#technically wip since I still have to bind it and all

[salamispots]

blocking this will be interesting haha; another smaller piece on a weirdly shaped piece of leftover backing

[florencebirdsong]

Possessive Agatha - WIP Wednesday

Agatha Harkness x Reader

Authors note: here is a sneak peek of the possessive/jealous Agatha one shot :) The breeding kink one will be out tonight my time (15 hours ish)

Tags: possessive and jealous Agatha, red flags abound but reader is into it (more apparent in full fic), Agatha lowkey (highkey) traps you in the house

It’s hard to concentrate with her scent surrounding you but it’s something you have to contend with every time you’re around her. You have enough practice to still complete your goal, just not without thinking about her every second.

Since Agatha has yet to bind you to the bed, you think you’re were consequence, for now, until you reach the door. The handle turns but the door doesn’t open. You try to flick the lock but it doesn’t move. Frowning, you try to tug it free but it’s too small to get a good grip. It jiggles a little but remains stuck. It’s weird and annoying but nothing Agatha can’t fix…later. It’s not the best idea to go down to her lair while you still want to leave.

The thought had crossed your mind but you hadn’t genuinely believed it until the back door does the same thing. She really has locked you in. You prefer it when she throws you into bed. Huffing, you wonder if it would be too crazy to go out the window. It feels too crazy, and a bit silly. You aren’t a teenager anymore and this is technically also your house.

Instead of creeping out of a window, you creep down the stairs to her basement. While the house may equally be each other’s, Agatha’s lair is entirely her own.

She’s standing at one of her benches, going between a book and some vaguely-witchy item in her hand.

“You locked the door.”

“Did I?” Agatha asks neutrally, not bothering to look up from what she is working on.

“Yes. If you didn’t you’ll have no problem forcing it open.”

“I’m very busy, dear.”

“It’s very convenient for both doors to be stuck on the night you don’t want me to go out.”

Agatha finally turns around. “Careful,” she says in a low voice.

You swallow hard. It’s not a smart idea to push her but you’re annoyed enough to do it anyway.

“I guess I’ll just go out the window,” you jut your chin out.

Her eyes darken but she doesn’t move. You know she’s waiting to see if you actually try or if you’re all talk. It pisses you off enough to turn around. You get two steps before your arms are jerked behind your back and purple lifts you off the ground.

Edit (13/02): Full Fic

[ennn]

More Agatha x Rio Fic Recs

For my previous fic recs: 1, 2 <- a few canon-compatible fics in Part 2 have completed so check 'em out if you haven't!

Alrighty, I know some of y'all don't enjoy AU fics so I've put those in a separate category. Usual YMMV disclaimer. I make no claims that this list is comprehensive, there are other well-written fics out there.

· · ──── Canon Compatible / Divergent ─── · ·

For You To Be Still – by @momentary-ecstasy

Pre-canon. In a desperate bid to save Rio from the fallout of the Snap, Agatha binds them together. If that wasn't complicated enough, there's the end of days to deal with. Sounds like a job for a coven.

blood, sweat & tears – by clarkestrife

WIP. Pre-canon. Rio encounters Agatha for the first time since Nicky's death. It goes as well as you'd expect.

you'll sanctify me when i'm dead – by @majorlysapphic

WIP. Pre-canon. Stricken with Hanahaki Disease, Rio seeks to retire permanently but she needs to finish a final mission... and she can only do it with Agatha's help.

death comes for us all – by uniqueusernamegenerator

Pre-canon. A beautiful series of scenes through the years where they come together and fall apart. Well, mostly fall apart.

WAR Stories – by simplysapient

Wanda/Agatha/Rio. Technically canon-divergent? A series that's very very cracky and silly but also contains heartfelt character moments. I especially enjoyed Parts 6 and 12.

· · ──────── Entirely AU ──────── · ·

honey come put your lips on mine (and shut me up) – by tinyteamug

WIP. Retired hockey pro-turned-publicist Agatha is tasked with managing the most unmanageable feral hotshot player that is Rio.

 I lay my heart down with the rest at her feet – by xnodustollens

WIP. Detective Agatha meets her new partner Rio as they investigate a serial killer. An intriguing murder mystery with these two engaging in highly unprofessional behaviour.

a new terror – by obsetress

WIP. The Mr and Mrs Smith AU fic. Enough said.

someday we will all be lying on our backs (free at last from income tax) – by @paddingtonfan69

Rio is the bad boy of the IRS. Agatha is an infamous tax evader. Perhaps the most crazy hilarious and well-written AU concept that fits with canon?

To Hate Her is to Love Her – by @justasimplelesbiansfanfic

WIP. Agatha gets her estranged wife Rio to pretend they're still together for the holidays. A long, angsty slow burn with an unfolding plot involving crime, the justice system, and the FBI. Not your fun holiday season fic!

 'til storm breaks loose – by Palmarion

WIP. Agatha's a top music producer and Rio's the only assistant who's managed to deal with her. Whoops, they're stuck at a hotel in a room with only one bed.

[she-who-the-river-could-not-hold]

Rambling March Updates

A little bit of a fun update for this month and moving forward, since I’ve been feeling a shift in how I approach my creative work (and well, everything else too) and I feel like organizing my thoughts somewhere. It’s technically the 2nd of March, but after a mini vacation post half-marathon, I definitely feel like it’s a valid bookend to semi start at. I’m in my usual “time to overhaul my life and plans” mood so it’s fitting for that as well, like a spring cleaning for the mind!

Writing Updates:

I’m about halfway through my celebration oneshot, which is a Bellarke AU based on the winning tropes from my survey that I ran during my follower celebration. So in a sense it’s a collaborative fic which is pretty fun! I’m liking it so far, though I do feel a bit rusty writing the Bellarke again after taking a bit of a break.

If you somehow missed my excessive reblogs, I finished my longest fic ever last month (hence another writing break)! It was for Stranger Things/Hellcheer (Eddie x Chrissy) and ended up clocking in at just under 80k words. Pretty astounding and I haven’t really processed how long it is. I feel like I need to reread it just to bask in the accomplishment and to also remember what I wrote lol.

Organizing the new month means updating my word count calendar, and with it I’ll probably spend some time reworking some outlining and WIP plans. I still like most of my WIPs that are unfinished, though one or two might get axed and abandoned. But the ones I want to finish deserve a polishing up and fixed outlines so I feel more confident getting back into them! And of course, organizing some new fic ideas I have and seeing if I can prep myself into making them shorter, easier projects for the main reason I’m about to share!

The biggest reason I want to spend time narrowing down my approach and what I want to write in terms of fanfic is that I’ve finally confirmed to myself that I want to write my own original novel. The idea started bouncing around in my head and I tried to ignore. Thought about it a little longer, told my husband about it, and he enthusiastically insisted that I legitimately consider writing it. And now I can’t stop thinking about it, so I’m going to give it a go! I can’t let myself think about any goals beyond writing it, but I am excited to see how that goal can fit and how I can push myself with it and hopefully actually write it. 

Design/Visual Creative Updates:

I do want to eventually finish my Stranger Things episode gif sets. I find them incredibly relaxing to make and a nice little visual stimulation break! 

More episode posters such as this one are also something on the back burner. Mainly because I’m also considering expanding my efforts in an online shop and I think it would be cool to include them! A part of that is organizing the categories of work I want to do, as well as the very tedious element of figuring out a name for the shop so that I feel comfortable sharing it across platforms. Hopefully updates on that will come down the line by the summer!

In non-fandom thoughts, I desperately need to update my graphic design portfolio and take new headshots. It’s driving me bananas at how much I’ve stalled on that so that needs to be a priority 

I’m determined to learn how to book bind this year and turn my own fics into physical copies (also a nice tie in for my own potential novel). We’ll see how that goes––it’ll be added to my long list of physical creative projects I want to get into this year!

I’ve negotiated my current contract to being a four day work week, so I’m excited to see my schedule start to form in a way that I can maximize my time and work on more personal projects!

However all of this comes on the back of that my husband and I are officially looking to move to a new state and city! Which means there’s a buzzing amount of stress just consistently in my mind right now, which will most definitely multiple over time as we actually have to complete the process. That means I’ll probably put a lot of this all on pause later this month and into April, but I also think that moving to a bit of a slower paced lifestyle is also going to be really good for both of our goals moving forward. Very exciting and very scary at the same time as we look to start a new chapter in our lives!

Onward to updating Notion and hopefully getting some good work in today! Happy almost spring!

[chrismerle]

Three Facts Tag

thanks for the tag, @ryns-ramblings!

Rules: Post three facts about yourself or your ocs/characters.

Absolutely zero pressure, but I'll tagggg ... @emelkae, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @kittensartswriting, and whoever else wants to play along.

wip: Threshold

The cast of Over the Threshold has been cobbled together from many places, but Shai in particular (and their posse) came from Fallen London. They were my first Fallen London character. I've tried to disguise it a bit, but the Failbetter-y DNA is probably still pretty evident in places.

Ivan was originally a bog standard medieval fantasy character. I used him to RP on GaiaOnline. He was angsty and boring and he used to have a horse. For a while I replaced his archery gear with assorted tactical and camping gear and I replaced his horse with a unicorn. He still has the mix-n-matched tactical gear and camping gear, but I decided the unicorn was unnecessary.

The exact lineup of characters got shuffled a lot in early days. Originally Shai was shepherding ALL of the ducklings, but then I realized it wasn't really in-character for them to just ... do that voluntarily. They've got way more interesting shit to do. At that point, Ivan had been a sort of ... contractor? who was going to help them. Their roles got swapped, so Ivan was the lead, but then Shai refused to be just a side character. So, I decided splitting the party was the best bet, since Shai's not going to volunteer to babysit, but they're also not gonna just leave Jayne stranded.

wip: Eigengrau

Surprising no one, Edge was originally a concept for a D&D character, in the unlikely event I ever actually played D&D with anyone. That's not actually why they look like a tiefling. They look like a tiefling because I've been creating tieflings since before I ever even heard of tieflings.

In my head, Adrian looks a bit like D'artagnan from the BBC Musketeers series.

Eventually, there are going to be zombies. And a cult.

wip: NaNo Project

There are four main characters, kind of. Three of them are out and about doing stuff, and the fourth is the reason the plot is happening but is also not in favor of doing fieldwork.

One of the main characters just gets called Stranger. They introduce themself by their ... title, I guess? And it's very pretentious, and two of the others just kind of go 'lol nah, we're not calling you that,' and by the time the fourth one meets them, the other two are introducing them as Stranger.

