#VERSE. ( main. / tog. )

[caelumfcrged]

@valiantsword sent a meme.

“I want to ride a capybara into battle.”

"I mean, like -- yeah -- who doesn't. But you gotta think about logistics, man, I mean have you seen you?" She gave him a very pointedly upwards angled once over. "That'd have to be one hella big capybara, Uncle Art."

[moved-melodiesfcrged]

@rubiesintherough / page sent a meme.

"I see Keep Out signs as suggestions more than actual orders, like Dry Clean only."

" I can see that, " Melody said with a smile and a shake of her head. There wasn't anything about the young woman that alarmed her -- besides the slight jump scare of finding her in the music room of the ... closed elementary school. "You don't look quite young enough to be one of the students sneaking back in to get something they forgot before summer break started, though so -- " A tilt of her head, a questioning look. "Is there a particular reason you're in my classroom?" The question of how would probably have to wait for the follow up round of inquiry.

[caelumfcrged]

Out of all of Vinnie's 'aunt's' and 'uncle's' Desi was probably the one that she knew the least about -- on a personal level. He was easy going enough, as much as any of her mom's rag tag family was, and he'd never treated her with anything other than kindness. He was just. A little more guarded than most of them. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure there were reasons for it.

She didn't need to know them, she didn't need to pry. Everybody was entitled to their secrets and their truths, to their scabs and scars. And he had plenty of those. Not in the way people did, per se, but they were written all over him in fine cracks and fissures and he was always the one that got the quietest, the most withdrawn the night before shit hit the proverbial fan.

She couldn't do much to help. She did what she could, when she could, and tonight that meant prattling away in the rambunctious and capricious way that might just keep him from falling too far down into the black hole of funk in his head. All that said, genuine interest and maybe even a bit of respect and surprise widened her eyes at his revelation when it came, and she found herself scooting closer to him, cross legged, on the table that he'd set up to prep his weapons. "Wait, like -- biblically?" Eyebrows quirked upwards. Sure, one of her moms was a demon, but she hadn't had much in the way of interactions with a heavenly host ... mostly cause her moms were convinced it'd end in tears and blood shed. "Are you serious? I thought they like -- you know. Didn't do that --?!"

both eyes close in the middle of greasing down one part of the ar-15 he had spread all over the table. desiderius tended to go on auto-pilot on the eve of battle. mainly because of the time he'd spent captured by people who wanted to see how many pieces they could cut him into.

looking up, the immortal wanted to point out she'd been seven for all of thirty seconds but who was to say what a child of a divinity could accomplish.

instead, his face contorts into thought. his dirty rag lands on top of the nearby barrel and fingers interlock behind a head of wavy hair. " any blood i had once upon a time was, unfortunately, human, ma choupette. however, " desi tilts his head to the side. " i spent the night with an angel once. owns a club over in ibiza. "

[kaydeefalls]

4, 11, 12!

Excellent, thanks!

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

I assume this isn't referring to the scraps of partial fics sitting in my WIP folder, even if none of those have been posted yet. Okay, I haven't technically started writing a theoretical sequel to The Conspirator's Gift (X-Men medieval mystery AU), though I do have a doc of story notes and a couple of line fragments. So. That one has a rough plot and character notes - it's another murder mystery, and I know who the victim is, how it happened, and who the other potential suspects are and why, as well as broad strokes of the main character arcs. But no actual writing has been accomplished yet, mostly because I'm not ready to commit to another LONG fucking fic at the moment (in a fandom I've drifted out of, though I'm sure I'll drift back in eventually, because it's X-Men and I always do). Also because I'm still pushing through the thorny issue of how to sustain a mystery when one of the main characters is a goddamn telepath.

11. a WIP you’d like to finish someday

ALL OF THEM, UGH. For TOG in particular, I do want to circle back to Joe/Nicky Firefly fusion fic (in the same 'verse as I'm not ready yet (for the light to dim), for whatever that's worth), and a Lykon-as-new-immortal canon divergence AU. Both of those have a few thousand words written and rough outlines for the rest. I've just not been in a TOG mindset lately. But hopefully I'll circle back to them eventually.

12. a trope you’re really into right now

I mean, I always have my favorite tropes, those don't really change. Canon divergence AUs are still top of mind at the moment, those are perennial faves. And friend to lovers, always, always. 😉

(more fic writing asks!)

[undreaming-fanfiction]

With This Ring (11)

Chapter 10 here, Ao3 here

They met Dart and Ozzy in front of the Buckley house. The elderly cat just announced that everything was in order, and that he was too old for all this excitement. “I’m going to take a nap home before Dustin organizes a search party for me,” he yawned. “Ozzy will stay with you. I’ll come to check on you around lunchtime, so no more scandals and escapades, please.” 

Eddie crouched to scratch his head as a thank you. “Sleep well, Dart.” He then picked up Ozzy and safely stashed him in his usual pocket. 

Robin’s house was, as always, peaceful. The sight of the imperfect garden made to be used, not just viewed, the peeling window paint, the weird gnome statuettes peeking from random corners, it all made Steve feel more at home than he’d ever been in his own house. The woods by the back window were dark and quiet. If they were careful, they wouldn’t be heard or seen by anyone.

The whole house was dark too. Steve was confused, Robin should have been home, but maybe she had a sleepover with Nancy, you know, to console her friend after the groom had disappeared. He hoped that was the case. 

Eddie was eyeing the colorful front door. “Do you want me to break in? If you have a hairpin or something like that, I’m like ninety percent confident I could pick the lock.”

Steve laughed out loud. “While it sounds absolutely charming, we’re trying to look inconspicous. Let’s go for the boring solution instead.” With that, he reached under the ugliest gnome statuette - it had amanitas growing out of its beard, why? - and produced the key.

“You really know how to show a guy a good time,” grumbled Eddie, but followed him through the door anyway. 

Not even an hour later, they were ready to start recording. Steve brewed a huge pot of coffee to keep him awake. He didn’t think he could sleep anyway, but Eddie was giving him secret guilty looks at every suppressed yawn, even suggesting Steve could take a nap, that Eddie would keep watch, no worries. “I haven’t slept in a year, so I didn’t realize,” he muttered through a strand of hair he was chewing on. “I don’t want you fainting mid-song, and that couch looks comfy enough, so how about it?” 

Steve just gave him a blank stare and downed a massive mug of coffee in one go, almost burning his tongue on it. As if he’d waste a single second he could spend with Eddie. 

