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duckprintspress · 1 year ago

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Fandom 101: Getting Started on Fanlore.org

Not long ago, we at Duck Prints Press decided that we’d like the Press to have a page on Fanlore. To accomplish that, Press contributor Shea Sullivan made an account and figured out the nuts and bolts on how to add pages to Fanlore. Turns out, it’s not very hard, and now in this guest blog post, Shea will teach y’all how to do it too!

Making Your First Fanlore Page!

Hello! I am an editor on Fanlore as of a few days ago. Before that, I’d worked with mediawiki (the open source platform Fanlore uses) for unrelated projects, so I had a general understanding of how things worked, but no idea how Fanlore preferred their pages to be formatted or organized or linked.

This is how I got started!

First: What is Fanlore and Why Should You Care?

Fanlore is a wiki specifically dedicated to the fandom experience. It’s not for canon info about a specific fandom; rather, it’s for information about how fans interact with media and each other. Fanlore is run by the OTW, the same organization that brings us our beloved AO3. This context helped me in understanding the focus of Fanlore. It’s about fandom: the ups, the downs, the trends, the drama…all the things that can get lost forever when sites disappear or there’s a purge. And that said…well, you may still not care. But if you do, read on!

Second: You Care. Now What?

(read more)

Get an account. Right now. It’s worth getting the account, because you won’t be able to create new pages for a few hours. So, get the account first, figure out what to do with it later.

Go to fanlore.org and click on “Create Account” in the upper right-hand corner:

Third: You Have the Power (Soon)!

Read up! No need to invent the wheel in this post – they’ve got some great resources for getting started already written on their webpage.

Fanlore Getting Started Page

General Help Pages on Fanlore

Four hours after you create your account, you can create pages! Congrats! There are a ton of help pages out there, but the questions I had initially were:

How do I make sure this page doesn’t exist already?

Search. Search for the page. Search for key phrases associated with the page. A page name is a fiddly thing, so search for significant phrases in a few different ways before you determine it doesn’t exist. Always make sure you check before you set out to create page!

How do I add this page?

If it’s not there, you’ll see it come up in red when you search. Type the page name you want to create in the search bar. Click “Search” to get all the results, and then click on that red link.

How do I format this page?

You now have an empty page. When I was getting started, my big question was: what should my page look like? Well, Fanlore has templates that can help with that! The templates are in a markup language, but do not fear! Copy and paste the template (everything in the blue box on the template page, typically starting with curly braces), make some updates, and click “Preview.” You can repeat those steps indefinitely until you get the hang of the markup. There’s also a ton of information on the Fanlore.org cheatsheet. (If you’re still confused, keep reading, there’s more specifics under the infobox section.)

Once you have the page created and published, you can edit it without the markup language if you prefer – there’s “Edit,” which gives you a non-code-based option, and an “Edit Source” button, which gives you the code-based option.

If your proposed page topic doesn’t have an official template created for that topic, you can look up similar pages and see how they’re structured. If you’re not sure how they managed to make something look a certain way, click the “Edit Source” button and look at the code there to get a sense of what they did. Be sure to cancel out of the edit when you’re done so you don’t make unintentional changes to someone else’s page! Some pages are locked down (like the template pages) so you can’t make edits, but most “normal” pages will have those links at the top so you can dig in and see what’s there and how the people who wrote that page made it look the way it does.

How do I add an infobox?

Those infoboxes on the right of a lot of pages give a quick overview of important information. These are templates, and you can find a list of available infobox templates here.

The templates, when you click into them, have a heading and some info that you can fill in. You can’t remove items from the template without making a new template, which I don’t recommend trying when you’re getting started. Use the template, fill in the information, and mark “N/A” if you don’t have information to insert in a specific field. A sample template for an infobox looks like this, and you fill in information after each “equals” sign. You can add a list, and you can add links to these after the equals sign using the markup for internal and external links on the Cheatsheet.

{{FanProfile |name= |alias(es)= |type= |fandoms= |communities= |other= |url= }}

If you’re still confused, let’s go to Astolat’s fan page and click “Edit Source” and see how the infobox looks behind the scenes:

See how everything that was in the original template is still there, there’s just a list of information after the equals sign?

And here’s how it looks formatted:

How do I categorize this page?

Categories are important because they help Fanlore’s back-end coding group pages together so people can find the page you’ve created and so the page is in the right place in the site map. If you can’t figure it out, though, don’t worry, there are people who will find it and take care of it!

If you have an infobox from a template, this is taken care of.

If you didn’t use an infobox template, you can add a Category to index the page.

Finding a Category can be a little overwhelming. If you have an example page (another page that contains the same type of content as yours), you can scroll to the bottom of that page and see what Category has been assigned to it. You can add that Category to your page by editing the source and adding that category into your page at the bottom with 2 square brackets, like this: [[Category:YourCategory]]

Use “Preview” to make sure you set it up correctly before saving the page.

If you need to find a category and can’t find a good example page, I recommend going to the sitemap, finding what fits your article the best, and clicking into it. Categories are set up in hierarchies, so click through until you find the Category and Subcategory that fits best.

Add it at the very bottom of the page, and it should show up when you preview, at the very bottom of the page.

How do I add those nifty citation references[1]?

Review theFanlore page on citation formatting for details. The basics are:

Add a blank References heading at the bottom of the page.

Add tags and include the source information.

What is the difference between a citation and an external link? Good question! I don’t know for sure, but the way I’ve been using it, if I make a statement about a thing and I want to direct you to the “proof” (article, webpage, etc), I will use a citation. If there is a thing I’m linking to because it is relevant but not as proof of what I’m saying on the wiki, I will add it as an external link.

Fourth: Don’t Worry

You’ll find there are a lot of instances when you might not be sure what the “right” way is to do whatever it is you’re trying to do. Don’t let that stop you! Do a little research, do your best, and be okay with a learning curve.

The thing about wiki editing in general, and this includes Fanlore, is that it’s a community project, and everyone is doing their best. It’s worthwhile to think about trying to make your pages consistent with other pages where you can, because it will help people who are trying to find what you’re providing. So, poke around similar pages first and look for common trends in how they’re organized, and mimic that for your own page.

All that said, there is very little hierarchy in editors and few rules set in stone. It’s a community site put together by volunteers. You may find that you’ve labeled, referenced, cited, categorized, etc, a page incorrectly, or that you added a page that was already there under another name, or you may have put in a canon page when that’s really not what Fanlore is for. No problem! A page can be reverted to a previous version. It can be removed by a “Gardener” (higher-level editor), or edited by someone else who is more familiar with the inner wiki workings, or you can even tweak it yourself when you learn a better ways to code the page.

There is always a path forward, so get in there and get started!

Happy creating, happy fandom, and welcome!

GO VISIT FANLORE NOW!

#duck prints press #resources #tutorials #otw #ao3 #fanlore #fanlore.org #how to #fandom #fandom wiki

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nocturius8015ficore · 5 months ago

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Fanfiction #6: Of All the Things I've Lost

Nocturius: 6th Republic Commando fanfiction!

This story is a very intimate and a bit experimental one about Fi's slow recovery from his brain injury. It also talk about his early relationship with Parja. The format is 30 ''datapad entries'' spread on about 200 days, so I suggest you to read it SLOWLY and take the time to imagine and feel the gaps in your head.

Enjoy!

I'M ALSO ON Ao3! -> click HERE

Title:��Of All the Things I've Lost

Fandom: Star Wars Republic Commando books by Karen Traviss

Characters: Fi Skirata, Parja Bralor, Bardan Jusik

Rating: Teens and up. **Sensible topic (depression/suicidal thoughts)**

Topic: Fi's brain injury, physical and psychological recovery, memory loss, love

Pitch: To help Fi getting better, Parja told Fi to keep a personal journal. It was one of his hardest mission.

📖📖📖📖📖📖📖

Of all the things I've lost by Fi-Core/Nocturius Between True Colors and Order 66 Around 550 to 750 days after the battle of Geonosis Kyrimorut, Mandalore -------------------------------

Fi’s datapad journal entry #001 Parja tol me to keep jornal. Feel dubm doin i. Hansss messy & shaky. Diffikultt to ritwe. Fiefk

---

#002 Wgo is Parja? Missin my vode. ---

#003 Not sure wher i am. Where every1??? I scrared ---

#004 Knees hurt, I fell too ofte toda y ---

#005 Food good, happy belly, happi Fy!

--- #006 Parja makes me walk agan today. She kind & patient. She say I progess ---

#007 Bard’ika came today. Healing T-time! I wish I could takl to Dar about the bb… I miss my vode. I wan a to go home ---

#008 I’m so lost. Dont even know wehre home is. Where is Niner? Are they dead?! ---

#009 Parja is cute ❤ Hope she wont read that. oh well ---

#010 shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, osik, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, shab, copy-paste is my new friend! 😃

--- #011 I feel like osik. Im still unabll to put clothes by myself. All the Nulls are gone. I’m alonr with Parja. She is the 1 who helps me with that now. It's embarrasssing. Not the idea I had of a woman seeing my shebs for the first time… ---

#012 My legs hurt so much. I tried to walk by myself today. Feeling like I only have bones and no meat. Parja shaved me. I’m ugly as shab, way too skinny cheeks. At least I have nice hair growing back. Love when she brushes it. I might keep them long. 😝 ---

#013 Parja showed me how to cook uj cakes. I barely participated this time but she made me lick the spatula.😋 She said she will teach me bits by bits. It’s supposed to be good for me to have small goals like that. Not only work on physical or mental improvement but more ‘’day-to-day’’ and natural things. It’s the Mando way of life, she said. It was wonderful and fun. The freshly baked cakes are so tasty.🤤 Nothing like the ones Kal’buir smuggled on Kamino. ---

#014 I wish I was able to speak full sentences. Writing is getting easier if I take my time. It’s just frustrating, I sound like an idiot or a small child. My mind is getting clearer but I know I forget a lot. I suppose it’s good I know I do. I really hope I’ll continue to get better but my expectations are low. I’m supposed to be dead, they say.

---

#015 I work very hard to get better at coordination. Still can’t take a shower by myself. It’s so embarrassing. It would be simpler if it was a droid doing it but they aren't as soft and delicate as her. I like her touching me, but it’s so wrong. I try to keep my thoughts straight, she is only taking care of me. I’m grateful she never made any comment about… shab. Stuff going on. I can’t help it. It’s all pretty messed up. ---

#016 Memory is a weird thingy, I remember my vode from Teroch squad like it was yesterday but I don’t remember WHAT I ate yesterday. My stomach does tho. Oh dear, that was way too spicy hot…

--- #017 Bard’ika healing therapy is literally a miracle I swear. I’ll never say anything bad about Jedi. Ever.

