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ks-dreams-fantasies · 4 years ago

Note

Rio smut? Where the couple argues over him sleeping with Beth during there break up and the reader then saying she slept with someone too and rio gets super mad

“I said I couldn’t wait” - Rio (Good Girls)

I feel like Rio would be such a “Do what I say, not what I do” type of boyfriend in this situation. 👀 We all know this man is possessive as f*ck, so of course he would get mad knowing his girlfriend slept with someone else (even if they were broken up). Anyways, thanks for your request, hope you like it 🥰

Warning : Angst, Smut (Teasing, Female receiving)

Word Count: 1.8k (Not proofread sorry)

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You walked fast, Rio following your every step from afar, as you were almost running towards the car. You had just gotten into an argument over his associate, at least that’s what she called her. You were at dinner, when you ran into her, Beth Boland. Well, she just found you and decided to join you, interrupting your date night

“I have to talk to you” she had said, batting her lashes at your boyfriend

“Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of my girl” he stated pointing towards you, already annoyed by her presence

“You sure you don’t want like a bathroom break, we had so much fun last time” she responded smirking lightly, trying to bug you. Of course, her comment had bothered you, but you didn’t want to let it show. Rio clenched his jaw, irritated by her remark.

“Na, I’m good” he shrugged his shoulders “Now, let us enjoy the rest of our evening and leave” he continued, looking her straight in the eyes. She stood there, annoyed by the fact he was choosing you over her. Ever since she had slept with him, she didn’t want to admit it, but she always wanted to be around him in a way and the fact that he was now back with his girl and not paying attention to her, drove her somewhat crazy. He stopped paying attention to her and proceeded to cut a piece a steak, his focus now on the piece of meat in front of him. She huffed loudly, stomping her feet before leaving the two of you alone as your eyes focused on your boyfriend’s figure. You couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“So, what was that about?” You asked, trying to get him to talk, although you knew exactly what it was about. He took one last bite, clearing out his plate, while you pushed yours aside, not being hungry anymore

“Nothing” he said taking a sip of his drink, dodging your question

“Didn’t seem like nothing to me” you muttered under your breath before finishing your glass of wine

“What was that?” he said looking right at you, the waiter interrupting you. Rio knew well enough what you had said, and it was clear to him that you were bothered by the situation

“May I get you anything else?” He said smiling softly at the both of you,

“The check, please” you demanded, before Rio could say anything. The waiter nodded before leaving quickly, feeling the tension between the two of you. He came back shortly after, Rio handing him a hundred-dollar bill, thanking him, as you both stood up to leave. You walked rapidly in front of your boyfriend, wanting to get away from him. Rio couldn’t help but noticed the different pairs of eyes looking at your beautiful figure as you moved towards the front of the restaurant. All he wanted was to put these guys in their place, showing them what was his, but he knew he didn’t have time for that, following you as you exited the building.

You walked at a fast pace, Rio following your trail closely, a small grin on his face, almost amused by your behavior. As you got to the vehicle, you waited for him to unlock the door, but much to your dismay, he didn’t.

“Lose the attitude baby” he said approaching you, as you stood near the passenger side of the car.

“I have every right to have one” you replied “And don’t call me baby” you sighed, annoyed

“Why? Because of what she said? Come on ma, I told you already, we weren’t even together when that shit happened” he stated, rolling his eyes, something you hated for him to do when you were mad.

“I know we weren’t together when you slept with that woman, I did the same” you said nonchalantly “But it’s the fact that you’re still in contact, hell your still in business with her” you through your hands in the air “That’s what annoys me”

“You slept with someone else?” he asked through gritted teeth, not finding the situation amusing anymore.

“You said it yourself, we weren’t in a relationship anymore. And what if we had never gotten back together, what was I supposed to do? Never have sex again?” you asked your voice getting slightly louder, fully irritated by his reaction

“Who is he?” he questioned, taking a step towards you, as you took a step back leaning against the car door

“It doesn’t matter Rio, I don’t even talk to the guy anymore. But you on the other hand, you’re still in contact with her.” You replied getting frustrated “I saw how she was looking at you, the bitch wants more than to just be your business associate” you stated

“I’m going to ask again and you better answer. Who is he?” he asked, pushing his body to yours, grabbing your neck with his hand, squeezing it slightly, taking you by surprise.

“And I’ll repeat, it doesn’t matter” you said, emphasizing every word “Don’t turn this on me” you continued, as he groaned before pushing you against the car as you gasped, trapping your body between his and the vehicle, his aggressiveness arousing you.

“You better not think about him again or worse, be in contact with him anymore, or else I’m-“

“You’re going to what, huh? So, you’re telling me this thing works for you, but not for me, is that it?”you asked, your tone laced with attitude.

Rio looked you up and down, breathing through his nose, trying to calm himself. The thought of another man touching you was enough to get his blood boiling.

“Is that it?” you repeated, getting to him as he crashed his lips hungrily onto yours, biting your bottom lip, earning a muffled moan from your throat. Your hand found its way into the waistband of his black jeans, pulling his hips to meet yours. He groaned at the friction of his pelvic bone, against your crotch before you decided to push him away to get some air. He looked at you, panting, detaching himself from your body.

“Get in the car” he demanded sternly. You could already feel yourself pooling into your underwear

“Don’t tell me what to do” you responded, opening the car door, hopping inside as Rio walked around to the driver seat, getting in as well, shaking his head lightly at your comment.

“Just wait till we get home (Y/N)” he noted, putting the keys in the ignition, turning it on, as Bryson Tiller’s voice filled the inside of the car.

“And what if I don’t want to wait” you said, challenging him. Something you both had in comment was your love to provoke the other. His head turned to look at you, his brown eyes getting darker with every word leaving your mouth. You bit your lower lip in anticipation of what was coming next.

“In the back. Now!” You obliged quickly, scared that the two of you would get caught, but turned on at the same time. Rio always got what he wanted and once again, even if he was in the wrong, you gave in, wanting him to please you like he knew how to do perfectly. He looked at you, still sitting in the driver seat, as you pulled your hips up, allowing you to remove your panties, throwing them onto his lap with a smirk. He didn’t say a word, as he continued to stare at your every move, licking his lips slowly. You decided you wanted to tease him so, you proceeded to pull up your dress slightly, opening your legs slowly, giving him a view of your dripping core. He grunted loudly at the sight of you, your finger making their way to your slit, spreading your warm fluid, a soft moan leaving your lips.

“Rio” you whimpered, toying with the small bundle of joy sitting in between your legs. It felt good, but you couldn’t wait for him to replace your fingers with his.

“I love hearing you moan out my name” he said, his voice deep and filled with lust. He couldn’t wait any longer, joining you on the back seat, placing his head to your neck, leaving an overwhelming amount of open mouth kisses. His left hand traveled to your needy core, while his right hand massaged your breast, making you let out a sight, pleased by his actions.

“Rio, please” you whimpered, gripping his bicep tightly, wanting to feel him where you needed him the most. He inserted two of his fingers inside of you, smirking at the wetness leaking from your warm fold.

“Did he made you this wet baby?” he asked you, enjoying the sight of your pleasured face, only getting a moan as a response to his question.

“I asked you a question (Y/N)” he stated, his voice harsh, adding a third finger still waiting for your reply.

“N-no, only you can make me feel this good” you panted heavily as he fastened his pace, making you moan louder, his name leaving your lips over and over again. Hi touch was magic and all you wanted was to feel him hitting your deepest spot. You whimpered, asking for more, as he moved his thumb to your swollen clit, making you shriek in pleasure, the feeling already overpowering your body. Rio loved to hear you beg, and listening to your every moan, indicating that he did everything he was asked to do to please you perfectly. You grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him closer, your lips meeting his, your tongue dancing together, feeling Rio, hard as a rock beside you. You let out a loud gasp against his mouth, as he curled his fingers inside of you, tickling your special spot.

“I’m so close baby” you mumbled, your head now down his neck, digging your fingers into the leather seat of his G-Wagon, trying to contain yourself.

“Cum for me mama” he whispered into your ear, the sound alone being just enough to throw you over the edge, moaning loudly as you came all around his fingers. He smiled at you, once you had calm down from your high, removing his fingers and placing them in his mouth, sucking slowly, enjoying the taste of your cum on his tongue. He moved his hand down his belt before you stopped him.

“I said I couldn’t wait” looking at him entertained by his not so amused expression.

“Wha-“ you cut him off, leaving a small peck on his lips, moving to the front of the car, buckling your seatbelt, waiting for him to move to the front of the vehicle for the both of you to get home.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t wait though” you smirked, feeling accomplished, seeing the astonished look on Rio’s face.

Let’s just say that he didn’t go easy on you when the both of you got home.

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Thanks for reading

Hope you liked it, let me know what you think

-K

#rio #rio good girls #good girls fanfic #good girls rio #manny montana #rio imagine #rio smut #good girls imagine #good girls smut #rio x you #rio x reader #good girls nbc #nbc good girls #rio fanfic #Manny Montana imagine

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pynkhues · 4 years ago

Note

Please recommend some of your fav Rio fics!

Of course, anon! Since you asked for Rio fics, I'm going to guess you meant Rio POV fics? If not, I'm sorry, haha, because that's what I've collated, but I hope you give these a shot regardless! They're all fics I think are pretty great. ;-)

Below a cut, because this got long.

But when he does reappear at the store—she still doesn't hear him coming, she needs to work on that—she's wearing a fuckin' dress, and he's glad she hasn't seen him yet because he can't stop himself from grinning.

Maybe it ain't for him, but given the fact that he doesn't think he's seen her legs since he came back—aside from that one night at the bar when she was definitely feeling herself—it seems like this is an intentional break in the pattern. Either way, he fuckin' loves the idea that she's been dressing up all week, not sure if he's coming but wanting to be ready if he does.

Now Use Both Hands by ms_scarlet / @mego42 6k words. Explicit. Beth x Rio. S3 canon divergence.

Ooooof, this fic causes me physical pain, but I love it a whole lot. Meg really captures Beth and Rio at their most acidic, their most sharp edged, while also managing to balance that with the feelings they desperately don’t want to have. It’s a bit magic, and the fact that she follows this up with another fave, Listening Through the Air Shaft is *chef’s kiss*.

- - - -

When he wakes, he's in a hospital bed, mouth dry as bone and he can taste blood, stale and metallic, on his tongue. The pain in his chest has been dulled by the drugs, but it still lingers, a persistent ache that spikes with every breath.

By all rights, he's a dead man walking.

Ten hours, they had him in surgery. From the look of his chart, he'd flatlined twice, and he can feel the consequences of that, see it in the bruises on his chest, the exhaustion lining the faces of his family. He'd woken to a little hand in his, Pop's cheeks damp with tears, and shit, it'd been close. Too close.

Bury a Friend by @ejunkiet >1k words. Mature. Beth x Rio S3 canon divergence.

Pivoting from 3.01, this fic is a wonderful, quiet character study that looks at Rio in the aftermath of the shooting before he explodes back into Beth’s life. It pulses with emotion and with the promise of catharsis, and it’s just a really special little fic. The Rio voice is terrific too.

- - - -

He finally gets what he needs one day when Elizabeth’s wearing this tight black sweater with a keyhole that shows off just enough to make Rio’s jaw rock. It’s so out of the ordinary, so unlike her ugly li’l sweaters or her surburban mama button-ups, he does a double take, head whippin’ around so fast that she catches it immediately. Then she catches where his gaze lands, where it keeps landin’ through their whole stilted, irritated conversation, and he sees her chest pinken til he can count her freckles. He sucks his lower lip into his mouth, and her lips fall open just the smallest bit, and then she looks up at him.

