#next time i write for this au i'm gonna have to start advancing the plot i think

[razzle-zazzle]

Whumptober Day 26: sometimes i get so tired, i don't even know myself

Working to Exhaustion

2330 Words; Ouroboros AU

TW for violence, bloodsport, exploitation, murder, death

AO3 ver

“Next one’s heavy.”

Dion grunted as another box was dropped into his arms. “They’re all heavy.” He muttered, carrying it over to the shelf. But he didn’t have to carry it far, and it wasn’t that heavy. It was kind of big, though, high enough to press against Dion’s mask.

The other guy on unloading duty—Hunter? It was hard to tell, when they were all wearing the same plain white masks—whistled. “I swear, it’s like you never stop.” He commented, as Dion shoved the box into place. “The fuck did they feed you in your old life?”

“...food?” Dion pulled out his boxcutter to cut the box open.

Hunter chuckled. “A kid your age does not just handle heavy boxes like that.” He insisted.

Most people Dion’s age also didn’t have a body count, but that was besides the point. Dion rolled his eyes behind his mask.

There was always something to do in Ouroboros. And if Dion wanted to live, then he needed to be doing something. And he needed to live, no matter what—if Dion didn’t survive, then Mirtala would be the only Aquato in Ouroboros. And he couldn’t—he wouldn’t let her be left alone here. Not if he could help it.

(Mirtala didn’t deserve to be here at all, but there was nothing Dion could do on that front. His powerlessness would drive him crazy if he wasn’t able to at least provide for her.)

“Right, this one’s gotta be at least a little heavy to you.” Hunter grunted, slowly sliding the next box off the stack to pass to Dion.

Dion took the box, wincing slightly. Yeah, this one was kind of heavy—he wouldn’t want to carry that many boxes like it. But Dion knew how to handle heavy things. It was part and parcel of growing up in the circus, after all, from equipment to the other members of his family. Frazie was at least as heavy as this box, probably. Dion hadn’t had the chance to lift her in a while. Maybe she had gotten heavier, gotten the kind of muscle to make girls swoon over her.

(Dion swallowed that thought down. With any luck, he might never see Frazie again—which was for the better, because the day any more of his family ended up in Ouroboros was a day that Dion never wanted to see.)

Dion shoved the box into place on the shelf, pausing for a moment once it was in place. Still, it wasn’t that heavy.

(Queepie might have handled the weight better than Dion—

Dion shoved that thought away immediately. Queepie would be turning four soon; he should be nowhere near Ouroboros, ever. None of his family should, really—none of them but Dion.)

“Heavy, right?” Hunter prompted, already holding the next box.

Dion grunted, pulling his boxcutter out once again. So what if it was? He could handle it. He had to handle it.

Hunter shook his head. “Kids.” He grumbled. “You’re going to run smack into a wall with that kind of attitude.”

Whatever. Dion would be fine.

He had to be—there was no other way. If he slowed down for even a moment, if he let weakness show—

Dion took the next box. He’d survive.

No matter what.

+=+=+=+=+

Mirtala came back that night with a fresh bruise on her arm, her hair still damp from her shower.

“Tala—” Dion started. Stopped, his words catching on the knot of feelings in his throat. He reached out. Stopped.

Mirtala stared at him with tired eyes. She sat down on her bedroll, not saying a thing.

Dion looked away. What was he supposed to say? He didn’t want to encourage this. He never wanted Mirtala anywhere near the arena—she only just turned six. It was Dion’s job, his responsibility to take care of her—and every time she stepped into that arena, he failed.

What was he supposed to say? He didn’t know. He didn’t know.

(An apology might be a good start.

But Dion had always been a coward when it came to apologies.)

Dion’s jaw worked, his shoulders tensing. He should say something—

Too late. Mirtala laid down on her own cot, facing away from him. She huffed, curling up without a word.

I’m sorry. Dion wanted to say it. He needed to say it.

I’m sorry. The words got stuck in his throat.

Dion clenched his hands into fists, his eyes darting away from where Mirtala was lying—

Wait. “Um.” He managed, the sound of his voice surprising even himself. “Do you… do you want your unicorn?” Mirtala usually always grabbed it, when the light in their room started to fade. Dion couldn’t fathom why it was on his cot.

Mirtala rolled over, squinting at Dion. “Her name is Francis III.” She muttered.

“Oh.” Shit, when did Mirtala name it? How long ago? Wow, Dion felt like an idiot. His face was already heating up. “Well, do you want Francis III?” He really needed to apologize.

“No.” Mirtala said. She blinked, and yawned. “But you do.” And with that, she rolled back over, pulling the blanket tight around herself.

Dion swallowed. He grabbed Francis III, running his thumb over the felt strips making up the mane. One of the Wolves had gifted it to Mirtala when they had first gotten here—Dion looked over at his baby sister, who was the nicest person he’d ever known, and he could guess why. Even if she wasn’t his responsibility, he still wanted her to get the best that she could. Mirtala was just easy to spoil like that.

And yet he still couldn’t find the words to talk to her…

Dion looked Francis III in her beady little button eyes. He wanted to put the plush into Mirtala’s arms, adjust the blanket around her like he was tucking her in—anything to prove that he wasn’t an awful brother.

But he just sat there instead, choking on the knot in his throat.

Like a coward.

+=+=+=+=+

Dion looked up at the sound of footsteps, the mop coming to a stop.

He immediately looked back down, moving the mop again the moment he saw who was waling across the tiled floor. Oh, god, was this the end? Was he somehow mopping wrong? Or was it just fun to torment him?

Creed came to a stop not far from Dion, hands folded behind his back.

Dion continued mopping. If Creed wanted him to stop, he’d say so. Probably.

“Boy.” Creed started. Dion gripped the handle of the mop harder. “Look at me.”

Dion lifted his eyes to meet Creed’s dark brown. He paused in his mopping—he needed to rewet the mop in the bucket again, anyway—and waited to see what Creed would do.

Creed’s eyes flicked over Dion. He immediately felt like an ant confronting a boot—certain doom was all that awaited him, now.

“You’ve got a fight tonight.” Creed commented airily. “I’m sure you’ve had plenty of time to… recuperate.”

It had been a while since Dion had had a fight—he hadn’t been scheduled for the last two Death Pits. And he wasn’t allowed back into the regular fights—though Dion really didn’t want to think about that.

“Okay.” Dion said, hating the way it sounded so small in the empty air. “I’ll be ready.”

(He wouldn’t, not really—he never was.

But Dion didn’t survive by waiting until he was ready—he couldn’t. Either he got his head above water, or he drowned—and Dion refused to drown. He’d survive however he needed to.)

“Good boy.” Creed nodded. He turned around and began to walk away—

“Oh,” Creed paused, “And this next fight?”

Dion looked up at him. “Yeah?”

“Win it.” Creed growled. “Your opponent isn’t meant to make it out of that arena alive, you got it?”

Winning was what Dion normally did, though? Dion stared at Creed a moment longer, then nodded slowly. “Yeah.” He confirmed, still unsure why Creed felt the need to tell him this.

“Good.” And with that, Creed left.

Doubts and uncertainties floated around in Dion’s head. He was finally going back in the ring, and the notion terrified and excited him in equal measure. He could finally get ahead just a little bit more—but he’d have to kill someone to do so.

(Well, it wasn’t like Dion’s hands weren’t already covered in blood.

He would survive. He had to.)

Dion sighed.

Back to work.

+=+=+=+=+

Dion waited for the gate to rise. The bars of the gate casted shadows across him, the audience already a loud din outside. It sounded bigger than usual, too, which grated on Dion’s nerves. He watched as another gate opened and his opponent-to-be was forced into the arena, stumbling across the sand. His own gate hadn’t opened, yet—god, Dion hoped it wasn’t broken.

The announcer was saying something, now, trying to get the audience to chant—

“DEATH! BY! LION!”

Dion went rigid. Suddenly, the earlier interaction with Creed made a lot more sense.

But… why him? Surely Creed had more popular fighters, more capable fighters—

The gate began to rise. No more time to doubt. Dion walked out into the arena, out into the lights hanging down, the cage bars casting shadows across him—

The audience ROARED.

“AND THE LION MAKES HIS RETURN!” The announcer cheered. “Let’s see some BLOOD!”

Dion’s opponent stood, staring at him through their orange and blue Ox mask. They snorted.

“This is it?” They asked. “This is the big bad Lion?” Derision colored their voice. Dion’s face flushed behind his mask, his hands squeezing into fists. “You’re just some kid!”

“And you’re dead meat.” Dion snarled. It was him or them, and Dion had no intention of losing.

The Ox broke out into a charge, raising their hand. Metal glinted in the light, and they swung down—

Dion ducked out of the way, rolling to the side and using his hands to spring up onto a hanging cord. The “Jungle Arena” was full of hanging cords and bars, like some twisted trapeze, and Dion was quick to fling himself up out of the Ox’ reach.

You’d think I was the Leopard, with the way I’m climbing around. Dion thought to himself, coming to a stop halfway up the rope. He looked down at the Ox, considering what to do.

Him or them. Dion would survive, no matter what.

He was supposed to make a show of it, too.

The Ox bellowed, grabbing the rope Dion was on. They yanked—

And Dion twisted over to the next rope with practiced ease. He didn’t want to have a favorite arena—he didn’t want to be in the arenas at all, really—but if he had to choose, it was probably this one. So many things to climb, so many ways to fling himself around!

(The arena that Mirtala made her official debut was similar, but Dion didn’t want to think about Mirtala in any arena.)

The Ox couldn’t climb as well as Dion could—if they could at all, seeing as they weren’t even trying—so Dion couldn’t lead them on a merry chase through the ropes and bars. So much for that idea.

Still, how to make this look good?

The audience was chanting, jeering, roaring for blood and violence and death. It was either Dion or the Ox—and Dion intended to win.

“That might work…” Dion muttered, flipping over backwards onto one of the hanging bars. He lifted himself up so that he was doing a handstand on it, allowing his legs to hook onto another bar higher up. He let go of the bar and looked down on the Ox.

“Are you even trying?” He jeered, “Surely you can take out ‘some kid’!” He flipped over to a knotted rope, then flung himself with a forwards flip onto a sideways one. The tightropes back home were way narrower than this. Confidence filled Dion as he paced along it, the Ox yelling below him.

“Get down here!” They shouted. “You little shit!”

Dion laughed. The sound shocked him, escaping his throat before he even recognized what it was.

What was he doing? This was a life-or-death situation! The cage bars cast shadows across the arena. The audience was cheering, jeering, roaring. Dion’s mask pressed against his face.

Fuck this. Fuck putting on a show. Dion wasn’t here to entertain, for all that Creed wanted him to. He was in here to survive, dammit!

With a cry, Dion flung himself down. He rolled as he fell, kicking out as he landed to hit the Ox square in the back. The impact flung him away, and he rolled with the impact, springing up off the floor at the soonest opportunity.

The Ox whirled around to face him, snarling through their mask. Dion darted to the side, cartwheeling up onto one of the ropes. They charged, and instead of climbing up Dion flung himself onto their shoulders when they passed, locking his ankles together in front of their face.

