#now has thirteen fics the last of which ! is! an actual ending! what!

[squireofgeekdom]

<falls on floor, raises arm in triumph> i think... i think i have a full draft of the whole believe au

[jwirecs]

RECOMMENDED SEVENTEEN FICS OF MAY-JUNE 2023💖

hello, hello! here are my recs for seventeen for may-june! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝 (i discovered that combining atz/svt/skz&txt into one post may be too much and too long + might take too much space in the tags for each respective groups so i’ve decided to make them all separate!) 

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

[04:15AM] || @fairyhaos​💕✅💯💯

↳ Requested by one of their readers. (THE AMOUNT OF SOFTNESS AND FLUFF AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

Blood Moon || @smileysuh​🔞💕💔✅💯💯💯

↳ ".....let’s just say, you’re all that matters to me now. And I’m going to worship you as if you were the moon” (idk this author personally, but i just wanna say that i love your fics and everyone needs to give atleast their fic a read! you will be seeing their fics in my nct fic recs too just saying.)

Drunk Giant || @yikesmary​​​💕✅

↳ in which you have to figure out how to transfer your drunk boyfriend to the bedroom without causing major bodily harm. and he’s not making it easy for you.

The Athlete (Bonus) || @sun-kore​​ 🔞💕✅💯

↳ You are assigned to do an interview with Kwon Soonyoung, the trailblazing athlete everyone calls Hoshi. But as you spend more time with him, you start to see there are more layers to him than football. (i honestly had to re-read The Athlete because i forgot how the story went. + it was a given to read the first one before the second one. i suggest yall do the same.)

How To Unsubscribe To Dating || @dropsofletters​​​💕💔✅

↳ on april 18th, hansol likes his favorite youtuber’s instagram picture. not because of her content—though, he finds himself laughing at all of her weekly videos—but because he thinks she’s gorgeous. that is how it ends. just a like on a picture that no one will see.

This Is How We Fall || @bitterie-sweetie​💕💔✅💯

↳ You should know better than to make a deal with a stranger, but the need for a date to Minghao’s party has you desperate. It can’t be too bad though; all you have to do is show Mingyu what you saw in your reading, and he would be your date for one night. Simple enough, right?

A Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing || @rubyreduji​🔞✅

↳ kim mingyu is the biggest player on campus, so why is he coming to you for sex help

Doting On You || @lovelyhan​​​​🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ a svt hhu x pets series!

Fallin’ Flowers || @leejungchans​​​💕💔🔄💯💯💯

↳ "while flowers bloom and falls, scars cure and buds shoot // we are living our first and last moments // so i won’t take you for granted // because you loved me as i am” - fallin’ flower by seventeen

I Found Love In Your Smile || @wonlouvre​​​🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ falling in love with wonwoo never felt so easy. however, when unforgivable truths test your relationship, you can’t help but think that maybe you were betrothed for all the wrong reasons.

Inflection Point || @lovelyhan​​​​🔞💕💔✅

↳ you love yoon jeonghan. no, scratch that. you fucking adore yoon jeonghan; so much that the moment he asks you to be in an exclusive set-up with his current partner, you accept the offer in a heartbeat. what you fail to consider, however, is who your boss’ boyfriend actually is.

Money Talks || @sunlightwoo​​​💕💔✅💯💯

↳ everybody needs to get by somehow, and what better way of it is through a ‘club’ full of men that are loaded with money to help pay for whatever you need help with? to put it shortly, thirteen sugar daddies are here to help you pay for what you need or give you money in exchange for something to make them feel better about life.

Puppy Parents || @yikesmary​💕✅

↳ where your golden retriever has the tendency to bring you things she has an interest in— sticks, frisbees that obviously don’t belong to you, and even the occasional bird. but this time, your dog brings… a man? and not just any man, only the most beautiful man you’ve ever met. maybe your dog is onto something…

Partner Privilege || @blue-jisungs​​​​💕💔✅

↳ (title says it all, i can honestly see this happening to their future s/o.)

Feverish Lips || @sunlightwoo​​​💔✅

↳ you’d think that because it’s the first semester of the year, it’d be like the beginning of a roller coaster when its slowly becoming climatic and stressful. however, once you’re at the top of the point you have two choices: scream your lungs or quickly hang onto your life support. sadly in your case, you can either suck it up and get through it, or get involved in its loops in tangles with trouble that is bound to be met within every corner that you turn to.

Introduce Me A Good Person || @taeyegu​​ 💕💔✅

↳ if there is a nice person, please introduce him to me. sometimes like water, sometimes like fire. someone who can love me sincerely. i hope he is someone who is mature and faithful…

What I Would Do || @sungbeam​​ 💕💔✅

↳ minghao is kinda sorta maybe in love with you, but he thinks you're so out of his league.

Meet Cute of The Century || @lovelyhan​ 🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ the last thing you expected when you volunteered at your city’s local animal shelter is to meet the hottest cat person in the world. now if only he’d just adopt one of them so you’d stop ogling him every time he drops by.

Do check out all of the other seventeen fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

[misc-obeyme]

your reaper headcanons 🤲 hand them over please

but if reapers are meant to be neutral, it makes the idea of romancing thirteen as a mortal so sad, to me at least 😭 either she comes to collect your soul, and ig she keeps it close to her to remember and admire

but imagine if like this is a first time circumstance where a reaper has a bias towards a human, and because she's not technically neutral to mc since they have a connection, so they don't allow her to collect mc's soul (maybe in fear of her trying to interfere?)

I don't know what's worse, her never getting to say a proper goodbye because she wasn't allowed to do it herself (and the question of whether or not she'd have the knowledge of when mc will die (there are the life candles so maybe...)).

Or having to collect the soul of the person you love and knowing you'll never see them again. And the possible stalling but you can't change fate, you can't make an exception. And spending the last day together, and mc turning to thirteen with a soft but sad smile and just saying "I'm ready."

help I made myself sad AKDKWJF. My fave characters are always the one's who get hit with the angst beam (sorry Mammon and Solomon)

OH AND I WONDER HOW REAPERS GET LIFE CANDLES DISTRIBUTED. Because she watches over a lot and the cave is big, but there's TONS of people and we saw the demon brothers also had candles, so that adds even MORE candles. I HAVE TOO MANY IDEAS I NEED TO CHILL

ANYWAY the manga makes me very happy and barnes and noble is having a bogo 50% off sale for manga specifically, so you could pick up the first two volumes. There's a lot of Mammon ass shots. And plot. I'm totally reading for the plot...

- ✨ anon

Oh oh oh now you're making me wanna write some sweet & sad Thirteen fics...

So okay, here are my personal headcanons about reapers. This is stuff that I developed because I needed to for my OC story lol.

I think of the reapers as being neutral. They don't belong to any of the three worlds because they exist in all of them.

The fact is there are like 8 billion people living on earth. That means there has to be a lot of reapers just to cover humans alone. Not only are there a ton of them, but their lifespans are short compared to demons and angels. So necessarily, I think most reapers live in the human world.

However, death comes for all and has no affiliation to any world.

Demons obviously have candles, as evidenced by the time OG when the bros went looking for Beel's. So it makes sense to me that angels would have candles, too.

The candles manifest the moment the soul it's attached to comes into being. They simply materialize out of the air into the reaper's cave. As long as that candle is lit, that being is alive.

Human candles don't go out until the entire candle has burned down and this can certainly happy quite quickly. They vary more dramatically in size.

Angel and demon candles are all basically like big ole pillar candles that never seem to actually melt at all. They are eternally burning. However, angels and demons can die, so when this happens their flames just go out like someone snuffed the candle at which point the rest of the candle turns to ash or dust.

The Devildom and the Celestial Realm have a much smaller population than earth does. So Thirteen is the only reaper in the Devildom. All of the demon candles are in her cave. I think of it as her jurisdiction. Candles move realms if the person they're attached to does, too. MC can move between the realms by the end of the OG, but due to their strong affiliation with the Devildom, I think their candle moved to Thirteen's cave some point in the first season of OG. Basically, I think the candle manifests in whatever realm the person thinks of as "home" and certainly MC feels the brothers are like their family.

Similarly, I think there is one reaper whose jurisdiction is the Celestial Realm. They keep track of all the angel's candles.

And due to the amount of humans that exist, there are untold amounts of reapers working in the human world.

I like to think that reapers can kind of make pocket dimensions to house themselves and their candles when necessary. So there would be actual caves where reapers have made their homes (with magic to keep curious humans out), but if they have to create extra space they just create a door that acts as a portal between their cave and the human world.

There is a lot of paperwork involved with the creation of candles and the collection of souls. Because what happens with those souls once they're collected?

Personally I think you could say all kinds of things are possible. I never really bothered to figure that part out because the game doesn't specify and I'm cool with it being unknown.

I like to think that Thirteen could choose to keep MC's soul if she wanted to, she would just need to file the correct paperwork for it.

All of this is how it works in my personal au that I developed for Arrie's story, but it's kind of how I think about all of it now.

I have Azrael as the head of the reapers, but he's an angel still. However, he's become more neutral toward the realms as he's had to step into the role of reaper boss.

It's this idea that any being from any of the realms could die that makes me think they have to be neutral. Especially if the realms are at war with each other. I mean, when the Devildom and the CR were at war, reapers would have had to collect souls from both sides.

Anyway, this is all just my personal thoughts on it lol.

I like the idea that Thirteen would be the one to collect MC's soul. It would be hard, but you know she wouldn't trust anyone else to do it. Plus, MC is hers. And if they were dating, I think MC would give Thirteen permission to keep their soul for as long she wants.

Wouldn't it be a comfort to know the reaper that's collecting your soul loves you? When the last thing you see is her eyes shining with tears? The last thing you hear is your name on her lips?

In my personal au, reapers can't die. But what if they can choose to die?

What if Thirteen doesn't collect MC's soul because she gives up her own life at the same time? Maybe their souls can merge and instead of being collected at all, they simply vanish or scatter into stardust, forever entwined.