---

#018 I spilled a full bowl of blue milk and cereal on Parja. So fierfek ashamed and angry about myself. Hate everything, hate myself, hate the shab of all. I never wanted to blow up something that hard in my life. A big ball of explosion would end all of this.

---

#019 Fierfek. I don’t remember why I was sooo angry. Get a grip, trooper. It’s only wasted food. She’s not even mad at me. I want a hug right now, but no one is there except the nurse droid. I feel so lonely.

---

#020 What is a soldier who can’t walk by himself? I’m useless. Actually I don’t want to fight. I just want people to leave me alone, I’m a burden. I don’t want to be alone really. I don’t know what I want. My mind so foggy. Kal’buir say I probably have some PTSD. I don’t know how to handle this.

---

#021 The way she smiles at me. I wish I could stand up and hug her tight, but I can’t hold a shabla spoon without dropping my food. Could she truly loves me one day? Does she see me as a man? ‘Cause I can’t stop thinking about her in an un-jedi-ly way. My chest hurts.

---

#022 Why my thoughts doesn’t align with my mouth? I’m supposed to be Fi-big-mouth-Skirata. More like Fi-big-never-able-to-finish-his-sentences-Di’kut. I don’t mind about my legs, I just want to be able to talk properly and not be so shabla lost all the time. I wish she could have seen me in my prime, I dunno. What is left of me anyway…

---

#023 First 4 meters with no help. Parja kissed me on the cheek to congratulate me. Feel like osik, but I got a kiss. 😃😃😃

---

#024 I can’t tell her how I feel. She will never want me. I’m a wreck. Stay focus trooper, the day you will be able to walk and dress yourself alone, she’ll be gone. She doesn't love you, she’s your nurse. That’s it. I wouldn't choose myself either. I can’t even make jokes. Maybe they should have left me behind. That healing process is so slow. I fear I’ll only get worse from here. My time is so short, I don’t have a lot of it ahead. What if the day I’m ok, I'm just too old for anything? She will move on and find another poor soul to fix.

---

#025 Love beskar’gam. I look good in it, a cool skirt around my shebs and that spear. That will do it. Plus, I can hide everything I feel under the bucket like the good ol’ days.

---

#026 Sometimes, I think of something clever, then laugh at my own jokes. Then I forget the so-called joke and don’t remember why that was funny in the first place. I don’t care too much about looking like a crazy lad. I’m just sad to not have been able to share it and be the only one laughing.

---

#027 I can’t live like this. It’s not a life. What am I supposed to be?

---

#028 I don’t remember how but this is the BEST DAY of my life. She kissed me. A real. Lovers. Kiss. On my fierfek lips. Oyaaaaaa it feels sooooooo good. ☺️☺️

---

#029 The shab, Fi from yesterday, you drank 2 bottles of tihaar instead of water or had a funky dream? Won’t happen anytime soon…

---

#030 WASNT A DREAM. SHE KISSED ME AGAIN. KANDOSIIIIIIIIIII! ❤️❤️ I love you Parja. You are my cyar’ika. I need to remember that. Fi, my boy Fi, you have a girl. Read that again and again. This is not a drill. Parja is your GIRLFRIEND. I love you I love you I love you.

---

End

Fi-Core/Nocturius 5th of July 2024

📖📖📖📖📖📖📖

#fi-core #republic commando #repcomm #fi skirata #Star Wars Fanfiction #Clone Fanfiction #Parja Bralor #Bardan Jusik #fi x parja

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fi-niamh · 5 months ago

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Ellipsus vs Google Docs

(from someone who's been using Ellipsus for 3 months)

I think I've finally been using ellipsus long enough to be able to give it a proper comparison against Google Docs, which I've using for almost ten years

Is ellipsus still in open beta? yes. will this review be out of date in a couple of weeks? probably.

Do I still recommend it to literally anyone? yes absolutely

For those unfamiliar, ellipsus is a website that's (from what I've seen) being marketed as a google docs competitor specifically for writers. it's really good, I really enjoy it, but it does have some draw backs

I haven't tried any of the collaborative feature, so I won't be talking about them here, but here's the TLDR:

Ellipsus is great overall, it doesn't crash on you randomly like Google Docs tends to, it has built in dark mode, the drafts feature is an absolute godsend, and Ellipsus explicitly states that they won't feed anyone's work in AI training. The two biggest downsides is that there is currently no custom dictionary option, nor is there offline support. But both of these options are planned and in development, respectively

I'm going to go into a bit more detail here with some pros and cons that I've found. Please note that this is not a guide on how to use Ellipsus, just a general pros and cons list that I've created over the past few months

Pros

Built in dark mode

I cannot stress enough that this was the thing that made me switch over to Ellipsus in the first place. The fact that Google Docs still doesn't have native dark mode on browser was starting to drive me insane, so once I learnt that Ellipsus supported it, I made an account immediately. And it's not the bad dark mode where all the colours are inverted; it's proper dark mode with greys and a nice off white text to match. And there's also light mode for those of you who prefer burning your retinas off /s

Drafts

The drafts option basically makes a copy of what you've written and gives you an option to play around with your writing without changing original document. This was basically what I was doing with Google Docs, but instead of trying to balance three separate documents and inevitably confusing myself, it's all in one spot on the side bar. Plus, there's an option to compare changes so if you're like me an write in the draft instead of the main document by accident, you can see the exact place you went wrong

No AI Training

Ellipsus is very clear that they will not share any of our writing data with AI which is really nice and something I'm certain Google will never guarantee.

Ellipsus will explain it better than I ever could so if you're interested, you can read their stance of generative AI

Folders!!!

Ellipsus has folders!!! Folders!!!

Because I refuse to use Google Drive to organise things, my Google Docs home screen was either filled with a million documents (one for each chapter) or one very, very large doc with some 100k words on it. It did not load. I crashed my browser on more than one occasion.

This is not an issue with Ellipsus because they have folders.

It doesn't crash

A constant issue I've with Google Docs is that once a doc hit 20k words, I would get phantom lines running across my screen, the screen would tear when scrolling, and occasionally my browser would crash entirely. This isn't an issue I've encountered with Ellipsus.

Now, I haven't tested just how big of a document Ellipsus can handle but I've written up to 15k words in one document and didn't run into any issues other than scrolling was occasionally a bit unresponsive

A dedicated AO3 export button

A big problem I know a lot of people have is that Google Docs formatting does not carry over to AO3 very well so if you add italics for example, copying and pasting from Google Docs to AO3 will result in random spacing. Example:

"This is how it should look!"

" This is how it ends up looking !"

Note the spaces between the punctuation and the words. It gets really annoying having to go back and fix it all, but it's not an issue with Ellipsus because they export directly into ao3 friendly HTML

Easily accessible word count

This one is very minor, but I love that the word count is just hovering at the top of the screen. The shortcut to access it on Google Docs was annoying, so not having to bother with that is really nice

Cons

No Custom Dictionary

I imagine this one is a deal breaker for a lot of people, but you don't have an option to add words to your own custom dictionary. This feature is planned, and has been since May 2024, so I imagine that there's a lot of backend stuff that makes this feature pretty complicated. Still, it is pretty annoying especially when writing fiction. For the time being, I've just turned off the spell check and used a third party grammar and spell checker that allows custom dictionaries.

No Offline Support

Unlike Google Docs, Ellipsus has no offline support which means that nothing you write is saved to your computer. This was a pretty big one for me, so I've started manually saving everything I've written into a folder on my laptop and uploaded it to a cloud service just in case something happens to the Ellipsus servers.

This is a bit of a pain, but this feature is under development so I imagine I won't have to do this for much longer

The website can be slow to load

It's hard to tell if this is because of my terrible Australian internet, Ellipsus servers, my million folders, or a mix of all three, but occasionally the website does take a bit to load. It's not too bad, and it's like lightning compared to how long Google Docs can take to load sometimes, but it's something to be aware of if you're like me and suffering from already slow internet

Formatting

This one is mostly just nitpicky, but it put me off at first so I imagine it might do the same for someone else.

The formatting is constantly being improved, but there are some things that aren't great.

The font options aren't super extensive, and I really only like one of them (which is entirely subjective, I know), and there's no option to set a default one. At the moment, you can't embed images, add page numbers, or add links to page breaks further down in the document. These features are planned, but it might be a while before they're added.

I know that formatting is important to a lot of people, and by no means is ellipsus formatting bad, it just might not be right for you. It didn't impact me too much because I was able to readjust my workflow so that I didn't need page numbers, but others might not want to do that

Final Thoughts

Ellipsus is really good for what I use it for, and I don't think I'll be switching back to Google Docs for writing any time soon. I might give another update on my thoughts in the following months when I'm back at uni and need to use Docs for uni work, but from what I can tell so far Ellipsus is the superior writing app

It's definitely missing some key features, but it's still in open beta so that can only be expected

New features are being added, just in the last few months some new text colours were added (I think, maybe I just never noticed them) but they didn't impact me as much as I imagine they impacted others. The biggest thing I'm looking forward to is offline support but my software engineer brother tells me that requires a lot of work so best of luck to all the ellipsus devs

#ellipsus #writing #writing tools #writers on tumblr #fanfic #fanfic writing #writeblr #original writing

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mamaz00m · 1 year ago

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So. Plans for the future. Let’s talk about it.

Going back through this fic and finally writing the last chapter opened the floodgates for me, in a way. As I said in my last post, I’d been wondering about what Gabe and Eli in the future would be like, what their lives would look like. I wrote a glimpse into their future back in 2019 in A Name of My Own. But I still feel like there’s more to uncover, more to learn, to discover.

Finishing Raise Hell felt monumental for me. When I completed the last chapter, I sat staring at the final line for fifteen minutes, asking myself if I could do this—if I could finally publish it. If I was ready for this all to be over. Because this fic had started out as a coping mechanism for me. When I’d began writing it, I identified pretty heavily with Eli—like I wanted so desperately to have someone come rescue me. Someone who knew how to care for me while also pushing me to be my best in ways that felt challenging, but not scary. Weirdly, it felt difficult to essentially ‘let go’ of that time in my life, that version of me.

Weirder, still, is the fact that just like Eli, I essentially got exactly what I wanted. I moved in with my best friend. We’ve built a life together. I’m happy, and I’m finally beginning to thrive instead of just survive. I clicked publish. I decided to let go of the 24 year old version of me.

And by the next day, (nearly) 34 year old me had an idea for a second Gabeli story—a road map unfurled in my mind, the journey these two men could take stretching out before me. I have the notes written down for a second story, ready to begin writing.

What does this mean for RH?

For Raise Hell as it currently exists? Probably nothing.

