#i would have given a star wars wip

[sinvulkt]

Heads up Seven Up

Rules: Post seven lines from something you're working on. 

YESSSS LET’S GOOO

Thank you for the tag!! @fancyfrey 🎶

Here is one, all fresh out of sprint, from my Dream SMP longfic~

Dream opened the book. The smell of old paper and ink spread in the air, the pages crisp under his touch. At first, nothing happened. The pages were blank. Then the low enchantment buzz turned into a rumbling, and black code climbed over Dream’s hands.

Dream jumped away, feathers bristling, his code frantically fighting the invader, but to no use. The black code was slippery, dodging all of Dream’s defenses, and his green one was still weak from Wilbur’s mutant code. His panicking receded slightly as he noticed the invading code wasn’t doing anything. It just probed and observed, scouting Dream’s life before bringing back the information to the book. Dream settled back down, still a bit light headed from the fright. He missed the time when reading a book was a simple matter of sitting down and turning pages.

A few breaths later, the black code retracted from Dream, collapsing onto the empty paper. They twirled and turned, some playful ones chasing after each other, until they finally settled into words.

Welcome, Apprentice.

If some of you want to join in on the fun! @pat-the-togorian @fanfictasia @sogira-imno @dreaminghour @insertmeaningfulusername @purple-iris @firejay112

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

May 13th

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1. I really need help finding a fic! It's either ABO or the Chinese equivalent kunze/qianyuan. It's got some sort of arranged marriage, as Madam Yu(?) marries WWX off to LWJ. In this universe Alphas often do not allow their Omegas to bite them back and create a reciprocated bond, as it gives them power and status in society. LWJ lets WWX bite him back (because he's a romantic and a sap), and the Jiang's are salty because JYL wasn't given a reciprocal bond when she married JZY, so WWX is technically of a higher status than she is now. @star-whatevers

FOUND!🔒Alliance AU by Ilona22 (E, 21k, WangXian, JYL/OC, Arranged Marriage, A/B/O Dynamics, PWP, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Intersex Omegas, Not JC Friendly, Matchmaking, canon Jiang family dynamics, Family time, Night Hunts, Mention of male omega pregnancy, Intrigue at Jinlintai, Mentions of Prostitution, War, Conflict between characters)

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2. Hi! Fic finder plz. Looking for a fic where wwx is "sacrificed" by the other great sects to the gusu lan (in exchange for something? Don't remember). He is given to lwj and all the sects assume wwx is going to be a concubine (so much so that when they present wwx to lwj they dress him up like a concubine). Wwx also expects this and is very surprised when Iwj treats him nicely and everything. You can tell that lwj has fallen for wwx but is holding himself back. Wwx gradually falls for him too. I remember there was a part where the great sects came to visit and were surprised that wwx wasn't treated like a concubine. Tysm!!

FOUND? golden when the day met the night by glitteringmoonlight (Not rated, 95k, slow burn, sugar daddy LWJ, light, angst, fluff, developing relationship, eventual smut, WIP)

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3. Hiii!!!

I'm looking for a fic where Lan Zhan is de-aged and the juniors take care of him while on a night hunt. Wei Ying is still away and has not returned and they have not confessed yet. Baby LZ just wants his WY so the junior quartet takes him to Qinghe to a discussion conference or smth. Wei Ying is also called there and LZ just goes and hugs him.

That's all I can remember. I think he was cursed to be more open and vulnerable so that he could confess.

Thanks! @ffaddictsrn

FOUND! Send Me Your Earnest Love by goneforthestars (T, 13k, WangXian, Age Regression/De-Aging, Curses, Attempt at Humor, Light Angst, baby LWJ, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Post-Canon)

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4. I hope you can help, fingers crossed! I've tried everything on this one... Jin sibs murder JGS? sort of along the lines of Qin Su and the boys, but I can't even remember if it was a full fic on Ao3 or maybe even a ficlet/snippet on Tumblr? I think JZX was very shocked/normal reaction but siding with his siblings and JGY/MXY/QS were all stab-happy gremlins? I think JGY and QS might have found out much earlier that they were related and planned revenge together? Any help would be great, thank you! @katonahottinroof

I read #4 a few weeks ago😭 I believe lan zhan was a courtesan/prostitute who was supposed to assassinate wei ying, and lan zhan was beholden to meng yao for saving him. lab zhan ends up going to wei yings home in the burial mounds and gets poisoned I think ? does this sound familiar? the story may be tagged under courtesan lan zhan or prostitute lan zhan

NOT FOUND! out to get you (to get you) by iliacquer (E, 41k, wangxian, graphic depictions of violence, switching, top/bottom LWJ, top/bottom WWX, power play, courtesan LWJ, assassin LWJ, dark lord WWX, bondage, happy ending, past slavery)

FOUND! 🔒Something is Rotten in the State of Lanling by East_Of_Akkala (T, 42k, XuanLi, 3Zun, LQY/QS, Fix-It, Character Death, Angst, Family Feels, Black Comedy, Except for chapter 1, MDZS SPOILERS, Canon Divergence, Jin Siblings Dynamics, QS Deserves Better, Humor, Fluff, Background Relationships, Warning: JGS, POV Multiple, POV QS, POV MXY, POV JGY, Murder, Attempted Murder, Illustrated Fic)

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5. Good afternoon! I hope everyone has had a pleasant day.

Can’t say how many of my favorite stories have been found through you guys!

For the next fic finder.

I’m looking for a fic that has both a/b/o in it but also the lan clan were dragons and wwx was a fox, I think. Either one or both, I can’t quite recall.

Oh and it’s set in study arch.

Wwx and Lwj were already a couple or courting at the very least.

Anyway what I remember the clearest was a part where wwx was walking some stairs, might have been the stars to cloud recesses.

Anyway a spiritual dog suddenly appears and I think starts chasing or just barking at wwx.

Anyway twin jades to the save.

It is later revealed that the dog belonged to Jin Zixun which was confirmed by Zixuan who recognized the dog.

That’s all I remember.

Have a nice day and keep up the fantastic work! @ravenwithwings

FOUND! Jades' Lotus by keela_1221 (E, 125k, LXC/WWX/LWJ, Jadecest, Incest, Non-Traditional A/B/O Dynamics, Fluff, Smut, True Mates, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, No Sunshot Campaign, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Male Lactation, Marriage Contracts, Polyamory, Pining, thirst, Mpreg, They Experiment a Little, Cum Marking, switch everyone, Double Penetration, graphic description of childbirth, Sprinklings of angst for flavor)

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6. There's this wangxian fanfic I know I've read more than once, but I can't seem to find it anymore! Ok, so it's a modern world with cultivation fic, and in it the 5 Great Sects are like big crime syndicates or something similar. Wei Ying has his own territory in Yiling where he is known, of course, as the Yiling Laozu. The story uses specific terms to refer to some characters' status. Ex: Lan Wangji is the Red Pole of the Lan Sect, and Meng Yao is, I think, the Straw Sandal. Pls help me find it? @dreammaiden21

FOUND? 🔒 Words are Gonna Bleed from Me by GravityWinsAgain (E, 173k, WangXian, WIP, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Triad AU, Blood and Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, warnings in the notes, Modern with Magic, Dark Magic, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, Murder Husbands, POV WWX, Organized Crime, lovers to enemies to estranged lovers and back to lovers, it gets weird when somebody dies but not really, Angst, Feels, BDSM Switch WangXian, Ghosts, Body Horror)

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7. Hi there! I hope you can help me figure out which fic I have just remembered. I think it might have been an ABO fic, but I'm not sure. All I remember is one scene. There was some kind of trial, and WWX was seated in some kind of special alcove where nobody could see or hear him, so that he could watch without encountering the Jiangs. I think he made some kind of comment about the type of court drama that would necessitate such a feature being built. Does anyone else remember this? Thank you!! @balleyboley

FOUND! 🔒 Crossing Paths by Ilona22 (M, 21k, wangxian, shapeshifter au, graphic depictions of violence, war between sects, war crimes, not JC friendly, happy ending)

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8. hi! potentially very long shot, but I'm looking for a fic with this quote "Besides, no one ‘was good,’ in some isolated way. Good was a relation between people. Good was a thing you did." I saved this quote then, and sadly can't remember any other details about this fic... I'd love find it to reread again, thank you! @potatokunst

FOUND? I Started From the Bottom/And Now I’m Rich by x_los (E, 57k, WWX/WRH, WWX/JGS, wangxian, JYL/JZX, time travel fix-it, Pining, Marriage of Convenience, Arranged Marriage, No Sunshot Campaign, WQ Lives, Transmigration, Weddings, Sugar Daddy au, Sugar Daddy, Black Widow, Protective Siblings, Family, Dysfunctional Family, Family Bonding, Sugar Baby, consort, Politics, Demonic Cultivation, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Canon-typical domestic dysfunction, Canon-Typical Gore, Ballad 39: Tam Lin, YLLZ, Crack Treated Seriously) did a search for the quote and it came up -- ch 3, specifically

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9. Fic finder request: there's a fic I only recall some details of. In this fic, dual cultivation in the Cold Pond Cave contributes to the security of the Cloud Recesses, but it has to be done by powerful cultivators with a member of the main family. MY and LXC are married in this fic, but they are unable to use this method of boosting security because MY's cultivation level is not high enough. Wangxian do it eventually, and when they leave the Cold Pond Cave, they are congratulated (?) by the Lans, who were waiting outside. WWX is also welcomed into the sect as one of their own. I think JC comments at some point that it's really weird for him to be safe in Cloud Recesses because of this reason. Please help me find this fic!

FOUND? The Ritual by nightwalker (E, 12k, WangXian, Sex Magic, Post-Canon, Fluff and Smut)

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10. Hello! I am looking for a fic that might have been canon-esque, but also could have been modern, where Mama Lan calls Lan Zhan her little bird. Only I think for a while the author gave us the Chinese word for it, which I don't recall what it was. It's translated later in the story. Thank you!

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11. Looking for a longfic I read a while back. The elements I remember are that the Lan figured out that WWX wasn't being properly compensated/treated as a head disciple of the Jiang and the deliberate stunting of his academic education was a violation of (handwavy) Jianghu high academia codes of conduct. As a result the Lan got WWX his backpay and the Jiang teachers got shunned by their academic peers. Had similar vibes to Stunted, Starving Juvenility, but I did a reread of that recently and I'm pretty sure it was a different fic. Thanks! @alychelms

Love this one and recently read it, but not it. The fic I'm looking for was definitely in canon-setting

NOT FOUND sounds like part of the story for 🧡🔒Truth Will Out (when caught on video) - End_OTW_Racism! by KizuKatana (E, 178k, WangXian, WN & WWX & WQ, graphic depictions of violence, modern cultivation, canon divergence, YZY abuses WWX , caught on camera, partial core removal, WWX kicked out of Jiang sect, livestreamer WWX, meet ugly, dual cultivation, smut, no war)

FOUND!🔒 the language of flowers and silent things series by Reverie (cl410) (M, 107k, WangXian, LXC/NMJ, LWJ & Madam Lan, NHS & LWJ, LWJ & LXC, LWJ & NMJ, LWJ & NHS Friendship, Developing Relationship, POV LWJ, Minor Injuries, Autistic LWJ, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, aka the YZY warning, Genius WWX, Light Angst And Hurt/Comfort, WWX Protection Squad, Gusu Lan Sect, Slow Burn, Protective LWJ, LWJ-centric, Politics, Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign, Cultivation Sect Politics, Protective WWX) I don't recall if backpay was a part of it, but 11 reminds me of this

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12. Hi, I really need help finding a fic I read on ao3 some time ago. It was a modern day fic, I believe set in America, where wei ying and lan zhan meet again at jiang yanli’s wedding. They both act awkward around each other and don’t really interact until they are all in the hotel lobby and wei ying is trying to leave because LZ…but yanli tells lan zhan to give him a ride because it’s suppose to be a long ride home (to a different state I believe and lan zhan will be driving by it either way so it’s ideal) Wei ying tries to reject the idea but LXC gets involved too and he’s like it’s a good idea. It’s like a long drive/road trip fic where they are forced to interact and make up. Thank you for your time and effort.

