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bluestripedspeedo · 3 months

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Indiscreet - 05. In the Mood for Love Pairing: Writer/Producer!Javi Gutierrez x you (Hollywood AU) SERIES MASTERLIST

Chapter summary: This is it. The Big Moment. Chapter warning: NSFW, NC-17, mature, no minors allowed. Discussion of safety, oral (both you and Javi), PIV, dirty talk, daddy kink (not the DDLG kind), age gap (mid 20s and mid 40s). Word count: 9.8k

Playlist: Dress - Taylor Swift So It Goes

Author's note: I had this in the queue two years ago, then life got in the way and I abandoned it. I've decided to return because I feel I have a responsibility to finish what I started, so here it is, the very long awaited smut chapter!

I've also decided to tweak the previous chapters a lot because I've changed as a person in these two years, so it's better to reread those first, as a refresher too. When I first started writing this, it was going to be about a pandemic/quarantine romance - it was initially inspired by The Bubble's premise anyway. But... that's old news now, and I don't feel like going back to that space of mind. You fall in love under different circumstances now.

Enjoy and apologies for my absence. I promise to be here more often!

✧✧✧

Day 9

The wrap party is held at the villa where you’d been filming for the past week. All of the cast and crew members are present except for one glaring absence – Dieter Bravo. He’d left the set faster than Óscar could even announce it’s a wrap. In full costume, no less.

Javi has to do something about that. Dieter’s a brilliant actor, that’s undeniable, but his public image hasn’t been positive lately. Hunger Strike helped him sweep the awards season, and if Dieter could be a little more professional, Javi wouldn’t mind pushing the campaign for his work in this too. He’s lucky he physically resembles Javi a little… As long as Javi keeps writing self-insert characters into his scripts, Dieter will always have a job waiting.

The dinner part of the party is over – people are scattered around the garden mingling and draining the last bottles of champagne and making plans for the few days off until work resumes in London.

“Óscar,” you sit down between him and Javi. They have settled on the chairs they dragged to the corner to overlook the sea while they drink and smoke. “I’m gonna go with those guys. They’ll drive me back.”

Your head nudges towards the group laughing boisterously on the steps of the villa. Some are crew, some are your co-stars that you’ve been working with since the start of the production, and some are new local actors hired just for the duration of the shoot here. They’ve made such a tight knit group you’re surprised that they even asked you to come along at all.

“Taking the party elsewhere?” Óscar asks.

“Yeah… we’re going to Saint-Tropez.”

“We could go with you. If you want.” Javi carefully masks his hopeful tone.

“We’re gonna hit up some clubs...”

“You’re way too old for that.” Óscar slaps Javi on the shoulder.

“Right,” Javi drinks the rest of his cognac in one gulp and pours another, since he’s not going anywhere tonight by the looks of it. “Might displace my hip on the dance floor or something.”

You laugh. “You’re good. It’s just… I never went out with any of them, so… could be fun.”

“Oh my God, go, we’re not your parents,” Óscar shoos you. “Just be on the boat on time tomorrow. And ask the others, too.”

“Will do, Dad.”

Javi chokes on his drink and Óscar snorts. He gets up when the cinematographer and boom operator drunkenly call for his attention. “Have fun, kid.”

“Take care of yourself. Don’t drink too much.” Javi says once Óscar is safely out of hearing distance. He didn’t see you drinking at all during dinner despite the free flowing alcohol and now he suspects it’s because you’ve planned on going all out for the after party. He doesn’t mean to be controlling, but he’s supportive of your intention to cut back and he doesn’t really trust that party crowd to look after you. Not that he thinks you couldn’t do it yourself, but it would give him a peace of mind if you were going to be inebriated.

“Yeah, don’t worry about that. I just feel like I should go. They’re my castmates. I haven’t spent much time with them, or even at all.” All thanks to the man sitting across from you, but you have no regrets. “And, you know, networking.”

“We both know you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” he grins. “Where are you going? Do you know yet?”

“No, but probably something really cliche like Les Caves or VIP.”

“Is Elise coming too? I don’t see her.”

“She left. Like ten minutes ago. Don’t ask me how I know and don’t tell anyone, but she’s following Dieter.”

Oh, shit. Javi’s eyes go wide.

“Hey, don’t ask.”

Javi is incredulous. Is he that oblivious to even his actors now? He’s on set most days and he always keeps a closer eye on them to anticipate any on set drama. He’s known them both for as long as he’s been in the industry and he usually could get a good read on these things. Takes one to know one. Maybe he’s really been that distracted.

“What about Ross? Is he coming with you?”

“Yeah. Why?” A coy smile slowly forms on your lips.

“Nothing. I heard he asked you out.” He looks away from you into the distance.

You fake a gasp. “Were you eavesdropping on me?”

“He was pretty damn loud about it.”

“Then you know I told him I have a boyfriend, right?”

“I thought so. The way his face fell. If only he could emote that well on camera.”

“Javi! That’s mean!”

“You know I’m not wrong.”

He’s right. You might be new, but you figured a while ago Ross couldn’t have been cast for his talents but rather his heartthrob status for maximum PR.

“So who’s the boyfriend?” Javi playfully side eyes you and you nudge your knee to his. “Can’t be me, too old for that.”

“Uh huh. Let’s see…” You pretend to think. “Man-friend? Lover?”

Javi groans and makes a face.

“Ooh, I know,” you look at him seductively. “Daddy.”

“Careful.” Fuck.

“Wow… I…” your eyes widen. This is definitely interesting. “...can’t wait to explore that.”

“It only sounds hot coming from you.”

Your breath catches in your throat. “Any cute nicknames for me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He throws you a teasing glance. “You could’ve found out an hour from now, give or take.” You look at him in question, so he continues. “I have a whole surprise planned – had.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“‘Surprise’ being the key word there, babe.”

“I could tell them–”

“No, forget I said anything. Go have fun.”

“But–”

“Honey. We can’t exactly hang out with each other’s friends, so when you have the chance to be with them, you go, okay? I’ll be fine.” He might be seeing things but he swears he sees your eyes tear up… with relief. Why do you need permission so badly?

“Okay. I’ll see you later?”

“I can’t promise I’ll still be up. I’m ooooold.” He leans back on his chair, taking his time to admire you in your low cut dress under the guise of having a casual, professional conversation.

“Hm, so is it your idea or Óscar’s to go to the casino tomorrow? That’s some old people shit.” The lightness comes back in your tone.

“Noitsnot.” Javi answers too quickly.

“Yeah, right. Looking forward to playing the jackpot?”

“I’ll have you know I’ll sweep you at poker.”

“If you say so. I’ll make sure to wear something interesting to distract you.”

“That’s cheating but I’ll allow it.”

“And meanwhile,” you shift so he could get a better look at your cleavage. “Think about what could’ve happened if you’d told me your plans first.”

“Ah, so my usual thoughts. That’s easy.”

“Yeah, mine too.” Your voice drops to a whisper. “I didn’t come last night, daddy.”

He suppresses a groan. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“I had to. You made me so wet.”

“I offered to take care of you, baby.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t come. I wanted to wait for you.”

“Fuck.”

“Well, now we’re even. See you tomorrow.”

You get up and leave to join your friends, leaving him hard and wanting as he pulls out a new cigarette.

✧✧

Day 10

You are positively trying to kill him today. As if the thought of you touching yourself right under his room wasn’t enough to make his balls about to explode, now you’re lounging in the red one piece that drove him crazy a couple of months ago. He tries hard, very hard, to look at literally anything else. He hopes no one notices how long he’s been ‘taking pictures’ of the oceanic view.

And it gets worse. When it’s time to dress up to the nines for the night, he puts on a light blue suit jacket, but you… you go beyond what you promised. You arrive last to the casino and in that moment, it’s as if everything in the room stops. It stirs something in him too when he sees people checking you out as you walk past them.

“You look so handsome.” You tell him once you’re close enough. Óscar had gone straight to the high rollers table upon arrival, taking a few crew members on his dime. But Javi’s content with sitting around nursing his drink, waiting for you.

“This isn’t fair.” He gives you a quick once over.

“You like it?” You’re not usually one to wear something so revealing, but Javi makes you bold. You were saving this up for a proper date with him back in London, but there’s no time like the present. You can’t even be shy about showing so much because you need to elicit his reaction.

“It’s fucking fantastic.”

“You should see it on the floor.”

He drops his head and sighs heavily, then he points his drink towards the slot machines. “One round and we’re leaving.”

“What happened to poker? Are you chickening out?” You challenge him.

“No, but it takes much more time.”

“Excuses, excuses…” From here, you can see Óscar in your line of sight. “Why don’t we leave after he wins? Then he’ll be busy with the next round to notice us, right?”

“That’d be a while. He sucks.”

“Go and help him, then. Oh, how are we getting back?”

“We’re not. I’m getting us a suite.”

“I don’t know about that. It’s a lot less private around here. People talk.”

You’re right, and logistically it’s more difficult to explain both of your absences for the night and potentially tomorrow morning. The yacht isn’t an option, either.

“Let’s Uber, then.”

“Yeah, we can’t do that. It doesn’t work here.”

He studies your face while he calculates his options. “Sit tight, I have an idea.”

✧

The ‘idea’ turns out to be buying a fellow gambler’s car with his winnings. Of all things you expected to happen today, finding yourself in the backseat of a Pagani was not one. Javi was a few hundred thousand short but he didn’t think the guy cared that much. From the way he had been gawking at Javi and Óscar since they walked in, he probably would’ve given it away for free. His immaculate taste in cars was just a nice bonus. Plus, the color matches his suit.

“I just have to send his kids some signed merch and arrange them a tour of the Beskar set. Great deal, huh?”

“You billionaires are weird.” You shake your head in amusement.

He starts the car and the revving attracts a few passersby. “What did you tell Óscar?”

“That I’m tired and everyone else is busy having fun. He didn’t even blink.”

“Let’s hope they’ll keep him occupied ‘til tomorrow.”

The two of you ride in silence, enjoying the vast view of hills and sea, away from the city lights. Javi is relaxed and concentrated, and it gives you a warm, calm feeling seeing him this way.

“It’s been a long time since I drove a sports car. This is a vast improvement from the last one, though, definitely.” He looks over to your side, clearly enjoying his time. “Better looking passenger, too.”

“Pfft, come on! So cheesy.”

“I’m serious… It was with Nic.” Javi says with a chuckle. “You should’ve seen how everyone was looking at you.”

“Can’t say I noticed.”

“Hmm-mm. They were.”

“Did you like it? Or were you jealous?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“I get jealous when I see other women checking you out. I’m not too proud to admit that.”

“But they don’t hold a candle to you. So don’t worry.”

“Same here. Don’t want anyone else.”

You caress his arm up to his shoulder where he turns his head to give your hand a kiss. Then you lightly travel down to tug at the buttons on his stomach, then his belt, then the zipper of his pants… you let out a soft moan when he involuntarily bucks towards your hand. Feeling brave, and to his surprise, you cup him over the material and he lets out a heavy groan.

“Behave, baby. You keep that up and we won’t make it there.”

“Okay, but drive faster. Feels so heavy, Javi. I want it all in me. Make it fit.” Turning him on turns you on.

His hands on the steering wheel turn white. “Fuck yes baby you’re gonna take it. Wearing that dress like you’re begging to be fucked. I knew everyone in there pictured your bare tits.”

Oh. Your jaw drops. That’s… unexpected. You squeeze him in response and he immediately takes away your hand to clasp it above his knee.

“You’re so fucking naughty. Teasing me every day.” Javi’s deep voice drops a few more octaves and it makes you squirm. “What happened to waiting, hm?”

“I can’t. I’m tired of fingering myself to sleep, every night.”

“Yeah? What did you think about when you did it?”

“Yours in me… mine aren’t thick enough, Javi,” you sigh from your own admission. “Your tongue. Feeling your mustache on me. You stretching m–”

You gasp when Javi suddenly grips your hand tightly. You’ve never seen Javi look this intense before. His nostrils flare, his eyes darken, and his breathing becomes so heavy you can hear it in the silence.

“Want you fucking my mouth, daddy,” you continue, making him grip you again to the point of almost hurting.

“You–” His mouth forms into a snarl. “You’re gonna kill me.”

You bring up his hand that grips you to run his thumb along your lips to nibble on it. You do the same to each finger, eyes looking at him putting all his effort into concentrating on the road ahead. He finally turns his head when you slip his middle finger past your lips to the knuckle, giving it a languid, sensual suck. A teaser of what’s to come.

“Fuck, baby. You have to stop.” Javi lets out a moan as he focuses back on the road and you keep swirling your tongue around him, rubbing the underside back and forth as if it were–

You have an idea.

You hope you won’t crash and die on these hills.

Your other hand makes a quick work hiking up your dress and your mouth lets go of his finger and you guide your hand and his between your thighs and–

Javi lets out an angry growl when his hand meets your soaked panties. “You get this wet from talking?”

“It’s you, Javi…” He starts rubbing you through the material and you throw your head back on the seat, moving your hips along with his movement.

Then you have another idea.

You recline the seat, shimmy your ruined panties off, and drape your leg over the console to spread yourself open. The cold that hits you is nothing compared to the warmth of his massive hand so close to your center. Javi’s eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of their sockets. He can’t see you clearly in the dark, but he can definitely feel your wetness on the leather.

“Please, Javi… I don’t wanna wait.”

Javi mutters something under his breath, his one hand on the wheel shaking. He didn’t plan on doing this here, or even tonight. He was going to surprise you with a private dinner the other night, and tonight he only wanted to take you back to the villa just so you could stop pretending you’re just coworkers when work is already done - for the time being, anyway. He thought it would be PG at best, but… he’s not complaining. But he’s driving, and he’s thisclose to losing control.

But on the other hand, is your exposed pussy begging for his touch. And Javi’s only a man.

So Javi decides to be a gentleman and give you what you ask for. He starts by running his hand over your mound, groaning at the smoothness. Then he moves his hand further down and spreads your wetness over his hand and yourself, fingers parting your lips along the way. You don’t dare to look down because even a mere glance of Javi’s hand working on you would make you come, you’re sure of it.

But you do anyway, just as his finger starts to rub your clit in circular motions, making you fall back on the seat with a loud moan. He continues and puts more pressure as you squirm and writhe, restrained by the seatbelt across your torso, keening sounds filling the small space.

He wishes he could watch you. Maybe he should pull over, get you off, then drive again after you’re both satisfied? But he really doesn’t wanna do it in a car that hasn’t even been his for an hour. You deserve better, somewhere more comfortable, even when you’re so desperate now.

Luckily the GPS says they’re only 5 minutes away.

5 minutes too long.

“Javi…” your pleading moan takes him back into the situation at hand, and he gets the hint. You need more.

So he gives you more. His middle finger prods your entrance and enters you without warning, making you bite your lip in pleasure. Your two that usually keep you busy on many lonely nights is nothing in comparison to his thick one. His knuckles on the steering wheel go white when you clench around him as he tries to find your spot without even looking in your direction.

3 minutes.

Should he, or should he not make you come? It’s fucking hot, seeing you grip the armrest and your toes curling, hearing you loudly cry when he adds another finger, the squelch of your pussy equally as loud as your wanton moans to his ears. DRIVEDRIVEDRIVEyouresocloseDRIVEsoclose

The GPS doesn’t even get to announce your arrival before he carelessly parks the car in the driveway. His fingers leave your core to your dismay and he doesn’t give you a moment before pulling his seatbelt off and lurches on to you, grabbing your face in a passionate kiss and smearing your wetness on his fingers on your neck.

“Javi…” you try to get a word in between kisses. “Let’s– let’sgoinsidebaby–”

Reluctantly he pulls back from you, eyes as dark as the night. With a heavy sigh, Javi exits the car and helps you out, your panties forgotten on the floor.

✧

Javi opens the front door and doesn’t even get to turn on the lights when a moaning sound from somewhere inside freezes you both.

“Óscar…?” Javi tries, as much as he knows it couldn’t be him. The moans persist and turn into groans. “Uh… stay here. Call security, please, honey.”

“NO!”

“Dieter?!” Javi says incredulously to which the man answers with another groan. You close the door and follow Javi to the living room.

“Hey, man. Sorry to crash.”

Dieter is passed out on the couch, hair strewn in every direction, barely dressed in a pair of boxers and a wrinkled green bathroom robe. He’s holding a corked bottle of wine that threatens to slip out of his grasp that he clearly struggled to open with his bare hands before. By his feet is a spilled, empty glass of whatever he was having and an unlit joint that already burned a hole through the velvet material. It’s a shitshow.

“How did you even get in here?”

“I climbed. Your security is shit.”

“Yeah, thanks. Why are you here?”

“Why are you so pissy?”

At that moment, you come into his view and Dieter’s reddened eyes stare at you quizzically before noticing your smeared lipstick… and your see-through front that you try to cover as much as you can with your very small clutch.

And then he has the audacity to drop his gaze onto Javi’s tented lap.

“Oooooohhhhh. No fucking way. You’re so dead.”

“Hi… Dieter.” You try to meet his eyes so he wouldn’t look anywhere else, particularly your… private area.

“Holy shit. Does Óscar know?”

You glance at Javi who keeps glaring at Dieter in anger. His patience is running thin.

“Dieter. What. Are. You. Doing. Here?”

“I got high and Elise threw a fucking fit because I was balls de– I was with my PA. Don’t look at me all judgy like that. You’re also tapping this hot piece of a–”

“Shut up!” Javi barks. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“Chill the fuck out, Javi.” Dieter rolls his eyes and gives you a salute. “Great dress… beautiful dress.”

“Stop.”

“Okay. Damn.”

“Go back to your room, Dieter.”

“Can’t. She’s in there.”

“That’s your problem.”

“You go and fuck each other’s brains out. I’ll sit here and be quiet.”

“Out, Dieter. I give you ten seconds. Ten.” Javi starts counting.

“Really?”

“I’m getting a drink.” You announce to no one. Luckily there’s a throw blanket on the nearest chair and you’re able to swiftly cover yourself in it.

Dieter gets up and stumbles right behind you to the kitchen. “Great idea!”

“Hey!” Javi’s growl echoes throughout the house and he stalks after Dieter, grabbing him by the collar of his robe. “Nine.”

“Let go of me, man.”

“I’ve had it with you, Dieter. You got arrested, you ran off set, you mess around with my crew–”

“Oh and that rule doesn’t apply to you?”

“No, it doesn’t. I make the rules.”

“Yeah? I thought Óscar does.”

“Eight, Dieter. Watch it.”

“Hey, I never asked.” Dieter smirks at you. “How old are you? Twenty?”

“Four years ago, I was.” You tell him nonchalantly at the same time that Javi says “don’t answer him.”

Dieter looks over his shoulder at Javi and barks out a mocking laugh. “You have one year to leave him for Leo. Nice.”

“That’s it, we’re done.” Javi’s grip tightens on Dieter’s robe and he starts to drag him back out. All this male posturing is really wearing you off. You can’t take this back and forth between them anymore. This was supposed to be a fun night for you.

“I have seven more, don’t I?”

“Just… let him stay, Javi. I’m tired anyway.” You let out an exaggerated sigh and fill up another glass with water and put it on the kitchen island, motioning to Dieter that it’s for him. You bury your face in your hands, softly massaging your temples while Javi goes to stand by your side with his back facing Dieter. You reach out until you find his hand and you squeeze it softly, silently assuring him it’s not his fault.

The three of you stand around in silence while Dieter sips his water and Javi eventually stops clenching from anger. When he’s done drinking, Dieter finally looks like he knows what guilt is.

“Sorry for ruining your night.”

“Hmm.” “No shit.” You and Javi reply in unison.

“You two gonna tell Óscar about this?”

“None of your business.” Javi turns around to face him with a finality in his tone. “And whatever is going on with Elise, sort that out before we’re back to filming.”

“I don’t have any more scenes.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I’ve told you I’ve taken up that other job.”

“What other job?”

“Cliff Beasts.”

You snort and raise your head. “Cliff Beasts? Really?”

He shrugs. “Money’s good.”

“Use that for rehab.” Javi snarks.

“Who else is in it?” You sincerely wonder. You were too young to watch the original in theaters when it came out, but the franchise keeps getting more and more ridiculous with each sequel. You keep up just to understand the memes, like everyone does.

“The entire old cast is coming back. Even Carol Cobb.”

“Cool. Love her.”

“And new people your age. They keep telling me they’re from TikTok. What’s that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” You dismiss his question. He should stay in the dark about that. The world doesn’t deserve to witness Dieter’s shenanigans on that app.

You rinse your glass and pat Javi’s arm. “I’m going to bed.”

Javi watches you walk away and waits until you close your bedroom door before he scolds Dieter. “You saw nothing, heard nothing. No one will know about this.”

“Okay.”

“One slip up and I won’t vouch for you anymore.”

“Okay.”

��And you’ll be gone tomorrow morning before we’re up. Sort your shit out.”

“Heard you.”

Javi leaves him to go up to his room and he hears Dieter call out a thanks when he’s halfway past the stairs. He has no energy to acknowledge it.

✧

And gone before they’re up, he did. Óscar didn’t even see him when he finally got back around 7 AM and the rest of the day was spent shuffling around to pack. Javi had to arrange the shipment of the new car he acquired too. There was no time to talk about last night, or talk at all, because Javi’s private plane was already waiting on the tarmac for whenever they’re done and ready to leave.

Óscar is passed out from hangover across from him while you occupy the front of the plane. Busy on your phone, as usual. From his position he can somewhat make out an Escher-looking game. There’s only 30 minutes left before the plane lands in London and he has about 15 before Óscar wakes up.

“So,” he moves next to your seat and speaks in a whisper. “Where are you going after we land?”

“I have to check into my hotel. Why are we whispering?”

“Do you want to just stay at mine? For the rest of the shoot?”

It’s very tempting. But logistically it’ll only call attention to you. You can’t exactly get away with staying at the producer’s house for an entire month. It’s bad enough that Ava knows and now Dieter too. “And tell my PA what?”

“That you’re renting your own place? Staying with a friend?”

“They need to know where they’re picking me up every day.”

“That’s easy. I’ll drive you.”

“Yes, that won’t be suspicious at all.”

Javi sighs in defeat. You’re right, again. Óscar stirs in his seat and Javi waits until he stills again to propose his solution. Except Óscar doesn’t and is fully awake now and asking if they’re there yet.

“I’ll text you,” he mouths.

✧✧

London, three days later

What he proposed in the text didn’t come into fruition. He’d told you to check in, repack your necessities, and he’ll pick you up to go to his place. Only go to your hotel when you need new clothes. It’s not a bad idea, but it doesn’t matter anyway because you didn’t even get to unpack before Javi informed you that he’d be busy and couldn’t pick you up.

So you’ve been staying in your room, alone, since you got back, flicking through the script for next week and for a new series Javi sent you this morning. “Ten episodes, HBO. Whichever role you want.” You didn’t have the heart to tell him that it turns out acting doesn't interest you that much and someone else would be more grateful for the opportunity. He also told you he offered Dieter the same project, who accepted it on the spot. But Dieter needs to complete Cliff Beasts first before this starts production, so you have time until then to tell Javi.

Who is now calling you. You pick up on the first ring.

“Hey, baby.” His voice sounds tired and it’s barely dark. He’s been occupied with meetings and prep, hence his absence. “Wanna go for dinner in an hour?”

“I just finished eating room service. We could go for drinks, though?”

“I don’t wanna be buzzed. I need to be up early tomorrow,” he lets out a heavy sigh. “I miss you.”

Your heart aches, knowing the effort he puts into his work and how much it means to him and Óscar. You know how badly he wants his production company to be on par with the big league studios. You know how much thought and research and passion he puts into each of his films. All of that doesn’t even count running his family business on top of everything too - the legal one, the only one that still exists. It hasn’t been the same since a new guy took over from his ex and because of that Javi has to be more hands on in every decision making, or so he told you.

“Miss you too. Where are you right now?”

“Amsterdam.”

“Wait, what?!”

“Didn’t I tell you this morning?”

Definitely no, you would’ve remembered. “No, but– why?”

“Business stuff. Anyway, I’m about to take off.”

“Okay, umm…” You try to think of an idea quickly, still dumbfounded by the new information. “Why don’t you… come over tonight?”

“I’m just gonna disappoint you, babe. I’m so tired.”

“Oh, yeah, I don’t mean– we don’t have to– just have dinner here and sleep. Like, sleep sleep.”

There’s silence on the other hand as Javi thinks it over.

“Yeah. Sure. Okay.”

Two hours later, Javi rings on your door and you open it in your underwear and a loose t-shirt that doesn’t go past your waist. The way Javi’s eyes widen is so comical that you’d laugh if he didn’t immediately slam the door to pick you up and carry you to the bedroom, his lips finding yours as he does.

“Should’ve brought you with me… missed you so much.”

You whimper as you try to pry open his buttons.

“I really can’t, baby…” He pulls your fingers off him, kissing each one before he lets go and rolls over onto his back.

Next thing you know you hear his soft snores. His feet dangle from the bed and he’s still very much fully clothed.

You give him a chaste kiss and pull the blanket over your bodies and fall asleep too.

✧

You wake up to the soft buzzing of a hair dryer and a ring of the doorbell. The room is dimmed and it’s still dark outside. You get up groggily to get the door and walk past the dining table filled with freshly prepared breakfast. Neat.

There’s no one outside when you open it, but an inconspicuous brown paper bag sits on the floor with a note attached that addresses the package to a ‘Mr. José Estrada’. What…?

“That’s for me, babe.” Javi comes out of the bathroom in a towel folded up to above his stomach and his hair uncombed. It’s… adorable. You’re still not awake enough to appreciate it and merely raise your eyebrows at the name on the bag. Javi shrugs and takes the package from you. “Clothes. Just to be careful. Mornin’.”

He leans down to kiss you but you turn away, muttering about morning breath. He snickers and goes back in to change.