In its current form, Raise Hell has a few problems—tense-shifting, for one, a couple Boosh/Mint Royale references that would need changed if I were to publish it. I have copy/pasted the whole of the fic into my favorite writing program and am slowly combing through it, fixing the problems with tenses, formatting it, etc. I do have plans to eventually get it up for sale in its new form (with a couple extra scenes included), but that’s in the future. If you loved it, I’d download it now so that you’ll always have access to it in its original form because it might not remain forever on AO3.

What is Heaven & Earth?

The sequel I’m planning for Raise Hell. It will be set roughly two years after the conclusion of RH and will follow one major plot and two minor subplots as we follow the boys further into their relationship.

We’ll see how Jen, Ben, and Kat are doing and we’ll find out more about Spuds, James, and Alan, too.

We’ll uncover more insights about Gabe’s past and his parents, and we’ll see some things from Eli’s past get wrapped up as well.

Will you be posting H&E to AO3?

Yes! Any Gabeli stuff I work on will be posted to AO3 first and then be made available in other formats, reconfigured, improved, etc. later.

What is Hereafter?

The long and short of it is I don’t know yet! Coming back to finish a fic (and then go on to continue it) for what appears to be a dead fandom is a…weird experience, to say the least. I’m convinced at this point that I’m only continuing this for my own benefit at this point, but I think I’m fine with that.

I think once I’ve finished with H&E, the picture will become clearer for Hereafter. Or Hereafter may become just a collection of oneshots only on AO3—random snapshots of Gabe and Eli’s lives at different points. I don’t know. I’ll figure it out when the time comes.

So. That’s it for the updates for now.

Thanks again.

#gabeli #raise hell #julian barratt #mint royale #the mighty boosh #noel fielding #noelian #mighty boosh

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slippinmickeys · 1 year ago

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Hello I was wondering if you can give me advice to publish a Fic .. I am new on this and and I have no idea how this works or if I need to tag somebody... I also heard about beta's .. what Is a beta? Any feedback you can provide It will be much appreciated .. thanks!!

Hi! How cool that you have a story you’re willing to share. I’m so happy for you and those of us who’ll get to read it.

Before you publish, let me first answer your question about betas. A beta reader is kind of like an editor; it’s a person who reads your work before you publish it. Most betas will catch typos and grammar issues, as well as plot inconsistencies, etc. A good beta will point out instances when your characters are acting out of character, or when you’re not following canon (if you’re trying to follow canon). But fear not! Betas also highlight stuff they love and make you feel very warm and gooey. (There are also plenty of betas who will give you a read and just give you encouragement. When I beta — something I sadly rarely have the bandwidth for anymore — I tend to ask what kind of read the writer is looking for; deep dive pick-it-apart beta? feel good beta? typos only beta?) Beta readers are, in my opinion, absolutely essential to putting out good fic. And most of them are absolutely dear people who are only pointing out your mistakes because they want you to put out the best work possible. Don’t take anything personally. (A thick skin isn’t necessary, but helps.) If you don’t have a beta or two, get one. And if you don’t know where to find one and would like help, feel free to send me another ask, and I’ll reblog to help put out the call.

Now, onto your other question. How does publishing a fic work? I can only speak to how I do it, but goes a bit like this:

Once my story is finished and beta-ed, the first thing I do is publish it to AO3. (If you don’t have an account, get one! This process may take a few days.) I assume you read fic, so you’re familiar with tags, ratings, etc. Next is formatting. Use Rich Text rather than HTML (there are buttons at the top right). If you’re publishing from a Google doc, you will annoyingly need to remove extra spaces. You’ll get a feel for it.

Once it’s on AO3, I copy and paste from there to Tumblr. My advice is to use the desktop version rather than mobile—you won’t have to reformat. I don’t usually tag anyone, but blogs like @today-in-fic are great to get more eyes on your work.

From there I also post a link to the story on AO3 to Twitter, but that’s only because I have a fic/fandom specific account.

Let’s see, what else. I hope that was helpful. If you feel like I skipped steps or you’re more confused than when you started, I’m happy to clarify. Good luck and happy writing!

#fanfic #asks

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wilteddreamsofbaldursgate · 1 year ago

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10. Editing and Formatting

So, you’ve written your first draft? Amazing. I’m so proud of you, and I’m so sorry to tell you that this is the point where writing becomes boring. Wait? You thought you’re finished now that your draft is done? Oh, well—it’s really not like that. Actually, this stage of writing is not only the most tedious but most time consuming, because now you have to go hunt for typos and bad grammar, redundant words and irregular spacing. It might just as well happen that you'll find yourself revising your finished draft yet again. I say this is tedious work, but you actually just keep improving your draft, which is a very good thing! Edit your work, constantly. If you read your draft and think “Actually, I could’ve written this or that a little differently, it would’ve sounded so much better!”: Change it, then, honestly—even if it takes half an hour. You’ll regret it otherwise.

Example:

I edit my work in three stages:

I read the entire draft just like you would read another writer’s fic. I’m not looking for typos and all that, yet, though if they’re obvious and easy to fix I do that right away or mark them for later. In this round, I’m checking for awkwardness or inconsistency. Things that sound bad or could be better. What really worked for me was being conscious of how I read. I’m aware not everybody has it, but I do have a reading voice, meaning: I hear a voice inside my head while reading. When I’m editing, I try to be very conscious of what that voice narrates. So when there’s a sentence and the narration in my head doesn’t match the actual words written on the page, I will usually change the sentence to what I subconsciously thought the sentence would be like written out. Pretending to be the reader and not writer of a draft can be very helpful, because you have to think about what a reader who doesn’t know the piece you’ve probably read X amount of times by now would expect. In 9/10 cases, my sentences improve.

In this round I re-read the entire draft word for word. Depending on how long my draft is, this can take forever. Now I really get out the magnifying glass and sift through my draft, hunting for typos and such. Nothing spectacular, just really tedious work, but generally worth doing.

Repeat Step One, but this time I do it after I have copy and pasted my draft to where I eventually want to upload the piece— tumblr or ao3. I save the post as a draft and then re-read it. Two things happen: a) my draft looks different than on my writing program; this has me more alert. b) I see what my draft will look like to readers; helps me get into the reader-perspective. I’m always astonished to see how many more typos etc. I missed the other X times I checked for them! After I fixed them, I usually prepare my post for posting.

There are some online programs that can help you check for grammar and typos, but don’t completely rely on them—especially since free versions of them are not really made for creative writing projects. They just don’t get art, ok? What I can warmly recommend, though, are beta readers. They’re real people who get to read your draft before you publish it. They can help you check for grammar and typos and all the likes, but they can also give you wonderful feedback and tell you what you might improve story-wise. While your beta is more than happy to help you edit your draft, let’s talk about formatting.

Before you share your work with the rest of the fandom, you want to make it look presentable—polish it, so to speak. Your draft can be as good as could be, but it’s pretty exhausting to read a piece that looks bad and it will scare potential readers off. Here’s a very quick list of things you want to avoid:

You don’t want your draft to be one single, long paragraph. Line breaks are your friend. As a rule of thumb: If there’s a new scene (imagine a cut in a movie), you start a new paragraph. Same goes for dialogue—whenever there’s a new speaker, you insert another line break.

excessive punctuation (e.g. “No!!!!!!!!” He cried.)

weird fonts (choose something that’s easy on the eyes)

overuse of highlighting or emphasising (bold or italics)

bad grammar and punctuation

If you want to get a feeling for this kind of thing, open a novel and just look at a random page for a moment. There’s a pattern I’m sure you’ll soon recognize—try to recreate that in your own writing.

Next: Polishing your Post

Masterlist

#emis fic guide #part 10

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amywritesthings · 1 year ago

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Hello! I love your writing style and I would love to know the whole process of how. Like how do you outline and do everything that comes with writing a chapter/story? The whole process basically, if it ain't too much trouble.

AHHH HELLO! It isn't trouble at all, sorry it took me a bit to get back to this. I really appreciate your kind words about my writing style. It's definitely the thing I'm most proud about as a skill, since I am also a writer in my day job!

My process is a little chaotic? I guess.

edit: this got long i'll put it under a read more, actually (w/a screenshot of my actual completed outline for a one shot!)

For new stories or new chapters, a scene that's usually mid-story will come to me out of nowhere, and I will build the story around that. I almost always exclusively write my work in bulletpoints before fleshing it out to actual (very short) paragraphs. I don't usually know the ending to fics that are beyond one shots. I tend to mold it as I understand my own characters and how they development way beyond my original concept, because I don't like pigeon-holing myself into one singular outcome.

Once I have the entire (or most of) the idea outlined, that's when I'll start going in between the bulletpoints and 'rough writing', which is literally just me pushing out anything I want. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't even have to sound good. My strength comes with editing after I see the structure written out before me, so my goal is to just get a general chapter/one shot done before I fine tune.

For long fics, I do this chapter by chapter. Sometimes I'll even jump to a chapter 3-5 ch from now and just blurt out a 600-word excerpt that comes to mind. Storytelling doesn't need to be linear, it just needs to be passionate and well-loved.

Then comes the real doozy, which is editing. That's when my real writing happens. I tend to be dialogue-heavy, so once I'm done my first round of edits... I read the entire thing out loud. I deepen my voice (ha) for all my guys I write. I even mumble my smut lines because if Din Djarin's dirty-talkin', I won't let that poor man sound like a moron in the sheets.

Then I format on AO3, copying & pasting to wordcounter.net as I make my last-minute edits so AO3 can't eat my stuff (bc that has happened before and oh it is pain) and post!

For funsies, I went back through my doc and found my entire holiday Nanami x Reader one shot outline for ya!

You can see that I kind of talk to myself through outlines (I'm my own best friend, yes I literally do this in all of my drafts of stories and they can get v unhinged) and I will also add dialogue that comes to mind while I'm outlining that I want to keep for the end story.

If you have any other questions, I don't mind chatting or if you wanna keep sending q's that is fine, too!

#questions.#anon response

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thatsnotbeautiful · 3 months ago

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agree with everything except:

- nah, authors don’t owe readers replies to comments. they’ve already worked hard to create something and shared it for the fandom to enjoy!!

- there are always complaints about drabbles regardless of how people post them. there are complaints about the “tons of short fics folded into one multi-chapter fic” method, but also the “post lots of drabbles separately” method. and imo drabbles deserve to be posted too, so i’d rather people post their drabbles regardless of how annoying it might be to certain others in the fandom. not sure why people don’t just filter out the “drabble” tag so those sorts of fics don’t appear in their search results.

one suggestion though is to please don’t tag everything under the sun for those compilation multi-chapter fics, bc nobody wants to have to scroll past a massive text wall of tags.

the way i decided to do it is: use the compilation multi-chapter fic method, but only append fandom and ship tags, and put other tags in the author’s notes of each chapter/drabble as a list. that means people can’t find my drabbles through additional tag search, but i can’t think of a better way to do it lol

i also state the fandom and ship of the latest drabble in the overall fic summary, so if people were interested in one of the other fandoms/ships listed, they’ll know none of those is the most recent one so they can scroll on past.

anyway, now to actual tips:

- you can get around the “do not mention paid work” thing by linking to your Bluesky from your fic or something, and having a commissions post pinned there. (but obviously don’t /say/ “go to my Bluesky for commission info”)

- your fic is dated according to when you first create your draft on AO3, not when it’s published. if you’re the kinda person who saves a draft and lets it sit for a while, you will probably want to update the date when you’re about to publish so it’s at the top of the search results

- you can always subscribe to your own account if you want to see when exactly new fic email notifs go out!