Hi, I wrote to you asking for fic #12 on your may 13th post. I ended up finding it. It was a wlw fic 7:15 from Chicago by milesofheart. I’m sorry for the inconvenience but thank you for this platform, allowing me to ask in the first place.

FOUND! 7:15 from Chicago by milesofheart (T, 24k, WangXian, F/F, Modern, Rule 63, Road Trip, Getting Together, Female WangXian, matchmaking siblings, recovering from traumatic childhoods, spiritual trauma, Lan Disciplines as modern religious fundamentalism, LWJ's defiance of the Lan Disciplines, activist LWJ, the universal rage of women in a sexist world, Estranged Friends to Lovers, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, brief references to sexual violence, references to past alcohol abuse, mention of spiking a drink as a bad practical joke but in a safe environment, mentions of real American political and social issues, brief mention of physical child abuse, past experiences of homophobia)

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13. I need help finding a fic. I've looked through my AO3 history and had no luck. Here's what I remember: Its a modern AU (I dont recall if its modern Cultivation or modern without magic) WWX is on the outs the Jiangs but is close to the Nies. There is a scene where NHS puts put Nie braids into WWX hair, and LWJ is jealous and takes them out. WWX developed a software that the Nies distribute and the Jiangs use. When WWX does online tech support for the Jiangs he uses the alias MXY.

FOUND! Come Around and Stay by trippednfell (M, 160k, WangXian, NieLan, Slow Burn, Kid Fic, Found Family, Modern AU, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, PTSD, Blood and Injury, Dissociation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Musicals, POV Alternating, Baking, Yunmeng reconciliation (eventually), Friend Zoning, Literal Sleeping Together, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks)

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14. Hello, how are you doing? 👋

I am looking for a fic which i found on this blog i think, i am not sure. It's where wwx breaks up with lwj as a dare but they're actually meeting for the first time. I thought i had it bookmarked but unfortunately i was wrong, please help me find it. 🫰

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15. Heya bros!! Got a request for the ficfinder? I read it a while back but accidentally closed the tab.

It was Wen Ning and Nis Huaisang centric. Chapter one was Wen Ning helping NHS escape qishan, chap 2 was NHS helping WN break outta the Jin dungeon and I think chap 3 was them talking about it??

I think Hua Cheng and Xie Lian made a very brief cameo in the third chapter?

FOUND? Jailbreaking by CullenBlue (T, 21k, WN & NHS, Canon Compliant, POV NHS, NHS Is A Little Shit, Cinnamon Roll WN, Fierce Corpse WN, Ghost General WN, References to Heavens Official’s Blessing, References to The Scum Villain’s Self Saving System, NHS insulting the Wen Clan’s taste in interior Decorating, Mentions of Murder, WN made a friend by talking about his childhood trauma, BAMF WN, Panic Attacks, mentions of gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Violence in the Name of Comedy, Trauma, Is NHS taking anything seriously? who knows, Bromance)

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16. Hi...

I am looking for this fic that I read a long time ago. It's a modern au and mpreg, where at the airport Wei ying went to the toilet and left a yuan with strangers (Mr & Madam Lan). Both of them thought twin jade especially lan zhan had a secret child as a yuan share similarities with the lan gene. If I'm not mistaken, Wei ying works together with lan zhan before leaving the country because of pregnancy and lan zhan doesn't even know about it. I don't remember why...🤔

Please help me find it. Thank you for your time 😊 @hazeylove89 //

Hi. I would hope to find this fic I read a long time ago. It's modern au where Wei ying leaving a yuan with stranger in airport for toilet break however the stranger is Mr &Mrs lan. Both of them thought a yuan is lan zhan child as a yuan share similarities with lan zhan. Btw this fic is mpreg n lan zhan don't know that Wei ying is pregnant.

Sorry if it's a difficult request. Thank you.

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17. hello! trying to find a specific tumblr post (not here but out in the wild) about yllz wwx actually being a fairly solid ghost who died in the burial mounds and knows he's dead but expects the ones he loves to also pick up on that and mourn him/give offerings? but none of them do; they see solid and assume alive, so he's feeling hurt about it. pretty sure it's here on tumblr somewhere but will accept fic recs

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18. this for fic finder <3 i remember reading a fic where WWX is a paperman and is spying on LWJ bathing. and then paperman wwx gets a cut and lwj gets angry or sulking at him for disregarding his safety @notdaniee

FOUND! I don't know about a fic but there's a comic by @moobiess like that

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19. hello, thank you for your help!

i was looking for this fic where wwx and mianmian are dating (?) and wwx accidentally moans lwj's name while making out/intercourse. i am unable to find it anymore. could you please help?

thank you again.

hello! #19 from the latest fic finder (may 13th). yes! it does! wwx goes to lwj's and they 'talk' about whatever happened and then they end up having sex.

bummer that they made it private, thank you for the help though!

sounds like a fic that has been privated/hidden by Pancho I believe , in the story does wei ying end up going over to Lan zhan and they have sex?

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20. hiii, i need help finding a fic on ao3 where lan wangji and wei wuxian time travel to the past and tell the sect leaders some form of info. the sect leaders are then nosy and weird about it so they end up using something to spy on them? lan xichen feels guilty but joins in anyway. in the scene that the sects see wwx and lwj are sitting and wwx is combing lwj's hair i think ? the two are aware that they're being watched as well. i don't remember much else, but i hope that's accurate enough. thank you so much.

FOUND? lan xichen is very concerned (and confused) by theninjacat (T, 3k, WangXian, POV Outsider, Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Sunshot Campaign)

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[vetinarivimesy]

Kenobi-centric fic recs

Everything here will heavily feature Obi-Wan Kenobi in some fashion, and will vary wildly by ship, tone, and fic-type though I'll do my best to give little blurbs/not-too-spoilery summaries.

The fics range from gen to explicit, in some cases pre-date tagging ettiquette, and, no, no I have not re-read them all (ye gods have you seen the word counts).

In a few cases I'm basing my summaries on very hazy memory and I have a noted bad habit of skimming straight past explicit porn when I don't want to read it, then forgetting its there entirely - so caveat lector!

These are mostly fics that I currently mentally catalogue as Wonderful Obvious Obi-Wan Kenobi Goodness fics rather than expecting to dig up any obscure hidden gems. The list would probably look very different on a different day. It's far from comprehensive, and the categories are loose at best. But here it is!

I've been contemplating putting something like this together for a while but been a bit nervous of sticking my head up above the metaphorical parapet. As, follows my fave character around without caring overmuch about the ship trash, I've got quite a list of Star Wars fics inhaled/rediscovered.

(Wee bit too used to coming into very dead fandoms long after everyone's left, put the chairs up on the tables, the metaphorical lights have been turned off... and the not so metaphorical bills have stopped being paid. More than once I've stumbled into a wonderful old fandom fic archive only for it to vanish into, Only What Was Saved on the Internet Archive Remains status. Even when the archive isn't actually an ex-archive, many don't actually allow for interaction. Apologies to the authors I've never worked up the courage to comment on, this is an explanation not an excuse!)

Obi-Wan's apprenticeship fics:

Commander Kenobi - norcumi (complete, 9646 words)

Obi-Wan gets de-aged in the midst of battle. Cody gets to find out what teenaged Obi-Wan was like. Given Obi-Wan thinks he's fresh out of Melida-Daan, nothing like whatever Cody might have been expecting.

A Town Called Stagnation - deniigiq (complete, 33,000 words)

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan take a trip to Stewjon, to let Obi-Wan get in touch with his roots post the horrorshow of his early apprenticeship. Smalltown thinking and the trauma of recent events clash horribly for everyone involved.

Another brilliant author who's whole fic-output is well worth checking out. Their wry utterly charming character voices never fail to amuse, even when the POV character is one I'm currently in an... actually I wouldn't mind some bashing of this guy kinda mood. I draw amusement and sympathy for Qui-Gon's character in every single one of their immediately post-Melida Daan fics for context here, with my knowledge of that event thoroughly warped and contaminated by the current popular fanon take on the matter too.

Though more Cody-centric, and thus Clone Wars era, than anything parallelogram (Complete, 33,000 words) and they're neutral (complete, 9900 words) by the same author are also wonderful.

poisoned chalice - qigiined (Complete, 9900 words)

Another author with the wit and deftness of characterisation to make immediately-post-Melida-Daan Qui-Gon's POV both amusing and sympathetic. They've also got quite a few other gems!

Qui-Gon's very wry POV as he tries to navigate raising a very traumatised child, and appeasing his various lineage members.

through hardships to the stars - kivaember (WIP, 148,000 words)

Canon divergence where Obi-Wan's apprenticeship snafu on Melida-Daan went just that much worse than those Legends-were-never-technically-canon novels would have it.

As a result Obi-Wan and a very young Jango Fett end up on the run from a terrifying darksider, whilst Jaster Mereel and Feemor despearately try to catch up with the pair.

Little Lights Stories - ms_nawilla (WIP, 628,000 words)

Qui-Gon neglected too much of Obi-Wan's training, so Obi-Wan isn't immediately knighted post-Naboo despite saving Qui-Gon's life and defeating the Sith.

Anakin goes to the creche, Qui-Gon's in utter denial, and Obi-Wan begins the rocky process of finding his own feet post-Naboo, getting through the thorny process of working out who you are as your own person after living under someone else's oppressive shadow for far too long.

Super detailed epic detailing all sorts of wonderful possible jedi-culture headcanons, illuminated manuscripts! beer! force-manipulation games! communal caring! crystallography! sex ed! old-people's homes! the engineers! clerical branch! outreach via art! dance instruction! reincarnation! politics! spies! terrible james bond esque spy films to hide that the spies were really real! lightsaber classes! non-jedi temple residents! U and L leaning prejudice! Alderaan!

Just what would happen if Qui-Gon Jinn were exactly the sort of irresponsible unpleasant adult who should never ever be given a child a lot of fandom suspects he is. His implied treatment of Obi-Wan here can be fairly harrowing, for all that its emotional neglect rather than anything graphic.

The jedi are never depicted as anything less than trying their best, unfortunately no matter how thorough the system tries to be, sometimes people do just fall through the cracks. As was v.nearly the case for Obi-Wan in this verse.

Mostly character driven, though the hints of the greater plot bubbling away underneath all of this glorious worldbuilding and character growth are both ominous and intriguing. The pairing is a hell of a spoiler, but also one that could potentially be a bit of a squick, I don't want to spoil the slowburn of this thing but I do want to give fair warning. Does tumblr offer spoiler tags?

Preventing Order 66 fics:

When Duty is Done - thosenearandfarwars (WIP, 257,000 words)

Wonderful long-form piece - technically a WIP but all installments so far are complete - a what happens next post-Palp's getting his comeuppance, messily. Features Codywan, grief, internalised ableism, jedi order reforming in a very nuanced 'we were this close to the brink' and lost so many people to the war sense *not* the sneaky 'jedi-positive but actually bashing' sense.

Hell I wholeheartedly reccie just about everything this author's ever done tbh!

(This Too Was a Gift (Complete, 69,000 words) is also utterly wonderfully done, and a complete fic in a similar vein, albeit much more focused on the ramifications for individual characters than the ensemble cast of thousands that is Star Wars.)

I Got My Head Checked - frostbitebakery (Complete, 79,000 words)

Codywan Sith!Obi-Wan AU. Cody falls for the hot Sith in the next cell...