The Ox reached up, trying to pull Dion off—

Dion squeezed his thighs together. The Ox’ hands scrambled against Dion’s legs, prying uselessly at his boots—

Crack!

Dion jumped away as the body fell, flipping over backwards. That probably looked cool, right?

The audience was cheering. The chant from earlier returned, harsh against Dion’s ears.

“DEATH! BY! LION! DEATH! BY! LION!”

Across the arena, the gate rose. Dion stared up at the audience for only a moment longer before darting back to the tunnel.

His hands were shaking. He needed to get his mask off right now. He needed a shower, he needed a drink, he needed to lie down and stare at the wall until he felt human again—

Dion stumbled, leaning against the tunnel wall. He'd just killed someone.

But he had survived. It was him or the Ox, and he had won.

Dion stared at his hands. He had survived. Grim satisfaction knotted in his throat, and he struggled to breathe around it.

Dion had survived.

He was more willing to pay the cost than he wanted.

[alchely]

My Top Gallavich fics

So, under the advice of the lovely @iangallagherisadeadman I've decided to compile a favorites Gallavich fic list along with a brief rec of each, this won't be a strict top 10 cause I'm not gonna torture myself into excluding some of these stories on some made-up self imposed arbitrary rules.

A bunch of disclaimers: most of these fics are long fics, going from 30k words up, I'm not purposefully excluding shorter fics, I have read plenty of them, but they do have a harder time sticking in my head months after reading.

Most of these fics will be explicit, just read the tags on the fic itself if you want to find out more.

Some of these fics don't have links because the authors chose to lock them and as such make them unlinkable, in order to read them you will need to go through the author's page while you're logged in your AO3 account.

This ended up ballooning out of control and is A LOT longer than ten fics, I apologize in advance :p.

YOU'LL NEVER SEE US AGAIN – spoonfulstar - 231k words

Mickey and Ian have been students at Marceline boarding school their whole lives, as their time at the institute draws toward the end they will start to discover many things, about themselves, about each other and about the world they live in.

THIS FIC! I CRIED! The number of fanfiction that are able to make me cry can be counted on a singular hand, the emotional stakes get higher and higher as the story goes on, leading to a beautiful and bittersweet climax.

This story will make you think and feel deeply about topics you'd never think a shameless fic would delve into.

I am obsessed with Mickey in this fic, he and Ian grow up in an environment that could not be more removed from South Side Chicago and yet his personality is still so recognizably and distinctly Mickey.

The story goes very dark at times, and the fic itself could be considered lengthy, but I assure you the author has made sure to not make you feel it. Those 200k words flowed so well the story did not feel long at all.

HELP ME (TEAR DOWN MY REASON) – wehangout - 34k words

Mickey is a detective and Ian becomes a suspect in an investigation except Mickey already knows him because he's his favorite dancer.

This fic falls under the umbrella of fics where “Mickey is so in love with Ian he does something unbelievably crazy”.

Oooh boy, this fic, it's written in second person (yes you've read that right), tbh out of all fics I've read from this author I think this one was the easiest to adjust mentally to the change in perspective.

I loved Mickey’s “love” in this, just… This raw connection to Ian, the perfect cocktail of feelings, I could read that all day long.

IN ANOTHER WORLD – Roryonic - 249k words

Mickey does not get sent to prison at the end of S5, what happens after and how his presence influences future events (mostly Ian, but also every other Gallagher as well as his own family).

As far as I'm concerned this fic is the closest to a perfect S6 and beyond fix-it. The dialogue writing in this story is so close to canon Shameless that I could picture entire scenes in my head with the actors playing the characters, with their body and personality quirks.

Sometimes I find myself describing this fic like it's the actual show's deleted scenes, “Look, Mickey has his own storyline! And Mandy is here! And the existence of Yevgeni does not become a plot hole!”

There are some Mickey lines in this fic that to me are as canon as if they'd been in the show. Absolutely iconic writing.

I love this author so here's a rec of some of their other longfics, however I highly suggest a lot of their other much shorter stuff as well:

BATTLESHIPS AND LOVE BOATS: Ian and Mickey start their “no strings attached” kind of sex relationship a little later than canon but their attraction and love is just as strong. This is a sort of High School AU that turns into a Prison AU that turns into something else and every shift is just as lovely as the next.

YOU SMELL LIKE LOVE: Ian and Mickey are childhood friends, to the point that the rest of the Gallaghers might as well consider Mickey a seventh brother, mmmh, I sure wonder how things will start to change. Look, I never thought I'd love a childhood friends AU for Gallavich yet here I am, if it's good it's good.

ME AND THE DEVIL: Mickey unconsciously calls for a vengeance demon and Ian Gallagher shows up at his door, because Mickey is a stubborn dumbass they fall in love instead. This story has a lot of twists and turns and the premise is only the very beginning of the story. I LOVED it!

THE INCREASINGLY POOR DECISIONS OF IAN GALLAGHER – Shamelessquestions - 309k words

Ian is a dancer in a club, he accidentally gets involved in the affair of a dangerous mafia don, but the true danger is the attraction he and the mafioso’s right hand Mickey feel for each other as soon as they meet.

What. A. Classic. Truly, an unforgettable story, and I don't mean this in hyperbole, I read this story around… 2016/2017 during my second round in the Shameless fandom, then I read countless other fics in a lot of other fandom and yet this story was the only one that my mind retained from back then, to the point that I could still remember some of the finer details as well as the final plot twists when I came back to reread it.

The plot is constructed beautifully and the original characters (part of the Shamelessquestions fanfiction universe, as they come back time and time again in every one of their AU to fulfill their role in the story) are just as vibrant.

What a story, truly.

Favorite original character in this AU: Sal, his downfall is so satisfying and yet so pitiful to read.

TEENAGERS SCARE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ME – Mellow_Yellow - 221k words

Ian finds something scary and calls Mickey for help, even though they had only reconnected that very day after two years of not seeing each other. Together, they get sucked into a situation they weren't at all prepared for. Can they even admit that they're in over their head?

The very beginning of this fic is SO cinematic it grabbed my interest from the very first scene and didn't let go until the end, DO NOT search for spoilers.

The only warning I'll give is that it does deal with a bit of gore and what I'm personally gonna define as slight psychological horror. That's it. Enjoy!

BROKE STRAIGHT BOYS – dancermk - 66k words

Mickey becomes a porn actor for a site where he has to pretend he's straight and not enjoying the copious amount of gay sex he's having on camera, enter Ian, another actor under the same agency and their off the chart physical chemistry.

This story has, needless to say, some really, really good smut. I especially loved their first time together, but every sex scene in this story is seared in my mind.

ETHERIZED AGAINST THE SKY – Snarfle - 213k words

So, I debated whether I should add this fic or not, but I think if there is one fic that will stay in my mind long after this Shameless binge of the past couple of months it's this one, and it should absolutely become one of those fic that everyone in the fandom should read.

After Mickey gets shot by Kash his life takes a completely different direction and he ends up in a group home where, through many difficult times, he turns his life around.

So many iconic moments in this fic, some funny as fuck, some sad, some so absurd that I'm surprised they weren't lifted straight from Shameless, one so gruesome in the very first chapter that I was surprised to have such a visceral feeling from just words on a screen. Yeah, this story will stay with me for a long time.

OLD RULES FOR NEW SIDE PIECES – Shamelessquestions - 217k words

Ian is a Fed and he spots Mickey looking suspicious in an art museum, the mutual attraction is overwhelming, Mickey is not what he seems and Ian is already with someone else, but that's not gonna stop him from pursuing what he and Mickey have.

Putting it as bluntly as I can, this fic made me face the realization that I love cheating fics (if the cheating happens to someone else to bring together the endgame couple). I have already reread this fic twice and I could probably go for another one and not get tired of it, it's that good, and out of all this author's fics it's probably my favorite.

Favorite original characters in this AU: It's a three way tie between Dre, Ivan and Carrie, they're all very captivating in this story.

Other fic from this author I'd recommend cause I really love their style:

LOST IN TRANSLATION: Ian meets a very attractive man while he's in Ukraine who doesn't speak English, a mere language barrier won't stop him from flirting for hours. (adorable)

YOU MAKE ME FEEL HUMAN – Dragona - 66k words

Ian is an assassin, he meets Mickey and thus begins a very sick love story.

To say I'm obsessed with this fic is an understatement, I suggest to everyone to just go read the original author’s own description of the fic, it sets the tone of the story magnificently.

This is an Ian Gallagher that almost resembles Jerome (also played by Cameron in Gotham) but like… a slightly more subdued and saner S1/S2 version of him. I love the layers that get peeled right in front of my eyes, the madness that creeps in a bit more every chapter. I LOVE this story.

DRIED INK - 87k words

This fic combines my two favorite Gallavich-specific tropes, one being ‘Mickey comes back from prison after s6, Ian is with someone else’ and ‘Ian cheats on that someone else for Mickey’

I love the Gallaghers in this and how unsurprised they are at Ian going back to Mickey right away. It's a little jewel of a fic.

Mickey tries SO hard to stop himself and Ian in this but their love is too magnetic, they're irresistible to each other.

THE QUESTION OF NORMAL – blue_newman - 92k words

Ian is a prison counselor, Mickey is in prison, they fall in love and it's beautiful and Ian is incredibly devoted to Mickey in this fic and I fell in love with them both in this.

KINDA RAW – catgrassplantdad - 6k

Quite simply this is my favorite short pwp fic.

Illustrating those “five times” in one night that Mickey references in 11x01.

This fic is so hot, I love it <3

QUATERVOIS – DodgerBear - 51k words

Soldier Mickey gets stationed in the middle of nowhere and meets a farmer called Ian who makes him question everything.

Falling under the same umbrella of “Mickey does something crazy for Ian” fics and this is why it stuck in my mind even if it's been a while since I've read it.

I LOVE this story, their dialogues and everything that happens in it. The setting is lovely and you will fall in love with the description of Ian’s farm.

Other fic by the same author that I also loved:

BURDEN OF PROOF: Cop Mickey gets caught in a legal battle between the two oldest Gallagher brothers, something doesn't feel right though…

THE WORDS HE DOESN'T SAY: Mickey is released before Ian in s10 and has to meet a court-mandated therapist. The story is from the therapist POV and goes AU from the beginning of s10 in that Mickey gets involved back into Yev and Svetlana’s life, the dialogue is, quite obviously, the main attraction of the story and it's really well done. (Also, written in first person).

THE MENAGERIE – CrossMyDNA - 147k words

Ian decides to re-explore his bdsm preferences at The Menagerie where he meets sub extraordinaire Mickey on his very first visit.

Shameless is undoubtedly the fandom that opened my eyes to what bdsm could be back in… approx 2016? When that other popular bdsm fic was still around *ahem*.

So it definitely feels like a sign that coming back into the fandom this fic now exists and is SO GOOD.

Obviously it's very explicit, the smut in this fic is one of the best I've ever read.

The chemistry between Ian and Mickey sizzles off the screen and can absolutely be felt even in moments not of the nsfw variety, absolutely recommended!

