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Beatrice felt comfortable here, despite the noise, the sultry warmth of the cafe. It was too close for her, lively and vibrant to the point of distraction but Ava liked it. “Pecado Alegre” had become ‘their spot’ when they returned to Madrid. Ava had stared at the cafe’s name, bemused, grabbed Beatrice’s wrist with a suddeness that nearly sent her off balance and dragged them both through the smoky afternoon gloom within.

Today is that ‘special’ day when grief & the familiar are hesitant lovers. The sweet sting of longing in her chest swirled and danced with the bitterness of espresso on her tongue. Beatrice tried not to stare past happy couples, tried to drown out bright, sparkling laughter, love everywhere taunting. The missing part of a pair who suffered it all…together…and yet.

If only, if only…

Book open, dog eared pages damp, well worn…and continues to wait.

Art: Simon LeClerc - https://www.instagram.com/bonjoursimonleclerc?igsh=cDZlMTY0OWV6cjk1

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this is a true story about all the lies you fantasized about you and I

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everyone's all about queer subtext until it's aromantic or asexual

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I only hate certain types of fic the same way I hate mosquitos and ticks. Like get these nasty little buggers away from me but also I respect their place in the ecosystem.

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bitches say they hate ai but then use chatgpt to write fanfiction

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Wow, now there's a bot going around on Ao3 telling people that the "moderators" will delete works from "deprecated" fandoms and impose bans.

Fearmongering bullshit, but it's fearmongering bullshit that seems to be taking advantage of the recent spotlight series in order to trick authors into deleting their fics.

Just. Why.

What the hell does anyone get out of making these bots.

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say it with me now:

ao3 is an ARCHIVE.

no, you cannot post placeholders, RP requests, personal journals, or "chatrooms" on it.

yes, other people are allowed to post things you might find disturbing.

if this upsets you, go somewhere else.

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do you guys ever think about that time in season 3 when buffy had to talk to the school counselor and he was played by mr. moseby and at first she was all dismissive of it but then he actually got through to her so she went back to his office and admitted that she was scared and actually asked for help but it turned out that she was talking to mr. moseby's dead body and then for the rest of the show she never asked anybody for help ever again? because I think about it every day

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Drawing of my favorite Doctor Who episode, Heaven Sent!

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How to lock your fanfiction on ao3 in bulk

First go to your Profile

Scroll down until you see the "Edit my works" button

After clicking it you'll end up in the "Edit Multiple Works" section

Choose the works you want to lock. You can pick all of them or just the specific ones. Then click the "Edit" button.

Scroll down until the "Privacy" section. "Visibility" would have "Only show to registered users" option. This is what you need to choose to lock the fics.

You can change other stuff if you want, like maybe add comment moderation.

Click "Update All Works" to save.

There you go!

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This is the worst timeline. (x)

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It was a very good day, all in all. Nia had spent the day winding through the downtown shops with Lena, who was enjoying the anonymity afforded by dressing down in a hoodie. The spring air was crisp but not cold and they made their way down, eventually, to the waterfront and strolled through the open air markets, to Lena’s favorite food cart, where she bought them both tamales.

They were sitting on high stools around a bar height table and Nia was indulging thoughtfully on her mournful of tamale and sour cream when Lena very casually said, “when did Kara tell you that she’s Supergirl?”

Nia almost choked, grabbing her lemonade in a mad dash to wash down her mouthful of food and breathe again. Lena wasn’t looking at her. The question had come in a cool tone, but with a hard, brittle edge.

It wasn’t some weird joke, or strange passing fancy. Lena’s eyes were hard, a sharpness to her look that often came into her delicate features when she spoke of someone she hated. It made her stunning beauty seem dangerous and vulpine.

“Not long after we met. I told her I was an alien first and about the whole dreaming thing, and then she told me.”

Lena nodded and sipped a bottle of Mexican soda, nudging her half-dismembered tamale with a plastic fork, smearing thin strips of shredded pork angrily across the cardboard bowl.

“When did she tell you?” Nia asked, wincing at the quaver in her voice.

Lena looked up, and met Nia’s gaze. She had her CEO face on- unflappable, a little contemptuous, even arrogant, a kind of distance in the way she looked down her nose. It made her look queenly.

It also made Nia’s bowels turn to water and she had to focus on shoving her lunch back down where it belonged.

Lena said very softly, “she didn’t.”

Nia made a fist and pushed the heel of her hand against the table to hide her shaking.

Oh God, she thought, what have I done?

“How did you…” Nia began, “when…”

There was a bird chirping nearby. The crisp pleasant air carried the salt of the sea. It was a good day, a nice day. The sun was shining and Nia fancied she might look up and see Kara zooming overhead, just to check on them.

To check on Lena. Like she always did.

