#just. wanted to gush because I'm plotting it out some more right now and my inner child. is crying /pos

[albertasunrise]

Work Wife - Two

Masterlist

Summary: Working as a Secretary and Miller & Sons c”Construction, you fall hopelessly in love with the eldest son Joel. What you don’t realise is that Joel’s completely in love with you too. What will it take for the two of you to realise whats’s right in front of you?

Pairing: Young Joel Miller x Reader

Warnings: Like AO3, I choose not to give any so the plot isn’t spoiled. This fic is 18+ (So here’s the first chapter as promised! I hope you all enjoy. Let me know what y’all think ♥️… I wrote half of this on my iPad so sorry for mistakes 😅)

Series Masterlist - One

After two days of you being frosty towards Joel and Joel desperately trying to make up for whatever he had done to upset you, you decided that it was pointless to be upset with him. He hadn't known your reasoning for going to his house so the fact he had a girl there wasn't really a valid reason to be angry at him.

If you were being honest you were more angry at yourself. Your pride had been wounded and that was something that you needed to work through on your own. So by Wednesday, you were somewhat back to being smiley and sweet but there was still a tension there that you knew would take time to dissipate. You just hoped that your date with Simon would take your mind off what had happened.

Your second date with Simon went even better than the first. He was sweet, taking you to a restaurant he remembered you mentioning you loved, and after, he took you for a few drinks at a new gin bar that had opened up. So inevitably, two dates turned into three.

It felt like with each interaction you shared with Simon, the less seeing Joel every day, and knowing that he didn't return your feelings, hurt you. What you didn't realise was that your budding new relationship with Simon was tearing Joel apart. Simon couldn't help but gush to the other contractors about how special you were or how amazingly things were going.

How he was starting to think that you might be the one.

That statement made Joel want to find a remote canyon so that he could lob Simon into it. Yet he knew he had no right to feel jealous. It's not like he'd ever had the guts to go for it. It was his own fault that he was suffering now. Yet that didn't make him hate Simon any less. What he hated more was you talking to him about the dates that his 'so-called' friend was taking you on.

It was killing him.

"Oh Joel, you would have loved the walk Simon and I went on over the weekend." You gushed as you sipped at your coffee "I would show you some pictures but I'm still waiting for them to come back from the developers so…"

"That's fine." Joel replied, trying to keep his tone from sounding as pained as he felt.

"Perhaps you could take Eliza there sometime." You continued, completely oblivious to his torment "It's so romantic and-"

"Eliza and I are just casual." Joel interrupted and you couldn't help but snort.

"Please." You rasped "She's practically living with you now. Fuck buddies don't spend most nights together."

"We're just hanging out."

"And I'm the Queen of England." You rolled your eyes and how oblivious he was to what was going on straight in front of him "If you're just looking for casual then perhaps you need to tell her that."

"I did! I have…" He argued, his hip cocking to one side as he rested his on it.

"Well, perhaps you need to have that conversation with her again because from an outsider's point of view. You and her seem pretty serious."

Joel's stomach twisted at the thought that he was leading Eliza on. She was sweet and he liked her but he wasn't looking to settle down. Not yet.

"Talk to her Joel." you said sweetly as you placed your hand on his "Don't lead her on."

So talk to her he did.

…

Eliza was in the kitchen when he returned that evening. There was already a tense atmosphere hanging over the house as he entered but he didn't have time to ponder why. Not when he needed to get things out in the open.

"Hey." He said gingerly as he stepped into the kitchen and Eliza turned to greet him.

"You're back late." She stated as she placed a plate of food down in front of him before sitting on the chair across from him, her arms crossed.

"Meeting with the wood supplier ran late." He replied and Eliza nodded.

"Eat up." She said, watching him then as he nervously pushed his food around his plate, little appetite when he had an anvil hanging over his head.

"What's the matter with you this evening?"

"I don't think we should do this anymore?" He stated simply, eyes drifting from his plate to Eliza.

"Can I ask why?"

"When we started 'this' up, I told you that I wasn't looking for anything serious and well… it's been brought to my attention that it kinda has and that I need to be honest with you… Make sure I'm not stringing you along."

"And who said that you are?" She demanded and Joel shook his head.

"It doesn't matter… what matters is that I don't want to-"

"Was Pip wasn't it?" Eliza growled "You know she has feelings for you right? Only reason she's seeing shit that's not there."

"Eliza… Pip, doesn't have feelings for me. This is just about us and I-"

"You really are blind aren't you." Eliza cackled and Joel stopped in his tracks.

"Blind to what?"

"Pip is head over heels for you… She told me so herself back when we went for those work drinks and I-"

"She told you that?" Joel interrupted and Eliza huffed before nodding "She told you she was in love with me?"

"Well, her exact words were that she was crazy about you but she knew you didn't feel the same and so she's never told you." Eliza waved off the statement like she wasn't telling Joel everything he'd ever wanted to hear.

Were you crazy about him?

"Look, I told you that I didn't want anything serious either and I still don't." Eliza stated as she shrugged "If this has gotten a little too cosy then we can cool it."

Joel wasn't really sure what to say. The information that you possibly feel the same way for him is running laps around his head.

"Joel?"

"Right… yeah… sorry." He said and he shook his head and returned to reality "Look I still think it's best that we just call it quits." He stated plainly, wincing at the growl it pulled from Eliza.

"Fine." She practically spat at him, getting up abruptly and grabbing her stuff as she went "I'll see myself out."

Joel didn't even get a chance to speak before she was slamming the door behind her. Leaving him to ponder over the events that had just transpired. What should he do?

Should he talk to you about it?

Is that what you had come here to talk to him about all those weeks ago?

It would explain your reaction to Eliza being there.

He knew he couldn't, not, talk to you about this. He needed to know whether or not you still felt something for him, because if you did he wanted to fight for you. For with you, he wanted something real.

…

Months went by before Joel plucked up the courage to talk to you. Each time he decided it was time, he talked himself out of it. Whether it was a story that you or Simon had told him about your latest adventures as the world's most perfect couple or just him watching the two of you together. But, finally, he had decided that enough was enough… He needed to be honest with you and lay his cards out on the table. He had thought long and hard about what it was he wanted to say and so had arranged for the two of you to meet up for a coffee on Saturday. This wasn't a conversation that he wanted to have with you in the office.

He still had to labour through an afternoon of Simon gushing to the guys about how things were going with the two of you and up until now it had been fairly easy to drone it out.

"So you two finally did the deed huh?" Piped up a voice, grabbing Joel's attention.

Joel had known that you and Simon hadn't been intimate yet. You had confided in him about how you had never been with anyone and that you wanted to save yourself for the right guy. Obviously, you had decided that Simon was that guy.

"Fuck did we." Simon practically growled "Was so worth the wait… Girl's so hot… we-"

"Let's not discuss such personal matters at work, hey chaps?" Joel tried to sound calm but his stomach was twisting in knots.

The knowledge that you and Simon had been intimate was tearing him up inside. Had Eliza been wrong about your feelings for him? Had she lied? Either way, he wasn't sure what to do with the knowledge that you and Simon were now sleeping together.

"Come on boss…" Teased Rick, one of Joel's youngest employees "Just 'cus ya jealous."

"What?" Joel growled as he turned to face the younger man.

"Well, the guys all told me how you're sweet on Si's girl. It's not his fault you missed your shot."

Joel felt his anger start to boil over as he said "Keep it professional Rick or you'll be looking for new employment." Walking away then to cool down.

…

You were just clearing the dishes away whilst Simon wiped down the sides, always the gentleman. 8 months had shot by in the blink of an eye and it felt like he'd blended so perfectly into your home life. It was like the two of you had always done this. Things were so seamless.

"So Joel threatened to fire Rick today." He stated as he wiped his hands dry with a dishcloth.

"Really?" You asked and your brows shot up in surprise "Why?"

"We were talking about you and me and Rick kinda ribbed Joel a bit." Simon replied, shrugging.

"Ribbed him how?"

"We were just talking about how you and I had… well you know and Joel got pissed. Rick kinda teased him about how he's sweet on you and how he missed out on his chance with you."

"One, I'd rather you didn't discuss our sex life with my colleagues… Two, Joel's not sweet on me he's with Eliza and three… even if he was, that's a pretty dickish thing to do." You admonished and Simon chuckled as he replied.

"Joel is still very much sweet on you and he and Eliza broke up."

"What?" You were shocked to learn this information and hurt that Joel hadn't told you.

"Yeah, been like 6 or 7 months now… guys probably got blue balls." Simon chuckled as he tossed the dishcloth in his hands onto the counter.

You'd always talked about everything Joel and so to learn that he had broken things off with Eliza and he hadn't talked to you about it stung a little. Had things between you really become that strained? They hadn't been the same since you'd gone to his house to talk to him about how you felt. They certainly hadn't been since you had started dating Simon.

"You're not sweet on him are you?" Asked Simon, pulling you from your thoughts.

"Hmm?" You hummed as you looked at your boyfriend who was watching you closely, analysing every expression that crossed your face.

"Joel, you aren't sweet on him too are you?"

The colour drained from your face as your mouth moved to answer him but no words left your lips. The longer you took to respond, the more frustrated Simon grew.

"You are, aren't you?"

"Simon…"

"No, don't try and spin me any bullshit." He growled out and you flinched at his tone "Are you in love with Joel… Yes or no?"

"Yes… but-"

"I need to leave." Simon choked as he threw his hands up when you tried to reach for him "I can't be around you right now."

