#thanks for the ask to write a sequel!

[ariadne-mouse]

For the "I wish you would write a fic where…" I don't know if this counts because it's not a new fic, but:

"Was? Essek? I thought you were out of town?"

Caleb wakes up with obsidian flakes of a'a in his hair and and no memory of the last few years. His very-new boyfriend has adopted his cat, there's a court case for his attemped murder, and he might have been a ghost?

A followup to The Fire Kept Closest, from Caleb's POV, filling in the timejump to the epilogue.

Thank you for the ask! It took me a minute to get to this ask game, but here we are. I am not writing exactly to the prompt, but I hope you like this 830-word slice of post-fic Volcaleb nonetheless!

-

"I would like to go, I think."

Essek paused where he had just gathered a scoop of cat kibble. The awaiting dish lay on the floor, empty. "Are you sure?"

"Ja," Caleb answered. He folded the local newspaper he had been reading in half, the headline visible: Corporate Clash: Cerberus takes the stand. "I know it's best my situation stays out of the spotlight, at least for now, but I want him to see me. To see my face, and know that I know." His expression darkened. "I want him to sweat."

At Essek's feet, Frumpkin yowled his impatience, unaware of corporations, or bureaucracy, or indeed the significance of newspapers beyond the fact that they were sometimes fun to sit on.

"Calm down, calm down," Essek tutted, and gave the beast his meal. He smoothed a hand down Frumpkin's back, thinking. "I'll go with you, if you really want to go."

Caleb smiled grimly. "Danke. I would like that. But I have an idea, also - you can help."

-

Vence Nuthaleus cleaned up well in a suit, and he knew it. It was unfortunate that the volcano on Rumblecusp had popped its top as soon as it had, but he was still safely ensconced in respectability - and more importantly, plausible deniability. Research was only as good as records available, and his land use recommendation report had been scientifically sound with the data from the island's active seismometer network.

It didn't even alarm him that he was playing a kind of mutually assured destruction game with Cerberus. They wanted to publicly shed him as a "bad actor", especially convenient given his contractor status - but if they did, he'd reveal they had been the ones to disconnect the last seismometer. He had enough leverage in writing to make the accusation compelling, and they knew it. The thing they might most want to pin on him... well, they didn't have any evidence of that. All told, it was in Cerberus's best interest to protect him. And so he wore his most approachable suit, and a polite smile, and answered questions as earnestly as he could when he was on the stand. Mardoon Estate only wanted money, after all, and Cerberus certainly had plenty of that. Vence didn't need to be scapegoat for it all to work out eventually.

The courtroom around him was full for the spectacle. The door creaked open every so often as the gawkers and media came and went, like bees buzzing on a hive. He sometimes saw familiar faces from the island: Dr. Vilya, Beauregard, Thelyss. Today the last of these was sitting in one of the back rows by himself, glaring at Vence like he always did when he was there. Too bad; being a stuck-up trust fund baby wouldn't help Thelyss here.

It was some minutes before Vence's attention was drawn by a spot in the standing room in the back that had not moved at all for some time. Even as his mouth answered the current question on autopilot, his eyes were drawn to look at the vacuum of stillness.

A dead man was looking back at him.

Vence's words curdled in his throat, choking his breath.

He was there. Caleb Widogast was there, standing among the throng.

"Mr. Nuthaleus?" prompted the examiner.

"I... I..."

The ghost - it could only be a ghost - stared at him with those eerie blue eyes, unblinking. He was dressed like he had been, for a hike on the mountain. There was even a lightweight heatsuit half-zipped and tied around his waist.

He looked exactly like he had when he had died. When--

Vence couldn't pull his gaze away. "Could- could you repeat the question?"

The examiner repeated it, and again Vence did not hear.

Nearby, Thelyss was standing up. He favored Vence with a last look of contempt before making for the double doors. The crowd parted to let him pass, but Widogast did not move. And Thelyss... walked right past him, like he wasn't there.

A chill rolled down Vence's spine and his breathing came faster. He could hear a ringing noise, his vision was narrowing.

With effort, he turned a smile to the judge. "I'm sorry, I think I need a moment."

