#kwoc writes

[kwockwoc]

Do you think that Seiji would be the type to say a pick-up line? What would be the most Seiji-appropriate line he would say?

hmm...

you've got pretty eyes (800 words, sfw, below the cut)

you've got pretty eyes

Seiji, with some trepidation, opens his Tumblr Inbox.

Anonymous.

He narrows his eyes at that. Why anonymous?

He reads the ask.

He re-reads it.

A few seconds pass.

New tab.

Google.com

Search: best ever pick up line

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Search: best ever pick up line gay

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Search: best ever pick up line gay tips tricks guaranteed success

Scroll, scroll, scroll.

Hmm.

No, no, no.

Phone.

> Nicholas Cox (Husband)

Call.

Nicholas’s voice, sounding a little harried. He’s obviously outside. Seiji can hear – traffic, maybe? – and voices in the background. “Seiji? Honey, what’s wrong?”

Seiji clears his throat.

“Hello. What did I say to you when I asked you out? The first time?”

After a second of stunned silence, Nicholas laughs.

“What? Why – what’s brought this on?”

“Um. Nothing,” Seiji says, because admitting to his dearly beloved that a random Tumblr anon ask had triggered a cascading series of self-reflections and self-doubts would probably make him sound even more oversensitive than usual.

“Well – honey – I don’t think I remember,” Nicholas admits, his mouth a little too close to the mic, like usual, and Seiji loves that, even though he should probably be miffed by the fact that his spouse doesn’t remember how they kickstarted their relationship. “It was a while ago.”

“Yes, I know. I just thought you might remember.”

“I wish I could remember, honey. I really do.” Nicholas sighs. “I think – uh – I think it would’ve been something cute. Something like, is this piste taken?”

Nicholas laughs again, and Seiji grumbles.

“No, no, that wouldn’t have made any sense, and I was more bold than that,” Seiji says. “I think it would have been something about your ass.”

Nicholas lowers his voice. “Seiji, you might’ve thought you were bold, but you really weren’t. There’s no way you would’ve said anything about my –” there’s a pause, as if Nicholas is checking who’s around – “my ass when we were sixteen.”

“Well – I wanted to say something about your ass.”

Nicholas sighs. “Are you sure it wasn’t something about my fencing? Something jokey? Something about corps a corps?”

“No, I think I’d remember that,” Seiji says. “That would have involved some planning.”

“Hmm. Yeah, you’re right. And I’d remember it, too.”

They lapse into a few moments of comfortable silence. Nicholas breathes into the phone in a way that’s distinctly… his. It’s similar to the way he snores, gentle and regular, perfect –

“I think I might have said something about your eyes,” Seiji says, before he becomes overwhelmed by meditation on the beauties of Nicholas’s autonomic nervous system. “You’ve got pretty eyes, sweetheart. I’ve always liked your eyes.”

“Oh, thanks, honey. Dad reckons they’re just like grandpa’s,” Nicholas says brightly, and Seiji groans.

“Yes, I – I already know Robert’s opinions on your eyes. And please don’t talk about your grandfather while we’re discussing our dating history.”

“But grandpa was hot,” Nicholas says, a little reproachfully. “You’ve seen the photo.”

Seiji buries his face in his left hand, keeping the phone pressed to his head with his right. “Sweetheart, we’re not debating whether your grandfather was hot,” Seiji says.

“What were we debating?”

“What I said to you to convince you to date me,” Seiji repeated, patiently. “The –” he exhaled, nosily. The words seemed clumsy, teenagerish. “– the pick-up line I used.”

Nicholas laughs again. “Honey, I’m real sorry, but I’m gonna have to go soon. Like, now. I’m meant to be on bus duty. We can talk about this when I get home, if you want.”

“No late practice tonight?” Seiji asks, hoping that the answer will be no. Nicholas and his assistant have been working with two of their most promising épée students an extra night each week, to get the kids ready for individual competition – the Illinois junior NAC in November. Seiji knows, without being told, that Nicholas is an excellent teacher, and an even better coach. His students adore him. Everyone adores him. Seiji adores him.

“No, Seiji. No late practice, I promise. That’s Wednesdays only now, and Silvia’s doing most of it anyway.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

“All right, I’ve gotta go. The kids are getting out of class. Love you, bye!”

“I love you Nicholas. I love you very much. Bye now.”

Seiji puts the phone down.

Eventually, he returns his attention to the laptop, screen glowing in the home office.

He reads the ask a third time.

He clicks Answer.

--

Dear anonymous,

Thank you for the ask.

I was not and am not generally given to deploying – as you put it – pick-up lines, although I am convinced that there was something I said that was not only extremely witty but also deeply passionate and endearing that convinced my now-husband, Nicholas Coste @fyeahepee2002, to embark on a romantic relationship with me.

If you require advice or support in obtaining a romantic partner, I suggest a web search. There are many useful and enlightening websites with practical advice.

Seiji Katayama  (@expertfencingadvice)

--

He clicks Post now, and moves on.

[bichobolitach]

i just want to say i think of your Massimo/ LOVE RIVAL concept at least once a week... Massimo my guy... just here to cause some drama (in a cute sort of a way, no doubt)

Kwoc my beloved you’re officially the second person to show interest in my little raccoon boy which means now I’m legally obligated to write him. In the meantime, I will leave you fun Massimo tidbits.

- Massimo fences HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), basically XV-XVII century fencing with the big medieval swords. Yes, he does have a lot of jokes about his big sword.

- Despite his cool bad boy look, Massimo is a massive sword nerd. That’s how he got Seiji to tolerate him in the first place, they just bonded immediately over their insane amount of fencing history knowledge; Seiji on olympic/épée fencing and Massimo on his medieval swords and treaties.

- His full name is Massimo Angelo Bongiovanni. Nick keeps referring to him by pasta names (“Rigattoni”, “Linguini”, “Fetuccini”, “Ravioli”).

- Massimo takes a very bold and direct approach to flirting with Seiji, he is not subtle nor is he discrete. He’s also very hands on.

- Nick also keeps referring to HEMA as Hiccup fencing, out of spite. He actually thinks it’s really cool, he just doesn’t like Massimo.

- Nick liked Massimo at first until he started paying all too much attention to Seiji.

- Jesse would like to maul him.

- Nick and Jesse find Massimo’s bold approach to Seiji so offensive, they actually team up to sabotage his attempts.

- Massimo is actually either a Junior or a Senior, haven’t decided yet. I just find it funnier that way.

- Seiji actually finds all his sword facts so fascinating he is willing to overlook all the unnecessary proximity. He assumes it’s an italian thing and moves on with his life.