Oops now I'm sad too.

Anyway, I clearly have zero chill about any of this, so I say embrace your ideas! Let them go crazy, why not!

As for the manga, I'm probably gonna order it online. I don't have a Barnes & Noble in my town, so if I want to go there, I gotta go to a different town. And I'm just too lazy lol. But now I want to read it, only for the Mammon ass shots. I mean plot is cool too I guess.

[annawayne]

Annaaaaaaaaaaaaaa T^T I hope you're doing alright today! Did you bake anything new recently!

For the writer's ask btw: 1, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14, 15, 23, 27 :3

Do it, tell me all about it! And I hope you have a great week :3 Thank you for blessing us with all your beautiful art and love T^T

Moon, hello (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠���⁠♡

Thank you a lot for asking, and OH MY, that's a lot, but don't get me wrong, I appreciate your interest a lot T^T

Let me first tell you about baking: I baked only the plum pie recently, and it's already gone... But I plan to bake pumpkin muffins with orange cream soon :3

As for the questions:

1 - the last sentence you wrote

I've already answered this one a bit earlier here, but as I got around to answer your question, here's another sentences that I actually wrote the last one:

"I wonder, why can’t we notice… until we’ve lost it already?"

👀

4 - a story idea you haven’t written yet

Oh, I have this one story idea in my mind, based on this one art...

Can't say much without spoilering , but this story has some angsty development. Like, very angsty.

Other than this, it's also a story about how AruAni met and fell in love, so some kind of strangers to lovers, with a lot of immediate attraction and interest, all set in Switzerland, 1911.

The caption in the original post - "It was the love at first sight" - is a leitmotif of this whole story.

I've been thinking about it while working on this drawing, and I didn't consider writing it, but the more time passes - the more I think that, eventually, I'll write it...

5 - first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

Uhm... Well, I think, the chapter 10 of MYLYSW counts for now, yes? If yes, so here we are:

"How to breathe without feeling the burden of the mission to be fulfilled; how to sleep without all the images of the world through the eyes of others; how to say a word without feeling obliged to remember a promise to come back; how to look at the sun and see in it the beauty of another day borning out of the velvet darkness of the night into the golden sunrise, and not to cross out another twenty-four hours out of one hundred and thirteen thousand nine hundred fifty-five hours of defined expiration of her."

Me and my damn love for the long sentences...

8 - if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for…

Oh, good question! I don't really have a lot of fics, but I think I would love to write for Neverland of (Our) Desires, the Fort Salta oneshot-sequel, where AruAni are caught in feelings and have an awkward-silly conversation about their boat *adventure*, with all these emotions and feelings of having the life ahead of them and not knowing what to do with it... Oh well, oh well, such a potential 🤌

12 - a trope you’re really into right now

Hm... Honestly, I've been into Forbidden Love or Star-crossed Lovers tropes recently...

It's quite canonical AruAni, to be honest, and I just love to think about it in different AUs and canon-compliant too, so yes, I would say these ones! And here a remark, that Forbidden Love/Star-crossed Lovers don't mean that it's a tragic ending - more like obstacles and a lot of angst, which challenge the characters and their love, and how it all develops within the plot.

14 - where do you get your inspiration?

You know, I thought I had a proper answer for it, but when I started typing it, I realized, that, in fact, I don't.

If I'm totally honest - I don't think I even have something special as "inspiration". I have ideas that pop up in my mind on their own, and then, I turn them into story or a moment in the fic, but I never particularly searched for it. I suppose, it's also a consequence of my constant art and literature involving, where I read/observe/study something, so I have this almost never-stopping source of new experience and knowledge, which leads to ideas and inspiration to create my own stories/drawings.

So, I think that my inspiration is constant studying and sources of knowledge.

15 - favorite weather for writing

Answered here :3

23 - pick three keywords that describe your writing

Moon, what a question *sigh*... Let's say:

evocative, raw and poetic

I thought of what to answer you on this particular question because it's a bit difficult for me to evaluate my own writing style, but I also remembered the words I received about it (including your wonderful feedback), and I guess, it helped me to pick these particular keywords.

27 - your favorite part of the writing process

Answered here, too :3

Thank you a lot for your interest and support, Moon, I wish you all the best and take care🖤

[badventist-petite]

so my poor poor mutuals and followers have been dealing with my bruce greenwood obsession for a better part of a year now and i'm so sorry but it's not stopping anytime soon i think

it all started when i binged the entirety of the resident in a week and a half this time last year and said to myself "ughhh i loooooove bruce greenwood, why have i been neglecting him for so long?" 😭😭😭

and in so doing, i found myself back here on tumblr, which led to aos boyce/pike fanfic (shoutout @ofsmokenandgold's "weight of a man" series and @gracieminabox's "the way our horizons meet" series. completely altered my brain chemistry they're both sooooo good)

which led to me going down the rabbit hole of watching everything he's in, stuff i've seen and stuff i haven't seen. i'm not even close to watching everything but i may or may not have created a spreadsheet breaking down how much he's on-screen in the stuff that he's in. because i'm a freak. (but at least @lizzy0305 supports me in this endeavor)

EXAMPLE: he's in the film "Flight" with Denzel Washington, he's plays an old friend of his but he's also the rep for the pilots' union. the film is 138 minutes long, and Bruce is on-screen for roughly 27 of those minutes. which comes out to about 19.5 percent.

the shows are going to be a pain in the ass to calculate. like The Resident. even though he's credited in all 100-something episodes, he's not actually in every single episode

St. Elsewhere is also going to suck because i don't really care for that show AT ALL. 😬 (that show has both bruce and mark, not at the same time sadly, but it still can't hold my attention, i really tried)

and that led to "hey i'm gonna watch some NCIS, i need a reference point for my guy phil boyce in these fics" because iykyk 😏 and then i somehow ended up watching THIRTEEN SEASONS ( @bowserbabe don't laugh at me.) i didn't really watch it too much back in the day but i somehow still shipped kate/gibbs because of course i did 👀 and also watching some of mark harmon's other stuff because he is also very very pretty (like prince of bel-air, he is SO EFFING GORGEOUS in that dumb movie, i love it. i'm probably gonna rewatch it soon. and i just watched the presidio again yesterday, a classic!)

and then i found some stuff of theirs on youtube; sleepwalkers with bruce and a young naomi watts and also surprise! jeffrey d. sams. it was very unfortunately cancelled after six episodes, i liked it so much! and reasonable doubts with mark and marlee matlin but the pilot is the only full ep that i've found on youtube... i really gotta find the rest of those eps. that show got 2 seasons so that's better.

speaking of youtube, i follow some comics youtubers and they also like polls over there. one was "outside of kevin conroy, who is your favorite batman voice actor?" options were: troy baker, jensen ackles (i think), roger craig smith, and of course bruce greenwood. so that's who i vote for, not just because i want him to win the poll (he didn't but he was in 2nd place) but because i do actually feel that he's the 2nd best after kevin.

then i came across another youtube poll asking "what's your favorite justice league animated film?" choices were: "justice league: new frontier", "justice league: doom", "justice league dark: apokolips war", and "justice league: crisis on two earths". and so i voted for crisis on two earths (and it was the clear favorite of the poll). y'know.. the one with james woods as the evil batman couterpart, owlman. he was so good in that role. he's so good as villains in general. probably because he is an actual villain irl so it's not really acting for him.... oh and also mark harmon as superman, no biggie. kinda wish he did it a few more times, he was pretty good.

so after pondering for a little bit and putting two and two together, now my brain is like, wait... huh... i want that 👀👀👀 i want bruce as batman and mark as superman.

and i do kinda ship batman/superman sometimes. 'cause why not? they're cute. and all of the fanart here on tumblr doesn't help! it's so good

i want art of this. i'd do it myself but i can't draw for shit, i'm just not talented in that way

so someone draw that for me, please? i'll give you money and find all of the reference photos you'd ever need. probably more than you'd ever want.

i don't know about a particular art style, it just has to obviously be those two guys? i guess it couldn't be an action scene because i want to actually see that it's bruce's face under the cowl so maybe they're hanging out in the batcave or fortress of solitude after some crime-fighting. or maybe they're out and about as bruce and clark in metropolis or something? nah, i want them in uniform but no cowl on bats! and it doesn't have to be shippy either (but i wouldn't say no 😁😁😁)

[iam93percentstardust]

✨new fic for bestie's (@therollingstonys) birthday! ✨ ft omegaverse, past hammer/tony, and my current favorite trope: pop star tony! with a bonus excerpt below :)

can be found here (must have an ao3 account to read)

~

During Steve’s final year at NYU, he finally let his Ma talk him into staying in the dorms instead of using his New Yorker privilege to stay with her. It had turned out to be an absolute mistake. Steve had despised his roommate, who was another alpha like him but apparently hadn’t been taught manners by their parents like Steve had. They were incapable of any volume other than loud even in the middle of the night, always left their room trashed, and brought so many dates back to their dorm room that he had still spent more time back at his Ma’s than he had in his actual dorm. By the end of the year, Steve had been firmly adamant that he would never, not in a million years, ever have a roommate again.

This was, of course, before he’d wound up with his dream job as an animator for Disney, packed himself up and moved to Los Angeles, and discovered that principles were all very well and good but having enough money to eat instead of giving it all to his rent was better.

So now he has Justin.

And while Justin is irritating in ways that have nothing to do with his beta designation—there are already too many tech startups in the world, and Steve doesn’t even know what Justin is doing in L.A. and not, you know, Silicon Valley—and a social climber—if Steve never has to hear one more “that time I met Insert-Celebrity’s-Name-Here” story, it’ll be too soon—and just generally incompetent—they’ve received two noise violations already for explosions that Justin’s “tech” has set off—he isn’t actually that bad of a roommate. Sure, he’s not fantastic, but he doesn’t try to posture with Steve in the apartment (which would be ineffective anyway since Steve is very much an alpha and Justin is, despite his best efforts, very much not), he does generally pick up after himself, and he never brings people back (though Steve isn’t entirely convinced that’s not because he doesn’t want them to see where he actually lives instead of out of any sense of courtesy). Anytime he goes somewhere fancy for a business meeting, he brings back food for Steve, and he even offered Steve the nicer of the two bedrooms because he thought Steve would appreciate the greater amount of natural light (though again, Steve isn’t sure how much of that is altruism and not just that Justin isn’t a morning person).