MICKEY MILKOVICH’S GUIDE TO FLIRTING – whatwouldmickeydo - 40k words

An s2 “missing moments” between Gallavich, completely canon compliant, all under the pretense that Mickey is following a step by step guide to flirting.

I wish this fic was describing canon moments, not kidding a single bit, I wish I could somehow magically manifest these scenes into existence they're that good and fit that well into canon.

M8TE – gallawitch - 53k words

Omegaverse fic where Ian and Mickey both start using an app and end up matching with each other, even though a connection is made almost instinctively, coming to terms with it with a sound mind will take a bit longer…

Hey,had to have at least one of these on here lol

I love omegaverse and this was everything I wanted from it, couldn't have asked for anything better really <3.

SHACKLED – MyRelapse - 19k words

Ian has a change of heart and he decides that Mickey IS the one he wants, even if he's still in prison, so he keeps in contact and goes through every hoop imaginable to have him back as soon as possible.

Reading this made me so happy like I could burst, love it.

WAITING ON MY OWN TOO LONG – Ride4812 - 266k words

This rec more than any other on this list is what I'm gonna consider self indulgent because it covers the trope I always craved to read in such a satisfying way: Canon AU where Mickey comes back from prison after 8 years, Ian has found someone else but the moment the two meet again they fall back into each other right away.

The series is made up of 4 smaller fics:

One more night

Something more this time

No more lonely nights

Ain't this life so sweet

(I will point out here and nowhere else that the last installment of this series has some segment that probably needed to be re-read a couple more times, but by that point I was too invested, and the quality fluctuates a lot only in certain parts)

The writing style is very direct and to the point, which I love, the smut is very present and written beautifully and most importantly never boring.

Ian is a MESS in this fic and had me Stressed™, mostly cause for some reason I can't handle too much casual depiction of drug abuse and addiction (I know, ironic considering the fandom).

Conflicts and resolutions are never clean cut, they don't necessarily resolve quickly or definitely or the way you probably imagine they should and I find this level of realism very satisfying.

Taking a bit of space here at the end to also rec a couple other Ride4812 fics that I also loved:

COUP DE FOUDRE - A model/photographer AU where Ian and Mickey fall in love the instant they meet and do some crazy things because of that.

HOPE HE MIGHT - A lawyer AU where Ian and Mickey are on opposing sides for the same client, an interesting murder mystery steeped in a religious cult.

Generally I feel like this author is really good at depicting just how unapproachable Mickey can be to anyone that isn't called Ian Gallagher and I eat it up every time.

WHAT THE NIGHT DOES TO THE DAY – andchaos - 9k words

A Gallavich childhood friends AU with a quite original arrangement for the story and the various segments of their lives. Very satisfying read.

RANSOM – BeckyHarvey29 - 112k words

Terry sends his sons to kidnap a Gallagher child to force Frank into paying back the money he owes, unfortunately for him Mickey and his brothers kidnap Ian, and a whole other kind of story unfolds.

Mickey and Ian falling in love in this fic is such a good read. I don't wanna spoil anything of how that or the kidnapping plot goes, since the two are so intertwined. Just know that it will be worth it.

UNDER LOCK AND KEY – Suzy_Queue - 106k words

Ian is assigned the night shift at his new job where he provides spare keys to his fellow college students stuck outside their dorm rooms. To make matters worse his shift coworker is the oh so infamous Mickey Milkovich.

I am magnetized by the way this author writes their pining for each other, their attraction and obsession, how it blooms and unfolds. This fic in particular had me develop a very bad case of tunnel vision, couldn't really turn away until I finished reading it all.

I still haven't read everything this author has to offer, but so far I also loved:

INHUMAN: A mysterious force starts attacking people close to Mickey and it all seems to lead to a mysterious redhead Mickey is oh so coincidentally obsessed with. Very cool paranormal story.

THESE FOOLISH GAMES: Mickey takes over as the boss of the local branch of a trampoline park, where Ian is one of the employees, they annoy each other to no end but what they don't know is that they're secretly texting each other.

IS THERE SOMEWHERE – andchaos - 48k words

Mickey is born with no words on his skin, convinced he's going to live a life of misery cause no one will ever say the words he's destined to hear, he's not a very happy guy. Here comes mute boy Ian who crashes into his life and won't let go.

A classic Soulmate AU, I love that like in a lot of other Gallavich fics their physical connection and compatibility usually comes before their emotional one, it is one aspect that I feel distinguishes their relationship to many other fandom’s ships.

LAST NIGHT AT THE VERONA GRAND HOTEL – the_rat_wins - 27k words

Mickey starts working at an ancient hotel who's supposedly haunted. Mickey doesn't believe in ghost stories, he is much more interested in this one guest he meets at night during his shift.

What a cinematic experience this fic is! Absolutely recommended, the length of it makes it so you can read it in the same time it would take to watch the same story in movie format.

Other fics by the same authors that have impressed me:

FADE THIS ONE TO BLACK: Ian dies of overdose in a pile of snow outside the club, when Mickey finds him there he vows to do anything to get him back.

I don't know why but this fic in particular gives off the vibes of being a pilot for a ya urban fantasy TV series, except we gotta imagine everything that comes after the first episode lol

NO LIE: Ian and Mickey are Soulmates and as such they can't lie to each other. This series is short and sweet and full of feelings, perfect

PARAGRAPHS – pink_ink - 100k words

Ian becomes a reading tutor for ex-convicts, Mickey is among them and Ian starts paying him more and more attention.

This is a story where they meet under very different circumstances and where they've lived slightly different lives compared to canon and yet they're still able to find each other in the end.

Also, sign me up for every fic where Ian has to work just as hard to help Mickey and care for him as the opposite, where Ian's brand of stubbornness is the only way to get through to Mickey.

I'm also adding a couple of ongoing fics, just two to not overwhelm too much.

NONE THE WISER – Loftec - ~218k words

Ian starts visiting Mickey’s diner, it takes a while and yet no time at all to warm up to each other.

I'm captivated by the author's writing style. I love Ian's and Mickey’s relationship. I love how they sort of take their time and yet pine helplessly for each other.

I'm obsessed with the fact that the whole point of the fic doesn't appear until two thirds of the way in cause the diner scenes were just too good to pass up on lol (and I 100% agree with them).

INTRO TO QUANTUM DATING – spoonfulstar - ~563k words

Canon Mickey and Ian meet in University. A college slice of life but drenched in the casual (and not so casual) darkness of canon shameless.

The dark humor in this is fenomenal and left me gasping laughing so many times.

Unexpectedly Ian in this fic is pursuing a linguistics oriented degree, which was what I studied when I tried university, the topics are explained in such an accurate way I have to assume the author studied them themselves and that this story is somewhat a reimagining of their own college experience because if not this would be an absurd amount of accurate research to make.

Reading this fic feels like living through the American college experience from the comfort of my home lol.

As I said before, this author's way of writing does not weight you down even with its length, the story flows perfectly from one scene to the next and before you realize it you've reached the end and you have to accept that 500k words weren't even enough.

Let's end this list with some quick recommendations

WHILE WE'RE MAKING OTHER (PEOPLE'S) PLANS - kyasticlikestea

Mickey is volunteered to organize someone's else's wedding after he managed to salvage his own so well, he'll do it, but his own Southside way.

THIS IS THE ROAD TO RUIN - bricoleur10

Ian and Mickey never go to rob Ned, the story unfolds differently from there. A fix-it with a lot of Gallavich longing , very good smut and some really good dialogue.

HEY, HONEY MINE (I WAS THERE ALL THE TIME) - serveteas

Mickey talks about his crush with Iggy and accidentally pronoun-slips. Short, to the point, funny af and I just really love it. Takes place after their fight at Kash’n Grab in s2.

AGAINST GLASS - AllThatMatters

Ian gets traded from one club to another as a dancer (and more) and ends up in the Milkovich family's club. This is a Mafia!Mickey story with some pretty tight sub-plots, I love his brothers in this.

ONE OF A KIND - fckyeahgallavich

Mickey breaks his finger and it has to be set in the hospital, chaos - of the homophobic kind - ensues. Protective!Ian, I wanna hug Mickey in this.

IAN THE FRIENDLY GHOST - Ravenheart

Ian is haunting an apartment and Mickey starts living in it, Ian is maybe starting to have a crush on him. This isn't angsty!

BLOOD IN, BLEED OUT - brewrosemilk, Whatsastory

Historical AU. Perfectly innocent bystander Ian Gallagher is thrown into the affairs of the Ukrainian Mafia back in 1954, his relationship with Mickey will span decades and he won't remain innocent for long, the mafia can corrupt anyone.

TEENAGE RUNAWAY - sadwhales

Ian comes to live and finish high school with his half siblings on the South Side, he's immediately captivated by a boy sitting under the bleachers, maybe his North Side naivety will catch his attention too.

GARDEN SONG - melwrtiesthings

A glimpse into their lives in their West Side apartment, a lot of initial angst due to a manic episode and then a lot of recovery and healing and learning more about themselves.

[brainrotactivated]

okay so yall are gonna have to BARE WITH ME as I try to explain this New steve saga AU I'm working on called "Future Progress AU" (the name will probably change later on).

This takes place AFTER the whole shbang where the "virus" resets the server (???). I also need to mention how this Au, out of pettiness, is also a teeny tiny (actually kinda big) rewrite of how Sabre interacts with Illusion Steve, Alex and especially the Guardian! (mainly because it frustrated me SO MUCH the way Sabre acted at the end of the steve saga - basically the last 20-30 episodes before Elan fully stopped uploading for the series and all that - and also because the plot stopped making sense all together after Illusion Steve left, which irked me for a while).

I wanna try playing around with these characters and sort of give them a Happy Ending that isn't just the canon ending. (mainly because I love Illusion Steve's character so much and the Guardian's but nobody gotta know yet and so I wish to include him aswell, and also for him to have - And Bare With Me - some kind of peaceful, but overly complicated relationship with Sabre. As to what kind I'll need to decide - for now it's left for interpretation). Basically I'd LOVE to see this guy, after trying to discover 'the Truth' about their reality and failing miserably a couple years ago, try and live a normal life AFTER the whole VIRUS problem is SOLVED, and the STEVES ARE SAFE AND SOUND, and THE SPIRIT WORLD IS STABLE AGAIN. And also for Sabre to adapt again to things being peaceful finally, feeling obligated (from his own fears and feeling responsible for all that mess to begin with) to stay and check on the server 24/7 Almost. Yeah.. That sure won't lead to problems! (it will) THEN have these two knuckleheads trying to be 'friendly' to one another (they're passive aggressive most of the time, but have no choice but to work together as the Steves start to finally prosper again and multiply, leading to many homes needing to be made), then soon for them to slowly get used to one another, have a couple heart-to-heart moments eventually that will develop their relationship even further, then... well, we'll see what happens next.

As for Illusion Steve and Galaxy Steve's relationship, in short, it will be a 'Distant Family Members Reconnecting Again Type Of Awkwardness' kind of thing at first, where Galaxy Steve cringes so much from his past actions and wants to be better and more mature/responsible this time, that will slowly develop into a slightly awkward, complicated Father-Son dynamic the more these two learn about one-another from spending so much time together as roommates lol. Alex decides to be more careful about any 'Evil Steves' spawning out of nowhere (or viruses for that matter), so she basically does daily rounds around the steve villages/cities to ensure people are safe and sound, having been taught by Sabre to make records of anything bad happening (and also mapping out all these locations).

