#my first time writing a proper six fic should I write more?

[zymruk]

All the ways we sabotaged it. [Shang-Chi x reader]

Inspired by skinny dipping by Sabrina Carpenter. Ever since I've heard the song, I couldn't get this fic out of my mind. So why not write it?

Warning: Angst, angst, so much of it. Shang-Chi hiding things. Lots of misunderstandings, break-up. Happens six months after the events of Shang-Chi.

Summary: Six months after the break-up, you and Shang-Chi cross paths in a café downtown.

It had been six months. Six long, hard, agonizing months since you and your ex, Shaun, broke up. It has been a long process but with the help of your family and friends, it seems less hard than if you had to do all of it alone. You just started to move on. Yes you still loved him; but in retrospect, you and him wouldn't have lasted. There were too many things happening at the time and honestly, neither of you were mature enough for a relationship.

It had been a Wednesday when you had decided to go out. Just spend your day with your own company. It had been a while since you'd been to this café specifically because of some guy. You really missed their lattes. Once you placed your order, you had searched for a seat and then sat down. Appreciating the calmness of the place. You would start writing on your computer, letting your fingers dance on the keyboard. The place has given you writing ideas that you were more than excited to write about.

ϟ

Everything was going perfectly until a familiar voice had stopped you in your frenzy. A voice you hadn't heard for so long. At first you thought you had misheard. Maybe it was someone that sounded like him. It couldn't be him right?

So the logical thing to do was to go back to what you were doing in the first place. It was just your imagination playing tricks on you. He couldn't be here. You'd heard from a mutual close friend that he had to fly back home. Where was "home"? You hadn't known, he'd never told you about his home country. "Family business. I swear!" She had told you.

However, when you looked up, you're surprised to see the same face attached to that voice. The same smile, and the same hair. All in all, the guy that had taken your heart six months ago. He was there right in front of you. And it seemed like he wanted to talk to you.

"Hi." He almost whispered when he had arrived in front of your table. In an instant you couldn't think of a proper salutation, so you opted for a simple "Hi. How are you?" And soon, a conversation bloomed. You two would catch up to whatever had happened since the separation. It was nice, talking like no time had passed; no separation happened. To be honest, you kinda missed those sort of days. When words would just fill out of your mouth, and you being unable to stop them.

And very soon, minutes would change into hours. Niether of you would notice. In those hours, Shaun had told you that he was actually grateful you had broken up with him. At first it stung a little; but then he told you the reason why. It had opened his eyes; he was reckless, had lied to you so many times, and hid so many things. His words. In retrospect he couldn't understand how you had put up with it. The gall of the man. He even had lied to you about his name!

Your response to it should've been to be angry with him. To yell at him about lying about his name. Understandably you were upset, you two shared a life together, though short lived, you felt he should have felt safe enough to tell you about it. After everything that had gone down after your departure, was explained to you, you understood. You would've probably done the same in his shoes. I mean, did it sound crazy? Yes. Did you wonder how that concerned you in any way? Heck yes. Were you still worried about the guy? Yes.

So in the end, you still listened to his crazy-not-so-crazy story. In the end, you still had a little bit of concern and empathy for this guy.

You decided to go home when the sky changed hues. You had spent a good day in his company in this café. But now it was time to go home. As soon as you two parted ways, you questioned yourself on why you two didn't work.

Yes, he had lied and hid things. But at the end of the day, your delusional mind thought that it could've been salvaged somehow. It rattled on past opportunities of reconciliation and the multiple ways you would have been more than happy to be supportive of him and journey. However, you ultimately came to the conclusion that if it hadn't worked, it probably wasn't meant to be.

Really, that day had just been a reafirmation that you two had had a good run, but like all good things it was time to let go and move on. you were more than ready.

[quitealotofsodapop]

OMG! You AU is AMAZING!!! This is exactly what I needed in my life!!

Can you please make a Part 2 of “A Hero is Born Changes” where it’s just Sun Wukong and Macaque messing with MK with their double life? Like they know everything that’s happening but pretend that nothing is happening and it’s driving MK crazy? (Sorry my english is bad). Thank you.

ty for being so interested! Your english is fine btw!

If I write more about "A Hero is Born Changes", it will most likely be as a proper fic chapter.

MK getting his powers for the first time and not wanting to tell his parents cus they're on vacation and he doesn't want to worry them. Meanwhile; Wukong and Macaque are secretly watching the initial confrontation with the Demon Bull family and are So Scared but Proud for their little guy.

Both have a near breakdown when the gang thinks MK was killed by the lava around Flower Fruit Mountain, but thankfully SWK is able to relay that he's ok to the noodle gang via astral projection/text message.

The Six Eared Macaque and The Monkey King meet MK inside the Water Curtain Cave.

And ofc MK still stomps on SWK's butterfly form in shock.

SWK: *does his big introduction* Macaque, just walks in from the shadows: " Show-off"

Macaque and Wukong continue to argue with each other for the rest of the pilot; Macaque being more of a worrier, while Wukong is more lax.

*Both in disguise, watching the climatic battle* Macaque: "We really should intervene." Wukong: "Relax, he'll be fine. He's our kid after all." MK: *crashes the jet straight into Red Son* Macaque: *glares at Wukong* Wukong: "...to be fair. I said he'd fine. Red Boy? Not so much." Macaque: "I swear Gongzhu (PIF) will kill you the second we meet up again." Wukong, fake disapointment: "Oh no~, as if dinner with my sworn in-laws wasn't bad enough already."

They argue so much that they nearly miss MK's first victory.

After MK defeats DBK and the Bull family retreats, Macaque and Sun Wukong show back up at the noodle shop. Just sitting inside the shop with fake luggage, vacation clothes (think S4 beach ending clothes), and pretending they don't know what happened.

MK: "Bama! Baba! You're back! So much happened today I dunno where to start!" Wukong: "Don't worry about it bud. We've got all day to listen!" MK: "How was your vacation by the way?" Macaque: "It was... good. We're just glad that we're back home safe and sound.

*cue family group hug including the rest of the noodle gang*

I'll be definitely writing it in greater detail than here, but thats the general gist of it.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

I liked your pov Jay so much. Can you write Jay's pov during the experiments and arrival in the metropolis?

ooooh now THERE'S something to think about . . . it would def be way too long to fit in a tumblr post BUT i can def do some outlines for a potential fic right here and now ;))

(also please keep in mind my knowledge in gamorra itself is lacking so i'll have to do some reading on that first to properly come up with something, so these are just more general thoughts!!)

okay first things first we need to establish a timeline

i don't think we got a proper one???? i could be wrong and if i am feel free to point me in the right direction, but the only thing i can remember is that jay was experimented on for six months

jay is seventeen (THAT'S CRAZY WHAT) when we meet him, so let's rewind and say . . . he's twelve when bendix gets "voted in" and separates him from his mom

(i say "voted in" because i fully do not buy that he actually got elected. so he had money and promises and whatfuckingever. what could he do that sara couldn't??? what made him so much better??? how could sara nakamura be doing that much less of a job where people would vote for a foreigner who knew nothing about them??? what the fuck is up with that genuinely)

they probably don't waste any time running experiments on him. it was definitely painful and scary and let's not forget that bendix was forcing the gamorrans to work for him, too, so we have a couple of options for this: - gamorran scientists experimented on and hurt jay. people that jay had known and grown up with, maybe, running around their labs as sara discussed with them ways they could help better the people's lives. and you could say that bendix might not want the people he turned into prisoners working on something as important as his post-humans project, but we have seen that gamorran scientists were working in his labs when jay and jon went to free them, and that's the whole reason jay could pass through in the first place. because they were gamorran and proud. because they knew jay and believed in him. - the other option is that gamorrans had no fucking clue what happened to their former president and her son. jay talks a lot about not knowing whether his mom was dead or alive but the same applies to him, too!! he was a public figure just as much as she was!!! jay is someone who loves his home, his country, and his people!!! gamorrans probably knew him as the president's kid who helped where he could and was always on the frontlines with his mom!! and then he was gone!!! they never heard about him again!!! rumors abound that bendix murdered a child and they will NEVER forgive him for it, because jay was THEIRS

anyways

i will say that the way jay describes him escaping experimentation is fishy to me . . . bendix still had sara imprisoned. he should have had maximum security on jay. jay would have been leverage for him to use against her to do whatever he wants. but he escaped so easily???? just because he could phase???

i'm thinking maybe jay didn't have full control of his phasing back then because why would he??? he was an untrained twelve-year-old and was physically and emotionally weak. he didn't know what was going on. when he phased he probably thought that was IT for him. he was probably intangible for so long that everyone thought he genuinely couldn't be worked with anymore

can you imagine how scary that was?? how terrified jay must have been?? how he thought he wouldn't be able to touch another person, feel their warmth and solidness and the breath in their bodies??? how he had nothing to ground him???

jay nakamura woke up a living ghost and probably thought he would have been better off dead

he was so so relieved when he learned how to get it under control and become solid again

ANYWAYS. so. jay gets taken at twelve. experiments for six months. he fades away. they consider him useless and leave him alone. he breaks out. the revolutionaries find his boat, and he ends up in metropolis

okay i have some THOUGHTS about this

i already covered the fake-birthday thing in my other post but something i HAVE been thinking about is whether jay tells other people he's gamorran

he's trying to keep his identity hidden. he can't risk being caught. and if people DO know he's gamorran, what then??? he can't tell them about bendix publicly because who the fuck would even believe him. who would believe that gamorra has refugees.

thus i imagine for the most part jay lets people assume that he's japanese because it's easier that way. anything he really wants to say, he saves for the truth

anyways!! metropolis!!!

i'm assuming the revolutionaries have, like, less-than-legal contacts for helping people get settled and safe because, unlike jon, they are definitely not on friendly terms with both local and federal law enforcement

they get jay and the others all the papers and certificates and whatnot

so according to my timeline i would say jay would probably be thirteen by now (assuming his bday passed within those six months of experimentation) or at least close to being thirteen

i'm not entirely sure where he stays during this time? i can't imagine he'd get an apartment to himself starting now because there are a whole bunch of loopholes he'd have to jump through and he's probably lacking the money considering he just ran away with nothing from a dictatorship

maybe a safehouse that the aerie and wink have in metropolis, or maybe he gets placed with a foster family during this time? in any case he gets his living arrangements done and enrolls in high school

also i imagine he's pretty hyper-independent/self-sufficient (because he literally has nobody else to rely on) and thus holds any friends he makes at arm's length. he's guarded. he throws walls up. pretty ironic for someone who can pass through anything, no?

the thing about jay is that he's a former president's son through and through, so he's still perfectly charming and amicable to said friends who don't even realize that they don't know him all that well. jay is just THAT good

his first two years of high school are all about recovery and adjustment. and maybe he won't ever fully recover--a part of him will always ache for all that was ripped away from him, and a part of him will always be afraid of rumbling storms and boats and anything that sounds just as sharp as gunfire--but it's enough for him to maybe consider metropolis a place he could be happy in

i want to say something happens in junior or senior year of high school that makes jay realize that, no matter how little of it he has, he does have the power to do what he can, and that's how the truth begins

i guarantee you 100% jay started out with a basic face mask and shaky low-quality phone camera footage and zero editing. he had to build the truth from the ground up with what he had access to in metropolis, and i imagine that wasn't a whole lot

i'd probably end with his high school graduation and summer break and his acceptance into metropolis u?? oh and moving into his new apartment!!! a new beginning. one that jay is in more control of. one where he isn't afraid.

one where he wasn't expecting to fall in love and yet . . .

[j-nipper-95]

Six Sentence Sunday

Yes, 2023 is drawing to a close. Yes, I have been lurking for (I think) months at this point. Yes, I have been writing. Thank you so much to everyone who has been tagging me in recent weeks/months, I'm so sorry I haven't been interacting as much with you all as I have in the past. In the last few months I just haven't had the social battery to do much more than just lurk in comments sections, and sometimes not even that (autistic burnout is not fun, can confirm, 0/10, do not recommend).

But I'm back, and here's hoping 2024 is a good year, and one that's productive where writing is concerned! 2023 was a pretty good year for me; I published my first fic (which was also the first bit of writing I've properly published anywhere!), and I sent off my first query for ASR! To a proper literary agent! Like ... WHAT?! I still can't believe it!

As for the end of this year, let's get one last hurrah in for the year of 2023 with the final WIPsday of the year. Chapter 11 of Trails is coming, it just needs to be edited. Here's an unedited snippet of the chaos you have to look forward to.

“When I tell you to, run like fuck,” Fiona tells us, clicking the hammer back on her revolver.  “How many more rounds have you got?” Penny asks. “Enough to take down half the idiots aboard this ship.” Fiona takes up a position on one side of the hatch, her finger on the trigger guard. As she moves I hear the tell tale clink of a box of rounds, and see the outline of it in her trouser pocket for the first time. “Fiona,” I caution. “Maybe we should try to do this quietly.” “No chance of that, boyo. I’m killing as many of these fuckers as I can before we go overboard.” “Fiona,” I try again, but she isn’t listening. “The lifeboat is on the right side,” Penny whispers to us, eyeing Fiona out of the corner of her eye. We’ll lower you into it, Baz, then follow.” I guess I don’t have much of a say in this, as Snow is literally the only reason I’m still standing right now. I nod, and Penny creeps up the stairs behind Fiona, who does so about as well as a bull in a china shop. She storms out onto the deck and I’m actually surprised by how long it takes for bullets to start flying. There’s a solid fifteen seconds or so, which allows Bunce to make it up the stairs and gesture for us to follow, before an alarm is raised and Fiona does what she does best: cause chaos.