Eyes locked on each other, Rio takes a step closer. Elizabeth doesn’t back away.

I Will Collect You and Capture You by @foxmagpie 17k words. Explicit. Beth x Rio S3 canon divergence.

I feel like I've recced this fic 1,200 times at this point, haha, but it really is one of my favourite fics in the fandom. It has this sort of grip on you as a reader that almost embodies Beth's grip on Rio in the story, and the way it builds and builds and releases only to build and build again is really delicious, affecting writing.

- - - -

“Com’n her and her lady friends were shakin’”

“Shakin’ about the lemon on the fuckin’ granite, sure.”

They chuckled as the car rolled on, the suburbs slipping away with the sun.

“Think they’ll pay up?”

There was a groan as Rio shifted in his seat, flexing his fingers along the dash.

“Neighborhood like this? Everybody knows someone who knows someone with a trust fund.”

Mick’s lighter flickered, followed by long, rasping inhale. “And a boat.”

Smoke swirled lazily through the open window up into the purple sky.

“And a boat.” Echoed Rio.

Drivin' through the Suburbs by gangfriend / @00gangfriend00 5k words. Teen+. Mick + Rio friendship, Beth x Rio. Canon compliant.

It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud in a fic, but this one does multiple times. It's just insanely fun, and captures Rio and Mick at their most boyish in a way I find utterly charming. It's really, really delightful.

- - - -

She’s got her crimes wrapped up and categorized in folders with labels and post-its. Wrapped up in gift paper with a big blue bow on it. And she’ll probably ask Turner do you want freshly baked cookies or some shit when they go raiding her kitchen.

Rio should really get it under control. Her, get her under control.

She opens the door and slumps onto the front seat, her eyes set angrily on him. Nineteen voicemails and she’s still got things to say: he sees it in the twitch of her hand, the restless, frustrated pattern. Any minute now she’s going to settle on new words to voice her complaints like he’s here to listen. Like he’s got the time— like he cares. Like he’d better.

It’s a Work Thing by isoldewas >1k words. Mature. Beth x Rio. 2.12 canon divergent.

I'm a bit of a sucker for a good canon divergent fic, and this one pivots the car break up in 2.12 in a smutty way that just works unfairly well. It's such a great little fic that really settles well into Rio's headspace during the messiness of s2, and I love it.

- - - -

They settle in their respective places and Rio takes the opportunity to give Elizabeth the same once over that asshole did. Her ass really does look great in those pants and she could fill out any shirt. Her eyes linger over him too, tracing his skin, the bar tattoos peeking out from under his t-shirt that she’s seen a million times but she devours at every opportunity. Then her eyes meet his and she gives him that small, crooked lil’ smile.

He’s not one for religion, but every so often he takes his mom to Spanish mass. All the viejitos and pious Catholic types think he’s a banger but his ma’s still excited to show him off. He sits with her in the pew and when the priest asks for the congregation to give thanks to God, he says a prayer for the riches that have come to him, the health and brilliance of his son, the vitality of the other little ones in his life now, and Elizabeth. And when he thinks of her in those moments, he sees her in his mind’s eye with this exact look on her face.

A Bit of a Stretch by @septiembrre 5k words. Teen+. Beth x Rio. Established relationship.

Beth and Rio do a yoga class together! There’s such a lived-in feel to this fic that it feels impossible not to fall a bit in love with it – their relationship is explored in a way that feels true to who the characters are, while sanding down the edges to create something that feels sweet in the way they usually aren’t in canon. It's a great fic, but more than that, it really just works in a way that's a lot more complicated than it looks, and it’s all the more charming for it.

- - - -

He’s happy to keep kissing her like this. To savour it. Realises she’s undone the last few buttons of his shirt at some point as she shoves it down his shoulders. Doesn’t have a second to think about his ugly scars pressed to her skin. Can just feel her little hot palms snaking up his back and grippin’ him tight. Refusing to let any light between them as they kiss for what feels like hours.

He realises these are the lips he’s been tasting. Searching for in other women when his night’s got too unbearably quiet, hunting for an echo of the thing he really wanted. Comin’ up short every damn time. Sweet and soft and lethal. Unique to her.

It’s longing in a way he’s never felt. This is the taste of it.

As Good as This by @riosnecktattoo 5k words. Explicit. Beth x Rio. 4.05 canon divergence.

Okay, I know I just said how much I loved canon divergence fics, but it bears repeating – I love canon divergence fics, haha. This is such a great alternate take on how the wire scene in 4.05 goes down, and it simmers with tension from the opening line. The way it escalates as Rio navigates this newest betrayal works really well too, and it results in a pretty sexy and surprisingly emotional sequence. Magic!

- - - -

“Do we have a deal?” She asks.

When he turns to look at her she’s smiling, and that’s when he realizes he’s absolutely fucked. He’d just fucked himself out of almost a quarter of a million dollars. He lets his eyes drop down her body, licks his lips and nods.

“I choose the place,” he says and turns on his side to face her. “You owe me half - with interest,” he says and slides a hand into her hair. She’s damp, the sweat slowly cooling.

“That’s not what - “ she opens her mouth to protest and he takes that opportunity to slide his mouth across hers and lick into her mouth.

Long Nights by zetuslapetus / @querenaxx 2k words. Explicit. Beth x Rio. S3 canon divergence.

Rio and Beth bone while negotiating a deal! What's not to love, haha. This has such a fun checks and balances feel to it which just makes me want to peel my skin off, it's so good. It's exactly the way I like my Beth and Rio - hot and snarky and constantly trying to get a leg over the other, literally and figuratively. It's the best.

- - - -

He should go out and find someone to fuck. Maybe text one of his hookups. See if Jen’s working. He has options.

He knows what he should do.

But it turns out fucking other people is a worse hell than the one they create when they’re together.

And now that he’s yielded to this wicked ecstasy, he knows he’ll do anything to keep sitting in the fire with her.

To Sit in Hell with You by @daydreamstew 2k words. Beth x Rio. Explicit. s4 canon divergence.

Canon-divergent from 4.06 – Beth and Rio keep hooking up after the time at his grandma’s place. It’s fun and sexy while also keeping the complicated push-pull and lack of communication at the heart of them. Deeelightful.

- - - -

“Does it make it easier?” Maddie asks him once they’re spent, maybe emboldened because he has already brought her into their bed. Which may be unfair, because Lee had been in their bed from the beginning.

“What?” He seems lost in his thoughts, his arm behind his head. In a few minutes he’ll get up and get ready to get back to the factory. Like always, she’ll be looking for her keys so she won’t be late for work.

“Getting it out of your system before you see her.”

Rio glances at her. “I don’t always see you when I see her.”

It’s so rare for him to explicitly mention this woman, however tenuously, and Maddie waits for more. Rio’s gotten like this about a few women in his life but it doesn’t happen often.

Sure am Using You by aniara 2k words. Explicit. Rio x OC, Rio x Beth.

It's not for everyone, but I absolutely love fics that feature characters with other people in ways that tell you something about the characters' feelings about somebody else. In this fic, Rio's fucking one of his childhood friends, but it's all about Beth really, and the way both Rio and the OC negotiate that is really compelling writing, and feels so in character for Rio. I really love it.

- - - -

Rio dreams of her that night, again. It’s irritatingly pedestrian – Elizabeth’s kissing him deep and then, ah, suddenly his gun’s in her hand and she shoots him, with a double encore. It’s always variations on the same futile theme. When he wakes it’s not that he’s freaked, unaware of reality or his whereabouts. But he’s been soaked in anger for so long. He can’t think straight, not on her. It’s honestly terrifying. Cos stubbornly keeping his head on right is – that’s him. Maybe her entire raison d’etre is destroying every single one of his attributes though.

He ain’t sure if his subconscious is desperately screaming that he’s made the wrong move, letting her live. Or if it’s the total opposite. Could be fucking neither. It’s not – it’s not getting any easier. And that main reason for not biting the bullet, that he’d be mad as hell for being mad as hell at himself over killing her, it's not smelling any less idiotic.

Climbing up the Walls by s_t_c_s / @sothischickshe 8k words. Explicit. Beth x Rio. S3 canon divergence.

Another canon divergence from 2.13 and an interpretation of how s3 could've gone, and another one I really love. There's a throughline of chaotic frustration to this fic that rings true to Rio's character for me, and the way that that reverberates through his moments not just with Beth, but alone and with other women, feels really textured and interesting and real. It's pretty great.

#this was fun to put together #so many good fiicccss #truly a blessed fandom #beth x rio #beth boland #rio #nbc good girls #gg fic #fic recs #welcome to my ama

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lunafeather · 5 years ago

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Hi, for the WIP for Brio: Lee's fic fic, post season 3 and/or don't let me go but not. And also the urban fantasy script sounds intriguing. No pressure, but very excited about potential new Brio fic from you, I love your writing!

Man, everyone has been super sweet and that makes me feel warm and toasty inside!!

Lee’s fic fic

So everyone knows and loves @johnisntevendead (ConvolutedConcussions)’s story Better Than a Harmony. Lee is/was my fic enabler (and I theirs) and we collaborated on this idea. I am obviously super in love with it, and I was inspired to write a fic of their morning after their first time in that universe -- so basically a fic of a fic. I had a really strong idea and wrote a very small bit and then it disappeared into the wind.... If they ever pick it up again, I may get reinspired! The fic was meant to be sleepy fluffy morning smut.

An Excerpt:

The first thing he's aware of is that his hand is full of warm softness. The next thing he's aware of is that he's naked, and after that -- he's not alone. This final point is punctuated by a delicious roll of wide hips against an impressive bout of morning wood, and he buries his nose in her hair to smother a groan.

“Time to get up already, ma?”

“Oh, you're the one who's up already…” she murmurs, grinding back again. “Hard to sleep through almost being impaled.”

Post S3

Answered Here

Don’t Let Go but not

My original idea for this prompt was a bit different: Beth and Dean are at this soccer league/PTA “potluck” that’s more like a little carnival, much to Rio’s chagrin. Beth sees Rio and tries to avoid him, tries to keep Dean from seeing him, but fails. They get into a fight and Dean storms off. Rio ruthlessly teases her, not realizing how upset she is. Dean retaliates by flirting openly with one of the other mom’s at the potluck, Beth is furious but doesn’t say anything -- just keeps drinking. Eventually one of the PTA moms mocks Beth because of Dean and Beth loses her shit.. Rio steps in when Dean can’t handle it, telling Dean to take his children home while he handles Beth. He takes Beth to his car with Marcus, who sweetly asks if Miss Elizabeth is okay, she suddenly goes ramrod straight despite her drunkenness. Rio gets her in his car and holds her hand, she tells him “don’t let go”.

I love how silly the idea is, and I love the fluffiness of it, and I also had a strong start -- and then I lost the idea and it drifted to what is now Don’t Let Go on AO3.

An Excerpt:

He wasn’t planning on going; he’s got too much shit to do and the idea of spending more than 10 minutes with the insufferable, snotty white suburban moms and stuck up, too-tight collared blonde, tanned suburban dads leaves a sour taste on his tongue, and he’s not sure he’s up for it, even with Marcus jutting out his lower lip and letting it wobble just so -- he doesn’t want to examine where his kid learned that particular trick -- and his ex giving him a pointed look that reeks of you-were-gone-for-three-months-and-you-owe-it-to-him.

But that tiny part of him that’s always fixated on her, his strawberry blonde, whitest of the white suburban mamas (but so much more than that, a voice whispers), urges him to finally cave and agree to take Marcus to this damn end-of-the-soccer-season potluck. Rhea had for some reason not switched their kid to a different team after the debacle with Elizabeth inserting herself into their lives (likely, he surmises, due to that lip wobble), and these kind of events scream Elizabeth’s name, so he’s certain she’ll be there with her brood. Maybe even with her dumbass husband, too.

