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#just realized it’s May and I haven’t posted any mers!
thefanciestborrower · 11 months
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When you’re a highly dangerous octopus who’s venom could kill 26 adults but your grouper bestie doesn’t care
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driedupeyeballs · 2 months
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🚗& 💯 for your fankids!
Due to the fact you didn’t specify which ones I will be rambling about all of them so. Have a seat ALSO SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LOJG TO ANSWER
🚗 - “does your OC have a drivers license? Can they drive/operate any automobiles/machinery besides cars?”
Ok I was not expecting anyone to pick this I have like. Never thought of this??? Like I’ve never looked at my fankids and thought “hmmm. Which one of you is forklift certified?”- (Rico definitely owns a shirt that says “I’m forklift certified” but he’s not) After giving this a bit of thought I’ve come to a somewhat conclusion- I think most of my fankids can drive, Ik Zelda can’t bcuz she’s too scared to be outside in a light rain in case she somehow gets struck by lighting so there is no way in HELL she’s getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. And obviously my malleus kid can’t bcuz he’s uh. Blind- but he isn’t relevant bcuz I haven’t even drawn him yet- I’m sorry aihan 😔 Ember tho. Ember would get his license revoked for modifying a car so much that it’s no longer street legal. And I do not trust Shenzi driving bcuz she gets distracted so easily- we’d have to put her on medication 😭 but everyone else I think is good to go
💯 - “share three random facts about your OC that others may not know”
This one was interesting when it’s like. Any of them- I already answered this for Skye in my other post so I’ll limit this to my other kids tho
On the topic of ashengrotto kids tho, we all know Skye couldn’t be trusted around baby mers as a kid cuz they’d eat them. Akram sort of had the opposite issue?? He was terrified of anything that swam, especially eels. Which was pretty awkward for the first few years of his life, he was very anxious around the eel kids in their merforms and refused to go anywhere near the adult eel mers
Okay my basketball trio is something remarkable I swear- three completely different energies there. But Ember was actually briefly banned from playing real games cuz he kept using Moxie to cheat, he actually added a specific program in Moxie’s code to predict the other teams movements. He was thus banned from bringing any robots to basketball 😔 (I realize I haven’t talked abt moxie publicly- or Ember much for that matter. Moxie is a robot beetle that’s like a mini ortho, Ember built him and he just kinda hovers around him like Idia’s skull thingie)
Okay I have plenty of facts I could put here but I’m gonna opt for a mysterious little thing here; not one, but two of my fankids have indeed killed someone in their lifetime! Whether by accident or not! I will say one of them is my Malleus kid, (I rlly need to draw him he’s just the forgotten child), just cuz he has insanely powerful magic and as a kid he didn’t have great control of it. Unfortunately a random civilian found this out firsthand! The other one tho. That reveal I’ll probably save for when I drop all of her lore. Which will be soon! Cuz I plan on doing a lot more loredrops for these dudes soon!!
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inked-spirit · 3 years
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Y,know how I said I had another au, and had a small oneshot for it:)
Well here's the oneshot, and bonus very out of context because I haven't talked about it yet. Hyrule meets Legend scene! Au is still being put together and is not really thought out much, but it does include the other under-appreciated links, such as Picori (whose also in this small written piece), Spirit, and Tempo. (Will add more if I find out there's others)
Pre-warning I don't know how to do the undercut thing with posts, so it's very long.
Enjoy:)
---------------------------------------------------
Okay, at this point Hyrule knew he was lost. Very lost.
The further he treked through the thick foilage to find his way back to the fountain. The weaker it's magic became, he was getting further away from it with each passing second.
He knew his sense of direction was terrible but this was just ridiculous.
He tried to call out to any fellow fairy or family that could hear him, to no avail.
It was almost dark, as the sun descended beneath the trees. A few stars making themselves present early. His faint glow making itself known in the growing dark. A pale green.
Pushing through a few more bushes, he comes to a small clearing. Taken up mostly by a decently large pond. It looked pretty deep too.
He felt no fairy magic emanating from the waters and with a disappointed huff sat down beside the ponds rocks.
There was a different kind of magic in the pond though, at the bottom. It felt safe, and somehow he knew it wouldn't hurt him.
Staring up at the stars once more, he sent a prayer to whatever goddess was listening that he'd find his home soon, his mother must be worried sick he hasn't come home before night fall.
He was tired, straying so far from his mother's magic had taken a toll on him. Placing a minor protection spell on the small clearing, he dropped his travel bag on the floor and pulled out a blanket. Nestling himself into a comfortable position using his bag as a pillow of sorts.
"Goodnight mom." He whispered, as he let his eye lids finally close to get some rest.
---
When he woke up it was to a shadow looming over him. He groaned as his eyes slowly opened to meet with a pair of violet ones.
A pale face that looked at him quizitivelly from above. This figure tilted there head at him with a curious glint in there eyes. Short pink hair swept to once side dropping slightly. His long pink bangs swaying beneath his face to the gentle wind.
His eyes widened as he woke up fully, staring at the one above him, whose eyes also widened.
The boy (as he guessed) lept into the pond with a graceful splash and pained gasp. Hyrule rushed to get up. Packing his blanket away and comfortably getting his bag on. He sensed pain was on the boy. He was hurt.
He jumped to the waters edge and peered down to look for the other, finding nothing. Until they peeked there eyes out of the water, brows forrowwed.
"I-im sorry for startling you. I didn't mean to scare you like that." He apologised sitting down in his spot.
The other looked away for a moment before peeking his Head out further so he could see his mouth.
"It's okay. I've just never seen one of your kind before." He replied. His voice was smooth and kind.
Never seen a fairy?
"I've only ever read about fairys in books back home, but fairys were written to be smaller. Your like a very small great fairy, why is that?" The boy asked with a tilt of his head.
"Oh, that's because I'm a great fairy in training." He answered slowly. His eyes trailing to the faint red in the water. The wound.
The boy seemed satisfied with his answer, a small hesitant trust being formed.
"I couldn't help but notice your hurt. Would you mind if I healed you?" He asked, wringing his wrists.
This took the boy by suprise and with small slow nod, he swam closer and reached his arm out of the water. There was a few scars here and there, and what looked like a golden fin across the back of his arm. The boy looked away at first, but once the fairy started to let his magic flow he watched in awe. As the green magic knitted the bloody cut on his arm back together.
When Hyrule pulled his arms away, cutting the magic off, the boy admiring his newly healed arm.
"Did you hurt it on the rocks when I startled you?"
A knod, before the other perked up.
"I'll be back in a second." At that the boy dove under and after about a minute or two he came back up with some cut fish in hands.
"For you." He dropped them on the ground beside Hyrule, awaiting a response.
For a moment he just looked between the other and the fish, before giving an akward smile.
"Oh thank you." He chuckled nervously.
The boy just continued to wait patiently.
"What do I do with them?"
"You eat them, its food."
Glancing down at the fish, he curiously picked one up and went to take a bite.
"Wait y-you cook it first. You were gonna eat it raw?" The boy exclaimed with concern.
Oh.
With a snap of his fingers a small flame appeared in his palm. Growing by the second and so he started to roast it.
Once done (although he burned it in a few places). He finally took a bit. It was juicy but dry, no doubt his own doing. And tasted plain but salty. The burnt bits tasted bitter. But all in all it satisfied him. After his first bite, he set it down and cooked another, holding it out to the boy in the pond.
"I realized I never asked for your name, I'm Hyrule." He spoke, as the boy gingerly took the offered fish.
"I'm Legend." He took a bite and grimaced at first to the taste but settled.
He packed the rest of the fish away in his bag after asking if the boy wanted anymore.
Crossing his legs and resting his head in his palms.
"Hey, ive been meaning to ask. Why do you stay in the pond?"
The boys face frorrowed, his eyes traced the rocks instead of the fairy, and lifted what the fairy assumed was his version of legs. A large white blotched amareanth fishtail, lined with golden fins, some tattered near the end but not much.
"Oh you can't go that far." He spoke sadly.
"Yeah, no legs means no land travel. Fish tail means water travel only." He said simply.
"Do you live in this pond, have any family around here?" He asked a pit forming in his gut.
Legend shook his head,
"I was dropped here on accident by poachers after the few days travel they had me. I've been stuck in this pond for almost a whole week now if in correct. I lived in Hylia lake, with my uncle."
Lake Hylia!
That was at least a few days travel from his fountain, how far did the poachers go to abduct him?
He wanted to help he really did, but what could he do?
...
Then like a blessing from above, an idea popped in his head. Details would be thought of next. But he had an idea, and he was going to help this weird hylian.
Hyrule brightened immediately.
"Hey, what if I took you home? Act as your guide across the lands." Hyrule suggested.
Legend looked at him as if he grew two heads.
"How are you going to do that?"
He didn't know but maybe he could carry Legend to his fountain when he found it and ask his mother for advice. She always knew what to do.
"I could take you to my fairy fountain and find out what to do from there." He suggested, with a shrug and nervous smile.
The pink haired kid, tilted his head in thought before giving a nod.
"That could work. Better than being stuck in here till the day i die."
Thankfully a thought on what he could do came to mind. An friend could possibly help.
"Perfect! It's settled then!" At that Hyrule brought his point finger and thumb to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle.
He waited a full minute or two before a small willow bird swooped in and perched in his hair.
A small mouse like creature getting off its back and peeking over his forehead from his hair. The creature no bigger than a hylians thumb.
"Hyrule! Long time no see!" The small thing squeaked cheerfully.
They clung to a curl of hair and dropped onto Hyrules waiting palm. The fairy chuckling at the small person?
"It has, hasn't it?" He laughed. Before the small mouse caught eye with Legend.
"A hylian in the pond? And it seems they can see me?" They chittered.
"I dont think hes a hylian. Either he isn't or he is and hes a weird one." Hyrule whispered.
"I'm a mer, deffintly not hylian. And what is that thing in your palm." Legend asked from the water resting his arms on the sand dirt edge.
Oh so that's what he was, he was going to ask mother about that later.
"This is Picori, of the Minish. He's been my best friend, since I could even walk. He may be able to help us with our problem." Hyrule smilled.
"That explains the pond, hylians tend to hate getting wet in clothing." Picori huffed.
Hyrule hummed before, leaning closer to the Minish in his palm. Whispering something Legend couldn't hear or understand with the change in Hyrules language.
Hyrule backed up, and Picori seemed to hum before saying something to the other.
"Alright, Legend I'm going to need to carry you for this next part, would you be okay with that?" Hyrule looked over to the mer in question expectantly.
"Where are you taking me, exactly?" He asked, pulling himself out of the water.
And now, could Hyrule so the rest of him properly. He had what looked like a black tunic like shirt, long sleeves folded above the elbows, and a collar he now folded up, hidding the gills on his neck.
A black and silver belt wrapped around his waist and bottom half of the tunic.
The metal emited no familiar heat, safe.
"Cori has a solution to our problem." He chirped, putting Picori on his shoulder, and reaching to pick Legend up.
Abite difficult and painstakingly Hyrule managed to carry him bridal style, in the directions Picori instructed.
Being meet with a tree stump, that radiated the same magic Picori did.
"Place him on the stump and me on his shoulder." Picori instructed.
Hyrule nodded gently and put Legend on the stump. Next reaching a hand for Picori to climb on and let him onto legends shoulder.
"Tell him not to freak out with this next part, they always do the first go around." Picoris muttered, Hyrule relaying the message.
"Okay now I'm worried, what's the small guy on my shoulder planning." Legend asked nervously.
Hyrule lifting hands to gently take the bird from his head, placing her down on a nearby rock with a pet.
"You'll see in a second." The fairy smiled with a tilt of his head, hair falling with the motion. Before he shrank in the blink of an eye. To a normal fairys size, Legend could only blink dumbly as Hyrule fluttered in place, waiting he noticed.
Picori chittering something from his shoulder, before he felt a strong magic pull him. He landed with an oof on giant mushrooms inside a what looked like the inside of the stump he was sitting on.
Wait-
A small thumping alerted the presence of the Minish, who was now almost the same size as himself (Almost, he was still tiny compared to the others), as he scampered over and helped the merman down from the fungi, and over to a waiting Hyrule by the exit of the stump. The minish and fairy sharing a quick tight hug, before the merman was picked up and held again.
The minish handed Legend a small pale brown thing that looked edible, smelled bitter, but nice. And was told to eat it by Hyrule.
It was an uncomfortable mess with his hearing, a soft static and deafness before it settled and he could understand the mouse guys greeting.
Getting a good look at the world as it was now that he was smaller. It looked huge, and so much more different, things he'd never notice before in full view now. All though he'd never really seen what the surface had to offer anyway. Intill the poachers of course. But still.
"I better grow again before I'm returned home." Legend smirked.
Getting a short laugh from Hyrule.
"You will when when we get to my fountain."
Picori blew a quick whistle with his pinky fingers at a higher note than Hyrules from before. The willow bird peered up, and flapped over. Awaiting it's riders to board.
"You do know where my fountain is, right Picori?" The fairy asked with a nervous chuckle.
The minish nodded getting on the birds back.
No one needed to know he was lost, and add to his reputation. So it went unsaid.
Once they were all situated and Legend was held securely. The bird shot up into the sky at Picoris gentle command.
End
Good day/night whoever read this, hope your doing good^^
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kaimelia · 3 years
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Hypothetically
a/n: me? actually writing and posting? what is this??
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“Zola is watching YouTube downstairs. Bailey, Ellis, and Scout are all napping.” Link stopped in the doorway, staring at his girlfriend who was surrounded by piles of clothing. “What are you doing?” Amelia glanced up at her boyfriend momentarily before pulling a sweater out from the mess of clothes in front of her.
“Switching out my clothes. Putting all my maternity clothes in the bin and my normal clothes back in the drawers.” She folded a shirt, placing it onto the stack beside her. “We’ve only been in quarantine for a week, but I’m already so bored that this is entertaining.” She let out a breath and looked up at him. “Wanna help?”
“Why in the bin?”
“What?” Link sat down on the bed and picked up some of the clothes.
“Why are you putting your maternity clothes in the bin?” Amelia paused and turned around to look at him, clearly confused by his question.
“Because I’m not using them anymore? I don’t need them in the drawers, so I’m going to store them in the attic.” He shook his head, folding a pair of pants and pausing for a moment.
“No, I mean, you’re keeping them?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” Link paused again, his eyebrows furrowing as he listened to her.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” His voice was soft as he sat up on the bed, brushing his hair back with his hand.
“Are you okay? You’re being weird.”
“Are you pregnant again?” Amelia’s head snapped back to glare at him as he stared down at her. She let out a small laugh before realizing he was serious.
“Scout’s literally two weeks old, we haven’t had sex, how would I possibly be pregnant?” Link raised his hands up in defense and shrugged.
“I don’t know! I just don’t understand why you’re keeping all of the maternity clothes.”
“Meredith kept hers after Ellis was born and most of these are hers, plus I’ll need them again if we have another baby.” She moved back to the clothes in front of her, standing up and opening the second drawer on the dresser.
“Another baby?” Amelia closed the drawer and turned around, leaning against the furniture behind her. She crossed her arms across her chest and tilted her head to the side.
“Are you having an aneurysm?”
“No, I just, are we going to have another baby?” He stood up off the bed, picking up a stack of folded shirts and handing them to her.
“I mean, that would be way in the future, why are we talking about this?”
“You’re keeping all of your maternity clothes! Do you want to have another baby?” Amelia stepped towards him, placing a hand on his chest.
“I haven’t really thought about it, have you?” Her voice grew softer as she smiled while looking up at him.
“No, that’s why I’m-”
“Freaking out?” Amelia interrupted. Link wrapped his arms around her waist and shook his head in amusement.
“I wouldn’t say I was freaking out, just a little shocked.” Their eyes locked as he grinned toothily. The brunette paused in thought for a moment, taking a deep breath.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing, you know? To have another baby eventually, as long as Scout doesn’t drive us crazy.” His eyes widened. “What?”
“So one day, we’ll have another baby?”
“This is all hypothetical, Link.”
“I know, it’s just that I always wanted a sibling growing up and I think it’d be nice for Scout to have a sibling, even if that’s not anytime in the near future.” She stepped back, sitting down onto the floor in her previous position.
“When are you thinking?” Link’s eyes widened again as he sat down on the carpet next to her.
“Wait, are we seriously talking about this?” Amelia shrugged.
“Well, obviously nothing’s definite, but it’s nice to have some sort of plan for the future, right?” She closed the plastic bin after filling it with the neatly folded clothes from her pregnancy. Part of her knew that what they talked about may never happen, but she couldn’t deny that it made her happy to think of one day expanding their family. “I’m a lot younger than my siblings, I think that’s one of the reasons I never really bonded with any of them, even when we were little.”
“Not too far into the future, then. And we should definitely wait until this whole pandemic is over, and we can get our own place and settle down.”
“A house. Not until after we get a house. I love Mer and the kids, but we need our own space eventually.” He hummed softly in agreement. “And, maybe not until after we get married?” Link stopped folding the shirt in his arms. “I mean, I know we haven’t really talked about it, but I do want to get married someday if that’s what you want, unless-”
“We’re just talking about everything, huh?” She looked down into her lap, a slight blush spread across her cheeks. “But, I do want to get married someday, Amelia. And, it should be before we have another baby probably, because I do plan on taking you on a proper honeymoon, and it’ll be harder to leave if we have a really young baby.”
