#I had done this? but I thought I'd do it again and include all muses this time

[gotasenseivebeenbetrayed]

I know some of us, me included, have some-what struggled heavily with all the Matty talk/speculation.

While I love just listening to Taylor and appreciating the songs for what they are and how I can relate to them. I also love the idea of trying to guess who each song is about and as I'm open-minded I've done my fair share of digging into Gaylor/Kaylor/Swiftgron as well as now, Maylor. And honestly up until Maylor, I thought it was always pretty easy to see how many holes were in the Gaylor theories and while there are holes still in Maylor, there are also - unfortunately, a lot of things that do add up to Matty being the "big muse" over Harry.

And yet, while I do see those things and sometimes have a hard time being 100% that Harry is still the big muse - I'm still here trying to convince myself. Lol

So if you also need it - buckle up & follow along, this will be long

Just to get it out of the way, it is impossible for anything from Red or 1989 to be about Matty. I know I've seen a lot of people trying to connect him into it and it's just not possible as both came out before the two ever met.

The first public interaction of either of this was on Nov 8th 2014 when Taylor liked this tumblr post of Matty wearing a 1989 shirt.

For reference 1989 originally came out Oct 27 2018 and Red Oct 22 2012. Both of those are before Nov 2018. And while Matty did say they met some time in October of 2018 (British Matt, 25, who wore a Taylor Swift 1989 shirt on stage earlier this month, told how he and the Grammy award winner had met in October - This was in this article by DailyMail posted on Nov 2018), she did not meet him and write songs about him for 1989 the same month it was being released. So according to Matty's own word, they met Oct 2018 and exchanged numbers.

Then their first official meeting in public was Nov 19 2018 when Taylor, Selena and co went to a 1975 concert. This is the concert where Harry was rumored to also be at according to US Weekly & earlier that day US Weekly posted another article claiming Taylor & Harry were talking again/friends. And I'd also like to note that I'd wager a guess that Harry introduced Taylor to The 1975 because back in 2013, Harry tweeted quite a few times about The 1975. Then back in March 2014 Harry was prank called by Matty so Matty had Harry's number.

Taylor was apparently super excited about her & Harry talking again, they apparently went to the concert together. So it'd be super unlikely after just having exchanged numbers with Matty & meeting him two or three times she'd already be obsessed with him to write songs about.

On Dec 2nd 2014 Taylor & Harry were both in London during the VS Fashion Show. So they were still friendly at that point & DailyMail posted an article saying they had drinks at a bar after.

Our third official meeting between the two was another The 1975 concert Dec. 4th 2014 in NY - yes this the same concert Kissgate happened. From there articles were being posted about them rumored to be dating. But during that same time on Dec 8th 2014, there was a blind item that Ali Lohan and Matty were hooking up. Then officially started circulating Dec 24th 2014. And both of them were supposedly at that Dec 4th show in the VIP Section.

Now if we're going to add into the fact because of Taylor stupidly mouthing the whole "This song is for you, you know who you are. I love you." last year before Cardigan and Matty having done that same thing a few days earlier at one of his concerts. People believe Cardigan and therefor August and Betty are all about Matty & Taylor and I'm assuming Ali but, I don't know for sure. If we're going based on the lyrics and idea of it being Matty & Taylor, this was the only time they would've been "dating" back then and Ali was the only one he was accused of cheating with so August would have to be Ali. And based on the lyrics, if they're to be believed. August did NOT know about Betty, Ali would've known about Taylor because not only was there rumors circulating then about T&M dating, Ali was supposedly at the same show as T, in the same section as her. August also implies the affair happened in summer but, once again T&M didn't even meet until late fall and A&M rumors and T&M rumors didn't start til Dec which is winter. Also want to add there was a blind item that said Ali & Matty sent Taylor a photo of them in bed together which is wild, obviously doesn't mean it's true but, if it were true it would indicate that Ali most def. did know about Taylor.

So based on what we know they knew each other from an unknown date in Oct and exchanged numbers then Taylor appeared at 2 of his shows between Nov and Dec. Dec. 4th is when rumors started they were dating and by Dec. 8th Matty was hooking up with Ali Lohan and him and Taylor were apparently already over. Then around Feb 24th 2015 Ellie Goulding introduced Tay & Calvin and they started dating very quickly after.

Now Maylors are trying to say that this night below which is from Feb 25th 2015 is probably the night that Taylor wrote "Exile" about saying that Matty seeing Taylor with Calvin was the whole "I can see you standing honey with his arms around your body". And Matty being jealous over Calvin. Firstly, T&C weren't even fully dating yet, they had just met and were flirting. And if they (M&T) were truly dating in Dec. 2014 and then Matty cheated on her with Ali and Taylor was "head over heels" for Matty enough to write all these songs about him - why would they be within the same area as the other? Taylor is generally not nice to her exes, especially if they screw her over and Matty would've screwed her over heavily if everything was true.

However, funnily enough there were also blind items around Dec that came out before the rumors did that suggested Taylor was going to be in a PR Relationship with Matty as a way of "roughing" up her image a bit. Normally, I do not take too much stock in blind items as anyone can submit one but, sometimes there are real ones and this one seems to be legit as they called out what would happen (T&M wouldn't ever be seen holding hands, kissing etc. but they'd be spotted supporting each other at shows and event photos of them near each other would be taken just to get people talking and as long as Matty didn't screw it up, they'd write a contract for 2015 then a week later articles were being published of them "dating" & Taylor was shown at his 2nd concert, then Matty did end up screwing things up by sleeping with Ali & that ended their possible contract).

Blind 1 & Blind 2

On her birthday in 2014 she tweeted about how she'd like the media to stop claiming she was dating her friends which was obviously a hint at both Matty and Karlie since rumors were going on about both.

By late Feb Taylor was with Calvin which lasted a year (until June 2016) and we can conclude from Taylor's own lyrics (Getaway Car and High Infidelity) she probably cheated on him. There was also a blind item that suggested she was cheating on him and when she wrote This is What We Came For with him it was about the man she was cheating on him with and he had no idea at the time. After they broke up, he wrote Ole and the entire MV was taking jabs at Harry which why would he do unless Harry was the one she cheated with.

I couldn't find an exact date but, sometime in 2015 Matty started dating an 18 year old model named Gabriella Brooks and they dated until 2019. Obviously, cheating could happen so them both having partners doesn't mean they weren't together in secret but, yeah it's leaves very little room for Cardigan, August & Betty considering the "chase two girls, lose the one" if Matty was in a relationship after Taylor started dating another man and then she got with Joe before Matty & Gabriella even broke up.

Also on Jan 20th Matty did a radio interview with Australia's 2DayFM and said

"It's all bloody fake. It's a farce." "We met each other, we exchanged numbers in the same way that a lot of people in this kind of world do, and we spoke occasionally," he said. "She's the biggest pop star in the world and I'm in Australia. There's no relationship or anything happening. It's just funny how people really, really buy into that."

In an interview with Q magazine in March 2016 Matty said he never dated Taylor. He called it a flirtation, said she wasn't a big impact on his life, and this was also the interview where he said it would have been emasculating to only be known as Taylor Swift's boyfriend.

He also said this later on when he was correcting the narrative about that interview and how people said he was being misogynistic.

 I had fears of being 'somebody's boyfriend' (remember this is all speculation as we never dated!)

Feb 20 2020 they saw each other at the NME Awards and Matty said

"She was just stood behind me. I mean, I haven't seen Taylor in years so it was actually a really nice room."

So in 2020 he said they hadn't seen each other in years and he wanted to collab with her. And going off the other interviews he did, they never dated and only talked occasionally - so I'd bet money those blind items were correct and Matty fucked up any possibility of an official PR contract back in 2015 by sleeping with Ali and that they never actually hung out outside of her going to those few concert shows and then backstage at certain events. Even if they were wanting to keep their relationship secret, he did not talk about her in a light that even remotely hints at anything. And if she was writing all these songs about having a secret relationship with him why would he lie and say they hadn't even seen each other in years? He didn't need to mention that and why would he publicly talk about being nervous to talk to her again and ask her to collab if they had been having a secret affair?

Now another thing Maylors claim is that Taylor/Matty wrote songs about each other over the years and that there were songs from Midnights and Being Funny in a Foreign Language about one another but, Matty said in an interview in Nov 2022 that Taylor had only heard "bits and pieces" of their album thanks to Jack. So it does not sound like they wrote songs about each other.

Then Jan 2023 is when Taylor surprise performed for The 1975 in London which again, remember, originally Harry was who Matty wanted.

Also want to add that by Dec 2022 it seems like Taylor might've already had an idea in her mind for The Tortured Poet's Department because Matty posted this photo kissing Pheobe where he said "Gay Poets Society" referencing the 1989 classic film "Dead Poets Society." which Taylor also referenced in the Fortnight video. And they were on speaking terms at this point because Matty claims they worked together for Midnights but it was scrapped. She told us herself she started working on TTPD directly after Midnights and if Matty/Pheobe were possibly already hinting the name of it in Dec of 2022 then it's safe to say she probably already had the title track written at that point as well as Fortnight and already had the idea for the Fortnight video in her head and therefore it makes no sense for those to be about Matty when both are talking about a relationship that's already ended and this would've been before they "dated" last year.