- comments can be moderated, or turned off entirely, fic by fic. if you toggle the moderation function on, comments will only appear on your fic after you’ve manually approved them. imo using this is a good way to deter haters or trolls, if you’re worried about that, since you can toss their flame straight in your fireplace— i mean, junk mailbox— without it ever seeing the light of day.

- i also recommend toggling the “require approval before adding my work to a collection” function on; i don’t know if it’s still an issue, but a while ago there were problems where people would find their fics added to a collection, then the collection would get hidden, thus hiding their fic from view as well. nobody can maliciously do that if you simply require approval first.

- a mute function also exists now! if someone in your fandom posts stuff that simply isn’t your jam, you can just mute them and they won’t show up in search at all anymore.

- a list of headcanons is not a fic; AO3 is not a blog. plz keep that stuff to Tumblr or something

- if you post threadfic, consider archiving them to AO3 as well, as a backup copy and for easier readability!

- in addition to the gdocs script linked above, online word processor Ellipsus also has a function that formats your doc for AO3!

- authors can read your bookmark tags/notes if your bookmark is public, so be nice and don’t write anything you wouldn’t want the author seeing

- you can bulk-edit fics. useful for if you want to make all your fics viewable by registered users only, or something like that

Reminders for new ao3 users (in no particular order):

- filter your searches like you would on a library website or in an online catalogue

- don’t post placeholders, fic searches, or recommendations as fics. DON’T! It’s against ao3 TOS

- there is no algorithm. ao3 sorts by date posted/updated unless you filter with specific search criteria

- ao3 is a non profit. that means it doesn’t sell ads to make money — it only survives on donations. this is why it can show you so many fics without ever flashing an ad or pop up at you!

- report fics that break TOS when you see them (I.e., placeholder fics, searches) to help other users navigate better

- the tag “dead dove, do not eat” doesn’t equate to gore/awfulness automatically. it is a complementary tag that enhances current tags. E.g., if the fic is tagged “gore” and “dead dove, do not eat” the author really wants you to mind the gore tag

- most fandoms have a variation of “no beta, we die like (x character)” and they all link back to the “No beta” tag

- publishing a new fic sometimes means it won’t show up in the fandom/pairing tag for a few minutes

- subscribers receive update emails at different times, depending on when you update/publish your fic. there’s no good way to predict when an e-mail will be sent — it can be in 30 seconds, or two hours later

- some fics are restricted by authors to those with ao3 accounts only. if you see a blue lock in the upper right corner, that fic is only visible to logged in ao3 users

- you can block commenters now! this didn’t use to be a thing

- updating a fic just to stay at the top of the pairing tag/fandom tag is a dick move. unless you’re legitimately editing or adding chapters, this just annoys readers and fellow authors, and people will skip over your fic

#ao3 #doxy text

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mortal-ethos · 3 months ago

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So. I've been on a social media break for two weeks because... I've written at least 1,000 words a day. Everyday. For two weeks. I'm at 10 chapters of a slow burn NeveXRook fanfic. I'm at nearly 100 pages in typical book formatting. I plan on making a handmade physical copy of it once I'm done. I will be posting it all in its entirety to AO3 for people to binge-read once I'm done but I anticipate it's probably going to take me at least another month to finish writing and editing. I've been trying to edit as I go, and edit while I'm at work and can't actively write whole pages. Now if all of that interests you, let me tell you the concept.

Rook is a Veil Jumper, and Neve is curious about him from the first time they meet. He's been travelling with Varric and Harding for over a year, but is very private and doesn't share much about himself. Harding knows his favorite color, his age, and his real name. That's pretty much it. This intrigues Neve and she begins the story very suspicious of him, but slowly gets him to open up to her and she learns about his past. There are some twists, and trauma, and if you also like trying to put little hints together to see if you can guess the conclusion, you might like my fic.

WARNING: BIG YAP AHEAD

When I say slow burn, I mean SLOW BURN. I'm working really hard to emphasize the natural development of their relationship as well as making sure it works with the canon events of the game. I've done multiple playthroughs of DAV and am playing through it again with this Rook to make sure I can capture everything with nothing out of order, and to make it feel like time is actually passing in the story because Veilguard feels like everything happens in less than a month when we KNOW that's not true.

This story is all about the YEARNING and PINING. And I really wanted to focus on handling Rook with the grace I think the character doesn't get in game unfortunately. Game!Rook is fucking struggling and basically never shows it and I think that's a shame that they don't lean on their friends more, so I'm trying to show that development too. It's from Neve's perspective for a lot of it because I just really like the idea of seeing her fall for Rook and freak out about it. I also love the idea that Neve doesn't know how to handle love and they're both so naive and innocent about it. She's used to lust and quick rendezvous, not "you breathe and take my breath away, the Maker has to exist because nothing about you could possibly be an accident or left to fate, I could die happy if I simply got to exist around you, I want nothing from you other than to beg to be in your presence" and she is a wreck. I totally headcanon that she is like a hopeless romantic like Cassandra but Minrathous has drained her of all hope for that, so when she actually gets it she damn near faints.

This is also a transmasc Rook, because I'm transmasc so I want to see more of that represented in fanfiction and media in general. So if I have to be the one to write it, then by the Maker I'm gonna do it. I also wanted to write a really realistic slow burn that decentralized sex, as someone on the ace spectrum, because I have nothing against degenerate aspects of stories (I actually read a smut once that made me cry, it was so well done) but I'm tired of seeing them be the "end goal" or the climax (no pun intended) of the romance. I will probably write an expanded love scene, that's my plan currently, but that's not the goal of the story. My goal is for their confession to feel much more satisfying and to make your heart ache. I want you screaming at your screen "YOU FUCKING LOVE EACH OTHER JUST SAY IT ALREADY." I want you to be mad at me for how badly in love they are, and yes I say badly because neither of them know wtf they're doing.

I put a lot more emphasis on Neve's disability in the story. Not for any dumb melodrama reasons. Not because I think it's something that needs to be made a spectacle of. But because I think there was a great opportunity for DAV to talk about disability representation, to show how people with disabilities are just as capable and live just as fulfilling lives regardless of their disabilities (especially such obvious physical disabilities like with BTK amputees), that was just totally missed. Disability representation is rlly important to me, and I don't think Neve is bad representation at all, I just think it was a lost opportunity to show some of the issues that ppl with disabilities have. Plus she falls into the "perfect prosthetic" trope that annoys me every time it's on screen and ik "oh it's a fantasy game there's magic" STFU this magic system has already established its limitations. This is one of them. She's gonna get bruising and irritation and abrasions from that solid bronze prosthetic with like, no padding. She's running all over Northern Thedas on essentially a peg leg with a hinged foot. That shit is going to hurt. And you're telling me she wears that ALL THE TIME?? She doesn't take it off when she sits at her desk? She doesn't use a cane when she's in her study and is not planning to go out anytime soon? Nah. She's an amazing, powerful, intelligent woman. She's allowed to express when her prosthetic is being a pain in the ass and it doesn't mean she's any less of a strong character. She's allowed to use a cane because that's what boss ass bitches do. And most important that's what REAL boss ass bitches do. I'm not saying I'm an expert or professional regarding disability representation, I just really fucking care about this. A lot. As someone with disabled friends and family.

Anyway, back to the story. I plan on writing a prequel, epilogue, AND a directly after the end game addition for when the team goes back to find the friend that was lost at Tearstone Island. I KNOW I SAW THERE WAS CUT CONTENT OF THAT QUEST SOMEWHERE AND DAMN IT I AM WRITING IT. ahem.

I'm planning to do all of this because I genuinely fucking love this Rook. I love their lore, I love the way I've been able to expand on their personality within the fic, I love the way they love Neve, I love the way Neve sees them and loves them, I love the way they care about the people and world around them, I love the way their friends care about them. I just love all of it. I screen grabbed him smiling and it's been game over for me ever since. Enjoy these screen grabs of my Rook.

Edit: Oh and Rook adopts a cat at one point and it's really cute and Neve, again, can't handle it and Harding and Bellara are her wing women through it all

#dragon age veilguard #neve gallus #idiots in love #fanfic #and thats the kind of energy i love to see in fanfic about neve and rook #rook

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randum-famdoms · 7 months ago

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Finally caving and no longer using Google docs (mostly, probably will still copy and paste the first drafts of chapters in there for my beta reader to go over since that’s what she has)

Gonna start writing via ellipsus now (@ellipsus-writes is their tumblr account, if you wanna check it out). The following is gonna basically just me squeeing and how amazing this thing is, as well as a few cons I’ve noticed, and it’s long. So I’m adding a cut for people who don’t care.

I’m so fucking excited to no longer have to manually add in all the html in the ao3 text editor, you have no fucking idea. That step alone takes hours, double that if something glitches. And I can still write on my phone!!!!!

First downside I’ve noticed so far is that it doesn’t include my preferred font for writing (trebuchet ms if anyone is curious). It DOES have a comic sans sibling tho, which I can use for now. If it annoys me over time then I guess I’ll put up with Inter, even tho I hate most mono fonts. And serif fonts. I’m really picky. Serif fonts me flashbacks to grade school 5 paragraph essays in mla style. And mono fonts just… idk they look weird. Not creative at all. Very corporate.

Another bonus I’ve noticed: it includes open dyslexic as a font!!! I don’t personally need it, but having that accessibility is amazing. HUGE props to the creators.

Also love the interface. Very nice, user friendly, intuitive, looks good, 10/10.

There’s a light and dark mode choice on install, and I chose dark of course.

The editor settings are cool, allowing you to turn on and off different features like seeing other editiors’ cursors when typing, avatars when they’re viewing the document (tho it says draft there, maybe it doesn’t work in the main doc and only in drafts? If so, that’s odd), certain formatting things like dashes combining into an emdash, Ellipses (idk what that’s supposed to mean since there’s no elaboration), quotes (again no elaboration), markdown shortcuts (idk what those are, maybe it’s about coding?), viewing the word count automatically in the top bar, the desktop formatting bar, and the theme (light vs dark).

