#hopefully i can get chapter 1 out soonish

[lazilybeinglassie]

Everytime I go looking for more Shadow Milk content lately, it seems like it is harder to find ones of him being the bitch that he is.

Don't take this as me dunking on what people like. I can see the fun in redemption arcs and shipping galore. Like, I would be a hypocrite if I said that was stupid stuff, I have made fanfiction of those things. And I don't want people thinking I want less of that. Fandom, go wild in your fun!

I guess this vent post is just me feeling sad that not a lot of people are getting creative with Villain Shadow Milk as I thought they would. Yes, we have only two episodes of content to go by. But by all means, I wanna see this fandom make him a monster. Give me irredeemable SM. Give me his worst attributes! Make him disgusting, make him hateble! SHOW ME THE VILLAIN THAT HE IS AND WORSE!

Again, not less of what the internet is dishing out, just more of what the internet is lacking.

Idk, you tell me if I'm just not looking hard enough or I'm just a picky consumer.

[bluestringpudding]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @silently--here and @uncannycerulean for the tags!

How many works do you have on AO3?

19 (+ 1 that's waiting to be revealed for a fest)

What's your total AO3 word count?

329,661 😳

What fandoms do you write for?

Just Harry Potter. Maybe I should diversify?

What are your top 5 fics by Kudos?

Live like common people Dramione/Draco pretending to be a muggle (88,794 words)

How did we get here? The sequel to the above, aka Draco wishing he could still just pretend he was a muggle. (153,536 words)

Dragons Only The Draco/Charlie drabble (289 words)

A Song of Ice and Fire and Awkward Ex Boyfriends The other Dramione, this time with dragons. 🐉(20,272 words)

Just a Minerva in time The MinMione time travel one (6,460 words)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Unless you're an absolute arsehole, and even then, I would rather reply (but only if I can come up with an appropriate retort). Why? Because I love the interaction. Getting a comment, no matter how small, will always make my day. So, it feels right to at least say thanks. Also, I met one of my now good friends through us chatting in our fics' comments. So who knows what might come of it.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, probably One Last Cup.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I've not written the ending yet, but it's going to be How Did We Get Here? If only because I have become waaayyy too attached to all of the characters to give them anything but.

Do you get hate on fics?

It's not quite hate, and I know it could be worse, but How Did we get here? garners some pretty strong reactions. They're a downer.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I've only published very mild smut, but I have written more explicit stuff since, and some of it is in the next chapter I'm publishing, and I'm scared.

Do you write crossovers?

No, I struggle enough with one fandom. Huge respect to the people who manage it

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah. They're not good enough for that.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes! Three actually. Idle in Kangaroo Court W1, for the mixed up writer fest. We ran out of steam, so it's unfinished, but I keep promising myself I'm going to finish it one day. Then two more with some friends, one short one for the rare pairs fest, that will be revealed soonish. Then one long fic that 3 of us a writing, which is err... in progress.

What's your all time favourite ship?

Call me a basic bitch, but I will always be such a sucker for Dramione.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I have a really unhealthy stubborn streak that won't let me leave things unfinished, so hopefully none. Though Idle in Kangaroo Court is most at risk, because its been so long (and I feel I have to reach out to my co-author to check they don't mind, and my social anxiety is one of the few things that trumps my stubbornness).

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I keep thinking I should try writing something as a script.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions and flowery language. I have to work hard at imagining visuals, so a lot of the time I don't. And I'm too literal to do well with metaphors.

Thoughts in writing dialogue in another language?

I've never really had any before. I guess I don't mind it in small amounts, if the meaning can be inferred from context or reactions. It's annoying if you miss something by not understanding what it means.

First Fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

Favourite fic you've written?

Oh god, that's like asking me to chose between my children! Live Like Common People will always have a special place in my heart, as it was my first and the characters will forever live rent free in my head.

But also, I'm most proud of Tattletail, because I think it is technically my best piece of writing.

Tagging anyone who wants to play, as I suspect I'm one of the last of my mutuals to get round to this.

[guess-my-next-obsession]

alright guys buckling down and gonna be very upfront about the current state of some of my series. we got a few permanent cancellations (not gonna delete them completely, you can still find them in my tags, but they’re going to be taken off my masterlists soon).

starting out w/ cancelled series:

1. The Mandalorian and The Corellian — i wrote myself into a hole w this one and truthfully don’t have the passion or desire to pull myself out of it so she’s getting the axe.

2. Love In The Time Of Covid — once again, the fire died out on this beauty way too early on. maybe one day i’ll rework it like August but probably not.

now onto series that are concluding soonish:

1. The Stable Girl — one more chapter left in this beaut! my first ever joel fic and there’s a lot i would like to change about it but all in all, she’s a sweet little comfort fic that i’ve loved writing.

2. Peña’s Anatomy — there’s supposed to be six chapters left (that might dwindle down to four if i keep writing long chapters like i have been). hopefully concluding sometime in february. after season two, i don’t see another season for these bbs, but god do i love this story.

3. August — the first season will be ending probably late january. right now i imagine a season two but that could change!

and finally my newest series/when i hope to finish them by:

1. Plastic Hearts — there’s still about six chapters left of this, but right now i’m not imagining a season two. if there will be one, it’ll probably be next year. hopefully gonna have this finished by the end of the year/mid january.

2. Ivy & Stone — seven chapters left, definitely getting a season two sometime in the spring?? i would like to finish the first season by mid january.

3. Breaking Up Slowly — a four part Joel Miller series that i have yet to talk about/properly announce. i plan on having it up and finished before TLOU airs on January 15th.

4. ‘Tis The Damn Season — a Marcus Pike Christmas series that will soon be posted. hope to have this short series finished by the new year!

ALSO SOMEONE PLS REMIND ME NEXT YEAR TO FINISH A DAMN SERIES BEFORE I GO AND START ANOTHER THX

[bylightofdawn]

I broke my own rules and kept writing past midnight cause I was stubbornly intent on finishing out this scene. I'm now at 9,700 words. I have a tentative fic title. I am HOPING I will be able to bring this to an end around 15,000 words. -crosses fingers- Also, I wish my writing bug would just let me finish Seeds for fucks sake. LOL It's pretty clear I was burned out as fuck with SW since these fics are coming so easily. Which makes me sad but I'm hoping I can go back to my home fandom revived and more eager to pick up my SW fics. I definitely thing Seeds has been a major part of my burnout sadly. It go to the part where I was resenting it and actively hated what I was producing on it. I still have 10 chapters pre-written which is like almost 3 months before I'm out of chapters in which to post so hopefully I can get my ass in gear and finish it soonish. Preferably without not hating every line I write.

I STG I am never writing a super long fic like this again. Bleh

Tomorrow I have to start editing the next chapter of MTIABD so I don't know how much writing I'll get done and I just heard from mom tonight that she wants me to go over to her house on Thursday to help decorate for Christmas so I think most of my afternoon/evening will be gone which means I HAVE to edit Seeds on Weds night.

Long story short, I don't think I"ll get much writing done in the next two days which is why I'm breaking my own rules. Now it's 1:15 and I NEED to go to bed.

[heroscans]

Hero Scans November Status update

It’s that time again... the days seem to speed past in a blur. I’m cringing a little at the number of projects that have had minimal progress in the last 3 months - I’m sorry, dear readers, migraines have been unforgiving, and our group members have been pretty busy with university and work. That being said, we are more on track than we were, so please continue to bear with us!

Ongoing projects

Akiyama-kun: I’m currently typesetting the rather insane extra chapter to release with chapter 5 and get vol 2 off our plate. 

Badass: We are currently up to date, and Haji-sensei confirmed that the December edition of Canna will contain the penultimate chapter of Badass, at 41 pages.

Boys of the Dead:  The final chapter was released in October’s issue of Canna, and the tanko is due for release on 12/28.  Kimchi is helping me out with the last bit of cleaning of chapter 4 as I am swamped, and the typesetting is about half done.  I’m considering waiting for the tanko version for chapter 5 as I know there has been some repaneling of previous chapters, so there will be other pages to redo anyway. 

Gift: I’m working on chapter 8 at the moment, probably about 50% through the typeset. Chapter 9 is also about 50% done.

Hadakeru:  I’m almost done with the chapter 10 typeset.

Hotaru wa Ashita Shinu: Argh!  Well, I have started typesetting chapter 4, and finished the cleans for chapter 5, but I’ve been a bit focused on getting Zetsubou off the ground since I was able to start working seriously again, so I haven’t given this the focus it needs as chapter 4 is demanding. 

Ikotsu no Tabiji: We expect chapter 4 to be released in the December edition of Canna. I’m currently finishing off the typeset for chapter 2, and chapter 3 is fully cleaned, translated, and proofed, and just going for initial typeset now.

Itoshi no XL Saizu: Gigabytes has typeset the second chapter of vol 2, so it’s just a matter of making time for the qc and sorting out the decensoring. Chapter 3 is cleaned and translated, and waiting to be proofed.

Kyouken Hachiko: The Vol 2 extra is typeset and going through QC, and we’ll typeset the short Vol 1 extra and release the two together.  Ravioli is currently translating chapter 12.

Love me Love my dog:  I managed to squeeze in some work on the second chapter, but I haven't been able to dedicate serious time to it in the last months.