“Okay, so house, marriage, and then baby?”
“Something like that, yeah.” He stood up and grabbed the bin beside her. “I’ll go bring this up?” Amelia nodded, watching as he walked out of the bedroom. She stood up, walking down the hallway to Meredith’s room, where their son had been sleeping. They had planned on living at Link’s old apartment once the baby was born but with the pandemic, it made more sense to stay at Meredith’s to help with the kids. Since she wasn’t home, Amelia had put Scout’s crib in the room to give them more space in her small bedroom. The brunette smiled at the sight of her son as his eyes wandered around the space above him.
“I thought you were asleep!” She whispered while holding out her arms to pick up the baby, soon cradling him in her arms. Amelia walked back into her bedroom and laid on the bed, placing the baby on top of her stomach and running her fingers through his short hair.
“He’s awake?” Link asked, once he had returned from the attic. Amelia nodded softly and patted the space next to her on the bed.
“Yeah, he didn’t fuss, though. I went to check on him and he was just staring at everything in the room, so I figured I’d bring him here for some cuddles.” Link grinned and laid down beside her. “He’s already gotten so much bigger. He’s only two weeks old.”
“I know.” He turned to look at his girlfriend. “Yeah, I’m definitely gonna want another one of these. Hypothetically, of course.” Amelia laughed gently, meeting his eyes.
“Obviously.”
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I’m going to preface this off with the fact that I’m a multishipper, and ship quite a variety of pairings, so this list might go all over the place. (Also, I’ve never written a fic rec before, though I have recommended fics and gushed about several often enough.) First of all, Above and Below Surface by Whitehorse102 immediately comes to mind. It’s probably my favorite AU fic that I’ve ever read for ZenYuki and possibly, my favorite I’ve ever read in general. It’s a Mer!AU; a type of AU that I’m always reading, but Whitehorse102 writes it so differently than any other Mer!AU, I’ve seen. The world building is insanely good, and the story reads a lot more like a published novel than a multichapter fanfic; there’s world building that even takes in parts of canon and plays around with them a bit. The ZenYuki is built up slowly. It’s a work in progress of the writer’s, and such a lovely read, that you absolutely would not regret reading it or rereading it. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12201172/1/Above-and-Below-Surface Apparently, the first fic I read was Of Assassins and Apples by Realm-Leaper, though since I sometimes accidentally refavorite stuff, changing the date that I favorited it or may have read stuff I didn’t favorite, I might not be accurate with this. It’s an Obi-centric oneshot collection with two oneshots, that I vaguely remember reading. (Eventually, I’ll share stuff that aren’t on Fanfiction.net, because I read all over the place.) I started rereading it, and it has almostly amazing Obi headcanons. The first oneshot is an Obi and Zen friendship piece, and honestly, maybe this is where most of my Obi headcanons came from as far as backstory. This oneshot collection of two oneshots is well worth your time! I’d wondered if the Mukaze and Obi scene was canon, had convinced myself that the talk they had was canon and took place during the Tanbarun Arc, but it was this fanfic, the second oneshot has an absolutely incredible and in character scene where Obi and Mukaze talk a few things out. (Honestly, it’s on my mind whenever I read a story where the two of them talk or interact in any way, and it a hundred percent affects the way I remember canon.) So do check it out! It’s a lovely two oneshot collection centering on Obi. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12933248/1/Of-Assassins-and-Apples
My favorite ANS OC right now is Setsuko/Vixen/fox, from Nostalgic Family by your1ocalpotato. I decided to read some of Potato’s work on a whim a few months back, once I realized that Potato wrote stories, and I absolutely adore Setsuko, especially within Nostalgic Family; I just love that universe, the added backstory for Obi, the found family dynamics, the way that Setsuko may be rough around the edges from the life she lived, but she cares deeply for her family, especially Obi. Just the sibling bond that Setsuko and Obi have in it is absolutely incredible, and in that particular universe, Setsuko has barely met Izana, so there’s a chance that that slow burn will eventually pick up, and Izana/Setsuko is such a lovely pair; they contrast very beautifully together, and it’s got to be my favorite Izana/OC pairing. Honestly, Potato’s stories are really good and more people need to read them. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926751/chapters/54800950 (The Den Series is the name of the particular series I’m talking about, though there is a different story with Setsuko, where she has a different backstory, and it’s pretty much all slowburn Izana/Setsuko. Both are worth a read, though I haven’t finished the longer, slow burn fic yet.) As for An AU I Took A Chance On (And Now Love), it would be the Quarantine AU, that Muselover1901 wrote: Here With(out) You. I figured I’d read a Quarantine AU, and that one was really beautifully written. It’s one of my favorites by Muse. (I may throw in a few other stories that I recommend by Muse, because she’s a super talented ZenYuki writer.) I usually avoid writing any Quarantine AUs or Pandemic AUs unless I really feel like I need to. The same usually goes with reading them; I’ve found at least one good Quarantine AU in about four or so fandoms now. (I usually only read one per fandom, if it seems interesting.) Honestly, this is probably my favorite Quarantine AU ever. It’s longer, and the world is pretty well established. (And it’s a really lovely domestic ZenYuki oneshot.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668279/1/Here-With-out-You I’m going to cheat a little on the next two, because I actually reviewed them (and reviewed them around the same time). First, I want to mention a fic that Made Me Laugh Out Loud; the first one that comes to mind is A Snowy Surprise by MuseLover1901. It’s the first one that pops into my head, though I know that I’ve laughed out loud at probably plenty of other stories. I actually was unsure before I read it whether it was a romantic story or not, and had been a bit nervous about jumping in and reading it, but once I started to read it, it was love at first sight. There’s a snowball fight in it, and I’ll have to say one particular hit made me laugh out loud. The story is mostly a friendship story. (The kind of story that I always long for more of in any fandom, because I love friendship stories as much as I love romance stories, and I also love family stories just as much.) But it’s lighthearted and doesn’t contain too many manga spoilers for me, since I’m terribly behind in the manga right now. (I haven’t read all of Muse’s work yet, because some of them have more manga spoilers than I’m ready to read. I’m biding my time for the day that I can just binge read them obsessively. It will happen.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668260/1/A-Snowy-Surprise So, here’s the story, I’m cheating by mentioning instead of the above one. (I reviewed them around the same time, so it works, I think.) For A Fic That Made Me Friends With The Author, I’d have to say A Quick Library Visit; it’s a short, sweet read, and if you want quick ZenYuki fluff, it’s a go to. I read it around the same time as the above two Muse fics, and for some reason, some of Muse’s newest stories didn’t have reviews, so I figured I’d review. Shortly after, I reviewed A Quick Library Visit and A Snowy Surprise, Muse messaged me to thank me. (She’s really cool by the way.) And then, a little while later, I joined the old ZenYuki Week Server, and Muse invited me over to a ZenYuki Writing Collab Server, and we became fast friends after that. (She remembered me based off of the two reviews I’d left on her stories, which was pretty cool and definitely humbling.) (Also, heads up, I’ll post the fanfiction links to Muse’s stories, but she also posts them on AO3, so they’re there as well.) (I wish there was a reverse for this panel, because through the ZenYuki Writing Server; I met phenomenal writers and began reading their work as well!) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668268/1/A-Quick-Library-Visit As for A Fic That Got Me Involved In The Fandom, I may be cheating by mentioning this too, since I starting writing fanfics for ANS practically right after I finished watching Season Two. The Mistress, the Plan, and the Secret by MisusedEllipses really made me long to write for Prince Raji/Shirayuki, and really kicked me off in that little rarepair haven, that Season Two won me over towards. This is an incredible fanfic, has absolutely amazing characterization throughout, and is incomplete on Fanfiction. (I’m hoping that somewhere online, it sits pretty and finished, waiting for me to rediscover it. I may be overly hopeful.) Okay, it ties in onesided!ObiYuki feelings, onesided!PrinceRajiYuki feelings, and wonderful characterization and sibling banter between Eugena and Rona! Honestly, Raji is written so well that it practically reads like canon: a very hard feat indeed for any writer to accomplish. Just, wow! I don’t know who to root for: Raji, Zen, or Obi! It diverges from canon right before the kidnapping, so Shirayuki never gets kidnapped, and eventually a rather interesting Raji and Obi friendship forms, though that’s right where the last current chapter is. It hasn’t been updated in four or five, I guess now or soon, years, but it’s well worth a read. I will recommend this to anyone if given a chance, regardless of whether the person is a multishipper or not. I love the friendship, the romance, the family, and humor that comes along with Raji’s siblings’ banter. It’s just a phenomenal canon divergent fic, and it’s what really made me realize there was a need for more Raji X Shirayuki fanfics, and it left me crazy about filling that gap. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12156186/1/The-Mistress-the-Plan-and-the-Secret I’m going to make a rather honest claim here, even though I’m not sure how often this writer will come up in what I gush about here, but this writer should: genee is one of my favorite writers in the fandom. (I’m not sure if genee is still active.) When I eventually thought of a fic with A Favorite Minor Character of mine, this particular story came up. history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes is an absolutely amazing precanon story where it focuses entirely on Ryuu, gives him some backstory! (It’s an amazing read, and it follows his journey to becoming a Court Herbalist.) Honestly, the fandom needs a lot more Ryuu fics. (On a side note, a fic by a different writer also came to mind with this, but since that’s more romantic than this gen fic, I figured I’d stick with this one. The other one that comes to mind is the only fic where I could find Kai as a main character. It’s by a different writer, but if I can stick it into this recommendation, I will tell you more about it.) Genee writes really good fics. I know genee has a fanfiction account, but I think genee might have an AO3 as well. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12687531/1/history-doesn-t-repeat-itself-but-it-often-rhymes For Pre-Canon, I want to mention a lovely story by an incredible (mostly?) MitsuKiki writer that may not actually be active anymore. (Unless the writer uses a different site now.) (This story is actually not a MitsuKiki fanfic, though it is still one of my all time favorite stories by fiesa.) Roses, Violets by fiesa. It’s a beautiful story that focuses on Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki during the years since Kiki came there. Zen develops a crush on an OC, who doesn’t like him like that, who actually likes Mitsuhide, interestingly enough. It’s not really a romance story, as it focuses on the way time passes and uses summer and flowers to express that. The perspectives shift, so some parts may need to be reread to understand who is feeling that way, but it’s all written so beautifully. You get to see Zen develop a crush and get heartbroken, Mitsuhide trying to be really nice, knowing Zen likes the woman and sort of trying to let something happen between Zen and the OC. Though, Zen feels that that’s hopeless, since she likes Mitsuhide. It’s more a story of the friendship between Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki, and what growing up entails. It’s Zen before Shirayuki, and it makes for a rather lovely, read. (It’s a multichapter, though it’s not a super lengthy one as far as chapter count goes. It’s well worth a read though.) (fiesa and geneee I discovered around the same time, and I love what both of them write so much.) (So, if you like it, it’s always worth checking out the rest of fiesa’s work.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12864975/1/Roses-Violets I was just thinking over how to mention an incredible writer, that wrote two ZenYuki oneshot that I’ve read and fell in love with. (Spotted the oneshot section. If I have to refill part of the Bingo Board later, so be it.) The Art Of Watching Stars Fall by Zen Wisteria on Tumblr. The metaphors and images are just so pretty and beautiful and with gorgeous meanings. (The writer feels a bit like a poet, and since I love poetry, that’s a definite plus in my book.) It’s really fluffy and sweet and contains pretty much all of the wonderful reasons to ship ZenYuki. It’s a delight to read and to reread. It’s highly recommended by me. https://zen-wistaria.tumblr.com/post/117283326416/it-feels-like-years-since-shes-seen-his-face AU That Made Me Find The Source Material: Lyrias Station by Eclectic80. I’m cheating here too. Shh… I’ve been slowly getting into Star Trek over the years very deliberately, and I just loved this fic so much! I found it first on the ObiYuki Community, going through a lot older fics, and then fell in love with just the way that Eclectic80 wrote it! It’s an absolutely incredible Star Trek AU, and a lovely ObiYuki story. (I think I did start with reading Historical Fiction, and it surprised me by being a Star Trek AU.) (On the note of really great AUs, there’s a Star Wars AU for ObiYuki that’s incredible, that I’ll have to refind at some point, and an incredible Harry Potter AU. I actually asked a lot of questions to people who know Star Wars lore far better than I do, in order to work through how much of the Star Wars AU for ObiYuki could plausibly happen in canon. (I think it was all of it. It was a great and engaging read too!) The Harry Potter AU left me obsessed with it, and the accidental soul bonding spell, whoops. But, since I don’t remember their titles or who wrote them, I’ll have to recommend them some other day. (I think they are also far back on the community page. I haven’t finished exploring it, since I took a break a while ago.) Back to Lyrias Station, it’s an absolutely incredible read whether you know very little about Star Trek, nothing at all, or a lot. I fall somewhere in the middle, and honestly, it’s a fantastic read, whenever you want to dig in and explore. (I may have reread certain oneshots in it way too much for my own good, practically back to back. It’s a really wonderful reread as well.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414148/chapters/34487988 For A Fic That Gave Me A New OTP, though my OTP is hard to define, so I’m technically cheating here, but Let Me Be Bold by Kaedix. It’s an IzanaYuki story, and that is a pairing that I was curious about, but hadn’t really shipped until I read this oneshot collection. I absolutely need to read the third oneshot; it’s new, and bound to be incredible. But, the first oneshot had me sort of falling in love with Izana right alongside Shirayuki, and the second oneshot had me cheering for Shirayuki, and all in all, it’s an incredible read that is well worth your time, whether just to read something new or different or whether you are on the fence about this fabulous rarepair. (Since it did win me over to the ship, I’m including it here.) It’s incredible! Go read it! https://archiveofourown.org/works/20982494/chapters/49894448 I was trying to figure out a fic that I loved that was under a thousand words, and since I haven’t paid a huge amount of attention to the word count, I couldn’t think of one at first. So, I was going through one of the writers that I really like the writing of, and stumbled upon one that I immediately remembered. Importance by bountifulnuggets. I remembered it strictly as the wedding story where Zen and Shirayuki hugged Obi, who desperately needed a hug. I’ve never read anything like it before, and it’s saturated with friendship. (Nugget is a phenomenal writer, so basically anything by her is really good, so if you haven’t heard of her, go check out her writing. You won’t be disappointed.) (I got temporarily sidetracked before going through Nugget’s stories, by a story I hadn’t read by Eclectic80, a ZenYuki(!) story, that if for some reason, I extend and do more than a Bingo Board (or find another way to include), I’ll tell you the title of. Either way, the story by Nugget is a lovely hurt/comfort fic that is more comfort than hurt, and it’s definitely a beautiful read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433481 I’m going to pause here for now, even though I haven’t gotten a Bingo yet, because I’ve spent way too long today, compiling this list, and kind of want to share how far along it’s come so far. I recommend every single last one of these fics and several more, honestly they’re all so amazing!
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falseroar · 4 years
Text
The Light Keeper (Part 1)
((Story: William and his friend are finally ready to make the leap from sea to shore. It’s all William has ever wanted, but their last night together in the water may ruin all those carefully laid plans.
Warnings: mentions of blood and a shark attack.
A while back I kind of promised a fluffier fic to balance out the story I posted yesterday, and despite what it sounds like, this is it. This is another WKM Mer AU, a one shot completely unrelated to yesterday’s story, although there are some common elements like the “every step on land feels like knives” thing that I borrowed from Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. It’s a one shot that, um, managed to double in size when I rewrote it, so I’ll actually be posting it in two parts today to make it a little easier to read. Oh! And if anyone is curious, William and the others like him have mer forms based off of nurse sharks, which are apparently pretty chill, tend to stay in one place, and hang out in groups during the day while hunting alone at night, with only larger sharks to worry about.
Part 2 is up now.))
The mer sighed, his thick gray tail stirring the water of the underwater cave as he lay with his head resting on his arms, eyes scanning the rocky surface of the bay’s bottom outside and down below. There was movement in the water, as always, the flash of silver as schools of fish dipped in and out of the current, the waving streams of kelp that together with the brightly colored coral served to hide those not willing to venture out into the open water.
And past all of that, the sudden drop that marked the end of the bay and the start of the vast and dark depths of the ocean.
Here, alone, he felt the sting of just how quiet these waters were now. Sure, there were boats on most days, trailing their nets in the water or dropping those silly-looking traps down, but even today there were no shadows cutting through the waves overhead. 
He’d already lost count of how many days it had been since the others moved on, in search of less dangerous waters, not helped by how many times he had drifted in and out of sleep those first few days. There were stories that there had been more mer in these waters, back before the humans settled the bay, but even he could remember when his people weren’t the only ones in these waters, when others from up and down the coast would stop by in their migrations.
Now it was just him and the one he spent every day watching and waiting for, quietly afraid that today would be the day they failed to return.
They were just so…small.
It was the first thought that crossed William’s mind that night, when he spotted the unfamiliar shape moving among the forest of kelp. And fast, he realized when the distant figure froze at his shout before taking off toward the rocks.
He tried to keep up, but by the time he reached the other side of the bay, all he could see was a pair of eyes staring back at him from deep within a crevasse that he would have thought too tight for even one of the young mer to fit in.
