#but I also have a general au percolating here

[ronearoundblindly]

I just want to start this off by saying you are one of my favorite Steve writers of all time I can’t believe I just randomly found you one day. Every time I read something I think “oh this is her best” and then I go to something else and literally the same reaction so thank you of sharing this for free. The comfort reading your Steve stories give me is unexplainable.

LOL the funniest thing is I found your works on ao3 first and at first I didn’t click the tumblr there so when I found the CEO au here I was like “um excuse me who tf is plagiarizing — oh wait no same person. Thank god”

So I don’t know how you feel about writing about pregnancy and kids but Steve having to deal with that especially in the Sun Salt and Shield AU is so hilarious to me. Is there a hc you have about that? Or just in general about them getting more serious. I love that you didn’t take the easy way out and just “Splash”ify the mermaid reader.

Um🥹😚, all of this is great, and I'm not trying to just skip over all your lovely compliments (also, good looking out on the plagiarism because that issue's going around again 🥲). I just want to jump right into the headcanon of pregnancy and kids for Sun, Salt, and Shield.

This is mostly rambling. Sorry it's not well-formed, but there *might* be a chapter of fic percolating from this. No warnings. No detailed talk of pregnancy or birth, only vague reference.

Just the other day I revisited an ask about MissG/Doll not having the more humanoid body of idk-what-to-call-them classical mermaids?? And I wondered if that (the classic look) could have been a blended species from way in the past between deep sea mermaids and humans--essentially, would Doll and Steve have children that looked more like what we typically see as mermaids?

It's an interesting train of thought, and, frankly, perfectly logical. If they had a kid or kids, that's likely how I'd do it.

However--and this is a big HOWEVER,--I am admittedly not a big fan of pregnancy, kidfics, and all that 'adorable' parenthood stuff. Sounds a little cruel that way, but there you have it. I'm me. I make things more complicated than they need to be.

I would make pregnancy a different experience from humans. Doll's kind would have a different mentality toward offspring than humans. Some hilarious and/or angsty misunderstandings could ensue.

For example--because I don't think too deeply into these matters, shhhh--based on the sheer size of her whole species, I don't think deep sea mermaids visibly look pregnant like humans. Their hips simply get wider and they sort of thicken all the way through their torsos to mid-tail. Honest to goodness, humans truly just think Miss G is getting fat, but just in a 'putting on weight' way, not a nasty judgy way. In this event, and since you/G do not have the vocabulary to explain, your pregnancy goes unnoticed until it is very advanced.

To you, this is a common inevitability in the sea between mates, but there isn't the type of hoopla--for lack of a better term--surrounding the process.

So you're pregnant? Big deal?

Ummmm, wow, the wheels are really starting to turn on this, but also your species doesn't have a calculated sense of time. You live in mostly darkness (and the ambient/changing light of other mermaids' tails), so you wouldn't have any real way of explaining how long gestation for a baby is. Likely, the kid would grow super fast, too. Means Tony still doesn't know the average lifespan of your species because there are no common/known markers to describe how long your 'elders' have been alive.

Stuff I haven't worked out yet: would the child of a deep sea mermaid and a human be able to live in either native environment? That's where I'm thinking the lower-depth, classic mermaid comes into play; still has fins, can breathe air for short periods (but longer than you), probably can't handle heavy pressure for very long though (since you spend far longer in a pool, not the pressure chamber asleep, than most deep sea-ers while pregnant), and is lighter colored in scales and features than you due to the shallower water (more affected by sunlight).

I do think it would be cute for the child to have Steve's blond hair and blue eyes simply because that is unheard of in your species (as are the paler scales and armoring. I should mention that since you have lavender eyes--i.e. very light sensitive--human blue eyes are comparatively dark.

You'll notice I'm not saying son or daughter. When newborn young...I don't think anyone can tell if the child is male or female. I don't thing G's species cares, and I think you'd be very confused by how intently Tony and Steve try to figure that out. Conceptually, it simply doesn't matter at all what sex the kid is until puberty, and even then...it still sort of doesn't??

Hmm. That's all I got on this for now, but I sense I could probably come up with some interesting angst with a happy ending from it.

Thank you for asking!

A/N: Not that it matters, but I love 'Splash.' I've learned that it's fine to explore fantastical things to all sorts of degrees, and as almost all of fandom can tell you, fluff is great, fluff is necessary, and fluff keeps us afloat. Big HOWEVER, it is not okay to wash away anyone's race or heritage (in this case--obviously fake--a species' culture). Be respectful. It's that easy.

[Main Masterlist; Light Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

@fandom-has-taken-me-hostage @leah2901 @blogbog710

[quickreaver]

Emptying my brain...

Recently, there was quite a kerfuffle in the SPN fandom, over the realization that several self-proclaimed “BNFs” had been Mean Girling fellow fans into hating on certain other fans and certain other members of the cast of SPN. Thoughts have been percolating around in my head about this for a bit. Here goes... There has already been some discussions of warning about how cult-like these tactics seem: the initial lovebombing, indoctrination, evolving into intimidation and threats if people don't fall in line. The hunger to belong and smug feeling of group-think is a helluva drug. The fear of losing favor and being ousted from the silo is also a helluva withdrawal. I wonder if there's a reason all these manipulative personalities, every one of them, have been from the Destiel quarter of the SPN family. Is it sheer numbers? Or does it begin with the selling of the ship as this monumental slow-burn greatest love story ever told (even though the show's actual canon does very little to support this fable)? The relationship between Dean and Cas has been romanticized to a legendary degree, and the fanon has become the preferred telling of the tale, replete with lengthy subtextual navel-gazing over lamps and fictional beer brands and artfully staged gif sets on tumblr. Every whiff of the show has been recontextualized to point to Destiel. A stroll through any given list of Destiel All-Time Fave Fics is chock full of AUs and characters that feel more like Any Two White Guys than the actual characters from SPN.

Maybe this primes D/C shippers to be more susceptible to grift, to believe anyone with charisma and confidence and leadership aspirations, who promises the fruition of some manner of Destiel endgame. Which, okay. I totally get how deeply we often feel about our fandoms and the dynamics, how we project onto the characters and idealize the ships as more than the show intended.

It'd be fine... if fans then didn't feel the need to evangelize for the ship and punish those who got in the way. Some groups have been actively attacking the cast and parts of our fandom for years, as well as making actual bank off it all. Under the guise of inclusion and camaraderie, they dangle paying admission into their sacred inner circles like worms on hooks. They took, and are continuing to take, money to offer glimpses behind the doors of their Patreons or special levels of their Discords, where those lucky customers would theoretically be honored with friendship (parasocial, much?), and gifted with the potential of supposed insider info, and/or proximity to the cast and crew at conventions. In return, that same congregation would be used as a tool to attack and discredit the parts of the SPN milieu that the grand poobahs dislike. They would be asked to buy their merch, to keep their secrets, to send hate mail to each other in order to place the blame on “the other side”, try to get competing fans (or even TV shows) canceled, carry the torches of hate, and the list goes on. I don't know where this is going exactly, but there's a difference between bickering over which ship has the best blorbos or whose fave is the most girlboss, and actively trying to generate a lemming-like mass of obedience, enough to impact the IRL health and well-being of other people. Fandom can rally to accomplish such good feats (and lord knows the companies and studios that own our favorite franchises have figured this out), but every coin has two sides. Just, be aware of which one you're on, I guess.

[ofliterarynature]

NOVEMBER 2023 WRAP UP

[ loved liked ok no thanks (reread) DNF ]

The Moonstone • Chaos Terminal • (The Raven Boys) • The Ghosts of Trappist • (Fugitive Telemetry) • From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler • The Art of Destiny • The Bell in the Fog • (Exit Strategy) • Who Goes There? • Salt Magic Skin Magic • The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up • (Dracula) • (Rogue Protocol) • The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store • The Boneshaker • The Archive Undying • (The Scorpio Races) • Camilla

Total: 18 (audiobook: 15 / ebook: 3)

I started my month off by finishing my reread of The Scorpio Races on November 1, as is right and proper :) This has consistently been my favorite of Maggie's books, and it never feels right the years that I haven't reread it. I think I hit the right method this year and rather than binging it or following a structured reread (which would be cool, if you could match the timeline of the book) I listened to the audiobook on and off throughout Oct and finished it off in one last burst one the 1st. I think this is some of Maggie's best writing, but I also admit I am no longer able to judge this one objectively and will save you all the sales pitch for now :)

The Archive Undying was...confusing. It wasn't that I couldn't follow what was happening on the sentence level or in the immediate present, but try zooming out to the larger picture and I was lost. It was hazy, very much like a fever dream. I would not be opposed to trying some of the author's other work in the future, but I have no interest in revisiting this book/series, and wouldn't really recommend.

The Boneshaker has been sitting on my bookshelf for years ever since I picked it up at a library book sale, and it's managed to survive every shelf purge since. And I'm glad it did! It's a strange MG/YA book about a girl, her bicycle, a small western town just off a crossroads, a snakeoil salesman, his medicine show, and deals with the devil. It was fascinating! I've been almost tempted to send a copy to Sydnee McElroy just for fun. I will definitely be investigating the author's other series.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - I got tempted into this one because the Book Riot Podcast couldn't stop singing it's praises, and then it started making some of the year end/best of lists and... it's ok I guess? I don't really get the hype, tbh, and I got close to DNFing because it just wasn't interesting. I was at least forewarned that the "murder mystery" in the marketing was overblown, but I am here to tell you to ignore its existence completely. There is no mystery, there isn't really even a murder, and it doesn't happen until the end of the book anyway. I fully admit this was just not a book for me, and anyone who wants to read it I wish you well.

Not much to say about my Murderbot reread, other than choosing to give the audiobooks a break and rereading in a text format was an excellent choice, I really feel like I've picked up on a lot of things I didn't before, and it gives me time to think about things (I have some questions about the actual irl existence of rogue secunits, tbh). This is my second full time trough the series, and I think Exit Strategy is maybe the weakest solo link in the original quartet, but that makes me very happy to have the newer books as well. And I have to say it, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY IS BETTER IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.

Dracula Daily wrapped up this month, so I'm probably not the only one to have Dracula show up on their reading list. I listened to most of it via RE: Dracula, which I appreciated so much for helping keep me on track this year. I probably won't follow along next year, but big thanks to everyone for helping me learn to enjoy a book I hated both times I had to read it for school! I'll still be percolating that Greenwing & Dart AU somewhere in the back of my mind in the meantime.

