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tacharie · 2 months

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Thoughts for The Montkraken Episode

so, I just finished the chapter and… wow I have a lot to say. I took screen shots for every part I wanted to talk about and I think this rant will be SUPERRRR long so bear with me. Tumblr won’t let me add screenshots so when I have better service I’ll edit the post to add them. These paragraphs are theories and side notes that I wrote after reading a certain section so you’re gonna see my thought process throughout the story. As always, spoilers ahead so I recommend skipping this if you haven’t read it already.

Alright so I was once a hater of this ship BUT… the Shobaru shippers may have a point in this guys 😭. LIKE.. I HAVE THE SCREENSHOT OF SUBARU BLUSHING UHHH. That is not a heterosexual stare feller 🤨…

AHHHHHHH THE FROSTHEIM DUO ARE BACKKKKK!!! I missed them so so much they’re so silly and deserve the best. Honestly the only two I trust in this school cause I CANT. I literally suspect anyone but them, but Imma be so disappointed if either of them are hiding something. I’ll be sad, but like I’ll help 🙄. I was actually so sad when the MC mentioned being the reason they could be in danger like GIRLLLLL DONT SAY THAT PLEASEEEEE. ITS LIKE THE ANGST WITH ADEUCE AND YUU LIKE STAWPOPP. Also when the Vagastorm kids were like “aw yeah Mido wouldn’t lie like that” it makes me happy that people can at least trust him enough to be honest and idk I found that kinda sweet :3. We’re also getting a bit of a timeline, like the One-Eyed Sleeping Beauty Murder being BEFORE the clash (sorry if this was already mentioned I don’t really remember stuff from the past chapters) which could’ve been a trigger.

Also, I feel like they’re trying to tell us that Jiro is Zenji’s brother because when he had that little laugh about the MC being scared of bodies, he said too. When you click the “too?” option, he just says that he isn’t the one afraid. It’s not Yuri as well cause he’s literally a doctor that is in the same room when autopsies are in session. Whatever the case, I assume he was referencing to Zenji, though it being a blurry memory. Little theory tho.

OK SO THIS IS JUST SO FUNNY TO ME. In Chapter 9’s title it says, “Girl Learns Shocking Truth About Monster”. I like to think the shocking truth was the fact he didn’t shower for 3 days 😭. CAUSE THATS THE PART SHE SOUNDS MOST SHOCKED. Idk that part was silly to me. THEY’RE OUTFITS FOR THEIR DORM IS SOOOOOO PRETTY. They ate I fear, a bit more than the other dorms. Also side note, they dropped A LOT of info with just how they word things. For example, Yuri saying “Jiro, you are well aware that I will not be associated with those germs AGAIN.” Soooo Yuri was in Frostheim? I don’t doubt it bc there’s another line that says “I’d rather not recall how bitterly cold that place is” which can MEAN TWO THINGS. I’m super sure that they’re implying that yeah, he was, but then something happened blah blah blah.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH HYDE AND DANTE??? Like ok bitches, spill your shot to us too don’t be shy. So, confirmed by them, Dante and Hyde used to go to school in Darkwick (which I assume the rest of the teachers are too). That explains their back and forth. WHAT REALLY CAUGHT MY EYE WERE THESE LINES.

Hyde: “…You really are a softie, Dan-Dan.” (Haha Dan- Dan)

Dante: “It would seem that way to someone as cold as you.” (???) “…There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, Hyde.”

Hyde: “…I’ll keep that in mind.”

WHATTTTT. WHAT ARE THE LINES. GO IN DETAIL ARGHHHHH. This gives us more info on the character individually too. Dante describes Hyde as cold… DANTE. So, it was obvious that this whole happy go lucky attitude was fake, but I expected to be more like Haru’s kind of attitude not like that yk?? now I know how much of a cash grab this game is, but I really hope they aren’t going to stretch the story out too long to the point where you have to P2W cause I haven’t paid a cent and I don’t plan to. I still want to learn more about them and stuff so :(. On the topic of Dante, there was a small flashback where I missed a word in the sentence that Dante said while talking with Alan. “I’m the man you supposedly killed.” Supposedly?? Now, I didn’t my catch this in my first run, but now it’s like wdym supposedly?? Shouldn’t you know? This is giving hella Jiro vibes and honestly, I’m getting sick and tired of these characters having a bad memory.

SPEAKING OF JIRO- he seems to have problems remembering things and they come back to him in the very weird moments (honestly a kin moment). I would like the think that he’s just suffering from the damages he had to go through from the clash. His relationship with Yuri is so… sad to me. Yuri seems to doubt him a little bit and I feel like he sees him as just a specimen, not much of a friend. Meanwhile, Jiro smiles a lot to Yuri and listens to him like a master, like that’s what he’s supposed to do. NOT AGAINST HIS OWN WILL DONT GET ME WRONG. He’s just so neutral about it it makes me a bit like awwww :(. They’re cute tho idrc.

Ok moving on to Haku and Tohma. (Ok at this point I’m getting nervous cause why are we seeing so many characters now. That’s probably just a coincidence). OK THESE TWO HAVE GOT IT GOING. Like there’s tension when you get their chat in the campus but this is like woahhhh… Also I don’t like how Tohma says “our wheelhouse? I see..” it makes me think he’s like implying “so you think you’re a part of them now?” IDK THATS JUST MY LITTLE STRETCH. Also poor Zenji, he’s like “aw yeah I died in vain lol” LIKE OUCH.

Nicholas. I DO NOT LIKE HIM. I REPEAT. I DO NOT LIKE HIM FOR A MINUTE OF A SECOND. The only staff I like are the cats, the grocer guy, and MAYBE Dante. LIKE HES SO… NORMAL?? LIKE THERE’S SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON IK THERE IS. When MC says “I can’t believe Professor Nicolas would do something like that” I DO 😡🙋‍♀️. I am in full support of Yuri finding crimes against this guy.

Also, little other side note, I just realized that Yuri and Jiro have matching earring in opposite ears. It’s so cute.

Ok I might have to go back to the beginning and see what the “goat like anomaly” Jiro is talking about when he mentions the prophecy, cause I said “… the chancellor is a goat??” BUT ANYWAYS. Speaking of the prophecy, I’ll jot it down.

“The whisper of the new moon shall lead the champion to the academy on the solitary island. So long as the champion resides there, the world shall be sheltered from profound tragedy.”

Stating the obvious here, but this is most likely referencing to the last cutscenes we get when we choose our characters. I’ve checked the cutscenes again and there’s no visible moon, meaning it could correlate to the “new moon” portion. (Search up new moon to see what I mean). Assuming Solitary island means death, that would also help with the theory. So, whoever we chose in the beginning might just be the person who won the Laurel Crown.Honestly, this is just a silly little Drabble for a theory and VERY vague. Maybe the champion resides in the events of the past that we still don’t know about but this kinda helps?? Idk I’m just putting what I think at the moment. I’ll probably reread the game so I can get a better timeline. Also, Yuri’s rant about demon particles… doesn’t exactly sit right with me. Were they chosen to be resilient or was it just a birth thing?? Idk but I feel like a lot is missing from his theory. I mean, we’re using human logic to a supernatural cause so I don’t think pacts acting as allergies would work. If they’re not chosen, could it be that the ghouls can make pacts with more than one demon? I wanna see what happens if that was the case. Please comment if I missed something 😭.

Ok Towa appeared. (Why are we seeing so many characters I don’t like this) and we went back to that tree… WHAT IS THAT TREE?? And what the hell do you mean the fruit grew? What is that fruit supposed to be? An anomaly going to birth?? Is it supposed to represent the houses?? Motivation?? It seems so weird to me cause we just got introduced to that tree last episode. Sighs.

OK REN AND RITSU. WHAT IS GOING ON. I GUESS SINCE THIS IS THE LADT CHAPTER FOR INTRODUCING CHARACTERS BUT LIKE … STOP. I feel like something is going to happen with the MC pls 😭. Anyway, those two talking about ramen is so cute please don’t ever change you virgin and lizard looking freak 🫶( with love of course). GROCER GUYYYYYYY. YIPPEE :3!! I love that the cat is the owner and not the human lmao.

Also I will always be a MC defender cause she is so relatable. “Why are hospitals so creepy at night?” GIRL IKKKKKK. Idc what y’all say, the fact that she’s normal is keeping me sane from these freaky deaky events. ILOVE NORMAL CHARACTERS! LIKE MATSUDA FROM DEATH NOTE OR THAT ONE GUY FROM MASHELE. Anyways, I love her little comments and everything she’s so silly. Idrc if she doesn’t have much of a backbone cause honestly, she’s surrounded by danger so the best she should do is listen to the people that are constantly surrounded by it.

ALSO NEW THING. (Well idk if it’s new but yeah).

mention of a Dionysia Breakout. <—— Idk what that is, but it sounds like a little more. I love little details and slip ups thanks characters <3!!

HA! HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA! I WIN NICOLAS 😈!!! YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE. AND I WILL FIND IT TRUST YOU WILL BE DELT WITH. I WILL KNOW THE PRIOR PAST >:(!! Also, Moby is being soooo annoying tbh. More character descriptions to add: competitive as a teacher. NO ONE WILL MAKE YOU HATE YOU JIRO ‼️‼️‼️ HES SO SWEET He literally asks if we’re scared and says we can hang back awwww. Though he doesn’t understand much, he can use logic and he can at least understand how we feel. It’s a nice sentiment :)!

I can’t take the transformation seriously I’m sorry. I’m still impressed by Yuri’s deductive skills and the transformation just sounded like he was constipated.

THE WHOLE BATTLE SCENE WAS EPIC!! MC HESITATING BECAUSE OF LEOS WORDS BUT STILL PUSHING FORWARD. YURI GETTING FLUSTERED. JIRO SMILING AND TRUSTING YURI’S ORDERS. THE FUNNY EXCHANGE ABOUT MUSCLE WHEN THEY WERE CARRYING THE POD. Those annoying ass pussy sticks we call Darkwick students 😡. JIRO LOOKING BADASS AFTER THE SHOT. URGHHHH I LOVE THIS CHAPTER.

HARU AND PEEKABOOOOO!! AHHHHH IM SO HAPPY I SEE THEM AGAIN!! I’m so glad he’s going to Hyde too cause I’m not ready. Also… the mermaid thing is so weird. For the Montkraken Mermaid, they seem to refer to it as “it” or “that mermaid”, but when they speak of the second mermaid, they use personal pronouns like “he /him”. Haru’s expression as well when he heard someone was abusing mermaid flesh… it’s a new one with a little crease under his eye. It’s such a sad face like, did he know this mermaid personally or was this fear?? Either way, I wanna meet him cause the other one was so pretty.

…You guys know the “I see who you are… you are my enemy” sound that’s on TikTok or reels or wtv? YEAH THATS SONG WAS PLAYING IN MY HEAD WHEN HYDE SAID WE HAD TO DO A SPEECH. HYDE IM IN YOUR WALLS. URGHHHH I HATE HIMMMMM. Call to action my ass IK either Taiga or Leo are gonna get their asses out of the door after the speech. OR BOTH. I’m starting to tweak.

NOOOOO THE SPEECH IS THE NEXT CHAPTER?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I feel so bad for Zenji… like I’m so deadass. Dude he sounds so sad about how he’s dead it’s so.. URGHHHH. ALSO I CALLED IT. THEY ARE BROTHERS. AHAHHAHA!! Well it was kinda obvious cause everyone thought it too but WOMP WOMP. Also I love his real name, Taro Kirisaki. It’s pretty :)!! But these lines killed me

“and though I have taken my final blow, my brotherly heart can’t help but worry for my kin. … Not that he has any idea I’m still around.” YEOUCH?? I DIDNT COME TO CRY BRO…

I’m tweaking out because of this speech bro. I’m gonna choose the corniest stuff and hope for the best. “I feel bad please stop for me 🥺” headass.

Taiga is officially my enemy as well. I called that shit about him leaving URGH. WHAT A FLIBBERTYJIBBET!! His outfit eats tho so it balances out. LIKE DAMNNNN. HE LOOKS SO GOOD.

DOUBLE?? TRIPLE??? QUINTUPLE???? HELL I MIGHT BECOME A GHOUL TO GET THAT MONEY GOLLY 😍😍😍!! CAUSE IN THIS ECONOMY??Also thanks Jin you a real one twin. Bouta split this cash with my wife and I’ll send you a wedding invite.

EDWARD. ED PLEASE. STOP PUTTING ME IN THE SPOTLIGHT… well it’s out now so woopy!! I really wonder what the others have to say about that cause they just gave really vague surprised reactions. Well, Ritsu documented it. I love that little guy please don’t ever change you silly.

NUMBER ONE CORNELIUS HATER IDC. Unless I know your intentions I DONT CAREEEEE. YOU ARE AN OPP IT IS ON SIGHT WITH YOU. SAME WITH YOU NICOLAS!! “I didn’t know whether to tell you or not I’m sowwy 🥺” CHUPA MI PITO HOE 😡.

… you’re telling me I didn’t have to do that awful speech because DANTE AGREED?? IM DONE. IM WHOOPING EVERYONE IN THE ROOM AND AURING THE PLACE OUT. FIRST ONES OUT ARE HYDE FOR NOT TELLING ME, NICOLAS, AND CORNELIUS. ARGHHHHHHH. Also, dude, who is that Janitor guy like seriously.

ROMEO??? AND HYDE???? WHAT IS THIS ABOUT BUTTERCUP?? Wdym worked for him?? What is going on… SPECIAL MISSION??? SHO??? OH NAW. I CANT TRUST NOBODY ANYMORE 😭

Towa crying :(. What does the fruit shrinking have to do with it now?? I’m so confused.

ALRIGHT IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END WOW YOU HAVE DEDICATION. Yeah this is my personal yap session to this chapter and it’s so URGH. I’m so excited to see the next chapter and I hope we get to see more and more. Now with the Gala in place, we can finally start WORKING. Based on the timeline, we have about … 8 months left?? So hopefully, for MC’s sake, she gets cured. BYE BYE UNTIL NEXT EPISODE!!

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andreafmn · 1 year

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Speak | Chapter 9

Word Count: 3.6K Story Description: Bella Swan was a disaster when Edward had left. Deciding she needed a little help, Charlie Swan receives with open arms his younger daughter (Y/N) Swan. She helps Bella during her depression and becomes inseparable from her long-lost friend Jacob. What she didn’t expect was falling for a hotheaded short-tempered silver wolf. Chapter: 9/? A/N: one day I'll upload early, y'all. but I am truly trying to keep to the schedule I posted, as hard as it is. But thank you for bearing with me. You guys have no idea how much it means to me 🥰🤍 My content will always be free, but if you’re feeling particularly generous, you can leave a tip on any of my posts to support me and my love of writing or buy me a coffee TikTok • Instagram • Business | MASTERLIST If you’d like to be tagged in this or any other story: click here Make sure you have my notifications on so you know every time I post! Taglists for Twilight get filled quick and Tumblr only lets me tag up to a certain point. Notifications are your best bet.

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Chapter 9

The Swan sisters had been raised with a misconstrued idea that the new year meant a fresh start, a clean slate. That it could magically erase any and all afflictions the year before had caused. That it truly was the first page of a new chapter.

And maybe that’s all that (Y/N) was hoping for that New Year’s Eve. That the coming year would be the first page of her new chapter in Forks. That whatever was happening with Paul would die that December night. That Bella would finally turn over a new leaf and forget Edward. That she could move forward with her relationship with Jake.

Because that’s what she wanted.

That’s what she had always wanted.

The thing she most needed was to get over whatever fluke it was that had made its way into her life. Whatever breach into her timeline that had decided to make her heart flutter out the sound of someone else’s name. It had been too sudden and unexplainable to not be a mistake.

Paul Lahote had no business settling into her heart in the way he had, and she would stop at nothing to pluck him as quickly as he had attached himself. Even if she looked forward to seeing him in her dreams at night, even if her heart skipped a beat at the mere thought of him, even if all she wanted was to get as close to him as possible.

(Y/N) wanted —at least she thought she wanted— to go back to being excited that Jacob had finally set his sights on her. She wanted the same thrill she got about Paul with Jake. He had been the crush that had withstood the trials of time. It could not be trampled over by a guy she barely knew.

Yet, she could not stop thinking how his favorite color was red, how he moved to La Push after his parent’s divorced when he was eight, how he didn’t remember much of his mother even though he had been old enough to, how he had never been in love but desperately wanted to know what it felt like. (Y/N) could not stop picturing the way his eyes would shine under the warm glow of the setting sun, how his smile would grow as he listened intently to every word she spoke. Nor could she shake off the feeling of his warm skin against hers, how soft his hands had felt where she believed they’d be rough and calloused. He was everything and nothing like she had thought, but she knew that was as far as she could go to know him.

“Well, don’t you look mighty nice?” Charlie’s voice broke his daughter out of thought. “I think you’ve been to more bonfires this month than I have been to in years. People might start forgetting the sheriff’s face around there.”

“I doubt that’s even possible, dad,” she chuckled, smoothing over a piece of hair that had been unruly for the better part of the day. “Really wish you could join us, though. Since Bella won’t be making it out there, I wanted a Swan there for moral support.”

“This about that Paul fella?”

The question took (Y/N) aback. She had thought no one but Jake knew about that whole fiasco, and she was certain he had not said anything to her dad. “How do you…?” she stammered.

“Bella muttered a thing or two about him. Said he was the one you had been with the other night,” her father said. “Something happen with you and Jake?”

“Nothing happened,” she muttered. “I’m just making new friends seeing as my stay in Forks might be longer than anticipated.”

“Well, that’s a good idea. Just be careful of the people you keep in your company.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Jake might have mentioned this Paul Lahote character is not the greatest influence,” Charlie added. “He thinks he might not have the purest of intentions with you, (Y/N). I just don’t wanna see you get hurt.”

“Well, I can tell you right now that you have nothing to worry about,” (Y/N) smiled comfortingly. The last thing she wanted was for her father to worry about her when his other daughter was still no more than a statue in their home. “I have only hung out with him that one time and I don’t think it’ll happen again. But thanks for checking in.”

“Just wanna make sure your transition back here is as smooth as possible, kiddo,” he responded warmly. “I know it’s gonna be hard to settle back here after being with your mom for so long. Forks might be a bit slow but it’s truly home.”

