#no one look at me and my favourite characters I’m having a projection moment

[solargeist]

y’know i didn’t figure out what Stimming was until I was like, 19 years old 😭? Anytime I had the urge I’d always suppress it and i think that’s why i was so crazy as a teenager

[cybernaght]

The fandom echo chamber: fanon, microanalysis and conspiracy brain 

As someone who has been in fandom spaces, on and off, for 20 years, I find some fascinating trends popping up in the last decade that I thought to be fandom-specific but clearly aren’t. So, I would like to do a little examination of where those things come from, how they are engaged with, and what it says about the way we consume media. This is a think piece, of sorts, with my brain being the main source. As such, we will spend some time down the memory lane of a fandom-focused millennial.

This is largely brought about by Good Omens. But it’s also not really about Good Omens at all.

Part one. Fanon.

The way we see characters in any story is always skewed by our very selves. This is a neutral statement, and it does not have a value judgement. It’s simply unavoidable. We recognise aspects of them, love aspects of them, and choose aspects of them to highlight based entirely on our own vision of the universe. 

Recognition comes into this. There is a reason so many protagonists of romance novels have a “blank slate” problem. Even when they do not, we love characters who are like us or versions of us that we would like to be. And when we say “we”, I also mean, “me”. 

(I remember very clearly this realisation hit me after a whole season of Doctor Who with writing which I hated utterly when I questioned why I still clung so incredibly hard to Clara Oswald as my favourite companion. Then I looked at myself in the mirror. Oh. Well. That would do it, wouldn’t it?)

Then, there is projection, and, again, this is a neutral statement. Projection exists, and it is completely normal and, dare I say it, valid way of engaging with — well, anything. Is the character queer? Trans? Neurodivergent? Are they in love? Do they like chocolate? Are they a cat person? Well, yes, if this is what the text says, but if the text does not say anything… You tell me. Please, do tell me. Because, in that moment of projection, they are yours. 

And then, there is fandom osmosis, and that is the most fascinating one of them all, the one that is not very easy to note while you are inside the echo chamber. It’s the way we collectively, consciously or not, make decisions on who or what the characters are, what their relationships are, and what happens to them.  

(Back when I was writing egregiously long Guardian recaps on this blog I actually asked if Shen Wei’s power being learning actually was stated anywhere in the canon of the show. Because I had no idea. I have read and reread dozen of fanfics where that is the case, and at some point through enough repetition, it became reality.)

We are all kind of making our own reality here, aren’t we? 

Back when things were happening in a much less centralised manner - in closed livejournal groups, and forums of all shapes and sizes - I don’t remember there being quite as much universally agreed upon fanon. Frankly, I don’t remember much of universally agreed upon anything. But now, everything is in one place: we have this, and we have AO3, and it’s wonderful, it really is so much easier to navigate, but it’s also one gigantic reality-shifting echo chamber, with blogs, reblogs, trends, and rituals. 

Accessibility plays its part, too. If you were, say, in Life on Mars (UK) fandom between seasons, and you wanted to post your speculation fic, you had to have had an account, and then find and gain access to one of the bigger groups (lifein1973 was my poison, but ymmv), and then, if you feel brave you may post it, but also, you may want to do so from your alt account if you wanted to keep yours separate, and then you would have to go through the whole process again. And I’m not saying that fan creations then were somehow inherently better for it than fan creations now (although Life on Mars Hiatus Era is perhaps a bad example - because some of the Speculation Fic there was breathtaking), but there is something to say about the ease of access that made the fandoms go through a big bang of sorts.

(I mean, come on, I can just come here and post this - and I am certain people will read it, and this blog is a pandemic cope baby about Chinese television for goodness sake.)

The canon transformations that happen in the fandom echo chamber truly are fascinating to witness as someone who is more or less a fandom butterfly. I get into something, float around for a bit, then get into something else and move on. I might come back eventually when the need arises, but I don’t sustain a hiatus mind-state. This means that when I float away and return, I find some very intriguing stuff.

Let’s actually look at Good Omens here. Season two aired, and I found it spectacular in its cosy and anguished way; deliberately and intelligently fanfic-y in its plot building; simple but subversive, and so very tender. (I will have to circle back to this eventually, because, truly, I love how deliberately it takes the tropes and shatters them - it’s glorious). And, to me - a person who read the book, watched the first season, hung around AO3 for a few weeks and moved on - absolutely on-point in terms of characterisation. 

So imagine my surprise when the fandom disagreed so vehemently that there are actual multi-tiered theories on how characters were not in possession of their senses. Nothing there, in my mind, ever contradicted any of the stated text, as it stood. This remained a strange little mystery until I did what I always do when I flutter close to an ongoing fandom.

I loaded AO3 and sorted the existing fic by popularity. And there it was, all there: the actual earth-shattering mutual devotion of the angel and the demon; willingness to Fall; openness and long heart-aching confession speeches. There was all of the fanon surrounding Aziraphale and Crowley, which, to me, read as out of character, and to one for whom they became the reality over the last four years, read as truth. 

Again, only neutral statements here. This is not a bad thing, and neither this is a good thing, this is just something that happens, after a while, especially when there are years for the fandom-born ideas to bounce around and stew. I can’t help but think that so much of what we see as real in spaces such as this one is a chimaera of the actual source and all the collective fan additions which had time and space to grow, change, develop, and inspire, reverberating over and over again, until the echoes fill the entirety of the space. 

Eventually, this chimaera becomes a reality. 

Part two. Microanalysis 

Here are my two suppositions on the matter:

1. Some writers really love breadcrumb storytelling. 

Russel T Davies, for instance, on his run of Doctor Who (and, if you are reading it much later - I do mean the original one), loved that technique for his seasonal arcs. What is a Bad Wolf? Who is Harold Saxon? Well, you can watch very very carefully, make a theory, and see it proven right or wrong by the end of the season. 

Naturally, mystery box writers are all about breadcrumb storytelling: your Losts and your Westworlds are all about giving you snippets to get your brain firing, almost challenging you to figure things out just ahead of the reveal. 

2. We, as humans, love breadcrumbs.

And why wouldn’t we? Breadcrumbs are delicious. They are, however, a seasoning, or a coating. They are not the meal. 

Too much metaphor?

Let’s unpack it and start from the beginning.

Pattern recognition colours every aspect of our lives, and it colours the way we view art to a great extent. I think we truly underestimate how much it’s influenced by our lived experiences.

If you are, broadly speaking, living somewhere in Western/North-Western Europe in the 14th century, and you see a painting in which there is a very very large figure surrounded by some smaller figures and holding really tiny figures, you may know absolutely nothing about who those figures are, but you know that the big figure is the Important One, and the small ones are Less Important Ones, and the tiny ones are In Their Care. You know where your reverence would lie, looking at this picture. And, I imagine, as someone living in the 14th century, you may be inspired to a sense of awe looking at this composition, because in the world you live in, this is how art works. 

If you, on the other hand, watch a piece of recorded media and see the eyes of two characters meet as the violins swell, you know what you are being told at that moment. You don’t have to have a film degree to feel a sort of way when you see a green-tinged pallet used, when cross-cuts use juxtaposing images, or notice where your focus is pulled in any given shot. This stuff - this recognition of patterns - has been trained into us by the simple fact that we live in this time, on this planet, and we have been doing so long enough to have engaged recorded media for a period of time. 

As humans, we notice things. Our brains flare up when they see something they recognise, and then we seek to find other similar details and form a bigger picture. This often happens unconsciously, but sometimes it does not. Sometimes we do it on purpose: finding breadcrumbs in stories is a little bit like solving a mystery. It allows us to stretch that brain muscle that puts two and two together. It makes us feel clever. 

So yes, we love breadcrumbs, and, frankly, quite a lot of storytelling takes advantage of this. It’s very useful for foreshadowing, creating thematic coherence, or introducing narrative parallels and complexity. It’s useful for nudging the viewer into one or the other emotional direction, or to cue them into what will happen in the next moment, or what exactly is the one important detail they should pay attention to.

Because this is something media does intentionally, and something we pick up both consciously and not, it is very hard to know when to stop. We don't really ever know when all of the breadcrumbs have been collected. It becomes very easy to get carried away. There is a very specific kind of pleasure in digging into content frame by frame, soundbite by soundbite, chasing that pleasure of finding. 

But it is almost never breadcrumbs all the way down. They are techniques to help us focus on the main event: the story. I truly believe those who make media want it to reach the widest possible audience, and that includes all of us who like to watch every single thing ever created with our Media Analysis Goggles on and those who are just here to enjoy the twists and turns of the story at the pace offered to them. And I think, sometimes in our chase to collect and understand every little clue we forget that media is not made to just cater for us.

One can call it missing a forest for the trees. But I would hate to mix my metaphors, so let’s call it missing a schnitzel for the breadcrumbs. 

Part three. The Conspiracy Brain. 

If you are there with me, in the midst of the excited frenzy, chasing after all those delicious breadcrumbs, then patterns can grow, merge together, and become all-encompassing theories. Let’s call them conspiracy theories, even though this is not what they truly are.

So, why do we believe in conspiracy theories?

One, Because We Have Been Lied To. 

All conspiracies start with distrust.

If you are in fandom spaces - especially if you are in fandom spaces which revolve around a queer fictional couple - especially-especially if you have been in such spaces for a period of time, you have most certainly been lied to at one point or another. 

We don’t even have to talk about Sherlock - and let’s not do that - but do you remember Merlin? Because I remember Merlin. Specifically, I remember the publicity surrounding the first season, with its weaponised usage of “bromance” and assertions that this whole thing is a love story of sorts, and then the daunting realisation that this was all a stunt, deliberately orchestrated to gather viewership. 

And, because we were lied to in such a deliberate manner for such an extensive period of time, I genuinely believe that it forever altered our pattern recognition habits, because what was this if not encouragement to read into things? Now we are trained to read between the lines or see little cries for help where they might not be. Because we were told, over and over again, that we should.

(Yes, I think we are all existing in these spaces coloured by the trauma of queer-bating. I am, however, looking forward to a world where I can unlearn all of that.)

Two, Cognitive Dissonance.

The chain reaction works a bit like this: the world is wrong - it can’t possibly be wrong by coincidence - this must be on purpose - someone is responsible for it.

Being Lied To is a preamble, but cognitive dissonance is where it all originates. In so many cross-fandom theories I have noticed a four-step process:

A) this is not good

B) this author could not have made a mistake 

C) this must be done on purpose

D) here is why 

(Funny thing is, I have been on the receiving end of the small conspiracy spiral, and it is a very interesting experience. Not relevant to this conversation is the fact that a lot of my job revolves around storytelling. What is relevant is that my hobbies also revolve around storytelling. And one of them is DnD. Now, imagine my genuine shock when one of the players I am currently writing a campaign for noticed a small detail that did not make a logical sense within the complexity of the world, and latched on to it as something clearly indicating some kind of a secret subplot. Their thinking process also went a bit like this: this detail is not a good piece of writing — this DM knows how to tell stories well — this is obviously there on purpose. It was not there on purpose. I created a clumsy shorthand. I erred, in that pesky manner humans tend to. And, seeing this entire thought process recited to me directly in the moment, I felt somewhere between flattered and mortified.)