This hiatus with Trails wasn't planned, but work and general holiday madness got in the way of the tentative schedule my beta's and I had. New Year, fresh start, once more into the fray, as they say. I hope you can join us for this fics future shenanigans.

Tagging for the new year: @artsyunderstudy @aristocratic-otter @bazzybelle @blackberrysummerblog @bookish-bogwitch @cattocavo @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @cosmicalart @cutestkilla @dragoneggos @erzbethluna @ebbpettier @fatalfangirl @frjsti @henreyettah @hushed-chorus @ic3-que3n @ileadacharmedlife @ivelovedhimthroughworse @krisrix @larkral @letraspal @martsonmars @nightimedreamersworld @orange-peony @prettylightsbigcity @palimpsessed @phoxphyre @raenestee @shrekgogurt @skeedelvee @stardustasincocaine @subparselkie @that-disabled-princess @theearlgreymage @wellbelesbian @you-remind-me-of-the-babe 

[malewife-overlord]

Six Cycles Later -- Part II

no one asked for this. i wrote it anyways. for anyone who has not seen the fucking big as chunk of writing that was the part I, you can find it here. for anyone actually invested, welcome to part II! it picks up right where part I left off :)

if youre new here, six cycles later is a tf oc fic im writing about a seeker left behind on earth after the attack on autobot city, and a certain autobot who arrived on earth after going missing at the very start of the war-- both of whom are linked by the same desire to escape, and more alike than they'd think.

i consider this chapter to be a bit of a "transition" chapter, because it's a chapter where you kinda move from point a to b to get to c, lol. promise action and some delicious goodies are coming up in Part III :3 but we've gotta get there first.

word count: 7471

fic below cut! as usual, any nice comments or likes are appreciated u///u sorry it took so long to post this, im balancing writing with commissions and a full time job, so. idie a little but its okay

summary: invert goes to bali. she hates it. luster goes to the clinic. he hates it.

“Victory, cmon!” Invert stood before the double doors of the weapons vault, a frown etched on her faceplate. “Open the weapons vault! It’s an emergency!” 

Emergency protocol not engaged. Clearance level 3 required to access weapons vault. Present clearance level: 1. Weapons vault cannot be accessed.

“Victory!” She pouted, shaking a fist. “Come on! It’s me! I’m the only ‘con on this ship, I should have maximum clearance!”

Clearance level: 1. Weapons vault cannot be accessed.

“Victory!”

The ship gave her no response. Invert growled and tried the keypad again, then the scanner, then the keycard. Nothing. As if in warning, a loud buzzer sounded at the end, a illuminating a red light above the vault.

“How am I going to rescue my fellow Decepticons if I don’t have a weapon?” She asked aloud, glaring up, as if Victory would answer her. “I don’t even have proper blasters anymore!” 

Silence. Maddening, maddening silence. 

“Fine! Fine. I’ll make due. I’ll just run headlong into the Autobots and die, and no one will be left to maintain you! Then what?”

Nothing. 

A groan escaped her. “Really? …really. Fine.” 

She turned on her heel and stomped for her room, where she knew at least one weapon was waiting. It was dangerous, and could possibly blow up in her face again, and hadn’t seen actual use since the first test, but…well, it was better than nothing! And sure, she could access the weapons collection Starscream had in his habsuit, or the rare crafts Megatron had in his, but…

The punishment for even touching any of those would be far worse than anything the Autobots could do to her. She shivered and pushed the idea aside. Nope, not risking that. If she touched anything in their rooms, when they returned, they’d kill her. 

Then again, if she died on this mission, she wouldn’t have to worry about them killing her. 

Her personal pet project was in her habsuit, resting on the tiny desk she’d dragged into it. Her habsuit was at the very end of all the others–the Constructicons had had no desire to build it, so they’d shoved her in what had been the previous broom closet. The fact that she fit at all was a miracle, as was that they let her get away with stealing a desk for it. 

Perhaps after seeing what she’d started to make, they’d decided against reclaiming it. After all, not many bots could say they got to personally observe Shockwave working in his lab, and even fewer could mimic his proficiency with crafting weapons. 

She was not one of those fewer, but she had watched him work in the past. Being his personal lab assistant/slave had been eye opening in that way. And furthermore, it had led to her accumulating a few parts that would otherwise be impossible to acquire on Earth.

All of those factors combined to let her craft her own weapon. The intention was for it to be a sniper class with a greatly extended range starting at ten miles. That was to start. If everything went according to her dreams, it would be able to fire more than twice that on both planets and the cold void of space. 

Dreams, however, didn’t guarantee results. The prototype she kept in her habsuit had been her pride and joy until its original test fire had caused the damnable thing to blow up in her face, right in front of her fellow Decepticons. If anything had wounded her ego, that was it. 

And since then, she hadn’t bothered to fire it once. 

She stepped into her habsuit and observed her experimental weapon for only a moment before picking it up. This would be the second time it’d be in the field. She’d tweaked it over and over since that embarrassing day, changing the scope, the trigger, the barrel, the energon pump, and even provided ii the ability to transform. The latter wasn’t anything particularly impressive–the scope and barrel disengaged anyways to permit carrying it, and without the barrel the rifle was the same size as a blaster. Furthermore, despite its simplicity, the rifle had to be manually transformed, something that even simple blasters could pull off otherwise.

But it was her first attempt, her first real, genuine attempt, at making a weapon, and she felt she’d done a decent job for someone who’d never previously handled tools. 

It took a few seconds to convert the rifle, which was almost as long as she was tall, to its smaller, spike shaped form, which she then attached to her forearm via its magnetic underside. Utilizing it in jet mode would be impossible like this, but it was better to know she had a weapon than be a sitting quasiduck on her mission. 

Her blasters had been sacrificed to make the rifle. She sincerely hoped that the investment would pay off. 

“Alright!” She yelled, throwing her arms out. “That’s all I get, Victory! Just one experimental weapon! No blasters! No grenades! No fusion cannons! No null rays or swords or electric staves! All of which I could use if you’d just open the weapons vault! Are you really going to send me off with only this?”

Judging from the lack of response, it seemed that yes, it was. 

Frag this. She kicked the doorframe and stormed Skywarp’s habsuit. He was bigger than her and would make her life a living hell for two chords, but he’d get over it. Besides. She could punch him back without anyone giving her trouble for it. What occurred between Skywarp and whoever punched him stayed there. 

His habsuit was sparsely decorated, and what existed in it was usually so filthy no one else would touch it. Today she lowered her standards and grabbed one of the blasters she knew he kept under his berth in the hopes that no one would find them; considering how often he had his own revoked, and how much the others hated him, Skywarp had found it necessary to maintain some form of private collection, if only for self-defense from revenge that was absolutely earned. 

And now his constant need to misbehave was paying off: she wouldn’t be entirely unarmed for this flight, and having a sidearm was better than gauging her hopes on an experimental rifle. 

Attaching the blaster to her other forearm, she made for the hangar. Her tank felt like it was fluttering with each step. A quick diagnostic scan revealed nothing unusual–nothing besides her own wiring. For this first time ever, she was going to visit the hangar and take off from it.

The idea that she was flightless was, in truth, only partially correct. Invert, like all Seekers, had been forged with wings on her back. Yes, they were upside down, and yes, when she transformed, they pointed the wrong way, with the delicate trailing edge leading as opposed to the leading edge itself. This caused the angle her wings made to work against her, and normally kept her out of the air. But a messed up angle alone was not enough to keep her grounded forever. 

An Earth plane would struggle and stay put, never to dream of the sky. A Cybertronian would reason that with enough Energon and determination, anything could be done. And that was exactly how she intended to fly to Bali. 

She could fly. The force from her thrusters alone, once in the air, could keep her going upwards, though they would consume Energon at a rapid rate. For this reason she visited the Energon vault and procured five additional cubes–her present fuel levels were adequate enough she felt no need to recharge. As long as she kept her thrusters engaged and made sure to ride the wind currents of Earth perfectly, she calculated a likely path to Bali that only had a 32.6% chance of her crashing and dying in the process. 

Odds of 67.4 percent seemed favorable enough to her. She paused before the double doors of the hangar, vented, and opened them, stepping in.

“Victory, elevate the hangar.” The entire structure rumbled as it rose, the whoosh of water outside indicating they’d broken the surface of the ocean. She could hear waves beating against the metal. “Open. When I leave, return to the bottom of the ocean. I’ll be back. Even if you don’t seem to want me to.” 

She grumbled that last part.

The hangar doors opened. Bright sunlight poured in, causing her optics to readjust. She blinked a few times and took several steps forward, gazing out at the outside world. 

The ocean seemed to go on for eternity. Its color was a deep blue. White peaks formed and faded away as they crashed over and over against on the hangar. 

Above, the sky was cloudless. The winds were strong, rushing past her and howling in the enclosed metal environment. It was a good day for a flight. 

Invert returned to the back of the hangar and pulled up the coordinates in her hub. Approximately 8,502 miles. She’d cross it in a few earth hours if everything went well. 

If.

The Energon cubes felt heavy in her chassis as she transformed, lowering to the ground. The movement of her wings, shifting to her sides, becoming the things she’d have to rely on, felt wrong. It always did–like going from standing on two steady pedes to posing on one’s servos. One was natural, normal, comfortable, done without even thinking. The other required precise balance, intense focus, and a constant consumption of energy to maintain. 

She’d be more used to it if they let her practice more or gave her some lessons, perhaps. Perhaps they would do just that when they came back. And when they came back, they’d be proud, perhaps, of what she pulled off while they were gone. 

Giving her fuel supply one final check over, she engaged her thrusters and charged forward. 

Just like what you’ve seen Starscream do. Engage, shoot forward—

And she plummeted, shooting right into the ocean instead of the air. Spluttering, Invert turned back and barely managed to regain her balance before smashing into the seabed. A school of fish shot away from her, followed by some of the many legged organics and one of the squishy, color changing ones. 

She groaned, knocked a fist against her helm, and turned back to Victory, determined to try again. She’d get this right. She had to. 

She wouldn’t stop until she did.

—

Eight hours was all it took to reach Bali with the speed she maintained once airborne. High above the cruising altitude any human plane would comfortably fly at, she watched the unbroken ocean, speckled ever so slightly by the white peaks of breaking waves, and read over the logs on Insecticons. According to the writer of the Decepticon database, Insecticons were about as useful as unrefined Energon and equally likely to explode. Good to know. 

They were also incredibly disloyal. Of the three, Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell, none had any kind of investment in the Decepticon cause. Their adaptations had given them the ability to consume organic matter and drastically increased their hunger. All they cared about was food. 

That would be troublesome, if she took them back to Victory immediately. With how low the Energon supply was getting, even one of them deciding to stuff himself could mean that the Decepticon cause on Earth died, permanently.

She’d have to approach them cautiously, without the same hospitality she’d extend to her fellow ‘cons (a good punch to the face, usually). What approach she’d provide, she’d have to decide, soon, since the coastline of the island nation had just manifested on the horizon–

When a warning suddenly appeared on her hub, covering almost her entire vision in red:

LOW POWER. ENERGON LEVEL: 10%. SEEK IMMEDIATE FUEL SOURCE. 

She cursed, but before the word could even escape her, her body convulsed, forcibly transforming back into its robot mode. Her nose cone dipped before turning back to her chassis and head, leaving her plummeting head over pedes. Her balance modulator began to scream in its efforts to right her, only to immediately disable as the rest of her forcibly entered power saving mode. 

The ocean was coming up fast. The wind whistled past, blocking out her audials. Tumbling over herself, Invert tried to use the boosters in her struts in an effort to slow her descent–and their force promptly made her tumble even faster. The world became a blur of blue as her systems flashed every warning under the sun. 

Then she hit the ocean, and the impact was so painful she momentarily offlined. Something cracked. Pain shot all throughout her frame, a damage report automatically pulling up in her hub as she sank below the greenish water, straight to the bottom below. 

It wasn’t a long drop, but just the act of hitting the sandy bottom exacerbated the pains shooting through her frame. She may as well have hit a wall at full speed. Blinking her optics several times, her damage report finally came into proper view. 

It wasn’t particularly savage, but neither was it promising. As she moved her arms to pull herself from her prone position on the seafloor they creaked ominously, the sound accompanied by broken glass spilling from her cockpit onto the sandy bottom. Glowing Energon joined it. 

That got her up. She practically leaped to her pedes, grabbing the cubes and stuffing them back into her chassis, cursing a storm as two of them began to leak. Cracks were apparent in both, and the delicate energy they provided bled out into the ocean currents. Two would be an entire recharge for her–she couldn’t let them go to waste. 

Pressing her servos against the cracks and praying that would be enough, she swiveled her helm, searching for the shore. The water was shallow–only about fifty feet, if her depth meter was to be trusted–but the open area she’d found herself in was still miles from shore. 

Miles she would not make without more Energon. Grimacing, already aware of just how poorly this would fare for her tanks, she brought the first of the cubes to her dermas and forcibly gulped it down, taking in far too much seawater in the process. Warnings popped up about contaminated fuel, followed by analysis of the contents: 96.5% water, 2.5% salts, .2% inorganic particulates, .8% organic particulates. 

