#Ask meme response

[kiwiana-writes]

An AU in which Henry and Alex are exes, also Alex is a rockstar who puts a lot of himself into his songwriting. And there’s a happy ending

...every time I play a game like this you come in with something that desperately wants to be a gamefail. I see you.

ONE: The breakup isn't anybody's fault, and that makes it so much worse. If Henry could blame Alex—if Alex had cheated, if he'd let fame get to his head, if he'd started holding the money he was earning over Henry—it would be a lot easier to move on. The pressure of trying to maintain privacy just got to be too much.

TWO: They don't text. They don't call. Clean break. Sometimes, when it's late and Henry's drunk, he pulls up their text thread and just reads through it. Once or twice he could swear he sees the typing indicator flash up for a moment, but it's always gone before he can figure out if it's just his imagination.

THREE: The first time Henry hears Can't Seem To Shake You he's on his knees in a club bathroom, Alex's voice barely discernible through the walls and over the throbbing bass. He almost thinks he can tune it out, but the start of the chorus knocks him straight through the solar plexus, and he ends up leaving the stranger unsatisfied and pissed off, walking home to try to sober up and with the lyrics circling around in his head: But you tell me I'm good and you laugh when you come, and you kiss the taste of yourself off my tongue

FOUR: The obsession with the subject of Alex's latest album reaches a frenzy most commonly associated with Taylor Swift's discography. There are thinkpieces and Buzzfeed quizzes and deep-dive Twitter threads analysing Alex's body language with every semi-famous person he's ever been photographed with.

(Henry appears in exactly one, but it's enough for him to see a noticeable bump in book sales.)

FIVE: It's Pez who first messages Henry when Storm Your Castle is released on streaming. Henry listens to it fourteen times, crying on the floor of his bedroom, and then he picks up his phone, scrolls down to Alex's contact, and hits Call.

[Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.]

[aeithalian]

……you MUST know I want your director’s cut thoughts on a shard or two lol xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes (my kingdom for asks from sideblogs)

OOOOH hehe hello MJ i keep seeing you pop up reccing a shard or two and just know that every time i see it, i send up a little prayer that your pillows are cold on both sides.

ANYWAYS (most of my followers on this blog aren't RWRB fans but who cares) a shard or two is definitely a weird fever dream of a fic. I read the entire book in like 24 hours (this was just before the movie came out, so less than a year ago) and I, having a strange interest in politics, was like 'hmm, you know what? not enough politics'. So now we have a shard or two. I've always had a interest in politics and I always felt weird about being that person who has a strange in-depth knowledge about the US government, but I think writing the fic helped me think about politics in less of a pessimistic way, like 'here's what I would want to see in modern-day politics'. It also kind of raises the philosophical question of how good people function in a corrupt system without being corrupted themselves, and Alex is such an interesting character to play with on that front because I view him as so idealistic that he refuses to be corrupted purely out of spite and stubbornness.

So, that's how it got started, I think. I told myself I wasn't going to start another WIP while I have one going for a different fandom, but here we are. I originally intended for it to be way shorter than it was (here I was thinking last October that 20k was an insane length for chapter 1, and then chapter 3 ended up being 100k all put together), but it's been such a fun passion project and a real stress-reliever for some reason, and a great way to develop my writing. Somebody in the comments asked me if I write professionally (I do not, and I likely never will, but I appreciate the sentiment).

As for director's commentary, I'm just spitballing here but I have so much fun stuff to share so here ya go.

I know there's this whole debate in the fandom about whether or not Alex goes into politics post-canon, like either go into local politics or start his own firm or whatever, and I generally don't see a lot of people saying that he would go into upper-level politics like he does in the fic. Very rarely do I see any post-canon fics that delve into what Alex's future career might look like if he ran for any office, so I kind of just did it myself, as one does. I do remember seeing CMQ say on their Instagram that Alex wouldn't run for president, but he might run for governor of Texas, but I kind of pulled a Harry Potter fandom and ignored the author (sorry not sorry), but I did make a reference to it early on in chapter 3 for anybody who's looking for any easter eggs). Regardless, it's very fun writing a Gen Z politician who gives no fucks (Alex is Gen Z, I'm taking no critiques on this). I'm so excited for people my age to start running for office. We're going to kill it, I feel it in my bones (you won't catch me up there, but maybe in some health policy behind-the-scenes work, who knows).

