#stedeth!!!

[cufeilidh]

I've been meaning to finish this for weeks but I went and got on a writing and sewing kick instead. Drawing bug bit again yesterday ;)

Featuring my favorite Andalite, Stedeth Esgarrouth Bonnetil. I love him.

Read his story wanna fly away (I don't know where my soul is) by @ghostalservice and @petrichorca cause it's amazing and one of my absolute favs. You don't need to be familiar with animorphs to enjoy, so go get yourself some alien adventure and spice!

[theogem]

Stedeth the Andalite and Ed, from Wanna Fly Away

[petrichorca]

Hello, I am slowly figuring out how to use tumblr effectively. I thought I'd give an update on fics I've written in 2024, but keep forgetting to talk about here in a meaningful way.

As We Go Hand in Hand (explicit, gentlebeard, 7100 words) follows Ed as he processes the past few months while living on the island with Stede, massively in love but struggling with himself. I wrote it while feeling a lot of delayed grief around the (confirmed) s2 cancellation, and while it's sad at points it's also quite romantic I think. I really love this story.

Behind Closed Eyes All I See is You (explicit, gentlebeard, 5300 words) is a smutty PWP my dear friend @chaoticturtleturtle invited me to write with her. Stede lets Ed take the lead in a scene with some sensory deprivation, pwp, and aftercare.

like sugar to my heart (mature, gentlebeard, 4200 words) is a silly fic I wrote for my Animorphs OFMD AU co-writer as a birthday gift. Our blue four-legged four-eyed mouthless alien Stedeth gets foiled by a vending machine (based on the tumblr art of the giraffe centaur), and Ed consoles him.

like a bird (teen, gentlebeard, 3700 words) with @ghostalservice gives some backstory about Stedeth's life prior to the events of our 177k fic and features some very cute art of Mary and Stede's children (as Andalites, of course) by @theogem

Stede’s Cursed Red Suit as a Metaphor for Grief and Moving On (teen, stede + izzy, 1717 words) explores the squishy time of season 2, episode 5, and the dynamic between Stede and Izzy in season 2 overall. I am also obsessed with how Stede acts in the cursed suit. I find their s2 relationship really interesting so this is me looking a bit at that via a missing scene starting with Stede yelling OH FUCK OFF.

Calypso’s Dawn (explicit, gentlebeard, 1800 words) centers around how Ed made his boyfriend blush the morning after Calypso's birthday and how Ed feels about it. I love this fic. I've been trying to challenge myself to write more self-contained, shorter stories and this one turned out really well imo.

Life as a Series of Forward Rolls (teen, gentlebeard, 9900 words) features Stede running into his teenhood crush, the gold medalist in men's gymnastics from the 1996 Olympics. This fic also centers around a Barbie doll in Ed Teach's likeness, which @swashbuckling-sweethearts made an INCREDIBLE art of (embedded at the end of the story), inspired by my own 1996 Olympics Barbie. Silly and light modern AU!

Did you mean to do that? (teen, gentlebeard, 700 words) explores Stede's grief around Ed dying, even when he knows Ed is alive. I had no idea I would be so interested in writing missing scenes, but long conversations with friends have really ignited me in exploring these. (The length - I was trying to channel @brigdh, whose ability to write devastatingly brilliant drabbles inspires me, and I'm pleased with this one!)

Perfectly Ordinary Tuesday (mature, gentlebeard, 4900 words) with @ferventrabbit follows Stede and Ed deciding to get married on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, and drag their inn guest Dave along for the ride. We split up writing the vows, and I balled my eyes out writing mine and then reading em's. This story is fluffy and fun, and it was a great way to start 2024. :)

What's next: I'm working on or noodling a lot of projects, solo and with different collaborators. Imminently, I've got a fic with @veeagainsttheday coming for AUpril on April 1st. Hoping to get something else out in April for @ofmdjanuaury's AUpril 2024 event, which I highly encourage folks to check out - it's for all sorts of creators!

@ghostalservice and I continue to think about our blue alien Stede and his human boyfriend Ed. Wanna Fly Away was such an important project to me while we were writing, and it's become even more special as folks find it. WFA now has art embedded in most of the 15 chapters, so if you haven't seen those check it out. More to come in that space.