Truthfully, right up until Justin’s birthday party, Steve might have even said that Justin was a pretty good person.

Up until about a week ago, Justin had been dating… some celebrity omega. Steve is pretty sure that it had come up at some point, and considering his excitement over it, there are probably pap photos of them somewhere, but he tends to tune out all of Justin’s celebrity stories, pretty sure that most of them are fake. There’s only so many times Justin can say that he’d been invited backstage at every Beyoncé concert he’s ever been to before Steve stops believing them. Last week though, Justin’s celebrity boyfriend had broken up with him, citing reasons of Justin being a tool (which, not gonna lie, had made Steve snicker a bit), and he’s been on the warpath ever since.

“Steve! My man! My best friend!” Justin exclaims, leaning up against the doorframe of Steve’s bedroom.

“Nope,” Steve says immediately. It’s not that he has anything against Justin. It’s just that this is the first time he’s been home in forty-eight hours. They’re coming up on the last days before finished scenes need to be turned in, which means that it’s all hands on deck at the studio. Most of the animators who don’t have families have spent the entire time at their desk, and even the ones that do have gone home, given their kids kisses goodnight, and turned right back around. He’s looking forward to sleeping for thirteen straight hours, and Justin’s birthday doesn’t factor even the slightest bit into his plans.

“But you have to come,” Justin whines. “I’ve been telling everyone all about you—” which means he’s been playing up Steve’s job to make him sound like he’s a bigger deal than he is—“and they’re all so excited! Come on, it’s my birthday!”

Steve is, unfortunately, a fundamentally decent person, so he sighs, says goodbye to his thirteen hours of sleep, and goes out to join the party. And despite his exhaustion, it’s not even that bad of a party until someone asks Justin about his celebrity boyfriend—Tony Stark, and how could Steve have forgotten that? Everyone knows who Tony Stark is. He knows who Tony Stark is, and he doesn’t know anyone despite working in the entertainment industry.

“That cheapskate broke up with me,” Justin seethes. “I mentioned it was my birthday once, and he broke up with me instead of spending even a few dollars on a present for me.” Knowing Justin, it was probably more than once and it was probably a completely outrageous present that even the world’s biggest pop star would struggle to afford, because Justin is that kind of irritating, but Steve keeps his mouth shut.

“It’s a shame you don’t have his nudes or something,” the girl who’d brought Tony up says.

Justin blinks at her before a slow smile spreads across his face. “But I do have them. He made me delete them when we broke up but I had a copy saved in a different folder on my phone.”

“Really?” the girl asks interestedly. “You know, he’s never done a nude photoshoot.”

“Yeah, none of his other partners have ever released anything like that,” someone else chimes in. Steve shifts uncomfortably. He doesn’t like the direction this is going, but there’s something niggling in the back of his mind, telling him to stick around. “Super weird since he’s dated so many people.”

“You could totally sell them,” the first girl says, warming to her theme. “You’d probably make like a ton of money off of them.”

“I could make some money off of them,” Justin says thoughtfully. “And it would get Hammer Industries’ name out there.”

“But that’s revenge porn.”

[jazzthatonewriterchick]

Lovers & Friends (18+ Fic)

Pairing: Keigo Takami x Black!Fem!Reader (Friends to Lovers)

Synopsis: In which you and Keigo have begun to realize the strange new feelings you both have for each other after one drunken night at a close friend’s wedding that ends with you in his bed, but because of your longtime friendship and committed relationships with other people, you’re more than happy to forget that night even happened and keep your mutual feelings in the dark…for now, at least. 

Story Warnings: Smutty smut; 18+ (MINORS GET AWAY); Cheating/Infidelity; Mating; Light Degradation; Spanking; Exhibitionism; Multiple Positions; Creampie; Unprotected PIV Sex; Facials; Scent Play; Marking; Spitting; Deepthroating; Cunnilingus; Begging; Edgeplay; Power Play; Daddy Kink; Some Angst; Hurt/Comfort; Mild Violence

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in this fic. However, as this is my writing, I do not give permission for my work to be reposted on any other sites that are not from my own accounts. Thank you!

Writer's Note: This week has been hella weird (I think it's cuz of an eclipse coming or Friday the 13th) but in other news, HAS ANYONE SEEN THE NEW JJK EPISODE? BITCH NANAMI CAN HAVE ALL OF ME. -Jazz

Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Bonus Chapter.

Read on AO3 here!

************

Chapter Thirteen: I'll Kill For You.

That night across the city, Keigo is tossing and turning in his king-sized bed. 

Usually, on a Friday night such as thing one, he would be inviting his friends over for a little kickback or play a round of video games. Maybe he’d even be out in the streets, bar hopping or going to clubs.

But tonight, he doesn’t want to socialize. He doesn’t want to be with anyone. His phone has been blowing up since he’s gotten home, but he ignores it. He even smoked a blunt and went to bed early for work tomorrow, also hoping this would calm his mind that is won’t shut the fuck up about you and Sakura. 

But it won’t. No matter what, his brain keeps replaying Monday afternoon when you looked so damn good in your work clothes when he met you for lunch and the moment Sakura walked out on him last weekend.

“Dammit,” he swears, frustratedly sitting up in his bed. He figured going to bed early in time for work tomorrow would help him clear his mind for a while, but he was wrong. All he can think about are you, Sakura, and how fucked his situation is. 

But mostly, his thoughts lie with you. He is glad things are “cool” with you after that lunch meeting you two had, but things are still…different. There is still that layer of attraction underneath every conversation you two have; every text he sends you; every laugh you give him at his jokes. That night at the hotel only made that attraction more palpable for him. He can’t even look at you the same way again.

“Fuck!” he growls, gripping his hair in frustration. This is ridiculous! He’s never going to get any sleep if his mind keeps racing like this. 

So, against his better judgment, Keigo rises from his bed, tosses on some sweats and a tank top, and takes to the skies in an effort to stretch his wings, destress, and tire himself out enough to get some sleep. He originally plans to just fly about randomly, a particular route not planned…but what the fuck does he do instead?

He takes the route to your and Rumi’s apartment. 

“You stupid motherfucker,” he sighs, criticizing himself and his need to see you. Logically, he knows he isn’t. There is about a one in ten chance he’ll actually see you in your bedroom window, especially considering that you and Rei aren’t a thing anymore and as far as he knows, you’re single. So when he pulls up to your condo, he expects to see your bedroom curtain closed for the night.

What he doesn’t expect to see, however, is Rei’s ass strutting out of the condo building like a proud peacock. Keigo pauses in his route immediately and zips behind the building, pressing his front up against the brick wall.

He peeks out from the side, sneakily eyeing your ex-boyfriend as he practically skips down the steps of your building. Why was he in there? Could you two have talked? Are you back together? God, he hopes not. How could you have taken back a fraud like that? 

Rei begins to whistle a low tune as he digs into his pocket for his car keys. He clicks a button on the pod, causing the headlights on a white sports bar parked off to the side of the street to blink on.

Keigo carefully examines everything about your ex as he pauses for a moment to take a call when his phone rings, noticing how careless he seems. He even turns around, facing away from his car, as if he has no care in the world.

That kind of confidence can only be accomplished through something he managed to receive. Is it you? Did he come over begging for you back and you said yes? Could you have met him for dinner tonight, gotten too drunk, and had sex with him, which is what he was chasing after all along? 

“This raggedy bitch,” Keigo snarls.

The more he thinks, the angrier he gets. And that anger propels him toward Rei’s car, right behind his back without him even sensing the pro. Keigo is just too fast. He zooms right by and settles onto the hood of Rei's car, one foot up while the other dangles above the ground. He waits for Rei to finish his car, half of the conversation nothing but mumbling.

When he finally hangs up with a laugh, Keigo makes his move. “Stalker much, Tempo?” he asks. 

Rei startles and immediately whips around to find Keigo sitting on the hood of his car. Keigo smirks a this reaction, glad he can scare the guy. At the sight of Rei’s eyes narrow. “Well, if it isn’t the number two pro hero,” he huffs. “You mind getting off my car?” 

Keigo cracks his neck, making Rei tense. “Yeah, I do mind,” he growls. “Nice ride, by the way. I can only imagine what kinda shit you’d be able to get with your award.”

A cool smirk that ticks him off stretches across Rei’s face. “Well, we’ll see in a week, won’t we?” he curtly chuckles. “If you don’t get off the car, I’m taking you with me. I don’t think Y/N would wanna see you under a car though.” His smirk only grows wider. 

Keigo imagines punching it off of his face. This fucker is way too cocky and confident right now. Something definitely happened with you tonight. “Were you with her tonight?” he asks, cutting right to the chase. He knows that this doesn’t concern him, but if you’re going to be with anyone else, he'd rather it be someone who isn’t an insecure phony. 

Rei’s smirk fades, replaced with a bitter stare. “Why’s that any of your business?” he asks, placing a hand on his hip. That makes Keigo even angrier for some reason, despite him being right…but shit, he doesn't wanna hear it from him! 

He begins to argue that your happiness is absolutely his business, but Rei stops him. “You think you’re gonna take my place?” he acerbically hisses.

Keigo’s mouth abruptly closes, his brows furrowing in confusion. What the hell is he talking about? “You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” Rei asks, an accusatory look on his face. "Trying to intimidate me, scare me out of breaking up with Y/N so you can steal my spot?” 

Keigo silently stares at him for a minute, wondering if this man had too much to drink and is just saying shit. “Okay,” he begins. “First of all, you’re crazy. Second of all, Y/N already broke it off with you. Third, you’re crazy.” 

