#i had to write a summary... that was longer than what i was summarizing...

[unityrain24]

me writing the stupid assignment

[sorrygotthesesacks]

Does size matter?

I mean, in this case, at least…

[aidankalenko]

still a pet peeve of mine to see fic excerpts as a summary. like maybe if it was on a jacket for a book. but by definition that is just not a summary im sorry

[simp-ly-writes]

How Could You Refuse?

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Pairing: Jayce Talis x Shy!Assistant!Reader

─ · · SUMMARY: When assigned as the lab assistant to Jayce, you were first intimidated to work under someone of such genius inventions but the longer you work alongside one another, the more comfortable you feel and the more you feel for Jayce.

─ · · TAGS: female pronouns used, light angst, fluff, touch as a love language, jealous! and protective!Jayce, reader is mentioned to have hair.

─ · · MASTERLIST | TAGLIST REQUEST | WORDCOUNT: 1,662

─ · · SERIES MASTERLIST

─ · · A/N: The way in which I hated Jayce so incredibly much to being in love with him in season 2 deserves to be studied. Let me know if you like this!

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─ · · You had been working under Jayce for as long as recent memory could remember. As soon as he got started working his brilliant mind within the Academy, you were assigned to help the genius (and to keep him alive as well)

─ · · At first you were intimidated and worried to work with the man, often staying in your own corner of the room, running over with tools before taking a few too many steps back- allowing him space or not speaking as to not disturb him but the longer you worked together, the more comfortable you felt. Sitting beside him, sharing meals and ideas together, hands brushing against one another when passing tools and diagrams. The jokes you two shared when your minds were foggy and not quite running right as you laughed at anything at all before the cleaners kicked you both out for the night

─ · · Working for Jayce as you both grew and aged meant getting woken up at odd hours of the night and early morning to be a comforting presence and to ensure he remember to drink liquids other than coffee and the caffeinated tea he unsuccessfully tried to "out-smart" you with

─ · · If Jayce was the brain, you were practically an extension of his body, moving around with him, always knowing what tool or paper he would be next. And if he was ranting or trying to summarize his key points before presenting in front of the Professor, you would be standing in front of him, notebook and pen in arms capturing his every thought. And when you would run out of paper, you would simply start writing up and around your arm

─ · · It would be an uncommon sight not to see you covered in Jayce's diagrams, equations, or quotes as you two walked down the halls together arm in arm. At first, you insisted upon walking slightly apart yet Jayce was having none of that, grabbing your arm and parading you down the hall with a large goofy smile as you did your best to hide your face from the on-coming stares as you glared at his shoes. But now you embraced the mutual comfort you both found in your friendship

─ · · One time Viktor decided to come into the laboratory early and was surprised to see you both asleep at the desk, your head resting on Jayce's shoulder as his arm wrapped around your side, cuddling you both together. Opening a window to let the cool morning breeze, out of the corner of his eye Viktor watched as you both came back to your senses. Stumbling away from one another as you patted down your hair and Jayce stretched himself out as your eyes darted all the way around the room, doing your best to not look and met Viktor's curious stare before he too turned around and began working. "coffee, anyone?"

"please," Jayce replies, grabbing your hand gently as you nod, dropping it and turning out of the hall, only catching the start of his next sentence to Viktor.

"I think I haven't been the most truthful..."

─────── · ·

─ · · As Jayce's diagrams became more complex, his position within the Academy rose and with his growing partnership with Viktor as well, all eyes were on these two men you had the pleasure of working alongside and you couldn't help but receive a few curious glances your way as well.

─ · · It was no shocker to anyone seeing your beauty under your ink filled arms and messy hair that you tugged at endlessly while trying to crunch numbers after numbers with a sleepy Jayce leaning on your shoulder, overlooking your work. He would often press a kiss to your hand, forehead, or cheek, praising you as your cheeks heated up before you squeezed his hand in thanks and returned back to your work

─ · · Now that you think about it, you both had been way more physically affectionate to one another in recent moments yet that was only a testimony to your long-term partnership, nothing more, nothing less.

─ · · You had actually received many offers from other brilliant minds and even sponsors asking you to work for them, and you denied every time knowing that your place was working with your boys but that didn't mean Jayce didn't get annoyed to your surprise.

─ · · His eyebrow furrowed as yet another person came forward, trying to charm your pants off and get you to work for them. He trusted in you, trusted in your working friendship but there was always that smaller, inner voice within him that thought otherwise. That you would leave him for something "bigger" and "greater" that pushed him to do his best- to impress you- to get you to stay

─ · · You were worried about just how far Jayce was pushing himself, striving for greatness as you spent an equal time sitting at the desk, often falling asleep at his side no matter how many times he asked you to go to bed. And more often than not, when you would reawaken in the morning, you would fine a simple note from Jayce as he had carried you back to your room.

─ · · When Jayce became a councillor, you were immensely proud, crying the entire duration when one of your collegue's told you before heading back to the lab where Viktor was already tinkering away. Might as well get closer to Viktor now that it'll just be us two from now on, you tell yourself. Sitting near Viktor as you pass him tool after tool, write down his notes, and provide him coffee

─ · · Work carries on as it usually does, the only difference is not seeing Jayce in the last couple of days yet that was to be expected with his promotion. You were happy to work alongside Viktor but more so than you had been in the past. You both shared a love of blunt and dry humour.

─ · · Jayce was confused as to why he hadn't see you yet, you were his assistant, were you not? He thought to himself near the tail end of a council meeting before heading to the laboratory to find you and Viktor asleep at the same desk, ankles intertwined, heads on a blanket of blueprints and sketches.

─ · · In a feeling of deja vu, Jayce opens the window, allowing the cool morning breeze to drift through the room as you both stir away. You blink, eyes and mind hazy as you stare at the broad man standing in front of you, hand resting on the back of your head. "I've missed you," the voice calls out as you hum, you shake Viktor awake as he groans, pushing your hand away before rubbing his eyes. "Jayce... is that you?"

"yes, it is, and this is where you've been the whole time?" Jayce asks, arms crossed like his eyebrows as he stares you down, his stare making you feel small.

"uh, yes. I've been helping Viktor continue his plans for the new gauntlets for the miners..." you trail off, looking over to find the chair beside you empty, your frown noticeable as Jayce gently turns your head back to face him.

"I need you by my side." And how could you refuse? with the puppy dog eyes you received.

─────── · ·

─ · · That very same day, you apologized to Viktor who only shrugged his shoulders, hand shooing you away and back to Jayce as you followed him in his shadow between meetings with the usual notes in your arm and tray of coffee in the other. Jayce huffed, stopping as you walked into his back, "nothing has changed, you still are my dearest friend, you know that?" Jayce looks down at you, expression serious as you nod your head firmly and take a step beside him, feeling as he takes the tray from out of your hand and wraps his arm under your own. "Much better."

─ · · You felt very out of place, standing to his side during council meetings as he would ask for your opinion as if you were back in the lab, except this time, a dozen eyes were watching your every move as you leaned in to whisper into Jayce's ear your answers.

─ · · The same feeling could also be said for the various events you accompanied him to as well. His arm always a staple around your waist or arm as he guided and introduced you to socialite after politician and you were becoming seriously overwhelmed, this was not a part of the original job description, you thought to yourself while freshening up in the washroom, another councillor Mel, joined you soon afterwards

"You and Jayce appear... close" you flush underneath her curious gaze, eyes darting around the mirror to anywhere but her gaze. "Yes... we have... worked together for quite some time now," you explain, picking at the skin near your fingertips.

"Just working partners though?" Mel presses forward, the hint of a smile appearing on her lips as your mind races at a mile a minute, you think of his mouth whispering into your ear, his large hands gripping your waist, his groggy morning voice as you wake him up with a hand on his shoulder as he smiles lazily at you before pressing a kiss to your temple. Your heart races as you shake your head of these thoughts, "we are nothing more than that," you clarify.

"So that means you wouldn't be mad if I tried something?" Mel asks, extending her hand in an equal silent ask as you stare at the gold jewellery running up her arm doing nothing but already compliment her immense beauty, they would look good together. "No, go ahead."

─────── · ·

─ · · SERIES MASTERLIST

[yuurei20]

Is it okay to ask for the second half of this translation now that 7-8 released in EN?

https://www.tumblr.com/yuurei20/755749918978752512/will-you-write-an-in-depth-detail-or-summary-of?source=share

Hello hello, thank you for this question! 🐉🦇

What a wonderful idea, thank you so much! The second half has been prepared 🥳

(For reference: there was a "spoilers-ok talk" between Malleus' Va Kato Kazuki (��) and Lilia's VA Midorikawa Hikaru (🦇) back in July 2024 (YouTube Link), and as this account pretends that Main-Story content not released to EN does not exist, the summary provided here only went up to Book 7-4, as that is where EN was at the time.)

*Note: text below is just paraphrasing/summarizing and not literal quotes except for one place where the original Japanese has also been included just in case. No Main Story spoilers, has all content has been released on EN as of this post :>

7-5

Malleus’ egg is at Wildrose Castle, with his mom.

🦇: Egg-sama 🐉：Sebek was funny. 🦇：I’d never heard someone add “-sama” to "egg" before. And he is so serious.  🐉：That seriousness is what is so funny about Sebek. And they continue to the castle, with Lilia and Baul’s bond deepening.

Maleanor appears

🦇：Voiced by Fukami Rica, voice of Maleficent. I did not expect her in this role. I thought she would have been Maleficia. 🐉：Maleanor and Lilia’s relationship… 🦇：From long ago. I’d like to hear their story, from the past. The time when the three of them were together. 🐉：I think there are a lot of people who would enjoy that. Lilia proposed to Maleanor. 🦇：I want to stay here a little while longer. 🐉：Want to go deeper into that, please.

🦇：Lilia really improved in his child-rearing. 🐉：He was just suddenly put in charge of Malleus. Picked up the lullaby from Maleanor, Maleanor singing it to Malleus when he was an egg. 🦇：That’s really the only connection they have, Malleus and Maleanor.

🦇：Doing the voice of Lilia searching for Silver was difficult. I did an older man voice because of how much time had past from his younger days and I was told “he isn’t that old yet!” But thinking about the Lilia that comes after it, the hazy point in the middle…that was difficult. If you don’t separate recordings into “this era,” “that era,” etc., it is difficult to perform. That was hard.

7-6

🐉：Even just remembering this part I feel like I might start to cry. I think that might be true of a lot of the players. 🦇：I didn’t really know their…Lilia’s position, I didn’t really understand it, but he is different from the dragons, so that revelation…if you were to say it then I would think “yes I can see that,” but…he worked so hard! 🐉：Lilia worked so hard to hatch Malleus! And everything in the past—and the senate had nothing to do with any of it! 🦇：What did they even do? 🐉：They didn’t have anything to do with anything. Seriously. Everything was left up to Lilia. “What is this? Explain this! Malleus will die!”  🦇：It had been a few hundred years before but there was the promise he made, and Baul…but he really worked so hard for so long. 🐉：I’ve thought about it. And things are happening over hundreds of years. It’s different than for humans, but still, hundreds of years—that is intense. That will break a person. 🦇：And it was his own child, too. There is love there. He might not have realized for himself it yet, but... 🐉：Maleanor-sama said as much. “Our child--it is impossible for you to not love him.”

🦇：What surprised me was how he started rejecting Maleficia’s energy. I wondered about that. 🐉：I didn’t realize that Malleus would be so picky. 🦇：And this is where Lilia’s love of travel came from, going from here to there. That hits pretty hard. After that, you’ll be happy to receive a pennant and you’ll display it, for sure. Usually you’d be like “…a pennant?”

🐉：I cried when Malleus was born. Just remembering Lilia’s weeping…I am the voice of Malleus, and if it hadn’t been for that Malleus wouldn’t have been born, so I felt a lot of gratitude towards Lilia here. 🦇：He tried so hard, and he did it (he starts speaking in Lilia’s voice here and it is so great) 🐉：And baby Malleus is so cute. 🦇：So cute.

🐉：And this is where Malleus learn the secret of his origin. Malleus’ rage—this was the first time I’d done a voice like that for Malleus. The loudest I have ever been for Malleus. And he got so angry so suddenly. I realized that even Malleus has that degree of emotion inside of him. And his grandmother hid it from him, too. That loneliness, that sadness…

🦇：We don’t know if Maleficia-sama shared the views of the others about “bat energy,” but it’s possible that that resulting in Malleus’ birth is one of the reasons why she thought it would be better to hide it. And Lilia overused his magic, connecting back to his health. That was a rough scene.

🐉：I heard that, for this chapter, you and 🐊 recorded together. 

🦇：Shared recordings are increasing recently. And there was so much pressure with this one. We have been doing this together for so long by now, both as rivals and as members of the same team, so coming together again after so long…I was worried that he would think “Ah, so this is what 🦇 has become these days.” Just my own, entirely my own thought. So there was a lot of pressure, but I think it was a good atmosphere.  🐉：That section was amazing.

🦇 Quote: 「『マレウスが孵化した際のリリアの泣き演技でスタブースで号泣していたそうです』と書いてあるんですけど、号泣は行き過ぎじゃないんですか？ 🦇：It says here that during the performance of Lilia crying after having hatched Malleus, people were sobbing in the sound booth. Is “sobbing” not going a little far? 

🐉：If I’d been there, I would have sobbed. It wouldn’t have been just tears. Hearing that scene raw, during a recording—it was hard enough for me just playing through on my phone. But that is the peak emotional moment. I am kind of envious, actually.  🦇：They got to hear it before anyone. 🐉：I wish that could’ve been me. 🦇：I’ve done a lot of crying scenes. The pressure is intense. People go in assuming it will make them cry, and I want to make them cry even harder than they’re expecting. I am glad if that is what they took away from it. 🐉：Everyone clap. I cried in another place as well, when Maleanor, as a dragon, and the Knight of Dawn…I was so sad. 🦇：Didn’t want to fight. 🐉：He had his own things, too, but thought he had to do it, and while he was fighting Maleanor I couldn’t do it. I put the phone down. I knew that if I continued…this isn’t good.