Makotoshiyaka: My poor neglected favourite, ugh.  I am still working on chapter 4, there are a few pieces of typesetting that are a little difficult to sort out harmoniously with the artwork, but once I’ve sorted that out the rest is straightforward. The volume is fully translated.

Shiawase: Chapter 6 is typeset and decensored, and going through QC.  the Kagefumi no koi chapters are also typeset and decensored, and going through QC.  Chapter 6.5 is fully proofed, and I’ll start the typeset shortly.

Strange Paradise:  About 90% done with SP4, I will make time for this before Christmas, damn it. SP5 is translated but work remains to be done on the cleans.

Reverse: Ugh, yes, migraines and scheduling. :( Varrick is helping me out with the chapter 2 typeset so hopefully we will be able to release it soonish, and chapter 3 is fully cleaned.

Warau Oni: Not huge amounts of progress on this, though I typeset about half of chapter 7 recently.  Rina has been hugely productive on the translation front, so all 3 volumes are fully translated.

Yamaarashi no Ondo: I’m in the middle of typesetting chapter 5, and we expect chapter 6 in the next edition of ihrHertz.

Zetsubou: This long-running series is finally coming to an end, with the final chapter being released in the next edition of OnBlue. Dusting the first 4 chapters of Zetsubou has eaten a certain amount of my time recently, but once that is done, I can mostly leave the heavy lifting to the rest of the team, hurrah!  Kimchi is working on Chapter 3, Varrick is typesetting Chapter 2, Astro is gracing us with great decensoring, and I am dusting Chapter 4. 

As Yet Unreleased Projects:

Eden:  Ichinose Yuma has finally brought this to a close, with the final chapter being due out in the coming issue of Be Boy.  Kimchi is finishing the cleans for chapter 1, but after that we do still want to wait for the tanko release(s), as there is a huge amount of decensoring required otherwise.

Kimi ni omou, Ao:  This is fully cleaned and translated, but I still have work to complete on the first chapter typeset.

Konya Beddo de Matteiru:  Once I’ve cleared a few more chapters off my plate, I will finish up chapter 1. Chapter 4 will be released in the next iHertz. Soreha Amakute nigai:  I haven’t had time to look at the chapter typeset since the original typesetter went on hiatus, but once Shiawase is complete, I’ll pick up the first chapter.  The volume is fully translated.

Toumei na Ai no Utsuwa: The lovely Ravioli and Aizengard are translating this one for us, and Tina is working on the cleaning for chapter 1.

Yumeimiru Vampire: Gigabytes has done a lovely job on the first chapter typeset, we’ve just been waiting for the decensoring, so I’ll try and qc this next week. 

[authenticcadence18]

(Aaaaah i’m doing this so late but THANK YOU SM FOR THE TAG @bugaboo-n-bananoir IT MADE ME FEEL SO SPECAL🥺)

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 8 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome work!

1. Can’t Help Falling in Love: ok the rest of these aren’t going to be in any particular order, but this is by far my favorite thing I created in 2020! I’ve never written a story this long before, and getting to really pour my heart into it and receive so much positive feedback for it (especially in a year as painful and stressful as 2020😅) has been, just, absolutely incredible. I’m excited to post the next chapter soonish!!!! It’s really cool to know self-indulgent Phinabella fic still resonates today😊

2. Do You Trust Me? This is my favorite fic I’ve written for Miraculous Ladybug! I posted the first chapter in February and then fell out of writing for a bit, but I was able to finish it in the beginning of July (thanks to some inspiration from the lovely @macaronsforchat!).

3. Phinabella New Years Comic: I had the story for this comic in my head for quite awhile, and it was so fun to finally bring it to life at the end of the year! I also had fun experimenting with a different coloring style inspired by some of my favorite artists.

4. “Uncle Phineas Thinks You’re Pretty!” This fic was inspired by this tumblr post written by @city-of-airplane-parts! It’s short, cute, funny, and one of my favorite things i wrote in 2020!

5. This Smooch: i drew a loooot of Phinabella smooches this year, and this is definitely one of my favorites. It’s one of the first pieces I drew in procreate, so it was both an experiment for me and an excuse to draw my OTP being soft and in love😌

6. The Flower Box: I wrote this Marichat fic for Love Square Fluff week and it gained FAR more attention than I thought it would. (It’s currently my most popular ML fic! ) All that positive feedback really helped me and encouraged me to keep writing.

7. “Isabella” I WROTE A SONG THIS YEAR!!!!! Going through the process of writing it and planning an animatic to go along with it has been soo so fun, and I look forward to continuing (and hopefully finishing) this project this year!

8. The Start of Something New: ok so I wrote a High School Musical ML au for Love Square Fluff Week, and even though it’s kinda silly I’m really fond of it! If I ever decide to write ML again, it would be fun to explore this concept more!!!!

9. “The Walls Between Us” Cover: so last year @carpisuns wrote an amazing English translation of “Ce mur qui nous sépare,” and I loved it so much I had to record a cover of it!!! It was SO SO COOL to sing her lyrics and put them all together!!

2020 was a very, very strange year, but having this blog and you guys helped me a lot, so thank you!!!!! I’m not going to tag anyone since we’re 3 months into 2021 at this point (....which is so weird....), but if you see this and want to share your favorite creations from 2020, DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

[snowdice]

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 25]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

I have to go to bed soonish, but I’m doing a bit of editing... so...

Chapter 10

Patton spent most of the day setting up the closet into a makeshift bedroom. They moved the clothing that had been in that closet to a storage area in the potion’s lab, and Patton fussed over the arrangement of the pillows and blankets for far longer than necessary. Now he was putting up little decorations on the walls. He continuously asked for Virgil’s opinion, and Virgil always seemed startled by that fact. Logan observed them sitting halfway into the closet while fiddling with the star shaped lights Patton had wanted him to make.

 He figured Virgil would appreciate having the option of multiple light settings for the lights since they’d be above his head all night. Logan had only ever made them with on and off settings before, so he’d grabbed a few of his books; he currently had one in his lap. While he’d already figured out how to make preset settings and had programmed four: off, 100%, 50% and 25%, now he was working on the possibility of making a sliding dimmer. It was a bit more complex of a task, but it should be doable.

“There!” Patton said. “Nice and comfy!”

 Logan glanced up to see the way Virgil’s head tilted like he was trying to puzzle Patton out. Patton just smiled at him. “Go ahead and test it out!” he said. “We can switch things around if you want.”

Virgil obediently crawled into the closet and onto the makeshift bed Patton had made.

“Lay down and make sure it’s okay,” Patton coaxed.

Virgil did, laying down on the pile of pillows and blankets and laying his head on the pillow that had been reserved for that purpose.

“Is it okay?” Patton asked.

Virgil blinked long and slow like he was very much contemplating going to sleep right then and there. Logan wondered if the potion was still affecting him or if he was just still exhausted from before. Perhaps it was both. “Yeah,” he said softly.

 Patton turned to look at Logan. “Are the lights done?” he asked.

“Not quite yet,” Logan said. “They will be ready before it is time to sleep.”

“Sounds good!” Patton said. “We should probably think about dinner soon.”

Logan hummed in acknowledgment and waved his hand over the light he’d been working on. It lit up dim and then slowly increased in power as he moved his hand. Perfect! Now that he’d figured it out, it would not take long to get the rest of the lights working properly. Then he’d just have to install them.

He was just about to shut off the first light when there was a soft knock at the door.

 “Patton,” Patton’s mom’s voice called.

Logan shared a panicked glance with Patton. “Just a second,” Patton called back. “I told her you were sick,” he whispered just loud enough for Logan to hear him.

Logan jumped into action. He shoved the unlit lights under his desk along with the books and lobbed the lit one towards the closet. It missed and bounced on the ground, but Patton seemed to get the idea and picked it up, handing it to Virgil. “Sorry, sorry,” Patton said to the boy. “Just be quiet please.”

Logan hurried over to his bed and pulled the covers up over himself. Patton was there in the next second tossing a cloth over his forehead; hopefully she wouldn’t notice that it was not wet.

 Then, Patton was zipping to the door. He glanced back at Logan when he got there who nodded, laying back. He pulled open the door. “Hi Mama!” Patton said cheerfully.

“I brought you boys up some dinner,” she said.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” Patton said sweetly; for someone who always preached the virtues of truthfulness, he was an awfully good fibber. “I could have come down and gotten us something. I was actually thinking about it right before you knocked.”

“It was no trouble,” Patton’s mom said. “I brought chicken and noodle soup for Logan since he wasn’t feeling well.”

 She looked over at Logan and smiled. “How are you feeling, sweetie?” she asked.

“I’m doing better. Ms. Heart, thank you,” Logan said.

She pushed a small cart past Patton loaded with food then and brought it to his bedside. “I brought chicken and noodle soup, some bread and butter, and a few apples from the garden for you two. Do you want anything else?”

“No thank you, ma’am,” Logan said.

“This is great, Mama,” Patton said. “Thank you.” He seemed to be subtly angling to hurry her out of the door, but she did not leave right away.

“What did you two do today?” she asked.

 “I mostly slept,” Logan lied. “And I read a bit.”

“I mostly just read too and helped Logan out.”

