#... unwritable fics my... thing

[eri-pl]

Have been thinking of a cute crack time travel idea posted by... I don't remember, probably @winds-of-zephyr416? that was supposed to be "oooh feels! and let's psychoanalyze the characters" but now I thought to deep and we're Dealing With Topics

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #86: Percy Jackson, but make it Time Travel

I was minding my own business at work this morning when a terrible, awful, wonderful idea for a PJO time travel fix-it hit me out of the blue.

Or: What if a deified Percy was sent back to the start of canon?

aka the In Another Life fic

Just imagine it:

Percy wakes screaming, which is immediately disconcerting as he's not slept in nearly 100 years. He summons a storm practically out of reflex, still caught up in the horrors of everything he just left behind, and promptly passes out, his 12 year old body not used to the strain.

-because he is twelve again - mortal again, - in his bed at Yancy Academy again, a week out from the field trip that will change his life.

Not that Percy realizes this straight off, what with the panic and the passing out, though he does pick it up fairly quickly once he wakes up again in the school infirmary. This nearly sends him into another tailspin of panic - (he is small, he is weak, he is alone in his head, one hundred years in the past, and can barely feel any of his domains) - before Percy manages to get himself under control enough to come up with the basics of a plan: get somewhere safe so he can start figuring out what the Hades is going on.

Percy manages to sneak out of the infirmary while everyone else is at dinner, hails the Chariot of Damnation even though he's way out of their normal service area ("We'll put it on your tab, dearie," the seeresses say, "we know you're good for it."), and arrives at Camp Half-Blood just after midnight.

His entrance is much less spectacular than it was originally, but no less startling for all Mr D is the only one awake to see it, for the moment Percy crosses the ward lines the magic begins to recognize him as the future Camp Director - which in turn startles Dionysus just enough that he doesn't immediately smite Percy when he practically throws himself at the god and starts going on about how pleased he is to see him.

The truth comes out in fits and starts, with Percy's exhaustion (and Dionysus' gifts) being the only thing keeping him from another panic attack. His story boils down to this:

Percy has always been a powerful demigod, perhaps the most powerful child of his father ever to be born to a mortal. His actions from his first quest onward only pushed him closer to the brink of immortality. Divinity did not come until several months after the events of ToA, when a camper had jokingly raised a glass to Perseus Jackson, Trainer of Heroes, which was all that was needed to push him over that final precipice.

As Lord Perseus, he was from the onset more powerful than most minor gods, his domains being the eclectic mix of Heroes, Natural Disasters, and Misery - the first earning him the permanent position of Director of Camp Half-Blood and Patron of Camp Jupiter, the second keeping him quite busy in an era of climate change, and the last having been unwittingly stolen years before from Akhlys in Tartarus. It is this power that causes Zeus to become even more paranoid.

-which is saying something, as his paranoia had already skyrocketed to new and greater heights after Apollo returned improved from the events of ToA.

It grows worse over the better part of the next century, with the Titan War, Giant War, Triumvirate, and all that follows eventually disabusing the majority of the gods that Zeus will never be an effective ruler. Apollo leads a rebellion against his father - and would have succeeded, had not Zeus not managed to somehow push Apollo directly into Chaos as Apollo was preparing for his final blow, which has the unfortunate effect of the universe trying to unwrite one of the most important gods from the history of Western Civilization and undoes the fabric of reality in the process. Percy was watching it unravel before his eyes (desperately, desperately trying to weave it back together but it won't hold) when he suddenly found himself screaming 100 years in the past.

It is a fantastical story, but Dionysus has no choice to believe it.

("But why did you come to me? Why not your father?" Percy looks down, running a finger along the grain of of the wooden table, "We became friends in the future. Misery and alcohol, you know? One of the oldest pairings in the book." There's more, Dionysus can tell, but the boy is already flagging, unused to the weaknesses of his childish mortal body. It can wait.)

The events of canon proceed apace - or at least as much as they can when Percy shows up at camp almost two months early knowing more about the Greek and Roman pantheon than anyone who hasn't lived through it, with the attitude of a hero who's been through Tartarus and the power levels of a minor god burning him up from the inside. All while sneaking off in his spare time to 1) plot to stop the end of the world with Dionysus and 2) hang out with Dionysus, because he is one hundred twelve, thank you very much, and needs adult company every now and then, for all he’s missed his long dead friends.

I actually have no idea how the events of the books themselves would play out - Percy has neither the patience or the ability to let everything play out exactly as before, but the major beats of PJO still take place, with Percy doing his best to undermine the arguments that drew so many to Kronos as he can while still mortal. (Advocating for cabins for minor gods and/or undetermined, or combined housing with temples. Gods being forced to claim their children when they arrive at camp, etc.)

Perhaps Kronos tries harder to sway Percy to his side once he sees how strong a demigod he is, showing his hand too soon and causing the Titan War to be an all out war from the start of TTC until the Battle of Manhattan? Percy is more than just a child solider - he is a seasoned teenage general, directing battles, saving many with is experience but still loosing too many; a one-man army who eventually ascends on his sixteenth birthday, Luke's misery as he kills himself being the last push Percy needs to reclaim his divinity and his domains.

Gaining his godhood early allows Percy to temper the events of HOO and TOA (the Giant War still happens, but a generation later with a different set of demigods, and allows Zeus to redeem himself somewhat by being an effective war leader; Apollo never becomes mortal but the Triumvirate is destroyed a generation after that), if not prevent them. Though a part of him will always long for his mortality, it was never in the cards. It was either godhood or an early death, and Percy would rather spend an eternity protecting demigods and giving them the training they need to protect themselves than the alternative.

