#as i said on ao3 'my self indulgent tropes let me show you them'

[thingswhatareawesome]

spicy chicken instant ramen for the soul

title: spicy chicken instant ramen for the soul fandom: Tiger and Bunny pairing: Barnaby/Kotetsu (taibani) world count: 1082 summary: It was amazing how a few small items could lift Kotetsu’s spirits so much despite how awful he felt. (or, the one where Barnaby brings home a few treats for his sick spouse.)

For the March Flash Fiction day three prompt: Wish granted.

Barnaby let himself into their apartment, toeing off his shoes as he called out, “I’m back.”

From down the dim hall he heard a muffled, hoarse “Welcome home.” Kotetsu was awake then. That was good. But as he walked into the dim living area and saw the TV was once again turned off, he gave a sympathetic look to the blanket-covered lump on the couch. His husband had his arm covering his flushed face. His head must be hurting again, and his fever was still definitely lingering.

Setting the plastic bag from the nearby corner store on the end table, Barnaby went to find the pain relievers, and to check if Kotetsu needed his next dose of medicine. He’d come down with a particularly nasty respiratory infection recently, and while in his younger days Kotetsu would have just triggered his Hundred Power to heal himself, repeating it as long as it took for the cold to be gone, he was a bit older now, and a minute didn’t heal as much or as thoroughly as five minutes used to. Instead it just left him more drained and fatigued each time he used it.

So now Kotetsu was on antibiotics and bed rest, and Barnaby could tell how truly lousy he felt with the marked lack of protest or attempts to be active and work as if nothing was wrong.  Pills and a glass of cool water in hand, he returned to the couch where Kotetsu lay, placing them next to the bag from the store. He nudged the older man gently, wondering if he’d dozed off again already.

But Kotetsu pulled his arm back from his face, peering blearily up at Barnaby. “What?” he grumbled, voice barely more than a painful sounding croak.

“I have these for you.” Barnaby held the medications and glass out to Kotetsu, waiting patiently as Kotetsu slowly levered himself into a sitting position, his already wild and spiky hair a rumpled and sweaty mess. Once this dose took effect, Barnaby thought, perhaps he could persuade Kotetsu to try a shower, or at least run him a warm bath. Kotetsu gingerly swallowed the pills, visibly barely holding back a wince as he did so, but how tightly he scrunched his eyes closed revealed how much his throat obviously hurt.  Barnaby sighed in sympathy. If only he could make this all go away faster. A handful of years ago and Kotetsu would’ve shrugged off major, if not catastrophic, injuries with an insouciant grin and a thumbs up. Now a case of strep throat and a sinus infection left him reeling.

With another quiet sigh, Barnaby unloaded the items from the convenience store from the bag. Originally, he’d not understood Kotetsu’s craving for junk foods when he’d started feeling unwell, but then he’d mumbled about how when he was a young boy, back before his powers had manifested, his mother would buy all the comfort foods a school age child loved best when he was sick, in addition to the nutritious soups and tea she’d make for her son. Upon hearing that, Barnaby couldn’t help but want to indulge him, to try to help him feel better in whatever small ways he could.

First out of the bag were several spicy instant ramen bowls, then the multicolored sugary popsicles, and finally bottles of fizzy clear soda and ginger ale. Kotetsu made a garbled happy noise as he drank the last of the glass of water, eyes caught on the small treasure trove Barnaby had stacked on the table.

“Bunny,” he rasped, leaning forward to press himself against Barnaby’s leg. Nuzzling him, Kotetsu rumbled, “Bunny…” again, drawing it out.

“All your wishes granted, yes?” Barnaby couldn’t help but smile softly at his husband. It was amazing how a few small items could lift Kotetsu’s spirits so much despite how awful he felt.

“Yes, thank you, thank you, Bunny.” Kotetsu wrapped an arm weakly around the leg he was leaning against, reaching his other hand out for one of the still-chilled sodas. “You’re the best Bunny and I love you.”

“Do you want any of these now, or later? I could start the kettle if you’d like some ramen?”

Kotetsu shook his head, which unfortunately rubbed his sweat-damp forehead and hair against Barnaby’s jeans. Definitely a shower or bath was necessary, once the latest dose of pills set in. “I want to sleep more. A little bit. Ramen later.”

Barnaby stroked his hand over Kotetsu’s head, felt the expression on his face soften even further as he looked down at the other man. Oh well. Cleaning up could wait just a little bit then. “Let me put everything in the kitchen, and then I can sit with you if you’d like.”

“Yeah. ‘d like that.” Kotetsu leaned back, eyes sliding closed as he slouched against the couch cushions.

It took only moments for Barnaby to collect up the food stuffs and put them where they needed to go in the kitchen, but by the time he returned, Kotetsu was all but asleep again, the partially drunk bottle of soda recapped and over on the end table. Seating himself, he tugged carefully at Kotetsu’s shoulder, guiding him down so his head was pillowed on Barnaby’s lap. As he straightened the blanket covering his husband, Kotetsu curled onto his side and scooted closer until his forehead pressed against Barnaby’s stomach.

“Would you like the television on again?” he asked, though Kotetsu just shook his head.

“Just need you.”

“All right, that’s fine then.” Barnaby draped his arm over Kotetsu’s shoulders, hand stroking idle patterns on his back. “Sleep all you need. I’ll be here.”

Silence fell, and Barnaby let himself relax as Kotetsu sank once more into slumber. Even as bad as Kotetsu seemed now, he’d been worse when this started; with just a few days of antibiotics, he was already showing some improvement. They just needed to wait a bit longer and be patient until the prescription was done—a week, ten days at most, and Kotatsu would be on the mend.

He’d be better soon, he reassured himself once more. It would just take a little more time. And when it came to this man he loved so much, Barnaby would always gladly take all the time in the world for him.

[maybe-theres-hope]

Tarlos Period Drama AU

So @howtosingit received an ask about a Tarlos Bridgerton AU, and to be honest I’ve just binged the whole thing so I commented on that post saying I’d attempt it. 

But here’s the thing. I couldn’t make it work with Regency Era. I just...couldn’t. So I have placed them in The Gilded Age in America. If you’re familiar with it, I want you to know that I’m not going to include any ridiculous corruption or monopolies that really...defined the era. Moreso I’m putting them in a time where I think the clothes are pretty, and the aesthetic fits my needs. Everything in this will be very fun and mostly lighthearted with only the perfect amount of angst to satisfy period drama tropes. It will be at times inaccurate, and other times shamelessly self indulgent. Tropes galore.

I also said I would attempt a one-shot but....yeah. This will be...rather long. LOL can’t stop won’t stop. 

Under the cut is the opening scene, to give you a feel (not my first attempt at writing in this style, but the first in a LONG while.) I will post link to AO3 when I begin publishing. PLEASE let me know if you are looking forward to it, as it will greatly motivate me!

1885. TK is son of Owen Strand, of Strand Intercontinental Railroad Company. They have traveled to the southern US to cut deals with landowners there to build a lucrative rail line through central Texas. TK is 26, and his father thinks he’s getting rather old to be unmarried. He has warned TK that if he does not find a husband by the end of the year, he will arrange a marriage, as Owen cannot by law bequeath his fortune upon his death unless his son is married. TK is not...vibing with having to hurry his decision to wed. Truly at his heart, he is a romantic and wishes to marry for love. It’s just that love has been hard to come by with the flighty boys of his set back home in New York. He’s not holding out hope for any prospects in whatever back country they’re traveling to either.

“Ms. Mercer’s proposal looks promising,” Owen says, mostly to himself but loud enough to include TK in the conversation, should he wish to participate. “And Mr. and Mr. Felton-Lowman have quite a sprawl, though it does look to contain more elevation than I was hoping. I thought all of Texas was supposed to be flat?” Owen muses as he tosses the papers back onto his makeshift desk.

TK is only half listening, choosing instead to stare morosely out the window at the passing countryside of the American South, eyes at intervals tracking livestock in the fields and lingering drips from this morning’s light storm rolling down the glass window of the lavish Pullman they’ve commandeered as their vessel for this journey. His father, bless his soul, had tried to get TK to care more about the business as of late, and truth be told, TK was very interested in the workings of his father’s company and he did take great pride in being able to inherit it someday and make his father proud. It was just that recently, he’d had his heart thoroughly crushed by an absolute rake of a man and he’d rather wallow in self pity than think about geological surveys and boundaries for livestock movements.

TK heard his father sigh, a sure sign that a lecture was coming soon. TK took a breath and held it.

“I wish you’d forget about that awful boy, Tyler. You wouldn’t have wanted a life with him anyway. His family was barely polite at best, and scandalous at their worst. Honestly, you got out on the good side of things.” TK wanted to say that he didn’t care about things like status and scandal, he cared about love and commitment.

Turns out all Alexander had been able to commit to was his harem of stable boys and footmen that TK had known nothing about until it was too late.

TK blew out his breath. He knew his father meant well. Owen Strand was not overbearing as some other fathers were, especially with an only child upon whom everything rested. He wished his son to be happy and settled, is all. TK knew this, and still he couldn’t help his sullen reply.

“Yes, father, I shall just forget. Forget every sweet nothing and every second and third dance. Forget every promise and every earnest declaration. Forget that it was all a lie. Yes, my mind shall be rid of Alexander’s presence by sundown. Then we shall celebrate. How simple.” He knew he was being unreasonable, but he wanted to be angry for a while. He’d only found Alexander with Mrs. Howell’s second footman three days earlier. It still stung.

As the train rattled on, closer to a place that TK was of a mind to understand was so far from proper civilization as to be considered exotic, he felt his father’s disappointment cling to him. That hurt worse than what he’d seen Alexander and the footman doing--which was something for which he was sure a name had not been invented yet.

“I’m sorry, father. It’s just that you’ve set this deadline for me with no explanation as to why, and I don’t want to let you down but I’m afraid I’ll never find the right man for me. I had thought it would be Mr. Thompson, but I was mistaken. Sorely mistaken.”

At this, TK looked up to catch his father’s soft look of commiseration. “I know you’re feeling overwhelmed, but you are getting on in age. Most boys are married off by three and twenty, and you’ve gone nearly four years past that. I’m not going to be around forever, you know. You need to secure a match that makes you happy, but you’ll need to do it sooner rather than later.”

“Why, father? Why must I rush such a momentous decision? You are in perfect health! I have another five or ten at least!” At this, he caught a very minute shift in his father’s countenance, something like pain, but it was gone in an instant. His father was the most stoic man TK had ever had occasion to meet; if he was in pain at all, no one would ever know. It must have been a trick of the flickering pre-dusk light coming through the windows of the train car. Owen took on a playful tone.

“Five or ten? What respectable young lad would want to marry a man of thirty-five? You’d practically be spinster by then,” he joked fondly.

“You’re a good deal past thirty-five and I’ve still seen twenty year old Miss Brinkman making eyes at you across the dancefloor of an evening. If I’ve inherited your genes I’ve nothing to fear,” TK shot back with a barely there smirk.

“Thank heaven for us all, but you’ve got your mother’s beauty. I couldn’t have asked for better,” Owen said quietly. TK’s mother had been gone these past ten years. A bout with pneumonia that the doctors could not cure had taken her from them. “But you do have my charm, I’ll allow you that. You should put it to use down south. Perhaps a cattle baron might catch your eye?”

“Oh by God, no. I couldn’t imagine whiling away my days on a smelly farm trying to read reports by moonlight and taking my sullen and fatigued husband to bed only for him to fall asleep minutes after his head hits the pillow. No romance in hard labor, that’s for sure.” TK shuddered a bit to think of life on an actual farm, constantly smelling of hay and manure like some streetsweeper back in Manhattan.

“I do believe successful cattle barons can afford more than a few tawdry tallows, Tyler,” Owen quipped with a smirk before turning his attention back to the maps and surveys scattered in front of him. The conversation that, just moments ago, had been fraught with uncertainty and earnestness seemed to flutter into the wind. TK and his father were like that most times: they’d lay things out on the table between them, and if it clearly couldn’t be resolved in a single good-natured quarrel, they both gave themselves time to regroup to resume the discussion at a later date.

For this particular subject, TK was coming to think of that ‘later date’ as a cuff slowly tightening around his wrist, the chain binding him to his destiny getting shorter and shorter.

He looked down at his hands, privileged hands that hadn’t had to do much manual labor in his life, save for the few times his father took him to the yards to show him how things were run. Owen, on the other hand, was an entirely self-made man, who saved and invested his earnings working for Vanderbilt and made enough to purchase his first railcar at just twenty. He contracted it with the Erie and charged passengers thirty-five cents for passage between New York and Boston. From there it only grew, to what was now a very respectable business, looking to lay lines of their own. Perhaps not the largest--that was still Vanderbilt’s claim--but certainly a player on the board.

And it would all be TK’s if he could just hurry up and fall in love already.

[ghoste-catte]

multiples of 3 ✌🏼-sgmdrcklee

@sagemoderocklee you’re really trying to kill me lol

This got long as heck so I’m throwing it behind a cut. Read on for answers and fic recs! (Mostly the fic recs)

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

This is a tough one to answer for me generally because I tend to spit words onto the page and once I have written them I no longer remember writing them. And 2020 has stretched on so long that as I’m looking at some of the stuff I wrote in the beginning of this year, I hardly remember what’s even in it. I think at one point someone (@goblin-draws maybe?) mentioned a line in Sleeptalk with Me where the innkeeper calls Kankuro “chubby boy”, and I was like “Oh ... did I write that? Yeah, sounds like something I’d have someone say to Kankuro ...” 