I picked up the idea of "sparking joy" from the general internet and have found it hugely helpful in letting go of things in life, so I've been meaning to pick up The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up for a while, and was finally spurred into it when I picked up a copy at goodwill. I found some actionable advice in Kondo's method, but sooo much of the book felt like a sales pitch on how following this method could fix everything wrong in your life (and I mean *everything*). It left a very bad taste in my mouth - I think a workbook or checklist could be useful, but wouldn't recommend the book itself.

Salt Magic Skin Magic is a historical fantasy with magic, adventure, and a gay romance, which is so entirely in my wheelhouse. It hit all the same points I tend to find/enjoy in KJ Charles' work, and I had such a good time reading this - no surprise, apparently she helped edit this! Thanks to the HOTE discord group for reccing this one, I'll definitely be checking out some of the author's other work!

If you didn't know, Who Goes There? is the short story that the movie The Thing was based on - which I have not seen, but I went on a brief dive into antarctic exploration/horror in anticipation of this month's book club (All the White Spaces, which I actually read for last month but that meeting got delayed) and this popped up pretty quickly. It was available from the library and short, so why not?! The beginning felt a little rough, but I would have loved to see the tension of the main plot drawn out even longer. Liked this a lot better than the actual book club book, but I don't know that I'll watch any of the adaptations.

The Bell in the Fog - Lavender House sequel! I was so glad when this was announced; I love queer books, historical books, a mystery with a lead who actually does some detecting, and a character trying to find themselves and their community? Absolute catnip for me. It also doesn't pull its punches about the violence and injustices faced by the queer community, so it's definitely a bit darker than my usual tastes and will have to try hard to make it onto my favorites list. But if the author continues to write these I will absolutely pick them up.

The Art of Destiny - bless the library for not dragging their heels on the audiobook for this sequel, but lucky me, they did finally add the first book in time for me to get them both in the same year. Unlucky me, this does not appear to be the end of this series D: third book when??? Anyway, I won't deny that these books move a little slowly, but when they move, they move. If you want a big fantasy that's diverse, funny, cartoonish but epically violent, has a cast of all ages, and centers it's story on non-romantic relationships - this is so good, come join me in wailing for a book 3 announcement.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler has lived in the back of my mind for a while as a favorite childhood book of a booklr friend who is sadly no longer on tumblr, but who I say hi to occasionally on other sites - anyways, I found a copy at goodwill and took it as a sign. This one's for you, Lourdes! If I'd found this as a kid, I probably would have reread it a lot, that's how I was too lol. For now, it was a fine read, but I don't think it'll have a lasting hold. Any fans interested in more middle grade about fine art might check out the Chasing Vermeer series by Blue Balliett.

The Ghosts of Trappist - I think it's impossible for me to not enjoy myself reading this series (NeoG), but this one was a bit of a backslide from the improvements in book 2. On one hand - a very ambitious plot, probably the least soap-operaish of the bunch, and I loved the emotional arcs (and the possible ART/murderbot reference?). On the other - over a dozen pov characters is too too many. my god. I think a tighter focus could have done a world of good, but if this is also where the series wraps up I'd be totally satisfied. I'll definitely check out the author's other series.

I admit, rereading The Scorpio Races sparked something in me and now I'm determined to set off on a full Maggie Stiefvater read/reread, starting with The Raven Boys. I really loved this when it first came out, but my interested petered out as the series progressed and I started college, and I haven't touched the spinoff yet. My impression from the first book is still that Maggie's writing is so goddam beautiful. Her sentences make me want to weep, but for me there's so much focus on the line that I'm constantly losing track of the big picture. I'm still enjoying myself, but I feel like I'm coasting a lot on nostalgia and aesthetic between moments of a story - though is it me, or does she write a lot in scenes/vignettes, rather than a constant flowing story? I've found some success in centering myself by imagining the scenes as depicted by a CW supernatural teen show of my high school years and it's quite lovely, actually - I can't believe the TV show plans got dropped and never picked up again. We'll have to see how the rest of the series goes.

Genuinely, I can't believe that I read Station Eternity earlier this year and that the sequel, Chaos Terminal, is out already. Despite liking the author's first book (Six Wakes) and normally liking the tropes they're playing with here, I did not like the first book. No idea why I read the second one then (hope?), but it was better, definitely! I still didn't like it. No idea if I'll finally call it quits on this series or get lured into another one if it gets written.

The Moonstone was an unexpected surprise! I made it to November still 2 books short on my 6 classics challenge and panicked when the first one ended up dnf'd - what if this one was bad too??? But I really should know better, give me a half decent mystery and entertaining characters, and I'll be fine. And it was epistolary! I had a good time groaning over all of the characters foibles and quirks, even if I spent the whole time just going, Hey Guys? you could avoid all of this if you just let the nice Indian men have their diamond back. Good fun if you like a mystery and have some patience.

My only DNF this month was the previously mentioned classic - from the moment I decided on a classics challenge, I knew I wanted to try something by Frances Burney given how much I liked her novel Evelina. Unfortunately for me, the only one the library had on audiobook was Camilla... and it was 37 hours long. I gave it a shot, but only made it about 3 hours in. I really do applaud Burney for her ability to create characters who are intentionally/unintentionally causing harm even if they sometimes have the best of intentions. It's absurd, truly, but I'm not in a place I can take that right now - especially since the victims were children, and it happened *repeatedly*. I think if I was to try this one again I'd need to take it slowly in small parts.

Am I horribly wrong about anything? Do you have any classics you'd recommend for next year?

[bananakarenina]

20 questions writer meme!

Tagged by the wonderful @breakaway71! A little Friday night break to help me jumpstart some writing, hopefully?

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 26

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 219,077

3. What fandoms do you write for? Julie and the Phantoms, though I have a CW Nancy Drew fic percolating!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

our hearts can speak ourselves unseen (first collab with @where-you-go, peterpatterlina + modern cyrano de bergerac)

complications you could do without (remix of crescent moon, peterpatterlina)

for love's sake only (the fake marriage historical/regency au, rulie)

want your midnights (the OG! new year's eve 1994, hint of peterpatter)

heaven above and closer (the other collab with @where-you-go, the 90s road trip coming of age au, julie x luke x reggie x bobby, willex)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Oh gosh. i try, for real, y'all. i often put it off because i want to get a good grade in commenting/responding, which is something real you can achieve, and then i end up not doing it at all. but i love each and every one i receive! i'm just so inconsistent about actually replying.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? hmmmmm. excellent question; even if i write angst i tend to veer toward a happy or at least hopeful ending (example: leave the light on)

actually you know what, heart like a wheel is probably the angstiest if you think about it. it's just that the main character doesn't know it, lol.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? oh gosh. i love a happy ending, so pick one. they're mostly all varying degrees of happy, lol

8. Do you get hate on fics? i have been very lucky so far in that i don't get outright hate, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? it's not the thrust (heh) of what i write, generally, but i have: for love's sake only and its sequel, to love's self alone, are both in the vein of a paperbook romance and are written as such. i do have a carrie x reggie smutfic in the queue though...

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? i can't say that i have! i might nod to another fandom but full crossovers seem so ambitious to me--two different worlds to track, two styles of story. i love reading them, though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? if i have i'm not aware of it...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? i have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? @where-you-go are now on our third collab (she, through some sorcery and witchcraft, got me to round robin on a luke x bobby fake dating story one week on here, and we're expanding it to a full fic, hopefully out before the end of the year!) and @daintyduck99 and i have put on that old song, aka the "i can't believe you married a rodeo cowboy" au, also hopefully coming soon! also maybe i'll poke @breakaway71 again about some dialogue i sent her ;)

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? i am a proud multi-shipper and you can't make me choose lololol

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? lol is "all of them" a valid answer? kidding. i have been struggling with getting over the finish line with WIPs this year so.

16. What are your writing strengths? dialogue, def. that's my theatre training/playwright classes coming through. i can always tell when i'm tired because my drafts devolve into dialogue only, haha.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Oh gosh. endings! i can never seem to wrap things up in a snappy way! also lately stakes. like figuring out what the characters have at stake to lose in terms of the story.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? i'll do it sparingly but i generally avoid whole conversations. my grammar in spanish is terrible and that's the only other language i'd feel comfortable writing any dialogue at all in. maybe i'd ask family about tagalog.

19. First fandom you wrote for? oh man. hahahahahahahaha the real answer might be "self-insert o-town fanfic in which my friends and i fell in love with the band members"? but i think it might be gilmore girls. i do want to archive all my ff.net and livejournal (well, the stuff i can find :( ) things so you may see them on an ao3 near you

20. Favorite fic you've written? oh gosh. i love them all because they're mine! maybe for love's sake only because it really feels like i finished a full novella with that one. or heart like a wheel because i love tertiary character explorations. or want your midnights because it started this whole thing. see, i can't choose. don't make me

Tagging @innytoes, @jmrothwell, @daintyduck99, @invisibleraven, and anyone else who sees this and wants to participate in the fun!

[welcometomybraincomics]

Heyo! I've got 5 million different projects, so here are the tags and links for all of the ones living in the Tumblr Biosphere

If you're interested in any of these, please ask me about them

I will prepare an entire lecture on the plot, the development, and the in-universe history sthykfjbsrtfgulkmdn I literally have so much, you have no idea 😭

[ also, if there is ever something that seems like it doesn't have context or is confusing, feel free to ask about them as well. It's entirely likely that I just didn't make a post about it because I leave these things percolating in my brain for months before I say anything about them XD ]

Would you like to participate in the Great Character Revival?

Transformers OC content:

#robits is AU transformer's content relating to an entire community of Transformers who whoopsie daisied themselves into another part of the universe completely separate from the Cybertronian War

A more in-depth summary here as well as a master post

closely associated, but separate, is #mother which encapsulates all things relating to the planet of sentient plant creatures colloquially called "Mother." It exists in two versions: the one where the Stations exist and the one where the Stations don't. In the universe where the station doesn't exist, the plane twins Streaker and Vole are non-cybertronian sentient machines who were brought back to life after a defeat in service of Mother, the sentient plant entity at the heart of the planet.