"Simon please…" You pleaded but he was having none of it.

He just grabbed his stuff and left.

Leaving you sobbing in his wake. \

…

You sat in the cafe you and Joel had arranged to meet at, your eyes red raw from crying all night and most of this morning. You were sipping on an overly sweet latte. Needing the sugar to try and boost your mood. Joel was already ten minutes late but that wasn't unusual for them man. No doubt he'd be stumbling through the cafe doors in a few moments, huffing and puffing whilst he rambled on about what it was that had delayed him.

Only after half an hour… he still wasn't there.

You were on your second sugary coffee and coming to the painful realisation that Joel had stood you up. Who gets stood up by their best friend? Well, it would seem that you do and you wondered if it was because of what Simon had told you yesterday. How Rick had teased Joel about missing out with you when he'd learned you'd lost your virginity to the man you'd been going steady with for almost 9 months. That thought made you go from sad to plain pissed.

Was he seriously going to stand you up because he was jealous that you had slept with Simon?

Finishing your coffee you stomped out the door and towards your car. You weren't going to let him get away with this. Not after everything you had been through in the last 12 hours.

You don't recall the drive to Joel's house but you feel your anger flare when you see his truck on his drive. You pull up behind him, get out of the car, then make a point of slamming the door in the hope that he'll hear you coming.

You were pounding on the door, not caring if you were attracting attention. You wanted answers and you wanted them now. An exhausted Joel opened the door and you felt anger flare at the thought that he'd stood you up because he'd slept it.

"Pip this isn't-"

"A good time?" You growled, "It never is Joel."

"Please, I'm sorry I stood you up but-"

"No, I'm going to speak." Venom dropped from your words as you poked his chest "Simon told me what happened yesterday and I just can't believe that you would stand me up because I slept with the man I had been dating for over half a year!"

"That's not… I didn't stand you up on purpose I-"

"You what? You overslept? Your latest conquest only just left?" You barged past him with a strength you didn't know you possessed as you started to look around the house.

"Pip-"

"Where is she… where is the reason you decided to stand me up the morning after Simon broke up with me." You choked as your hurt started to slip through the cracks.

"Simon dumped you?" Joel asked and you nodded "Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you Joel… and I-"

"Do you want to scream any louder?" Growled Joel's mother as she walked down the stairs with a bundle in her arms "You're lucky she's so milk drunk. Not even the apocalypse would wake her right now." She said as she handed Joel what you could now see was a newborn with a gorgeous caramel complexion.

"Oh, Pip sweetheart, so lovely to see you." Said Mrs Miller as she pulled your stunned body into an awkward hug "It's been a bit of a mad house for the past 12 hours." She chuckled as she walked over to Joel to give him a kiss on the cheek before pecking the baby's brow. "I'll let Joel catch you up, I need to get diapers and formula. Will be as quick as I can sweetheart."

"Thanks, Mum." He said, smiling at her as she waved at you all and left.

Finally leaving you and Joel alone with this tiny baby you had just learned about.

"You… You have a baby." It wasn't a question.

Joel nodded as he looked down at the tiny person in his arms, a sweet smile gracing his lips as he brought her brow to his lips.

"I have a baby." He confirmed and you let out a shaky breath as you continued to stare at her.

"Is she…?"

"Eliza's?" He finished for you and you nodded "Yeah." He replied as he walked towards his couch and carefully sat himself down, watching as you followed him and sat down beside him "She came by last night. Dumped her in my arms and said she was mine and that she wanted nothing to do with being a mother."

Your eyes snapped to his at this statement and found him looking at you with a tearful expression "Left me enough formula to last me till tonight. No cot, clothes, nothing."

"How could she just leave her?" You sobbed as you looked at the perfect little girl in his arms and Joel just shook his head.

"She said she didn't want to be a mum." He replied "After we broke up she moved back to Austin. Had no idea she was pregnant. Not even Gloria did… then last night she just turned up at my door with her."

"Oh, Joel."

"I'm not ready to be a dad am I?" He asked as he looked at you again, his expression indicating just how scared he was.

"You're going to be the best father to this little girl." You said as you cupped his cheek and moved his face so that he looked you in the eye "You aren't going to be alone in this." You promised him "I will be here whenever you need me to be… day or night I will be here."

Joel nodded. Knocking a few tears loose and you watched as they rolled down his slightly stubbled cheek.

"Thank you, Pip." He breathed, giving you a small smile before he looked down at his little girl again "Her name's Sarah." He said after a short pause and you smiled sweetly at her.

"Hi, Sarah." You said softly as you leaned in to look at her better "Well aren't you just perfect."

"Would you like to hold her?" He asked and you nodded eagerly before carefully taking her off of him and settling into the plush cushions at your back.

You gazed at her sleeping form for what felt like an age. Her perfect little button nose and long black lashes making you swooning.

"I'll let you off." You piped up after a while and Joel hummed he as looked at you in confusion "For standing me up… She's a pretty good excuse."

Joel chuckled as he rested his head on your shoulder, you both continuing to gaze at her.

"We'll get through this…" He said and you nodded.

"Together."

Next

For updates follow @albertasunrise-ficsblog

[hyperfixation-tangentopia]

I love my little self-indulgent next gen Rise AU. I used to do these all the time with fandoms I was in when I was younger. I miss it. It makes my inner child happy <3

[arminsumi]

"what if nanami saw you like this?"

💗 hubby!GOJO さとる

note : feral trashy smut 🫡

summary : just a thought abt hubby gojo punishing u for flirting with his coworker nanami at a work party...! :(

warnings : 🔞 minors dni/dnr, smut, toys, fingering, spanking, pussy slapping, dirty talk abt cheating on him w nanami, talk abt threesome w nanami, namecalling (sl*t), kinda mean/cold n condescending hehe, some roughness, dirty talk, edging, not proofread expect lotsa errors oopsie!!, not rlly plot just horny

juuust envision this 😩 it's been a long night out, you attended a party with your husband and his work team... and then he suddenly glareddddd when u giggled a little too hard at nanami's uncharacteristically dirty joke.

so ur husband snaked a possessive hand round ur waist and rasped annoyedly, "i think we'll be heading home early."

and the poor man... he drove home with gritted teeth and a boner poking in his pants.

gojo pushed you into the penthouse with a roughness that made you giggle like a brat... and you kept giggling until he pinned into the bed and kissed u roughly... n that's how u know he meant business. he was pissed off abt smth. u had no idea what!! :( and he just said "panties off, bend over my lap. now. i won't repeat myself."

anddd jumpcut to satoru spanking u while u have a vibrator stuffed so deep inside ur sloppy cunt....

his hands are big, leaving stinging slap after slap, each one harder and meaner and done with more conviction than the last. he makes ur body jolt forward a little. he's admiring the sight of your pussy clenching around the pink toy, relishing in the sound of it buzzing in your leaky hole.

he's refused you his dick for a whole hour now, just occasionally toying the vibrator into your tight squishy pussy and playing with the settings. he's such a child when it comes to using toys on you, he laughs at how weak you become just from some buzzing silicone.

He grabs its handle and grinds it in deeper, cooing into your ear about how you dont deserve to cum because youve been a bad girl, and then getting you close to orgasm just to rip the toy out of your pulsing cunt and plant a harsh slap to your stinging ass.

"nah-uh, no cumming. you hold it in." he seethes. he's not playful or sweet or kind when he's determined to punish his pretty little wife.

and his idea of punishment alwayssss involves edging you until youre nearly crying, sobbing from pleasure. if you try help yourself reach climax with your own hands? oh he'll smack them away and chew you out about it. that's his pussy, he likes to remind you, not yours.

"i told you not to go around flirting with nanami, didn't i? yeah, i did warn you, hm?"

"i wasn't flirtinggg" you whine, "i swear!"

"aw... seems like the only thing telling me the truth is your pussy. i'm sure it's just dying to get stuffed up with nanami's dick, right? you want him to pound you into the bed 'till you break? mmm... but he's a bigggg boy... d'you really think you could take it... hm? you'd probably cry. aw, yeah... i know... you'd just love to fuck around with him, wouldn't you? yeah, you'd just fucking love that, you god damn slut. you'd want us to share your body..."

he's so cold and condescending. and he knows it makes your clit buzz. satoru's not entirely opposed to a threesome with his coworker, actually, he gets off to the idea of you struggling to take his cock.

"this is where you're sensitive, right?" he sharply taps his palm against your pussy, making sure your tiny clit felt the collision. he bullies your pussy with his big hand, sinking his fingers in and out as he pleases, slapping your ass and cupping your gushing pussy.

"such a sloppy fucking mess... all from a little spanking 'n sweet talk? my my... what if nanami saw you like this..." he's knuckle deep, pressing his fingertips into your sweet spot and slowly massaging it.

"... i think he'd help me plug up those holes... give you a good, thorough punishment... hm~?"

he feels you start to shake, and that's when he fucks his fingers hard into your hole. you're split open, feeling his palm flattening against and squishing your pussy, squishing your little clit, making it buzz with subtle friction as he pumps his fingers inside.

"listen to that..." he rasps, pumping his fingers into your hole faster just to embarrass you with the loud, nasty squelching sound. "fuckkkk.... listen... listen to how nasty your pussy sounds for your husband..."