She continued to talk to them for a few more agonizing minutes before standing to leave. “Are you staying with Logan again tonight, sweetie?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” Patton said. “If that’s okay.”

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll come check on you both in the morning.”

They both smiled and nodded as she left the room. Patton slumped against the bed when she was gone. “Hiding an assassin in your closet is stressful,” he said.

“Indeed,” Logan agreed, sitting up in bed.

 Patton got off the bed and went back over to the closet. “Sorry about that,” he said. Virgil was still sitting in the closet with the light in his lap. “But we have dinner! Want to come eat?”

He nodded immediately and crawled out of the closet. His bracelets vibrated slightly when he crossed the threshold and they shifted from the mode that let him move freely to the one that made him move slowly.

They split the dinner. Luckily, Patton’s mom always provided more than enough food so there was plenty for each of them. Virgil seemed content with all the food but seemed particularly fond of the apples. Between that and his reactions to the honey and pancakes, Logan wondered if he had a secret sweet tooth.

 After eating, Logan quickly finished up the other lights and worked on installing them as Patton went poking around in Logan’s other closet and drawers for something Virgil could wear for sleeping and possibly a change of clothing or two for future days.

“I’m going to go get some stuff from my room real quick,” Patton said once they’d found suitable clothing. He set the clothes in the closet next to the bed so Virgil could change in privacy later. “Will you two be okay?”

Logan hummed his assent, continuing to work on getting the lights in the exact right place.

 Once he was satisfied, he motioned Virgil over. “These are your lights,” he explained. “You can control them with this panel I set up.” He pointed to it and then flicked through the four preset light settings. “You can also customize how much brightness you wish to have by waving your hand over the panel slowly.” He demonstrated. “You should be able to reach it fairly easily with your right hand when you are laying down.”

Virgil nodded and then tilted his head up so he could look at the lights on the ceiling. Logan had set them to 25% intensity.

 “It’s the sky,” Virgil said awed.

Logan smiled, please that he’d noticed. “It isn’t completely accurate, but I did my best, at least with the brighter ones.” Virgil looked over at him and for the first time, Logan thought he didn’t see any fear in his eyes. “Is it adequate?”

“It’s great,” he breathed. After that brief moment of calm, he seemed to remember himself, growing wary once again. The contrast between his usual countenance and the one from the moment before inexplicably saddened Logan.

“You must have watched the night sky many times if you can recognize it in a glance,” Logan said.

 “Yeah,” Virgil said. “I did every night at the orphanage in the summer. There was a book on constellations that I found. I don’t remember them all, but I remember a few.”

“Which is your favorite?” Logan asked.

“I really liked the one of the Girl Who Sowed the Forest.”

“I made that one,” Logan said. He leaned over and fiddle with the panel a bit, causing most of the stars to dim except for a dozen.

Virgil smiled at it, and even held up a finger to trace the design of the girl with her basket.

“Do you know the myth behind that constellation?” Logan asked.

 Virgil shook his head.

“It’s about a young girl,” Logan began, “who lived in a town at the edge of a forest. Her exact age varies in the retellings, but usually she is somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. She loved the surrounding forest and would spend hours in it some days picking berries, watching animals, and just exploring. One day, there was a fire. In some stories, a group of soldiers came through and set it; in other’s it was a god who was angry at them. Yet, in most it was a member of the village who was careless and accidently set their village on fire during the night. The village burned down, and the fire spread to the forest. It killed most of the people in the village and burned for weeks. Eventually, it was put out by a rainstorm. The girl was taken by the surviving members of her village somewhere else to finish growing in a less baren place. Years passed until she hit adulthood. Her people sent young men and women on soul searching trips when they came of age. She did not mean to return to her old village and the still destroyed forest, but she stumbled upon it anyway. She looked upon the landscape that had once been her home. The land had not healed since she had left. It was still all ruined and it made her heart ache. She decided then and there that she would take it upon herself to heal what had been broken. She remembered from her childhood what plants and trees used to grow there and went and found seeds from other places and people and brought them back to her home. She spent the rest of her life living in a house she built in her old village, planting seeds, and helping the forest grow once again. By the time her life came to an end, the forest was returning. They say when the trees of that forest finally grew tall enough, years after her passing, they themselves placed her image in the sky.”

 “Wow,” Virgil said. “I didn’t know the myths were that complex.”

“I also enjoy watching the stars,” Logan said, “and constellations are good for navigation. I’ve found the stories people have made up about them more often than not are meant to help one navigate life.”

“Do you know others?” he asked tentatively.

“I do,” Logan confirmed. “Would you like to hear another?” He nodded, and Logan reached over to turn all of the stars back to 25%. “Which one would you like to hear about next?”

When Patton returned, he didn’t disturb their conversation. Instead he just sat down silently next to him and listened to Logan tell the stories.

 Virgil started to droop part way through the third story, and Patton suggested he lay down. He tucked the boy in as Logan continued the story. Eventually he fell asleep, face lit lightly by the hanging stars.

“Okay,” Patton said when Logan ended the story and Virgil still didn’t stir.” I think it’s probably time for us to go to bed too. Logan nodded and they both stood. Logan quietly shut the closet door and checked the binding spell around the closet’s exit to make sure it would hold. Then, he and Patton got ready to go to sleep themselves.

  Chapter 11

Over the course of the next three days of Virgil’s captivity, Virgil would come to the conclusion that his captors were idiots.

This thought flickered to life once again as Logan leaned into the closet to point out another constellation on the ceiling, tottering unstably on his knees as his weight shifted forward and distracted by his enthusiasm.

They were alone in the prince’s room. Patton had left only a few minutes before to help his mother in the kitchen (less because she needed help and more to not make her suspicious about why he’d spent so much time away in the last few days).

 He wouldn’t be back for a while and Virgil had full mobility in the closet. With Logan leaning over the threshold like that, it would be easy to kill him or even just incapacitate him. One rough yank on his arm would have him completely in the closet. Virgil had no question that he could pin him down so he couldn’t activate the restraints, and even if he managed to do so, he’d have been drawn close enough that Virgil could use his legs. He could either force him to take off the cuffs or, since they automatically went to the second setting when he left the closet, just deal with it until he managed to get away.

 It would just be so easy. Yet, he did not. He just watched Logan as he leaned stupidly over an assassin while info dumping about stars.

This was the first day that he hadn’t felt at all tired when he’d drank the provided nutrition and healing potion, though it had never affected him quite as much as it had the first day. Logan said that meant that his injuries must be healed. It was a weird feeling. He didn’t remember when the last time was that he wasn’t damaged in some way. Even before his grueling training, there’d always been bullies at the orphanage and he’d been the youngest and smallest in his age group.

 He was also more well rested and fed than he had been in as long as he could remember. He felt better then he knew was possible today, and he suspected that he would only feel better after a bit more time under their care.

He told himself that is why he didn’t lash out now. He was waiting until he was as strong as possible to make sure his escape went as well as it could, even if it was a risk. They’d mentioned that the king would be gone for three weeks. After he returned, Virgil would surely be turned over to people much more capable of actually keeping him well trapped and less likely to feed him well, give him a nice place to sleep, and leave him without injury. It was a gamble to stay, because it was possible that he wouldn’t find another opportunity in time and would get handed over to his fate. Really, if he was being reasonable, he should get out now while he felt good and had a secured opportunity.

 Still, he did not. He had not any of the times they’d given him the opportunity in the last few days. Logan finished his sentence and leaned back out of the closet to safety. He still was speaking though in that soft happy tone. Logan liked the stars. He liked to talk about the stars, and Virgil found he liked to listen to him. They tended to end up in this position whenever Patton was away, just talking as Virgil laid in his closet.

Eventually, Logan’s latest story tapered out. There was silence then for a few moments. Virgil stared up at the fake stars on the ceiling. The stars that Logan had made for him when he really did not have to. Virgil had not been expecting lights in the closet, let alone ones so beautiful and thoughtful. Not ones with stories behind them. Just days ago, if someone had told Virgil the prince would be keeping him in his closet for the next few weeks, Virgil wouldn’t have expected a blanket let alone all of this.

 He turned his head to look at Logan. “What?” Logan asked.

“Your magic’s very beautiful,” Virgil said.

Logan seemed pleased by the complement, lighting up almost as much as the stars he made. “Well, it’s just a basic light spell,” he said, “though I did make some adjustments to them and the dimmer was a bit more difficult. Anyone could do it with practice.”

Virgil shook his head. “They’re special, I think,” he said. “Your magic’s different than most people.”

“How so?” Logan asked curiously.

“It’s gentle,” he said. “Gentle and warm, like eating the warm soup you fed me a couple of days ago.”

 “And other people’s magic feels different?” he asked.

Virgil nodded. “I’ve met a lot of magic users, but it always felt bad. Usually it hurts or makes you feel sick or just makes you uncomfortable. Even healing magic always felt like bugs nibbling at my skin, but the potion you’ve been having me drink in the morning feels… safe. It doesn’t hurt or make me want to cry. It’s just good.”

“Magic often has much to do with the caster’s intentions,” Logan said.

“I think you could poison me gently.”

Logan made an odd expression. “That…” he said, nose scrunched. “That is a strange thing to say.”

Virgil cocked his head. “Is it?”

 “Yes!” Logan said, shaking his head. “You are far too comfortable with the concept of death for your age.”