“I’m actually excited about staying. Even if it wasn’t the plan originally, there’s something about this town that’s just begging for me to stay,” she confessed. “Even if I came to help with Bella, I’m glad I decided to stay. It will also keep mom from taking us both back to Florida —at least for a while.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” The older Swan said before she nodded in response. “I’m just glad you two wanted to spend time with your old man. Even if I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You’re doing good, dad,” (Y/N) chuckled. “I will say you got the shortest end of the stick having to be the one dealing with this breakup but I know you’re doing the absolute best you can. Hopefully, this new year brings us all the fresh start we so desperately need.”

“I hope so too, kiddo,” he sighed in defeat. “But have fun tonight, (Y/N), and make good choices.”

“Have I ever done anything else?”

“Very funny, kid,” Charlie chuckled. “Well, I’m off to work. I’ll probably not be here yet when you get back, so happy new year, (Y/N). And have fun.”

“Happy New Year, dad.”

Everything in Forks seemed to move at a punishingly fast pace, even if at times it felt like the town was stuck in time. But (Y/N) had been there almost four weeks which had already felt like a lifetime.

In comparison to living with Phil and her mother, in the midst of travel and adventures that she had loved for a time, (Y/N) had forgotten the calmness of remaining stagnant, of going to sleep and waking in the same home. She had forgotten what walking the halls of a school felt like, of having a group of friends that lasted more than a year.

Forks would give her that opportunity, or at least she hoped it would. The town had already started to change her and given her more than she could’ve hoped for. And that night she truly believed would set everything in the correct motion. Everything she had wished for with no more flukes.

An hour later and from the street she heard the honk of a horn. She gave herself a once over, not feeling completely comfortable with the way she looked that night. In part, she felt it was merely the nerves of seeing Jacob after the altercation with Paul.

But there was another part, the bigger part, that knew it was because of Paul. There was a calming thrill to him that she couldn’t explain. Even the juxtaposition of the thought made no sense to her. As much as she wanted to stay away from him, she wanted to get closer. It scared and excited her all at once.

Yet, the person that was waiting for her was not him. It was Jake, waiting impatiently behind the wheel of his truck.

“What took you so long?” Jacob grumbled as (Y/N) got into the car. “We’re already late as it is.”

“Sorry, Jake. I couldn’t find my jacket.”

“It’s fine, (Y/N). It’s just that Quil came back from his trip, and I wanted to catch up with him before school starts,” he said. “I also haven’t seen Embry since last weekend since he was with his mom visiting some family.”

“Yeah, I get that,” (Y/N) responded meekly, sinking into her seat. “At least we have the rest of the night to hang out with them.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he smiled forcefully. “What about Bella? Is she not coming?”

“No,” she said through gritted teeth. “She wasn’t up to coming. Still bummed about this Edward guy.”

“What a shame,” Jake sighed. “Being around people would be good for her.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she mumbled. “But I can’t really force her. This guy did a number on her and nothing dad and I are doing is working. I’ve even decided to…”

“Maybe you guys don’t know her as well as you thought,” he blurted. “I mean, no offense but she’s not the same girl that left Arizona. She’s not even the same girl that came to Forks.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t help her, Jake. And that’s what we have been doing this whole time. Still, we can’t help someone that doesn’t want to help themselves.”

“I’m not trying to start a fight, (Y/N),” he grumbled. “I’m just saying that maybe your efforts have not worked because she’s not the same Bella you knew.”

The girl remained quiet, anger filling her body instantly. Bella remained a sore subject in the new relationship, always being brought up by Jacob, reminding (Y/N) that he had liked her sister first –and, deep down, she knew he probably still did. Still, wanted to remain in the delusion that he had chosen her for as long as she could.

“It’s fine. Let’s just drop this, okay?” (Y/N) pleaded. “I just want to enjoy tonight. Please.”

“Alright, yeah. Whatever.”

The rest of the ride went by in silence, a heavy tension filling the air and suffocating her. At that moment, more than ever before in her life, she needed to believe that the new year was truly a fresh start. A new beginning for her sister, a new beginning for her relationship, and a new beginning for her life in Forks.

As soon as the truck rolled to a stop, Jake was out of the car and heading to the beach, mumbling something to (Y/N) that he was gonna see his friends and that he’d catch up to her soon enough. Then, he left her in between the small sea of cars that lined the border of the beach.

The younger Swan was left dumbfounded, completely perplexed at Jake’s reaction. His outburst had made her feel small and unwanted. And as she stood frozen at her spot, watching the community celebrate before her, she wondered if there was any reason for her to be there. Because maybe the best thing she could do, for everyone, was leave.

“I’m glad you came, (Y/N),” a voice startled her. “You look beautiful tonight.”

“Paul, hi,” she blushed, looking down at the black jumpsuit she wore under a white coat. “Thank you. You look great too. Especially with my sweater.”

“Oh, it was cold tonight and it was the first thing I grabbed,” he chuckled. “I promise I was gonna bring it back to you, not use it like it was mine.”

“Honestly, it looks better on you than it does me. Sometimes I feel like I drown in it.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. Your look great in a paper bag,” he grinned. “But I really am glad you came tonight.”

“And why is that, Paul Lahote?”

“Because I wanted to apologize for the other day. I never wanted things to end the way they did,” he said. His eyes searched hers in the darkness, wanting nothing more than for his hands to reach her, to feel her skin against his once more. “I’m sorry if I caused any trouble between you and Jacob. The last thing I would have ever wanted was for you to be blamed for my actions. You don’t deserve that.”

“Thank you, Paul,” she smiled, her hand unconsciously reaching for his, giving it a comforting squeeze. “But it’s not your fault. I was the one that agreed to spend time with you knowing that Jake would blow off the handle. If anyone is to blame for what happened that night, it’s me.”

Paul couldn’t help himself as his free hand flew to rest on her cheek, cradling her face in a soothing manner. “Nothing that happened was your fault, (Y/N),” he said. “Jake simply showed you who he is. You never did anything wrong. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

In that split second, (Y/N) remembered Jake’s words. She broke away from his contact, as though his touch had burned her skin, turning away from the enchanting trance his eyes held over her.

“What’s wrong?”

“It's just that Jake said something about you and… your past,” she sighed. “He said I was just an attempt to make your body count higher.”

“I hope you know how untrue that is,” he said, seething on the inside but not daring to show it to her. “You are special, (Y/N), and I would never do anything that would make you feel otherwise.”

“But why, Paul? What is so special about me? To everyone, I’m just Bella’s little sister.”

“You have to know that that is the least interesting thing about you,” he said. He reached out to her, needing to look her in the eye again. “You’re funny, you’re kind, you’re smart and witty. And that’s merely the tip of the iceberg. I may not have known you for long but I know there’s so much more to you than you let on. And all I’ve wanted was to learn about those parts that you hide from everyone else.”

“I still don’t know why!” (Y/N) responded, frustration pooling beads of tears in the corners of her eyes. “How can I trust someone that somehow says everything I want to hear but won’t give me a straightforward answer? Why me, Paul? Out of all the people in the world, why do you want to know me?”

At that moment, he felt he would spill everything. He wanted her to know just why it was her, why the universe had decided that it had to be her. Paul wanted to confess what bonded them and would keep them for the rest of their lives.

And he would have, but the fear of putting her in any danger could not let him say the words. He could not bring himself to utter any of the words that would throw her life up in shambles. “Why not you, (Y/N)?” he asked her, biting his tongue to keep what he wanted to say from spilling. “Is it so hard to believe that I could have seen you and be intrigued by you?”

“You saw me for a split second, Paul. Someone you’ve never known of cannot be worth all this trouble.”

“You are worth it, (Y/N).”

“And you are frustratingly vague,” she finally cracked a smile. “Why can’t you just answer me? What is it that you’re hiding?”

“You’d never believe me if I told you,” he copied her smile. “And isn’t a little mystery fun?”

“It could be if it didn’t get me in trouble with my boyfriend.”

“That could be fixed by breaking up with him, you know,” Paul teased. “A lot of things could be fixed if Jake was gone.”

“Are you threatening my boyfriend, Paul Lahote?”

“I would never,” he laughed. “But I still believe that he doesn’t deserve you, (Y/N).”

“Will you ever let that go?”

“Don’t think I can.”

And maybe she knew he was right but it was too hard to admit it, to him or to herself. She had wanted Jake for the better part of her life and one night could not change that. She wouldn’t let it. “Then you’re gonna have to if there’s ever gonna be some sort of friendship between us,” she said. “Might be hard to spend time with someone that’s always trashing their boyfriend.”

“I mean, you’ve only got a couple more weeks before you have to go back to Florida, right? I think I can control myself in that time.”

“Actually, I decided to move to Forks with my dad,” she smiled. “Bella isn’t getting better and I’ve honestly gotten attached to this town. It might be that some people have made this place so enchanting.”

“Then I guess I’m gonna have to work harder on pretending that I like Jake,” he grinned. “But I am glad you’re staying. The town wouldn’t be the same without you.”

“I’ve only been here for three weeks, Paul,” she laughed.

“And nothing has been the same since.”

“You’re something else.”

“I could say the same about you,” Paul added before noticing Jared calling him over. “And on that note, I will have to leave you. I’ve got a couple of things I have to do. But not before you give me your phone number.”

“My number?”

“That way I’d we ever wanna see each other it doesn’t have to be by me showing up at your house or running into each other at a bonfire.”

“Right,” she chuckled, handing him her phone. “That’s smart.”

“I’ll see you around, (Y/N),” he smiled before kissing her on the cheek and disappearing down the beach.

As soon as he was out of sight, (Y/N) looked around, hoping that no one had witnessed what had just happened. As innocent as everything could have been, in such a small town, everything was known.

Once she had calmed down, she finally walked toward the commotion of the beach. Feeling as confused as she had been since meeting Paul, but at peace. Being around him made her feel serene, tranquility spreading through her veins. Though he made her heart race, he didn’t make her chest feel tight. It was a feeling that made her feel equal parts uneasy and calm.

“Where were you?” Jake asked as she joined him and his friends, a hint of annoyance dancing between his words.

“Just around,” she smiled. “I was actually planning to get something to drink. Do you guys want anything?”

“We’re good,” Embry smiled kindly. “But thank you.”

“Just hurry,” Jake added before becoming more interested in the conversations he was having before she had gotten close. “And bring me back a water, thanks.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

(Y/N) left him quickly, needing to compose herself before heading back toward him. She could feel how annoyed he was at her. Ever since that afternoon with Paul, Jake had become distant and rather cold toward her but she could understand why. As much as it pained her, she knew why and that she had to do something to make it up to him while keeping what angered him a secret.

“It’s good to see you around, (Y/N),” Billy said as he joined the girl’s side at the refreshment table. “I was wondering when I would see you again.”

“Hi, uncle Billy,” she smiled. “I’ve been meaning to go by the house but I’ve been busy these couple of days.”

“And things have been heated between you and my son.”

“How did you…?”

“Small town,” he smiled softly. “But I’ve already had some words with my son about his behavior toward you. It was completely unacceptable.”

“It might have been an overreaction but it was warranted,” she said looking down. “I knew what I did would anger him but I still did it.”

“That doesn’t mean he can chastise you in the middle of town. My son is young and can be quick-tempered,” Billy sighed, taking one of (Y/N)’s hands in his. “He says and does things that he doesn’t know he will regret one day, and you don’t deserve to be in the receiving end of that.”

“Thank you, Billy,” (Y/N) smiled, squeezing his hand reassuringly. “But I’m sure he’s sorry for that night and we’ll work through it together.”

“You know, I love my son, but he can be quite stubborn when he wants to. Even at his own detriment. Still, I hope this new year brings you both clarity and growth. Both personally, and if the gods want it, in your relationship as well.”

“I hope so too, uncle Billy.”

“My son is lucky to have you by his side. Even if he doesn’t know it.”

(Y/N) felt a new surge of confidence as he joined Jake and his friends once more. Knowing Billy was watching her back made her feel stronger about her relationship with Jacob and that it was worth investing her heart and time into. She knew her heart yearned for Jake and all she felt toward Paul was a strong sense of friendship.

As the hours passed and the tension between her and Jake seemed to dissipate, her resolve simply solidified itself. She would do anything possible to fix her relationship with her boyfriend and keep her friendship with Paul separate from Jacob.

But there was the smallest part in her that replayed Paul’s voice. He kept telling her how she deserved better and that Jake was not the right person for her, even if that was who she had wanted for so long.

Still, when the clock struck twelve, Jake was the one she kissed, and wished things would work out between them. She wished for him to only see Bella as a friend and finally give his whole heart to her. Wrapped in his arms as they cheered the new year, she begged the universe to give her the chance to have everything she had wished for.

Yet as her eyes found Paul’s in the crowd, she doubted if it was what she truly wanted or if she was holding onto a silly childhood dream.

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roseghoul26 · 4 months

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Chapter 9: ...And Now I'm Covered In You

Synopsis: A fic based off the song “ivy” by Taylor Swift. After a startling introduction to the man, Arthur Morgan became the most important part of your life. Married at a young age to an older, wealthy man to help your family, you were trapped in a loveless marriage, your only sense of escape with the rugged cowboy. Will you be able to keep your affair hidden, or will your husband find out, and destroy the last thing that made you happy? Tags: Fluff, Angst, Smut, Strangers To Lovers, Infidelity, Fem!Reader, She/Her Pronouns Used For Reader, Period Typical Misogyny, Emotional Manipulative Relationship (not with Arthur), Mostly Follows Timeline of Game, High Honor Arthur Morgan, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, First Kiss, Arthur Is Bad At Emotions, Confessions, First Time Together, Cunnilingus, Missionary, Doggy Style, Handjobs, Mirrors, Tags Updated Per Chapter Author's Note: lots of dialogue because i can’t make them stfu :) also smut in the first half, in case you don’t want to read it Taglist: @lokiofasgard12 @ultraporcelainpig @that-one-beannnn @morethantheycansay @nn-hh192 Chapter List

To say you were surprised when you woke up with your face buried in the chest of Arthur Morgan would be an understatement.

When you woke, the realization made you gasp, almost immediately regretting it when Arthur began to stir. Luckily your outburst had been quiet enough that he fell right back asleep, his arms pulling you closer.

The events of the night, and morning, came back to you then. Flashes passed through your mind; the way his hands had felt, the way his lips had covered your body, the way he stretched you so deliciously. It was all a blur, ending sometime in the early morning. You knew because you heard the birds singing as you fell asleep, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

The aches in your body made sense, then, and why you felt like you hadn’t slept a minute. Every muscle felt like it had been pushed to the maximum, and if you were able to move you were certain it would hurt. But you were stuck, unable to get out of the embrace Arthur held you in. Even his legs had you in a lock, tangled with yours underneath the sheets. You were stuck.

You were just able to look up at him with weary eyes. Sunlight illuminated him, and you could see details about him that you hadn’t been able to before. His eyelashes were quite long, resting on his cheeks as he slept. You noticed some beauty marks that dotted his face, even lighter than the few that you knew of, and you swore you even saw some freckles.

There were also some light scars that had faded over time. One stretched across his nose bridge, no doubt from the injury that made it crooked in the first place. Another nicked his eyebrow, barely messing with the hair there, and you’d have never seen it if you weren’t this close. In his beard, you were just able to see the scar tissue there. You’d always assumed that the small patch there just never grew hair, but you now knew that it was a scar.

You then examined the features that you knew so well, the ones you’d come to love dearly. His soft hair, mused and ruffled from hours of your hands in it. The arch of his brow, the creases of his eyes, the slope of his crooked nose. His lips, so plush and soft, the ones that had been all over you. You couldn’t help yourself as you stretched, barely able to brush his lips with your own.

“I was wonderin’ when you’d do that.”

Arthur’s voice made you jump out of your skin, your aforementioned weariness dissipating as adrenaline kicked in. “Arthur,” you gasped out, unable to hide a small smile. “How long have you been awake for?”

“Long enough to know you’ve been starin’ at me.” His voice was gravely with sleep, even more rougher than normal. It made you shiver.

“How could I not?” You sighed, staring at him with obvious adoration.

A dusting of pink colored his cheeks, smiling broadly at you. “How you can stand to even look at this mug is beyond me. And to enjoy lookin’ at it?” He shook his head, and you felt one of his arms unwrap from around you. You melted when he rested his now free hand on your cheek, fingers weaving into your hair. “I don’t deserve you.”

Before you could argue that he did indeed deserve you, he was pulling you in, kissing you properly. It was short, but it conveyed something that made your heart thud rapidly. His hand remained on your cheek even when he pulled away, thumb caressing the skin slowly. Now that you weren’t so startled, you felt tired once again, and the soft way he was holding you certainly wasn’t helping, and neither was the heat from his body.

You must’ve yawned, because Arthur was chuckling gently with a fond look on his face. “Few more minutes?” He asked, and you nodded. He pressed a final kiss to the top of your head, making you relax even more, before returning his arm to where it had been a few moments prior. “A few more minutes, then.”

It didn’t take long for you to fall back into a content slumber.

─•~❉᯽❉~•─

The two of you definitely slept in longer than a few minutes.

You weren’t sure how long exactly, but you knew a significant chunk of time had passed.

It was hunger that woke you now. Your stomach grumbled and twisted, and you tried to ignore it, shuffling deeper into the mattress.

But it wasn’t the hunger pangs that made you jolt upright. It was the lack of Arthur’s body next to yours, no longer holding you.

Setting a hand to where he had been, you were weirdly relieved when you found it to still be warm, and you heard the sound of running water from the ensuite bathroom.

Now sitting upright, you were now regretting getting up so quickly, your muscles complaining. Rubbing at your neck, you were surprised to find that it was more tender than anticipated, but only in certain spots. In fact, as you rubbed at the weary muscles, you found more spots like that: along your breasts, in between your thighs, across your stomach. There weren’t a lot, but it was enough to be a tad bit alarming.

Pulling off the sheet that covered it, you couldn’t help the small gasp that left you as you saw the various marks peppering your body. There weren’t even more than ten, not including the ones you now presumed to be on your neck. The sight made you reel, enjoying it far more than you thought you would.