Where was I going with this? Well, I suppose I want to say I'm still here. OFMD changed my life, and the OFMD fandom community is deeply important to me. I still hold out hope for a third season, or a follow-up that brings us more closure, but no matter what I'm still thinking about our pirates and will for a long time. If you read this far, thanks for being part of my community. <3

[ghostalservice]

If you haven't taken a chance on wanna fly away, @petrichorca and my Animorphs AU, now's a great time to dive in!

A selection of endorsements from the comments:

i need a tag for “fics that wormed their way into my brain and moved right in and redecorated a bit and maybe adopted a cat or something”

Each chapter update in my email was a soothing balm to my soul. There is just so much love and detail in the writing and I'm so sad that it's finished but filled with inexplicable joy that I got to experience this beautiful fic.

This is honestly in the top 5 fic for this fandom hands down and I've read a lot of fic. Laughter. Tears. The whole range of human emotion.

The raw (perhaps even obscene) joy of being with stedeth and co. on this journey of gender and identity and belonging and intimacy is overwhelming. How am I gonna explain to people that animorphs changed me and also I have never read a single word of an animorphs book.

I’m so grateful for my autistic gender-species-fucky alien and my adhd gender-species-fucky human and my whole crew of gender-species-fucky randy queers.

The word I keep coming back to is catharsis — just how incredible to have a lifetime of not feeling comfortable in your own skin, and then to not only find the one individual who gets you more than anybody, who sees you in all your shapes and at your most vulnerable, and LOVES you.

SWEET JESUS HE FUCKED THAT BLUE ALIEN i know you promised it and i knew it was coming but i was somehow UNPREPARED for how incredibly hot it would be???

We wanted to tell a story about family and identity and gender and love. I think we did that <3

Come hang out with our blue guy and maybe save the world along the way.

[swashbuckling-sweethearts]

Stedeth lands on Earth! 💙

I was commissioned to draw a scene from @ghostalservice and @petrichorca 's Animorphs AU, Wanna Fly Away and here it is!

Read this fic now on AO3, you won't regret it!!

Fun fact, I used Procreate's stroke counter and Stedeth has over FORTY THOUSAND hairs on his body ‼️

TYSM for the comish Lis! It was so much fun! 🥰💙

[naranjapetrificada]

This is me this afternoon, looking at myself and thinking about how I'm about to read the final chapter of Wanna Fly Away (!)

Similar to how I felt after finishing In Favor With Their Stars, I having some Feelings that will probably need sorting (nonspecific spoilers after the break):

I'm still haunted by all these questions about time and existence and what these science fiction versions of Stede will do when faced with the very human Ed's natural aging process and inevitable mortality. WFA!stede has been much more willing to think about it than IFWTS!stede, which makes a kind of sense, but I think that's also made for a slightly softer landing?

I don't feel the same need to build a blanket for with a blue cushion door. At least not yet. Idk if it gets addressed in the last chapter at all, or in the epilogue, or if it remains an open question overhanging everything, but it's going to be on my mind regardless. I'm just glad I don't have animorph powers because I'm not as brave as Stedeth and in his place I would be so ready to become a human nothlit, like yesterday.

Unrelated to the above, reading this fic has just been so educational. It's got me thinking about longfic length differently than I did before, and navigating multi-POV voices, and what makes Stede who he is in different situations, even when one of those situations is being a blue alien centaur. And scenes! I've been reflecting so much on crafting scenes, and how to hit the necessary beats in the right amount of time and space. The timing of my decision to finally sit down and read this fic could not have been better wrt what I'm writing now. 🤓

[theogem]

Testing out Andalite-human poses... Bottom one is my favorite

I think I may have to bite the bullet and get Twitter... Is this too explicit for tumblr?? There's no dicks, vulvas, or tits so...

(As always, credit to @petrichorca and @ghostalservice for putting these two in my brain)

[theogem]

The fic "wanna fly away" meant SO much to me, I can't get it out of my head!! I had to sketch out his little scoop. I really wanted to get both chandeliers in there, but ran out of space. Also, he wants curtains to match the floral rug but the green ones offer better camouflage for now.

If you haven't read it, this is Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil, the Andalite who landed on Earth. And he's adorable and brave and sweet and bitchy and I love him.

