#phoenixflames12

[fairytalesandfandoms]

Your blog reminds me of a room with antique paintings and furniture in summer with light sparkling through the windows and spilling onto the floor and a vase of flowers on a little table in the corner

Thank you, that's a lovely description!

[tinyfrenchowl]

Get attacked!! ✨🌈SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING🌈

omg i haven't seen one of these in ages. absolutely made my day. I'm booping you right back ✨🌈

[alittletoosmarttobestraight]

NEXT and POV?

NEXT — the next line. meaning i will finish the sentence I’m on and write a new one, which you’ll get.

You turn and bury your head into the flat pillow.

POV — something that’s already happened, retold from another character’s perspective

I'm sorry, I cannot do this one because it will not help me progress in finishing!

[edandstede]

Thank you so much for uploading the new season of ACGAS!! Much appreciated, especially as Channel 5 (I'm in the UK) is a nonsense when it comes to having ad blockers on laptops. Much love and many thanks xxx

you are very welcome! <3

[gaytobymeres]

Get attacked!! ✨🌈SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING🌈

Ahh I’m being attacked by loveliness! <3 thank you <3

[transsexualism-archive]

Happy birthday Irina!! I hope you have a wonderful day! 🎉🥳

thank you phoenix my love !!

[phoenixflames12]

Monica/morse for 21 “on a piece of insecurity”? 🥰🥰💕

‘Dev? My darling?’

A shard of light slips under the bathroom door as Monica pushes it open. The children have all been put to bed, the strains of Taneyev’s Piano Quintet in G Major rising and falling through the radio that sits on the little bedside table. Morse sighs, staring back at his reflection in the shadowed light. An older man stares back at him, thin and worn with worry lines creasing his forehead, wrinkles carving into his cheeks. Grey curls catch at his temples, crowsfeet caught against his eyes.

The birthday things have been cleared away, the banner that the children had made still strung up in the kitchen.

The dark eyes that he loves so much shimmer with tears as she blinks back at him, reaching to stroke his cheek.

‘What’s the matter?’

Gently, she cups his face in her hands, stroking the line from cheek to jaw. Her hand closes over his fingers, tracing the line of his wedding band.

On instinct, he tugs at his cuffs, hoping that she hasn’t seen.

Monica sighs softly, her fingers catching against his shirt.

Memories seem to swirl between them then, caught in the soft bathroom light.

Memories of sitting with her in the maternity ward cradling Tansy and Joy, the softness of her smile telling him that everything would be all right.

He sighs, the span of the years stretching out before them.

‘Monica -Darling, are you- Are you sure that you wouldn’t want someone younger?’

For a moment, she is quiet, her hands resting over his heart. A quirk of a small, sad smile pulls at the corners of her lips.

‘Dev. Darling. You’ve given me four wonderful children. You’ve taught me so much. I wouldn’t change any of it for the world, my love. Any of it.’

He sighs softly, thinking back to being eighteen and lying on Cyril and Gwen’s kitchen floor, hoping that if the end came, it would come quickly. Remembers the agony of standing in the bathroom, watching the blood from his wrists swirl in a mess of rusted iron against the sink.

‘And you’re not old!’

She reaches up and strokes back a stray curl out of his eyes, kissing him gently.

‘You’re just short of forty five. There’s plenty of time left for us yet.’

He exhales slowly, wishing that he could share her hope.

Remembers Dorothea holding him, pressing the scarf that his Mam had given her before her deployment to Korea- against his wrists, willing him back to her.

Remembers waiting for her at Axminster Station, a moonlit walk down to the Cobb, listening to the crash of the waves against the sea wall. It had been a rare free evening out of the confines of rehab and the feeling of freedom had been both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time,

Remembers the sound of his name in her mouth- soft and sweet and hesitant.

‘Dev? My darling?’

‘It’s been so long since you- Since anyone called me that,’ he had murmured back.