AND STRIKETRHOUGH IS RIGHT THERE! Right next to bold italic and underline. I always forgot the key shortcut to it in Google docs (why is it three keys???? WHY???? It’s so inconvenient!) and you gotta navigate through like three drop downs to reach it in the menu bar. This is so SO much simpler. I use strike through all the time to denote thoughts the pov character is repressing, and considering Akechi is a pov character that’s pretty damn often.

Omg and having an easy button so see all the keyboard shortcuts???? I love the creators so much????? There’s so many I would never have known otherwise, and they’re all so useful!!!! Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

I love the drafts feature, it’s so nice having my notes and outlines and such all right there.

I do wish the spell check feature was better about recognising foreign names, but since I can just turn it on and off I don’t have to deal with constant red lines like with Google! I do wish there was a way to add words to the program’s dictionary, so that it doesn’t flag names, abbreviations, and slang. (For example, it doesn’t like fic, fanfic, lol, dashes like -- or - for some reason, or really any of the character names. the list goes on.) and I can’t just add in Japanese to the accepted languages, because I’d have to choose either that or English and then every single other word would be wrong. It does give options for which regional English variant you want, so I can choose British English! Which is nice. Google does it too, but you never know with beta versions of programs.

You can choose whether text is normal, a header (which subsets if headers), a caption, a quote, etc. I like that, since it’s directly tied to the outline and the different headers show up in there tree-style, but you can’t just have some text within a category be different. For example, say you want some of your paragraph text to be one font and then a different section of paragraph text to be another. You can’t do that.

I also haven’t been able to find a way to change text colour, or to highlight text. Which is annoying. I use highlighting text a lot when editing, so loosing that is a problem. Not the end of the world, but definitely one of my biggest gripes with Ellipsus so far.

There is a commenting system, but it ONLY works in drafts. I do not like that. In fact, I kinda hate it. A lot. And I definitely prefer the way comments work in Google docs, at least its desktop version, where they show up right next to the text instead of you having to click on the text with a comment to see that comment. At the very least, you can see all the comments in order of where the text is in the draft, with any replies, all in one place in the comments tab. However, you can’t just click away from the text to leave that tab. You gotta manually navigate back to where you were in the menu.

So yeah the comment feature kinda sucks.

There is also a chat feature? Idk how to properly review it, since rn I don’t have anyone else to chat with in ellipsus. You can use it in non-drafts, but I don’t think you can use it to point out specific text.

You can see word count!!!! And an estimate for how long it would take to read the whole thing! That’s so useful! And cool! You can also highlight (with a cursor, not actual highlight) sections of text and it will show that section’s word count, but NOT its reading time.

The version history feature is a bit slow, but it functions well. Not too worried about it. You can restore old versions as a new draft, though, which is pretty neat.

You can also download the document as a pdf, markdown, share it, and copy it as html, markdown, and rich text, but best of all, oooooo best of all, you can export DIRECTLY to ao3! And it includes all the html in the document!!!! I never have to manually code in html again!!!!! There are no words to encapsulate just how fucking excited about that I am. None. I am vibrating. I’m ahdnfbshsbdbfbcbhcbcnnsdbdbxnxbdmsnddbbdndbdbdbAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

best. Feature. Ever. More than makes up for all the things I don’t like. Amazing. Wonderful. 10/10. Would die for that.

As of right now, I think that’s everything. Overall, I’d rate ellipsus an 8.5/10, compared to Google docs’s 7/10. I really love what they’ve done so far, but there’s some things they could really improve on.

Overall cons:

I really wish you could comment in the main document, it’s a big deal to me. I wish you could see comments by the text at all times, instead of just in the comments tab. I wish there were more font choices, the current pickings are slim at best. I wish you could change the font of specific sections instead of everything under that text category. I wish you could highlight things (even better if you could have multiple highlight colours). I wish you could change font colour. I wish you could add words to a dictionary so they aren’t flagged by spell check.

However, the vast majority of things ellipsus is doing are great. There are a ton of pros to this program, and it’s still in beta. There’s room for improvement, but that’s the whole point of a beta release. Everything I don’t like are things I can live with and work around, too. That’s better than a lot of completely finished games and programs I’ve come across. And it’s free!!! I’m really excited to see how Ellipsus develops, and definitely recommend it to any writers out there - especially anyone who writes for ao3. Seriously, the export to ao3 feature practically sells this thing by itself.

#randum thots

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shallowseeker · 11 months ago

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Anon, I'm pretty sure there are some great aO3 formatting tutorials out there, but feeling a little overwhelmed in which to point you to.

In my case, I'm not the best coder cause, like with Tumblr, I live in the chaos.

But here's the jist of my workflow:

I made my separate CSS style document in Adobe Dreamweaver.

I divided up my sections and added styling (bold, font, spacing, etc) to each. The headings, notes, body copy etc all have their own style sections. These styled sections correspond to those sections in your writing document (HTML). Later, you make sure your writing zones are wrapped in the style tags <> <> and that's what makes them take on the styling.

///

Ao3 lets you upload your CSS style as a work skin.

After you save it, it automatically tweaks some things to fit in their guidelines, so you'll see it change a little bit after you put it in there.

After your skin is uploaded, you gain the ability to select it from the dropdown on your individual stories!

////

Making sure my chapter takes on the skin style

I think most folks copy-paste their writing into ao3 from their word processer, and it works well enough.

If you flip between the rich text and HTML (top right), you can check and clean up how your styles are being applied.

** My writing flow currently goes like this. I write in Scrivener (it was gifted to me and I don't lose my stuff as often), and then I upload to Google docs for beta-ing.

When I think it's good to go, I plop it inside Dreamweaver to clean it up for posting. I'm sticking with Dreamweaver right now, mostly because I already have it for my freelancing job.

A lot of the online word processors put extra spaces and bloated span classes in there, so I use search/find/replace to get rid of the spans and replace them with cleaner tags that correspond to my style sheet (<h1>, <h2>, <p>, etc.)

I also make sure all my pictures come through okay, so I check the <div class="divider01"></div> are displaying and that the links are correct inside the <img> tags. (I store the images on imgur.com)

I keep a copy of my style sheet on my harddrive, so the HTML can "call it" and apply the styling. That way, I get to preview it! After it looks okay, I copy-paste this into the HTML section of the new chapter zone of AO3. (Note// It's rich text by default.)

So, that's where I stand! I might change something later, like maybe tweak the body copy spacing or switch the body copy to Verdana, but when I do, the change will affect all the chapters that are using the skin, which is veryhandy!

///

If you wanna come off anon, I can send you my CSS to work from. It's well noted like this. It's probably a bit bloated and could be more elegantly done, but it could get you started!

#ao3 stuff #fic stuff #formatting

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unseededtoast · 2 years ago

Text

Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Part 29/37 | Part Twenty Eight, Part Thirty

Summary: I've lived every day for the past five years looking over my shoulder. I knew they'd come for me, it was inevitable. I was foolish to think I could outrun my past. It's followed me everywhere I go, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Never would I have anticipated that the shadows would lead me to the light.

Bucky Barnes x OC

Series Warnings: Discussion of human trafficking, alcohol consumption, graphic depictions of violence, sexual content, discussion of suicidal thoughts.

a/n: Hi everyone, thank you for checking this out, I appreciate any and all support! This series is also posted on Ao3 and Wattpad if you prefer those formats/platforms! This is a completed series, and it's going to take some time for me to transfer it to Tumblr, so please bear with me!

I don't think this is going to end well, what goes up must come down.

I type away at the keyboard as we all wait for Pietro to return. It's been two days since we arrived at the Sokovian base. I hear Bucky and Wanda talk behind me, but I focus on writing the code before the idea leaves my mind. I had come up with an idea for how to finish writing algorithm the other night, after I killed Dane.

I hear the door open and close, Pietro must have returned. He's back sooner than I thought. I spin around in my chair and see he has a worried look on his face.

"The robots, they're here." He says. My eyes widen as I realize the gravity of the situation.

"Are you certain?" I ask. Maybe it's something else. He shakes his head,

"Stark's name is plastered on the metal. They're definitely his." He says. I take a sharp breath and realize it truly is now or never.

"Pietro, can you keep watch? Let us know if anyone or anything gets close. Wanda, I'm almost done, I'm going to need you to stick around. Bucky, take a seat." I say and everyone nods. Pietro speeds off and I quickly turn back around and furiously type the last few lines of the algorithm.

I knew we were running on borrowed time but I was hoping that they wouldn't find us for at least another day. My palms start sweating as I realize this code has to work or my chance at removing the programming is gone, possibly forever. My stomach turns as I try to push that thought out of my mind. It will work. It has to.

Wanda stands beside me as I try to wrap this up as quickly as possible. She puts a hand on my shoulder, which calms my nerves just a touch.

Out of nowhere, the building shakes, and pieces of loose concrete fall from the ceiling. I pause what I'm doing and listen. I don't hear anything. I take it as a warning and type even quicker. The building shakes again. I don't think it's going to hold for very long.

I finish the last line of code and pull up another application. Before I feel comfortable asking Wanda to put this in Bucky's mind, I have to know it's going to work. I refuse to put something that can potentially be faulty in his mind, I will not experiment with this. The application loads too slowly for the limited time we now have. After what seems to be an eternity, the application shows up on the screen.

Thankfully, my work from when I was in Hydra hadn't been erased. They were likely trying to learn from it when I was gone. I had created a replica of Bucky's mind so that I could run tests to see which program would be the most effective. It shows the activity of the brain and how each program would affect it. At least I have one thing to be thankful to Hydra for.

I hurriedly switch to another application and merge the algorithm with the small part of the gem's matrix I was able to extract. After the incident with Dane, I wasn't able to sleep, so I figured I'd work on extracting what I need out of the matrix. Thankfully the flash drives remained unharmed throughout the ordeal. After I was able to isolate a portion of the matrix I then merged that small portion of the matrix into the copy of Jarvis I had made to create a heightened version of Jarvis that should be able to dynamically think and react based upon the input it receives.

The code was designed to recognize the trigger words for the Soldier and prevent his brain from starting to scramble. Essentially, the algorithm would recognize the pattern and prevent the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex from going dormant and would regulate the rate of communication between the insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. As a failsafe, in case this isn't enough, I also decided to add in a part that would make sure that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the medial prefrontal, along with posterior cingulate cortex areas of the brain retain communication so he doesn't become disconnected from himself like the programming causes.

Hopefully I was thorough enough and correct in my coding skills. I switch back to the simulator and paste the Jarvis hybrid into the simulation and run it. I layered this with the Winter Soldier program and watch what happens. The building shakes again and more concrete falls. I hear the walls start crumbling, we don't have much time. I tap my foot on the ground anxiously.

The simulation starts up and I lean forward in my seat to closely watch the interactions. I watch how the Soldier program interacts with the algorithm. The simulation completes and I almost can't believe what it's showing. I run it again, I have to be sure. It works for a second time.