[ddejavvu]

Steve telling robin about this girl who he’s spoken to a few times and reallly wants to ask out and she’s a big hype man for his love quest. But then he comes in one day to see robin very innocently flirting with you bc she doesn’t know you’re the girl Steve’s talking about. So queue shenanigans of him trying to get robin away in anyway that won’t make you think he’s weird, but maybe he’s going to trip her over or something so he can tell her that’s you and she can be his wingman instead, just a funny shenanigans plot haha

Steve doesn't think twice about the bell to the shop tinkling over the door from where he's rewinding tapes in the back. He watches the picture rapidly flit from scene to scene of Pretty in Pink, until the credits appear and he ejects the VHS from the player. He slides it into its sleeve, but then he hears your voice, a sound that breaks him out of the monotony of his job, and has his feet moving towards the door of their own accord.

He rushes out to the counter, cursing himself for letting Robin take the counter for this shift. You usually come later, so he'd been prepared to swap with her before 5PM, but it's 3 now and you're chatting jovially over the counter with her.

"Your bracelet is gorgeous," She croons, and there's something more-than-friendly about the way she cradles your wrist in her hand to admire it, "It suits you really well."

"Aw, thank you!" You gush, grinning at her, "I called ahead to reserve The Goonies, Steve said he'd put it behind the counter?"

He had put it behind the counter. He'd set aside cash there, too, because he was going to pay your rental fee, and when you'd thank him for it, he was going to say that it was no big deal. But that if you wanted, you could come over to his place to watch it? And he'd pay for pizza too, you wouldn't have to worry about that. So when Robin reaches for the movie, Steve jumps into action.

"Oh, yeah! Here it is," Robin grabs the tape from where it's tucked beneath Steve's jacket near the trash can, "Okay, $1.99 for the rental fee, and you'll have to pay another $0.99 for every day after this Friday that you keep it."

"Actually, Rob," Steve rushes to the counter, cheeks slightly flushed as you turn to watch him, "Uh, I can take this one."

"I got it," She stares awkwardly at him, hand already reaching for the two dollar bills you're handing her

"Uh, no I- I need your help in the back," He jerks a thumb towards the rewind room, "Would you-? I'll- we'll be right back," He smiles at you, gripping her bicep and tugging her away from the counter before she can take your money, "Just give me a second!"

"Dude!" She hisses the moment the door is shut, "What's the matter with you? I totally could have handled that!"

"That's the girl I was telling you about," Steve gushes, his eyes wide and his hands tense at his sides, "I- You can't flirt with the girl I like!'

Her eyes widen momentarily, and her shoulders sag, "Oh, Steve, I didn't know. Okay, uh- alright, you can ring her up. God, why do you always call dibs on the pretty ones?"

"Thanks, Robin," Steve grins, patting her on the shoulder as he rushes for the door. He jogs back to the counter, matching your kind smile with his own where you've set your $2 on the counter.

"Hey, uh, no worries," He stands at the cash register, pushing your bills back towards you and pulling out his own, "I got this one."

Your brows furrow, "Wait- you...? No, I got it! Steve, I'll pay for it, it's okay."

"Don't worry about it!' He insists, pointedly ignoring the way you're holding the cash up for him and sticking his own bills in the register, "I just- I thought that, uh, it would be nice if you came over to my place to watch it. Tonight. Or- or some other night, if tonight doesn't work. But I-," He stammers, grinning sweetly at you, "I can pay."

Your eyes soften, and the hand with the money in it sags. Your confused frown morphs into a smile, "I'd love to come over, Steve. Tonight doesn't work, I'm babysitting." You lament, "But I'm free tomorrow, if you are?"

Steve has a closing shift tomorrow.

"Yeah, no I'm- I'm free." He nods vigorously, already thinking about what food he can bribe Robin with to switch her hours with his tomorrow, "Uh, I can come pick you up at six?"

"Six-thirty," You bargain, and he hands you the tape with a smile and a nod, "Thanks, Steve."

"Yeah, anytime! See you then!" He calls after you as you head for the door, and he waits until you're safely out of the parking lot to rush for the back room, not wanting you to see his desperation.

"She said yes!" He practically shouts, scaring Robin so much that she drops the tape she's holding. It shatters on the ground, plastic spewing over the scratchy carpet, and she shares a horrified glance with Steve.

"Shit. Uh," He stammers, floundering for a solution that won't cost him more than his allowance, "I'll buy a blank tape, just- stick it in there and don't tell anyone. Here," He digs in his pocket, pulling out a ten dollar bill he'd planned to use for gas, "Take this, that's, like, $4 for the tape and $6 for dinner tomorrow night, you're closing."

"I don't have a closing-" She starts, her brows furrowing, then her eyes narrow and she fixes him with an unimpressed stare.

"Really?"

"She wants to meet tomorrow!" Steve insists, running a hand through his hair, "Just- take the cash, Rob. Plus, you owe me one," He reasons, "You flirted with my girl."

"She's not your girl," Robin gripes, but she's more than happy to take the money, "Just be glad I'm an easy bribe, doofus."

[olderthannetfic]

TL;DR: multiple people can arrive at the same fanfic idea/premise in different ways, but also, getting inspired by a different fanfic is not stealing, please don't gatekeep!

I joined a new fandom (it's Resident Evil (RE), which I'm mostly mentioning for that one 'nosy' anon because hell yeah I am super nosy as well, so here you go, dropping some names!), and I quickly stumbled upon one fandom-specific plot trope that I thought was both pretty neat but also super obvious (Infected!Character fic, which, in a world with zombies and viruses that cause zombies is a very logical trope).

Anyway, there was not quite as much body horror as I thought there would be, although I'm still looking, but that's not why I'm writing to you, that's just the (un)necessary background.

There was this one fic that I opened, which in its Author's Note clearly stated that the author set this fanfiction in another author's AU, because they loved the world created by this first author. The first fanfiction author basically came up with their own Infected!Character design and backstory (including fanart), and the second fanfiction author liked it so much they were now writing this fic based on/in that AU. Obviously not quoting the AN directly, but this second author was very complimentary and explicitly mentioned where they got the idea from, gushing about the first author.

In the AN for chapter two, the second author stated that they weren't aware that that first fanfiction author didn't allow others to write about the Infected!Character AU they'd made, that that first author in fact only allowed a very limited number of people they publicly approved of to write about their AU, and nobody else was allowed to touch the Infected!Character AU. This second author was now apologising in the AN for not knowing this, plus mentioning that they changed chapter one to switch up the backstory & design to not be too close to that of the first fanficton author's AU.

That made me sad, honestly. I've seen this attitude a couple of times, where fanfiction authors are super protective of their ideas that they won't allow any other fanfiction author to write about them, and it's always struck me as a little bit hypocritical, given the whole deal of fanfiction. Especially when the original/first fanfiction author is credited and the inspired work is clearly done because the second author loved the first fanfiction so much. If it's a highly developed/specific and original AU (so not just any common trope), and you don't even mention the fanfic you were inspired by, then I find that rude, but just flat out not allowing people to even touch 'your' thing? C'mon!

This partially ties into my other gripe about a specific type of comments I occasionally get, which are along the lines of 'huh interesting idea where did you get it? bc/btw there is this other fic with the same idea (posted before you)'; idk if I got the tone right, but they never seem to be actually genuinely asking how I got the idea (and I always delight in telling them, not sarcastically, I genuinely love talking about this stuff, bc I get inspired by the most random things and I love love writing 'original'/new things!! I love tropes as much as anybody, I read a shitton of them, but i when I write I love coming up with new shit/plot! it's so fun!!). They just vanish after my explanation, even when I try to invite further conversation. It always feels to me like they're 'checking' that I didn't steal the idea, and it feels a bit lousy.

I mean in (larger) fandoms, it is not surprising at all that two or three or even more people arrive at the same idea, maybe even inspired by the same thing, same reading of canon, or not, varied experiences--and just because the works are similar doesn't mean that they were inspired by one another, but if they are, that's not a sin! I just want people to not take everything in bad faith, and also, to not 'disallow' others from getting inspired, especially when they do it in a very polite manner!

It's because of comments like these that I sometimes, very privately, worry that before I'll manage to post the long fic I spent months writing--because I'm one of those who wants the thing finished before I start posting--somebody else will have a similar idea, post their thing first, and then I'll look like I'm lying about not reading/stealing their idea, or just jumping on the bandwagon, which again, it's not a bad thing, actually.

And it shouldn't be like that! I shouldn't worry, and people should also be more willing to accept that authors can arrive at the same idea at (roughly) the same time & accept that explanation without side-eyeing the author, and that if an author is inspired by a different fanfic, that's not a sin either (in fact, for me it would be an honour).

None of this is new either, but that RE stuff reminded me of it again.

Oh man, this is way longer than I thought it would be. Apologies. I'm going to add a TLDR at the start.

Anyway, I'm going to finish writing an Infected!Catboy!Leon fic now and be very unsurprised if I find out that somebody else has had the same idea long before me (aside from one or two reader fic inserts with that topic that I stumbled upon on tumblr, bc that's just not my thing at all (reader insert, I mean)).

--

In college, friends of mine had a falling out over one of them "stealing" the other's fic idea.

Space pirates.

Not specific space pirates. Not a way of integrating the concept that was fandom-specific. No, just the general idea of space pirates in the same fandom.

Never have I facepalmed so hard.

[thatmexisaurusrex]

🔥🔥🔥, please!

Make Me Write Monday

Nice! For my current WIP, my Buck 1.0/118!Tommy fic, The First Evan! Lol I know I'm only supposed to write three sentences. But I thought fuck it, and I'm going to give a spoiler to something in the fic and I'm writing more than three sentences for this. I'll put it under the read more just in case no one wants to be spoiled. The spoiler is intense and is a plot point that someone actually asked about in the comments of the last chapter 😂 so, you've been warned. Enjoy!