Also, I don't think Matty and Pheobe would jokingly kiss if he was secretly with Taylor, especially since when Matty was "dating" Taylor last year he stopped kissing random fans/bandmates on stage as a show of respect to her.

Then we have Matty taking shots at Harry over the years.

In Jan 2019 he tweeted he wanted to produce Harry's new album but, that he needed Harry's new number because was "definitely blocked".

In Jan 2023 Matty said he asked Harry to be an opener for The 1975 and got told no. Apparently this was the concert that Taylor ended up doing instead. Which again, if they were having a secret affair all this time and pining for each other why the hell would invite her ex to perform as an opening instead of her?

Then in Feb 2023 he accused Harry of queerbaiting..by doing the same shit he himself does.

[caustinen]

Let’s create a “clegan/buckxbucky/buckyxbuck/eganven/whatever we call the buckies” playlist together.

🎶 🛫 When you get this, list 5 songs you like to listen that remind you of Clegan (MOTA) and publish them. Then send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool) (@onyxsboxes so i can add your replies to the playlist) 🛫 🎶

You can include more or fewer songs (as you prefer), I'll collect all the replies and put them together in a playlist that I'll share in a week or so (I'll update it as I receive replies, so no rush and no pressure).

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS & sorry in advance, i am a music lover first and a person second so i can’t not be intense about this despite having chosen mostly super cheesy songs!!

if i needed someone (the beatles)

if I needed someone to love / you're the one that I'd be thinking of / if I needed someone / if I had some more time to spend / then I guess I'd be with you, my friend / if I needed someone / had you come some other day / then it might not have been like this / but you see now I'm too much in love

there were so many beatles songs i considered since they wrote so extensively on many sides of love, but rather than going with my first obvious choice “if i fell” i thought this was a good song when thinking about them meeting, especially from gale pov! the cheeky way to phrase this, “i’m a very independent person and quite busy too btw BUT if i were to need someone in my life you’d probably be the person”, just that slow process of falling for a friend when the butterflies in your tummy start changing little by little, you smile a little wider any time you see your person, but you’re maybe not quite ready to admit it to even yourself yet, but in soft moments you might slip something like “the last few years would’ve been a lot rougher without you… bro”

2. standing next to you (jungkook)

Stop, can you feel that? / It's like Heaven and Earth moves whenever we touch // The universe approves when you and I dance // They can't deny our love / They can't divide us / We'll survive the test of time / I swear that I'll be right here / Standing next to you

this is fun, sexy pop perfect for the moment when they eventually do stop dancing around each other, that first love bubble of excitement of each touch and kiss and just being close to someone <3 but also the “standing next to you” sentiment is so good when thinking of even particular scenes in the show and overall how they’re able to show their love in public in fics too, just standing close to someone when you’re aching to feel.... also everytime a song mentions dancing it's in my clegan list

3. ocean eyes (billie eilish)

I've been watchin' you for some time / Can't stop starin' at those ocean eyes / Burning cities and napalm skies / Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes / Your ocean eyes // I've been walkin' through a world gone blind / Can't stop thinkin' of your diamond mind / Careful creature made friends with time // I'm scared / I've never fallen from quite this high / Fallin' into your ocean eyes / Those ocean eyes

idk if this even needs explanation, i think the blue ocean eyes are a stable of this fandom and this also serves again as a perfect bridge from the previous songs as the flirty love bubble morphs into real feelings, almost scary in their intensity

4. falling away with you (muse)

So I'll love whatever you become / And forget the reckless things we've done / I think our lives have just begun / I think our lives have just begun / And I'll feel my world crumbling / I'll feel my life crumbling / I'll feel my soul crumbling away / And falling away / Falling away with you / Staying awake to chase a dream / Tasting the air you're breathing in / I hope I won't forget a thing

This could be a stalag/immedieate post-war song, i mean the whole song is so sad but these parts in particular are talking so beautifully about overcoming difficulties, loving someone when you know you can’t fix them and you might be a little broken too but for now the love in itself will be enough, will have to be enough to get your through the worst and then you can start to reasses where to go from there

5. exist for love (AURORA)

And then you take me in / And everything in me begins to feel like I belong / Like everybody needs a home / And when I take your hand / Like the world has never held a man / I know I cannot heal the hurt / But I will hold you here forever / If I can, if I can / And then I learned the truth / How everything good in life seems to lead back to you / And every single time I run into your arms / I feel like I exist for love / Like I exist for love / Only for love

Because I’m a hopeless romantic i needed to end it here, this is probably the most overly sweet n hearteyed song ever made but it fits them perfectly and in this small narrative over these songs i want them to always end up here bc real life sucks and i seek happiness from fiction

+ sata vuotta / hundred years (behm)

i know you asked for five but this finnish song just fit for them perfectly, especially since i’ve been reading @joeyalohadream cooler fic part two as a bedtime read for the past few nights and been in my feelings (you’re absolutely phenomenal writer and I adore your work!!) so i wanted to add this, but figured it probably wouldn’t make any playlist since the lyrics are the oof of it… I did a quick partial translation for the first part:

I’m sure that just with your eyes / You could make the sky itself fall down / And all the birds find their way to Eden / I might be losing my mind / When I find myself running after you to the hallway / Just to see your shadow for a moment more / And if you felt like drowning / I would give you my lungs / So you could breathe / If you let me / I’ll hold your hand tight / For a hundred years at least / But even that wouldn’t be long enough / No one else can make me promise them / Hundred years of my time, at least / And if you’d be okay with it, even longer than that

(there were so many finnish songs i realized fit them PERFECTLY but idk if it’s okay to spam them in this context, maybe some other time)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU i love yapping about music and clegan so this was a dream way to start my day!!

[uroboros-if]

So I was playing through the update (very very fun!!) and I got to the part where Rafaele asks the MC how he looks. I accidentally selected a choice without "looking" at Rafaele, then went back to look first and then select a choice. I found the contrast between the two outcomes very funny — I just had to pause and write this ask because man this got a lot of giggles out of me 👻👻

Without Looking:

With Looking:

It was definitely a very nice semi-hidden little treasure to stumble upon! I probably wouldn't have found this if it weren't for accidentally clicking a choice without doing the looking first; I know that "not looking" is reflected in the wording of the choices in that certain scenario, but for some reason my brain didn't register it at all until I consciously looked closer 😭

Also, I really really like the "not looking" scenario for some reason?? It feels so familial and intimate, an exasperated father mock-sighing at his unabashedly confident child. It kind of feels like a peek into how MC interacted with their parents during their younger, more childish days 😌 It certainly gave me quite a few drabble/headcanon ideas regarding my MC and his parents, at least. I liked it so much that I decided to keep it (sorry, Rafaele)!! 😝✨

Anyways, I'm very much enjoying the new update!! Thank you for all the work you've done, and good luck with writing chapter 2! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ I'm really excited for it, but please do take your time! You've already given us so much content (including your blog posts, which I very much enjoy reading) :] That was all, and have a very nice day!💙✨

P.S. The relationship between MC and Nero and Rafaele is very near and dear to my heart 🥰 I'm very fond of the ROs, and am looking forward to getting to know more about them ingame — but the dads are special. I've spent waaay more time than I'd like to admit making personal headcanons and anecdotes about that little family 🥹

Ahh, I'm so glad you played through the update! And I'm even more ecstatic that you caught the changes with the looking vs not looking (The choices and comments are different for each option depending on if you looked or not!!)! 💕 I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to see and appreciate the differences!

You're right, though -- it seems so familiar and easy in a way that's intimate to anyone you've been with for a very long time. So even if it may seem like the more "disrespectful" option, it really is just everyday interaction with your family. A little taken for granted, but loving all the same.

I'm super glad you like the dads, and I know many people do as well ❤️ I find it fascinating that we especially value and devalue ROs at the same time (no /neg or criticism). A lot of people look to IFs just for the romance, that sometimes we reduce characters we can romance to being there just for that. Thus, finding characters we can get attached to, without any prior expectation to romance them, feels more special.

Again, not necessarily a bad mindset, or directed towards you, specifically--it's just been on my mind for a long time! It makes me so happy that you can find a character like that in my IF, because I definitely do not want to make important side characters less loveable or interesting than the ROs. So your fondness for the parents is really special as well, and shows that that isn't the case!

That was a lot of musing and rambling -- thank you so much for letting me know your thoughts about the update 🥺 I'll be answering an ask about flower crowns very soon for you 💕🌿

[coffeecat1983]

A preview: Mario Bros (feat Tony): A Night Out.

This is the 'M' rated version which has drinking, some language and implied sexual content. TW for future, the story will include implied self harm, recreational Marijuana use, slurs, and family fighting as well as coming out and childhood trauma (all part of the main plot).

An alternate timeline to my usual Mario works.