After a bit of pain, you managed to get out of bed, but standing was a whole different story. Your knees practically gave out when you took the first step, and you had to hold onto the bed to support. You were grateful that Arthur was currently in the bathroom, unable to see what he’d done to you.

It took longer than it should’ve, but you eventually made your way to the vanity and mirror tucked into the corner of the room. You never used this one, opting for the one in the bathroom or closet, but you highly doubt you’d be able to make it to the closet. And the other one was preoccupied, and you highly doubt that Arthur would mind if you barged in, but you still wanted to give him privacy.

You gasped again when you saw your reflection, but you’d be a liar if you said the sight wasn’t erotic. Your neck had seen the worst of it, darkened hickeys lining both sides, and you ran a tentative finger over them, which made you fight back a small hiss of pain.

You heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, and when you turned your head you were met with the glorious sight that was a completely bare Arthur. He hadn’t caught your eye yet, running his hands through his hair, smoothing it out as best he could. When he realized the bed was empty, though, he looked around, and then his eyes finally fell to where you were standing.

A series of emotions passed over his face as he regarded you; surprise, appreciation, then thinly veiled desire. You couldn’t look away as he began to saunter over, a playful smirk on his face, and you focused hard on keeping your gaze at an appropriate level. Arthur seemed to have no qualms with checking you out, his eyes flicking over every part of you, making you feel warm.

“Good morning, Arthur.” Your voice didn’t like that you tried to talk louder than a whisper, and it sounded scratchy and airy.

“Good afternoon, darlin’.” When he finally reached you, he stood behind you, arms wrapping around your body and pulling you into him. His head rested on your shoulder, the stubble of his beard pressing into your skin. After making sure any hair was out of the way, you felt as he pressed a gentle kiss against your neck, and you felt yourself go completely lax in his arms.

He met your eyes in the mirror as he held you, rocking your body slightly. “Gorgeous,” you heard him murmur, and you tore your gaze away, your cheeks burning. “None of that, now,” he laughed lightly, drawing your attention back to him. “There you are.”

He was staring at you hungrily, shaking off any remnants of sleep in your body. He was insatiable, but you were loving it. You’d never felt this desired, this craved, and it made you feel good.

Keeping one arm slung around your waist to keep you pressed close to him, you felt as he began to brush his fingers over the marks around your neck, much lighter than you had. Still, it elicited a small noise of complaint from you. “M’Sorry,” you heard him murmur, and you shook your head in response.

“Does it seem like I’m complainin’?” You chuckled lightly, but there was still a hint of guilt on his features. “Just, no more. I don’t know how I’m coverin’ these, let alone more.”

“So you are complainin’.”

You dramatically rolled your eyes, much to the amusement of Arthur. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

He just hummed noncommittally, eyes never leaving your body in the mirror. It was quite a nice sight, you wrapped up in Arthur’s arms, the evidence of the night's escapades littering your body. “Hell of a sight to walk out and see,” he murmured, taking on a raspy tone that you’d come to know quite well over the past day.

“Not a bad sight yourself.” Your already unsteady legs grew weaker when you felt him begin to drag his fingers down. “Arthur…”

“Want me to stop?”

“You better not.”

A breathy laugh left Arthur. “Understood, darlin’.” As you asked, he continued, making you shiver and press into him. His chest was practically flush with your back, and you could feel it begin to rise more rapidly with barely contained excitement. When he grazed your breasts, the responding noise you made made him grin, and you could feel him half-hard against your back.

You tried to reach behind and touch him, but he lightly redirected you. “Later. Lemme make you feel good.” You expected to feel him grope at your breasts, so you jumped a bit when you felt his touch continue below them, traveling down and down. It was like he had one goal on his mind.

He had to lean over slightly in order to reach comfortably between your legs. Your eyes fluttered close when you felt him there, but a gentle nudge had you opening them back up. “Keep your eyes open,” he instructed. “I want you to see yourself fall apart.” His words, along with the just-woken-up gruff tone in his voice, made you shiver.

You could do nothing but nod, forcing your eyes to stay open as you felt him brush between your folds, fingers barely grazing your clit. But he didn’t tease you, his touch returning to that spot and focusing in on it. Your light gasps turned to moans as he worked you, muttering praises in your ear, his head still resting on your shoulder.

Blue eyes were locked onto you in the mirror, mesmerized by the way your features contorted in pleasure, your mouth agape as noises left you. One of your hands rested on the one between your thighs, the other reaching up and around, tangling your fingers into his hair. He was practically holding you up at this point, your legs long since turned boneless.

“Look how beautiful you are,” he murmured, catching your gaze. The slow but persistent movement of his fingers had slowly started to build up the tension in you.

“Arthur…” Your eyes threatened to close.

“You gettin’ close, darlin’?”

You mumbled something in response, but it was enough for him. “Just let go,” his teeth nip at your ear. “Wach how beautiful you are when you cum.”

And you did. You watched the way a breathless sigh caught in your throat, your lips a perfect ‘o’ shape. You watched how your cheeks flushed, your eyes rolled back, the fingers in his hair turning deadly as a gentle orgasm washed over you. It left like a caress of a gentle wave over your body, not hitting you like it did last night, but that didn’t make it any less satisfactory.

He helped you ride through your high, and you pushed away his hand when it became too much. Your eyes were still locked onto both of your reflections, his glistening fingers retracting themselves. Blindly, you reached behind you, hearing him let out a choked noise when your hand wrapped around him, now fully erect against your back.

But you found the angle too awkward, and so twisting in his arms you finally faced him. Pressing kisses against his collarbones, you began to stroke him slowly, quickly picking up speed when you felt him press himself into your hand. His breathing was already labored, and you realized how worked up he had gotten from pleasuring you, being already this close.

“Arthur,” you sighed against his neck, running your free hand up his chest. Your nails scrapped lightly, running through the hair on his chest. He groaned out your name in response, head resting against yours, his breathing hot and heavy.

It only took a few more strokes before, with a shuddering breath, he came. His spend coated your stomach

“Let’s get washed up before we spend the whole day in here,” you chucked lightly, still catching your breath.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”

“I don’t think I’ve got the stamina-”

“Who said anythin’ about sex, darlin’? I could be content just holidn’ you in my arms all day.”

For a moment, you seriously considered his argument, the bed looking quite inviting from where it sat behind Arthur. But before you could answer, your hungry stomach decided to answer for you, interrupting the silence. Embarrassed, you groaned, head resting on Arthur’s chest, and you felt it rumble as he laughed. “Guess that answers that, then.”

Tugging you to the bathroom, Arthur helped wash your skin, before letting you go to the closet to get dressed. But before you did, you snuck him a kiss, laughing when he chased after your lips. Donning a high-neck blouse, which rubbed uncomfortably against your neck, as well as a skirt, you felt the ache in your muscles as you dressed, making you wince and grin.

Finished, you headed downstairs as Arthur got washed up… again. There was a newfound energy in your step as you descended the stairs, your nerves still buzzing pleasantly. You chuckled when you saw Arthur’s hat discarded on the ground, and so after heading over and picking it up, you put it on one of the couches, easy for him to grab.

Your grumbling stomach led you to the kitchen, where you got to work on making breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal and fruits. It was when you were making his bowl when you saw him enter, the bottom half of him covered in clothes. His button-up was on, sure, but was left completely open, giving you a perfect view as he approached. You tried not to look too disappointed when he buttoned it up halfway.

“What’s all this?” He asked, his hands returning to where they had been when he first held you in front of the mirror.

“Breakfast, although I suppose it’s a bit late for that,” you laughed. “And you better watch those hands, Arthur.” His hands had begun to travel southward with a mischievous look.

Caught, he stopped his exploration, but he continued to hold you. His smile was infectious as you felt it press against your skin, and you bit back a laugh at the way his beard tickled you. No matter how many times you felt it, you’d never get used to it. “Thank you, darlin’.”

“It’s nothin’. I was hungry, and I figured it be rude to make you watch me eat.” He chuckled. “Bowl on the right’s yours.”

He hummed in thanks but was apprehensive about removing his hands, opting to hold you for a few moments longer. He eventually did, though, then made his way to the table with you following behind. Like the person he was, he pulled the chair out for you, leaning down and sneaking a kiss in while pushing the chair in. It made you chuckle, and your heart felt warm as you watched him sit next to you.

As the two of you began to eat in comfortable silence, you couldn’t help but marvel at how right it all felt. Waking up in his arms, him joining you in the kitchen, even eating breakfast together. It all felt like it was meant to happen, meant to be. And when you glanced up from your bowl and saw Arthur’s eyes on you, you knew he felt the same.

But you’d never pictured Arthur as a domestic man. He was an outlaw, a person not tied down by anything, be it rules or people. What that meant for your future together, you weren’t quite sure, but for now, you were content to just ignore it. It had been a great day so far; you didn’t want to ruin it by thinking about the future.

Sliding your arm toward him, you took one of his hands, and he squeezed gently in response. Even though he’d had his hands over your entire body last night, something that would normally make you want to crawl out of your skin if it was any other person, this touch felt somehow more intimate, more personal.

You hadn’t even realized you’d been laughing lightly until he raised a brow at you, a smile curling the corners of his lips. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothin’.” And it was true, there wasn’t actually anything funny with the situation. Well, it certainly was a bit funny, as you were currently in love with the man who had tried to break into your house all those weeks ago. You were just so damn happy that you couldn’t keep it contained any longer. “Nothin’ at all.”

“You’re a strange woman,” he mumbled in jest, the same words he had uttered to you in Rhodes when you first met properly.

“And I’ll still take that as a compliment, Arthur.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Did you ever think this would happen?” You asked after a moment of silence. “Me, you, this?” You shook his hand lightly. “What’d you think was gonna happen when we first met?”

“Certainly not this. When I first met ya, in Rhodes,” he added when you began laughing again, “I thought you were gonna be another high-society person that I’d crossed, and I fully expected ya to send the law after me for what I did. But when that didn’t happen, well, I just had to talk to ya. You were, are, less… uptight than I thought you’d be. I’d never thought you’d been raised wealthy by the way you acted. And I mean that in the best way possible.”

“I guess we both surprised each other, then. Your appearance deceives you.”

“It’s supposed to,” Arthur sighed. “My life’d be much harder if it didn’t.”

“If only they knew how much of a softie you were,” you teased.

“Soft?” He repeated, almost offended.

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that, you know.”

“I… I suppose not,” he relented. “Just don’t let the others back at camp know,” he added with a chuckle, but there was the slightest hint of alarm in his eyes. “They’d never let me hear the end of it.”

“Your secret is safe with me. And your reputation.”

“Much appreciated, darlin’.”

“How is camp, by the way?” You were genuinely curious. “How is everyone?”

“I’m not gonna lie, things have been… tense lately. John’s son, Jack, was taken, but we got him back. Angelo Bronte, over in Saint Denis, had him.” You knew that name. Everyone in the area knew who Angelo Bronte was. You also knew that only the foolish tried to work with him. In the back of your mind, you wondered if Hans had dealings with him.

“Bronte? You got him to listen to you?”

“Had to do a job for him, but yes. You know him?”

“Not personally, but I’ve been to his house plenty of times. If you got money or somethin’ to offer him, then you’ve been to his parties.”

“Dutch somehow managed to weasel us onto the guestlist for one happenin’ in a couple of days. Thinks we could get some good leads there.”

“Well, Dutch is right ‘bout that. Secrets are spilled there like it’s nothin’, even more so after drinks are had. Are you goin’?”

“Don’t have much choice in the matter.”

“Me neither. But, depending on when he gets back, I might just see you there.”

That seemed to cheer Arthur up over the prospect of having to rub elbows with high-society. “You’re goin’ to?”

You shrugged. “Like I said, it all depends. He usually likes to go, and it’s comin’ up around the time he usually comes back. But no promises.”

“Well, now I’m excited, maybe seein’ you in a party dress.” And you were excited at possibly seeing Arthur in a tux.

“Gonna have to be a high-neck dress,” you grumbled, making Arthur laugh. “But other than that, things are… good? As good as they can be?”

“We had to relocate to an abandoned plantation house, Shady Belle. It’s a good spot, ‘cept for the gators. But we shouldn’t be bothered by law for a while.”

“I dunno if Javier told you, but I offered you all my house if you ever need a place to stay. Not just you, but everyone.”

“Oh, he told us alright. Dutch debated sendin’ Jack and Abigail, his mom, over to ya to keep him from gettin’ taken again. But John wanted ‘em to stay in camp.”

“Is John his father?”

“As much as he tries to fight it, yes.” It seemed like a sore spot, so you didn’t press it.

“Well, if they ever change their minds, my door is usually open. And even if he’s home, I’m sure I could figure somethin’ out.”

“I’d hate to-”

“You don’t gotta decide anythin’ now. Just know the offers on the table.” Arthur looked away, biting back words. His brow was furrowed, and you could see the strain in his jaw. “Arthur?”

“You’re too kind.”

“It’s really not a bother-”

“No, you’re too kind.” His worried eyes locked onto yours. “This world is vicious, the life I live is vicious. It ruins people like you, good people. I’m… I’m afraid of you gettin’ caught up in all this. All the runnin’, the distrust, the bloodshed. I don’t wanna see it change you. I don’t wanna change you.”

“I know this world is viscous. I may not see it first-hand like you do, but I know. But isn’t that why I shouldn’t try to be kind, as naive as I might sound to say? And sure, it might come back to bite me, but isn’t it rewarding just to try?” You took a breath. “This world has already tried its hardest to change me, Arthur. It has tried to make me cold, to make me cruel, to make me uncaring. But I simply won’t let it, which I know is easier said than done. But every time I think it might just be easier to turn a cold shoulder, to ignore the problems of others, I remind myself that if I were in their shoes, I’d want someone to extend a hand out to me.”

Arthur was silent for a good while, mulling over your words. “I try to help when I can,” he began. “I really do try. But it seems like for every good deed I do, ten bad ones take its place. Every good thing I do pales in comparison to all the robbin’, the stealin’, the killin’. And it tears me up inside, the… the guilt.”

“Then why do you continue to do it?” You asked, no judgment in your voice.

“‘Cause it’s the only thing I know how to do. It’s the only way I know to provide a life for those I care ‘bout. Acts of kindness don’t pay nearly as well as a robbery.”

“As much as I hate to agree, you’re not wrong. You’ve gotta do what you gotta to survive, and I don’t think anyone can fault you for that. And you shouldn’t feel too guilty; you steal from people who deserve it, right?”

“We’re gonna be stealin’ from you, darlin’. Are you sayin’ you deserve it?”

“Maybe not me, but Hans sure as hell does.”

“Damn right,” Arthur muttered, almost too low for you to catch. But there was still an inkling of guilt on his face.

“Besides, we’ve got so much money, so much that I don’t know what to do with it. It’s like I said before, as long as he doesn’t stop helpin’ my family, you can get as much as you can from him.”

“Have you written to them? Your family?” Arthur asked, wanting to shift the conversation away from him. You’d let him, for now.

“I sent them a letter yesterday. But I realize now that I’ve got no way of receivin’ their letters.”

“You send it in your name?” You nodded. “I’ll try to stop by, grab ‘em for ya.”

“Aren’t you wanted in Rhodes?”

Arthur shrugged. “It’ll die down over the next week or so, which should be enough time.”

“You’re gonna do it no matter what I say, ain’t you.” The responding grin told you all that you needed to know. “Thank you, Arthur.”

He waved off your thanks, and the two of you continued your breakfast before it turned colder. You tried to stand and grab both of your bowls when you finished, but Arthur was having none of it. Ushering you back down, he took the bowls into the kitchen himself, even go so far as to wash them for you. Unsure of what to do with yourself now, you made your way to the living room, sitting on one of the couches as you waited for him to return.

You spotted his hat out of the corner of your eye, and before you could stop yourself you picked it up, examining it in your hands. It hadn’t changed much since the first time you saw it or the time after that. Maybe there was a new scratch or nick here and there, but you didn’t see them. All you saw was a well-loved hat with more stories than you could imagine.

You glanced up when you saw Arthur approaching, and you flashed him a grateful look. There was a regretful look on his face, and you knew exactly what was about to happen next. “You have to go, don’t you.”

“I’m sorry-”

“None of that, Arthur,” you shook your head, smiling lightly. “As much as I’d love for you to spend the rest of the day here, you’ve got responsibilities, and you’ve got people who need you. I get it.” You stood now, making your way over to him, his hat still in your hands. “Just come back, alright?”

“I’ll come back, darlin’.”

“You better mean it this time.”

“I promise.”

“You sure? ‘Cause I will get Javier or someone to drag you back.”

Two hands gently grasped the sides of your face, drawing all your attention to him. “I swear,” he rested his head against yours, sighing deeply.

You’re not sure who moved first, your lips colliding in a gentle kiss that sealed the promise he just uttered. You hoped that would be enough to push the thoughts from his brain that fed him the misconceptions that drove him away.

“I’ll see you soon, either here or at the party,” you said when you broke apart.

“I’ll see you soon,” he repeated, his hands dropping from your face. Before he could take a step back, you planted his hat on his head, pressing one last kiss to his cheek. With a fond look, he backed up to the entranceway, slipping on his boots with visible apprehension, not wanting this visit to end either.

You followed him out the door, but before he descended the stairs he hesitated, looking back at you. Before you could even register he was in front of you, kissing you deeply. You let out a surprised noise, before melting into his embrace, your hands grasping his still partially unbuttoned shirt.

But then he was leaving again, with an almost hurried gait, as if he feared if he lingered he’d never leave. You stood on the porch, slightly stunned as Arthur whistled for Bear, who came trotting out of the woods looking quite irritated at his owner. That irritation melted when he heard you call out his name, his ear flickering happily. Arthur had to stop him from coming over to you, an amused smile on his face when he turned to you. “I swear, he likes ya more than me.”

You chuckled as Arthur got atop Bear, and it took no encouragement to bring Bear closer to you. It took a little bit of stretching, but you managed to stroke his snout lightly, earning a nicker in response. After petting him for a few moments, you glanced up at his rider, a soft smile on his face.

Words hung on the tip of your tongue, the ones you’d let slip so freely last night. Would it be too soon for you to say it again? Would it make him uncomfortable? Would it hurt you, saying them, knowing he couldn’t say it back?

