#future rewrite stuff

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

How You Turn My World; Chapter 1

Your day started with chaos, and my dear, it looks like it will continue to be chaos. But only time will tell. The Underground holds many surprises in store for you.

Characters; Grim, Lilia Vanrouge, Deuce Spade, Ace Trappola

Content; Gender-neutral reader, cat shenanigans, building the plot

Content Warnings; Swearing, illusion to marijuana but there is none

Word Count; 4.6 K

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |

Don't put my work into AI; I'll make sure you go to the Underground and don't return. Mwah mwah, kisses~

Ah, the joys of cat parenthood. Days spent cuddling your little bundle of furry joy. That’s what your friends preached. That having a feline roommate was easy and rewarding. That you would benefit by having a cute and fuzzy companion that didn’t demand much of anything. That you would love your little kitty friend like a child. Well, either your friends were liars with questionable senses of humour, or you drew the short stick when it came to choosing a furry companion. And there’s always the possibility of it being both, what with having Ace as a friend and all, but you just hoped it was just your shit luck and not that you had shit friends.

Seriously, though, what higher power did you manage to piss off to deserve the royal hobgoblin of a cat you have? He has shit and pissed in your plants on several occasions. Demolished every single curtain he laid eyes on like he had a personal vendetta against them. Stole your breakfast off your plate right as you were about to take a bite. Puked on your last pair of good white shoes, which still had stains on them because they wouldn’t come out. The cherry on top of it all though was that he insists on yowling and crying in the middle of the damn night for no good reason. Rudely awaking you from the dead of sleep because he demanded attention. With how loud he was, you were surprised that you hadn’t gotten a noise complaint from any of your neighbours… yet. But then again, you could hear the upstairs neighbours’ children screaming bloody murder every so often — what were their names, the Clovers? They were probably so used to it that they threw you a bone, or they didn’t want extra grey hairs from filing a complaint to the landlord. So maybe Grim wasn’t all that bad, but he was still a gremlin child. 

“MROWWWWWW!!!!!” Ah, so tonight was no different then. Grim had decided that you needed to be woken up before even the birds started to sing, needed to be yanked out of the land of dreams. That whatever had caught the attention of his singular brain cell was more important than you recharging so you don’t accidentally say the wrong thing to your boss. Since last time you had slipped up and called him dad, even though no one in their right mind would leave him alone with a rutabaga unattended, and he went on a two-hour long monologue about how much of a kind and generous person he was for you to see him as a father figure. And your salary wasn’t high enough, nor would it ever be, to deal with his eccentric and maddening behaviour.

Maybe, just maybe, if you ignored him and stared at the ceiling long enough he would stop his caterwauling and go to sleep. “MROWWWW!!!!!” Apparently not.

Just one night, ONE NIGHT, of peace and quiet. PLEASE. But you knew that if you didn’t get up soon, he would get up on the bed and put his fluffy butt in your face… like he did last night and the night before that. Sighing, you begrudgingly got out of your cocoon of warm, fluffy, blankets, and hoped you would soon be back in them after dealing with Grim. Hopefully, he was just complaining about his food bowl not being as full as he would like it.

What was the time anyways? Three-thirty in the morning? Ugh, Grim! What did Ace say about it, ah, yes, “Primetime witching hour. Demons and all sorts of creepies” yada yada yada. But you didn’t pay any mind to him, as his annoying smug look would taunt you in your mind even though he was probably sound asleep, blissfully asleep. Something that you wanted to be doing, but woefully you were not.

Stepping out into the main living space, you shot the grey fuzzball the stink eye. “What the hell do you want? You absolute gremlin!” You hissed through gritted teeth, very much annoyed with your brat of a fur child and wanting nothing more than to crawl back to bed, hell, even the loveseat would suffice.  

The offending feline just trilled at you in response, and his tail vibrated, happy that you had come out to see him. How is he so cute but so annoying? He rubbed against your legs before trotting off to one of his hidey holes, which also served as his nest of your stolen socks. He has a weird obsession with socks. But he popped back out, holding something in his mouth. Something small and fuzzy that didn’t look like any of his toys.

“Prowwww,” he dropped it at your feet as if saying that catching whatever it was, was the equivalent to paying his share of rent. Which, it was very much not.

You closed your eyes and pinched your brow. Please be one of his toys. PLEASE be one of his toys. You chanted to yourself in your mind and then opened your eyes. Unfortunately, it was not one of his toys. The small, fuzzy thing in question seemed to be a mouse or some other kind of rodent. It was too late (too early?) for this, and quite frankly you didn’t have the brain power to confirm whatever the hell it was. All you knew was that it looked like a mouse, therefore it was a mouse.

