#but i couldn't figure out how to write that without rewriting the whole scene so I wrote this instead

[firstkanaphans]

I need something nice and sweet for SandRay, like maybe (V)acationing together for the first time *_* thank you

You mean like the absolute gift that was episode 9??? (I realize you sent this in days ago, but I’m using it as an excuse to write more about their camping trip. I figured you wouldn’t mind 😂) Word Count: 1180

[V]acationing together for the first time

When Ray woke up, he was alone. For a second, he wasn’t even sure where he was, but then memories from the night before came back to him: the fight with Mew, the drive to Nakhon Nayok, the confrontation with Sand. He was, quite frankly, shocked that Sand had let him stay, but he y would be lying if he said he hadn’t slept better in his arms than he had in weeks. Now, the sun was up, the birds were chirping, and Sand and Nick were nowhere in sight. 

Ray sat up, stretched, and then made his way out of the camper. He half-expected Sand, Nick, and all of their supplies to be gone, but they weren’t. Instead, Sand was standing just a few steps away from the door, minding the grill where he had breakfast cooking. Ray was so surprised that he froze right there in the doorway, sure he must be hallucinating. The camper door slammed shut behind him and Sand looked up.

“Sleep well, Princess?” he drawled. He looked annoyed, but not angry. It was a start.

Ray threw his nose into the air, determined to act like he knew what he was doing, even though he didn't. “I did. Thank you for asking.”

Sand rolled his eyes. “Breakfast is almost done. Take a seat.”

Ray did as he was told and then looked around in search of Nick, but aside from the sounds of meat sizzling on the grill, birds chirping in the distance, and wind blowing through the trees, the campground was quiet. “Where’s Nick?” 

“Probably halfway back to Bangkok by now,” Sand answered, turning off the stove and portioning out two plates of food. He handed one to Ray and then sat down at the table next to him. 

“He left?” Ray asked. Sand nodded. Ray knew he should probably feel guilty about that, but he didn’t. He was happy to have Sand all to himself again. He took a large bite of his eggs and moaned at the taste. It had been a while since he had eaten.

For several minutes, the two of them ate in silence. Ray wanted to talk, but he didn’t know what to say. So he said nothing. The meal was over half-finished before Sand spoke.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said.

It wasn’t the reception Ray had been hoping for, but it was the one he had been expecting. He tried to hide the disappointment from his eyes. “It’s a public campground,” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but it’s not a public camper. You can’t just barge in on other people’s vacations like that, Ray. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking,” Ray said, “that I wanted to see you.”

Sand scoffed. “Bit of a long way to drive for a booty call. Especially when you’ve already got Mew waiting for you back in Bangkok.”

Ray thought about explaining that Mew’s feelings for him weren’t sexual—that they hadn’t gotten anywhere near crossing that line—but he didn’t think it would help his case.

“Like I said,” he repeated through clenched teeth. “I wanted to see you.” 

If Ray was being honest, it had been more of a need than a want. He had been so stupid, trading what he had with Sand for a chance with Mew—a chance that had never been anything more than a farce. Mew didn’t want him; Mew wanted Top. Ray had known that and yet he’d pursued him anyway, even despite the feeling in his gut telling him that things had changed. That what he had always thought he wanted wasn't what he needed. And now, he was left with nothing.

After his fight with Mew, he’d craved Sand's presence with a desperation usually reserved for alcohol. He’d needed to see him to know that he hadn’t ruined everything. To convince himself that there was still a chance—no matter how slim—that happiness was waiting for him over the horizon.

“I’ve missed you,” he said because it was true and Sand deserved to know it.

Sand didn’t seem pleased by his words. “I haven’t gone anywhere,” he said.

“Yeah, but...things have changed.”

“And whose fault is that?”

It was Ray’s. Everything was always Ray’s fault. Maybe he should just go.

“Are you mad I’m here?” he asked.

Sand glared at him as if he found the question offensive. “You shouldn’t have come. It was too late for you to be driving up a mountain. It was dangerous and stupid and—”

“That’s not what I asked,” Ray interrupted him. “If you don’t want me here, I’ll leave.”

“Not without me, you won’t,” Sand argued. “With Nick gone, you’re my ride home.”

Ray rolled his eyes. Sand was way too smart to be this oblivious. “Sand. Please. Just answer the question: Are you mad at me?”

Sand took three deep breaths before answering. “I’m mad,” he said and Ray’s heart sank, “that I’m not mad.”

Ray smirked. Now that was more like it. “Really?”

“God, I fucking hate you, you know that?” Sand snapped, getting up and grabbing both of their plates to dispose of. 

“It’s kind of romantic out here, isn’t it?” Ray teased, ignoring him completely. “Almost like a date.”

Sand didn’t answer him as he scraped their leftover food into a garbage bag and tied it off. Ray maybe should have given him some space, but that seemed like such a waste when they were somewhere so lovely. He stood and snuck up behind him to wrap his arms around his waist. Sand froze.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Hugging you,” Ray explained unnecessarily. To his surprise, Sand let him for a solid ten seconds before he set the plates down and turned in his arms.

“I didn’t tell you you could hug me,” Sand pointed out. Ray wasn’t aware he needed to ask for permission.

“Thank you for breakfast,” he said and then lifted up onto his tiptoes. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

And he did, placing a single, chaste peck on Sand’s lips. When he pulled away, Sand was standing in front of him with his eyes closed as if maybe, just maybe, he had enjoyed the kiss too. Ray preened and when Sand opened his eyes and noticed, he pushed him away.

“Go get changed into something of mine,” he snapped, ushering Ray back towards the camper. “We’re going to the lake.”

That did not sound like fun at all. “Why? So you can drown me?”

“No. So I can enjoy the rest of my vacation that you so rudely interrupted. You coming or not?”