And so that's what Percy Jackson does, because that's what he's always done: accept as much misery for himself to make the lives of those he loves as misery-free as possible.

Bonuses include:

No hint of Percy/Annabeth in the new timeline, with the pair in the original having broken up shortly before Percy's ascension, having realize their codependency was not healthy, nor was it actually romantic love. From 100 years on, Percy is critical of his first relationship, but still counts Annabeth as one of his best friends, even if they're not as close in this timeline.

Although never widely disseminated, several individuals come to learn of Percy's trip through time and the circumstances that lead to it. (Poseidon, Sally, Thalia). A few others suspect Percy has some level of prophetic gift to go along with his other powers. But for the most part no one has any idea Percy is anything other than a powerful demigod with some really bad luck; and

It eventually coming out that Percy and Dionysus had a thing in the future, with Percy over the course of 100 years coming to like, respect, and eventually love the God of Wine. Percy is absolutely convinced it was entirely one-sided, their thing only adding up to a few drunken fucks between friends (because that's what Dionysus does with his friends), but Dionysus after he learns of it not being so sure (because it's really not what he does with friends and hasn't been for millennia). Whatever the case, it is exceptionally awkward when it comes out, especially as Percy's only physically 14 at the time, and attempting to resolve this awkwardness is how Thalia ends up learning about the time travel.

Extra bonus points if Percy and Ariadne were decent friends in the original timeline, become decent friends again in the new one, and settle into a polyamorous relationship with Dionysus (after Percy is deified and comes of age) that has Hera spitting teeth for decades.

And that is far, far more than I'd ever thought I'd have, but I think this plot bun somehow merged with a thread of an idea for a Dionysus-positive fic that's been tickling at me for years now. As always, feel free to adopt, just link back if you do anything with it.

More PJO Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

[vivispec]

Trying to figure out what Vie does postgame. Might just scream instead.

(Veilguard Endgame spoilers)

I am. so fucking torn.

On one hand, it would be sooooo so so out of character for her to just. Turn her back on her twin soul, her daughter, her clan, all for the sake of a single man. I don't think she'd choose Solas over literally everyone else. That said, I don't think it would be that narratively difficult to come up with a reason why she had too, sans choice. I'm hesitant to take away her autonomy in that moment, I think it takes the impact of that choice away, but the things I could do with it??? I've been setting this up from the very beginning and I didn't even know it!!

Their daughter, a Dreamer, visiting them in her dreams, and walking the Fade beside her mamae and the mentor she never knew was her father. Raised in the waking by the other half of her mother's soul, who she already calls babae. The foreshadowing I put into my most recent fic, of how all Niri wants is for her mother to be done with her hunt, and for them to be a family. But they'll never be, because Viera is trapped. She had to, to save the world. She'll never hold her daughter in her arms again, not tangibly. That's the kind of story I love, the one so interwoven with tragedy. Thinking of how Niri and Ilo would react to that, it's everything I want.

...For them, but not for Vie. It would be out of character, or forced. That isn't how I want her story to end.

I think I lean towards having her let Solas walk away, because that's what she would do. She'd still get on her knees to look at him, but when she stands to kiss him they'd both know where she must go. She'd promise that she'd find him, that he wouldn't walk the dinan'shiral alone, but she wouldn't follow him. Especially considering I'm thinking of having Niri blighted, Iloniyn gravely injured (or even dead). She has attachments, and she needs to rebuild. For my Inquisitor, her and Solas always held each other in high respect. I think he'd understand what she maybe doesn't say: that she'll take care of things here, while he gets started there. They'll meet in the middle.

I'm tempted to have her cut by the dagger as Rook was in the beginning, but I'm not certain that won't, in that moment, tie Vie to the Fade and pull her in as well. So I'm thinking I won't. They pulled Rook out of that prison, now that Solas is able to look at his regrets and process them, what's stopping her from guiding him out with a little help? I don't think I want him to fully make it free--I like him still trapped in the Fade--but maybe she can coax him from his prison, walk with him in dreams. I think that fits them better than her following him, finding each other in their sleep and nowhere else. Maybe someday he'll be able to manifest in the Crossroads, but idk? I like there being consequences, and I don't want to unwrite them all. I want to work with them, to make a better story.

Idk idk idk, there is so much I can do with this and I don't know what direction I want to take!! Ah! There's merit in it all! I've been daydreaming about what their ending could be for so long, now that I know I don't know where to take it! I guess I've got all the time in the world to decide, but I want to know now. This is too hard T.T

[chainslobber]

Chisaki Kai with training from UA would have been unstoppable! A top ten hero easily. He could disassemble and reassemble matter. That’s an insane quirk, and I don’t understand why he had to be nerfed for the plot unless Horikoshi just didn’t know how to write that. All the other villains in the series had someone who was looking out for them or thinking about them - Shouto with Dabi or Ochaco with Toga, etc- or got some kind of redemption- like Gentle or Stain. But not Overhaul

My guess is he wrote himself into a hole and didn't know how to UNwrite it. usually, when it comes to superpowers, there's a drawback. MHA was really good with that: Iida's engines overheat and stall, Ochako gets super nauseous, Aizawa has to blink, etc. But with the Overhaul ability, because it was able to work on a molecular level and everything has molecules, well, yeah--once you get control over that skill, you're unstoppable.

Sure, I'd argue him losing his arms was a built-in nerf to basically keep him in check for Horikoshi, same with Eri cutting off her horn (which grew back anyways so she most likely still has her Quirk), it was the only way to do that. Which also makes no sense, because we saw Shigaraki use the decay part of Overhaul with his feet so again, unless Overhaul itself is just decay but awakened, I'm not sure. It's kinda just a big shrug tbh lol.