Two them are recycled from an older WIP that had WAY too big of a cast for me to reliably keep track of and not enough plot to actually carry it (I also recycled the setting, or parts of it). They both have names, but they don't use them. One of them goes by Oleander; he's a mercenary, technically, but more commonly an assassin. One of them goes by Jackdaw; he's a Frankensteinian healer-meets-necromancer. They're married. Ride, die, or reanimate.

wip: Ties That Bind

Honestly the biggest fact about Ties That Bind is that it's a fucking mess. I've restarted it from scratch twice and I'm probably going to restart it again because I can never figure out WHERE THEY'RE GOING. There's a starting bit, and parts of a middle bit, but the ending bit never really clears up.

Werewolves are a thing, though it's not spread by biting. They used to just be people, but then many generations back a mage cursed everyone on the peninsula and then split the peninsula off from the main land. So, werewolf island. There are several islands, actually, since the splitting wasn't a very precise process. They're called the Arthric Isles. They're kind of magical Australia, when it comes to fauna.

One of the only consistent bits is that Amity is a mimic who usually takes the humanoid form of the unicorn who raised them, partially for sentimental reasons and partially for practical reasons. Mimics also take on the "intrinsic" magic of the creatures they copy, and unicorns have absurdly deep mana pools.

wip: Brothers

It was supposed to be like 3k words long. It's over 6k. It's still not done.

I showed it to a friend who I'm no longer friends with (for unrelated reasons) and he said he liked it but the timeline was hard to keep track of, and I sat there thinking 'Ash keeps track of events in relation to his own age. The timeline is literally spelled out.' But I did not say that, or it would have been A Thing.

Their dad will show up. Everyone's going to wish he just stayed gone. Not everyone who steps out for a gallon of milk needs to come back.

[xavantina]

I posted 2,645 times in 2022

9 posts created (0%)

2,636 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@i-see-you-jon

@sjweminem

@vildmus

@strideerandflashlightgirl

@powerbottombrucespringsteen

I tagged 1,483 of my posts in 2022

Only 44% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 145 posts

#stranger things - 90 posts

#hannibal - 81 posts

#loki - 73 posts

#succession - 69 posts

#loki series - 68 posts

#mobius m. mobius - 52 posts

#eddie munson - 50 posts

#ugly laughter - 46 posts

#the sandman - 44 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#five minutes of awkward silence eventually replaced by him starting to tell me in detail the workings of elevators and the odds of us dying

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

cries i love your loki memes

Thank you 😊 I appreciate the support of my meme follies.

1 note - Posted October 24, 2022

#4

Spotify being down causing such a level of distress worldwide really says a lot about our lives…

1 note - Posted March 8, 2022

#3

This is my cat. Her everyday name is Good Girl, but her full name (as written on her pedigree) is Good Girls Go to Heaven.

So you can imagine, based on that, how much Meat Loaf’s music means to me. I’m genuinely upset by this loss. I mean yeah, he had deeply problematic political opinions, but in this case I’m happy to separate art from the artist. Bat Out of Hell is one of my favourite albums of all time, ever since I was a child. It’s one of those cases of “your dad played it a lot and you automatically imprinted on it”. I think we owned it on fucking cassette tape? So yeah, his music is intrinsically tied to my childhood.

Rest in peace, Mr. Loaf.

2 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

#2

I am so very bad at actually doing these things, but I was tagged by the lovely and talented @gavotteangel, so I finally got off my butt and went to town.

Fanfic Writer 20 Questions!

1. how many works do you have on ao3? A measly 31. But in my defense, I’m ancient, so I have posted at least twice as many on LiveJournal back in the day.

2. what’s your total ao3 word count? 162,236  

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Six are represented on AO3, including a mix of various RPF fandoms, Hannibal, Law and Order: SVU, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and recently Loki. But back in my teenage years I wrote fic in the Lord of the Rings fandom, Harry Potter, and as I got older even more diverse RPF, mostly centered around US political media and, uh... Top Gear. Look, I have a past, okay, leave me alone.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Assemble, a lighthearted, non-graphic-but-still-very-shippy Marvel RPF

As Loud as the Hell You Want, smutty Will Graham/Frederick Chilton

The Ties That Bind, a Barisi soulmate AU

Arrest Me - another Barisi fic, this one smutty

Young Police Cadet Bottoms for Busty Blonde - a Carisi/Amaro (and Carisi/OFC) porn fic where I’m actually super proud of the title. it really sets the tone 😂

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not? Almost always. If you took the time to comment, I will take the time to say thank you. Especially when I get the really juicy comments, like those that quote favourite lines and stuff. I love those comments, they’re so helpful!

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I’m really bad at following through on angst, I wrap that shit up with a vaguely happy ending. That said, Control You is pretty bad. It’s also locked, because I lock RPF religiously. kill them; kill them with fire is technically still a WIP, so it doesn’t count, although it’s some of the angstiest fic I’ve written.

7. do you write crossovers? Not so much these days, but I used to

8. have you ever received hate on a fic? Oh yes, before the US Pundit fandom hid all the RPF away in secret, thoroughly locked LJ communities, there were some pretty ugly instances of hate going around.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind? Ahahaha, yes, I do. 23 of those 31 fics are rated E. And it was the same back on LJ.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen? Not as far as I know.

11. have you ever had a fic translated? I’ve received requests for a couple of fics to be translated into Russian. I gave my permission, but I have no idea if they followed through with it.

12. have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes. Way back when I was 18 I had a 42 year old BFF from California who shared my brand of absurd humour and we co-wrote a sprawling 20K+ Pundit RPF comedy zombie AU, where we took turns writing the chapters as we went along, playing off what the other person had written in the previous chapter. I was a great experience, like the fic equivalent of improv comedy groups. An entire story based on ‘yes, and...�� as a concept.

13. what’s your all-time favorite ship? I can’t possibly answer that question, I’m a bit of a whore in this respect. I mix and match. Although judging from my AO3 account it’s Chilly/Willy and Barisi, and it’s true that I love those ships.

14. what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? kill them; kill them with fire probably. It’s a ASOUE Zombie AU with stand-alone chapters focusing on different characters in different locations, but in a vaguely chronological order. Can you tell that I adore zombie AUs? Anyway, I was very proud of this one, because this particular zombie apocalypse is totally “realistic” in-universe. It takes an existing killer-fungus danger and replaces ‘certain death’ being the result of infection with ‘zombies’ being the result. So yes, it’s The Last of Us-style “zombies”. I actually stole the terminology from there as well, because I couldn’t be bothered with creating too much lore. I never care about the actual zombie horror anyway, I care about the human reaction to a deadly crisis. 

15. what are your writing strengths? A writer I admired very much in ye olden days once told me that I was good at blending genres and moods organically, in those day it was combinations of action, humour, and smut. She then asked me, me, for advice on a fic. I still think about that every single time I feel down.

16. what are your writing weaknesses? Definitely a tendency for overly detailed, flowery, self-indulgently elaborate prose. I spent years forcing myself to use a plain ‘said’ more often, because God knows I struggled with the concept from the beginning. And commas. So many commas. I often joke that Ernest Hemingway would fucking deck me if he was alive and reading my stuff. Oscar Wilde would you rather discuss writing with? Case closed.

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? I think it’s fine in controlled doses, especially if you consult native speakers to confirm that google translate isn’t about to make you look really silly to native speakers of the language in question.

18. what was the first fandom you ever wrote for? Lord of the Rings, I think? At least in English. I was 14 when the first film came out, so it was around then. It was really bad. English is my second language, and my grammar... left something to be desired. Okay, technically I wrote fic for The Hobbit first, because our teacher was pretty cool when it came to assigning various writing challenges, and in this case he made us all write fanfic that should be a twist on the pretty anticlimactic (according to him) ending of the book. I proceeded to literally kill off half the dwarves in a gruesome Smaug-fight. Very indiscriminately, I might add. Completely random. Just piling up dead, scorched dwarves for shits and giggles.

19. what’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written? Okay, bear with me here, but I’m just really proud of Young Police Cadet Bottoms for Busty Blonde. Probably the smuttiest smut I’ve ever written. I enjoyed every second of the writing process, I had a wonderful time, and it lives up to its title in terms of balls to the wall PWP insanity.  A Guide to Recognizing Your Ghosts and Unfortunate Living Arrangements are also up there, because I’m still a Chilton fangirl at heart.

20. who do you tag? all of my old ASOUE peeps! @beatricebidelaire, @virginian-wolfsnake, @kitsnicket etc. etc. You know who you are.

6 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Nine months clean and sober. The party I’m dolled up for is for my dad’s though, he turns 60 today.

48 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thethistlegirlwrites]

I've seen a few people do your character asks for a lot of people, and I wanted to know if I could too? Or does it get annoying to answer for so many characters? 🍵for all of them, if you don't mind, and I totally understand if you do mind