And, well... As to how the virus problem gets solved, and the whole spirit world becoming stable again part, and the missing steves coming back part, and so on and so forth... Will take a bit to figure out ngl. Chances are I'll be writing and making art about all four characters and their lives in The Present (better explained: talk about all the Progress they make in The Future and all, after everything gets solved, and their day-to-day life + interractions with one another, wink wink).

All the scenes/backrounds will be inspired by the places I've visited in my trip to Barcelona, since it was during that time that I got inspired to make this Au!

Posts will continue to come in slowly, so I apologize in advance.. (cuz School loves to KISS MY ASS and WORK NEVER ENDSSS). Once I have more free time, I will spend it developing this AU!

SO YEAH! If anyone got any suggestions/questions, the ask box will remain open! Feel free to send me messages <33

[nativestarwrites]

to the surprise of absolutely no-one, all of your wips sound AMAZING! i would love to hear about 'hostages' and/or 'comfort s2 sick' and/or 'that tennis one'

🌹💚🌹💚🌹

Thank you!! Apologies for taking so long to answer this. I got busy and then I got busy hoarding the ask like treasure.

Hostages is the continuation of a drabble I posted a while back where Roy and Jamie discover a break-in at Jamie's. Except the culprits are still there.

Jamie’s eyes are distant, clouded with pain and just enough out of focus to make Roy worry. “Hey, how’re you doing?” Jamie blinks, but his eyes focus back on Roy. “They’re not gonna let us go, are they.” Jamie says quietly, it’s less of a question and more of a statement. “We’ve seen their faces. Know their names.”

Comfort S2 sick is (unsurprisingly) set in S2 where Jamie's only just getting friendly with the team again. He screws up in training, lashes out at Sam and then comes down sick the next day but tries to power through because how will it look if he calls in sick?

Ted’s hand flies out and Jamie flinches, he fucking flinches but his reactions are slow and Ted’s palm still makes contact with his forehead. “Are you sick, Jamie?” Ted asks with concern. Jamie’s caught off-guard enough to not have a quick response lined up and the pause goes on too long for him to not get caught in a lie. He lifts one shoulder in a shrug.

That Tennis One is me finally carrying out my threat to write a Tennis AU every time Wimbledon comes around. As I'm starting with the plotting well in advance of Wimbledon I think it'll get written this time. I'm currently having so much fun outlining! Writing out little bios for all the characters with their backstory and tennis styles.

It's going to focus on the Davis Cup as that involves teams rather than individuals but there's definitely going to be a Wimbledon chapter too as it's my favourite tournament.

“Why’d you sack Cartrick?” “’Cause he’s a prick.” “He’s always been a prick,” Roy says as if that isn’t a good enough answer. He’s not wrong. Jamie had known going in that Cartrick wasn’t what anyone would call pleasant. Crude jokes were par for the course, often at Jamie’s expense. Cartrick had made his dad laugh though, he’d approved of him, even more when Jamie had started to move up the rankings under his coaching. Jamie could take the jibes from Cartrick if it meant he got his dad off his back.

[bigjbonk]

HI!!!! I found you through ex machina!!! I would sell my bones for more of it. It is SO GOOD. i understand if you dont plan on writing more of homestead, but please, tell us what was gonna happen next !!!!! (If you had an outline already, if not its ok)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa that's a pretty huge compliment, thank you!!!

Homestead, Homestead, Homestead. It isn't that I don't want to write it, really. It's just that the tf2 fixation is dormant at the moment, and has been for a while. And at the time I didn't like writing Melissa lol. I do wanna write more of it, but the issue is that right now I have stuff I wanna do MORE, and that list is always growing. My creative process is kinda just. You know. Hoarding WIPs that I'll "work on later." 😂

I was an even less disciplined writer back then than I am now, so I kind of just had some loosely connected ideas that I would write whenever I ended up feeling like it. So, seeing as at this point the most likely way I'll get back to Homestead is after an Ex Machina rewrite (and who knows if/when I'll get to that), sure, I'll share some ideas I had for Homestead under the readmore. Hypothetical spoilers below.

For starters, Engie is sterile. He and Melissa wanted children, but didn't find out until later that Engie couldn't have kids. It's why there was a room in the house that didn't match the rest, it's why Engie immediately latched onto the idea of caring for Mal (and partially why he didn't always have the best instincts even when his intentions were good; no practice), and it's why Melissa was initially REALLY uncomfortable with the fact that he'd "built a son in all but name."

Speaking of Melissa, she definitely didn't like Mal. She's seen enough of Engie's craft to know it's sound. But this is the first time he's (as far as she knows the situation) BUILT A GUY. Inspired by a coworker or not, that's weird. That might even make it weirder. It doesn't help that she barely gets to see her husband, and now he's brought home what might as well be his artificial kid, and barely pays her any mind because he's so set on advancing the robot's AI and teaching it ABCs. Melissa wouldn't resort to outright sabotage, because she loves her husband more than life itself, but she DOES inadvertently start a petty rivalry with Mal (if a slightly lopsided one) because frankly, she WOULD prefer that darned robot gone. Even if she wouldn't overtly say so.

I was kind of hoping for her and Mal to eventually warm up to each other, but considering Melissa's visceral distrust, and Mal's tendency to be either terrified or vindictive when wronged, to this day I'm not sure what would have spurred them to make up. I think I was just gonna keep writing as I go until an idea came up that kinda felt right.

I'm pretty sure that was it for actual plot stuff. There wasn't a whole bunch, seeing as Homestead was meant as a sort of drabble collection anyway, with a string of AU canon to tie them together. But here's some other random ideas I had for themes and chapters and stuff!

Mal really would find a horse. It wouldn't be HIS horse, but it would be a big enough horse for him to hop on and then IMMEDIATELY realize he didn't know how to ride one. No horses would be harmed in the making of that chapter.

Mal learning about sign language, and wanting to learn it. It would be difficult, seeing as he has three fused fingers and a face that can't emote, but it's close enough to what he and M-146 did that he would want to try.

Engie upgrading Mal's pattern recognition software so that it could run fast enough for him to enjoyably watch cartoons, simply because it bothered Mal that he couldn't make anything out in animated material. He would immediately swear off almost all of it for a variety of reasons (he ends up not really liking slapstick or fantasy violence, for starters), but he would quickly become hooked on shows like Scooby Doo whenever his cooking show wasn't on.

Engie would also work on de-noising his speaker system because Scout would call sometimes, and talking to a robot whose voice is 80% grain is a nightmare over the phone.

Speaking of Scout calling, Engie tended to always get surprised immediately after a call because Mal would have learned like 20 new words, and would have more varied intonation for words he already had. By the time the fic ended, Mal would have been capable of nearly flawless speech, and his intonation and even accent would become startlingly different from Scout's. And no, Engie would never fully get used to it. XD

There was gonna be a chapter of July 4th. That was uhhhhhhhhh gonna be how Engie learned Mal had pretty severe PTSD. This would have led to some newfound understanding of Mal's prior behavior, and that awareness would have in turn led to better management of— and workarounds to— Mal's anxiety. Not using certain power tools in his vicinity, for example, or slowly introducing him to stimuli that he found stressful in other contexts. (I'm no expert in how PTSD is managed, and at that age I DEFINITELY wasn't, so like, I would inform readers not to take my approach as like, a PTSD tutorial fjdkdjddhdj)

Once Mal had the words for it, he would reveal his favorite colors were yellow and green. He wouldn't want to be repainted, but he WOULD start occasionally wearing clothes about it.

Mal likes watching Engie work, but should NEVER be expected to help beyond handing him tools. (Engie learns why after the July 4th incident, when Mal has the words to share some of his backstory. Which got loosely addressed in a side fic because I literally retconned his origin like halfway through Ex Machina lol whoops)

I toyed with the idea of Mal making friends so that he wasn't 100% dependent on Engie at all times forever and ever. But I never came up with anyone, nor the circumstances for how he would even meet them when he barely gets to leave the house.

Mal eventually learns he likes to draw. He's not good at it by any stretch of the word, but he likes it.

Anything else I could put here would be me coming up with modern ideas, but these were some of the thoughts and themes I had in mind when I was first writing Homestead. Or at least the ones I could remember; there's a notebook somewhere that had a few ideas listed, but I have no clue where that is lol.

[kosei-on]

I'm so scared to be weird but I need to fangirl a little bit. I read It all started with a letter and goddamn it's so cute!! I love when they're in love and stupid about it and the way you wrote all of them was perfect. I needed more so I looked through your account and yeah I had no idea you wrote you are the cherry on my apple pie. I read that one months ago when I was getting into the fandom and it's one of my favorite long fic!! I'm a big sucker when it comes to human AUs and there aren't many in the mm fandom from what I've seen. I didn't want to ask if it was on hiatus or abandoned or leave a comment about how I'm excited to see what's coming next because I thought it would put pressure on you ahsfafags I'm gonna be reading more TY in advance for all the meals I'm about to consume

Ah, I'm really happy to receive this- I spent too much time chasing the a plot bunny for It Started with a Letter and I'm very pleased w/how it came out. I really enjoyed writing Zero specifically. As for Apple pie... I am embarrassed that I haven't updated it in so long. I didn't have many chances to write during the school year, and after that I was so burnt out it took ages for me to write again. Then I spent a lot of July writing a short story for a competition that btw I can't post anywhere until after the results come out in October. I would like to write fic more often but unfortunately, I have... other obligations (including the classes I signed up for summer.) I did start work on the next chapter of apple pie which (spoilers) includes Zero but I got this really good idea for a one-shot and *had* to chase it when work on that was slow. A lot of excuses ik, but I did want to put down clearly why I wasn't working on Cherry Pie, and that I hadn't abandoned it. It would make me feel guilty but honestly, comments on the fic would motivate me to actually work on it :skull:

Thank you so much- I hope to see you in the 2nd part of Letter and the next chapter of Apple Pie!

[elexuscal]

fanfic writer ask game: 4, 10, 34, 47? 💜

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

[sighs] i am sad to say it's a Harry Potter AU.

Literally been carrying this one around for... over a decade at this point. I was just a kid in high school when i came up with it. it was going to be about the secret of the magical world finally being revealed, due to both the actions of magical activists, and the fact it becomes next-to-impossible to keep the secret due to the advancement of human technology that the vast majority of witches and wizards do not understand.

it was gonna feature a significant amount of Dudley, now older and more mature, grappling with his adoptive daughter exhibiting magical powers

Do I ever get existential dread about it? lol nope not anymore. Rowling has quite thoroughly burned away all my excitement for the franchise, and while i might be tempted for a middle finger 'fuck you', my writing generally come sfrom a place of love, and i just know i wouldn't be able to sustain it.

10. at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

almost always at the end. I'm generally pretttttty bad at it, and have more titles than i can count that are me shrugging and being like, 'ehhh that'll do.' but then sometimes i know EXACTLY what i want to call it from the very start, and that's nice.

