#the ronan stuff is touch and go

[adamprrishcycle]

Can I get your perspective on something?

The scene in the dream thieves when Gansey receives the text of “a part of Ronans anatomy he’d never seen before” wrapped in an Irish flag. We know Ronan is heavily on drugs at this point dreaming at Kavinsky’s.

We know Ronan wouldn’t voluntarily send Gansey a dick pic, and there are two assumptions that can be made: Kavinksy sends his own dick pic from Ronans phone, so Gansey thinks it’s from him. Or the other thing.

Obviously, one possibility is significant more sinister than the other, and Maggie more than likely keeps it ambiguous on purpose. But I don’t think I’ve see any definitive arguments or analysis posts either way.

I have my own headcanons, but I’d love to hear how you interpreted that passage when you read it.

For me, it’s Gansey’s reaction.

He sees the picture and then the quote is: “He didn’t immediately process the possible implications of such a photograph. Understanding was only beginning to prickle when a second text came in.”

Then he gets the text saying Ronan has wrecked his car and he’s like my car my car my car and he never touches back onto the dick pic….however it does go on to say, after Kavinsky explains (in a roundabout Kavinsky way) that Ronan is unconscious and can’t come to the phone “he (gansey) discovered on the other side of the minute that he was still too angry to speak” and then goes on to make some long-ass comparison to glendower and how he finally understands his anger to murder some cousin in an ignoble way. Gansey is very angry with Kavinsky and wants to stab him and stuff his body in a hollow tree so I take from this Gansey’s understanding is our understanding or what Kavinsky was going for…

Whether Kavinsky has it in him to do that while Ronan is unconscious is really up to the individual reader I suppose…like you said, maggie definitely left it ambiguous on purpose. Personally I can imagine Kavinsky sending a picture of himself from Ronan’s phone for the mayhem it causes to Gansey and potentially wanting Ronan to see it on his camera roll later on. The oh shit is that me…? wait, no it isn’t. And then the realisation. Also the significance of the Irish flag, to Gansey shouting this is Ronan, to Ronan shouting look at your identity on me. I know Kavinsky says the whole “consent is overrated” but I think his feelings for Ronan are too intense and therefore fragile for him to go much further than touching his back at the fairground. You know? But then again, my fatal flaw is that I try to see the best in everyone. Do with this info what you will.

Thanks for chatting to me!!!

[starmunchandthefunkybunch]

body language (and some other stuff) analysis: peter quill and rocket raccoon (roquill focused)

I am not a body language expert this is my theory based on body language research and studying the characters don't @ me.

We're doing this by movies folks!

GOTG VOL. 1

Rocket Raccoon and Peter Quill mirror each other constantly throughout the first film, constantly.

If Peter holds his hip, Rocket holds his, as soon as Peter relaxes his pose (both arms by his side), Rocket relaxes his.

Mirroring is a sign of attraction and I think it all started in the Kyln.

In the beginning, when they're in the Kyln, after getting sprayed with that goo, and Rocket walks in naked, his pose is very guarded and self-conscious because he's in a vulnerable position, (his shoulders rounded, his ears flicked slightly forward, and his eyes shifty while avoiding anyone's gaze, he adopts that pose many times, each time with Peter being mentioned or Peter being there, I'll get into that later) Peter, although curious, he...says...nothing. He doesn't take advantage of Rockets vulnerable state, he doesn't make fun of him, he doesn't pity him, he stays silent. That was the beginning of Rocket's affinity for him. That was the beginning of his little crush/like/appreciation/attraction.

(this scene always stood out to me for Rocket's posture and Peter's reaction to Rocket's scars and cybernetic enhancements. The 'unspoken things' passing between them.)

He starts to be aware of Peter's movements, and engaging in contact

- people say, 'hey why are Peter's hold ups explored, his hold ups with dating/being attracted to a raccoon (although rocket ain't a regular raccoon, he's person, a him, he's as much an animal as human beings are) and not Rocket's hold ups with dating a humie well here's this: he engages, multiple times, with Peter with touch. He initiates touch multiple times. He just doesn't really appreciate when someone else initiates touch. I honestly don't think rocket even thinks about it as humie vs raccoon. I think he more of thinks of it as his insecurities vs the world.

But Peter didn't mind his insecurities. So, he's aware of Peter's whereabouts, instantly scurries to follow him, puts a hand on his thigh, and whispers 'Quill', which is really a plea for not going further. He doesn't stop him, he asks him.

AND EVEN THEN!! they're mirroring each other. Or Rocket, more specifically, is mirroring Peter.

Eyes! Peter always, always, looks for Rocket and when Rocket does or says something, he looks for Peter, first.

The first person in trouble they both look for is each other, to make sure they're safe.

Peter immediately, after Rocket crashed his plane into Ronan, checked on him.

They're usually standing near or next to each other, with open arms and open torso. The only time Rocket closes this is when he's doing his, insecurities vs the world or vs the group, thing, or he's coming to a decision or he feels too vulnerable, or he's trying to be....firm....on his decision, so he'll cross his arms , look away, hunch his shoulders.

Peter actually sorta adopts the same pose when he's embarrassed, holding his arms closer together, messing with his fingers, looking away, hunching his shoulders.

Peter often ducks his head to meet Rocket's eyes, nobody else really does that, Rocket usually has to look up, and will swivel his head to pay attention to what Rocket says.

Interest ^ he's actively interested.

Rocket is invested in Peter, in the background often times, he's looking at Peter and observing what is going on

Rocket's super observant. He's even more observant with Peter. His ears twitch and his head tilts a little.

Interest ^ actively interested.

Anyways, overall, in the first movie, Rocket is a lot more touchy and close to Peter and Peter calls Rocket his friend two seconds after knowing him. Peter immediately sees him. There's a click! here.

This is what I like to call...a slight attraction, a small crush, on Rockets part. Peter? Peter thinks Rocket is interesting, he's his friend, c'mon, but Gamora? Gamora is the pretty girl that can kill him. He's already got a lot on his plate. He's already got someone.

There's an unspoken thing alright but it's not just the one you're focused on, buddy.

-my words to Peter ^

Mirroring, looking, choosing, interest. Tilted towards one another or paralleled, don't even get me started on the goddamn music! (That's for another time)

In GOTG VOL 2, all of that changes.

VOL 1 , Attraction

VOL 2, Love

GOTG VOL 2

Immediately, there's more of a rift between them.

It is so palpable. It's dense. There is an air between them, with Rocket in the beginning sorta trying to make Peter feel better about the high priestess being a not very nice lady and winking at Quill but it not being received well, and Peter not really joking too much with Rocket. Rocket pulling away. It's a very tense air. There is tension.

This movie, Rocket focuses on interacting with baby Groot, Gamora, Drax. He, unlike in the first movie, hardly ever interacts with Peter unless it's to tease him or to defend him (in the beginning of Vol. 2)

There's a noticeable pushing away.

And, unlike the first movie, there is little to none mirroring. There isn't any mirroring but there is a lot more, from Rocket's part, self conscious posing and guarded expression while Peter is still dynamic.

Possibly because Rocket is a little more closed off and he's compensating because he's not used to Rocket pulling away like he is, especially from Peter and on some level Peter doesn't know how to cope with that so it's making Peter agitated as well, and well

Rocket doesn't like to be open, vulnerable like that. He doesn't. So he's pushing Peter away.

And the reason why? The reason why he hunches his shoulders, his ears hang forward, and he avoids eye contact? The very things he does when he's feeling vulnerable? Is because he loves Peter and is trying to cover it up.

He loves him. What happened last time he loved someone dearly? What happened?? So he pushes them away so they don't get hurt because he blames himself for the hurt that's happened in the past.

He pushes Peter away.

He only ever adopts that body language in the movie when Peter is brought up or he is talking to Peter, and the only reason why he didn't act that way when getting the music together or whenever talking to the high priestess is because he was 1. Focusing on something else, and 2. He was defending Peter, he had his arms crossed in front of him in a defensive, guarded posture, his feet shifted slightly, and his chest puffed, because what the priestess said about Peter pissed him off.

(he is imperfect, his friends of past were imperfect, he's been dealing with this shit his whole life, he's mad, and trying to make Quill feel better. It doesn't work, the rift deepens, yadda yadda.)

When Yondu brings up Peter while they're waiting for baby Groot to grab the fin, Rocket does his vulnerable pose, whenever Peter leaves and tells him, 'are you trying to make everybody hate you?', he does that pose, and besides that he also does the pose when he's trying to get dressed in the Kyln, after getting sprayed down.