When he turned back, Caleb Widogast was gone.

-

Outside in the hallway, Essek leaned on the wall next to Caleb, who sat heavily on a bench. The heat suit was stuffed back into a bag.

"Feel any better?"

A muscle in Caleb's face twitched, and his hand balled in a fist. "A little. I don't know. Seeing him-" His breath left him in a gust. "It was harder than I expected."

Essek touched his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.  "Come, then. Let's go. We can learn what happened later. Frumpkin is waiting for you at home."

This last tactic was always a surefire way to bring a little smile back to Caleb's face, and it proved to be so now.

“Ja,” Caleb agreed, straightening up.  “Let’s go home.”

[frownyalfred]

I saw your post about Bruce being protective when people creep on teenage Dick, and I have to tell you I STILL remember the line in ASOH where he talked to Lex about it. Goddamn. Fantastic line, hit me like a punch to the emotions, and stayed with me.

OOF yeah! The line about Bruce and Lex being pretty too young, right? I loved that whole scene.

It came at such a tense time (Jason’s sudden emergency presentation) but it was really important to show that Lex actually cared about helping AND that Bruce wanted Lex there to help. And that Bruce understood a lot of what Lex had gone through, because he’d gone through it himself. But Jason won’t, if both of them have their way.

[marlynnofmany]

After reading all of your token human stories I've ordered kick in the thorax. Your writing style is so fun!

Hooray, thank you! I'm glad you like it. I'm having a good time writing these stories. I'm working on a sequel to the book, and I have plans to collect the stories in paperback form; hopefully both of those projects will be done sooner than later! Either way, I'll definitely keep writing. It's lots of fun.

[dragonselkie]

gotcha! ty! new word if the game's still going!

"break"

(np!! and yes the game is still on!)

Kageyama approaches right behind him, and that impatience he’s felt the whole weekend fades as he collapses over Hinata, arms draped over his shoulders, and hugging him to his chest, Kageyama’s chin propped up on his head. He leans his weight onto him as Hinata’s story breaks with his squeak of surprise, stumbling slightly in place and Kageyama easily steadies them both.

[nottheweirdest]

me, after having read clean slate 3 times, trying to consume any sonic n shadow media where theyre confused by the others emotions/motives: WELL IF YOU'D JUST OPEN THE BOND- 🙄🙈 yall are so embarrassing OPEN THE BONNDDDDD 🙄🙈🤪 (<- im not kidding this literally happened like three times already ur fic changed my BRAIN 😂)

Ahhhh love this ask so much and I'm responding so late. Please accept my sincerest apologies!! The bond is such a fun way to force them to emotionally communicate lol Soul mate bonds, omegaverse bonds, just any sort of metaphysical connection like that between partners is absolutely DELICIOUS. I eat it up. Nom nom nom nom

[mistystarshine]

sooo aki47 has been rolling around in my head lately and i like just finished your fic a beautiful star today. And it was SO GOOD thank you for writing. the way you wrote each character's perspective was so perfect to me. reading it was like idk drinking a warm bowl of soup after a long day or smth. it just has such a warm cozy vibe to me.

but i wanna ask what did denji have in mind for helping aki like be allowed to leave the house and just exist in public. he mentions it a few times and im kinda curious how he would manage that. like what kinda legislation and requirements would he need to work through. and like how aki would react to whatever plan denji cooks up. i understand that this is a bit outside the scope of your story but the treatment of fiends and devils working for public safety and all the social nuances and stuff is so interesting to me (sorry for rambling btw and ofc no pressure to answer)

Go check out A Beautiful Star, my UTTERLY MISERABLE Chainsaw Man everyone lives AU

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for this ask. I really love getting asks about my fics; it makes it worth all the time and effort and writing. Never, ever, ever apologize for sending something like this.

Secondly... It's beyond the scope of the fic because Denji was being unrealistic.

He can get permission for Aki to go in public to a certain degree. Public Safety owes him a favor or twenty (and we're ignoring part two in this household) and Kishibe's willing to pull strings for him. He can get him an ID stating that he has permission to be outside and human rights and all that.