“I’m fourteen,” Virgil argued. “That’s old enough to be sent on missions without a blood compulsion!”

“…A what?” Logan asked.

“A blood compulsion,” Virgil said. “You know, with a multrum.” Logan was frowning at him. “One works in your gardens and you’re a prince. You had to at least have seen one or two. They take a bit of blood and multrums process it into a little bead. Then you’ve got to do what your told or it hurts a lot.”

 “I know what a blood compulsion is,” Logan said. “I am simply wondering who would put one on a fourteen-year-old.”

“They don’t,” Virgil said. “They stop putting them on people when they turn fourteen.”

“And exactly what is the age range for it?” Logan asked. Virgil was almost startled by the way his tone was quickly hardening. He’d never heard him be that harsh even when he’d first woken up in his custody. It made Virgil tense up.

“They take kids usually when they’re about 8 and it’s a year of training before your sent on a mission so 9-13,” he said.

 “That’s horrible,” Logan spat so violently that Virgil flinched. Logan didn’t seem to notice. “They force children to kill under a blood compulsion?”

“Well, no one really wants to do it without one when they’re that little. They get scared, and usually try to chicken out so…”

“So, they torture them unless they kill someone.”

“I mean… it’s not. They have to agree to the deal.”

“And if they don’t agree to it?” Logan asked.

Virgil thought back to the second time they’d made him get a blood compulsion. It had been with the multrum before Janus, a girl by the name of Alina. He’d made the mistake of hesitating on his first kill and faced the consequences before finally giving in and doing the job. When the second mission had come around, Virgil hadn’t wanted to accept the blood compulsion.

 That had been the first time they’d made him drink a binding potion. Logan seemed to be able to get an idea about it by the look on his face.

“So, your options were to be tortured, be tortured in a different way, or murder someone.” Logan looked at him. “You said your fourteen. Have you ever even killed of your own volition?”

“I… no,” he admitted, but quickly added, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t. I know what I’m doing.”

“That explains a lot about your personality and reactions so far.”

Virgil rankled at that for some reason. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

 Logan just stared at him for a long moment. “What they did, what they are doing isn’t right you know?” he said.

Virgil blinked at him but said nothing. He became more and more uncomfortable in the silence that ensued.

“Would you like to learn more about magic?” he asked. “There are many uses other then to hurt. I can teach you a few basics if you like.”

Virgil was confused about the topic change but was relieved about it. “Uh,” he thought. “Sure. That would be… interesting.”

Logan smiled at him. “I’ll set up something and we can work with it in the next few days. What would you like to learn?”

“Um, I have no idea. What is there?”

Logan considered it for a moment. “We could do a hair color changing potion. Or perhaps a small protection charm or I can teach you to make fire shapes.”

 “Protection charm,” Virgil said without hesitation.

Logan gave him a sad smile. “Of course. I’ll start showing you how to make them tomorrow and we can actually make some the next day.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed.

“Would you like to hear more about the stars?” he asked. Virgil nodded. He once again leaned into the closet to point and Virgil once again did not move to attack. Nor did he attack when that afternoon Patton turned his back on Virgil for far too long when they were alone. Nor did he when they settled him to bed once again in the closet. He told himself it was strategic, but he knew it wasn’t.

  Chapter 12

Logan had needed to spend some time performing royal duties today which left Patton and Virgil alone after breakfast. Patton had started out trying to teach Virgil different board games. He’d seemed intrigued at first, but after a few games of checkers seemed to grow bored. Patton had gotten a blank stare when he’d asked if Virgil had any ideas about what to do for fun, so now he was trying to figure out something else they could do. He cast his eyes around at what Logan had in his bedroom.

“How about I read you a book?” he suggested.

 Virgil seemed very intrigued by that idea. “Sure,” he said.

“Okay!” Patton said cheerfully. “He popped to his feet and glanced through the small shelf of fiction books Logan kept in his room. He decided to choose one of the lighter ones that Logan and he had liked to read when they were younger. “This one is called The Never-ending Garden,” Patton said. “It’s about a group of four children and their adventures in a garden. It’s full of magic and adventure and friendship! Is that alright with you?”

“It sounds good,” Virgil answered.

Patton happily walked back over to sit next to him. “It is!” he said.

 First, he showed Virgil the picture on the cover of a wild looking garden with four kids roaming through it. One of the children was in a little red wagon being pulled by another one wearing a fancy hat. One of the others was walking, looking at a map while the last had a wooden sword. After giving Virgil a couple of moments too look at the picture, Patton cracked it open.

“We start with Lydia’s perspective,” Patton said. “She’s one of my favorites!” He pointed to a picture of a girl in a raincoat at the beginning of the chapter and Virgil leaned slightly closer to see. Then, Patton cleared his voice.

 “It had been raining that day,” Patton began, “but Lydia had been so bored that she still begged her father to go out and play when the storm lightened into a sprinkle. He made her change from the yellow dress she had been wearing into the one she often used to help him garden because he knew she was certain to get herself muddy. Her younger brother Marcus asked if he could come too and though part of her wanted to say no because she wanted to explore on her own without her baby brother slowing her down, her father had taught her to be a good big sister, so she agreed to let him come.”

 Patton watched Virgil out of the corner of his eye as he read about Lydia meeting up with the neighbor boy, Al, and the three children started to explore the garden in Lydia’s backyard. Virgil leaned in slightly to look at the pictures and listen to the story intently as the three children traveled deeper and deeper into the garden, but never made it to the back fence. They’d just made it to the part where they heard rustling behind the blackberry bush which Patton knew was the last main character, Melly, when Patton felt the need to adjust his posture a bit. Virgil moved in kind and ended up leaning further into Patton.

 Without even really thinking about it, Patton brought his arm around to touch the top of his head. Virgil flinched the second Patton made content and Patton drew the hand away immediately. “Sorry,” he said with a wince. Patton was a naturally touching person and he’d been having trouble battling his instincts to cuddle everyone and everything while around Virgil, but he knew most touch was not welcome. The poor thing startled every time Patton went to touch him unannounced and even sometimes when he’d said something before doing it.

“I-it’s okay,” Virgil said.

Patton gave him a tight lipped smiled and turned back to the book.

 He stilled a second later when Virgil leaned back in and their shoulders brushed. He blinked over at him. “Oh,” he said softly. “Do… do you want me to touch your hair?”

Virgil curled up into himself a little bit but then nodded.

“Okay,” Patton said. “I’m going to put my arm around you and do that then, okay?” He drew upon his years and years of convincing easily startled cats to allow him to give them pats as he slowly moved his arm back to where it had been before and gently touched the side of his head. He tensed, but didn’t startle this time, and so Patton gently ran his fingers through the hair a couple of times. Eventually, the tension bled out of him and he sort of slumped against Patton’s shoulder. Patton just barely restrained a coo before going back to reading. He continued to stroke the side of Virgil’s hair as he described the gang meeting up with Melly and them being told she was a fairy that lived in the garden.

 He'd only gotten to the part about them finding the wagon when Virgil started to shift a bit uncomfortably, his neck craned in an awkward angle. Patton kept reading as he brought the hand in his hair down to his shoulder and pushed lightly. There was the slightest bit of resistance as Virgil didn’t know what he was trying to do, but then he allowed Patton to move him. Patton leaned back a bit and picked the book up off his lap before continuing to push him down. Virgil did not help at all, seeming confused about what was going on.

 Patton had to poke him around until he was on his back laying across Patton’s lap. He grinned down at the boy who was looking at him in blatant bewilderment and propped the book up on his chest. He held it there with one of his hands and stretched the other out to resume messing with his hair. Virgil relaxed into the new position after a few minutes of reading, eyes shutting as he enjoyed the attention. His eyes would flicker open every time Patton moved to show him a picture, but other than that, he seemed content to not move.

 Eventually, he stopped responding when Patton moved to show him the pictures.

“Are you asleep?” he asked quietly. When he didn’t get a response, he bookmarked the last picture Virgil had responded to, and then continued reading to himself.

Eventually, there was a knock at the door. It was the one he and Logan had decided on to tell the other one that it was just them and not to panic when the door opened. The door opened to Logan a moment later.

He paused, taking in the sight of the assassin sprawled across Patton’s lap like a sleepy kitten. He shook his head fondly and walked over to them on silent feet. He bent and pressed a hand to the top of Virgil’s hand. Virgil stirred just barely, but didn’t open his eyes, pressing into the touch a bit.

Logan smiled. “He wanted to learn how to make protection charms today. I assume you’d like to join us?” Patton perked up and nodded happily, making Logan chuckle softly. “I will go set it up then. Would you like another book for the time being?”

“Just the one I was reading last night would be nice,” Patton said.

“Of course.” Logan stepped away to grab it and handed it to him. Then, he disappeared into his potion’s lab. Patton smiled down at Virgil’s sleeping face and settled the new book onto his chest to replace the children’s book. He didn’t even stir.

  Chapter 13

Logan was able to quickly set up the station for making protection charms. Patton had always liked making them, though he often used his more as fun accessories than for protection. The one he was going to show Virgil how to make was a very simple low level one used for little more than to keep bugs off of yourself and, in the event of a well made one, alert one to imminent danger by changing temperature. It was a nice thing to hold in the middle of the night if one was frightened by real or imagined threats. It would be warm to the touch when your environment was safe; he thought Virgil might appreciate it.