The latter part almost made her purge what she’d consumed, but she kept it down. It was energy enough, she wouldn’t have to do it again and once she was back on land she’d purge anyways and forget that this ever happened. Tossing the empty cube aside and pocketing the second, she checked her map again for which way was land. 

North. She took off in that direction, the sandy floor gradually turning into some kind of living rock formation. Slimy looking organics of odd shapes populated the colorful stones, darting away as she stepped on and crunched them with ease. They left slime on her plating, which did not help her growing desire to purge. Stepping over what seemed to be an entire shelf of the organics, her helm finally broke water.

Ahead of her was a beach densely populated with humans. Around her, gasping and shrieking as they swam away, were more humans, all of whom had been previously enjoying themselves, somehow, in the ocean. 

She gave a dirty look to the closest ones and stomped forward, gradually rising out of the water as she approached the beach. The humans occupying it screamed and scattered, abandoning their little colorful fabrics and strange striped pole structures. A few foolish ones froze in place, staring at her in awe. 

Dripping with saltwater, covered in slime, and with a broken, gaping cockpit on display, Invert didn’t have the time nor patience to put up with any of them. Decepticons hardly had any concern for humans anyways, but it was generally discouraged to avoid stepping on them–it ruined your paint. 

Considering the damage her beautiful lime green had already attained, she didn’t think she could care less now. 

“Hey!” 

With her map pulled up in her main hub, she hadn’t noticed the one human that, as opposed to running in fear, had frozen up and stood their ground. She glanced down, spotting a tanned one just by her pedes. 

“Are you one of those Autobots?” 

The question actually made her pause for a moment, considering the Decepticon brand on her wings. If she were feeling a bit more patient or playful, she might tell him yes, she was, and he and all his friends should absolutely be fine with her holding a few of them for potential hostage situations later. Perhaps she could convince them to take her to her quarry without even an ounce of concern that they might call for help. It was an action that would make strategic sense, that any intellectual Decepticon would leap at. 

Invert, however, was tired, cranky, and not particularly fond of anything made of metal at the moment. 

She bent and flicked the human aside, not paying any attention as to just where the hell it might have landed. Humans. Worthless, bold, idiotic creatures. So tiny and delicate. And yet they still thought they could talk to beings like her. 

“How much longer till I get there?” She asked her systems as she headed off the beach, crunching a few human structures along the way. It responded with a calculation of the remaining distance to her quarry: halfway across the island, nestled in a ‘mangrove swamp’. Another thirty minutes of walking. 

Her pedes crushed plants and bent concrete as she followed the straightest path, ignoring whatever might have been built upon it. Humans panicked and ran in all directions to avoid her, their tiny screams grating on her audials. They were turned down in response, muting any potential crunching that may have occurred as she kicked aside a wooden structure marked with the image of a cone. The humans and their worthless, useless, delicate structures, were left behind in no time. 

And foolishly, she did not once consider that one of those screaming, fleeing humans might have called for help.

—---------------------

The coordinates lead her to a swamp. After a good ten minutes of walking, Invert found that the island gave way to less populated areas, rife only with animal and plant based organics. They were no more pleasant to deal with, but they didn’t scream nearly as much, and their movement patterns were relatively predictable. They fled to the undergrowth and hid there, as if they were praying she’d leave them alone. 

Good organics. They knew where they belonged. 

As she neared the swamp the dirt moistened, sticking to her pedes, and the water made its damnable return, flooding the land and forming pools that ran up her cadulens. The trees lifted themselves upon their roots as if they intended to walk away, forming cages which entrapped more organics within them. It seemed to her like a great prison, formed by the rejects of the Earth itself.  

Her map suddenly lit up, providing her with a name for the place she’d stepped into–the “Demon Swamp”. An informational packet came along with it, indicating that the Insecticon ship was nearby and that her Decepticon brethren had visited this place prior. She ignored everything except the part about the Insecticons. 

Invert was hasty, but not stupid. She done her research on the three of them during her flight–it had been difficult with the amount of focus she’d had to maintain at all times, but she’d pulled it off, because unlike some other one trick mechaponies in the cause, she could be taught how to do more than one thing. 

Of the three Insecticons, her greatest interest was in Shrapnel. They all seemed like frankly awful comrades, but the ability to produce clones was undeniably powerful. It wouldn’t matter if she was the last Decepticon on Earth. It wouldn’t matter if she only found him. It wouldn’t even matter if he could only make a few clones–a clone was still another robot, and numbers were what they needed more than anything. 

Silently, she hoped that he was the one who had created the distress signal, and that maybe, because of his electricity powers, he’d caused that infernal buzzing. It made sense. What else could have?

She made her way through the Demon Swamp cautiously.. For all she knew, Autobot soldiers were waiting around every corner. But more than that, the environment itself was actively hostile to her kind. 

The water was brackish, and sediment easily gathered between plating. The air was humid, which could clog vents. Organics constantly chirped in the background, distracting audials. The foliage from the mangrove trees moved constantly in the wind, requiring constant optic adjustments for lighting. And the water she waded through gave her position away to anything with ears in the general vicinity.

There was no approaching stealthily, not with the twisting roots that threatened to constantly trip her or the water that sloshed and bubbled like it was boiling. There was so much noise, even with her audials turned down, it was almost difficult to think. 

And that didn’t even begin to cover the constant buzzing that had risen into the air, one that she recognized. She was approaching the ship, she could feel it. Her map was pinging wildly, her coordinate numbers were rapidly growing smaller, and the buzzing of the signal, audible to everyone in a mile radius at minimum, was practically screaming. 

Actually…she paused, disabling her coordinates and turning her map off. The buzzing was still audible. Raising a hand to her helm, she disabled her comms as well. 

The buzzing was still audible. 

It wasn’t a signal, then. 

She took in a sharp ex-vent and continued forward, the mangrove trees overhead beginning to close together, blocking out the sunlight from above. The route she was following had taken on the qualities of a tunnel with mangrove roots forming its walls. They twisted and crawled over one another like tentacles. It made her plating crawl. 

The path curved sharply. She was met with a curtain of organic filth, gray and twisting. The buzzing had turned to almost shrieking now, and her scanners indicated that Cybertronian technology was very close now. Grimacing to herself, Invert grit her dentae and shoved the curtain aside, convulsing only slightly as it draped over her plating. It worsened her desire to purge–but that wasn’t the only contributor to the growing feeling. 

Before her, nestled in a massive grotto, was an old, crashed ship of Cybertronian origin. The doors to it had long been blown off and water had pooled over its floors. Organic filth grew over its top and mangrove roots had looped over its wings, trapping it in place. Its interior was pitch black, but she could detect some kind of movement from within. 

From the heart of that dark void the buzzing originated, sounding like the shriek of static. And just below it, she could hear a voice. 

“LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!”

—---------------------------------------------------

Seek alternate fuel source.

By the time Uptick’s data package sent him the notification to end recharge, Luster still hadn’t managed to offline for even a moment. Throughout the entirety of Earth’s night he’d laid still, listening to the endless humming that droned in his processor while watching the light of the moon creep across the floor. Earth’s moon was a small satellite structure about fifty times smaller than the planet it orbited. From the safety of the organic’s home it appeared as a particularly large orb in the sky and went through eight different phases: full, waxing gibbous, first quarter, waxing crescent

He vented harshly at the image and promptly sat up, the constant pinging in his helm only now properly registering. Uptick had so graciously set an alarm for him that was thirty Earth minutes prior to when he was expected at the clinic. As if on cue, he heard a knock at his door, and a quick check of the electrical field coming from outside told him all he needed to know of who was waiting for him. 

A comm arrived in his link before he could disable it. Despite the alarm literally ringing in his processor and telling him to get up, which Uptick would know he was presently experiencing, another notification from the same mech now waited patiently in his inbox, politely and firmly reiterating what had been told to him the night prior. 

It would soon be time to go to the clinic. He was not permitted to avoid or skip this appointment. He was on his second strike, and a third would mean that he would go into lockdown. They did not want to make him a prisoner. This was for his own good. 

Tank capacity at 50%. Fuel uptake at 15%. Seek alternate fuel source.

He didn’t manage to close the notification in time and it promptly opened a dozen more. Groaning to himself, Luster slammed his helm into the nearest wall, the damage report temporarily clearing his hub. 

Another comm and knock arrived only a second after he completed the action. If his optics could roll into his helm, they would have. 

‘I’m up,’ he sent back. ‘Out in a klik.’ 

His comms were promptly disabled, blocking out Uptick’s response. Then, the damnable alarm that hadn’t once stopped ringing was seized, taken to the back of his processor, and disabled in the least humane way he could imagine. Lastly, every last notification was closed and its accompanying pop-ups blocked. 

Finally, a moment of quiet. He swung his legs off his berth and took in a few ex-vents, mentally preparing himself for just what he was going to experience at the clinic today. During his last visit, they’d given up on trying to get him to manually recall the details of his trip. Whispers between the medics had agreed upon bringing in “the big guns”. 

Whatever “the big guns” meant, he couldn’t say he was eager to find out. 

There were guesses he’d had towards just what such a term might be referring to–a psychic patch in, perhaps, or maybe the complete removal of his processor for dissection. Maybe they’d do a deep scan and recreate him in a digital space, just so they could pick him apart like a particularly interesting puzzle. 

That was all he was to them. A puzzle. Something to be solved, categorized, put together, pulled apart, and put away once solved. 

He couldn’t even solve himself. What made them think they could do it?

Uptick pinged him again. It had been exactly 16 kliks of blissful silence. Luster vented and stood. Despite his tanks remaining half full, he could feel the aggressive pangs of hunger nipping at him, ever on the edge of his mind. They were pushed aside as he tapped the keypad to his habsuit, opening the door. 

Uptick stood just beyond it, taking up the entire frame and more with his bulk. He stepped back when the door opened, a mandatory smile crossing his faceplate. 

“There you are! That’s the fastest you’ve ever arisen!” He beamed at the prospect of his work bearing fruit, which Luster found annoying. “I’ll keep this in mind for next time. Now, are you ready to go? If we’re early, they might be able to admit you faster, which means a shorter session, eh?”

“Sure. Shorter.” He grumbled and slinked past Uptick, who closed the door he’d left open and followed along. 

~

The clinic he visited on a weekly basis was located on the opposite side of Metroplex, towards the back of his city form. During the war, there had been dozens of buildings just like it, designed to hold the wounded and dying. After the assault on Autobot city and the incident with the Chaos Bringer on Cybertron, many of the clinics on Earth had closed down as the medics and doctors returned home. There were, after all, far more injuries and casualties on Cybertron, even without the war raging. 

The peace of Earth had seen all but two clinics close, which were kept open out of necessity. Rare as it was, on occasion an Autobot might return from sparring with half his arm blasted off, or from a drive amongst humans with his front completely ruined. Humans, as Luster had quickly come to learn, were awful navigators and drivers. They ran into everything from still trees to moving cars to thin pedestrians on the side of the road. 

And sometimes they ran into Autobots, and what was merely an inconvenience for them was a fatality for the fragile organics. 

He didn’t feel quite strongly about the humans. They were alright. They were small, and weak, but surprisingly intelligent. They thought he was fascinating and scary. Some thought he was a friend. Many had grown accustomed to his kind, and would look at him with expectant eyes. 

He couldn’t offer them anything. He didn’t know why he intrigued them. The less interactions he had with the small things, the better, he supposed. The only slightly less maddening thing about their company was that the beat of their ‘sparks’ didn’t drive his processor crazy. 

Which was reason more why he despised the clinic. If there were weak in Autobot City, they were here. And the weak…the weak made easy prey. 

The streets were full of Autobots this early in the morning. Most everyone was up at this point, stretching their legs, tires, and waking up their engines. With every Autobot that dashed past them, racing along eagerly in alt mode, Luster felt his solvents building. The clinic was within sight, and he could see a black and yellow mech lingering by it, chatting up one of the nurses. 

Their sparks were so bright he could almost see them through their plating. 

Seek alternate fuel source.

Luster staggered to a halt in the middle of the street, venting harshly as he slammed a fist to his helm. 

Uptick startled behind him, instantly raising a hand. “Luster? What’s the matter? Are you alright?”

He gagged, hissing through his dentae. “I…I need to leave. Now. I need–”

“Now is no time for cold pedes.” Uptick said firmly, crossing his arms. “I know you’ve been opposed to these sessions, but the medics have assured me–”

Seek alternate fuel source.

The notifications were building nonstop. He couldn’t focus on moving, ignoring the sparkbeats, tuning out Uptick, resisting his aching tank, and closing the pop ups, all at once. He needed just a moment of calm, anything to temporarily turn it all off. 

“I need Energon,” he spat, ignoring whatever else Uptick had said. “Now.”

“Luster–!”

Jerking away, Luster staggered in the direction he knew the bar to be in. Three streets over, seven blocks down, take a left at the lamp post, follow the street until you see a lit up sign–

“Luster!” Uptick yelled, catching up with him in a moment and grabbing him by his shoulders. Luster growled and tried to shake him off, but he held on, turning him around like he was only an indignant sparkling. “You are absolutely not visiting the bar again. I tolerate this habit of yours on your best days, when it is appropriate to do so. Believe me when I say this, I understand how… appealing it can be to try and drown yourself in energy when you’re faced with the horrors of the past. But you…you’re taking it to dangerous levels.” His faceplate was more stony than the diamonds in Luster’s helm. “And I know for a fact that your tank does not empty at a rate so rapid that you’d need to refuel after only six hours of recharge.” 