- Massimo likes to hang out with Seiji even if Seiji isn’t romantically interested in him.

- They all meet in a sort of fencing varieties camp where a bunch of kids from different fencing disciplines are put together so they can learn the other disciplines and get to try the different weapons. I’m not sure if this is a thing that gets done, I made it up for fic reasons.

- Massimo also likes to wake up at the crack of dawn to train, which leads to him sharing the space with Seiji in the mornings. He also keeps trying to get Seiji’s attention so he keeps distracting him, which annoys Dmytro. Dmytro and Massimo’s coach spend most of the camp cussing each other out (very funny to me personally). Massimo has a lot of Romeo and Juliet jokes about himself and Seiji that he finds very funny.

- I was listening to “Rock you like a Hurricane” while drawing this, so that is now his theme song.

[praline-elegy]

Praline! I am here for your Scott Langtree/Thomas Leventis thoughts 🤺

Kwoc! Hello! Oh my goodness I am so flattered by your interest 😳💓

This is going to be a very long post so hold onto your épée 😆🤺✨

I guess I’ll start off with the most obvious question, why ship them?

Canon is my dollhouse and I’m making my favorite characters kiss. That’s the beautiful thing about fanfiction, canon is merely a suggestion, and I’m playing with dolls! :)

So why do I like these characters? Why Thomas and Scott?

I’ve noticed that a lot of the time, when there’s a grumpy twin/sunshine twin dynamic, it’s usually the grumpy twin that ends up finding love or pursuing a relationship, so I wanted to explore a romance for Thomas because I think the sunshine twin deserves love too.

I’m not really sure how I landed on Scott for Thomas as opposed to anyone else from the other teams, but his character has really grown on me in the short time that we’ve met his character, and also… your Scott from better this way lowkey shaped the way that I view him too. Not by any insane amount, but the brief instance of Nicholas telling Scott to chill kind of broke the ice for me and made me realize… he’s just a high school guy too. He’s a nerd that likes Lord of the Rings. An absolute dork by my standards (and Thomas’ delight :)

“Of course, you’ve missed the start of this academic year, but honestly, Nicholas, for somebody with your talent, we could p–”

“Dude –” Nicholas said, cutting in. “Sorry – Scott. I was warned about this. I’m not changing schools.”

Scott looked shocked for a moment. “But I j–” (better this way, chapter 14)

You know that meme? He’s just a little guy? Yeah that’s Scott. He’s just another guy. I mean, he is the captain of Halverton, but he’s not some untouchable being. He’s friendly. He doesn’t like raisins. He has a passion for fencing. He gets exasperated when having to deal with unruly underclassmen. I had this notion that he was going to be shrewd and stoic (like when we see him trying to poach Seiji), but he really is a friendly guy, which we can see when Nicholas gapes at Seiji talking to Marcel and Thomas when they arrive, and Scott filling him in on how they know each other. I actually really enjoyed the part where he points out that all the members of Exton are there for a reason and respects their drive.

“No. You can’t underestimate them… Each one is utterly hardworking and dedicated.” (Scott, Volume 6)

There’s just something about that that gets me. I don’t think humble is the right word for it, but his respect and awareness earns brownie points in my book. I thought he’d make an interesting match for Thomas. Plus there’s an unintentional but intriguing captain x reserve dynamic that I haven’t explored yet.

Going back to Thomas, everything that I have ever written or headcanoned about him is entirely my own interpretation. It helps that Johanna’s art of him helps paint a picture of what his personality would be like. In this and this art right here, you can clearly differentiate who’s Aster and who’s Thomas. Their expressions and body language tell so much in the first art. Tell me that isn’t the face of a cinnamon roll. I dare you. He looks so sweet it makes my heart melt.

When writing Thomas, I wanted to subvert the popular concept of a sunshine twin/character. For me, that means a person that is outgoing and bright. Someone that people naturally gravitate towards like the sun. But I want to challenge that idea by creating a character that is still kind and bright, but sort of meek and shy. An introvert, but very sweet and likable all the same. I like the idea of a character that seems upbeat and positive on the outside, but is actually anxious and perhaps pessimistic on the inside (Now that I think about it, am I just rebranding sunshine as cinnamon roll? 🤔💭).

What are some Scott/Thomas thoughts that I have?

I’ve decided to expand upon Scott’s tastes for Lord of the Rings and think he would definitely be the type to enjoy Dungeons & Dragons, ren faires, and knitting. Specifically knitting over crochet because that’s what I prefer lol. Scott sort of keeps his knitting hobby on the down low, because he’s not a fan of when acquaintances push for him to make them something. He does however, knit Thomas a birthday and Christmas present—which if you’re a knitter, says a lot about how Scott feels about Thomas 🤭💝 (The Christmas present being after they started dating 🥰🎁) I have a scene plotted out further into their relationship (pre-slash but mutually pining) where Scott invites Thomas to play D&D with him and his friends for his birthday as well 🥳🎲✨ Plus, a ren faire sounds like a wonderful date (or appointment 😌) idea!

For Thomas, I’ve decided that he enjoys baking as a hobby, so in the first fic I have drafted, Thomas would be planning to bake something for Valentine’s Day, but do things go to plan? 👀✨ I also plan to write other instances of him baking, for example he goes to a triathlon at the beginning of summer break with some experimental cookies (special ingredient: cereal cornflakes) that he brought with him because Aster is friends with Sungchul (who’s the one competing) and Scott is there to support him too 🤭🍪✨ I also plan to have them hang out and make pizza together. Beyond baking, I think that Thomas would enjoy reading and doing puzzles. I do plan to write him and Scott having a chess match sometime, although I haven’t decided if it’ll be a glazed over sort of thing (e.g. “Thomas played a round of chess with Scott while they waited for their friends to show up”), or an actual match with dialogue spliced through it in a way that could be playfully competitive or perhaps even flirty.

- Usually a sports captain would be a senior, but to make my universe work, I decided to make Scott a junior (there were no fencing seniors left at Halverton or he was simply the most suitable choice), and captain again his senior year. Thomas and Aster will be a year under him (sophomores then juniors). I think I might even write them versing each other at a summer tournament, but that isn’t concrete yet.

- I headcanon Scott as somebody from old money, while Thomas and Aster are from new money. The twins are no stranger to wealth and the more extravagant things in live, but neither of them are quite prepared for the place that Scott calls his home. I could go on about my headcanons for their families if you’re interested 🤗✨

- Scott is a naturally a cuddler in his sleep and Thomas loves it.

- When the two are on more friendly terms, Thomas texts Scott asking him what order to read the Lord of the Rings, which grants him a wonderful spiel (haven’t decided if it’ll be all via text or Scott calling him which gives Thomas a very lovely heart attack) about what the series is about and which book he should start with (he recommends beginning with The Hobbit).