Their setup was small, but Steve thought it didn’t need anything else. The beauty of Eddie’s music was that it didn’t require a huge band or an orchestra to pull on the listener’s heartstrings. Eddie didn’t have any formal musical education, he didn’t know all the fancy words like legato, crescendo or forte. But he had a feel for music so great that even his high school music teacher who otherwise hated his guts had to admit he had potential. 

When they were still allowed to meet, younger, enamored with music and each other’s company, Eddie would hum his melodies, usually choosing the acoustic guitar to carry the main tune. He kept playing them over and over again, giving Steve space to experiment with potential accompaniments. He only occasionally took over the piano and gave instructions such as “I thought this part could use a bit more force, you know. I’ll go quieter on the guitar, and the piano will become the main instrument until the next verse, what do you think? It should be something like a dialogue between the two instruments. Imagine I’m rambling, and you really want to say something, so you start speaking at the same time and going louder and louder, hoping I’ll get the drift and shut up.” 

He trusted Steve with this work, and Steve was so grateful. He vowed never to disappoint Eddie, and to that day he hoped he hadn’t, at least not when it came to music. 

As he sat down at the piano, he gently stroked the familiar keys. His eyes were burning again. He’d prayed for the day when he’d be able to do this with Eddie again, only to realize that this would be the last time they’d ever play together. 

Eddie had just finished tuning the guitar to his liking. He shifted on the stool to face Steve and smiled. “I missed this, you know.” 

Steve returned the smile as well as he could. “Me too. It hadn’t been the same without you.” 

Shrugging, Eddie ran his fingers across the strings, stretching and adjusting his grip. “Eh, I think you were doing just fine without me. I liked your adjustments to the chorus of “Remains of the day”, they make it sound a bit more playful. The original sound was a bit too creepy.” 

His tone was flat, as if it was just a simple observation. But Steve’s hands stilled over the keyboard, staring at Eddie with mouth wide open. “How…” he choked out, “...how do you know? I made them only a few months back. You’ve never...I mean, you were already-” 

“Steve.” There was no malice in Eddie’s words, but his smile faltered. It was still there, yet somehow sad. “Are you telling me you haven’t noticed?” 

“Noticed what?” 

The dead man pointed towards the dark trees behind the window glass. “Where this window leads.” 

Steve’s eyes finally betrayed him. He rapidly blinked, but one tear made it out and rolled down his cheek, between his lips. He tasted the salt as he remembered all the times he’d sat here, playing Eddie’s melodies from memory whenever Nancy and Robin decided to go upstairs to have more privacy. 

There wasn’t a single visit when he wouldn’t play them. Steve felt the constant urge to keep repeating them, committing them to memory. He wanted to burn them into his brain so he could never lose a single detail. Maybe one day, when he’d succeeded begging Eddie for his forgiveness, he’d play them for him. He would show Eddie that he never let himself forget, never stopped thinking about him . 

He pictured himself sitting there, tens, hundreds of times. The window was usually open to sell the illusion that Robin was playing during their visits. And even in the dark, Steve realized where the narrow path between the trees led - to the small clearing in the woods, to the freshly dug hole in the ground where someone had buried Steve’s heart. 

“No way,” he whispered. The taste of salt on his lips didn’t relent, and he didn’t try to control it any longer. “You heard me? You heard me all this time when…?” 

Eddie nodded. For a moment, it seemed like he wanted to get up, maybe join Steve at the piano, but then he changed his mind. Instead, he started fidgeting with his rings again. “Yeah. Not to inflate your ego, Steve, but oh well. We’ve come this far. You were my main reason for not moving on.” 

He huffed a short laugh when Steve gave him a confused, teary-eyed look. “It’s true. I was lying there for a while, and you know how much I hate staying still. I was considering giving up and just moving on for quite a while. But whenever I thought I could give it all up, just forget my dreams and all that was keeping me here, I heard you. It was like a part of me was still up here, waiting to be reclaimed. You were safeguarding my songs, and I of course knew I could never come back, but somehow…I just hoped, Steve. I didn’t think, I just…hope isn’t the correct word. I yearned to come back, that’s it. Because there was someone calling me back every single day.” 

Steve’s eyes didn’t leave him for a second. “But everyone down there said…they said that you were playing all the time. Practicing.” 

“I did. And it drove me crazy that my own songs didn’t sound right anymore. I tried replicating everything I’d heard from you, but…” Fondness crept into Eddie’s voice, as if he was recalling a precious memory. “It never sounded right. I blamed it on the corpse fingers, the stiffness of dead muscles, but I guess I was lying to myself. Playing these songs by myself just wouldn’t do because you became a part of them. They weren’t complete without you.” 

“Eddie…” 

Eddie shushed him. “And if you think that I was listening to you just because I had nothing better to do, well, you might be partially right. But also…I’d known you kept playing my songs long before I died, you know. Why do you think I was in the woods the day I died? It’s not like I’m one of those crazy fans of nature who love walking in the woods, getting all muddy and wet and collecting ticks and other bloodsucking creatures. I’d known about your playing for months, Steve. And I…uh.” He pulled a strand of hair in front of his face, hiding his expression. “I actually kept going there a lot. I sat on that tree stump, listening to my, well, our songs. I still hated your guts, but a part of me felt so happy that you seemed to have as much trouble letting me go as I had you.” 

Steve was hit with a sudden wave of nausea and numbness. His fingers were still laid on the keyboard, but their feel was now uncertain, foreign. “So you're telling me that all this time it was me?” he whispered. It hurt to even voice his thoughts. “It was me who kept you trapped in that grave? Who…who lured you there to be killed?! If I let you go, you could have had peace. You…you could have even lived! Eddie, I don’t even know how to begin to say how sorry I am. Nothing I say will ever be enough.” Steve withdrew his hands from the piano, wrapping them around his body. “You gave me so much and I…I made things worse every single time. I caused this. All of this.” 

He didn’t see it when Eddie set down his guitar, but he heard the hollow thunk of it. The clinking of Eddie’s metal chain, the squeaking of his old sneakers, it used to feel so right. But now…

Eddie nudged his side and squeezed next to him onto the wide stool. “Hey, Steve. Let me say something. Sure, we’ve had our not so great moments, with your dad’s blackmail and stuff like that. But, and get your eyes up here, Harrington, I’m being earnest and I demand an audience for it!” 

When Steve’s wet eyes found his, Eddie snuck his arm around Steve’s shoulders and pulled him close. Steve leaned into the embrace with a quiet sob, clutching Eddie’s band t-shirt. Eddie didn’t seem to mind. “Apart from the whole protecting me and Wayne through being a dick, you didn’t cause me any pain. Really. You have no idea how much our friendship meant to me.” 