This whole line of thinking, I think, exists on a knife’s edge between veneration and brutal criticism, relentlessly dissecting everything “wrong”, with a reverent “but this is deliberate” attached to it like a vice, because it is preferable to a simple conclusion that the author let you down, in one way or another. 

Three, Intentionality 

I believe that there is no right or wrong way of engaging with stories, regardless of their medium, and assuming no one gets hurt in the process. While in a strictly academic way, there is a “correct” way of reading (and reading into) media, we here are largely not academics but consumers; consumption is subjective.

However, this all changes when intentionality is ascribed. 

The one I find particularly fascinating is the intentionality of “making it bad on purpose” because, as open-minded as I intend to always be, this just does not happen.

It certainly does not happen in long-form media. Even in the bread-crumb mystery box-type long-form media. 

When television programs underdeliver, they also underperform, and then they get cancelled.

If all the elements of Westworld Season 4 that did not sit together in a completely satisfactory way were written deliberately as some sort of deconstruction for the final season to explore, then it failed because that final season will now never come.

(There will likely never be a Secret Fourth Episode.)

And look, I am not here to refute your theories. Creativity is fun, and theorising is fantastic. 

But, perhaps, when the line of thought ventures into the “bad on purpose” territory, it could be recognised for what it is: disappointment and optimism, attempting to coexist in a single space. And I relate to that, I do, and I am sorry that there is even a need for this line of thinking. It’s always so incredibly disappointing that a creator you believed to be devoid of flaws makes something that does not hit in the way you hoped it would. It’s pretty heartbreaking. 

Unfortunately, people make mistakes. We are all fallible that way. 

Four, Wildfire.

Then, when the crumbs are found, a theory is crafted, and intentionality is ascribed, all that needs to happen is for it to catch on. And hey, what better place for it than this massive hollow funnel that we exist in, where thoughts, ideas and interpretations reverberate so much they become inextricable from the source material in collective consciousness. 

Conspiracy theories create alternate realities, very much like we all do here. 

So where are we now?

I am not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong; what is true, and what is not. We are all entitled to engage with anything we wish, in whichever way we wish to do it. This is not it, at all. 

All I am saying is… listen.

Do you hear that echo? 

I do. 

[randomyuu]

so hold my hand (consign me not to darkness) [1/4]

Ah, yes. The fic that made me realise I’m in desperate need of Cursed Spirit Gojou in my ever-growing favourite GoYuu tropes.

Content Warning!

Major Character Death. Other characters are disrespectful to the corpse.

I highly suggest you read the fic first, or just the fic, since I don’t think I was properly able to adapt it into drawings. While I managed to use roughly two weeks of on-and-off planning, researching, and storyboarding, I only had a full week to finish it. You can read more of my thoughts below the comic if you’re curious.

Title: so hold my hand (consign me not to darkness)

Author: qalb_al_louz

It’s ongoing, and as of this drawing, the fic is in its third chapter. While this is (sexually) SFW, always be mindful of the tags! Please keep yourself safe and sound.

Please read from right to left, and enjoy!

You can only upload 30 images in one post, huh Damn, I gotta divide it into parts

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Alrighty, I'll put my watered down unhinged thoughts below. No extra drawings down there if you're curious haha (unless you want to see the storyboard and the characters' full body character sheet, lemme know). You can skip the stuff underneath the Keep Reading for all parts.

This fic had me grinning from ear to ear every time I read this. The atmosphere, how it goes from POV to POV—of pure fear and panic—and the peak excitement I got when Yuuji properly meets Gojou, like brooooo 😭

Gosh I cannot emphasise how much I love this fic. I’ve always been wanting to make a whole comic out of it, especially since it was 2 chapters and it doesn’t look like the author will update it, but it just… kind of forgotten ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

But then the author posted a new chapter and I told myself this is a sign I should really start.

also goddamn I was so naive to think I can tackle 2 chapters as comic—no I was in fact cannot

The moment I laid my eyes on the first paragraph, things were portrayed very vividly in my mind. The panel, the angle, Gojou's head rolling down... I was like, hell yeah. Then I continued reading and I finally succumbed to my desire to draw this out.

At first I want to adapt this into a vertical format like those manhwas. However the longer I try to learn and storyboard it... I am simply not yet comfortable with it, especially for such a big project. Even the 1st storyboard starts vaguely vertical before the panels quickly crammed into that B4-B5 format lol. The first sketch estimated 69 (heh) pages for 90% of chapter 1. I said "no" for my own sanity and fully focused on the usual manga format and it was narrowed down to 60. Still a lot though, quantity and time-wise. So with a heavy heart, I can only do the majority of chapter 1 :”) I really really want to draw Sukuna talks back to Gojou—do you have any idea how good that scene was??? Gojou tried so hard to restrain himself, he’s so other I love him 😭

Due to the sheer length of this comic (I'm still in disbelief), I have limit lots of things, and that includes the drawing. If you've seen my other JJK fanarts, they are more rendered than this one. Well, this one is purely sketched with the help of the eraser to tidy up some lines. This is also the first fanart that I did purely on Photoshop, so I can control the typesets and drawings in one place. Usually, I use Photoshop for panels and typesetting and Krita for drawing.

I don't really like Photoshop's brush, but it did really well in curbing my perfectionist tendencies, so that's good.

It's also been quite a while since I draw in general (sobs) so... yeah, you might find differences, or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

I know setting is important, but maaan I genuinely won't miss rereading chapter 83-93 with a heavy focus on background and character locations. I just want to read the action and dialogue😭 However continuity is really important. But my spatial intelligence is almost non-existent even GPS sometimes can't help me. All I'm saying is that if you find some silly drawing mistakes, do forgive me ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿I only drew all this in a week because otherwise I won't have another chance to complete this.

Well, lots of things I won't miss from this project, but haha let's talk about the characters instead because holy shit what was I thinking, starting this year drawing this many characters in the same project??? I have never drawn anyone here except for Yuuji, Gojou, Nanami and Megumi. I don't think I've ever drawn older Getou before. I already forgot how to draw my boy Yuuji and I gotta draw all these people???

This is what you call making a bad decision, kids. Don't do your "drawing warmup" after months of not drawing and tackling a project of a scale way bigger than you've ever tackled before.

Thank you for reading this far! I hope you find my complaint entertaining! But make no mistake, I genuinely still love the fic. Drawing this, even with all the headaches it gave me, only makes me adore this fic even more.

Thank you very much to each one of you who follows and leaves comments and tags on my silly art—it never failed to make my day :D And I sincerely wish this one also made your day or even made your minute! I'll see you in the next part!

[galacticseonghwa]

Nothing Matters in Paris - Liu Yang Yang (chapter one)

INCLUDES: fem!reader x "teacher"!yang yang, swearing, age gap, yang yang is like 10 years older than he actually is, fluff, smut, angst(?), somnophilia, fingering, katoptronophilia, degrading, name-calling, cockwarming, idk if i go everything so just lmk what i've forgotten. wc: 2k a/n: please DNI if you're not comfortable with the "teacher" x student dynamic, the dynamic was explained better in the profiles post. however, as the story goes on you will understand how and why yang yang is classified as a teacher. ALL CHARACTERS ARE OVER THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE!

“good morning class, this will be my last class teaching you for the year.” our music teacher says, a smile on her face. a loud chorus of shock erupted in the class at the news.

“ten dollars she says she’s pregnant” shotaro whispers from the right of me. i nod my head agreeing. “she’s started glowing recently, i wouldn't be surprised if she is.” i say.

“i’m going to be on maternal leave from tomorrow until a few months after my little one is born,” the teacher pauses with a smile. “i have mr. qian coming in to teach you all until the stand-in teacher comes in next week.” just as she finishes her sentence mr. qian walks into the classroom.

“hi guys.” he says happily, his black hair slicked back in his usual fashion while wearing what looks like bike gear. as if he could sense my gaze, mr. qian turns his head towards me while taking off his motorbike jacket, a smile placed on his face as he reveals the tight black shirt he was wearing.

“i’m just here to sit in and see where you guys are up to.” mr. qian turns away from me as he speaks to the class. “also i would prefer if you guys called me kun. mr. qian is my father.” kun’s smile doesn’t leave his face.

before long, mrs. rivas starts the class. “we’ll be doing our group projects now, just so kun has a fair idea of what our class is about.” mrs. rivas looks through the paper on her desk quickly. “shotaro and y/n you two are up first.” her voice is soft as she looks at shotaro and i with a smile on her face.

taro and i make our way up to the front of the class and look at each other, anxiety in both of our eyes. “uh, hello.” shotaro begins awkwardly earning giggles from a few of the girls in the class. i look at taro and nod my head in reassurance. “we got this.” i whisper to him, he nods his head and takes a deep breath.

“y/n and i will be performing our favourite song, Love Wins All by IU. we hope you like it” shotaro steps back and clicks play on the backing track we had both spent time on making together. taro starts off the song, turning to me as he starts singing. i nod with a smile and give him a thumbs up.

as the pre-chorus starts coming up, i start hearing the loud beating of my heart in my ears. i’m sure shotaro senses my fear as he steps closer towards me and grips my hand in his. “you’ve got this.” taro whispers into my ear.

the next moment i open my eyes, everyone is smiling and clapping. taro throws his arm over my shoulders as he smiles widely down at me. “you did it! i’m proud of you!” he says and brings me in for a hug.

i pull away from shotaro with a shy smile and bow. “thank you.” i squeak. mrs. rivas stands up and claps with a wide smile. “you two did amazing. what are your thoughts mr. qian?” her voice is quiet as she watches kun cross his arms over his chest, a frown on his face as he studies shotaro and i.

“you two have a real talent,” he pauses as he nods. “although it would be nice to see you more confident in yourself y/n, you have the talent a lot of people would die for.” kun uncrosses his arms and claps. “good job, truly.” he smiles softly.

shotaro and i look at each other baffled. kun was never one to give out praises to students unless they were truly talented, he had a knick for picking out the next big name. shotaro bows instantaneously as we begin walking towards our seats.

kun was quick to wave us off with a smile and a small shake of his head. “did kun just complement us, specifically you though?” shotaro stares at me wide-eyed, the laugh that escaped my lips was quiet as i coo and squish his cheeks.

“you’re so cute, i just want to eat you.” i giggle, shotaro frown with a scoff and swats my hands away from his face.

“i’m anything but cute!” he defends himself. i nod tauntingly and watch as shotaro scoffs again and sits back in his chair while crossing his arms across his chest. “i’m not talking to you for the rest of the day.” shotaro states and turns his back towards me.

i laugh wholeheartedly at his outburst and poke his side, he jolts and almost falls off his chair. “don’t do that, i’m mad at you” he whispers harshly. “uh-huh.” i drawl out and watch as he side eyes me before turning back around in his chair.

