#aka the fic where 2 years ago all I wanted to do was write about legend having a mermaid tail and he bonds with a fairy hyrule

[katanasspirits]

So, I kinda fell out of my Legend of Zelda hyperfix a little bit since I got into Genshin Impact but. Now THAT hyperfix is falling off and into Honkai Impact instead. So, why am I posting a picture of Time from Linked Universe? Because I lost my phone on an airplane and figured “Oh I might as well finally update that fic I wrote 2 years ago and have been promising more of for 2 years”

And. Uh. I’ve latched back onto it enough for me to actually draw a character while writing the update to that fic i mentioned. What fic is it you ask? Well funny story- Heres another picture of time but with a plain background incase anyone wants to use it as an Icon since its like. the perfect size. 

[wandanatsgf]

Lovers, Vampires, Strangers Part 1

Pairing: Vampire!Wanda Maximoff x Vampire!Reader

Word Count: 1182

Summary: This story starts in the year 1850. You and your girlfriend Wanda are happy together. You have everything you could ever want, until she secretly turns you into a vampire. After a horrible accident, you leave her and that life behind. Now 173 years later, she's come to ask you for help.

Author's note: I tried a different style of writing, I hope you like it! This was originally posted on my old account. It was going to be a multiple part fic, but I never finished it. I am hoping to finally finish it now!

Part 2

Part 1: 1850, the Shittiest Year of My Life

This story starts in the spring of 1850. The year my life went to shit. AKA the year Wanda came into my life and ruined everything. Now I know what you’re saying dear reader, how am I alive if I was born so long ago? Well the truth is, I am a vampire, and no not the kind from twilight. We don’t sparkle in the sun. In fact we’re the same as you, except we have to eat blood to live and we have a few extra supernatural abilities.

Anyway, back to the story. The year is 1850 and I am eighteen years old. At this time I am living in France in my parent’s manor with my two siblings and best friend, Sebastian. I was normal then. I was human. My life was like any other person of nobility. It was full of balls and glitz and glamor. I would dance and be merry every night with my best friend by my side. I thought nothing could go wrong, and then it did.

I remember the exact day things changed. It was April 12, 1850. That was the day Wanda entered my life. She was an orphan, or so she said, and my parents took her in. She was the same age as me and she was beautiful. She had long brown hair and piercing green eyes that could stare into your soul. She was kind and elegant. She was perfect. Little did I know how dangerous she truly was. I was blinded by love and by infatuation. I knew not of the monster that lurked in her soul, the same monster that she made me. But I am getting ahead of myself. 

Before I knew who she truly was, I spent all of my hours with Wanda. She slowly became my confidant, my lover and then my everything. Sure it was considered wrong back then, but in my heart I knew something that felt this good couldn’t be anything but right. 

We would hang out by the mangroves near my house, making sure no one saw us. I would kiss her like my life depended on it and she me. I loved her with every fiber of my being, but that love burned out when she killed me.

She had asked me one day, “Don’t you want to be together forever Y/n.”

“Of course I do,” I had said, oblivious about what was to come. “That is all I wish for. I want to be with you forever and live in a world where we don’t have to hide.”

Wanda had smiled at this and handed me herbal tea we had brought with us. I took a sip and placed the glass down. Wanda had placed her hands around my neck, like she was going to kiss me and I leaned in. Her face gets within inches of mine, and then she snaps my neck. 

I awoke a monster, but I didn’t know that then. I thought I had just fallen asleep in the arms of my girlfriend. I didn’t know I was a vampire, something that defies all the laws of human nature. I was something that shouldn’t exist, yet here I am now, writing all of this down. 

The night I turned was the night of a ball in my honor. I foolishly attended, not knowing what it would lead to. The feelings that began to bloom within me were terrifying yet exhilarating. The power was tasty, and I was hungry. I was blinded by this and…well I’ll flashback and let you read what happened for yourselves.

 “Can you fasten this around my neck?” I ask Wanda as she helps me get ready. I was putting on the finishing touches to my outfit, but I couldn’t manage to get this clasp.

“Of course Y/n.” She fastens the intricate gold and gem necklace around my neck.

“You look beautiful,” she says. My face heats up at the compliment.

“Thank you,” I look down, unable to look her in the eyes and accept the compliment.

“Hey I mean it. You’ll be the prettiest girl there tonight.” She places a soft kiss on my lips and when we break apart I can't contain my happiness. 

“Now let’s go to that party and have the time of our lives,” Wanda says. I place my hand in hers and we walk that way until we reach the ballroom. We break apart when we enter the room and suddenly my senses are overwhelmed. All I can hear are the sounds of people’s heartbeats. All I can feel is hunger. My senses were overwhelmed and I didn’t understand what I was doing until it was over.

I walked up to Sebastian, my dearest friend. I didn’t mean to do it. He was my bestest friend and I just thought being around him might calm me. However the closer I got, the more tempting the feeling to rip his throat out was. I couldn’t resist it anymore and I sunk my new found fangs into his neck. He didn’t even have the chance to scream before he was dead.

People around us began to scream and I took a step back and realized what I had done.

“Sebastian,” I breathed out, coming out of the trance I had been in. People rushed past us, desperate to get away from the monster until it was only me, Wanda, and Sebastian left. 

“Please no no no,” I cried. I shook his body, begging for him to wake up. All I could think was, “What have I done?”

“Come on please,” I beg. I lightly slap his face and I get nothing. Not even so much as a twitch. 

“He’s not going to wake up dear. He’s dead,” comes a voice from behind me. I jump up and charge at this figure.

“This is your fault. You did this to me,” I screamed in the brunette’s face. I had her pushed up against the wall. “It was that tea wasn’t it? You did something to me, you changed me,” I cry.

“I’m sorry but I did this so we could be together forever.” She changes our position so that I am now the one pushed up against the wall.

“I did this because I love you.”

“You made me a monster,” I cried out. I could feel tears falling.

“No I didn’t honey. You’re beautiful like this.”

She gently caresses my face with her fingertips and I wince at the contact. I could feel fangs protruding where my teeth had once been. I could feel my veins popping out around my eyes and I could feel the blood that covered my face. It was sticky and wet and it belonged to my best friend. I was disgusted with myself and I could hardly breathe. I ran out of that house, with speed I didn’t know I had but that I now possessed. I left that house, that life, in the dust. I never saw Wanda again, until now. 173 years later here she is at my doorstep and I want nothing to do with her.

[lgbtlunaverse]

heads- up: someone is taking jc-centric fics and turning them into jc-bashing wangxian fics

I don't usually like to bring twitter drama over to tumblr but since the perpetrator in this case explicitly said they do this ON TUMBLR I felt it was pertinent to do so.

Today user DyuaLan on twitter, aka @jiaoji on tumblr, publically bragged about finding chengxian, xicheng, and zhanzheng fics and changing the names to make them wangxian fics with jiang cheng bashing.

When authors (understandably) reacted to this by blocking them, they boasted about still having 15 stolen fics in their drafts on top of the ones they've already posted.

And that they do all of this stuff on tumblr anyway, not twitter

If you have written any kind of Jiang Cheng ships, or Jiang Cheng-centric fic in general, and are not a fan of your work being stolen, it's in your best interest to block them.

They also said that they block everyone they steal from. Though if you go to the blog now and are blocked, please don't panic, that might just be for fanwar reasons.

Here's proof that DyuaLan is in fact the same person as Jiaoji:

(@jiaoji and @jiaoji2 lead to the same blog, it was probably called this because they at some point lost access/moved from their previous blog @jiao-ji)

And here jiaoji is bragging on their tumblr about feeling too lazy to even rewrite someone else's work

Their ao3 is "Jiao_ji" where they have 16 works total, most of which are in portuguese, making it harder to verify which ones are stolen, as a lot of their "sources" are probably in english. (Most of the fics they have written on tumblr itself are also in english) They also have a wattpad account with the url "Dilf_ji"

As a bonus here they are 2 years ago whining about zhancheng authors blocking them because it means they can no longer steal their fics, this has been going on for a while.

