#regular bunch of sherlocks us

[undreaming-fanfiction]

Written for @steddieangstyaugust day 4: angst with a happy ending.

Once upon a time, when the world almost ended and didn't, Eddie Munson used to think that surviving the near apocalypse would be the most difficult thing he'd ever have to do in his life. Surely being bitten to death, then resurrected by the big bad, then breaking away from his influence and helping save the world, that must have counted for something, right? He'd earn a happy end through all that suffering.

Well, no. Not really. That's what he learned the second the portal to the Upside Down closed. The lovely people of Hawkins still hated him, he and Wayne had nowhere to live because their trailer split open, and he barely escaped another group of government scientists very much interested in the whole "came back to life" thing.

It was only natural Eddie ran. Why wouldn't he? He brought Wayne only bad luck, even worse reputation, and a bunch of extra expenses. His friends from the Corroded Coffin? Tortured by Jason to find his location. The freshmen he dragged into Hellfire? Also targeted. Eddie's name was a target on the back on everyone he loved and he wouldn't stay long enough for it to put the others in danger. Not Wayne, Dustin…Steve. Steve who confused him as much as enticed him. But Hawkins wasn't the place to explore this forbidden space in Eddie's head.

Indy sounded like a good destination and so that's where he went. He wrote a bunch of goodbye letters, trying to explain, but mostly to ease the pain. I will be in touch once I settle in, he said in them. He was never a good liar, not even on paper.

The whole Upside Down affair had robbed him of everything. His baby, his guitar. His closest relationships. His only proper home. The future he saw with himself and the Corroded Coffin. But he still had his life, so that was something.

He made friends, but not really. How do you make a real connection with someone when you can't tell them anything about the most important event in your life? How do you explain staring at every girl with golden blond ponytail on the street, dreading the moment they turn around because it won't be her?

He would send letters to Wayne sometimes. They would be long, talking about this and that, he would sometimes call too. But he noticed that for how much he talked, the content was empty. He wondered if Wayne noticed too. He must have - his uncle was the most perceptive man he'd ever met. He sent a bunch of short messages to Dustin via Wayne, just to keep him from going all Sherlock Holmes on Eddie. He swore to visit them both one day. Just not today. Or tomorrow.

The only good thing about his life in Indy was the anonymity of a large city and with that, the possibility to explore who he really was. He saved as much as he could and bought a new guitar. It would never be like his first love, but he could get back to music and drive his roommates insane with how out of practice he was. He'd play here and there, become very slightly famous in the local queer community. Sometimes his performances would earn him a free drink, sometimes a kiss. Or if he was really good, company for the night.

Five years in, it was going fairly well, he thought. He wasn't completely broke, he could kiss who he wanted - boys, how long it took him to admit that!, his songs got more genuine. He even wrote a bunch about Hawkins, never naming the place or people, of course, but it helped him work through some stuff. And on some days, he didn't even think much about what and who he'd left behind.

Until that fateful evening when he was scheduled to perform in his frequented gay bar. He sat on his usual stool on the podium with his acoustic guitar, greeted the regulars, and said his usual spiel: "This one is about a very special boy. He wore a yellow sweater, saved my life a bunch of times. Was really badass too. I think he made me realize who I really am, even if he never knew how I feel about him."

He never gave the song a name. He considered "His vest over my bleeding heart", or maybe something like "Keep me like you kept the vest", something with sunflowers, nail bats, perfect hair. Everyone in the bar knew he hated naming his songs anyway, so he took a deep breath and got ready to play.

Only then did he notice a familiar shade of yellow near the bar. And a surprised, but still a smile.

Eddie didn't run that evening. He finished the set, thanked his supporters and fans, and then he found himself sitting next to Steve Harrington, the man from his songs and dreams.

"Everyone misses you like crazy. They still hope you'll stop by, but I get it. I just feel lucky as hell. I didn't think I'd see you again," said Steve and it sounded sad. Like he actually missed Eddie too.

"I didn't think I'd find you in a place like this," responded Eddie. He wanted it to sound more rough, defensive, but his heart betrayed him and it was more of a question. Of a plea.

Steve smiled at him again, and maybe it was Eddie's imagination, but did he shift closer to him? "You haven't seen me in a long time, Eddie. This is exactly the place you'd find me these days. And now…I don't even need to drag Robin with me as an excuse."

Oh. Okay. Eddie could work with that. Licking his lips, he prodded even more. "So…uh. I take it you still haven't found what you're looking for?"

Steve turned to him fully, reaching out for Eddie's hand, and Eddie realized that he might have been wrong. This might be his happy ending after all.

Especially when Steve's lips parted and he said: "I have now."

Eddie would visit Wayne. He'd call Dustin, catch up with Gareth and others. Because he no longer felt like a bad omen. The morning he woke up next to Steve Harrington, with a careful promise of much more than one night, with pancakes for breakfast and talking, so much real talking with no secrets and no lies, he decided that he was ready to stop running. For good this time.

[anya-chalotra]

hi hi hi <33 what fonts did u use on ur barbie gifsets i'm truly in love and i'm SO inspired

Hi, lovely! In descending order:

Multicolore (8pt, 6pt)

Sherlock (120pt, 24pt)

Tw Cen MT (10pt) set to Regular

Those out of the way, I’ll add that I am extremely finicky when it comes to typography, which mostly means that I go through a multitude of different fonts and font combos. I think I had roughly a dozen or so other fonts picked out for the title and annotations alike, so I’ll go ahead and list some of those as well. Great fonts to have even if you don’t end up using them for a Barbie-themed set.

Aaleyah — for “Barbie” title

Avenir (set to 35 Light) — for annotations

Barbie (one of the actual OG Barbie fonts)

Baroneys — for “Barbie” title

Buryland Script — for “Barbie” title

Daylight & Moonlight (set to Light) — for “Barbie” title

DK Sensory Overload — for date

Journey to Thailand — for “Barbie” title

Karla — for annotations

Lobster Two — for “Barbie” title

Montserrat — for date and annotations

Roboto — for annotations

Telegrafico — for annotations

TrashHand — for date

Wired Pop — for “Barbie” title

You can find more examples for a bunch of these fonts here and here.

[thundersyst3m]

What does your headspace look like?

-The Golden Gates System 🏰

OOHH THANKS SO MUCH FOR ASKING I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY HEADSPACE!!!!

So basically outside it is a regular winter forest, but the more you walk closer to the abandoned hotel, the more the forest starts becoming a paper forest, like drawn with pens in crumbly paper,

The abandoned hotel is where most things happen, outside it is gray and boring, almost like a full on cement hotel, but inside there's multiple levels (which are layers) and rooms,

The first room is dark, smells of mold, has red candles lighten it up and its somehow damp too, there it stays headmates who were essentially banished from our front room, I do not approve of "jailing alters", but change is hard for us, so we are trying to approach this slowly,

The main room is on the second floor, a colorful living room with a small kitchen, a big orange couch (that indicates who's fronting) and a big ass TV with a table of buttons that kinda resembles Inside Out, where we watch reality go, we also have a small tv where we can see thoughts of other headmates depending on certain conditions,

I never visited other layers, but resuming by the words of Sherlock, there is a pediatrician office where some introjects from our childhood are like Polly, a fun park in another level, THE ENTIRETY OF CLUB PENGUIN ISLAND IN ANOTHER ONE, a small place with a coffee shop where Moss and Fawn stay most of the time + "tranquil waters room" where it seems to be a place for spiritual connection, its just a void room with a crystalline water source for a floor where anyone can walk over, and you are obligatory to be naked in that room for "purity" (there's more to this room but its a bunch on religious trauma, we ain't getting into that rn),

According to Sherlock, more places are being built, and i don't know how to feel about that, but yeah this place crazy asf lmao

[voidcat-senket]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @hxhhasmysoul and @subdee!! <3 <3 <3 who are both v lovely go like. look at their blogs. anyway

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

.161

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

520,484 - 27% of that is one fic looool

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now just HxH and SW:Fallen Order series. Sherlock and Star Trek AOS were big ones too

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Closing the Space (Between Us) - again its 27% of my wordcount! It deserves it! the Hunter x Hunter Killugon Reunion fic of my dreams. I am SO PROUD of this one I have handed it to irl friends! On purpose! My partner got me a physical copy for Xmas 2021!

2. Crying Over Yuuri - a Kyou Kara Maou! fic, which is a fandom I am amazed is still being read. It's a Wolfram POV fic where he, you got it, cries over Yuuri. Pretty fluffy ending. I credit the numbers to the fact that not a lot of fic gets written for KKM anymore so it doesn't disappear under all the new stuff

3. Not Unusual - A ST:AO3 Academy Era McKirk. Bones gets a bunch of clues to something going on with Jim... he gets it a little wrong, Jim freaks out because this man has Issues, but it resolves in the end. I wrote this one as a pinch-hit for an exchange back when I was still RPing Jim Kirk @thewinningscenario

4. 5+1: Are They Or Aren't They? - Somehow my Mystrade (Sherlock BBC) still gets hits with fair regularity and I'll never understand why. It's definitely not my best work but it's cute! 5 times people weren't sure if Mycroft and Lestrade are dating, and the time they know (because they receive a wedding invitation!!)

5. One Flew East, One Flew West - a Killugon Modern AU in which Killua and Gon meet at a Psychiatric Recovery Center, with Kurapika as another patient and Leorio as a therapist. written for HxHBB2020. I'm very fond of this one. It makes me cry <3 I'm so happy there's so much fandom diversity in these! (The next 11 are all either HxH or Sherlock, l o l )

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

I wish I could say I did! I mean to! Sometimes I am not in a good place so I mean to do it later and then I forget..... whoof. I am so thankful for each and every review, and I want to repay that!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I wrote a LOT of fics in my teens where people died (not all of them are on A03, it didn't exist at the time. I'm not giving you my ff.net ;) ) Surely, one of them! More recently, I wrote a Dragon Age: Inquisition Lavellan/Dorian in response to Dorian preemptively breaking up with me (rude!) that is Pretty Hecking Angsty. It's tagged "hurt no comfort"

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

Closing the Space (Between Us) did so much work to get where it was, and they ended up with Everything! My boys <3 (And Alluka)

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Very rarely! I'm pretty lucky in life that I don't get hate generally. Maybe it's because I'm not Out There enough but- who cares! People are nice and sweet and lovely mostly, and I love writing fanfic for/with them :3

9. Do you write smut?

Sometimes it will appear in other fics. I don't really do PWPs, and smut itself is pretty rare because I don't include it unless it's... necessary? Kinda? Like if the story demands it. I personally only read smut in certain moods, so when smut's included I make it easy to skip, but it certainly exists

10. Do you write crossovers?

It depends! In my Sherlock days I had a Sherlock/Stargate Atlantis crossover series and a Sherlock in the HP universe series, but I haven't done any recently.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of! I heard people copy fics over to Wattpad sometimes but I've never looked. I'm not usually in MegaFandoms anyway, so I don't think I'm in any real danger.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

YES!! A few different Sherlock ones! (I guess I was pretty well known in the Mystrade sphere?? IDK that was back on livejournal. Anyone else miss KinkMemes?) I think one got translated to Russian and one to Chinese. Both reached out to me and asked for permission first, which I of course granted! It's very flattering <3

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

Way way way back in my teen years I cowrote a few times- one in YuGiOh and one in Fruits Basket with a high school friend. Recently I am technically cowriting a fic with @spyscrapper atm- I say technically because its really an rp l o l (Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Canon Divergent Spyscrapper, it's pretty hecking cool! And painful! :D ) I once cowrote a fic where the other author just like. eliminated my plotline. so. It's not always good, but it's still fun to try!

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I refuse to pick One. Killugon (HxH), McShep (Stargate Atlantis), Seishirou/Subaru (Tokyo Babylon & X/1999) and any combination of McSpirk (Star Trek) have probably had the most long-lasting impact on me. And

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

I often feel like I should finish Pulling The Trigger because it's an interesting casefic and I like the thought of a mystery, but... it's 12 years old at this point, so...

16. What are your writing strengths?

Nature-themed metaphors and descriptions! And I feel like I have pretty strong character points of view! Oh, and angst. I'm good at angst. >:)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Planning 🙃 oops what's that. And I use adverbs too much! (but it's fun so I'll keep doing it)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It depends why! If a fic is from the POV of Character A and Character B is talking in a language they don't understand, for example, it's fine to use it (though please provide a translation for your reader!) The language switch has to be for a specific reason, and if the character understands it the reader should too. (In One Flew, Gon and Killua sometimes swap to Japanese to disguise their conversations from everyone else- I show that by changing their conversation to italics in most cases.) I definitely wrote a fic as a teen that had all Japanese because I was a weeb and... lol don't do that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Yugioh, 2001!! It was probably two paragraphs long hahaha

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Closing the Space (Between Us) for sure! God it's so good. I am begging people to read it. If you're going to read One Thing I have written in my entire life-so-far, please let it be that!!