Truthfully, I would've liked to at least see him with some therapy or at least a 'hey you did bad things it's my fault too, let's work on this' from Pops. Anything than what we got. I would've preferred to never see Kai again than what we got. And my god, the amount of fix-it fics that came out after chapter 427 that was just 'Kai kills himself in jail cuz anything is better than the rest of his life' was so, so, so incredibly high :/ I would've preferred MOST of the villains get a better ending than what they got but alas.

[consistentsquash]

@hprecfest. Day 31. A fav amongst favs

Almagest by eldritcher

Harry/Voldemort. Rated M. 133600 words.

Three men go to the moon to save the world.

If I can read only one fic ever again in my life because of some reason, I choose Almagest.

Beautiful theremin space opera telling a raw story about flawed people. Political, philosophical, romantic, sensual, kinky, funny, literary, musical, passionate, curious, unafraid, desperate, vulnerable, tragic, dark, profoundly human fairytale tempest.

Harry doesn't stop fighting for the right thing. Voldemort is doomed but he won't let "impossible" stop him. Dumbledore is brilliant, flawed and dangerous. They are the beating hearts at the center of the fic. My absolute all time favorite characterizations for them.

The pacing, the scale, the plot, the passion, the dynamics are absolutely incredible. The finale is a brutal victory march. The prose is lyrical and vivid. I don't want to spoil anything. So I am going to leave you with a quote by Ovid used in the fic which gets the vibe of the characters and the story.

"And now the measure of my song is done: The work has reached its end; the book is mine, None shall unwrite these words."

Almagest is a swansong. It burns everything it's got. Feels like a wildfire destroying a forest so that new pine cones can start growing, because "bright rose a different sun".

The perfect fic for New Year's Eve.

pic source

My other recs for this fest on Tumblr and also on AO3 collection

[new-berry]

what fic have you had to do the most research for?

I… do not really research. I am just more of a vibes kind of girl.

I did spend about twenty minutes reading about how the heart actually works for the Alex fic (heartbreak) and I technically researched WW2 fighter planes and aerial dogfights for flyboys but these were books I had read before and like surprising my partner by picking you tube videos about WW2.

I have done a minuscule amount of research about African safaris for a not demon Jude fic (dangerous animals).

But, hand on heart, most of my research is “Virgil van Dijk” + “shirtless” and then I’ll be reading a poem like

I came as a ghost to the party,

no costume required, I only had to wear

the brilliant skin, the ruinous eyes,

the body poised in transit, unwriting

the myth of sex. I came as a ghost

to the party, though we pretended

not to notice a palpable hovering

in the interstices of conversations,

a presence so insubstantial

eyes passed through it, hands

reached through air, bodies jostled

on the dance floor and never felt a thing.

And - this part is vitally important! Completely misunderstand what I am reading (at first at least) and write twenty thousand words (that is all the happy endings) about flirting by selfie and photo shoots and not believing you are getting what you want.

If I read a poem with a sad vibe? You are getting a happy fic.

[majorbaby]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you so much for the tag @bornforastorm, i loved reading through yours :3 

i will tag @marley-manson / @rescue-ram / @persianflaw / @leonardcohenofficial / @raywritesthings

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 14… will be 15 in under 24 hrs ;)

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 136,971… just over 100K of which were published this year :D 

3. What fandoms do you write for? MASH at the moment, with no end in sight. I have two ideas for twin peaks but not much motivation to write them, let alone the discipline. 

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? if you really wanna know here’s my ao3 and you can you sort by kudos, i don’t wanna link my fics in other fandoms that are almost 7 years old now… pls… 

5. Do you respond to comments? i used to be quite diligent about doing it but when i was publishing near-daily for kinktober i fell behind because i was literally writing every day. i may still go back to respond to them because i like doing it. 

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? the beejhawk sex pollen fic (heavy dubcon warning)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i’m realizing that most of traphawk fics are only ‘happy endings’ if you see them as self-contained, which they aren’t really, because even though trapper’s exit isn’t at all relevant, i’m not consciously ‘unwriting’ that. but in-fic probably Goodbye, Farewell and Amen to That because it explicitly states that TrapHawk can handle whatever is thrown at them, which would include whatever happens post-fic. 

8. Do you get hate on fics? for a while i had an anon who submitted vagues about me / my work so like yes, i’ve read a couple vagues seemed they were about my fic but, and i know this sounds like a cop-out but genuinely, i’m kinda flattered by anyone who hates my fic and still manages to read the whole thing and write a public post about how how they didn’t like it? like, what are we??? 

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i consider myself primarily a smut writer, only incidentally non-smut writer. i write all kinds and can’t wait to diversify more. 

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? my dream fic is a specific crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? yes

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? not recently, but in former fandoms yes. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? sort of. it isn’t published. but maybe soon. 

