Rejected Threads Pt. 2
[This is a series where I post the bits and pieces I decided to cut out of their final fics due to various reasons. I welcome anyone who wants to pick this up and make it their own. You do not need to ask for permission to use it, but I would like to be tagged in whatever you make. Just so I can see it :) ]
[Everything here is unedited and may ramble at times. Enjoy!]
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For some reason, it never occurred to the Justice League that their resident Wonder Woman could have a living family. One that wasn’t from Themyscria, that is. It just never really crossed their minds. Diana Prince was a demigod, after all. But lo and behold, sitting before them was a smiling Diana with a small child on her lap. Someone sighed. This meeting just had an extra hour added to it.
“Wonder Woman,” Batman said as a way of greeting. Sitting down next to his colleague, giving the little boy she was holding the side eye. The child looked no older than five, with pitch-black hair and clear blue eyes. He wore a pair of little yellow sneakers and a space suit costume-one of those orange ones from NASA. He had a death grip on a kid’s book about the solar system and was staring at the pages intensely. Overall, the child was adorable and seemed very focused on his book. But why was he here, in the Watchtower?
Diana shook her head adamantly and wrapped her arms tighter around the boy’s torso. “Absolutely not, Bruce.” She declared with a smug grin. “You can’t adopt this one. He’s mine.”
“I didn’t say anything about adoption.”
“You were thinking it,” She accused. And Diana was right. Bruce had been thinking about it, but who could blame him? At this point, adoption was a knee-jerk reaction.
Barry Allen, also known as the Flash, blurred right before their eyes as he dashed away to fetch something quickly and came back. “He’s so cute!” Barry cooed, crouching down to the kid’s eye level. The child, finally noticing the people in the room, blinked at Barry’s sudden appearance. “Hi, kiddo. What’s your name?”
The child stared at Barry for a tad too long before he looked up at Diana for direction. “It’s okay,” she smiled, taking the book from the kid’s hands so they could face Barry completely. “This is Flash, one of my coworkers, remember?”
The kid nodded, turning back to Barry. “I’m Danny.” He said shyly. “ ‘s nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Danny.” Barry gave the kid a blinding smile and fished something wrapped in napkins out of his pocket. “I’m the Flash, like WW said. I saw you reading that space book. Do you like space?” Danny nodded again fervently. “Would you like a moon cake?” He unwrapped the napkins carefully to reveal a slightly squished moon cake cut into four equal pieces.
“But…” Danny looked confused. “ ‘s not the new year anymore.”
“Well, how smart are you!” Barry sounded genuinely impressed, and the whole room focused on Danny. “It’s okay. There are just some leftovers from the cafeteria. This one has mango filling. Do you like mangos?”
“Yeah!” Danny’s eyes lit up with excitement, and he bounced a little on Diana’s lap. “I like mangos, an’ strawberries, an’ razz-berries, but I never eat the razz-berries ‘cause tha’s Jazz’s favorite fruit.”
“Raspberries? Jazz?” Barry shot a glance at Diana, but she ignored him in favor of helping Danny keep all the crumbs on the napkins as he devoured the moon cake.
“Wonder Woman, who is this child?” Clark Kent piped up, asking the question on everyone’s mind. “Is he your son?”
Diana wrinkled her nose. “Ancients, no! No, Donna is enough for me, thank you. Danny is my little cousin. Unfortunately, he got caught up in some nasty old magic spell, so I’m babysitting while his grandfather and guardians can reverse it.”
“Spell?!” Clark was alarmed.
Oliver Queen snorted and sat back in his chair, seemingly unimpressed. “Have fun with that. I’m not touching this issue with a ten-foot pole. I do not want to deal with any more magic hijinks this week.”
“No, seriously guys.”
“Yeah, the giant green mealworms yesterday were enough for me.” Hal Jordan scratched his head. “I gotta admit, though, I never thought you’d have any relatives in the mortal world.”
“Am I the only one concerned about the magic spell part?”
Diana simply shrugged. “Danny isn’t exactly blood-related, per se. But it’s close enough.” Everyone could tell Bruce was just itching to grill her about what she meant.