"Tag 20 people:" that seems like a lot hahaha uuhh @spyscrapper @avtorsola @mmuffncakes @nightingalesighs @etoiline @iwishtocountthestars @unicorncoalition @shalnarkonice @missinkylace @thefledglingdm 10 is a reasonable number. but tbh if you wanna do it, do it, I wanna read ur response!

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

oh boy i love listing things

that i am doing right now so i can remember them and maybe even finish some of them

or, wendy again several problems (mostly hubris and sleepy binch disease)

READING:

Manga/comics/etc.:

Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka

Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma

Regular books:

The Book of Ti’ana (Myst #2) by David Wingrove (weekly group reading)

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief by Maurice Leblanc

WATCHING:

TV:

Mo Dao Zu Shi (the donghua/animated version) (watching weekly w/a friend)

Lupin III: Part 4 (JP cut/subbed)

Film:

Terminal Station (1953) dir. Vittorio de Sica

PLAYING:

A Short Hike (Nintendo Switch)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)

“Short” list of things I want to pick back up or start next [sweats] (HUBRIS):

Ace Attorney (Nintendo Switch)

Torna: The Golden Country (Nintendo Switch)

Panzer Dragoon remake (PC)

The Jig Is Up (PC)

Starting Point by Hayao Miyazaki

Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki

Millennium Actress (2001) dir. Satoshi Kon

Woodstock (1970) dir. Michael Wadleigh

Double Indemnity (1944) dir. Billy Wilder

Adieu l’ami (1968) dir. Jean Herman

I, Claudius (1976) dir. Herbert Wise

The Big Sleep (1946) dir. Howard Hawks

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) dir. Albert Levin

Return of Sabata (1971) dir. Gianfranco Parolini

Red River (1948) dir. Howard Hawks

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy (1974) dir. Takashi Tsuboshima

Lupin III: Prison of the Past (2019) dir. Hatsuki Tsuji

Sherlock Hound (1984)

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976)

M*A*S*H season 7 (I think)

Arcane (Netflix) bc I trust Ghost and want to keep trying it

Also I should put my Samurai Jack boxed set to good use since I got it for dirt cheap on Black Friday

Also also a bunch of the things I have on my laptop

[mytragedyperson]

Thoughts I had while watching/regarding bungou stray dogs

Before I begin I just want to say I don't want any hate for any thoughts and opinions here. We're allowed to disagree and have a different opinion regarding this show and these characters but what I don't want is a bunch of people being rude because we disagree on this show and these characters. Unlike the characters in this show I'm actually a real living human being with real human emotions. I'm not going to be a dick to you for your opinions, I just ask that you don't be a dick to me for mine. Also I'm lazy and I've already sent most of these thoughts to my friend who does not watch this show so I'll just be copy and posting those messages here as I wrote them to her. As I write this I'm on S3 E36, but I have been sending these messages to my friend since I started watching it yesterday and since I'm posting literally every thought I sent to my friend there will be things that are wrong whether I know it or not, so just a little forewarning for that. Also most of these thoughts will be going up to the first episode of S3 though I may later add to this with other opinions when I inevitably rewatch this and get to season 3 again.

And then he instantly ate the candy before she could try it but the thought was there. Also it was funny. Then again I also thought Dazai having Atsushi throw the phone just so Akutagawa would jump after it and immediately hanging up was funny. It was cruel, it was mean, i still laughed because I'm not so secretly a terrible person and this show brings out my worst qualities. What more can I say.

Wait I'm once again watching bungou stray dogs and I'm actually feeling so good right now. So there's a character called Ranpo and there's this traumatised 14 year old called Kyouka who basically had no childhood, and one of the first things Ranpo did is go out and buy her a shit ton of candy she's never tried before. Also he's just generally one of my favourite characters. He's 26 but he's childish, can barely do regular human things but he's really smart like think sherlock Holmes and he doesn't give a fuck but at the same time he's so sweet and just wants everyone to praise him but he can also be kinda snarky and sarcastic? Idk if those are the right terms. Ugh I love him

And then there's dazai who is basically a walking red flag and used to work for the mafia but he is so fun and interesting to watch. He's so manipulative, I actually couldn't tell you how much of his personality is real, how much is fake, and how much is a bit of both. He's also only 22 which I didn't realise until now. I stand by this but now I'm pretty sure nothing he says is a complete lie. Like he manipulates people with the truth more than anything. It's fascinating to watch. And terrifying

Also I there's this sweet friendly happy country boy who seems really Naive but (since this is a world where superpoweres/special abilities exist) he has super strength like can lift a car with one hand strong. He can beat up an entire gang with a smile. But he only has this super strength when he's hungry. That's another thing I like, some of the abilities are overpowered but others have limitations or only work in certain conditions. However then you have the main character who can turn into a weretiger and that for some reason gives him restoration abilities. Like he legit lost a leg in one of the first episodes then turned into a tiger and it was just back with no sign he'd ever lost it. Okay I'm gonna admit I still forget this guys name. Kenji? I will look it up so I can tag him. I'm sorry I don't dislike him I'm just terrible with names. Also I interrupt this past thought to bring you my current thought. I'm currently paused on cannabilism part three. I'm pretty sure Ranpo and Chuuya are still in Poe's book. Also I don't think I mentioned Poe that much in my messages to my friends but I love him. He simultaneously wants to be the best, be praised and get one over on Ranpo. At the same time he wants to be friends with Ranpo. He's adorable, he's lonely, there's something kind of sad about him. Honestly there's something kinda sad about most if not all of these characters but we'll get back to that later. Now on with my previously scheduled old thoughts

And then there's a woman in it who can heal people but only when they're basically dying so if she wants to heal a minor injury she has to almost but not quite kill her patient before she can heal them. I don't have much more to say here, Yosano seems cool and badass and all that but we don't really see much of her. I did really like the S1 episode we got with her but that's the only point she's really had a chance to stand out which is sad.

Also this isn't an old thought but I love how S3 showed that even though Ranpo is childish at times he can be mature when needed.

Could do without the incest they randomly hint at or just throw in in general but I understand its more for humour than anything else and it's rare enough that it can be ignored.

And then the head of the mafia has like a girl who's around 10 near him and idk if it's a translation issue or me overthinking it but it does give me a slight pedophilic vibe the way some things are said.

And yet somehow he seems to actually care about the people working for him. It's so interesting to watch a show where the characters treated as the morally grey imperfect humans they are. Like dazai left the mafia but he didn't magically become good and forget everything that let him survive in the mafia. He never claims to be a good person and he doesn't care. He doesn't care about being good or doing the right thing. The show doesn't treat him like he's always a good person or someone who always does a good thing. Sure, the main character sees him as good or at least not bad but that's because Dazai took him in and got him a job when he had nowhere to go because he's an orphan. I'm also not sure how many of the people he works with now know he's in the mafia. Like in the third episode or something it's said that no one knows what he did before. But it's at the end of that episode we the audience find out he used to be in the mafia, and three of the people he works with are there but they're all either unconscious or dying so it's unclear if any of them actually heard and idk if they actually heard and nothing seems to change after that and it's never mentioned by the detective agency whether they know or not. But the mafia isn't treat like they're wholly evil or bad either. Yes they're criminals, they're murderers they do bad things but they seem to be somewhat supportive of each other and care about each other somewhat, you know kinda like a very fucked up, toxic family that is abusive towards each other but is also like wtf only I can be mean to them, they are my fellow mafia members, no you may not hurt them, only we can kill and abuse our family members dammit kinda way. The kind of thing that's horrifying in real life but can make for some interesting scenes. Also Kyouka and the Red haired woman, I'm sorry I completely forgot her name- the way this woman cares about Kyouka as if she's her own daughter and wants her to be happy.

Also you gotta love a show that isn't afraid to kill off some kids because yes these are dangerous criminals and they're going up against other dangerous killers. You think they're gonna draw a line at killing kids to get what they want? Realism in my anime I love it.

Like I realise that sounds vaguely demented but I'm so sick of black vs white, good vs evil. Having two criminal organisations go up against each other? Yes. Having two criminal organisations and a detective agency go up against each other? Yes. Having the morals be grey to the point where your main character, the character with the best morals, still probably wouldn't exactly be anyone's image of good? Who thinks they can't do something not because of morals but because their self esteem is basically 0, maybe even a minus number? Yes. Of The main groups that have been given names there's not one person among them that I belive couldn't kill someone. Even the ones that don't kill people or don't want to could kill people. And I love that. All the villains, all the bad guys, all the characters feel like they could be real people, exaggerated and dramatic, sure, but at their core all the characters feel real, and most of the relationship dynamics you can kind of understand or feel rooted in real life. When you look at your main characters you're not necessarily encouraged to think they can do no wrong. Ugh god I love this anime

Also I'm now pretty sure that Ranpo at least knows that Dazai was in the mafia. Not only does he have deductive abilities but there's a chance he was working for the agency when Dazai joined. The president of the agency knows and I feel like Ranpo knows either because he was told or he figured out. If he knows he didn't tell anyone. I have no proof of this so far, it just makes sense. If he can put on glasses, look at a complete stranger and know that if they go where they're going they'll die, and by looking at a body knows how and when someone died and who killed them and why, then surely he could figure out dazai was in the mafia or something similar? Idk that just makes more sense to me than him not knowing and, while he is pretty childish, he's also 26. He probably knows that telling the other agency members that dazai is a mafia member may not be the best idea. If he can tell Dazais a mafia member he can also probably guess the others reaction and some of them are new to the agency. Also its a detective agency so it's technically on the other side of the law. And the less people that know, the less chance there is of the wrong people finding out, you know.

They literally introduced these kids for the sole purpose of killing them off to send a message and I appreciate it. Honestly these are episodes to establish a characters past and background why are they so good and detailed.

They literally killed a bunch of kids to encourage someone to kill them. This is madness I love it.

Honestly it's really interesting how the leader of the rival group, who I refuse to call a villain was searching for death and to escape, meanwhile dazai is searching for a will to live, a reason to live. Oh yeah this anime is great but its also depressing and there is a pretty big theme of suicide and murder and death running through it so there is that.

He doesn't even leave the mafia because he wants to become a better person, he does it because his only friend told him to while dying in his arms. Or rather he's indifferent to morality and chooses the side of "good" or at least twilight because he was asked to.

OK I think they know dazai was mafia by season 2. That's what I'm gonna go with. It makes more sense, except then Kunikida didn't know but that could've just been Dazai trying to annoy him so idk. If someone knows who exactly knows dazai was in the mafia please let me know.

The fact that this rich guys power is literally the more money I spend the more power I have is a really interesting reflection of life honestly.

I mean dazai kind of implied that he hopes he can become a good person but I literally think that's just because his friend asked him to.

Also the fucked up mentorship that is Dazai and Akutagawa is so toxic and so abusive and yet to some extent I'm here rooting for Akutagawa hoping he gets the acknowledgement he wants. Look, listen, I know this wouldn't make it pess abusive, abusers do praise their victims sometimes to keep them around but honestly I want him to achieve his goals whatever they may be.

Plus I feel like it shows Dazais character as well. He is manipulative, ge is toxic, he is abusive, he is a killer, he is a criminal. He is a walking red flag and how he interacts with Akutagawa shows that, and yet how he treats Atsushi, the main character and his new apprentice I believe he called him is different. He praises him more, he doesn't hit him as much, the one time he did it was to snap him out of it when he was freaking out. Idk how to describe Dazais character in a positive way abd yet he's so entertaining to watch that I can't help but like him and honestly it feels like the audience is being manipulated just as much as everyone else around Dazai only its worse because we've actively seen more of the things he's done that have been less than good and yet we just kinda shrug and go well that's dazai for you but that's not normal. If this was a real person I'd be very concerned but as its a fictional main character I've decided to just not think about it too deeply. I like his character, I think he's interesting.

Also idk how this falls or anything but this guy was basically called, not even weak just not strong enough yet, by Dazai, literally internalised that so hard that even 4 years later, when he's a lot stronger than he was before, he still thinks he's weak simply because Dazai has never said he's strong.

It's kinda like how I feel watching You. Like you know what he's doing is wrong and he's not a good guy but because you're following him and know his point of view you don't completely hate him. This is more regarding how he treats Akutagawa than un general.

And the thing is this show is actually so sad. Like when you listen to the characters talk and the main theme being looking for a will to live, looking for a life purpose, its honestly quite a depressing show, it just has fight scenes and some silly characters and lighter hearted moments that make you forget for a moment that it's a sad, depressing show.

Honestly this guy with the money is literally spending all his money to try and make his family happy but I cannot figure out how destroying part of Japan makes his family happy. Maybe it's something to do with this book he's looking for.