🦇：It is such a serious thing, but the battles are done with chibis. They’re cute. But you have to perform in a way that keeps up the feeling of the scene. 🐉：If someone asked me to play through the part again I wouldn’t be able to do it. 🦇：She's mom, after all. 

7-7

🐉：It was pretty fun how everything suddenly shifted gears. I enjoyed the game of tag with Ortho.  🦇：Ortho taunts people more than I’d expected.  🐉：I was surprised that he was like that. 🦇：And Malleus doesn’t pick up on subtlety, so their interaction was funny. Until now Malleus had never really been taunted like that.  🐉：But eventually he turned it back on Ortho. Kind of like “oh, he’s actually mad, then.”

🦇：The newest technology against the world’s strongest magic—that is interesting. 🐉：It was very Shroud for them to approach from the new angle, the unforeseen perspective that they did.

🦇：Ortho was very busy—so many Orthos. The humanoid Ortho, the RSA Ortho, the phantom Ortho…and they all speak slightly different. That was amazing. The red-haired Idia came up in the story for the first time. I was surprised by that, seeing him move. That’s when I realized that it has only ever existed in that one groovy. That was neat. And Idia and Ortho’s battle… 🐉：It gets you worked up, makes you cry…Phantom Ortho, saying goodbye, that he’s waiting… 🦇：That was great. And his resentment over his mother seeing inside his computer was great.  Mama didn’t say anything, though. Just kind of, “Mm…” 🐉：A child at that age, having their parents look inside their computer… 🦇：And despite all the locks that he put on it. 🐉：Don’t know what she saw, though.

🦇：”That” in part 8 was great. 🐉：For a moment I thought it had become an entirely different game. Just as a video it was funny. I watched it three times. It makes you want Idia to just regularly do streaming.

Then goes into talk about Chapter 8’s release, SSR Savanaclaw Rook, looking forward to who else is coming and what they will look like, the upcoming Chapter 9, etc. 

🦇：It’d be great if they could do more recordings like this right after a new release when we are bursting with things we want to talk about. Over time we start forgetting smaller details. It would be nice to be able to be able to do something like this again, a bit lighter, having snacks and chatting about this and that within the game. I’d like that. We never have any opportunities to get everyone together.

🐉：And maybe being able to interact with players in real time, being able to hear people’s opinions. There are definitely perspectives out there that we’ve never considered, and it would be interesting to have an opportunity for that kind of communication. 

[lauren-likes-to-type]

Serenity

[Shadow of the Tomb Raider] Lara Croft x Female Reader

Word Count: 5.12k

Proofread: Yes

Content Warnings: Touch starved Lara (?), feelings of homesickness, fear of death, mentions of mourning, brief descriptions of wounds

Categories:

Angst Fluff Mix

One-Shot Preference Headcanon

[A/N]: Wanted to try a bit of a different format for the summary, hope it makes sense.

Enjoy!

Harsh winds whipped past the shape of the land, bending around every mountain and down every ravine and valley like ribbon. Shivering harshly and clutching onto her heavy coat, Lara sighed, planting herself in front of the campfire she had set up. As the flames crackled to life and began to grow, she scooted closer, holding her hands out towards the blazing heat in an attempt to warm them. She huffed out hot air into her cupped palms before rubbing them together and shifting to hold them out again.

She repeated this motion a few more times before wriggling her fingers around a bit. Once she was sure they were warmed up enough, she slipped her journal out from her traveler’s pack and took her pen out. She flipped over to the next blank page, beginning to jot things down with stiff hands. It started with her summarizing all that had happened during the current expedition up until that point, but quickly shifted to her feelings of homesickness. It wasn’t the manor or her private apartment she was missing, however. She was missing the woman waiting for her back home.

A small smile of content formed on her lips at the mere thought of her.

“God, [Y/N], I wish you were…”

She shook her head as a chill ran down her spine, as if she was being reminded of the brutal conditions she was in. With a small struggle, she scribbled out the ending of the sentence before starting a new one.

“No, I wish I was there with you. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss you. Especially how warm you are. It’s freezing out here, although I’m not sure what I was expecting. Even when we stayed by the hot springs for a bit, my hands were too frozen to do anything. Writing this right now is extremely difficult because we’re headed toward the peak of a mountain where the snow is really dense. The altitude levels are getting high, and it’s making some of the crew sick, so we had to set up camp in the meantime. Aside from Jonah, the crew here doesn’t really care for all of this. They’re either doing it for the media exposure or for the money. The majority of them have made it clear that they aren’t doing it for the sake of discovery. I do kind of wish you were here in all honesty. Jonah is interested in what we’re looking for, but it always takes some convincing with him. With you, you’re always on board immediately. And, according to the others, you share the same level of enthusiasm as me. I guess I never really noticed it.

“Which is honestly a bit of a surprise. I know I can get a bit…aggressive about these things, or obsessive. People tell me I start getting picky about things once I realize they don’t have the same interests and intentions as me. And Sam wonders why I don’t like hanging out with other people.”

She laughed softly to herself, skimming over her words before she continued writing.

“Except you, of course. I wish I could bring you along with me to these expeditions, but I’m just…worried Trinity is going to get to you somehow, and aside from Jonah, you’re the only one I have left. If they got ahold of you, I don’t know what I’d do with myself. I’ve lost too many people already. I can’t lose you too.”

A small pause. She wasn’t sure what to do with herself during these trips anymore. Before she had met [Y/N], she had gotten used to sleeping alone and spending the majority of her time alone. She could go on journeys without worrying about returning home to someone. She didn’t want to die, that wasn’t what she was thinking of. She just didn’t feel guilty about trips taking longer than she initially planned. Deep down, though, she knew [Y/N] understood. Each time she’d make it home to her girlfriend, she was always greeted with relief and excitement rather than annoyance and resentment.

During the nights where she was alone on the expeditions, she could eventually get herself to fall asleep for short periods of time, pretending she was back home in bed with her girlfriend, cuddled up together under the blankets and sleeping in.

Another thing she had to readjust to was doing things solo. The only thing she tended to do on her own at the manor anymore was paperwork. [Y/N] would do everything with her there: researching, reading, cleaning, taking trips to different cities, and so on and so forth. She had grown so accustomed to that to where she found herself itching to talk to someone or move around at the campsites when she used to just sit there and think to herself.

She genuinely enjoyed the idea of having someone to come home to every time, but it still caused guilt when anything went wrong. There was a near-constant worry that her job was straining the relationship, regardless of what [Y/N] told her.

She had never been in a relationship before, so she really had no idea what to expect. It was stressful trying to learn how to open up to someone, but once she realized she could fully trust [Y/N], she found it much easier to start talking about her past.

Another sigh slipped past her lips, her gaze dropping down to the page of her journal again.

“I can’t wait to get home to you again. And honestly, I never thought I’d be able to say that. With how often I’m traveling, I figured I wouldn’t find someone who was willing to put up with my constant researching and preparing. I suppose I could take you on easier trips where I know Trinity won’t be. I could teach you how to go rock climbing and the basics of how to survive out in the wilderness.”

A sense of fondness washed over her, remembering how Roth would take her backpacking and traveling to random places so she could learn all of his tricks.

“If Roth were still here, I bet I could’ve convinced him to let you come with us to one of our training expeditions. He loved teaching all about journeying. He probably would’ve talked your ear off the way he did with me.”

Once more, a soft laugh escaped her.

“I’d honestly give anything to hear him lecture me about trusting my instinct again. You would’ve loved him. He was a good man.”

She studied her entry, repeatedly skimming over Roth’s name scribbled out in her shaky handwriting. 

“I wish you could’ve met him.”

She frowned at the memory of what happened in Yamatai, guilt beginning to bubble up to the surface again. She sighed, trying to shift her focus to something else.

“I can’t wait to get back home to you. I miss you. Hopefully I’ll be able to see you sooner rather than later. I already want to come back just so I can be with you again. I love you.”

Gently, she shut her journal and tucked it away again, dropping her pen in on top of it before zipping the bag shut. Once she placed the bag to her side, she shifted to turn back to the fire, which had grown to a decent size. Her unfocused gaze watched the flames in front of her dance wildly to the bitterly cold gusts of wind. Soon, as she waited for Jonah to call her over, her mind wandered off, her body shivering, aching, and craving to be in her warm, plush bed by [Y/N]’s side again.

The expedition finally came to an end. Unfortunately, it had taken an extra three days thanks to Trinity’s operation disrupting everything. Lara was returning home with another artifact, one which she planned to donate to a local museum instead of adding to her personal collection. She asked Jonah to drop the artifact off for her, her expression alone telling him all he needed to know. He agreed, knowing she just wanted to get home to [Y/N] again and rest. Once the plane landed and they disembarked with their luggage, Lara instantly found her car still parked in a private garage she had paid for ahead of time.

She hopped in instantly after tucking her small amount of luggage into the trunk, started the engine, and sped off toward her home. The majority of the drive there, she reflected on what had happened during the expedition. Although she had been in a warm environment for hours on the way back, she still felt chilled to the bone after swimming in glacial waters for hours on end. All she craved was to get home and warm all the way up so she could sleep comfortably, even though she knew the moment the numbness subsided, her joints would ache even more.

Once she finally arrived, she parked her car in her usual spot and headed inside, completely forgetting about the bags in the trunk. Her body felt like it would collapse any minute, so she was desperately trying to get inside and find [Y/N].

With a great deal of effort, straining the aching muscles in her arms and back, she shoved the main door open leading into the front parlor. Before any of the servants could lead her somewhere to get her injuries treated or get changed into warmer clothes, Lara made a beeline to the stairs leading up to the second floor of the main building. She wobbled down the hall to her bedroom door, weakly pushing it open with a small grunt of pain. She didn’t spot [Y/N] in the bedroom right away, so she checked the bathroom attached to it.

She wasn’t there either. Odd.

With a groan, she forced herself to trudge back out of the room and down the hall, planning to check the library next. And if she wasn’t there, she’d search the main study. Before she could make it to the doorway leading to the library, [Y/N] stepped out carrying a couple of books. When she spotted Lara, her face lit up, excitedly placing the books aside on a nearby console table and rushing over to the brunette. At the sight of [Y/N] heading her direction, a small surge of energy bolted through Lara’s senses. She beamed over at her and opened her arms, sighing in relief when the smaller woman leaned heavily into her embrace.

“Lara, you’re back! How was the trip? Find anything good?”

Lara grinned wider at her enthusiasm–a breath of fresh air to have someone show genuine interest in her own passion. “Yeah, we found an old artifact, but I told Jonah to just go donate it to the local museum. I don’t have much space left on the shelves in my study, and I don’t want to clutter our room with them.” [Y/N] chuckled at her words, a small nod as her response as they remained in their embrace a moment longer.

At length, much to Lara’s dismay, [Y/N] leaned back. One hand dropped down to gently take hold of the brunette’s, and the other lifted to cup her cheek. At the feeling of warmth against her face, Lara leaned into the touch, her eyes shutting as she sighed. “C’mon,” [Y/N] started softly with a warm smile, “let’s get you patched up and changed. Then you can get some sleep.” Before she could try to refute, Lara yawned and nodded, wearily following the smaller woman’s lead as she carefully tugged her toward the bedroom again.

Once in there, she sat Lara down on the bed, retrieved the First Aid kit from the medical cabinet in the bathroom, and joined her on the mattress, which the brunette seemed to immediately sink into. She pulled out a damp rag she had also grabbed and began to dab cautiously at the scratches and cuts littered across Lara’s skin. When she began to apply the antiseptic, she earned a few hisses of pain, though they quickly died down with each passing second. All the while, Lara’s eyelids were growing heavier. She did her best to bite back her yawns, though most of them still snuck through.

After cleaning all of the visible marks, [Y/N] stitched up what she needed to, and applied bandages to what was left. She quickly packed the kit back up and stored it in the bathroom once more. Then, she helped Lara head into the bathroom and get undressed, helping her step into the bath when the warm water filled up enough. Once the brunette was situated and comfortable, [Y/N] took her hair down for her and began to rinse and lather it with the shampoo she had set up beforehand. Once her hair was clean, she then washed Lara’s back, shoulders, and mostly everything but her stomach, legs, and mostly whatever was underneath the water, which she let the Croft do on her own.

By the time Lara was clean and wrapped up in a towel after stepping out of the tub, [Y/N] left and came back in carrying a pair of clothes that had just been pulled out from the dryer. She gave the brunette a bit of privacy to get dressed. Lara hummed contentedly at the warm, soft fabric brushing across her skin: a pair of black fleece pants with a slightly oversized gray t-shirt.

She stood after tugging her clothes on. After folding the towel back up enough to hang on the rack on the wall, she flipped the lightswitch off and left the bathroom, finding [Y/N] standing by the bed with a tray in her hands. Curiously, Lara walked over and sat down at the foot of the bed with an eyebrow raised. Before she could question what it was, [Y/N] moved to hand the tray to her, revealing her favorite dish warmed up and placed nicely on a plate.

At the sight of it, she blinked, and soon looked back up at her girlfriend, who had moved to her own side of the bed. “Go ahead and eat. I wanted you to have something in your stomach so it doesn’t growl and wake you up like last time.”

With a pleased grin, Lara nodded and shifted up to her spot in bed to prop herself up against the headboard. She was quick to pick up her fork and dig into the dish, clearly grateful to have something prepared for her instead of needing to fix something for herself the way she had done the past few days in the wilderness. It saved her a lot of time and energy, all of which she could spend on recovering from the trip. Within minutes, the plate was clean and her cup was empty. She moved to get up and bring it to the kitchen downstairs, but [Y/N] was quick to stop her and take it from her hands. “Hey, no, go ahead and stay here, alright? I really just want you to relax for a while.”

Even if Lara had planned on refusing the help, it would’ve been no use, as [Y/N] was already by the door by the time she finished speaking. She quickly slipped out of the room, leaving Lara there to wait. She hadn’t even had a chance to nod. She sighed, shuffling downward to bundle up underneath the thick blankets layering her mattress and tugging them partially over her head. The moment her head made contact with her pillow, she groaned in relief, the plush surface welcoming her and pulling her into a partial slumber already.