Martian Manhunter and Captain Marvel, who had both been absent until now, chose that exact moment to walk into the room, deep in discussion about intergalactic policies or something. As soon as Danny spotted them, he shot out of Diana’s lap with incredible speed and slammed straight into Captain Marvel. “MARVEL!” He shouted gleefully, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck. Captain Marvel, for his part, didn’t stumble and immediately brought up his hands to catch whatever had just assaulted him, but to everyone’s shock, Danny was freely floating with no issue.
“What the-” Captain Marvel grabbed Danny by his torso and held him straight out in front of him. He squinted. “Danny?!”
“HE CAN FLY?!”
“Bruce put the adoption papers down.”
“Can someone explain what’s going on?”
“Yeah, I feel like we’re missing a few steps here.”
“It’s like the author forgot her ADHD meds or something.”
“The what?”
Diana stood up, silencing the room. “Danny, we talked about this. No zooming in the Watchtower.” She scolded. Danny visibly drooped and floated away from Marvel’s grasp.
“Sorry.” He mumbled.
Clark made the time-out sign with his hands, desperately trying to turn everyone’s attention back to something important. “Okay, pause.” He insisted. “Let’s backtrack. Danny is your little cousin, and he got hit with a spell??”
“That would explain it,” Marvel mumbled, which was entirely unhelpful.
Danny, bless his heart, had gotten over the scolding quickly and floated back over to Diana, snatching a box of space stickers from a baby bag that had gone unnoticed until now. He bobbed around, giggling and putting little stars and planets everywhere, especially the ceiling. Of course, he completely ignored the situation he had just created. Diana just sighed and rubbed her forehead, seeming to age ten years.
“Yes, sorry, Clark.” Diana apologized. “Danny is sometimes hard to keep up with, and I have been a little scatterbrained this week. But, to start from the top, Danny is a superhero, and one of his rouges thought it funny to turn him into a little kid.”
Hal frowned. “A hero? What’s his name, do we know him?”
Diana shook her head. “No, probably not. He only protects his home and rarely gets involved in mortal realm affairs. His work is of the supernatural kind, so the JL Dark would have heard of him more than we might have. Well, aside from Captain Marvel, apparently.”
Marvel just shrugged in answer to the quizzical looks he was getting. “I’m the Champion of Magic. I work with the supernatural all the time. Danny and I are good friends.”
“Hn.” Bruce grunted. “What does the magic spell entail? You said his grandfather and guardians are working on reversing it?”
Diana pointedly ignored the latter part of the question, which did not go unnoticed. “Well, the spell itself isn’t all that complicated. It bends the timestream to make a bubble and then reverses whatever is caught in the bubble. This time, the victim happened to be Danny. So, in theory, we just need to find a way to pop the bubble.”
“But…” Clark prompted.
“But, Danny’s work with the supernatural has caused a few issues. He was granted to ability to work outside the timestream via a Time Medallion. Unfortunately, it was fused with his very being at some point, so the medallion and the spell are at odds with each other.”
J’onn, who had flown up to join Danny on the ceiling, hummed. “That does sound like a conundrum, as one would say.” It was odd looking at the two sit cross-legged upside down, but no one commented. Danny put a sun sticker on J’onn's forehead.
“Sorry, can we go back to the part where Danny has a Time Medallion?” Barry raised his hand.
“No. Anyway,” Diana smiled a little at the speedster’s offended gasp. Truth be told, she didn’t know much about the timestream, so answering his questions would be difficult. Time stuff always gave her a headache. “Danny keeps getting yanked in and out of the timestream, which makes it difficult to attend to his duties. So for his safety, our grandfather left him with me.”
The room was quiet as everyone digested this information. Diana was silently thankful that today’s meeting was a small one. The other heroes, like Aquaman and Cyborg, were out on their own missions. Not even one of Bruce’s many children was around, meaning questioning would be much shorter than if they were here.
Finally, Oliver lifted his head as something occurred to him. “Did you just say ‘our grandfather’?”
The demigoddess merely smiled.
“Oh my god, Diana.” Hal was twisting his ring anxiously as he caught onto what Oliver was thinking.
Clark groaned, plopping down into a chair with his head in his hands. “Diana,” Clark really didn’t want this to be true. “Diana, isn’t your grandfather Kronos? The God of Time??”
Danny hiccuped and abandoned his makeshift solar system. Clark’s words had caught his attention. “Is grandpa here?” He asked excitedly. That was all the confirmation the League needed, and everyone sighed collectively. Honestly, no one knew how Wonder Woman got the reputation as the responsible one. She loved causing petty chaos, and it showed during times like this.