And talking a bit more about stealing from chengxian and zhancheng authors:

While I haven't written any jiang cheng ships, I am a fic writer, and I know the work that goes into it. I can work on a single oneshot for months on end. So this kind of attitude, where if you hate a ship the author's work is just free for the taking, is appaling to me. Inspiration is normal, fandom is inherently transformative. Hell, ao3 has a "works inspired by" function for exactly that. But wholesale lifting someone's else's writing, only changing the ship and adding salt about a character you hate? Yeah, no. "Character bashing" fics aren't my cup of tea in the first place, but if you're going to do it, at least have the decency to write the damn things yourself.

I don't like doing callouts, so while I know that I can't really control anyone else's actions, I want to say for my own peace of mind... please just block this person. I don't wanna cause even more discourse. Remember: you don't feed trolls. I posted this because i think writers deserve to be warned when someone is maliciously stealing and editing their work, not to instigate harassment.

[envy-of-the-apple]

I'm 99% sure it was called "Forever Yours" and it was a yandere oneshot series basically of a ton of popular anime boys from the time. The ones I remember were the Tokyo Ghoul dude, there were some Death Note guy chapters, there was the ML from Kamisama kiss, OH and the white haired guy from Psycho-Pass. There were like 50 chapters. It had probably a million likes or something it was INSANELY popular.

Ryntymy also had some other ongoing fics (and a ryntymny/reader crack fic, god, love them for that), but god it's soooo hard to remember.

i DID find a post about one of the fics i knew of that was actually REALLY GOOD that you would have LOVED (it was very similar to saltburn although it's quotev so this yandere was ofc pretty tame):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Quotev/comments/1b652gu/trying_to_find_old_x_reader_fic/

as for what's still up... hm. i do remember parallel ink, and also psychadelic peanut (they had this really trippy izaya fic):

https://www.quotev.com/story/9754667/Unfortunate-YandereIzaya-Orihara-x-Reader/1

AH parallel ink wrote kingdom of possession, which i DO remember:

https://www.quotev.com/story/6759314/Kingdom-of-Possession-Yandere-King-x-Reader

and there was this one series that was ACTUALLY quizzes, which was neat:

https://www.quotev.com/quiz/8085561/Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Mind

this one was a pretty fun sort of mystery style thing:

https://www.quotev.com/story/11260294/Seesaw/1

and this one was like. formative for my longing for pathetic masochistic men. i wasn't super into it back then but THE SEEDS WERE PLANTED:

https://www.quotev.com/story/8901227/Then-Came-You-Sadistic-Reader-x-Yandere-Character-One-Shots/2

SEESAW????? I lovedddd that fic so so much ahhhh it was amazing!!! the fic put me in so much denial cuz i was like 'its him! wait no its not him? wait it IS him? no wait-' very very entertaining

speaking of murder mystery yandere fics...there was this one where the reader was isekaid onto a train and quickly pieces together that all of the passengers resemble ppl from this book they read years ago...except they cant remember the ending aka they dont know who the murderer is. pretty sure the author deleted it but it was good!

its so funny you mention psychedelic peanut cuz i remember they got canceled???? actually...pretty sure parallel ink did too...as well the rest of their clique....and thats why i zipped outta the quotev yandere community!

actually that one aot isekai i was talking about was hosted on quotev! pretty much the height of literature, there's no competition. if i dont find it im just tempted to just rewrite it.

Curse of a Broken Promise is still up there and i think it still holds up! its a yandere kaneki ken fic and the writing is so....whimsical? idk how to explain it but it whenever i read it i always felt so sad. good read!

Imperishable affection (yandere!mafioso x reader) is ALSO written by the same author. basically yandere mafia boss guy threatens you into loving him or else your family dies yada yada so ofc the mc does. for a quotev yandere fic its pretty dark actually.

You Need Me (Yandere Manipulator x reader) THIS was the fic that brought me into the yandere thing. and the author used to update EVERY day so this whole this was an event. and the TWIST i remember being 14 and gasping like 'omg he did EVERYTHING???' very very good

If you want a izayax reader fic whos author WASNT wierd might i suggest Twisted Obsession. Beautiful writing. Its better than most ao3 writing actually and wayyy above mine. I love the way this author characterizes Izaya in this and the backstory for why hes so strange is pretty believable. like i fully believe it should be canon.

Savior Complex is an aot isekai where the mc gets whisked into a yandere sim where Petra is the love interest and the rest of the aot cast is obsessed with her. but we can all guess what happens. pretty good tho!!!

BUT EVERYONE GO READ PRETTY its a gojo x LATINA READER AHHHHHH YESSSS. i just LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this author writes. its so poetic and there's so much left up for interpretation.

[r0t-t1ngxeyy]

Tw: Loli/shotacon, proship, Levi x Luke, Dark romance/abuse/kidnapping, NSFW!!! and

the Lollipop joke..

Im not letting anyone in this fandom forget those two obey me fanfics on ao3 from like 2?? Years ago. Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers them?? It was such a big thing for the fandom, Im so glad I read them before they got deleted because the memory is soo FUNNY HELP ?? I need opinions on these two fics, if anyone actually remembers them:(

Dia x Luci : The Red Means I love you

ABSOLUTELY TRAUMATIZING SHIT BRO WHAT IN THE DARK ROMANCE?? wouldn't even call that romance it was such a hard read. Stumbling across videos of it made on tiktok was probably the worst event that I experienced 👽 ON MY MOTHER THE SCENES WERE SO UNNECESSARY (but the adrenaline rush was pretty good ngl)

I read through that with my heart dropping with each new chapter bro?? I couldn't even read through the entire story. I'm pretty sure it's deleted now cus I've been searching for it to make a whole OM fandom lore post but heyy

To sum it up for the people who were fortunate enough to not read it;

Diavolo kidnaps Lucifer, and keeps him in some cage/almost prison cell area. I think he's chained up to the ceiling, I'm not so sure. It starts off with Dia being nice I think, trying to gain Lucifers trust and eventually have him submit but that shit doesn't work and all of hell releases. Lucifer endures some physical and sexual abuse and attempts to escape. But before he successfully escapes,he bumps into Barbatos who offers to help him

He does not help him. Infact, he locks him back up and informs Diavolo.

What the fuck

The most notable things I believe Dia did was clip lucifer's wings?? And pulled out his teeth (i think Barbatos actually did that I'm not so sure). But I can't really explain how gruesome and detailed the writing was. What's worse is that it also included how the brothers were reacting to Lucifer just disappearing. Very interesting fic, story wise it was fine and well written. It's just the plot in general was what the actual fuck??

LEVI X LUKE : i forgor the title and I'm very relieved that I did

VERY UNCOMFORTABLE READ BTW!! i hated summing this up so much

An absolute wreck, these fanfics were so well written I can't even hate the authors for what they did (the Dia x Luci one didn't deserve any hate imo, but this one?? Holy fucking shit??) This fic was so out of pocket, it ruined the way I saw Levi for a good while.

P.s!! Not the same author!!

WHAT I RECALL!!! aka summary?? Kinda...

So I think Simeon called Levi to look after Luke? Which is really fucking weird because Luke is an angel, sure he's depicted as a kid but if Micheal chose him to follow Simeon down to the Devildom for the exchange program then I'm pretty damn sure he can at least take care of himself without adult Supervision, but whatever. Nice plot, I hate it

Levi was totally against the babysitting thing and actually disliked having to look after Luke

Until

At some point, Luke wants to take a bath and Levi's like suree okay.

THEN ACCOMPANIES HIM TO GIVE HIM THE SAID BATH??? Obviously that's where this all downplays from what could've potentially been a found family fic to some proship shotacon fic. Levi gives him the bath and Luke gets

turned on... (I hate typing this out so much)

So, Levi gives him head. I fucking hate this with burning passion :(((

His mouth 'pops' when he stops which reminds him of a Lollipop!! And I quote this from memory:

Kinda like a Lollipop. Heh.. Loli.

I hate this fanfic so much, I don't claim it in this fandom,its a fic not a fanfic👽👽👽

And yeah, the rest of the story went on with Levi doing that bullshit!!! I don't think I read through the entire thing because curious kills the cat. I just saw some tiktok post about it and decided hey!! Im gonna look for it and read it.