But... He's still a fiend. The Gun Fiend. He'd need to make some much wider changes for Aki to be able to step foot in public without resounding terror. Namely, he needs to get non-violent fiends as a whole accepted. And before that can happen, he needs to get legislation passed providing them human rights as a whole. And if he wants to do anything to help with THAT, he needs to figure out how the law works and get involved in politics.

Denji. Denji Hayakawa. Denji "super toast" Hayakawa. Is going to need to run for office.

Or, you know, throw support behind people who are and do what he can to help them. That's an option too.

What I'm trying to say is that it's going to be a long ass time before Aki can have anything resembling a normal life. But you know what? They have all the time in the world.

[the-darklings]

honestly a big reason COA was so huge for me was santino’s practically original characterization but also. your original characters 😭😭 hector and steph especially and when you started writing things for v?? it was over for me

PLEASE. Hahaha. I'm so glad you love them! Honestly the warm reception to my OCs is what encouraged me to write my own novel, so I'll always be grateful to you guys and coa for giving me that courage to take a leap.

Hector I know was suuuper popular at the time. I was once again surprised by how many people liked him AND shipped him with V, especially in last few chapters where you see them actually progressing in their bond and her relying on him. Don't get me wrong, I get the appeal 😂 and I'm actually not sure if I ever mentioned this before but back when I first created Hector, he was meant to be V's secondary love interest. That's why I created him initially. I later changed this because I wasn't sure what the reaction would be to an OC, and figured that Santino, as a canon character, would be a more compelling competition for John.

[dont-be-a-gonk]

I'd love to hear more about your opinions on rogue AIs and cyberpsychosis and the ways they can intertwine and simultaneously be totally different :3

I wrote way more than I intended to so uh... mb... but anyways here's some directionless rambles in regards to cyberpsychosis, ai's, and the way rogue ai's could make use of humanity's lack of compassion.

To start cyberpsychosis is entirely separate from rogue ai's and, often, even separate from chrome as well.

This is all personal interpretation via the content I've consumed so take it with a grain of salt but to me, and from what I've read online, cyberpsychosis is more so an umbrella term used to describe people experiencing mental health crises in Cyberpunk. Similar to our real world, mental illness is a stigmatized topic which people in power would rather blame on individuals rather than the corrupt system which fostered them. Yes, some people are inherently inclined to develop illnesses, but many times the triggers that start them could be avoided preemptively (or at least managed).

What I mean to say is cyberpsychosis is incredibly broad and we, as a player, only have our attentions focused onto dangerous examples due to media sensationalization and our interactions with NCPD. Cyberpsychosis is a mental health issue, not based solely around chrome but rather the stresses and violence of every day life. If you recall within cyberpsycho gigs many of the people affected are victims of traumatic surgery, gang violence, and class disparity. Kidnapping victims, down on their luck civilians, homeless veterans, construction workers just trying to do their jobs, ect. What makes them "break" or go into psychosis is not necessarily the chrome itself but the process involved in being chipped/ what lead up to it.

The chrome that's added is simply an extra and dangerous side piece in the puzzle. Regardless of if they had it or not they'd mentally break down, but now as someone with literal weaponry strapped to their bodies... well I think you can see where this is going. Imagine putting an abused dog in the middle of a fireworks display except you also made it so every time the dog barks they shoot a loaded ak. That shit is not gonna end well.

So cyberpsychosis if more mental than physical (with some exceptions) and is a health issue which involves primarily the brain but can be triggered by chrome chipping. Inherently it has no medical connection to tech nor ai and the two topics are entirely separate. However through the media and corporate influence it has turned into an issue of people "misusing" chrome or "taking on more than they can handle". The victims are now at fault, so to speak, and all medical regards go out the window.

