#I may post part two someday if I ever finish it

[mirasmirages]

Market

Based on this prompt by @secretwhumplair

Taran had never liked the slave market. With all the human misery on display, it was impossible to convince himself the regime he worked for was the good guys. It was a reminder of where he would be if he hadn’t made the choices he had. Of where he could still end up, if someone discovered who he was.

He made himself go at least once a month.

In the decade since. Taran had never found anyone from his village. They were dead. Burned alive, if they weren’t lucky enough to be killed before then. A quick slash with a sword would have been a mercy.

The ghosts of his friends and family looked at him through the eyes of strangers. Old men with hardened faces. Children who weren’t even born when his village burned.

A woman sat hunched on the floor, nothing but her dark hair to hide naked skin. She looked darker than him, but he wondered how different they would look if she had a bath. She could have been one of the village girls. She could have been—

Taran swallowed. He was used to lock away the longing, the desperate hope that sometimes threatened to overtake him. This was just some girl. She had to be.

“How’re the sales going?” he grinned at the merchant. They had spoken a few times before. Not quite friends, but friendly.

“Slow day,” the merchant replied. “No sales so far.”

Taran nodded, made a show of looking at the five people lined up. “What are you hoping to get for them?” He grabbed the girl’s arm and lifted, just to be sure - and froze. There, on the side of her rib cage, was a birthmark he would never forget. He had wanted to make sure she was a stranger, but she was not.

“For that one? Fifteen hundred.”

Fifteen hundred. That was enough to bring Taran back to reality. Fifteen hundred was more than Taran made in three months.

"Fifteen hundred for this?" he heard himself say.

Please don't let the merchant notice anything off about his behavior. Please.

"No wonder you're not getting any sales."

"Hey! She's not that bad!"

Taran grabbed the girl - his Nida - his baby sister - and made her stand.

"She's skin and bone," he said, pointing to the waves of her ribs. "With those bruises, she must be useless or disobedient. Who wants to buy a freshly punished slave? And does she even have teeth?" He forced open her mouth to reveal that most of the teeth she still had were broken and rotting.

"Some people would find the lack of teeth to be a good thing," the merchant tried to joke, but it didn't land. "It doesn't matter what you think. You never buy."

"Not at your prices," Taran shrugged, releasing the girl. "I got a week off, so I thought I would have some fun, but fifteen hundred? I can think of better ways to spend a month's wages."

"If you don't need one that'll last, the weakly kids go for cheap at the auction."

Taran gritted his teeth. The auction had been too much for him to stomach, the one time he went.

"Do I look like I'm interested in children?" he spat. "You offend me. Besides, this one looks like she won't last the week. No one will pay that much for her, so why not let me take her off your hands for fifty?"

"Fifty?" the merchant sputtered. "She is worth at least a thousand!"

"A thousand? A good salesman would be able to sell her for a hundred. A smart salesman would take what he can get and save the money of feeding her."

"I paid almost five hundred for her. I won't sell her at a loss."

Taran tutted. "That was a very good salesman. Or she was in better shape before entering your care."

"Four fifty. You can have her for that. That way I won't lose too much on this."

Four fifty was a lot, but it was manageable. He should take the deal.

"Three hundred. That's as high as I'll go."

"Three fifty."

"Three twenty."

"Three thirty."

"Deal."

[i-heart-hxh]

Do you think togashi Will sink killugon in the future by denying the romantic reading of their relationship?

Hi anon! I strongly don't think that'll ever happen. I truly believe including the romantic subtext between them is intentional on Togashi's part, and I want to be clear I'm not saying that just as a shipper, but as someone who has spent years deeply analyzing the series as a whole, as well as Togashi's influences and interests. The deeper I look into it, the more I'm certain he includes all the things he includes with full intention.

Again, I post this because everyone deserves to see it:

Togashi wanted to create works with queer characters before HxH even existed, and he was deeply invested in this concept! It's possible pieces of HxH even came out of this original idea he had--he did say he might publish it someday in "a different form," so it's not an impossibility.

I think likely one of two things will happen with Gon and Killua's relationship in the future of the manga:

Togashi will bring them back and reunite them, and we'll (at least eventually) get some sort of ending for them that may not be 100% undeniably canonically romantic, but likely continues with the same kind of romantic subtext and ambiguity that's been present all along. (Think something like: They decide to travel together again and promise to stay together without it actually saying if they mean it in a romantic way or not, but there might be hints or wording that imply it is intended in that way, with Togashi trusting those of us who see it that way will understand.) Or maybe we hit the jackpot and he does make it explicitly canon. I don't think that's super likely, but if anyone could get away with it, it would be Togashi, for a whole list of reasons I won't get into on this post.

Sadly he won't reach that point in the manga due to his health and how much of the series remains, but he won't say either way what he intends their relationship to mean, and we're free to continue to interpret it how we want.

There are other possibilities of course, but I think those are the most likely outcomes. I do think he fully intends to reunite Gon and Killua and I've written about this in-depth (whether the series actually reaches that point or not). I don't think he intends to "sink the ship" ever because he's the one giving us an uncountable number of reasons to believe in the ship in the first place... And I do think he's doing it out of his own personal interest, not just for marketing reasons or whatever like we see in some other shounen series. It's deeply embedded in the series and the number of things pointing in this direction is just so, so many.

I don't think there's any reason to be pessimistic about Gon and Killua's future, aside from the factor of Togashi's health. However, I try to take the attitude that, in the case that it doesn't ever get finished (and assuming Togashi doesn't have some sort of back up plan, and I suspect he might), we get to choose ourselves how it ends. I deeply hope we get a canon reunion between them someday, the thought of this happening is something that keeps me going in life, but if we do have to continue to imagine it ourselves, it certainly could be worse.

[cuubism]

wip update

since I have a good number of actively-posting WIPs that some lovely people have been very kind about and invested in (and which I am very slow in updating), I figured it might be only polite to post a little update on where those are.

the melting press of the sun (dreamling) - Never intended this as a longfic, there may or may not be more than the 2 chapters it has now. I have a bit more written but it's disjointed and incomplete. I intentionally didn't leave any brutal cliffhangers on what I did post for this reason. We'll see if that one comes back.

Deja vu, Deja connu (dreamling) - The slowness in updating probably belies how deeply emotionally invested I actually am in this fic. Chapter three is just a major challenge--it's very long, covers a lot, has lots of fluff in the first part (fluff is kinda my Achilles heel, though not quite as much as wedding scenes, which this chapter also has) and a lot of heavy content later. But I have the whole fic outlined, a bunch of chapter 4 and 5 written in advance, and I'm super excited about the stuff that comes later, so it will definitely be finished, just... slowly. At least for this chapter.