“Is this what you’ve been screaming about this whole time? A mouse,” you sighed. Shaking your head, you went to the bathroom, grabbing some paper towel so you could at least put it outside for something else to eat, or go back to nature in some other way. It was better than just being left to decompose in the communal garbage bin. When you came back out though, it was nowhere to be seen. Now, either Grim decided to eat it like a good kitty cat, or, with your luck, it was still alive and was now running amuck in your apartment.

Grim’s chattering was coming from the kitchen now, and he was up on top of the fridge. It was running amuck in your apartment, how lovely.

“Why, why, are you like this?! Get down from there!” You really didn’t have the energy for this.

Grim just blinked at you before his eyes dilated. He leapt down from his perch on the fridge and was pawing at a corner by the window. Looking down and you couldn’t make out anything on the floor. But you had the oh-so-brilliant idea to look up toward the ceiling. The ‘mouse’ was very much alive, and wasn’t a mouse at all, since it was flying around and banging itself against the corner.

“YOU CAUGHT A FUCKING BAT?!”

He had indeed caught a fucking bat. And bats were normally fine, when they were outside. Not when they’re flying around your apartment at three o’clock in the morning and your cat is losing his goddamn mind trying to catch it. So no, this was very much not fine. 

The bat was about as pleased as you were with this whole situation and kept on flinging itself against the glass of the window, desperately trying to get back outside. How the hell did it get inside in the first place? That could be pondered on upon at a later time, as the first priority was getting it back outside.

“Don’t fly towards my head, bat. I’m just trying to get you back outside. You’re a nice bat, right? Nice bat, nice bat,” you whispered in a non-threatening tone. Could the flying mammal understand what you were saying? Mostly likely not. Hopefully it understood that you, unlike your cat, were trying to help and did not want some fresh bat as your late night snack tonight.

After what felt like forever fuddling with the window to open with a broom in hand, just in case the bat decided to dive bomb your head, you finally got the cursed thing open. 

Grabbing Grim, who was still trying to catch the bat for a second time tonight, you got back to your bedroom and locked the door shut. You hoped that the bat would take the hint that it now had a path to freedom, but only time, and a bit of sleep, would tell. Slumping against the door frame, you sighed and looked over at Grim. He was playing with the door stop, the boing, boingg, boinggg sounds filling in the quiet. Whether it was to amuse himself, or to annoy you was a fifty-fifty bet.

Just as you were about to crawl back under the covers a string of anxiety connected in your head. Shit, did Grim get bit? DAMMIT GRIM! After leaving a somewhat desperate and tired call to your vet’s voicemail, alongside an apology for the late call (early call?), you peeked outside to see if the bat was still flying around. According to Google, the bat should be tested for rabies. You did not trust your no brain cell having fluff ball to know better than to get bit by a possibly rabid bat. But it was gone, so yet again, you were out of luck.

You had enough with today, even though it had just really begun. Pulling up the covers, you sighed in the dark warmth of your blanket cocoon. Grim was busying himself by trying to pounce on your feet, but you ignored him, falling back to sleep and hoping that the rest of your day wouldn’t bring any more shenanigans, migraines, or small flying mammals.

…

…

…

By some miracle, you managed to get Grim to the vet the very same day. Your boss agreed to let you work from home because he is ever so kind and generous… It did help that one of the other higher-ups nearly nagged off his ear upon hearing about the condition of your cat. Even through the phone you could hear it, and could only imagine the spectacle it must have been. Oh well, you had the day off and that is what mattered… but you would be lying if you said that you didn’t cough out a laugh just imagining the scene on the other side of the phone.

You were relieved, Grim on the other hand was not having it. To be fair, you did trick him into his crate with some tuna. He made his disdain known to all though by crying the entire way there. You almost felt bad for him, almost being the key word. 

“You have no one to blame for this but yourself, ya know.” You huffed at him, feeling your shit sleep all too well. “Crying about it won’t help you any.”

Grim let out a pathetic little mew. His little, bright, blue eyes being the only visible part of him, which peered out miserably from the crate. Caving to the kitty manipulation, you poked your finger in as a peace offering. Grim booped his nose to your finger and then proceeded to nibble on it; such a vicious beast.

The vet visit went as well as you could hope it could, as Grim only tried to maim the vet a few times. Hey, it was an improvement from last time, as he had actually peed on them. So yes, trying to maim was vastly better than seeing your figurative child pee on the doctor. You’re pretty sure your vet didn’t go through years of schooling and thousands of dollars into debt just to get peed on by your unruly cat. But Grim was won over by the offering of that cat gogurt, his nose and stomach betraying him. Note to self, stock up on some of that stuff.