Preview under the cut:

   Returning to his drink, Tony let his mind wander. Just when had he last had a date? One that ended in someone else's bed? Too long, he mused as he tried to recall. That led to him to the only other threesome he had ever been in. A party when he was in his early twenties. Drinks had been plentiful there, too, and he and two others spent the night together. He felt a rush as he remembered what it was like.    Being held down as they explored his body, lips hot with passion touching him all over...    He shivered. He also tried to ignore the voice in the back of his mind screaming that his family would never let him hear the end of it if anyone found out what he was considering. Downing the whiskey, he took another refill and began working on it, giving a look behind him.    Catching his eye, Sebastian gave him a wink, making him whip back around to face the bar. Chugging back the remainder of the drink and allowing the alcohol to silence the doubt, he accepted a final refill and pushed the twenty over, insisting the bartender keep the change. Pulling out his phone, he began to type.    Met someone. Don't worry if I'm not home when you get up. A ping and Arthur's reply popped up.    Eyy go get em you Italian stallion! A soft laugh and he began to type back.    Lil bro you call me that again and Imma shave off your stache while you sleep!    I'd like to see you try! Now shaddap and have fun getting sucked off, ya idiot.    Marie know you got a filthy mouth like that? There was a pause, and another ping.    Just asked. She says she "likes my filthy mouth, it gets the job done". Nell took Bria for the night so scuse me, time to get busy.    A smirk and another laugh.    Have fun lil bro, and happy birthday.    You, too. Be safe.    Be safe. Tony considered this. Better with two people he only half knew than two total strangers, right?

   As he took his glass to the table. Sebastian greeted him warmly and Spike just sat back with a knowing smirk. (scene here will be expanded)

   "There are rules. You get tired, there's a guest room. You don't want to do something, say so, we'll stop. You need anything, just ask."      "I think Tony knows this stuff." Spike said. "Standard orgy rules." he grinned. Sebastian began scolding him in Spanish before catching himself. He cleared his throat before sipping at his drink.      "So, you in?" Spike asked.      "You both know this can't get back to my family. Art would tease the hell out of me for this." he hesitated, his voice dropping. "But Gio, he would kill me." Chugging his drink, Spike set the can down and leaned forward. "What happens in our bed, stays there." he said. "And it's a California King, so, ya know, plenty of room to play."    The thought sent a shiver up Tony's spine, and he was about to agree when Arthur's words came back to him.    Be safe.      "And protection?" Spike and Sebastian looked to each other and Sebastian swirled his drink before sipping at it.      "Your choice. We're both clean, papers to prove it." Tony considered this. "My choice?"      "Anything you like. We," he gestured to Spike, "cater to our guests." Another shiver up Tony's spine as Sebastian ran his foot up and down the side of his leg.    A faint nagging at the back of his mind as Giovanni's voice haunted him.      "Why don't you find a nice girl and settle down? I did, Art did!" Giovanni rubbed at his head with a groan. "I just don't get you, Tony. Next thing you're gonna tell me is you're gay or somethin'."    The look Arthur shot his twin across the dinner table said it all.    'Tell him' Tony just looked away with a weak shrug. "Haven't found anybody, that's all."   Slamming back his still nearly full whiskey, he coughed and put the glass down, hard.

     "You got a deal."

That's it! If interested let me know and I'll be sure to edit up a cut version to post along with the explicit one.

[flowercrowngods]

Hey! Was wondering if you'd had any more thoughts on the bard eddie/secret knight steve AU? It was written so beautifully and includes a really interesting aspect of eddie's character that I don't think a lot of people address in steddie fic - namely that he can be quite narrow minded and assume things about people based on very shallow characteristics.But I think he'd grow really well and make genuine amends once confronted so I'd be so interested to see that in your fic!!!

hi first of all, thank you so much 🥺🥰😭 it's kinda wild to me that it stuck with you all this time the way it did!!

and now, a whole entire month after you sent this ask, i can finally tell you (a whole entire month later) that i do have more bard!eddie x knight!steve thoughts!!!!!

i agree that eddie, so hellbent on defending himself, of defying social norms or expectations, and with all his disdain for The Man, would have many instances of stubbornly but ultimately accidentally wounding or offending people. especially steve.

but i also want him to have his eyes so violently and unmistakably opened. i want him to rethink his picture of his knight and of lord harrington. to connect the two visions, to see lord harrington for who he is. he gets his entire world turned upside down after all, and that sucks. but for his words to have brought only pain to the man he thought himself to be in love with??? that is even worse for him. and he feels guilt for the expression on steve's face. he feels dumb and vain and so, so guilty.

one scene i had in mind while writing part one was steve kinda defending eddie's name and honour, not in a grand gesture, but by out-sassing whoever it is that dares to badmouth eddie. and that's what this is about.

again: part 1 is here

shortly after the end of part 1, eddie is asked to play at a banquet in the castle, and he sort of just. doesn't. robin takes his stead while eddie wallows in misery and guilt and tries to find a way to connect the knight and lord harrington in his head, tries to wrap his head around the whole situation and alleviate the guilt he's feeling. so he doesn't play.

jason carver, who is one of the castle guards or maybe just another knight (by rank, not by skill, bc he's more show-off than fighter and certainly not as interested in propriety and such), bad mouths eddie. says, loudly, that he's glad it's not eddie who's playing tonight but rather someone with an actually good voice and talent etc

and then i want eddie to freeze before getting ready to retaliate, but actually it's steve who talks from behind eddie (eddie hadn't seen him come in... not that he was looking or something).

"such vile words from someone who knows neither talent nor skill himself."

and jason flushes red with anger, knowing there's nothing he can say or do against lord harrington who outranks him in both title and popularity. but steve's not done yet.

"you know, carver, i found myself pondering if upon the arrival of eddie you would find yourself starving for his attention again. and here you are indeed, yearning for his words directed at you, aching for his attention, wishing for him to dedicate one of his songs to you, write one in your honour, in fact. unfortunately you have miscalculated, sir carver, for you are too irrelevant for bardic muse, and too much of a coward for heroic tales."

and steve just smiles at him, aloof and challenging, condescending in that way he has; aware that most everyone at the surrounding tables has their attention firmly on jason and himself, directing their attention away from eddie and instead to carver's burning face and the way he's sputtering for a response.

and i want eddie to look at steve with big, big eyes. and steve to turn away without another word, just returning to chrissy or something (or robin, if she's done with her set/not started yet). and eddie is just. breathless. because he's still connecting lord harrington with his knight, but that undoubtedly was lord harrington in all his aloof, sassy, condescending, competent glory, using it to defend eddie's honour.

and now it's eddie who's yearning. and aching. and just. fucking standing there, frozen to the spot. because steve essentially obliterated any further and future attempts of jason's to hurt eddie's name or reputation, or even just look at him wrong.

and eddie doesn't understand because steve is supposed to hate him.

i want eddie to follow him then, ask him why he did that (or make him be stupid, tell him "you didn't have to do that" or "i had that under control")

only for steve to just soften a little, and say, "jason carver wouldn't know talent if it spit in his face. which is not a suggestion."

and eddie, a little beside himself, laughs. smiles. "you think i have talent, lord harrington?"

"i would be both liar and fool to say otherwise. you have a way with words that has yet to be matched."

and eddie flushes, with excitement and guilt alike, because that very same way with words is what hurt lord harrington. eddie's way with words robbed him of living with his own experiences and nightmares for himself. eddie's way with words exposed the knight's suffering to the world.

and yet here he is. admiring. and eddie just stands there, looking at those eyes that shine in the light of candles and torches like they never shone before. and he loses himself in them for a second, because lord harrington holds his gaze, too. he's looking back. and maybe he sees the guilt, the plea for forgiveness, the admiration and adoration and gratitude.

eddie hopes he does. because the words are lodged in his throat as the world around them fades away and there are only the two of them left.

at least, until lord harrington steps closer, eyes still firmly holding eddie's, and eddie's breath hitches, becuase god, he's so close, he's still coming closer, his lips are–

right beside eddie's ear as he says, "you should not look at me like that. word has it the only thing in my cold heart is disdain for all things beautiful. good night, eddie munson."

and then steve is gone again, returned to his friends and admirers, while eddie just feels like he should run. calm his rapid heart and find the nearest quill, because his fingers are itching to write.

[shimmerbeasts]

I am sure, you all saw my last out-of-character post about how even with my only twenty-thread rule, I still ended up in a situation where I felt overwhelmed. Something, this rule was supposed to prevent. I am realising I have been looking at all this in the wrong way. To put things plainly, I have not been granting myself the same courtesies and kindness, the same compassion, I am constantly giving my rp partners.

I have been running multimuse blogs on Tumblr for pretty much ever. I have never done a single muse blog. You'd think with nine years of experience, I'd be a pro at this by now. Turns out: I keep running into the same problems over and over because of the situation, I am in. Aka I am a student with a lot of free time on her hands, a drive to create and probably some underlining form of perfectionism or at the very least stupidly high standards, even if I never verbalise those.

The first problem, I keep running into, is the fact that I feel to call my blog a multimuse blog of any kind, I need to have a lot of characters. This is a terrible sentiment because it always results in me spreading myself too thin. Furthermore, I think when I entered the League fandom after coming from Arcane, I felt like I needed a few champion muses to really count. I dunno why I thought this. Again, weird perfectionism and high expectations are strange.