“I didn’t recharge,” Luster snapped back, reaching up to grab one of Uptick’s servo’s. “I couldn’t offline for even a second last night. I’m starving, I need Energon, Uptick!”

“You need to stop acting like this!” His grip only tightened as Luster scratched at it, some of the white paint chipping away. “Avoiding your appointments to drink at the bar won’t change anything for the better, Luster! If you keep resisting change, you’ll end up trapped in the past!” 

The street had been sparsely populated only moments ago. Now, Luster was aware of other Autobots pausing in their going-ons. Several helms poked out from buildings, curious to see exactly what one of their enforcers had caught. 

He didn’t want to make a scene. The last thing he needed was more Autobots in the area around him. The quiet pounding sounds rapidly surrounding him were like drums on a quiet evening. But before he could even try to look around another notification popped up. 

Feed.

“It’s not about being stuck, idiot!” He screamed back, a snarl twisting his faceplate. He could feel the metal threatening to crack and break apart at the seams, right where his jaws would hinge. “I NEED this, or I’ll offline! I’ve got a fuel deficiency!”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” Metal creaked as Uptick’s grip suddenly tightened, earning him a hiss. “I’ve have personal access to your file! There’s nothing wrong with your physical health!” 

Nothing wrong? NOTHING WRONG?!

The file was already so wrong by claiming that, and none of them even knew it. 

Seek alternate fuel source.

There are many sources nearby. 

“Is that so?” He grit out, feeling something on his back shifting. “Is that what they told you?” 

Was it so, Uptick? Would it always be so? Would it be so when he broke his faceplate, snapped his servos, and–

And what was he thinking?

He froze in the middle of forming his next sentence, voice dying before it could make any words. There was something shifting on his back, beneath his drill, and it replaced all the anger he felt with instant fear. There were witnesses. There were Autobots he knew around. If he let any more of himself slip, he would never speak to any of them again. 

The fight left him as quickly as it had entered, uselessly bleeding out like the Energon in his tank. Uptick seemed to sense this, his own rage subsiding, loosening along with his servos. Their impression had been left behind in Luster’s shoulderpads. He’d barely felt them bend, hissing only out of reflex. 

It was supposed to have hurt. He hadn’t even felt it.

The noise was coming back now. It was accompanied by the voices of other Autobots. He was suddenly so aware of the gazes upon him. Standing in the middle of the street by the clinic, he’d made himself the spectacle of the sector. And Uptick…

“We’re here early,” he muttered, venting quietly. “If you attend, and give them no issue, then…perhaps after your appointment…I…” He trailed off. “Your favorite refuge, it’s the Lead Pigeon, right?”

Luster did not look at him, or anyone, for that matter. Numbly he headed for the doors of the clinic, the red and orange nurse from before waiting for him. Uptick said something, following him halfway to his destination before stopping in the street. The medic cast him a glance before focusing back on her patient. 

“Luster! It’s good to see you.” The nurse held out her arm and spoke like she hadn’t watched him almost assault an enforcer in the street. “We’re almost ready for you, if you’ll just follow me. Got to take vitals.”

“Right,” he muttered, the noise of his notifications starting to drown out the street he’d left behind. Amongst it all, a ping came in from Uptick. He lingered over it for a few seconds as his body trudged along, leaving his mind stuck at the doors of the clinic. 

“Luster?” The nurse stopped by a machine. “Please step on the scanner.” 

He dismissed Uptick’s ping and obeyed. 

After the initial scans, he was led to the back of the clinic. The nurse took him to a small room with an examination table and a monitor. He moved to the table while she retrieved her datapad and tapped him in, the door sealing shut behind them. 

He’d been to the clinic a dozen times before, but it was the first time they’d taken him to this individual room. It was smaller than he’d thought they’d put a mech of his size in. With both their frames crowded in alongside the monitor and table, the place felt almost stifling. He shifted uncomfortably, dismissing more pings and notifications as she finally looked up from her datapad. 

“Alright, you’re all checked in. I’ve sent a comm to the surgeon you’ll be working with today.” She smiled, again. It was starting to bug him. “Have you been made aware of the treatment you’ll be undergoing today?”

“No,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his legs. “What is it?”

Ignoring his tone, she kept smiling and continued. “Are you familiar with mnemosurgery? Following your last encounter at the clinic, the doctor felt it would be best if an alternate approach was used to help you regain your memories. A specialist was called in from Cybertron, just for you.”

Luster cringed at that. All the way from Cybertron. Someone from home, or what home was supposed to be. Someone who’d remind him of how much he’d changed, how much home had changed. Was it anything like he remembered?

Mnemosurgery. It meant nothing to him. He frowned. 

“So he’s come all the way from Cybertron to do…something weird to me?” He vented. The drill on his back felt all the heavier. “Wonderful.”

The nurse was still smiling. Did she ever stop? Did she think it was reassuring? He felt like he was going to purge. 

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. Mnemosurgery has been used plenty of times to help mechs struggling with trauma. The doctor wouldn’t have prescribed this if he thought it would be harmful to your health. And–”

A knock on the door interrupted her. Turning, she flipped the lock and it slid open, revealing a lavender mech with teal and yellow accents. He was wearing a silver visor and carrying a datapad, and gave the nurse a nod as he stepped in. “Luster of Cybertron, I take it?” He asked, silver gaze taking in the form of the pathetic creature sitting on the examination table. Upon receiving a nod, he grinned and held out a hand. “Good to meet you! I’m Redactor, and I’ll be serving as your mnemosurgeon.” 

His greeting was not returned. Unperturbed, Redactor dismissed the nurse, though he didn’t bother to sit where she had. Raising his datapad, he stood by the door as it closed, reviewing whatever information was on it. 

“So tell me about yourself, Luster!”

His voice was annoyingly cheerful. From the looks of his shoulderpads, tires, and the gaudy paint job, Luster guessed he was a race car. There were even rear wings on his back, split for each arm. His Autobot insignia was proudly displayed on his helm. 

“What’s there to tell? Everything you need to know is on that datapad.”

Redactor shrugged. “Sure, but as your mnemosurgeon, I’d like to potentially learn a bit more about you before I go digging around in your memories. It’s never pleasant to have a stranger in your thinker, is it?” He tapped his helm and let out a light chuckle.

Luster arched an optical ridge. “What do you mean by that?”

“Do you know what mnemosurgery is?” Redactor tilted his helm slightly, and when Luster shook his own, continued. “Mnemosurgery is the process of entering another Cybertronians mind. We…it doesn’t have a great reputation, I’ll be entirely realistic with you.” 

Despite the seriousness of the topic, he let out an awkward laugh. 

“You see it has a bit of a…connection, with the concepts of shadowplay and…well, during the war, it was frequently used to pry secrets from the processors of soldiers.” 

“But! Time marches on.” He gave Luster a smile that was supposed to be reassuring and failed to do just that. “You have my promise, I am not here to control you or alter your memories—I’m here to help you regain them. I heard you’ve been having memory problems?”

“That’s…one way of saying it.” He sat up, his back strut cracking as he did so. “I can’t remember anything, which I’m sure that datapad has already told you. So how are you going to fix that?”

Redactor raised one hand, needles suddenly springing from his fingers. Luster’s optics widened. Beneath his drill, something stirred, preparing to spring out defensively. 

“Relax! The process is painless!” The needles retracted and Redactor waved his hand placatingly. “According to your file, your memories are damaged, but it’s likely that they still exist, buried deep within your processor. You just can’t access them. That’s where I come in!” 

He gave his horrifying servos a wiggle. “With these, I can delve into your processor and potentially guide you back into those areas you can’t access. Now…granted, it may take several tries, and the process is quite dangerous to me. But…well, I can’t just turn down someone in need.”

“In need?” He was in need, all right, in need of not having needles jammed into his processor. He’d had the thing literally poked and prodded before, but this? Another ‘bot, literally inside of his head, accessing his memories? 

“Yes. Whatever happened to you out there, it’s destroyed quite a bit of your processor, hasn’t it? Don’t you want to remember any of it?”

When he didn’t answer, Redactor leaned forward, pressing even further. “Don’t you want to remember Cybertron? Your ship? Whatever you found out there? Solace?”

Solace. 

Don’t you want to remember Solace?

Solace. 

He felt like the ground was dropping from beneath his feet, flipping his tank out of his intake. Coughing, Luster felt warm Energon spill into his mouth, dripping out from his dermas. Redactor cringed at the sight.

“Are you alright?” He asked worriedly, though his words fell on deafening audials. 

Solace. 

Solace. 

Who’s Solace?

“If you’re not feeling well, I’ll call the nurse, we can do this another day–”

“Don’t.” The words spilled out of him along with the pearls of Energon, his optics focusing on the silver of Redactor’s visor. “Solace. You can help me remember Solace?.” 

There was an edge to his voice, a desperation that made Redactor flinch. 

“I–yes, that’s the hope. I–have you eaten this morning? The nurse said there was an incident–”

“I’m fine. Tell me. What are you going to do?” He leaned forward, almost losing his balance on the table. “What do those needles do? Are you going through my helm?”

“Oh, heavens no. They, ah, enter through the back of your neck, where I’ll connect with–”

“Don’t care. You said it doesn’t hurt?” 

“No, absolutely not. Completely painless, I assure you. Um, are you sure you’re feeling alright, you seem…well, friend, you’ve done a bit of an about face, haven’t you?”

He balled a fist and wiped Energon from his dermas. “Haven’t the faintest clue what you’re talking about. How long is this going to take?”

“The mnemosurgery? Anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I try to keep sessions short–the longer I’m in your mind, the greater the danger to me.”

Just a few hours at max. He could hold out for that long. With how slowly his tank drained anyways, he wouldn’t be anywhere close to empty even by the end of the earth day. A few hours. That was all. 

Solace. He had to find out what happened to Solace. This would let him find out what had happened to Solace. 

What happened to Solace?

“Alright. Poke me. Stab me. Whatever you’ve got to do. Let’s do this.”

Redactor winced. “It’s…good to see that you’re so…cooperative! Al-alright, please lie down.”

He did as instructed. Redactor loomed over him, needles poking out of his servos as he moved to his helm. 

“Now, please try to relax. Disable your optics if need be. The more stressed you are, the more difficult it can become for me to enter, and…”

Redactor was going on and on about the process. Luster did not care. He was too busy attempting to close every notification currently crowding his hub. 

Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.Seek alternate fuel source.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.SEEK ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE.

A few hours. Just a few hours. That was all he had to hold on for. 

He could do this. 

[bonniescribblezz]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Hello all, welcomeee!

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

My name is Bonnie, I’m just some guy who is still obsessing over Aphmau’s content in the year 2024. I’ve decided to make this account to post some of my works that I wouldn’t exactly post anywhere else.

Short intro I am an autstic trans author, I am 19 years old and a long term fanfiction writer. I actually had a semi popular wattpad story where I wrote a very lengthy (and poorly written) mystreet characters x reader when I was about like 9. Somethings never change.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

✧˚ · . Masterlist

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ Rules Below! * ˚ ✦

(don't request without reading first!)

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

I only write for Mystreet, Phoenix Drop High, and Diaries as they are the only series I have watched to completion so far! (This may change so keep an eye out ;) )

I have the right to refuse any request for any reason, if my response isn’t timely there is a chance I’ve decided not to write it (that or time just slips away from me) please don’t keep requesting.

I write a lot of x reader stuff, but I will totally write canon x canon if it’s a ship I enjoy.

Asking for general headcanons is okay too, Irene knows I have enough.

Angst is allowed and deeply encouraged.

I will write prompts based on “darker themes” (such as ideas of low self worth, suicidal ideation, SH, and other struggles of mental health) so long as I feel the request in no way glorifies the themes, and I feel I have the capability to write about said prompt. All this given I’m in the proper headspace.

Trigger and content warnings will always be provided.

My writing comes in form of full length fics (typically only 1k to 2k words depending) or bullet points about the ideas the prompt suggests. Please specify which you would prefer more.

Let it be known I will only do THREE characters at a time for full length fics. For bullet points I will allow for SIX at a time. Please be aware of this when requesting!!!

Don’t spam my inbox or messages, I’m just one dude.

No yandere stuff please.

NSFW is allowed, in the case anyone should request it you can’t request anonymously and must have your age somewhere listed on your account clearly. Otherwise the suggestion will be ignored.

(NSFW is of course not allowed in the context of PDH)

No pro-ship stuff or any sort of hate speech.

Reader will almost always be gender neutral, I try to make these work for everyone to read. But if the prompt specifies otherwise I will of course do that instead.

[keysimash]

fuck it. Cringe ass Magolor post from yours truly.

