#2023 is the year i write for new characters whether the pieces are good or not

[tom-whore-dleston]

WIP List Game

you know the drill: create a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP file folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it.

Thank you @littlestatesman and @give-me-a-moose for the tag!

Kill Bill - ex!Layla El Faouly x dark! f. reader ft. Marc Spector

Bad Days and Good Head - sub!Sam Wilson x soft dom! f. reader

Adam Warlock - dark!Adam Warlock x Guardians! f. reader

How Does It Feel? - Harley Quinn x m. reader

God Damn That Marc Spector - Marc Spector x f. reader ft. SamBucky

Alice x Shelley x f. reader

I have no idea who has done this yet so if I tag you and you've done it already, you don't have to do it again: @blackbat05 @buckybleu @inklore @fluffyprettykitty @psychedelic-ink @magicxc and of course anyone not tagged that wants to play <3

[betterthanapokeintheeye]

MORE Information about this beautiful book.

The book, to be published by Puffin, celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first in the Tiffany Aching series The Wee Free Men. This ultimate guide marks the first time Rhianna Pratchett has contributed to her father’s body of literary work for children.

Set in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe, Tiffany Aching’s Guide To Being A Witch is a must-have for any Pratchett fan with new illustrations from Terry’s ‘artist of choice’ Paul Kidby.

"An illustrated and practical guide to being a witch in Discworld, covering everything you’ve ever wanted to know from telling the bees to magical cheese, from dealing with elves to making deals with demons, from tending flocks to fending off forces from other worlds. This beautiful and practical guide has been compiled by Tiffany Aching herself, including snippets of remembered wisdom from Granny Aching alongside notes from Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Miss Tick, and Rob Anybody who offer their own unique perspectives on all things witchcraft. Whether you’re a herbologist or a headologist, this book will inspire and empower new witches and seasoned practitioners alike."

Gabrielle Kent says: “I feel a part of me has lived on the Disc ever since a school-friend lent me my first Terry Pratchett book back in 1988. And when I discovered Granny Weatherwax and Esk in Equal Rites I knew that, in the witches, I had found my people. Back then I could never have dreamed that the girl who influenced Esk would become a huge part of my life and we would eventually go on to write a Discworld book together, discovering, in the process, that we both had shepherdess grandmothers. The Disc and its inhabitants mean so much to so very many people and, in this guide, Rhianna and I hope to have captured the essence and voices of the characters we have all grown to love as we explore what it means to be a witch in their world.”

Paul Kidby says: “I love all of Discworld but especially its natural world, the magic of the Ramtops, the energy of the chalk and its assorted local characters. The chance to illustrate this book filled with country witch lore and Nac Mac Feegles was an opportunity to good to be missed.”

Jane Griffiths, Puffin Publisher says: “Puffin is incredibly proud to be the home of Terry Pratchett’s incredible children’s books and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have such an exciting new piece of Discworld publishing for the 20th anniversary year of Tiffany Aching. Tiffany Aching’s Guide To Being A Witch, is going to be a must-have for Terry Pratchett fans everywhere as Rhianna and Gabrielle take readers to the heart of Discworld and uncover the secrets of what it really takes to be a witch in this incredible world, all brought to life by new full-colour illustrations from the amazingly talented Paul Kidby.”

It will be a hardback book with 192 pages and the indicators are a release date of 26th October 2023 published by Puffin books.

Price TBC

[inquisimer]

fic recs

On this fanfic writer appreciation day, I'm going to take a moment to be sappy and sentimental. Whether I knew it or not at the time, fanfiction has gotten me through some Shit™. Even when I had no motivation to keep going irl, I could always count on ffn or ao3 to have that next chapter, that beautifully crafted one shot, that comfort fic that would make an awful day worthwhile. And when I say I could count on ffn or ao3, I mean I could count on the humans behind the usernames who were posting little pieces of themselves online for all the world to share in. So thank you - to my favorite writers, to those I have yet to find, to the ones who write long fics and the ones who write one shots. Thank you to the consistent updaters and the ones who've never posted anything at all. Thank you for being here and I hope you keep going, whatever fic writing means to you.

I've been lucky to meet some amazing people through this hobby and it's opened up spaces to me that I didn't even know I needed. Places of support and kindness and sharing and community and I wouldn't trade the friendships I've made there for anything else.

Thank you everyone for helping make that space possible💜

And now some fic recs! Because my sappiness has sources and you should all check these out (or at least mark them for when you have spoons later):

One-Shots:

Things my heart used to know (things it yearns to remember) by NiriKeehan (@nirikeehan)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Cullen Rutherford/Female Lavellan | Rated: T | 3,647 words Unquestionably one of my favorite pieces, a gift I received as part of the DAFF Discord Server 2023 OC Swap event. NiriKeehan beautifully captured the rocky relationship between my oc Neria Surana Lavellan and Cullen and filled in gaps in their history that I'd been struggling with since her inception. Set after the Inquisition arrives at Skyhold, Neria and Cullen work to find common ground despite their tumultuous past and the insanity of their present. Features: Cullen is good at his job, idiots in love, mage-templar dynamics

Cinnamon by Exalted_Dawn (@exalted-dawn-drabbles)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Calder Eikmann/Talena Ethera | Rated: M | 2,870 words My go-to fluff piece!! Calder and Talenna snuggle and share a sweet (and spicy) moment of peace. Oh, and Calder implies that Talenna (a Dalish elf who has left her clan) is part of his family and his mom thinks so too (I'm super normal about it). Features: tooth-rotting fluff, elf-human relationships, masterful dialogue, love is stored in the apple cider

Lead Her Through the Darkness by BECandCall (@warpedlegacywrites)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Gen, Female Lavellan | Rated: T | 3,121 words A beautiful character study of the moment @dreadfutures' Ixchel Lavellan chose her name. BECandCall does an incredible job with the internal monologue of a child and her prose and symbolism are expertly and beautifully crafted. Features: character study, genfic, ancient ruins, Evanuris, descriptive and immersive POV

last man standing (perhaps) by havvke (Wintertree)

Dragon Age: II | Carver Hawke & Charade Amell & Female Hawke | Rated: T | 6,749 words I'm a little insane about Charade Amell and how little we get of her in canon, so this gift I received as part of the 2023 Platonic Ideal Exchange was an absolute treat. It explores Charade's relationship (or lack thereof) with both Carver and Hawke, expands on her role with the Jennies, and packs a punch with the grief that is almost a given in any story about Hawke. Features: Warden Carver, new POV of canon events, canon-compliant exploration, families of choice

the things we carry by patho (ghostsoldier)

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall | Daud, The Whalers | Rated: T | 4,158 words *shows up ten years late to the Dishonored fandom* *subjects you all to it anyway* so like. I know everyone followed me for Dragon Age. This is a Dragon Age centric blog. But it's my rec post and these Dishonored one shots have been clawing at my heart SO go play the games and then come back and read these fics 😂 This one is just absolutely heart-wrenching angst, as Daud and the Whalers deal with the aftermath of a tragedy. Features: found family, found family but slightly to the left, grief & mourning, betrayal, death, hurt/no comfort

the four times daud summoned a whaler who was totally unprepared for it (and the one time they were) by patho (ghostsoldier)

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall | Daud, The Whalers | Rated: T | 1,705 words Unlike the other Dishonored fic on this list, this one is just fluff, fluff, and more fluff. I am a huge fan of when writers interpret game mechanics into narrative format and patho does that SO well here, I could literally picture this happening in the game and it was just a joy to read. Features: found family, humor, begrudging father-figure, slice of life

Long Fics:

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures by youworeblue (@dreadfutures)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Lavellan/Solas | Rated: E | Chapters: 170/170 | Complete | CW: depressive & suicidal themes It is flat out impossible for me to articulate a recommendation for this fic, but hell if I'm not going to try anyway. Ixchel Lavellan's story starts with her suicide - and continues with the journey of how she gets better. It is such a rare thing to find a story of recovery that captures the ups and downs, the highs and lows in a way that resonates with reality, but Blue does it. I don't know how, but she does it. Ixchel struggles, she doubts, she despairs, but she always finds a way forward. Despite or in spite of all the world throws at her, she tries to trust and she tries to hope and she keeps fighting. It's a story about choosing hope, even when no one would expect you to. It's a story of platonic love and empathy and morality and theory and lore and minor characters and so much more that I could fill an entire post with this fic alone. This was one of the first DA fics I ever read and it's one I've come back to over and over again. Because it's the kind of message you need to hear that many times and every time I read it I fall in love with Ixchel, her story, and the world and narrative that Blue has crafted a little bit more. If you only have the spoons to invest in one long fic, this is the one💜 It, and the sequel The Brave Guide, are absolutely worth your time.