Yeah also I love how impersonal group 3 seems. Like there's the armed detective agency, the mafia and the guild, and the guild are doing all these things but at the end of the day it is just a job for them. They don't actually care about each other or their boss that much, some of them care. it's just a way to make money. I kinda like that.

Also we have Cthulu or some other monster pretending to be human so thats cool.

Also Ranpo made a friend, like someone who isn't in the agency and they can be geniuses together and there's an element of rivalry but they still respect each other and their abilities. I'm so happy for both of them. I did talk about Poe look at that.

They seriously had this grown ass man say he prefers the women in his life to be under 12 so I wasn't overthinking the pedophilia they were putting in. It's good to have this clarification though, and as my friend pointed out still doesn't need to be there but there it is and I can't change it so let's just go with it.

Also Dazai just kinda knows everything and everyone and he's slowly puppet mastering everything. Like he has people in the mafia who still seen loyal to him and do what he tells him. He kind of has a friend in the government. He's in the armed detective agency. And there's 2 years where he was hidden that I still know nothing about so basically all I'm saying is I'm pretty sure Dazai is secretly in charge of all of Japan and everyone else has just failed to realise this yet. Still stand by this and if its not true yet it will be.

OK we had Cthulu and now we have what appear to be demons and apparently the mangas have vampires so this should be interesting.

I mean it makes sense. If they can have supernatural powers why not have supernatural beings as well.

And now one of the characters is a vessel for a god and has been this entire time.

Honestly it's so funny to me to go on tumblr and see people be like oh dazais toxic, he treats Akutagawa badly. Like yeah obviously he's a mafia agent. He's an executive. He was 15 when he joined and I doubt he's much older when Akutagawa joins. Akutagawa is his subordinate. It's like obviously mafia members don't treat their subordinates well. They're the mafia. "Oh Dazai manipulated and strong armed Chuuya and Akutagawa into joining the mafia." What as opposed to the honourable recruitment methods usually used by mafia members? Like they think that's gonna make me find the mentor mentee relationship any less interesting? They also seem to talk like finding this type of dynamic in a fictional show with fictional characters means you somehow support or are fine with abusive dynamics in shows which is literally not how this works? Like you can find something entertaining in fiction that you hate in real life. Like personally I find mind control powers really interesting but in real life they'd be horrifying and I'd hate if they were real. I honestly don't get how seriously some people take enjoying a fictional dynamic between fictional people. And by the way before anyone tries to twist this to say oh so you think it's OK for some people to get abused just because they're in the mafia? No I don't think that, abuse is abuse and abuse is always wrong in real life but that's also how things are in the mafia and among criminals and people in general. That doesn't make it right or good. It's just how things are, just reality, an unfortunate reality but a reality all the same. Sorry if this seems really antagonistic and stuff. It just annoys me when people act like enjoying a fictional dynamic in any way reflects your real life dynamics. Though this may also be because I accidentally tripped and fell into shipping dazai and akutagawa. Listen, I didn't want to ship them, I didn't expect to ship them, and yet ship them I do and I can't change that. As I said in real life this dynamic is horrible and no one who claims to love you should treat you like Dazai treats Akutagawa. I didn't get a choice in this one. I didn't even need fanfiction to make it happen. My brain really looked at all the characters in this show, all the possible ships and went that one and pointed at one of the most toxic ships in this show. I'm sorry I'm disappointed in me too but it could be worse, so I'm just gonna ignore any negativity associated with that particular opinion.

Also if the story I was supposed to take from the dazai and chuuya 15 years old episodes was supposed to be that dazai was a terrible person and a dick and a villain, I'm sorry to say that was not the message I got. I'll be honest I didn't really take a message from the whole Chuuyas former group and dazai conflict, I was too busy thinking of that undertake song you sometimes hear on tiktok you know the line "you're only still alive because I made a promise". And honestly those kids sucked anyway, family isn't something you hold over someone's head as you owe us situation. Dazai was mostly honest about his actions? Like I feel like he never directly lied. Of course there are plenty of ways to avoid completely lying while also not telling the full truth. Is it really Dazais fault everyone was so easy for him to predict? Now did he have to call the boss or reveal he was from the mafia? No. Obviously not but at the same time why should he hide it? He has no reason to. And let's face it whether those kids showed up then or not ,Chuuya was always going to end up working with Dazai to some extent, he already had and also, he still wanted answers for himself. The teens were the ones that decided that was a betrayal and decided to try and kill Chuuya and join up with the mafia's other rivals, which the mafia obviously wouldn't like. Was it manipulated and puppeteered? To some extent, dazai certainly did things on purpose that he didn't have to do, predicting it would cause a specific reaction. But predictions aren't always right. Dazais plan working still relied an awful lot on other people's reactions and choices. And no I feel no emotion for the fact they're 15, so were Dazai and Chuuya, they were still perfectly willing to kill Chuuya for a perceived betrayal. And in response to that Chuuya agrees to Dazais terms to save them. Thus why my brain just went "you're only still alive because I made a promise". Anyway, yeah thise are my thoughts on that i won't comment on Akutagawa's joining the mafia yet because I haven't seen that flashback yet, and Dazai did still mistreat them. I did get the message that he's a master manipulator and can be dangerous but this had already been established.

[colormp]

My Hidden Epee Review (August 7, 2023)

I don’t know how many people reading this (if anyone) waste their time with free-to-play games, but I do.

Over the years, I have played a bunch of G5 games, and Hidden City is my favorite. It was the first G5 game I had installed on the computer I purchased in 2018, and I’ve played it everyday since. The game isn’t perfect, but it updates regularly, the in-game costs are generally low, and it’s easy for low-level players to advance. I’ve quit most of the G5 games I installed the past five years, but Hidden City is one of the few games I still play.

Recently, I started playing Hidden Epee, too. And it has become part of my daily rotation. I only started playing this game because a G5 “friend” incessantly sent me invites despite me declining them every time. So, I relented. At first, I was pleasantly surprised by the early gameplay and the interesting storyline(s). But the game’s issues have compelled me to make this writeup.

I’ve decided to leave this review on Tumblr because I don’t believe I can leave a long review on the game page in the app store. Also, Hidden Epee doesn’t have a wiki or a Facebook page.

What Do I Like About Hidden Epee?

I’ve been playing Hidden Epee for close to a month (since July 2023), so there must be a few things that brought me back to it day after day. Here are the things I like about this game:

1. I like the dialogue.

For now, the dialogue is clean, and the game has clearly defined characters. Of course, I like some characters more than others, but that’s to be expected.

2. I like the general story.

Hidden Epee takes place in 17th century France. The player needs to find the Silver Epee and solve the mystery of the eclipses that have caused several residents to disappear. There are also many interesting side stories involving characters you meet along the way.

3. I like the game’s music.

I don’t think I have a problem with any tracks, but some are more relaxing than others.

4. Many of the graphics are beautiful.

The daytime scenes look the best, and the faces of characters are realistic.

5. It’s easy to earn special items to enter the event scene or Other World.

Most locations reward me about 7 items to enter the special event scenes, while faction locations reward me about 10 items to enter the special event. I can earn candles to explore Other World locations by helping villagers, exploring some regular locations, completing contracts, or meeting other objectives.

6. Some actions in the game yield generous rewards.

Opening chests can give you important tools, keys to enter faction locations, and gems to fight monsters. Fighting monsters and successfully searching locations in the Other World can reward energy.

7. You can choose a faction.

The game has six factions: King, City Guard, Aristocracy, Cardinal, Citizens, and Sea Brotherhood.

In Hidden City, you can’t decide which profession you have, but you can choose your alignment in Hidden Epee.

8. It’s easier to replenish your energy with time.

In most games that have energy limits, it will take 3 minutes to gain back one unit of energy or power (you need the former to search a location and the latter to charge a friend’s location). In Hidden Epee, it takes 2 minutes.

What Don’t I Like About Hidden Epee?

Here’s everything that’s wrong with Hidden Epee:

1. The game crashes or freezes at least once a day, especially if you play it for more than 30 minutes at a time.

For example, if you click “Play” on a location or minigame and experience a crash before entering the scene, the game takes your energy and any special items you use to enter the location without giving you anything back. Other times, the game might freeze after certain ads appear. For me, I often see problems when an ad for the Sherlock Holmes hidden items game appears. One ad just won’t start, nor will it let me click out of it. I’ll have to close the game and start it up again.

The game crashing is perhaps its biggest issue. And it’s especially infuriating when that happens after I successfully search a location or defeat a monster but before I can click “OK” to collect my prizes.

2. You might not be able to visit all your G5 friends who have the game installed.

I can only visit a few friends (and perhaps only two are still playing this game). When I try to visit the rest, I get a message that those friends have a different update of the game installed.

How is that possible? With other games with a visiting feature, it doesn’t matter which update they have because I can still visit them. I contacted the support team about this issue, and they’ve done nothing about it.

3. The music is too quiet.

Above, I said I like the music. However, I can barely hear it unless I turn up my volume to an uncomfortable level. This isn’t a problem with other G5 games.

4. The game scenes are too large.

Searching a location can be harder and take more time because of how large each scene is. And the game doesn’t zoom in that much. If you were to take screenshots of a location, you would need to take three at a time to capture the whole scene.

And you can forget about using screenshots for Past and Reflection modes (that would require 9 screen captures at a time).

5. Some items are too small or otherwise hard to see.

This problem also makes it easier to waste time during a search.

Some items might be nearly transparent, so you will need to use tools to find those items initially. Other times, some parts of the scenery can completely obscure items. Listed items should be possible to find without the use of tools.

6. During special events, the game asks you to find (too) many extra items.

You can see the extra items (by silhouette) in the upper right corner of the scene, and they appear one at a time. At most, you can get five tickets that you can use to earn up to 50 items during the designated period (40 or so days), but to earn a ticket, you need to find 2-3 items. Why not just require players to find five extra items?

7. The game’s responsiveness is unbalanced.

It can be harder to move about the scenes in a timely manner, especially with Night mode. You must hold down your left mouse button to move down in Hidden Epee, whereas in most hidden object games, just moving your mouse is enough to move your area of vision.

Also, it takes more than a second to charge friends’ locations or flags or to get rewards from your flags. For example, if you click on a flag, you need to wait for any items you receive to reach your inventory before you can click on another flag. A quick double click might speed up the process, but I don’t have this issue with most G5 games.

On the other hand, Hidden Epee is too sensitive to the input from my mouse when I’m searching for items on the list. That’s a double-edged sword, no pun intended. While the game’s sensitivity helps during a search (when I can’t find specific items), it can lead to inadvertent double-clicking and time penalties.

8. I don’t like the match-3 game mechanics.

Specifically, it’s hard to create bombs, fireworks, and scepters for the Market (where you play the main match-3 game), and the scepter will only take away pieces of the same color or merge with bombs and fireworks. In other match-3 games I’ve played, boosters that function like the scepter will only take away pieces of a color based on which piece I select. Ultimately, it can be extremely difficult to create boosters and cascades in Hidden Epee that make it more likely to win the game. Often, it requires a few plays just to beat one level of the Market.

9. Leveling up isn’t that rewarding.

Since it’s easier to replenish your energy, you’re unlikely to use it all up before you reach the next level. Also, you’ll only get 3-4 extra points of energy with each level up. I think 5 extra points is better than that.

10. Not all assemblers are free.

In a game like Hidden City, you can give any assembler (except the newly introduced one for the current event) to each of your friends once per day. In Hidden Epee, some important assemblers will come out of your inventory if you want to give them to friends.

11. The game’s items are too expensive, even if you don’t pay actual money.

The game doesn’t drop enough of the tools you need to progress during some searches, and you can’t purchase some important tools with coins. Even coin purchases can be too steep. I believe all the basic tools should have a coin purchase option (1, 5, and 10), and buying 10 of those items should cost no more than 45,000-90,000 coins.

Making matters worse, some tools are only available at the end of a search. I wasted tens of crystals buying extra moves while trying to defeat monsters (I know, I know), but now I will avoid those monsters until I have enough gems to fight them. Speaking of the monsters …

12. Fighting monsters is more difficult than it needs to be.

And it requires you to play match-3 games, and the top-level monster needs you to create boosters to take amulets off the board. That can be next to impossible without boosters or losing a few times. I prefer fights that only require you to use a few items to repel the threat. Why should you need 2-3 amulets to fight a monster, only to lose the fight because you ran out of moves?

13. Some of the contracts are too punishing.

Some days, the daily contracts (there are five a day) require me to do 10 or more searches in the Other World or receive 10 or more Amulets of Courage. That can be impossible for players who don’t have enough Babylonian Candles. I also hate it when the contract calls for me to use tools or activate bonuses from my inventory. I want to stockpile those items for emergencies.

14. The game doesn’t allow you to keep more than 100 gifts at a time.

It only allows 60, and it’s easier for gifts to quickly accumulate on the map. Ideally, only 2 or 3 gifts should appear after each successful search of the event location.