Rei chuckles at his insult, rolling his violet eyes. “Not crazier than someone desperate enough to intimidate their best friend’s boyfriend,” he rebuttals.

Keigo scowls at his words, realizing that he’s talking in the present tense again…as if he is still your boyfriend. Rei laughs, finding humor in this. “What, you didn’t hear? We got back together just tonight. A few hours ago, actually.” A suggestive smirk stretches across his punchable face. “I’m sure you can smell the perfume.” 

Keigo immediately jumps off of the car, his wings shuddering with anger. “You’re lying.”

Rei raises an eyebrow at him. “Am I?” he challenges. He raises his phone to Keigo, that smirk still on his lips like he’s winning this game. “You want me to call Y/N so she can tell you herself?” Keigo blankly stares at the phone, his jaw tightening. he’s almost tempted to say yes. 

Rei cackles, making the winged pro want to wring his neck. “You’re pathetic for trying this card, Hawks,”  he sighs pityingly. “I mean, as a pro, you should be smarter than this thinking you could break us up and steal your way into Y/N’s heart…or bed.”

Keigo's ears perk at the last part and his top lip begins to twitch––something that happens when you’ve got him heated. “Da fuck’s that supposed to mean?” he asks through a growl.

Rei isn't the least bit intimidated, or is at least pretending he isn’t. “Look, who you spend the night with is my business,” he says, putting his hands up in mock defense, “but everybody knows you get around. Is that what your current girlfriend is? A one-night stand that turned into a weekly nightstand?” 

His eyes turn into darkened, violet slits, his stare becoming ice cold. “How is she, by the way?” he asks. “Does she know you cheated on her with your best friend?”

Keigo swears his heart falls into his ass. At the sight of his shock, Rei smirks. “Yes, I know. Y/N told me and she seemed pretty torn up about it. Even said it was a total mistake and wished it never happened.” He sighs, putting a hand to his heart. “She even persuaded me to walk away even after she told the truth. How amazing of a girl is she?” 

Keigo digs his nails into his palms so hard that he winches at the stinging sensation he feels. But it’s all he can do to not clock this joke of a man and a pro hero standing in front of him. He knows that Rei is just trying to rile him up, but he won’t let him.

And as pissed as he is that you took him back and that you told him the truth even after you swore him to secrecy, he also knows that this is your decision. He has no say in who you date being that he is just your friend. And only your friend. 

He takes a deep breath and relaxes his shoulders that are wound up tighter than a drum. After finding his inner peace, he looks at the man in front of him, calm and collected. “Look, Rei,” he starts, “I’m not here for this or to break you and Y/N up if it’s true that you’re back together. I just want her to be happy.”

Rei’s smile is bitter, not at all touched by this. “Well, isn’t that sweet of you?” he scoffs. “Now get the fuck away my car.” 

But Keigo doesn’t budge. Instead, he stands there as one of his feathers separates from one of his wings and sharpens to the point. It then zips through the air to stop at the hood of Rei’s car where it sits dangerously close to the metal, its point nearly digging into it and creating a scratch. The fear that crosses Rei's face is nearly orgasmic for him.

“Listen carefully unless you want a feather fuckin’ up your paint job,” he says in a dangerously low voice fit for a horror flick. “Y/N is very important to me, and so is her happiness. She’s like my family.” 

He steps closer to Rei, getting up into his personal space. It’s enough to intimidate Rei even further and make Keigo even happier. “And if anyone fucks with my family, they….” He pauses, letting his words and the meaning behind them linger in the tense air between them. 

Rei tries to act tough, but Keigo can see his Adam’s apple bob––an indication that Keigo has got him by the balls. “They what?” he quietly asks. 

But Keigo doesn’t finish his previous sentence. He can’t. It would be too violent. Plus, to see Rei squirm makes him happier than he’d like to admit. “Just be careful with her, alright?” he says, a warning in his tone. "You hurt her once; don’t do it again.”

Without another word, he turns to walk away from Rei, mostly to ignore the urge to punch him for the one time. 

But as he does, Rei has more say to him: “Is that a threat, Hawks?” he calls after the winged pro, definitely intending to poke the bear and push Keigo to do something he’ll highly regret. 

Keigo stops short, standing in the silvery moonlight a few yards away from Rei. He flaps his wings once, giving Rei a sight of the majestic, crimson creation that is attached to his back. His feather comes zooming past Rei’s face, nearly taking a bit of his ear and causing him to flinch out of the way.

Once his feather has connected back with the other bunch, Keigo cracks the other side of his neck and glares daggers at your boyfriend from across the lot.

“That’s a promise, Tempo,” he warns. “Don’t test me.”  And then, in a flash of red, he's gone. 

[hlficlibrary]

✤ Childhood Friends Fics ✤

A series of posts with the top five fics of each category by kudos plus five more hidden gems from that category! Remember to leave kudos and a comment on the fics you enjoyed to show your appreciation! You can find our other recs here.

- Top 5 H/L Fics -

1️⃣ Your Name Is Tattooed On My Heart by mcpofife [E, 86k]

Louis is ready to find the love of his life, but first he has to stop falling for the punk rocker next door.

2️⃣ Faking It by TheCellarDoor / @donotdialnine [M, 46k]

A uni AU in which Louis has been Harry’s best friend since he offered him cubed fruit on the playground, and they spend more time cuddling in their dorm beds than they do apart, but it’s not like that. Or is it?

Aka Harry pretends to date his best friend to escape unwanted attention from a too insistent classmate and hopes it won’t blow up in his face. Featuring embarrassing dildo accidents, awkward boners, longing, first times, late night conversations, emotional discoveries and Niall as the exasperated friend with bad advice.

3️⃣ Play the Odds by @alivingfire [M, 25k]

Harry and Louis are best friends since childhood who, after a night of drinking, find themselves locked in a bet: first one to kiss the other a thousand times wins. Wins what? They don't know. Glory, Harry supposes. Bragging rights, though those don't do much in this economy. All Harry knows is that this is one bet he can finally win. What he doesn't expect, though, is what happens when he starts kissing his best friend on a daily basis.

Namely, he doesn't expect falling head over heels in love with his best friend.

Now all he has to do is make sure the bet never ends, so he never has to stop kissing Louis.

4️⃣ i love you most by stylinsoncity / @aliensingucci [M, 12k]

friends with benefits has always been enough for louis. until, of course, it isn't.

5️⃣ Now In A Minute by thealmightyavocado / @avocadolouie [M, 150k]

13 feels like yesterday for many people, but for Louis it actually was.

More than anything in the world, Louis Tomlinson dreams of growing up. Simply skipping over all of the awkward, embarrassing years of teenage existence and getting on with life. Real life.

So when thirteen-year-old Louis wakes up in the body of his thirty-year-old self, he expected everything in his adult life to be picture perfect. And maybe it is. He has it all…or so it seems.

Except his favorite person and lifelong best mate, Harry Styles, is totally missing from the equation and Louis doesn’t understand why. He has a lot of catching up to do and as adult life turns out to be more than what he bargained for, Louis can’t help wondering why a life that seemed so perfect, feels so empty.

Or the 13 going on 30 au that should have been done years ago.

-HIDDEN GEMS-

💎 days gone by by velvetnoodle / @femslashy [E, 25k]

Five years after their last day at Camp Vernon, Louis and the lads decide to celebrate by returning to the place that had brought them together all those years ago. Exhausted from work and desperately in need of a break, Louis arrives ten days before the others with the intention of fixing up the place. He’s not expecting any company, but, as Louis should know by now, things in his life rarely ever go to plan.

💎 When I Run Out of Road by QuickedWeen / @becomeawendybird [M, 24k]

It's 1932 when Harry Styles sets off on an adventure to the African continent and the most popular new travel destination: Nairobi. He has reservations at the best club in town and plans to stay for a few weeks. What he doesn't expect is to meet and get to know a wonderful family along the way.

The Deakins are sponsors of the Royal Ballet, traveling with the company to see them perform in Nairobi for the first time. They take Harry under their wing, treat him like part of their family, and change his life in ways he never imagined.

💎 You Turned Up (Like a Friend of Mine) by @lululawrence [NR, 10k]

Louis padded downstairs, feeling incredibly thirsty. He filled up a glass of water and was about to take a drink when a loud knock sounded at the door accompanied by some yelling and ringing of the doorbell.

“What the hell?” Louis muttered, setting his glass on the counter and rushing towards the door.

As he got closer to the door, though, his mind stopped whirling because the voice was one that was etched forever in his mind, but one that he never thought he would ever hear again.

“Why’s the door locked? Did you seriously go without me? And who’s car is in the driveway? Lou, I knew you’d be late to get me. We’re going to miss-”

Louis whipped the door open, sure that he was just imagining things. There was no way…

Except there was. Standing on the front step was the curly haired, boy-faced Harry Louis had last seen ten years ago today.

Or the one where Harry disappears on graduation day only to show up on Louis' door looking exactly the same ten years later. Through a series of strange events, maybe they can finally figure out that they're destined to be together, no matter what.

💎 you and I love like it's a secret by we_are_the_same / @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed [T, 4k]

Louis swallows, looking at Harry, who grins at him as though nothing’s wrong. He’s leaning against the door of a wardrobe, his long hair having lost some of its curls due to the amount of times he’s run his fingers through it. Louis is still where he was the moment the door got closed behind them, all but pressed up against the wood, trying to keep as much distance between him and Harry as possible.

His heart stutters in his chest as he looks up at his best friend. He’s known Harry since he was barely out of diapers, and Harry gets him in a way that few people ever have – or have tried to. He knows him, to the point where sometimes Louis worries that he’s able to read his mind.

Or: It's Seven minutes in Heaven, but Louis sort of feels like he's ended up in Hell instead when he's forced into a small bedroom with his childhood best friend slash long time crush.

💎 captivity by momentofclarity / @gaycousinlarry [G, 1k]

you get to a point in life when your secrets aren't as holy as they once were.