A Fool's Death and a Hard Choice by RosellaWrites (@rosella-writes)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Loghain Mac Tir/Morrigan | Rated: M | Chapters: 12/12 | Complete A masterful exploration of what the reunion between Loghain and Morrigan who completed the Dark Ritual during Origins would look like. RosellaWrites has the biggest brain ideas about characters that most people gloss over or vilify - including me! I was such a Loghain hater before they started me chewing on his character and this fic is no exception. They interpret Loghain's harshness and Morrigan's aloofness into the multifaceted, heart-breaking characters that they are. This fic will win you over and break your heart exactly when you expect it (and again when you don't). Features: Warden Loghain, Kieran, Morrigan is a good mother, appearances by Hawke, Merrill, Zevran, and Mahariel, character study, beautiful descriptive prose

Boundless by Exalted_Dawn (@exalted-dawn-drabbles)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Calder Eikmann/Talenna Ethera | Rated: E | Chapters: 7/? | Ongoing We get so sparingly little of regular life inside the Circle of Magi, I'm a slut for fics that explore that environment. In this one, Ed explores what is "normal" for a circle mage and how Talenna, as a Dalish elf forced into the Circle, experiences, handles, and fights back against that. Talenna is a spitfire and she plays off the other characters that Ed created in a tantalizingly intense narrative. A must read for circle mage, Templar, and Dalish lovers alike! Features: day-to-day life in a Circle tower, mage-templar dynamics, hurt/comfort, star-crossed lovers, fluff and angst

Letters to the Dead by Demarogue (@demawrites)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford | Rated: E | Chapters: 7/? | Ongoing This one is for the ones like me, who broke up with Solas and ran off to see if you could romance Cullen afterward - you can! It's great! And also super heartbreaking if you think about it. And Demarogue has clearly thought about it. Told through a narrative in the present and letters that Niva Lavellan writes to an absent Solas, she weaves a tale of loss, grief, mourning, and (ultimately) recovery, with enough humor to break the tension along the way. Features: solavellan breakup, post-Corypheus battle Inquisition, unresolved tension of all kinds, beautiful exploration of how Cullen would feel about being Lavellan's rebound, idiots to lovers, friends to lovers

Keeping Secrets by ElvenSemi (@elvensemi)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Original Female Character/Solas | Rated: E | Chapters: 114/? | Ongoing Another one of my comfort fics, no question. This fic is heavy on the plot in all of the best ways - ElvenSemi's OC Emma is the linguist that the Inquisition hires to translate the dragon tome for Frederic of Serault. I love when authors fill in the gaps of canon or bend the canon details to fit their own ideas like that and it works SO well here. Emma is smooth and awkward and clever - she's well thought out and full of surprises and ElvenSemi writes with a strong voice that's a joy to read. It's the Inquisition behind the scenes, from the perspective of one of the people they're sheltering, rather than the higher ups who are running things (although there's certainly some of that too). Features: Skyhold lore and meta, lore and meta in general, the slowest burn Solas arc, lots of Bull/Chargers content, a very well done Sera subplot, so many minor characters in the most interesting ways, sad Tabris content, literally the Worst™ Inquisitor and Hawke ever (affectionate. kind of.), scary Leliana & Cassandra, bestie Dorian & bestie Varric, bards! so much barding, angst and hurt/comfort to the MAX

Temperance and Templars by NiriKeehan (@nirikeehan)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford | Rated: M | Chapters: 4/? | Ongoing A Jane Austen-inspired AU where Cullen is a private Templar hired by the Trevelyans to keep their mage daughter under control without taking her to the Circle. Cullen has other orders from his superiors, of course. I love a canon-adjacent AU (where the characters could be like this, even if they aren't actually) and this is no exception. It's a light and fluffy story for the most part, and explores what Cullen and the Inquisitor's dynamic might have been like if they were a bit younger (and not responsible for saving the world from multiple crises). Features: mage-templar dynamics, nobility, protector/protectee dynamics, lyrium addiction, political intrigue, Cullen has PTSD

From the Depths of the Void by kawakaeguri

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Cullen Rutherford/Original Female Character, Cullen Rutherford/Female Trevelyan | Rated: M | Chapters: 94/? | Ongoing Another one that's heavy on the plot in a very well done way! It also does one of my favorite things, which is weave together a character's arc across multiple games, namely DA2 & DAI. Liviana is a slave in Tevinter until she escapes and makes her way to Kirkwall. This fic tells the story of her stumbling, failing, learning, and growing, from where she enters during DA2 through Inquisition. It expands on the gaps between games and kawakaeguri's ideas about how that might of looked are clever and inspired and keep you on the edge of your seat while you read. Liviana as an OC has an incredibly well done backstory, that is both fleshed out and consistent throughout the story and will have you falling in love with her as I did. Features: well-developed platonic relationships galore, DA2 crew so well written, Liviana and Fenris bonding over Tevinter Slave Experiences™, a brief Liviana/Sebastian fling that explores learning what love is (and what it isn't), well-developed friendship that predates the romantic relationship, tie in of events from the comics, narratively satisfying reworking of canon backstory, character growth in so many ways for so many characters, well-structured subplots

[yelenaslyubov]

well hello friends!!!

long time, no see. i hope you all survived the 2023 year fairly well. if not, i hope that 2024 brings in all the good energy you could ever want!

my time here has not been consecutive whatsoever for over the past year, and i do apologize for that. i have had a lot of life changes throughout that time and i have been trying to prioritize my studies more than anything. with that, i have one more semester left of university!! while my main focus will be school, i do want to try and return to my roots and get back into writing which is what i love. i’m currently working on a piece and brainstorming elements of this, and i hope to complete it by this week…. but we shall see!

i know so many of you have been along for my tumblr ride and this journey really began with @youreatotalposer . you all got to see the before and middle of our relationship on here which has been so special. we’ve come a long way and this space is where we first met and i’m excited to announce that only a few months ago did we break the distance! kayak moved up here so we were able to start a new little family; myself, her, and our kitty ‘fig!’ we love our little family so much and we’ve had so much fun thus far sharing our life with you all! it’ll only go up from here🤍

with this, i also know the dynamic of tumblr has changed since i’ve been extremely active, as well as new people have created their own creative space. i would love to make more friends on here and become mutuals, so whether you’re new to my space or it’s been a while since we’ve connected feel free to reach out!! also, if anyone has any blog recommendations that i may not follow definitely tag them so i can interact with them! i would love to reconnect with this wonderful space and find joy in my old passions once again. i will of course continue with the previous characters and people i have written for, but i would like to know what people would think about fics written for ‘yellowjackets’ and ‘harry potter’ characters?? if anyone has any thoughts about these new additions let me know! i wanna see if there’s a decent amount of interest in these ideas before i decide to dive right in. if there are characters outside or inside of these fandoms you are interested in, do not hesitate to visit my inbox and reach out to see my thoughts on them!

i’m excited to timidly make my return here and i hope to talk to many new and old faces soon🫶🫶

p.s. figgy wanted to make her tumblr debut and say hello!!🐈‍⬛

[weaselandfriends]

Detective Pony

I recently received an ask from @querimoniousqueer about whether I had ever read Detective Pony by sonnetstuck. I hadn’t, but decided I should, so I read it over the past week.

Going in I knew almost nothing about it beyond the joke in Homestuck proper, in which Dirk sends Jane a vandalized copy of a Pony Pals book with substitutions made to the text for comic effect. The Detective Pony fanfic extrapolates off that premise and provides a Dirk-ified version of the entire novella.

At first I wasn’t particularly sold on the premise. Revisiting the story’s first page (which Hussie himself created in Homestuck), it’s actually not that funny. At the beginning of Act 6 Hussie took the opportunity of the new universe to update the in-universe date from April 13, 2009 to November 11, 2011. This is not a particularly long stretch of time but to emphasize this shift Hussie decided to throw in several references to what is, I assume, the singular piece of new media he had consumed during that period: the sitcom Parks and Recreation.

I’m not sure how hilarious Hussie thought it was to change a supporting character’s name to Pawnee Township, Indiana, the fictional setting of Parks and Recreation, but in 2023 the reference feels phenomenally dated, without the self-awareness of the intentionally dated references to Con Air elsewhere in the comic. Though the reference is a bit more interesting metafictionally (does Dirk, living in post-apocalyptic future Earth, intend to make a reference to a work popular in 2011, making it contemporaneous and thus relevant to Jane?), now that the audience of Homestuck is no longer themselves contemporaneous to Jane it’s hard to even crack a smile beyond the simple audaciousness of the premise.

As Detective Pony (the fanfic) continues, it quickly grows dull. In Homestuck, the joke is fairly short and works because of its aforementioned audaciousness, so seeing a subsequent 20-30 pages of what is basically the same idea repeated over and over (everyone swears, everyone is violent, the cat is Satanic, plus a few non sequitur references) wore me down pretty quickly.

Fortunately, the fanfic has some major cards to play.

The first longform philosophical digression on the corruption of lolcat memes grabbed my interest, and as the story goes on, an entirely new metafictional narrative emerges in which Dirk, the cynical and too-smart-for-his-own-good authorial figure, comes into conflict with the more earnest and sincere characters (and original author) of Pony Pals. A dichotomy is established between the intellectually probing but ironically detached nature of one authorial voice and the childish but emotionally honest nature of the other. The authorial voices begin to wage war against each other, with Dirk’s orange-texted narrative attempting to cover up the black-texted narrative of the other voices, leading to a complex series of machinations and an eventual exposing of Dirk’s bitter loneliness and self-doubt.

This all sounds rather familiar.

Indeed, halfway through this fic, I had to scroll to the top and check the date it was posted. October 14, 2014. Predating Homestuck’s Epilogues by roughly five years.

I find it difficult to believe that Hussie or his Epilogue co-authors had not read Detective Pony prior to writing the Epilogues. The thematic overlap is immense, let alone the explicit plot and metatextual elements, let alone the fact that all of those elements revolve specifically around Dirk. That’s not to say the two works are identical. Detective Pony leans far more heavily onto its author’s extensive knowledge of Western literature and philosophy (including significant references to Derrida, Dante, Plato, Socrates, and others), while the Epilogues aggrandize the scope of stakes of the plot and weave in a far wider amount of character threads.

I’d recommend Detective Pony to anyone still confused or potentially even hurt by the Epilogues; the “character assassination” done in Detective Pony is done to characters from a story about ponies for little girls as opposed to your beloved Homestuck characters, so it might be much easier to approach, grapple with, and understand the themes of the Epilogues without the large amount of emotional baggage characters like Jane, Jake, Jade, Dave, and so on carry with them. It might shed more insight on what Hussie and his co-authors were attempting with the Epilogues, though you might also find it a bit dull if you’re not familiar with Derrida or the other frequently-quoted philosophers within the text. I’m not a philosophy person myself (way more of a classical fiction junkie), but still I was able to follow along and enjoy it.

