#tbw snippet

[ruinmegently]

WIP INTRO — These Barren Wilds

A mysterious figure spat up from the sand journeys with a fortune seeking cutthroat looking to sell him to the highest bidder.

- GENRES - dystopian • magical realism • lgbtq+

- THEMES - friends to enemies • enemies to lovers • post-environmental-apocalypse • classism • oppressive government regime • disability representation • dark themes • redemption arc • found family • unrepentantly queer • journey through foreign lands

- VIBES - your wheelchair has crab legs and it's still a bitch to handle • i'm not a cowboy i'm a cowperson tyvm • eat sand and die trying • cooing at your serrated blade because it's the only child you'll ever have • loving the unlovable • not quite a western but eh close enough • byoa (bring your own anarchy)

oh shit that's me. hey writeblr! you can call me ruin. i'm a 32 year old college dropout, unpublished, who was on track for a B.A in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, like, back when dinosaurs rode men. i'm a nerd for The Process (even if The Process often corners me in a dark alley and beats me up for funsies).

#these barren wilds has been living in my head for months now, and ya'll inspired me to finally try to write it. mostly gonna be posting world building, character development, and rough unedited snippets on here, under the tag above.

if you're writing something similar, or if this genre just vibes with you, you are always welcome to spam my ask box so we can geek out about our ideas together!

anyways, i never know how to end these things, ily k bai.

.oo1 — july 31st

Big man lays an old hag flat on her face. Roughs her up with a boot on her hand. Whole crowd hears the crunch, unappetizing, but that doesn’t stop their steady procession shuffling single file to cash in the day’s food vouchers. The lines stretch farther than eyes can see, occluded by a dusty afternoon haze. Vouch Shops close in a couple hours. Sad saps at the back won’t make it before they lock up.

The big guy twists his heel in the lady’s hand. Who knows why. She screams and no one in my line turns but me, like the sound digs actual nails through the back of my skull, so jarring I can’t help but watch.

Hope she shuts up soon.

Ain’t uncommon to see Bruisers at market anyways, but they’ve been showin up more and more. Enforcers sent from way out in Wave came last month to train the dustbloods lucky enough to get a Career Shift Card. To keep the peace, they said. Too much gang activity. Too many deserters.

Right.

The Enforcers are bad enough, but when they send the dregs of Wave to train the dirtiest of Dust, well. You don’t really get new Enforcers outta all that.

“Next!”

“Hey Pops,” I say, elbow on the cracked sandstone counter of the Vouch Shop my line leads to. Gotta bend in half just to plant myself down. Casual, easy, like me and Pops are old friends. Met the guy last week but sure, friends fits just as well as anything else.

“You have it?” Pops asks, beady black eyes squinted against the glare of the sun.

His shop’s west-facing. Most face north or south. I asked him why he wanted to go and stick out like a sore thumb, our first meetup. He told me out west’s where hope’s found, if you can drag yourself far enough onward to find it. He likes the view. He likes knowing there’s more out that way. I told him you gotta scale the walls first, or blunder through em, unless you’re lucky enough to get a new job with a fancy CSC. But then you’ll always be a dustblood, won’tcha?

You can leave the desert but the desert never really leaves you.

[words-after-midnight]

Snippet from LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE, just because. From "The Butterfly's Wings." 🦋🌒

[awritingcaitlin]

2024 Wrap Up

It's still before New Years where I'm at! So let's slide this in!!

Some stats! Words Written: 283031 (give or take) WIPs Worked on: 10 Books read: 3 Beta reads: 10

WIPs Drafting Stage: 8 WIPs Revision Stage: 3

I'm gonna post some snippets from the year under the cut!

January - Finished editing Draft 15 of TBW, and workshopped it with my critique group. In January in specific, it was mostly writing the last chapter. Here's some content from then: Nathaniel and Riela in the hospital after all the shit went down.

For those of you who are newer, TBW is something I've been working on for ages with my co-writer. (If the number of drafts isn't any clue.) But we're 10+ years now. Anticipate seeing more of it as we're probably going to try to do revisions again this coming year.

February - Did some revisions on Heist. Honestly, it was nothing major because I spent that month packing (for a move that never ended up happening -_-) Here's a conversation I was tweaking at the time, having already rewritten the first few chapters of Heist in 2023. (Also this says Draft 3, but it was really more like Draft 2.5. This content is now in Chapter 5.)

Heist is a staple you've all seen me talk about I'm sure! It's set in the same universe as TBW, but with different MCs. I started it in 2022, started Draft 3 in late 2023, and as you'll see, started Draft 4 in late 2024. Still, I'm loving how it's all coming together!