The rest of the visit went on without a hitch; he had some blood drawn, got his booster shot for rabies, and even managed to squeeze in a bonus nail trim. There was no evidence of any bite or puncture marks, so Grim by some miracle, did indeed have enough brain cells not to get bit.

“Grim will have to be watched for about forty-five days,” the vet hummed, checking Grim’s chart. “Since you don’t have any other animals it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep him in quarantine. If you see any symptoms be sure to bring him back, just in case.” They gave you a tired smile, and then turned that smile towards their cantankerous patient. “And thank you for deciding not to pee on me this time, Grim. I’m not so bad, see?”

Grim swatted at them, which was his answer to the vet’s question. In Grim’s book, the vet was that bad.

Ignoring his attitude, as you would whenever you came across a screaming toddler and exhausted parent while doing your grocery run, you turned back to your vet. “Thank you, and sorry for Grim. If it makes you feel any better, he’s just as much as a gremlin child at home as well.” At least today went better than last time.

The vet chuckled goodheartedly, “Don’t worry about it, I have more unruly patients than little Grim here.”

Damn, they have seen some shit, haven’t they? … Maybe I should, I don’t know, bring them a gift basket next time I’m in? Or maybe a gift card for a spa day or something??? You should really get them something for the amount of dry cleaning they probably needed to do.

With the visit over, and Grim having a clear bill of health, you shoved him back into his carrier with zero decorum, closing the door as fast as possible before he could escape and try to hide behind the counter like he did last time. I know your tricks, cat. Speaking of bills, the one that was waiting for you at the front desk was enough for you to point an icy glare at your unruly ward.

“You’re lucky that I love you, asshole.” And much like the vet you too got a swat as your thank you. Wonder if this is what the Clovers feel about their children? At least their kids didn’t wake them up in the middle of the night with a bat they caught… You shook your head, moving past those thoughts, and hauled your wailing cat back home.

…

...

By the time you got back to your place, it was just a little past noon. The rest of your day was wide open, and you didn’t really have anything else to do, since taking Grim to the vet was the most urgent of your tasks. Your place could benefit from some tidying, since your boss had recently been demanding more as of late and has been even less useful than he usually was… which was saying something. Seriously, how does he have his position? It was baffling. You swore you could hear his monologue playing on loop in your head whenever you thought of the man, which you tried to keep to a minimum for your own sanity… whatever little of it still remained that is.

Shaking your head to rid the annoying voice, you put on your favourite playlist and got to work. You took your time, putting away the dishes, vacuumed the main room, and even got rid of the dust on the high shelves. But your place was small, so it didn’t take very long for you to tidy up, and deep cleaning could wait for another day when you had enough energy to mentally and physically deal with that undertaking.

You knew that your email probably had a few messages, but it could wait. You weren’t on the clock and therefore didn’t have to check it. Only do the stuff you’re required to do when you get paid, it makes your downtime way more enjoyable.

But, you were bored. The cleaning helped with it, but with the majority of it done and the more intense stuff waiting for another day, you had nothing else to do. And while doom scrolling through social media may fill in the time, it too, was boring, predictable.

… There were two people though who were the exact opposite of boring and predictable. And yes, they did give you your fair share of migraines and questioning your life decisions more than you usually do, they were your best friends. And you were in need of having a movie night with them.

Opening up the group chat, you typed in a message.

| The Responsible One | You guys down for a movie night at my place tonight?

And almost immediately, Ace replied.

| Ginger, derogatory | depends  | ya got fiid?

Deuce responded shortly after.

| Mama’s Boi | Yeah, I’m down | What time? | . . . | And what’s fiid?

|The Responsible One | How does 6 sound?

| Ginger, derogatory | IT WAS A TYOP | *TYPO | I MEANT FOOD | F O O D

| Mama’s Boi | 6 works for me

| The Responsible One | I took a screenshot of that btw love you Ace | Thanks Deuce for actually giving me an answer. | What FIID do you guys want?

| Ginger, derogatory | FUCK YOU | … but yeah 6 works 4 me | any is cool with me

| The Responsible One | Yes yes, fuck you too Ace | Bring your own snacks it is then | See you guys at 6!

That gave you about ninety minutes to hide your good snacks, since the last time, Ace had made himself too comfortable and ate all your fancy treats that you paid way too much for. But like they say, you deserve to ‘treat yoself’ … Ace still owed you for those snacks though. They were fucking expensive, prick.