34. how do you name characters and places?

varies depending upon the fandom. Some have nice conventions (name gems after gemstones!). Others have as much variety as actual real life humans. In that case, I'll hit the baby name websites, especially if I'm looking for a particular culture.

If i really just need a quick minor background character, i will pick random acquaintances and co-workers.

47. what story are you most proud of?

that honor gets shared by my two completed longfics, Little Rebellions and Re-Initalization. They were both huge undertakings, in different ways (Re-Initalization started off with a very clear plot from the get go, and incorporated some unusual perspective work), while Little Rebellions grew organically over time, and ended up taking... what, two years to make?

[crusnikroxas]

I'm gonna keep sending asks and talking Abt your fic bc it gives me so much serotonin, but I was recently just thinking of Papyrus in your fic

How you still have him make mistakes, and even when he was confused and hurt by the notion MC would even hurt someone, he still cared... Idk it's so endearing how he made a mistake but it's obvious he still cared, and cares a lot Abt mc, tho I know him and mc do need to have a lil better of a conversation Abt it....

I am so excited for the next update, but pls !! Take your time! Your health is more important, we'll be waiting for you!

Aaaaahh, thank you for the asks! It always makes me so happy when people get curious about lore and stuff, hehehe 😊♥️

Yeah, poor Papyrus 🥺 I wanted to show that, you know, anybody can make a mistake - and everyone reacts differently when they're hurt and confused about something. With Undyne....yeeeeah, we know how that came out 😅 But I thought in Papyrus' regard....well, even in the 'Disbelief' AU, he still holds some of that kindness within him, even when he's intent on making sure the player just stops, y'know? It's not quite the same situation with y/n, obviously, but I thought it was important to show that even when he's in turmoil like that, he still has a kind heart. Or soul, whatever. 🤣

And yes, they're gonna have to talk a lot about it all - obviously, y/n understands why it happened, and while she's upset about it, obviously.....it's going to take poor Paps a lot longer to get over. I'm so sorry in advance for making the poor boi suffer 😅😂

Ah, thank you >.< At the moment, I'm writing the next update chapter for my Horrortale fic - then, I'm kind of drafting....well, the first chapter of a book that I hope I can take to a publisher at some point >///< But! That does not mean I will be stopping the fic whatsoever 🤣 So after I've done that, I'll be working on the next update - I'm so excited to get it out, it's something I've been plotting since I started the fic, and I can't wait for you guys to react to the lore I've been foreshadowing for soooo freakin' long now, ahahaha 😂♥️♥️♥️

[anotherfuckingmarvelfanaccount]

G, H, I, O, P :)

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? I pretty much write my stories from start to finish, which is hard sometimes because I'll get writer's block mid-scene and can't finish it but then I can't write the next scene because it's all dependent on the scene I'm stuck on.

H: How would you describe your style? Chaotic, I don't think it can be anything but chaotic.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? Reading, it's definitely smut. Currently I'm a sucker for either Steve Harrington or Eddie Munson x Reader (or both ;). Writing, I'm not sure, probably just happy endings, especially since nobody really gets the ending they deserve. This blog is essentially an everybody lives AU at almost all points in time.

O: How do you begin a story, with the plot or the characters? I think usually I begin the story with who the pairing is going to be and then come up with a plot from there. But there are some fics that I have an idea for and then I'm like "ooh, what's the pairing going to be for this one". It wasn't until the specific scene in Crushes on the Red Sea where she says who her crush is that I knew who the relationship was going to be which.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a"gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go)? I would say I'm probably a gardener, as other than the one scene I want to write, I normally let the story unfold as the words flow onto the keyboard. Originally Sometimes Life Gets In The Way wasn't even gonna have angst in it, it was just going to be a fluffy, smutty piece about Reader and Peter losing their virginities to each other, and obviously, it wound up being a 9.6k word angsty fic with fluff and smut sprinkled in appropriately.

[moonstarsunflower]

Appx. 3

pairing ▹ author x reader genre ▹ fluff, humor, angst, appendices!au, commentary!au warnings ▹ a third extra stuff that may contain spoilers just bc 😂 word count ▹ 0.7k

A Letter from the Celestial Plant Writer...?

Hey there, friends!

If you've clicked on this page, then I really commend you for being so patient with me and my head that's full of thoughts.

This part is just to share some of my old writing plans and the covers I've made for my supposed next works. It's one of the initial stages of my writing process, making the covers and the details.

Whenever I start a new story, I couldn't really relax knowing it doesn't have a proper cover. So after a few chapters, I proceed to work on the covers.

My next work (or works) is supposed to be a three-book anthology series about WayV, NCT 127, and NCT DREAM, featuring the two new members, Sungchan and Shotaro.

I've already written a few one-shots for some members already, and those are That Time When and Lost. And I was really excited to get onto this book series since it'll be my first time to do one-shots and for different members.

In fact, the reason why I've mentioned WayV as a special appearance in the story is because they're hinted to be the first group to appear for the series.

But anyway, since I'm finally done transferring all of my work from Wattpad, there were some changes made in my mind.

I will still be writing for them, but it's probably not gonna be that anthology series anymore. It's just gonna be a bunch of one-shot stories, and it's truly hard for me to say this but there are only a few members that I really like to write about.

So do forgive me in advance if I don't have anything written for all the members. I mean, one-shots for 30+ members because NCT and SVT combined?

I will, however, try my best to come up with a plot for each member of both groups. To be able to write at least one story for each of them wouldn't be so bad, right?

So good luck to me writing 30+ different plots, I guess? Haha!

Moving on, here are the covers and little details about my old writing plans.

The series was going to be called Just Imagine.

If you're familiar with That Time When and Lost, you'll find that I still retained that.

Fun fact: "Just Imagine" is derived from that expression "just imagine [or think]" and then something good is spoken next, like for example, "just imagine—next week will be the end of the pandemic!"

It's kind of like saying "imagine this [good thing] happening to you," and then it happening. It's also inspired from these fanfiction stories being called "imagines" and "scenarios." That's the meaning of the title, just imagine. That's also why they're a collection of one-shots instead of a full novel/novella like my first four works.

I hope that made sense. Anyway, here are their covers I worked on (note: I don't claim possession over the pictures used because they're not mine, I just added some elements to it):

These covers were made way back before I came to Tumblr, so obviously these are pictures from 2020.

• • ◦

9. Thank You Very Much & See You Again Soon!

"I would like to look at this as a new beginning since I will still be existing in a different platform as the Celestial Plant Writer," was what I wrote back then in my Wattpad.

But now I'm here, and I'll be staying here for a good while.

So really, thank you so much for all the support—the notes, the likes, the comments, the messages, the new followers, and the experiences I've shared with all of you. I hope you continue to support me as a fanfiction writer.

This story blowing up on Tumblr was such a blast. I can't thank you guys enough. 🥹

Anyway, in case you're wondering, I'm still lurking around Wattpad because I'm using it as my main typing platform. And I might make a comeback there for a third summer story. 👀

But who knows, right? 🤭

I hope you all do well, my dear friends, and I hope I've made you happy with my works. For now, I'll be hibernating again for my writing season. Then I will come back with new stories.

This has been Wattpad's Favorite Ice Cream Lover, now Tumblr's Celestial Plant Writer.

Sooooo this was the original cover from my Wattpad account. Just wanted to share it here. See you guys again soon!

Appx. 1 ◦ Appx. 2 ◦ Appx. 3 | chapter list

⊱ ⊰

a/n: questions? send your thoughts! feedbacks are much appreciated!

⊱ ⊰

©️ 2022, moonstarsunflower. All rights reserved. Do not copy, repost, or use without permission.

[ut-poppy-askblog]

The Future of Omega Timeline: Poppy's Story

I am writing this way in advance, I have finished animating all of the main cutscenes, and I'm mainly working on the music for the "Act 1 Finale", as I write. I wanted to write this to talk about the fact I even got to this point at all, and what comes next for this project.

For starters, like most usually say when they reach a milestone such as this, I never thought this project would reach this many people.

I started this project with the mindset that no one was gonna really pay attention to it. The concept has always been pretty niche, so I was mostly doing it for myself. ... And yet, two years later, the blog is nearing 900 followers.

I'd like to thank everyone that has stuck by these two years, seen the asks, read the story, done fanart for the AU...

... Of course, let's not forget to thank all of my lovely friends and team members (Dihze, Lolika, Doku, Cap'n Toad, Tyrone, AJ, Cerulean, SKL, Mrky) that helped me throughout this whole thing. This would have never been possible without them.

... I cannot stress this enough, really.

Half of the fun of working on Poppy, for me, is always the back and forth between me and my friends. Talking about hypothetical plot points, how characters would answer asks, how they'd feel about other characters, or the OT should look or sound— that is and will always be what brings me the most joy about working on a project like this.

Not to mention all the friends that I've made through working on Poppy. Jakei, Yugo, poody_blue, Cerulean, blaize.mayes, and so many more I can name off the top of my head that have influenced Poppy to become much bigger than I originally intended.

Even though I will be the first to say that this AU is not perfect, and really, it never will.... It has reached so many people and inspired others, even brought more attention to the Omega Timeline itself, that I am honestly glad it exists as it is.

Originally, I was planning to do just like, 5 sprite comics and end it in less than a year. But now I've made 3 sprite based animations, totaling around 20 minutes, and many comic pages, a 30 long original soundtrack, and the blog has almost reached 900 followers.

It's hard to believe I did all of that, even if I had a lot of help along the way.

Regardless of how reception turns out (I'm still quite unsure on how people are going to feel about it...), it's honestly a huge thing for someone like me to have reached this point.

If you don't know my history with the Undertale community, I don't tend to finish or see through most of my projects.

But now that I've finished this video, I feel I am confident enough with saying that I am going to see this project through, one way or another.

Regardless, I figure people are going to have questions After the finale is out. I've lined up some of the ones I can think off the top of my head:

"Is the blog over?"

No, not yet, obviously. It's why it's called the "Act 1 Finale". There will be more in the future.

"How many acts will there be?"

3. What the other two are like, I cannot tell you, but we have a promising outline.

"What will happen to Poppy and the rest?"

All in due time. Did you read the ask above?

"What about Poppy Buys Milk?"

Like I've said before, the game is going to happen. It canonically takes place before the events of act 1 finale, specifically before "Happy Birthday, Mon" (Present), so most of the characters are unaware of what befalls them later.

"Are there plans to redo the act 1 things?"

Only the Dusted and Poppy spar. That is genuinely the only comic I'd like to remake in some fashion. It's bad and dumb.

As for more scenarios that ocurr during Act 1's time, though, I have no comments yet.

"When will character asks return?"

Once Act 2 starts. But that will take a bit to get it out.

To make up for it, though, I will likely be posting scrapped concepts, concept art, unused or old music, and story drafts, so I hope that'll hold everyone over until we can start.

... That's all for now. Again, huge thanks to everyone for sticking around and checking this little blog. If anyone has any Omega Timeline and otherwise out of character questions, you can send them here. (I've cleared out the ask box, so I'll be able to catch them more easily).