OH PLEASE ASK AWAY!!! I am happy to go wild over all my OCs! Honestly trying to focus on one WIP is like trying to pick a favorite child lol. 🍵Half Tea & Half Lemonade: what is a goal your OC is working towards? Do they have smaller goals as well as something large? What progress have they made? Are they open to revision or adamant about what they need to accomplish? Magic & Silver Robin - Robin wants answers about what happened to his father. That's the overarching goal that's driven the rest of his smaller goals. He wanted to become a vampire hunter to try and investigate his father's disappearance, and he stayed in the job even when things got bad because he didn't want to lose his chance at getting answers. Robin isn't very open to changing that goal, and he insists on staying in the field when he changes agencies, because he swore a binding fae oath to find out what happened to his father and he literally can't change that. John - John wants to protect his fellow hunters the best he can. He feels responsible for the others he works with, and he's a very protective person at heart. He's changed how he chooses to do that, switching from an active field role to a training one, but he still does his best to make sure his trainees will have the best chance of surviving the job. Kira - Kira got into the hunter world trying to track down the vampire who attacked her and her mother. Even though he's since been staked, she's stayed on the job because the hunter research facilities have given her a huge opportunity to make scientific and technical breakthroughs. Her goal now is to improve the lives of both hunters and ordinary people with her work. Cody - Cody wants to be an author. He's currently a librarian to pay the bills, but his end goal is to get one of his myriad manuscripts published. He's a storyteller and he wants to share his stories with the world. Maira - Maira wants to make sure the human and vampire communities live in peace with each other. Her goal in her whole career has been to mediate disputes and try to find ways of bringing disparate groups together and getting them to see past conflict. Partnering Robin and John is an attempt at that on a small scale. Emma - Emma wants to make sure no one else goes through what she did, being unwillingly turned into a vampire. She keeps a close eye on what happens in her club, which she promotes as a place humans and vampires can mix, so that curious kids will come to her club and not go looking in more dangerous places. She also uses her position as the owner to gather information and pass it on to John. Arion - Arion wants to enjoy his un-life. His philosophy of the world is very hedonistic and self-serving. He doesn't care who else is damaged along the way, but he wants to have the things he enjoys. He's willing to sacrifice to get those things, which can sometimes make him appear to enjoy an austere existence, but he has specific goals, and his current one is to capture and enjoy a part-fae and their unique blood. Between the Trees Brooke - Brooke wants to keep her family together. The only people in her village she can count on are her adoptive father and brother, so she doesn't want to lose either of them. She'll do whatever it takes to hold onto the only people who haven't treated her as sub-human because of her vitiligo. Aspen - Aspen wants to heal people. He's never forgotten that he would have died as a child if not for the village healer who helped him, and he wants to pass that on to someone else. He feels like he was saved for a reason. Will - Will wants to protect his kids. He's a soldier at heart, and he will defend them however he can. He's tried to do that by adopting them and keeping them away from the main life of the village, but that's no longer enough, and he's been forced to try and find another, and more permanent, solution to keep them from being dragged into the dangers of the life they all lead. Written in Ink Jesse - Jesse wants to find a way to get humans to rethink their perception of the fae, so they will roll back the incredibly dangerous fae registration laws. He thinks his best chance of that is to take a job in the human world, and the idea of being a hunter appeals to him because he was rescued in the past by hunters and would like to be able to help someone else like him. 

Amy - Amy wants to do the most good she can while she's still alive. She used to want to be a highly decorated hunter, but being bitten and infected by a vampire changed her perception. Now she's firmly aware of her own mortality, and she wants to do things that matter, because she has no idea how much time she has left. Tina - Tina is a healer, and she wants to not only physically heal people, but heal the rifts that have opened between the humans and fae. She doesn't like seeing pain of any kind and she wants to do what she can to relieve that. Who Fights Monsters (Doing the ones I know for this, there's a HUGE cast of characters and not all of them are speaking to my yet) Joe - Joe wants to keep his family safe and living in harmony. As the pack leader, he sees his role as keeping the peace between family members and presenting a united front to the rest of the world. He tries to make decisions that have the best chance of keeping the family together and alive, and the loss of Abby has made him a bit more cautious in his perspective. He can't stand the thought of losing another member of his family right now, be that to an unsolvable difference in opinion, or to something happening to them from the outside. Tom - Tom wants to make sure his family is safe. He values family loyalty above all else, and he will do whatever it takes to protect his pack, no matter the cost. He trusts his family to be in the right, and he will defend them even when things look bad. Maya - Maya is a bit torn between what she feels is her duty and what she finds to be her heart. She feels that her gift is meant to be used to bring people closure and find answers for them, but with a family to raise, she has to balance that perspective with looking after her own family and being what they need. While registration laws were in place, she stayed away from the city life in order to make sure she wouldn't be taken away from her family for being unregistered, but now that that's changed, she's once again trying to find a balance in her life. Kate - Kate wants to make sure people are treated with fairness and honesty. She only takes cases she truly believes are just. She has a stronger than usual sense of the fae value of honesty, and people twisting the system to get away with things they should pay for infuriates her. She wants the right thing to be done, and that to her is the highest importance. She has a strong sense of right and wrong and her morality is more black-and-white than the rest of her family. Erin - Erin wants to be a valued part of her family. She feels like an outsider, since she struggles with her shifting magic. While her family doesn't treat her differently because of that, she still feels as if she's somehow lacking some important feature of what it is to be a Phelan, and she wants to find a way to be herself and still be a good member of the family.

[littlestarofthewest]

Title: Matthew’s Monster Mystery | Words: 2401 | Rating: Mature

Pairing: Gen | (past John x Abigail) | Tags: monster AU, modern AU, WIP

Chapter: [1] [2]

It's always strange for John to explain his condition to people. He's technically dead, but also somehow not. The weirdest part is that more often than not, he still feels very much alive. Right now, he can feel his heart beat a mile a minute, although it shouldn't move at all.

John's following along behind the others. They reach the fountain where they saw Hosea disappear and look around. It's eerily quiet, and after rounding the fountain, Sadie shrugs.

"Not here. Think you can smell something, Arthur?"

Arthur grunts. He hates to act like a dog, but in this instance, it's a legit question. He stands still to take a few quick breaths and immediately scrunches up his nose and covers his mouth with his hand.

"People, food, dog shit," he groans. "I can tell Hosea was here, but I doubt I can track him."

John takes a whiff of his own. His senses don't rival Arthur's, but they focus solely on humans.

"You're right. Hosea was here recently," he says. 

Something else tickles John's nose. He looks at Arthur and slightly nods his head to the side, giving him a direction to focus on. Arthur furrows his brows as if to ask what John wants, but then he seems to get the same sent John did.

Without warning, Arthur closes the distance to a nearby tree in a few long strides, making someone jump up from behind there. Before the stranger can run, John cuts him off, and seconds later, Abigail and Sadie close in as well. Unless the guy in front of them can disappear into thin air, he has nowhere to go.

"Hey, fellers," the stranger says. "Lovely night for a stroll."

John grabs the guy by his jacket and lifts him up. "What are you hiding for, little guy?"

The stranger stares down at John before wiggling his feet, trying to comprehend that he just got picked up like a doll.

"Calm down, zombie man. I'm just here to meet a friend."

Arthur takes a step closer, his eyes glowing in a deep red. "Where's Hosea?"

The stranger's mouth falls open, but then he smiles. "You're monsters. Great. You're here to meet Hosea, too?"

"Let him down, John," Abigail says.

The stranger smiles at her when John puts him down. "Thank you, finally someone-"

He doesn't finish the sentence. Flames dance on Abigail's fingers, and the stranger strains his neck to get away from the heat when she points her sharp nails at his throat. 

"Talk," Abigail demands, "now."

"Woah, are you all crazy? Hosea told me to meet him here. I ran a little late, and he's not here. That's all I know. Totally don't appreciate all that lifting and growling."

The stranger babbles at a speed that makes it hard to understand, and Abigail looks around as if not sure what to make of the guy.

"What are you?" Sadie asks.

"Me?" the stranger asks. When Sadie nods, he puffs himself up like a bird. "Sean MacGuire. Proud and infamous member of the mysterious fair folk."

They all exchange looks until Sadie shrugs. "I liked the other fairy better."

John and Abigail laugh, but Arthur rounds Sean as if he might find Hosea hidden in his clothes. "What did Hosea want with you?"

"Helped me out of a pinch a while back, and we've been trading favors ever since."

Arthur looks over to John, who gives him a slight nod. That sure does sound like Hosea, and Sean seems to tell the truth. 

"What now?" John asks.

"I say we go to Hosea's place," Arthur suggests. "I bet fairy boy isn't the only one Hosea traded favors with. Maybe somebody else wasn't happy about their deal."

Since Hosea's place isn't far, they make their way over there on foot. Sean protests at first, claiming to have better things to do, but Abigail's flames convince him once more.

Once there, Sadie picks the lock, and they venture into the apartment. From the way the others look around, John can tell how uncomfortable they feel. They've been to Hosea's many times, but it's weird to rifle through his things without him there.

"Anybody got something?" Arthur shouts from the other room.

"Nothing," Abigail and Sadie shout back, and John follows suit.

"Nothing here!"

John walks along one of Hosea's many bookshelves and rounds his huge wooden desk. The long drawer at the front is locked, and John thinks about picking it when his skin prickles as if someone emptied a bottle of champagne over his head.

That's never a good sign, so John walks into the next room. "Guys, I feel like-"

John's words are cut short when a huge figure comes out of the shadows and reaches for him. He tries to sidestep his attacker, but a strong hand closes around his arm and pulls him close.

"Help!" John yelps before the attacker can put a hand over his mouth. 

Sadie and Abigail come running, and Abigail conjures a ball of flame on her hand. "Let him go, vampire!"

John notices that he can't really feel the attacker's touch, and now it makes sense. When someone living touches him, it's usually so much warmer. The vampire doesn't care for Abigail's command, though.

"I think I will keep him for now," he says, his voice calm and unimpressed.

"You better have a good explanation for being here," Sadie growls. "Or we have to hurt you."

The vampire huffs. "I was about to say the same. Who are-?"

From one second to the other, the pressure of the vampire's hands is gone. Out of the corner of his eye, John can see how Arthur pushes the vampire into a bookshelf on the other side of the room. 

The element of surprise doesn't hold on for long. The vampire fights back. His long dark hair is flowing down his back, and he's even broader and taller than Arthur. They keep struggling, and just like John, Sadie, and Abigail can't find an opening to help Arthur.

At last, the fight slows down. The vampire and Arthur stand opposite each other, both of them holding the other's arms. Abigail throws a handful of small leaves at the vampire. He blinks, momentarily confused, and John uses the opportunity to grab him from behind.

"Bind him, Sadie," Arthur groans, struggling to hold the vampire despite John's help.

She steps closer, but then another figure enters the room. This man is smaller and way less impressive in stature compared to the vampire, but he holds his head high, oozing confidence.

"Let my friend go."

Abigail doesn't hesitate. She throws the flame that was intended for the vampire at the newcomer. He only smiles, and John watches in wonder how the flame disappears in front of his face. He has his lips pursed as if he just blew it out.

"I'm not going to ask twice," he says. "Let him go."

"Not going to happen," Arthur grunts, making the stranger roll his eyes.

"Fine, but I gave you fair warning." 

The stranger takes a deep breath, and then he sings. John wonders what the hell this dude is smoking, but he can't move his lips when he wants to say that much. Even worse, his arms lose all strength. He has the sudden urge to do exactly what the stranger is asking of him.

Arthur must feel the same. He lets go of the vampire, staring at the singing stranger instead. Abigail does the same. Her hands rest at her sides, and she makes no effort to use any magic at all. John knows that all of this is wrong. Although his mind screams at him to move, his desire to please the stranger is so much stronger. All John can do is stand there and watch.

The only one moving is Sadie. She walks over to the stranger, clocking him right in the face. As he stumbles backward, the vampire tries to attack Sadie, but Sean appears before him in a whirl of green leaves. He points a wooden spear at the vampire's chest, smiling.