Although Ray would very much like to turn up his nose at the thought of touching nature, he didn’t have the luxury of saying no. If it would make Sand happy, he would do it. After all, he owed Sand a little bit of happiness after everything he had put him through.

For the Fluff Prompt ABCs

[phantomtwitch]

Congrats on finishing Echoes!!!!!!!

Do you have tips on writing such a long fic? How much planning did you do ?

Ahhh, thank you!!!!

For finishing such a long fic, I have some suggestions, but I think like a lot of writing advice it's a very "your mileage will vary" depending on your own processes. Long and honestly kind of rambling answer (and some mild spoilers for Echoes) below the cut:

So in terms of planning, I'm not really much of a planner to be honest. I know plenty of authors that will do detailed outlines, map out scenes, and then proceed to write each scene or chapter in a very structured way. It works for them, and it's worth a try if you haven't done it before, but I've found it just doesn't suit my general style.

My outline was a lot vaguer. I had basic concepts ideas I wanted to explore - No One Knows AU, Hazmat AU, Danny being friends with the ghosts as Fenton despite being hated as Phantom, and an identity reveal. My basic structure at the start was split into four parts, with each part highlighting a different reveal with different people in his life, but after finishing the first one with Valerie, I found that while it worked okay as a standalone, as a long fic it just . . . didn't. When I started doing the next part, it felt too repetitive and too much like the exact same thing with just the person swapped out, so even though I liked that first bit overall, I scrapped it in favor of trying to do something else because I still wanted to get to that end point where his family and friends all knew the truth.

So instead I tried to think about what could bring some of these people together to kind of discover some things in tandem instead of separately (hence the possession bit I came up with, which wasn't part of my original concept), and then from there the second part felt really natural as I realized I had to deal with the fallout from what happened there and it allowed me to bring the Fenton parents in more, too. I knew the last part was always going to end with my interpretation of Reign Storm, so it mostly became a question of how to get there in the context of the themes that started to develop as I wrote (namely around forgiveness, trust, hope, etc).

Dividing it into three parts with a different focus that still supported the overall story and character arcs helped a ton. Not getting too fixated on editing as I went along was also a big, important piece, since that's something I've struggled with intensely in the past. I want things to be perfect, and part of finishing this meant accepting that it wouldn't be and that it was okay and that, in all honesty, some of the things that make it imperfect are part of what makes it so near and dear to my heart.

(I will say, though, that I definitely indulged that impulse to go back and edit occasionally, since it helped refresh my memory as I wrote and scratch that itch. It was just important not to fall into a trap of only doing that instead of writing, too).

I tried to do a few scenes out of order, but found that never worked for me, I think in part because I was figuring out a lot of things as I went along. I'll still, occasionally, write out the bit in a fic that I really, really want on the page if I feel like I can't continue writing without getting it out first, but that version of it virtually never ends up in the final piece.

Other things that were important for me . . .

Finishing the fic before I posted it. Other folks can write and post as they go. I can't. I don't usually figure out everything until I'm basically done, and at that point I need to go back and rewrite and add bits to make the whole thing work. I think some of the chapters I didn't have in the first solid draft of my finished fic would surprise people. The unfinished fics on my old FFN profile are a testament to this - there's more than one I stopped there because I wrote myself into a corner I couldn't figure out how to get out of, or took on something that was way too ambitious or went in a direction I found I ultimately didn't want to go.

It also helped me avoid feeling that intense pressure of not wanting to disappoint people that were reading. Like, that was still there, but because the fic was functionally done, it didn't impact my ability to finish writing it, if that makes sense, and instead really impacted how I approached editing it instead.

But posting with space between the chapters mattered, too, since it allowed me to read people's comments which sometimes brought up things I hadn't considered and that I occasionally (but not always) worked into the fic later. One of the comments from dp-marvel 94, I think, had a huge impact on me when it came to how I approached the epilogue. While some parts of the epilogue didn't change much from my initial draft, a not so small part did, and I am much, much happier for the change since it really helped to tie up Danny's character growth and some of the themes I'd written into the fic.

(I suspect a beta-reader could have helped with that, but I was too anxious/terrified to ask anyone to be honest even as I knew it would probably make the fic better).

I also let my fic sit for like a month after I finished it without touching it, and then I went back and reread the entire thing, which helped me realize what I was missing, things I should added, deleted bits that I should also put back in (I never, ever permanently delete anything I write. I have a ton of documents that are an absolutely bonkers amount of pages full of stuff I deleted, if only because sometimes I realize that there are bits of those things that can be salvaged or worked in later).

And honestly? I just type fast. That's not terribly helpful advice and I know it, but it means I can indulge a lot of the vague ideas/thoughts I have without feeling like it's setting me back much since I can easily write a few thousand words in an hour.

Really, though, it's thinking about what you want to do with the fic and pushing through the anxiety/fear/perfectionism or whatever other thing is stopping you from finishing, and picking an idea that you love enough that you want to see it through to the end despite the blood, sweat, and tears you'll be pouring into it.

[lucius-the-sinful]

15 Lines of Dialogue

15 Lines of Dialogue Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

I was tagged by @omgkalyppso thank you!!! <33

tagging @mr-orion @achilleancryptid1 @the-lady-auri and you!!!!

I couldn't find enough dialogue despite the amount I write to meet 15, but here's some from Zafir and some from Gale <3

Zafir

1: “I have little interest in the basic knowledge every witcher should know,” Zafir muttered, firmly corking his potions before Lambert could cause real harm. - "Feather Fall", Part 2 of Witcher, Poet, King

2: "Seems you made quick work of it," That was the guard captain, who I figured out to be quite lazy over the last couple days. "Hopefully not sloppy work." 