Javi is still in the living room having breakfast when you emerge again, freshly showered too. He’s in a pair of slacks and a white half-buttoned shirt, like he just got home from work instead of going to it. He looks too devastatingly handsome for this early. He guides you by the back of your knees to sit on his lap and you definitely, definitely wobble.

“What are you doing today?” You ask him while he peppers kisses on your neck.

“On set for half the day. Then I’m free.” He pulls back to stroke your cheek. “Stay at my place tonight? I’ll cook you dinner.”

The implication is clear in his eyes.

✧✧

Of course you didn’t get to find out what he was going to cook for you. What is it with the universe conspiring against you having a wholesome, uninterrupted night with this man? Okay, maybe that’s why, because you’re not really aiming for wholesome. Instead of his house, you’re at Carlotta with him and a few of his celebrity friends, including Dieter and Elise. It’s been three hours and the chatter has gone cold and the wine warm.

“...maybe it’s just like a month off? I don’t know what the big deal is.”

“Apparently the other unions are considering it too.”

“What else?”

“Directors, Writers, Visual Effects, who knows what else. It’s gonna be chaotic.”

You don’t even care what’s being talked about anymore. Someone needs to get the bill before smoke comes out of your ears. You know you didn’t have to be here, of course, but you didn’t want to wait around in your room either and you were hungry. Javi had called you from set to let you know about this last minute dinner that someone arranged in the guise of business networking. Óscar still had scenes to direct and told Javi to go on his own. He knew Javi had nothing to do for the rest of the day. And Javi couldn’t exactly tell him he actually had plans with you.

You weren’t pissed initially - you were enjoying yourself, even. But the two smartly dressed thirty-something women four tables over who have been eyefucking Javi for the past half hour? The statuesque former VS model who sent him a negroni and her Ritz room key? That’s not even his drink of choice, you sneer in your head. Nice try.

You’re not jealous of them, no, Javi is going home with someone at the end of the night and it’s not with any of them. But the way he looks right now and the way that he’s wanted, turn you on so much. That pisses you off. Because this dinner couldn’t finish soon enough.

“I’m gonna drop by Loulou’s after this, you wanna come?” Elise asks next to you. “Ross is already there.”

You look over to Javi… who is signing the check, thank fucking God.

✧

Neither of you even made it to his house last night.

He’d barely parked his car, that ostentatious blue thing, in his driveway when you climbed over the console to sit on his lap.

“Thank you for dinner,” you murmured into his exquisite neck, leaving a mark with your teeth. Tacky, you knew.

“You’re the only one who’s ever said that to me,” he looked at you with a hint of wistfulness. You felt a pang in your heart at his confession.

“Of course I’m grateful, Javi.” You kissed him softly while you twisted the curls around the nape of his neck. “I’ll show you how much.”

Then his phone rang.

And it was Óscar telling Javi to go to his place for last minute rewrites, again.

So regretfully, he had to drop you at your hotel on the way. And naturally this morning you woke up really, really annoyed.

“You know what, this is ridiculous.” You call him over lunch. Room service, again.

“I agree.”

“We should clear out our schedule.”

“Let’s do that.”

“You know I mean yours, right?”

Javi sighs. “I know. I’m gonna sort that out right now. How was your sleep?”

“Eh. I’ve had better. Yours?”

“Shitty. I passed out on the floor.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. I’m getting a massage as we speak.”

“On set?”

Javi grunts and you snort in jealousy.

“Tell you what. Book a res–”

“Absolutely not. It’s never gonna happen if we go out, Javi. There’s always… something. Like… some kind of weird divine intervention.”

He giggles from the other side. Actually giggles.

“Don’t laugh, I’m serious.”

Which makes him fully laugh. “I’ve cleared out my week. I’m all yours.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Daphne’s or Clos Maggiore?”

“Or.”

“Baby. Come on.”

“Let’s just… have coffee or something casual. That always works for us. Right?”

✧✧

It finally works. You spend the afternoon with him watching a movie at the Electric (and he booked out the entire place) and when you both couldn’t stop fooling around in the theater anymore, you make a run for the car.

“Yours or mine?”

“Yours. You wanted me in your bed.”

Javi wastes no time speeding to his house. It’s not a long drive, but Javi makes the most of it. He snakes his hand up your dress and rubs your inner thigh, making sure his knuckles brush along your clit while he’s at it. It drives you crazy, and by the time you arrive at his house, you’re already a panting mess.

He leads you up the stairs and into his bedroom, and you realize you haven’t been in it before. It’s not much of a difference from the room you’ve slept in aesthetic-wise, but it’s much bigger. Easily twice the size, plus a balcony with a small garden and a door that you assume leads to the bathroom and you don’t care what else because his lips are on yours and his hands are all over you as he walks you to the bed, pinning you down on it.

“I had better plans than this.” He croons into your ear and sucks a spot under the lobe.

You sigh into him. “It doesn’t matter now.”

Javi kisses along your jaw and lightly nips your chin. You grasp his shirt in surprise and he presses you deeper into the bed, making you even closer to him. His weight almost suffocates you, in a good way.

“You look fuckable in this, but it has to go.” He hooks a thumb under the strap of your velvet slip dress, your jacket long forgotten in the car. You nod, giving him permission, and he slips it past your shoulder, then past your tits still covered in a lacy strapless bra, then finally past your hips while he kisses the trail of exposed skin along the way. Javi groans loudly when he’s eye level with your crotch and he sees that your matching panties are soaked and that it’s a fucking thong.

“You are so pretty.” Javi kisses your mound over the material and hooks the string of your barely-there thong between his fingers, as if he’s contemplating whether he should take it off or take you in it. He grabs your thigh and slightly angles you to the side, tracing slowly to the one string swallowed between your cheeks, and his hand lands on your ass with a smack.

“Ah!” You exclaim in surprise and Javi takes the string just to snap it back on you with another light smack.

“Fucking pretty all over.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” You say breathily.

“I know, baby.” Javi murmurs in between mouthing and biting on your thigh and kneading your ass. You’re too busy sighing out your pleasure that you don’t see his other hand about to palm your mound under your panties until you feel it. Javi takes his mouth off of you and sits back on his knees to watch you squirm under his touch.

“Javi…”

“Yeah, baby?”

“I need you.”

“Hmm.” Javi continues grazing his fingers down to your lips, intentionally avoiding where you need him the most.

“Javi…” You fully lie on your back and spread your legs apart. “Take it off.”

Oh, how he’d love to. “I’m gonna take my time, honey.” Javi cups you over your panties and moves his palm up and down your pussy, spreading your wetness on yourself. “You made me wait. Now you wait.”

“Please, Javi. Touch me–”

“I am touching you.”

“I need you, please–”

“Love hearing you beg, baby.”

“Please please please–”

“Please what?”

You’re reduced to whimpering and you buck up your hips to meet his grounding palm. Your arousal is dripping even more now and it drives him crazy that you, the most beautiful woman that he’s ever laid eyes on and he’s wanted since that night in November, is on his bed. Begging for him.

Frustrated, you take the initiative to undo the front clasp of your bra. Javi stops his movements the moment he sees them and you swear his mouth drops open a little.

He’s had several ideas of what they would look like but his imagination doesn’t compare to the real thing. Yours are the perfect size for his hands and so soft under his touch. He runs his hand up between your cleavage before leaning down to take a nipple in his mouth. You writhe under him, arching your back as he nibbles and laps on it and kneads the other one.

“More,” you groan.

“No,” he growls against your soft flesh.

“No?”

“Be patient.” You let out a cry when he bites your underboob. “These are so pretty, baby.”

You moan and tangle your fingers in his hair until he finally takes pity on you. He kisses the valley between your breasts before capturing your lips and you wrap your arms around his neck.

“Javi,” you whisper in between his hungry kisses. “I need t– I need to come.”

“Same here.”

“Touch me.”

“Where?”

You guide his hand and let it rest between your legs, grinding onto his hand again.

“Use your words, baby.”

“Just make me come, Javi. Do whatever you want with me.”

Desperation drips from your words and not only does it make him harder than before, it makes him smug too. He sits up on his knees, taking you in spread out on his bed with a hazy fucked out look on your face. And he technically hasn’t done anything yet.

He undoes his cufflinks and pushes his sleeves up his veiny forearms. There’s something about the motion that makes him even sexier to you - and it makes you feel that way too. He pries open your thighs further and lowers his gaze down to your still covered pussy. You’ve dripped down onto his bed and he groans at the sight. He takes the strings between his fingers and slowly peels your thong off, much to your relief. He chucks it over his shoulder and drops onto his elbows.

“You are the most fucking gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.”

You’re about to raise your head to see his face but before you manage to, you feel his tongue on your pussy.

“Oh, FUCK! Oh my god. Javi–” You grab a fistful of sheets under you as he slowly runs his tongue from your clit down to your entrance, and licks around your opening and tries to stick it into you. No one’s ever eaten you out like this before. It was usually one or two pathetic kitten licks before they get up and dangle their dicks in front of your face. No one is as thorough as Javi, who makes you feel his mouth and whiskers in spots of you that you didn’t know existed.

You don’t realize that you said it out loud until Javi suddenly stops and looks up at you with glistening lips… and mustache. You feel a fresh wave of wetness flooding at the sight. This is what you’ve been imagining every previous night before.

“Seriously?”

You don’t know if he’s confused or upset by what you said. Either way, you need him to go back to what he was doing. “Yes, Javi, please don’t stop.”

“You’re telling me you don’t usually get eaten out?”

“No, uh, not like this. Never like–” Your own moans cut you off as he goes back to pleasuring you and you cry out when you feel his nose bumps your clit. You’re lost in this new feeling. It’s true. Never like this.

But with Javi? Javi is enjoying himself. He eats you out like he can’t get enough and he can’t get to all parts of you that he wants to taste. He’s slow enough for you to feel every movement his tongue is making, but he picks it up at the right pace when he feels that you need more. You feel his hand slowly squeezing your right boob, and then your eyes fly open when he suddenly puts a thick finger in you. You let out a high pitched moan and buck up to his lips.

“Fuck yeah. Be as loud as you want. You perfect little thing.” Javi shallowly thrusts it in and out of you. “Yours really didn’t fill you enough, huh?”

No. No, they didn’t. Javi’s one finger fills you so well you wonder how you’re gonna even be satisfied with yourself ever again after this. He hits the spots you never reached and makes you beg, and beg, and beg for more.

So he gives you more. He starts sucking your clit at the same time that he adds another finger into you. You don’t know what kind of noises you’re making anymore but it’s deprived enough that Javi groans into your pussy and the vibration and his hot breath make you keen even more.

“Javi… faster, baby.”

“You’re not gonna come from my hand.” Javi says as he rolls your clit with his tongue.

“But I’m close.” You whimper.

“I know. You’re so tight, fuck.” Javi raises his head to look at his fingers going in and out of you. They’re slick with your juices and he feels you pulsating around them whenever he drags them out, as if to keep him from not being inside you. “Think you can take my cock? Hmm?”

You gasp out a moan and he retracts his fingers completely. You’re getting too close to the edge and he doesn’t want you to come like this, no. Not by fingers or his mouth. He wants to feel you around him when you do. But that doesn’t stop him from tonguing you again and massaging your clit with his thumb until you’re panting and tugging hard on his hair that it hurts. Before you could go over the edge, he climbs over you and cages you in his arms, his mouth once again on your tits and smearing them with your wetness from his lips.

“Javi,” you grab his face in your hands and stroke his patchy, graying beard. “Please.”

You claw at his shirt, trying to open his buttons with trembling hands. He’s still fully clothed and it’s not fair. You manage to get the top two but then he untangles himself from you to stand at the foot of the bed… to rummage through his drawers.

“Fuck, uh… um… fuck.” Javi reaches into another one, turning it inside out, and starts rifling through a spare wallet he finds inside. “I don’t have condoms. Wait here. I might have some downstairs.”

You crawl over to him and stand on your knees, continuing to open his buttons. “I’m on birth control, Javi. And I haven’t been with anyone, so…”

Javi looks at you with his doe eyes, filled with lust, while you shrug his shirt off him. Are you saying…?

“I want you bare.”

Well, fuck me. If Javi weren’t already hard as rock before, then he doesn’t know what this is now. He’s never been bare with anyone since… who cares. It doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters except you asking him to fuck you raw and now you’re palming him over his pants and literally, the world could be burning at this moment and Javi wouldn’t give a shit about it.

“Want you in my mouth, daddy.”

“No,” Javi groans painfully. There is no way he’s surviving tonight. “I’ll come on your face if you do that now.”

“Want that too.” You pepper him with kisses across his chest while you undo his belt and unzip his trousers. When you finally lower his pants along with his boxer briefs, your mouth waters. He’s bigger than you thought he’d be when you grabbed him in his car last week. You need him in you, right fucking now.

But first thing first… he’s gonna pay for not making you come. You’ve been so desperate since the theater and by the looks of it, he’s no different. The head of his cock is an angry red and leaking with precum. You swipe it clean with your tongue and Javi’s hand immediately finds the back of your neck. You take his hard erection in your hand and start to jerk him off slowly, building a pace that you know will drive him mad. Javi has his eyes closed and his eyebrows furrowed deep, holding back from thrusting into your hand.

You lick a long stripe from his balls to his tip and elicit a low moan from him. It’s addicting, listening to him. You do it a few more times until you feel his fingers curling on you.

“Javi…” You let go of him and kiss your way up his stomach instead. He involuntarily sucks in and opens his eyes to you slipping his cock past your lips. He doesn’t stop you. The groan that comes out of him is so sinful it’s going to be permanently etched in your brain. His hand on your neck finds your ass and kneads it when you start working him slowly with your mouth. You gag a little when he hits the back of your throat. He’s a lot to take in; you don’t even get to the hilt, and you count your blessings for that.

You’re suddenly pulled away with a pop. He’s throbbing and from his breathing, he doesn’t look like he’s going to last long.

“You’re so big, Javi. Does it feel as good as it tastes?”

You start to take him into your mouth again but he grabs your arm to haul you to the center of the bed. He settles himself on you, rubbing up and down your opening with his cock. You start to meet his movement but he pins your hips down, restricting you.

“Come on, we’ve waited long enough,” you whine.

He lets his weight fall on you completely and hums his answer with his face pressed against the crook of your neck. He keeps thrusting on your pussy and you’re so, so, so close to sobbing from need.

“Javi,” you whine again into his ear, arms clinging to his broad form.

Javi sits on his knees, watching you writhe underneath him. If he doesn’t come within one minute of being inside you, he’ll consider it a miracle. It’s his own fault for dragging it out this long and now he’s the one moments away from exploding. It’s worth it because you’re so fucking beautiful being all needy for him.

He grabs you closer by your calves and wraps your legs around his waist, cock notched right at your entrance. Javi pushes forward and the sound he makes when he enters you is the hottest thing you’ve ever heard. He works his way in slowly, letting you accommodate his girth. It’s a painful yet exquisite stretch.

You’ve never felt this full in your life. You’re not without experience, but the way Javi is filling you is something else. It’s not just his size, although that is a big part of it. It’s the way he’s gazing at you with so much tenderness. The way he’s moving as if he’s worshiping you with every stroke. The way he’s savoring this moment that you two have been waiting a ridiculously long time for. Your heart is full of–

“Baby. I don’t think I’ll last long.” Javi says with a strain in his voice. He’s holding back, with this languid (honestly, lazy) pace and he’s clenching his hands so hard you can see the veins in his forearms protruding.

“I don’t care, Javi, just fuck me.”

He groans and starts to build a pace, gripping your thighs open. You throw your head back and hold on to the pillow closest to you. Javi’s eyes are glued to your tits bouncing by the impact of his thrusts and he tries to think of something, anything, except for the way your perfect body is responding to him right now.

He remembers what you said about being essentially celibate since your last relationship and he doesn’t fight his curiosity. There’s a primal side of him that needs to know and the thought of your pathetic past conquests should buy him a couple more minutes, right?

“How long has it been for you, honey?”

“Mmmmm…” You roll your head back in pleasure, seemingly not hearing his question.

”When I ask something, I want an answer, sweetheart.”

“Two years? Mor–”

“Fucking unbelievable. This pussy should be fucked everyday, fuck.”

He curses between hard thrusts. Your mouth drops at his dirty talk and his pace increases to full on pounding. It doesn’t work. The thought of nothing having been inside you except for your own fingers and now him for that long is awakening something feral in him.

You yelp. “Oh fuck yes, Javi…”

“Yeah? You’re gonna let me fuck this everyday?”

“Whenever you want. Please.”

“You’re so needy.” He looks down to where you’re joined before grabbing your ass and driving into you even harder. “So needy and sloppy and so. fucking. tight.”

The moan you let out is downright the filthiest thing he’s ever heard. And you? You barely hear his deep, delicious voice over your own moans and the sounds your bodies make. You can’t do anything but take, take, and take. You wish you could reciprocate but what leaves your mouth is only a blabber of cries and whines.

“You want to come?” Javi’s question snaps you out of your daze.

“Please, baby.”

“Then touch yourself and come.”

Javi pulls out of you and you gasp from the sudden emptiness. You sit up to reach for him but he moves further to the edge of the bed, his hand fisting his cock and pinching the end slowly, trying not to lose it.

“Javi, what the fuck?” You exclaim in despair.

“Let me see you touch yourself, babe. Come like that or not at all.”

“Oh my God, Javi.” You fall back on the bed in frustration. There is no way this is happening. “No…”

“Come, and I’ll fuck you again.”

You start reluctantly touching yourself slowly, hoping he’ll take pity on you and take over again. But he stays where he is, looking at your face, not even your body.

“If that’s how you touch yourself, no wonder you’re unsatisfied. Come on, make yourself feel good.”

You groan in defeat and he chuckles at you amusingly. Fine. You dip two fingers into your pussy and start moving them the way you usually do, and your other hand drops to your clit to rub it with your index finger. Your peak is approaching in no time, between your own familiar movements and watching Javi watching you. You start to arch off the bed when you’re close and suddenly your hands are taken off you and you’re flipped onto your hands and knees.

Javi thrusts back inside you from behind without warning and resumes pounding you in earnest. “That’s right baby, take it… like you wanted… so fucking good for me…”

You come with a silent scream and Javi lets out a pained moan from you fluttering and spasming around his cock. His hands grip your waist to the point of almost hurting and he keeps steadily thrusting into you to seek his own release while you ride yours out.

He pulls you up against his chest by wrapping his arm around your tits and keeps hitting that devastatingly delicious spot inside you. With a few thrusts it starts you up again and you grind back on him, feeling the bump of his stomach on the small of your back with each contact. You look over your shoulder at his face and see that he’s in absolute bliss, but there’s something else there that’s a little bit… off. You don’t get to think too much about it once his fingers reach down to your clit and you start to tighten around his cock again, your hand reaching back to grab at his curls.

“I’m coming, sweetheart. Fuck. Come with me. Come with me, honey.” Javi’s pace grows desperate and he’s so deep, so right inside you that you beat him to it. You shudder in his arms, going limp, but he doesn’t let up. “Tell me where.”

You sigh dreamily while you catch your breath. “Anywhere you want, daddy.”

He pulls out and pushes you lightly to get back on your hands and knees and spills himself on the small of your back and between your cheeks. You lay down flat on your stomach, evening out your breaths, inhaling in the mixed scent of the two of you.

It takes Javi a couple of minutes to collect himself before he kisses along your shoulder, up to your neck, your jaw, and finally your lips.

“You’re so fucking good, babe. Tightest pussy I’ve ever fucked.”

You giggle tiredly and lean onto him, welcoming his kisses while he cleans you up with his discarded shirt. “I need a drink. Then I want to ride you.”

✧

For the next four days, you barely leave the bed except to eat or use the bathroom. Just like Javi had promised. He didn’t get to cook dinner for you yet, because it’ll take too much time away from being inside of you. Everyday it’s like clockwork: one of you wakes the other up with your mouth, followed by breakfast in bed, or vice versa. Then shower, where he eats you out - he insists that he’s making up for your lost time. In the afternoons, Javi does some work while you read scripts or his books or nap. Then dinner, followed by fucking each other to sleep. Sometimes you interrupt him mid-task or wake him up in the middle of the night just because. And repeat.

It’s pure fucking bliss.

✧✧

“Javi. Fuck.”

“What’s up?”

“Everything is shutting down. Everything. Where the fuck are you?” Óscar’s voice sounds panicked through the phone.

“I’m on leave, remember? What do you mean?”

“Strike, Javi. It’s all over the news. We gotta reschedule everything. We’re not even allowed to do anything.”

Javi swiftly opens his news app and sure enough, Óscar’s right. How did he miss this? Oh, right.

“Javi!!!”

“I’m here.”

“What do we do?”

Javi thinks for a moment but absolutely nothing comes to mind. This is completely novel for him. “We’ll figure it out. How long is this supposed to go on?”

“Two weeks. A month tops.”

“So there’s nothing to do. Keep everyone around, keep everyone updated, the usual.”

“We can’t, Javi. We’re not allowed to. We should just let them go for now, go see their families. They can’t be employed right now, same for us, by the way.”

“Dammit,” Javi runs a hand over his face. He’s only ever shut down production once, during The Last Sicario, when a rival family member felt misrepresented by his depiction of them and sent death threats to him and the crew. “Call it. Keep me posted.”

“Sure. One more thing, have you heard from our little starlet? I tried calling her all day, and her PA couldn’t reach her either. Her hotel said she’s not there.”

“Staying with a friend, maybe?” Javi feigns cluelessness.

“Can you try her? Let her know we’ll help her figure it out while this is going on.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Thanks, hermano.”

Guilt overcomes him once he hangs up and looks at you sleeping soundly, and naked, next to him. He’s betraying the closest friend he ever had and there would be no coming back from this if he found out.

✧✧✧

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thetavolution · 4 months

Text

I'm bringing my Tav-related stuff over here to not overload my regular tumblr haha.

First up is Tessa! More info:

I did borrow a lot of this profile layout from elfinbloodbag.

TESSA

Full name: Theresa Siân Chastain Name meaning:  Theresa: late summer; Siân: God is gracious; Chastain: chestnut Pronouns: She/Her Race: Human Age: 35 Orientation: Pansexual Romance: Gale Dekarios Class: Rogue Monk Subclass: Thief / Way of the Open Hand Origin: Criminal Theme song:  I Deserve to Bleed — Sushi Soucy / Used To Be Young — Miley Cyrus

Personality Despite being a professional thief, Tessa is a kind-hearted person. She always overflowing with joyful enthusiasm. Tessa is outgoing and funny. She’s the "mom friend" even if she hates it when people say that. She’s the one who takes care of everybody and tends to them physically and emotionally. Some say she missed her calling as a cleric.

She has a big heart and it’s easy to take advantage of it, especially with a good enough sob story. She has a good-natured sense of humor, but she's not averse to dark humor either. When she’s angry or hurt, or just talking to someone she hates, she can be particularly cold and scathing.

Tessa is far from morally perfect, of course. She’s made peace with stealing, focusing on targets that “deserve” it. That said, she doesn't believe in hoarding wealth. She keeps what she needs (with some left over as a little treat) and spreads the rest of it around to those who might need it.

She can get stuck on things, like an idea or desire. She'll become obsessed with it and remain laser focused on it to a fault.

Once you’re in her good graces, she is ride or die. While intelligent, she can be impulsive. She’ll realize how stupid her actions were after it’s too late to take it back. Going back to her motherly tendencies, she can also go full mama bear when loved ones are threatened.

She’s a romantic at heart and she’s looking for true love. Unfortunately, due to being so eager to find love, she’s jumped into some terrible relationships. Those closest to her will often acknowledge (or joke about) the fact that she overlooks a lot of red flags in the early stages of a relationship. (For Tom Cardy fans, she would be the one to date the person whose favorite film is Human Centipede.)

In her younger years, she was much more of a wild child which often comes back to bite her, especially when former lovers and enemies reappear in her life.

History Tessa was born in Bryn Shander, the largest of the Ten Towns in Icewind Dale. She and her twin brother, Leander, are the youngest of Edgard and Sibyl Chastain's six children. She’s technically the youngest since she was born five minutes after Leander.

Tessa was raised from birth to be a proficient thief. Her father, Edgard, is a renowned member of the Zhentarim. They mostly focus on stealing and smuggling. Tessa grew up learning to live life in the underbelly of the city. She never knew anything else, even though she always wished she could have the life of a “normal girl.”

She came to Baldur's Gate with her father on Zhentarim business when she was abducted and infected with a tadpole. It was their first time in the city, so the Chastains aren't a familiar face to the local Zhentarim members.

Likes: The thrill of stealing, fighting, helping people, taking care of the poor and the sick, reading, writing, animals (especially dogs/wolves), nighttime, rainy mornings, adventuring, music, and cold weather

Dislikes: Hot weather, hurting good people, nobility/the wealthy, bugs, abuses of power, and cruelty

Fears: She’s afraid of ending up alone. She’s also afraid she deserves to be alone. She questions if she’s actually a good person on an almost daily basis. She's terrified of growing older and having a life full of regrets. She feels as thought a lot of it has already passed her by.

Quirks: I don’t know if this counts as a quirk, but her left hand is her dominant hand. She likes to tap her foot like a rabbit, even when she isn’t nervous. People often mistake it for a nervous tick. It’s just something she’s always done. She has a loud laugh that she’s insecure about.

Mental Health: Tessa has daddy issues. Her father takes advantage of her and she’s desperate to earn his approval. She ties her self-worth to other people’s opinion of her. She often falls for terrible people because she’s so desperate to be loved. Her father never really showed her what it’s like to be properly cared for, and it shows. She doesn't even realize how bad her self-esteem is.

Favorite Foods: Sun-Dappled Paella and Cranberry Cake

Favorite Drinks: Tea and Brandy

Favorite Flower: Roses

Height:  5’7”/173 cm

Skin: Beige.

Hair:  Brown but with a slight ginger tint.

Eyes:  Green.

Color Scheme:  Generally, she wears whatever lets her hide in her environment. She wears a lot of blacks, greens, and browns. Back in her hometown, it’s not unusual for her to don white colors to blend into the snow.