She fought to stay awake a little longer, however, wanting to be cuddled up against [Y/N] as she slept so she could hear her heartbeat. Ever since the two had started sharing the bed, that’s how Lara fell asleep. It’s why going on long expeditions was so difficult sometimes–she had no heartbeat to listen to, no breathing she could hear but her own, and no warmth to lean into when she got a chill or had a strange dream that kept her eyes pried open in alarmed confusion. Another yawn pushed past her lips, her eyes slowly fluttering shut. Just as she was close to being lulled into sleep, the bedroom door creaked open again. [Y/N] stepped inside and turned the lights off, then headed over to the windows and closed all the heavy curtains, leaving a very dull light in the room.

She then crawled into her side of the bed, though she was quickly met with Lara scooting over and pressing her head against her chest, planting her ear directly over the girl’s sternum to hear the steady thumping of her heartbeat resting safely behind her ribs. A sigh of relief made its way from Lara. She wriggled over a bit, nuzzled her face further into the blankets, and finally settled for a position. With a small smile, [Y/N] rolled over just enough to wrap both of her arms around the brunette’s torso. She pulled her closer as softly as she could.

“Did you wanna talk about the trip?” She whispered softly. A bit of a delay, but Lara answered with a small shake of her head. “No,” she murmured almost inaudibly. “Maybe tomorrow.” [Y/N] nodded in response. She slid one of her arms over a bit, earning a groan of disapproval, though it was quickly replaced by an even fainter groan of pleasure once her fingernails began to gently rake through Lara’s brunette locks. [Y/N] repeated this motion for a while before changing to let her nails scratch soothingly at the sore muscles of the taller woman’s back. “Mmm, what about you?�� Lara finally managed to slur out after a few minutes.

[Y/N] hummed, confused. “What about me?” She questioned quietly. Again, there was a pause before she got a response. “What about your day? Tell me…about your day.”

“Oh. Well, it wasn’t very eventful, to be honest. I just helped some of the maids and then read a few books. That’s why I was leaving the library when you made it in.”

“Mmh.”

Lara groaned and shuffled even closer. “I missed you so much,” she whispered. [Y/N] beamed down at her, pure adoration in her eyes. “I missed you too.” She pressed a kiss to the brunette’s forehead, to which Lara responded by scrunching up her nose and leaning her head forward, wordlessly asking for another one. The smaller woman complied after letting a gentle giggle slip in between breaths and pressed a longer kiss to Lara’s head, earning a small huff of satisfaction.

For a while longer, [Y/N] continued to talk about whatever came to mind. Lara wasn’t entirely listening, she just wanted to hear her voice, but [Y/N] already knew that. She didn’t mind. She could talk about seeing a bird on the window sill, and Lara would still find it calming solely because she could hear her speaking. She could hear the low rumbling and vibrations in her chest with every word spoken, and on top of the sound of her heartbeat, it was like the ultimate white noise for Lara.

She wasn’t entirely sure why it brought her so much comfort, but she certainly wasn’t complaining. It helped her fall asleep and stay asleep, which is something she struggled with for the longest time. Being able to get a proper night’s rest felt so refreshing.

Especially after having to be on high alert and sleep lightly for weeks on end during most of her journeys.

After a while, [Y/N] ran out of things to talk about. However, knowing that hearing her make noise was what helped Lara fall asleep, she opted to sing softly instead. An hour or so must’ve passed before Lara’s breathing deepened and slowed, evening out as her body signaled she was fully asleep. After finishing the song she had been practically humming at that point, [Y/N] stopped singing. When she fell silent, her own eyes beginning to droop from fatigue, Lara tugged her closer, unconsciously trying to find the source of the noise again. She settled after a moment when her hearing focused in on her heartbeat once more.

She mumbled something under her breath, though the blankets muffled most of it. The other half of the incoherent speech was caused by her lack of conscience. [Y/N] didn’t mind it though. Finally being able to hold Lara safely in her arms again after two and a half weeks was all she had been wanting. She glanced down at her, smiling tiredly and pressing a gentle kiss to her head again before yawning and closing her eyes.

Soon enough, she fell into a deep slumber as well.

The following morning, the sun crept in through the blinds, alerting everyone of its wake. Bright golden beams trailed their way into the bedroom, sneaking up the covers and making Lara suddenly aware of her surroundings again. She grumbled, calloused fingertips grasping at the hem of the comforter that had slipped from over her head and tugging upward, desperately trying to block out the warmth that stirred her awake. It had been years–until she met [Y/N], anyway–since she had been able to sleep in peacefully without the overwhelming worry of needing to constantly accomplish something. She wanted to stay asleep at least long enough to finish her dream.

For a moment, she smirked to herself, noticing just how soft she had gotten once her relationship had been established with the other woman. Had they never met, nor had they gotten as close as they did, she’d likely still be awake at this hour, buried away in her personal study with stacks of books and loose files strewn about.

With a sense of bitter hesitation, one in which she debated falling back into the dream she had been having just a moment prior–which thankfully wasn’t another nightmare keeping her awake–she let her weary eyes flutter open. A small shove downward let the covers fall free from over her head again, begrudgingly allowing the sunlight to caress her features in a more willing manner. A sigh of relief slipped past her lips once she was able to let her eyes adjust to the blazing beams of light dancing around with each small movement.

After a moment of gaining her bearings, she yawned, drowsily rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes as she shifted over to find [Y/N] still resting at her side. The corners of her lips perked up into a small smile of contentment at the sight. She hummed, shuffled up to let her head rest even in front of [Y/N]’s, and gazed over at her.

The light that had disturbed Lara of her rest now brought her a sense of peace. The warm glow of the amber streaks lighting up the room seemed to embrace every little mark across [Y/N]’s skin, highlighting each scar and stray freckle. Never before had she seemed so at ease in her slumber–or maybe Lara had been too focused on holding her close to have noticed. She noticed it now, though.

And she intended to savor every minute of it.

Moments passed, and her hands were itching to feel the softness of the woman’s skin. With a slight ounce of uncertainty, worried she might stir her awake, she finally lifted her hand from the spot on the mattress next to her and drove it up to let the backs of her fingers graze over [Y/N]’s cheek, huffing out a small sigh at the warmth as though she hadn’t been pressed tightly against her mere moments before.

Her fingers trailed up to tuck a few loose strands of hair behind the sleeping woman’s ear, slowly and silently shuffling forward to press a featherlike kiss to her forehead. At the feeling of soft lips and touches against her skin, [Y/N] began to wake, her brows furrowing together momentarily in thought, as if she were stuck between her dreams and lucidity. Her features softened just as quickly as they tightened, followed by her eyes flitting open and instantaneously focusing on the smitten gaze in front of her. She hummed, grinning and letting her hand slide up to gently take hold of Lara’s. With a small squeeze to her lax hand, [Y/N] turned her head to press an equally soft kiss to her palm.

“Morning,” she murmured against her skin, letting her focus flicker back toward the deep brown eyes now somehow filled with even more love than before.

“Morning,” came her faint reply.

“Are you feeling better now that you’ve slept?” Lara grinned, nodding almost unnoticeably. She carefully slipped her hand from [Y/N]’s, then letting it trail down to the smaller woman’s hip. Once moving a bit closer, as well as shuffling back down further into the comforter, she wrapped both arms around [Y/N]’s waist, tugging her closer and letting her head fall against her chest. Once [Y/N]’s chin moved to rest atop the brunette’s head, Lara sighed, her eyes fluttering shut once more. “Yes, but if I’m being completely honest, my entire body is aching right now. So much happened before I got back.”

She chuckled, wincing to herself at the sudden jolt of pain that erupted from the nerves in the skin taut against her stomach. “I don’t know if I can physically get up yet. Or if I'll be able to at all today.”

A playful snicker sounded above her, prompting her to lift her head and look up at [Y/N]. “Are you sure that’s why? Or do you just want to stay in bed and cuddle like this for the day?” Lara rolled her eyes with a smirk of her own. “I’m telling you: every single muscle in my body is painfully sore. I could get up if I absolutely needed to, but I don’t, so I’d really just prefer to stay here.”

With a moment in between the playful banter, Lara dropped her head back against [Y/N]’s chest. She waited, pondering what she wanted to say as her nails gently scratched at the soft fabric of the shirt she leaned against, sighing silently at the feeling of the motion being reciprocated in a far more soothing way. As she focused on [Y/N] tracing random shapes and words against her scarred skin, subconsciously wondering if she could make out anything specific if she focused, she closed her eyes.

“But even if I somehow wasn’t sore like I am now, I’d absolutely want to stay like this for the day. I missed you,” although her voice had already started off gentle, her tone only seemed to drift further into silence. Whether it stemmed from sheepishness or fatigue, [Y/N] didn’t know. She didn’t mind it, however, and instead pulled her closer. “I missed you too. So very much.”

She paused, one of her hands stroking the brunette strands sprawled out on the mattress behind Lara as her brow creased in thought. “I do worry about you though,” she admitted after what felt like hours, not sure if Lara was still even awake at the moment or if she had heard her. She had, however, and was quick to gaze back up at her, partially hidden way beneath the comforter. Her eyes, which had just been staring at her with a mix of blissful fatigue and love, were now a concoction of bleary concern and confusion. “Why?”

“Because sometimes I worry that something is going to happen to you while you’re away, and I’m never going to know. I mean, I know you won’t go down without a fight, but I’m still terrified that there will be a day where I see you alive for the last time. That thought alone plagues my mind every single time you leave, and it just…scares me?” She scoffed. “No, it’s so much more than just feeling scared. I’m terrified beyond belief that a thought like that could somehow become a reality.”

She hadn’t realized she had begun rambling until Lara shifted up to be eye-level with her again, a far more serious expression taking over. With her features creased with concern, Lara cupped [Y/N]’s face, the pads of her thumbs stroking away the tears that she hadn’t even realized had fallen. When had she started crying?

“I promise you I’m never going to let that happen, alright? There’ve been so many times I shouldn’t have been able to survive, but I did. Like you said: I won’t go down without a fight. And now that I have you here, I have all the more reason to fight to stay alive. I couldn’t bear the thought of never coming home to you. Just…don’t ever worry about me not coming home, okay? One way or another, I’ll find a way to get back to you.”

Her tone softened with every passing word, her heart and mind filling with relief upon seeing a gentle smile grace [Y/N]’s lips. She returned her grin and leaned forward to rest their foreheads together. “Even if it means I have to admit to Jonah that I’m wrong,” she added with a fake annoyance and a small roll of her eyes. [Y/N] couldn’t help but chuckle at her words, allowing Lara to finally let out a small sigh of solace.

“I wouldn’t trade my time with you for anything,” she reassured, trading roles and pulling [Y/N] into her chest instead. “Not for an artifact, not for a trip to some uncharted land, not for my studies, not for anything. I know I may not be the best at showing it, but I truly love you, [Y/N]. I promise you that I’ll always find my way back to you.”

At her reassurance, [Y/N] nuzzled closer to focus in on her heartbeat, unable to bite back the wide smile that stretched across her lips. “I love you too,” she whispered.

Her words were true, she just wished she could find a way to prove it to her every day. Regardless of how invested she could get in her studies or research for her next expedition somewhere far away, she wouldn’t trade these moments of serenity for the world. She treasured them far more than any artifact she had discovered, and would do anything to ensure more of those memories could be made. Not even the strongest forces out there would stop her from returning to the one person she could call home, and she vowed, one way or another, to make sure it stayed that way for good.

[moviecritc]

Hi, so I've recently watched the Thanksgiving movie with Patrick Dempsey and it was sooo good. So I wanted to ask if you could please write something about Charles dating actress!reader who stars in a horror movie but even tho he is not a big fan of horror movies he agrees to watch it for her because he wants to be the best boyfriend so could you please write it with a mix of smau with nell verlaque as face claims 🫶🏻

supportive boyfriend ⋆ charles leclerc

pairing: charles leclerc x actress!reader

word count: 601

warnings: mixed smau and writing

a/n: i, too, am not a huge fan of horror movies (i hate them actually), also this was quite short but i hope you like it <3

masterlist | wattpad | letterboxd

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yourusername some pics from the set 😚😚

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user1 the bond they all have >>>>

addisonrae ❤️👻

user2 i love her so so much

user3 omg i watched the movie and it was amazing!!

user4 y/n the new scream queen frr

user5 wait tf is charles leclerc doing in her likes

user6 girl they're dating u didn't know? she went to promote one her movies to the miami gp last year, they met, become really good friends and they started dating. it was like a rom com truly user5 that's so cute

user7 anyone expecting charles reaction for this new movie? we all know how fearful he is

user8 yess he's probably biting his nails trying to come up with ideas to not see it

And he was.

He was more than proud of his girlfriend and loved seeing her on screen. He always watched her latest movies on the plane when she wasn’t around. But this was the first horror movie she’d made, and the idea of watching it terrified him. He had always struggled with that genre; his two brothers loved horror movies and insisted on watching them when they were kids, which led to Charles having countless sleepless nights.

He had tried to convince Max or Arthur to watch it before him and tell him if it was too scary, but neither of them had time. He searched for summaries on YouTube, but it was still too early for people to have summarized it.

The only thing left was to mentally prepare himself. Be very aware that it was all fiction and that nothing would come after him once the movie ended.

He arrived at his girlfriend’s apartment, greeting her with a kiss and a box of her favorite sweets along with a rose.

“Aw, thanks, Charlie,” she hugged him and gave him a longer kiss. “Come on, I’ve got everything ready to watch it.”

Y/N was truly excited, and it showed on her face. She was very proud of this project and eager to show it to her biggest supporter at last. Charles knew this and had done everything possible to stay calm. But then he saw the setup: Y/N had turned down all the lights, leaving only a few candles lit, and the movie was already on the TV. The poster showed her covered in blood with a terrified expression.

“Are you ready?” Y/N said, sitting on the couch. Charles followed suit, and she snuggled up against his chest.