"I don't do sloppy work," The witcher scorned. - Unpublished rewrite of Feathers & Flower Petals

3: “So you chased it, attacked it?” Despite his chiding tongue, Zafir’s touch was delicate. He poured the vial’s contents directly on the wound. Nikita hissed at the pain. - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

4: “That doesn't erase the fact that you are injured, and a single potion won't heal it as fast as you want it to. You need one of the alchemists.” 

Nikita glared at him. “Do you always have to be so fucking arrogant? Even when you're right?” 

Zafir gave him a cocky smile. “You’ve known me far too long to be asking such redundant questions.” - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

5: "I warned them that if it wasn't dealt with in a timely manner, the vampire would infect or slaughter the whole area. I scouted it two weeks ago, the entire village is either dead or turned. I estimate about fifteen feral vampires." 

"Tell me they at least commissioned the chain." 

Zafir looked up at Finnegan, and he was smirking like a cat, as if it were a game to him. For a split second, Zafir tensed. "An entire village died of negligence and you're cracking jokes?" - Unpublished D&D short story that takes place around forty years before the campaign titled "Lemon Tree"

6: "Once again, I don't know what you expected of unseasoned, dry meat," Zafir washed it down with water from his canteen. 

"For it to at least not be overcooked," Despite Finnegan's complaints, he ate half of it. 

"You undercooked the one from last night." - Unpublished D&D short story that takes place around forty years before the campaign titled "Lemon Tree"

7: “Ignore it,” Zafir finally said. “They're idiots. You're brilliant.”

Valentine nodded, internalizing the advice. “Could I confide in you more?” 

The jaeger's shoulders relaxed. “Of course. You never need to ask.” - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

8: "Dammit... Why didn't we do anything?" Faewynn glared at her father.

Zafir remained stoic. "The dragon was likely hungry and angry. By my estimates, it may also be very old. We would not have stood a chance." - Slightly edited from post campaign roleplay

9: Just as Zafir went to pull away, Finnegan bit down on his lip. The temperance cursed, touching his glove to his bleeding lip. 

"Fuck you," Finnegan was grinning like a cat. 

"Was the biting really necessary?" Zafir growled. "I was trying to conceal us." 

"Like I fucking believe that." - Blurb titled "Red Water Dream"

10: Kaidan sat down next to him. “It feels so long ago when Saren was our biggest worry. We didn't know how lucky we were.” 

“Lucky?” Zafir’s lip twitched upward. “We were ostracized by the council.” 

“Only because you kept hanging up on them,” Kaidan smiled, too. 

“They were full of shit,” he set the book on his nightstand. “I will admit, though, I was volatile.” 

“I kinda liked that. You were always riding a thin line. They couldn't cast you out because you get results, but you were very much a thorn in their side,” he leaned his head on Zafir’s shoulder. -WIP titled "Harder They Fall"

Gale

1: The man snorted, he leaned back against a full trash bag, he held something in his lap just under a ragged blanket. “I’m not fucking stupid, leave me the fuck alone.” 

Gale’s brow furrowed. “You look pretty fucking stupid to me, right now.” -"I Was Just A Kid", Part 2 of Bend & Break

2: “Is that what you want to do? Beg for me?” The words passed through Rarzal’s lips nonchalantly, the same lips Gale had been watching this entire conversation. 

Gale considered the proposition, or what he hoped to be one. Rarzal was a tricky individual, able to hide his outward emotions with ease. The smile on those thin lips told Gale it was an advance, but his narrowed eyes suggested it was a test. The tiefling’s tail flicked in contemplation, a sultry smile settled on his lips. “That's a very delicious thought.” - "Cold Cold Man" (nsft)

3: Gale’s eyes flicked down, he brushed past the elf. He grabbed his violin’s case from just within his tent, and put the instrument away. “I wish you would have just told me, but I understand why you didn’t.” 

Astarion swallowed, taken aback. 

Gale stood again, glancing down at him. “But you still tried to fucking bite me.” - Unpublished WIP titled "Sinking of the Teeth"

4: Gale shrugged. “I've been very well fed. I don't think about blood more than I think about food.” 

“Really? So if I cut myself right now you wouldn't start drooling?” 

Gale snorted. “Depends on your blood type.” - Unpublished WIP titled "Dawns"

5: Gale parked crooked, rolling down his driver's side window and allowing his music to pour out. He grinned at Gavin as his friend approached. "Hey, pookie. Thought I would find you here." - Out of session roleplay

6: Gale nodded. "Now onto what I have for you."

Zavra's mouth pressed into a flat line. "I hate to say it, but you are starting to sound a lot like your father. Asking for seemingly small things."

He paused, losing a bit of his composure. He tried to reel it back in, not willing to lose it in front of his mother again. "You've told me that twice now." - Mid session roleplay

7: “I have… I know its been five or six years for you, but its only been a few days for me. Its still settling in that this is real. That you’re… different.”

“Bad different or good different?” Gale froze.

Mitch sighed. “Just different, Gale. I haven’t decided if its good or bad yet.”

“Gavin’s different, too.” 

“Yeah, but I feel like I can still go get a beer with him like we used to. I don’t know how I feel about going out with you. You can pretend all you want that you haven’t changed, but the lines blurred between you and Ace. At least you have the decency to care, or pretend to.” 

“I keep hearing that.”

“Well, I don’t hear you denying it.” 

“I don't know what to say, he was my father. He had a lot of influence over me for my entire life.” 

Another pause. “I gotta go. Thanks for calling.” 

Gale realized his claws had dug into his palm, he unclenched his fist and the bleeding stopped. His skin started to close. “Yeah. Say hi to your mom for me.” 

“I will.” The line went dead, Gale pulling the phone away from his ear. He replaced the phone and wiped the blood from his hand. - Blurb titled "Everything That Dies"

[bizarrepotpourri]

Behind The Scenes: A Family Affair

This will be shorter than usual, mostly because I want to advertise the story more than go into what is it based on (but that too).