Another positioning aspect I noticed, is that, throughout vol 1 and vol 2, Rocket is in between Gamora and Peter. Consistently in between Gamora and Peter. The only time this ceases is after Yondu makes Rocket acknowledge he's in love with Peter ('for what? for honour? for love?' Rocket looking at Yondu with a heart broken expression of surprise because he saw through him, because he knows.) And Rocket and Peter mend their breaking chain by Rocket apologizing in his own way ('and he stole batteries he didn't need?' 'of course not.'). Because they needed to mend that broken chain, because Rocket needed to know that he felt the way he felt and accepted that and moved on with acceptance because Peter likes/loves Gamora. Peter doesn't feel that way about him. And so, after their relationship is mended, and Rocket realizes this, he literally and metaphorically moves out of the way of their relationship.

Only after Peter and Rocket's relationship is mended does Peter enter a relationship with Gamora.

Because! Peter and Rocket has always been the most important relationship in the group. Everything would go out of tilt if they had a rocky relationship. (heh puns)

Anyways. 2nd Vol. Love, and 1st vol. Attraction.

More Things I noticed:

Rocket's resting position is his arms crossed, and feet neutral, posture neutral. He crosses his arms often, but depending on the look on his face and the things goin on, changes why he's crossing them, and Peter's resting position is both his hands on his hips, sorta like he's about to put his fingers in his pockets. Both Peter and Rocket talk with their hands.

Whenever Pete is pissed, he brings his arms closer to his body and balls his fingers into fists. He, much like Rocket, goes from 0 to 100. Especially when it involves those he loves.

Whenever Rocket is pissed he spreads his feet evenly for more balance and brandishes his claws and shows his teeth (unless he has his guns, or he's drunk, then it's slightly different as with Peter.)

Whenever Mantis went to pet Rocket the first time, he was listening and barely snapped at her fingers with his teeth. He heard Drax joking, is my theory. He coulda snapped her fingers clean off. He didn't.

Peter has open body language most of the time, his arms open, and his feet apart, he becomes more closed off and tense when he's angry (body language right) and he becomes more deflated when he's embarrassed (shoulders hunched, eyes downcast, twiddling with fingers/thumbs, not as talkative)

Peter checks on Rocket more than he does anyone else when they are fighting (except baby Groot, he checks on baby Groot a lot, everyone does, he's baby Groot). Not out of lack of trust or doubt of capability but out of worry and care. When he was fighting Ego, he didn't look for Yondu during the fight, until after Yondu was already getting crushed, but multiple times, he looked for Rocket.

Whenever they landed in the area they needed to to connect the bomb to Egos core, Peter slid over Rocket and landed at his feet and Rocket smirked at him. (It was a soft, sorta fond smirk, not the devious smirk he usually does.)

This was a lot of information. I hope this made sense. I got distracted 60 times. I lost count and recounted. That's probably not an accurate number. Please leave questions in the notes for me to answer if you have any, and I will do GOTG VOL 3 after I have it so I can rewatch it as many times as I need.

Thank you, Rocket loves Peter, and Peter loves Rocket (although he doesn't really realize it in GOTG VOL 1 and 2. I think he knows there's a fondness maybe but it's not a conscious thing.)

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

I love gamora, please, she's amazing. This is not hating them, it's literally just a rocket and quill post.

Tags:

@cheeburgah99 @wisefoxluminary

[lizpaige]

sunday snippet 📦

i got nothing like cute/juicy this time around. i'm just trying to write more and sometimes that means it all ends up getting cut, but here's a snippet from the declan outsider pov pynch chapter 2!

The Lynch brothers were helping Ronan move into his first apartment in DC. When Adam transferred for the third time to Georgetown and his financial aid and scholarships no longer covered room and board, they agreed to find a place together. Declan offered to help set up some of the apartment tours, but in the end, Adam found this affordable one bedroom on his own. 

It was a secure access building with a doorman and 24 hour security. It was a 10 minute metro ride and 20 minute full commute to Georgetown, a little longer of a commute to his new auto body shop part time job, but not unreasonable. He somehow managed to convince Ronan to compromise and split the rent 50/50 despite Ronan’s barely-touched trust fund. He had two years left of college, two years where even though DC was closer to Singer’s Falls, neither of them could stand the time apart anymore. 

“Why do you have so much stuff?” Matthew whined, hefting a cardboard box onto the desk in the living room. 

“We’re giving you all the lightest boxes,” Declan winced at the loud bang as Ronan let go of his side of the couch. “We’re the ones doing all the work here.”

“And you had way more shit when I helped you move to DC,” Ronan groaned as he stretched his back before knocking off Matthew’s hat and ruffling his curls. “I didn’t complain.”

Matthew swatted him away. “Yes you did!”

“Did not!” 

Declan raised his gaze to the ceiling as his brothers fell into an exhausted half-hearted wrestling match on the couch. He decided to take the time to look around the place. 

Declan trusted Adam’s judgment more than Ronan’s on the affordability, security, and overall fit of the apartment. So when Ronan begrudgingly told them a move-in date, Declan offered to help them move in. Somewhat because Adam seemed hesitant about the extra cost of hiring movers and also because Declan wanted to scope out the place.

The apartment itself was a modest one bedroom, with a large windowless closet marketed as a “den” by the apartment complex “perfect for a home office,” but Declan thought that was a joke. The bathroom was clean, spacious. There was even a washer and dryer in-unit and a dishwasher in the kitchen. The complex itself was pet friendly, although Chainsaw was not with them currently. No doubt she was shredding up Declan’s couch in their Boston apartment with Jordan. 

In the bedroom, in the corner by the window, were three modest boxes and a potted plant on the window sill. These were not boxes that they moved in, so these must belong to Adam.

It was then that Declan really realized most, if not all, of the stuff they moved was Ronan’s. Adam, despite being on his own for years now, never accumulated a lot of stuff. Even when he would visit the Barns or Boston for a week-long holiday, he would only ever have a small duffle bag over one shoulder with just enough room for a change of clothes and whatever textbooks he needed to complete his homework. 

Even the furniture they brought upstairs - the old desk was from Ronan's room, that they basically let collect dust as soon as they were old enough to have their own desks at school. The couch was another Barns hand-me-down, as well as some of the kitchen items. 

It all belonged to Ronan, legally, so Declan didn’t speak to it. Just another observation he kept to himself for fear of starting another argument. Even though they didn’t argue as much anymore, they still happened to fight. That was always going to be inevitable with the eldest Lynch brothers. Declan just knew how to avoid the landmines with a higher survival rate now.

[ganseysglasses]

gangsey christmas headcanons since my thanksgiving ones were so fun. for gifts, Gansey is the kind of person to get people what HE wants and not even realize. So he’ll be getting everyone fancy notebooks or weird calligraphy sets or extra fancy messenger bags and everyone kind of looks at each other when opening it in collective realization of the fact Gansey got them what he likes. They smile and nod anyway and agree to let it happen because of how happy Gansey looks while watching them open it.

Next up is Blue, who prepares at least a month in advance for all the crafty items she’s making. You can find Blue digging through thrift stores for clothes to embroider and tear up that she WILL make all of them wear at least once. She’ll also go though landfills and find weird trinkets to paint or glue together to make sculptures. (Adam took all the weird sculptures to Harvard with him and his roommates are terrified!)

Adam is the kind of person to get people essentials. He got Gansey some ink to refill his weird pens he uses for the academia aesthetic, and Blue some much needed thread and sewing needles or yarn or something like that. And for Ronan, he gets a pack of those generic black T-shirts or new shoe laces for his boots or something and Ronan will scoff and act all ungrateful but he’s just touched Adam KNOWS with certainty exactly which kinds he likes.

Ronan just dreams people stuff he thinks they would like. I think he would get Gansey a notebook that never runs out of pages or something like that. Adam would get one of those Mary Poppins bags to hold all of his school stuff without ever having to run back to his dorm. Adam loves it. Blue would get the weirdest item of clothing on earth that is more like a thneed than anything else. Ronan also dreamt a snow globe for Noah but he would never tell anyone. Also chainsaw gets gifts from Gansey and Ronan and Adam finds it hilarious but also so so annoying. Merry christmas if you celebrate! Happy holidays :)

[blankdblank]

Oc and Peter Parker end up on Ronan’s ship and Oc is put as safety personel and finds out there has never been an alarm drill and is a bit puzzled about it. So cue in the dead of the night the alarms go off and the Kree take about five minutes longer than what oc has timed out a reasonable readying escape time but find Peter partially dressed with armfuls of his stuff at the escape hatch making them confused.

Oc says over their loud speaker system, “To everyone who took longer than nine minutes to make it to the hatch congratulations, you have burned alive and are now dead. Those who took two minutes shorter have sustained substantial smoke inhalation by not lowering your heads in the escape and sustained 75% burns across your body. Those who arrived two minutes prior are only burned on half your bodies and still will have smoke inhalation damage. Even if you are under six feet you have to duck your head out of the smoke.”