When she’s dressing just for herself, she’ll wear blues and greens.

Fashion Sense: She’s mostly practical when it comes to her clothing. As a thief, she can’t really afford to be too gaudy or flashy. Everything she wears has a specific purpose. She is usually hiding behind the Shadow of Menzoberranzan cowl.

In the rare occasions she can dress for the sake of looking nice, she does like to wear intricate gowns. If you’re going to be a criminal, why not enjoy the fruits of your labor and have a nice dress or two?

She does have tattoos, including a rose tattoo on the left side of her neck.

Family:

Blue — 5. He’s Tessa’s pet winter wolf. He’s intelligent and cunning. He was orphaned by a hunter as a pup before Tessa found and adopted him. Her love and care led to him to be a big teddy bear of a wolf. He's back in Bryn Shander.

Edgard Chastain — 60. Edgard is Tessa’s father and the one who led the entire family down the path of crime. He’s a charismatic guy, but he has his struggles and insecurities. He is plagued by self-loathing and depression, often acting on his worse impulses.

He wants to be liked, but he also wants to be feared as a criminal, putting him in conflict with himself. He can be selfish and self-serving, leading him to betray his loved ones or hurt them deeply. He’s corrupted his relationships with his ex-wife and children over the years. Tessa is desperate to believe he'll change.

Sibyl Lisette Chastain — 60. Sibyl is Edgard’s ex-wife and the mother of Tessa and her brothers. After Edgard cheated on her, she left him. It’s clear Tessa takes after her mother. Sibyl is cheerful, optimistic, and excited to live life. She’s heartbroken when her children repeat Edgard’s mistakes and she can’t stop it from happening.

She had dreams of becoming a writer, but she fell in love with Edgard when they were both 17. Within months of dating, Sibyl became pregnant. After that, Sibyl became a criminal, losing the ability to pursue her dream career. She continues to write even if she never shares it with anyone.

Conrad Chastain — 40. He’s the eldest Chastain child. He has a somewhat normal life. While he does work in the black market, he has a loving wife and two children. He’s a loving father, calm, and level-headed, but he has a very dad sense of humor.

Flynn Chastain — 38. Flynn is the flirtatious brother and he has several lovers. It’s also likely he has bastard children out in the world he’s never met.

Gavin Chastain — 37. He’s intelligent, but irresponsible and self-sabotaging. He fears being rejected and failing, so he engages in self-destructive behavior.

Emile Chastain — 36. He’s the quiet Chastain child. He’s not happy with his lot in life, but he doesn’t complain. He always wants to do the right thing, but he’s often scared to say anything that goes “against the family.”

Leander Chastain — 35. He’s Tessa’s twin. He and Tessa grew apart as they became adults. He’s a bard rogue who loves music. Leander is repeating a lot of his father’s mistakes, even if he thinks of himself as better than Edgard. He’s a great thief, but he’s been burning his own bridges and fighting his own demons. He’s a charismatic social butterfly. He hides his demons from Tessa and the rest of his family.

Marta Chastain — 39. She’s Conrad’s loving and doting wife. She works a normal job, keeping the family with one foot in respectable society. She’s a teacher and hides the fact she’s married to a criminal.

Tem Chastain — 11. Tem is Conrad and Marta’s oldest child. He’s a silly and goofy kid who has no idea his father is a thief.

Kara Chastain — 8. Kara is Conrad and Marta’s youngest. She’s a sweet little girl with a mischievous streak.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 tav #baldurs gate tav #tav bg3 #tav x gale #tav oc #baldurs gate 3 #tav baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 tav #bg3 oc #dnd oc #dnd character

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discluded · 8 months

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I am trying to take P*nd's words with a pinch of salt and you have to leave room for understanding with translations but this whole it's not a Y movie think....is really doing a disservice to not only to his own argument by labeling Y movies/series as limiting/ bad but also seems insensitive towards his own actor's work who worked hard to show a nuanced relationship that had very real emotions for the characters who were as open as the characters felt they could have in that setting. It kinda feels like we are back to square one with everyone fighting about whether this movie will have romance and whether MA will be each other's love interest (which from the way the actors played in seems very much present only for the director to come out and say they are not a couple)

Hi!!!

Okay, your skepticism and criticism is valid, but I think there is a little more context as well. Let's take a look at Mile's speech from yesterday at SF Cinema.

I’m going to make a speech*… that actually, to be straightforward, Thai films have lots of potential, but it’s a shame that the proportion of Thai films that people should come see is only about 10% of all** (the films being shown)… 10 in 100 is very little na krub. I want to increase the proportion to like 50%, 70%, 80% if it’s possible… right? And most importantly, Man Suang is a film that I believe everyone can watch. When everyone can watch it, some might be curious as to… take it this way, the comments from the behind (the scene) to me said that ‘It’s at least worth watching it’ and they feel that ,hey, they profit from the happiness of some moment in the film and that’s all, krub. So I want people to spread (the news) word of mouth. If you want someone to be happy while watching a movie, show lots of love to Man Suang, and most importantly, I thank everyone who came by and I feel like they are the voice (of promoting this film). I’m making a speech very seriously na… many voices that help talk, help present in social media, really thank you, and please show lots of love to Man Suang na krub, thank you krub. [translation] *Mile making a joke about how he's always talking like a politician, and also referencing the current political climate in Thailand **Mile referring to the issue of the major cinemas in Thailand not showing local films but only blockbuster films causing Thai films to not make money and subsequently lose their funding

A little more context: the two major distributors of films in Thailand are SF Cinema and Major Group, along with a smaller group of independent Thai cinemas. Usually one of SF Cinema and Major Group will show Thai films, but not both. In terms of Man Suang promo, the Thai fans themselves said it was rare and good work that the team got both film distributors to show Man Suang while still being a smaller/new company, and that the independent theatres also agreed to show it. I believe that's partly what the Man Suang Roadshow is meant to do, because they know that their own presence will draw fans to theatres.

Remember, one facet of soft power includes making domestic products more appealing to citizens compared to imports, which sounds like a major issue for Thai cinema right now. If Man Suang can revitalize interest in Thai cinema beyond just their film too, I think MileApo will have achieved some of their goal with this project.

But back to your overall comment, one of the challenges of BL/Y series is that it's still stigmatized as a genre.

I'm wondering now if people thought Mile's acting was bad because they primed themselves to think that actors doing BL/QL series were bad at acting :/ And oftentimes, the skills to get into one of these positions isn't very high, which is why some actors will use it as stepping stone in their career in Thailand, and why so many solo fans expected Mile and Apo to part ways as an acting pair after the success of their first project because they feel like MA "relegated" themselves to doing a BL series. There is still a lot of stigma against LGBTQ people in Thailand, even though it's one of the more progressive Asian countries.

So Pond, as the Exec Producer, Director, and owner of BOC is between a rock and a hard place. They both want to reduce stigma of queer storytelling but also promote Thai cinema. Also, calling back again to this:

I don't think most people think of CMBYN as a BL. In fact, it, alongside Carol, are considered one of the best romantic dramas* of all time. (*mostly western/english films) And that's without the qualification of queer romantic drama, etc. etc.

So I'm going to give Pond a little bit of a break here. Also, this user also reminded me Man Suang was supposed to be three hours long? I thought I hallucinated Apo said that, so we gotta wonder what happened to 1/3rd of the film. I hope the director's cut makes it to streaming like the way La Forte did

#pond krisda #man suang #man suang promo #kinnporsche #soft power #thai soft power

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bobbycalloway · 1 year

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The significance of Aquamarine

You know that light-hearted mermaid movie from 2006 with Sara Paxton giving a career defining performance?

The older I get, the more the ending of that movie has an effect for me. SPOILERS - it's about a mermaid who has three days to prove to her father that love exists. Two human girls help her start talking to a local boy and much hilarity ensues (and one of the most magnificent bad dancing scenes ever put to film). The boy digs her and when she asks if he loves her...he says no because they've been on one date and he barely knows her.

The mermaid ends up back in the sea as a big storm hits and the two human girls jump in to try and rescue her - which is a big deal for one of them, who's avoided going in the water after her parents drowned. When the mermaid asks why they'd risk their lives for her and they say "because we love you, Aqua". And yep - THAT is what resolves things.

Before Frozen, Maleficent and Once Upon a Time used that 'true love isn't just romance' twist. Sure we're all used to seeing 'power of friendship' stories in kids movies. But Aquamarine depicts friendship and the kind of deep love that exists on a platonic level as something way more powerful than romance - rather than the usual depiction of friends as just a placeholder until you find a romantic partner and the friends are supposed to be AOK with being ditched for a makeout option (hello Stranger Things).

I'm an aromantic autistic dude who's never had much interest in finding a partner, but my friends mean a lot to me, and the older I get, the more the significance of this ending hits me. Some friendships form over time through years of circumstance, working together or realisation - but there are so many times that, within only a couple of meetings, you realise that you love these people and would lay down your life for them. Just like a scared twelve-year-old knows her fear of the water means jack s*** when she has a chance to save someone she's known for three days but means the world to her.

The bittersweet ending - with one friend moving away, and Aquamarine having to go back to the sea - also resonates with how sometimes friends who love each other like family can't be together or around each other every day and might even never see each other again. But to know that kind of love is still a gift and how much you'll always mean to each other.

This movie is goofy, often cringe and the walking definition of 'guilty pleasure', but it also f**** beautiful and I get more grateful for its existence as the years go by.

#aquamarine #sara paxton #emma roberts #jojo levesque #2000s kid #2000s movies #guilty pleasure #kids movies

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davidfarland · 14 days

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David Farland’s Writing Tips—Do You Want to Be an Apex Writer?

First, I wanted to have a little shout-out. I was on Facebook on Saturday for a few minutes and noticed that some of my past students had made some major accomplishments:

Martin Shoemaker’s hard science fiction novel The Last Dance hit #1 in its category on Amazon.com and stayed high through the Christmas season, garnering 722 ratings—the vast majority of them being 5-stars. For those who don’t know, hitting over 500 ratings is a major milestone. It ensures that Amazon’s algorithms will bump up the book’s publicity. I’m interested to see how high his sales climb over the next few years. He’s a dedicated writer with a very promising career path.

Monalisa Foster got a novel contract and an acceptance check for Christmas. Great timing!

Rebekah R. Ganiere’s romance novel Rekindling Christmas is being made into a film and will start shooting this week! I’m excited for her. Well deserved!

James Dashner, whose successful Maze Runner movies series recently ended, is getting ready to spring some major news on us. I’m hoping he’s graduated to the level where he has a book-movie joint announcement.

Brandon Sanderson went to his local Barnes and Noble on Saturday and was asked if he would sign some of the books on his “wall.” Now a lot of popular authors get a little extra shelf-space at the bookstores, but you’ve got to be moving huge numbers of books to merit your own wall! I’m including a picture of it. Wishing him great success!

While on Facebook, though, I happened to see a post by a young woman who had set a goal of publishing her first fantasy novel in 2020. She asked how to go about it and was getting lots of bad advice. Yes, some of the advice would lead her to get published—either self-published or traditionally published, but not published well.

If you do it wrong, getting published can be dangerous. Going to a small publisher who can’t get distribution into bookstores, for example, might cause you to make nothing in royalties, lose your rights to your novel for as long as you live, and waste years of your life. Going to the wrong agent—one who is crooked or just plain incapable of connecting with a publisher, can once again waste years of your life.

Even self-publishing may be a total bomb if you don’t know how to go about it.

I really wanted to help her negotiate the path ahead.

Yet this poor young woman had dozens of tips from people who had no idea that their advice sucked. I suspect that much of it came from people who had never published.

So, I suggested that she go to my website to read some of my posts on the topic—and was blocked by the site administrator for “self-promotion.”

I could have offered the writer a free video that might be helpful. I have a seminar on how to publish in 2020. (It’s in my writing Compleat Writer’s Program but hasn’t been put up for sale elsewhere.) But I suspected that the site administrator would have deleted that post, too.

I realized that I often feel blocked. I don’t want to tell you when another author is giving you bad advice. They’re my friends and peers, after all, and they’re trying to be helpful.

There are things that publishers, film distributors, bookstore chains, agents and social media companies do that are kind of dangerous to talk about—but that you need to know.

I’ve decided that I need to start a closed group. How cliché. It seems like everyone who works in a counseling business starts something with a lofty title, like “The Billionaire’s Club,” and they usually charge an arm and a leg for it. So I’ve been resisting the idea for years.

I want to share this information only with authors who are driven, who are ready to take the steps forward, who are trustworthy, and who are also willing to share information.

I’m going to call it the Apex Writer’s group. The goal of the group is simple: I want to help take you from wherever you are in your career, (whether you’re just beginning or are in your mid-career, to become an Apex Writer). An Apex Writer is one who sells books by the millions, whose books get wide advertisement, and who understands how to leverage the advertising from the film industry to make major deals before their books are even released.

One study years ago said that it took the average writer seven years to break into publishing, and it took another seven to become a bestseller. What if you could do it in three or four years? What if we could save each other a decade of struggle? I think that we can do it.

It will take more than just good advice. You’ll need to be in a closed group of writers who are learning how to work within the system, and it will be easier if we share information and work as a team.

Now, you might think, “Ah, but I want to self-publish. I don’t want to work in the traditional publishing field.” That’s fine. But you need to understand that even if you’re a self-published author, you’re working inside a field controlled by Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and other mega-corporations.

It won’t be expensive to join the group, but there will be a small charge because, heck, there are costs. There’s my time and expertise, maintenance for websites, and costs for administration. So it will cost a couple hundred per year.

You will have access to a closed group on Facebook, to my Compleat Writer’s Program, to the new bulletin board system going up this week, to regular meetings held online—and to further program benefits as it grows.

If you are interested in applying to become an Apex Writer, simply reply to this email with one word: Apex. I’ll send you an application to join, let you know if I think that you’re ready, and tell you what would be expected.

(note: to apply to Apex Writers, visit apex-writers.com )

For more on David Farland's Writing tips, visit https://mystorydoctor.com/writing-blog/

And you can also click here to get your David Farland Daily Meditations.

#writing advice #writing tips #writing help #writing tips and tricks

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madrabbitsociety · 7 months

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10/08/2023 Pinned Update Post

Hello! For anyone looking for fic updates or novel updates, here you go.

As some of you know, I was cast as Dr. John Watson in a local theater company's production of Sherlock Holmes & The American Problem- which basically sucked up my whole summer. So, I've been the happiest and busiest I've ever been but it also means I was unable to get much 'done' in the way of content creation. Our last show was 10/1, so it's over now... and I'm still processing. I feel like I've had a friendship break-up even though the friendship was ... fake? Idk. It's a weird time to be alive.

Anyway, for readers of my fanfic (Man! I Feel Like a Human), I have CHANGED MY USERNAME to be more gender-friendly. Seeing a very gendered name every time I log into AO3 was HARD so I've changed it to madrabbitwrites. Updates to M! I F L A H will resume soon. I've got it all written, it's just in a notebook instead of in a file. Just decompressing from the summer but it'll be back probably next weekend or the week after.

For my YouTube Channel - @AveryMorstan , I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I love making videos but I just don't know if DIY is the main thing I want to film anymore, which means when I next update, I'm probably going to lose a whole lot of followers. I'd rather talk about my books (I'm an LGBTQIA friendly romance author on Amazon) or do random vlogs? I hate the idea of being stuck in a niche... if you can't tell from this blog. I might do a series where I just... read some of my work? That really appeals to me right now? I'd love opinions if you have 'em.

My short story, Hatchett Grannies, which is a part of my Quaint City series comes on at the end of the month. It's a vampire/siren love story.

LAST but not least, if you like my content or just think I'm cute, feel free to buy my a coffee. I have a feeling my laptop is about to die and without it I am nothing.

#indie author #queer author #fanfic writer #life updates #nonbinary actor

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thirteen-jades · 2 years

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16, 24, 31, 35, 42, 50, 67, 69, 76, 86, 93, 98

16: What's the worst decision you've ever made? What's the best decision you've ever made?

Best decision I’ve ever made may be joining your Discord server was back when we first met. That’s had an incalculable impact on literally every aspect of my life; I don’t think a single major thing about me would be the same if I’d not done that. As for my worst decision… I’m not really sure. If there’s a clear worst decision I’m pretty sure my brain has pointedly declined to remember it.

24: Does your name suit you? Do you think you "look" like your name?

I’ve no idea what my name should look like other than a greenish semiprecious gemstone, but I think it suits me. I rather like it, anyway.

31: Do you feel like you have a 'purpose'? What is it, if so?

Not especially. I’m just sorta here, living my life and trying to enjoy things. I think it’s good to be kind and helpful and understanding to the people around me, so I try to be that.

35: What's wrong with you? Physically, mentally, whatever comes to mind. What's right about you? What are your best and worst traits?

Oh god, there’s so many things. Mentally, abandonment issues might be the ones that plague me most severely. Attention span difficulties and residual effects from burnout too. Physically, the headaches are pretty bad.

42: Does affection come easily to you?

I’m… not sure. One of my major ways of demonstrating affection is physical contact like hugs and stuff, and I am presently quite alone in my local environment. For a long time I was kind of afraid of relationships, and those fears do crop up now and again. I guess I don’t have a lot of experience demonstrating affection? I tend to struggle with self-knowledge a fair bit though, so honestly you might be in a better position to answer how affectionate I am than me.

50: What qualities do you find charming?

Enthusiasm and passion are nice. People who have emotions but don’t express them a lot can be pretty cute too.

67: What did you need to hear as a child?

I really don’t know. Probably whatever I need to hear now, for one. Coupled with a lot of “this part of your life is gonna be shit, but things will be way better in the future” type things. Also, someone telling me I was trans and to do something about that would be cool if they actually persuaded me somehow.

69: Do you struggle with emotional expression or regulation? Do you suppress your feelings?

Maybe a little with expression? Not a whole lot though, I don’t think. I tend to suppress/ignore negative feelings sometimes, and physical sensations of hunger kinda a lot.

76: What do you label yourself as, if anything? What subcultures do you identify with, if any?

I’ve no idea what to label myself as. Trans and bisexual, I guess? I tend not to place very much weight on that sort of labeling though. Idk if there’s any specific subcultures I identify with, mostly it’s just my friends.

86: What could you talk about for hours?

Roleplaying games I’ve been playing or interested in are probably be big ones, my characters for those games in particular. If I weren’t so rusty, probably some electrical engineering/physics topics too. FFXIV is a rich source of infodump material, but I struggle to infodump at people who know a fair amount about the topic, so probably I’d need a specific sub-topic or batch of sub-topics to infodump about that one with you. Honestly, Pokemon Go might be a candidate for things to talk about, now that I think about it.

93: What are two facts about yourself that are true, but seem contradictory? Or two beliefs you have that seem unlikely to exist together?

I have an extremely active imagination, but also have aphantasia for all senses, meaning I cannot visualize, imagine sounds, or anything of the sort. All my imagination winds up being strictly conceptual or put in unspoken words.

98: What genre of film or literature do you think your life is? Comedy, romance, action, horror, etc.? Alternatively, if you were written into a fictional universe, what genre would you be best suited for?

My life doesn’t really seem to have a consistent storyline or like, main plot, so I’m not sure what genre it would fit into. Adventure might be nice as a genre to be put in myself, coupled with maybe sci-fi and/or fantasy.

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sweet-city-woman · 2 years

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Take It or Leave It | Eddie Munson

A/N: I’m hyperfixated on Stranger Things Season 4 and Eddie Munson so... this might have multiple parts? I left it on a cliff hanger. This is pure fluff right now.

Summary: You’re home alone for the weekend when you see something suspicious at your neighbor, Reefer Rick’s, house. You go to investigate (against your better judgement) and find someone unexpected.

Pairing: Eddie x fem!reader

Warnings: mentions of murder, violence, alcohol, drugs, drunk reader, divorce, swearing

Word Count: 4.7 k

“Don’t leave this house this weekend, okay? With everything going on and a murderer on the loose, I don’t want you to be sitting outside past dark, either. I’ll call when I get to Milwaukee. There’s pizza money on the counter for tomorrow.” Your dad put his big hand on your shoulder. You rolled your eyes, brushing it off.

“You don’t have to worry about me going anywhere. I’m a loser, remember? No friends to hang out with.”

You initially didn’t want to move to Hawkins with your dad. You hated the cold and you hated that there were no beaches in landlocked Indiana. You wanted to stay in Florida with your mom. But then your mom started dating perfect, muscular, fitness instructor Dave and he moved his two kids into your childhood home and suddenly you became obsolete and in the way. When your mom called your dad and asked him to take you off her hands for senior year, you weren’t surprised.

The summer had been fine, you’d mostly stuck to the lake that sprawled behind your dad’s cabin. You read more romance and horror novels than your brain could comprehend while sitting on the dock. You burned through every book written by Shirley Jackson and Jane Austen. Your dad tried to encourage you to get out and meet the local kids, but you preferred the solitude. Or at least you told yourself that you preferred being alone. When school began in August you blended in so seamlessly that no one even asked if you were new. Being ignored was better than being targeted.

The only exciting thing that happened during the slow, sticky months was your next door neighbor being hauled off to prison for distributing weed. ‘Reefer Rick,’ as he was known, was a local legend and well-known drug dealer. Your dad practically cheered when the cops pulled up, he was always more strait-laced and law-abiding than you thought necessary. He complained constantly about the weed smell wafting from the house. Now the house sat vacant, growing dusty and dank and dragging down everyone’s property value.

Your dad sighed and turned his back to you, grabbing his duffel bag by the door. “There’s also TV dinners in the freezer and cereal in the pantry. I’ll be back on Tuesday.”

“Safe travels,” you said sardonically. As he left you turned the lock and pressed your back to the door. Alone at last. Your blissful long weekend included a horror movie double feature of Halloween and The Shining that you rented earlier in the day from Family Video. The girl who worked the desk at the local video shop, Robin, always tried to make small talk with you when you would ride up on your bike to pick up a new horror flick or romcom. She talked a lot and you didn’t talk enough. Her coworker, Steve, even asked you out to dinner once, but you thought he was pulling your leg so you said no. You didn’t feel like you could befriend cool kids like them.

You set up the VCR and walked over to the fridge, pulling out one of your dad’s prized cans of PBR. You cracked the can open and plopped down on the beat-up leather sofa in the middle of the room. You clicked on the remote and settled in as young Michael Meyers pulled a kitchen knife out of a drawer.

***

As the closing credits of The Shining rolled across your screen a few hours later, you felt equal parts scared shitless and hazily drunk. Having three beers on an empty stomach while watching horror films home alone probably wasn’t your best idea. You staggered into the kitchen and pulled a Hungry Man out of the freezer: chicken and gravy edition. As you attempted to pry open the cardboard box, you looked out over the lake behind the house. You could admit that you loved Lovers’ Lake in spite of hating Hawkins, but tonight the shadows seemed longer than normal, and you shivered.

You couldn’t get the cardboard box to open. You slammed the frozen brick down on the counter and grabbed a pair of scissors out of the drawer beside the sink. As you were about to massacre the packaging you saw something glint out of the corner of your eye. You stopped and pressed your face to the kitchen window. You held your breath, wondering if the flash you saw was in your mind. Until it happened again.

You saw another flash in the window of Reefer Rick’s boat shed followed by a shadowy figure. You backed away from the window and pressed your free hand to your chest. There was a murderer on the loose in Hawkins and Rick’s property had been empty for months. It would be the perfect hiding spot for a killer! Your imagination ran wild picturing a bloodied man hiding in the shadows looking for his next victim.

Without thinking, and against your better judgement, you slipped on your beat-up Converse and decided to go investigate. You’d seen more slasher films than anyone you knew, but that didn’t stop you from ignoring the final girl logic and going to see for yourself.

You clutched the scissors in your hand and staggered onto the back porch of your dad’s house. The night air was stagnant, only the sound of crickets and frogs breaking up the silence. Your vision swam even though buzz was beginning to wane a little as your heart slammed against your ribs. You creeped closer to the shed, coming up to the mildewy window. You peeked inside and saw nothing at all.

The boat shed held a little boat with an outboard engine and a bunch of old crap piled up around the edges of the room. Reefer Rick was quite the pack rat. You stood on your tip toes, trying to get a better look at the rest of the building. After a few moments you let out a sigh of relief, feeling ridiculous for thinking that the Hawkins murderer would be hiding in your next door neighbor’s shed. The killer was probably halfway to Michigan by now with the insane search happening. You chuckled to yourself nervously.

You started to turn away from the shed when you heard a bang inside. Your heart leapt into your throat. You tiptoed towards the flimsy metal door and banged it open.

“Killer!” You announced loudly, “come out now and I won’t hurt you!” Your hand holding the scissors was suspended in the air. You tried to sound so fierce but then you hiccupped.

A masculine figure emerged from the boat with hands up. “I can promise I am not the guy you’re looking for.”

As he stood, the pale light filtering through the windows lining the shed illuminated him. He was average height in a leather jacket with a shaggy haircut.

“Eddie Munson? Why the fuck are you in Rick’s shed?” You stumbled forward slightly.

Eddie turned towards you and squinted in the dark, “Who are you? Why are you holding scissors? Are you drunk?”

You realized you’d never actually had a conversation with the guy you were holding at scissor-point. You knew Eddie because Eddie made himself known to everyone at Hawkins High School. He was the guy who did monologues about society on the cafeteria tables, he was the guy who ran the Hellfire Club, and he was the guy you stole glances at every chance you got. Your brain felt scrambled. You stammered your name and confirmed you’d been drinking a little.

“I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced, why don’t you put down the scissors and we can talk about all this,” Eddie gestured broadly at the room. The rings on his fingers glinted in the moonlight.

You placed the scissors on the work bench beside you and Eddie released a breath he had been holding.

“Why are you hiding in Rick’s shed?”

Eddie cleared his throat, “You know that big investigation happening? Well, some people think I killed Chrissy Cunningham.”