“What do you think is a good ‘I’m sorry for our last fight?’ wine?”

A lot of people randomly asked Tommy things. Tommy wasn’t sure if he just had the face of someone to pour out your soul to or if he had some sort of energy about him, but random strangers tended to ask him things often or began out of the blue conversations with him.

Tommy.

Didn’t particularly like that. He didn’t really like situations where he had to talk to random strangers when all he wanted to do was buy some nice beer for Maddie to celebrate her new place. Alas, such was life. And despite Tommy’s want to not engage in this conversation, Tommy glanced to the side to find the man who asked. He seemed… out of place. Something about him wasn’t quite California.

But.

Hey.

A lot of people moved to Los Angeles. Maybe Tommy was overthinking whatever feeling he was getting from this guy. It was probably nothing.

“Someone I know just moved into a new place and I want to mend some fences,” further explained the man.

“I, uh. I don’t actually know much about wine,” said Tommy, because he found himself drawn into these sorts of conversations even when he didn’t want to be in them, “But, uh. My friend Chimney knows wine pretty well – Chimney?”

Tommy looked around. He knew that Chimney was around here somewhere. Evan and Eddie were in the store too, but Tommy didn’t know if Evan or Eddie knew wine.

Chimney and Eddie popped their heads down the aisle, fancy cheeses and meats in hand. They tossed their charcuterie into the shopping cart as Chimney said, “What do you need, Tommy?”

“Oh. It’s me. Hi,” said the man as he extended a hand, “Jason Bailey. I was just looking for a good ‘I’m sorry wine’. Chimney, was it? And Tommy?”

Tommy.

Reluctantly shook the man’s hand. But then immediately felt the need to say, “I have a boyfriend already, sorry. And Chimney’s kind of – well you’re not with her. But you’re going out on a date soon, right?”

Because.

Maybe Tommy just read the room wrong here. Sometimes Tommy did. He didn’t always pick up what people were putting down for him. It happened enough for Tommy to at least need to clarify.

Chimney beamed at the mention of it.

The date.

“I mean, it’s only a first date. And I don’t want to pressure her or anything. Her last relationship ended pretty badly, so… we’re taking it slow,” gushed Chimney, “But we’ll see how it goes.”

“Eddie’s single, now, though. Recently single,” suggested Tommy.

Eddie laughed.

“No. I am – I’m not in the headspace to date anyone. And I don’t think you’re my type, honestly?” said Eddie apologetically, “Sorry, man.”

“That’s so cute. The date. Not the recent divorce. I’m not – this isn’t me hitting on anyone. I’m actually buying this for my wife. We’re, uh. In a bit of a rough patch. I’m trying to smooth some things over,” explained Jason.

“Didn’t you say the wine was for someone you know who just moved into a new place and you wanted to mend some fences with?” asked Tommy, a little confused.

Jason shrugged.

His eyes.

A little dead when they gazed at Tommy for a moment. Or. Or maybe Tommy was seeing things that weren’t actually happening, because it didn’t look like anyone else noticed that. Maybe Tommy was being hypersensitive because of how this was just giving him flashbacks.

“I did say it was an ‘I’m sorry for our last fight’ wine too,” Jason pointed out.

Something. Felt wrong about this.

It reminded Tommy of his mom. His mom getting presents when she still had a black eye. That apology tour his father always went on after a particularly heated argument of his own making.

And.

No.

Not everyone was like that… right?

“Separated, huh? Yeah. Been there. It’s rough. But sometimes, it’s good to give them the space. To figure themselves out,” said Eddie, a little – a little more at peace with his own divorce, “You can’t hold onto someone who doesn’t want to be with you.”

For a moment, Jason looked like he might break the bottle of wine in his hands. He might just break it on Eddie. And reflexively, Tommy found himself subtly stepping between Eddie and this random man.

Something about his eyes.

Some anger that went away just as fast as it came.

It.

It reminded Tommy of his dad.

Impulsive. Rage at the drop of a hat. A charming smile in public.

Tommy didn’t like this conversation.

Jason’s anger eased as quickly as it came. And Tommy wondered if he had just been seeing things. Reading into things. It wasn’t as if Eddie or Chimney reacted to Jason the same way. Neither of them were feeling that fight or flight response, that panic quickening Tommy’s heartbeat.

“I think she’d like to see me,” Jason said amicably.

And.

Tommy was probably overthinking things, right? He wasn’t sure if Jason noticed what Tommy had done. If that was an overstep on Tommy’s part. If he was just being overprotective over a friend who could most definitely handle himself in a fight and Tommy knew that.

Tommy.

Needed to not be here.

“I’m, uh. I’m not very useful in this conversation, anyway. I’m going to go find where Evan went off to,” said Tommy as he turned the cart around and left the aisle.

Left Eddie and Chimney with Jason.

And he felt terrible doing that. But he really needed to stop talking to that man.

[plague-stricken-marionette]

So! I feel like rambling and gushing about everything I love about this comic which means... y'all know what time it is

Below the cut is my passionate ramble which is stupid long (and took three hours to write according to my drafts if you were curious). You have been warned before you open that

I got to The Dummy's Dummy pretty late all things considered because I came in after Season 2 wrapped up (at the time of writing this, there is no Season 3 yet so I will be exclusively gushing about everything that was shown up to the Season 2 finale). I found out about it because a close friend convinced me to start checking out some Webtoons they love and started going through their rec list

I've really enjoyed all the ones I've read so far and have a lot of thoughts about them too (maybe I'll dump those in a different blog one day), but THIS ONE- This one has just completely gripped my brain with the force of a vise grip. I'm in love with everything about it to the artwork, the plot, the character design, and of course the characters themselves

I love Paris and Yumi and Lily. I really do. I love all three as individual characters but I love them even more when they're all together because I love their dynamics together and how it progresses over the course of the comic

Lily is absolutely hilarious at times and such a freaking mood too which makes her super fun to watch- And she's so good with Yumi too from keeping an eye on her to backing her (and Paris!) up when crap hits the fan

Yumi is adorable in a lot of scenes, but she also gets up to a lot of cool stuff too. And scary stuff! Poor kid is eleven years old (at least according to the old canvas/tapas version of the comic) and basically has the weight of the world sitting on her shoulders right now because she also happens to be a psychic who gets premonitions of people that might get hurt soon or die

And then there's Paris. The damn puppet that's consuming most of my free braincells

I'd be lying if I said Paris isn't my blatant favorite character, but make no mistake that I still love the rest of the cast too. Paris is so... His design aside, he's just fun to listen to because of the way his dialogue is written and he's- an extremely complex character that has a lot of layers to him. He's not a good person (or at least not a perfect paragon of good/a selfless hero), he even says so himself during the comic, but he's not evil either. He's so perfectly morally gray imo and he's- well- he's learning

A lot of his behavior is hardcoded into him by virtue of how Ivan's curse works and how it animated Paris (though even then, even more of his personality was shown to be influenced by his past experiences), but you can see that he can do kind things and he grows even kinder and perhaps a tiny bit softer over the course of the comic as he comes to care about Yumi and Lily and they start to break down a lot of the walls he's built up around himself

And I think that's beautiful. I love a character that isn't the perfect embodiment of good or evil. It ironically makes him very human and I think the storytelling is great because of that on an individual character arc level

That's not to say the overarching plot isn't good though because, make no mistake, it's incredible too. Yumi went seemingly her entire life seeing things that terrify her but when she meets Paris, she realizes that she can use those powers of hers to save people

And that's a lot of what the plot is. A lot of the early plot is them dealing with the things she has premonitions about until the big bad is introduced. BUT EVEN THEN- There's just so- So much going on and it's scary and it's terrifying and that's why Paris and Lily's dynamics with Yumi is fun

Paris and Yumi sort of settle into this big brother-big sister relationship and it's just... God it's so sweet. It's everything to me. Yumi trusts Paris completely and she worries so much about his wellbeing and wants him to be okay. And she calls him her hero!! HER HERO!

And Paris is just... He worries about her too. He admits with his full chest that he was just using Yumi for her psychic abilities earlier on, but by the time he admits that in the comic? He follows it up with the fact that he now cares about her so much to the point where he'd rather be destroyed than see her hurt or let her get hurt. He cares SO MUCH even if he's struggling with and/or refusing to admit that

And that's so... So... It plays into the last time he really cared about a human (his creator) and everything that came out of it. ESPECIALLY given how things ended with Ivan by the time Paris was put into that trunk for 80 years and left to be found and freed all that time later by Yumi

That's all just gushing about Yumi and Paris too. That's just touching on the two characters we see the most of. There's so many more unique and colorful characters in this comic I haven't even touched on yet- Like Lily!