“how old are you again, taro?”

shotaro says nothing but gives me his middle finger. “you know damn well, we’re the oldest people in this class other than the teachers.” shotaro says.

“it’s not our fault our gap year turned into a four-year-long gap year.” i shrug with a laugh. shotaro and i vowed to have a gap year after graduating high school and then going straight to uni, but then somehow one year turned into four before we decided to put our plan into effect.

feeling a very demanding gaze on me, i look towards the front and see kun staring at me. kun does nothing but raise his eyebrows as i look at him, there was something in his gaze that made me believe he knew something that i didn’t.

“why’s he staring at you like that?” shotaro whispers to me as he brings his chair as close to me as he can. seeing this, kun coughs awkwardly and looks away from me. i turn to shotaro and frown at him. “i don’t know, but it looks like he knows something i don’t” i mumble.

“well no shit, he’s a teacher. he’s bound to know something you don’t.” shotaro rolls his eyes dramatically. i smack his arm, earning an ‘ow’ mumbled from him. “you know that’s not what i meant.” 

“i mean, he knows something about me or something that’s about to happen to me that i don’t” shotaro looks at me, i can see the gears turn in his head while he tries to think of something. “i could be wrong but maybe you’ve caught the eye of a friend of his.” he shrugs, my mouth hangs open before the loudest laugh escapes my mouth.

“want to share with the class what you find so funny, y/n?” kun asks, a frown on his face as he steps behind the teacher's desk and leans forward to place both his hands on the edge closest to him.

i try my hardest to stifle my laugh, but fail miserably as i look at kun. “no, i’m sorry.” i cough to stop myself from laughing anymore. kun raises his eyebrows and clears his throat. “very well then, pay attention.” he points towards mrs. rivas.

the rest of the class drones on as group after group performs their projects for mrs. rivas and kun. the bell for lunch finally rings, shotaro and i look at each other and nod. shotaro bolts out of his chair and all but sprints out of the classroom.

i giggle to myself as i watch. taking my time collecting my own and shotaro’s stuff, i notice i was one of the last students to exit the classroom. “y/n” kun calls for me as i pick up shotaro’s laptop and place it into my arms.

i turn to kun and wait for him as he walks up the class steps towards me. “yes?” 

kun stops in front of me and looks me over with something hidden behind his eyes. “have you ever thought about getting a vocal coach?” his voice was low as he crossed his arms and leans his hip onto the desk next to us.

my mouth drops open before his eyes widen. “wait i didn’t mean it like that!” he raises his hands in defence. “i meant it as in for your performance anxiety, you seem to really struggle with it.” he says quietly.

“oh, uh. i’ve thought about it before, but never thought it would be a good idea.” my face turns hot as i turn away from kun’s intense gaze.

“why do you think it wouldn’t be a good idea?” he asks, sounding genuinely curious. “i don’t know, i guess the shame i’d feel explaining to someone that i struggle to sing in front of people who isn’t shotaro.” i say with a shrug.

kun nods, a hum leaves his throat. “well i happen to know someone who could help you if you would like that is,” he pauses and uncrosses his arms. “just let me know by the end of class on friday, then i can give you his details.” kun finishes.

“thank you kun, i’ll let you know.” i smile, kun nods with a soft smile as i walk away to go find shotaro. 

i find shotaro sitting at our usual spot in the library, typing away on his phone angrily. “why’re you grumpy?” i ask and sit down next to him. shotaro lifts his head with a deep frown before it disappears when he sees me.

shotaro quickly pulls his bag from my hands and opens it to throw out all sorts of snacks, including sandwiches. “some loser is trying to doxx me on discord.” he says with a roll of his eyes.

shotaro places chocolate milk in front of me as well as one of those cream and strawberry sandwiches that his mum makes and that i am in love with. “i could kiss you on the lips right now.” i say and dig straight into the sandwich in front of me.

“do it then, you’re all bark no bite.” shotaro rolls his eyes comically and shakes his head. i squint my eyes at him as i contemplate on whether i should or not.

deciding there’s nothing to lose, i grip shotaro’s face in my hands and place a soft kiss on his lips. when i pull away, shotaro’s staring at me with the widest eyes i have ever seen on anyone. his eyes narrow before he slides his own cream and strawberry sandwich towards me.

i laugh at this and watch as shotaro puckers his lips and moves towards me. i push his face away from me and giggle as he huffs dramatically. “fine” he says and pouts at me. 

“kun asked me if i wanted a vocal coach.” i say to shotaro as i take a bite of the cream and strawberry sandwich. shotaro stops mid-bite then his eyes dart towards me. “he said it could help me with my performance anxiety. i’m thinking of saying yes.”

“well if it could benefit you, i don’t see why you don’t say yes.” he nods at me.

“that’s what i’ve been thinking, he says it’ll be someone he knows.” shotaro chokes on his drink, he laughs wildly at this.

“i told you! i bet you that the friend he’s referring to is the one you caught the eye of!” shotaro laughs harder. i roll my eyes. “him and his friends would all be out of my age range.” it was shotaro’s turn to roll his eyes.

“it’s probably a younger friend, and that age range of yours doesn't stop you from drooling over hyde, which need i remind you is my uncle.” shotaro points a finger at me.

“okay but that’s different!” i say defensively. “he’s a celebrity!”.

shotaro looks at me knowingly. “you saw him on the weekend when you came to my family’s countryside house, he’s just about as normal as you and i” shotaro states matter of factly. “yeah, well-” shotaro cuts me off by shoving a strawberry into my mouth.

“it’s not different, you two know each other personally.” he shakes his head with a laugh. “anyway, i think you should say yes to kun. it’ll be good for you.” i nod as i think about it, having a vocal coach to help me overcome my performance anxiety would be really good.

profiles | previous | next | masterlist

this chapter was VERY rushed so 90% of it won't really make sense, as the series goes on the chapters will get better i promise.

TAGLIST: @yourbeomiebear

request to be in my taglist here

[ms-moonlight-inn]

“Shame-proof” DVD Commentary

Thank you to @shamelessdvdcommentary & to the anon to requested us (whoever you are, we love you!). My bestie @notherenewjersey & I are here to answer all of your burning questions (do you have the syph? why's it burning? it's not supposed to burn.)

Anyway, here's our stuff... hopefully it'll help with that itchy burny.

Which fanfic is your DVD commentary about?

“Shame-proof” is about two childhood actors who lose contact with each other after their series wraps. Quickly, we find out that Ian had been harboring a deep crush on Mickey, who had basically been bullying Ian the whole time. Confessions & apologies ensue.

Also, a friend called it an undercover RPF... and if that’s how you choose to look at it, well we’re not gonna stop you.

NJ–  it COULD be RPF but that’s not how it was written. We weren’t imagining Cam or Noel’s childhoods here, aside from what we stole of Mickey’s back canon that Ian watches as he pines.

Give us some stats - (when you wrote it, word count, how long it took to finish, is it a one-shot/multi-chapter, etc)

The outline started on 4/16/24. 22887 words posted. Posted for the Summer Camp project on 8/3 but we were done before that.  Moonlight was convinced it would be 10k but I knew it was bigger. And this was without us going down every rabbit hole we saw. It’s 8 chapters, most of the chapters start with a flashback to the past and then jump to the “present.”

Moonlight– seriously, NJ dragged me away from some other HC I had kicking around, & we dove into this one instead.

What was the initial inspiration for your story?

I read Jeanette McCurdy’s book, and as with any time I read anything, my brain said “What if this was Gallavich?” I know Moonlight is an L.A. girl, so I knew I wanted her input. I think I had a rough outline already when I looped her in, but she immediately took what I had and expanded and deepened it, as she always does.

Moonlight– God it’s so much fun to talk trash about all the things you grew up with & around. Los Angeles is filled with opportunities for trash talking. LOL 

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character?

This didn’t start out as either of us deciding to stay in Ian’s POV, but in order to keep Mickey’s motivations a little more opaque, we landed there. Until the latter chapters, at least. For the drama.

Moonlight– No further comment.

What was your favourite scene to write?

All of them? I like Sue so much, and I love writing Frank’s bullshit. RuPaul is fun, too. 

Moonlight– I’ve got two favorite scenes. The first is the scene where they’re kids doing the campground episode. I adored the moments of discovery Ian had there –figuring out that trees existed in southern California, figuring out that he had a serious crush on Mickey, and then the boy he meets on set as he’s running away from his problems. (BTW, 10 punk rock points to anyone who knew the song before I remembered to add a link).

The other scene I loved writing was the rimming scene. In the outline NJ said, “they get together in the sexiest and most romantic way.” And I wanted to throw my laptop at her face. SERIOUSLY, what the actual fuck?! So I got them all the way up to the part where Ian’s naked and stalled out for, like, two weeks. I was on a call with @mybrainismelted saying, “I’m stuck on this scene. I’ve managed to get one dick out, but I haven’t quite figured out how the other one’s gonna get naked AND STILL KEEP THIS BULLSHIT SEXY AND ROMANTIC.” Needless to say, I figured it out. 😁

NJ– Yup! That was, I think, the entire outline for that chapter, originally. One line. I knew that’s what happened at that point in the story, why bother with details? LOL

How did you come up with the title?

Oh geez. Trying to come up with both an AU of Shameless AND a reboot name, both of which would sound semi-natural was tough! But Shame-proof is more than just the title of a fake TV show. It also speaks to how Ian and Mickey were able to finally live wholly as themselves. No more hiding, nothing left unsaid. Without shame, shameless in the very best ways.

Are there any little moments or references you hope readers will notice?

I always throw things in. We both do. But hopefully, readers who haven’t read either our individual or joint back canon can still enjoy the story.

Moonlight– See easter egg question.

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this?

No.

NJ– if one of us is stuck, the other usually isn’t or can jostle the other into being unstuck. We’re good like that.

Favorite line in the story?

NJ– @gallavichgeek pointed out two of my favorite lines, but I will repeat them here because … yeah. 

“Hey, come back,” Mickey says softly.

“I’m still here,” Ian answers, a little confused.

“Yeah, but all of you. M’ not ready to let any of you go a moment sooner than I hafta.”

***

“I’d say,” he hesitates, then goes on, “that someday you’re gonna get everything you ever wanted. That all the bad shit, the bullshit, and the pain, it’ll all be worth it.” 

***

If I crash, I’m coming back to haunt you, Ian had answered.

If you crash, I’m diving in after you.

***

Moonlight– “What the fuck? How ‘bout double-dutch no with a cherry on top.” Mickey steadily refuses. (Anytime Mickey is being creative with his cursing & curses is a good time. Bad language & mockery are his love languages.)

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc) 

All of it? It’s a great story. 

Moonlight– I’m also proud of the structure we used. It was NJ’s choice to do what basically amounted to two mini chapters in one –past & present colliding, if you will. And it worked so well for this storyline. 

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story?

Not deleted, so much as we had ideas that didn’t make it to fully fleshed for the final draft.