“No, sweetie-” Diana began but suddenly cut herself off with an odd look. A moment later, Barry felt it. Something big was heading towards the Watchtower, using the timestream as a shortcut. He didn’t even get to shout out a warning before a swirling green portal opened up, and out stepped an elderly man with a purple cloak and a clock embedded into his chest. The whole room froze up. This was…something powerful. Ancient.
That didn’t seem to matter to Danny and Diana, however. They were the only two to get up and approach the old man. “I stand corrected. Hello, grandfather.” Diana bent down to give her grandfather a hug. As she did, the man’s body shrank and morphed into that of a baby’s.
“It is wonderful to see you again, my dear.” Kronos, the literal King of Titans and God of Time, hugged her back with his tiny arms, morphing into the form of a young adult as she let go. “Now, how is that rascal, Danny? Pandora has found something to fix this whole mess.”
“Sorry, uh, Lord Kronos?” Clark winced at how weak and unsure he sounded. “Did you say, Pandora? As in, Pandora’s Box?”
“Call me Clockwork, Kal-El.” Clockwork turned into an old man again, and the cycle repeated itself. “I am not truly the Titan King you know of. Kronos was split upon his defeat, and I am the piece that became the physical manifestation of time. But yes, Pandora from legends. She is one of Daniel’s guardians and has been scouring her archives for some time now. She believes to have found a solution to this matter, so I have come to retrieve the young king.”
“Sorry, young king?!” Oliver screeched.
“Yeah! ‘m a king!” Danny crowed, practically glowing at this point. Wait, he was glowing. “I beat the bad king an’ put him to nap. Now I get to play until nap time is over!”
Clockwork just sighed fondly. “Sure, Daniel. Let’s go with that. Say goodbye, Pandora is waiting.”
“Buh-bye!” Danny waved enthusiastically, and before anyone could move, the room was engulfed in a bright green light. When they finally blinked the stars out of their eyes, Diana, Danny, and Clockwork were all gone. So were the baby bag and stickers coating every surface Danny had reached. The only sign that they had been there at all was the little sun sticker still on J’onn’s head and the crumb-filled napkin on the table.
Bruce sighed. Obviously, the day’s meeting was going to take much longer than planned. “I’ll get Constantine on the phone.”
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Final ficlet can be found here: Time Gives And Takes
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20 Questions for Writers
Thanks for the tag @envexenveritas, you're enabling me to procrastinate on writing a rather tricky scene.
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
Just two but one of them is sort of a song parody (about writing fanfiction, to the tune of Losing My Religion), not a fic. But the question says 'works' and... for better or worse, it's a work, I guess.
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
393,520 across both works but the song is just 273 so, yeahhhh. That should tell you everything you need to know about my One Fic.
(42 chapters so far, in case you're wondering, including one that was a whopping 20k+ words)
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Doctor Who, specifically the new UNIT gang, with heavy emphasis on the Big Finish audios in terms of sourcing story material. I'm basically rewriting the new UNIT storyline, centered on the developing relationship between Osgood and Kate Stewart.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
I mean, if we're specifically talking fics, I have just the one. So it's my best fic and my worst fic at the same time, on any metric you choose to apply!
My Cosmos is Yours, aka Cosmos or sometimes Cosmosgate, has 297 kudos so far. Also, 30 bookmarks and 10,493 hits, in case that matters.
5. Do you respond to comments?
Do I reply to comments? Hah. Yes, yes I do. Religiously. Not always immediately, as sometimes I need a bit of time to digest them before replying; but I do read them all right away and I reply to everything eventually.
I welcome every kind of comment, from one-line "GAAHAHHHHHH" eructations to multi-paragraph analyses, rambles and vocal if not always coherent expressions of enthusiasm.
Funny thing, there's a bit of a culture of commenting that has grown around Cosmos. For reference, it has 1,194 comments (though half of that are replies from me).
Part of it, I suspect, is that word has got around that I'm pathetically needy for comments (I make no secret of it), so most of my regular readers have got into the habit of feeding me comments at every chapter, which is very lovely of them. And perhaps because there are so many comments on every chapter, some of the more occasional readers do also seem to find themselves motivated to leave comments, which is a wonderful effect, if true.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
I haven't finished a fic yet so, no overall endings to speak of, but if I look across the 42 chapters I've written so far, Chapter 38: Endgame has got to be the most grim in terms of where it leaves Osgood and Kate.