[liesonthefloordramatically]

A wild 2023 recap post appears!

Stuff I made this year:

Fiction: Nope. Work continues to consume me.  I DID write like 33k that maybe will be publicly accessible in the future, but who can say.

Playlists: I think the only two I remembered to share were Oleander (a playlist for my Wickedness character) and the vast and the void (what it says on the tin).

RPGs: Also a nope.

Knitting: Made a shawl!  And a hat, technically, that I forgot to take pictures of.

Other stuff: Taught 5 classes, 4 of which were new preps!  Did fieldwork in Japan for the first time since 2019! Gave an hour-long talk in Japanese!  Presented on two conference panels!  Finished two academic book reviews! Survived somehow!  The period between August and December sort of doesn’t exist in my memory?  I was doing things but almost all of those things were work, so. The isolation has been wearing on me, but with the combination of A. not having any time to do anything other than work and B. for Various Reasons questioning whether I want to stay at this job, it's been really hard to build local community. I'm going to try to work on that next year, but also I'm going to have two new preps again in the fall and one of my spring classes is already overenrolled, so who knows how effective that'll be.

Media I enjoyed this year:

Books: I read 46 books this year apparently!  Top picks in no particular order: The Singing Hills Cycle (embarrassingly my jam), The Southern Reach Trilogy (shocking that it took me this long to read this), My Own Devices (even MORE shocking that it took me this long to read this), Imperial Radch (so AGGRESSIVELY my jam), She Who Became the Sun (this was a hilarious accompaniment to one of my fall classes), Camp Damascus (read this on a plane back from Japan which was An Experience), The Tale That Twines (loved the first book; the second book is even better), System Collapse (yeah, no one is surprised that I loved this).

TTRPG: Wickedness!  This was the only new TTRPG I played this year, but it was really good.

Video games: Mask of the Rose and Saltsea Chronicles, both of which I want to/should poke at more. Special nod to 13 Sentinels which we enjoyed 90% of a lot.

Manga/comics: I think the only thing I read was The JOJOLands?

Fanfic: I didn’t actually wind up reading that much fanfic this year again, in part because I was reading so many books.  A few picks, in no particular order: The Gardener (CR C2), Keys to the Castle (CR C2), Whistle Song (CR C2), pieces of (you) me (CR C2), Descriptions of a River Flowing (CR C2), Slip the Blindfold (CR C2), Heart to Heart (JJBA: JJL--PLEASE read this if you care about JJL at all), riverside beatitudes (JJBA: SDC), Fully formed, ready to run (ExU: Calamity).  Honorable mention to Asking for More (Stranger of Paradise), which is a WIP but made me laugh so hard I hit myself in the face with my phone.

Films: I actually watched like eight movies this year!  All but two of the new ones on a plane, to be fair, but.  Top picks: Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse and Shoplifters (『万引き家族』).  Honorary mention to Suzume.

TV: Finally finished Stone Ocean!  It was good!  Rowan and I are also like halfway through catching up on TGCF and it is also very good.

Podcasts:  Continued to listen to way too many of these.  Top picks: The Silt Verses, Trice Forgotten, Within the Wires (hey can we talk about the newest season? truly wild), and Re: Dracula.  Honorable mentions to The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods, 『なんかIWAKAN！』 (WHICH IS TRAGICALLY ENDING???? where am I supposed to get my chaotic Japanese gender and sexuality discussion now :(((((), Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later, Critical Role, and Worlds Beyond Number.

Music: Dessa's Bury the Lede was excellent, of course.  I also apparently listened to Maisie Peters' The Good Witch a lot (it was in my grading rotation in October). And then this past month there's been a lot of Hozier's Unreal Unearth. But a lot of my listening this year was either albums on the bus (rotating mainly between Quiet Company’s We Are All Where We Belong, Bury the Lede, yorushika’s entire discography that I can purchase, Wednesday Campanella, and various soundtracks) or putting something on loop and falling into a fugue state.  Apparently my top song of the year on Spotify was “Square One,” which I think I put on looping while grading in the spring.  My Spotify top songs list was even more inexplicable than usual this year.

Anyway, あけおめ！！！ 良いお年を！！！ (or else!!!!)

[a-student-out-of-time]

A New Year's Retrospective

Well everybody, I'm making this post just a few hours before the new year. As such, I'm gonna share my thoughts.

While I know that this year had many ups and downs, it was a big win for a lot of my friends. For me? I can say with confidence that new years took far too long to get here. Let's just get all this out of the way first.

I'm not gonna pretend like this was my year, because it really wasn't. 2023 was a colossal trainwreck in numerous ways, whether it be in the tech sector, world news, economics or my own home. I dealt with some of the worst computer problems I've had in years, which put the work I wanted to do on hold for months and made me really afraid of losing anything important.

And then a serious wave of depression hit afterward and I just didn't have the energy or will to get anything done. As such, this year only really saw three arcs in total, one of which isn't even done yet.

But that isn't to say that this year was awful either. It was frustrating as hell, yes, but I think there's plenty more good to outweigh the trash:

This year was when I finally crossed 1000 followers, and I now stand at over 1,100. That's way bigger than I ever thought I would get when I was starting out and I could not be more thankful.

Expensive as it was, I finally got a serious tooth problem fixed.

I donated blood again for the first time in years and I sincerely hope it gave three people a new lease on life.

A close friend of mine is doing better than ever and I could not be happier for him.

I got to see some great movies, shows, books, games and series, including new fangans like Danganronpa Mauve.

I have new ideas for stories I really want to share with you all.

I've made some really cool writing buddies, some of whom I met before and got to know better, others I met for the first time and whose work I'm really interested in seeing more of.

While I only really managed to get three arcs out this year, I think All Eyes On Me and The Price of Fate are some of my best ones yet. The first one was just a lot of fun to do and I really think the experimental musical format was something to really make it stand out. PoF was brutal emotionally, but I think it was a great character piece and helped provide a more nuanced view on the situation for our time squad. Plus it gave me the chance to introduce Marin, and it seems everyone REALLY liked that : P

More importantly, I look back on my earlier work now as a learning experience, rather than something to be ashamed of and constantly put down. Even if they weren't great or even that good, they were an integral part of making this blog what it is, and if people can go through them and enjoy them regardless of how I feel about them, I think that's a sign it wasn't as much of a dealbreaker as I thought.

I'm not gonna act like this year was all good or all bad, because no year really is. Things happen and you live and you learn. Even if this wasn't a great year for me, I'm sincerely happy if it was one for you.

And while I have no doubt that 2024 is going to have ups and downs of its own, my goal is not to fixate on everything I can't change and to instead work on bettering myself, my work and doing what I can for others.

With that in mind, I have something in the works that I really want to share with you all, so look forward to that ^^

As for now, Happy New Years everyone!

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

Double Date [Hero x Brandi and Bebe x Mikhael Fic for OMORI Rare Pair Week 2023]

When Brandi discovers that Bebe and Mikhael have made their relationship official, she asks her friend, Hero, to accompany her on a double date with them in the hopes of convincing her sister to raise her standards. Hero hasn't even thought about dating in years, and though he knows this isn't a "real date," a fun evening out, the company of a good friend, and maybe even a surprisingly deep conversation with Mikhael might just get him thinking that maybe he'll be ready to put himself out there again someday. And, who knows, maybe "someday" might even be closer than he thinks...

Relationships: Hero/Brandi [Intimidating Girl] Developing Relationship and Friendship. Mikhael [The Maverick]/Bebe [Short Hair Girl] Established Relationship. Hero & Mikhael Friendship.

Characters: Hero (POV Character), Brandi [Intimidating Girl], Bebe [Short Haired Girl/Fountain Girl], and Mikhael [The Maverick].

Genre: Slice of Life, Fluff and Humor, Double Date, First Date, Developing Relationship, Heart-To-Heart Chats, Open Ending, Hopeful Ending, Post-Good Ending, Hero Deserves To Be Happy

Rating & Warnings: Rated T for brief depiction of college partying and some mentions of drinking. Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death. Some OMORI spoilers.

Link to work on AO3. Full text below the cut.

A/N: Thank you so much for supporting our newest contribution to the "Hero Deserves To Be Happy" genre (if that isn't already a genre, it definitely should be)! We think that Hero and Brandi's relationship (whether romantic or platonic) is very underrated and have always been extremely fond of Mikhael x Bebe so we were really excited for the opportunity to write about them for OMORI Rare Pairs Week 2023 hosted by @omorirarepairweek Day 6 Prompt: "Double Date." Thank you for reading! 💙

“Tequila shots?” asked Hero with a concerned expression. Brandi huffed as he took a seat beside her on the rickety metal bench that was one of the only pieces of furniture in the backyard of her sorority house. She quirked an eyebrow at him and his bottled water, then stared him dead in the eyes as she threw back her shot glass.

“I don’t want to hear it tonight, Hero.” As she shook her head, Hero’s face flushed. He hadn’t meant to pry into her business or offer any sort of judgment on her beverage preferences. He had just been a little surprised. Brandi was the one familiar and often the only other mostly-soberface at the wild college parties he often found himself roped into, and while she usually indulged in a beer, a hard lemonade, or a rum and coke, he had never seen her throw back multiple shots of tequila. She always insisted the cheap booze they had at these parties wasn’t worth the headache she’d have the next morning, but he supposed it was none of his business—even if she was his friend and he was worried about her.