[scavengerssuccotash]

What are your thoughts on a Clint x Nat baby? I’ve read some fics where Nat accidentally gets pregnant and debates between keeping the baby or not. But I’ve also read a few fics where they both desperately want a baby and excel as parents once they have one. Personally I think Nat would be terrified if she was pregnant but eventually come around to the idea, because it’s a lil part of her and Clint, and be a great mom.

How did you know about my Sims 4 Clintasha save file?

(They have a daughter named Katya. And she’s fucking adorable.) 😭

Kid/baby Clintasha fics are definitely a real guilty pleasure for me. While I don’t agree with how Whedon presented that bit of character backstory for Natasha, I think taken with in universe logic it would make sense for the Red Room to sterilize their Widows. (It’s one of the few things that is canon that I’ve kept for my fic Sightline.)

(I ALSO have a real big problem with the tone in which it was discussed and handled in the Black Widow movie but let’s just skip over that for now.)

I think Clint and Nat would be exceptional parents. Extremely doting and highly protective I must admit I see them a bit of a helicopter parent duo. At least until the age of ten I want to say, when they start to loosen up their reigns as they finally start to believe that their child is safe. I think they would also retire from both SHIELD and Avenging, I don’t think Natasha much less Clint would be able to handle the separation and uncertainty in leaving for missions for months at a time. Clint is also immediately a girl dad. (I can’t help but picture Jeremy Renner a bit as I type this. Which hilariously shines a glaring light on my own father issues, but like in a ‘awww I wish o had that!’ way.)

I think it’s rather a cliche in the fandom to imagine them having a little girl, and I’m firmly one million percent within that camp. I genuinely can’t picture them having a boy for their first kid. (Yes, I said first. They have two! A girl and a boy roughly three years apart. They live in my head as a happy little family on a farm in the cornfields of Iowa and I love them very much.)

As for the pregnancy—it was fucking brutal! For my headcanon of a non-sterilized Natasha the Red Room kept them continually supplied with birth control and other hormonal blockers to the point that it was actually assumed that she would not be able to get pregnant or at the very least it would be rare. That one in a million chance happened after a particularly nasty fight when Natasha ran into the line of fire to save Steve. Cue a couple of thrown dishes and Clint growling into her ear and pinned to the bed.

“I’m not fucking losing you, do you hear me, Tasha!”

It was very hot and very intense and oops!

What really was difficult about the pregnancy, you know besides being pregnant (her back hurt like a son of a birch) was the emotional torrent that it brought. Sleepless nights, constant worry, questioning if she even wanted to keep it, followed by a surreal disbelief that she was even pregnant. It was a body horror watching and then feeling a tiny baby growing inside her. In the end she decided to keep it, partly as one last fuck you to the Red Room and her past but also because it was part Clint too. When she told him, it was in the middle of a firefight. (He would later tell her that her timing was shit.) As soon as the words left her mouth he looked at her for a good five seconds, blinked and then nodded to himself. He then, without any of the fanfare, dispatched the ten guys shooting at them, clean kills. All ten headshots. One right after the other with the cold efficiency she’s only ever seen once before when she was captured and tortured for three months.

Katya Philomena Romanoff-Barton was born November 16th. Three months premature, and weighing two pounds and thirteen ounces. She has blue eyes like her father and the freckles and red hair of her mother. They were able to bring her home after a year in the NICU.

She starts her Freshmen year at Princeton this year, double majoring in International Politics and Psychology, with an applied minor in History. She has one championship trophy in Olympic Archery and does Ballet in her free time.

[storm-and-starlight]

so the idea of an Earthspark fic following the bots not on Earth after the spacebridge broke has been rattling around inside my head basically since the show first came out, centering around "what if the Quintessons took advantage of Optimus and Megatron being out of the game and Rodimus had to step in", but I never really had a plot for it until about two-ish weeks ago when one just Showed Up.

I'll warn you now it just straight up doesn't have an ending, but who knows, maybe that'll show up too someday.

Anyways since I doubt I'll ever be able to write in in a way that does it justice, here's the bulletpoint outline of what I do have, under a cut bc Long

Important Backstory Notes (not, like, a prologue, just stuff that would need to be sprinkled throughout as context)

The whole Knights of Cybertron thing was well before the Thirteen Primes, enough that it's mostly fallen into legendary-type history instead of commonly-taught history, though the process is more pronounced due to how centralized information storage (and really the entire concept of information storage that isn't entirely dependent on a living being like a Titan) wasn't really a thing until late(er) in the Age of Primes, and only became standard until after the loss of most of Cybertron's Titans.

The Thirteen Primes, Prima and all the rest, rose to fame during the last Quintesson war by being generals and heroes and scientists, the figureheads of the war and the people who saved the Cybertronian species from perpetual slavery.

All but one of them, that is. Quintus Prime, researcher, scientist, who loved life in all its forms (and, some would say, who loved organic life a little too much), disappeared with his artifact the Emberstone -- the final safeguard against the loss or corruption of the Allspark -- and was later found to have defected to the Quintessons, with his technology and that of the Emberstone showing up in the Quintesson efforts.

The Primes eventually won, and beat the Quintessons away from Cybertron.

Unwilling to lose their image of planetary harmony that they worked so hard to create even before the war, the remaining Primes recorded his disappearance as a death in battle, implying that the loss of him, his Titan, and the Emberstone was simply a terrible accident), and went about rebuilding and beginning the Age of Primes.

(Timeline note: the Thirteen Primes unified Cybertron, got attacked by the Quintessons, fought in what was actually the Second Quintesson War -- the first was the initial liberation of Cybertron before the Knights set out on their explorations -- and then started the Age of Primes, which ended in the betrayal of Solus and the departure of the colony Titans.)

(post-betrayal leads into another age of unrest, before the new lineage of Primes (ones without the Matrix) begins the Cybertronian Golden Age, which really wasn't all that golden.)

Story begins millions of years later, about, oh, twenty years before the events of Earthspark

Most of section one takes place well before the spacebridge closes, and the initial journey back to Cybertron takes a few years, so from the time of Hot Rod's capture to their return to Cybertron just after the spacebridge closes is probably in the vicinity of five-to-six years.

Hot Rod, way out in the middle of nowhere on a mission, is captured by the Quintessons and presumed dead by the Autobots. He's not, but he's been enslaved by them -- however, they're still operating on their understanding of Cybertronian neurological defenses from before the Autobot-Decepticon War, meaning that their ability to control him is unable to keep up with his anti-virals and is slowly weakening over time. He gains more and more autonomy back, right up until the Quintesson ship he's on discovers Theophany (by horrible chance) and elects to begin the Quintesson resurgence right then and there.

Crucially, Crystal City hasn't been part of the war, so their anti-virals aren't at Hot Rod's level, and so nearly the entire city is enslaved and formed into the first and worst core of the Quintesson army.

In the middle of the attack, he finally manages to grab back almost full motor control, flames on, and burns out most of the adaptive nanites that are serving as a reservoir for the control code even as his anti-virals keep destroying the stuff that makes it into his processor. He flees the battle, ending up in the wastes of Theophany while Crystal City is overrun and the Third Quintesson War begins.

There is, however, one mech in Crystal City who has war-grade antivirals and manages to survive the inital assault of a non-nanite transmitted code infection (think radio broadcast) and who fled the city at Wing's request once it was clear the entire city was lost and the Knights of Light taken captive and the city destroyed.

He meets Hot Rod once they both come back to the ruins of the city for lack of anywhere else to go, and Hot Rod reveals what, exactly, happened to everyone around him. Hot Rod manages to convince Drift that they need to go and warn whoever else they can find, so they take one of the least-damaged ships in deep storage and set out to warn Cybertron.

En route to Cybertron, they slowly gather together a crew of various outcasts and misfits -- people who for one reason or another have been stationed out in the reaches of deep space, far away from Cybertron -- and even the odd prisoner (Whirl), all packed together on an ancient tiny shuttle and still desperately trying to outrun the Quintessons and make it in time to warn Optimus and Megatron.

At one point, they meet the Camien trio, Windblade, Nautica, and Chromia, who are also heading to Cybertron to ask for aid for Caminus completely unaware of the Quintesson threat, but in finding an ancient, injured Titan who's already been taken over by the Quintessons everyone learns of the risk they're all facing, and the dangers of letting this war spread further than it already has -- the destruction of Crystal City was bad, but the fact that every Cybertronian infected is another weapon in Quintesson hands is what really sinks in here.

At another point, they come across the remains of the Ark and manage to pull two people out of stasis: Cyclonus, the perfect warrior and Galvatron's right hand, and Tailgate, sanitation worker kept in stasis since the launch of the Ark as auxiliary personnel that they wouldn't have to feed since he wasn't awake.

The major climax is encountering Kimia, a secret Autobot research station under attack by Decepticons. With the Quintessons right on their heels, Hot Rod and Drift attempt to reconcile both the primarily-Autobot crew and the Decepticon squad attacking (maybe Deathsaurus's?), but negotiations keep breaking down until the Quintessons show up with an entire army of enslaved Cybertronians. Hot Rod manages to destroy their ship by crashing the entire station into it, but only a handful of people on either side survive the battle (Chromedome, Rewind, Brainstorm, Perceptor, and probably a handful of Decepticons that I haven't decided on yet), and everyone in their tiny enclave of free Cybertronians realizes that this is bigger than their old war, and that if they don't work together they're never going to survive.

End Section One

Section Two

They finally make it to Cybertron, but it's already too late -- the spacebridge to Earth is closed with most of the Autobot and Decepticon high command on the other side of it, the Allspark was lost somewhere while it closed (it's actually stuck in-between the planets in subspace, since the subspace route is still open but inaccessible with one end of the bridge destroyed, but this isn't relevant to the rest of the fic) and the Quintessons have already arrived and begun a planetary takeover -- most of the ground troops still remaining on the planet have become part of their forces.