“Of course,” he said immediately. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Y/N looked at him with a little smile and kissed his cheek before pressing play. The first fifteen minutes were fine; they were introducing the plot and the characters. But then the tone of the movie started to darken, and Charles shifted nervously in his seat. Y/N noticed and intertwined her hand with Charles’, placing it on her chest.

Y/N realized how Charles flinched several times during the next few minutes, so she sat up and paused the movie.

“What’s wrong?” Charles asked instantly, completely confused though secretly relieved to have a moment to rest.

“Charles, you know I won’t be mad if you’re scared to watch the movie, right?” Y/N spoke with a sweet smile.

Charles pressed his lips together and looked down, just enough for Y/N to widen her smile and kiss him, cupping his cheeks with her hands. “I’m not scared,” he said in the middle of the kiss. Y/N raised her eyebrows, said nothing, and exited the movie. “But don’t turn it off, I want to watch it, I swear!”

“Char…”

“No, let’s watch it, mon amour,” Charles insisted, taking control of the remote.

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[caption: guess who haven't slept a shit bc her bf is scared of his own hair]

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charlesleclerc IT WAS DARK AND I FELT SOMETHING IN MY FACE I WAS SCARED

[a-court-of-fics-and-errors]

Keep Moving Forwards, Part 6

Azriel x Reader Fic

Summary: After finally deciding to leave your abusive and manipulative mate for good, you find unexpected companionship with Azriel, the Shadowsinger of the Night Court. As you navigate the aftermath of your traumatic relationship, you struggle to understand where the mating bond went wrong and contemplate your path forward, vowing never to return to the past.

Find other parts here: Master List

Content Warning: This story contains depictions of extreme emotional manipulation and abuse, mentions of physical abuse, loss of a child, and general trauma.

Word Count: 1.7k

Author's Note:

Just a heads-up that the next part of this series will offer two reading options due to sensitive topics in the upcoming section. There will be the original post titled "Keep Moving Forwards, Part 7" with the unedited content, and another version titled "Keep Moving Forwards, Part 7, Summary" that summarizes the material to avoid any discomfort.

For those who have asked to be tagged, you will be automatically tagged in the summarized part to ensure no one accidentally encounters content they might find triggering or uncomfortable. If you are tagged and wish to read the original, please visit my main page when the next part is posted tomorrow at 12:00 PM EST. The two options will be posted simultaneously.

Thank you for your support and understanding. I'll see you tomorrow.

This is a multi-part series. Unlike my previous works, this fanfiction delves deeper than just fluff, exploring complex emotional landscapes. As I navigate this new writing journey, I kindly ask for gentle feedback. The topics addressed are profoundly impactful, touching many lives with diverse experiences. Please be gentle with yourselves and others. Healing is a journey, and everyone processes it differently. Be kind to yourself. Take what resonates, and leave what doesn’t.

Please continue reading, being aware of the above content warnings, ensuring you are in a healthy headspace. Give yourself time to process and be gentle with yourself.

Days blurred together as you continued to heal. Azriel made himself scarce, sending Anthea to check on your progress and report back to him. However, he still ensured your meals were slightly more palatable than the standard fare of the training camp, often adding fruits or sweets when he could. Over the next two days, you shared your meals with Anthea, who only ever took a bite or two before refusing any more, despite your encouragement. Neither of you asked many questions, and your interactions remained brief. You no longer needed help turning over, but your body was still weak, limiting you to short walks across the room.

On your first attempt to walk, you collapsed, and Azriel appeared like a shadow to help you up. You quickly pushed him away, determined to maintain your independence. You also began hiding knives under the mattress and storing non-perishable food in the bedside drawers, preparing for the day you could leave. Your stash included two apples, a pear, and some rolls. Not much, but it was a start.

By the fourth day, you had enough strength to get out of bed and look out the window. The camp outside was a bleak sight. You could see distant mountain ranges, but the camp was nestled in a clearing deep in the woods, a space likely carved out by the Illyrians. The thought of ancient trees felled, sent crashing into the mud for this camp turned your stomach.

The camp itself was a muddy mess. To your right and left, you saw other log cabin-like structures similar to the one you were in, each with pointed roofs and a few windows. Below, the ground sloped down to rows of small, mud-splattered tents on wooden platforms. Footprints crisscrossed the muddy ground, and soldiers moved up and down the hills. In the center of the tent village was a larger log structure, which seemed to be the mess hall, where soldiers gathered at mealtimes.

Scattered among the tents were slightly larger tents, likely for higher-ranking soldiers, and raised platforms with canopies, tables, and chairs, their purpose unclear. On the edges of the camp were fenced-in pens where soldiers, each with their hulking wings, practiced sword fighting. They took great pleasure in knocking each other into the mud and continuing their fights with fists, resembling wild animals.

A particularly ostentatious Illyrian soldier often removed his shirt during fights, choosing to battle bare-chested, swinging his sword with reckless abandon. You half-wondered if only the strongest survived because they were killed before they could even make it to battle.

You noticed very few females around, and the ones you did see were in the same state as Anthea—battered, seemingly brutalized, and sneaking between rows of tents. They quickly retreated to hiding spaces or even into the woods at the sight of a group of males. Over the next few days, you watched Anthea tread a careful path from the mess hall to your cabin, ducking behind tents and listening intently for male footsteps before scurrying like a mouse to the next sheltered area. Every female seemed fearful of the soldiers, and it wasn’t hard to piece together why.

It rained incessantly here, with daily torrential downpours turning the meadow into a muddy quagmire. Despite the rain, the soldiers carried on with their training. Many ventured into the treeline in groups, disappearing for most of the day or night and returning either exhausted or invigorated. You never saw anyone without wings coming or going from the camp, making you acutely aware that you might be the only non-winged creature among them.

Once Anthea decided you had spent enough time wrapped in bandages, she brought you new clothes. She apologized for the fit, noting that they only had sizes for males, and these were the smallest options available. While they hung from your body and required extra rope to keep the pants up, you were grateful for the offer. Azriel continued to flit in and out at random times. In your time spent at the window, you often saw him leaving early in the morning, wandering into the tented area, and entering the larger tents. He rarely interacted with the soldiers, maintaining his role as Spymaster, keeper of the High Lord’s secrets.

On the seventh day, Anthea brought your breakfast and wished you a good morning as she set it down on the bed. You remained curled up by the window, but as she dropped the tray, you called over your shoulder, “I think I would like to go.”

Anthea paused, turning to you. “Go where?” she inquired.

“Just go,” you replied, stretching your legs out and standing to investigate the meal. You picked up a piece of toast with purple jam smeared on it and met her eyes, which widened slightly at your request.

“I don’t understand. Where do you want to go?” she asked again.

You shook your head slightly. “Go away from here.”

“Where are you going?” she asked, picking at the scabs on her hands.

You chewed and swallowed the toast, the rhubarb and strawberry blend coating your tongue with its sour deliciousness. “Not sure yet. I just need to get moving. I can’t stay here anymore.”

Anthea looked at you, still utterly puzzled. “You... you can’t leave.”

You stopped chewing, placing the toast back on the plate and wiping the crumbs on your pants. “What do you mean I can’t?”

“No one leaves,” she stammered. “They always bring you back.”

A lump formed in your throat. It wasn’t that you couldn’t leave; Anthea just couldn’t imagine a world where anyone could. “You tried to leave?” you asked.

Anthea nodded, her gaze cast to the floor. She didn’t elaborate, just continued nodding.

“What happened?”

Anthea shook her head slightly, pressing her fingers into a wound that oozed around them. She didn’t speak.

“Did they hurt you?” you asked.

Anthea still didn’t speak, just shaking her head as she found a new scab to pick at.

“Anthea,” you said, reaching for her to stop her from scratching. She took two steps back immediately, running into the swords and axes poised at the edge of the fireplace, sending them clanging to the floor. Azriel appeared instantly as Anthea dropped to the floor, trying to pick up the weapons while apologizing profusely. He looked between Anthea and you, trying to piece together what had happened. Anthea continued apologizing until Azriel knelt beside her and began picking up the weapons too. She whispered her apologies again before Azriel placed his hands on her shoulders. She jumped slightly, and her eyes seemed to glaze over.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Nothing is wrong.”

Anthea nodded, tears filling her eyes as Azriel released her. She quickly stood, glanced at you with a tear rolling down her cheek, then briskly walked out of the room, covering her mouth with her hand. You turned to the window and watched her exit the house, heading into the nearby woods.

Azriel finished placing the weapons back in their spots before turning to you. “What happened?” he asked.

You watched the treeline for a second, and when Anthea didn’t reappear, you turned back towards him. “Nothing,” you said.

Azriel looked around the room, then back at you. “You’re standing.”

“Yes,” you replied.

“That’s,” he paused, stuttering slightly, “that’s good.”

You nodded before taking a few steps toward him. “I want to leave.”

A flash of emotion crossed Azriel’s face, but it was gone before you could read it. “Where are you going?” he asked.

You looked up at him, noting how he towered over you, forcing you to crane your neck to see his face. “It’s none of your concern.”

Azriel sighed, running his hand through his hair—a gesture you had begun to notice he did when nervous or uncomfortable.

“Look, I-” Azriel started.

You interrupted him, “I appreciate what you’ve done, and you’ve been very generous. I just think I need to move on.”

“If this is about what happened earlier-” Azriel started again, but you cut him off once more.

“It has nothing to do with that,” you noted. “I just want to be on my way and out of your hair.”

Azriel paused, searching for the right words. “Let me at least get you where you want to go,” he finally said. “It’s not like your journey was going well the last time.”

You scoffed lightly. “There’s no need for that.”

“Please,” Azriel insisted.

“If I say no, will you make me stay?” you asked.

Azriel paused. “No. I won’t make you stay.”

“Good,” you replied. “I want to leave then. Today.”

Azriel’s eyes widened. “No, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?”

Azriel glanced out the window as clouds began rolling in for the daily downpour. “It’s going to rain soon.”

You didn’t bother looking out the window. “Then I will leave after.”

Azriel looked back at you, his eyes pleading. “Can you just wait a few more days?”

“What am I waiting for?” you asked shortly.

“Just give me some time to plan.”

Your brows furrowed. “Given you aren’t coming with me, I don’t particularly understand what you need to plan for.”

“Just, please,” Azriel pleaded, his eyes filled with yearning. “Stay a few more days, and then you can leave.”

You ground your teeth, feeling like a caged animal. “Fine.” There was no way you could push past him, and it was clear he could outrun you if you tried.

“Thank you,” he said, his face relaxing slightly. He ran his hand over his face. “What happened with Anthea?” he asked again.

You stopped, annoyed he repeated the question. “I asked her if I could leave, and before she could answer, she accidentally knocked down the swords.” You pointed to the weapons now restacked.

“Got it,” Azriel responded. He glanced at your half-eaten breakfast. “Are you done with this?” he asked.

You nodded, crossing your arms, the bruise on your side causing a pang of pain.

Azriel picked up the tray and left, leaving you alone in the room once more. It was clear your request had bothered him as his anxiety left hard rock in your stomach. You wouldn’t be staying long, certainly not a few more days.

Authors Note: Thanks for all the continued support from the following readers who asked to be tagged!

@thatacotargirl @mcuamerica @lilah-asteria @florabelll @fightmedraco @marvelbros-oneshots @mariahoedt @quinzzelx @romantasyreader28 @minnieoo @mysteriouslydeafeningwerewolf @annabethgranger123 @krowiathemythologynerd @scatteredstardustt @romantasyreader28

[ckret2]

Pardon me, however, have you ever considered getting help on WAIGLZ or any other fic of yours? Such as a ghost writer or someone to help you with art so it can get done faster?

I am just curious because I thought it would be really coolio to work with you or something, idk.

Please have a truly wonderful day/evening and toodaloo! ^ ^

+ Btw, if I sound rude at all, that is %100 not intentional tone is kind of hard to translate through text lol

I appreciate that the question is meant kindly; but why would I want somebody else to tell my story for me?

It might not make a difference to an audience member; y'all simply just wanna see the rest of the story, it doesn't make a difference who made it because from the consumer's end it still reads the same.

But it makes a hell of a lot of difference to the writer.

If i wanted a ghostwriter I could just chuck my outline into chatgpt. it would be just as good—which is to say it would be very bad—because in both cases it'd be written by someone/something that doesn't intimately understand the vast web of ideas the story's built on and the hundreds of tiny tiny goals I'm looking for places to thread into the story and the exact themes I'm trying to achieve and exactly where and how I want to make it funny and make it heartwarming and make it hurt; and in both cases I'd have to rip the product apart and edit it to sound like the story i'm trying to tell rather than sound like a 40% accurate retelling of my story that was based off of a barebones summarization.

Like, how many times have you seen Gravity Falls? Probably at least once or twice? If you sat down with an episode summary—only the summary, not the transcript or gallery—and tried to rewrite the script word-for-word and redraw the episode shot-for-shot, do you think you could get every word and every angle right? And you've already seen the episode! You remember the finished product! Imagine trying to guess at all that based off of the summary alone if you'd never seen it before!

So now instead of writing my own story i'm merely editing SOMEONE ELSE telling a water-downed version of my story. It takes me just as long if not longer; and on top of that there's no joy in it.

And if that's what i wanted to do with my life... at least shoving it in chatgpt would get me a first draft to edit faster.

as for art: about a decade ago i was writing/drawing a fancomic and tried to split it with friends so i was writing and they were drawing. it slowed down the whole thing immensely. took 4x longer to get art than doing it myself would've taken.

At the time, I updated multiple times a week (my art was worse then lol); and when I asked someone else to do art I had to keep choosing between:

delaying my next post for days while patiently waiting for a friend, with no guarantee they'd actually finish;

impatiently waiting and trying to find a way to politely repeatedly pester them about finishing the art; or

give up on waiting and do the art myself, which would hurt them deeply, especially if they'd already started it and I just went "nah you're too slow, I'll do it myself."

The thing is, I put my passion project ahead of my other hobbies. Why would somebody else put my passion project ahead of their own hobbies? It would be unfair and unkind for me to ask somebody to do that; but I'm not willing to slow down and wait for somebody to do some art for me when it's finally convenient for them; so therefore I'd better do my own art.