I've wanted to write a proper fic where the tables are turned and instead of Reader petting kitty Magolor, magolor pets and gives physical affection to the reader, but burnout and writers block and embarrassment have mostly stopped me but iys cute and its fluffy and whatever I'm throwing this into the wind, outline and.general thoughts I've had

Cringe incoming

Magolor is always happy to recieve pets from a trusted human with their giant warm hands with long, dextrous fingers that can scritch and pet in ways his own hands cant,

The first time he reciprocates would probably be around 4 - 5 sessions, citing that he "doesn't accept it for free" and that its polite to reciprocate and he wants to look at and examine your weird humanness more closely

OR

if he gets Jealous of His Human coming into his vicinity smelling like Other Fucking Carnivores. Originally in my deleted/reuploaded mag/reader fic this was gonna be a whole thing where the reader was friends with a bunch of Scarfies, and he got PISSED and basically marked the reader by getting super cuddly all of a sudden, the reader doesn't know because humans cant smell like that, and they try to hang out with their Scarfy friends who are like. Staying at least six feet away like "Ummmm. Did you get a boyfriend??? You've got DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH scent all over you lol"

I mean. I've been around mag/reader fics since I was like what, twelve? That sounds right, I dunno I can hardly attach a numerical age to kid memories ANYWAY I've SEEN. how many ppl write him as super possessive and jealous ESP fuckers who are horny for the crowned version you are all sinners none of you are free from sin. This cat is not well adjusted. Anyway

He'd start with your hands, taking them in his gloves, then he'd take his gloves off himself. His hands are smaller under his gloves but still pretty big compared to his own body. Still, though, I think they'd be about the size of a human hand, if Magolor himself is about the size of a backpack, since in official art it seems like his hands are half the size of his body?

I picture them soft and brown, scarred, with squishy pink paw pads on the soft parts of the palm and the last pads on his finger tips. He flexes them, and dark claws come out, relaxes, they retreat: repeat this a few times before he places his gloves neatly somewhere nearby, putting them there without looking or turning, hes already seen the room: hes looking at You, big yellow eyes, glowing a bit. White pupils all wide, taking you all in, making his eyes look lighter.

When he actually starts touching it would be more curious that affectionate, hed definitely be bending fingers and gently moving your elbows, not painful, just Examining, his skeleton is so different after all, and he has no limbs to speak of. he presses deep with his hands until he feels the bones underneath, puts his hands in different spots, on your shoulder, asks you to move and feels the bones move with. Takes a claw and runs it under your fingernail, just barely pressing in, not enough to hurt, just enough tto scrape out any dirt, remarks on how dull your claws are.

The readers own reaction would definitely affect his a lot. He really needs input from others to figure out how to compose himself, a calm and composed yet pleased reaction would fluster him more than anything as he would start to get embarrassed himself doing something so focused on another and yet, he would want praise very badly.

Teasing him would get teasing back:

He would call you silly names making fun of your human features if you teased him lol like "foot-haver" or "magicless loser" etc (he would immediately stop if you seemed actually upset)

but it wouldnt take much to make him into mess ;)

Any flusteredness or embarrassed behavior he will latch onto and tease relentlessly in order to feed his own ego and false confidence, somethin like:

"Hah! You should see your face" "does it feel that good? I havent even done anything yet"

If he gets called out on making petting seem .. less innocent he will accuse you of being the one with a dirty mind lol

The two possibilities here are either his human partner gets more flustered, which might go something like:

he starts purring at the reaction to his own touch, starts running one claw lightly along your arm. Presses up close, close with his head under your chin, purring purring purring, you can feel it and hes like a little furnace. Because he floats he can press his whole weight against a human with little effort, he presses and nuzzles then his hands find the back of your shirt and knead. His face he rubs along your shoulders and neck

OR the tables get turned on the cat egg:

Pointing out his purring, saying something like "you seem excited to do this, dont you? :)" Or commenting on how cute or lovely he is and keeping on doing it, hitting that reward center in his brain so starved for attention -- hed probably make a cute little sound at that -- or if a human touched him and started petting him while he was trying to give affection, that reciprocation would make him pull his scarf down and lick one long stripe up your arm.

I was thinking about Halcandran tongues: carnivores, yes, so barbed like a cats to lick the meat off bones, but: they're not exactly flexible like a cat, they can move but not as freely, they're not exactly egg shaped but still. So grooming would become, either something one did with ones own hands or, a communal activity, social bonding.

He would feel scratchy, his face soft: a lot flatter than a normal cat, he still has a bit of a muzzle but not much. The whiskers tickle, he pauses at the crook of your elbow, looks up at you, licks a few more times, pulls away a bit.

"You taste salty..."

If allowed to continue he certainly will, kneading and laving over the crook of your neck, nibbling curiously at collarbones before nosing into the dips they make under your skin, etc etc. He will examine the shell of your ear with a paw, purring close to it, will lick through your hair if it's short, it would be like fur to him; long hair he would comb through with fingers, hovering around you to nuzzle the back of your neck, purring all the while.

Eventually, he might get to your hands, and he would, well. I should stop before I make a post tha would get me banned from.tumblr, lol.

[wishing-stones]

Updates

Apologies for the lack of updates on any R&R content lately, the brain does not want to do it LMAO

Instead, I've started work on another multi-chapter fic: Ready Aim Fire (With... punctuation in the title pending)

This would be the Star Sanses x Paintball Reader fic. I've gotten a few chapters written, but unlike R&R, RAF has a beta. Should help with continuity errors and the like. I won't be posting any of it until it's been gone over.

I'm not abandoning R&R, but I'm having difficulty getting started on the content I want to write for it. Nothing good comes out of what gets forced, so I'm directing my creative energies elsewhere.

Additionally, my workstation has been moved. I do the vast majority (98% or better) of my writing at work because the lulls in responsibilities and tasks are often wide and boring. Without real consultation, my station was moved out into the open a little more (where I previously sat in a corner specialized for my job) with the manager occasionally sitting over my shoulder.

Feeling like I'm being babysat does not help my creativity in the slightest, and I feel like I have to kind of... hunch over to be able to write anything without someone reading over my shoulder. Even writing the most innocuous of things, I haaatteee people reading over my shoulder. It's already happened once at this job (I was editing a site page at the time) and I really don't want it to happen again.

Fortunately, the manager both isn't here very often, and doesn't like the setup. I'm hoping this is a very temporary thing. My back is also to the office printer, so I have a pretty steady stream of people behind my desk a lot. That isn't new, but it's more difficult to handle now than it was before.

Also contributing to my lack of ability to make anything is the somewhat unfortunate complete-attention-grab of Baldur's Gate 3, since my partner and I got it on our PS5 to play couch co-op. BG3 has my brain in a chokehold LMAO. I'm trying to evenly split hyperfixation between my projects and the new fandom/special interest, but BG3 is winning that LOL

Also, the domesticity of the first half of RAF is not as exciting for me to write. I'm struggling through a chapter because there's nothing really going on. Still have to make it engaging without dragging ass, so I've rewritten six paragraphs already. I also have to work with a couple of characters I'm not as practiced in writing, and I'm trying to do that well. (Neither of whom were in R&R, for the record.)

I've seen a couple of things for R&R floating around in the wild (ie, not shown directly to me; either I saw it in passing, or friends showed it to me) and it's absolutely mind-boggling that my work is as inspiring as it is, and that people talk about me without talking to me. It almost doesn't feel real. Thank you guys.

Speaking of R&R, I haven't done a proper promotion for this, and it's a crime:

If you enjoyed R&R, especially from a character interaction standpoint, you will absolutely love Rubble&Ramparts by Hiddenshadowwolf on Ao3

Here's a link

The story's premise is: what if the events of Chapter 20 didn't go so smoothly? If everyone got injured in the fight, not just Ren and Dust. What would happen if Baggs was in over his head trying to make sure everyone survives? The answer is to accost a nurse from a very mundane AU to help out, but... there's more to her than meets the eye.

Ru&Ra follows Alexis, a nurse, as she navigates the prickly personalities of Nightmare's crew, discovers and learns about magic, and becomes entangled in the complex web of events that follow xGaster's attack.

Every new chapter is a wonderful treat and an absolute goldmine of characterization and study. You can feel the love and effort put into it.

If you're over there chewing the walls waiting for content from me, go read this, it'll scratch the itch very effectively.

For now, I'll happily take continued questions about the fics, the casts, and the characters. You can ask about RAF, but some things might get a very vague answer if they're spoilery.

Thanks guys!

[overdevelopedglasses]

Sunday Six time!

My Sunday is very hectic today, hence the early post, and I was worried I wouldn't have much to share bc of finals week, but a 4 hour road trip pulled through!

A lot of fics got released this week by the conglomerate (including mine!), and I need to read them (only got to 2, iirc) but I'm sure they're all great!

Speaking of, the usual peeps are getting tags: @carbonatedcalcium @fire-tempers-steel @passthroughtime @woundedheartwithin @mike----wazowski @four-white-trees and @skysquid22

If you see this, you write RGG stuff (or even if you don't!) + you want to be included, tag me in your post and I'll throw you in the tags next week!

Got some more Survive!Mine food for all of you guys (hey @lordichamo come see your son), with a fun annoucement: it's a multi-chaptered fic now! (My first one too oh good god) Either all chapters will (essentially) release at once this week, or they'll come out day by day. One of the two.

With that, here's a bit from Chapter 1!

--------------

Using the differing pieces of furniture strewn at various points of the room, Mine makes his way to the large yet still pretty empty closet. He puts on a faded maroon shirt, buttoning the buttons one by one, and grabs a sky blue tie. It would be a bit too bright of a shade for him to enjoy normally, but he's grown to like it. He slips on a pair of jeans that aren't too tight, a black vest, and slides his black sneakers on. He shuffles to the door, grabbing his support canes and descends down the stairs.

He rounds the corner and enters the main space of Survive proper. Kashiwagi waves at him from behind the bar. 

“You really should try the hair-down look one day. I think it'd suit you, and it'd help to change things up once in a while.”

Mine blows a strand of said hair out of his face in lieu of a vocal response. He had been meaning to get his hair cut, but he wasn't in the state to get to the hair salon, nor did either of them own a vehicle.

“Maybe one day. I'm going to get cleaned up in the meantime.”

Kashiwagi chuckles at his response.

“Suit yourself. Don't trip on your way there.”

[extralively]

Yura's first apartment

So. I've recently picked up The Sims 4 again and since I just really enjoy creating houses and stuff, I thought hey, why not create my fic's characters' apartments/houses!

...And I went a little nuts with it lmao. My inner architect really enjoyed herself ok

Anyway, I'll be posting them here for funs and giggles (was this the only reason why I created a tumblr? ........maybe), so as for the first one, let's go take a look at Yura's first apartment after she moved out of the dorms!

Here it is! And yeah, it's tiny. That's pretty much all she could afford lmao

Do keep in mind I have to follow TS4's grid when building stuff, so her apartment should be just a lil bit bigger towards the right side (or so that's what I envisioned when I was writing the fic). But this is pretty much it, a one-room, one-bathroom tiny apartment that fit Yura's basic needs at the time.

More pics of it after the cut!

This apartment is where a few notable things happened in the story, the main one being where Satoru and Yura first tested sending emotions through their connection, and Yura had one of her many freak outs over Satoru being attractive.

(Also her bed does have pillows and blankets LMAO I just couldn't find a proper bed that was just a mattress on the floor as hers was)

Also fun fact: When Yura was dating her first boyfriend Katayama, they would occasionally get busy (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) in here. And since Satoru loved to pop by unannounced, he did interrupt them more than once by knocking on her door relentlessly. Now, we have also established in the fic that Satoru's Six Eyes can see through walls....... so his interruptions might or might not have been very pointed and intentional (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Also here's the bathroom! Well, technically the bathroom is more of a Japanese unit bath and this is closest I could get to in TS4 lmao. It should look something closer to this:

Anyway, I had waaay too much fun making this lol. My favorite thing about TS4 is definitely making houses and stuff, and I really enjoyed trying to create all these places based on the mental images I had of them in my head. Also, you bet I already have her second apartment and Satoru's almost done too lmao. They'll be coming up soon!

[doudouneverte]

Director Love | VW (d-five)

a/n: hey everyone, this the fifth day of the Valentine's week and my second Supergirl fic (Alex is my favourite character by the way), i'm excited. don't worry i'll try to write more supergirl fic. I hope you'll enjoy this fic, it's a short fic. i'll see you tomorrow for a first [M.H] fic.

*not my GIF*

Alex Danvers x Female!Reader; Kara Danvers x Female!Reader(besties); Lena Luthor x Female!Reader(best friend); Supercorp

Summary: Alex forget today was 'the' day

Type: Fluff

Warning: nothing

word count: 974

day one | day two | day three | day four | day six | day seven

------------

Alex was fighting an alien when something came to her mind, it was today, today you came back to National City. You were working for L-Corp, and Lena sent you to Central City to seal a deal with a potential business partner. The DEO agent was about to receive a punch, but her sister was here like a backup.

"What's going on, Alex?" Kara asked, and the older Danvers grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the other agents.

"It's today, Kara, and I didn't plan anything yet," she replied.

"Oh, you know how Y/N loves Valentine's Day; she will be mad if you haven't already planned anything. And she would be tired from the travel, so I'm sure she didn't plan anything either. You have like three hours to prepare something," the Kryptonian said, and the redhead rolled her eyes before suddenly stopping.

"Wait, I also forgot it was Valentine's Day today; oh my God, she will be mad," the director started to stress.

"Okay, calm down. I think Lena and I can give you some time," the blond said.

"But you have something to do with Lena too," the older sister said.