In Waking Dreams (dreamling) - My current priority for an update. Chapter 4 just hit 10k and will probably hit 15k before its done (god help me), and I feel somewhat obliged to finish chapter 5 as well so I can post them in quick succession. Chapter 4 necessarily ends on a cliffhanger as it catches up to the events of chapter 3, but I feel bad about two cliffhangers in a row. But that one soon, I hope. (chapter 5 has a lot of the juiciest, long awaited scenes promised by the fic's premise, so I hope you will like that one when it's finally done 😅)

IRL (malec) - Fic that I have a tendency to get stuck on for 15 months, then write a ton of all at once, repeat. But I actually picked it up again the other day for the first time in ages, and I think I know all of the events of the chapter now, so who knows! Maybe I'll actually manage an update!

Subject: I Love You (malec) - Fic that I shamefully left with ONE CHAPTER remaining for a full year now. Honestly not sure why. Someday I will pick it up tho, I swear to god, or maybe I'll just cut the chapter short and make it an epilogue. (Actually maybe I do know why. It's another damn proposal/wedding scene. My absolute weakness and failure, I should stop writing them entirely)

mind & heart, body & soul (malec) - This fic haunts me, it follows me around 24/7 like a vengeful spirit that can't find rest. I can't wrangle it back into making any sense in my head, but for the sake of both my own sanity and the story's frankly frightening number of readers (I love you but you scare me), I've been trying to do one final chapter to offer some kind of wrap-up. Hopefully I can manage it.

Leviathan (malec) - My long held passion project that I have, in classic form, not touched in months. In fact I've been stuck on the same chapter I'm on now since probably 2020, when I first started writing the fic. This particular middle part of the fic is just vexing me to no end. At some point, I will decide on a course of action, inevitably flawed, and just power through that chapter (I say, for the 2nd year in a row). Why did I give this story two big villains again? Or think having a whole separate story arc in the middle of the fic was a good idea? Ah well.

in the palm of your hand (malec) - The one and only multichapter I finally caved and marked abandoned. I learnt my lesson with this fic about letting a oneshot expand into a completely unplanned longer fic. Boy did I...

----

I feel like I don't express it enough, but I really appreciate everyone who's ever read one of my fics, commented, kudos'd, chatted with me about them on tumblr, made podfics or art or translations, shared headcanons in my inbox or your own fics with me... I'm always blown away by the kindness and interest, and love getting to share little (or big!) stories with you and am so happy when you enjoy them ❤️ I love doing fandom with you.

[madsworld15]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @lostcol

How many works do you have on ao3? 70

What's your total ao3 word count? 704,657

What fandoms do you write for? Mostly Queer as Folk, Schitt's Creek, and Teen Wolf. In the past, I have written for Shameless, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Dead Poets Society, and Maze Runner.

Top five fics by kudos: I Can Be Your Hero (Teen Wolf, Sterek), To Me, You Are Perfect (Teen Wolf, Sterek), Mend My Heart (Teen Wolf, Sterek), Trying To Make Sense Out Of This Confusion (Schitt's Creek, David/Patrick), and Mother Knows Best (Schitt's Creek, David/Patrick)

Do you respond to comments? I try my best to reply to every comment I receive, but sometimes, it can be overwhelming, so it takes me a few months to get back.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? If we are going back to my fanfiction dot net days, there is a fic I wrote there that was post-major character death within the As The World Turns fandom. That fic, Never Alone, was about Noah dealing with the death of Luke.

However, on AO3, the fic with the angstiest ending has to be my David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek fic, where Patrick is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. It doesn't have a happy ending due to the nature of the disease. (Weep Not For the Memories)

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? For the most part, my fics are angst with a happy ending, but I think the one with the biggest payoff is actually a tie between two different fandoms. The first that comes to mind is Everything That I Am, which is David/Patrick from Schitt's Creek and covers both of them recovering from a major car accident. The other is On The Page of History, which is Sterek from Teen Wolf and covers Stiles being a teacher at a school experiencing a school shooting, and Derek is a deputy on call to respond.

Do you get hate on fics? Yes. When I wrote Patrick Brewer as asexual for a few fics, fans in a certain social media group were extremely nasty toward me and then stalked me to other platforms to continue their vitriol. It broke my inspiration to write any kind of fan fiction for a while.

Do you write smut? No. I don't even try. I usually do fade to black/illusions.

Craziest crossover: Going back to my fanfiction dot net days, I did a crossover where a gay character from As The World Turns (Luke Snyder) and a gay character from Days of Our Lives (Will Horton) ended up at the same bar one night and got drunk together. It was called A Night They Won't Remember.

For AO3, my craziest one was one where I had Thomas from Maze Runner and Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf run into each other on the beach. Seeing Double was just me poking fun at two roles by the same actor.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but I would love for that to happen someday.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? YES! My best friend, Karyn, and I met through a Teen Wolf convention almost a decade ago. We then decided to write a fic together where the POV changed from chapter to chapter. It was called Objects in the rear view mirror (May appear closer than they are) and centered on Sterek as parents of twin boys. It was unfortunately never finished because of medical issues on her part, but maybe someday we will go back to it.

All time favorite ship? If you look at AO3 it would seem the answer is David/Patrick from Schitt's Creek. And while I do love them, my favorite of all time is actually a tie between Sterek (Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale, Teen Wolf) and Britin (Brian Kinney/Justin Taylor, Queer as Folk).

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Right before I received a lot of hate within the Schitt's Creek fandom, I started a fic called Every Thunder That Came Was One More I Might Not Get Through. It centered on Patrick being an adopted child with past abuse trauma and David being a young man who witnessed a death in his early 20s. Both meet online and strike up a bond, only to find out that they are actually in the same therapy group IRL. Unfortunately, I only got through the introductory/story-building chapters before I lost all inspiration for Schitt's Creek fics.

What are your writing strengths? Introspection and dialogue are pretty evenly matched. Most of my fics are heavy on one or the other or a combo of both.

What are your writing weaknesses? Smut/Sex. I don't write it because every time I've tried, it comes out sounding extremely cheesy.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? I have used a line or two in different languages (I once wrote a Days of Our Lives, WilSon fic set in Italy), but I always make sure to have the translations in the notes at the end of each installment/fic.

First fandom you wrote in? The first fandom I wrote in was As The World Turns (Luke/Noah or Nuke)

Favorite fic you've written? I can't decide just one, so I will tell you my favorite one I've written from my biggest fandoms.

Queer As Folk: There's Beauty When It's Bleak

Schitt's Creek: Trying To Make Sense Out Of This Confusion, which is linked above, so instead, I'll pick my next favorite, Waves Crash With Anxiety.

Teen Wolf: Return to Beacon Hills

Shameless: Inquiring Minds

Tagging: @winderlylandchime @thotpuppy @vulcanscully and any other writers who see this and want to do it!