This creates a dangerous hole which a rogue ai could fill in. If people already believe its a personal downfall less care will go into helping victims, less victims helped equals more chromed out cyberpsychos, more chromed out cyberpsychos means more malleable minds connected to the net. Someone in a state of psychosis may be experiencing hallucinations, delusions, or intense compulsions so if an ai were to slip in and present itself as one they'd go by undetected. Just another symptom of the person's illness, "oh nothing can be done" yada yada. Now as I've previously mentioned we only get faced with extreme cases, violent offenders who have begun attacking crowds or threatening friends n family. But what about the loners? The people tucked away and consumed by their illness with no outside interaction. Like in real life someone who is experiencing psychosis is not inherently dangerous, no one is, its their environment which allows it. So say someone falls into cyberpsychosis in their lonesome, connected to the net and found by a rogue ai. What better scenario in getting into the world of flesh and blood than this? They could influence their psyche, access their information, demand assistance, and if the ai is ever caught well "it's just cyberpsychosis, nothing to be done". Boom, instant access with no downsides and no commitment. Even with netwatch a loophole like this is easily exploitable and highly volatile.

Say one singular ai connects to a lone cyberpsycho, that cyberpsycho connects that ai's data onto the net through emails, messages, and zip bombs, they then send their data into online support groups, veteran forums, or to victims of traumatic events.

Like a virus they could start infecting masses of people all who'd be shrugged off under the pretense of an unavoidable side effect of their condition. And if someone were to bring into question what was going on there is no way in hell any corps are gonna let people know a possible breach is underway. They're gonna shrug off the problem cause it could make their companies like “look bad". Clearly whatever programs they put their money into to "protect" the masses aren't working or are being misused in ways that benefit no one but the corps themselves. They simply cannot have that damage done to their image.

This would create what I equate to a festering wound, like rot inside the body except the body is a digital network. A digital network with seemingly no end meaning at all times at least one host can be infected. And if even just one is infected others can be too. If a rogue ai were to present itself as god to these people 9 times out of 10 they would feel inclined to believe it. The growth of a digital god or messiah could instill false beliefs which even non cyberpyschos could fall victim to. With faith as their guide these believers could then be connected to the same rogue ai’s network and become infected as well. The rot festers and grows. A bd creator gets infected and decides to install the ai’s data into their wreaths. A netrunner tries to investigate these odd happenings but instead is left with a near invisible time bomb tucked inside their mind. A company sees potential in the ai’s ability and soon they’re brought into a vast network on purpose with no regard for human safety, only pursuit of profits. Fester and grow.

It’s thoughts like this that make me realize, while I do detest corps I understand the purpose behind netwatch as something like this could completely destroy a digital society. The only people who’d be unaffected are pure ganics and those are running out day by day. Even then they often rely on tech to make ends meet so they too could have their livelihoods ruined just not internally.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the game Horizon Zero Dawn (and MAJOR spoilers up ahead here in regards to its plot) but an interesting aspect of the story is mass advancement of technology and how it turned against its creators. Militant and agricultural technology which humans relied on so heavily turned volatile, consuming organic matter either as fuel or due to their code. Ultimately the only way humanity could fight back was to pretty much nuke themselves in hopes it took the tech out with them and all future life on earth would simply start over from the beginning, the VERY beginning. Back to rocks and twigs and making sparks fly from stone. Of course there’s more to it than that and I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot (I haven’t played HZD in foreverrrrr) but I think you can see the connection. Should such a power go unchecked the only option may be mass self destruction.

These cyberpsychos are merely a conduit, an excuse, a distraction, and a personal failure on the heart of humanity. As more people lose their compassion for their fellow man the more isolated we become, the stronger our division grows, and soon the unthinkable will become causal necessity. Capitalism and corporations fuel an ever growing disease which denies human connection and favors imaginary numbers over life. Thanks to them rogue ai’s were both born and fostered, and eventually should the blackwall fall, destroy their creators. Ironic the only fighting force is a corp themselves, something which’ll likely prove fatal.

Man idk where I’m going with this but yeah _(:3」∠)_ They call me the senseless rambler the way I uh… ramble… senselessly… :3?

This all plays into my personal idea of a follow story to 2077 so if it seems super fantastical or random that’s prolly why lol. All I’m saying is imagine an ai that understands what it means to hurt vs an ai who simply acts on code. To understand pain is to best replicate it and a human ai hybrid would be nothing short of an armageddon in the making. The infinite paradox of hate.