Light of the Mists- Snowy Egret Chimes of Kyber, Songs of Kyber, and Anthem of Kyber (Complete, 166,000 words)

This one technically also fits the Obi-Wan's apprenticeship category too. Bit of an epic of, what would happen if Obi-Wan never made it to Bandomeer, and instead trained under a force sect with rather different ideas about how things worked than the modern jedi order?

Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi - stonefreeak (WIP, 113,000 words)

Wonderful crackfic premise done mostly seriously. (WIP)

By an extremely obscure bit of Senate Legalise, Obi-Wan finds himself thrust into the role of Supreme Chancellor. Palpatine is furious.

How A Romance Novel Saved The Galaxy - Ariana Deralte (WIP, 184,000 words)

The galaxy takes a left turn when a popular novel takes the world by storm, and the Jedi and Mandalorians mutually discover their two cultures aren't so different after all...

sanguine - glimmerglanger (complete, 158,000 words)

In which Obi-Wan being a vampire, with all the nasty prejudices that come with being a non-human in the GFFA, somehow saves the galaxy.

Just Go Kill Palpatine - nevertheless_turtle (WIP, 6662 words though this is likely an underestimate due to formatting of a wonderful epistolary/OutsiderPOV social-media-centric chapter)

Just as the title says. Obi-Wan goes and attempts to do just that. Wonderful and hilarious.

The More I Live the More I See this Life is Not About Me - K_R_Closson

Another de-aged Obi-Wan fic. In which post-Melida-Daan suspicious of everyone and everything Kenobi somehow fixes things. Everyone around Obi-Wan is suitably horrified by the news of just what his apprenticeship under Qui-Gon entailed.

Not Quite Sure How to Catergorise these...

This category is the equivalent of the draw marked 'misc.' sorry! Mostly a mix of action/adventure stuff and fics I suspect will turn into, and they prevented order 66 fix-its, but maybe not, with some other truly misc. things thrown in.

backdrop - esama (Complete, 2300 words)

Short and sweet self-contained little tale. Very succinct, but what the author does with those words...

Gunslinger's Paean - Idiot's Array + Homeworld Elegy - Ashcroft_Writes (WIP, 299,000 words)

Epic, what if Obi-Wan post-Rako Hardeen paired up with Cad Bane action adventure tale. Mistrust. Violence. Gunslinging. Espionage. Murder attempts galore!

We Brothers, We Sisters, We Vod'e Few - infinitecompositions(WIP, 322,000 words)

Hell of a fic. WIP. What if canon were to take just a step to the left... Post-Naboo Obi-Wan finds himself recruited for the Shadows branch of the jedi order...

Another epic, cough, can you tell what style I like yet? Uh, starts off as a bit of a dark action adventure romp, rapidly morphs into a detailed dissection of spy-craft, espionage, and galactic politics - but becomes no less tense for it.

Kneading - Threebea O (WIP, 79,000 words)

Manages the miraculous trick of being canon, whilst seeming to be a fluffy bakery AU for a significant chunk of the first few chapters.

Jango/Obi - Jango falls for a local baker whilst hanging out in small town with Boba. Increasingly important to the fate of the galaxy shenanigans inevitably ensue when aforementioned baker turns out to be Obi-Wan Kenobi undercover.

Be Your Love - glimmerglanger (complete, explicit, 9000 words)

I tend not to go for 'real world' AUs but this author's work is so very excellent that I'm reccieing this one - hell I think most of their work is well worth a look through, and every fic-genre they've attempted has proven very fun indeed.

Heed the tags. Explicit Codywan BDSM stuff contained within.

Wizard of the Jundland Wastes - phoenixyfriend (complete, 3200 words)

Obi-Wan on Tatooine, outsiderPOV.

One of many wonderful Star Wars fics this author has written. If this one doesn't catch your fancy, one of their many delightful utterly bizarre premise taken to logical conclusion fics probably will.

Father of the Year (Not) - phoenixyfriend (complete, 2430 words)

Obi-Wan and Jango find out they're each other's soulmates. Mostly they're furious.

Wonderful very pointed skewering of all the usual soulmate and Jango is actually a decent dude tendencies in fic-writing.

Time Travel fics:

I thought I fought this war alone - stonefreeak (Complete, 3783 words)

Wonderful short and sweet Obi-Wan time travelling to his padawan days fix-it.

this is unexpected - MarbleGlove (Complete, 4461 words)

Very succinct and perfect with it time travel what if. Old Ben Kenobi goes back in time and immediately ruins Palpatine's day.

This author tends to be delightful no matter the fandom.

The Sun Swings East - kj_feybarn (Complete, 33,000 words)

Brilliantly done timeloop story of woe and hope. As much about recovery as the initial plot-driven despair. Mind the tags, Obi-Wan is understandably severely depressed throughout much of this fic.

The Making of Mavericks - AppoApples (complete, 146,000 words)

It was extremely difficult to choose just the one time travel fic from this author. Their output is wonderfully varied, don't like their particular take on the Jedi Order and/or the Mandalorians in this fic? Pick another, and odds are they'll have explored the concept from precisely the opposite angle.

This author has a wonderful exploratory sense of, okay okay, so how do we fix this thing/how do we make it worse?

In this case, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Cody, and Rex time travel to the past. This creates broad sweeping changes to the timeline, not always for the better.

The Desert Storm (complete, 1,144,599 words) & Rise and Fall series (WIP, 396,000 words) - Blue_Sunshine (WIP)

Wonderful epic-length time-travel fic. Highly recommended. Technically a WIP, but what there is already is well worth the time.

Ben Kenobi, now Nasaade, in utter furious despair finds himself back in time, pre, well, everything. He decides to take matters into his own hands and change things.

Gorgeous character-work, where by the end of the piece the characters are all in very different places than where they started out. And you utterly believe the growth (positive and negative) that got them there.

Draws from both legends and canon in a bit of a hodgepodge approach - despite drawing from a few of the more leaning towards the jedi were the bad guys sources in legends, impressively manages to tread a nuanced stance on, okay so what if the jedi and mandalorians did decide to start reforming in the face of this grave existential threat that's been brought to their attention?

Wonderful utterly enviable pacing - I know this one's extremely long. But at no point do you ever feel/notice the length when reading this thing.

It Was Another Time and I Another Man - Pell_Binterhol (WIP, 196,000 words)

Multiple Kenobis time travelling. Absolute chaos for absolutely everyone else; fellow time travellers, fellow Kenobis, and plotting Sith alike.

the massive machinery of hope - Killbothtwins (Complete, 150,000 words)

Obi-Wan travels back to his padawan days and annoys everyone else into helping him save the day. Wonderful sense of wry humour throughout this fic.

Living Memory - elsa3beth (WIP, 363,000 words)

Epic very detailed wonderful fic detailing just what General Kenobi would do if he had to fight the war again.

Deals with just what could happen if Anakin had ever had to face his fellow jedi with even a few of his flaws laid bare, and the fallout.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan, just barely managing to hold himself together, fresh out of the middle of his exile to Tatooine, is desperately playing four-dimensional chess against Palpatine and trying to use the awful structure of the Republic's Army to save both the Jedi and the Clones.

The 212th Attack Battalion's Guide to Saving the Galaxy by Accident - antigrav_vector & quarra (WIP, 783,000 words)

Long, character driven fic that's an incredibly fun take on just what might happen if Obi-Wan and a bunch of Ghost Company stumbled into Jaster Mereel's True Mandalorians and get themselves adopted. Heed the tags wrt pairings!

All the complications that come from being an adult stuck as an apparent child ensue. From being squicked out about being a kid again, to having other people being concerned that a kid is behaving like an adult, to just... time travel complications, kidnapping, force esoterica, and fighting a small war.

Plenty of Jedi thoughtfully staring at this strange miniature jedi master, lots of Mandalorians being both stunned and horrified by these tiny soldiers, and Dooku/Sifo-Dyas being a surprisingly lovely central pairing.

Not Qui-Gon friendly in the least, and in this verse you can't help but feel he very much deserves it.

Suicidal Misunderstandings - nevertheless_turtle (WIP, 67,000 words)

Obi-Wan spends much of this fic convinced he's hallucinating and on a bad spice-trip. The trigger warning is very much in the name here.

That said, wonderful, often hilarious time travelling Obi-Wan fic, as the jedi desperately try to work out 1) what's wrong with Obi-Wan, and 2) how to stop Palpatine.

Re-Entry (Complete, 568,000 words) and Re-Entry Journey of the Whills (WIP, 889,000 words) - flamethrower

Fair warning, might turn into a deadlink fairly soon. The author's stuff is in the process of being transferred to another archive. Not a big deal (though fandom being a collective arse is, ffs), as with many older fics this one has moved home fairly often! (Squidgeworld.)

Wonderful absolute epic time travelling Obi-Wan Kenobi fic. Even if you're not a fan of the central Qui/Obi pairing it's written from a very believable perspective, of you can see precisely how these two adults got there, and an extremely enjoyable read with it.

Starts off as a fairly character-driven piece, as the plot slowly builds into something extremely ominous indeed, though once the plot momentum gets going ye gods it gets going.

Another case of technically a series that's a WIP, but every individual story that's up is complete and a satisfying individual whole.

Filled with all the things I love in a Star Wars fic, Obi-Wan getting to be awesome, force esoterica, Obi-Wan getting to be a little shit, plotty plot, the jedi getting to be nuanced and awesome, canon and fanon star wars lore all over the place, and plenty of action adventure and gorgeous character work.

I don't want to go into too much spoilery detail here, but suffice it to say this one is a classic in the fandom for a reason, and deservedly so.

Warning that the dark stuff in this fic can get dark, the level of whump Obi-Wan endures goes all the way up to extremely creepy Palpatine-torture on par with the Ventress/Sith-mask/Alpha-17 situation. It's never gratuitous with it, but in places this fic is explicit, at turns in both the fun porny way and the whump sense.

Star Wars crossovers and fusions:

Alas this section will be shorter than I'd like it to be - unlike a lot of other sci-fi fandoms Star Wars fandom seems to shy away from crossover fic by and large. There's both less of it, and what there is seems to get a hell of a lot less interaction than it would in a different fandom. Not guilt-tripping, again, I am very very guilty of failing to interact myself, just a weird, 'huh, where are all the crossovers?' thing I've noticed.

Rouge Handed - nevertheless_turtle (complete, 2190 words)

As the name hopefully implies this one's kinda sorta a Moulin Rouge crossover. Ish. In that it's firmly set wholly in the GFFA.

Delightful little crackfic.

The weeping stone - Gabriel4Sam (complete, 6965 words)

A wonderful crossover with The Mummy that somehow manages to thread the needle, hitting the humorous tone of those films perfectly whilst simultaneously making you feel very sad indeed for Obi-Wan.

A Star to Steer By - dogmatix, norcumi (first fic in the series is complete, second a WIP, 109,000 words)

Absolutely wonderful Stargate crossover/fusion - it somehow manages to be both a crossover and a fusion at once.

Largely told from Jack's POV, the Jedi are symbionts, with all the misunderstandings that would imply, given the SGC are much more used to dealing with malevolent parasitic Goa'uld than benevolent symbiosis.

Lost Jedi - Augusta Pembroke (complete)

A Velvet Goldmine crossover fic. Curt Wild meets Qui-Gon Jinn, and things get complicated. Qui/Curt with implied unfulfilled Qui/Obi feelings.

All the unhealthy messy relationship stuff the Velvet Goldmine tag and the age of the fic implies is probably present and correct here.

Qui-Gon ends trapped on the wrong side of the galaxy, he finds Curt who's force sensitive, and trains him to help him get back home to Obi-Wan... Things get messy.