I would've been fine without reading this fic, ever, i would've turned out the same as I am today LMAOO

[bqstqnbruin]

See You Again

I'm actually posting a fic for the first time in seven months aka the first fic I've finished in seven months peace love teaching

anyway, I wrote this for the lovely @wyattjohnston's summer fic exchange! I got to write for @selfindulgentpoorlywritten but I've never written for Nico before, so I hope you like this (I was fully inspired by my own mess of a life)

Edit since I’m a dumbass thank you to @kat-hearts for reading this first and being amazing ily 😭

One of the characters, Nat is nonbinary, and I did my best to make the reader gender netural, which I haven't done before on either account, so I hope I did it justice (if something is glaringly wrong, please let me know!)

Warnings: I was mean with the ending? A little? Also, some swearing, drinking, almost physical fighting

Word Count: almost 2.8k

_______________________________________

“When was the last time you saw him?”

You tried to shift through your memory to figure that out. In person, the last time was sometime in the first week of December about two years ago. Thinking about him, which thankfully didn’t count, would involve you giving a much more recent answer, way more recent than you would really like to admit. “I don’t remember.” 

“Well,” your roommate Nat says, looking down at their phone. “I have bad news.”

“Fucking hell,” you moan, tilting your head to hit the back of the seat of the Uber. You knew what they were going to say before the words even started to come out of their mouth.

“Nico is going to be there tonight. With all the guys.” You let out another groan, the Uber driver giving you a scowl through the rearview mirror. “I’m sorry! Jack didn’t know he was coming, or he would have told us way before we got ready.” 

You stare out the window, trying to think of all the ways that you could get out of this situation. You already paid for the Uber and didn’t want to pay for another one. You weren’t about to go somewhere by yourself, especially since the bar you were heading towards wasn’t within a reasonable walking distance if you were to go somewhere by yourself, and no way was Nat going to leave with you without Jack, and Jack, of course, wasn't going to leave without his teammates. 

“We can go back right now and I’ll tell Jack to have fun with his team instead,” Nat tells you as if they could read your mind. They put their hand over yours, trying to give you any sense of calm that was setting into your panic. “We do not have to be around Nico.” 

“What kind of person tells someone they like them but not enough to date them?” you mutter, knowing you and Nat have had this conversation many times on your kitchen floor, drunk and crying together at 2 in the morning. They had introduced you to Nico one night after a game when the team went out to celebrate. They had been dating Jack for about a year at that point, meeting him through his brother at Michigan and reconnecting when they both realized they were going to be in New Jersey together. Quinn had used the reasoning of, “he won’t know anyone in the state,” only for everyone to realize later that he knew Jack had been smitten with Nat since they met. If only you had been so lucky. 

You had known of Nico, obviously. How could you not? He was the captain of the Devils, the team you grew up surrounded by, the number one draft pick in the sport your roommate never shut up about. He covered your social media feeds without you really wanting them to and everyone you knew talked about what a great game he had the night before. You couldn’t escape the idea of him, no matter where you went. 

When you met him that night a few years back, there was something about him in person that you were drawn to. He had been just an idea to you, not someone you could think about as being real. You spent that entire night with him, your friends either wandering off or you too enthralled with Nico to notice that they were there. Nat and Jack were heading back to your place before last call, and you were left knowing that you had to see Nico again.  

He asked if he could kiss you, making you melt as his hand gently snaked its way to your cheek, pulling you close when you said yes and covering your mouth with his. You waited for his text the next day, anxiously checking your phone until he finally did after 3 pm. From then on, you told each other everything, texting each other whenever you could, him calling you and heading over to your apartment whenever he didn’t have an obligation to the team. You fell hard for him and you had believed that he felt the same about you. 

“The kind of person who doesn’t know what they have until it’s gone,” Nat tells you, trying to pep you up. “Hey, we can find you a guy that is just as hot as Nico tonight.” 

“I’m gonna move to Ireland and isolate myself with the spuds.”

“Act like you can be away from me for that long,” they tease, earning a laugh from you. “I’m serious, though. Tell me what you want to do, or who you want to do, and Jack and I will make it happen.”

You didn’t want someone just as hot as Nico, you wanted Nico. You hated the fact that there was more than one time that you had pulled up his messages on your phone, part of you unable to delete that conversation thread even though you knew it would be the healthy thing to do. But you weren’t known amongst your friends for doing what was best for your mental wellbeing, so you kept them, going back through the conversations you had in the four months you were seeing him. The last text was what haunted you the most, him telling you that he was going to be back in Switzerland for the summer and that he ‘didn’t want you tied down to one person’ while he was gone.

He said he would text you when he was back. 

He never did. 

There were multiple times when you wanted to text him, but you never did, either. 

“Yeah,” you manage to choke out. “Let’s do it.” 

You spend the rest of the ride in silence, trying to think of where in the bar you would be able to hide from Nico so that he wouldn’t see you. The guys were already inside, Jack telling Nat about 10 minutes ago that they went to start drinking as fast as they could. 

The bar was somehow muggy inside, as if the beer itself hung in the air rather than the sweat of the nearly one hundred drunk people that were crowding every square inch of the floor. Jack was easy to spot for Nat, his five foot eleven frame not the largest of his teammates, but still distinct enough that your roommate had left your side within seconds of entering to be with their partner. 

So much for finding you someone tonight. 

You tried to stay away from him, closer to Nat and Jack as best as you could, but they kept wandering off from you. The last thing you wanted to do was go with them when they were both on their way to drunk and have a history of doing slightly illegal things in the bathrooms at bars. 

You had to find someone to talk to. Any person who looked interesting. Any other guy on the team who you were friends with, but that was really only Jack, and that was really only because he’s dating Nat. Your phone was your only comfort, finding a table that had been pushed up against the wall and hoping that there was something you could doom scroll on that would distract you from looking towards Nico. 

He had the right to do what he wanted at the bar with his teammates. You weren’t together. 

“You ok?” you hear during a lull in the music, pulling you away from your phone for a moment. You didn’t know who was standing in front of you, one of the newer guys from the trade deadline that Nat definitely hadn’t introduced you to. He was waiting for you to respond, looking like he had wanted to sit down with you.

“Yeah, just, not a big ‘going out’ person.”

He lets out a nervous laugh, a smile that sends a jolt through your system that you hadn’t felt in a while. Since Nico, if you were really willing to be honest with yourself. “Me neither, honestly. I’m just here because I didn’t have anything else to do.” 

“I got dragged here with my roommate so they can be with their boyfriend,” you tell him, gesturing to Nat and Jack trying their best to sneak out of the bathroom, Jack’s shirt buttoned wrong, both of their previously neatly styled hair in a mess that you only saw after hearing them the night before. 

“So that’s the infamous Nat,” he says, taking the seat beside you. You nod as he continues, “Jack never shuts up about them. Not that Jack shuts up about anything or anyone, ever, but especially not Nat.” 

“I always knew he was a good one,” you tell him, introducing yourself so he knew you as more than just, ‘his teammate's partner’s roommate.’

“I’m Timo.” 

You spent the rest of the night bouncing between the table and the bar with Timo, him buying you every drink you wanted. There was something about him that was different, but you couldn’t focus all of your attention on him. 

He was talking about his time in San Jose while you were waiting for your next round of drinks. You couldn’t focus on a word he was saying, Nico within your line of sight talking to a girl. A really attractive girl, you might add. You felt your heart drop, feeling a lump in your throat forming faster than you could lie to yourself about that scene having no effect on you. Naturally, Nico would talk to other people. You hadn’t talked to him in two years, let alone seen him in person. Just because you couldn’t get over him, no matter how hard you tried, that didn’t mean he didn’t get over you.

“And then I got traded here, and I love it, so far,” you tune back into Timo, who is suddenly much closer than you remember. It’s just because the bar is loud, people are starting to crowd for drinks, and, fuck, you have to admit, he’s pretty hot. 

Nico was still watching. 

Timo took your hand, leading you off to the table where you were before, the drinks in your hand probably not ones that you needed to begin with. His free hand snaked its way to your waist, pulling you close to him. You could feel your heart racing faster with every inch he got closer to you. You wanted him to kiss you. 

You thought you did. 

