guests were outlined in shiny bold letters and pictures to get the message across as clearly as possible. The sweet laughter behind her was its own kind of music to Jackie’s ears.

Chlóe hopped over the back of the bench they had been sitting on to join her girlfriend’s perusal. “Surely it can’t be that bad?” she cautiously inquired, the French accent making itself especially pronounced when her voice lilted higher. “I’ve had a wonderful time in your city! And even if I don’t count you as part of that, it’s still been pretty fun.” Chlóe leaned into her as the two exchanged cheeky grins before Chlóe picked one of the fliers off the wall of the pavilion for herself. “Don’t be so down, there are some interesting-looking things here. Where else would I get to see The World’s Fattest Opossum on display?”

“Touché. It might be cool. What else have you got for us, Echo Creek?" The girls looked over their fliers, trying to find anything to peak their interest. Chlóe spotted a peculiar name under the "Bands" list.

"Looks like there's a concert, too. Mysterious Sonograms?"

Jackie's mind flew to the mediocre artists of said band. "It's the two guys from the taco stand and an otter… I think. Surprisingly less awful than you'd imagine, but that's a low bar."

"What about Infatuation Incarceration?"

"Oh yeah, that's the spin off band Love Sentence's head backup dancer started after their final breakup. They're… not really worth checking out though, to be honest. All their songs are just the dude angstily crying about how he's better off without them anyway."

Chlóe spotted the last name on the list. "The last act is a performance of… is this spelled correctly?"

Jackie scanned her own flier where Chlóe was looking. "'Faiurly Local'... someone typo’d it, but it's a good tune. Never heard of the cover band though, so I think I'll pass. Why don’t we head downtown instead? We can go scope out some new parkour spots!”

Chlóe stood up straight and softly grabbed Jackie’s shoulder, meeting her eyes with a concerned expression. “Tu vas bien?”

“Je ne sais pas.” Jackie leaned her elbows onto the back of the bench, finding it more comfortable to focus on the orange-purple evening sky than her girlfriend. “I’m just worried, y’know? About me, about us. I’m super glad you were able to get a flight home despite all this crazy stuff going on, don’t get me wrong, but it’s gonna suck without you here. The whole Earthni thing is cool and all, too - well, except for the name - but I’m just not up to celebrating it.” It was a wound that had been eating away at her, at both of them, for the last few days. Where would they go from here? Neither was really sure, and they’d avoided talking about it at all. Heck, it’s not like either didn’t know that it had to happen eventually anyway, Chlóe was only here for summer vacation, but it still crept up on them far too quickly to process.

The park fell silent as bittersweet memories washed over her, amplifying her anxieties. Skate camp, before 9th grade - that guy left early for a family road trip before she ever got a chance to get his name, compliment his nollie technique, and see where it went from there. When Marco had so obviously left half of his heart in a different dimension, it sucked then too, but she knew they’d both be happier apart. And now Chlóe was hopping on a plane and going an entire world away. Jackie had always considered herself pretty adaptable, able to just roll with whatever life tossed at her, so why was this particular situation affecting her so much more?

She were interrupted by a soft, fleeting kiss on her cheek and a soothing chestnut gaze as Chlóe took her hand. “Let’s at least get some food first. I heard there’s a stand with hot sauce so spicy that they pay you for it. Vaut le voyage, non?” Jackie shrunk into herself a bit and nodded in what she hoped was a convincing affirmation before strapping on her skateboard helmet, and the pair took off through the park.

Earthni was pretty cool, Jackie had to admit. It was as if some guiding hand lovingly melded them together like clay, taking care to keep all the essential functionality. All the moons were placed in the sky in such a way that the net effect on the tides had remained unchanged in the week since the event, cities and towns and even individual buildings still retained their infrastructure, and the sky had a radiant beauty at all hours of the day and night. Come to think of it, from what she’d gathered secondhand, Mewni did seem eerily similar to Earth in a lot of ways; it was as if there was some special connection that allowed them to flow so harmoniously into one another.