[pikahlua]

As for the prose, it is always descriptive and symbolic, yet concise. All of this just a super long-winded way of saying that I love your work. I'm a newbie fic writer, and I wanted to know how you manage deciding what would or wouldn't be ooc for your characters to do when drafting. And also how you think of ideas and get inspiration for what story beats you should write in the middle. Thank you for all that you do in the fandom :)

Again, thank you for the comment ❤️

Regarding your questions, I'm afraid I'll have to borrow from a post I saw on my dashboard recently that I wish I could find. When it comes to dialogue, I do often ask myself if I can "hear" a character saying what I've written, but in general, I don't think as much in terms of "Is this in- or out-of-character?" The better question to ask is "HOW would this be in-character?" In what circumstances would a character do this? What would it take for them to do that? How would they go about doing it? That's a large part of how I construct a scene, because I need to make sure the things happen that would MAKE the character do what I need them to do.

As for drafting story beats, everyone has a different approach to this, and I would highly recommend looking up the different drafting methods out there and seeing what resonates with you. I personally draft by writing out a story in full as a summary with notes made for all the little details I need to remember. Sometimes I think of these notes later and throw them in as reminders in a chapter draft that I figure out how to work in when I get to writing the rough draft. A lot of things that will happen in the story I don't know when I'm drafting though, and I come up with the ideas as I'm writing. Again, I often ask myself questions like "What would it take to get this character from where they are to where I need them to be?" I think a lot of people can relate to imagining individual scenes in their heads, but if you write that imagined scene down, it may become clear to you what needs to happen BEFORE that scene in order to have it play out like you imagine.

In the case of Dragonheart, a lot of basic story beats especially towards the beginning are borrowed from The Vision of Escaflowne. I diluted those chosen moments down to their most elemental story ideas and tried to develop how I would see them work out with the characters I'm using. The end product is something entirely different from what I based it on, but take any story and summarize it as quickly as possible and you should be able to work out a blueprint for that certain type of story. In the end, we learn to write stories by reading or hearing other stories. Look at stories you love and try to figure out what it is about them that appeals to you, and use that in your writing. The first 5 chapters of Dragonheart were originally drafted to be one chapter, but then I conceived of the courtroom scene one night and decided to figure out how to get my characters there. All of the foreshadowing in those chapters for future events not yet published is there because of those future scenes I've already planned out in my head. I just needed to set some things up early on to get to those story beats later. And so I had to figure out a scene to fit those setups into. Basically, I start with an outline and fill in the gaps more and more as I write the story.

I can't say whether or not my method would work for anyone else. After all, one chapter growing into five isn't exactly concise. I have a tendency to write things far longer than originally intended, and so I gravitate towards writing epics and other long-form stories. I can only encourage you to experiment with your own methods and hopefully land on something that feels right to you. Practice makes perfect, in this case. The more you write, the easier this will all come to you.

Well wishes! ❤️

[teriwrites]

Down Memory Lane: A Wrap-Up

I have no idea how I actually managed to see it through, but here we are! Over 900,000 words in content read, an ungodly amount written towards silly reactions and summarizing, and I have officially worked my way through the past over-half-of-my-life's Novembers.

To be fully honest, the whole thing is still overwhelming enough that I'm having a hard time putting anything down to summarize it as a whole. The past near-4 months have been dense, burying my head into my WIPs, and the closer we got to the present, the more backload of Thoughts I had about each. So trying to whip up a nice, concise, comprehensive summary feels just about impossible.

So I suppose I should just start at the very beginning:

Why the Hell Did I Do This?

As with most of these questions, there are a couple different answers:

Why not? - The initial spark for doing this retrospective project stemmed out of realizing that I had access to every one of my old November projects. I'd been meaning to go back through a few of the different drafts, and I've always enjoyed rereading my own writing. So I didn't really need any other reasons to do it! That said...

A Needed Ego Boost - Without going into too much detail, I've been struggling with various insecurities in my writing for the past few years. Feeling stagnant, stumbling over the same pitfalls, never quite achieving on paper what I envision for my story. I could make a whole post surrounding the 'why' of those insecurities, but ultimately, I figured that by reading my writing from the age of 13, I could feel better about my writing at age 26.

Amusement - Everytime somebody shares the writing they were working on in elementary/middle school, it's always lovably ridiculous. I was really anticipating diving into that type of insanity, especially after drafting something as heavily melodramatic as The Blind Oracle last November

What the Hell Happened?

So, yeah. If you've been seeing my posts pop up regularly for the past few months, you might've noticed that I've been consistently working away towards the goal of reading through everything and jotting down some reactions and notes as I went

I didn't really know what to expect when I actually got started. I didn't have any sort of structured idea of what to track specifically, so I just kind of started reading and hoped that the development would be obvious.

Thankfully, it was! I read the slowly but surely burgeoning storytelling of a girl stepping through adolescence and into emerging adulthood.

Some of the various things I found included:

Workarounds for cursing as a Devout Catholic Child

Incidental Anti-Capitalist rhetoric

Intentional Anti-Capitalist rhetoric

Accidental glimpses into my adolescent psyche regarding values, biases, self-image, etc.

All the insane silliness I could've hoped for

Accidentally poignant commentary on the current political climate

So much redundancy. So many sentences describing things that absolutely did not need to be described in any detail.

An unfurling love of descriptive writing

So much banter

I laughed, I cried, I cringed, I spent like a month and a half longer than I expected getting through it. What else could I ask for?

The More Things Change...

A lot has changed in my writing since I was 13 (obviously), but aside from the quality itself, the writer I was in 8th grade wouldn't likely recognize the writer I am now

So what's changed?

Pantsing vs. Planning - When I was a kid, first beginning to write stories, my approach to writing meant coming up with an exciting idea, writing maybe 1,000 words towards the idea until I'd satisfied the initial excitement. And then, when I set it down for a minute, and a new, shiny idea came along, the cycle would repeat.

While Below can't take all of the credit for my learning how to commit to an idea - there was another project in the background throughout middle school that I dedicated like 30K to over 3 years - it was the first project to show me that I could finish something.

But the 'write what excites you' mindset didn't always work so smoothly, even during November. In 2013, I genuinely gave up halfway through the month. My excitement for the project had worn off. I'd written myself into plot hole after plot hole. The only reason I won that year was because I was surrounded by online friends crossing the finish line in the last few days of November. So I determined to join them and spent all day of the 29th and 30th hitting an accumulative 18K.

It was incredibly difficult. But it also was a huge learning experience. I realized through The Abernathy Chronicles that putting in work beforehand - timelines, worldbuilding, character creation - could actually be fun, and it helped me stick with an idea to know where it was going.

Realism vs. Escapism - What was fun about this particular dichotomy is that it doesn't fall along some sort of linear development. It isn't like I started writing fantasy, and then slowly branched into litfic, or the other way around.

That said, there have been trends. Growing up, I wrote exclusively fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal/etc. If magic wasn't involved, superpowers were. If superpowers weren't involved, ghosts were. If ghosts weren't involved, magic was. Technically, I believe my first foray into contemporary writing was in short stories I worked on towards the end of high school. And even then, there were often fantastical elements to it.

Once I'd gone off to college, I noticed an interesting pattern. My 1st year of college, in 2016, November in particular was a terrible time. The election/my mental health/in the thick of classes I hated all had me drained. So I set out to write a story revolving around a pretty bare, basic rebelling-against-the-government plot, with basic miserable-archetypal characters.

The following year, when my life had entirely flipped-turned-upside-down, I was writing about two pre-teens working through the struggles of middle school. Then, in 2018, I was writing about a young woman falling into the egoism of fame. In 2019, it was young men coping with the horrific past of their nation as they stepped into adulthood. My first true instances of contemporary (or at least within the past century) fiction, looking at interpersonal relationships and exploring the self. All written during a high point of my life, pursuing my interests with a healthy academic and social life.

Then 2020 came. Cue me writing a story about a girl running into the world of the fae to save her brother as I sat alone in a dorm while all of my friends had already graduated.

Are we seeing the pattern here?

So maybe it's not something that has to do with the development of my skill, but it was interesting to look back and notice how my life and stability reflects itself in my writing*

*Funnily enough, maybe my most realistic WIP - Downstairs, 4 Hawthorn Rd - I'd actually place in the 'escapism' category, since I was literally using it to escape back into pre-pandemic life

Inspiration - This one kind of ties in with the last, but where the ideas that I actually write about come from has always been fluid, but over time, I do think there's been a shift.

When I wrote Below, it stemmed directly from a dream I had about escaping some kind of institution. There are always obvious ties to the general Y.A. genre at the time, but also to specific stories like Maximum Ride (or honestly even moreso the Virals series by Kathy Reichs, we don't needa talk about how Kristen was straight up copied off of Tori Brennan lmao). Similarly, the idea for Hell™ Hath Frozen Over was literally snatched from someone else on the NaNo forums (once again, soz).

But as time went on, I started finding inspiration outside of 'literally snatching up other people's ideas and tweaking a few things and calling it mine'. I took more interest in prompts. I made a game out of grabbing titles off of title generators and framing a storyline around them (which led to Boy of My Imagination, Creature of Scandal, and Beneath Alder Creek). I drew inspiration from stories I loved without trying to directly imitate them - Anne of Green Gables lightly features in more of these projects than I can count and yet nothing in my WIPs really resemble that story. I found myself asking questions and setting out to answer them in my writing.

There's no right way to find ideas, and I think the best approach has always been leaving yourself open to taking inspiration from any source that offers it to you. The real difference here, I think, is that I've gotten better about how to wield that inspiration and forge it into something of my own.

...The More They Stay The Same

As much as things have changed since November 2011, I'm ultimately still the same person. And regardless of whether it's in my Superpowered Teens YA at 13 years old or my Foreseeing Tragedy at 26, there are going to be glimpses of me in all of it

Humor - My sense of humor has revolved around a sort of dry wit for honestly about as long as I've been writing. And while I don't think I was able to communicate that well in how I wrote when I was 9, it's been a big part of my narrative voice forever

In a way, I think I'm actually at my best with this kind of voicing when writing in 1st person - it's a lot easier to show from directly inside a character's mind - using primarily 3rd person just means that a lot of my writing involves a sort of detached narrator offering commentary

The Fatal Choice: "I am here to visit family," Delroy explained, though he wasn't at all. He was there to try and break out some prisoners, but something told him that they wouldn't be so receptive if they knew that.'

The Insurgence: "I don't mean to brag, of course, but my servant - Amos, you'll remember him - has been practicing his driving. I knew that a young man of his age ought to learn to drive, and so I've been having him practice in the fields near the house." Ross' expression was not that of someone who remembered the person being mentioned, but he listened silently and intently.'

Castle on the Hill: "No, I usually just take a nap or something, but right now, I'm full of energy." The energetic Hans appeared no different than how he typically did.'

Beyond Alder Creek: 'Maybe traveling on her own for awhile would be good for her. The clamminess of her palms clearly demonstrated how much faith she had in the idea, but relying on herself had always been a part of the plan.'

Like these all stretch across several years, but something about clearly pointing out contradictions between what a character says vs. what they think/mean/show definitely shows up in a lot of my writing, and I'm sure there are other jokes that I could find similar examples of

Exploration - While I don't think there's anything wrong in finding your comfort zone in reading/writing and sticking to it, as I grew up, I found trying to branch out important to me. I didn't just want to write poor quality Chosen One knock-offs forever. As soon as I realized that I was capable of actually following through on my ideas, those ideas began to expand

This isn't to like herald myself as some great writer who tackles every genre and form with equal comfort and skill. By no means. My comfort zone lands largely in historical fantasy, and I like it there. But I also like to branch out, and it was fun to go back and see myself doing just that through the years.

Hell™ Hath Frozen Over was one of the first steps I ever took outside of classic Y.A. stories, most of which involved some degree of the Chosen One trope. The Fatal Choice showed my first real attempt at worldbuilding. And though I largely stuck with my fantasy comforts for awhile, as my inspiration expanded, so did my interest in finding ideas outside of that comfort zone. Granted, a lot of what experimentation can be found in these WIPs was grounded more in short stories that I'd jot down in my free time - exploring sci-fi and paranormal and horror and suspense and romance and humor and contemporary ideas.

Most recently, The Blind Oracle involved a lot of playing around with not just tenses and POVs, but intentionally working personal conflicts into the writing. Introducing lyrics from songs I added to a playlist for the WIP (which I've never done before and honestly don't expect to keep up with). I wanted this project to be as cathartic as possible - and it paid off!

Experimenting and exploring with different areas of writing is something I usually associate more with my older self - college and beyond - but it's really nice to see that the interest in pushing myself actually goes all the way back to the very beginning.

Highlights

I just wanted to take a brief part of this massive-af (in-line with every other post I've made towards this project, at least) essay to offer a highlight from each of the 16 projects before I start winding this down:

Below (2011): 'No news is good news right? Well, that's how it felt right now. Unfortunately, we had a lot of news coming our way at the moment.'

Hell™ Hath Frozen Over (2012): "Hello, Gabriel? I have a message for you to send to Lucifer. Yes, the CEO of Hell™. Yes, the guy who used to be our best employee here. Yes, the one who turned evil. Please tell him to stop forwarding his mail to us."

Below (2012): 'His brow was furrowed, and if looks could kill, Raevin would have had her insides spilled onto the table and stabbed several times until they all bled out.'

The Fatal Choice (2013): 'Before, Delroy had wondered how an executioner could be disloyal to his Governors. Now, he had no doubt in his mind that the executioner would as soon kill the Governors if provided enough incentive.'

Behind Closed Doors (2014): 'Every piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, and its picture formed a hideous corpse in an alleyway. Sir Cedric Boyd had had the Prime Minister murdered.'

Boy of My Imagination (2015): 'I wanted to argue, to tell her that she was wrong and that I would be completely fine by the fall, but I found myself falling silent. The truth was that I wasn't sure when I'd be okay again. It'd only been a bit over a week since I'd woken up, and I hadn't expected changes overnight, but at what point was I supposed to start feeling better? When were my constant headaches going to fade? When would my memories return to me? How long was I going to have to wait until I could feel normal again?'