March - Revising stuff in the first 5 chapters of Heist Draft 3. Some content from that time for you: Lelia and Ronan talking!

April - I'd made it through 15 Chapters of Heist Draft 3. However, midway through the month, I had some Life Happen, and stepped away from Heist for Reasons. I'll share some snippets from those works too. Here's a new Em and Vinny conversation that I wrote during that time.

April Part 2 - Due to Grief reasons, I ended up rereading most of CTQ, which is my GriefWIP™, and expanded on one of the scenes for a flashfic contest at that time, now in second person!

April Part 3 - I also ended up working on Aftermath, another Grief WIP. Which did not actually start as a WIP about grief... but I suppose when the premise is surviving after overthrowing an evil dictator, I can see how it went that way.

May - I started working more on Heist again, and got through 22 whole chapters! Some content for the time: the Jam Session!

June - I got Heist up to 34 chapters! Have some theology! It was very hard to find a snippet that was new content compared to the previous draft but also was not a blatant spoiler.

July - I got Heist up to 35 chapters, but then got stuck. Yes, this snippet says it's from Chapter 36 and that's because later I went back and added a chapter (and also had to restructure this whole area of the WIP.) New content: Lelia and Marcella conversation!

July Part 2 - I started working on my Dragon Age fanfic. The premise being that all the origin characters survive and join the party (though not as Grey Wardens.)

August - Heist revisions looked a lot like I didn't know how to number chapters at the time. Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 35, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37..... Anyway, this is when I went back and added a chapter that fixed the problem I'd been having. So here, have Lelia and Ronan talking!

August Part 2 - While all that was going on, I also put another 10k into my WardenWIP.

August Part 3 - I also wrote a crossover fic with @rarmaster. This was an "ending" of sorts for two characters from our respective Kingdom Hearts fanfics.

Premise: The Riku Replica survived Chain of Memories by going to another universe. Years later, he and Namine talk about how they made it.

August Part 4 - Lastly, I wrote a thinly veiled Dragon Age fanfic, modeled after the Urn of Sacred Ashes trailer.

September - I got Heist up to 44 chapters and wrote one of my favorite sequences ever!

September Part 2 - I also wrote another 20k of WardenWIP.

October - Finished Draft 3 of Heist! Then I kind of just rested. (As was my right.)

November - I worked on worldbuilding documents, both my encyclopedia and my history doc.

Working on the Magic Encyclopedia was something that's a long-time coming. There's a very in-depth magic system for the world of Tyrysius, and half of drafting up an encyclopedia for how magic works is so that way we can minimize contradictions! I expect to go back to it in 2025 and continue fleshing it out.

November Part 2 - Working on the History document was good for nailing down what has transpired since the cataclysm 1200 years ago, what nations have risen and fallen, what technology has done, and plenty else. I anticipate working on this more in 2025 as well.

November Part 3 - I also spent a lot of time working how Draft 4 of Heist was going to come together because I already had ideas for revisions and the motivation to do them.

No fancy snippet but:

“Shierdi has rejected my last offer for it. So you’re going to steal it. Shierdi isn’t looking for you because you haven’t done anything for me.” “Yeah but you’ve been trying to get my attention for a year.” “She doesn’t know that. She works through mortal staff a lot and has been wrapping me up in red tape. But, one of the benefits of being known as the drunken god is that none of the other gods think you can make up a plan.” “Yeah but there are other gods of alcohol.” “Everyone knows Adelus can’t plan! Even still, Shierdi thinks I’m more of a drunk than he is.”

December - Dove into Heist Draft 4! Have a snippet of a new conversation between Vinny and Em, that recycles dialogue from a scene with Lelia and Em that got cut.

December Part 2 - Also I started writing another crossover scene. The premise of this one is that Xion decides the Riku Replica is her little brother. It was rar's idea.

“Sister?”  She giggled. “Yeah.”  He blinked and mouthed the word again, as if tasting it on his tongue. His eyes lit up and he smiled. “Sure,” he laughed. “Why not? Why can’t my family get ridiculously bigger?” “That’s the spirit!” she said. “Want to go get ice cream?”  

That has not really gone anywhere yet, but I needed to get the initial dialogue out of my head.

Anyway, yeah, that was 2024 was a lot of writing. Here's to a good 2025!

[strawberry-daiquiris]

big ty to @vroombeams for the tag on this, i have been very blocked the last few weeks and feeling a bit ehhhh about my writing but god, do i love to wang on!!!