Steve’s face was buried in Eddie’s jacket, but he still managed to produce a “huh?” sound. 

“It did. When I moved here, I didn’t know anyone, and Wayne was trying to figure out how to make it work with the plant shifts and stuff. I was bullied all the time, I wasn’t much of a looker without my hair. So I just thought I’d spend all the time until my graduation keeping to myself, which was lonely as hell. The music room helped. And then one day…a pretty boy who had to have tens of friends approached me and asked me to teach him. I felt so lucky.”

Steve still wouldn’t show his face, but his arms around Eddie’s waist tightened. “Pretty sure it was me who was lucky. You changed my life.”

Eddie squeezed his shoulders, cradling Steve close. “Shush. This is my life changing story, get your own. For some reason, that pretty boy chose me. Even though I was mostly flying through the playing and teaching blind, he kept coming back. Not just that - he actually listened to me. He heard my rambling, all those unrealistic plans, dreams, the outrageous ideas, and he believed in me.”

Steve had finally settled against him, his breathing under control again. Eddie continued. “Do you remember when we started playing together, Steve? I was so freaking anxious because I realized I couldn’t possibly play both instruments at the same time when I finally got to record my stuff. And I couldn’t ask anyone because I couldn’t write or read the stupid sheet music. Still can’t, by the way. But you just sat down at the piano and told me: “Tell me what you need me to play. I’ll do it.” You said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world, to spend all your free afternoons playing what I threw at you. As if you didn’t have anything better, more important to do.” 

That finally made Steve stir in Eddie’s arms. He straightened his back and looked Eddie in the eyes, wiping away the rogue tears. “I didn’t. It was the most important thing to me, Eddie. And still is. Likely will always be.”

Eddie wasn’t really thinking, he just reached out and ruffled Steve’s hair. It was so different with all the product in it, but there was a touching familiarity in the gesture. They used to ruffle each other’s hair when Eddie’s finally decided to grow out and looked like a wild nest of curls. “No neat hairstyles in my music class, Harrington! Go wild and go home!” he’d say.

“I’m glad to hear that,” whispered Eddie and god, he wasn’t lying. Being an important part of Steve Harrington’s life was addictive. Intoxicating. “So how about a small practice before we start recording, big boy? I recall you liking that four hand piece we adapted from Back to the Future.” He extended his hand, as if he was asking Steve to dance. “Accompany my beloved nerdy music, my liege?” 

Steve beamed at him. “My pleasure, lord Edward,” he said and took his hand. 

The night was long and Steve gradually drank the whole pot of coffee. He couldn’t imagine preferring sleep to this. The moment they both sat down at the piano, it was as if they were two puzzle pieces that belonged together. Something clicked, and Steve felt whole again. Compared to that, sleep was ridiculously overrated. 

Not everything went smoothly, of course. Eddie had made some adjustments to the music during their time apart, and it took Steve a while to catch up, to bridge the gaps. They mused and tried out new passages, re-did the old ones, played around with the cassette recorder to get the perfect balance for both instruments. But most of all, they just revisited the past and brought back the best of it. 

The recording was supposed to take long hours, but Steve supposed theirs was an exception. After all, what was there to improve on when all of these songs had been cherished, perfected and preserved over many long years? Eddie’s more recent changes made sense to Steve, it was enough to hear them just once, twice, and then they blended into what he’d already known. His ankle still hurt as he used the pedals, but Bob’s bandage kept it fixed in place well enough. 

Not all of Eddie’s songs had lyrics, but for the ones that had, Steve admired how Eddie’s voice had grown into them. It was more hoarse and less polished than when they’d practiced the last time, but there was emotion and maturity that the sixteen year old Eddie Munson hadn’t possessed. Now, his voice was perfect. 

They only had a few breaks, a bunch for coffee, one for Steve to take a quick shower to make sure he was fully alert, and then one to share a cigarette outside. Eddie complained about not having had a smoke for over a year. Steve got up and reached blindly behind a potted plant to produce a well-concealed pack of cigarettes and a lighter. With an awestruck expression, Eddie grasped his hand and squeezed it. “I could just marry you right here, Steve Harrington. Oh wait!” he laughed and wiggled his ringed finger at him. Steve’s heart didn’t beat faster after that, nope, not at all.

Eventually, they saw the sun rise through the trees. They’d just finished going through their final recording, with Eddie’s comments and introductions before each song. Steve squeezed Eddie’s hand. “If that Craig guy doesn’t love it, he has no taste,” he announced. He felt ridiculously proud. 

“One can only hope.” Eddie shrugged off his jacket and, after an annoyed squeak, removed Ozzy from the comfort of the chest pocket. “Hey, do you think the Buckleys have some fruit they could spare? Ozzy gets really bitchy when he’s hungry.” 

Steve laughed at that and dragged Eddie towards the kitchen. “Don’t we all? Let me just open a window, the air here is horrible.” 

Leaving the living room to breathe a little, they made their way to the kitchen’s fruit bowl. “He likes sweet apples,” muttered Eddie as he dug through the neatly arranged pile of produce. “Does this look sweet to you?” 

Steve took the apple from him and bit into it. “Yep, sweet. Let me cut it for him.” Noticing Eddie’s confused look, he laughed again. “What, you don’t think Ozzy is important enough to have his own taste tester?” 

“I do now.” 

Steve switched the kettle on again. It wasn’t that he needed another cup of coffee, but it was morning, and as they say, old habits die hard. He worked fast with the knife, chopping the apple into small cubes. The sound of water boiling was familiar and comforting, and having Eddie by his side in the kitchen when he was preparing breakfast? It could have been the only thing he needed in his life, he thought. 

There was a quiet sound behind them, but it got drowned out by the kettle. Maybe a draft from the open window rustled the torn plastic wrap of the tape they used. 

“So…” began Eddie, playing with his rings again. “What now? When does the post open?” 

“I took one of those padded envelopes with us, and a bunch of stamps my dad had in his office. So if you know the address, we can just pack it and send it through that collection box we passed yesterday. Do you want to add some sort of an introduction, a letter or something?” 

Eddie rubbed his temples, sighing. “I should. Let me do that. You have a paper and a pen in that magical bag of yours?” 

“Sure do.” 

