#also it’s so funny to think about how in future chapters sam is going to be 17/18 and being bossed around by 15 yr old sarah JSKSKLSS

[mdemn]

hehe alice’s chapter of the fic is posted & available to be read HERE :-)

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Left and Returned: Definitely Nothing Wrong

Danny Phantom x Supernatural Crossover

Part 2 Part 3

Ao3 (includes additional notes)

Chapter 4

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you guys about time travel." Dean announces at breakfast. 

"Almost wrote yourself out of existence, didn't you?" Danny guesses. 

"Not exactly… but how? How could you possibly guess that ?"

"You have the look. It's awful. Arguably worse than fighting a potential future evil version of yourself."

Dean thinks about that. He compares this experience to the demon him from the dreamroot thing. "...yeah this was definitely weirder."

Danny shrugs.

"So... how did you end up in a time travel adventure last night? I think if the Trickster came back we'd see some more signs." Sam asks.

"Castiel dropped in, confirmed the apocalypse stuff."

"Then dropped you back in time?"

"Yeah... apparently Mom made a demon deal for Dad's life. It's why..." Dean stopped himself, he barely knew Danny, what was he thinking! 

"I know?" Danny offers, looking between Sam and him.

"Right..." Dean continues. He doesn't think Danny will go all Gordon Walker on them, but if he had all the details... Dean isn't giving all the details. "Castiel also said it was Lillith who broke the seal." 

"He's sure?" Sam asks at the same time Danny asks,

"Lilith is a demon right?"

"Yeah, she's a demon, and I don't think Castiel would tell us if he wasn't sure."

"Any problem if I kill her?" Danny asks. And the quick reaction makes Dean glad he didn't elaborate on Sammy's thing.

"We've been trying." Sam tells him. "If you get the chance, please."

Danny gives a thumbs up. And Dean feels sorry that he has to drop the mood even further. "They're trying to release Lucifer."

"What's a Lucifer?"

"Ha ha." Dean says, it would probably be funny if they had any plan for beating 'a Lucifer'. But Danny... he doesn't look like he's joking. Then Sammy's phone goes off and he leaves Dean to deal with this conversation himself. Traitor.

"Lucifer like, The Devil, Lucifer."

"Oh, a name, got it! You have beef with this guy or something? "

"He's going to try to end the world."

"Think he'll be better, or worse at it than The Pariah?"

"Who's the Pariah?"

"... guy who yoinked a small town off the face of the earth for a week? Has a skeleton army?"

"What?! Kid, are you sure you're not talking about a cartoon or something?!"

"It'd be hard to forget, was around the time Vortex did his thing. Actually a lot of stuff happened then, that year was wild."

"Lucifer will have an army of Demons." Dean said, because if he didn't stay focused he was going to end up following Danny’s rabbit trails till the world ended.

"Yeah, that's not ideal. Freeing a lot of possessed people is a lot harder than wack-a-mole skeleton edition."

"I'm not going to ask." Sam returns to the table. He probably came to the same conclusion about Danny's stories a few months ago. "That was Travis, he wants us to look into something."

"Now?" Danny asks.

"Yeah, there's this guy, Jack Montgomery, has something going on with him."

"Okay, 1 problem." Danny continues.

"What kind of problem?"

"Oh, not a problem for you, Dean. But I have a sister, who has this friend, see. And she spent all of yesterday warding off marked spirits, and he hasn't called her back after playing phone tag all day.

Sam swore. Fumbling to get his phone back out of his pocket. His brother had been a mess yesterday. He'd leave a voicemail, but be in a situation while she called back. He'd gotten a voicemail after the witnesses were released, he'd left a voice-mail then too. Apparently, the loverbirds hadn't actually spoken yet.

"Oooh, Sammy's in the doghouse, huh?"

"Not yet, I'm supposed to drag him home first."

Dean grinned, "Do I get to meet the lovely Lady?" 

"I think you'll have too, though seriously, she'll understand it if this is time sensitive. Mind if I tag along?"

"Not at all, Sammy's a trouble magnet. He could use all the help he could get."

---

"Don't you love when this stuff mean spying on a man in his own home." Danny deadpans. He's not using the binoculars, holding them like they're personally offensive. 

"There are worse parts of the job." Dean reminds him, Jack Montgomery is rummaging through his fridge. "This guy? I mean this guy's boring"

"I don't know, Dean. Travis seemed pretty sure."

"Did he give any indication of what we're supposed to be— oh."

Oh was correct. Dean watched Montgomery  just abandon the leftovers and start in on a pack of ground beef. Raw ground beef.

"I'd say that qualifies as weird." Sam notes. Like that needed to be said.

---

"Thanks for helping out an old man. I'm a little, uh, shorthanded." Travis lifts his cast covered atm and They laugh politely at the bad joke. Then he gets straight to the point, and Dean's glad they're done pretending to catch up. It's awkward with Danny lurking behind them. "You track down Montgomery?"

"Yeah, we found him at his home." Sam tells him.

"And?"

"Well, he had a hell of a case of the munchies, topped off with a burger he forgot to cook."

"That's him alright."

"What's him?"

"Boys, we got a rougarou on our hands."

"A rougarou?" Dean looks to Sam for a convenient monster summary(or movie title, that would work too.). Sam gives him nothing. "Is that made up? That sounds made up."

"They're mean, nasty little suckers. Rotted teeth, wormy skin, the works." Travis tells them.

"Well, that ain't this guy. I mean, he was wearing a cellphone on his belt."

"He'll turn ugly soon enough. They start out human, for all intents and purposes."

"So, what?" Sam asks, "They go through some kind of metamorphosis?"

"Yep, like a maggot turning into a bull fly."

"No need to be cruel." Danny chides. Travis pauses, looks at Danny with an expression thats not quite a sneer. Dean really hopes that's not gonna become a problem.

"They're hungry things.” Trevor continues, ignoring the kid's glare. “First for everything, until they get a taste for human flesh. Once they get a taste they transform. One bite's all it takes. Eyes, teeth, skin; all turns. No going back either. They feed once, they're a monster forever. And our man Jack's headed there on a bullet train."

"Well, how'd you find this guy if he's a walking, talking human?" Dean demands.

"Lets just say it runs in his family."

"You mean, uh..." Sam trails off.

"Killed his daddy back in '78. Son of a bitch mangled 8 bodies before I put him down. Guy used to be a dentist. Cadillac, trophy wife... Little did I know, pregnant trophy wife. She put the boy up for adoption. By the time I found out, he was long gone, lost in the system."

The air in the room changes, this time in a way that's familiar. The unspoken threat looms... 

"You mean to tell me you couldn't find someone?" Sam asks, undeterred. Sam doesn't feel it.

Travis sighs. "I'm not sure I wanted to. The idea of hunting down some poor kid... I don't think I'd have the heart. No. I wanted to wait, make damn sure I had the right man. Apparently, I do."

The air itself has teeth, and breathing takes effort. Travis doesn't notice either. He takes a swig of his beer.

---

Travis might not notice that Danny is friggen weird, but after the comment earlier he does notice that the kid is incredibly uncomfortable. He singles the kid out to prep the flame throwers, not letting him escape with Sam. 

Dean took a chance and elbowed the kid in his side, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to bruise. Made a face at him and the kid had quit messing with the room's... well, the room's vibes . 

Travis seemed under the impression that Danny was just new to this life, and Dean would prefer to keep it that way.

"So fire, huh?" They'd been subjected to a few stories of past hunts, and the kid had withdrawn more with each of them. Dean wants to change the subject but can't find a natural way to do so.  Better they stay focused on this.

"The only way I found to kill these bastards; deep-fry 'em."

"Well, that's gonna be..." He glanced at the kid. "horrible. Is that what you did to Jack's dad?"

"Uh-huh," Travis starts, and Dean realizes he's  being an idiot. That's just gonna get a more on topic gruesome story, but Sam, best baby brother in the world, saves them. 

He walks through the door with an accusation. "Not wasting any time, are you?" 

"None to waste." Travis informs them. "The guy hulks out, we won't be finding bodies, just remains."

Sam sits down next to the table in a controlled movement. He's forcing himself to act calm. "What if he doesn't hulk out? I did a little homework. Uh, I've been checking out the lore on rougarous."

Danny's head shoots up. It reminds Dean of caged animal seeing possible freedom.

"What? My 30 years of experience not good enough for you?" Travis demands.

"What? No. No, I-I- I just wanted to be prepared. I mean, not that you didn't..."

"Sam loves research. He does. He keeps it under his mattress right next to his KY. It's a sickness." He looks over at Sam, hiding the rescue with some teasing. "It is."

"Look, everything you said checked out, of course, but uh. I found a couple of interesting stories about people who have this rougarou gene or whatever. See, they start to turn, but they never take the final step."

"Really?"

"See, if they never eat human flesh, they don't fully transform." Well, no wonder their monster-adjacent friend is freaked. Maybe he's something similar,  hanging onto his humanity with everything he can? 

"So what? Go vegan, stay human?"

"Basically. Or in this case, eat a lot of raw meat, just not..."

"Right."

"Good on you for the due diligence, Sam." Travis gets up to pace the room. Its unnecessarily dramatic. "But those are fairy tales. Fact is, every rougarou I ever saw or heard of... took that bite."

"Okay, well, that doesn't mean that Jack will." Sam stands too. 

"So what do we do? Sit and hope and wait for a body count?"

"No, we talk to him. Explain what's happening. That way he can fight it."

"Fight it?" Travis laughs. "Are you kidding me? You ever been really hungry? I mean, haven't-eaten-in-days hungry?"

"Yeah." Dean answers, Danny nods too. 

"Yeah. Right then. So somebody slaps a big, juicy sirloin in front of you, you walking away?"

"No," Dean mutters, because he wouldn't.

"Depends.” Danny challenges.” You know what happens if you eat that big hearty meal? If you haven't eaten in days ?"

"Uh, no." Dean was never been allowed to eat what he wants after the few times he'd been starving. 

"You get sick." Sam answers. Ok, that was probably explained to him, he just remembers being hungry and grouchy about it. 

Danny nods, "If you haven't eaten in days, and you have the right information, you eat something small and light that seems unsatisfying until you've gotten it all down.  You don't risk tearing open your stomach lining. And besides! How would you know about rougarou's who don't turn?! People aren't going to announce their fantasies of eating people! They're could be generations who resist and they'd look just like everyone else!"

"And you don't know that they're are." He looks between the two of them. "I'm sorry. I'm sure he's a stand-up guy, but it's pure, base instinct. Everything in nature's gotta eat. You think he can stop himself 'cause he's nice?"

"Coconut milk." Danny declares, and Dean almost laughs. He lets the absurd statement sink in for a moment before he continues. "Coconut milk can be used as a substitute for blood. There are vampires who live off it. They get night jobs, and exist exactly like everyone else. You've had what, twenty years? You've just been waiting for this guy to crack, did you bother to look? Did you ask why a rougarou might crave human flesh? 

“Because when we crave salt, or red meat or whatever, it's usually because the body is lacking in the nutrients it needs! This all might get solved by giving him a vitamin supplement!"

"We try to help him." Sam declares. "And we're not gonna kill him unless he does something to get killed for." 

---

Danny didn't make jokes when talking to Jack Montgomery. The seriousness was almost as jarring as the conversation.

See Dean's plan had gone something like this: 

1.)Tell the guy what he is. 

2.)Convince him they aren't insane.

3.)Tell him not to eat people or they'd be back.

Repeat step 2 as needed.

Danny started similarly, steps 1 and 2 are the same, but step 3...

"You're not alone. There are people I can put you in contact if you want. They might not be the same species, but they'll have similar experiences. They might have other suggestions that will help."

Danny has a list of substitutes, advice, a food journal to track what works better or worse. That conversation leads into another and another of things that might alleviate that hunger. Then how they leave…

"I don't need to tell you why you shouldn't eat human flesh. You obviously already know. But I will warn you about the change. 'A taste' is what the stories say, and I don't know if that means a bite, or mearly a drop of blood, But if the change happens, it cannot be undone."