"That's fairy wood, my friend. Go ahead and try it."

The stranger pulls out a knife, but before he can make use of it, ropes shoot out of Sadie's back, binding his hands.

"Nice try, siren," she says, smiling at the stranger. "But your voice doesn't do it for me."

"What are you?" the stranger says. It can't be often that someone resists his voice. Even now that he stopped singing, John still feels obligated to help him.

"Puppet," Sadie says with a shrug. "Now you. Who are you, and what do you want with Hosea?"

"You first," the vampire says, making Sadie roll her eyes.

"Fine," she huffs before pointing at the others. "Arthur, Abigail, John, Sean, and I'm Sadie. We're friends of Hosea."

"I'm Javier," the stranger says. "This is Charles."

The vampire reaches for the spear in Sean's hand, moving the tip away from his heart. "You are all friends of Hosea? How?"

"He saw one of my shows and helped me cut my ropes and escape my master," Sadie says, looking back at the others.

Abigail sighs. "I got thrown out of my coven, and Hosea helped me with my magic. Otherwise, I might have blown myself up."

"We're sharing origin stories?" Sean asks, pulling up his spear to lean against it. "Hosea covered for me, or I might have gone to jail. Good lad."

Sadie turns to Javier, raising her brow. He nods. "Hosea helped me control my voice, so I can sing without using my powers."

Javier looks over to Charles, but Charles turns to Arthur instead. Arthur lets out a low growl, but when Sadie gives him a stern look, he caves. "I almost bit Hosea when I first turned. He helped me stay sane during the full moon."

"Same for me," Charles says. "Shortly after I was turned, Hosea helped me deal with the thirst."

Silence falls over the group, all of them looking at each other until Sean lifts up his hands and claps them together with an overly loud sound. "Great. Seems like we're all friends of Hosea. Can we find him now?"

"That's what we've been trying to do, genius," John huffs. "The question is how."

Javier and Charles share a quick look before Charles reaches into his coat pocket to pull out a small black book. "This is Hosea's calendar. There's a note about meeting someone named Trewlany tomorrow morning. We have his address."

"Here's also a note about a book signing tomorrow afternoon. We think Hosea knows the author. She might know something," Javier says.

"Those are great leads," Sadie says. "Anything else."

Arthur steps forward, holding up a red card. "That's a ticket for a show in a nearby club. Seems like Hosea wanted to go there tomorrow evening."

"Let's split up then and check them all out," Abigail proposes.

"I don't feel comfortable just letting them go," Arthur growls, his eyes fixed on Charles.

Javier stretches out his arms. "We're not keen on working with you either. We're just here to help Hosea."

"Why would you even know that he needs help?"

"We were supposed to meet in the park," Charles explains. "I knew he was there, but before we could reach him, his heart sped up, and then he disappeared. Someone must have taken him."

"That's exactly what happened," Sadie says. "And that's why we'll work together. Everybody in agreement?"

After a short pause, everybody agrees, and Sadie takes the ticket from Arthur, handing it to Abigail.

"Abigail and Sean go check out these singers. Maybe Hosea doesn't only like their music but actually knows them. Arthur, you go with Charles to this Trewlany guy. The two of you should be able to get some information out of him, no matter who he is. I'll go to the author with Javier. That way, we can all keep an eye on each other. Agreed?"

Everybody seems fine with the plan, and John feels heat rising in his body. Rage is one of the few things he gets to feel at full force. "What about me?"

"You go home," Arthur says instead of Sadie.

"Are you mad?" John shouts. "I want to find Hosea just as much as you do."

"You're no help if you fall apart," Arthur grunts.

John wants to give Arthur a piece of his mind, but Abigail blocks his path, her hand coming to rest on John's shoulder. All the heat in John's body pools right under her fingers.

"You know he's right," she says. "You haven't taken a bath in forever. I made you a fresh mixture yesterday and I think you should use it right away."

John wishes he could argue with her, but the truth is that they all have their limits. Abigail uses potions to strengthen her magic, Arthur needs to eat an insane amount of food and sleep for two days after a full transition, and Sadie patched herself up numerous times to not simply fall apart. 

John's lucky that he has friends who help him look somewhat presentable. If he doesn't take care of his body, he soon won't be able to go anywhere, and one of the few things that work is a hot bath with a little bit of magic.

"Fine," he grunts. "But you have to keep me updated."

"I say we meet back at our apartment when we have news," Sadie suggests. "I wouldn't want to talk about this over the phone as long as we don't know who has Hosea."

They split up to go their separate ways, John following Sean and Abigail out of the apartment. 

"Be careful," John says, a sudden feeling of dread taking hold of him.

Abigail smiles and kisses him on the cheek. "Just take care of yourself; we'll be back in no time."

"I'll take good care of the lady," Sean says with a grin. "Don't you worry."

"See? I'm in good hands," Abigail says, but as soon as Sean turns around, she rolls her eyes with a smile, mouthing something like "What an idiot."

John does his best to hold in a laugh and watches them until they turn the next corner. His skin tickles where Abigail kissed him, and John sighs. Sometimes he wishes he could be more than just "not dead."

[higuchimon]

what do you want to see?

GX Month is almost over and I'm having a lot of fun with it. But it did push back finishing my WIPs a lot, and it added a few to the list despite my best efforts. So, my next goal after this is to finish those WIPs. That's not what I'm asking. This is: I have a lot of series and worlds. Which do you, the readers I share what I write with, wants to see the most? Here are your options:

Digimon Adventure 02

Division of Destiny: The world of Reign of the Undead King, taking place afterward. The living Chosen adjust to a world of blue skies and green grass and Digimon who aren't trying to kill them. But Piemon and Vamdemon are still out there, and Vamdemon has Daisuke.

Take To The Skies: Daisuke falls more and more under the Kaiser's control and he really doesn't want to. But even his stubbornness can only hold out so long. [unknown type of ending]

Fragmented Memory: Kaiser keeps a firm hold over Daisuke by manipulating his memory. But even he can't succeed forever, right? Only time will tell - and maybe not this story. [unknown type of ending]

Broken Bonds: Takeru must still deal with his soulmate Piemon and the fact that Patamon won't hatch out of his egg. [unknown type of ending]

Fight To Remember: Ken and Daisuke have both lost their memories. Getting them back will involve remembering that they're enemies - unless something happens before that. Something like becoming friends.

Services Rendered: So, to pay the Kaiser back for saving his life, Daisuke has to do what the Kaiser wants. What does the Kaiser want? [probably open-ended]

Scars of Victory: The elder Chosen have returned to the Digital World. After 7 years they've missed out on a lot and need to get caught up. But will the Kaiser give them the time? [probably open-ended]

Course of Events: Daisuke grows up with Piemon and LadyDevimon, learning what it is to be their son, their servant, and their warrior. And then the Chosen arrive - along with the sister he barely remembers.

Walking The Edge: The Kaiser has what he wants. Daisuke finally knows who he is and is going to help him - whether Daisuke likes it or not. If the Chosen haven't stopped him in all these years, how can they now when they're down one? [undecided ending]

Dark Brotherhood: Now that the Kaiser has his half-brother Anbumon with him, they're going to take down the Chosen. If only it were that easy.

Danger Zone: Kaiser is very annoyed that Hikari prevented him from taking Daisuke. So he's going to make sure that she delivers his prey right to him. [not a happy ending]

Melody of the Heart: They need to find Jou and Koushiro to help Taichi be immune to Yamato's enchanting voice. It's a long journey and an amazing adventure.

Heart of Demon, Soul of Angel: How exactly did Yamato distract Taichi? Well, Ken had to get Daisuke on a date. So how did Yamato manage that? He's a demon. He did it with lust. [not entirely happy ending]

Game of Life: Now that the Kaiser knows about the breed, what is he going to do next?

Bitter Bargain: The first night that Daisuke spends in the Kaiser's fortress is much like when the Kaiser spent it at his apartment. [obviously rated M & forced consent]

Sanguine Bindings: How did the Chosen deal with the Kaiser's revelation as a vampire and having taken Daisuke?

Purpose of Existence: Yamato, Koushiro, and the Kaiser go to rescue Daisuke. But who is going to rescue Daisuke from the Kaiser?

No Good Decisions: V-mon's an egg. Daisuke is still sick - and is he getting sicker? But the Kaiser's there to take care of him.

Flaming Ivy: The Kaiser has chosen Daisuke as his Firestarter. Daisuke might not feel the same way - or maybe he does.

Digimon Xros Wars: Young Hunters Leaping Through Time

Hunting The Great Game: A look back into the past - it's really not so easy to break Kiriha free of DarkKnightmon's control.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Reversal: the full story of RYou's expereinces as a spy in Haou's forces, ending up with his reveal and the consequences thereof. Not a happy ending.

Reversal: the rebellion finds hope at long last. Or hope finds them, whichever way. Happy ending, or at least a neutral one (depending on how much I want to put in the story).

Reversal: O'Brien is able to track down his deck and duel disk. Reasonaly happy ending.

Hell's Ice: Ryou awakens in Dark World and slowly learns that he has a connection to ice, snow, and cold, and must learn to master his powers under Snoww's instruction, while surviving serving Brron.

Itch To Scratch: Juudai & Yubel take Johan to find out what he really is. Johan is not very happy about what he finds out.

Bridges: A tale of Samejima and Ryou, with Ryou learning how to bind demons and be a duelist of the Cyber-style.

King's Champion: Magician to King: Fujiwara Yuusuke has lost his parents. Honest offers to take him to another world, since he has no family left. That doesn't turn out the way that they both hope.

Shadow Demons: There's someone who wants to destroy demon prince Ryou, shadow mage Yuusuke, guardian angel Honest, and angel of love FUbuki. This is going to be difficult to deal with.

Past and Future: The story of how Juudai went swimming, lost his clothes, fought demons, and flew home naked.

Hole In Your Heart: A retelling of season three, with a more detailed timeframe and an arc of Dark World that's not far too short.

In Darkness We Find Fire: Ryou, Fubuki, and Yuusuke's first year, learning who they are and how to deal with being Healers and Firestarter.

In Darkness We Find Fire: Shou's first year as a duelist and Healer is far more interesting than he expected.

Prisoner of the Black Tower: Why does Haou keep Johan in the tower?

Red Zinnias: So, the Light has been expunged from Saiou. He's free for the first time in a while. So now what happens?