Some of the Kree are murmuring to one another in confusion and Ronan is making his way through the crowd closer to oc and the other confusing Earthling. Determined to find out what the danger was.

“Everyone who made it here in four minutes or less will have far less burns and a slight cough. Shockingly Peter here is the only one who made it at the optimal time and is burn and smoke damage free.”

“Yes!” He whispers to himself proudly at fully grasping the task at hand when no true danger was noticeable at first.

“This concludes our first safety escape drill, we will give it another shot next month at random and do try to do better people. We do actually want you to not be burned alive you know. Dismissed.”

“Oc,” Ronan calls them over. “Escape drill?…” he challenges in a gravely tone, irritated he out all his armor back on and raced out of his blood pit bed for seemingly nothing.

“Yes. Apparently I discovered an area the Kree do not excel at.”

“Plans to escape…?”

“Escape and survive with as little damage as possible.” Oc clarified and pats him on his armor to not touch the blood dripping down his arm still. “Better luck next time my half toasty Commander.”

Needless to say next time they picked up urgency when another drill was guessed to be behind the danger free alarm.

Oc grins saying, “Congratulations! Only half of you sustained life altering burns this time. Some of you still died but the Kree population will endure to mourn you poor crispy soldiers. And Ronan, much better, only a third of you got burned this time.” Oc smiled at the Commander of the ship who huffed at his supposed shortcut being far more crowded than he anticipated and still ending up at the hatch way too long after the other Earthling who was more dressed this time around and had a bag prepped for the things he was carrying last time to prove even he had stepped up his efforts at this Earth common shared trait to be ready to survive and escape apparently just an assumption of danger.

[gingerwritess]

bloodlust

a very dark story of some of Helion’s experiences under the mountain.

warnings: gore, smut, angst, drunkenness, dubious consent, Lucien getting abused

*throwing this at you from behind a brick wall cause yes i owe you a million updates but here’s an unrelated fic instead*

Even though @separatist-apologist holds the title for naming LoA and i honestly can’t think of her as anyone other than Amera, I tried to give her a name of my own, Liadhain, which is Irish Gaelic for “doomed heroine” and “grey lady,” pronounced “lee-awn.” Now go read MBs stuff you won’t regret it

read it on ao3!

When Amarantha took the youngest of Beron’s litter to be her personal plaything, Helion grinned.

Good, he’d thought bitterly, watching blood stain the red hair that marked the young male as Autumn. If he couldn’t make Beron bleed himself, he’d take any drop of his blood that was spilled by any hands.

He had to turn from his lady Liadhain, screaming behind Beron’s palm as they watched Amarantha slice Lucien open and send him back to Tamlin in pieces, before the urge to intervene on her behalf overcame all good sense and got the newest High Lord of Day killed, too.

When Lucien came back with Tamlin’s refusal and spat at her feet, Helion hated him a little more for it. Even when Beron scoffed at his exiled son and told Amarantha that he laid no claim to the boy, that he would bear no sorrow if she took his head from his shoulders, Helion wished she would make him suffer instead of killing him. He looked that stubborn, terrified young male in the eye as she pondered what part of him to keep for herself before sending him back to Tamlin and imagined it was Beron on his knees before her uncontainable power, Beron’s blood seeping into the cracks in the stone, Beron’s blood that Amarantha made Liadhain kneel in and touch. Liadhain wouldn’t be begging for Beron’s life like she begged for Lucien’s.

In his twisted fantasy, Liadhain handed Amarantha the sword that took his head off. Liadhain smiled so sweetly as Beron’s blood splattered her crimson dress and in this dark shadow of a wish Liadhain ran to him and kissed him with the taste of Beron still on her bloodstained lips.

Helion watched Amarantha carve out a piece of Lucien’s thigh and pondered which golden wall in the palace he would paint with Beron’s blood.

Amarantha’s frequent banquets brought a new slew of dreams to his troubled sleep. They plagued his daily thoughts too, and in this fantasy amidst the dark, moist walls of the throne room, it was his lap that Liadhain writhed on, not Beron’s. In this fantasy she was sober, kissing his neck and giggling because she wanted to, not because she’d gulped down four glasses of faerie wine just to find some way to cope with the horrors that another of Amarantha’s banquets promised. And in his fantasy it was her chest that he bit at, her slim hands that tipped more wine down his throat, her pale, freckled body that he had pinned against a pillar by the banquet table, her sweet, breathless sighs that had people glancing over their shoulders at them.

Their sons would look away in embarrassed shame, happily, half-heartedly disgusted by how in love their parents were, not because of the drunken laughter and filthy promises that had Eris and Ronan slinking into the shadows with their other brothers, their pale cheeks burning red.

And in the morning she would wake half-naked on his bare chest, not Beron’s, and she wouldn’t vomit in a corner of the throne room amidst laughter at her expense, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. He wouldn’t watch her from across the room, still half-hard in the body of a female he’d never remember.

Helion let out a feral cheer alongside the rest of her court when Amarantha dragged Lucien’s limp body to the center that night.

That night, he wanted to be the one digging his nails into that ruddy, handsome Autumn face. He wanted to be the one feeling Beron’s blood crusting under his fingernails. Helion stared, numb and deaf to the screams from the Lady of the Autumn Court, as Amarantha dug his russet eye from its socket. When even Beron looked away, his face papery white and his arm around Liadhain’s trembling waist, Helion grit his teeth into a grin and watched her drop the bloody eyeball to the dirty ground and squish it into a pulpy red mess next to Beron’s son. He forced a chuckle when Lucien lifted a shaking, filthy finger to his eye and prodded the empty hole, mumbling incoherently, and in his fantasy it was Beron’s sobbing, feverish mess of a body that he stepped over on his way to the drinks.

In Helion’s fantasy it was him, not Beron, who stroked the hair from Liadhain’s face, who pressed his lips to her forehead as she slipped into paralyzed shock; it was him, someone more worthy of touching her skin who steadied her as she forced herself to look at her son, and when she stubbornly lifted the arm of her son who was a good two heads taller than her over her shoulders, in his fantasy it was Helion who silently lifted Lucien’s other arm over his own shoulders to help her carry him out of his own vomit and away from the center of another party.

In the moment, it was the most kindness Beron Vanserra had ever shown.

—

Lucien Vanserra came back with a golden eye, chunks of his handsome face missing, and a newfound inferno of a temper.

Amarantha threw Tamlin a masquerade ball to apologize—she’d maimed his pretty emissary.

“The scars will just help you win over the ladies,” Helion drunkenly told him at the masquerade, shoving him in the chest with too much force to be friendly.

Lucien hadn’t found it funny, that golden eye whirring behind his fox mask.

There was no blood at that banquet, only pearl and gold and precious gems studded across faerie brows, writhing bodies in the darkness of the dance floor. And Lucien whispering to Liadhain in a dim alcove, clutching her hands in his.

Helion had had too much to drink, and when he shoved Lucien into the wall snarling that he get his filthy hands off of her, she smacked him in the chest and whispered shrieks at him to stop it before he got all three of them killed. Blood throbbed through his head in time with the pounding drums, and Lucien still hadn’t regained enough strength to fight him back, stumbling against the wall like his coward of a father, and Helion reared back to hit him in the stomach because he should be punished for being Beron’s son, not his.

Liadhain screamed softly, tears streaking her face and Helion couldn’t remember what she looked like without tear stains. The thought froze his fist before it sunk into the barely-healed rips in Lucien’s torso, and the present faded into nothing but blurry streaks as she cursed at him and gripped his shaking wrist and yanked him down a dark corridor.

In his fantasy, Helion wasn’t drunk when she slammed him against a musty cave wall and kissed him until he tasted blood. In his fantasy he was sure it was her who shoved his toga off his shoulder and smeared his face with her tears. When he dreams of her and the way it should’ve gone, he remembers the pain of her nails piercing the skin of his chest and how he deserved so much worse and he remembers how she climbed his stupid, drunk body to fuck herself on him with tears in her eyes, always tears, always fucking tears in her eyes and in his fantasies he gave her everything she needed without having to ask.

But in the moment all he knew was a haze of red and a knife in his chest as she kissed him for the first time in three hundred years and in the moment he couldn’t savor it because he was too drunk to be sure that it was her. In the moment he fucked her like she was anyone else but in his fantasies he knew it was her and he loved her so fucking hard that she killed Beron in his sleep that night and dragged her bloody hands down Helion’s back as he drove into her with as much force as she had possessed when she drove a knife into Beron’s heart.

In that moment, and the next moment when she looked at him with hollow eyes and nothing but regret, Helion realized he was no better than Beron.