I look up at Wanda and nod my head. I plug in the flash drive that used to house the gem's matrix, which I wiped after I isolated what I needed. I upload this into the flash drive and tuck it in my pocket, just in case something goes wrong as it tends to do.

The building shakes once more and I see the large cracks in the wall. I don't think we're going to be able to do this here. I rush into the holding cell where we made our makeshift beds and grab the red leather-bound book. I tuck it under my arm and go back to Wanda and Bucky.

"Wanda, can you get into that computer and get that code?" I ask, voice wavering with nerves. She nods and wastes no time focusing her energy on getting what she needs.

We had discussed how this could be accomplished as I worked on isolating a part of the matrix. Since the Jarvis hybrid is essentially a brain, we thought it would be possible for her to use her powers and absorb the information and then transfer it to Bucky's mind, much like she transferred her memory into my brain.

I go to Bucky, who's biting the skin around one of his fingernails and bouncing his leg up and down. I crouch so that I'm eye level with him. He looks at me and I see he's scared. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. I reach out and cup his face in my hands, making him look into my eyes.

"This is it Bucky. Are you sure you're ready?" I ask. He swallows and continues bouncing his leg. He nods his head,

"I'm ready. You're sure this is going to work?" He asks. We both look at Wanda who seems to be deep in thought and concentration, her red magic connecting her to the computer. I look away and nod,

"I'm one hundred percent sure the code is going to work." The simulation never failed me, and I hope it didn't choose now to start breaking that pattern. Another tremble comes over the building. What is going on out there, and where's Pietro?

I start worrying that Wanda isn't going to have enough time to do what she needs to do. I give this building maybe fifteen more minutes before it collapses. I don't want to break her concentration so instead I focus back on Bucky. He needs all the support he can get right now.

"Bucky, I promise you that if I had a single doubt it wouldn't work I would not be going through with this. It will work, you will be free." I say and place one of my hands on his shoulder.

"I trust you." He says and puts his hand on top of mine and gives it a slight squeeze. The building shakes again. I close my eyes and say a silent prayer, begging for this building to stay standing for just a few more minutes.

"Adalyn." I hear Wanda's voice call for me. I open my eyes and rush to her, she gives me a short nod.

"You're sure?" I ask,

"I have it." She confirms. I lick my lips, and try to decide if we have enough time in this building. Another strong shake comes over the building, answering the question for me.

"We have to get out of here, we'll do this somewhere else." I say and the three of us rush out of the building. As we speed towards the entrance, large pieces of concrete fall from the ceiling. I hear a large crash and turn, seeing the room being filled with concrete. It's all coming down.

Bucky picks me up and continues running, taking me out of my shock. I watch from over his shoulder as the base begins to crumble. Wanda throws a large piece of concrete out of our way as it falls in our path. As we make it out of the building, the entire thing collapses.

Bucky continues to carry me as they run into the woods, and instead of the peaceful woodland sounds we were welcomed with a few days ago, there are sounds of screams. I look around and see a massive army of robots. Some are on top of buildings, tearing them apart.

In the distance, where the capitol is located, I see a few people flying in the air. Wanda and Bucky stop running and I squirm out of Bucky's hold. We all look at the scene unfolding.

"Is that Tony and Thor?" Bucky asks and points to the people flying. I squint my eyes to try and get a better look.

"I think it is." I say as a light beam comes from one of them. That's Tony for sure.

"That means Steve is probably there." Bucky says and takes a step towards the city.

"Bucky we have to do this now." I say. He shakes his head.

"I have to help Steve, I can't let him fight alone." He says and I grab his metal wrist. Shaking my head, I protest,

"He's not alone, he's got the entire team of Avengers helping him out, we don't. Bucky we need to get this done. If you go out there something might happen. I can't let you." I say and tug on his wrist, begging him to not go. We don't even know what's out there, plus, Tony wants us dead.

Before Bucky can say another word, the ground shakes. The tremor throws us off balance and I struggle to stand. I look around and notice that it seems we're slowly starting to get closer to the clouds.

"What's going on?" I ask, not feeling good about what I'm seeing. I see a Shield ship fly above and park just on the edge of the city. An idea comes to mind.

"We need to get on that ship." I say and point to it.

"What about Pietro?" Wanda asks. I run a hand through my hair, trying to think of a solution.

"Okay. Pietro is probably in the middle of the fight going on over there. The two of you need to stay out of that fight, you need to stay alive." I say, knowing there's only one answer to this that I'll be able to live with. I pause before I say the rest, quickly coming to terms with what might happen.

"You two get to the ship. Wanda has everything she needs to undo the programming. I'll go to the city and find Pietro. If I don't make it back, Wanda, please undo the programming." I say and I hand both the book and flash drive to Bucky. They'll need them if something goes wrong and I don't make it back. Bucky shakes his head,

"No. I can't lose you." He says.

"Bucky, this is the only chance we have at undoing this for good. You and Wanda go, I'll find Pietro and bring him to the ship." I say, convincing myself I can pull this off. More than likely it's a death sentence.

"None of us are going to let anyone go alone. So we go together." Wanda says. I hate the idea of them going into the fight but I know she's right. Bucky hands the flash drive and book back to me and I put the drive in my pocket and tuck the book in my waistband, making sure it's secure. This time I'm thankful that Shield's uniforms are uncomfortably tight, they're able to hold the book close to me and still let me run.

"I hate this idea, but let's go." I say and the three of us start to take off towards the city.

I hope we can find Pietro and get onto the ship. I don't think this is going to end well, what goes up must come down.

#bucky barnes x oc #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky #bucky fanfic #hydra #bucky barnes fic #james buchanan barnes #marvel #steve rogers #the winter soldier #winter soldier #scarlet witch #quicksilver

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symbi-eat-me · 3 years ago

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Prey Part 1 [Venom x Eddie Brock x female!reader 18+]

[WARNINGS/TAGS?: Female coochie-owning reader, lots of smut!!! with some plot, some implied? stalking, pet names, claws an monsters and all that good stuff]

Summary: After seeing a strange man on your commute back from work, you can’t get him out of your mind. He was so out of place...He plagued your thoughts like a parasite.

This is so self-indulgent LOL I’ve wanted to write venom smut for years,,, there’s plot just to establish a relationship to begin with but future chapters will probably just be full nsfw.