“My brother told me before I shot him.”

There was a cracking, brittle and qualify to Lena’s half-whispered confession, and Nia instinctively looked around for eavesdroppers.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Lex had an emergency portal device in his suit, set uo to ‘port him out if he was in danger. When he portalled back to his old hideout I was waiting for him.”

Nia licked her lips. “Then what…”

“He showed me. He had surveillance footage- Kara using her powers, not just to protect me but to hide evidence, conceal her secret from me.”

“Oh,” said Nia.

“He wanted me to join him. He expected me to flip out and decide to help him kill her, I guess.”

Lena gave a little shrug.

“And then…”

“Then I killed him. I shot him twice in the chest and then again in his stupid face.”

Nia looked around again. This was a conversation to be had across the path from a food truck selling deep fried fruit pies. Lena’s usually pale face was flushed a deep red and her eyes grew wet.

“You know,” said Lena. “James must. Alex, obviously. Wynn, Wynn must have known. Alex’s boss, other people at the DEO, right? How many people know there?”

Nia thought of Kara’s locker at the DEO and felt a surge of panic, as if she’d been dunked right in the ocean.

“How many times was I in a room with all of you and I was the only one who was wasn’t in on it?”

“Lena,” Nia began.

“What did I do wrong? Why me? Why did I have to be the one kept in the dark? I could have helped her, just like you do, just like Querl does. I could have done so much, but… what? What the fuck did I do wrong? Is it because I’m a Luthor? Is that how you all see me, too? Is that how she sees me?”

“No,” said Nia.

It was burning in her chest, yearning to break free.

You must never tell either of them, Brainy had intoned, you have to swear. The fate of the entire universe depends on you not revealing what I’m about to tell you before it’s time.

It was like an unscratchable itch. The knowledge that Brainy had shared with her, the secret he had whispered in her ear, almost drove her mad. It took her a while to make peace with it, even find comfort in it. She knew, knew with total certainty that things would be alright because something that was supposed to happen hadn’t yet.

Lena was staring at her, silently begging for Nia, for anyone, to make it make sense.

Lena was on the verge of hyperventilating, her hands trembling uncontrollably.

“I had to do it,” Lena whispered.

“Do what?”

“I had to shoot him, Nia. He was never going to stop. He was going to kill her eventually. Do you understand?”

Nia slid off her stool, and gently took Lena’s arm, guiding her down as well.

“I can’t do it,” said Lena. “I can’t keep it in anymore, not after this, nor after what I did. I can’t pretend now I just can’t do it.”

“Pretend what?”

Lena didn’t answer, not directly. “I know why she didn’t tell me. I can see it. It must be obvious, right? I must be so sad and pathetic to all of you.”

“What? No! Why would you think that?”

“Everybody has to see it. I’m such a goddamn cliche. I know why she won’t tell me.”

Nia blinked, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“She’ll never want me the way I want her.”

Those words, that tiny little half-confession, rocked Nia to her core. She felt her knees give a little and her own expression go momentarily vacant, and the words were out of her mouth before she could even think to stop herself. Nia Nal was a bad liar. She had no poker face. She was an open book.

“Yes, she does.”

Lena looked up sharply, her eyes almost comically wide with shocked hope.

“What? Nia, what do you mean? Do you understand what I’m saying here?”

Oh.

Oops.

Nia’s gaze searched Lena’s face, trying to find some way to get herself out of this without dropping a timeline-risking truth bomb.

She couldn’t. It wasn’t right. Lena should know. She had a right to know.

“You know all that stuff Brainy says about how the records from the past -the past to people like him way in the future- are gone?”

“What of it?”

Nia swallowed hard. Lena edged closer to her.

“If you know something, please! Nia please.”

“You’re one of the most historically significant people who ever lived,” said Nia. “They still know about you in the future, and Kara is… who she is. There are still some records.”

“What records? Nia what are you saying?”

Nia bit her lip for a moment, then closed her eyes. “Brainy told me that you’re remembered by history as a great inventor, scientist, and explorer… and as Supergirl’s wife. The mother of her children.”

Lena’s mouth actually fell open in an absurdly comical look of shocked disbelief.

“The mother of… me? I’m going to have children? Kara’s children?”

“Yes,” said Nia. “Or you’re supposed to. Hopefully I didn’t just mess up the entire future. Shit, Brainy is going to kill me when he finds out about-“

Lena was staring at nothing, her eyes wide.

“I… I have to get home. I have to get ready for tonight. The Pulitzer gala, to celebrate Kara’s award. I’m meeting her there so I can give the speech before she accepts it.”

“Okay,”‘said Nia.

They discarded their half-eaten tamales and took a Lyft back to Lena’s building on Nia’s account. Nia watched her walk inside and drop her hood so the doorman would escort her in, and then sat in stunned silence as she rode back to her own apartment.