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? traphawk is the ship to me. some things we should be dramatic about: there’s the traphawk that i write and then there’s the traphawk that i live, which only my irl trapper understands 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? now that i have discovered the margaret longfic i really want to write i’ve officially abandoned my 80K canon-compliant margaret WIP

16. What are your writing strengths? i’m disciplined, i want to improve, i take risks, i’m curious, i’m honest and i welcome strong challenges from the people who edit my work.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? i have some barriers (i’m dyslexic and english is my not my first language) but i could still stand to be much more diligent about grammar and punctuation. beyond that, my prose tends to be flowery and verbose and need to be reined in a lot. i’m trying to get better at on my own but it helps that my OG beta, marley, is kind of my stylistic foil lol (hope she doesn’t mind me saying), she trims a lot of the fat from my work and helps me communicate my ideas better. lastly, sometimes i suffer from being really married to an idea that sounded cooler in my head than it does on paper, and i have a really hard time setting it down.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? i say this as someone who is multilingual - it’s almost never a good idea, especially in fic, if you’re having a main character speak partially in another language for no reason except to note that you, the author, knows that they speak another language. it could maybe make sense for atmosphere, but in that case, just say “they were speaking x language / they said something in x language”. 

i’ll be honest, it annoys me so much that if i see a character in a fic drop a few words in a language other than english and then continue on in english that i will x-out of a fic. there’s got to be some thoughtful in-universe explanation for that e.g. if you’re in Canada, bilingual service agents will say ‘Hello/Bonjour’ to you to indicate that you have an option to speak with them in either language. 

19. First fandom you wrote for? uhhh i honestly don’t remember. i’ve been writing fanfiction since before i was a teenager. first time i published it might’ve been for the legend of zelda. 

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? at the moment it’s cherry bomb! because it was a nice, smutty interlude in traphawk’s relationship and a fic that exists mostly for kink’s sake but still has a distinct vibe, unlike filthysweet which i don’t hate, but imo is unremarkable. CB is 95% style 5% substance and still contains weight somehow. i really hope i can recreate that again. 

[kitkatt0430]

For the ao3 asks: 3, 12, 29?

3.) What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

This is a hard pick because there are several in there that I'm particularly proud of.

I think collectively I'm most proud of The Man in the Lightning series. It's definitely a crack fic idea to me still - but it was a fun challenge to make a version of Eobard who is distinctly likable despite having murdered Nora as well as crafting a version of Barry who is understandably grateful Nora is dead. I wanted them to still be recognizable as variations of their canon selves, but very different takes on the characters too. And, of course, for the romantic ship to make sense without being manipulative on either end. Barry's up front about wanting to convince Eobard what they're building is worth staying in the past for and Eobard is too bewildered by Barry's clear interest in him to do any real manipulating on that front before Barry's Sherlock Scan Skills tell him that Eobard and the Reverse Flash kiss the same, ergo they are the same.

It's a series that I look forward to returning to, but I'm really satisfied with what's already there.

12.) How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

Oh gosh. A lot. Um... let me check. And this is not gonna be an exact number because I know I have them scattered all over the place.

We'll say about 55 WiP files I have an active interest in and I'm gonna stop counting now because I have a lot that are from many years ago for fandoms I'm not currently interested in writing for but who knows what'd happen if I rewatched/reread/replayed the source material.

There's definitely a lot of things I wanted to write this year that I didn't get around to because between the reno in the spring and the summer of the wasps, I was pretty burnt out a lot of the time. So there's a lot I started but never finished and hopefully I'll be able to finish those in 2024 despite having more reno plans. (Much smaller scale reno plans, thankfully, I can't take another round of the closet debacle.)

29.) Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

It was a very complicated question. Possibly more than either of them could really articulate. Barry had to take a moment to really put thought into how he phrased things. “The future is yet unwritten. Just because we see a possible future doesn’t mean it’s written in stone; our choices determine what really happens. But the past makes us who we are. To unwrite that would be to destroy our selves,” Barry said. “Jay was always insistent that I live my life for myself. He’d have been disappointed if I let myself get so caught up in living in the past that I stopped having a future altogether. Especially if I did it over him.”

Barry Allen (E-90) talking to Barry Allen (E-1) from Homeward

It was a difficult conversation to write, but I really like how it all fell out. And though neither Barry knows it, this conversation is what stops E-1 Barry from causing Flashpoint. I really enjoyed writing the whole fic (thanks @avatarskywalker78 for requesting it) and coming up with headcanons for the Allen twins of E-90.

[sanayeons]

I don't know how tumblr works I genuinely JUST got this app to talk about how good your misana rockstar fic was... oh my god I was hooked with every single update and the way you write them both is soooo 🫠🫠 I don't think I'm ever moving on from that au .

Ahhh thank you thank you!!

Honestly it's my favourite thing I've written as well and I'm kinda sad I finished it so fast LOL, if i could unwrite and re-write it again i would

I also do have twitter if you're more comfortable with that!!

[mega-ditto-3]

Mha fic idea #9

(Rody's in this one 👀)

Rody and Deku are in like a cave or whatever, still on the run from heroes, the law, and villains alike. They're chatting amicably, and the conversation turns to Rody's siblings.

Specifically: Their quirks.

Rody is a bit tight lipped at first, which is very strange for someone who loves to gush about his brother and sister every chance he gets.

Eventually, he says that he's 'Not sure what their quirks are, exactly...' He explains that, while his parents had been able to afford a proper diagnosis and testing to find out the specifics of Rody's quirk (when it first manifested), he didn't have the finances himself to cover the cost for his siblings.

He has theories of what his brother's could be. Roro is incredibly smart for someone his age, although he doesn't have many opportunities to show it.

But with Lala... Rody doesn't think she has a quirk at all. She's 6 years old, so he would have expected to see some sort of signs of it by now, but nothing's changed.

He's not bothered by this. Lots of people in his community were quirkless (that's usually why they ended up there) but Rody also knows how dangerous the world can be to those without the power to defend themselves. He wants to take her to a doctor, to know for sure, but he'd prefer to leave it a mystery for now until they're able to live somewhere safer...

As he explains this, Rody hears a sniffle.

Deku is crying.