They made their way back to the living room. While Steve served Ozzy a bowl of neatly cut fruit, Eddie sat down to the decorative table and started writing, his tongue sticking out in concentration. “Dear…Craig. I hope…you didn’t forget about me. Here’s…the demo…I promised. You can…do whatever you want…with it, I don’t think I’ll be able…to work on it again. But…if it makes any money…my part goes to Wayne. You know Wayne. And…you won’t be a dick to Wayne, will you?” He paused, tapping his pen against the paper. Then he added: “Thanks for giving me a chance, I appreciate it. Take care…Eddie Munson.” 

While he was writing, Steve was carefully walking around the room, cleaning the mess they’d made. He was just picking up the torn plastic wrap and got stuck thinking that it seemed too much? They only opened one tape. It was probably normal and he was just tired. He also swept up the dirt and a bunch of small feathers they must have brought from their smoke break. His father called it a stupid itch, but cleaning gave him a purpose and clarity. 

He also tried to nudge Ozzy away from the half-eaten bowl of fruit to clean under him, but the small creature wouldn’t budge. He was splayed on the table and playfully bit into Steve’s finger when he attempted to move him. Message received loud and clear. 

As he finished putting the room to its original state, Eddie was already standing by the door, envelope in hand. “Shall we?” he asked.

Steve wanted nothing less than to walk out of that door. It was yet another step towards losing Eddie forever, but it was the right thing to do. “Sure,” he nodded and grabbed the keys. “Ozzy, are you coming?” 

The small bat squeaked at him, and while Steve still couldn’t understand what he was saying, the tone was clear. Ozzy was still lying on the table, flat as a pancake, and moving him would probably start another world war. 

Eddie patted Steve’s shoulder. “The window is open, he’ll let himself out when he wants to. Plus I’m sure he still has some fruit there. See you later, buddy!” 

With an awkward wave at their winged friend, they left Robin’s house and locked the door. 

Steve didn’t know what to expect from the rest of his day. Dropping the envelope in the collection box was the only clear point in his future. He remembered staring at the yellow package, at Eddie’s wild handwriting, and he felt an overwhelming urge to tear it out of Eddie’s hands and stomp on it. He wanted to keep Eddie right here with him, tell him that they could actually do better, they could stay for a few days, weeks, months to practice, to improve their work. Maybe people wouldn’t be able to tell Eddie was dead. Maybe he could still achieve his dreams, if only-

But then Eddie dropped the envelope in the box and that potential future, the future where Eddie finally achieved what he’d dreamed of for over a decade, dissolved in front of Steve’s eyes. 

From Eddie’s sad smile, his thoughts followed a similar pattern. “It’s going to be okay,” he told Steve, maybe himself too. 

Just as they were about to walk back and go collect the stuff they had left at the Buckley house, Steve heard a shout. “You! Steve!” 

It wasn’t excited or joyful. Or even angry. Robin’s voice was shaking, and it sounded like she was battling a panic attack. 

Steve turned around and hobbled towards her. She was still wearing yesterday’s clothes and was disheveled, even for her standards. “Robin? What’s wrong?” 

She sprinted to him and hit his chest, again and again, and it took Steve a moment to realize she was crying. “Where…the fuck…have you been?!” she snapped at him with each hit. “We were so worried! I thought…I��”

Eddie quietly joined them. He didn’t say anything, just observed. 

Robin finally stopped hitting him and collapsed against Steve in a forceful hug, burying her face in his chest. “Everything went so wrong, Steve,” she whispered. “So wrong. We weren’t careful enough, Nancy’s dad, he…he found out. He’s furious. He locked Nancy in her room and had his friend’s son keep watch over her window so she wouldn’t escape. He also kept me in their house until he could reach my parents in the morning to tell them how I…” she grimaced, “...how I ruined his daughter.” 

Steve was stroking her back, his thoughts racing. “But your parents know. They don’t care, right?” 

“They don’t. When he couldn’t get them to be angry about it, he kicked me out of his house. Just now. But Ted fucking Wheeler can’t have a queer daughter.” She was crying even harder now, hands grasping at Steve’s t-shirt. “He told her she’ll get married no matter what. But not to you, because he knows how you covered for us. He doesn’t trust you to fix her.” She spat out the last sentence in helpless anger. 

“That guy’s a monster,” Eddie whispered. Steve wholeheartedly agreed. 

Robin kept on rambling, and every word she uttered made Steve’s heart sink even more. “She’s still getting married, he made sure to arrange that, and as soon as possible. It’s today…in an hour. He told her that if she doesn’t comply, she’ll be dead to him and will never be allowed to see her siblings again. She loves Mike and Holly, Steve, she couldn’t live without them. She…I think she’s going to go through with it. Maybe she’ll think of something, but I couldn’t get to her, I couldn’t even talk to her, and there is no time, Steve. Nancy is so smart, but I can’t see a way out of this that won’t destroy her life.” 

“I’m so sorry, Robs. Robin…” Steve squeezed her shoulders and pulled her away, just to see her face. “Robin. This is important. Who is she marrying?” 

Her lip wobbled as she said, “Jason Carver. Apparently his parents are eager to find him a good wife and forget the whole Chrissy fiasco.” 

A loud gasp made both Robin and Steve snap out of their misery. Eddie was staring past them, eyes open wide in his shock. “Not him,” he whispered. “Anyone but him.” 

Steve turned to Eddie, still keeping an arm around Robin. “Have you met him?” he asked. 

“Oh, I have.” Eddie’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “He’s a good Christian boy, that’s for sure. If Wheeler marries him, he’ll never let her go. He knows what life’s supposed to look like, and if she happens to disagree? Tough luck. Especially in Hawkins.” 

Robin stared at Eddie and something dawned behind her eyes. “You…Eddie, right? Are you…okay? You don’t seem okay. When did you even come back to Hawkins?” 

Eddie opened his mouth to answer, but Steve took both of their hands and tugged them forward to get them moving. “Can you give Robin the short version while we’re walking, Eddie? I’m afraid we’re on a tight schedule. We have a wedding to crash.” 

Eddie grinned at him. “I take my sarcasm back, Harrington. You really do know how to show a guy a good time.” 