When the human girl sold herself to Amarantha and her Night Court whore, Liadhain drank an entire bottle of faerie wine and kissed Beron so sweetly before climbing off his lap to meet Helion in their dark, empty corridor. In Helion’s fantasies, Liadhain wasn’t using him; she wouldn’t stumble towards him grasping at her dress or drunkenly fumble at his cock. She wouldn’t frown when she looked at him and couldn’t remember where they were, and she wouldn’t whisper Beron’s name and slap at his hand when Helion squeezed her throat just a touch too tightly. In his fantasies, he had her in every capacity.

In the moment, he would take her in any.

Liadhain ran out of tears by the time Tamlin whipped Lucien to the bone in front of the court.

She sat on Beron’s lap and watched Tamlin flay the flesh from his back, her eyes sunken and dry as Lucien fought so hard to keep from screaming.

Helion dreamt it was Beron’s screams that filled her ears; his lap that she sat on. Or his hand holding the whip, cutting out Beron’s spine and presenting it to her to snap in two.

But it was Liadhain’s son who met his gaze through the molten gold of his mask, one of Liadhain’s eyes that silently begged him to end this torment just before his best friend tore another strip of flesh from his back.

Helion tried to find another fantasy before the next crack of the whip. Tried to put Beron’s face behind that mask, that screaming, ghostly face. Liadhain’s took its place, and Helion stumbled backwards in horror when the whip cracked across her back and she screamed for mercy, for death, for help, and when she needed him most, he turned on his heel and ran, ran to their corridor and vomited.

—

In Helion’s fantasies, they had a son.

A chubby, happy, bouncy babe that gnawed on his fingers and was always a little happier to see his mother than when Helion showed up. In his fantasy, he didn’t mind one bit, and was just as pleased to watch his mate take their son in her arms and cuddle him close in the crook of her neck.

In his fantasies, Liadhain came home to him, told him about her days, left her dirty laundry on his floor. She would smile softly when Helion would be so, so happy that he glowed, and when he kissed her he knew he didn’t have to savor it because he could kiss her again the next second.

When Helions fantasies came true, he almost wished they hadn’t.

None of his fantasies started with begging his scarred son for forgiveness. None of them included Liadhains hatred, nor the contempt he couldn’t help having at her for ruining what could have been. None of them included the scars that they left on each other Under the Mountain.

In this moment, Beron is rotting at the bottom of the ocean with a slice in his throat, and Liadhain is crawling into Helion’s bed. All is right in the world until Helion closes his eyes, his face buried in the sweet scent of her red hair, his arm around her waist so she never slips away again.

Then Helion closes his eyes, and in his dreams, it is his lap that Liadhain writhes on. It’s his neck that she kisses, but that’s wine on her breath, on her lips, and her eyes won’t focus, and when he tries to kiss her she fights him. In his dreams, she wakes on his chest but she still vomits in a corner and Helion is the one laughing, and in his dreams he cheers and watches as Amarantha nearly kills his son over, and over, and over again.

In this moment, all his fantasies have come true. In Helion’s dreams, his fantasies are nothing but fodder for his nightmares. And when he wakes in a cold sweat, Liadhain’s warm breath curling over his collarbone, he thinks he might deserve to be rotting at the bottom of the ocean with a slit across his throat, too.

[kelliealtogether]

I'm a data nerd, so this will probably not be interesting to anyone else, but I've been tracking some stats on What It All Could Be and doing analyses because I'm a loser with nothing else to do with my time.

*This is data analysis for my own pleasure. It's not in any way meant to boast, induce guilt, etc. I like doing this stuff because I find it interesting (and it's the part of my big girl job that makes me want to tear my hair out the least).

Chaptered fics are a long game. I think every fanfic writer knows, anecdotally, that with each chapter posted, hits go up a lot and kudos go up a little.

Here's something less anecdotal:

I captured current hits and kudos each time I updated What It All Could Be. As one can see, both increased chapter-over-chapter, but the hits rise at a far greater magnitude than kudos. This is understandable; as a logged-in user on AO3, you can only leave one kudo per fic. I'll touch on kudos more in a bit.

As far as hits per chapter, there's been a relatively steady-ish increase over time. Personally (and this is me pulling it out of my ass), I feel like readers may not click on a chaptered fic if they don't have evidence it will be updated regularly, or even at all. I get that. That's understandable. But you can see here that the "ball gets rolling", and the trendline for hits per chapter goes up, even though hits may not always be even/consistent.

*I've been updating on a six-day schedule, and Chapter 5 was a few days delayed because I posted Love, Comma, Ronan, so I chalk up the increased hits on Chapter 5 to the additional days between updates. Taking it as an outlier, the trendline still goes up.

Now for kudos.

Kudos, kudos, kudos...

It's almost the inverse of hits per chapter. The friendly trendline goes down, and this is expected. If they're logged in, a reader hits the kudos button once on Chapter 1, and then AO3 gives them a friendly reminder that they've already left kudos on every subsequent chapter.

And then there's guest kudos! Guest kudos always make me wonder how many "unique" kudos are present, not someone logging out to leave a kudo, or a reader without an AO3 account hitting kudos multiple times. (Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every single kudo I receive. I just find it interesting to contemplate how many kudos have the same individual behind them.)

As of the writing of this post, What It All Could Be has 267 kudos. 115 of those kudos are guest kudos, the other 152 are from users with AO3 accounts. This is actually a higher guest-to-user kudos ratio than I expected. Based on (anecdotal) review of stats on my other fics, I thought guest kudos would be closer to a third of the total kudos, but what do I know? 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, I had fun doing this, and I'll keep tracking this nonsense for the rest of the fic. I've got some other analyses in mind too, but figured I'd get a jump on doing nerdy stuff since I'm halfway through posting. 😌

[inlocusmads]

i'm pretty sure you've made a few posts about doing potential crossovers with your ocs, so i wanted to know if you think any of your ocs would be friends? or at least be able to sit in a room together?

Thanks so much for this q!! I've been pretty into talking about my ocs so really really appreciate you sending the question! <33

I have a couple of them here (and I don't think I can get to all of them, so this is just a tl;dr of some of them, esp ones that are 'technically mcs' from other books) including some additions that I should expand on so here's a quick rundown:

Inam (oc, laws-ish) -> Inam started out as my old Laws MC I played with, but quickly morphed into a completely different character. She's a IP lawyer who works for a prominent firm and is on strictly professional terms with Nora. They hit up each other after Nora did her thing with the Hand of Mahra and collaborate sometimes, on say the process of discovery in a case or just merely consulting each other on subject matters. They're not friends, I'd like to think but also not entirely enemies, if that makes sense. It's usually the tough stuff they really do reach out for help, otherwise they're just merely correspondences over a phone call or an email.

Ramona "Rowan" (mc, murder at homecoming) -> Rowan is also not technically "part of the gang" rather she comes to New York for an internship and stumbles onto the old story of those 'corrupted cops' Nora was looking into, many years ago (that got her kicked out from the NYPD). Rowan was targeted by the very same precinct and so Nora found out, she reached out to her and both of them settled down to talk about it. They're still in touch w each other, but Rowan ends up moving onto different prospects - the whole "kid detective" thing got too dangerous with Gabbie her parents didn't want to put her in such a career, so she took up investigative journalism instead in a non-profit company which is where she meets Aloka.

Aloka (mc, veil of secrets) -> Aloka, after the events in Birchport, ends up going back to New York to work for a non-profit investigative journalism company that were impressed with her work on the Sterling murders. She ends up creating a whole new life for herself there - having been a little worn-out by the stuff she wrote for the New York Gazette and reluctant to work with the FBI. Her domain of interest is reporting on 'missing people cases' specifically people of colour who are constantly overlooked by the media as well as 'instituitional corruption' which is why she was keen on taking up Rowan under her wing after reading her work. The two would have this kind of Gandalf/Frodo relationship where Aloka looks out for Rowan after learning she'd never had someone who was an adult figure who believed in her.

Morgan (oc, the unexpected heiress- next generation): Morgan is basically the 'next gen'/descendant of 'Lillian' Hayes (name in quotes as placeholder) and basically the Hayes family being this wealthy well-to-do electricity moguls passed down from generation to generation. Morgan is the next heir, their focus is on the Hayes-Horowitz company's R&D division where they aim to create more sustainable technology, which leads to a lot of say, patent troubles which is where Inam comes in. Morgan is pretty much Inam's regular client since they work in a field of mechanics, electronics and tech where it's prevalent to run into intellectual property disputes which suck. The two of them then have this sort of deep, close friendship and the shared love of getting into the thick of the mysteries as well as their background in STEM, as well as their general motivations in life, so to speak.

and some new ocs/mcs i haven't talked about and i'm probably going to fuck it up by introducing them into this shared world!

