#fallen love

[darkpoisonouslove]

💛 (Valtor) 🤍🤎 (Fallen Love)

🌷

💛 Yellow: Do you ever alter, highlight, or de-emphasize certain canonical traits in a character? If so, why and describe how.

Sure! I write a lot of AUs and you have to tweak here and there to make the story work. Now I don't want to look at my earlier work because I now consider it to be completely OOC, especially where Valtor is concerned. But in more recent fics there are two trends concerning how I write him.

First of all, I tend to make him less overpowered. He is still super powerful and formidable but I often emphasize the fact that security measures can and will be an obstacle even to him (usually by making Griffin necessary to the equation or hinting he has to strategize hard to pull it off alone). It's important to me that I don't let him accomplish things too easily because that does a disservice to both him and whoever he's up against. His cunning and power shine brightest when they're challenged at least a little and besides, what kind of story would it be if he can do anything without breaking a sweat? Where are the stakes? Where's the suspense? That's just not how you write a good story.

The second thing I do is to include him breaking his composure sometimes. I think that canon is particularly egregious in failing to keep his power in check which in turn allows him to keep too much composure most of the time and that leads to a misinterpretation of his character. He is only calm and collected when he's fully in control of the situation or can easily spin it to his advantage. The moment a real problem arises, he loses his temper which... happened about 3 times on the show because nothing can challenge him. It's just not interesting. You can make a character that's powerful as hell and still has to face hurdles. It just doesn't make sense that everything works so well for him until it doesn't. It's inconsistent with the backstory as well.

🤍 White: What's a fanfic scenario or idea you'd like someone else to write so that you can read it?

This is such an ironic answer because I started outlining this for the sole purpose of writing a better witch x witch hunter story after a book annoyed me with its execution. To say I'd like someone else to write it completely defeats the purpose but at this point I have so many more ideas that have a hold on my mind that this is hardly on the list of priorities. Wouldn't mind reading it though if someone could write it for me and write it well.

If it's unclear, the answer is the witch x witch hunter AU (more info in the link). I liked the story at the time but, again, Valtor is OOC and there are structural problems with it. It could work with this structure but it doesn't feel optimal and, frankly, even if I fixed the structure, I'd have no time to write this. Which is a shame because I still think the story has a lot of potential and I do have that half a notebook of notes on it that are going to waste (I might post those as bullet points some time). It's really painful to look at something that you see as full of potential and have to throw it away so it'd be great if someone could take this off my hands so I can read it but not write it.

🤎 Brown: How did you decide to write (or why are you writing) a certain fanfic? (Asker, feel free to choose a specific story you're curious about. You can also let the answerer choose the story.)

First of all, thank you so much for asking about Fallen Love! It is my baby and I am so in love with how much of a dysfunctional disaster Griffin and Valtor are; I cannot look away from it!

I swear to god, I haven't abandoned this story! I think about it every day and I have made some progress on chapter 2 (as well as on the outline for the other chapters, which have definitely grown in number significantly). I just want it to be good and that's making things go agonizingly slowly. No, really, I am in literal pain but I'm going to stick with it no matter what. It doesn't just live in my head rent-free, it lives in my bones!

Now to answer the actual question - I can't remember the exact line of thought but I know I went "Hey, what if Valtor won the war and he has everything he wanted including Griffin but she's moping so much about losing Faragonda that it's really driving him up the wall?" It has changed a lot since then and is now more about Griffin and Valtor's broken relationship (hence the title) and, hopefully, about them taking responsibility for the actions that led to this point. Not to imply that things will get better because they won't really but the idea is to put all cards on the table and figure out how to proceed when they can't get rid of their mutual obsession with each other. Plus, I love the chaotic energy of them trying to outwit each other and pulling out all the stops when it comes to getting what they want. The upside (and downside) of being this obsessed with each other is that they both believe they can pull any stunt they want and the other will just have to deal with it. In a way they're both desperate to be proven wrong about that and be saved from the madness that is their relationship but they would also kill anyone and destroy anything trying to come between them. They're just stable that way.