The names for the characters were a ton of fun to come up with, and I tweaked them all the time, but here are some tidbits behind some of them:

Edward McKinney's (opposed the amendment in chapter 2 and was Alex's opponent for the Democratic nomination in chapter 3) last name is a play on William McKinley (the 25th US president) to kind of bring this mindset to the table that McKinney is exactly who your stereotypical politician is who would run for president.

Pinkley's name is also a reference to Charles Pinckney, who ran for president in 1804 and 1808 as a Federalist. For no particular reason. I was just having fun with it.

Treacher's name actually comes from the word 'treacherous' because I originally intended for him to be way more of a villain than he ended up being, because I thought it would be interesting to have a political opponent who isn't necessarily an enemy.

Aksel Wolter's (the guy who overthrew my man Onderburg for the Baltonian presidency) name was originally going to be Signe Wolter, but then I saw a cool TikTok that compared some enemies throughout history and saw how similar their names were (George Washington & King George, Jesus & Judas, Obama & Osama, etc.) so I thought it would be cool to have an Alex and an Axel, but the spelling was too similar so that's how we ended up with Aksel because that's also a way it's spelled in northern Europe.

Erik Onderburg's (you know who he is, RIP 😈) original name was Henrik, and that got all the way into the published version of chapter 2 (he's mentioned towards the end), and then when I was writing the first scene of chapter 3 and realized that Henrik and Henry were way too similar, I had to change it.

Ellie (full name Elena) is named after Ellen, with a bit of a Hispanic twist. I think Alex and Henry's deal was if they had a girl, they'd name her after Ellen, and if they had a boy, they'd name him after Arthur. I like to think the middle name would have been Orion either way.

Hunter Weaver (the in-universe replacement of Anderson Cooper) has nothing to do with WASPY Hunter. That was a total coincidence and completely unintentional. But, hey, if you want to believe they're the same person, go for it.

All the research in there is legit! Wikipedia has been a fucking godsend for election results and facts about government structures outside of the US, but it kind of sucks trying to relay stuff into two decades in the future. You never know what kinds of issues are going to be important in 20 years, so I actually kind of avoided that problem by just relating it to some of our current issues today: queer rights, specifically in trans communities, election fraud, 3rd party candidates, human rights issues (ikyk) and so on. And the makeup of NATO, the UN, G20, etc. haven't changed because I can't see into the future.

I also had to do a surprising amount of math? Trying to figure out dates and stuff was way more difficult than I anticipated, especially for election results and percentages, but I realized I really don't need to pull out my TI-84 calculator for a fucking fanfic, but I'm also terrified of the prospect that somebody will correct me on any of my math or research so the calculator stays. It makes for some funny moments, though, like when I realized that if Alex actually ran in the 2040, he would really have Teddy Roosevelt beat for the post of 'youngest president' by, no joke, 3 weeks. So that's kind of fun (and how I firmly decided to have that be the timeline of things).

I write most of the speeches the characters give myself, but I use chat gpt to get me started sometimes (the product is always pretty bland, so it's really just a reference for structure), but I use real-life speeches for reference too. For example (and a bit of a sneak peek), in chapter 4, Alex is giving a speech to the UN General Assembly, and I lifted a couple phrases directly from one of Obama's speeches.

Writing this fic on google docs was a terrible decision. When i was writing chapter 3, the entire word count was well over 160k and the software was getting so laggy every time I needed to control f something for reference. So chapter 4 and beyond is currently being written in a new google doc. Speaking of which, having to switch all my formatting over onto ao3 with chapters this long is a pain in the ass. 0/10 do not recommend having to go through each chapter and fix the formatting every time just because I wanted to have fun little article inserts.

I was going to make it smutty and then i chickened out. i deeply apologize for my cowardice (i've never done smut before).

I guess if you want a couple sneak peeks for chapter 4, I can do that too 😜

If this next chapter had a motto, it would be "every president has their tragedy". Yes, that should probably scare you. (honestly, I'm a little nervous to write it too, just because I know it's pretty dark but hey, if Disney can show Mulan killing 2,000 Huns in an animated children's movie, then I can tag this as mature and not be worried about traumatizing people, okay?)