Your eyes widened and you thought about yelling for help. Eddie closed the gap between you two in three steps and pressed his palm to your mouth.

“You don’t want to do that, sweetheart. I can assure you that I am no killer. At least not in real life.” He peered at you in the dark and lowered his hand. “Aren’t you that new girl? I think I’ve seen you around. You’re from Florida, right? Like a reverse snowbird.” He smiled at his joke before his dark eyes grew serious again, “Please don’t yell for anyone.”

You didn’t understand how he was getting off the topic of being a murderer to ask about your background. “Did you kill her?”

“No!” He shook his shaggy hair, “No, I didn’t. Something did. I’m not sure – but it wasn’t me!”

Eddie was still too close for comfort, his chest brushing yours every time you inhaled. You stepped back slightly, your senses feeling overwhelmed. You pressed your back against the door.

You crossed your arms over your chest, “If you didn’t kill her then why are you hiding? Why don’t you just go to the police? People who don’t have anything to hide don’t hide.”

“Look,” Eddie pressed his palms to his eyes, “just because I say I’m innocent doesn’t mean that everyone in this narrow-minded, stupid, conservative town believes I’m innocent. Half of the basketball team is on the hunt for my ass and-- according to my sources-- they’re armed to the teeth.” His full lips pulled into a line. “I’m a dead man walking, and while I thought I made peace with my mortality, I realize now that I have been lying to myself.”

You reeled at the thought of people starting a witch hunt for Eddie. He was branded as the town freak, a satanist, a cult leader, and more because of his music taste and extracurricular activities. He liked smoking weed, he liked metal and he played D&D. That was about as far as his alleged delinquency went, according to school gossip. The Satanic Panic turned every God-fearing conformist’s brain into mush. Your dad, despite being a relatively progressive guy, even raised his eyebrows at your copy of The Exorcist.

You pulled your bottom lip between your teeth as you thought, and you pretended not to notice Eddie’s eyes looking at your mouth.

“If people are looking for you, don’t you think they’d check your drug dealer’s house? Doesn’t this kind of make you a sitting duck.”

“Hence my current predicament,” Eddie shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m, pardon my French, royally and severely fucked. Thank you for pointing it out.”

You looked around the room once more and at the guy in front of you. He looked tired and worse for wear. His clothes were rumpled, and his hair could stand a brush. There were no lights in the shed so you doubted there was electricity.

“My dad is out of town for the weekend if you’d rather stay somewhere with a shower and food.” You couldn’t believe the words were tumbling out of your mouth. “I, uh, live next door. I saw the flashlight from my kitchen and that’s why I came over.”

Eddie’s smirked, “A pretty girl who is home alone for the weekend came over to investigate what she thought was a murderer in a boat shed? Don’t you have a reputation at school for being smart? You must be hammered.”

You were glad that it was so dark in the room or Eddie would surely see the blush on your cheeks. You’d never been accused of being pretty before. You also had no idea that you had any reputation at school.

“The offer stands, take it or leave it. I’m starving so I’m going to go heat up my dinner now.” You grabbed your scissors and turned to leave.

“Oh, I’m definitely taking you up on this offer,” Eddie wandered over to the boat and reached inside to pull out his cassette player. “Lead the way, M’lady.”

You pushed the door open and looked both ways before letting Eddie follow behind you. Your neighbors were exceedingly nosy. Your neighbor on the other side of your dad’s home had come over a few weeks ago to complain that she could hear you having yelling matches on the phone with your mom about moving back to Florida. You didn’t realize how thin the walls were or how loud you could be when you were angry.

You walked back into the kitchen where your thawing dinner sat on the counter. Your belly churned at the thought of eating anything at this point. Your brain felt foggy and your stomach was beginning to hurt from the beer.

Eddie blinked hard in the bright room. He looked exhausted with dark rings around his eyes and a grey pallor to his face. You couldn’t believe that Eddie Munson was standing in your house. Never in a million years would you have thought anyone from school would be in your house, let alone Eddie.

“You probably want a shower, right? I’ll go grab something of my dad’s for you to wear and I’ll toss your stuff in the wash. We don’t have a dryer though so I’ll have to hang the laundry up, if that’s okay? Oh –” You were speaking so fast.

Eddie leaned his hip against the counter and took you in, his head cocked in amusement. “Are you blushing? Am I making you nervous?”

“No. Do you want chicken and gravy or would you prefer meatloaf for dinner?” You lied about not blushing. All of the alcohol and endorphins were running wild in your body. Your face was a deep pink.

“Whichever is easiest. I haven’t had anything but Chef Boyardee in days, my standards are abysmally low.”

You nervously smoothed your hair down and nodded. You pulled another chicken and gravy meal out of the freezer and turned on the oven to preheat. You left Eddie standing in the kitchen and walked back to your dad’s room. You dug through his closet for an old shirt and pajama pants. Unfortunately, the only pants you could find were Christmas themed and across the butt they said: “You Can Jingle My Bells.” You wanted to die at the thought of giving them to Eddie, but you realized that nothing else your dad owned would fit his thin frame. Your head began to throb.

When you walked back into the living room you saw Eddie staring at the framed school photos of you that your dad kept hung on the wall above the couch.

“These are cute,” Eddie said without turning towards you, “I like the pigtails, they’re a real statement.” He pointed to your kindergarten photo.

You pressed your cool hand to your warm cheeks and tried to quiet the butterflies in your churning stomach. You really needed to drink something. “Here’s some PJs, I’m sorry they’re awful.”

Eddie turned towards you and could hardly contain his laughter at the 1975 Family Reunion shirt and Christmas pants you handed to him. “This will be one of my more eclectic looks.” You wanted to die on the spot, but instead you tried to remain solemn as you showed him to the bathroom and shoved a towel at him.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join me?” Eddie said playfully, leaning in the doorframe.

“Can’t, the oven is on,” You replied without thinking before realizing how mortifying it was that you just implied that you’d join Eddie in the shower if the oven wasn’t on. You turned even more red and pulled the door closed on him.

You walked back into the kitchen and poured yourself the world’s largest glass of water and slammed two pain relievers back. You needed to flush your system of any trace of alcohol so you could be in control of yourself. You didn’t behave irrationally, and you didn’t say weird things like ‘can’t, the oven is on’. That wasn’t you. You felt ridiculous. You couldn’t believe you invited Eddie to stay the weekend with you.

As you prepped the TV dinners and slid them into the oven you recalled the first time you had seen Eddie. It was your second or third day of school that year and you were walking in the hallway. You saw Jason, school king and jock extraordinaire, cornering Eddie by the bathroom.

Eddie had his hands up in that noncommittal way he usually played, “Look, man, I don’t have anything to do with your teammate being dropped from the team. Terry wanted to smoke, I wanted to make money. Not my fault he got caught.”

Jason puffed his chest up at Eddie, “You need to stay away from my team. Stay away from everyone I know. You’re a freak! You do nothing but make things worse around here.”

Eddie chuckled, “Mission accomplished, then.”

Jason raised a fist towards Eddie and Eddie scurried under his arm and into the hallway. He briefly made eye contact with you and winked. You felt your stomach flip. You knew exactly why you were attracted to Eddie. He had that bad boy thing going on but with a side serving of softie. You saw the way he adopted the younger students who didn’t have anyone into his group. You also saw the way he tried to break people of their narrowmindedness with little success. His methodology wasn’t the best and he had a flair for the dramatic, but he wasn’t all hard edges and biting comments.

You poked holes in the tops of the TV dinners and returned them to the oven.

“How do I look?” Eddie’s voice made you jump and pulled you from your daydream.

You turned towards him and took in the very colorfully dressed guy in front of you. The screaming neon green shirt coupled with the red and yellow pants made your eyes cross.

“You make Cyndi Lauper jealous, I think,” you covered your mouth with your hand.

Eddie shook his damp hair like a dog and laughed, “Cyndi Lauper wishes she could look this good.”

Eddie slid into the chair at the small table in your kitchen. You and your dad never ate meals together so there was tons of junk mail and your old homework scattered across the top. Eddie started straightening the papers into a pile so you’d have room to eat. He pulled a sheet of paper from the stack and flicked it with his fingernail. “I knew you were smart. Book smart and not street smart since you let me in your house.”

“I make okay grades, nothing special.”

He rolls his eyes, “A-, A, B-, A, and a whopping A+ in English. Please spare me your efforts at downplaying your intelligence. You should see my report cards. There’s a reason I am a super senior.”

Your timer went off and you slipped a pair of oven mitts with small fish all over them onto your hands. You didn’t know how to reply to his self-deprecation. Your parents sucked but they never put down your intelligence. You wondered if Eddie’s parents had been less supportive. If he had parents at all.

You slid the plastic tray across the table to Eddie and took a spot beside him. You watched as Eddie inhaled the frozen food as if it were the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. You picked at your food, feeling anxious around the boy beside you. Your head was beginning to clear up.

Halfway through your meal the phone rang. You leapt up from your seat and rushed over to the phone attached to the wall.

“Hey, Dad. How’s Wisconsin?” You said into the receiver.

The voice on the phone was not your dad. “Um no… This is Jason, from math class?”

“Oh, hey… Jason,” You felt your heartrate climbing. “What’s up?”

Eddie’s head snapped towards you and his eyes widened. He mouthed fuck over and over.

“You live next door to Reefer Rick’s place, right?”

“Yep. He doesn’t live there right now, though. He went to prison this summer. I think for a while, drug stuff.”

“Look, this is going to sound really weird, but have you seen anybody over at Rick’s place? Or have you seen anything suspicious?”

You gnawed on the inside of your cheek, “No, not at all. Why? Did something happen?” You tried to keep your voice even. Your hands were shaking.

“There’s this murderer on the loose, Eddie Munson. Do you know him? He killed my girlfriend, Chrissy Cunningham. My boys and I think he might be hiding out at Rick’s, but I thought I would call you and check before we drive all the way out there. Have you seen Eddie?” He sounded choked up and angry.

You swallowed hard, “I heard about Chrissy, I’m really sorry. I don’t really know Eddie. Isn’t he that D&D guy? Anyways, I haven’t seen him. I can give you a call if I do see something?”

Jason paused and you heard muffled voices as if he pressed his palm to the receiver.

“Can we pay you a visit? We just want to check things out. He’s a dangerous person.”

“My dad’s out of town and he doesn’t like me to have people over if he’s not here. Sorry. I wish I could help more. If you give me your number, though, I can call… like I said…”

Jason mumbled to people in the background again. “Are you sure you haven’t seen anyone?”

“Jason, maybe you should report what you know to the cops. If Eddie really is… dangerous, then shouldn’t the police be the ones looking for him? I’d hate for you to get hurt.”

“The cops don’t believe us, they’re covering for that freak. Thanks for your help.”

“Have a good night.” The receiver died before you finished your sentence.

“Well that was terrifying,” you turned to face Eddie. His face was as pale as a sheet and he looked as if he might run away any second. He put the fork he was holding down and put his head in his hands.

“Hey,” you walked over to him and pressed a hand to his shoulder. “I think they believed me. I don’t think those meat heads are going to come sniffing around here anytime soon. Besides, they won’t come poking around my house, they have no reason to.”

Eddie shook his head, “They’re not going to stop until I’m dead. Eye for an eye, they don’t care whose eye it is. Everybody thinks I’ve murdered Chrissy except you.” He sounded like a little boy.

You rubbed small circles in his shoulder, “Look at me.”

Eddie looked up at you, his eyes rimmed in red.

“I’m not going to let some jerks come and hurt you. I’m sure this is all one big misunderstanding and once the cops get the real killer, you’ll be free and they’ll feel like jackasses for coming after you.”

He swallowed hard, “What if I told you that whoever, whatever killed Chrissy wasn’t human?”

“When we see something traumatic sometimes our brains think that things are… less easily explained than they are. After all this is over maybe you should talk to Ms. Kelly.” You’d been seeing Ms. Kelly about the divorce and perfect Dave. She was really good at her job and you were sure she could help Eddie too.

Eddie reached up and grabbed your hand, “I’m serious. An invisible monster killed Chrissy. It’s been haunting my nightmares and all I can see is Chrissy floating in the air and being snapped up like a twig.”

You furrowed your brow and looked down at Eddie. He looked frightened, his cocky demeanor shifting to fear. You reached out and pressed your other hand to his face, “I’m sorry you had to see that.” Your skin tingled at the contact with his skin and you felt ridiculous, yet again.

“You believe me, right?”

You cocked your head to the side, “I believe that you’re scared and whoever killed Chrissy must have been awful.”

He looked disappointed but relieved. He could tell you didn’t believe that an invisible monster killed Chrissy, but he appreciated that you didn’t think he did it.

You moved away from Eddie and took your seat at the table again, eating a few more bites of lukewarm food. You felt unsettled by everything that had been revealed so far that evening. Most things weren’t lining up, but you were certain that Eddie Munson wasn’t responsible for any of it.

***

“Ready for bed?” You asked Eddie. Reruns of Cheers filled the background as you and Eddie sat a few feet apart on the couch. Eddie clutched the solitary fish shaped throw pillow to his chest. He looked like he was elsewhere ever since Jason called.

Notably, your father never called when he got to Milwaukee. You figured that whatever conference he was at took precedence over checking in with his teen daughter. It made you irritable even though you wanted to pretend you didn’t care what your dad did or thought.

Eddie didn’t respond to you. He stared blankly at the television, his breathing shallow.

“Eddie? You ready for bed?” You reached over and touched his tattooed arm.

He flinched and looked at you, panic in his eyes. After a few seconds he realized where he was and what he was doing.

“Oh, yeah. Sounds good.”

You stood from the couch and went to the linen closet, pulling out a big ugly fishing themed blanket that your dad stuffed away. It probably belonged to the previous owners. You brought the blanket to Eddie and then walked into your room, grabbing one of the many pillows from your bed.

“My room is the one across from the bathroom if you need anything. If you wake up before me, you can go ahead and make whatever you want from the fridge or freezer. I think we have Frosted Flakes too, but I’d smell the milk before you use it.”

Eddie smiled up at you from where he sat on the couch, “Thanks for letting me stay. This beats sleeping on a boat.” Your heart skips a beat in your chest as he looks up at you.

“No problem.” You smiled back at him. On your way to your room you shoved his dirty laundry into the washer and turned the machine on. The washer roared to life and you kicked yourself for not starting the load earlier.

You shut your bedroom door behind you and pressed your hand to your forehead. You replayed the way Jason sounded in your mind. He was so determined to find Eddie, you were sure that Eddie was in serious trouble.

You slipped into a big t-shirt and shorts, climbing into your bed. You had no idea what to do with Eddie once your dad came back. You wondered if you could let him stay somehow, hide under your bed. You knew your dad would kill you if he knew you had a boy staying over. Especially a wanted man.

You pulled your pillow over your face and groaned. As sleep started to come over you, you heard a soft knock at your door.

“Yeah?” You mumbled sleepily.

Eddie cracked open the door and peeked his head in, “I know this is going to sound like I’m trying to pull something on you… but I can’t sleep. I was wondering if I could, um, sleep on your floor?”

You sat up and rubbed your eye, “are you okay?”

“When I close my eyes I see Chrissy,” he swallowed hard. “Sorry, this is stupid. I’ll go lay down. I’m sure I’ll get tired enough that I’ll just fall asleep. Sorry.”

You reached out to grab the edge of the door before it closed, “No, it’s totally understandable. You can sleep here. Don’t sleep on the floor though, that’s not comfortable. There’s room for two.” You slid over closer to the wall that your bed pressed up against and lifted the edge of the covers. You weren’t thinking clearly and Eddie looked at you skeptically. “Take it or leave it, Eddie. Either way.”

You rolled over and tried to still your pounding heart. What were you thinking? Inviting Eddie Munson to share your bed.

The edge of the bed dipped, and Eddie’s leg brushed yours under the covers as he situated himself. “Thanks.”

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things season four #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfiction #strangerthings

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dipperdesperado · 2 years

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The Pitch for My Romantic Tragedy-Thriller

Hi everyone, for today’s Project Dangerous Lovers update, we’ll be going over the Pitch Doc! For the full thing, and any other files relating to the project, go to the Drive folder.

Why a Pitch Doc?

So, I’m super into like business and entrepreneurship, and in that process, you make pitches a lot earlier than you would in the creative process. In my mind, PDL will be something that is made for people to take in and enjoy, so thinking early about what makes it appealing helps me a lot going into the writing and ideation process. The way I write these, it forces me to answer some questions that I haven’t. By the end, I have more of a specific feeling for what I want to do, going into the process of actually writing the script.

Intro

So one thing that was important to me is to capture the vibe of what the story will be using the document's design. This comes from seeing docs like the bibles for batman the animated series and Stranger Things. Both of these really place you into the world of the show, and with the stranger things, one almost feels diegetic. It’s super cool.

I also talk about the origin of this story and what it’s about since in pitching, you’re trying to sell the story, but you’re trying to sell yourself just as much.

Overview

After that, I go through an Act by Act breakdown of what happens in the story. The first act is our main character getting his world turned upside down. The next act is him realizing how to live in the new world and seeing his place. The final act is about changing the world for everyone and seeing the consequences of that.

World, Tone, and Style

I imagine the world of PDL to be beautiful but dark, in the vein of the Avatar series of movies. It’ll almost have the feel of an adventure movie locale, but have more of a thriller vibe overall. It’ll be near future alternate universe vibes, so technology will be different, with many things seeming more form over (literal) function. For example, Idyll, the nation in which the story takes place, will have its soldiers wearing fantastic masks that might seem counterintuitive to combat functionality in real life. In the world, it’ll be great.

Character

As of now, I have two main characters, Ashton and Hana. They come from different worlds, and that informs their interactions and values. Ashton comes from the ruling class, and Hana grew up as a member of the proletariat, through and through. One has had to claw their way through life to survive, and the other has been given everything, falling upwards. I hope this stuff will make the romance fun and interesting, and all of the trappings around it will make it very interesting.

The Future

Since I just can’t help myself, I’ve started thinking about ways in which the story can continue. I think that a story arc I might’ve mentioned before is Takedown → Rebuild → Recreate old issues, where by the end of this film, we see hints that maybe the people running the show aren’t the best for this. We get a little period of peace, but it doesn’t really last, and then the last movie is showing the new normal settling in, and it starts to feel like the world of the start of the first movie.

And that’s pretty much the skinny! As I said, the whole pitch doc will be in Google Drive if you want to check it out. For this week, I’ll be laying out the story beats, so we can get into the whole story!

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eiirisworkshop · 3 years

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The Fanfic Author's Guide to Metatext

(As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri

Also available as a PDF here. This thing is 13,000 words. The PDF is recommended.

Intro: What is Metatext?

Metatext is everything we fanfic authors post along with our story that is not the story itself: title, tags, summary, author's notes, even the rating.

It is how we communicate to potential readers what they're signing themselves up for if they choose to read our story, how we let them make informed decisions regarding which fics they want to read, how we get their interest and, frequently, how they find our story in the first place. A lot of metatext acts as a consent mechanism for readers, it's the informed part of informed consent.

Since most of us who write fanfic also read it, we understand how important this is! But, for the most part, no one ever teaches us how to use metatext; we have to pick it up by osmosis. That makes it hard to learn how to use it well, we all suck at it when we first start out, and some of us may go years without learning particular conventions that seem obvious to others in our community. This creates frustration for everybody.

Enter this guide!

This is meant to be a sort of handbook for fic writers, particularly those of us who post on Archive of Our Own, laying out and explaining the established metatext conventions already in use in our community so we (and our readers!) are all on the same page. It will also provide some best-practices tips.

The point is to give all of us the tools to communicate with our audience as clearly and effectively as possible, so the people who want to read a story like ours can find it and recognize it as what they're looking for, those who don't want to read a story like ours can easily tell it's not their cup of tea and avoid it, nobody gets hurt, and everybody has fun—including us!

Now that we know what we're talking about, let's get on with the guide! The following content sections appear in the order one is expected to provide each kind of metatext when posting a fic on Ao3, but first….

Warning!

This is a guide for all authors on Ao3. As such, it mentions subject matter and kinds of fic that you personally might hate or find disgusting, but which are allowed under the Archive's terms of use. There are no graphic descriptions or harsh language in the guide itself, but it does acknowledge the existence of fic you may find distasteful and explains how to approach metatext for such fics.

Some sexual terminology is used in an academic context.

A note from the author:

This guide reflects the conventions of the English-language fanfiction community circa 2021. Conventions may differ in other language communities, and although many of our conventions have been in place for decades (praise be to our Star Trek loving foremothers) fanfiction now exists primarily in the realm of internet fandom where things tend to change rather quickly, so some conventions in this guide may die out while other new conventions, not covered in this guide, arise.

This is not official or in any way produced by the Archive of Our Own (Ao3), and though some actual site rules are mentioned, it is not a rulebook. Primarily, it is a descriptivist take on how the userbase uses metatext to communicate amongst ourselves, provided in the interest of making that communication easier and more transparent for everyone, especially newer users.

Contents

How To Use This Guide Ratings Archive Warnings Fandom Tags Category Relationship Tags Character Tags Additional Tags Titles Summaries Author's Notes Series and Chapters Parting Thoughts

How To Use This Guide

Well, read it. Or have it read to you.

This isn't a glossary, it's a handbook, and it's structured more like an academic paper or report, but there's lots and lots of examples in it!

Many of these examples are titles of real media and the names of characters from published media, or tags quoted directly from Ao3 complete with punctuation and formatting.

Some examples are more generic and use the names Alex, Max, Sam, Chris, Jamie, and Tori for demonstration purposes. In other generic examples, part of an example tag or phrase may be sectioned off with square brackets to show where in that tag or phrase you would put the appropriate information to complete it. This will look something like “Top [Character A]” where you would fill in a character's name.

This guide presumes that you know the basics of how to use Ao3, at least from the perspective of reading fic. If you don't, much of this guide may be difficult to understand and will be much less helpful to you, though not entirely useless.

Ratings

Most fanfic hosting sites provide ratings systems that work a lot like the ratings on movies and videogames.

Ao3's system has four ratings:

General

Teen

Mature

Explicit

These seem like they should be pretty self-explanatory, and the site's own official info pop-up (accessible by clicking the question mark next to the section prompt) gives brief, straightforward descriptions for each of them.

Even so, many writers have found ourselves staring at that dropdown list, thinking about what we've written, and wondering what's the right freaking rating for this? How do I know if it's appropriate for “general audiences” or if it needs to be teen and up? What's the difference between Mature and Explicit?

The best way to figure it out is often to think about your fic in comparison to mainstream media.

General is your average Disney or Dreamworks movie, Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon shows, video games like Mario, Kirby, and Pokemon.

There may be romance, but no sexual content or discussion. Scary things might happen and people might get hurt, but violence is non-graphic and usually mild. Adults may be shown drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco, and some degree of intoxication may be shown (usually played for laughs and not focused on), but hard drug use is generally not shown or discussed. There is little to no foul language written out and what language there may be is mild, though harsher swears may be implied by narration. There are no explicit F-bombs or slurs.

Teen is more like a Marvel movie, most network television shows (things like The Office, Supernatural, or Grey's Anatomy), video games like Final Fantasy, Five Nights at Freddie's, and The Sims.

There might be some sex and sexual discussion, but nothing explicit is shown—things usually fade to black or are leftimplied. More intense danger, more severe injuries described in greater detail, and a higher level of violence may be present. Substance use may be discussed and intoxication shown, but main characters are unlikely to be shown doing hard drugs. Some swearing and other harsh language may be present, possibly including an F-bomb or two. In longer works, that might mean an F-bomb every few chapters.

Mature is, in American terms, an R-rated movie* like Deadpool, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Exorcist, and Schindler's List; certain shows from premium cable networks or streaming services like Game of Thrones, Shameless, Breaking Bad, and Black Sails; videogames like Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, and The Witcher.

Sex may be shown and it might be fairly explicit, but it's not as detailed or graphic or as much the focus of the work as it would be if it were porn. Violence, danger, and bodily harm may be significant and fairly graphic. Most drug use is fair game. Swearing and harsh language may be extensive.

Explicit is, well, extremely explicit. This is full on porn, the hardcore horror movies, and snuff films.

Sex is highly detailed and graphic. Violence and injury is highly detailed and graphic. Drug use and its effects may be highly detailed and graphic. Swearing and harsh language may be extreme, including extensive use of violent slurs.

Please note that both Mature and Explicit fics are intended for adult audiences only, but that does not mean a teenaged writer isn't going to produce fics that should be rated M or E. Ratings should reflect the content of the fic, not the age of the author.

Strictly speaking, you don't have to choose any of these ratings; Ao3 has a “Not Rated” option, but for purposes of search results and some other functions, Not Rated fics are treated by the site as Explicit, just in case, which means they end up hidden from a significant portion of potential readers. It really is in your best interest as a writer who presumably wants people to see their stories, to select a rating. It helps readers judge if yours is the kind of story they want right now, too.

Rating a fic is a subjective decision, there is some grey area in between each level. If you're not quite sure where your fic falls, best practice is to go with the more restrictive rating.

*(Equivalent to an Australian M15+ or R18+, Canadian 14A, 18A or 18+, UK 15 or 18, German FSK 16 or FSK 18.)

Warnings

Ao3 uses a set of standard site-wide Archive Warnings to indicate that a work contains subject matter that falls into one or more of a few categories that some readers are likely to want to avoid. Even when posting elsewhere, it's courteous to include warnings of this sort.

These warnings are:

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Major Character Death

Rape/Non-Con

Underage

Just like with the ratings, the site provides an info-pop up that explains what each warning is for. They're really exactly what it says on the tin: detailed descriptions of violence, injury, and gore; the death of a character central to canon or tothe story being told; non-consensual sex i.e. rape; and depictions of underage sex, which the site defines as under the age of 18 for humans—Ao3 doesn't care if your local age of consent or majority is lower than that.