This story has given me brain rot. It is such a perfect opportunity to look into where things went wrong for them and bring it back to basics. It's just the two of them! There are other characters in the story but there's no one that can come between them. It makes them face the fact that everything they did to each other was because of them and they can't blame anyone else. And with all of their other goals more or less put aside, there are no distractions to keep them from examining their relationship aka really bad news for them. But hey, they also get to be completely unhinged in every way so it should be a great show!

Send me a color

[thedogeveryonehates]

💪🐻🥏

[inkskinned]

i got my isbn today for the book. 8 months to go. my mom and i were talking about what the next steps are. i was eating trail mix, standing on one foot, phone tucked into my ear.

"yeah," i said. "the problem is that tumblr as a market is like, not something that can be studied." there's this weird wave of nostalgia and affection for this place that came up over me: how lovely we avoid consumerism. okay, it sucks as a creator. but also? keep stickin' it to 'em.

my mother made the sound at the back of her throat that i also make, the one that means i've got an idea. "you should figure out some kind of reward for presale amounts. maybe you give out poems or a mug or a signed book or something. would your followers like that?" my mother is sweet, and kind, and i have no idea how to explain on this website you can buy someone crabs.

i put more m&ms down the hatch. i had to speak through peanuts and almonds. "if it passes 25 thousand i will print the book out in its entirety and eat it live on camera."

"oh god. no, you don't have to do that." she was anguished. "just tell them that you'd love them to read it, and that they've inspired you to write. you got started on that site, and they helped you keep going. raquel, you love these people. the community? you talk all the time about the other writers and artists and whatever else. tell them that you're hoping for their support, they'll come through."

"no," i assured her. i discovered i had dropped an m&m, but an ant had already found it, so it belonged to him now. i will let his little life have a surprise blue treasure in it, too. "i'm gonna fuckin' eat the book."

[davinaclare]

The Crow (1994) dir. Alex Proyas

[nat-20s]

I'm not aromantic but I believe in their beliefs

[yingtan]

Put Your Head On My Shoulder

Chungking Express 重慶森林 (1994) Fallen Angels 墮落天使 (1995) Happy Together 春光乍洩 (1997) In the Mood for Love 花樣年華 (2000) 2046 (2004)

[may12324]

did you miss my sketch dumps? I have been reading A Day of Fallen Night, ohohohoh boy. so many hot ladies in this book. Also Canthe is terrible but I love hate her <3

[stealingpotatoes]

JEDI SURVIOR GANG MEET REBELS

BD AND CHOPPER FRIENDSHIP

Thank you for listening to my tedtalk

i think you're missing the best bit: kanan having some explaining to do

[selfship-quotes]

I love it when characters are like "what have you done to me?" when they're in love

[ohvun]

D E V I L C H I L D >:D

I just think it'd be cool if her demonia fleur was a lil more grotesque yk?

Got super inspired seeing this post by rly cool @wigglesdtuff about a year ago and finally finished it!!:D

I ended up using a picture of a figurine to get the wings to work better bc I was s t r u g g e l i n g ;-;

[darkpoisonouslove]

I couldn’t decide whether to put these in alphabetical of numerical order, so I chose neither! Anyway, 11 for reluctant allies, 2 for CoL breakfast my beloved, 5 for domme AU, 9 for GxF enemies to lovers, and 10 for a WIP of your choosing 😊

Whatever works for you :D

11. Is there any scene you can't wait for people to react to when reading? Why? - reluctant allies AU

I'm going to have to go through a couple other scenes briefly first to explain the context of the one.

It's the portion of the story where Griffin is working with the Company but things are shaky with them because she and Valtor do have the habit of disappearing together (to make out) and things are shaky with Valtor because he feels that she's trying to earn the Company's trust way too hard. They are for once present in a battle with all of the other Company members and Valtor seizes his opportunity to kill Faragonda but Griffin saves her life and gets injured in the process. The Company extracts from there before anyone has a chance to react and Griffin heals slowly. The big development is that the Company now trust her because they are sure Valtor will never forgive her for what she did and she recognizes that fact as well so she has incentive to remain faithful to them and their cause.