Chapter 12 here

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Speaking of Traumerei, I know he’s canonical a father, but I cannot see that guy procreating in the traditional fashion, mainly based on our introduction to him via Yasratcha’s flashback. It shows Traumerei as patron of a workshop that manipulates genes to create human-animal hybrids (whom he looks down on as literal animals), the way he forces Wang Wang and Nen Nen into his little breeding programm, ordering when and with whom Wang Wan is to have children, whom he consideres as a dog...Just cannot see him engaging in the same behaviour as the ‘animals’ he orders about for his amusement. I’m sure you can argue some measure of character devolution over the years, or potentially hypocrisy but given that Traumerei’s main preoccupation is chilling alone in his room, is known for being a recluse and that ‘might be faster to combine their genes’ is a statement delivered in canon on Traumerei shoving Wang Wang and Nen Nen together to create offspring (suggesting that’s established technology in TOG-verse) it just seems the likelier option to me. And it’s not like unconventional procreation is unprecedented among the Great Warriors: Yeon Hana outsourced it to her relative, Zahard has his entire vampiristic ‘injecting them with his blood’ thing with the princesses who then start calling him ‘father’...

[escapism-express]

a few somethins abt zan

yah… so hi! i’m zan :)

i’m 21 & from the Southern US, though i swear something in me was meant to be in Scotland…

i use a stupid amount of ellipsis, can’t decide if i want to punctuate or capitalize correctly, and get nervous around shitty grammar (makes sense, right?)

i have the mouth of a sailor, soul of a stoned grandma, ridiculous little house wife habits, and attitude for daaaaaaaays.

my fandom membership card is currently active in the following communities:

The WW of Harry Potter (all eras & no support for JKR, duh)

The Hobbit & Lord of The Rings

Star Wars

Marvel

Maas Verse (ACOTAR - I'm working my way through TOG rn)

Outlander

there are definitely more that I'm currently too stoned to remember but those are the mains anyways. i don't write currently, though I really want to start so y'all can be my lab rats 😉

being a dreamer is my main personality trait, but I can guarantee lots of ranting & shitposting regarding other things I like and/or don't like to do so here's a few more things abt me :)

I'm a spoonie for life, this December will be 9 years since I was diagnosed 💙

I have a longterm partner who we'll call Snoopy - he boarded this shit show about 8 years ago & doesn't plan on disembarking 🫶

I have zero sense of self preservation. my philosophies are to "fuck around & hope you don't find out" & that my life is a video game so I'm just along for the ride lmao

I firmly believe that therapy is for everyone, I personally go every week & am medicated.. I will SCREAM this shit if it means someone else will feel more comfortable & confident going

COFFEE IS A REQUIREMENT FOR LIVING (I'm a caffeine addict)

I'm currently attempting to figure out my spiritual alignments but I fucks with energies & nature a lot 🧙‍♀️

I like... plants... 🍃💨 - a lot

I keep music playing almost 24/7 to keep away the ✨voices✨

I have no filter, I will tell you anything & everything or nothing at all

any of that feel like you? follow meeeeeeeeee I need friends :)

okay now for the obligatory blog disclaimers:

this is an 18+ blog - minors will be blocked 🔞

I have a zero tolerance policy for bigots - we don't fuck with homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, ablism, or discrimination of any kind. you will be reported, dragged, and blocked.

I WILL be talking about sensitive topics, whether it's fandom or real world related there will be triggering material on this blog. I will do my best to label everything as accurately as possible but if I miss something please KINDLY let me know :)

I piss a lot of people off. my views are not widely accepted in the current climate of the south but I will not shut up. however, you can. so if you don't like me, go ahead & rest assured that I do not care 🖕🫶

once again there's probably more stuff I meant to say that I've now forgotten but my brain is jello sO we're gonna call it good.

stay tuned for... stuff(?) ...I have no real plan here.

anywhore.. have a good day, lovelies!

xoxo, zan 🫶

[crownednight]

verse descriptions for the pinned post (a living post that will be added to as au's and other plots arise, under read more for length purposes)

main verses

v; fallen star (main)

covers the canon events of amaya's "death" in the acotar series, her arrival in midgard, life as the autumn king's concubine, and eventual return to prythian

aus

au; the sharpest weapon (asteri)

amaya's arrival in midgard gained the attention of the asteri in the worst way. rigelus discovered amaya's powers and sought to use her as a spy and enforcer for the asteri. she is eventually placed in einar's home to report on the dealings of the fae directly to rigelus himself. *i tend to lean on inspiration from the winter soldier story in marvel. can be combined with a corruption arc*

au; legend bound (survival)

amaya did not travel to midgard, but instead recovered in velaris and remains a member of the inner circle. she ruled velaris in rhys's absence during amarantha's reign sub au -- au; at what cost (utm) amaya joined rhys at amarantha's party and was subsequently imprisoned as he was under the mountain. amarantha does not know she holds two daemati in her grasp and amaya tries to do what she can to help her brother

au; this world is primal (beast)

tamlin could not save amaya from spring's plot, but instead tried to hide her until she was safe by transforming her into a dragon. however, magic is fickle and he could not break the curse after the ashes of the plot settled. now, amaya lives her days as a beast protecting the northern most reaches of the night court and her nights as her fae self. *inspired by swan lake*

au; stars burn as ancient (tog)

follows amaya's canon, except she appeared in wendlyn instead of midgard. aware of amaya's temendous power, maeve attempted to coerce her into a blood oath, but amaya escaped to erilea shortly after magic fell and has been hiding from the valg queen ever since.

au; most ardently (historical)

takes place in any historical context. amaya is typically the daughter of a titled lord and is highly educated despite the norms of society.

au; supernova (modern)

amaya is an aspiring astrophysicist with a penchant for daydreaming in the modern world

au; the nightingale (hollywood)

in the golden age of hollywood, amaya is a singer known as the “nightingale” for her haunting songs on life and love. she first gained notoriety after catching the attention of einar danaan, the self styled “king of music,” who financed her first album and has ties to the asteri mob family. now married to einar, amaya tours endlessly and has lost the joy singing once brought her

au; valhalla calling (viking)

amaya is a trained shield maiden and aspires to be as fierce as the valkyries of legend

au; from the blood of old (got)

covers any interactions that take place in the got timelines. amaya hails from house dayne and carries valyrian ancestry that is marked by her violet eyes and her family's affinity to the targaryens. in the hotd timeline, amaya is also a dragonseed who aids rhaenyra's claim to the throne; however, she loses her dragon in battle and is dealing with "losing her wings" in the got canon timeline, amaya is a younger cousin to ashara and arthur dayne. her brother, rhys, became lord of starfall after arthur's death at the tower of joy. *all other timelines, such as the conquest, will be plotted on a case by case basis*

au; we will rise (fbaa)

amaya is an atlantian of mixed draken bloodline descent. her blood gave her the ability to call wings at will and her family has been sworn in service to the consort. when the gods slept, so did she until she was woken and taken to the blood crown by ires. understanding the great power amaya held, isbeth experimented on her and created the first revenant, causing amaya to lose her wings in the process. she bows her head and obeys in the name of survival, but she has never given up her dreams of seeing atlantia once more.

au; there are worse games to play (thg)

amaya is a career from district 1 who won her games 3 years after her brother rhys did, thereby becoming an overnight sensation. despite being from a career district, amaya's parents put her in the academy program so she would learn how to survive, not because they believed in the capitol propaganda. as a result, amaya is also a firm supporter of the rebellion.