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

On Dragon's Wings:

Hating Humanity: Now that Durbe has restored Nasch and Merag's memories, it's time to figure out what to do about the Astral Messenger - who hasn't arrived yet.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Confusing: Yuuri is getting better at twisting Shun's memories. But that also requires taking him out into the field - where he can encounter those from his past.

Angels, Demons, & Deciding Factors: Yuuri's corruption of Shun continues. [rated M/R, technical non-con in the sense Shun isn't in his right mind and Yuuri is a jerk]

Collars and Keeping: Yuuri inflicts punishment onto Shun for his escape attempt. [rated M/R. see also, Yuuri is a sadistic jerk]

Fae Song: The story of how Rin and Ruri came to serve selena - and what happened to Yuugo.

Strike Hard Strike Fast: Shun has to deal with being captured by vampires. As if one wouldn't be bad enough.

Ashes and Oaths: What happens to Shun now that Yuuri's captured him? Pain. Lots and lots of pain.

Beat of Wings: Yuugo's wings have been bound, like all Flyers of Commons. He can only be released if somoene purchases his services or if he's sold to someone. Roget will try to buy Yuuri off any way he can.

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei Love

Burning Inscription: Kinshiro and Atsushi finally find out the truth of their soulmate marks. Along with the truth of what their battle is really about.

Crossovers

Digimon Adventure 02 & YGO GX: Replacement Vampire: Camula and Vamdemon sent the newly turned RYou to be Camula's replacement in the Seven Stars. So how is that going to work out?

Intrafandom Crossovers

Scorpion Strike: Lesath learns to adjust to the Barian World and his new position as Mizael's assistant. That means dealing with Vector.

Message me, comment, or whatever about which one you'd like to see. This will be reblogged on a regular basis and will continue until I've finished my current WIPs, so probably into 2021.

[hoidn]

tagged by @oykamu but i originally nabbed it from @sarking.

all these answers come with the caveat that there are certainly exceptions to most of them and i may have even written those exceptions. if anyone wants to play along, do eet.

→ Slow burn or love at first sight?: however, there's slow burn and then there's dragging it out pointlessly. i say no to the latter.

→ Fake dating or secretly dating: fake dating with elements of mutual pining, yes.

→ “Oh no, there’s only one bed” or and long distance correspondence: these are not mutually exclusive and therefore i choose both. there are precious few believable ways that "there's only one bed" would happen in Georgian/Regency/Victorian times, so there go several of my fandoms, which hardly seems fair.

→ Hurt/comfort or amnesia: with the caveat that i prefer emotional hurt/comfort or hurt that's mostly comfort. also, i'm borrowing @sarking's assertion that amnesia is a sub-genre of h/c because therefore i get both and good god almighty do i love amnesia fic.

→ Enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers: they can be enemies to friends to lovers, but i'm not particularly interested in reading about people who don't (eventually) love each other in some fashion. (although i’ve written it.)

→ Mutual pining or and domestic bliss: pining that leads to domestic bliss, yes, because these aren’t mutually exclusive, either. i usually like my pining to be oblivious, or at least uncertain, for actual believable reasons rather than just flimsy plot devices. i love a character’s transition from yearning for someone they think they'll never be with, and then the tremulous joy in finding their feelings reciprocated. look, i imprinted on anne shirley/gilbert blythe at a very young age. blame l.m. montgomery.

→ Smut or and fluff: again, not mutually exclusive. i like both, separately and together.

→ Fantasy au or modern au: i'm not into magical creatures, per se (though i like greek mythology type stuff). having said that, i do like magic as a normal in-universe aspect and for some reason i am a sucker for harry potter fusions, despite having zero interest in the novels themselves. i also love daemon AUs? however, as far as wider fandom is concerned, fantasy seems to mostly mean 'creatures' and i prefer my characters to remain human. (although there's one mmfr fic i really like in which furiosa stumbles into a magical curse and spends most of the fic as a cat, so there's another exception.)

→ Alternative universe or future fic: AU because technically future fic can be considered AU and therefore i can have my cake and eat it.

→ Kid fic or road trip fic: no kid fic. unless the kid is canon, which is rare, but still, i don't want it to be the focus of the fic. (having said that, one of my WIPs features an original child character and i just don't even know who i am anymore.)

→ Canon compliant/missing scenes or fix-it: this is so haaaaaaaaaard because i adore interstitial fic. but, ultimately, i want my characters to be happy (or at least happier than they are in canon) and that usually requires fixing.

→ Reincarnation or character death: NOBODY DIES. or if they do it’s temporary and they are always meant to be together in every universe la la la i can’t hear you and your earth logic.

→ Time travel or isolated together: i'm not super into time travel unless it's a 'go back in time to fix things' type of thing. and characters being isolated together is just delicious.

→ High school romance or middle aged romance: HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME CHOOSE??? i love high school AUs. but there’s a lot more scope in middle-aged romance.

→ Arranged marriage or accidental marriage: accidental marriage scenarios tend to be predicated either on people being so drunk they're incompetent, or being part of something when they’re unaware of its meaning/significance. and since no one can be reasonably expected to fulfil a contract that they don’t know enough about to enter into in the first place, the whole premise is basically invalid. arranged marriage stories offer so many more options because it’s a circumstance from which the characters can’t be extricated (or at least not easily). it’s the legally binding equivalent of ‘isolated together’, except that instead of a location it’s a social institution.

→ Sci-fi AU or magic au: see, i don't know why you can't have both. you can have magic in sci-fi. and SPAAAAAAACE. i love all my space fandoms and i want all my fandoms in space. 

→ Neighbours or roommates: i... don't care? in fact, i don't think i've ever actually read a fic in which either of these circumstances occurred.

→ Body swap or gender-bend: i really don't like body swap so i have to go with gender-bend, though honestly i'm usually too much of a canon purist to like gender bending either. i can only think of two exceptions, both P&P.

→ Angst or crack: seconding @sarking's answer: "I’m generally only into crack if it’s taken seriously." ditto. and i enjoy angst as long as it's not the unrelenting sort. i need at least a hint of light on the horizon.

→ Apocalyptic or mundane: augh, i love apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories so much, but i have to go with mundane because, again, there's a lot more scope.

[returnsandreturns]

Long Forgotten WIP Amnesty

I found some fics gathering dust in my DropBox and am just going to post what I have of them so I can exorcise them. 

This is a Psych fic that was going to be an elaborate casefic involving Shawn’s first high school boyfriend and possibly Shawn/Lassiter (even though Shawn/Gus is obvs where my heart truly lies) but is now just this tiny hint of what could’ve been.

1992: SBPD Summer Youth Program

They’re dusting for fingerprints in the station’s breakroom when Shawn’s head collides with somebody else’s underneath one of the tables. He falls back and says, “God, crawl on the floor much,” and is met with a laugh. When he looks up, Shawn sees a boy smiling back at him. At first glance, Shawn documents: blonde hair, freckles, bruises on his arms, blue eyes. Really blue eyes. He’s wearing the same oversized polo that they’re all wearing, but he’s got his rolled up to sunburnt shoulders. And he’s still smiling.

“I have this weird feeling that they’re just having us do this so we’ll have to clean the whole place afterward,” the boy says. “What do you think?”

“Unpaid labor seems like the name of the game here,” Shawn agrees. Earlier, they cleaned up crime scenes that just happened to be in the bathrooms. He didn’t expect police work would involve so much mopping.

“I’m Julian,” the boy continues. “Want to see if we can get out of here without getting caught? We’re half a mile away from a What-a-Burger.”

“There’s an exit in the back of the kitchen that comes out by the street,” Shawn replies, after a long moment. “We could try dusting for stupid imaginary fingerprints in that direction.”

Julian’s smile grows wider.

 *

They get out without anybody noticing, and they buy big greasy cheeseburgers and split a large order of fries. Julian tells him about his dad, who’s a detective in the next city over and who seems a lot like Shawn’s dad, mostly because they’re both assholes. Shawn watches the way that Julian’s fingers tap the table and the way he licks salt off his lips and the way he watches Shawn, too.

“So, how good did you do on the test to get forced to spend your summer doing this?” Julian asks.

I’m a freaky cop prodigy, Shawn thinks. I am the chosen one. It’s terrible.

“I did fine,” he says. “Good enough. Passing grade.”  

Julian squints at him.

“You’re the kid who got a perfect score, aren’t you?”

“Okay, I’m their genius messiah,” Shawn says. “Don’t hold it against me.”

“I would never,” Julian says. “I guessed it was you after you totally showed up Officer Von Fuckface on the first day, but I wasn’t sure.”

“I’ve been calling him Officer Tiny Penis,” Shawn says, “but I like yours more.”

The first day, Shawn had a run in with one of the cops. He hates Shawn because he hates Shawn’s dad, probably because, asshole or not, Shawn’s dad is a kickass cop. That comes with enemies, his dad always says that, and apparently this dude is one of them. Shawn took advantage of the situation by correcting him sixteen times on the first day, with cited evidence from penal code and the handbook.

“Thanks,” Julian says. “Anyway, I’ve wanted to talk to you since then, because you seem like the person who could help me make this experience way less shitty.”

Shawn smiles.

“What did you have in mind?”

Later, after they sneak back in like nothing happened, they cover every part of Officer Van Fuckface’s desk, inside and out, with a thick layer of peanut butter. At the bus stop before they head home for the night, Julian says, “Do you think if we messed up any of his files, that would count as interfering with an investigation?”

“A code 48-1a?” Shawn asks. “God, I hope so.”

Julian laughs, leaning into Shawn for a moment before they both go still and quiet, looking at each other.

“Uhm, could I have your phone number, in case my dad finds out about this and grounds me for the rest of my life?” Shawn asks. Julian digs in his pockets for a pen before grabbing Shawn’s hand and carefully writing seven digits on it. Julian holds onto his hand a little longer than he needs to when he’s done, not quite looking at Shawn, and Shawn notices it because Shawn notices everything.

His stomach or his heart or something in his chest feels like it’s trying to escape the entire bus ride back to his neighborhood. At home, he writes down Julian’s number on his bedroom wall in pencil, next to his phone, underneath a few girls’ numbers and Gus’s even though he knows it by heart.

       *

The next day, their commanding officers line them up and try to figure out who peanut buttered the desk, but they have no evidence either way. Officer Von Fuckface glares at Shawn the entire time. It’s awesome.

As they file back out, Julian nudges Shawn and murmurs, “That guy’s nuts.”

Shawn grins.