Are there any ‘behind the scenes’ info you’d like to share - e.g. what’s going on in a character’s head in a certain scene or how you came to write a certain line?

NJ– It’s important for people to know that Mickey in the past was protecting Ian so much more than he was protecting himself, with his bullying behavior. 

Moonlight– God, yes. 

Reading back the story now, is there anything you’d change or add?

NJ– I want more of Ray, more of Sue, more of the Random Studio Infant now grown up. More of Sheila and of Kermit. I want the world to be fuller. And maybe it will, eventually.

Moonlight– Def’ more Ray, he’s funny & I’m sure he & Ian had so many stupid adventures. I think I’d like to see a few of the conversations between Ian & Mickey, but I struggle with that ‘cause I love when there is that air of mystery to a storyline. I don’t necessarily want to be told everything. But I think at least one of those late night conversations we reference would be nice to see.

NJ– yeah, we did have a time limit so some of the scope got condensed. I agree, those conversations would be incredible to see/hear. 

Would you ever write a sequel to this story?

Well…. This story has legs. It has scope beyond what you’ve seen. I have believed, since the outline began, that this was the fic that would make the leap to traditional publishing. Moonlight and I are hoping to expand it and bring it to a publisher. “It’s a crossover between Shameless, I’m Glad My Mom Died, and RWRB.” Who wouldn’t wanna read that? LOL The Gallagher family will shrink a little, Terry will still be his monstrous self. So no, there won’t be a traditional fic sequel. But if we’re all very, very lucky, there will be an expanded version that scratches the same itch.

Are there any ‘easter eggs’ in your story - e.g. references to other stories you’ve written, a trope you often use etc?

The Saint Christopher’s medallion that Ian receives from Mickey? Yeah, the person I wrote that for knows it was for them. 🫶 

If you’ve chosen your most popular story, are you surprised by the popularity?

By far NOT our most popular story. Yet.

Were you nervous or excited to post this story?

I HATE waiting to post- posting a fic like this where it’s all done upfront is hard for me, emotionally. So I was beyond excited for people to read it and love it as much as we do!

Moonlight– NJ really hates not posting immediately. Like, really hates it. This fic was written for the @gallavich-fic-club Summer Camp Event & we had to wait our turn. Which she HATED. 🤣 

Did you have a beta or a friend who helped you as you wrote?

Can we count each other? I’m a genuine writing freak- fast, thoughtless, and I rarely edit beyond typos. (many of which elude me and still end up in the final draft.) Moonlight is the opposite- she’s incredibly deliberate and also deeply and passionately devoted to the editing process. When we edit together, it can look a little argumentative, but we trust each other, so a lot of those conversations end up like, “I don’t see the issue, but I trust your judgment.” We both say it all the time.

Moonlight– D’aw, bb. You’re making me blush. You’re right, I am a meticulous asshole, but your brain is fast & witty. Together, we write good shit. 

NJ-- Also, god the verb tenses in this story gave me fits. I am a grammar nerd, so is Moonlight. But skipping between tenses for the past and present when we wrote straight through- she never had an issue but I regularly was in the wrong tense and had to go back and fix, cursing my own self the whole time. Loudly. Often on the phone with Moonlight. 

Moonlight– 🤣🤣🤣 yeah…

If any one has any comments, words of praise, complaints you’d like to register with our headquarters, please let us know. 

NJ - in the greatest detail, if you’d be so kind.

Anything else you’d like the readers to know about the story?

Moonlight– Yes, the cheese sledding story is based on semi-true events. The guys at my high school used to carry large blocks of ice to the top hill of the local golf course & ride them down. Years later, a dorm mate I knew in grad school told us about his Vermont cheese tour where he saw “giant wheels of cheese” that he swore he could use as a mode of transportation. And so, the cheese sledding story was born. 

NJ-- And I made sure it was at Trump’s golf course because a few years back, a man in New Jersey did some fun vandalism like that and I find it deeply satisfying.

🧀🛷 

[whumptober]

Meet The New Mods

Thank you very much for the warm welcome! To begin we’d like to say a very big thank you to mods Pan and Claire, as well as Jo, Marie and Kat, for their hard work in creating and continuing the event for six years — especially with how big the community has become! We have a momentous job ahead of us when it comes to modding the community and running the event as well as they did, but we are determined and up for the challenge.

So perhaps it’s time to introduce ourselves:

gunshou tumblr | discord | ao3

fandom old (she/her)

I’ve participated in Whumptober for a few years, although I never finished. I’m a writer who can’t write fluff to save my life; if a character isn’t going through some kind of trauma in canon I’ll make it happen in fanfic. I live with an old blind mini poodle and intense imposter syndrome. I used to mod communities on Livejournal (fandom OLD) and I’m really excited to be a part of the new mod team. Please feel free to follow and interact with me!

Surro | 21 | he/him | @promptsforyourwhumpfic

AO3: SurroWhump

Discord: surro_

🎵 - I’m Not Okay (Chris Catalyst) and Will of the People (Muse)

I've been lurking in the whump community since 2017, and have been a whump enthusiast for as long as I can remember (seriously, all of my original characters have to had some sort of whumpy backstory). I’ve been a loyal Whumptober completionist since 2018, and have written my fair share of angst for a variety of whumpees and OCs.This is my first time being a part of a mod team, and I am really thrilled to be a part of such a big event! I look forward to working on this project and interacting with the wider community.

Kitty | she/her | @mrmustachious

AO3: TheWeatherOutside

Discord: justkitty.

Hello everyone! Those in the Whumptober discord may know me as being a mod there since last year, but if not, then hi! I have been a completionist for Whumptober every year since 2019, and it’s safe to say that the event quickly became one of my favourite times of year. I’ve been a fan of whump since well before I knew what it was, so it’s been amazing to find a community filled with so many like-minded, wonderful people creating such fantastic (and evil ;)) works. I’m so excited to be a part of the team, and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone creates this year.

Vanne | 21 | queer | she/her | @fl4tlines

AO3: savanne

Discord: v4nne

🎵: Lowlife — YUNGBLUD & Cheap Love — girli

Hiya! I’ve mainly lurked in the whump community for a while, across several different blogs. I was a Whumptober completionist in 2021 on an old blog, but I haven’t completed it since! I mainly write OC whump, with more focus on emotional suffering compared to the physical elements. Outside of whump, I volunteer and run a wildlife rehabilitation unit, work in retail and keep the ADHD goblin in my head happy by cycling through an endless list of other hobbies like graphic design, wildlife photography and traveling for gigs. I’m really looking forward to helping put together Whumptober this year and being a part of it!

[brinkworth]

I heard it was your birthday @heartofspells, so I wrote you a little crack fic as a gift. (curse?) Featuring Remus, who is just trying to print his smutty fanfiction and runs into printer trouble. Happy Birthday!

Tech Support

Remus can pinpoint the exact moment his bad luck started. He’d been working on a project, printing some of his favourite fanfiction. He liked the story so much that he wanted to put a physical copy on his shelf.

It was all going smoothly at first, his printer churning out pages, all with perfectly crisp black letters printed neatly in rows. He clapped his hands in celebration. At this rate, this project would be done in record time.

That’s exactly when the bad luck starts. The printer makes an alarming noise; the paper caught half in the printer and half out. After several angry beeps, the screen reads ‘Error - printer jammed. Please clear printer and try again.’

When he opens the machine, it’s full of paper jammed into every nook and cranny. Places he didn’t know paper could even go in a printer. The printer seems to fight him as he removes it. He has to press a foot against the desk for leverage to pull out a particularly stubborn piece and the printer makes an awful grinding noise. It’s later that he sees the warning message that says, ‘Do not remove paper by pulling in this direction.’

“Oops.”

Several hours later, he’s sitting next to a printer that no longer feeds paper at all as tech support tells him they’ll mail him a new one. It should be there in 7-10 business days.

This just won’t do. Remus doesn’t want to wait that long, so he makes a trek to the store and buys a new printer. Now he’ll have two, but they’re different. And he prints a lot, so it’s worth it. Only upon getting it home, the printer won’t print anything legibly. It all comes out looking like a copy of a copy of a copy. Remus spends hours adjusting settings and test printing.

In the end, he’s sitting next to a stack of badly printed pages of his favourite smutty fanfiction when he’s back on the phone with tech support.

“Hello, thank you for calling The Printer Company. My name is Sirius. How can I help you?”

“Er- yes, hello, I just purchased a new printer and I’m having trouble with the quality.”

Sirius is very nice and seems committed to fixing the problem. He has Remus test different settings and try again several times. After 45 minutes on the phone, though, they’ve accomplished nothing. It all looks the same, and Sirius is now just as frustrated as Remus.

“Will you send me a few photos of your printed pages? One good one from your old printer and one from your new printer,” Sirius asks. “It will help me see what the problem is, and I can share them with my supervisor, who might have an idea.”

“Oh - er - sure, yeah.” Remus replies, kicking himself immediately. He should have just hung up.

He suddenly feels too hot. He begins to root frantically through his stack of papers, to find ones that might be appropriate to send.

“Oh God, definitely not that one.” He thinks, more than once.

A few awkward minutes later, he’s found two pages that look fairly clean, though by the character names, it will be clear what this is, if Sirius has ever read one of the most popular book series ever written. WHY couldn’t these characters be named something normal? Like George and Henry…

He sends the photos and chews on his thumbnail as he waits for Sirius’ response.

“Oh, I see them right here,” Sirius says eventually. There’s a shuffling noise and Remus thinks he hears Sirius snort.

Sirius hums as if he’s studying them carefully. “I’m afraid I’m having a hard time telling these two apart...”

How is that possible? Remus wonders. They are so starkly different.

“I’m just going to read these out loud to verify which is which,” Sirius says. And Remus swears he can hear the man smirk through the phone.

Remus’ eyes widen. “Oh, of course, sure,” he blurts out and then kicks himself again.

As Sirius reads, Remus wants to crawl into a hole and die. The man takes his time, drawing it out, and reading more than must be necessary for what he needs.

“Yes, yeah, you’ve got that right,” Remus says in the end, just ready to be done with this.

Another 30 minutes later, Sirius has walked him through how to fix the printer and Remus is anxious to hang up before he can embarrass himself further.

“Thanks so much,” Remus says, his finger hovering over the end call button.

“Happy to help,” Sirius says. “And you have good taste, Remus.”

Remus’ head jerks back in surprise. “Sorry?”

“I’m partial to Heartofspells’ work myself, but this is good too.”

Remus is stunned into silence for a few moments before replying weakly. “Oh.”

“Have a good day, and feel free to ask for me personally if you need help again in the future.”

Remus bit back a smile. Maybe his luck wasn’t so bad after all.

[crashing-all-modes]

UPDATE ON THE RAVEN CYCLE SCULPTURE!!

Sorry for such a long wait for the update. It was my last two weeks of school, and MAN, OH MAN, was it stressful for homework!!

Okay, so first of all, this is a long update with lots of pictures!!! (I’m going to make a TLDR version for anybody who doesn’t want to hear me yap, LOL)!

