#They're not supposed to be out in this scene but this was already a WIP before I changed it into what it is now

[zephyra-in-the-house]

Don't Mention the Kid

"It was at this moment that he knew... he fucked up."

Here's a little depiction of that time in Chapter 6 of my fic "Second Chances" where the leader of the mercenaries, Junfeng, mentions MK and Macaque goes absolutely ape shit

(Lords I hope the quality isn't as bad when upload it as it is right now LOL)

[nonstoplover]

sleep without you ~ charles leclerc (cl16)

my masterlist | my f1 masterlist

pairing: charles leclerc x fem!reader

song inspiration: sleep without you ~ brett young

summary: charles struggles to function properly without her by his side, or a story of a night without his girlfriend.

words: 2.1K

warnings: nothing, just fluff and a slightly clingy charles baby <3

a/n: idk why but this song honestly screams charles to me whenever i hear it, so i just had to make it happen. also this was supposed to be posted on my one year f1-aversary as celebration (well technically it should be more if counting my childhood f1 years but anyway), but i was so caught up in another wip that i couldn't do it. so happy anniversary to me and f1 (two weeks late) with this lil ficlet <3 thankful for all that f1 gave me.

big thanks to the amazing lovely silverstonesainz for helping me make this better and to the equally awesome monzabee for making me much less anxious with her words. love you sm queens!!

please, don't be a ghost reader, leave a comment or rb!

Charles spends a whole afternoon trying to convince her to have a night out with her friends. Just because they're in a relationship doesn't mean they can't have fun without the other as well from time to time. There are still a couple of weeks left of winter break, plenty of opportunity to spend time just the two of them before the season starts again. So the usual point of view, the usual reasoning doesn't stand a chance – that they should spend as much time together as they can, before he's back to travelling all around the world.

"Go to a club, grab some drinks, dance and laugh the night away", he tells her. The usual bestie coffee dates or walks in the park that she usually raises as argument are not the same as a night out, and she hasn't done that for so long now. Definitely not since he's been back home, and he knows just how much she enjoys dancing her heart out.

(y/n) agrees after a short while, accepting his reasons, knowing full well that he's right, and after a few phone calls she starts getting ready, soon walking out the front door, dressed all pretty and dolled up.

Doesn't take long before Charles realises what he's done. A feeling tingles in his chest, one he recognises swiftly. He's miserable. Solely because she's not there by his side, as he makes dinner, eats it – all by himself –, before settling on the couch to occupy himself with a movie. It doesn't matter though, he doesn't pay any attention to it. He doesn't even know what's going on, he hasn't heard a single line, too busy thinking about her.

When the credits start to roll, he switches the TV off with a surprised look in his eyes – how did it already end? He doesn't even remember the first scene ending. Then he moves into the bathroom to do his night routine, from taking a shower to putting on some skincare products, all the while wondering how long she will be out for? Will she come home soon? Hope tingles in his chest that the answer to his question is yes.

Having finished with everything, Charles lies down in bed, trying to read a book, then scrolling on social media, doing anything to keep his mind from straying over and over again back to her. He knows this is stupid, he was the one telling her to go out, why is he like this now? Lying awake on his side of the bed, the fingers on his right hand tracing figures onto the sheet where her body usually rests.

This is pathetic, Charles thinks. He never thought he would be like this, so miserable and impatient just because she's not at home, with him. He's tossing around, unable to find a comfortable position for himself – it seems like he forgot how to sleep without her. No matter how many times he's had to do just that, in hotel rooms all around the world. The past few weeks erased all those nights from his mind.

The delicious scent of her shampoo fills his lungs when his face lands just a bit too close to her pillow, and all of a sudden it's like he's burying his nose in her hair. It only makes him miss her more. Sleeping is impossible, he knows it now. He's only daydreaming, not actually dreaming, of her arriving home and being in his arms again.

Charles imagines the way she dances in the middle of the floor, her hands in the air, shouting the lyrics loudly to the song currently playing – most probably something she knows and loves –, and he can't help but smile fondly. Just the thought of her having fun is enough to make him happier, even in his misery.

He pictures a scene where a random guy tries to get too close to her, as it has happened so many times, whenever he leaves her alone for a few minutes at any club they've been to. It doesn't matter where they are, doesn't matter if they spent the night so far together, all over each other, someone comes into the picture immediately when he leaves, either to grab a drink for the two of them, or to go to the restrooms.

It's not like he doesn't understand those guys. She's simply gorgeous, and radiates such a vibrant aura that everyone is drawn to her. He honestly just finds it funny at this point. Nothing makes these men back off more effectively than her. Oh, the amount of times he bit back laughter watching the scene unfold from a distance. Seeing men crumble and disappear looking all ashamed, what a sight that is. And he doesn't have to do anything.

He wonders how many times she's had to fight off guys so far tonight, with him not even in the club, and he finds he can't wait to hear all her stories of the newest victims. Pierre never understood why Charles found it so amusing, he didn't seem to get it. The trust they have in each other. Knowing that it's him she'll come home to at the end of the night is enough to make him only feel entertained by each instance, and not irritated at the slightest bit.

But thinking about (y/n) fighting off men is only good enough entertainment for a limited amount of time, and soon the smile fades back into a miserable pout on his lips, as his thoughts turn back into ones of impatience, trying to make time move faster with short little prayers falling as mumbles from his lips.

With a sigh, he eventually sits up, looking around to find something he can do. At last he decides on grabbing a drink himself, maybe it will help stop the flow of thoughts racing in his head. A little welcomed dullness.

He takes a seat at the kitchen table, sipping on the liquid in his glass, enjoying the feeling of the light alcohol gently burning his throat on the way down, numbing his tongue along the way. His fingers stay restless, now drumming on the wooden surface. A few minutes later he realises they play a song, soundless except the soft thud of his fingertips with the occasional louder tap or little scratch of his nails when a finger finds a different angle to hit the table with.

A melody appears in his mind as he watches his fingers move, imagining how it would sound if it was his piano instead of the kitchen table. He would go sit at the beautiful, white instrument and try it, but he doesn't want to be so loud at such a late hour. And anyway, he's way too comfortable sitting where he is to stand up and go somewhere else.

He looks out the window, catching sight of the moon – almost full, just a tiny bit of it missing, and Charles examines the craters that are visible to the naked eye, though only as spots of a darker shade on the round shape.

Maybe he'll name this new musical piece that's being born in his head right now after her – well, if he ever finishes it. He'll keep the usual format, three letters of a city name and a date, only this time putting the time and place of when they first met. Or should it be the time and place of when he first asked her out? Or their first date? Or when she agreed to move in with him? God, there are way too many options to choose from. He decides to put this problem aside for now, he's not in a rush to name a song not even written yet.

As the clock on the oven changes all four numbers to display 2am, the action rouses his attention and makes him tear his eyes away from the moon and look at the numbers instead.

He would've never ever thought that he'd be like this.

Raising his glass he notices that there's only a small sip left in it, which he downs in a short moment. His tongue darts out to gather all the minuscule drops that might rest on his lips still, not wanting to waste even that much of the delicious drink. Then he stands up, placing the glass down into the sink, making a mental note to clean it in the morning before (y/n) wakes up.

Just as he ponders putting another movie on, maybe only as background noise if nothing else, his phone buzzes in the pocket of his pants. Taking his time, Charles pulls the device out, expecting nothing more than a useless notification from a social media app he shouldn't spend so much time on anyway.

Instead what he finds is a text. From her.

in a cab, be home soon &lt;3

Charles lets out a relieved sigh, his lips involuntarily curving into a smile, one that you could almost call giddy. It's not just the thought that she's going to be here soon, but the fact that she remembered to text him to let him know. He's in her mind, just like she's in his, even though she's been out with friends, having fun, drinking, while he's only been at home, all alone with his misery.

Now he can move back to bed happily, knowing that shortly she will join him.

It truly doesn't take long until Charles hears the front door creak as it opens, then the familiar jingle of her keys hitting the drawer in the hall, and his heart flutters with happiness. Finally. The high heels she chose to wear hit the floor with a soft thud as she presumably removes them, and the growing anticipation in his body seems to eat him whole.

Her steps grow louder and louder as she moves closer to the bedroom, and time slows for Charles. He watches in slow motion as she appears in the doorframe, being propped up on his elbows to have a better view, a lazy smile curling onto his face, and his eyes lidded with drowsiness.

"You're still awake?" (y/n) giggles, pausing in her steps for a second as her eyes take in the view he provides lying there. His lack of reply to her text made her think he's already fallen asleep.

"Of course," he mumbles. "Come to bed."

His voice is whiny and he behaves like an actual child, he knows, but he can't help it. He wants to sleep, and he wants to sleep beside her, feeling her warmth against his skin. That's the only way he can.

"Let me get changed first," she starts towards the closet, when a grunt of pure displeasure sounds from him along with the thump of his back as he falls into a lying position once more, making her glance back at her boyfriend. "What, can't wait a single minute?"