 He and Patton decided to wait until Virgil woke up naturally which only took about 30 minutes. Then, Logan brought him to his set up supplies. He explained briefly the process for making a protection charm. “I will be the one performing the enchantment for today,” he told Virgil. “I will show you how to make your own later, but I thought seeing how to make them would help with the learning process.”

“Plus, it’s fun!” Patton said.

Logan flashed a smile at him. “And that as well. I’ve prepared a small number of possible pendants for you to choose from. You can choose the shape and color, then we will put on a custom engraving, as well as decorations.”

 “Glitter! Glitter! Glitter! Glitter!”

“Yes, Patton, everyone knows you’re going to choose glitter,” Logan said, amused, “but why don’t we let Virgil decide for his own pendant?”

“Fine,” Patton said, “but mine will be glitter.”

Logan grabbed the box of blank pendants and offered it to Virgil. “Choose whichever one feels right,” he suggested. Virgil moved forward and looked over the box. “You can touch them,” Logan said. “In fact, I would suggest it as it is meant to be held when it’s done and you may as well get a feel for it.”

At his prompting, Virgil did. He reached into the box and shifted a few to the side. Eventually, he started picking a few up. “I like the crescent shape for holding the most he said,” holding a blue one up, but I don’t know.”

“What’s your favorite color?” Patton asked.

“Oh, um,” he mumbled. “I dunno.”

“Well here,” Patton said, reaching for the box. He dug through it and pulled out every single crescent moon shaped pendant and lined them up. “What do you fancy?”

Virgil considered them all for a long moment and then tentatively pointed the purple one out.

“Great!” Patton said. “Then, we’ll use that one.”

Virgil nodded and Patton picked up the pendant to drop it into his hands. His fingers curled over the shape and he seemed satisfied by the choice, so Logan turned to Patton. “Your turn,” he said.

Patton happily grabbed out a heart shaped blue one, but then paused and exchanged it for a purple one. “We match!” he said.

Virgil smiled slightly at his enthusiasm, and Logan dug out a blue crescent moon shape for himself. “Now that you have your base, you get to choose the engraving.” He opened up the instruction book to the correct page and showed it to him.

Virgil looked over the two pages of designs with carful focus. He wavered between the spiral sun and the flames for a moment, but eventually settled on the flames. Patton chose the interlocking hearts design as anticipated; it was his favorite, and Logan chose the spiral sun design for himself.

“Now, I’m going to engrave this design onto yours,” Logan said getting out the thin pen like instrument and dipping it into the slightly glowing bottle of potion he’d set out. “In the meantime, Patton will show you what we have for decorations.”

He was careful to get the symbol as perfect as he could and then started on Patton’s. Patton apparently managed to corrupt the boy because both of them came back with brushes and glitter to add as decoration.

Logan shook his head and handed them their freshly engraved pendants. “Apply the glitter how you like,” Logan said, moving on to his own engraving. Once he was finished, he selected some glow in the dark paint to decorate his own.

 Once he’d finished decorating his own pendant, Logan looked up. “Are you finished?” he asked.

“Yep!” Patton said, shoving his pendant at Logan while Virgil nodded. Virgil had been far less enthusiastic than Patton, having carefully brushed glitter into the flame design only whereas Patton had haphazardly covered his own all over with glitter. Logan took both pendants.

“This,” Logan said, bringing over a different potion, “is used to make sure the decorations never fall off. It basically allows the other substances to become a part of the stone. “It isn’t too dangerous, but I’d suggest you stand back for the moment.”

 Virgil stepped back farther back than was strictly necessary and gave the potion bottle a wary look. Logan moved all three pendants to the prepared surface (else they ran the risk of also getting stuck to the table) and put on gloves, having learned that magically gluing rocks to ones hands was not fun years ago. Then, he carefully drizzled a bit of the potion onto each rock. The rocks fizzled loudly, and Virgil gave off a startled yelp before toppling over flat on his face with his wrist glued to his sides.

“Oh no, honey,” Patton said immediately crouching next to him. “I’m sorry. We should have warned you about the noise.”

Logan wasn’t sure what type of action he’d tried to take when the sound started up, but whatever it was, it had caused him to move his arms fast enough that he’d activated the binding potion and it snapped his wrists to his side, overbalancing him.

 Patton’s hands hovered over the startled boy, but he didn’t touch. After a few moments, it was clear that the magic keeping Virgil’s hands at his side released because his hands slowly crept forward to push himself up, so his face wasn’t planted against the ground. His eyes still looked incredibly startled.

“Are you alright?” Patton asked.

Virgil blinked. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.

Logan took his words as permission to move without risking startling him more. Virgil’s eyes bopped back and forth between him and Patton a few times as he crossed to his wall of potions and grabbed one.

 He also selected a clean cloth from a basket on his way over to them. “A light healing potion,” Logan explained as he knelt in front of Virgil. He uncorked it. “May I?”

“I’m fine,” Virgil said with a frown. “I’m not even bleeding. It’s barely anything.”

“Which is why it’s a light healing potion,” Logan said. “You are sure to bruise with the way you hit. This will prevent it and make it stop hurting.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed after a moment. Logan dribbled a bit out onto the rag. After a moment of thought, he touched the damp part of the cloth with his own finger, just to quash any fears that it would harm him.

 “It will tingle slightly,” Logan warned. Virgil tilted his face to let him dab it onto his nose and the light scrape on his face. His nose scrunched up and he moved to rub the sensation away quickly only to have his arms slam back to his sides.

Patton caught him so the sudden involuntary movement didn’t cause him to fall back, and then giggled when Virgil titled his head to what could only be described as pout back at him.

“Aw, poor thing,” Patton cooed, reaching forward to rub a hand across the top of his nose and then his forehead where the potion had been applied for him.

 “Better?” Patton asked.

“You’re really bad at this being captors thing,” Virgil commenting, willingly leaning back into Patton. Patton just smiled happily.

Logan took the bottle and got to his feet, before returning it, and then glanced at the pendants as Patton helped Virgil to his feet. The pendants had stopped fizzing, so Logan felt okay reaching in and grabbing them all.

He handed both Patton and Virgil their pendants when they walked closer to the table.

“And now for the actual enchantment,” Logan said. “For today, I already prepared the potion up to the last step as it has to sit for a few hours, but I will show you the last step and eventually teach you everything if you are still interested.”

 Virgil nodded, but said. “No more noises?”

Logan smiled. “No more noises,” he confirmed. Then he pushed forward all of the ingredients he was about to put in the pot for Virgil to study one by one before putting them each in it in the correct order. Then he demonstrated how to stir it correctly and told him how many times, though he doubted he’d be able to retain all of the information from this one demonstration. “There,” he said, setting down his spoon. “Now we just all put our pendants into the pot, and they should be ready in 25 minutes.”

 Logan showed Virgil around his potion’s lab while they waited, explaining what certain pieces of equipment did and a bit about his organization system. Virgil followed him around, looking at the things he pointed out curiously. He, however, got very distracted when Logan showed him one of the experiments he’d concocted. It was a thick liquid that was super attracted to itself and would form a small ball that could be disturbed by touching it. He seemed to like the sensation of squishing it down onto a table… over and over and over again.

“We should get him a ball of yarn,” Patton said out of the corner of his mouth. He may have been enjoying watching Virgil play with the substance more than Virgil was enjoying playing with it himself. And that was saying something.

21984

Eventually, however, the pendants were finished, and he dragged Virgil away from his new toy to show him the finished product.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Is it supposed to be warm?” Virgil inquired.

“Yes,” Logan replied. “It’s temperature changes based on if the magic on it senses a threat or not. Warmer temperatures mean you are safe.

“Oh,” Virgil said softly, hand squeezing around it. “I like it.”

Logan found himself smiling. “I’m glad. It’s yours.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“If you would like, I’m sure Patton has some suggestions if you’d desire a way to keep it attached to your person. He in particular likes to make them into necklaces or clip them to his clothing.”

Virgil looked over at Patton and nodded shyly. Patton immediately perked up. “I’ll go get some supplies!” he said.

[awanderingmuse-fandom]

Weekly Writing Update

*taps tumblr mic* “Is this thing on?”

Hi guys! I saw another blogger/writer I follow doing these and thought, heck it’s as good a system as any to show what I’ve done and keep me accountable. I tried to do something similar before a long time ago but fell way off the wagon. Anyways, here we go, weekly updates on what I’ve been writing.

You’re going to notice I’m normally a lot further in on writing than I am on posting. That’s on purpose. It helps me edit. It also protects y’all from any whoops, so I haven’t written anything in six months events. Why would that happen. Well, besides life occurring, allow me to post the FULL LIST of WIP this time around my friends. Normally, I won’t lay out everything just what I’ve worked on. Maybe I’ll do everything once a month? What do y’all think?

As a note titles below the cut are links if the post has gone live. 

Five Times Percy Destroys His Phone and The One Time It’s Not His Fault

This is a single chapter thing. It’s done and ready to post. I plan on making it go live on March 1. I’ve got a lot of WIP that I’ve been finishing up and I’m trying to post one a month so as to not over post and drive myself insane. 