‘I’ll call you Dev every day for as long as you like,’ she had replied. Had gently squeezed his hand. He had sighed, had looked out over the sea towards the headland, a speck of bobbling light signalling a fishing boat far out on the inky gleam of the horizon.

‘I don’t deserve you,’ he had replied, feeling the salt sharp slap of the sea against his skin. ‘You- You’ve been so strong through all of this whilst I’ve just fallen apart. I’m sorry, Mon. I’m so sorry.’

‘You gave so much of your strength away,’ she had replied just as quietly, a slight wobble caught in her voice as she had squeezed his hand. ‘There wasn’t any left for me or the children.’

‘I suppose I just- I never expected to get old.’

She is quiet, her hands shivering slightly as she chews her lip, considering him.

‘What- What do you mean?’

He swallows thickly, feeling the words catch in his throat.

‘I- I always assumed and- And maybe sometimes I intended- to be dead by forty. I never thought that I’d- I never thought that I could get this far.’

‘Oh, my love.’

Gently, Monica draws him close, her fingers catching under his cuffs, resting over his scars. The kiss is soft and full of memories. Of standing under the sparkle of fireworks on that Bonfire Night, of the births of each of their children, his tired, proud, beautiful wife resting in his arms.

Of her holding him through his darkest moments, his compass, leading him home.

‘I love every part of you, my darling,’ she murmurs now, breaking through his thoughts.

‘Even the parts that you think are too broken to show. I promise.’

Send me a Ship and a Number and I will Write a Kiss

[more-better-words]

fic author interview

Yoinked this from @ladytharen because it looked like fun. Hope that's not presumptuous of me. <.<

Tagging @deadheaddaisy, @phoenixflames12, @butcharondir, and anybody else who'd like to play.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

60! That's a nice round number.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Currently 593,580 - though in fairness, nearly a third of that is a single fic.

It was a different time back when I wrote that.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The four fics of my Built to Last series (though not in order, lol)

What We Build Here

For the Duration

From the Ground Up

The Place We Call Home

And rounding out the top 5, a Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency fic!

Lay Down the Beat 

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely! And because I have very little self-control, I will often do so within minutes of receiving them! 😅

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. I don't really do angst - I mean, I'll write stories where angst happens, but that's rarely the point of the story. If the plot demands a dash of angst, then, much like a chocolate recipe that needs some salt, it will get its angst. But I don't really set out to write A Series of Sad Events in Which the Characters Are Sad; that's just not my style or my taste.

So I can't really say that ANY of my stories have an angsty ending. Oh well.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

With the above in mind, happy endings are basically a guarantee, at least up to a point. 😆 I let my darlings be happy, I let them get married and have things work out, because it's fiction, dammit, and I can.

That being said, probably the happiest of all would be just about any of my Trip/T'Pol fic, because I let them get married and have kids and successful careers and be surrounded by friends and family who love and support them because SCREW YOU CANON.

7. Do you write crossovers?

No, I don't think my brain's wired for that. I just...can't seem to.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Never on AO3 (okay, I once got snippily told I'd mistagged something, but that wasn't hate). I have gotten hate here on Tumblr, though never anything specific, just general "u suck" which...whatever.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

For a long time, I did not.

That answer has since changed.

As for what kind...the sweetest, fluffiest, most loving, happy, vanilla, tooth rotting smut ever.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, and I seriously doubt I ever would. I'm rather niche.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, niche. Haven't yet, doubt I will.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Years ago, I worked on an AU fic project with a friend that was very cool and a lot of fun. None of it ever got published, though.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Which ever one I'm writing right now. 😁

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I wouldn't mind finishing my Shadowrun: Dragonfall fic The Haven. Maybe some day.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, baby! I can have two characters sit and talk to each other FOREVER.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action and physical description. Even when I can clearly see a room where action is occurring in my mind, I have real trouble describing it on the page.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I used to not have any, then I started making up words and phrases in my own version of Andorian for my Trek fic.