As you can see, this post and the story contain mentions of crime, death and other heavy shit (and hornyposting), so everything is under the cut.

Important info: you can access the link only if you set explicit material to be shown in your Pixiv settings. For a good reason.

First thing I need to say, I need to rewrite the timeline here, because things in the background started a little too early and I realized it only after I posted the whole thing. Even considering that historically, "adult" meant something different in various eras, we're talking about things going at least a year back - things (see the tagline on the bottom on the cover) that should start a little later in relation to the characters' age.

Second, if you don't speak Polish, the story is fairly loosely based on a true story confirmed by historical and archeological research. If you speak Polish, it's mentioned in the press article I retrieved from my previous account. The names, criminal charges and sentence remained accurate, and the date is given as "an autumn day", but the rest is heavily fictionalized to my liking - for example, the execution happens in the town square instead of next to the gallows outside the city walls, and the condemned are partially undressed like in "The Brigand Queen". The young executioner, mostly accurate, is inspired by the one from "Swift Justice", although this one doesn't get as lucky.

Third, aside from the historical sources, the story is also inspired by renders by ArchStanton, more precisely his set titled "The Parkers" that features a similar family of four. A lot of people posted images from that set on A Certain Website recently, reminding me so hard that I had to write the story down. Well, that and the person I intended to include in the next Officer 432 story ghosted me and I haven't seen them since three weeks.

And finally - I imagined Rosina as really fucking horny, but I couldn't figure out how to put it into the story without breaking the entire thing, so all I could do was telling how the people saw or at least imagined it, including the wild rumors and miscommunications that would be true if a more typical user of A Certain Website (or even Pixiv) wrote it. As for showing, I intend to write a companion piece that's mostly flashbacks depicting the whole horny thing. That should make more sense.

[good-realtor-bad-realtor-dynamic]

I'd planned to liveblog the Always Sunny Podcast live show and afterparty but I got too caught up in it. I do have some notes I scrawled on a sheet of paper here and some shitty phone recordings because screenrecording was making my ancient laptop lag like crazy, but I'm quite drunk and very sleepy, so I'll write them up later. If I can be bothered later. Probably not lbr.

I believe the videos are gonna be up for the next 7 days to rewatch as many times as we'd like? (Hey future self go figure that out.)

For now, quick thoughts before my brain shuts down:

Outfits: 9/10. Docking a point for Glenn buttoning up his shirt in the afterparty. Rude. Should've popped that shirt off.

Music, harmonizing and jamming: 100/10 VIBES. Shout-out to Charlie and Glenn singing Christmas tunes together and Charlie's musical improvisations on the piano with Glenn on guitar.

British royalty talk: -3/10. Rob, I do like you, but given my background, I personally do not care to hear about how the king is cool or whatever. Idc if you talk about meeting them, but sucking up to them is dumb and you need friends who aren't posh types like Humphrey (no offence to him, I'm sure he's nice).

Glenn as the grinch, being grumpy as shit, munching on cheese and crackers furiously after drinking a Rob manhattan and just giving 0 fucks about Christmas happiness: 11/10 MOOD!

Best host contest: blasphemy/10. Picking Meg is cheating and I adore Charlie, but no. Why was little Glenn on #3? Poor chap.

Gifts: 10/10 thoughtful <3

Lingerie talk: 8/10. Not long enough. Could be gayer.

RCG improv scenes: A++/10. They just got better as they did more. The stupid key chain sounds had me dying.

Serious conversations in the afterparty about S16 writing, Megan's happy experiences at Sunny vs other shows, doing RCG rewrites and the creative process disagreements between Rob and Charlie while Glenn is mostly quiet and tired or sometimes mediating: 17*/10 friendship. Also, Charlie is right that 4:3 and Standard Definition is The Sunny Look.

Chat, voting website and audience interactions: flop disaster/10. Why didn't they try to set up a normal poll instead of a page on a website that was definitely going to crash?! Anyone under 28 could've told them the chat was going to be impossible to read and full of spam without a proper moderator, but even our Meg is old and doesn't really know this stuff lol.

*arguably 19 because they started working on the home movies in 2003 with the first ones shot in November.

It was a slow start and they were clearly tired from being in the writer's room all day, but after the first half an hour, the boys slowly came back to life and stayed on for an extra 45 minutes, which I appreciated, having paid all that money to watch them.

It was like a 3x duration unedited edition of the podcast with some extra segments and I did have fun, but tbh it didn't have to be a livestream except for the few moments they actually interacted with the chat. The whole point of a livestream is the audience participation and even they seemed disappointed they couldn't hear us or really be able to read the chat?

I don't think the Moment interface is that great either. They could've just gone live on youtube or twitch and hidden the stream after a few days for the same effect and given away the leftover money from superchats and donations. They'd probably raise less money that way, but it would actually take advantage of the format. Fingers crossed their next livestream goes a lot smoother. And hire moderators please!

[eremji]

Fic Questions Meme

How do you come up with the titles for your fics?

Is there anything worse than writing a title? Can I interest you in an action scene instead?

2. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

cw: abuse (and the fic itself addresses pretty dark shit)

each lovely phrase (E) - Outlast - Eddie Gluskin/Waylon Park.

This is a weird vehicle for it, but this was written in part after my experience losing my abusive father to terminal illnesses without receiving any kind of resolution to my grief and anger. My situation was nowhere near as severe as the POV character's – my experience was entirely verbal/psychological mistreatment – and the fic wasn't intended to be a mirror of reality, but the rage and grief I felt definitely informed the POV character's pretty heavily.

3. What character do you identify with most?

I didn't have an answer to questions like this for a long time, but Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul is probably the closest I've ever come to wholly seeing myself in a character. She's a small town escapee with big ambitions, where her choices early in her life led her to some toxic and morally grey situations. There are innate tensions between competing goals – her desire to do something genuinely good, her desire to make all her work worthwhile by being intensely career oriented, and her desire to get one over on the people who have made her life harder – that really resonate with my early adult experience.