It might be easier to talk about this in other terms. One of the scenes I worked the hardest on this year was the fight scene in Chapter 3 of Skeleton Key. The original draft of the scene was a lot shorter, and a lot of the backstory for Misaki’s revenge quest was elided. The scene as originally written was clunky, confusing, and as my lovely wife/beta put it sounded “like a Naruto villain” was doing the dialogue, when previously she’d found Misaki sinister and intriguing. Which wasn’t what I wanted. I basically entirely overhauled the scene and re-wrote it several times. I wouldn’t call it a ‘favorite’ scene (I hate writing fight scenes generally; having chosen to immerse myself in a fandom about ninja where much of the drama comes from battle is my eternal regret), but it is a scene that I put a lot of effort into, and I’m moderately satisfied with the improved product that resulted.  

6. least popular fic this year

By far my least popular fic by kudos ever is Pitch Perfect. Which makes complete sense to me. It’s a fic where I’ve written 2 characters who are men in canon as cis women, which pushes a lot of uncomfortable buttons for a lot of people. It contains F/F smut, which is something that a lot of people who choose to read GaaLee probably aren’t out there looking for. And people comment and kudos less on smutfics, I assume because they don’t want their username attached to porn or because they’re embarrassed (which I totally get, no shame there). It’s a modern AU with a sports twist, and AUs are often less popular than canonverse in my experience. I will say though that it has a surprisingly high number of private bookmarks compared to other fics with comparable hit and kudos counts. So I assume people are just a bit more shy because the premise is so ‘out there’. I will say as far as my fics go, it’s one of my personal favorites and probably one of the most intimate and true-to-life things I’ve written? So it actually is a little comforting to know that something so vulnerable has relatively little attention. 

9. longest wip of the year

If we’re going based on stuff that’s partially published but not complete, my Gaara-adopts-Shinki fic On My Way Home is my longest in-progress fic at just over 20k words, although technically I started it in 2019. It will probably end up being right around 40-50k when it’s complete, which might end up situating it as my longest fic ever? 

12. favorite character to write about this year

Okay, this is an easy one. I love writing Kankuro. I think he is hilarious. He is the devil on my shoulder and a creature of pure id, and every time I write a line of dialogue for him it’s the summation of my rudest thoughts about a situation put in the crudest possible terms. If there were a megaphone directly from my unfiltered brain giving running commentary, that would be Kankuro.

15. something you learned this year

I have learned SO much this year! This is only my 2nd year properly ‘focusing’ on writing fic and investing any substantial time into it. I think the biggest thing I have learned, though, is how to overcome a lot of my self-consciousness about writing stories with NSFW elements in them. Starting out, I was so extremely shy and mortified about writing fic at all, much less things like hugging or (god forbid!) kissing. So taking on the smut prompts I took this year and really buckling down on learning to write the mechanics and emotions of sex has been a massive learning experience. (And sorry, by the way, if I haven’t gotten to a prompt you sent me in January yet. I do intend to write all of them eventually!) 

18. current number of WIPs

Ah. The call-out question. My general fic process is idea -> outline -> wip -> edit -> ready to post (where the final draft sits in my docs until I gin up the courage to actually post it). So skipping fics that are just “ideas” on the big mega-list, I have 3 fics in the “outline” stage, 13 fics in the partially written “wip” stage, 1 fic in the “editing” stage, and 2 that are complete but yet-to-be-posted. So, like, 19 total in the offing. (The “ideas” list is even worse lol.)

21. most memorable comment/review

This is such a difficult question because every single comment I get makes me do a little dance for joy. That’s not an exaggeration btw I really sit there and like bounce around in my seat for a moment before I open the Ao3 email. I am not an especially emotive person irl, but there have been times I’ve been brought near tears by comments. I’ll also occasionally show them to my wife like !! look at this nice thing this person said !! and she’s indulgent enough to actually read them. There have been a couple comments that have really stuck with me, that I starred in my inbox and return to frequently, but I don’t want to bring attention to someone else without their permission. I will say there was one person recently who mentioned (not in the comments on one of my fics) that they had found someone who does physical binding of fanfiction and they were about to ask my permission to do that, but then the person who does the binding only does certain ships that she likes ... so that, just, absolutely floored me. The idea that someone might actual want a physical copy of my stupid little ninja fanfictions is, like, so truly immense and completely overwhelming?

24. favorite fic you read this year

You can’t make me pick just one!! (For reference, I have bookmarked right around 180 fics in the past year, and that’s not including fics that I just read, really enjoyed, but didn’t think I could ‘handle’ a second time around.) So, skipping over the ones that AREN’T Naruto ... here is a brief sampling of some faves:

Silica by deepestbluest (rated E, GaaLee, ShikaTema, and Kankiba) - An absolute emotional powerhouse of a fic that manages to skillfully interweave three complex relationship dynamics, satisfactorily resolve them, and give you ALL the sandsibs feels in just over 10k words. 

Childhood Not-Friends (series) by MegaWallflower (rated G, KakaGai) - @megawallflower is a KakaGai god for good reason. Absolutely adorable relationship development fics (five of them!) with the premise that Kakashi thinks he and Gai have been dating since they were kids ... Gai just hasn’t been clued into it yet. These stories will give you heart-eyes.

The Bright Side by gidget_goes (rated T, GaaLee) - This is the Buffy AU I never knew I needed, because I’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But truly you don’t need any Buffy knowledge to enjoy this fic. @gidget-goes command of imagery is masterful, and the way they manage to snap from snark to tugging at your heartstrings is awe-inspiring. Gaara breaks my heart in this. And did I mention Kankuro wears a 10-gallon hat? Because Kankuro wears a 10-gallon hat. 

Nature vs. Nurture by Bidiza (rated T, GaaLee) - So introspective and so poetic. This looks like a WIP but it’s actually multiple oneshots, although by the end of the second one you’ll be dying for the rest of the promised series. 

I’m a Fool to Want You by BeelieveRosemarie (rated M, GaaLee) - Turns out @tuttiefruttiegaalee isn’t just an amazing artist, they’re a writer, too! Slow-dancing that will break your heart. Listen to the Frank Sinatra song while you read this for extra tear-jerking effect.

Let Love be Known (series) by TenTomatoes (rated G, GaaLee) - This is the twist on the arranged marriage trope and Beauty and the Beast that I didn’t realize this fandom was missing. I’m absolutely obsessed with their concept of Gaara as the Beast

I Could Be by LilacNoctua (rated T, GaaLee) - I know I big up @lilac-writes Worthwhile series a lot (deservedly so, because it’s so good it makes you look at the series and go “Why the fuck didn’t Kishimoto make this canon exactly like this?”), but this story made me absolutely die between the butterflies in my stomach and how hard I was laughing. There’s one line--you’ll know it when you read it--that absolutely bowls me over every time I re-read this. 

And Then Continue by EgregiousDerp (rated E, GaaLee) - Obviously I’m biased because this was a gift, but @egregiousderp writes some of the the best characterized porn I’ve ever read. You will read this and go “Wow! This is exactly how it would happen!” It’s such a tender, beautiful exploration of Gaara’s insecurities and a very real feeling first time, for all its soft edges. 

Cake by citronelle (rated E, KanKiba) - I don’t even know what to say about this one other than ... phew, this is extremely well written, extremely hot, and extremely in character. Just read it. I promise it’s worth it. 

Saudade by YumKiwiDelicious (rated M, GaaLee) - I’ve run around reccing this to just about every person on the face of the earth at this point. If you’re in the GaaLee Discord you probably saw everyone salivating over every new update of this fic and with good reason. The twists and turns of this fic will have you on the edge of your seat, second guessing every single moment. And it will break your heart in the meantime. What more could you want?

the love potion commotion by floating_cats (rated T, NejiSasu with background GaaLee) - One of those fics where you wish the author’s sense of humor was your own. So many hilarious moments in this story, and it brought me a new appreciation for a ship I never would have even considered. 

Finger Lickin’ Good by whazzername (rated E, GaaLee) - Whazz is another one of those authors where I literally want to rec every single thing she’s ever written, she’s just that good. (Speaking of which, if you haven’t read Fools Rush In and its sequel Degrees of Separation, you’re missing out on the best possible Metal origin story of all time. Don’t deprive yourself of this.) But this story is just ... so incredibly in character for a situation that reads like crack. It’s handled with the utmost straight-facedness and it’s so. freakin’. good. 

heart lines by winterberry_holly (rated M, NejiTen and GaaLee) - I don’t even have the words to describe how perfect this fic is. It’s a truly beautiful exploration of Tenten’s relationship with her palmistry hobby and with the people in her life. My heart ached with every single line. 

Standing on Ceremony by kuroashi (rated E, GaaLee) - This is just ... such a beautiful wedding story. So lovely, like getting the best possible warm hug from someone you love. If that love one was slightly strange and socially inept, because, well. It’s still Gaara doing Gaara-things. @baphometsss is another one of those authors whose handling of smut scenes is so stupendous it makes me wildly jealous. 

Thrall by RokiRiot (rated T, GaaLee) - Idiots-to-lovers with a magic AU twist! This is such a wonderful story, and Gaara’s internal monologue is absolutely amazing. And Lee is Deaf in this fic, which I never ever get to see and which absolutely made my entire day/week/month/life. 

Make-Out Consequences by LuxaLucifer (rated M, KakaGai with background canon Boruto ships) - I laughed so hard reading this that I had to take a breather to stop crying. That’s not an exaggeration. The characterization in this fic is impeccable and the humor is to die for. Naruto’s buffoonery truly shines here, and the author’s wit is just beyond anything I could even properly summarize. Hysterical. A++. 

Thirteen Strokes by Luna_Lee (rated T, GaaLee) - Again, like, if you aren’t reading literally everything @sagemoderocklee writes, are you even really a GaaLee fan? But this fic is beyond even for one of Eeri’s incredibly excellent writings. The worldbuilding in this, the cultural notes, the imagery ... it’s all so lush and so fulfilling and so beautiful. It’s a story about love and it’s a story that you can tell has love poured into every single line. I can’t recommend it enough. 

Checkmate by shadowstrangle (rated G, GaaLee) - The pettiness vibes ... this is so funny. Such a cute story and I love Gaara’s sense of humor here. Not a lot of writers give him a sense of humor, but I love how @shadowstrangle gives him a slightly odd, slightly left-of-center take on humor that still manages to be so funny. 

To Court a Village by FanFictionEngineer (rated G, GaaLee) - Another one where my bias is perhaps slightly obvious, but the premise of this fic is amazing. I love cultural misunderstandings, and the idea of Lee trying his hardest to court Gaara ineptly is just so perfect. 

affliction of feeling by theformerone (rated E, SakuHina) - One of those ships that it would never have occurred to me to seek out but that absolutely works with how the author’s set it up. The dynamics here are delicious. It’s so rare to find good F/F porn but this is one of them for sure. 

Tried and Tested by twentysomething (Rated M, KakaIru with background canon Boruto ships and GaaLee) - Iruka’s narration in this story is just incredible. I haven’t laughed this hard reading a fic in ages. And the concept alone (that Naruto can’t be promoted to Hokage until he passes his chuunin exams ... as an adult ... and Sasuke gets dragged along for the ride) is just brilliant. Amazing concept, amazingly executed. 

a fireside waltz by winterberry_holly (rated M, GaaLee) - I really tried not to rec a single author more than once here but for this one I had to. I got about halfway through this fic and immediately started running around ringing the town crier bell like READ THIS FIC! READ THIS FIC! An absolutely smoldering Regency AU with such beautiful, intimate dance scenes. My heart was racing every single time their fingers brushed. If you don’t read anything else on this list, at the very least read this. 

27. favorite fanfic author of the year

I really can’t pick just one. I am lucky enough that @egregiousderp passes me her drafts under the table before (or without) publishing, and getting to read those is a private treat of unparalleled proportions. Some of my favorite things I’ve read this year I can’t even rec because they’re her unpublished stuff. 

30. favorite fandom to read fic from this year

This is gonna come off strange because I just wrote such a long Naruto reclist, but I recently watched What We Do in the Shadows, and found an incredibly talented group of authors in that fandom with really amazingly good dialogue and narrative voice. I also read a lot of fic for the new It movies (even though I couldn’t watch the 2nd one for ~reasons~), and damn if there isn’t a talented crop of authors in that fandom, too. And finally with ATLA making its way onto Netflix, I had the chance to start watching that for the first time and found a ton of really good fic there as well! 

fanfic end of the year asks!

[lemuriancutie]

Miraculous Established Chloenette AU for nanowrimo

In case you didn’t see my post yesterday, I’m planning on writing Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction for National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo or just nano for short) this November. My goal will be a story 50k words or more written just during November. I will not immediately be posting chapters to my ao3 account, since the goal is to write, not necessarily to write well. I plan on editing my story afterwards and hopefully posting chapters during the month of February, 2021. But what I REALLY want to talk about here is what my story is actually going to be about!

So pretty much since Day 1 of watching Miraculous I’ve been Chloenette trash. I can’t help it! The enemies to lovers trope is a weakness of mine, and the more I sympathized with Chloé as we saw glimpses of her backstory and why she became who she is in the show the more I wanted to see her end up happy! Plus, I’m all about that femslash. I admit that, especially as of the end of Season 3 things don’t look great, but I’m still holding out hope. But, while a would enjoy writing a good canon compliant redemption story for Chloé, I had an idea for an AU a while back that I’m going to be exploring.

Basically it’s the same world as the one we know from the show, and everything was the same up until shortly before the start of the show. On Marinette’s first day of school that year she did not meet Master Fu. Ivan did not become Stoneheart. No one was akumatized. Things went on without superheroes and supervillains for a number of years.