I mentioned Lily already but I need to deep dive on her for a minute too because she deserves it as much as Paris and Yumi do. Lily is Yumi's babysitter which is how she winds up as involved with the other two as she is (besides the fact that they had to rescue her from a scary situation too)

And because she's her babysitter... That means we get a lot of big sister Lily vibes in there too because she's absolutely ready to kick ass on Yumi's behalf and protect her from creepy things. She routinely voices the fact that she's creeped out and scared by all of this weird creepy stuff and ghosts and possessed toys and all of that but she keeps putting herself out there anyway because she won't let Yumi go it alone

That extends to Paris too! Lily and Paris definitely have a rivalry in the beginning and Lily absolutely does not trust Paris at first when it comes to things with Yumi. But she comes to care about the guy too because she rushes straight into danger on Yumi's behalf to save Paris' life later on

And that's not even counting the way she immediately jumps to Paris' defense when everyone is talking after an encounter with the big bad and Paris is telling his backstory. Without even hesitating, she jumps right in to his defense to tell him that he's not broken for having the choice to act how he wants to act. That he's not broken for being a person with thoughts and feelings

I just- I can't with these three. They all work so well together and their friendship is something to behold. I need so much fanart and fanfic of these guys together and doing stuff as a team

AND THAT'S JUST THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS- All of that rambling and gushing is literally just for the main characters. Even the freaking side characters have a lot going on with them or have a lot of depth to their characters

Let's take Darla and Dorothy there as an example. The Darling Dolls. Dorothy in particular has a lot of interaction with Paris and proposed a major character defining moment/question to Paris in the past, but we see some of Darla too and what we do see of her is just...

They both got mixed up with the big bad, right? Our introduction to them is that they're mixed up with the big bad. Dorothy is helping the big bad because he threatened Darla. Darla, her sister, who outright told Dorothy to run and bought her time because she didn't want Dorothy to get hurt too

So there's some big character stuff right there. And while we're on the topic of the big bad...

Even he's got a lot of depth behind him and his motives if you start to read between the lines and think about some things based on other plot clues we get. He's horrifying and he very much does pose a threat to our main characters as well as everybody else around him, but...

He's not pure evil either. First of all, he's dealing with an absolutely terrifying situation of his own (that I'm not sure if he even fully understands what's happening to him) which does drive the villainy he's getting up to, but that's the thing. He's being driven to do what he does because he is- Uh- He's not doing great actually!

And second of all- The big bad was made by the same guy that made Paris and the rest so in a way... The big bad is as much of a victim as some of the others in the sense of Ivan's curse took him and twisted his mind and made him turn out the way he did

Because the kicker is that the big bad guy thinks or at least thought he was doing good and bringing justice to people. He says he was designed and specially created to be a hero, so anything standing against him has to be evil, right?

That makes for... a really complicated villain of the story if you sit there and put all of these things together (and interpret them the way I am, at least). Just like how Paris isn't the picture perfect of good, this guy isn't the picture perfect of "evil villain without a cause" either

Personally, I don't think Ivan helped either. It's clear that he wanted to stop his wayward creations from hurting people (read: other humans) which is why he created Paris. But... I think in his doing that... He managed to hurt people like Paris and our big bad by failing to see them as the complicated and complex people they are too

And that gets into even more morally gray stuff because Ivan wants these toys rounded up before they can kill humans... but his insistence and way of going about it kind of bulldozed the people he created and was using to get the job done. You can absolutely draw connections between present Paris' behavior and cageyness to his experiences with Ivan in the past once the backstory reveal comes up

It's just an absolute mess. The whole backstory with Ivan and Paris and our big bad is just... It's just a mess and I don't mean that in a bad storytelling kind of way. I mean that in a good storytelling kind of way because it's so freaking emotionally complicated and hard to pin the blame on any one person.

Do people deserve blame and should they take blame for how some things turned out or what some of their actions were? Oh absolutely. But it's more complex than just "this guy was bad and only ever bad"

That whole stretch of backstory episodes is just... exhausting to read in a good way. At least if you're the type that really sinks into a story and empathizes with the characters like I do. It is draining and it hurts and it is beautiful in its tragedy

And that's all just what we see in the first and second season. I don't know what's going to happen next in the comic but that's everything I've seen thus far

I may think of more thoughts to add to this later or make a second post to ramble in, but I think I got it all out for now. This comic is just... It's gripped me in a very strong way and I want to talk endlessly about it and make a lot of fan content for it

Anyway ahem yes this is basically my long winded way of saying you should go read The Dummy's Dummy if you haven't already. It's 100% free to read and costs nothing but your time to read it

[shadowgast-recs-weekly]

Survey Results! Finally!

I’m finally getting to posting the survey results! It’s taken about a month longer than I expected – work got busy and my laptop screen is busted. Also, writing this out took was longer than I expected – ten pages in total.  And that’d be a horrible tumblr post.  So instead, here’s the main findings and the longform answers, and you can take a look at the google doc here for a more in depth analysis from each question.

Main Findings:

Respondents are about evenly divided as to whether or not they reblog.

People generally kudos and comment!

Nobody knows we have a fic randomizer.  (We have a fic randomizer. It’s on the spreadsheet)

Sixty percent of respondents either do or would self rec

The biggest write in answer for why people don’t rec is shyness

The biggest reason for why people don’t read is they don’t remember to go back

Opening up the reclist is contentious, people are generally okay with a script and could use a reminder

What we're doing/did in response:

There’s now a @reclister role on AiFL, request it to get pinged when the rec list goes up or to get reminders as to when to rec

I’m posting what fics have been recced with the 24 hour reminder and the tag list.

I’ve added ‘Less Common Authors’ as a possible theme

I’m going to open up the reccing sheet to everyone – I just have to lock down some stuff first

I’ll update the value filters for the reccing sheet

I’m going to work on a script that updates the basic fields (title, author, word count, rating, ect) for the form.  This one might take a bit.

And now , the long form responses, under the cut:

Thanks to everyone who was thankful that I was doing this! We’re just going to be a thanks ouroboros, happily!

The reason I don’t rec every week is that I find writing summaries hard, everything else is easy for me/The summaries aren’t very useful to me:

So, a short guide to writing summaries for recs:

If the author has something that works – you can always copy it. Part of the reason why this isn’t ‘just a copy and paste what they have’ option is that AO3 summaries can take up space, and we don’t want folks to get sad about having to scroll lots. But if the author has a sentence at the bottom of the summary that explains everything, there’s no reason to do more work.

If the author didn’t provide a one sentence summary, then include the basics of the plot. (Essek gets dicked down by Caleb, Essek and Caleb skip through the wildflowers together, aeorian magic turns Caleb into a capybara and Essek into a hot tub filled with oranges, ect).  Then add an adjective or two that has something to do with tone.  (A hilarious story about Essek being dicked down by Caleb, a tense account of Essek and Caleb skipping through the wildflowers together; Aerian magic turns Caleb into a capybara and Essek into a hot tub full of oranges. It’s surprisingly romantic.) Think about how it made you feel, what genre you would put it in, what tags you’d add on storygraph.

Don’t worry if it’s kind of dry! A) It’s probably less dry than you think, and b) you can do more gushing within the ‘what you liked about it’ section.

One last thing to remember – there’s no one right way to make a summary, people are looking for different things.

If the rec form was opened up to people who aren’t on AIFL don’t you think the name would need to be changed to reflect that it’s not an AIFL thing anymore?

Maybe! I wasn’t planning on not posting it on AiFL, and I’d suspect that the majority of reccers would still be AiFL members (just because getting notifications of something on tumblr is a lot harder).  But to be honest, this would be a relatively small issue.

I'm not a huge shadowgast fan, but I think reclists are cool, and sometimes the fics are relevant to my interests

Thanks!  Have you heard about the other reclists?  There’s @critter-genfic-events for a genfic one that was started by @Professor-Rye and is now being run by @operafloozy, there’s @widomaukficrecs, and I also have the reccing blog tools (group version or single user) in case you want to start your own!

Less a suggestion and more a general thought. I believe the anonymity of the reccers is an important part of this process and I am in no way saying that should be removed, but at the same time, it does feel impersonal, like a lack of commitment to one's tastes. Word of mouth doesn't tend to sway me to read new fic when I don't know the mouths the words are coming from. That said, take this with a grain of salt because, for the time being, I'm not the target audience of the rec lists.

Hey thanks for the comment! I agree with you! There’s a definite trade off in not knowing whether a reccer’s tastes line up with your own. It means that there’s not a great way to add moderation into the rec list, and with anonymity being an ever- dwindling resource on the internet, people’s attitudes towards it have shifted further into suspicion of intent. Even when it’s something like a rec list, I think there can be an anxiety about people finding a way to use it to bully authors – moreso than even having a consistent pseudonym. When really, I think there’s a good reason why reccers might want anonymity. Admitting you like something can be a vulnerable act! Social anxiety was the number one write-in reason as to why people didn’t rec, as is. I want people to feel comfortable reccing fics that are weird or kinky or require a lot of different warnings, and I wanted people to feel comfortable reccing their own fics. And it’s one thing to leave a kudos on someone’s work while signed in – something nobody else is going to see unless they bother to look – and another to put your name saying you enjoy any sort of beastiality or noncon or whatever else where any purity culture lover can object to on tumblr for all to see. The last thing I want is for people to be hurt or harassed because they participated in something that’s supposed to be a net good.

Anyway, this is all saying that I don’t think your concern is unfounded – and while I’m not likely to change anything about this rec list’s anonymity, if anyone else wants to try their hand at running one, it’s something to think about.

Also, I know I tend to read fic the same way, but it does seem to be a ton of repeat authors week-to-week, so maybe if once in a while the list can be to branch out to a never recc’d person?

I really like this idea, but the logistics of it are a little complex. I crunched the numbers, and out of 558 recs, there’s been 175 authors recced. Which is admittedly is a lot of overlap, but also that’s a lot to expect reccers to keep track of.  But a top ten list should be doable!  I crunched the numbers a couple of different ways – top numbers of times an author was recced, top number of different fics recced by an author, and top number of themes recced, which got me a list of fourteen authors – that seems doable. It’s now a possible theme.