Jazz has escaped with a handful of special ops from both sides and is hiding down in the deep underlayers struggling to survive and start up a resistance, and the arrival of Hot Rod and his motley crew is a huge boon and a huge hassle, since most of them (yes, even the Kimia scientists) was assigned that far from the front lines for a reason. About the only ones who're really considered command material are Cyclonus, and he's still struggling with the fact that he's been in stasis for millions of years and has no desire to lead what he sees as a pack of misfits and rejects, and Ultra Magnus, who has no desire to be in command whatsoever, so Hot Rod got the job largely by virtue of being the person to start this mission in the first place.

Moreover, they can't even get off Cybertron because the Quintessons have a major planetary cordon eliminating anyone who tries to flee.

Still, they try to get a resistance going and start figuring out how to actually fight the Quintessons, rather than just escape them, and are making some progress. Slowly. The deep planetary tunnels are largely safe, and a lot of the Kimia scientists have managed to use one of Shockwave's labs to find some protection against Quintesson influence -- as long as they don't get physical access to your brain, you probably won't get enslaved! -- and are attempting work on a cure. It's starting to look like it'll be long and hard but they might even manage to win this war!

And then the judge shows up, and brings with them not just the limited number of Cybertronian slaves they have, but nearly uncountable hordes of mass-produced Sharkticons, because they have access to Cybertron's entire industrial complex and all its fabricators.

On top of that, the Quintessons have discovered the existence of the deep underlayers, and are preparing an assault on the resistance bases.

Right before the assault goes down, Drift gets a vision (he's been having weird premonitions his entire life but it's only after he started actively using them to avoid Quintessons that they've started getting noticeably stronger) and gathers together a group (definitely Hot Rod and Rung, maybe also a bunch of the Camiens/some scientists) to try to find the location of a ship he saw, one that can get them off the planet.

They've been gone less than a day but are already entirely out of range when the Quintessons attack

Magnus and Cyclonus rally, together, against the assault and and try a desperate attempt to repel it and save the scientists' work that might be the only hope to save their species.

NOTE: Prior to this, Magnus and Cyclonus had not gotten along, with both of them having an extremely rigid code that is not... entirely compatible with the other but when it comes down to the wire and both Hot Rod and Drift are off on hopeless errands, they're the only ones left to coordinate the defense and try to save what they can.

Midway through Drift and Hot Rod's journey, the planet transforms (something it has, quite notably, not done since the Age of Primes) and cuts Hot Rod and Rung off from the rest of the group, with the only way out being down deeper into the planet, past even the deep layers and down into the core.

Separated, they continue on.

Drift ends up in the Hand of Primus, way out in the middle of the wastes, the site of the last true hotspot on the entire planet (after it was harvested during the early years of the Golden Age, all new sparks on the planet came from the Allspark). Deep below the surface, underneath a strange spiky red metal formation, they find a ship literally embedded in the stone, not entirely spaceworthy but possible to get to working conditions, and with a set of unique quantum engines that might be enough to get them away from the planet before the Quintessons can shoot them down.

Leaving Nautica (and possibly any other scientists they brought with them?) to try to repair the ship and get it flying, Drift and the rest race back to the base only to find it under attack. Magnus and Cyclonus manage to punch a hole through the Quintesson ranks and start the evacuation, and they all race up through the sublevels back to the surface.

Meanwhile, Hot Rod and Rung are (apparently) desperately trying to find a way out of the deep tunnels and back to the surface, but every turn they make just redirects them deeper towards the core, and eventually Rung comes to the conclusion that whatever's at the center of the planet must want them to go to the core. As they travel, it's apparent that there's something going on with him, though he won't tell Hot Rod what (the truth is that he's regaining his memories of being a part of the long-dormant core of the planet, and he's realizing that the Core, that Primus, the heart of their world, is somehow calling Hot Rod in).

Upon reaching the core, Rung acts almost as cityspeaker for the planet, one of the many fragments of its great multi-part mind that's separate enough to speak for itself, and offers Hot Rod a Matrix -- not the Matrix, the old one, the original one, the one that Optimus Prime still carries and that was lost on Earth when the spacebridge fell -- but a new, empty one that still nevertheless holds the ancient property that the Matrix was made for in the first place -- protection against the Quintesson scourge, a way to store crucial information in a way that can't be stolen by them and is much harder to lose if groups are split up or scientists killed, and most importantly the chance at a true cure. 

Hot Rod accepts the Matrix from Rung, and becomes Rodimus Prime.

Rung, in making a new Matrix, returns to the Core and cannot return with Rodimus, who races back up through the planet desperately, trying to reach the ship before they write him off as dead and leave.

Right as Nautica and the rest get the ship's strange quantum engines online, engines that almost seem to work as a spacebridge in their own right, Rodimus appears and gets on board, and they flee the planet ahead of the approaching hordes, abandoning Cybertron entirely to the Quintessons.

End Section Two

Section Three

Now the fight has gone to the stars -- there are still the colonies, Caminus and all the rest of the titans, to consider -- though there are a couple that aren't in Caminus's or Cybertron's records at all, such as the titan of the traitor Quintus Prime, who in the last war against the Quintessons led by the Thirteen Primes that cemented them in history as a collection of heroes.

The project begun on Cybertron, with the addition of the Matrix, has mostly succeeded -- they have effective defenses against Quintesson mind control, and with the Matrix in hand the scientists are making real breakthroughs on a genuine cure, instead of something that leaves the "cured" screaming and nearly catatonic.

Rodimus, still trying to figure out what it means to be Prime and what it means to now be considered the unambiguous leader of the remaining Cybertronian forces instead of having to deal with balancing the authority of Jazz, Magnus, Cyclonus, Windblade, and several of the more prominent Decepticons, is in command and is trying to find and gather the remains of the Autobot and Decepticon fleets into something that can actually fight against the Quintessons.

He's... not the best at it.

While they're fighting and gathering new members, they intercept some kind of Quintesson communication and find out that Caminus, thought safe because of how hidden it is, is under attack. The Lost Light and the few other ships they've got (Vis Vitalis, maybe? which is another major source of character conflict, becauseRodimus still feels inadequate as a leader in the face of Thunderclash's... everything, and lets it lead him to make bad decisions) race to Caminus to try to save the city.

They try, during which there is a huge battle, but they cannot stop the Quintessons from infecting Caminus, who sacrifices himself to save his people as they all flee, and Cybertronians become a species without a home, adrift in space. At the same time, the records of the last Quintesson War are given to them by Caminus, revealing the strategies used by the Thirteen Primes and the record of Quintus Prime's treachery that nearly lost them the war -- as well as the fact that Quintus Prime's Titan is still alive -- lost, but alive.

The war continues, and Rodimus slowly gets better at learning to be a general and at gathering people together to try to survive this. They start making progress, though it's hard and often painful. Maybe Caminus is the end of the section, maybe there's something more that's less of a downer ending, I don't know, but Section Three is all about the war as it goes on in space, a tiny desperate fleet trying to beat the odds and win.

Oh also at some point the Lost Light is revealed to be a newborn Titan, the first one to be born in millions upon millions of years, who aligns herself with Rodimus because he's a Prime and also her captain.

Also Metroplex possibly shows up at some point, and he and Windblade form a very strong bond together, to the point where when he dies, not even in sacrifice but just straight up in battle, it deeply deeply affects her, to the point that not even Lost Light can help. (Might be a plot point, might not be, depends how dark I want the overall story to end up.)

End Section Three

Section Four

Years into the fight, Rodimus is a far better leader than he was -- massively depressed about the whole thing, but still learning how to be an effective general. They haven't quite been making progress, but they've been surviving and gathering together fighters from all the different colonies, and it looks like the tide might turn any day now.

Drift, prompted by visions he's been having of Quintus Prime, is working alongside Nautica and a handful of other historians to put together the true story of what happened during the last Quintesson War. The facts aren't entirely adding up -- if Quintus was truly a traitor and gave the Quintessons the Emberstone, why weren't the Thirteen Primes overwhelmed by endless armies of newsparks? Why was it only certain pieces of Quintus's hybrid technology that got integrated into the Quintessons, and not the organic-Cybertronian bonding elements that would have massively increased their ability to control Cybertronian slaves? Why did he disappear, only recorded by his technology showing up in Quintesson warships, and why did his Titan drop completely out of the spacebridge network, even though Caminus insisted that he was still alive?

He realizes that figuring this out could be the key to actually winning the war, instead of grinding along slowly getting themselves worn away by attrition the way they've been doing -- the Quintessons can constantly replace soldiers while the Cybertronians have lost every method they had of reproducing, and on top of all that any soldier captured or infected on the battlefield will turn against them.

With Rodimus and Jazz and Brainstorm's knowledge (and maybe a few others, haven't decided yet), Drift fakes his death and goes flying out to search for answers, thinking that there has to be something Quintus was hiding and that it might be the answer to surviving, if not winning.

Meanwhile, Rodimus and the rest of the United Cybertronian Fleet's (name subject to change) high command find out from Jazz and his espionage corps that the Quintessons are looking for something, some kind of newly created weapon that can be used against them more effectively than anything created before (over the course of this war, they've gone on a total scorched-earth policy with regards to their planetary conquests and any species, biological or cybernetic, that even remotely gets in their way -- the new Judge created to lead this war is ruthless and angry and isn't interested in things like "public relations" -- so while there isn't really anyone who can fight back against them the way the Cybertronians can, because in terms of firepower and who's willing to get involved in this, they're kind of the only ones, it's totally plausible that there might be the last remnants of a destroyed species out there who are working on creating some kind of weapon).

Both of their paths, Drift's journey looking back through the records of the last Quintesson War and the history of the Thirteen Primes, and Rodimus's search for something to turn the tide, lead them back towards Earth, which somehow hasn't been found by either side yet, and has remained totally undisturbed. No matter how hard anyone looks, they can't find any outward sign of Cybertronian activity that might indicate Earth's location.

Drift, following the history of what happened to Quintus and his Titan and the Emberstone, finds a subspace connection that leads him to a strange system of caverns, filled with green light and old Cybertronian writing and technology that looks extremely similar to Quintesson tech and yet has somehow been neutralized without being destroyed.