[w2writesstuff]

What W2 Wrote in 2023

Considering that I'm prrrrrobably not going to manage to put out anything else this year, yeah, let's do a roundup now while I've got a moment. (Note: Only includes fun stuff; no professional shit here.)

January

I can't even remember January. Nothing happens in Januaries.

February

to the beat of your heart, ch. 3 (MDZS) The ongoing adventures of a self-indulgent happy-ending everybody-lives-and-also-bones WangXian canon-divergent AU; a joint project between my wife and me.

It’s Hard to Say “I Do” When You Don’t (@shousetsubangbang) Original story about a guy whose long-time crush asks him to pretend to be his boyfriend at a family wedding. Fake dating ensues.

March

Kintsukuroi (DMBJ) This heihua piece may be the best thing I've written all year? Look, I'm just very proud of how I made it exactly what I wanted it to be.

April

Head (@shousetsubangbang) This was a last-minute fill because the story I wanted to write failed to make itself writeable. Oh well! Still a funny and cute blowjob.

May

to the beat of your heart, ch. 4 (MDZS)

I want to be where all the stupid shit I say sounds so romantic and true (Guardian, WeiLan) Someday I will write a longer and more complicated series of Guardian sex pollen shenanigans, but until then, enjoy this one.

The Rightful Ruler (The Blood of Youth, Lei Wujie/Xiao Se) Still the only English-language story on AO3 for this pairing! Includes maybe the funniest line I wrote all year? You make the call!

The Doctor is In (Psych-Hunter) I know nobody watched Psych-Hunter, and with good reason, but I did, and I think Jiang Shuo should get to spy on the sexy gay doctor if he wants to.

June

A Single Explosion (DMBJ, Pangxi + Xiao Ge) For PingPang Week, with @pangzi in mind. Here's the missing part of Ultimate Note, where Pangzi takes care of Xiao Ge in the hospital.

Dog (The Disguiser, Ah Cheng/Ming Lou) This was actually written before I saw the post going around about how the sexiest thing one guy can be is another's dog. But it's true!

And I am green, and you are wood (DMBJ/Mystic Nine) Another exchange fic, where Liang Wan gets a chance to meet all of Zhang Rishan's old (boy)friends, especially Ba Ye.

Reverse Cowgirl (Not Gay as in Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, Queer as in Dude Ranch) (@shousetsubangbang) Is this the hottest thing I've ever written for SSBB? Might just be. Lesbian ranch hands recruit a city girl.

July

Stay (Beyond Evil, Oh Jihwa/Yu Jaeyi) Because you know what that show needed? Small town lesbians.

Little Spear (The Blood of Youth, Sikong Qianluo/Xiao Se) This show has some cute het, but how it would work in bed is another matter entirely; or, two gay people try to have straight sex.

动须相应 (live-action Hikaru no Go, Yu Liang/Shi Guang) It's hard to get much gayer than the actual show without adding explicit sex, so ... here you go! Post-series boyfriends.

One Quiet Night (Kingdom, Seobi + Lee Chang/Yeongshin) This is the other thing I'm really proud of, because it too came out pretty much exactly the way I envisioned it. A nurse, a prince, and a scrappy piece of shit more or less all fall in love.

August

Hooks in My Sides (Beyond Evil, JWDS) This certainly was the most popular thing I've written all year. It's unfortunately easy to write poor Juwon having a gay meltdown.

A World Made Up of Silver and Copper (@shousetsubangbang) A prince-and-pauper scenario, this time focusing on the prince's adventures in being mistaken for himself. (Hint: they are sexy.)

September

...Funny how the first months of each semester are usually a complete wash for me creatively, huh?

October

to the beat of your heart, ch. 5 (MDZS)

Over My Dead Body (@shousetsubangbang) Nothing like the romance of possessing a corpse only to find he's not actually dead. (Note to DMBJ fans: This should taste like heihua.)

November

A fair amount of November was spent writing something that I just couldn't finish for December's SSBB, once I realized how long it'd have to be and how little free time I had. Maybe next year!

December

Antivenin (@shousetsubangbang) A mean bisexual and an even meaner lesbian team up to distract their gay boss from his terrible crush.

-

And that's it! It always feels kind of weird to see it all gathered in one place, like ... wow, that's not nearly as much as I thought it was. But at the same time, it involves a couple of pieces I feel very good about, so overall I'm going to take the win.

The most fun I had was doing my Small Fandom Summer thing, where I wrote fic for fandoms that had <1000 English-language works on AO3. Maybe I'll do that again next year!

Anyway, if you do wind up reading something, especially the original stuff, thanks. A lot of this can be a very lonely process, especially when there's not much of a built-in audience. Saying you liked something makes me feel a little less like I'm screaming into the void.

Onward to 2024!

[two-hands-toward-the-sun]

20 Questions For Fic Writers!

Thank you so much for the tag, @honeyteacakes!! I loved reading your responses. This was so much fun to do.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

35! Some of them are locked to attempt to minimise AI scraping.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

44,236 holy shit

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I’m pretty deeply embedded in the Sandman-verse. But I’ve also written an AC Odyssey fic recently.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m skipping this one because I embedded so many links in this post and I don’t wanna do it anymore. 😂 And people can just filter by kudos on AO3 if they’re interested.

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

I respond EXTREMELY slowly, but I make every effort to reply to comments when I have the energy to spare. It means a lot to me when people take the time to tell me what they liked about my stories.

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

Oooh. Good question. It’s either “pour the dirt into our bed” (Ranger’s Apprentice, referencing homophobia faced in a queerplatonic relationship) or “if you want voices in the dark, listen to mine” (Good Omens, after a temptation gone wrong.)

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

I write a fair amount of tender stories, so there are a lot of possible answers to this one! Potentially it’s “our place in the sun” (Sandman, Lucienne/Calliope domestic fluff) which is all about coming to rest and settling into love. Another option is “throw down that spade and dig up the garden” (Good Omens, Ineffable Husbands) which is about…pretty much the same thing, now that I think about it. 😂

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully not. I genuinely can’t understand why people leave hate comments on fics. Sure, there’s a lot of things I take issue with in certain fandoms, but I bitch about that stuff strictly IN MY OWN SPACE, I absolutely do not barge into other people’s spaces to do it. I never will and you can hold me to that.

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

I WANT TO. I’m working on it!! I actually have a smut prompt ask game queued up for next year, when I’ll have fewer writing obligations. As for what kind, I want to write so much femslash smut. There is devastatingly little in the Sandman fandom.

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

OHOHOHO. I have written a Los Simuladores/Good Omens crossover and it is genuinely one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever written. “every morning the same big and little words all spelling out desire” is appropriately zany, hopefully sexy, and seasoned with a dash of angst to balance the flavors.

(Shout out to @jlemonster for writing such a glowing post about it, it makes me happy just remembering it.)