More Information I got from number crunching includes:

86 authors have only been recced once

418 fics have been recced, 324 have only been recced once.

Most recced fics are Hard Mouth at seven times.

Royalgreen has had the most recs at 24, the most fics recced at 18, and the most themes recced at 17, but they also have 51 Critical Role Fics, so.

Further info can be found in this details sheet. I've also added a randomizer for general use, just because.

knowing upcoming themes further in advance

This can be done – it’s how the genfic rec list is currently set up. (as a note, while I’m currently running the genfic rec list, @professor-rye was the one to create it).

The AiFL rec list is currently set up so you can rec fics after the tumblr post, with the idea that people would probably look at the list of recs at the google sheet – which I realize isn’t the way it’s currently used. So you can still rec later, it just doesn’t have the same visibility.  (The two exceptions for this are the ‘older recs’ and the ‘hidden gems’ recurring themes, because we know they’re going to recur and they’re not likely to be ineligible when the theme rolls around again, the way works in progress might be).

Logistically, the selecting the upcoming themes in advance doesn’t work as well from the admin side. Instead of remembering that next week is the last Tuesday of the month, I’ve got to remember to count the Tuesdays and order the progress.  Right now the way it goes is that we pick the theme from the randomizer right before we post the reclist, so the same theme gets pasted into the ‘next week’s theme’ section, the google form, and the tumblr post at the same time. If I’m choosing a theme a month out, I select next month’s theme, add it to the google form, then go back and check what I’d selected a month ago and post that into the tumblr post and next week’s theme. 

There’s also the fact that if we give too much lead time, it means folk procrastinate and forget. Most of the recs currently come in soon after I post the tag list or the 24 reminders as is, and while some people on the gen fic reclist post for multiple weeks at a time, I find that most of the recs are for the week of, anyway.

Anyway, I’m not completely against this, but currently the drawbacks outweigh the perks. Figuring out a different way to sort the upcoming themes for the genfic list is on my to-do list, maybe afterwards I’ll come back and revisit.

[nanty-narking]

satosugu rp search

i just got to season two of jjk and my heart ACHES. i need to fix-it!!!!

For context about what I'm like as a roleplay partner and what I look for in a fellow partner:

- I'm 26; please be 21+.

- advanced lit !!!!!!!

- I hate fade to black sex scenes

- I want to have a medium-high frequency of more than one reply per day, but I don't expect that I will be able to maintain that pace just because that's what life is like for me right now. At least one response per day is ideal, but I understand that people have lives-- so do I.

- I don't really enjoy being ghosted, but for the sake of saving everyone the anxiety, I am ghost friendly. I would prefer if you at least just let me know if you want to go on hiatus or quit entirely before you disappear. I won't bite, I swear 🤞🏼

- I enjoy talking OOC whether or not we're currently roleplaying. I want a partner that wants to headcanon, squeal, and gush about the men... as well as someone who wants to participate in plotting with me.

- I RP third person present, but can do past as well. Present is my default, but sometimes I might swap back and forth without even realizing it so if this is a huge pet peeve for you don't message me lol

- Response length isn't extremely important to me, but I don't like one-liners. What I really care about is the quality of the world and character building-- that being said, getting a really short reply every time is not for me. I'm veritable in response length depending on context, so I'd like you to be too. I have an rp sample google doc i can share with you if you'd like to see it!

- We can talk hard limits, but I am into some darker content and language and would ideally like for my partner to not have a queasy stomach.

- Im open to lots of plot ideas and aus, but ideally would like to do some flash-backs of younger satosugu mixed with a fix-it "gojo actually notices geto is spiralling and intervenes". If we like rping together we can just keep making up scenarios to play out ❤️

- i would like to be geto but am open to gojo too!

- i only rp on discord! no tupperbox. please dm me for my user!

[porcupine-girl]

I wanna hear about scrivener 👀

OH BOY

I saw I had an ask and I was like oh man I hope someone asked me about scrivener.

I write everything in Scrivener. Not just all my fic. I wrote my dissertation in Scrivener, I write my original fiction in it, I wrote the two magazine articles I've published in it.

First I will link you to my Scrivener tag, which probably contains everything I will say here because I never do shut up about it.

So first off, I will admit that Scrivener is not for everyone. Some people work better with linear programs like Word or GDocs without any bells or whistles.

HOWEVER

It is important to know that you can totally 100% use Scrivener without any bells or whistles. In fact, I recommend it at first! Don't overwhelm yourself. Then start to play with the cool features one by one.

I got it in 2014, and literally my fic writing skyrocketed immediately. Same for my dissertation when I started doing that in Scrivener a few months later. It's so good for my brain. It might not be for yours. But it might be just the thing.

I will put most of my gushing under a cut. My brain is only half-functional right now which probably means I'll go on and on and both repeat myself AND forget half the things I want to say.

Things I have done with Scrivener that I can't do with other programs:

I keep all my fic in one Scrivener file, which is called a "project." All of it. Every word of fic I've written since 2014. This does not slow it down AT ALL. In Word if I get over a few dozen pages it starts to crawl. I have well over 1.5 million words of fiction in this project, organized into many subdocuments and folders, and it is smooth as silk and easy to navigate. See the video below.

Why do I keep it all in one project? I'm so damn "out of sight out of mind." When I had all my fic in separate documents in a folder, it was so easy to forget what was there. I'd be working on one thing and forget anything else existed. If I closed that file and didn't open a new one I'd forget that working on fic was a thing I could do. No more! It's all right there in the sidebar so I can switch between fics whenever I want. And I basically just keep it open 24/7, it opens automatically when I reboot my computer.

I do other stuff this way too. All my picture books are in one project, all my magazine stuff is in one project. Love it.

When doing my dissertation I created my own citation manager within scrivener. This is Advanced Scrivening but it shows the versatility.

I used the notecard/corkboard view for this. It's also very useful for things like listing out plot points and figuring out how they fit together.

I don't write as nonlinearly as I used to but I still sometimes need to skip ahead to get a scene out of my head or because I just don't know what comes next but I know what comes after that. Scrivener makes that super duper easy.

I can also make documents within my fic that aren't the text of the fic. I usually have at least one for my outline, and sometimes have one or two for brainstorming when I'm stuck on a plot point or for keeping track of timelines and such. I often also have a doc where I dump cut bits that I might want to use later (or in another fic entirely - anything I know I need to cut but that might come in handy someday).

For original fiction you can get lots of templates that have various things you can use like character sheets or plot beats or whatever. You can have all your character sheets etc right there in the project.

You can put other stuff in it besides scrivener docs. You can drop entire PDFs into your scrivener file, let alone images and such. When I say I had a citation manager within it I mean I literally had the PDFs of the papers in there too. I use this a lot for my nonfiction writing stuff.

There's a split screen mode that's so useful. Sometimes when I'm editing I'll make a copy of a chapter or whatever so that I can keep an eye on what it used to look like to remind myself of where I want to go with it etc etc. Or I might keep the outline over there, or a character sheet, or whatever.

There's a revision mode that will keep track of up to five text colors for different revision stages - BUT what I use it for is tracking my word count. I do all new writing in revision mode, then every so often (especially if I'm about to delete a chunk) I select everything that's whatever color and record the word count in my word count text doc before removing the revision color. Then as soon as I go back to writing everything new that I type is the color again, I don't have to remember to set it back each time. IDK if how I worded that quite makes sense but it works great.

Here is a video I made a while back showing my fic project - as you can see, the ONLY time it slows down at all is when I try to view ALL OF IT at once, which I only ever do very occasionally out of idle curiosity as to my total wordcount. I just checked - I actually now have nearly 2 million words in this project right now. Can you even imagine trying to navigate a 2 million word Word file? That's about 8000 pages. No thank you.

Also there are mobile versions but I haven't gotten around to downloading those yet. I really should though; when I get the urge to write in the middle of the night on my phone I do it in an email and send it to myself and in the morning I paste it into scrivener lol

Anyhow, I highly recommend trying out the free trial (which is 100% functionality for 30 days) and seeing if it works for you. If you want to buy it, you can find various deals all over the place - for example, a code for Nano participants for 20% off, or if you win nano I think you can get 50% off.

I will say, it's not the best for formatting. I've said this before - I view it very much as a writing program, not a finished-product-creating program. I move my writing to Pages or OpenOffice if I need actual formatting beyond the most basic stuff like bold and italics. Fic I can just put right into AO3, though.

[fortheloveofexy]

(allow me to just gush for a second i promise i actually have a couple of questions !!) i randomly stumbled across into the deep after seeing some art on pinterest that was inspired by the fic. i initially thought it wasn’t really my thing, but when i saw how committed you were to it and all the research you’d put into it, i was persuaded to give it a chance and OHHHH MY GOD IT IS NOW EVERYTHING TO ME, THANK YOU 😭😭 IM COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH THIS WORLD YOU’VE MANAGED TO BUILD

anyway my question is, while writing, did you ever consider having the ending of into the deep be instead that neil (somehow) becomes a mer so that him and andrew can be together? do you think you would ever write an AU/one-shot or something where that happens?

aaand another thing, sorry! i’m really looking forward to seeing this PDF of all your writing notes someday but in the meantime can you tell us anything more about how andrew was able to become human? is it just something that all mers are able to do, or can it only happen once a mer has found a human mate and has chosen to spend a life with them properly?