[nightfayre]

hello! i loved your switched family backgrounds au a lot! i have questions 👉🏻👈🏻 i hope you don't mind.

how does your au work? Does mo guanshan belong to a rich mafia family, has a brother and he tian has a father in prison and has financial struggles but their personalities are the same as in canon? or does mo belong to a rich restaurant owning family but his father is in the lock up and he tian comes from a family that's rising in the ranks of mob underground but he detests it and wants nothing to do with it? i was squealing because i've always wanted mo to have a stable financial situation and in your fic it is the case and i'm curious how he would spend his wealth in your au?

is your he tian the popular boy in school slaying both academics and sports and has a huge circle of friends all the while hiding a dark background and mo is the delinquent-looking irate boy who's actually loaded but is a loner and skips school, works at small restaurants in secret because his family doesn't allow him to do anything part time and returning on one such moonlighting he happens across he tian in an alley kicking ass left and right gets caught himself and is threatened by the supposedly model-student to keep his mouth shut and gets low key roughed up due to his cursing and spitting on the other boy because mo guanshan does not take shit from anyone—especially the school's hot-shot-goodie-two-shoes—for doing nothing wrong and the next day of course he tian doesn’t leave mo alone, constantly intimidating him about keeping shut about that night but soon enough it just turns out to be an excuse to get close to mo because he tian is now intrigued with this angry chilly who never outed him or judged him in the first place and walks to school though he owns a car and shares his sandwiches with stray dogs and hardly smiles and curses creatively (he tian’s harmless observations) and mo had been the only person to literally walk in on he tian’s facade and not clutch his pearls so of course he tian is just a tad piqued and wants to know more about him so that’s how they started to interact.

i'm really sorry i ran away with my words(also, what are tenses?)

and when you also mentioned she li in the drabble my brain just exploded omg howwwww? did/will[?] you work him in to your awesome idea??? i'm gushing i love all your works, fics and the little drabbles but this one i read day in and day out trying to fathom what will happen? how would things go? how will the author develop their relationship??? as a baby writer i admire your idea a lot because to me that kind of switched au would be daunting and scary but with less than 1000 words you flipped the whole game gah *sob* i just love it so much.

again, i apologise for the rant and my lame one long ass sentence but!!! thank you for the endless curiosity this drabble piqued in me i'm just gonna keep reading it and daydream and doodle plots about it.

ok, i'm done!

i wish you a merriest christmas! thank you and best of luck!

hi there!! so sorry it took me a second to respond to this — the holidays are always a bit hectic for my family! of course, I hope your holiday season has been great so far as well <3 my response is below the cut! :)

oh boy, my infamously incomplete switched!backgrounds AU :') that drabble I posted some time ago haunts me in the best way possible because it forces me to remember where I planned to go with that fic, but it also forces me to remember that I have yet to pursue it, smh...

anyhow, thank you so much for this ask!! I apologize in advance if the rest of this answer is a bit hectic, as it's been some time since I thought in-depth about this AU's plot and I don't want to give away any major spoilers because I DO intend to write it one day. but from what I can remember (and what I can decipher from my messy notes/outline), I believe my original plan was this:

guan shan: yes, his family has relations with the mafia but he no longer has the best relationship with his father. he is very close with his mother, however! oh, and he has no brother (although I've been thinking... well, I might keep this idea to myself for now ☺️). the mo family still has a claim on the food/restaurant industry, and overall, yes, I'm happy to tell you that guan shan is in a stable financial situation in this AU! :)) at school, though, he still faces loneliness and poor grades — but for reasons different than what is seen in canon.

he tian: yes, he keeps his popular status at school! good grades, good at sports, etc etc. however he does tend to get in a bit more trouble than what we've seen in canon, both in and out of school, though very few peers/teachers (if any) know of his personal circumstances. his mother left rather than died when he was young, and although he does live under the same roof as his father & brother, he tian and his father do not cross paths for good reason. nonetheless, he cheng, although very busy himself, does try (keyword: try) to act as a father figure for he tian. and for what I have planned, she li has more to do with he tian rather than guan shan in this AU!

I think that's all I'm willing to share right now!! I hope that's enough :') just as a quick side note, he tian and guan shan will keep most of their main personality traits/characteristics to prevent any drastic OOC concerns, but the manner in which these characteristics present themselves will be very different based on their different circumstances. and omg, I love love LOVE your interpretation/prediction for the scene in the drabble!!!! while it isn't quite where I was planning to go, it's such a great and detailed and deliciously dramatic continuation :') have no fear, though — my plans are just as dramatic, angsty, and fluffy! <3 and although I don't think I'll stray too far from my original plotline/ideas, I always like to remind myself that sometimes the story has more control over itself than I do once I start writing it. as a writer yourself, you might understand, haha!!

anyhow, thank you so much for this ask!! I love that tumblr took away the character limit because I always get such a huge burst of happiness whenever I see asks of this length in my inbox <3 no worries at all about rambling and/or one-sentence-long paragraphs because I adore them :')) !!! and omg trust me, I am also a baby writer and hardly know what I’m doing at the best of times 🥺 but regardless, thank you so so so so SO MUCH for reading my works and supporting me!!! if you feel comfortable with it, I would LOVE to get your username/pen name to read your fics as well (if you have any)!!

otherwise PLS let me know if you have any more questions or headcanons about this AU!! I will always love to hear them and will answer any questions to the best of my ability as I gather the courage/inspiration to actually start writing this fic <3 have a beautiful holiday season, my dear, and thank you again!! :)

[britishsass]

Numbers 3, 13, and 21?

3. what makes you love writing?

I happen to be a "many thoughts head full" person a lot of the time-- I either have a billion ideas or none. I like to share what I come up with, to find people like me. I like to craft the perfect scene. I like venting my emotions in a peaceful way. Personally, I love getting to inspire others most of all. If what I create makes anyone else think of new ideas, I've succeeded.

13. describe your writing style.

Sporadic /j

On a serious note, my writing style is dialogue-heavy and emotion-fueled. I tend to write more whenever I'm emotional-- I find it helps me more to write it out and feel things through that route.

21. what are the most important facets of creating a character, to you?

Let's go with three different situations. This is gonna be a long one, folks!

When I'm trying to get into the personality of a canon character, I start with analyzing their actions. For Otto Mentallis, for instance, I started off thinking about the island in Bob's mind, and carried out to the Otto-Matic in the Heptadome, the way he portrays himself in the scene with Sasha and Raz, his interactions with Ford, Dr. Touch, and more personal things. I actually started thinking about him through the lens of an au, where his mentality was more "ends justify the means" than it is in canon. From there, I dialed it back a lot, focusing more on him as a person in canon through the lens of those I understand the best. I try to find the things I can feasibly imagine them doing, and through writing those things I can find other facts about them by how they end up portrayed. I tend to be a bit weird in the fact that I let the characters carry the story. This is extremely clear in things like "Vending Machines That Talk Are The Worst," where I fully intended for Otto to yell and argue with Bob. Instead, he wanted to comfort Bob, which I had to go with because writing anything else felt unnatural.

When I'm creating an OC for a fandom, my first goal is to find a role I want to fill. With Loren, I wanted to explain the Thorney Towers timeline. With Heath, I thought the Motherlobe needed a nurse. Once I find a role, I tend to work on fleshing out their personality next-- what kind of person are they? I wanted Loren to be the quiet type and fall more in line with my introverted, anxious attributes. Heath, on the other hand, I wanted to be outgoing, and a bit of a flirt. I want to have someone who contrasts well with other characters around them as well-- For instance, I had to make Loren a lot more deadpan and untrusting to make xem seem different from how I write Fred-- in the same manner, xe's too quiet to seem like Boyd or Gloria, and too cold to seem like Edgar. I made Heath all hyper to distinguish him from Hollis and Fred, since they're also known to be in the medical field. Then, with a personality and a role, I can figure out how they came to be there and how they came to be the person they are. (The appearance is the least important part of a lot of my characters, to be honest.)

If I'm designing an original character without any fandom or other characters to base them on, I tend to find a sort of main idea to start with. Let's take Nova Zephyr, an old oc of mine-- I wanted to make a character with a heartbeat monitor for an eye. Around that idea, I had to figure out how she would have such advanced technology on hand (daughter of the CEO of an important tech company), why her eye was replaced, and how that impacted her life. However, I kept coming back to the idea of naïvity, a sheltered girl who's not all that bad. Putting together her backstory with that idea, I got the idea for why she's just now being exposed to the world outside of homeschooling, and worked around her to find the right dynamics, plot, reasonings, et cetera.

To me, designing a character should focus first on who they are, where they are, and why they are who/where they are.

Long detailed explanation over, thanks for the questions!

[runaway-train-works]

I'm happy to see you are possibly writing again, I love your fics! What WIPs do you have at the moment?

Oh Nonnie! This is so lovely, thank you! I’m really glad you enjoy my fics! 

I have had a lot going on this last year with pandemic fucking up my life in more ways than one, as well as suffering from a severe case of writer's block, so I’ve been annoyingly dabbling in lots of things but failing to actually get anything finished. However, I’m hoping the winds of change are finally going to give me a break and so I might actually complete something soonish!

In answer to your question about my WIPs, I fear you might regret asking this question because I have so many! I’ve had to put them under the cut but if you fancy reading more about them then you can check them out, and feel free to ask me any questions about any of them!

And All Because I’m Mad About The Boy

The 5th instalment of my Ad Au series. It’s going to be a long one I think, and will feature them going on their stag dos (bachelor parties) as well as a decent bit of angst! I’ve written the first section as well as some notes on later sections. 

Black Mirror

This is the fic I go on about but have never written more than the opening scene of. It’s kind of Black Mirror meets Total Recall - Harry goes to a company that downloads holiday experiences straight into your brain, and he has a holiday romance with ‘Louis’ A year later, he sees Louis in real life and it all unravels from there. 

Boxer ABO AU

Louis is a sassy omega who is quite snobby when it comes to ‘alpha thugs’ that box, but gets dragged along to a boxing event by Liam and meets boxer Harry. Harry asks him out, and Louis turns him down, however, he’s unreasonably miffed when Harry takes the turn down a little too well and precedes to do all the chasing, much to Harry’s amusement. 

Cursed Is The Fool Who’s Willing

My ABO fic I have already written 70K for. I need to get back to this, I’ve just come to a point where I’m so stuck with the plot that it’s a real struggle, even though I know how it’s going to end. Very frustrating, but I will finish this if it kills me. The general plot is Louis regularly offers himself up as an omega for alpha ruts, but has a strict no real names, no repeats policy. That is until he meets Harry who gets under his skin.

Dreams ABO

I actually wrote about 10k of this after my very first fic, but haven’t really returned to it. Harry is an alpha in his last year of high school, and Louis is a new omega who decides on his first day that Harry is his alpha and they’re meant to be together. Harry isn’t so sure. 