And Jack nods, solemn. He makes his promise, and he thanks them.

---

It's Mrs. Montgomery who finds them hours later. She finds them by asking the diner's patrons "Who owns that awful van?!"

And Danny, the only one in town with a van that awful, raises his hand. 

She's confused and frantic, but she knows her husband thought they could help with... it's unclear what Jack told her, whether half truth or blatant lie, but now everything has fallen apart. 

---

Travis' car is in the driveway.

They don't have to break into the house. Even if they hadn't had the keys, the back door is already broken in.  

It's not a surprise when they find a body.  It's a carved up corpse not a charcoaled one. 

"What happened?" Danny isn't asking them. 

---

"He's not a hunter, is he?" Dean asks his brother. They watch from a room away as Jack Montgomery and Danny Fenton speak in hushed urgent tones. When Jack had turned into the livingroom, Sam had flinched and Dean had curled his lip in disgust. Danny hadn't reactioned and Jack had noticed. So, now Danny was the only one worthy of whatever this conversation was.

"He calls himself an electrician that knows too much." Sam answers. 

"How much do you know about how he works?"

"...enough.”

"Sam... I don’t think he's human."

Sam looks at him, watches his face as he asks, "and if he's not?"

"I don't know, Sammy. I wouldn't say he's hurting anybody."

"Dean, I think there's some things we need to talk about..."

"What?"

"Not here, not now. " Sam gestured to the bloody mess on the ground and the still blood covered man in the kitchen. "When this is sorted, we need to talk about what happened while you were dead."

---

"He's going to clean himself up and pack." Danny tells them. "Then we're going to pick up his wife, see what she wants to do, then we’re going. I'll meet you at Jazz's."

"You're taking him to the Coconut Vampires." Dean predicted. 

"Yeah." Danny didn't elaborate further. 

"How does that work? What if one of 'em falls off the rails or something?"

"They deal with their own."

"Right... Sam, you still have Lenore's number?"

"Yeah,"

Dean nods to him, and steps back out of earshot. Lenore, the leader of the Cattle-Blood-Instead-of-Human-Blood Vampires, probably needed to be in touch with the Coconut Vampires. Dean never asked Sam where they went, didn't need to know. Dean knew then if he'd known where, he'd be compelled to check in person, and they didn't need him poking through all their business. Sam kept track of the missing persons numbers where they stayed, and they hadn't needed to follow up.

He doesn't have high hopes for Jack, not really, but those two do, and others do. Castiel was right, he doesn't have much faith, and the least he can do to avoid spreading his doubt all over the place. Maybe they'll prove him wrong.

He hopes they prove him wrong.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 5

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Laurent moved off a few steps. Damen saw him lift a hand to the back of his own neck, as if to release tension. Saw him do nothing for a moment but stand and be quiet and breathe the cool air scented with night flowers. It occurred to Damen for the first time that Laurent might have his own reasons for wanting to escape the attention of the court.

i appreciate this hint of their future dynamic :)

A silence opened up around Laurent’s words. In it, their meaning changed. Herode began, ‘I—’ Then he looked at Damen, and his expression grew alarmed. ‘Is this safe? He’s broken his leash. Guard!’

context: laurent needs herode to think that damen deserved the flogging, so he took him somewhere private and broke his bindings, framing damen as disobedient. nice moment ruined >:(

‘If you’re concerned that my memory for wrongs against me is longer than ten months,’ said Laurent, ‘there’s no need for anxiety. I am sure you can persuade me you were genuinely mistaken.’

translation: “make it up to me, disloyal coward.” the way laurent deals with this person, who lacks loyalty and integrity, foreshadows how much he will struggle to hate damen, who has more loyalty and integrity than any sane person probably should

‘How thoughtful of you, Councillor,’ said Laurent. ‘He turned to Damen and said in a melting voice, ‘Your back must hurt terribly.’ ‘It’s fine,’ said Damen. ‘Kneel on the ground, then,’ Laurent said.

absolutely no strategy here, laurent just sucks. "oh you're comfortable for once? let's see what i can do about that." also the fact that laurent is trying to appear likable to herode but still cannot resist being a bitch to damen is sooo funny

His best feature was a pair of amazing blue eyes, unmatched by any Damen had ever seen, except for the ones he had recently been staring into.

damen has a talent for thirsting over laurent in the most backhanded manner possible

His skin was fair and his curling light brown hair was burnished with gold. He was exactly the type that Damen could have drawn down onto the sheets and spent a very pleasant couple of hours enjoying.

damen likes blondes mention #4. erasmus barely scrapes by, but the word “gold” tells us everything we need to know

‘Well?’ Laurent said. ‘Can you couple adequately, or do you just kill things?’

god he sucks. also, “adequate.”

Damen thought that given the choice between the lash and a conversation with Laurent, he might actually choose the lash.

‘He’s not very talkative,’ remarked Vannes. ‘It comes and goes,’ said Laurent.

laurent continues to shoulder the burden of being the funniest bitch in this entire court

Damen was sickened by the idea of some nobleman’s boy offering himself up to be hurt on the assumption that it would play to Laurent’s tastes. Then he thought of all he knew of Laurent, and only felt sicker, because of course the boy’s assumptions were probably correct.

context: i don’t think laurent is an equal-opportunity sadist, or even a sadist at all. he just really hates damen specifically, and mirrors the viciousness of his culture to survive

If there was anything explicit on view, it must be the absence of all desire to be where he was.

the garden scene. okay. 

first, context: a possible explanation for laurent volunteering damen could be a desire to see him experience a similar situation to his own abuse from his uncle, since damen is the reason laurent lost his protector. however, that doesn’t quite sound right to me, because wouldn’t seeing this whole tableau just re-traumatize laurent? then again, laurent’s life in the veretian court is pretty much endless re-traumatization, all day every day. so i suppose in his mind, he might as well get something out of his own shitty circumstances, and that something in this case is revenge. misery loves company, after all. 

also, sex to laurent is a matter of control and power, rather than love or pleasure. so to him, both this and the fighting ring might feel the same as any other kind of violence. he doesn’t care about the additional violation that sexual assault carries towards his enemies—and at the end of the day, laurent knows that he himself has probably been through worse. 

the exception to this is nicaise, or anyone else who laurent deems innocent and disempowered. those people, he will try to protect to the very best of his ability. but at this point in the series, laurent sees damen not only as a shitty person, but also a shitty person with power. he knows that damen is not a slave, but a prince. a prince who keeps slaves of his own. so in laurent-brain, i can see how this could be twisted into something justifiable. or just not worth justifying at all.

it still isn’t right, though. they could have done this and been just as horny about it with, like, dubious consent rather than none. i think i would feel more comfortable finding elements of this scene hot if that were the case, but i respect and appreciate that the point of this book is not simply to Be Hot. and to be fair—instant gratification, moral simplicity, and straightforward execution are not very compelling qualities for an erotic scene to possess. i’m just glad that the rest of the sex-adjacent scenes in this series between damen and laurent are explicitly consensual, because this scene would be harder to accept within the series’s ethical framework and the development of their love story if it happened multiple times.

i want to analyze the craft here, but i feel uncomfortable dissecting what i know to be a non-consensual scene in order to determine what makes it hot. but i also know, undeniably, that the events of this scene are hot, and that hotness was almost certainly written on purpose. 

for me, the hotness does not come from the lack of consent itself, but rather the action and dialogue happening on the page. i don’t think the lack of consent is necessarily meant to be hot here—it’s the absolute insanity of laurent’s approach to oral sex, and the power dynamic it creates, that makes the scene memorable. and those elements could easily be reproduced in a consensual scene and have the same effect. so i want to study those elements specifically, to see how they work as erotic writing, removed from the parts that don’t. 

tl;dr: the garden scene is unequivocally non-consensual. however, it is written in a way that eroticizes the circumstances. i can still study the writing where it is effective without finding the circumstances of the scene morally justifiable or hot, in fiction or real life. 

anyway. i'm trying to study the craft of scenes like this, so i'm going full analysis on this one. garden scene, summarized:  

setup: laurent is rumored to be frigid and does not partake in the sexual activities of veretian nobility. yet he goes along with this tableau, allowing damen to be used as a participant. i do not think that this is for laurent’s own sexual gratification, because i don’t think laurent is in touch with his own sexuality in general. sex means something different to laurent than it does to damen, and the other characters in the scene, and (i’d hope) to the reader as well.

beginning: ancel isn’t damen’s type. damen has no strong feelings about ancel as a person. he is not attracted to ancel’s frivolity or weak will. being serviced by ancel is not doing anything for damen. he feels smug about this. it gives him power over laurent, who has permitted this tableau in order to emphasize the power he has over damen.

then: laurent—who is damen’s type, his worst enemy, and the reason he’s in this situation in the first place—starts coaching ancel on how to give head. laurent is completely methodical and detached with his instructions, and is clearly focusing on psychologically tormenting damen, rather than getting off on the display. in other words, he is neither frivolous nor weak-willed. he’s exactly the opposite. 

meanwhile: damen, our pov character, is no longer immune to whatever the fuck is going on in this scene. he is into this and can’t hide it. he has lost the power he briefly had over laurent, and now possesses even less power than he started with. not only is he owned by laurent in the technical sense, but he is being owned by laurent in the horny sense too. 

and i believe that the intention is for the reader to understand how he's feeling—not to blame him for his interest, because this situation is clearly compelling, to damen and possibly the person reading. laurent’s ability to essentially mindfuck damen across the room, fully clothed, is honestly insane. cs pacat herself says that about laurent in a commentary video—he’s a mindfucker. it’s intentional and it’s the focal point of the scene. much later on in the series, i think damen even admits that he was paying attention to laurent the whole time. it’s hot. it just is. 

i’ll point out more specific things in the following passages, but that’s the gist of it. i'm cringing so hard posting this publicly, but if heterosexual women on booktok can post their whole-ass face and gps location while fangirling over colleen hoover sex scenes, i think i can share my messy gay mindfucking analysis on a website that hasn't been a part of the public consciousness since like 2017

Laurent was watching Damen’s face with the same cerebral attention that he might apply to a strategic problem. ‘He likes that. Do it harder,’ said Laurent.

craft note: laurent openly observes damen’s responses, notices exactly what works, tells ancel to do that specifically because “he likes it,” and that turns damen on even more

personal note: oh my god

Damen could feel his thighs tighten, then, minutely, spread, his breath quickening in his chest... He turned towards Laurent. It was a mistake to look at him. Even in the shadows of evening, Damen could see the relaxed arrangement of Laurent’s body, the marmoreal perfection of his features, and the detached unconcern with which he gazed at Damen, not bothering to so much as glance down at Ancel’s moving head.

craft note: damen loses his resolve, looks to laurent for mercy, and is just even more mindfucked by the fact that laurent is completely unaffected, not even interested at all

If you believed the Prince’s Guard, Laurent was the impregnable citadel, and took no lovers at all. Right now Laurent gave the impression of a mind somewhat engaged, and a body wholly aloof, untouched by ardour. The ribald fancy of the Prince’s Guard held a kernel of plausibility. On the other hand, the aloof, untouched Laurent was at this moment delivering a precise treatise on cocksucking.

god, this is SO fucking good. damen is basically admitting that he can’t believe laurent is entirely sexless, because he is managing to fuck him without even having sex at all.

craft note: that is the perfect moment to insert a crass word, after paragraphs of more clinical descriptions. i love that the only time we hear “cocksucking” in this scene is in reference to laurent not actually sucking cock, while it is (intentionally, i assume) not used in reference to the actual cocksucking that’s happening on the page. 

also, "precise treatise" cracks me up, as someone currently writing what could be considered a precise treatise on this scene.

The image of Ancel... was joined in his fragmenting thoughts by the sudden harsh desire to get his hands on Laurent’s body and exact revenge—both for his actions and for his airy absence.

damen’s desire to get laurent’s attention because he wants to fight him, but also because he wants laurent to see him come… diabolical writing. craft. whatever. this is an objective and academic analysis.