Thank you for the lovely ask!! I'm so happy you enjoyed the fic despite your initial reservations 🥰 I loved crafting this story and building this world so much, so it makes me really happy to know others love it too!

Regarding your questions - from pretty early on in the fic's development, I knew Andrew would become human in the end. There was a point where I had briefly considered turning Neil into a mer instead, but by the time I had ironed out the plot and established the themes the fic would be exploring, it made much more sense for the narrative if Andrew gave up his tail.

That said, it is very fun to consider the alternative ending we might have had, and I haven't ruled out the possibility of a one shot exploring that particular "what if?"

As for how Andrew was able to transform and the mechanics of that - I intentionally left this vague in the fic itself because I decided it was more fun for the reader to wonder about it (adds to the sense of magic, you know!).

Theoretically, any mer is capable of such a transformation if the right conditions are met. They have to be in love with a human, willing to abandon their ties to the sea (their home, their pod, all of it) and the human must reciprocate their feelings.

In Andrew's case, this meant releasing his family from the deal they made and letting them go to live their own lives. It also meant allowing himself to want it as well, which as we know is something our boy struggles with doing. He gets there in the end, though, and it all works out alright :)

[night-market-if]

Hi there !

I just came here to say that I read the entirety of the Night Market yesterday. Before my final exam. Instead of studying. A wonderful decision, really.

More seriously, I need to say this : this. This is a work of art. This shook me to my core. The way you describe everything is wonderful. And the story. The characters. Oh my god the world you created is so full and complex and you can see so much of your love for it through the writing, and it's not a perfect world, nowhere near it, but the characters in this world care and it's enough. The main cast, no, everyone really, is so human. So likable (except some obvious villains, whom are still incredibly interesting in their motivations, and also their madness the Lord of Dolls is an incredible example of this), so full of mistakes, with backstories so complex and unique, and I want to hug them because they need it but also slap some of them because they're so dumb *cough* Milo *cough*, which, I think, shows a lot about how well written a character is.

Now, onto the spoilers and the last chapters. I'm screaming. So so so not okay right now. I swear I ended the last chapter, read the last word, and went "how the fuck am I supposed to go to my exam tomorrow and be normal about this ???". Like. The way each plot twist was for me unexpected but shed light on so much stuff. Like, wow. Every bit that I was like "oh wait that's genius". One thing, even. In one chapter, when MC says to Milo "I hate them. The one who brought me there." and Milo had a strange reaction I said "oh imagine if he's the one who brought us there haha that would be fun". Let me tell you I wasn't laughing later on in chapter 11 after discovering that this funny thought, fastly forgotten because hey, I was never great at theories, this funny thought WAS THE GOOD ONE.

You are so so so so so so talented and I love your universe and everything and I'm destroyed in the best way possible and you gave me so much motivation about working on my own book and I will buy it I will buy the full game I will buy every one of your games just take my money. This is incredible. You are incredible.

Thank you so much for Night Market. I will read it again (because I don't have anymore exam ha). And sorry for the long rant, but I really needed to share how much I loved your if, and your writing ! Also sorry if any of this sounds strange, english isn't my first language !

With that, I hope you have a nice day/evening/night ! Take care of yourself !

I hope your exams went amazing!!! I do not miss those years. LOL

First off, thank you thank you thank you! The gushing was what I needed to sign on to. I always get so excited when readers get what I've been trying to convey. These flawed characters, all of which have lives and a past, are so very important to me. I know the typical way to do things is to write a story revolving around the MC but I would much rather write a story where MC goes and just experiences the world and the people in it.

As for being fooled by Milo, someone on discord put it great. You are blind to the ones you love. The truth of Milo has been laid out for some time. From chapter one, really. But, it was hard to see because of the kind of person he is. I am so excited to explore that in book 2.

Thank you for spending the time to write all this out. It has filled me with all the warm love. :)

And as for the Dollmaker? He will be a "villain" we will be seeing more of.

[thefrogdalorian]

It's New Year's Eve and I just wanted to share some mushy thoughts about life and Mando and Din and how this year has been overall for me!!

If you don't want to read below the cut I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year!! I hope you have a wonderful time, whatever you do to celebrate. I'm currently on a trip so I may not be terribly active, but if you're struggling and the emotions of the day are a little too much, please do message me. I've been there plenty of times. You're not alone. NYE should really be about looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past, but I know how easy it is to get caught up in that depressive loop of thinking.

But if you do want to keep reading, then strap in for some Oversharing Online and gushing about how much Mando means to me:

I first started watching Mando during the pandemic in 2020, I think the first episode released like 2 days after the UK went into lockdown or something. 2020 was an awful year for me, as I'm sure it was for so many of you. A lot of things happened to me that I'm still trying to process but I hope to start therapy in the new year and go some way to addressing it.

Anyway, The Mandalorian came to me at a time I dearly needed it. It was welcome relief from The Horrors I was experiencing. I was hooked pretty much straight away, who was this mysterious man? What were his intentions? Was he good or bad? OH WOW THAT WALK. THAT VOICE!!! I loved it, but it wasn't until The Believer that everything changed for me. It went from enjoyment to full-blown obsession. I couldn't wait until Season 3 aired, and I think the expectations I had built up in my head could never have lived up to the reality of what I felt upon watching it for the first time. I was pretty disappointed most weeks, but I feel so differently now.

This year has been pretty strange for me. I had some amazing highs (like being able to go to Star Wars Celebration where I got to see so many amazing Din and Mandalorian cosplays which was an INSANE experience and I still kind of haven't properly processed yet??) and also some difficult lows.

In June I finally got my autism diagnosis, something I'd been essentially waiting for for EIGHT YEARS. It was a huge shock but also not shocking at all. As in, I knew I was autistic since being a teenager but I was absolutely not expecting to be told right there and then at my assessment. So when the psychologist looked me in the eye and told me that I was autistic it was somewhat of a gut punch. Processing it was extremely difficult but during that time I found myself drawn back to Mando and particularly to season 3. I rewatched it again and again fell in love with a season that I'd probably felt on the whole underwhelmed with at the time, until the last two episodes, which I loved instantly.

When rewatching it, I noticed things that I'd missed before, which led me to become kind of obsessed with the idea of Din and Bo together. I know not everyone enjoys that but that truly is what I love about media, that we can all watch a similar thing and interpret it differently! I don't think I'm any more correct about the way I view certain interactions than anyone else. Shipping should just be a little fun, not ruin your mental health or dictate how you treat strangers on the internet. And it especially should not lead to any real world harassment of creators and actors.

So in September an idea formed and between then and November a 182,000 word fic landed in my lap. That's the best way I can describe writing it for me, I was so fixated on finishing it and the plot just kept coming the more I wrote. It is by FAR the longest thing I've ever written and probably ever will write, but the routine of writing it and publishing it helped claw me out of a spiral I was in after my diagnosis.

And it was publishing it on AO3 that gave me the confidence to rejoin a fandom space again. It was a big step for me to put myself out there but I'm so glad that I did because that's what led me here, to discover this wonderful community who adore Din and The Mandalorian just as much as I do. I'm so happy that I finally found my way here. It was way less intimidating than I ever thought it would be!

I know that I haven't been here for the longest time, I wish I just got over my nervousness and made a tumblr earlier in the year so I could have joined in with the hype before season 3. But also considering how poorly received the season was overall, maybe it was for the best that I wasn't here.

Despite my relative newness here, I just wanted to say how welcomed I've felt and that is a truly lovely feeling. Thank you so much to everyone who has interacted with any of my posts and especially my writing in any way, big or small. It means a lot to me! I cannot wait to be around for all the buildup to Season 4, honestly. I know it seems so far but after midnight we can say it's (probably) only NEXT YEAR!

I have no idea what 2024 has in store for me. That doesn't scare me, in fact I'm quite excited about not knowing what will happen. I

Of course, I have some goals I'd like to achieve for myself but whatever happens, I know that Mando will be there to endlessly rewatch and whatever comes my way, I'll always have Din Djarin. He's the only man to ever exist! That gorgeous tin can who instantly soothes me every time I get to watch his silly little exploits with his silly little son. Where would we be without him, eh?

Anyway, whatever you're doing tonight to celebrate and even if you aren't, I wish you all the best. Stay safe, enjoy yourself and I'm sending you lots of love and light for the year. May 2024 be a healthy, happy prosperous year for you and your loved ones.

See you in 2024!

Love,

Spud 🥔🐸

[umcha]

hey all ૮ ⑅ ´ ˘ ` ⑅ ა­ i'm currently crafting a new muse and i'd loveee to get some discord 1x1s going for him because i'm realllly feeling the muse right now. in short summary, he's a drummer in a band that's just kicking off to extreme fame. if you're in the mood for drama and angst, i'm your gal. ♡ i have some wanted plots and potential triggers that would be involved under the cut, but i'm open to your plot ideas too! i'll gush about taylor and his story more in dms if you're interested. ♡ please check my pinned post, and if you're interested like or msg me. hope to hear from you!

triggers that can either come up in plot, backstory or mentioned in this post ( will have a * )

religious themes

drug use/party lifestyle

age gap

cheating

pregnancy

wanted plots

these are just loose ideas, i can build on all in dms! all are open to m/f/nb unless stated otherwise.

a childhood friend that stayed in their hometown, attended all their shows and supported the band throughout their small buildup. they probably grew up together, and watched him buildup and now will experience a downfall. bonus points if there was unspoken feelings.