Sorry about the formatting, I just copied straight from ao3 and it fucks it up every time.

~~~

You saw him for the first time on the train. It was a normal night - rush hour and storming outside. You were stood with your back against the doors. He was unremarkable really, but there was something about the man who stood across from you on the opposite side of the carriage. He wasn't your type, really. Not that you had much of one. But there was just something about him. He wasn't much taller than you and his dark clothes were average at best. He generally looked a little disheveled, in fact. Perfectly average, perfectly normal.

Except he kept staring at you, and whenever your eyes met it was like you were looking into an inconceivably dark void. It almost seemed like he was superimposed into the world, like he wasn't supposed to be there. He just didn't fit. You felt the weight of his eyes watching you as you fiddled with your coat button. Taking a shaky breath, you felt the train pull into your stop and you didn't dare glance at him another time before you stepped off, back into the real world.

When you got home that night, the man laced your thoughts. It wasn't unusual for you to get a little crush on strangers you walked past on the street. It came with the loneliness, you supposed. You never intended to live alone: no one ever did, you thought. When you were a teenager you'd make hollow promises with your friends that you'd all live in a house together, like some kind of dream. Things just didn't turn out that way.

You were happy, really though. Well, satisfied might be the better way to put it. Satisfied with mediocracy. Satisfied with passing glances with strange men on the train as a void form of intimacy.

With the glare of the TV lighting up the room, you sat and ate.

Eventually you forgot him.

A week later, you irritably stalked through the streets toward the train station. Your boss had made you stay a couple hours late. It didn't happen very often, and they treated you well really, but you couldn't help but be resentful over it. Getting home in the dark wasn't something you did by choice.

Gratefully however, with the late hour you managed to get a seat on the train. That only happened once in a blue moon. You sighed, daydreamin as you readjusted your skirt in your new seated position. Then you glanced up to the other end of the carriage, and saw him. Your heart skipped a beat. You'd completely forgotten about him. How on earth did you miss him when you got on?

He was sat on a seat facing your own, but on the other side of the carriage so he clearly hadn't seen you. His head was leant against the window, and he wore earphones - you noted that h lightly mouthed along occasionally. In this new position you could study him properly, without his eyes baring into your skull. He was fairly unkept, and looked...anxious? He kept nibbling his lips between muttering lyrics to whatever he was listening to. But he still had the same effect as last time. Like a shadow. It was like he was surrounded by a darkness, kissing the edges of his form.

Last time it was charming, interesting even. You never thought you'd see him again. Now it was almost frightening. It was a strange coincidence that he was on the same train as you, the same carriage, at the same time. You breathed a little heavier as you remembered all the rush hours you had travelled in over the past week. Looking down at your shoes the entire time while surrounded by business men and students. He could have been there every day, breathing down your neck, spreading his darkness so it hit your very heart. The thought terrified you. But you couldn't deny your persistent excitement, either.

You dragged your eyes away from him, conscious of your overthinking. He wasn't even looking at you, it was clear he had no idea that you were there. And even if he did, he wouldn't recognise you. The plain girl from the train a week ago? He would have no idea.

With that thought, you grounded yourself. There was just something about him, though. He plagued your thoughts like a parasite.

Distracting yourself, you turned to look out of the window. It was almost utter blackness outside but you could see some shapes that moved and twisted like something out of a fairy tale. They could be trees, or people, or monsters and you'd never even be able to tell.

Your heart beat a little faster, feeling warm all of a sudden. You liked the dark, really. There was something about the winter air and early evening blackness that wa warm despite the cold temperatures. Your curiosity and imagination could roam free in darkness, and the eeriness could be exciting. But in the real world there were plenty of things to be terrified of in the dark, none of which were fantasy monsters.

Refocusing your eyes, you noted the mans reflection in the darkened window. He was still sat unmoving as he was before. You mentally reassured yourself, nothing to be worried about. Just a coincidence that you happened to see him again.

The announcements called your stop and you hurriedly gathered your bags to stand by the door. The train gradually ground to a stop and you risked one last glance at him over your shoulder.

You studied him for a moment, before your heart jumped to your throat. He was staring right at you. Not directly, but through the reflection of the window he leant against. In a panic, you glanced over at the seat you were in, and back to him. He didn't smile, nothing. Just stared, his lips moving lightly as if still muttering to himself.

The doors opened to your stop and you practically jumped out, rushing as fast as possible away from the platform and to the dark streets.

When you got back to your apartment you triple checked the locks on your door. You hoped that scrutinising the so harshly would put locks on your mind. Locking him out. But you couldn't forget him as easily this time.

He had been watching you the entire journey. He hadn't been staring out into the darkness, but he'd been staring at the reflection that displayed you so clearly, on the opposite side of the carriage.

You knew you were being impractical now, but your mind was on overdrive. You were probably wrong, he didn't even recognise you. If he was a creep he would have smiled, moved across the carriage and sat beside you, surely.

There must have been no way that the shadowed man on the train had been watching you.

That night you didn't expect to sleep. But you fell almost as soon as your head hit the pillow. Your dreams were filled with twisting and turning shadows, blackened eyes and the observing man. He was much more alive in your dreams, and seemed to merge with the shadows like they were one being. He stared down at you and drowned you in darkness.

You woke up in a hot sweat, terrified and impassioned.

The next day you tried to recollect yourself. You had to pretend you were okay at work anyway, despite being terrified of every customer that approached you, in case it was him. It never was. Throughout the day you gradually calmed down, managing to convince yourself that it was a complete overreaction and last night was just a...hiccup. A coincidence. A bad day. That's all.

When it came to getting the train that night however, you were flooded with panic. You'd gone through every other option you had. And as you stood on the platform watching those big headlights pull in, you wished more than anything that you had chosen to take the bus instead. But it was like a magnet. You couldn't live in silent fear. You needed to know if he would be there again, or if it really was a coincidence. He hardly even seemed real anymore, you had tossed and turned him around so many times in your mind. He was like a stalking nightmare that hid in the darkest dustiest corners of your brain. You ignored the tiny part of you that hoped you could see him again.

To your relief, he wasn't there. Despite the packed carriage you were sure to scan every nook and cranny to ensure that the man truly wasn't there. He wasn't. It was just a coincidence last night. Thank god.

When the train finally pulled into your stop, you were overcome with a final rush of relief. You had survived.

You stepped off, feeling light as air. You turned your right to head to the platform exit. Suddenly conscious of the few people that filed out of the other carriages, one caught your eye.

Him.

How could you have been so stupid? If there really was a creep that watched you through windows and infested your mind, you really thought he would follow you again on the same train carriage? Of course not, he had got on another. And now the train was pulling away, and the man from your nightmares was on your platform. And he was walking toward you.

You nearly audibly cried as you rushed and rushed to the exit, pushing past the people who flooded down the stairs. There was hardly room to run but you had to try. There was no denying it now, he was after you. He had always stayed on past your stop, there was no reason for him to be there.

Looking over your shoulder, you saw him standing at the top of the staircase like a horrifying statue. His features obscured in the light, he was just like your dreams, but worse.

Seeing him outside of the train was worse than you could have imagined. It was like he was infecting your real life now. Like pitch black ink slowly drenching your entire being. You felt like you were drowning in it.

Trying not to arise suspicion, you limped as fast as you could through the streets to your apartment. It was a few blocks away still. Shit. You repeatedly looked behind you, but you never saw him again. You hoped he was implanted at the top of those stairs. You hoped he really was just a statue and your mind had got the better of you, making him seem real. You hoped and hoped and hoped.

You hoped so much that you made a stupid decision. There was a shortcut to your apartment. An alley. There was only one flickering light that hardly did it's job at all, the rest of the passage was practically pitch black. But you checked behind you again, and the world was completely still. He wasn't following you, and you just needed to be home as fast as possible.

You hurried down the passage, blood rushing in your ears. The sound of your footsteps was deafening, but you just willed yourself to move faster.

You were halfway down the alley now, and when you glanced behind you could hardly see the light from the street you had turned off anymore. You swallowed anxiously, you didn't remember it being this long.

A loud thud behind you made you suddenly jump and stop in your tracks. It sounded like one, or ten, of the bins that lined the alley had fallen over. Shaking, you turned around.

It was him.

You could hardly stop yourself crying out. Your brain was so fried you hardly had time to question how he had made such a loud noise. He stalked toward you, sweat visible on his forehead and he continued gnawing on his lips. If you weren't so terrified you'd think he looked perfectly harmless. You tried to stumble away but anxiety kept you bound in one spot, simply watching him stare you down as he got a few feet away from you.

“Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you,” he held his hands up as if in truce.

You were visibly shaking and managed to back away steadily, only able to let out a practically inaudible squeak.

“Please don't go, shit we really fucked this up,” he laughed nervously, “I really didn't mean to scare you.”

You were shocked by his voice and visible anxiety. The darkness you had seen in him seemed to shift away as he stepped into the dim flickering light. He seemed like any other guy. Had you really just been running away from some random man, all because you'd let your imagination get the better of you?

“I- stop, please stop following me,” you managed to choke out.

He furrowed his brow, “let me explain. Fuck, how am I gonna explain this, I uh-“ his voice was shaky and he muttered some things like he was talking to himself. He brought his hands up to rub his temples like he was in pain? Or something like that. Like he was trying to hold something back.

His eyes met yours, and you saw it again. His pupils appeared pitch black and you could have sworn they changed shape, pulling and twisting slightly like the shadows you watched out of the window at night.

“Stay away from me, I have no idea who you are,” you spluttered out, finally gathering the courage to turn and stumble away down the passage.

After only a few steps, he grabbed your arm. “Please wait, please wait, please listen to me,” he said shakily. He was close to you and he was burningly hot - it scared you.

You shook him off forcefully and tried to run off, seeing the light of the street lamps at the end of the alley.

Before you could reach the light however, you felt yourself trip on something. You yelled as you toppled, preparing for your skull to smash against the cold ground. Instead you were grabbed again, and steadied. You were almost crying, eyes scrunched shut and breathing heavy.

“Shit, shit,” you heard him say again.

“We are not, she was trying to get away,” you heard another voice say. It was intensely deep and sounded like the night itself.

Your eyes shot open at the sound of it and realised you were still halfway to the ground, being pulled back by an unknown force. Apprehensively you glanced down at your waist to see a persistently moving, powerful, glistening pitch black mass curling around your torso. You squealed at the sight of whatever it was and squirmed in an attempt to get free. It hoisted you upright, back onto your feet and slowly uncurled from you. If you didn't know any better you'd say it was gentle with you. Before completely detaching itself, it grasped your shoulder and span you around to turn back toward the man.

Fear grasped every ounce of muscle in your body as you shakily raised your eyes to him. You felt as though this was one of your dreams, but you knew from the breath in your lungs and the pure feeling in your nerves that this nightmare was real.

The man still stood a couple of feet away from you, his brow still furrowed and looking more tired than anything. But out of his body protruded a thick black mass, constantly moving and changing. It hovered above his head, two bright white eyes and a horrifying jaw of teeth smiled directly at you.

If you weren't so worn out, you would scream.

Instead you stared, shaking and feeling as though you were drifting in and out of consciousness.

“Hey, hey, are you okay? Venom, you scared the shit out of her, I told you this wasn't a good idea.”

He closed some of the distance between you and nearly seemed to be moving in to touch you, before he thought better of it.

“We were not getting anywhere Eddie, I have been patient for long enough.”

It talked. Whatever the fuck that thing was, talked.

It swooped in toward you, seemingly immune to any sort of physics or gravity. It held your gaze and you couldn't help but shake at the sight of its giant maw of teeth. Was it going to eat you? Oh god it was going to eat you.

“P-please,” you whimpered out.

“Eddie she is fine, see, she can still speak.”

“Yeah she's begging for her life because you won't leave her alone, fucker.”

The thing laughed, it was so deep that it seemed to rumble your organs deep inside you. You swallowed. You couldn't stop staring at it.

It moved in closer to you, and rubbed against your cheek for a moment. It made a deep growl-like noise. “You smell delicious, sweet thing.”

“P-please don't, please don't eat me,” you barely whispered.

It laughed again, making you sway. “Eat you? Oh we are starving, but we cannot kill you, you are special.”

It opened its jaw to reveal a huge tongue, but before it could go any further, it was suddenly pulled backwards. “Okay that's enough of that,” the man said scoldingly. The creature growled but obeyed and seemed to become smaller and almost visibly sit on his shoulder.

“I uh-yeah.”

You kept looking between him and that thing, mouth agape. He had lost his dark mystery now that the creature was out, he just looked more dishevelled than ever. It was clear what made him seem so out of place this past week, he had some sort of thing living inside him.

“What is that thing?” you muttered.

“Uh, this is Venom. I'm Eddie. He's an alien that sorta lives in me.”

You stared at him in shock. You saw the sweat on his forehead, and the pure anxiety on his face. He wasn't lying, you could only believe him.