Ronan "Cato" (mc, the heist: monaco): Cato is the name he goes by as an alias, as well as irl and after the events of The Heist, he ends up doing some more - stealing from the rich and donating the profits to museums and libraries and schools. (Ik there are multiple endings and Cato does end up running a little international crime organization in the Good one) but I hc a couple years later, he kind of fades into retirement - despite having like villas in Spain etc, he kind of settles down in New York since his friends Eris and Rye end up kind of in their own bubbles - can't be an international thief all the time.

I'd like to think he goes for "one last heist" on his own and ends up getting caught by Nora and they kind of engage in their own quid pro quo - in exchange for Cato telling her the real story, his reasons for doing-so-and-so and for Nora to let him go, only for her to stumble onto something insanely massive. Or maybe he engages in a different "heist", meets up with Trystan and they just become really good friends because why not? Trystan knows people in literature, in underground drug rings, in the highest of posts in a dictatorship country, what's one more friend?

Penn (oc, platinum-ish): I'd like to think Penn became a full-time producer for MC while he was at Overknight records - maybe after Micah (Ozone) leaves to focus on his own career (?). Penn ends up producing a lot of smash hits for 'Cadence' and I'd like to think he meets Inam after Cadence gets her own sort of "Lana Del Ray sued by Radiohead" suit after her. Inam's admittedly a very good IP lawyer, so they win the lawsuit (I hc Inam received help from Nora, who in-turn received a lesson in music theory by Samaya). I feel like Penn would also end up in Trystan's social circle somehow and they'd know something about each other - he is a critically-acclaimed producer after all.

Tomyris 'Iris' (oc, the phantom agent prequel): GAIA must have had a starting point, so I'd like to think Iris was one of those masterminds who built it up from the beginning. It wouldn't have been called GAIA (since I assume the real TPA story takes place years into the future where advanced world-ending tech ends up taking over the world), rather maybe starting out as a private detective business that kind of allies itself with the Ginovesi Agency. Iris is just one person, they kind of started out as a cop themselves but saw the internal corruption and decided to leave the position. I'd also like to think Iris tackles a whole different domain than Nora does. Their forte would be more on the side of "financial disputes and embezzlement" and would likely join forces with Nora upon knowing they could benefit from each other rather than worry they are each other's enemies.

Iris's character is still a WIP so I don't know how to approach their story a little. Maybe I'll figure it out someday, but as of now I'll stick with the characters mentioned in my original OC list and figure out the rest lmao

Thank you so much for sending me an ask!

[drunktuesdays]

Oh my GOD. I want more!!! If that’s a first draft how is it even going to get better. Do you have any fully abandoned draft material you would ever want to share? You’re honestly so good it blows my mind

oh my gosh thank you. that's VERY nice!!!!!!

i combed through my wip folder, and honestly i have so many that when i open the doc, it says something like, "So it's positive,' Jim said, not meeting his eye." and then NOTHING else because past!me is an asshole. OR it has more to it, but I'm not convinced it's FULLY abandoned.

But here's a wip I really think I'm unlikely to ever seriously work on, because I truly cannot become Aliens AU girl. I don't know if you ever watched Stargate: Atlantis, anon, but this was intended as a big juicy crossover with that show, with all of the AEW wrestlers slotted in as either marines, scientists, or other civilians, alongside the main SGA characters that already exist. Dustin and Greg are Marines, Jim's a scientist, and Kris is an alien who joined their team at some point, and she is their Ronan.

Again, disclaimer that this is rough first draft level writing and also the three scenes are not as well connected as they would be if I really knew where I was going

The room they were keeping him in was sterile, white everywhere.  It could be comforting to think that across millions of alien cultures, evil labs were almost always all the same. 

It’d be comforting if Dustin wasn’t the one being held in one, of course.  

He was on a gurney, arms strapped down by his sides, feet handcuffed to the edge.  The Xcyzu held up its hands, said “Lieutenant, we mean you no harm--”

“You know who says that the most?” Dustin snapped, trying to wiggle his arm out again.  “People who mean me harm.”

“I wish you’d calm yourself,” the Xcyzu said.  “Maybe if--” and he shimmered a little, went opaque for a second, and then Jim was standing there, a tray full of instruments in his arms. 

“Hey,” he said, low. “It’s gonna be okay.”

Dustin knew it wasn’t Jim.  He'd watched the alien morph into Jim in front of him, and still--his heart rate felt like it was settling against his will. "Fuck off," he said weakly.

Jim—the alien—made a face. "Rude," he said, and then he set the tray of instruments down and came closer, reaching out to touch Dustin again. "Relax," he said. "It's just me."  Jim's fingers skated down the side of his face, and Dustin was—he wasn't—he knew it wasn't Jim—

Then, an alarm came over the speakers. The alien that was wearing Jim's face swore in a very un-Jimlike way. "I'll be right back," he said, and dashed out of the room, leaving Dustin strapped there, sweaty and bewildered. 

The Xcyzu came in again, still wearing Jim's face. “Oh, you’re back, are you?” Dustin said bitterly.  “Give it up, you're not going to make me fucking cooperate.”

“Dustin?” the Xcyzu said, frowning at him.  “What are you--”

"Stop it,” Dustin snapped. "Just stop it, okay? He's not—I don't know what you think is—but you can't just wear his face and suddenly I'll let you put stuff in my ass, okay?"

The Xcyzu froze awkwardly and then flushed beet red, which Dustin thought was pretty innovative in terms of face stealing technology. They'd even managed to mimic the way Jim's eyes went wide and freaked.  After a beat, he came over to Dustin, and pulled a knife out of his tac-vest. 

"Whoa," Dustin said, cringing away. "Wait, hang on, don't—" but the alien only cut through Dustin’s restraints, freeing him. Then he stepped back, and busied himself putting his knife away, and fixing his hair.

“Uh,”  Dustin said, sitting up and flexing the stiffness out of his arms.  “Oh, uh. Jim?”

“Yeah,” Jim said, not looking at him.  

“I think they wanted me because I’m clearly the hottest one,” Dustin said, as they tramped back to the ship.  “They looked at you freaks and were like, oh yeah, that one--”

“Bullshit,” Greg said. “They probably heard you talking shit and were trying to do us a favor.”

“Fuck you,” Dustin said.  “I finally get kidnapped by sex perverts for my hot bod, and you’re trying to ruin this for me. Unbelievable.”

“The thing I don't understand,” Jim said, "is why they chose my face."

“I think the jumper’s up ahead,” Dustin said, and sped up.

Jim and Kris were talking quietly in the back when Dustin finished his pre-flight checks.  He watched them for a minute, their two heads ducked together, talking seriously.  

He hated this stupid day.  He looked over at Greg, who was also being kind of a freak.  He was sitting very still, hands folded carefully over the bag in his lap, and had a placid, far away look on his face which was the instant give away that he was up to some shit.  

Dustin sighed.  Of course his team would ruin his sex pervert kidnapping this thoroughly.  Assholes.  

When they flew back through the gate, Colonel Sheppard was waiting.  

“Lieutenant Howard, I’d love to know how your visit to a planet we have successfully traded with--” and he looked at an anthropologist, who quickly volunteered, “two hundred and thirty two times.”

“Thanks,” Sheppard said.  “A planet we have successfully traded with two hundred and thirty-two times went this badly.”

“Okay, well, sir,” Dustin started a little indignantly, and behind him, Jim stepped warningly on his heel. Dustin changed tacks, and instead tried blinking up at Shep charmingly. “I guess we’re just lucky?”

Sheppard barked his weird, alarming laugh.  “Get out of my sight before I stick you in the brig.”

“Blaming the victims,” Dustin muttered, but he left anyway, walking quickly until he was out of Sheppard’s sight.  

He changed out of his BDUs quickly, throwing on a t-shirt and shorts, and headed right back into the hallway.  If Greg was hiding something, it was better that Dustin knew now before it got out of hand.  

When he got to Greg’s room, Jim was outside, just raising his hand to knock.  “You noticed too?” Dustin said grimly.

Jim shrugged, and from behind Dustin, Kris said “better we deal with it as a team.”

When Greg answered the door, he seemed not surprised but disappointed to see them.  “You can't make me send him back,” he said. "I love him."

“Okay, fucked up place to start,” Dustin said, and shoved his way forward into the room to see a tiny alien creature busily devouring one of Greg's boots.  "Oh shit," he said, staring at it. "I hate this fucking day."

[yourpalheapass]

I've seen some scenarios of what the moon boys go through when their S/O gets snapped

But what about the S/O

1st scenario could be where you are hanging out with them at Steven's apartment and you are in the kitchen making dinner since it's your guy's anniversary and while Steven is fronting and feeding gus it's when he starts to dust. Steven calls out for you and you reply with "yeah?" And you enter the room and see no one. You then call out to him, then Marc, then Jake. But at first you assume they went out for something and you have the TV on and there is breaking news you don't believe it and you try calling them and a phone rings from next gus' fish tank then you realize they had become victim to the snap.