Arthur watched you, almost expectantly, and you couldn’t help yourself from uttering the words. You just needed him to hear it again.

You swore you saw something like relief on his face, only there for a fraction of a second. With slightly rose-tinged cheeks, he ducked his head, his hat covering his face from you.

“Now, get outta here Arthur,” you teased, breaking the tension. It seemed to do the trick, and you watched as Arthur began to back up. “Goodbye, for now.”

“Goodbye, for now,” he repeated with the same infliction. With one final glance, he was gone, the trees almost curling around him as he went up the trail leading to the main road. With a thumping heart, you made your way back inside, ungracefully flopping down on the couch, a sigh of disbelief leaving you.

That sigh turned into light chuckling, which turned into giddy laughter, the sore muscles in your body complaining as you laughed. Like before, you were just so happy that it threatened to overwhelm you, and you needed some way to let it out. It only took a few seconds until it died down, and you let yourself just relax, a new thought making a bittersweet smile appear.

You’d missed what being truly happy felt like.

─•~❉᯽❉~•─

It had taken some time, but you eventually peeled yourself off the couch. You had almost gone straight upstairs, but the newspaper on the kitchen table made you stop. You realized that Hans probably had no idea about Arthur’s involvement in Rhodes, and if the job with him was to go smoothly, then he needed to remain unaware.

Taking the paper upstairs, it rolled it up and tucked it into the lockbox, the thing barely fitting in there. Eventually, though, you were able to get it tucked back under the bed.

The room felt a lot more dead now that Arthur wasn’t around. The sheets were cold and lonesome, and as you laid down on the bed you could still smell him, all gunpowder and tobacco and leather. As sad as it made you, you also realized now that you probably needed to clean said bedsheets before Hans got home.

Before letting yourself get lulled into a doze by the familiar smell, you got up, opening the two windows in the room to try and air it out. It took a bit of time, but you eventually gathered up all the sheets, pillowcases, and blankets on the bed, as well as the washcloths from the

Your body hated the exertion, and it took an hour or two, but you eventually had everything on the clothesline. It did go by quickly, though, with your memories still flooded with the man that had occupied those sheets hours ago, a light smile on your face as you worked.

Going into it, you knew that it was going to take over a day for everything to dry completely, but you were fine with that. That night, you grabbed a spare blanket from the closet, and you slept on the couch. It was uncomfortable and just irritated your sore muscles more, but you couldn’t bring yourself to lay in the bed, the other side barren.

It was going to be hard to try and sleep without Arthur.

#rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #arthur morgan #arthur morgan rdr2 #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x female reader #arthur morgan smut

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st4rrmii · 1 month

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Lucien's Lore/Timeline Up Until CT

TW//Substance abuse, Parental/Sibling deaths, Transphobia, Ableism, abuse, self destructive thoughts/attempts and Bullying-Please only read ahead if mentally okay to!

Disclaimer!!-Lucien's story does get dark at certain points, as I've stated before, I use OCs to vent about certain things, as well as base parts of them off my own life experiences. No part of his story is meant to be for shock value or "edginess", it all has a purpose. On top of all that, the show is for children, so of course it wouldn't be too dark with its themes, however I did want to delve a little bit more into the after effects of the trauma that would be being one of the campers. If this makes you uncomfortable, please do not read, I don't mind!

Now to it, everything under the cut!

Pre-Camp Cretaceous-

Lucien was born into a family of three, his mother(unnamed), father(Brian), and older brother(Landon, 9 years older than Lucien). The four lived a very normal life, as far as Lucien was aware, Lucien's little sister(Mia) being born when he was 5. Both his father and Mother worked for Jurassic World as scientists. Shortly after Mia's birth, their mother went missing, there was a search for her but she was never found. Unfortunately this cause Landon to fall into a depression that ended up with him hanging out with the wrong type of people, people who taught him that the best way to cope was with drugs.

Everything after that seemed to start on a slow but steady downhill, Lucien's father was a loving man, but he needed to continue to work to keep his family afloat, Landon did try his hardest to keep a stable job despite everything, but as time went on his addiction made it harder to do that, this all left a very young Lucien to do most of the parenting for Mia. This was also around the time Lucien started to realize he was "different", he hated being called a girl, he knew it was 'technically' what he was, he knew his body was that of a girl's, but it all just felt wrong. Despite not knowing what this meant, he was lucky enough to have a supportive family, Landon and Brian referring to him with more GN/Masc terms and pronouns to see how that felt, which as expected, felt right. Brian knew Lucien was trans, he always had a feeling, but at that point in the game, with how young he was, he never really told him what that was, not wanting Lucien to feel like it was something weird that would make him too "different", instead just going along with the terms that made him comfortable until he reached a certain age. The unfortunate part of this however, was that with Lucien entering school it was somewhat- difficult- to explain to children of the early 2000s, on top of his disabilities(both physical and more mental, ie. Autism/selective mutism), with this, kids were quick to judge, and unfortunately he became an outcast in his schools due to bullying.

The three siblings had to move in with their grandparents after their mother disappeared, which was okay at first, as despite their grandmother being strict with them, as well as somewhat.. bigoted- towards Lucien, they did have a loving grandfather. Unfortunately things went south when he passed, his passing causing their grandmother to spiral, her transphobia towards Lucien becoming so much worse. I won't go into detail, but to say the least, Lucien is absolutely terrified of that woman, even as an adult. Sometime around here was when Lucien's grandmother did something absolutely vile, which I once again will not go into detail on, but it ended up with Landon and his friends beating a man that had hurt Lucien, unfortunately for Lucien, this man was one of his bullies' fathers, which caused the bullying to become worse.

Things continued like this until Lucien was 12, which is when Landon unfortunately passed away, this tore Lucien apart, as Landon was his best friend, and on top of that, their father became sick not long after (quite possibly triggered by stress) and was forced to come home on sick leave, which at least got Lucien and Mia out of their grandmother's house and home with their father. Lucien had to become a major caretaker of both his father and Mia while very young and in mourning, causing him to fall into a deep depression, and on top of all that his bullies took Landon's death to fuel their bullying, telling Lucien it was his fault, because of this, Lucien ended up dropping out of public school, getting homeschooled which was luckily funded by JW.

It was all of this that made Brian start to look into the Camp that would be launched in a few years, he knew they'd be looking for campers to give everything a test run, so he used a few of his connections to have Lucien selected as one of said campers. Lucien had always loved dinosaurs, and always wanted to go to JW, but due to his father's work schedule he simply was not able to, so his father thought now that he was home he would finally let Lucien go, even if he couldn't be there with him.

Lucien was unaware of this until mere weeks before he would be leaving for Camp Cretaceous, and while part of him was excited to finally go, it was very quickly drowned out by the worry that his dad and Mia wouldn't be able to take care of themselves while he was gone, but Brian did assure him it would only be for around a week and they would be okay. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Camp Cretaceous and the Downfall of Jurassic World-

The first person Lucien met at CC was Ben, both of them docking at the same place as they lived close to each other, they ended up talking a bit before the boat arrived, Lucien learning the Ben knew asl which was very helpful considering it was Lucien's main form of communication due to his selective mutism (The nerves and everything of the trip were making it act up, and he would end up not talking verbally until around the 2 month point of being stuck on Nublar)

Lucien ended up clinging to Ben the entire time they were at camp, the same way Ben clung to Kenji. In all honesty, Ben didn't mind it, it was nice having someone that would hold back with him even when the group went forwards, he also could not lie, having someone cling to him for protection definitely made him feel a little cool (especially when that person was so pretty) they ended up growing pretty close, Ben even letting Lucien use his inhaler at some point after his went missing in the chaos (yes, ben did have to coat it in sanitizer after but its the thought that counts). One core moment of being on the island pre-monorail was when, at one point, Ben fell, cutting up his hands pretty bad and getting them dirty. This, plus all the stress, triggered a panic attack on Ben's part, Ben panicking that his hands would get infected due to the dirt and kill him. Lucien, both having struggled with panic attacks, as well as knowing how to dress a wound (his dad worked on the medical team on JW, and shared a lot of his knowledge with Lucien), quickly did what he could, using the bandage wraps and alcohol wipes in Ben's 'dork pouch' to clean him up and dress the wounds, doing his best to help calm him down as well as constantly signing to him "You're okay, I've got you, you're gonna be okay." (Something Landon used to tell him when he would have panic attacks). This acted as one of the first moments Ben realized that he may feel more for Lucien than he had originally thought.

The monorail incident definitely fucked Lucien up hard, having tried to help Darius save Ben but it just- didn't work. Lucien shut down after this, Brooklynn physically having to pull Lucien off with her when they all jumped off the monorail. Lucien ofc wanted to go looking for Ben, which everyone (but Kenji and Sammy) objected to; in hindsight, he understands that it wouldve been stupid to spend time looking for someone who was probably long since dead when they only had a certain amount of time to get to the boat, but at the time this cause Lucien to lose any sense of trust for the group (He wasnt AS mad at Kenji and Sammy, but there was certainly a bit of distain for them not fighting as hard) and he became even more shutaway from them than he had been before.

The month where Ben was missing was horrible for Lucien, and he could not lie, that plus being stuck on the island brought back the suicidal thoughts that he thought he left on the mainland, he never acted on them, but there were a few times while running from dinosaurs he considered just- stopping dead in his tracks, acting as a distraction so the others could get away, but he didn't, always being pulled forward by Sammy or Kenji, he owed his life to him honestky, as much as he hated how egotistical Kenji was or how- weirdly optimistic Sammy was.

Lucien was ecstatic when Ben came back, of course, it was hard to tell through all the sobs, but he is sososo relieved to have Ben back, even if he has- changed. This is the first time Ben hears Lucien's voice, the first time any of the campers hear his voice, and its the first time Lucien says anything verbal, telling Ben "I thought I-..we- lost you-" and Ben would be lying if he said that one second slip up didn't make his heart run laps (HOW did it take them so long to realize they loved each other CHRIST). It took a lil bit to get used to Jungle Man Ben, but it wasn't too hard since Lucien was just relieved to have Ben back, ntm having Ben actually protrcting him at times, even putting him on Bumpy's back whenever they had to walk/run somewhere, not wanting him to trigger a pain flare up, definitely had Lucien questioning if he only liked girls (spoiler, he doesn't, thanks Ben).

He is able to grow more confident once Ben is back, kinda looking up to him and his growth for 'motivation', he's able to start talking with the campers, as well as helping out a bit more. His first major moment where he's able to step up and take some form of control over a situation is when Sammy gets hit by the Scorpios' spines, Lucien has knowledge in venoms and how they act, not only has he been bit by plenty of venomlus things (he does not think before he grabs) but he's also seen his father's studies (some of which did include the secret hybrid). He was able to take watch of Sammy, staying back with Brooklynn and Kenji to keep track of her symptoms, as well as help slow down certain ones. This was definitely the first time him and Yaz ever really spoke to each other (put two closed off ppl in a room, theyre probably gonna sit there in silence until you give up and let them out) Yaz thanking him for helping save Sammy, even hugging him in her emotional state (which very much caught him off guard).

Everything from there was somewhat normal,(Lucien even finding out Ben was also transmasc like him in this time), just them trying to get off the damn island, until Ben dropped the bomb that he didn't want to leave, this all sent Lucien back to the monorail, he knew what it was like to lose Ben, and that was back before they were as close as they were now, he just couldn't do it again. It got to the point where he threatened to stay on the island if Ben was, which Ben absolutely could not let happen, having Kenji physically drag Lucien onto the boat when they left. Ben would be lying if he said Lucien didn't have a big part in why he came back to the boat, yes, all the campers did, and more than anything, realizing he already found himself and didnt need to stay did, but the idea of never seeing Lucien again and letting him deal with losing him again definitely played a huge part in it.

MantahCore and Island 2, electric Boogaloo-(this one may be the shortest because, quite frankly, I forgot half of what happens in s4/5)

The second island is certainly a time for Lucien, the fact that he thought they were finally going home just to end up on another goddamn island sending his mental state crashing all over again, absolutely horrified he was never going to see his family again. The night where theyre all around the campfire is where he's able to break down. Of course at first he doesn't want to, he doesn't want everyone to know how scared he is, but when he doesn't get up to yell with everyone else they all turn their attention to him, trying to get him to join them, and he does- in a sense. At first it starts as just the most bloodcurdling scream, but quickly turns to him venting out all the emotions he's held pent up for the past god knows how many months, yelling about how sick he is of being stuck on random islands and being terrified that by the time he does get home his father is going to be long gone and his sister isnt going to be lost somewhere in the foster system, or worse, with his grandmother. He screams about how guilty he feels leaving his little sister alone, fearing that she's going to lose the only two people she has left. He screams about how he's sick of fearing for his life and not being able to trust anyone, he screams about how he's so sick of not being able to sleep because the RARE times he feels safe enough to actually fall asleep he's riddled with nightmares, whether they be about his own death or the deaths of those he loves. He fully breaks down once its all out, just crumbling completely. Darius is the first to hug him, the part about his dad hitting hard, and it eventually turns into one group hug, which they quite honestly all needed.

After they find Mae, and realize the island is not as it seems, Lucien is able to calm down a tiny bit, he doesn't trust Mae fully, but he can also smell the autism on her which helps a little bit. This is also around when he gets the scar on his face, courtesy of a brad. Mae is able give him the stitches he needs, as well as cleaning and dressing the wound, Ben and Sammy not leaving his side for a second, which is exactly how Ben gets 4 tiny scars on his palm from Lucien digging his nails into his hand while he gets the stitches witjout any form of anesthetic or pain meds.

When Lil Eatie gets injured, Lucien immediately goes into caretaker mode, not caring about his safety and doing whatever he can to make sure she's okay. Of course Mae tries to stop him at first, but once she notices that Lil Eatie has started to trust Lucien, still acting like a literal trex, but also not trying to kill him when he brings her untampered food, she calms down.

Another dino Lucien bonds with on the island is Firecracker, immediately clicking with her and loving her in a similar way to Ben with Bumpy. Everything was fine until he saw Nash controlling her, seeing how scared and in pain she was seemed to flip a switch in him, all his bottled up emotions turning into anger. This is what started him on the path he's on now, where he's willing to do anything to protect dinosaurs.

Anything.

From that point on he just does whatever he can to bring Nash and Daniel down, refusing to let them proceed with controlling dinos and their dino fights for their own enjoyment, or anyone's for that matter. Lowk forgot what happens atp but he helps take them down with the others, joins Ben to get Kenji and Bumpy back, helps with the plan to get Daniel off the island, yeehaw.

And then they're rescued.

Returning to the mainland and aftermath

Lucien is absolutely terrified the whole ride back to mainland.

Everyone else is excited, happy to go back to their families (except Kenji), and Lucien is alone, not even sure if his father is alive, if his sister is okay, if he has a family to go home to. Ben does try and cheer him up, reassure him that his dad is okay and everything will work out, but ofc, Lucien is too afraid to really listen.

When they return to the mainland, his father isn't there. Everyone's parents are there to reunite with them, and Lucien is alone, hell, even Kenji gets invited into the Bowman family hug. This does cause panic on Lucien's end, but Ben quickly takes notice, introducing Lucien to his mom and asking if Lucien can try calling his dad with her phone. She ofc says yes, recognizing Lucien as one of her coworker's kids, and Lucien is able to call his father, who is alive, but in the hospital as his health has deteriorated due to Lucien being assumed dead.

Ms.Pincus ends up giving Lucien a ride to the hospital, as it's very close to Ben's home anyways, Lucien sees his dad and sister again, breaks down, introduces Ben to his family, all is well.

Lucien and Ben continue to see each other nearly daily, Ben visiting him and his family in the hospital whenever he can, as thats literally where Lucien and his sister live now.

Everything is okay for just under a year, then Lucien's father passes.

Lucien is a mess after his father's death, his mental health completely deteriorating now that his father is gone. He blames himself for his death, wondering if he never went to that camp, never caused him so much stress, that he'd still be here, but its too late, he went and his father is gone.

Luckily enough for Lucien and Mia, Ms.Pincus did make arrangements with Lucien's father to take Lu and his sister, as his father did NOT want them ended up with their grandmother or in the foster care system. Thankfully for them Ms.Pincus had always been interested in adopting, as Ben's birth took a toll on her health, but she was afraid that whoever she adopted could hurt Ben, so taking in two kids who she knew loved her boy and would never hurt him was easy.

(TW FROM THIS POINT ON FOR DRUG ADDICTION)

Lucien resorts to using after his father is gone, it's the only thing that can keep him from feeling so many emotions, from thinking about the what ifs and the fact that his father is dead. It keeps him numb. This is what leads him to his current place of work, the sanctuary kept him in check, not allowing drugs and keeping him busy, keeping him distracted. Was it the most safe? No, but neither was using.

It doesn't help that he and Ben get into an argument soon after he starts using, Ben getting mad at him for clinging onto him so hard and ending the argument with "Sometimes I wish you never moved in!"

This is when he disappears for 18 months, yes he lets everyone know he's leaving, but him going no contact definitely scares people, especially Ben. This is what leads to Ben going to the island with Mae, as he cannot handle going home to a house without Lucien.

Post leave of Absence, Pre CT, The birth of Luciben

Lucien comes back after 18 months, finally feeling okay enough to see those he loves again, ntm he misses them like crazy. Ben is relieved to see him but god is he pissed, pissed that Lucien just up and left him and Mia behind, pissed that he did nothing to let them know if he was okay, or even ALIVE. Ben doesn't know WHY he left though, and that does cause arguments, Ben nearly breaking down when Lucien tells him why he left. The fact that his words were the final straw makes him feel so guilty, the fact that he made Lucien feel that way when he was already going through so much absolutely tears him apart.

The n7 aren't as close anymore once Lucien comes back, and it takes a lot of getting used to, Lucien even trying to get them together only to be shot down nearly everytime, so he just- gives up. Ben notices that Lucien stops asking tk hang out, and while he was one of the ones guilty for shooting down plans, it does worry him that Lucien just stopped asking. Ben tries asking to hang out only to be shot down himself, leading to an argument where Lucien breaks down and admits he feels like he doesn't belong here anymore, and that he almost regrets coming back because it feels like no one wants him around anyways. This breaks Ben's heart as he was part of the people shooting him down. From this point on Ben makes it his mission to make plans whenever he can, trying desperately hard to get everyone back together at least once for Lucien's sake.