“Shh, I’m not going to hurt you,” he had said, but they just pulled further back into the darkness and refused to answer until he gave up and swam away.
Except then he was on the lookout, always keeping an eye on that side of the bay when he ventured out to hunt. He was more than willing to keep his distance, if it meant getting a better idea of the stranger in the bay with a tail and coloration unlike any he had seen before.
“A migrater, probably from up the river that feeds into the bay,” one of the elders of the group had said, when William brought it up. “They move from saltwater to fresh and back again, but I’ve never heard of one on their own before.”
The other elders had looked uneasy at that, sharing a few possible theories, but William had stopped listening at that point. He didn’t waste any time going back to the crevasse, and to the surprise of both the other mer and himself he managed to get halfway in with only a bit of a struggle.
“Have you ever touched grass?!”
If William had been the sort of mer given to thinking things through, he might have realized how terrifying it might be to have a strange and much larger mer forcing his way into your shelter, but then he also might never have heard the stranger speak.
“…What?”
“Grass? The green stuff that just pops out of the ground, like kelp, but it’s…Well, I haven’t seen any up close, but it looks different, does it feel different? Upriver, did you ever see any humans? Did they ever see you?”
Confused, the stranger had slowly answered his questions. Yes, they had touched grass, no, it didn’t feel like kelp. Yes, they had seen humans, but they had always been careful to never be seen.
Of course, that just opened the floodgates for even more questions, some of which the stranger knew the answer to, others they just shrugged at. Until, finally, just as William was about to leave and hunt for the night, it occurred to him to ask one more question.
“What’s your name?”
“…Y/N.”
“I’m William,” he said, reaching an arm into the crevasse to envelop their hand in his own. “I’ll be back tomorrow night, okay?”
Before they could answer, he was swimming away.
That’s how it went for a few months, with the strange new mer gradually opening up and even venturing out to swim around the bay with William, although they never strayed out for long at night. They listened as he told them what little he had been able to learn about the humans of the bay by watching them, listening in to their conversations on the boats or even on the docks of the town when he ventured close enough.
“One day I’m going to go up there,” William had said one night, as they floated on the surface.
Y/N wrenched their eyes away from the rotating light of the tall tower that stood apart from the town, on a patch of rock that jutted out between the edge of the bay and the sea beyond, and followed his gaze to the town itself. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but how?”
“There’s a deep, deep water mer, in the rift where the sun does not reach,” William said, pointing in what he thought might be roughly the right direction. “It’s said that if you’re brave enough and determined enough, you can make a deal with that mer for anything. Including a spell to walk on land. Of course, you have to have something worth offering in exchange, or else I would already be gone.”
“I’m glad you’re still here,” Y/N had said, surprising William. Before he could answer, they scrunched up their nose and asked, “But deep water mer, aren’t they…”
“Absolutely massive, I’ve heard,” William said. He grinned at the smaller mer and added, “They’d probably snap you up as a snack.”
They had shoved him away (or tried to), protesting that they weren’t that much smaller than him, and the conversation had devolved into a bunch of jokes until they gave up and swam away. At the time, neither of them could have imagined that it would be Y/N who ventured down into the rift.
Now, William rose up, visible joy and relief spreading across his face as he spotted the blue of his friend’s tail, the dark shape sticking close to the sand and rocks as they swam. As soon as they reached his cave, William swept them up into a hug.
“William!” They struggled, but not much and certainly not enough to free their self from his hold. “Do you really have to do this every time?”
“I missed you,” he said, only relaxing his grip a little but apparently still enough for them to slip away. “How did it go? Tell me everything!”
They tried not to, but he saw their smile at the now familiar words. Before answering, they swam into the cave and came to rest on the mossy floor with a tired sigh.
“First things first, how is your fin doing?”
“Good enough I don’t think I should have to just stay in this cave all the time,” William answered, but he turned so they could get a good look.
It had been a regular day, dozing on and off with the others, before there was a scream and a flash of blood in the water. Their shelter had always felt safe, but with the snapping and lunging jaws at the entrance it suddenly seemed like a deathtrap.
William didn’t remember deciding, or even thinking before he surged forward and tackled the predator, rough skin tearing at his own as he locked arms around the thrashing body and pulled it away so the others had a chance to flee. He did remember the pain though, when both bodies slammed into the rock and suddenly those terrible, hungry jaws turned on him and tore into his pectoral fin.
Y/N carefully removed the makeshift kelp bandage and studied the wound before admitting, “It does look a lot better.”
“Thanks to you,” William said, and they just shrugged.
Like they hadn’t been the first mer he saw after waking up, covered in bruises and scratches after having somehow fended off that great white shark who had found its way into their waters. Like they hadn’t silently decided to stay with him, allowing the others to move on down the coast. Like they hadn’t tended to his wounds, day after day. Like they hadn’t hunted for him to make sure he had enough to eat. Like they hadn’t returned one day after venturing down into the darkness of the rift, trembling and with their hair sheared off, but bearing two identical shell necklaces on two separate strings.
“I think everything might finally be ready,” they said as they closed their eyes. “According to the deep water mer, that pair of ‘scissors’ was the last of the payment. That, and explaining that the humans call them ‘scissors’ and not ‘two sharp blades working as one.’ Still don’t know what all of that stuff is for, but it’s the last time I’ll have to go down there.”
William ran a hand over the back of their head, feeling the rough edges where their hair had only just started to grow back, and felt them shudder but lean into the touch.
“I should have helped,” he said, not for the first time.
“Going up there is…Walking hurts, William, even when you’re not wounded. That’s why the deep water mer said—”
“That I had to wait until my fin was healed,” William finished. “Y/N, please, I’m ready!”
“…Tomorrow,” they said, closing their eyes once again. “Just let me rest, and tomorrow we can…”
“Leave.” William felt a thrill at those words, but something in his voice made the other mer raise their head and look at him.
“You could still try to find the others,” they said. “It might take time, but we know what direction they went. Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“Am I sure?! Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of this? Even if—even if I thought I could ever swim like I used to, I don’t want to just find another place to settle down and spend my whole life in. I want to see the world, Y/N, and the deep sea…” William’s fingers brushed his fin and he winced. “Well, it’s never where I really wanted to go, is it?”
They relaxed at that, and William realized they had been worried for him, yet again. After all, they hadn’t asked before venturing down into the rift, most likely because they knew he would never have let them go on their own. He also realized that he wasn’t the only one whose life was about to change.
“What about you?”
“…It’s not like I have anything worth staying down here for,” they said. “Besides, someone has to make sure you stay out of trouble.”
“But isn’t there something you want to go on land for?” William pressed. “You’ve been up there several times now, is there anything worth leaving the water for?”
They took so long to answer that William began to fear there wasn’t going to be an answer, until they said, “It’s…beautiful, in a different way than the water. It hurts to walk, but feeling the grass under your feet makes it feel worth every step. And the music…”
They stopped, smiling at some memory, and William felt the tension easing in his chest. Enough to tease, “Now, I remember there was something about a way to get rid of that pain. What was it again…?”
Y/N turned their head away, but William just swam to their other side and pressed his face close to theirs until they answered. “True love’s kiss can make the spell permanent and banish the pain of leaving your world behind. Apparently.”
He cracked up into a laugh at their expression and the less than enthusiastic way they said it, same way the deep water mer did when they learned that particular part of the spell.
“So, have you found any dashing princes up above?” William asked. “Any fetching ladies catch your eye?”
“William.”
“At least tell me you’ve learned the light keeper’s name.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Then what have you even been doing up there?!”
“Getting what we need to survive,” they said, using their tail to push him away. “You keep this up, and I won’t tell you where I hid the clothes.”
“Joke’s on you, you already told me,” William said. They had explained how they had found a place near the shore to hide money and clothing, both of which they had been surprised to find was so easy to obtain in exchange for a few dozen pearls, although neither could figure out why the human in question would want so many.
“Like you were actually listening.”
“I wonder how it works if your true love isn’t a person,” William mused.
Y/N tried not to, but eventually gave in and asked, “Want to explain what that’s supposed to mean?”
“What if my true love is adventure, is exploration, is a little bit of madness every now and then? How am I supposed to kiss that?”
“Carefully.”
William chuckled, and as silence started to descend upon the cave an idea struck him.
“…Let’s swim up to the surface.”
“What? Please, William, I’m so tired—”
“But this could be our last night like this!” William shook their arm as gently as he could. “We can look at the stars together.”
“There aren’t any stars, there’s a storm coming in.”
“Even better!” William tried shaking them again, but they just groaned. “Come on, you love riding the waves. And maybe we’ll see someone?”
His encouraging tone did little to stir the other mer, and after a minute or so William decided it was time for desperate measures.
“Wha—William!”
Y/N’s eyes shot open as they felt the shell necklace go up and over their head, but the other mer just gave them a smile before leaving the cave. As he expected, it didn’t take long for them to catch up and start swimming circles around him as he ascended, eyes on the necklace clenched tight in his hand.
“Be careful with that!”
William answered by putting the necklace on to go with his own before catching the small mer in his arms. “Come on, we should see how your ‘true love’ is doing! Do you think he’ll be wearing the yellow again?”
“He’s not my true love, I don’t even know anything about him,” they protested.
“I know he looks like a clownfish in that getup,” William said.
“He does not! …He looks like a yellow tang.”
William laughed and pulled his friend up with him, until they both surfaced in the midst of huge waves that drew the water up before sending it crashing down, the roar of the swell almost as loud as the wind and thunder overhead. A bolt of lightning split the sky and William felt Y/N’s grip on his hand tighten.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” he said, or tried to, but he wasn’t sure if they could hear his voice over the noise. Still, they followed his lead and together they swam along, occasionally allowing themselves to be picked up and carried along with a wave that upon impact would leave both of them spinning along in its currents before another tried to drag them in. Above and below the water, they could hear each other’s laughter, enjoying the ride and the sudden shifts from air to water and back again
In the middle of the bay though, away from the rocks, the waves weren’t quite as rough and the two mer were able to tread water and watch the light spin around the top of the strange tower, illuminating the bay and the sea out beyond.
“Do you think there any ships out there?” William asked, peering out toward the horizon or the little bit of it that could be seen through the roiling clouds and water.
“I hope not,” Y/N said, before suddenly tightening their grip on his hand again. “William, that wave!”
He saw it too, already larger than any of the others before it and gathering strength as it passed through the narrow opening of the bay, drawing in the water until it seemed impossible that they could not see the corals down below. And drawing in the mer too, as they realized when they tried to dive and swim to shelter, only to find themselves rising higher and higher.
Just as the wave crested and began to descend upon the bay, William felt Y/N’s hand slip out of his own.
Once it was over, William found himself alone in the open water, dazed but uninjured. And with no sign of the smaller mer, no matter how far he swam or how much he called above or below water. He resurfaced what felt like hours later but may have only been minutes or even seconds after the crash and called again, tears joining the saltwater in his eyes so that he could barely make out the rocks in the distance. Much less make sense of the sight of the yellow-clad figure moving there, not until it was too late to do anything about it.
((End of Part 1. Link to Part 2.
Tagging: @silver-owl413 @skyewardlight @withjust-a-bite @blackaquokat @catgirlwarrior @neverisadork @luna1350 @oh-so-creepy @weirdfoxalley @95fangirl @lilalovesinternet-l @thepoolofthedead @a-bit-dapper @randomartdudette @geekymushroom @cactipresident @hotcocoachia @purple-anxiety-blog @shyinspiredartist @avispate @missksketch ))
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faejilly · 4 years
Text
author interview
tagged by @twistedsinews tagging: anyone who wants to blame me! (also, uh... no pressure: @junemermaid @jadesabre301 @firstaudrina @fancytrinkets @laughingmagnus)
Name
jilly
Fandoms:
Shadowhunters is most active atm, but historically also BioWare (Mass Effect/Dragon age) and whatever catches my eye re: Yuletide or the occassional gifty-prompt-fill-type-thing
Where You Post:
AO3, and I try to cross-post here on tumblr and on twitter (and occasionally I even think to mention a thing in a discord server or two?)
Most Popular One-Shot:
By hits/kudos, two are halves of one
By comments/bookmarks, i cannot touch because they are too near
Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:
Finished (tho only about 22k words, so it’s still not really long-fic for all it’s not a one-shot either): with an if in its soul
WIP: I am for you
Favorite Story You Wrote:
fAV0riTe?!
that’s an impossible nebulous criterion wtf
uh
today I am going to pick out of some dreaming tree
Because Fairy Tales! (In tone, not specifics.)
There’s a plot! (Said plot is a quest and very straightforward, but still!)
(because a dash of speculative metaphysics!)
BECAUSE THERE’S A FOREST THAT (sometimes) EATS PEOPLE! Or Demons. And stuff?
Romance and sex magic! Flirting over weird magical investigations! (My favorite lady Cat makes tea!) It was for a BANG. It’s the only Bang-Fic I’ve ever finished! It has pretty art!
It’s a good story, y’all should give it a try. (Even if I haven’t sucked you into watching the joyfully sincere trash-fire that is Shadowhunters. It’s Very AU! It stands alone whether you know the SH canon or not!)
Story You Were Nervous to Post:
known subjects because that is a heck of a niche fic, it’s about an OC designed to fit the fusion setting (Criminal Minds’ BAU) rather than the fandom the other characters are from (Shadowhunters), it’s an outsider POV of the main ship rather than being about said ship... It is basically five steps sideways from all the things that usually attract readers but wow, am I ever so glad I wrote it and posted it anyways.
I love Fuller. I may very well stick him into my actual-Shadowhunters-canon fic as a background character some day. <3
How You Choose Your Titles:
For Malec I cruise my way through my e.e. cummings complete poems book until I find a thing I like and then I poke at it ‘til a line falls out
For everything else I reference the canon or do something relatively literal, an emotion or an event or a description of the main character. Sometimes I grab someone else’s poetry or song lyrics! (I like things besides cummings, who knew. Me. I knew.)
/I’m bad at titles, y’all. SO BAD. Sometimes I get an AO3 email and don’t recognize my own title and have to click the link to figure out what fic someone liked. I honestly have no idea why anyone ever clicks on my fic, I am not good at selling them 😅
Complete:
Uh. Published? I have 104 completed fics on AO3!
(Excluding fanmixes (because not fic!) & ficlet collections, because counting those/their chapters gets REALLY WEIRD AND EXCESSIVE VERY QUICKLY.)
In-complete:
(published, and again excluding ficlet collections because those are both always finished and yet potentially never done)
FOUR:
12 Moons is an old DA2 game prequel fic that will never ever get any more but a few people seemed to quite like so I haven’t taken it down.
Persephone Rising is a Mass Effect collaborative fic, and my two co-authors and I just cannot seem to line up for writing together again, so it probably won’t ever get any more, but you never know. Life is weird. It could happen.
Next is if broken hearts were whole, (Malec soulmarks fic!) which I am still working on but I’m not going to post again until it’s all done. (To avoid more things like those first two.)
And last is i am for you, my epistolary!fluff fic! I posted a chapter for it last week and it’s actually pretty close to the end? Should only be a couple more chapters, I just have to, you know, actually write them.
Do You Outline:
I wish. So much no.
Coming Soon / Not Yet Started:
More Clizzy post-canon fic. It appears to be turning into ficlets rather than a long-fic, but IDK, we’ll see what happens.
I also have a wing!fic that is remarkably about politics more than wings, some relationship reconciliation/Pandemonium Porn, a s3 retelling/sequel to with an if in its soul, mer!Alec sequels, priest!kink, a weird mafia/procedural/omegaverse thing that was SUPPOSED to be a sex!farce and isn’t cooperating, a Practical Magic thing I want to do for Halloween and MANY MANY Shadowhunters CODAS/FICLETS.
And maybe some day I’ll dig the Persuasion!AU or the pro-bono-porn or the sequel to out of some dreaming tree out of the archive and try them again. Or some #7kpp fic, or the Code: Realize and Scarecrow & Mrs. King epilogues I started!
My brain is full of possibilities. I don’t actually finish a lot of them though, clearly. 😳😅🙃
Do You Accept Prompts:
Yes. I may not fill them, but I am never unhappy to receive them. <3
Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write
Malec Arranged Marriage AU. I did a twitter thread on why I like this particular trope, like, literally two years ago and then I tried to write it for the 3b countdown thing but realized very quickly that it was going to be MUCH TOO BIG to finish in time, and started something else (Pandemonium Porn iirc?) which also didn’t cooperate, and then I finally managed i cannot touch because they are too near instead! And now I’ve pulled the Arranged Marriage back out for the @wipbigbang​ this year so HOPEFULLY YOU WILL ALL SEE IT AT LAST IN AUGUST.
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cielpansyhive · 4 years
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So I’ve been a bit out of touch with a lot of people on tumblr the past... eternity... Could you tell me about some of the projects you’re working on? (Even if it’s just “I thought about it for 5 minutes in the shower last week”)
Hey dear! 💖 All good, I haven’t been the most social either. (I want to be social, but I don’t want to annoy anyone.)