Then it hits Rody:

What if... Deku was prejudice against quirkless people?

Rody hates the idea, knowing how caring Deku is, but it also makes sense... Deku is OBSESSED with quirks and even found value in one as inconvenient as Rody's. Deku (from Rody's pov) has had a powerful, if nonsensical, quirk for the majority of his life.

In Rody's world, being quirkless was only half as bad as a useless quirk.

In Deku's world... it might sound like a fate worse than death.

The locket on Rody's neck suddenly weighs heavy on his chest...

[rydykg]

info

kg; she/her

ao3 un same as tumblr un here

asks open; open to tag & ask games (worldbuilding wednesday, heads up 7 up, etc)

i follow with @/abnormal-normality

not very good at interaction, but i will definitely interact if you interact back

uh, looking for blogs to follow ig?

last updated 16/10/24!!

some other writing-related stuff

i tend to write about family and friendships a lot. aka, i generally focus on relationships between ppl.

big fan of isekai, transmigration, and survival game horror/thriller. i think you can tell what i read most (it’s cnovels)

i like reading anything, really! i favour fantasy (esp. modern fantasy) and supernatural/horror elements, though.

most of my fics/stories are short little things. usually series’ of multiple fics, actually.

tags, masterlist and major wips below

tags

#kg fanfics // #kg writes // #kg gives prompts: all are official “writing” tags, but the former is for ones on ao3 while the latter two are tumblr-only, main difference being the former is genuine writing, the latter is… also writing, but in the form of prompts

#kg draws: same as above but for drawing

#kg says stuff: my own chatter, like those name.txt tags

#original2: tumblr writing that isn’t part of any particular series/characters or world won’t be expanded on beyond that one (or few) posts

#writing tips: reblogged writing tips

#in an alternate world: aus of existing works

#unwriting related: stuff that isn’t part of my writing

#writing building: expanding on characters, worlds, etc. mainly through reblogging questions

#asks: asks

masterlist of all stories (+ tags they are under)

full character list

current wips

Absolute Wishes [Unlimited] || a guy wakes up one day to find himself in a survival game, where he has to gain points to exchange them for wishes. problem is, his wish costs a million points, and he’s not sure his memories are entirely real. under #wip: absolute wishes

stealing gold || a thief tries to steal the relic of a sun god. except he’s rescued by a mysterious desert spirit, the relic has gone missing, and something strange is happening in the neighbouring city. under #wip: stealing gold

Unrigor Mortis || a girl dies buried alive… and wakes up, alive, and out of her grave. something that’s not supposed to happen, especially in a mundane earth. to make things worse, not only is she struggling to recover from her experience, her murderer is playing tricks on her, and there’s a stranger that seems to know something about this. under #wip: unrigor mortis

[supersapphical]

for ze prompts: maryanna first kills

YES. I love everything about this. One of my all time favorite pairings and what a compelling prompt. (Not so coincidentally, I am also posting this on the first day of sapphebruary since the day one prompt is "stabbing.")

This fic picks up RIGHT before the big annamary fight scene in the Song Remains the Same (5x13). CW: mild gore, canon-typical violence

Read on AO3 or under the cut.

“She’s here.”

Anna can hear one of the humans hiding inside the garage mutter this, as if a celestial being wouldn’t have better hearing than the things they normally hunt. Anna can see why they chose to take cover here. The garage is a wide space, filled with many cars and different types of equipment that would provide good hiding places for a human if the thing coming after them wasn’t an angel. John Winchester is the first person she sees as she enters the room and he is easily disposed of.

Or, at least, he should be. She raises her vessel’s arm and throws him across the room but she feels the effort of using her powers more than she should. Her vision is shaky and her vessel’s nose is bleeding. John Winchester is up again and knocking her down with a crowbar. It’s a shot that she should have been able to block but she recovers quickly, disappearing and reappearing behind him, throwing him across the room again, harder than before.

Dean moves swiftly to sneak up behind her, aiming to stab her but she turns and catches his arm, her other hand coming up to squeeze his throat.

“I wish I could say it’s good to see you, Anna,” he gasps out.

“You, too, Dean,” she says quietly, almost gently, before launching him across the garage and through a window. She wants to do this peacefully, to carefully unwrite history so they are never born. She has no wish to kill anyone she doesn’t have to, it will only add to their suffering and she intends to erase their suffering altogether.

Now Mary Winchester is coming for her, expertly wielding the angel blade that Dean dropped. It’s curious how they’ve chosen to come at her one at a time as opposed to altogether. A group of hunters should have been able to come up with a better plan for taking down an angel than this.

Anna focuses all of her attention on Mary, the woman who holds all the potential to end the world and doesn’t even know it. Mary’s a good fighter and Anna is in a weakened state. She gets in a couple of good shots, a kick to her stomach and a slice to Anna’s hand with the angel blade. The cut actually hurts her but still, a human is no match for an angel, even a severely weakened one.

Anna disappears herself from Mary’s vision and reappears behind her. Mary is admirably quick, turning to stab her so fast that she would have succeeded if Anna had been a less powerful creature.

But Anna is not a less powerful creature. She grabs Mary’s arm, softly says to her, “I’m sorry.” And she means it, she truly means it, she feels an overwhelming amount of remorse over the way things must be as she launches Mary straight into a car windshield. The angel blade clatters against the floor, skidding far from any human’s reach.

Mary drags herself across the car, clearly injured but desperately crawling across the body of the damaged car to put distance between herself and Anna. Anna walks towards her slowly, watching Mary scramble to find anything to defend herself.