He also would rather not examine why the thought of getting all up in her business while her husband watches gets him feeling a certain kind of way.

His hemming and hawing means he and Marcus are an hour or so late, including the time it takes to swing by a french bakery to pick up dessert as his contribution to the party. As soon as Marcus spills out of his G wagon, the kid is beelining to the playground, shrieking Jane’s name and colliding with her as she tumbles down one of the slides.

Urban Fantasy Web/TV Series

Another Lee/Meghan Collaboration! We’re both queer and interested in very modern settings with fantasy woven in, so we took an idea I had been fostering for a while and went back and forth for a while until we had a solid concept. It would probably be a Web Series as those are easier to self produce, but I would much rather see it as a one hour TV series. Alas, that’s a while off, so a web series works for now!

The main character of our story is not the main character of her Universe’s story -- the “Main Magical Girl” is a huge lesbian disaster and is often not around, seeing as she’s like.... doing stuff to save their world. Our lead woman is a bookworm who stumbles on a secret society of sorts who protects the knowledge that every book in this universe isn’t actually a book; each one is a recording of the goings on in other universes that really exist.

Magic in this world is illegal. There are other magical sentient races: Faeries, Nymphs, and Pixies (who are tiny and treated like vermin, so they have to hide. The MC has one living in the walls of her apartment that she befriends). The Fae world exists alongside the human one, there’s halflings for most of the races. There are different schools of magic.

Our MC starts talking to another woman through the books, and they eventually fall in love. Other girl is in trouble in her world, and there’s something evil stalking her. They eventually learn how to open portals between books. Our MC isn’t inherently versed in the known magical schools, but has her own type.

There’s quite a few awesome supporting characters: Corvo, the bi halfling black man who was once in an apprenticeship to be a Librarian who now runs an independent book store and has a special relationship with corvids; Tessa, our MC’s bi activist cousin who is feisty and sarcastic and ends up falling deeply in love with Corvo; Corvo’s big beefy ex bf who’s a sweet, gentle gay disaster; Artemis, the deaf non-white witch who runs a magic speakeasy and has circle runes tattooed on her fingers and palms to boost her magic.

The villain is capitalism/racism/power obsession.

I often tag stuff that inspires me for this series, the most common being ones that remind me of Corvo (tagged on my blog with that name). I really, really, really want to eventually make this happen, I am so in love with the idea, and so in love with the core 4 characters.

An Excerpt:

Close to the climax, within the third act, Sage and Aya communicate through a stable portal and Sage is giving Aya what she needs to save her world…

SAGE: Hey, one more thing. AYA: What?

SAGE reaches into the portal and drags AYA forward, their lips touch just where each of their worlds meet. The kiss is passionate. When it ends, they press their foreheads together for a brief moment.

SAGE: I, uh--I believe in you.

Sage and Tessa, in the dead of night (for the dramz) have a book they absolutely should not have and are planning on finally opening the portal into Aya’s world--their plan is nebulous at best, they’re gonna bring Aya into this world, not realizing it’s not just her who’s in danger, but her entire world. Corvo interrupts in grand fashion, telling them to stop, that they don’t know what they’re doing.

TESSA: She’s in danger and they’re in love! Also, fuck you! CORVO: No, you don’t get it--you two? Cannot do this. Also, you’ll sorta cause the apocalypse. She’ll die, we’ll die… lots of death. TESSA: I’m sorry, who the fuck are you? CORVO: Never mind who I am, you’ve got bigger shit to worry about--you think your shenanigans didn’t put you on their radar?? TESSA, looking incredulous: “Shenanigans?”

Some noise, like a clatter or footsteps, signals they are not alone.

CORVO: Oh, shitting f--you gotta get outta here and put that thing back where it came from. [He either points at the book or hands it to Sage or Tessa.]

Thank you so much for your kind words about my writing, it seriously gives me that boost to keep writing when I start losing steam. Thank you, thank you, thank you <3

Send me a title from my list of WIPs that you’d like to know more about!

#Luna writes #ask meme answer #Anonymous #ask answer

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miss-m-calling · 6 years ago

Text

Het Swap 2019 letter

Requests:

American Gods (TV) – Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

Black Sails -- Miranda Barlow/John Silver

Good Girls -- Beth Boland/Rio

Firefly -- Jayne Cobb/Saffron, Jayne Cobb/River Tam

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with.

Requests:

American Gods (TV)

Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

I ship it. Yes I do. They had me at “gimme-my-coin-dead-wife”-flicks-him-into-wall. The snarky road trip was the best thing I never knew I wanted until it happened, and I adored every second of it, not to mention the upped shippiness in S2. They’re both such assholes and so fascinating, even if they start to mellow toward each other a bit, and all the gods/magic/resurrection stuff swirling around them begs to be explored further. Also I love love love how their dynamic is about equal parts spikiness, pathos, and humor (they’re funny! and the canon doesn’t shy away from putting them in ludicrous situations), and it weaves seamlessly between those three. Plus she’s half his size yet can and does beat him up with literally one finger, and then there’s the angst of he having killed her, feeling really guilty about it, and then bringing her back. And the way that their New Orleans adventure makes clear they have feelings for each other (S1 was more one-sided SweeneyàLaura) but neither wants to admit it. And and and… yeah, I just love them.

My prompts are a combo of prompts I had after I binged S1 and others I added throughout S2. Even if some of this is addressed or hinted at in canon, feel free to diverge – canon divergences and canon-adjacent stories are my jam!

Please give me either missing scenes from the road trip (if you can work in a divergence, that’s great - for example, I like Salim, but if you want to have him boot Sweeney and Laura to the curb and go off on his own, or Sweeney to boost his taxi before Salim catches them, or whatever else to have those two alone, go for it!), or a divergence from either season (instead of going to Ostara, they go where? to see whom? about getting Laura resurrected. Or things go down differently in New Orleans, or Cairo, or anywhere else) or something about these two post-canon.

-Laura discovers (how? you decide!) that Sweeney gave her back the coin after their accident – whatever happens next, some punching may be involved. (If nothing else, Mama-Ji mentions that the coin is now in Laura’s heart, and we saw Sweeney place it on her ribcage after the accident, whereas it was originally in her gut like she’d swallowed it. Laura might ask herself how the hell it moved.)

-Wednesday’s big war finally comes, and “don’t you dare die on me [again], you asshole” is a line either Sweeney or Laura (or both) might say to each other.

-Laura asked “What does Wednesday have to lose?” and the answer is…? (Yes, give me that sweet poetic justice. One possibility, though not remotely the only one, but as of S2E3 Laura is technically a god-killer...) Or later when she straight-up says she’s going to kill Wednesday, but is warned to bring power with her when she does, how does that work? How else might she damage Wednesday or ruin his plans, just in case she can’t actually kill him?

-At the end of S2, Laura hoists Sweeney’s dead body over her shoulders and strides off, seemingly leaving Cairo, Shadow, and all of it behind. Tell me what happens then – does she use Baron Samedi’s potion to bring him back, and whose is the blood filled with love she uses (does she still bleed? You could get creative here, worldbuilding is also my jam)? Does her/his coin play a part – and how come the coin still “powers” Laura despite Sweeney’s death? Does she bring him back another way, maybe figuring out how to keep herself around and be able to give Sweeney back his coin? Does he come back like she did, more undead than alive, or does his godhead, however depleted, help with that? That still leaves Laura to be fully resurrected too… Or does something completely out of left field happen – surprise me!

-Possible divergences from “Treasure of the Sun”: Sweeney manages to kill Wednesday, and then Laura rolls up, and then…? Or Laura rolls up and makes like Mama-Ji told her – destroys some motherfuckers? Or Sweeney gets killed temporarily but Laura brings him back, or brings herself back, or does something else with the Baron’s potion, and is Sweeney’s blood the one filled with love, or can we interpret voodoo spells in a non-literal way? Or what happens with Gungnir hidden in Sweeney’s hoard? And definitely how do they deal with each other once they meet up in Cairo, given how they parted in New Orleans (I don’t know what hurt more to watch: Laura deflecting at the diner, or Sweeney rambling drunkenly about her when Shadow finds him, or later on telling Shadow with such desperate sincerity to keep her away from Wednesday)?

-Or how about a wild divergence from the last several episodes? Sweeney and Laura manage to settle their differences (ahem, more fucking, on this plane of reality, might help) and don’t part ways before leaving NOLA. Or they roll up in Cairo separately but at the same time, and confront Wednesday together, and neither of them die (or die more, in her case). Or they’re there together when the police nearly raid the house. Or they have Wednesday (the ultimate cause of Laura’s death) and Ibis (a death deity) and Bilquis (a love/death/life deity) on hand, surely they can concoct some kind of resurrection thingamajig for Laura, and if they have to twist some divine arms then so be it. Or or or…?

-Wednesday told that luckless cop that Sweeney had been against the big gods’ war from the start, and while Wednesday lies, what if Sweeney decided much sooner to say to hell with Grimnir and his war and his having Sweeney kill random people? I’m guessing Sweeney too drank three glasses of mead so he can’t back out without dire consequence – but he does have a fierce, dead woman in his corner.

-They go to some as-yet-unnamed old god (feel free to bring in whatever mythology you want) in order to bring Laura back to life. Between Sweeney’s mouth and temper, and Laura’s mouth and temper, it doesn’t go well. Now one or both of them are in big magical trouble with a pissed-off deity and have to get themselves/each other out of it.

-Speaking of other deities, I really enjoyed their brief canon interactions with the likes of Ostara, Anansi, and Mama-Ji, and I’d like to see more of that, especially Ostara’s polite yet over-it attitude, Anansi very obvious over-it attitude and his dramatic flair, or Mama-Ji being one of the few capable of giving Laura pause.

-All the petty, ridiculous ways in which Sweeney’s bad luck manifests itself make me laugh (can’t help it, won’t even try), and I’m down for more variations on that theme.

-Sweeney and Laura fighting together, like they did on Mr. Town’s train of torture. Whether it’s a bar fight of their own making, or the big gods’ war they find themselves embroiled in, or something else entirely.

-Things happen and Laura finds herself in the position to throw Sweeney under the bus but also help/save him, and while he knows it’s only karma (he did kill her way back when), he can still be pissed off about it – how do they navigate this?

-Related to that, the Baron said: “In death is her true love, but she betrays him also.” If that meant Sweeney, or can mean Sweeney in the future (I don’t like destiny-wills-it stories, and they’re definitely not there yet, but they could maybe get there at some future point, and even then It Would Be Complicated), was the betrayal Laura rejecting him after the loa ‘fuck them,’ or is it something that hasn’t happened yet, and if so, what?

-Laura gets fully alive again, but traces of her (un)dead state remain – what are they, how does she cope, what price did she/he/they have to pay for her resurrection, and how does their relationship change? I’d especially be curious how it would work if they’re already a sorta-maybe-item and then she’s alive again and it’s weird in a new way.

-For reasons I’ll leave up to you, Sweeney and Laura have to stay put in a single place for a while and end up essentially cohabiting, regardless of what their relationship is at that point. Take “cohabiting” as literally or as creatively as you want – in any case, I’m sure it will be marvelously disastrous and amazing. If the place they have to stay happens to be NOLA, all the better, I find everything about that city fascinating.