And I still don't really have many thoughts, because I'm sure I'm doing it wrong.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Hmmmm. Pretty sure there's some BtVS fic of mine still existent on LiveJournal. 😅

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I'd love to write Discworld (I adore Carrot/Angua), but Discworld is already so perfect. It would have to be an absolute gem of an idea.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Whichever one I just finished. 😄

[thewatcher98]

Don't ask me why but I LOVE this gif

All his poor little meow meow energy it's showing and for some reason I'm a sucker for it (am I a bad person??)

***Okay so this belongs to a @snappyjenkins gifset and you can find the original post HERE. I'm so sorry. Didn't mean to steal or anything. Unfortunately Pinterest had no link. Thank you @phoenixflames12 so much for telling me.***

[softboiledwonderland]

Tagged by @phoenixflames12 also ages ago, thank you <3 please don't think I don't love being tagged just because it takes me ages to do them I LOVE it

Last song I listened to: The Moomins soundtrack

Favourite colour: Green, every shade that can be found in nature

Last TV show or movie I watched: Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (don't ask. it was work related)

Currently Watching: Only Fools and Horses rewatch

Sweet, savoury or spicy?: Ooh this is a tough one. Probably a tie between sweet and savoury, though I love spicy too

Relationship Status: Married

Current obsession: The Lord of the Rings, anything Tolkien, Discworld, writing The Fic

Last thing I Googled: American pudding (also work related)

Would love to get to know my new LOTR mutuals if they feel like doing this @konartiste @spifflocated @ass-deep-in-demons @mimilind <3

[fairytalesandfandoms]

1, 16 and 47 for the bookworms ask?

Thank you!

1 - Name the best book you've read so far this year

This is difficult. I know I ought to pick Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, because it was very good and it's been nominated for awards, it's by a Black woman, it includes queer POC... From a 'quality of writing' standpoint it probably is the 'best book'.

BUT the one that brought me most joy was Bookworm by Lucy Mangan. Mangan recounts the books she read as a child and how books and reading were interwoven with her life. And like, she GETS it. She gets the whole reading thing. (The only place we diverge in any significant way is Tolkien and other 'secondary world' fantasy - she tried it but found it just wasn't her thing.) I'm sure some people would find all her hyperbole about books annoying though.

I can't think of a way to explain this that doesn't sound silly, but it was like 'oh THIS is why I liked reading'. I'll go off on one about this in a different post because I wrote a whole thing and it got off topic. But it really made me want to read, especially books that are like... whatever the children's books I/we read are like. If you can think of anything, I'm definitely open to suggestions!

16 - Favourite trilogy

It has to be Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

47 - What are the last three books you read?

Midnight by Jacqueline Wilson (reread as part of my 'let's go through all my books in the approximate order I read/got them' thing. Apparently where my dad does walking challenges, I do convoluted book [and film] challenges of my own devising which aren't monitored in any way)

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly

[bbcphile]

1 and 17 for the recent fanfiction writers ask meme?

Thanks for the asks, @phoenixflames12!

What was the first fandom and/or pairing you wrote fic for?

Sherlock (specifically John/Sherlock). I was surprisingly late to fic writing. (You'd think it would have been Horatio Hornblower, since the series came out so long ago, but no. I watched it when it aired but didn't know fanfic was a thing. Whoops!)

17. What fic are you the most proud of?

Probably my newest--"What's Sealed Away"--because I was trying to juggle so many things: trying to do justice to the sheer mind fuckery that is amnesia (influenced by my own experiences on the subject) while filling in narrative gaps the show's amnesia arc (possibly unintentionally) created while attempting some complicated character work. It was a lot, but I'm still proud of it!

Harboured and Encompassed and Nunc Atque Semper are close behind, though: I'm still proud of all the adaptation work I did in H&E and also of writing and posting the thing so comparatively quickly (my Mysterious Lotus Casebook WIP will be at least close to that long and it's taking me SO much longer to write!). Also, I will always love Archie Kennedy, and my modernAU!Archie has a very very special place in my heart. And Nunc Atque Semper was so hard to write; I have such complicated feelings about Horatio in the final two movies and the way he treats Maria, and getting a chance to put some of it on paper in a way that holds him accountable for his incredibly shitty behavior while also being understanding of the horrible position he's in and all the grief he's holding was really important to me.