What am I currently working on for Scott/Thomas?

I mentioned this in a previous ask, that I’m drafting a slowburn series focusing on their blossoming relationship, as well as a college au, a soulmate au, and a fae au. And I just remembered having a mermaid au and an omegaverse one that I had awhile ago 👀✨

I have so many scenes already jotted down for the series, but I can’t post anything yet because I want the series to be in chronological order 😓 The first fic takes place in February, with Scott and Thomas not getting together until the following school year. The bulk of their relationship actually grows and progresses during the summer. I’ve actually already decided on how they get together as boyfriends! And I do plan on writing nsfw for them eventually… if I can finish writing the preceding storyline first 😅

For the college au, I might combine it with a Seiji/Nicholas au that I have, but I haven’t quite decided yet, as this would be set during Thomas’ freshmen year of college and Scott’s sophomore year, so neither Seiji or Nicholas would be in college yet (but I might give Nicholas a surprise appearance or two in this fic).

The soulmate au is a bodyswap universe where sometime after the younger of the two soulmates reaches their 16th birthday, there will be a day where they swap bodies. It’s the day of Exton and Halverton’s practice match when the pair wake up in unfamiliar beds 👀✨

Do I have anything posted on ao3?

Sadly no… I’m a slow writer 🥹 but I have three drabbles posted here, here, and here on tumblr (two seiji/nicholas and one jesse/eugene). I honestly wanted to have something posted by my birthday this coming week but realistically I don’t have the time, though I would definitely be happy to answer more questions if you have any!

Thank you for the ask, kwoc! 🤺✨

[stephwhoawow]

Finally on to a new writing journal! I’ve had the brown one since high school but I’ve only really been using it in the past 3 years. As you can see it’s been well loved

[kwockwoc]

the young Robert brainrot is bad today

[kwockwoc]

How do you think the boys at Kings Row react when watching a horror movie? 🍿✨

Hey anon, a thousand apologies for taking ~forever~ to answer your very kind ask 🙇 things got frantic for a while there 🙇

Please find, below the cut, a mini-fic on the KR boys, and scary movies (pls forgive any typos ✌️)

fright night (2.2k, T, under the cut)

Bobby’s mom’s place had one small room – she called it the family room, although it’d be a very small family that ever fit in there – that boasted an enormous wall-mounted TV.

Dante found this to be both hilarious and ridiculous because Bobby’s mom didn’t watch TV – she watched Mexican telenovelas on her iPad, with the volume set somewhere between maximum and deafening.

Despite this, at some point she’d had a full home theatre set-up installed, because – as Bobby had made clear, or tried to – his cousin’s friend’s uncle had been trying to get rid of his old one and, with one favour and another accrued over the years, he owed Bobby’s mom some inscrutably complex debt. She’d accepted the home theatre equipment as recompense, assuming, correctly, that Bobby would enjoy it.

Dante had grown very familiar with Bobby’s mom and Bobby’s house over the years of their friendship, which had blossomed into a complicated sexual relationship in their senior year, much to Bobby’s mom’s surprise. Dante had been such a fixture of their summers and family holidays for so long, that the idea of him as anything other than a tall and mostly silent wall ornament seemed a disproportionate surprise to her.

Are you sure? Bobby’s mom had asked when Bobby and Dante had told her they were dating.

Yes, mama, Bobby had said, mystified by her disbelief.

She’d peered up at Dante, and clutched for Bobby’s hands.

But – he’s so tall, she’d stage-whispered to her son, and Bobby had rolled his eyes so hard that Dante had feared they wouldn’t come down.

--

Nicholas and Seiji had graduated on Wednesday, and Bobby had – of course – organised a little get-together. Just low-key, just at his mom’s place. They’d get together and watch a scary movie. His mom insisted on serving a veritable feast, but that was nothing special. Putting these events together was just part of Bobby’s DNA. The challenge for Bobby seemed to be not organising a party every Saturday.

The movie was called Thrust II.

It was a bad horror movie, made in the 1990s, but set in the 1970s.

The concept was one of those urban-legends-turned-real stories. The main character had returned to her hometown after a long time away after some unnamed disgrace, which happened to overlap with some unseen figure with a knife going around causing gory havoc, there was a love interest with a murky past, plus a crooked smalltown cop, and… yada yada yada, all the same boring tropes, filmed badly and recently re-released for some reason in an extended edition.

Dante couldn’t remember who’d suggested this specific film. Probably Bobby, whose knowledge of scary movies was encyclopedic. At least Dante assumed that the movie was meant to be scary, but it wasn’t. At least, not really.

He was distracted after the first fifteen minutes, and was now having more fun watching the other guys than he was watching the movie.

Bobby, who now considered himself something of an aficionado when it came to cinema, had tuned out completely. He was slumped on the couch, scrolling Instagram on his phone, his face lit by the blue light of the phone screen, not even pretending to watch the movie anymore. It’s all so cliché, he’d muttered, before pulling his phone out and not looking up again.

By contrast, Nicholas and Eugene were terrified.

Nicholas – as usual – had turned the movie night into yet another excuse to grab hold of Seiji, approximately one grab every thirty seconds. Maybe it was more frequent than that, if Dante had bothered to time it more accurately. Nicholas and Seiji were sitting together – of course – on the loveseat just on Dante’s left, Seiji closer to Dante than Nicholas. At some point in the last hour Seiji appeared to have completely given up any semblance of resistance to Nicholas’s total disregard of normal physical distancing, and was now resigned to his new career as a squeeze toy.

And –

Yep, right on cue –

There was a sudden sting of dramatic music and another half-hearted jump-scare, and Nicholas was right on top of Seiji again. Nicholas squawked slightly and squeezed his eyes tight as he clamped his arms around Seiji’s middle. Seiji sighed, and drummed the fingers of his left hand on Nicholas’s thigh.

“Nicholas, this part isn’t even frightening,” Seiji whispered. Dante could barely hear the words over the on-screen screaming. Nicholas didn’t reply. He buried his face in Seiji’s sweater.

On the other side of the room, Eugene’s face was similarly buried, although his chosen target was one of Bobby’s plushies. He’d put his head there some minutes ago during a particularly gruesome scene and didn’t seem inclined to raise it again. Dante assumed he was still breathing, somehow.

Seated on the long couch, Harvard and Aiden were barely watching. Aiden was picking at a loose thread on the collar of Harvard’s t-shirt. Harvard seemed to have zoned out, and was reading something on his phone. Neither seemed bothered or even, well – interested. Tanner and Kally, seated alongside them, had been making out for the last half-hour. Aiden had muttered get a room a few times. They’d ignored him.