RULES: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs

i'm sorry to make it about myself again

Oscar should know better than to watch the post-race show

"Do you want to do a bet or something

Tbw kinkfic

Mechanic fic

landoscarmark monaco fic maybe???

"You're having a what

Soul Mark

bodyswapfic

some of these are so dead there isn't even a hint of a pulse but i think i said that about the a/b/o fic the last time i did this and then it ended up 50k and quickly rising up the rankings of fics with the most hits on my ao3 so...

i am not going to tag because i think everyone i know who writes has been tagged or started doing this so... if you do not fall under those criteria, consider yourself TAGGED.

[ginnyrules27]

Ya'll, you know I appreciate the love Choosing Life is getting but please can we get some snippet asks for Half and Half or Small Twists of Fate? The snippets fuel the want to write said fics. :D

Non snippet things are also encouraged! You want me to rant about the stupidity of something that happened in football? I can do that! You want more details about fics in my TBW pile? Ask away! Hell, if you want a snippet of an original work I'm working on (and posting on Ao3 for now), send an ask!

[anime-rambles]

✨ Masterlist ✨

Last updated: 27/05/2025

Total Work: 34

Taglist: LINK HERE

Coming soon: SEE HERE

Other sites:

- Ao3

- Wattpad

My Hero Academia

KiriBaku

Welcome Home Omega - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x Omega!Reader

Omega y/n returns home to her pack after so many years aboard being a successful hero, now they fear being rejecting by her pack and more importantly her alpha’s.

Omega Stop - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x Omega!Reader

Omega y/n returns home to her alpha’s after being away in Europe, thinking she would be able to re-join her alphas and be happy. Only to discover they move on without her.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Pheromone Shower - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x Omega!Reader

Alpha Kirishima gets hit by a quirk at work and runs from Alpha Bakugou with only one thought on his mind, their omega y/n. ** There will be 2 other matching with each member of the couple getting hit - tbw**

Some Alpha you are, Pathetic! - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x Omega!Reader

You and Bakugou knew one thing for certain, Kirishima was already in your pack. But with your heat approaching you belived it was time to say it outloud, little did you know Bakugou is a very jealous, insecure alpha and feels threatened...

Without you, there is no us. - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x Omega!Reader

Bakugou is finally home after so many years undercover, the only issue the people he loves the most in the world, got together while he was away, and are expecting. Leaving him behind or so he thought.

Safe with Us - ProHero!Alpha!Kiribaku x MidroiyaTwin!Reader

You were Midroiya's twin, Bakugou's mate but life isn't easy and one day you were kidnapped, stripped from everything you know. Many years have passed, Bakugou has moved on but only now have you been able to escape, to return to your family. A family that has moved on.

Part 1 Part 2

Bakugou Katsuki

Glitz & Glamour - ProHero!Alpha!Bakugou x Omega!Reader

Omega y/n gets lost trying to find her way to the Hero’s gala and her Alpha is not too pleased by this.

As It Should Have Been *RETIRED* - ProHero!Alpha!Bakugou x Omega!Reader

Bakugou didn't deserve to be where he was, he didn't deserve his number 1 spot as a pro-hero, he ruined your life and in turn, you will ruin his by taking everything he wanted in his life, a family, a happy omega and a successful rut. *RETIRED, NO MORE PARTS OR UPDATES*

Our Narrative - ProHero!Bakugou x ProHero!Reader

IS THIS THE END TO JAPAN'S FAVOURITE HERO COUPLE? What happens when a certain blonde hero cheats on his loyal girlfriend of 10 years?

You've alot of nerve - Fantasy!Alpha!Bakugou x Omega!Reader

Omega y/n goes on the run to help her family and tribe, but now it's time to come home, y/n only hopes its not too late for her alpha.

Relax! Please? - Bakugou x Reader

life? Overwhelming. School? Overwhelming. Your friends? Overwhelming. The dorms? Overehemling, there is not break to it all, or is there?

Kirishima Eijrou

Fainites - ProHero!Alpha!Kirishima x Omega!Reader

10 years ago, y/n made the decision to leave her family and have the life she always wanted with Kirishima after graduating. Something happened the night of graduation, alone and heartbroken y/n leaves Japan, closing that chapter of her life. Now number 1 in Europe, she must return to Japan for a quick assessment, what happens when she sees his toothy grin again.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Losing you would be the end of me - Kirishima x Reader

There was one thing you and Kirishima wanted in life and that was to be parents together and grow old together. In a turn of events, Kirishima has to deal with the prospects that he'll have to do it all without by his side.