Snow and Cinder - MrsHamill (explicit, complete, 16,000 words)

The pre-requisite wonderfully done Highlander/Methos crossover fic. Obi-Wan hangs out with the ROG for a while post-Naboo in a bid to get over a falling out with Qui-Gon Jinn and work through his own messy feelings on the matter. The main pairing is Qui/Obi as many older Master&Apprentice archive era fics are.

All you really need to know about Methos is he's very old, and very cynical. He's literally seen and done it all.

This one doesn't fall into the all too easy to fall into trap of having Methos, understandably an extremely old and cunning immortal being so much better at anything and everything than everyone else around him that it stops being fun and starts bashing the other-verse in the crossover, for which I'm extremely grateful. It's a difficult balance to tread and this author manages it wonderfully. (I say this from first-hand, I have tried and failed to airdrop this character into other sci-fi fandoms you'd think he'd work well in, fic-author perspective rather than as a crit of anyone else's work!)

Look at the publishing dates please.

A few of these fics pre-date Attack of the Clones. They were written in the 90s.

If I find out someone's been bashing an author for outdated terminology or characterisation or for not using the current 2022 language, or a character the fic pre-dates in a fic they've not looked at for over twenty years, or how they wrote the central pairing in the era when the punchline to every single joke in Hollywood was 'haha they're gay!' I... Well... I won't be writing another one of these rec lists. Which isn't much of a threat I realise, but please, be civil.

I could probably easily fill a couple more of these lists tbh, and get more specific with it genre-wise... But as a general, here's a few fics I remember fondly often. I can feel myself getting neurotically 'this has to be perfect' at this thing, so, this'll do for now.

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

There's Nothing Sweeter Than My Baby

This is my first Gaz fic. I've just started uni break so I finally have the ability to write again, this idea grabbed me by the throat months ago and refuses to let go so I'm writing this instead of my millions of WIPS

Contains: Deadly levels of fluff, it's all fluff, I'm not sorry, this man is a puppy dog so don't blame me, hints at smut.

Song inspo (of course it's fucking Hozier)

1.4K Words

Gaz had never been so mesmerised by fabric before.

"You with us, man?" Price's words pulled him from his thoughts; Kyle hated his army functions, they were always so dull.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm thinking I should have given my ticket to my sister, at least she would be having fun."

Price chuckled. "Just get drunk, I know I am." Gaz sighed, for all their talk, once the gentry had finished their posturing and platitudes, they left the grunts to themselves.

Right on cue, Soap appeared with Simon in tow, their hands full of fancy glasses, and they settled beside their teammates. "I got this one for you Gaz, it's winter melon." It was comical to see Simon without his mask, a fancy drink in a tiny glass in his massive hand.

"Thanks man." It tasted like melon candy and a headache, but it was better than nothing.

"Is y/n coming?" Soap's tone was too almost too nutural.

Gaz nodded. "Yep, she'll be here soon."

Their table went quiet, and Price and Simon shared a look before Price turned to Gaz. "You gonna ask her to dance?"

Gaz blinked. "I don't know."

Simon cleared his throat. "Your arms are going to fall off it you keep carry that torch."

Gaz was going to refute him, tell Simon you were just friends but the tap of Soap's finger and a point towards the grand staircase stopped him. "Holy shit." He had never seen such a pretty shade of yellow, like you were wrapped in the fading sunlight of a spring afternoon.

You made a beeline for the group, stopping only to snatch a glass of bubbling champagne from a tray. "Hey."

Simon was the first to speak, twirling his thin drinking straw as if he were a cheap villain in an old movie. "Don't you look nice." He shoved Gaz in the shoulder. "Don't she look nice Kyle?"

His mouth was still agape, Soap and Price snickering from behind their drinks. "Yes, yes, you look lovely y/n."

You smiled. "Thank you Kyle." You paused for a moment, the poor man looked like he was going to keel over with nerves. "Will I be on your dance card tonight?"

He blinked. "Yep, yes, I would love to dance with you."

Simon, Price and Soap exchanged a look as Price hid his red face behind his glass; now was not the time to laugh at the poor man. "Wonderful, I need to go thank Kate for the invite." You turned to Price. "Please don't drink to much while I'm gone."

He chuckled. "You're off duty Doc, I can do what I want."

****

Kyle was a coward, a terrorist killing, war criminal hunting coward, or at least that's how he felt watching you awkwardly dance with a man old enough to be your father.

"He's an earl, you know?" His team had been taking turns for the last hour and Soap's Scottish lit had only grown stronger as he got drunker, your disapproving looks only served to spur him on. "You're going to lose your lady to an old earl." He snorted as you pulled away. "Wait, no, she doesn't like him much." He slapped Gaz on the back, and it was hard enough for him to shift from his spot. "Go on laddie, before someone else steps in, you did tell her you'd dance with her."

Gaz sighed and downed the rest of his whiskey. "Right.." His shoulders fell. "I don't fucking know how to waltz."

Soap chuckled. "You'll do fine, just don't step on her lovey shoes."

He took another deep breath and stepped out onto the dance floor, heading right to you with determination. But any confidence he had faded like a dying star when you flashed him a smile. "Kyle, I thought you'd run off."

He shook his head. "No, we haven't danced yet, and I want to do that, with you."

You did your best to hold back your giggle. "Is that you asking me to dance?"

He nodded and squared his shoulders, extending his hand like a Victorian gentleman. "Y/n, may I have this dance?"

You nodded and took his hand. "I would like that very much."

You stayed at the edge of the dance floor as the soft music continued, taking a deep breath before addressing the elephant in the room. "When are we going to talk about what's going on between us?"

He managed to hold back his flinch, the hint of upset in your voice was enough to make his chest sting. "Now's as good as any time I guess."

You huffed. "You guess? We spent weeks sitting with each other by Soap's bedside after Makarov shot him, then he finally checked out and you almost kissed me and now you're acting like nothing happened."

His eyes fell to the floor. "I know, I didn't know where to start. I didn't want to fuck things up."

You smiled softly and lifted a hand to his cheek. "You won't, don't worry."

The tension bled from his body as he resisted the urge to nuzzle into your palm. "Can I kiss you?"

You nodded. "I would like that."

He leaned down, his nose brushing yours, before pulling you into a kiss. It was soft, his thumb and forefinger holding your chin as the other hand splayed across your lower back. His chest swelled, so this is what love felt like, like drowning in a roaring river, all the sound sucked from the air while he got pulled into the undertow.

He pulled away and slid his hand up your body, uncaring of the people standing around watching. "The hotel gave us a room for the night, something about throwing us a thank you breakfast, you wanna save the cab fair and come to stay with me tonight?"

You nodded. "That's very thoughtful of you Kyle, shall we go now?"

His face broke into a grin, and he looped his arm around your lower back. "I like your thinking."

You slowed as you walked by the rest of the 141. "Get it off your chests now, you've all got one minute exactly."

Simon was silent, and Soap was so drunk that he was just smiling like a madman, so Price was the one to add his two cents. "Just use protection, I'm too young to be grandfather." Kyle's eyes went wide, and Price broke out into a belly laugh. "Off you go kids, go have fun."

You pulled Kyle away by the arm and waved. "I won't forget this."

The elevator ride was smooth and quick, and you were in his room in a flash. His lips found yours again, and you leaned against the door. His fingers slid around your body to find the opening of your dress. "You need to unlace the corset sweetheart."

He took a deep breath. "Right." He moved behind you, his hands never leaving your skin as they reached the bottom of the dress where the bow was tied. It took him a while, but the dress slowly loosened, and he slid his hands upwards to slip the cap sleeves off your shoulders. You stepped out, and his head tilted; he was expecting lace underwear, not more skirts.

"It's called a petticoat, it makes the dress more puffy." You took his hand and brought it to the hook and loop closure, and he struggled for a moment before that, too, came free.

He stretched his hand out, softly pinching the short silk dress that covered your skin. "A chemise, my dear, it stops the corset boning from pressing against the skin."

He grabbed the hem with a soft smile. "Can I?"

You nodded. "Of course." He marvelled at the softness of the silk as it came off, and his breath caught in his chest as he took in your bare flesh. His fingers reach out, brushing your flesh with a gentleness that didn't seem possible for hands so calloused. You took his hand and placed it flat on your breast, and he seemed stuck dumb. "Are you alright Sweetheart?"

He nodded. "Oh, I'm fucking great. Shit, I think you're the prettiest woman I've ever seen."

You smiled. "Ok, you're very overdressed."

His dress greens were suddenly even tighter and scratchier and that was saying something. "Yes I am."

You reached up and slid the coat from his shoulder, placing it on the nearby chair before you turned your attention to his shirt buttons. "Ok then, I guess we should fix that."

He nodded. "You should." He grinned and kissed you again, deeper this time with a promise of things to come. "I love you y/n."

You sighed as your hands hit the hard, warm muscle of his torso. "I love you too Kyle."

Fin

@chaos-4baby @candy616 No idea if this is your thing so no pressure.

[summertimemusician]

Warriors/Hyrule Warriors Focused WIP Sneak Peak

“... So, you came here not as the ‘Captain of the Knights of Hyrule’, or even as ‘The Hero Who Wields the Sword of Evil's Bane’...” You started, light and raspy and something close to hollow that made Warriors ache, you both breathing heavily and bloodied and bruised, and still standing, you were beautiful, taking the place of the late hyrulean sun as you had your knee to his chest and your dagger to his neck, but he wasn’t worried, not with you  “... But rather as an ‘old friend’?”

The way you practically spat the words through clenched, bared teeth would have been mistaken by loathing by anyone else, snake venom and the shape of winter winds in your eyes and mouth in your frigid fury, if he couldn’t tell how your usually steady hands shook like icicles in early spring. Knew as well as you did that all it would take is one slip of the blade and his neck would be split open.

“You heard me the first time, didn’t you?” he spoke calmly, breathing and taking you in as if that single moment would be your last.

(And maybe it might, if he didn't do this right.)

You paused, then a snort, then a chuckle, then a laugh, something close to a yowl, or maybe a howl as you sobbed.

Your blade misses his neck by inches, stabbing into the ground below and he doesn't flinch. Doesn't allow himself to flinch, knew you'd pounce on any hint of weakness and hesitation

“Aah… I suppose it’s my loss, Link.” You laughed, it was a bitter, ugly sound. Something that made him hurt and want to hold you in his arms as he did back then, in unwanted ballroom nights where you'd both slip to vacant rooms and talk about everything and nothing. When he felt comfortable speaking, when the vitriol of his fellow men didn't burn against his skin and the loathing both from others and himself for why the war started didn't tighten around his neck like a noose. When you'd both go horseback riding while on leave and you'd smile for him with all the brilliance of a star and all the sharpness of a blade, ready to take on the world so long as you were together.

He hated seeing you like this, broken down and ruined by war and thirst for justice never given, hated how he burned away pieces of himself and didn't think to look more into the situation before he lost you. 

(And why would he have? Good soldiers follow orders after all, even if it's against their own comrades.)

He missed you so, so much.

“It never ends, does it?” You snarled out, hurt and tired and something that was all the melancholy of a trapped animal, “You hurt me, you come back, I hurt you right back, you still return. I just can't keep doing this anymore.” You bare your teeth in a smile, half mocking, half desperate, “I can't even slit your throat to shut you up properly now, pathetic, isn't it, hero?” 

He felt flayed open, who knows, maybe it would be a kindness if you did slit his throat open. He'd prefer that in the place of seeing the one person he cared for the most a hollow mirror of their old self.

(He knew Mask, Linkle, Spirit, Tetra and the Sailor would give him a good shake for it. But he couldn't help it.

It wasn't the first time he considered ways to end the war after all.)

“It doesn't have to be like this,” He offered, somewhere between the charm he sometimes had to use when interrogating the enemy and a desperate plea, “We can do better, we can make things better.” 