In addition to the four standard warnings above, the warnings section has two other choices:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

These do not mean the same thing and cannot be used interchangeably. “No Archive Warnings Apply” means that absolutely nothing in your fic falls into any of the four standard warning categories. “Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings” means that you the author are opting out of the warning system; your fic could potentially contain things that fall into any and all of the four standard warning categories.

There's nothing wrong with selecting Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings! It may mean that some readers will avoid your fic because they're not sure it's safe for them, and you might need to use more courtesy tags than you otherwise would (we'll talk about courtesy tags later), but that's okay! Opting out of the warning system can be a way to avoid spoilers,* and is also good for when you're just not sure if what you've written deserves one of the Archive warnings. In that case, the best practice is to select either the warning it might deserve or Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, then provide additional information in other tags, the summary, or an initial author's note.

Unless you're opting out of using the warning system, select all the warnings that apply to your fic, if any of them do. So if a sixteen year old main character has consensual sex then gets killed in an accident that you've written out in excruciating detail, that fic gets three out of the four standard warnings: Underage, Major Character Death, and Graphic Depictions Of Violence.

*(Fandom etiquette generally favors thorough tagging and warning over avoiding spoilers. It doesn't ruin the experience of a story to have a general sense of what's going to happen. If it did, we wouldn't all keep reading so many “there was only one bed” fics.)

Fandom Tags

What fandom or fandoms is your fic for? You definitely know what you wrote it for, but that doesn't mean it's obvious what to tag it as.

Sometimes, it is obvious! You watched a movie that isn't based on anything, isn't part of a series, and doesn't have any spinoffs, tie-ins or anything else based on it. You wrote a fic set entirely within the world of this movie. You put this movie as the fandom for your fic. Or maybe you read a book and wrote a fic for it, and there is a movie based on the book, but the movie is really different and you definitely didn't use anything that's only in the movie. You put the book as the fandom for your fic.

All too often, though, it's not that clear.

What if you wrote a fic for something where there's a movie based on a book, but the movie's really different, and you've used both things that are only in the movie and things that are only in the book? In that case you either tag your fic as both the movie and the book, or see if the fandom has an “all media types” tag and use that instead of the separate tags. If the fandom doesn't have an “all media types” tag yet, you can make one! Just type it in.

“All media types” fandom tags are also useful for cases where there are lots of inter-related series, like Star Wars; there are several tellings of the story in different media but they're interchangeable or overlap significantly, like The Witcher; or the fandom has about a zillion different versions so it's very hard, even impossible, to say which ones your fic does and doesn't fit, like Batman. Use your best judgement as to whether you need to include a more specific fandom tag such as “Batman (Movies 1989-1997)” alongside the “all media types” fandom tag, but try to avoid including very many. The point of the “all media types” tag is to let you leave off the specific tags for every version.

In a situation where one piece of media has a spinoff, maybe several spinoffs, and you wrote a fic that includes things from more than one of them, you might want use the central work's “& related fandoms” tag. For example, the “Doctor Who & Related Fandoms” tag gets used for fics that include things from a combination of any era of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

And don't worry, from the reader-side of the site the broadest fandom tags are prioritized. The results page for an “all media types” or “& related fandoms” search includes works tagged with the more specific sub-tags for that fandom, the browse-by-fandom pages show the broadest tag for each fandom included, and putting a fandom into the search bar presumes the broadest tag for that fandom. A search for “Star Wars - All Media Types” will pull up work that only has a subtag for that fandom, like “The Mandalorian (TV).” You don't have to put every specific fandom subtag for people to find your fic.

If you wrote a fic for something that's an adaptation of an older work—especially an older work that's been adapted a lot, like Sherlock Holmes or The Three Musketeers—it can be hard to know how you should tag it. The best choice is to put the adaptation as the fandom, for instance “Sherlock (TV),” then, if you're also using aspects of the older source work that aren't in the adaptation, also put a broad fandom tag such as “Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms.” Do not tag it as being fic for the source work—in our Sherlock example that would be tagging it “Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle”—unless you are crossing over the source work and the adaptation. Otherwise, the specific fandom subtag for the source work ends up clogged with fic for the adaptation, which really is a different thing.

By the same token, fic for the source work shouldn't be tagged as being for the adaptation, or the adaptation's subtag will get clogged.

The same principle applies to fandoms that have been rebooted. Don't tag fic for the reboot as being for the original, or fic for the original as being for the reboot. Don't tag a fic as being for both unless the reboot and original are actually interacting. Use an “& related fandoms” tag for the original if your fic for the reboot includes some aspects of the original that weren't carried over but you haven't quite written a crossover between the two. Good examples of these situations can be seen with “Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)” vs. “Star Trek: The Original Series,” and “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)” vs. “She-Ra: Princess Of Power (1985).”

Usually, this kind of mistagging as a related fandom happens when someone writes a fic for something that is or has a reboot, spinoff, or adaptation, but they're only familiar with one of the related pieces of media, and they mistakenly presume the fandoms are the same or interchangeable because they just don't know the difference. It's an honest mistake and it doesn't make you a bad or fake fan to not know, but it can be frustrating for readers who want fic for one thing and find the fandom tag full of fic for something else.

In order to avoid those kinds of issues, best practice is to assume fandoms are not interchangeable no matter how closely related they are, and to default to using a tag pair of the most-specific-possible sub-fandom tag + the broadest possible fandom tag when posting a fic you're not entirely sure about, for instance “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”

The Marvel megafandom has its own particular tagging hell going on. Really digging into and trying to make sense of that entire situation would require its own guide, but we can go through some general tips.

There is a general “Marvel” fandom tag and tags for both “The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom” and “The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types.” Most of us who write Marvel fic are working with a cherry picked combination of canons from the MCU, various comics runs, both timelines of X-Men movies, and possibly several decades worth of cartoons. That's what these tags are for.

If your cherry picked Marvel fic is more X-Men than Avengers, go for the “X-Men - All Media Types” tag.

If you are primarily working with MCU canon, use the MCU specific tags rather than “all media types” and add specific tags for individual comics runs—like Earth 616 or the Fraction Hawkeye comics—if you know you're lifting particular details from the comics. If you're just filling in gaps in MCU canon with things that are nebulously “from the comics” don't worry about tagging for that, it's accepted standard practice in the fandom at this point, use a broader tag along with your MCU-specific tag if you want to.

Same general idea for primarily movie-verse X-Men fics. Use the movie-specific tags.

If your fic mostly draws from the comics, use the comics tags. If you're focusing on an individual run, show, or movie series rather than an ensemble or large swath of the megafranchise, tag for that and leave off the broader fandom tags.

Try your best to minimize the number of fandom tags on your Marvel work. Ideally, you can get it down to two or three. Even paring it down as much as you can you might still end up with about five. If you're in the double digits, take another look to see if all the fandom tags you've included are really necessary, or if some of them are redundant or only there to represent characters who are in the fic but that the fic doesn't focus on. Many readers tend to search Marvel fics by character or pairing tags, it's more important that you're thorough there. For the fandom tags it's more important that you're clear.

If you write real person fiction, you need to tag it as an RPF fandom. Fic about actors who are in a show together does not belong on the fandom tag for that show. There are separate RPF fandom tags for most shows and film franchises. Much like the adaptation/source and reboot/original situations discussed earlier, a fic should really only be tagged with both a franchise's RPF tag and its main tag if something happens like the actors—or director or writer!—falling into the fictional world or meeting their characters.

Of course, not all RPF is about actors. Most sports have RPF tags, there are RPF tags for politics from around the world and for various historical settings, the fandom tags for bands are generally presumed to be RPF tags, and there is a general Real Person Fiction tag.

In order to simplify things for readers, it's best practice to use the general Real Person Fiction tag in addition to your fandom-specific tag. You may even want to put “RPF” as a courtesy tag in the Additional Tags section, too. This is because Ao3 isn't currently set up to recognize RPF as the special flavor of fic that it is in the same way that the site recognizes crossovers as special, so it can be very difficult to either seek out or avoid RPF since it's scattered across hundreds of different fandom tags.

On the subject of crossovers—they can make fandom tagging even more daunting. Even for a crossover with lots of fandoms involved, though, you just have to follow the same guidelines as to tag a single-fandom work for each fandom in the crossover. The tricky part is figuring out if what you wrote is really a crossover, or just an AU informed by another fandom—we'll talk about that later.

There are some cases where it's really hard to figure out what fandom something belongs to, like if you wrote a fanfic of someone else's fanfic, theirs is an AU and yours is about their OC, not any of the characters from canon. What do you do?! Well, you do not tag it as being a fanfic for the same thing theirs was. Put the title of their fic (or name of their series) as the fandom for your fic, attributed to their Ao3 handle just like any other fandom is attributed to its author. Explain the situation in either the summary or the initial author's note. Also, ask the author's permission before posting something like this.

What if you wrote a story about your totally original D&D character? The fandom is still D&D, you want the “Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)” tag.

What if there's not a fandom tag on the Archive yet for what you wrote? Not a problem! You can type in a new one if you're the first person to post something for a particular fandom. Do make sure, though, that the fandom isn't just listed by a different name than you expect. Many works that aren't originally in English—including anime—are listed by their original language title or a direct translation first, and sometimes a franchise or series's official name might not be what you personally call it, for instance many people think of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series as The Golden Compass series, so it's best to double check.

What if you wrote an entirely new original story that's not based on anything? Excellent job, that takes a lot of work, but that probably doesn't belong on Ao3! The Archive is primarily meant as a repository for fannish content, but in a few particular circumstances things we'd consider Original Work may be appropriate content for the Archive as well. Double check the Archive's Terms of Service FAQ and gauge if what you wrote falls under the scope of what is allowed. If what you wrote really doesn't fit here, post it somewhere else or try to get it published if you feel like giving it a shot.

Category

What Ao3 means by category is “does this fic focus on sex or romance, and if so what combination of genders are involved in that sex or romance?”

The category options are:

F/F

F/M

Gen

M/M

Multi

Other

The F/F, F/M, and M/M categories are for stories focused on pairings of two women, a woman and a man, and two men, respectively. These refer to sexual and/or romantic pairings.

The Other category is for stories focused on (sexual and/or romantic) pairings where one or both partners are not strictly male or female, such as nonbinary individuals, people from cultures with gender systems that don't match to the Western man-woman system, and nonhuman characters for whom biological sex works differently or is nonexistent, including aliens, robots, and inanimate objects or abstract concepts. There are some problems with treating nonbinary humans, eldritch tentacle monsters, sexless androids, and wayward container ships as all the same category, but it's the system we currently have to work with. Use Additional Tags to clarify the situation.

Multi is for stories in which several (sexual and/or romantic) relationships are focused on or which focus on relationships with multiple partners, including cases of polyamory, serial monogamy, strings of hookups with different people, and orgies. A fic will also show as “Multi” if you, the author, have selected more than one category for the fic, even if none of those are the Multi category. Realistically, the Archive needs separate “Multiple Categories” and “Poly” options, but for now we have to work with this system in which the two are combined. Use Additional Tags to clarify the situation.

Gen is for stories that do not contain or are not focused on sex or romance. Romance may be present in a gen fic but it's going to be in the background. While rare, there is such a thing as a sexually explicit gen fic—solo masturbation which does not feature fantasizing about another character is explicit gen fic; a doctor character seeing a series of patients with sex-related medical needs following an orgy may qualify if the orgy is not shown and the doctor is being strictly professional—but such fic needs to be rated, otherwise tagged, and explained carefully in the summary and/or author's note.

Much like the warnings section, category is a “select all that apply” situation. Use your best judgement. For a fic about a polyamorous relationship among a group of women, it's entirely appropriate to tag it as both F/F and Multi. A poly fic with a combination of men and women in the relationship could be shown as both M/M and F/M, Multi, or all three. A fic that focuses equally on one brother and his husband and the other brother and his wife should be tagged both M/M and F/M, and could be tagged as Multi but you might decided not to just to be clear that there's no polyamory going on. If you wrote a fic about two characters who are both men in canon, but you wrote one of them as nonbinary, you could tag it M/M, Other, or both depending on what you feel is representative and respectful.

When dealing with trans characters, whether they're trans in canon or you're writing them as such, the category selection should match the character's gender. If there's a character who is a cis woman in canon, but who you're writing as a trans man, you categorize the fic based on his being a man. If there's a character who is a cis man in canon, but whom you're writing as a trans man, he is still a man and the fic should be categorized accordingly. When dealing with nonbinary characters the fic should really be classed as Other though, by convention, fics about characters who are not nonbinary in canon may be classed based on the character's canon gender as well or instead. When dealing with gender swapped characters—i.e. a canonically cis male superhero who you're writing as a cis woman—class the fic using the gender you wrote her with, not the gender he is in canon.

Most of the time, gen fics should not be categorized jointly with anything else because a fic should only be categorized based on the ships it focuses on, and a gen fic should not be focusing on a ship in the first place.*

*(One of the few circumstances in which it might make sense to class a fic as both gen and something else is when writing about Queerplatonic Relationships, but that is a judgement call and depends on the fic.)

Relationship Tags

The thing about relationship tagging that people most frequently misunderstand or just don't know is the difference between “Character A/Character B” and “Character A & Character B.”

Use a “/” for romantic or sexual relationships, such as spouses, people who are dating, hookups, and friends with benefits. Use “&” for platonic or familial relationships, such as friends, siblings, parents with their kids, coworkers, and deeply connected mortal enemies who are not tragically in love.

This is where we get the phrase “slash fic.” Originally, that meant any fic focused on a romantic paring, but since so much of the romantic fic being produced was about pairs of men, “slash fic” came to mean same-sex pairings, especially male same-sex pairings. Back in earlier days of fandom, pre-Ao3 and even pre-internet, there was a convention that when writing out a different-sex pairing, you did so in man/woman order, while same-sex pairings were done top/bottom. Some authors, especially those who have been in the fic community a long time, may still do this, but the convention has not been in consistent, active use for many years, so you don't have to worry about putting the names in the “correct” order. Part of why that died out is we, as a community, have gotten less strict and more nuanced in our understandings of sex and relationships, we're writing non-penetrative sex more than we used to, and we're writing multi-partner relationships and sex more than we used to, so strictly delineating “tops” and “bottoms” has gotten less important and less useful.

The convention currently in use on Ao3 is that the names go in alphabetical order for both “/” and “&” relationships. In most cases, the Archive uses the character's full name instead of a nickname or just a given name, like James "Bucky" Barnes instead of just Bucky or James. We'll talk more about conventions for how to input character names in the Characters section. The Archive will give you suggestions as you type—if one of them fits what you mean but is slightly different from how you were typing it, for instance it's in a different order, please use the tag suggested! Consistency in tags across users helps the site work more smoothly for everybody.

This is really not the place for ship nicknames like Puckleberry, Wolfstar, or Ineffable Wives. Use the characters' names.

Now that you know how to format the relationship tag to say what you mean, you have to figure out what relationships in your fic to tag for.

The answer is you tag the relationships that are important to the story you're telling, the ones you spend time and attention following, building up, and maybe even breaking down. Tagging for a ship is not a promise of a happy ending for that pair; you don't have to limit yourself to tagging only the end-game ships if you're telling a story that's more complicated than “they get together and live happily ever after.” That said, you should generally list the main ship—the one you focus on the most—first on the list, and that will usually be the end-game ship. You should also use Additional Tags, the summary, and author's notes to make it clear to readers if your fic does not end happily for a ship you've tagged. Otherwise readers will assume that a fic tagged as being about a ship will end well for that ship, because that's what usually happens, and they'll end up disappointed and hurt, possibly feeling tricked or lied to, when your fic doesn't end well for that ship

You don't have to, and honestly shouldn't, tag for every single relationship that shows up in your fic at all. A character's brief side fling mentioned in passing, or a relationship between two background characters should not be listed under the Relationship tag section. You can list them in the format “minor Character A/Character C” or “Character C/Character D – mentions of” in the Additional Tags section if you want to, or just tag “Minor or Background Relationship(s)” under either the Relationship tag section or in the Additional Tags section.

There are two main reasons to not tag all those minor relationships. The first is to streamline your tags, which makes them clearer and more readable, and therefore more useful. The second reason is because certain ships are far more common as minor or background relationships than as the focus of a work, so tagging all your non-focus focus ships leads to the tags for these less popular ships getting clogged with stories they appear in, but that are not about them. That is, of course, very frustrating for readers who really want to read stories that focus on these ships.

If your fic contains a major relationship between a canon character and an OC, reader-insert, or self-insert, tag it as such. The archive already has /Original Character, /Reader, /You, and /Me tags for most characters in most fandoms. If such a relationship tag isn't already in use, type it in yourself. There are OC/OC tags, too, some of which specify gender, some of which do not. All the relationship tags that include OCs stack the gender-specific versions of the tags under the nongendered ones. Use these tags as appropriate.

For group relationships, both polycules and multi-person friendships, you “/” or “&” all the names involved in alphabetical order, so Alex/Max/Sam are dating while Chris & Jamie & Tori are best friends. For a poly situation where not everyone is dating each other you should tag it something like “Alex/Max, Alex/Sam” because Alex is dating both Max and Sam, but Max and Sam are not romantically or sexually involved with each other. Use your judgement as to whether you still want to include the Alex/Max/Sam trio tag, and whether you should also use a “Sam & Max” friendship tag.

Generally, romantic “/” type relationships are emphasized over “&” type relationships in fic. It is more important that you tag your “/”s thoroughly and accurately than that you tag your “&”s at all. This is because readers are far more likely to either be looking for or be squicked by particular “/” relationships than they are “&” relationships. You can tag the same pair of characters as both / and & if both their romance and their friendship is important to the story, but a lot of people see this as redundant. If you're writing incest fic, use the / tag for the pair not the & tag and put a courtesy tag for “incest” in the Additional Tags section; this is how readers who do not want to see incestuous relationships avoid that material.

Queerplatonic Relationships, Ambiguous Relationships, Pre-Slash, and “Slash If You Squint” are all frequently listed with both the “/” and “&” forms of the pairing; use your best judgement as to whether one or the other or both is most appropriate for what you've written and clarify the nature of the relationship in your Additional Tags.

Overall, list your “/” tags first, then your “&” tags.

Character Tags

Tagging your characters is a lot like tagging your relationships. Who is your fic about? That's who you put in your character tags.

You don't have to and really should not tag every single background character who shows up for just a moment in the story, for pretty much the same reasons you shouldn't tag background relationships. We don't want to clog less commonly focused on characters' tags with stories they don't feature prominently in.

You do need to tag the characters included in your Relationship tags.

A character study type of fic might only have one character you need to tag for. Romantic one shots frequently only have two. Longfics and fics with big ensemble casts can easily end up with a dozen characters or more who really do deserve to be tagged for.

Put them in order of importance. This doesn't have to be strict hierarchal ranking, you can just arrange them into groups of “main characters,” “major supporting characters,” and “minor supporting characters.” Nobody less than a minor supporting character should be tagged. Even minor supporting characters show up for more than one line.

If everyone in the fic is genuinely at the same level of importance (which does happen, especially with small cast fics), then order doesn't really matter. You can arrange them by order of appearance or alphabetically by name if you want to be particularly neat about it.

Do tag your OCs! Some people love reading about OCs and want to be able to find them; some people can't stand OCs and want to avoid them at all costs; most people are fine with OCs sometimes, but might have to be in the mood for an OC-centric story or only be comfortable with OCs in certain contexts. Regardless, though, Character tags are here to tell readers who the story is about, and that includes new faces. Original Characters are characters and if they're important to the story, they deserve to be tagged for just like canon characters do.

There are tags for “Original Character(s),” “Original Male Character(s),” and “Original Female Character(s).” Use these tags! If you have OCs you're going to be using frequently in different stories, type up a character tag in the form “[OC's Name] – Original Character” and use that in addition to the generic OC tags.

Also tag “Reader,” “You,” or “Me” as a character if you've written a reader- or self-insert.

You can use the “Minor Characters” tag to wrap up everybody, both OC and canon, who doesn't warrant their own character tag. Remember, though, that this tag is also used to refer to minor canon characters who may not have their own official names.

Just like when tagging for relationships, the convention when tagging for characters is to use their full name. The suggestions the Archive gives you as you type will help you use the established way of referring to a given character.

Characters who go by more than one name usually have their two most used names listed together as one tag with the two names separated by a vertical bar like “Andy | Andromache of Scythia.” This also gets used sometimes for characters who have different names in an adaptation than in the source text, or a different name in the English-language localization of a work than in the original language. For character names from both real-world and fictional languages and cultures that put family or surname before the given name—like the real Japanese name Takeuchi Naoko or the made up Bajoran name Kira Nerys—that order is used when tagging, even if you wrote your fic putting the given name first.

Some characters' tags include the fandom they're from in parentheses after their name like “Connor (Detroit: Become Human).” This is mostly characters with ordinary given names like Connor and no canon surname, characters who have the same full name as a character in another fandom, such as Billy Flynn the lawyer from the musical Chicago and Billy Flynn the serial killer played by Tim Curry in Criminal Minds, and characters based on mythological, religious, or historical figures or named for common concepts such as Lucifer, Loki, Amethyst, Death, and Zero that make appearances in multiple fandoms.

Additional Tags

Additional Tags is one of the most complicated, and often the longest, section of metatext we find ourselves providing when we post fic. It's also the one that gives our readers the greatest volume of information.

That, of course, is what makes it so hard for us to do well.

It can help to break down Additional Tags into three main functions of tag: courtesy tags, descriptive tags, and personal tags.

Courtesy tags serve as extensions of the rating and warning systems. They can help clarify the rating, provide more information about the Archive Warnings you've used or chosen not to use, and give additional warnings to tell readers there are things in this fic that may be distasteful, upsetting, or triggering but that the Archive doesn't have a standard warning for.

Descriptive tags give the reader information about who's in this fic, what kind of things happen, what tropes are in play, and what the vibe is, as well as practical information about things like format and tense.

Personal tags tell the readers things about us, the author, our process, our relationship to our fic, and our thoughts at the time of posting.

It doesn't really matter what order you put these tags in, but it is best practice to try to clump them: courtesy tags all together so it's harder for a reader to miss an important one, ship-related info tags together, character-related info tags together, etc.

There are tons and tons of established tags on Ao3, and while it's totally fine, fun, and often necessary to make up your own tags, it's also important to use established tags that fit your fic. For one thing, using established tags makes life easier for the tag wranglers behind the scenes. Using a new tag you just made up that means the same thing as an established tag makes more work for the tag wranglers. We like the tag wranglers, they're all volunteers, and they're largely responsible for the search and sorting features being functional. Be kind to the tag wranglers.

For basically the same reasons, using established tags makes it easier for readers to find your fic. If a reader either searches by a tag or uses filters on another search to “Include” that tag, and you didn't use that tag, your fic will not show up for them even if what you wrote is exactly what they're looking for. Established tags can be searched by exactly the same way as you search by fandom or pairing, your off the cuff tags cannot.

Let's talk about some well-known established tags and common tag types, divvied up by main function.

Courtesy

A lot of courtesy tags are specific warnings like “Dubious Consent,” “Incest,” “Drug Use,” “Extremely Underage,” “Toxic Relationship,” and “Abuse.” Many of these have even more specific versions such as “Recreational Drug Use” and “Nonconsensual Drug Use,” or “Mildly Dubious Consent” and “Extremely Dubious Consent.”

Giving details about what, if any, drugs are used or mentioned, specifying what kinds of violence or bodily harm are discussed or depicted, details about age differences or power-imbalanced relationships between characters who date or have sex, discussion or depictions of suicide, severe or terminal illness, or mental health struggles is useful. It helps give readers a clear sense of what they'll encounter in your fic and decide if they're up for it.

One the most useful courtesy warning tags is “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” which basically means “there are things in this fic which are really screwed up and may be disturbing, read at your own risk, steer clear if you're not sure.” This tag—like all courtesy warnings, really—is a show of good faith, by using it you are being a responsible, and thoughtful member of the fanfic community by giving readers the power and necessary information to make their own informed decisions about what they are and are not comfortable reading.

Saying to “Heed the tags” is quite self-explanatory and, if used, should be the last or second to last tag so it's easy to spot. Remember, though, that “Heed the tags” isn't useful if your tags aren't thorough and clear.

“Additional Warnings In Author's Note” is one of only things that should ever go after “Heed the tags.” If you use this, your additional warnings need to go in the author's note at the very beginning of the fic, not the one at the end of the first chapter. If your additional warnings write up is going to be very long because it's highly detailed, then it can go at the bottom of the chapter with a note at the beginning indicating that the warnings are at the bottom. Some authors give an abbreviated or vague set of warnings in the initial note, then longer, highly detailed, spoilery warnings in the end note. It's best to make it as simple and straightforward as possible for readers to access warnings.

Tagging with “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat,” “Heed the tags,” or “Additional Warnings In Author's Note” is not a substitute for thorough and appropriate courtesy tagging. These are extra reminders to readers to look closely at the other warnings you've given.

While most courtesy tags are warnings, some are assurances like “No Lesbians Die” or “It's Not As Bad As It Sounds.” A fic tagged for rape or dub-con may get a tag assuring that the consent issues are not between the characters in the main ship; or a fic with a premise that sounds likely to involve lack of consent but actually doesn't may get a tag that it's “NOT rape/non-con.” A tag like “Animal Death” may be immediately followed by a freeform tag assuring that the animal that dies is not the protagonist's beloved horse.

Descriptive

There are a few general kinds of descriptive tags including character-related, ship-related, temporal, relation-to-canon, trope-related, smut details, and technical specifications.

Many character- and ship-related tags simply expand on the Character and Relationship tags we've already talked about. This is usually the place to specify details about OCs and inserts, such as how a reader-insert is gendered.

When it comes to character-related tags, one of the most common types in use on Ao3 and in fandom at large is the bang-path. This is things like werewolf!Alex, trans!Max, top!Sam, kid!Jamie, and captain!Tori. Basically, a bang-path is a way of specifying a version of a character. We've been using this format for decades; it comes from the very first email systems used by universities in the earliest days of internet before the World Wide Web existed. It's especially useful for quickly and concisely explaining the roles of characters in an AU. Nowadays this is also one of the primary conventions for indicating who's top and who's bottom in a ship if that's information you feel the need to establish. The other current convention for indicating top/bottom is as non-bang-path character-related tags in the form “Top [Character A], Bottom [Character B].”