His hair is black? - Kirishima x Reader

You and Kirishima just welcomed your first son to the world, he's the spitting image of his father, jet black hair and all. The thing is, Yuki's Uncles and Aunts, don't know the signature jet-black hair from the Kirishima clan and suspect foul play.

Keep it Hidden - Snippet

Being Bakugous twin was a struggle, being in love and secretly dating his best friend was even more of a struggle when all hero's have their annually holiday get away. How will you and Kirishima navaigate this trip.

"Keep it Hidden" - ProHero!Kirishima x TwinBakugou!Reader

Maybe your secret relationship wasn't as secret as you both thought

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I've been a fool - ProHero!Alpha! Kirishima x BakugouSibling!Reader

Kirishima was a strong alpha. Everything you could want a partner. There had been multiple times in which you had almost kissed, but you both knew what it was. Both of you are too afraid to speak about it. But what happens when the door is opened and somebody forgets.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

Denki Kaminari

Runs in the family - Denki x Reader

You felt it was time to introduce your long term boyfriend, Denki, to your dads. What you didn’t expect was for him to be so nervous.

Hanta Sero

Pending

Shouta Aizawa

Pending

Attack on Titan

Levi Ackerman

Hidden in Plain Sight

Having almost lost their lives due to the inexperience of recent cadets, Captain Y/N demands change and places themselves at the mercy of the 104th. While training with the new cadets, y/n might have to reveal more of her life than she wanted, when a broken Levi and Cadets enter her home uninvited. Her secret life is pulled into the open, making her say goodbye to the little piece of quiet she had for a few years.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 (pending)

Failed Experiment - Snippet

Alpha!Levi Ackerman x Omega!Reader Summery - pending

Erwin Smith

I Need You Still

Erwin was your life, but humanity needed him more. You left the scouts and him and found a new life for you and your secret child he never knew about. Now Marley attack Paradis and all retired server members are called back to their stations, its time to talk about the elephant in the room.

Jean Kirstein

Borrowed Time

Y/n and Jean’s relationship had always been rough but now she has to train him to be a perfect scout, the past resurfaces and brings with it old wounds that never healed.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Alternative Ending

Haikyu!!

Pending

Arcane

Pending

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Pending

Throne of Glass

Pending

[i-drink-and-i-write-fics]

Sleepover Celebration!

In honor of me hitting over 400 followers and surviving the whore that is Covid, I’m hosting a sleepover this weekend!

You all can do the following - no limit!

- ask to be paired with a character (List Here)

- ask for a one-shot (fandoms/who I write and rules Here. Rules about Character x Character will be suspended for this.)

- ask for a mood board and/or banners (examples can be provided from past fics)

- ask me any questions you want (about me or my fics or both)

- ask me about future projects (TBW List Here)

- ask me about how I am turning a fan fic into an actual book series (More on my other blog, @multiversal-wars)

- ask for snippets from future chapters on WIPs

I can also do an 18+ portion tomorrow night where we do Thirst Posts, where you guys send in about any character from any fandom that makes you Thirsty™️. I will make sure to set a time frame and have my submissions open as well as my asks.

As always, anon asks will be open for this.

I look forward to the fun!

💙 Marvelous Mutant

PS: this will be going on until Sunday night.

[reginarubie]

Hi! I can't believe you made such a masterful story out of my mess of a prompt, and to find out they'll be more! You might as well send me to the moon with how high this feeling is sending me,and how you made it through the eyes of their exes and Way's inner thoughts were so sweet and real. It shows Sansa's growth and sweetness, gosh I'm melting!

I've only watched the 100, shadow and bone, stark wars(trek) and Harry Potter, but I'll add the rest to my TBW list! I'll try to think of some prompts on these fandom when my head's feeling more creative! :) Thanks so much for filling my prompt!!

Ciao anon!,

post being referenced to, this one (I guess you look happier [In another's arms]). I am happy you enjoyed, I was a bit self-conscious about it because there wasn't much Jon and Sansa, only snippets and it focused more on Waymar feelings while showing Jon and Sansa from an outsider perspective, but I am happy you loved it!

More is coming, Waymar was only the first one and it sounded legit to me since Sansa had fallen madly in love with him in pre-canon!, but there will be other, we'll have also a Joffrey's story (because we have to show how Jon and Sansa begun; but worry not!).

Thank you so much for sending the prompt!, and I'll look forward for your next ones! I wish you a very nice day and again thank you for all the compliments!

