#and there aren't nearly enough of Elizabeth either

[pia-writes-things]

Because I have great friends (poke @gay-impressionist and @saecookie), I have recently found myself in possession of ER's season 5 et 10 DVDs and boy, is the hyperfixation slowly but surely creeping back on me.

Which, after the DW specials, feels like I'm travelling back in time and I'm 15 again. Absolutely not a bad thing but definitely a weird feeling to say the least

[stalemateserial]

49

Down a ten digit, now. Seeing the four stand where a five had was making it all the more real. Harder to deny. It'd be rather convenient to experience the five stages of grief over ten days each, that'd leave her with twenty days of acceptance, give or take.

But I don't accept this just yet.

She was feisty like that, so it goes.

"Are you finding it harder to ignore?"

Ruth's measuring the potted plant attached to one of the examination tables, either lost in thought or else doing a bang-up job pretending she was. "Finding what harder to ignore? How silly these experiments are?"

"No, I meant, you know… the deadline."

"It's a bit unrealistic to think you can ignore it, don't you think?"

"Well, that'd be the better way to conduct myself, wouldn't it? I'm not feeling much like I'm seizing the days I have left."

"Your memento mori is mixing with your carpe diem, hmmm?"

"I suppose so."

"I guess I'm ahead of schedule, then, I'm feeling a lot more caveat emptor than I am memento mori."

"Remind me what that is, exactly?"

"Let the buyer beware."

"Well, you can hardly say we paid for this."

"Not yet, but we might be paying the ultimate price soon."

Judith felt her breathing begin to get away from her. Her heartbeat was in her ears loud enough to nearly drown out the air processing. Her eyes were stinging with water. "Jesus, we really are, aren't we? I mean we really, truly are. I really am going to die."

"For now, it'd be the realistic thing to expect, but I ain't dead yet, Judy. It might not seem like it, but there's people down there scratching every fold of their brain trying to think up a way out of this. It's either silly to let it occupy your every thought because we'll have a solution, or it's useless, because you're just wasting your last days."

Judith sniffled, stray tears drifting into weightless space around her face. "But how can I not? I don't want to die."

"I know, honey. I don't either. There's not much waiting for me back down there, but it's enough to make me want to stick around to see it again. But until the second I feel myself starting to choke, my fight isn't over. And we still have something we need to do."

"I haven't thought about that too much today."

"Well, thinking yourself into a pit will do that. Find a rope, honey; we made a promise."

So Judith thought about it. The board was opening up now, there were many more options to consider. Every so often, while she pondered, tendrils of doubt would rear up from the pit Ruth had willed into existence, misery seeking company. Judith would dismiss them, each one more forceful and impatient than the last. But Ruth was right about the promise. So she strategized, simulated possible outcomes, let herself be tactical. They're having dinner when she says "Queen's side knight to D2."

Ruth wipes the corners of her mouth with a napkin. "You haven't forgotten the agreement, have you?"

"It's not an agreement, it's a wager. Jumping the gun gets you trouble in a game like this. I know better than to let you bait me."

Ruth caught Judith's drifting gaze, smiling a Cheshire smile. "Maybe I'll take a piece tonight, then."

"You'd sacrifice a potential lead just to get rid of the tension?"

"There's tension?"

Judith looks away, but she can tell Ruth's eyes are still on her. "Come on, now, don't tease me. I've too much dignity to be anything but coy."

"Methinks the lady hath read too much Jane Austen."

"You don't like thinking to yourself whether they will or they won't?"

"I don't think it's uncommon knowledge whether or not Mr. Darcy ends up with Elizabeth."

"Sure, but it's not about what happens eventually. It's about every time it's been so close, re-examining what was really happening once you know for sure. It's about the buildup."

"If you like the buildup," Ruth purred, "allow me my opportunity to construct. Fancy me an architect."

Judith knows she's playing along, now. Humoring a joke to avoid what follows the punchline. "Is that what this is?"

"No, no, I'm having too much fun teasing you. All you'll get from me now is this: Castle, rook at F8, king at F9"

[michael-aftons-nonbinary-lover]

Hey >:)) i saw yer request still open and i wanted to apologize for the last thing (not rlly) and request something most cheery or wtvr 🙄‼️ (if not feel free to ignore this!!)