“You really think I can just let it go? That they will also let it go?” You say, scoffing bitterly, “Everyone has seen me fighting you today, hero, all remember what I've done. The only route waiting for me is execution if I throw it all away now.” There's conviction in your voice, but hesitance in your gaze as he dares to place a hand over yours, over the sharpened, but old blade, the one he once gave you, “I hurt you, you hurt me. There's no going back from that.” 

You don't push him away, so he presses on with cautious hope in his breast, courage rekindled. He is so, so tired, but he'll be darned if he loses you a second time, he's come this far after all, “There isn't. But we can move forward from this, there's no need to let it go, but it's not too late to try and make things better either. Not yet anyway, I know you can't trust me after everything I've done to you, and I can't fully trust you after all you've done either, but I don't know about you, but I'm done with trying to hate you. I'm tired of letting those doubts turn into hate.”

Your grip tightens, suspicious as a fox in the face of a wolf, “And what makes you think I'm done hating you?”

“You wouldn't have let me keep speaking if you were.” He bites back, he doesn't have much time left until the rest of either of your companies arrive, “Come back with me, please.”

His tone is soft and kind, and something in your expression breaks, it is the conflict between loathing and grief and longing, all clashing spears and swords and none winning.

You let the blade go, and he doesn't waste any time holding you as you choke on a sob, doesn't mind the way one of your hands curls into a claw, cutting against his wounds. He's sure he's holding you a bit too tight too after all from the way you wheeze, but you don't push him away, and that's enough.

‘Finally.’

[mirimiramiri]

The curious case of two identical sport bags

A not so serious take on the trials and tribulations of time travel

Maybe this is not a new idea in a fandom that is almost 30 years old. Still, I haven't seen it yet, so I'd like to take this opportunity to write about a theory of mine regarding the infamous gym bag that follows Hitomi throughout the series.

(gif was made by @riafunnel)

There has been some discussion why she was holding her bag at the very last scene of the series although she clearly did not have it while saying her goodbyes to Van. Maybe she bought a new one, maybe that faithfully soul simply floated back to her through time and space.

I want to believe that the answer is time travel.

There is one bag that came to Gaea during the first abduction.

Since she did not take it with her when she departed from Astoria in a state of blind fury and disappointment, one remained in the palace. The pillar of light transported her back in time, though only her mind apparently, as otherwise we would have the misfortune of witnessing two Hitomis simultaneously. However, Gaean time proceeded as usual, and so did the bag, which is likely in the care of Milerna at this time.

Also the reason why Hitomi could change back into a uniform when she returned with Van on Escaflowne (in sweatpants and a T-shirt). If I remember correctly Yukari was holding the bag and Hitomi didn’t take it with her. Guess she was a bit distracted by someone 😄

The Gaean bag waited for her and when she returned home (probably again going back in time…) the earth bag waited there, too.

So now… two bags. On earth and Gaea. Children of time.

I wrote a short scene about this for my current wip fanfic „Star-crossed lovers“ which I hope to fully translate as soon as it’s ready. Hitomi and Van are talking every now and then through their psychic connection or as I like to call it telepathy telephone.

++++++++

For months they enjoyed their inexplicable form of communication. Taking advantage of every spare second to check in with each other. It was weird, but if anyone had seen enough weird to somehow get used to, it was these two separated yet connected souls.

One evening things got even stranger when Van opened their conversation with the following words: "Your bag arrived today." Hitomi turned around in her desk. She had been working on an lengthy essay and was glad for the distraction. "My bag? What do you mean?" "Your bag, the one you always carried with you." He sounded clearly confused as to why she was neither pleased nor understanding. "I'm holding it in my hand." "Uh, describe it to me." "As you wish. Green and purple, about half a costa wide, a long row of golden teeth on the sides. A carrying strap." "That sounds like mine…how did it get to you?" She had risen and crossed her room in two steps. "From Princess Milerna. She wrote that you left it in the palace." "That can't be… how could… Van, my bag is with me! I see it right in front of me, standing in my closet." "Then what do I have here?" wondered the one on the other end of the psychic line. "Hmmm." Hitomi gently ruffled her hair, which was still wet from showering. Back then, in the shadows cast by the hopelessness of a cruel war, when Van had unyieldingly sent her back to Astoria, her bag had been waiting there for her like a good dog, fortunately including a spare uniform. Otherwise, she might have had to spend the rest of the time in running shorts and a sweaty t-shirt. In retrospect, it was all very practical and yet totally strange. Still she never really wondered. Unknowingly she had gotten used to the bag following her around like a second shadow.

Somehow she hadn't taken it with her… there were so many more important things… chaos and relief, unbearably many deaths to mourn and a gentle, blooming love to explore…

And here at home she hadn't given it much thought. Instead, she had always taken it with her to training as a matter of course. She had probably subconsciously assumed that the faithful soul of a sports bag had simply floated after her through space and time… Hitomi opened the zipper. The familiar smell of tartan and detergent came out. And a mess of various things. "Did you look inside?" "Of course not." He sounded indignant at the insinuation, and she believed him. Although the curiosity had certainly been killing him. "Why don't you?" she said carelessly. The need for certainty was too great. "Describe to me what's inside."

There was silence for a while. Hitomi took the opportunity to vividly imagine him. Sitting on the floor in his simple tent, illuminated by the drag energist’s rose red glow, tugging at the zipper with a befuddled expression because of the odd thingy until it mercifully revealed its innermost parts. She chewed her lower lip, bursting with excitement. "A flat, metallic black treasure chest," he finally reported. "How strange, there are two strings growing out of it. Like thin tentacles." My discman and headphones, Hitomi thought and couldn't stop marveling. She also held one similar slim device in her hands, which was hopelessly behind the state of the art. Sometimes she had been ridiculed for it, after all, there were smartphones and, in a pinch, iPods. But she didn't care. The device had been a gift and, as we all know, those were to be cherished. And somehow she liked listening to her parents' old CDs on it, feeling nostalgic for a time when she hadn't even been born yet. "What else?" Van made a sound of muted disgust. "Your tarot cards," he grumbled, forcing himself to a neutral tone. Hitomi felt a chill run down her spine. Of course, he wasn't entirely comfortable with them, and she wasn't either by now. To much had happened involving the seemingly innocent deck of cards. That's why, shortly after her return, they had to be put into a box and were now gathering dust in the attic buried under some old toys. Almost exactly at the same spot where she had discovered them many years ago. She could have thrown the suspicious cards away, or even burned them. But she just couldn't bring herself to such drastic measures.

"It's like those things are chasing me…" Hitomi mumbled for no reason. "What else is there?" Somehow she knew that Van hasty put the tarot deck aside as if poisonous spiders were about to hatch out of it before he continued. "A coin-sized glass disk, but it's fragmented… the ends of a short belt are attached to the sides." Their game began to amuse Hitomi. The way he idiosyncratically described things that were strange to him was quite comical and puzzling. "Are there three black lines in the disk?" she speculated, because she had the slightest idea. "Yes… and the picture of a small winged figure." "My watch!" Hitomi exclaimed. She pushed back the left sleeve of her sweater a little, but she already knew that she would find the same model on her wrist. Eagerly counting second after second, accompanied by soft ticking sounds. A mechanical piece, also a gift. Plain, except for the cute silhouette of the tiny angel on the dial, serving as a clumsy way of foreshadowing future events. Stranded in Ford Castello, she had noticed that the watch had probably been damaged during her escape from Fanelia. The glass was crushed and its steady ticking had died. But on Gaea, time was measured differently, if at all. She had glumly put the useless piece into her pocket and imagined her mother's scolding… oh, what petty worries had preoccupied her at that time. Van had continued his voyage of discovery.

"Hmmm…" He hesitated in his description, the object in his hand was too strange. "It's a bizarre piece of jewelry," he said to her astonishment. She certainly hadn't been carrying any jewels in her bag, and if she had, it would surely have fallen victim to the mole man. "Made of silver, I presume. Set with a long emerald and a short chain with the figure of a dolphin dangling from it… a gift from Milerna, perhaps? A token of appreciation and gratitude." "My pager!" the penny finally dropped. "I completely forgot about that." Merle had stolen it back in Fanelia, which in retrospect had come in handy. It had eluded the mole's greedy claws and distracted the soldiers at just the right moment. In Freid, she had carefully put the little hero into the bag.

It did not escape her that Van seemed to know how a dolphin looked. Astonishing, since he grew up cradled by mountains and had seen the sea and it’s majestic beauty for the first time when they sought asylum in Astoria. According to himself he was an excellent climber and a lousy swimmer. So exactly the opposite of her. Anyway, the very same pager was on Earth, in her hand. But apparently on Gaea as well. Could perhaps… "It’s not from Milerna and no jewelry, it’s a communication device! Press the tiny button in the middle…. Does something happen? The, uh, emerald should glow like a, well, drag energist." She pressed the start button herself. Unenthusiastically the display came to life. No new messages, of course. Nobody was using pagers anymore. "Nothing's happening, the crystal seems dead," Van reported after a short radio silence. "Aw, that is too bad." How funny it would have been if she had been able to send him messages with it. Amano's short query about her whereabouts, which against all odds had reached her with perfect timing, had probably drained the last drop of energy from the battery. "There are a lot of white socks." Now Van sounded amused. "How many feet did you say you have?"

Hitomi chuckled at his attempt at humor, as usual. She also held several clean, rolled-up running socks in her hands. They were always there. Her mother, bless her soul, just picked them out and put new ones in without being asked. "A hairbrush." "You should try it," she couldn't help herself. "Haha," he said in that dry way that always made her imagine his eyes rolling. "Oh!" "What?" "Your dress from Astoria." There was insufficiently concealed awe in his voice. "Oh yeah…" In the deceptive safety of Freid, Hitomi had slipped it into the bag without thinking twice. As pretty as it was and as incognito as she could travel with it, she missed the simplicity of her school uniform. The elegant robe was already quite battered after her past escapades. The torn hem from the rescue mission in Palas, the escape from Dilandau's sea of flames, the journey through the wilderness to the Duchy that promised protection. Milerna hadn't said a word about it once Hitomi was back in her old chambermaid's outfit. Perhaps the beautiful princess had immediately abandoned her plan to mold the foreign girl to her liking.

But maybe there were more important things on her mind, an impending war for example. "You hmmm…" Van started to speak, but then fell silent. Typical behavior for him. It had always irritated her a bit. What was on the tip of his tongue? What was too dangerous to say? Unlike her, he never just blurted something out, but preferred to remain despondently quiet. She did the same now. There was no delicate pink dress with an elaborate lace collar in the bag in front of her. In her imagination, thousands of miles or even light years away, Van held the shimmering silk up to the light of his lamp and admired its dazzling beauty. "More clothes," he finally said hesitantly, clearing his throat in embarrassment. Was it possible to just hear a human's bright red face? Very much. "So hmmm…" "Okay, okay, stop it. Close the bag, it's clearly mine." Somehow she didn't like the idea of him rummaging lewdly through her laundry. He obviously didn't either. She should have thought of that before. There were also several very very private things in there she simply was not ready to discuss with him. She fumbled with the zipper of her own bag. "How odd that there seem to be two of these bags now." "What do you want me to do with it?" he asked pragmatically. "Just keep it, it’s a gift. And, uh, the contents, give it all to Merle. I'm sure she'll know what to do with it." "Wouldn't you like to…" He trailed off.

"What do you mean?" "Excuse me," he said quickly. "I'm being called. Good bye." "Talk to you later," she said hopefully, but already felt that he was gone. What had been left unsaid? Again?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So if there are two bags, why not two Hitomis? Well I guess Gaea doesn’t play by the rules of physics (or basic sci-fi) everyone else has to obey. Time travel is a tricky thing and I’d love to see it used more often in Escaflowne fanfic, wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, as the ending suggests Van and Hitomi kinda control those pillars of light (or at least he with the energist). Doesn’t that make them time lords? Last words go to somebody who should know:

(Gosh this would be me dream cross over, Hitomi and Van as The Doctors new companions. Let me work on that!)