15. The game doesn’t have a full screen option.

When I play a PC game, I want to see the clock and my app taskbar. With Hidden Epee, I need to set the screen ratio before the game loads, or the display will be messed up. This doesn’t happen with other G5 games.

Why Am I Still Playing Hidden Epee?

For now, I’m playing the game to finish the current event. Unfortunately, I believe that the problems with Hidden Epee are more numerous than the positive aspects. Ultimately, I might quit the game because of its negative aspects. Let’s see if the development team fixes these issues in the future — or decides to stop updating the game altogether. The latter problem has happened in some games I’m still playing, and I might just quit those, too.

[beneathashadytree]

that one request where sherlock comes back after the timeskip to his wife who had a baby gave me inspiration for my own request! so this would probably work better for one of the moriarty brothers or mycroft or any character of “noblity/status” but feel free to do whoever!

so the scenario, just a warning, it’s LONG: Y/N is a woman of poor/middle class status and she’s dating one of the moriarty brothers/someone of status. she becomes the subject of gossip for all of upper class society and a bunch of nasty rumors are spread about her like how she’s a gold digger or how she’s only using him to social climb etc. but Y/N doesn’t tell her bf all of the shit that happens cause she doesn’t want to worry him. and he proposes to her and Y/N hesitantly but happily accepts, except the bullying and rumors just get worse until it hits an all time high where someone threatens Y/N telling her to break up with her fiancé of they release a bunch of scandalous stuff about him. so she basically breaks it off with him saying a bunch of stuff like how she only used him for money and how she never loved him etc and then runs away. and Y/N REALLY doesn’t want him to find her going as far as to moving to America or even faking her death so he would stop trying to find her. and i was thinking it could end in 2 ways but you can also write your own if you want! these are just what i thought of! so there’s 1 ending where he figures out what happened, manages to find Y/N, and they reunite and it’s all super cute. or 2, for a LOT more heavy angst, he finds out what happened, manages to find Y/N, but she’s dying in childbirth/has died already and left a newborn baby behind and it’s very angst filled but also bittersweet

sorry that was like SUPER long. i felt like i had to set the scene first but you don’t have to make it super long if you don’t wanna! thanks a bunch!

RUMOR HAS IT - ALBERT MORIARTY X READER

Warnings : lots of internalized misogyny and envy from women, period-typical classism, blackmail, this is not proofread, reader uses she/her pronouns!

Genre : angst (to mild fluff)

Word count : 4.1K words (ouch)

Additional notes : Thank you so much for requesting! After I had a quick look at my masterlist, I realized that I never wrote for Albert, so I went with him. He’s also the one who’s the most in the public eye, given how he was born into nobility and has a well-known job. However, I hate to say this, but this request also goes against my rules and guidelines for requesting🫣 To work on such a heavily detailed piece, I need to write a minimum of 4K words for it to be cohesive, which is the typical length of a ficlet, whereas a regular oneshot would have significantly less details and require a maximum of 1K to 2K words. I have stopped taking requests for ficlets for a year now, seeing as writing them takes up so much time, and I end up totally drained for days afterwards🫠 So please be sure to check my rules for requesting, linked in my pinned post! 🥰 However, the idea was absolutely wonderful, and you’ve been quite sweet about it, so I would’ve felt horrible saying no to that. Anyways, I hope this ends up being to your liking, and I hope you enjoy reading it!💗💗

Requests : Are open! Check the rules over here.

Want to support me financially? Here’s my CashApp!

Masterlist

Being courted by Albert James Moriarty meant that she’d had firsthand experience in seeing the disparity between the English social classes. A wealthy, charming nobleman like him had—for some reason or the other that she couldn’t quite recall—taken an interest in her some year ago, despite her being born to a factory worker and a seamstress.

It had surprised her when he’d first flirtatiously complimented her for her beauty while they’d both been helping out at an orphanage during their spare time, effortless charm flowing through his every word and motion. The man was every bit as magnetic as it was whispered among the public, particularly the women of them. Though she’d had her reservations, she wasn’t immune to the sweetness in his words and how affable he was. What she expected to have become friendship soon bloomed into something more, her unease melting with every kind gesture, every wonderful outing, and every kiss upon her palm every time they parted.

The ‘Ton seemingly shared her surprise at the development, seeing as they soon became a household name for gossip. Horror and disdain always followed the discovery of the fact that they were openly together, with none holding back the sentiments of disgust.

“Her?! But she’s so terribly plane, and awfully poor! She can’t possibly be right for him when she’s a commoner with filthy blood!” She couldn’t count on her hands just how many times she’d heard the angry whispers—whether by the customers at the bakery where she worked, out about in the marketplace when noblewomen haughtily passed by, or by passersby near the mansion gates whenever she stepped out of the carriage Albert had her brought in.

Though the words left a sting that wouldn’t quite go away no matter how hard she clenched her fists and dug her nails into her palms, she always tried her best to brush them off. After all, what did it matter if the masses thought her unworthy, when Albert himself looked at her like she cradled his whole world in her palms? Why should she care, when his hand always sought hers and his thumb carressed her knuckles whenever they went on a walk together?

It made no difference if the word spread around that she was leeching off him for money, because she knew her pride and dignity would never allow that to actually happen. She always asked him to keep his lavish gifts to a minimum, and as adoring as Albert was, he’d never go against her wishes. Word has spread that she was only using him to pull herself out from the shroud of the working class and into the dazzling nobility, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth, given how repulsed she’d been by the false glamour and shine that seemed to settle down on the rich whenever they attended the balls held at the Moriarty household, causing her to politely request from her lover that she be excused from them after a few appearances at his side as he’d wished.

Ever the understanding companion, not once did he express disgruntlement, accepting the fact that she simply did not feel comfortable enough to mingle in such places—and she was unlikely to ever know it, but perhaps that was part of what Albert liked so much about her; she shared his exact feelings towards the accursed nobility that he’d been equally fortunate and unlucky to have been born into.

Through all the terrible name-calling and rumors that flew around her, she absolutely refused to let Albert in on them. Sure, he had his connections and could’ve easily found out under normal conditions, but the nobles seemed to be extra careful to not let him know. Not a single word was spoken when he was in the vicinity—a wise decision from them, really, because she was more than well aware of Albert’s capabilities; she knew he could have them fall into ruination should he hear a malicious word about his beloved. That deadly glint to his emerald eyes that she sometimes saw when he was displeased with a nobleman who’d swindled another client wasn’t an empty threat.

More importantly, she simply didn’t want him to worry. If she told Albert of the rumors circulating, his primary concern (before disposing of the perpetrators) would be her well-being. He would fret over her, and would almost smother her with his well-intentioned concerns. If he had it his way, he probably wouldn’t even leave her side at all, something that wouldn’t do given his high standing in society. No; it was best to stay quiet and shrug the vile words off.

And shrug them off she did on a particularly pleasant Sunday morning after she’d attended mass at her local church. The collective hushed voices and cruel glares were nothing unfamiliar, but she hadn’t wanted to dwell on them, seeing as she was going out with Albert right afterwards. He’d asked her out for lunch at a fancy restaurant, something that was both overwhelming and yet thrilling. She always enjoyed trying out new cuisine with him, even if the setting was a little daunting at first; she wasn’t about to spoil her fun with the man she loved with thoughts of how out of place she might’ve felt.

His brilliant smile as he held her gloved hands in his sent her heart fluttering in her ribcage. “You’re looking extra happy tonight,” she pointed out, though she had no room to say it when she herself was grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, I happen to always be happy when I’m with you.” His reply was smoother than she’d expected, and she felt herself flushing. Albert’s expression remained open and earnest, and she wondered how easy it was for him to charm her socks off. It didn’t take long for her to go down that line of thinking, because he soon stunned her as his hand momentarily left hers to pull out a small velvet box from his tailcoat.

“Albert…” she breathed out, heart thumping wildly in her chest. She watched as he slowly opened it to reveal a breathtaking ring, with a clean-cut dazzling diamond in the center, surrounded by smaller pieces that formed the shape of a delicate flower.

“I would’ve probably bought something bigger if I was left to my own devices, but Louis had to physically restrain me and remind me that you would probably hate that,” he laughed out, the tender look in his green eyes hypnotizing, “But I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as you like it. What matters is whether or not you’d be willing to be my wife.” Albert reached out once again to squeeze her fingers affectionately, lifting them to leave a soft kiss against her glove and immediately warming the spot. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Swallowing thickly, she could feel her stomach flip with a mix of anxiety and pure elation. She briefly thought of all the nasty words she’d heard just by being his lover, and though she knew that things would get infinitely worse now that they were officially on the road to marriage, she squashed those thoughts. It wouldn’t do to hesitate; not when she loved him so incredibly much. It was her choice to grasp her happiness by the hands, and she could only imagine it with him.

And so she hurriedly nodded. “Of course. Oh, Albert!” she cooed, adoration washing all over her, as she squeezed his hand back, the most stunning smile on her face matching his.

***

Only a fool would’ve thought that becoming Albert’s fiancée would make things quiet down, and a fool she was not. However, she certainly hadn’t foreseen the fact that they’d only grow crueler and more condescending as soon as he’d introduced her to high class society as the future Mrs. Moriarty. How foolish of her, to not realize that they’d only grow more bitter and hateful the more her beloved solidified their relationship and showed that they weren’t to part.

She could’ve sworn that now whenever she locks up the bakery after a rainy day, some women wait until she turns around to order their carriages to leave at that exact moment, the wheels splashing the ends of her skirts with murky water. Sneers were always directed in her direction, and she’d been called a “filthy mutt” more times than she could count. The ladies, in their pristine clothes and flawless makeup, made it their job to remind her of how utterly inferior she was to them, and how undeserving she was of Albert’s affections.

One particularly sour-looking woman went out of her way to visit her daily at the bakery. She was the wife of a huge upstanding figure in society; a merchant who’d had close business relations with Albert in the past, and had supposedly remained a steadfast ally and partner to him. Since the girl wasn’t the owner, she could do nothing to deter the noblewoman from coming, seeing as she wouldn’t want to risk the business.

“You’re nothing but a gold-digging hound, pawing after its master before it sinks its teeth into him,” she’d hissed at her, roughly a month after their engagement, “I know what you lot are like, lecherous women with no honor and all the greed there is in the world.”

“My lady, I would rather not mix business with personal affairs,” she’d gritted her teeth as she said, “Your change.” And as she’d handed the woman back her coins, the furious lady had already taken off her gloves, long nails deliberately scratching her palms enough to draw blood, before haughtily turning her back on her.

Her malicious visitor at work had then persisted, injecting venomous words into her every single morning, her glare hard and loathing—until one day, she walked in with an oddly smug look on her face.

“Shall I get you your regular, my lady?” she sighed, preparing to turn around and take out her pain au chocolat, but the woman waved her off, that strange expression not wavering.

“No, there won’t be any need for that anymore. I won’t have to ward you off, because you won’t be seeing Albert again.”

A confused look came on her face. “Excuse me? You’re very mistaken if you think—“

“No, my dear girl,” she interrupted, her sickly sweet voice alerting her brain, “You’re the one who’s mistaken. You will end your engagement with him, tonight.” She had a steely glint in her eyes, her grin merciless. “Or else my husband will have a lot to say to the public, regarding the deals with firearms that haven’t been released to them.”

“My Albert would never do anything that conflicts with England’s interests,” she firmly said, all civility left behind the moment the noblewoman decided to bring her lover’s honesty into question.

“You poor thing,” she leered at her, a victorious smile on her face as she knew that she had her backed into a corner. “You seem to think that anyone cares to verify the statements. With a news story regarding his unscrupulous visits to your home at night, his honor will be in question the entire time. A false accusation after that will be more than enough to shatter his public image permanently.”

A sour taste fills her mouth as she paled. She knew that if anything were to be said against Albert, no matter how hard he’d try to negate it, there was little he could do when the entirety of the upper class turned on him. His power lied within his social standing, a good portion of which he had labored endlessly to maintain, and she would feel sickening guilt for the rest of her life if she ended up wrecking that for him.

“You’re a smart girl, and you know what to do.” The woman leaned back as she smirked. “End things with Albert tonight, and he shall not be harmed. That is my vow. Stick to your end, and we shall have no problems.” And so, parasol in hand, she clicked her heels away as she exited, leaving the girl to slump against the countertop, her heart beating wildly in her ears and fear turning her legs numb.

***

“Darling, where’ve you been? I sent a carriage for you hours ago. Were you not home?” Albert’s worried face was the first thing that greeted her at the doorstep, dresses in only a shirt and pants and his houserobe over it, before he took in the blank look on her face and frowned deeply. “Has something happened? Come in, love, it’s warmer inside.”