Bobby’s mom poked her head into the den, the light from the hallway like a spotlight in the darkened room.

“… all you boys okay in here?” she asked.

“Yes,” Harvard, Aiden, Seiji, and Dante chorused. Eugene and Nicholas didn’t respond. Eugene’s face was still securely in the plushie, and Nicholas’s was still firmly in Seiji’s sweater. Bobby was so focused on his phone he didn’t even look up. Tanner and Kally didn’t stop either. Dante turned his head to look at them, still making out. They must be breathing through their noses.

“You boys still hungry?” Bobby’s mom asked the darkened room.

Well, no. Surely they couldn’t eat any more tonight, even if they tried. She’d served a huge volume of food.

“No,” Harvard, Aiden, Seiji, and Dante replied.

Nicholas popped his head out of Seiji’s sweater, and turned his slightly reddened face toward the door. “Actually – I’m kinda hungry again,” Nicholas said, and Seiji groaned.

Bobby’s mom beamed at him.

“Such a nice boy,” she said approvingly.

--

Only Dante was staying over at Bobby’s place for the night. Aiden and Harvard were driving to Harvard’s place after the movie. Nicholas and Seiji would be going to stay with Seiji’s parents. Bobby had to tell Tanner and Kally they couldn’t stay over this time, or indeed, ever again,because Bobby’s mom was very clear on the no hanky panky! rule, and they’d so flagrantly breached said rule on their last sleepover that they could no longer be trusted. Tanner had brought his car.

When he and Bobby started officially dating, Bobby’s mom had pointedly reminded Dante of the rules constantly. She still did, when Bobby went to his room or drifted away to do something else for a few seconds. The instructions were always consistent: I know you’re a nice boy – Bobby’s a nice boy too. You’ll be nice boys in this house, won’t you? He would listen seriously, and nod, and she’d breathe a little sigh of relief.

Nice boys, presumably, did not…

Uh.

Fortunately Dante’s own parents weren’t so focused on being… nice.

Seiji and Nicholas were arguing on their way out the door, Tanner and Kally looking smug, as Aiden and Harvard tried to find Harvard’s keys. I gave them to you, Harvard was saying, patting his own butt.

The hallway was far too narrow for nine guys aged variously between nineteen and twenty-two, particularly when all of them were athletes and full of salt and sugar, and the house seemed almost to quake at the noise of their argument and conversation as they rolled from the den toward the front door of the small house.

And – oh, shit.

That…

That music from Eugene’s phone.

He must have bumped the wrong part of his screen.

Dante’s head craned backward to catch Eugene’s mortified expression.

“Eat that ass like a plum, this pussy tight like a nun,” Cardi B suddenly purred, mid-track, from the phone speaker at a volume that was approximately one thousand times too loud.

Aiden laughed.

“Eugene, for fuck’s sake,” Bobby hissed. Eugene looked sheepish and scrambled to hit pause.

It was a warm night. Dante and Bobby waited by the front door as the other guys departed.

The boys all towered over Bobby’s mom, who stood at the front door like a tiny sentinel, resolutely ignoring Eugene who was now blushing a truly dramatic shade of crimson. Even Bobby looked tall compared to his mom. She beamed up at them.

Seiji and Nicholas were the first to get to the door. Seiji had driven his second-hand Mitsubishi Mirage – which he’d bought with money he’d made tutoring, and which he’d parked, with enormous care, on the street – from New Haven to Hartford. Dante had been surprised the guy hadn’t got a ruler out of his pocket to measure the distance from curb to hubcap.

“Nicholas,” Bobby’s mom said, pushing a large plastic container stuffed with leftovers toward him. “You take this. You’re looking skinny.” Nicholas cooed something like that’s awesome and accepted the container with a gleeful smile.

She then fixed her gaze on Seiji, who had Nicholas’s left hand held firmly in his right.

“You too, Seiji,” she said with emphasis. “You should eat more. You eat half of what’s in that container, okay?”

“No way, it’s mine,” Nicholas said, clutching the container against his belly with his right hand, and frowning at Seiji as though he’d suggested sharing, although he hadn’t spoken yet.

“Just drop the container back in when you’re next in town,” she added.

Seiji sighed. “Thank you,” Seiji said, to the universe in general.

Bobby’s mom redirected her attention to the rest of the group. “So did you boys enjoy the movie?”

There was a muttered chorus of yeahs and it was OKs.

Tanner said, “What was it, even?” as Kally elbowed him.

“Pfft. Wasn’t even scary,” Nicholas said, with a little laugh, and Eugene nodded.

Aidan smirked at the back of Nicholas’s head. “Nicholas, please. You were afraid,” he said.

Nicholas spun around, aggrieved. “I was not!”

“Come on Nick, you really were,” Bobby yawned, as stretched out his arms. “I was half-asleep, and I still saw the raw terror in your eyes.”

Nicholas stared at Bobby, mouth wide. “Betrayal,” Nicholas whispered, and Bobby rolled his eyes.

Seiji tugged Nicholas toward the door. “Nicholas, please, it’s almost midnight. I want you at home.”

Aiden went oooh, and Harvard shushed him.

Tanner had inherited his dad’s old Ford Bronco, and it was covered in a ton of dust and mud from a recent trip out to one of the state parks. Dante knew from seeing it previously that the car was, in theory, silver, although it was a sullen shade of brown in the dim glow of the streetlights.

Eugene had just bought himself a 2018 Mazda MX-5, with a custom iridescent red paint job, which was obnoxiously loud. It roared to life in the otherwise quiet street with an energy that shook the windows of the house. “Holy crap,” Bobby muttered to Dante, “neighbours are gonna shit themselves.”

Aiden and Harvard left in an Uber. After graduation, they’d moved in together into an apartment about fifteen minutes by car from Bobby’s mom’s place, and as a result, Bobby and Dante unexpectedly saw a lot of both those guys – dinner dates and picnics mostly, but also jumble sales and antiques fairs, where Bobby and Aiden would haggle mercilessly with put-upon vendors for choice pieces, and be disappointed when the Boston rocker chair they paid a grand total of ten bucks for turned out not to be a genuine Michael Thonet.

With a final flurry of air kisses from Aiden, at last, all the guys had gone. Bobby pushed the door shut with a sigh, and peered up at Dante. He smiled.

“So,” Bobby’s mom said sharply, and Bobby and Dante swung their heads toward her. She was surprisingly good at fading into the background when she wanted to. “That was – good fun. Very good to have the – all the guys here, right?”

“Yeah, mom,” Bobby said genuinely. “Thanks for letting them come over.”