"No," he protests, pouting . "I've been waiting for hours."

His accent comes forth stronger when he's sleepy, and she can't help but smile adoringly upon hearing it. He's just so cute.

"Okay, fine, you'll get one kiss," she gives in. Charles resembles a lost puppy and she's sure he knows that's her weakness. She can't ever say no to anything when he looks like that.

So that's how she finds herself crawling into bed, trying to get as close as possible to the boy without causing damage to her dress. He grins, as much as his tired facial muscles allow, awaiting her lips touching his own. His pout becomes even more apparent, right until the moment he finally gets what he wants. His goodnight kiss. It's soft, slow and just so full of love it makes both their hearts flutter.

Then she caresses his cheek gently, whispering a barely audible good night, sleep tight to him, before moving back off the bed to disappear in the closet, leaving Charles to think about how he'd happily convince her again of going out if it means she'll come home to him, looking so radiant, properly buzzing with energy, eyes shining, hair messy but still looking so breathtaking. It's obvious how much it meant to her that she had this night out. He made her happy with telling her to go out with her friends, and he didn't regret it, despite all the miserable hours.

By the time she finishes her night routine and walks back into the bedroom once more, he's fast asleep, quiet snores filling the silence of the room. She bites into her bottom lip to keep in the giggle threatening to burst out, and with a heart full of adoration and a head slightly dizzy from the drinks she's had, she gets in bed beside him, snuggling up close to him, revelling in the feeling of his arms instinctively finding their way around her body even when he's sleeping.

He truly only waited for her to come home and give him a goodnight kiss to finally be able to fall asleep.

[jesuisici33]

2023 Writing Round Up!

Writing Round-Up: Share what you wrote this year! It can be works you posted to Ao3, Wattpad, Tumblr, or anywhere else! You can share everything you wrote or just the ones your most excited about.

i honestly didn't think i wrote/published a lot of fic this year, but that actually turned out to be a lie when i went back and checked out my stats this year so i'm pleastantly surprised and impressed with myself! so here's my writing round up!

January

Drabble Life 2023 - Jan 2nd, 2023 - (Schitt's Creek, 1.9k)

new year, new drabbles! drabbles based on weekly prompts from schittscreekdrabbleblog on tumblr

A Lesson in Flirting - Jan 3rd, 2023 (Schitt's Creek, Teen, 1.9k)

a 5+1 fic where patrick is oblivious when women flirt with him and 1 time where he knows when a man flirts with him

Public Relations - finished Jan 31st, 2023 (Schitt's Creek, E, 38k)

Patrick Brewer and Rachel Davis are everyone's favorite rom-com actors, and since this is the sixth time they're playing a couple and with the public demanding when they're going to start dating, their PR manager, Alexis Rose has them perform a PR relationship for two years to help promote their latest movie. Patrick, however has recently been casted in the new book to series adaption of The Thief and the Prince alongside David Rose, making his fake relationship with Rachel go into jeopardy

February

Month of Love - all month long (Schitt's Creek, 11.8k)

My attempt at doing 28 drabbles in 28 days!

Patrick vs. The Sexy Vets - Feb 7th, 2023 (Schitt's Creek, Teen, 461 words)

"Smiling quizzically at Dr. Miguel, Patrick was about to ask what he meant but his question died on his tongue when Miguel set the kennels down so he could take off his shirt."

Or, a little drabble of what if Patrick was there when Miguel shot that photo for that add of his?

April

Keep My Hands Tied - April 4th, 2023 (Schitt's Creek, E, 2.4k)

Right now David was on his knees in his and Patrick’s bedroom, taking steadying breaths as Patrick loped the blue rope around David’s body slowly around him. It wasn’t often David asked Patrick to dominate him. When they first got together, David found out his inclination of Patrick to be slightly wrong. But the way Patrick said, “Oh, I’m gonna get the money,” or, “You’re going to sit here and think about what you’ve done,” that time when they got back together… That tone never failed to leave David’s vivid imagination or fantasies.

June

What We Don't See At The 118 - June 20th, 2023 (911, 381 words)

Prompts I've received on tumblr*

*lol this only has one entry so far, this fic was supposed to be for little drabbles but some prompts i've recieved have grown to one-shots in my wip folder whoops

It's Photoshop - June 30th, 2023 (911:Lonestar, Teen, 567 words)

TK meets a friend who also likes bearded dragons. And Carlos' secret comes out.

July

cause i believe that we were supposed to find this- July 10th, 2023 (911: Lonestar, Teen, 3.2k)

As soon as they are at the scene a cop is already there waiting for him. He’s younger than TK expected. He greets his dad before letting him take the lead of the scene. TK doesn’t get a good look at him, doesn’t bother interacting with him - too busy to do his job of getting Allison out of her car. In fact, he even forgets about the timer on his wrist.

If he did, he would’ve noticed that the countdown is less than a minute.

When the 126 find out that Allison has another baby - one not still inside her - it doesn’t take long for Paul to figure out the baby miraculously landed in a tree. And isn’t that a news story. The cop comes up to TK and asks, “How the hell-” when two distinct buzzing sounds go off.

Both men look down at their wrists.

Or, you're born with a timer on your wrist that counts down to when you meet your soulmate.

Castles Crumbling Down- July 14th, 2023 (911, Teen, 1.5k)

Eddie sits down on the bench, laying his head back against the cold stone wall. With his eyes closed and arms crossed, he hopes it fools the guards into thinking Eddie is more calm than he really is. That they can’t tell how much his heart is pounding or how his skin itches to start punching things. Again. Just like how they found him when his hood fell off and people let out cries that the Princess Assassin is here amongst them.

OR: i had a tumblr prompt in my ask box and when i watched nimona things finally clicked.

You Can Take the Man Out of the Midwest... - July 29th, 2023 (911, G, 1k)

At first, Bobby gets trolled for all things midwest, it isn't until later he can use his teammates non midwest knowledge to his advantage...

September

yes i know that he's my ex but can't two people reconnect? - Sept 25, 2023 (911:Lonestar, E, 2.8k)

seeing him tonight - it's a bad idea, right?

(fuck it, it's fine)

tagged by @wikiangela and @hippolotamus

tagging @malewifediaz @911-on-abc @eddiebabygirldiaz @monsterrae1 @daffi-990 @rmd-writes @spotsandsocks @liminalmemories21 @aroeddiediaz @disasterbuckdiaz @loserdiaz @giddyupbuck @bonheur-cafe @wandering-night19 @alrightbuckaroo @tyfinn @lizzie-bennetdarcy @your-catfish-friend @pirrusstuff @carlos-in-glasses @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @eowon @apothecarose @mammameesh @heartshapedvows @fortheloveofbuddie @cultofsappho

[salmonisforthebagel]

Alright... which fic should I focus on finishing? (they're all WIP I haven't had the courage to post so far)(they're also all Scisaac)

Scott is a Gryffindor chaser, set on finally beating Slytherin in the Quidditch cup. What he doesn't expect is for their biggest rival to be Hufflepuff, or for a sudden friendship with the chaser from his rival team - Isaac Lahey. (This one is probably the cutest out of all of them. Scott is trying really hard to ignore his crush on Isaac in order to focus on Quidditch and school, but fate- aka, the author- seems to throw the pair together constantly. Its very light hearted, I'm already about 3k in, and have yet to add any angst)

Isaac is forced to leave France after losing his healing abilities and being targeted by a group of hunters. With no where else to go, Isaac returns to Beacon Hills, his only goal is to be as little of a burden as possible. Scott has other plans in mind. (This one, if taken from Scott's perspective, would be mostly very cute. But I decided to go the Isaac route, and my boy is going through it. There's also a lot of fun scenes in this, though, as Scott tries to romance Isaac throughout the Christmas season, but its honestly the angstiest of the three stories. Its supposed to be based on Tis' The Damn Season from Isaac's POV, and Stick Season from Scott's POV. I strayed from this, but its still kind of there. I'm about 8k into this one and have A LOT more I want to add)

After an absolutely horrendous year, Lydia starts a band to try to get some semblance of popularity back. She recruits her detention group- Allison, Stiles, Scott, and Isaac. They each join to escape their previous years troubles, and end up finding an unexpected friendship. (This one, if you couldn't tell, is based on Lemonade Mouth. Its a human au, and I had a lot of fun working with these character dynamics and background outside of the supernatural. There is some areas that have different POVs, but its mostly Scott POV, and my favorite part about a Scott POV is to have him be silently in love with Isaac. Anyways, the plot of this one mostly follows the antics between their band and Jackson's rival band as they approach battle of the bands. There's a lot going on in this one, because I've been having fun making scenes with each character. I'm about 7k in, but have only written about 1/3 of the scenes I want.)

Please lmk what you think! Or any of your fav tropes, fics, etc!