Her muted awe was finally morphed into a much more visceral shock, however, by a more metaphorical union of the dimensions that caught her eye as they skated past the concert. She motioned for Chlóe to stop as she dismounted without looking away from the sight in front of them: Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz just dancing their hearts out to some mediocre pop cover like it was a chart topper sweeping the nation - OK, maybe it technically was one since all the monsters and Mewmans were absolutely enraptured by it. To any other observer, there wasn’t even necessarily anything special about what she was seeing - Chlóe’s perplexity was proof of that - but Jackie knew. Maybe what she had with Marco was never the most serious thing in the world, but she knew him well enough to understand the way he looked at Star as they twirled each other and grooved to the beat. Even Star accidentally tripping him and toppling the pair into a heap on the ground didn’t curb their abundant joy. Jackie quickly pulled out her phone and snapped a picture after they’d gotten back on their feet; she couldn’t help but capture the scene.

No sooner had she lowered the phone than Star dipped Marco down and gave him a quick peck on the lips; what phased Jackie far more was that Marco took it entirely in stride. During their time dating, they could barely even hold hands without him becoming a flustered mess. Heck, even just a few weeks ago he was a nervous wreck over their history. It was already obvious what - or who - had enacted such a change, but Jackie still wanted a closer look.

She signaled Chlóe to stay put and dove into the fairly sizable crowd to find a stealthy route to them. Ducking and weaving through the mingling humans and monsters, she found an open space only a few feet from them. Almost… almost… now! Jackie pounced forward, hoping to catch them off-guard, but mistimed it and collided with Marco right as Star spun him out of her embrace. He squealed at the impact and virtually launched himself backwards, sending Star to the ground in a fit of uproarious laughter. “Oh, Jackie, it’s you!” he said, eyes still wide from the shock.

“Jackie? Hi!” Star jumped up and forward to hug her, unconsciously lifting her in the air; that girl really didn’t know her own strength, did she? “How’s it going?”

“I’d rather ask you two that question,” she replied expectantly as she was set back on the ground. Star and Marco grinned and intertwined their fingers with far less hesitation than she would have expected. Well, there was the direct confirmation she sought. “Let me guess, you two had something to do with the whole Cleaving thing.”

Marco rubbed the back of his neck and glanced down at the ground sheepishly. “It’s a bit of a long story, but, uh, yeah, after-” His attention quickly snapped back to Jackie in a panic. “Oh man, your skateboard! And helmet! I’m so sorry Jackie, I just left it at the portal and then Star was there and I didn’t even think to grab it-”

“Dude, it’s fine, my uncle works for the company, remember? I care way more about hearing this story of yours, but that can wait. I should probably, uh, get back to my girlfriend and let you get back to yours.” As soon as the words left her mouth, the previous anxiety crept back in. She tried to shove it away with a casual wink, but her momentary wince didn’t go unnoticed. As she was walking away, she glanced back over her shoulder. “Well, I’m off to get food, see you guys later,” she said with an uneasy cheeriness..

Marco and Star exchanged a quick glance before they hustled over, the boy putting a hand on Jackie’s shoulder. “Hey, is everything OK? I think I’ve seen you not be totally chill, like, one time ever…”

“Eh, could be better.” A brief moment of silence ensued as she centered herself; of the things she’d taken away from her relationship with Marco, being able to admit that stuck with her most. “Chlóe’s heading back home soon and I’m just pretty bummed, you know?”

He took a moment before responding carefully. “Do you two want to join us? We were going to eat soon, too. I’m pretty sure I brought more than enough nachos for four people,” he nodded in the direction of a picnic basket behind him and chuckled. “It’s kind of our first date, or, um, our first ‘official’ one, anyway. I might have gone a bit overboard.”

“Classic Diaz,” Jackie sniggered. Star rolled her eyes affectionately while nestling into his side and wrapping herself around his arm.

“Don’t worry about it, guys, seriously. I don’t want to intrude, you two have probably dealt with enough heavy stuff lately.”

“Pfft, don’t worry about that We’d love to hang out with you guys! It could be, like, a casual double date or something!” Star chimed in while Marco casually leaned his head against hers.

“If you’re up for it,” Marco hastily added on.

Maybe this was what she needed. She’d spent enough time inside her own head lately that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to enjoy time with Chlóe unless something dragged the fun right out of her, and there wasn’t anyone better at that than these two. “Sounds like fun, I’ll go ask her. Given the legends I’ve heard about Marco’s nachos, I don’t think she’ll need too much convincing, though.”