The Insurgence (2016): "Glamorous?" Miles asked, brow furrowing. Pressing a fist into the wooden surface of the desk to stabilize himself, he leaned forwards. "Do you call hiking through the Osennas Mountains as the winter season approaches glamorous? Or risking my life every time I cross the border with forged papers which, with competent training, could be easily deciphered as fake? Is dragging cartloads of firearms through the mud and walking through the night until my legs are too stiff to move 'glamorous' to you, Miss Abberton?"

Emma's Wonderland (2017): 'Finn couldn't be quite sure how exactly things went, so quickly as they occurred, but suddenly Emma was in a bunch of mud that the melting snow had uncovered. And he couldn't say exactly what he did, but Finn would always have the vague memory of stumbling forwards and sucker-punching Trey Kendall in the jaw.'

Creature of Scandal (2018): 'Before she could leave, Charlotte allowed herself to turn once more to Carson and say, "By the way, Mr. Wheelis. The name is Charlotte Wilson. Remember it. This won't be the last time you hear it."

Castle on the Hill (2019): 'Perhaps, Hans thought as he slid into the front seat of the car, there was more to this group than bickering. They were all grinning and laughing, and even after they'd returned to Peter and Georg's apartment, half the night passed before any of them managed to calm down enough to finally get to sleep.'

Beneath Alder Creek (2020): "The Courts run on honor. Those without it are removed. Tell me, which Court does your guide belong to?"

Downstairs, 4 Hawthorn Rd (2021): 'So, saving her blank document, she closed out the tab and sent her laptop to sleep.'

Beyond the Grave (2021): 'The world is wide. I've had a long journey. Let's not talk of my shortcomings.' The wind rustled in the trees, like a parent ruffling their child's hair.'

The Lies in the Legend (2022): "There are those that will use whatever means necessary to convince you they are well-meaning enough, or innocent enough, or powerful enough that you must listen to whatever they tell you. But nobody - not me, not your friends, not even the Prince - should be above reproach in dire circumstances."

Beyond Alder Creek (2023): 'Humanity tore a rift in the fabric of the Beyond. So be it. Winifred Pewitt would burn it in its entirety before she let it rob her of her brother.'

The Blind Oracle (2024): 'The innocent ignorance of the kingdom's powerful, their authority a facade in the horrible knowledge he'd been cursed with. Fate cast him from their comfort like a shadow from the light. He saw death in their pleasure; even a skull appeared to smile.'

Was This Project Worth It?

As I mentioned, I put in 4 months of my life dedicated to reading through my old WIPs, completely refrained from reading or engaging too much in anything else, wrote copious amounts of notes, all for this project that I didn't even have a solid grasp on when I started.

There were so many days that I spent wanting to bang my head against my desk, trudging through the most boring string of sentences ever put onto paper. Spending an entire page dedicated to content that really only needed a couple sentences, or didn't need to be included at all. So many notes that I didn't want to be taking to describe stories I haven't had a vested interest in for years.

And at the end of it, what all do I really have except for so many posts with the same little banner on the end of them?

Truly, is it worth going to reread writing from so long ago?

YES.

If only for the purpose of nostalgia, rereading old writing will always be worth it imo. If only for finding the humor in the insane choices of phrasing and voicing. If only out of curiosity, or boredom, or if trying to rekindle your own spark with why you love this craft in the first place, it is absolutely worth going back to your roots.

(That said, looking back on older writing requires being able to give your younger self grace. An open mind and acceptance of meeting the writing where it's at are so important!)

Anyways, I started this largely because I felt awful about where I was at in my writing. I felt convinced that nothing I put on the page was 'good enough', that it all fell short to what my idea of the scene/description/conversation/story was. Everything felt surface-level and poorly patched together. I wasn't convinced that I'd made any progress over the past few years, and that the difference in my writing back in 2011 and in 2024 could've been that stark.

And I was so wrong.

Admittedly, I think it'd be almost impressive if I managed not to have any notable difference in my writing over 13 years of writing out at LEAST 50,000 words, and usually at least doubling that during the non-November months

But to actually witness my own development actually gave me so much confidence in the progress I've made. Watching characters come to life, seeing landscapes come into focus, stories themselves unfold with more ease. My 13-year-old self would read my writing today and actually gape at what I've managed to accomplish. And if for nobody else's sake, then for hers, I'm more than happy to bask in my hard-earned skills.

NaNoWriMo...

Let's just call it what it is, especially now that the company itself has sunk and can't claim any more ownership to the actual heart of what that challenge has always meant to be.

NaNoWriMo was, and in some ways still is, a very influential part of my life. And before I can completely finish this up, I can't have a whole retrospective project based around my NaNo novels without acknowledging its impact.

I've already talked about how my first year of NaNoWriMo shaped my writing journey by teaching me that I could actually finish something. It also introduced me to a chatroom full of teenage writers who became some of my closest friends in high school - and some of whom I'm still close with. We encouraged each other, challenged each other, took up beef with some of the moderators for not letting us promote our chatroom on the YWP site (which is bitterly ironic, given what would go on on those forums a decade later)

All this to say, my first few years of NaNoWriMo gave me everything that I needed as a writer at the time: community and the audacity to push through a first draft, regardless of how messy and incomprehensible it was.

As the years went on, it became a beloved tradition. My ability to finish a first draft was established after awhile, but I was still bouncing between various ideas between Novembers. If 1K was all it took to get inspiration out of my system when I was 13, then a 1st draft did the same thing to me at 18. And that fit in perfectly with NaNoWriMo's goals: every year, I could start a new draft from scratch and write out at least 50,000 words towards finishing it.

But then I kept growing up and kept developing. I started finding ideas I actually wanted to stick with.

Even before NaNoWriMo (the company) started sinking under its own controversies, I was finding myself at a crossroads with the challenge itself. I realized that I wasn't spending enough time working on my WIPs outside of October/November to actually make much progress before we'd reach that time of year to start drafting up a fresh bout of inspiration.

I first started seriously considering what my future with the challenge would look like in 2023. I'd already won 12 consecutive years and couldn't imagine not at least participating. But participating meant having to neglect working on projects I was passionate about.

(Thus: using that year to work on my second draft of BAC)

The scandals of 2023 coming to light alongside the whole AI mess of 2024 largely seemed to answer that question, at least in terms of officially participating in the challenge using its website and all that. Even if I'd wanted to keep writing 1st drafts forever, there are certain stances I can't stand by

But even if none of that had happened, I think I would still find myself in 2025 looking at where I've come from and where I'm at now.

Writing 50,000 words in 2011 was a great exercise to force me to rapidly write out a story and stop relying entirely on the motivation of being in the mood to write.

Writing 50,000 words in 2012 taught me that not every story needs to be a novel, and that some only need 25,000 to tell it.

Writing 50,000 words in 2013 taught me that flying by the seat of my pants doesn't actually help me personally get through a novel any easier.

Writing 50,000 words in 2014 solidified for me that actually having some sort of plan to go by was not the boring, tedious work I thought it'd be.

Writing 50,000 words in 2015 taught me that choosing to tackle a massive challenge on top of a challenge (rather than first exploring a new genre in something like short stories outside of November) would lead to slogging through the month.

Writing 50,000 words in 2016 taught me how to gauge my own mental capacity and lean into a story that'd bring me the most escapism and least difficulty to write.

Writing 50,000 words in 2017 taught me that I was allowed to balance my traditions with a social life without sacrificing either.

Writing 50,000 words in 2018 brought me a year of writing alongside friends irl for the first time.

Writing 50,000 words in 2019 was less important than what came after: finishing the last 20K after November had ended.

Writing 50,000 words in 2020 offered an essential, familiar outlet in a world that'd turned on its head and demonstrated that, sometimes, the best stories are those that come out of self-indulgence.

Writing 50,000 words in 2021 taught me how to tweak the challenge itself to fit my own goals - writing out two novellas instead of one 50K+ novel

Writing 50,000 words in 2022 showed me how easy even a challenge like this can be when the WIP aligns with your interests.

Writing 50,000 words in 2023 taught me that there's absolutely nothing which could prevent me from writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

Writing 50,000 words in 2024 taught me that I cannot spend every November of my life writing 50,000 words.

I love this challenge, and I don't think that I'll ever fully give it up. Currently, I plan to spend November 2025 writing out, you guessed it, 50K (though I already know what that will be towards, and it's a very specific project). In November 2026, who knows? Maybe I'll keep with the traditional 50K, maybe I'll shift my goals to something that aligns better with my long-term plans. Eventually, I'll have to break the chain of Novembers.

When that day comes, I'm sure I'll have a lot of thoughts and feelings to share about it. But until then, all I can say is that I'm so grateful for what NaNoWriMo has provided me, regardless of where the nonprofit ended up. The writer, and in many ways the person, I am today would not have been possible without it.

And with that, there is only one question left to ask.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that I've gone back and examined my own work, as the trajectory pushes into the present and beyond, it begs the question of what to do now. If there is anything to do now, outside of going back to the grind.

But I've had four months to think about it, and I have some ideas for what could come next:

Fundamentals - I've had the general goal for awhile of going back and doing basic writing exercises - the type of thing you'd see in school - to ground myself back in various areas of creative writing. Whether that means something like a class, or just genuinely grabbing prompted challenges for myself, I don't think it would hurt to look at the craft a little more academically.

Sharing My Writing - If I've gotten used to writing out full drafts and I've done some work on making those drafts comprehensible, an area that I'm definitely still struggling in is actually sharing that writing and, eventually, asking for critique. While I don't think my first step in this would be to fully start posting entire novel drafts online for people to see, I think this is where short stories could really shine.

November - While, as I've said, I don't think that I will be participating in the 50K/30 Days challenge forever, I'm not quite willing to give it up just yet. But once I do, I'm sure that that time of year will always feel more creatively motivating. So maybe I could create new challenges for myself to fall (ha) during November. Broach into rewrites, or edits, or encourage myself to branch into entirely new forms of writing - creative nonfiction, maybe, or script-writing, or finding new genres to tackle.

Nothing is set in stone, obviously. If all the next 13 years brought me was more of the same of what I've seen here, I'd still be astounded by what all I've yet to do. But there's nothing like charting out your course to give you a better idea of what lies ahead. And, with hindsight being what it is, I think that's what I was actually looking for in this project all along.

So with all of that settled, I think it's time for me to get writing!*

*after a long-deserved, potentially month-long nap

[july13th2004]

Not going to make three separate posts for the three fics I uploaded today, just this one, so if you're going to read any of them, please read them at the mirror links (for An Ocean Apart, I highly recommend you read it on AO3, because of the formatting)!

Together Evermore

Characters/Relationships: Kratos Aurion, Anna Irving, Kratos/Anna, Kranna, Dirk, Kratos Aurion and Dirk

Genre: Romance/Fluff

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Smut

Word Count: 4241

Mirror Link: AO3 | Pixiv

Summary: The morning after Kratos and Anna’s second midnight reunion, Anna wakes up to find her husband reading a book that holds a deep, emotional meaning for her. When Kratos asks her to explain and summarize the book’s story, she’s more than happy to oblige. Then a short time later, after Kratos recalls a few intimate moments they shared the night before, he finds himself in the mood for more, and she’s willing to oblige him on that, too. The couple then spends the rest of the day eating a special brunch and enjoying each other’s company, grateful that they have the rest of their lives to spend together.

Author’s Note: So a few months ago, I decided I wanted to write a direct sequel to ‘Forever Yours’. I started writing this down in a notebook initially, then ultimately decided to just write it how I normally would on my laptop. This fic takes place the morning after the ending of ‘Forever Yours’, so it’s set in my Anna Lives AU (which I think has completely consumed me, help), but it is not required that you read that fic before reading this one unless you want to. There’s also a short conversation between Kratos and Dirk in this one, and this is my first time writing dialogue, or really anything for Dirk, so I apologize if his dialogue sounds weird (or even stereotypical).

Wrapped Up In Your Scent

Characters/Relationships: Kratos Aurion, Anna Irving, Kratos/Anna, Kranna, Lloyd Irving, Noishe

Genre: Romance/Fluff

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Smut

Word Count: 3183

Mirror Link: AO3 | Pixiv

Summary: One late winter night, Kratos comes back inside from a couple hours of chopping firewood to find Lloyd asleep on the floor of the living room, using Noishe as his pillow. After putting the boy properly to bed in his own room, he heads back to the bedroom, where he finds Anna already in bed, reading a book. He informs her that he’s going to take a bath, and she apologizes for forgetting to put their son to bed earlier. Kratos assuages his wife’s worry, telling her that he already took care of it, then heads into the bathroom. While Kratos is taking a bath, Anna gets out of bed to make herself some tea. Both secretly hope that the other will use the gifts they bought for each other, and each wonders what the other will smell or taste like as a result of using those gifts. What else will using those gifts lead to?

Author’s Note: Lol, this one ended up being an unplanned sequel to ‘Like Firewood and Spice…’. Just like that one, this one was also inspired by some candles, two of them this time, that I’ve seen at work the last couple of months. I never planned on writing a sequel to ‘Like Firewood and Spice…’, and I’m sure most of you didn’t think I would either, but here it is I guess.

An Ocean Apart

Characters/Relationships: Kratos Aurion, Anna Irving, Kratos/Anna, Kranna

Genre: Fluff/Light Angst

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2336

Mirror Link: AO3 | Pixiv

Summary: Due to his involvement in a major business project, Kratos has been away from his wife for almost a year. The couple communicates with each other nightly via text and video call. One night after Anna comes home late from work, she asks her husband during their nightly video call if he knows when he’s coming home to her. His answer ends up being the one she had hoped for, but would require her to wait for him just a little bit longer.