Now, where my story actually starts, Marinette is attending university, and she and Chloé have been dating for a while. She comes into her apartment one day and Chloé is there, having let herself in with her copy of the key. This is normal for them. But then Chloé asks what’s in the fancy box. Marinette is confused until she sees a fancy wooden box on her table. She opens it and out comes Tikki, who’s somewhat mortified that the newly chosen Ladybug wasn’t alone when she opened the box, but at this point it’s too late to be concerned about that because she can sense the miraculous of the butterfly being misused for evil and someone is about to be akumatized!

This AU sees Marinette and Chloé in an established relationship (how they started dating and how Chloé developed in the intervening years will be revealed in the story), and Marinette becoming Ladybug when a fair bit older, with Chloé knowing her secret identity from day 1 (so none of that “hiding my identity from my significant other” drama). Furthermore, it’s not just that things waited a few extra years before kicking off. There are reasons why Gabriel Agreste didn’t become Hawkmoth in this version while Marinette was still in collège, and reasons why things have finally started to happen.

There are, of course, plenty of other changes too. After all, everyone is at least four years older than they are when the show starts (still not 100% decided how long after this takes place, but at least four years). Characters from the class are now working on higher education or starting careers. They’re all different from the versions of them that we know, but still hopefully close enough that it feels true to their characters and not like I’m just sticking canon names on OCs. I am also going to try to stick as much as possible to characters who do already exist in canon. Definitely all of my most important characters are already from canon, but may not be filling the kind of role you would expect them to.

This story will largely be a fluffy and self-indulgent work to show Marinette and Chloé being adorable girlfriends, but I do hope it will have enough plot, drama, intrigue, and action to keep others invested in it. The only ships I know for sure at this point I’m going to include (and can mention without giving anything away) are Chloé/Marinette and Juleka/Rose. I may decide during my prep this month on other ships that will be there at the start, and either now or as I write it I may decide on other ships to develop throughout the story. Some ships that you see may or may not be end game, but I promise that the Chloenette and Julerose are. That’s not to say those couples won’t face problems, but if you want to read it because of either of those ships you don’t need to worry about me pulling the rug out from under you and ruining those.

I also will not engage in character bashing. Yes, Marinette is with Chloé rather than Adrian, but that’s not because he was secretly a jerk, or evil, or anything like that. He’s a very nice, talented, young man and he will be playing an important role in my story. Chloé has been thoroughly redeemed from her bullying ways (though she’s still sassy and sarcastic). Even Lila, while I won’t be ignoring the kind of character she was and I’m not (currently) intending to give her a redemption arc, that’s more just because I don’t have plans with her rather than any intent to bash. If she does become important in the story she will be dealt with as a very flawed, but still very human character, and redemption or not I won’t be bashing her character. (I’m just not a fan of character bashing, especially since whoever you bash is probably someone’s favorite character.)

You may discover one or more characters serving as villains who weren’t villains before, but trust me when I say they all have their motives and reasons and even if they never get redeemed no one has been made a villain just because I don’t like that character.

That’s all that I can really say now. Partially because I am still in the planning stages of this story, and partially because I don’t want to give everything away. I hope Miraculous fans out there take interest. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what I’ve said so far. Excited? Worried? Anything you want to talk about, be it suggestions, hopes, fears, or just encouragement I welcome.

[t100ficrecsblog]

an interview with @burninghoneyatdusk​ (she/her) What are you working on right now? Right now I’m prioritizing prompts for the Bellarke Writers for BLM Initiative, which is a mix of new prompts and requests for WIP updates. I just posted a chapter update of my fic Voices in the Water, which is a canon-verse/everyone is a grounder arranged marriage AU with a bit of a twist, and next I’m working on a new prompt. After that, I’ve got three chapters of All Because of You  requested. All Because of You is a modern AU with bellarke as *platonic* coparents. The story is told in alternating flashbacks and present day (every other chapter). The flashbacks focus on them growing closer during Clarke’s unplanned pregnancy and the present is seven years later, where they have to come to terms with their feelings for each other when Clarke gets engaged to someone else.

What’s something you’d like to write one day? I would love to publish a novel one day. For years I had a YA dystopian/time travel trilogy kind of planned but I poked too many holes in it and want to start from scratch in that regard. Another novel I want to write is one that covers three generations of women, looking at mother-daughter relationships, women in society, generational trauma… a lot of stuff. It was inspired by learning about my grandmother’s life more and thinking about how it impacted her relationship with my mother, and in turn my mother’s relationship with me.

For fanfiction, beyond my current prompts and WIPs, I have two other fics outlined. One is an AU inspired by the movie Plus One. The other is a soulmate AU that’s a bit dark and involves immortality, magic, and essentially Bellamy as a villain with a redemption arc.

What is the fanwork you’re most proud of? I think All Because of You will probably remain my most popular, but right now I’m most proud of Voices in the Water. More so than my other fics, it has a more concise plot and I’ve done a deeper dive into Clarke’s character as an Azgeda assassin and I think the reader really gets into her head more than my other multiple POV fics. It’s also my first canonverse fic and I’ve enjoyed diving into that world and expanding upon it where I want.

When did you first start writing fic? I didn’t start writing fic until the beginning of 2019. I first published in February 2019, which was Homesick (It’s a Bittersweet Feeling). It was my first fic and the only multichapter WIP that’s complete right now, so it’s a special story for me.

What frustrates you most about fic writing? I’ve mostly had only a positive experience with fanfic writing. With the exception of a couple stray comments, my readers have been gracious, kind, and most importantly, patient. But I guess it can be challenging when you self-impose pressure because you’re aware that people are waiting for you to publish so sometimes I rush things. I haven’t personally experienced this, but I think that fic writing can also be frustrating when readers feel like you owe them something or unnecessarily offer negative comments that aren’t at all constructive. Some people forget that people are publishing stories for free, in their spare time, often in addition to full-time jobs or school and parenting.

What are your top five songs right now? 1. castles (freya ridings) 2. maniac (conan gray) 3. fired up (grace carter) 4. I am not afraid (g flip) 5. wanna be (betty who)

What are your inspirations? (books, songs, other fic) I take inspiration from all of those things but I would say mostly quotes and random photos on tumblr. I wrote Homesick because I liked the step-siblings/forbidden trope and wanted to write in a small town setting like the one I grew up in. All Because of You was honestly the classic “this is my bedtime daydream story I think about every night” so it’s pretty self-indulgent with the tropes I wanted to use. Voices in the Water was started because I loved the grounder!Bellamy / arranged marriage trope. The wanheda twist came from me reading the 4x11 script to screen with Clarke trying to force herself to shoot Bellamy to save humanity, but realizing that she can’t.

What first attracted you to Bellarke? What attracts you now? I’m not sure I remember a specific moment but I think I remember bellarke being all over my tumblr dash when I started s2 so kind of paying close attention to them during s2. s2 was of course a great season for them and by the ‘knocking on heaven’s door’ scene in 2x16 I was a goner.

Regarding what drew me to them, I think I’ve always loved a good slow burn with the partners/”I’ve got your back” vibe that they have. My first (and biggest) OTP before them was tony & ziva from NCIS which is a really similar vibe although a very different show.

Besides Bellarke, what character or pairing do you like best on t100? I think that Memori is probably my second place ship. Before s7, I would say there was a HUGE gap between my love of Bellarke and Memori, but this season has made me an even bigger Memori fan. I have to say that while I don’t think there was ever a chance of Murven happening, I do understand why people ship it. I think they have great chemistry/a great dynamic and in another life, so to speak, I would have shipped them. 

Regarding characters on their own, I just love all my delinquents, but I think that Murphy is solidly my third favorite character. Raven and Octavia are probably tied behind him.

Why did you decide to start bellarkefic-for-blm? I credit the reason to Kara ( @queenemori ). (Sidenote: everyone go follow her! She’s an amazing fanfic writer and overall just a really positive, awesome person to have in the fandom). I remember reading her post  - and I won’t try to paraphrase, so please take the time to read her it - but in general it got me thinking about how we as a fandom could support the BLM movement in a substantial way that is more than just spreading posts on social media, and in a way that doesn’t lose momentum as time goes on and the movement becomes less “trendy.” I thought about how many people collectively read our fanfiction and how we provide it for free, and if people could just pay a few dollars or however much they can afford and donate that to the cause, we collectively could make a huge difference. So that’s what I’m hoping this is - making a substantial difference in a way that doesn’t fade in time and also uses the power of fandom in a useful way. We have a lot of power if we collectively put it towards something like this instead of fighting over ships or actors or whatnot. I also figured that maybe we’d have readers who weren’t paying attention to the movement and that maybe because they want to submit a prompt, they’d do some research on where to donate, and that in turn helps educate them on the issue - or is at least a start.

Has it been as successful as you’d hoped? So on the positive side, I do think it’s incredible that in about six weeks we’ve raised nearly $1250 and have been able to donate to a variety of organizations. I’m incredibly grateful for the authors donating their time and the enthusiastic readers participating. I don’t mean to sound negative at all, but if I’m being honest, I do feel a little frustration at the lack of participation across the fandom as a whole or maybe more specifically across the AO3 readers. I know that my WIP chapters average about 1k hits per update. That’s a lot of people. Even if you cut that in half because maybe people are rereading, that’s still 500 people. So why are only about 20 of my readers donating to this initiative? I think it’s a bit discouraging when you look at the percentage in that way. 

That’s not to say that I don’t understand that some aren’t financially in a position to donate, but I’ve made it clear that there are other ways to contribute (e.g. signing petitions, writing to politicians) and there hasn’t been traction with that either. So I think that in general, something is always better than nothing and it has in no way discouraged me from continuing this. But I’m hoping that more people are able to participate as time goes on. It’s truly a win-win situation of generating more fanfics for readers and donating to an important issue, so I hope to see the percentage of fanfiction readers submitting prompts increase and am doing what I can to continue spreading the word about it. 

I guess in summary what I’m saying is, I’m proud of what the fandom has done so far, but let’s step it up. We can do more, we can do better. Maybe people will get pissed I said that, but idk. If you read fic and can buy a $3 coffee, you can donate to this cause. It’s important. As was Kara’s point, let’s not see this momentum fade when the BLM movement becomes less ~trendy~.

What are some things you’d like to recommend? Instead of writing an essay about all the fics I love, I’d like to link both my bookmarked fics which is my complete list of bellarke fic recs.

I also want to recommend visiting the Bellarke Writers for BLM Initiative writers’ page - these writers are incredible so please go check out their existing works and continue requesting prompts for the BLM movement!

On the note of BLM, I'd also like to link this article. It's older, written in the aftermath of the Charleston attack, but it remains one of the most thought provoking pieces I've read on race in our country.

it was my honor to interview burninghoneyatdusk! honestly, if you aren’t reading Voices in the Water, which is Bellarke except Clarke is an assassin, you should be. it haunts me. she also organized the very cool bellarkefic-for-blm. 

[disregardcanon]

end of year writing meme

time for my end of year writing meme! this has been a tradition for me since 2015 or 16, so i’m excited to keep it up :) i normally do it ON new year’s eve because i write over winter break. but.

i have the depression/anxiety cocktail and have to go back to teaching next monday so i highly doubt i’ll get anything else written or posted by then. sigh

tagging @titaniumsansa @bodhimcbodeface and anyone else who wants to do it

Total Stories Written: 18 on ao3 19 completed total

Total Words Written: i know my ao3 stats are shifted p drastically this year because i updated two extensive drabble collections, but i do have more unposted drafts this year so i’ll just go with it. 96k Average Words Per Story: about 5k as the mean, which tracks Shortest Story: 370 words Heaven on Her Mind Longest: 11,875 words Academia Nuts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?

less! i knew i’d write less this year than i have in the past because student teaching and then first year of teaching are both supposed to be hell, but i kind of expected going into quarantine that would give me the time and energy to write.

but NO! in some months of quarantine i wrote less than i did during student teaching, certified most stressful time of my life

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most?

pairing: cassunzel! coming in clutch at 6 stories

genre: no fucking clue

fandom: tangled was the most by number, but i think jedi fallen order is the most by word count because those two fics combined come in about 13k

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? uh, that’s probably rwby. i always knew that when i watched rwby i’d go feral but i didn’t expect to watch it this year

Did you take any writing risks this year? i think my biggest writing risk was writing a 12k fic with romcom tropes about a platonic relationship no one cares about from a mainly dead fandom

Academia Nuts, the one where merlin and morgana are bickering in-laws and academic rivals

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year? i would frankly just like the time and energy TO write. this year has been the most stressful and depressing time of my life and that’s reflected in my writing output. i would like to see more output because i have more energy and drive to do the things that make me happy again

From the past year of writing, what was your…

Best story of this year: the thing with feathers fluttering in her chest the jedi fallen order fic about trilla suduri capturing cal kestis but still eventually deciding to defect

Personal favorite: Smoke Rises, Cinder Falls my personal take on the cinder backstory before it dropped! while i definitely like where the show took the backstory better because the hotel imagery is TOP NOTCH i still love what i did here. i think that i made good use of style and the information that we had, and i think that the salem connection works very nicely

Most under-appreciated: i know calling a fic with 65 kudos “underrated” is a bit ridiculous, but this is for a very large fandom. it might be dead but i still think it could drum up a bit more support :(

Academia Nuts, the merlin and morgana are bickering in-laws and academic rivals fic

Most fun to write: as a reward for being so fucking happy that biden won the election for real, i rewarded myself by writing the pines family reacting to it

Remember, Remember the 7th of November

Story with the single sexiest moment: how about that inquisitor caltrilla au?

