#zachary ezra rawlins/dorian

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND 2: POLL #13

Zachary x Dorian art by creeeee on tumblr

ROUND 2 POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Eustass Kid/Killer:

Friends/lovers since childhood, would kill and die for each other. [SPOILERS for those who have not watched/read the Wano arc yet] Killer ate a defective SMILE fruit to safe Kid, making him unable to swim and show any other emotion than laughing (and gains him nothing), and he also knew exactly where to cut off Hawkins' arm so he wouldn't harm Kid (because he knows his body so well). Kid promises to kill whoever makes fun of his partner, and lets himself be recaptured after escaping prison because Killer had gotten himself captured.

If this ain't love idk what is.

The captain/right-hand man dynamic. They call each other aibou (partner). If your partner doesn't tell you that he will send whoever laughs at you to hell then he is not worth it. Killer hates his own laugh to the point that he stopped laughing out loud and started wearing a mask. But then he was forced to eat a defective devil fruit (because they promised he could see Kidd if he did) so he's been cursed to only laugh no matter what emotion he's trying to express. That's why Kidd said that, it's so full of weight for someone like Killer. And when Kidd was imprisoned and he worked so hard to escape, but as soon as he saw Killer being pulled into the same prison he just broke out from mans did not hesitate for even a second to go right back in.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins/Dorian:

Look, Zachary's a gamer studying literature who finds himself in a strange world and goes on an adventure. [SPOILER] Dorian's the guy murmuring things in your ear in dark corners at masquerade balls

[thatwasntlikeridingabikeuasshole]

glasses

a bonus drabble for the @thehauntedair Starless Sea drabble event <333

---

“I hate them,” Dorian decides. 

“No,” Zachary exclaims vehemently. “They’re really, really cute.” 

Dorian wrinkles his nose, which knocks the reading glasses perched on it slightly askew. Zachary reaches to adjust them gently and presses a kiss to his cheek. 

“You look very distinguished and intelligent,” Zachary decides. “Like me.” This makes Dorian smile. “And you’ll be able to read a lot easier.” 

“That’s true,” Dorian sighs. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t read to you.” 

Zachary nods solemnly. 

“And,” he adds, smiling softly, leaning his head on Dorian’s shoulder and looking at their reflection, “we match.” 

---

🐝 🗝🗡

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Characters, book, and author names under the cut

Rae Taylor/Claire Francois - I'm in Love with the Villainess by Inori

Oliver Marks/James Farrow - If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Max Owen/Sean Moore - Magical Boy by The Kao

Dorian/Zachary Ezra Rawlins - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 

[boogleboot]

so the most significant piece of fanfiction that I will have written to date is coming out in just a few days (follow-up to Fateheart! here we go!), but it may be too late actually because I peaked two days ago when Erin Morgenstern told me this doodle of Zachary and Dorian from The Starless Sea was delightful

[onaloyveonce]

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

🐝🗡🗝

[purple-cray0ns]

Sword training feat. the disaster gays

[fateheartblog]

The Lotus Flowers is here!

For the past two years I have been working on the follow-up to Fateheart: A Starless Seaquel.

This is a big one. It is an important one.

May I present:

The Lotus Flowers

[just-anotherrandomartist]

finally got some more portraits done this was surprisingly difficult idk what was up i’m having funky burnout

[halleyys-comet]

If there’s one thing I need in my life it’s the Kitchen from the starless sea. It would solve all of my problems and make me a happier person. I wouldn’t even need to socialise cause I could just send them little notes and wait for a nice answer and good food.

[januvv]

and so the moon found a way to keep her love.

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND 1: POLL #26

Sunyadi art by cerebrobullet on Tumblr

Zachary x Dorian art by creeeee on tumblr

ROUND 1 POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Sunai/Veyadi Lut:

NO PROPAGANDA SUBMITTED

Zachary Ezra Rawlins/Dorian:

Look, Zachary's a gamer studying literature who finds himself in a strange world and goes on an adventure. [SPOILER] Dorian's the guy murmuring things in your ear in dark corners at masquerade balls

[the-harbour-official]

NEW HARBOUR FIC EVENT!!!!!!!

okay y'all listen up. we were having a lovely discussion in our lovely discord server about zachary and dorian visiting each of our favorite local bookshops/libraries- or just our favorite ones we'd ever visited- and we've decided to make a BRAND NEW FIC EVENT out of this!!!!!!! SO here is The Deal:

write a fic where Zachary and Dorian (and any other TSS characters you want to include!) visit your favorite bookstore or library! it could be a local spot that you frequent or a place you've visited traveling that stuck with you!!

the fic will end up being a chapter in a large anthology of such fics so keep that in mind for length! it can be a long chapter or a short chapter but it will be a chapter

you can write as many fics like this as you want!

submit the fics by DMing a google docs link or file attachment of some sort to either this tumblr account or my discord if you have it! for this event i will not be posting the individual fics on tumblr so please dont send fics as submissions/post them and tag me (i mean you are free to post them and tag me but if you want them included in the mass ao3 post please also send a doc!)

information you should include with your submission: a name you go by + an account of choice to be credited with- ao3, tumblr, doesnt matter, just something i can use to give you credit! AND, optionally, the name+location of the bookstore/library in the fic- this isnt required bc i dont want to make anyone dox themself, but if you feel you can safely share where the fic takes place it will be a great way to give people bookstore/library recommendations!!!

i will take submissions until december 1st and probably post the finished product within a few days of that. idrc how else you post or share your fics! but they will be posted, with credit as mentioned above, in a big ao3 fic that is just a bunch of zachary and dorians bookstore and library adventures :))))

anyway thats all yall gET WRITING!!!!!!