Another crossover I’m working on is Johanna Constantine/Mary Poppins. I PROMISE it will make sense when it’s written. …well, maybe. 😂

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!!! As part of Fandom Trumps Hate this year I had two fics of mine wonderfully translated into Spanish by @yourneighborhoodneighbor and it was an amazing experience.

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

Nope. I don’t know if that would work with my writing habits, tbh. Maybe someday though, if the right idea and right person come along!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Oh GOD. Complicated question!! There are ships I’m currently enamored of, obviously, but who knows if they’ll stand the test of time? I know that Kaz/Inej (Six of Crows) and Irina/Jack (Alias) did something to my adolescent brain that may never be undone, but that’s the closest I can get to an answer to this question.

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

I’ve got a Good Omens Ineffable Wives AU inspired by Anne of Green Gables that is very dear to me, and has many aspects I’m extremely proud of, but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. My interest in Good Omens has flagged of late and unfortunately I don’t know if I’ll complete many of my WIPs for that fandom!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I have a good grasp on characters’ voices! Also, I think I write tactile and descriptive details well.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

TRANSITIONS ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE

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

I have done it once!!! For the aforementioned Los Simus fic. It was so much fun, and a good challenge for me. The dialogue was in Spanish (with very valuable help from @thisisnotjuli) and I loved writing how the two characters spoke in somewhat differing dialects.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh, lord. Probably Harry Potter? By hand, in a notebook from the dollar store. I was probably about eight or nine.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

They’re my children. My babies. My beloved frogspawn. I can’t give a definite answer, but…two of the stories that I worried my lip over the most for dread of failing to do them justice, the ones I think I put the most heart and consideration and care into, are “it’s an old song (and we’re gonna sing it again)” (Sandman, Calliope & Dream + healing and rediscovery and intimacy and changed but no less important relationships) and “sister dear, bear me away” (Good Omens, a human AU about gender discovery).

No pressure tags: the usual suspects <3 @pyrocephalus-rubinus @fatcatgospel and Juli, as well as @zorawitch @azi-sings-calliope @cosmictapestry, and anyone else who reads this and wants to talk about their creations!!

[arbee0]

Thoughts on Hilda from Netflix

The World building is just absolutely fantastic!

This show is so freaking pretty, literally gorgeous I can not get over how beautiful it is!!!

They do such an amazing job of introducing so many different creatures, world customs, and societal norms so naturally!

Like yeah, that's woodman, he just lets himself in whenever he pleases

Elves are actually little invisible people

The main character's pet is a deer-dog-fox (I adore Twig's design)

I love, love Hilda's relationship to her mom and how it changes and grows throughout the series, I feel like a parent-child relationship like this is so rare and its so refreshing to see a parent treat their child with so much respect and patience even while Hilda gets herself into literally everything ever

And Hilda's friends!! I love David and Frida so much!! They are such wonderful characters who both get their own time and space to grow away from Hilda

Although I am not super happy with how they kinda brushed off Frida's betrayal towards the end of season one (I am only a just starting season two though so I don't know if its ever brought up then)

especially how Frida treated David, there is so much I wish they had been given time to talk about and I feel like David deserved so much more

I love Alfur so much too!! The whole concept of elves in this world is so incredible, I absolutely love the amount of thought was put into him and his little society

Like the whole bit about paperwork being so important in their little world is so much fun and its not something that was a one off bit either, its so fun how it keeps getting brought back up and is still an important plot point in many episodes!

The plot itself. oh my god. the plot is plotting and I love it so so much!

This show just hit so much for me, I am not someone who kins characters but boy do I kin Hilda

The Whole theme of having to move and leave behind everything you have ever known,

Being forced into an completely different world with so little time to adjust and just the sense of loneliness and isolation that comes with that that you just have to keep moving, keep thowing yourself at any problem you can solve or any adventure to keep you from letting yourself really feel that hurt that you've shoved so deep down

But in this new world there are amazing people!

you've found these amazing new friends and created a new niche for yourself

These things you never even realized you where missing and yet this place still doesn't really feel like home, you left home behind and that place is still such a huge part of you that you cant see how much you've grown

And moving on is so hard, letting go is so hard

What Woodman said to Hilda "And someday your home may be somewhere else. But that doesn't mean you leave your other homes behind. The wilderness will always be a part of who you are"

I'm so happy that they included this episode, it was so satisfying for this to be brought up and not completely ignored

Because moving sucks! Leaving behind everything sucks!

And letting Hilda not only explore that and finally admit to herself that things have changed and that its okay!

That was such in incredibly satisfying resolution for me personally this show was actually made for me specifically

I am only a few episodes into season two but I really love the villain!

He is so incredibly annoying I want to launch him into the sun but he's so well written

I love how aware Hilda is of his shit and also that he is beefing with an 11 year old I'm so exited to see where this goes

I cant wait to finish season two (Witch!Frida is so cool!!)

There is still so much about this show I love but I wanted to just do a quick over view right now since I just finished yesterday, I might post a bit more later but yeah :)

If you haven't watched Hilda I highly recommend!!!

[firebatvillain]

20 questions for fic writers!

As seen on @givereadersahug (x)!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 59 works on AO3, though some of those are unrevealed or anonymous, so the visible work count is a bit lower.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

105k! Wow. Over half of that has been in the last two years, when I've been doing a lot more writing and taking part in exchanges.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Naruto (7) Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (7) Original Work (7) Warhammer 40.000 (3) Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms (2) Stellaris (Video Game) (2) From there we get into a lot of one-offs that I wrote for exchanges. House MD, Gundam Wing, Good Omens, The Order of the Stick, and many others. Most of the Original Work fics are for particular exchange prompts, some of which are quite fun.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Greatest Weasley [Harry Potter, Ron-Centric, incomplete] - this WIP is my white whale! Ron gets sorted into Slytherin. Only a couple chapters, I should return to it sometime...

Harry Potter and the Independent Path [Harry Potter, parody, one-shot] - This very short parody fic is fun and I'm glad people like it. I actually look back fondly on this genre even if I poke fun at it.

Five Times Sakura Heard the Voice, and One Time It Faded [Naruto, Sakura-centric, one-shot, 2.9k] - This was an fest fic for Fest No Jutsu 2022! I really enjoyed writing this one.

If You Won’t Wait for Me, I’ll Find My Own Path [Naruto, Sakura-centric, drabble] - Wrote this one based on the fandom opinions of my friend @xenosimp. Surprised at its popularity.

Liana and the Labyrinth’s Core [Original Work, Explicit, Het, 2.3k] - I wrote this very explicit fic for an exchange, and had a lot of fun with it! Minotaur/Sacrifice, make sure to read the tags/warnings.

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

For exchange fics, almost always. Otherwise, I do sometimes. It's fun to chat with other fandom people and let them know I appreciate their comments, or answer their questions.

