#give me that magical realism baby

[specialagentartemis]

Black Women writing SFF

The post about Octavia Butler also made me think about the injustice we do both Butler, SFF readers, and Black women SFF writers by holding her up as the one Black Woman Writing Sci-Fi. She occupies an important place in the genre, for her creativity, the beauty and impact of her writing, and her prolific work... but she's still just one writer, and no one writer works for everybody.

So whether you liked Octavia Butler's books or didn't, here are some of the (many!!! this list is just the authors I've read and liked, or been recommended and been wanting to read) other Black women writing speculative fiction aimed at adults, who might be writing something within your interest:

N. K. Jemisin - a prolific powerhouse of modern sff. Will probably have something you'll like. Won three Hugo awards in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy. I’ve only read her book of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and it is absolutely story after story of bangers. Creative, chilling, beautifully written, make you think. They’re so good and I highly recommend the collection. Several of her novels have spun out of premises she first explored through these short stories, most recently “The City Born Great” giving rise to her novel The City We Became. Leans more fantasy than sci-fi, but has a lot of both, in various permutations. 

Nisi Shawl - EDIT: I have been informed that Nisi Shawl identifies as genderfluid, not as a woman. They primarily write short stories that lean literary. Their one novel that I’ve read, Everfair, is an alternate-history 19th century that asks, what if the Congo had fought off European colonization and became a free and independent African state? Told in vignettes spanning decades of political organization, political movements, war tactics, and social development, among an ensemble of local African people, Black Americans coming to the new country, white and mixed-race Brits, and Chinese immigrants who came as British laborers.

Nnedi Okorafor - American-Nigerian writer of Africanfuturism, sci-fi stories emphasizing life in present, future, and alternate-magical Africa. She has range! From Binti, a trilogy of novellas about a teenage girl in Namibia encountering aliens and balancing her newfound connection to space with expectations of her family; to Akata Witch, a middle-grade series about a Nigerian-American girl moving to Nigeria and learning to use magic powers she didn’t know she had; to Who Fears Death, a brutal depiction of magical-realism in a futuristic, post-war Sudan; to short stories like "Africanfuturism 419", about that poor Nigerian prince who’s desperately sending out those emails looking for help (but with a sci-fi twist), and "Mother of Invention" about a smart house taking care of its human and her baby… she’s done a little bit of everything, but always emphasizes the future, the science, and the magic of (usually western) Africa.

Karen Lord - an Afro-Caribbean author.  I actually didn’t particularly like the one novel by her I’ve read, The Best of All Possible Worlds, but Martha Wells did, so. Lord has more novels set in this world—a Star Trek-esque multicultural, multispecies spacefuture set on a planet that has welcomed immigrants and refugees for a long time, and become a vibrant multicultural planet. I find her stories rooted in near-future Caribbean socio-climatic concerns like "Haven" and "Cities of the Sun" and her folktale-fantasy style Redemption in Indigo more compelling.  And more short stories here.

Bethany C. Morrow - only has one novella (short novel?) for adults, Mem, but it was creative and fascinating and good and I’d be remiss not to shout it out. In an alternate-history 1920s Toronto, scientists have discovered how to extract specific memories from a person—but then those memories are embodied as physical, cloned manifestations of the person at the moment the memory was made. The main character is one such “Mem,” struggling to determine who she is if she was created from and defined by one single traumatic memory that her original-self wanted to remove. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative, and very interesting.  (Morrow has some YA novels too. I read one of them and thought it was okay.)

Rebecca Roanhorse - Afro-Indigenous, Black and "Spanish Indian" and married into Diné (Navajo). I’ve read her ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series starting with Trail of Lightning, and am liking it a lot; after a climate catastrophe, the spirits and magic of the Diné awakened to protect Dinetah (the Navajo Nation) from the onslaught; and now magic and monsters are part of life in this fundamentally changed world. Coyote is there and he is only sometimes helpful. She also has a more traditional second-world epic high fantasy, Black Sun, an elaborate fantasy world with quests and prophecies and seafaring adventure that draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of the US and Mexico rather than Europe. She also has bitingly satirical and very incisive short stories like “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” about virtual reality and cultural tourism, and the fantasy-horror "Harvest."

Micaiah Johnson - her multiverse-hopping novel The Space Between Worlds plays with alternate universes and alternate selves in a continuously creative and interesting way! The setup doesn’t take the easy premise that one universe is our own recognizable one that opens up onto strange alternate universes—even the main character’s home universe is wildly different in speculative ways, with the MC coming from a Mad Max-esque desert community abandoned to the elements, while working for the universe-travel company within the climate-controlled walled city where the rich and well-connected live and work. Also, it’s unabashedly gay. 

And if you like audiobooks and audio fiction (I listened to The Space Between Worlds as an audiobook, it’s good), then Jordan Cobb is someone you should check out. She does sci-fi/horror/thriller audio drama. Her works include Janus Descending, a lyrical and eerie sci-fi horror about a small research expedition to a distant planet and how it went so, so wrong; and Descendants, the sequel about its aftermath. She also has Primordial Deep, about a research expedition to the deep undersea, to investigate the apparent re-emergence of a lot of extinct prehistoric sea creatures. She’s a writer/producer I like, and always follow her new releases. Her detailed prose, minimal casts  (especially in Janus Descending), good audio quality, and full-series supercuts make these welcoming to audiobook fans. 

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Nalo Hopkinson - a writer who should be considered nearly as foundational as Octavia Butler, honestly. A novelist and short story writer with a wide variety of sci-fi, dystopian futures, fairy-tale horror, gods and epics, and space Carnival, drawing heavily from her Caribbean experiences and aesthetics.

Tananarive Due - fantastical/horror. Immortals, vampires, curses, altered reality, unnerving mystery. Also has written a lot of books.

Andrea Hairston - creative and otherworldly, weird and bisexual, with mindscapes and magic and aliens. 

Helen Oyeyemi - I haven’t read her work but she comes highly recommended by a friend. A novelist and short story writer, most of her work leans fairytale fantastical-horror. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a collection of short fiction and recc’ed to me as her best work. White is for Witching is a well-regarded haunted house novel. 

Ashia Monet - indie author, writer of The Black Veins, pitched as “the no-love-interest, found family adventure you’ve been searching for.” Magic road trip! Possibly YA? I’m not positive. 

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This also doesn’t include Black non-binary sff authors I’ve read and liked like An Owomoyela, C. L. Polk, and Rivers Solomon. And this is specifically about adult sff books, so I didn’t include Black women YA sff authors like Kalynn Bayron, Tomi Adeyemi, Tracy Deonn, Justina Ireland, or Alechia Dow, though they’re writing fantasy and sci-fi in the YA world too.