#Gale Force is content relating to my OC Gale Force, a small Cybertronian who gave himself flight mods set in the universe of TFA

#human TF and #the goofy Transformers road trip both refer to the transformers AU where Cybertronians haven't been revealed to humanity (or at least not the general public) and Sam, a human programmer and hobbiest engineer who consistently makes questionable choices, finds a Decepticon named Whiplash, who has about the same level of dumbassery, and they end up trekking across the US together. #the goofy Transformers space adventure marks a change in setting from Earth to space

Miscellaneous fandom content:

#location: unknown follows an undertale OC named Jacqueline Alveda and her trek across the multiverse. Following her is her chara-esk companion, Polar: a spirit who made a deal with her as a child that when she died, they would get her body. On a separate journey across multiverse is Jacqueline's childhood friend Izaia.

#spiders in a trench coat pertains to my very non serious JJK OC Spiders in a Trench Coat. Is she a human? is she a curse? Nobody fucking knows! she goes around eating curses and disappearing into a hoard of spiders

#Winter the battle maniac follows Winter, a wide eyed Zorua, and her assorted traveling companions and relatives and their various obsessions and misconceptions about the world

Original stories:

#sun and sacrine is closely associated with location unknown, but not technically undertale OC content. It follows two critter boys (a skeleton in a fire elemental) from the same world as Jacqueline, Izaia, and Polar who are having a platonic Romeo and Juliet style adventure because their two families are at odds because they're fighting over resources. Except they don't try to kill themselves, they just run away

also, watch me misspell Sacrin's name every single time I write it xD (it's not supposed to have and E at the end) this is what happens when I name my characters the butchering of an actual word LMAO it's a misspelling of the word "saccharine" which is a type of sugar

#segmented secrets Is currently mostly art of a fantasy world mystery investigation being conducted by children. People are missing, magic is real, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it! Inquiring young minds want to know! Just what in the world is going on?

#Starlight Guilt contains all the content of the story of the same name following the MC, Stardust, who sure is going through it. I try not to post a lot about it because I'm really invested in it and I want to see people's reactions to the content as it's meant to be presented, but also, I'm really invested, so if you ask me anything about it I will tell you the entire plot and all my plans for it XD

#Monique the adventurer holds the goofy goofy content of Monique the wandering adventurer and her trek across the land as she tries to find well-paying jobs and live a good and fulfilling life. the story being written for her is called "you lived to see another day"

#Fumi and Heimdallr all the content and AUs for my characters Fumi and Heimdallr. they're very violent and depending on the AU they're either very gay or queer platonic

#Mira local brainworm extraordinaire. as you might have noticed, many of these tags are just names. that's because I don't have the names of the stories yet. this is one of those. Mira is an Isaki character. She died while going out to dinner with friends, and got reincarnated as an angel and is now attached to life against her will (very literally; she can't die permanently)

#The Neighbors an anthology (?) of absurdist comedy comics about 4 housemates: Nami, Katerax, Rae, and Marsis.

And then there's #Welcome to my brain, the series of unconnected comedy and slice of life comics that this blog was originally made to host, the whole of which is here

While you're here, how do you feel about buying stickers?

[kinetic-elaboration]

December 31: The New Year

New Year’s Eve. Doesn’t really feel like it. I don’t want to spend too much time really thinking about the transition to a new year or what have you… it makes me feel nervous and anxious. I’m in that part of my vacation where I can’t enjoy my vacation much because I can only think of it ending. And then going back home and returning to daily life… Well. But it is the last day of the year so I’m going to talk a little about 2024.

First, I have some general life resolutions. The first isn’t really a New Year’s resolution so much as it is my usual post-vacation resolution, except this time coming off of a longer break and with some more resolve. I want to get myself together. I want to stop living the way I’ve been living. It hasn’t made me happy. I want to push myself to do things, to go to sleep earlier, to eat better, to keep a better schedule. I want to feel steadier and more in control. I want to get my literal house in order (my apartment) because I think I deserve a better environment than the one I’ve given myself. And I’ve been on vacation long enough that all of this seems plausible. No big deal!

My regular New Year’s resolution is that I want to expand my creativity this year and make more things. I want to try some more ambitious knitting projects. I want to re-learn how to sew. I want to learn how to bind books. I want to hold things I’ve created with my own hands.

Finally, I have some… plans, ideas for writing next year. I definitely didn’t do most of what I intended for 2023 in 2023. A big part of that is the Time Loop coming up and taking over my life. For 2024 as a whole, I don’t have specific goals or ideas. I have some immediate plans, and we’ll see what happens after that. I do think it would be a good idea for me to significantly lower the number of ideas on my wip list, or in some way redefine the list, not by writing All the Things (simply not possible) but by culling ideas that are not actually of interest or plausible. But, on the other hand, why does it matter if I have a long list of ideas? No harm in that.

So, my writing plan for the coming…unknown period of time:

Finish the Time Loop: I still have 4 more scenes of the draft left. This is such a taunting number! But getting them done is going to remain my first priority. I will also prioritize editing the remaining three unposted chapters. I am not going to post Ch3 until the draft is finished but otherwise, I’ll be posting as soon as I can edit.

Jasper/Monty fic: This is an old one from 2017. Last year I figured out mostly how I want to finish it. I think I can do it in 3 scenes. It’s going to take some prep work (re-reading everything, fixing up the outline) but in terms of writing it’s not the biggest project and that’s why I want to get it over with. I like what I have already written and I want to share it, and that’s my motivation for writing it.

Bellamy/Miller Road Trip: I planned this random fic out to 7 (7!!!) chapters, a ridiculous proposition. But planning it has been quite fun and I want to try my hand at actually writing it. My idea is to write just the first chapter, then take a break for another project. Obviously this is a project so niche it has an audience of one, so I’d like it to be… fun? Over the top of it wants to be? We’ll see.

Southern Gothic AU: I know I need to take this more seriously and put it in a higher priority if I want to finish and post it for Halloween 2024. I know. It’s… scary. But yeah I should be working on this as well.

Free writes and writing exercises: I have July Break Bingo prompts I’m still pulling from and I’ll be starting K/S Bingo in January. We’ll, uh, see how that goes.

So, yeah! The truth is there is a lot of stuff on my WIP list that excites me and a lot of newer ideas percolating and just… a lot. I sure do like writing (hypothetically). My only real-real goal about it this upcoming year is have fun and enjoy what I’m doing. There are no end goals here; there’s no finish line. I just… would like to feel a little better, that’s all.

In many ways, this was a tough one, I’m not going to lie! I’m looking forward positively to 2024!

[hilarychuff]

Top five fics you’ve written

top five fics i've written!!!! ok these are not necessarily recs because i am not saying they are the BEST and they are certainly not FINISHED or some of them even ACTIVE, but in terms of faves that are my little babies.......

i carry it in mine

this one has been slow on updates lately, but this was one of my first forays into writing jonsa and not just reading jonsa. i always like a soulmate au but i liked being able to do this one on my own terms, figuring out what it would mean for them personally. also honestly one of the inciting ideas was what would've happened if sansa had gone to dragonstone instead of jon, so it's been really fun playing with that and fitting them into each other's roles in those parts of the storyline.

howl

ok i love scream!!! love scream. and i LOOOOOOVE making aus. as i've said before, my brain is a constantly generating au machine. i'm watching something new for the first time and already trying to see which of my blorbos fits in and where. but it's been really fun fitting sansa etc into the scream stories, especially with the challenge of not necessaaaaaaarily thinking it all through ahead of time and then having to work within the constraints i've created as i go. i've been letting howl 3 percolate, but i've been doing some really good thinking about it lately and i'm excited to get to it soon!

things we lost in the flames, things we found in the ashes

agents of shield was one of my major fandoms before i really meaningfully joined the asoiaf fandom, and as a major jemma simmons stan, i didn't always love how her storylines were handled in the show. i wanted to write this one to sort of fill in what felt like missing material after jemma came back from hydra and rejoined the team. it's just a lil thing but i think i started rewatching the show at some point in the earlier pandemic days because i'd been a season 1 appreciator and had fallen off at some point around season 5? season 4? and when i got to season 2 this just basically poured out of me. anyway!! i love jemma but i also love mack and i wanted them to be friends but also to SEE how they got there, so that was important to me.

but god can be funny

hdjghdflkgjhdkjgh tragically i never had a strong idea for the plot here. i just watched resurrection on abc and was like "what if my fave harry potter characters started coming back to life at some point in the indeterminate hp future." the drama of that!!! the emotions!!! it was too much to resist even though i didn't have a plan where i was going. i still think about some of it and still don't have any idea of what i would do with it plotwise. but sometimes i just want to have the EMOTION!!! you know????

real is a subjective concept

lmao ok i did actually start rewriting this one at some point in the pandemic and then fell off of that too and i am not necessarily proud of the writing in here (hence why i started rewriting it) BUT again i love an au!!! and i love lily evans and i love the mediator series and i loved playing with how those two things would fit together. i had/have?? ideas for multiple stories ala the different books in the series. but mostly i just loved the idea of a mediator lily, ghost james, how they might start to get to know each other and clash or help each other or become allies or friends or whatever. idk i still just love thinking about the scene of them sitting on the roof of his former frat house. i think it's special.

[oh-great-authoress]

🌹🌹🌹tell me of your wips dear

@batmantaking-hobbits2gallifrey

Ohhhh, Elli, you do not know what you have asked for.

I now unleash Silmarillion-esque deep dives upon you!!!!

Three Roses, three WIPs…

So you will get information about three of my WIPs, and here we go!

I’m so happy to talk about these.

Benjamin Solo and the Shadow of Death

This is a Reylo and Gingerrose (Armitage Hux/Rose Tico) Grantchester/1950s AU where Ben and Armitage, formerly Kylo Ren and The General, the most feared enforcers of the Knights of Ren, are now Church of England priests after a St. Paul-esque come-to-Jesus moment.

However, their past is coming back to bite them in the ass, throwing a wrench, or rather, a spanner, into every aspect of their lives.

In this story, Rey is the vicarage’s industrious housekeeper, and Rose is the town mechanic’s daughter, a mechanic herself, while Ben is the Vicar and Armitage the Curate.

This story started as an imagine I sent to @galacticidiots, but then I couldn’t shake the idea, and it percolated for nearly two years, until I decided that, like Gandhi said, I had to “Be the change [I] wish to see in the world”, and write the darn thing.

