#is avoiding the fic

[lgbtlunaverse]

To me the most fun part about fix-its is placing dominoes.

Tragedies often consist of escalating series of actions and circumstances which, in isolation, were not clearly leading to the tragic end but form a chain of cause-and-effect directly towards it in hindsight. In equal but opposite fashion, I love starting with small inoccuous changes to canon that in themselves do not obviously fix everything but start a new chain that leads to a better ending.

It's kind of impossible for fix-its to feel fully natural– the reader by definition knows what the original ending was and that this ending will be happier because the writer wants it to be– but it is possible for them to not feel contrived. A big deus-ex-machina, or a character breaking with their pre-established tragic flaws to suddenly make all the "correct" decisions almost always feels unsatisfying to me.

But a few carefully placed small domino pieces slowly knocking over bigger and bigger tiles until the entire story has radically changed? That's a lot more fun.

It recquires the author to both correctly identify the original chain of cause-and-effect and understand the characters well enough to know how they'd react to different circumstances. Because if the story feels like it's fixing the wrong problem or the characters don't act like themselves the magic is lost. But when it works? When it clicks and the reader sees the domino chain laid out in front of them? It's beautiful.

[blink-echo]

New cloudward ho tomorrow, alas lads it’s not out til at midnight here so actually new cloudward ho on Thursday but ah boyos, you’ll never believe, a prior engagement on thursday night buck up buck up cloudward ho as a Friday night treat although! not this Friday my babes we’re out and about but!! Fret ye not, it will be there on Saturday. Cloudward ho on Saturday everyone!! get hyped.

new cloudward ho tomorrow. did you guys know did you guys hear new cloudward ho tomorrow new cloudward ho tomorrow. idk if you guys heard but it’s happening again this week they’re putting out another cloudward ho there’ll be a new one tomorrow. new cloudward ho tomorrow

[valtsv]

my main advice for writing an enemies to lovers relationship is to resist the urge to make the characters' loathing and attraction mutually exclusive opposing forces. it's okay if they're getting weirdly into it and having Thoughts whilst also sincerely wanting to kill each other with hammers.

[chiquilines]

Okay small confession to make. Im obsessed with rarijack

[fullychaotichell]

Can't believe I haven't read the new chapter of OSAS because I was focused on finishing these silly joke doodles pfff

Okay, so, the premise of this joke is that Lucifer and Alastor's relationship has grown so much without anyone else knowing anything about it, but they're also both sillies who have funny ways of showing their friendship and now romance, so I just wanted to doodle that for fun pfff

Also, even tho they promised to keep their romance a secret, I BET these fuckers would get themselves caught, like, they've been caught looking romantic a dozen other times just by Vox alone, not to even mention other characters ppfpfpfp

Anyways, @morningstarwrites I had a peek at the new chapter and saw we're back to team HARD, I'm so happy pfpfpfpf

Bonus:

[rynli]

every binary man does this

part 1 part 2

[deviouz]

something something, an argument with frank eventually leading to him finger fucking you to the point of tears and going “yeah, that’s it, sweetheart. lemme hear more of those pretty little sounds, no more of that backtalking shit, yeah?”

[vitreouspositive]

when old friends turn into strangers and when "i thought you were dead" turns into "you should've died"

[mollysunder]

This is the worst lie Jinx has ever told herself.

Felicia's literally just Vi with a braid.

Now young Silco, that's just male Jinx with less baby fat, but we all know Jinx's face is only getting sharper.

Forget the Felicia, it's like the artists decided Silco was literally Jinx's only parent. The resemblance is still there even when Silco gets older.

You think anyone who knew Silco when he was young looked at Jinx and went, "yh that's Silco in blue".

[ghostbsuter]

Sometimes.

Just sometimes.

Bruce, tired father of too many children, wished for a small break.

Just a tiny one.

He pinched his nose, cowl covering his head and expression and glared.

"I can't believe you snitched on me!" Billy batson, freshly revealed teen and sitting on his usual spot during meetings, hisses.

"If I have to get parented, so do you!" Danny fenton, also freshly revealed teenager, glared right back.

"Boys." Both their attention snapped to wonder woman, still tense and warry.

"Do you two have adult supervision, at least." Batman asks, feeling slightly more drained than before, he can feel Nightwing's stare at the back of his head, coming closer.