Im a really big sucker for the idea of William and Child!Afton!Reader whos like no older than 14 but definitely not younger than 10- anyways-

William and Child!Reader who can only drink things that are freshly cold? like if they were to have a soda they would have to finish it pretty quickly or else it wouldn’t be finished because it got slightly warm. How would he react to this and what would he do with this knowledge?

Don't lie, you guys love adding years to my therapy sentence😕/lh /nsrs

(also, idk if you meant preferences or something like 'i physically cannot eat this thing' so I just wrote about it being a preference, very sorry for that/gen)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Afton Kid with certain drink criteria hc's

-Your older brother was the first person to notice it

-Being around you so often, he takes note of how your hot drinks have to stay hot, and your cold drinks have to stay cold

-Michael picks on you because of this. He purposely tries to get you away from drinks long enough for them to go room temperature so that they bother you

-The thought of lukewarm drinks repulses you

-Your parents find it odd, but not too bothersome

-If course, William does become bothered that so many drinks are wasted because of this habit of yours, and the fact that you often get dehydrated

-Your mother takes you to a doctor about it, but in the end, it turns out that you aren't being dehydrated because of some underlying medical emergency that was going unnoticed, which is good

-You end up getting a good thermal water bottle that has to go with you everywhere

-William is insistent upon it, he won't let you leave the house without it

-None of his babies are going to get dehydrated if he has any say in it. And he does.

-Makes sure that your water bottle is filled with ice cold water, and contains as many ice cubes as he can fit into it without the water overflowing

-Your mother says that he over worries, but if you dehydrate during the day, he won't forgive himself

-Your school once called your parents telling them that you had passed out because you had refused to drink the water they had given them. William had nearly pulled you out of school and started homeschooling then and there.

-Of course, your habit causes him to fret over your siblings as well

-He eventually leaned that Elizabeth can't stand blueberries and Evan hates broccoli with a passion

-They never see either of those things again

-It takes him a while to figure out what Michael hates, but turns out it's eggs

-Your mother jokes about him being fussy about you four, but she finds it very sweet

-People who offer any one of you those foods you hate gets them horrible glares and side eyes from your father

-Overall, he's highly protective of you all, even if it's just over your food preferences

[esta-elavaris]

omg i just finished a series of assessments for the new term. it’s barely the start yet i’m already eager to graduate. anyways, why am i talking about me — aaa! i was washing the dishes earlier and i suddenly wondered if you’ll open a q&a portion as a “commercial break” for catch the winds, because i’m so curious like when did you think of the plot? how long did it take? how did you come up with theodora? i have so many questions! your book has stuck to me a lot that i still can’t get over it, and it’s been what? almost a week since i finished it? i’m a mess!

by the way, how are you doing? i hope you’re fine and practicing self-care! <3

Talk about you! I don't mind at all! I know what you mean, though - I graduated uni like four years ago but I still remember just being so ready for it to be over by the time I got to my final year. I feel like the first year is a novelty, the second year you're used to it all and have a good rhythm, and by third year you're just ready to move on. Or that was my case, anyway! It'll go slow, and then the second the final thing is handed in it feels like it all flew by, it's strange.

ANYWAY - aaaa! Thank you! I'm thrilled to hear it stayed with you for so long. Honestly, I never considered doing a Q&A thing because I just never thought anybody would be interested in something like that! I don't want to bore people who just want the next chapter haha. That being said, I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have on here! Any time, just shoot me an ask or a message, whichever works for you. I do apologise for the insanely long essay I ended up writing you here, I got carried away.

I kind of had the plot in mind for a while but in two different ways. I wanted to write a Norrington fic, and I wanted to write a "modern girl in X" fic for a long time. With the modern girl trope, my first thought was to do a Dragon Age fic, but it's been done so many times in that fandom (I know I'm not the first to do it in POTC either, but it seems to be really prolific in Dragon Age fandoms, whereas I haven't read many POTC fics because I avoid reading in fandoms I write in), so I tried to think where else it could work and Norrington was the answer.

It took a looong time between getting the idea and actually writing it, like at least a year, because I nearly didn't write it at all - and when I did, I wasn't even going to post it. I figured the idea was too far-fetched for me to be able to pull it off, and even if I did that not many people would be interested in reading it because OC fics tend to get a bad rap and "modern girl in X" fics double down on that bad rap. I was also terrified of writing in this fandom because it's so complex with so many difficult characters and so easy to get wrong, so that kept me away for a long time, but my original novel has pirates and a similar fantasy vibe so I figured it would be good practise.