I Want You to Want Me

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: captive caresses, the one where the v shaped polyamory dynamic that i normally do with cassunzel and new dream isn’t so healthy

Most challenging to write: from a technical standpoint that would be academia nuts, but from a personal standpoint...

Scar Tissue, the steven universe fic about connie still keeping secrets from her parents

Biggest disappointment: frankly, nothing i wrote this year can be a disappointment because i put words on a page. however, i will say that i could have polished this one that i wrote years ago up more before i posted it

Holy Ground, the shireen/jeyne poole fic from like 2015

Favorite character to write: i didn’t get stuck on a fandom long enough to get a favorite character to write tbh

Favorite opening lines:

Sometimes, when Rapunzel wakes up in the morning, she likes to pretend that everything is alright. She closes her eyes and imagines that Cass is right down the hall, just like she used to be. Rapunzel will burst into her room as soon as she gets up, ready to plot some new mischief to keep them busy for the day. Cass will roll her eyes, but she’ll go along with it because she secretly enjoys Rapunzel’s plans. She’ll smile when Rapunzel isn’t looking, and she’ll call her Raps with a soft fondness that makes Rapunzel's heart melt.

Jeung

Sophie knows that she shouldn’t be walking home alone at this hour. Of course she knows that. She’s a tiny white girl who lives in Gotham with little self-defense training or experience in athletics. She’s had “don’t walk home alone” beaten into her head for so many years she wonders if those were the first words the nurse said when she came into this world.

 Not “it’s a girl!” but “don’t let her walk home alone at night!” 

Walk Me Home in the Dead of Night

Favorite closing lines:

“Follow me,” the fairy godmother ordered, taking a brisk step forward. Cinder followed without question, just a step behind. Following, following, following- just as she would be following her until the end of time. Cinder was her protege, after all, and must be prepared to take over the fairy godmother’s work someday.

That day would not come for many years, but it would come. And the fairy godmother would finally have everything  she ever wanted.

Smoke Rises, Cinder Falls

Trilla can’t exactly have her second-in-command stay that low in the hierarchy forever. A consort to a queen needs to walk only a few steps behind her, after all.

I Want You to Want Me

Other favorite lines:

She can lead a horse to independent thought, but she can’t make him think.

The Name Game

When Trilla gets back to her room, she grabs the damn cube and throws it against her wall as hard as she can. It doesn’t break, because the holocron is made of stronger stuff than that.  Cal Kestis  is made of stronger stuff than that.

Maybe she’s the only one in the world who’s so capable of shattering.

the thing with feathers fluttering in her chest

“You don’t have to forgive him,” Fuyumi says, “just don’t kill him.”

“Because he can’t come back from that?” Dabi demands, “a corpse can’t  decide that it wants to love its daughter, right?” Dabi watches as the  knife twists, and Fuyumi’s facade finally crumbles. She slams her mug of  tea down on the table, and they're both lucky that it's not full  anymore or the hot liquid would have come flying out.

Justice Without Dispassion

“But you’re a good trainer,” Lillie says, “you’re what I want to evolve into.” Selene shakes her head.

“We're  from different evolutionary lines,” she says, “you evolving into me  would be like- I don’t know. A Charmander evolving into a Blastoise.”  Lillie looks like she’s holding the fur even tighter, and Selene snakes  her hand underneath to disentangle Lillie’s hand from the fur and give  her something else to clutch. Lillie squeezes her hand like a stuffed  Jigglypuff that people carry around to squeeze away their stress.

“But  what if I’m stuck at Charmander forever, and what if Blastoise is  better than Charizard, and what if I’m just- just not cut out for this?”

Even Gods Like Cuddles

“Do you remember when we were really little,” you say, “and I used to  come over for dress up parties. I’d wear your extra princess dress, let  you do my hair however you wanted.” You smile, thinking about how cute  the pictures that Bianca’s mom took of you two looked. Your mother  always said that they’d be good blackmail material, someday, but-

It wasn’t ever shameful, especially not if your mother didn’t make you feel ashamed.

“Of  course,” Bianca says, “you were always the best at sitting still. No  one else would have let me do their nails and makeup.” You’re not  looking at her, but you can hear the soft smile in her voice.

“You were always so indulgent, Hils. I really appreciated that.”

“I wasn’t being indulgent,” you say, balling your hand into a little fist and rubbing your thumb over your knuckles.

“I always- I just,” you say, “I wanted to be that “girl friend” that you always wanted.”

Girl Talk

[autumnslance]

Hey, I'm gonna need you to give us a short story with Thancred teaching Aeryn how to gunbreaker now, specifically through dueling and close melee range.

((You’re just trying to enable me and get some trope-ridden, indulgent fic posted, huh? Well joke’s on you buddy, I already have a tropey, indulgent draft, though it’s from Heavensward patch era, featuring grumpy Thancred, amused Midgardsormr, and definitely a sparring match. Now on Ao3. So is the follow up.))

——-

“You’re avoiding me,” Aeryn said before Thancred could walk away.

“No,” he answered. “I have been busy. As have you. All of us, preparing for Ser Aymeric’s grand tournament.”

“Then let’s prepare,” she said. “Spar with me.”

“Perhaps later–”

She crossed her arms and glared. “Why? You’re lounging, so please don’t tell me you’re currently busy. I also checked with Tataru.”

Thancred closed his mouth to bite back the ready reply. “Why do you need to spar anyway? We all know you are going to win. ‘Tis what you do.”

She caught the bitterness he tried to hide. “Not always,” she answered. They did not look at each other for a long moment. “Anyroad, I shouldn’t get complacent. And you’re the best sparring partner.”

“Am I?” he asked. There might have been a hint of acid in his tone.

“None better. Absolute taskmaster.”

He snorted and pushed off the wall he was leaning on. “Well fine, if you’re going to be flattering.”

They made their way through the gates and across the Steps of Faith, the wind whipping at their clothes and hair. Aeryn watched him.

“What?” He asked.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked. “After so many years in Thanalan, and you tend to wear lighter gear–”

“No,” Thancred said after a moment. “It is rather refreshing actually. And desert nights are chilly in their own way. Though I admit, I would not say no to an afternoon lounging in Vesper Bay’s square over crossing this bridge.”

“With overpriced orange juice from the Pissed Peiste?”

He did not reply, though for a moment it looked as if he might. He must have remembered he was angry, and wished to forgo banter. Aeryn suppressed a sigh.

“The tournament will be happening around here,” Thancred said as they reached the open plain beyond the Steps. The road stretched east and up toward Camp Dragonhead, clouds gathering over distant Xelphatol beyond the hills. Down to the west, she could barely make out the glint of Whitebrim’s towers.

“You will want to have a good idea of the ground,” he continued, crouching and peering across the open space. “Wouldn’t do to fall face first at some private’s feet because you tripped over a chinchilla’s burrow.”

“I think there’s a detail coming out to grade the area later today,” she said, drawing her rapier. “But that will just make it easier.”

“Hrmph.” He stood again, stretching as he did, then swinging his arms. “No doubt. Still; let us forgo magic for now. I want to see how you have worked on your swordsmanship these past few moons.”

“You’re sure you’re not cold?”

“I am limbering up,” he said, tone as cool as the air.

Aeryn shrugged. If he wanted to be that way. She was about to start her own stretches when Thancred suddenly dashed at her, blades drawn, making her bring her own up to meet them and immediately putting her on the defensive, forcing her back a few steps.

“Do your enemies announce when they’re ready?” He snarled, testing her defenses. He was mostly using his long Allagan blade, but she kept an eye on his smaller off-hand weapon; he had changed how he fought during his time in the wilderness.

Before, he had fought with a single sword, or matched short blades. His style had been flamboyant, even to the point of showing off, as a way to obfuscate his strikes and baffle his foes. As he pushed Aeryn across the clearing, she noted he still fought with flair and panache not found in most combatants–yet seemed more direct, less reliant on feints and misdirection than in the past. There was nothing wasteful in his movement, for all they flowed like a dance.

She could admit she was a bit envious.

And still on the back foot, godsdammit. She tried a parry Haurchefant had taught her, and gained back a few steps. A few quick strikes practiced with Lucia put Thancred on the defensive, and she caught him briefly grin.

“Mayhap your flirting across Coerthas has done you well after all,” he said, a sharp edge to the teasing.

“What?” Aeryn demanded. How dare he, he knew her better than—

The Echo’s warning came a moment too late as he spun away from her riposte, running his blade along the length of hers until with a flick of his wrist, her sword was caught, her arm twisted back as he stepped behind her, his offhand coming up to rest lightly against her throat.

“You’re easily distracted,” his voice rumbled low in her ear.

Aeryn turned her head to retort, but the words stuck when their eyes met and she was suddenly, intensely aware of being pressed against him, back to chest, their breathing heavy from the exercise and nearly in time with one another. They were close to the same height–he was only perhaps two ilms taller–so their faces were close, his brown eye strangely hooded and his lips were right there as he leaned in and gods why was she even thinking that…

They were close enough she could taste his breath, their lips barely brushing. Her eyes closed of their own accord, in anticipation of further pressure.

“…No,” he breathed, and she was suddenly spun, like when they used to dance to entertain the other Scions in that time Before Ul’dah.

Aeryn and Thancred stood in the snow, staring at one another. “That’s enough for today,” he said brusquely. “If you stay focused, you should do well enough against the Grand Companies.”

“Thancred…”

He turned away. “I apologize; that was an inappropriate distraction.”

She stared at his back for a long moment. Before he could turn his head to look, she cleared her throat. “Nothing to apologize for,” Aeryn said shortly. “All’s fair, as they say.”

“…Quite,” he replied, though sounded strange. “I believe I am rather cold after all, and will retire to the Forgotten Knight for some of Gibrillont’s mulled wine.”

She waited for him to add more, to invite her along, to offer to discuss whatever the seven hells that had been, but he walked on toward the gate. To be fair, though, she couldn’t quite manage to make those offers herself.

Aeryn watched him go, then continued to practice; not as effective as with a partner, but better than nothing, and she wouldn’t be returning to the city with him and the continued air of awkwardness.

“Thou art restless,” Midgardsormr’s voice rumbled from her left. Aeryn paused, looking over to see the small dragonet form of the ancient wyrm sitting upon a nearby stone.

“There is much to prepare for tomorrow,” she answered, returning to her drills.

“Yet there is spare time for courtship rituals?”

Aeryn fumbled mid-maneuver, nearly dropping her rapier. She blinked at him. “What? No! That was…we were sparring. Practicing, for tomorrow’s tournament.”

The dragonet tilted his head. “‘Tis not what it appeared, but mortals are strange.”

She only grunted a response and returned to her ready stance. Feint, riposte, zwerchhau…

“He is strong and skilled,” Midgardsormr continued, in a musing tone. “As I recall, such qualities are sought after, as mortals require physical mating to pass on–

“Midgardsormr,” Aeryn hissed–after stumbling again, her face on fire.

He flapped his tiny wings, and she swore he was grinning. “I was but making an observation, child, and musing on the differences between thy kin and mine own. Draconic mating is a melding of mind and spirit, rather than the flesh.”

“I am aware,” Aeryn said tightly, trying to not snap at the Father of Dragons. This was not helping take her mind off that almost-kiss. She was certain, too, the elder knew that.

There was a shift in the dragonet’s stance, and his deep black eyes now watched her closely, the hint of mirth faded. “Thou hath enjoyed the man’s companionship in the past.’Twould seem since his return, you have been at odds.”

Aeryn sheathed her blade; she was getting no further exercise in today. “…Yes,” she finally answered him. “‘Twould seem that way. I…failed to save the person he entrusted to my care, and then I failed to bring her back.”

Midgardsormr shook his head. “She but followed thy Mother’s call, and made her own choice. There was naught for thee to do upon the matter. Thou shouldst not blame thyself–Nor bear blame from others.” The last came with a slight warning growl.

“I…I don’t know if he does or not,” she admitted. “We’ve worked together, and he was honestly concerned when I was poisoned…And…” Her back pressed to his chest, his eye looking into hers, their lips not even an ilm apart. “…I’m likely imagining things, that’s all.”

That had to be it. A simple distraction, as he had said. She mustn’t read into it.

“Hrmph,” Midgardsormr rumbled. “How thy people have propagated when capable of such self-delusion is one of life’s great mysteries.”

She glowered at him. “Which of us is the expert at mortals, actually being one? You’re mistaken. Thancred is known for his flirtations and distractions; that is all it was. Naught more.”

The dragonet stretched, and made a motion almost akin to a shrug. “Thy protestations are noted,” he responded, before fading out in a puff of aether.

Aeryn rubbed her forehead. She could still sense his rumbling chuckle in the back of her mind. Once she was more or less composed–or at least no longer felt as if her face would set fire to the Gates of Judgment when she passed through them–she made her way back to the city.

—

What in the seven bloody hells had he been thinking?

Thancred ran a hand over his face as he nursed his mulled wine. The problem, of course, was that he had not been thinking. Caught in the rhythm of their sparring match, he had reacted on instinct, and she was right there and…

Inappropriate, he reminded himself. For so very many reasons. He knew at one point he had had a list, the first time he had bucked this ridiculous notion of an interest in the woman who had become their Warrior of Light.

There was one; the champion of the realm could certainly do better than a grizzled, magicless rogue.