Rodimus, following something (maybe some kind of connection through the Matrix?) lands in secret on green and blue planet that looks a whole hell of a lot like Earth, and traces the signal down into a system of caves.

Both Rodimus and Drift get attacked by an ancient Quintesson defense system, bioengineered monsters that feed off energon and which pursue them through the tunnels and herd them towards a central location, where bang they run into each other--

--and also into Optimus, Megatron, quite a lot of both Autobot and Decepticon High Command, and the Malto family, who are all down in the tunnels for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with either Cybertron, ancient weapons, Quintus Prime, the Emberstone, or the Quintessons, and everyone is very confused and also kind of panicked about what to do about the giant monster.

But when it arrives, the Maltos and the Terrans are able to fight it, without being affected by its energon-eating nature or the defenses it usually has against Cybertronians.

They flee down the only route they have left, deeper into the cave systems, where they pass through a massive and very strange green door into a set of corridors that look like metal, and that are decorated with icons and emblems of Quintus Prime, though woven through with Quintesson mind-control tech -- ancient Quintesson mind-control tech, not the modern kind currently in use and not even the kind of outdated tech that was used on Hot Rod before they managed to adapt to modern Cybertronian neurological defenses, but the kind that was in use back in the last Quintesson War, against the Thirteen Primes, and the pattern of the tendrils seems to be leading them somewhere.

Where it's leading them to is a massive processor chamber, one for a Titan -- Quintus Prime's titan, lost all these many millions of years.

Drift, finally, reveals what he's learned about Quintus Prime's supposed betrayal, and what really happened -- how he tried to be a double agent, learning about the Quintessons: half just for the sake of learning about them -- remember, he was most noted for his fascination with organic life -- and half for the sake of finding ways to end the war.

Before he could find a way, his Titan was overrun, exposed to an experimental piece of technology that would take over not just his mind but his body, turning him into an unending weapon that couldn't even be killed.

Quintus fled to Earth, looking for a way to save his Titan, and apparently died there.

worked against the Quintessons from the inside, stealing away secrets of their technoorganic engineering and their mind-control techology and eventually fleeing with his Titan and the Emberstone to an unknown location, and Rodimus reveals that they're here hunting a supposed "weapon" that the Quintessons are terrified of.

The Titan (name TBD) manages to tell Windblade the story of what really happened, that Quintus defected with the Emberstone to try to find a way to use it to create Cybertronians who were naturally immune to Quintesson control, who could live in peace away from the war and everything and never have to worry about being made into slaves, and all of the bots that have been trapped on Earth all this time turn to look at the Malto family -- and the Terrans.

End section four

aaaaaand that's more or less where I run out of ideas, because I have no clue how to effectively pay off this reveal with how the Terrans are supposed to defeat the Quintessons, but who knows, maybe I'll think of something

[fabrowrites]

Alright since you tagged me in the WIP challenge it’s only fair I send you an ask

I’m a Wild Things AU fan so I will in fact be asking about His Mother Called Him Wild Thing 👀

HI HAILS GLAD YOU ASKED!

asl;kjdfgj i guess its kinda obvious which series this one belongs to XD so mother called (new designated title right now woot) is fic nine of thirteen in the wild things au! which means that it'll get written in 2038 LKSFJdghfd so wild things spoilers so im sticking under cut if anyone cares lol

oh right also tw for uuh eating disorder metaphor and maybe selfharm

so fic nine! key also sent in an ask so i'll try to save half of this for her ask but basically this is the fallout fic :D *spends mother calls asks not talking about mother calls* so lloyd obviously has issues with "feeding" himself since he eats the emotions of others, right. he's been undereating for a while, with his last actual "meal" being right at the end of Vines, which is eightish months before mother calls would take place.

(the meal in question is calix btw! note that my guy hangs back when the other characters take off :D it's the most guilt-free one he can find, which is to stay he's still hella conflicted about it)

but yeah my guy's not been taking care of himself, and in the fic before this he finally snaps :D all i'll say about it is think about the game night in rumpus and this specific interaction:

Jay starts laughing out of control.  “Oh, you’re so going down!  This isn’t even a final round!” “Yeah?  What do you have that can beat me?” “It doesn’t matter!  All your vampire has going for him is his tween army-” another round of snickers- “and he’s gonna turn on them the second this fight goes down.” Nya scoffs.  “Why would he attack his own army?  He can control himself!” “Not if he’s starving!” Jay shoots back.  “Okay, I’m not saying vampires are evil.  But when they’re in bloodfrenzy mode, it’s not like they have a choice on who they attack!”

[poisonivy206]

back to december (all the time)

Elain x Lucien (T) | Read on AO3

First and foremost, the happiest holidays and a wonderful Christmas to the lovely @writtenonreceipts​, whom I’ve had the honour to write for this year, as part of the ACOTAR Secret Santa Exchange! 💖 @acotargiftexchange​ 

What started as Christmas fluff in the English countryside turned into a bunch of angst, but I feel like that’s still somehow representative of the holidays?? Nonetheless, I promise there is a happy ending and some Christmas magic to come still. The fourth and final part of the fic will be posted on New Year’s Eve, just in time for my personal favorite night of the year. 

Writing this has been an absolute joy for me, and I’m so glad it introduced me to you. I hope you enjoy it! All the love!

Many thanks and much love to @iftheshoef1tz and @houseofhurricane for their help as betas allll the encouragement ✨

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

back to december (all the time)

They are old friends, you could say. In the way that people who grew up in the same small town in the English countryside are. In the way that people who’ve known each other for longer than they haven’t are. In the way that people who’ve seen each other grow and change and fall apart are. But they’re not those people anymore. The Elain and Lucien standing here now haven’t known each other for years.

Lucien is always searching. Elain is afraid to be found. When life happens, they have to find themselves before making their way back to each other. Thirteen years of twists and turns, hard decisions, old dreams, and new hopes.

elucien | modern AU | teen & up | 3/4 parts

I. december 1996

When Elain steps into her childhood home for the very first time in two years, music is already playing, and tinsel, gold and silver and all kinds of sparkly, is spilling out of at least half a dozen boxes scattered over the hallway floor.

There are four pairs of boots drying on the rack, which must mean that everyone else has already arrived to Stow-on-the-Wold.

Elain had hoped she would beat her sisters and their husbands here, have some time alone to mentally prepare for the days to follow, but despite the anxiety blooming in her chest, she can’t help but smile.

She hasn’t seen Feyre and Nesta in months, although they all live within a ten-mile radius now, and the last few times they had met, she had been in a rush, or tired, or upset with Graysen.

She still is. Tired and upset with Graysen, that is. But she’s missed them both like crazy, and at least for a few moments, it feels like that’s enough to take her mind from everything she left back in London.

When Feyre had called her, only a week ago, and asked if she were willing to come home - home home - for the holidays, she had immediately said yes, all the reasons she usually avoids Stow pushed to the back of her mind in favor of a week away from her job, her relationship, her neverending list of responsibilities.

A loud crashing sound in the back of the house stops her train of thought before she sinks into sorrow, and annoyance, and Oh God, I’m just avoiding my life away—

“Jesus fuck,” Elain thinks she can hear, and the following huffs and puffs, desynchronized and loud enough to be heard from where she stopped at the entrance, tell her Rhysand and Cassian must definitely be struggling in the living room.

“Elain! Finally!” Feyre squeals from the kitchen doorway.

Before she knows it, Elain is pulled into an uncomfortably tight hug, her sister’s lilac and pear perfume enveloping her, making her chest light up with joy. She wraps her arms around Feyre’s shoulders, trembling fingers digging into her back, and tries to blink the moisture away from her eyes.

By the time they untangle, Feyre is the one actually crying, big fat tears making her appear younger than she is. Elain gives her sister a once-over, and her breath catches when she reaches Feyre’s round stomach, barely covered by the cream jumper she is wearing, her seventh month of pregnancy obvious in every possible way.

She’s known Feyre and Rhysand are having a baby, of course. She had been there when Feyre had made the announcement, all their closest friends gathered around their giant living room; but seeing her now, like this, makes everything painfully real.

“Oh my god, you’re so pregnant,” Elain lets out on a breathy laugh, eyes wet again.

What she means to say is I’m sorry.

I’m sorry I’ve missed so much.

I’m sorry I haven’t been there to see this happening.

Read in full on AO3.

[kanerallels]

For the AU ask game: 16, 17, and 20 for the beloved Steve Miller AU

HEHEHEHEHE

16. Are there any OCs in this fic? Absolutely FABULOUS question. There are actually a number of them, and I came up with almost none of them! My friend @sifuprincesscarry has two OCs that are featured in the second fic ever, I have a couple of OC Foxiyo children in this fic, and my sister @accidental-spice has two OCs featured in Rion! And those are just the ones that are published-- I have at least two big OC reveals in season two! Also none of whom are invented by me!

17. What important events have you "translated" from canon to make sense in this au, if any? That is such a fun question for this au. Most of the canon stuff I just kinda... left, ya know? But every season, I'm choosing two or three episodes to rewrite! Season two, it's episodes three, four, and thirteen. Season three... well, you'll just have to see! I can't really go into how I change things, but let's just say I have way too much fun with it (when I'm not stressing myself out)

20. Share THREE headcanons! But about different characters. GLADLY. Okay 1. Jyn and Kasmir actually have a really strong relationship in this au! He teaches her all sorts of sneaky tricks (he's actually very Uncle Hub of Secondhand Lions which makes Okadiah Garth and WOW I AM HAVING THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS NOW MOVE ON SELF) 2. This one is. relevant in the future hehehehe. But Trilla ends up working with Vos and Ventress a lot, so they end up as mentor/parental figures to her! and last but not least, 3. ummm kriff. no thoughts about this OH YEAH Hera and Bodhi Rook have met at least once in this au. I may have to write about them meeting at some point, as a treat

[lyrabythelake]

Pumpkin Timeee

I love Halloween, here’s a little fic

Seasons may change, but Time’s commute back from the castle stays more or less the same. Yes, there may be life-size plastic skeletons in the windows of most houses right now, but if you can ignore that, along with the badly carved pumpkins and the entire graveyard that was erected overnight in one garden, it is really no different to any other day.