-Slight or major AU from the opening of “The Ways of the Dead”: Laura has hitchhiked with Sweeney instead of going off in a huff with Wednesday, or she otherwise gets to New Orleans sooner, and she and Sweeney tear up the town together. Gimme bar fights, carnival shenanigans, all the food and drink porn, backstage craziness with the Christian rock band (Sweeney seems to have a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck when Laura finds him)… Maybe they even cross the paths of some loa and it doesn’t get all angsty (for what it’s worth, I think the reason the sex magic didn’t bring Laura back to life was because she couldn’t accept the truth(s) revealed during the astral-plane sex and just ask Sweeney to prick his finger for the potion – instead she defaults straight to “this is all Wednesday’s evil plan” the morning after – not because the loa fucked them over). They were actually getting along nicely in those first couple of scenes in NOLA, only ribbing each other a little while still being their grouchy selves, before they got to Le Coq Noir. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some more of that.

-AU from the end of “The Ways of the Dead”: they still have their big fight (which was amazing as well as painful) or some variation thereof, but they don’t split up. (Maybe the reason is as mundane as Sweeney refusing to get left behind or they have a shared ride out of town, or maybe the more time passes the less Sweeney can afford to be far from his coin – or maybe the coin needs him close by to work at full capacity.) And then what?

-All the old gods hide their true appearance to an extent. A situation arises in which Laura sees Sweeney’s true, or at least old, self (I’m thinking of his surprise!poignant monologue about when he used to be a king, and him in full Celtic warrior mode in the S2 flashbacks). Or Wednesday’s war ends in victory, meaning the old gods again get belief, worship, and sacrifices. How does Laura, the ultimate skeptic even when she’s on the other side of the mirror, react? How does this new knowledge and new reality change her opinion of/attitude to Sweeney? Or to flip that around, if Sweeney were again relevant and believed-in, would that actually change his bad attitude and fix his issues (my guess is it would be complicated)? On that note, Sweeney’s decline from Lugh to king to leprechaun was more sketched in than really explored in canon, ditto I didn’t really get why he couldn’t seem to remember his own history except in snatches (the curse that made him a bird/madman of the woods?) – I’d love to see more about it and his (not) dealing with it, or with a reversal of that decline. Eorann told him long ago to adapt and change with the times – but what does that mean after humpteen centuries in a rut and becoming used to always feeling angry and unappreciated?

-The power of names, since they never use each other’s in canon: for all his “dead wifeing,” there comes a time when Sweeney (has to) call her by her actual name, and that’s a tricky moment for them to navigate. Or, Mad Sweeney is not his actual name, and true names have great magical power and so must be kept secret; Laura discovers or learns his name, from someone else or from himself; what does she do with that knowledge? Or, Sweeney gets to say “cunt” in a situation (sexual or otherwise) where, not only does Laura not peel his lips from his gums, but she finds that she can’t object, even though she knows that he knows that he’s getting away with it.

-So far in canon, it’s pretty clear that Sweeney has a lot of complicated but sincere feelings for Laura. Laura is still pretty focused on Shadow (or rather her idealized vision of Shadow and what their relationship might yet be), whom she seems to equate with her own lost-maybe-to-be-regained life, although that’s starting to change at the end of S2. For one thing, she’s starting to soften toward Sweeney as she realizes he’s doing things for her that are not all about getting his coin back (and her sparring match with Wednesday in “Muninn” as well as Shadow refusing to be called puppy anymore in “Moon Shadow” may finally force her to accept that her relationship with Shadow died alongside her and Robbie on that road in Indiana). Not to mention the shared truth revealed in “The Ways of the Dead” (bullshit was that just Laura’s truth!) and how Laura flips out rather than deal with it and Sweeney can’t spit out that it mattered to him either, or how obviously cut up she is about Sweeney’s death despite refusing to admit it. Tell me the story of how Laura stumbles her way to feeling – and acknowledging that she feels – more complex, maybe kinder or softer, really annoying for her blunt-force-trauma-personality things about Sweeney and about the notion that her dynamic with him is different from the way she tended to use men for her convenience without really letting them in in the past. Also I’m pretty sure that even if they can admit they feel the same – or sorta in the same ballpark – about each other, their relationship would still run on a lot of conflict, and I would so be here for it.

-On that note: in “Munnin” it also becomes clear that Laura has, without realizing it herself, started to rely on Sweeney. The “I trusted you” line made me think, whoa she’s too furious to catch herself doing it but this is huge for Laura, and the fact that she goes off with Wednesday (!) basically because she’s mad at Sweeney because she thinks he’s prioritizing his debt to Wednesday over her… Yeah, I would like to see that explored some more and/or to see Laura and Sweeney get to a point where they trust each other and rely on each other, and know it and accept it, however difficult the getting there and being there may be for them.

-Sweeney has this intense need to see himself as a brave person and someone worthy of the world’s respect – but his past and his long experience as just a leprechaun have chipped away at that. Add the guilt of having been the instrument of Laura’s death and then all the pesky feelings he develops for her, and it’s a lot. Obviously his final actions in S2 are his trying to reclaim that courage and nobility of old (also to spite Wednesday, who’s messed both him and Laura up), but I would love to read about his character development under different circumstances, where Laura is there all the way, as opposed to them parting ways and meeting up again multiple times like in canon.

-And since I’m on the subject of Laura, you know how she’s not actually an abrasive bitch all the time to everyone? And when she is, the people on the receiving end of it sometimes richly deserve it, or very occasionally they push back (ILU, Mama-Ji!), and anyway it’s refreshing to see a female character who defaults to confrontational and doesn’t bother flirting and accommodating others for the sake of social harmony? As much as I enjoy watching her rip into people (ahem, Sweeney), I also love it when she acts differently, like her genuine interest in getting to know Salim and her joy in seeing him again in S2, or her running passive-aggressive battle of wills with Wednesday. Her beginning to feel sympathy for Sweeney and her anger and disappointment when she feels let down by him are a part of that, and I’d love to see all that explored more. Nuance! Give me all the nuance and seeming contradictions in both Laura and Sweeney’s characters!

-Sweeney and Laura get drunk and wake up married. Or some sex and/or blood resurrection spell also results in basically an unbreakable marriage bond, whether it also secures resurrection or not. Or marrying the dead keeps them (sorta) alive. Or being married makes it possible for them to share magical/supernatural abilities. They’re both pissed about it, but secretly having to make it work may not be the worst thing that’s ever happened...

-My perfect AG spinoff would basically be Sweeney and Laura tooling around America, looking to get her resurrected (whether they succeed or not is up to you), stealing ever more ridiculous vehicles, arguing/fighting and having those pesky moments where vulnerability and genuineness creep in – and fucking. So yessiree I’d be down for porn, including “it’s technically necrophilia/zombiesex” porn, including a canon-divergent first time, or a second/later time after they had their first time in NOLA in canon.

-If you wanted to throw in some worldbuilding, maybe something exploring living death. Magical bargains. What kind of favor did Sweeney do for Ostara that would be worth her bringing someone back to life as repayment? What other powers might Sweeney have – or have left from when he was Lugh? How long can a dead wife keep going before she’s “soup”? What other superhuman abilities might dead!Laura have? Can the dead do magic? What even are the rules governing and the limits of different beings’ magical abilities? For example, why can’t Sweeney just take his coin back, or why does Laura gain super-strength as part of her undead package deal? Is the hoard in the same space as the behind-the-scenes accessed through the merry-go-round, or it’s a different place? Why does the coin seem to start to “run down” the longer Laura has it? Why did Wednesday need Laura to kill Argus when he killed Vulcan himself just fine? What happens with Gungnir now it’s in the hoard – can only Sweeney get to it, has it been transformed somehow (it’s now the treasure of the sun), etc.?

If it helps your inspiration, you can find some of my meta and lots of tag-burbling about these two here. I have read the book though I remember it only in bits and pieces, and while I prefer the show characters and the fact that they get thrown together, you can use or riff on book material if you want, though I’d prefer a story that isn’t just a retread of the book. With reference to one of my DNWs, for this canon, describing Laura’s physical decay is totally fine. Also, Shadow/Laura don’t interest me except as a part of Laura’s backstory (so if your story wants to include Laura figuring out or having already figured out that pinning all her hopes on Shadow to make everything right is unrealistic, unfair, and not how it works – by all means, go for it!), and Shadow/Sweeney interest me not at all.

My two canon-specific, really strong DNWs for this pairing are this: Sweeney doesn’t die (at least not permanently), and I’m not into Laura being Essie’s reincarnation/descendant or – as fanon suggests and canon sorta maybe hints she may be – some sort of reincarnation of Sweeney’s wife from back when he was a king in old Ireland. Reincarnation/“new love looks like old love”/“lost love found again” plots bore me, and I don’t enjoy ships that hinge on characters being somehow destined to be together. Characters having agency is also my jam. Anyway I’m certain that Laura would have neither time nor patience for the notion that Destiny Fate and All That Jazz threw her together with ginger minge, and even if it were technically true, she’d still want this relationship to work on her terms – and Sweeney obviously has a problem with Laura’s cheating, her relationship with Shadow, her personality (though he also recognizes they’re alike in many ways), and all that maps onto his anger and sadness over becoming irrelevant over time, so it’s not just about Laura. So yeah, let them be their own (grumpy, spiky, dysfunctional) people, and let Laura’s dynamic with Sweeney not be shaped solely by his past and his issues.

Black Sails

Miranda Barlow/John Silver

I fell into this canon head-first and found myself with a special fondness for this ship, although they never really interact in canon at all. I definitely see it as an early seasons ship, not just because Miranda was, you know, alive, but because the early Silver was the ever-scheming trickster with a smile and a smart-allecky comment always up his sleeve, ever ready to lie, cheat, steal, and murder to his best advantage, yet already with glimpses of a capacity to care about people other than himself. What I’m saying is, he was fun to have around in a way the later Silver somewhat lost as the price of his character development.

We know Miranda has an eye for a handsome man. I suspect S1-2 Silver totally would bed the captain’s woman if he thought he could get away with it or it could be a way to manipulate Flint, only Miranda is smart and pragmatic, has a core of pure steel, and can see right through Silver, which I’m convinced she would. Unlike Flint, Miranda has done her grieving and she’s so ready to move on and feel alive again. Not saying that Silver would become another great love of hers, but they could have fun. He’d make her laugh. After years of Flint’s moods, Silver would be so easy to get along with. The sex could be great and not angsty or merely dutiful. He’d inevitably find an angle to play, but then Miranda’s no stranger to maneuvering around and with people, so maybe she’d find that his manipulative ways are half the fun. They might even fall in love for real, though that’s not a requirement, and I definitely don’t think love would be the same as absolute trust in this case. (Also I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make the relationship revolve around their shared fixation on Flint, or focus on Miranda’s angst about Thomas or the legacy of Thomas/Flint. These can be mentioned, but I’d prefer that doesn’t hijack the story.)

Prompts:

-Flint sends Silver to Miranda with a message or on an errand, and thinks nothing more of it (or possibly he wants Miranda’s assessment of how much he can trust the “new cook”). But then Silver and Miranda are intrigued by each other and start finding excuses to see each other again. Bonus points if they orchestrate encounters in a way which allows them both to pretend they don’t actually want to see each other again, it just happened, sometimes things just happen but now that they’re both here they might as well take advantage of this opportunity, etc.

-S2 divergence: James dies at Charles Town, and Miranda lives. Silver may or may not lose a leg. Silver and Miranda have to assume at least temporary leadership of the crew in order to get everyone safely back to Nassau. Do they become pirate co-captains or lady captain and her quartermaster? Do they dissolve the crew and try for a different life? Do they make a play for the Urca gold, after Silver confesses his double-dealing to an angry, grieving Miranda (Jack maybe doesn’t capture the gold, it’s still up for grabs, or if Jack does how does that play out)? I mention lower down I’d prefer no angsty sex for these two, but in this scenario I could see any sex that may happen being, at least at first, angry and angsty, but also conducive to emotional healing.