"Don't worry, I'll just take her to Ireland for this year," Kara said. "Oh, and you probably handle DEO stuff for yourself for the next few days," she added before flying away.

Three hours later, you were back in National City. You spent a week away from your girlfriend and your two best friends. You wanted to go directly home and start preparing everything you had planned for your special night, but you received a text from Lena.

Lena: Hey, I hope you had a good week. They called me about the meeting, and I know I made the best choice to send it to you. Also, can you come here? I need your help and your advice on something

You: Is it really important right now?

Lena: yeah, I need you to teach me how to cook something for my night with Kara

You: but can't you just order something?

Lena: yes but I want to surprise her and you're the best cooker I know

You: okay but we will do something quick cause I'm tired

Lena: promise

"Okay, she's coming," Lena said. "Great, I'll text Alex to let her know." Kara replied.

Kara: Lena convince Y/n to help her with cooking; you have 2 more hours, I think, to finish your thing.

Alex: thanks you. you're the best both of you

After twenty minutes, you were at Lena's home. "Hi you, I missed you," she greeted you when she opened the door. She hugged you.

"Me too," you replied with the same tone, "so what do you plan to do for your girl?" You asked, and she started to think.

"I don't know, maybe a dessert with some chocolate, you know, like fondant," she said, and you nodded.

"Okay, I think we can start with that, but you'll not just eat a dessert; we should think about a proper meal," you remarked.

"Maybe pop stickers, sushi, and pasta, or maybe just a big belly burger," you face palm yourself.

"Okay, we have to talk about your food habit later, but right now, don't you think Kara would want something else than just what she eats usually?" You said, and try not to judge her lack of imagination for a special night.

"I think you're right, so what do you suggest I do?" You smirked, and she started to regret having to distract you.

Meanwhile, in Alex's apartment, she was cooking your favorite food and trying not to 'accidentally' hurt or burn her sister, who didn't really help her; Kara was just here and ate something sometime. "You didn't plan to help me?" Your girlfriend asked her sister, and the blue-eyed girl shook her head and smiled 'innocently' "So what are you doing here?" the older sister added.

"Lena and Y/n are cooking for me in Lena's apartment; that means I can't go to see my girlfriend, and everybody is busy today, plus I don't want to be alone tonight," she replied.

"You can at least help me with the decoration," the blonde looked around.

"What do you want to do?" She was ready to use her super speed, but her sister handled some bills.

"You can go grab some flowers for me," the kryptonian mumbled something and walked to the door, "and take your time."

After a few more hours, all was ready. It was hard to help your boss, but you did it, and now it was time to go to your favorite place: Alex's house. When you knocked, Kara lowered her glasses to look across the wood. "It's her," she said to her sister before flying away. Alex adjusted her dress and opened the door.

You were almost trying to catch your jaw, which fell to the ground at the sight of your girlfriend. "Hi you," she said, and it brought you back to reality.

"Hi, you too." You kissed her and walked into the apartment. "You look stunning; like, wow, I don't even have a word to describe you." She blushed, and you gained another kiss.

"I missed you," she whispered near your lips.

"I missed you too, my beautiful girl," you replied, and she chuckled.

"Here," she grabbed your hand and dragged you on the couch, "I prepare something special for you." She quickly went to the kitchen and went back with a plate of food.

"Alex Danvers, you're the most precious girl on earth," you said, and this time it was her who gained a new kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied.

----------

[mishy-mashy]

WELP got a new BNHA fic idea about the Resistance and an entrepreneurial OC, including:

Kudo is pretty sure the university barista isn't as polite and proper as she seems. Bruce doesn't believe him

"Are you sure you want to be working on Valentine's, Shiki-san?" Bruce looked up at the red streamers hung around. "Don't you have someone to go out with? It'll be really busy with all the couples."

She gave a closed-eye smile, which set off an alarm in their heads as this was very much not her usual one. It was a familiar sensation, being why they stiffened—the instinctive fear of scary women.

"What are you talking about, Bruce? Other than the fact that I have no time for romance..."

Her back turned, fist clenched as fire erupted in her eyes and around her. The aura she let off darkened her surroundings to a noxious blue, and Kudo could swear he saw GOGOGOGO~ characters shrouding her.

"Coffee dates are a classic. I can't turn down this chance to turn a profit......"

Bruce and Kudo sweatdropped.

Kudo likes facial masks

"Are those things really essential?" Bruce deadpanned, watching her stash mask packets away.

"If I ever need a self-care day to relax for a bit," she said.

Kudo put a finger on his cheek, touching the results of the deluxe face mask he stole from her.

"Totally understandable. Shit feels great. I'm smoother than a baby's ass."

"Kudo," Bruce warned, not wanting him to swear in front of her.

"That's why I was saving it. Jerk."

"Jerk who saved your life."

"Kudo!"

Being asked out by All For One while undercover with a fake identity

Her brain stalled.

"Fumi Haruka. Be my woman."

"..... I'm sorry, but we barely know each other. So, a relationship like that is..."

Yoichi didn't want to be here. He really did not want to watch his brother do this right now.

"Brother!!"

... Oh boy.

Yoichi doesn't understand Resistance codenames

"What's your name, dear?"

"Yoichi," he mumbled.

"What would you like to be called?"

"Yoichi."

"...... Alright." She didn't falter, tone as chipper as when she first asked. Similarly, Leader and Bruce didn't even blink as she introduced herself with a codename.

Writing their own domestic fanfiction in a canon-divergent void out of boredom

"I think we should adopt," Yoichi said thoughtfully. "I'd love to give children another chance at family."

"Oh, boy, 'children' plural." She did not miss that little big fact. "What's the limit of children? I don't want more than three."

"I want six," Yoichi hummed.

"More than one," Kudo decided so firmly that he definitely already had a number in mind.

"Only one, because just one is going to drive our house crazy," Bruce remarked as the sole voice of reason. "I wouldn't mind another one when the first is old enough."

"Well, we definitely aren't in agreement."

Going through their theater kid arc while waiting for the other vestiges

"She's the most beautiful girl in the whole town. That makes her the best."

"Damn, Kudo, didn't know that was your motivation," Bruce muttered not-quietly-at-all.

Yoichi still learning his memes

"Are we all cowabunga on this?" Yoichi asked the other holders.

None answered him. Finally, Shiki sighed and spared them all the discomfort of answering. "Yeah. We're cowabunga."

"God, I hope the road works ahead," Kudo muttered under his breath.

"This is fine." Bruce held up a thumbs-up.

En crinkled his nose, keeping quiet. They were his senpais, but, They're so outdated.

The first four holders being old

"Do you think we should call them Quirks now?" Yoichi asked Shiki, turning his head. "It's been long enough. No one calls them Meta Abilities anymore."

"Eh..." She looked away, not partial to the idea.

"We should keep up with the times," Yoichi decided for them.

".. If you think we should," she relented. Yet again, she fell victim to it: no one could say no to Yoichi. "Quirks," she tried it out. "Quirks. We have Quirks."

"No offense, Shiki-tan, but it sounds weird coming from you."

"Bruce, please."

Bruce basically having aneurysms whenever his attention is brought to All Might and Midoriya's health

"I WAS RIGHT."

"Bruce-"

"FORCING HIMSELF TO DO SOMETHING HE CAN'T DO WILL JUST BREAK SOMETHING."

[*Midoriya using One For All for the first time]

[bebepac]

Six Sentence Sunday 03.26.23

Ooooh. Boy..  Here we go.  Some of you all may remember this chick.  Well she’s back messing with stuff again.  I apologize in advance for some of the snippets you’re going to see today.  

Things I’ve written lately: 

The Cordonian Arrangement: Shattered Heart

The Cordonian Arrangement: Memories of You

The Vampires Live On: Part 3

Original Post: 03/26/23 at 8:01PM EST

The Book: TRR  Chapter 8: Garden Party Photo Op Series:  The Life Of Riley: Book 2 Pairings: Liam x Riley Status: Still in the writing process.  

Special Request  fic :)   and has a companion chapter to Heroes and Villians

She smiled when she woke up yet again, amongst the soft plush covers and mattress that felt like she was sleeping on clouds.   Opening her eyes, she glanced around the ornately decorated room. Waking up there every morning  always felt like she was in a dream.  She jumped up ,from her bed running  over to the balcony, throwing open the doors, as if she expected the gardens below not to be visible.  But it was, every single morning.  She had been in Cordonia a little more than three weeks; the ending of the first week at the palace where she was participating in Prince Liam’s social season.  She was living her own Cinderella story thanks to Prince Liam Rys, who after spending the night with her in New York, asked her to come visit him in Cordonia for a week, and then asked her to stay..

She was not the only one living their own Cinderella story that had Liam to thank.  A young Nicolas Karahalios had everything he owned packed in a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and was standing at the palace gates waiting for entry.

“Full name, and state your business at the palace.”  

“Karahalios, Nicolas A. I’m training for the Kingsguard.”  

The sentry took out a clip board and scrolled through the names.  Nico sighed in relief when the guard picked up a pen and checked his name off the list.

“Right on time,  head through those double doors there to take your photo for your level two identification, and from there, you’ll go to uniforms for your cadet attire.”

“Thank you.”  

“Good luck, kid.”  The guard nodded to him, opening the gate.  

“Thank you, Sir!”  

Nico slid the strap of his bag up higher on his shoulder and stood in amazement as the palace gates opened for him. He took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Nico was officially on palace soil for the first time.  

“Come in Maxwell!”  Riley said when she heard his knock.  

Maxwell smiled as he walked through the door.

“You know, we have to stop meeting this way.”  

Maxwell laughed  but the door remained open for Bertrand to walk through.   Riley tried to hide her annoyance.

“Yes Bertrand, what did I do wrong now?”  

He looked her over.  

“Nothing that I can tell as of yet, but you did just wake up, which already means you have a late start.”  

“Still getting used to the time difference.”  

“That didn’t matter last night when you were at the dive bar drinking with Drake Walker acting like you’re still a college student.”  

“You’re acting like your brother Maxwell wasn’t there too.”

“Little Blossom! Way to throw me under the bus!”

“I feel like I’m the only one taking this whole arrangement seriously, keeping you two in check is like herding cats.”  

“Meow.”  

Maxwell chuckled.  

“Do not encourage her Maxwell.”  

The Book:  TRR Part 4: The Vampires Live On Series:  The Vampires Live On Pairings:  Liam x Riley (in this decade)  Gabriel x Alice in the past. Status: Still in the writing process.

Gabriel consoled me as I cried.  

“Are you happy we made it here?”

“Very happy. I promise these are happy tears.   I felt like I was robbed of the opportunity to give her a proper goodbye.”

Gabriel looked visibly hurt by my words. I grabbed his arm to reassure him.  

“It was not your fault, you did what you had to do to keep me safe, to keep us safe.  I understand why you did it.  Though, it still does not sway how I felt and have felt all of these years.  The world should be more evolved, and it’s not. And because it wasn’t, I couldn’t even say a proper farewell to my sister, when I really needed to do it.”  

“The world never changes. Yes, there is a lot more technology now that has made life remarkably easier, but the core of people… never change.  I have walked this earth for long enough to realize that.”

“The things you’ve seen I can’t even imagine, especially in the earlier years.”

“Yes, it was quite a different time. I must leave for a little bit, but I will return shortly, then we will go out for dinner.”  

From the time Gabriel left to the time he returned all I had thought about was Clara and the picture of the two of us.

“I have a present for you.”  

He held out a small wrapped box for me to take.  

“What is this?”  

“Something you really wanted, and deserved to have.”  

“This is so sweet.”  

When I tore open the box, inside, was the framed picture of me and Clara.

“Gabriel….”  

“You deserve more than just to see Clara in only your dreams. This picture should lie with her family and now it does,  and if you look closely, you can see Maxwell in it as well, and he’s looking at Clara, smiling.”  

“He loved her so much.”

“He did. And you can see it as clear as day here.”

The Book: TRF Part 8:  Where Do We Go From Here? The Series:  The Cordonian Arrangement Pairings  Former Riley x Nico (Riley X M!OC)  Liam x Riley? Status:  Still in the writing process.

It was barely dawn and the sun was only creeping slightly through the windows. When she moved, his embrace tightened, pulling her back close to him, leaning in, to kiss her neck. Still waking from her slumber, it felt like a typical morning  that she had lived every day when waking in his arms was commonplace. Riley moaned softly as he continued to gently nibble her neck, pressing her body into his.

“Let’s stay in bed.  Don’t go…." she mumbled in her sleep. “Stay with me.”  

“Always.”  

His voice made her immediately  leave that place of pre woke slumber to soberingly wide awake, quickly pulling away from him.

“Liam….”  

Fully awake, all the memories of the last few months, and from last night flooded back to her in a wave.

Observing the shock and almost disappointment in her eyes, shielding her bare body from him with the sheet, Liam knew.  

“That wasn’t intended for me, was it?”

She didn’t want to lie to him, and she couldn’t look him in the face either.

“No… I’m…. sorry….” She headed towards the door still draped in the sheet from the bed.

“Riley, we need to talk about this.  There’s a reason you came to me last night. It felt right for us to be together that way.”  

“For a brief second, this morning I forgot the horror that has been these last 3 months that has been my life.  Last night, I was lonely… I wanted to feel…. Connected to someone again. I didn’t  mean to give you the wrong idea.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No… I don’t regret it… but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake.  It was a mistake Liam.  We have way too much history for me to think that you would simply be okay with this.”