4. If you wrote a sequel to any of your published fics, what would it be about?

I'm satisfied with all of the currently published fics as they stand, actually; if I felt like something warranted a sequel or epilogue I generally wrote it directly after the first thing and posted it.

5. How would you describe your style?

I don't actually know how to answer this; I lack the technical vocabulary to define it. I'm sure someone has an answer, looking at my fic externally, but all I try to do is climb as far into a character's head as possible. Sometimes canon makes this easier; sometimes a film, a tv show, or a piece of written fiction has a very distinct voice to it, either in diction or visually, so its easy to match. Otherwise, I tend to do some exploratory writing from a character's POV to see if I can hit on something that makes me feel good.

6. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don't actually believe in guilty pleasures when reading/writing, because its fiction! It isn't real! I'm unabashedly a monsterlover, robot fucker, dubious consent supporter, villain/hero shipper, and a whole mess of other things.

7. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

I have a half-written fic rotting in my drafts folder where one of the main characters is dead from the start (they eventually get better, see my addendum to MCD fics in question 16 later on) and the whole thing is just a wild ride through grief and love, and not in any fandom or for any pairing you'd probably expect looking at either my reading or writing history.

8. What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?

I desperately wanted to write the Dinotopia!AU for SteveBucky where Bucky was a Skybax rider and Steve was a scholar but I couldn't figure out a good plot for the premise.

9. Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

I have an Inception fic due for a rewrite that was started based off a bunch of dreams I'd actually had, but the plot has changed (it actually has one instead of being a series of set pieces) so I need to restructure it.

10. Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

I have a few pages of a ST (AOS) WIP that's dom!Spock/mouthy sub!Kirk that explores D/s dynamics in the vein of Spock's enjoyment of having control (after feeling out of control compared to other Vulcans) and Kirk's unresolved issues with authority. Oh – and the entirety of the AOS plot after Kirk's disciplinary hearing doesn't happen, they're still at the Academy, and instead of punting Kirk they assign him to Spock under probation and Spock is actively one of Kirk's professors.

11. How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

Characters, by asking if there's any story there I'd want to tell for them in the first place. Sometimes that doesn't come along right away, but usually I can cook up a premise. Then it's seeing if I like it enough that I can get a plot up and running.

12. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Bigtime gardener. Sometimes I plant things that don't ever grow or need to be heavily pruned, but largely I don't write in order OR plot in order. Sometimes I write two scenes on opposite sides of the fic one right after another and use the results of the later scene to fill in the middle.

13. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Robert E. Howard is unquestionably at the top, outstripping any competition by miles.

14. Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

I will make at least a cursory attempt to read any fuck or die fic no matter how much I dislike the writing style. That link will never be unclicked.

15. Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

SO many. I'm one of the pickier readers and both my kudos and bookmarks reflect it. Most in the form of AUs (coffee shop, college, domestic, etc.) are a hard pass for me, but it genuinely varies from fandom to fandom and even ship to ship within the same fandom. If I don't like something generally (i.e. omegaverse) there's almost always at least one very well-written exception to that somewhere.

16. Major character death--do you ever write/read it?

I've only read a handful of 'real' MCD fics. If the canon conceit is that death is actually temporary, I'll go in as long as the condition is guaranteed to be reversed in some way (rebirth, resurrection, reincarnation) for a happy ending. I have a couple sitting in the background that I hope I could turn into something really wrenching (with revival and happy endings!).

[alison-anonymous]

I Want to Write a Mikayuu Series

Okay.

So um.

If you're reading this, HELLO. All of you long time ONS fans probably don't know me, but I'm Alison and I'm a hardcore Mikayuu, Mitsunoa, Gureshin, etc shipper. I've been in the ONS fandom for almost a year and dear god. The amount of people telling me that Mikayuu is queerbait is just making me really sad 😅 I'm a writer, and I'm the type of person who honestly feels like the author of a series should have the ability to choose how a story ends without influence of their readers. I mean, if it's their story, then it should be their ending, right? However, I also do have some qualms when it comes to how this "love triangle" between Yu, Mika, and Shinoa is being portrayed. This is entirely my personal opinion, but I feel like Shinoa seems to be forcing herself to love Yu. I honestly don't think she cares for him in a romantic way, but more of a very deep-rooted admiration or even envy that she's trying to convince herself to be romantic love. And Yu has said multiple times that he values Mika's life above his own, that he doesn't know what he would do without him if he were to die again (I mean the fact that he suffered seeing his best friend and potential lover die a first time was definitely scarring enough, PLEASE STOP TORTURING OUR POOR BABIES). And it's basically confirmed by now that when Mika said I love you in the manga, it was in the romantic sense. Even though I wish, I hope, I dream, and I pray that Mikayuu will become canon, I honestly can't say for certain what I think will happen. I think it could sway any way, with Mikayuu becoming canon, Yu and Shinoa becoming canon, or it being one of those ambiguous endings where it's heavily implied but nothing actually happens. And in order to make myself feel better when stuff like this happens, I tend to rewrite the entire story with the ending that I would have liked to see ;)

You're probably wondering where the hell this stranger is going with this. Well, I want to write a book. A series, actually.

One that's inspired by Seraph of the End.

Now, if you're interested in hearing me out, then feel free to keep reading. But if not, continue on with your scrolling, no hard feelings. But if you do, and I really hope that you do, give me a chance to explain.

I want to write a series inspired by Seraph of the End called Bloodsucker (working title, obviously). And this series is going to be a reimagination of ONS with an ending that I would have loved to see in the anime and manga. I plan to have three main characters (please keep in mind that I'm going to have name changes): Yuichiro, Mikaela, and a brand new character, Epic.