His mom hummed her appreciation. “Oh – Dante,” she said with a measure of astonishment, as if suddenly remembering that the six foot four man in her hallway was there. “I made the guest bed for you. Very comfortable.”

He cleared his throat. “Thanks.” The guest bed was a single he didn’t fit in. Not that he fit in Bobby’s three quarter much easier, and Bobby’s mattress wasn’t great – but in Bobby’s mom’s mind, Dante’s familiarity with Bobby’s bed was an entirely theoretical construct.

“The –” Bobby started, then stopped at a sharp look from his mom. “– guest bed,” he finished lamely. “Okay. Sure, mom. Dante can take the guest bed. But we’re gonna – stay up a little longer. Together.”

She beamed, with a mischievous edge. “So – now,” she said. “You wanna watch – a really scary movie?” She hoisted a blank DVD case in the air and waved it at Bobby and Dante. “Your cousin Daniela’s wedding. Four hours. Extended – extended cut, is that what they say?”

“Actually,” Dante said hurriedly, “I – I’m pretty tired, so I’ll, uh – go to bed. To sleep. Now.”

Bobby rolled his eyes, as Bobby’s mom’s expression softened.

“Such a nice boy,” she cooed.

[kwockwoc]

Field Trip

by kwoc, for ngozi

Hephaestus and Tom take a quick trip.

just vibes - thank you Ngozi for creating these characters & this world - go check out @professorhephaestus ok? I'm lightly obsessed rn.

I had to write this bc i can't stop thinking about these guys <3

jeff/tom, 1k words, lightly nsfw ♂

Field Trip

Lunchtime, as the Terrestrials call it. For a Martian rector, it’s well after midnight.

“Now – wait just one second,” Captain Dr. Thomas Aubrey of Earth says, staring at his plate, then – eventually – raising his eyes.

Professor Hephaestus blinks at the sight, which is both beautiful and arresting, like a perfectly-charted natal astrol–

“Are you implying that I completely forgot about that?” Tom says, then pauses. “Because if you are – well, then, you’re right!”

And then Tom laughs easily and loudly, and Hephaestus’s heart thumps abnormally quickly at the sound. He blinks, and takes a deep breath.

“Captain Aubrey,” he intones seriously – starless night, stay calm – “I have reminded you on a number of occasions about the effluxus. And that I would like you to see it.”

“Still forgot,” Tom says cheerfully, shovelling more plant-based protein into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. His eyebrows screw up as he munches, looking vacantly at a point on the stone wall somewhere above Hephaestus’s horns.

Hephaestus tries to control his responses. Both his stomachs feel leaden, pushing him further into the seat. He forgot. Tom forgot.

“I imagined,” Hephaestus says, and tries to make his voice sound lighter and probably fails, “that you might have wished to travel with me.” Subjunctive mood.

“To see the effluxus?”

“Yes.”

“Well, sure I do!” He reaches over, and pats Hephaestus on the shoulder good-naturedly. Hephaestus resists the urge to lean into his touch, to reach up and grab his hand and hold it right there –

Tom takes his hand away, and part of Hephaestus wilts.

“Where do we have to go? Is it far?”

“Nothing is far,” Hephaestus manages. “The Cast of Doors will suffice.”

“Oh, right.”

“Enceladus,” Hephaestus says, because Tom also seems to have forgotten that he’d asked where they would be going.

“Oh, that effluxus,” Tom says, nodding.

“That effl– there – there is more than one?” Hephaestus asks, hesitantly. His brain spins. He tries to remember whether the astrogeographers have made any further discoveries of material effusions in new parts of the system, but – there’s nothing that he can bring to mind. Perhaps someone has proposed a reclassification of the tidal effluvia of Europa? That would be an interesting matter for discussion but, no – he would certainly know of that, and –

“No, no,” Tom says, swallowing. Hephaestus watches his Adam’s apple bob, and can’t look away. “There’s only the one phenomenon. The cryovolcanoes. I just forgot about them.”

Terrestrials and their capacity to forget, Hephaestus thinks, remembering the light sheen of sweat on Tom’s chest after he runs, the way Martian light strikes his shoulders in interesting and novel ways, the way he winks when – urgh. Clouds. Sandstorms.

--

“I thought the students would be with us,” Tom says. “But I’m glad they’re not.”

“At no time did I indicate to you that anyone other than us would be here,” Hephaestus says.

Tom shrugs. “Call it an assumption. You gonna kiss me now?”

Hephaestus doesn’t require a second invitation.

He barely requires the first.

He mashes their mouths together, and pulls Tom’s body close, into his, letting Tom feel the firmness of his Promethean cock, the way it nestles against Tom’s own erection, and the wetness from his other place, his gaet, soaking his fur.

The Cast of Sol provides gentle, warming light, and the sundog hide they’ve laid down provides just enough insulation from the ice. They’re on the sunward side of Enceladus, but heat and light are negligible at this distance. Tom’s flight suit and various other Terrestrial apparel lie discarded, and, Hephaestus can’t help but notice, already lightly ice-scarred on the glacier, just outside the remit of the cast. Hephaestus let his robe simply fall about him, whereas Tom seemed eager to toss his clothes as far away as he could.

Later – much later – after they’ve both ejaculated, Hephaestus performs the Cast of Calm, and their bodily fluids vanish. He’s never really wondered where spent things go, subject to this cast – intact but disarranged materials are returned to their proper places – but things that are used or exhausted, they just – go. His brother would probably have thoughts on the matter.

The warmth of the earlier pseudo-solar cast is fading, so Hephaestus renews it gently, softly, just so that they don’t freeze to death in this remote part of the system, nor burn to death under the radiant power of a double cast.

Tom’s clothes are brittle, frozen solid, so Hephaestus completes a simple Cast of Restoration. He watches as Tom’s face transforms into something wonderful at the sight – the fabric of his flight suit, solid as stone, magically relaxing and repairing, the molecular mass of the trapped moisture and ice dripping from it, leaving it dry.

Hephaestus is blessed by the sight of Captain Dr. Thomas Aubrey, completely naked on a moon of Saturn, shaking out the last drops of Enceladian water from his gear.

“Hey, look!” Tom exclaims. “Good as new!”

--

The Enceladian effluxus is an ordinary aspect of Enceladus’s orbital oddness.

Geysers, the anticipated geological outcome of a cryovolcano on a tectonically active planet, rain a fine dust of water vapour back on to the surface of the little moon, most escaping the weak gravitational field and eventually adding to the E ring. Tom insists on calling the vapour snow, which it clearly is not – but unusually, Hephaestus doesn’t feel like arguing the finer points of cross-planetary atmospheric analogies right now.