[anawrites3]

Helloo♡

I would like to know more about Jaden going back in time... like, if they're still enemies, does Slade find out about it at all?

Hi, thank you for asking!! I’m so glad so many people are taking interest in my little boy! 💕💕 I talked about this idea right here and posted a wip earlier here so go check it out if you haven’t already!

Yes, they are enemies and yes, Slade does finds out about their pup! It’s entirely on accident because no one knows who Jaden’s father is :3 I don't wanna spoil too much of how Slade will act when he learns about Jaden but have a snippet from the scene where the truth comes out!!

“Jaden, baby.” Dick began quietly, running his hand through the pup’s hair. “I need you to stay very still and very quiet now, alright?” “Mama?” Jaden whispered. Dick hummed softly in answer, “Everything’s fine, puppy, I promise. Just for a moment, yeah?” Little hands grabbed tightly at the leg of his pants and he could feel Jaden rub his cheek against his hip as the boy nodded. Slade Wilson took a few more steps before stopping in front of them. A smirk climbed onto his lips as he looked Dick over lazily and the omega had to clench his teeth to stop himself from growling when Slade’s gaze stopped on Jaden, half hidden behind his leg. “Well.” Slade drawled out. “Isn’t this a sight?”

There was a quiet gasp and before Dick was able to move, Jaden let go of his leg and threw himself forward. Dick wasn’t able to breathe, even as a string of curses formulated in his thought and he tried to grab his pup but Jaden was too fast. The pup slammed into Deathstroke’s leg with a smile. Slade looked down at him calmly and merely raised an eyebrow when Jaden wrapped his arm around his thigh. “I’m not supposed to talk right now.” Jaden informed Slade in a whisper, cupping a hand to his mouth to let the man hear him better. “Jaden!” Dick cried out, rushing over to them. He wasn’t sure what he’d do but he knew one thing – he will tear Slade’s throat out if he hurts his pup. Dimension travel or not, Dick wasn’t going to let anyone hurt his baby and if Slade was stupid enough to try- “Oh?” Slade allowed, cupping the back of Jaden’s head. Dick stopped. Slade glanced up at him with a smile, no doubt taking pleasure in seeing him so helpless, before returning his full attention to the pup. “Yeah, mama said to be quiet!” Jaden nodded seriously. “And I thought it’d be someone scary but it’s you and-” “Mama?” Slade echoed. The smirk on his lips flattened and when he looked again at Dick there was something in his gaze that Dick wasn’t able to name. “Now, that’s a surprise.” “Jaden.” Dick stressed out, a plea. “Come here, baby. Please.” “But it’s dad!” Jaden smiled at Dick over his shoulder, happy and big. Slade froze. Dick wasn’t sure if he was still breathing but too be honest he was too busy trying to get some air himself because he- he couldn’t hear that right. If Slade was Jaden’s father, then… then it meant that... that- “Jaden.” Dick said again because it was the only word he was able to force out of his clenched throat now. “It’s okay, mama!” The boy assured him before turning back towards Slade and whispering to him again. “I think mama is mad at you about something.” Slade didn’t reply. He kept looking at the pup as if it was the first time he saw him before he crunched down. His hand was still curled gently over the back of Jaden’s head. “I think so too.” He hummed after a moment, running his fingers through the black strands.

Ask me about my wips!

[drowninginredink]

WIP List

I always like it when people talk about their WIPs. I live for that. So it's my turn. But I am a one-shot writer at heart with way, way too many ideas, so here is a list of everything I'm toying with. For the record, some of these don't even have a single word written yet, and none are that far along, so don't get your hopes up too high.

Smosh One-Shots

"Feelings are so fragile" — Platonic Shaymien thing where I project really hard onto Damien. (Yes it's for the aro collection)

"Most euphoric I've ever been" — A spetney fic based the fact that yes, they're technically a m/f couple... But like, no. Put them together, you've got nonbinary lesbian vibes. Sorry Spencer, you're getting your gender transed because there's no way you and Courtney are straight.

"But what's a home?" — A Damian QPR fic. Damien/Ian is already such an interesting rarepair and then you make it a QPR and it's like... They end up living together just temporarily because Damien's housing falls through and turns out they both really miss when they used to be living with their best friends and look I know everyone likes romance but do you know how good QPR fics can be? I love the idea of them as a QPR so much?

A thing for @aro-soulmates-fest about Anthony getting all his tattoos to hide the fact that he doesn't have a soulmate one.

A murderverse one shot about Arasha because God I fucking love gang AU!Arasha

A vampire!Spencer fic where Shayne plays the role of Johnathan Harker

"And I lie like the right thing to do" — me taking @generaltrashshecox 's whole "Anthony sleeping with Damien to cope with unrequited feelings for Ian thing that I love so much and just doing my own version of it where I lean into the angst so hard. With permission from bun, don't worry

A (platonic) nintendogs fic where I decide to do a little bit of own voices stuff on the fact that The Chosen is suuuuuuuuper schizo-coded

I bought a new ray and it's time to use it. Let's make Ian aplatonic this time.

"Then it's done." Killing off Spencer. Very one-sided Spommy.

A lil smut based on Anthony asking Tommy to choke him.

Hey @generaltrashshecox infected me again and now aro4aro Antmien needs to exist

This post into a real fic

Smosh not a one shot but also kind of a one shot?

14. "Once in twenty lifetimes" — A no smosh AU that's going to go through all the different ways Ian and Anthony could have ended, choose-your-own-adventure style. And as the title suggests, only one of them is the reunion. Most are things falling apart. And also to fit the title, it's going to be in twenty chapters (although that does not mean 20 endings. I don't hate myself.). So it's multichapter, but also it'll all be posted at once so it'll basically be a one-shot. It's going to end up as kind of an epic and God I hope it turns out as good as it is in my head. Inspiration for the good endings is "Cardigan" by Taylor Swift, and for the bad endings and a lot along the way is "San Cristobal" by Mal Blum.

15. Partners (in crime) — my Changela QPR fic that was supposed to be a one-shot right up until I wrote the thing, and actually wrote a chapter one. Not sure how long that's going to be, but I like it so far.

Smosh Multichapter

(The fact that my very one-shot oriented self has multiple of these is such a problem)

16. "Puppy Love" — I don't need to say anything about this. There are already 5 chapters on AO3. Either it's extremely your shit or you're wondering what the hell I'm doing and why I'm writing this extremely specific concept. If you're wondering why I still haven't posted chapter 6, it's because that has sex in it and I fucking hate writing sex scenes so I'm procrastinating really hard.

17. "I'll use you as a warning sign" (aka the evil fic, so named because chu-tea thinks I'm evil for coming up with the plot) — yeah so what I planned for PL was just a straightforward kind of fluffy ianthony piece. And then a certain friend of mine (*cough* chu *cough*) accidentally inspired me to think of a different ending that is such hardcore angst and hurt that I absolutely needed to make it happen and have been obsessed. It's interesting when you've already made the bad decision to start a long project and then oops, now you just really want the next 6 chapters to be done already so you can write the alternate ending. This one will *really* not be everyone's shit because I will rip your heart out in 6 different ways. But God I'm obsessed. Anyway, if you want details... I'll just say "major character death" and leave it at that. Oh and rarepair.

18. "I've come back changed and I can feel it in my bones" — an AU where "what if Anthony left because he got psychosis." Basically very hardcore projection on my part. This is on the back burner for a while because obviously when I have projects that aren't going to be emotionally gutting to write, I'd much rather work on them.

Non Smosh Stuff

(I'll be honest, I'm so deep in the smosh obsession that you should not get too excited about any of these. I know myself, so I know the smosh flame will eventually burn out but these are based on things I will be obsessed with until I die. So I know they'll happen. But not for a long time)

19. A Phantom of the Opera one-shot for @aro-soulmates-fest. This is the one thing I will actually write within a reasonable amount of time, because it's due March 17.

20. "Baby, please don't bore me" — A Series of Unfortunate Events — Sunny (well, Sorrel in this version because oops I transed their gender) teams up with Olaf to find their siblings after years of separation. I find them to be a very interesting chaotic, morally gray, bantery duo.

21. "Because the same night awaits us all" — ASOUE — A Klaus/Lemony fic that I swear I will write someday. Very morally gray, very much a codependent relationship, very leaning into the age gap. Basically they're together because they do not have anyone else in the world. It's just so delicious a dynamic that I will explore I swear.

22. ASOUE — I'm still not entirely convinced I'll ever be bothered to actually write this one, but I might do a Kit/Fernald FWB thing. I'm not sure where on earth the idea of that came from, but it's been living in my head for a long time now. Long enough that there's an early one-shot version of it that I don't really like anymore on *gasp* fanfiction.net

If anyone actually bothered to read all the way to the end of this long-ass post, you deserve a medal.