Other common sorts of character tags are things like “[Character A] Needs a Hug,” “Emotionally Constipated [Character B],” and “[Character C] is a Good Dad.”

Some character-related tags don't refer to a particular character by name, but tell readers something about what kinds of characters are in the fic. Usually, this indicates the minority status of characters and may indicate whether or not that minority status is canon, as in “Nonbinary Character,” “Canon Muslim Character,” “Deaf Character,” and “Canon Disabled Character.”

Down here in the tags is the place to put ship nicknames! This is also where to say things like “They're idiots your honor” or indicate that they're “Idiots in Love,” maybe both since “Idiots in Love” is an established searchable tag but “They're idiots your honor” isn't yet. If your fandom has catchphrases related to your ship, put that here if you want to.

If relevant, specify some things about the nature of relationships in your fic such as “Ambiguous Relationship,” “Queerplatonic Relationships,” “Polyamory,” “Friends With Benefits,” “Teacher-Student Relationship,” and so on. Not all fics need tags like these. Use your best judgement whether your current fic does.

Temporal tags indicate when your fic takes place. That can be things like “Pre-Canon” and “Post-Canon,” “Pre-War,” “Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “1996-1997 NHL season,” “Future Fic,” and so on. These tags may be in reference to temporal landmarks in canon, in the real world, or both depending on what's appropriate.

Some temporal tags do double duty by also being tags about the fic's relationship to canon. The Pre- and Post-Canon tags are like that.

Other relation-to-canon type tags are “Canon Compliant” for fics that fit completely inside the framework of canon without changing or contradicting anything, “Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence” for fics that are compliant up to a certain point in canon, then veer off (maybe because you started writing the fic when the show was on season two but now it's at season four and you're not incorporating everything from the newer seasons, maybe a character died and you refuse to acknowledge that, maybe you just want to explore what might have happened if a particular scene had gone differently), and the various other Alternate Universe tags for everything from coffee shop AUs and updates to modern settings, to realities where everyone is a dragon or no one has their canon superpowers.

The established format for these tags is “Alternate Universe – [type],” but a few have irregular names as well, such as “Wingfic” for AUs in which characters who don't ordinarily have wings are written as having wings.

If you have written an AU, please tag clearly what it is! Make things easy on both the readers who are in the mood to read twenty royalty AUs in a row, the readers who are in the middle of finals week and the thought of their favorite characters suffering through exams in a college AU would destroy the last shred of their sanity but would enjoy watching those characters teach high school, and the readers who really just want to stick to the world of canon right now.

Admittedly, it can get a little confusing what AU tag or tags you need to describe what you've written since most of us have never had a fandom elder sit us down and explain what the AU tags mean. One common mix up is tagging things “Alternate Universe - Modern Setting” when what's meant is “Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence.” The misunderstanding here is usually reading “Alternate Universe - Modern Setting” and thinking it means an alternate version of the canon universe that is set at the same time as the canon universe, but is different in some way. That's not how the tag is meant to be used, though.

The Modern Setting AU tag is specifically for fic set now (at approximately the same time period it was written), for media that's canonically set somewhere that is very much not the present of the real world. This can mean things set in the past (like Jane Austen), the future (like Star Trek), or a fantasy world entirely different from our own (like Lord of the Rings or Avatar: the Last Airbender). Fic for a canon that's set more or less “now” doesn't need the Modern Setting AU tag, even if the world of canon is different from our own. If you're removing those differences by putting fantasy or superhero characters in a world without magic or supersoldier serum, you might want the “Alternate Universe - No Powers” tag instead.

Some of the most fun descriptive tags are trope tags. This includes things like “Mutual Pining,” “Bed Sharing” for when your OTP gets to their hotel room to find There Was Only One Bed, “Fake Dating,” “Angst,” Fluff,” “Hurt/Comfort” and all its variants. Readers love tropes at least as much as we love writing them and want to be able to find their favorites. Everyone also has tropes they don't like and would rather avoid. Tagging them allows your fic to be filtered in and out by what major tropes you've used.

Explicit fics, and sometimes fics with less restrictive ratings, that contain sex usually have tags indicating details about the nature of the sexual encounter(s) portrayed and what sex acts are depicted. These are descriptive tags, but they also do double duty as courtesy tags. This is very much a situation in which tags are a consent mechanism; by thoroughly and clearly tagging your smut you are giving readers the chance to knowingly opt in or out of the experience you've written.

Most of the time, it's pretty easy to do basic tagging for sex acts—you know whether what you wrote shows Vaginal Sex, Anal Sex, or Non-penetrative Sex. You probably know the names for different kinds of Oral Sex you may have included. You might not know what to call Frottage or Intercrural Sex, though, even if you understand the concept and included the act in your fic. Sometimes there are tags with rectangle-square type relationships (all Blow Jobs are Oral Sex, but not all Oral Sex is a Blow Job) and you're not sure if you should tag for both—you probably should. Sometimes there are tags for overlapping, closely related, or very similar acts or kinks and you're not sure which to tag—that one's more of judgement call; do your best to use the tags that most closely describe what you wrote.

Tag for the kinks at play, if any, so readers can find what they're into and avoid what they're not. Tag for what genitalia characters have if it's nonobvious, including if there's Non-Human Genitalia involved. Tag your A/B/O, your Pon Farr, and your Tentacles, including whether it's Consentacles or Tentacle Rape.

Technical specification tags give information about aspects of the fic other than its narrative content. Most things on Ao3 are prose fiction so that's assumed to be the default, so anything else needs to be specified in tags. That includes Poetry, Podfics, things in Script Format, and Art. If it is a podfic, you should tag with the approximate length in minutes (or hours). If a fic is Illustrated (it has both words and visual art) tag for that.

Tag if your fic is a crossover or fusion. The difference, if you're not sure, is that in a crossover, two (or more) entire worlds from different media meet, whereas in a fusion, some aspects of one world, like the cast of characters, are combined with aspects of another, like the setting or magic system.

If the team of paranormal investigators from one show get in contact with the cast of aliens from another show, that's a crossover and you need to have all the media you're drawing from up in the Fandom tags. If you've given the cast of Hamlet physical manifestations of their souls in the form of animal companions like the daemons from His Dark Materials but nothing else from His Dark Materials shows up, that's a fusion, the Fandom tag should be “Hamlet - Shakespeare,” and you need the “Alternate Universe - Daemons” tag. If you've given the members of a boy band elemental magic powers like in Avatar: the Last Airbender, that can be more of a judgement call depending how much from Avatar you've incorporated into your story. If absolutely no characters or specific settings from Avatar show up, it's probably a fusion. Either way, if the boyband exists in real life, it needs to be tagged as RPF.

Tag if your fic is a Reader-Insert or Self-Insert.

You might want to tag for whether your fic is written with POV First, Second, or Third Person, and if it's Past Tense or Present Tense (or Future Tense, though that's extremely uncommon). For POV First Person fics that are not self-inserts, or POV Third Person fics that are written in third person limited, you may want to tag which character's POV is being shown. Almost all POV Second Person fics are reader-insert, so if you've written one that isn't, you should tag for who the “you” is.

A fic is “POV Outsider” if the character through whom the story is being conveyed is outside the situation or not familiar with the characters and context a reader would generally know from canon. The waitress who doesn't know the guy who just sat down in her diner is a monster hunter, and the guy stuck in spaceport because some hotshot captain accidentally locked down the entire space station, are both potential narrators for POV Outsider stories.

Other technical specifications can be tags for things like OCtober and Kinktober or fic bingo games. Tagging something as a Ficlet, One Shot, or Drabble is a technical specification (we're not going to argue right now over what counts as a drabble). Tagging for genre, like Horror or Fantasy, is too.

It's also good to tag accessibility considerations like “Sreenreader Friendly,” but make sure your fic definitely meets the needs of a given kind of accessibility before tagging it.

Personal

Even among personal tags there are established tags! Things like “I'm Sorry,” “The Author Regrets Nothing,” “The Author Regrets Everything,” and “I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping” are common ones. Tags about us and our relationship to the fic, such as “My First Work In This Fandom,” “Author is Not Religious,” and “Trans Porn By A Trans Author,” can help readers gauge what to expect from our fic. Of course, you are not at all obligated to disclose any personal information for any reason when posting your fic.

The “I'm Bad At Tagging” tag is common, but probably overused. Tagging is hard; very few of us have a natural feel for it even with lots of practice. It's not a completely useless tag because it can indicate to readers that you've probably missed some things you should have tagged for, so they should be extra careful; but it can also turn into a crutch, an excuse to not try, and therefore a sign to readers they can't trust your tagging job. Just do your best, and leave off the self depreciation. If you're really concerned about the quality of your tagging, consider putting in an author's note asking readers to let you know if there are any tags you should add.

You might want to let readers know your fic is “Not Beta Read” or, if you're feeling a little cheekier than that, say “No Beta We Die Like Men” or its many fandom-specific variants like the “No Beta We Die Like Robins” frequently found among Batman fics and “No beta we die like Sunset Curve” among Julie and The Phantoms fic. Don't worry, the Archive recognizes all of these as meaning “Not Beta Read.”

The Archive can be inconsistent about whether it stacks specific variants of Additional Tags under the broadest version of the tag like it does with Fandom tags, so best practice is usually to use both. You can double check by trying to search by a variant tag (or clicking on someone else's use of the variant); if the results page says the broader or more common form of the tag, those stack.

There's no such thing as the right number of tags. Some people prefer more tags and more detail, while other people prefer fewer more streamlined tags, and different fics have different things that need to be tagged for. There is, however, such a thing as too many tags. A tagblock that takes up the entire screen, or more, can be unreadable, at which point they are no longer useful. Focus on the main points and don't try to tag for absolutely everything. Use the “Additional Warnings In Author's Note” strategy if your courtesy tags are what's getting out of hand.

Tag for as much as you feel is necessary for readers to find your fic and understand what they're getting into if they decide to open it up.

A little bit of redundancy in tags is not a sin. In fact, slight redundancy is usually preferable to vagueness. Clear communication in tags is a cardinal virtue. Remember that tags serve a purpose, they're primarily a tool for sorting and filtering, and (unlike on some other sites like tumblr) they work, so it's best to keep them informative and try to limit rambling in the tags. Ramble at length in your author's notes instead!

Titles

Picking a title can be one of the most daunting and frustrating parts of posting a fic. Sometimes we just know what to call our fics and it's a beautiful moment. Other times we stare at that little input box for what feels like an eternity.

The good news is there's really no wrong way to select a title. Titles can be long or short, poetic or straight to the point. Song lyrics, idioms, quotes from literature or from the fic itself can be good ways to go.

Single words or phrases with meanings that are representative of the fic can be great. A lot of times these are well known terms or are easy enough to figure out like Midnight or Morning Glow, but if you find yourself using something that not a lot of people know what it means, like Chiaroscuro (an art style that uses heavy shadow and strong contrast between light and dark), Kintsukuroi (the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold), or Clusivity (the grammatical term for differences in who is or isn't included in a group pronoun), you should define the term in either a subtitle, i.e. “Chiaroscuro: A Study In Contrast,” or at the beginning of the summary.

As a courtesy to other writers, especially in small fandoms, you may want to check to make sure there's not already another fic with the same title in the same fandom, but this is not required. In large fandoms, there's no point in even trying. After all, there are only so many puns to be made about the full moon and only so many verses to Hallelujah.

It may be common practice on other platforms to include information such as fandom or ship in the title of a fic, but on Ao3 nothing that is specified by tags belongs in the title unless your title happens to be the same as a tag because, for instance, you've straightforwardly titled your character study of Dean Winchester “Dean Winchester Character Study” and also responsibly tagged it as such.

Summaries

Yes, you really do need to put something down for the summary. It might only need to be a single sentence, but give the readers something to go off of.

The summary is there to serve two purposes: one, to catch the interest of potential readers, give them a taste of what's inside, and make them want to know more; and two, to give you a space to provide information or make comments that don't really fit in the tags but that you want readers to see before they open the fic.

We've already talked some about that second function. When you put an explanation of the title or clarification about tags in the summary, that's the purpose it's serving. You can also put notes to “Heed the tags” or instruct readers that there are additional warnings in the author's note here in the summary, rather than doing so in the tags.

The first function, the actual summarizing, can be very hard for some of us. It's basically the movie trailer for your fic, butwhat are you even supposed to say?

There are two main strategies as to how to approach this: the blurb, and the excerpt. Blurbs are like the synopses you at least used to see on the backs of published books, or the “Storyline” section on an IMDb page. Writing one is a matter of telling your readers who does what, under what circumstances.

Depending on the fic, one sentence can capture the whole thing: “Sam and Alex have sex on a train.” “Tori tries to rob a bank.” “If anybody had mentioned Max's new house was haunted, Jamie wouldn't have agreed to help with the move.”

Sometimes a blurb can be a question! “What happens when you lock a nuclear engineer in a closet with a sewing kit, a tennis ball, and half a bottle of Sprite?”

Of course, plenty of blurbs are more than one sentence. Their length can vary pretty significantly depending on the type and length of fic you're working with and how much detail you're trying to convey, but it shouldn't get to be more than a few short paragraphs. You're not retelling the entire fic here.

An excerpt is a portion of the fic copied out to serve as the summary. This, too, can vary in length from a line or two to several paragraphs, but shouldn't get too long. It should not be an entire scene unless that scene happens to be uncommonly short. It's important to select a portion of the fic that both indicates the who, what, and under what circumstances of the fic and is representative of the overall tone. Excerpts that are nothing but dialogue with no indication of who's talking are almost never a good choice. Portions that are sexually explicit or extremely violent are never ever a good choice—if it deserves content warnings, it belongs inside the fic, not on the results page.

Counterintuitively, some of the best excerpts won't even look like an excerpt to the reader if they don't contain dialogue. They seem like particularly literary blurbs until the reader reaches that part in the fic and realizes they recognize a section of narration.

Some of us have very strong preferences as to whether we write blurbs or use excerpts for our summaries. Some readers have very strong preferences as to which they find useful. Ultimately, there's no accounting for taste, but there are things we can do to limit the frustration for readers who prefer summaries of the opposite kind than we prefer to write, without increasing our own frustration or work load very much. Part of that is understanding what readers dislike about each type so we know what to mitigate.

Blurbs can seem dry, academic, and overly simplified. They don't automatically give the reader a sense of your writing style the way an excerpt does. They can also seem redundant, like they're just rehashing information already given in the tags, so the reader feels like they're being denied any more information without opening the fic.

Excerpts can seem lazy, like you, the author, don't care enough to bother writing a blurb, or pushy like you're telling the reader “just read the fic; I'm not going to give you the information you need to decide if you want to read or not, I'm shoving it in front of you and you just have to read it.” That effect gets worse if your tags aren't very informative or clear about what the plot is, if the excerpt is obviously just the first few lines or paragraphs of the fic, if the except is particularly long, or, worst of all, if all three are true at once.

A lot of the potential problems with blurbs can be minimized by having fun writing them! Make it punchy, give it some character, treat it like part of the story, not just a book report. A fic for a serialized show or podcast, for instance, could have a blurb written in the style of the show's “previously on” or the podcast's intro. Make sure the blurb gives the reader something they can't just get from the tags—like the personality of your writing, important context or characterization, or a sense of the shape of the story—but don't try to skimp on the tags to do it!

Really, the only way to minimize the potential problems with excerpts is to be very mindful in selecting them. Make sure the portion you've chosen conveys the who, what, and under what circumstances and isn't too long. You know the story; what seems clear and obvious from the excerpt to you might not be apparent to someone who doesn't already know what happens, so you might need to ask a friend to double check you.

The absolute best way to provide a summary that works for everybody is to combine both methods. It really isn't that hard to stick a brief excerpt before your blurb, or tack a couple lines of blurb after your excerpt, but it can make a world of difference for how useful and inviting your summary is to a particular reader. The convention for summaries that use both is excerpt first, then blurb.

If you're struggling to figure out a summary, or have been in the habit of not providing one, try not to stress over it. Anything is better than nothing. As long as you've written something for a summary, you've given the reader a little more to help them make their decision. What really isn't helpful, though, is saying “I'm bad at summaries” in your summary. It's a lot like the “I'm Bad At Tagging” tag in that it's unnecessarily self depreciating, frequently comes across as an excuse not to try, and sometimes really is just an excuse. Unlike the “I'm Bad At Tagging” tag, which has the tiny saving grace of warning readers you've probably missed something, saying you're bad at summaries has no utility at all, and may drive away a reader who thought your summary was quite good, but is uncomfortable with the negative attitude reflected by that statement. Summaries are hard. It's okay if you don't like your summary, but it's important for it to be there, and it's important to be kind to yourself about it. You're trying, that's what matters.

Author's Notes

Author's notes are the one place where we, the writers, directly address and initiate contact with our readers. We may also talk to them in the comments section, but that's different because they initiate that interaction while we reply, and comments are mostly one-on-one while in author's notes we're addressing everyone who ever reads our fic.

The very first note on a fic should contain any information, such as warnings or explanations, that a reader needs to see before they get to the body of the story, as well as anything like thanks to your beta, birthday wishes to a character, or general hellos and announcements you want readers to see before they get to the body of the story. On multi-chapter fics, notes at the beginning of chapters serve the same function for that chapter as the initial note on the fic does for the whole story, so you can do things like warn for Self-Harm on the two chapters out of thirty where it comes up, let everyone know your update schedule will be changing, or wish your readers a merry Christmas, if they celebrate it, on the chapter you posted on December 23rd but is set in mid-March.

Notes at the end of a fic or chapter are for things that don't need to be said or are not useful to a reader until after they've read the preceding content, such as translations for that handful of dialogue that's in Vulcan or Portuguese, or any parting greetings or announcements you want to give, like a thanks for reading or a reminder school is starting back so you won't be able to write as much. End notes are the best place to plug your social media to readers if you're inclined to do so, but remember that cannot include payment platforms like Patreon or Ko-fi.

As previously mentioned, warnings can go in end notes but that really should only be done when the warnings are particularly long, such that the length might cause a problem for readers who are already confident in their comfort level and would just want to scroll past the warning description. In that case, the additional warnings need to go in the note at the end of the first chapter, rather than at the end of the fic, if it's a multi-chapter fic; and you need to include an initial note telling readers that warnings/explanations of tags are at the bottom so they know to follow where the Archive tells them to see the end of the chapter/work for “more notes.”

When posting a new work, where the Preface section gives you the option to add notes “at the beginning” or “at the end” or both, if you check both boxes, it means notes at the beginning and end of the entire fic, not the beginning and end of the first chapter. For single-chapter fics this difference doesn't really matter, but for multi-chapter fics it matters a lot. In order to add notes to the beginning or end of the first chapter of a multi-chapter fic you have to first go through the entire process to post the new fic, then go in to Edit, Edit Chapter, and add the notes there.

Series and Chapters

Dealing with Series and Chapters is actually two different issues, but they're closely related and cause some of us mixups, especially when we're new to the site and its systems, so we're going to cover them together.

Series on Ao3 are for collecting up different stories that you've written that are associated with each other in some way. Chapters are for dividing up one story into parts, usually for pacing and to give yourself and your readers a chance to take breaks and breathe, rather than trying to get through the entire thing in a single marathon sitting (not that we won't still do that voluntarily, but it's nice to have rest points built in if we need them).

If your story would be one book if it was officially published, then it should be posted as a single fic—with multiple chapters if it's long or has more than one distinct part, like separate vignettes that all go together. If you later write a sequel to that fic, post it as a new fic and put them together in a series. It's exactly like chapters in a book and books in a series. Another way to think of this structure is like a TV show: different fics in the series are like different seasons of the show, with individual chapters being like episodes.

If you have several fics that all take place in the same AU but really aren't the same story those should go together as a series. If you wrote a story about a superhero team re-cast as school teachers, then wrote another story about different characters in the same school, that's this situation.

Series are also the best way to handle things like prompt games, bingos, or Kinktober, or collect up one shots and drabbles especially if your various fills, entries, and drabbles are for more than one fandom. If you put everything for a prompt game or bingo, or all your drabbles, together as one fic with a different chapter for each story, what ends up happening is that fic gets recognized by the Archive as a crossover when it isn't, so it gets excluded from the results pages for everyone who told the filters to Exclude Crossovers even though one of the stories you wrote is exactly what they're looking for; and that fic ends up with tons and tons of wildly varying and self-contradictory tags because it's actually carrying the tags for several entirely different, possibly unrelated stories, which also means it ends up getting excluded from results pages because, for instance, one out of your thirty-one Kinktober entries is about someone's NoTP.

Dividing these kinds of things up into multiple fic in a series makes it so much easier for readers to find what of your work they actually want to read.

If you've previously posted such things as a single fic, don't worry, it's a really common misunderstanding and there is absolutely nothing stopping you from reposting them separately. You may see traffic on them go up if you do!

Parting Thoughts

Metatext is ultimately all about communication, and in this context effective communication is a matter of responsibility and balance.

Ao3 is our archive. It's designed for us, the writers, to have the freedom to write and share whatever stories we want without having to worry that we'll wake up one day and find our writing has been deleted overnight without warning. That has happened too many times to so many in our community as other fanfic sites have died, been shut down, or caved to threats of legal action. Ao3 is dedicated to defending our legal right to create and share our stories. Part of the deal is that, in exchange for that freedom and protection, we take up the responsibility to communicate to readers what we're writing and who it's appropriate for.

We are each other's readers, and readers who don't write are still part of our community. We have a responsibility as members of this community to be respectful of others in our shared spaces. Ao3 is a shared space. The best way we have to show each other respect is to give one another the information needed to decide if a given fic is something we want to engage with or not, and then, in turn, to not engage with fic that isn't our cup of tea. As long as our fellow writer has been clear about what their fic is, they've done their part of the job. If we decided to look at the fic despite the information given and didn't like what we found, then that's on us.

Because metatext is how we put that vital information about our fics out in the community, it's important that our metatext is clear and easy to parse. The key to that is balance. Striking the balance between putting enough tags to give a complete picture and not putting too many tags that become an unreadable wall; the balance between the urge to be thorough and tag every character and the need to be restrained so those looking for fics actually about a certain character can find them; the balance between using established tags for clarity and ease and making up our own tags for specificity and fun.

Do your best, act in good faith, remember you're communicating with other people behind those usernames and kudos, and, most importantly, have fun with your writing!

#THE GUIDE #metatext #fandom meta #fandom etiquette #Eiiri made this

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

Note

A lot of the convo of Disney and marvel and jk Rowling talks about how hard it is to “bring them down” from their monopolies or cultural dominance. Some people are defeatist about it saying what does it matter if you reblog hp stuff and others say it does matter- your small efforts will add up and influence others.

I’m asking if you have any advice or tips on how to “resist” these cultural forces and company aggregates that keep growing. Because I see people here talking about how horrible marvel is and then I talk to people irl who are huge marvel or Disney fans. And it does not feel wrong to enjoy a movie and I’d never say to them oh well the thing you love? sucks on principle. even though there’s lots of valid criticism lobbied against marvel (I hear a lot of us military appeasement just to name one) and with Disney’s specific political actions and support of the don’t say gay bill.

But my hunch is that -like has been said many times here before- you can’t really control people and screaming at them to stop doing something isn’t going to work. Besides the story telling is not horrible. Some of the bests artists and storytellers work on these movies so yeah they are good. So

While easier said than done I like to try to support the people around me. If you live in a city, there might be local indie film productions you can finically support or film festivals you can attend. Is it worth the effort to get people watch more locally made or independent media? I’m asking because I feel this is something people have tried before and I’m wondering what success or problems they’ve had. And with your experience studying and as an editor- I’m wondering what specific insights you have with peoples “media diets” and habits, changing those and does it really even matter? So…

Would an effective response to media conglomerates dominating the cultural landscape, be to encourage people to support smaller productions?

Yes. Trying to actively support something else is nearly always more productive than trying to tear down a popular thing.

Among other reasons, small time creators (or, hell, small time websites, to combine this with another favorite topic of mine) only require a few people to care and pony up the dough. You need far fewer like-minded people to make this work than you'd need to topple Marvel.

Supporting indie media absolutely works to make there be indie media. Spending all of one's personal leisure time on that stuff can also have a significant effect on oneself. It really does feel different to exist in a world of media that feels like it's for you.

The time I spent basically only consuming "m/m romance" felt different. It made me embark on a career writing similar stuff. I also just felt better.

The "problem", to the extent that there is one, is that going for indie stuff means two things:

You have to do your own research about what exists, never mind what you should consume. The more indie it is, the more you'll have to dig to hear of it at all.

Juggernaut fandoms that have new fic for your OTP every day are very, very rare. They tend to only happen for the top ship or two from a piece of media with an audience size in the many millions.

Random queer people tired of everything being straight ditch mainstream media all the time. Fanfic readers do not. People who primarily make fanworks might, though it depends on your appetite for creating without a lot of kudos.

Basically, you have to treat the hunt for new media as part of the fun. And you have to be okay being the trailblazer, not the person who's served up fic on a plate.

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nickjunesource · 3 years

Link

Full article below.

Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

#max minghella #the handmaids tale #the handmaid's tale #nick blaine #nick x june #june x nick #osblaine #*

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davidfarland · 10 months

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David Farland’s Writing Tips—Do You Want to Be an Apex Writer?

First, I wanted to have a little shout-out. I was on Facebook on Saturday for a few minutes and noticed that some of my past students had made some major accomplishments:

Monalisa Foster got a novel contract and an acceptance check for Christmas. Great timing!

Rebekah R. Ganiere’s romance novel Rekindling Christmas is being made into a film and will start shooting this week! I’m excited for her. Well deserved!

Even self-publishing may be a total bomb if you don’t know how to go about it.