(I keep going back and forth on what he's watching on his two screens. I think the Planet Earth documentary on one, but I think maybe some sort of bank-stocks-hacking program? On the other? So he can have more money for more rugs??)

[petrichorca]

First fic lines

I was tagged by @mxmollusca @ghostalservice @naranjapetrificada @spirker! (sorry if I missed someone) I've done something similar before I think but I've posted more since, so here we go!

Post the first line of your ten most recent fics, and see if there are any patterns.

1. like sugar to my heart (gift for @ghostalservice): There’s a vending machine in the private staff-only corridor of Blackbeard’s that Stedeth loves.

2. like a bird (collab with @ghostalservice): When Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil was a very young Andalite, he thought that he’d like to be a dome ship when he grew up.

3. Stede’s Cursed Red Suit as a Metaphor for Grief and Moving On: “Oh, fuck off!” Stede wails.

4. Calypso's Dawn: Ed remembers Stede’s shocking strength from the night before, and it stokes the heat growing in his belly.

5. Life as a Series of Forward Rolls: Stede Bonnet is a forty-something years old man who owns Barbie dolls.

6. Did you mean to do that?: Stede pulls his hand away to find his palm slick with blood.

7. Perfectly Ordinary Tuesday (collab with @ferventrabbit): That morning Stede wakes up with Ed’s arm draped over his chest, Ed’s hair spilling in every possible direction across his skin.

8. Foundation Repairs (gift for @mossgroves): They’re in their innkeeper era.

9. Silky Smooth: Stede regretted almost nothing from giving up his old life, in favor of returning to the man he loved.

10. $20 Wedding Dress (collab with @veeagainsttheday and @ghostalservice): Ed puts on his scowly face just before he pushes through the front door of the dark bar he randomly chooses.

Mostly this tells me I've been writing more of Stede POV lately (several of these fics like #5, #7, and #8 switch POVs). I love Ed POV so much though. Many of these fics are modern AU (#5, #10) / Animorphs AU (#1 and #2). I've got missing scenes from s2 (#3, #4, #6, #9). And then there's innkeeper era (#7 and #8). Some start mid-action, most require some set-up prose to get us where we're headed. I like that they all start differently.

Also YAY for collabs and gifts; I love community. The collabs represent some of the most fun I've had in ages, maybe ever!

Tagging at random, feel free to post your own even if I don't tag!! @sweet-bazzle-bean @ferventrabbit @adhduck @darcylindbergh @robertaseaport @petrichorpirate @yerbamansa @chocolatepot

[ghostalservice]

wanna fly away (i don't know where my soul is) by @ghostalservice & @petrichorca Andalite scientist Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil crash lands in an abandoned construction site, pursued by the vicious Visser Four, a high level leader in the Yeerk invasion of Earth. A small motley crew of humans rescues him, and in return he gives them the power to morph—to turn into animals—so that they can resist the quiet but destructive war being waged on their world. Ed Teach’s mom went missing a long time ago. He’s worked through it, goes to therapy, owns his bar; while it wasn’t exactly what he expected, life has been pretty good. Still, he was thinking about packing it all in, until he sees a falling star and encounters a blue four-legged alien called Stede. Their meeting will change everything.

Come visit the Animorphs AU! We're about a third of the way through posting, and we're getting into the meat of it. No knowledge of Animorphs necessary—just a healthy appreciation for sci-fi, weird alien sex, a lot of thoughts on bodies and gender and identity, and down-bad Ed Teach.

[ghostalservice]

Welcome to @petrichorca and my new Animorphs AU! Explicit, 15 chapters.

About 100k of alien Stede, former ufo conspiracy guy Ed, the whole crew learning to morph and fight an alien invasion, deliciously strange smut, meditations on gender and belonging and identity, and so much more!!

Summary:

Andalite scientist Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil crash lands in an abandoned construction site, pursued by the vicious Visser Four, a high level leader in the Yeerk invasion of Earth. A small motley crew of humans rescues him, and in return he gives them the power to morph—to turn into animals—so that they can resist the quiet but destructive war being waged on their world.

Ed Teach’s mom went missing a long time ago. He’s worked through it, goes to therapy, owns his bar; while it wasn’t exactly what he expected, life has been pretty good. Still, he was thinking about packing it all in, until he sees a falling star and encounters a blue four-legged alien called Stede.