[foreverindreamlandd]

12, 22, and 32 for the ask game, pleaseeeee 💖💖💖

'Best of 2021' Asks

12: familial relationships to write for

I high key love Laura Barton/Linda Cardelini so getting to write a snippet of her and Clint's relationship of Need More of That Blue in My Life was so fun and I hope to include them in future stuff!

32: fic titles

Okay this one is mean because I HATE coming up with titles lmao I'm so bad at it. I think The Sergeant's Heart means a lot because I struggled with thinking of a title for that fic and texted my friend for advice. When I suggested The Sergeant's Heart she immediately went "No go with that one I love it," and her instant validation made me feel this overwhelming sense of relief because that was the one thing holding me back from posting the series masterlist lol. (Love you @rebel-spacecadet)

22: lines of dialogue

Beach Day!!!! This fic was such a game changer and my most popular one (aside from TBW but this one blew up way more quickly). This is literally me and the dream encounter I would have killed to have with a real-life Bucky in college:

“Is that The Iron Giant?” you heard a gravelly voice ask from the hallway.....

.....You came back to your senses and nodded. “I have a list of my favorite childhood movies to rewatch. You know, trying to cling to my youth and all that.”

Bucky chuckled, and it was the most beautiful sound you’d ever heard in your damn life. “You know, some might say that we still are ‘youths.’” He said the last part while making air quotes with his fingers.

You rolled your eyes. “Speak for yourself, pal. I’m literally in bed at 9pm on a Saturday. Might as well start calling me Granny.”

“Well, I’m staying in tonight, too. Does that mean I’m an old man?”

“Yep. Sorry to break the news to ya, Gramps.”

Bucky laughed again. “Bucky works, too.”

You smiled and gave him a small wave. “I’m Y/n.”

He waved back. “Nice to meet you, Y/n.”

“Likewise, Bucky.”

Bucky gave you a small smile, then took a tentative step inside your room. “So….does this movie night only allow admission for one person at a time or would it be okay for a fellow senior citizen to crash?”

“That depends, do you have your A.A.R.P. card on you to prove you’re of age?”

Bucky jokingly patted around the pockets of his sweatpants. “Looks like I forgot it at home. But I could buy us pizza to make up for it?”

You smiled. “Pull up a chair, Buck.”

[onwriting-hrarby]

WIP Challenge

Tagged by @liquorisce and @heartvu <3 Thank you for tagging me!

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs. You can make your own post or reblog this one! This isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DND campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!

Eremika

Rotten Judgement (12/19 chapters ready)

Backpackers au (I don't think I'll ever write this one)

Arumika

Pregnant Mikasa, co-parenting Armin (I have the first scene written)

Rivamika

Canon au of the relationship evolving (lots of ideas)

Jeankasa

Jean + Mikasa going to the Yule Ball, Eren gets a little bit jealous. (Should be a little too long to write)

Jean + Mikasa post-canon reencounter, how they come together (I'll never write it since there are tons of it already)

Anya + Damian

High School reunion when they are 20. Confession time. (+ Twiyor)

Original works

My novel (on the editing/correcting process. 60/210 pages done (and I only have a month to do so)

Rewrite of my fic "The promised one" as a YA original fiction (because it was an original fiction tbw).

Rewriting of an old short story for a literary magazine!

I tag whoever wants to do it! <3

[ruinmegently]

These Barren Wilds [snippet o1]

Irah closes his eyes. Plops flat in the dirt and listens to the flies that come buzzing around, attracted to the sweat.

“What are you even looking for out there?” he asks, unsure he wants to know the answer.

Tessa shuffles beside him. He hears the soft thud of a tin plate set on the ground. Her swallow. The way she clicks her teeth together like she always does when she’s thinking faster than her own brain can keep up.

“Something better,” she says, as soft as a tumbleweed dancing in the wind.

Irah cracks his eyes open and peers up at the bright blue sky.

“Better’s out West,” he reminds her.

“Says who?”

“Says the literal uninhabitable desert that tries to eat people who travel too far into it.”

“It gives,” Tess says, and Irah glances over to watch her shake her head. There’s a hunch to her posture that makes a light go off in his head.

“You haven’t seen it yet,” he says.

She scrunches her nose up, turns to look away from him. He sits up at this new burst of information, pointing at her.

“You haven’t. Fucking hell, Tess.”

“What? It’s not like it’s on a timetable!”

“That’s what makes it a fucking death trap! You don’t know exactly where, and you don’t know exactly when, until the ground’s shaking beneath ya, and yeah, the dunes give, but what do you think that fucking looks like?”