Thanks again!!

[alittletoosmarttobestraight]

✨ and 🤗 for the fanfic writers ask meme?

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

I try my best to finish every story that I write.

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

Write what you want to and try not to be discouraged by lack of readers! People will read and love what you write. They've just got to find you.

[proto-language]

tagged by @sapokanikan to make myself in this picrew (sorry, i could not settle on a single look lol) and talk about my current interests!!

i've been interested lately in... whatever labels you could apply to a set of literature which includes e.m. forster (thus far 'maurice' and 'a room with a view'), evelyn waugh (just finished 'brideshead revisited' a few minutes ago!), mary renault ('the charioteer'), d.h. lawrence (though i haven't yet started 'lady chatterley's lover'), and possibly also patricia highsmith's 'the talented mr ripley'. a series of overlapping circles with labels like 'boundary-breaking sexuality', 'changes and not-changes within the class system', 'vintage oxbridge', 'depictions of the mediterranean, particularly italy' (a bug caught partially from my girlfriend's academic work), and 'the changing role of religion in (british) society'. i finished virginia woolf's 'orlando' the other day too - possibly that could find a place in some of those circles too.

i've also been going through an emo phase of a magnitude not seen since i was 10. help.

i'll tag @chiropteracupola @margridarnauds @phoenixflames12 @after-perfect and @xserpx !

[kcrabb88]

Last Line Challenge

Tagged by @orbitalmirror! <3 Rules: In a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).

This is a snippet from one of my QuinObi week pieces (me, typing them fighting with tears in my eyes)

Obi-Wan's cheeks burn red. That dark storm that Quin has under control brews wild in his chest. He craves the man in front of him and the light always trailing at his heels.  

“Oh yes,” Obi-Wan seethes with more sarcasm than should fit in anyone’s body, “you sound so very like yourself. Nothing’s wrong at all. I have no idea why I’m here.”  

Despite the harsh words, grief beats in Obi-Wan's Force presence. Quin put that grief there, but there’s nothing, nothing he can do about it now.  

He has to do what he’s doing. To find Sidious, he must. Obi-Wan will understand after it's over. He always does.

“Obi-Wan, go. Leave. Before you get hurt and/or blow my cover. I mean it.”  

“No," Obi-Wan says with a gentle anger that makes Quin want to burst into tears. "I will not go without you. And if you think I--”  

Quinlan closes the small gap between them. He fists his hand into Obi-Wan's shirt and kisses him full on the mouth. Obi-Wan returns the kiss with that sharp-sweet tang that is as familiar to Quin as his own reflection in the mirror. Obi-Wan pulls away. His eyes narrow again in the low light of the ship’s entryway, and he exhales a tender breath.  

And he kisses Quin again.  

I'll no-pressure tag a few folks! @tired-bshocked, @palfriendpatine66, @amarguerite, @clearbluewaters, @phoenixflames12, @fremedon

[phoenixflames12]

Tagged by the lovely @dragonslover98 to share the first seven songs on my on repeat playlist. I don't have Spotify, but looking at my recently played on Apple Music gives me:

There's a Storm a-Comin- from the Orginal Live Cast Recording of Standing at the Sky's Edge

Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

Elgar's Symphony No 2 in E-flat Major

Dartmoor 1912 from War Horse

Spem in allium by Thomas Tallis sung by the Tallis Scholars

Felix's Suite from the soundtrack to Saltburn

No One is Alone- from the 'Into the Woods' 2022 Broadway Cast Recording

I will no pressure tag: @gaytobymeres, @sandfordsmostwanted, @gohoubi, @mycological-mariner and @endeavour12345- only if you want to, of course!

Thank you so much, friend!

Much love,

Phoenixflames12 xxx