The geyser is impressive. He’s seen it before, of course, but never with Tom at his side.

The geyser also, unpardonably, puts him in mind of Tom climaxing.

Terrestrial orgasms are impressive, and also strangely addictive.

Mind-addling.

Starless nights…

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Tom asks, eventually, as they watch a cryovolcano ejaculating.

They stand shoulder to shoulder, and watch the water-ice spurt upward. It sparkles and glitters in the golden-brown light, reflected from Saturn’s surface. The vapour is drifting with the slow turning of the moon into the inky blackness of space. This particular cryovolcano is one of the largest of the polar phenomena, impressive even at a distance, but Tom wanted to walk ever closer to it.

Saturn hangs heavy in the sky, off to one side, filling almost the entirety of the horizon. They would have to turn their heads to look at it.

Hephaestus breathes deep, and pauses, not for dramatic effect, but because he needs to let his heartrate slow.

Tom puts a hand on Hephaestus’s shoulder, and squeezes.

“Sorry, Heph. Too vulgar?”

Hephaestus considers this.

“Possibly,” Hephaestus allows, and Tom laughs.

Stellar.

[kwockwoc]

kwoc's writing year in review [2023 edition]

got tagged by the fab @glowingvenus (cheers mate) 🥂

i really should do a 'reader' version of this bc i read some great stuff in '23 💝

if you (yes, YOU) want to play along then hereby consider yourself officially tagged ok? 👋🫡

How many words have you written this year? oh wow how am i meant to calculate?? not sure. ao3 reckons i've published 546k in 2023. there's more in draft and more that got deleted, so too hard to count. no idea.

How many works did you publish this year? too many

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? can’t really single one out

What work of yours has the most hits? better this way (btw)

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? Fresh

Favorite title you used? uhhh this is an odd question. Dreamboy maybe

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? lana del rey

Pairing you wrote the most for this year? seiji/nick (FENCE Comic)

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? goddamn robert coste/omc and an even more goddamned omc / omc which is unpub’d

What work was the quickest to write? no idea. Some of the Fence challenge pieces were like an hour or two of mindless tapping (as if you couldn’t tell haha)

What work took you the longest to write? btw

How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? decline to answer

What’s your longest work of the year? btw

What’s your shortest work of the year? most of the Fence challenge stuff

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? these hidden streets. IN MY DEFENCE it was MEANT to be 3 short chapters and at last count was 65k in draft ☹

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? oh no idea, probably light angst

Your favorite character to write this year? Seiji

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? also Seiji

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? haven’t really thought about it

Which work of yours have you reread the most? again

How many kudos in total did you get this year? i know this sounds fake but like 700

Which work has the most comments? btw

Did you do any collaborative works this year? nope. 'doesn’t play well with others'

Did you write any gifts this year? yeah <3

Did you receive any gifts this year? yeah <3

What’s your most common category? all man all the time

What do you listen to while writing? depends

Favorite work you wrote this year? probably shadow theatre although tbh I don’t really do faves of my own stuff

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? oh not sure. that requires introspection. don’t really do faves

Biggest surprise while writing this year? somehow managing to unlock a trove of other E writers. like opening the front door and finding a gaggle of new friends. again was the longest complete E fic in the fandom and now look at us 🕳️🫡

[kwockwoc]

What would Nicholas have an alarming (or perhaps unnerving) depth of knowledge of? (e.g. the history of guavas, welsh folklore, how to break into a locked building, etc).

depth of knowledge? uh… um 😓

breadth of knowledge? now you’re talking 😉💪

trivia night (1.2k, sfw, below the cut)

The Trivia Night Fundraiser was always going to be a high-stakes affair.

The amateur choral society Jesse had joined a year ago needed money to pay for the hall they were renting, so Jesse – being Jesse – had suggested a trivia night as a fundraiser, and the rest of the society members had apparently enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon, not realising that they were in the presence of the second-greatest trivia mind in the entirety of New England.

The greatest trivia mind was, of course, Nicholas Coste.

As Seiji and Nicholas settled at their table – table number 1, of course, because naturally Jesse had been the first to register his team of four, even before he’d checked with Seiji and Nicholas that they were actually available – Seiji could see most of Nicholas’s characteristic stress tells, a catalogue of little tics that summed up to moderate stress.

The nervous giggle, the picking at the hem of the sleeve of his sweater, the fidgety clicking of his phone case on and off the device.

At least he hadn’t started clicking his tongue and tapping the back of Seiji’s hand yet.

“Nicholas, this will be fine,” Seiji said, quietly.

Jesse and his latest boyfriend – Alan? Alfred? something like that – were doing the rounds of the other tables. Jesse was the treasurer, and he was hoping to make a bid for the presidency the next year, so it was only sensible for him to do a goodwill tour. There were a few dozen people here, but Nicholas and Seiji didn’t know anybody else here, apart from Jesse, and just a handful of Jesse’s friends seated at other tables who were acquaintances solidly in the smile and nod at category.

“Yeah but, what if there are questions about like, Tennessee,” Nicholas muttered. “I don’t know anything about Tennessee.”

“I don’t think Tennessee will be a hot topic,” Seiji said.

“Or beetles,” Nicholas said, turning in his chair to face Seiji. “You know I was gonna read that book about beetles last weekend and I forgot to pick it up from the library.”

“I’m sure it will all be fine, sweetheart.”

“I just wish I could’ve prepared more,” Nicholas said, turning away again, clicking his phone out of its case, then back in.

Seiji knew that Nicholas had not literally read an encyclopedia, although – at times – it felt like he had.

In high school he’d been prone to coming out with factoids at the most inappropriate times (ranging from their fourth date, when they’d been making out behind Rosie’s Café, and Nicholas had, mid-kiss, suddenly asked whether Seiji ever thought much about moths) and the habit had continued into adulthood (their engagement party, when Nicholas had bailed up Seiji’s mother’s cousin for nearly fifteen minutes telling her about the diversity of begonias – but Seiji, she said to me that she liked flowers!).

Nicholas was also one of those people who actually gave money to Wikipedia during their donation drives. For a long while Seiji had wondered who those mysterious people were, only to discover post factum that he’d married one. At first Seiji had been mystified and a little peeved that Nicholas would pay for something which was, by its very nature, free. When Seiji had finally mentioned it – being, of course, very careful, and circumspective – Nicholas explained that from his perspective, I get way more than twenty bucks’ worth of reading from it each year honey, so handing over twenty dollars and sending a nice message wasn’t, for Nicholas, doing anything more than making a token contribution.

And Nicholas did get a lot of value from it. He liked to hit Random article and then – well, he’d just read. He could spend an hour on it easily. If he struck an article that was full of jargon, he’d google the words he didn’t know.