“I’m sorry,” you pull away right as his lips were about to meet yours, tears starting to form in your eyes, leaving the drink he bought you in his hands as you ran from him. Your breath catches in your throat while you try to find Nat and Jack, just praying that they weren’t back in the bathroom or too intoxicated in general to help out. 

You heard Timo calling after you, somehow, through the volume of the music and your own drunkenness, breaking through and getting to you. You didn’t want Timo calling your name, you wanted it to be Nico. 

You needed it to be Nico. 

“Hey, hey,” you hear, feeling a familiar hand gently place itself on your arm. You turn around, Nico’s face a mixture of concern and fury. “What did he do?” 

“He, he,” you stammer, the tears falling faster the more you looked at him, every memory you had with him suddenly rushing back into your mind. “He didn’t do anything. You did.”

You yank your arm from him, trying to find anywhere to be in the building that didn’t have one of Nico’s teammates looking at you causing a scene. You knew he was following you, calling your name again and again over the music. People were starting to stare, but no part of you cared, trying harder to not let the tears that were burning your eyes fall down your cheeks. 

Nat and Jack were nowhere to be seen, the rest of Nico’s teammates trying to figure out what was going on when you burst through the front door of the bar, the cold fall air hitting your face as soon as you did. You let out a sob, trying to steady yourself against the wall of the building, sliding down to the ground while people waiting to get in tried to figure out if they should help you or if you were just another drunk person having some sort of meltdown that was none of their business. 

“Hey,” you hear, a soft voice coming from above you. “I’m so sorry if I did something wrong.” Timo slid down next to you. “I read the situation wrong, I thought you were also into me.”

“I am, I just,” you start, trying to think of what to say. 

“Hey, what the fuck did you do?” Nico yells, pulling Timo off the ground. “What did he do to make you cry?”

“Nico, stop,” you let out, Timo looking both confused and terrified by his new captain’s hand on his shirt collar. “He didn’t do anything.”

“What the fuck did I miss?” Timo asked, slowly trying to back away from Nico staring you down. 

“Why can you talk to other people and I can’t?” you ask him, feeling your sadness turn into anger. “You had no issue not talking to me for the last two years.” 

“I’m gonna go,” Timo lets out, barely loud enough for the two of you to hear and sneaking away before you could notice. 

“You didn’t want to talk to me,” Nico counters, taking a step towards you. “But you wanted to talk to TImo instead?”

“Where the fuck did you get that idea?” 

“You never texted me. You’ve spent the entire night avoiding me. You think I didn’t see you when you were by yourself on your phone?” 

“You were in Sweden. And you could have come up to me and talked to me, what was stopping you? Oh, that’s right, your new girlfriend.”

“Switzerland. And she’s not my girlfriend. I haven’t seen anyone in ages.”

“Wherever you were, you weren’t here,” you tell him, your back against the wall. How long had it been since he had last seen someone? There was no way you had been the last person he was with. “You told me you didn’t want to be tied down while you were back home. You didn’t even want to talk to me, because if you did, you would have.” 

“You’re joking,” he scoffs. “You think I didn’t want to talk to you? Every fucking day I have thought about how our conversations would go when I saw you after you get home from work. I would think about you telling me about your day, about everything you would tell Nat, or whoever you were seeing at the time. Every single person I saw in the last two years, I wanted them to be you.” 

You didn’t know what to say, letting Nico’s words sink in. “Then why didn’t you text me when you came back from Switzerland?” 

Nico took in a deep breath, closing his eyes and tilting his head up to the sky. “Because I thought there was no way someone else wouldn’t have realized how amazing you are. There was no way I could be someone who you thought was worth waiting for.” 

Nico takes a step towards you, his hand gently taking yours. This was a moment you had been thinking about since he left for Switzerland two years ago. You knew he was going to kiss you, having you pinned against the wall of the building. His free hand cupped your cheek.

“There you guys are!” Nat interrupts, them and Jack clearly having just finished up doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Nico steps away from you, clearing his throat, the red in his cheeks so noticeable there was no way even your roommate wouldn’t comment on it later.  “We’ve been looking for you, for um.”

“Long enough,” Jack finishes their sentence, a stupid smile covering his face. You knew he was lying, but no part of your brain was letting you focus on that. Nico leaned against the building, his arm up over your head. “The uber’s almost here. Are you ready to go?”

No. “Yes.” 

The three of you leave Nico standing there by himself, Nat and Jack falling asleep in the Uber as soon as it gets on the highway. 

You check your phone for the first time in a while, a lone notification popping up on your phone that hadn’t been there in almost two years. 

‘Nico, iMessage.’ 

[webbo0]

A Night To Remember

AKA: How did Holland get that hand tattoo?

Warnings: Alcohol, Angst, negative self worth, dead wife mention (?), usual Holland messiness

Part of the Pathetic Holland trio fics along with I Can Fix Him. by @ken-dom and Drunken Stranger by @hollandstrophyhusband. Shout out to them for enabling encouraging my writing, go check them out!!

Also be forgiving about the formatting, this is my first time posting fanfiction to Tumblr 😅

The problem with a loving marriage, Holland thinks, is that you start to collect small anniversaries all the time, happy memories worth celebrating. The first date, the first kiss, the first time going to the disco, the first time staying the night, the proposal, the wedding, etc. And Anne had loved to celebrate each and every one. Something about “loving each day as if it’s your last”.

And look how that turned out Holland thinks as he finishes his first drink of the evening. 

Today was one of those small anniversaries. Well, it would sound small to anyone else, but it was one of Holland’s favorites. 13 years ago tonight, he knew he was ready to be a father. Anne had gone into labor a whole week earlier than the midwife had told them was expected and she was panicking. Her whole pregnancy Holland had been a nervous wreck; researching the foods to avoid, buying every weird gadget on the market, and fastidiously believing he would be a horrible father. His own father was shit, and well, the apple never falls far from the tree, y’know?

But when the contractions had started (a whole week!) early, all of the sudden he was laser-focused. He got their go-bag, called the midwife, and even drove them to the hospital without his usual clumsiness. It wasn’t until he saw his daughter- Holly- it wasn’t until he saw Holly that it finally came together. Anne was glowing, holding her like the treasure she was, and handed her to Holland. It all clicked in place. 

“This is what I was meant for.” he choked out, tears collecting in his eyes. “I never want to forget this moment” He locked eyes with his wife, and everything was perfect.

Every year after that, they celebrated this moment. They made sure to do it 2 days before Holly’s actual birthday, to prevent any hangovers or potential mishaps from ruining their baby girl's day. 

So here he is. In the bar they went to every year for 13 years. Her favorite drink was a sweet red wine (she hated anything bitter), so Holland takes a sip from a glass of some after every shot. Which means he’s 5 sips in? He doesn’t remember.

Memories are a funny thing, Holland muses.

His memory’s been shit his whole life. He struggled in school, never remembering his assignments, never knowing where his wallet was, and don’t get him started on his paperwork. It was why Anne was so insistent on celebrating the little things

“You have to start living in the present, honey” she would tell him, always with a small smile. 

But tonight he was stuck in the past.

It had only been 2 years since she di- since the fire, and his memories were already starting to slip away from him. Maybe he should write them down? He turns to the bartender.

“Heyyyy Pam, d’ya have a pen or something?” He knows he’s slurring his words, but he doesn’t care. Pam the bartender had worked there for years, and Holland had a sneaking suspicion she remembered him, seeing as his glass hadn’t been empty all night. She turns to him with a look in her eyes. Is it pity? Disgust? Worry? Holland’s too drunk to tell. She hands him a pen and turns back to cleaning some glasses.

Holland lets himself slip back into the past, trying desperately to remember.

Remember her voice, her smile, her smell, anything. 

He knows he’s forgetting something. When he finally handed Holly back to her at the hospital, she had said something to him. Something important. He shakes his head as if he could stir up the memory from the haze of alcohol and regret.

“You will never…” he mutters to himself. He knew it started with that at least. He’s gotta write this down before he forgets again. If he writes it on a napkin he knows he’ll lose it, but luckily he has a hand right here! He’ll just jot it down so sober him can write it down properly later. Well, sober-ish, he can’t remember the last time he was properly dry.

He goes to write down the few words he knows, but his hands are shaking far too much. Shit. 