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

I don't usually write angsty endings, but The Rules of Reintegration [OW drabble, prompt: military android masquerading as a human] is angsty.

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

I'd say Four Times Toph Beifong Triumphed [ATLA, Toph-centric, 2.5k words] would be it. It's generally fun! 

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often, though I got one very baffling comment on a fic where someone questioned the realism of it. I'm not in the big fandoms where there's lots of drama though.

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

Yes, often for exchanges. It typically tends to be straightforward steamy sex. I've got some more kinky stuff posted to anon that I won't share here, heh.

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

I've written one, but it's not usually my style for writing, since it's a challenge for me. I love reading them though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, and I hope it never happens. I don't think anything I've written is popular enough for that 😅

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

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

My fandom friend and I co-wrote Mist and Shadow, a WH40k AU fic about Eldar escaping the fall of the Eldar empire. After about 12k words, we set it down, but we may return someday.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

This is a tough one! All-time, I'm not sure. But at the moment, I'm basically chewing on Durge/Enver Gortash (BG3) and having a great time with it.

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

Oof, this is a tough one! There's a very old Naruto fic that I don't think I'll ever get back to... Lost Root. I can't really recommend it in its current state, but it was one of my first plot bunnies.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty decent at paragraph-to-paragraph rhythm, and I am unafraid to try new things.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I repeat certain phrases without realizing it, and pacing scenes can be difficult for me. I also have a tendency to write excessively long sentences. Trying to improve on that last one!

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

Seems like a hard sell for both writer and reader.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

StarCraft pro gamer RPF. No, you won't find the fic on my AO3 profile.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I'm still in love with Roonil Wazlib and the Goblet of Fire, a 2.8k word Harry Potter crackfic I wrote for Bad Bang V. Is it bad? Yes, oh yes. And it's fun, and so are the comments.

Tagging (no pressure): @xenosimp @vanyalanthirielofmana @chacusha @vampiremonday @uozlulu @miss-ingno @verecunda

[sevlinop]

20 Fic Questions

Thanks for tagging me @angelosearch! I've tagged a lot of people recently, so instead of tagging anyone specifically I'll just leave this open for whoever's interested!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 36!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 67,772.

3. What fandoms do you write for? So many. I'd say Final Fantasy, Persona, and Fire Emblem are the big ones though. I'd like to write more Zelda soon!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? -"Nighttime Escapades" (219), "Maya and Tatsuya Offline" (104), "Link Visit's Sidon" (73), "Clumsy Frieren" (66), "A Port In a Storm" (64).

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, always! I love reading them, and they make my day! :) Only exception is occasionally I'll get spam or something.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? "From Up On Her Throne" Is my darkest fic so far. An Ultimecia character study, so not exactly uplifting lol.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of what I write is happy or uplifting. One of my Frieren fics, "Anytime, Anywhere". Is probably my fluffiest happy one.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Almost never, only time was this person (or bot.) who kept posting bible verses on any fics with LGBT pairings. Was mostly annoying because the comments were so damn long it took forever to scroll down to the delete button lol.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? That's most of the fics I've written! At the moment though I'm gravitating away from it, kinda burned out.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? No offense to anyone who likes them but I just really don't care for crossover fics for the most part, hahaha. The most I may do someday is like, a crossover between two FF games or something. Which barely counts in my book.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes!! I recently had my Apothecary Diaries fic, "Nighttime Escapades" translated into Russian. Still so happy about that!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven't, closest I've had is a beta reader. I'd be open to trying it though!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Zelink or Cloti! Though I'll admit shipping isn't the primary reason I write fics.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Too many to name honestly. I've written plenty of stuff I've never posted, most of what I've posted the past few months I've been back on Ao3 is stuff I wrote a while ago.

16. What are your writing strengths? The big picture part of writing is where I think I shine. Like establishing the main theme of my story, a character's central conflict, interesting broad ideas I want to explore, etc. I'm definitely a discovery writer mores than a planner.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Honestly I struggle with stuff like descriptions, making a scene progress naturally, giving characters unique voices. All the stuff that's more nitty gritty, it doesn't come naturally to me. Oh, and plenty of grammatical mistakes.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I probably would try to avoid it! I only speak English and wouldn't want to just use google translate or something. So unless I know someone who speaks the language, I wouldn't include it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I think Naruto on FFN years and years ago, or The Legend of Zelda.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? It's very bold to claim since it's not far along at all, but already love "A Poisoned History."! Though "Maya and Tatsuya Offline" is my best smut fic, since I did a good job with writing the buildup.

[zyrafowe-sny]

writing ask game: 16 and 19!

from this ask game

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Umm... It has been A While since I've regularly read physical books (mostly read on Libby/other phone apps these days), but I've done the usual random scraps of paper in the past.

When I was a kid obsessed with Narnia in elementary school, I made special friendship bracelet bookmarks for my set that matched the colors of the covers. Some might still exist at my mom's.

I also remember buying bookmarks that looked like castle tapestries.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

When I was a kid, I loved stories and reading and daydreaming and playing pretend (mostly on my own, as others aged out of it). I enjoyed my elementary school creative writing assignments, and started writing poems and stories in my free time too. That continued through high school, and around high school I also got into fanfic (mostly as a reader, but I wrote fan poems, short snippets, and a ficlet/one shot or two that I never shared with anyone else).

In early college, I finally posted a tiny bit of fanfic (on website that thankfully no longer exists), but I had an unfinished WIP that hung over my head for years and years. (It wasn't even that long a story! It just became an impossible task.)

And then there was over a decade of basically nothing. I wrote for college/grad school and for work, but papers, memos, PowerPoints, emails, etc. are not exactly creative writing.

The Owl House rewired my brain, as they say. It started out as a show I started watching mid 2022 while folding laundry, but in October 2022 I started bingeing in earnest. I was still finishing Season 2B when Thanks to Them dropped, but once I caught up... oooph. Immediate rewatch. I read some fanfic, but for the first time in over a decade, I was itching to write. I started with one drabble — 100 words seemed like a realistic goal — which turned into a drabble sequence. Then I posted a one shot a few days later, then another one shot, and... After having an AO3 account with zero posted words of my own from August 2013 to mid October 2022, I now have over 50k up and more in drafts.

These days, I consider myself a fanfic writer in it for the long haul. I know that life responsibilities/health/etc may interfere with writing from time to time, but I've found my way back before and I am confident that I can do it again. I am a little anxious about having multiple multi-chapter WIPs up on AO3 — there was a reason I initially intended to stick to one shots/one shots in series — but fanfic writeblr helps immensely. When in doubt, I write drabbles.