“Technically, he’s legumes,” he says, drawing back to let everyone get ahead of them around the next corner. “Want to skip the last session before our friend causes me to burst into flames purely with the force of his hate?”

“Absolutely,” Julian says.

They’re almost to one of the side doors when Shawn’s dad steps out of a room in front of them. He’s in full uniform, and he’s got his arms folded over his chest.

“Peanut butter, Shawn?”

“Are you offering me lunch, Dad? Because I already ate the most spectacular frozen meal that the Santa Barbara Police Department has to offer.”

“It was pretty spectacular,” Julian offers. “It almost tasted like food.”

“Peanut butter,” his dad repeats. He looks at Julian. “Who do you belong to?”

“Detective Hardinson, sir,” Julian says, politely. “Sommerville PD.”

“Hardison? We liasoned with him about a case recently. He seems like a good man.”

“If you say so, sir,” Julian says.

Shawn’s dad raises his eyebrows for a moment.

“I hope you’re not letting Shawn get you in trouble.”

“Dad, I’m offended,” Shawn says. “I’m far too good at what I do to ever get in trouble.”

“Is that why I just caught you sneaking out?” his dad asks.

“We weren’t sneaking out, sir,” Julian says. He’s got this wholesome boy next door vibe that really works for him, especially when it comes to lying. “I was feeling sick, and Shawn was helping me outside to get some fresh air.”

“You seem like an okay kid, son,” Shawn’s dad says, “but I don’t believe a word of that. Why don’t you two go back where you’re supposed to be?”

They nod contritely and turn back, circling back to where they started.

“My dad called you ‘son,’” Shawn says.

“He did,” Julian agrees.

“He doesn’t even call me ‘son,’” Shawn continues, “and I’m his son.”

“You know,” Julian says, “I think there’s a lot of gray area around the phrase ‘where you’re supposed to be.’”

“Hmm. True. What if where I’m truly supposed to be is somewhere that’s very much not here?” Shawn leans heavily into the arm that Julian wraps around his shoulder, letting himself be guided towards the kitchen exit. Julian’s half a head taller than Shawn, and it makes Shawn feel things he’s like 89% sure he should not be feeling.

“Want to come back to my house?” Julian asks. “Neither of my parents will be back until late.”

“Yeah, yes,” Shawn says. “Let’s do that.”

 *

[some stuff happens]

Julian stares at him for a long moment before he slides a hand over Shawn’s knee.

“Please don’t punch me,” he whispers, then ducks down to kiss Shawn. Shawn presses up into it, making a truly embarrasing noise into the curve of Julian’s mouth. He has to resist the urge to climb on top of him.

“Do people—“ Shawn starts, then draws off to keep kissing him for a few more moments.

“People?” Julian murmurs.

“Uh, do people normally punch you after you do that?” he asks, pulling away just enough to see a wrecked smile on Julian’s face. “Because I think that’s a weird reaction to something amazing.”

“I’ve never done that, actually,” Julian says. “I imagined punching could be in the equation, if I misread something.”

“You didn’t,” Shawn says. “You really didn’t.”

*

FAST-FORWARD HOWEVER MANY YEARS AFTER JULIAN ACTUALLY BECOMES A COP AND ENDS UP WORKING A CASE WITH THEM

"Wait," Lassiter says. "You and him were--"

"Summer loves," Shawn says.

"Had me a blast," Julian adds, and Shawn smiles at him. Lassiter looks aghast.

"Oh, don't tell me you've never tasted the rainbow, Lass," Shawn says. "You've got bicurious written all over you."

"I don't--that's not what we're talking about," Lassiter says. He scrubs a hand over his face, which Shawn nicely does not point out as something both indicative of guilt or nervousness and something entirely un-Lassiter-like in nature. "Don't you think this is some sort of conflict of interest? You being on the case with someone you've. . ."

"Made sweet passionate love with?" Shawn offers.

"In that supply closet right over there, actually," Julian says.

"Aww, so many memories," Shawn says, "and so many uncomfortable positions. I've never been able to smell Pin-Sol again without my heart fluttering a little."

"I've never been able to mop without getting a little turned on," Julian admits.

"Oh, god, there are two of you," Juliet says. She's blushing a little, presumably from imagining the two of them co-mingling near some custodial equipment. It's kind of flattering.

"That's exactly what I mean," Lassiter says. "Conflict of interest."

"Hey, I never took any mystical, legally binding cop oaths. Besides, how many of your coworkers have you slept with?" Shawn asks. "Because I know the count is at least one, though I suspect it's significantly higher, knowing how hot and bothered you get over both firearms and paperwork."

Lassiter grits his teeth in Shawn's general direction. Julian looks amused.

"Fine," he says. "But if I see any funny business happening that could distract from this very serious case, I'm shutting this down."

"Whatever could you mean by funny business, Lassie?" Shawn asks. "Does that rule out my up and coming stand up act? Gus's interest in both miming and clowning? Or are we talking about shenanigans in general, here?"

Lassiter points at him, looking like he wants to say something, before storming past them.

AND THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE FIC IF I EVER LEARNED HOW TO WRITE CASE!FIC WHICH I DIDN’T AND LIKELY NEVER WILL 

[attackofthezee]

WIP meme

Pretty sure I’ve done this before but I was tagged by @bangyababy (and one other person I think??? But it either got lost in my activity notifications or was a weird fever dream??) so I’m doing it again cause I wanna. Also wow I have too many wips so this is under a cut cause it got long as hell. 

The Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Grad School Bucky Cap Steve (There’s literally two lines in this document?? Idk what I’m doing with it and it might be shuffled into the fanfic mortuary file next time I sort through fics.) 

Barnes Home For Wayward Kids (Bucky keeps showing up at home with orphans and so he and Steve just end up with like a whole house of them. It’s also probably going into the fanfic mortuary cause it hasn’t been touched since uhhhh last year?) 

Werewolf Cap Merica F* Yeah (What it says on the tin! The serum is actually lycanthropy. Steve jumps out of things and gives Bucky heart attacks. It is exactly what people should expect from me tbh.) 

Found Baby AU (I WILL ONE DAY FINISH THIS ONE I SWEAR. It features Vet!Bucky who finds a baby in a dumpster and ends up in Pediatrician!Steve’s office at like 1 am and IT IS JUST A LOT OF SOFTNESS AND ONE DAY I WILL FINISH IT.) 

NEW DRAGON AU This Time Featuring More Fae (Steve is a dragon and Bucky is fae and they 110% use fae magic and accidentally blood bind themselves to each other at like 9 years old oops. Sarah and Winifred are NOT amused.) 

Party Goblin Sequel (One time, years ago, I wrote a fic called Adulthood Is Just A Myth -shameless plug!- and it didn’t do incredibly well despite my love for it at the time buuuut I’ve had a sequel planned for it since pretty much the moment I finished it. It involves Bucky losing his arm because I’m a terrible person, and like the exploration of disability and Steve being a disabled person dealing with the person he loves dealing with disability. It’s still funny, because I’m me, but it will also take forever and a day for me to ever finish it because I am Bad At writing things that are overly close to me.) 

Cap PSAs (Literally just a fic about Bucky getting a lot of joy at Steve’s expense from Steve’s really awful school PSAs) 

Practical Magic AU (Listen I have craved a Practical Magic AU for YEARS. So I started one a couple months back, but then wearing_tearing went and wrote one because they are a fic writing goddess so now I DON’T NEED TO. But it’s still sitting in my WIP folder so maybe one day I’ll actually finish it under the Two Cakes rule.) 

IW FIX IT (I had a lot of feelings after seeing Infinity War??? And I wanted to fix them??? But this is another one that’ll probably go into the fic mortuary because I have NO CLUE what I was planning to do with it.) 

MAJOR REWORK NEEDED great american roadtrip (Once upon a time, December 11th 2016 to be exact, at least according to the document details, I sat down to write an epic fanfic where two old assholes went on a road trip, saw the grand canyon, went camping, and also kept up with their therapy via phone appointments.) 

both fall of train au (you think both fall off the train aus mean they both get captured by HYDRA? THINK AGAIN. Because what is TRAGEDY? I CAN’T WRITE ANGST so this shit is just Steve and Bucky fall off the train together and both wake up in the 21st century and Have To Adjust. Idk where it’s going, idk anything beyond that basic premise but who knows, IT MIGHT BE GOOD ONE DAY?)

the sequel i'm not writing to where the heart is (the fact that I haven’t touched this since August means the title is technically correct. Basically it’s the story of how Where The Heart Is!Bucky and Steve go on vacation and end up taking down the leftover bits of HYDRA instead. Also Bucky’s instagram is featured a lot. This one actually has a lot written already so like, I wanna finish it eventually.) 

is it... a fake dating au???? (A one night stand turns into Steve fake dating Bucky for family events because I love tropes.) 

non recovery fic except it IS (Idk how to describe this one except that like it’s a recovery fic but it started based on the premise that not being okay is okay. It’s cute and sad and deals with recovery things.) 

Steve Rogers Meets His Irish History: c. 2016 (This one is literally just a document with a link to what inspired it and also will require a lot of research so who the hell knows what’ll happen with it.) 

A DIFFERENT FOUND BABY (THIS ONE GOT AWAY FROM ME GUYS. Like it started with Bucky Barnes coming home to Steve because he found A BABY AND I LOVE KIDFIC but then I veered into like How Steve Rogers Relates To Disability, His Body, His Gay Identity, And Gender All In Relation To His Past Disability so like, it’s a mess.) 

Angel Steve yo (This will one day be my magnum opus tbh. Steve’s an asshole angel who shows up to a Halloween party in booty shorts and devil horns. Bucky’s the confused millennial who wants to bone him. I don’t think I’ll ever love a premise more tbh.)  

ABO PREG STEVE WHAT (I am genuinely not shy about the fact that I like abo and mpreg and all that soft shit, so like, this is just the result of that enjoyment and features omega Steve going into the ice pregnant, waking up and having a baby because THAT PLOT HASN’T BEEN DONE A MILLION TIMES IN ABO FICS OR ANYTHING. whispering softly but with feeling: two cakes Elizabeth, TWO CAKES.) 

B99 Kinda (Steve Rogers is a cop in Brooklyn. Bucky Barnes is a firefighter who Steve’s kinda smitten with.) 