Before Hero could begin to apologize, however, Brandi huffed, then shrugged her shoulders. “My sister, Bebe, called earlier—completely ruined my night.”

“Is everything alright?”

“That bozo, Mikhael, finally made it official.” Rolling her eyes, she reached for another shot of tequila from a nearby table.

Hero scratched the back of his neck. “Well…uh…they have been talking for a while, haven’t they?”

“Don’t remind me,” huffed Brandi rolling her eyes. “I guess I was just hoping he’d eventually get bored before he asked her to be his girlfriend.”

Hero sighed. He didn’t know Mikhael very well but from what he had heard from Kel he was so desperate for a relationship that he was actually paying girls to pretend to be interested in him at one point. Hero couldn’t imagine him giving up on a girl who was actually interested in him, but he wouldn’t say that to Brandi.

“I have no idea what she sees in him…” She huffed shaking her head bitterly again. “I’ve tried to tell her he’s bad news, but she never listens to me.”

“Well…you know…the Hooligans aren’t really that dangerous, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Hero tried to reassure her with a gentle smile. “Sure they mildly inconvenience people and engage in some petty theft, a little vandalism, and some bullying, but they’re not hardened criminals or anything like that so I’m sure Bebe is safe—”

“Yeah, I know they’re pathetic,” Brandi interrupted. “It’s not about that. It’s about Mikhael being a moron—running around town in that stupid wig, calling himself ‘the Maverick,’ and acting like he’s in Dragon Ball Z.”

Hero chuckled awkwardly. “Well…uh…it’s good have hobbies…and…you know, maybe he’s just…spirited…?” His voice hitched at the end of his sentence, as if he wasn’t entirely sure himself.

Brandi huffed—raising her eyebrows at him before she replied in her blunt, matter-of-fact way, “You’re too nice for your own good, you know? Sometimes people are just morons. You don’t have to reach to find something positive to say about them.”

“I’m not…reaching…” The crack in Hero’s voice implied otherwise. He had always been a bad liar. “I’m sure Mikhael has lots of good qualities. I mean…Aubrey is friends with him.”

“And does she have anything nice to say about him?”

Hero swallowed hard—his face growing warm. The honest answer was no. Aubrey had nothing but complaints about Mikhael even harsher than the ones Brandi had. “You know, Aubrey is not a very…openly…complimentary…person…” he stumbled, and Brandi just blinked at him with a huff.

“That’s what I thought,” she said shaking her head, but she sighed. “You know, as much as it pains me to admit it, the real problem here is Bebe. If she had higher standards and didn’t want to go out with him, it wouldn’t matter how much of a bozo Mikhael is. But she’s so…trusting and naïve.” Rolling her eyes, Brandi frowned, but Hero’s expression softened. He could tell she was worried about her sister, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

Brandi sighed again. “If I was home, I could keep a better eye on her, but I’m not sure what I can do from here…”

With a tilt of his head, Hero patted Brandi reassuringly on the arm. “I’m sure Bebe will be okay, and you know, even if you were at home, she probably wouldn’t let you tag along on her dates or anything anyway.”

“Yeah…I’d have to go on a double date with her and Mikhael which would be awful.” Brandi stopped abruptly—her brow furrowing, as she tilted her head thoughtfully. “I wonder if that would work. Maybe if Bebe saw me with a guy who was actually decent, she’d realize she should raise the bar. I just don’t know who that would be—it’s been slim pickings out there ever since I broke up with Trent.”

“Well…I have a lot of fraternity brothers who would be happy to go out with you. They think you’re…” Hero stopped—thinking of the best way to clean up his fraternity brothers’ penchant for referring to Brandi as his ‘hot friend.�� He cleared his throat. “Very attractive…”

Brandi shook her head. “No, I don’t date frat guys. I already told you. They’re barely a step up from Mikhael.”

“Okay…but some of them are nice…”

“You don’t count,” Brandi interjected with a pointed stare. Hero blushed. He hadn’t been talking about himself. “You’re not a frat guy—you’re a den mother. They just keep you around to do the cooking and cleaning and laundry.”

Hero supposed this was all true. He had basically been begged to join that fraternity, and ever since had been giving his fraternity brothers kind and helpful lessons about how to prevent their house from once again turning into a toxic wasteland. In exchange for teaching them how to wash windows, use fabric softener, and cook food that wasn’t instant ramen, they had affectionately given him the nickname “Mama.” He decided it would be best not to tell Brandi about that, but from the look she was giving him now, he was sure she already knew.

“What about a pre-med major? I have some friends in my classes I could ask. Steven is a really nice guy, and I think he’s here tonight actually…”

Brandi blinked at him, then asked with a blunt, matter-of-factness. “Is Steven the guy currently choking on that beer bong?”

With a roll of her eyes, Brandi tilted her head towards the far corner of the yard where,  sure enough, Steven was surrounded by a rowdy group of cheering people guzzling copious amounts of alcohol from a neon beer bong.

Hero sighed. “You know, he’s actually very smart and very polite…when he’s…not drunk…”

“I’m sure,” quipped Brandi, before she shook her head again. “Listen Hero. The goal here is to get Bebe to raise her standards. Drunk party guys are not going to cut it.” She sighed. “I’d need to take someone like you. You’re the nicest guy I know. If I showed up with someone like that, then maybe she’d start thinking she could do better, but that’s not going to happen if I show up with beer bong boy.”

Hero swallowed hard, and his face flushed red. “You…you want to take me? I…I don’t know…” he stumbled, but thankfully she cut him off.  

“It’s okay. I wasn’t going to ask. I figured it would be insensitive all things considered. I know you’re not ready to put yourself back out there.”

She paused, and Hero fidgeted with his hands. He wasn’t sure if it was more that Brandi knew him so well or if he was just obvious about it.  

“Um…it’s not…I mean it is…but I just meant…” With a heavy sigh, he stopped—running a hand through his unruly hair. “I haven’t been on a date since I was 15. I think I’d be terrible company.”

“Eh,” shrugged Brandi dryly. “Something tells me you’d be better than at least half the first dates I’ve ever been on. I’ve been on some pretty bad dates.” Brandi laughed, and Hero tried his best to stifle a chuckle behind his hand. He felt guilty for laughing. “But I get it. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I know you don’t feel right about dating anyone when you still…” She stopped abruptly, but Hero nodded. She didn’t have to finish that sentence. It was no secret he really hadn’t been interested in dating at all since Mari… It just didn’t feel fair to her, to her memory, and to whoever Hero could be with. They all deserved better. He swallowed hard. Maybe someday he’d be ready to put himself back out there, but he wasn’t there yet.

“I mean I hope you’ll put yourself back out there someday…” Brandi continued with a shrug of her shoulders. “If not for yourself then for the sake of the world and all the women out there desperate for decent men,”—she chuckled dryly—“but I just don’t think this is the way to do it. I mean, it wouldn’t be real, and”—she grimaced, gritting her teeth—“Mikhael would be there.”

As Brandi rolled her eyes, Hero stifled another laugh, but his brow furrowed thoughtfully and he tilted his head. “It…it really wouldn’t be real?”

“No, of course not.” She waved her hand dismissively. “We go out to dinner all the time. It would be just like that.”

“But Mikhael and Bebe would think we were dating…Do you really think they’d believe that?”

“Bebe believes Mikhael was in Top Gun,” quipped Brandi. “He was a toddler when that movie came out.”

A slight smile tugged at Hero’s mouth in spite of himself, but he bit his lip. “I just don’t feel right lying to them.”

Brandi shrugged with a lopsided smile. “You don’t have to. It’s not lying if you just leave out some information, and if someone runs with the information they do have, then that’s their problem.”

Hero chuckled and gently teased, “You’re going to be an awesome lawyer.”

“I know,” laughed Brandi playfully bumping him with her elbow, but she tilted her head at him. “You’re really considering it, huh?”

Though his face flushed, Hero somehow managed a nod. “You’re…one of my best friends, I…um…I want to help.”

Brandi’s expression softened, and she playfully ruffled his hair. “You’re really sweet, you know that?” Hero’s blush deepened. “Tell you what: if you agree to do this for me, we can take my car back to Faraway Town for the weekend and I’ll pay for all the gas and everything. You’ll get to see your family and your friends, and you’ll miss out on that awful keg party your frat is hosting. There’s a couple of unpleasant hours with Mikhael, but we’ll pick a good restaurant so hopefully the food will be worth it. Then we come back here and carry on like nothing ever happened—what do you say?”

Hero took a deep breath, but a smile twitched in the corners of his mouth as he met Brandi’s eyes. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in.”

*-*-*

“And then I said, ‘No. No, Mr. Mayor you don’t have to give me the key to the city. It was all in day’s work for I, The Maverick…” Mikhael flipped his hair—upsetting his wig which he swiftly readjusted, shifting in place in his booth at the nicest economically-priced Italian restaurant in Faraway Town. It had been difficult to pick a restaurant in Mikhael’s price range after Brandi had staunchly ruled out Gino’s—which Hero, somewhat guiltily, suspected she had done for his sake knowing that he had taken Mari there on their first date years ago. Hero appreciated her sensitivity but felt guilty for making things more difficult for everyone. After all, Hero supposed it didn’t really matter where they went—it was going to feel strange going out anywhere after all this time and after everything that had happened. Even though he knew it wasn’t a real date, Hero had been worried about it for days and spent far too long trying to pick out his clothes and get ready. He even picked up a potted plant for Brandi to be polite—an orchid which Basil had assured him was low-maintenance. Hero supposed that suited her best. She had always been so independent, strong, and self-reliant. Plus, he thought with a slight flush in his cheeks, it was pretty like her.