There was another; since his misadventure in the Lifestream and being left in Dravania’s wilderness without magic, he now looked and felt closer to his actual age of thirty-two winters. Still young enough to do his job, but it seemed a decent gap against her twenty-six. She was even younger than–

That thought made him slug down a too-large gulp of too-hot wine. It helped focus the pain and gave an excuse for the tears threatening to appear as he coughed, waving away the bartender.

Aeryn had looked him in the eye and nodded when he had told her “whatever it takes” and yet…

That was not fair, and not part of the list, though he couldn’t help the anger, the grief, the shame at lying to F'lhaminn.

He retired to the small room in Cloud Nine that Tataru had rented for him. Laying in bed staring at the ceiling, he found his mind wandering back to the sparring match. How Aeryn felt pressed against him, how she smelled, how her grey eyes had darkened and then closed as their lips nearly touched…Godsdammit.

He could always blame spending time alone in the wilderness for how easily distracted he was by a pretty woman, colleague or not.

That Aeryn had seemed willing did not help; it would have been easier if she had pushed him away, cursed at him, reminded him that she did not experience such base attractions. A voice whispered that did not negate a desire for intimacy, and there were those rumors of her and the knight. He told that voice to shut up as he rolled over. But his imagination continued, conjuring images of furthering that kiss, of pressing closer, his fingers tangling in her fine black hair, the taste of her…

The aftertaste of mulled wine on his own tongue remembered the bite he had smelled in the fallen cup at Falcon’s Nest, her lying on the floor as chaos reigned outside, and the feeling of his heart in his throat at the idea of Aeryn poisoned.

Perhaps that was why he was in such a strange mood, he decided. Fear for his friend’s life, even as he was still grieving Minfilia.

Satisfied, he turned his mind to a mummer’s breathing exercise, a trick to fall asleep quickly, forcing his mind to still so he could rest.

—-

((There’s a lemony solo-Thancred follow-up to this too.))

[yume-x-hanabi]

Writer Meta Meme

I decided to do all the questions on this meme :)

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

My current project is Concubinage, my gaiwin arranged marriage AU. It started as a random, entirely self-indulgent idea, but it has since grown into an actual project. Progress is good, I’ve managed to do bi-monthly updates and I have 30k in my drafts so far.

What I love the most about it is that, since it’s an AU, I’m pretty free to do whatever I want. I don’t have to be too careful of timelines and so on. Plus, in this AU, Gaius and Wingul are able to get closer than they otherwise would, due to the different circumstances. They have their own trials, but it’s different than in the canon timeline.

Another current project is Tales of Xillia Week, but I didn’t get much inspiration for it so I think I’m gonna do meta/headcanon posts more than fics ^^;

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

I’m looking forward to getting to the part where it’s just domestic fluff haha. It’ll take a while to reach that point though.

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Not just one scene ig, but I’ve been wanting to write one-shots showing how the Chimeriad survived, and... haven’t gotten around to planning it. So it’s pretty low on my project list tbh.

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

I have... a few, but they’re all spoilers for future chapters XD;;

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

I don’t... really identify with characters. I mean, they’re pretty different than me in personality, life and circumstances...

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I love writing Gaius and Wingul of course, but Agria’s probably the most fun. She’s completely unrestrained, which makes her pretty easy and fun to let loose XD

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Exposition and worldbuilding XD

I can’t help it, I always need to develop the setting...

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

Yes. I would love it if more people wrote gaiwin XD

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

I used to be more of a ficlet writer, but I’m currently doing well with a longfic XD

As for the rest, it varies. I like to plot and outline a bit, but it’s often rather loose and I let inspiration guide me.

10. How would you describe your writing process?

Wait for inspiration time, energy and motivation to align.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

Those who update super long fics every week. How do you do it????

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Naah, I’m fine in my corner of fandom. Though I wouldn’t say no to a few more readers, if only to know that the ship still sails xD

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

Yep, I post on AO3. And all projects are meant to be posted one day, but some aren’t simply because they aren’t finished.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

The beginning, usually, but I might change it

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Tags are easy. Titles and summaries are hard, and I always end up with something boring but heh, as long as they get the meaning across...

16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)

It was last year, but I tried first person pov with my Agria fic, because that fits her well. I’d like to try poetry, maybe.

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

I have no idea tbh. When I write, I like to imagine what my readers will think (especially like when I write funny scenes, I hope they’ll make people laugh), but idk if it’s exactly like I think.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

In Concubinage, I considered adding a plotline where Arst met an ex and had to deal with complicated feelings about it -- being reminded how it was to be in a loving relationship vs political marriage, craving intimacy like he used to have with said ex, etc. I ended up scrapping the idea though.

I also have... two or three possible ways things can play out in a much later plotpoint, and I think I’m pretty sure of which way I’ll go already, but the other possibilities exist. Maybe I’ll make a post about all abandoned plotlines one day...

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

“And, but, and, but...” XD;

Also characters often find themselves doing something before they knew it...

My style is probably pretty repetitive. I’m not a native speaker, and I feel limited sometimes...

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Concubinage is the result of watching too many sageuk and  taiga drama. No I’m not sorry.

When writing AU, I always like to include “cameo” of the original storyline (for example, as the plot of a book, or treating the canon games as a fractured dimension in Chimeriad Live AU’s, etc)

In Fractured Lives, I try to alternate Wingul and Gaius’ pov. It’s probably gonna bite me in the ass when some plot points work better in one pov but the chapter requires the other. I’ll probably have to come up with some fillers or something...

I have extensive headcanon about Auj Oule’s geography, history etc, which pops up in a lot of (planned) fics. Even if it’s different fics/AU’s (ex. Concubinage vs my pre-game gaiwin project vs the Wingul fic I was writing for the big bang), I reuse the same settings and OC’s. Most of those aren’t written/posted yet so it’s pretty self-contained for now, but if I ever get to completing those projects I hope it won’t be too confusing to readers who don’t follow all the stories...

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)

If I had the art skills, I’d love to turn some of them into comics ;A;

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Sometimes. Usually because I need to refresh my memory before writing a new chapter XD

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

That project to write the whole pre-game Gaius & Wingul history, that’s something I’ve been wanting since forever. Well, I originally wanted to read it, but since no one’s gonna do it, I started thinking I should write it. It’s gonna be a huge project though...

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

I honestly have no idea. I do sense a difference in that it’s much easier for me to just write now; I guess habit helps. But I have no idea if style changed or anything lol.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Filling the tag with my OTP XD

[egg2k16]

40 Fanfic Q’s Answered

the server wants answers, and they want them now!!! from this post

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Smut and pining all the way. Also, falling in love via laughing

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Eh...I don’t think so, I’m always 100% self-indulgent, so what u see is what I want

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Anything that has to do w mega sadness, I just Don’t. I can’t write anything sad, and if I do, there’s certainly gonna be A Lot of comfort afterwards

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

I have 91 wips, motherfuckers!!! My latest wip is a daddy month fic!

5. Share one of your strengths.

I think, since I’ve been trying to be sparser in my words, I’ve been able to better emphasize what isn’t being said

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

No action scenes from me are ever good, lmao

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

It was late at night, when he started to cry.

He didn't want to cry, but he did.

It's been years since he's last let himself feel, or was it since he was last allowed to feel?

He choked on his sobs, uncomfortable with his tears. He's forgotten how to properly cry. His entire body is shaking, and the connections between flesh and wire hurts.

He stops crying. He starts crying again.

This continues for another few minutes, until he feels as if he can't possibly have any more tears.

He wipes his face, pulls the covers up to his chin, and falls asleep.

(from Twilight on the Sea) I really like this bcus I don’t think I’ve ever really typed out crying in this way, n I tried to make it feel like it was a lot

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Cass was quiet for a moment. “... you know what? Maybe I’ll just go up there and surprise you.”

“If you do, then you already ruined the surprise, haven’t you?”

“Eh, I dunno about that. Seeing my beautiful face is a shock for many people.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it.”

“Hey, Koda? I don’t know about you, but it’s really late here.”

“Really?” Koda asks, then remembers that time zones exist. “Oh crap, what time is it over there?”

“It’s midnight. What about you?”

“It’s eight o’clock. Only four hours difference?”

“Oh hey, that’s not so bad.”

“It reduces our time,” Koda said, a bit whining.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“What are you going to do? Move here? Send for me?”

“You’ll see.”

(from Together) This was a gift for one my best friends on here, @suncatchr​ , and it’s about his ocs!!! I love this a lot bcus while it’s a soulmate au, it’s not ur average soulmate au, and I tried making it as original as possible! And this blurb, I just wanted them to effuse so much love w/o having to say love...cries

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

If this is by posted fics, then I remember writing Look What You’ve Done to Me was very very difficult, bcus, since it’s also a gift, for @daniel-bryan​ , I wanted to write it Good, n since my buddy usually wrote from the love interest’s pov, I felt a weird pressure to write Daniel Bryan’s pov as good as I could

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

2 of my fics in Spanish!!! My oc centric one, Rayos y Centellas, and my shyan one, oye cariño, solo pienso en ti ! Turns out writing in ur native tongue makes everything easier

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

It’s a very passionate hobby!!! I just!!! try to pour all of my love into everything I write!!!

12. Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

I’m not sure!!! I just watch movies n quietly scream to my gay lonesome bcus No One Ever Watches Movies ;-;

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

To just keep writing n not stop for details or forgotten lore, bcus it’s important to write down what’s firing u up Right Now. Of course, it’s very difficult following that ;;-;;

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

“No adverbs!” “No ‘said’!” “It has to make grammatical sense!” sometimes things Need those

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Was gonna say my rewrite of the end of The Rover, but actually, my SPN fic Ube . Shit was peak inspired

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

Eridirk (Eridan Ampora/Dirk Strider from Homestuck) all the way. The one otp that’s stayed thru thick n thin <3

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

A little mix of both, and tbh it depends on the fic, but I tend to write chronologically

18. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

I’ve started bullet pointing my ideas out before writing my fics, and so far, it’s been helping me be more streamlined n get my things written out faster n clearer!

19. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

Is the need for representation in all the niche movies I keep watching a muse?

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

In my dark room, w music blasting from my laptop, the TV w a soft hum, I have the perfect playlist to get the mood right, curled up in my blankies, n my plushie Sweet Pea by my side

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Zero, we rely on autocorrect & editing while typing and die like men

22. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

YOU DON’T SEEM SCARED.

Del Rio shrugs. “Working as a cop, it makes you numb to some things. It’s good, it lets you react to things as you should, and not how you’d want to.”

YOU SOUND SAD ABOUT THAT.

He makes a noncommittal noise. “It is what it is.” He eats another spoonful of his ice cream, then gets a thought.

“Can you show up?”

HOW SO?

“Can you,” he tries, waving his spoon around, “Manifest?”

I DON’T KNOW. I’LL TRY.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Del Rio assures, and he can feel the air around him smile. The...world, he thinks, around him shifts just slightly, and there seems to be a chink in the armor for a moment before it goes away, as if someone had wiped the glass clear. He realizes that this is her, trying to show up in a physical form, step out of the phone.

He doesn’t know where to look, but then his confusion wanes when a butterfly shows up, fluttering towards him. It lands near his phone, skitters a bit, flaps its wings.

“Lucy?” he asks, transfixed on the butterfly. Its orange wings are bright under the sunlight.

I THOUGHT I’D TRY SMALL, FOR MY FIRST TRIAL.

“Well, you certainly nailed it.” He smiled warmly at the butterfly, and he had the crazy notion that it smiled back at him.

(adapted from The Policeman , the first fic I posted!)

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

Yeah, probably The Policeman lmao, I remember it today n I cringe a little at the very obvious refs to other fandoms I made. Despite that, it continues being one of my best hits!

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Never

25. What do you look for in a beta?

I’m just thankful to have gotten a beta in general in life at all

26. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

I beta’ed once, and since English is my 2nd language, I pointed out syntax confusion, typos, n continuity errors

27. How do you feel about collaborations?

Can be done, it’s just that I am frightened. Tried doing that, it fell thru, n the new thing that came up, I still have to hold up my end of the bargain ;;-;;

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

cries omg ok so!!! Chancy_Lurking ( @lurkerviolin​ ) is one of my faves, n we’ve become friends, n their Felix+ Sense8 series is the reason for it all, and u know it’s good if it managed to make a friendship that’s last its good while, and also they’re so nice, and we vibe so well!!! thegoatz ( @daniel-bryan​ ) is also now one of my bestest friends ever, and I wuv him so much, he is such a good kid, n he’s so enthusiastic about writing, and I hope that spark never goes out!!! And adamwhatareyouevendoing ( @skatingthinandice​ ) bcus she’s doing a rewrite of The Last Kingdom where it’s all gay where it should be and vnjkdfsnvkd God, what a wonderful friend!!!

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

I actually technically am working on a sequel to @rettaroo​ ‘s A New Kind of Touch ! Another promise I have to hold up eventually ;;;-;;;

30. Do you accept prompts?

Sure!

31. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I try to follow canon as much as I possibly can!

32. How do you feel about smut?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

33. How do you feel about crack?

Eh, it’s alright. I don’t normally look for it, so I don’t really have a solid opinion on it

34. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

I don’t want to read it, but I have so far encountered it twice very amicably: once here in a ficlet, and another in a longer fic on AO3, and they were both very good

35. Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Probably not, I don’t like sad things!

36. Which is your favorite site to post fic?

AO3! I’m RedLlamas on it!

37. Talk about your current wips.

Lmao which one. The one I’m currently working on is an impregnation kink turned “oh no I actually do wanna have a family” feelings fic!

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Gonna be real w u, the best comments I’ve gotten have mainly been from my friends, who either write a paragraph or two going into detail of the fic, or just send a one sentence comment that’s just “screams!” I’ve gotten very few paragraphs from other people, n they’re always so!!!