Once again, no spoilers if you have thoughts please!

As some of you may know, I had a project for my 3D design class where we had to pick a book and then create a sculpture out of the book (it can be anything, a scene from the book, a feeling you got while reading it, symbolism and so on). The one rule of the assignment is the pages of the book have to be the most prominent part of the design. So I was allowed to paint it, draw on it, and use whatever I saw fit as long as the pages of the book were included and the most prominent!!

For my project I decided to do the raven boys as tarot cards using the major arcana.

I’m gonna break this up into sections so it's easy to navigate!

Making the Hand

So funny story, I thought this project was due two weeks ago and spent all night (stayed up till 6am) working on it, only to wake up at 8am to find out it was due the following week. AH. So here’s what I did that night:

Dw, the hand looks way better after I had more time to work on it; I used about… 4 jumbo sticks of hot glue to attach it to the board? You can pick this up by the hand and use it as a weapon, and it will stay attached.

Building The Base Tarot Card

I made all 5 cards with 2 pieces: one large piece, which would be the back of the card, and another smaller piece, which would act as the part for the character to be on. I made them out of cardboard, so there’s definition.

Back Piece

I carved into the cardboard these small little triangles which was for the gold foil I planned on using! To cover the back pieces, I ripped up pages into uneven pieces and mod-podged them on there (because glue itself made the pages translucent).

Front Piece

The smaller pieces were very important when creating the cards because I used full pages from the book. I picked very specific moments in the book that helped to relate both the character and their card!

Ronan

This is the page where Ronan first "finds" Chainsaw. His card is The Moon, which deals with supernatural elements and visions, so I figured it would be a perfect page to use. Plus, it was one of my favourite Ronan moments!

Gansey

Originally, I wanted to use the page where Gansey recounted his near-death experience with the bees, but I must've used the page by accident because I couldn't find it ANYWHERE?? I opted for this page instead, because this is another instance where Gansey looked death in the eye and scared it off (his card is The Hanged Man).

Blue

I decided to use Blue for The Lovers card because I felt the irony of it was too fitting. I used the page where the reader learns about Blue's fate to kill her true love just by kissing him. The design for her card is so evil (if you keep reading, you'll see it), but it's good.

Noah

(Spoilers) If you've gotten this far, I'm hoping you've at least read the first book. Noah's card is Death, which is... very fitting for obvious reasons AND for the context of the card!! I decided to go with one of the craziest moments in the book when they find out Noah's a ghost. It's perfect for the Death card... and IT EVEN MENTIONS THE DEATH CARD ON THIS PAGE, WHICH I DIDN'T REALIZE UNTIL I WAS GLUING IT ONTO THE CARDBOARD!!

Adam

Adam is my favourite in the book and I had so many moments to pick from for his tarot card. Ultimately, I picked the scene where he and Whelk are having a face-off, and all MAGIC IS BREAKING LOSE BECAUSE HE'S THE MAGICIAN (as I've been told by many sources, I still have only read the first book)!!

After I glued all of the pages onto the smaller pieces of cardboard, I dyed them with food coloring!! I had no idea this would work, but thanks to YouTube, it worked so much better than trying to paint, and the colours turned out amazing!!

From left to right on the top row: Ronan, Noah (before tea wash), Adam, Gansey and the bottom one is Blue's!

Here's Noah's after being tea stained, I wanted his to look like it was old and worn, like it was lost in the earth. To make it blotchy, I used the actual tea bag and blotted it on the card like crazy.

I then went on to dye WAY MORE PAGES. It's surprisingly fun.

The Tarot Cards (Roughs)

So, for each tarot card, I created designs, trying to implement the original while making it my own in relation to the character. All of these are sketches, and I honestly might make them real pieces in the future!!

Blue

UGH. I think hers and Noah's might be my favourite designs (I'm very biased tho because I love skulls lol). Each card has an earthy theme, I included lots of flowers and branches!

Adam

Adam's is the closest to the OG tarot card, because I felt like it was so iconic I couldn't change much to the design. That's probably why his is my least favourite design LOL.

Gansey

Ngl, I really like the symbolism on this one. If you were to pull it in reverse it would be Gansey with the crown floating above his head, like it's his and he's close to reaching his goal.

Noah

OKAY, BUT LIKE GUYS, THIS IS AHGSSGSGHSH. Like???? I love him so much. I put him in a saint pose, like those you see sculptures in churches posing in or paintings of saints. But I love him so much.

Ronan

I love the vibe his card gives off. It's very contemplative and moody, just like him.

I love how all of the designs turned out, but I unfortunately only had time to make one, Ronan's!

Ronan's Card

To make Ronan's cutout, I cut pieces of different stained pages into the shapes I needed (like his shirt and his head), and I then drew on it with an ink pen. It was really difficult to make everything the correct size because of the way I did his card, so this alone took me an hour to do. Think of him like a paper dress-up doll, LOL.

THE FINAL

FINALLY HOLY CRAP. I'm running out of photo room for the post, so I'll make it brief here but post more on a different thread!!

Anyway, I'm going to make all of them into cards now that school's over, and I'll update y'all when I'm done!!

I just wanna give a really big shoutout to everyone who helped me decide which tarot cards to give to each character, especially @screechin-outloud! They went into so much depth without spoiling the book, and I APPRECIATE YOU!! I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU!!!

And if you made it down this far, thank you for reading all of this!! :)

[ozwriterchick]

Bucky goes missing..

Summary: Bucky goes missing. But maybe not the Bucky you expect.

Characters: James Bucky Barnes; OFC!Female Character

Word Count: 829

A/Note: Start of a new series, all will be one shots (mostly, probably, lol) under 1k words with meet cutes.

They will probably be mostly Bucky but if you feel inclined, send me an ask with a suggestion for another character or a situation you wanna see and I'll do my best.

Also, let me know if you want to be added to the tag list.

Not Beta'd so any mistakes are my own.

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Cam took a long deep breath, so glad to be back out on a trail with her beloved pooch, Bucky.  Yes, he was named after the Avenger who used to be the Winter Soldier.

It had been way too long since she’d been out for a hike like this, for a few different reasons.  The weather hadn’t been great lately and, when it was, she was working.

Cam had been working long hours.  In fact, she felt like she’d worked more in the last few months than she had in a long time.  Most days she spent at least 10-12 hours at the office, going home only to order some food or microwave leftovers, then fall into bed.

There was an important project that her team had been assigned.  They wanted to make sure they didn’t fail on this one as it would lead to a major promotion for one of the team.  Cam wanted that promotion for herself. She’d worked at the company for over 5 years now and felt like it was past time for her to reap the rewards of all her hard work.

Rounding a corner in the trail, Bucky must have heard or smelt something because he took off before she even realised what was happening.

Sighing Cam tried to run after him but he was so fast it wasn’t funny.  She kept calling his name, trying to get him to come to her but wherever he was he was either too far away to hear or he was deliberately ignoring her, which was likely. He’s very definitely done that before.

A bit further up the trail, not far from the lake at the end, Cam heard Bucky bark. She knew she was close enough to him for him to hear her so she yelled at the top of her voice “James Buchanan, you get here,right now Mister.”

At no response she continued, “I’m serious sir, no dinner for you if you don’t get your butt right here,right now.”

A rustling in the trees caught her attention and all of a sudden someone burst through the brush and she came face to chest with a solid wall of muscle, clad in a leather jacket and a blue Henley.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she began, then she looked up into the most gorgeous steel blue eyes she’d ever seen.thats when she realised, that she’d just run straight into the real life Bucky Barnes. “I.. umm.. I didn.. oh” No further words were forthcoming from her brain, or her mouth.

“That’s ok,” he politely said, chuckling at her stammering. “I shouldn’t have come through the trees like that, but I heard someone calling me so I took the shortest path to where the sound was coming from. Maybe I got the direction wrong.”

“Oh, um. I didn’t hear anything” Cam replied, not realising it was actually her he’d heard.

“Well for sure I heard someone calling the name my mother gave me and swearing I wasn’t going to get any dinner if I didn’t come straight away. How strange is that.in the middle of a hiking trail where I don’t know anybody.”

Cam looked at him in confusion. “Well, I won’t hold you from finding whoever you’re looking for” she tried to smile but felt like it came across as more of a grimace, judging by his expression.

“Ok, well nice to run into you” he chuckled again and Cam thought it might just be her new favourite sound.

At that moment Bucky, the dog, came crashing through the bushes and skidded to a stop between them, looking up at both of them eagerly.

“Where have you been young man” Cam demanded of the dog.  “I told you, no dinner for you tonight.”

“It was you” he said in a surprised voice.

“What was me?” She asked genuinely.

“You yelled at me to get my butt here and that I wouldn’t get dinner tonight if I didn’t. I so confused now”

“Oh, right, sorry I really wasn’t thinking about what you said earlier. I guess I should explain. I’m Camellia and this is my ignorant dog, Bucky. Mainly because, as you can see, he has three limbs the same colour, and one different. Kind of like you. He’s also fiercely loyal and super protective, when he’s actually listening and not running off or ignoring me.”

“It’s lovely to meet you Camellia. That’s such a pretty name” 

“My friends call me Cam or Cammy usually.  Only my mum calls me by my full name. My Nana used to all me Millie”

“I think I like Millie best.  So Millie, would you and canine Bucky like to get a coffee with me? There’s a cart at the lake, we could continue on to that. It’s not too far away.”

“I’d love to “ Millie said, clicking the lead onto Bucky’s collar before heading off down the trail towards the lake with Bucky and Bucky in tow

Tag List: @wolfbeanpotion

[chellerbelles]

Rogue & Gambit Fanworks Week 2024

Day 8: Free Day

I wasn't sure I'd finish it in time, but here it is, the final chapter (and Character Glossary). I hope you enjoyed the madness.

I hope to write some related one-shots later on.

For the prompt today, I decided to share one of my favourite scenes from today's chapter. Here's the thing, I really love that Rogue and Gambit got married in the comics, I do. But I hate the Kitty & Piotr bait and switch. Also, logistically, that wedding was unlikely to be legally binding for Rogue and Gambit. The wedding "stealing" felt very on-brand for Gambit though. So I have a very short reimagining of a wedding stealing below the cut, starring my Leverage Rogue & Gambit.

Leverage universe

Kurt looked devastated as his bride was pulled away in handcuffs, the train of her gown catching on everything as the police led her away. He slumped where he stood by the alter, everyone in the congregation rendered awkward and nervously chatting.

“I’m sorry, sugar,” Rogue said.

“You tried to warn me,” Kurt replied bleakly.

“I would’ve preferred to have been wrong,” she said, grateful that she’d gotten her team on this the moment Kurt’s now ex-fiancee had gotten her hackles up.

“Me too.” He sighed, and reached for a hug. “Thanks for looking out for me, sis.”

“Always, bro,” she replied, and hugged him tight.

He smiled at her as they pulled back, his hand feeling the five day old engagement ring on her finger. The sudden engagement had come as a surprise to him but not to Rogue. She and Gambit fully remembered their entire experience at the multiverse node, and decided they were ready to move to the next stage.