I really wanted to help her negotiate the path ahead.

Yet this poor young woman had dozens of tips from people who had no idea that their advice sucked. I suspect that much of it came from people who had never published.

So, I suggested that she go to my website to read some of my posts on the topic—and was blocked by the site administrator for “self-promotion.”

I realized that I often feel blocked. I don’t want to tell you when another author is giving you bad advice. They’re my friends and peers, after all, and they’re trying to be helpful.

There are things that publishers, film distributors, bookstore chains, agents and social media companies do that are kind of dangerous to talk about—but that you need to know.

I want to share this information only with authors who are driven, who are ready to take the steps forward, who are trustworthy, and who are also willing to share information.

(note: to apply to Apex Writers, visit apex-writers.com )

For more on David Farland's Writing tips, visit https://mystorydoctor.com/writing-blog/

And you can also click here to get your David Farland Daily Meditations.

#writing help #writing tips #writing advice

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xavadak3davrax · 3 years

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Primed for Sin / George Weasley

Actor!George

Primed for sin

George x Fem Reader

Warnings: Smut (18+), female receiving pleasure, unprotected sex, dirty talk, fluff, angst (?).

Summary: George is a famous actor and y/n is starting her career in the cinematic world.

a/n: So basically actor George came to my mind in a ‘puf’ moment. I had to write it for George because I felt like he deserved another moment after I wrote four parts por Prince Fred ahah.

☾☾☾

George started his career in acting like any other person. He grew up loving everything related to movies, series, music, he loved acting. It had started in the small school plays his mother, Molly, made him participate in. In the first ever school play George remember being so embarrassed because none of his friends were in it.

But then he got the taste of what it was like to have people clapping and enjoying and his love for acting started there. Let’s just say after that Molly didn’t make him participate in anything. He did that on his own. He had everything to thank his parents and family for. Because they were the ones who were there for every single play George was in all throughout his school years. Fred, his twin brother was the one who helped George make all the costumes and necessary things for the play he was gonna be in, since his parents weren’t rich and just couldn’t afford to pay someone to do that for them.

It was Ginny and Fred, and then later Molly and Arthur who convinced George to audition for the first movie he ever participated in. George was eighteen at the time was finishing up high school, along with working a part-time job at the local ice-cream store when the opportunity presented it self. When he saw the ad he was finishing up work, it was late and he had been so tired because it was peek summer time and a good ice-cream was what people were looking for. The paper was on the ground all wrinkled up because so many people had step on it already. But George took one good look at it and his heart felt all kinds of weird. Was that a sign? Should he take it had one?

He took the paper with him, but that night he told nobody about it. He left himself to think about it, what it said and what he read. And laying in bed that night, in the bedroom he shared with his twin brother he fell asleep thinking about a better future for him.

The next morning Ron, his younger brother had found the paper in the pocked of George’s jeans. George had forgotten it there and that’s when he thought he had made a mistake. But the events that happened next told him otherwise. His mom was so thrilled about that idea than when he woke up and came to the kitchen to have breakfast with all his family the first thing he got was a bright smile from his mom and then a tight hug.

“George you gotta audition for it.” His mother had said, he was a little confused and took him a moment to realize what she was talking about. But when he looked at Ron and he shook the little paper he knew they now knew what had consumed his thoughts all night.

George ended up auditioning for that movie after he saw how supportive his family was of it and how they seemed to find this a great opportunity for him. That was the first movie he ever started in.

Turns out being a tall ginger haired boy has it’s perks and people seem to want a lot of him. He stared in a lot of small movies before he actually had his break through. The movie that actually put him in the spot light was a romance movie, where he was for the first time ever since staring in films, the main character. Until then he had only been in the not so important positions.

George was twenty-one when that happen.

He was now twenty-five and people came from every part of the world begging to have him started in their movies. His agent, Leah was always denying people because George had a busy schedule. When his acting had started to grow and the money and fame had started to grow George also started doing something more than just acting. He volunteered in numerous occasions, he also donated a lot of money and was always made sure he was working towards a better world. But being nice here didn’t mean he was nice when it came to his main career.

Leah had warned in various occasion to be more cautious and careful and nicer because he had lost a lot of opportunities because of his bad attitude. George always clamed it didn’t matter because he never stopped getting other more amazing ones.

So now, while he’s finishing up the knot on tie, turned to the mirror eyes focused on what his doing, he’s also rolling them from time to time while he listens to Leah. George was to star in a movie that was expected already to be nominated for numerous grammys and other awards. He didn’t even had audition, he was the chosen one from the beginning and they had also asked him to be part of the process of choosing the other main character he was going to act with. So now he was getting ready to go to that meeting and Leah was going on about how he should be nice and should behave.

“Please George, this is very important, and don’t forget, they picked you for this but that doesn’t mean you can budge in and deny everything. If they find someone they like and the majority agrees, you have to go with it.” Leah said, finally looking up from the Ipad and locked eyes with George. They were the same age, George had hired her after his second good paid gig when he understood things could be better for him and he needed someone to manage all the stuff he was to unorganized to do. Leah at the time was someone who had just lost her job, was looking for anything to do and George had swooped in and helped her. She was so grateful for that, but it didn’t mean she was gonna give him an easy time. George was grateful for that. He liked that she was hard on him, that’s what he needed to keep himself focused on what was important.

“I’m gonna give my opinion. I’m sorry Leah but didn’t they chose me to help?” He questioned, now turning around to her, his hands smoothing the fabric of his black jacket. When she didn’t say anything he continued. “They did. And so if they did that it’s because they need my expertise on the matter so I’m not gonna hold back. Besides when I started this years ago people were hard on me and that’s how I got to where I am today.” He stated, coming down the small step from the zone in his room where he usually got ready. He smiled at her when he passed her and then went towards the leaving room.

“George, I know, but you have to be nicer. Besides there’s gonna be a lot of people where it’s gonna be a first time going to such a big audition. Please, I beg you, have some consideration.” Her voice was pleading. George sighed heavily and before he responded he was already nodding.

“Okay, okay, I’ll see what I can pull of.”

The smile Leah had on her when he turned around was massive.

☾☾

“George thank you so much for coming in.” Said James, the director of the movie, along side him was the scrip writer and then the author of the book the movie was inspired in. George shook all their hands, a fake smile on his face. Although he enjoyed the opportunity, he never really liked a lot of the people who worked in this universe, some of them were to fake for him. “There’s a big queue outside so this might take some time, but I’m sure some of them won’t even make it pass de minute mark.” The guy gave a laugh that had a lot of negativity to it. And Leah was worried that George was gonna be the mean one.

“So since I see everyone is here, should we just get started?” George asked, trying to conceal the little boredom in his voice. When they all nodded, they went to their designated places in a small very brightly lit room ready to star.

The first ten girls that came in George thought they didn’t even know exactly what they were auditioning for. Although with the script in her hands, none of them was able to form one sentence that didn’t have a mistake in. or that completely changed the meaning of that it was actually suppose to be.

Then they found a girl who was good and performed well but they couldn’t accept her in that moment so they told her they would contact her. George thought it was impossible to find any better than her and she wasn’t even that good, she was just able to say the part of the script she was asked to, without any mistakes.

And also because he was loosing all hope, it had been two hours of this and they had only found that one girl. No other seemed to fit the role of what they were looking for. Until y/n came in.

y/n had been preparing for this audition for a whole month if not more. At only twenty one y/n thought her life was a complete mess. Almost all of her friends had finished college, some already working for big firms, some married, some with kids. They all seemed to have a path in their lives. Y/n? Well in this moment exactly she was swimming in debt, leaving in the cheapest apartment she could find and working full time at a supermarket near her house. Her plan since she was little was to become an actress, y/n loved every aspect of what it entailed. She loved to go to the movies and think it could be her one day on the big screen. She liked when she saw people around her clap at the end of an amazing movie and think maybe, just maybe one day people would clap for her too.

The luck was on her side when the audition was to be on the same day she had her day of work. But even if she hadn’t Piper, her work friend had already made plans to change days with her just so she could go to this audition. She was the most supportive friend y/n now had regarding her dream. Let’s just say all of her friends with their big lives sometimes pitted her for still being so stuck. y/n although a very negative person in life, thought that this was just a small little bump in the road and that one day she would get what she so hard worked for.

So for the past month every time y/n had a small window of a chance she was preparing herself for this. It wasn’t her first audition, but it would be her first big audition. She new the ‘jury’ was gonna be composed of big people, including one of her favorite actors (George Weasley) and one of her favorite writers (Clara Hart), so what better mix than that? She didn’t know any. She wanted to give her best on this, to be prepared for anything they might throw at her to see how good she is. And so she tried to prepare in her head any possible scenario.

So when she opened the door gently and looked at all of them staring right at her, the confidence that she was made of suddenly disappeared, and she was left nervous and speechless until she hit the yellow line on the ground were she should stay to then perform.

“So, please state your name and date of birth please.” The director spoke, she knew that because he had a plaque in front of him with his name and his position, so had all the other. y/n let her eyes follow every person on the table, and she swallowed hard. Now in front of two of the people she liked most she felt like she would never succeed. What if she made a fool of herself? What if they just plain and simple didn’t like her? What if they wouldn’t even give her a chance to do better? Shit. Everything was coming at her, at once. y/n gave a small smile and stated her name. “Good, now please turn to page twenty on your script and we would like you to do that scene, George here is gonna do his part.”

They were choosing different scenes throughout the script to make sure they got the full view of it, but always making sure they chose scenes where George was included because they wanted to see of both people would work together. For them it was important to choose people who had some type of chemistry, so the movie itself would work out better.

y/n nodded, turned to the page in question and then look at George who was looking at the script. He was the first one to start so she was ready for him to do so. But he stayed silent, and after a few minutes talked.

“What are you waiting for?” George spoke rudely, y/n was taken aback by that.

“Ahm- i- I’m sorry but you start.” y/n spoke very quietly a little scared of his tone of voice. The director got close to George and pointed to the scene in question, he then nodded and without any warning or preparation after what he just did he stated spilling out the lines. y/n quickly got back to herself and did her part.

After they finished that and made y/n do a scene of just herself, it seemed like forever before they said something. They were writing in their papers (well, all besides George, he was just looking at them) and then they were talking very quietly in inaudible whispers between themselves. And y/n was just left standing there, her eyes looking everywhere but the jury.

“So, miss y/l/n…” The write spoke this time, she unlike the director and George, had a kind smile on her face. “We have your contact here, expect a call in the next seven business days about your situation.”

She could feel her heart beat so fast and for a second wondered if anyone else could hear it. Shit, she had never gotten that answer before. She had been rejected had soon as she had finished. But now… now she had chance, this meant she had a chance. She was elated, she couldn’t believe it. When they kept looking at her she realized she had still not spoken.

“So sorry, yes, of course, thank you so much.” She said, smiled and then went on her way, not wishing to stall them anymore given they still had a lot of people to audition. That didn’t mean she got the part, she bets a lot more girl were given that answer, but for her that momen was a big win for her.

But what if they had said that out of the kindness of their hearts because the actor had been rude to her? Had that been it? Was his action so bad that they felt bad for her and decided to giver a thread of hope? Oh no, please no, let it no be it y/n thought nervously, it couldn’t be. She wanted to believe that they had said that because she performed well and deserved a chance at the part she auditioned for.

☾☾

It had been four days. Four long and tiring business days of y/n waking up, getting dress in her sleepy state to go to work. For days of just existing at her work because her anxiety was too much for her to handle. They said seven days… but it wouldn’t actually take them that long right? They probably just had said that because they felt bad for her, and had found someone way better than her.

“y/n, please, please, stop walking around like the world is gonna end.” Piper said coming up behind y/n and putting her hands on her shoulder shaking her gently. “You are gonna receive that call, and you’re they’re going to accept you and you’re gonna leave this shitty job and get us a nice vacation somewhere sunny.” She said, earing a small laugh from y/n who then turned to her friend, teeth bitting on her bottom lip, a nervous tic she had.

“But what if they don’t? I mean do they really take this long? I mean I know they probably found a million other girls who are suitable for the part, but for days?” y/n clearly exaggerated on the ‘million part’.

“Yes they do y/n, because this is a big movie and they need to get the person to act with the George Weasley to be the best of the best. They just haven’t realized that’s you.”

“Thanks for the positivity. I’m just gonna scan this fish sticks in and the work on the toilet paper isle to take my mind of this.” y/n gave her a look of ‘thank you really’ and then left to do her things.

She was leaving work at seven, the summer breeze hitting her face, her eyes puffy from tiredness and maybe from a little bit of crying. She lived close to the supermarket so she was going on foot, the walk barely hitting the ten minute mark. But it was when she was close to her door that her phone rang. She picked it up, not looking at the ID because she thought is was piper who had forgotten something.

“Yes?” That’s all she said, before she thought piper was gonna burst in, distressed because she had forgotten something important. But the voice on the other side was male.

“Hi, is this y/n y/l/n?”

“Yes this is she, who am I speaking to?”

“Hi, I’m James, you audition for the movie I’m working on.”

The bried moment where y/n’s thought were not on the movie and so she had a small window where she didn’t feel anxious stopped completely and abruptly and her anxiety came back like crazy. Were they calling her because she hadn’t make the cut? And in the world was she, a somehow positive person, thinking the worst lately?

She thinks it’s because of the crazy amount of bills pilling up in her coffee table because her salary isn’t enough to pay all of them at once so she had to pay them given their priority and need. She usually pays rent, and with the rest of the money that’s left water or electricity. And tries to put some aside for some food, after all she had to survive.

“Ahm yes, yes, sorry.” She apologized when she realized she had stayed quiet for longer than she thought and james had asked if she was there.

“Amazing. So I don’t how to say this in other words other than, I would like you to at this address,” he stated said address “on Friday by nine does that work for you?”

“Sure, yes, but may I ask why?” y/n was lost, why did she need to be there if she didn’t even know if she got the part or not? They were trying to make her look like a fool.

“Because we’re gonna have a meeting and need the two main actors in the movie presen-“ he didn’t get to fisnish the sentence because the scream with had been holding up for what feel like forever finally got out. On the other side James had a smile on his face and his phone way from his ear.

“Thank you, thank you so much I will be there.”

And then they hang up. And for a long moment y/n stayed at the for of her apartment speechless, hands shanking like crazy, her eyes watery but a smile on her face. She got it. Her first ever movie, and a big one at that.

All those millions of auditions where she was left crying because she felt like wasn’t good enough, they now didn’t matter. Didn’t matter because she got the part. And she felt the happiest she had been in a long, long while.

☾☾

“Ok, I’ll hang up now but good luck and call me when you leave.” Piper said swifly, knowing y/n was about to enter her first ever meeting. The begging of her dream career. She hung up, put the phone in the back pocket of her jeans and breath in deeply.

She decided to not dress any of the old jeans she used for her (now old) work. So she used on of the best jeans she had, she might’ve worn them too or three times before that, and pared then with a nice blouse and one of her best jackets. Since she didn’t have anything fancy, she wore her tennis. They were kind of old but maybe no one would notice. She got close to the door and knocked three times and when a voice came from inside saying ‘come in’ she did.

She was met with a cute girl, she was the same height had y/n, she had black hair and brown eyes and was looking intensely at y/n. Next to her was George Weasley sitting in of the green colored sofas, one of his legs on top of the other and a phone in his hands.

“I’m Leah, pleasure to meet you. You must be y/n?” She nodded unable to form any kind of sentence in that moment. “I’m George’s assistant. We came in early in case you decided to arrive early as well.”

“Ahm yes, it wouldn’t look nice of me to arrive late.”

“No it wouldn’t.” George said, looking at her with hard eyes, for a moment and then back at his phone.

“Excuse him, he’s a grumpy old man when he had to get up early.” y/n tried no to laugh at that and then sat herself in the chair Leah had pointed to, and then she sat next to her.

“I made him do this because I know this is your first your first ever work related to this. And I you choose to accept some advice I’m more than willing to give it you.”

y/n couldn’t answer her in that moment because they heard the door slam hard, and when Leah looked at the sofa the place where George was empty.

“Like I said, a little moody in the mornings but no worries. Since he left we can do this in silence.” She smiled, and then proceeded to start explaining some brief stuff to y/n. y/n felt that the small amount of time she had with Leah made her felt less nervous. Leah helped her navigate through this new world and how she thought things would go for this movie. “Don’t worry about George, he’s gonna give you a hard time but I’ll give him a harder time.”

“He doesn’t really like the fact that they chose me the, I assume.” y/n gave a nervous laugh, trying to ease the moment.

“It’s not like that. George just thinks they should’ve hire an actress in a name, and experience and no someone who’s doing this first time…” She pretty much had agreed with what y/n had said, but she decided not to dwell on it much longer. “But everyone else loved the way you acted and showed a different passion in the way you acted, you are what they need for this. George just as to suck it up.”

They both laughed together, being interrupted by the door opening and George coming in with the rest of the people, James, Clara included.

“You’re already amazing, let’s get started then.” James said happily, sitting down and giving everyone a gesture to do the same. Leah stayed next to y/n, and George sat next to Leah. Because of the conversation Leah had with y/n before hand she didn’t feel as lost as ever. She understood points and things that were necessary to do. They were also talking and planning how things for the movie would work out, how y/n and George should meet to stage and act the many ,many scenes they had together. How it was important because it created chemistry and the right mood they were looking for in the movie. At the end, after they asked if anyone had any questions, they got up to leave. y/n stayed in her sit even though George had gotten up.

“I think we can take the time to talk about the meetings you both have to do.” Leah said, but she was looking at George because he was the one who was ready to leave.

“You can both talk about that, you have my schedule make her work around it.” George said, looking at Leah. “I have a date with Madison now.” Madison was a singer George had been talking and seeing for a while now.

“y/n doesn’t have to work around anything George, you both have to compromise.”

“No it’s ok, show me is schedule and I can work around it.” y/n tried to make this moment less tense, and soften the angry look Leah had. George smiled cynically and then left leaving the both alone. “Really it’s ok, I have more free time then him. We just gotta work things out so I can organize myself. I have to catch the bus and all of that so it’s better if I know before hand what to do and where to go.”

“Thank you y/n. But I’ll still have a talk with him, he cannot act like this, it’s rude and disrespectful and you are both gonna be working together so he better stop acting up.”

☾☾

“y/n is about to arrive, can you please put on some nicer clothes?” Leah exasperated, hands in the hair and her face showed stress. She had arrived about half an hour ago expecting George to be ready in some nice comfy clothes, with his breakfast eaten and ready to start whenever y/n appeared at the hour they had established. But instead George was hungover in his bed, only in his boxers, still soundly asleep. Leah had to come in, wake him up loudly and make him get is ass up from the bed to get ready. He go up still in his boxers and went down to his kitchen to eat what Leah had kindly prepared for him to eat since she knew in his state he wouldn’t prepare much less eat anything.

She watched George move lazily around his house, going to his room to dress something nicer. That ended up being some grey sweatpants and a t-shirt that had some sex quote on it.

“I won’t be here while you both work on the script, but please George be nice to her. y/n is new to this and the least we can do is be nice and helpful. She’s gonna make mistakes but so do you and you are a big actor. So instead of being a dumbass, try and be just dumb.” George flipped his middle finger at her.

The door bell rang and Leah got up excitedly. She was the one who went to open the door, while George put a yellow marker and a pen on top of the script that had been sitting at the top of his dinning table for what feels like forever now.

“Hi y/n. George is in the dinning room, it’s the door to the right.” George heard Leah say and then continue. “I’m not gonna be here so you can both concentrate on the work, but…” and then he stopped listening because she lowered her voice to much for him to be able to hear. The last thing he heard was the front door to his house close and then steps that let him know y/n was getting close.

“Hi.” She said, front the door of the room, she was in comfy clothes, some leggings a sweat shirt and instead of the old shoes she had on the day of the audition she had some sandals. “beautiful house you got here.”

George wanted to growl. He wasn’t here to talk about anything else other than his work. He didn’t wish to make any other conversation other than the necessary one. So was she talking?

“We should get started. I have some meeting in the afternoon and would like for us to make some progress.” y/n nodded quickly, pulling her bag from where it rested and taking her things out. George noticed her script had already written stuff on it along with some highlighted parts. So she had been working, and George had nothing written on it and didn’t really even know where to start even after Leah had asked and warned him to work on it. y/n let her eyes fall on the papers in front of him and then to him again and when she saw the awkward look he had she felt the need to say something nice to ease whatever he might be feeling.

“Look, I took some notes of where I think we should start and something I think we should do in each part to help us get this write.” She started, and pushed her papers towards him for him to see and read. George nodded and took a look at all her little notes. She had a beautiful writing. When he nodded she continued. “Yeah? You agree?” he nodded again. “Great so let’s start.”

“You should seat first, so we’re both more comfortable.” George reminded her when he saw her still standing up.

George realized during the time they started talking that maybe he was wrong in judging her so soon. y/n knew what she was doing, she had worked hard to get everything to his liking and every time they had to try again on a scene wasn’t because of her but because of him. Because somehow he let his mind wonder a bit to much during these times, and also because she looked soft in that hoodie, we thought he could squish her gently and kiss the top of her head, and then hug her closely to him. He was gonna do all of that, the movie had more than enough scenes for them to hug, be gentle with each other and even kiss. What would it be like to kiss her? George wondered. Maybe her lips would be soft, they looked soft right now. Maybe she would taste like mint, or a fruit, like strawberry or lemon. Lemon looks like a bad choice, but he loved the sour taste of it. And her hands, what you they feel like holding his face while pulling him closer to her so they could kiss, would they be cold? Leah had told him the other day how y/n’s hand were always cold, but always soft. She moisturized.

“George? Everything ok?” George looked at her, a little embarrassed because he had zoned out on their conversation and so he had lost the last paragraph of what she said.

“Sorry.” He apologized and asked her to repeat what she had said so he could say his part.

And the meeting itself was not half had bad had George had been dreading it to be. How he thought each minute would drag out, how three hours of this would probably look like a whole day to him. No, instead, three hours felt like five minutes because y/n was easy to work with. It almost looked like she was doing this for longer than him and had more experience than him. She took this very seriously and George wanted to punch himself because he didn’t believe she would.

“So this sums it up for today.” y/n was putting all her things back in her bag, she had a content smile on her, feeling like they had accomplished so much in such little time and this being their first encounter of many before they would start shooting in just a month time.

“Yeah, we did a lot. Do you know when he have another meeting?” He felt stupid asking this, he should’ve waited and asked Leah about this, maybe then y/n wouldn’t think so low of him. Think how he couldn’t manage his time well at anything that he had to have Leah do everything for him. It was not like that, George was busy outside acting. Being as famous as he was he felt some kind of responsibility to show other famous people what it was like to do good.

He grew up poor, like so many other did, she just wanted his fame to not go to his brain. Every time he felt like that was happening to him he would go to Fred, his twin, oh boy he would definitely bring George back to reality.

“I mean it almost everyday.” She said casually, his scared face made her laugh. “I’m joking. We have another one this week and then the rest of the other weeks until filming is only once a week. But I think this went so well we have nothing to worry about. But if you do feel like we should work more just have to let Leah know, and she’ll talk to me.”

George nodded and watched her get up, all her stuff already put and she was ready to go.

“Well it was a pleasure working with you face to face for the first time Mr. Weasley, see you next time.”

And then George was left alone to all his thoughts.

☾☾

They were now only a few days way from the first day of shooting and today was the last day they had their meetings. This time Leah was present because after hearing George talk so much about how amazing it had been she needed to see for herself. In general in any of the other movies she had seen George work in he never really had any closeness to the person he was acting with. So this was a first.

“Look who it is, the man of the hour.” Leah said, she was on one side of the kitchen isle turned to the stairs in George’s apartment, and y/n had her back to him.

“Morning Leah, morning y/n.” the look y/n gave him gave him chills. He still wasn’t use to this weird feeling every time she looked at him.

After their first meeting George tried to really keep those thought to him, to not let it get to his head and ruin everything. But every time y/n came she looked even softer, even cuter and it was impossible for him to feel some type of way for her. She just squished herself in his heart and now had a small place in it. He wasn’t rude anymore.

“Leah is watching us today. My first audience.” y/n joked, making George laugh and look at Leah.

“Great. After this I think we could all for lunch. My treat?” George asked looking at both of them. “Just you know to celebrate this last era of just us, before the big part.” They both nodded agreeing to him.

☾☾

When y/n entered the studio where they were going to film for the first time, she felt small. Everything was so big and bright and everyone was talking to someone but she had arrived alone, after taking a three buses and almost loosing herself. She looked around, looking or Leah who said she would be close by the entrance to help y/n. She assumed George would already be getting ready to start shooting the scene they were to start today.

When she walked a little more people started looking at her and she started to overthink everything she did. What she wore, how she walked and if her hair was messy. Shit, it could be. The wind outside was crazy.

“Y/n come on.” Leah came up to her side and grabbed her hand, everything went so fast that she didn’t have time to see were she was being taken. Leah had been a guardian angel in all of this, helping y/n through everything and managing both her and George. “George is almost ready, and I cannot believe it, you two are gonna be amazing.”

y/n nodded nervously, and closed herself in her trailer to get ready. Everything laid out for her. And she tried not to be late, and she was able to get to the scene just in time. George taking the rest of what was left of her breath, way. He was in a back suit, green tie and his shoes were black and shinny. The scene in question was not the very first scene of the movie but something more towards the middle, so this scene had touching and some kissing. y/n had made sure she washed her mouth extra good this morning. George came in to hug her, a gesture that had became normal between both of them.

She wrapped her hands around him, they hugged each other tightly.

“You’re gonna do amazing.” He whispered in her ear, y/n shivered, George noticing it, a smile on his face.

“Ok, everyone in your place.” James said loudly. And George and y/n hurried to their places. She gave one last look to Leah who was next to James, her face happy and she gave them both a thumbs up.

y/n started to say her line. Following what the script had, George had his hands on her waist, y/n had hers on his shoulders and slowly they would go up his neck. He was leaning in close to kiss her. Although having to show a certain emotion on screen, the way her heartbeat faster with how close he got was a different emotion. She felt her hands sweat a little and wondered if he would notice when she got way from him.