You mourn and call Nat (you were a former Avenger) and then 5 years later you left Stevens apartment [but you still sort of live there] but its not the same so you rent a small apartment in the city and try helping Natasha find Clint and you are not your usual self anymore like you are more tired and you get easily irritated, you are much more blunt. But then you get a call from Nat who's been keeping touch with you and she tells you that they have found a way to bring everyone back.

You can't believe it and you tell her your on your way there. You suit up and make your way there.

You go with Rhodey and Nebula to retrieve the space stone. You come back to the present and you feel hopeful until you hear the news of Natasha.

You sit by a window anxious as the Racoon you know as Rocket , Tony, and Bruce make a gauntlet similar to Thanos'.

When the gauntlet is done you stand behind Tony next to Clint. Watching as Bruce snaps his fingers and a flash of lights blinds you and the dims down. You look around the room "did it work?"

Your phone goes off and you get startled by the sound. You get your phone from your pocket and see Steven's contact pop up. You feel yourself tearing up and answer the phone.

"S-steven?" You say

"(Y/n)! Where are you love? I thought we were having our dinner but the apartment is empty" he says

You were about to respond but the building exploding interrupted

You fight your hardest and think hope is lost until the portals appeared and the day was saved again.

Tony sacrificed himself and dusted Thanos and his army away and everyone was able to go back to their families.

You are in the elevator anxiously waiting for the door to open. You make it to the front door and open it with the spare key you had.

"STEVEN? MARC? JAKE?" You say as you get inside the apartment

"(Y/N)?"

You turn and see him in the same clothes he wore when he bliped. You make your way towards him and hug him tightly letting out all the pain and loneliness you've felt when they left.

You pull away from him and kiss him. You pull away once more looking at him with tears of relief and joy. "I cant believe you're here"

"Sweetheart you look tired" Steven says hug8ng you again

"Time without you guys has been hard"

"Everything is okay baby we're here we're not going anywhere" Marc says now fronting

"I've really missed you guys so much"

End 1 of 2

Senario 2

I was also thinking like what if you went immediately on call with them after fighting thanos in wakanda saying if they are okay and Marc says that they are okay but while saying that he gets cut off and you hear panic. So you start to panic and yell out their names only to realize they are gone too.

And then what if khonshu goes to you and asks you to become his avatar as a way to cope with your loss and to protect the remaining people on this planet.

You say yes and begin doing vigilante stuff. So basically like Clint when he took on the name Ronan. You turn out the same from the last senario blunt, tired, and short tempered.

Then you have Nat tell you that there is a way to bring them back

And it ends off the same way the last senario did.

Idk I feel like I wrote too much lol but let me know which one you like the most.

Edit: I'm sorry I forgot to give Jake some writing time in this one 💀💀

[twwpress]

Weekly Press Briefing #46: May 7th to May 13th

Welcome back to the Weekly Press Briefing, where we bring you highlights from The West Wing fandom each week, including new fics, ongoing challenges, and more! This briefing covers all things posted from May 7 - May 13, 2023! Did we miss something? Let us know; you can find our contact info at the bottom of this briefing!

Challenges/Prompts:

The following is a roundup of open challenges/prompts. Do you have a challenge or event you’d like us to promote? Be sure to get in touch with us! Contact info is at the bottom of this briefing.

The Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Josh/Donna prompt fest (hosted by @jessbakescakes and @thefinestmuffin) is open for claiming; fics reveal on June 24th. Details here. 

Photos/Videos:

Here’s what was posted from May 7 - May 13.

Amy Landecker posted photos in memory of her and Brad’s boxer, Otis, who sadly passed away this week: 1 | 2

Bradley Whitford also posted a photo of himself and Otis in memory of him. 

Dule Hill posted a video of himself and his wife Jazmyn promoting their new children’s book. 

Josh Malina posted photos of himself from a Bond Official interview. 

Marlee Matlin posted a photo of herself and her mother, who has passed away, in memory of her for Mother’s Day. 

Mary McCormack posted a photo of herself in her show Heels (the second season premieres on Stars on July 28).

Richard Schiff posted an elevator selfie with his wife Sheila, Ronan Diego de Oliviera, Eric Edmeades, and John Lee. 

Rob Lowe posted a selfie celebrating 33 years of sobriety. 

Donna Moss Daily: May 7 | May 8 | May 9 | May 10 | May 11 | May 12 | May 13

Daily Josh Lyman: May 7 | May 8 | May 9 | May 10 | May 11 | May 12 | May 13

No Context BWhit: May 7 | May 8 | May 9 | May 10 | May 11 | May 12 | May 13

This Week in Canon:

Welcome to This Week in Canon, where we revisit moments in The West Wing that occurred on these dates during the show’s run.

Season 1, Episode 21: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics aired on May 10, 2000.

Season 2, Episode 21: 18th and Potomac aired on May 9, 2001.

Season 3, Episode 19: The Black Vera Wang aired on May 8, 2002.

Season 4, Episode 22: Commencement aired on May 7, 2003.

Season 5, Episode 21: Gaza aired on May 12, 2004.

Season 7, Episode 21: Institutional Memory aired on May 7, 2006.

Editors’ Choice:

In honor of Mother’s Day in the US and moms everywhere, this week we are recommending some of our favorite mom-centric fics! We’ve tried to balance angst and fluff, but sometimes moms are there for/go through some tough stuff, so as always please check warnings, tags, and descriptions before diving in. 

where you lead, i will follow by sam_writes_fics for JessBakesCakes  | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | A series of vignettes focusing on Mama Lyman over the years.

 Don't Spare Me From Anything (Your Burden is Mine) by JessBakesCakes for SilentScreamer | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | "When Rachel looks into his eyes, she sees eight-year-old Josh, awake from yet another nightmare after Joanie’s passing. She sees sixteen-year-old Josh, bags under his eyes after a fitful night’s rest. She sees twenty-four-year-old Josh, downing another cup of coffee and heading to the library to study, just to avoid the possibility of being confronted with the images that have been haunting him nearly his whole life."

Or, Mama Lyman helps her Trauma Boy navigate his mental health.

 Love, Mom by sloganeer | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Sam Seaborn | Complete | [Ed. note: no description given on AO3, but this is a cute, Sam’s mom-centric drabble.]

 A Heart, Sketched in Blue Pen by BeatriceEagle | Rated T | Josh Lyman (No Pairings Listed) | Complete | Like his father and his sister before him, Josh Lyman can't help but break his mother's heart.

 Ain’t Nothing But a Family Thing by jeaniecregg | Rated G | C. J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler | Complete | Molly stumps CJ with an important question.

 Janus by Sangerin | Rated G | Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet | Complete | Introspection caught up with her.

Fics:

Presenting your weekly roundup of fics posted in the tag for The West Wing on Archive of Our Own.

Josh/Donna

The Theory of Entropy by Jane_3yr3 | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

Cicatrix by spooky_spacegirl | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

Domestic Days by spooky_spacegirl | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

Help Me Hold On To You by Shinyrosa | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress Stranded, Strung Together by TemperanceCain for JessBakesCakes | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

Other Pairings/Gen Fic

Off the Record by  onekisstotakewithme for daylight_angel, miabicicletta, Luppiters, hondagirll | Rated T | Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg | In Progress

yeah, me too by smallandblueandloud | Rated G | C. J. Cregg/Andrea Wyatt/Toby Ziegler | Complete

it started off with a kiss... now it ended up like this by imawkwardlysoc | Rated G | Sam Seaborn/Original Female Character | In Progress

Multiple Pairings

Tiny Fighters: NICU Stories by mlea7675 | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, Helen Santos/Matt Santos, Original Male Character/Original Female Character | Complete

THE WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING TEAM CAN BE REACHED VIA THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

Twitter: @TWWPress

Email: weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com

Feel free to let us know if we missed something, if you have an event you’d like us to promote, or if you have an item that you’d like included in the next briefing!

xx, What’s next?