I Knew I Loved You When: 100 Ships Challenge

This is completely done. It’s posting daily and will continue to do so until we hit 100 chapters. Woot! 

World Travelers: A World Away

I am on chapter 15 of part 4 of this seven part series (probably, hopefully). There will be 21 chapters for this part. The bad news is I am completely stuck right now. I think I’ve written like twenty words on it cause I just don’t know what I’m doing. Expect to see updates every Wednesdays, unless of course writers block persists for 6 weeks. Then expect to see me crying into my coffee. 

Hybrid Theory

I haven written 25 chapters and am outlined to chapter 31 and do have a vague idea of where I am going all the way through. This story is maybe 1/3 of the way through? I mean we all know I can never drop a story line so that’s probably a lie. Still, it’s got plenty of buffer so expect to see updates on or around the 15th of each month. 

When The Dark Comes Rising: Gathering

This story...exists? I am on Chapter 11 of Part 2. There should be three parts. I’ve outlined to chapter 14. For now plan to see it continue to update on solstices/equinoxes. 

Untitled “Garment” Project

Shhhh this one’s a secret for the Percy Jackson fandom. (There’s definitely NOT a link in the title for the curious). This one is getting towards the middleish? Idk it’s a bit harder to gauge progress but it will happen! 

These Temperamental Days: On Balmy Nights I Know that I Am Yours

This one isn’t dead, despite what I’m sure everyone believes. I am, like halfway through and need to re-watch Captain America Civil War, for research of course. I’m HOPING to post this in April. But we’ll have to see. Then there will be one more part and I’ll consider this story actually done. 

Ways of Love: Part 3

Okay, so, this is like super super super tentative. I have written like eleven paragraphs on chapter 1 of Part 3 for this and only have the vaguest idea where we’re going.  There’s also not a title yet. So please don’t get excited but I do intend to finish this. So yay!?

Demigods Are Weird

A Hades/Percy Jackson Crossover! The POV will be Zagreus’s and it will be Percico. It will be a long one shot/single chapter thing. I’m already at 2,500 words and am about 1/4 way through? Will post when it’s ready. I’m hoping May but no promises for sure. 

Percy Jackson Spy AU

So this is a cannon AU where things in the world of demigods go really weird really fast due to the mist failing. That’s...all I’ll say right now. I’m nearing 2k on the first chapter but I don’t have a time line for when I’ll start posting at this point in time. 

White Lotus Buds (Working Title)

Hi Avatar fandom, I’m new here! Anyways. This is a story where The White Lotus is more than Pai Sho friends and also a lot older. Also all the kids are involved. Woo. I have three chapters written out and am outlined through book one. I plan to post sometime...? I’m like really focused on this fic so it may be soonish, idk. 

Anyways, this list of 11 stories? This is why I don’t star posting until I have LOTS of buffer. Because otherwise we all cry in our coffee. I won’t list everything weekly, but this is our starter post.

[festiveferret]

Wipdate

Posted:

A Shift in Recovery - Capwolf! Healing! Plot Twists! Love! Five Days A Week - A sad but hopeful Stony take on the five year gap in Endgame. Deep End - FINALLY DONE! BDSM AU with lots of feels and lots and lots and lots of non-sexual D/s (and maybe some sexual too!) Hey, u up? - Tony gets wasted and texts his ex for a hookup. Wrong number au. Instruct - New Held! Firsts - Steve and Tony celebrate a new first (AU) Lies - Steve lies. The List - You’d have to be an idiot not to have Captain America on your list. Time Bomb - Tony time travels. His pants don’t.

Updating:

Yet I Will Try the Last - Truck Stop Hooker AU with hooker!Steve and flashy billionaire, Tony Stark. Up to chapter two! Hypothesis - Absolutely shameless tentacle porn. With @franzwantscoffee Up to two chapters of fic and two of art!

Beta Queue:

I have a Marvel Undercover story that has either already posted or will be posted soon! Amazing fics go up every day until the 25th, so check them out! When creators are revealed I’ll post about which one was mine (hint: I did something unusual for me this time! :D Maybe you can guess?)

Wips:

1) One of my MTH fics is in the final haul and will begin beta soon. I intend to start posting it on Sunday and continue one chapter per week after that! It will be 16 chapters + epilogue. Get hyped for ID PORN!!! :DDDD After that, on to my second MTH! 

2) My Stony Loves Steve fic is about hmmm 80% done? I hope my recipient likes it!

3) @ashes0909 and I are still working away at Held Season Two! We also have been working on the Firefighter AU, wherein all Tony wants is to slide down Steve’s pole. Lots of Held action coming up. If you have a kink you want to see in Held - now’s a great time to tell us!

4) Yet I Will Try the Last is still on the backburner. I can’t very well work on this or Fangbait 3 or Sugarverse until my MTHs are done. Also backburnered is Symbrock.

5) My wilderness survival, abo, kidfic idea calls to me, but we’ll see how long I can be responsible.

6) Y’all seemed to like my Band AU idea I posted about so I’ve added that to the hutch but no telling when I’ll get to it.

7) I have a very exciting collab with @chibisquirt that features FOOD, POUNDING, DRAMA, and the two of us being nuts in a gdoc. Coming soonish!

Ashes and I are also working on an exciting (slightly terrifying) announcement that we’ll hopefully reveal in the next couple weeks :) My garden looks really good - irises in bloom all over the place! But there’s still sooo much to do! Does anyone want to come over and weed? I’ll make you food.

Thanks for reading! <3

[mtvswatches]

Jane the Virgin 2x02 Chapter Twenty-four

 Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Oh lord, judging by the “previously on”, in which the narrator claimed that Jane had to choose between Rafael and Michael, they’re still pushing the love triangle and I swear to god I’m going to murder someone if they don’t make it interesting.

2) And we get yet another flashback to how cute and awesome Jane and Michael were together. All right, I get it.

3) This actually made me laugh…

Alba prayed that Jane would get a shower. Also, I’m pretty glad they’re depicting motherhood in such a realistic way because yes, that happens.

4) And now Jane is going on a lunch date with both Rafael and Michael and I’m already bored. Seriously, though, when will the put this triangle shit to rest?

5) Rafael and Michael are trying to see who’s got a bigger dick by choosing Jane’s meal and fixing a wobbly table and this…

…is not making this storyline any better.

6) Okay, now this is a bit more interesting…

Michael told Jane that Rose might look very different now, and she’s seeing Roses everywhere. Although I don’t get why that guy sitting at the bar is looking at Jane? Could that be Rose?!

7) Please let the show be done with this in this episode…

Have her choose one of them, anyone, I don’t care anymore, I just want this to be over.

8) Tbh, I’m also super done with Luisa. Can she get killed or something? Soonish?

9) The bald guy is in town…

10) This was a nice conversation…

MICHAEL: And we didn't really do a whole lot of baby talk before, you know?

JANE: No, we didn't. Maybe we should. But, I mean, like, are you ready? Because you weren't when I was pregnant.

MICHAEL: Okay, come on… It was pretty shocking. We were engaged, it wasn't mine.

JANE: I know.

MICHAEL: But it's not some theoretical baby anymore. It's Mateo. So, yeah I'm in.

…but unless she’s choosing him, it was completely uncalled for.

11) I guess catching up will always look like this on this show, won’t it?

12) Jane and Michael had an almost-kiss. I guess then it’ll be Rafael’s turn and Jane will be back where she started.

13) Xiomara and Rogelio are on their way to Cuba, and I hope something interesting comes out of it…

14) I hate this storyline, too.

JANE: Oh, my God, who do you think the father is?

15) They’re not getting the annulment, are they?

16) Ugh, we’re back with the heart-glowing thing…

Please, please, please, make Jane make up her mind in this episode, I cannot stand this anymore.

17)

XIOMARA: But don't you think you overreacted a little?

ROGELIO: I tend to react very emotionally. It's both my greatest strength…

XIOMARA: …And your greatest weakness.

ROGELIO: …And what makes me such a compelling actor.

18) Jokes aside, I really like Xiomara and Rogelio together, and how they always find a way to communicate and be honest with each other, even if it takes them a while. I mean, the fact that Rogelio De la Vega is one of the people in this show who shows more maturity and growth says a lot about how the rest of the characters act…

19) Holy shit, Jane was the one to get Alba in this situation…

20) This totally broke my heart…

21) Oh, I’m so close to being done with this show…

I honestly feel like I’m self-flagellating by watching this show. I hate this so much.

22) Oh, damn…

23) Did we really need a flashback to find out how Rose knew that Michael was obsessed with Jane? Anyone with two eyes would’ve noticed that. Or was it an excuse to bring back the actress who plays Rose?

24) Oh, no, it was about the wine bottle. It’s a clue, apparently, because Rose tasted the grapes herself in a vineyard in Switzerland, where she is probably staying right now.

25) I really, really hope they’re not planning to bring in Luciana, Rogelio’s ex-wife, and have yet another love-triangle because then I’ll probably lose my shit.

26) Do what?!

27) Maybe dreams do come true?

I honestly don’t see what Rose sees in Luisa.

28) Shit got real.

MICHAEL: Let me ask you something. Who knows you better, me or Rafael? JANE: You do. MICHAEL: So I know you're not really in love with him. You're just in love with the idea of family. You'll figure that out. And hopefully I'll still be around.