Hero cleared his throat pushing the thought away and turning his attention instead to Bebe who was staring at Mikhael positively enraptured. Despite what Brandi said, Hero honestly thought it was kind of sweet how smitten Bebe was with Mikhael. She was perhaps a little infatuated and misguided, but she was sincere and Hero could tell she thought the world of him. How Mikhael felt about Bebe, however, had yet to be seen and was likely the real problem.

“Wow!” she sighed wistfully. “You’re so amazing, the Maverick.”

“I know,” he hummed with a somewhat smug grin.

Brandi pressed her hand to her forehead and shook her head—rolling her eyes for what had to be the twentieth time that night. Hero sighed. It had only been half an hour. Their food hadn’t even arrived yet.

She shot Hero an exasperated look as she reached for her nearly empty glass of wine. “Regretting your decision to agree to this yet?” she quipped through her teeth. Hero stifled a laugh, but he shook his head.

Surprisingly enough, if he was being honest, Hero was actually having a really nice night so far, but he didn’t think it was the right time to tell Brandi that. Perhaps he never would, but he did sheepishly admit, “No.”

“I suppose it is better than that keg party…” Brandi twisted her mouth to one side, and Hero shrugged—his brow furrowing.

“I hope my fraternity’s okay. I made a bunch of food before I left and cleaned up the house and did everyone’s laundry. I even left some emergency numbers on the fridge and twenty bucks.”

“You’re such a mom,” Brandi teased. “You know they’re just going to use that money to buy beer.”

Hero sighed. “I left them a note asking them please not to use the money for alcohol.”

“Oh, a note. That’ll stop them,” Brandi replied with a dry sarcasm. With a slight shake of his head, Hero sighed again.

“Don’t worry about them. They’ll be fine. And who knows, it might be good for one of them to pass out on the lawn. Some lessons they need to learn the hard way, and if they trash the house, you make them clean it up—okay, Mama?” She shot him a lopsided grin, and Hero tried his best not to laugh.

“Brandi…” he began to protest, but she interrupted—pointing her finger at him.

“It’s like I always say—they can’t treat you like a doormat if you don’t let them. Saying ‘no’ every once and a while isn’t going to kill you. I say it all the time.”

“Most of the time,” teased Bebe, and Brandi rolled her eyes.

“Nice to see you’re acknowledging I exist,” she quipped as Mikhael continued to ramble on about “spirit bombs” and his “true form” or something.

“Of course, I acknowledge you. Just because I have a boyfriend now, doesn’t mean you’re not still my sister. You have a boyfriend too—you know what it’s like. You’re not going to forget about me just because you’re with Hero now, right?”

Hero’s face flushed—unsure of what to say and still very uncomfortable at the prospect of lying to Bebe. Future-lawyer, Brandi on the other hand jumped in immediately, “There isn’t a guy in the world that would make me forget about you, okay?”

“Okay but do you think there’s anyone who could make my sister forget about me?” Mikhael interrupted. “And my brother too?”

“Why do you want your siblings to forget about you?” asked Hero in concerned confusion.

Mikhael dramatically leaned across the table motioning for them all to come closer then he whispered, “Because they’re evil.”

“Evil?” scoffed Brandi. “How are they evil?”

“They always want to spend time with me, and they’re always asking me all these questions—trying to keep tabs on me so they can report back to my nemesis and help him thwart my plans. And they keep wanting to play evil hide-and-seek.”

“Hide and Seek?” Brandi repeated with an exasperated expression.

“Evil hide-and-seek,” Mikhael forcefully corrected.

With a bitter shake of her head, Brandi reached for her wine. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but how exactly is hide-and-seek evil?”

“Well, they’ve got these cardboard cutouts of themselves, and they hide them all around the house which makes them really hard to find. It’s horrible.”

Bebe wrapped her arm around him. “That sounds really awful, but Daphne and Bowen are so nice, maybe if you talk to them and tell them you don’t want to play anymore, they’ll understand.”

“I can’t talk to them!” exclaimed Mikhael so loudly that several people in the nearby booths turned to look at them. “They have spies everywhere, and they’ll just use what I say against me. I’m telling you—they are in league with the enemy. Your sister is too.”

“What?” Brandi asked, rolling her eyes.

Mikhael frowned, clinching his fist. “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on here. You’ve brought my nemesis’s brother down here to spy on me. Well it’s not going to work!” Hero jumped backward in surprise as Mikhael jabbed his finger at his face. “I’m not going to tell you anything. So there!”

“I…I don’t understand…” stumbled Hero.

“Oh my gosh, Mikhael, grow up!” huffed Brandi. “No one is here to spy on you. This is just a date. I can’t believe you actually have a date, but since you do, calm down, put your big boy pants on and stop acting like a toddler.”

“I—I know!” chimed in Bebe in a shaky attempt to diffuse the tension. “What if we ordered this chocolate cake? It looks good right? And everybody likes chocolate cake.”

As Bebe held up the little advertisement set up on their table, Hero watched as Mikhael’s face fell just for a moment and he mumbled, “I…I…uh…” Then he stopped abruptly—letting out a melodramatic gasp and declaring far too loudly for a restaurant, “That cake could be poisoned! We can never be too careful.”

Bebe stared down at her hands. “Oh…” she said quietly. “Okay…”

“For goodness sakes, Mikhael, the cake isn’t poisoned,” hissed Brandi before turning to Bebe. “Don’t worry. I’ll buy you the cake, Bebe.”  

“No…um…thank you, but it’s okay. I didn’t really want any anyway.” Bebe paused and sighed before standing up from the table. “I…um…have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

As Hero watched her go and watched Brandi get up from the table and chase after her sister, he also wished he had an exit strategy. Unfortunately, he did not and was left in heavy, awkward silence with Mikhael.

By the time their waiter came with their food, Hero had forgotten how long he had been sitting there in the heavy silence, swirling his straw around in his drink. He practically jumped at the chance to help the waiter pass out the plates of food, thankful Brandi and Bebe were still in the bathroom so he had something to do to make himself useful.

He was so busy setting the table that he almost didn’t hear Mikhael ask in a voice much quieter than any he had used all night, “Hey…uh…how expensive is this cake?” Mikhael reached for the advertisement Bebe had been holding up before, but when the waiter finally revealed the price, he set it back on the table with a somewhat defeated huff.

Hero bit his lip, unsure of what, if anything, he should say. He didn’t feel it was his place to pry especially since he didn’t know Mikhael very well, but he definitely had some sympathy for him, having once been that broke teenager who wanted to treat the girl he liked to something special but couldn’t afford it. It was one of his great regrets that he had never been able to take Mari out anywhere fancier than Gino’s when she had been alive, and he didn’t want Mikhael ever having to have similar regrets about Bebe.

“Hey uh…if you want to get that cake for Bebe—”

“Huh? What are you talking about? I was asking for me,” huffed Mikhael interrupting him, but there was a flush of pink in his cheeks.

“Oh uh…okay…” stumbled Hero, staring intently at his plate. He hadn’t started eating yet, thinking it was more polite to wait until the girls returned. Surprisingly, he noticed Mikhael was waiting as well.

“Bebe’s sister really hates me huh?” he mumbled folding and unfolding his napkin. Hero could tell he was trying and failing to appear nonchalant. “Do you think it’s because of the cake?”

“No,” Hero replied gently, shaking his head. “I think she’s just…worried about Bebe—just being a protective older sister.”

Mikhael frowned but wouldn’t look at him. “My sister loves Bebe. My brother too. They say she’s the best thing that ever happened to me. They always want to invite her over so she can teach her how to bake. She’s pretty good at it—wants to be a pastry chef now.” He paused and grinned then quipped, “I mean, she’s not as good as me but she’s alright.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Hero’s mouth, and his expression softened. “Bebe is a really nice girl, isn’t she?”

Though he tried his best to frown and shrug it off, Hero couldn’t help but notice the slightest flush of red in his face. “Well…yeah…I guess…She’s pretty awesome. Everybody thinks so. And you know…I’m awesome too, but not everybody appreciates that…” His smug smirk faded just a little. “But Bebe does… Brandi doesn’t though—faking a whole relationship just to break us up.”

“Wha—what?” choked Hero, though he was sure his blush had given him away.

“Listen, I’m not stupid. I knew from the first time Bebe mentioned it that it wasn’t real,” Mikhael shrugged. “Aubrey says you’re never going to love again.”

With a heavy sigh, Hero bit his lip. “Aubrey said that?”

“Well…I think what she actually said was that she hopes you put yourself back out there because, you know, you’re like a brother to her or whatever and she wants you to be happy,  but she knows you won’t.” Mikhael sighed, twisting his mouth to one side. “But I dunno…maybe she’d think differently if she was here tonight.”

“I doubt it,” Hero chuckled awkwardly. “Aubrey could always tell when I was lying.”

“Yeah, but you’re the only one here who’s actually having fun tonight. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s never gonna date again.”  

Hero blushed. It felt strange being called out by Mikhael of all people. He twisted his hands. “It’s…not like that. It’s not real.”

“Dude, you got her an orchid…”

“I was just trying to be nice,” Hero insisted hurriedly. “I…haven’t been on a date in a really long time, and I—” He stopped, realizing only then that he probably didn’t need to explain himself to Mikhael, but Mikhael just tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“You wanna date Brandi for real?”  

The idea gave Hero pause, as did the fact that a resonant “no” did not immediately come to mind. The truth was he had never really thought about it. If he was being honest, he supposed up until this point he had agreed with Aubrey that he would probably never love again. He was okay with that, but now… ever since she had brought it up, ever since he was actually out at a restaurant on a date even if it wasn’t real… He just wasn’t sure anymore.