[thatwasntlikeridingabikeuasshole]

photos

a More Drabbles Monday drabble for the @thehauntedair Starless Sea drabble event <3333

---

Click.

Zachary’s head flies up, eyes flashing as the camera does. “You are a menace with that thing,” he grins. 

“Oh, that was a beautiful moment, I had to capture it,” Dorian argues as he gingerly removes the photo. 

“I was just sitting in bed,” Zachary laughs. Click.

“Artistically draped in a sheet. Gilded by sunlight. And then you laughed.” 

Zachary mock glares at him. Click. He makes a stupid face. Click. 

“Mom should’ve bought you more film, you’ll be out by tonight.” He gets up to see the developing Polaroids fanned out before his husband and Dorian smiles. 

Click.

---

🐝 🗝🗡

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Avra Helvaçi/Teveri az-Ḥaffār/Brother Julian- Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland 

Mariel Hartley-Hood/Clem- Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher

Zachary Ezra Rawlins/Dorian- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Ben De Backer/Nathan Allan - I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

[boogleboot]

One year since Fateheart

A year ago I posted Fateheart: A Starless Seaquel to Ao3 (link here) - the mammoth fanfic sequel to Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.

Fateheart has had an incredible year, and has completely changed my life, by all measures. Posting it has connected me to so many wonderful people and helped bring together a genuine community over on the Starless Sea discord (which you should join hey here's a link) who have supported me through the last hellish few weeks of uni assignments as well as months and months of creative projects and ambitious fic writing.

So on this blessed solstice day, here is a lil update for those who are following the slow progress of the unofficial Starless Sea canon as developed in Fateheart.

Oh that's right, baby. It ain't just one fan sequel. It's gonna be uhhh (checks notes) at least four.

I really really wanted to get the next book out at this year mark - on the solstice and year anniversary - but despite hitting that 50k mark for NaNoWriMo last month it just didn't happen (it's been a rough couple months - I am currently doing a master's course that is kicking my ass).

But I am determined to get Fever Pitch, the next full-novel-length follow-up story, out in full as soon as humanly possible. Toward that end I have gone ahead and made a posting for it. The first few chapters are done and have been done for a while, so I shall slowly be posting them as I work on the rest.

Watch this space!!!!

I never really intended Fever Pitch to be a fully-fledged sequel. Mind you, I didn't intend that with Fateheart either, but in a different way. In my mind the next book in the sequence is and always has been a story called The Lotus Flowers. Nearly 180k words of that one exist, but it is too important a story not to get right. So I'm gonna give it as much time as it needs - and it may need quite a lot.

But in working on Lotus Flowers, I came to realise that a lot of the world-building and character development which I was taking for granted was in fact not as obvious to the reader as it would be to me - LF is, after all, set ten or so years after Fateheart, and considering all of The Starless Sea (at least for Zachary and Dorian) takes place in about two weeks, ten years is space enough for a LOT of story.

So in order to strengthen my sense of where Zachary, Dorian, and Kat have found themselves by the ten year mark, I started noting down some of the more important moments from that decade of time. And then just kept writing. And writing and writing and writing until a handful of them were fully fledged novellas.

I have put up the polished ones - they are collected together on Ao3 as 'Fateheart: The Extended Canon'. Which is. A bit pretentious. But whatever. (Also I'm not kidding myself that all the fics in this collection are vital plot points, but there are a couple standout ones which are Canon Events in my mind, that will be referenced in later full-length fics. Namely A Heart That Won't Break, Death in the Valley, and The Man Named Sky.)

But one of these short (aspirationally) stories seemed as I wrote to have particular space in it for so much of that world-building and exposition, and that was Fever Pitch.

Fever Pitch takes place five years after the birth of the Harbour, and the events of Fateheart, and is an Alice-in-Wonderland themed story which explores the lives of all the main Fateheart characters (Zachary, Dorian, Kat, and Leander, namely), introduces some new players (shoutout Tabuzae and Kirsty Baudeville), as well as establishing the limits and life of the Harbour they live in.

I'd say a solid sixty percent of this story currently exists, and I'm gonna amp up the pressure on myself to complete it by posting it as I go - something I've never done before, so bear with me.

It means so much to me that there are people out here who care as much about these people and this little world on the Starless Sea as I do - even more so that so many people have loved my offerings of more story. The above photo is of my christmas present from a housemate who was one of Fateheart's earliest readers. It's so beautiful it makes my heart leap.

We rise, we fall - as stories do.

I am committed to seeing this story through, by the way - all the way to the end - and that is gonna take years. But we start here - with the next book in the series. First few chapters to appear over Christmas.

Until then, happy solstice. To seeking x

[iamabigbox]

Whatever you do don’t imagine James and Oliver as Dorian and Zachary