“I- uh. How do I put this...” he tried to speak, noticing that you weren't going to say anything more.

“We were hungry.”

“Uh, yeah, he sort of gets real hungry sometimes and he does...eat people when theres no other option.” He saw your pure horror, and smiled awkwardly, “but we saw you and he got really, really hungry. I can't control him sometimes, you know. But it wasn't like the other hunger, not like that. He's been desperate, clawing at my brain for me to talk to you...and I was trying to find a good time but...”

“That's why you’ve been following me around,” you murmured, “it wants to eat me.”

“No! I just want to taste you,” he growled.

“Shut up!” Eddie scolded, “He doesn't exactly have human manners, but he's usually better than this. I really didn't want to follow you around like this, no wonder you're terrified.”

You barely heard him as your brain tossed and turned with thought. They were terrifying, but you couldn't remove the memory of Venom holding you up before you fell, you couldn't stop staring at his milky white eyes that burned into your skull. He was everything that you had dreamed about, everything you had seen behind Eddie’s eyes, everything that plagued your entire being, manifested in a physical form. You were scared, and overcome with disbelief, but you would be lying if you weren't a little excited by the whole ordeal. Now seeing Eddie’s worried face, Venom’s promises to not eat you. You couldn't trust them of course but...wasn't this the change to the mediocracy that you had secretly craved? Wasn't that why Eddie stood out to you in the first place?

You swallowed tentatively.

“What do you want from me?” You spoke as clearly as you could possibly manage.

Venom gathered himself once again, growing larger and closer to your face, “Didn’t you hear me before, sweet thing? We want to taste you,” he growled.

Eddie pulled him back a little, “no, we are going to leave. Or I can get rid of him and walk you home, whatever you want.”

You took a breath and looked at Venom. Reaching a hand up hesitantly, you traced his form with your fingers. He was...almost warm, and moved gently under your touch. He felt strange, like if you could touch a shadow.

“Okay Venom, just don't hurt me,” you murmured.

He seemed to shake with excitement. “Say bye to Eddie,” he sang.

You watched venom intrude back to Eddie’s body. You looked at his face, he was flushed and surprisingly looked excited himself. You began to wonder if it really was true that Venom was wholly to blame for all this.

Within a moment, the inky blackness of Venom’s form enveloped Eddie’s body completely, wrapping around him like a suit. What resulted was a terrifyingly tall, hulking beast that smiled down at you.

You gulped.

He must have been at least 7 feet tall, towering over you and looking. It felt like he was looking beneath your skin, analysing your bone and muscle. You shivered.

“We have waited for much too long for you.”

He didn't hesitate, refusing to have any distance between you and backing you onto the wall. You laughed nervously, “hasn't it only been a week?”

He reached an arm to lean on the wall next to your head. The loud thump his fist made rocked through you and made you shiver. You could hardly decipher his emotions from his face alone, but the way he towered over you, casting such a big shadow that it thrust you even further into the dark, he was like a predator. And you were the prey.

You had hardly had time to consider why Venom wanted you. He didn't want to give you time, it seemed.

Wringing your hands together anxiously, you stared intently into his gaping white eyes. What the fuck were you doing?

As if sensing your rising nerves, Venom raised his spare hand up to stroke your cheek. His hand was practically the size of your head, with claws that looked as though they would rip you apart. The gesture was appreciated, though.

“Are you sure this is okay?” He spoke softer than you had grown used to, and it took you a moment to process that Eddie was probably leaking through. They truly were like one being, you could hardly tell where Eddie ended and Venom began.

You nodded, “yes.” You were terrified, no doubt. But you were following your gut for once in your life. And it was telling you to fall under the temptation of this creature. Besides, you didn't think normal caution about strangers really applied to alien creatures.

Venom - still caressing your face - moved his hand away and down your torso. Yo were suddenly hyper aware of how flushed you were, and itched to remove your coat. As if reading your mind, Venom released you for a mere moment to give you time to slip it off. He grasped it from you and thrust it god knows where.

A small tendril protruded off his body and seemed to move independently. It had rustled around in your coat pocket and came out with your name tag, of all things. Venom grinned as he brought it up to his face before tossing it away too.

“Eddie says we are rude to not have asked your name.”

“I-it's okay,” you mumbled, not having the mind to care much right now.

Venom stalked back in closer to you, and looked impatient. “You smell so good, Y/N.”

Your heartbeat rose to a pace you were sure was unhealthy when you heard your name roll off his tongue. It sounded as though he was relishing the very word, as though it dripped with desire. He brought his clawed hand back up to your torso and pulled the hem of your shirt up. You murmured slightly as he exposed you like this, suddenly making you aware of how anyone could see you at any moment. Then again, no one would be as stupid as you to walk down that alley in the pitch black.

Your thoughts were cut short as Venom tore off your bra and growled. You defensively brought your arms up to hide your chest, but within seconds he had tendrils grasping your wrists and holding your arms down. Feeling his mass on your bare skin was much more intense than over layers of clothing. It was warm and moved constantly, almost like you were being submerged in a hot bath but heavy and alive.

He opened his maw wide and exposed his tongue once again. You hardly got to see it last time, and you nearly whimpered at the sight of it. Almost as thick as your arm and seemingly endless, it rolled out of his mouth and roamed over your chest.

Venom stared down at you intently while you squirmed in your bindings and struggled to stay quiet. It was so fucking warm and wet and devoured your skin inch by inch, savouring you while he growled gutturally.

“V-venom,” you squeezed your eyes shut and grasped at the wall behind you. You felt wholly and completely powerless beneath him, it was intoxicating and you could hardly contain yourself.

Retracting his tongue for a moment, he spoke, “your flesh tastes delicious.” Your cheeks burned and you itched to hide your face but your...situation still wasn't allowing you to move your arms. Instead you glared at the floor and breathed heavier than you thought you ever had.

“We need more,” he practically panted.

Without warning, he hoisted you into the air, suspending you at his head height with various tendrils. You could almost laugh as your head span - you knew now why Eddie kept him around. Even without him in your mind you felt merged with him, and never wanted him to let you go.

You yelped when his claw dipped under the hem of your jeans and yanked them down along with your underwear. You swore you heard a rip but could hardly care in these circumstances.

He held you almost above his head, angled so he was staring right at your pussy You could hardly contain yourself, blushing and writhing against the tendrils holding you back. You looked down and froze when you saw his face. His eyes were wide and glassy, his tongue lolling out a little as he growled under his breath Although he lacked the usual human expressions, he wasn't exactly trying to hide how pent up he was.

“Venom, please, holy shit,” you whimpered.

He growled more audibly then, tendrils moving to hold your legs apart as he stepped between them. Wasting not a second, he tasted you slowly, dragging his heavy tongue over your entire pussy. You yelled out, the sensation so strange and new but fuck did it feel good.

“Sweet little thing,” he rasped. You twisted in his grasp but his strength was immeasurable. He controlled you completely, holding you in place dangerously far from the ground as he devoured you.

He was everywhere, running over your folds and thighs and clit while you cried out desperately. You almost forgot where you were, what you were truly doing. For now it was just you and him in your own world, predator and prey.

Tendrils caressed your chest, curling and searching for your pleasure while you writhed. His tongue moved lower and entered you before you could even breathe. The feeling of being filled consumed you, his tapered tongue reaching deep and curving to fit into all the right places within you. You couldn't help but groan, not helped when he pressed a large claw onto your lower stomach, that only intensified the pressure even further. It was like he wanted to feel himself moving inside you, through your very skin and muscle, and it made you shiver. He could pull you apart again and again and you would thank him for it.

He thrust into you faster, and a smaller tendril moved down your body to play with your clit. He was all over you. Like a second skin. You gasped out as you felt your peak edging close. He chuckled beneath you, sending coarse vibrations through your lower half. Tendrils held you tightly, moving around your body almost lovingly, almost as if to encourage you on.

“V-venom,” you could barely make out. Continuing to caress every part of you and thrust into you, the monster growled again. You took that as encouragement while breathing heavy an grasping at the tendrils surrounding you. The claw on your stomach moved to lightly trace sharp nails over your skin, and the hint of pain finally pushed you over. You cried out, trying not to shake too much while he held you up. As you came you could focus on nothing and everything, completely overstimulated by his grasp.

When you came to, you found yourself back safely on the ground in Venom’s arms “Okay?” he asked. If you had any sense left in you you'd have noticed the hint of concern in his tone. You nodded and lazily smiled at him, hardly able to keep your eyes open.

“Good girl,” he rasped, gently returning you to stand on the ground before retracting back into Eddie.

Part 2

#man this was a long time coming #venom #carnage #Eddie brock #smut #fanfic #fic #reader #venom x reader

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zaharya · 3 years ago

Text

Scrivener 3 to AO3 – updated export format (with download link) P1

EDIT 17.01.2023 There is now a second part to this post for more complex formatting such as centered text, bold text, strike-through, block quotes etc.

You can find Part 2 here. Note that you still need to either import my format or follow the steps in this post.

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I hope you find this guide and the provided export format to download useful! To enable me to make more such resources, and make them available for everyone, please consider supporting me via KoFi! I love sharing my stuff freely and don't want to paywall anything, but I also have to eat – every contribution helps and is greatly appreciated!

Hello, as probably everyone knows I adore Scrivener (my beloved) and use it for everything, including writing fanfiction. It has recently come to my attention that the approach I normally use to copy my text to AO3 (i.e. Copy as HTML and paste directly) does not work for Windows users (how rude), so here's an alternative.

The format presented here is based on this post – I just made some tweaks! So if you want to set up your own from scratch, follow those instructions there and then come back for the additional part. (Yes, I know, annoying, sorry – but why reinvent the wheel?) NOTE: The instructions in that post will cause any em-dashes to be transformed into -- instead. If you want them to stay as they are in your Scrivener editor, do not check the option Convert "smart" punctuation to "dumb" punctuation.

ANYWAY – Why do we need another format if there is one? Well, while the described export format there is great, it doesn't take line-spacing into account. Which is what this here is for.

There are several parts to this post:

Tutorial / instructions on how to create the format from scratch (starting where the other post left off – do those steps first)

Tutorial / instructions on how to set up the section layouts so that it actually does The Thing™

A google drive link where you can download the format I made, because who has time to set up from scratch

Shall we? Let's go.

Setup from scratch, continuation

Okay so once you've done all the steps in this post, don't close the Format Settings (or save it and then right-click -> Edit Format it to reopen the settings). Instead, go to Styles. This is probably empty at this point. Click the + in the top right corner to create a new paragraph style.

I called mine "Regular Text" – it really doesn't matter, you can call it Frank if you feel like it. What does matter is the Paragraph prefix/suffix, because that's where we'll put the HTML code that handles line-spacing. Specifically, you'll want to put for the prefix and for the suffix. (I'd also unselect the two check-boxes at the bottom, you don't need a specific font or fontsize.) It should look something like this:

Now go back to Section Layouts and select Text Section. Click into the text box at the bottom; on the left in the Format bar you see the current style (probably No Style, as that is the default). Select the Style we just created (in my case "Regular Text") instead.

You can now save the format (again). We're not done though!

Assign Section Layouts

When you select your format, there's a good chance it'll have a yellow warning that you should assign section layouts – and even if it doesn't, better to double check.

Click Assign Section Layouts at the bottom. If there was a yellow warning, all section types are currently assigned to As-is, which means no Styles will be applied when you export – we don't want that. Find the section type that your text is in and select Text Section as the layout (probably Scene or Section – do both to be safe). If you want and have the patience you can do it for all section types, but for most of them (like Chapter Headings etc.) it doesn't really matter as long as the section types that your actual fic sits in are properly assigned. (If you're unsure, check the section types in the main compile menu.)

Once all the relevant section types are assigned to the Text Section layout, you can click OK and you're good to go. This should export your fic with basic HTML code including and around each paragraph for line-spacing and italics.

Now, while it isn't difficult, setting up a format from scratch does take a minute.

Import an existing format

Go open your compile menu. At the bottom left there should be three little dots; click there and select Import Formats.

Select your file and import it. When you do that, you'll get a pop-up message asking you whether you want it to be a Project Format or import it to "My Formats" – choose My Formats. That way it will be available in all your Scrivener files on that device, not just this specific project.

"But V, where is the bloody format now?"

Right, yes. Here's a link to download my finished format that you can then import as just explained.

❗️IMPORTANT: After importing the format, you still have to assign the section layouts!!!

If you don't, it will not apply the Style that generates the and around each paragraph. If you skipped everything above (very relatable), please scroll back up to the part titled Assign Section Layouts and follow these steps after you've imported the thing.

If you have questions (about this, or just Scrivener in general), feel free to ask! (Also if you're on any of my Discords, there's a full-fledged ADHD friendly tutorial in most of them – poke me there and I'll link it for you. Have fun.)

And that's it! I hope this helps someone save a bit of effort.

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Edit (2022/07/20): I've made more Scrivener tutorials!

A continuously updated Masterlist with all my Scrivener 3 tutorials can be found here.

Part 2 | Tutorial Masterlist | KoFi

#scrivener #tutorial #instructions #ao3 #format #export format #html #fanfic #writing

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