Hey, Transgender Day of Visibility is on March 31! We should put a flag up! Solidarity!

Honey, have you ever heard of the Geirangerfjord? It’s in Norway. Oh, hey – we should go with dad on his next trip!

You should read this article about a Ukrainian woman weightlifter. It’s really interesting!

This was how Seiji would regularly find himself reading about topics such as banana production in Ivory Coast on a Thursday evening on Nicholas’s iPad, while Nicholas cooked and nattered about… well, anything, really. About the school he was teaching at, about some student who’d said something funny, or about Silvia and whatever brainwave she’d had regarding the coaching of the embryonic épée team Nicholas had kickstarted at Greenwich High, where he remained everybody’s favourite gym teacher. Alternatively, Nicholas’s topic of the night could be Cicero, or the aurora borealis, or the politics of Sudan in the 1970s.

Anything.

Everything.

Sometimes – well, sometimes both anything and everything at the same time, which Seiji would find totally bewildering, but he still loved it. Nicholas’s brain could, and did, switch gears instantly. He’d be talking about some minor point in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals – some pitcher who’d retired in the ’90s – and then Jesse would call, and the brothers would be talking about fencing and arguing about the various dramas of the extended Coste family for an hour (Jesse’s calls usually also delayed their evening meal, but Seiji didn’t really mind). And after the call, Nicholas would be straight back on to the Cardinals, as if he hadn’t just spent an hour interrogating Jesse about whatever cousin had got into the latest trouble –

When Jesse came over, the brothers could and probably would talk ceaselessly if it wasn’t for Seiji’s pointed coughs and meaningful looks at the clock on the wall. Jesse didn’t quite have Nicholas’s abundant interest in everything, but he ran a close second. When Nicholas and Jesse saw one another, sometimes they’d both speak at the same time, neither seemingly listening but both chattering away joyously.

Verbal diarrhoea, Dmytro would call it.

A pair of parakeets, Robert called them once. Jesse had overheard the comment.

Parakeets! Jesse had said, grinning. They’re so interesting! Nick, did you know that parakeets have great vocab?

Nicholas, nodding: Yeah, of course I do!

The general hubbub of conversation continued around them, as Nicholas started tugging at his sleeve again. The trivia would be underway in a few minutes, and then Nicholas would have something to focus on, and all the nerves would melt away, but in the meantime –

Seiji smiled, and reached for Nicholas’s arm, laying his hand there, letting his fingers find the familiar form of Nicholas’s muscle, squeezing gently. He felt Nicholas relax under his touch.

“This will be fine, Nicholas,” Seiji said again, and he leaned forward and planted a kiss on Nicholas’s cheek for good measure. “We’re just here to have fun and raise money for Jesse’s choir, remember. It doesn’t matter if we win.”

“Jesse wants to win,” Nicholas said softly.

“Of course he does,” Seiji replied.

Jesse and – Albert? Edgar? – were back at the table again, suddenly, having completed the rounds. Jesse was wearing a figure-hugging t-shirt Nicholas had bought him for his birthday with the words TRIVIA QUEEN marked out in sequins.

“All right, boys,” Jesse said, and planted his hands on the table, looking for all the world like an evil genius hellbent on world domination. “Are you ready to win?”

[kwockwoc]

Hi, I read Cauterize on AO3 and oh my god 💔💔💔 (it's 2 in the morning but I loved it)

What is the deal with Eloisa? (The club's owner, is that right?) Is she based on anyone or is she an oc? I loved the way she tries to convince Rob to stay. 💔

Hey anon, sorry for the delayed reply to your ask 🫂 I hope you eventually got to sleep after reading Cauterize 🫡😅

Eloise is an OC of mine, not based on anyone in particular - she doesn't get a lot of 'screen time', and honestly, I didn't do any real work in the background on her. So what you see is essentially what you get.

In the story she's called the 'owner and manager' of the bar, which sort of 'feels right' for the character (if that makes sense). In the '80s the West Village was a great place for smaller bars and venues like Cauterize, although Cauterize itself isn't based on any particular venue either (it's a pastiche).

I'd say she was married at some point in the past, probably to an older guy with a lot of money or an interest in the hospitality industry, and she used the proceeds of the estate to leverage her investment in Cauterize. She's definitely the sole proprietor. I don't know how or in what form the bar survives the rest of '80s and the '90s - however, I do think Eloise eventually shuts up shop in the mid-90s, and hauls off to a long and Campari-soaked retirement in Miami.

I'm glad Cauterize resonated with you, and again I'm sorry for the delay in acknowledging your question! 💪🪩

[kwockwoc]

Of the original characters you’ve created in better this way, which one was…

…your favorite?

…the most fun to write?

…the one who had a mind of their own? And what was the unexpected thing they did?

…the first character you knew you wanted to include? (either as an explicit character or a vague idea)

…the one you weren’t sure you would include but ended up falling in love with anyway?

Oh anon, this wasn’t easy to answer.

Rambling response below the cut 👇

Favourite

Which one’s my favourite? That’s almost impossible to answer! … almost. I have a soft spot for Jessica Chen, who sprung fully-formed from my mind as a counterpart/counterpoint for Nicholas at Bridgeport High. Writing her dialogue was very enjoyable, and amongst the easiest to write because her character came together so seamlessly – even though a few of the Jessica & Nicholas interactions are complicated, and advance the story significantly, I didn’t find them difficult to write. I think having a character I enjoyed as much as Jessica involved at those points helped to make certain hard parts of the story so much easier to think through and explore.

Vera Tseng is a direct transfer of an OC I wrote for an abandoned original work. I didn’t make any changes to her (other than the name), just transposed her directly into better this way, where she seemed to work OK for what the character needs to do. But the fact that I brought her in probably means I liked her a bit too 😅

Most fun to write

Aaron Kowalski. I know some readers don’t appreciate the part he plays and some of the choices he makes, but he was a joy to create and write, and there are two significant scenes that I dropped from the end of btw which flesh him out far more, and indicate his role in the continuing story more strongly. If I ever find time to write the second part of btw I hope to include both those scenes.

Mind of their own, and the most unexpected thing they did

Not an OC, but Seiji’s role in the story as both Nicholas’s love interest and champion flourished as the writing continued. A lot of the things he did and said particularly in later chapters were surprising. I was surprised early on when he insisted on going to the Westport competition. And then the role he played when Nicholas rocked up at Kings Row in the aftermath of the incident – well, that wasn’t planned.