And a lot of short stories are out there in the online magazine world, where so many up and coming authors get their start, and established ones explore offbeat and new ideas.  Pick up an issue (or a subscription!) of FIYAH magazine for the most current Black speculative writing.

[finitepeace]

3 months since I finished Hannibal tv show. Not moving on at all from hannigram.

and here are the fics that i read to soothe the pain and pretend that the mess that is hannigram relationship has been tidied up.

Personal favorites are marked with 🦌 <this is supposed to be a stag but then it turns out to be a goat???>

arranged by time setting.

11 season1 fics, 11 season2 fics , 2 season 3fics, 14 post/before canon fics, 5 fics AU, 2 missing scene fics, 2 collections.

Season 1 divergence

Kissable by FragileTeacup |2,5k words | A Season 1 AU ficlet which explores a simple premise: what would have happened if, after Will had gone to Hannibal's house and confessed to kissing Alana Bloom, he had ended up kissing Hannibal? 

Consenting to Dream by emungere | E, 38k words | A seduction through physical objects. It starts with a scarf loaned to Will on a cold day, but Hannibal, as usual, isn't satisfied with anything small.

🦌 Marriage of Inconvenience by FragileTeacup | 3,5k words E | When Will Graham hears that Hannibal Lecter has been threatened with deportation, he's far more dismayed than he ever thought he would be. But a flippant suggestion from Brian Zeller gives him an idea...

Beau Ideal by Gweezle | E, 21k words | will used to be a model -who might be attracted murder-

🦌 Dancing with the Beast by proser | E, 86k words | In order to catch a mediocre serial killer, Will must pose as Hannibal's date for a series of pretentious social events.

La Maison Rouge by Randstad | 2k words, Hannibal starts to show up at Will's house at the crack of dawn to make him breakfast, killing two birds with one stone: cooking is one of his many passions, and, honestly, Will Graham is climbing up the list.

Hyacinth House by bluesyturtle for Azremodehar | 80k, E,  It all starts with an injury Will sustains while sleepwalking. [Podfic] read by justbreathe

Kindling by gleamingandwholeanddeadly (something_safe) | 10k words, e | When Franklyn's advances of friendship become too much for even Hannibal to politely ignore, he enlists Will's help.

🦌 Separately to a Wood by emungere | 13k words, T, canon-divergence in which hannibal proposed to will on their 2nd day meeting. 

Demolition Lovers by thefangirlingdead | 76k words, E, hannibal got found out early, kidnapped will to run with him and will struggled with the usual ‘i love him but he is a murder’.. 

🦌 Small Repairs by Devereauxs_Disease | E, 20k words, divergence season 1, hannigram keeps finding reason to meet each other 

Season 2 divergence

🦌 The Fox's Wedding by thehoyden | E, 11k, post S2 finale fix-it, hannibal took will to japan

Amourette by Petronia | 3k words, E, divergence on season 2 

I shouldn't feel lonely when you're gone by Angelic_Disaster | 28k words, E, amnesiac Dr. Lecter,

Slip the Veil by ThisBeautifulDrowning   21,844  Post-Mizumono, Will heals, and thinks, and follows his heart. 

🦌 each according to its kind by chaparral_crown | 192k words | Season 2 divergence | instead of taking revenge and planning to expose hannibal, will drop everything and run away 

Where All Ladders Start by emungere | E, 43k, season 2 divergence, hannibal regrets and releases will from prison 

Pattern Break by ThisBeautifulDrowning | e, 72k | No, Will was going to deal with Hannibal Lecter on his own terms. The man deserved to reap what he'd so carefully sowed, didn't he? After his release from the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Will doesn't return to work for the FBI.

🦌🦌🦌 if you will come all the way down with me by coloredink | 7k words, M, they left together with abigail, but at what cost??? 

Season 3 divergence

🦌 their beaks not yet turned red by chaparral_crown | M, 130K words, magical realism, baby lecter!! post 1st half of season 3, hannibal went to trial but his conjugal tryst with will brought a stork delivered gift | After Hannibal is arrested and the trial dates are set, the stork visits Will Graham. With it, it brings a baby, a legally binding birth certificate, and a hope chest full of gifts for her. Nobody except Will thinks this is weird.

A Postcard and a Knife by Canis_cosmos | E, 37k words, divergence from season 3 when chiyoh threw will out of the train to the past and met young hannibal 

post S3 / before S1

God and Glasses by purefoysgirl | 1,1k, G, domestic life of married hannigram 

Lean On Me by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles | 2k words | Written for the airport-related AU prompt: "I fell asleep on your shoulder and you were too polite to move or wake me up AU" with a Hannigram twist.

We Killed a Dragon Last Night and  Sounders of Three by  inameitlater | time travel/loop/groundhog day

🦌 Hear My Soul Speak by DarkmoonSigel | 130k words. WIP. Last updated early 2022.  | An AU about how Will might of met Hannibal differently since they both knew Alana. A dinner party gone wrong or terribly right. You decide. Not Beta Read.

🦌 When the Devil Smiles Back byGoldenUsagi | 26k words |  A remix of Silence of the Lambs, where Clarice finds herself occupied not only with catching Buffalo Bill, but with unraveling the mystery of what exactly happened to Will Graham. And Hannibal knows more than he’s letting on about both.

🦌🦌🦌Bigger than a Breadbox by KatherineKrawl | 4k words, E | Every day at work, Will's lunchbox is filled with decadent creations, prompting questions from curious coworkers. Hoping to solve the matter, he asks Hannibal for a 'simple' sandwich, but quickly learns Hannibal doesn't quite grasp the meaning of this. Or does his boyfriend have an ulterior motive for his lavish lunches?

TKO by sidnihoudini | 16k words Molly deals with the aftermath.

The Shape of Me Will Always be You by MissDisoriental | 279k words, 1st person POV, | post-fall, hannibal left will so will could return to his old life

A Discreet Madness by emungere | 4,4k words, M, post-fall | 

A Damn Slippery Life by Magical_Destiny | 2k words, T, post-fall, molly reacts

Something Else by HotMolasses | 2,1k, T, hannigram talking about that gutting scene...  

🦌🦌🦌 Say Cheese! by Devereauxs_Disease | 6k, M, murder husband’s vacations keep appearing in freddie lound’s tattle crime 

Cold Beds and Warm Cannibals by Devereauxs_Disease | E, 4,4k, smut and overcoming distrusts

🦌Fruitful by Everett_Harte An AU remix of 'Hannibal'. Where they both meet several years before the show, start dating, and get married. And bang, a lot.

AUs

🦌 the true kingkiller by ORiley42 | 41k words, M, there’s even a very well made podfic for it!, hannibal is a mummy and will accidentally freed him. consequence: will fell in love with him.