Jersey- Coda (Soft tummy edition) (someone commented on This Is Why People Don’t Go To Jersey saying they hope Steve’s tummy was soft after having a baby and my inner lizard brain went YES THIS IS GOOD, VERY GOOD. So it’s literally just a fic about Steve having a soft tummy and Bucky being very fond of it.) 

soulmate au f yeah (This is my CHILD and I will one day finish the motherfucker. It’s soulmate magical realism where soulmate’s hearts BEAT THE SAME and there is recovery and goodness and god I love the premise a lot, ngl.) 

FIRST LADY STEVE ROGERS (This is actually just the document that I have Making The Ride Count in, but it’s also got bits and pieces that will become other parts in the series.) 

Will an 80s winter soldier wear leg warmers? (Bucky breaks his programming in the 80s and he and Peggy pal around beating HYDRA and terrorizing people until Steve’s dug out of the ice again.) 

competitive assholes (the idea was given to me to have Steve and Bucky be neighbors competing over decorations and I NOW MUST WRITE IT.) 

Omega Rights Activist Steve (College abo with omega Steve and Alpha Bucky and like, lots of softness and Bucky just wanting to build Steve THE BEST NEST and Steve being like I AM A STRONG CAPABLE OMEGA but also ‘yes pls buy me seventeen pillows and twenty-five blankets and fluff them strategically for me.’) 

An Angel And A Demon Walk Into A Bar... (Angel Steve + Demon Bucky = BEST FRIENDS FOREVERRRRRR. Also lots of jokes about heaven having too much paperwork.)

holiday swap - finish by 12/21 (For the Marvel Holiday Swap. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING WITH THIS ONE DEAR LORD HELP ME.) 

 It All Comes Back Around (Chapter three! It’s coming along slow as hell but it IS coming along.) 

FOR LATER (a fic in which Steve wakes up from the ice and starts making mental lists of ‘things Bucky would like’ because he’s a sad, sad human being.)

Loyalty Devotion (For Happy Steve Bingo. There’s selkies??? and Steve is some sort of unspecified magic??? and it’s a little different than my norm writing style wise?? Idk we’ll see how it turns out. I might edit the first bits copiously so that it’s more my style, or i might embrace the flow of this one WE SHALL SEE.)

Aaaand I can’t think of anyone to tag right this moment because my brain is word soup soooo if you want to do this then please go forth and do it! There are no rules here, this is the wild west of meme games, BE FREE WRITER FRIENDS BE FREE 

[singwhenyoucantspeak]

Femslash Fic Rec

For no reason at all i’ve decided to make a list of some of my top fics from my non-swan queen fandoms (i exclude swan queen because i’ve made fic recs specifically for SQ in the past and I constantly reblog SQ fic recs so ya’ll know what to read there also i couldn’t possibly choose one or two sq fics to represent my faves for that fandom). I guess this is going to be kind of in the order in which i was introduced to these fandoms.

1) Rizzles (Rizzoli & Isles) - (these will all be old because I haven’t read any rizzles fic in literally 4 years but I still highly recommend these)

honestly anything written by @colormetheworld, but will specify Just Give Me A Reason and it’s sequels, Keys, and obviously The Moment but you have to buy that as a published book now.

Also by @jobethdalloway the Calamity Jane series  and Are You Lonesome Tonight 

2) Cartinelli (Agent Carter) - (technically calzona was my next fandom but I didn’t have an ff or AO3 account back then so i didn’t do a good job of keeping track of my fave fics and with that fandom I read so many fics in the span of such a short time period that they all have kind of blended together in my mind and tbh i have no idea what they were so we’re skipping on to Cartinelli)

by  @maggiemerc  the Fast Cars and Slow Jazz series 

by @romanimp (aka QuickYoke on AO3) The Wonder Years of the Greatest Generation series (I think I finished reading all the fics in this but I’m not positive. Definitely still highly recommend though). 

3) Mirandy (The Devil Wears Prada) - (yes I became aware of this fandom many many many years late, blame @homoscope  for telling me to read Truth and Measure)

Which of course that means Truth and Measure by Telanu because you can’t read mirandy and not read Truth and Measure. I don’t make the rules XD

Not Everyone by spacedmuch and it’s sequel Pure Shores 

most like a marsh-fire, again by @romanimp aka QuickYoke. This fic is followed by a few one shots set within the same universe (which is Harry Potter AU)  to make the series “an argument of witches” 

4) General Danvers (Supergirl) - (technically supercorp should be after this too but since I was most active in reading fic for that fandom at the very inception of the fandom all the fanfics I was reading were in progress and I am terrible at keeping up with WIPs which means shamefully I haven’t actually finished reading a single supercorp fic). But on to General Danvers XD) 

the MUST READ here is Between the Lines by @anonymississippi (highly recommend reading the extra chapter 28.5 also when you get there) 

 also The Words that Bind Us by @kendrickhier 

I guess that’s it. suffice to say I don’t actually read fanfic for all the fandoms I tumblr in because my reading of fic really depends on if i’m in a reading things mood and if I have time at all to read non-school things anyway and in order for me to read fic for a ship I have to have all those things line up with my time of most intense obsession with said ship. I also have a bad habit of only reading Swan Queen fanfic ever even when I am in a reading mood and am obsessing over other things because as ya’ll know Swan Queen owns my entire soul. Also as you can see I really only read fic for non-canon ships even tho I tumblr fandom in a lot of canon f/f ships also.  

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Parts 9 and 10 - completed)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Parts 6 and 7 / Part 8 

Read the pages here: Part 9 and Part 10 (full complete version is linked from YYH North Bound master post)

Hard to believe this is finally done! Long Limbs nets out at 108 pages including the cover, plus some extra drawings (and also a whole other comic and other illustrations I did in between the various parts). Here’s a summary:

Part 1: timestamp on final images posted are Dec 16-17, 2017 (11 pgs)

2: Dec 23, 2017 (10 pgs)

3: Jan 8, 2018 (10 pgs)

4: Jan 20, 2018 (12 pgs)

5: Feb 3, 2018 (14 pgs)

6: Feb 24, 2018 (12 pgs)

7: Mar 3, 2018 (6 pgs - would have been completed/posted with part 6, but was getting too long)

8: Mar 17-18, 2018 (13 pgs)

9: Jun 3, 2018 (10 pgs)

10: Jul 8, 2018 (10 pgs)

Based on the above, I should have been able to draw the comic in less than 8 months, even considering how slow I generally work and how frequently I get distracted by other things (Genjimonogatari series, the Hokushin Boyfriend project, etc. etc.). As you can see, I took a very conscious break to focus on other things (mainly Now Recharging, work, and conventions) after Part 8.

For this final behind-the-scenes, I’ll start as usual with script and thumbnails. Then I’ll do an overview of the main changes with a particular focus on opportunities and challenges that arise from having taken such a long break, and close with a quick look at the original story idea for comparison to where things ended up. 

Script

Thumbnails

That text in the script about “writing like serpents” should be “WRITHING like serpents”... sigh. Doesn’t really matter since in the end they just hang there all chillaxed on Hokushin lol

(Also as you can see, I voted in the Ontario elections!)

Main changes

The best thing about taking long breaks on a project is that it really gives you a fresh set of eyes and more objectivity when you come back to it. It helped a lot with editing - ditching stupid things, stripping out pointless dialogue, and finessing phrasing. 

Originally there was more conversation between Raizen and Hokushin when they reunite - but it was mainly explanations from Hokushin (e.g., “OMG this guy is keeping rokurokubi body parts in the house, we gotta find him blah blah blah”) but then I was like, who the heck cares, we already know what happened. Skip and just show the end result.

Originally the Collector was fleeing from the house after Raizen appeared. When I came back to it, I thought this was pointless and kind of disjointed, so I just had him outside the house and then being surprised that his shikigami was gone, so that Raizen’s presence would be more of a surprise.

In the confrontation with the Collector, Hokushin originally spoke directly to the psychic in a manner similarly condescending to how the man had been speaking to him. But when I reread it, it didn’t feel right for Hokushin’s personality. In the final version, he simply doesn’t deign to address the Collector at all, and instead speaks only to the dead rokurokubi.

Raizen’s final line gave me a super hard time, and went through several iterations from what’s in the script to what you see on the final page. I literally made the final decision on the wording while scanning.

The downside about taking long breaks on a project is that you really have to work hard to restart your motivation.

Also, I forgot how to draw the Collector and I had to keep looking at old pages lol... Actually, this always happens to me with things I designed. My problem is that I’m too lazy to make proper references for myself. (I have this problem with Now Recharging too lol)

Part 9 final pagination and thumbnails are pretty close - I mainly stretched out the part where Raizen’s aura takes the Collector down to the ground for less choppy pacing.

Part 10 pagination is essentially the same, but the panelling on each page changed a lot more. There was too much action and too many hands and just a mess all around with my poor planning skills. I really dragged this part on for a long time because I didn’t want to draw the hands...

Part 9 last page had some cropping done. Below is the original:

You’ll notice the final version is much more closely cropped. Zooming in created stronger visual impact to me and just worked a lot better in terms of how the moment is framed.

Part 10 page where Raizen tells Hokushin his auro has grown stronger - I actually started this page with everything facing the opposite direction (e.g., Hokushin facing the right instead in the panel where he is praying, and in the last panel) but then swapped it. I still can’t decide if I actually prefer this orientation or not. But it’s done now so WHO CARES

The original story idea

What I had jotted down about 1 year ago:

Idea: human taxidermist who collects demons, does “tests” on them, then kills and stuffs them

Hokushin stumbles upon it somehow and the human wants to add him to the collection because male rokurokubi are so rare

He mimics the human’s voice to trick servants into releasing him?

Use of blood seal paint to bind limbs so that Hokushin can’t extend them - and maybe also prevent him from speaking too since the mark is on his next

Raizen saves him or something lol

Then Hokushin eats the taxidermist

It’s funny to go back and see what stayed the same and what evolved over the course of working on the story.

I don’t remember where the taxidermy idea originally came from. My guess is I was trying to make this as potentially horror as possible, likely from memories of reading Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service or something. But then the whole idea of taxidermy during the Kamakura period became a huge research problem (basically I couldn’t find anything I felt like I could work with, and TBH was rather unrealistic anyways... although this whole thing is technically unrealistic), and I dropped it.

Otherwise, you can see the core components are in place - a human who collects demons, the significance (rarity) of male rokurokubi, the blood seals, the mimicry, Raizen’s rescuing, eating the human at the end. It definitely went through quite a bit of thinking and reworking before it settled into what it is right now, mostly (I think) for the better.

Thanks so much for following along! Hope you guys found this documentation at least a little interesting and helpful for your own creative works :D

[verdantspiritart]

i just started using watercolors, can you tell me about your process/share some tips?