“If you do, you already have an ‘in’ you know?” Mikhael continued. “Brandi hates everybody, but she doesn’t hate you so…there you go.” Mikhael laughed before he took another drink of his water, and Hero sighed.

“She can do better than me.” Hero’s eyes widened. He hadn’t meant to say that aloud. He was half expecting Mikhael to laugh or make fun of him, but Mikhael just stared down at his food.

He muttered so quietly that Hero almost couldn’t hear him, “Like me and Bebe…”

As Hero watched Mikhael hang his head and absentmindedly push his food around his plate, something twisted in his chest.

“No,” he reassured him, shaking his head with a kind smile. “You and Bebe are just fine. Here…” He paused, pulling his wallet out of his pocket and handing a 20 dollar bill to Mikhael. “Why don’t you buy her that cake?”

A wide, smarmy grin spread across Mikhael’s face as he took the money from Hero’s hands. “Sucker,” he muttered with a laugh before flagging down their waiter to order two pieces of chocolate cake.

Hero sighed. He supposed it was to be expected. It was Mikhael after all.

Before anyone could say anything more, however, Brandi and Bebe returned from the bathroom, and Brandi let out a heavy sigh and said, “Look Mikhael, I’m sorry if I came off a little too harsh. I’d like us to get along for the rest of the night.”

Mikhael’s eyes widened in surprise for just a moment, but he laughed and shrugged it off, “I guess, I, the Maverick, can accept your apology.”

Rolling her eyes again, Brandi sighed, but she turned her attention to her food. Hero stopped and smiled at her. She was so bold, so honest. The truth was, he admired that in her—he had learned that tonight.

He had also learned that Mikhael was full of surprises, and it turned out he had one more up his sleeve. When the two chocolate cakes he had ordered arrived, he gave one to Bebe, of course, but the other he gave to Brandi. Mikhael turned to Hero with an almost imperceptible wink as he handed the cake to a very perplexed Brandi and said, “Yours is from Hero.”

*-*-*

As they walked home that evening, Hero and Brandi hung back letting Mikhael and Bebe walk ahead of them, holding hands and laughing together about who knows what. Hero couldn’t help but smile at them. It was nice to see them so happy.

“Mission failed,” huffed Brandi sarcastically, but her mouth twitched in the corners. “Back to the drawing board I guess.”

“I don’t know…Mikhael’s a nice kid, and Bebe seems happy.”

Brandi sighed, playfully poking him in the arm. “What in the world happened when we went to the bathroom? You’re on ‘Team Mikhael’ now?”  

“I thought you were on ‘Team Mikhael’ now,” teased Hero. “You did apologize to him. That was really nice of you.”

“Yeah well, after Bebe told me off for being mean, I thought I should probably try to be a little nicer. I’ve been told I’m pretty intimidating.” She laughed—shrugging it off. “I’d say I’m sorry for taking you out for nothing, but you actually seemed to have a good time tonight.”

“I did,” Hero admitted with a slight smile. “It was really nice. I’m glad you invited me.”

“Yeah, me too. It was nice to see you enjoy yourself again. It’s…been a while.” As Brandi’s voice faded, she shrugged her shoulders. The expression on her face softened. “I know we weren’t really close friends back then, but…I do remember what you were like—back when you were happy. I kind of miss it.”

Hero stared down at the pavement, and his shuffling feet before he mumbled, “Me too.” His face flushed. He hadn’t meant to say that. Brandi, however, didn’t seem to mind.

“Well…you know, if you do decide you ever want to put yourself back out there, you are going to make somebody really, really happy.” As Brandi smiled, Hero’s face grew warm, and he turned away from her. “Even though Mikhael was there, this is still one of the best dates I’ve ever been on. You’re sweet, attentive, a great listener, and you bought me flowers and cake. You’re a good one, Hero.”

“I don’t know about that,” Hero chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “But I…uh…I did have a really good time tonight. You’re really great, Brandi.”

“Aww…” she teased before patting his cheek. “You don’t have to flatter me.”

“It’s…it’s not flattery. It’s just…I…want to thank you. I…uh…haven’t been on a date in a really long time, and this was really nice.” Though his face flushed, he somehow managed to meet her eyes. “Even if it wasn’t real.”

He turned away and bit his lip again—unable to face that look of confusion in Brandi’s expression.

“Did you…want it to be?” she asked, with as much bold bluntness as he would’ve expected from her.

“I…I…” he choked, the words getting caught in the back of his throat as his twisting hands began to shake. He thought he should try his best to be honest—to be bold like her. “I don’t know,” he admitted, but hurriedly added. “I’m sorry…is that okay?”

Brandi chuckled, but she smiled at him. “Yeah…that’s just fine, Hero. Tell you what…for now, how about we say, some of it was real.”

As her warm eyes met his, Hero felt a real, genuine tugging at his mouth and something warm fluttering in his chest, and Brandi leaned forward and lightly kissed his cheek with a kind, “Thank you, Hero. For everything.”

Then, she ran up ahead and grabbed Bebe right before Mikhael could kiss her and ran into the house. Mikhael started huffing about having had his chance at a goodnight kiss so rudely stolen away, but Hero didn’t even notice. He just stood there, frozen on the sidewalk, gently reaching up to pat his blushing cheek where Brandi had kissed it.

“Some of it was real…” she had said. Hero wasn’t sure what part of it was real and which part wasn’t. If he was being honest, he wasn’t sure he was even ready to even begin to decipher it. But for now, he knew that some of it was real—that he had a wonderful night and that for the first time in a very long time, he felt like he could, maybe, just maybe, be happy again someday. And for now, that was more than enough.

[darkpoisonouslove]

2023 in Words

We got 2024... tomorrow. 0_0 Normal. I am so fucking normal about this.

How's it going? My eyes are closing, my hands are shaking and my to-do list until the end of the day has several tasks more than I can handle on it as usual which is all a pretty good summary of 2023. Let's see what came out of it:

Word Count:

101 079 words

Phew. I was afraid it would be much worse. That's not super bad considering I've been stuck on one story for more than half of the year and those words are not included here. (Also not included is my almost 40k-word outline for said story, nor any other outlines, so... uhh... actually way more words were written this year.)

Stories:

(I'm not bothering with an overview of the fandoms because it's just Winx.)

A total of 7. And that's counting the first chapter of Fallen Love as a story. Ouch! I hoped to get more done this year but on the plus side, I really love the stories that I did write (and the ones I am still planning)!

Actually, there's 3 other finished stories that I do not ever plan on publishing, which rounds up the total number to 10.

Favorite writing moment - this is tough but I'm going to go with coming up with a completely new angle to Griffin's motivations for pretty much anything she's ever done. I've decided to step away from the righteous fight for getting dark magic users the equality they deserve and see how her character looks through a more selfish prism. I have to say that I love what's currently brewing in my head and the newest reason I've given her for leaving Valtor finally is something really personal that only has to do with the two of them and isn't just... guilt in a trench coat. I like to think that means I am healing as well and don't need to work out my subconscious guilt through her.

Wildest writing moment - definitely one of those 3 never-to-be-published fics. It was a total nothing smut idea and then I'm suddenly left with the most cohesive piece I've written since... ever. Usually when I try to explore several different angles of something in one piece, I start to get tangled up in the different threads and completely lose myself in the story. Whether because this was for fun and I wasn't stressing or for another reason, that didn't happen with this story and all threads are in their perfect place. I'm... thrilled about it! :D

Ships:

This department has suffered too. There's the usual Griffin x Valtor, Griffin x Faragonda, Erendor x Samara (in my documents) and a side of Marion x Oritel and Marion x Griffin (yay!)... and that's about it. Frankly, I am not truly disappointed by this as it has allowed me to focus more on the relationships (that interest me) and on the characters.

I wrote Oritel PoV for the first time this year! Truly an accomplishment considering that he's just Marion's husband in my head and that's pretty much it.

I am also confident in saying that I have a much better grasp on Griffin and Valtor both as characters and as a pairing and most of the enlightenment happened over the last couple of months. I am looking forward to applying all this new knowledge into my fics next year!

That would be videos. I'm pretty sure those are also less than I made last year but that doesn't matter because I feel that I made some really good ones this year!

Other works:

Naturally, my favorites are Griffin x Valtor ones:

Griffin x Valtor - Haunting

Griffin x Valtor - "It's turned to an obsession"

Griffin x Valtor - Daylight

I do have to mention these two:

Griffin x Faragonda & Valtor - Another Love

Griffin x Faragonda - Slumber Party

They are so polar and I love the contrast of Griffin being unable to move on from Valtor in the first versus Faragonda stealing Griffin from Valtor in the second. XD

And last but not least, the video that I am proudest of because of how little material there was to work with and because this is my ship that I made from the ground up:

Griffin x Luna - Lethal Woman

[sybilius]

1, 4, 13, and 15 for the fic writer asks?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

Shadow Gimmick is I think, my first intentional, permanent break-up fic. I’ve written other stories where characters have broken up, but I always intended to patch them back up (whether I actually got to that is another matter). I thought it turned out fantastic– one of my favourite parts of the fic is the way dramatic irony seeps in to all of David Finlay’s good intentions. I’m not sure I would try that again though. Part of me has no stomach for that kind of finality (even though I understand how necessary it is sometimes!). I think the specific circumstances of being able to write the soft-ish breakup and know that the narrative speaks for itself on why they never reconciled– that was a nice middle ground for me. 

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

I’ll get a little more specific than “all of pro wrestling” and say “all of Jay White’s exile arc” (ie. WK17 Okada vs. White, Loser leaves Japan White vs. Hikuleo, Loser Leaves NJPW White vs. Kingston). Getting interested in that is what set me on the Jay obsession, as well as getting me into Okada and yoinking me into Finlay’s story. 