Now, I would begin this series a bit before the anime and I'm assuming the manga begins. I'd start with introducing our main three characters as they meet in the orphanage (yes, Epic would be a part of this orphanage as well) and how Epic and Yu try to make moves to run away only to be stopped by Mika and Akane.

I plan to include a scene between Epic and Akane where Epic tries to run out in the middle of the night only to be stopped by Akane, and this is what caused Epic to develop a crush on her (Epic is a girl btw). Then I would begin the whole shit with the vampires and how they set the world on fire and shit, but instead of the apocolypse, I'd make it so that most of the adults died in the fire while the kids were taken alive (because young blood is better and whatnot). This includes our little Hyakuya family. The directors would have tried to trade the kids lives for their own, and due to their selfishness, the vamps killed them and took the kids anyway.

This would begin my first story arc: the prewar.

Epic, Akane, Mika, and Yu would all be living under the vampires at this point along with the rest of the kids in their orphanage. I plan to include lots of moments of bonding that heavily imply Epic loves Akane even though she doesn't know it yet and Mika loves Yu, but Yu is fucking oblivious. The four begin to plot their escape, but while Mika and Akane (yes Akane too) are making deals with the vampires to help out with their family, Epic is constantly finding herself getting dragged along to visit Queen Krul. The pink haired vamp has a soft spot for her for some reason and often tells her that Epic and her family are "special" or sum shit. And she's super confused and semi grossed out. But none of the vamps ever dare to hurt her so she thinks it's fine. Then one day they all plot their escape and it's much more planned out and lengthy and less rushed than it is in the anime. Things almost seem to work out until the vampires stop them

And Mika and Akane DIE.

I know. I'm horrid.

Epic is standing here in shock as she watches the love of her life die before her and Mika BEGS for Yu to take Epic and run while they can. So while in the series only Yu survives, he obeys Mika and both him and Epic survive this. They're found by Guren (a new character I haven't come up with yet lol) and Yu is super protective over Epic, not wanting anyone to take the only piece of his family he has left (he's a fucking mess without Mika let's just be honest) and Guren ends up taking them under his wing.

Now we hit the second arc. Still with me?

The War.

Hold onto your hats everyone because this is where shit is about to get complicated. So I do plan to have a bit of a time skip into the current spot where Yu and Epic are attending school with Guren as their father figure and they've become very close. So close that Yu refuses to work with anyone else but her. They end up getting onto Shinoa Squad (obviously going to be completely different in my version) and they get put onto the battlefield. But here's the catch. Well, two catches.

Yu and Epic do have demon weapons. I do plan to try to incorporate that into this. BUT the backstory is different. I plan to make it so that the vampires obviously see the humans as fies. Insignificant things that are more playthings than threats. And they didn't want to have to deal with killing all of them, so they sent demons in their place to handle it. But the humans were able to form deals or "contracts" with the demons and therefore turned the vampires' own secret weapon against them.

Now, catch no. 2

So, Epic, Mika, and Yu aren't seraphs in this. But they are something else. I'm going to try to explain this as simply as I can, but each of them (besides Mika since he doesn't have a demon) have 3 souls inside their body:

Soul 1 is their current soul, the one that identifies as Mika or Epic or Yu.

Soul 2 is their demon soul, like what Asuramaru is to Yu.

And soul 3 is their archangel soul (I might change that name later on).

So I'm just going to come right out and say it. In this series, Epic is the villain.

Yes.

You read that right.

Epic is the villain. But she doesn't know that she is. These Soul 3s were reincarnated into the current bodies of Mika, Epic, and Ari (and I know that's not exactly how it works but screw logic this is just a fucking concept) from their lives centuries ago.

These souls existed way before vampires existed and Epic (or Essie) was very close friends with Yu (or Aytigin). Aytigin was in love with Haru (Mika) but for one reason or another, they couldn't be together. Essie wanted to do something, willing to do anything to make the two of them happy. So she made a deal that brought the vampires into creation so that Haru and Aytigin could be happy. She was willing to sacrifice everything that they stood for so that the two of them could be in love together.

She had good intentions, but of course Haru and Aytigin were furious because now the vampires were turning against the humans and they all basically died. Until they were reborn respectively, but unknowingly.

Now picking back up in the present, Yu and Epic are fighting in one of the main battles and the two are very confused when the vampires make a very deliberate attempt not to hurt Epic. They're unsure as to why, but Guren tells them not to worry about it.

Suspicious bastard.

Anyway, it's revealed finally that MIKA IS ALIVE

BUT HE'S ALSO DEAD

Yes he is a vampire. And Yu falls in love all over again upon seeing him, and after a bunch of struggling, Epic gets kidnapped. At first she gets strangled by Lacus and then she gets kidnapped by Ferid who doesn't kill her surprisingly.

Oh and uh... Ferid is nice in this. He's still a fucking creep, but he's a lot nicer than he is in the series. I plan to make Queen Krul or whoever I turn her into be the villain.

Anyway, they take Epic back to the vampire palace or whatever and Queen Krul and Epic are reunited! And Krul is the one who reveals to Epic exactly who she, Mika, and Yu are and this is what sparks Epic's fall to insanity.

I mean, she's the killer. She's the one who brought them into this world. She's responsible for every death the vampires cause.

I would go crazy too.

So, she manages to escape (partially thanks to Mika) and the two join Yu and the others again and it's revealed a second time exactly what is going on. And while no one actually blames Epic on the Shinoa Squad, that doesn't stop people like Kureto and even herself from blaming.

And this causes her demon to go haywire.

She begins losing her marbles, almost killing her teammates and trying to kill herself, all while the three begin to experience dreams or visions of their Soul 3s.

While all this shit is going on, there's heavy romance between Mika and Yu because these two lovers just got reunited and FUCK did they have glow ups but yes -

Oh. And there is another spark for Epic, even though she doesn't think she's worthy of love.