[cherrivixx]

What kinda fic are ya writing?

kingdom hearts !! kind of somewhere between a modern au, a roleswap and a character study

the easiest way to explain it (which is still difficult) is basically: namine and kairi are sisters; namine is a witch, and its all from kairi's point of view. kairi and namine live in twilight town and sora and riku live in destiny islands (and roxas too; in this he's sora's twin brother). theyre all about the ages they were in kh2, except kh1 didnt happen so riku is still being distant and weird, and kairi is still kinda clinging to the past and sora doesnt know whats going on at all. its also set in america in 2002, except i have never been to america and i was not alive in 2002

anyways about a year before the fic starts (aka a week before the end of summer vacation last year) xion and axel died (their car was hit by xemnas's and im not joking) (also, xion and axel were adopted siblings here, idk) and roxas felt really guilty because theyd just had a fight beforehand and he kinda blames himself thinking oh maybe if they hadnt left early because they were mad they wouldnt be dead but also they were both keeping secrets from me so im still mad but i cant get them back.

now enter kairi and namine. namine doesnt go to school with the rest of them (due to an unspecified incident that involved her witch powers going haywire) and now does correspondence schooling + aqua (sometimes ven or terra or eraqus) teaches her magic as well. also aqua is a fairy, which is basically the light magic version of a witch (which do dark magic), and so she (and eraqus) hold the firm belief that witches cannot become fairies because they use dark magic, but fairies can become witches if they use dark magic, which of course is not true and theyre actually the same, but its basically like the whole using darkness taints you thing and neither of them understanding you need both light AND darkness. magic is kind of accepted as existing and twilight town in particular is a bit of a safe haven for magic users but people dont really talk about it because its not "normal" im operating on monster high/sims 3 logic tbh

namine and roxas reconnect and namine suggests "hey i can bring your friends back to life with dark magic" so they start doing that. they bring riku in (like how it was riku, axel, and namine in kh2) and hes helping them out mostly with getting the physical stuff they need. however kairi is not aware of this, and mostly is focusing on how her friend group seems to be falling apart (riku thinking hes too mature for them and beginning to kind of hang around the organization/ansem, wakka and tidus who are more occupied by sports, and her sister and roxas doing some weird magic shit) and how shes not really feeling ready for growing up but at the same time wanting to leave her small kinda-coastal town because its so small and she wants to see all the world thats out there, maybe even visit the city she was born in (shes adopted like in canon). additionally, she and a couple other people's memories of xion and axel begin to fade, but especially kairi's, and a week before halloween, kairi has completely forgotten xion, except the vaguest notion of someone with dark hair who used to be her friend. shes unable to put a name or face to that person, even thinking xion was a boy. also, sora, kairi and riku start disagreeing with one another more and more over stuff as well and it comes to a head the night before halloween (gasp)

halloween, understandably, is when everything comes to a head. this is also the first year that kairi, sora and riku dont do trick or treating, since theyre too old for it now (another part of letting go of stuff as you grow up, and disconnection with her friends). kairi and sora both notice roxas and namine are out, and theres no note or anything (and none of them have phones) so they call rikus house because theyre wondering if theyre there, but riku is missing too. they ask around and hayner olette and pence are like "hmmm well we saw them over that way with a big black box". eventually they end up at the graveyard.

they dug up axels grave, but as xions body was not recoverable (too burnt from the car crash) they have a new medium/vessel for her instead, a blank, wooden life-size puppet (they got from gepetto, who is the guy from pinocchio). however, in order to bring someone back to life, they also need to collect memories of that person (like a warped version of kh time travel rules, tbh) and so thats why kairi was forgetting them. after disagreement on if itll work or if itll go badly, axel and xion both wake up anyways (dressed in black robes from spirit halloween lmao), but theyre mostly filled with the memories that were given to them. axel has his body, so he remembers more things, but since roxas wanted to keep most of his memories with xion...she doesnt know who he is, and since kairi & sora can barely remember her, xion has a lot of memories of them. so overall not good for anyone !! but they are back ;)

[frownyalfred]

not to tell on myself too much, but your slade/bruce fic where tim hired slade rewrote my brain. especially the ending with clark being all jealous

It's okay, this is a safe space for dad-fuckers :)

[theicarusconstellation]

Hi! I just saw an old post pf yours from 2023, it was the vamp. reg. one amd I js wanted to let you know how bloody good it was cuz omg IT WAS LIKE HEAVEN. I read it and thought holy guacamole THIS IS GOOD because IT'S SO GOOD. Do you still do wee prompted writing buts like that? And if you've written a park two to it could u say? Have u written any fics???? YOUR QRITING IS SO GOOD DUDE.