This was/is a passion project for me, and there were moments that I was so worried I’d end up abandoning this story, but luckily, I’m stubborn as all heck, so I plowed on through months of writer’s block.

But despite all the frustration this story gave and still gives me, this story has also given me so much joy, especially when the scene bits (both for Armitage, actually) which I was so proud of and came up with in the two years where the idea lay percolating, made it in the story, which literally made me do a little happy dance in my chair.

Those bits would be the scene where Armitage gets engine oil on his shirt, and Rose tells him to take it off so that she can soak it in her family’s secret formula of stain remover (*snort* yeah, I went here), in this chapter, and the scene where Armitage kicks the town drunk’s ass after he shoves Rose to the ground, in this chapter.

And while this story is still very PG-13, at the end, this is going to be the steamiest thing I have ever written, with use of very, very tasteful fade-to-blacks.

I actually have one of the two fade-to-blacks written (it’s so romantic), with the other one a problem-for-future-Nadia, though the idea is nebulously present in the electric meat.

I am personally so proud of my characterization in this story, and I think that this story was key to my growth as a writer.

It forced me to stretch both my research skills, with the 1950s setting, and my writing skills, as it made me write scenes which I never thought I would ever be able to pull off.

And it still is stretching my writing skills, because I have some very tricky scenes to work through in the upcoming chapters, which will have elements that I do not think are my specialty.

But when this is over, this will be, I think, one of my most favorite stories I’ve written.

I’d like to think that this story has everything, with romance, action, snappy dialogue (I think this story has some of the best dialogue I’ve ever written), comedy, and drama.

(Divider via @delishlydelightfuldividers)

Okay, let me preface the next two WIPs with saying that I never thought I’d end up writing them.

But honestly?

I probably should have seen it coming.

Almost two months ago, I watched “Top Gun: Maverick”, and I absolutely loved it.

And I tried not to devolve into a hyperfixation, but… I just couldn’t.

I mean, for me, the movie had everything; found family feels, dysfunctional father-son road trip vibes, Pathetic™ men ready to be Blorbo-fied, action, comedy, and impressive visuals.

(Am I counting the shirtless beach dogfight football scene as part of the impressive visuals?

I’ll leave that up to you.)

And with me already being an aviation enthusiast, or avgeek, this was bound to happen.

Anyway, this stupid plane movie (affectionate) has had a chokehold on me for the last nearly two months, and I managed to keep it mostly tamped down here on the hellsite, because I was a little ashamed of how easily my brain plunged into a hyperfixation—hypocritical, I know, on the hyperfixation site—but now, the dam has burst, and I’m just going to own it from here on out.

These stories will not make sense at all if you haven’t seen the movie, so here’s the link to the Wikipedia page, so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about.

I also highly recommend looking on YouTube for clips of the movie, because… okay, yeah, I’m trying to drag you down with me, I’ll be honest.

(Sharing is caring?)

So here we have two of my Top Gun: Maverick WIPs…

Prank War

This is the tentative synopsis: “It was getting a little bit chummy here at NAS North Island, so Jake had a genius idea.”

Basically, Jake “Hangman” Seresin, reformed jerk extraordinaire, has the genius idea to start a prank war between him and Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, which does not go well at all.

One thing leads to another, and someone ends up strung up by the Naval Air Station’s flagpole, in a coup de grace.

This is pure crack, and even I burst into laughter when I read my own opening scene, because it’s just so hilarious, and, in my opinion, perfectly in character.

Here’s the opening scene:

(Warning: a little cursey)

“Fuck my life.

Fuck my fucking life,” Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson muttered to himself, as he stared at the report before him in despair.

“Become an Admiral, they said—it’ll be fun, they said,” he continued, aware he was sounding like he was a few screws short of an F-18.

But in his opinion, it was completely acceptable—he had to get it out somehow.

“You’ll just have to sign a few things here and there, but you’ll be able to have more time to yourself.

Meanwhile, I’m here, dealing with fucking infants when I could’ve been flying still, exactly like Maverick.

Well—maybe not exactly like Maverick, I have some sense of self-preservation—but anyway.

‘Best aviators the US Navy has to offer’, my ass—more like two-year-olds, all of them.”

From there, we flashback to all the pranks, until we end up back with Admiral Simpson.

I still, sadly, have to figure out how to properly end it, but I’m still waiting to finish my Grantchester/1950s AU to really work on this and the next story anyway, so I’m not rushing myself…

Finally, the piece I am most excited and embarrassed to talk about:

What Am I Doing

That’s literally the working title, because I was working on Benjamin Solo and the Shadow of Death, when this idea barged in like this:

So thusly the name.

I am actually actively trying to come up with an actual title for this that is not borne out of my frustration at myself for acquiring another WIP.

However, the subtitle, which is actually going to be put on the fic title or the synopsis, is: “It’s the Great Karmic Bitchslap, Jake Seresin!”

Which is a play on “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.

I honestly have no idea how I ended up with this, but I think, to my knowledge, it was born out of a desire (as these things often are) to torture and torment Jake Seresin.

Because, other than Bradley, and Maverick, to some extent, we don’t know anything about the families of the other pilots of Dagger Squadron.

So I thought, what if Jake had a twin sister?

And what if she ends up falling in love with Bradley Bradshaw?

“Jake would absolutely hate that,” I thought. “I love it.”

But since I’m not entirely heartless, I give Jake his very own romance plot, with Natasha “Phoenix” Trace.

(Hannix shippers, this one’s for you)

So, here’s the plot.

In the middle of the night, Jake wakes up to a call from base gate security: it’s his older twin sister, Anastasia, and his nephew, Lucas.

They’re on the run from Anastasia’s ex-husband, whom she divorced and had her marriage annulled a year ago.

However, her ex is an A-grade crazy psycho, who stalks and follows her and her son no matter where they go.

So she goes to her brother, figuring that since he lives on base, she and her son would be safe.

Here, she meets Maverick and the rest of Dagger Squadron (now a permanent squadron based out of North Island, thanks to the success of the uranium mission), including one Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw.

Circumstance then throws the two even further together when a regulation indicates that she and Lucas cannot stay with Jake.

(Hand wavey contrivance, I know)

So out of the goodness of his heart, Maverick offers to put up the mother and son at his large house behind his hangar (which is widely accepted fanon, since we did not see anything of the sort in the movie), which is sort of off the grid, where—wouldn’t you know it—Bradley is also living, so he and Mav can spend more time together; after all, they have fifteen years to make up for.

Bradley and Anastasia soon grow close, much to her brother’s chagrin, all while Natasha is laughing her head off, as she fills in as said brother’s voice of reason, because this is karmic justice for all the women Jake’s picked up in bars.

There’s a scene I wrote last week which I am already in LOVE with, and I—it’s just so sweet and romantic—it’s EVERYTHING.

I couldn’t even believe my luck when I remembered the PERFECT song for said scene—I mean, the lyrics are just EXACTLY what the scene needed, and the lyrics are just SPOT-ON.

I tell you, it felt/feels inspired.

And I am so grateful that I know/grew up listening to old songs, because this song would never have occurred to me otherwise.

Some background on this scene: it’s the day of the Navy Gala, and Anastasia is supposed to go as her brother’s plus one, she even bought a dress and everything.

But then, just before she was going to get ready, her son had an accident and broke his arm, which meant that she had to take him to the hospital, and she was unable to go.

(Which will end up being good for Jake and Natasha)

This scene takes place at the end of the night, after Bradley returns home.

(I have yet to decide if Mav and Bradley will go home at the same time.)

As a side note, Bradley will be wearing dress whites, not blues, because… well, just because, “cover” is the fancy military term for the uniform cap, and I see Anastasia, or, as Bradley calls her, Ana, as Leelee Sobieski in my head.

Here’s the scene:

(Warning: 100% fluff)

“How’s Lucas?” Bradley asked, setting his cover onto the kitchen island.

“He’s sleeping—they gave him the good stuff at the hospital.

Thanks for asking.”

He nodded. “That’s good.”

“How was the gala?”

He cringed slightly. “Ehh—the usual—lots of boring self-congratulatory speeches before we get to what people actually came for; the open bar and the free food.”

“Was it any good?”

“Yeah, it always is, though I think it’s pretty hard to screw up pasta.”

“You’d be surprised,” Ana smiled.

“Jake?”

“Me, actually, the first time I tried to cook spaghetti and meatballs.”

He frowned, “I don’t believe that, you’ve been spoiling Mav and me the whole time you’ve been here.”

“Believe it, Lieutenant.”

Something almost vaguely familiar briefly clouded his expression, before it cleared, and he continued, “Yeah, anyway, the food was good, though it wasn’t a patch on what you dish out, and… Jake missed you, said he was hoping the two of you could’ve had a night out.”

“Jake, huh?”

Bradley rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, he pissed Nat off enough to make her drag him to the dance floor herself.”

Ana looked down, her hair falling into her face, “To be honest, I was actually hoping to go tonight.

It’s been… a while since I went to a party.”

“Gala, actually—the Navy’s quite particular about not calling it a party.

Got to be respectable and all that,” he grinned.

“Oh, sorry—gala,” she laughed. “Anyway, it would’ve been nice to dress up, and—” she sighed, “this is going to sound so stupid.”

“Tell me anyway?” he earnestly asked.

“I… I’m feeling bad that I wasted all that money on a dress I didn’t even end up wearing, and—God—I wanted to dance.”

Ana looked down embarrassedly, running a hand through her hair.

“That’s not stupid.

That’s normal.”

She looked up at him, a little startled.

Bradley worried his lower lip between his teeth before she saw an idea literally occur to him, the only thing missing, the lightbulb over his head. “It doesn’t have to be wasted.

Go put that dress on, and meet me down here.”

“What are you planning, Bradley?” Ana shook her head.

“Since you couldn’t go to the Navy Gala, the Navy Gala comes to you.”

An incredulous gasp escaped her. “You going to ask me to dance, Lieutenant Bradshaw?” she asked, a stupid smile on her lips, tears in her eyes.

“Well, I am still in uniform, and… yeah, I am.”

“Are you sure?”

“Go—I’ll be waiting,” he nodded encouragingly.

She couldn’t keep the smile from widening to a grin as she went upstairs, pulling the box from the dresser.

She quickly washed her face, before putting on mascara and lipstick, and slipping into the dress.