“No, it’s… fine,” she almost choked on her words, before she cleared her throat. “I’ve only got something to say.” Before he could look at her with his kind eyes and render her weak, she had to get done with this. Avoiding his confused stare, she twisted the ring off her finger and took his hand in hers, saying, “We’ve got to part ways, Albert.”

“Pardon?” he laughed as she opened his palm, but it sounded weak and a little hurt, “I’m not sure—“

She steeled her resolve and met his eyes, willing herself to keep any tears at bay and not allow herself a moment of weakness. “It’s been going on for far too long. All I’d ever wanted was a taste of what being rich felt like, of how the upper class was. The money was far more interesting than you’ve ever been.”

Albert recoiled a little at the words, and she was sure now that she hadn’t imagined the wounded look that flashed in his eyes. “Darling! You can’t mean that, you’ve never even touched my money, you can’t—“

“Can’t you see, Albert?” she snapped at him, frustrated at how it was dragging out. She wanted to get it over with; to bury the hurt before it could resurface. “I’ve used you as a stepping stone. I’ve never once loved, and yet here you are still deluding yourself that I still want you.” With a shake of her head, she dropped the ring into his outstretched hand, before stepping back fast as her knees began to shake and her chest began to ache. “Goodbye, Albert. May we never meet again.”

The sight of his stunned and heartbroken expression would be one that she’d never forget. It had been burned into her memory, to remind her of what she’d lost. Still, she couldn’t give up now. She had to leave. And so, with her fist clenched around the cheapest steamship’s ticket to New York, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the chill outside.

***

New York was just over two centuries old, but it still held the novelty of a brand new city. For some odd reason, everything about it tempted her and spoke to her of new dreams and a different life. And perhaps, had she not been nursing a broken heart and struggling to make ends meet, she would’ve come to love it. But for now, she loathed it and everything it meant for her.

It was nothing but a mere substitute; a place she’d fled to with nothing more than a tattered trunk that held what little she owned, and enough tears to fill the Atlantic twice over. If it could keep Albert and his reputation safe, however, she’d do it all over again without a single beat of hesitation.

Working at a bakery was a little bit better paying than it was in Durham, seeing as the general American public was better off with its economic boom than England’s limited upper class. The rent, however, took up a great portion of her pay, seeing as she was a single tenant that wasn’t splitting with anyone else.

What she most found befuddling was the cultural shock. Everyone was a lot more lax about the rules of propriety and etiquette, they spoke without inhibition with their peculiar accents, and the country advertised freedom above all else. What that freedom actually entailed, she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

Still, it was at least a place where she could pretend that life was alright without her fiancé—or rather, ex-fiancé—holding her in his arms. She could never atone for her doing him wrong, or for lying to his face that way. Many a time she’d entertained the idea of running back home and confessing the truth, but then she remembered that sinister noblewoman’s face and shivered.

Before she knew it, she had spent three months in solitude in her small New York apartment. Her nights after closing shop was spent by the fireplace, knitting a scarf in an emerald color that was the same shade as a certain someone’s eyes.

Damn it all, for leaving her still so hung up on the man she’d never once stopped loving. She dropped her needles to her lap, hunching over as she squeezed her eyes shut. With so much she wished she’d never had to say, she wanted to cry her eyes out in despair, but knew that no one would hear her call for help but herself and these four walls.

A banging on her door caused her to jump in her seat, knocking the ball of yarn at her feet. She frowned. Her rent wasn’t due for another two weeks, and she hadn’t asked for the evening paper to be delivered to her doorstep. There wasn’t anyone coming to mind that could want anything from her at this hour.

As the rapping against her door grew more insistent, she grabbed her shawl from the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“Coming, coming, Jesus,” she mumbled under her breath, before finally swinging the door open.

And there stood none other than Albert, his tie crooked, hear terribly disheveled and much longer than she recalled it being, and face looking clearly haggard and unshaven. He looked dazed, eyes dull but wide as he stared at her as though she were a mirage. Disbelieving that he stood right there in front of her, she couldn’t help but gape at him for almost two minutes, before he visibly shivered, and she remembered that he was standing in the middle of the cold.

“Come in,” she cleared her throat, gesturing for him to enter, something he seemed more than happy to obey.

As he sat down on the couch and she sat back in her chair, he kept his eyes trained on her, unmoving. While pretending to busy herself with tossing another log in the fireplace, she couldn’t help but think of just how much weight he seemed to have lost. He looked far worse for wear than she’d dreamed he’d be.

“Please look at me,” he softly said, and it seemed more like he was begging her. She stilled in place, slowly turning around to face him, and her breath hitched. Nothing in the world could get her to turn away when he looked at her so earnestly and with so much vulnerability in his eyes.

“Two weeks after you left, a woman, whom I recognized as being the wife of someone I’d had a good relationship with, came to talk to me.” His voice was low as he spoke, a little deeper and more tired than she remembered it being. His words, however, caused her stomach to sink as she imagined what could’ve happened.

“Oh?”

“She told me how happy she was that you were out of the picture. That now she had a better chance,” Albert smiled derisively, “It seemed she didn’t care that she was admitting to desiring infidelity.”

“I’m not quite sure what’s that got to do with me, my Lord.” Trying to sound as distant as she could, she prayed she wouldn’t go weak in the knees. The last thing she wanted was to get him into any further trouble by being entangled with her.

Hurt flashed behind his eyes. “I’m not your lord, and I never have been anything other than your Albert. And you, my beloved fiancée.” He leaned in his seat, the firelight reflected in his eyes. “She must’ve threatened you, hadn’t she?”

She sighed, “No, Albert, she hadn’t.” Not her, at the very least. “I wouldn’t cower when I am threatened because I don’t particularly care what happens to me.”

“And that’s why our dear friend Sherlock argued that she most likely threatened to harm me instead. Am I correct in believing his theory right?” Her tongue was heavy in her mouth as he eyed her carefully, a calculating look on his face. “Your response was a confirmation. You said you don’t care what happens to you, which means that the threats were never directed towards you.”

Remaining quiet and biting back her tongue was the only way she could prevent herself from admitting to the truth. His expression turned desperate as he stood up to walk over to her.

“Did you think I’d fear anyone? I’ve never been at any danger. Why did you not come to me with what she’d told you? We would’ve disposed of her immediately.”

She turned her face to the side. “If you had no fear, then I had enough for the both of us.” Taking in a rattling breath, she could hold back no more. “The truth wouldn’t have mattered, but the people’s trust in you should never waver. She wanted to put that to the test in the cruelest way possible.”

Fingers found her chin, tilting her head towards him. Emerald eyes bore into hers as he firmly said, “Even if she’d carried that out, I would’ve dispelled any rumors with little effort.” Albert then smiled sadly, “But then again, ignoring things was how you’d always dealt with rumors, wasn’t it?” It felt like she couldn’t breathe as he spoke, bringing to light everything she’d hoped she could bury in the past. “Fred had found that out over a year ago, but he’d been withholding the information, as he was under the impression that you had already told me.”

“Don’t berate me, Albert,” her bottom lip wobbled as she said it, and she mustered all the strength she had to keep as straight a face as she could. “If I had told you, you would’ve worried incessantly.”

“And that’s my job,” he softly said, going down on his knees to sit on the carpet beside her, his calloused hands gently cradling her face, “I’m not berating you, love. I’m only saddened by the fact that you didn’t think you could communicate these things with me. I would’ve never done or said anything that you didn’t wish to see or hear.”

When he held her face like this with that kindness in his eyes she’d missed having directed at her, a small part of her cracked. Wondering why she ever thought it a smart idea to hide things from him and lie to him, her shoulders slumped in defeat. His fingers began to caress her warm skin, and she began blinking back tears at the affection that swelled within her that moment.

“How did you find me?” she managed to croak out.

Albert shrugged, “I had a couple of connections in this city. One of them seemed to know about our relationship from a few noble English acquaintances. I’d once done him a favor, so he promised to pay me back by finding your whereabouts. After all, you were registered to have arrived at the port of New York.” He sighed heavily as he leaned in, his expression growing more solemn. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you. It hadn’t crossed my mind at the start that you’d have left the country. Only when I had enough courage to entertain the idea that you’d left everything behind did I think of America.”

She couldn’t help herself. Perhaps it was his gentle voice, or perhaps that she’d missed his handsome face too much, or perhaps because she’d been secretly wishing all this time that he’d come find her, but for whatever reason, she found herself choking on a sob, flinging her arms around his neck and falling forward.

With an “oof!”, they both fell back onto the carpet, though neither of them cared, as they got entangled in each other’s limbs. Tucking her head in his neck, she cried to her heart’s content, wringing out all the sorrow and loneliness she’d had to shoulder on her own in an unfamiliar place that could never be her home. Albert’s grip on her was firm but loving, and the sound of him slowly inhaling her in as his hand rubbed her back was the most soothing thing she’d never even known she’d missed.

“Wherever you want to go from here on out,” he murmured in her ear, “You have all my love and support, if you’ll take me back.”

“You silly man, of course I will,” a watery laugh escaped her, sniffling as she only held onto him tighter, “Please take me back with you. Home is wherever you are, anyways.”

Taglist: @sherlockscumslut @lilias-highlights @whitecelluyu @wifeofkyojuro

[hikari-kaitou]

Capcom's Official AA Fanclub Surveys - DGS Edition

Many Western fans may be familiar with the Turnabout 4koma comics that get posted on the official AA fanclub site that Capcom runs, thanks to some lovely fans on tumblr and elsewhere who have shared their translations. What fewer people seem to know about is the character surveys.

Back in the old days, they used to hold a survey on Capcom's official AA fansite every few months where they'd write about the seasonal activities of a handful of characters and ask fans to vote for the funniest/most pleasant/strangest/etc answer.

They stopped doing them in like... 2016? 2017? The original text is lost for good as far as I can tell. Even the wayback machine couldn't help because the content was password locked and you can't get past the password wall while remaining in the archived version.

Fortunately, I saved some of my translations of them so I thought I’d share them.

Cut for length...

"February has begun, and the DGS cast is nearing the end of their journey aboard the RFS Alacrei. Which of them acted the most strangely?"

Ryuunosuke ~ Exhausted from his intensive study session, he decided to try some katana swinging practice as a change of pace and to combat his recent lack of exercise. But because he wasn't used to handling the katana, he swung it too hard and it went flying out of his hands and got stuck in the wall right next to Sherlock, who had just entered the room. Sherlock asked him, "aren't you supposed to be studying right now, Mr. Naruhodo?" and handcuffed him to his desk.

Susato- worked on developing a curriculum for Ryuunosuke. 'If we keep going at this pace, he won't be able to learn it all in time... It'll be hard on Naruhodo-sama, but we'll have to work hard through a couple of nights together.' With that thought, she created a harsh study schedule, and almost seemed to be looking forward to it for some reason.

Sherlock- Driven by excitement over the thought of returning to England after a long absence, he went up on deck to stare at the ocean. Being February, it was very cold out there and he ended up being chilled all the way to the tips of his fingers. He returned to the ship cabins and amused himself by putting his frozen hands on Ryuunosuke, who was stuck in his room studying.

Van Zieks- Upon hearing from Vortex that there was a Japanese exchange student coming to England to study law, he smashed a Lord's Bottle. He apparently also didn't care for the fact that that Japanese student wouldn't be alone, because he proceeded to shatter his chalice, too.

Hosonaga- in order to provide a respite from studying, he provided some hot chocolate. They enjoyed a pleasant tea time, marveling over how sweet and delicious the drink was until Sherlock piped up with some unnecessary trivia: 'Actually folks, chocolate has long been used in Europe as an aphrodisiac!' Everyone promptly spat it out."

"The long winter is nearly over and spring is on it's way, putting the DGS cast members in a celebratory mood. Who found the best way of enjoying spring?"

Ryuunosuke: the Yuumei University faculty members were holding a flower viewing event, and he joined the assistance committee. He exhausted himself keeping the blankets clean so the intense shower of flower petals wouldn't pile up too high on them, delivering sake and snacks, and mediating whatever pointless fights arose. To top it all off, for some reason his compensation was only a single piece of leftover candy. Talk about a sad result!

Susato- her father and the others living in his dormitory were  holding the flower viewing event, so she got up early to prepare the bentos. But her father carelessly forgot to tell her that they wanted tea cakes, so she had to go around the house and neighborhood collecting sweets. For some reason, she ended up being able to gather caramels, biscuits, candy sticks, basically everything but tea cakes, for the tea ceremony.

Sherlock- he disguised himself as a beat officer and infiltrated Scotland Yard to have some fun. There was a real beat officer napping on his feet in the spring sunshine, and while observing him, Sherlock ended up falling asleep too. Detective Gregson gave them a good scolding when he found them, but then Sherlock revealed his true identity with a "hey, it's me, folks!" "What the blazes do you think you're doing?!" Gregson shouted, his rage growing even more, and Sherlock ended up making a run for it.