Damen was... pushed back down onto his knees. Laurent was seated opposite, legs crossed. Damen’s eyes fixed on him, and looked nowhere else; his breathing was still noticeable, and his pulse rapid, but anger produced all the same effects.

who’s ancel?

additional thoughts on erotic elements in the garden scene: i think what i like here, is that… yeah, it’s horny. it’s indulgent, easily the most blatant instance of kink we’ve seen so far. but it’s not really what i think frequent readers of this kink genre would expect, or even want to read—it is a subversion, with laurent completely disrupting the basic scenario that everyone else (but damen) in the scene wants to mindlessly enjoy. 

but that subversion, to me, just makes it hotter. there’s physical stuff happening, sure, but the real eroticism comes from the words, emotions, and power exchange between laurent and damen. the scene doesn’t give the reader the simplicity of “someone topped, someone bottomed, here are several pages of mechanical description.” the actual sex act is described almost clinically, just how laurent dictates. and it’s definitely not as simple as who’s topping and who’s bottoming—whatever the fuck happens here is way weirder and messier than that, and so much more compelling. 

basically, i think that this scene fails to be hot in all the ways a reader of this kink genre would expect it to be hot. the real hotness comes from the bizarre subversion we get instead, that we just have to kind of accept without any closure or explanation. it’s either an unsexy sex scene, or a sexy not-sex scene. maybe it’s both. either way, it’s insane.

how can i replicate this? 

set up a thing that follows expectations. don’t actually do the thing. do something significantly more insane than the expected thing. do not elaborate on the insane thing, leaving more questions than answers, and move on as if it wasn’t insane at all. this is a good method for not-sex scenes, too.

Laurent, for his part, was relaxed, one arm spread out over the back of the bench.

laurent lean #4

‘I’ll offer for you, if you like. When the time comes. I wouldn’t want you in my bed, but you’d have all the same privileges. You might prefer that. I’d offer.’

context: this is the best possible way laurent can protect nicaise within the confines of their culture. and “you might prefer that”—laurent wants nicaise to be able to foster his intelligence and talents (his "privileges") as a growing person, without having to be a sexual object.

‘He gives them all up,’ said Laurent, ‘even if you’re more enterprising than the others have been.’ ‘He likes me better than the others.’ A scornful laugh. ‘You’re jealous.’ And then it was Nicaise’s turn to react to something he saw in Laurent’s face, and he said, with a horror Damen didn’t understand, ‘You’re going to tell him you want me.’ ‘Oh,’ said Laurent. ‘No. Nicaise . . . no. That would wreck you. I wouldn’t do that.’ Then his voice became almost tired. ‘Maybe it’s better if you think that I would. You have quite a good mind for strategy, to have thought of that. Maybe you will hold him longer than the others.’ For a moment it seemed as if Laurent would say something else, but in the end he just stood up from the bench, and held his hand out to the boy. ‘Come on. Let’s go. You can watch me get told off by my uncle.’

context: nicaise knows that anything laurent wants, his uncle will not let him have. believing that laurent hates him and would offer for him out of spite, nicaise takes the offer is a threat. laurent, who isn’t threatening him at all, realizes that nicaise is right. laurent’s attempts at protection would only get nicaise hurt. the best he can do is banter with the kid and look after him from a distance. this house is a fucking nightmare.

[morverenmaybewrites]

Any Lydia lore... I love her alot

Also new chapter was phenomenal<33333 your writing is truly insane. Can't wait to see how PG's bait plan works out

Aw thank you, it's nice to know that the original characters I created are so loved!

Here's ten bits of information about Lydia Ramirez, some of them y'all probably know from my old blog.

1. I made her as the quintessential  steoreotype of that one employee who's been in the same job for too long and is ready to make it everyone else's problem. She was initially meant to be super cranky and bitchy. Tbf, she's still a little bit cranky but she did gain a bit of heart when she started interacting with PG and Sam more.

2. Lydia had a little brother who she loved dearly. She got the waitressing job at Mamma Mia's to send him to college.

3. Her little brother OD'ed on drugs not long after entering college. Whatever hopes and dreams Lydia had died with him, and she's been pretty much stagnant ever since. She continues to work at Mamma Mia's because she doesn't see a point in trying to get a better job. Mamma Mia's is as good as it's ever going to get.

4. She received the news of her brother's death while she was driving, and she ended up in a minor car accident. She  was pretty much unable to drive after that. (Also the reason why it's Ant who drives PG around.)

5. Lydia has a soft spot for Sam because she reminds her of her little brother.

6. Initially treated PG very coldly. Because deliverypersons have such a high mortality rate, she doesn't see a point in befriending them. Started warming up to her after the four-month mark.

7. It was her that started calling Ant by his nickname. She thinks it's funny to call such a big guy Ant. (She also secretly noticed that Ant was afraid of getting tagged as an illegal immigrant and decided to give him a more "Gotham-y" nickname. She'll never admit it though.)

8. True to her "I don't care anymore" attitude, she's a terrible cook, mostly for the lack of trying. Everything she makes comes out of a can. Fortunately for her organs, Ant is the one who keeps the employees of Mamma Mia's fed.

9. On the (extremely) rare occasions that she actually thinks about the future, Lydia dreams about opening up her own little restaurant, and taking the Mamma Mia's crew with her.

10. Lydia and Ant are the unofficial platonic parents of the Mamma Mia's crew. I'd like to think that spending time with them is good for her.

I have an image of them in my head, just ambling around after shifts, with everyone not yet ready to go home. Maybe they'll play a few boards games. (because Ant will insist that Sam is too young to play cards).

Or maybe someone (PG, probably) will line up empty bottles in an alleyway and insist that they have a shooting contest with a slingshot someone found. Lydia will rarely participate, she's pretty much content to smoke and make sure that someone doesn't take their eye out (or beat Ant TOO hard at Monopoly. He always lowers the rent if someone asks).

She'll watch her friends (because that's what they are, even if she denies it) and for a moment, she thinks that maybe things can still get better.

[calamari-minecraft-corner]

HAIII HELLOOOO! Me has binged PenPal and me has gone cray cray. Me has to talk more on somewhere othee than the ao3 bookmark :3

First of all, ur writing and descriptions are so fun to read. I'm like INLOVE with your characterizations!! Gnaws on PenPal!Dream cutely I don't think I can even begin to explain how interesting of a protag Wren is, even morrso especially after ahem some certain events. wink wink! The interactions between her and Dream, with the prisontrio in general... I'm so damn unwell and super intruiged by what's to come after this it aint even funny

A bit on 'n off topic, but your content really inspired me to FINALLY start somewhere with my dsmp OCs/self-inserts! I havent thought ab how fun self-inserts were so thank u for doing what u do /gen :3

Ok this is such a trip to ramblecity and I'm sick as fuck rn Im js gonna hope that wasnt weird- keep up the good work <33

I am going to fucking SOB /pos

I’m so glad you enjoy it! It genuinely makes me so happy since Penpal is really the fanfic that sparked me to do my other AUs! I wanted to make Wren and Dream have an interesting relationship, and they really do and I’m proud of where it’s going especially after later chapters. There will also be more ah- interesting interactions with Quackity and Sam as well in the future. I’m so glad to be back on working on it after a while of not going back- there’s so many thing I have planned and I try my best to put what I want to convey into this fic- it’s like my baby and I want it to be a bit of a different story than my other aus. Which is also why I’m very proud of it too! Because my other aus that have my self insert Cala are mostly about redemption and redeeming someone- Penpal has such a different energy and vibe entirely though ESPECIALLY since Wren really isn’t like Cala at all. And as well as the recent events.

Also I hope your self insert/oc stuff goes well too!!! I’m glad to be inspiring people who want to do that stuff and honestly there really needs to be more people doing it since it’s so much fun and there’s endless possibilities *gestures at my many aus*

This wasn’t weird at all by the way it just made me so happy to see people love my fic 😭 again thank u so much for reading it and have a thank u from Wren and Penpal!Dream too as a thank u in return

[mylittleredgirl]

20 questions for fic writers

thanks @annerbhp for the tag! i really enjoyed reading her answers too!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

215

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

646,705 (average of 3k per fic, which sounds about right)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

stargate atlantis most often, followed by sg-1, various star treks, and the x-files (with other miscellaneous fandoms on demand for exchanges and gifts).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

No Sooner Met (voyager, janeway/chakotay)

Career Day (sg-1, mini!otp)

Next Chapter (the good place, chidi/eleanor)

First Date (voyager, janeway/chakotay) editor's note: man my title game was weak in my voyager era

Occupational Hazards (the good place, chidi/eleanor)

it's so funny to spend my online time in small or inactive fandoms and look at statistics because i'm like yeah... i'm kind of a big deal... people know me... i have many leather-bound volumes... and not a single one of my fics crack 300 kudos (& very few over 100). the person i reblogged from topped out over 9,000! what's it like to write long fics for popular fandoms? is it cool?

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

i do now! and it's awesome! for a long time i was intimidated by praise and had a hard time responding, but my brain works now and i really enjoy exchanging comments that turn into long threads of headcanon back-and-forth and sometimes new friends.

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

oh god PLEASE let me unburden my soul about Twilight (sga, john/elizabeth). it's so uncharacteristically hopeless for me -- far future fic, complicated family dynamics, elizabeth has dementia and john is estranged from their son... really no one is having a good time. i think it's interesting and a cool departure from my usual writing style, but it's also a big sad mess.

i still feel sooooo guilty about these two thousand words of misery that i REGULARLY think about writing a sequel where john and his son fix it with time travel and mend fences. like i lie awake at night worrying about these characters because one time in 2007 i didn't give them a happy ending and suggested john might not break the bad father generational cycle. normal fic writer behavior.

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

Weaving Loose Ends (sg-1, sam/jack)! i love happy and hopeful endings but i think of all of them, this one is the most resolved and least complicated.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

nope. oh!!!! there was the one time when i caused Big Drama in a corner of the Dancing With The Stars fandom by turning people's headcanons into rpf, which everyone liked until one included porn. people got so heated with each other over this one smut fic (doxing! splinter factions! a fandom schism!) but somehow no one was ever actually mean to me. i didn't even get blocked or banned for my rpf transgressions, i was just standing there at the eye of the storm. so... i guess the answer is still no??

9. Do you write smut?

yes! i should probably write more, though. it has been all slow and gauzy the past few years, somebody should really get railed pretty soon.

10. Do you write crossovers?

nope.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so. happily toiling in obscurity.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

back in the x-files days i think someone translated some of my doggett/reyes fics for a spanish archive, so those might still be out there.

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

no i haven't!! i am really not doing well collecting my fic writer girl scout badges here!!

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

john sheppard/elizabeth weir my beloved.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

i have 10k of an sg-1 episode-by-episode soulmate fic that started really strong and i would love to share someday, but i lack staying power so it will surely just go to seed in my dropbox forever!!

16. What are your writing strengths?

hopefully character complexity and dialogue. dialogue is interesting in fanfic, because the dialogue on many TV shows is really different than how real humans speak (it's scripted to be clearer, more concise and direct, uninterrupted, etc), so it's a fun challenge to balance that and get something that sounds both in-character and realistic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

long fics!

the big related weakness is that i find it incredibly difficult to keep writing on a fic after i show it to anyone (as a sneak peek, or because i want feedback / encouragement / brainstorming help). i lose steam on my own, but posting or inviting other people into the process is like pouring sugar in the gas tank. why is that!! how do i fix this!!!

and i don't know if this is a "writing weakness" or an "egregious personal character flaw" but i sure did finish an exchange fic this year literally forty seconds before reveals, so that's... pretty bad.

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

SO SCARY aughhhh my fear of Being Wrong really nukes me here. it doesn't even have to be a real language. it's like the ghost of JRR Tolkein himself is standing over my shoulder telling me that if i don't backwards engineer an entire proto-latinate space language instead of just chucking words into google translate and calling it Ancient i'm committing unpardonable sins.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

star trek! first internet-published fics were x-files, but first limited-print-edition fics were xeroxed hand-bound voyager stories my sister and i would give as "gifts" to family friends (and then stand there staring at them while they read the first few pages and told us how clever and creative we were and promised to "read the rest later").