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

Probably tell me you're the rest of it – that one had a narrow scope when I thought it up. I liked the idea of there being a quiet intimacy in the differences between Ren and Yota’s sleeping patterns. Since that was the whole concept of the story, capturing that liminality of waking up at 3am with a new lover in your bed, thinking of what comes next – I was able to get in and out in a small word count and not feel bereft about it. 

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023. I’m very very proud of Shadow Gimmick, my Young Lion era Finlay/Jay White fic focused on how David Finlay decides to become who he is. Though the original concept was focused on exploring baby Jay’s fucked up kink boundaries (which was so fun to do!), I just had this sense that I could make it a lot more than that if I really immersed myself in the lore and stakes of early Finlay and Jay’s story. I feel like it really succeeded in being a pro wrestling story about the stakes of pro wrestling, as well as being a shippy story and a bit of a mindfuck (two of my favourite flavors). And I learned a lot from my tape study too, which is something I’ve come to find very satisfying!

[makesometime]

give yourself a compliment about your own writing + how does creating make you feel?

give yourself a compliment about your own writing

I pride myself on my characterisation above everything else. To the point where if a fic isn't working it's generally because I've written something out of character, whether it's a piece of dialogue or a motivation that just doesn't work. The number of fics I've abandoned because they literally don't work for the characters is higher than I would like it to be. That handle on characterisation also allows me to write (imo) really good dialogue, which is my favourite thing to write <3

how does creating make you feel?

I wish I could say it makes me feel fulfilled but a lot of the time I create from a place of... needing to fix something. Whether that's my own mental health or a piece of canon I don't enjoy. But it does, always, make me feel better. I've got so much out of writing over the past few years, and 2023 is a slower year for me on purpose, so when I create something new now, it genuinely makes me feel a little giddy. I have a new idea that I'm so excited to get started on :D

[junithys]

🌓 2023 New Year Resolutions 🌗

I cleaned up the line art on the PNG! .₊̣̇.ಇ/ᐠˬ  ̫ ˬ ᐟ\∫.₊̣̇.

Resolutions

Always meet my deadlines, don't hold back because of perfectionism.

This is my main resolution for 2023! I don't think I'll get my Vtuber lore video to where I want it to be in quality, but if or when that's the case, I can always release things in steps (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.)!

Stick to a concrete schedule.

I have already been improving at this! I have a streaming streak of 24 days, almost a month!

Don't be afraid to take risks!

Trying new things has greatly improved my art and overall skills, but there's always that fear of change and block in my head that I have to fight.

Focus more on my physical health and set boundaries with what I eat with other people.

My constitution was really bad last year, it was the worst my health has been my entire life... so I am going to focus more on taking care of myself. Nutrient-rich foods, hydration, and regular intermittent fasting. Sometimes I will eat something that someone buys me, even if I know that my stomach can't tolerate the food or it isn't good for me. Recently, SakihataLily surprised me with a $9 half-gallon jug of chocolate milk, but my stomach isn't good with lactose but I drank it all because I didn't want it to go to waste, and then I had two days of bad stomach cramps... I think I'll learn how to set boundaries with food more, so that people know that I have to be more specific with my diet.

Make something that I can deem worthy to present on Portfolio Day.

I'm going to try to sharpen my skills with backgrounds this year. Portfolio day was yesterday, on January 10th but I didn't feel like anything I made was good enough to share, so I'm going to try harder to make more impressive portfolio pieces!

Work on not using language that puts myself down or belittles my own abilities.

I have a bad habit of saying a lot that I'm not good enough, but a lot of people compliment my abilities and a lot of people tell me regularly that they like my art and singing, so I'm going to try not to put myself now because I know that I'll always feel like I should be better, no matter what. It's the curse of perfectionism, I suppose.

Schedule 

Morning Anime Hour (via REALITY) ▶ 3:30am MST every day

Open Collab Singing (via REALITY) ▶ 9:30am MST

Book Club (via REALITY) ▶ 3:30am MST

Art Uploads (starting 1-22, the first day of the Chinese New Year) ▶ 8:30am MST on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Blog Posts ▶ 8:30pm MST on Thursday

Schedule Writing ▶ 12:30pm MST on Thursday (I'll post this along with blog for the day)

Big Deadlines in the Foreseeable Future

-Lore 1.0 ▶ 1-19-23

-Lore 2.0 (final ver. w/ full visuals and VOs) ▶ 2-22-23

-Final Character Designs for Visual Novel ▶ 3-24-23

-Visual Novel BETA Release ▶ 6-18-23

Note: Those are all the deadlines for now. I probably will have more in the second half of the year.

Additional Info

I quoted the tweet in which I wrote this above, but I took more time to think about my resolutions, goals, and deadlines for the year - and I am glad that I took longer to think about what is both ideal and realistic. I'm grateful that I found a good free-to-use schedule template; it makes it easier for me. Since we're setting up the computer now, I am going to set Wednesday and Thursday aside from game dev progress and clerical work. As I've mentioned before, it is difficult for me to separate my writing brain from the more abstract art brain thinking, so it would be better this way.

I'm also not sure when I'll be able to rig my original design in Live2D. Not sure whether I will be able to do it myself, or I will have to hire someone to. But when I start streaming as my character, I will slowly transition from REALITY and take my time, so I get a better understanding of streaming on Twitch or YouTube!

To My Fellow Bloggers

Please leave links to articles and blogs you want me to read. I'll do blog reading on Wednesday! So, if you let me know, I'll make a list to read. Sorry that I haven't had as much time lately to be as active!

Wishlist

A regular collaborator on REALITY suggested that I make an Amazon Wishlist since I commented about how my mic was bedraggled after 6 years of use and cats tearing it from the wall. So here's the link if you would like to help, these are some things that would help - I also trade commissions for wishlist items: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/38FX8B6ECGCEZ?ref_=wl_share

Pressure Headache Relief

So, I used a 30 minute self-hypnosis meditation for pressure headaches and I was skeptical about if it would actually work, but it did. The pain in my head went away about 5 minutes before the end of the session. And this was a free-to-listen recording on YouTube! I'm glad because I really don't like taking too many pain meds!

Thank you for reading

—Junithys

tl;dr 

▶ Resolutions

▶ Schedule/Small Deadlines

▶ Big Deadlines

▶ Note to Fellow Bloggers

▶ Amazon Wishlist

▶ Pain Relief Meditation

[deltaruneadventures]

Yo

Sooo...I kinda sorta purposefully didn't post anything on this blog for a little less than a week. I was thinking about the current state of this blog and where things might be headed. Since 2023 is almost upon us--or is already upon us, depending on your timezone--I feel like now is a good time to make a major change to how this blog functions.

More information under the cut.

Starting from now, there is no longer a posting schedule. Back when I first had the idea to post Deltarune dialogues, I thought having a consistent schedule would help motivate me to post dialogues consistently. However, the schedule seems to be doing the exact opposite. I don't want to post dialogues on here since I'll then feel too committed to the schedule and be pushed to get out said dialogues at a constant rate without slowing down and taking the time to make sure each dialogue isn't rushed and sloppy. I've made several mistakes on past dialogues because of this. Some mistakes were more extreme than others--some errors were simply a silly typo while others were related to pronoun misuse--and while mistakes are to be expected, it does begin to pile up over time.

Writing is something I love doing, and I want to have a career based on it in my future. But I don't enjoy writing if I feel like I'm forced to write or if I'm bound by a time limit. I want to put true passion and effort into every last piece of my writing, whether it's a dialogue or a personal work of mine. I don't feel as if my past dialogues have shown my true potential. I'm not saying all past dialogues were bad. I enjoy going back and re-reading through most of them. But I don't read my past dialogues and think "I put my absolute best effort into this". Because I didn't.

One phrase I try to follow is "quality over quantity". I would rather post fewer, more fleshed-out dialogues than many rushed and sloppy dialogues. This way, I can post dialogues on my own time and won't feel any pressure doing so. I will have more time to edit and re-read said dialogues and find mistakes or errors, such as portraying a character incorrectly or misgendering anyone.

Blogs like this depend a lot on how the moderator is affected. If a moderator is choosing to put the needs and expectations of what they THINK their audience wants before their own, they will feel stressed and burnt-out. The blog will not do well and said moderator won't feel content about their work. But if the moderator chooses to run the blog on their terms and not on what the moderator expects of the public, they will be happy, satisfied, and want to actively pursue what makes their blog special. Hence why I am choosing to abolish my posting schedule.

I probably didn't need to go on a whole explanation as to why I'm making this decision, but if any of you were curious, there's why. Don't worry, I'll still be active on here. I'm not too sure how often I'll post dialogues. My consistency will vary as time passes. But I don't plan to abolish this blog anytime soon. I truly enjoy what I do here, and I want to provide a more unique aspect to the Deltarune community. I don't see a lot of people in the fandom writing out dialogues, at least not in this way. I'm a huge Deltarune fanatic, and want to contribute to the fandom in my own special way.

Aaanyway, with that being said, I will still post the Christmas-themed dialogue and the New Year-themed dialogue. I would say when, but that kinda ruins the entire point I was trying to make about me not having a schedule, lol. So I'll give a rough estimate instead: I plan to post both dialogues in the following couple weeks. I'm late I know, I'm sorry about that :(. Hopefully they're still enjoyable, even if they're posted late.

Happy (almost) New Year, and thanks for reading!

[valentineforlemonandcherry]

Okay, I finally finished reading the newest chapters of Foxtail & Wolfsbane and Ash&Skylight. First off, wow and thank you! I honestly love these stories so freaking much. You’re such an amazing writer. I caught myself asking “how do they come up with this stuff?” Your creativity is off the charts. Jeez, and your OCs are to die for. I still think about Cy like every day.