In the realm of OCs I generally find that they just do whatever they’re going to do, and I end up writing the story as it plays out, oftentimes to the detriment of the neat little outline I’ve got 🤷 So I could defensibly say they all have their own minds…

First character I knew I wanted to include

May Cox. ’Nuff said.

Character I wasn’t sure about including but fell in love with anyway

Lottie Sullivan. In some ways Lottie is a deus ex machina but at the same time, Nicholas desperately deserves nice things by the time she sweeps in from stage left. I wasn’t sure whether to keep Frankie more firmly in the frame, but at the same time I knew that’d be a complicating factor for Nicholas and for her, so Lottie appeared as a problem-solver, and I really enjoyed creating her, her home, and her general vibe.

[kwockwoc]

What do you think Nicholas’ favorite flavor of ice cream is? What would his ice cream order be (if he could afford the extra toppings)? 🍨🍨🍨💗

Hey anon, I started writing a minific for this but it got out of hand, so instead you get a prose reply without the fic aspect, sorry 😔

Ice cream thoughts below the cut

Couple of different aspects here.

I think teen Nicholas has his ice cream order down pat – he’s got a fave ice cream store, and he knows which server gives the biggest scoops, and will literally ASK to be served by that guy/girl when they’re there, and WATCHES very closely as the ice cream is assembled. We know he likes extra pickle no sauce on his burger, so I’m thinking he’d be a left-field sort of ice cream guy. I have no idea how American ice cream works so let’s say he can get 3 scoops of different flavours – Nicholas is opting for the sour cherry, the licorice, and the peanut butter. No idea re toppings (gotta admit I had to google ‘what do Americans put on ice cream’ and found this article and now I’m slightly obsessed with the idea, but I lack brainpower to crunch Nicholas’s topping preferences rn).

Adult Nicholas is the kind of guy who always orders the special on the menu when he goes out to eat, so I think he’d also be looking for unusual and interesting ice cream flavours as he gets older. He goes to a farmers market and sees the unique one-of-a-kind ‘heritage apple and honey’ ice cream and buys a punnet. He stops by a provedore and sees the special ‘toasted cardamom and citrus’ ice cream and thinks ‘hey, yeah, okay’. Balsamic strawberry? Sure! Seasonal pumpkin ‘n’ brown sugar? Sounds neat. Devilled egg custard with smoked black tea? Uh… (yeah, I saw this online & apparently it’s real)… hey, why not, Nicholas says, you only live once!

Whereas, Seiji…

Well.

--

Nicholas Cox (husband): hey hon what do u want from carrolls

Seiji frowns at the screen.

Seiji: Why are you at Carroll’s again? We had ice cream yesterday.

Nicholas: I know but I thought u might want some

Nicholas. Call.

“Uh. Hey,” Nicholas’s voice says, and he sounds a little guilty. There are other voices in the background. He’s already in the store.

“Nicholas, we had ice cream yesterday. And the day before,” Seiji adds, before Nicholas can protest, “and last weekend.”

“It’s summer,” Nicholas says plaintively. “That’s when we eat ice cream, right?”

“Sweetheart –”

“D’you want your usual?”

Seiji sighs into the mic. “All right, yes, okay. My usual.” Triple fudge sundae, whipped cream and choc sprinkles, he doesn’t need to say. Nicholas has it memorised.

“Yay!” Nicholas says. He actually said yay. Seiji rolls his eyes. Spending so much time around the kids is impacting Nicholas’s vocabulary.

“What are you ordering for yourself?” Seiji asks. Nicholas’s order is always interesting.

“Pickled mango!”

Seiji’s pretty sure he heard that wrong.

“Pardon?”

“Pickled mango. Special, this week only,” Nicholas says, his excitement undimmed.

“Okay,” Seiji says, cautiously. “That sounds… nice.”

--

Okay, you got a minific out of me anyway 😅😉🍨

[kwockwoc]

oh wow i am very behind on ao3 replies... sorry all

[kwockwoc]

oh wow ok i am just going to close asks for a bit bc i have some i haven't answered 😞

[kwockwoc]

OK as mentioned I'm behind on answering the asks in my inbox for which I am very apologetic 🙇‍♂️

There are two anons asking about an OC of mine, Torsten Anker (same anon perhaps? But the questions sort of overlap). So please let me do one post and mark both as answered 🧡 sorry

responses under the cut 👇

Is Torsten Anker canon? // Where is Torsten referred to in the Fence comics?

No, Torsten is absolutely not canon - he's an original character and has no foundation at all in any of the published FENCE works.

Why is his English so bad? // Why can't he just speak to Robert on the phone?

That's just the way it is! He's Norwegian, and his struggles with English are down to him not taking English seriously at school ("I'll never need it") and instead preferring German (he did an exchange semester to a West German school toward the end of his secondary education) and Italian (Italian seems random, I know, but he saw La Dolce Vita at the movie theatre as a teenager and was hooked).

What does he look like? Your description is interesting! // Can you draw him?

I cannot draw! There is however an image of Torsten, sketched by the amazing @johannathemad:

This is Torsten in the mid-1990s, so aged in his early 30s (assuming that he, like Robert, was born in 1963 - in my mind, Torsten is older by a few months).

Will you write all of Torsten's story? // Do you have any WIPS you can share with us about Torsten? :)

I don't have any long fics about Torsten in the works, although there is one mid-length "snapshots" work about him which is unfinished. It's not ready for sharing yet, I'm sorry!

And of course very happy for anyone to illustrate/write/stan this Norwegian dynamo if you like him!

[kwockwoc]

last line written in 2023... this looks like fun!

well, i haven't written anything for a few days now, so i'm going to say my last lines written in the 2023 year were the lines below.

i'll queue this up as part of the NYE business bc i'm probably going to be distracted 🎆

Torsten looks up as Marit pokes her head into the kitchen, and he’s fully expecting her to say it’s Ingrid again. “It’s Lorenz,” she says flatly, and in German. “Do you want to speak to him?” “… yes,” he says, also in German, as nonchalantly as he can. His pulse is suddenly racing. “Do you want to take it in the study or the hallway?” she asks, flipping back to Norwegian, and sounding fundamentally unimpressed. She already knows Torsten strongly prefers to speak to Lorenz in the study, with the door shut, and that it’s unusual for Lorenz to call Torsten – it’s almost always Torsten calling Lorenz, and almost always when she’s not home (she confronted him over the itemised telephone bill last month). Marit doesn’t know, but Torsten suspects that she’s beginning to work out that he and Lorenz speak about things that it’s best for her... not to know.

from an Unfinished Object (probably arguably my current Work In Progress, although that's debatable) with the working title Grief.

it's just... all OCs, honestly. anyway. finishing it is a problem for the 2024 edition of kwoc.