His heart’s racing. It’s hot enough to sweat out his soul and burn his skin in less than a minute, and Irah feels he could race laps around the shack and its little chicken coop. River, as if sensing his agitation, starts to whine low in her throat. Even the chickens have stopped in their strides, milling about the brunt of the feed that was tossed on the ground.

He sits upright again and stares hard at the woman beside him. She’s looking out beyond, out East where the desert gets even harsher, where there’s no well water to tap, where the land’s lonely and aching and vindictive. He watches her and he feels alone. Like he’s a star in the cold dark, but she won’t look up and no matter how much he screams, he’s too far away for her to hear him.

“They tell you the only life you deserve is the one you got,” she says, so distant. “And the only life worth living’s out West, but no one’s ever good enough to go there, Irah. Don’t you get it?”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “It just takes money. The right connections.” You have to be patient, he wants to say. You have to work the system. You have to mill your soul down on a grindstone. You have to kill. You have to kill and kill and kill, because that’s where the money’s at. And if you’re good at it—really fucking good at it—then you can get out. You can leave this dusty grave behind and buy a big fucking house in Wave with a big fucking pool and take your dog and leave—

Leave.

Everyone

—else

Behind.

Tessa growls out a rough sound so deep from within her, Irah’s surprised her innards don’t spill on the ground. She flaps her hands up high into the air.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand. You never try to fucking understand.”

“Well excuse me for not speaking goddamn crazy.” His own hands fly up, too. They have too much in common. He hates her and he doesn’t want her to die. “I don’t know what your plan is, but you’re gonna be a smear in the dirt and nothing but a shitty memory if you keep going out there like this.”

She shoves him and he falls to the side, catching himself hard on his elbow. She stands. Kicks the plate, scraps of food and all, so hard it pings off the chicken wire fence and clatters into the side of the coop, disturbing the hens who squawk with the sound.

“Why do you fucking care?”

“I don’t,” Irah says, glaring.

“That’s right. So stay the fuck out of my business.”

She leaves him there, stomping all the way back to her shack. The door slams shut with a rattle. She’s gonna die. Irah lies there in the dirt and lets the dust pile on top of him until the heavy sun starts to set and the extreme heat lessens in anticipation of an even more extreme cold. He thinks about all the ways she could die. The sand opening up and sucking her in at the same moment it spits some useless thing out. Getting lost and wild with heat madness until she falls limp in an unforgiving desert and the vultures pick her meat off before she fully slips away. A roving Scrapper gang offing her because she’s encroaching on the territorial lines handed down by word and not by fucking map. Would they tie her up like he does with his victims? Would they even care that it’s her dry blood they’d pick out from beneath their nails?

He doesn’t care.

He doesn’t.

They all die in the end.

He buries her in his heart before making the long walk back home.

--

taglist; @digital-chance @dyrewrites @makemeravenous

[chocoholicannanymous]

Hi. Not sure if your reblog means you're accepting asks like this but I have one which you probably already know what it is! You've written Kurt and Sebastian in the Dance Alone series but not Kurtbastian. How would you write them getting/being together? (and your pet peeve about English comes up several times every week for me still! when to make a compound noun, when to use a hypen, when to keep the two words separate (and how BrE & AmE make different decision w/ the same words)

Hi! Missed you *blows kisses*

Yes, I’m taking asks about this right now! Going to add a cut, because I just might get wordy…

Once upon a forever ago you reblogged “Put Your Mask Back On” with a comment about who the boy was. Well, that right there is my one tiny Kurtbastian fic - he’s pre-canon Sebastian.

If I were to write a continuation of this it would be all out Kurtbastian, a story in which Kurt doesn’t let Bland schmoozy his way into Kurt’s good graces, Kurt returns to McKinley single, and Sebastian makes an entrance during the summer followed by epic pouting by Bland who manages to make an inappropriate come-on à la the Gap only to get even more rejected than then.

Second file in my outlines folder that’s labelled Kurtbastian is the one this untitled snippet came from. Outline calls for them to talk after WSS and start up a tentative friendship that grows into more. Outline doesn’t end until a few years later, so it’s not a short project (hence why I’m uncertain if I’ll write it).

Third outline is…well. Odd? Maybe? Also once upon a forever ago I spotted a prompt over at the Glee kinkmeme, and while it’s usually a genre I’m so-so about, the idea hit. (My brain, okay?)