Griffin sneaks out to meet Valtor and do damage control there. She explains to him that what she did wasn't out of remaining feelings of friendship for Faragonda but out of the necessity to earn the Company's trust. It's less trust in her than it is trust in his vindictiveness but if he remains mad at her now, he'll be doing exactly what they all expect of him. This is the perfect opportunity for him and Griffin to act without anyone suspecting them. Valtor concedes to her point but she can tell there's still indignation in him about her failing his plans to kill Faragonda. Still, they are on track with their plan so she'll have to deal with that later, when they've gotten what they're after.

However, when Griffin comes back to the Domino royal palace, Faragonda is waiting for her, fully aware of where exactly Griffin was. She is not fooled like the others and asks Griffin to leave. The argument pokes at Griffin's insecurities about her relationship with Valtor but she also figures out that Faragonda is hoping Griffin will leave because she herself cannot make herself expose her to the others and possibly put Griffin's life in danger. She still clings to her love for Griffin. Griffin uses that against Faragonda by pointing out (indirectly) that the situation with her and Valtor is the same. She challenges Faragonda to choose Hagen over her so as to lead by example. But if she does choose him and gives up on Griffin, how can she ask Griffin to choose her with a clean conscience? It's a Catch 22.

I can't wait to see people reacting to this purely for the angst factor. There's just so much juicy drama going on here and I want the readers to suffer with me. XD But this is also a really good representation of the balancing act Griffin (and Valtor but to a lesser degree) has to do to keep control of the situation. Plus, I feel that it really outlines the problems in Griffin and Valtor's relationship that will not be solved by them getting rid of the Company and the Coven, that they will have to consciously acknowledge first and work on to fix (not that I have any idea how I'm supposed to get them there but that is a hot topic in Griffin's mind).

2. How did you get the idea to write this? - CoL trying to have one normal breakfast

Because of this post that was in turn inspired by SotLK (I've written some context in the tags there). I just started thinking about the last line of the post and how they probably never had one single normal breakfast and I decided that it would be really funny if I wrote a fic about the guaranteed chaos that these people would cause while simply trying to eat breakfast and that's how the idea was born. And then I tried to figure out what would be best as chapter 1 and, of course, my brain turned to the gold mine of angst that Griffin's first breakfast with the Company has to be.

5. Is there any scene you're excited about writing? - Domme AU

All of them? This would be so much easier to answer if I had one single scene completely fleshed out in my head but as it is, there are still bits and pieces missing from the story as a whole and the characterization.

Anyway, to answer this, I am definitely excited about the scene where they discuss Griffin moving in with him because it's a complete accident. They were not trying to discuss that in the least bit. Valtor was being an ass by challenging her to "commit" to being the Domme by spending even more time with him at his apartment, which is causing some technical difficulties for Griffin. They have a fight about which one of them is more unwilling to spend their time together at her apartment and Griffin blurts out that it would be much more convenient if she were living with him. Before she can take it back, he invites her to actually do it (which she practically already has). He had reasons for not asking her himself but if she's the one suggesting it? He'll totally grab the opportunity. Griffin is not entirely sure this is a great idea but she'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought about it (obsessively). They are so stupid, Your Honor.

9. Is there anything in the fic you're not so excited about writing? - Griffin x Faragonda Enemies to Lovers AU

If we don't count the fact that I'm still mad this is even a WiP and we don't count all the stuff that I have yet to come up with in order to actually complete the storyline, it'd have to be the transition between chapters 1 and 2. It's pretty much the beginning of ch 2 that's the problem because I have to summarize what's happening and at the same time I have to convey the emotional impact of that time so I don't love this mix. Especially because the end of ch 1 is supposed to be somewhat cathartic but that still doesn't change the fact that the circumstances are very much working against Griffin here and her emotions are conflicting at best if not downright depressing at worst despite the relief she might be feeling as well. I didn't really spend much time thinking that through when outlining it, though, so it might just be that I wasn't paying close attention to what emotional payoff/buildup needs to happen there. I'll definitely have to revise it.