“You two still planning on that courthouse wedding?” Kurt asked, seeing Gambit over Rogue’s shoulder.

“After all this drama? Definitely,” Rogue replied. “But we can—”

“Because,” Kurt cut in, looking directly at Gambit, “I thought for sure I saw some LeBeaus around.”

Gambit grinned slyly at Kurt. “Mebbe we’re just working the wedding, mon frere.”

“Uh huh,” Kurt said, and looked towards the congregation. “Thanks everyone for coming. Sorry about all the drama. There’s been a change of plans. If you’re on the brides side, it’s time for you to leave. Please feel free to take your gifts on the way out. Grooms side, you’re now the new brides side. The new grooms side will be here shortly.”

The brides guests had already started to leave, but did so with more haste now that attention had been brought to them.

“Kurt,” Rogue hissed, then glared at Remy. “What did you do?”

“I’m nothing if not an opportunist, chere,” he said with a wink.

“You… you…” Looking extremely embarrassed, she looked at Kurt. “You don’t have to do this. You just got… This has been a shock and—”

“And, we’ve already spent all the money, no need for it to go to waste,” Kurt assured her. “Besides, nothing would make me happier than to see you two get married.”

“As long as it’s what you actually want. You’ve already been hurt enough, I don’t want to rub salt in the wound.”

“Quite the opposite. Right now I can’t think of a better pick-me-up than a reminder that people do actually still marry for love,” Kurt said, his eyes flickered over to Gambit who’d started making calls. “Besides, I suspect that Remy’s just itching to steal a wedding.”

“It’s not stealing if you consent.”

“I’m pretty sure he had things in motion before I consented.”

“Fair point.”

[spnfanficpond]

New Member Spotlight - May 2024

The Pond is always growing and we want to make our new members feel welcome! Here’s a list of recent additions to our fishy family, along with a little info about them!

Guppies, Jellies, and Mutuals, oh, my!

Tumblr name:

@masoena

Other handles:

AO3: Masoena, Discord: masoena5

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest but I ship just about anything that is SPN I would say I'm a multishipper overall.

Are you in any other fandoms?

Shadowhunters

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking to connect with other writers and artists and create amazing things together, lift each other up be that through brainstorming, feedback, advice or collaboration.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics

Wincest, Sabriel, Arthur/Dean, Samwena, Destiel are my favourites and I do love triple ships to e.g. Dean/Sam/Donna or Wincestiel or pretty much anything in SPN

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Hurt/comfort, angst, A/B/O, smut, dom/sub, bdsm, angel kink or grooming, protective character saving other character(s) in peril, BAMF characters, meet-cute, animalmorph characters (not bestiality just humans with some physical animal traits e.g. Sam with cat ears), case-Fics, alternate Universes, creature fics (vampires, weres, etc.), crossover fics, enemies to lovers (sometimes) and anything from short one-shots to super long fics found its way into my bookmarks.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

There are a few who I keep going back to and love the works of: SamandDean76 - on both Tumblr/AO3 compo67 - on AO3 nyxocity - on AO3 (but believe they are no longer active) brokenlittleboy - on AO3

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

My works list is a mix ranging from drabbles, medium length to long fics. It really depends on the idea and inspiration. Some stories need 2k words to be told others need tens of thousands but I believe my sweet spot is around the 10-15k mark as I like to plan plot outline and majore milestones but also love just letting it flow however it wants to.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

My most underappreciated fic is a drabble but most underappreciated fic that I was super excited about posting but which did not get a lot of attention was a choose your own adventure A/B/O fic that had a Wincestiel main pairing. And I wonder if I posted it in the best way or if there is a better way to do it. :)

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

Moments like this happen as I take part in more bangs and reverse bangs where people put forward concepts and ideas that have never occurred to me and it is endlessly fascinating to try out new ideas and things. As of right now I can't think of anything that I want to but haven't tried yet.

Tumblr name:

@corpsexcquis

Other handles:

Corpsexcquis for Tumblr / Hyobe or/And SonofEros for Ao3

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest/SamDean

Are you in any other fandoms?

Haikyuu! / JJK / Twilight

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I’d like to meet more people in the SPN fandom and get some help with writing.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Usually ships, rarely poly but with the right combination I’m open to anything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst and dead dove mostly

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

Dollylux is one of my favourites for SPN (they’re inactive on Ao3)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Usually long ones, Angsty, 90s/80s/70s dirty America, heavy with codependency and references. I never quite manage to finish them though hehe

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I think a story that is during the medieval era. I love it but I don’t know enough about that time period just yet ! Perhaps betaing ?

Tumblr names:

@clarrisani

Other handles:

Clarrisani

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincestiel & Destiel are a tie

Are you in any other fandoms?

I dabble in Good Omens

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

Seeking a beta reader and support to get back into writing SPN fan fiction,

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

I have an original novel coming out in August. Updates are on my writing twitter https://twitter.com/katrinamckee03

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

I like reading a bit of everything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Whichever strikes my fancy for the day.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

I like to dabble in a bit of everything

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Tumblr name:

@candygramme

Other handles:

Same handle for Ao3, Threads, Discord, Live Journal/Dreamwidth and X, which I rarely visit. On Instagram I am candygramme1 and on Facebook I am Sue_Ashworth, but not really active.

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Dean/Sam

Are you in any other fandoms?

Yes. I have written in a few others - Highlander, Roswell (the original one), The X-Files and CW RPS.

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking for friendship, inspiration, a chance to help new writers.

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

Not really. I occasionally art, but want to learn to vid if there's someone around to teach it.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Not Reader inserts, for sure. I like plot and longer fic myself, but pretty much anything between Gen and Explicit is great if its well written. It's all about nailing the character for me.

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Yes is the short answer! I love all of it, but tend to write crack although not always. I love angsty stuff, and casefic.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

felisblanco is on both. Roxymissrose is on Ao3 and deadlybride is on Tumblr (zmedia) and Ao3 too. There are others, but those are a good start.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Cracky, silly stuff, plotty casefic and occasionally PWP.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

So many things. I have countless wips sitting waiting for me to finish them. I just get stuck and don't get back to them.

Tumblr:

@libby99hb

Other handles:

Libby99HB(AO3), Materialgwooorl (Discord)

Are you in any other fandoms?

The Vampire Diaries

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I haven't used Tumblr in years, so I'll be semi-new here. I'm looking to connect with people, find new things to read, get inspired, create, and maybe even make new friends through this community. It's a place to connect with others who love what I love and learn from them. 😊

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Don't really ever like to read any fics with ships mostly OFC or Reader inserts

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst, Fluff, Everything 18+, Smut, and all AU's

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

I have three AO3: @smolandgrumpy @Zeppelin_Skies ( on Tumblr @zepskies) @neganslucilletblr (Same @ on Tumblr)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

The fics I like to write revolve around love.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

The only fic that I have up at the moment is a TVD one. Right now it's on a little break because I have three SPN fics that will be out sometime this summer.

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I'd like to try writing some one-shots. I have a hard time keeping things short and sweet, but hopefully, I'll be able to hop on a writer's challenge after connecting with others on here.

That's all for this month, folks! (If we're missing anyone, let us know and we'll add them to next month's list!) Make sure to say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome! Thanks to all from @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @heavenssexiestangel!

[your-unfriendlyghost]

9, 13, and 20

9. What’s the favourite scene/moment from the book?

  Probably the part in the morning after Pony gets home from Windrixville, where the gang’s just relaxing and horsing around- it lends some much-needed lightness to a pretty heavy book. That or the train-hopping, although that one’s mostly because I’ve always wanted to ride on a freight train, ala “On the Road”. There’s one by my house and lemme just say it’s been tempting me pretty much my whole life. I guess I also like the drive in, when Two-Bit talks to Cherry and Marcia- it was just just fun to read, I like Two-Bit.

  I think the Johnny/Dally death scenes were obviously some of the most well-written and impactful, but I can’t outright say they’re my favorites because the whole time they were happening I wanted them to not be happening. Loved them though from a technical standpoint. You see so much of the characters and who they are- ugh it’s so well done.

13. Who do you think is the most well-written character?

  Maybe Ponyboy or Dally? Idk Ponyboy just feels very genuine, which I guess makes sense since Hinton says he’s probably the character who’s most like her. And then with Dally- I mean it’d be easy to soften his edges in hopes of writing someone more likeable, but she chose not to and I think that’s a huge part of why his character is so meaningful. I really like Pony’s line about how Dally’s “Too real” and how that scares him.

But really I do think all of the characters are solidly written- especially Randy who I think is kinda underrated? I mean I don’t think about him often, but I love the scene where he calls Pony “Grease” and then is like “Wait, I mean kid.” I do wish we got more Cherry- she was well-written too, but we see so little of her…

  Idk, I think they’re all well-written. Even characters without much to them on a surface level feel like real people, and it makes the world feel so lived-in and real. Like my boy Steve- there’s not a ton outright said about him, but he still feels like a real person with real depth. And don’t even get me started on the Shepards- the little details really flesh them out, even with hardly any screen time.

20. Which character do you relate to most?

  Steve or Soda I think. 

  Steve because even though we don’t canonically get much of him, we do get a few things, like how he’s cocky and observant and competitive and has a rocky relationship with his dad lol. And then in the movie he does a lotta stuff I’ve done and even looks kinda like me- kinda short, gap-toothed, dark haired, scowls a lot. I’ve currently got a pretty nasty bruise on my knee from front-flipping off a couch, and another one on my arm from rough-housing with a buddy. And irl I know I often come off as bad-tempered the way he does, although I don’t really mean to. This one’s more fanon than canon, but we’ve even both got Napoleon complexes lol- I mean the fact that I like him so much is absolutely just projecting, I’ll admit that, but idk I like him and think he’s pretty relatable. I get the whole “fighting ‘cause you’re angry” thing, as well as the beefing with fourteen year olds thing-which I’m kinda ashamed of- but I swear to god fourteen year olds know how to push my buttons in ways no one else does. (well. Except for…everyone. I guess. I just have a lot of specific experiences with smartass fourteen year olds that I’m still mad about to this day.)

(5’6 isn’t that short Malcom, shut the hell up. You’re just freakishly tall for a freshman.)

  Admittedly I didn’t think much about Steve until I took @boysborntodie’s “Which greaser are you” quiz and got him, which I was initially irritated at because I thought he wasn’t much of a character…but then the description in the results was so on the money that I got a little unsettled lol. Point is, Steve’s probably my “official most relatable character”.