Gotta Blame It On My Juice

I started writing this for the ridic fic exchange but had to drop it and pinch-hit another fic at the time. I even have commissioned artwork for it! The prompt was ‘Louis is a registered sex therapist and he is pretty sure his new next-door neighbor, Harry, has a fetish for old women because he keeps having elderly women over and they always leave his house in a wheelchair (seriously where does he get all these wheelchairs?), turns out he's just a vampire who likes old lady blood the best (that is, until he tastes Louis) 

Grumpy Neighbour

This was meant to be a fest last year but never got it finished, based on Harry being Louis’ grumpy neighbour who Louis is pretty determined to win over, so when his shower breaks, he keeps going over to Harry and Niall’s flat to use theirs and walking around in just a towel. 

Harry/Troye

Haven’t got a title yet, but based on a Tik Tok of Troye’s where he gets flirted with by the receptionist when he’s getting his sexual health screening, 

Housesitter AU

I have a 4K outline of this and I’m pretty into the idea actually. Fake relationship AU based on the film with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin but a few differences. Louis is high school hearts with Liam, and when he buys a house in the village they grew up as a surprise for them to live in, Liam tells him he’s actually been wanting to break up. Louis has a sort of rebound one night stand with Harry and tells him about the empty house. A few weeks later, he turns up to sell it to find Harry’s been living there and has told everyone he’s Louis’ fiancé as a cover. Cue a fake relationship to help mend Louis’ broken relationship with his parents as well as win Liam back by posing as the perfect husband material, but it doesn’t quite work out like that. 

I Was Just Tongue Tied

Gay disaster Harry meets Louis in a sushi restaurant and tells too many fish puns. 

If You Bring Your Blue Skies Back

Gay disaster Louis meets Harry on a plane and repeatedly embarrasses himself.

Let’s Get Into Physical

Liam meets Harry in a yoga class and is pretty oblivious to Harry’s advances. 

Lumberjack

I was writing this a while ago for a Christmas fest and wrote about 10K, but then other lumberjack fic came out and I gave it up. Based on writer Louis going to his usual remote Scottish getaway to finish his new book, but the new local maintenance/lumberjack type guy Harry is very good looking, very distracting and very NOT into Louis. 

Moments

Louis is a married man but goes to a gay speeding dating night with Liam for moral support but meets Harry and his world turns upside down. 

Pretences

My Big Bang from last year I never finished (sensing a theme yet?) Got to about 20k but it just got so big. I thought from my outline I had it all worked out but when I actually started writing it, it just seems like such a huge fic that I struggled. Based on Louis being a doppelgänger for the Prince and he’s asked to step in for the royal wedding day when the princess is getting married. Harry is the one that helps him through it all. 

Sad Songs Say So Much

Girl direction fic based on Louis knowing when Harry is upset because she always plays the same sad songs playlist so goes out her way to make her happy, and Harry has no idea. 

Sharry

Adore You/Lost In Japan canon fic about Harry and Shawn hooking up in Japan. 

Shiall

Fake Relationship AU based on Niall asking Shawn to go to a work dinner party as his fake boyfriend, but Shawn plays the role a little too well. 

This City’s Gonna Break My Heart

My Narry fic that I’ve been chipping away at, which is disgustingly overdue. Based on the song Heartbreak Weather, where Niall hooks up with Harry one night and it becomes a casual thing but Niall’s more into it than he would like to admit. 

Wouldn’t It Be Lovely

Based on My Fair Lady, Harry is an art curator that must turn Louis into a ‘respectable artist’ rather than the tracksuit wearing chav he is. I kind of gave up when I realised that it wasn’t the nicest storyline and Harry would have to be an insufferable dick for most of the fic. 

[crazy4myself]

Okay so get ready for a long ass ask, because I am ready to gush about 'No harm list' (I'm sorry in advance for it, please forgive me)

So I started yesterday because I love Mafia AU, and right from the start the story was so interesting with the fight, how she helped him but then it ended up being him helping her, and then helping each other (yay teamwork!!) And I just wanted to know how it was gonna develop!! And then there was the whole story with daewon and hoseok (who hides his secrets very well) but I mean he had to be in a gang because he literally killed the guy who killed his sister... and in my head, it was blaring alarms everywhere!!! But dumb ass reader was too much of an idiot to put 2 and 2 together... as always!!

And then they all grew on her (I mean how could you resist any of them really). I'm not gonna lie, I thought something was gonna happen with jimin... because he is the best, come on!!! He is sweet, caring, hot, intelligent, etc. (Also I don't if I was just dumb or really hadn't read correctly coz I didn't know Jin and Namjoon were thing until he woke him up with the contract in the morning, but I do have the attention span of a fly)

The characters are super interesting, especially taehyung and namjoon. The former because he's hot then he's cold (yes I just referenced Katy perry), but he has so much history and such a difficult background and there is so much potential with his character!!! Especially with the whole kissing thing from chapter 10, that was something I definitely did not see coming... And namjoon.... aaaah namjoon, I honestly dont know what to do with him!! Like I think he is intelligent and he knows what he's doing, and he's caring and then he pulls shit like with taehyung and suddenly the only thing I wanna do is strangle him!!! But he must have more things to him that explain why he's acting like that, and I wonder when we're gonna learn about his backstory and what are him into this weirdly ruthless leader that still cares.

And I'm so happy that hosoek is back to being her friend!! I was over the moon when that arrived!!!

And to finish, I really wonder how the whole kissing jungkook-kissing taehyung thing is gonna go down... is she gonna go to taehyung because she thinks that jungkook is acting like that because he's indebted?? Is she gonna go to jungkook because taehyung can be a little cold?? Is she gonna go to neither?? Is she gonna pull a weird move and kiss jimin so she doesn't have to choose?? (I know far fetched but I really want something to happen between them!!! Yes I'm acting like a 5 year old that doesn't get what she wants and constantly talks about it)

Anyway, all of that to say that I simply adore this story. I love the storyline you came up with and I can't wait to see what happens next!!! But please take care of yourself, eat and drink enough, take some breaks and sleep especially during exams season!!!

All the love from a fellow student, although I'm from another country... All the love ❤

I am overwhelmed in the best way possible this is such a kind and loving review! I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed the story thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me!!!

I don’t get ask very often and I always get so excited when I do so to get one this long is just 😭🥺💕 so let’s dive in

First off yess thank you for calling out my dumb ass for not letting the reader catch on on Hoseok was in BTS I think that’s one of my biggest plot holes, and the main reason why is bc I changed my mind abt her knowing abt BTS pretty last minute in the drafting process when I was writing last year. So some of the details in the backstory and her time with Hobi is pretty muddy. I constantly think about going back and changing it lmao but at that moment I’m content with her being dumb.

As for the shipping... I don’t plan to drag out this love triangle nonsense for too long I hate any kind friendships getting complicated over love interests, so you will have answers soon. Unfortunately, I can tell you for sure that it is not Jimin. But don’t fret! Jimin actually gets his own spin off story one day! It’s About him falling in love with an environmental activist who hires him to make bombs. It’s going to be such fun to write! You may be able to find some more details on it if you explore the tag No Harm List on my blog it might be pretty deep tho.

As for Namjin. Believe it or not you are not the first person to say you didn’t get that they were together. Which is interesting bc I feel like I leave some good hints and have them refer to each other as “lover” a good bit along the journey but that’s definitely a plot point I should go back and polish somewhere for clarity sake. Thank you for pointing it out!

As for Namjoon you’ve heard a good bit of his back story from other peoples POV like suga and J-Hope. And honestly there’s not too much more to say at the moment. The reason he is the way he is is because power is hard. It’s hard to get. It’s hard to keep. And when you’re a mob boss you need to be ruthless and sometimes that ruthlessness hurts the ones you care about. I do have to say I think he’s one of my weaker characters on the emotional spectrum. I’ve only approached big picture plot points from his POV. But I think I will challenge myself to think a bit more in his perspective and delve into his character a bit more for clarity sake.

Thank you so much for this amazing review it also gave me a lot to reflect on as well which I really appreciate!

And thank you for your well wishes I have four more exams left but I’ve taken down two and final a paper so far! So we’re going strong!!!

[sineala]

Hi Sine! I recently re-read your Star Trek AU--which is BRILLIANT--and I noticed that it's got a pretty complex plot. Then I thought about it, and a lot of your fics have multiple things going on in them at once. I think Living On Your Breath has something like four plots: Steve's personal, Tony's personal, the villains, and then Carol&Wanda's. Plot complexity is something I'm trying to get better at, so I thought I'd ask how you come up with and manage everything! Thanks for writing!

Thanks for asking! I had to think about this for a bit, but I came up with a few rough guidelines for how I handle plot. I’m putting this under a read more because (1) I am wordy, and (2) I don’t want to spoil either of those stories for anyone who hasn’t read them.

A disclaimer: I am entirely self-taught in that I have never had a writing class in my life and I don’t really do well with those writing help books. So basically what I have learned has been picked up by reading a lot of books, reading a lot of fanfic, and writing a lot.

This is not so much a plot tip as General Writing Advice, but there’s an Ira Glass quotation that circulates Tumblr every so often that I really like:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I’ve certainly had this problem; I’ve spent years not writing because I’ve come up with ideas I knew I couldn’t execute to my own standards. And then I did it anyway, and eventually I got better and now I’m at a point where if I have an idea for a story it is probably something that I feel like I would enjoy if I wrote it (as opposed to “God, I can’t pull that one off, I hope someone else writes it”). It does make leaving exchange prompts kind of tricky because I think one up and then NO I WANT TO WRITE IT MYSELF. (The Jar is a Cap-IM Holiday Exchange prompt I nearly left before deciding I wanted to write it myself.)

Anyway. Plotting long stories. The big difference between a long story and a shorter story  is that you need to be conscious of the overall structure and where you are going. You know all those rising action/climax/falling action plot outlines? Take a novel you like and think about it like that. Break it down. If you want a long story that feels cohesive, you’re probably going to want to adhere to that basic structure. You don’t necessarily need to make an outline of that form – I don’t bother – but you should have in your mind the idea that three-quarters of the way through (or so) is the Big Important Scene that your story has been building towards, and then the rest is cleanup.

I am generally writing romance stories, and the tropes of the genre are such that there are often a lot of shortcuts I can take when I am trying to work out what’s going to happen, especially if these are first-time stories – the big moment is the characters declaring their love, finally getting together, and so on and so forth. So you ask yourself, okay, what are the obstacles to their love? Why didn’t they get together before? Maybe they have to learn to love each other. Maybe Steve doesn’t know Tony is Iron Man. Throw the obstacles in their path! Make them get over them!

But the reason these stories get so long on me is that that’s not usually the only plot. The other plot can be personal to the characters (say, Tony’s drinking problem) or involving the personal lives of the other characters, or, heck, maybe they even have to save the world. Basically I just… intersperse the development of both plots, and I try to make sure that every scene is furthering something: either plot or characterization. (When I am outlining the story itself, I try to keep tabs on this.)

Because these are generally romance stories, the A-plot, the one I give the most weight to, is probably going to be the romance plot, and the B-plot is going to be whatever else happens in the story. The absolute best way to join these plots together is to make them both build together and then hit their respective plot climaxes at as close to the same time as you can manage. If the B-plot is saving the world, Tony is tragically injured in the fight with supervillains, and that’s when Steve tells him he loves him. If the B-plot is personal discovery, Tony gets sober and decides he can be with Steve. Something like that.