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Hah well if we apply the same principle of looking across Cosmos chapters, Chapter 42: Life, the Universe and Everything has got to be the winner, with no fewer than three happy endings (one of them a double), if you'll pardon the phrase.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not so far, no. I occasionally get razzed by my British regulars for committing Americanisms (most famously, writing 'faucet' instead of 'tap') but it's all in good fun.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yep. Though I've been told it's not actually smut, it's erotica, which is the best compliment I can imagine. It's all character-driven, and it's very necessary to the story (I say to justify myself). I won't put any labels on it; I'll just say that by intent, it's loving, it's very mature, but it's never unnecessarily explicit. Though it does get people quite hot under the collar, reportedly, which is very gratifying!
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
Well, I did pull in Malcolm Tucker from "The Thick of It" for one chapter, and he'll be showing up again because he's so fun to write. But it's not a zany kind of crossover.
I don't think I have any crazy crossovers in me, at least not at this moment in time; when I'm in the mood for that sort of thing I go to Lambrookmist.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Nope.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Nope.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No, I'd be terrible as a fic co-author. I've co-authored a technical book in my professional life and it went well enough (the book got published and we're proud of it) but I suspect it was a frustrating experience for my co-author. I'm very critical and I change my mind about important stuff all the time.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
Osgood/Kate Stewart obviously. With a side of Gabrielle/Xena and Janeway/Seven. There may be a pattern there.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I'm like a dog with a bone, I will finish everything, eventually. Although with Cosmos, I can't imagine running out of story to tell anytime soon. It could take years. Unless I find a good stopping point and just finish + start a sequel. That's an option.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Accurate characterization, I think? I'd like to think I do a pretty decent job with pacing and balancing action vs. talk. Also my real-life scientific/technical background helps me write credible plot details for our two favorite science geniuses.
From a stylistic standpoint, I've been told my writing has a cadence and musicality that's very enjoyable. That's something I care a lot about, so, yay.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
I'm painfully aware that I overuse certain phrases. And I overthink things a lot, so it takes me ages to ship out new chapters. Especially now that I have a full time day job again, which I didn't when I started writing Cosmos— long story for another time.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
A few lines here and there can be very helpful when the setting calls for it (the characters are abroad, or working with people from different cultural backgrounds) but you don't want to overdo it.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Well, I wrote a one-off Picard/Crusher ficlet in the late 90s, so I'm legally obligated to say Star Trek: TNG. But I never wrote anything else (fic-wise) until Cosmos.
20. Favourite fic you’ve written?
Surprise, it's Cosmos!
In case anyone is curious, I'm about 1/3 of the way through writing Ch. 43, so hopefully it won't be nearly as long til the next update. (For reference, it took me three months to get Ch. 42 out.)
I think I'm supposed to tag some other writers now? Let's say @starfleetwitch, @kowarth, and gosh I need to look up some usernames. Will add those later. Got to go feed my family now.
EDIT: adding @colourmestoked04 to the taggees
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Book Recommendation Tag Game 📚
The last book I read:
The Greatest Hits of Harlan Ellison (edition with the foreward by Neil Gaiman and Cassandra Khaw). With the random online resurgence of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (and some of the worst takes I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing) I had to re-read some Ellison to assure myself we’d read the same material… but yeah. Highly recommend. 👍👍
A book I recommend
Pretty much everything in this post, but specifically this year I’ve gotten like four of my friends to read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It’s an easy read sci fi with so much heart, easily one of my new favorites.
A book I couldn’t put down
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid. I read it last year in one sitting and still think about it like once a week. The love interest really resonated with me and this book genuinely made me feel sick to my stomach from how well some of the content was portrayed.
A book I’ve read twice (or more)
I am not typically a re-reader but I have an extensive collection of John Keats and Percy Shelley, a lot of their works I have read and re-read and own several versions of.
A book on my TBR
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees! I actually added this to my TBR because of a video Tim Downie made a while back and I just haven’t gotten to it yet because I’ve limited my new books until we make our cross-country move.