The prompt called for Kurt getting pregnant with Bland during the BIOTA sleepover, but “finding comfort” in Sebastian. I have just over 3k of a fic called “Wonderchild” that I haven’t even looked at in over three years, but that I think could turn out nicely. Outline has the boys meet through Kurt’s doctor, who is Sebastian’s mom, and sparks fly. Since it’s a completely different meeting than in canon, the difficulties of writing them together lies not in Sebastian’s attitude, but in Kurt’s pregnancy.

In theory I would want to write all these stories .- my creative brain certainly wants me too, or there would be no outlines after all. Just, I need to get around to it. Once I get through my backlog of TW writing, and manage to wrap up (T)TBW I’ll be going through all outlines again to see if something really catches my interest, so I guess you never know.

And oh damn, those pet peeves! Urgh. Of course, my current woes are slightly different - I’m up to my ears in legalese, trying to learn something new - but those mentioned above will never stop to drive me up the wall.

[awritingcaitlin]

🔥Find the Word

Thank you @kaylinalexanderbooks for the tag!

My words are: knee, faith, include, ruin

I'll tag: @kae-luna, @sithbelle, @diabolical-blue, @flowerprose, and @baroquesse

Your words are: visit, point, five, found/find, truth

Snippets from TBW under the cut!!

🍺KNEE

The Boss was here. He visited once or twice a year, but Mama’s birthday was always one of them. The first years Riela had worked at the Tom, she hadn’t recognized him, which was the point. Then one day, Riela asked Mama point-blank if that was him and Mama confirmed it. The next time he’d visited, Riela’d been formally introduced. He was nice and unassuming. He also had a bit of an ego, if Riela allowed herself to think as much of a god. He walked in the front doors, dressed in a loose white shirt tucked into black pants with black boots that came up to his knees. He had messy brown curls and his beard looked intentionally scruffy. He already had a frothing mug in his hand.

🎶FAITH

“But think of what it could…” “Get out,” Mama hissed. “I told you five years ago that if you continued this walk of life, you weren’t welcome here. I let you play tonight as a gesture of good faith, which you have spurned. Leave.” He gave her a flippant salute and gathered his things.

🌊INCLUDE

In the end, she needn’t have worried. He’d gone to the docks to potentially warn George, but had found an unconscious Rinnie and a stoically protective Taryn instead. Selsing pointedly did not ask questions about the Edans’ presence. Probably because the body of the tugboat captain was found shortly thereafter, and he had half a dozen warrants out for his arrest. It got written off as gang warfare. Evidence of Nidtrin presence was tossed into the ocean. Riela’d been hopeful for a second that the cleric would be included in that, but she was not so lucky. She wasn’t sure how the Guards were going to reconcile “Nidtrin cleric” with “gang war,” but it probably involved the cleric disappearing and she hoped it was in the dead way.

💥RUIN

“So what’s the job?” Riela asked. “We stage an intervention and prevent bombs from ruining an otherwise ordinary Eviannite wedding later this week.” “She told us the next bombing target?” Riela asked, leaning forward so fast she almost fell out of her stool. She caught herself on the edge of the bar. “Yes, and if she was telling the truth and not hedging, which I will admit, there’s enough leeway in her words for her to be hedging, then it is our moral responsibility to get in there and stop that from happening.” “And if she’s hedging?” “Then it’s a trap,” Mama said with a shrug. “But, as I said, I think she was telling me eighty-percent of the truth.”

[awritingcaitlin]

🔥Find the Word

Thank you @diabolical-blue for the tag!

My words are: moon, brilliant, find, ache

I'll be tagging: @kaylinalexanderbooks, @clockworkgalaxies, @elizmanderson, @ryns-ramblings, and @juls-writes

Your words are: crash, faint, loud, sure, strain

Snippets from TBW under the cut! (I would have done Heist except I don't have the word 'moon' in that one - go figure!)

🌑MOON

They’d crashed. In the Balios Sea. In the middle of a cloudy night. Fuck. Any survivors would have to tread water twice as hard than if they’d crashed in the saltwater ocean. And neither moon was out. Nathaniel spotted the faint glow from an emergency raft’s lamp.  He held his fingers to his lips and whistled loudly, tasting blood in the process. Double fuck.

🔥BRILLIANT

While Mica was upset her initial kidnapping plan never really took off, she couldn’t say with exact certainty she was disappointed with the new arrangement. Of course, it did mean sleeping with the supply chief of Her Majesty’s Royal Buttress (HMR Butt for short), in exchange for unlimited access to the stores. If the pirates wanted brilliant alchemical creations, she needed a reliable supply chain. The supply chief, Manfred, was almost her type. He certainly had a nice swagger. But he was too hairy, smelled of cheap cigars (she didn’t approve of ruining one’s lungs like that), and he snored. Loudly.