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

new answer! i have always answered this before with ain't no sunshine (sga, john/elizabeth) or career day (sg-1, mini!otp), but i think i really stuck the landing this year on pieces (sga, john/elizabeth). which, incidentally, is the one i finished forty seconds before reveals so i'm definitely not going to learn anything from that narrow escape.

tagging @ussjellyfish if you haven't already done this one, @coraclavia, @havocthecat, @lonesomehighways, and anyone else who made it through this long post and would like to do it!

[landslided]

Hi!

So Daniel and Tory, how would that go? What does Tory think of Daniel since she barely interacted with him? And on the other hand, would Daniel have to navigate some discomfort over knowing how much trauma she inflicted on Sam? (I think he has a better grasp on that than Amanda)

Would they ever have a sensei/student relationship? I'd like to see that explored to some degree in the show. (I say to some degree because I'm banking on Chozen to fill that role)

They obviously have very similar backgrounds, but how would Tory learn about it? From him? From Robby or Miguel? FrOm SaM?? Anyway, sorry for the rant and the million questions, feel free to cherry pick. :)

hi anon! thank you so much for all your questions and no i will absolutely not cherry pick them because they're all absolute gold! let's get into it:

how would i think a daniel and tory conversation go? funny thing is that i've written a chapter of two steps on the water (that hasn't been published yet) where i kind of answer that exact question.

i think daniel would be very on edge with tory at first. there is obviously a lot of history between tory and sam and i think daniel would never be able to entirely forgive tory for what she has done to sam, or at least not in a near future. i see daniel maybe forgiving her, let's say, ten years in the future when he's at the samtory wedding.... okay no let me get serious.

i think, like you said, daniel has a better understanding of the whole debacle between sam and tory than amanda but i also think daniel can sometimes be very blindsided by his own experiences and emotions and i feel like he would project a lot of himself into sam's situation, which would make sense since she's his daughter and she was the one attacked, only to get fucking kicked in the head with the realization that he understands tory very well.

i've talked about this with another person before and we both fully believe that in the concept of samtory is lawrusso 2.0, sam is johnny and tory is daniel in many ways. obviously the characters do not perfectly fit in each other's shoes but the similarities between them are obvious enough.

sam is a privileged young woman with a lot of ambition who finds herself trapped in her role as heir to her father's expectations and dreams. she's full of anger and other complicated feelings that she doesn't know how to express. she has had the chance of growing with her parents who are involved in her life, love her and want what is best for her and with a sensei/father who would NEVER harness her anger as a weapon. but sam wants to be a winner, she wants to be a fighter, she finds true meaning in leading the fight and that is something daniel doesn't understand because even if he'd shown an interest in karate back in jersey and before what happened with johnny, his desire was never to win competitions or be the best (around lol), he wanted to protect himself and learn a new skill because daniel is somehow who is fascinated by knowledge. meanwhile, johnny understands sam's need to prove herself and he understands her desire to fight and win. he gets that. we had a glimpse of that particular relationship in season 4 and im really sad we didn't get more of it.

as for tory, she does share a lot of similarities with johnny in terms of her relationship with kreese for example but there is an edge to her that is so very daniel. like i said in another post, i fully believe tory is raw and whole and honest to the point where it gets her into trouble which is something daniel shares. she is a fighter because of necessity but i don't think she finds the same joy in it sam does. not to say that i don't think tory likes karate or isn't good at it, but i think she would find a lot more of herself in miyagi-do philosophy than in cobra kai. she needs that balance, she needs to be able to fall back on someone and trust others and also herself and miyagi-do (an daniel) fill that category.

there is also a really interesting parallel to make between tory, daniel and their relationship with silver. both daniel and tory place a certain amount of trust in silver only to have that trust spit back into their faces. worse than that, silver twists the meaning of that trust, twists the meaning of tory and daniel's struggle into something ugly and dishonest. he manipulates them both into becoming and doing things they are intrinsically against in a way that is a lot more cruel than whatever kreese could have done to them both. (the cruelty of kreese is... much more apparent with johnny and with robby but that is anooooother discussion and if i start talking about the cobra fatherhood cycle again im gonna scream). i don't know if i really need to explain how tory and daniel's financial situation and how they both dealt with it is at the core of the matter here but just to kind of put it out there: daniel would totally understand tory's struggles and tory would hate his guts for it but she would probably accept his help and support more than amanda's.

i think, if daniel managed to make tory open up enough to him, either because she joined miyagi-fang and/or because she needed someone's help and she was directed to daniel, there would be a lot of self-discovery for the both of them because they are really really similar and i think daniel would probably be a little shaken by it but tory would be sooooo mad. she would be so angry that this dude who lives in the hills and drives an audi actually understands her because he's the father of the karate princess and that would! piss her off! so bad! but she would be understood by an adult maybe for the first time in her life and there would be a certain comfort in that.

i don't know that daniel would be tory's sensei, not that i think he wouldn't do a fine job of it but i think maybe that would make sam lose her mind. even post-season 5, i think the peace between sam and tory is fragile and if sam saw her father teach tory any sort of karate she would bite through her hand. but! kind of in the same way that even now i think daniel CANNOT witness johnny really teach sam karate because there is just something in that particular concept that triggers in him a fight or flight response (which for daniel is always fight). chozen would be the perfect sensei for tory because i think he would understand her on some level to and know how to channel her emotions in a positive and safe way.

as for the kids. i think robby and tory could totally bond over the fact that hey, actually we kind of dig that guy he kinda gets it meanwhile miguel and sam are throwing tornado kicks with johnny and don't really need to expand on the subject because they like johnny for really different reasons. sam and tory? god, i think sam would be relieved that tory is working through her things with her dad but she would also be extremely jealous and tory would tease her about it. like i said, their peace is fragile but i believe in them <33

i don't know if this was in any way what you were expecting when you send me this anon but i hope i somehow answered your questions and that i made sense!

thank you again!!

[melissamasakari]

Confessions you didn't notice

Chapter four. Personal fest.

I woke up from my own incomprehensible muttering (I really do hope that no great discoveries were made by those who could hear me). I somehow opened one eye and searched the space around me. Found a stuffed pig nearby. Sam, that's not funny! Wait, why is it so dark in here? How long did I actually sleep? There seemed to be no pillow when I fell asleep either. I’ve got a surge of energy and untangled myself from the blanket. I jerked up and sat up on the bed. Stop. Bed? Looking around the room, I finally realized where I was. This is HIS room. Captain's bedroom. There was a bookshelf overhead. On the left a figurine of an airplane on the closet could be sees. I wished I could take a closer look, but I couldn't reach there. Maybe I should ask him later? He seems always happy to show off such things. With these thoughts I buried myself into the pillows. Oh. It turns out that the captain prefers herbal soap. Not surprising – the floral smell seems way too strong so it will surely attract some kind of monster. Or girls... however, the herbal one worked just great for me – the scent was so good. Okay, lets stop lying around, otherwise I won’t be able to force myself to leave. I can't say it's my first time here, but for some reason it didn't feel right now. Just like snooping. Although, just to think about it, it's pretty cute. Looks like that they got together and went to sort things out. As they decided not to wake me up then the most obvious thing to do was to move me here, right? Just in case someone enters headquarters while they are gone. But now I should definitely get out, but it’s so cozy and calm here. I could just suffer from hits of embarrassment a little bit longer – but I decided to get up after all. I carefully made bed and, yawning, stretched towards the exit. On the dresser I found a group photo from Bright Sun Day. It's great, it was my first fest here, and of course my expression was quite terrible. An arm stretcher was casually thrown over the foot board of the bed. Look, my signature! Does he train even before bed? Arm stretcher was already completely worn out, while I’ve made it just recently. I'll have to get him a new one. Also I found a note on the desk: “Melissa, have fun for us at the festival. I'll contact you as soon as I can." Then it was written by the other hand: “Kid, your clothes are well dried and are lying on the sofa. I hid the shoes under the order board. The kitchen and shower are at your service.” A rather tattered T-shirt hung on the back of the chair. Pajamas maybe? I really wanted to bury my nose in it, but this is too much. Or maybe he won’t notice? STOP! I slapped my cheeks. Time to get to work, pull yourself together, Melissa! I went and washed, collected my things, and changed clothes.

“Ack, when did they left?”

“At dawn.”

“What kind of station was this anyway?”

“Secret information.”

“It's a pity. Can you tell me how dangerous is it in there?”

“Medium level biological hazard. No other data available. There were no security droids. Beam and disintegrating weapons, too.”

“Thank you. Do you want some milk?”

“If it is possible.”

“Do you know how to read data disks?”

“No, but I can use programs from silicon chips.”

“I’ll keep it in mind for the future. Here's your milk. See you.”

On my way home Sonya intercepted me. There wasn't much to do anyway, so I went with her to the event after I left my bag at home. Naturally, the curious waitress immediately bombarded me with questions.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you spend a lot of time with Arlo nowadays. Do you go out with him, or something, hm?”

“Yeah, we go out to do a whole bunch of assignments. And also we share a wonderful friendship that I value very much. Why are you asking?”

“Nothing special. But keep in mind that’s he's just very popular. A bunch of girls fell for him already. I would try to hook up with him myself, but he’s not my type at all.”

“What, they’re just running after him in flocks?”

“Not exactly, but not very far from the truth.”

“Noted. Now please explain me the rules for the event. Yesterday I was stuck in the Wasteland, and in my homeland there is no snow.”

It turned out that everything was quite simple. Opponents hide behind rocks, moving between shelters. Each has twenty snowballs. As soon as they are all used up, points are counted. Predictably, I didn’t take any prizes. But I got some good practice in knocking down other people’s hats. It seems that Nora has been looking at me unkindly all day. But it’s not my fault that she’s one of the easiest targets! Take that, you wimpy crybaby! Hands off MY redhead! What did he even see in you?

When it began to get dark the townspeople started to disperse. I returned home and checked my supplies of materials. Before it was too late, I went to the guild for an inspection. I just hope my guys are doing well. I went to bed early and tossed and turned anxiously for half the night until at last fell asleep in the morning.

On Sunday I checked my mail first thing in morning and visited the guild shortly after, but there was no news. I walked around the Central Plaza, and didn’t notice how my feet brought me to the headquarters. Well, since I was there, I should just came in if just to return Sam’s clothes that I have worn.

“Hey, is anyone there?”

“Ack.”

“Only you?”

“Arlo came by. He said that the guesses were confirmed. My teammates didn't survive. I was left completely alone.”

“My condolences.”

“He also said that since there were no remains, the city decided to erect a small memorial with the names of the victims at the old cemetery. The list from the flight recorder was restored.”

“When has Arlo left?”

“About an hour ago. Can you do something for me?”

“For example?”

“They won’t let me out of here. I would like to lay flowers at the memorial. Do this for me please.”

“No problem. I can even take a photo if you want.”

“I will be grateful.”

Some time later Ack's request was done. I met Petra, discussed the news and the prospect of communicating with real AI, and promised to bring her a pile of disks this week. I decided to go in again and tell the robot that his wish had been fulfilled.

“Thank you! Now they can rest in peace.”

“Can you convey a message when the guys are back?”

“Certainly. I’m recording.”

“Tell them that I’m worried and waiting for the news, at least for a note by mail that everything is fine if there isn’t much time.”

“Okay, Melissa. I recorded everything.”

“See you.”

Having nothing else to do, I decided to continue testing the training dummy. I beat it diligently for about a couple of hours, hoping to drive away my anxiety. It did not go well, but it was still better than hysteria. Closer to sunset (and it gets dark here early in winter) I heard a familiar voice from behind the fence.

“Actually, this is MY toy.” Arlo noted, leaning on my fence.

“You’re wrong. Since you didn’t fulfill the second condition I won’t give it to you. Now you have to wait a whole year to take another chance.”

“Here's another option. I'll order the same from Higgins.”

“He won’t be able to get the blueprint. Neither he nor any other workshop in the city.”