[meidui]

i'm answering all 30 fic writer asks as seen on kelly@fohatic's blog 😽 HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

1. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again? fool's gold was a 1872 fic and it was one-sided dialogue but with no quotation marks, so it was supposed to read like somebody from timely was telling you about what happened! i liked it but i don't know if i would do it again because it's just stylistic, i think it worked for 1872 because it suited the small town setting

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!) i have too many wips but i posted 56 fics on ao3 this year!

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer? that i dilly dally a lot to avoid writing smut scenes and that the discord sprinting bot is my best friend

4. What piece of media inspired you the most? probably endgame because we had the @stevetonyisendgame exchange and prompt fest this year, so i rewatched it a lot and ended up writing lots of endgame-adjacent/post-endgame!! they're so soft in that movie i can't help myself

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year? all marvel except for one fic for game changers! i foresee house md fic in 2024

6. What ship(s) captured your heart? stevetony has always had my heart does that count

7. What character(s) captured your heart? i love steve rogers even more than i did last year

8. Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year? new ships!! i wrote steve/thor and steve/natasha for the first time for captain bottom bingo and steve/peggy for the first time for steggy secret santa

9. What fic meant the most to you to write? nobody saves me, baby (the way you do) because kristina@samcky had an unposted draft of it that she let me rewrite 🥺 so it meant a lot to me because she's all over that fic and i just love her with all my heart

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? i think it's a tie between winged and how porcupines kiss because they're so fluffy! although this might a little biased because @capnstars drew the cutest winghead!steve art you've ever seen in your entire life for winged and @itsmaybitheway drew THIS PRECIOUS PORCUPINE!STEVE AND ARMADILLO!TONY for how porcupines kiss 🥺

11. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? probably hell and high water because i worked on it slowly for months which usually doesn't happen, and it might even be one of my favourite fics that i've ever written so i was really proud

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it? i don't think anything was difficult to write but new york is a hell of a town (and i'm brooklyn down) was so silly of me because it's set in august, but i wrote the first part in april and the second part in october and didn't really work on it during the actual summer 😶 like what was that?? why did i do that?? i'm so sorry

13. What fic was the easiest to write? into the forever and beautiful sky! it's a rocket-centric fic with rocket & steve friendship, i wrote it right after watching gotg vol 3 and it's just feelings vomit ahahah

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year? my shortest fic was fool's gold which was 546 words and the longest fic that i wrote by myself (not just this year but also ever in all my life) was a rose by any other name which was 11.6k words! without caveats the longest fic is heartbreak prince, which i wrote with @areiton and it was 12k words!!

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023 a beast of a burden is really special to me so i want to rec that one! because i wrote it for the endgame exchange that i loved so much and it was for mrsgingles, who is my favourite stevetony artist, and it reminds me of this summer, and it also feels like the truest love letter to endgame that i've ever written

16. What were you go-to writing songs? i don't have any! usually it's whatever i'm already listening to or a movie or show that i'm watching, but i listened to exo's lotto on repeat when i wrote hit the lotto because that's what the fic sounds like in my head and taylor swift's timeless when i wrote once in a lifetime because it was based on that song

17. What were your go-to writing snacks? NO TIME FOR SNACKS WHEN THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO NEED TO KISS

18. What was the hardest fic to title? maybe lovelorn and nobody knows? i started working on it before 1989 tv came out and it didn't have a title for way too long, the google doc was literally just called "there are still beautiful things steve pov" and then it took me like 20 minutes of comparing 1989 vault lyrics to pick one 😭

19. Share your favourite opening line from the ice is getting thinner under me and you (a hockey au)

Steve is supposed to be at a bar downtown with the rest of his team. Steve is not supposed to be back in the emptied out stadium, his back slammed against the lockers with Tony's tongue in his mouth.

20. Share your favourite ending line i added the second last line for context but this ending line is my favourite because time has always been against steve and peggy, so i feel like the best show of how happy and safe they feel together is that they finally don't have to watch the clock or worry about time slipping through their fingers anymore 🥺 this is from from we were born to be national treasures

When she laughs, eyes glittering, he has the most peculiar feeling that he was always meant to end up right here, kissing the maroon lipstick off Peggy’s mouth, swaying under the sprig of mistletoe they never took down from Christmas as someone starts to shout a countdown to New Year’s. She cups his face and he smiles into the kiss, and neither of them bother watching the clock.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue from if my wishes came true (buckynat)

“You got that written down in your notebook?” “I don’t need to write you down to remember you, Natasha Romanoff.”

22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene there were so many close contenders aahh but my favourite scene has to be the one from catastrophic blues when tony finally catches steve!!

“Then don’t make me hurt you,” Tony says, raising his palm and lighting up his repulsor. “I know you know what this does. You’re unarmed and backed into a dead-end alley. You’re not winning this one, kid, I can tell you that for free. Take off your mask.” The Vigilante glowers and stands his ground. “My whole life is dead-end alleys. I’m not taking off my mask.”

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out? the whole end part of near-death cliché took some wrangling just because i was trying to make it sound like something kang the conqueror would say haha

“I’ve killed a lot of Avengers and it all starts to blend together,” Kang says, “but I remember you because you always end up fighting for him. I admire the consistency. It’s rare.” “Him?” “You could be with Steve Rogers,” Kang says almost empathetically, and it’s like he has gently wrenched Tony’s heart out of his chest. When the repulsors on his palms falter, Kang continues in the same disarming tone. “I could send you back to the battlefield. You’d open your eyes and he'd be there.”

24. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? this is hilarious to me because the recurring motif in but saving what we love was supposed to be steve and tony calling each other's bullshit over the years but it ended up being overshadowed by star wars. so much star wars, in fact, that it warranted a "star wars references" tag

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.) google docs

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? all of i thought the plane was going down (how'd you turn it right around) for two reasons! one is that i feel like maleness informs a lot of their lives and experiences and for a while i didn't really get the appeal of genderbending them, but then i read all of isozyme's lesbian stevetony fics and i had an epiphany about genderbending being an opportunity for character and relationship study, and two is that once i had said epiphany i realised i actually had a lot to say so i wrote captain eve rogers in one go and now i love her so much

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? hmm i don't think so!

28. How did you recharge between fics? i don't think i really do that either

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? oh my gosh. with all the sincerity in my heart, every person who gave me a kudo or a comment or is subscribed to my ao3, recommended my fics or my blog, said in a reblog/tweet/discord message/dm that they liked one of my fics or it made them happy or they were excited about reading one, follows me on tumblr or looks at my gifs or likes/reblogs my posts, runs fandom events, shares their beautiful fics or art or edits with us, all the members of the steve rogers defense squad, truly everyone who i've had an interaction with (except the steve antis and bots in my block list 😠) because i'm so grateful to have this community and that we met because we love the same thing and we can make each other's days better. deactivating for 10 months was the right thing to do but i'm so happy to be back this time because of you

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024? some of these have been cooking in my head for so long that they have TITLES

that famous happy ending (enchanted au)

play house (wandavision au)

plausible deniability (rival lawyers au)

wild and beautiful (feral/tarzan steve au)

yoga instructor steve and discharged air force pilot tony

prequel to kristina's beautiful ocean's 11 au, Give me a kiss before you tell me goodbye

[sineala]

☔, you have so many plot ideas that I'd love to know what didn't make the cut

Lishan! Hiiiiii!

I feel like this one is hard to answer, not because I don't have things I'm not writing but because a lot of what is on my "write this someday maybe" list is stuff I'm not entirely ruling out not writing. Wow, that had way too many negatives in it.

Anyway. So there's stuff on my ideas list that I just haven't gotten to yet because I am trying to knock some current WIPs off my WIP list and I've promised myself I am not starting a story I know will be novel-length until I've finished something else. (Unfortunately, I accidentally a novel for two of my current WIPs. Whoops.)

So that section of the WIP list has a lot of stuff that's, like, fully outlined -- not quite down to the scene-by-scene level but in enough detail that I could start writing. This would be, like, "the story where Steve time-travels from the future to meet ToS-era Tony before the Avengers exist and they fall in love -- I mean, Steve was already in love -- and then Steve has to leave before the Avengers form, and a couple months later Tony is very surprised to learn that Captain America is alive and also he's been banging Captain America from the future." I could start writing that right now. It would absolutely be a novel.

There's stuff that I'd like to write that's pretty well fleshed out as a premise but not currently writable, because of things like I haven't yet figured out exactly how the POV works. This is, like, "the BDSM AU where the serum was supposed to make Steve a dom and it did not and he decides he can just lie about it and never tell anyone he is a sub, because then they will kick him out of the army, and then he has entirely different problems when he gets to the future because wow does he like Tony." Also a story I would describe as "Secret Empire canon-divergent AU with wall-to-wall non-con" but I also haven't figured out how the POV works or how any of the comfort in the h/c works but I know how to break Steve and Tony very, very badly. I just can't put them back together yet. Also those would both be novel-length.