“Hey, Pam?” He calls out, probably too loudly. “Can you help me out for a second?” This time he knows he’s slurring his words, but he has more pressing matters.

“I’m not helping you invent a new drink again, Mr. March. I never got rid of the stains from last time” Pam says, but still, she turns towards him.

“No, no, my mixology days are behind me” he jokes but his smile is more forced than usual

“Can you just write something down for me? Right here?” he asks, holding up his hand for her to take.

She raises an eyebrow, but takes his hand (he misses her touch so much it burns), uncapping the pen in preparation.

“Thanks” he mutters God, what was it again? Right. 

“Ok, ok, write down, uh, ‘You will never’, um, You will never…” he trails off. He can’t remember.

“You will never what?”

Holland lets himself fill in the blank and blurts out the truth.

“You will never be happy.”

Pam pauses, glancing at Holland with a look that this time he knows is pity, but she dutifully writes it down.

Holland holds his hand up to take a look. She had added a smiley face. 

“Thanks' ' he murmurs again, as he stands (more like tumbles) from his seat, making sure to leave enough money behind for the bill plus a nice tip for Pam. He slams back the last of his liquor, and stumbles out the door, into the bright lights of LA. Why had he left? He doesn’t remember. Stupid fucking memory.

“Gotta make sure I remember…gotta be permanent” he slurs out to no one in particular. He feels his consciousness fading into an alcohol-induced blackout.

Tomorrow he'll wake up in a bathtub with a tattoo permanently reminding him of his worth.

Tomorrow he’ll cut his arm open trying to break into a bar for his latest stupid case. 

Tomorrow he’ll come close to dying in the back of an ambulance and his last thoughts will be how much he’s fucked everything up. 

In two days he’ll meet the man that will change his life forever, and then the day after that he’ll take a case that’ll change his life even more.

But right now it’s today. And before he slips into blissful nothingness, Holland remembers the sound of Anne’s laughter and the smell of gas.

[storyofmychoices]

The beginning of 2024 had definitely already brought it's share of challenges for me, but I'm hoping that maybe things will still be improving from here! Thinking positive!

Writing Goals

Where to even begin? I have probably 100+ WIP ranging from a scribbled idea on a post it to an outline that needs to be typed. I'd like to put a dent in that? So far each year, that list keeps growing instead of shrinking. I find that I'm more of the in the moment writer. It's all or nothing. Either I finish a piece in one sitting or it never gets done. I'd like to try to find more of a balance in 2024.

In a perfect world, here are some stories I'd like to complete:

Mal's proposal: I started this fic last February, and would really like to actually write it. I have art for it. I don't know what I'm waiting for, especially now that I have their Blades 2 AU proposal done 🙈

Laser Tag with Brylivia: This is just a short little drabble that I think is like 75% written. It's from 2 years ago. I really have NO excuses lol

Love and Scotch: This series fell away when I stoped writing Ethan (for a number of reasons). I'd love to finish this series. I had several more chapters planned but I might just skip some and at least get to what I envisioned as "the end" aka Thomas and Alex's HWU AU wedding and a big turning point for Ethan and Ellie.

#HollywoodHacks: Does anyone even care about this series? Anyone even remember it? I feel like no. I was really only writing it for 1 person, but they're not in the fandom anymore...It might not be the ending I'd planned or wanted, but I think I could wrap the series in 1 or 2 (tops) more chapters. I had hoped that the story would lead to me writing more for Ben Parks and my #LoveHacks MC but that never happened

Tipsy Nia x Daenarya: an anon requested tipsy Nia hitting on Daenarya and I started it but then never finished it. It's such a small drabble it seems silly to even include it here, but here we are!

Blades 2 AU: At the start of Blades 2 I was doing a great job keeping up with the book and rewriting the chapters to fit my vision for the characters. That kinda fell apart around Chapter 5. I'd like to finish that rewrite and see how Iliana fits into how the rest of the book happened. Last I wrote, Daenarya didn't even know she was pregnant.

Rayden and Lydo's Adoption: Mal and Daenarya have already decided to adopt them. I've also written them as a family. But, I've never written the actual story of Mal and Daenarya telling the boys they were adopting them and they'd be a family forever, so I'd love to do that!

Pairings I'd like to write more of in 2024:

Thomas and Alex: I used to publish 1 new story a day when I first started writing them. It lasted over a year, then it gradually decreased. Last year, I only wrote them 10 times! I know the lack of interactions with their stories, has definitely made me want to share less and just enjoy daydreaming for them, but still, I'd like to keep their story going, regardless of interactions, because they are so special to me. Plus, if I could wrap those two series above that they're in, that would definitely lift my RCD/HWU fic count for the year!

Nyx x Aerin: I LOVE NYX! NYX is incredible and I love love love them. Aerin is kinda fun too. I would love to develop these two more this year.

Trystan and Lilah: I've only written them a few times and I'd like to get to know them better

Beckett and Emma: I haven't written them in a long time and when I did write them it was for 1 particular series (them in Detention). With the Book Club replaying TE, I'm hoping I might be inspired to see what they're like outside of the library.

Troy and Astraea: I love these two but I haven't had time to explore them more. I don't think I'll have time to participate in the group reread right now, but I would still like to reread WTD at some point this year and keep developing them.

Daenarya x Maiele (@lilyoffandoms) + Mal x Tyril: In 2023, Lily and I started to develop these relationships more. I loved every second of that and I hope 2024 will bring us more of these four lovely characters.

Mal's Orphanage: Blades 2 destroyed the orphanage storyline. If PB wanted to steal it they should have done a better job of it. Like there was literally no point in them having that storyline since they abandoned it the first chance they got. I'd like to fix the Blades 2 orphanage storyline but then go back to focusing on my original orphanage because those children are my favorite.

Other Goals

Catch up on reading and be a more active reader

Follow and support new Choices accounts

Continue with the book club and other events I host but find a balance with hosting that I still have time to create and read/support others

Try my hand at drawing again. I had been drawing chibi's a while back and I haven't had time/the courage to try again, but @lilyoffandoms's incredible art journey this month has inspired me to add it to my list this year

Keep editing Aerin in the sluttiest Choices outfits I can find

Flesh out more of Olivia's pediatric practice and how she transitions from Edenbrook to Sunshine Pediatrics

Be kind to myself and let myself rest when I need it. I am my biggest critic and if you ask me what I'm good at, I'd say nothing and I would tell you everything wrong with anything I've ever done, including all of my pairings. I see the mistakes and I want to let myself see the good and focus on only that this year.

[t-nd-rfoot]

✨🎆 w/ Fanboy

3...2...1...! aka New Years with Mickey Headcanons

Time for Mickey to ring in the new year.

Pairing Mickey Garcia x reader

Theme fluff

Word Count 381

Note Ahhh it is officially New Year's Eve Day where I'm from so I'm taking this as the perfect opportunity for a New Year’s fic! 😌 and who better to write about than our favorite Fanboy! This is a short one but I loved writing it! I hope you like it and thank you for this request!

If you enjoyed this, please reblog! Reblogs are the best way to support creators (writers, artists, gif makers, everyone!) on this platform. Share the content, share the love!

New Year’s was almost always a particularly special holiday for Mickey

It wasn’t his favorite holiday (it’s a tie between Halloween and San Diego Comic Con weekend, and yes, he considers it a holiday), but there were a few traditions he liked to follow to for a truly happy new year

First: set 3 resolutions he wants to fulfill in the next year

Even before he entered the navy, Mickey always considered himself to be a diligent person

He was always a good student in school, and never liked to disobey his parents when it came to chores

When he sets goals, he has to have an actual, tangible, visible list so he can really see his progress

(He has good memory but he loves being able to cross out or check off an item on paper rather than on an app or just mentally)

He has a little “resolutions” notebook that he started using in high school

Every year, he goes through the existing list of goals he’s had ever since he started the notebook

There are goals from years ago that either have yet to be done (star in a Star Trek reboot) or he had just crossed off recently (reach 100 days on Duolingo)

But no matter how many goals he’s done or hasn’t done, he will always add 3 new resolutions

Next: Prepare 2 of his favorite New Year’s dishes

Food was always a hit at the Garcia’s New Year’s celebrations (and just in general)

His whole family would gather in their abuelita’s kitchen and spend days planning and preparing the menu

His favorites were most definitely the tamales and the stuffed pork loin his family would prepare together

Since joining the navy, he knew that there may come a time he wouldn’t get to spend New Year’s at home

Luckily, he knew how to make them on his own from all the times he would help make them

He even video called them so that they could make it together even if they were apart

His didn’t turn out as perfect as the ones his abuelita or his mom would make, but they were pretty close

Lastly: kiss his 1 favorite girl at the stroke of midnight

He thinks your kisses are better than fireworks, anyway

Disclaimer  I do not own Top Gun: Maverick or any of its characters. Please do not copy my work or translate without my permission.