[tiamatfcrged]

Written by Penny. 18+ required. 21+ preferred. Activity varies wildly. Indie RP blog for characters from The Expanse. WIP. Sideblogs include Amos Burton @factiousfcrged, Naomi Nagata @homefcrged, Bobbie Draper @goliathfcrged, Chrisjen Avasarala @unityfcrged, Clarissa Mao @penancefcrged , James Holden @quixoticfcrged, Michio Pa @refugefcrged and Camina Drummer @factionfcrged.

OCs: @ombrafcrged @fidelityfcrged @nomadicfcrged (also @lifefcrged has an expanse verse; mikkah is also a main blog for nomadicfcrged and factiousfcrged and fidelityfcrged for their tog verses)

Mini-multi sideblog for other Expanse characters @leviathanfcrged

[moved-nomadicfcrged]

@aeternals / desi sent a meme.

"You can do whatever you want to me."

His fingers, with knuckles criss crossed with scars, and fingertips worn heavy with callouses, trace the curve of Desi's side, from the shoulder, etching down his arm, teasing and tangling briefly with Desi's fingers before easing free and wandering over the arch of hip, to outer thigh. Simply savoring, admiring. The caresses were gentle ... perhaps not chaste, but not driven by lust, either. As much as he might enjoy the passions they shared, he was as content simply to be in Desi's presence, as anything else.

The words catch him off guard, his hand falling still, warm, nested against Desi's hip, a calm, if tinted with curiosity, gaze cast up to meet his lover's gaze. He doesn't know everything about Desi's past. He doesn't need to. Those stories were Desi's to hold to, or share, when he was ready, or never. He knew enough to know that Desi had survived something terrible. The nightmares, the strangled whimpers that would jolt him from his sleep, the occasional mood swings and paranoia. They were symptoms he'd seen in men he'd served with, enough to have some grasp of the root cause. It made him angry, at times, brewed a red hot pit of lava in his chest when he thought of anyone causing Desi to suffer...

But those were not thoughts, for here and now. Shifting to prop his weight up on his elbow, he drew his other hand up from Desi's hip, to trail along the lines of his jaw, settling in behind his neck to hold him lightly in place as he brought his lips to graze softly against Desi's, once. Twice. Again, they were gentle, not quite chaste, but not demanding, either. "The only thing I want to do to you, is love you, if you'll let me, for as long as you'll let me."

[caelumfcrged]

@orphanedshadow / gets a starter.

Even if she didn't know where she was, she knew where she was going. She could feel it, like a tug against her wrist, or on her spine. The dark was pervasive, and the tunnels were slippery and she'd knocked a knee or an elbow more times than she could count, and had collected more momentary scrapes and scratches than her dignity would've liked, but they didn't linger more than a moment. The threads of silvery blue flame sparked outwards every now and then, tendrils of heavens fire pushing through the inky darkness, giving her enough light to avoid the worst of the slips and sudden drops off.

She'd had to back track a couple times cause even if she'd been heading in the right direction, even she couldn't jump some of the distances, or phase through solid rock, so there'd been a few setbacks but she tromped onwards. She hadn't come this far to give up cause of a rockslide and if she'd done all this and then gave up and went home without Kara she would be in loads of trouble for nothing and -- even if they'd never say it, she was pretty sure there was some part of her moms that wouldn't ever forgive her if she failed ... so onwards she went.

[theexpansefcrged]

Written by Penny. 18+ required. 21+ preferred. Activity varies wildly. Indie RP blog for characters from The Expanse. WIP. Sideblogs include Amos Burton @factiousfcrged, Naomi Nagata @homefcrged, Bobbie Draper @goliathfcrged, Chrisjen Avasarala @unityfcrged, Clarissa Mao @penancefcrged , James Holden @quixoticfcrged, Michio Pa @refugefcrged and Camina Drummer @factionfcrged.

OCs: @ombrafcrged @fidelityfcrged @nomadicfcrged (also @lifefcrged has an expanse verse; mikkah is also a main blog for nomadicfcrged and factiousfcrged and fidelityfcrged for their tog verses)

Mini-multi sideblog for other Expanse characters @leviathanfcrged

[ambitionfcrged]

A hand raises casually, gesturing to his glass and to Desi's for the waiter to refill, as calm and collected as if they were old school chums that had run into one another unexpectedly. Leaning back in his chair, he let long legs extend out to one side of the table, making himself comfortable, even going so far as to lightly loosen the knot of the tie at the base of his throat. Yet, for all his air of ease, there was never a moment when at least part of his attention and focus was not on the immortal. One never knew when a man might decide to throw all caution to the wind and try something foolish.

"Yes, it is a shame," William agreed, amicably enough. "I think few men would have the ... willpower to stomach such a feat, though. Did you know, we still have parts of you in jars?" An amused chuckle. "Quite the conversation starters, in the right circles."

A hand slides inside the pocket of his jacket, a small manilla envelope withdrawn and tossed onto the table between them, perhaps timed with the intention to distract Desi from whatever instant revenge he might have wished to meter out, or perhaps just convenient timing. "I don't tend to go for repeat performances, myself. But all that being said ...." A tighter, smaller smile. "I have been known to make an exception now and then." The envelope, if opened, would reveal photographs. Photographs of Andy, of Nicky and Joe. Booker, too. Arthur. Mikkah. Copies of faked identity papers. Deeds. Bank records. License to practice medicine. "For a man who had so little to say in our time together, you do seem to have quite a few friends."

one of the very many reasons desiderius stayed away from the rest of the guard was because he didn't like travelling into unknown places. that's what got him into trouble little over a century prior when he'd lived andromache's worst nightmare. torn to pieces over and over and over again.

dublin was supposed to be one of the few places he felt safe. one, because both he and arthur had safehouses located within the old city. and, two, because arthur's ties to a local distillery made it easy to keep eyes in a number of places.

yet, william had joined him at his table without making so much as a footstep near him. the immortal could feel the muscles tensing at the base of his skull. without being able to stop himself, his gaze drifts down to his left hand where it'd been removed from his body all those years ago. just one of many things william's organization had done during their time together. there wasn't even a scar to announce to the world what had happened.