If it had a theme song, it might be 'Fourth of July' by Sufjan Stevens or 'Abstract (Psychopomp)' by Hozier. (Don't be scared, you'll be fine, because if the chapter after that had a theme song, it would be 'Dog Days are Over' by Florence and the Machine)

So, all the chapters are titled with 5 stages of career development (completely arbitrary, I worked off Indeed's for a while and then I said 'fuck it'). Stage 1 was Establishment, stage 2 was Maintenance, stage 3 (spanning ch. 3 and 4 on ao3) was Advancement. So stage 4 (ch. 5 on ao3) will be Obstruction, so take that how you will. But stage 5 (ch. 6 on ao3) will be Resolution, so that should make you feel better. They're sister chapters, so although the conflict itself is resolved in chapter 4, the lasting changes and long-term effects of that conflict will be mostly featured in chapter 5 (which, honestly, is the one I'm most excited to write because I feel like it's that moment when Alex really grows into himself).

And a little fun knowledge just for you: there's actually going to be a stage 6 (ch. 7, on ao3). I was going to surprise readers by adding on a chapter after I publish stage 5 with a 'psych! you thought this was over, suckers'. Stage 6 is titled 'Reflection', so I'm planning for it to be about how Alex leaves office dealing with the idea of his own legacy and accomplishments (but as I teased in Stage 3, he won't actually be 'done').

I think that's all I've got in me. Chapter 4 is in the works, but it's taking way longer than I'd like (I've only just started part 1 😬) since I started a new job that's kind of sucking the life out of me. I'm very excited to share it, though! I'll be sad when it's over (maybe I'll do a missing moments oneshot series after, who knows).

director's cut ask game

[ships-to-sail]

Five facts AU *cracks knuckles*: D&D AU with Alex as one of the adventuring party and Henry as the grandson of the shapeshifter dragon queen

xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes

ooh, yes please!

The only reason Alex handed over the sword to begin with was because Henry had asked nicely. If he'd known at the time that Henry would later hold it to his throat and tell him that the only way for him to live in this life was for Alex to meet him in the next one, he might have held on to it for a few more hours before he'd parted with it.

When he'd come of age, Henry refused to embrace the scorching fire that was the right and revelry of his royal family line, choosing the impossible task of embracing logic, law, reason and rhetoric over the screaming rage and crushing rage of the monarchs before him in the line. Even now, almost a century later, he still fights to hide the scars on his neck from every swallowed flame.

Alex had bet their first kiss would taste like the cherry spice of spring wine, and Henry had bet him that it would taste like the ember and ash of coal-roasted chestnuts when the first autumn leaves hit the ground. They both lost, sliding Nora a cool twenty gold apiece when their first kiss was a shot of the summer sun with a goblin blood chaser, the carnage of the Battle of Helion still fresh on the ground around them.

Nora has a plan, on the metagame level, to betray the party and kidnap Henry's cunty dragon grandma to sell her to the rebels currently planning a siege of the capital. The party plans a peaceful exchange for hostages, but honestly Nora is tired of the bigoted bullshit Pez has to come up with as their DM. Only June knows of her betrayal. However, Henry does know about her plan to double-cross her betrayal and use the threat of death to barter for even greater stakes. No one knows about her plan to triple-cross them all and slit the old bitches throat herself. Long live rogues, long live Equestria.

No one ever guesses, but the truth of the matter is: it's Henry who brought Alex to the table. Henry, who's love for stories pushes him outside of himself and into the very-much-not-a-math-gay world of character sheets and stat boosts; Henry, who comes home for months with his face practically split in two with joy as he replays for Alex a story of epic proportions, a tale to rival Lord of the Rings with arguably way hotter elves. Henry, who one night drags Alex along when bar trivia is cancelled and, tray of fruity pebble rice krispies in hand, introduces him to a world of heroism, of chivalry and slaying and as many conquerable villains as Pez has the time to throw at them (and the dice have the willingness to help them defeat). So it may be Alex who falls harder, enamored with the ability to now love Henry in a million different lifetimes every other Thursday. But it will always be Henry who fell first.

[Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.]

[fantrollology]

JC vs gus

you cant fight JC. JC wins every fight because it doesn't happen and then you get ice creams :)

[ao3riley]

how about tanitachi with the "enamor me" prompt from the "drabbles: send me characters and a prompt" post?