[mocosa-media]

rules: share the first line of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

Was tagged by the lovely @fabdante thank you so much my friend. That being said, I will surely be taking liberties on certain published works 😈 due to the fact that one or more will simply have been "remasters" aka updated versions of previous works and may likely have the same starting sentence.

Easier To Run - Devil May Cry, Nero and Vergil family fic || "There was nothing Nero wanted more than to properly belong."

Under The Sun - Assassin's Creed || "He'd never be ashamed of where he was from."

I Only Want to Be With You - MHA, EraserJoke 😔💖 || "He was never particular interesting."

Heaven Is A Place - DmC/Devil May Cry, Kat just wants to be a mama and Nero is a child || "No matter how hard she tries, Kat can never get a clear look of the woman's face."

By Starlight - DmC, Kat and Dante have a soft moment ❤️ || " "You know the feeling you get when you listen to your favorite song?" "

Dark Bloom - DmC, Kat and Dante again my babes || "She rarely gets a full nights' sleep anymore."

Rats - DmC, Kat and Dante... shut up, I'm shy about this one || "Had he known what kind of girl she became behind closed doors, Dante would have gone looking for Kat years ago."

Disarm - DmC - Vergil and child Nero, I like this one a lot || "Vergil was exhausted."

Mind Over Matter - DmC, I just loved Kat and Dante dynamic okay || "He was soft in all the ways it would never matter."

The In-Between Is Mine - AOT, Jean and Marco my babies || " "Did you have friends back home?" "

As you can tell, I may not have a favored fandom. Perhaps.

Besides that, this was really fun to do. Many of these wips are quite old and written when I was at completely different times in my life. Ex. Pre and post certain life experiences, heartaches, blossoming friendships, etc. Some are ultimately still unfinished and hold previous and present writing experience. One I wrote alongside a dear friend as a challenge, others I wrote on a wim while holding certain emotions, and I especially hold those dear.

I felt as though I was looking though an album of my emotions from the past 2-5 years. Thank you Fab!!

I'm not sure who to tag, as I don't want to put anyone on the spot. Therefore, I will leave this open for any of my followers and friends to join in. I can't wait to see what you have written, and hope you will tag me in your post.

Thank you again Fab!!

[cadriona]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @hua-fei-hua! Thanks for the tag lol

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

46 works! ...yall only see 39 because 7 are anon'd aoeighaoieh

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

537,345 so far!

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Predominantly genshin, although I've also poked at trigun, and naruto lol.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

*squints*

5 times Ningguang saved Beidou and the 1 time Beidou returned the favour, (Genshin), 1447

A Mora for a Myth in a Land filled with Legends (Genshin), 1146 kudos

[anon'd fic] (Naruto), ~630 kudos

Beidou walks off the gangplank (by accident, really) (Genshin), 454 kudos

Yelan: Spymaster, Gambler, Self-proclaimed matchmaker (Genshin), 384 kudos

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I TRY TO!! haven't been able to recently because brain too tired and it's gotten so long that it uh. might be awkward if i randomly responded now, but i try to!! I love talking with readers and seeing what they think of the fic, and also sometimes it gives me an excuse to infodump worldbuilding or character building lmaooo

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

Err, either one of two of the four MCD fics i have?? Two of them have ok, sorta hopeful endings, except two are just me waving a knife and cackling in the background aoieghoaiehga

7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'm tempted to say *most* have happy endings?? some take a bit to get there, but most should be happy! if they were to duke it out for happiest tho? i have no idea lol

8. do you get hate on fics?

Not really no! Or at least, none that stuck around in my head lmao

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

*points at a few of the anon'd fics* what kind? uhhh, depends??

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

Yea! I think I only have two up and one's anon'd because it was from way long ago, only had one chap and i don't want to look at it anymore, so i guess the default prize goes to the genshin x atla one where i yeet four liyue ladies into the elemental nations via reincarnation after teyvat gets murked by celestia and watch things go boom ehehehe... gods i need to actually finish writing that one orz

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

i hope not????

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah! I think there were two translated into Russian?

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

Lol nope, might be interested tho!

14. what's your all-time favorite ship?

BEIGUANG (they've had me by the throat for like, 3 years at this point)

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My first fic, aka the anon'd naruto one because i also want to rewrite it and orz (yes it was an si-oc and it recently did a little resurgence in my brain so. Ha. feel free to ask about it because i have so may Thoughts but its uh, its been a while and my writing style has completely changed since)

16. what are your writing strengths?

I'd like to say worldbuilding and fun metaphors/analogies! or maybe action scenes? and if i know the character well enough (*cough*beidou*cough*) then maybe characterization

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

I NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO STOP RAMBLING. brain starts yapping and it doesn't stop, and then i don't know what details to cut because everything starts looking important ahhhhhh (so probably pacing??)

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

Depends! full dialogue? probably nah, since it sometimes breaks the flow, but a word here or there because it works better and people presumably know what it means? then yea! Might need to do some translations/linking shenanigans in the AN if i ever end up doing that tho

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Naruto LMFAOOO

20. favorite fic you've written?

I'd like to say mora for a myth, because its been a while since ive had that type of productivity and motivation? but honestly im not that sure lol

tagging: @yuniemaki, @lisascumslut78, @fishareglorious, @mireillexy, @bardigrade if yall feel like it, and anyone else that wants to give it a go :D

[aethelredism]

Thank you @lord-aldhelm for the tag! 💜

How many works do you have on AO3?

132!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Apparently it's 1,585,653.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently just TLK, but every now and then HotD or whatever period drama I'm currently watching will catch my fancy.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

gonna be honest, every time this question comes up on an ask meme it makes me cringe a bit, because 3 of them i don't feel are remotely worthy of the honor and I think I just posted at the right time. anyway they're all GoT/asoiaf fics.

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

I always try to, unless the comment is like, idk, annoying or completely incomprehensible.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh man. I've written a lot of angsty endings...I think I'm just going to go with the most recent, which is The House That Godwin Built.

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

also going with the most recent here since there are too many to choose from, too tempting not to touch

8. Do you get hate on fics?

yeah 🥲

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

All kinds babeyyyyyy

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

I have written exactly one crossover as a dumb joke and it was where Steve Harrington was Jean-Ralphio and Mona-Lisa Saperstein's biological father

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

It used to happen a lot but not so much anymore

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few times! It's a really nice feeling :)

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

@itslaurenmae and I co-wrote Stolen Sweets together!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

eadith x eardwulf aka flowers in mercia i am so deeply unwell about this ship i made up in my head but also it's real I'm so Pepe Silvia about it

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

I started this Barkskins fic literal years ago that went into the loup-garou thing that is CONSTANTLY coming up in the narrative but tbh i had no idea where to take it after "yeah they're werewolves" so I feel like. I shall never finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, I say, perhaps overconfidently. I attribute it to my theatre background but I'm always reading and, for that matter, writing dialogue with a voice in mind. I also speak a lot of the dialogue out loud to myself to make sure it sounds right, which is why I now live alone. I also know my basic editing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, tenses, etc) is almost always in good shape.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am SO BAD at writing descriptions, it's something I'm actively working on. Action scenes are also something I struggle with, my eyes glaze over those scenes in books and television, and if you've ever read my fics, you'll notice I like to pull a GRRM and knock out my characters whenever possible.