29) And…

At least the reveal was fun?

30) Sorry if I’m being too annoying about the love triangle stuff, it’s just that I really find it off-putting. I’m really struggling to continue watching because of it, especially since it takes so much of the episodes. It seems to be the central storyline, and I loathe it with a fiery passion. I know there must be something more to the show than that since so many people love it, but I can’t help but wonder how much crap I’ll have to put up with till I get to the good stuff.

31) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[pennywaltzy]

Old Books & New Flames (11/?)

So soon we’re going to reach the end! Well, maybe not slow enough for @strangelock221b, but maybe four or five more chapters, counting the epilogue? Not sure, but it’s going to start wrapping up soonish. But enjoy this nice little twist!

Old Books & New Flames - When Sebastian Moran asks local bookstore owner Molly Hooper for a job, all he wants is a second chance to live the life he should have been living before prison. What Molly gets is more than a loyal employee and good friend. What she ends up with is what she had always wanted her entire life: happiness.

READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 11 | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI?

That evening, after the shop closed for the day and some time was spent getting the place covered by a watchful eye, Molly and Seb walked around to the back side of the pub where Lestrade, Sally, and Amelia lived. That supposedly had been the way it was constructed, to have housing in the back, but you would never guess there was a pub there with how quiet and courteous the villagers usually were. When the last call sounded, out they went, and there had rarely been a brawl so long as Greg had run it.

According to Sally, he was an ex-copper out of London, like she was, except he’d been injured and pensioned off, and when he heard about the chance to buy into the pub by a certain mutual acquaintance of theirs he went for it. Eventually, he bought his partner out and ran the place with Amelia’s boyfriend’s father as the other bartender. The two kids had hit it off immediately and the idea was that if she didn’t take over the mechanic shop or do something else after uni if they were to marry they’d inherit the pub.

And Sally had walked into their lives almost by accident, but after having had a suspect die in her custody and being shaken by that, she’d been looking for a different avenue in life. The fact that Greg understood had influenced her decision to stay and eventually marry him and adopt Amelia, and they were now one happy bit of Molly’s extended family.

She wasn’t at all surprised that there was no wine at the meal. Not just because Seb was in recovery, but Sally had said Greg wanted to make sure the pregnancy went well so no alcohol whatsoever. She was sure there would be wine again later, once everything was a more settled with Seb and Sally’s had the baby, but tonight the pressed non-alcoholic cider and the coffee had been enough. Greg had cooked, as he was quite skilled with the pub meals and other things, finally getting to devote time to coming up with new dishes, and the meal had been eaten with much cheer and happiness throughout.

Greg leaned in his chair and looked at Seb, pointing at him. “You know, you’re the type of man I appreciate,” he said.

“Oh?” Seb asked.

“You paid your debt and you’re doing your best to be a part of society in the best way. What you’re doing for Molly...I know I appreciate it, and Sally does, and we’re glad you’re here.” He picked up his cup and raised it. “To Sebastian’s arrival in the village!”

“To Seb!” the others said, raising their glasses, and Molly looked over to see Seb looked happy. She reached under the table and grasped his hand, squeezing it, and getting a comforting squeeze in return.

“To you,” she said quietly, taking a sip of the drink that was in her other hand.

“Thanks,” he said, having some of his coffee after raising it towards Greg. “This is a good village. I’m glad I’m settling here.”

“And it would be better if it wasn’t for Moriarty,” Sally said. “She turned to Molly. “I was telling him about the theft of the books and really, once Sherlock gets them back, we should confront him.”

“It would just make it worse,” Molly said. “He’s...slippery, like a snake? He’ll just squirm out of it and then make our lives hell at the shop. No, we’ll just get the books back and put them in the online shop for sale like Martha had intended. Moriarty can just...leave us alone.”

“Molly’s right,” Greg said. “But I can talk to a few people in London. If Sherlock is looking into his activities, I can have him give the evidence to certain friends f mine and maybe we can get him out of your hair once and for all.”

“One could only hope,” Molly said.

Greg turned to Seb. “You know, if you want to have some time to actually court Molly as she deserves, Charlie can watch the shop more. I trust him with my daughter, I’d trust him with the shop. There’s going to be a village faire next weekend and I could persuade him to cover a night for you.”

“Are you going to let him take Amelia into Oxford for that film they want to see?” Sally asked with a smile.

“And let them stay overnight,” Greg said. “If he’ll do us this favour.”

“Oh, that’s a big step,” Molly said with a smile.

“They’re good kids, and she’s about to go into her gap year. If I don’t trust her now, then what’s the point? Soon she’ll be an adult and can do what she wants, and if she wants to stay in a hostel overnight with her boyfriend so they can see a special film, then that’s not so bad, is it? At least I know they’d be careful.”

“Oh, you are a good father,” Seb said with a grin. “When I was a lad we had the fear of God put into us any time we were going to be around the lasses, even if it was completely chaperoned.”

“That’s how I was raised,” Greg said. “But it’s new times. New parenting rules should be implemented, and if they work with Amelia hopefully they’ll work with the new one.” He turned and grinned at Sally. “Though I have to say, Sally’s been a good influence on me as a parent. I couldn’t do it without her.” He reached over and took Sally’s hand in his, pulling it up to kiss her knuckles.

“Damn straight,” Sally said, and the table laughed at that.

The conversation continued for a bit longer and then as they were going to start the dessert there was a knock at the door. Greg went to go get it and then a few minutes later came in with the head of the village police. “As I said, he’s been here since he left the shop,” Greg said, gesturing to Seb. “So there’s no way he was the driver.”

“What’s going on?” Molly asked, gripping Seb’s hand.

“There was a report a drunken driver hit some of the cars on the high street,” the head of the police said. “It had been mentioned that Mr. Moran had been arrested for vehicular homicide, and...”

“No, he’s been here with us since we started dinner, and at the shop with me since it closed for the evening,” Molly said. “I’ll swear it on a bible.”

“Between you and me, Molly, I doubted it was him,” the man said. “I recognized who called in the report and I swear, he’s just trying to stir up more trouble.”

“Moriarty?” Greg asked, and the man nodded. “Bastard.”

“We’re not even going to consider Mr. Moran for this, in all honesty, and focus on Jim. He’s taking this dismissal of your affections all wrong.”

“Yes, he is,” Molly said softly. This was the last straw. Maybe she’d go against her own thoughts and have a word with him about this. That might be what was needed after all...

[shinykari]

Girl Gang DND Week 15: Agog and A Ghast OR Two at One Blow

vWhen last we left our heroines, they had just defeated the Black Spider, his henchspiders, and then fought off a few pesky stirges while searching his body for loot. They'd also rescued the final Rockseeker brother, who had been held captive and impersonated by one of the Black Spider's doppelgangers.

The group gathered in the old priests' quarters to bed down for a long rest. The first two watches were uneventful, but near dawn (or, well, what was probably dawn-ish--they're in a mine, so who knows?) Steady and Bergamot heard the strange and unmistakable sounds of undead. Casting Spider Climb on herself with her newly-acquired Spider Staff, Steady snuck out the door and climbed 20 feet up to the ceiling, counting seven undead. The disgusting creatures looked a little different than the zombies the party had fought before, and Steady identified them as ghouls--stronger and faster than zombies, with a taste for living flesh.

Drawn by the scent of warm, living bodies, the ghouls were poised to attack, and the party gave them quite a fight. Callie's Turn Undead whittled their numbers down, and Kharris gleefully used her new greataxe Cleavage to slice right through them, managing to kill two of the ghouls in a single turn. The god-awful stench of one of the undead was too much for Raina, who backed away, using Vicious Mockery since she was too ill to attack effectively. Steady straight-up exploded one of the ghouls with a burst of Thunder Damage from Matilda, and Bergamot dagger-dagger(-dagger)'d more than one back into full death.

The party chased the fleeing ghouls down and finished them off, before making their careful way out of the mine and toward Jorenn Village. Along the way, Rodwen suddenly stopped short, her eyes glazing over in a way that was instantly familiar to Callie and Raina: she was in contact with her deity. After two full minutes, she returned to herself, and with apologies and tears, told the party she had her own quest to complete, and that she sadly could no longer travel with them. They parted ways, some with more emotion than others, and the party continued toward Jorenn and the Stonehill Inn.

Join us next week for the next chapter in the adventure: The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades OR Where Do We Go From Here?

XP: Everyone earned 650XP for the ghouls/ghasts.

A few additional notes:

I calculated all the loot currently listed on the GoogleDoc, and including the small saleable items (the jewels, rings, etc.), the party total is 2869 GP, 3 SP, 3 CP. Split 5 ways, that comes up to just under 575 GP each. (If you split it 6 ways to include Rodwen, the total comes to a bit more than 475 GP each.) If there's anything specific you want to keep as an item, that would have to be deducted from the cash total. I’m not sure what that all includes, timeline-wise, but it’s easy enough to change the spreadsheet.

You can decide how to split the party funds, or if you even want to--just think about it and we can hash out details later. If you'd like to each take out an allowance and leave the rest in the firkin of holding for party expenses, that's cool too. I think it would be good to head back to Westruun soonish, maybe do some shopping in the city.