10. If unpublished, can you show a sneak peek of what you've written?

Fallen Love is the only WiP that has any text not formatted like a script so I'm going to give you an excerpt from that. I have actually added more to it since last time!

She had forgotten there was another side to his power. Only the taste of his volatile spells that singed and curdled the breath in her lungs lay heavy and bitter like ash on her tongue, prickled her nose and eyes like acrid smoke. But his Dragon Fire caressed her skin from inside now like sun rays, light and warmth infusing her flesh to repair all damage. She moaned into his mouth, appreciation and greed tangled into the sound.

Valtor felt generous enough to reward her for it. His fingertips mapped out a path for the magic – all the way to another hidden bruise at her shoulder blade. He’d gleaned its existence from her movements alone.

A gasp broke her away from his lips. Her eyes snapped open to find his locked on them. There was a hair’s breadth of space separating them and it hurt worse than the brute force of a spell-charged body plowing into her but he wasn’t in a hurry to remedy that.

Instead, his thumb brushed over her lips to erase even the cracks the cold had carved into them. A single blemish left on her–from the most indirect of spells the Coven had cast–was yet another reminder that she’d left his side. They wouldn’t have dared to touch her otherwise. He would have killed all of them for simply looking at her wrong.

She could let herself be flattered, leave herself to the arousal of being worshiped in blood – like a goddess. Now that she was dry again, the slickness dripping down her thighs was cutting, a flood that would have swept her away if not for the tear stains on her cheeks he’d missed. It would have cost him nothing to sacrifice the whole world to her but the blood she had spilled, the blood that had stained her hands and the inside of her mind had meant something. She could fight her own battles.

She reached for his vest, unsteady hands feeling up the way to the clasps. The metal yielded instantaneously, practically breaking under her touch. It would have easily melted in the whirl of swift, sizzling spells that he’d known he’d be walking into. It was too frail to be anything but a mockery.

Battles between them had been more frantic–lethal–during the last months, with more blood shed and more scars left that time and magic couldn’t erase. Enchanted armor had become daily wear, a habit even he had adopted. He had changed before he’d come to find her, when the threat had been neutralized, and it hadn’t been enough. He had to twist the knife further, make a show of how untouchable he was to her magic and any desire she kindled inside him. He could afford to help her when she wasn’t in the state of mind to make use of either.

Her fingers curled, hooked themselves into the silk of his shirt and phased right through it. Her nails dug flaming scratches into the skin underneath, revealed further by the fraying fabric. Strips of it shed off his torso and withered into nothing midfall. The raining buttons never hit the floor, instead dissolved into the waves of her magic splashing against the walls. Any other piece of clothing obstructing her access to his naked body would share the same fate. Nothing would come between their skin until she allowed it.

She had assumed he’d heal the angry red lines she left in her wake. A strangled grunt escaped her when his power lodged itself between her ribs, burrowed into the scar tissue there to stitch the old wound anew until there was no trace left of it.

She could have done that herself. It had been a deep but not fatal injury. Received in a battle entirely removed from Valtor and the Coven. Sometimes the seemingly unconnected thefts over the dimension happened to be just that – independent magic users seeing an opportunity in the rising panic and finger pointing. The sorceress she’d faced had breached her armor and had paid for her overzealousness with a life sentence. Griffin had kept the scar as a reminder of the change not just in her affiliations, but in her purpose as well.

In the blink of an eye, it was gone and Valtor’s fingers traced the next one.

P.S. I am going to include this here for absolutely no reason at all:

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

I know a lot of people have drawn Astarion in the Fallen Angel pose but I think it suits Wyll just as nicely, especially considering his story arc & relationship with his father

[taohs]

(some) Balalaika moments that lives in my head rent free

[curedjanuaryblues]

[time-woods]

late night talks

[peanuttoffee]

played Fallen Order for the first time and, guys, my heart

everything was so… beautiful *sobs*

here’s baby Cal to celebrate✨