Ethics & Aesthetics by FragileTeacup | 106330 words, a Regency A/B/O romance | pride and prejudice au

🦌🦌🦌 Remember (that you are) to die by  13empress | 230k words, WIP last updated  2017 | ABO au, amnesiac will woke up with 13 years past experience including being a parent, a one half of murder husband, and a wrongly incarcerated FBI agent 

Oddbodies by toffeecape | E, 72k words | Will is an off-brand sentinel. Hannibal is a reputable guide. What could go wrong?

🦌🦌🦌 Overcoming by purefoysgirl | 547k words, E, A/B/O victorian AU, MY VERY FIRST HANNIGRAM FIC! brought me here and now i'm stuck

Howling Outside Your Door by nobetterlove | 14k words | Content to spend his days on the surgery floor, Hannibal is tasked to present emergency room policy to a Cognitive Science class. He's somewhat reticent, but a single whiff of air changes everything. The professor, Will Graham, is an enigma. A dark bruise covers his right eye and the ripe burnt-sugary sweetness is tainted by a tang of suppressants. How much can finding his true mate really change Hannibal? And when it comes to darkness, where does acceptance lie? 14k words

missing scenes

My Husband by VictoriaAGrey | G, 3,5k words, hannigram being sweet married couple

Mise en Place by WrathoftheStag for Devereauxs_Disease | G, 1,8k, outsider POV -one of the kitchen staff in hannibal’s dinner party- 

collections i'm checking out

In Which Loverboy Lecter Prostrates Himself at the Altar of Will Graham 

Fresh Meat Friday

Hannigram Extended Universe

Trope: From Sex To Love (Valhalla Enchanted) by TigerPrawn | 14k words | the omega prince Charmont is in need of an alpha to see him through heat until his betrothed arrives from a distant kingdom. The recently freed slave one-eyed mute is just hideous enough to be the perfect temporary alpha to service the prince.

Forgemaster by Llewcie | 11k words | Charmont, the newest Dionysus, loses a bet to his roommate Aphrodite, and is required by her to go on three dates with a god of her choosing. Before he even gets out the door, he scathingly insults the gentle, mute Hephaestus, and then must scramble to make amends.

Blood on Steel by MonstrousRegiment | Ella Enchanted/Valhalla Rising crossover, series of 24k words work

[greenerteacups]

i humbly write to beseech you to pummel me with your thoughts on rhaenicent

I loooove Rhaenicent conceptually it's so much better than the estranged stepdaughter arc in the books. I also think they have some of the best dialogue in the show because the writers love them so so much. Does the dialogue make sense in the context of the plot happening immediately before and after the scenes they have together? No! Does the bitterly-tender-lesbian-divorcées plotline seem to be taking place in a different show from the rest of HOTD, which is about their two families actively trying to kill each other and often succeeding — deaths that they should technically be attributing to each other by dent of the way war works? Yeah! Do I care? Not that much! And even if I did, would I let it get in the way of a nice nasty friends-to-lovers-to-enemies arc? Like, I've read fic where Hermione Granger and Tom Riddle fuck. Who am I to harp on whether the characters on the R-rated Dragon Tales show are exhibiting literary realism?

Anyway I can't waaaaaaaait for S3 to go whole hog on the "Rhaenyra the Cruel" storyline so that she can complete her evolution into Fantasy Paul Atreides and Alicent can have a total crisis about which of the two tyrants that she's brought into the world — both of whom she loves dearly — she has to kill. The whole story is centrally about mothers sacrificing their children, with the idea that political leadership and parenthood are intrinsically incompatible (Viserys is trying to be a good father but fails in his pursuit of being a good king, Alicent tries to be a good mother but fails in her pursuit of being a good queen, Rhaenyra tries to — you see where I'm going. Ironically the only one who doesn't seem subject to this is Daemon, whose daughters have 0 scenes with him and hence can't object one way or another to his parenting style, but who seems to have escaped the dynastic curse by not trying to be a dad OR a king. Failhusbands #FTW.) And I think it would be the coup de grace on Alicent's storyline if she did betray Aegon for Rhaenyra, in an effort to escape the machinations of politics, only for it to backfire catastrophically. Because:

(1) Rhaenyra is no longer the girl who would have helped Alicent run away from all this. She was lost to Alicent and Cole (who is Alicent's foil and their affair is so obviously an awful wonderful voyeuristic attempt for them both to fuck Past Rhaenyra) the moment Viserys told her she was fucking Dragon Paul Atreides. That's it, game over. You can't love a Messiah without ending up on the altar or the stake. And:

(2) Alicent and Rhaenyra are both arrogant and entitled women, but they're arrogant in different ways; Rhaenyra thinks she's entitled to rule a continent because of her noble parentage and quasi-magic bloodline, and Alicent thinks that she's entitled to rule a continent because she's morally superior to everyone else at court. They are both wrong about this, but they can't let go of that idea without dissolving what's been the basis of their identity for the past 20 years. These girls were raised by the Red Keep. Even when Alicent goes on her spiritual journey to realize that Politics Is Bad, she has staggering gall to talk about being "free," as if it isn't slightly fucked-up that she can just start a war that kills thousands of peasants and fuck off to Essos once she's not having fun anymore. Like. Sorry? Aemond is successfully executing a war that started the moment you crowned Aegon, knowing damn well Rhaenyra (and Daemon, moreover) were not going quietly, and you're blaming Aemond for the fact that people are dying? Baby girl, you did not give a stone cold shit that Aemond was a bit of a maniac until he removed you from the small council (which I honestly didn't think you cared about, since you haven't made a political move all season). And then you wrote him off to Gwayne as like "bro :( look at my horrible awful bloodthirsty son," but BABY YOUUUUUU STARTED THE WAR!!

(Also: youuuuuuu went full Cersei and demanded to carve one of the Velaryons' eyes out when they hurt Aemond by accident, plus also tried to carve out Rhaenyra's eye with a knife in full view of the court when that didn't work, so like — maybe we can think about where Aemond might have learned to use violence as a first resort?)

All this to say that both of them have been poisoned by the Red Keep and I don't think they would know how to interact with each other outside of that circumstance. They've been doing politics since they were teenagers, and their identities have been built around that fact. And even when Alicent realizes this, it still isn't enough to change her into someone different! She is Alicent Targaryen, née Hightower, and Targaryen women do not fucking let go. They are doomed to fight each other forever until one or both of them die. Which is sexy and awesome and I personally look forward to watching.

[bitbybitwrites]

❄️🥤 :)

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

For Klaine - how about a good thriller/espionage fic . . like a Bourne Identity sort of thing . .lots of edge of my seat action and intrigue. . . keep me guessing who to trust . . .not gonna lie . @yadivagirl 'sfics always had me at the edge of my seat. So I'd say her.

For RWRB - A firstprince/ Like Water For Chocolate type fic ( magic realism + food) would be interesting - I think @14carrotghoul would be a great writer for that Or perhaps @myheartalivewrites as well . .