When she looked in the mirror, even though she wasn’t wearing anything close to the full makeup look she had planned to if she’d gotten to go to the gala, she felt beautiful in a way she hadn’t in a very long time, and tears threatened, but she ruthlessly pushed them back, as she gathered her hair into a loose bun, and stepped into her well-worn black heels.

She crept out of her room and made her way downstairs, where, true to his word, Bradley was waiting, at the foot of the stairs, cover tucked under his right arm, looking every inch the dashing naval aviator and officer he was, in his dress whites.

He looked up at the sound of her heels on the stairs, and an awed expression came over his face.

“Wow,” he breathed when she was a step away from him. “You look amazing.”

Ana sheepishly smoothed the deep green silk with her palms, as she stepped down the final step. “The makeup and hair’s not what I was planning for tonight if I got to go, but I didn’t want to keep you waiting too long.”

“I’d have waited if you wanted to do all that.”

Ana’s jaw slacked a bit, and he continued, “But you—you look stunning.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

Bradley offered his arm, with a “Shall we?”

She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and they moved out to the backyard, Bradley even bothering to wear his cover for the short walk to the pergola a ways from the back door.

“I’m going to be the envy of everyone at the gala,” he proudly murmured as they walked.

“It’s only the two of us,” Ana shook her head.

“Still,” he breathed, with an honesty she hadn’t heard from a man in years.

Once they were under the string lights, he stepped away from her to place his cover on the patio table which had been pushed to the side, along with the chairs, to create a makeshift dance floor.

Bradley pulled his phone out from his pocket and fiddled with it for a beat, looking for something.

Eventually, he found what he was searching for, and with a final tap, he set the device down beside his cover.

The strains of Orleans’ “Dance With Me” filled the air, and Ana smiled for what felt like the thousandth time that night.

He turned to her, hand extended. “Will you do me the honor of this dance, Miss Seresin?”

“I will, Lieutenant Bradshaw.”

She placed her hand in his, and he took her in his arms, as they began to sway slowly on the floor.

I still have to write basically 98% of this story, but this scene, and a couple of other bits and pieces, including the opening scene, and Bradley’s first glimpse of Anastasia, are written out.

However, while I always tend to give myself room to change things, I am absolutely certain that this dance scene is going to make its way into the final product hook or by crook, darn it.

It’s just… GAH, I love this scene so much.

I was grinning like an idiot while I wrote it, and I still do, when I read it.

I’m truly sorry if that comes off as narcissistic, I just—AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the look into my WIP folder, and all the word-vomit, Elli!!!

Thank you and God bless you if you managed to read all this, truly—I know it’s a LOT!!!

[mindthedocent]

hey i know you talk about writing and WIPS and stuff like that, what have you been writing these days?

:0 HI HELLO honestly i talk more about what im writing on twitter lol, and its still kind of vague bUT

mostly ive just been working on oneshots and songs/poetry.

so this last month ive been working on a seven minutes in heaven bit, heres some out of context snippets i put on twt

so unfortunately this one might not see the light of day for a while bc as soon as its done im giving up ownership to taz to do as they please with it. but ive been working on that one for about a month now, and its been sO MUCH. just. so much, generally lol.

and then i have a few other ideas percolating as well, the next one of which ill probably start writing soon. ive been thinking about that gooselycharm art piece where they meet again in a bar, by accident, no train. and ive been considering writing a companion piece to it. just because i think about it all the time.

all im doing these days is oneshots! bc theyre more reasonable for me with my work schedule lmao. i potentially want to touch back on the hmc au but its just such a LARGE work that its been harder for me to keep my focus for it.

and then intermittently ive also been working on poems/ccj "songs." its been also kind of easier work bc i let an idea simmer for 8-48 hours and then i just start gnashing away at the google doc. i dont have many of them atm and my last one was actually a personal one about work and capitalism lol but yeah thats basically what ive been working on recently!!!

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: Flowerfan2 Day 1

Author: @flowerfan2​ 

How did you get into Glee and Glee fandom?

I enjoyed Glee from the beginning, and had been a Darren Criss fan from Starkid, but didn't get intensely into fandom until season 4.  Something about that season's Klaine storyline sent me looking for fic, and I was hooked.

In general, what drew you into writing (and/or creating)?

I always liked to write, and had dabbled in fanfic much earlier (Buffy fic on LJ) but something about the Klaine arc in Season 4 just compelled me to write about it.  This also coincided with a point in my life when my family obligations eased up just enough to give me a little bit of time to entertain myself with writing.

What was it about Glee that made you decide to write fanfic for it?

As noted above, I can't really describe it any better than just the Klaine storyline in Season 4, and how the two of them drew me in.  I wanted better things for them than what canon was giving us, and I wanted to know every little thing that happened between them that we didn't see in the episodes.

Have you been a part of other fandoms before? Have you written fanfiction pre-glee?

Pre-Glee, just a little bit - sporadic Buffy fic on Live Journal.  Since Glee I have been in many other fandoms, and have written thousands and thousands of words of fic in H50, Check Please, MCU, and most recently Schitt's Creek, as well as a few stories here and there in other fandoms.

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

I'm not sure - I can't think of any!  I have a Sherlock kid-fic that I've never been able to finish.  I'm indulging myself with a memory loss fic at the moment - I had tried to write memory loss when I started writing Chrysalis, but that turned into coma-recovery hurt-comfort instead.  I'm not good at fics that stay sad, although I don't mind a little bittersweet mixed in.

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

Mpreg.  Tragic ending. 

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

I'm writing two fics for Fandom Trumps Hate, so both of those ideas are percolating.  But I'm also just coming off finishing one of my longest fics (One Night in Milwaukee, a Schitt's Creek David x Patrick fic that may end up at about 60k) and often after a major effort like that I have to rest for a bit and let my brain recover.  Usually if I just take it easy new ideas will show up soon.

***

Check out Flowerfan2′s Fics

How Deep Is The Ocean -  After Blaine's grandmother passes away, Kurt and Blaine have an unexpected opportunity to get away from it all. Canon compliant; takes place the summer after 5x20.

Shelter -  What began with a slightly uncomfortable game of Spin the Bottle turned into something horrible. A story of how love can carry you through even your worst nightmare.

Chrysalis -  Just after graduating from NYU, a car accident puts Blaine into a coma. No one expects him to wake up. Almost three years later, Kurt sees a man in a wheelchair who couldn’t be anyone else. A story of love and new beginnings. Canon compliant through 6x11, then AU.

[renee-walker]

I have too many thoughts about Black Widow

+++++ many Black Widow spoilers below +++++

Tbh I hate me for how much I loved this damn movie. But the entire character of Natasha has literally always been specially designed to smack every single one of my kinks, and here we are almost a decade after I met her (because yeah, I met her on The Avengers and then went backwards to catch her other appearances). ANYWAY. A few super random thoughts in super random order:

Bless exactly everything about the Natasha/Yelena relationship. I worried when I learned the film’s general premise that they’d devote a shit ton of time to all the unresolved trauma between them, and they just didn’t. All the pain was there and they dealt with it, but they let the love win every time and I was HERE for it. (I get so exhausted by the damn “Is she trustworthy or not?” narrative. It’s boring.)

How is David Harbour so gross and so hot at the same time? I have questions. A lot of questions. Also, I adore him.

Dreykov was somehow both super cartoony and goofy yet also creepy af, and I think for me personally the creepy af factor was 110% about the way in which he stood too close to every woman he spoke to. I have huge issues with personal space, and his constant personal space invasion, particularly with Natasha, was the worst.

One thing I didn’t extra super love was Taskmaster/Antonia. I’m gonna let my feelings on that roll around in my brain for a while and watch the whole thing again in a few days before I even attempt to articulate what my issues are, but that aspect of the plot just wasn’t my fave.

The whole theme of female autonomy of the lack thereof is obviously super disturbing, and that’s also an issue I need to let percolate for a while. But lbr, it’s super common to consider women more or less a commodity, and I appreciated the movie’s willingness to call a spade a spade in that regard.

Because I continue to live under a rock, this is my first Florence Pugh movie, and wow she’s just delightful. I will forever be a sucker for actors who could chew the scenery but don’t (whether due to their own good choices or quality direction). Understatement will get me every damn time, and she did understatement soooo well. The “American Pie” scene with Alexei is a great example. It could have been just gross and manipulative but her acting choices (and David Harbour’s, but I already knew that;) were stellar. And yes, I sobbed to the level of gross snot at the after credits scene. Ugh.

Which brings me to the part where I WILL DIE MAD ABOUT CLINT AND NAT. I have absolutely accepted that this is just another thing I’ll die mad about. This fucking movie really had to give me Nat offhand noticing arrows and the image of the two of them smushed up in a tiny space playing tic tac toe. Just hearing her say his name makes my stomach do flippy things. I need to write some angsty super AU porn or something because this is some bullshit. They should have been together and she shouldn’t have died, and that’s that on that.

Yelena mocking Nat’s fighting stance is life.

I made an out loud snorty noise when Nat hit Alexei in the face.

Rachel Weisz is irritatingly beautiful.

When Nat said “Thank you for your cooperation” I was lifted in an actual other dimension.

I absolutely knew that Yelena would get a dog and still got cartoonishly emo when she did.

I’m never gonna think about Yelena’s fucking vest without wanting to cry. Just the whole thing where it’s the first piece of clothing she ever purchased entirely of her own free will and it’s so basic and dippy but so deeply important to her, and the way the movie weaves that thread into the whole part where almost all baby sisters want their older sisters to think their fashion choices are cool just . . . *sobs incoherently*

I know I’m forgetting shit but I’ll stfu for now. My exhausted brain hasn’t been enthusiastic about anything fictional in a hot minute, so I’m just all appreciation! I’d love to hear thoughts if you guys have them.

[eirian-houpe]

TMI Tuesday

It’s Tuesday, so here’s the invitation to hit my inbox.

Posted this week:

Chapter 28 of Disparate Pathways

Gold has a past, a past that he has rejected, but it seems one that will not let him go. Belle, daughter of Governor Maurice French has been kidnapped, along with her mother, and just as the authorities raid the organization that is holding her hostage, decides to make her own bid for freedom, unknowingly derailing an undercover sting, and Agent Milnor has not choice but to take her into 'protective custody,' but is he all that he seems? As the threads of the story grow more tangled and the threat to Belle, and to Gold, her appointed protector, grow ever more real, a growing, mutual attraction makes everything far more desperate and far too personal for Gold to ignore what he knows to be the truth.