Right now, I have that same problem again. Eight muses is simply too much for me to juggle. However, I do not wanna remove them because I bet I will have the temptation of adding characters again later on. Instead, I am going to basically make Naafiri, Yasuo and Kayle "by offer only" muses. This means that while they are still a part of the blog, they are basically invisible and very low focus. Unless I offer them to you to write, they cannot be requested to write with.

Speaking of priority, even the muses whom I will keep writing regularly on this blog - Jinx, Silco, Vi and Ahri - will likely shift in terms of who gets prioritised. Of my three primary muses, Jinx has always been my most loudest, consistent and most developed muse. She is almost like the mascot or insignia of this blog and I am pretty sure if you had to describe me to someone, Jinx would probably be the first character who comes to mind. Therefore, Jinx will be the one who is going to be given the most priority out of all my active muses. As for Vi, Silco and Ahri? I will get to their threads when the muse strikes me.

This brings me to the next problem I kept running into when writing multimuse blogs. My drafts always reached a number eventually that overwhelmed me. Even though the queue helped me, I also got into a bad habit: The idea that I had to post a reply every single day. After all, outside of studying, I had no job. I am on almost every day. In my head, I had no excuse not to post. And because of that, I set myself those ludicrous expectations that I had to constantly write and queue replies to keep the ball rolling. I beat myself up if my queue was too small or I didn't catch up quick enough.

I don't need to tell anybody how this isn't sustainable in the long run. Now more than ever, given that I have a student job, trying to finish my masters, am writing normally again, adding gaming and irregularly drawing as a hobby. I have to remind myself that it is okay if my queue does not post every day, that it is okay if things go slower. I have to remember to be kind to myself. I have to allow myself to take things slower. Including choosing to not rp every day and instead focus on gaming, drawing or fanfic writing. I have to remember that I do not make a mistake if I only write one draft or even none. I have to learn to be kind to myself. It feels like I almost learned this hobby the wrong way, so establishing new habits will be hard. But I am gonna try. I am sick of running into the same problems over and over again.

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

Updates and Announcements

Wow I haven't done one of these in a while so I think it might be best to do one, right?

First and foremost, welcome to the new followers! I haven't had a chance to welcome you guys in some time. But I appreciate you being here! I hope that whatever it was that helped you to decide that I was worth following continues to happen!

Lets talk about a few things. Remember when I said I was going to move all of my 18+ work over to an after dark page? Well that happened forever ago and I NEVER posted on it again. I made pretty banners and everything for my masterlist and nothing came from it. SO after thinking long and hard about it, I will be deleting that blog altogether and moving everything back over here.

But Dom, what about the Minors that follow you? You see, I thought about it. I thought about just deleting the few fics I have and just moving on, but that feels like a lot like book burning and I'd rather not. So while I can put up several warnings and tag the living crap out of that fic, I can't stop them from ignoring all that.

But to ease my conscious a bit, here are some tags that I'll be using for all things of age. #babies not included #18+ #Dom's trash If you are currently under age, I'd greatly appreciate you adding these to your filters! Thanks!

With that being said, fics like Business or Pleasure and What the Future Holds will be added to the Masterlist here. BoP was simply linked to the afterdark page and thankfully I don't have to repost that. Cause I would absolutely hate to lose all those notes. What the Future Holds will need to be reposted since I'll be deleting the blog it's currently attached to.

I'll be adding a legend to my masterlists. That way it's a little easier to figure out what's what before clicking on them. I used to do this in the very beginning but somehow managed to stop. So that will be starting back up again.

Let's talk fics, next! In case you haven't noticed, some fics have a '-discontinued-' notice right next to it. For the time being, I will NOT be completing those fics. Its not that I don't want to finish them-especially with some close to the end-its just i have no motivation to finish them. Maybe one day I will come back to them. ALSO! SEQUELS! Many requests and comments have been about sequels. Second parts don't always get the same attention as the first. I've been so grateful that Phantom has been getting as much interaction as it has been. But that's because of all of the interactions it had been getting. So what I'm getting at is that I won't be continuing a fic if the interaction is low on it. I'm always happy to make a second part of something, so long as its getting notes. So be sure to interact with your favorites if you want to see it get a second part to it.

Interest Posts will be happening at some point again. I of course want you guys to be enjoying the things I post. I know there has been some notice that I've fully been focusing on Phantom a lot more than anything else. It honestly goes back to the interaction it is getting that is fueling my writing muse for it. So again, be sure to interact with the fics you like.

Remember These Violent Delights? As much as I loved Adriana, she didn't seem to be accepted here on tumblr like I hoped she would and I had eventually taken down that series. So now I wanna give that series another shot as a reader insert. I've been working on it a bit behind the scenes and I hope that this fic will have a better comeback as a reader insert than an OC. Posting dates for that will come soon!

Requests are OPEN! So send in those requests! Incase you need a reminder on who and what I write for, here is a quick list!

Fandoms: The Vampire Diaries Universe Marvel Cinematic Universe

Characters I write for: Elijah Mikaelson * Klaus Mikaelson Kol Mikaelson Damon Salvatore Jackson Kenner Tony Stark Loki Steve Rogers Bucky Barnes* I can write for others if the inspiration is there as well! *Indicates most read/requested fics, along with a larger quantity of fics available to read

I believe that is all I have for now. If you stuck around this long, Thank you so much for doing so and I look forward to interacting more with you guys!

[thebeckster]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @emeraldhazeart, thank you so much!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

85 total, across 2 separate accounts and including some ~Secret Works~ (aka Anonymous fics) that aren't listed on my main work count.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,147,857. I have been writing for a very long time and my posts on AO3 go back to my earliest fics from ~2008.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The bulk of my fics are either Star Wars, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, and Rune Factory. But I've been known to dabble in other fandoms when the muse strikes.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Gonna focus on my main account because otherwise I know at least half of the list would be [Redacted] (because ~secret works~)

Wells of Silence (Star Wars)

Aggressive Negotiations (Star Wars)

[Redacted] (Star Wars)

Among Scuttled Ships and Scrap (Star Wars/The Bad Batch)

How Far Ahead The Road Has Gone (The Hobbit)

It comes as absolutely no surprise to me that all of my top 5 fics from from Enormous fandoms

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love responding to comments. If anything just to thank the people who take the time to read and comment on my stuff. But I also love engaging in conversations with readers! I try to respond to every comment, but sometimes I just don't have the time/energy/spoons when it comes in, and then it falls through the swiss cheese holes in my brain and goes unanswered (but never forgotten).

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Maybe it's recency bias, but Fated comes to the top of my mind. Soulmates who spend almost all their lives separated and come together only to be fated to kill each other? The angst was just So Delicious.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh man, a lot of my fluffy oneshots have happy endings. It's tough trying to pick one with the Happiest ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not to my face.

Realistically and statistically I'm fully aware that my writing is not somebody's cup of tea. Just by the numbers I know someone isn't going to like something about my stories. But anyone who is unhappy is at least gracious enough to not be mean to my face or in places where I could find the hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Only once. And I think I overcompensated a lot with angst. Smut isn't why I read or write fanfiction, and while I thought it fit well and was necessary for the one story I wrote it was an interesting exercise. I might include smut in future stories, I don't know, it's not entirely off the table, but I'd probably just stick closer to the M/PG13 cutaways and implications.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. Beyond characters from different installments of a franchise/universe interacting when they don't in canon (which I don't count as a crossover).

The closest I've gotten is doing a Rune Factory Star Wars AU recently for a fun little one shot. But again, it included RF characters in the SW universe, and no SW characters so I'm still not counting that as a true Crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so, no.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I've done other collaborations but never a full co-writing. I think one could be lots of fun though!

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

I don't really have one. I'm a pretty fluid shipper, I'll ship anyone with anyone if it compels me. I have a few comfortable oldies I'll fall back on, but I don't think I could rightly say they're an All Time Favorite.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There's some Really Old WIPs that I kinda abandoned from 10+ years ago that I don't think I'll ever get back to. Part of me never wants to give up hope, but I've moved on from the fandom and the muses and they'll probably stay unfinished for all time.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I do quite well with taking what could be a 'meh' idea and putting an interesting enough spin on it to make it a story worth telling and reading.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sticking to a consistent writing schedule and wrangling my muses long enough to finish long projects. My focus is Very Easily broken and I am super susceptible to distractions and chasing the nest shiny ideas. 😭 rip all my wips i was just gonna take a 'short break' from and it's been like a year or longer since the last update.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Unless I have some confidence in the language, or it's a common enough phrase within the fandom that everyone knows what it means, I won't do it. I might translate choice words or phrases when necessary and appropriate. But I'm not subjecting my readers to google translate dialogue. Anyone who is fluent will know it's a bad translation, and for anyone who isn't I'd have to translate back to english anyways.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If we're going back to before I started really writing fanfiction, but was still doing creative writing in a fandom, it would have been Warriors Cats.

But my first real fanfic was for Jak and Daxter. (And can still be found on my ao3, but oof is it old)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This is a cop out answer, but I genuinely can't pick a favorite. I can find something I love and I'm proud of in every fic I've written. But I'll give into the recency bias and say Tongues & Teeth is still living in my brain rent free even after I wrote it down and posted it.