***

“OK, wait, dude, back up a second. Janna hypnotized you to make you hate nachos? I don’t know if I can associate with someone who’d deprive someone else the joy of Mexican cuisine,” Jackie mock-sternly asked between bites. An assortment of dips and toppings in insulated containers were spread between the four teenagers as she reached over to restock her plate. Chlóe sat beside her with her legs out to the side, enjoying the dinner more than anyone. Echo Creek’s Mexican restaurants clearly didn’t stack up to this, and Jackie’s heart warmed at the sight as much as her queso heated her throat.

“Yeah, but she undid it just a few days ago. Did I mention that she called me her friend?”

“Are you guys sure she’s OK?”

“That’s what I said, Jackie!” Star mumbled out between cheeks comically overstuffed with chips.

“We just saw her yesterday, she’s fine. Well, whatever ‘fine’ is for Janna, anyway. She was happy we were together because it meant, and I quote, ‘so many more ways to blackmail’,” Marco groaned and plopped backwards onto the grass, rubbing his temple in frustration.

Star efficiently scooped up the last of the salsa on her plate with one last chip. “Anyway, I guess that’s the whole story. Weird how this feels normal in comparison.” She motioned down to the rest of the town from their vantage point on top of the hill, where they could see a monster family - easily a few stories tall - having a picnic of their own at least a mile away. Humans were lined up for blocks trying out some Mewni corn stalls that had sprung up around town, and Mewmans for their part had been putting almost every Earth shop at maximum capacity nonstop trying to experience their new world’s culture as well.

“Thank you for dinner, Marco and Star. It’s different having Mexican food that isn’t spicy pain, but I love the flavors, c'était magnifique.”

Jackie leaned back on her hands, thoroughly satisfied from the meal. “Yeah, Diaz, these lived up to the hype. Star’s a lucky girl.”

Star giggled as she helped a blushing Marco upright. The pair began to put away the empty containers into the basket when Star peeked inside with a quizzical expression. “Marco, what the heck is this thing?” She shoved one arm inside, clearly trying to grip something large. Her tongue hung out as she shook the whole basket until a large red disk came out.

“Star, dude, do you not know what a frisbee is?”

She immediately recoiled and flung the disk to the ground, but Marco quickly snagged it before it could roll away. “Sorry, thought you said freezbee. Their stings give you hypothermia. I wonder if they made it to Earthni…” All four teens collectively shuddered at the thought.

“Nah, it’s a disk you can throw at people. Back at skate camp, we had this game where everyone would be in the bowl and you’d have to throw and catch it while in the air. Bonus points for any fancy tricks you pulled off, it was totally sweet. But it’s still fun without the boards, wanna try?” Star nodded at Marco, who flicked the disk to her with a bit of a wobble in its flight. She planted her feet with a burning resolve, her tongue hanging out a bit in concentration. When the disk finally drew near, she jumped and plucked it from the air, whipping it in a frenzied overhead toss aimed directly at Chlóe, who gasped and nimbly pivoted to the side to avoid it, their eyes all bugging out of their heads when they noticed the massive dent in the earth left in the frisbee’s wake.

“I win at frisbee!”

The sun continued its trek towards the horizon as the four tossed the disk around, chatting and laughing and occasionally wiping out on the grass. Marco had shaken off the rust and Star was getting the hang of it once it was properly explained to her, but Jackie still found herself able to go into autopilot and still keep pace. She was going to miss moments like this, just casually enjoying the company of her girlfriend, after over half a year of being together almost all the time. Was this how Marco had felt that summer? She’d already known as much at the time, but feeling some inkling of it stirring inside her gave her a fresh sense of what it really meant, and it just downright sucked. But still, she was glad they were able to enjoy this time together and do something different.

Jackie finally realized that she hadn’t been tossed the frisbee for a few minutes, snapping her out of her rumination. Momentarily disoriented, she looked around until her eyes settled on Marco trying to help Star with her throwing technique. He stood behind her, hands gripping her wrists as he took them through the motions. After a few tries, though, it was pretty obvious that Star was just enjoying being held, and Marco seemed to be in no hurry to finish the lesson himself.