Van Zieks- went to the vineyard to oversee the production of the contents of his Lord's Bottle. As he viewed the still unopened grape blossom buds, he thought about how they would someday grow up to fill his Lord's Bottle, and ended up going around to look at each one. But the farm hands couldn't stop wondering whether the bottle itself or its owner's heel might come flying at them and were quite uneasy.

Asougi: exhausted himself running around since early morning helping with the professors' flower viewing event. When it was over, he took a break, sharing his reward candy stick [the name of the candy literally translates to 1,000 year candy] with Ryuunosuke, who had also been helping out. 

"I wonder if the candy's effect is halved if you share it with someone."

"That still gives us 500 years."

They laughed and enjoyed looking at the flowers until dark. Then they parted ways with a handshake and a "see you later, best friend."

(This one was something about celebrating New Years. For some reason I didn't save the original question)

"Ryuunosuke ~ To celebrate New Years, he planned to pound mochi with everyone at the office. He somehow managed to get his hands on some mochi rice and he and Sherlock started pounding. Iris was having such fun watching them that she steamed a whole bunch more mochi rice so they could have some to share, and he and Sherlock spent the whole evening pounding mochi like crazy.

Asougi~ Because it's New Years, he went around to a bunch of shrines. When he drew his new year's fortune, he got a "horrible luck" result. "I'm not worried about it," he claimed, and headed up to the mountains early on New Years morning and work hard on a full training course of purification by water, meditation under a waterfall and wooden sword practice. It seems that he was working really hard to clear his mind of all earthly thoughts

Sherlock- Agreed to help Ryuunosuke pound mochi. As Ryuunosuke was flipping the mochi over, he carelessly dropped his badge into the bowl and Sherlock mixed it in without noticing, so they had to crack open both the hard and soft mochi to look for it. Fortunately they found it in the 4th one they checked, but apparently Sherlock got his hands and face covered in sticky white mochi in the process.

Susato- Wore a furisode and went with her father to do the first shrine visit of the year. The shrine was incredibly crowded and they had to wait in line for a long time, but she brought the Encyclopaedia of British Law and a copy of the Strand Magazine in her sleeves to secretly read as they waited so she actually ended up enjoying the wait.

Van Zieks- Ryuunosuke cheerfully gave him some mochi as a New Year’s (which at that time was celebrated at the same time as the Chinese New Year) gift, which he accepted confusedly, wondering “...Can the Japanese not even keep track of when the New Year is?” Because Ryuunosuke referred to it as a rice cake, he tried to eat it like a regular cake without softening it with heat first. It was so hard that he couldn’t imagine how it could possibly be food, and ended up misunderstanding the Japanese even more!

"Autumn has arrived, and the weather is starting to cool off, which means that everyone is becoming more active. Which character chose the most pleasant autumn activity to keep busy with?"

Iris was making bread but her hands are small and it’s difficult for her to knead the dough, so she asked for Ryuunosuke’s help. She wanted to make enough to hand out to Gina and all the other homeless children in the East End, so she made a massive amount and Ryuunosuke was stuck kneading this massive mountain of bread dough all day. Apparently he became such a expert at kneading that he could be a baker now.

Asougi was practicing with his sword, slicing autumn-colored ginko leaves as they fell from the tree. He cut so many leaves, though, that he ended up making a big mess on the ground, the number of fallen leaves now having increased, and it took him a long time to clean it all up.    

Sherlock: Ryuunosuke told him that he was making anpan (bread filled with sweet red bean paste, the bane of my Asian-dwelling existance) and asked Sherlock to help by being in charge of getting the poppy seeds they’d need to sprinkle on top, so Sherlock went out and gathered a ton of poppy seeds. In fact, he got so many of them that no one knew what to do with them all cuz they had a huge amount of leftovers. Sherlock said, “Well, they’re only the size of poppy seeds! Surely you two can deal with them somehow! Ahahaha!” and Iris scolded him.   

(I couldn’t capture it in English, but Sherlock’s line contained a pun, and a pretty stupid one at that, so that’s part of why he got scolded)

It’s grape harvesting season, so Van Zieks commutes to the winery regularly to direct the production of the contents for his “Lord’s Bottle.” He demands perfection in everything from the selection of the grapes to the way they’re squeezed, and the winery staff is terrified by the “grim reaper’s” gaze and heel swinging (i.e. the leg thing he does in court) so they grumble as they work. 

"Hearing that there’s a holiday in the West called Halloween, the people involved with the court in Japan decided to try it out themselves. Naturally Halloween is a big deal in England as well. So, which member of the DGS cast had the best celebration?"

Team Ryuunosuke and Asougi- Asougi got Naruhodo up on his shoulders and they draped a white sheet over themselves to make a ghost costume. They went out like that, but Naruhodo had such exaggerated reactions to the fear of the people who saw them and to bumping his head on tree branches that they ended up losing their balance and falling on top of each other?!   

Sherlock Holmes- went wearing a horse’s head mask. Iris used her skills to make it a fancy horse covered in stars, but the eye holes weren’t well made and he had to wander around blindly. Because of that he tripped hard over a pile of coal! He ended up getting so dirty that the stars on his costume were covered up!

Van Zieks- took inspiration from his nickname and dressed up as the grim reaper. He covered himself up with a skeleton mask and hood figuring no one would know it was him. Unfortunately he got angry when he saw Megundal (McGilded) pass by and started throwing bottles and glasses and ended up giving himself away.

"November has arrived, and autumn is nearing its end. However, the DGS cast is still keeping busy, even on their days off. Which character chose the most interesting way to spend their late autumn day?"

Ryuunosuke- Thinking that he’d better learn more about British culture if he was going to be a defense attorney in Britain, he went down to the East End with Gina for a little observation. However, because an Asian like him stood out so much, he got mobbed by the other children. On top of it all, his arm band got stolen from him and he had to send a replacement request to Yumei University on the other side of the ocean.

Asougi- He went for a meal at La Quantas. The customer at a nearby table got a persimmon for dessert and scarfed it down, saying “Mm! This is it! This sweetness makes it worthy of being called a treasure among foods!” Asougi tried to comment on this by saying, “The customer at that table sure is enjoying his pershim--gak!” but he may or may not have accidentally bitten his tongue in the process and been unable to finish his sentence.

Iris- She accepted Ryuunosuke’s request to learn more about British culture and prepared a bagpipe and kilt costume for him. “This outfit sure is breezy,” Ryuunosuke said shyly upon trying it on. With Ryuunosuke now dressed, he, Iris, and the others from their office headed over to Gregson’s place to get him to treat them to some fish and chips.   

Sherlock- He accepted Ryuunosuke’s request to learn more about British culture and cooked up some European style curry for dinner. Thanks to the fact that his secret ingredient was a large amount of Chinese herbal medicine style spice, it caused some strange side effects and Ryuunosuke, who’d eaten it, ended up passing out and falling over.

“Another taxing trial for Ryuunosuke has finished and now it’s December. As the year draws to a close, which character acts the strangest?”

Ryuunosuke- he was recruited to help with snow removal around Yumei University and the courthouse and he enthusiastically began his task with the help of a large shovel. He got a little carried away, though, and ended up accidentally burying his umbrella, which he’d left propped up against the side of the building, in the snow he’d just finished shoveling.  He had no choice but to share Asougi’s umbrella on the way home.

Asougi- On the way home, he nods silently to Ryuunosuke’s question of whether he’d finished his travel preparations and changes the subject: “...Come to think of it, it seems that tomorrow is celebrated in the West as God’s birthday.” “I’ve heard that they eat chicken as part of the traditional celebration. Wanna try it?” Ryuunosuke asks invitingly. Asougi is strongly opposed to that particular menu item, however, and they end up going out for their usual beef stew that night instead.           

Susato- in addition to her year-end travel preparations, she also was busy with straightening up the book room in her home. She managed to get the law books in order when she suddenly stumbled upon some old issues of Strand Magazine! She hurried through the rest of her cleaning, then began flipping through the magazines she’d found, trying to decide which to take with her on her trip. She accidentally lost herself in her reading and didn’t realize it until it was already the middle of the night.

Sherlock- he was in the middle of a long ship voyage when Christmas night came. His mind on his partner in a far-off country, he made a toast alone on deck, when suddenly the crew began shooting off fireworks with a cry of “Merry Christmas!” Sherlock had to dart back and forth across the deck to prevent the fireworks from hitting him and setting off the explosive chemicals he carries with him.

Main series edition

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I’ve never done this before, and I’m wondering: how do you get your fic on a rec list? Not, like, yours specifically, just in general. Are there tags in general, or is it a matter of it getting popular enough?

Here are the fics I am trying to get recced:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37946308 https://archiveofourown.org/works/34682623

Hey Lovely!

First, your fics:

Set Fire To A Daydream by Biana_Amberly_Vacker (T, 1,208 w., 1 Ch. || Established Relationship, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Angst with Happy Ending) – Can you set fire to a daydream?When Sherlock’s mind palace melts to the ground, can he find his John in time, or will it be too late?

Gone Before Your Time by Biana_Amberly_Vacker (T, 12,779 w., 11 Ch. || Supernatural Elements AU || Post-TRF Diversion, Major Character Deaths / Suicides, Afterlife, Love Confessions, Flashbacks, Adventure, Angry John, Moriarty is Dead, Fighting) – AU where Sherlock dies when he jumps and John commits suicide. They both end up in the Gone Before Your Time Department, where people who die before their scheduled death end up. They meet each other there and have to make a plan to make sure that Moriarty, who is also in the Department, goes to hell (quite literally). But it’s not as straightforward as anyone would like. There are lies, plans within plans, and people from the past that Sherlock and John would both rather forget. There will be ten chapters and an epilogue. Tags will be added as the story progresses. Please leave a comment! (Major Character Death is for first chapter only)

-----

Secondly, I can't speak for other people, but for me, my lists themselves either do like I'm doing now and boost the fics with the single post and then add the fics to the "Signal Boosting" section of the following Five Fics Friday post; or the fic gets suggested to me on another post and when I make an MFLs list and the tag was added in the Tags (which is why I always say tags are SO important!), I add them to those lists; OR I've personally read and bookmarked a fic, and after bookmarking I file it onto the various offline lists I have (currently at about 200 if I exclude the ones I need to separate the fics better).

AND because my blog is known for the interactivity and my meticulous pulling of comment threads onto main posts, a lot of recs are just added it to the reblogs or replies of a fic rec list if it's one of mine currently on a reblog cycle; if I see it, I add it eventually, LOL.

The best way to get your stuff known is to promote the poop out of it. Some newer authors feel like a bother if they promote more than once. Truth is though, ya gotta get yourself out there! A lot of people on Tumblr use the lists we make rather than filing through the hundreds of new fics uploaded weekly! It's overwhelming, and a lot of people follow fic-rec blogs like mine for the simple fact that it's a one-stop easier-to-digest place to come to find new and old favourites!

AND YOU DID! This is a great first start, and don't be afraid to go to other fic reccers and ask if they can boost your fics with an ask just like this (but more "hey, I wrote a new fic, can you boost it for me?)! And if they don't, no harm done, it's nothing personal! But I know a lot of my followers do come to my blog for the regular boosts of new fics and authors, and of course my lists of fics I've personally read (unless otherwise noted on the post). It's just as simple as that, really.

Anyway, if you're interested in some more of my thoughts about helping authors get noticed, check out these posts:

My Writing Advice for Focusing on the Work (Goals)

Any Tips to get people to notice your writing?

How Do I Get My Fics to a Wider Audience?

Will Anyone Ever See My Fics?

Should I Continue Writing or Delete my Stories?

I Want To Write a Story… What If Someone Already Wrote it?

Any advice for new authors? (With a big bunch of advice from JBaillier)

How do people remain productive? (Long community discussion with commentary from jbaillier)

I want to start writing fan fiction. What Should I do?

Should I bother writing fics? There’s so many

I hate writing summaries for fics. Advice?

Hopefully those will help answer any lingering questions for anyone reading this :)

[onthecrosslook]

Moftiss Screenwriting Meeting, Part One

(This is purely fictitious.)

“Okay, I’ve got a great idea. They get married.”

“What?”

“They get married. John and Mary.”

“Okay…”

“Sherlock realises Mary’s pregnant.”

“I mean, yeah, all right, sure.”

“We establish that Sherlock is miserable about this.”

“What the f- why?”

“Hear me out. Sherlock can’t survive without John. We never explicitly say this.”

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“Neither will the viewers! Also, Sherlock and John celebrate the stag night together. They never mention John’s wedding. Also also, they do a bunch of weirdly homoerotic things and they go to a gay bar.”

“Nah, mate. The producers will never let that go through. Make it a regular bar. Sprinkle in the fact that Sherlock has a picture of the Vitruvian Man with John’s face pasted on it.”