Luckily Brooklynn does come around, she travels the most and she's felt that loneliness before, so she does what she can to visit Ben and Lucien whenever she can, which is when Lucien starts bleaching his hair with her help, making it somewhat of a tradition that whenever she comes around they redo his roots.

Things start to get better, Ben and Lucien hanging out like they used to, this however brings up buried feelings for each other, and a few months after Lucien comes back, right before Ben's about to go to uni, Ben confesses that he loves Lucien, and ofc Lucien returns those feelings and bam, gay rights.

Everything is good for a while, Lucien and Ben are happy together (minus the fact that Ben is still in the closet so no one knows about them), and eventually Brooklynn finds out about them (its kinda hard to make an excuse for why you were caught locking lips with your "homie") and she's super supportive, leading to their lil "BBL" friend group.

This just makes Brooklynn's death so much worse.

Lucien relapses after Brooklynn is pronounced dead, even showing up at her funeral high (he couldn't do it otherwise), this causes issues of course, it getting to the point where Ben doesn't feel okay leaving Lucien alone, leaving uni in order to be with him constantly, afraid he's going to do something stupid. Not long after he gets the messages on dark jurassic, leading to him and Lucien lacking up and heading out to get the others, leading to the events of Chaos Theory.

Really quick CT rundown go read Secret for more details

Tl;dr, Ben fucks up by saying he has a gf instead of coming out, the events of Secret happen, Lucien goes with Kenji and Darius, they find out that Lucien also left messages for Brooklynn when he relapsed, he breaks down, Kenji and Darius help him calm down, then the rest of Secret happens abd they get on the boat, yeehaw.

This ended up being lowkey poorly written near the end cause I just wanted to get it out, but I will most likely be releasing more detailed fics to kinda give insight on the parts where it feels like there are missing details. I just need to finally lost this cause its been in my drafts for a month LMAO

#lucien jwct #lucien jwcc #he STILL NEEDS A LAST NAME #ben pincus #jurassic world chaos theory #camp cretaceous #jurassic world camp cretaceous #camp cretaceous chaos theory #jwct #jwcc #jwct oc #jwcc oc #oc #original characters #original character #oc lore #brooklynn jwct #brooklynn jwcc

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cluz1babe · 7 months

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EDITED : 04 August, 2024

‘Open My Eyes to Everything that Closes My Heart’

(Limited use of Y/N) Canon-Divergent

Main Pairing : Aemond x You

Bonus Chapters/Blurbs/Drabbles Pairings : Aegon x You , Daemon x You x Aemond , Aemond x You

PLOT :

You were a Belaerys, with the Blood of Old Valyria in your veins, future Queen of Sothoryos. Up until eight years before the Dance of Dragons, everyone thought the Belaerys family was gone after the Doom. You were well-respected by everyone except most of the greens. Despite that, you were officially given a seat on the new High Council. The Hand, Otto Hightower, was trying to bring more countries to their aid, but his excuse was to bring peace between countries. Planning to wed you to Daeron, the Small Council of the Greens are shocked when Aemond refuses to offer you Daeron in order to take you for himself.

TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 129-133+ AC (a mix of show & book timeline & canon, plus my own)

THIS IS A REPRESENTATION OF YOUR RIDING CLOTHES

It will not have the AFAB reader (she/her) referred to as “Y/N” often.

Spoilers if you have not seen season I or II of House of the Dragon or read the book(s) or ASOIAF Wiki.

Notes & Trigger Warnings under the cut.

NOTES

Thank you for reading!

Season 2 Spoilers starting in Chapter Six

I am 90% sure I am neurodivergent because I miss a lot of social cues, among 9/10 other things that can diagnose someone as ND and I take ADHD meds to keep me awake during the day (thanks to narcoleptic tendencies). I just don’t have the money to get tested as an adult. If my writing seems stiff, please lmk. I’d really like to know what you think about this story. Lmk if there is something about the story that I didn’t explain well enough or forgot something. I will answer all questions. Just be gentle with criticism, please.

Guys, reader is very Alys-coded, but I didn’t even know about Alys Rivers until I practically finished writing. I leaned in, but I barely needed to add anything Alys related. I have not yet read the book completely, I just did a lot of show watching and reading of ASoIaF Wiki.

Any time you see a picture of a dragon I made, please note the website doesn’t actually have dragons, so I had to make dinosaurs with bird wings. 😢 Sorry, but it’s very sad for me.

Things are very slow and don’t only take place within two years for certain plot things to work. It starts before the death of Viserys.

I try to make as many visuals as possible, as I’m that type of person. I know Sothoryos is inspired by Africa via George, but I am Hispanic (Aztec ancestry) and wanted to give it a hispanic flair. Some of the Islands and cities are made up names, but others are named Nahuatl things.

I do not speak Nahuatl or High Valyrian (well), but I did look up words for things from multiple sources.

Very Canon-Divergent, mostly because I don’t want the dragons to die. Mix of book and show canon as well as being canon-divergent. I’m changing Aemond’s characterization a little bit, but partially with a reason : he finds his match in all things. NOTE : You cannot fix any person. They need to fix themselves. I have re-read 50 times, so I’m sorry if I messed up somewhere, but I tried.

My husband is my current beta reader & co-writer.

I’m going to try my hardest not to specify reader’s color, but I kind of imagine myself (obviously) and I might accidentally write something referring to lighter skin. If I do something like that, please lmk. I don’t want to exclude anyone.

BACK TO SERIES MASTERLIST

TRIGGER WARNINGS

Talk of Abortion, Emotionally Abusive Relationships (Aegon x Everyone), Alcohol, Blood, Blowjob, Branding, Bullying, Childbirth, Mentions of Rape (no rape of reader) , Death, Drugs, Fire, Hallucinations, Incest, Marriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Profanity, Sexism, Slut Shaming, Smut, Violence, War, P in V, Sex, Fingering, No Cheating, MDNI, 18+ , ENM (Ethical Non-Monogamy), Slight Breeding Kink, Dub-Con (in the Aegon Bonus Chapter) if you squint

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misty-caligula · 1 year

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I like season 2. I think that it’s a very well put together, well paced, well acted story. I know that I’m not necessarily agreed with on this by everybody, but I want to just say a thing about that.

The modern media machine is brutal and messy. The many cast and crew members that work on any given project are remarkably limited in their individual power, regardless of how high their positions are within the system, they’re all expendable, all just... employees, able to be swapped out if they step out of line according to the corporate interest. They sign contracts that limit their ability to speak openly to us about the realities on the ground, and beyond that they have to acknowledge their own careers in a VERY insular, rumor-heavy community, where being marked as “difficult” destroys you.

I know that a portion of the fandom is unhappy with the pacing in S2. Feels that certain story lines are not given enough time. Kristen felt like she popped out of nowhere. Some folk feel that the adult timeline is too heavily pushed. That the original hunt wasn’t talked about enough. That it’s all just a bit... messy. And I can see how you get there. It’s not been enough to bother me, watching it, but I see how you get there.

I think that I am part of a lucky group, because I find almost all of the characters, in both the teen and adult timelines, equally interesting. But I imagine that if you’re PRIMARILY here for the teens or certain characters it must be very frustrating when your favorites seem AWOL.

But what I do not get is how people go from that to “The writers have no idea what they’re doing, they LIED to us about having a plan, they’re all incompetent, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Firstly, the writers make the blueprint, sure, but it needs to then be built, filmed, put together, directed, you need to get hours and hours and hours and hours of footage and then edit it all together. We have no IDEA what’s left behind. What was in the script that got dumped for time. Or for the sake of pacing. Or because it was too expensive. Or because of... who knows. We don’t know what we don’t know. The writers do not magically create their ideal version of the show, they only make path for others to follow.

I mean consider you’re an editor and you have 3 different versions of the same line from the same actor, and you have to use the one that most accurately gives a certain energy. One is 2 seconds longer, but clearly the best. You now have to shave 2 seconds off SOMETHING else. Extrapolate that out to 10 hours’ runtime, make sure you never miss anything, and keep the pacing going.

Which leads me onto my big ... Thing. Season 2 only has 9 episodes. Some people in the fandom are really amazing at finding behind the scenes sources on what’s happening, but I cannot find a single word on the reasoning behind cutting back this season. I thus cannot say conclusively that an episode was stolen from the show, that it wasn’t originally planned to be 9 episodes long. But it seems odd. And, IF it WAS meant to be 10 episodes, I can reason out the consequences.

1 episode is 60 minutes. So if you were a writer and you assumed, when you were making the overall outline pre- season 1 that you’d get 10 eps per season, you’d create certain overarching threads. Then you’d sit down to write S2. At what point do you find out that the decision’s been made and you’re an episode short? At the start? Half way? Assume you have 600 minutes of story. Now you have to fit it into 540 minutes. That’s a lot of slices.

Look at what you’ve got. What conversations don’t strictly HAVE to be had? What character development doesn’t HAVE to be done? How much can you rely on what you put into s1, and how much can you rely on the intelligence of your audience, that you can use vibes and the strength of correlating scenes to imply things you WERE going to explicitly state?

I mean... I think about the first hunt. I think about why it’s got so little build up, because ... sure I buy what you’re saying. It’s a bit fast. It FEELS a little like they shot some stuff, or wrote some stuff, that’s missing. Right? So why is it like that?

Well, imagine a hypothetical 10 ep season.

S2E7 Shauna beats down Lottie.

S2E8 Misty takes care of her. The rest of the teens struggle without her. More hallucinations, more issues, not having her is a real problem, and it’s made VERY clear that she’s been the glue that holds them together. Without her they’re falling apart. Van, for example has a reconstruction of her faith, realising that the reality of facing a world where Lott might die is worse than she had thought in the abstract. The last scene of S2E8 Lottie says “If I die, eat me.”

S2E9 Some stuff happens where it’s clear they NEED her. They notice Coach has vanished. Some more stuff about how bad they’re starving, they need food, it’s all they can think about. Then, 1/3rd the way thru, Misty says “Lottie’s dying, she said we should eat her if she does.” They say “No way, we should save her.” They spend 1/3rd of the episode talking it through. Van takes the place as the high priestess of Lottie, Tai’s converted fast, Mari agrees, Misty follows because she’s Misty. They slowly convince the others via calls to needing Lottie OR needing food. Nat holds out til the end, but is eventually persuaded because she realises either she joins in or they’ll just kill her as an outsider. They come to an uneasy peace with the idea, kind of. Last 1/3rd of the episode is the first hunt.

MEANWHILE S2E8 adult world is stuff with Adam, Jeff, Walter, who knows what, maybe more therapy stuff. I feel like a lot of Walter stuff probably got cut, he’s easy to cut stuff from. The women get deeper into the wilderness cult, it’s more clear how far they’re losing their grip, how much they’re buying into Lottie’s new wilderness. End of S2E8, Jeff gives the call about Adam’s body.

S2E9 is the adults sitting around the table. At the end of S2E9 Lottie suggests the poison, with the context of the teens talking about the hunt taking place behind it. Then we have the teens deciding that yes they should do the hunt, and watching it go the way it does. We have more context about WHY the teens decided to do the hunt (it’s not context we do not have now, in the vibes, but it’s more explicit) and we see more why it’s a convincing argument for them when Lottie says it in the adult timeline.

S2E10 probably plays out the same way that S2E9 will in real life.

That is WAY smoother. But that would also make sense as to why it is the way it is right now. Because people are like “Why is the hunt happening NOW?” and honestly? I think it’s because they HAVE to have it now so that S2E9 makes sense for the adults. So that Lott can bring out her kool aid and not have it come out of nowhere. They NEEDED to juxtapose the hunt and the kool aid together, and the hunt always had to happen off- set just slightly to give that context.

This is just a theory. I can’t PROVE that they lost an episode. But I will say this, that making a big project like this is the work of many many hands, and I have faith in the intentions of the creatives involved. I don’t think that people are trying to lie to us, to pretend like there’s all these cool ideas when there aren’t. I think that modern capitalism is a nightmare for making art, and that they’re doing the best in the framework they’re given. I think that Yellowjackets is a fantastic sculpture, and it’s reasonable to say it has its rough edges, as long as we’re acknowledging that literally everything does.

I, for one, am incredibly excited to see what happens in S2E9, and I hope that once the strike is over S3, 4 and 5 will be able to be as close to their vision as they can make them.

#This is just a theory #a yellowjackets theory #yellowjackets #spoilers #long post #.Literally all my posts are long

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dontlikeadam · 5 months

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reputation album

Of note, reputation (as an album title) is in all lowercase.

This album was sort of marketed like it would be an album for Joe, but a lot of the songs never really seemed to fit correctly. Timeline wise it would have been around Calvin, Tom Hiddleston and then into Joe.

... Ready for it. (9/10)

"Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him. Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted." This didn't really seem to fit with anyone we knew she dated at the time. Matty would work.

"But if he's a ghost, then I can be a phantom holding' him for ransom" back to the ghosting and her trying to hold onto him.

"Younger than my exes, but he act like such a man so I see nothing better, I keep him forever. Like a vendetta". Works for Joe, but would also work for Matty since both Tom and Calvin were older than Taylor and Matty.

"Touch me and you'll never be alone. Island breeze and lights down low. No one has to know" back to something secret

"In the middle of the night, in my dreams you should see the things we do, baby, mmm. In the middle of the night, in my reams. I know I'm gonna be with you, so I'll take my time" Back to her waiting for him because she know they will end up together.

"Knew I was a ROBBER first time that he saw me" Robbers reference

"And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor" Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton love story reference

"Baby let the games begin, let the games begin, let the games begin"

Rep followed 1989, so this very well could have been some of the first songs she wrote after meeting Matty in 2014. This is a song that even my friends who hated Matty agreed was most likely him, because it truly made zero sense for anyone else she was with.

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Endgame (7/10)

"ohhh you and me, we got big reputations, ah and you heard about me, ohh, I got some big enemies" This also never really fit with her partners at the time.

"ohh, you and me would be a big conversation. And I heard about you, you like the bad ones too" Not a line that would relate to Joe or Tom, possibly Calvin but seems unlikely.

Futures Rap (hard to say since you don't know if Taylor wrote these)

"You so dope, don't overdose"

"I'm in the Ghost like I'm whippin a boat"

"I got a bad-boy persona, thats what they like. You love it"

"You hold me down and I protect you with my life"

Ed's Part (hard to say since you don't know if Taylor wrote these)

"Reputation preceded me, in rumors I'm knee deep. And you understand the good and bad end up in the songs"

"For all your beautiful traits and the way you do it with ease, for all my flaws, paranoia and insecurities"

"I've made mistakes and made some choices that's hard to deny"

Taylor

"We tried to forget it, but we just couldn't"

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I Did Something Bad (3/10)

I am not sure anyone ever really had a good handle on who this was about that I can remember. I think I always just assumed it was about several guys she had dated. I really don't see anything specific enough in this song to relate to any certain person or situation.

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Don't Blame Me (9/10)

"Don't blame me, love made me crazy. If it doesn't, you ain't doing it right. Lord save me, my drug is my baby. I'll be using for the rest of my life". Could just be a metaphor, but would fit Mattys drug use at the time. We don't know of anyone else that she dated that would have had a drug problem.

"I've been breaking hearts a long time, and toying' with them older guys" back to it being someone her age or younger, so Harry, Conner or Matty.

"For you I would cross the line, I would waste my time, I would lose my mind" - risking her reputation for him. Wasting her time knowing he isn't ready to settle down.

"I'm insane, but I'm your baby. Echoes of your name inside my mind. Halo hiding my obsession". She has only mentioned a Halo in one other song of hers, "I can fix him (no really I can)".

"And baby, for you I would fall from grace" - willing to give it all up for him. This wouldn't fit for her other partners.

"I get so high, oh. Every time you're loving' me" - keeping the drug references.

"Trip of my life" - still drug references.

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Delicate (7/10)

Always assume to be Joe, but looking at it as possibly a Matty song. Delicate music video possible matching his Oh Caroline dress vibes for that female character.

"This ain't for the best. My reputations never been worse, so you must like me for me". This was sort of around the time she fell from grace after the Kim/Kanye controversy. Matty obviously wouldn't care if she had a bad reputation.

"Dive bar on the East Side, where you at? Phone lights up my nightstand in the black" Assumed to be NYC. Him calling her in the dead of night.

"Come here, you can meet me in the back. Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you. Ooh damn never saw that color blue" Jeans reference again. Always assumed the blue was in relation to Joe having blue eyes, but could be the reference to Matty in the color blue.

"Third floor on the West Side, me and you. Handsome, you're a mansion with a view" Could they have been looking at apartments in NYC? Or more, he was going with her to look at apartments? This could refer back to his song "When we are together" and looking for a fancy new apartment.

"Do the girls back home touch you like I do" sort of alludes to the fact they aren't really exclusively together.

"Sometimes when I look into your eyes, I pretend you are mind all the damn time" they are somewhat casual

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Look What You Made Me Do (0/10)

Kanye/ Kim

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So It Goes (9/10)

Another song that never fit Joe or her previous partners overly well. A lot of reputation was sort of about her being with someone she shouldn't be with and that just wasn't really the public view of anyone she dated.

"Back against the wall. Trippin' trip=trippin' when your gone" - drug references

"Cause we break down a little, but when you get me alone it's so simple" - they did better when they were just alone and didn't have all the noise of outside opinions

"You know I'm not a bad girl, but I do bad things with you" some sort of a bad boy

"All eyes on us, I make all your grey days clear and wear you like a necklace"

"Come here, dressed in black now"

"Scratches down your back" Just an oddly sexy line for her other partners.

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Gorgeous (0/10)

Always assumed to be when she went from Tom Hiddleston to Joe

"I've got a boyfriend, he's older then us" Tom being older

"Ocean blue eyes, lookin in mine" Joe

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Getaway Car (3/10)

Assumed to be Taylor going from Calvin to Tom

"I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason"

"It was the great escape, the prison break. The light of freedom on my face, but you weren't thinking and I was just drinking"

"But with three of us, honey its a sideshow"

"and a circus ain't a love story and now we're both sorry"

"put the money in the bag and I stole the keys. That was the last time you ever saw me" sort of a robbers love story theme, but I am unsure how Matty would have played into this time line.