…

Ninety minutes didn’t take very long, but you managed to hide some of the mess that you hadn’t tackled in your bedroom; it could stand to wait. And the first of your dork friends arrived right on time, count on Deuce trying to be punctual… even if he was panting like he had run a marathon to make it.

“You know,” you sighed, “you didn’t have to sprint here.” You grabbed a glass, filled it with some ice water, and handed it over to your flushed and heaving friend. Please don’t pass out on me. “It’s not a race.”

Deuce took the glass and downed it, still catching his breath. He lifted up the tote bag he was carrying, “Mom made brownies.” A series of coughs escaped him, but he gave you a bashful smile and showed off the multiple Tupperware containers filled to the brim with still warm chocolatey divineness. “Didn’t want them to get cold! Oh! She also made extra for you too!”

He is such a sweetheart… but he’s also pretty dense at times, still a sweetie though. You could have just warmed them back up in the microwave — yes, they weren’t the same as fresh from the oven, but still — you didn’t have the heart to tell Deuce that though. He looked so proud that he made it on time and that the brownies were still warm. What did you do to deserve Deuce as a friend? 

“Also,” he fished around the tote bag, “I brought extra popcorn, since we ate all of yours last time.” And he pulled out an unopened bag of popcorn, the bashful smile turning bright.

Deuce took a step forward, but stopped and backpedalled, taking off his shoes. After he set them neatly by the door, he made his way to the kitchen, and set all of his assorted belongings on the meagre counter space. Once he unloaded the tasty cargo, he made his way over to your loveseat, which had seen better days, and sat down, getting comfortable.

He was looking at you, and there was a little crease in between his eyebrows. Deuce only wore that look when he was worried. “Are you feeling okay? You seem a bit… off.” 

You gave him a tired smile, “Meh. Tired, stressed, not enough money. You know, the usual.” You noticed that his frown was only deepening, so you took a seat next to him and patted his shoulder. “Seriously, Deuce, I’m okay. Plus you got enough on your own plate without worrying about me. I’m going to be fine.”

Deuce pursed his lips, but let out a long sigh, accepting your answer without much fuss. You were capable of dealing with whatever it was, he knew that. You were one of the most capable, and stubborn, people that he knew. You would be fine in the end. “Whose turn is it to pick the movie this time?” He asked, stretching out, trying not to bump into you.

“Hmm, your turn actually,” you hummed. “But–”

Bzz! Bzzz! BZZZ! Someone was buzzing your door, repeatedly pushing at the button. Only one person you know did that. BZZZZZZZZ! And he wouldn’t let up until you answered the door.

Groaning, you got out of your spot and peaked through the peephole. On the other side was none other than Ace, who’s leg was bouncing and he kept on pushing your damn buzzer.

You only opened the door when he decided to lean on it, making him almost fall… almost. Maybe next time would be the day where you would see him eat dirt. “Happy you could join us on this lovely evening,” you drawl, doing a little bow.

Ace rolled his eyes at you, “Seriously? Feeling petty tonight I see.” He too took off his shoes, since the last time he wore them in and tracked in mud from outside, you made him clean it up. He learned his lesson that day, and really didn’t feel like cleaning your floor again.

You smiled at him, “Yeah, yeah I am~” You dropped the smile and went back to your comfy spot beside Deuce. “Also,” you turned around right as Ace was about to plunder your fridge. You glared at him, and he backed off, giving you a sheepish look. “Don’t even think about stealing my food, there’s popcorn and you have food at your home. Unless you want to start paying for my groceries, stick to what’s on the counter.”

Closing the fridge, Ace busied himself by making himself some popcorn, and sneaking a brownie or two in his mouth as he waited for the microwave to finish making his treat. While he was busy in the kitchen, you and Deuce were slowly going through the seemingly endless catalogue of movies. 

“What are we even watching tonight? There’s no special occasion,” Ace mused, sitting on the counter, swinging his legs back and forth. “Action? Horror? Sci-fi? Perhaps,” he paused and made a kissy face, “romance?~”

You stared at him, until he dropped the kissy face. “Never do that again,” you deadpanned, turning back to the screen. “Found something?”

Deuce was hovering over a title, Labyrinth. “Can we watch this? Mom said it was one of her favourites when she was a kid.”

Ace plopped into the armchair, and started chowing down on his fresh popcorn. “Dude, your mom probs just had the hots for, uhhh, Jared? Or whatever his name is.”