  And then with Soda, I’ve got a similar experience of being good-looking but not feeling very secure in my brains…which is conceited to say I know, but enough people talk about my looks that I’m aware of the fact that it’s just objectively true that folks like my face. Unfortunately it means I kinda rely too much on it, and often end up worrying that there isn’t much more to me then that. Like I’ve had multiple girls who’ve dated me because I’m good-looking but then don’t really like who I am, you know? It gets to me sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. I could see myself ending up in a relationship with someone like Sandy, although unlike Soda I don’t think I’d still wanna marry her afterwards- I love Soda, but I can’t say I relate to that part so much. (‘Course this is all hypothetical, so really who knows what I’d do?) And I’ve definitely got a worse temper than Soda does, I admire his lack of one honestly lol 

  I do feel like I ought to relate more to Darry, to be honest though. I mean, I’m the oldest son with two younger siblings, and a decent amount of responsibility- but I just don’t relate to him much. But then again, I’m in vastly different circumstances- Me and my sister are more like Soda and Ponyboy than Darry and Soda. Mostly because we both get to be kids still. 

Anyhow, thanks for asking! I know I’ve written a lot- I just have a lotta thoughts and like to hear my own voice I guess lol. And lemme know what thoughts y’all have about these questions, I’d love to hear it!!

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor ilgaksu

Wondering what Aether Beyond the Binary is and why you should care? It’s Duck Prints Press’s latest anthology, currently crowdfunding: 17 stories, modern aetherpunk settings, outside-the-binary main characters! Help us reach our funding goals by checking out the campaign now!

About ilgaksu: Full-time fandom cryptid, Furby enthusiast, and the human embodiment of that one gif of Elmo on fire, ilgaksu was born and raised in an  undisclosed location, living in several others, and now currently residing in [REDACTED]. Their interests include collecting haunted toys, using their artistic practice as an excuse to forget to do their laundry, and playing with fictional men like Bratz dolls. They have not unclenched their jaw yet today, but they do remember to drink lots of water. 

Link: personal webpage

This is ilgaksu’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

An Interview with ilgaksu

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I have a list of dream projects – a big queer space opera trilogy, a series of detective serials, I want to pastiche all of the genres I adored growing up – but I think I’m never going to find the culmination of my work. I’m going to have to make do with whatever I do while I’m alive, and other people can argue about that for me or something. The work is the work. It has to speak for itself without me defending it.

When you look at your “career” as a creator, what  achievement would you most like to reach – what, if it happened or has  already happened, would/did make you go “now – now I’m a success!”?

Does any writer actually get to the point where they fully believe they’re a success, and the feeling lasts forever? This is a genuine question. Where are they hiding? I want their advice.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

I have to have at least three emotional support beverages, and one of those will always be a form of iced coffee, then usually bubble tea, and then usually water. These are because I clearly run on three separate hydration systems. Snack-wise, I don’t tend to eat while I’m actually making things, but I like churros and loaded fries and ramen and salmon on bagels and, listen, I just really love food.

Describe your ideal creation space.

I like writing somewhere near a window, ideally when it’s raining outside, with three emotional support beverages and my favourite headphones and the very specific song that works as white noise in that moment on repeat. Possibly for the next five hours.

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

I have to have background noise or I can’t focus to write, and it’s usually music with lyrics. I tend to have a mix of current songs I’m fixated on in a huge Everything playlist, and then I often have a smaller playlist for the project itself. Like I said before, I can also easily listen to the same song on repeat for as long as it takes to finish the necessary section, even if it that takes hours, because after a while I stop hearing the music itself – it functions as white noise.

Share five of your favorite books. (You can include why, if you want!)

Wolf Hall Trilogy (Hilary Mantel, technically 3 but)

The Dream Thieves (Maggie Stiefvater) 

Evensong’s Heir (L. S. Baird)  

Daughter of Fortune (Isabel Allende)  

The Magpie Lord (KJ Charles)

Share five of your favorite (blanks). 

Five favourite current bubble tea flavours: Earl Grey, Snow White, Rose, Lavender, Honeydew

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

You don’t want to write like me. 

That probably sounds incredibly arrogant, but let me explain: the most common thing I’ve had said to me by a new creator, or a fan of my work, is “I want to write like you.” And I get where people are coming from, and I get it’s from a place of admiration – which is very very flattering, of course – because early on in my writing career that used to be a desire that consumed me to. But my point is this. I realised that it was futile to want something like that, because I would never be that creator, with their experiences in life and reading that had informed how they view the world and filter it into their own work. Even if I tried to mimic it, and maybe if I managed it on a superficial level, it wouldn’t be animated by the same mind moving through it, and so I’d be doing us both a disservice. So, I no longer want to write like other people. I want to write more and more like myself. And because of that, I try and advise people to redirect how they’re verbalising that desire. What is it about my work, or anyone’s work, that speaks to you? What parts of it don’t work for you? What is it you want that’s similar – the assurance of their authorial voice, their breadth of lexis or grammar, the themes they focus, how they make you feel as a reader in that relationship with them through the text? Identify those things. Start from there, and think about who you are and take these little ingredients from everyone you’ve read and loved, and everything you love in the world outside writing. Do that instead. Not only will it help you identify more concretely the goals you’re working towards in your craft, but you deserve a voice as a writer that’s solely your own.

What would you say to a demoralized creator to inspire them?

The same thing I said earlier but reappropriated: nobody can write like you.

ilgaksu’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: chameleon trick

Tags: be gay do crimes, be gay solve crimes, established relationship, heist, manchester, non-binary, past tense, present tense, suicidal ideation (mentions of), united kingdom, third person limited pov, trans man

Excerpt:

Sasha turns on him; gleeful, sparking with it. It’s less a dropping of a mask and more of a perfect, total illumination as they ask, “How did I do?”

You would think they were an amateur at this, looking at their borderline puppyish excitement. They even tilt their face up, less in expectation of a kiss and more in certainty of one. But they are both working. Martha has read the codes of conduct at this factory: no fraternisation during work hours. And so:

“I don’t have time for your praise kink right now,” Martha says, and sidesteps them.

End-of-post reminder: check out our campaign on Kickstarter! It ends January 25th – we’re about half-way done.

[ask-meowscarada]

Seeking Star Sending Surprises!

The moment Charade catches word of a community gift-giving event, she gathers her team members and sits them down to eagerly explain the terms. Although Riddle initially refuses to participate, the other three plead and gradually wear him down. The very instant Riddle utters the word, "fine", Charade takes off at full speed, returning moments later with pencils and paper for the four of them.

It takes several days for everybody to be satisfied with their lists, but once they are, Charade collects them all to deliver to this mysterious Star Sender.

———

Charade

Charade’s wishes are written playfully (misspellings and all), with little doodles in the margins depicting each item on her list.

∙ mint things! ♡ mint candy, mint tea, mint ice cream, etc etc. ∙ a bouque of lavender! ∙ a gracidea flower - real ones are hard to find but i’d be just as greatful to have a fake one ∙ board games to play with my friends! ♡ ∙ PLUSHIES!!!!! ∙ also after you’re done opening presents please deliver all empty boxes to me please I LOVE BOXES!!!!!!!!!

———

Blackjack

Even with his flower pod hands, Jack keeps his writing neat, if a little unsteady.

Dear stranger, Thank you for taking the time to read my letter! The things I've written here are part of a bigger project of mine. I understand some of these are very rare, so it's okay if you're not able to give any of these as gifts. I'll be extremely grateful for anything! - Any Evolution stone - A type-enhancing item such as a Miracle Seed, Poison Barb, Dragon Fang, etc. - An artifact from the Ruins of Alph - Books or other information about the RKS System project - Any kind or number of Tera Shards

———

Party Trick

Almost all of Tricky’s letter is written in all caps, the graphite burnished deeply into the paper.

I HAVE NO NEED FOR YOUR PALTRY GIFTS THE CAT TELLS ME THIS STATEMENT IS “TOO MEAN”. SHE THINKS I’M NOT “GETTING INTO THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT”. FINE. HERE IS MY “HOLIDAY SPIRIT” LIST.

What follows is an incredibly long and absurd list of impossible-to-obtain items that includes famous works of art, government documents, and siege weaponry. However, at the very end is a footnote written in very small print, made deliberately easy to miss:

this list isn’t meant to be taken seriously. if you want to do something for me, please, get something for jack instead. you’d really make him smile. that’s all i want.

———

Riddle

Riddle’s printing has different consistencies throughout, with rather messy formatting; it’s as if he spent the longest on his list, adding and changing things on different days using different pencils. Still, the end result is legible, despite the corrections and scribbles.

Don’t feel obligated to get me anything from this list. I don’t know the limits on what’s acceptable to ask from a stranger. If you're so incensed, however, I want you to share something sentimental with me. ⁃ Something handmade. ⁃ Photos from a place you've traveled. ⁃ Your favourite recipe. ⁃ A copy of a poem, song, or other piece of writing you enjoy. ⁃ Something that represents your home. ⁃ Anything you can think of similar to the above. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The last few lines of Riddle's letter have been written over something else that he erased. Looking closely, it reads:

If you want, maybe after this we can exchange addresses and be pen pals.

———

(( Whether you're reading this out of curiosity or because I'm your Star Sending recipient, hi there!! With four characters, I figured I'd leave a lot for you to choose from so you can do what's most comfortable for you. It's your choice if you want to take a more serious or silly approach!

Charade's list is the most straightforward, and depending on what you pick, can end up being lighthearted or sentimental! She'll be equally appreciative of any of her wishlist items, including the boxes :D

Blackjack and Tricky's lists are intertwined, and Jack's wishes are largely plot-relevant. If you're up for that, you're absolutely free to fulfill any of his wishlist items, but it's not a big deal if you don't (I have a contingency plan)! The one exception I have is if you decide to do the Tera Shard request, please keep the number low (pretty much no showing up with 30 or more Tera shards)!

Riddle's list leans more towards serious, but if you want to engage him in a silly way, please do! As a character, he takes himself more seriously than I tend to depict him, so it's up to you if you wanna play around with that or not!

I'm really excited for this event! I hope you have fun, too! ))

[slowfae]

Some Wizarding jobs ideas for Harry Potter Shifters

Because life doesn’t stop after hogwarts.

I have finally figured out what i want to do after hogwarts in my Dr. In honor to that, i wanted to share a few ideas i considered before deciding.

If there is any Harry Potter shifters here, i would love to hear your own careers ideas 🙏

My main issue with most of these jobs is that my so is Charlie Weasley who lives in Romania and there is no way i would go between this man and his dragons. I wanted to be able to live with him and still be working.

Seer tea shop

I have a big interest in divination and do tarot, so i like to script I’m a seer and that what i learn about divination in my dr helps me in my practice in my cr. I imagined there could be a tea shop where seers are invited to do readings while the clients are enjoying their beverages and sweets. (and of course get tea leaves reading)

This is my favourite out of all my ideas, that’s probably what i would have settled on if i wasn’t planning on living in Romania.

Healer

Self explanatory, this could be at the wizard hospital St.Mungo. I, of course, imagined becoming a healer at the dragon reserve.

My fear with this is how emotionally draining this type of jobs can be. I don’t personally think i could handle it at the moment, and that’s my own limitations talking.

Herbologist

If you like gardening, you might consider growing magical plants for magical ingredients. This is what my Dr mom is doing, i thought i might follow her steps, ended up choosing something else.