Tags! No pressure tags, and if I don't tag you and you want to play around, feel free to say I tagged you! @durotoswrites, @thychesters, @lookforanewangle, @aashiyancha, @kindlystrawberry

[flockrest]

munday questions for mumus / @stygicniron, @lunaright, & anonymous

which muse would you say is the most fun to write personally?

heads-up that i may answer some of these with most of my muses in mind, including those not featured on this blog!

as for most fun, is it any surprise that my answer would be tulin! out of all the Little Guys i've actually made a blog for, he's had the advantage of not additionally being an extremely minor or niche character, so levels of engagement from others have been super lovely and crucial in making him the most enjoyable to write! otherwise, toothless from httyd and my wife queen zelda from twilight princess come very close in second place due to being written with close friends in the past.

are there any muses you’ve dropped? if so was there a reason why?

i don't think i've ever consciously dropped a muse? my muses can become inactive ( writing/blogwise ) just because my interests, motivation, and energy are never aligned consistently, but i have yet to write for a character i ended up saying never again to shortly after :)

is there a trend or a specific type of muses you normally tend to pick up?

characterisation and thematic-wise, not really! a majority of my muses are now Little Guys and/or Not Human compared to how i first started out, but it's not like being either of those is a personality trait sldkfjlf the things tying them all together most clearly are that they have all given me the same disgusting amount of brainrot, and i am either extremely unhappy with what their canons have done with them or there is so blissfully little of their canons that i am more than happy to do whatever the heck i want with them!

are there muses that you would like to use more?

i love you tutu, but you gotta give the others here some of the spotlight, seriously lskdfjdkl i'd love to write any of the others on this blog more, but particularly kido! he's my son-boy-lad-baby-darling-child of five years and going! the product of two friends fucking around, but i've run a lot further off with him now that i do get sad thinking about how i can't show this friend ( we are unfortunately no longer in contact ) what i've figured out with him :'D

( thank you to everyone who wants to interact with him btw. you are the realest mvps, i hope you know that )

honestly though, it's kind of my fault for not pushing for anyone other than tuli more, and i understand that minor/more niche characters can be left by the wayside when there's only so much time we all have for this hobby. this is more a case of it is what it is, and i can deal with that! i just hope i'll be able to get more interactions with everyone, not just tulin, as time passes!

which muse has had the biggest change in personality or drastic turns in character development?

good question! maybe rauru? i doubt putting him through several crises in his life doesn't count as drastic turns in development slkfjdlf the only muse i've got who beats him in terms of What Horrors Can Be Inflicted On You would probably be the runaway kid from little nightmares :')

but the one whose organic development surprised me the most is probably kido! he started off as little more than an offshoot of the concept of "collective grief" that i was enabled to taking more seriously, then i really started thinking about his family, and what healing might look like for him, and what it might not look like for him, and before i knew it i had more character thoughts and motivations than i know what to do with?? perks of being a writer ahaha

[ducknotinarow]

[Rise Raph and Rise Casey]

Casey fiddled with his hands slightly, looking up to Raph. Sometimes he forgot how big they were compared to him. With mission done, World saved, and Casey here for, well, forever, it gave time for them to talk. He had dropped the small bombshell before things went to Hell, but now that everything was taken care of? Well, maybe they should actually discuss things,

"Raph?" Casey speaks up, "I, look, if you don't want to call me your son, I'd understand, a-and if you don't want me to call you my dad, I'd get it."

Even if he had been dreaming of this moment since he was a tiny child; dreaming of somehow seeing his dad again,

"But, well, I would like to get to know you?" Casey suggested, "If, you'd want to get to know me?"

| muse interaction

Well, the world was saved now. Raphael was even back with his family, Leo managed to break through his krang brain washing. Outside some minor lasting results for Raph, he was all fine again, they all were. The dust had settled, and their home was saved more importantly though their family was safe. The one thing they always fought for most alone with the safety of others. Course now that family had one more member.

Casey.

Yeah okay sure they had other humans that they had included into their little odd bunch. Like April. But that isn't why Casey stood out well, at least for Raphael. He still had the conversation heavy on his mind right now. He didn't physically need to be holding on to that photo Casey showed to him. The image was burned into mind easily enough. Him in the future war battled, older, but holding a baby all bundled up in blankets. A look in his eyes Raph knew he hadn't worn before. Because that bundle was a baby Casey. His baby. Casey was his son. And well all that was the same Raphael had been rephrasing and repeating those thought a lot because it was well a lot to take in. Having a child was one thought but meeting them?

Raph had noticed that the others got some tidbits of information on their own future selfsame. Leo was so hit shot ninja master, Mikey was a bad ass mystic ninja, and Donnie was the greatest mind the world ever knew. Raph wasn't surprised by any of what they told Gimme from Casey. He could see all that being true. There was a swell of pride in his shell, knowing his brother one day reached their potentials like he always knew they could Never once did something about himself come up and Raph had a feeling he knew why and that added a twist of guilt when it came to Casey. Smiling bright up to Raph it was different from how he looked to Leo. Towards Leo it was looking at somehow he was seeing again, the same for the others. But Raph? Something was just very different.

Likely didn’t help that he near about ran away from the poor kid either jeez Raph. Raphael sighed to himself as he reached up and dragged his fingers down his mask. It was a lot though and Raph’s mind had been swimming trying to work through all these thick foggy, murky thoughts of his he didn’t know where to start. In part he wonder if this was how his pops felt when he suddenly found himself with four turtles in his care.So lost in trying to figure out what to do here he didn’t even noticed Casey make his way over to him now.

"Raph?"

Raph turned to look down to the kid, left to stare back into the trait they shared with the snapper. Bright green eyes. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to show he and Raph were related, he had his eyes. The same bright shade of green enough to get by as human but not many humans had green eyes even like that. unsure how to answer in the moment left to near jump out of his shell. Funny how a small little human seemed to set Raphael of all on edge like this. Unsure what to call them. Name made the most sense..but is he meant to call them something else? Did future him have names for them? oh he was spiraling again instead he just offered a wide smile hoping it be enough, before he started to wonder if he was shown off to much of his teeth in the moment. So he closed it into a tight beak smile. Shit is he even smiling? he forgot how he smiles!?

 "I, look, if you don't want to call me your son, I'd understand, a-and if you don't want me to call you my dad, I'd get it."

What? Raphael felt like his heart was sinking at the mention alone no of course that wasn’t it! Oh jeez Raph great how about telling this poor kid that though?! Why was Raph finding it so hard to find his voice for once, he never been one to get so lost into his mind like this always reacting through smashing before thinking, shouting before being clam and collected.

But then he looked at them again. Sure their family was able to be reunited. Raph saved Leo and got captured, and then they almost lost Leo for good. But they all manged to get back home in one piece. That being the four of them together again. Casey? Casey world was gone. His family was gone. One could argue he still had his family but. Casey didn’t he had familiar faces people he knew but they didn’t know him. In part did Raph ever get to know him much? Sure his world was awful and the result of a major war going on living to survive over just to live like they could. Casey didn’t know anything of this current world hell Pizza was so new to them even. So was everything else, and everyone else.

"But, well, I would like to get to know you?"

Raph slowly moved to sit on his knees so he could better look at Casey. Right now Raph wasn’t look at some random human claiming to be his kid. he was Looking at Leo, Donnie and Mikey. He was looking at himself. Watching how Casey tripped over his words how they played with their fingers how they didn’t know what to do but wanted to still try.

 "If, you'd want to get to know me?"

“What makes ya think I wouldn’ wanna know ya Casey?" Raph offer hand lifting to set his hand on to their shoulder. Letting it hover a moment to make sure that was fine before he finally let his heavy drop on to their shoulder. " imma be honest here I got a bit spooked when ya told me. Aye mean that ain't easy suddenly finding you got a kid to look out for I mean." Yeah now he was really starting to understand his own father in this moment. "but that don't mean anythin' against yous okay? I jus...don't wanna disappointing after all i don't know how I am or was to you as your dad. I might not be the same turtle yet?" Raphael tries to express the best that he can. Unaware of just how little even Casey knew about him. "I mean I wouldn't have told yas to stay with us if I didn' wanna get ta know you." He offers next

Letting eyes fall to the ground now " It can't be easy for yas right now either, I don't wanna add to all you got ta handle...but maybe for now lets just stick to names and figure it out from there?" shifting his gaze back to them to see how they feel about it all. It was like when he was kid again despite having a father Raph found himself in a parental role once more. "but for the record Case, you're wrong I do wanna call ya that." Giving a slight squeeze to their shoulder. "Who wouldn' ? Ya lived through an apocalypse, ate rats, faced the krang and never backed down, heck ya came to a world ya didn't know and stayed focus on ya mission too. Pfft more than I can say for anyone else." Giving a roll of his eyes a moment taking a shot at the others well giving the praise to Casey. "You been facing through so much and yet ya still got guts to keep moving on forward. Who wouldn't wanna know someone 'ike that? 'ike you? And ya say i'm ya dad in the future?" Smile brighten up a little "That's the most amazing bit to me."