Well first of all, congrats on trying watercolors! I’m by no means an expert yet but I’ll do my best to walk you through my process using some of the WIP pictures I have from previous pieces. There’s a ton to cover and I won’t get it all so feel free to ask more specific questions if you need help. 

My first tip would be to play with whatever tools you have to figure out what feels right for you. If you don’t have any tools yet, I suggest the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box (pictured below) since it’s really nice quality, comes with a water brush, and usually costs like $15-$25 depending on size/where you buy it. If that’s still outside of your price range, the first watercolors I ever did were with old crayola palettes and it worked out fine, it just took way more layers and time to get the color depth I wanted.

As for paper, I’m still looking for the perfect one but just make sure it’s watercolor paper (cold press means there’s a texture, hot press is smooth) or multimedia and not like, printer paper. As long as it’s relatively thick, it should be ok but might buckle when too much water is added.

Don’t worry too much about perfection when learning how to use your equipment. Make lines, blend colors, try making washes, etc. When I came back to watercolors, I mostly did a lot of meditative painting, where I doodled whatever felt right. Some of them even came out real cool looking?? 

When I sit down to do a more detailed piece or commission, I have a five-part process I pretty consistently use these days. It goes like this: 

1) Traditional (or digital) sketch/concept phase. The below pic is from a pop-art commission concept where I really liked the flow of her hair.

2) Digital lineart (cleaning up/refining concept sketches)

3) Print the lineart and lightbox it to watercolor paper using either a hard graphite pencil (very light lines) or colored lead. I still lightbox with this ancient hunk of junk but you can even use a window or your computer screen (VERY CAREFULLY) to lightbox if you don’t have one. 

Here’s what some of my pieces looks like after being transferred: 

I think it’s important to note that you should keep a piece of scrap paper under your hand while working on the watercolor paper, since the oils in your skin can lead to areas where the paint won’t bind to the paper properly. I’ve had cases where I finished a background wash only to find an absolutely perfect thumbprint in the center of it. 

4) Ink the lines. Make sure your pens are waterproof. If they’re not, I’ll talk about a way to get around that later so skip right to painting for now. 

I used micron technical pens for the above piece. If you don’t know if you have waterproof pens, make a test chart like the one below. Mine involved copics, watercolor, and super heavy scrubbing to see how easily the pen came off when wet. 

I’ve also “inked” after painting by using more concentrated lines of watercolor instead of actual ink. The below painting was too cute and pastel and I didn’t want to ruin it with black lines, so I used that technique here (along with some red pencil)

5) Paint! I’m not really consistent with this step but my main tip is: BE PATIENT! If you want flat blocks of color, wait until each wash is fully dry before moving on to one next to it. If you don’t, they’ll bleed into each other. This is also true when trying to create shadows with hard edges instead of soft blending. Not being patient enough is my #1 cause of “crap I have to start this over”.

(The weird coloration on the lines above is actually dried frisket I put over certain sections of the piece to protect them but it ended up being more of a hassle than anything else for this style of piece.)

So, what if you didn’t have waterproof pens? You can easily reverse steps 4&5 and paint first, wait for it to dry very well, and then ink (shown below). 

The finished piece looked like this: 

I hope this was helpful!

If you want to see any of my WIPs/ask me questions, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram. 

Also, my commission slots are open and if you like my work and want to leave me a tip, you can always buy me a coffee :)

[bmorley]

top 5 and bottom 5 kudos fic

rules: tag the person who tagged you, always post the rules, answer the questions, and add the date! i was tagged by three beautiful ladies - @clarkescrusade, @prosciuttoe and @kay-emm-gee; thank you so much, sweets ♥

What are your five most popular works? (in descending order)

1. Crown (wear my love like a) (bellamy/clarke, 13k+ wip, Feb 2015)

When Clarke agreed to enter a courtship with the Commander's second-in-command, she had no idea what was awaiting her but she figured it couldn't be that bad. But when the gifts started coming and the silly rules were laid, when some of the Grounders tried to sabotage her and she found herself on a different sort of a battlefield, the whole deal became a lot more complicated.

It’s an arranged marriage au thrown together with some enemies to friends to lovers trope and weird courtship thingies. Not at all surprised that this is the first fic on this list tbh. I’m also really proud of my Clarke&Murphy&Wells leadership trio? They’re just so fun to write (now somebody kick me back to picking up this fic again lmao).

2. and love, you taste like magic (bellamy/clarke, 2.8k, June 2015)

For a moment she was sure she was seeing lightning marks, her lightning marks, but then the sunlight hit his arm just at the right angle and the black ink glinted under her fingers.

But tattoos weren’t real soulmarks, no matter how much she wished them to be.

Technically the second place belongs to When you land on Earth but since that’s a collection of drabbles and oneshots, I’m not counting it to this list.  My first soulmate au (if you don’t count the strings that bind us)! It’s a bit sad but also hopeful story, a dash of angst with a happy ending and I’m really happy how it turned out despite being shorter than I would have liked it to be. It was also written for a good friend of mine and it holds a special place in my heart. 

3. the clockmaker (fixer of hearts) (bellamy/clarke, 4.9k, Feb 2016)

He seemed at war with himself for a moment and then circled his warm fingers around her wrist and lifted her left arm closer to his eyes. Her compass sat right above her wrist, a glass sphere covering a light brown dial and a thin bronze needle. The needle seemed to be sitting slightly lower at the tip, nose not moving from the bronze embossed N letter. It didn’t move from there, no matter how much he turned her wrist around.

“Curious,” he muttered and tapped gently on the glass to try and get the needle moving.

Another soulmate au! I’m in love with the compass concept in this fic and the subtle throw to Bellarke being each other’s true north. Bellamy’s character is one of my favourite things about this story, and it makes me so happy that people like it so much. 

4. You vs. Me (bellamy/clarke, 3k, Oct 2014)

Clarke was ready to tell the person to fuck off, she was in bad mood, when her words died in her throat.

Because she was looking at Batman.

She wanted to kick herself – of course, who else could be Catwoman’s love interest than a guy dressed as Batman.

[Or the three times Bellamy commented on Clarke's costume and left her speechless and the one time they unintentionally (or maybe not) went dressed as a potential couple]

I’m actually very surprised that this fic made it to top 5? It was very fun to write and basically an excuse to play dress up with Bellamy and Clarke, lmao. I read it again and it’s a bit cringey at times and it could use an edit but oh well, at least I have proof that I’ve gotten better(ish)?

5. Whiteness (bellamy/clarke, 62k+ wip, May 2014)

He set her blood on fire. He questioned her and challenged her at every step she took. But as their bodies entertwined and he granted her the whiteness she craved so much Clarke couldn't help but get addicted to him, Bellamy. And he was just as addicted to her.

AU of 1x07 up.

Oh god. This started as a oneshot and making it a multi-chaptered fic was a mistake. I’m not happy with it, at all. I just- I want to either re-write the whole thing from scratch or just delete it. It gives me a headache just looking at it right now, it’s such a mess and my characterization is off and my writing is so subpar. It did get me into the fandom though and I got to know a lot of awesome people because of it so I guess it has a positive side as well! 

What are your five least popular works by kudos? (in ascending order)

1. The second door on the left (abby/kane, 2k, Oct 2014)

Abby fumbled with the camera in her arms and pushed it in Kane’s chest.

“Here, do it.”

Marcus passed her the flashlight and took a picture of her in front of the bed. The flash of the camera illuminated the whole room and for a moment blinded Abby.

“God, I hate this.” She sneezed.

Kane was just about to respond when the sound of breaking wood made them look up just as the chandelier was coming down on top of Abby. He was faster and managed to push her aside the crashing zone, in time for Abby to get away. Shards of broken glass flew in every direction and one nicked Kane’s cheek as he protected Abby with his body. The sound of the crash left them with ringing ears for a while, the fallen flashlight shining upon the numerous glass pieces and reflecting light all over the place. 

This is ridiculous and we Don’t Talk About It. My only Abby/Kane fic and I’m pretty sure it will stay that way. 

2. across the bridge (bellamy/clarke, 1.2k, Jan 2015)

Sometimes, the things we do for peace are worse than the things we did for war.

Not surprised that this has so little kudos. It’s a Clarke-centric character study fic set in-between 2x08 and 2x09, with a very small hint of Bellarke. It focuses very heavily on guilt and remorse, and living with your choices and the consequences of that.

3. tell me, Atlas, do you want to hear a story? (monty/miller, 1.5k, Feb 2017)

The first time it happened it was a complete coincidence, a slip of the tongue really.

It was just that Bellamy had looked so confused at the prospect of why would somebody desire him after all the things he had done, so lost and so obviously still missing Clarke that Nathan blurted it out before he could think it through. At this point, anything was better than seeing Bellamy’s defeated slouch.

“I have a boyfriend.”

It became a habit after that, talking about Monty.

He didn’t know if it was of any help, but Nathan talked.

And Bellamy, Bellamy seemed less dead every time.

This is one of my favourite pieces I’ve written so far. It’s a Monty/Miller fic but it’s told through Miller’s interactions with Bellamy, and thus we get to experience the way Miller sees his relationship with Monty. It’s kinda bittersweet because of the Bellamy/Clarke situation but I love it for the Bellamy&Miller friendship and the Monty/Miller secret relationship.

4. for now (claire/matt, 852 words, May 2015)

Claire is struggling with her feelings about Matt and her indecision on how to proceed, while, once again, patching him up on her couch. In other words, nothing new.

My semi-decent attempt to try and write something other than Bellarke. It’s more of a Claire’s inner struggle study than anything else. I’m a bit meh about it tbh but at that point I was just happy that I was writing something. 

5. together or not at all (bellamy/clarke, 1.6k, May 2017)

She had let Bellamy open the bunker. She had doomed her people to a possible death. She had risked the fate of the human race. She had lied and gone behind the backs of people she had claimed to care about only for it to be just another hollow promise, another hollow explanation, another deceit born out of desperation and having the world rest on her shoulders.

She took a shot but couldn’t pull the trigger, not on him. And there laid the problem.

One of my recent works, a sort of a fix-it missing scene for 4x11. I wrote this more as a self-indulgence than anything else. Basically your standard canon Bellarke angst with a dash of them coming together again and trying to move forward.

Now, on to tagging people. I tag @nathenmiller @ofhobbitsandwomen @captainnagata @spacecleavage @hiddenpolkadots and @selflessbellamy!