[baladric]

i was just randomly scrolling through the tdt tag and i saw your post about the horrible treatment by supposed fans towards stiefvater and trc/tdt and i couldn’t agree more. things were always tricky and it was a sad sad day when she closed her tumblr and i remember a lot of it had to do with the treatment of kavinsky’s character. i’m not saying there weren’t problematic elements to her writing but she more often than not got criticised for all sorts of dumb shit but i truly hoped that the fandom had matured in the years following the release of the raven king but i suppose it was not to be. i remember when she did a reddit ama and got accused of being homophobic because declan and jordan got engaged but not ronan and adam. like ?!?!? did this person even pay attention to the story and their character arcs?? it would make very little sense for pynch to get engaged, not least because they are barely in the same place for most of tdt. anyway sorry for the rant but i just truly feel bad for maggie, for all the work and love she put into these characters and doing it all through a scary illness that nearly stopped her from writing and by all accounts would have killed her. i definitely think she wasn’t prepared for the level of fandom and attention she was going to receive for trc and it sucks that she’s had to reduce her presence from social media since. i can’t wait for her next books though especially because they seem to be more for adults. i think she has truly mastered young adult fiction so i’m curious to see what she does next, and it’s bound to be good if tdt is any indication

oh word, friend! honestly the vitriolic outlash re: kavinsky was sort of my personal first red flag about the rising of purity culture in fandom spaces (though there were, and are, valid criticisms of k obviously, like yikes re: the "face of a refugee" shit)—and now all this stuff about pynch in tdt is like... idk, people have lost touch with the concepts of nuance and also unhomogenized relationship arcs.

(THIS GOT SO LONG SORRY, I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS)

idk how understood this is, but as a chronically ill person, i think about it a lot—ronan's entire arc in tdt, especially in cdth, is about chronic illness and the arduous, painful process of acceptance of one's disability and consequent limitations. like you said, stiefvater came into tdt after a terrifying illness during which she literally lost the ability to string sentences together, and very much had no idea if it was a skill she would ever regain. and she's still dealing with issues, i'm sure, because any serious illness leaves its marks.

being a dreamer has always had aspects of chronic illness, though one could argue that its original plot inclusions in trc aligned more with experiences of addiction and mental illness (with a soupçon of internalized homophobia, for Flavor™). but the way tdt starts off with ronan being very directly forced into conflict with his physical capabilities in regards to doing the things he needs to do for his own essential happiness (read: moving to be closer to adam, and his following inability to actually do that, as it took him too far off the ley line to be safe for him,or anyone around him) is a classic chronic illness narrative. and considering what stiefvater was coming out of, experientially, it's very clear that this is deliberate.

(i think she's actually talked about this somewhere, maybe in that reddit ama, but idr where! if anyone wants to follow-up with that, it would be lovely)

the thing is!!! navigating one's own disability is a grieving process—and grief is multifaceted, and comes paired with a lot of anger and railing at god/nature/reality/whatever. which, of course, can absolutely ruin relationships and push loved ones away. and even if it doesn't firebomb those relationships, it still complicates them intrinsically. a person can't help someone that's not helping themself, and it's hard to have space for helping yourself when all of your resources are going towards survival. and ronan is very much surviving. he is not helping himself—and he hasn't been for a long time at the start of tdt. we see that in the daily/weekly schedule declan had to force him to write so he wouldn't just waste away, and it continues apace into, you know. violent ecofascism. (which is a lot more destructive than your average joe can manage with their disability crisis, but you know, each to their own!)

meanwhile, adam's on his own self-worth/self-concept journey, spreading his wings at college and doing the very classic job of swinging oneself so far in the opposite direction of their old behaviors or the person they used to be, that it ends up being its own brand of personal disservice. he has put the adam parrish of henrietta in a box and shoved it to the back of his mind, and donned this very literal disguise (my boy! in a tweed fuckin vest and slacks! love that for him) of ivy league therapist friend!adam, and though we obvs lack adam pov to take the actual temperature of this, it's really clear that this shift isn't sustainable. you can't run from trauma, and you can't run from your past self, and he's making a valiant effort at doing both. it's gonna back up on him, if it's not already.

so ronan going off the rails? not something adam has the capacity to manage gracefully, even if ronan was letting him in—which he isn't, because he's grieving the simple fact of an inherent freedom he'll never be allowed. all of his friends have scattered on the wind like so many traumatized dandelion seeds, and he's stuck in the same place, unable to put the ghosts of their collective past behind him, because they live in his house. this is the driveway where he found his father, dead; this is the barn where he spent countless fruitless hours trying to dream a sweetmetal for his mother, only to have her die horribly before he could; this is the car in which he raced a dead boy, and these are the streets he drove with his best friend on long, sleepless nights when all they could do was try to keep each other from falling through the holes in their heads. the school he failed, the church in which he dreamed a crime worse than anything he'd dreamed before or since, the hummocks of disturbed earth, grown over with tall grass, in which he buried the things that wanted to kill him and who knows how many other corpses of his own physical self.

and he can't leave. he can never leave, so he's clutching at straws and alienating everyone who loves him and just McFreakin Losing It! which is fine, because he's nineteen and stranded and feels more alone than he ever has, in this void of anything like guidance, in the void of parental figures, in the void of any kind of traditional life path, and he has to work all of that out for himself.

so of course he and adam aren't getting fucking engaged. of course it's not a happily ever after—and it would be disinenguous for maggie goddamn stiefvater to give us that! because when has she ever been anything but a writer of complex, messy and wretchedly gorgeous characters? isn't that what drew us all to her in the first place? because fuck, y'all, the draw sure isn't her plots or her worldbuilding! (i love her worldbuilding, to be clear, it's just... aside from the dreaming, it's not super consistent)

stiefvater's appeal as an author is the very unique and complex way she understands her characters' minds, and refuses to ever play them as archetypes. gansey isn't just a nerd, or just a rich boy, or just a lonely person—he is all of them at once. he's a king of men, he's miserable, he's giddy with the thrill of being alive, he wants to get pizza with his friends and drive too fast and be allowed to go fuckin bonkers now and again and kiss the girl he loves.

gansey is a fucking problem. blue is a problem, henry is a problem—adam parrish and ronan lynch are PROBLEMS, and god fuckin bless stiefvater for not only allowing this in her characters, but for leaning into it. she lets them be messy, lets them be awful and fight and do the wrong thing, and—most importantly—she lets them find ways to come back together afterwards!

all this to say, it blows my fucking mind that people are surprised that this trilogy is doing anything other than absolutely wrecking shop. stiefvater wouldn't have written these books if there weren't things in her characters that needed to break in order to be patched back up, stronger than before. the entire raven cycle universe is built on the shifting nature of individual identity, and the ways we all have to create our own fulfillment, because the goals we set for ourselves are very rarely the point of existence that we want them to be. and if the first quartet was about gansey and adam, at their core, then this trilogy is about ronan and declan, building their fulfillment. finding their footing in the world as adults (which, you know, quick point, tdt is not young adult fiction, it's regular old speculative fiction, so uhhh yeah of course the material is gonna be even less fluffy homogenized shit than the first series) and that's fucking HARD and MESSY and just. jeez, y'all, have faith in stiefvater that it'll all come out the better, and find some peace that things are messy right now. (it's not HOMOPHOBIC for a queer person to struggle in fiction, and if you're thinking that, you need to sit down and examine that thought very deeply. i could say a lot about how declan falling in love and getting engaged is extremely meaningful for his personal development, where the same thing wouldn't be for adam and ronan, but uhhh idk)

we make a lot of jokes that stiefvater likes to hurt us, but does she? really? like, yes, her writing hurts, but as a person who was dragged kicking and screaming through his mid-20s by the nape of his neck and the slim hope of the brighter future shown in the raven cycle, i can say that her stories are actually, at their core, about healing and the awful paths we have to walk to reach it. and, with the advent of tdt, they're now also about the fact that healing is cyclical, not linear! there's no end point to growth. there's no happy ending—because there's no ending, short of death. life has ups and downs, and with every layer of ourselves we heal, another, deeper layer pulls back, demanding that same care and attention, those same tears and clawing for the light. it's hard. it sucks. but at the end of the day, we can get gelato with our friends. we can look at art. we can find our sweetmetals to carry us through our days, whether those be assistive devices, or people, or a favorite book.