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

If it's not necessary to the plot, why confuse the reader when you can just as easily say, "He said to the woman in sunglasses, this time in Russian..." or, "He didn't understand the two men, who sounded as though they were speaking in French..." Unless that dialogue is relevant to the plot, I guess I just don't see the need.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm pretty sure it was Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The House That Godwin Built will always have a special place in my heart 💜

tagging @ivarthebadbitch, @stannisfactions, @wildwren, @wexpyke, @abnerkrill, @skatingthinandice, and anyone else who wants to play!

[zacharybosch]

Tasseomancy inspo part 2: Clothes and stuff

Part two of my post detailing the inspiration behind my Ed/Stede sugar daddy AU fic Tasseomancy. Part one (covering the setting) is here.

This part covers all the clothes, accessories, tea, and other stuff that Ed and Stede wear/buy/consume in the fic. Like Stede, I am unfortunately a bit of a clothes horse, so gird your loins for some over-enthusiastic gushing about fabrics.

☕

Teas

Ed and Stede enjoy a few different tea blends in this fic, and it’s where the title comes from - tasseomancy (aka tasseography, tasseology) is the practice of reading fortunes in tea leaves.

Blue Lady is the first tea they share together. I picked it because 1. it’s really yummy, and 2. it’s a little bit floral and a little bit citrus-y and I think that suits Ed and Stede nicely :) I first started drinking this tea about a year ago and it’s so fucking delicious. My favourite variety comes from HR Higgins, but it’s pretty pricey so I try to drink it sparingly. This tea is also incredible as a cold brew - the flavour is more delicate, but it also makes it a lot easier to taste all the subtle little notes in there.

The three teas that Ed brings to Stede during his formal seduction are all from Bird & Blend. Tea Wells is an interesting one, sometimes if I drink it too quickly it makes me feel a little bit drunk?? which is very weird, but I have also had this experience with other green teas in the past. If you drink it at a normal pace though it’s a nice little pick-me-up, and the flowers and fruit pieces cancel out any bitterness that can sometimes develop in green teas.

Also it is very pretty, look at it:

Mint Choc Rooibos is the next tea that Ed brings, at lunch time. I’m actually not particularly keen on this one, but my boyfriend is obsessed with it and it’s the blend that managed to convert him into a tea-drinker. It’s sweet and creamy and even has cocoa shells in it, although when I had a little sippy I couldn’t really taste any chocolate coming through.

Finally, Ed brings a cup of Lady Lavender for Stede at the end of his work day. This is just a traditional Earl Grey blend with lavender added in. I drank a lot of this while writing the fic :)

Recipes

Ed makes boil up for his and Stede’s date night. The recipe I referenced is by Maori chef Cameron Petley, from his book ‘Hunter from the Heartland’. Boil up is a traditional Maori dish, basically a broth or soup with dumplings, and I haven’t made it myself but it sounds yummy as fuck. I love stewy soupy things, and I especially love dumplings. 

It’s around the middle of October when Ed cooks this for Stede, so it’s perfect for a chilly night. It also represents home, comfort, and love for Ed, so of course he wants to give those things to Stede as well :)

Ed also makes some Sidecar mocktails. When I saw that the recipe called for both tea and marmalade, I couldn’t not include it in the fic. I haven’t tried making this either - I’m not 100% sure if I’d like it tbh, since the one time I tried lapsang souchong tea I just found it way too smoky for my tastes.

Clothes and thingies~

I’m going to do the rest of these by chapter, since there’s quite a lot :’)

Chapter 3 - the trip to the department store

Stede is, of course, wearing this AU’s version of the pink bird robe. I picked a camp collar (or cuban collar) shirt as it’s a bit more casual, and because Stede wears suits all the time it can be very easy to fall into the trap of looking like he’s always on his way to a formal event or something. 

I knew I wanted the shirt to be silk, but since it’s already quite loud with the bright pink and all the birds and flowers, I didn’t want it to also be shiny in the way that a silk satin or charmeuse are. So I picked a sandwashed silk instead - it has all the gorgeous drape and delicate fluidity of a charmeuse, but its sheen is much more subtle.

And then I decided his suit should be a kind of bronzey-brown, since in the episode where we first see Stede in the robe, the suit he (briefly) wears after taking the robe off is kinda bronze.

Ed wears a pair of Dickie’s overalls for the shopping trip, similar to the pic below but a bit more shapely and sexy since this is my fantasy world and I can do whatever I want. 

I specifically wanted Ed to wear and look good in something that he already owned in order to try and avoid Pretty Woman-ing him, implying that he doesn’t look good until his clothes are completely swapped out for a load of expensive designer stuff. I also wanted to show that his natural personal style is already solid, and Stede isn’t there to change it, just to help him nurture and develop it.

Then of course we also have the Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses, which Ed very quickly decided belonged to him forever. If you want to buy these, they will set you back a cool £335!

Ed buys several things for himself from the department store, but the only things I properly envisioned were the cashmere-silk blend crop t-shirt, and the medusa belt.

The t-shirt is just this AU’s version of his sexy pirate crop top, obviously, but the belt is a Versace belt. The medusa is a recurring symbol in a lot of Versace’s stuff and they’ve made tonnes of belts over the years, mostly with a less-detailed cast of their medusa symbol, but I found this more detailed one on an auction site which I thought was very cool. And snakes, because of course.

The silk scarves that Ed bought for Stede (and which Stede then wears constantly forever because he and Ed are such good buddies 😇) aren’t based on any scarves in particular, but I was thinking about Liberty, their lovely illustrative silk scarf designs, and also their extensive archive of heritage fabric patterns for their haberdashery.

Chapter 7 - the trip to the Old Quarter

The perfume that Ed buys for Stede from the fancy shampoo shop is Decadence & Debauchery, made by the perfume house For Strange Women. Please believe me when I tell you that this. Perfume. Smells. So. Fucking. Good. I got a bottle of it a few years ago and I just. Hhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s very deep and sexy and a bit masc and I just. Get feelings when I wear it. So I had to include it in the fic, because Reasons 🥴

For Ed’s purple suit, I was thinking about that peachy-coloured suit that Taika wore, and more specifically I was thinking about the cute little crossover element. The peach suit looks like it’s made of a cotton-linen blend or something else fairly structured, but for the purple suit I picked a light wool crepe so it would be softer and more fluid and drape really nicely. I ditched the three-piece and kept it to just trousers and a jacket, and chose a shawl collar instead of the classic notched lapel to keep up the soft vibes.

I KNOW I don’t need to put a pic here of Taika in the peach suit because we are all well aware what it looks like...... but I’m going to anyway because he is very sexy and I enjoy looking at him.

And here’s some purple wool crepe fabric, see how the folds here are soft and rounded, while in the pic above the folds are much sharper? Fabric 👌

Chapter 8 - date night at Ed’s house

The boys are both wearing Bottega Veneta for their date.

Stede is in this gorgeous light wool pistachio green suit that I am very much in love with. The colour, the lines, the cute breast pocket flap, I am honestly just enchanted and I think Stede would look lovely in it. I thought it would look nice with a lilac t-shirt just because I’ve been really digging pale green and lilac together lately and I reckon it’d look great with Stede’s colouring, and also because if I put Stede in a shirt-shirt then he’s going to look too formal and this is a cosy and relaxed date night :)

If you want to buy it, the jacket alone costs almost £2000!!! Can you believe that Stede jerked off in this??!

For Ed’s look, I wanted something that was a bit cosy, a bit comfy, a bit cheeky and sexy - he’s at home and having fun and feeling himself, and also planning on absolutely boning down with Stede. I actually couldn’t find a product listing for this sweater on the Bottega Veneta website, it’s just worn by this model in a product listing for some (rather questionable) leather shorts. I didn’t have anything specific in mind for his jeans - they’re probably just a pair he’s had forever and that are perfectly moulded to hug all his good bits.

Chapter 9 - egg-smashing breakfast

I didn’t have a specific brand in mind for the jewellery that Stede buys with Ed’s credit card, but I was thinking along the lines of Alighieri, Ottoman Hands, and Schiaparelli - they all make beautiful, interesting stuff with that molten gold texture. To be honest, Schiaparelli is probably a little bit too out there for Stede, but I can totally see Ed wearing some of their huge weird earrings.