“We made love last night Riley.”

“We… didn’t.  It was just sex.  I’m still in love with my husband.” Glancing down at her ring on her finger that she was still wearing.

“Your husband is dead.”  

Riley gasped in shock.  Liam immediately wanted to take the words back.  

“Who are you?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like it came out Riley. Forgive me, I didn’t mean it Riley. I promise you I didn’t.”

“Get out of my house.”

“Riley…. We’re supposed to take Angelo to the zoo today.”  

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW!!!!”

[crystalsnow95z]

Tw: snz fic. Meantion of nausea but no vom!t.

I'm sorry if it's bad. I'm not editing it. It's just a raw story that was fun to write. I don't like it but i created it so it exists.

"You're going too fast Suga-hyung." J-hope motions to staff for the music to stop. "It's like this." He demonstrated the part Yoongi kept messing up.

"Aiish.. why can't I get this right?" Yoongi sighs in frustration, raking his hands through his sweaty hair. It's been a week already since they got their new choreography, and he was the only member who couldn't go through the whole choreography without making a mistake.

"You'll get it, Hyung." Jimin reassures Yoongi, rubbing his sweaty back, panting. "Hyung can..we take a..little break? I'm tired.."

"Yeah, let's take a break." J-hope agrees, looking at his exhausted members, feeling his own knees starting to give in, sitting where he stood."Maybe we should end early today.."

"Are you okay Hoba?" Jin asks, scooting over next to him.

"Yeah, I guess I overdid it. I'll be okay." J-hope smiles, leaning against the older member. "Are you?"

"I swear the choreography keeps getting harder and harder.." Jin complains. "Soon we'll be doing in sync back flips and cartwheels."

J-hope giggles. "I doubt that.."

"I hope not.. I still can't do a proper cartwheel.." Taehyung pouts, using a towel to wipe sweat from his forehead.

"You're pretty close. With a little more practice, you'll get it." Jimin smiles fondly, recalling Taehyung begging him to teach him.

"I think that'll be too dangerous.." Jungkook says eying Namjoon.

"Why are you looking at me while you say it?" Namjoon whines,making the others giggle.

"You think you could flip from a higher stage to a lower stage and then jump right into dancing?" Yoongi challenges, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't even think i could do that. That sounds terrifying. How high is it?" J-hope felt his heart racing just at the thought of the stunt.

"Not that high. Maybe a foot taller than you. You need enough time to flip." Jungkook teases.

"I'd definitely break my neck if I try that."Jin says honestly. "I can barely flip on a trampoline."

"Don't suggest such scary things." Taehyung says in a serious tone, making the others laugh. "Hey, why is that funny?"

"You're just cute, that's all." J-hope smiles. "Let's try the song again."

"Yoongi-yah..?"Jin woke up in the middle of the night, noticing that Yoongi's bed was still empty. He walked with his phone light throughout their home, but the young rapper was nowhere in sight.

Don't tell me he's still at the studio..

Jin dialed Yoongi's number. "Yoongi..pick up.." He whispers into the phone,hearing it ring until it reached his voice-mail, hanging up without leaving a message.

"Who's th-"

"Aiish!" Jin jumps when he heard Hobi's voice in the kitchen, quickly covering his mouth. "You scared me.."He whispers.

"You just scared me too.." Hobi admits, having his hand over his racing heart. "I heard footsteps pacing the house and went to see who it was.. what are you doing up?"

"I was looking for Yoongi. He wasn't in his room, and when I looked his shoes he's been wearing lately weren't with the others." Jin explains.

"Yoongi didn't come home yet? It's already almost six.." J-hope bit his bottom lip. "He didn't answer his phone?"

"No, I just tried. I'm going to go see if he's still at the studio. He said he wanted to get some extra practice in. He would've texted if he was going to go anywhere else." Jin puts on his jacket, sitting down to put on his shoes.

"Hang on I'll go with you." Hobi heads to his room.

"No, you should go back to bed. We got to get up in a few hours." Jin whispered back, but J-hope pretended not to hear.

He wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep until he knew Yoongi was safe. He tiptoes around his room, not wanting to wake up his roommate, grabbing the first long sleeved clothing he could find.

"Hobi-hyung..?" Jimin's soft whisper startles J-hope.

"Shh, go to sleep Jiminie, it's not time to get up yet." J-hope whispers back, gently pulling Jimin's blanket up to his shoulder. "I'll be back soon." He promises, relaxing when Jimin doesn’t protest.

Jin had already left, making J-hope have to run to catch up with him. "Hyung wait for me!"

"I told you to stay home Hoba." Jin scolds him.

"I'm sorry hyung, i just know I'll just be up until you come back anyway. Please let me come too?"J-hope bows, feeling guilty for disobeying the older member.

"Oh, alright, but let's hurry. It's cold out here." Jin takes Hobi's hand, pulling him through the streets silently until they reach the building.

J-hope wished he grabbed a thicker jacket, the wind going right through the zip-up hoodie he grabbed from his closet. He tried to pull his hood over his head to give him some more warmth, but the wind just knocked it right back off. "Maybe we should've taken the train.."

"We can get a taxi when we find Yoongi. I just don't have enough money on me.." Jin promises. "We're almost there."

J-hope nods, letting Jin lead the way the two boys briskly walking through the city until they finally reached their destination. "I hope he's still here."

"He is. Let's go scold him for making us go out in the cold for him." Jin says confidently, leading J-hope to the practice room they've been using, finding the deagu rapper face down on the floor. "Yoongi-yah. You can't sleep here."

Yoongi jumps at the sound of Jin's voice, wincing. His muscles were stiff and his arm fell asleep from him laying on it. "Hyung...? What are you doing here..?" Yoongi questions in a hoarse whisper, sitting up.

"I came looking for you. It's already sunrise, and you didn't even call to check in." Jin scolds him, sounding more relieved than angry at his roommate.

"What? Sh*t, I'm sorry. I must've fallen asleep.."Yoongi bows. "I didn't mean to make you worry.." He sniffles.

"I'm glad to see you're okay." J-hope wraps around Yoongi. "Aiigo Hyung, you're freezing." He rubs his hand up and down Yoongi's arms.

"I'll get you your jacket, then we'll get home." Jin gathers Yoongi's things from the corner of the room, taking off his beanie to put on Yoongi. "What am I going to do with you? You're getting as bad as the kids these days."

Yoongi apologies again, putting on his jacket. "I promise I'll call next time.."

"Yoongi-yah, it's time to start getting up. We have a meeting before practice today so we need to leave earlier." Jin calls to his roommate when he noticed he didn't wake the the alarm.

The sound of Jin calling to him just barely did the trick to wake him, sitting up groggily. "I'm up.." he mumbles.

"I'll make you some coffee." Jin gives him a sympathic smile, leaving the room. He felt the same, yawning from the night adventure he had to find his missing member.

I'm so tired.I don't even think coffee will work..

Yoongi woke up feeling terrible. He sipped the water he left by his bed, but even after his throat still felt dry, making him cough. That was nothing compared to the headache, though. The studio's heat was broken, but with how much moving he was doing, he didn't notice until he was too tired to move, sniffling on the floor.

Those same sniffles followed him home despite the fact Jin kept the room hot and the older member made him shower before returning to bed. His sinuses were swollen, making it hurt to breathe.

He was half tempted to curl back up in bed, but he knew it was his own fault he felt so awful and he had to live with the consequences. He staggered into the bathroom, his back still sore from laying on the hard floor for so long.

"You okay hyung?" Hobi asks, his voice distorted by the toothbrush in his mouth.

"Yeah, my nose is just a bit stuffed up from the practice room. I'm just gonna take some medicine before it gets worse." Yoongi sniffles, checking the medicine cabinet, finding a bottle of theraflu left over from when Taehyung was sick last week.

J-hope spits into the sink."Try to take it easy Yoongi-hyungie. No more late nights alone in the practice room okay? Next time you can ask me to stay."

"I will. It's just a stuffy nose. It's more annoying than anything. Don't worry about it." Yoongi pours the medicine in the small cup, shooting it back.

"Promise me." J-hope prompts, holding out his pinkie.

Yoongi rolls his eyes with a smile, wrapping his finger around Hobi's pinkie."I promise. Now go, I need to use the bathroom." Yoongi gently nudges him towards the door.

I don't think I could work late even if I wanted to, I'm struggling just to stay awake..

J-hope leaves, satisfied with Yoongi's promise, going to the kitchen where Jin was making breakfast. "Was Yoongi-hyung coughing at all last night?"

"Huh? No. Not that I heard. Why? Is he coughing now?" Jin asks with concern, pushing a coffee cup towards J-hope.

"No, he just sounds congested. He's taking medicine now." J-hope takes the cup gratefully,adding some ice cubes.

"I'll keep an eye on him. Are you feeling okay? You look a little pale." Jin reaches for J-hope, touching the back of his neck.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." J-hope reassures him with a smile.

"Good morning." Jimin yawns. "Hobi-hyung where did you go last night?" He asks, taking the coffee Jin offered him.

J-hope goes to answer, but Jin's side eyeing him made him quickly change his answer. "I just went for a walk. I couldn't fall back to sleep and didn't want to wake you or Taehyungie."

Yoongi enters the kitchen, laying his head on the table. "I'm so tired.."

"Here, drink some coffee." Jin passes it to Yoongi.

Everyone entered the kitchen one by one until all seven members were having a quick breakfast before going to work. Yoongi fought off the urge to sniffle, trying to discreetly wipe his nose with the side of his hand.

"How many countries do you think we'll manage within two months?" Namjoon asks, trying to prepare for their meeting.

"I think we should aim for seven. A couple shows in the States and Japan for sure. Also, at least one European country, maybe England or france?" J-hope throws out ideas.

Yoongi tried to focus on the conversation, but he was falling asleep while eating, jumping awake when he felt his head falling forward.

"Yoongi are you okay?" Jungkook asks, touching his shoulder. "You're falling asleep."

"Yeah.. yeah I'm fine." Yoongi waves him off.

"Maybe you should stay and rest." Jin suggests, looking at Namjoon for permission.

Namjoon looks at Yoongi, noticing his colorless cheeks and droopy eyes. "I don't have a problem with it. Get some rest. You can just meet up with us when you wake up. Okay?"

"I'm sorry guys.." Yoongi bows. "I'll meet up with you guys in time for practice.."

"Heh..heh'tichi!" J-hope sneezes, rubbing his nose. "Sorry.. what were you saying?"

They were almost through the meeting for their upcoming concert, but his nose kept itching. At first, he thought it was just the flowers in the room, but even after they were removed and he took some allergy pills, he still felt awful.

"Bless you, hyung. Hyungie, are you sure you're okay?" Jimin asks, worry flashing in his eyes.

"Yeah. I'm okay. I think I need to go hey some fresh air.. I'm sorry." J-hope bows, quickly leaving the room to slip into the bathroom to get some toliet paper to try to clear his nose once more.

Am I getting sick too?

He sighs, looking at his reflection. He noticed the tip of his nose was tinged pink and that his face was starting to drain, leaving his usually golden complexion washed to a sickly white.

"They need me to lead practice.." J-hope sighs, splashing water in his face. He walks outside, the brisk winter breeze hitting him hard. "Aiish, I can't believe I went outside in this last night.."

Jungkook goes looking for J-hope,running up to him. "Hyungie, the meeting is over. Are you coming to practice or do you want to go home?"

"I'll come to practice."

J-hope instantly regretted his decision to continue, his energy already depleted an hour into practice. He was moving slower compared to the other members, but none of them said a word.

"Hoba we got through it without any mistakes. Let's take a quick break." Namjoon says, texting Yoongi. J-hope does the same.

Hey Yoongi, how are you doing?

J-hope sends his message.

I feel awful.. It's hard to breathe.

Yoongi answers, almost immediately.

When J-hope sees the message, he rushes back to the others. "Joon-ah, someone needs to go home to check on Yoongi."

"What? Why?" Namjoon jumps to his feet to look at J-hope's phone. Yoongi wasn't one to complain when he felt sick. "Hoba, you go. It sounds like you're already coming down with whatever he has anyway."

"But what about practice? I'll be..heh'tichi !" J-hope tried to argue, but his body didn't agree with him.

"Don't worry. I'll handle it. You go." Namjoon pushed him towards the door.

J-hope got staff to drive him back, instantly going to the room with Yoongi. He found the older rapper buried underneath his blanket,a muffled sneeze just barely heard.

"Yoongi?" J-hope pulls the blanket back, but Yoongi recovers his eyes with the blanket. "What's wrong?"

"It's too bright..my head.." Yoongi whines softly, feeling another sneeze come. "Hehtichih!"

"I'll get you some more medicine. Hang on, Hyungie." J-hope gets up, but vertigo hits hard, making him nearly fall face first. "Fu*k.." He catches himself, landing on his hands and knees.

"Hoba?" Yoongi sits up when he hears the thud. "Hoba are you okay?"

"Yeah..yeah I got dizzy.."

Why do I feel so weak all the sudden?

J-hope shakily rises to his feet. "Stay put. I'll get it."

Yoongi felt his stomach drop to see Hobi struggling because of him, standing up. "No,I can get it myself. Don't worry. Just lay down."