Written this week:

Disparate Pathways - Chapter 28

Next up:

September’s Monthly Rumbelling Fic.

I have done nothing with this yet. I haven’t even got an idea. My next stop when I get 5 minutes to myself is to look over the prompts, and let my brain percolate a bit on what I might be able to write and edit in 2 days flat.

The Pawn Shop On Main Street - Finish Chapter 2

Gold is suddenly awakened from the curse, not by the fail-safe that he programmed into his mind, but by the unexpected presence of his long lost maid, with whom he fell in love well before Regina cast his Dark Curse, Rumplestiltskin must now find a way past Belle’s disbelief and fear. She is still under the influence of the curse. With the help of his dear - his oldest - friend, Gold seeks a way past obstacles so that he can rekindle the love which he rejected back in the Dark Castle.

The story is set in the same ‘verse as The Library Beneath the Clock Tower, and could be considered a sequel of sorts.

Ask suggestions

Ask something about any of my fics (full list is below the cut). If you want specifics from some fics that are already outlined, you can ask about:

Disparate Pathways, Chapters 29 through 45 All Our Past Mistakes, Chapters 11 through 44 Lover’s Leap Series, Stories 14 through 31 Time’s Curse, Chapters 3 through 10

Ask something of any of my characters in general or you can get really specific if you like - for example you might want to ask Gold from Pawn Shop a question about a chapter, a thought, a feeling… (the world is your oyster really)

Ask about my process as a writer, what makes me tick,, or even ask about me personally. There’s this meme  if you so desire.

Also, if you want to see a specific character or fic featured in Secret Saturday, feel free to send in prompts, if no one does, then the choice will be random.

You can find all my fics here, and there is a full list under the cut.

Storybrooke’s Best Kept Secret - Rumbelle

Darkness In Hyperion Heights - woven beauty au

Seven Tastes - Rumbelle

Tuesday - Rushbelle au

The Language of Flowers Series - Rumbelle

Disparate Pathways - Rumbelle

Scattered - Rumbelle

All Our Past Mistakes - Rumbelle

What the Actual Fuck! - Sutherelle

Breathe - Rushbelle

The Lover’s Leap Series - Rumbelle

Awakening - Rumbelle

War Is Coming To Storybrooke - Rumbelle

Given No Choice - Rush

Thoughts On A Happy Ending Series - Rumbelle

Darker Hearts Series - Wish!Rumbelle

Modern Wonders - a OUAT/Alice crossover

Time’s Curse - Rumbelle

The Pawn Shop On Main Street - Rumbelle

The Mansion On the Edge of Town - Rumbelle with a side of Jefferson

[sunflower-swan]

Wolfstar chapter 6

A/N: Here’s what you need to know: I created this story for Writer’s Month 2020. Every day is a new prompt, and therefore a new chapter. This is an AU Wolfstar where Remus is a tattoo artist next door to Sirius who manages a flower shop. James and Lily are alive in this universe and own a coffee shop across the street. And to make parts of the story work with the prompts, Remus is about 10 years older than Sirius. It also takes place more or less in present time, minus Covid-19.

This is chapter 6 of a multi-chapter work. If you’d like to start from the beginning, here is chapter 1.

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I just like to play with them.

Day 6 Prompt: Ocean

Rating: General

Word Count: 1992

Tags: original character, pining

Chapter 6

Remus

Monica, “For You I Will”

I will cross the ocean for you

I will go and bring you the moon

I will be your hero, your strength, anything you need

Remus and Sirius sat at their favorite corner booth at the Potter’s Wheel Cafe for their morning coffee ritual. Sirius was having his usual black coffee with cream and no sugar. While Remus preferred a sweeter mocha cappuccino.

“So Silas is in America then?” Remus asked. While waiting for Sirius, James and Lily had filled him in on the finer points of what transpired after the ‘You’re a wizard?!’ incident.

Sirius nodded with a small frown. “Took a long-distance portkey to New York early this morning.” He exhaled a sigh so heavy it flipped the hair that had fallen into his face. “Six...bloody...months.” He punctuated each word with a knock of his knuckles on the tabletop.

Remus felt bad for his friend. It was obvious he hadn’t gotten much sleep since they had last seen each other. His charcoal eyes usually glowed with a fire that burned through Remus' soul. Today they were a shadowy reflection rimmed in red, all spark gone out. And that was when they were open long enough for Remus to see them. Throughout most of their brief rendezvous this morning, his eyelids became heavier and heavier over his sunken eyes. 

“Maybe you should take the day off. Catch up on some sleep?” Remus suggested after Sirius’ head nodded forward for the third time.

“Hmm?”

Remus threw a couple Muggle bills down on the table. “Come on, Sirius.” He went around to the opposite side of the table and helped Sirius to his feet. “We’re going to get you home.”

Sirius acquiesced to Remus' touch, and the latter led them to the alley apparition point. Once there, Sirius attempted to shake loose of the grasp Remus had around his waist.

“I can manage, Remus,” he mumbled.

“No! No, no. You are in no state to apparate anywhere on your own. I’m impressed you didn’t splinch yourself getting here.” Remus tucked his arm into Sirius’. “Hold on to me.”

“Mmm, ok.” Sirius relaxed into his body.

Remus’ spine straightened and his breath caught at the warmth of Sirius’ body perfectly fitted against his. Restraining all his instincts, he pushed aside the inconvenient feelings, and turned with a POP.

They landed in a secluded area outside Sirius’ flat, and Remus helped him inside. He half-carried Sirius into the bedroom, walking past a faded leather jacket thrown over a chair in the corner, and unceremoniously dumped him into bed.

As he turned to leave, a photo on the nightstand caught his eye. He picked it up. It was a picture of himself with Sirius, James, Lily, and Harry, standing outside the Tattoo Lounge, about a month after he had opened.

James was holding little Harry in one arm and holding Lily’s hand with the other. Remus had his hands tucked into his pockets, and Sirius had an arm around his shoulders. Photo Remus was grinning broadly and kept casting covert looks at Sirius, whose hair was blowing around in his face.

The four of them almost immediately accepted him into their circle. Which, looking back, was a little funny considering they had thought Remus was a Muggle.

He chuckled softly to himself and set the picture back down. He had reached the doorway when he heard Sirius rustle behind him.

“Remus?”

He paused, placed a hand on the door jam and turned his head. “Yes?” 

“Did you know you smell like old books and chocolate?”