“Then I’ll steal it.”

“And there will be only one suspect, right? This will be a conflict of interests and a serious scandal. You'll lose your job.”

“So what should I do? Can you make another wish?” He asked with concern and climbed over the fence clearly not wanting to sidetrack to the gates.

And why do I want to demand a kiss so badly, huh? Although, why did I even think that he would do this? He doesn't notice me at all. He already has a “little sister” to date with. I'm a third wheel here, right?

“You know, I have an idea. Come with me?”He gracefully gave me his hand while I was chasing sad thoughts from my head.

“The holiday is already over.”

“Yes. But the decorations and shelters are still there. You. Me. A competition.”

“Persuaded. By general rules?” Holding hands, we cheerfully galloped onto the field, jumping over my fence along the way.

“Yeah.”

“Did you find anything valuable?”

“A bunch of disks, a flight recorder, a number of interesting spare parts and microcircuits. Tons of dust and meager remains of clothing. Then we had to organize a funeral. It's a pity we weren't allowed to release Ack during this time. Who needs this memorial if only he knew them personally and he was not able to attend?”

“It's okay. At his request I brought the flowers there. And I took a photo for him.”

“Well done! And thanks for your help.”

“You really shouldn't thank me. We are friends after all,” and perhaps it will remain so. Forever. Well, not the worst outcome. At least we can be together, and I will try to enjoy it as much as possible!

“Right. Well, are you ready?”

“Hide properly!”

For about an hour we rushed between shelters, effectively covering each other with crossfire. For the first time I heard Arlo laugh carefree, poking his head from here and there. A couple of times I was so enchanted by his smile that I missed the very sensitive snowball hits on the top of my head and shoulders. It seemed like something even flew up the collar. Taking careful aim, I launched the last snowball. Success!

“Hey, you knocked my cap off!” Climbing out and shaking himself off, he told indignantly.

“And my sweater is all wet now. Who won? I lost count.”

“Friendship!”

“Come on, you probably gave in again. And by the way, I hit all Hulu brothers yesterday! I didn’t expect such agility from them. That was the most difficult target.”

“Yep. Especially Liuwa. He is also incredibly cunning.”

We heard the clatter of hooves as Sam rode up to us. She dismounted and whispered something to Arlo. Have I heard something about...smashing? And, wait, was it just me, or did he blush? So handsome. It’s a pity that I can’t muster up the courage to tell him everything. Or maybe it's already too late. Well, okay, being friends with him is also cool. Even if now it seems that this is just not enough.

“Sam, come to us,” Arlo took a few steps back, rolled up a particularly dense snowball and threw it at her, almost without aiming. Easily dodging, Sam made such a brutal face that it was scary. And then, without thinking twice, she knocked the cap off the his red head with a snowball. I was not surprised. She and I have been gathering all the prizes in the shooting range for the umpteenth time.

Following that the three of us ran around a little, and it was a draw again.

After some time, Remington approached us. Noticing him, my tomboy friend launched a powerful projectile. Quite suddenly Remy knocked the snowball back at Sam with a well-aimed kick, without her even having time to do anything. She just spat and uttered some strange curses.

“This is all wonderful, but they are waiting for us at Peach Plaza. The fireside is about to begin.”

“Is the subject known?”

“They will announce what they have decided to do with the robot, as far as I know.”

“Then let's hurry.”

Absolutely all the adult residents of the city gathered in the square. Gale summarized the week and moved on to the most important things.

“As many of you already know, on Friday the space station Altair-01 landed in the Wasteland, the only surviving inhabitant of which turned out to be a living AI. After long discussions, we decided to give him Portian citizenship. The Civil Corps should keep an eye on him and help him integrate into our community in every possible way. That's all for today. Thanks for your attention.”

“We will do our best!” Arlo reported.

“That's good I guess? If they offend him, I will invite him to my place.”

“Yes, that’s the best outcome for everyone.”

“Sam, I promised you a dinner. Are you busy?”

“Oh, I could always make time for that.”

“Then take Teddy, you can place him at my stable for now. Guys, are you coming with us?”

“With pleasure.” Remy nodded and followed Sam.

“Are you kidding? Such offers cannot be refused! I have long wanted to check those rumors about the autumn competition.”

“That’s nice. Let's go. I just recently finished adding new chairs.”

Having made sure that the horse was feeling fine in my newly completed stable, the whole friendly company of ours entered my house.

“So, hang your things to dry – that way. Make yourself comfortable. Sam, show the guys the bathroom, if you please. I'll go and start cooking now.”

After some time, a red head appeared in the kitchen arch.

“Need any assistance? I could cut vegetables or something else.”

“Come in, why not?”

Wow, he handled it deftly – the work was in full swing.

“What are we cooking exactly? I don't know such a dish.”

“Carbonara. It's like pasta with meat sauce, only topped with cream and eggs. With bacon and smoked meat. Almost like cream noodles, but the texture is different.”

“Sounds delicious!”

“Also fried rice with shrimps and vegetables for Sam. And a hot pot for everyone.”

“And you thought of everything.”

“I have invited Sam on Tuesday for this weekend. Glad you and Remy were able to stop by too. Okay, that’s almost ready.”

We set the table and had a nice time. Time passed very quickly and it was soon very late.

“I’ll help you to do the dishes.”

“Seriously? Just like the man of my dreams! Helps in the kitchen, offering to do the dishes himself. What other hidden talents do you have?”

“I scare away hooligans. I protect the weak. I do good things with a heavy hand. I bulldoze goodness for usefulness!”

“Don’t over-praise him or he’ll inflate and burst!” Sam scoffed.

“Okay, guys. Thanks for dropping in. It was a pleasure! Oh, Arlo, before I forget: I'm waiting for transport for the training dummy tomorrow. It takes up too much space in my backyard. You take it.”

“Agreed. I'll drop by right after training.”

Everyone left. I sketched out a plan for the next week and went to bed feeling happy.

[sprinklenoodles]

Both because I got tired today and because I remembered something, I decided to re-read Everything Stays (But it Still Changes) and also read some of your older oneshots out of curiosity. Or, tried while being tired. Specifically, I will highlight A Togami Doesn't Lose. Also, after thinking about A Legacy Will Be Crowned, I felt it would be interesting. Also read Also, again, I am very tired. I really need to stop staying up till 12am. I'm not a struggling highschooler anymore T-T Side note: Hopefully I will not blabber too much into delirious tiredness (spoiler allert from futer i didddd) but that could be the case. So, lowkey warning maybe? Perhpahs? I spelt that wrong but it looks funny to me right now so I'm keeping it.

Everything Stays- This fic was interesting because it gave some more insight into Kijo. It felt really fascinating seeing his more sympathetic thoughts, after all, he still cares about his heir to at least some degree. Like, how Kijo looks at the portrait of him and Byakuya when the heir won and reflecting on how he never seen Byakuya look quite like that ever again. Obviously, it's clear he's not going to change. Kijo will still be cold, calculating. Also, side tangent, I realized in my tiredness that, one, this is part of a series kinda and also, two... That Really Wasn't Supposed To Happen. One, I actually read a bit of it when it was ongoing and not finished back before I had a tumblr, so last year. And two... my gosh is it long. I will of course read it but also golly gee 62. Big numb (numb short for number heehee) So spooooooky! But I am so reading this in full which, gosh. I think I just need to plan it or chip away cus I can't pull an all nighter like I did with the others hehe. But also not a chapter at a time thing either cus I'll forget stuff. Also, the more I think about it, this might be the 2nd longest fic I will ever read... so far. Winner goes to a freaking DBZ fic I read in middle school that was around like... 72 chapters. So, if I could do that as a more anxiety riddled twerp, I can read this!! It's got my favorite booooooi! BBQ!!!

A Togami Doesn't Lose- Was very short but fascinating to read cus it feels like a precursor to what would become The Heir of Despair. Not fully since so many twists and turns for that fic haven't been revealed. It was interesting though. Can also see the improvement in how you write too just from a year. Like, the deaths in this fic are short and sweet which fits the oneshot format. At the same time though, I can tell that, if written in the future, there'd be even more insight into Byakuya's thoughts, more detail in the deaths, stuff like that! So, it was really cool seeing how far you've come! So yeaaaaah. I wrote wordss :=] I hope the BBkuya was... insert verb here I dunno what else to say now. Or well, TYPE cus words on text do not speak unless they are Microsoft Sam, Bonzi Buddy, or some other text to speech guy who is less cool than those guys and sound like they'd do top 10 vids on the downlow. Legit almost 1am from the time i type this and my golly gee wilikers, batman

so um, same batchanell, not say bat time cus my gosh do i not wanna stay up this late again but also i said that in reverse cus it's actually same bat time, same bat channel and i dunno if that refernece is referencing right now since the 60s Batman show isn't exactly relevant in the minds of the many and um... i put too much effort in this tangent so it's staying SO YEH! >:DD

Those two fics are defenitely a bit on the older side. Like, I'm pretty sure that EVBISC was my first time writing Kijo for more than a few sentences.

And looking back now, how I write him has changed a lot, and for the better. Technically it still depends on the universe, but I like how I write him now much more.

And A Togami Doesn't Lose was a silly little thing I wrote for Byakuya's birthday. And in a way it's like The Heir Of Despair. It's one of the older one-shots I still fairly like.

But TRWSTH is a long fic for sure. I mean, there are much longer fics out there but it's my longest fic. I also have to warn you that it was my first ever long fic.

So, especially in the beginning, the writing might be... something. Same goes for my old one-shots. You're entering dangerous territory there... You don't want to scroll down to see my 2 non danganronpa fics...

But thank you that you are putting so much thought into this!!

[bingwriterxo]

I have so many thoughts on this new chapter!! But I’ll try to get them all down. I freakin adored getting a preview of nervous Tara 😂😂 I think Sam noticed how nervous she was and how serious Tara is about reader. The “hey pretty girl” reader lets out when Tara opened the door….my gay heart literally started beating so hard…get any pretty girl saying that to me and I’d pretty much just die on the spot. Not reader bringing a wine from FRANCE….as a person who adores fine art and Shakespeare READER is the dream girl!

I don’t know why but when readers talks about her family history and all the passion they hold for literature it just makes my heart warm. Chad almost dying when reader said she could get him to meet the football couch killed me. I wasn’t sure how you were going to I corporate Tara and her trauma with gf into it, but I have to say I am far from disappointed. The way I gasped and nearly dropped my phone when reader was like “tell me what?”

the way reader just plopped on Tara’s bed has my heart, girly is already completely comfortable with bed Tara bear😂 ok…now for the serious part of the chapter. The nitty gritty.

I too also have to piggyback on the anon that talked about the emotional maturity of reader. It’s not easy hearing about your girlfriend who her own girlfriend tried to kill her. I thought the way you wrote Tara describing amber was actually really well done. I love how you started with my best friend. And then my amber. It really gets across how hurt and correct me if I’m wrong…the grief that Tara still holds. The trauma is evident, and if I could I would award reader for her comforting Tara. And I love that Tara feels safe with reader enough to be vulnerable. This series brings me to much joy! I write as well so I just love reading works from my favorite authors (which is you).

now onward to reader’s family!! (If the poll allows us too) honestly I don’t mind which chapter comes next. I think there all lovely. Although I would love to see readers family Interacting with Tara (just because we already know so much about there future relationships. Golfing with readers dad, Eddie and Nathaniel just adoring Tara) all in due time!

I also want to convey my appreciation for you! Two chapters in two days! Remarkable! Can’t wait for the next. Whatever it may be. ❤️

the way I read

i love this whole analysis. makes me feel like im back in english class. now let me try to respond to all ur thoughts lol

i figured since we are reading tara’s pov, i might as well use that to my advantage, and tara being nervous is so real, i think.