So my plans are to have 1 smutty one-shot for Easter, bun!Ciel and gardener!Sebastian…which I haven’t started yet…oops. For the month of May (mer-may) I’m going to try to have ‘The Little Merman’ fic done as well as a prequel-ish Sebagni smut one-shot, ‘Fins.’ I have a few things I want done for June seeing as it’s pride month and Devil’s Day is also in there. 💖
Now, what I’ve actually been working on! Heh. I’ve been getting more done with Skilamalink, my Crimson Peak AU. I’ve added around 1,500 more words to it. I need to get the first chapter done and posted as I feel this might be my best work yet. It’s turning out even darker than I originally thought but I’m enjoying writing it so much! It feels like writing canon, because of the setting, but with more freedom. I love writing this Sebastian as well. The contrast of his relationship with either twin, I finally feel like I have a grasp on writing him. I’m trying to keep the basic plot but I’m adding more twists and focusing more on all the little things behind the scenes. I never get hyped with my own writing, but this…yeah I’m excited.
I also have 80% of the first chapter for Razor’s Edge, Black Swan AU, done. Another I’m pretty excited for. For this AU there is no rival black swan. There’s Lizzie who is Ciel’s understudy, but she’s not much of a threat. So this does greatly differ from the movie, but hopefully will be just as entertaining. Sebastian is an English dancer that the company brought in to play the role of the prince. Ciel instantly starts crushing on him. The first chapter is fluffy compared to the rest of the fic. Don’t be fooled there is murder just around the corner. :)
Lastly, I am plotting out an angel and demon AU, ‘Break Your Halo.’ Following the burning of a popular church a few survivors are found. Both Ciel and Sebastian are left with amnesia and in critical condition. As they heal, impossibly fast, they both realize that neither of them must be human. They bond as they are roomed together and report any findings to each other. (Not like they can tell the doctors. Might as well share with each other.) With little to go off of they must break out of the hospital and go back to the church to see if they can remember what happened and who they are. I’m thinking around 6 chapters? I’ll have to see how much I write between plot points.
I keep thinking of headcanons for ‘Sweet Dreams are Made of These,’ but I need to finish the one-shot before I even think of extra AU things. I’m excited for y’all to meet incubus/succubus Ciel. 😈
Of course Revamp and any other works I’ve mentioned are still on my list. 💖
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rushingheadlong · 5 years
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As of December 2020, only Reader-insert fics are being cross-posted to tumblr. Please see my AO3 for additional non-Reader fics or check the #my fic tag for my monthly AO3 round-up posts.
♪ Requests: CLOSED ♫ General tag: #my fic ♪ Short imagines: #my hc ♫ My AO3: RushingHeadlong ♪ Updated: December 22, 2020
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Almost Make Believe
♪ 18+, smut, Brian May/F!Reader, semi-public sex ~2.6k words ♪ When you saw Brian’s performance at the Big Mama Club you thought nothing could ever top being front-and-center to him rocking out in a tight black tank top… and then you run into him a bar after the show, and your night goes from great to amazing.
Together With You
♪ 18+, smut, Brian May/F!Reader, cockwarming, ~1.9k words ♪ You spend an intimate morning keeping Brian company as he works.
Make My Life Worthwhile
♪ Fluff, Female Reader, ~3.1k ♪ You always know to expect a few surprises at any Queen party. You just weren’t expecting a surprise like this. **Halloqueen Event gift**
Prompt: Sex under the stars 
♪ Light Smut, Female Reader, ~500 ♪ No kinks, just soft and gentle sex
Take Me Home Tonight 
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~4.6k ♪ You’re not expecting Brian May, of all people, to walk into your record shop late one evening, but when he asks you to go home with him you’re certainly not going to pass on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have all your fantasies fulfilled.  ♪  Dirty talk, oral (m&f receiving), fingering, a bit of size kink
I Love Your Mind (But Give Me Your Body) 
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~3.4k ♪ The moment you lay eyes on your substitute math tutor you know that you’re in for a world of fun. He just might need a little encouragement to realize it too.  ♪ Height kink, semi-public sex, shy!70s!Brian
Teasin’ Around With Me 
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~3.7k ♪ Brian’s hands are paying the price after the first rehearsal following some time off. You know a trick or two to help him out, but it turns out that Brian has other plans on his mind.  ♪ Hand kink, fingering, teasing & orgasm denial
Prompt: Angry sex with Bri
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~1k ♪ Angry sex (consent is explicitly given)
Just Excitation 
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~3.6k ♪ You’ve always had a thing for Brian’s hands (and his arms, and his fingers, and-). But wanting his hands wrapped around your neck is certainly a new one, even for you.  ♪ Choking, breathplay, semi-public sex, minor D/s and minor facefucking
Wrap Those Arms Around Me 
♪ Smut, Female Reader, ~2.3k ♪ Brian knows that whenever he wears tank tops you want to jump his bones. This time, though, he’s going to make you wait for it. ♪ Arm/hand kink, dirty talk, slight D/s, orgasm denial
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Our Love Will Keep You Warm
♪ Fluff, Unspecified Reader, ~3k ♪ On the day of a Queen music video shoot, you find a few ways to take care of Brian and show him just how much you love him.
Dear Friend, We’ll Carry On
♪ Light angst and H/C, eventual smut, Trans Male Reader, ~9.5k words ♪  You’ve known Brian since the early days of Queen, but when he comes to New Haven on his solo tour you haven’t seen him in years. You’re both different people now but, as the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same…
One Hundred and Thirty-Six
♪ H/C, Unspecified Reader, alcoholism, ~900 words ♪  You are 136 days sober - and there are two bottles of wine on the counter in front of you
Concept: Soft, Cozy Moments With Brian
♪ Fluff, Unspecified Reader, ~400 words
Take My Breath Away
♪ Kink & smut, Unspecified Reader, ~20k ♪ Brian has a thing for drawing sex out for as long as possible, but it’s harder to do that when breathplay is involved… at least until you come up with a bit of an unorthodox solution: corsets. ♪ Sub!Bri, corsets, breathplay, kink exploration & negotiation
Prompt: Brian in a tight corset 
♪ Kink but no smut, Unspecified Reader, ~750 ♪ Breathplay, corsets, sub!Bri
Prompt: Jewelry shopping for Brian 
♪ Fluff, Unspecified Reader, ~800
Prompt: Being friends with Brian 
♪ Fluff, Non-Romantic, Male Reader, ~800
Prompt: Brian taking care of Reader 
♪ Fluff, Unspecified Reader, ~600
Oh, You’re Good For Me 
♪ Kink but no smut, Male or Unspecified Reader, ~1.5k ♪ Brian comes to you to be tied up and to submit.  ♪ D/s (sub!Bri), rope bondage
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Make It Up (As You Go Along)
♪ H/C, Male Reader, ~2.2k ♪  Freddie’s birthday is quickly approaching… and so is yours. The only problem is that Freddie doesn’t know that, and you don’t particularly want to tell him.
Very, Very Frightening
♪ Fluff, Trans Male Reader, ~2.9k ♪ You’re not a fan of power outages, but Freddie is there to remind you that you don’t have to face it alone.
It’s (Not) So Easy 
♪ H/C, Male Reader, ~2.6k ♪ 5 times you and Freddie hid your relationship and 1 time you didn’t
So Much Ado 
♪ H/C and Fluff, Trans Male Reader, ~3.1k ♪ Freddie wants to buy a cat, but some things are more important than that.
One Year of Love 
♪ Fluff, Trans Male Reader, ~5.5k ♪ Your first anniversary with Freddie is quickly approaching, and you know that you don’t have the money to spoil him with the lavish sorts of gifts that he deserves. But with a little help from a friend, you realize that you don’t need to buy his love and you instead set about creating an evening that the two of you will never forget. **ANatF Event gift**
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Concept: Dating Roger in 1974
♪ Fluff, Female Reader, ~700 words **STL Event gift**
Got Me In A Mood
♪ Light smut and h/c, Female Reader, ~5.3k ♪ You and Roger are friends, who just happen to occasionally sleep together. It’s just a bit of fun, nothing serious… until you realize that you’ve gone and fallen in love with him. **TGIC Event gift**
Prompt: Roger confesses his love to his long-term friend 
♪ Fluff, Female Reader, ~1k
You Could Know Me 
♪ H/C, Gen, Non-Binary Reader, ~2.8k ♪ You knew that coming out as non-binary wouldn’t always be smooth sailing, but you weren’t expecting to face rejection at every turn. Luckily your dad, Roger Taylor, is there to support you no matter what.
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Prompt:  Picking out a Christmas tree with John
♪ Fluff, Unspecified Reader, ~600
Still Come Back to You 
♪ Fluff, Male Reader, ~1k ♪ John returns home late after wrapping up the latest Queen tour, and he’s missed you just as much as you’ve missed him.
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Baked With Love
♪ Gen, fluff, vague modern Queen AU, ~1.2k ♪ No matter how famous they get, Queen has one birthday tradition that they refuse to give up.
Lockdown Blues
♪ Gen, H/C, vague modern & early Queen AU, ~2k words ♪ Freddie has made it his mission to keep everyone’s spirits up while they’re stuck at home. He doesn’t think the others have noticed - but they have, and they’re ready to remind him that they have his back too.
Prompt: Brian May & Tony Iommi
♪ Gen, fluff, current era, ~400 words
And I Get Afraid
♪ H/C, Gen, early Queen, ~4.5k ♪ Queen has come to a standstill as they try to get their debut album released, and John seems to be the only one left who isn’t optimistic about their chances for success. Now with his graduation quickly approaching, he finds himself struggling to decide between sticking by the band- and his friends- or leaving this sinking ship while he can still make something of his future.
Losing My Way
♪ H/C, angst, gen, early Queen, ~4.5k ♪ Brian is burning himself out trying to stay on top of all of his responsibilities. He knows it’s only a matter of time until something gives, and he knows that something will probably be his thesis - but that doesn’t make his failure any easier to stomach. **Companion to And I Get Afraid**
The Hazier Days
♪ Fluff, Gen, early Queen, ~1.6k ♪ It’s too hot for embarrassment as Brian finally caves to the summer heat.
Prompt: Freddie loses the week’s earnings from the stall
♪ H/C and Fluff, Gen, slighty Christmas themed, ~1k
Car Song 
♪ H/C and Fluff, Gen, BoRhap references, ~500 ♪ Roger and John tease Brian about his song “Driven By You” while working on Made in Heaven
Haul Away, You Rolling Queens
♪ AU (Nautical & Mermaid), H/C, Angst with a happy ending, Gen, ~40k ♪ It was Freddie who told them stories of the Kingdom of Rhye, an ancient mer kingdom that once ruled the seven seas before disappearing a thousand years ago. According to Brian it was just a myth, but Freddie was always certain that it was real and waiting to be discovered - but he never found proof of it before he fell sick, and vanished suddenly without a trace.
Now, 25 years later, Roger stumbles across a new clue that could lead them to Rhye - one with unexplained ties to their lost friend. But convincing Brian and John to take a leap of faith and join him in one final adventure is only the first hurdle. If they want to weather the rough seas ahead, they’ll have to not only sail into the unknown but finally face the unanswered questions and lingering grief left from Freddie’s disappearance.
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Take a Picture (It’ll Last Longer)
♪ Jimercury, Modern/Everyone Lives AU, fluff, ~800 words ♪ If Jim was still alive and still with Freddie he would absolutely have an instagram account where he mostly posts photos of their cats and the garden.
Wanna Be Beside You Now
♪ Jimercury, fluff and smut, phone sex, ~800 words ♪ Jim receives a call one night when Freddie is away.
Love in the Shape of Things
♪ Maycury, Modern AU & early Queen, H/C and fluff, ~63k ♪  They’re both searching for their place in the world, but it takes a new flat and a housewarming gift gone awry for Freddie and Brian’s friendship to slowly turn into something deeper. And through long evenings of commiseration and camaraderie, their feelings for each other continue to grow - until one misunderstanding threatens to tear everything apart.
Buttons
♪ Maycury, early Queen, pining, ~700 words ♪ A moment of tenderness before a show leaves Brian yearning.
Take This Message
♪ Two Maycury fics, one AU & H/C, one fluff, ~500 words each ♪ Two short Maycury fics inspired by the Calling All Girls music video. In the first, Freddie with the help of Brian has to propose the video idea to Roger. The second is a short AU based on the video itself.
Love Him From Where You Are
♪ Maylor, H/C, pining, early Queen, some vague allusions to sex, ~7.2k ♪  Five times Roger was sure that Brian didn’t love him, and one time he knew that he did.
The Fire You Ignite
♪ Maylor, 18+, sub!Brian, bondage, gags, temperature play, orgasm denial, ~3k ♪  Roger takes his time playing with Brian.
Trust Issues
♪ H/C, Maylor, ~500 words ♪ Roger borrows the Red Special when Brian isn’t there, and Brian freaks out.
Thrill Me, Chill Me, Fulfill Me
♪ Poly!Queen, 18+, vague modern AU, crossdressing/corset kink, ~1.7k ♪  The boys plan an evening of dressing up and watching Rocky Horror Picture Show, but the effort that Brian puts into his outfit takes the others by surprise.
I’ll Put A Spell On You
♪ Dealor, 18+, crossdressing, slight D/s (sub!John), ~5.9k ♪ John is tired of always getting teased for wearing “boring” costumes, so he decides to spice things up this year - and when Roger makes sure to show his appreciation for John’s costume choice, they both end up having a good time.
Alone Time
♪ 18+, smut, Brian May solo, masturbation & toys, ~1.1k ♪ Brian always tells himself that he’s going to take his time with this... but he never does.
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areyawinninson · 5 years
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My Favorite Fics/ Fic Recs (Part 2/???)
(Oof, back at it again with the same shit. I’ve found a lot of good fanfics recently and thought I should make another one of these.) (The first one is here )
Hand Speak by pissunicorn
Author’s Summary:
“You think you’re some hotshot, huh? You’re not going to even apologize, aren’t you?” Bakugou folded his arms, waiting for him to get on his knees with grief, but he turned around and picked something up from the counter inside. “Hey! Hey are you serious? I’m talking to you!” Bakugou had no qualms about barging into his house uninvited. “I said I’m talking to you! Are you Deaf-”
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I just finished reading this and my heart has been ripped out of my body and then put back together with 2 year old scotch tape. It was a lot... But the first few chapters are super fluffy so there’s that to look forward to before it stabs you in the chest with no remorse. But the tags don’t lie, there is a a good ending. Also there are a lot of interesting stuff you can learn about Deaf culture so you can learn and cry at the same time, what more can you ask for?
This contains / warnings:
There is misunderstandings, sex, and unhealthy coping methods. Also Izuku is  Deaf.
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Debauchery by GreyLiliy
Author’s Summary:
Izuku knew that he and Kacchan were meant to be mates. He didn’t care that others would look down at him as an Alpha for choosing a Beta when he could have had any Omega he wanted. Kacchan was worth it. Kacchan had always been worth it.
Katsuki wished Deku would take a hint and realize his courting wouldn't get him anywhere. There were no relationships in Katsuki’s future, not when he had so much to hide.
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Oof, um this is probably not a lot of people’s cup of tea and really deserves the mature tag. Uhh I don’t want spoil anything so this may be a bit hard to explain. So much shit happens to Katsuki and even in the end Katsuki and Izuku relationship is a bit questionable. It’s a very deal with the card your dealt and not everything is perfect type of fic. Even the author calls the ending bittersweet so if you’re ready for that then this is the fic for you. Also there’s a sequel called Dolorous but I wouldn’t even look at that if you don’t want spoilers.
This contains / warnings:
Check the tags of the fic for it’s warnings because there is a lot. When I say check the tags I mean really really check the tags. I got triggered by a few things so be very mindful of the tags. Some scenes are also just kind of ... uncomfortable so be careful of that. This also a A/O/B fic there’s also that.
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The Smell of Lemongrass by NightshadeDawn
Author’s Summary:
Kaminari has known three absolutes since he was a child: he'll always be known as an idiot, being blond in Japan was doing him no favors, and because he was meant to be an Omega, he'd be married before he turned twenty.
There's a fourth, but he only learned that he's in love with Kirishima Eijirou recently.
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This one is a lot more calm then the others in this list. This is the first Kirikami-centric fic I’ve read so I don’t really have anything to compare it to but I think it was cute! It’s short and soft with a little bit of angst to even everything out. There’s a squeal called Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice that focuses on the children but I just started it so idk how it is.
This contains / warnings:
Not much that I can think of. This is a A/O/B fic and the Mpreg so there’s that.
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green around the gills by umbrage for dekuberry:
Author’s Summary:
In a world where mythical mer are born and bred for entertainment, Bakugou abruptly finds himself charged with the care of a battle-scarred betta.
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This one only has 3 chapters so far but I’m hooked already! It’s really interesting already, I don’t wanna talk to much about it and ruin it but bkdk are already really cute together and I’m excited to see what happens next!
This contains / warnings:
Not much really, not anything that you don’t already get from the tags.
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Summer Camp From Hell by LocalTrashBin
Author’s Summary: A fight breaks out between Izuku and Katsuki, it's the straw that breaks the camels back and the two are forced between the option of working in a summer camp together or expulsion.Let's just say it goes just about as terribly as you'd expect.
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Uhh I’m sure most people have already read this fic because it’s kinda old by now and tagged as “GBFOAT: Greatest BakuDeku Fics Of All Time” so maybe I’m just late to the party but I really like this fic! I don’t want to go on and on about this fic since it seems pretty well known but it’s definitely a good read if you haven’t read it yet.