She was sitting on the couch aimlessly scrolling on her phone when there was a knock at the door.

When she opened it, Kara rushed in, dressed and made up for her big party. She stormed across the room and looked around in a wild panic.

“I have to tell Lena tonight,” she said. “I have to. I can’t keep this a secret anymore, it’s eating me alive. I can’t let her go out there and give a speech about how trustworthy and honest I am after I’ve been lying to her this whole time, but I’m scared. I can’t… I can’t lose her, Nia. I can’t. I’m worried it’ll break us. I can’t lose her.”

“You won’t lose her.”

“She’s going to be mad I lied. She’s going to figure out why I couldn’t tell her.”

“Because Alex would blow up at you?”

“No,” said Kara, meeting her gaze. “Because she’ll never want me the way I want her.”

Nia looked at Kara for a moment, and then sighed.

She understood why Alex liked that nasty whiskey she always drank.

Nia could use some too.

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So my book was on an actual shelf at an actual Coles/Indigo in Hamilton Ontario and THAT MEANS I'M A REAL AUTHOR RIGHT????

If you happen to be in Hamilton there's two signed copies on the shelf now and I'm also going to be doing an in-person signing there in May!!!!

Absolutely WILD and I will not be recovering any time soon, if you live in the Hamilton area come see me at the Limeridge Mall on May 31 from 1-4 so I don't have to stand in the Coles alone like a weirdo

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Supercorp head canon: Lena Luthor hates kale. It’s the literal worst. She just…hates heart disease and high cholesterol more. Which run in her family on both sides. And Lionel was diabetic. Lex was pre-diabetic but wouldn’t do anything about it. So Lena just eats super clean, gets her steps in, does three sessions of zone three cardio a week, and resistance trains.

Initially, Kara thinks these are all attributes of her CEO type-A lovable neuroses. Until Lena is waiting for her annual bloodwork…and has a panic attack. And makes a kale smoothie.

And that night Lena explains that Kara is actually correct, kale is vile but it’s a good source of fiber. And she went through a phase where she ate an unhealthy amount of raw spinach. Lena explains that her family has bad metabolic genetics. And Kara is just like:

So the kale will help you live longer?

And Lena half shrugs, nods, hopefully?

Suddenly, a change occurs. Kara Danvers cannot get enough kale. Have you ever had an air fried pot sticker? Kara just ate fifteen. And she had a side of bok choy.

Lena kind of can’t belive it. Because sure eating super healthy is something she prioritizes, but it’s a downer when no one else around her is doing it? Like Alex and Kelly eat healthy…but it’s not extreme. Nia sometimes makes questionable choices in energy drinks but generally Lena thinks she has a balanced diet. Kara eats as though she auditioning for the role of human dumpster in Dumpster Fire the Musical.

Until suddenly, Kara doesn’t. Suddenly when the super friends go out to eat and Lena gets a goat cheese salad, Kara gets one too. Kara always sees if they can add chicken though. Kara likes to make soups and that winter they eat hearty stews and delicious curries. And one day it just—Lena has to ask.

“Kara why are you eating like—?”

“Like you?” Kara says setting down the last plate she was drying. She walks over and lifts Lena onto the counter. So she can stand between her legs. “Because I like you?” She pecks Lena’s cheek. “I want you around forever. And if eating this way is going to help, you bet your bucket, I’m eating kale with every meal.”

Lena blushes.

“Not every meal.”

“No.” Kara says crinkling up her nose. “I also read in one of those books? About like marriage and family life.” Lena’s eyebrows go up. “You know books about how to be married and like raise kids?” Lena did know..:but not that Kara was reading that. “I just figure it will be easier to teach good nutrition habits to our children if you and I are on the same page about nutrition values now.”

Which is , great, but Lena is surprised to know Kara Danvers is planning to raise apparently multiple children with her, when last time she checked they were still platonic best friends.

“Kara, are we dating?” Lena asks.

“No, I don’t think so. Not yet. Soon though,” and then the Kryptonian turns around to finish putting away silverware.

“Would you want to go out on a date?”

“Yeah. I’m not picky. I mean,” here Kara gestures to Lena’s penthouse where Kara does basically live. “On Krypton…like we’d be considered married already. So um, I’m good with whatever. Dating first? Just straight to a wedding. Or even just filing a marriage certificate.” Lena is still on the counter, and it feels like the whole world has vanished from under her perch.

“You would marry me tomorrow?”

“Culturally, Lena, I married you ages ago. And I should have said something. It’s okay if you don’t want this. I will get my stuff out of here tonight, but—“ Lena leapt into Kara’s surprised arms. They kissed, twirling in the kitchen.