Okay. I'm just gonna say it.

Lacus falls in love with Epic. Yes. You read that correctly too.

I plan to make the two of them get trapped together at some point and they have to work together to escape. It's during this time that Epic realizes he's not all that bad and has some form of self control and he realizes that she's the most interesting thing he's ever met in this disgusting and boring life and damn do her eyes look pretty-

But yes. She forms a permanent alliance with him that he jokes about as marriage and they meet on other occassions too, but lol yes.

Anyway, blah blah blah, more fall to insanity, the Soul 3s take over their bodies on multiple occasions and there's a lot of bonding and fighting and Epic and Mika somehow manage to get some of the vampires on the human side.

And in the end, Epic and Yu basically sacifice themselves to save the human race and kill Queen Krul. It's a very rough ending I haven't quite perfected yet, but Yu has a moment like he did with the King of Salt. But though he inflicted a lot of damage, it's not enough. So while the team is worried about him, Epic takes this opportunity to fix her and Essie's mistakes.

She allows both Essie and her demon to take control of her body and dies on the battlefield. Queen Krul is eliminated. Most of the vampires are gone. The humans won.

Horray.

Epic is dead.

Kinda. Yu and Mika take her back home and this is the preview to the last arc where everyone's in the hospital and Epic's in a coma. Mika and Yu barely ever leave her side and it's only when Lacus of all people comes to visit that she fucking wakes up.

Okay. Are you still with me? Now come with me to the final arc.

The Post-War.

No my friend. It doesn't end there. Because Mika and Lacus are still vamps and life still sucks and I drank too much coffee this morning.

No it's not over yet.

So flash forward a couple years and Kureto and Crew are working as the heads of this city. Stuff is being rebuilt, people are settling down in homes, Lacus and some of the other "good" vampires find jobs, and Mika, Yu, and Epic get a house together (in case I didn't mention before, Epic is pansexual. She loved Akane dearly and I plan to include scenes where she sees her in her mind and dreams like Mikayuu so she's never truly gone, but she falls for Lacus too when he's not being a sadistic asshole). Things are going strangely when

BAM. Epic and Yu come up with a cure for vampirism.

How, you may ask? I don't fucking know, I haven't read about it in the manga yet but before we come up with an idea for it, imma say they came up with it through a spell. They share their findings with Guren and soon all vampires are being cured, most notably Mika, Lacus, and even Rene.

BUT and there's always a but, Kureto passes a new law claiming all vampires to be property. That any vampire or previous vampire or even vampire supporter/owner that tries to disobey these new laws is to be killed immediately. Now Epic and Yu are in jeopardy because their ex-vampires are in danger (Epic and Lacus have been hanging out a lot more and he's proven himself to be a decent guy. Contrary to popular belief, I headcanon him as not really knowing what to do when he actually cares about someone since he's been a heartless vamp for so long. So when he turns to Mika and begrudgingly asks him for LOVE ADVICE of all fucking things, Mika is ready to die). So basically, Mika and Lacus end up getting locked up along with the other ex-vamps (including Ferid which was a pain in the ass) and did I forget to mention that there's a proposal?

Oh yeah, Yu proposes to Mika and the blond still has yet to give him an actual answer because poor baby is still having a hard time accepting that Yu can love a "monster" like him.

But anyways, now Epic and Yu are furious and SHINOA SQUAD IS BACK IN BUSINESS. With the help of Guren and Shinya and everyone, they form a sort of rebellion and blah blah blah they manage to get Mika and Lacus and everyone out and blah blah blah they all get separated and Lacus begins to get INSANELY protective of Epic and ends up confessing his feelings to her before he nearly dies and blah blah blah did I forget to mention that I'm making Mitsunnoa and Kimizuki x Yoichi canon and blah blah blah.

Epic kisses Lacus as an instinct. Lacus kisses her again. Mika accepts Yu's proposal then almost dies AGAIN. I kill off some characters for emotional tugs and after a ton of more fighting and revenge and psychological breakings later, Kureto is killed. And Guren (or someone else haven't decided yet) is the new head of their city.

Epic, Mika, and Yu finally let Akane and the kids go. There's a lot of Shinoa Squad bonding but this is a summary so I haven't included much besides the main three. Epic and Lacus becomes canon. Mika and Yu get married. Guren and Shinya get married. Shinoa gets pregnant.

And everyone gets the FUCKING HAPPY ENDING THAT THEY ALL FUCKING DESERVE BECAUSE FUCK

I do plan to be slightly ruthless like the creator and include a lot of heartbreaking scenes, but it's going to be much different than ONS but I still want it to hold on to some core relationships.

I just want them to be happy. And I just want to make other people happy because fuck I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY

So. Yeah.

That's Bloodsucker...

So my question to you is... if I wrote this shit.

If I sat down and typed about 30 books roughly inspired by Seraph of the End and Mikayuu and Mitsunnoa and shit...

Would anyone read it?

♡ a.a.

[usagi-chan95]

So a few days ago I was on TV tropic looking up a few shows I like and of course I'm a huge Umineko Fan so I looked up the character and everybody who knows me just a little bit now I said I ship this one character with Black Hat. So why not list all hee traits that he would probably like about her. In the end I think the two would get along with each other.

Affably Evil: She is completely indifferent towards the suffering of everybody else, but she sure is polite.

All-Powerful Bystander: She has more than enough power to solve any problem in the setting or destroy everything in the blink of an eye if she wanted to. Fortunately, Featherine prefers to remain a spectator for the most part while she lets Bernkastel cause all the trouble she wants. The one time she does intervene in the plot during her "fight" with Lambdadelta we see that everything would have been lost with Featherine as an active enemy.