I gave in and finally wrote the first chapter in the middle of the night when we were going through a heat wave that made it impossible to sleep (boo for no AC in Britain) just to get it out of my system, and then I liked the prologue enough to post it, same for the following chapter, and so on, until before I knew it we were at the start of the first movie. It was only ever for my own enjoyment at that point and I was amazed when more than ten people ended up reading it haha, I'm still stunned by how lovely people are about it. It hasn't left me alone since, although I did have a looot of doubt in the early chapters as to whether I could pull it off, because James was a tricky character to get the hang of.

Aaaand where Theodora is concerned, looks wise she's inspired by a mix of Anne Bonny from Black Sails and Sansa Stark (in the later seasons ofc) from GOT, but those aren't exactly who I picture, just a bit of a resemblance. A lot of creating her was trying to think of what sort of woman James would fall in love with, and we already have that with Elizabeth, but I didn't want to just write a second Elizabeth and put her in the story. Although where Elizabeth is concerned, I knew it was important that she and Theodora had to get along and be friends because I really didn't want to go the route of writing a female OC who immediately fought and didn't get along with the one other main prominent woman in the movies, it just felt icky, and it'd take a lot of the nuance out of the difficult situation as far as the three of them are concerned.

The good thing is, a lot of what I imagine James loves about Elizabeth are a lot of the more modern aspects of her (we stan a progressive king), so I felt like he'd be a good fit for a modern OC as long as she tried to understand where he was coming from and the parts of him that still would be rooted in the time he's from. Even the most feminist views by 18th century standards would probably still be a bit backwards by modern standards, so I knew they'd have to love each other enough to put their mutual stubbornness on hold to understand one another rather than just fighting over every little thing, because that would be exhausting.

Most of all with Theo, I wanted her to be able to hold her own in her environment without being a Mary Sue who just magically had these abilities and was good at everything. My thoughts then went to her being a soldier, but I'm sure I've read some LOTR modern girl stories (I considered writing one of those, too, because Boromir is the love of my life but I don't have the balls to touch Tolkien) where that was the case and I didn't want to run the risk of subconsciously copying them. I also don't know enough about the military to be able to portray a modern day soldier convincingly or accurately and I was worried about being disrespectful in that regard, so having her be a soldier's daughter felt like a great middle ground.

It also gives her and James common ground because she understands the mind-set, thanks to her father's influence, and the lifestyle to some extent, even in the different time period. Her father himself is majorly inspired by Ant Middleton (he did a lot of Channel 4 shows over here, I don't know if they're available to stream overseas but they're very good), and a lot of the mental toughness things he teaches her translates well to her being able to hold her own and not having breakdowns over minor problems every other chapter, but doesn't quite put her at a level where she's infallible and doesn't struggle, because that's just not human. She could climb a mountain, she couldn't go to war, y'know? At least at the start of the story. She doesn't have a choice by this arc.

It was also important to me that she felt a bit lost in the modern world and is more suited to a place where day to day life is more difficult because she thrives on that, so it's not a case of she's giving up a place where she was totally happy for the sake of James. I don't doubt that she still would, but it would feel a bit iffy. Having her be Irish also left the opportunity for a good excuse for her weird modern behaviours, a source of conflict early on in Port Royal with the other residents, and I knew I'd be able to write it decently because I'm Scottish and our history with the English/how we were (and still are, in a lot of cases) viewed by them is quite similar, even if it's not completely the same.

As far as how she and James click, I wish I could explain that but they take on a life of their own when I write them and I just let it happen. There's logic to it, I swear, but I couldn't describe what that logic is lolol. Plus this answer is embarrassingly long already so B) I think mostly it's a willingness to abandon their stubbornness to an extent where the other in concerned, and the fact that they're both fiercely loyal. I think her silliness at times also gives him the freedom to loosen up, which he'd appreciate, whereas how good and reliable he is would provide a major source of comfort and a sense of safeness for her.

All of that being SAID - I went into this story with only a few solid ideas. The Tortuga scene from the prologue, the bit where she watches Elizabeth accept the proposal, the end of the first movie, and a few parts that are going to happen between now and the end, so I'm very excited to get to those parts because it feels like it's what all of this writing has been for ahah.

And I'm doing okay, thank you for asking! Just a bit run down, but it's fine, it'll pass, and I had a lot of fun answering these questions, so thank you for that :)