[amorfista]

I have some news to share ^^

A few days ago I had a revelation while at work.

For over 8 years I've been a big fan of the Dark Souls franchise. The first Dark Souls felt to me like a journey; a full-on immersion into an incredibly complex world, marked by disparity: old royalty, splendor, trust, hope, magic, nostalgia, wonder, gold, light... but also decay, dread, betrayal, horrors, darkness, death, monsters, disease, anguish. This game left a deep print on me that hasn't faded. Ever since I played it, fantasy changed in my eyes. Dark Souls I, II and III became a standard, a reference point. Even when I didn't draw as much as I do now, I aspired to one day pay good tribute to the games that meant so much to me! And, of course, I created fan art, but I always felt like I could have given more.

Now. As you probably know I'm also a big Star Wars fan, specifically TCW fan. And a few months ago I watched The Bad Batch for the first time. This show left a print in a very similar way as Dark Souls had before. It fueled my inspiration significantly, motivated me and, most importantly, helped me form friendships that I'm incredibly grateful for ♥. So... the other day, while I listened to some Dark Souls music at work, I thought...

Why not combine my favorite show with my favorite videogame franchise?

So that's it guys. May I present to you:

-The Bad Batch: Dark Souls AU-

That's it! That's my brilliant idea! XD This is going to be a project, a BIG one. So I would like to briefly (i promise i tried) explain how it will affect my content, under the cut: (I'll also drop some older DS artwork at the bottom!)

TLDR: From now on I will focus on TBB DS AU as my main and basically sole project . Even if you didn't play DS, that's okay! I will make it people-who-didn't-play friendly, to ensure everyone enjoys the journey. However, if this isn't for you, it's okay to unfollow <3 -I would say that, since I came to tumblr this early summer, my "signature" drawings are the TBB beach episode ones. I have WIPs for this project but I've been feeling stuck for far too long, so I am going to put it on hold. In fact, I am going to put on hold virtually everything that I was planning on doing, with a few exceptions. This means that I will rarely draw anything outside this AU.

-I am CLOSING commissions. I found that they put a kind of pressure on me that doesn't feel too good, and, honestly, I'm lucky to say that I do not need the money at the moment. I'm still open to requests, though, so don't hesitate to send anything and I'll draw it if I feel like it :) I'll even try to set up a store at some point!

-The project will consist on three journeys, featuring the 6 members of the Bad Batch, and corresponding with the three Dark Souls games. Each of those journeys will, more or less faithfully, follow the events of EACH season of TBB, adapted of course to the universe of Dark Souls, AKA Dark Medieval Fantasy. This means that, until the third season of TBB is released, I won't make any DSIII-related drawings.

-The journeys are adapted to the universe, and thus, will follow the real player journey as faithfully as I can, staying within DS canon and allowing people who have played the games to enjoy my drawings. However,

-THE DRAWINGS WILL BE 100% NON-DS-PLAYER FRIENDLY. I know that my followers are not DS fans but TBB/TCW fans. I am NOT here just to please DS fans. I want TBB fans to enjoy this journey, without having to google meanings or go easter-egg hunt to understand what is happening. I will tell a story and you will only have to enjoy it.

-This is a project for myself. Both DS and TBB mean A LOT to me, and this idea had me vibrating with excitement. I am making this project to PAY TRIBUTE to two things I love. However that does not mean that I will neglect the very people who have motivated me to keep creating. I promise to still deliver my very best with every drawing.

Do not hesitate to unfollow if this isn't for you.

I can understand that some people might follow me only for my wholesome beach episode drawings or for regular, HC TBB content. And that's okay. That's what this announcement is for! To let you know. This community has given me so much and I want to give back. And if you do stay, I can almost 100% assure you that you will enjoy what's to come!! <3 It will be a long but satisfactory journey. I'LL BE POSTING THE FIRST DRAWINGS IN THE UPCOMING DAYS!

OKAY, SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT!!! 😖 Here are some older DS drawings ^^ (jesus I have way more than I thought and these aren't even all of them)

AIGHT. NOW YOU KNOW IT'S SOME SERIOUS SHIT WHEN I SAY I LIKE THESE GAMES.

Anyway. Including a taglist, because I think it would be unfair not to let you guys know about this project in case anyone wants out (or to not be tagged). Send me a DM if that's the case, it's NO PROBLEM!!! I wouldn't want to tag someone who doesn't want this content.

ALSO PLEASE, ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE, TOSS THEM TO ME! And thank you kindly for making it this far <3

@dukeoftheblackstar @justalittletomato @darthmaulshispanichousewife @botherbother-blog @aftergloom @badolmen @ihaventpickedausername @ohboi @stardustbee @nik-barinova @the-chains-are-the-easy-part @gen-has-green-vibes @ejfivercommander @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @eyecandyeoz @noesqape @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @staycalmandhugaclone @callmesunny04 @freesia-writes @ginnymilling @sunshinesdaydream @sev-on-kamino @cloneloverrrrr @moon-wrecked @idontgetanysleep @tech-aficionado @followthepurrgil @renton6echo @queen-jiru @shoe-bag @eyayah123 @eloquentmoon @and-loth-cat @ladyzirkonia @stardusthuntress @bambambunny @morphofan @gt13tbbart @amalthiaph @cameronirat @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @anxiouspineapple99

[amadwinter]

Making of Monday - How NOT to Write a Long Fic

Haven't posted one of these in a hot minute! Story time: sometime around 2021, I decided I was sick of having all these ideas for Star Wars fics and never actually writing them. So I decided to buckle down, and write a damn fic.

But of course that didn't happen. What I did instead was try to plot out a long, winding, action-adventure story, and to do that, I decided to study to study from the masters. Or master. I wrote down all the chapter titles for every Lord of the Rings book, and was planning on modeling my story based off a similar pacing.

But of course that didn't happen either. And I realized that I was getting nowhere fast. So, I took out a different piece of paper, and with no plan in place, just started jotting down thoughts.

Warning: terrible formatting and terribly inconsistent handwriting below the cut

And as you can see, I didn't get far with unconnected ideas before I started planning once more.

Inspired by short fic I had just read, I wanted to write a long fic where a whole and hale Anakin Skywalker shows up on Tatooine some amount of years into exile. Seeing as how this was before the Obi-Wan Kenobi show came out, there was a lot of room for interpretation in canon. I could take ideas from Legends, make theories about what they were going to do with canon (and be extremely right about some of them), and just make shit up whenever I wanted to.

But immediately, I came to a question that I wanted an interesting answer to: where did this new Anakin come from, and how did he get to Tatooine? Time travel is simple, and not where I wanted to go. Something something Sith magic, yeah, whatever. Also not what I wanted to do. But dimension travel? Now, there was an idea.

Of course, because I am a planner, it couldn't be simple, now could it? It couldn't be just hand-wave the Force that caused it. There had to be a real, concrete, series of events that caused Anakin to appear out of thin air.

And thus began the Yeetverse.

A chain of 4 separate universes (plus 1 bonus one for my own torture amusement. And actually now with one more added on later!). A to B to C to D. It's far too complex for baby's first fanfic in a fandom, and yet the ideas would not stop flowing.

Yes, that was all just written because I couldn't stop thinking about these ideas. It may not seem like a lot, but any brave soul who attempts to read my handwriting can see that there are many things going on at once. (And the only thing I blocked out is the ending to what was meant to be the first fic in this chain, the thrill of the fall)

But for all those ideas, all that planning...

I haven't even finished the first fic I truly tried to write.

I actually have so much of it outlined. I even wrote the outlines of the first 2 chapters of the original fic idea that started it all down on paper.

But I haven't written more.

Why?

Turns out, I'm not good at writing long fics. Planning them? Yes. Finishing them? Hell no.

It will be 3 years since I came up with these ideas. I haven't given up hope yet that I might actually get around to writing all those fics one day, but one-shots and event fics have drawn my attention away.

Who knows; maybe I'll finally take another shot once I've finished up more of my posted WIPs.

[imbiowaresbitch]

WIP wheeeeeee!

I finally have something I can share. Tagged by @cr-noble-writes

Single dad Dean is coping with having his 6-year-old daughter, Emma, home with a concussion after being bullied at school, and she's not taking to the "resting" part well.

For context, Lydia died when Emma was 3.

Much to Emma’s disappointment, when Sunday rolled around she hadn't slept well the night before, so was feeling tired and cranky. She still wanted to go on a playdate with Jack and his big cousin Claire – apparently dads were superfluous – but Dean put his foot down. With Emma in her room, crying and throwing her stuffies at the door, Dean pulled out his phone to text Cas. Dean: hey Sunshine. Emma’s having a very bad morning. Think she overdid it yesterday refusing to have a nap. It's just not a good plan to take her out, I don't want her to feel worse. Dean heard the heavy thump of something more substantial hitting Emma’s door and sighed, rubbing at his eyes. He knew she’d be upset even before he told her they couldn't see Jack, and Dean was just glad he hadn't mentioned the Butterfly Conservatory to her. Still, throwing stuffies was one thing. Other things could be broken, and that wasn't okay. He knocked on her door, being a stickler for giving her privacy, then opened the door. He found her sitting on her bed, her arms crossed as she glared at him, an adorable pout on her tear-streaked face. The door bumped against something more solid than a plush toy, and he glanced down. Her tiny black shoes – Charlie called them Mary Janes – sat behind the door, and there was a black streak on the door from the soles.  “Hey, sweetpea,” Dean said softly, picking up her shoes and tucking them back into her closet. He picked up a couple of her stuffies and set them back on her bed, then dropped to a crouch in front of her. “I know you're mad at me, Emma, but no wrecking your things. Your stuffies can't break, but you could knock over something, like one of your music boxes, and break it.” Fresh tears welled in her eyes, and she stared at him, her lip quivering. Lydia had given her the music boxes she had, and he knew the idea of something happening to them would be scary. Her tears spilled over, and she started to sob. Dean felt a pang of guilt. Maybe he should have mentioned the Star Wars lamp from Charlie and Stevie instead, but too late now. He held out his arms, and she fell into them, hiccoughing as she burrowed against his chest.

Tagging @aishitara @nickelkeep @bleuzombie @dwinchester1979 @winchester-reload. Share whatever, or not. 💕

[illarian-rambling]

Is there anything from your WIP that you want to talk about/give a more detailed explanation of but haven't had an opportunity to?

Probably the whole "in the beginning" sequence if I'm being honest. The base worldbuilding. So let's do it!

Before there was anything, there was nothing. There was darkness, silence, and the endless void. It couldn't have been called happy, this void, but perhaps it was content.

Then, a spark came into the universe. Now, we had something. There was light, sound, and chaos. There were stars and young planets and baby galaxies just beginning to glow.

In eons hence, these two forces would be called many names, but for simplicity's sake, we can call them End and Beginning. Each was a collection of minds, a colonial organism on a massive scale. For a while, there was balance between the two. The minds of Beginning resided in the stars and churned out planets, some of which harbored early, microbial life. The minds of End resided in the dark inbetween, and made sure Beginning didn't overstep its bounds. However, in time, End grew bitter. It didn't like this bright, noisy, chaotic universe. It wanted things to go back to how they were before.

And so it began to exterminate Beginning.

Stars bled out and died as the universe was plunged into war. Beginning tried to fight back, but it was a creative force, not a destructive one, and it was no match for End's gluttonous march. Billions upon billions of galaxies were destroyed, consumed by the nothing that was there first, until finally, there was only one lonely mind of Beginning left.