I'm still working on how to set up the 10% stake in the Wave Echo Cave mine, but it is definitely not going to be profitable right off the bat. The Rockseekers will have to clear out the rest of the caverns, hire miners, set up supply chains, etc., etc. I expect you will see your first profits in six months to a year. You would be able to speed that up if you choose to invest in the mine with your own funds and/or time.

On that vein, and with no current published calendar for Tal'Dorei (hopefully we get one in August!), I've put together a calendar. The only thing I can find as stated canon is that Exandria has two moons, so the rest I pretty much made up. A year is 363 days, with 10 months of alternating 36 and 37 days, and one month of 35 days. A week is 8 days long, and the days are named for gods and goddesses, but shortened because people are lazy when it comes to languages. You can look at the current year's calendar by pasting the code below into the donjon Fantasy Calendar Generator:

{"year_len":363,"events":1,"n_months":10,"months":["Alturiak","Mirtul","Kythorn","Flamerule","Eleasis","Tarsakh","Eleint","Marpenoth","Uktar","Nightal"],"month_len":{"Alturiak":36,"Mirtul":37,"Kythorn":36,"Flamerule":37,"Eleasis":36,"Tarsakh":37,"Eleint":36,"Marpenoth":37,"Uktar":36,"Nightal":35},"week_len":8,"weekdays":["Pelorsday","Ehlosday","Boccabsday","Kordsday","Cuthsday","Fharsday","Olisday","Nerullsday"],"n_moons":2,"moons":["Thoria","Phiaraei"],"lunar_cyc":{"Thoria":36,"Phiaraei":72},"lunar_shf":{"Thoria":0,"Phiaraei":12},"year":557,"first_day":4,"notes":{}}

The day you emerged from Wave Echo Cave is 30 Kythorn 557, and I intend to keep closer track of the passage of time going forward. (This may or may not be plot relevant.)

@rescuemepotts @freaoscanlin @screaming-towards-apotheosis @podficcerbynight @blackestglass

[mousedetective]

Never Will I Forget The Deep Shadows, Never Will I Waste The Moon’s Light (1/15 or 16)

So yes, I did not finish it last night. ::hangs head:: I will finish it today, though, mark my words! This is a very Sherlock-centric story, but there is also a ton of Molly (though not Sherlolly...we’ll leave that for a possible sequel, as I wanted to leave this semi-S2 compliant) and an epic magical confrontation with Moriarty and...

Oh. Did I mention that Sherlock is a magician? Because he is.

Anyway, I’m reposting the existing chapters leading up to the reveal on WIP Big Bang, along with the new chapters, so it’s all starting over on AO3 so new people can discover this story.There is also pretty art by Red Bess Rackham that I will have properly linked on the first chapter hopefully soonish, so please enjoy!

~~~

Never Will I Forget The Deep Shadows, Never Will I Waste The Moon’s Light - The Holmes brothers come from a long line of powerful magic practitioners, but they are forced to keep their skills a secret. When Molly accidentally finds out about Sherlock’s powers and doesn’t turn away from him he slowly realizes that this pleases him, but soon enough he gets careless and is put in a position he would rather not be in, especially when others find out that she knows and attempt to use her as a pawn in their own games and machinations.

Read Chapter 1 @ AO3 | Buy Me A Coffee? | Send Me A Prompt

Mycroft stood regally by the fireplace in his study. ”You know you have to keep it a secret, Sherlock. No mortal can know.”

He was lounging in the chair he favored, his leg over the arm. Only when he really wanted to annoy his brother did he toss all sense of decorum and propriety out the window, especially since the chair wasn’t that comfortable to begin with and the position made it less so. ”Easy enough for you to say. Your assistant who’s tied to you nearly twenty-four hours a day is one of us.”

“Well, that’s what you get for going and getting attached to a mortal army doctor, a mortal pathologist and a mortal inspector at Scotland Yard,” Mycroft said, a hint of snideness in his tone.

“And a mortal housekeeper,” Sherlock said, rolling his eyes. “Yes, I know. I set myself up among mortals. I purposefully chose to live among them. It’s my own fault for that. Etcetera, etcetera. You’ve had this tune for years.” He couldn’t stand the position anymore so he put himself to rights and then simply slumped to the side, resting his elbow on the arm of the chair and settling his cheek on his knuckles. “At least I didn’t become a hermit like Sherrinford.”

“Sherrinford had no other choice,” Mycroft said quietly, gazing into the fire. “Not after the incident.” He lifted the snifter of brandy in his hand and took a sip. “And if you aren’t careful, Sherlock, with your continued pushing yourself to your absolute limits, you might be next.”

Sherlock bit back a sigh. His brother had always felt himself his keeper, ever since he was young. It appeared that would never change, not in a million years. He wondered when he would ever get out from under his brother’s thumb. Possibly never, he supposed. Perhaps if Sherrinford…no, it didn’t do to dwell on that. No one in the family talked about it. No one admitted that Sherrinford existed, for the most part. He was an afterthought these days, as though he had never really been a part of the family.

He supposed if he wasn’t careful, one day, he might be an afterthought as well.

The world knew he was different. They knew he was a genius, a man who could solve the trickiest of tricky crimes. The ones that were deemed unsolvable by most. His reputation had grown steadily larger as time had gone by, ever since John had come into his life and started keeping the blog. The Detective and the Blogger, the Crime Fighting Duo. Oh, there were so many monikers for them, so many names. He was someone the world thought they knew every fascinating tidbit about, and what they didn’t know they wanted to learn.

But there was one secret they absolutely couldn’t know, as his brother was just now reminding him.

He, William Sherlock Scott Holmes, had been born with the ability to do magic.

Not the cheap parlour tricks that stage magicians could do, the illusions meant to wow and mystify and audience, the type of stuff that could be easily debunked. No, he knew real magic. Old magic. The kind of magic that traveled through bloodlines as old as time immortal, the stuff Druids talked of long ago. He could do almost anything, really. For one as young as he was, for someone who honestly didn’t study ancient texts half as hard as his brothers had or practice anything near as much he was twice as powerful as they were.

He just…didn’t care. It made him different, even more different than he already was. His brilliance had set him apart in many ways; being able to do magic, being something separate than mere mortals had been icing on a cake he had simply not wanted. When he had been a young child he had reveled in it, but when he got older, when Mycroft pressed the importance of hiding his abilities, hiding the truth about himself, when he saw what happened when someone trusted the wrong person…he was more than eager to do so. Being seen as just a cold, egotistical genius was fine by him.

And yet when Donovan had called him a freak he’d hated that term so much. He’d always kept that icy demeanor when she said it but the words hit like a blow to the gut. It was the worst thing to hear, the one insult that actually hurt. When the children he’d been around growing up had called him that, he’d held back tears until he had absolute privacy, then let tears fall. When he’d heard it as a teen, and later in his university years, he’d turned to heroin to numb it all away. By the time he was an adult he��d swallow it down and let it sit there, cutting on the way down, making him hate the world just a little more.

But his friends had healed those bits of him. It was true they didn’t know they whole truth, they could never know the whole truth, but over time, John and Molly and Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson had made him feel…normal. Or at least more normal than he had ever felt in his life before. He appreciated that more than he could tell them. He wasn’t great at showing it, unfortunately; the Christmas party had made that abundantly clear, but he was willing to try harder. He supposed he could say it was a New Year’s resolution, if he actually believed in that type of twaddle. They had done some good for him; he supposed he should be better at showing them that they were important to him.

Even if they were mortal, and that meant he had to listen to his brother make snide commentary on the fact.

Mycroft turned to him. “You can’t afford to go into withdrawal, Sherlock,” he said. “I do not have the time, energy or resources to bring you out of it without questions being raised.”

Sherlock rolled his eyes. “You’re worried I’ll get careless and get caught because I’ve surrounded myself with mortals,” he said. “Mycroft, it’s not as though I spend my evenings in the sitting room. I do happen to have a bedroom, which is fitted, if you might recall, with a very good lock. Even you have trouble picking it.”

Mycroft glared slightly. “Still. You have a tendency to be reckless.”

Sherlock shook his head and stood up. “One day, brother dear, you’ll realize I am fully capable of living a life without your constant observation and interference. When that day comes, I’m sure I can have a list handy of other hobbies to catch your interest.” He made his way to the door of Mycroft’s study. “Good night.”

Mycroft said nothing and Sherlock opened the door and let himself out. He glanced at the large clock in the foyer and saw that it was only eleven thirty. So. It was still the old year. At least he didn’t begin the new year listening to his brother berate him for sins of the past and mistakes he’d never be able to fully make up for. That would have been tiresome. Anthea stood by the door with his coat and he took it from her, slipping it on before leaving Mycroft’s fortress and going out into the night.

He was not one for celebrations, not one for good signs and good omens, but the fact that he could start this new year on his own, breathing in the relatively fresh air of the city, taking the essence of London into himself led him to think that, perhaps, 2012 would be better than he had expected. As bad as some of the glimpses of possible futures he’d been given indicated it very well might be, there had been good things as well, images of laughter and love and warmth, and that had given him hope. After all, no one’s future was writ in stone. That was something he had been taught from a very young age, when he first learned about the art of divination. There was always room for interpretation.

And as he had decided at a very young age that no one was going to decide what happened in his life other than himself, he was going to be damn sure that if there were bad things to come, that their impact was far less than the good things.

Mark his words.