I am in zero rush to focus on writing original fiction, but I have decades of life yet. Who knows — maybe I'll write a short story collection or a novel someday for fun, but I'm not nearly as passionate or dedicated (or talented!) as my friends/acquaintances who are writing/making art professionally. That's where I am with music too — I love being part of a community choir and I hope music will always be a part of my life, but it's a hobby. And as much as I desperately wish we supported full-time artists better, I also wish more people could just "dabble" in creative/artistic endeavors (time and money being big gatekeepers for hobbies too).

[vvatchword]

I'm so concerned that I'll NEVER finish a novel-sized anything.

I mean, technically, I have. I've finished about 23 novel-sized things. It's just that most of them are shitty and the one that wasn't shitty was still... not very good. A very long process, this. But the idea is, I would like to end a story and have that story be good all the way through. This is the dream. Doesn't matter how good the ride is if it terminates in a brick wall.

So my BioShock hyperfixation has been gradually winding down for the past... oh, two months? I have managed to ease my fall by sliding down the fireman's pole of "adjacent interests." Anyway, I'm heading toward a drawer period with this story--totally normal for me. Having a hyperfixation for a literal fucking year is the weird part. Just six more weeks and it will truly be that old. Unfortunately, it's a sign that nothing is quite right in my life, but at the same time, I ain't wastin this fuckin impetus, ok

Now consider this.

A Summer for Saya. TMNT fic. Leorai. Exceptionally cursed. I've known how it ends for years. I have easily written about 150,000 words just trying to get the thing to the finish line. I end up skidding on my face into a compost pile EVERY. FUCKING. TIME.

At this point I've formed a goddamn complex about the dumb fucking thing. And by forming a complex about Saya, I've formed a complex about Uprising. I'm terrified I won't complete it correctly or worse--at ALL. There's a reason I haven't posted much of Uprising: I do not want to get hamstrung by feeling like there are Expectations. It's Expectations that get me most hung up--no matter how I try to push them out of my mind.

I know very well what I must do: ease up :) Relax :)) Think about what's gonna be fun. Forget everybody but myself. Turn on the good music (or none at all). Go to a strange, new, and/or comfortable place and write with a coffee and a biscotti. Follow my excitement, my passion, whatever interests me. Go re-read some old comic books. Just read some books full-stop. Try to get excited about it. And so on.

It's at times like this that I remember a scene from Rick and Morty in that stupid-ass "Get Schwifty" episode, where Rick tells Morty that he has to stop worrying because that just fouls up the creative process. Granted, the final product is, "Take a shit on the floor," which may be a sort of wisdom in its own way, but I can't even take the goddamn shit. It's impossible to trick myself. I have no idea what to do. I am my own worst enemy.

One of the problems that hit me with Saya was that its drawer period came RIGHT AT THE END. Just right there at the climax. I was just done. We needed space from each other. And every time I come back, I'm just not able to get back into the right headspace.

So right now I feel like I have got to try and finish Only Man before the drawer slams shut or I may hit the same horrible, impermeable wall. My biggest fear is that it'll turn into a forever wall. This forever block. My own ability to screw up my own creative process so goddamn badly that nothing ever ends and I'm just writing and writing forever.

It may be good for me on a private level, but I'd love to share my work someday, you know? I'm proud of these things for a goddamn reason.

[jedimordsith]

It is not Wednesday, but I didn’t get to post yesterday so have it today because rules are made up and time doesn’t matter.  From the Roganda fic I’ll finish someday.

“Look,” Han dropped his voice seriously. “It's like ribenes, right?” 

“What are you rambling about, Solo?” 

“Relationships are like ribenes,” Han insisted. “Everybody knows exactly how hot they like ‘em, right? And everybody figures that any being who wants their ribenes milder than them is a wuss. But any being who likes ‘em hotter is crazy.”

Mara folded her arms beneath her breasts and scowled. “Skywalker likes his ribenes hot enough to blister everything from your tongue to your stomach,” she pointed out. “So I don’t see how picking up a Jedi extremist for a girlfriend is going to be beyond his tolerance.” 

“She’s a wookiee.” 

Mara squinted, but before she could lambaste him for making no sense at all, Solo continued. 

“I’ve known Luke since he barely knew what a Jedi was,” he said, bluntly. “An’ one thing we’ve all learned over the years is that this Old Order Jedi shit is like Rakririan Burnout Sauce. A little bit goes a long way. Throw in even a splash too much and you’re incinerate yourself from the inside out. Luke’s worked damn hard to find the limits, and he’s about nailed down how far a healthy being can go before it gets to be Too Much. Callista, now — she’s like a Wookiee. You ever seen a Wookiee season something with Burnout Sauce?” 

“I may have seen one melt through a couple plates while trying,” Mara allowed grudgingly. 

“Exactly.” Han pointed a finger at her, and it was a testament to how much she secretly enjoyed his company that she wasn’t struck with the immediate urge to snap it off. “Sooner or later, those two are gonna figure out that they can’t cook in the same kitchen.” He sighed, suddenly looking tired. “Luke bein’ Luke, of course, is probably going to do the gentlemanly thing and let her leave him so she can save face or whatever. But it’s gonna happen.” 

“And what?” She meant the words to come as a demand. She must have been more tired than she thought, though, because weariness and something else that she couldn’t put a name to came out instead. “You think I should be part of the crew hanging around to pick up the pieces?” Her voice became a hiss. “Roganda nearly had Leia killed, Han.” She pointed toward the hall, in the direction of the bedrooms where his family slept. “I’m not going to sit around and wait for Skywalker to get his head of his ass while they’re at risk!”

“I’m not asking you to,” his hazel eyes bore into, somehow equal parts sharp determination and that brotherly softness that only he was ever brazen enough to look at her with. “I’m just sayin’ that when Luke comes to find you — to fix what he’s breakin’ right now, I want you to give him a chance. He’s not great a relationships, but he’s a good kid, ya know?” 

[notwhelmedyet]

2022 Craft Project Roundup

it’s almost the end of 2022 and I had the thought - why not compile all my projects for the year in one post? It’d be fun (for me). So here we go!!

January - March: Ficbinding of my Taking Care Trilogy

A project I had been dreaming of even while I was writing these fics - I finally made fancy hand-bound copies of my longest fic series ever.

March: Straw Marquetry Panels

Big shoutout to Pipsqueak on the Renegade server who let me know that this shit exists, because it is the perfect intersection of things I like: natural materials, shiny things, geometric shapes, straw!. I discovered that straw marquetry is incredibly fiddly and time consuming and my initial thought of full ceilings or large murals was way overly ambitious. But I still love it, despite all it’s fiddliness

April - June: Various failed experiments with straw dyeing

There is a way to dye straw. It must exist. People sell dyed straw. But despite at least 10 attempts with fiber reactive and RIT dyes with various prep methods, I did not once succeed in getting dye to take to the outer shiny side of the straw. (I intended to make pink straw for the wedding guestbook later in this list)

May: Pieced cubical bulletin board covers

I decided to spice up my cubical a bit with some nice fabric covers over my bulletin boards, after a friend told me it was super easy to remove them & cover them with fabric via tacks. The green fabric I got turned out to be too short 🤦 so I got a jelly roll of rainbow batiks and pieced these funky covers together.