R’s parents sent her the good stuff to help her impress sam 🫶 its funny i didnt realize it when i first wrote it but 1961 is my moms birth year. im just a family man what can i say

i thought it’d be fun to have R’s dad have hella connections around the world, and it was a good way to get her closer to chad! i was at first gonna write him as a jealous, whiny kinda guy, but idk…i just love chad i want them to be besties

tara is definitely still grieving over what happened in woodsboro. losing amber and the betrayal was hard for her, and R obviously realizes it, so of course she’ll be there for her, yk

there may be part 6 coming tomorrow…we’ll see. i deadass have so much free time it’s insane 🤭

[bonesandthebees]

Anyway, I’ve talked a lot about Tommy without talking about Him, so let’s do that.

I was expecting Tubbo to be part of his group, but having him be there as just Tomys friend is so funny. It’s also adorable. (And it probably says a thing or two about how stubborn Tomys is, since he probably refused to go without him). Their dynamic very much gives “Your majesty, this is my emotional support best friend”.

Having Jack as a guard is giving me Stars flashbacks. Probably as intended. It’s funny that he is now Tomys guard instead of Wilbur’s. I was not expecting Puffy, but I probably should have. She’s there to make sure Tomys behaves, but she still has a lot of work to do about the etiquette. She also gives me the vibes of someone who deserves a raise.

Side note: did Niki or Quackity come with extra entourage? Like Niki was a baby, but Quackity was similar in age. Or is this unusual? (Also, I love the throne and crown, I’m sure that doesn’t have any ominous relation to certain tags on this fic)

Anyway, Tomys first impression reflects very badly on Sam. As we learn in chapter 3, everyone figures out why Tomys is there. And he’s clearly a bad first choice as a heir. (As in, if Sam were to die right now, Tomys would do terribly compared to Niki or Quackity).

He comes off as just a kid, which he is, but that’s not something you can be in this situation. None of the other kids got to have a normal childhood. On top of that Tomys is kinda a little brat, for a noble child at least, and not in the way those kids are normally brats.

But Sam seems rather fond of him. He’s very patient with him and all his blunders. I think he’s a kind king, but *looks at chapter 3* he’s not the brightest. It becomes very clear, very quickly that Sam did not think this true at all.

Like part of his decision process is wanting to decide something for himself because he’s self aware enough to know Phil is pulling the strings, but not smart enough to actually do it himself. So he brings Tomys and is all secretive, but then he didn’t talk it through with anyone and missed so many implications because he’s just living in his own world. But then he doubles down which is incredibly childish, but he wanted to make a desicion for himself and refuses to acknowledge that it’s backfireing (which is a very worrisome quality to have in a King).

Though I think some of it might just also be actually indecisiveness and wanting to buy himself more time to chose because he clearly doesn’t know who to pick based on how he asked Schlatt. He’s just digging himself a bigger hole and I’m scared he’ll double down further and will pick Tomys in the future just because Phil doesn’t want him to (can you tell I do not like Sam? Very good writing job on that, btw).

(2/?)

-🎄

no literally I was trying to figure out a position for tubbo that wasn't 'personal servant' just bc I didn't feel like doing that for this fic, and when I couldn't come up with anything I was like "...it's clingyduo tubbo would come just as his emotional support bestie" and then I thought back to how in historical movies you always hear about nobles having their ladies in waiting/companions/friends showing up with them everywhere like an entourage and I was like huh that would work

lol yeah after stars I'm a bit of a sucker for writing jack manifold as a guard again. he's just so good in that type of role, although I'd say he's going to have a smaller role here than he had in stars (though who knows I also didn't think stars!jack would play a very big role and look how that turned out). and of course tommy needed an adult chaperone so I thought of puffy. she's so tired of this shit.

yes, niki and quackity both came with entourages of their own although I'm not going to mention them bc I can't think of characters they'd be and I don't like throwing ocs into my fics for more than just a few lines here and there. except since niki was brought to the palace so young she essentially came just with her nanny and some guards, and when she was eventually given ladies in waiting they were provided by the palace not by summerdam. quackity was a little older so he showed up with a tutor, guards, and probably a private servant. still working out details on backstory stuff you know how it goes

yeahhh the thing is tommy's immaturity is pretty prevalent right off the bat, and while he's not overly bratty by noble kid standards, by potential future heir to the kingdom standards he's terrible. and it says something about sam's ideas towards leadership that he only just met the kid and has a bit of a soft spot towards him, because he doesn't know tommy. not at all. but he thinks he does.

i'm glad you don't like sam. he's meant to be a very messy character in rose. someone who so clearly wants to be good at this game he's playing but is just so blatantly not which causes problems for everyone else around him

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 8

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

When they sat, he unclipped Damen’s leash, wound it around the handler’s rod, then tossed it to one of the attendants, who managed to catch it with only a slight fumble.

craft note: great little tension-breaking moment that doesn’t feel too silly

Torveld, evidence of a small coup for Laurent.

context: i think this just means that he is a useful tool in the power struggle against the regent? like, that’s how laurent regards him? which damen would understand at this point

Nicaise also sat well. His beauty at close range was striking. So was his youth. His voice, when he spoke, was unbroken. It had the clear fluting tone of a knife tapped against crystal, without cracks. ‘I don’t want to sit next to you,’ said Nicaise. ‘Fuck off.’

craft note: describes him as sweet, makes him say something vulgar. nice. 

also, laurent parallel!

His huge blue eyes were fringed like a whore’s, or like a doe’s.

craft note: GREAT line. highlights the deranged way sex and innocence are regarded in vere.

‘I made your pet jump,’ said Nicaise, smugly.

context: he did this to get laurent’s attention, not to hurt damen. i mean he definitely thought it was funny to stab damen with a fork but that’s just extra

Not sounding at all displeased: ‘Yes, you did.’

laurent respects the fork thing. birds of a feather etc

Laurent immediately lifted his cup and inclined it towards Nicaise in a little gesture sealing the bet. Damen tried to shake the bizarre impression that they were enjoying themselves.

context: nicaise is the closest thing laurent has to a brother, or maybe even a friend. this is one of the first glimpses of Real Laurent that we’ve seen in this book—funny, competitive, supportive in a backhanded way. damen just doesn’t know that this is the Real Laurent, and neither would a first-time reader. so from his perspective, laurent’s behavior is bizarre.

In a miracle of restraint, there were only nine courses, served ribboned and artfully arranged on jewelled plates by attractive pages.

Laurent went very still; then he deliberately shifted in his seat and leaned in, bringing his lips right to Damen’s ear. ‘I think I’m out of stabbing range, he’s got short arms. Or perhaps he’ll try to throw a sugar plum? That is difficult. If I duck he’ll hit Torveld.’ Damen gritted his teeth. ‘You know what I meant. He heard you. He’s going to act. Can’t you do something about it?’ ‘I’m occupied.’ ‘Then let me do something.’ ‘Bleed on him?’ said Laurent.

a glimmer of their future dynamic :’)

Damen opened his mouth to reply, and found his words stopped by the startling touch of Laurent’s fingers against his lips, a thumb brushing his jawline. It was the sort of absent touch that any master at the table might give to a pet. But from the shocked reaction that rolled over the courtiers at the table, it was clear that Laurent did not do this sort of thing often. Or ever. ‘My pet was feeling neglected,’ Laurent apologised to Torveld.

i am not immune to whatever the fuck this is

context: laurent was getting a little too comfortable talking to damen like they’re friends, which then made him switch gears. and/or he was feeling a little silly

‘He looks combative, but he’s really very docile and adoring,’ said Laurent, ‘like a puppy.’

freak

To demonstrate, Laurent picked up a confection of crushed nuts and honey and held it out to Damen as he had at the ring, between thumb and forefinger. ‘Sweetmeat?’ said Laurent. In the stretched-out moment that followed, Damen thought explicitly about killing him.

FREAK

i’m guessing the strategy here is to assert his own power and maybe make torveld feel frisky so he’ll support laurent and take the deal, but also. freak

She was saying to the noblewoman, ‘Of course, the idea of one of us keeping males is grotesque.

“i can excuse keeping a human pet, but i draw the line at heterosexuality”

Damen had assumed that pets, like slaves, were sexually submissive to their masters, as was the custom in Akielos. But he could only guess at the arrangements between Vannes and this woman in bed.

so is the pet/master relationship consensual? veretian pets are essentially full-time prostitutes, being paid to larp a specific power dynamic. so i suppose the matter of consent here rests on whether prostitution and sex work can be considered consensual, at all. which… is a very difficult question to answer, although my gut says that it isn’t. like, it’s consensual on paper between the two parties, but i still think that the inherent power imbalance of a person who is paying for services that make another person vulnerable is shaky at best. and the way vulnerable people (women, gay men) often turn to sex work as a last resort, because our real-life patriarchal society wants women to be disempowered and dependent, makes it really not seem like a choice at all. 

that said, vere isn’t the real world. and while bdsm is real, it is meant to include protections for every person involved. i thiiiiink i’d probably feel comfortable calling the master/pet thing in this fictional society consensual if i knew 1) that an indisputable safe word was built into the contract, and 2) that financial compensation wasn’t an aspect of the arrangement. like, if this was simply for fun and pleasure, without money or status on the line, i don’t think i’d have a problem with it. that basically just makes the veretian court a sex party for informed and consenting adults.

which, yeah, adults. even with all of that in place, i still don’t think informed consent can be given by a minor, which distinguishes nicaise’s situation from the contract-holders of age. that’s fucked up, no matter what. no wonder they hide it from torveld. 

‘We are waiting. Ancel will perform. He is popular, “in fashion.” You’ve had him.’ She didn’t wait for him to confirm this statement. ‘How was he?’ Well instructed. Damen’s mind supplied the answer, sly as a suggestion murmured in his ear. He frowned at it. He said, ‘Adequate.’

“well instructed” SCREAMING (yes this is level-headed analysis but also AHHHH)

"adequate” :)

‘The Prince?’ said Talik, scornfully. ‘Everyone knows the Prince does not keep pets.’ ‘None at all?’ said Damen. She said, ‘You.’ She looked him up and down. ‘Perhaps the Prince has a taste for men, not these painted Veretian boys who squeal if you pinch them.’ Her tone suggested that she approved of this on general principle.

this is charming in a way i can’t quite describe. the girls and the gays having a chat. also interesting—veretians seem to call damen a pet, more than they call him a slave. and there is a huge difference between the two positions. damen, however, seems to hear them as the same thing. just another little hint that his perspective isn’t exactly accurate, even though he is a noble and trustworthy character. 

The Regent gazed at him for a while. ‘I’m almost disappointed, if it’s no more than that. Laurent could benefit from a steadying influence, someone close to him with his best interests at heart. A man with sound judgement, who could help guide him without being swayed.’

careful what you wish for, fucker

‘My nephew is charming, when he wishes it. His brother was a true leader, he could inspire extraordinary loyalty from his men. Laurent has a superficial version of his brother’s gifts, which he uses to get his own way. If anyone could have a man eating from the hand that struck him, it’s my nephew,’ said the Regent.

way to tell on yourself

He badly wanted to step across the chasm that separated the two factions of this court: on the other side was this man who had long since won his respect. It was grittily painful for him to realise that it was not in his nature to do that—not while Laurent was acting on his behalf. If Laurent was acting on his behalf . . . even if Laurent was acting on his behalf, he had so little stomach for the drawn out game that was being played tonight. And yet. ‘I’m not the man you want,’ he said. ‘I don’t have influence over him. I’m not close to him. He has no love for Akielos, or its people.’

context: big damen moment! loyalty! integrity! good choice!

(although, respecting the regent… gross)

actually, putting a pin in the idea of “respect” here. it seems like damen respects the regent more than laurent, but chooses loyalty to laurent anyway. that’s partially out of fear, but also… not exactly. so what is, and is not, “respect” for these characters?

‘Go and fetch me my nephew. I prefer him not to be left alone with Torveld.’ ‘Yes, Your Highness.’

awful. the double meaning here—first-time reader thinks “laurent is working behind his uncle’s back, and that’s why the regent is annoyed that he's with torveld.” but it’s been twice now that there’s been a moment like this, where it’s almost implying that the regent is jealous of torveld for taking up laurent’s attention in... other ways. i don’t think it’s accidental, especially since torveld was described as similar to the regent. gross. 