A book/series I’ve put down
Too many to count, I’m a notorious DNF-er. Finishing a book/series I’m fairly sure I’ll dislike usually just feels like a waste of time to me when there’s so many books I want to read. Here’s just a short list of recent ones, no offense if this is anyone’s favorite: The Dresden Files (hate Jim Butcher’s self insert and don’t like the mash of lazy lore he uses), Everything SJM (read her when I was in HS but she continually ruins the only characters I like and the author is just in general not a good person), Iron Flame (I hated fourth wing, rated it 2 stars, don’t know why I even tried other than it just being absolutely everywhere)
A book on my wishlist
The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan and Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia have both been on my list for a while and as soon as we move they’ll be some of the first I grab physical copies of
A favorite book from childhood
HOLES BY LOUIS SACHAR 📢📢📢 my childhood copy was so well loved that it was missing its front and back cover I love this book so much. Also a shoutout to two of my other childhood favorites: Howl’s Moving Castle and Maximum Ride.
A book you would give to a friend
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. I love the liveship trilogy so much that I always keep two copies of Ship of Magic. One is my personal copy of the first edition cover that matches the rest of my trilogy, the other has the newer cover and I lend that one out to friends.
A book of poetry or lyrics you own
I have several collections of John Keats and Percy Shelley. A personal favorite is my copy that has my annotated “A Defence of Poetry”
A non-fiction book you own
My Philosophy of Religion anthology that has my Kierkegaard annotations
What are you currently reading
One for my Enemy by Olivie Blake, I needed a palate cleanser after Ellison
What do you plan to read next
Bridgerton has me in the mood for romance and I have A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft and Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater unpacked from my physical TBR right now for summer reads. If my romance mood ends before then I’ll finally start Chlorine by Jade Song
tagged by @rosenfey thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble about books! 🩵📚✨
tag list (add/remove post in pinned): @nokstella @rindemption @katsigian @lestatlioncunt @mapeslyrup
@feykiller @werewolfspatula @archonfurina @haarleps @razz-berry
@elvves @estevnys @dragonologist-phd @superhaught
@avallachs @leopardmuffinxo @devilbrakers @pitchmoss @dekarios
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Is it alright to ask what Robin did to your stardew farmer I am so curious-
Oh absolutely! I'd love to talk about it
So really this farmer, named Sage, he's one I partially played towards the tail end of the last time I majorly fixated on Stardew Valley but I didn't play him past like the second year iirc
As a person who's never divorced a partner in stardew or turned their kids into doves, I wondered what the implications of that would be, same with, for example, wiping your ex-spouse's memory
How would the world go on if your ex spouse forgot all about you?
So I wrote a story (it's about 26k words long and unfinished) and it involves Sebastian falling in love with a weirdly pushy farmer (not pushy in the creepy way, that's not something I'd be willing to write), whose name is Sage. This takes place three to five years after the "start" of the game
Later, it's revealed that Sage and Sebastian were married before and had a daughter named Arielle, but Sage divorced Sebastian and wiped his memory and turned their daughter into a dove
Wiping the memory only wipes the memory of the ex-spouse, so Robin has beef with Sage because what Robin saw was Sage breaking her son's heart and their daughter mysteriously disappearing. She DESPISES Sage and doesn't understand why Sebastian continues to hang around Sage even after all he did, unaware that Sebastian is unable to remember anything
He eventually remembers bits and pieces and the story ends with Sebastian in Zuzu city beginning a life away from the valley and away from Sage, as he rightfully should. He wished he listened to his mother at the start and kinda blames himself that he didn't
Sage hates Robin for stepping in the way and trying to keep the pair apart. Sage hates that he can't get Robin to back off. Sebastian sees how much they hate each other and even catches the pair arguing quite a few times but he doesn't try to intervene because the relationship between two other adults isn't his business even if he's friends/family with both parties involved
I wanted to play on the fact that the farmer is always seen as Good TM and potentially a darker more selfish farmer. Sage divorced Sebastian because their marriage was falling apart and he turned Arielle into a dove because, while adopted, that's Sebastian's child, and Sage wanted nothing to do with Sebastian at the time. He later comes to regret this and then tries to re-marry Sebastian, hence the wiping the memory
Sam and Abigail advise Sebastian to stay away from Sage, yeah, but Robin is Sage's biggest enemy when it comes to trying to re-romance Sebastian
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