Author’s Note: So this one is set in a Modern AU, and is also a contest entry for March’s Pixiv Novel writing contest. The theme of the month is Meetings and Partings, and this one was written for the sub-theme of Long Distance Relationships. The title of this one, along with the overall theme of the story, was inspired by this quote (please scroll down to the first part of the QA section) in reference to the same song and its lyrics at the link (yes, this is yet another fic inspired by that song, lol). Anyway, I’ve never written anything like this before, nor have I entered anything into one of these contests before, so I’m a little nervous about posting this because I don’t know what to expect (I don’t expect to win anything, since the winners are going to be selected via lottery, so completely random), but I do hope some of you out there will enjoy reading this one. This one is also my favorite of the three fics I’m uploading today.

[nade2308writes]

If you only knew I'd sacrifice my beating heart before I lose you

Taking the liberty of writing stories for on of the newest pair of OCs that @thethistlegirlwrites created. I enjoy being inspired by other people's writing.

Summary: Nico gets interrogated by the equivalent of the IAB in Chimera.

@febuwhump

They had been stuck there for hours, reviewing his past, how he was turned, how he lived after the turning and the things he did. Domenico Pontevecchio never thought his unlife in LA would turn this bad when he woke up on Thursday. He never thought Damien would follow him here, and then try to turn his unlife upside down.

Again.

As if he didn't escape New York City to find some peace.

He should have known. It never worked out for the good guys. Or those who thought they were good. Nico hoped he was one of those. On his bad days he knew he didn't deserve to be still walking on earth. But today was one of the exceptionally bad days, yet he did not feel like that. He felt like he had to prove himself, that he was good. And his self deprecation and depressive thoughts had to wait.

He was rapidly losing his patience, the longer the woman they sent, spent on spinning him in circles. She was trying to prove a point, and Nico was tired of being the punchline of it.

"For the last time, he came at me with a silver gun in one hand and a stake in the other. Once he let go of my son, that is. What else do you want me to say? It was self defense."

"And what happened next?"

Nico flashed back to that moment on the roof. The fear in his kid's eyes, he wasn't sure if it was for him or the vamp that had his arm around his kid's throat, or for his father, Nico himself. Shay and Sierra were there too, following close behind him when they got the tip that the vamp who held Nico's kid hostage was seen in the area. Joey was with him when they got the news and she told him that she would do recon when they arrived at the scene.

She was good at blending in between the shadows, and Nico learned that she would do anything, at any cost, to help people in need. Especially those she cared about. What Nico did to deserve that care directed his way, he couldn't quite tell just yet.

Then it all happened like in the movies: they found his kid and the vamp who had him, they chased him, cornered him, and that prompted the vamp to climb the stairs of the old building they cornered him at. Human Nico would have cursed at the lack of an elevator in the building, because twenty flights of stairs would have been stretching his strength, even for his size and physicality, but as a vamp, strength and speed did not matter.

Nico must have gotten lost in thought, because his interrogator looked like she called his name several times before she realized Nico was not there with his head.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?"

The woman's face changed when she brought her chair closer to him and sat down.

"I was asking you what happened next and then you disappeared on me. Do you wish to take a break before we continue?"

Nico shook his head.

"No, I want to get done with this as soon as possible."

He did not want to be confined in the interrogation room longer than he was supposed to. And he didn't want the woman in front of him to know the darkest thoughts he had at that moment. The fear he experienced when he saw his son hanging off the roof for a split second before the vamp released him and Shay and Sierra got him to safety before they returned. By then it was too late, Nico pushed the vampire off the roof, after accidentally shooting him with his own gun. He survived, but the incident was documented and reported by someone who thought Nico did it on purpose. For revenge.

Given the stains on his record from the past, Nico was grateful they did not kick him out of the mentoring program outright.

"So, let's summarize, Mr. Pontevecchio. The vampire whom you pushed off the roof of the building, by accident, according to your claims, kidnapped your son from his dorm room on Friday. You got a distress call from your son's cell phone, something you two set up if he was ever in trouble. That was before or after you turned?"

"Before."

"Okay. And after that you told Maira Lawson about what happened, right?"

"No, I told my mentee first."

"Josefina Quintero?"

"That's right."

"Why is that?"

"We were on a job together when the call came and she probably saw how distressed I was, and asked what was wrong. Believe me, I didn't know where my head was at that moment. That man is very dangerous, and the longer he had my boy..."

Nico did not finish that sentence, remembering the sight of his partner's dead body and the sight of the blood pooling around his middle where Damien stabbed him. He delighted in watching Nico as he lay there, weak and vulnerable, unable to help his partner.

"Why do you think he took Riccardo from his dorm room?"

"To get my attention. He used to taunt me, back in NYC, before my turning, and after, until I got here. I visited Emma Cole's seminars to block out the connection with my sire. So far it's been effective. I guess he wanted to have me under his control again."

"The logical thing would be to get your son, right?"

"Yeah. And he guessed right. My son is my weak point. Ricky is one of the things I kept from my old life. I just never thought Damien would go so far to grab my boy."

"And when you faced him on that roof, what was your thought process?"

"My only priority was to have Ricky back with me. Ask the people that were with me, they will tell you."

"One human and two vampires, Mr. Pontevecchio. Don't forget that."

"You shouldn't forget that we might not be alive anymore, but that does not make us less human. Some of us have more humanity than you all put together."

Nico knew he shouldn't have snapped at the woman, but his nerves were frayed from all this questioning. What was even the point of all this?

"I'm sorry, Mr. Pontevecchio, I shouldn't have said that."

Nico sighed.

"What is the point of all of this, Mrs-"

"Van der Sar. And yes, before you ask, the famous soccer player is a distant relative."

"I wasn't going to ask, but I'm glad we cleared that out."

She put herself together and looked at the papers again. Nico tried to read her, but that was impossible to do. Mrs. Van der Sar was an enigma to him.

"The Agency wanted to make sure that everything was regular during the incident, because if it wasn't, they would have shut your program down, and that would put a dark spot in our record."

Nico knew exactly what she meant by that. Maira was a good director of the Agency, but there was always someone above her that wanted to keep things under control. So they sent the big guns. Sort of the equivalent of the IAB for federal agencies.

"Just tell me what happened, Nico. Confess if you have to. But don't try to get out of this mess by playing the grievous parent."

That enraged Nico. First, she used the name he allowed only the people close to him were allowed to use. Second, she made it sound like Nico wanted to do what he did.

It's not like I killed Damien.

"The only truth is that Damien had a gun with silver bullets in one hand and a stake in the other. He didn't specify that, but when he fired one of the bullets to incapacitate Shane Barrett, I figured it out. Ask him, I'm sure he'll have some choice words about that." Nico kept eye contact the whole time and noticed that the woman interrogating him was sweating and uncomfortable. Good.

"He was taunting me, as always, dangling my son in front of me like a carrot, expecting me to follow and I did. He was ready to throw my boy from the roof. I couldn't let that happen. That's when he changed his mind and let Ricky go. Barrett and Stoker took him with them and got him to safety."

"And then you pushed him."

"Then, he stared at me like he was amused. Ended up throwing the stake on the rooftop, but he still had his gun trained on me. I couldn't afford to let him shoot me and escape, so I tried to come up with something until Stoker and Barrett returned. But once again he was unpredictable. He tucked his gun in his pants and came at me. I gave as good as I got in that fight. It was either him or me. And he has done enough damage for me to let him waste me, for good this time.

"It was not out of revenge that I pushed him, Mrs. Van der Sar. It just happened. He had me pinned, and I was trying to get free, but before I could do anything he had the gun out and pistol whipped me. I was dazed and confused, but I could see him aim that gun at me while his hand grasped the stake. He was going to kill me. So I flipped us, he lost momentum, we grappled for the gun and I barely even touched it when it went off. It must have turned towards him when we switched places. Next thing I know is Damien trying to pull me close to him, he still had the stake, and when I pushed on his shoulders to get him away from me, he slipped and fell. I swear I never noticed we were on the edge."

Just then the door to the interrogation room opened and in entered a very pissed off Maira, with Joey, Sierra, and Shay in tow. He could see some other members of both teams lurking in the hall behind them, and Nico had to do everything in his power not to smile and enrage the interrogator even more. He thought he saw Pete Jemison standing next to Kira Burke.

Good, there is backup in case things go belly up.

"What is the meaning of this?" Maira's voice boomed in the small and tight space that Nico was sure that it was supposed to be out of commission for how uncomfortable it was.

"The Headmaster sent me-"

"Then he should have notified me, before you cornered MY people!"

Nico suddenly sat up straighter in his chair and looked at Maira, then at Joey and the others. They looked like they were spoiling for a fight, especially Sierra and that made him wonder what happened. He knew that she was a Stoker and getting in trouble was the trademark of those with that name.

"What are you talking about?" Nico found himself asking Maira.

"I am talking about the Headmaster sending this woman to question MY team, and the young vampire you are mentoring."

"He did what?!" Nico pushed off his chair and watched Mrs. Van der Sar trying to put herself together. She couldn't hide her flinch, though. She was afraid of him. Now that there were more people in the room, she didn't look like she had things under control.

Nico knew women could be vicious when they wanted to, so he kept an eye on her.

"She wanted to get some dirt on you, pun not intended, to bury you, again, not intended, so the Headmaster could terminate the mentoring program. I guess those who say they want to see progress made aren't satisfied when the progress is actually happening."

Maira was spitting mad. Whatever happened, it was probably ugly.

"You have no right to come here and interrupt my investigation. You and your team can-"

"I'd be careful with what I say next, if I was you." This time it was Joey who spoke and Nico was proud of her and where she started versus where she was right then.

"Or what, you are going to say something back?"

"I can make sure you get new teeth if you prefer it to go that way."

The woman shut her mouth and looked at Joey like she wanted to slap her. Nico allowed himself to smile for a moment.

"The Headmaster will hear about this. This is outrageous."

"He already heard about this from all of us," Shay spoke next and she did not expect that, flinching again. Shay had a good five inches over Nico and he looked more menacing. "I'm pretty sure that a lot of people involved in this charade already know about this mess. We are not here to go down for an imaginary reason because your boss wants Nico out of the way."

Nico felt warmth spreading through him, despite the lack of warmth in the room he was in.

"I haven't finished with Mr. Pontevecchio. Yet!" The woman acted as if she was still the one in charge.

"You have. As of this moment, you are not to speak with him, or anyone else about this. I suggest you go and exorcise whatever demon you have, in a way that won't involve my people in the process. Mr. Pontevecchio acted in self defense when he pushed the vampire, an evil, rotten scum of the earth. There are several witnesses of this, including footage from a TV station helicopter. Ms. Quintero's sight is enhanced so much that she would have been able to tell what color the vampire's eyes were. She gave a sworn statement. Ms. Stoker and Mr. Barrett saw enough to back that story up. You are cornered, Mrs. Van der Sar, so I suggest you gather all your things and get the hell out of my building. Mr. Pontevecchio got a concussion out of that encounter and he needs to rest. Now, if you'll excuse us, we are leaving."

Maira motioned for Nico to follow them. He took a deep breath and released it. It was finally over. He was free.

With that came the headache he was trying to ignore ever since he was taken in for questioning. He winced at the pain that was pulling at his temples and wished there was something he could do to prevent the hurting.

He felt a presence next to him and he knew who it was even before she spoke up.

"You are hurting."

"Not more than usual."

"Have you done a lot of undercover work while you were with the New York agency?"

"Why?"

"If you were lying like this you would have died long before you actually did."

Nico spluttered and the movement made him wince again.

"You still want to insist you are not in pain? I think the only one that didn't notice was that turd who interrogated you."

"You mean they all know?"

"You got whacked on the head with a Colt Python, Domenico. What did you expect would happen?"

Sierra using his full name meant she was seriously worried.

"You know what you need."

"No. Absolutely not. I'm not going to do it. Nuh-huh."

"Do you want to suffer for days to prove a point or take a shot of the liquid that will cure you the fastest?"

Nico couldn't answer that. He wouldn't. If he agreed, then he would have to concede to drinking blood to heal. And that could lead to more things that could go wrong in the future. He couldn't risk it.

"Stubborn ex hunters are the worst patients, I swear."

"What do you mean?"

"Mild blood hangover is better than a multi day concussion, Nico. You forget I have a klutz at home that has given himself more concussions that I can count, and is also a vampire. I swear I'll have to train you all."

Nico smiled. Sierra wasn't a saint herself, but she meant well, and she tried to help.

"It can't get worse than this, I'm sure, Sierra."

Sierra stopped walking and he forced himself to do the same and face her. She had a scowl on her face.

"It can and it will if you let it continue for longer. And if you don't listen to me, I'll go get mi Tío and he can tell you about what happened to Emma's arm."

That sounded scary and Nico gulped.

"Let us help you, Nico. You do not have to suffer."

He huffed a breath. He knew he lost the moment he looked into Sierra's convincing eyes.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it. But not more than the necessary amount of blood, got it?"

"Pinky promise."

Shs actually made him shake hands with pinkies. Other than being troublemakers, Stokers were also weird. But he didn't mind that.

Turning around, Nico noticed the others weren't around anymore. Where the hell did they go?

"They will wait for us at the Rowan house. Robin offered it to all of us, you included. At least it's better than your place."

Nico winced, but this time it wasn't from the headache. He was aware of the fact that he lived in a crappy one bedroom apartment, thanks to how hard it was to find a place to live in because he was a vampire. Not that things were any better if you were human. Going to Rowan house sounded way better than staying in his sad looking place.

"Okay. Anything else you have to tell me before we head out?"

"Not really, but, you do know you got a concussion because you don't have any cushion up there?" She pointed to her hair.

"Oh, shut up." But he was smiling. It was good to have someone in his corner.

[grapenehifics]

💖 [Heart] or 🖋️ [Pen] for Pick Up the Pieces (so far), please? Whichever one you want to answer

You have endeared yourself to me forever, anon, because I love to talk about this fic, but am I also frustrated by talking about it, because I'm trying to keep so much of it under wraps. (Perhaps unnecessarily. You may all read this and be like...why the big secrecy? This is just normal fic stuff? But I'm doing it nevertheless.)

🖋️ [Pen] Describe your WIP in a single, terrible sentence.

Taking these in backwards order, and also cheating, because I'm going to give you a sneak peek at the AO3 summary instead, which is longer than one sentence but I'm happy with it:

You might want to buckle up, baby.