My friends are the realest :’)

39. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

The perks of being a rarepair writer is that the only people who read my fics are the ones actively looking for content!!! And they can’t complain about my work because No One Else Is Writing For It!!!!!!

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

All my fics are masterpieces, so I’ll do a summary change! For don’t you just know (exactly what they’re thinking?)

Dakota finds himself in unexpected heartbreak, and the universe decides to bring him in the direction of a night club with a dancer with stars on his skin.

[lycorogue]

Fanfic ask meme: U!

Aww, Cy! And you said *I* ask the hard questions…

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Well, peeps, IT’S PROMOTION TIME!!!!!(Fair warning, these are going to be in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, sorry if you’re looking for a good author outside that fandom.)

1.    @baneismydragon, you can find her on AO3 here.

First of all, Bane has a LOT of stories, and it’s fantastic to find an author with a lot of content to consume. Secondly, the stories have fun and unique concepts with them, and a nice level of snark. I love me some playful snarkiness. Plus, just such amazing fluff. Something about Bane’s writing voice always gets my heart racing during the action or romance scenes. Wonderful! My personal favorite is “And The Name For Your Order Is?”

2. @edendaphne, you can find her on AO3 here.

I was first drawn to her - excuse the pun - because of her illustrations. She was doing collabs with some great writers, such as Maerynn, and her illustrations always added an extra layer to the writing. But then Eden started writing on her own, and it’s just as fantastic. In her first solo story - Discordant Sonata - actually includes a sort of playlist within the writing, since the story focuses on music. She starts each scene with a link to mood music, and it really enhances the experience.

3. @midnightstarlightwrites, you can find her on AO3 here.

I actually found her via fanart drawn for her story Smoulder, and it is very much deserved. She tends to write aged-up ML stories so she can also include more adult themes. And let me tell you, she’s suuuuuper good at getting that heart racing with some steamy scenes ranging from major pent up tension up to softcore foreplay. The humor is also pretty on-point as well, which is great way to break the tension.

So those are officially my three, but you didn’t really think I’d end there, do you?

4. @thetauruspixie, you can find her on FFN here, and she’s starting to build up stories over on AO3 here.

She tends to write darker themes in her stories. She also has multiple projects going at the same time, so it’s fairly easy to find one that you’ll like and will update fairly regularly. She also writes epics, so you can enjoy your favorite story for a while. The one I’m currently following is Chat Vert, which is about Chat Noir’s jealousy once Luka comes onto the scene.

5. @buggachat, you can find her on AO3 here.

I started following her here on Tumblr after seeing the wonderful mini-stories she shared via her fancomics. Just like with Bane, Bug has fantastic comedic timing and just the right level of snark. Bug is still fairly new with the non-visual storytelling element of fanfics, but the concepts are so delightfully unique and truly delves into character exploration. I’m following her multi-chapter story Curiosity Wrote a Comic, which explores the emotional ramifications to Marinette and Adrien reading a fancomic that takes a fairly dark turn.

6. @chibisunnie, you can find her on AO3 here.

Finally moving away from my fandom, I met Chibi when we collabed on a (sadly abandoned) “Hey, Arnold!: The Jungle Movie” fanscript as a means to help encourage Nickelodeon to greenlight the project. Since then, we’ve kind of moved away from each other’s fandoms, but I still love reading Chibi’s works. Even though I don’t know the stories or the characters, I’m still emotionally invested. She focuses on the sort of background couples of stories; the ones that tend to be forgotten about in fanfics. She also keeps her writing fairly clean, so it’s just wonderfully wholesome. Finally, she usually focuses on gay relationships, including the struggles of finally coming out of the closet. Along those lines, I really enjoyed her Andi Mack story “Aren’t You Happy For Andi?” (It does include a spoiler from the season 2 premiere) 

7. @cyhyr, you can find her on AO3 here.

Even though she’s the one who asked, how could I forget my girl Cyhyr? Just like Chibi, Cy doesn’t write in any of my fandoms, but that’s fine. She writes the characters in a way that you don’t need to know the fandom to care about the story. The characters are real and raw and in such need of cuddles all the time. She does like her some hurt/comfort. She mostly writes in the FFXV fandom, rotating between the Big Four: Ignis, Prompto, Noctis, and Gladiolus. I think my favorite story is Choice, mostly because of the subversion of the Soulmates trope.

Now, can I be a little self-indulgent here and include myself? Does that sound arrogant? I dunno, I just think you should enjoy your own work, ya know? “Write for you” and all that?

You can find me on FFN here, and on AO3 here (and if you’re truly desperate, I even post on DA here).

Of course, my pride and joy is my first completed multi-chapter story: Peeping Tomcat. However, I also really love my one-shot Build Your Own Luck, simply because this is now my headcanon as to where The BraceletTM came from. My Lukanette story I Was Thinking Of You also has a special spot in my heart.

I tend to write as close to true-to-show as possible, and I’ve had a lot of reviews telling me it’s like reading an episode script. I am kind of obsessive with keeping the characters as in-character as possible, and keeping the facts as canonical as I can.

OKAY! Long post is long! Thanks for the ask, Cyhyr! And thanks for everyone for indulging me. Love you all, and feel free to drop me an ask.

[redisaid]

In Good Company - Chapter 1

Game to Lose

Oh shit y’all. Welcome to my self-indulgent elf fic. I’ve given you a pre-canon and post-canon Sylvaina fic, so now enjoy a No Third War/Jaina is the first human Ranger AU that’s gonna be filled with tropes and OCs and just..fun. Because I’m having fun here. Please don’t let me get too serious...

4859 Words

Read it on Ao3

“No.”

“Sylvanas,” Kael’thas replied, her name coming out like an admonishment. “You can’t be serious. At least talk to her.”

“There’s no need for that. No. It will not work. That's my answer,” Sylvanas told him. She had every right to refuse her prince, and the authority to do so as bluntly as she pleased, especially if he was going to waste her time like this.

And he’d had the audacity to bring her all the way to Dalaran to have her meet a mage that wanted to become a ranger. And the audacity not to tell her that said mage was a human.

A very young-looking human woman, at that. Barely more than a child by their standards. She sat at the other end of the terrace, waiting for them, facing away from them at just the right angle for Sylvanas to immediately see small, rounded ears poking through her golden hair, which was oddly streaked with a great deal of stark white. Oh. That one, then. Interesting, but no, not what she needed.

Kael'thas offered a heavy sigh, but kept to their whispered conversation at the door to the terrace. “And here I thought you would champion this. You with your desire to work closer with the human kingdoms, and Marris--”

Sylvanas all but snarled, “Don’t even start with me about Nathanos Marris. I made that recommendation as a statement, not out of any real desire to have him as a ranger. That training class was so piss poor that a human would have been a better choice for a promotion than any of them. And we still didn't bring him in. Do you know why, Kael’thas? Do you care even?”

“Not enough to truly bring this up again,” the prince said with another deep sigh.

But Sylvanas had to be sure she would make him regret it. He was the one to bring it up, after all. “Because he would never have been accepted. Even if he outshot the lot of them in that trial, which he did, he would never have fit in with a unit. That was the point. It was an exercise in ridiculousness. And now you are asking me to take this one seriously? Or are you just fucking with me again?”

Kael'thas was getting agitated now. Good. That made two of them, then. She could see it in the red tips of his ears. The prince raised his voice a bit as he protested, “If you would just give us a chance to show you--”

Sylvanas followed suit. By the sun, it felt good to knock him down a peg, to wipe that fake grin off of his smug face and have him lose his cool. “Show me what? Parlor tricks? No, my prince. I don't need a magistrix. I have a perfectly good one already. I need a ranger. I need someone who can shoot, track, and understand the forest. Parlor tricks don't protect our borders. They don't help me to keep the trolls at bay. I need an elf. I need someone who will be able to work with her sisters and at the very least, understand us.”

Kael'thas opened his mouth to object, but another voice offered its own opinion instead.

“Oh, I can shoot well enough,” the human rose from her seat as she offered...in perfect Thalassian. “And I do not think that me understanding you will be a problem.”

“Shit,” Sylvanas swore, this time quietly enough that she wouldn't be heard.

“As I was saying,” Kael'thas chuckled, his pout immediately turning into an all out grin. “If you would just give me a chance to introduce Lady Proudmoore here, you might be pleasantly surprised.”

The human girl curtsied briefly at this introduction. She was tall for her kind. Sturdy, as they all were. Even in the flowing purple and white robes of a Kirin Tor mage, Sylvanas could see she was sturdier than most, actually. The silky fabric didn't cover the signs of strength from her keen eyes, nor the broadness of the human's shoulders. Fine, an archer. Certainly. But...

“You hadn't mentioned the part about her speaking our tongue,” Sylvanas whispered in retort to the prince.

“I hadn't mentioned a lot of things. On purpose. I knew your first impression would be better without any nagging expectations hanging over it,” Kael'thas muttered back. “So, how long are you going to continue being rude to my guest, Ranger General?”

She answered with a glare, then transformed herself as if by magic. Only it was no magic, just the careful grace and practiced artfulness of a good century or two dealing with politics she’d never really wanted a part of. Unfortunately, they continued to invade Sylvanas’ life to a degree she would never quite feel comfortable with, and that she was never happy about. But she would adapt. She would bend and bow and smile when needed. It was part of what she had to do, another duty of the heavy mantle that she had inherited, so she just did it.

“Forgive my hesitation, Lady Proudmoore, was it?” she said, slipping behind the Ranger General’s mask again. It was a stern, but open face. “My prince here didn’t give me much in the way of details about this meeting.”

She began to approach the table that the girl stood in front of. Sylvanas had a petty thought, dismissed it, then summoned it back again. No, she was allowed to be petty. She’d been dragged to fucking Dalaran after all. So yes, she extended her hand, and waited for a ranger’s handshake to be returned.

The purpose of this meeting was for her to test this woman, right? So, yes. She would test her.

Lady Proudmoore looked quizzically at her hand as Sylvanas reached her. She began to speak first, “Jaina Proudmoore, my lady.” Only then did she offer a return handshake. Just a solid, firm grasping of hands. Like they were making a deal.

Nope. Wrong. Already wrong. She was supposed to grasp her forearm and let Sylvanas do the same for her.

No matter. “None of that ‘my lady’ business with me, please. I’m sure you already know who I am, so no need for that either,” Sylvanas said as she returned the merchant’s handshake without stumbling.

“It is hard not to know, General Windrunner” Jaina told her as she took her hand back. “Though Kael’thas does talk quite a bit about how you vex him so. I can see the feeling is mutual.”

Her Thalassian was great. Too good, actually. She sounded like a textbook, which is probably where she’d learned most of it from.

Sylvanas offered her a smile anyway. The girl had at least gotten one thing right so far. “We do like to keep each other on our toes,” she admitted. “Let’s skip the rest of the formalities then. I’ve been told you want to be a ranger. Why?”

Kael’thas stepped in and swept an arm over Jaina’s shoulders, answering for her as he drew the mage into an awkward side-embrace she clearly hadn’t been expecting, or wanting. “Not just a ranger,” he corrected. “Lady Proudmoore has been developing a specialty technique for combining magic and archery. It could revolutionize our arsenal, our entire military.”

Sylvanas leveled her gaze at him. She couldn’t see it herself, of course, but she did her best to make sure it was extra steely as she said, “A military that works just fine as it is, and is certainly not in need of anything revolutionary.”

“Don’t start,” he snapped back at her, then turned to Jaina, who was trying to squirm out of his arm, albeit somehow very politely. “Please forgive Sylvanas here. She’s a woman of action, you see. Why don’t you just get straight to the demonstration then, before she forgets her manners again?”

“Very well,” Jaina said, seemingly grateful for the opportunity to completely shrug out of Kael’thas’ embrace. She gave Sylvanas a brief nod before heading over to an odd-looking white bow with silvery accents that was leaning against the railing of the terrace. And curiously enough, with no quiver, and no arrows in sight.

“You seem like you are well acquainted with Lady Proudmoore here,” Sylvanas muttered to Kael’thas as they watched the girl walk away. “Where do I know that name?”

“Don't be coy,” Kael'thas scolded again. “She's the Lord Admiral's daughter. Yes, that one. And you knew that already. Don’t lie and tell me you didn’t. As for how we are acquainted, Jaina is a dear friend, and a refreshing delight in this otherwise stuffy old city.”

Sylvanas hummed her answer, and let the smirk on her face speak for her instead.

She watched as the mage retrieved her bow. It was beset with several varieties of mana gems, which began to glow at her touch. Jaina took up the bow, but kept a decent bit of distance between herself and the observers. Sylvanas watched her as she prepared, watched the movements. She wanted to see signs of someone who actually felt comfortable with such a weapon, and not just a person that was trying something new. And she saw them. It was hard to explain, but she could almost feel the flow of the movements herself, the ease at which Jaina checked the string, then set the weapon at rest, holding it next to her hip with one hand on the grip. Steady. Determined, even.

Her eyes shone without glowing--a flash of the color of a warm sea, like any good child of Kul Tiras. She looked directly at Sylvanas as she held out the bow.

“I am certain you noticed the lack of arrows,” Jaina called across the terrace. “But I am also certain you have seen spellbows before. The trick with those is that they lack a string. They are just another method of focusing magic, a strangely shaped staff, if you will. But the problem with those is that you must use the power of the spell to propel it. You must either give up power, or give up distance. But, what if you did not have to give up anything?”