* cheating tw / a highschool sweetheart ( F ), where again, they supported all throughout their buildup and everything that happened in the beginning. everyone thought they would make it, but eventually they split. we could go the easy route where the band started touring and they just couldn't make it work, or maybe he cheated or something. hehe.

a band member, either or good terms or bad terms. whether route, there's tension between them. maybe they're more serious about everything than him, maybe they're straight edge and not fancying the direction everyone else is going. bonus points if the fans ship them and have a bunch of speculations on their relationship which neither of them have admitted to yet.

* age gap tw / a mentor, where they're someone already under the spotlight and already in a successful band. they either helped kickstart taylor's band, or they took him under their wing shortly after they rose to quick fame. he now has an unhealthy connection to them, where he's very reliant on them.

* drug use/party lifestyle tw / someone to corrupt him, basically as it sounds. whether they latched onto him for the money or genuinely had a connection with him, they pulled him underneath the wave and now they have a semi-toxic relationship. or maybe it's bliss. idk. we'll figure it out.

* drug use/party lifestyle tw / someone for him to corrupt, basically the same thing. they probably meet on the road, and taylor's already pretty far gone by this point. he sinks his claws into them and pulls them down with him. whether it's rocky or, again, bliss... we figure that out.

a groupie, basically as simple as it sounds but we make it more fleshed out. it's probably a no strings attached thing but soon strings get heavily entangled and everything turns to shit. if you've read everything by this point, you can probably tell i love angst.

a publicist, this one is a little fun. basically, they probably meet at a show or at an interview. maybe their motives are ulterior and they just want a glance into the scene to further their career, but he heavily falls for them. ooooo.

* pregnancy tw / a one night stand ( F ), basically... they meet one night on tour and hookup. it's not supposed to be more than that, until she finds out that she's pregnant. probably will be a lot of mess and drama considering taylor doesn't want to be a father. maybe a little toxic given the addiction. hopefully they make it work, aw.

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

I am about to say something that will probably put a giant fucking target above my head, but against all good reason - I fucking hate this whole 'gaylor' trend.

let's get the facts out right now: 1. I am a non-binary dyke, in case anyone wants to play the queerphobia card 2. I've been a fan of taylor since fearless first came out when I was 11 (before some of you had probably even reached double digits) and 3. yes, this is inspired by the recent ny times article.

honestly I'm usually too much of an old man to be interested in a lot of celebrity news, even for artists I like, so I generally stay clear, but this came through my morning news feed via, bizarrely, ctv (fucking ctv thought this was NEWSWORTHY enough to put on their site which is bonkers, and if you're not canadian, ctv is a nationwide news broadcaster). and it made me livid - because this has now far beyond stretched the line of acceptable.

fucking ny times. this would be perfectly expected for rags like daily soap dish or enquirer or some other bullshit circus, where they spend all their damn days crafting celebrity stories of who's secretly pregnant and who's getting an underground divorce. ny times, in case they fucking forgot, do still have some sort of legitimacy to their name, but I guess they decided they'd run out of enough stories to now outsource to conspiracy theory level fans who's parasocial relationships with their favourite celebrity reaches deity levels. dear ny times, there is actual news still happening in the world in case you're out of ideas.

putting aside this bizarre so called attempt at 'journalism', onto the second point - which is that this. is. gross!! I've had issues with the whole 'gaylor' thing since the start. we, as a fanbase, have seen taylor ripped apart and broken down by this intrusive and harmful celeb culture that analyzes her every move for who she might be seeing, who's she interested in, which male friend could be a potential partner, etc etc, over and over, and how it's been both damaging to her and her love life as she's said. fans have even criticized the media for it and said to leave taylor alone! but now, all of a sudden, just bc you're a fan or bc you're queer or both, it's okay??? it fucking boggles my mind when so-called 'gaylor' fans gush about her and her work, always at her defense and say they care about her, and then do this 180 where they partake in a super invasive thing at her expense and don't even blink an eye??? making your own guesses by yourself is one thing, but creating a whole plot around the fact of taylor secretly being gay and pushing her to come out is a whole other ballroom of nuts.

let's get this out onto the table - she hates this. she doesn't like that you guys do this. she's already stated so and you all keep doing it. just because you're replacing the male character with a female one doesn't mean shit when you're doing the same harmful activity, just switching pronouns. you're not subverting anything, in case any of you need to be told. as a queer fan, this is embarrassing. it is such a gross over-stepping of someone's private life, and now that the goddamn ny times have posted it about it, makes the behavior even more legitimized!! while nothing excuses homophobia, if taylor eventually starts distancing herself from anything and all things queer and starts pushing back, I don't want to see any fucking one of you crying bc it'd be your own damn fault.

thirdly, even if, even if, taylor was gay - it's none of our fucking business!!! it's like all you up and completely blanked out what it was like to be closeted. if you're staying closeted, it's because you're not ready to come out!!! you don't want to or it's not a good time for you or whatever there doesn't need to be any reason for why someone doesn't want to say they're gay!!! it's hard enough trying to make that choice, and then you have the rest of the whole world posting ''''articles'''' about your sexuality, putting a million pairs of eyes on you - fuck, that'd send me back ten more layers into the closet if it happened to me! it's super rude not only to discuss someone's sexuality like it's the weather over brunch, but even worse to demand they say something about it! this is queer etiquette 101 people - you don't run around gossiping about someone's sexuality bc whatever that person decides they doesn't need your fucking input!!

basically if I could spray you all with a spray bottle I fucking would right now - nobody needs your input on their sexuality, celebrity or non! all this does is perpetrate harmful celebrity gossip that just hurts the artist you claim to love so much. taylor is a real person with a real life, she's not a storybook character to speculate over! please, I am begging you, stop this! go outside! touch grass!!

and at the risking of being meme-ified, leave taylor alone!

[9haharharley1]

Hi! Your blog is amazing, and so is your writing! I’m a brand new newbie to the Rise of Guardians / Blackice fandom, and I’m OBSESSED 😂 anyways, maybe you could help a newbie out? What are the best fics to read? The best blogs to follow? Sorry if this is a lot, I just absolutely adore this fandom/ship!

Aw, thank you! Welcome to our little slice of fandom! Please enjoy your stay!

For blogs, definitely check out Gilly and Bunnimew's blogs, they have some lovely work both in art and fic! Here are some authors on AO3 you should definitely comb through:

Gilly

LinesAndColors

XinriaRouge

ChibisUnleased

KamuiWithFangs

not_poignant

And since you asked and I haven't had the opportunity to gush about my favorite fics, here they are:

How to Love Fear - This is it. This is the fic that dragged me kicking and screaming into this fandom. I love it so much and have read it so many times. Jack is given a mission by MiM to go into Pitch's lair to offer reform, but Pitch is not having it. Jack, now stuck in the dark with the Boogieman has to convince back into the light or take his place as the new Nightmare King. All the while, memories of a life he doesn't remember start to resurface and Pitch has something to do with it. Its a WIP, but definitely worth the read!

Black Ice - If How to Love Fear dragged me in, this one is what convinced me to stay. Jack finds Pitch one Halloween night and agrees to help him find his true center and a new way to use fear. What follows is a slow-burn, sci-fi fantasy epic that I finished in less than three days because it was so compelling! Complete.

Baddest Boy of Them All - A blackice Megamind AU where Pitch comes to Earth as a baby is not raised by the best of standards, ultimately deciding that if they're gonna treat him like a bad guy, he might as well be the bad guy. Jack becomes his favorite hostage. WIP, but updated regularly.

Rocks Give Way to Rain - The slowest of slow burns and mysteries and I am dying to see it's completion! It's long, it's epic, Jack has a much shadier past than we've been led to believe, and there's something up with Pitch and his shadows and Jack is determined to help out. WIP, absolutely a must-read.

Evil Boyfriends - If dark!Jack is your thing, this is the series for you! Pitch finds Jack long before the Guardians get him and Jack sticks around, compounding in a dangerously co-dependent relationship. Not what I would actually consider dark!Jack, but he's definitely not on the side of the Guardians. Complete.

Finding a Home for the Holidays - Some Doublemint Oreo goodness, wherein Jack finally has people to spend the holidays with. Fluff, smut, and angst all in one place! Complete.

Hold My Tea and Watch This and Why is the Tea Always Gone - An epic romp of Pitch and Jack discovering how much they need each other while a dark force awakens to threaten the world. Complete.

Shattered Pieces - Gilly's WIP that is currently driving me insane with heartbreak! Twenty years after the events of the movie, Jack is struggling to open up to his friends. When Jamie loses his belief, Jack is left struggling to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart, but Pitch is there to help. Updated regularly.

In Another Time - You want angst? You want tragedy? You want your heart ripped out and stomped on the floor? Then do I have a story for you! In the ongoing war against the Dream Pirates, Fearlings, and Nightmare Men, General Kozmotis Pitchiner already has enough on his plate without dealing with a trouble-making Jackson Overland. Perhaps, it would have been better to kick him out when he had the chance, but growing attached to young Private instead seemed so much more desirable at the time. Complete.

Strange Magic - Strange Magic AU wherein Prince Jack overhears a plot to use a love potion on the Dark Forest King Pitch and decides that that's a bad idea. The fastest of burns and I am here for every second of it! Complete.

I know I'm missing a bunch, but this is what I got right now just skimming through my bookmarks. There's so much more on my read later list, but this is a good start if you're looking for multi-chapter fics! Reader beware though, all of these feature smut at some point.