Anyways, Foxtail & Wolfsbane- I’m loving the progression between Rowan and my girl. It’s obvious that Rowan deeply cares for her, perhaps even loves her. I think that because of the way he’s lived, he has closed the door to believing that love exists for him. However, he’s starting to come to a realization that love can be real with her. I wonder how that will play out, because she still loves Remus. Talk about major miscommunications between fox girl and her boys Also, not my heart cracking reading about him and tonks 🫠.

Now onto Ash & Skylight- I absolutely adore Oliver and my girl! He’s so cute and she is so lovestruck when she’s with him 🥹. I’m honestly happy that they finally did it lol. It’s been a long awaited piece I wanted to read, but totally worth it. It actually makes me nervous, because you said it wouldn’t be a happy ending. I have a question I’m not sure you can answer, but I’m curious anyways. Will we see Charlie and my girl interact again?

Thank you so much for blessing me with all of the wonderful writing. It is honestly such a joy to read your work. You’re actually my favorite author on here 🤭. I think I’ve been with you since 2020 or 2021, I honestly don’t remember when you first published light and dark. ’m always looking forward to reading more from you!!

Please take care and happy new year!!!!

🦭

Hello hello! Going to give quite a lengthy reply to this (with spoilers), so please read under the cut:

Always so good to hear from you! ♥

I'm glad to hear that the stories feel creative. I worry about whether my plots make sense because so much of it is stuff that I think of and isn't necessarily rooted in the Potter world. But I enjoy thinking about different versions of what a magical world might be. I honestly think I like world-building as much as, if not more than, character-building. As for the OCs, I have so many OCs in my mind that I want to share with you, so I'm happy to hear that you like them. For Cyrille specifically, I do have Light and Dark snippets that I want to share; I just have to find time somehow to get back into that headspace.

I can't say too much about Foxtail & Wolfsbane because we're approaching the tipping point now where everything is about to break loose, but I will say that I was surprised with how much I personally feel a pull between OC and Rowan. Rowan ended up being a much more sympathetic character that I expected him to be, to be honest. He's got a sunfire soul; he just doesn't know what to do with it.

Regarding Ash & Skylight, it really has been puppy love so far and I imagine that element will stay throughout the relationship, just because of how they each think. But yes, the 'sad ending' tag is there for a reason. As for whether Charlie will return, I think that we will see him again, but his reappearance may be more subtle and limited than expected.

Really and truly, thank you for reading my stories with such care. I'm very happy and lucky that you read my work and I know that you've been with me since Light and Dark. It's wild how much time has passed already. I hope my stories will always continue to be a small place of comfort and happiness for you. I also hope 2022 treated you well and kindly and that 2023 will be an even better year for you. Thanks again for your lovely comment!

[thelastundeadbraincell]

2022's Fanfic Wrap-up

Happy new year everyone!

I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to make that post, but 2022 was a pretty good year overall (I mean writing-wise because otherwise it sucked massively) and there have been a few accomplishments I felt like sharing.

5th Year Anniversary

Five years ago, in September 2017, I posted my first AO3 fanfic (not my first fanfic overall, but we don't talk about those other ones), a little DC Comics fic called One Last Look. Make of it what you will, but those opening lines still slap and I might just steal them for something else one day.

100 Works

Two weeks ago as I write these lines, I posted my 100th work on AO3 (technically a bit more since I orphaned a couple of fics, but we don't talk about those either): Love, Loss, and Moving On, an Andromeda Six oneshot.

A Little Experiment

Back in April, I posted a fanfic on AO3 that I didn't think would interest anyone. It's a drabble (an actual 100-word drabble), written for a dead fandom (that was never really alive to begin with), and posted anonymously. I barely expected it to get a few hits, but it did garner some kudos. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to not be considered my least popular work of the year. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is: post your stuff, because even the most niche fic you'll write in your life will find an audience.

My Worst Title to Date

I've never been good with titles, but No Pain Without Pain certainly takes the cake (or rather the bread). It's a pun, but one that requires you to be somewhat bilingual (and even then it's not a good one).

2022 Achievements

Works posted: 19 (out of 100 in total).

Words posted: 43 739 (out of 197 895 in total).

First work posted: Happy With Someone Else.

Last work posted: Love, Loss, and Moving On.

Longest works: Tales From the Seleota System vol.1 with a total of 7860 words. Love, Loss, and Moving On with 3623 words if you count each chapter individually.

Shortest works: Sleeping Beauty with a total of 698 works. Tales From the Seleota System vol.1 if you count each chapter individually since it has a few 100-word drabbles.

Most popular work: Happy With Someone Else. No idea why. The only thing special about it is that I posted it on my birthday. But it's somehow managed to become my second most popular fic overall, and for that I'm grateful.

Least popular work: The Wallflower and the Party Pooper. No surprise there. Non-shippy fics never get a lot of traction. Still, I quite like it. It's about Cal meeting my Traveler before the events of the game. I don't write him a lot, so it felt like a breath of fresh air.

Most popular older work: Stay With Me Tonight [Explicit]. I'm not even going to ask why.

Best month: October, both in terms of productivity and reader engagement.

Worst month: August. I honestly almost gave up at that point.

What's in store for 2023?

Well... I don't know... I do want to post the last two chapters of Four Seasons, and I do have some Andromeda Six WIPs I want to finish, but I'm waiting for episode 7 to come out before I do since they'll likely tie into those events. But tbh, I'll probably move on to another fandom pretty soon. It's been fun, but I feel like I'm running in circles. There's so little actual content in the game that I'm feeling very uninspired and my writing highly suffers from it. I'm just writing the same stories over and over again; the characters are OOC (not that canon gives us a lot to go on but still); the only things I'd be excited to write in this fandom are AUs, and at this point, I think I'd be better off writing original fiction (which I might actually do, though it's such a daunting task and I don't know if I have the spoons for it tbh). Besides, there are quite a few pieces of media coming out this year that I'm actually looking forward to, and I just know one of them is going to become my new hyperfixation.

Anyway, sorry to end on that note. Once again, I wish you all a happy new year.

[liminal-psych]

About

Note: I’m moving everything here over to liminalpsych, because this was a subaccount to an account I made years ago and haven’t touched in years, and tumblr doesn’t let you swap a sub account for your primary account. Starting over it is!

Pronouns: They/them, followed by ve/vir or xe/xir, followed by any other neopronouns. Just avoid he/she/it and you’re good.

Identifiers: Queer, non-binary, agender, kinky, gray-ace/demisexual, ADHD, polyamorous (…for well over a decade and a half now, yikes)

What I do: Psychotherapy (specializing in trauma, adhd/autism, gender dysphoria/transition support, GSMs), equestrian activities (have two minis and three full sized horses in my backyard), live action roleplaying, aviculture (I own some parrots and finches), writing sometimes

Links:

liminal_psych on Archive Of Our Own

Active Fandoms

Fandoms I’m actively engaged in, participating in, reading and writing in, obsessing over, etc.

Genshin Impact: I haven’t been this into a piece of media in years. Favorite characters are Alhaitham, Xiao, Zhongli, Ningguang, Yae Miko, Ayato, Dehya, Baizhu (who is a whole damn gender, as is Alhaitham), Dottore (favorite villain to hate, great character, terrible person). My Traveler is Aether and I main Itto (who I adore, though he doesn’t make the top 10 list of favorite characters).

Arthurian literature: New interest! New hyperfocus! Reading all the original material and some new stuff too. It’s ridiculous, Arthurian myth is basically just a centuries-long accumulation of fanfic and OC’s that tons of people have collectively headcanoned and called it canon. Wild. Got into it thanks to Heather Dale’s Arthurian songs that made me start writing a fix-it fic to Trial of Lancelot where Lancelot, Arthur, and Guenivere are in a polyamorous triad. Because love triangles where everyone actually cares about each other and so polyamory would fix it easily drive me mad. But then I couldn’t figure out the story ending because I didn’t know enough about Arthurian literature, shelved it for almost a decade, then recently pulled it out, dove into Arthurian lore, and got hooked. Not sure whether to make a separate Tumblr for it or not but I’ll just do all my fandom stuff here for now.

Inactive Fandoms

Fandoms I’ve been involved with in the past but not currently. Probably wouldn’t take much to make them active again, but they’re currently on the back burner.

Dragon Age (Inquisition especially, don’t care for Origins, still working on playing through DA2)

Sherlock Holmes (every iteration I’ve encountered, but BBC Sherlock’s first two seasons especially)

Redwall (my entire adolescence, my first roleplaying experience, and setting of the longest story I’ve ever written)

Early Marvel MCU (mostly the original Avengers crew + Loki, all the trauma and found family stuff)

World of Darkness (Mage: the Ascension particularly)

Flight Rising

Casual Fandoms

The honorable mentions. Fandoms I haven’t actively participated in but which hold a special place in my heart.

Terre d’Ange (Kushiel novels by Jacqueline Carey)

Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey)

Tortall (Tamora Pierce)

Feral Souls trilogy (Erica Woods)

Farscape

Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time had a major impact on my developmental preteen brain)

Final Fantasy (7 and 10 especially)

Dune (first 3 books, also 2020 movie)

LARPs

NERO/Alliance/Refuge (staffed, roleplayed, don’t play anymore but have posted character stories in AO3)

New World Magischola (R.I.P)

Event Horizon (R.I.P)

Daemon, in 2023 anyway

Temet Nosce (personal brainchild, on hold indefinitely)

World of Darkness / Mind’s Eye Theater (haven’t done this in aaages)