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

ONLY ONE?!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂 As a reader you're killing me to limit it.

I'm gonna cheat and give you at least one for Klaine and RWRB.

Let me preface here by saying I am such a lover of angsty/ hurt/ comfort fics . . . totally addicted to them. Here are two that make me sob like a baby throughout, but also give me all the wonderful happy feels once we reach the end.

Oh yeah and these two happen to also be kid!fics as well - which i also like reading.

Klaine fic: @heartsmadeofbooks knows I always wax poetic about Solid Gold. 💖💖

RWRB fic: acastle's ( crap, forgive me I'm blanking if you're on tumblr so I don't know how to tag you) lovely series, Orion in Your Fingertips I think is so heartbreakingly beautiful. 💖💖

*****

Thanks for the ask, @mynonah ! 💖💖💖

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game - To play click here

[alpineshift]

okay okay every single one of your WIP titles have me intrigued, but lets go with erm

3) cake pop boyfriend and/or 7) hot archivist au

you get both 🥰

cake pop boyfriend! this is my affectionately crafted "jacknico hot girl summer in switzerland" fic. it's an established jacknico going off the grid after the tragic 2023-2024 season end, just traipsing all over the swiss countryside and getting horny about it LOL.

Nico raises an eyebrow, but follows his lead, easing into the slanted back of the chair. His expression is curious, and playful. What are you up to, baby? Jack holds the glass up, eye level, and slowly starts to tip it. He gives Nico plenty of time to stop him, put a pause if he doesn't feel like the inevitable mess that will certainly follow, but Nico doesn’t stop him.  If anything, he simply reclines further on the chair, legs parting wider to let Jack settle between them, and lays his arms and hands out on the armrests on either side.  The first splash of champagne lands on his collarbone, inciting a little shiver. Jack watches on in fascination as the sparkly liquid pools in the shallow hollow of Nico's collarbone, overflows, and then streams down his chest, down his pecs and thick waist and into the band of his swim shorts. The champagne fizzes. Droplets catch in the afternoon sun. Jack licks his lips, slips the glass back onto the table, and ducks in.

hot archivist au needs a better title :( it originally started out as a hot librarian au but then I quickly changed it up into a magical realism setting because of who I am as a person.

The archivist was a marvel, tall and broad and handsome and just so cool. He had deep, warm brown eyes and he waited oh-so patiently for Jack to finish stuttering and stammering through his request.  He was a little scruffy, the beginnings of a beard growing in, with a perfectly straight nose and perfectly even eyebrows. His hair was long-ish, bouncy and wavy; a little tangled, mostly dark, but looked beautifully honeyed when he turned his head and caught the mid-morning sun coming through one of the high windows. There was a dimple in his cheek when he smiled. The way his forest-green sweater stretched over his chest should’ve been illegal, and god, don’t even get started on those dress pants.  Jack had tried so hard not to salivate. He tried. Luckily, in spite of Jack’s less-than stellar first impression, the archivist seemed to understand what he was looking for. He just got up, walked confidently between the towering shelves, located the encyclopedia, and hefted the veritable brick of a book down from the shelf with just one massive hand, easy as you please. His biceps were so juicy. Jack could barely stop himself from imagining the archivist picking him up and railing him against the bookshelf.

[vechter]

what are some of your favorite books??

gosh this is going to be difficult. my ability to read books in one setting has severely declined over the years- instead i have piles of books i've started only to leave them halfway, promising i'll come back to them.

off the top of my head, i looooved wide sargasso sea by jean rhys. it's a post-colonial approach to bronte's jane eyre and i'm just such a sucker for fire as a cleansing and destructive force. plus, doomed and misunderstood women my beloved. also has one of my all time favourite quotes: Then I turned round and saw the sky. It was red and all my life was in it.

i know it says books but i would be remiss if i didn't mention one of my all time favourite plays- look back in anger by john osborne. realist play about a struggling marriage. it makes me CRAZY. the roles we play, the roles we're set up for. the tragedy of it all.

cliche to mention but another one i recently re-read and enjoyed was edward albee's who's afraid of virginia woolf. i admit i read it when i was pretty young and some of the more intense stuff went over my head but i recently saw the movie with elizabeth taylor in it which made me pull it out of my bookshelf and give it another go. and it goes crazy, truly. this specific section around this quote makes me crazy: N: You know, I almost think you're serious. G: No, baby, you almost think you're serious, and it scares the hell out of you.

also loved the big sleep by raymond chandler. his other stuff has been on my reading list for way too long. what we talk about when we talk about love by raymond carver was very monumental to me. august osage county by tracy letts was amazing too but i did read it only after seeing the movie. chronicle of a death foretold by gabriel garcía márquez introduced me to magical realism and i've never been the same after.

got tons more but i'll always have a special place in my heart for all of these!

[scaly-freaks]

Succession AU with CEO’s son Aegon and junior analyst Amara… 😏

Good timing considering the pictures that came out today. Brief interlude to show them off? Yes? Yes.

Him being second to Rhaenyra in Daddy's affections is how I placed them in the modern AU I once wrote and it was a blast. But if we're more specifically aligning him with Roman Roy and Amara is working at the company, the dynamic definitely changes up.

He probably has nicknames for everyone in the office (with varying degrees of success as most people don't feel too positively about him) and Amara's is My Little Pony because she always has her thick hair in this long, very heavy ponytail and Aegon jokes that her head must be killing her but that he'll give her a massage if she asks nicely. She usually grimaces and pretends he hasn't even spoken.

Keep in mind, this motif would return later where him unravelling her hair for her after a long day is a sign for her to finally relax, and his fingers running through it puts her and her exhausted scalp right to sleep.

He's got pretty intense mommy issues in this one (obviously) and his type tends to be older women, with the occasional younger one thrown in that he exerts his power over when he's feeling a lack of it himself. Amara might just be the latest young thing who he's intent on using for his power trip. It's not a love story in the conventional sense.

This is a very powerful man who thinks he's powerless and so acts out regularly - Aegon is dangerous just like he is in canon. He knows the lawsuit he'd get slapped with if his conduct is even slightly out of line with Amara, but the more she fends him off like he's a vampire and she's got a crucifix, the more his frustration grows. Sure, he won't assault her, but has he thought about it? Yes. Has he made jokes about it with his friends? 100%. His frat bros make SA jokes all the time, and though he hasn't actually committed the crime himself, Aegon plays along as men often do when they're in groups.

But Aegon in any position of power is just a fuse waiting to go off tbh, and I prefer to explore the darkness of that rather than create some vanilla world where everything is fine and he magically changes. People usually don't change which is the great misery of life. And yeah, boss/secretary AUs are fun for escapism, but I'm the type of person who watches Godzilla or a Marvel film and winces at the infrastructure being destroyed and how long that'll take to clean up. That's what those escapism AUs are for me. I find way more comfort in realism and the bad things happening because when the character tries to get out of the situation, it might shed light for me and my real life problems.