This contains / warnings:
Katsuki a dick in the beginning but what else is new honestly?
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I might make another one of these later because I left out a few because this post is long enough as it is but Idk. 
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joysmercer · 6 years
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Grey’s Anatomy 14x23 Final Thoughts
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these...but this one blew me away. Wow, what a rollercoaster! By the end of it, we were left knowing exactly who April Kepner is. Let’s get started. 
The episode starts with April sending out very April-like invitations to the Jolex wedding. The scene itself isn’t that important (save for lines like “It might be too fancy for me to go to” and “there’s no way Alex made this, it’s got Kepner written all over it”)…but it got me thinking -- what the heck is Owen Hunt, captain of disorganization, going to do without April running his ER? She excels at bossing people around and making sure everything happens in logical steps, and without her, no one is going to know anything and they’ll lose their trauma cert or something (just watch).
April’s whole storyline this episode was so beautiful. For once, it wasn’t too dragged out (like season 12), or too rushed (like this season’s storylines). Seeing the other doctors -- even Grey, Karev, and Bailey, who aren’t necessarily friends with Kepner -- absolutely anguished over her was heartbreaking. It also had the vibe of old Grey's, where MAGIC was so close to each other that when Izzy was diagnosed, all of them were a mess. We haven’t really been seeing that whole-group togetherness in later seasons, only mostly in pairs (kepzona, merlex…). It was a good reminder that these doctors have been working together for years, and that they’re as good as siblings. 
I would like to address the complaints I’ve been seeing on Twitter that Meredith “cried more for April than for Derek,” or that “she wasn’t even Kepner’s friend, so why does she have more screentime?”. I can’t really speak for Derek’s death, but I’m assuming that the episode didn’t show Meredith’s full reaction. Also, I’m not one bit surprised she was so upset over Kepner today. She and April first became friends in the Shooting episode, when they comforted each other as Derek was undergoing surgery. As general surgeons, I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them became fast friends. The episode also made it very clear that the situation directly mirrored the Drowning in season 3(?), so again, Meredith feels like she should be there to help Kepner get through it. 
As for Meredith herself, I’m really hoping she’s not retiring the scrub cap. While I don’t care if she dates other people or not (I actually liked Riggs), and I’m glad she’s moving on / finally feeling 100% OK after Derek’s death, retiring the cap seems like too much. Then again, I nearly lost it at the removal of the post-it and the tumor on the wall, so I may just be nostalgic. 
Back to April -- did anyone find it weird that she and Matthew were back together? Don’t get me wrong, I never truly believed she and Jackson were soulmates, and Matthew is a sweetheart. But it did seem random and out-of-the-blue, especially since Matthew refused to see her at all the last time he was in the hospital. Anyway, that aside, I’m so happy she’s happy and in love again. Jackson’s horrible sadness (his crying scene left me in tears) showed that the two of them clearly have a lot of love for each other, and always will…but I think it’s changed from romantic to best-friend love, where they’ll do anything for each other, but they don’t have feelings for each other. Now they’re both in loving relationships (although I hate that Jaggie is a thing), and I feel a little better about Kepner’s departure. Except not really, because Sarah Drew’s acting has been phenomenal this season, and I really want to see more Japril friendship scenes and April being badass because we don’t have enough of either. 
Also, we finally got some meaningful Kepzona scenes this episode! Yay!!! Arizona’s departure is also shaping up in a beautiful way. While, again, I hate that JCap is leaving, and I think its an idiotic decision of the writers, I’m glad she’s leaving to a) be with her daughter and Callie; and b) she’s not giving up fetal surgery or her booming career or doing any of the other things Callie did in her departure. Bailey summed it up perfectly with her opening monologue about AZ being a pixie stick and turning into a wonderful surgeon and human being. I think forming her own Health Center is a wonderful way to leave GSMH, and truly gives Arizona the exit she deserves. Also, is anyone really upset Nicole Herman (Geena Davis) didn’t appear in more episodes?? I freaking love her, she may be my favorite guest character on this show ever. 
Owen Hunt is the third most important friendship April had at Grey Sloan, and while we don’t get to see them together that often anymore, today more than made up for it. Not only is it a mentor-mentee relationship, I truly believe that Owen looks at April like a little sister -- the way he reacted in every scene of the episode reminded me of how he treated Megan too. Like I said before, I don’t know what he’ll do with April gone, but like KMK said in an interview, it’s definitely going to be hard for him. 
While we didn’t get to see a lot of baby Leo today, the good news is that Betty came back! I don’t know if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I’m really happy Amelia willingly chose to foster a girl not unlike herself. I think by the end of the process, she will realize that maybe, just maybe, she does want a child. The way she acted with Betty today, scolding, nurturing, and joking with her, shows that even in a few weeks, they have become attached, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they teach each other a lot. Deluca was also a surprisingly great character today as well, convincing Amelia not to panic about Herman. Let’s hope he stays this way. 
Unfortunately, the rest of the young residents/interns were just as stupid as they always have been. Roy is back, and his one great line was “I like Doctor Kepner.” He should have stayed fired. As for Glasses and Hellmouth, why would they even expect an invitation? Did they learn nothing from the last time they showed up to a party uninvited? jesus christ. Lastly, where the heck is my favorite intern Casey? He was around in, like, 1 episode and then disappeared.  How annoying.
Anyways, you don’t know how happy I am to find out that Apri wasn’t killed off. She definitely does not deserve that. And I’m super happy Kepzona is sticking around for the wedding before getting written off. Silver Linings, anyone? 
Favorite Quotes (because there were a lot):
"I thought you were a pixie stick. When I met you, I thought you were an empty vessel full of sugar who skated in a hospital. I didn’t know then that it would be one of the greatest privileges of my life to know you, and work with you." -- Bailey
“It might be too fancy for me to go to” -- Jo 
“All I see is yellow, yellow, and yellow” -- Alex
Alex’s monologue + “You gotta stop saying ‘was,'” -- Mer
“Don’t take April, please. I’ll do whatever you want, Don’t take her away, OK?” -- Jackson <3
“She’s in love” -- AZ
“She would have wanted us to pray” -- Owen
“you prayed for me, and it worked.” + “You always come and bring me back” + “I’m here, I’m alive” + “I’ll leave that up to Jesus” -- April <3
"So you did brain surgery while you needed brain surgery?” -- Betty
“She’ll take my hearing next” -- Herman
“I downloaded my whole brain into that girl” -- Herman
“It’s going to be so beautiful” -- Jo
The promo for next week looks really good, and I’m super excited to be back at the barn (think April planned it on purpose?) Anyway, until next time :) 
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mazurah · 6 years
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Clockwork City Main Quest Discussion
WARNING: Contains Spoilers!
Okay! The Clockwork City in Screenshots is completely posted, so it’s time to get into the lore! Here are my thoughts on the main quest.
The Good:
The graphics, the design, the art deco aesthetic; visually, the Clockwork City is everything I could have hoped for!
Kireth and Raynor are the most adorable siblings! I haven’t encountered them in the main game yet, but apparently they’re recurring characters. I look forward to finding them.
The Blackfeather Court is hilarious. I love them all. I also love that Nocturnal basically got defeated by a bunch of talking crows who got to Seht’s metal city and were just like, everything here is shiny! We must have it! And then went off to do their own thing.
Speaking of Nocturnal, I really liked the depiction of the Evergloam. We rarely get to see ingame depictions of the realms of Oblivion, and when we do, it’s always great. Nocturnal’s realm really seemed to fit her. It coulda been darker, but I understand why the game devs decided to make it twilight instead of straight up night for playability reasons.
Shadows as souls or pieces of souls is an interesting concept, and I wonder if it has something to do with Shadow Magic, like what Nightblades (the character class) use. I’m looking forward to doing some more research into the topic and cobbling together a more full understanding of what exactly shadows are in the TES universe. It’s not really something we get from any other game other than ESO, and I actually really like this contribution to TES lore.
Varuni has such a good character arc! She starts out as a fervent believer in Sotha Sil, and ends up being forced to confront her questions about him and grow as a person! Honestly, she has the best writing in the entire DLC, and she’s my favorite character! Here’s one of my favorite pieces of dialogue and an example of actual good writing in the Clockwork City:
Varuni: "He's gone, isn't he?"
Player: "Sotha Sil? Yes."
Varuni: "I knew it."
Varuni: "I never got to speak to him. Can you believe that? A hundred years of loyal service and then, poof. Gone."
Player: "What would you have said to him?"
Varuni: "Ha. You know, I spent years rehearsing exactly what I would say. I stood in front of the mirror, saying it over and over. Lord Seht, I stand before you as your loyal servant. Prayers of thanks, supplication... on and on."
Player: "And now?"
Varuni: "Now? Now I have nothing but questions.”
Varuni: "Why do we study in the basilica while people struggle on the streets? Why can't we have birds like the exodromals? How could Daedra break through our unbreakable walls? Why can't we leave?"
Player: "Do you think he'd have answers for you?"
Varuni: "I did yesterday. Today? I'm not so sure."
The Bad:
Oh my gods, what did they do to Sotha Sil? They’ve turned him into a faux-deep douchebro! This is my main problem with the Clockwork City DLC, and it’s a major one. They got him all wrong. I mean, he’s hard to understand because he’s Mystery, but at the very least Zenimax shoulda asked some of the original Morrowind lore writers for input or something, because it’s very obvious they had no idea how to handle him. In fact, this is so much of a problem that I feel the need to expound on the point. Here are a couple of excerpts of the most egregious writing:
I asked Sotha Sil about those persistent rumors—the ones about how he and the other Tribunes murdered Indoril Nerevar, the Dark Elf king. According to Marilia, the topic is strictly taboo. Even so, Sotha Sil answered my questions with a quiet grace that surprised even me.
"Why do you think things happen?" he asked. I told him I didn't understand the question.
"Why are we sitting here talking? Why does young Marius exist? Why do I reign over this place, while you convalesce within it?"
I sat quiet for a moment, then replied: "Because that's just the way it is."
His cold face melted into one of his solemn half-smiles. "Exactly."
I can't be sure, but it seemed like relief in his voice. His shoulders relaxed, his tone shifted—he had the look of a man at peace with his sins.
— Proctor Luciana’s Journal, Volume 1
Player: “What is all this for, anyway? The Clockwork City.”
Sotha Sil: “I sometimes ask myself the same thing.”
Sotha Sil: “May I confess something to you?”
Player: “Of course.”
Sotha Sil: “I suffer from a peculiar ailment. Shall I describe it?”
Sotha Sil: “I bear the cruel weight of certainty. Total, absolute, relentless certainty. People rarely comprehend the luxury of doubt... the freedom that comes with indecision. I envy you.”
Player: “Didn't you just say that you question whether the City is worth the effort?”
Sotha Sil: “Indeed. But such questions are flaccid—cursory indulgences that come and go in an instant.”
Sotha Sil: “The truth is that my actions, both good and evil, are inevitable. Locked in time. Determined by chains of action and consequence.”
Player: “So... you were forced to build the Clockwork City?”
Sotha Sil: “Compelled.”
— Game Dialogue with Sotha Sil
Okay first off, nothing is ever certain in the TES universe. There is no such thing as an omniscient god in the TES universe. Not even Hermaeus Mora, the Prince of Knowledge and Fate knows everything. Just look at how the Skaal managed to hide knowledge from him for generations. No god can predict the future with absolute certainty. Just read Azura and the Box, and you’ll see what I mean. In it, Azura, a god of prophecy who asserts that her knowledge is absolute, fails to predict what is in a box. Azura’s assertion that she knows everything is in character for her because she is also a god of vanity, but not so for Sotha Sil. Sotha Sil is not generally characterized as vain. As a person with godlike powers, he should be very much aware of the limitations of his knowledge and power, so the assertion that he can predict the future with absolute certainty is preposterous, and completely out of character.
If he knows everything, why the heck doesn’t he do something? He seems to have been taken by surprise by Nocturnal’s attack on the Clockwork City (as well as by all the events that took place in the Morrowind DLC with Vivec and stuff), so that doesn’t add up, but some of the dialogue from Aios implies that he realizes that Almalexia is a threat to him and he is taking countermeasures of some sort! It doesn’t make any sense! Gaah!
Anyway, moving on. More bad stuff:
It’s explicitly stated in multiple lore books that Sotha Sil and Almalexia are sexually involved. It’s also stated that Almalexia is Vivec’s lover and consort. That would seem to imply that Vivec and Sotha Sil were more involved than just “brothers” since they don’t seem to have any sort of jealous rivalry over Almalexia going on, and yet “brothers” is how Sotha Sil describes Vivec. That... doesn’t really make sense to me. At the very least they would be metamours, and quite likely more than that.
Sotha Sil does not just "quietly" admire Dwemer stuff. He’s blatantly copping and improving on the Dwemer’s inventions. That’s not bad btw, I like how they did that. The bad part is that Divayth Fyr, someone who supposedly knows Sotha Sil better than almost anyone, describes Sotha Sil as “quietly” admiring the Dwemer. He obviously has no idea what he’s talking about.
Sotha Sil’s feet. They gave him mechanical arms but not mechanical feet? Come on you guys! Get it together! He has mechanical feet in Morrowind, why not here? There’s so many great fan theories floating around about Sotha Sil’s feet, one of my favorite being by @boethiah, which speculates that he was injured as a child, and had to have his legs replaced so he could walk. Why not go with something like that? The lore strongly implies that Sotha Sil bypasses Vivec’s path to “true” godhood via CHIM and tries to find perfection through mechanical means. It stands to reason that he would have all mechanical limbs even if he didn’t have some sort of childhood accident requiring him to get prosthetics.
Slag Town. One of the things you can gather from the 36 Lessons and by listening to Almalexia talk about Sotha Sil is that Sotha Sil is an idealist when it comes to people. He thinks the best of them, and he is very hurt when people’s darker nature shows itself, which is one of the factors leading to his self isolation. (I wish I could remember specific sources for this, if anyone remembers something related, please post it.) With that in mind, I think he wouldn’t stand to have slums in his city. He cares about people too much. He wants them to succeed. If you read this lore book about Slag Town, it basically states that some of the people born down there don’t even know how to read. Sotha Sil, being the idealist he is, would obviously have a public education system in place. I don’t understand how writers who have read all the official resources available about Sotha Sil could think otherwise.
Why is Sotha Sil so obsessed with CHIM and Amaranth? That’s Vivec’s thing I thought. If he knows so much about it, why didn’t he achieve CHIM? He’s supposed to be taking a different path than Vivec, but his dialogue seems to be referencing back to Vivec’s path all the time. This would be alright if they added some Almalexia content as well showing her contribution to the Tribunal’s god-philosophies and uniting the Tribunal into a whole, but as it stands it just looks like Sotha Sil is a Vivec fanboy.
This is pretty unimportant, but Dunmer keep calling other Dunmer "dark elves". Just, why...? Only Men ever refer to mer as elves! This isn’t just a problem with the Clockwork City, but with ESO in general. Elves referring to other elves as elves instead of mer is just... weird.
I’m probably being pedantic, but why does everyone pronounce it "Sotha Seel" instead of "Sotha Sil", and "Div-AAAY-th" instead of "Div-EYE-th" or "Dee-VAH-yth"? It just irks me, almost as much as how they pronounced “Nerevarine” in the Morrowind DLC.
The Neutral:
Sotha Sil’s height. Sotha Sil is a giant in comparison to everyone else, even Altmer. He can’t possibly be this tall naturally. He’s probably just making himself appear taller because he thinks he’s supposed to, or possibly because he’s insecure about his height. It’s a strange character choice, and not one I really agree with, but also not one I disagree with either. So... meh?
Divayth Fyr was just... adequate. They got his friendship with Sotha Sil right, as well as his flaunting of authority, but they didn’t give him the booming, larger than life, generally genial-and-magnanimous-if-insensitive personality I’ve come to associate with Divayth Fyr (Dunmer-Brian-Blessed as @chameleonspell put it, click here if you haven’t seen Brian Blessed before.) So it’s just kind of... okay. They also established that Divayth Fyr was friends with Sotha Sil before Sotha Sil’s apotheosis, which would make him old enough to remember being Chimer. However, I was under the impression that he did not personally remember the War of the First Council, but I don’t really have any evidence to back this up, so if somebody has some Morrowind dialogue to help me out, that’d be great. It’s quite possible that this is a lore contradiction.
Sotha Sil’s depression. The way he’s depicted, he exhibits a lot of symptoms that make me think that he has some very profound depression going on. That honestly seems accurate to his character. It’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but it’s an understandable character choice.
The ‘I don’t know how to interpret this’:
The very short depiction we get of Nerevar just seems... off. @saltrices mentioned that there were some speculations going around on tumblr that Nerevar could have been part Ayleid or some other non-Chimer elf, and...
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That’s the hologram of Nerevar, and the projection of the last Ayleid king. They’re wearing the same armor. Why? I have no idea. I don’t think the armor suits him. His height in comparison to Sotha Sil is certainly not accurate, but again, I think Sotha Sil is probably making himself appear taller because he thinks he should or something. In life, Nerevar was almost certainly the same height or taller than Sotha Sil. The height difference has more to do with how Sotha Sil is choosing to depict them both, and the armor choice could be as well, but I don’t think so. Sotha Sil is likely to depict Nerevar in armor he actually wore, which is why the armor choice is so strange. I’m not sure what to make of it.