-Actual witch!Miranda. I mean storybook witch, with a cauldron in which she brews that invulnerability potion for Flint and possibly some broom-flying, rather than a Wiccan or another kind of real witch. Maybe she needs a human participant or human-sourced ingredients for some of her most powerful spells, and since Flint isn’t really comfortable with magic Miranda decides that the new ship’s cook will do, only magic has a way of binding people together more closely than they intended. Or maybe she attempts to bind a familiar, hoping for a cat or a bird, and the magic picks Silver, much to her (and his) initial consternation? Maybe Miranda doesn’t really know what she’s doing, she used to dabble in London but hasn’t tried making a spell in years and has none of her books of magic with her, or she’s heard the crew’s rumors about her and decided to give this whole magic thing a go, and oops it actually works! Either way, there would definitely be snark and “if I give you X for a spell, what’s in it for me?”

-Flint respected and cared about Miranda, but also kept her waiting on the sidelines while he did stuff. Gimme Miranda and Silver at a point where they trust each other, maybe not completely, but enough that they can scheme together, where she is impressed by his quick wits but she’ll also tell him when one of his plans is likely to go wrong in XYZ different ways. Then, obviously, they execute a plan/heist by drawing on their combined skill sets.

-Fucking someone is easy. Sleeping the night through next to that person is hard.

-Speaking of which: sex. With or without plot. In the bed, in the kitchen, in Nassau, on The Walrus when the rest of the crew is on shore-leave, or a stolen moment during the journey to Charles Town. First times, later times. Any position is good, I’ll just mention a couple possibilities: Cunnilingus with a side of mind games. Pegging. Fingering (of either by either). Intense (emotionally and physically) PIV. I could see them both initiating sex and wanting to “direct traffic” at one time or another, both wanting to keep up a front but then being ambushed by actual emotion and vulnerability. Let it be happy and giggly, or passionate, or playful, or unexpectedly tender, or seemingly casual and then very emotional and heartfelt – just please don’t let it be angsty.

-Miranda discovers she likes to get her fingers in Silver’s hair during sex, both gently and not. He likes it too, which is not to say he’ll necessarily admit he likes it.

-Sexual role-play: the demure lady abducted by a wicked pirate, only it turns out the lady’s resistance is symbolic at best. Who gets to play the lady and who the pirate is entirely open. If Miranda’s the lady, I suspect early seasons!Silver’s attempts at being menacing and dominating may make her break character for a giggle – and if Miranda’s the pirate menacing the demure and naïve, er, young gentleman, I’ll just say that I think she should wear Silver’s clothes (after washing them or making him bring a spare set).

Two canon-specific DNWs: whatever you end up writing, please don’t kill off Miranda or imply she dies “off-screen.” Let her live to fuck Silver another day. Also, I love Flint/Miranda in all their angsty glory, and I love all the intense, complicated emotion of Flint & Silver and the potential of Flint/Silver. I know I said not to make the fic revolve around Flint’s influence on their lives, but I’m fine with Flint in a walk-on role, if you want to write that. I don’t see him making too big a fuss, Miranda definitely treats her brief affair with the pastor as her business and her business alone – I can see Flint being exasperated that Silver hanging around Miranda is now a thing, or suspicious of Silver’s intentions but also trusting Miranda to handle it.

Good Girls (TV)

Beth Boland/Rio

How do I ship them, let me count the ways! I sat down to watch a fun, silly, caper show and ended up with all these feelings. I also can never resist an older woman/younger man, opposites-attract pairing, especially if it turns out that the opposites which are attracting also have way more in common than seemed apparent at first, while still remaining fundamentally different people with possibly-incompatible lifestyles. I love that while Beth can’t keep her crush hidden at all, Rio’s a very cool customer but at the same time has zero chill when it comes to her. I love how their comfort level with each other grows throughout the first two seasons, but they also both suck at communication and tend to just do their own thing or take what the other one will do for granted, and there are moments or periods of real ugliness punctuating their dynamic (like when Beth sets Rio up and he shoots Dean, or how she handles their “breakup” and he retaliates with the dead body and messing with Beth’s head, and then of course the S2 ending). There are definitely feelings on both side, they’re just really inconvenient feelings, given who she is and who he is, and they’re mixed with the lust and the illicit thrill of danger. For one thing, Beth has had a pretty obvious crush on Rio since the start, and he has pretty obviously found her intriguing at least from when she talked him out of killing the three women. For another thing, when she got out of the biz, Beth acted like she couldn't imagine how he’d cope without her to launder his money, so there’s a weird kind of misplaced protectiveness. It’s not Twue Wuv, but it’s not just sex either, as she told Dean in order to hurt Dean and because she knew he would understand that as her motivation. He wouldn’t be able to understand that she feels alive in Rio’s world. And it's not Twue Wuv for Rio either (he also doesn’t seem like the monogamous kind), but it’s not just the thrill of sex with someone so different from his usual pick of women. She takes him more than a little for granted, he has tended more often than not to underestimate her. It's capital-C Complicated. Plus every single episode makes me laugh, makes me gasp or scream, deadly-serious situations veer into humor and back again, and I also enjoy that the UST wasn’t flogged past its sell-by date, but also sex didn’t magically smooth out all of the very real complications between them (and I refuse the showrunner’s suggestion that “King” was the end of the ship – contentiousness and chemistry will keep me fed for a long time).

I love Beth for basically the same reasons why she drives me up the wall: her boldness and recklessness, her giddy joy in being baaaaaaad, her compartmentalization fu, how easily she switches from devoted mom to smooth criminal and liar, how the boundaries of her two lives are starting to blur yet she still seems to fundamentally believe in her own invulnerability. Some consequence of her extracurricular activities or other is going to bite Beth hard one day, and I’m here for it, just as much as I am here for Beth to continue to over-rely on her privilege and just sweetly bulldoze her way through any and all problems. I cheered when she finally admitted that she finds the thrill and the stress of the criminal life fun – it’s not an addiction, it’s a choice willingly made, she’s had control over many of her interactions with Rio. She’s not a victim in this, and Rio’s not her personal villain. Beth wants power and control, but the dirty work still gives her pause – she needs to own all that. Plus I keep thinking of Rio’s line about how nobody’s going to shoot up Beaver Cleaver’s house – Beth’s bubble is going to have to burst somehow, and not in a way she can handwave as no big deal, as she’s done till now, even after shooting Rio! Also, her tackling crime like it’s just any other household chore, keeping funny money in a storage box under her bed and whatnot, delights me.

And I kind of love the way Rio starts out, for both Beth and the audience, as this irresistible-because-dangerous, snarky, dark object of desire (and affection), and then we gradually learn more about him, but there’s still so much to learn. He obviously loves pushing Beth’s buttons, still plays his cards very close, and seems to be working out why the hell he let this suburban lady get under his skin so much. He didn’t need all these complications in his life! He was doing fine before Beth (and Annie and Ruby), and now he runs around Detroit playing mind games and stealing back baby blankies from crack houses! There’s a lot going on with him, and one thing Rio is, he’s the guy who owns his choices in a way Beth still refuses to own hers. My only certainty from the S2 ending is that Rio will mess with Beth in every way he can, in retaliation, whether he’s in jail or not, as well he should. (On that note, let me also mention that I, like Beth, love the edge Rio has, the constant undercurrent or potential for violence – the soft!Rio fanon bores me, unless his soft moments come with the snarky and the sexy and the dangerous and the manipulative because he is so fucking manipulative and I love it, and the putting his own interests first even while wanting Beth around, and the he-has-people-of-his-own-to-look-after, and the not-here-for-your-convenience-alone-Elizabeth, etc.) So yeah, I know that these two may never fully make it work, and it’s highly unlikely they’ll get anything remotely like an HEA, but I’m here for the wild ride and all the ways they can be both great and terrible together.

I wrote most of these prompts before the S2 finale aired, so please feel free to do missing scenes, or divergences, or write a fictional S3, mix and match – whatever works for you, grit and angst and contention or giggles and capers and some contention anyway because come on it’s them! Oh, and about Annie and Ruby: I like them both (Annie especially is a riot even if she’s even more reckless than Beth) and I love the three gals’ banter, so if you want to include them in the story that’s cool, whether as participants in Beth’s schemes or as people pushing against her overconfident recklessness, just please don’t have them only talk about Beth/Rio. As for Dean, the writers go way out of their way to make him sympathetic in late S2, but he’s a weakling and a liar, and while they need to co-parent, he needs to not be married to Beth anymore. Oh, and about Beth and Rio’s respective kids – if you want to include them in whatever you write, that’s fine, but please don’t make the kids a huge or central part of the fic.

Prompts:

-Canon divergence from the S1 cliffhanger: Beth shoots Rio (non-fatally), or Beth shoots Dean to get him to shut up and because she just found out he faked having cancer (he may or may not die), or even Rio takes the gun off Beth and shoots her (flesh wound only), and then what happens? Or how about a divergence from S1E9, where Beth doesn’t interpret “Go home, Elizabeth” as a threat, though her feelings may get hurt by the rejection?

-When the title of the last S2 episode was first announced, I imagined that “King” might mean Rio goes to prison, briefly or not, and then Beth either has to step in and prevent his entire organization from falling apart (and maybe Rio’s lady lawyer helps her out but some of Rio’s other associates and his guys don’t take kindly to her stepping in), or some new big bad moves into Rio’s territory and Beth has to confront them, but they have no desire to indulge her like Rio does or to be her friendly neighborhood gangbanger. Obviously that’s now totally a divergence, but I still want it!

-Speaking of the S2 ending, you can totally do a wild divergence! I’ve read some interesting theories about how that scene wasn’t all it appeared to be (Rio and Beth were in cahoots and he’d taught her how to shoot him non-fatally, Rio wanted to have a video of Beth shooting Turner so he could hold it over her but he can totally work with how it worked out too -- although honestly I’m not even sure S2 ended in Rio’s loft with the cameras! -- etc. etc.), so if you want to play with that or do something entirely different so they never wind up with Turner and a gun at (presumably) Rio’s loft, go right ahead. But at the same time…

-I’m actually OK with the S2 ending, provided of course that Rio lives and, um, eats her heart in vengeance while she realizes she still has a lot to learn, because them crashing into each other is where it’s at. The part that jarred me wasn’t Rio trying to force Beth’s hand in order to reassert dominance and show her she can’t ever get out clean, nor Beth shooting Rio in a moment of rage, but rather her still claiming he’s solely responsible for everything that happened and him calling her a bitch again. So if you want to write me S3, I’m here for it with bells on! Beth as king but uneasy lies the head etc. (not to mention she thinks she’s all badass because she shot Rio but the truth is she still underestimates the reality of the world she’s stepped into)! Beth acting like it’s all good but actually being guilt-ridden about shooting Rio! Her reaction to realizing he’s alive and likely coming after her! Beth’s finally his equal in crime and he’ll have to grudgingly respect that! Hate sex and rival ship-piness! Rebuilding trust – or can they! Beth visiting him in prison and stuff getting complicated! Rio coming after her, whether at Turner’s behest or for himself, and stuff gets even more complicated! Their figuring out they have to work together, for both business reasons and because it seems Turner is still all about getting Beth at any cost and is prioritizing that over getting Rio himself! Gimme all of it! Or you could have Beth shoot Turner, or Rio shoot Turner, or hell Rio shoot her non-fatally then kill Turner… I’m here for it all.