no, that was reserved for his nightmares.

every movement is stiff when he lifts the glass of red wine, swirls it, and brings it to his lips. his thoughts were hysterical but desi couldn't make a scene. not worth risking all the innocent lives nearby. that didn't stop the blood from draining from his cheeks or his hands from getting clammy. " life has been blessedly uneventful since we parted ways. " although, desiderius still didn't remember the events surrounding his freedom. no idea why his brain decided to block that out. " so sorry to see no one's given you the same courtesies you gave me.

with that thought, desiderius forces himself to look up and offer something of a grin. " if you're looking for round two i promise you it won't be as easy to acquire my company. "

[rhysand-vs-fenrys]

Do you have any headcanons or opinions on the the whole Manon being the Classical Fighter and Dorian being the Political Mastermind thing they’ve got going on in koa. They make a pretty good team just saying :)

I don’t really have any headcanons about it...

Dorian learned political maneuvering at court, and I think he can bring a lot to the table in terms of helping Manon learn the massive headache that is leadership by cooperation vs domination.

Cooperation is her working with her people to find solutions to problems, even if that means listening to a point of view she doesn’t agree with. She may not like something, but half her people do and so she needs to listen to them so that they don’t feel as if their leader is wholly ignoring them. This is what’s missing from the US today btw. No one is friggin cooperating with each other. In an ideal situation, each side gets about 50% of what they want.

Domination ruling is what she had with the Thirteen. Doesn’t mean there is no compromise, but it’s the military form of rule. She says this is how it’s going to be and they follow her orders (in most cases). When Manon is faced with controversy her instinct would likely be Domination-Ruling, saying “Do what I tell you and shut the fuck up”, and if she rules like that she won’t be ruling for more than a few weeks.

Now, I think in KoA Manon was getting the hang of Cooperation ruling, but she was also doing it with a set goal in mind: Getting an army to help fight Erawan/Maeve. Looking more long-term with a goal of just living life in general, she might need Dorian’s advice or even just him there for her to rant at until she feels less frustrated.

So, not really a headcanon or opinion at all, more of an analysis of existing content.

[ofbloodandbullets]

So it’s recently come to my attention that not everyone in the world has actually watched The Old Guard (WHO KNEW?!) so I’m going to try and do some info dumps about the world, the general canon and Andy’s history, personality, powers etc.  This will ... probably get kinda lengthy. 

Also: MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR COMICS & MOVIE.

The first thing you need to know is that for the main part, the history and the world that TOG takes place in is the exact same one as the real history of the world.  It’s set in modern day, though the plot points stretch back to 7k+ years ago.  It’s also important to note that there is a lot of historical inaccuracies and some things in canon that conflict themselves so it’s best to just take it all with a grain of salt and just go with what works best for your particular preferences etc. 

The main difference between reality and TOG is that in TOG there are a very minute like .00000000002% of the population that are immortals.  Now, it’s important to note that these people can die but they resurrect pretty close to immediately after they die no matter the amount of damage done.  Now it can take some time to fully heal or reform, depending on how extensive the trauma (being blown to bits or burned etc. will take longer to fix but there’s no amount of damage that we know of that can actually keep them dead).  

There are times when, for reasons unknown to the characters in character (or to us as readers  of the comics / viewers of the movie etc) that the immortality just stops.  There’ll just be a time that they suffer injuries that just don’t heal, and they die.  There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to this, be it age, number of times they’ve died, whatever.  Now, I have my own entirely headcanon and personal preference based theory which you can find HERE but it’s totally just a random idea that I had that I liked to explain the loss of Andy’s immortality in the movie (that doesn’t happen in the comics) and lets me say that she regains her immortality post canon so that I can nudge things back in the direction of the comics for post movie plots and so on.

Andy is, as far as we know, and as far as she knows, the oldest (human) immortal, coming in at around 7,000 years old.  She was born into a tribe, the Scythia (hence what she’s generally called: Andromache the Scythian).  A nomadic warrior tribe that I headcanon to be a matriarchy, Andy was betrayed by the ‘queen mother’ when she was sixteen and killed in battle because the leader feared that Andy posed a danger to her continuing rule.  This person was practically a mother to Andy and it was a horrific betrayal.  What was almost as shocking to Andy was the fact that she got back up again after being literally stabbed in the back and killed.

In the vein of trying to thwart prophecies making them happen, Andy killed the matriarch and took her placce ruling the tribe, eventually becoming a God King to her people and ruling over them for hundreds of years until her loneliness absolutely overwhelmed her and one day she just vanished.

At some point after this, she began to dream of a woman, feeling a pull towards this stranger that she couldn’t begin to explain.  After dozens, maybe hundreds of years, she managed to track down the woman in question (Noriko in the comics, Quynh in the movie) and realized that they’d been dreaming of each other.  (In the comics she meets Lykon before Quynh/Noriko, whom she had also been dreaming of).  

Now, the connection between these immortals isn’t explained in canon, and for a long time, Andy, Lykon, Noriko (and eventually Joe, Nicky, Book) thought they were the only ones but there is a scene in the second set of comics that implies that there are other ‘packs’ of immortals.  I headcanon that it’s a ‘like calls to like’ / kind of Sense8 simpatico type thing - like minded souls drawn to each other, which is why Andy and the others didn’t know about the other immortals, but again, that’s just entirely my thoughts on the matter. 

Lykon is the first to succumb to the loss of immortality, a short couple hundreds years after he and Andy find each other.   He dies on a battlefield, one that he and Quynh/Noriko and Andy fought on like a hundred/thousand before, champions for the abused etc.  Skip forward a couple hundred years again and enter Joe & Nicky, a Knight and a Muslim warrior who kill each other on the battlefield only to both wake up and spend (an unspecified amount of time) hunting and killing each other before eventually Andy & Quynh/Noriko find them.  In time, Joe & Nicky realize that they love each other.   (Important to note that Quynh/Noriko and Andy were also lovers).  In the movie, when the first major surge of witch hunts began, Quynh/Noriko and Andy go to help the women that stood accused, only to be captured and accused of witchcraft themselves.  After being hung, drowned, burned at the stake and coming back to life every time, the witch hunters settled on locking Quynh into an iron coffin and dropping her into the ocean.  (In the comics, Noriko is lost at sea during a massive storm that had thrown their ship entirely off course with Andy having no clue where they actually were at the time.) 