There is nothing over there to help the human defend herself against a being as powerful as her but Anna is still too slow to stop Mary as Mary plunges a crowbar through her chest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the days of the great warrior Joshua, in the land of Canaan, was a lower order of seraph assigned to watch over the children of the Levant, Anna, of the Seventh Angel Garrison, fourth ranking member of her regiment. A great war broke out between the men who followed the word of heaven and an invading force. Anna, ever watchful, strengthened the hearts of heaven’s children so that they might earn their own victory over their arrogant adversaries.

The enemies of heaven’s people fled and Anna, their protector, cast down great stones from heaven upon their retreating forces, as punishment for their hubris and warning against future retaliation. So badly did the hailstones reduce their numbers, more enemies died upon the retreat than upon the children of heaven’s sword.

And it came to pass that she was rewarded for her acts, granted a garrison of her own to lead. So vigilantly did she adhere to the commandments of heaven, her loyalty and ferocity could engender no doubt among even the highest of heaven’s celestial beings.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mary is in so much pain but she forces herself to crawl over the car and away from the angel slowly advancing on her like the villain in one of those cheesy horror movies that John likes. She’s able to grab the first weapon shaped thing she sees, a crowbar, and drive it into Anna’s chest. It would be a killing blow for most creatures in existence but not for Anna.

Anna’s mouth is overflowing with blood and squelching noises come from the angel’s body as Anna slowly pulls the crowbar out of herself and says, “Sorry, it’s not that easy to kill an angel.”

It’s the second time Anna has apologized to her since she started trying to murder her and Mary almost believes her.

“No, but you can distract them,” Sam’s voice comes from across the room, his hand hovering over a sigil. Sam’s hand is only a fraction of an inch from the sigil when the ground starts to shake. His earlier injury must have left him wobbly because he loses his balance, falling away from the sigil.

“Not this time,” Anna says, the ground shaking so much that it causes cracks to form in the foundations of the garage and spread upward, breaking the banishing sigil in half.

Not this time but maybe the next, Mary thinks as she runs towards the dropped angel blade. Anna may be powerful but she’s also injured, causing a whole earthquake must be taking all of her concentration.

The unnaturally cool blade back in her hand, Mary moves the strike Anna again. She moves as quickly as her body will allow her, she knows she must be injured but the adrenaline pushes her forward, as it always does. She aims the blade to bury it in Anna’s back but Anna turns just a second before she gets there, bringing the crowbar still in her hand up and through Mary’s stomach as Mary brings the angel blade down, burying it in Anna’s shoulder.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mary was fourteen years old and her face and hands were covered in blood and her father was proud of her. At her feet was a freshly dead body and the corpse’s head had rolled across the room. It was the first time she had ever seen remains so…newly remained.

She had researched before and she’d passed all her father’s many tests. She could shoot a gun and throw a dagger and fistfight her way out of anything her father had thrown at her. She’d banished and sigiled and spellworked. She’d fought ghosts and zombies before. Violent though that was, she was laying them to rest when she fought the undead. She’d been offering them some small measure of peace by reminding the already dead that they needed to act dead.

This moment was different. This was a kill. Her first kill. She wasn’t quite tall enough to decapitate the thing while it was standing, she had to kick out its knees before she could get a good enough angle with the blade to slice the vamp’s head clean off its neck with a force a grown man would envy.

“That’s my girl,” her father said, clapping a hand on her shoulder. He had her back the entire time, he would have stepped in if she needed it but he had hung back, watched to see what she could do—observed and judged every moment that led to her slicing the head off of a living creature and had apparently found no flaws in her technique.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mary stabs Anna as her father would have wanted her to do and Anna stabs Mary as her father would have wanted her to do, both of them enacting violence on each other done at the behest of an absent father. Mary is frozen, impaled on a crowbar, choking on her own blood, her hand still tightly gripping the blade in Anna’s shoulder. Anna is equally frozen, her hand holding the crowbar killing Mary steady as the blade in her shoulder wreaks havoc on her celestial side, damaging her grace in ways not yet visible to humans. Mary’s mouth is filling with blood and if the organ damage doesn’t kill her soon, she will simply choke to death on her own blood. Anna’s celestial form is filling with gushing grace and if she can’t find a way to contain it, her angel form and her human body will choke to death on her own grace.

It is a moment splintering out across time like fractured glass, reflecting the same image over and over again in different shapes and sizes, distorted but fundamentally identical.

Until, that is, some invisible force shifts the fragments so they start reflecting new colors and new images.

Anna’s dying eyes stare deep into Mary’s dying eyes and she sees her own pain made human. Mary stares into Anna’s eyes and sees her own life story staring back at her, a mirror image magnified on a cosmic scale. The blood flowing from Mary coats Anna’s hands. The grace bleeding from Anna coats Mary’s hands.

With every pound of Mary’s heart, more blood is pumped out of her wounds and on to Anna’s body. With every shift of her celestial form, more grace spouts from Anna’s wounds and on to Mary’s hands.

Anna pulls the crowbar slowly from Mary’s body and Mary collapses into her, no longer held in place by the weapon that had run her through. Anna uses her true form to cover the human in the grace that is gushing out of her. It’s sloppy work, she’s not sure how much good a dying angel’s grace will do but Mary’s human injuries are minor in comparison to the damage done to Anna.

Mary grips the angel blade with as much strength as she can muster and pulls it out of Anna. Mary weakly pats at Anna’s shoulder, attempting to put pressure on the only wound she can see, unable to comprehend Anna’s most dire injuries. Anna breathes out, pushing as much grace towards Mary as she can, not just the grace that has been steadily flowing out of her since Mary stabbed her but her still living grace as well. Anna is dying but she won’t have her last act be murdering yet another human.