‘—told my advisors that I was past the age to be distracted by beautiful young men,’ he heard Torveld say, and it was suddenly eminently clear that they were not discussing trade negotiations.

sharp objects quote again: “if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them.”

That a man of Torveld’s honourable reputation would choose Laurent as the object of his affections was difficult to swallow, but perhaps Torveld admired reptiles.

‘And then I met you,’ said Torveld, ‘and then I spent an hour in your company.’ ‘More than an hour,’ said Laurent. ‘Less than a day. I think you get distracted more easily than you admit.’ ‘And you not at all?’ There was a slight pause in the rhythm of their exchange. ‘You . . . have been listening to gossip.’ ‘Is it true, then?’ ‘That I am—not easily courted? It can’t be the worst thing you heard about me.’ ‘By far the worst, from my perspective.’ It was said warmly, and won a breath of insubstantial amusement from Laurent. Torveld’s voice changed, as though they stood closer together. ‘I have heard a great deal of gossip about you, but I judge as I find.’ Laurent said, in the same intimate voice, ‘And what do you find?’ Damen stepped forward determinedly.

context: torveld is trying to figure out if he can get into laurent’s pants (he can’t, but laurent is in improv mode right now), damen steps in before the flirting can progress any further

Laurent, reclined elegantly against the balustrade, did not react at all except to shift his gaze in Damen’s direction. They were indeed standing close together. Not quite kissing distance.

laurent lean #4. also what a funny thing to notice, damen! “not quite kissing distance.”

‘You took your time,’ Laurent murmured as he passed Damen.

context: laurent wanted OUT of that situation

‘He is a prize,’ said Torveld, warmly. ‘I’ll wager you never thought a prince could be jealous of a slave. Right now I would exchange places with you in a heartbeat.’ You don’t know him, thought Damen. You don’t know anything about him. You’ve known him one night.

“you can’t like him because you don’t know him. i can’t like him because i do know him, and he sucks, yet i still feel protective of him for some reason. we are not the same.”

Damen was back on the leash, being used very possibly as a chaperone. Laurent was acting with the carefully bland manners of one trying politely to manage a difficult suitor. Damen thought with some amusement: boxed in by your own cleverness. As Damen watched, Torveld’s servant produced a peach, then a knife, then cut a slice at Torveld’s instruction, offering it to Laurent, who blandly accepted. When he had finished the morsel, the servant brought forth a little cloth from his sleeve with a flourish for Laurent to clean his immaculate fingers. The cloth was transparent silk, edged in gold thread. Laurent returned it crumpled.

this is as close to sitcom as we’re getting in vere

‘I’m enjoying the performance,’ Damen couldn’t resist saying. ‘Torveld’s servant is better supplied than you are,’ was all Laurent said. ‘I don’t have sleeves to carry handkerchiefs in,’ said Damen. ‘I wouldn’t mind being given a knife.’ ‘Or a fork?’ said Laurent.

banter!! it’s them!! <3 

also, i think the “performance” in question is laurent trying to spam romance interactions with torveld until he unlocks the diplomacy cutscene, rather than the actual performance at the party. clever. 

To Laurent: ‘You let him speak to his betters like that?’ ‘Not to his betters,’ said Laurent. Nicaise flushed at that.

context: laurent implies to nicaise that he respects damen more than he respects him. this is, of course, not a compliment towards damen, but a slight towards nicaise, who takes the joke seriously because he is a child

Damen looked at Laurent, who had simply let all of this unfold before him. He could see what had made Torveld transfer his affections. There was a superficial resemblance between the Prince and the slave. Erasmus’s fair skin and burnished hair were the closest thing in the room to Laurent’s gold and ivory colouring. But Erasmus had something Laurent lacked: a vulnerability, a need for caring, and a yearning to be mastered that was almost palpable. In Laurent there was only a patrician coolness, and if the purity of Laurent’s profile drew the eye, Damen had the scars on his back to prove that one could look, but not touch.

he’s expensive.

‘You had a choice,’ said Laurent. ‘You didn’t have to show me your claws.’ ‘You tricked me,’ said Nicaise. ‘I’m going to tell—’ ‘Tell him,’ said Laurent. ‘All about what I’ve done, and how you helped me. How do you think he’ll react? Shall we find out? Let’s go together.’ Nicaise gave Laurent a look that was desperately, spitefully calculating. ‘Oh, will you—enough,’ said Laurent. ‘Enough. You’re learning. It won’t be as easy to do next time.’ ‘I promise you, it won’t,’ said Nicaise venomously, and he left without, Damen noted, giving Laurent his earring.

context: it’s only a play-threat from laurent that he’d tell the regent that nicaise accidentally helped, which he then rescinds as not to scare nicaise, and even follows up with a compliment. he is trying so hard to look out for nicaise within these circumstances, and it’s especially obvious compared to how he interacts with literally everyone else.

Laurent had delivered all Damen had asked for, tied up neatly in a bow. All within the space of a day. If you put everything else aside, you had to admire it for sheer organisational efficiency.

hot

Laurent seemed, bizarrely, to be in a good mood. He leaned a shoulder rather casually against the wall. His voice was not exactly warm, but nor was the ice edge polished to cut.

laurent lean #5

‘I thought you and Torveld would have other plans.’ It just came out. Laurent said, ‘No.’

there’s no way damen actually thought that. so why did he make the comment? hmmm 

‘You are permanently disgusted by us, aren’t you?’ said Laurent.

the mutual moral arbitration continues

Laurent detached his gaze from the Regent and turned it back on Damen, his blue eyes showing neither his usual hostility, nor arrogance, nor contempt, but instead something that Damen could not make out at all. ‘I warned you about Nicaise because he is not Councillor Audin’s pet. Haven’t you guessed yet whose pet he is?’ Laurent said, and then, when he didn’t answer: ‘Ancel is too old to interest my uncle.’

“you are permanently disgusted by us, aren’t you?” laurent certainly seems to be, and i think he actually trusts damen to feel the same way. as in, he thinks damen has the same morals as he does, about this subject at least. progress!

[thebluedragoncave]

Hey Blue! I got a question for you

Can you explain the code names of the wolves? (The one for rose is funny as heck)

Hi Anon!! Thank you for your ask, I got this notificaiton after an annoying messgae from my boss so I appreciate the well timed pick me up lol.

Yes of course I can explain! The names were based on call signs for pilots, (i.e. Top Gun) and I'm happy to elaborate, although idk how interesting it'll be, but I will put them here in list form for reference/interest, especially since we didn't get to hear all of them in that chapter!

Lindsey: Ace (This one is for leadership reasons, I tried to figure out how to work "The Great" in here somewhere and figured this was the next best thing, I imagine the squad agreed on this and she hates it just like she hates The Great Horan and that makes me laugh)

Andi: Sunny (This one was easy, it's already Andi's nickname and works great as a call sign)

Tierna: Junior (This one is just cause Tierna is the youngest, and Junior sounds funny to me)

Sam: Bananas (This one is actually an old woso reference from the "So You Think You Know Sam" videos from US Soccer in which Sam asks a bunch of her friends questions to see how well they know her, if you haven't seen these, highly recommend. Anyways one of the questions is about nicknames, and Abby Dalhkemper answers Sammy Bananas and Sam gets really excited because she loves that nickname so that's where this came from lol)

Rose: Ghost (This is just cause Rose is so pale, I'm glad you thought it was funny becuase I also did haha)

Lynn: Bats (This is the only one that I don't think was actaully said in the chapter itself so spoiler alert for future ones haha but this is cause of Gotham)

Sonnett: Rooster (So Rooster is a very common call sign, made famous by Top Gun, and I picked it for Sonnett becuase when she's on the field she's always yapping and clucking, so, Rooster felt fitting to me)

That was probably way more than you wanted but there ya go that's all of them for now!! Thank you again for dropping by!

[lightning-writes]

good heart (faulty machine of a man) - 7/30

fic summary: bucky meets someone at therapy

chapter summary: bucky steps forward

word count: 876

tags: brotp: sam x bucky (brotp used loosely), post endgame, pre tfatws, hurt/comfort, slow burn, canon divergent, canon compliant, au

warnings: panic attack mention

a/n: have fun with this lil bucky x rue moment! also, if you're feeling generous, head over to ao3 to drop a kudos or a comment...!

AO3 MASTERLIST X

October 14

Rue is hunched over a box behind the receptionist's desk, bending her knees, getting ready to lift. Without thinking, Bucky strides behind the desk and lifts it, effortlessly, for her.

“James–”

“Bucky.”

“No, James,” she hisses. He sees her trying to remain mad, despite fighting off a smile. Suddenly, her hands are over his eyes. Her fingertips are cold. “There’s confidential information there!”

He actually chuckles. “I’ll keep my eyes shut.”

“How do I know that?” she says exasperated.

“You can trust me.”

“I can trust you?” she echoes. “I trust no one!”

(He wants to tell her that’s a good instinct she has going for her there, but he holds back. What he should be telling her is he’s done a lot of missions with impaired visuals, so moving a box to the desk with closed eyes was nothing.)

“You can trust me,” he insists, making a show of screwing his eyes shut. “Guide me.”

He feels her hesitation, then her hands over his. He feels her gently steer him, her little shuffles as a careful attempt to walk backward in her platform shoes. Again, he could laugh.

When he feels the edge of the table, he sets the box down and, with hands up in surrender, he backs away, eyes still closed. She guides him back around the desk.

(This time, her hands are more confidently on his waist.)

“This,” she gestures to the area around her, “is off limits. Don’t come behind the desk.” She peers over at the closed office doors.

“You could say thank you.” The cheeky retort is out of his mouth before he can stop it.

“What I could do is lose my job due to HIPAA violations!” He doesn’t know what that means, but he sees her battle panic and amusement. “So, thank you, Mr. Super Soldier Man, but I’d be more thankful if you didn’t get my ass fired.”

(She’s funny.)

“They won’t fire you,” he says. She raised a brow. “You’re the best receptionist here.”

“Are you flirting me, James?” she says distractedly, pulling a file from the box and perusing it.

“Oh, am I ‘James’ now?”

“For the foreseeable future.” She looks at him through her lashes, a playful scorn.

(He sees her flush, but she’s being bold. They both are.)

“Raynor mentioned it,” he admits, pushing his hair out of his face. “That time, last week, when she asked you to do a list of things in the middle of my session, and you’d said you already did them.”

(But, he thinks, to answer your question - yes, I am flirting with you.)

////

One of Sam’s texts is a location. He sends Bucky activities to do, things to check out, despite living in Washington D.C.

There’s an old school boxing gym in Bushwick that’ll keep your membership on the DL.

(Bucky has to Google what ‘on the DL’ means.)

Tell them I sent you, they’ll take care of you.

Bucky finds himself in the neighborhood one Tuesday, twenty minutes after the gym has closed, but he sees the lights still on. He knocks, cupping his hands to the glass to see inside. An older man, probably in his sixties, comes to the door with a broom.

“We’re closed,” he starts, but Bucky holds his empty hands up.

“Sam Wilson told me to come,” Bucky rushes. “He told me you’d be willing to let me work out here. I’m James – uh, Bucky Barnes.”

“He said you might stop by.” The man gives him a sly smile, like he knows something about Bucky, but Bucky assumes Sam talked about him.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him he was right,” Bucky jokes.

The man grins, taking Bucky’s outstretched prosthetic hand. “I’m George. Welcome to Fogwell’s Gym.”

George lends him a pair of boxing gloves and some tape. He tells Bucky, tonight, he’ll stay for an hour, but eventually, he doesn’t mind cutting him a key. He mentions that ‘his friend’ used to work out here from time to time, too. 

(He also gives Bucky his condolences.)

When Bucky tells him he can’t really pay for a membership right now, George claps a hand on his shoulder, gripping at the metal.

“Son, I’d be damned if I let a hero pay me a dime.”

(Bucky remembers these words for years to come.)