TL:DR: I enjoyed the DLC. I disliked some of the writing, especially regarding Sotha Sil, but I like other parts of the writing. I had a lot of fun, and I found the DLC to be visually appealing, but I think that most of the “deep” lore that the DLC tried to add should, in general, be completely disregarded.
That’s my take, now I wanna hear everyone else’s! Reblog with what you thought was good, bad, neutral, or perplexing!
Many thanks to @talldarkandroguesome​ for running through the Clockwork City 1.5 times with me and for being my sounding board. 
Tagging those who were interested in participating: @ladynerevar @kapycta @sharmat-dreams @ratwhisperer @spoopy-eneko @kee413 @king-helseth @kagrenacs @annachibi @jurvektheblogsmer​ Anyone else who wants to is welcome to join as well!
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mytinyatlas · 3 years
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2020 in a nutshell
this post is not about gestational diabetes, however, i wanted to quickly state that this is my desk set up at the moment. 
1. prenatal vitamin gummies - most delicious tasting gummy vitamins i have ever tasted and must be on my desk otherwise i will definitely forget to take them
2. Costco sized peanut M&Ms, i made an agreement with my partner that this will have to last me for the entirety of the pregnancy. That’s right, I may not indulge in any other chocolate candies until after giving birth - wish me luck!
3. there in back, “thoughts of dog calendar” given to me by my manager, we are so undeserving of dogs
4. lastly, the stupid headset i wear for the majority of the day Monday through Friday, its practically an appendage at this point. I am beyond tired of virtual meetings - apparently i am not as introverted as i once thought. 
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Alright 2020, where to even begin? My 2020 initially started with the news that I would never bear children. I took this news hard. A lot of crying and self pity. A lot of asking God why I wasn’t worthy, what did I do wrong, etc. 
Then news of the COVID19 - another coronavirus, what's the big deal? Don’t get me wrong, I followed whatever mandates were placed, but coronavirus happen every few years, SARS, MERS, they all come and they all go. My background is mostly pharmacy, I started as a clerk back in 2002. I also worked at an urgent care as an Xray tech and Medical Assistant, but I always stayed in pharmacy. I am not virologist nor am an expert on infectious disease, but I do know pharmaceutical drugs. Honestly, to me, I thought this would just come and go, like the seasonal flu. 
Boy was I wrong. With SARS and MERS to mortality rate is still higher than what it is for COVID to date, the only thing is, its immensely less contractible. Somehow with those outbreaks, they were tackled immediately and the number of deaths were low. With COVID, it seemed to spread like wildfire, and for the unlucky few who produced severe symptoms, that was it, they met their maker. Worst off, it didn’t seem to discriminate, those in their 30s and healthy could still find themselves dealing with the worst symptoms. So here we were, a country torn apart. Those who believed in the pandemic and hunkered down for the  apocalypse before us and then those those believed it all a hoax and went about their daily lives. 
It’s funny because you have those complaining that they listened to all of the recommendations and still the numbers were increasing. There was a large set of people going to the beach, still having gatherings - so of course numbers increased. Churches were still congregating. I must admit, I still met up with friends (the same set of 4 people every time) but meeting is meeting right? For whomever they interact with, in turn you interact with? I had still continued to volunteer at the foodbank once a month, distanced from the other volunteers of course. And thankfully the other work I did with kids went virtual. 
2020 was filled with virtual baby showers, socially distanced events (I attended a wedding where each couple/family had their own pew). A few social distancing picnics - everyone bring their own food and blankets and we stay 10 feet apart, but at least we could see each other in person. Checking in on friends whom you haven’t heard form in awhile. 
So here we were, trying to create the new norm, those that took every precaution, those who took none, and those who took some - i admittedly fall in the latter category. I limited my interactions, but there were still interactions nonetheless.
December was not good to me. We were served a lawsuit, the person that my mother-in-law got in a car accident with (MIL was at fault) decided to sue us, for millions - of which of course we don’t have. The car and insurance were under our names, hence the lawsuit was directed towards us. I’ve never been in this type of situation, so I broke down crying once more, thinking that all the money i had saved, my home, everything would just be taken away from me in one fell swoop. At the moment, the insurance company is still fighting, so we don’t the outcome quite yet. 
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In the second to last week of December 2020, 3 additional deaths added to the toll count that was 2020. My cousin (cancer), my partners grandfather (old age), and my brother-in-law’s brother (COVID). The year ended with a bang. I was fortunate to come in to 2021 with my health and with my closest family and friends in good health, so there was still much to be thankful for. But I really couldn’t take any more news, more obstacles to overcome. 
A week in to 2021 I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I menstruated, I searched through an old conversation with a friend and the last time it was mentioned was back in October. Could it be? I told myself I would wait until the end of January, but as you could see, I didn’t make past 2 weeks. So here I wait until the next ultrasound and the genetic testing. *think positive thoughts*
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gearlaunchshop · 3 years
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Fishing Prey Celebrate Diversity Vintage Retro T Shirt
And realize there was some sort of domestic altercation he set then the teacher sees a Fishing Prey Celebrate Diversity Vintage Retro T Shirt 10 year old put her hands up to her ears that’s when shots were fired inside the home official set including one bullet that shut the computer being used by the girl making her screen go blank Snyder added about 40 minutes later Snyder said deputies arrested 27 year old Donald J Williams on suspicion of killing 32 year old Maribel risotto morale is authority said they also retrieve a handgun believed to be used in the shooting that had been reported stolen from a car in 2015 the former the former couple had been estranged for more than a year and had a history of domestic violence Snyder sent Tuesday was the first day of school for four where Warfield Elementary and Indiantown where the 10 year old girl was attending online classes because of the pandemic they were six children in a home at the time of the shooting including three siblings of the 10 year old girl and two other cousins who live nearby Snyder set. Law no matter where we’re taking it is frightening from the campaign trail on time inside for the ordinary tour in his life is it time to I live just one live as long America’s number one live stream stream will get a little game for the bike is also a happy Iraq and ending called Tony actually comes from oil found in theater tree grapefruit can have an announcer known for a while that I have characteristic things to actually be deadly to move in fact and celebrate house in Caltech some emails interesting news and world wide US airborne has tripled in the last 15 years according to if he were talking about moving to West now all of the pain recommends but if you are coming a hurricane two years ago in North Carolina and anyone had and getting a lot of attention from the CDC quote great potential. My voice and start top grades as a whole another to do what used in the early they know so I wanted to gave my all I like 68 a regular thing look I had a you know we usual board and again with some comments you are planning you like cursing and yelling a line with me what you hope and delete this holiday smoke in a know the you have no choice but to date and anywhere that will be working today will do everything you can be overworked in the new Out in the hallway always welcome you have to think only of length like Biko but most of the light went out to my about dictionary will get in the chair be in you can use sackings as I’m looking no I no hazy opportunity to understand that I you a you show the other no idea about what he’s making his way and stop by with wiki that you are a no go go crazy on the know you have that you can’t sound like a Baptist preacher regional youth Sunday am I doing it with you Sunday January the man at the end and say that my breath what she hot out man said with a Amalia you
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gsasustainability · 3 years
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Death beyond anthropocentrism. From science-fiction to reality 
Katerina Sidorova. MLitt Fine Art
Generations over generations, Western Europeans have been raised on sciencefiction with subject matters ranging from time and space travel, immortality, utopian state organization to apocalyptic scenarios, bio-futuristic fantasies and specie hierarchy alteration. What if some of these scenarios did come true already and how did it affect our views on death. In this article I will look into several examples from science-fiction literature, cinema and comics in attempt to define the status of mortality in modern Western societies.
Let me begin with a different take on interspecies relationship, a topic, broadly disputed in this dissertation. The alternative view on the possible interactions between humans and the rest of the animal world has been a matter of speculation for many works of fiction amongst which one example stands out: “Planet of the Apes”, a film from 1968, based on 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle "La Planète des singes”, translated into English as “Planet of the Apes” or “Monkey Planet”.[3]
The novel takes place in the distant future (XXVI century A.D.), when interplanetary and interstellar flights became commonplace. A couple of “rich loafers” Jinn and Phyllis, traveling in space, find a bottle with a message from a certain Ulysses Meru with a formidable warning in the “Earth language”. Journalist Ulysses Meru talks about the expedition of the spacecraft to the Betelgeuse star under the leadership of Professor Antel.
Arriving at the intended point of travel, t he crew landed on the planet Sorora (lat. Sister), surprisingly similar to Earth. To their surprise they found humans there, only in a completely savage state - not knowing any language, no clothes, no dwellings, no tools. Instead the planet is run by the apes, possessing intellect and developed way beyond humans. The protagonist finds out that even before the advent of monkey civilization, there was a highly developed civilization of people. However, it fell into decay, while monkeys, imitating human habits and customs, developed more and more, until they took the place of their recent owners.
“Planet of the Apes” has a particular angle on interspecies relationship, especially on the ownership over one’s body. “Thinking” humans for the first time are exposed to how it may be like to exist on the other side of the human-animal relationship, where a single life is not considered as much as a mass of bodies and where economical matters dominate relationships of the ‘leader’ specie with the subject of their oppression. For the first time human species are not the masters of life and death like they are used to, yet their destiny is highly dependent on their not-so-far relative - a monkey.
Similar actions take place in a Russian sci-fi novel by Kir Bulichev - “The Pet”, 1993. Yet Bulichev takes the detailing of the interspecies relationships even further. The protagonist finds himself in situations comparable to the ones of pets (cats and dogs), industrially farmed animals, fight animals (dogs, roosters) and stray animals. Each of the 3 latter cases is directly linked to control over one’s death and the first one is a description of an acceptable involuntary body mutilation (castration) that leads again to impossibility to procreate and control over life in a long term. The attitude of the main character changes from the adoration of the master (normally prescribed to house pets) to slow realization of inequality which is the state of events in the fantasy world that Bulichev created. Becoming ’a stray’, rebelling against the master species (which for the record are giant frog-lizards), he slowly understands that the latter do not always operate in his best interests. Unfortunately, the novel was never finished and we are to never find out whether the new model of specie relationships was established.
In non-fiction, it is for Donna Haraway, author of The Companion Species Manifesto and The Cyborg Manifesto, to shine a light of changes in inter-specie relationship. Haraway talks about the history of domestication, but just as well she’s tackling the near future of species diversity, introducing not only the idea of technically enhanced cyborg femme, but a different kind of a companion specie. Science fiction and theory form a perfect symbiosis in her work and the texts, maybe starting as ‘futuristic’, become highly relatable and easily applied to contemporary reality.
Haraway specifically used the term “companion species” and not “companion animal” in order to expand the range of beings that can be seen as companions to humans. We now can not only talk about cats, dogs, parrots, fish and hamsters. We can freely imagine insects, bacteria and viruses as accompanying our life. Dangerous or not, it is the reality and in the light of recent virus outbreaks (SARS, MERS, Ebola and COV-19) Haraway’s statement stands stronger. Humans are surrounded by companion species, even though we don’t see or recognise them as such. The specie awareness is not only an ethical move of recognition but a safety measure, potentially crucial for our survival on Earth.
Another absolutely important moment in Haraway’s term ‘companion species’ is the inclusion of personal mobile devises into the category. Indeed, attention hungry, needed to be fed (charged), bringing joy and always by our side - mobile devices, and I am talking about smartphones predominantly (although we are surrounded by laptops, portable speakers, e-watches and tracking bracelets to name a few), do deserve a special place of a companion specie.
There’s only one distinct trait that makes them different from us - whilst the technical body of the mobile device won’t survive natural decay, it’s software system is virtually immortal. (Here a little outtake for those of the readers, who haven’t embraced technology at it’s fullest: by today, march 26 2020 it has become a norm to be able to copy all of the complete content of one’s mobile device, settings, etc. and successfully install it on the new one, the ‘digital soul’ of the preceder will live on).
Talk on genderless, adjusted cyborg has been going through feminist thought for decades now, as Julia E Dyck rightfully says: “Feminists have both celebrated and cautioned against the cybernetic or post-corporeal subject as much of feminism’s roots are coded in, on, and from ideas about the female body. Whether the body is seen as inherently woman, mother, goddess, with a deep connection to the earth and nature, or the raw material of culture and society with no pure or natural core as Elizibeth Grosz would see it, the body’s existence and relevance is too often implicit while theorizing about gender and sexuality. I would like to confront this idea by exploring a social subject for analyzing, the bodiless, or post-corporeal woman, the female operating system.” (Julia E Dyck “Cellphones and cyborgs”).
I, having embraced this discourse, would like to focus on the other aspect of it - and that is mortal beings slowly beginning to co-exist with the immortal (to an extend, since software is highly dependent on hardware and therefore access to electricity as of now) species.
Whilst we still cannot speak of artificial intelligence, we definitely can admit having stepped into the realm of hyper-real, with much of our communication and daily routines having moved online. And to exist online we need the help of our mobile devices. /I am writing these words on my laptop, in the proximity of my phone. It is a second week of world wide COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, this time marks the transition of many practices and professions to the digital, for now temporarily. This time is, however crucial to revealing how deep is our involvement with technology./
Hereby, based on stated above, we can propose three theses to expand on:
First, from the end of XX century on human, stops being the center of the world, as other species come on stage.
Second, amongst these new species we now can subtract non-natural, human made entities, for now not having a free will of their own, but playing a huge role in life already. These companions are mobile digital devices.
Third, being in contact with these devices brings humans closer to immortality and the question of digital afterlife comes closer to reality.
Here, online series “Black Mirror” would again be a great example - providing various meditations on involvement of humans with technology. For me much more interesting would be to turn to new services that have sprung since I was writing on Facebook digital cemeteries (undeleted pages left after users who have passed away).
First of all a whole field of death sensitive interfaces is now being researched and guidelines for software developers have been written. For this we are to thank Michael Massimi, a specialist in human-machine relationship, who together with his colleagues has worked on creating tanatosensitive software design. Their guidelines include grief upon loss not being a problem, but rather a given; communication does not always work as therapy; storytelling be a way of making emotions of the living public and prolongate the social life of the deceased; physical death is not a reason to stop communicating; digital traces can function as artefacts, memorabilia of the passed away person; digital space does not equal life and therefore cannot be fully adjusted to death either, it keeps existing beyond the end of physical life. [Оксана Мороз]
Whilst Massimi is talking about all online platforms in general, quite a few services, if not following Massimi’s guidelines, then at least operating on the territory that he describes, exist already. I will hereby list a few, discovered by Russian researchers Sergey Mohov: ‘resting here’ and ‘safe beyond’, mentioned in the works of Sergei Mohov and several, used as examples by Oksana Moroz: ‘the digital beyond, After note, If I die, Dead Social, eter9 and eterni.me. Of course, this list is not extensive and the readers are more than welcome to explore death and mourning related online services on their own. What is important is that not only that they are provided for use if needed, they are in demand. I will illustrate this with a few common internet searches provided in the attachments to this article. People are looking for death and dying related services online, and I dare to say that for younger generation, internet would indeed be the first place to turn to for answers.
But the searches often relate to the precise online legacy - the digital double that is left behind us once we pass.
A digital presence of a living person can thus be describes as a ‘body without organs’, a concept used by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. It usually refers to the deeper reality underlying some well-formed whole constructed from fully functioning parts. At the same time, it may also describe a relationship to one's literal body. This idea is fitting perfectly for when we speak about our existence on the internet. The digital double, internet avatar is a perfect body without organs. What worries us here is the possibility of it’s autonomous existence past the death of a human it was once attributed to. A great example here would be ‘Solaris’, a novel by Stanislav Lem, then brilliantly translated into a film by Andrei Tarkovsky. The action takes place in the uncertain future. Solarism - a science that studies the distant planet Solaris - has come to a standstill. The psychologist, Dr. Chris Kelvin (flies to Solaris to make a decision on the spot. Once at the station, the skeptical Chris discovers that her crew is exhausted by inexplicable phenomena: “guests” come to people - the material embodiment of their most painful and shameful memories. It is impossible to get rid of the "guests" in any way - they return again and again.
While Kelvin is sleeping, the "guest" comes to him, it is the materialized image of his wife, Hari, who 10 years ago had laid hands on herself after a family quarrel. At first, Kelvin, like other solarians, tries to get rid of the "double", but in vain. Over time, Kelvin begins to treat the "guest" as a living person. Hari's “copy” is also gradually becoming aware of its essence. Instead of a programmed need, being inseparably located near Kelvin, a human ability to make independent decisions develops in it. Realizing that by her existence she inflicts suffering on Kelvin, she first tries to kill herself, then, finding it impossible, asks scientists to destroy her by any means.
In ‘Solaris’, we see both an example of alive humans interacting with the deceased, but also a step further, ‘doubles’ realising that they do not equal their physical prototype, therefore causing existential turbulence.
Whilst the rules of online behaviour and environment are being written and used through a variety of above mentioned services, what is particularly interesting is the state/status of a person in the digital sphere. As Massimi said, digital life does not equal reality.