At least…Anna’s celestial form is dying. But she has ripped out her celestial form once before and she can do it again. This mortal body isn’t simply a shell, like so many other angels treat their vessels. It was made in the image of her human self. She reaches deep inside herself and severs her connection to her grace, flinging it outward and far from her body, hoping the grace that is left is too weak to find its way back to her now. It’s not as painful as she remembers it being before, perhaps because she was already on her way to dying this time.

Mary’s injuries are now mostly healed. There was not enough left in Anna to heal her easily and completely as she might have once done but Mary’s life is saved. She is able to support her own weight again and she straightens up, her hand placing a firmer grip on Anna’s shoulder. Anna shakes her head, it’s a bad injury but only a human one, this version of her is no longer dying. She shrugs her shoulder away from Mary’s hand.

They step apart.

The crowbar and the angel blade both clatter to the ground as they are dropped by their respective warriors. Anna stands, graceless and alive, next to Mary, grace filled and alive, their heavy breathing filling the silence as they stare at each other and the wreckage around them.

[themildestofwriters-ocs]

Sinclair, Daughter of Chaos by Advena_van_Boekel: Chapter III: That Which Regards Witchcraft

Links: Archive of Our Own | Spacebattles | Fanfiction.net

Magic. True magic.

I had dreamed of it ever since I read Matilda as a child. Now I had it. I could snap my fingers, mutter a funny word, and bend reality to my will. And I had no idea what to do about it.

I mean, what could I do? I had magic, but I didn’t know shit about it. I just kinda did it. Then I did it again. And again. And again. Then my head hurt, like migraine levels of agony. Like, a thousand needles of burning ice cutting through my brain painful. I passed out after that. Woke up to Dad shaking me awake, before he sent me off to bed.

When I woke up the next day, I half-thought I hallucinated the whole thing, but I didn’t. I knew I didn’t.

“Átendra.” A muttered word and a snap of my fingers. Fire plumed and the blackened wick of a pilfered candle burned. Light. Warmth. It was beautiful. Felt beautiful. The power, blooming in my chest and pouring through my limbs.

Yet the questions remained. How did magic work? How did I even do magic in the first place? Could I learn more, or was I stuck being a glorified Zippo? Where did I even begin looking to learn more? My brain spiralled out of control, questions upon questions drowning me in a sea of paralysing frustration, even as child-like excitement bubbled in my chest.

Edit by: @randomestfandoms​

Tag list: @starr-lights​, @kijilinn​, @yuelias-prince​, @unwriter-sc​, @egglordthypen​, @cttrajan1206​, @randomestfandoms​, @ocappreciationtag​ - want to be added to my taglist for fics and/or content? shoot me an ask~!

[crinkle-eyed-boo]

Mine would be you questions 2 and 3 please!

Hello, hello!! Thank you for asking!

2. What scene did you first put down?

I wrote the opening scene in the art gallery and then the scene where Louis comes back to the gallery all the way back in 2005. I also wrote half of the scene where Harry paints Louis for the first time, and half of the scene that became Niall and Louis' reunion at Marlowe's. They were original characters, of course, and I had deemed the concept unwritable, because I couldn't figure out WHY those two characters would get back together. I never deleted the scenes and they lived on my hard drive for fourteen years, until it was time to decide on a Big Bang fic, and those scenes just kept coming to mind. I remember going to @disgruntledkittenface and being like "I have a concept that I've always thought I could never write and I think I need to write it now and I need you to help me to figure out how to do it, please."

I was going to visit her that summer anyway, but we turned it into a mini writer's retreat where we storyboarded MWBY and I walked away with a game plan, and two pieces of posterboard with the whole outline on it that I STILL have in my apartment. (Fun Fact: Maggie also shared the early plans for her Grace Kelly AU with me that weekend, showing me some of the research she'd compiled and it's been SO EXCITING to watch her bring that vision to life. It's truly her magnum opus and I can't wait for her to share it with you guys next year.)

3. Your favorite line of narration?

This was the first thing that came to mind:

Louis keeps hoping that one day he’ll magically develop some sort of immunity to Harry Styles, something, anything that prevents him from getting knocked on his ass just from how fucking pretty he is, but today is not that day. It’s not even that Harry’s dressed up in anything special; he’s the picture of Saturday night casual in white sneakers, loose plum-colored slacks, and a soft-looking vintage tee, the pale blue writing telling him to enjoy health and eat his honey. It’s everything about him though, from the way his short curls are tousled to the adorably patchy stubble on his upper lip and chin to the simple strand of pearls around his neck. But what really sends Louis over the edge, making his stomach do a little flip-flop, is the way Harry’s face lights up when he sees him, his dimples popping in his cheeks and his little bunny teeth clamping down on his bottom lip.

[permian-tropos]

Fake title meme: precaution, postmortem

Oh this is a really fantastic title, I think I'd immediately click on a fic with that title, because I'd be expecting something tricksy and psychological. So let's see what pops to mind...

It's gotta be something to do with Daniil exercising his skills as a thanatologist to their very limits. You know what let's go big AND go home. Let's hit a home run. Marble Nest AU, Daniil understands that he's sick and dying and doomed. But he does have one thing left to him: a seemingly inexhaustible amount of time to relive the same events over and over.

He's not going to waste that. If he's fated to fail and can't save the Town, so be it, but they say eternity is made when a bird flies to the edge of the universe and back and sharpens its beak each trip on the peak of a mountain, until the mountain is ground to dust.