"Do the voices count?" Danny asks, to which Billy nodded. "Yeah, do they? Zeus has strong opinions, and many kids. He probably can parent, somewhat."

They shrugged both, like they hadn't just opened another whole can of questions.

"Wait!" Danny snapped his fingers, "what about clocky? He sends us on time missions, has his own lair, and lets us hang around. That counts? Right?"

The other teen nods in agreement.

(Knowing both are black haired and blue-eyed teens, he already knows Dick will never let him live this down. Deceived by children, for YEARS.)

(So much for being the greatest detective.)

(The text he sent to Alfred is between him and his butler dad.)

"Or—"

In the end, the two agreed reluctantly to stay around for a while. The Kents, the Allens, Diana, and the Waynes have opened up their homes to house them permanently.

Much their amusement, they declared, that to make no one jealous, they'd switch homes every other week or so.

That alone smelled like chaos.

Whatever, it was Diana's first week.

(And if the house of mysteries appeared in front of them sometimes, that's also between them and a very suffering John constantine.)

.・゜-: ✧ :-

A continuation

[okinmars]

oops....I almost forgot I have tumblr but!!! A.B.A seeing the sun for the first time

[loredrinker]

Trespasser Dream Slides - Fade Dreaming and Continued Connection

The Trespasser dream slides for a romanced Lavellan mark a subtle but interesting divergence in the story of Lavellan and Solas, in that not every player who romanced these two gets these slides - depending on choices.

If Lavellan ends their relationship with anger or finality, vowing to stop Solas no matter the cost, even if it means killing him - these dreams never appear. And I think that detail is brilliant. The story is using the absence of these dreams as a narrative device, one that, to me, actually reflects how the Fade responds to emotions. So when Lavellan emotionally disconnects from Solas, when she severs the bond and chooses to carry nothing of him forward, the Fade has nothing to echo and Solas never appears, honouring her choice. The absence of these dreams in this path becomes the story’s way of saying this relationship is indeed over.

But for the Lavellan who holds hope, who vows to save him from himself and his own destruction, who has expressed her love clearly to Solas - the dreams do come. This narrative path reflects the choices of a player who's decided that their bond endures.

And through these dreams, the game shows how these two people continue to affect each other, be drawn to each other even across distance and years.

The Dreams 

What keeps drawing my attention to these slides is they never confirm whose dreams they are.

“Lavellan sometimes came awake from dreams in which her lover watched her sadly from across an endless distance”

It doesn’t say her dreams, or that she dreamed of Solas, nor does it deny they may be his. And I appreciate how that ambiguity again mirrors the nature of the Fade, leaving open the possibility that these dreams belong to either of them, or to both.

The dreams could originate with Lavellan, stirred by hope and belief, with Solas drawn into them by her emotional presence in the Fade. They could originate with Solas subconsciously pulling her into his dreams, revealing his own hidden ache for her. Or it could be a mutual convergence - neither initiating, but both arriving, called into the same dreamscape by the strength of their bond. These slides allow for all of these possibilities in it's refusal to define the source.

What's interesting is that Solas is always withdrawing from them. When Lavellan reaches for him he doesn’t speak, doesn’t approach - he vanishes. It suggests that he’s not drawn to her to control or watch her possessively in dreams, but allows himself to be near her, pulling back before any contact is made.

Remember, Solas himself confessed to Lavellan she draws him away from the Fade. It's logical to assume then that she draws him in the Fade as well. Because Inquisitor Lavellan is still Fade Walking.

Lavellan - Fade Walker

What we know for certain is that the Inquisitor has demonstrated the ability to find Solas in the Fade before. In the Haven dream sequence, the Inquisitor locates him while sleeping. After they wake, Solas expresses surprise that they were able to find him and that he changed the setting to Haven once they did. At the time, it’s assumed that the Anchor is what allows the Inquisitor to remain conscious and lucid within the Fade. But that may not be entirely true, the Trespasser dream slides complicate that assumption because at that point in the story, the Anchor is gone and yet:

“Still she searched, and dreamed, and waited, for a way to change the Dread Wolf’s heart.”

The way “dreamed” is used here - alongside verbs like searched and waited - positions it as an act in itself. It implies that Lavellan isn't just sleeping, but actively entering the Fade to dream and seek. Here, dreamed carries intention, movement and purpose.