-“Just like we practiced,” he says like it ain’t no thing, but I need to know everything about it! I was starting to wonder whether he’d ever teach her like he said he would… One possible suggestion: that time Dean let those idiots steal Beth’s money, and she’s hanging with Rio in her backyard arguing about the proper word for underpants, they just got back from early morning target practice. Or how about a 5+1 story, with the +1 possibly being the S2 ending?

-Or, have Beth do one of her “I did something”s to Rio as the starting point of an adventure.

-When they’re talking outside of Jane’s dance recital, it becomes pretty clear that Rio and Beth have used absolutely all of her kids’ activities and appointments as a cover for “business meetings,” or at least he’s had to figure out her schedule pretty well in order to find her. What would their burner-phone calls or text exchanges look like when they need to arrange a meetup, with Beth needing to reschedule or running late, and Rio having limited reserves of time and patience, despite indulging her on the whole? And what if the tables turned sometime, because it’s not like his kid doesn’t have dentist’s appointments and playdates and whatnot? Plus wouldn’t Rio hanging around the dentist’s and princess birthday parties and suchlike attract at least some attention?

-Rio’s still angry and distrustful of Beth after S2E9 – both for trying to bail from the business and for using him as she did for sex and solace – but something or other happens and Beth’s the only person he can go to when his operation gets blown or raided by the Feds, or someone nearly kills him, or some other shit goes down. Now they’re basically on the lam together, and there are thrills, chases, building back trust, snark, sex… Plus it would be nice if he actually took the time to teach her, like he said he would back in S2E2, instead of blowing her off or just assuming she’ll have the common sense not to, say, walk into crack dens unarmed.

-Or flip that around: Beth handles a ‘book club’ situation her way (think Boomer in the treehouse, funny money under the bed, Googling how to kill someone or how to remove blood stains from carpet, burying a dead body in the backyard) and Rio needs to roll with it. The humor potential is really high here. Also I don’t think Rio’s ever witnessed Beth’s knack for lying and spinning some story on the spot, and he should, his reaction would be interesting to witness.

-Or how about if Beth had actually told Rio about the Dean situation in S2E9, and they could still get laid (oh please!) but they could also figure out a way to handle Dean and Turner and everything together. You know, actually communicate and be awesome rather than terrible together?

-Capers! The plotting, stealing stuff, and chases kind, not the kind you eat. I love this show’s silly, this-shouldn’t-work-and-they-make-beginner-mistakes capers, like the two grocery store stickups or the payday loan robbery/kidnapping. I’d be down for Annie and Ruby to play a big part, and if Rio were involved in the planning and execution, things probably wouldn’t go too pear-shaped, but you never know – the gals’ tendency to improvise is a wild card. Or they plan and execute a caper of their own, something goes sideways, and they need Rio to help them, which he doesn’t do for free or without some serious snark and psychological payback (remember when they discussed why Rio’s having them kill Boomer, and Beth automatically said “to torture me”? Yeah.)

-Moments when shit isn’t actively hitting the fan and they can just relax at the bar or the backyard picnic table, have a drink and shoot the breeze, flirt and snark – and maybe even slow dance one time. (This might work especially well as a 5+1 story, if you’re that way inclined.)

-Rio has a job for Beth, and for once she doesn’t go off script – but something goes wrong anyway. A double cross, or a shootout, or a police ambush, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When she can’t rely on her charm and knack for lying to get her out of a jam, but has to follow Rio’s lead and/or play by the rules of his world whether she likes it or not, how does Beth handle the situation, not by simply bending everything to her will so she can keep everything nice and neat and just the right amount of dangerous to thrill but not inconvenience her? Basically, what would have to happen for Beth to finally stop calling it ‘book club’ and accept what Rio told her ages ago: she’s a criminal who also happens to be a mom, and she needs to act like it?

-On that note, I kind of want Beth to have to kill someone (for real, because she so did not kill Rio gimme a break). Not someone like Annie, or Ruby, or Stan. A business rival of her and Rio’s, or a cop/Fed that’s on their tail, or Mary Pat, or a key witness against Rio, or hell even Dean (oh the angst! The guilt Beth would feel!), so long as it wasn’t under duress like the S1 cliffhanger or spur of the moment like when Mary Pat killed Boomer. Beth was ready to blow away Boomer back of the Fine ‘n’ Frugal that one time. I want her to have to finally cross boundaries she’s been able to dodge or have someone else cross for her till now, and really get her hands dirty, and deal with all the moral iffiness of it but also the full implications of what being a boss bitch requires, and what it means to be squarely on Rio’s side of the fence.

-These two navigate some pretty deep waters without ever spelling out what this thing between them is, but it is very clearly A Thing. Gestures can speak louder than words, like when Rio got Jane’s dubby back and sent it to Beth so she’d know it’s from him, but he could also deny it if he wanted to. What kind of gesture could Beth make to make clear that she’s in, in every sense of the word, even if naming what all she’s in would be too complicated, scary and/or dangerous?

-The game of twenty questions in Rio’s loft turns out porny when she refuses to leave when told, and none of their issues get resolved thereby, but still. Things turn porny, and probably emotional because these two have always sucked about separating business from everything else that’s between them, ‘nuff said.

-Tell me exactly what all they did (and thought and felt) in Beth’s bedroom between that swoony kiss and Beth’s post-coital kiss-off. Exactly.

-Beth and Dean’s divorce is finalized and/or Beth decides to grant Dean primary custody (because Dean is a weakling and a douche, but he was right about Beth’s other life endangering the family), and then she calls Rio looking for a distraction or to convince herself she’s totally fine about such a massive and irrevocable change in her life. Last time she pulled a stunt like that, they wound up in her bedroom, and everything was vulnerable and intense, and then feelings got hurt, and trust isn’t easy to rebuild. What happens this time?

-We’ve seen Rio’s life through Beth’s eyes – how does her life, including her ‘book club’ shenanigans look like from Rio’s world? Extra double-dipped brownie points if Beth gets to see how her life looks from the other side.

-One contrast between them I enjoy especially is the differences in how they speak, and I would love to see that played up in fic, which is all about words. Or, for an actual prompt: a situation arises in which Beth has to (maybe badly, maybe not) imitate Rio’s way of speaking, or vice versa.

-As amusing as I find the idea of his actual name being something as preppy as Christopher, let’s say that’s not Rio’s real name either. What is it, and under what circumstances might Beth learn it? And under what circumstances might she call him it, given that she’s never yet even called him Rio to his face, and he of course always uses her full name as both a goad and a verbal caress?

-Beth’s fantasy about Rio smashing up her bedroom is my favorite scene of the entire show so far (followed closely by their confrontation in Rio’s loft, the resolution of the S1 cliffhanger, and the zinger-filled food-court scene with the three gals pitching their big-box-store money-laundering idea to Rio). Beth’s fantasy is both funny and sexy, says tons about what she finds attractive about him, and even taps into the inherent ridiculousness of sexual fantasies without parodying it. What other fantasies does she have about him? What fantasies does he have about her? I’d be all for a (parallel) masturbation fic too!

-“Damn, mami, you’re good at this.” Please work that line into a fic and have it refer to a porny or non-porny situation (or both!).

-Enforced road trip! Crime stuff happens, neither Rio nor Beth are too keen on the idea except they’re both intrigued by the possibilities, they have to get in a car together and go chasing a pill shipment or money gone astray or whathaveyou, and there’s playing the silent game as well as deep conversations, roadside diners and motels, gas stations and shootouts, actual communication (or not – they can keep avoiding important conversations, that works too) and orgasms. Gimme!

-Rio leaves the country to escape the long arm of the law, and Beth goes after him even though she’s safe, and he’s not necessarily thrilled to see her at first. Exotic travel, probably-criminal shenanigans, and all kinds of sexiness ensue. (Look, when she got out of the business in S2, she acted like she couldn’t imagine how Rio would cope without having her around to launder his money and mess his shit up. If she thought she might never see him again, she’d panic, make her kids lunches and leave Dean an activities calendar for the foreseeable, throw some stuff in a wheelie bag, and take off at a moment’s notice.)

-While I’ll happily read whatever porn you might decide to write for them, I have a bit of a craving for one scenario: within an established relationship (whether they call it that, or more likely continue to not define it but they both accept that sex is something that’s going to happen regularly between them going forward, or even them being enemies/business rivals after S2 but still fucking occasionally), first-time anal sex. I can’t imagine it’s something Beth has done much, or ever, but she has a bold streak a mile wide, does our Beth, and I also can’t imagine it could be anything less than very emotional as well as scorching hot with these two involved.

-An exception to my blanket DNW about unrelated AUs: Beth and Rio in a time loop/Russian Doll-type scenario (so many possibilities to fuck up – or just fuck – but also to gradually (re)build trust) or Beth and Rio in a zombie apocalypse. For the latter, let’s assume everyone’s kids are safe, don’t let Annie, Ruby, or Stan die, Dean can die or not. I just really want Rio and Beth to have to rely on each other when it’s life and death and probable end of the world, despite all their issues and differences.

Firefly (TV)

Jayne Cobb/River Tam

Jayne Cobb/Saffron

Opposites attracting - or should I say colliding (and being really annoyed about it), but also more-similar-than-they-seem-at-first colliding! Capers! Either of the women out-deviousing Jayne, whether he realizes it or not, even as he’s trying to out-devious them. The humor and/or crack potential is especially high here.

For Jayne/River, I can see a lot of potential in accidental/fake marriage, woke up married, and marriage of convenience tropes. Pair that big, not-always-lovable lug Jayne with Ultimate Cloudcuckoolander with a dark and troubled past River, and sparks are bound to fly. If you can find a way to mix in some sort of a caper – either involving the Firefly crew’s ongoing criminal shenanigans or the Tams’ flight from the Alliance – that would be especially sweet. They’re doing it in order to be able to claim an inheritance, or to pull off a job, or even to protect River (and Jayne says he just wants a payday).

For Jayne/Saffron, I’m thinking of something post-canon when they meet again, and we get to see even more of Saffron’s mad skills and maybe learn a bit more about her, and Jayne is in waaaaay over his head - but he kinda likes it. At least Saffron is a handful *waggles eyebrows* in a different way from Mal and Zoe’s constant slight distrust of Jayne.

Jayne flirting with betraying his new mate has potential, and the woman getting the upper hand seems a given in that dynamic (poor Jayne will live in a constant state of not knowing what hit him).

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, kinks, incest, underage, genderswap/genderbent characters, xeno, non-/dub-con, torture and abuse (this and non-/dub-con can be mentioned if the story needs it, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it), dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore/blood and come are fine), toilet humor, character bashing, issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons, unrequested ships, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (the exception is Laura Moon in American Gods dying so she can become undead), serious illness or injury, pregnancy and children, holiday or wedding setting/theme, secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job, reference to RL current events, 1st/2nd person POV, unrequested crossovers or fusions, AUs which have nothing to do with canon

#dear author letter #het swap 2019

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pynkhues · 5 years ago

Note

Advice on what to do when you realise you started a scene in the wrong place and don't know what the right place is, please?

Ah, that’s a tricky one, anon!

Scenes can be hard to wrangle at the best of times because they have a lot to do – both individually and collectively – in terms of pacing, character, settings, tone-setting or re-setting, among many other things, and honestly often the hardest thing can be working out the parameters for what that looks like. The fact that you’ve identified what you’ve written isn’t the right spot (even if you’re not quite sure what is just yet), is amazing and truly half the battle when it comes to editing and re-writing, so well done!

My suggestion would be to ask yourself what the intent of the scene is. In asking yourself that, have a conversation with your story and your characters. Ask:

What do you want the scene to do?