He waits a bit once more hit with his thought about this poor kid lost in a world of familiar strangers. "I think you're already pretty cool as is."

[anotherhumanpet]

6, 10, 15

Lets get some NaCl-y on Munday!

6.) Your view on Mary/Gary sues?

Everyone's guilty of having and playing with one. It's part of the process of creativity, and growing up creatively. I'd even argue that more refined creators are still utilizing Mary/Gary Sue aspects into their current creations, but have gotten better at balancing those traits and-or playing them in an enjoyable manner so then it's hardly even noticeable because it only stands out when it's grating.

That being said, I'm at a point in my life where I don't care if someone has one because - again - we all had one at some point. And I don't believe anyone who says otherwise. If anything, I'm more inclined to suspect their current creation is the Mary/Gary Sue and they either don't realize it or won't admit it.

Either way though, the point I'm trying to make is: I'm an adult. I've been around long enough to know what I like, what I vibe with, and what's not for me. People can have their overpowered, overly perfect, loved by all and always correct about everything, always the boss of the situation, always the hero of the crisis, whatevers. I know how not to follow, and how to block when necessary.

10.) Your opinion with ships between muses that include a minor and a legal adult?

I'm going to put this very, very bluntly and try to avoid the nuances of splitting hairs about this. I know where I stand on censorship. I know where my morals are and I trust in my own sense of strength with them. So, with that being said:

Are the writers of the minor muse and the legal-adult muse both legal-adults in real life? If yes, then it's none of my business. If no but they're both minors, then it's still none of my business. If only one of them is, then I'm uncomfortable with the situation and discourage both parties from doing anything that shouldn't be done.

Have both of the writers consented with each other to engage with this type of ship and dynamic? If yes, then it's none of my business. If there's a no in the factor, then they shouldn't go through with it. If someone says no but the other keeps pushing, then the pusher needs to get blocked immediately.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

15.) What is your biggest pet peeve?

I really don't like it when people assume their muse is automatically greater than mine at something without any sort of prior discussion with me about my character's skill-sets, or when a character Knows™ things that shouldn't be Known™.

To elaborate further, I'm not trying to say no muse is ever allowed to be better than my characters or never allowed to beat them at something! What I mean is it's a dick move to go: "Hey, what's your character's skill level at this?" "I haven't really thought about that. I'll need to give it some thought." "Oh, okay. Well, my muse is automatically better than yours at it anyway so it doesn't matter. They're the automatic champ of this."

The other point I hope is self explanatory enough because it's difficult to give examples without drawing from direct examples. But I've had enough of people assuming knowledge about my characters and-or acting cheeky about secretive subject my muses that other characters either shouldn't known or behave so blatantly about as a way to stir up interaction that I drop threads immediately and may even block the other writers for it.

[warwaged-archive]

SHIPPING INFO!

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER?:

I’m always so nervous talking about ships I like I’m kajndfkajndfkjndf

I love all the ships I write, or have discussed more than written aksndfkajnd (Alleria/Willa, Kelantir/Halduron, Thalyssra/Nera, Lor’themar/Airlia with @sunrunnerrs​, Tyrande/Sylv, Nathanos/Sylv with @ladywindrunner​ we also begun exploring lor’themar/sylv and I like it :eyes:, Tyrande/Malfurion and Illidan/Kael with @aen-consilium​ and Alex/Kori with @psychcdelica​ and also Tiffin/Varian with @goldwrynn​ and Myrcella/Robb with @wclfcrown​) but I love some I never got to write too. I like Alleria and Turalyon, I just don’t like how canon does it kajndfkandf Tyrande/Ysera is otp, I like Tyrande/Illidan too and Thalyssra/Liadrin. For my DA characters, I have no ships with any of them currently. I like Morrigan/Warden depending on Warden ofc but like, generally speaking? aiushdiafiduhf but also since we’re here and I’ve already listed some ships that I’m always nervous to mention let’s add one more and say I like Morrigan/Alistair too. I like Velanna/Nathaniel tentatively and am mostly team Velanna/anyone who loves her as she deserves. For my Warden and my Hawke and also Nalice I don’t really have any to list that I particularly like I think. Anyways! none of those is set in stone as I just like that or anything like it, it’s just I find them interesting. But when it comes to writing, it really is more about chemistry to me, and I’ve written ships I wouldn’t have initially thought of before and came to love them dearly after writing them so! 

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO WRITE WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?:

I love angsty relationships, and I love fluff, and I’m willing to write most things. I’m not interested in anything that’s like, uh, strictly abusive, but toxic/problematic relationships are fair game for me. So pretty much anything? 

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?:

Specially considering average human lifespans do not apply to many of my muses, it is more a matter of everyone involved being consenting adults really, with a similar maturity level.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?:

More or less? There has to be chemistry, both in like, writing and the characters as well as with me getting along with the other mun ooc, even if we don`t talk much. I’ll be down for discussing it if we talk ooc a lot even if we haven`t yet written those particular two characters together, and at the same time I`ll be okay with shipping something that happens from something we`re writing even if we don`t really interact ooc much, but if we haven`t interacted at all I won`t really be interested in shipping until we do. I was less selective in the past, I think, but I’m not really super selective even now aisudhuiah it`s really just a matter of interaction, both in character and out of character.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?:

Anything that`s explicit is considered nsfw but I`ll tag anything that`s even suggestive because I prefer to be safe.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?:

I like discussing ships, but not necessarily. I’ve had ships that just happened without prior discussion and that I love dearly and I find developing it through writing and letting it happen very satisfying. But I am up for discussing stuff beforehand if I’m familiar with the mun, and even more so if we already have a ship. I’m 100% fine with anyone asking about a ship if we write together and haven`t shipped yet and you see potential, as long as you do so fully aware no is a possible answer skjdnfkandsf I do prefer to talk to people and write with them before shipping, though. 

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?:

I really love ships tbh! Relationships (and here I’m using the word in the broader sense, not only romantic relationships) are my favorite when it comes to developing characters, and I love writing romantic relationships too. When I get really invested in a ship I can discuss it forever probably kajsndkfjn But I also don’t feel like everything has to be a ship or everyone has to have a romantic relationship to someone else. Some of the best bonds are often platonic, and I get as invested in (or more) platonic ships as I do romantic relationships honestly. I really do like shipping though! I don`t know if I`d say obsessed but I definitely lean more towards that than towards more or less.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?:

Depends on the muse! I default to being multiship, and my ships with @sunrunnerrs​ that are singleship were actually the first time I ever went singleship with anyone, so for that to happen we have to be pretty close ooc. For the most part, I`m multiship but exclusive with one version of a character, so I usually don`t write the same ship with multiple people. Kelantir is singleship with Aera`s Halduron and Thalyssra with Nera, but other than that everyone works like I said before.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?:

Beyond the already mentioned ships, I think Tyrande/Maiev has a lot of potential in a enemies to lovers sort of way; I love Wranduin (thanks Novi and Flower for blessing my dash with good content always); Stellagosa/Valtrois and Lorna/Tess are neat, and hmmm that’s mostly it for WoW. I used to love Rhonin and Vereesa a whole lot back when I begun reading the WoW books too. For DA, I like Leliana/Josie, Mahariel/Tamlen, Carver/Merrill, Merrill/Isabela, Solavellan, hmm I think there’s more? but I don’t remember now? and all the PC romances from DAO and Hawke/Fenris, Hawke/Anders and Hawke/Isabela; I like Cullen and the Inquisitor too. For ASOIAF I’m just tired and not invested enough in the fandom currently to mention any ships kjndkjnfkandfjn 

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?:

Step 1: write with me. Step 2: talk to me. Sometimes ships just happen with Step 1. Lots of times, Step 2 is just as important. It really depends, but it really isn’t hard. I love shipping and I’m always open to discuss ships!

TAGGED BY: @ladywindrunner​

[pupika-samika]

Rewound

What if you could go back in time?

Replay the game from the very start?

What if the characters could hear you?

Replying to your every word?

---

A reader insert SAGAU (Self Aware Genshin Characters) fic including time travel, angst, and (hopefully) emotional trauma for everyone involved!

Fic below the cut

---

Prologue: A Dream?

The Twins Are United At Last

Tyvet Has Been Seen

Replay the game from the very start?

Tyvet Has Been Saved

Tyvet Says Thank You

The Twins Must Leave

To Explore New Worlds

This Is Goodbye

Travelers

Thank You For Playing

Take Care Travelers

The Stars May Shine Over You All

-Mihoyo

That was the ending message. The last thing you'd ever see of the game. Billions around the world had scrambled to finish their playthroughs to watch the very last livestream Mihoyo would ever send- at least for Genshin Impact. Who knows what other games there would be. Like the new addition to Honkai Impact: Guardian Trail

The livestream was bittersweet. Every character was showcased. From all of Mondstat to all of Khaenri'ah, including every dead character being featured. All the voice actors had been gathered and gave their farewells, each leaving with a heartfelt message.

At the end of the livestream the devs of the game made an appearance.

"Due to popular demand, the game will still run after you finish but there will be no new content. Events will be rerun and no new world quests, hangouts or characters will occur. You can continue on your current account or have a fresh start. We thank you for play Genshin Impact. Goodbye Genshin Impact and goodbye Travelers."