You threw a pillow at him, but missed unfortunately, and Ace flipped you off. “First off, Ace, his name is Jareth not Jared. And yeah, we can watch it,” you said, stretching back and getting into prime comfortable blob position. Oh yeah, you weren’t getting back up. 

Once Deuce got up and brought some snacks back in, you started the movie. And damn, these brownies are divine. You really needed to ask Ms. Spade for her recipe. The popcorn was decent, overall meh, but the brownies! THE BROWNIES!!!

You all settled down after being rationed your snacks, and you pressed play. Ace and Deuce both nearly choked on popcorn when Jareth appeared.

“WHY ARE HIS PANTS SO TIGHT?!” They both choked in unison. 

You just rolled your eyes and ignored them, trying to focus on the movie. Other than you nearly having to do the Heimlich manoeuvre on the both of them, the movie continued without incident, until a certain gremlin decided to start crying right as Magic Dance began playing. Seriously Grim, must you choose the most inopportune time to act like Toby does in the movie? But that’s life with a cat.

You paused the movie and looked at Deuce. You were in prime comfortable blob mode, you weren’t getting up. Deuce patted you on the shoulder and went to go see what on Earth Grim was screaming about. Ace just continued to scarf back brownies, thank goodness you hid some away before he got here, or else you wouldn’t have any come tomorrow.

But Deuce came running back out of your room, since that was where Grim was. And you were about to question why he looked like he’d just seen a ghost when something blurred right past him; something small, fuzzy, and flying.

The damn bat is back?! Yeah, you definitely felt like you were cursed.

Now, you could either get up and deal with the bat, since Deuce was just trying to shoo it outside the window with a mop and Ace was screaming much like Grim was, or you could stay warm and comfy and hide under the blanket, pretending that this wasn’t your waking reality…

Option B was really tempting right now, to be honest. Sighing, you got up, massaged your temples to collect yourself, before arming yourself with a broom yet again. Grim has his rabies vaccine, you don’t, so you weren’t taking any chances.

“WHY IS THERE A BAT IN YOUR APARTMENT?!” Ace hissed, ducking as the bat swooped near him.

You opened the window right open, almost threatening to take it off its bearings, “Because the universe hates me, that’s why!” Was it dramatic? Yes. Did it contain a seed of truth? Yes. So that’s what you went with. Was it really an exaggeration though? In the past twenty-four hours it really felt like the universe was sending you a personal ‘Fuck You ♡ ' letter with a kiss mark on the envelope.

You and Deuce tried to work together as a team to coax the bat outside. Come on, the window is wide open. Come on bat, get your fuzzy ass out of my place. 

All that was happening though, was some scene that belonged in a Three Stooges act. With Ace and Grim screeching — yes they counted as one collective unit — Deuce trying his best, but not getting anywhere, and you feeling like you were about to explode from the stress and noise. Even on an impromptu day off, you didn’t get a break, not really.

Getting whisked away by the Goblin King is looking real appealing right now. The bat swooped down close to you, and your instincts kicked in and you swung at it, making it crash land into your coffee table, right into the popcorn. And alongside the popcorn getting spilled everywhere, there was also a poof of green sparkles.

When the green sparkles subsided, there was a strange person with long black hair and red streaks, wearing something that looked straight out of a Ren Faire, and he was standing on your table. The strange man looked straight at you, and you looked back, blinking fast. Did Ms. Spade give us a different kind of brownie? Or is this actually happening?

He snapped his fingers, and you watched as he slowly disappeared into another poof of green sparkles. You were backing up, since hey there was a stranger in your place out of nowhere, but thanks to your shit luck, you tripped over your own feet, tumbling into them. And as the green poof subsided, both you, and the stranger, were nowhere to be seen. Leaving a very confused Ace, Deuce, and Grim to wonder what the hell happened to you.

And honestly? You were thinking the same. Where the FUCK am I?!

...

...

...

...