“OK, Marco, all this technique stuff is cool, but check this move out!” Jackie turned towards Star shouting the last few words as she tightened her arms in preparation for a throw. “Spinning Sonic Hug Throw!” She let out a grunt as she whipped the disk as hard as she could, letting her entire body spin on her toes a few times before stopping herself by latching onto Marco in a fierce embrace that almost knocked him off his feet. Marco giggled and returned the affection as Jackie and Chlóe cooed at the adorableness in front of them.

When the hug ended, the two gazed into each other’s eyes until Marco suddenly blinked and looked around. “Uh, Star? Where’s the frisbee?” A soft gasp came from Chlóe a moment later, and everyone followed her line of sight only to find the frisbee stuck in the upper branches of a massive red tree.

“For corn’s sake…” Star facepalmed. “Why do boxing elders have to be here? Like, I know everything from Mewni is here, but why here here, really...” her grumbles trailed off. Wait, did she mean box eld- right, never mind, everything on Mewni is some flavor of weird. Jackie shrugged off the disbelief and took a closer look: the red specks weren’t leaves, they were… boxing gloves? Of course they were.

“I want to climb it.” The voice of her girlfriend shocked her out of her disbelieving stare. She’d been introduced to the wild world of Star Butterfly mere days ago and she was already charging headlong into it?

“Uh, are you sure that’s a good idea, Chló? I don’t know that much about Mewni but if I had to guess, it probably can actually punch you.”

“They have mean left hooks,” Star affirmed nonchalantly.

“It’s covered in those things, dude, how can it have a left- wait, where’s Chlóe?” Jackie looked and saw her girlfriend running over towards the tree with determination etched into her visage.

“OK, my dad has fought enough of them that he’s basically an honorary tree at this point so I’ll go help Chlóe,” Star said before scrambling after her.

Jackie and Marco were the last to jog over towards the base of the tree, stopping a bit short of the base and watching their girlfriends navigate it. Chlóe deftly leapt from branch to branch, dodging all the flailing comically oversized gloves, while Star just kind of clambered up the trunk like a koala batting away all obstacles. Honestly, Jackie knew she should have expected it; Chlóe was fiercely competitive with her parkour, scoffing at the idea of a challenge left uncompleted. Her effortless maneuvering around all the physical hurdles of the Mewnian tree reignited some of her anxiety from earlier in the day.

“Hey, Marco, can I ask you something serious?” Jackie sat down on the grass, hugging her knees to her chest unconsciously, her eyes never leaving the action in front of her, although not out of fear: she was fully confident they could handle themselves.

He joined her on the ground. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I know this sounds weird, since I was, like, there for all of it, but how did you deal with Star leaving?”

“I, uh, don’t really think I did. Remember that cape? Turns out it was just Star’s dad’s meat blanket the whole time. I don’t even know if he’d washed it first…”

“So that explains why you smelled like a sketchy diner that whole summer!” She finally looked over at him and jabbed his side with her elbow with a smile. “But how did you and Star figure everything out, or whatever? What’s gone through the ole’ Diaz noggin? We were always pretty terrible at the mind reader game, y’know.”

Marco leaned back on his hands and kept his gaze steadily focused on the tree with a loving grin; Star had, seemingly, tamed one of the thicker branches and was valiantly riding it into battle against the others while Chlóe watched incredulously from a safe spot near the top, frisbee in hand. “Honestly? I don’t really know. I- I don’t even think we do have everything figured out. But I guess I felt like… whatever life was going to be, I wanted Star in it more than anything, and just went from there.”

All at once, the truth about why this time was different hit her. She couldn’t say how serious it was, or exactly how she felt. She liked Chlóe a lot, and knew she’d be sad without her there, of course. But she was sure right now that she wanted to put in that effort to make things work, in whatever form that would have to take.

Star’s rapid-fire dialogue quickly became audible as she reapproached with Chlóe in tow, huffing deep breaths between each excited line. “Seriously, Chlóe, how did you even get up there so fast? You would’ve been so famous on Mewni! I guess you still could be now, heh.”

“It’s just parkour, it’s not that amazing.”