THIS WAS SO KIND OF YOU TO SAY😭😭😭😭 thank you so much😭🙏

i haven’t done one-word writing prompts in a While but i’d love to take them up again honestly. and as for a part two to the vampire regulus fic, i hadn’t planned on one at first, but you’re not the only person to request it, so i just might make it a mini-series ngl!!

i have written fics🫠 if you’re interested, you can access my ao3 here

if you’re a fan of greek mythology and icarus x apollo, the fic i’m most proud of is an icarus x apollo jegulus au: and though i burn, how could i fall? (: it currently has a sequel in the works that i desperately need to get back to

thank you so much again for your lovely words😭

[5eraphim]

so ya know bunny under the bridge… when i finished reading that i got the idea that one of the reasons BLU won could be that red sniper got a bit distracted because he could see everything go down from his tower…

💀 CAN U FUCKING IMAGINE WATCHING THE OTHER TEAM'S NEW GUY EATING SHIT FOR HOURS, GOING MIA ONLY TO FIND THEM BLOWING SOME ASSHOLE ON THE OTHER TEAM, AND THEN START CRANKING YOUR HOG.💀

[adozentothedawn]

How about Francesca? Why's she problematic?

The rumour mill among the Dyrwood nobles be like

Has killed people for money and is not sorry about it (not in aassassin way but as a mercenary)

Adopted an orlan child?? Has she no sense for her station?? Terribly inappropriate.

Has a wild animal as a pet. How terribly irresponsible and unfashionable.

Married an Aedyran!! How far can this woman fall, absolutely unaccaptable. She must divorce her husband immediatly.

For that matter, she just vanished for a year after the castle was so badly damaged. Dodging her responsibilities that is.

I heard she still has family in Old Vailia and never even visited when her nibling was born, ungrateful, truly.

[nottheweirdest]

I finally just finished reading your sonadow fanfic cleanslate and OMG I LOVE IT AMAZING, and I'll wait for as long as it takes for the sequel and PLEASE continue to make these AMAZING stories. I just have one question if it's a spoiler then don't worry about. What was Tail's going to say about the test results before Shadow woke up?

Ahhhhhhh THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Coming back from Expo I got the post con sads and this helps so much. I'm really happy you enjoyed it! I've got the outline close to being finished and may start writing it as soon as tomorrow. It's gonna be another long one heh

As for what Tails has to say... it is a MAJOR spoiler so I can't say BUT. I will say that there will be TWO major thing that Tails reveals. So. Take from that what you will 😜

[devdevlin]

In the epilogue of clause ll we know tom imperiuses hermione at the lestrange feast but was that the only imperius he did after the epilogue or was there more we just don't know?

You can assume it happens on numerous occasions 🤗

[alrightbuckaroo]

💵 and 🌊 please.

Hi anon!! Thanks so much for your patience 💖

Here's a little something from the 1950s rent boy AU

“Have you ever been to the Tiffany Club on 8th Street?” Carlos asks as he pulls his slacks up. He feels satiated but not fully fed. TK spits a mouthful of mouthwash into the sink before answering with, “No, is that bad?” “Complete opposite actually,” Carlos begins, leaning against the bathroom doorway. “Now this means I get the chance to take you.”

and here's a little tension from the sequel to summer slipped us underneath her tongue

“Carlos,” TK’s voice almost sounds foreign when he says his name. “I’m engaged.” “I know,” Carlos answers, looking down at TK’s hand and noticing the way the ring shines brightly, the diamonds reflecting the six p.m. summer sun. “I assume we can keep things professional.” “Can we?” TK asks, and the question falls like a stone in a still pond.

make me write <3