Tangent aside, no he wouldn't touch her without consent, but the inappropriate jokes, and the general irritation of his presence stretches on until one day something snaps and she reacts badly. She's sexually attracted to him which is the frustrating part for her and adds to her anger, so it most likely would end in some kind of groping/kissing session where they're both making a competition out of who can hurt the other most.

Their sex life is probably very violent, especially once coke is involved. Amara's career is also not really getting on a trajectory to anywhere, because if she agrees to dating him, he'll take her straight to a higher position she didn't earn and will probably be overwhelmed by. Everyone will whisper that she fucked the boss and call her a nepowhore pretty much. The corporate world is cutthroat and if you're not prepared...well.

His aim is to make her his baby mama and keep her in his life in some form or other (he's under no illusion that Amara would ever agree to marry him) and hers is to get away from him somehow. But she keeps crawling back into his bed like she's a junkie and he's a pile of china white stacked in lines on the bathroom counter.

[sopheadraws]

When it comes to Brittany S. Pierce, people’s interpretations are all over the place. It ranges anywhere from <3 innocent babie <3, to severely cognitively impaired, to manipulative liar who pretends to be stupid so others obey their will (which I’ll later accuse her mother of, but that’s neither here nor there). Anyways, I’m adding my opinion into the cacophony because, despite the indecisive fanbase, thorough Brittany meta is lacking in quantity. Also, I tend to think my opinion is best, as is human nature.

This analysis is rooted in autistic!Brittany, and while its unnecessary since I’ll go through many of her autistic characteristics, here’s a post detailing the headcanon and a medical article describing the diagnostic criteria in simple terms if you’re unfamiliar with the disorder. I understand that not everybody considers Britt neurodivergent, and that’s totally fine - I’m always up for a healthy conversation/debate! - but please give me a heads up if you plan to respond critically because a lot of this is based on my own experiences as an autistic teenage girl, so unmentioned critiques can feel personal fast. Now without further ado:

A Deep Dive Into Brittany S. Pierce <3

Auditory Processing Disorder “APD” is a subdivision of Sensory Processing Disorder “SPD” which is a quintessential element of an autism diagnosis. APD is pretty much exactly what it sounds (haha pun) like: despite somebody’s hearing abilities, the brain fails to process auditory input properly. The APD trait I hear discussed most in autism spaces is the inability to filter out background noises, but Britt seems to struggle most with interpreting meaning from words. Sometimes when people talk to me (“dolphins are just gay sharks”), even though they’re speaking clearly and I’m very literate in English, it sounds like jumbled nonsense (“dulfanz-our-goost-gae-shorcks”). This accounts for what I’m calling Brittany’s “so close you can taste it” lines. Think of her claim that Christopher Cross discovered America or that O is the capital of Ohio; a man named Christopher C. is indeed credited with discovering America and O is the only capital letter in Ohio. As a whole, they often misunderstand things told to them directly, and it seems a lot less foolish if she only understood half of what was being said via APD.

I’m calling the category of Brittany lines that can’t usually be rationalized as possible by anybody over seven (e.g. Rory the leprechaun, storks delivering babies, and anything with Lord Tubbington) the “stranger than fanfiction lines.” Now, I could take these at face value and say she’s tapping into a magical dimension, but I have my own set of autism driven realism issues, so, without a pre-existing fantasy world, I’m using my significant brainpower to twist Brittany into plausibility =D I ultimately think the best explanation for the stranger than fanfiction lines is echolalia. Echolalia is the repetition of words or phrases, and it’s usually associated with autism. Autistic people often reuse other people’s words, and since we usually think in pictures and have various social communication problems, it’s easier than formulating new sentences. Or we just like the tongue movements/sound a word makes. Personally, I quote songs a lot - if you say something loosely related to a Taylor Swift, musical, or Glee lyric, chances are I’ll sing it - and dipsomaniacal is a new fave to say randomly. There’s some evidence for Britt doing this in canon, unrelated to the stranger than fanfiction lines. While Brittany is known for calling him Blaine Warbler, it actually originated from Rachel and the infamous spin the bottle kiss. They also repeat ‘uber weird after Blaine in the That’s So Rachel reading, and the last line of that scene is them talking in time with Blaine, a behavior seen in S1 with Santana. However, it interests me most that she calls Artie a robot, as we see her dad call Stephen Hawkin, another wheelchair user, a robot in S6.

Basically, I blame the Pierces for how terribly adjusted their child is <3 (Mostly Whitney. Assuming Pierce actually has an IQ of 40, he’s disabled too and deserves some slack in terms of spreading misinformation.) In her admittedly limited screen time, Whitney manages to do two positive things: be an LGBTQ+ ally and let her younger daughter do soccer, I guess. Otherwise, she kept the truth about Stephen Hawking from Brittany for 20 years, cheated on her husband on their honeymoon for claiming infertility, crapped in random barns, insulted her husband’s intelligence, publicly insulted her husband’s appearance, and arguably restricted her daughter’s intellectual growth. To be honest, I realize Whitney isn’t that deep and I don’t actually hate her, but if people can hate Brittany for being a comedic character from the 2010s, I’ll do the same thing to their mother in defense of Brittany. Fight stop the violence with violence, baby! Anyways, I don’t think echolalia alone can explain the stranger than fanfiction lines. At least, not without a source. And that’s usually where upbringing comes in.

I’m ruling out nature automatically because there aren’t chromosomes telling people to believe in unicorns. Well, some people - including autistic people (hehe see what I’m doing here?) - are more inclined to believe falsehoods, but falsehoods have to be fed by someone else. With autism, the reckless believing tendencies come from literal thinking in part. Also, since SPD makes processing the outside world difficult, we often can’t recognize “obvious” truths in the first place. My extended family hated watching movies with me because I used to ask questions every five seconds lol. Setting Pierce aside because he seems to follow Whitney blindly; Brittany’s unnamed sister, Sue, and Whitney are the remaining suspects.

I assume Brittany’s sister is significantly younger than Britt because she played soccer with a seven-year-old in S1 (technically she could’ve been the coach, but that throws off my theory that the Klaine/Brittana wedding was child free), and children aren’t clever or mean enough to throw off anybody’s world view so badly :) Sue does seem the obvious answer, but she didn’t meet Brittany until they started high school, and she’s consistently baffled by Britt’s behavior despite encouraging her own eccentricities in the other Cheerios. And that leaves Whitney as the perpetrator, blaming her Scientology and gambling addiction on a cat.