“Thanks. This helped, a lot. You’re a pretty good friend, Diaz,” she spoke quietly so only he could hear as the other two drew nearer.

Jackie stood up and shook out the numbness in her legs when the four reunited. The sun was starting to descend behind the horizon when Chlóe leaned her elbow onto Jackie’s shoulder. “Do you think we should leave soon?”

“Actually… I think the concert is still going on. Wanna go check it out, for real this time?”

Marco’s eyes lit up mischievously as he turned to Star, offering her his hand. “May I have one last dance tonight, milady?”

“Just because you’re cute when you say it doesn’t give you a pass, Marco,” Star fumed, still taking his hand anyway. Her face went a bit red when she remembered their friends were still there. “So, anyway, um…”

“Don’t wait up, we’ll be a bit still,” Jackie said, ignoring the suspicious look Chlóe was giving her. “We’ll definitely have to hang out more. Stay amazing, you two.” Jackie gave them each a hug before they turned to walk away.

“Bye Jackie! Bye Chlóe!” Star exuberantly waved at them as she and Marco departed hand-in-hand.

“Au revoir!” As soon as they were out of earshot, Chlóe stepped back and folded her arms, staring Jackie down with a sympathetic expression. “Are you sure you’re fine? You’ve been off all day.” Jackie’s vision roamed their surroundings, avoiding the soft yet piercing orbs trained on her from under her furrowed brow. Finally she found a crude stone bench near the edge of the hilltop, no doubt not from her own dimension. She cautiously took Chlóe’s hand and led them over to it, sitting down and looking over the wonder of the town in the sunset. Jackie lost herself in the splendor, finally feeling able to wholeheartedly enjoy the view, still keeping their fingers laced together.

“About earlier… it’s gonna suck being so far apart. I don’t think anything’s going to change that, really.” Chlóe slowly nodded, letting the words sink in as they both were finally coming to terms with the inevitable. Her eyes sunk to the ground before shutting entirely. “But I think that’s OK. I was all, like, worried that everything would go wrong just because of that, but… I don’t think that’s true, or at least I don’t want it to be.” She nervously laughed, brushing aside a stray hair from her face and finally met Chlóe’s eyes that had not wavered from her during the speech. “It’s not like I was ever thinking about breaking up or whatever, don’t get me wrong, Chló. Just took a while to figure out what I really needed to say, I guess.”

Chlóe put her free arm around Jackie’s shoulder. “Life goes on, you know? But I understand, I’ve been feeling the same way. We can make it work. You’ll have to come out to France sometime, I’m sure there’s all kinds of weird new things we can explore there, too.”

Jackie squeezed her girlfriend’s hand, reciprocating the comforting affection. “Heck yeah, we can. So, wanna go check out that concert?”

“Maybe not anymore. That tree climb was much tougher than I thought it would be, I’m exhausted.” They strapped on their helmets and grabbed their boards again, beginning their slow cruise through the park.

“Dude, you made it seem so easy, you just zoomed up to the top. You’re way too good, I still don’t know how you do it.”

“Merci, merci. But I’m still jealous of all the fancy tricks you can do on that board, so I guess we’ve even. Your friend Star, though, she’s special. I got to see someone tame a punching tree! Nothing in France could beat that,” she laughed in that squeaky way of hers that Jackie always found adorable.

“Marco, too. They’re both something else.”

As they neared the periphery of the park, they passed the concert one last time. The crowd had thinned out, leaving only a handful of the Mewmans and monsters behind. The schmaltzy ballad that the singer was warbling honestly offended her ears a little bit, but the crowd seemed to be mostly ignoring it except the two people she’d been looking for. Star and Marco were far enough from the main stage that Jackie was almost certain they could barely hear the music. If they’d been employing any sort of formal slow dancing technique, they’d long since abandoned it. Marco held Star’s signature horns in his hand, his chin resting on her head buried in his chest as they casually swayed. Jackie thought about waving goodbye, but they wouldn’t have noticed it from their own little world. And if they could still find that happiness together, despite everything, then maybe she didn’t need to worry that much; it would all be worth the trip.

#tgg svtfoe #starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #jackie lynn thomas #jachloe #fanfic

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