"No, I can-"

"Lay down, Hoseok-ah.." Yoongi insisted, holding back a cough until he was out of hearing range. Why didn't I notice how bad Hobi was this morning? I should've asked him to stay with me..

Yoongi gets the medicine and brings it into the bedroom, ignoring his body protesting against every move, using the wall for balance.

"Heh..heh'itchi! Heh'itchu!" J-hope tried to muffle his sneezes with a pillow.

"You aren't looking well Hoba.. take this.." Yoongi shakily pours medicine into the cup, nearly spilling it. J-hope puts his hand over Yoongi's to steady them.

"You first." J-hope insists.

Yoongi didn't feel like arguing, drinking it in a quick gulp. "I'm glad I texted you.."

"I am too.. I don't think I'd make it through practice." Hobi admits,helping Yoongi pour another dosage for himself.

"Hehtxxchi!" Yoongi sneezes, nearly spilling the medicine. "Hih..heh..heh'itcugh.."

"Bless you hyung..maybe you'll learn your lesson about falling asleep at the studio during winter." J-hope teases, trying to lighten the mood.

"Maybe you'll learn not to go out in winter with a spring jacket." Yoongi sasses, but a cough takes away the bite behind it.

"I guess we're even then.." He drinks the medicine,J-hope leaning on Yoongi's shoulder,yawning. "Can I sleep with you? I don't want to move.."

"Yeah..that's fine.." Yoongi couldn't help but feel relieved not to be alone. His breath came out ragged, unable to breathe from his nose, his not breath drying his lips.

"Sleep well hyung.." J-hope says softly, not getting a reply. He peeks at Yoongi, noticing the older member was already fast asleep.

"Heh.HEHTITCGHDH!"

J-hope jumps awake when he hears Yoongi sneezing. If he didn't see Yoongi laying next to him, he would've thought it was Taehyung.

"Heh'heh..ktchitxh!" Yoongi blinks sleepily, his voice distorted by the mucus that clogged his nose, sniffling to try to sound better."Ugh..sorry Hoba. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but it's okay." J-hope stifles a sneeze. "You need to blow your nose Yoon."

"So do you.. I'll go get some tissues.." Yoongi slowly crawls out of bed, standing still for a moment, waiting for the dizziness to pass before standing.

I need to take care of Hobi..

He scolds himself, rising to his feet to go to the living room, getting the box of tissues from the table, jumping when he sees the others congregating in the living room."What are you guys doing home?"

"We ended practice a little early." Namjoon puts his arm around Yoongi. "You're shaking hyung.. let's get you to bed."

"But I still need to get some water." Yoongi argues, trying to go towards the kitchen.

"I'll get it." Taehyung offers, getting to his feet. "You go with Namjoonie-hyung."

"Tae will do it. You need to get to bed." Namjoon tells him firmly, leading him by the elbow. "You feel really warm, Yoongi. Did you take any medicine?"

"I did when Hoba came..heh..iycho!" Yoongi sneezes, sniffling.

"That was hours ago. I'll pour you some." Namjoon puts him in bed next to Hobi. "For both of you."

"Joon you're home?" Hobi says,coughing after.

"Yeah,no one could concentrate.. we were worried about you two.." Namjoon admits, pouring medicine into the small cup, offering it to Yoongi.

Yoongi swallows it, the medicine making him feel woozy when it slides down his throat. He subconsciously wraps his arm around his stomach, closing his eyes.

"What's wrong hyung? Are you going to be sick?" Taehyung rushes in, placing the water bottles on the bed, quickly looking around for a waste bin.

"No..no I'm okay.. I think I just need to eat something.." Yoongi picks up the water, sipping on it. I've only had a bit of rice this morning.. That must be it..

"Seokjinnie-hyung is cooking. It'll be done soon.." Taehyung rubs his hand across Yoongi's belly while Namjoon gets a dosage out for J-hope. "Do you want some chips to eat while we wait? I have some in my room."

Yoongi goes to speak, but another sneeze comes instead. "Heh..Heh'tichi! Heit..chi!" He sniffles, but it was already all over his face.

"Bless you.." Taehyung takes a tissue out of the box, wiping his face.

Yoongi shakes his head, blushing "Taehyung-ah, stop it, I can do it myself.." he tries to scold him, but his voice cracks into a cough, taking away the authority behind his words.

"I know, i just wanted to help." Taehyung gives him the tissue, letting Yoongi blow his nose on his own.

Yoongi felt frustrated when only one side of his nose cleared, his nose letting out a whistle when he breathed in. "I just wanted to learn the routine.." he sighed.

"I know, try to rest for now.. Taehyungie you got to wash your hands now. Let's go." Namjoon takes the young vocalist by the arm leading him out of the room.

Yoongi silently, thanks Namjoon for taking Taehyung out of the room. He'd feel awful if he got another member sick because of him. Especially since he felt guilty about J-hope being sick,feeling partly to blame. "Hoba you got quiet.. are you okay?" Yoongi asks between coughs, noticing that usually cheerful rapper looking off in the distance.

"Huh? Yeah..yeah..I'm okay..I kept feeling like I had to sneeze.. but I didn't sneeze." Hobi rubs his nose, trying to force it out with no success. "It just hurts.."

"I'm sorry Hoba. Let me help." Yoongi takes the string of his jacket, using it to tickle Hobi's nostrils.

"Ah..ah...achitc!" J-hope sneezes, spraying onto Yoongi's hand, covering his face when the second sneeze comes."Heh'itchii..Hah..hei' itxchu!"

Yoongi grabs a tissue cleaning off his hands, then offering another to J-hope.

"Sorry hyung.." J-hope takes it,cleaning the snot that dripped from his nose.

"Why are sorry? I'm the one who..ah..jeychi" Yoongi covered his face, sneezing into the tissue. "Heh'heh..ktchitxh! Ugh.. I didn't want your sneezes. Take them back.."

J-hope smiles. "We can share them together."

[assorted-fics]

Fics of the Week

Avatar: The Last Airbender

a nation, held by snowdarkred

It doesn’t take long for the rumors to start.

The Fire Nation prides itself on its civilization. It isn’t like the other, lesser, nations who throw their children away by sending them into war. Those uncultured and unfeeling savages who are destroying their own future faster than the Fire Nation can save them from themselves.

Every Fire Nation child goes to school. They learn reading and writing, the illustrious history of their country, and what will be expected of them as proper, upstanding Fire Nation citizens. They are to be protected, because children are the future glory of the nation.

The crown prince is thirteen when his father burns his face in front of an audience of hundreds.

All The Gentle Creatures by Haicrescendo

It’s said that you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals. Zuko may be loud and stubborn and sharp but all the woodland creatures love him.

The Good Vanilla by Haicrescendo

Sokka’s beautiful friendship with Zuko doesn’t start with breaking Dad out of jail. That’s just what he tells people.

Sokka’s beautiful friendship with Zuko started the day he realizes that he knows how to cook.

Feat. breakup cake, an attempted assassination, and eating out of the pan like dirty heathens.

Merlin

From the Start by CrzyFun

"You... assisted me in my fight against the bandits. For that, you have my thanks. I'm an honorable man and I repay my debts. Leave now and I will not hunt you."

"Assisted? I'm pretty sure I saved your life."

"I had the situation perfec- Are you trying to make me reconsider letting you go?"

It was supposed to be a one time thing. Arthur let the sorcerer run off with his life in return for him saving Arthur's. He had never expected to see the boy again, especially not only two days later in Gaius's chambers.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

non native ceramics by silentwalrus

Ed opens up the catacombs on the first of September, clapping his hands and then watching the stones part like the swish of a theater curtain, pouring over each other to reveal the dark, blocky tunnels beneath.

An Interesting Trip by ShanaStoryteller

Everyone's born with their soulmate's first words to them written on their skin, and that should make things easy, but it really doesn't.

"Roy has alternatively despised his mark and clung to it like a lifeline. Colonel. Just one word, right at the back of his foot. His literal Achilles’ heel."

Spider-Man

of things unknown (but still longed for) by aloneintherain

Peter Parker can’t walk around with the same daemon as Spider-Man. But she’s going to settle one day, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Silence is Golden by GloriousBlackout

Peter doesn't say a word during his first six months with the Ravagers. Yondu learns to adapt to having a silent shadow following him around.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by BeanieBaby

I kept him ‘cause he’s small and fits into spaces others can’t. Good for thievin'.

Harry Potter

Spider in the Roses by HauntingOpal

When Pansy Parkinson, Tracey Davis, and Daphne Greengrass start 4th year, they expect a silly tournament and more study time. Instead they get an abused Harry Potter who isn't a Potter at all, a mother who wants her son back, and a Slytherin Triwizard competitor who owes a debt to Harry Potter. Not to mention a twinkly eyed headmaster whose careful plans are being torn to shreds by very protective Slytherins.

House Proud by atolat

His house liked Draco Malfoy more than him.

All the Little Things by MyWhiteKnight

Oliver just wanted to beat the Slytherin in the House Cup this year, and find a good seeker to replace his friend and mentor, Charlie Weasley. Instead, he found the beginnings of an unbreakable bond between himself and one curly-haired witch.

What started as helping a lonely first year gain her bearings in a new world evolved into having their own analyst for Gryffindor. As time goes on, life develops in a way he never saw coming.

Series: we must unite inside her walls or we'll crumble from within by dirgewithoutmusic

stories for the ladies of hogwarts, who cry, waver, giggle, trespass, and who deserve our respect all the same

First Fic: overemotional: in defence of cho chang

Cho cried and she survived Pansy Parkinson's cruel jabs about a dead boy. She wept and she passed all her classes, kept up with Quidditch, watched fairweather friends scatter in the cold wind. She got very good at wordlessly summoning tissues and she joined the DA against her parents' wishes.

They had told her to behave, begged her, ordered her, as the threatening darknesses of the world clung close even inside Hogwarts, and Cho walked out to the little pub in Hogsmeade and wrote her name down on Hermione's list.

I hope someone in the DA told Cho that she ought to have been in Gryffindor.

I hope she laughed at them, hard.

Integrity. Truth. Honor. Dedication. These were the tenets of her House, of the blue and the bronze, the eagle called raven (called nerd, called stuck-up, called so many things that were not their names). Bravery was only one way to be a hero.

[fezwearingjellybananas]

Talk Shop Tuesday: If you could immediately pluck one story/concept/idea from your brain and have it fully formed in front of you, exactly as you would want, what would that idea be? Can you describe it to us, along with any potential factors that are slowing you down/blocking you from creating it in the first place? Thanks! <3 -@fieldsofview

Definitely the Wally Fic.

The backstory of the Wally Fic is when I was writing the Milk and Sugar 'verse there's a little part in Paper Cups where Cisco's showing Iris different timelines including this one:

Cisco focused again, and now they were standing at the top of a hill overlooking Central at the feet of a bronze statue of the Flash. Wally was looking up into Barry's eyes, with one vibrating hands.

Iris reached out for him.

"You can't touch him," Cisco said. "We're not really here. This is the timeline where I wasn't close enough to the speed dampener, and Zoloman killed Barry."

And I thought "hey, I could write that".

Paper Cups was published in 2019. I do try and only have one big multichapter WIP at once to avoid overwhelming myself so from the start I said I wouldn't start writing until the Milk and Sugar 'verse was done, and that I completed the very end of 2020. The document for the Wally Fic was created in 2021, with a few existing notes, and I wrote 5 pages and it kind of stalled. So The Questing Flower was the main WIP I started on, then Gone in a Flash, and the Wally Fic has just been sitting their stewing for years as a fic I really want to write, but I think the thing blocking it might be a perfectionist issue maybe?

It's divergent from canon s2 rather than the Milk and Sugar 'verse version of s2, and then plotting it out I've also made an alternative s1 to stretch out the time Barry is the Flash before his very public murder and the story begins proper six months later, where Wally West gains some superpowers.

The plan in my head was always two chapters- one covering Wally gaining powers, flashbacks to him meeting Iris post her fiancé's body getting dumped outside her work and other important events, becoming Kid Flash, facing Zoom, all culminating in him ending up in the Speed Force like Barry did post Zoom stealing his powers and trying to get them back. And the chapter 2 will be in that scene with the Speed Force, getting out, defeating Zoom as the Flash (and the Tornado Twins showing up). But I think to actually write it I'm going to have to have a few more, otherwise chapter one is covering a huge amount of time and chapter two is like three days. There's also going to be so much going between things, whereas if I split it more I can have some chapter time jumps where Wally has been Kid Flash for a few weeks or something.

I think the other block has always been this is going to be a very angst filled fic because the whole concept is what if Zoom killed Barry instead of breaking his back, and heavy angst is not really a thing I write often? And the concept just does not lend itself to breaking it up with jokes and light-hearted moments, so I think I've been putting it off for that too, I need more jokes. Somehow. If I make some of the flashbacks happier that might help?

And I think I have built up this idealised version in my head and I know when I sit down to write it's not going to as good as that version. Which is a thing I know the only way to solve is to sit and write regardless, and I have started very slowly moving it along again, it's just getting past that block.

Hartley's got a bigger part now. And I have an idea for Kara to get a bigger part, she'll make things a little brighter, that should help.

One day I hope I'll manage to finish this, but it would be easier if it would just write itself.

Thank you!

[Talk Shop Tuesday]