How do I keep track of this? I used to do it in my head. I don’t recommend that part. I know some people can handle writing novels by the seat of their pants, but I work a lot better with outlines; I have a lot of abandoned novels where I basically didn’t remember what was going to happen next, and… whoops. I actually do all my outlining and writing (of long stories, anyway) in Scrivener (which is the best program I have ever spent money on). I like Scrivener because it’s set up to handle stories with a lot of ancillary research material, and furthermore it’s organized by scene, which makes a lot of sense to me.

First is the brainstorming. I like to bounce my ideas off other people when I am still in the thinking stage (like “hey, would you read a story about X?”) and then I spend a while mulling over The Scenes That It Makes My Brain Really Happy To Think About, which are usually (for me) probably the climax of the story. (This might be Steve And Tony Finally Get Together or Steve Finds Out Tony Is Iron Man or Steve Cradles Tony’s Broken Body In His Arms.) In my current WIP, it’s probably Steve Realizes He Loves Tony After All.

And then eventually I make an outline. The outline is basically a complete synopsis, scene by scene, of everything I want to happen in the story, with as much detail as I need. Sometimes there will be bits of dialogue, sometimes it will be OH FUCK SOMETHING PLOTTY HAS TO HAPPEN HERE, FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS. Because generally I will know that the non-relationship plot must advance before I know exactly how. (I revise it as I go.) The outline for the Trek AU is about 1500 words. (The outline for its sequel is 3000 but it uses more complete sentences as it was intended for other people to read.) I stick this all in the Research pane of Scrivener along with my canon notes and whatever else I need to refer to while writing. This is a good time to stop and make sure that the outline feels like a story – all the emotional beats are in the right place, there’s a good mix of A-plot and B-plot. and so on and so forth. I just squint at it and wing it but I’m sure there are various exercises you can do if you like that sort of thing.

Then I do the actual scene breakdown. Because I’m using Scrivener, it has this very cool functionality whereby every scene has an associated “notecard.” You can give each card a title, organize them in folders by chapter, reorder them, and write up whatever you want on the notecard; I fill it with a description (expanded from the outline) of what’s going to be in each scene. Sometimes if I have multiple POVs I will color-code each scene.

As for specific complex plots, let me tell you about how I came with the stories you asked about.

Living On Your Breath was easier because it was for a RBB, and the artist (Phoenix) had a few suggestions about canon, and from there I let canon help guide me to filling out the plot. The art that went with it was Tony in leather and fishnets, choking Steve out. Which is, you know, evocative. Phoenix had suggested that the plot involve mind-control (which seemed reasonable as Tony looked pretty evil in the picture) and also she wanted to know if I could write a story set in Avengers v3, which I had never read, but I was game.

So, I thought, okay, this was going to be a story where a mind-controlled Tony had somehow captured Steve and decided to choke him. How could I get a plot out of that? Well, I thought, what if the drama of the story isn’t just about Tony being villainous? What if it’s a story about kink and consent? What if maybe Steve would have wanted Tony to choke him out when he wasn’t evil? What if Tony secretly wanted that too and Steve had no idea? Well, that seemed like a decent amount of angst to me.

And that right there suggested a basic plot structure. Steve and Tony would get together at the beginning, and we would establish that Steve had these unfulfilled kinky desires, and they would be happy together but not A+ perfect because they are not talking about all their unmet needs because, let’s face it, they have communications problems. Then Tony gets kidnapped and mind-controlled, and kidnaps and tortures Steve, and he does everything Steve wants except it’s fucking terrible because, well, Steve didn’t so much want Tony the supervillain to whip him. Just regular Tony. And so the rest of the story was going to be about them healing and putting themselves back together (although getting worse before they get better) and reclaiming everything they did and admitting their secret kinky desires and having Tony choke Steve out in a truly wholesome and loving way.

I knew that there was going to have to be some kind of plot involving villains – I mean, someone had to do the kidnapping and mind control – so I went looking for obscure villains (since I’d had enough of AIM and Hydra) with a grudge against Steve and ended up, unfortunately, with the Secret Empire. They were so obscure, I told myself! Surely Marvel wasn’t ever going to use the name for something big! Ahahaha. *sobs quietly to self*

I also decided that it might be nice to have the events of canon going on as a backdrop to the story, and as soon as I read v3 I knew exactly what I was going to do because, see, I fell in love with Carol’s drinking arc. Avengers v3 starts out so sweet and the team loves each other and then… it kind of starts to fall apart. Not that they don’t love each other, but it’s apparent that several of them have Problems, and Carol’s drinking is the definition of a Problem. So I wanted to have the team start to go along perfectly and then break apart as Carol does, with Steve and Tony’s post-mind-control relationship along for the ride at the same time. Suppose it all comes to a head with Steve and Tony on the same mission that gets Carol kicked off the team? And then, well, we know Tony goes up to Seattle in canon for recovery from a fight in canon – what if, in this version, he brings Steve with him? And later on, when Carol drop-kicks Tony through a jet and finally sobers up, what if Steve is there too? So that way both Tony and Carol get to get better at the same time. Recovery arc for EVERYBODY.

Honestly I added Wanda because I figured that Carol needed SOMEBODY to be there for her (it really irritated me that the team basically just kicked her out on her own, in canon) and she and Wanda clearly like each other a lot. Having said that, about 50% of Carol’s plot is straight out of canon, dialogue included, although I played with the timing, added Wanda, put Carol in the Blue Area mission, and gave Steve and Tony a massive breakup in the middle of the mission.

The structure of this one was pretty simple – before, during, and after Steve’s captivity. Every scene in the During section was one of Steve’s days. During the After scenes I was basically trading off Steve/Tony and Carol & Wanda plot development.

Straight on till Morning was trickier to plot. For most of its imaginary life, it didn’t have a plot; it was me sitting around and thinking, “Gosh, I like the Avengers and I like Star Trek and I want to imagine the Avengers in spaaaaace.” But that wasn’t a plot. That wasn’t even anything close to an idea for a story. So it just kind of sat there for a couple years rattling around my brain. And, really, the backstory all came first, and the plot kind of sprung out of everything there had to be in order to put the backstory in play.

One day I was sitting there thinking about what the Avengers would be in the Star Trek universe, and I thought, “Well, obviously Steve is a starship captain and OH MY GOD STEVE IS A GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED SUPERHUMAN FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.” I had been thinking of the story as a complete fusion, where no one existed with their regular Marvel identities, but suddenly it occurred to me that if Steve existed in the Star Trek universe and had still been Captain America in World War II, things could get really interesting – because the Federation, bastion of diversity and tolerance, is fully prepared to hate the fuck out of you if you are genetically-engineered. Especially, and I am just guessing here, especially if you are from the twentieth century. Steve would predate Khan and the other supermen, but, well… maybe Steve was the first Augment. So that’s an interesting idea! The one universe where being Captain America would actually be reviled!

So that’s not a plot, either, really, but that’s part of a plot: Steve has a Terrible Secret. He is an Augment. What’s going to happen when Tony learns his terrible secret? Well, he’s probably going to take it pretty badly.

Steve’s backstory was pretty much a direct port of the Cap stuff plus making him frozen twice so that (1) he could have prior starship command experience and (2) I would throw off everyone who assumed that him being frozen once was the way I was translating his comics backstory. At least until the scene where Tony gets out his Cap poster, anyway.

Tony’s backstory was a little more complicated. Because the thing about an AU is, you have to ask yourself which elements of a character and their backstory are 100% essential. And the weird thing about Tony is that a lot of the things that are key components of his superhero life don’t really translate to Star Trek. Like, take Tony’s famous MCU line, “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” Welcome to the post-scarcity economy, Tony; there’s NO MONEY. That knocks out “billionaire” and “philanthropist.” “Playboy” is, let’s face it, probably also linked to “billionaire,” and for 616 Tony it gets use as basically part of his intricate layers of personal masks where he doesn’t sleep with nearly as many people as he wants you to think he does. That leaves “genius.” And we’re gonna make him a Starfleet engineer! Everyone’s a genius there!

The Iron Man suit, likewise also out. Because, yes, it’s cool, but it’s not Star Trek cool. A flying suit? Try a starship. Maybe he designs starships, I said to myself.

So what are the key qualities of Tony? His genius, his engineering aptitude, his general personality, let’s throw in his former alcoholism, and of course his Vietghanistan trauma leading to heart injury. So something happened to him on Planet Vietghanistan, obviously, and whatever it was hurt him, but it didn’t lead him to make Iron Man. But he still needed to do something heroic, but it had to be Trek-style heroic. What if he saved a bunch of his shipmates? What if he saved a bunch of his shipmates and built a ship to rescue them and Captain Yinsen died tragically in his arms? And what if Tony was so fucked up by all of this that he decided to quit Starfleet? Until, of course, he meets Steve.

This suggests an arc for Tony’s character, the same way Steve’s backstory suggested an arc for him: Tony learns to love himself, Starfleet, and Steve. Maybe not in that exact order.

And remember, Steve has A Secret. Well, that’s going to interfere with Tony learning to love him. Obviously Tony will eventually come around. So from there you can see where the major obstacle to Steve and Tony’s happiness is going to be.

The first third-to-half of this story was therefore pretty easy to write, because it was just a matter of introductions and shoving in all the backstory. Meet Tony. Meet the ship. Meet Steve. Let’s go to Starfleet Academy and learn a bit about the Prime Directive and Tony’s tragic backstory. Meet the crew. Set off on a maiden voyage. Tell Steve about Augments, watch him freak out, and watch Tony have no clue why.

And then, of course, there had to be A Plot. Every scene basically advances the worldbuilding, Steve’s character, Tony’s character, or the plot. This was also pretty easy to come up with, because it’s Star Trek, and if you want to make your Star Trek story feel like Star Trek, steal a Trek plot. Of course they beam down to a planet and meet some aliens. Then something goes terribly wrong, something bad happens to the ship, but it is all fixed just in time and they sail on. You know how it goes. There is a pre-existing structure. I had actually been joking that if I couldn’t think of anything I’d just sex pollen Steve and Tony and well… I couldn’t think of anything else. Sex pollen it was!

I think sex pollen actually works well, because it is a very Star Trek trope (quick, count all the sex pollen episodes; you might need more than one hand) and also because the absolute worst time to find out that your captain is an Augment is after you’ve been forced to sleep with him to stay alive. I figured that scene was going to be one of the super important plot moments.

I debated using a Trek alien race or a made-up race but decided to go with Skrulls, on the grounds that evil shapeshifters are also very Star Trek and also I thought maybe I could fool people into thinking I made them up as long as I didn’t bring in Veranke until after the Skrull reveal.

And then, well, the ship is in danger, Tony nearly dies (you can tell that Star Trek II is one of my favorites) sacrificing himself to save the ship, gets his heart injured again, decides while he’s dying that he was being an idiot about Steve, and lets himself actually love Steve.

Basically, it is literally several actual Star Trek plots mashed together with Captain America’s backstory and a lot of infodumping. It is honestly way simpler than it looks; there were plenty of existing models for How To Tell A Star Trek Story and I pretty much just stole them.

I hope that helps.