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King of My Heart (3/10)

Always assumes to be Joe. Nothing overly specific that would change my mind on that.

References them meeting not long before they started dating, which should exclude Matty, unless the song was written way earlier then it was released.

Notes she is his "American Queen" so that could fit for Joe or Matty.

"Cause all the boys in their expensive cars, with their Range Rovers and their Jaguars never took me quite where you do" would have worked for either Joe or Matty.

"Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep" could work for either. She kept Joe decently quiet for a while before we knew they were dating.

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Dancing With Our Hands Tied (8/10)

Taylor and Matty would have been 25 in 2014. So after Harry and before Calvin, right in that Matty phase.

Joe would have been 25 in 2016, right when they started dating. So the age part is really not overly helpful. I think what's most helpful is the fact this is written like the relationship was over at the time of her writing this, which doesn't fit with Joe.

"I, I loved you in secret. First sight we love without reason".

"Oh, twenty-five years old. Oh, how were you to know?"

"Deep BLUE, but you painted me golden" - Blue Matty reference

"You said there nothing in the world that could stop it. I had a bad feeling" like something DID indeed stop it

"And darling, you had turned my bed into a secret oasis, people started talking putting us through our paces. I knew there was no one in the world who could take it. I had a bad feeling". Them dating in secret and then the press finding out and causing a stir

"I, I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us" - divide them because they were so different.

"I'd kiss you as the lights went out. Swaying as the room burned down. I'd hold you as the water rushed in. If I could dance with you again" - wanting to stay together threw the bad weather. The relationship was over at this point, ,which wouldn't fit Joe as far as we know.

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Dress (2/10)

Assumed to be Joe. Timing works based on her bleached hair and his buzzcut at the time. Otherwise this sounds like a Matty song to me, but I just can't make that work in my head since Matty would not have had a buzzcut when they met.

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This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (0/10)

Kim and the Kim/Kanye/Taylor phone call.

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Call It What You Want (0/10)

Joe. A song about her reputation and how it was ruined, but he was sort of her calm in the storm and wasn't really one who was involved in any of the drama.

"I'm laughing with my lover, making forts under covers" just sort of a funny line now....

"I want to wear his initial on a chain round my neck. Not because he owns me, but because he really knows me" She wore a J necklace a lot during her early days with Joe

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New Years Day

Always assumed to be Joe. Nothing specific in this that makes me think otherwise.

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fezwearingjellybananas · 7 months

Note

5 [Once Upon a Timeline], 8, 9, 10, 17 and 25 for the fanfic writer ask game!

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

Once Upon a Timeline

Ooh! Ooh, that's actually tricky and I don't know if I have a specific thing off the top of my head? Maybe what went down with Bivolo because Barry presumerably didn't go attack Eddie but honestly I didn't put much more thought into it than Barry wouldn't be jealous of Eddie in the same way, but Eddie definitely encounters a whammied Barry still. It's still a toss up in my mind of whether it's in regret about what he did when he was whammied or post Revenge of the Rogues that Barry goes to tell Malcolm the truth about everything. I am certain he at first groups Malcolm in with Iris after Joe does the nonsense "promise not to tell Iris to keep her safe" thing though, and Malcolm is not happy about it either. He is especially grumpy the first person Barry ran to was the Arrow and not his own twin, and very quick to point out Barry did not run to him because "he has experience and the best advice", he ran to Oliver because he knew Oliver wouldn't tell him no.

Malcolm is the only person at that point who knows Barry is having complicated feelings about Iris and Eddie though.

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

I do keep thinking Hold Me Like a Grudge (Fall Out Boy) could fit an Eobard and Barry fic...

9. How do you find new fic to read?

There are a few authors I am subscribed to, and if I see an interesting looking post on here (either by the author or in a rec list) I might go click on that one, but honestly most of the time I just go into The Flash- All Media Types tag in chronological order and see if there's an interesting sounding summary. I do have a few tags I have set the bookmark with those filtered out though, and I might go into a more specific tag if I'm looking for something more specific

10. How do you decide what to write?

Sometimes ideas feel like daydreams and some I'll note down and I guess if I have an idea and it feels firmly stuck in my head and I keep thinking about it I think oh I'll write that one? If there's more thought then it's a subconscious one.

I'm very fond of canon divergent aus though, they'll be more likely to make it to the notes than a full blown au, though I have had some fun with them too

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

That's kind of what Fixed Point is, albeit just a snippet, but imagine a whole canon divergent AU of s2 of Legends of Tomorrow where Nora Allen is also there and basically the point of this is so she can deck Eobard Thawne. She deserves it.

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

Wikipedia is my best friend. Mostly if I'm doing research I only want a vague overview anyway, Wikipedia's good for that.

Thank you!

[Fanfic Writer Asks]

#replies #goldheartedchaoticdisaster #*

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hexiewrites · 10 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 43!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 562,348, which is honestly insane

3. What fandoms do you write for? right now mostly stranger things. I've got most of a ted lasso fic written but who knows if that'll get posted?? and prev, harry potter.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1. don't take this sinner (dramione, marriage law ish), 2. same as it ever was (steddie, two timelines, one of my first steddie fics!) 3. carve your name into my chest (steddie, the hockey au of my dreams) 4. come get your man (he got lost in my DMs) (steddie, social media, steve being a horny DM guy) 5. there'll be a riot (cause I know you) (steddie, the matty-healy-rat-man-Eddie-vibed mostly smut fic)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? ugh. I WISH!!!! I want to be better at this, I really do. I usually start strong but I end up with limited energy/time and I want to filter that into writing more. if you've ever commented: I FUCKING LOVE YOU and think you're SO cool! if you really WANT a reply, the best way to get that is to ask me questions haha. it starts to feel weird just "thank you!"ing everyone, ya know?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I am.... not an angsty ending person tbqh! I think the closest is probably you love the sea, which is a flintwood rarepair selkie fic that I deeply love. it ends happy, insofaras they end up TOGETHER, but if you think more about the implications and how fucking sad it's going to be for oliver... well. I'll leave that to you guys.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? god, I'm well known for having "endings so happy they border on absurd", according to one person online. so, pick your poison I guess! anyways the fic THAT person was referring to was same as it ever was, so, let's go with that!

8. Do you get hate on fics? I have been so lucky lately to not get much hate at all lately, which is a real privilege in the fandom world. remember that I cut my teeth in early days of harry potter, and people were BRUTAL. I definitely HAVE gotten hate - my aforementioned dramione fic has a bit of a weird twist that some people were PISSED about (and once I got an incredibly detailed comment about how badly I fucked up my representation of black Hermione because she... didn't talk that much about hating her hair? which I know is AN experience but not necessarily a universal one) but overall, at least this fandom go around, no hate. thank you, everyone, for that!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes. lots and lots and lots of it. mostly kinda kinky and pretty much all pretty gay. let's not talk about how many times I've had to tag dacryphilia and what that means. I just like when people fuck about things, yknow?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? nope, never! and I likely never will. too much to keep track of.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not that I know of, thank god for that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had requests but... I would need a translator willing to work pretty closely with me because I want to make sure certain choices come across well, and I haven't found that yet.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? not officially, though I did write a buckingham companion piece to the amazing cowboy-bar fic @riality-check did!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? OH GOD don't make me choose! ALL TIME is still probably dramione, but steddie is a very close second. in terms of canon ships, I'm such a sucker for buffy/spike (leave me alone), and veronica mars/logan (AGAIN LEAVE ME ALONE) and rory/logan (BECAUSE RICH WHITE BOYS NAMED LOGAN ARE A WEAKNESS, APPARENTLY)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? pour one OUT for you can't take the sky from me, which is my firefly inspired harry potter au ft pansy/percy, mostly because I had so many big plans for it that I've completely forgotten AND I just can't write in that fandom at all anymore. sorry everyone, I do love what I put out and I wish there was more of it.

16. What are your writing strengths? prose, smut, tying things together with little bows, and spending way too much time in my characters heads

17. What are your writing weaknesses? dual POVs, getting so lost in one character I don't flesh out the others as much as I mean to, action sequences, and consistent motivation

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I've done it before (mostly in clean ice, cold hearts, can't lose) and my typical strategy is to indicate that the characters are speaking a diff language (in french, I use guillements and italics) but not to actually WRITE the french, unless it's very short and the POV character doesn't understand it on purpose like in carve.

19. First fandom you wrote for? harry potter baby! my oldest posted fic that I've found online was from 2002, when I was... too young to be interacting with the internet like that, that's for sure.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? carve your name into my chest and it's no contest. I love same as it ever was as well, which I think is a better WRITTEN fic technically speaking, but carve was a huge passion project that I had so much fun with, and the response to it had been one of my favourite things in the world. oh, and special shout out to make this inn our own, which is my second longest fic ever and was just an absolute joy to do. so, those three, I guess!

tagging with no pressure: @riality-check @hereforanepilogue @maxineholtzmann @stevespookington @stevethehairington @withacapitalp and whoever else wants in!

#ask games #author tags #about the author

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lostparadox · 1 year

Text

It’s been over a week so I think I can post this.

The finale of the Flash was so much badder than I should have been. I get that certain actors and certain events about and within the crew was going on, but here’s my take on how the flash season 9 should have been.

Ep 1-5 (part 1); Rogue war: Mostly the same, but with more iconic characters who played the villains and the rogues who actually appeared. I get they had limited time, but after crisis, Cisco said that most of the villains in the entire Arrowverse came back, so have more iconic villain characters return, and some who we know are still alive (for example Heatwave, tho I read somewhere that he didn’t want to return as the character) or some characters who escaped the prison that the speed force attacked in season 7. Another thing that I’ll put here since I don’t know where else to put it, I actually liked the story with Khione, so I’d keep that in.

Ep 1-5 (part 2); Red Death: There are a multitude of different ways this character and arc could have gone. Option 1: More expensive and lots of legal work, but get the actual Bruce Wayne and try to follow a similar path on the comics (alternate universe where Bruce merged with Barry to become better) or something completely new (Have an older Bruce try to build a suit to harness the speed force like Godspeed and go insane doing so [I heard somewhere that Arrowverse Batman killed joker so that could lean into this idea more]. Option 2: Still expensive: Get the original Batwoman actor Ruby Rose and have her follow the comic origin or the new origin they made up. Option 3: Have the Red death we got be from the Reverse-Flashpoint timeline, since it made more sense, since when talking to Iris, Ryan Wilder said something about a red speedster, so move on with that information. There are a lot of different ways this could have gone, but Eric Wallace is why we got what we got, and we got a crybaby bitch version of the dreaded red death, who didn’t kill anyone, despite the show saying so in the future the original Nora was from. I did like how the real Ryan Wilder appeared to help Barry take down red death. The ending where Joe moves away was sad, though I guess it made sense for both the actor and the character, though I did like seeing Cecile and Joes daughter, since it would have made more Spence if she appeared dung the Armageddon crossover when Joe died, though it wasn’t the worst case scenario . The reveal that Iris is pregnant with Nora was a slight surprise I didn’t see coming.

Ep 6-8: Mainly filler episodes, which could have been much better than the ones we got. First off, and this will be a tangent later, why and what was the purpose to making Cecile a superhero; Virtue, who is an entirely different character than Cecile. Seriously, it felt more like the Cecile and friends show than The Flash. Episode 6 was basically filler, but they could’ve shown us more of Central City outside Barry’s perspective, to help us understand why the city is the way it is. Episode 7 was basically some lore, but mainly lore for Supergirl’s show, they could have told us more about what has been happening in National City since the shows ending and how the characters have been since then as well. It was too bad that Melissa couldn’t come back to the Flash as Supergirl as predicted. Episode 8 was mostly filler as well, since all it did was be an episode in one setting; Star labs. The Chester and Allegra relationship parts were mid at best. Episode 9, was amazing. It honestly should have been a two-parter, replacing episode 8 and having 9 has the second part. The story was amazing, Barry’s birth, the guilt he feels as the Flash, John Diggle’s return and his small story, Wally’s story and the knowledge of the new multiverse Oliver as the Spectre created, Oliver’s return and his story, Ramsey returning and his new plan and his eventual defeat, and Oliver saying that the future we saw that he and Felicity reunited hasn’t happened yet was amazing. His final words to Barry and how Barry finally got closure to his best friends death was so sweet. Thank you Steven Amell.

Ep 8-13 (part 1): Episode 10 though, that was something we have been expecting for 9 years. With the start of the Cobalt Blue storyline and the ending of the series, we were expecting big things. Episode 10 was one of those. The whole, Iris getting a Pulitzer Prize was nice since Nora mentioned that she gets 2 in the future, so that was nice, and so was Khione writing letters to Mark, Caitlin and Frost. Then we get into the good stuff, Barry getting sent back to the past, March 18, 2000, the day his mother is murdered by the Reverse Flash, and his father is sent to jail. Seeing Matt Lentscher return as the real Eobard Thawne was nice, though I wish that after Flashpoint, Matt appeared more and in Tom Cavanagh, no offense to either. The whole, blue crystal thing was a bit confusing for me but it seemed to make some sense. We also got to see the last time Barry got to interact with his parents, which was heartwarmingly sad. But then, we get to that fight on that night. With Barry trying to save Thawne, and eventually leading to the fight we’ve been waiting for for over 9 years. Seeing Barry tell his young self, ‘no Barry, no running this time’ was so good! Barry last words with Eobard were amazing due to it being the only time Barry knew what Eobard was doing before he knew himself, before Barry being teleported somewhen else making Eobard think he won due to Barry seemingly dying in front of him. Then we get a reveal of Malcolm Gilmore , a nearly identical copy of Eddie Thawne in 2049, before being struck by lightning and seeing a folder of Eddie. The only problems that I have with this episode is that we never see what happens to the original Barry Allen, the Flash who got struck by lightning in 2020 and who disappeared in Crisis four years later in 2024. We never got to know him or see his life and original timeline, minus a few words and hints we got from Thawne over the course of the series. Another thing is that we never got to see how Barry ‘ruined’ Thawne’s life in the future. We got a few hints during seasons 2,3,8 and here in season 9, as well as some during his time on Legends of Tomorrow, but we never saw how Barry did it, whether it be the original Barry Allen, or our Barry Allen.

Ep 8-13 (part 2) episode 11: This episode wasn’t that good compared to the two episodes that came before, but it also was not as nearly as bad as it could’ve been. First, the story of ‘ Malcolm Gilmore’ trying to find out who Eddie Thawne was was so good. The return of Korber was slightly surprising, due to her new position in the future as the captain of CCPD (rip). The speed force Nora and team flash trying to find Barry and fight Mark(Chillblaine) under the influence of the crystal was nice. Seeing how powerful Khione was in instantly killing and reviving Mark was so surprising! Iris then goes into labor. And the reveal of Malcolm being Eddie who was brought back by the negative forces and sent to the future by the singularity was a surprising callback that I’m sure all of us forgot. And the bullet still being in Eddie’s heart before pulling it out was so surprising.

Ep 8-13 (part 3) Episode 12: After accidentally killing Captain Korber (rip), Eddie goes to star labs where the 2049 team flash have just defeated the teased and long awaited villain, the Chronarch. After Eddie sees all the times Eobard came back despite his sacrifice, Nora comes to help him, only to be possessed by the blue crystal. After Barry is taken the future and fights the possessed Nora, he talks to Eddie who blames everything on Barry, his death, him being forgotten, and Barry and Iris’s family. After going to visit future Iris, who rejects him , Eddie then makes us his mind, becomes Cobalt Blue, and revived some of the Flash’s greatest enemies. My only problem I have with this episode and the finale is that more characters should have appeared, a big example, Bart West-Allen. I don’t know why Jordan William Fisher couldn’t appear, I’ll search for why later but I do wish he appeared.

For episodes 13, I’ll make another post due to this one being WAY to long.

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ravyn-pain · 16 days

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This post is just to collect all my oc facts in one post that i had posed on instagram as im making tumblr my main platform now

you can read them under the cut :D

Out of all the siblings, ravyn is the oldest

Ravyn is 5 years older than Blair and Silver and has a different father resulting in him being only part demon and part basilisk but not a vampire

Due to his father's actions, he pretended to not be a basilisk until in very late years he finally made peace with his basilisk side

Ravyns father is a good guy and takes care of ravyn as much as he can considering he was devoiced and ravyn suddenly became royalty it became a little harder but they have a good relationship

Ravyns stepfather on the other hand is a different question considering ravyn did kill the guy for his actions on his siblings

Only Grader basilisk and certain changelings can actually copy and fully truly mimic another species' traits

normal changelings and lesser basilisks can still shapeshift but not truly mimic another species ability-wise

it's how ravyn hid his basilisk self so long he is a grader basilisk

the spikes on a light vampire tail are poisonous

Their spit can fix that tho

ravyns hair was braided by Roze who wanted to give him a

lil makeover randomly and he liked it

Archangels that became spirits of any kind after death can still fall!

This happens to lizkana in proxy as ravyn uses a few spells that are forbidden for angels resulting in Liz becoming fallen

Liz does not mind she even gave permission a long time ago

A fallen archangel's white stars in the eyes become black like an

archdemons eyes

Vyrn is ravyn in full disguise when he does not want to be recognized

He acts differently while in that appearance and only selected people know that that is him

It's how he

sometimes manages to just disappear when things are too much or something happens and he needs to be alone

Vyrn used to be the disguise ravyn used to go around while being wanted

He continued using it to just have a

break from things and from himself, he enjoys pretending to be someone else from time to time

Ravyn has DID but in his older years (when he hit his 500ers) they managed to do a final fusion resulting in him taking traits of his alters

If nothing goes absolutely badshit crazy then he will split again tho only time can tell

Ravyn is finally slowly finding peace with himself and his life

Concepts are the highest gods there are (outside of the nexus)

There can be more than one concept of the same thing this is very rare tho! And mainly the concept of time is known to be present twice

Concepts only have a full concept form if they are fully initialized!