Finally, I do think there’s a few times when Brittany intended for her jokes to be jokes. I don’t think it happens as much as you might expect, but there’s a scene in S3 when JBI is interviewing Brittany about her class president candidacy, and she tells him she’s voting for Rick “The Stick” Nelson before turning to Santana and laughing that clued me in. I think the mentality behind these lines (the “pun intended” category) is best explained with an anecdote from my own childhood.

When I was little - maybe six or seven - I really wanted to be funny. Well, I wanted to be liked, and since I didn’t understand social cues, my solution was humor because I knew my dad told jokes which made me laugh, which made him likable! Unfortunately, as a literal thinking child, I had no idea how to do this, which meant I parroted the only joke I knew (“What time is it when an elephant sits on the table?” “Time to get a new table!”) in hopes of chuckles. This went about as badly as you would expect. After a while, my parents got rightfully fed up with this joke and got me a joke book. I had no sense which of these jokes were funny, which wasn’t helped by most of the book being about taxes, bad marriages, and other stuff aimed at adults.

It wasn’t until a routine walk to the convenient store that my comedy dreams were fulfilled. My dad, little sister, and I used to walk to the “snack store” to buy a drink each and share a candy bar. While we had some routine favorites, we also tried out new candies together. However, there were a few bars my dad refused to buy because he’d disliked them prior to our snack store outings. Most infamous of these forbidden fruits was the Zero Bar. We tended to reference the Zero Bar when picking our next treat, and on this fateful day I said, “It’s called the Zero Bar because zero people like it.”

And my dad laughed. He laughed because of something I’d said. I was elated!

The only catch up was I hadn’t actually intended it as a joke. After all my attempts to be funny, the only thing that apparently worked was speaking my mind. This singular incident didn’t rewire my understanding of humor - I attempted the parroting tactic with the Zero Bar joke after all - but it’s the most pivotal moment in my mind. To this day, I play up my neurodivergent thought process to make others laugh. I reference Glee at seemly unrelated times with mock enthusiasm to callback times I’ve mentioned Glee with real enthusiasm or talk about my other interests in forced monotones.

There isn’t any actual evidence that Brittany has the same weird complex about humor, but some of their interactions regarding stupidity parallel it. In general, when they’re away from Santana, Brittany appears fairly insecure about her neurodivergence. I might even go as far as to say that she doesn’t joke without Santana around. Now, I don’t think Britt knows what her atypicalities are until they’re presumably diagnosed at M.I.T., but every neurodivergent person I know knew something was wrong before being diagnosed. (I want to talk about how Blaine’s diagnosed autism is a foil for Brittany’s undiagnosed autism at some point, but you didn’t sign up for autistic!Blaine, so now isn’t the time.)

Anddd, that’d pretty much it for now :) I intend to write more in depth Brittany meta in the future, but this is a decent overview for the time being. I hope this made you think, and I’d love to hear your thoughts if it did!

[exponenshul]

It's entirely understandable you don't want the mom to hate her baby, that's a really dark direction to take any story, a lot of people think it's gross.

I think for me, it doesn't have to be "hate" so much as "I don't want this" or "I can't handle this". Less hate and more fear? Fear of both the pain of childbirth and what comes after. What everyone will think, what they'll have to do with the baby. Will they be pressured and shamed into keeping it? Will they be judged and threatened into giving it up? Scared to even interrogate themselves as to how they feel about it.

I think that a lot of potential can come from the idea of that horror over this suddenly happening, and now you just have to live with it. Sure, the rapid pregnancy and birth come, and that's scary. But then you're a mom for the rest of your entire life, even if you don't raise it. That's scary, it changes you, and you didn't have any say in it...

Sorry, I don't mean to make such a big deal of this. I just think it's interesting to explore the positive and less positive of these emotions surrounding magical pregnancies. Then again, it's your kink, go wild on what makes you happy!

Totally! I think for me, I do like to touch on these topics sometimes, I just don’t linger on them too much. For realism’s sake, I like to touch on the lasting effects of these sudden pregnancies, especially with longer stories or recurring characters. But at the end of the day it’s more so because I feel like I need to include that to make a convincing plot

I’m definitely a “happy ending” type and that usually includes the character coming to terms with their situation, at least somewhat!

[thetragicallynerdy]

WIP Folder Game

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I got tagged by @dragonmuse, thanks for the tag friend!!

Okay. We all know I have a thousand WIPs on the go at any time, right?? I have a problem. So please don't judge me for how many things are in my folders XD

OFMD (20 fics)

safeword

lesbeens fang ed

jim kinktober

shifter au - jim runs

jim ed modern flower shop tattoo parlour biker au

fairy godparent jim

poly au - ed flashback

remington steele au - your name is the only word i can say (gotta be the way, gotta be the one) - #5

remington steele au - caught in a cell together - my love keeps growing still the same (just like a cancer) - #4

jim ed shifter romcom transfem ed

jim ed shifter silliness temp tattoo

remington steele au - hypothermia - and you won't give me a straight answer - #3

jim ed vampire ed

deaged jim ed stede baby time

and we will build a home from the wreckage - jim olu cowboys

jim jackie snow poly au

sorry about the blood in your mouth i wish it was mine

oluwande sex worker au

hanahaki polyam times

5 times jim realized they have a whole family and the 1 time they'd already figured it out

Undeadwood (6 fics) (only considering ones I think might have a chance of being finished for UDW/have any desire to return to, sorry)

snea snek snatthew ch 3

teen bb amos chapta 8

practical magic - magic realism au

the nemesis

firefly au

lighthouse keeper au

So. Uh. 26 fics in total lmaooooooo

Ask away if you're curious????

I'm not tagging 26 people XD But, if you feel like doing it, I'm tagging @yerbamansa, @alfalfairy, @yourlocal-charlatan, @oluwandesorange, @halfeatenmoon, @redxluna, @ginbiscuit, @zombiethingy, @bringinghometherain

I have a really hard time remembering who of my mutuals writes, so if you don't see yourself on this list, but want to do this, consider yourself tagged!