With a whispered incantation, Jaina conjured herself a few targets in the distance, hanging high above the purple domes of Dalaran. She readied her bow, bracing for a shot and drawing it. Ice crystalized from the hand that held back the string, forming an impressive projectile, both of physical and magical substance. Jaina didn’t let it shape as such things usually did, but guided the ice into forming a more aerodynamic, and balanced projectile--one fit to be fired from a bowstring.

“What if you could have both?” Jaina asked as she let the shot fly. Her ice lance flew from the bow's power instead its own, arcing gracefully into the air before it shattered on one of the conjured targets, destroying it in a hail of frost and arcane sparks.

Before Sylvanas could even react, Jaina fired off two more shots, one in the form of an arcane missile and the other as a firebolt. Both hit their mark and obliterated the targets as they did.

“An interesting thought,” Sylvanas mused as she watched the magic dissipate over the rooftops. “But where's the revolution?”

“There are ten revolutions there at least!” Kael'thas immediately argued. “One, no arrows to run out of--”

“But mana to be drained, which you, my dear prince, know well enough is not infinite,” Sylvanas countered.

“Fine, but magic can penetrate--”

“Many defenses, yes,” Sylvanas finished for him with a wave of her hand. “And it can be just as easily countered as an arrow. If using magic were enough to defeat the trolls, then we would have been done fighting for our lands many millennia ago.”

The prince just fumed now, his ears going red again.

So really, only two revolutions, neither of which really solved anything for her.

Sylvanas set her eyes on Jaina again. “Make the targets move while you shoot, then do the same three again,” she commanded.

The girl met her gaze. Oh, there was a hardness in those sea blue eyes. Either she did not like being told what to do, or wasn't happy about having her demonstration commandeered. Wait no. It was something else.

Jaina kept her eyes on Sylvanas as she conjured up three more targets, even further away now, and set them to move in looping patterns. She only turned away to aim and fire her three shots, frost, arcane, and fire again. She didn't bother to watch them land, but turned back to Sylvanas as all three targets shattered again in a hail of magic.

Sylvanas answered that with another demand, “Prince Kael'thas, could you supply three more targets for us? Moving ones, please.”

“She just did that,” Kael'thas objected.

“On her own conjured objects. Not that I don't trust Lady Proudmoore’s aim here, but I don't really. Such trust must be earned,” Sylvanas stated coolly. All the while she could feel those aqua eyes burning into her.

Good.

Kael'thas rolled his eyes as he summoned up three more targets and sent them floating off near the same distance that Jaina had placed hers. They swept lazily across the sky.

“Surely you wish to give your friend more credit than that?” Sylvanas said as she regarded their placid speed.

Kael'thas looked between her and Jaina for a moment before he snapped his fingers. The targets sped up significantly, zigzagging through the sky.

“Excellent,” Sylvanas said with a nod, then turned back to Jaina. “Once more, if you would be so kind, Lady Proudmoore.”

Jaina already had her frost lance summoned, and turned to chase the targets. She didn't try to show off. She didn't try to shoot as quickly as possible. No, she watched, she waited, and she learned the patterns of the targets. She took only the time that was needed, nothing less, nothing more. And she didn't miss a single shot, yet again.

Sylvanas let a smile slip through her mask. “One more ask, then I will be satisfied. Kael'thas, three more moving targets, please. Lady Proudmoore, catch,” Sylvanas said shrugged the bow off of her own back and threw it, along with a quiver of arrows, to Jaina.

It was an ornate, but otherwise ordinary ranger weapon. Nothing special or legendary today. Not for a trip to Dalaran, no. If anything, it would be another test. The draw weight on elven bows was reasonably high. And, well, the girl needed to be able to actually shoot, after all.

But Jaina showed no hesitation as she caught the bow and the ammunition that sailed along with it. She'd even managed to set her spellbow aside beforehand to do so gracefully.

Kael'thas complained again even as he summoned more targets, “Really? Wasn't that enough for you?”

“I told you. I need a ranger. You have a fine magistrix here, and a very interesting little weapon in both her and that thing you are calling a bow. But I have a magistrix. I am missing a ranger,” Sylvanas reminded him.

Kael'thas sent the targets out anyway, but called to Jaina all the same, “You don’t have to do this. Let's just sit back down and--”

“No, your highness.” Jaina responded sharply as she took up Sylvanas’ bow, testing the bend of it and examining the string. “I believe I do need to do this.”

Sylvanas watched Jaina step into the bow. Oh yes, it was a little much for her. She could see the strain. But that didn't stop her. Jaina fought through it, steadying herself as she figured out how to compensate otherwise, how to channel more strength from the rest of her body to make up for what her arms lacked. She knocked an arrow. She took aim. She fired. She hit one target, then two, then three. A little slow, a little cumbersome, but accurate, skillful, and once again, utterly determined.

“Now we can talk,” Sylvanas said, this time with a genuine smile as she left a still ruddy-eared Kael'thas behind to retrieve her bow.

---

“Must you hover over us like a vulture?” Sylvanas asked the prince.

She’d already invited Jaina to take a seat with her at the table she’d been waiting at before, but stopped Kael’thas in his tracks with just a glare.

Tides, that intensity. Jaina watched with wonder as the elven woman turned it on and off at will--going from smiles and laughter one second to casually intimidating in the next. As it always was with elves, Jaina knew that the two of them were speaking with body language she didn’t understand either, despite her hard-earned mastery of their spoken words. She was trying her best, though--noting the cant of their ears, the glow of their eyes. Even then, she could see that there was more to this little rivalry of theirs that Kael’thas had let on. Much more.

“Can’t you see that Lady Proudmoore here is in need of refreshment after that ordeal? I certainly am,” Sylvanas went on.

Kael’thas offered her one last tilt of his head, small and subtle, before his ears flicked back and he replied, “Very well. I’ll find someone to bring us some wine.”

“How kind of you, my prince,” Sylvanas replied, her words dripping with honey, but her eyes hard and silvery.

Jaina had never seen an elf with so little blue to their glowing gaze. She guessed that this oddity seemed to help with Sylvanas’ ability to command with a look alone. She’d expected that. She’d been told as much. It was the rest that she hadn’t expected. The bluntness, the smiles, and no one had bothered to tell her that the Ranger General of Silvermoon was incredibly beautiful on top of it all--with her equally silver-tinged blonde hair and her sharp, almost feline features.

Sylvanas’ glare only softened when Kael’thas finally slipped away. She turned her attention back to the spellbow that Jaina had put on the table for her to examine. She ran her hands over its alabaster limbs with a level of distinct disinterest for a moment before she looked to Jaina again.

“So tell me,” Sylvanas began, “Now that you might be free to speak it--and know that I will encourage you to be nothing but honest with me--what did Kael’thas tell you about me...about all of this you’re asking for?”

Well. Jaina should probably have expected this. That didn’t mean she was ready for it. “I...It is…”

“He’s put you up as a piece in his game here, you realize. I know you’re smart enough to know that,” Sylvanas told her. “I can see it. So my question for you is what do you get out of it? What’s in it for you?”

“This is a game that I am only just beginning to understand,” Jaina admitted as she recovered herself a little. “I will tell you that when he first brought up the idea, I had not really considered what it would mean, to be the first human ranger. I know it has been attempted before, and at your behest…”

“As a part of the game,” Sylvanas noted with a nod. She was so calm, and her face was so still even as she breathed out such accusations. “Allow me to enlighten you then. You deserve to understand, and we only have so much time to dance around this before he finds a reason to come back. Kael’thas likes to feel important. He likes to think that he can order us around. Truth be told, though, he has no power over the military of our nation. And he hates it. Even the king himself is limited in what he can do without the approval of myself or the Ranger Lords. Our prince has been looking for a place to feel like he had influence and power. He’s been barking up my tree ever since I came to power. So tell me now, what is he offering you in return for digging out a place in my realm?”

Jaina could feel each word like a knife in her chest. No! This was not how this day was supposed to go! “What? Are you suggesting he is bribing me? We have not even discussed such--”

“Oh not yet,” Sylvanas said with a shake of her head. “No. That’s not his way. But he might have hinted at it. He might have given you a taste. Power within the Kirin Tor then? I know you’re quite young yet, especially to have come as far as you have already. Is he offering to marry you off to someone? Or is it a debt to be paid? Elven gold that will save an ill-fated venture? Come now, be honest with me.”

Jaina was at a loss for words. It was none of that. It never was. It never had been. But there wasn’t time to to explain. Kael’thas had come back out onto the terrace, with two servants in tow.

“You wish me to be honest, Ranger General?” Jaina asked quickly, her voice low enough that she hoped Kael’thas would not hear. “Here is the honest truth of it. I do not belong here, where respect is a thing only given to men with grey beards. I do not belong in Lordaeron, as I am sure you have heard about. I do not belong in my homeland, where the people fear and misunderstand magic. I have never belonged anywhere I have been in all my life. So, Quel’thalas is worth a shot.”

One of Sylvanas’ long eyebrows shot up, finally breaking her impassive mask. That was it. She said nothing, but Jaina didn’t doubt that it was because she could hear the footsteps approaching behind her.

She flashed Jaina a fanged grin before turning back to the prince. “Ah, our savior arrives!” she shouted back at him. “We were dying of thirst over here.”

“Then perhaps wine was a poor choice,” Kael’thas noted as Sylvanas finally beckoned him to take the third seat at the table.

True to his word, the servants behind him set out two trays in the space of the table that wasn’t being taken up by the spellbow--one with an elegant crystal pitcher of the golden, sweet wine that elves enjoyed and three matching goblets, another with a collection of sliced fruit and intricate little pastry tarts.

“Wine is never a poor choice,” Sylvanas corrected for him as she nodded to the servants to dismiss them and took the pitcher up for herself, pouring each of them a glass. Kael’thas accepted his begrudgingly, in a way that made Jaina question if the simple act of pouring wine was yet another show of dominance, another power struggle made manifest. Damn. She had a lot to learn.

She took her own glass with a leveled nod.

Sylvanas smiled back at her again. Was that a good thing?

“What did I miss, then?” Kael’thas asked as he took a sip of the fragrant golden wine.

“Just chit chat,” Sylvanas answered as she snatched up an egg tart for herself before leaning back in her chair.

“Getting to know your newest ranger then?” Kael’thas prodded.

“I’ve not said yes to that yet,” Sylvanas told him, waving the egg tart at him admonishingly. “Though Lady Proudmoore here has fulfilled the one major requirement of being a ranger. She can shoot, and I would venture to say she can shoot better than half of my squad. So enlighten me, Lady Proudmoore, where did you learn such a thing?”

Jaina took a sip of her wine, trying to steady herself into the answers she’d practiced for this day--the words she’d spoken into the mirror over and over, trying to make sure they sounded right, were pronounced correctly, and seemed intelligent. This was important. She knew it now. Her honesty and her drive were going to be the only things that Sylvanas cared about. She’d made that much clear already. Fine. Let her see them, then.

“I have always loved the outdoors,” Jaina began. “My father introduced me to the bow when I was very young, as he thought I could use an occupation such as hunting to get out more. My mother discouraged it, of course, until she believed it would help me to stand out in court. I kept at it when I came to Lordaeron. Formal hunts are very popular there, as I am certain you know. They only served as more encouragement for me to get better.”

“And now?” Sylvanas pressed, leaning forward again, her wine and the tart already forgotten.

That little sentence carried so much weight. Now. Now that court hunts and parties were behind her. Now that she’d been shunned from Lordaeron for years because of what she’d done. Now that she’d gone back to Kul Tiras to hunt in the mountains again, to try to find peace in the smell of the sea and the cold wind in her hair, only to find that it wasn’t there anymore. Now that she’d come back to Dalaran, hoping to find refuge in the studies that once consumed her, only to find herself mastering them too quickly, and still not being recognized for it.

“Now, I suppose that archery has always been a passion of mine, something I was good at. We all like to do things we are good at, do we not? We like to excel. We like to get better. It is the nature of every sentient being,” Jaina told her. “I am told you and your rangers are the best. I wish to learn from the best, and to test myself with them, to see if I can join their ranks.”

“And not to mention bring her expertise in magic to--” Kael’thas stopped short as both Sylvanas and Jaina shot him a glare at the same time. He covered it with a cough and sipped at his wine again.

Sylvanas sat back in her chair again, she gave Jaina an oddly soft look as she said, “Archery is one thing, but yes, we do it well. It is what we’re known for. What I fear for you is the rest of it. Ours is a culture you will not entirely understand. What you see here, outside of our lands, is not a good representation of what we are, how we are. You know that a good majority of our kind want nothing to do with the humans still, right?”

“That is fairly obvious, even to me,” Jaina told her.

Sylvanas let a little laugh bubble up in response. “True. But still, it would be a struggle for you. You would stick out like a sore thumb in every waking moment of your days there. All eyes would be on you, and on me in return for allowing you into our ranks. Quel’thalas will not be a place you could disappear to, Jaina. It will not be a place you can hide.”

Was that what she’d wanted? Jaina had been used to eyes on her, even before. She’d wondered why, at first. She hadn’t understood. But that was all her life was now. Everywhere she went, her infamy ran before her. People stared. They whispered. Children pointed at her white-streaked hair and cried out.

“I will be the girl who killed Prince Arthas wherever I go. This is a fact I’ve finally accepted,” Jaina told the elven woman, her voice steady and strong. “Perhaps just being a human where there are no humans might be better than that. Perhaps it might be worse. The only way I will know is if I try. If you will have me.”

Sylvanas regarded her for a moment. Waiting. Watching. Studying her like a book. Jaina just kept her gaze straight and serious. She watched the flicker of the elven woman’s silvery eyes.