May - June : Pair of dyed historical-inspired tunics

Another project I’ve had in my head for years - using a medieval reenactment tunic tutorial to make my own shirts out of linen. Linen turns out to be fabulous to dye, unlike straw, which is evil. It does wrinkle the moment you look at it, but you just have to be chill with that.

June: First longstitch bookbinding

Inspired by the amazing works of queercore-curriculum I had decided to use a criss-cross longstitch for the wedding guestbook I planned to make for my friend A. This was my initial testbook, which I did on graph paper thinking I could use it as a journal. The graph paper turns out to be very thin and bad for journal writing but the book itself I am quite proud of :)

July: DIY alcohol stove (& knots!)

So in July I went to a natural building/strawbale construction workshop and I was going to need to cook for myself on the first day of camping - hence a brief research binge on alcohol stoves & how to DIY them. This is the simplest possible alcohol stove made out of a cat food can & while youtube will tell you to optimize by making it much more complicated it works fine for boiling water/making fancy curry mashed potatoes.

Also around this time I learned how to do several knots for having up my camping hammock, which isn’t exactly a craft but it’s not knot a craft ;)

July: Part of a house

oh fuck it, the house goes on the list. As part of the aforementioned workshop I (along with about 40 other people) assembled the strawbale walls for a family home. It was by far the most amazing experience I had in 2022. Like adult summer camp with more powertools & while learning skills I hope to someday turn upon a home of my own.

September: Pajama pant spectacular

In September I made two new pajama pants (one of rockin’ flannel and one of a nice purple shot cotton) and also repaired several old pairs (new elastic, added pockets, patched some holes etc). Yes I do patch pockets on pajamas, they’re not fashionable but they’re much more convenient for phone access while cooking.

October: Wedding Guestbook

A guestbook for my friend’s wedding, done in the style of that other longstitch book, but with more fancy things :3

November: Small notebook

Made a small notebook with the offcuts from the wedding guestbook for a friend gift exchange. I was very proud of this one; simple and sweet and finished in a single weekend (it helped that the pages were already deckled to size).

December: Paperboard desk organizer

I keep my downstairs stuff (pens, wallet, keys, etc) in a little basket downstairs so I don’t have to wander the house looking for them and I decided to finally make organizers for it so it wouldn’t be a melange of mess. Used scraps from my bookbinding supplies & they turned out pretty good considering I have 0 box making experience.

December: Tablet weaving/work lanyard

Another craft I’ve wanted to try for years: tablet weaving! I finally thought of an excuse one day at work while contemplating how much I hated my lanyard - it flipped around constantly and the keys made unending clanking noises when I walked. I might make a post on tablet weaving bc I am in love. I need to think of more excuses. It’s so good, so satisfying. It’s like the opposite of straw marquetry in terms of how much I enjoy it in the moment :p

[violetsandfluff]

SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME

Part 1: Divine Arrangements

Read the trailer here. Warnings: arranged marriage. I will not be posting on my usual days next week because Y/N will be too busy. Thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy! Word count: 1.2k+ @chocochipcookie305 @thebluetint bc you liked the this thing

“The king has a new chariot,” my mother ranted haughtily as she sat down in her rocking chair after work. “Who uses chariots anymore what with all of these cars? He has garages full of them, does he not? Never have I ever seen that lazy old king in a chariot.

“And look at us out here in the village, busting our backs to feed him another meal and buy more things to stroke his vanity.”

“Now, Sally,” my father consoled in his kind, tactful manner. “We mustn’t judge the king yet. He has made many rational decisions that have worked in the favor of his people.”

“Scrap the decisions! Any king high on God can imagine what should be able to throw a murderer or two in prison!”

“What does high mean?” my little brother Mortimer inquired, confusion crossing his soft, precious features.

“Never mind that,” I said hastily, scooping him up in my arms. “Momma’s had a long day at work. Do you wanna help me make some dinner?”

“Yeah!” He gave me a broad, toothy smile and he touched the tip of my nose lightly with his pointer finger. “Boop!”

“Boop!” I touched his nose back. “What should we make?”

“Mac and Cheese!” he replied decidedly.

“That sounds good,” I agreed. “We can start making it as long as you stay quiet. Okay, Mortimer?”

Mortimer nodded solemnly, taking my suggestion of silence very seriously. Mom and Dad’s tones had grown hushed and urgent and you planned on listening to their every word.

They were talking about arranging a marriage for me; not arranging, rather selling me off to any strange man who would pay a solid amount.

I didn’t want to be sold like a worthless possession, but the money would be my family’s to flaunt. They could give it away to other villagers or gloat about it to the king.

I just hoped that, given that I get my way, my man is handsome and he loves me. I want to have a family someday. I dream about it all the time. I just never think about how soon it may come.

And there I was presumably overthinking the whole matter. That’s such a me thing to do.

Mortimer remained silent (for the most part) for the remainder of our time cooking, and when we sat down for dinner, my parents kept making fleeting eye contact with each other. They were unusually quiet throughout the duration of the meal and the moment they were finished, they told Mortimer to leave the table.

This meant I was left alone with my parents.

My cool-tempered father cleared his throat twice; once quietly, once louder as if he was preparing to make an unnerving proclamation.

“Y/N,” he shifted uncomfortably in his creaky chair.

“Your mother and I have made a decision regarding your future,” my Mother said quickly.

I listened intently, pretending that I hadn’t heard their entire conversation from the kitchen.

“We would like you to marry. We could get a tremendous amount of money from your future husband and use it for good in the community. However…” she made eye contact with my father, signaling for him to continue for her.

“However,” he began, “Because your are of legal age in this country, you can say no to us.”

“Just know that your beauty can give us a thing of utmost importance,” my mother added.

“She doesn’t need to do anything,” prodded my father uncomfortably. “We don’t need anything. We’re scraping by just fine.”

“It’s all in the word scraping,” my mother retorted. “It’s up to you, Lovebug. All up to you.”

I had so many voices in my head I almost grew deaf. Some voices were telling me to go with their plan. I could end up with the man of my dreams and benefit my community all the while. But on the other hand, my man could hate me and abuse me and make my life miserable. Still, I felt compelled to oblige to their plan to help the village.

“I can do it,” I squeaked. Then, “Who will it be?” My breath caught in my throat as I waited for the response.

“Well,” my father glanced in dismay at my mother who was jumping and clapping for joy. “We will collect some of the most, say, beneficial men in the country and let you choose.