Tags; @busycloudy, @eynnwwyjth, @identity-theft-101, @ithseem, @krenenbaker, @ryker-writes, @twistwonderlanddevotee, @xxoomiii

~~~~~~~

Author's Note; And I'm finally showing this to the world, after months of collecting dust in my Google Docs. I have no idea how long this fic will go on for, and the length may be dictated by how much feedback and interaction this gets, so yeah. General rating for this is Teen but might change in the future; I won't tag people if that happens though, cuz, yeah.

If you enjoyed this story, and want to read more of my stuff while I slowly work on more installments to this fic, check out my masterlist! Please ignore any spelling mistakes, I write and die with no beta.

[observation-no-39]

Page 62

[heyblue]

Me, explaining to my beloved my entire three act structure I have created:

My partner, who is half asleep but still listening to me talk about my love letter to fandom and fanfiction writing:

Me, realizing, “oh shit they are actually tired”

My beloved, turning over and with the last of their waking brain 🧠 :

“You will make your readers weep from pain and then joy with your hurt/comfort. I love the plot narrative device you used where…”

Me:

[patolemus]

when someone asks me how my writing is going

[theonceandfuture]

the wonders of the process of creating my arthurian-inspired bbc merlin rewrite

bonus:

advice #1: never be plural

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[locria-writes]

what are the different MC's names courtesy name versions?

you know, i've been back and forth about giving courtesy names to mc in mf and fmftbs, but for now, i don't have any.

i don't think mirror flower mc would have one, given the circumstances she had her coming of age in.

fmftbs mc is more likely to have one, but then it became a problem of 'is the time i'm using to come up with a few courtesy names worth the relevance it'll have in the story', to which the answer i came to was no. there's not really a lot of people who would call mc by her courtesy name anyway -- most people would speak to her with her titles, qls would refer to her as empress/wife, gyx still calls her by her diminutive, syf and a'hao both call her sister.

the only people i can think of who'd use her courtesy name are the imperial princesses, but only one of them is still around and not exactly available to speak with mc

from what i understand, they're not usually given to women anyway. i think if mc stayed in chao as its heiress, she would've been given one.

[rosetheocto]

The Demon Hunter Mii Making Streams and Failtopia’s Worldbuilding!!

basically my way of using some of the stuff with Pre-Miitopia Mii Lore in a way that lines up more with Miitopia’s world and all the new info we have since it’s canon all the mii stuff takes place in the same universe!! I’m mainly taking notes from “A New Evil…” and “ABSOLUTELY D E M O N I C” since that is where a majority of Simple Bob’s backstory takes place!! More headcanons, worldbuilding, and other stuff under the cut!

This post is gonna majorly focus on Punnyatta, Hink, Honk, and Henk. These four are majorly tied into Simple Bob’s life before meeting C!Failboat and joining The FailFleet Miis!!

So for those of you who don’t know anything about Bob’s past, which I’m assuming is a VERY huge majority cuz these vids are both unlisted/forgotten about (and hard to find), here’s a basic summary of what happens and is established in these two streams, as outdated as they are:

A New Evil… introduces the basic premise of Simple Bob’s backstory: Punnyatta is a friendly pun-loving robot with tons of eyes that befriends Bob, who before this had lived a normal life without much variety. When Punnyatta discovers Something Extremely Sinister about Hank, he and Simple Bob work together to take the Otamatone down! They’re almost successful, but at the last second Hank kills Punnyatta, but before Punn’s death he passes down the Secrets he learned about Hank to Simple Bob.

ABSOLUTELY D E M O N I C introduces a LOT of new info about worldbuilding alongside expanding more of Bob and Punnyatta’s story, like….

The Mii Making equivalent to Hell is called Hollk, ruled by Honk, the Demon King

easy ways to spot a Demon is their Squidward-like nose, unique horns, signature colors, and (depending on the demon) nose piercings

Hank shapeshifted his demon features away so he could blend in more with the rest of the world (this also makes sense since we have seen him shapeshift before as Lee)

Punnyatta most likely saw his shapeshifting as a giveaway for him being a demon

The only confirmed demons so far is Music (Hank), Empathy (Hink), Trickery/Smugness (Henk), and The King (Honk) Hark also exists but I don’t know ANYTHING about them and they aren’t even introduced in this episode sooooo ._.

Also some HUGE lore for Hink in particular that was ignored after this… because he was empathetic, he was considered basically ‘broken’ in demon society, so he defected and betrayed the other demons and became a demon hunter with Punnyatta and Simple Bob! I’m pretty sure it’s stated too that Hank and Hink used to be coworkers?? they were both at least “(ex) subordinates of Honk”. Hink tried to vanquish Honk and Henk, but unfortunately lost the battle, dying alongside the other demons </3