And then it cut to black. One last Goodbye flashed on the screen before the stream died, leaving billions devastated yet content. I was among those billions. Years spent playing the game, investing in characters and equipment. And now we've reached the end. Lumine and Aether had finally been reunited and were headed to their next adventure.

I let out a sigh and leaned heavily against my chair, staring at the Goodbye and reading it over and over again until it didn't even look like a word anymore. I should get up soon. I had chores to do. I wasn't a teenager with no responsibility anymore. There were dishes that needed to be washed, clothes that needed to be cleaned. Just as I was about to get up from my desk a ding rang out from my computer.

I debated on if I should open it. If I did, who knows how long I'd push back being responsible. But if I didn't, the curiosity would eat me alive…

Against my better judgement I looked to see where the ding came from. After a bit of looking I came to the Genshin launcher, which showed a picture of the twins in a white flower field, waving goodbye to the camera with serene smiles on their faces. Though the image was obstructed with a window that said [Start over from the beginning?]

"Start over? Maybe Mihoyo thought some people would rather restart their account than make a new one? Maybe restarting gives some extra benefits?" I mused out loud as my mouse hovered over the [Accept] box. Right before I pressed it I glanced at the clock, seeing how late it was getting. "I'll restart and get started on those chores. I'll check it out when I'm done."

Little did I know, those would be the last words I said. At least in this timeline.

After I pressed [Accept] it felt like time stopped. Everything went still. The quiet buzzing of the AC stopped, the gentle squeaks of my guinea pigs ceased, the faint chatter from outside halted. Even the acanio upstairs stopped playing his music- it was impossible to get him to stop playing without a police visitation. I froze, unsure what to do before the world slowly started going black. I tried holding onto my consciousness but it was a futile effort.

The next time I opened my eyes something was different. No- even before my eyes opened I knew something was different. My bed was much more uncomfortable than it's ever been, it almost felt like back when I was a teenager and like hard mattresses. There were no stuffed animals smothering me and I swear I could feel a dog curled up next to me. Which should be impossible as the last time I had a dog was when I was a teenager. Which I am not.

When I opened my eyes I had to blink harder. I couldn't see any! The world was blurry and too out of focus. I haven't had to deal with this since I turned twenty three and got corrective eye surgery. Which was four years ago.

Was… was it all a dream? Were the last eleven years of my life… a dream? Everything I worked for? Everything I did? Did it not matter? Did I just imagine it? Did clicking that stupid accept button wake me up?

I rolled onto my back, disturbing the dog next to me, and covered my eyes with my arm, hiding the slowly building tears that had started to gather. "Fucking hell... I think I made a mistake." I whispered out, wincing at how high pitched my voice was. Would my voice become as deep as it was in my dream? Or would it get more annoying?

"(Y/N)! Wake up! Breakfast is ready!" I heard my mom yell from down the hall.

I slowly lowered my arm and let it rest over my stomach, staring up at the ceiling. Tears slowly clouded my vision, making my already blurry vision even worse. I wiped my eyes, hoping the unwanted liquid was the only reason I couldn't see. After trying to focus on seeing clearly I gave up, looking over to the messy blob or brown fur. "How long was I asleep Fox? It definitely felt like years. And I'm not even well rested."

The dog only rolled over, letting me pet her stomach. Despite not wanting to get out of bed I knew I had to get up at some point, least my mom comes in my room to drag me out herself. I wonder if anything from my dream will come true.

Archive Next->

[klm-zoflorr]

Why It Is Bad That We Never See Mai or Ty Lee in the Comics Deal With Their Imperialist Past

How come we never see Mai or Ty Lee deal with their imperialist past in the comics? For yeah comics!Azula is a horrible person and it is implied that Azula was never friends with Mai & Ty Lee, who where coerced subjects trying to keep their mad sovereigns (Azulon, Ozai, & Azula) happy. But I find it odd that neither no one in-universe or the narrative challenges them for their past. Like Zuko, Iroh, Piandao, Jeong Jeong, and Chey all had to confront their imperialist past before redeeming themselves despite having as good an argument, if not better, that they were being coerced or faced life threatening consequences if they didn’t comply. So what makes Mai or Ty Lee different any different? And before people say they went to prison, it was for committing treason against the Fire Nation/attacking their Princess; not for realizing the error of their ways and wanting to change.

Though in Ty Lee’s case she did say she did join the Kyoshi Warriors in order to fix a broken world in the Sisters comic so maybe Ty Lee did confront her past. But I wish we saw her time in prison so we saw her change considering she enthusiastically fought against the Kyoshi Warriors & The Gaang and mocked the Kyoshi Warriors’ style, not knowing or caring for the reason behind their makeup or dress.

However comics!Mai really hasn’t really done anything…in fact she kept from Zuko and The Gaang the fact that her father was leading the New Ozai Society until Zuko almost got killed (and was only saved by PIS and a last minute unexpected heel-face turn) and The Fire Warriors were able to kidnap around a dozen kids, including Mai’s own brother and Azula/Zuko’s half sister. And even more galling, when confronted for her treason, she has the gall tell an understandably angry Zuko that he of all people should understand how hard it is to betray your father. As if there wasn’t a difference between betraying the all powerful ruler of your country who has a cult of personality, has burned you before, can quickly fire off lethal amounts of lighting on command, and has said before he wanted to kill you versus betraying your mentally and physically weak father who rejected being integrated into the new government and seeks to put someone back in power who would likely kill you for committing treason against him.

On a sidenote, isn’t crazy that Zuko then quickly apologized and the story never brought up the topic of Mai’s treason ever again?

But getting back on track, are we being unreasonable in asking that Mai and Ty Lee confront their past or if they already did, that we actually see it on page/screen? Especially since the message sent by them not doing so is that if you turn at almost the last point possible, the people you have wronged repeatedly and the world community will instantly forgive you despite constantly engaging in imperialism (ex. fighting against the rebels in Omashu, jailing and impersonating The Kyoshi Warriors), let alone helping commit one of the biggest acts of imperialism in history (helping Azula take over Ba Sing Se)?

Also on a sidenote, I do have an on-going series where I post my thoughts on the Avatar series (this is where this post came from) so feel free to read the rest of them and comment on them.

-----------

I absolutely agree, Anon. I also think Avatar does have a huge problem with putting people into "boxes", like the Good Guys: Zuko, Aang, Katara, Iroh, Ty Lee, Mai, Ursa, even Azulon somehow who can NEVER do or ever did anything wrong (even tho anyone with even a piece of a critical mind knows they did and are flawed human beings) and the Bad Guys: Azula, Zhao, Ozai who are entirely bad and never did anything right and are basically souless emotionless demons.

"it is implied that Azula was never friends with Mai & Ty Lee"

Tbh I feel like this point was a retcon. In the show we see Azula genuinely likes them (hugging Ty Lee, apologising to her, setting Mai up with Zuko, playing with them as kids, being genuinely hurt when they betray her) and I'd be strongly tempted to say they did too. That might just be my interpretation but I feel like Mai really was awfully bored in Omashu and she was happy Azula came to give her something to do. Same for Ty Lee, she looked happy when Azula came at the circus (before she started threatening her), and when they were playing as kids. And I don't think her constant compliments were 100% genuine, of course, she's smarter than this, but I don't believe she was completely lying to her either.

Imo, they were friends, it was just so much complicated by Azula being their commander, war, and living in an imperialistic nation.

The comics (and the last episode of the show too) don't care about that, of course. The narrative they propose is just "Mai and Ty Lee always hated and feared Azula, they had to do everything she told them and so they never have to face any consequences" even tho we know Zuko, who was actually in that situation, had to face consequences for his.

Also, Mai is a perfect New Ozai Society supporter if I've ever seen one. I'm gonna start headcanoning her as a legit villain who consciously manipulated her way to avoid consequences for her actions thanks to being the Firelord's gf and her "treason", it's fun.

«The message sent is that if you turn at almost the last point possible, the people you have wronged repeatedly will instantly forgive you.»

Preach it! Ironically enough, last-minute traitors are often forgiven injustly in real-life wars even tho they might be objectively terrible people, but I don't think the comics writers were aiming to explore this particular subject xD

[fruitcoops]

Heyy, if you're still taking prompts I'd love to read #4 & #10 from the Physical Affection list?🥰❤️

Thank you for suggesting this!! I haven’t written a holiday fic yet or much with the Lupin family, but they’re the absolute best. Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

Prompt 4: A hug after not seeing someone for a long time

Prompt 10: Lifting someone up out of excitement

“Do you see them yet?” Remus asked, standing on his tiptoes even though he was a good three inches taller than most of the airport patrons milling around.

Sirius laughed and squeezed his hand. “Stop it, you’re going to get a crick in your neck.”

Remus rolled his eyes and transitioned to tapping out a random rhythm on the back of Sirius’ hand. “I don’t know why I’m nervous. We turned the oven off, right? The dog is fine?”

“Hattie is safe with Reg and we haven’t used the oven in three days, sweetheart. There is nothing to worry about.” Despite his assurances, butterflies had been building in Sirius’ stomach since that morning; he was excited, but family situations still made him a little anxious.