That needs to happen willingly from a person itself or with the help of a fully initialized concept

There is a 50/50 chance of also mostly losing your emotions

The full concept forms are kinda of eldrich like and can't be seen by normal people only by gods, demi

gods, non-initiated concepts, and full concepts

Only on rare occasions can a normal person presive a full concept form without passing out

A concept has a base power it alwase has But the longer it goes being uninitiated the stronger it becomes when they initiated

This does not apply to element concepts or soul concepts!

about snow

the crystal in her chest

Pready much hit her heart so she has no heartbeat

the magic of the crystal is what keeps her alive so removing it would kill her It is also what keeps her blood flow going this is

have enough magic control and

enough magic to do All of the magic guardians can pull this off ravyn is the one who can pull it off the longest

#10

the timeline events were ravyn or more

Crimson went off the rails due to the hated magic that was thrown at him (not fully ravyns fault as he was talked into it by lizkana when he was like 12 and mentally a 9-year-old)

were stopped by Blair!

Blair unfortunately lost most of her emotions in the progress (strong emotions still come through and her personality didn't change too much from it anyway

but ravyn does not remember that as

Blair blocked off the memory for his own well-being so ravyn also does not know that Blair's initiation as a concept was to stop him

Blair does not resent ravyn as she knows he is not really in control

#11

Mary janes sister is blind she can only really see light and dark and the magic auras of people and objects

this unfortunately caused mj parents to completely neglect MJ, which later caused a situation that caused mj to become fallen (mj is an angel but finding a Terra orb transformed her into what she is now)

it didn't help that mj is not the strongest magic-wise

it caused mj to have a very bad relationship with her parents and go no contact

she has a very good relationship with her the only family member ahd

currently has contact with

maybe she will try to contact her parents one day

who knows??

#12

magic guardians have their own pledge they use

All kingdoms have a pledge but the magic guardians are known to not use it due to them acting separately from the kingdom (as they are technically a mercenary

Team)

This did cause confusion in the beginning but it was accepted

Also, all members of the magic guardians are not original citizens of the Equinnien kingdom while in the old Quatet now known as the holy Quartet all are

Originally from the Equinnen kingdom

(ignoring that ravyn was part of them for a good while)

As a mercenary team, they have some special

permissions

But it also helps the case that they have diplomatic immunity

They still are seen as special forces team

But what kind of permission do they have?

They are one step lower than the Queen herself they can overpower her

discussions it needed this was implemented by Lucky Stricker just in case and anything like that would need to go through ravyn first too as a security measure

They are also deeply involved with the kingdom itself yet they are not tied to the decisions tho hence why they can act commolet against the kingdom with no problems if needed

Lucky also trusts her uncle's decisions as he knows what he is doing most of the time

#13

Ravyn acts like a royal advisor to Lucky while not officially having that title

People know that Lucky trusts ravyn decisions most time and if not she has good reasons and ravyn accepts that

But Lucky knows he will go with what he believes is right but also knows we will try not to pull

everyone is into whatever he is doing except the magic guardian's members

#14

Both Silver and Blair are part of the magic guardians

Blair is the only one with ravyn who has an outside job of the mercenary group

Blair being a doctor/ surgeon

Ravyn being an escort and doc/surgeon

Ravyn is also part of the high council and magic council

This is how they can get inside information about stuff

And yes they know how ravyn tents to use the information

#15

lizkana usually stops Ravyn before he can go full-on berserk out of Rage by taking control of the body

there have been a few recorded incidents

where she could not take over in time

the most recent one being a unique case

as she did even try to stop him from going berserk when his younger brother Lucifer got killed

That so far the only case where lizkana

encourages him to go berserk

#16

Ravyn was not born into royalty but rather gained royal status due to his mother's marriage. This also resulted in his double surname, as vampire citizens always have them. He acquired his stepfather's surname, which he later changed when he married Yuno.

As he grew older, he became more familiar with and embraced his royal heritage, no longer hiding the fact that he was royalty.

#17

Ravyn despite being 5 years older alwase was behind in development as a child he was slower

This caused him to enter school 2 years late and being only 2 grades Over Blair and silver

Blair was also the first to run away at 16

Silver ran away at 17 and ravyn ran away at 24 It was also when he went on a murder spree as his mind just snapped hard

He luckily snapped out of it later on but still suffered from it for centuries

He still doing his best to fix his mistakes by helping as much as he can as he feels very guilty and very bad he even did that stuff so he's trying to fix it

#18

Ravyn and Blair had a secret agreement

running that if something happens and they dont think they can do the job as a concept

anymore they transfer the powers to the other sibling

this unfortunately would take effect in a hospital attack where Blair would permanently lose her magic

making ravyn the concept of reality and time

Blair survises but barely due to no longer being a concept her emotions block is also lifted giving her back her ability to feel emotions again in full swing

her personality is

mostly the same still just now a little more emotional

#19

Basilisks are with changelings the only species that lay eggs the egg is inside them for 1 month and for the rest, it takes 3 months till hatching

there can be more than one kid in the egg too!

hybrids still are possible basilisk hybrids sometimes take longer till hatching and if they are in the womb of someone who does not lay eggs they actually often grow faster and birth happens

after 5 months

#20

the most common nicknames ravyn has so far

Short Stack (a nickname a lot of people start using for him he loves the nickname unironically his siblings started it but he tends to call himself Short Stack)

danger noodle that one was a joke that just became a few friends calling him that)

the emotional one(he is very expressive when and emotional at times earning him that nickname)

#21

Ravyn

relationship status

Married to yuno

a lot of times things just don't work out so they decide to split but

ravyn makes sure it's on good terms and he is still friends with all of them

Also seby, Aurora, and Polaroid still live with ravyn! The house he owns is so big and has so many rooms he lets them stay as he otherwise does not know what to do with all the godamm rooms he has

Divorced but in very good terms

Seby (still married to yuno)

Polaroid

Klara

green heart

Aurora (still married to yuno)

ravyn is still poly and alwase will be if he clicks

with someone he will try and whether it works out or not only time can tell

#22

Basilisk's mother tongue is Russian!

Due to ravyn being part Basilisk and living with Basilisks till he was 5, he has a Russian accent!

A pretty strong one too thanks to his mother's decision to only communicate in that language with him

silver and Blair's mother tongue is German

Ravyn is still also fluent in Germany

due to the vampires speaking German and him after age 5 growing up there

He can obv speak English as that is the universal language

also, when angry he starts ranting in Russian XD

#23

diabetes type 1 runs rampant in ravyns

family line Mainly coming from his mother

How bad is it?

Well here is a list

Ravyn=type 2(only one who didn't get born with it and got it later in life)

Blair=type 1

Silver=no diabetes

Luci (rip)=type 1

Seeker=no diabetes

Mary and Cary = Both have type 1

At one point their mother joked she just cursed somehow

Not a lot of people know ravyn has type 2 He is doing a dam good job of hiding

#24

Crimson Crisis is a former alter of ravyn that became a separate entry entirely when lizkana managed to take ravyn intro throwing her collected hate magic away with then going to the next person with Crimson making him go bonkers and causing the timeline events

nefrinty with hate (diamond) help could completely separate

Crimson from ravyn makes him a completely separate person spread a lot about did so try to represent it right

but it is different for everybody! I have huge magical and soul aspects I need to also put in this

crimson has no ill feelings against ravyn but it took a few years and lots of therapy to contact ravyn to fix something now they are very good friends and he's considered a sibling!

Genetic wise he's a basilisk hybrid like ravyn but prefers appearing as a dark vampire! crimson is the only alter that went "evil" tho he's not evil and was just affected by some awful magic!

ravyns other alters were never evil and would never be (not that they can due to a successful final fusion)

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bratprincezz · 4 months

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“Issa Laesi Naejot Drāmagon Tolvȳn Bona Tolvȳn Issa Prūmia Daor”(‘Open My Eyes to Everything that Closes My Heart’)

(Limited use of Y/N)

Canon-Divergent

PLOT :

You were a Belaerys, with the Blood of Old Valyria in your veins, future Queen of Sothoryos. Up until eight years before the Dance of Dragons, everyone thought the Belaerys family was gone after the Doom. You were well-respected by everyone except most of the Greens. Despite that, you were officially given a seat on the new High Council. The Hand, Otto Hightower, was trying to bring more countries to their aid, but his excuse was to bring peace between countries. Planning to wed you to Daeron, the Small Council of the Greens are shocked when Aemond refuses to offer you Daeron in order to take you for himself.

TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 129-133+ AC (a mix of show & book timeline, plus my own)

THIS IS A REPRESENTATION OF YOU

It will not have the AFAB reader (she/her) referred to as “Y/N” often.

Spoilers if you have not seen season 1 of House of the Dragon or read the book(s).

Excerpts:

“You had been wearing a hood and mask to protect your face while flying, but you had removed it. You were getting off of your dragon when he finally approached.”

“Your dragon was named Molcajete. She was black with dark purple markings. She was at least 20% bigger than Vhagar.”

“Your eyes were lined with an enchanted coal (to keep your eyes clear of debris) and they were an exquisite shade of purple with flecks of gold. They sparkled in the afternoon sunlight like so many stars in the night sky. He thought he was in love with you already.”

Notes & Trigger Warnings under the cut.

NOTES

I am 90% sure I am neurodivergent because I miss a lot of social cues, among 9/10 other things that can diagnose someone as ND. I just don’t have the money to get tested, as an adult. If my writing seems stiff, please lmk. Just be gentle with criticism, please.

Guys, this is very Alys-coded, but I didn’t even know about Alys Rivers until I practically finished writing. I have not yet read the book, I just did a lot of show watching and reading of ASoIaF Wiki. Also, any time you see a picture of a dragon I made, please note the website doesn’t actually have dragons, so I had to make dinosaurs with bird wings. 😢 Sorry, but it’s very sad for me.

Also, this is very AU, but still in whatever fake medieval time period & universe this is based on. However, things are very slow and don’t only take place within two years for certain plot things to work. It starts shortly before Lucerys’ death, which will take place at some point during the story.

I try to make as many visuals as possible, as I’m that type of person. For my ridiculously expansive “country/continent” of Sothoryos, I got really bored and for some reason painted major bodies of water in the islands. I know Sothoryos is inspired by Africa, but I am Hispanic (Aztec) and wanted to give it a hispanic flair. Some of the Islands and cities are made up names, but others are named Nahuatl things.

I do not speak Nahuatl or High Valyrian (well), but I did look up words for things from multiple sources. I know words might be out of order because verbs are supposed to go last in High Valyrian.

Very Canon-Divergent, mostly because I don’t want the dragons to die. I’m changing Aemond’s characterization a little bit, but partially with a reason - LOVE. NOTE : You cannot fix any person. They need to fix themselves. I also am not good at writing the proper way they speak on the show. I have re-read 50 times, so I’m sorry if I messed up somewhere, but I tried. BTW, if you’d be interested in being a beta reader, lmk. Right now my husband is helping, but I get shy about my work.

I’m going to try my hardest not to specify reader’s color, but I kind of imagine myself (obviously) and I might accidentally write something referring to light skin. If I do something like that, please lmk. I don’t want to exclude anyone. I would like to write gender neutral, but that’s really hard for me because I’m AFAB and cis and I don’t want to upset anyone by not understanding that struggle.

BACK TO STORY MASTERLIST

TRIGGER WARNINGS

TW FULL STORY :

Talk of Abortion, Emotionally Abusive Relationships (Aegon & Otto x Everyone), Alcohol, Blood, Branding, Bullying, Childbirth, Death, Drugs, Fire, Hallucinations, Incest, Marriage, Miscarriage/Stillbirth, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Profanity, Sexism, Slut Shaming, Smut, Violence, War, P in V, Sex, Fingering, F in A, Assplay, Prostate Massage, No Cheating, MDNI, 18+ , enm, ethical non-monogamy, Breeding Kink

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orionthecreator08 · 1 year

Text

My OCs

Okay, so...

Okami Kuki is someone who is intersex but goes by she/they pronouns. However, they aren't very feminine besides having long hair and being a bit curvy under her baggy clothing. They wear a binder under their clothing (you can see a little of it) which makes them always be mistook as trans a lot. They don't mind it, but others pushing more questions about her sex piss them off.

They may act cocky but, really, they aren't. Honestly, Okami's very modest and, even though they're choosing to be a Daylight Hero, doesn't actually like being in the spotlight. She just wants to help others grow and be seen. They're very strategic, but her overthinking and anxiety holds them back unless they say "Fuck it, I'm yolo-ing it!"

Her quirk, Wolf Inferno, is like Shoto's: Two different components that aren't related for one power. I based it off of that game "Okami" where you're the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. It was cool and I had a fun time playing it. Although Okami has the capabilities of a wolf and can manipulate fire, there are a lot of limits I put because of how OP I made the quirk. The only part she has no problem with is the emitter part of their quirk, easy to control, but stresses her nervous system as that's what control it. Her overuse sign is a heavy migraine and ringing in the ears.

Their enhanced senses and physical being are in the way most of the time as she has no control over them.

The pros:

She can hear from 6 to 10 miles, smell up to a mile

Insane stamina, as wolves are the best animal marathoners, with the possibility of traveling up to 100 miles in a day with no rest.

Speed can be 5 mph when walk (or trotting) and 30-45 mph when it comes to short distances.

Strong vocal cords to produce sounds for communicating large distances

The cons:

She can hear from 6 to 10 miles. Imagine how many secrets they've figured out on mistake because a mutant quirk never shuts off. Imagine the stress to keep said secrets a secret. Also, hearing like that can be damaged if not taken care of.

Insane stamina = Extra Energy. Burning off energy that can be used to walk 100 miles shouldn't be taken lightly. Also, Okami isn't really high energy. They don't sleep well as they should, which make 100 miles more like 15.

Wolves are carnivores (meat-eaters, so you don't have to search it up) that can eat up to 9 kilograms of food in one sitting. Okami craves meat a lot because of this and it need to be in their diet. Luckily, wolves also eat vegetation to keep healthy, so she has a substitute.

There's always this hood of loneliness over their mind, because wolves are pack animals. Her instincts really impact their relationships with others, because she needs affection to calm said instincts. Also makes Okami very protective of people she cares about. There are times of certain... urges, but they aren't relevant right now. Yes, she's 15, going onto 16. But "that" I only made apply to actual love, not simply physical attraction.

Finally, grooming. You read right, grooming. A fur coat is high maintenance, matted (clumped up) fur is very uncomfortable.

Now let's talk trauma, we have:

Parental Issues - From foster parents, calling her a mutt and a dog

Domestic Abuse - Many of her things were thrown into fire. Makes them get emotional attachment to certain things and cause her to become feral

Psychological Bullying - A mix of both homophobia and transphobia from the female population of their school. Caused misogynistic tendencies towards most girls her age. Why not Maya? Even she doesn't know

Amnesia - Little to no memory of their parents, and it became a touchy subject

Abandonment Issues - Was told their parents most likely abandoned them and didn't want her. A wolf needs a pack and she only found it when she moved to Hawaii... temporarily that is

Imposter Syndrome - Always feels like something is wrong with them, like she's a fake and they don't belong

Kuki was originally from the MHA timeline (born like a month after Midoriya) but got into a quirk accident when she was 13 years-old. This accident changed her entire life as she was sent back to when the glowing baby showed up and quirks started to appear.

With little to no memory of her past life, they attacked police officers at the scene (out of fear) and were sent to a mental asylum for investigation.

Back at where her parents (who are pro heroes) are, they were able to make a worldwide search for the culprit. The culprit was found but the search for her was dropped and made headlines. Parents during the present timeline literally say to their children "Be careful. You don't want to end up like that kid from 2 years ago."

With Okami, she was put into foster care where they assumed Okami would be well taken care of. Spoiler Alert! She wasn't. They got treated like trash, at both school and at home, and ended up on an isolated island called Hawaii because that was where the only family that would take them live for the next year.

(Hawaii has major history with Japan. There's many Japanese tourists in the summer and transfer students. Thought it'd be a nice detail for rich kids. Hawaii's school campuses, from elementary to college, are also very open due to the law. No building can be taller than the tallest palm tree.)

Now, Maya Aoitori Takami is Hawks' adopted daughter on paper. However, due to their close ages, they act more like siblings. She's your average girl: sticks to dress code, meh grades, very lean and flexible when it comes to physical build.

She's small but she's fierce, and feeds into Okami's affection need a lot. Maya's quirk, Peregrine, allows her to do anything a peregrine falcon can do. This includes their amazing eye sight and ability to dive at high speed of 240 mph, which makes them the fastest bird in the world. Her quirk, however, is transformative, not a mutant-type.

(You don't wanna know how long it took to get her wings right. Also, I get my facts straight from Wild Kratts, very trusted source right there!)

Her quirk isn't that problematic or hard to deal with as Okami's. Just, wings are heavy, even if they have hollow bones, and also the need for extra blood flow. Maya's overuse sign is that she goes anemic. I've mentioned that the wings need blood, yes? Her feet can also turn into talons, which I've incorporated into her hero costume. Her costume's in the works, I have what it needs, but I haven't done the full design. Unlike Okami's who costume wasn't planned to be complex, until the winter costume that is...

Also, Maya has ADHD, it doesn't affect her fieldwork, but her grades show the impact. Maya's quirk was, in fact, based off Wild Kratts. It's cheesy, I know, but Maya's character design has evolved over the years.

Maya was originally named Tristan before I discovered one of many things about myself. What can I say? Middle school is my time of discovery.

She also doesn't have as much trauma as Okami. Just abandonment issues as she lived on her own in the streets because, well, she was abandoned.

(I need to put more thought into her character bg, I know! I just don't want to put too much as I want her to be a little happy-go-lucky to contrast to Okami's sharp attitude. I'll also re-upload the pictures after I get to hero names and all that in my story.)

#boku no hero academia #bnha oc #my hero academia #mha oc art #character concept #character backstory #ao3 author #fanfiction #a03 writer #bnha fanart

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tricktster · 5 years

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the twilight series suddenly makes 100% more sense if you read them under a specific premise that, i contend, is heavily supported by the text:

Much like Amy’s diary in Gone Girl, the books in the Twilight Saga are verbatim reproductions of in-universe diary entries carefully and deliberately created and curated by badass unreliable narrator Bella Swan as a means to achieve immortality.

Prerequisite assumptions:

1) Bella actively and persistently wants to become a vampire, both diagetically and (I contend) non-diagetically. The average vampire novel format often fails to capture realistic human behavior in one highly specific area: the protagonists are frequently mortals who grapple with the choice of whether to become a vampire. This is stupid, because being a vampire would obviously be dope as hell; particularly in the Twilight Universe, where vampires are not required to take a human life to survive, and indeed, have the capacity to live full and rewarding lives while integrated* into the human community.