And then there's stuff on my ideas list that I just come up with randomly that I think might be fun, because I am apparently just very fond of generating elaborate sex farce plots on the fly, and there's nothing wrong with them but there's also no immediately compelling reason why I should write them right now. Like "the one where Steve extremely earnestly asks Tony if Tony would like him to send nudes and Tony's not sure if Steve's trolling him and somehow Steve and Tony end up in a situation in which Steve sends Tony artistic and photogenic dick pics every day and Tony can't figure out if Steve means for Tony to jerk off to them or just admire them for their artistic merit because they're actually very well-composed and elegant and Steve doesn't say. Tony feels like he can't just ask Steve this because he thinks this is the kind of thing he's probably already supposed to know about their relationship, you know, whether they're in any way involved with each other. So in the meantime he's just going to die of lust and also frustration." I might write it! I might not! It's fun to ponder, anyway.

So, yeah, those are some things I'm not writing.

[veliseraptor]

Truth or dare ask game: 🥤and 🎨

⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

good lord, again, how am I supposed to pick just one? I have over 1k bookmarks and that's not including the WIPs I wait to bookmark until they're finished (and I'm subscribed to a lot of them). I'll go with (for now) Such Precious Hours by ellieellieoxenfree (@minorfamilysupremacy) which is just a fantastic post-canon Vegas/Pete work of art.

⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

I technically did this one already but since that was me choosing one out of a multitude of fanart that I really love, I'll go ahead and do it again. and I'm going to go ahead and be biased again and pick a piece of art that was done for me, specifically this piece by @portraitoftheoddity, a very painful illustration of a favorite scene of mine from Doctrine of Labyrinths that never fails to make me cry! it's emotionally wrenching, and I always love Lena's linework and expressiveness of body language.

[daisychainsandbowties]

Hi Cas 🐸❤️ 1, 19, 40 pwease 👀

1. which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

see part of me wants to say star wars au because that’s the only fic that actually has a basic plot. 99% of what i write i maybe on a good day have some idea of how a particular scene will flow, but even that’s liable to get attacked by flashback ghosts at any moment and ripped to non-chronological shreds.

i don’t plan my fics out at all because that makes the act of writing… less interesting to me. usually what i have are some concept designs in my head or a few lines of dialogue or a little scene-hinge (these are the topics i end up researching for a given scene or a mote of information i want to slip inside, and the scene hinges thematically on that. all my poems are hinged like this and it has translated over into my prose, apparently).

still, i want to say star wars au because it was certainly supposed to be more direct and “paced”than it is now. i know that i could write a story like that but also that i don’t really want to. so, probably in truth i wouldn’t rewrite any of my fics, just as i would never scrap a poem and try to write the same poem again; it’s already a different poem. something something the small deaths that cannot be divorced from art change all future versions of that art. sentences are haunted by excised words. you can’t write anything except for the first time.

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

Lilith rests her arms on the railing, heedless of splintery wood or the cold spray that ghosts up the hull to touch the inside of each palm. It’s hard not to think of her as beautiful, even with lichen growing down out of her hairline and that sand-tangled mass of dark hair falling down around her face, hiding one of her eyes.

She’s blinking at the sunset with the other and fiddling with one of her braids.

Bright fabric threaded through them, like a mockery of what she is; a leaky creature of moonlight always tucked up in the crow’s nest where nothing can touch her but the wind. Lilith’s odd like that – dressed in her usual off-white shirt all flea-bitten where the collar’s rucked up around her neck. She thinks it makes her look boyish, derring.

It does, and it’s wasted on her because she will not put one foot onto land.

Mostly the braids are done in orange and yellow, with here and there a twist of sea-green, unearthly blue. No black or grey or anything drab. Lilith likes to shine.

She’s put random objects in her braids again. Beatrice thinks she spends half her time up in the masts with her face angled toward the sky and her own hands in her own hair. Its decoration changes from week to week, port to port if she can beg seashells and pottery bits from the other sailors, but it's always some variation on noisy.

This week, she’s got a wick of terracotta hanging down near her collarbone, neatly tied up in split-ends. Her damp black hair is elsewhere tangled around the bleached-white of rat bones stolen from the sailors who supplement their diet with spitted rats. Beatrice pretends not to see their little fires in the lowers decks at night, so long as they're careful.

The tiny bones look almost fake to Beatrice, picked much too clean. She knows that real bones – the ones she’s seen from compound fractures and old skeletons hanging from the seaward gallows – don’t look like that.

Maybe she just never waits long enough, always tasting the whiplash of blood in her mouth when she climbs up the cliffs near the fort to reach the bodies strung up. Statement pieces still dressed in their dying clothes and the flesh dropping off them to spray apart on stones before scattering into the water far below. Ropes creaking, Beatrice underneath with her knife stuck between her teeth once or twice forgetting to make the blade face outward and almost cutting a fresh smile into her face.

Mostly she just nicks her lip as she grabs the handle, fingers slippery with saltwater and sweat, rainwater turning the blade to ice against her teeth. Sometimes there are soldiers watching, but it’s easy to snuff them with a spell for sleep, shrugging at the thought of one of them falling on the spears they carry to poke intruders off the rocks.

The climb isn’t easy. Not ever, no matter the kind of cliffs she scrambles up. Beatrice is not made for it or anything but the bad feeling of magic in her mouth, but she was born half-martyred, according to Mary.

“I think you like it.”

“What?”

“The opportunity to fucking fall.”

Her arms always ache during the climb, fingers stinging from small slices worked into the palms, scrimshawed across the knuckles from stuffing them into holds, ignoring the skitter of spiders running in confusion out onto her wrist when she disturbs their webs.

Muttering “sorry” into the wind so it’s carried up and over the creaking bodies with their flesh dripping down, sometimes a ribbon of rotten blood falling on her scalp as she climbs. Still, she is always half-tempted to lay a kiss on their rotten foreheads, smoothing aside the blistered flesh, the hair flattened against their skulls. Sometimes the hair lasts the longest out of everything.

40. Write a 9-word fic

thank you Daniel. but i would rather die actually :)

[socialmediasocrates]

SLIPSTREAM: A WIP INTRO

Genre: superhero fiction, new adult Status: draft 0 Tag: slipstream In short: superheroes but they're influencers Serious summary:

Speedster is the first legacy hero in the Agency's history. The first Top Three rank with a direct tie to the first generation of heroes. The fastest thing on legs, the media darling, the good daughter--

Speedster is dead. Kind of. Soon, at least.

Already on her way out, with two hours left to get it done, she dives into the city's underbelly to solve her own murder. But the more stones she turns over, the more she realizes that there's more going on than she has time for. At the center of the ball of yarn she's unwinding is her own murderer: the newest villain on the scene, the Ice King.

Excerpts under the cut:

Bluebeard was the best of the best, until he was the worst of the worst. She doesn't think she'll ever stop hearing the long creak and short, crunching snap of her father's arm under his foot. Bluebeard's laugh, loud and stuttering as a barrel rolling down a plank, louder than the scream her father bit off at the root. What the fuck was she supposed to do to the man who broke the strongest man alive? She was eighteen. She was scrawny. For god's sake, she was just fast. It was only being in slipstream that kept her standing when he threw her like a rag doll. She counted the vertebrae that shook like they'd crack as soon as time caught up. Because they would. Fuck. Across the country, millions of people glued to their TV screens cheered when Speedster discovered that her sheer momentum could count as super strength. That final, screaming, desperate moment when she slammed Bluebeard into the ground and stomped, hard, at the base of his spine. 'Never walk again,' she'd thought, 'you rat bastard. You traitor. Never fucking walk again. Never get up.' She'd flashed a peace sign at the camera and smiled over her fear and fury.

[...]

Asclepius racked her shotgun and leveled it at the Captain's chest. The look on his face asked if she'd really shoot him after all this time, and the look in her eye said yes. "I swore to not do harm first. Get out of my fucking clinic." "Would you really put me down? After everything?" "Like a dog."

"Heroes should die before they fall."

[outpost51]

I'm still trying to imagine having 49 types of magic in one wip lol

Go nuts you say? 😏

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

49 Questions

starlit ilysm you matched the FUCK out of my energy

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

wastrel, apparently! cannot for the life of me figure out....where i used it. hold on. OHO I NEVER POSTED IT HEY YOU WANT SOME ANGST I'LL SHOVE IT AT THE END

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

despite overcoming the "i write for myself, and other people enjoying it is a nice bonus" fear (with a not-so-insignificant amount of emotional battle scars at the end), i can't seem to shake "but what if they hate it?"

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

this is so hard (lol) just because i write erotica and therefore i design ocs that are (supposed to be) hot, but i think it's a toss-up between kadmos, rima, and zadimus?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

hhhhhhhhh this changes from week to week tbh. right now, between a rock and a hard place is fighting me tooth and nail, so it's in the naughty box. helix? helix.