Remus inhaled sharply. “I see them. They’re by the baggage claim, look.”

Sirius squinted through the throngs of people and followed Remus’ line of sight—sure enough, all three Lupins were watching the suitcases roll past. Julian was bouncing on his toes and tugging on Hope’s sleeve, Sirius noted with a small smile. “Are we going to go over or are we going to stand here until they see us?”

“Until they see us…” A wicked grin spread over Remus’ face. “I have an idea. Be very quiet, okay?”

Over the year and loose change they had been dating, Sirius had learned one undeniable rule: do not doubt Remus Lupin. He stayed very, very quiet as they slipped through the crowd toward the baggage claim.

Hope saw them first, her whole face lighting up. She went to wave to them, only for Remus to press his finger to his lips and point to Julian, who still had his back turned. Her mischief face was frighteningly similar to her oldest son’s as she looked back down and nodded along to whatever Julian was saying.

In two long, silent strides, Remus closed the final distance and grabbed his little brother around the waist, hefting him into the air. “Gotcha!”

Julian shrieked loud enough for several people to turn and look at them. “What the—Remus?!”

“Hey, buddy!” Remus swung him back and forth with a laugh, and the shout of surprise became uncontrollable giggles.

“You scared me!”

“Yeah, that was the whole point.” He was still laughing when he set Julian down, who immediately whirled around and punched him in the side before throwing himself back into his arms for a hug. “Woah, you’re getting big!”

“I missed you, Re,” he mumbled into his neck, squeezing tightly.

Remus’ face softened and he closed his eyes with a low hum. “I missed you too, Jules.”

“Mom said we couldn’t come to your games because I had homework but—hi, Sirius!” A huge smile split his face and he started squirming out of Remus’ hold, accidentally kneeing him in the thigh as he hit the ground again. In a flurry of motion, Sirius found himself with two arms full of an excited ten-year-old.

“Hey, Jules, how’ve you been?”

“You’re getting married?”

“Uh, yeah,” he laughed, glancing over at Remus, who was still rubbing his thigh and wincing.

“To my brother?”

“I hope so.”

“You didn’t ask my permission first!”

“He’s the one who proposed!”

Jules gave him a suspicious look. Behind him, his parents were shaking with quiet laughter. “Hmm. Remus?”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“Did you ask Regulus for his permission?”

“Uh, no.”

“Why not?”

“It didn’t really cross my mind…” he trailed off and looked to Hope and Lyall. “Should I have done that? Isn’t it a little outdated?”

Hope thought for a moment. “Who’s going to figure out Sirius’ dowry?”

“I’m worth at least three cows,” Sirius added, setting Jules down carefully. “Maybe a handful of chickens, too.”

“Well, sh—shoot.” Remus caught himself quickly. “Where am I going to find some of those on short notice?”

“Nice save,” Lyall said drily. “Can you two help us find our bags? These things take forever and I’m looking forward to a shower.”

“Oh, Jules, there’s a surprise for you at home,” Remus said. “I almost forgot about it.”

Jules’ eyes went wide. “What is it?”

“Can’t tell you, it’s a surprise.”

“You’re the worst.”

“No, you.”

“No, you.”

“No, you.”

“Boys,” Hope warned as she hauled a Lions backpack off the conveyor belt and handed it to Jules.

“Sorry,” they chorused. Sirius met her eyes and smiled.

“Hey, Re, will you give me a piggyback ride?” Jules asked as they walked toward the exit.

“You’re a healthy kid.”

“You’re a professional hockey player and my big brother,” Jules reminded him with a dramatic eye roll. “It’s your job.”

“Since when is carting around children part of hockey?” Remus asked even as he bent down, looking up at Sirius. “Babe, did they change the rules?”

“Yep,” Jules piped up before Sirius could answer.

Remus looked at him over his shoulder. “Last I checked, I don’t call you ‘babe’.”

“Ewwww.” Jules wrinkled his nose. “You guys are gross. Hey, do I get my own room?”

“Yeah, we’ve got plenty of space.” Sirius held the door to the parking lot open and Hope kissed his cheek. “You get to choose.”

“Where’s your room, Re?” Jules adjusted his bulging backpack and Remus grimaced at the weight imbalance.

“Uh, Sirius and I share a room.”

And itchy flush crept up the back of Sirius’ neck as Lyall’s eyes immediately zeroed in on him. Don’t look, don’t look, no eye contact, keep walking. In his periphery, he saw Hope raise her eyebrows at Remus until his cheeks turned pink. “How long has that been happening?” she asked.

“…Six months?” Remus replied weakly as Sirius unlocked the car and popped the trunk. Hope hummed cryptically, but winked at Sirius when he opened her car door for her.

The drive home was loud to say the least; the Lupins hadn’t visited for more than two months due to scheduling conflicts and they had a lot to catch up on, including the engagement. When they finally reached the house, Hope gasped softly. “Oh, it’s lovely.”

“Excellent work,” Lyall agreed, standing back a bit to admire the lights while Remus helped Jules sling his backpack on again. “Looks like a proper home now.”

“Thanks, dad.” Remus led the group up the front stairs and opened the door. “We’re home!”

Puppy claws clattered on the floor as Hattie barreled around the corner, making a beeline for Jules. One day of sticky fingers and he’s her favorite, Sirius mused as they rolled around in a pile of excitement.

Regulus appeared a few seconds later, his footsteps soft and cautious as he leaned on the wall. Sirius raised an eyebrow at him in a silent question—everything okay?—and received a slight nod in response. “Regulus!” Jules practically shouted, untangling himself from Hattie to launch himself at his legs.

“Hey, kiddo.” The baffled acceptance on Regulus’ face while he ruffled Jules’ hair nearly made Sirius laugh aloud. He had come so far since the stiff, unsure hugs at the beginning, but his total shock at the kid’s enthusiasm was just too funny. “How have you been?”

“Is this the surprise?” Jules demanded instead, turning slightly to look at the rest of them.

“Ta-da!” Remus managed, barely biting back a smile.

“A surprise?” Regulus asked. “What?”

“This is the BEST surprise.” Jules squeezed him around the legs and then thundered up the stairs with Hattie hot on his heels, nearly tripping and falling onto his face more than once.

“Do you want some water?” Sirius asked, taking Hope’s suitcase for her as Remus hung their coats in the closet. “Or food, or…anything?”

Why are you being awkward? The little voice in his head screeched. You know them! You’re marrying their son! “Water sounds wonderful,” Hope said. “Is the kitchen in the same place as before?”

His nervous tension eased a bit after that; this was not the first time they had been to the house, and both seemed to think their simple decorations looked nice. Remus slipped his hand into his and knocked their shoulders together. It’s okay, he mouthed as they followed his parents into the kitchen. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. The holidays would be happy and relaxing this year, and Sirius would be surrounded by the people he loved. The people who loved him. There was nothing to worry about.

[antirepurp]

When you're making the "rough draft" of your fics, do you usually do most of it all in one go, or do you chip away at it?

kind of both? like when i write the rough flow of things down i usually do it in one or two sittings, something like that, but actually figuring out the flow and sorting it out in my head is more of a chip job if you will aksjdads. most of the time tho i start by making a note on my phone that i keep slapping things i'd like to write about in the given context, or events that could happen in the story, or problems that would arise with me introducing specific elements, and then just. think about them aggressively a whole bunch? i like musing about things and headworlds and shit in the evenings and that's where a lot of that construction happens. and if needed i'll later write the notes again on the computer to order them chronologically and point where they fit in the midst of the (possible) canon narrative im working with, and add other notes in between to remind myself to check the source material for xyz reasons or that hey you mentioned a thing in a previous chapter and this would be the time to bring it up again. i didn't do the latter step with stranger in morioh/his world tho since they were mostly about the in-between bits and i had the part4/3 narratives fresh-enough in mind anyway (or i just looked up the order of things from the wiki lol)

i put some notes i made for his world under the cut bc i thought those maybe show what i mean better and also i went through the trouble of getting them on the compuper anyway so i might as well share them akjshdas

^ iirc most of these may have been written before i watched the anime again or maybe when i was in the earlier episodes? and most of them didn't end up making it in at least in these forms, but i did work off of them

^ you can probably point out which ones of these i wrote while watching the anime lol. some of them i also picked from the shit i scattered around in stranger in morioh that also just didn't end up addressed bc there wasn't enough to work with, like the vending machine shit. and some were less a "write a chapter about this" and more "this could be a recurring theme" kind of deals

^ the first ones aren't of course chronological and i probably didn't intend them as such anyway. dio's world actually had its own note entirely but that was also me outlining the OVA more or less and picking up interesting things about it/writing down things to put into it than anything? and then things i could've included in the epilogue, half of which went unused bc they weren't enough to work with or wouldn't have worked in the final version of the timeline anyway

in the end i mostly just picked what i saw fitting for each chapter that i didn't have a predetermined purpose for, and also i think i might've done a thing where i copypasted the shit i did use into a separate paragraph in the order i used them to keep track of what i had already included in a chapter? also idk if any of this really answers the question i might be on a tangent again adshjkas