Who we are in real life is not fully represented in the digital, moreover, we are often choosing certain traits of ourselves to be represented, whilst others remain private, some can also be altered. What happens, when we start interacting online is - we create a digital double for ourselves, something that can be referred to as ‘an avatar’. This avatar represents us on the digital platform where it was created - games, social media, or mail interfaces. Over the years of internets existence, a lot of services and platforms have merged and we can speak of a general ‘digital trace’ of one person - a combination of multiplicity of images, texts, audio, other interactions produced whilst one is on the internet. This multiplicity can be linked to a digital representation of one on the internet, for some (for example foreign colleagues from overseas office who one has only communicated with through the internet) may almost completely replace the physicality of that one person.
What interests me, amongst many researchers of the digital sphere, is how this digital double functions. More specifically for this research I would like to look at one of the qualities of the digital double, avatar, - it’s immortality. Unlike our physical body, digital representation of ourselves cannot die, since it was never alive. Still, when interacting with people via social media, we are convinced, that there is a real person, behind the screen somewhere, responding to us.
After one’s death, unless stated specifically, we keep interacting with their social media page, as if the person is still alive. In theory, this can last for an eternal amount of time. The digital double is immortal. And this is where the very subtle field which Massimi and Moroz are researching lies.
With the new services, collecting information about it, recreating it, making posts, as if we were alive, with social media pages being run on the behalf if the deceased, we not only create a place of memory and mourning, we are stepping into a completely unknown territory. For example, if two (a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet, here specifically I am referring to chat bots - automated software mimicking conversations).made from the recordings of a mother and a son, who both have passed away, start a conversation, ethically where does this lead us? Is this conversation then real? What is the value of created content?
As of today, it is still early to speak of artificial intelligence, but we can surely state that the position of humans as the only species reflecting on death is shattered. Last topic that I would like to briefly touch upon is the ethics of cloning, creogenics and similar bio-scientific practices, that once belonged to the world of fantasy but now are slowly stepping into our reality, changing our relationship with death forever.
A fine example here would be a film by Spanish director by Alejandro Amenábar co-written by Mateo Gil ‘Open Your Eyes’ and, more famously, it’s American adaptation by Cameron Crowe - ‘Vanilla Sky’. In the twisted plot of the film, the main character realises that his body was frozen after his sudden death and preserved for the future scientists to bring back to life. In the meantime his consciousness and memories were loaded into a simulation program. Not being able to cope with the fact that his most recent memories were generated, the protagonist chooses to ‘wake up’ in futuristic reality. At this point cryogenics is a reasonably well researched field, it is used in many fields, but of course, it is cryoconservation, that interests me the most. Cryoconservation is an indispensable tool in the storage of genetic material of animal origin and will continue to be useful for the conservation of livestock into the future and is used to save semen, cells, pollen and other materials. Cryonics is a branch of cryogenics, focusing on conserving human body (or just the head in some cases) after clinical death and with the hope of resurrection in the future.
The first corpse to be frozen was that of Dr. James Bedford in 1967. As of 2014, about 250 dead bodies had been cryopreserved in the United States, and 1,500 people had made arrangements for cryopreservation of their corpses. As of today not one of the frozen bodies has been resurrected, although a case of … shows that some bodies have decayed due to poor preservation conditions.
With many ethical issues surrounding cryonics, another, even more extreme method of human remains preservation is arising. In 2018, a Y-Combinator startup called Nectome was recognized for developing a method of preserving brains with chemicals rather than by freezing. The method is fatal, performed as euthanasia under general anethesia, but the hope is that future technology would allow the brain to be physically scanned into a computer simulation, neuron by neuron.
What could life post such procedures be like still remains in the realm of science fiction, but these practices and discussions are slowly but steadily penetrating our daily lives, changing our takes on mortality forever.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”, - perhaps the most famous opening sentence in American science fiction is the first line of William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), contemplates a place where the dead might belong, up above us, in an electronic medium as Gibson’s protagonist Case has to collaborate with ghostlike programs, learning to “work with the dead” inside the “consensual hallucination” that is cyberspace. This profession, once considered fictional, is as close as it gets to the studies that Massimi, amongst others. is performing in our day and age. Modernity makes adjustments and new disciplines appear: we now live through and study of death in digital space; dispute over cryonics; artificial intelligence and the possibility of post mortal existence as a piece of software; our life is surrounded by nonliving companions, who’s loss we mourn scarily similar to their natural protagonists.
The move from science-fiction to reality has been steady and it accelerates year by year. Many great works of fiction have not only predicted, but determined the contemporary developments in medicine, thanatology or even the ways we mourn or think of our last will. Recent developments are showing us that there is not and cannot be one model of death. Moreover, it is now established that death is experienced not only by people. We are faced with the task of species diversification of attitudes towards death, as well as the formation of a broader view of the issue of mortality with more and more drastic changes to come. Which changes? I’d suggest looking through a few books of science fiction.
Literature 1. "A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is "100 percent fatal"". Technology Review. 13 March 2018. 2. B e s t , B . P. ( A p r i l 2 0 0 8 ) . " S c i e n t i f i c j u s t i f i c a t i o n o f c r y o n i c s practice" (PDF). Rejuvenation Research. 493–503. 3. Boulle, P. (2018). Planet of the Apes. Place of publication not identified: ISHI Press. 4. Bulichev, Kir - “The Pet 5. Burt, Stephen. (2014). Science Fiction and Life after Death. American Literary History. 26. 168-190. 10.1093/alh/ajt063. 6. Dyck, Julia “Cellphones and cyborgs” 7. Gibson, W. (2018). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books. 8. Handley, Rich (2008). Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology (1st ed.). New York: Hasslein Books. p. 279. 9. Haraway, D. Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s", Socialist Review, 80 (1985) 65–108 10.Haraway, D. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9717575-8-5 11. Haraway, D. When Species Meet, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8166-5045-4 12.Moen, O.M. (August 2015). "The case for cryonics". Journal of Medical Ethics. 493–503. doi:10.1136/medethics-2015-102715. 13.Moroz, Oksana “Смертельная чувствительность” Антология Русской Смерти №6
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(This is mostly edited. It includes the original smaller list, added on to. Also, I’m a bit worried that I might have explained the Canon Divergent fic poorly. I’m sorry. I don’t mean anything bad by it.) (It’s better edited than my first submission for it, that had a bunch of typos, but since this is long, I may not have proofread and fixed up everything worded funny or spelled wrong.) 
I’m going to preface this off with the fact that I’m a multishipper, and ship quite a variety of pairings, so this list might go all over the place. (Also, I’ve never written a fic rec before, though I have recommended fics and gushed about several often enough.) First of all, Above and Below Surface by Whitehorse102 immediately comes to mind. It’s probably my favorite AU fic that I’ve ever read for ZenYuki and possibly, my favorite I’ve ever read in general. It’s a Mer!AU; a type of AU that I’m always reading, but Whitehorse102 writes it so differently than any other Mer!AU, I’ve seen. The world building is insanely good, and the story reads a lot more like a published novel than a multichapter fanfic; there’s world building that even takes in parts of canon and plays around with them a bit. The ZenYuki is built up slowly. It’s a work in progress of the writer’s, and such a lovely read, that you absolutely would not regret reading it or rereading it. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12201172/1/Above-and-Below-Surface Apparently, the first fic I read was Of Assassins and Apples by Realm-Leaper, though since I sometimes accidentally refavorite stuff, changing the date that I favorited it or may have read stuff I didn’t favorite, I might not be accurate with this. It’s an Obi-centric oneshot collection with two oneshots, that I vaguely remember reading. (Eventually, I’ll share stuff that aren’t on Fanfiction.net, because I read all over the place.) I started rereading it, and it has almost all the amazing Obi headcanons that I also have. The first oneshot is an Obi and Zen friendship piece, and honestly, maybe this is where most of my Obi headcanons came from as far as backstory. This oneshot collection of two oneshots is well worth your time! I’d wondered if the Mukaze and Obi scene was canon, had convinced myself that the talk they had was canon and took place during the Tanbarun Arc, but it was this fanfic, the second oneshot has an absolutely incredible and in character scene where Obi and Mukaze talk a few things out. (Honestly, it’s on my mind whenever I read a story where the two of them talk or interact in any way, and it a hundred percent affects the way I remember canon.) So do check it out! It’s a lovely two oneshot collection centering on Obi. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12933248/1/Of-Assassins-and-Apples My favorite ANS OC right now is Setsuko/Vixen/fox, from Nostalgic Family by your1ocalpotato. I decided to read some of Potato’s work on a whim a few months back, once I realized that Potato wrote stories, and I absolutely adore Setsuko, especially within Nostalgic Family; I just love that universe, the added backstory for Obi, the found family dynamics, the way that Setsuko may be rough around the edges from the life she lived, but she cares deeply for her family, especially Obi. Just the sibling bond that Setsuko and Obi have in it is absolutely incredible, and in that particular universe, Setsuko has barely met Izana, so there’s a chance that that slow burn will eventually pick up, and Izana/Setsuko is such a lovely pair; they contrast very beautifully together, and it’s got to be my favorite Izana/OC pairing. Honestly, Potato’s stories are really good and more people need to read them. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926751/chapters/54800950 (The Den Series is the name of the particular series I’m talking about, though there is a different story with Setsuko, where she has a different backstory, and it’s pretty much all slowburn Izana/Setsuko. Both are worth a read, though I haven’t finished the longer, slow burn fic yet.) As for An AU I Took A Chance On (And Now Love), it would be the Quarantine AU, that Muselover1901 wrote: Here With(out) You. I figured I’d read a Quarantine AU, and that one was really beautifully written. It’s one of my favorites by Muse. (I may throw in a few other stories that I recommend by Muse, because she’s a super talented ZenYuki writer.) I usually avoid writing any Quarantine AUs or Pandemic AUs unless I really feel like I need to. The same usually goes with reading them; I’ve found at least one good Quarantine AU in about four or so fandoms now. (I usually only read one per fandom, if it seems interesting.) Honestly, this is probably my favorite Quarantine AU ever. It’s longer, and the world is pretty well established. (And it’s a really lovely domestic ZenYuki oneshot.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668279/1/Here-With-out-You I’m going to cheat a little on the next two, because I actually reviewed them (and reviewed them around the same time). First, I want to mention a fic that Made Me Laugh Out Loud; the first one that comes to mind is A Snowy Surprise by MuseLover1901. It’s the first one that pops into my head, though I know that I’ve laughed out loud at probably plenty of other stories. I actually was unsure before I read it whether it was a romantic story or not, and had been a bit nervous about jumping in and reading it, but once I started to read it, it was love at first sight. There’s a snowball fight in it, and I’ll have to say one particular hit made me laugh out loud. The story is mostly a friendship story. (The kind of story that I always long for more of in any fandom, because I love friendship stories as much as I love romance stories, and I also love family stories just as much.) But it’s lighthearted and doesn’t contain too many manga spoilers for me, since I’m terribly behind in the manga right now. (I haven’t read all of Muse’s work yet, because some of them have more manga spoilers than I’m ready to read. I’m biding my time for the day that I can just binge read them obsessively. It will happen.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668260/1/A-Snowy-Surprise So, here’s the story, I’m cheating by mentioning instead of the above one. (I reviewed them around the same time, so it works, I think.) For A Fic That Made Me Friends With The Author, I’d have to say A Quick Library Visit; it’s a short, sweet read, and if you want quick ZenYuki fluff, it’s a go to. I read it around the same time as the above two Muse fics, and for some reason, some of Muse’s newest stories didn’t have reviews, so I figured I’d review. Shortly after, I reviewed A Quick Library Visit and A Snowy Surprise, Muse messaged me to thank me. (She’s really cool by the way.) And then, a little while later, I joined the old ZenYuki Week Server, and Muse invited me over to a ZenYuki Writing Collab Server, and we became fast friends after that. (She remembered me based off of the two reviews I’d left on her stories, which was pretty cool and definitely humbling.) (Also, heads up, I’ll post the fanfiction links to Muse’s stories, but she also posts them on AO3, so they’re there as well.) (I wish there was a reverse for this panel, because through the ZenYuki Writing Server; I met phenomenal writers and began reading their work as well!) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668268/1/A-Quick-Library-Visit As for A Fic That Got Me Involved In The Fandom, I may be cheating by mentioning this too, since I starting writing fanfics for ANS practically right after I finished watching Season Two. The Mistress, the Plan, and the Secret by MisusedEllipses really made me long to write for Prince Raji/Shirayuki, and really kicked me off in that little rarepair haven, that Season Two won me over towards. This is an incredible fanfic, has absolutely amazing characterization throughout, and is incomplete on Fanfiction. (I’m hoping that somewhere online, it sits pretty and finished, waiting for me to rediscover it. I may be overly hopeful.) Okay, it ties in onesided!ObiYuki feelings, onesided!PrinceRajiYuki feelings, and wonderful characterization and sibling banter between Eugena and Rona! Honestly, Raji is written so well that it practically reads like canon: a very hard feat indeed for any writer to accomplish. Just, wow! I don’t know who to root for: Raji, Zen, or Obi! It diverges from canon right before the kidnapping, so Shirayuki never gets kidnapped, and eventually a rather interesting Raji and Obi friendship forms, though that’s right where the last current chapter is. It hasn’t been updated in four or five, I guess now or soon, years, but it’s well worth a read. I will recommend this to anyone if given a chance, regardless of whether the person is a multishipper or not. I love the friendship, the romance, the family, and humor that comes along with Raji’s siblings’ banter. It’s just a phenomenal canon divergent fic, and it’s what really made me realize there was a need for more Raji X Shirayuki fanfics, and it left me crazy about filling that gap. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12156186/1/The-Mistress-the-Plan-and-the-Secret I’m going to make a rather honest claim here, even though I’m not sure how often this writer will come up in what I gush about here, but this writer should: geneee is one of my favorite writers in the fandom. (I’m not sure if geneee is still active.) When I eventually thought of a fic with A Favorite Minor Character of mine, this particular story came up. history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes is an absolutely amazing precanon story where it focuses entirely on Ryuu, gives him some backstory! (It’s an amazing read, and it follows his journey to becoming a Court Herbalist.) Honestly, the fandom needs a lot more Ryuu fics. (On a side note, a fic by a different writer also came to mind with this, but since that’s more romantic than this gen fic, I figured I’d stick with this one. The other one that comes to mind is the only fic where I could find Kai as a main character. It’s by a different writer, but if I can stick it into this recommendation, I will tell you more about it.) Geneee writes really good fics. I know geneee has a fanfiction account, but I think geneee might have an AO3 as well. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12687531/1/history-doesn-t-repeat-itself-but-it-often-rhymes For Pre-Canon, I want to mention a lovely story by an incredible (mostly?) MitsuKiki writer that may not actually be active anymore. (Unless the writer uses a different site now.) (This story is actually not a MitsuKiki fanfic, though it is still one of my all time favorite stories by fiesa.) Roses, Violets by fiesa. It’s a beautiful story that focuses on Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki during the years since Kiki came there. Zen develops a crush on an OC, who doesn’t like him like that, who actually likes Mitsuhide, interestingly enough. It’s not really a romance story, as it focuses on the way time passes and uses summer and flowers to express that. The perspectives shift, so some parts may need to be reread to understand who is feeling that way, but it’s all written so beautifully. You get to see Zen develop a crush and get heartbroken, Mitsuhide trying to be really nice, knowing Zen likes the woman and sort of trying to let something happen between Zen and the OC. Though, Zen feels that that’s hopeless, since she likes Mitsuhide. It’s more a story of the friendship between Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki, and what growing up entails. It’s Zen before Shirayuki, and it makes for a rather lovely read. (It’s a multichapter, though it’s not a super lengthy one as far as chapter count goes. It’s well worth a read though.) (fiesa and geneee I discovered around the same time, and I love what both of them write so much.) (So, if you like it, it’s always worth checking out the rest of fiesa’s work.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12864975/1/Roses-Violets I was just thinking over how to mention an incredible writer, that wrote two ZenYuki oneshot that I’ve read and fell in love with. (Spotted the oneshot section. If I have to refill part of the Bingo Board later, so be it.) The Art Of Watching Stars Fall by Zen Wisteria on Tumblr. The metaphors and images are just so pretty and beautiful and with gorgeous meanings. (The writer feels a bit like a poet, and since I love poetry, that’s a definite plus in my book.) It’s really fluffy and sweet and contains pretty much all of the wonderful reasons to ship ZenYuki. It’s a delight to read and to reread. It’s highly recommended by me. https://zen-wistaria.tumblr.com/post/117283326416/it-feels-like-years-since-shes-seen-his-face AU That Made Me Find The Source Material: Lyrias Station by Eclectic80. I’m cheating here too. Shh… I’ve been slowly getting into Star Trek over the years very deliberately, and I just loved this fic so much! I found it first on the ObiYuki Community, going through a lot older fics, and then fell in love with just the way that Eclectic80 wrote it! It’s an absolutely incredible Star Trek AU, and a lovely ObiYuki story. (I think I did start with reading Historical Fiction, and it surprised me by being a Star Trek AU.) (On the note of really great AUs, there’s a Star Wars AU for ObiYuki that’s incredible, that I’ll have to refind at some point, and an incredible Harry Potter AU. I actually asked a lot of questions to people who know Star Wars lore far better than I do, in order to work through how much of the Star Wars AU for ObiYuki could plausibly happen in canon. (I think it was all of it. It was a great and engaging read too!) The Harry Potter AU left me obsessed with it, and the accidental soul bonding spell, whoops. But, since I don’t remember their titles or who wrote them, I’ll have to recommend them some other day. (I think they are also far back on the community page. I haven’t finished exploring it, since I took a break a while ago.) Back to Lyrias Station, it’s an absolutely incredible read whether you know very little about Star Trek, nothing at all, or a lot. I fall somewhere in the middle, and honestly, it’s a fantastic read, whenever you want to dig in and explore. (I may have reread certain oneshots in it way too much for my own good, practically back to back. It’s a really wonderful reread as well.