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

fighting and ✨spice✨. those are the ones my friends go most feral over, and they're my target audience c:

anyway have some wlw grief-pining and some very yummy (subjective) waterlogged ghost imagery that takes place between chapters 2 and 3 of stellar parallax.

with mood music, natch.

★・・・・・・★

bitter bright wings.

this thing, all things, devours.

mature || 430 words || c/w: implied sexual content, vague gore?

Hannah didn’t sleep. Not since first contact, not since whatever other atrocities they’d had her commit in the name of exploration, expansion, extermination. As her physician, Dr. Chakwas felt the compulsion to nag her about it, offer sleep aids, ensure she got enough rest to properly harass General Arterius, or whatever it was she did in those meetings.

As her friend — nothing more, no-fuss, it had become her mantra, the thing that helped her sleep at night — Karin was perfectly content to settle for cold skin and trembling limbs wrapping around her and stealing a bit of peace in what narrow time frame they had left before wake-up calls started rolling out. Sometimes that cold took a bit more than no-fuss to chase it away; on those nights, she didn’t settle for anything, not until they were both breathless and laughing and the wake-up call had rang sometime between round three and round seven. They had better things to count, after all, as they drug them out of each other one-by-one.

It was another one of those nights, then, she thought as those cold limbs squeezed tight around her waist. “One day I’m just going to sedate you,” she scolded lightly.

A rush of frigid saline swilled over her back in response.

Karin spun violently in the embrace, already reaching for the phone’s blinking emergency call button — the deep, dark green eyes she once thought she could spend hours gazing into, that held an ever-raging storm like Jupiter’s Great Spot, had clouded over, turning them a milky jade.

Amazing how Hannah was still recognizable beneath all the discoloration and bloat one acquired when dropped into a watery grave. “Help her,” she rasped.

Her mouth opened to ask who, exactly, Hannah wanted her to help, but something jerked her out of bed and dashed her onto the floor.

“Dr. Chakwas!”

If Pressly’s shouting hadn’t managed to wake her from the nightmare, falling out of her chair certainly had. “Someone better be dying,” she grumbled, barely making an effort to rise.

“Shepard.”

That name had always given her wings, hadn’t it? “What happened to John?”

“The commander is fine.” A sneer twisted up Pressly’s features. “It’s his wastrel of a sister causing problems again.”

Karin’s jaw creaked with the effort of holding herself back. She’d taken an oath to do no harm. “Well, what are you standing here for?” she barked. “Clear a path.” Punching him wouldn’t help Jane, she told herself.

She imagined Hannah knocking his lights out instead as she snapped on a fresh pair of gloves.

[throttlegainwell]

Resubmitting safelight and strange is your language for the WIP ask because it’s possible tumblr ate it (not rushing you if you already got it!).

Oh, tumblr definitely ate it. Thanks for resubmitting! And for playing, in general.

All of this answer is going under a cut because both of these stories are potentially deeply upsetting, in very different ways. Warnings are below. I'm so, so very serious about this, you have no idea. (It's also just an embarrassingly long answer and for that I am so sorry, but I kind of desperately want to talk about them. You've tapped a well.)

So. Safelight.

Major spoilers ahead! But more importantly, discussion of CSA, incest, and underage sex work/sexual exploitation. This is a story about abuse, stigma, and how communities respond (or don't respond) when members are in need.

Here's the broad synopsis straight from my notes:

Post-S2, pre-S3. The rumor starts as Will’s bullies accusing Will of having sex with his brother (because he's queer, because he's a freak, because he disappeared in the woods last year and this year he's walking around with bruised wrists and dead eyes). When the rumor moves up to the high school, with people who are more familiar with Jonathan and have always thought he was weird, the rumor focuses less on Will having ritualistic sex in the woods with his brother because the family is full of freaks and becomes about Jonathan violently abusing Will. As it spreads to the adults, who remember Lonnie (and not fondly), they come to believe that Lonnie sexually abused Jonathan and that this abuse warped Jonathan and led him to abuse Will.

TO BE CLEAR: that's not how ANY of this works. But they're very pervasive, damaging, and cruel myths that I wanted to explore.

So to expand. At first it's just another way to be cruel to Will (whose bullying takes on a new dimension with this rumor--because of course Zombie Boy gets boned by his own brother, he's sick), but it becomes sort of salacious and another way to sneer at the Byers family, and eventually takes on new life and becomes something people are actually worried about as it moves first beyond the middle school gossip scene, into the high school, and then throughout Hawkins. They're warning each other about that Byers boy, to keep their kids away from him--it escalates pretty seriously. And because of the stigma surrounding CSA victims/survivors and particularly male victims/survivors, people start to worry that Will is dangerous, too--that the abuse has turned him into a predator. That that's probably what turned him queer, too. So he's some kind of object of pity, revulsion, and fear.

Will, for his part, feels very alone in this. Will has been withdrawn and isolated during this time because of 1) the Mind-Flayer trauma that he's not as okay about as they all want to believe and 2) the bullying and harassment that's increased in intensity and shifted in focus. He's being tormented and, honestly, sexually harassed. (He doesn't quite realize that that's what happening, but it is, and it's escalating.) This kid is really doing the best he can in a horrible situation because he's tired of being Poor Will, tired of being the focus of his friends' and family's attention and needing help. And they're all happy--his brother is happy for once, his friends are happy after more than a year of being consumed by WIll's horror story. He is not going to take that from them, even if he is lonely and increasingly terrified. And they may defend him without a second thought, but the targeted nature of this bullying is extremely humiliating and scary in new and upsetting ways. He doesn't want to talk about it, doesn't want them to know about it. Doesn't know how to deal with it or feel about it.

So Will's part of the story is one of isolation and escalating abuse that he doesn't understand.

Will is pretty sure that he’s not supposed to remember that time his family tortured a demon out of him. He only sort of remembers it, anyway, so it’s not like it has to be some huge deal. But if Mom or Jonathan knew that he remembers, it would kill them. Soreness lingers in the bones for days after the bruises heal. He resists the urge to poke at the tender spots. To draw attention to them—his, or anyone else’s. But there’s only so much he can hide. It looks like someone tied him down and he struggled to get away because that’s what happened. There’s just not any other way to explain the marks. So he mostly tries to keep them covered as much as possible, which, in some ways, draws more attention to them.

Then there's Jonathan. Jonathan is happyish for maybe the first time in his life. He has a girlfriend whom he loves. His Mom is grieving Bob and worried about Will, but honestly she's kind of okay. Will seems better, or at least not possessed, even though he's being kind of distant. But as the rumor spreads, people start to treat him very weird. Weirder than usual. Hostile. He gets fired from his job because "families come here". There's a teacher who's convinced he's evil and keeps harassing him in class, throwing him out for being disruptive when people snicker at him, watching him like a hawk. Ted Wheeler is side-eyeing him when he drops by. Most of the town kind of accepts this about him pretty readily. Not everyone. But enough that, you know, how do you overcome that?

People had never liked him. There had been some degree of suspicion, some distrust, but it never went very deep. He’d never actually given anyone any reason to worry. But they’d never hated him before.

The thing is, he was sexually abused. Not by Lonnie, but by a guy. This is absolutely no one's business but his, and suddenly everyone has an opinion on this hypothetical thing he's never even contemplated talking about. (He does not discuss this or acknowledge it more than very obliquely during the course of the story--that's not what this is about. But it informs his perspective.)

So there are two main concerns for him.

“So let me get this straight,” he said. “You all think I’m hurting my little brother. This kid that relies on me. And not one of you assholes tried to help him?”

and this

“You shouldn’t believe me just because I say it or because you want to believe me,” he says. “You should believe me because I actually didn’t do it. Because Will says I didn’t do it." “What’s the difference?” “The difference is that if it were true and you believed me anyway, Will would have no reason to trust you ever again.” He knows he didn’t do it. But if Will came to her and told her that someone had hurt him, then she should listen, no matter how much it hurts. “Believe me for the right reasons,” he says.

are the first concern.

This town fails him. This town fails Will. It left the Byers to fend for themselves, and it judged and mocked them for it, and, fine, it came out to search for Will the first time, but that's it. And now it's turned its back on him again. Will is being abused at school and no one cares, and by the sound of it, no one would really give a shit if he were unsafe at home. So how is Jonathan not supposed to be furious about that?

And this very rough half-scene kind of illustrates his other big issue:

Steve accidentally implicitly accepts the false wisdom that abuse begets more abuse. Jonathan’s reply—that it doesn’t work like that, that it’s a always a choice and any reasonable person wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what they did—accidentally implies that he’s speaking from personal experience. He freezes, realizing what he’s revealed. “Oh,” Steve says. “Okay. Shit. Sorry that happened.” He thinks about arguing. Denying it, somehow walking it back. But he’s fucking exhausted. “Yeah,” he says. Simple, calm. Done. They’re quiet for a stretch, until Steve says, “It wasn’t your dad, though, right?” Jonathan looks up at the sky, mouth set in a humorless, helpless smile. “Why does everyone think it’s okay to ask me that?” “Hey, Steve,” he says suddenly. “Did your dad rape you?” Steve flinches. “Right. I see what you mean. Not a fun question. There’s a long pause. “He didn’t,” Jonathan says. “But you know what? If he had, no one would care. It would just be another way I’m a freak. Bad enough someone did—did that. If they did. My own dad? Somehow I’d be the one that marks. Not him.”