[rosyjuly]

@kritischetheologie tagged me for the 20 questions for writers game, thank you c!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

twenty!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

76,628. it's kinda insane that i wrote 51k under just six months last year.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently only writing for f1, but i've published works for star wars, peaky blinders, the old guard and batman. on another account that has been liquidated many years ago i had footy rpf and teen wolf fics.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

carry each other (hal jordan/bruce wayne), worked the blade (seb/mick), to the finnish line (seb/charles/kimi), spoils of war (seb/mick) and a favour returned (seb/lewis).

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

i do, unless it only says "please write more of this", because i don't have anything polite to reply. but i love getting replies from authors too, so only fair to return the favor. there are definitely times when i just re-read a bunch of comments and they can really help to lift my mood or feel better about my writing.

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

lmao that would be the prince au break up sex fic, someday to say out loud. making george ask alex to tell him he loves him even if it isn't true and ensuring that he can't and won't believe him... partly why it's hard for me to go back to writing prince au is because it was very easy for me to project my unmedicated depression onto george, and (thank god) i'm not in that place anymore.

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

mmhh my star wars fic maybe? i'm not overly fond of happy endings, the best i deal out is a hopeful but kinda open ending. out of my f1 fic it's a favour returned, i guess -- there's some talk about longer term commitment and trying and failing to say that they like like each other, or consolation prize, where mick admits twice that he's been thinking about seb.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not in the classical sense i guess or not that i've seen.

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

boy do i. i mostly write smut and use it as a catalyst to nudge a relationship to another level. i don't really get the what kind? question. what kinds are there? wholegrain?

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

haven't written one yet, but i've been toying with the idea of an f1 and the expendables crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

if i had a nickel for every time someone pulled entire lines from a fic of mine and barely paraphrased them, i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

on my old ao3 account, yes! i haven't been approached on the new one and i don't think i'd give permission now.

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

prince au aka the myth of devotion with gabby @prettydangrotten. sorry to be sappy on main but galex truly one of the best things on the internet that's happened to me just for the friends i've made because of them :)))

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

all time? propably stiles/derek or eames/arthur from inception. also it was sterek that first got me to tumblr, back in like 2012 or something.

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

ugh right now it feels like i'll never finish anything again. but i have a long star wars wip that's like 75% done but i haven't touched for three years. there's a roc sebmick fic i started and i actually know how it should go from start to finish, but i've been struggling with writing this year, so, i don't know.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i've been told the internal struggle/tension that narrator is facing is pretty tight and i do agree :) i also think the porn i write is nicely physical and pretty hot.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

longfic. like. i wish i could do it -- i had a 54k wip on my old ao3 account -- but i don't have the energy or the commitment. this is also why i struggle with WTB and SOW -- i want to write more to both but i feel like they are snappy and valuable as they are and i'm worried i'll ruin that if i add more.

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

english isn't my first langauge so all dialogue is in another language in fic for me. i'm not super fond of adding another language on top pf that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

teen wolf!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

spoils of war or prince au. prince au has probably the most of me and gabby is incredible and one of the best writers and kindest persons i know and i feel incredibly fortunate to have created something with her. spoils of war was a challenge on a lot of fronts but i'm proud of the storyline and it has some of the best lines i have ever written i think. and it got @antimonyandthyme and me very close :))

aaaand i'm gonna tag @prettydangrotten @des-iderate @grideon @antimonyandthyme and @husbono.

[epersonae]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @yerbamansa, thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

169 😅 150 of which are for The Adventure Zone (I wrote a LOT of small fic for TAZ, and just a lot of TAZ fic in general)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

604,338, which remains absolutely wild to me. I hit the half-million mark this year.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Our Flag Means Death, but previously The Adventure Zone, and I have one Star Trek (TOS movies) fic.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sea of Love (Our Flag Means Death (TV)) (6,697 words)

Phoenix Fire (The Adventure Zone (Podcast)) (2,031 words)

Commit to the Bit (Our Flag Means Death (TV)) (2,471 words)

Dinner & Conversation (The Adventure Zone (Podcast)) (826 words)

I have begun to long for you (Our Flag Means Death (TV)) (4,185 words)

Yeah, ok, some fun reunion porn for the big fandom and a collab with two pretty popular writers for the small fandom make sense for that top two in particular.

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

I try to, especially since I don't get that many, and I love getting comments so much that I just want to share my appreciation. Sometimes the spoons are low, sometimes I don't know what to say except "thanks!" and if someone just commented on several chapters I might not do that for all of them.

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

Well, Phoenix Fire is the Worst Ending, aka the destruction of the entire universe, plus unbearably sad between the main characters, so yeah.

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

I do have quite a bit of fluffy fic (Commit to the Bit comes to mind, there's also a Fantasy Costco Kravitz/Taako that's very sweet), but I immediately thought of for the benefit of all the broken hearts, just because it takes an incredibly bittersweet ending of the fic it's fixing and says FUCK THAT, how can everyone get a happy ending instead?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never gotten any, even managed to avoid the twitter wank that WFU got when I wrote fics of it! (long ago, I did get some vagueblogging about some stuff in my TAZ fic, but nothing ever addressed directly at me)

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

That is where I started and why I started (my first smutty fic is pretty bad imho but it was popular, relatively speaking, because for a bit there it was the only unlocked smut for that pairing); my original rarepair was M/F bi4bi in a complicated polycule, and so there's some them+others works in there. (readers of for the benefit of all the broken hearts are nodding along like "ok this tracks") beyond that, I'm just going to say go look at my work.

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

Is for the benefit of all the broken hearts (and the rest of that series) a crossover??????? Like I'm legitimately staring into space thinking about the boundary line between modern AU and RPF and........ HUH.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

DO PEOPLE DO THAT

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

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

183 thousand words in a series: the only life you could save, with my beloved Ryn, when we were "just friends" - started as our attempt to co-write a reconciliation between Taako and Lucretia, and spun out into an entire timeline with themes spanning before the Stolen Century all the way into post-canon. Some pieces we wrote separately, much of it we wrote together. Even the last piece, which I published after Ryn died, includes a section that they wrote, about Taako trying to cope with Lucretia's death.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Probably Mulder/Scully lol, tho I don't know if I've ever read any fic of them????

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

One of my very first TAZ fics was a Hurley/Sloane backstory fic that was going to be basically a beat-for-beat retelling of The Fast and the Furious (oh, I guess that's also sort of a crossover?), but I only ever wrote the first chapter. I would love to write it at some point, because I think it would be fun as hell.

I'd also love to finish my TAZ Amnesty fic, sweetness follows, which is friends-to-lovers post-canon Minerva/Duck.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character voice, I think. Possibly a stupid depth of canon knowledge for whatever the canon is, and I think I have a knack for figuring out how to reincorporate those details. Honestly, it's hard for me to say "oh these are my strengths and weaknesses", or at least today I'm having trouble pinning that down.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Punctuation Pokemon, or rather, my sentences do get very tangly. I find endings really tricky, I've done a lot of work thinking through how to stick the landing. (This is one of the ways in which Ryn continues to live in my head, because they could always spot when I hadn't quite made it.)

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

Alas my Spanish (high school and college) is too rusty to even try, and I don't know any other languages.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Adventure Zone, although I wrote quite a bit of Agatha Christie pastiche in junior high, and a lot of Anne Rice influenced original fiction in high school and college.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I love a lot of my fic, it's fun to go back and look and say "oh that!", and The Reckoning Arrives is up there, of course, because I loved writing it, and it saved my life. ("she's survived the impossible before" got me out of my marriage and 2 years later got me through the hospital. "you're here, so be here" got me through what came after that.)

But it does have to be for the benefit of all the broken hearts - she lives in my head, still, and I feel incredibly proud of all the work I put into it, the technical work, the emotional work.

---

Not tagging anybody, but PLEASE! if you feel like talking about your writing, do it!

[thebeckster]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @emeraldhazeart, thank you so much!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

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

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

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

3. What fandoms do you write for?

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

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

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

Wells of Silence (Star Wars)

Aggressive Negotiations (Star Wars)

[Redacted] (Star Wars)

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

How Far Ahead The Road Has Gone (The Hobbit)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not to my face.

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so, no.

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

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

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

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

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

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

16. What are your writing strengths?

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

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

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

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

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

19. First fandom you wrote for?

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

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

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

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

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