We can call this mind the Creator. While its brethren were being devoured, this single mind in its yellow star set to work creating sentient life. It split off two aspects of itself to do this; one to create the body, the other to forge the soul. The Illarians call these aspects Tsa and Ayu. The dwarves call them the Prime Twins. But either way, humans and dwarves were not the first people they created. First came the Araunians.

As End closed in above, chewing through the nearby stars and the more distant planets in the solar wheel, the Araunians split and morphed into the varied peoples that crowd Illaros today. Humans and goblins, sirens and selkies, and only one race of elves so far. All of these disparate people had one thing in common though; they had gods.

Through the power of their souls, divine sparks given to them by the Creator itself, the gods these peoples imagined sprang into reality. The Illarian, the Aderenon, the Nabafyrian ancestors, the Great Anglerfish, and many more. These were the children of mortality, grandchildren to the last mind of Beginning left living. This mind, the Creator, had only one message for the powerful new gods: "Get out there and fight that fucking thing!!"

The gods are not bound by the rules of creation and destruction, but instead can levy both equally. They rushed to fight End, to push it back from where it had besieged them and their makers, and they have been fighting for every moment since then. Through their efforts, the mortals of Illaros have been able to grow, develop, and evolve. The Creator has survived as the last of its kind. And though the universe is so terribly empty, it will never be nothing again, so long as the gods of Illaros defend all of something.

Without any true stars besides the sun though, what do the people of Illaros see in the night sky, you might ask? Well, they see what they think are stars---bright, white, untwinkling lights. In truth, these are the eyes of End, everwatching and everwaiting to devour the last bastion of life in all of the universe.

Thanks for the ask! I figured I'd brought End up enough that yall were owed a bit of an explanation. Hope this is interesting!

(As another side note: the words Illaros (the planet everyone lives on) and Illarian (the human gods) are so similar because they're both human words that stem from the same root. 'Illa' means horizon in Janazi (human language) and is an important concept to the seafaring people. A person from Illaros would be called Illari, though no such word exists on Illaros today, because they don't know about other planets yet, so why would they specify)

(Again, thanks for listening to me rant about worldbuilding)

(Have a bitchin day <3)

(Whoops here's my tag list @amandacanwrite @elsie-writes @riveriafalll @kosmic-kore @kaylinalexanderbooks @bard-coded @carrotsinnovember @patternwelded-quill @somethingclevermahogony @whatwewrotepodcast @goldxdarkness @the-angriest-author @mk-writes-stuff)

[tossawary]

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics and then tag ten people. Don't have ten? Not to worry, just share what you have. Tagged by @otakuchan449.

I did all of my fics, which are unsurprisingly all SVSSS, because I was curious as to the patterns. I usually like to name the POV character and illustrate their style of narration in the first paragraph, which is generally humorous, so people know quickly whether or not they're going to vibe with my style. I also like starting in the middle of a situation / inciting incident if possible, so we can hit the ground walking briskly if not running, and get to the good stuff.

23. Shang Houhua - someday unfortunately to be known as Shang Qinghua, once unfortunately known in another life as Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky - came back to himself abruptly. (if words could make wishes - WIP MBJ Time Travel AU from SQH POV)

22. If the System was to be trusted, which it generally was when it came to making Shang Qinghua’s life worse for no good reason, then today was the day! (Stepping Up - 90k Canon Divergence AU, An Ding Disciple LBH)

21. Shen Yuan was conscious when he was reborn, though he didn’t know what was happening at the time, because all he knew at first was pain and golden dust. (Sit With Your Soul - 61k SQQ & SY Daemon Fusion AU)

20. Shang Houhua was thirteen going on, uh, fourteen plus a whole other life that sometimes felt more like a dream than something that had actually happened. (hey, share the weight a little - 70k Canon Divergence AU, YQY/SQH)

19. “Shifu? Forgive the interruption, but there’s a woman here to see you?” (love to the ones I've never met - 83k Fic Companion, Dimension Travel)

18. Jiahui just needs to check that her restaurant hasn’t burned down. (forgiveness for whose sake? - 48k Fic Companion and Epilogue)

17. Luo Binghe knows he isn’t supposed to be doing what he’s doing, but given that he has no other way of getting answers, he does it anyway. (you had me at hello - 5k Non-Canon Fic Extra)

16. “My king, don’t touch that-!” (A Child Once - 101k Canon Divergence AU, Deaged SQH)

15. The world was dark, woven from a black so infinite that it looked flat, and it was full of light. (Catch a Falling Star - 122k Bingliushen Stardust AU)

14. Shang Qinghua woke up having a bad day - forget going through puberty twice, because in this transmigrator’s opinion, having to experience a new round of “first day of school” bullshit year after year was worse - and speed-walking through the Cloud Recesses wasn’t helping him get through it any faster. (Nothing to Me, Nothing to You - 60k Moshang MDZS AU)

13. Mobei-Jun’s search for Shang Qinghua had taken him to many strange places. (dreams that had never come true - 14k MBJ Time Travel AU)

12. It would be a lie to say that Shang Qinghua wasn’t too sure what had happened. (every haircut I've ever had has been a bad haircut - 5k Moshang Hurt/Comfort)

11. The situation was bad. (Babe in the Woods - 19k Canon Divergence AU, MBJ has a baby brother)

10. Shen Qingqiu was perfectly capable of piloting his own ship, but that day, like many others, found Liu Qingge leaning against a column by the hangar entrance, waiting for Shen Qingqiu as he prepared to leave Qing Jing Peak Temple. (this point of pale light - 18k Liushen Star Wars AU)

9. Liu Mingyan was the model of a refined and accomplished cultivator. (but that's fine because I like a hot mess - 3k Mingling Getting Together)

8. Shen Qingqiu had made use of many excuses over the years to avoid the presence of the man who was now his own sect leader, some of which had even been good. (the ability to remain sober and gracious - 4k Canon Divergence AU, Qijiu Xuan Su sword reveal)

7. Shang Qinghua’s head hurt and his eyes were watering and he was beginning, just maybe, to think that creating an experimental stimulant because he missed the non-organic goodness of energy drinks with an unreasonable passion had been a bad idea. (anxiety and caffeine are having a cockfight in my brain - 2k Moshang Hurt/Comfort)

6. The library’s front door flew open so violently that it could be heard even at Shen Yuan’s desk nearer to the back of the main hall, which sat in front of the way to the computer rooms. (Absolutely Ineffable - 10k Good Omens Fusion AU)

5. Once there was a summer in which upon arriving home from university, Shen Yuan was immediately told that he was being sent away to the heart of the country to stay with his distant uncle, whether he liked it or not. (The Red Cabinet - 7k Narnia Fusion AU)

4. It took… Shang Qinghua… a while to figure out that demons actually had horns in this realized version of his sellout stallion web-novel. (Horns - 11k MBJ has sexy horns AU)

3. So, apparently, a portal burning with demonic energy had opened up over Qing Jing Peak and another Shang Qinghua had fallen out of it, and the wound in the sky had unfortunately closed again pretty much immediately. (ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real - 7k Non-Canon Fic Extra, SQH meets AU SQH)

2. So, Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, the dearly despised and fervently favorited author of Proud Immortal Demon Way, died in a vaguely humiliating fashion… and then he transmigrated. (it must follow, as the night the day - 26k Moshang Role Reversal AU, Demon SQH and Cultivator MBJ)

1. Shang Qinghua has not been having a stellar transmigration experience. (pride is not the word I'm looking for - 400k Canon Divergence AU, LBH's Mother Lives)

This serves as a pretty good round-up of all my currently posted fics! There are far too many in my WIP folders to begin including everything in there.

I've been a little out of touch with reading fanfiction lately, so please, if you wish, take this post as an opportunity to participate in this game and tag me in it! I highly recommend taking a moment to revisit and admire your own fan works! Look at all that cool stuff you did! If you only have WIPs, then I don't mind if you use WIPs. Sometimes our pieces of writing are full, intensely detailed paintings that take years to complete and sometimes they're just rough sketches we do to warmup or have creative fun when we have the time, and sharing both is nice.

And if you don't have your own fan works to pull from, then I'd still love to see a list of opening lines from some of your favorite fics by other people. Any fandom you like! Give me those fic recs! Give me the opening lines of your favorite published novels if there's one you've been itching to gush about.

[winterinhimring]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tag, @musewrangler! This looks fun.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

94.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

852,051. (Holy cow.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

A lot! Tolkien, Star Wars, Marvel, and Hornblower are the ones I've written most for, but I've also written stories for the 1985 movie Silverado, and for The Three Musketeers, Dune, The Hunt for Red October, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Jat'ca'nara, The War of the Ring, Pirunir Sur'haaise, break my bonds and be bound to me (what. the. heck.), and Ba'slan Shev'la.

I will admit, I was not expecting all of those. The Star Wars ones (all the Mando'a titles) make sense, WOTR is my first and longest fic and also in the Tolkien fandom, but break my bonds is one of the RAREST of rare pairs and despite it being in the Star Wars fandom too, it's focussed on some comparatively minor characters, so I am...very surprised by that.

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

Yes! Always. I love receiving comments so the least I can do is respond to them. Also, I nearly always have thoughts to share with my readers in response to their thoughts on my fic.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Unquestionably Cuyan'e. It's a character study of two very deeply broken men who have both lost everything, one at the hands of the other, and it earns its 'hurt no comfort' tag. The title means "Survivors" because they're both the last survivors of their families. It's very unusual for me to write a fic this painful without putting in a happy ending, but that story pretty much showed up to my brain written the way it is, and when that happens I write what I'm given.

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

That's much harder to answer than the last one! A significant majority of my fics have happy endings, or at least happier ones than canon. However, I'll have to go with Tegaanal, the climax of my Star Wars fix-it series, because it's such an earned happy ending and we watched the characters fight for it every step of the way.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Nope! I review my comments on the first couple of fics of any series, until I have an idea of what my reader base is like, and that seems to ward off the weirdos.

9. Do you write smut?

Heck no. I don't need that in my head.

10. Do you write crossovers?

On occasion! Usually because the muses show up and start jumping on the table banging pans together until I write them something.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to the best of my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I HAVE had a piece of music inspired by a fic. I wrote a poem (in Mando'a and in English) for Partaylir, and the absolutely fantastic Siena_Alexandria actually wrote a tune for it and recorded the result. If you like Mandalorians, Mando'a, conlangs, or just good music, listen to it here! (Each chapter is a different version of the poem.)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yep, several! Mostly with @musewrangler.

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

I don't really have one, as I don't tend to get all that deeply invested in ships. Characters, yes, but not specific ships. I guess I have a soft spot for Walon Vau/Shmi Skywalker, though, since it's a canoe I launched all by myself (see my boggled reaction to break my bonds and be bound to me being one of my most-kudosed fics above).

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

*grits teeth* I. Will. Finish. All. My. WIPs. (There's only one that is arguably in danger of abandonment, Of the History of the White Tree, and I'm going to come back to it as soon as I've reread the source material.)

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Hmm...I would say it's my character writing, above all else. Once I have a clear mental picture of what someone would or wouldn't do, I can basically drop him into situations and just let them play out and see what happens, pretty much trusting the character to respond the way he should. A lot of my fics consist of this, and the consensus from my readers has been that I do it well.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Strong emotions, and people who are open with their emotions, are difficult for me to write. Whenever I write a scene that involves feelings and vulnerability, I have a holy terror of becoming kitschy. And people who actually show their emotions voluntarily by default are kind of a mystery to me, so I don't really write them because I don't understand them.

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

Fun to do when I know the language and/or enough of it to get by! I put in quite a lot of Mando'a for my Star Wars stories and I enjoy working within the constraints of its limited vocabulary because it forces me to pare down my usually verbose writing style into just the core of the meaning I intend to convey.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien! My first, most lasting, and perhaps dearest fandom.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

HOW CAN I PICK JUST ONE???? My favourite fic is nearly always the one I'm writing now, though, so right now it's So We Can Learn to Pick Ourselves Up, the latest instalment of what started as post-Endgame MCU fix-it and has now grown into a live-action Spider-man multiverse fix-it.