George whispered something, just before their lips touched. Her fingers closing in around the fabric of his suit, tighten her grip even more when their kiss deepened. And when he pushed away his eyes never left hers.

The scene continued until a little after, so y/n had to bring herself back together and not let anyone understand how she felt after kissing George. When James yelled ‘cut’ she let out a deep breath she hadn’t realized until then she was holding.

“You did amazing.” George said, although with the amount of people around them he wasn’t scared of being a little to close to her. Although he should because rumors with any girl he was with flared up like crazy.

“Thank to you and your helpful very experienced tips.” She nudge his side and they both walked up to meet James and listen to some helpful advice from him.

☾☾

They way things were going amazing was to good to be true. George started inviting y/n after their time on set to just spend some time with him, at first the excuse was that they should work a little more on their scenes, but after the third time y/n stopped biting it and he just had do admit he genuinely wanted to spend some time with her.

So they were both longing in his enormous sofa, watching one of George’s movie because y/n had instated in doing so. George was a little embarrassed he usually never watched his own movies outside the first time they aired on the cinema. He liked to just think they didn’t existed. Not that he didn’t like the job he did, he just didn’t like to look at himself for long periods of time. But y/n had bugging him about it of for so long and the day she gave him those puppy eyes he gave in.

y/n had her legs on top of his, she was in some comfy pajamas because sometime she ended up falling asleep on his sofa and he couldn’t bring himself to wake her up and sent her home, not when she looked like a true angel. So he advised her to bring her pajamas so she would sleep comfortably.

“You look too good.” y/n laughed when a particular scene called for such statement. George rolled his eyes and looked at her.

“This is the last time I’m ever doing something like this. You watched them by yourself from now on.” He stated pretending to be angry, but y/n knew he was playing.

“Shut up, you love it. Every second of this you’re enjoying it.” She nuzzled herself closer to him but when that position of her legs on top of his was not enough closeness to her she decided to change. Turning around so now her head was on his lap and one of his hands came up to gently stroke her hair, her eyes immediately started closing, because it felt so nice and she was tired but she hadn’t realized until that moment.

“If you continue that I’m gonna fall,” she was interrupted by a yawn from her part, “I’m gonna fall asleep.” She finished, eyes already closed and her hands on the thigh she had her head on.

“It’s ok.” He whispered. She did end up doing just that and George had to get up has careful had he could as to not wake her up. Turned the tv and before he left he covered with a thick blanket and the went to his room.

It was about two in the morning when y/n woke up from a wet dream.

She was confused. Her hair was all over her face, some in her mouth. She felt sticky between her thighs and when she uncovered herself she look to see a wet spot on her pajama pants. How? How had it happen? Her and George and been close yes and friendly maybe a little to much with lingering touches and some discreet kisses when no one was looking. But was that reason for her to dream such filth? Her breathing was uneven had she got up, her brain and her legs seemingly not connecting while they guided her upstairs towards George’s room. The lights were off so he must already been asleep. With her legs still shaky she stopped at his door, it sounded so creepy to her, standing there looking at his peacefully asleep. But her body craved his touch.

“georgie?” Y/n voice called quietly while entering the room towards his bed, his king size bed. She kneeled at the bottom of the bed looking at him while his eyes slowly opened, his hands coming up to his head to rub them.

“y/n? Everything alright?” His voice was ruff and sleepy and she felt the wetness between her legs become more prominent but she tried to hide it.

“I-i woke up and can’t fall back asleep” she hadn’t even tried to do so. “Can i- can i sleep with you?” She murmured voice small and hand moving nervously in front of her.

“Of course sweet pea. Come here.” He hold the covers of his bed up so she could come in.

At first after she got in y/n stayed far from him. She was already in embarrassed of coming up here and asking him that, and he said yes so now she was in his bed his warm comfort bed.

“You can get closer, come on.” his sweet voice came from behind her, being she had back to him.

She turned around and got closer one hand under her head and the other on his arm. “Thank you.” she said a smile on her face. He gave a gentle kiss to her nose making her scrunch it up but none the less, laugh. She nuzzled even closer to him, letting her head hide in his neck, he felt her breathing there. The closeness they had made him feel hot all over his body and when a particular change of position made his uncovered leg brush close to her he felt wetness. Her breath caught in her throat. Shit had he felt it? He had to, the way his movements stoped abruptly and the way his hand squeezed her, he had.

“I’m sorry” she hurried to say, now very embarrassed because of what she had said.

“Oh my poor baby, did you have a wet dream?” She nodded unable to speak for herself. “Can I?” He asked gently his hand squeezing her also like that and when he got her agreement his hand traveled towards where she was the most warm. “Sweet thing look at how wet you are. Who made you like this?” He asked, curiosity all over his voice. The hand in his arm came to push his hair.

“You.” He was left genuinely surprised at that. He knew they were close and did things not normal for their relationship but he didn’t know she was dreaming of him like this. Hell if he knew he’d done something about it sooner because she was also filling his mind. His hand gently cupped her pussy thru the thin fabric of her bottoms, a moan leaving her mouth and her hips moving against his palm to find friction.

“So desperate.” She could feel his breath now close to her face his lips leaving kisses all over her face. ‘Tell me baby what did you dream of?’ He asked, his hand putting more pressure on her pussy, her swollen clit loving the attention. She mewled continuing the friction with her hips but now a little faster, almost like she was the one choosing the pace. ‘Nuh uh precious. You gotta tell me first, what was I doing in that dream of yours?’ He pushed his hand way stopping all contact and the broken cry that left her almost made him come back, but he wanted her to speak.

“I- you were.” she tried to speak, her voice shaky. “you were fucking me.”

“oh was I baby? And what more?”

“You- you touched me, with your hands, and they- Oh George they’re so big” The leg that was now in between hers was a great opportunity for y/n to buck her hips into it, the touch to her clit felt like it was too much and too little at the same time. He put his hands at her hips to stop her from getting her pleasure.

y/n brough her hands to his and squeezed them both, her eyes looking at him. “They’re so fucking big George shit, and your fingers.” She was so lost in pleasure that thoughts that made sense almost didn’t pass her mind. “Please.” She begged.

George felt sorry for the way she was feeling. George lets one hand slip from her face, down to her shoulder, sliding his fingers along her collarbone. He drags them down her front, dipping beneath the sheets as he cups the soft mound of her breast. A small gasp leaves her mouth, his hand rubbed against her nipples that immediately got hard from his touch. His mouth came to meet hers letting her moan into his mouth, his tongue touched hers and she felt a shiver run down the entirety of her spine. She did taste like strawberries, the ones he had imagine the first day she had come to his house, and she was soft and squishy like he dreamed of. She let her head fall back a little still kissing him, but that deepened the kiss and her hands came to roam his body staying in the line of the boxers he had.

George pushed of her and looked at her, a smile creeping up on his face. He lowered his head, and bit down on her throat while his hand went thru her pajama bottoms and her thin undergarments to finally touch her now bare pussy. She was even warmer now and the gasp that left her lips was marvelous. He gently brushed his fingers thru her pussy, he could’ve sworn he felt her clit twitch against his hands. The urge he felt then was big and he let his thumb slide against the gentle twitching button that was begging to be touched. He first rolled it gently and when mewled little a kitty he took that had a yes and then rolled again but a little stronger this time. Her legs shook wrapping around one of his legs.

“Oh sweet girl you are quivering, this is your sweet spot isn’t it?” She could only nod.

George’s cock twitched with interest again, he’s hard, he doesn’t think he felt this hard ever, and when her hands gain the courage to pull his boxers down his cock came with force slapping against his abdomen, the pre-cum that left the tip leaving them both messy with the sticky substance. He was stiff has stone beneath the sheets that now felt to much.

“Get undressed.” He said, his voice now a little less sweet and more dominant, he pushed the sheets of them because he now knew both of them were hot. And he also took the chance to finish up taking his boxers, the only piece of clothing that he had. He watched intensely as y/n tried to take her clothes of, but her shaky hands weren’t helping.

When he came down again, y/n took his hand and brought it to her chest, he understood the gesture and gave another squeeze and let, after that, his fingers wrap again around the now hard button that was her nipple and pulled, her hand opening but the pleasure consuming her was so much that the moan that was coming out got stuck in her throat.

He then let is fingers stay in her nipple while the other hand came to her pussy and he plunged two fingers into her, she was so wet that he had his hands soaking again with her juices, she was squishy inside and warm and thigh and he could only imagine how his cock would feel. The movements of his fingers in her so slow that she was bucking her hips again against him fucking herself onto him.

“Desperate, sweet pea.” He kissed her throat again and sucked on it again, the other mark from earlier already purple and this would have the same ending. “You want me to make your sweet little dream come true don’t you?”

The fingers he had inside her pick up it’s pace, her pussy convulsing and spasming around his fingers, whimpers and moans were all y/n was able to let out, her brain was mushy and no thoughts were able to form. And as with his quick pace comes a stron movement, her whimpers turn into longer moans her hands shake, she put one hand on his neck and pulled him to her kissing him hard moaning into his mouth, into his tongue.

She’s so close, he can feel it, this is the first time he’s touching her but it feels like he knows her like the palm of his hand, the way she squeezes even harder around his fingers, how her hips look to closer to him, how he knows she feels any sort of touch from him is never enough. Her orgasm is stopped when he pulls his fingers out, looking for eye contact with her before bringing his fingers coated in her wetness to her lips.

“Open baby, taste yourself.” Ans she obeyed, opening her lips slightly, just enough to wrap around his fingers and she sucked fervently on them. She brought both of her hands to hold his wrist as if telling him to stay there. The way her warm tongue enveloped his fingers had his leaking cock bloat even more with pleasure.

He took his fingers out. “Enough greedy baby, I’ll give you my cock now.”

y/n laid back letting him get on top of her, she opened her legs so he could fit in between them, her hands on his back, her fingernails scratching very lightly at his. It made George shiver and loose a little balance. One of his hands was next to her head holding himself up while the other came down to his cock, he stroked it gently a few times, biting down on his lips to suppress a moan, and then positioned himself at her entrance.

She felt his the head of his swollen cock brush up against her hole, and how he pushed in ever so gently letting them both deep in the pleasure of her cunt enveloping his cock for the first time. The moan that leaves her mouth is something out of an adult movie George is almost sure, he pulls out almost all the way before pushing back in.

“Shit-“ his moans his cut of by the pleasure cursing through his body. “So tight around me baby, just perfect for my cock.” His hands that were supporting his body came to change their position. He kneels between her legs, carefully because he was still inside her, and his hands picked up her legs bending them so she was more open to him. He begins to buck his hips against her quicker and more vigorously, their moans filing the whole room, the only sound they could hear besides the snap of his hips against her bottom, his pelvis sometimes brushed against her clit making her tighten her pussy around him.

George doesn’t hold back on his moans, and the way she feels and responds to his moans makes him know that she also likes. When she moves her hips, he bottoms out on her, his whole length inside her touching the spot that makes her shiver and quiver.

“Fuck, George- so deep.” Her hands come to her breast to touch them, moving them around and toying with her hard nipples making her pleasure even stronger. She was throbbing around him. The smile on his face is big, thrusting up into her while also letting her hips meet his, his balls slap around her bum. y/n’s thighs are tense, her orgasm is starting to build, the pressure in her lower belly starting to get stronger, her legs sometimes twitch as if they’re gonna close.

George keeps bumping into her soft, if she was wet before she’s soaking now, her juices coming from her letting a wet noise be heard, squelching noises every time his fucks into her sweet pussy.

“Sweeteste little pussy baby, can’t believe I’ve been dreaming of this and it’s even better than I dreamed of.” His hips flutter a little in his speed when he also starts to feel his own orgasm building up. She’s convulsing around him, her hands are now bunching up the sheets in her hands and she screams. “My best little girl you are, giving your all on my cock ahm?” The growl tha leaves his mouth is grutal and strong and he gives on last hard trhust agains her as she comes around his cock, her juices coating all of him and his whole cock is even wetter, the pressure from her strong orgasm pushes him out of her and his hand immediately meets his cock.

y/n locks eyes with the hand on his cock, his movement rapid and smooth knowing perfectly how to finish himself, and although she’s looking at his cock he’s looking at her, his free hand comes to one of her breasts and toys with her nipple. “Such cute tits, I’m-“ his voice breaks “i-m gonna fuck them one day, one day- shit.” He’s unable to finish his sentence as his orgasm ripples truh him, his whole body shaking and y/n has to bring her hands to help as best as she can with his fall.

Even with limp arms he tries to not put his whole weigh on her but the aftermath of his orgasm makes such thing impossible. His cum his leaving a mess between her thighs, all over that and his tummy and hers and they both feel sticky.

Sticky but happy, as her arms come to wrap around his body hugging him she feels the best she’s ever felt in a while, even with everything in her life going good. But she feels so close to him, she knows for sure she’s falling in love with the man on top of her and she couldn’t wish for anyone better.

“Thank you.” He murmured. “You are amazing.” He kissed her shoulder sweetly and y/n smiled repeating a ‘thank you’ to him.

This made everything that was to come more interesting. How they still had a whole movie to shoot, and how she knew this wasn’t the end and only the beginning of them.

#smut #george weasley #george weasley imagine #george weasley imagines #george weasley smut

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mooshs-crack-headcanons · 4 years

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Hi moosh! Could I have sfw letters APW for dante, vergil, nero, and V? Thank you!

So this is my first piece for devil may cry, I hope it turned out well I'm still ify on it, especially with V's and a part of Vergil but I hope you guys like it anyway!

Dante

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Dante is a pretty chill guy, but he really doesn’t get out that much besides to go do a job, out to get drinks and to gamble (losing most of his last payment from Morrison in the process and getting absolutely screamed at by both you and Lady) at the local bar, and to get a Strawberry Sundae at Fredi’s, most of these activities he loves for you to tag along with him (some partially to make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble *cough cough* like losing most of his fucking money *cough*) especially hunting if you can hold yourself in a fight, he gets a kick out of watching you kick demon ass and finds it really hot so expect a lot of flirty banter that’s filled with terrible puns and other dorky eye rolling one liners. This lovable fucking dork.

However most of your time spent together is in the office, which you can find the two of you laying on the couch watching the old busted television watching old movies or listening to the old busted jukebox that has been playing the same sixteen songs for the last thirty years (Dante stop abusing your shit) or just telling each other shitty stories the both of you have heard from one another countless of times, but somehow when he tells it again it somehow feels just as enjoyable as the first with somehow a different twist to it and when you tell it he always that charismatic talent that Dante just has this big heart throbbing grin on his face as he listens and it just makes your words sometimes stop that even he has to tell you to keep going, or just cooking together (and by together, I mean you doing 99% of the work because this man is forever banned anywhere near a oven anymore) because yeah sure pizzas 24/7 is fun and all but if there’s one thing (besides watching you kick demon ass) that he loves to watch you do it’s cooking and not only does he get to watch you excitedly dash from one part of the kitchen looking for ingredients and get a little messy along the way, he also gets something to eat out of it too in the end.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Embarrassment to show his absolute adoration for you in public? No way! Dante is all about that PDA, unless you’re uncomfortable with it then he’ll respectfully lay off...but sometimes he finds it really hard when you’re just super cute when talking to the crew about a job, it's just something about that look of thrill in your eye that always grabs his attention. But if you’re down with it, let the lap sitting, quick heated kisses, bad suggestive pick up lines, and questionable touches commence!

Dante is the number one choice for a feel better boost, if you’re feeling unsure and doubtful of your abilities be prepared to see this man recite everything fucking cool, smart, and badass thing he’s ever seen you do, so it’s a given Dante absolutely loves bragging about you to people. As he’s sharing tales of your badassery, there’s a glint of pure love in his eyes as he looks back to you and watches as your doubts begin to slowly fade away to the back of your mind, and of course if this is a recurring issue you might find even the rest of giving you compliments from time to time, even from Vergil (which almost gave you a heart attack from the shock hearing that from the eldest son of Sparda)

Kisses from Dante are never shy, when he wants to show affection to you he’s never shy about it. Kisses from him are always the type that shoots butterflies to your stomach and makes you feel dizzy afterwards, his favorite to pull over you are when you’re in the middle of working on paperwork (his fucking bills) and surprising you with them because always without fail you get drag away from your work and go to cuddle on the couch, bills to be forgotten (and he wonders why his electric shuts off all the time) The crew immediately learns quickly that Dante really doesn’t have any shame, but reactions vary when they stumble upon it with Trish and Morrison are the two not to really give a shit to be bothered by it, Lady, Vergil, and Nero just roll their eyes at it before going back to do their own thing, Nico lets the: “get a room love birds” and other types of teasing lines and whistles fly every chance she gets, Lucia either embarrassed and covering her eyes or scolding the both of you for being that ‘personal’ out in the open like that, and Patty asks really uncomfortable questions. Dante for the most part gets a kick out of all of it!

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

I think it's very clear that he mimics actions he sees in movies (just look at how he fucking uses Cerberus for example) and so lots of what he does romantically is stuff he's seen in romance films he remembers watching with his mother and brother when he was younger or films that when he really has nothing better to do and Patty brings (all with titles he can never pronounce) to the office on a lazy afternoon and that's the reason why his view of romance is so cliche. When asked jokingly about it, he'll give a shrug and answer with the fact that the love between his parents, forbidden lovers, is a cliche trope itself and from the very few memories he has of his mother and father together he definitely remembers how sappy they were together, so sappy that it might've carried over into their kids (Vergil you don't escape this, just you wait)

So that being said, with the heart shaped chocolates, the roses to start every date with, several dates under candle light on the roof of the shop under a full moon, no matter how cliche it may be the confident wide eye grin on his face during them will never fail to make your heart skip a beat.

Vergil

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Vergil of course really likes to take every opportunity to train whenever he can so that he can be sure he's able protect those he cares for, so he really likes when you take the time to spare with him so not only he can stay in top shape for whatever danger that may come in the future but also so that you can do the same that he doesn't feel like it's all up to him to protect you when he is assured you can protect yourself, this keeps his mind from wandering to dark power lusting places.

On free days that there's no jobs in sight and there's not a focus on training, Vergil of course likes to read in his book. Flipping through the pages of his old precious childhood possession he feels himself at ease and even more so if the two of you are laid up together in bed in the privacy of your shared room, your head laid softly on his chest with his hand in your hair subconsciously combing through it as he reads Blake's words aloud to you in a quiet voice as if the words were only meant for you to hear.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Listen, all the Sparda men are romantic in their own way to the core, I like to think it’s in their genes and this is Vergil we’re talking about, this man is an absolute traditional romantic with absolutely no PDA. I mean come on, again this is Vergil we're talking about this is to be expected the son of Sparda prefers to keep his romantic life absolutely private between the two of you. To be honest it takes only the closest people in the two of your lives to realize that the two of you are even together, so basically only those who are at Devil May Cry frequently. The tale tell is that out of everyone you end up being on the end of Vergil's...Vergilness the least bit, sure there are moments but at least you haven't been stabbed by Yamato or had any summoned swords shot at you like everyone in the office has been at least once (although this also applies to Kyrie but I see her never really doing anything that would really bother him) and he also gives to rare non sarcastic compliments, which blows Dante's mind every time it occurs.

Vergil doesn't brag about you, he compliments, and true hearted compliments from Vergil are rare, but when they happen you always know he 100% means it especially if he does it in front of others. This is the only form of PDA he feels comfortable with doing, and usually they're about how you did in fights or a super rare version: that he's proud of you.

Again Vergil believes all romantic acts should be savory in the privacy between each other, so it's obvious that he doesn't like kissing in public. However, if you were to hypothetically I don't know...give him a peck on the cheek or go even more scandalous the lips while he's at phone duty in the office while Dante and the others are around the pool table and sitting area or in Nico's van while waiting to drive off with the crew to whatever next job, his cheeks might turn into a interesting shade of pink.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

It takes patience to be in a relationship with Vergil, in the beginning he'll be closed off and won't share what he's thinking (but it says a lot with how much he does trust and care for you to be in a commitment with you) but as time goes on he'll slowly start to open up more and more as he lets himself accept the human in him to love you, and at this point he'll start to share things that are very close and dear to him.

He has very fond memories of watching old black and white romance films with his mother and Dante, who only would watch them because the moment they would end he would immediately beg him to train with him, but with him falling down to hell and being corrupted since he was only nineteen to him he remembers memories of when he and Dante were kids more clearly than his brother can since to him they don't feel as they happened a long ago so he remembers watching these films from long ago in very great detail. So of course the moment he can find some of these films with the help from a hesitant Nero (still getting used to the whole dad ripping arm off thing and all) to find and order those they could find online. From the very moment he has the old tapes in his hands do they become as precious as you, Yamato, his amulet, and his book (as well as a little bit of Nero but it takes him a while to come to terms with it) so with this being something very emotionally important to him, and after very long pandering about it, he asks you to watch these films with him (he also considered asking Dante but figured since he didn't practically like the these films as children that he wouldn't want to to watch them now, absolutely no idea about the cliched dork he is now because of these types of films) The entire time you find yourself struggling to pay attention to the actual film instead you find yourself drawn to the deep nostalgic look in your lover's eyes as he's glued to the screen. For a while you're not even sure if he's actually watching the black and white picture either with how he eyes seem to be playing out scenes of the past and this is the first time you've ever seen this much emotion on his face at once. You end up holding a tight securing grip on his hand throughout the rest of the film, one normally he wouldn't hold for as long but you find his fingers subconsciously rubbing against yours from time to time. Once the nostalgic movie night ends the two of you don't say much to each other, which Vergil appreciates since how much emotional significance that it had on him and with the feeling that he's glad he got to spend it with you.

Nero

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

He likes killing demons with you, it's in his blood. Just seeing you in action will without fail boost confidence in him and makes him want to show off for you, which ends with him getting hurt and scolded by you many times but he wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, he really finds himself doing a lot doing jobs with Nico on the road as of late so except a lot of quality time together on jobs and in the van. When the two of you aren't out kicking demon ass expect a ton of sitting around in the van watching whatever happens to come in on Nico's very small and very shitty portable tv, this is when you learn your boyfriend has actually a lot of a surprising amount of trivia on shows that hadn't been in production in decades but are shown as frequent reruns on low quality channels that coincidently air in Fortuna's limited broadcast range.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

I feel like during the time around dmc 4, Nero at that point was absolutely super embarrassed with the idea of PDA, not even getting started with his insecurities about his arm, but I feel about now after his experience with dating Kyrie for a few years he gotten use to it a little bit. However that doesn't mean he won't get entirely red faced by teasing comments from Dante or Nico even if he was just looking at you for a few seconds longer than he should've.

Fuck yeah he brags about you to others. You're a badass, and he absolutely loves that. During a fight he'll gladly give you a cocky Nero way of approval by saying that even he should try and catch up before flashing you a smug ass grin before revving up Red Queen and jumping into the next hoard of demons.

Again Nero gets embarrassed easily, however unlike his father he's not totally against it but it depends on whose exactly around. For example if it's Lady or Trish, hell even Morrison he's perfectly comfortable with giving you a kiss hello/goodbye or wrapping his arms around you just for the hell of it because he knows that they're chill and won't make a big deal out of it. But if it's anyone else...he feels not so much about it. Dante and Nico tease the hell out of him for days, Patty asks very uncomfortable person questions, Lucia gets really easily flustered about it, and Vergil and Kyrie for personal reasons would just rather not prefer to do anything around them. But every time you are the one to initiate any sort of affection, he'll immediately rub/scratch at his nose with a very dumb founded flustered look on his face.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Nero is actually a good cook and absolutely loves cooking things for you and that is usually what happens for most dates, no matter how complicated the recipe he just seems to have a natural talent for it. So when it comes not only dates but to holidays as well, it's really funny to see the youngest relative of Sparda cooking away to serve the rest of the company on Christmas day when everyone knows damn well that neither his father or uncle has any clue how to work a kitchen and this is a fact that he holds proudly over his head.

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Well being Vergil's human half, I still say most things still somewhat apply to him but a little bit differently. V's not really the best partner to spar with for starters (the most I see him doing is letting you train with his familiars) but I feel that he still completely understands the reason why Vergil would desperately want that, but he has a little bit more in himself to have faith in you to know you can more than able to handle yourself with your abilities.

Like with Vergil, V absolutely loves to read with you. It puts a nice warm feeling in his chest when the two of you are alone and with you in his arms as he reads to you as you both sit against Shadow and Griffon nesting nicely in your lap, all together like a nice small family.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

V, unlike Vergil, is torn between PDA. Like Vergil, he really does appreciate the privacy of time spent together behind closed doors but also he really does like the feeling of people seeing the two of you together as a couple, it brings out a heavy sense of pride and stroking his ego.

V doesn't feel need to brag, he's proud of you and if you're with him you should know that by now, but if you're in need of some encouragement he always knows what right thing he's proud of you to pick you tight back up again.

Kisses from V are never shy, will he do it often in front of others? Occasionally, but never frequent. When he does though they're always sudden and full of spark, you swear his lips are like an instant kill switch to your brain because once you realize that he's kissed you it's already hit you and most of the time you hear whistles and teases from Griffon (and sometimes Nico if she's around) that bring you back earth to (Name).

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Vergil's nightmares plague him a lot, I mean he's literally contracted to them. So expect a lot of countless of nights of him waking up in cold sweat and doing his best to keep his sobs down as the image of Nelo Angelo is burnt into his mind. He would rather not talk about it, but he really does appreciate feeling you holding him through the after shocks. Tracing his tattoos or gently combing your fingers through his hair will slowly calm him down enough to at least lay back down with you and hesitantly fall back asleep knowing you're there to fight off the plagues of his mind at a moments notice.

#devil may cry #devil may cry x reader #dante x reader #vergil x reader #nero x reader #v x reader #dante sparda #vergil sparda #nero sparda #v dmc #mine

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