Joyce, of course, is grieving Bob. She's in a bad place. She's distracted again. But she's trying. She notices the stares and the whispers, but she's used to that. The thing is, when she goes in one day to pay the electric bill (because she's found that she gets some leniency when she does it in person, since they feel sorry for her), the pity is sharper than usual. There's disgust in it. And when someone actually tells her to her face what they think of Jonathan, she gets arrested for cold-cocking them.

Hopper eventually starts getting complaints. They can't actually file a report on Will's behalf, but they're loud, so it's not something Hopper can ignore. He starts asking around, trying to take it seriously even though he doesn't really believe it. What he does find out is that Jonathan has a history, when money is especially tight, of infrequently hooking and performing sexual favors to fix problems before Joyce catches wind of them, which comes out—Hopper buries it. (A local business owner mentions it to Hopper when the rumors get louder; says that Jonathan propositioned him, but that he turned him down. Jonathan later says that no one ever turned him down, when Hopper asks about it. Hopper believes him.)

So there's just... a lot going on in this one. It's extremely sad and concerns extremely sensitive subjects. I'm assuming that there's, like, an audience of maybe two people for it. But I care about it a lot, so I'm definitely going to finish it at some point.

Okay, so, now strange is your language.

Warnings include underage sex work, mention of CSA and physical abuse, mildly dubious consent, and Billy Hargrove's whole deal. This is actual dead dove. (I am an actual dead dove writer, so please no one be surprised by this. I was always going to bring that energy to ST eventually.)

This one is actually being written in full from both POVs. They both read really different, since Jonathan is disgusted with the entirety of Billy's being and Billy wants to play with his food and then eat Jonathan alive. He's not any nicer here than he is in canon. This is NOT a romantic story.

The problem was the car. The big problem, really. The subset of problems was that he needed the car to get to work and Mom needed Jonathan to have the car to offload some of the household errands and, more importantly, allow Will to have a social life while keeping an eye on him. So Jonathan had to have a car. That was non-negotiable. The issue with the car was that it wouldn’t start. Jonathan was pretty careful with car maintenance—to avoid this exact scenario—but it had happened before. Usually he managed okay, and in a pinch, he’d learned to jury-rig his way out of a few minor problems if he really needed to. Only this time he needed parts that he couldn’t just scrounge from the junkyard. So he needed actual money to replace them, but most of his paycheck was spoken for, folded carefully into the household budget, and whatever remained wasn’t really enough to get this job particular done. But to get the money, he needed to get to work in the meantime. It was a pretty vicious cycle. Mom was actually in a pretty good place lately, happy with Bob, confident and assertive for maybe the first time in her life and not secretly crying in the bathroom anymore when she thought no one could hear. But she was busy, and her priorities were firmly on Will—exactly where they should be. So he couldn’t go asking her for a ride to work every day, and soon enough she was going to need him to drive Will somewhere, and when he had to tell her about the car, he knew what would happen: her face would sink and her eyes would clench and those little worry lines would deepen. And his problem would be her problem—would be everyone’s problem—because he couldn’t handle it. So he knew what he had to do pretty much the moment he slammed the hood shut with a heavy sigh. He wrote Mom a note, stuck it on the fridge, and slipped his wallet into his dresser before he left. It was a long walk to get to Main Street, but that actually wasn’t too bad; he needed the time to clear his head, anyway, and get to that place where he could do this. His leg bounced during the first car ride—one of the guys who’d searched for Will last year, who’d pulled over and opened the passenger side door with two raised eyebrows and a skeptical frown, doubtlessly remembering that this was the original flavor weird Byers kid but otherwise nice enough—but by the second, he’d forced his leg to still and his nerves to settle and achieved something adjacent to calm. The second guy was a little chatty—some stranger passing through on his way to visit his sister and her new baby a few towns over—but it was probably good practice, making small talk. Not that he was good at it. He’d never be good at it. But there were times where it wasn’t really up to you, so it paid to at least be willing to try. Anyway, it got him just far enough away from Hawkins that he could get away with shit like this. His lips stretched painfully into the nicest smile he could force when he lied about visiting his girlfriend, melting the guy’s heart with the romance of it all. But it was the least he could do for the free ride—something nice, something cheerful. He wasn’t actually here to do anything nice. But it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t even that bad. It was just… something. And when it came down to it, there wasn’t a lot that he wouldn’t do for his family. And right then, that involved getting his car up and running again as quickly as possible, so he didn’t get fired. He couldn’t count on being able to hitch a ride every time, and he just didn’t have the time to walk everywhere; he’d get fired if he kept it up long enough. But the solution was in the same place he’d found it the last time he’d been in this position. And with a deep breath, his feet carried him, empty and kind of weightless, right inside.

I just wanted Jonathan and Billy to accidentally, uneasily bond over their messed up family situations and to fuck dysfunctionally. Billy catches Jonathan giving head at a hook-up spot known to be frequented by sex workers and johns. Billy, for his part, is just cruising for a fuck. He ends up persuading Jonathan to let him give him a ride home when it starts to rain.

“Daddy didn’t love you enough?” He paused. “Or maybe too much?” Byers glared back. It was almost like the guy had no sense of humor at all. “You gotta relax sometime, kid,” he said. “You tense up any more, that stick up your ass’ll puncture something important.” “We’re the same age,” he answered, voice tight. “And I’m leaving. Don’t follow me.” “Wait, wait,” Billy said, laying it on thick and smooth as frosting. “Let’s not get off on the wrong foot.” He let the innuendo hang in the air between them, just knowing that it wouldn’t be lost on a guy who apparently spent his weekends on his knees. And he was right. Those sharp, bird-bone shoulders jerked even higher. Eyes narrowed, thin lips pressed into a frown so sharp, it could draw blood, he demanded, “What do you want from me?” Genuinely perplexed, too, as if he didn’t know exactly what Billy was angling for. But the stains on his jeans said otherwise. “It’s dangerous to hitchhike,” he said. “You never know what kind of freak you could run into all alone.” Byers’s eyebrows went up in a pointed little stare that cracked Billy up. “Oh, touche, baby.” “Don’t call me that.” “Whatever. But I’m not the one with the reputation here. I’m the safer bet. Promise.” Byers opened his mouth, some kind of pissy little retort on those secretly talented lips. And then it started to rain. Byers visibly wilted like cotton candy under the deluge, like that was the last straw in what must have been an unbearably shitty day and he was just going to dissolve in it and be carried down into the gutter. Like he was just going to submit to the whims of the universe and maybe float along downstream like so much loose trash. Pathetic, really. Wordlessly, Billy pulled open the passenger side door in his car, swung himself across it into the driver’s seat, and waited. After another one of those long, sullen looks, Byers silently approached and leaned down to look in. “This doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “This is just a ride.” “Don’t wound me like that, Byers. I’m a man of my word.” “Right.” Billy was almost impressed at what a snarky little bitch Byers was turning out to be. Up until now, everything he’d seen of the guy pointed to some kind of mute weirdo who only looked up from his shoes to peer through a lens. Probably did it one-handed, like a lonely little creep who couldn’t get laid. But this was promising.

Anyway, they absolutely fuck, and it's not terrible, but they're definitely having two very different experiences of the event.

[themuseoftheviolets]

Hello??? I just read it’s you?? I’m?? Obsessed. OhmyGOD I love the way you write them. I want a million words of them!!

Do you have any wips?? How did you think of them?? It’s so beautiful??

Anyways hello

HIIIII!!!!! thank you so much this made me so happy akjdksks

putting this under the cut because i got really excited to talk about them:

emjegulily happened so quickly it's like i was compelled to write them. i've always loved jegulily and regulus and emmeline were always a friendship i really liked, and then one night i started thinking about them as a romantic pairing which surprised me because a week before i hated the idea? like they were strictly platonic to me and then they just Weren't

at the time i was thinking of exes to lovers jegulily where jily is still together and they see regulus again, and i was thinking about them thinking he and emmeline are a couple because they act like one in my head, and then i started thinking about them as polycule

regulus and emmeline to me are a duo that just knows each other so well. like you know the lyric 'it feels good to be known so well / i can't hide from you like i hide from myself' from true blue by boygenius? that's them to me. they just get each other and they know everything about each other and they're just very comfortable and secure with each other

and then we have james and emmeline who are very similar and once they start talking they get along like a house on fire. they're both outgoing and flirty people and they're just so much fun to think about

lily would take a little while longer to warm up to emmeline because she's very set on disliking her, but emmeline would win her over once they get to know each other better

i thought of them for the first time like right after i woke up, and i kept thinking of them the whole day and then in the afternoon i made a tumblr draft that was just going to be random scenes of them that i was thinking might turn into a minific but then i blinked and it was over 2k

i have never written that much that fast before it's like i was possessed. i wrote it in basically one sitting and mostly on my phone and with no outline or anything. i only had the scene of reguline waking up in my head, the rest just came to me as i was writing

i believe in total it was 12 hours from when i first thought of them to when i posted it's you? which is wild to me

and i do have many wips, one of which is another emjegulily!! in this one has the same set up as it's you, but reguline are already dating

the plot is basically emmeline romancing jily and taking them out on dates, and for now it's titled 'romancing your boyfriend's exes in three easy steps'. i haven't written much for it yet, but just for you here's what i do have:

“This is a bad idea.” Regulus says again, bracing his hands on the counter he is sitting on. There are in the shop’s small kitchen, which is only supposed to be used by the employees, but Emmeline and Regulus are family, and the shop is their second home at this point, so no one ever says anything.