Their meeting will change everything.

[ghostalservice]

Ten First Lines meme!

tagged by @mxmollusca, whose first lines are UNIFORMLY BANGERS

Here are my most recent ten first lines:

Til We See the Sunlight: Stede really didn’t expect to make it here. (Figure skater AU WIP collab with Claire and Moss!)

like a bird: When Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil was a very young Andalite, he thought that he’d like to be a dome ship when he grew up. (prequel to the Animorphs AU, collab with Petrichorca!)

Desert Bloom: The bud was absolutely beautiful, and Stede had never seen a saguaro bloom like this: all huge and skin-pink, delicate blush at the base and deepening to a dusky, dark red where the tips of the petals came together at the point, and he needed to get a closer look—he wished his camera could capture color, because goodness, would anyone believe them? (1880s explorers AU, collab with Holly!)

the fanfic background character gig economy hustle is hard (like your blorbos' wieners): Video: the outside of a motel. The windows of all the rooms except the ends are shattered, the ones in the center completely gone. The image is slightly unclear, as if seen through water [possibly a video effect?] (Very silly collab with Avery revisiting previous fics)

Wildest Dreams: T has a routine. (Fic of fic for Throat GOAT)

A Frog in the Hand: The long, dragging school day is finally over, and Alma is on a mission. (Youtuber frogworld AU, collab with Holly!)

Silky Smooth Slide, Right Where You Need It: The first time Stede watches gay porn, it’s a revelation. (Stede/Astroglide, Modern AU)

Chicken Soup for the Middle-Aged Soul: Ed Teach stands in the lobby of the Marriott hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, and wonders if he’s made a terrible mistake. (Crossword/Cryptid/Noir AU, collab with Avery!)

who's gonna be on the plate?: When Ed gets back from the market, Stede’s nowhere to be found. (Squssy short, collab with Lottie)

come hither gleam: Six weeks down in the Bureau basement with Stede “Spooky” Bonnet, and Ed’s more baffled than ever. (Cryptid FBI co-monsterfucker sex pollen AU)

My thing in common is that I love collabs and dropping into the action I guess?

I'm tagging @trans-top-stede, @zombee, @bomberqueen17, @clairegregoryau, @veeagainsttheday, @amuseoffyre, @petrichorca and @morethanslightly!

[ghostalservice]

Chapter 6 of Wanna Fly Away is up!! In which Stede learns about texting, hugging, and home improvement, Ed gets involved in the fight despite himself, and Frenchie has a revelation.

👽🧍‍♂️🌶️🦅🔞🖖🫂💙🛸

The stripes on his back look like waves in the ocean.

That’s what Ed keeps thinking about when his mind strays to Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil, which is often.

He tells himself that of course he would be thinking about the first alien he’s ever met, the first alien encounter he’s ever had. You don’t really get over that, right? Fox Mulder certainly wouldn’t. And Ed is, if anything, an X-Files girlie when it comes down to it. The truth has always been out there, etc. etc.

Only Stede doesn’t feel alien to Ed. He feels like—a person. Like a guy Ed’s met, one who’s fascinating and strange and beautiful (no matter what form he’s in, moth or human or his unbelievably cool Andalite self), who he wants to get to know.

He’s seen Stede in his human morph a few times around town, but mostly they’ve texted—which is mind-boggling when Ed thinks about it, that he’s texting an alien.

But Stede’s not an alien. Well. He is, but he’s also Stede, the dude Ed’s fucking fascinated by, who has learned everything there is to know about the insects of Earth but doesn’t know what a bus is.

They’ve been texting back and forth for a week or so, as Stede gets settled and teaches the Animorphs crew how to change into animals and back. Ed’s watched them do it a couple times: only Jim can manage a morph without Ed wanting to puke about it. (Apparently Jim has a talent, a gift, for morphing, something few Andalites have; Stede calls them an estreen, awe obvious in his thought speech.) The less said about Buttons turning into a worm, the better. Ed will be haunted by the image of him—huge, armless, leg-less, naked, pink, and wriggling but still man-sized—possibly for the rest of his life.

Read chapter 6…

Or start from the beginning!