Whether she communes with spirits, follows the traces he’s left behind, or navigates the remnants of memories, we aren’t told. But the phrasing highly suggests that Lavellan is looking for answers, information, ways to change the Dread Wolf's heart while in the Fade. (Which continues to support my theory that the Inquisitor has been forever altered by the Anchor.)

Do the Dreams Continue?

We’re never told that the dreams end - and the use of the plural dreams reinforces the sense that the tension between Lavellan and Solas remains unresolved. It suggests an ongoing, quiet pull that continues to draw them to one another. Perhaps unconsciously, they return to that shared space again and again, a connection that spills forward into Veilguard.

Maybe that ongoing pull is why Lavellan receives the wolf statuette, why she can tell Rook she still loves Solas, and why Solas, close to his goal of reshaping the world, stops to write her a letter. It even colours the way he speaks of her to Rook - “She is a good woman.” Not was, not someone I once knew: she exists for him in the present because their dreams keep finding their way to each other.

For the story, eight years separate Trespasser and Veilguard. For us as players, that’s a long time - but for them, if their dreams still connect them, still reach across the Fade? That distance may not be felt at all. Time moves differently in memory, and even more so in the Fade. Their last shared dream with each other could have come the night before the ritual, close enough to stir old feelings and sharpen Solas’ need to send those final words to his vhenan.

[scealaiscoite]

⋆˚࿔ seven word prompts for seven sentence fics 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

¹⁾ “really? i never knew that about you.”

²⁾ “come on, don’t pretend for my sake.”

³⁾ “looks like they left in a hurry.”

⁴⁾ “who’s calling you this late at night?”

⁵⁾ “seriously, were you dropped as a baby?!”

⁶⁾ “i could eat a horse.” “please don’t.”

⁷⁾ “ice cream? at three in the morning?”

⁸⁾ “get your ass here, right fucking now!”

⁹⁾ “i really did care about you, y’know.”

¹⁰⁾ “you’re not going home, you need stitches!”

¹¹⁾ “we need to get you warm, fast.”

¹²⁾ “how long have we been driving for?”

¹³⁾ “[name]- “ “don’t start. [boss]’s already deafened me.”¹⁾

¹⁴⁾ “what’s a single bed between three friends?”

¹⁵⁾ “why are you in just a towel?!”

¹⁶⁾ “i’m your bodyguard, not your damn friend.”

¹⁷⁾ “swallow your pride.” “i’d rather swallow concrete.”

¹⁸⁾ “you look really good in my money.”

¹⁹⁾ “i said i’d help. didn’t say how.”

²⁰⁾ “come, sit. i made you some dinner.”

²¹⁾ “hide! they’re coming your way, and fast!”

²²⁾ “i knew you had feelings for them.”

²³⁾ “you’re exhausted, pet. let me mind you.”

²⁴⁾ “[name]’s in the hospital. it’s not good.”

²⁵⁾ “but you promised it’d all be okay!”

²⁶⁾ “their cover’s been blown- get them out!”

²⁷⁾ “who’d buying you flowers that isn’t me?”

²⁸⁾ “i was stupid enough to believe you.”

²⁹⁾ “isn’t paying for dinner a date thing?”

³⁰⁾ “for you, i’d do anything.” “i know.”

[hystericalend]

shse first kiss

i'm sure everyone has their own idea of how shse's first kiss would go. if you're anything like me, you have several. here's one i've been mulling over for a while.

i'm a lover of slow burn, so for me, it doesn't happen for a while after suho wakes up. he's discharged from hospital and moderately settled back into "normal" life. (as settled as one can be, after a two year long coma anyway.) he's walking again, but there's a wheelchair stowed away in a corner at grandma's house for bad days and a cane for the better ones. he refuses either, insists he doesn't need them.

he's fine. he says, even after the first fall. after the second.

he's fine.

sieun says he should be more careful. sieun says he should listen to his doctor's advice. suho considers himself damn lucky sieun's apartment block is fancy enough to have an elevator, or sieun might never let him come over. but it does, so suho crashing at sieun's apartment any and every chance he gets. even if they have a group hangout with the eunjang boys and everybody else eventually trickles out the door, suho stays. maybe it's a little pathetic, to cling onto sieun like this when he has other friends, a life he's built without him. but he's the only friend suho has now, the only one who knew him before, knows him, aside from his grandma. it is pathetic, to take up so much of sieun's time, and he hates himself for it even as he takes the bus to sieun's and ignores a woman who offers him her seat. he'll take his aching legs as punishment for being such a lonely, pathetic loser. 