Sylvanas rose from her chair in one fluid motion. She extended her gauntleted hand to Jaina again.

“You’re lucky I like to take risks,” she said as she waited.

Jaina tried not to be too hasty as she rose with her, but still managed to scoot her chair back in way that made a horrible squeak against the tiles of the terrace floor. Sylvanas and Kael’thas’ ears both wilted at the sound. She reached out to shake hands again, to accept this deal, whatever it was.

“You’re a ranger now, Jaina,” Sylvanas told her as she slipped past her grip and settled her hand just under Jaina’s elbow, grasping at her forearm. “We shake hands like this.”

Jaina quickly followed suit. Even through the leather of her armor, she could feel the strength of Sylvanas’ arm as she clasped it. Shit. What had she done? What was she getting herself into?

“Thank you. I will be a risk you will not regret taking, I assure you.”

Well, it was too late now.

“Welcome to the the Golden Lynxes. The rest of my squad is really going to question my sanity now that I’m inviting a human to join us,” Sylvanas laughed.

[digimondestined]

1-50 :D (for xxx: Blurred Lines; 42: Aokise Songfics (Need You Now); 46: Try- and Keep Trying; 47, made up title: In the man behold a child) ❤️

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

Oof.  12 ish? FFNet But we don’t speak about it; the site or the writing :P

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?

Right now, I’m more invested in aokise / knb fandom and well, once invested, it’s hard to pull my focus :P Other fandoms I’m interested in writing in as of the moment are Owari No Seraph (Gureshin :P) and Seven Deadly Sins (man, that’s lovely hell)

3) Do you prefer writing OC’s or reader inserts? Explain your answer.

Probably OCs? I haven’t written OC’s in a while but heck, reader inserts sounds kinda of awkward to write :P

4) What is your favourite genre to write for?

…is angst with a happy ending a genre?(Otherwise maybe coming of age?)

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Blurred Lines is the only one that has an actual plot :P and is multi chaptered :P. It’s also got a couple of my favorite tropes such as mutual pining & simultaneous obliviousness. To be honest, I normally don’t edit my works before I put them out (sometimes I’ll get a loving friend to look at it tho :PPPPPP) because I can’t bear reading what I’ve written without cringing, but yeah, I thought Blurred Lines was pretty good :D in terms of writing skill because I’ve been able to read it again aha and I thank all the wonderful people who showered me the work with compliments.

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

LMAO WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I HAVEN’T ALREADY? If I delete stories, it’s always for the reason I’m disappointed with it in hindsight, or xD embarrassed I produced such poo.

7) When is your preferred time to write?

Night time becuz I like to procrastinate, it’s quiet and the dark is cozy.

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

Other writers/stories, canon material, music, random insights at odd times, prompts sparked by single words or little phrases, prompts from sites or book quotes or from friends and epiphanies, and then mostly I don’t :P 

9) In your Blurred Lines fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote?

Chapter 5, the (two I guess?) scene where Aomine’s really upset and Kise makes it his job to take his mind off of it; it’s a memorable moment for both of them because Kise’s determination and hard work really gets to show (SEIRIN GAH; jskghjkghg sg lgsg gsjlsd) in front of two people that mean a lot: himself and Aomine, and for Aomine, it’s an example of how he can be weak and injured too, and is so much more than some give him credit for.

10) In your fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have an alternative ending in mind? Nah, I really liked how it ended actually :) Happy after endings are my favorite :)

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

I’ve only gotten harsh criticism once or twice and man, you should’ve seen me RAWRR in their faces :P. Sometimes self criticism- ex: dislike of plot- will get me to edit though; and then there are just times where I’ve been lazy but reading the work, I’ll see flaws that definitely have to be changed and will proceed to do so.

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why?

Aomine and Kise are the most fun imo. I go wild with both because of the complexity to both their characters and simply, the inspiration you can see from different works of other authors (Ex: MoustachePenguin wrote JustBreathe with Kise who had crushing depression and KaijosCopyCat wrote When It Rains, It Rains Bullets, where Kise is actually more jaded than Aomine is); point being said, there’s enough material to make a lot reasonable.Kise is fun for his masks and layers; Aomine is great for his relativity. And of course, you can always find a way to knit in angst of some sort :P 

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?

Lots man. Kuroko, Murasakibara-

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories. 

SO. Remember how it was planned as a one-shot aha :P I’d gotten 3 chapters and ½ written out before I said screw it and posted them before gradually working on the rest :P 

Anyways, I’d only then finished on a final summary, and with one of the parts being “Lines Blurring”, I thought heck let’s roll with that.

Oh also! Had a hard time getting that summary out. gotta thank my special, one and only snowflake.

15) If you write OC’s, how do you decide on their names?

- Likes to indulge myself; I’ll base OCs of some real characters, then twinkle with the name little bit, maybe adding extra letters or finding names with similar meanings?

- It also has to do with how the name tastes. You know how some words just flow better? (Connotation and all that :P) but like, Jewel over Gem, Crystal over Jewel, Ruby over Everything, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx?

Was a prompt- (voldetort :P)

but i was given an open ending option and then i took it and ran with it and turned it into angst with happy ending :P

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

Kise stuck out his tongue, Aomine smirked, and they let Momoi laugh herself dry.

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

Yah, who doesn’t? :PP (atop of the temporarily abandoned WIPs :PPP) Either loss of enthusiasm, lack of ability (time, but mostly procrastination :P) to write, or post-insights that lemme realize the story is unsatisfying to the point of repulsive :P

19) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to?

Maybe Blurred Lines? Struggle them through 2nd year of school, relationship where it’s so much more precious than a regular, “we-just-began-a-”relationship” because of the stakes. (But then I’d have to like write a conflict???and my inability to be creative would hinder that :P)

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?

I haven’t really “ended” any stories of worthy length, but for Blurred Lines :P. Which had an okay ending in my opinion, though maybe hurriedly carried out XDI imagine when I do get to finishing more/other stories, I might? Because I can be impulsive. :P But then again, I take a heck long time to procrastinate; and sometimes that means more time to think about how a story wants to go- in these cases, I don’t, usually :)

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

I am heck into lots of writers.

Roch; VanillaDaydreams22 (tumblr) and just VanillaDaydreams (ao3) is a great friend and writer :P with a lovely, descriptive style of fluid writing.

A famous one would be moustachiopenguin - wrote lots of heart wrenching stories; aha we both know :P So, imagination, use of plot, detail, etc.

And then there’s an up and new coming one; her name starts with a Y and ends with a U.

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it?

Literally all of them. :P Anything from over 4-6 months in particular is a bit of, no thanks :P

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

I prefer music, even though sometimes it’s not helpful and actually, is a hindrance :P but music always helps the mood~

24) How do you feel about writing smutty scenes?

Laughs.

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

Writing? Nah. Reading? Heck, few times.

26) Which part of your Blurred Lines fic was the hardest to write?

All of it cause I didn’t want to write it, I wanted to waste time~

- In the later chapters, carrying out Aomine’s realization for feelings was a little difficult; I had Satsuki sort of catalyze his action, because he’s pretty heckin determined to get Kise in his unconscious mind; Satsuki’s rejection just enforces the feeling he needs to express himself, though hard. But I occasionally would wonder whether Aomine was made too soft, or OOC in general.

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

My impulsiveness pushes me towards flow; but for fics requiring detail, general outline help XD no matter how “general”.

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

Maybe just the fact that the fandoms I’d get to were in existence :D like how some of us talked about, would have been pretty cool to write with the other gazillion of fan- tho, then again, wouldn’t trade them for you guys aha

There’s a lot of things I’ve learned from it and only with the actual writing action have I come to understand the things :P

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

Maybe Lazy or No Questions Asked. Lazy, because it was the first time I’d written something short but with a bit of story to it still, y’know? :P And then No Questions Asked because I just love the trope of uncertainty and obliviousness and pining in the middle of aokise.

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at?

Honestly? Say It. It was short and okay but like, plot-wise? Not sure if it deserved all the kindness it/I got XD

32) Are any of your characters based on real people?

I haven’t written any OCs in a while! I imagine one I get back to doing so, they could be :P

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Not quite sure. I have shit memory sometimes aha, but all the support is good :D

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

On one of my first fics, which I’d written 24 chapters / 40K (GASP I KNOW :D IT’LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN *SMILES THROUGH THE TEARS OF SAD*) I was told the other chapters should be deleted because it was so bad. But like, the reader had posted said criticism through at least half of the work so :P and a couple of chapters later, said, “This is better! But change everything before this.”I actually got a lot of help/reviews becasue I’d asked for them from various authors aha and fandom was popular and lively; the criticism just went straight through my ears I think. XD

35) Do you share your story ideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest?

I like getting a second opinion if I’m insecure about the idea (often, you guessed right

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s?

No.

jkjk :P I currently have 4 active WIPs. 1. SECRET (for fanzine :PP), 2. As Long As You Love Me (CJ’s prompt) 3. Some Stuff Has Actually Changed 4. Oops I Did It Again

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written?

What is humor explain??!?!?

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

- You silly.- Roch + CJ- You, super lovely

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?

3rd for the most of it. I’ve never written with 1st before but I’m considering it for a work that’d require an extensive cast. 2nd also strikes me as fun though, because of this angsty story I’d read where Kise was the narrator but done through 2nd? 2nd also seems very poetic and I’d like to try it out some day for fun :P

40) Do people know you write fanfiction?

Yeet :P

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

Nijimura, Jellal, you name it XD all of them??? You know my tendency to avoid protagonists :P

42) Song fic - What made you decide to use the song Need You Now

It’s a quarter after one, I’m all alone and I need you nowSaid I wouldn’t call but I lost all control and I need you nowAnd I don’t know how I can do without, I just need you now

Angsty and perfect for pining ships.

43) Has anyone ever guessed the plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it?

LMAO I’ve never written a fic long enough for a plot twist to occur; B) I DON’T WRITE PLOT?? XD

44) What is the last line you wrote?

A victory, Kise should think, should be thinking. What is there instead is empathy, but sadness anyways. Oh Aominecchi…

45) What spurs you on during the writing process?

Not much. There are periods of time when I don’t want to write at all and I will find excuses of any kind to get off my laptop, or stay on, and just not write aha. What helps is typically at night when I feel semi-tired, I’ll be motivated to write enough to be a pleasant thought before bed.

46) I really loved your Try and Keep Trying fic. If you were ever to do a sequel, what do you think might happen in it?

GoM have a Winter Cup Banquet and there’s alcohol there. AoKise has done a lot more pining and both gotten better at hiding it. They meet awkwardly at the event becuz of their friends talking to each of their friends and then suddenly disappearing while AoKise are startled, staring at each other. Cautious tense talk tried to be made easier by both of them; Kise makes a joke like, “Alcohol would make this a little easier, right Aominecchi?”

And Aomine blurts out stupid becuz high strung, smth like, “Is that what you thought the last time?”

AND THEN, Kise is also high strung right, so his reply is probably something dumb; maybe a few more lines and then:

KISE ACCIDENTALLY CALLS HIM ‘DAIKI’ AND THEY BOTH JUST FREEZE AND BLUSH PROFUSELY BC THEY’RE REMINDED OF THE KISS AND FDSJFS AHO REALIZES KISE DID N O T FORGET - and he’ quick to press Kise for an explanation but Kise is sure this is going to lead to heartbreak, that Aomine’s frantic (heart beating at 12432 beats a second) and desperate (to know becuz becuz if Kise- if Ryouta-) demands of Kise to tell him the truth are from a place of piss/fury. When Aomine realizes Kise is only shying away from his emotional cornering/words more and more, Aomine does the only thing he can think of and kisses Kise again and again and again.

Kise realizes he means it, Aomine is almost heartbroken over how Kise couldn’t understand he meant it; both are overwhelmingly overjoyed becuz c’mon. MUTUAL pining, not just pining :P and then THAT turns into cautious, hopeful, cautious prompts for dating.

47) Here’s a fic title - In the man behold a child

(Uni AU)Aomine pines after Kise’s ass and he constantly sends him is inviting him: “C’mon Kise, kiss me and I’ll shut up forever.” and “C’mon Kise, I’d be a great fuckbuddy. No string attached but sex. I’ll be gone immediately.”, lots of, “C’mon Kise. I’m fun. I’ll give you want you want, what you need.” and more earnest and genuine stuff, “I know I sound like I’m kidding, and maybe parts of me were…but I meant it when I said I love you. And I’ll wait until you finally hear I’m fully serious.”

Eventually, Kise comes to realize he is serious. The fact that Aomine really has matured as a person over time and that he really loves Kise.  Who also realizes maybe a little bit of the fact that he’d never needed a real relationship because Aomine sort of checked off all the boxes; and so, (poetically aha; i thought of this at last moment XD) child Kise is also revealed in man Kise for being oblivious and little bit scared (because that’s what teens/kids are good at Aha?)

Ofc, then Kise finally says yes, though hesitant still; Aomine takes him slowly through love and all the good stuff :P

48) What’s your favourite trope to write?

Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining/Obliviousness & Uncertainty, Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers to Enemies to Friends to Lovers, anything with a slight of it’s hard and if we’re not being told we’re gonna make it through, how can i be reassured now that we will; but you’ve got friends to rely on so it’ll be okay OTHERWISE KNOWN AS Angst with a Happy Ending :P

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

Something from Warrior Cats

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

(Both both is good)

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME CHOOSE.

But like, if angst with a happy ending counts as angst??? Than that :PFluff is good but you have to have a reason that makes it even sweeter :P