For Time, Halloween is an occasion that brings very real fear to his heart. There isn’t much distinction between each year; he can pretty much count on Legend terrorising them all with his latest attempt at special effects makeup (last time he had genuinely convinced Warriors he had chopped his index finger off cutting a cucumber), Wind will watch a horror movie and spend the next week with night terrors, and Hyrule will eat so many super sour sweets he throws up.

All in all, not his favourite holiday.

Not that he wants to tempt fate, but today has been remarkably uneventful. Only three people dressed up at work and no one has tried any pranks or jump-scares (he may be known as the Hero of Time in some circles, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to those surprise jump-scare videos on YouTube), so he’s in a pretty good mood.

That is, until he walks into his house.

“What is this?”

Which, he commends himself, is an admirably calm reaction considering whatever it is has left his kitchen looking like the scene of a large, gruesome pumpkin massacre. And actually, that might be an apt description of what millions of children do every year on the 31st of October when they carve hideous faces into gourds while their parents try their best to keep them from cutting their fingers off. 

Millions of children and, of course, his idiot friends.

“We’re carving pumpkins,” Wind says distractedly, his tongue held between his teeth as he focuses intently on stabbing his knife multiple times into his pumpkin.

“I can see that. But did you have to do it in my kitchen?”

“Yours is the only one big enough for all of us.”

A fact that has made him repeatedly curse his and Malon’s past selves ever since they first viewed this house and exclaimed how perfect the large, open plan kitchen/living room would be for having all their friends round for dinner sometimes. They seriously overlooked several important factors like how now all eight of the boys seem to be in their house ninety percent of the time whether he and Malon are home or not.

“You don’t think you might have overdone it?” He’s referring to the literally countless number of pumpkins on every surface–he tallied thirteen before he lost count–and the sloppy mountain of Pumpkin innards piled so high onto the table that it very nearly reaches the ceiling.

“Oh, that?” Wild gestures casually at Mount Pumpkin Guts. “I’ll make it into a pumpkin pie or something.”

“Far be it from me to ever doubt your cooking skills, Wild,” Time replies, “but do you plan on making a pumpkin pie the size of Hyrule Town?”

Wild shrugs.

“So I’ll make some pumpkin cupcakes as well.”

“Where did you even get all these? I don’t think I’ve seen this many pumpkins in one place since I last went to a pumpkin farm.” Which, for the record, was many years ago because he hates the taste.

“Hey, look, I made you!” Wind looks incredibly pleased with himself as he turns his pumpkin around to show a very roughly carved face with a line through one eye and markings that may or may not be supposed to represent his own. 

Time’s eye twitches.

“Hyrule grew them in his garden,” Legend tells him. Hyrule looks at Time with a haunted look that tells of a very serious miscalculation.

“They got a bit out of hand.”

Oh, and would you have it, his hand is stuck into a bag of Super Sours. What a surprise.

“Don’t get your pants in a twist, we’ll clean everything up at the end,” Warriors says, clearly noticing the looming aneurysm in Time’s future. His pumpkin has a knife stuck in its head and is carved to look like it’s screaming in pain. Time can relate.

“There better not be a speck of pumpkin on these worktops by the time Malon comes home.”

[kipaia]

Hey tell me about your Insane Mass Effect Timeline!

Oh my god. Mary.

I know you are FULLY aware of how FUCKING INCONSISTENT AND ANNOYING the official Mass Effect timeline is. I had a night last spring where I was trying to plot out my fanfic from start to finish and was getting super irritated about it so I went through, year by year, from 2115 to 2188 and wrote up my own timeline down to the exact dates of everything I needed to know for something like 14 characters entire lives, of which I think 10 or 11 are all complete ocs; I needed to know exactly where they all were and what was happening around them all at any given time, so I went through year by year wove them into the given Bioware timeline and put everything into a legible order.

This fucking document. The timeline alone (because I did end up sticking a couple of one shots on the end because I was too lazy to switch at the time),

Is thirteen pages long.

I have a thirteen page long timeline where I could put everything in a more sensible order, stretch out some of more ludicrously condensed major historical events of the official timeline and wrote up an actually sensible working order for the first two games because frankly, the way Bioware wrote it there is no possible way Shepard could have been spotted on Omega in Mass Effect 2 in mid-February of 2185 after having been dead two years and ten+ days and still have had enough time for the events of Mass Effect to occur in 2183.

If rumors of Shepard being alive came from Omega on Feb. 15th, they'd been dead for at least two years and ten days (plus a couple of days to account for Freedom's Progress and travel), and the attack on the Normandy happened a month after the Battle of the Citadel, the official timeline puts the entirety of Eden Prime war in the span of, maximum, the first week of January 2183, which can't have been the case if they also listen 2183 as the year the Normandy was constructed.

So yeah I got mad at that and how young a bunch of the 'older' characters canon ages are listed as (Anderson is in his early 40's according to the official timeline which I do not agree with, Hackett I think is something like 53 in official timeline, I don't remember off the top of my head) when humans canonically have 150+ year lifespans now. Neither of them would even be middle aged in that case, ffs, yet we're supposed to believe they're grizzled older gen soldiers on the verge of retirement? Yeah, no. First Contact War experience notwithstanding, I aged almost everyone from the older generations up, as well as my Athena Shepard by a few years because she has a teenage kid in the first game and I needed to sort all of that out.

I love my insane thirteen-page timeline and I reference that thing like it's the fucking bible whenever I'm writing anything for my mass effect fics.

Yeah so that's my rant about the Mass Effect timeline and how my thirteen-page monstrosity came to be and I love it so much

[sketchyfletch]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @feralkwe (thank you!)

How many works do you have on AO3?

11. I also have various ones scattered on ff.net, as well as lost to time on livejournal and a graveyard on my googledrive. 

What’s your total AO3 word count?

77246. In terms of fic writing output, I’m one of those little pilot fish that hangs around friendly sharks. 

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Dragon Age and the Arcana mobile game. I want to write more Mass Effect and I’ve done a Yasmin/Thirteen Dr Who ficlet. I used to write a lot of stuff for Naruto in my teens. 

What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Little Tender Loving Care - Arcana. Smut. Giving Nadia a massage. 

A Little Stronger You Thought - Arcana. A sparring practice with Nadia gets a bit hot and sweaty. Not actually smut this time. 

Won’t You Cleanse My Soul - Arcana. And we’re back to Smut. The bathroom scene taken to a conclusion not in the game. 

Not So Clean - Mass Effect. Smut again! Shepard and Traynor share a shower. 

Alone At Last - Dr Who. After Ryan and Graham leave the TARDIS, Yasmin and Thirteen finally push past a barrier in their friendship. 

Do you respond to comments?

Yes. I didn’t used to, but I love giving energy back to the people who took the time to write. 

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Back in my ff.net days, Leliana grieving after losing the Warden to the Ultimate Sacrifice. It implies Leliana dying as well. The angiest one on AO3 is Let it All Out, with Hawke spilling her guts to Leliana over everything that’s happened since they last saw each other in Lothering.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Alone At Last. Most of my one shots have a happy ending but this in particular. 

Do you get hate on fics? 

I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid it, although I have had a couple of ‘helpful’ comments telling me what I should do with the characters next (which is a guaranteed way to make me go in the opposite direction, not least so the commenter can’t claim credit for the idea). 

Do you write smut?

Cough. See above. 

Do you write crossovers?

I sort of am between Dragon Age games as I like bringing characters from one game and putting them in the setting of another. I’ve also been picking at a ‘Shepard crash lands on the Wounded Coast’ fic which I’m not sure will ever see the light of day. 

Have you had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know. 

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. 

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I’ve co-written a lot of storylines on forums, some of which have sprung out into me working on fics separately, but not collaborated on a fanfic before. 

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

That’s a tough one. I adore Isabela/F Hawke, and ship Leliana very specifically with my jabby Siali Tabris, but if I was to pick one it would be Korra/Asami. When the first season of Korra came out I made a post on tumblr commenting on the chemistry between the two and really liking the idea of them together, but stating that the network would never, ever let it happen. (Child of the mid-2000’s ‘bury your gays’ wars here.) Having it come true was huge from a cultural standpoint, and I remember sitting at the computer sobbing my eyes out at the finale. It was so important to me so for that reason, I think they’ll always been my OTP even if I never write a fic for them. 

Which now I want to. Dammit. 

What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I really, really want to write more of Aliyah Hawke’s story. I love DA2 but Hawke as a protagonist never grabbed me by the brainstem in the way my Warden and Inquisitor did. I want to build her up some more. She has five chapters up on AO3 and I want to save her from the ashes. 

What are your writing strengths?

I’m told I’m good at distinctive character voices. I like to switch around POVs a lot during fics to give different perspectives on familiar scenes, and the way I write inner monologues is very specific to the character who is the focal point at that time. 

What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m not an especially funny writer. Some people have a real knack for turns of phrase that leave you rolling on the floor, and sadly I am not one of those people. 

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have done this a lot as Nicolette is either Orlesian or French depending on what world she’s inhabiting at the point I’m writing her, and in reference to her faceclaim also has Indian/Rivaini ancestry, so I’d sprinkle her speech with bits of whatever her mother tongue is. I’ve learned to be increasingly careful about this because a) a lot of free translation tools are absolute arse and b) context is very important. 

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I’m actually currently writing it. ‘I Cannot Fly, So Let Me Sing’ started as a joke of me taking my very pacifist wandering minstrel character who I have been playing for years and playing with the canon like a ball of yarn until I could justify making her Inquisitor. It has been great working her into the story and also trying to weave in other character POVs, but I am currently taking a bit of a break as I have two bridging/important infodump chapters to write before I can move onto the next bit and I am STUCK. 

Tagging @shenaniginstigations, @aithne and @zombolouge