(but he can't make himself let go of him. not when the only good thing he has left.

besides, sieun never asks him to leave.)

so, back on track shall we. it's one of the post group-hangout days. everybody left hours ago, and suho is still there. it's late, and they're watching-but-not-really-watching tv on the couch, too tired to pay attention to whatever the tv station decides to put on at 2 am. they're warm, they're tired, but the good kind of tired, loose-limbed and fuzzy. suho turns his head to look at sieun, blinking at him as the tv light flickers across his face. sieun feels him looking and turns his head too. the light catches his eyes, lower lashlines glistening like they always do. like he might cry any moment, or like he just finished wiping away tears and left some behind. suho is stuck. he stares, more openly than he ever has, and he should look away now, he should turn back to the tv, but god, he's beautiful. sieun has always been, so, so beautiful.

and then he just. leans in.

blame the head trauma. blame the sleep exhaustion, either which way he kisses him, and when he pulls back a moment later, realising what he's done, he's frozen, waiting with bated breath for sieun to say something.

sieun stares, chest heaving, lips moving as if to speak, but he stays quiet.

then he twitches forward, and hesitantly rejoins their lips.

even as suho's thoughts dissolve into mush, he thinks it makes sense. not much does nowadays, brain trauma side effects and all. but this? sieun's mouth on his, the soft sigh that leaves his mouth as suho's hand slides up into his hair—

perfect sense. perfect.

they're both exhausted, out of it, so when the kiss deepens, it's uncoordinated, messy. sieun's hands tighten in suho's shirt when his hands stroke jaw, grip his neck, tug on his hair, drop to his waist and squeeze. sieun touches too, lighter touches, careful, even as he's falling apart underneath suho's hands. but suho can tell, even with how considerate sieun is, that he’s just as desperate. they're gentle with each other, even as they take, even as months, years of want catch up to the both of them all at once. because, suho realises, he has wanted this. he's wanted this the entire time.

slowly they slip down the couch, sieun on his back, suho caging him. suho pulls away, hovers, taking in the sight of sieun splayed out beneath him. his hair is a halo around his head, lips shining and bitten raw. those eyes, shining up at him. always, those eyes.

suho leans down and hugs him.

they're both breathing hard, but their heart rates slow as they stay there, holding each other tight. kissing was nice. suho wants to get back to kissing at some point, definitely. but holding him, chest to chest, skin to skin, the transfer of warmth, the echo of his breathing. this is nice too. this is very nice.

so warm like this, so comfortable, it doesn't take much for him to drift. before he slips away he mumbles an apology for being heavy. sieun doesn't respond, just cards gentle fingers through his hair and holds him tighter. suho hums, and feels the reverberations buzz across sieun's skin.

suho falls asleep like that, pillowed on sieun's chest listening to the steady beat of his heart. for the first time in a while, he isn't scared to surrender to the darkness. he's warm, he's safe, and he isn't alone anymore.

maybe he never was.

[gothamite-rambler]

Batman: This job requires two acrobatic people with years of experience who can walk a tightrope. Overtime is not included.

Red Robin walked backward, gave a peace sign, then turned the other way and kept walking, leaving Nightwing and Red Hood.

Batman: I respect that... Congratulations, you two.

Red Hood (checking if there are any other Robins or Batgirls around): Wait, what?

Nightwing (throwing his arms up, cheering: YEAAAH! Let's go!

Red Hood: Hold up, I'm not walking on a tightrope in boots if I'm not getting paid overtime- God damn it!

Red Hood was yanked away by Nightwing as the man led him to the tightrope. Nightwing started climbing the ladder like an excited child about to see Santa Claus.

Red Hood (protesting as he climbed): This some bullshit!

[solarmorrigan]

oooh. fic requests! how about 6 - fight or 19 - allergies for steddie?

Hello! I'm sorry it took so long to get to this one, but I hope it's alright! I went with:

6. Fight - Steddie

cw: implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced domestic violence, unhealthy relationship dynamics (not between Eddie and Steve)

-

The most frustrating thing about fighting with Steve is that he doesn’t fight. Not really.

Sure, he’ll poke and he’ll prod and he’ll snip and he’ll snap; he’ll dole out bitchy, passive aggressive comments and roll his eyes and sigh pointedly, but the moment things get heated, the moment an argument gets real, it’s just–

“Fine. Fine,” Steve snaps, tossing his hands up with an exasperated huff. “You’re right, okay? I’m– I’m sorry.”