Leave a “Enamor Me” in my ask, and I will write a fluffy drabble characters trying to woo one another [be it out of the blue/Valentines Day, feel free to specify.]

------

A day like any other, just a regular Monday morning before work. Tachihara had been sent down to the cafe for drinks for the office, and he was waiting patiently for the order to be prepared. A cough from behind him had him turning around, tense and ready to fight.

One of the Port Mafia goons, Tachihara, was standing there, looking particularly....awkward? "Hey."

".....hi?" Tanizaki replied, more than a little confused. Was he not here to fight? Wait, was the truce still intact?

"Um, I know we got off on the wrong foot and everything," Tachihara said slowly. "Can we start over?"

"What do you mean?"

Tachihara looked away, searching for words, and long moments ticked by in silence. Finally he sighed and dug in his pocket, pulling out a coin. He activated his ability, turning it into a flat piece of metal, before curling it into a rough flower shape. Without a word, he offered it over.

Tanizaki took the metal flower, both surprised and moved. "That's....nice." In spite of the few words, his tone was suitably impressed.

"I know it's nothing compared to what you can do." Tachihara shrugged. "So uh. About my earlier question...?"

"Can we start over? Sure."

"Great!" Tachihara let out a relieved breath. "So....dinner sometime?"

[skye-high-multiverse]

one muse holding the other up against a tree. (Monroe pinning Kim)

It was raining, and the couple were planning where to put their future business that they had discussed earlier. The car was a bit too far to just run to, so they decided to stay under a tree, where while they still got wet, they'd still be able to servey the area.

It was only when Monroe slipped up on the wet ground, he pins Kim against the mighty oak, his hands surrounding both sides as he breathed heavily against her, lips just about to touch each other as the rain hits them from just under the tree's branches.

Nobody else would be there to catch them doing anything, as he somewhat hiked her upwards when he pinned her, young adult bodies touching against each other waiting for one to make the first move.

@insanityxofxmuses

[the-yearning-astronaut]

Shakarian for ship meme ❤️

Ahhhhh I love them!! Probably my first human/obviously not a human ships. jdjejxjs certainly one of my fav Ships, even if I'm not compelled to write fic for them. (I have actually only read very few fics, too.)

***by "surprised it's canon" I mean "surprised bioware gave players the option of making it their personal canon"

[peppersandcats]

Apologies if any of these are original (please obviously feel free to skip), the underlining isn't showing up on the post for me for some reason, so here are a few that have intrigued me :0 - Peaches and Motor Oil; Hartley Lisa Ray; Vespertine; Boots; Girls. :D

>cracks knuckles< It's been a damn long while since I've tried answering stuff, please let me know if I break anything.

This is from the WIP title meme post.

Peaches and Motor Oil - actually an original piece.

"Well." The cat's eyes gleamed. "I'm doing no more than this boy did, after all. You come to the crossroads, and you learn something, and what you take away and where you go with that is up to you. But you were kind once, when I was caught in the rain, and kind ever since. So take yourself along, kitten, and thank the boy for telling you what he knows."

5. hartley lisa ray - a short piece about Hartley and Lisa looking to steal something from a PalmerTech event. It's honestly mostly done, I just need to smooth out the scene breaks...!

22. Vespertine - another original one. It's... hmh. I guess it's the story of a bad fairy in a city of superheroes. :)

28. Boots - I can't find this one anymore, but from what I recall it was Len setting restrictions on Hartley beating the crap out of someone - the rule was basically "go ahead, two minutes, boots and not gloves."

(It was justified, promise.)

29. Girls - a third original. :) A story about a couple of people looking for those who get forgotten. It's weird and winding and I don't like the pacing.

[lastofthebelmontsrp]

Spill it! Five things you hate about Alucard

"Oh goodness. It should be easy, but my friend. He is my best friend. Forgive me in advance @askadrianalucardtepes

He acts like he's better than me. He is not.

He's one to call me a smelly alcoholic. Look in the mirror, brother.

He lauds the fact that he can read and I cannot over my head.

An absolute neat freak. One things out of place and he's lecturing me. For what reason?"

He acts like he's had the hardest life when he came from a loving family and everything was more fine and normal than mine and Sypha's. And yet we're the ones supporting him.

Is that too harsh?"