This declaration startled him. He swung around to question about this revelation, but found Sirius had started to snore.

~~~~~

Remus stopped by the Loft before returning to the Lounge to inform Sirius’ employees that he wouldn’t be in today. They seemed unaffected by the news that Sirius was ‘ill’. He didn’t see that they needed to know any details further than that.

Once he returned to the secluded solitude of his own shop, he attempted to look over his appointment schedule for the day. Despite his best efforts to focus on the task at hand, he found his mind was in another place. A very Sirius-centric place.

Old books and chocolate? Sirius said Remus smelled like old books...and chocolate. What did that mean? He had been almost asleep when he had made the statement. Did that matter?

Sirius smelled like fresh coffee and leather. Remus would be lying to himself if he said it hadn’t percolated into his subconscious over the last year and a half. Being in Sirius’ bedroom where his scent was everywhere had caused Remus’ insides to squirm.

Not that any of that mattered. Not really. Sirius was with Silas, and Sirius was his friend...nothing more.

Around mid-day, a middle-aged man wandered into the shop. The bell over the door dinged, and Remus glanced up from the magazine article he was reading.

Remus studied the man with interest. He was wearing black converse, cuffed light wash slim fit jeans, and a black tee. Remus couldn’t help but notice how well his toned body filled out the tee. The man looked around the place like he was surprised to find himself there.

“Can I help you?” Remus offered.

The man jumped. “Whoa! Didn’t see you there! Sorry!” He chuckled, placing one hand to his chest while the other ran through his salt and pepper crew cut. “Whew! Old ticker’s still working,” he added with a jovial smile, and a pat to his chest.

Remus grinned in spite of himself, and stood. “I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” He apologized and held out his right hand. “I’m Remus, and I don’t usually make a habit of scaring my customers to death.” 

The stranger’s whiskey colored eyes sparkled. He grasped Remus’ hand in his rough and calloused one. “I’m Logan.”

A bolt of electricity shot through Remus at the handshake, and he cleared his throat. “Ahem. So, what can I do for you?” he asked.

“This is a tattoo parlor, right? I thought the answer to that question would be self-explanatory.” Logan ran a hand across his five o’clock shadow with a mischievous grin.

Oh, brother. Someone thinks they’re a comedian. He forgot to roll his eyes because he was lost in Logan’ sparkling, sepia-flecked ones. “Did you have anything in mind?” You tall drink of probably straight water, he added in his head.

“No,” Logan said with a shrug and a smile that showcased his gleaming straight white teeth.

Right… “Ok. Well, I have a book here of some of the pieces I’ve done.” Remus pulled the book out and laid it open on the table. “You can look through here and tell me if anything jumps out at you.”

Logan leaned over and pulled the book toward him. “You did all these?” he asked in an impressed tone. He eyed Remus up and down before turning back to flip through the pictures.

Remus felt his face flush. He felt very exposed after the ‘check-out’ Logan just gave him. Maybe not so straight after all. He attempted an air of coolness and leaned one hand on the desk to peer through the pictures with Logan. “Yep. All me.”

“Very impressive.” Logan nodded his head.

Remus grabbed his sketch book and a pencil, and hopped up to sit on the desk. “Tell me about yourself,” he said, flipping to a blank page.

Logan's eyes widened only for a moment before he straightened up and leaned his hip against the desk. “Buy a man a drink first,” he said with a sly smile.

Godric, give me strength, said one part of his brain. While the other said, A little harmless flirting never hurt anyone! Instead, he waved the sketch book and said, “I’m going to sketch you a design.”

“Buy me a drink anyway,” Logan said, and took a step closer to Remus.

His sandalwood musk, which Remus had noticed the moment he stepped through the door, was now in sharp relief and threatening to overpower his other senses. At that exact moment, someone else, who smelled like fresh coffee and leather, burst through the door.

“Remus!” yelled the new man.

Logan jumped back the distance from which he had traveled moments before. Eyes and mouth wide in shock at the interruption.

“Remus?”

Remus looked between the confused look on Sirius’ face and the startled one on Logan’s, knowing exactly what this looked like.

“Sirius.” Remus attempted nonchalance. As if a ridiculously good-looking and age-appropriate man, practically breathing down his neck, was an everyday occurrence.

Logan sighed in defeat and stole the sketchbook and pencil out of Remus’ hands. Before Remus could protest the theft, he wrote something in it, closed it, and handed it back to him. “Call me,” he said with a wink and strode out of the tattoo shop, giving Sirius a curt nod.

Remus clasped his hands together in his lap, and lifted a questioning eyebrow at Sirius.

“Is that your attempt to look innocent?” Sirius asked, joining Remus sitting on the desk.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” Remus replied.

“Huh, right.” Sirius picked up the sketchbook and flipped through the pages. “And ‘no idea what I’m talking about’ just happened to leave you his number?”

Remus ripped the sketchbook out of his grasp and stood up. Sirius was grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

“Quit grinning like that,” he said. “What did you want anyway before you disrupted...nothing?”

“Oh, yeah.” Sirius fluttered the paper he was clutching in his hand. “Got a letter from Silas!” He looked down at the letter. “He says he made it to America fine. And he said he gets a personal day tomorrow, and he had a really cool idea.” Sirius' eyes sparkled. “At noon tomorrow, I go to Land’s End in Sennen, Penzance. At the same time, he goes to Montauk Lighthouse in New York. Then we can wave at each other across the ocean. Isn’t that sweet?”

As Sirius finished explaining The Plan, Remus could only nod in disbelief. “If it’s noon here, isn’t that like, 7:00 A.M. in New York?”

“Well, yeah. Anyway, want to come with me?”

“Come with you?”

“Yeah. To Land’s End tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

Sirius' face split in a grin from ear to ear. He rushed forward and clutched Remus in a rib-splitting hug. “Thank you so much! I couldn’t stand to go alone. I have to go arrange a portkey.” He released Remus and started for the door. “See you around eleven o’clock tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.” Remus waved as Sirius ran out the door. 

Why… Remus sat back down in his office chair and rubbed his hands over his face. He put his elbows on the desk. Closing his eyes, he rested his chin in his palms while his fingertips massaged his temples. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Remus contemplated why Sirius had asked him. Why not James? Why did Remus agree so quickly and easily to accompany him?

After some time had passed, Remus stood to look for something constructive to do. The scent of coffee and leather lingered long after Sirius had left, and it made his stomach ache as he paced around the shop. He picked up items only to deposit them somewhere else a moment later. Eventually, he picked up the sketchpad. He looked down on it a long time, before slowly flipping open to the page where Logan had left his number.

Remus hadn’t noticed at the time, but the smell of sandalwood that Logan brought into the shop had disappeared the moment Sirius had appeared. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Logan was really cute. Impossibly really cute. And age appropriate. Maybe he should call him. Maybe...

Remus slammed the book shut and threw it on the desk. Then he sank to the floor and rested his head on his arms between his bent knees. Who was he kidding? He doesn’t date. He can’t date. Not in his condition. And not handsome Muggles.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7

[thewillowbends]

Fic writer meme: 17, 31, and 37?

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

Generally, I have a few key scenes in mind when I start something, and I’ll try to jot them down in advance or sketch them, but for the most part I do write linearly.  Especially if it’s a longer story, I feel like it’s kind of impossible to do otherwise.  So much of longer storytelling hinges on being able to maintain a constant thread of ideas that when you skip around in a story it becomes too easy to break the flow.  Quite often, if I write out of order, I find myself having to go back and edit or rewrite scenes in order to make them retrofit when I wrote preceding it.

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

I prefer canon-compliant stuff if I’m writing fanfiction.  Canon AUs are fine, kind of like “what if” jump off points to see how a story could have gone in another direction, but if it’s a major, major AU, like fundamentally altering the circumstances and characters, it’s kind of like...why is it fanfiction?  I’ll read it if it’s a good author, but my brain generally views it as an original novel.  And if it’s good enough, I wish for them to delete it, change the names, and publish it professionally so I can pay them for it.

Talk about your current wips.

Hmm, a much shorter list now that I’ve suspended everything I worked on for my one fandom, so here’s the list:

1. A Clear and Perfect Surface - Ongoing Legend of Zelda WIP, romance, Link/Malon.  I hadn’t seen a Link/Malon story that hit all the right buttons for me, so I decided to write my own.  It’s really as much a coming of age story as it is a romance since it’s Link-centric and focusing on the idea of rebuilding life after trauma.  Much slower going than I’d hoped thanks to...life and just a general lack of response for it, but I’m trying to push it out faster going into 2021.  It blew up a little, much larger than the 12 chapters I originally imagined for it, but it will eventually finish.  Hopefully next year I can pump out most of it faster, though I suspect it’s probably going to end up around 200K rather than 150K like I first thought.

2. “The Baring of Teeth” - Lucifer fic, last one I finished before I left the fandom.  It just needs edited.  Season 3 piece featuring Charlotte and Cain, character examination.

3.  Untitled - Vivian/Gabriel one-shot fic for the novel Blood and Chocolate.  Basically just filling the short gap afterwards.

4.  “The Quiet” - Link/Zelda BotW fic, writing meme request fic.  Very close to completed.  (I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT YOU.  MY NON-WORK LAPTOP JUST NEEDED A NEW CHARGER.)

Dumped/suspended WIPs or discontinued to turn original:

The Loves that Were Not (and the One that Was) - Six lovers Lucifer may have wound up with if the story went another way, and the one he did (Chloe).  Multi-chapter, have about 15K of it done, examining Lucifer winding up with six other characters in the show, and then how it ended with Chloe.  I still add to this occasionally, so I may wind up finishing it for @venividivictorious since it was her prompt, though I may also borrow the format for a romance novel.

The Second Death - Post-canon Lucifer fic where Chloe and Eve went to Heaven after they died, and Lucifer and Maze got stuck down in Hell dealing with the aftermath of the grief.  Originally Mazifer, got changed to platonic Mazifer when I replotted parts of it for 5A.  Was eventually going to explore the idea of rehabilitating Hell.  Had about 30-35K written.  Dumped it when I left the fandom, though I’ll probably poach huge parts of it for an original novel I have in mind featuring Eve and Lucifer of mythology that I’ve had percolating for the better part of a year.

Untitled Case Fic - Long form post-canon casefic with Lucifer and Chloe trying to solve a murder while chasing down a soul that escaped Hell.  Very explicit and humor-driven, had about 30-35K written or outlined.  Not sure I’ll ever come back to it, which is a shame because I had lots of fun writing it.

“Gonna Walk All Over You” - Lucifer and Chloe finally tackle the Candy situation.  The pink platform pumps make an appearance.  Roughly 1K written, dumped.

“The Upturned Hourglass” - Post-canon oneshot where Chloe went to Heaven after she died, examining what happens after.  Roughly 1K written, unlikely to be completed. 

“Sin Crouches at the Door” - Cain lives out his punishment over and over again in Hell when mom drops by for a visit. He’s not exactly sure what it means. 7K written, may or may not be completed.

[intheseautumnhands]

13, 15, 18?

13. What is your planning process?

As with the motivation question, I feel as if I’ve been given credit I have definitely not earned. XD

I am terrible at planning. Sometimes I can babble at a willing friend and kind of get my stuff in order, but even then my best attempts tend to be “we will start here, and then THIS is parts of the emotional journey (with large gaps left in) while... something? happens? that incurs that emotional journey, and we might end up somewhere in the rough vicinity of here at some point, and there will... be an ending. maybe.”

The closest I have to a process is that my fics tend to go one of two ways: either it is written immediately when I come up with the idea, is short, and is probably prompted from something; and if not, it has probably been percolating through my head for weeks at best. So by the time I sit down, I may not have a plot, but I do have a few specific moments half in my head... that I inevitably either forget or have a really hard time getting down when I sit down and try and write.

15. OCs or no OCs?