Dan (and everyone else it seems) had forgotten Hink’s lore and connections to Punnyatta, but honestly it’s SO COOL to see a demon rebel against King Honk like this!! That idea should be used more imo, and I’m gonna try to bring it back

OK NOW FOR THE PART THAT REALLY MATTERS: ME SOMEHOW REWRITING THIS PART OF THE LORE TO MAKE SENSE WITH THE REST OF THE LORE!!! This is gonna get wayyy more info fanfiction territory since it’s kinda loosely based off of some Mii Making Stuff and has a small bit of worldbuilding headcanons for Karkaton specifically so just bear with me here lmao.

Everything here takes place in Miitopia’s setting. Hollk isn’t literally Mii Hell, more like the main capital of Karkaton that managed to gain such a reputation with how much of a dictator King Honk was. Karkaton has a more prominently demon or demon-adjacent population compared to other parts of the world, and most of them aren’t really infamous at all. Demon hunting had only really targeted those who follow Honk’s ideology or are just straight up trying to kill people. It still isn’t the best, but it’s clear that both Bob and Punnyatta don’t have any actual hateful prejudice with demons unless they do something evil, since they seemed to have worked with Hink and Deko just fine. In fact… hear me out. What if Hank used to be friends with the Demon Hunter Trio before becoming the Dark Lord..? Not only for fun angst potential, but also cuz it just makes sense. Bob seeming forgiving towards his former enemy in S1’s finale? Of course he would! He just found out that a friend he thought he lost to evil truly had good intentions from the start… mostly. All that being said, I’m gonna get into the actual game theory fanfic-but-not-really-but-basically-fanfic backstory thing now. let me set the stage……

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Robert had always lived a normal life. He was content with not doing anything historical, but of course the world had other plans. When he met Punnyatta, an energetic Tank, the robot was able to convince Robert to join his team as the first member of his group. The two traveled around Miitopia, becoming closer friends along the way (Punnyatta even gives Robert the nickname “Simple Bob”, the name he’s gone by ever since). Eventually the two also come across Hink, a kind ‘Imp’, who was trying to start a new life for himself outside of Karkaton due to the abuse he dealt with under the rule of King Honk and his right hand man Henk. Punnyatta offered the demon to join his group, and Hink agreed.

The trio do some smaller quests together for a while, and during one of those events they meet Hank, another ex-subordinate of Honk’s and current HP Banana factory worker. Hank quickly becomes acquainted with the rest of the party through Hink and while Hank doesn’t join himself, he’s willing to support them with free bananas and other healing items. Punnyatta asks Hank at some point about his appearance not being like other demons, purely for curiosity, and Hank explains that he shapeshifted his features away to have a completely fresh start from the Hollk kingdom. Seeing how much King Honk negatively affects his people, Punnyatta wants to do something to set things right. He usually doesn’t like to go the murder route, but Hink and Hank explain that going to that extreme would have to be their most likely scenario. The three begin to train themselves to defeat the Demon King, with Hank assisting them on the sidelines.

Eventually Bob, Punnyatta, and Hink are prepared enough to go take down King Honk and his right hand man and are… somewhat successful. The two demons did go down, but not before killing Hink. They had their victory, but someone who was majorly affected by the abuse inflicted by the King never had the chance to truly see that win happen. Punnyatta and Bob tell Hank what went down, and he doesn’t seem to be all that outwardly distraught over the loss of his friend, but something about his demeanor had still changed.

Hank started to question his life. Wondering if working at the banana factory was the right call… if there should be more he can do with his existence. Nobody’s gonna truly remember Hink after his demise, are they? What if that happened to Hank? What if he dies with nobody knowing his name? He’s just another demon after all. These thoughts leave him vulnerable to corruption, and that leads the first Dark Curse right to him. Their voice speaks to Hank, promising the demon everything he could’ve ever wanted. Meanwhile Punnyatta enters the factory to check in on Hank. Punnyatta tries to warn Hank of the impending doom with the obvious dark magic going on, but Hank’s too absorbed with the temptation to think about the consequences…. and GOOD LORD are there consequences.

Hank as we know ends up becoming The Dark Lord, taking the faces of anyone who stands in his path. Punnyatta barely has enough time to warn Bob about the secrets of Hank’s new form before they both have to fight him. Unlike the battle against Honk and Henk, this battle isn’t as hopeful for the demon hunting duo. Hank gets a good hit on Punnyatta, permanently taking him out. Assuming Bob can’t do much else to him, he leaves him behind to terrorize other parts of Miitopia.