Bucky tries the boxing gloves, his muscle memory stronger than his actual memory. Images of him sparring with his dad and teaching his sister a few moves flicker in and out as he uses his teeth to tighten the laces. The glove feels uncomfortable over his prosthetic, but he gives the sandbag a few good natured jabs.

Eventually, he just wraps his right hand in tape and lays into the bag. He hears the support beams strain from his blows, but he’s possessed by something deep. Punch after punch, he feels the tightness in his chest build until he realizes he’s been holding his breath. When George goes to tell him time’s up, he finds Bucky on the ground, gasping for air.

George asks, “Are you okay, son?” and Bucky laughs in wheezes.

(For once, he’s winded because he’s out of shape and not because of a panic attack.)

[birdiesbuckley]

tactless its a test ch. 2/3 thoughts!

hey sexy people i hope you enjoyed that chapter. I've literally been writing this since I posted the last one but took a month break bc I randomly decided i hated everything i had written! honestly did not think a canon rewrite would be so difficult but here we are! some things in this chapter i wanted to talk about;

-yes i know samantha is mean to nancy. but listen. coming from a sister, this is appropriate sister behavior. sam realizes that shes kinda bitch to nance but doesn't care bc she hurt steve. yes i know steve and nance hurt each other, but sam is partial to steve obvi. they’ll be better post stancy breakup, and become the badass girlboss duo we want them to be i swear. i am a nancy lover first and foremost. 

- on that note i should mention i hate stancy. they are not good for each other

-yes i snuck rob in there for a sec. sorry not sorry, i had to write about the loml for a few paragraphs or i was gonna get separation anxiety before the st3 chapters. 

-also i wasn't originally planning on revealing sams sexuality until the great coming out scene but i decided to change how i was gonna do it bc i think I'm gonna write st4 now too so I'm plotting. 

-yes samantha’s costume is magenta in rocky horror. i love that musical with my whole heart, so obvi sams go to costume was gonna be my own go to costume. also im not sure if it was ever mentioned but samantha is blonde. 

-yes i had always planned the samantha scene. did i think about it after i changed sams name from scarlett... no... but honestly canon lesbian experience, and it was a brief enough scene that i decided it didn't matter. also you cant put a girl in a siouxsie sioux costume and not expect me to make her gay.

-dustin has a tiny crush on samantha bc i think its funny. sams style is not super common in hawkins and tiny twelve year old dustin is amazed. 

-on that note, in my mind sams style is very new wave. think a more rocker debbie harry. while new wave may be a basic 80s style, it definitely wasnt as common in buttfuck nowhere indiana. on the same note, her hair is blonde as i mentioned, and she has the debbie harry log bob with messy wispy bangs, minus the dark underside, for sure (see the top and bottom right pics below). she can also have a little metal/rock influence on her style as a treat. here's some style inspo for my girl 

-however, sams music taste is not new wave at all, she is a rock girl through and through. she def loves led zep. you’ll see her fav song in the st4 chapters teeheehee. but anyways she can dress new wave and listen to rock bc she can do whatever she wants and this is my fic. here's my spotify playlist for sam, tactless

-in the junkyard scene i picture sam in this cute little number, patterned jeans and leather jacket, everyone say thank you madonna. its more late 80s but i do whatever i want. also technically the real outfit is jorts but ignore that in my world its jeans. 

-sam taught steve how to do his hair. its canon. they both definitely smell faintly of hairspray.

-on that note a little bit of a gay backstory for sam. if you notice, i make several references to 80s queer culture, and that is because i have a huge hyperfixation for it. as a queer person, it is so important to recognize what a queer elders have done for us and part of that is acknowledging queer culture. so yes, sam is kinda my love letter to 80s queer culture. with rocky horror, siouxsie sioux, bronski beat, and anything else i mention. in future chapters i will go back into how sam learned all of this, bc you dont just learn it living in a small town in the 80s. but shes also gonna get to have her queer mentor moment which i love, so get excited for that. 

-sam has adopted max. she loves all the kids, but she is closets to max, will, mike, and eleven, as youll see in future chapters. shes fighting for the elmax friendship train. in this fic, steve is closest with dustin, lucas, and max as well. sam and steve love them all equally, but based on how close their friendship are thats how it it. 

-hopper is a softie agenda. thats my dad for reals. some of my own fav fics have hopper as a father figure to steve, so i just had to add it. hopper has a huge spot in his heart for kids with shitty parents, and he wants to protect them all. and later in the chapter, joyce has her pseudo mom moment. i love fics where steve somehow ends up adopted into the byers-hopper household. 

-the action scenes were definitely the hardest to write, and i rewrote all of them several times. the junkyard scene was similar to my og plan, but the billy fight at tunnels completely changed. originally i had no clue how i was gonna knock sam out, bc there was no way she’d go to the tunnels if steve was passed out. her using a pocketknife is slightly unhinged, but tbh love that for her. unfortunately, the harringtons are destined to receive concussions. 

-originally it was gonna be sam holding onto max in the tunnels, but i didnt wanna take away from steve, so i had a twin moment. you may think it takes away a part of steve and dustins friendship, but i dont think so, i think dustin is already obsessed with steves companionship. 

-say goodbye to saint cecilias bc this is the last time we’ll see it! good riddance i think! 

-also sam was originally gonna help max get ready for the snowball, but i think her having her mom help is important, and el needs girl time so that happened instead. the snowball scene is so special to me, and has been since i first watched the season when it came out. els dress is so cute, and im pretty sure i heard somewhere that it was nancy who helped, which is why i added the shoes bit. 

-also the timeline in this is fucked and i know. you mightve seen my timeline related mental breakdown, but in my defense it is seriously confusing no matter how many times ive seen the show. it starts to get fucked once they go with dustin to the cellar, like i know that technically its night when they go, and then railroad tracks scene and junkyard is the next day but in the show theyre also wearing the same clothes the the next day? making it two separate days made the flow weird so i chose to ignore it, even though i know it would mess up every other storyline going on, esp nance and jons, but whatever. so if its messed up at all in this fic my apologies. i had to study the season two fandom wiki page and make my own timeline.

those are my full thoughts on these chapters, hopefully i get my shit together and keep updating but im about to go to uni so we’ll see! if i havent updated in awhile, feel free to come threaten me on insta/tiktok same user as here! ive written some stuff for the future chapters (rating might be going up) so that should keep me motivated. look forward to multiple s3 chapters, goodbye my lovelys!!! 

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

06/02/2024 – 06/08/2024

Sunday

Week 17 of missing Cipher Academy

Girl Meets Rock fine, just going through the motions as the band is entering its final form.

Undead Unluck is pretty fun, it’s great to get this glimpse into Fuuko’s parents and upbringing after all this time. Sean continues to be a favourite for how well he embodies the trope of a silly guy who’s still empathetic and in tune with other people’s needs. Also I’m really amused by that color page and how Tozuka envisions male idols to be LMAOO I can’t wait to see who gets to join Kaede’s backing band.

I checked out Dropout’s new show, Thousandaires, and it’s certainly…interesting. I saw an interview blurb where Sam Reich describes it as show-and-tell, which I’d have to agree with, but it’s just a bit odd to see it used in a “competitive” format. But of course, there isn’t actually any real competition – so the impression I get is like, aggressively positive as the contestants try to make their friends laugh. It’s an odd energy, but so far it’s still been decently fun to watch. Lisa’s was the most straight up comedic bit, but I also have to give kudos to Vic for commissioning a whole musical song for their sister. Jacob’s was cute for how he always looks to give back to the community, but I would have to say that Jiavani’s was my favourite for just how genuinely sweet and fun it was.

Monday

Watched two more episodes of Simpsons, and I’m sorry to say that they weren’t good ones… Homer really annoyed me in the mini-golf episode, and then Bart annoyed me in the subsequent Thanksgiving episode. They both had good endings, I suppose, but the journey to get there was frustrating.

I’m really excited for the Game Changer finale because I vaguely enjoyed the one season of The Circle I watched years ago, and I think the Dropout designers are smarter about how to create a fair game (the people who start at the beginning of The Circle have an insanely better chance at winning than anyone joining later, and the challenges feel really nonsensical), but somehow I think Ratfish has the opposite problem to The Circle. The main gameplay conceit is a lot more interesting and fair, where they all have a chance to deduce each other’s identities based on their intuition and social awareness, but because they filmed the episodes in one day, I didn’t get the build-up of friendships and alliances and other social dynamics that I liked seeing in The Circle. I know they wouldn’t’ve wanted to trap them in a hotel for even a week, but maybe three days would’ve been fun…the general chat and personal chat times just felt so short and inorganic because of the time micromanagement. I love all the characters the cast came up with, but my favourite has to be Zac and Granma Sweetie, he was just so so funny. I’m really sad that he got out first :( So now I’m rooting for Katie to win. And I’ve gotta say…I don’t care about Mr. Eric from Tim and Eric…it’s just a brand of humor I don’t care for at all LOL and the way he chatted was so cringe and “lol xd tacos are so quirky and funny right.” There would be no way for the cast members to guess who he is, so I assume he’s providing some other function in the game – perhaps he and Sam are the ones voting on who their favourite character is? But I’m sure the cast members will get a kick out of seeing him when he’s finally revealed. Anyway I think this format is fun, it just needs a little more room to breathe…I’d love to see it come back in the future like Survivor did.

Tuesday

I had to check out the latest Chainsaw Man chapter because Twitter was exploding about it, and all I can really say is lmao. As ever, we just have to wait and see where Fujimoto goes with this, I guess.

Wednesday

I’d been picking at it here and there over the past few weeks, but my library loan was quickly running out so I read through The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo in pretty much one sitting. Of the Kousuke Kindaichi stories I’ve read so far (Honjin Murders and Devil’s Flute Murders), I was surprised to find that this was my favourite. The premise didn’t seem to be all that gripping at first, but once I was entrenched in this rural town and watching the murders and paranoia spread throughout the community, I was fully hooked. I saw some reviews complaining about the lack of Kindaichi in this Kindaichi story, but I actually kind of really liked that we were getting the story from the perspective of someone who was deeply involved and had a lot of stakes riding on the situation. It made the mystery feel all the more personal and harrowing – and besides, one of the somewhat frustrating things about the other Kindaichi books was how Kindaichi could never really prevent most of the killings. Obviously he can’t get ahead of the killer before the book ends, but it’s a little sad and frustrating to watch as people drop like flies around him while this “great detective” is helpless to stop them. With Tatsuya as our protagonist, at least, it’s more understandable why he wouldn’t be able to do much, and the emotions run higher because it’s people he cares about/the murders seem to be implicating him specifically. I really liked this setting and its characters, too – there were a lot of them, but they felt distinct enough to me where I could imagine what they looked like and what the broader social web was between them all. I especially liked the female characters, of which there were quite a few who were written really interestingly. I also liked that this mystery wasn’t much of a “puzzle box” mystery as Honjin (because I can never really get the mechanics/geography straight in my mind enough for the solution to be satisfying), and the motives were more compelling than Devil’s Flute to me. And then there’s the added bonus of themes of mob mentality and how people in an insular community govern themselves, and the added spookiness of a curse and the dualities being revealed throughout the town…there was just a lot here that was really up my alley. I would have to think on it (and see what other books I want to buy), but this book has definitely become a strong contender for a book I enjoyed so much that I want to buy a physical copy (the first of its kind in my adult life, I think! So that’s fun). As such, I’ll give it a rating of 8/10.

Thursday

I was so productive I even forgot to watch DunMesh.

Friday

Productive again. Woe is me I’m getting a lot of work done.

Saturday

Went over to my friend’s house and made Italian wedding soup. We didn’t eat it while watching DunMesh, but I just had to let you know that we did a very DunMesh activity. The episode itself was fine, though the timing of everything is a little weird. I know we’re past the days of fiddling with the source material for fear of people yelling at you on Twitter, but it would’ve been nice if the Senshi backstory was all one episode and maybe even the season finale…but now there’s the awkward tonal shift of the deeply moving personal revelation with fun species-switching comedy hijinks. I think they didn’t get a new voice actor for Tallman!Chilchuck so now his voice actor is kind of struggling lol