“You’re a bloody genius. We do that. The wedding happens. We write in the fact that Sherlock doesn’t want to congratulate John and Mary. Because he’s John’s friend.”

“Oh, this is fantastic. And we can make another character mirror, just for the hell of it?”

“Right- let’s write it in that…yeah, let’s use Sholto.”

“Sholto?”

“John Sholto. He was the one who, er- called out Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality and got him arrested.”

“Oh, so that was why Doyle put him in that AGRA story?”

“Yeah! We’ll make him the mirror. Exactly like Sherlock, then reveal that John was best mates with him. Also, Mary tells Sherlock that neither of them were the first.”

“…the first of what?”

“John’s friends, obviously.”

“…Okay.”

“Right, also we’ll make Sherlock date the bridesmaid.”

“What the fuck- what?”

“It’ll be for a case, don’t worry.”

“What case?”

“Milverton.”

“Nah, let’s change it. Magnussen sounds cooler.”

“Brilliant. Then we’ll reveal that Mary is an assassin.”

“Wait, what?”

“Remember, we made her out to be based off of Sebastian Moran? Jim’s sniper in the ACD stories? That’s why her name was Morstan. Morstan? Moran? Ring a bell?”

“You lost me. I don’t remember writing that.”

“Yeah, well, I already put the Magnussen reference in the script. Can’t take it back now.”

“Fine. What then?”

“Mary shoots Sherlock.”

“No. No way. The viewers will tank the ratings.”

“No, it’s totally okay, because he’ll think of John and resurrect himself.”

“Hm. Perfect. Put it in the next script and we’ll finish TSoT.”

“Steven?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever think maybe we went a bit too far with the gay jokes, maybe? I dunno.”

“Nah. Don’t forget to write the dialogue for the tarmac scene. We’ll want to make one last gay joke for that- but make sure it’s discreet and heavily hidden in subtext. Those bloody Tumblr fans will never figure out the secret sister thing we’ve got planned.”

[autumnslance]

About Plagiarism

I left a long, planned essay on Twitter tonight. I will copy the meat of it here for y’all, as recently a friend was copied (a rarer ship in the fandom, so very noticeable by the writer and their regular beta reader) and it seems we need a Talk, kids. Links and screenshots and my rambling underway.

------

Apparently we need to discuss what is and isn’t plagiarism. Especially in FanFic where we're interacting with the same characters, settings, ideas. Let’s start with the dictionary and continue the thread from there (I like the word origin/history personally):

Definition of plagiarize

transitive verb  : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize

If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.

“Ideas” is fuzzy in the Merriam-Webster definition. There are story archetypes that exist in many forms. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth/Hero's Journey outlines many famous stories. And it's popular to say that “Avatar” is “Dances with Wolves” is “Pocahontas” is “The Last Samurai” etc.

But note how while those films have similar plotlines--”Military Guy falls for Native woman, learns to appreciate her Culture, stands up to Evil Bosses”--none of them execute those ideas in the same way. Sully’s story is different from Dunbar’s not just cuz one’s a Science Fiction epic and the other a Western. Disney's “Pocahontas” Very Loosely takes history and uses the same story beats. The Last Samurai uses the Meiji era Westernization. Same ideas, different executions, even beyond settings.

None of these are plagiarizing each other though the ideas are similar. They’re told in their own ways, own language; both in the genres they belong to (Western, Pseudo-History, SciFi, Animated) and how characters interact with each other and settings. Original dialogues (variable quality).

We also see this in books as similar novel plots get published in waves so we end up with bunches of post-apocalypse teen revolutionaries or various vampires or lots of young wizard stories all at once. Sometimes ideas just happen like this; multiple discovery, simultaneous invention, concurrent inspiration, cognitive emergence are all phrases I’ve seen for it. So it happens in original content as well, and legality gets fuzzy (Also why you don't send authors your fanfic ideas).

In existing properties, this gets trickier but even “Elementary”’s Holmes and Watson are nothing like the BBC’s “Sherlock” characters. Who are nothing like other versions of the Detective and his Doctor pal over the decades in various media properties.

FanFic's in a similar position where like Sherlock Holmes we play with the same characters, setting, and storyarcs but give our own spin to them. People can and will have similar ideas about plots. Trick is to use your own words. Take the characters and make the story your own.

I have a good example courtesy of @raelly-writing​. We both ship Wolcred. We both wrote soft post-Paglth’an scenes with Thancred and our WoLs. Both features the couples helping each other undress, examining injuries, bathing, bantering. My fic was written soon after 5.5 part 1 came out. Dara’s is much more recent. Yet at no point reading hers did I feel she was copying my words. The PoVs differ. Our characters focus on different things. Mine has a mini-arc concerning the Nutkin.

The links for comparison’s sake (and maybe leave kudos/comments if so inclined please and thanks). Note while the scenes are very similar no phrases are written in the same way. Mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25417882/chapters/76059467 Dara’s: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067565/chapters/81832915

Dara and I both hang out in certain Discords and I know conversations about Thancred and WoL caring for each other post-battle has come up in those channels and we've both participated. It’s a stock FanFic scene to boot. Cuz it's soft and feels warm and snuggly.

I HAVE been copied before, back in WoW. My case is pretty clear cut so here are the images of my old RP Haven profile (1st, old RP website) and the plagiarist’s RSP (2nd, an in game mod to share descriptions and basic info). 

This was a decade ago on Shadow Council and I think the character deleted so any Availa’s in WoW now aren’t the same person. I left the names to point out what changed. Just the names and a word or 2 to make sense for the class changes as well. Otherwise lifted directly from my RP profile.

The funny part is how the person got caught. Literally walked into our weekly RP Guild meeting that I was running and asked to join. Folks noticed right away the similar backstory; after all there may have been more Outland-born Azerothians. My initial excitement at a character I could weave into our story turned to gut-twisting rage and grief as I recognized my own exact words though. Words I’d carefully crafted and constantly iterated on to improve over time (before and after this incident, until the site died).

When caught they tried to claim their significant other had leveled the character for them and made up the backstory based on Skyrim. If you know WoW’s Outland story and Skyrim’s plot you know how ridiculous that is. Also tried to lie about other drama I knew about thanks to roommate's characters but hey. I had to be blunt that I’d shared the info with Haven mods and other guild officers Alliance and Horde. That we would not “laugh about this” one day though lucky this was “just” RP not original or academic work. Cuz if it'd been monetized or academic I would've raked them through the coals.

I felt violated. Hurt. Had anxiety attacks. They took MY WORDS and tried to claim them as theirs. Have another character born in Outland trained by Draenei; Awesome! Our characters have an instant connect in similarities and differences of that experience. Don’t steal my characters wholesale!

Then the audacity of trying to come into my guild as if no one would notice. ShC wasn’t a large server by then, still active but not nearly Wyrmrest Accord or Moon Guard big. My character was well known due to my writing and RP. Speaking of how easy it is to get caught in specific spaces...A case of a self-published novelist getting noticed for plagiarizing fanfic was discovered recently (explicit erotica examples through the thread).

One way they got noticed was how much content they put out in only a year, lifted from fandom. The examples in Kokom’s threads show how the material was altered but still recognizable. In some cases, just the names are changed as in my experience. In other passages more has changed but you can still see the bones of the original fic poking through in the descriptions and character interactions, even with adjustments made.

Similar ideas happen. Similar plots exist. Same 'ships with friends are fun! In FanFic we’re working with the same material. It’s possible to write a similar scene differently. To make that scene and characters your own. All we’re asking is not to copy others' words. Others' characters. Others' specific phrases and descriptions used to bring those words, those characters, to life. Use your own. In the end you’ll be happier.

I get wanting to have what the perceived “popular people” have. I get seeing concepts others succeed with and wanting some of that too. We all get a bit jealous now and then for various reasons. Sometimes we don't even realize it, consciously. But do it in your own way. Maybe check to see if you’re getting a bit too close to the “inspiration” you admired, maybe reread often. Don’t hurt your fellow creatives. If you do and get caught don’t try to double down. Have the grace to be abashed at least and work to do better. Eventually you WILL get caught. All it takes is once to throw all else you've done into question. Ao3 doesn’t take kindly to plagiarists. Nor do a lot of fan communities focused on writing and RP. Getting back that trust is hard. The internet doesn’t forget easily, for good or ill.

[obeythefloof]

Since I rarely see any headcanons/fics about the Captain’s backstory that don’t have to do with Havers, I’d like to share some of mine.

He had 5 younger brothers and no sisters. He’s protective of them but also teases them as brothers do. He had to share a room with 2 of them.

Because he’s autistic, his “odd” behavior such as refusing to eat food that wasn’t room temperature and preferring to use a typewriter instead of a pen, he got in trouble at school because teachers had no patience with him.

In addition to this, he had a lot of trouble controlling his emotions and would often get into fights at school.

Throughout his childhood, he would take things apart to see how they worked. This included a typewriter, a sewing machine, a couple lightbulbs, the icebox, the wall in his bedroom (to look at the electrics), and the dashboard of his parents’ brand new automobile.

He liked Sherlock Holmes.

He enlisted in the army in World War One along with his oldest younger brother, Percy. Their father also went to fight, as he had been in the army for a while.

Before arriving in the trenches, Cap read a bunch of books on first aid and science, just for a bit of extra knowledge he might need.

During the war, Percy died. Cap still blames himself for not making sure his brother was behind him when running from a gas attack.

He has a massive burn scar on his back from an explosion. Also some shrapnel and bullet wounds.

Among his surviving brothers, he had 12 nieces and nephews.

After the war, he moved back home and helped his ageing mother with her florist shop.

His parents were wondering why he hadn’t married yet, so he married an old friend of his. He liked her platonically, and it was easy to trick himself into thinking he was romantically attracted to her.

At some point, his wife wanted a baby. He decided he’d make love to her for that reason only. They had a son.

When his child was 3-ish, World War Two broke out and he had to leave them.

A year into the war, their house was bombed, killing the wife and son. He was devastated and angered by this. Also ashamed that he hadn’t brought them somewhere safer.

During the war, he was beginning to decline physically, so he was desperate to prove his usefulness. He’d always been fit, so it wasn’t hard.

Over the course of the war, he was assigned several secret projects. Several of them were successful.

After the war ended, the Captain started getting ill. It wasn’t too bad at first; he just had to take medicine and go in for regular examinations.

A couple years after the war, the Buttons invited the Captain back to the house for a dinner party commemorating the anniversary of the end of the war. By then, his illness had progressed quite a bit, but he felt well enough to go.

That’s when he died.

[ack3rlady]

Hello Lovely! For the valentines day asks:

11. dinner dates or brunch dates?

12. favorite flowers?

20. sweetest romantic memory?

50. what's your dreamhouse?

Heyyy Lena ❤️

11. dinner dates or brunch dates?

Answered here. But I prefer brunch really. I love breakfast food! 😅

12. favorite flowers?

A fresh bunch of red roses. Classic and beautiful!

50. what’s your dreamhouse?

Haha there’s a link inside this link with the answer 🙈

20. sweetest romantic memory?

Okay this is how my husband proposed to me so I’m gonna ramble below the cut. Thank you for asking this Lenaaa! I teared up while typing it because of how far we’ve come. 🥲❤️

So, my then boyfriend (now husband) had been dropping hints for a while that he was about to propose. And i go into Sherlock mode every chance i get. So he had to be ultra careful that I didn’t figure out how when and where he was gonna do it.

One evening, he booked a table for us at a restaurant on a yatch that goes around Mumbai’s bay. Its called AB Celestial. Costs a bomb and never has vacancies. So i got all pretty and dressed up and we had the best time. After we finished dessert, we moved to the front deck to look at the view and i was so confident that he was gonna propose there.

It was literally the most perfect day for a proposal - a cool fall evening, lovely music and so damn romantic with a city view and everything. And I almost collapsed when he finally knelt down, only to tie his shoe laces. All he said was, “What? You that i was gonna propose to you here?” And laughed.

Did I mention that he’s an asshole? GOD I WAS SO MADDD. I still give him shit about it.

The next day we went to lunch at the place he took me out on our first date. Its a quiet Italian restaurant where we go quite frequently. Homey food and friendly staff who knew us by then. So for me, it was just a regular lunch.

After staring at the menu for a small eternity just to choose the same 4-cheese mushroom risotto i eat every time, i finally put it down to find him looking at me with the cutest smile on his face. And i had no clue what was going on so i just frowned at him and asked him not to be weird.

So he quietly looked down at the table and i followed his gaze.

There was a dark blue velvet box in front of me with a shiny diamond ring sitting in it.

I cried.

[sunnysidekit]

Summary: All is fair in love and war. And boxing, too, apparently.

Pairing: Ben ‘Benny’ Miller x F!Reader (no y/n, reader’s boxing nickname is ‘Nyx’)

Warnings: Language, mentions of violence.