And at first, Eddie had always felt so vindicated, so flush with the triumph of winning an argument, that it had taken him a while to realize that it felt– wrong. That Steve—so confident, so sure in his opinions, so willing to stand up to people when he has something to defend—would just give in without a fight– it feels wrong.

So Eddie had tried to pay attention – really pay attention. They don’t fight often, but when an argument inevitably does crop up, Eddie always wins. Rather, Steve always lets him. He never raises his voice, never gets in Eddie’s face, never really even makes counterarguments. He cedes to Eddie’s points and then subsides and it’s– it’s infuriating, because Eddie doesn’t understand.

“Don’t do that,” Eddie growls, tugging a frustrated hand through his hair.

“Don’t– what? Don’t apologize?” Steve asks incredulously.

“No!” Eddie bursts out. “Not if you don’t mean it!”

“Excuse me?” Steve draws back, offended. “What the hell do you want me to do to prove I’m sincere? Get on my knees and fucking grovel?”

“That’s not–” Eddie leaves off with a frustrated noise, trying hard to keep his tone level. “I don’t want to win an argument just because you let me. I don’t want you to apologize just because you think it’s what I want to hear.”

“I’m not letting you win,” Steve says quickly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You are, though. You do. Every time. You won’t actually engage, you just say I’m right and then clam up and that’s it,” Eddie says.

Steve levels him with a look of disbelief. “So– what, you want me to yell at you? You want me to tell you that you’re wrong?”

“I want–” Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a second to gather his thoughts. “I want you to feel like you’re allowed to argue with me. I don’t want you to just give in and then resent me or something.”

“I don’t resent you, Eddie,” Steve says with a roll of his eyes.

“No?” Eddie pushes. “How many times have we gone to bed after an argument with me perfectly satisfied, thinking I’ve won, while you’re actually still mad at me?”

“That’s– I don’t…” Steve shifts uncomfortably. “If I’m still mad, that’s my problem. I can just get over it.”

“But that’s exactly what I mean!” Eddie insists. “That shit builds up! And besides, what if you’re the one who’s really right? I might actually be wrong, and you should tell me. Or maybe there’s some kind of, like, compromise we can reach, I don’t know! I don’t want you to be afraid to push back – I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Steve says, jaw jutting out stubbornly when Eddie fixes him with a considering look. “I’m not. I’m just– how long before yelling turns into a screaming match? How long before it turns into throwing shit around, or– or shoving each other, or worse?”

“Steve…” Eddie murmurs, the last of his heated frustration draining away, leaving a clammy kind of dismay in its place. “Steve, I would never do any of those things to you.”

“I know,” Steve says, and it sounds like he means it. “I know that. But what if I–”

“No,” Eddie says firmly, because he thinks he understands now – Steve isn’t afraid of him, he’s afraid of himself. Afraid of turning into everything he’d been raised around: the blowout arguments between his parents, his mom’s petty destruction of his dad’s things, his dad’s frustration turned back on Steve, a cycle of violent familial bullshit that Steve is determined to break free from, even if it means saying that he’s wrong every time. Eddie comes forward, grabbing Steve’s hands; he can’t even remember what they’d been arguing about moments before, but he knows he doesn’t care anymore. “You would never do that. I know you, Steve, you are nothing like that.”

Steve looks down at their joined hands, blinking rapidly. “This– you… You’re more important than winning. Than any stupid argument,” he says.

“That’s exactly why we should have stupid arguments,” Eddie says, grinning a little when that gets a choked laugh out of Steve. “I’m serious. Let’s have stupid, petty arguments so they don’t turn into big ones. I swear I’m not going to stay mad if you get on my ass about not doing the dishes.”

Slowly, Steve nods. He doesn’t entirely look like he believes Eddie, but that’s fine. It’s always been like this – Steve unwilling (or unable) to believe that someone will love him if he doesn’t make it easy for them. Eddie’s been breaking that down, bit by bit, and this is no different. This is no chore.

“I’ll still love you even when I’m angry. Even when you’re angry,” Eddie promises. “I just love you, full stop.”

Steve nods again, more certain this time as he looks up to meet Eddie’s eyes. “I love you, too,” he says, because he always, always says it back, which suits Eddie just fine.

He figures if they can agree on that much, every other disagreement will be a breeze.