If it was my choice, nothing could go wrong… could it?

~~~

My father and mother had met dozens of young men waiting to marry me and assist our village. They all agreed on how barbaric it was that the king was stealing money from such a poor area. Some men wished for my hand in marriage out of spite, others for beauty, but eventually I had five young men to choose from.

My parents held private meetings with each one of them to get to know them. They had spent the larger part of a week getting to know them, and they spared no details.

“Harry is so handsome,” mused my mother. “If you were looking for a man with looks, he surely must be your choice.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “He seems like a good kisser too,” only to pull away and giggle. “He would pay a hefty sum for your hand.”

“Liam is very reasonable and down to earth,” my father said stiffly. “He’s wise beyond his years.”

“But all of the men are very handsome,” my mother was still ranting about Harry and his outrageous looks. “A girl with your beauty deserves nothing less.”

“Louis has the personality of a jester,” my father spoke over my mother. “You’d never have a dull day with him around.”

“Niall seems perfectly charming, but he’s not very attractive. He might be noted as ugly in my book.”

“Niall is a perfectly nice man and he seems very family-oriented. He would care for your wellbeing and look after you well.”

“Then there’s Zayn…” my mother trailed off and she looked to my father for support.

“Zayn is a little different,” he began gingerly, “but he seems like a nice enough guy. I can’t find anything to hold against him… no evidence at least.” His tact was nearly impeccable, but I could still sense the uncertainty in his voice. “He’s an interesting character, that Zayn. Very… secretive. Almost nervous, he was… well, don’t worry about it, Princess. You’ll pick the right man.”

“He’s right,” my mother comforted. “I know you will.”

After this conversation, I was extremely excited to meet Harry. If he was nearly as attractive as my mother said, I would have no problem falling for him. Liam seemed like just the type of guy my father would get along with, and Louis seemed quite entertaining. If Niall was homely, I might be hesitant to marry him, but he seemed so sweet. And Zayn… I was a little scared of meeting him. He seemed like a criminal type, bad vibe and all.

Despite the drawbacks, I was excited to meet the guys. I wanted to know who I could love. I wondered just how handsome Harry was and if he was a good kisser.

I would have a date with Harry on Monday, Liam on Tuesday, Louis on Wednesday, Niall on Thursday, and, gulp, Zayn on Friday.

[mcfiddlestan]

The Flame sounds super cool! What’s that about? 💜

The Flame is an ambitious one! It's an AU but the time frame is still something I'm unsure about, lol. It starts in Asgard -- in this AU, Asgard is literally in, like, northern Europe. Around Norway, Sweden, and all that. Thor and the Warriors 3 are hanging out and pulling pranks on Sif. Over some mead (bc they had to toast obvs), the discussion turns to what they can get Thor to do. Eventually, they dare him to travel to Jotunheim, once a grand monarchy off the northern coast of Asgard that fell to ruin and came under Asgard's rule (but is very neglected by Odin), to try and catch a glimpse of the Lost Prince.

The Lost Prince is rumored to be a witch but has been hidden away in a tower since birth. No one knows why, and there is a lot of mystery surrounding the prince's existence. The only thing that's really known about him is that he's the most beautiful creature to ever exist -- though no one Thor and his friends know has seen him. Hence, the dare.

Ofc, things don't go as Thor planned. First, it's forbidden to travel to Jotunheim without King Odin's explicit permission. Then, Thor and the boys get into a scuffle with Jotun soldiers. Amid all the chaos, what he's learned about the Lost Prince is...well, disturbing. While being reamed for his troublemaking, Thor alerts Odin to what's happening on the island.

Eventually, Odin and Laufey make a deal: Loki for the return of the Jotun throne. And Thor, as punishment, will be sent to a military academy in England. Loki is brought to Asgard and set up in a room in Thor's wing of the palace. Thor spends his last weeks in Asgard trying to get closer to Loki, but Loki has magicked wards around his room. It's not until the last night before Thor leaves that they finally talk. And Loki gifts Thor with a sweet goodbye gift. 💋

The next part follows Thor to the academy where he meets Steve, Phil, and Tony (I may add other characters or change these; I started writing this when characters were limited to the Iron Man, Cap, and first Thor movies). Like I said, the timeline is iffy, but part of Tony's behavioral issues (and reason for being in the academy) is his penchant for experimenting and blowing shit up and "society" looking down on an educated son of an elite man messing with science. But they all become buds, and at the end of the school year, Tony invites everyone to New York. There, Thor meets Clint (a professional thief), his girlfriend (a dancer with a lot of mystery), Natasha, and Bruce, the guy Tony used to do all his experiments with. After two weeks, Thor invites everyone to Asgard.

Big mistake. Huge. Because, ofc, it's lust at first sight for Tony when

he meets Loki. They bond over science and magic, and Tony blows everyone off to spend time with Loki, which pisses off Thor. He's still pissed when they return to the academy and ignores Tony for the whole year. A big military games contest is held at the end of the term, but Thor doesn't choose Tony for his team. So Tony forms his own. Steve, who's learned what Thor's issue with Tony is, warns Tony from playing too hard against Thor. Tony ignores him and ends up getting hurt.

But that's as much as I can share because the rest would be spoilers!

As I said, this was a really ambitious fic for me that was posted on AO3 once. But life and school and writer's block forced me to remove it (and like three other fics), and it's been sitting in my WIPs on my google drive since August of 2015. I really do want to finish it someday. And so many characters to add now!

Thanks for asking!

xoxo

WIP game

[diphthongsfordays]

Writer Brain go Brrr

So here's the thing. I'm trying to figure stuff out, and I'm inflicting it on ya'll.

I've been working on Niv and the Neverwhere, usually in very small word counts every day (or three lol). I still am invested in that story, but I'm finding myself more and more wanting at least some sort of outline - which is the exact opposite of what I set out to do, since this book was an experiment in what I do when very deliberately not writing an outline, lol.

I also am wanting more and more to go back to Deathdancer. To print out that 95k disaster of an outline draft, and go through it, and cover my wall in post-its trying to solve problems, and all that fun stuff. I just miss Ailin and Zaul a lot. Every time I do anything that involves opening Deathdancer, I get excited. I feel like I should follow the excitement :-) Of course, working on this also involves finding a way of printing 400 pages in a semi-responsible manner, so there's that...

I also someday have to put some serious time into Firetide Rising again if I ever want to actually finish that one, lol. But I'm content for now to let it simmer while I work on other things.

I am not a person who has EVER successfully worked on two projects at once. But I'm also pretty sure that's because I...haven't tried? I also have to consider I go back to work next week, and my writing time will be limited, which is a big part of why I've not really tried actively juggling projects.

So. The choice before me is, roughly:

Just keep working on Niv and the Neverwhere as-is

Develop a loose outline, and then continue writing

Switch fully to preparing for the Deathdancer rewrite

Work on both

I'm thinking I may do Deathdancer. I just have to sort out printing...