Emmeline sighs, putting her mug down and walking over to stand in front of her boyfriend, in between his legs. She places her hands on his thighs.

“It’ll be fine.” She reassures him for the hundredth time today, rubbing circles into his skin with her thumb. She moves her head forward to rest their foreheads together. “It won’t take long.”

very little as of right now and this might change, but for context: the shop they're in is emmeline's uncle's mechanic shop, and jily are bringing their car there to be fixed

i have a few ideas for the dates emmeline is going to take them on, one of which is one of those drive-in movies that she'll take lily to

and while emmeline is out with lily regulus is with james, and when she's out with james regulus is with lily. and at the end they'll have a date that's all four of them

they are very precious to me and i love them so much and i'm so happy you liked them too!! this ask made really happy i've been smiling so hard since you sent it thank you so much!!!

[unseenacademic]

Tell People about your WIPs

I was tagged by my dear @miabicicletta and @mihrsuri who came up with this game. So, feel free to ask me questions about my WIPs 😊 The list is loooong and I'm sharing it here (my discord friends have already seen this monster lol) They're all Jed/Abbey, of course.

Anything Else I Need to Know: my 5+1 times fic, the staffers get scarred for life during the first campaign, after walking in on Abbey and Jed… barbecuing.

The First Lady: my ongoing WIP about a very important thing (to me and me only lmaooo): what was Abbey up to during the episodes she wasn't in.

Day Four: what happens between Abbey's return and the state dinner in season 5, ep. "Shutdown". Features the First Lady dressing a nice bird on TV.

Jethro the Snowman: a holiday fic, sort of. Inspired by Jed's quote that Abbey's dad took him on a six-hour hike in the dead of winter.

It Never Could Have Happened in New Hampshire: when Abbey asks Jed, in "He Shall From Time to Time" if the attack was like that time at her parents', this is what she has in mind. Features an article published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, a malpractice suit, Abbey's ex-boyfriend, golf and Vermont maple syrup.

Josh & the Jackass: what happens right before Jed's conversation with Josh at the airport, after they win the Illinois primary.

The hospital scene: You know that pic I keep sharing, the one with Abbey and Jed being the cutest thing in the world - that's the scene. Features Bartlet fluff and far too many references to Reagan.

The First Meeting: exactly what is says on the tin. Features a lot of gratuitous nerdiness.

The Wedding: Features a huge walk and talk, a lengthy guest list and Marion Cotesworth-Haye.

Prompt 1: (TBW Valentine's prompt meme) the proposal. No idea what happens here lol

Prompt 2: (TBW Valentine's prompt meme) the President has finally figured out how to close the curtains in the Oval Office. Features a lot of barbecuing.

The Dead Irish Writers Missing Scene: so far I only have two scenes and one of them needs rewriting. Features the girls (CJ, Amy and Donna) getting drunk with the First Lady - the rest of their conversation, after they open the first bottle.

Thanks for tagging me 💜💜 Oh yeah, I was supposed to tag other people lmaooo I think most (if not all) of my writer friends have been tagged, but if not, consider yourself tagged 😊😊

[weebsinstash]

Honestly one thing I immediately notice about all my wips for hades is like. I can tell I was having fun! These drafts are like ALL OVER THE PLACE, but, I'm a way where I'm making drafts for all sorts of different ideas. Shit I have drafts that are literally just.... interaction scenes??? I have several drafts for a concept where Reader becomes a minor goddess adopted by the house of hades and when Persephone decides to take you to Olympus with her one spring "to meet the rest of the family" and you catch Ares' eye and he decides he wants you as a wife and it begins this whole like Greek epic with, Reader going back to the Underworld and keeping quiet, Ares is having Hermes secretly smuggle her letters or gifts which she's trying to ignore, when she ignores him for too long the House of Hades becomes FLOODED with new Shades because SUDDENLY there are all these human wars breaking out and Reader eventually has to buckle and write a reply letter

HADES EVENTUALLY FINDS OUT AND IS LIKE "ZEUS CONTROL YOUR GODDAMN SON" and Zeus is just like "well its no big deal right she's just a minor goddess and she isn't even your REAL DAUGHTER so--" cue another family war about to break out because the entire fucking House of Hades refuses to stand for this. You think Nyx is gonna still be cordial with Ares when she finds out he literally chased down her adopted daughter for the thrill of the hunt and then took her by force? Persephone? Achilles? Meg? Shit like, with how much Nyx adores you, do you think her daughters THE FATES THEMSELVES will let this happen. Ancestor of indiscriminate gender PRIMORDIAL CHAOS?????? Not to mention any Olympians who would be knocking heads with Ares already like Athena since I'm pretty sure in myth and in game they have kind of a huge rivalry with each other?

Which is another draft I have btw, Reader is on Olympus for a party or something and Athena and Ares are being friendly, secretly trying to own each other by getting 'the most' attention from you when one of them asks "which is better, wisdom or strength?" To which Reader immediately says wisdom but then gives more nuanced answers when she sees the reaction that gets. Athena and Ares start butting heads which makes Reader kind of leave them to it and walk away, and a while later Aphrodite walks up to the siblings "haven't you two noticed there's someone ELSE vying for her attention?" And points and boom there's Dionysus sharing some nice ambrosia with you and he's got you smiling and giggling and, did he just rest his hand on your thigh while whispering in your ear? And they storm over, "oh don't trust him he's gross, he's a lush, if you want to drink, drink with us" and they're so busy trying to shake down Big D that APHRODITE the TRUE THREAT sneaks up and Reader is all drunk and giggly "you're naked but you're a pretty lady and if I was so pretty I'd probably be naked too haha is that a weird thing to say haha 😊🥰😊🥰😊" and by the time Athena and Ares and Dionysus come to their senses the Love Goddess has already snuck off with you for some. Nice times :)

Why am I literally getting new ideas while remembering the ones I already have started lmao. Platonic yandere Artemis who becomes your bud and you're hunting and frolicking and chilling with the other nymphs and eventually you want to like actually get a boyfriend and have sex with a man or something and Artemis is basically like "NO QUEEN this is supposed to be OUR girlboss adventure 🥺🥺🥺 no cooties allowed"

I even, jeez this was a weird side plot, I was just writing shit for like WORLD BUILDING because I never expected these to see the light of day and thus I can just fuck around, and I think a sideplot or idea I was putting into that Ares fic was "Reader is constantly trying to find her purpose or a job to do in the House of Hades and at one point she starts deeply studying like human aqueducts and how there are specific ways humans have tilled the earth and dug trenches to divert floodwaters and you make it your mission to help clean up the flooding of the River Phlegathon (is that how it was spelled) and you even take the Twin Fists to use almost like gardening gloves (because remember these used to belong to Demeter for essentially the same purpose) to pummel the earth and even helping round up your own little team of construction Shades. Hades suddenly starts hearing all these whispers and rumors from the Shades about how Asphodel is slowly becoming more livable because the diverting floodwaters is leaving, you know, actual land to use instead of having to have floating boats and houses on literal fucking demon hellspawn lava, and maybe he even catches you in the act where you're basically on a construction zone, "alright everyone here's the plan, I want you guys digging the canal to the west and after the signal youe group will raise the dam--" and maybe he's actually impressed you took the initiative but also he didn't give you permission to take Malphon or do any of this, you kind of, just needed an outlet for your feelings of stress and helplessness especially after what Ares did

But yeah this past week I'm particularly I've been deep diving through my WIPS and going down memory lane and it's like, well until I get the balls to actually work on some of these, I was googling how like, Google Drive works and was considering just, publicly posting the wips in an online folder or something, but I don't want people to have to download things to read them and I have to pull things off of tumblr and put then in individual word docs and my laptop. Likes to be difficult with me 😅 but yeah hoping to maybe post and share the wips soon bc maybe it'll jumpstart the motivation to finish some of em lol, especially cause some of then have decent chunks written