[vicsy]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @pitconfirm and @boxboxbrioche. Thank you <3

1. How many works do you have on ao3

Currently I have 20 posted works (and 1 on anon, we don't talk about it)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 

198,413 - not that many!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Formula 1. I used to write for wrestling fandom, too.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

green light, red wine (and i don't feel fine) – 571 kudos, Fernando/Lance (ongoing).

wish you away in my dreams – 412 kudos, Daniel/Max.

shatter my life apart (see me for somebody else) – 334 kudos, Fernando/Lance.

your smile, so bright (i want to save that light) – 294 kudos, Daniel/Max.

guess my future and map it onto your fantasy – 290 kudos, Fernando/Lance.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to EVERY comment I receive. It is very important to me because I really value people choosing to spend some time to write a comment that will definitely brighten my mood and inspire me. I have to thank them and that's out of question.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, I'd say it would be my piarles magical realism au fic – bless my darkness; bless my light. I think it's more of an open ending but I intend to expand on that fic one day, so it makes more sense and what I have in mind for it is very sad (but it gets better).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uhhhh. I feel like most of my fics read as "happy for now" or maybe it's just my perception. If I had to choose, then evocatio and aforementioned your smile, so bright (i want to save that light).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, never. Hope it stays this way.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! All kind?? I am not sure how to answer ahaha but tbh I tend to write the smut that "fits" my personal view. It is easy to fall into the "everyone reads fics with smut more than without smut" hole but I won't force something just to be more appealing.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not a big fan of crossovers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. If somebody steals my fic, better run.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, back in wrestling fandom. I also translated some of the fics I read and wrote (also for wrestling fandom).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, with @boxboxbrioche! We have something else cooking together but our existing baby is, in my very humble opinion, fucking amazing – sink your teeth, Fernando/Lance vampire au with a twist.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh, tough one. I'd say, as of today, Strollonso and Maxiel.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have some fics marinating in my gdocs that I came up with a long time ago and some things have changed since then. Like a major werewolf au, vampire piarles fic and an a/b/o fic that will get me in fandom jail if I ever get it done (it's very ambitious).

16. What are your writing strengths?

This feels like bragging lmao... I write action well. And introspection, character study. Metaphors are my best friends and boy or boy do I love to use them. I want to say... the plot in general? I feel like that and pace in general is something I can write well. I rely a lot on "mic drops" and always make sure they hit the spot.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I OVEREXPLAIN EVERYTHING. THIS WON'T GIVE ME PEACE. and also dialogues. I do not know how humans communicate apparently. Smut isn't my biggest forte and it always feels like a convoluted strategy I need to play out.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't mind it. I sneak a couple of phrases or words of endearment for characters whose primary language isn't english. It's always tricky to write someone who isn't a native english speaker solely in english. You kinda walk the fine line between keeping it as close as possible to the way the character speaks in real life and how you would interpret them speaking in english.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

God......... anime fandom when I was 12.... bye.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Well, I gotta give it to my first love – green light, red wine (and i don't feel fine). Beloved mafia au <3 it brings me joy.

this was fun! I'm gonna tag @mysticalbreadcollective @leclercenjoyer @flawlessassholes @wolfiemcwolferson @lil-shiro @pinkierre <3

[healerelowen]

Baby fever go brrrr

So very self-indulgent eloist librarian kids time

-They differ in age based in groups of 4 considering that they were made in batches of 4. I'll give a list of em from oldest to youngest and also I'm going with @ratherpekewliar's idea of naming them after literary subgenres.

-Group 1(Eldest); Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi, and Mystery.

-Group 2(Second eldest); Dystopian, Adventure, Horror, and Thriller.

-Group 3(Middle); Literary, Magic, Memoir, and Bio.

-Group 4(Second youngest); History, Travel, Guide and Spirit.

-Group 5(Youngest); Cozy, Quiet, Mythic, and West.

-Small note for some of the names, a few of them had been condensed since, you know, it would be a bit weird if you named your kid 'Magical Realism', plus I think it just sounds better.

-All 20 of them are curious, busy bees. All day, every day is spent finding and discovering new files for their mother and my lovely wife, the Archivist, to archive.

-The fifth group is still getting used to things, considering that technichaly they weren't really a thing until just recently. So they're still little infant babies in robot terms. As in they can walk, they can speak a few coherent words but otherwise are still babies <3

-Sparky is an aunt of 20 niblings now I guess./vvv lh

-Very curious about organic life, and having a father who is such a thing never fails to fascinate them. Archivist sometimes has to pry them off whenever they pile up on me though.

-They really enjoy it when I or their mother tells them stories, especially during bed time.

-Speaking of bed time, we all just kinda collectively sleep in a large pile together. It's very cozy.

-I love being a father of 20 fictional kids :)

[bettyfrommars]

hi!! i was wondering if you could give some movie, book, tv show, or fic recs for my spooky szn media list this year? a lot of the things you write are absolutely the kind of vibe that im going for, so i figured you would be the best person to ask for those kind of things. im very new to the horror genre (just stepping out of slashers and into magical realism and paranormal type things). and ofc you don’t have to, but id love to know what some of your favorite twilight zone episodes are!

no pressure to respond, you were just the first person i thought of when it came to asking recs from, since your taste seems to be the same niche that i have.

(btw im 18+ so you don’t have to worry about giving tame recs)

I love you for asking this because it gets me excited for the season and reminds me of things I need to revisit. Okay, so I'm going to start off with books because this is very important, and I love this series sooooo much this time of year. I usually re-read it or listen to the audiobooks, it's called the Pine Deep Trilogy by Jonathan Maberry (Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man's Song, and Bad Moon Rising), and it's such a fall fic you can taste the colors. It's based in a town known for its Halloween celebrations (lots of cornfields, haunted mazes, lots of actual evil lurking) There are ghouls and zombies and vampires in this and it's so thrilling, the pages will fly by.

Also these story collections by Joe Hill: Full Throttle and Strange Weather.

I do a rewatch of the show Tales from the Crypt every year, that is a staple. I'm also a sucker for anthologies like Body Bags, Creepshow, and The Monster Club. I watch a LOT of campy horror and campy slashers, most of which I'm sure you are familiar with. I was going to make a list of the b-movies and MST3K episodes I love, but I don't think that is what you are asking me for, and I don't want to get carried away and embarrass myself 💀 If you are interested in those things, pls leave another anon message and I will.

I will forever recommend the vampire series True Blood, it's iconic and I believe the first two seasons are free on Amazon Prime.

Favorite Twilight Zone episodes! I can tell I would love you in real life because you ask the best questions. Definitely "To Serve Man" that one still gives me shivers when I think about it today. "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" but I prefer the John Lithgow version in Twilight Zone: The Movie, because look at the original version, I actually feel sad for this baby:

"A Most Unusual Camera" I think that is the name of it is another one. "Will the real martian please stand up" is so good. Oh god, and "The Lonely" is another one. I used to be on the road a lot, and if you ever are, I recommend The Twilight Zone collections on audible, they are acted out like old radio show dramas.

As far as fic rec from here, I've actually been thinking about searching around for ones that have a spooky/fall vibe and doing a post about it---hopefully soon.