Word count: 2.2k

My masterlist

Everyone likes a good mystery. Don’t even try to deny it; whether you like Sherlock Holmes or if you’re more of an Agatha Christie fan, none of us can really escape the allure of a good conundrum every now and again. Some people can stare in the face of their mystery and not recognize it for quite some time, while others can practically smell them from a mile away. Ben Miller is part of, well, both groups.

Personally, he likes mysteries and surprises and such, but his army days have taught him all of those are a bad thing. A mission can collapse after the smallest detail changes, after all. Sometimes those missions are called off; other than the fact that he can’t do his job when that happens, he’s not really bothered by it. But when something catches him and his team by surprise during a mission and they have to get on with it anyway, things tend to… let’s say, not end well for everyone. And that’s gently put, of course.

Which is why when he’s at home between deployments, he likes his simple habits. They provide joy and adrenaline, and boy does he need both to function well. One of those habits is boxing. He likes it because of its simplicity; you punch your opponent, they punch you back, and so on and so forth until one of you stops. He’s good at it, too. Will always says that’s because he practiced a lot on him when they were younger. Ben says he’s the one with the good genes. Their mother was a fighter, too, after all.

The other reason he likes boxing is because your opponents always try to surprise you with a little mystery move. It’s fun for him to figure out how to respond in a split second, and the rush he gets when he does so successfully is almost unparalleled. Today, though, the only real surprise is the sudden appearance of his very own mystery. And, hey, you might know where this one’s going: it appears in the shape of a woman…

Benny whoops when he kicks open the door to his old high school gym’s changing room, but it sounds a bit less enthusiastic than it did after his last match. He knew he should have listened to Will and gone somewhere, anywhere else than back to Red Feather Lakes, but he’s not about to mention it when he can already imagine the smug grin spreading across his brother’s face.

He won, that’s what counts. And it’s not that bad to have done so after what is sure to be America’s easiest boxing match. That just means he’s good at it. The crowd went just as wild as it usually does, even though there were significantly less attendants than two weeks ago. Somehow, none of the arguments he tells himself really convinces him.

“All right!” Catfish says triumphantly from behind him. “Looks like all that training paid off, didn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Benny trails off as his slightly blurry vision comes back into focus. There’s someone sitting on one of the benches, someone he doesn’t know. It’s a woman; her aura tells him she’s all business, but her clothes tell him she also definitely plays. “Who’re you?”

The woman doesn’t respond immediately; only after half a minute of casually typing away on her phone does she look up and meet his eye. “Name’s Val,” she says, her facial expression one he can’t quite place. “And I’m about to ask you something you won’t be able to ignore.”

It’s important to notice that Benny isn’t particularly patient in his post-fight high, something Frankie knows very well. He becomes a bomb of electric energy that, once set off, won’t stop until every single muscle in his body gives out. And he’s about to be set off.

“Val, is it?” Frankie smiles at the woman, swiftly moving his friend to the showers. “Why don’t we talk while he cools down, hm?”

“You’re not the one I want to ask a question,” she says calmly, not taking her eyes off Benny. “You’re a Delta boy, aren’t you? I can see it in the way you fight. It takes regular boxers years to develop such a sensitive, quick response capability.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And that makes me think that oaf out there’s a long way from even thinking of acquiring your skillset. It’s impressive how easily you had him on the mat.”

“Ma’am, if you want an autograph-” Frankie tries, sensing the ticking time-bomb next to him is about to blow, but Val immediately interjects.

“Which is precisely what caught my eye. These men are no challenge for you anymore, but I think I know someone who could be. Should you accept their invitation, that is.”

“Do I know him?” Benny narrows his eyes at her, trying by god to figure out her angle in all of this. She smirks and closes her eyes a few seconds longer than a normal blink would take; touchy subject, maybe? Or perhaps he’s right and he has seen the guy before.

“You might have seen them around, sure. But I doubt you’d remember them.”

“So, what? I say yes and I’ll fight your friend here next week or something?” Benny snatches his towel from his bag and snaps it against the wall in annoyance.

“I’m afraid my friend’s a little more… complex than that, Mr. Miller.”

“Hey, uh, no thanks,” Frankie cuts in, waving his hands as if to dissipate the words in the air. “He doesn’t do illegal fights.”

“He’d have plausible deniability,” Val says with a slight tilt of her head, then turns back to face Benny and hands him a business card. "Anyway, the choice is yours, Mr. Miller, not your friend’s. I don’t need an answer right now. Do take your time to think it over, sleep on it a bit. Once you’re a little more comfortable with the idea, give this number a call. I’ve got a feeling they’d very much like to bruise that pretty face of yours until it looks like a Monet.”

She gets up from the bench and walks out of the changing room without looking back. Benny slips the business card into his jacket pocket, something that catches Frankie’s attention.

“Don’t do it, Ben,” he sighs. “I’m serious. You could get arrested, get your ass thrown in jail. You’ll get kicked out of the army.”

“Stop whining, Fish. I’m not gonna do it anyway.”

Despite explicitly telling Frankie he wouldn’t do it, here he is, standing outside his local gym with his phone in one hand and the curious looking business card in the other. There’s not a lot of info on it, but, hey, what did he expect? That an illegal streetfighter would publish their own name, address and contact info on a bunch of business cards?

There are only two things printed on the grey little card: Nyx, which must be the fighter’s nickname or something, and a phone number. It’s been in his jacket pocket ever since he left his old high school, but it felt like it’s been burning a hole in it the entire time. It’s exactly as Val said it would be. He can’t get her proposition out of his mind, no matter how hard he tries.

She’s right about the competition. They’re no match for him, not the ones here in Red Feather Lakes. And, sure, he could always just sign up for something three towns over, but it wouldn’t matter much. How she found out he’s in the Delta Force is beyond him, though. It’s policy not to broadcast such a position if you want to stay in it. Maybe she has connections in the army…

That’s another thing; his place in the army. It would be gone as soon as he gets caught, and it’s not like he’s got great job prospects waiting for him back home when all he’s done for the past ten years is train to get where he is now. No college degree, no other jobs to list on his resume, no wealthy parents to fall back on… His whole life would go up in smoke.

But it does entice him. He technically does illegal things for his job all the time, and the matches he engages in when he has some down time aren’t really scratching that one particular itch anymore. Let’s face it: one phone call can’t hurt, right? He can still refuse, say no, put his foot down. Maybe even convince this guy to go legit.

He pushes the little green receiver on the screen, then puts his phone to his ear. The dial tone beeps three times before someone picks up. He opens his mouth to say something, but the person on the other side is quicker.

“Ben Miller, I presume?” It’s… a woman. But not Val. “Val told me you’d be giving me a call.”

“And you’re…” he quickly flips over the card just to be sure, “…Nyx, then?”

“Got it in one. I do so hate it when Val forgets to mention my name in the initial interview.”

Benny huffs out a confused laugh. “Interview?”

“You aced it, by the way. Not saying too much is best when talking with my… let’s call her my associate,” the woman says. Her voice is softer than Val’s, and a lot smoother. It sounds like what taking a sip of hot chocolate feels like. “Shall we get on with it and discuss the rules of this little arrangement?”

“I don’t-- rules? I haven’t even given you an answer.”

“Oh, don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve got any restraint left,” she chuckles. “You want to tell me you called just to say hello to a total stranger?”

“No, but-” Benny splutters, but he doesn’t get to finish his sentence.

“Then your answer, even if you haven’t given it to me yet, is as clear as the Pope’s Holy Water. Now then, the rules. In order to keep you in the warm, sunny, light side of the law, I’ll arrange a time and place. All you have to do is show up.”

He can’t help but grin. She’s clearly on top of this whole cloak and dagger operation, that much he can tell. Who she is, though, he can’t say. Not yet. Maybe he’ll recognize her when he sees her. “What about my gear?”

“Do take it with you, please. I’m not a charity, giving away free gear to any John, Charles or Mary.”

“All right,” he says, clicking his tongue. “Anything else?”

“Val will pick you up and get you back home safely, so don’t worry about the whole transport situation.”

“This doesn’t sound very... safe. I mean, you do realize this sounds a lot like kidnapping, right? Or murder, or something like that?”

The woman laughs. It sounds like the melody to a song he knows but has never heard at the same time. It’s the kind of laugh that makes everyone around laugh as well. “Why would I tell you all this and then still proceed with it if my intent was malicious? You can easily call the cops and have my dear Val arrested for whatever crime you think me capable of, and that wouldn’t be very good for my business.”

“Fair enough.”

“Speaking of Val, she’ll pick you up next Wednesday at nine.”

Benny kicks a piece of gravel onto the street next to him and swallows away the last of his pride and dignity. “All right, I guess I’ll see you then.”

“Good lord, I can’t believe Val forgot to tell you that, too,” she laughs again, then clears her throat and continues a lot more seriously. “I only dance in the dark. Have a good night, Mr. Miller.”

Usually, waiting takes ages, but not this time. For Benny the rest of the week practically flew by him and before he knows it, it’s already Wednesday. He went training with Frankie just like any other week, only this time he accidentally forgot to mention his fight with Nyx. He told himself that the less people know about his, uh, date, the better, but he also knows Frankie would have immediately pulled the plug.

Val arrives at nine o’clock sharp in the front seat of a cab, which is no surprise. The drive that follows doesn’t take very long; he also isn’t blindfolded or anything like they do in the movies. The car stops in front of an old warehouse in the east side of town, and that’s when Val turns around in her seat and very concisely tells him to get his ass out of her cab himself, since she’s not going to hold open the door for him.

Instead of driving off, Val simply pulls the keys from the ignition and tosses them to him, calling it his ‘insurance policy’. Then she waves her hand as if to tell him to hurry up and get inside, which he promptly does.

Well, that whole dancing in the dark reference seems to have been meant literally; as soon as the warehouse door closes behind him, an inky, suffocating darkness envelopes Benny and makes a shiver run up and down his spine. He takes a few tentative steps, holding out his arms and moving them around to make sure he doesn’t hit anything while he walks.

Suddenly, a voice calls out to him from a bit further into the sole, big room this warehouse seems to consist of.

“Good evening, Mr. Miller. Let’s get swinging, shall we?”

A/N: Hey there, you made it to the end! Thanks for reading through the whole thing, I hope you liked it. If you’ve got any suggestions or spotted a mistake or two, don’t hesitate to tell me so that I might fix it. I hope you’ll stick around for round two!

[redcloak]

when you have two brainrots going at the same time............

putting a bunch of au thoughts under the read more as i just frickign rambled at partner dfksjghsfkdg LOTS of spoilers for both all of the great ace attorney and miraculous ladybug

i cannot get over how well sherlock fits as cat noir its Bonkers

hawkmoth stronghart of course! but akumatizations would be a lot more subtle, and last for a very long time because for the most part theyd be undetected until further inspection. THINKING ABOUT KLIMT GOING OVER THE EDGE BECAUSE HE WAS AKUMATIZED ALONG WITH HIS DOG....

ryu and sherlock would know When someone is akumatized but not who, so theyd have to investigate together using their respective powers over several investigations... because theyre adults they dont need to keep recharging but because everything is a lot more subtle it would still take them a while to figure stuff out

still thinking about chemist sherlock and thats what he does in the daytime, as part of the forensics team! and he tends to act timid and quiet and observant and very unmemorable even if he does terrific work, and ryu would be crushing on him over that?? and then he takes on more of the Great Detective persona when he is cat noir and gets to put all the info he collects in his daily life to good use while being silly and insufferable as we know him, but ryu as ladybug would slowly warm up to it also, as he does in canon

ryu fits well into the second gen immigrant thing marinette has going on, and idk if id want him to be a lawyer AND get a ton of evidence from being ladybug, or being a penniless writer who also works at his parents bakery and sherlock is a regular there and thats how he started crushing on him, BUT when hes ladybug he gets a taste of the lawyer spirit of investigating and maybe even protecting people who are wrongfully under suspicion of akumatization

so sherlock still rly likes ryu AS ryu bc wow cute baked goods provider, will sit with me when its not busy and they chat up a lot and ryu is just fucking smitten

but then when theyre transformed their dynamic is very similar to canon for both media with the scale tipping the other way but obviously theyre still both very fond of each other especially as time passes

thinking about sherlock having the cat miraculous for a looong time without ever having a ladybug, so even if he did a great job by himself and deakumatized people, without the ladybug powers they always come back after a while.... thinking about the first time he meets ryu as ladybug and omg! at last the balance is here and theres someone to finish and wrap up and close all the things he sets up

UGH OK THEN, baker street!!!! the ground floor of 221b IS a closed down bakery that used to belong to ryus family, and now that hes moved away from them, he reopens it to sustain himself while writing his poetries and stuff on the job, and iris and sherlock come by all the time, maybe iris even manages to sell her teas through there... which would let him take the vacant flat in the attic, and maybe he finds the ladybug miraculous there somehow, hidden behind a wall board or smth