When reading, I am very fond of well-done OCs and can get invested in them, but writing, OCs tend to play a fairly small part for me. I have nothing against them, they just don’t tend to take a big part of the stage when I’m writing. Part of this is that I do tend to write shorter things up til now, which means if the story isn’t going to be about those OCs, there’s just generally not a lot of room for them.

(I do, however, have a fondness in big fandoms for characters so minor that giving them any personality at all is basically making an OC, but I haven’t been in a fandom that had characters built for that in a while. Even MCU didn’t... quite have the same array of faceless background characters that caught me as, like, my early days in Harry Potter, where my favorite characters to write for a long time were teenage Remus Lupin -- before OOTP came out -- and Millicent Bulstrode.)

18. What is your favorite writing prompt?

... Okay so I’ve JUST realized this doesn’t say type of writing prompt. I’m not even 100% sure what that means. Like, my favorite I’ve ever gotten? Or to give? Or what?

If we are talking types, I really like things that are “[trope/AU] + [fandom/character/ship]” -- they tend to work best for me. Five Times style prompts, too, which I really, really miss being more of a thing. A Softer World, lyric, and poetry prompts are also good, and I find it really hard to write off of picture prompts.

.... I am trying to think of, like, a single specific prompt, and honestly, I got nothing.

[smokinholsters]

A Decision at the Crossroads

A Heartland AU - Chapter 2

Mitch sat back down and dropped his hat on the small pile of logs next to his chair then reached to refill his coffee cup. He’d already checked, mucked out and fed the horses in his care, saw that the barn and the area around the trailer was none the worse for wear. Checking the time he dialed Amy’s phone and waited.

She answered and he heard the screen door of the house open and close almost simultaneously and he immediately heard those motorcycle boots walk the stairs.

“Good morning husband.”

“Morning Ames, how are things ?”

“Things are great but JT needs some potty time and Lyndy’s in the bath so ….”

“I’ll call when I know something. Anyone helping ?”

“Georgie and Quinn are coming over to deal with horses, Caleb will check the herd.”

“Love you, talk later.”

“More than talk sweetheart, I hugged a pillow last night, not very satisfying.”

Mitch laughed and hit disconnect.

“Mitch, good morning, I was expecting to knock and wake you.”

“Morning Ty, rancher’s hours I guess, my wife’s an early riser too which is helpful getting a bunch done before the kids get up raring to go.”

“I was going to run out to pick up some breakfast but you seem to have beat me to it.”

“If you’re not fancy, there’s a bag of home made muffins and some oranges right inside, coffee’s fresh.”

“Your wife baked these ?”

“I think those are her grandmother’s honestly but she does with the kids.”

“How about you Ty, you hail from around here ?”

“Vancouver originally, my mom’s still out there, dad died a few years ago, mom’s remarried, we talk every week and she was here I guess 4 or 5 months ago.”

Ty came out of the trailer a few minutes later with a small plate, two muffins, an orange and mug he found on the counter and sat a second before his phone rang.

“It’s the clinic, I have to take this.”

“No problem at all Ty.”

He was on the phone for about 20 minutes and glanced a couple of times at Mitch in apology. At one point Mitch checked on the horses again, removed their empty feed buckets, checked their stalls, water and the horses general condition and returned outside as Ty was getting off the phone.

“OK, let’s get that front end off the ground and see what’s up.” Ty said walking over “Everything Ok at home ?”

“Everything’s fine, it’s the busy time getting the kids ready so we didn’t talk long.”

Ty nodded as they walked. There was no lift per se but a nice platform ramp setup. The plan was to jack the truck up and slide the two platform ramps underneath the front end and the jack the truck on the platform so they could check it out and see what needed to be fixed.

Matt, the officer from the day before came by in his regular clothes, jeans, t shirt and flannel. He walked over with work gloves, there to lend a hand and took over once the jacking for each of them as they manually lifted the Dodge heavie’s 8 cylinder Cummins Diesel off the ground. He helped slide the platforms over and then jack the truck again to raise the front passenger side off of the platform.

The first thing they did was remove the tire which had gone flat overnight due to a crack up the rear of the rim they hadn’t seen the day before. This wasn’t an issue as Mitch travelled with two spares, one in the trailer and one under the pick up in the rear.

As Mitch had predicted the rocker arm was a goner as was the front right shock. The shock would be easy enough to pick up locally as a pair since they should both be done together, the real issue was the rocker arm.

When they were satisfied at what needed to be done they sat down in what looked like a small makeshift patio outside Ty’s shop.

“OK, the shocks’ll be easy, Canadian Tire should have them in stock.” Ty began. “You have a viable spare so that’s not an issue. Let me call around and go online and see if I can’t round up a right side rocker arm.”

“I’ll set up another pot of coffee.”

Ty nodded and checked his phone walking away. Matt accompanied Mitch over to the trailer. It was a little chilly so Mitch stopped and stoked the fire pit, threw on a few logs and grabbed the empty pot while Matt pulled up a chair and a small branch to push some embers around. He expected Mitch to have a coffee machine inside and was surprised when he put a grate over the pit and lay the old style percolator on the fire.

“Old school.” Matt said watching.

“I’m not much for the machine stuff though my wife loves the convenience of those one cup things, can’t fault that but when I have the time, real perk is the way to go I think.”

“Yeah, my dad was like that, me, I get most of mine for free really, perk of the uniform I guess.”

“So when’s the wedding ?” Mitch asked as he leaned forward to move the pot off of the flame when it started to perk.”

“Next June so we can get married outside at her folks place.”

“And after ?”

“We both want kids so maybe that, we’ll have the house by then and both get good benefits, time off for kids, we’ll see. How long you wait ?”

“I don’t know that we really waited or planned anything, she was pregnant about a year after we married I guess. JT, about 2 ½ years later I guess and now 3 years later once again. We’re also waiting on approval for a foster, we both feel strongly about it, she wasn’t pregnant at the time we applied but we’re fine with it.”

“Boy or girl ?”

“Which one, it’s a girl in the oven and the foster will be what it is.”

“Nice, maybe you’ll even up.”

“Not necessary, love ‘em all the same, treat ‘em all the same.”

“Definitely the way it should be.” Matt said as the door to the porch of the house opened and closed.

“Just in time for a fresh cup Ty.” Mitch said gingerly pouring the hot coffee from the steaming pot into a mug. “Good news I hope.” Mitch continued.

“I found one we can get today the rest Monday after delivery which means you may not be driving home until Tuesday.”

“The one we can get today ?”

“Airdrie.”

“Airdrie, that’s what, 2 ½ hours each way.” Matt said.

“And I’ve got to get to the clinic for something. This is the number of the dealership, the guy who has it is Tom and the name he has is Cutty, whatever you decide is fine Mitch, that’s my truck, key’s in the ignition.”

“I may have an idea.” Mitch said “we’ll figure it out and let you know Ty.”

“I’m a bachelor for the weekend Mitch” Matt told him. “I can grab a cruiser and we can be down and back in under 4 hours.”

Mitch laughed, “let me make a call.”

Matt strolled off into the barn as Mitch thought for a minute and hit his phone.

“Hey buddy, Amy tells you’ve got a problem.”

“One maybe you can help me with Caleb, there’s a rocker arm with my name on it in Airdrie, how about you ride past, pick it up and bring it up ?”

“Where are you ?”

“Place called Nelson Lake, it’s about 2 maybe 2 ½ hours ?”

“I’d love to help you out Mitch but, well, we’ve got this fence thing at Heartland I’m dealing with.”

“How many ?”

“Just 6 and they’re all back but I got to get this fence back up, I’ve got Trace and Jade with me. Give Amy a call, maybe she can think of something.”

“Ok Caleb, get ‘er done.”

“You know I will brother, later.”

Mitch took off his hat and dropped on the ever decreasing log pile, ran his hand through his hair as he sat down and hit the call button.

“Give me some good news cowboy, your baby momma’s missing you big time.”

“Ames.”

“No Mitch.”

“Not that bad, there’s a rocker arm in Airdrie, if someone can pick it up and drive it here I can be home tomorrow. I’ll get the shocks done today so tomorrow will go real fast. I asked Caleb but ….”

“I  know about the fence. Let me ask Georgie and Quinn, they’re with the kids and kind of aimless for the weekend it seems. I’ll text you, it’s easier from out there, text me an address or GPS.”

“On the way.  Hey Amy, you know I miss you as much as….”

“I know you do sweetheart, I love you.”

“Love you too.”

“Where are we ?”

“Waiting to hear someone from home is driving up through Airdrie and bringing us that rocker arm while we get those shocks done.”

“You think we can get it all done today ?” Matt asked.

“We can try I guess, I wouldn’t drive the trailer down at night but first thing in the morning would make my wife happy. It’ll all depends on when it gets here.”

“Well, I called Canadian Tire and they have your shocks in stock so let’s pick up those, install ‘em and get them out of the way.”

“And then lunch is on me.” Mitch said patting Matt on the shoulder “I know you don’t have to do this but I sure appreciate the company.”

Mitch’s phone sounded off on the way back with the parts and he checked his messages. The tone was specifically Amy’s.

“Georgie and Quinn glad to help out, help on the way !! Love you heading out, talk later !!”

Mitch read the text out loud once he read it.

“Excellent” Matt said “how long you think ?”

“With the stop in Airdrie, maybe a lunch, figure 3 to 4 hours, we may get this done today yet.”

Mitch then texted Ty rather than called and received a call back as they pulled into Ty’s property.

“Hey Ty, just getting back from Canadian Tire.”

“You two Ok on your own, we’re swamped here at the clinic and I don’t want to leave Kelsey.”

“We’re great, take whatever time you need Ty and if you can later, dinner’s on me.”

“Feel free to put whomever is bringing that part in the guest room Mitch.”

“Thanks Ty, we’ll see, the trailer has plenty of room.”

“Consider the option Mitch, talk to you later.”

“He’s a nice guy, bit of a loner.” Matt said.

“I’ve noticed, what’s his story ?”

“Ty ? Not really sure, he got here maybe a dozen years or so ago and was working for Kelsey. Rumor has it he was escaping a bad break up or something, broken heart kind of thing. He’s dated some, he’s a good looking guy, just nothing stuck I guess.”

“How’s he related to Kelsey ?”

“How so, I don’t think they are.”

“Isn’t his last name Burton ?” Mitch asked now thoroughly confused.

Matt laughed “No, no but I can definitely see how you made that mistake, Ty’s last name is Borden, B-o-r-d-en not Burton, B-u-r-t-o-n like Kelsey.”

“Ty Borden” Mitch said quietly running the name through his memory “It sounded familiar when I thought it was Burton, this doesn’t help, I can’t make the connection. He said he was down our way years ago, but the time frame is all wrong because I was in the service back then, who knows, let’s get the truck done.”

Working leisurely on the truck they got the shocks changed, the wrecked tire stowed and the spare ready to install once the rocker was swapped out. There was a small bar that served lunch and snacks a few miles away that Matt recommended and on the way Mitch decided to touch base.

He was surprised that he couldn’t get either Georgie or Quinn on the phone and left messages to call him when they could. Then he tried Amy who picked up on the second ring.

“Hey Ames, how’s it going and did you hear from Georgie or Quinn ?”

“It’s going fine and I haven’t, hold on a second Mitch” she said as he heard the phone moved and her talking to someone else which sounded as if she was handing him something and thanking him.

“What was that all about ?”

“Tipping a nice young man who just loaded something in the pickup for me, where are you ?”

“Heading for a burger with Matt, the deputy who’s helping me out. Where are you anyway and what’s being loaded, I thought you were out with the kids.”

“What gave you that idea, Georgie and Quinn are with the kids, I just had a rocker arm loaded in and strapped down.”

“Really ? You’re driving it up, why ?”

“Date night in the trailer lover.”

“You’re not serious.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.” She asked playfully indignant.

“Let’s not go there, you know I can’t wait to see you.”

“And touch me and hold me ?”

“All those things Ames, stop and eat please and don’t overdue.”

“I’m fine sweetheart and I have a sandwich and drinks and a bag of clementines, I’ll stop to eat on the road.”

“And I promised dinner to our hosts.”

“I can’t wait to meet and thank them. I love you, gotta ride !!”

“Stay safe Ames.”

“Change in plans Mitch ?” Matt asked laughing as they parked at the small bar and grill.

“Yup.”

“Nice she misses you.”

“She’s usually better than this when I’m away, this is pregnancy hormones.”

“So that rumor’s true ?”

“Which rumor is that Matt ?”

“You know, the uhm, uhm, closeness.” He said with a grin.

“I only have the experience with Amy but in her case yes and in spades.”

“Good for you buddy, sounds like fun.”

Mitch laughed, “yeah, it doesn’t suck and I’m long gone head over heels in love with her so…..”