You are a doll, and I am so happy you reached out xoxoxoxox

[barbiegirldream]

ouch yeah the difference between comics and movies is what created the rift on how civil war is perceived by the audience. like in the comics it was very blatant commentary since if i remember correctly the talking points were fascist and the main target were mutants for simply being born like that and it was deeply fucked up to put them on any kind of register/list because again nazi rhetoric obvious even to a complete idiot. but the movies had a lot of problems to transfer this idea, mainly i think because of:

a) no mutants, already bad plot change since the mutants were literally the main point of it all, beings simply wanting to exist in peace because they were born like that. they changed it into superheroes being the main target but the thing is with mutants it was literal blatant fascism but here the waters were muddied because none of the avengers were born like that, which brings to point

b) the avengers and mcu as a whole were trying really hard to be realistic and gritty and when you go full realism, yeah country sovereignity and oversight of powerful organisations are common and expected. when the writers tried to make it based on our reality they wrote themselves into a corner, because yeah no shit the avengers would be fucking hated to hell and back if they were real, they do whatever the fuck they want with zero oversight and no respect for any law of any country. when in the comics mutants were treated horribly even as babies then the discrimination is very in your face and no sane person would agree but when a team of random people have the power of several nukes combined in a story that hopelessly clings to realism? no sane person would say "yeah sure leave them unchecked, i trust this group of strange unstable people to never do anything bad or destructive"

have no idea if my ideas make sense im sorry i might be blabering but this was the thing that has been bothering me for a while like yeah obviously comics address real life issues all the time through smart storytelling but the mcu movies are simply not smart enough for that they just fuck everything up . idk how to explain it better but the comics have a type of suspension of disbelief (destroyed towns being magically fixed, conflicts being solved in a few issues, etc.) like old cartoon shows where after the episodic disaster the town is back to normal. but mcu really wanted to copy reality and the laws of it 1:1 ratio and it became a huge mess

exactly but also civil war the movie was a mess. cause t'challa was only on tony's side to catch bucky. peter didn't know what the fuck they were fighting for just that iron man wanted him to help contain captain america. tony grabbed him last minute cause he saw spider-man catch a car with his bare hands and figured yeah that'll be useful. a lot of tony's support hinged on being able to leverage the Winter Soldier against people. cause I feel like a lot of people forget in Civil War that most people involved were not interested in the Accords. Like yes Steve opposed them but he more opposed keeping Bucky locked up.

Natasha swapped sides half way through cause she also didn't give a fuck and she's an international super spy she was Neva signing something that would allow the government to track her actions. Black Widow the movie kinda proved this.

Once T'challa realized that Bucky was not at fault he helped him and gave shelter to Steve. In the end Steve had all his friends by his side ready to back him up and fight to the death for him. And Tony had Rhodey and Pepper... right back where he started but Steve was still in his corner.

AND after Far From Home/No Way Home I think it's safe to say if Peter was ever asked to actually sign the accords he'd have been right there with Steve punching Tony in the face.

So I think it's safe to say the narrative of the MCU Civil War ultimately shows you that Steve is the good guy in the right but since the law branded him a fugitive all these cop brained people who only ever say acab cause they saw it trending are on Tony's side

(ALSO Civil War as a movie completely disproves the premise of Endgame and I think Steve got the worst ending out of any character including those who fucking died.)

[uhoh-but-yeah-alright]

When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass it on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love! 🩷

💕 ILYSM, Marigold

You know I'm allergic to decisions, but here are five that I'm particularly grateful to have written:

You Saw Me Standing Alone | girl!Larry | 4k | M | magical realism (the most magical fic I'll ever write, thanks to you)

Going Green (so fucking green) | Larry | 5.7k | E | porn with feelings, D/s (maybe it's strange to feel so warmly proud of one's first foray into real porn, yet here I stand)

We Can Find a Place to Feel Good | Larry | 8k | T | high school AU, school dances, first love, inspired by “Treat People with Kindness” (these sweet babies will live in my heart forever)

Fall into the Middle of her Greatness | Larry, Zourry | 2.5k | E | established relationship, Dorothrry-inspired, roleplay, D/s undertones (the inspiration for this took me by surprise and I fucking loved writing it)

doG…and his friend | Larry | 3k | T | crack fic, Joan Song (SNL sketch) AU (this absolutely ding dong idea I wish I could give my brain a kiss on the cheek)

[gravitywonagain]

If you're still doing the WIP game I'd like to hear about Under Streetlights

i am! i will always be doing this game! i love this game! sorry it took a month to get back to it! thank you for the ask <3<3<3

Under Streetlights is one of my babies :) it is a strange vibes, modern, magical-realism story in which lwj and wwx match on grindr while trying to pass the time in florida, thirteen years after wwx died. it is very loosely based on the song "3 Nights" by Dominic Fike -- like, super loosely. the name might change, i'm not sure yet, but if it does, it'll probably be to another lyric in that song.

it was actually my first attempt at writing from lwj's pov, and my first attempt at writing a story that swaps povs. it'll be 5 chapters long, the first 4 are fully drafted, the fifth is started, but i've been writing it for several years at this point, so that means almost nothing. i want it to be completely finished (at least drafted) before i post it.

the vibe of it is really fun for me, because it's this weird, off-kilter feeling, like being caught on the back foot in a daydream kind of thing. the first ch -- and the second one, too, actually -- have it, but the rest of it will need some editing to make it feel wrong in the right way. this lwj did not have the coping mechanism of dangerous and chaotic nighthunts, so he went with other things, namely anonymous sex and smoking tobacco. lwj smoking is a big part of this story, so be aware of that if it's a problem for you. it's okay, wwx doesn't like it either.

there's mentions of magic, but it's not a modern cultivation thing. it's a magic is real but rare and we all just kind of deal with that thing. still, full resurrection is pretty weird. it also gives almost no answers in terms of how or why wwx came back, but it does have some gruesome details of wwx waking up in his coffin.

i also have 9-box moodboards made for each chapter (except the last one because it's not even really plotted out yet, except for very major beats) which i started doing when i needed a break from words (meaning both wagbfm and just writing in general). so those will at least be posted here, if not embedded in the ao3 chapters when they go up!

okay, enough rambling. here's an excerpt!

His jaw is tight, sore from another night of clenching his teeth through the same nightmare. (Headlights. Shattered glass. Twisted metal. Blood. So much blood, and not enough. His chest heaves against the airbag that isn't there.)  The cigarette paper is thin against his lips as he takes another drag. He rolls them himself, buying tobacco and papers rather than red and white cartons full of convenience and plastic. He tells himself he likes the ritual of it. Mostly he just likes the flavor better.  When he lets himself -- when he can’t help himself -- he imagines--  Smoke rushes out with his breath and he squeezes his eyes shut. Skin pulls tight over his cheekbones until he relaxes, opens his eyes again. Inhales.  He imagines-- Wei Ying would have thought this was cooler. He can picture it so clearly: Wei Ying with his leather jacket and his roguish smile, hanging off Lan Zhan’s arm, watching the easy motions of Lan Zhan’s fingers, closing his lips around the filter, leaning in with flame flickering in his stormcloud-grey eyes as Lan Zhan cups the lighter and the paper begins to burn…  It’s an indulgence. One that makes his hands tremble.  Lan Zhan had always wanted to be cool to Wei Ying.

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