(*integrated-ish; see Assumption 6)

2. There are too many coincidences for Bella to have encountered the Cullens by sheer chance, only to be the ONE person that Edward can’t live without (due largely to the novelty factor of not being able to read her ding-dang thoughts.)

3. Diagetically, the Volturi don’t even know Bella’s psyonic gifts until New Moon, but we also know that the Volturi scour the globe for recruits to enlist into the protection of their governing body.

4. Nobody wants to be a voiceless cog in a bureaucracy.

5. Nobody, and especially nobody in high school, wants to be a high school student forever.

6. Vampires in twilight are, as a group, cartoonishly terrible at disguising their true nature.

7. Forks is a backwater town approximately 3.5 hours away from the biotech hub of Seattle.

7. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney can eat my farts and they deserve to be preserved in this snapshot of an innocent author’s mind slowly unraveling.

Proposed timeline:

In 1993, there is a key system meltdown at a improvised biohacking startup in Seattle, rendering all innovative genetic modification experiments into a puddle of brown sludge that nobody can figure out how to dispose of per Federal regs, since they don’t even know what it is.

The broke founder of the startup, who for the purposes of this timeline I will call Jeff Bezos because that’s who it was, eventually grows tired of all the discussion about what to do, and just pops it in a barrel, drives a few hours out of town, and dumps it in a pond.

Bella Swan, a small child, is hanging out at a park with her family friend Jacob Black (and a ton of his friends) when they all decide to wade in a slightly murky pond. Thereafter, they are transformed.

Bella grows up as a normal, highly powerful mutant with a +20 to deception checks and wisdom saves. She lives in Arizona, but up until 2002, summers in Forks. While in Forks, she picks up on the local lore about a family of vampires who don’t eat people.

Because Forks (population: 17 + Charlie’s mustache) is boring, Bella bones up on the only interesting thing about it, i.e. Vampire Hometown baybeeeee.

In 2000, George W. Bush gets elected president, and his evangelical politics and general bumbling ineptitude informs Bella’s opinions on authoritative governmental entities.

In 2001, the Cullens make their intention to move back to Forks known, but they take a while because they need to pack all their stupid graduation hats and volvos, etc.

Later in 2001, a psychic Volturi scout rolls through Forks to ensure that nobody within living memory recalls the Cullens, and notices an anomaly in the psychic field.

The scout goes to confront Bella about joining the Volturi, and Bella immediately clocks him as a vampire, because vampires in the Twilight Universe fucking suck at looking/acting human. This leaves the scout in a bind: she’s too valuable to kill, but she’s a pre-teen, and therefore too young to be transformed per Volturi authority.

The scout warns her he’ll have to kill her if she discusses the existence of vampires with any human. He then tells her he’ll be back in five years, and begins to sweet talk her on how good life will be when she’s a vampire, beautiful, immortal, powerful, etc. Bella asks if she has to kill, and dude says “nah, actually there’s a bunch of vegetarian vampires who are moving back here soon. Fucking nerds, but otherwise they’re doing well.” Bella is all about becoming a vampire, because Bella is a rational actor.

Bella moves to Arizona, and as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unjustifiedly initiated, she recognizes that while she DOES want to be a vampire, she does NOT want to be a foot soldier in any war that she can’t support. She needs a plan.

In 2004, Bella is watching her step-dad’s minor league baseball game when it occurs to her. On her own, she’s a target for the Volturi, but if she had some people to watch her back, she might be okay. Of course, nobody fucks with the Volturi on behalf of some rando human. She’ll need to con her way into a coven who’ll have her back and also give her that +10 to constitution via vampiric transformation, which she desperately wants because she’s a rational actor. And where are the non-volturi vampires that might have her back? Fucking Forks.

Bella moves to Forks in 2004, and upon seeing the Cullens, she immediately clocks them as vampires even though they left their “we’re all vampires” booty shorts at home, because, as previously discussed, vampires in the Twilight Universe fucking suck at looking/acting human.

Bella notes that all the vampires but one are paired off in heterosexual bliss, and takes note of the straggler as a potential vehicle to vampyrdom.

Bella figures out that Eddie can read everyone’s mind but hers, because Edward Cullen fucking sucks at looking/acting like a human who can’t read minds. Bella further observes that Eddie has a huge undead boner for her.

She’s found her mark. Now she just needs to convince him that she’s better off as part of the coven than on her own. Problem: Eddie’s a self-pitying insufferably guilt-striken perpetual adolescent who keeps himself busy by feeling sorry for himself because he’s a vampire, angst angst angst etc etc. Also, I think he’s Catholic, so add some more guilt in. She’ll have to win him over by convincing him that they’re destined to be soulmates.

What does a vampire used to having complete insight into everyone’s mind but his crush’s want? A method to know what she really thinks of him. Bella begins writing a “diary” knowing that there’s no way in hell Eddie won’t sneak in and read it. So she Gone Girls it, and begins to lay a trap to lure him in. That first diary? Twilight.

This was just in the movie but a stoner chases her around with a worm on a stick. Nothing to do with this theory, I just like that part of the movie. Where’s my spinoff about that guy?

Eddie won’t give Bella what she wants (eternal life) by the end of book 1, even though she asks him to EXTREMELY POLITELY. Time to hit the diary with some more promises of undying love.

Bella reconnects with her old friend Jacob and the rest of the Mutated By Jeff Bezos Boys. Alas, they cannot turn her into a physically powerful sexy immortal with a bite, so she’s still stuck with plan A) win over a whole family of vampires with big Mormon energy. It’s the long con.

Edward’s angst abruptly takes a swing towards terminal. He’s absolutely your classic sadboy, perhaps because Bella now has one (1) friend that he knows about.

When Eddie begins to drift away on account of Angst, Bella conjurs up a secondary love interest who, coincidentally, is ALSO a sexy supernatural entity, and is much less coincidentally just Jacob.

We should establish here that Edward is like a 107 year old white dude and so even though Diary!Bella pretends not to see it, Metatextual Frame Story!Bella knows that dude is super racist.

Jacob Black is three things: 1. Like Bella, a mutant (although one with shapeshifting abilities), 2.one of Bella’s oldest and most trusted confidants, and 3. down to clown on an elderly teenage vampire who keeps stereotyping him. Sure, says Jacob, I’ll take the form of a werewolf. He seriously thinks we’re all just beastmen, huh? Hey look at me now, I’m Regis Philbin because this is 2005 and Who Wants to be a Millionaire is still sort of relevant. Sick.

Edward does not like that Bella has one (1) other friend. Bella and Jacob plot to use this to their advantage and lure Edward back on the wings of jealousy.

Eddie gets himself into trouble on account of Angst and poor communication, so Bella has to go rescue him from himself/the Volturi.

Aro finally meets her and gets to test her powers, which impress him. Now she’s back on the fucking radar.

I forget everything that happens in Eclipse, so i have chosen to omit that part.

Eventually she extracts a quid pro quo from Eddie; i’ll marry you if you turn me into a dracula.

We don’t really call ourselves that, Wet Blanket Cullen replies, entirely earnestly.

Bella gets married at 18 in 2006, and Eddie starts to backtrack his promise about changing her. This won’t stand.

Well, look, he’s an elderly guilty catholic/mormon teen who probably still uses super racist terms, but she’s stuck on honeymoon island, he has certain angles that work for him, and seriously what are they gonna do but fuck? Bella’s alternative is listening to her “husband” drone on about his interests, which are almost certainly Car, How Do I Post a Minion Picture on Facebook, and Licorice Used To Be a Lot Cheaper in the Good Old Days.

Whoops a fetus.

Bella recognizes that she’s GOT to have this baby: time’s running out, and Bella knows that at least two of the Vamps in her coven will cut ties if she terminates or otherwise fails to carry this baby to term because of the conservative religious subtext. She’s going to have to stick it out for 9 months, even though it’s a risky call.

Bella gets what she wants after giving birth. “My time as a human is over, but I've never felt more alive. I was born to be a vampire.” That’s a direct quote. Except now she’s got a (pretty cute and easy) baby that she desperately wants to protect from Turning Into A Vaguely Religious Cullen Dressed Head To Toe In Cream Colored Wool.

Bella decides to fake her own death and escape with the kid and Jake so they can form i guess a detective agency. Bella will get “killed” by the Volturi, move to Sydney, and open up shop, and Jake will take the kid after her a few months later.

They’re gonna need a reason why Jake gets the kid though, and there’s only one reason to do anything amongst the Cullens: a heterosexual love interest with a super problematic age gap.

Jesus, Jake sighs, is Eddie really going to believe I’m in romantic love with your actual infant? Does he really think that little of me?

Yup.

Bella tries to draw the Volturi’s attention.

Works too well.

The Cullens call up all their vague acquaintances, who are at least kind of fun. Particularly that one dude who keeps getting angry about British conduct during the American Revolution.

Well, fuck, now the Volturi are bringing an army to fight their ragtag army of Vampires Who Are Cool And Interesting Enough That We Can Safely Presume They Are All Definitely Gay. Bella can’t let those guys die, they’re the first actually compelling vampires she’s ever talked to.

Bella saves the day because she’s OP.

All the Cool Vamps start packing up to leave and Bellz almost goes with them, but the Cullens would just keep sending missionaries after her if they knew.

Bella finishes her fourth journal with the vague warning that the Volturi are still out there somewhere and they miiiight just try and get her.

Two days later, she stages a scuffle and gets the fork out of Fucks. Her journals are the only clue.

Sirius Black and baby nessie follow once edward has stopped sobbing into his cream colored sweater and moved on to Extended Power Pouting.

Bella recruits her own army of fledglings.

Bella stages a coup against the Volturi and succeeds.

Bella sits on the iron throne with a hot lady vampire on each knee and they all kiss and stuff.

Nessie I guess forms a post punk band?

Edward dies from aspiration of a brussel sprout that he ate because he just wanted to feel something.

Charlie and Billy get married.

Charlie’s mustache develops a cult instagram following, providing them with a modest retirement income.

Jacob shapeshifts into Bill Murray and is always crashing weddings.

Bella’s stepdad is off in the B plot this whole time winning the world series with the help of a kooky angel.

There. Fixed. My soul is at rest.

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isabellahawkes · 3 years

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Defending 5 Tropes Everyone Hates In Fiction

Today I’m going to defend the tropes in fiction that everyone hates. I’ve been watching Authortube and Booktube for several years, and over a period of time I’ve realized that certain tropes get more blind hate than they deserve. So I’ll be talking about the five tropes everyone hates — or, so they claim to — and explain why they’re really not that bad.

1) The Self-Insert: People make fun of self-inserts because they, in theory, drag the quality of the story down. But what exactly is a self-insert? Well, it’s supposed to be a character that resembles a more perfect version of the author, typically the main character. This character is hot and can do no wrong, and defeats all of their enemies easily.

However…what is actually a self-insert? The main character. Of any novel. Especially if it’s written by a woman. Women authors are more often than not accused of writing self-inserts, especially if the main character is also a woman, and bonus points if they have the same hair color. Because brown is such an uncommon hair color. Self-inserts are typically also referred to as Mary-Sues. Here’s a tip: Go in the opposite direction from anyone who uses that term today unironically.

I’m not saying that self-inserts don’t exist in fiction, or that people don’t write “Mary Sues”. But let’s be honest, this is just another way to dig at a woman author for not writing the just perfect and acceptable representation of a woman. The character is likable? Self-insert. The character is unlikable? Self-insert. The character is good at most things? This is wish fulfillment. The character is completely incompetent? She’s so pathetic…so she must be a self-insert.

Aside from this primarily being directed at women — even though some of the most renowned male authors have never had trouble expressing their own self-inserts (Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Stephen King, etc)— self-inserts by themselves aren’t even a bad thing. Writing a character that has the same traits as the author doesn’t mean the quality of the story will be less than. If anything, the author will know how their character would realistically react to any situation.

To be clear, I’m also not saying you should just write characters that are exactly like you. But it’s pretty impossible to write a character that is exactly like you as you keep writing your story. As you develop your character, they become a separate entity from you. It’s possible that by the end of writing your manuscript, your “self-insert” only has a few traits in common with you. And that’s the strange thing about people critiquing self-inserts — this is you assuming you know the author. And 9 cases out of 10, you don’t. Not even if they’re a YouTuber. So really, it’s kind of a creepy accusation. A better critique of a main character would be that they excelled in everything too easily, or they were so “perfect” it was annoying…you don’t need to drag the author’s perceived personality into the mix. Also, make sure the character is actually too perfect, rather than you don’t expect a woman to be capable of doing anything.

2) Flashbacks: I’ve seen a lot of people who hate flashbacks, and honestly this is one on the list that I can see why people do. However, I’ve seen a lot of hate being thrown its way…and I personally love flashbacks. When they’re necessary. I love multiple timelines, when done well. I love a nonlinear story structure. Flashbacks tend to get hate because sometimes the flashbacks are placed in awkward times in the story, or they don’t seem to add much, or they just confuse the audience. These are totally valid criticisms, but I think like with self-inserts, they’re not always done horribly.

A common piece of writing advice is to start your story where the story starts, otherwise known as the inciting incident. The inciting incident is not always where a flashback takes place in the main character’s story. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is the show Lost. For one thing, Lost has a big cast, but it would’ve been annoying to follow these random characters with family issues that seemingly don’t have much of a connection until they crash on an island, probably, what, in the third season? Sometimes a story starts with a catastrophic event that brings up memories for the main character. It wouldn’t be effective storytelling to start off with Jack ruining his alcoholic dad’s reputation and then crashing on an island…that’s some out of nowhere twist.

Also, sometimes a story needs flashbacks, typically in the mystery and thriller genres. Maybe readers who don’t like flashbacks don’t enjoy those kinds of stories, but I just think the flashback hate would actually ruin a lot of cool stories.

3) The “Chosen One”: I honestly think that people who hate the “Chosen One” storyline don’t actually read many chosen one stories. That’s because their complaints are bizarre oversimplifications about what the chosen one could be…but never is. I’ve heard people say that the chosen one is randomly chosen for no clear purpose or reason. The three most popular examples are Harry in Harry Potter, Frodo in Lord of the Rings, and Katniss in The Hunger Games is brought up a lot for some reason. Critics of this trope act like these characters were just randomly chosen by some all-knowing being to save the world…and that’s just not true. All three of these examples weren’t “chosen”, they were victims of life circumstances, as are all of us.

Harry’s parents were murdered and a protection spell was placed on him, and it was all because of Voldemort. He made the decision to go after Harry because he heard of a prophecy that Harry could be his undoing. It also could’ve been Neville. The point is, this wasn’t some grand design from God, it was circumstances that led to Harry being the chosen one. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo inherited the ring. Gandalf and Frodo even have a discussion about how it didn’t have to be Frodo…but that’s too damn bad, it is. And Katniss became a symbol for the rebellion in Panem because she was the first person in a long time to actively show some resistance against the Capitol. Again, this was due to life circumstances.

The point of the Chosen One is never to show how incredible these everyday heroes are…in fact, it’s the opposite. The point is that random things happen that lead these heroes down extraordinary circumstances…and they never want it to, but it’s too damn bad. I just think people who critique this trope aren’t actually even talking about the trope when it’s used, they’re just borrowing jokes from CinemaSins.

4) Teenage Heroes/Super Soldiers: When people complain about this trope, I get really confused. For one thing, teenager heroes are typically in young adult books…which you’d think would be obvious. But a lot of adult YA readers don’t actually seem to like teenagers at all…so why are you reading about them? I also get confused when people complain about this trope because they say it’s not realistic…meaning, it doesn’t reflect real life…they don’t buy that young people are targeted by any particular industries because they’re young…

Not only does the military target high schoolers because that’s when they’re most physically fit, their minds are also more impressionable. Universities do the same thing. Every industry targets the youth to mold into a good soldier, a good student, a good worker bee, another cog in the machine, if you will. But each person targeted feels special, kind of like a hero. Sure, it might sound weird to have an army made of up of 13 year olds because of the kids you see around you. But back in the day, that was the norm, it’s only unusual sounding by today’s standards. Just Google the age of King Tut and you’ll be surprised how wrong you are.

5) One-Dimensional Villains: For a time, we hated seeing villains that were just evil, for seemingly no reason. We wanted something different. We wanted villains who felt real like we do. We wanted funny villains. We wanted quirky villains. We wanted to see ourselves in villains. Because we wanted to feel challenged by our material. We didn’t want the good guy to always be right. We wanted to understand the villain’s point. So…we got a ton of villains with tragic backstories and redemption arcs. Not one of them can stay evil unless they’re the last season baddy. That guy’s just Satan. It’s literally Satan most of the time now.

Every villain’s gotta have a point, or at least a sob story. It’s totally fine for a villain to have a point, and a sob story. But it’s gotten out of hand. We’ve gotten to a tricky place where many writers are unintentionally trying to justify their villains’ actions through their explanations of how a villain got to be the way that they are. Or, if you’re a writer on YouTube, let’s be honest, you’re gonna pretend that all of your characters are three-dimensional people…because you’re the one writing them.

But not every reader is going to think of your character chart. So, when you don’t have these tragic backstory reveals, or understand why the villain is committing genocide, the reader is just going to think, “this is a one-dimensional villain.”

And that’s okay.

Why do we need to justify genocide anyway? When we think of some of the real world’s most evil people, we don’t see their complexity as a human being…we see a monster. And honestly, I don’t see why every fictional villain needs to be humanized in every fictional story. It all depends on the story you’re trying to tell, and your themes. But your story definitely doesn’t need to give your villain redemptive attributes.

Those are the five tropes I’ve seen get a lot of crap about, even from people who use these tropes. And I don’t think they’re that bad, they’ve just been oversimplified. Most any trope can be done well in fiction, they just need to be utilized in an effective emotional way. And if you still hate these tropes, well, that’s okay too. Just keeping an open mind is one of the most efficient ways to improve your writing and expand your horizons.

Also published here on my website, and here on Medium. :)

#writerblr #medium #writing advice #tropes #fiction #flashback #the chosen one #self-insert

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