🔍FIND

In all honesty, Rinnie wasn’t sure the High Commissioner would be helpful. After all, someone in the city was either authorizing or turning a blind eye to cover-ups. How high would she have to go to find someone with oversight who also cared to make a change? But she couldn’t leave the High Commissioner out of the loop either. She risked making a hostile enemy if she tried to get around him. Even if he was incompetent. Central Berthingtonn Guard Headquarters was in the mountain that was Berthingtonn. This was largely for security purposes, but Rinnie couldn’t help but think that the lack of windows was certainly depressing.

💢ACHE

Rinnie was on her side, her head resting on her right forearm. Something was cinched around her ankles. She strained her ears, trying to identify the rumbling. An engine. Combustion. A truck, probably? She ached.

[awritingcaitlin]

Find the Word

My words are: blade, promise, blue, fire, night

Tagging: @nanashi23, @sentfromwolves, @sithbelle, @carrotblr, and @muddshadow for the words: smoke, remember, smile, natural, fist

Snippets from TBW under the cut!

NIGHT

Thea sat straddling the bedroom windowsill of her home on the third terrace ring of Berthingtonn. She watched the smoke from her cigarette curl up into the night air and drift past the electric streetlamp near the wall of her yard. She wore only a short bathrobe, her pale legs dangling outside the window. She was at peace here. The gentle breeze was cool on her bare skin, and it seemed to melt errant thoughts away.

.

PROMISE

She didn’t vividly remember getting branded, only the pain. She did remember the years of reform school and what they’d done in their attempts to brainwash her. Despite their whispered promises, she never would have been anything other than an undesirable. Or dead.

.

BLUE

“Here you go,” Rinnie said, handing Taryn the blue shell. “For you.”

Taryn took the shell, a smile forming on her face. She looked between Rinnie and the shell. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s the same blue as your eyes.”

Rinnie’s nose twitched and she smiled. “That wasn’t intentional.”

Taryn leaned over and kissed Rinnie’s cheek. “Even still, thank you.”

.

BLADE

“Son of a bitch!” Adler cursed as he dropped the sword. Refusing to give up, he turned his low lunge into a roll and plucked his fallen blade up with his off-hand and followed the movement through to come to his feet, neatly pirouetting to face Killian. Killian naturally didn’t give him the space to make a full recovery. As Adler spun, Killian’s sword slid in lightly between his neck and the sword he’d been positioning to block such a maneuver.

Adler sighed. “Well Sir, you got me.”

.

FIRE

“I’ll cover you.”

Taryn nodded. “Thanks.”

“Eat a dick!” Harbrook called, forming fire around his fists and shooting an arc overhead.

Taryn bolted once everyone who would have otherwise gone after her from the rear was distracted. She sprinted a good ten or fifteen yards, feeling a bit like she was back on the Navy rugby team—something she hadn’t been a part of since her second enlistment.

[awritingcaitlin]

Find the Word

My words are eyes, touch, never, heat, dragon 👀

Tagging: @runeseaks, @legiomiam, @atomatowriter, @tananaphone, and @saphoblin for the words: squint, narrow, name, sky, focus

Snippets from TBW under the cut!

EYES

Adler turned to Lubbock to get him to steer the raft that direction, but when he looked again, the figures were gone. Adler wiped off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and squinted. 

No figures.

.

NEVER

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of Riela’s neck stood up and she froze in her tracks. Janna paused as well, frowning. Riela narrowed her eyes, searching for the source of her discomfort. She’d grown a lot since her street urchin days, but some things never left.

.

DRAGON

“I thought the dragon’s name was Chesl,” Taryn said.

Rinnie nodded. “Same name,” she said. “Unless Eswaisil’s gone and renamed the forest.”

HEAT

If Ilani caught the small hint of resentment in Rinnie’s voice, she said nothing. She took the opening stance and waited for Rinnie to join her. They summoned heat from their centers and directed it outwards in a ball with their hands. They thrust the fire forward until it dissipated. They reached to their hips and pulled small tendrils from their inner heat and sent them upwards to the sky. With their right hands, they guided whips from their left thighs that snapped in front of them with audible cracks.

.

TOUCH

She pondered all this while sitting far too near the edge of the couch, unable to focus on her book. Killian’s head rested next to her, barely touching.