How do you want the scene to move the characters and the plot? And are you moving them forwards, sideways or backwards?

What does this scene reveal to the readers?

And what’s the main thing you would like the reader to take away from the scene?

None of the answers to these things have to be big! Sometimes the only thing you want a reader to take away from a scene is a feeling, or a deeper understanding of a character. Sometimes the scene only moves the plot incrementally (although every scene should move your story in some way), because the focus is perhaps more on themes or building a tone or an atmosphere.

Sometimes these things happen naturally too and you don’t need to think so specifically about them, but if you’re stuck, I do find that they’re good ones to percolate on. After all, once you’ve answered them, you should have a pretty firm idea of what your scene actually is, which should in turn give you some sturdy parameters around what you need to do.

So, now that you know what the intent of the scene is, where could you start?

There’s no right or wrong place to start a scene, and there is such a diversity in the ways that you can do it, that it’s sort of hard to make real suggestions on how to proceed (particularly without knowing the details of your story specifically). That said, where and how you start it is going to have a big impact on what the reader gets out of the scene, and so being able to answer those questions above can help you to really work out what’s going to be the most punchy, effective start.

Again, there are a whole lot of ways to do this, but I thought I’d explore a few here that might help you get your scene going. I’ve even included some exercises, because apparently I miss teaching creative writing that much, haha.

You could start:

1. As Close to the Action as Possible.

This is one of the most common pieces of writing advice that gets thrown around, and I both agree with it and disagree with it. I think starting close to the action or the drama of a scene can make for an excellent hook, particularly if the scene is thrilling or especially dramatic, but it’s not always appropriate.

It can be a great exercise though when you’re unsure of a scene!

In that sense, look at your intent, how you want the characters to move, and forget about any establishing work for a minute. Try starting literally as close to the drama or conflict as possible.

Say it’s a scene where two characters kiss for the first time. Try and start the scene with the kiss. Does it work? Probably not, because there’s not enough build up to it. From there though, you can start to reverse engineer it and work backwards until you find your scene’s natural starting point.

Or perhaps it’s a scene where a character gets thrown through a window! Is it a surprise for the character too? Well, then it might work best to actually just start with that, because too much beforehand would feel superfluous to the point of the scene, which is, well, a character getting thrown through a window.

This is actually something I did in the second scene of Blue Moon where Ruby and Beth are watching Ruby’s mother at her father’s wake. Originally, there was a lot more set-up, and I felt that it weighed the scene down and removed some of the momentum, particularly because the intent of the scene was not the wake, but to show that Ruby didn’t know how to comfort her mother while grieving her father herself.

I cut it all out and even then, I thought I’d write a shorter intro, but when I re-read it, I actually really liked the sort of cut effect of Ruby taking her father’s hand in the first scene and then Beth telling her to talk to her mother in the second.

2. With the World You’re Leaving Behind.

Harry Potter is a really good example of this. Frequently the scenes don’t start anywhere close to the action or drama – Rowling’s style instead typically centres on focusing on something specific and then using that as an entry point into a moment that might not actually happen for a little while.

Think of the opening scene for example, which doesn’t start even remotely close to the action/drama of the scene - that would be Hagrid arriving with Harry. Instead, it starts with Mr Dursley’s Very Normal Life. In fact, there are six paragraphs before Mr. Dursley even notices anything unusual - that being a cat reading a map. In this particular scene, this method is used to create a juxtaposition between the mundane and the magical, and to be an entry point for readers into the unusualness of the world of Harry Potter.

She doesn’t just use it in this opening though. She regularly uses this technique to build atmosphere and ‘otherness’ across the series.

You can actually do this one as a bit of an exercise too if you like!

Think of the moment of change in your scene. When does the environment shift to build towards the action? What happens before that shift?

Let’s go back to our kissing example! The world we’re leaving behind here is one before intimacy, so it’s a significant change in the dynamic between characters and the overall plot. So think about what that means and what that looks like. Has the air crackled with their UST? Has one character been oblivious to the other’s feelings, making the kiss a moment of revealation that explodes their world open? Does one character not feel the same way – making the before a space of possibility, and the after space a place of lost possibility or rejection?

Think about what happens before and after the action at the heart of the scene, and how the juxtaposition of that can bring the scene’s purpose home.

3. With the Central Idea of the Scene.

I do this a lot, haha.

It’s one of my favourite ways to write a scene, and sometimes I’ll do it extremely literally, and other times less so. You can also do it via dialogue (in the pirate au, for instance, one scene starts with Annie telling Beth about lambskin condoms, a seemingly innocuous, fun starting point, but actually a pretty major signpost to the scene’s purpose overall, as the intent is realised in Annie later being shamed for having a child out of wedlock), by an image or metaphor (perhaps a scene about a character having a great realisation starts with them seeing a bright light, or alternatively, a scene about a character misinterpreting something might start with them trying and failing to untangle a necklace chain), or an emphasis on a place (Beth sitting in the loading bay looking at Fine and Frugal in 1.01 before the girls rob it).

This can be a great way of teasing out your scene overall before you actually unpack it.

So again, try it out! Think about the pivotal moment in your scene, however big or small, and try thinking about what you might encompass it. Let’s go with our first kiss again as an example. Maybe the scene could start with a character putting on lipstick, drawing attention to their lips. Maybe it could start with them texting their friend, wondering if the other character even feels the same way, maybe it starts with them trying to fluff the couch cushions they later crush beneath their body during a make out.

Think about what might foreshadow your pivotal moment, and what might underline the intent of your scene.

4. With a Focus on Tone and Atmosphere

Some people might disagree with me, but I really think that tone setting is one of the most important things in writing, and that goes for the overall tone of the story, but also for individual scenes. It’s what guides your reader to the feeling that you want them to take, and really informs the way your story builds. So while you’re thinking of ways to start, why not think of the atmosphere of your scene? Think about the way the mood builds and shifts and how you want the reader to feel within that.

In my story, Need a Little Time, I did this in both scenes, but particularly the second, which started with Rio in Rhea’s kitchen, remembering being in Beth’s.

It’s the smell that does it – cinnamon sugar and dark coffee and box macaroni cheese – and he blinks and he ain’t in Rhea’s kitchen anymore, he’s in her’s, staring at her kids’ artwork, pinned with cheap, ugly magnets to the fridge, cardboard boxes of cardboard meals scattered over her kitchen island, and then her, smiling, face open and unsure in that way she ain’t ever, and him, cunt struck and fuck dumb, smiling back.

His chest aches.

His fingers twitch.

This (hopefully, haha) gives the reader a sense of Rio’s headspace and the fact that despite his best efforts, he’s really, really not over Beth, but also links back to the softness of him then (cinnamon sugar, box macaroni, kids artwork) and the harshness and woundedness of him now (dark coffee, cheap, ugly magnets, harsh words like ‘cunt’ and ‘fuck’, fingers twitching). It functions as a tone setter and a memory box, but it also exists to serve the purpose of the scene overall, which is Rio’s complex emotions in finding out that Beth has gotten close to Rhea in his absence.

So! Think about your scene and it’s purpose. What do you think the tone or the atmosphere is? If you’re not sure, think instead of the emotion within it. What are your characters feeling? And how do you want your reader to feel? Once you know that, think of imagery or objects or sensory detail that might build that.

Let’s have a look at our kissing example again! Let’s say it’s a first kiss between two people who really love each other and just haven’t confessed their feelings yet. What would the tone of that scene be? Well, probably one of possibility, vulnerability, intimacy. What imagery goes with that? A new bud on an old plant maybe? Clean, fresh smells like soap or newly cut grass, skin still pink from the wind outside. Cold hands warmed between somebody else’s. The sound of a familiar voice. Maybe a kettle boiling, or a warm meal about to be forgotten.

5. With a Bookend

Bookending scenes is another favourite of mine, haha, both to write and to read. Bookending scenes is a way of starting with a concept and then finishing the scene by circling back to the concept but looking at it in a slightly different way.

This is technically two scenes, but since I still have it open from the last point, I’m going to use it as an example again, haha. Need a Little Time starts with Rio remembering his mother telling him that if you stay away too long, people and circumstances change in your absence:

It was something his mother had said to him once – drunk off cheap merlot and good company at the party after his little cousin’s baptism – her long fingers clamped around his chin.

“That’s the thing with havin’ kids,” she’d hummed, smoothing her touch at his clean-shaven cheek. “You wait too long to see them, they’ve done a whole lot of growin’ without you. Not always the good type either.”

This is revisited directly in the scene later where Rio thinks about how much Marcus has grown and changed since he’s been gone, but it’s actually bookended at the end of the second scene too:

“She said you guys used to talk a little at the - - I mean. Her daughter and Marcus knew each other.”

And it’s just like that he’s back on that park bench, Elizabeth sitting a foot away, one of those pinched, cagey looks on her face she’d get when she thought they were being watched, like anyone looked at her and thought anything except some variation of mama, like that part of her costume ever fuckin’ tore, and he thinks his mom was right about this too.

You wait too long to see someone, who knows what they do while you’re gone.

In this, Rio’s grown to understand that his mother’s words are more than just about parenthood, and that things don’t pause while you’re away. Everyone has the capacity to change.

So bookending a scene or a story can be a great way of marking growth of a character, or making changing circumstances clear.

You could also use a visual metaphor. Perhaps a character’s at the end of her rope, and she’s shopping, and is trying to get one of the last punnets of strawberries, but gets frazzled and distracted by her children, and turns around at the end of the scene and the strawberries are gone. This would be a clear symbol of her losing what little she has, and how much more she’s lost during the scene.

So, the last exercise, haha. Think again about the intent of your scene, and how you might like to frame it. With that framework, is there an image or a thought that could symbolise the growth across the course of the scene?

Let’s look at our kissing example! You could start the scene with her wondering what it might be like to kiss him, and bookending it with her no longer having to wonder. You could start it with him cooking a meal, and then returning to it and laughing and not caring about it being cold at the end of the scene. You could start with her bemoaning not being able to get something on a crossword to a friend, and finish the scene with him filling in the last answer as a sign of their wholeness together.

Again, these are all just suggestions and ways to tease out scene starters when you’re struggling to find the right spot. I hope it’s a help, and if anyone else has suggestions for anon to try out, I’d love to hear them too! :-)

#writing #writing asks #welcome to my ama #this got looooong haha #Anonymous

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pynkhues · 6 years ago

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#9 “oh, you’ve started stealing my socks now?” 😊

(Sorry this took so long!)

Set in The Centre and Circumference / Domestic Fic universe

“I’m just going to – ”

“No, you ain’t,” Rio snaps back at her, his nostrils flaring, and Beth rolls her eyes, curling the blanket tighter around her shoulders and flopping back onto the couch. He squints at her for a second, and she’s pretty sure he’s waiting to make sure she doesn’t get up again, which is honestly hilarious. After all, she’s doing okay – she’s three glasses of red wine deep and has the blanket. He’s the one shivering in a pair of stiff black jeans and a too-thin hoodie on the living room floor.

Satisfied that she’s not going to make a break for the thermostat, he turns his attention back to the fire. Or rather, not the fire, Beth thinks, amused, but the enormous log he’d dropped into the fireplace, the smattering of kindling and what has to be close to thirty burnt out matches, leaving smears of charcoal on the concrete floor of the thing.

“We could just turn the central heating on until you get it going,” Beth says, and she keeps her voice light, soothing, even if internally she’s practically glowing. There’s just something so magical about finding something new he’s bad at, especially given the list is so short – cooking, singing (and that one had surprised all of them. “With that deep, husky voice?” Ruby had asked, eyebrow raised, grinning wide. “Figured he’d be a regular Ray Charles.”