No-pressure tags for @ramblingsofachristiannerd, @hollers-and-holmes, @lady-merian, @ghosts-and-blue-sweaters, @thatonebasicfan, and anyone who'd like to jump on!

[blackkatmagic]

Hey, blackkat!

I've been reading your star wars fanfictions for a while now and I'm seriously intrigued by all of them. My favorite is running with lightning feet and I'm currently reading efface the footprints in the sands--poor Master Kolar...

Anyway, I really wonder how you approach writing. You seem to be able to write very consistently and keep track of many stories all at once, which are things I admire very much about you. Would you be able to give some advice on that?

Also, I very much love your characterization of more 'minor' (less appearance in canon) characters and how you breathe life into them with your dialogue. Really make me wonder how you make that out--what do you consider, or do the characterization/dialogue just pop up, fleshing themselves out?

Yeah, I really hope you don't mind me asking these. Again, love your writing very much. Would continue to read your stories always~~ Thank you for sharing them (and putting all your effort into writing them!)

Hi! I definitely don't mind, and I've answered similar questions before in my writing advice tag, if you want to scroll through some other answers that might be worded better.

For how I approach writing...the inconvenient answer is that it's mostly practice. I've been giving myself a goal of 500 words every day for the last....10-ish years, probably? Just consistently sitting down and doing a thing, writing without worrying about quality and only quantity, with lots of WIPs always going at the same time, really helps in figuring out how to juggle them. I usually keep a file of vague notes, one doc for each WIP with a bunch of keywords and ideas I want to hit eventually, and plot twists I'm aiming for, though I don't ever really outline things, and that helps a lot with keeping track, too.

As far as characterization of minor characters goes, that's the part I enjoy most about writing, and it's one of the easier parts for me, so I'm not sure I'm the best at putting it into words. But basically, you have to get to the very core of how you see the character - what their baseline personality is, what motivates them, what their goals are. It's something that can change between fics (which I think is one of the joys of minor characters; you don't have to stick to one defined interpretation), but it is something you have to nail down, imo. It also takes some filling in the gaps with headcanon and some leaps in logic.

Take Agen for example: canon gives us the information that he lost his padawan on Geonosis, incorporated Tan's lightsaber crystal into his own, and is an incredible swordsman but too blunt and aggressive to be diplomatic, while still being very loyal to the Council/Order. He gets called "the Council's attack dog" in the comics. Also, in the wider universe, we know that Zabraks have a reputation for being aggressive/warlike, and at one point Qui-Gon calls Maul it, even though he has to know what Zabraks are.

Those are all the canon facts. If you go back and fill in the gaps: Agen is someone who's grieving deeply, and he's incredibly devoted. He uses Tan's lightsaber crystal against Palpatine, which means he's sentimental, and he's not willing to speak against the Order in public, so he's at least that tactful. At the same time, he has no patience for people who get in his way, and he's willing to use force to cut through them. He believes in other Jedi until they irrevocably prove themselves traitors, and then he's stern and willing to remove them by whatever means. At the same time, he's very aware of his reputation, and he knows what people say about him/other Zabraks, but he's stubborn enough (at peace with himself enough) that he's not going to change.

From that sort of character summary, you can figure out the way Agen talks pretty easily. He's blunt, and he doesn't always think about the impact of his words, but he can be compassionate and thoughtful, particularly given his own grief. He's willing to defend anyone, and he doesn't make a fuss but always tends towards action - that means short sentences, usually directly to the point with no niceties. He's polite, because that's usually the fastest way to achieve something, but he's not overly deferential. He has a sense of humor, but most people miss it because he's so blunt.

Taking a character and dissecting them like that is something I have a lot of fun doing, which, well. I'm a therapist irl, so that probably helps. But I think it's very much just about breaking a character down into component parts and applying them to whatever you're writing - if you understand why someone reacts a certain way, it's a thousand times easier to figure out how they're going to react in a new situation. And after that, getting them to sound right, getting your dialogue to fit - it's all about practice.

[themerlinlibrary]

Favourites Friday (May 2024) – Historical AU

TML Favourites Friday round-up! May 2024 round 2

What is Favourites Friday? – The Basics

a different theme is announced on Friday each week; FF recs must match the theme of the week

only one FF rec per person per week/theme

FF recs must be unique within that week/theme; no double-posting the same fic for one theme!

no self-recs during regular rounds

only self-recs during self-rec rounds (last Friday of each month)

Theme for week 2: Historical AU!

Got To Get You (Into My Life) - Kinkalot Series 2021 by Leandra E, 100k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon 1960s/70s AU, hippie AU

Inside Dark Corridors, Beneath My Ribs by Cithara E, 38k (WIP), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Post-World-War-One AU

Unusual Voyage by thenerdyindividual T, 70k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon 1930s AU, ocean liner AU

That Loving Feeling by ravenwilds T, 32k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Top Gun AU, 1980s AU

For the stars shall speak of us by chrissie, lunapark E, 41k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Gwen/Lancelot 1920s Tennessee AU, friends to lovers

What’s a Royal Ball? by FrailYard (FrailYard0220) M, 9.8k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon,  Alternate Universe - Regency, Secret Relationship

A masterlist of all round-ups can be found here.

If you want to make sure you never miss a FF rec, or would like to participate and share your own favourites; join us on the Discord TheMerlinLibrary! Happy reading!

About the FF round-up lists:

Recs are listed in the order they were posted on the Discord; the order does not imply any sort of ranking.

The pairing given in this list is the main pairing of each respective fic – please read the tags for any possible minor or side-pairings, as well as any potential warnings or triggers.

Pairings and Eras are given as tagged in each respective fic. (?) signifies that the tags were unclear and I do not know enough about the fic to fill the gaps.

Round-ups are compiled on the weekend of the week after the respective theme of the post (when the new theme has already been anounced), to avoid omitting potentially belated FF recs.

The weekly round-up is not a guarantee! I'm running this alone, so it can only be posted for weeks when I have enough time on my hands to compile a list. If you'd like to help out, feel free to contact me on Tumblr ( @zaharya ) or Discord. Thanks to @ravenwilds for helping me out with these round-ups, and to Chel for making a whole-ass bot to make it easier!

[ryehouses]

heeeeyyyy

if it's not an indscretion... i saw that you had planned a jedi!din fic... and that it may not come to light... so if i could ask, what would it have been about?

thx even if you don't wanna answer xo

howdy!

fortunately for you i've never had any discretion ever!

i'm not gonna say that it will never see the light of day, because i keep things in my wip folder for years and years sometimes, chipping away at 'em little by little, but! on the off chance (or slightly more than an off chance, given my current self-imposed project workload) that i never get it up to posting quality, the rough idea:

i kind of incepted myself with force sensitive!din while working on a simple thing and put a little brainworm in the back of my head: ast!din is not force-sensitive enough to have been picked up by the jedi prior to the clone wars, but what if he had been?

the fic would've been (maybe will be?) kind of a season 1 retelling where, instead of being a traumatized mandalorian bounty hunter, din is a traumatized ex-jedi initiate who was out on the gathering during order 66, and subsequently managed to survive the initial purge. he's been bouncing around the galaxy ever since, doing all kinds of things to both a) stay alive and b) stay out of the empire's way.

post-empire he's kind of at loose ends; jedi aren't being hunted any more, but din doesn't really know any other way to live, so he keeps doing what he's doing and ends up on nevarro, looking for work, at the same time as some big, rude mandalorian warrior in blue and yellow armor picks a fight with what looks to din like the entire nevarran bounty hunter's guild, and hey, wait, is that mandalorian carrying master yoda?

cue din and paz's reluctant adventures across the galaxy as they run from the empire -- which, din is less than happy to find, is still hunting jedi -- and search for other jedi. it is the world's most awkward co-parenting arrangement, because paz is an asshole and din is emotionally stunted.

some miscellaneous vibes:

din has a kyber crystal, but no lightsaber, because he and his cohort were attacked leaving ilum after their gathering

din somehow still has the razor crest, not paz. din won it in a card game

din still doesn't know much about star wars

had the clone wars not hit, din would have wanted to go into the agricorps, not the jedi temple; he has a spectacular green thumb

baby jedi!din took one look at mace windu vapaad'ing all over the place and went "!!!! yes!!!"

he did know yoda -- yoda always made time to visit with the younglings and initiates -- and is really weirded out that yoda, or someone from the same species, was capable of producing a smaller yoda

the fic title came from some noah kahan lyrics, so you know it was going to be at least twice as melodramatic as it needed to be

so! who knows. i'd love to work on it some more some day!

[darkkbluee]

Re:dn?

For the WIP asks

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask. Re:dn is my succinctly named WIP and it lives permanently in my head, peeking it's not-so-little head out every once in a while. Not-so-little because every time I remember, I keep adding to it. And the fic, intended to be a short 5k one-shot, just.doesn't.end. It's at 17k now, more than thrice it's expected length. I've given up on ending this monster. I love it, so alas, it'll keep being written and written and written in my drafts. Maybe I will post it, maybe I won't.

Re:dn is about Light getting reincarnated in a peaceful world. He is pretty happy with his new life. Unfortunately for him, he isn't the only one reincarnated. The rest of the main death note characters are reincarnated as well. And they aren't very happy with Kira.

Starring Light "what is Kira? Is it tasty?" Yagami, L "I will get you to confess. Your feelings <3" Lawliet, Misa "date me, senpai!" Amane, Mikami "this life is a reward for my service to God" Teru, Matsuda "I'll make sure you stay on the right path this time" Touta. Plus several others, who aren't here because it would clutter the paragraph.

Snippet below the cut.

Light was born on the 28th of February, year unknown. His parents weren’t Soichiro and Sachiko Yagami. They were utterly ordinary people in ordinary jobs. He was not an only child either. Light had a father, a mother, a younger sister, grandparents on both sides of the family and a lot of cousins. It was a large, extended family.

His parents worried when Light woke up screaming in the middle of the night. They worried even more when Light froze at sight of the plastic water-guns his cousins pointed at him and refused to come out of the closet till they were all gone. His parents, unlike his parents Before, got him the professional help he had never had. After-all, how was Light to explain he had been imprisoned under the suspicion of being Kira and his own father had fired an air gun at him at close range? Despite being his father? Despite understanding the danger of even blank shots at close range?

And in this new life, Light couldn’t explain it either. They could ask questions all they wanted, but Light had no answers for them. But something had to be done, something had to change. His parents couldn’t take the suffering of their child anymore, and Light couldn’t either. As an adult, he could pop pills for sleep as and when needed and needed to give no one any explanation – except occasionally his doctor for a prescription. As a child? This was dangerous for his health and sanity.

So, Light took advantage of being a child. Slowly, he opened up to the doctor his parents had arranged and talked about things from his past life as if they were dreams. 

Things could have gone wrong. They could have gone so, so wrong. The doctor could have labeled Light as a psychopath of some sort. He could have had Light been declared insane, his parents would then abandon him and this new life would be over even before it had begun.

Instead, his leap of faith was successful. His words were taken as the overactive imagination of a child. Of a genius child, who took in more of the world at a young age than his parents would have expected, and that had resulted in unintentionally traumatizing him.

Talking about it… helped. In ways more than Light had thought. Things he had never realized were wrong, feelings he had never realized he had buried, insecurities, fears, dreams, ideals…

It also helped that Light had realized his new world was more peaceful than Before. Crime was low, corruption was low, wars were few. Not non-existent, never that. But significantly lower than… than Before.

In this new world, Kira was not needed.