Always Someone Better: Bernkastel is regarded as the strongest Witch, but even she knows not to get on Featherine's bad side. Even Lambdadelta, who was more than holding her own against Bernkastel earlier, is terrified at the thought of having Featherine as an opponent. It makes sense when you realize Featherine is not just a Witch, but a Creator as well. She may just be a Witch in name only.

Ambiguously Evil: Both Bern and Lambda describe her as extremely nasty, and indeed she doesn't think much of humans, but she doesn't really have any Kick the Dog moments, and in the end she gives up on publicly revealing the contents of Eva's diary, thus preserving the catbox as Battler and Beato wished.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivers one to Lambdadelta in Episode 8. Special mention to the fact that Featherine didn't even have fight at all; she simply wrote down "I utterly defeated Lambdadelta and sliced her into pieces". And then poof, Lambda is completely dismembered.

The Dreaded: Anyone that can inspire genuine fear from Lambdadelta and even Bernkastel is definitely not to be trifled with.

Evil Mentor: Implied to have been Bernkastel's in the ???? of EP6.

The Fog of Ages: She has lived for so long that she needs a special horseshoe-shaped device around her head to keep her memories and avoid insanity.

God Is Evil: Averted, though just barely. She's not so much evil as she is uncaring of how she achieves her goals... though given the things she does do in the story (and apparently before it), you'd be forgiven for thinking it was played straight.

Greater-Scope Villain: Featherine is said to be a Witch thousands of times more powerful and evil than Bernkastel could ever be, but she never becomes a direct villain to the story and remains a bystander for the most part. However, she is indirectly responsible for all the problems from EP7 afterwards as she was the one who gave Bernkastel the power to keep messing with the game board because she wanted Bernkastel to rip the game apart for her and give her the answers to the mystery.

Insult Backfire: When Lambda pulls a You Monster! on her, she takes it as a compliment, which really makes you wonder what amount of chaos she caused in her distant past. It's fully possible that, being Bernkastel's mentor, she possess a trolling capacity far surpassing her miko Bern's... and considering Bern is the most malicious character in the story, that is a scary thought.

It Amused Me: The main reason she doesn't fit into God Is Evil instead. Physical Godliness and lack of a Freudian Excuse notwithstanding, she's still a Witch at heart and will do whatever it takes to keep herself entertained.

Lack of Empathy: Definitely, but better off than Bernkastel at least. Like any other Witch, Featherine sees human lives as nothing but means of entertainment, but she can show her respect to her opponents when it's due and at least now, doesn't seek to actively make others miserable for amusement's sake.

Manipulative Bitch: In the past, she's used Bernkastel as her monkey wrench to unlock the mysteries of worlds and game boards alike, whether Bern wanted to do it or not. Worse yet, Bern was aware she was being used but couldn't do anything about it because Featherine was just that good. This does in fact happen in the story, where she makes Bern the Game Master to crack the mystery of Rokkenjima when the rest of the cast loses interest in it, using Bern's desire for revenge against the family as her motivation.

Offstage Villainy: Bernkastel, the cruelest example of a witch so far seen, finds her a hundred times more horrific than she could ever be. The evidence is suggested at, but never concretely shown. Within the series, Featherine never does anything nearly as horrible as the other witches. Of course, Bernkastel is no doubt very biased, seeing as how she came into existence because of Featherine's callousness and indifference. She probably has room to exaggerate.

The Older Immortal: By far the oldest witch in the series.

The Omnipotent: Without a doubt, the most powerful character in the setting. She's perfectly capable of pausing the plot when she wants a scene to play out a different way.

Outside-Context Problem: Needless to say Featherine is in a whole other league compared to the other witches Battler deals with in the story, which is really saying something. A single wave of her hand to make Bernkastel the Game Master is all she needed to do turn Battler's happy ending into a non-ending.

Physical God: One of the Creators described in Episode 4's TIPS.

The definitive example is that she's ultimately the one responsible for bringing Bernkastel as we know herinto existence. It's heavily implied that she was the one who abandoned Bern as a piece in the Unwinnable game (that she ended up winning anyway), and while it's never explained how she pieced together/recruited all the physically and emotionally destroyed Rika Furudes, it's made clear in the narration that Featherine was the one who taught what would eventually become her miko and the Cruelest Witch. And why? Because she was bored and wanted someone to help stave off future boredom.It's not so much that she meant harm by creating Bern, more that she doesn't care as long as she is entertained.

If you want a more "literal" example, she can use her power to rewrite the script of reality itself and have people do as she dictates. And you would never even know she's doing it.

Really 700 Years Old: She is said to be older than Bernkastel and Lambdadelta, both who are said to be centuries old. By the way it's alluded, Featherine might as well be a Time Abyss.

Retired Monster: Given what Bernkastel and Lambadelta say about (and to) her, this is heavily implied. Featherine herself personally thinks she's much worse.

Rewriting Reality: Her power as a Witch/Creator and as an Author Avatar. Featherine can literally rewrite the script of reality itself to make events go as however she likes. She doesn't even need to write how things go, she only needs to write the result.

Story-Breaker Power:

Literally. When Lambdadelta tries to attack her with magic, Featherine just says that she doesn't like the development of the story, stops time and begins editing the script of the story herself. Not willing to write a fight scene at the moment, she starts from the end of the fight where she dictates Lambdadelta was smashed into a bookshelf and had all her limbs severed. She doesn't even think about how she accomplished such a brutal attack, deciding to "figure it out later". When Featherine starts time again, Lambdadelta ends up just as she wrote, with "what the fuck just happened" being her last conscious thoughts before dying.

She couldn't comprehend the 'something' that Featherine had killed her with. However, that was only natural. After all, Featherine herself hadn't decided what the 'something' was. However, Lambdadelta did understand one thing. She was already dead.

You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The memory device around her head also preserves her form. At one point in the past it got damaged, abruptly changing her personality and appearance. Her witch power also allows her to weaponize this. Refer to the spoiler in Story-Breaker Power above.