Stylist wizard / Designer

I also have a Shining Nikki Dr where i am a designer and still it almost slipped my mind i had this idea. This one is inspired by one of my favourite Hogwarts mystery character Andre Egwu, stylist wizard !

I love this idea because i imagine haute-couture in the wizarding world to be using magic to enhance the designs. With embroidery who moves on the fabric, or literal magic effects around the dress.

Also, in the books, wizards are described as dressing completely differently than muggles and i love to see fan arts that imagine what modern wizards fashion would look like.

WandMaker

That’s what i decided i want to do. I’m an artist and love to pick up all kinds of crafts. I do bookbinding, macrame, crochet…Woodworking is something that has been in my mind for sometime and how cool would it be to make wands that actually do magic ? Also since i am an artist in my Cr, it’s easier for me to project myself in a manual work.

I also would love to make fun magic items with my other skills. I had this idea of creating what i call “twin journals” Where what’s written inside one of the journals is replicated in the other, so it would be useful instead of owls for long distance. I know some shifters have this kind of objects scripted for their so and them, but i like the idea of being the one creating it.

You might think it wouldn’t work for me as i would need a shop to sell those wands, but i figured i could still sell them in Romania. Ollivander is big competition anyway. I think i could also arrange to have my products send to shops.

I found this on Pinterest, for more ideas and infos. This is how i am just finding out that i need arithmancy for wand making. I’m shifting to after hogwarts so i know i would not have to attend class, but still, i don’t want to give up divination.

[alanaever]

About me !

Hi! I'm Alana (She/Her)

I write fanfiction for the Empyrean, I'm incredibly delusional and think I’m Violet Sorrengail.

My favourite colour is pink, I love Lana del Rey and come up with random scenes to music on a whim, and then think I should write them.

Below you'll find links to my work/fandom & some FAQ 

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✧ Fandoms/Works

Fourth wing: 

Currently posting

     - Xaden’s POV of Iron Flame.

Clue in the title. Behind the scenes of what went on with the marked ones and at Samara. Focuses primarily on Xaden’s friendships and relationships negative and positive as well as giving context in the form of my theories about Xaden’s life before the rebellion as well as Violet's life before the quadrant. Each chapter has an epigraph that tells a story from a character perspective that I make up. 

Snippet from Chapter 1 

"She is standing right here," she snaps, and hell, Violet speaking Tyrrish is... There are no words for the emotion I feel. All I know is that I want to pick her up, deposit her on the throne and... No. Trust first. I look about to gauge the Assembly's reaction to how screwed they are and an unflattering amount of satisfaction courses through me at the number of jaws that drop in front of me.

     - Beneath the Willow tree

I read Willow in the Breeze and got immediately inspired I do have a plan to continue this story but I've hit writer's block on it at the moment and I have other projects to work on. The first two chapters are my idea of the night of Willow’s conception, and the 3rd is Xaden returning from the army and setting the scene for his life and why he may or may not be the most advisable parent… 

Chapter 4 has been drafted but I need to further flesh out the plot before I take it off hiatus and start posting more regularly. 

Snippet from Chapter 4

“No answer? Okay, I’ll speak. You don’t invite yourself over to my house. To sit at my table. Eat my food. And fail to converse with my daughter politely. It’s not har-” my tirade is cut short. 

“Do you know?” Mira asks voice shaking.

“What’s wrong with you? Not the slightest -”

“the father.” That has me in waves of fury immediately.

“I’m sure we went over this at the time. No, I don’t fucking know who her father is,” I pause for breath “I’m sorry it’s such a shock to you that I’m raising a child as a single parent, it does happen you know.” 

“You could have had an abortion,” my mother says a strange lilt to her voice. 

“I could never have aborted what was likely my one chance at being a mother. Easy for you to say with your perfectly functioning bodies, abortion was never an option for me when the chance that I’d ever even get pregnant was slim to none.” 

My mother looks strangely confused by this, I have thought for a while that she might be a sociopath capable of understanding human emotions but not particularly caring about them. “You’d have had more chance if you weren't a single mother, men don’t want an extra burden to carry around with them. You’ve read Othello the whole premise is cuckolding, men don’t want to raise another man's child,”  

“You just sat on the floor playing with said burden Lilith, fancy telling her what you think of her?”

“I don’t think that. I was providing an alternate view to your belief that you wouldn’t have had a family if you had had an abortion,” 

“Why are we having this conversation? We-” I gesture wildly at Lilith, “were having a lovely evening but the second these two show up, back to cold stone emotionless mother who feels the need to discuss my rights surrounding abortion again.”

“We weren’t trying to imply anything,” Brennan says quietly. 

“We just, well. She reminded us of someone we know and we weren’t sure…” 

The little air my lungs have retained during our argument evaporates. And I stood staring at Brennan and Mira waiting. Envisioning the dark handsome man who appears towering over me in my dreams, whose eyes i see reflected in my daughters face, whose smirk exists as a cheeky smile flashed over the kitchen counter

— Banishment

the story of Violets life pre Xaden her relationship with Halden and the other tauri siblings and her forieghs into political scheming long before joining the revolution.

snippit from chapter 1.

Violet Sorrengail, a notorious recluse, has unexpectedly agreed to share her life story. This revelation isn't just a simple recounting of her wartime experiences; it's a deep dive into the pivotal moments leading up to the conflict. These stories are being shaped into a biographical series, although many suspect it's more of a romance novel exploring not just the entanglement of the great betrayers son, as he once was and the general’s daughter, but the lives of hundreds of other players who’s stories were lost to time all compiled by her close friend and confidant, Jesinia Neilwart a woman who herself had a role in the conflict and had her own entanglements. 

Jesinia, the now curator of the scribe quadrant, sat across from Violet in a dimly lit study, the walls lined with ancient tomes and faded portraits. The air thick with the scent of old parchment, a fitting backdrop for the stories about to unfold. "Okay, Violet," Jesinia began, her voice steady and her pen poised, ready to capture every nuance. "If you're ready, let's start with the period immediately following the fall of the Apostasy. This could provide a powerful opening to your biography."

Violet leaned back in her chair, her eyes narrowing as she contemplated the suggestion. "I'm not sure how that's relevant, Jesinia. My involvement in the revolution wasn't a culmination of years of brewing discontent, it was sudden, from the moment i found out during war games i was thrust into it. You're asking about a span of six years, a time when I had nothing to do with the war."

Jesinia leaned forward, a knowing smile playing on her lips. Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of unearthing untold stories. "Violet, if you insist on claiming you spent all six of those years locked up in your mother's Basgiath apartment, I'll be forced to threaten you with this pen," she teased, holding up the instrument with mock menace. "Scribe or not, we both know the truth. Your entanglement with political affairs started long before your well-documented involvement with Xaden and the revolution in 634 AU. It all began back at Calldyr Castle."

Violet chuckled, a rare sound that softened her usually stern demeanour. "I can't imagine many people would be interested in the mundane lives of the Calldyr elite," she remarked, her tone laced with a hint of irony.

Jesinia's expression grew serious, her voice unwavering. "You'd be surprised, Violet. The world is fascinated by the intricacies of power, privilege, and rebellion. This is my story to tell, and I intend to include every detail I deem significant."

Violet raised an eyebrow, her lips curling into a half-smile. "I thought you said this was a biography," she challenged, her tone playful yet probing.

"It is, in a way," Jesinia admitted, her eyes not leaving Violet's. "But I want it to be immersive, to draw readers into the reality of those times."

Violet leaned forward, her curiosity piqued. "So you're saying you're going to sensationalise it?" she asked, a glimmer of amusement in her voice.

Jesinia shook her head, her expression earnest. "There's no need for sensationalism. If you got into even half as much trouble as I've heard about during the quadrant and the war that followed, then trust me, I won't need to embellish a single bit. The truth, as you lived it, is compelling enough."

For a moment, there was silence as Violet considered this. The flickering candlelight cast shadows that danced across her face, highlighting the lines etched by years of experience and secrecy. "Perhaps you're right," she finally said, a thoughtful note in her voice. "But remember, some truths are best left buried."

Jesinia nodded, her gaze steady and reassuring. "We'll tread carefully. But the world deserves to know the real Violet Sorrengail—the woman behind the myth."

Violet sighed, a resigned yet accepting gesture. "Very well. But don't expect me to sugarcoat anything. The world I knew was far from a fairy tale."

Jesinia smiled warmly, her pen once again poised to capture the essence of Violet's journey. "That's exactly what I was hoping for," she said, her voice filled with anticipation.

Behind-the-scenes works 

     - part one of a series called two sides of the same coin, - ‘traitors’ 

Has been plotted and planned extensively and I am currently writing the first draft, unlike my other works this will be a story I write behind the scenes and post one chapter at a time when I’m ready and pleased with the result. 

The plot is inspired by Storm in the Quiet which if you haven't read it please please check out it’s an amazing piece of work. It is the story of Violet's first year if Tyrrandor succeeded. So no Xaden and no marked ones at Basgiath. Unlike SITQ Tairn tells Violet about the venin and she takes on a Role similar to Xaden in Book 1, Xaden and the marked ones will not be present in Book 1 of this series but will be introduced in Book 2 if my plans are followed. 

Snippet from Chapter 2 

No dragon bonds an injured rider. And no dragon would look twice at her due to her stature she’s small and smaller than most human women and there's a frailness in her physique despite her competence with daggers she is not a natural fighter but a learned one out of necessity. 

I think I make up my mind then. 

     - what if we all left

 A story centring on the premise that Mira and the rest of the Sorrengails left Basgiath to fight for the rebellion believing violet to have been compromised by the scribe quadrant. They reunite years later and find a completely different sister to the one they left behind, who has been through some shit. 

Snippet 

I lunge for the knife without thinking and take it to slash at the family portrait in the hall of the smiling faces from years ago who don’t yet realise their lives will end so soon. I kick down the carved bookcases sending papers to the floor i smash 3 pictures 5, 7, all of them till there's nothing left but the carnage of my life. 

But it’s still not enough, I reach for a bottle of bleach from under the sink and take the cap off showing it over the cushions, the floor anywhere in reach. 

     - then we were Venin.

A story where Violet and possibly Xaden ( to be confirmed ) turn Venin and end up being tried for treason after capture only for people to discover the truth. There could be a child in this story but it would be post pregnancy and the child would be around 10 years old. 

No snippet I haven't yet written anything for this work.

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✧ FAQ

Do you have an updated schedule?

No, I did try to do one but I’m still in university so I write as and when it suits me. I do try to get updates out sooner if people enjoy the chapters so if you're irritated due to a cliffhanger let me know and I'll do my best to deliver ;))

Can I bind your fic?

Yes provided it’s for personal or non-profit use. I’m a major advocate for keeping fanfic free especially as a lot of the work I do is not entirely OC and the rights and ownership of the characters belong to RY. 

Can I use a scenario/character in your fic for my own or write something inspired by your fic?

Yes provided I’m referenced as the inspiration for the scene or as the creator of the character otherwise I'd love to read anything people come up with xx