Now left alone, Bob needs to think of a plan to take the Dark Lord down and avenge his teammate. Conveniently, he encounters Kronkui not too long after and he explains to Bob about Failboat and Miitopia’s current situation. And then, well, Bob joins The FailFleet Miis!! Yaaaaay!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway that’s my timeline for now, hopefully that makes enough sense to everyone lmaoo… I tried to make it accurate enough to everything. I love the idea that the “secrets about Hank that Punnyatta passed down to Bob” was that he was being possessed by the Dark Curse!! Punnyatta being the one to give Bob his nickname too was something I’ve headcanoned since forever… Hink and Hank being friends and bonding over their dislike of certain parts of demon culture and Hink’s death subtly being the snowball effect that starts Hank’s life crisis can make for some damn good angst potential!! Maybe I should do something with this… Kronkui knows we need more Failtopia prequel stuff out there! Also, if you wanna see more headcanon worldbuilding for Failtopia’s demons, check out the post here! ok thanks for reading byeee!!! :3

[redux-iterum]

Would you ever try to rewrite some of the super editions or novellas? I think a rewrite of Bluestar's Prophecy in this universe would be super neat but I understand totally if you're just planning on sticking to the main books.

For the foreseeable future, SEs and novellas are not going to be touched. Their events may be altered and discussed within the main books, but I have no intention of rewriting anything besides the first three arcs of Warriors - TPB, TNP, and PO3. That's not to say I'll never write anything else, but it is highly unlikely that I will.

[subandau]

more news with the upcoming rewrite !

so,,, as a few of you know, i'm re-writing our beloved (no) fic for this shit show called an au!! and with this, i have a few new things to announce,

NEW BLOG PFP SOMETIME THIS MONTH!!!

all I know is that this PFP is outdated as hell and needs a refresh,

alos,,,, I never told to my lovely blog before but.... DAMIEN GOT A REDESIGN !!!

(this was actually MONTHS ago, I just never bothered to update this lil icon on our intro post and forgot to make a post about it)

speaking of the intro,

WE'RE ALSO GETTING A NEW INTRO !! (better links, better character desc, less talk on the lore since the fic will be out by then)

ETC !!!

this is all upcoming ! just you wait chat

[pestercide]

...

[the-lavender-clown]

Thinking of rewriting/editting “Don’t You Dare”. I just think I could make it better and there’s quite a few things I’d like to update in terms of a little lore for my future au and characters I could add into some scenes. Also I was doing way to much explanation in that fic and I feel like it suffers from that

[espopstar]

Give me attention

[sysig]

Let’s put it all on the line, see who’s victorious (Patreon)

[eclairbrun]

Doing revisions and found a problem line that I clearly marked on my last revision round as needing fixing before moving past.

[shrinkthisviolet]

Talk Shop Tuesday - what is the most ambitious fic you've ever written and what is the most ambitious fic you have planned?

Oooh well most ambitious fic I've written...that's i still love you (i promise)!

This was me trying to write the miscommunication trope in a way that worked for the plot without anyone seeming too stupid/OOC, which was a challenge, given that it involved two big Barry&Morgan fights 😅 I worried it might be too much, but thankfully it seems to have worked pretty well! But I'll be glad to finish editing + start posting the Barry POV fic and move beyond this particular set of episodes—there's so much more exciting things to come in this AU!

As for most ambitious fics I have planned...well, the s3 arc in the Morgan AU is gonna be pretty ambitious—somewhat of a rewrite, since I'm very much not a fan of canon s3 and want to come at Savitar from a different angle. Also the s5 arc...y'all are not ready 👀

The s2/Book 2 arc of the Bumizumi AU too—starting in s2, Bumi and Izumi are gonna cause some...interesting ripple effects that'll really escalate the stakes (most of the big events will be the same, but the emotional stakes for the Gaang will shoot way up...and you'll see what I mean when we get there!)

Also ofc the future fics of the CK AU! Specifically the ones involving the plot of Cobra Kai (the "CK arc" of the AU, which will be the bulk of it). I've been pretty open about the fact that in the back half of s2 and beyond, and especially post-s3, there's gonna be some major changes. What exactly those changes are...well, there's not much I can say other than:

—no love drama - Samguel and Torisha are the endgame ships here, and Sam, Tory, and Aisha are pretty much bonded for life by the time they get back to the show, so no rivalries (this means that someone else starts the 2x10 fight. Haven't yet decided how that plays out)

—Sam, Tory, and Aisha will drag the boys (Miguel and Robby) into it. And nip that rivalry in the bud

—Johnny will be called out for his bad parenting (Robby doesn't have to apologize to Johnny for anything idc)

—2x08 will not involve cheating or hurt feelings. If anything, it'll involve some lighthearted teasing and low-stakes betting 😂

—Daniel and Johnny reconcile...probably sooner than 3x10, all things considered? Maybe? But it sticks—none of that wishy-washy bs that the later seasons pulled. Once they resolve things, it's settled—any squabbles they have after that aren't serious

—Sam's time travel is gonna have some major consequences...especially regarding who knows and who doesn't 👀

talk shop tuesday!