Joe & Nicky arrive in time to rescue Andy, but Noriko is already gone and despite spending decades tracking down every person even remotely involved in the so called ‘investigation’ into the women’s inquisition and punishment, Andy wasn’t able to find anything about where Quynh could be. 

Cue angst & depression & guilt for ages after.

The trio still steps in over the following decades, trying to help prevent the worst of atrocities, but Andy quickly begins to spiral into an, at best apathetic, at worst, entirely distant and withdrawn mindset and steadily begins to lose hope that they’re actually making any difference at all.

Skip ahead a century or two and enter Book; a Russian conscript who had been forced into the fight after being convicted of forgery.  Hung for desertion, Book spend days dying over and over again as he hung there, unable to attempt an escape until the troops finally packed up and moved on.   He and Andy, Nicky and Joe meet up and Book kinda reluctantly joins their little group.  It’s revealed that Book dreams, still, of Noriko/Quynh and while he can’t tell where hse is, dreams of her still dying, drowning on the floor of the ocean over and over and over like she had been for the last hundred or two years.  

Book returns at some point to his mortal family which ended in disaster when his last remaining son was dying of cancer, cursing and screaming at Book for ‘choosing not to save him’ by making him immortal too, even though it’s something Book had no ability to transfer or make happen.  Between his nightmares, losing his son and a number of other factors, Book decides he wants to end it all but no matter what he tries, doesn’t die and stay dead.

Eventually he’s approached by a pharmaceutical company that has figured out what he is and wants to run tests on him to see if they can unlock his healing / immortality for other people.  Merrick’s company works in league with an ex CIA agent whose wife died of a horrific terminal disease who hopes that they can find a way to keep anyone else from dying if they don’t have to.    Initially it was just supposed to be him, but he’d set up a display to stream for proof of what he was / they were and the corp decided they wanted all of the immortals.   Book ends up betraying the team, and he and the others end up locked up and tested on / killed / experimented on etc.  

There’s another character introduced in the meantime, the first new immortals in centuries, an American soldier named Niles.  There’s a lot more that goes on here, but the main point is that in the movie, Andy stops healing from her wounds shortly after she tracks down Nile and is put into incredible amounts of danger when Merrick (the leader of the pharmaceutical company) captures Andy, Joe, Book, Nicky.  Book is devastated, Nicky and Joe are furious, Andy’s just tired.

Eventually, Andy and the others break free with Niles’ help, destroy the lab they were originally held in etc and set out to try and hunt down any other proof, lab results, anything that Merrick got his hands on during the tests.

The group meets and settles on a hundred year exile for Booker (which I think is one of the stupidest things - like, the man’s clearly desperate and depressed and lonely and mentally unstable so by all means let’s isolate him for a fully century) and at the end of the movie we see him stumbling home to his apartment six months later to find Quynh standing in his apartment, pouring and drinking a glass of water which is a whole power move considering how many millions of times she died by drowning.

In the comics, Quynh/Noriko was driven entirely mad and to the point of wanting vengeance against Andy for abandoning her and spends a while gaslighting Andy and torturing her physically and emotionally and what not until she manages to isolate Andy from the other immortals and scoops in to ‘rescue’ Andy.  IDK what they’re going to adapt this to in the second movie, 

Again, via the link posted above, my Andy slowly begins to regain her immortality (again, IDK what they’re going to do with the next movie).  

Uhhhh yeah.  So I .. think that’s the majority of what you need to know for canon info about Andy.  THIS is also an important PSA regarding my Andy’s history & her longest lasting relationship that has nothing to do with canon at all but that is part of Andy’s bg in every verse, even if it never comes into play.

[highlady-fireheart]

Could you explain the series in your bio? I know some but not others and I definitely need more books to read 😅

I would like nothing better than an excuse to rave about my favourite books! (Also I'm still fairly new to tumblr and this is one of my first asks, so this is all very exciting!)

Harry Potter - the OG, love of my life

A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR), Throne of Glass (ToG), and Crescent City (CC) by Sarah J Maas - the way these books have consumed my life for the past year, ACOTAR gets all the hype and has its own special kind of magic, but Throne of Glass is SJM's true epic masterpiece. Love that SJM has easter eggs for her other books in each series. Currently reading CC2 🎉 You can find me reigning supreme and feilding new reader questions over on r/throneofglassseries. Honestly, I could go on and on here, but this is just the start of the list.

From Blood and Ash (FBAA) by Jennifer L Armentrout was my go-to series after SJM. There's currently 4 books out (with the recent release of TWOTQ 🎉) as wells the first book out in a prequel series that will tie into the main storyline. (The Kieran and Reaver snark-fest is currently carrying this series lol)

The Folk of the Air trilogy (TFOTA, better known by the first book The Curel Prince) by Holly Black - devious faeries, court politics, badass MC, what more can I say?

Grisha Verse (this encompasses the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Six of Crows duology, and King of Scars duology) by Leigh Bardugo. (I am living for Ben Barnes as the Darkling in the Netflix adaptation)

Lord of the Rings (LotR) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF, aka Game of Thrones) - the high fantasy classics. Currently doing my first in-depth Tolkien read to follow-up with the Silmarillion because I'm a whore for book lore. Wheel of Time is also on my TBR for this summer.

Books that aren't in my bio but probably should be and I'll talk about them anyways because there can never be too many books:

The Plated Prisoner by Raven Kennedy - Gild, Glint, Gleam, and Glow comes out this May 🎉. This one is a bit of a dark horse the fantasy romance genre right now because everyone is recommending it but it doesn't really have its own fanbase yet. It started to come into its own in book 2, and book 3 left us realing. Just check the content warnings for this one

Kingdom of the Wicked by Keri Maniscalco - I love a morally grey character and desserts, so this one got an automatic pass lol. Witches and prices of Hell make a pretty good team, and book 2 definitely picked up, so I'm looking forward to book 3 this fall.

✨Manacled✨ by SenLinYu - now it may be unorthodox to include a fanfic in a book rec list, but Manacled is better than many published works I have read and it's had me in a deathgrip since I read two summers ago.

Twilight and The Mortal Instruments (Shadowhunter Chronicles) - there's a post that goes around saying that whatever you were obsessed with between the ages of 12-14 stays with you for life...well it's been 14 years and everytime I think I'm out, something sucks me right back in again lol

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (see the explanation from above lol) - I don't know if these are a had to have been there at the time, but they definitely sparked my interest in Greek Mythology. Rick's two follow-up series are on my neverending TBR.

Let me know if you want to know more about any of the above or if you have any recommendations! 💕