[vlaakithswill-a]

@cambius sent: ❛ you are dazzling and terrifying - those words are not as removed from one another as you may think. ❜

"i do not think them removed."

there is beauty to be found in terror. fear is, to lae'zel's mind, a prey instinct: necessary for survival in whatever degree governs sense and doubly a source of shame. yet to feel the hair on her neck rise and her skin prickle with awe — the sensation is not so distant from enjoyment.

the line of her neck stretches as she nods skyward. "ascended githyanki ride the red dragons gifted to my people by the goddess tiamat. there is beauty in such an immaculate predator; the twofold brutality of steed and rider is awe-striking to behold."

there is something likewise draconian in the way lae'zel eyes nepharia. she begins circling her, appraising. the woman speaks either truth or a silver-tongued ruse. "do i terrify you? does your pulse quicken in your throat?"

[krourou2]

reverse unpopular opinion ask game! uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ultrakill?

Oooh.

Ultrakill pushes me to improve my skills at the game – react faster, aim better, know when to use certain weapons and how to use them in tandem. Also, finally pushing through something – for example, getting a P rank by turning around and finding an extra enemy behind the door you just came through, or beating a boss that's been mopping the floor with you – is so satisfying.

It's fast, it's bloody, and frankly kinda funny at times. It doesn't take itself too seriously – but it's not too light, either.

.. I could probably say more but my brain's running on empty right now.

[kiwiana-writes]

firstprince tailor shop au

ONE: Henry doesn't find out until much later, but when Alex was first approached about taking on tailoring work for HRH Prince Henry of Wales, Shaan gave him the full NDA—the one that gets given to Oxford hookups and guests staying at Kensington—not the slightly more abridged one external contractors and other service providers receive. If pressed, he would of course insist it was a simple mistake. (Shaan does not make mistakes like that.)

TWO: The first time they meet, Alex spends 40% of the time ripping the absolute piss out of whoever was tailoring Henry's suits before Alex came along, 25% of the time talking shit about the entire concept of a monarchy and everything he hates about living in the UK, and the remaining 35% of the time moving his hands around Henry's body as he takes measurements in a way that is both completely professional and utter torture for Henry.

THREE: The flirting never stops. It's overwhelming: half the time Henry is half-naked, or Alex is on his knees, or both, and Henry just has to grit his teeth and not react.

FOUR: Henry and Shaan arrive one day, a few months in, with instructions from Buckingham: ensure that Henry's depression-related weight loss isn't noticeable, because it isn't seemly. The resulting stream of absolutely infuriated Spanglish on Henry's behalf is the moment Henry falls in love for real.

FIVE: It's not the innuendo, in the end, that goads Henry into finally kissing Alex. It's the look in his eye one day when he smoothes the lines of Henry's suit jacket into place, the way he calls Henry beautiful with no hint of a tease in his expression.

[Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.]

[roseapothecary]

13, 18, 28 for the asks!

13. what are you doing right now?

Answering silly ask questions and talking about some OC stuff with my bestie.

18. do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

I really want to believe in ghosts. I'm really into hauntings and stuff, but I don't know if that's because I genuinely believe there are ghosts there or because I like a good story, lol. I definitely believe in aliens, though not in the way that movies portray them or whatever. I'm the kind of person who thinks that it's, like, super arrogant to NOT believe that there's life elsewhere... but, for all we know, it's just other life forms just like us, wondering if there's life on other planets.

28. do you collect anything?

I collect merch from musical theatre productions, lol. Lately, I've been really big on magnets (thanks to @lilythesilly), but I have a truly obscene number of mugs and jackets and shirts. I'm wearing a shirt from the recent Broadway revival of Company right now.

[many-faced]

🌻

i forgot about this ask meme

anyway

almost all of my original stories and AUs that function like original stories [JSAB: RELOADED] have at least one polyamorous character if not an entire polycule :>

Theres:

Lunethel, Granite and Solis [JSAB: RELOADED]

Pyrophobia, Taphophobia, Aquaphobia and Anemophobia [Halfway]

Timekeeper, Inkstain, Coda [Halfway again]

and Leech ['Lab'yrinth/Prometheus labs]

[fantrollology]

gus and button..

why are you guys doing this to her

[fog-and-isolation]

🤔🚓

For you? Medical gaslighting.

-S. Lukas