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414148/chapters/34487988 For A Fic That Gave Me A New OTP, though my OTP is hard to define, so I’m technically cheating here, but Let Me Be Bold by Kaedix. It’s an IzanaYuki story, and that is a pairing that I was curious about, but hadn’t really shipped until I read this oneshot collection. I absolutely need to read the third oneshot; it’s new, and bound to be incredible. But, the first oneshot had me sort of falling in love with Izana right alongside Shirayuki, and the second oneshot had me cheering for Shirayuki, and all in all, it’s an incredible read that is well worth your time, whether just to read something new or different or whether you are on the fence about this fabulous rarepair. (Since it did win me over to the ship, I’m including it here.) It’s incredible! Go read it! https://archiveofourown.org/works/20982494/chapters/49894448 I was trying to figure out a fic that I loved that was under a thousand words, and since I haven’t paid a huge amount of attention to the word count, I couldn’t think of one at first. So, I was going through one of the writers that I really like the writing of, and stumbled upon one that I immediately remembered. Importance by bountifulnuggets. I remembered it strictly as the wedding story where Zen and Shirayuki hugged Obi, who desperately needed a hug. I’ve never read anything like it before, and it’s saturated with friendship. (Nugget is a phenomenal writer, so basically anything by her is really good, so if you haven’t heard of her, go check out her writing. You won’t be disappointed.) (I got temporarily sidetracked before going through Nugget’s stories, by a story I hadn’t read by Eclectic80, a ZenYuki(!) story, that if for some reason, I extend and do more than a Bingo Board (or find another way to include), I’ll tell you the title of. Either way, the story by Nugget is a lovely hurt/comfort fic that is more comfort than hurt, and it’s definitely a beautiful read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433481 Finally, found it! Okay, the Missing Scene fic that is my favorite is Do something with this guy by Codango. It explores how Obi went from shooting at Shirayuki to being Zen’s retainer, and it does a lovely job of it! I absolutely adore this story, and the writing of it is beautiful. I took the time to reread it, and Obi’s perspective is spot on in it, and it gives amazing behind the scenes looks at what is happening, mostly over how he came to work for Zen. But, it also includes the scene where Obi catches Shirayuki for the first time, all told through Obi’s perspective, and his thought process is absolutely perfect. His thoughts read very much like the canon ones, that we are sometimes shown, and it feels like it really does contain the missing scene from canon. It’s an amazing read, and definitely worth your time. https://archiveofourown.org/works/4386368 I’m going to cheat again here. (Who knows? These times I feel like I’m cheating, may actually be fair.) But, I don’t know what tropes, I like or whether I’ve read Trope Reversals, but I was going back through ObiYukiFiteNite and ObiYukiMadness on the community, and stumbled upon a story that I read ages ago, that fits kind of well with my Mukaze headcanons, and is goofy enough that I could see him acting that way. It does turn a trope over on its head, too. For Favorite Trope Reversal, I’m going to mention Mukaze’s Gift (Only One Bed) by HideTheRemote. The debate over whether Mukaze supports ObiYuki in it is rather amusing, and the gift, itself, is rather funny as a wedding gift to his daughter and son-in-law. It’s a delightful read that certainly surprised me. (I’d also never seen the One Bed Trope with a married couple before, so that was an added bonus.) I imagine that when he has grandkids one day; he’ll realize that his gift wasn’t used as intended. (Poor delivery guy, who had to know what kind of bed he was delivering, based off of the sheer awkwardness of the situation.) https://hidetheremote.tumblr.com/post/172338198868/mukazes-gift-only-one-bed For Gen Fic, I’m going to go with Shirayuki’s Laugh by otomiya-tickles. This is a multichapter story, and not every chapter is actually gen. (There’s onesided ObiYuki and established ZenYuki at parts.) It’s literally a story where Shirayuki’s friends find out she’s ticklish slowly, and each one gets to tickle her. It takes place within various parts of canon, and is a really fun read. I’m pretty sure that I laughed every time she did. (Even though I probably shouldn’t admit that, since I wasn’t being tickled.) It’s a blast from start to finish, and I ended up reading all of the chapters in one go. Most of it’s just friendship. (Ooh, my favorite chapter is probably the Raji one. Shh…) Also, it gives a reason as to why Shirayuki chose not to ride on Mitsuhide’s horse, after her first time riding on a horse with him. (It’s just an absolute treat, and I never knew tickle fics could be this fun!) I highly recommend it. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11861915/1/Shirayuki-s-Laugh I’ve included so many stories already with some of my favorite headcanons and ones that feel canon, but I realized I still had a story to share with that category. So the story That Contains My Favorite Headcanon is Bittersweet Heart by DemonHeart42. It’s actually a new fic, and a onesided ObiYuki story. (Like canon, there’s established ZenYuki.) It’s sort of post canon, as it shows Obi and Shirayuki’s friendship after Shirayuki and Zen are married. It flows like canon, and the writing is beautiful. The headcanon bit that strikes me is earlier in the one shot, Obi’s reasons for never calling Shirayuki by her name are addressed, and it hits I’m pretty sure all of my Obi headcanons for that, but not only that, but there’s thought behind how long Obi’s loved her, which he can not trace back to a particular moment, since he feels that he’s always loved her, though he certainly knows he didn’t fall for her the first time he saw her. (It matches my headcanons for Obi’s feelings to a T, pretty much.) It’s a lovely read, and the only Akagami No Shirayuki-Hime story that DemonHeart42 has written. (It does make me long to read more stories by DemonHeart42, and I undoubtedly will, if another Akagami No Shirayuki-Hime fanfic gets posted online by this writer.) I’m just really happy that I found a spot to include this story; it’s one of the few new ObiYuki related fanfics on fanfiction, so I don’t think many people have read it. And it’s one of the best that I’ve read for them. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13687412/1/Bittersweet-Heart Since I am a major ZenYuki shipper as well as ObiYuki shipper, I don’t know if I should include this as the canon divergent fic, but I absolutely love so many scenes in it. Fragments by happybubbles is what I initially put for Canon Divergence, so most of the description will express that, but I’m going to say that it’s a story that that made me Weep Real Tears. As a quick explanation, I don’t care for ZenYuki breakup fics for the most part, but I love this one. (And I read way too many of them to complain too much, I guess. I still read them, because I love ObiYuki about as much as I love ZenYuki, and the breakup fics obviously can be incredible, like the part in Fragments where the breakup happens.) (I really hope that I explained this right, because I know obviously this type of canon divergence is popular and really well loved, so I know that those AUs are good in a lot of ways. I’ve read many of them, with varying levels of interest, and I don’t know how to explain it, because I’m not trying to knock an AU.) This is where shipping ZenYuki makes it hard sometimes to ship ObiYuki, plus my love of Zen often gets in the way, and it pains me pretty bad to read breakups for Zen and Shirayuki. So, this particular story is the breakup scene, I remember, where Shirayuki broke up with Zen, and she’s still dealing with the emotional fallout of it. She’s not numb, and though she feels correct in breaking up with Zen, it hurts like she wouldn’t believe. And seeing Shirayuki in so much pain, while dealing with a ZenYuki breakup to boot, really hurts me. I cried alongside her, and Obi takes the time to comfort her and spend time with her. Everyone else that day gives Obi the turnaround and won’t explain what happened to Shirayuki, because Obi hasn’t seen her. Just, this scene hurts me so much. (I love the ObiYuki developed in the story, and Zen was written pretty well from what I remember, so it’s definitely worth a read.) Also, I’m in the camp with people that only ship ZenYuki, as in I think if canon broke up ZenYuki, I’d be broken, even if it established ObiYuki or RajiYuki or something else I ship or am partial too. This is the only clarification that I have that makes me wonder if ZenYuki is my true OTP. I have a tendency of reading a ton of ObiYuki fanfics, because that’s my go to for ObiYuki, especially AUs. I love AUs a ton, regardless, but ObiYuki AUs hold an extra special place in my heart. (My favorite ObiYuki AU, is the Obi meets Shirayuki first ones; they are all so different and so, so good!) (Also, if anyone knows the name or author of the ObiYuki story, where Obi consumes poison and almost dies, that one made me cry as well and is also really good!) I remember so many of the scenes and often forget that they are all in the same story. (I loved the parents day chapter, where Ryuu cooked for Obi and Shirayuki. I adore the first chapter of the fic, where Obi’s caught napping.) (It diverges from canon through ZenYuki breaking up, by the way.) There are probably other scenes within it as well that I absolutely adore. I’ve either read all of the chapters or most of them, even though it goes way further through canon than I’m currently at. I just love the story, and all the beautiful scenes that Bubbles writes, that I couldn’t just not read more. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031781/chapters/18392416 For Favorite Trope, even though it’s probably not my favorite trope, just a trope led fanfic that is really, really good, it’s the Harry Potter AU, I talked about up above! I finally found it, and realized I could stick it here! Welcome to Hogwarts, the School of Social Anxiety and Crushing Expectations (and also Highly Illegal Soul Bond Spells) by Hymn. I’ve never been a fan of Harry Potter, but somehow this story sucked me in from the get go, and I really love the kind of slow burn ObiYuki in it, the longing for the other that they are pretty sure is either from the spell or unrequited, despite being requited, and all of the trying to balance school life with being accidentally soul bonded together, and just even the background references to ZenYuki are really good. The scenes within the story are absolutely adorable to a bit awkward for Obi and Shirayuki, and I think I read this oneshot at least five times so far. Mostly from the original Tumblr post, before I discovered that it was on AO3. Since then, I’ve read it on AO3. I have no idea how this story has gripped me so much, but it has. It is a hundred percent worth your time. You really should read it. (It’s inspired off of the Accidental Soul Bond Trope, which led to the amazing Star Wars AU by someone else, a lovely Soul Bond focused AU that is also really good, and I can’t remember what else. Maybe I do have a soft spot for this particular trope that I never really knew about before discovering the older event that they were written for.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/18772360/chapters/44535142 I know this is technically not a fight scene, but for Action-Packed Fight Scene, I’m going to choose the car chase scene in At Her Not-So-Secret Service by infinitelystrangemachine_old. I don’t read a lot of action packed stories in general, but I definitely don’t read many action packed stories for ANS. (And I’m pretty sure if I named any myriad of Chuck fanfics, that wouldn’t count. Shh…) So, I’m sticking with this story, because it came to mind when I remember action packed scenes, and the writing here is brilliant. (I obviously love the car chase scene and the aftermath of that, where Obi’s sitting in the car with her.) There’s a touch of humor every now and again, and the writing style, itself, is very beautiful. I really, really hope that this story gets updated some time in the future. There’s something about a Modern AU, Bodyguard AU, for ObiYuki that is so good! (Or any Modern AU Bodyguard fics in general, because there’s one for Chuck that is so, so good. I know I should just talk about ANS here, but oh, my gosh, I seem to really like Bodyguard AUs lately. Shh…) So, even though there’s no fight scene here, and there’s no attack or even portrayal of her kidnapping prior, At Her Not-So-Secret Service is really, really good. (I really like how easily Obi seems to get along with everyone Shirayuki knows, the description in chapter one of the difference between Zen and Izana talking to Obi, the balister scene, which should sort of count as an action scene too. Either way, the writing here is really good and the scenes are very memorable.) (I think about the car chase the most, followed by the balister scene the second most.) (I had to look up this story just to find it again for this. It’s so good!) It’s a lovely story to read, with a lot of action-y tension, some complicated feelings, and a great mixture of emotion. Also, the humor is pretty great too! So, it’s well worth a read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/9837023/chapters/22080446 For my new Canon Divergent fic, I’m going to include Yours, Truly by Eclectic80. It’s canon divergent also due to a ZenYuki breakup, as well as a pen pal correspondence. I love the pen pal basis of it, Shirayuki and Obi not knowing who they are writing to, the whole slowly falling in love and coming to understand each other better through it. The picnic date thing, just the whole premise of the fic is so good. It’s an outstanding ObiYuki fic, and I’m absolutely in love with the idea of pen pals in fanfics, which this is the first that I’ve seen of pen pals within fanfics, I think, but it’s so good. The comfortable anonymity, that draws them closer, the hint of budding feelings, the advice Obi gives, or ideas he shares. The fact that they both know that the other is similar to someone they know, but are pretty positive that it can’t be the other. It’s a blast to read and so, so much fun! I highly recommend it. https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943480/chapters/52370371 Oh, my gosh! I found the poison story! It’s also the story with the kiss scene that comes to mind for me and so many others. Okay, for Steamiest Kiss, I’m going to go with And That’s The Reason We Need Lips So Much by Sabraeal. Okay, this story is absolutely amazing on so many levels. The almost death scene for Obi is so painful to read, and I cried pretty much from the very beginning of this fic, despite not knowing who several of the characters are, whoops. I’m still terribly behind in the manga, but the plot was so good, the writing was beautiful, and I loved it. Also, I loved the teasing and playfulness that goes on when Obi retells the story of Shirayuki saving his life, and of course, the way that Shirayuki gets him back for that. I love the silliness of the first time that he tells the story, where Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki are his main audience. It’s silly, and sounds so fairy tale-esque and romantic, that Obi’s surprised me, and it fits so well! Then, there’s the way Kiki joins in the banter. (She’s great in general!) The way Mitsuhide reacts and of course Zen’s silence. Then, there’s the later on, Shirayuki getting Obi back, Obi being unable to handle the teasing, and the loss of his good reputation, the way she gives in and finally asks him to kiss her. The way the whole kiss goes. Ryuu showing up, after having dealt with two other people refusing to work. (That decided kissing was better than work, much to Ryuu’s disappointment.) Ryuu’s support of Obi and Shirayuki; I feel so bad for Ryuu here, and yet, I’m pretty sure that when I finally get far enough in the manga to meet the other two characters caught kissing, I think I’ll ship them, though I’m not positive yet. The way they restore Obi’s reputation and the applause that they’re met with. It’s funny, full of banter, great characterization, and so much more! I just love this story, and I’m so glad that I managed to refind it. (I’d forgotten that all of these amazing moments were in one fic. Sabraeal wrote this absolutely amazingly!) Please do go read it! I’m positive that it’s one of my favorite oneshots. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8705884 I don’t know if MitsuKiki counts as enough of a rarepair, but there are not a lot of fics out there for them, so I’m including this here. For Rare Pair, The Five Stages Of Partnership by geneee. It was the first MitsuKiki story to come to mind for me by the way, and I love this side pairing so much. And this story does a very lovely job of expressing Kiki’s feelings and going through the years, starting with when she first met Mitsuhide and carrying on throughout all of the time getting to know him. (Aww, I could have counted it in Canon Compliant as well, but oh well.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12365055/1/The-Five-Stages-of-Partnership I probably should flip this and the Rare Pair slot, but I’m not going to. This one is a gem of a story as well; it’s a beautiful MitsuKiki story told from Mitsuhide’s perspective. (I was going to include a different MitsuKiki story by this same author, but I seen the summary for this one and remembered being blown away by it, so I took the time to reread it just now.) Silver by fiesa is the story I picked for Canon Compliant. It can take place in a few different spots in canon, but it really doesn’t sway the story into canon divergence. It’s a beautiful, very poetic MitsuKiki story, that captures Mitsuhide’s feelings beautifully, both towards Kiki and swordfighting in general. It’s an absolutely gorgeous fic. (It’s also just seven words over one thousand.) You really should read this story by fiesa; it’s one of my favorites by this particular writer and one of my favorite MitsuKiki stories. Also, check out more by fiesa; fiesa’s an absolutely incredible MitsuKiki writer! (Writes mostly MitsuKiki, but there are stories that fiesa’s written that aren’t MitsuKiki as well.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7801925/1/Silver Okay, I mentioned this story once before, but didn’t give you the title. (Also, on a quick side note, I will probably be posting a short fic rec right after this, with a few other fics, that I sort of teased by not listing the names of before up above and one additional one.) (Also, any writer I mentioned is worth reading as much of their work as you can, because they’re all so good!) Okay, so here is that Star Wars AU, I mentioned being absolutely in love with. Starlines by infinitelystrangemachine_old. So, this Star Wars AU absolutely blew me away, the first time that I stumbled upon it. It’s beautiful, and it ties back into the accidental soul bond trope, and I actually did ask people who know Star Wars way better than me, if this was possible within Star Wars, and yes, yes, it is! Shirayuki and Obi end up soul bonded and see each other randomly in places where technically the other one isn’t. Like a personalized hologram, I guess, since only they see each other. The first time they see each other is awkward for them both, and they don’t initially know what’s going on. (It’s great! Plus, they are on different sides of the war.) So, slowly they become friends and fall in love. It’s a premise I hadn’t seen before, and had me asking various Star Wars inspired questions, since it is so good! This I’m using for the Free Space on the board, the Apple. It’s an absolute delight to read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404602/chapters/33266145
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