Obi-Wan had always been taught that Lost Jedi were to be mourned, pitied, perhaps even feared. To actually become one would be, well, a fate worse than death.

Nobody had warned him that he might actually enjoy it.

The Clones Wars have ended. A tentative peace has broken out, although not without some hiccups along the way. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka have voluntarily left the Jedi Order, and are on their way to Kamino to investigate the mystery of the clones’ strange behavior…

💖 [Heart] What is your favorite moment in this WIP?

More cheating; I'm picking two. Well, one and a half. The first one is part of a scene I've already shared, where our disaster trio, as they are no longer Jedi and probably shouldn't be walking around wearing Jedi robes anymore, pick out new clothes for themselves, and Anakin takes the opportunity to check out Obi-Wan's ass. There's a bunch of little moments like that in the chapter where this comes from where the three of them get a second to just be, and be with each other, and do normal family things like go shopping and run errands, and it's all really sweet. They argue but they're just really good to each other.

The second one I'm just going to summarize. Ahsoka is faced with a tough choice she has to make totally randomly, by guessing, and if she guesses wrong she and a bunch of other people are going to die. She calls Obi-Wan, who doesn't know she's in this tough situation, and kind of vaguely asks him for advice but mostly she's comming him just to talk to him and get to hear his voice one more time in case it's the last thing she does.

(As I'm writing this out I'm realizing how morbid this sounds. She doesn't die; I promise!! They're all fine!! It's actually a really sweet scene! Obi-Wan is a good dad/friend/big-brother person!)

This middle section of the story, which is what Pick Up the Pieces is, now, because I added a part 3 because I can't help myself, is all about tying up loose ends and facing some of Anakin's demons from his past (hence the title), but it's also about exploring their connection as a dyad and as a family, and each of them get a chance to prove to the other two that they've got each other's backs no matter what.

Plus also a bunch of stuff explodes, so, that's pretty cool, too.

[flyhighfreebirb]

SPOILER-FILLED SUMMARY OF DELTARUNE CHAPTER 3

I played through chapter 3 and 4 near-blind, so expect me to miss a LOT of stuff. Don't worry, I'm currently replay them, mainly to fill in some secrets. In the meantime, please enjoy what little I have found to share with you!

However, before I begin, I have to apologize for something: I kinda lied, there will be no chapter 4 content in this article. I believe describing two brand new chapters with my limited writing skills may make this post way longer than it should be, and also there might be some people who just started chapter 3 with zero knowledge of the next chapter, so please let me take my time and summarize chapter 4 more clearly. Sorry for that!

Since I was so excited to play the game, my stupid ass forgot to record or screenshot, so I'll use what I've found online instead (I'll still only cover what I've found in my playthrough tho). Credits to Toby Fox, deltarune.wiki, and Shayy's playthrough videos.

So now that I've said everything I had to say, let's get to the point! You probably knew this already, but spoilers below, watch at your own risk!

So I waited through the countdown, bought the game on Steam (the process took several minutes since the server keeps crashing), and hooray, Deltarune chapter 3 is here! Kris and Susie woke up from a couch (and Ralsei joins soon after, of course) I walked them through the starting area, which resembles the area before chapter 1 castle town, for some reason.

Ralsei talked about the origin of darkners and gets depressed about not being real, and Susie tries to comfort him. Everything about this place felt so serious, so emotional, until... he arrived.

"It's now time for our feature presentation!

FEACHER

Coming straight from your house! Coming straight from YOUR house!

Coming! He's the one! COMING! THE KING OF ONLY! He's groovy and never glooby! You can't get this from an egg!

The sensation of your screen! The show that makes you scream! Say it with him, folks!

MR. (Ant) TENNA'S T-V TIIIIIIIME!!!"

I was still moody from the cutscene of Susie comforting Ralsei, and then Tenna just jumpscared me like that. Damn you, Tenna.

After a short introduction, we will be participating in Tenna's show! I thought it would be like Undertale's hotland shenanigans, where you traverse a map while Mettaton randomly hops out to give you a minigame, but nope, it's Zelda time!

I wasn't being warned in the slightest, because my God, this section is LONG. It took out a half of my total play time! Although I admit it was mainly because of me trying to search for secrets (I did all this since I had a great ambition to find and fight this chapter's secret boss in my blind run. It didn't turn out so well....), but this section is still very long even in my second run, so I'll cut most of the overworld exploration and cover only the important parts!

Lancer in chapter 3!

The weather, in fact, did not stay together

Cooking minigame. Unlike the pro gamer on stream, I fumbled the controls and died an ungodly amount of times. (Is three times a lot?)

The Green Room, where you relax and enjoy various stuff (Fighting a miniboss, gambling, playing minigames, etc.) before the next round! Imagine going back to a few years ago and telling people this is official content....

M O S S

Song That Plays When You Fight A Currently Divorced Couple Or A Funny Camera Thing

Awww, the couple is finally getting back together...

... with Rouxls! Wait, ROUXLS!?

Rhythm minigame. Again, unlike the pro gamer on stream, I am not doing well here, but at least I got this first try!

Susie decided that two Zelda sessions were quite enough, and she prompted us to explore a previously sealed-off area by mitigating parental controls. We found Toriel sleeping in the Cold Place, but Tenna caught us in the act and forced us to play a THIRD ROUND! Luckily, we managed to escape, and our world exploration can finally begin!

Banger alert! This area theme is FIRE!

Challenge yourself through various minigames and quizzes!

Office working simulator. Something good might happen if you free them from capitalism...

HE'S HERE

Battle Against a True Bisexual

After a short trip, we're finally back at where we started... hey, is it cold in here or is it just me?

We rushed to the Cold Place once more, where we finally confronted Tenna! Tenna told us his backstory: he used to be the Dreemurr family's beloved TV, which they and the Holiday families would gather around to watch the yearly specials. However, one by one, the viewers left, and Tenna was eventually unused. The Knight told him that if he could create an endless show for the three heroes, he could have all the people watch him as he wanted. Seeing that he can't convince them, Tenna fights the party as the final act...

(Wait, was this a Warioware reference?)

Tenna was finally defeated, and he admits that he just wants to be watched, wanting to be "useful" once more. Susie comforts him with her own experience and promises to find him a new owner.

Moved by her speech, Tenna decided to free Toriel and let the heroes leave! Awww, such a beautiful endin- OH GOD OH FUCK

The Roaring Knight showing up as early as chapter 3 was not on my deltarune bingo list, but here we are! The heroes tried to fight the Knight, but ended up failing miserably. Thankfully, it seems to be a scripted fail...

...or is it?

Chapter 3 had always been the hype center of our fandom for years, and I gotta say, Toby blew our expectations out of the stratosphere. The characters are so lively, the new mechanics are fun (although it took some time for me to adapt), the lore implications are wild, and the humor is of course top-notch. I have a few nitpicks for the story pacing though: This chapter was structured vastly differently from the previous two, which screwed my senses up a bit. I thought the "gameshows" would be some minor, recurring event happening throughout the adventure, not something that takes up half a chapter! (To be fair, Toby warned us this chapter would be pretty strange...)

Anyways, chapter 3 was for sure a surprise, but a rather welcome one. It is so shitpost-y, so goofy, yet so emotional and dark at the same time. I saw someone on youtube describe it as "if Toby Fox was tasked to make a deltarune fangame", and I honestly couldn't agree more.

This chapter feels rather weird at first glance, but I really look forward to replaying it. Now that I know the tips and tricks for the various sections, I'm looking to go through this chapter again and fill in the secrets!

(By the time I wrote this, I already completed chapter 4 and was partly into my second run of chapter 3, so I'll finish my summary of chapter 4 first, then make separate articles for the secret bosses and easter eggs)

Thanks for reading all of this, and hope you enjoy!

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Ludwig II — Glanz und Ende eines Königs (1955) [Ludwig II — Lustre and End of a King]

Honestly, this might be my favorite so far. Which I guess isnt great because while Elisabeth does play a fairly large role, this is hardly what I would call a Sissi-film. If you're wondering why this film was even on my list, when I was looking for all the media I was going to watch, I started on wikipedia which listed this film and when I briefly skimmed the summary, I determined that it had enough Elisabeth in it to make the cut. There are a few other pieces of media like Der Engel mit der Posaune (1948) where I skimmed the summary and determined there wasnt enough of either her or Rudolf in it, its kinda arbitrary if Im being honest, but yeah. hope you enjoyed this little look behind the curtain.

Anyway, I liked this movie a lot and it didnt even have a One Big Issue like Mayerling (1936) did. I will admit, a big part of it is that it was just very refreshing seeing a movie about a different kind of mentally ill man (who also didnt have a lot going on in the romance department, thank god) after all these Rudolf-movies, but I promise that's not the only reason I like it so much

It's kind of hard to give a plot summary because this film is essentially just a series of vignettes from when Ludwig was 25 (?) up to his death, but despite having no real overarching 'plot' like Elisabeth von Österreich (1931), it doesnt suffer from any of the same issues, like the vignettes feeling disconnected and random, because it's actually a really good character study. But anyway, in lieu of writing a summary, Im just gonna describe my four favorite moments:

When Bavaria is set to go to war, his ministers want him to give a speech to his soldiers and he refuses by giving this sortof mock-speech where he's like "you're going to war where you will kill your brothers who are now your enemies and be killed by your enemies that were once your brothers. to those of you who will be killed, may your death be quick at least", its a lot longer than that and Im doing a bad job paraphrasing it but hes basically conveying that if he's forced to give a speech to the soldiers that he didnt want to send off to war in the first place, he'll say a bunch of shit that will crush their morale, so the ministers leave him alone. I think this scene does a good job showing the audience some of Ludwig's depth and that he's not just a romantic, and the way O. W. Fischer delivered that whole monologue was really great too

After getting engaged to Sophie, he takes her to see an opera but when they actually get there and sit down in their box, she sees that the opera house is completely empty save for the musicians. Ludwig set it up like this so he could show her the loneliness he feels all the time and the disconnect from other people and what she would have to endure if she married him, she finds it absolutely horrible and spoiler alert, but they break off the engagement and dont talk to each other for the rest of the film after this. I find this scene very interesting and I can just imagine how mortifying it would be to be completely alone in this giant opera building, but I feel like they couldve done a better job conveying what Ludwig and Sophie feel through the filmmaking

After the first major timeskip of the film, Elisabeth visits Ludwig (this is during that time period where she traveled around a lot and was difficult to get a hold of) and they just talk for a bit, I find it difficult to summarize because theyre not really talking about one specific thing that you can just name, but I think it gives her and their relationship a lot of depth, and its the scene that made me really like Ruth Leuwerik as Elisabeth, I wasnt sure if I would like her at the start and while she's not my favorite, I thought she was good

Ludwig is supposed to greet the crown prince of Prussia whos arriving in Bavaria but he refuses, then his younger brother Otto comes in to try and comvince him as well and he starts by telling him about what it felt like to be there as this new country "Germany" was founded, but he ends up having what appears to be a ptsd-flashback from the loud music being played outside and Ludwig tries to comfort him but he ends up collapsing. I cannot stop thinking about this scene, its so heart-wrenching and upsetting and O. W. Fischer and Klaus Kinski's performances are both absolutely phenomenal. And then Ludwig calls over a psychiatrist/doctor to check on him, but all of his ministers are bothering him trying to get him to greet the crown prince, and throughout all of this theres still this cheerful/triumphant music blaring outside, I think it does such a good conveying the disconnect between Ludwig as a person and his duties and what's being expected of him

Also, and this isnt just one scene the way the other things I mentioned are so I didnt want to put it in the list above, but theres this short plotline at the start of the film where Ludwig basically picks composer Richard Wagner out of poverty and showers him with a bunch of money because he admires him so much, and I just wanted to say that theres such a strong homoerotic tension between those two. Like, the scene where they meet in person for the first time is so unbelievably intense, its this long moment of silence that gets broken by Richard and then Ludwig tells him something so incredibly poetic and beautiful, I dont remember what exactly it was but it made my jaw drop a little, and then he kisses him on the cheek ?? and yes, men kissing each other on the cheek was normal at the time, Ludwig even kissed Franz Joseph earlier in the film, but I swear its different when he kisses Richard, its so intimate and full of love and the music swells and everything, I was not expecting that at all

I mean, to be fair, most of the scenes where he interacts positively with someone else are full of a kind of tension-filled love, but still

Anyway, Ive already talked about how great O. W. Fischer was as Ludwig, but I just really need to highlight it again; he was so charismatic towards the beginning, but I also think he did a wonderful job portraying Ludwig's nuances and him slowly unraveling over the course of the film. Also, he reminds me of the actor who played Freder in Metropolis (1927), especially for that beginning section where he doesnt have facial hair yet, they both have this babygirlishness that I really love in a man. Now, unfortunately I do think he loses that as the film goes on, but thats mainly because I dont like facial hair, Im sure plenty of you guys can still appreciate his babygirlishness during the later sections as well

Other than that, I thought the sets looked really beautiful and apparently they did film a lot of the scenes on-location which is really cool. However, I cant talk about the sets without talking about this one scene where Ludwig and Elisabeth talk in the mirror hall in Neuschwanstein because it looks so bad. I'm 99.9% sure they used an old-timey greenscreen-thing for it (I forgot the actual name but I think it was either whitescreen or lightscreen), presumably because actually filming in a big room full of mirrors without having the cameras show would have been really hard, but god. They also used it for an earlier scene where Ludwig and Elisabeth went horseriding together, and it looks comically bad as well

So yeah, this is a very good film, it makes me excited for the other Ludwig/Elisabeth film I have on my list, and it genuinely makes me want to seek out more films about Ludwig II (if there are any more lol) but Im kinda busy rn so that'll have to wait.

Now for the two small things I couldnt fit into the rest of the post:

I found the austrian dialects everyone had very charming, which technically applies to every austrian talkie Ive seen so far and not just this one, but Ive never mentioned it so I figured I might as well do it now

I couldnt help but notice a lot of the male character's wonderful silhouettes and I have but one thing to say: bring back slut waists for guys