“Nope,” Beth replied gleefully, taking a sip on her cocktail. “Like skinning a cat.”)

And now, apparently, lighting a fire.

Rio mumbles something under his breath which sounds vaguely threatening, but Beth’s pretty sure it’s aimed at the log, not her, which is a little harsh. After all, it’s not the log’s fault, she thinks, reaching to grab her wine glass off the coffee table and god, okay, it really is cold. She pulls her glass to her chest and then curls the blanket better around herself again, keeping the cool air at bay.

The night had started off so well too. With her kids at Dean’s and Marcus at Laura’s and the weather warnings blearing over the radio, Beth had closed the dealership early to get all the staff home safely and somehow managed to talk Rio into doing the same with the warehouse (albeit, not quite as early). It had barely been three by the time she’d gotten home, and she’d managed to throw on some sweats, get a casserole in the oven, crack a bottle of wine and check in with the kids, Annie and Ruby before Rio had stumbled in the door, brushing sleet from the shoulders of his coat.

And it had almost been romantic, she thinks contentedly, safe from the bustle of the real world outside of their dining room, eating dinner, drinking wine, jazz practically oozing languidly off Rio’s turntable, her foot inching up his leg beneath the table, when he’d suggested they take it to the living room.

And now here they were, Beth thinks, watching as Rio surges back up onto his knees, furiously lighting another match, holding it low on the kindling, the flame almost licking around the stick instead of catching on the bark, and it must be wet or something because it’s really not going to light. The match burns down, singing Rio’s fingers, and he swears, tossing the thing haphazardly into the fireplace.

Biting back a grin, Beth sits forwards a little on the couch, about to get up to help him (she’d have done it earlier if he hadn’t been so insistent on her staying warm and relaxing back on the couch – while also not letting her turn on the heating, promising this’d be roaring soon enough), when suddenly Rio’s work cell starts buzzing in the back pocket of his jeans. He cusses again, yanking it out, checking the number, and promptly answering it.

“What?” he grunts in lieu of a greeting, and someone must say something significant, because suddenly he’s rocking up to his feet, covering the mouthpiece as he looks at Beth and says:

“Gimme a minute, yeah?” before striding off into the hallway then darting up the stairs to their shared home office, and Beth frowns, because if he’s taking it upstairs, it means it’s either news he doesn’t want her to know, somebody he doesn’t want knowing about her (he’s weirdly paranoid about certain unnamed people hearing her voice, and no matter how much she pries, he refuses to tell her why), or both.

Watching him disappear up the stairs, Beth shuffles forwards, dropping her wine glass back to the coffee table and then herself to the floor.

Thing is, it is weird. All those months ago in Beth’s old bed, in her old house, the fireplace had been the first thing on his list when they’d played Dream House, and on those early, new nights, she’d dreamt of what that meant, assuming it held a significance to him in the same way that the kitchen did for her. Something that would make a house their home. Had imagined him with a childhood spent in front of one, toasting marshmallows or warming his toes, imagined it as one of the few things he’d had to go without in his loft, imagined him missing it, but now she’s not so sure.

It’s like he’s never even seen someone light one before.

She almost laughs when she gets to the fireplace, pushing aside the enormous log he’d laid down at the base of it and the sticks which actually are wet (he must’ve grabbed them from outside when she was cleaning up dinner), and starts to sort through the kindling, finding the smallest, driest pieces. She finds a newspaper on the shelf below the coffee table – one she’s pretty sure Rio’s done with, and tears off a few shreds, scrunches them up, starting to build the base of the fire. When she’s happy enough, she lights a match, dropping it down and watching the flame surge as it swallows the newspaper, just starting to catch the sticks above.

Humming a little to herself, she grabs one of the enflamed sticks, pushing it a little deeper, letting the embers flick over to the newspaper at the back, catching against them there, slowly starting to catch on the sticks there too. She watches the fire ebb, the embers starting to dust the concrete floor of the fireplace, lets it build again, her eyelashes briefly fluttering shut as the first breath of warmth hits her cheeks.

“So were you gonna tell me you knew how to do that, or just gonna watch me make a mess of it?”

The words are little more than a lazy drawl, and Beth glances behind herself to see him wandering towards her, like a whip of darkness in the cool, dusky light of the evening. She grins, shrugging, turning her attention back to the fire. She pulls the stoker off the holder, and gently prods a few of the flaming sticks towards the naked ones.

“You didn’t ask.”

Rio snorts, sitting down beside her, rocking just slightly forwards, and he doesn’t hold his hands out to the fire, doesn’t stretch out in front of it, but she knows he’s warming himself up. He runs cold anyway – she thinks it probably has something to do with the fact he has barely an ounce of body fat on him – but he doesn’t even have to touch her for her to know his hands are even more freezing than usual.

“Scouts,” he guesses, and Beth grins over at him again, tilting up her chin a little proudly.

“Got the badge and everything,” she replies, and then points with the stoker to where she’d pushed his efforts aside for her own. “Your log was too big.”

“Yeah, I heard that before,” he hums in faux resignation, and Beth rolls her eyes, a blush dusting her cheeks at the innuendo before she can stop it, and she pokes his side with the handle of the stoker. He takes it easily, and Beth moves around him, her blanket dragging behind her as she reaches for a smaller piece of wood.

“You need to be gentler with it too,” she says gesturing to the fire, and then quickly looks back at Rio, who’s mouth is open to reply. “Don’t.”

His laugh is quick, lyrical over the crackle and thrum of the fire, and Beth can’t quite bite back her grin either as she carefully places the smaller log by one of the healthiest parts of the fire, letting the flames slowly engulf it.

“Everything okay?” she asks, and at Rio’s questioning look, adds: “With the phone call, I mean.”

Rocking his head from side-to-side, Rio prods at the fire, watching the flames move, sticks like skeleton fingers snap beneath the heat. This close, she can see the slightest dusting of freckles at his cheeks, each little bump of new hair in his five o’clock shadow, the impossible length of his eyelashes. He looks engrossed, eyes tracing the way the fire builds, the way it consumes, the way it -

“Can you take more cars next week?”

Beth blinks back at him, wets her lips, collecting herself. She wraps herself up again in the blanket, curling her legs underneath her as she thinks it over.

“Probably,” she decides. “Not like we have the kids, and Annie could use the extra cash at the moment for Sadie’s meds anyway, so I’m sure she wouldn’t say no to a few longer days too.”

“Might need you to.”

“Is everything okay?” she asks again, forehead furrowing, and Rio sighs this time, clenching his eyes shut briefly, rubbing at his forehead with his free hand. She doesn’t think he’ll reply – usually doesn’t when she asks, and she knows he’ll be annoyed if she asks again. To her surprise though, Rio drops his hand, stokes the fire, and says:

“Just internal shit with our suppliers. Want to finish up faster so we can shut down business with ‘em. AJ’s hooked me up with some guys he’s worked with before, says they’re hard work too, but get shit done. Figure I’ll go check ‘em out, and if they’re good, start moving us across, at least temporarily, until we find someone longer term.”

Beth considers this. She knows there’s been issues with one of their big suppliers – has been for months, Rio had told her as much, but she hadn’t realised it had gotten this bad. She bites the inside of her cheek.

“If we’re changing people, I want to be there to meet them,” she says, and Rio exhales, like he knew that was what she was going to say, and Beth frowns, watching him watch the fire. It’s not like she hasn’t met with people before, with suppliers and partners and associates, but Rio rarely offers. She thought for a while that he liked making her weasel her way into it all, and she thinks that he did, for a while, but these days he seems to only like her in meetings with people he’s - - they’re already in business with. People he knows. Like he’s worried she might make a bad impression or something on anyone new, and sure, she knows she’s not exactly Demon, but she thinks she’s always presented professionally.

When he doesn’t answer, Beth’s frown deepens.

“Rio.”

“You get all your badges?”

Beth blinks, forehead furrowing.

“What?”

“At scouts,” Rio adds when he clocks her confusion, and Beth promptly rolls her eyes. “Ain’t there like a hundred of ‘em?”

“Rio, I’m serious.”

“You still got ‘em? I bet you do,” he hums, dropping the stoker to the front of the fireplace and shuffling a little back. He looks over at her appreciatively, sucking in his lips, like he’s picturing it. “Got the little hat still?”

“Rio,” she groans, hand escaping the blanket to push him, when suddenly he surges forwards, pushing her heavily onto her back against the freezing floorboards. She squawks, flails, still half tangled in the blanket as he rolls them over until she’s lying flat on top of him, and god, she must be squashing him, she thinks, feeling the sharp plains of him underneath her, and she tries to sit up, but he pulls the blanket around her and uses it to yank her back down towards him so hard she’s almost winded against the hard, flat top of his ribcage.

She squints down at him.

“You’re too skinny,” she tells him accusingly, and he just looks up at her, eyebrow raised, as she adds: “No wonder you’re always cold.”

“Ain’t that what I got you for?” he asks, and Beth rolls her eyes, about to tell him no, actually, but he does have her to go to this meeting with him, thank you very much, when suddenly he pulls her close to him, shoving his freezing hands down the back of her sweat pants, squeezing her ass over her panties before changing his mind and shoving his hands beneath those as well. Beth makes a noise she’s pretty sure only dogs can hear, trying to wriggle away from him, and Rio just laughs, rolling her onto her side and rubbing his icy nose against her neck.

“Mmm, feelin’ warmer already,” he purrs, rolling his hips against hers, and Beth groans in the least sexy way possible, trying to wriggle away from his cold hands. It’s no good though, they’re too big and – when he feels her moving – too firm.

“Yeah, well, believe it or not, I’m not,” she hisses in reply, and Rio sits back enough to look down at her, pulling one of his hands off her ass.

“Yeah? Damn. Think I got a few ideas on how we fix that though.”

Beth gives him an unimpressed look at that, and when she goes to push him off her, he grabs both her wrists in his hand and gives her a shit eating grin. It’s enough to make her smile way too sweetly in reply, lifting her leg until she can get her foot against his hip, kicking him back, when he glances down, eyebrow arched, and promptly lets go of her wrists to tug on her (well, his) black sock.

“Oh, so you’ve started stealin’ my socks now?” he says, and Beth curls her toes to stop him from pulling it off her. They really are warmer, she thinks, even if they swallow practically half her leg.

“Well, since stealing your money and your business worked out so well for me, I figured I should see how this went,” she says with a sniff, just to see the way his forehead furrows, his lips part, unimpressed.

“Oh, is that right?”

A giggle escapes Beth’s mouth before she can help it, and Rio grabs her ankle, pushing it away so he can better slide between her legs, laying flush against her, and she almost hates the way her breath hitches, the way he notices it – of course he notices it – and well, she thinks, blinking suddenly when she feels his half-hard cock push against her cunt. She keens before she can help that too, feeling the heat pool low in her.

“You warmin’ up yet, mama?” he asks her, the hand down the back of her pants shifting, moving around to her hip, playing with the lace of her panties, keeps moving, until his cold fingers are slipping between her folds, and she jumps, fingernails digging into his neck, and god, when had her hands even moved there?

“We haven’t finished this conversation,” she promises him, squinting, and he nods, faux serious, but there’s a look in his eye that tells her he knows that too, and as long as he does, Beth thinks, surging up to kiss him.

That’s really all that matters.

#beth x rio #prompt fills #the center and circumference #my fic #beth boland #rio #all of these are getting way too plotty haha #i think i am going to have to make a list putting them in order because the plot thread in canada is in a few of them #(and will be in a few more i think!)#anyway #hope you like it <3

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