There's got to be some scratch his consciousness can make on the universe that will form a crack, infinitesimal by infinitesimal. He's got one goal in mind: to use his immortal death to unwrite the fate of his colleague, the Haruspex, who could save the Town in his stead.

I strongly suggest reading The Secret Miracle (it's quite short and incredibly memorable, cw for fictionalized Nazi violence) by Jorge Luis Borges if you want to know where I was getting my Vibes.

[casuallydyinginthecorner]

Can unwrite some head canon involving Kara in her family in California. One that takes place in the past. And one that take place once she reunite with them. (After NOI)

Better yet, I can fic it!

Kara stood in front of the boba place's doorway, waiting for Mama to finish choosing her flavor. She pouted.

"Mama, you're taking forever! Can we go in and order now?" Kara begged.

"One minute, jaani," began Mama. "I can't decide which one Mommy would like least: matcha or rose."

Kara put her hand on her chin. "Mm... rose! C'mon Mama, let's go!" Kara tugged Mama's hand, much like she did when they were getting ice cream last week, and when they got cake the week before that. It was always so hard getting Mama to choose a flavor. She should rename Fun Fridays to When Will They Ever Eat Fridays.

When she said so to Mama when they walked home, one hand holding her boba, the other holding Mama's hand, the only thing she got from her was a laugh.

"You're right," she said. "Mommy herself said I take too long choosing my food, and if both of my favorite girls say so, I should probably listen."

Kara stared at the bracelets on her arm, the shiny beads glinting in the afternoon sun. It would be cool if she had someone to share the extra bracelet with.

"You should super super listen because we said so!" she said with a twirl.

Mama chuckled. "For you, dearest, of course."

***

Kara stood proudly in front of the door, holding three (3) paintbrushes and a can of paint. She handed the brushes to Mama and Mommy and looked them each in the eye.

"Are you ready for this?"

Mommy and Mama looked at each other and nodded.

"Absolutely," said Mommy.

With no hesitation, Kara slowly dipped the roller into the can of yellow paint and began painting the door.

Up, down. Up, down. Wow, this was hard. How did Mama and Mommy do this so easily?

After a while, Kara set down her roller.

"Do you want to take a break?" Mama asked.

Kara shook her head. "It's just hard painting for an hour straight.” It would be nice if there was someone else to help...

***

Kara stood in front of her parents, holding an envelope that held the results of the short story contest. Youth Stories of the Future Contest Results, it read.

"This is it," she said, then tore it open. Her hand hovered over the paper, too scared to read it.

She thrust the envelope into Mom's hands. "You read it," she said. Mom opened the folded paper and read it aloud.

"'Kara, congratulations! We are proud to announce that your story "Everything I Could Have Wished For" won first place in the 11-year-old division of the Youth Stories of the Future contest! Along with five-hundred dollars ($500), you will receive-' oomph!"

She was cut off by a group hug from Kara and Mama.

"You did it!" Mama exclaimed, hugging Kara tightly. "Youdidityoudidityoudidit!"

Mom, despite having her face smushed between the cushions and Kara's neck, reached out an arm and ruffled Kara's hair. "What did I tell you? Now, if I could please get back to-"

"Nope! Family hug!" Mama interrupted.

Kara laughed for the first time in weeks. She was grateful for her parents' support. Of course she was. But every time she did something, whether it was hanging out with Connor and Piper or babysitting the neighbor's son or even making dinner for Mama and Mom, she always felt like something was missing. Like someone was missing, someone who cracked a joke whenever Piper said something weird and helped set the table for dinner.

Mama must have noticed her silence.

"Jaani, is everything alright?" she asked, worry lines creasing her forehead.

Kara took a deep breath. "Of course, Mama. Why wouldn't it be?"

***

Kara stood in front of the bright yellow door, trying to stop her heart from beating its way out of her chest.

Relax, Kara. Urvashi herself said that any enchantments the Sleeper made wore off. You'll be fine.

But even so...

What would they say when they saw her? Would they stare? Call her jaani like they used to? Would they not remember her at all?

Kara clenched her hand into a fist. Only one way to find out.

She knocked on the door.

One (1) second. Two (2) seconds. Then the door opened to reveal a woman wearing red jeans holding a cup of rose bubble tea, her arm around the waist of a taller woman with a braid. Whatever she had been saying was cut short as soon as she saw Kara standing at the door.

For a moment, none of them said anything.

"I'm not crazy, am I?" the shorter woman finally said.

The taller one didn't say anything, only kept her gaze on a bracelet with plastic beads on her wrist.

"Kara?" said the first, her eyes misty. "Is it really you?"

Kara gave her a small smile. "It is."

The shorter one shook her head. "Where have you been?"

Kara laughed nervously. "So, I was kidnapped by my dad-who isn't really my dad, and he's also a demon who tried to destroy the world so he could live a normal life and take revenge on the people who prevented him from living his life by imprisoning him in a lamp for 12 years, but I guess he would have also destroyed the world if he hadn't been imprisoned... anyway, he wiped my memories and told me he was my dad, so I trained with him for a few years until my half sister on my divine side-I'm also the reincarnation of Karna- came and rescued me and then we went on a quest to save the world from the demon who's also her dad? And then I stayed with her or eight (8) months, and when we were having her birthday party we found out that her mom was my mom and that you guys aren't my parents, and it was this whole thing where I got scared and the demon told me some things and-"

The next thing she knew, Kara was being pulled into a hug, her old bracelet glinting on Mama's arm. What had she ever been nervous about?

"Wow, that's a lot," began the taller one- Mom.

And for the first time since the battle, Kara felt truly whole. "Then I guess I'd better start explaining."