;laskfjw idk TL;DR, these books would not only not be maggie stiefvater books if adam and ronan just... got engaged and were having a happy, fluffy time of it (and fwiw, declan and jordan are distinctly NOT having a happy fluffy time??)—they would also fucking suck. they would not be entries into this world. they would be doing these characters a fucking disservice. so just. everyone needs to calm down and realize they can just not read something if it makes them mad. what's that meme with the skeleton? you can just LEAVE!!! you can put the book down instead of harassing the fucking author, who is doing nothing but staying true to herself and her motivations in storytelling.

clearly i have a lot of feelings about this. if you read this far, blessings be on your funky little soul, you absolute legend.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

some observations made while editing this fic that i started in 2016 and last touched, idk, 3 years ago? a little less? a little more?

i was able to articulate to myself a while ago that when i'm stuck on a story, there's an extremely high chance that i've fucked up something i already wrote, and specifically there's an extremely high chance that i've fucked up by getting things to a point of greater resolution/clarity or emotional positivity than i've yet been able to earn. but like. WOW is that ever true here. a LOT of stuff that has been tweaked/moved/straight up cut has fallen under "he shouldn't know this yet" or "this scene should not end as happily as it currently does." it's funny because when i started this story i remember i was like "i'm just gonna write a super self-indulgent plotless romance story where i just write whatever feels good and don't worry about it." but like. because i am me. this was not physically possible for me to the degree i was attempting to execute it.

similarly, another thing i was like "let's just relax and not worry about this!" about was leaning into, basically, "this is the way this moment would be written in a fanfiction written by a neural network," and guess what else wound up often on the cutting room floor! or, like, heavily edited. like, adam still has a very strong reaction to ronan saying his name at what feels like a potentially charged moment but well before anything has Happened. but it no longer reads "fuck, hearing his name in ronan's mouth did crazy things to his pulse, to his hands, to his mind." and, like, what's funny is that - i wrote that originally because i do enjoy reading that kind of self-indulgent hyper-romantic all feelings all the time fanfic style! like, authentically! but in my own writing i see it and i can't abide it, it needs to go.

i kept the homoerotic creek wrestling scene, though. #yolo

i still think of myself as a show-off, but i've cleaned up a lot of sentences that very transparently read to me now as me not trusting my writing to come off Good unless it was ornate or complicated or deliberately strange to a sufficient degree at all times. i still love a baroque sentence and even more a whole bunch of them stacked on top of each other, and kinda wish i had a fic on deck that would let me really indulge in that direction again, but this is also definitely a shift i have experienced over the past couple years in the magicians fandom - i've become much more comfortable with simplicity, largely because i've just like come to believe after three decades where "good at writing" is by an extremely wide margin the most consistent compliment i have received in my life that if my writing sounds good to me it probably sounds good to other people, and if it doesn't, that's simply not my business. i think these days i have much less of a sense of having something to prove every single time i sit to write down anything. (this is also the shift i have perceived in taylor swift's songwriting post-reputation, which i choose not to interrogate too deeply.) i think it has helped also to read some stories with prose that, like, would be composed of sentences i would formerly think of as too "simple" for me if i thought of them, but reading them in the context of these incredibly good (funny, sharp, moving, gripping) stories has helped me really appreciate the power of concision and simplicity in the hands of someone really fucking smart telling a great story, broaden my conception of what good writing is, and made me more flexible in thinking about the match between style and story, and interested in being more deliberate about that. (oh, and - it also helped to at one point have had an idea for a story i felt VERY passionately about writing and could tell was going to be REALLY long, to the extent that i knew if i didn't calm down about making every paragraph a cut jewel i would never finish it, and i really wanted to finish it, lol.)

all that said, definitely a Thing in this editing process has been that this story bears the marks of whatever i was writing like over the course of like multiple years, and if i wanted to be more of a perfectionist about it i would probably do a couple read-throughs just to make sure i'm keeping to a consistent register. but i don't, so i won't!

the last time i fucked around with this story, i went through it taking notes trying to see if i could articulate for myself what the fuck it was all about. i made some not entirely successful hypotheses, but i guess that process helped because now the central issue of it feels....... maybe not the clearest it could be, lmao. but clear enough that i'm like, ok, this is a story, not just a Series Of Words.

but, i mean, it is to be clear a story with the plot "nice things happen to adam parrish, and he has like eight whole heart attacks about it." it's like, thirty thousand words of that.

related to the stuff above, i've gotten better at not overstaying my welcome by overwriting the end of the scene, but that's probably the place i tend to get most stressed about it and am most prone to getting in my own way. (mostly i feel like my experiences with fic and nonfiction are pretty different, but this is a place of overlap - more than once i've drafted an essay where i really hated the ending i'd written and then had an editor save it by being like "actually i think you already wrote the last paragraph and then for some reason just kept going after it?")

complained about this already but as someone who thinks of like, fanfiction dialogue specifically as something that tends to flow pretty easily for me, it is harder than i would have thought getting ronan lynch to talk about his feelings in a way that feels in character, because of how he never does that in canon ever! i had a couple spots where i made him a little more mush-mouthed or less self aware, but overall i'm like. whatever. i didn't create this problem. it's not my fault.

i definitely don't remember what the fuck the deal is with any of the ley line shit in the books and i am absolutely not going to look it up. also sorry to noah who appears once and then vanishes because i just couldn't deal with ghost worldbuilding at any point in this process.

oh another change i've found myself repeatedly (though not 100% consistently) making is having a character go from "he thought/wanted to say blah blah, but didn't say it" to just having him say it. i think i more consciously want to write scenes that are dynamic instead of like Tone Poems About Feelings Where People Are Talking (although those still have a place!!!!!!! imo), and also am less afraid of having someone say something strong enough to elicit some kind of reaction from the other person. that's DEFINITELY specifically a shift that comes from writing a long magicians fic where my goal in all dialogue scenes was to make them as unhinged as possible and to resist giving myself a safety net by never crossing any real lines. now i think it's fun to have someone just say something and then force myself to figure out what happens next.

when i hit publish this will probably be the closest thing to a straightforward romance i've ever written, because it's about two people having feelings and hooking up and having more feelings and really not a whole lot else, and the romance element of it is central in a way i don't usually do. this is in retrospect probably one reason this extremely simple story has taken me six and a half years to write! but also maybe this means there is hope for the divorced quentin AU yet....

anyway. i actually think i might get this thing up while it's still technically 2022 - i've got a scene and a half left to write, and while if i wanted to hold myself to higher standards about it i would probably want to marinate on the actual ending a little longer after having tightened up the first 25k, i don't so i won't. it would be the longest thing i posted this year, which would be kinda funny. part of me feels like i should chapter it bc it is going to be like 30k, but a bigger part of me wants to be Free, so. we shall see!

[ah0yh0y]

greywaren: an initial review

finished greywaren and i feel so flat??? like 

that was a shit resolution

barely any plot points were tied up

the whole nial lynch redemption really pissed me off because the fact that niall loved declan all along shouldn't negate the way declan felt all these years and the fact all this was what it took for declan to go back loving this man what 

ALSO MOR AND FENNIAN LIVING AT THE BARNS IN THE END mor wanted to kill ronan?????????? ike declan doesnt take offese to that IT ALL FEELS SO WRONG ////

MATTHEW???? MATHEWW MY BELOVED WAS ODNE DIRTY LIKE hes just WALKED BACK??? where's the complexity of mister impossible?????? where's the true conversations about being dreamt and the implications of that. we ahs that lovely scene in mister impossible where mathew is rightfully pissed because hes dreamt and lied to and in greywaren we had matthew pissed because of the whole sweetmetal thing BUT IT NEVER GETS TOUCHED ON AGAIN?????? AT ALLLLL????? like he goes with bryde and like roasts him and then falls asleep and then just WALKS BACK SKIPS TO 4 YEARS LATER????

also sick of the whole person/thing being dreamt used as a catch all plot device ITS EVERYWHERE it seems to really serve no purpose anymore like thematically EVERYONE IS DREAMT NOW I GUESS at least ronan didn't end up dreaming himself 

there isnt the lingering effects of their actions the consequences of the past yknow 

 hennessy and ronan weren't responsible for the apocalyps -  the only brown guy was who was built up to be a major villain at all and was like mentioned like a bit in the first book to establish a motivation for carmen farook lane liek??? the moderators did not deserve that much screentime kavinsky was more interesting than nathan 

also i really hate epilogues with time skips that arent usually done well i  would have prefered a couple of months late thing so we can see the work in progess happiness this feels too neat with a bow feels like something that would be a short story

JORDAN HENNESSY DESERVED MORE PAGE TIME 

but like the carmen and hennessy stuff was great tho 

tldr.:book was rushed , so many things were just magically fixed and restored and i would have preferred a harder slope, jordeclan wedding best bit Matthew deserved better , declan deserves better and honestly SO MID and disappointing  gonna reread mister impossible to regain my sanity

[allsassnoclass]

top 5 sci-fi films? also maybe top 5 books you've read in the 2020s? sending good vibes your way! -megs 💙

hi @igarbagecannoteven!!!! thank you for asking!!!

oooooooo i'll be honest i'm more of a fantasy girl i think but! here we go.

Top 5 Science Fiction Movies

Treasure Planet-I love it very very very very much

Back to the Future-reminds me of my high school physics teacher, who was an incredibly sweet man and loved this movie. We watched it in class once a year

The Martian-very enjoyable movie!

Guardians of the Galaxy 3-I honestly don't know where I would rank this one as opposed to the rest of the gotg franchise, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I've been feeling very disenchanted with marvel and franchised movies in general lately, so that was refreshing

Star Wars original trilogy-classic

Top 5 Books I Read in the 2020s (disclaimer: I didn't start marking down what books I read until last year, so I don't necessarily remember all the books I read in the 2020s)

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater-compared to the 6 other books set in this universe, this one isn't my favorite at all, but the fact that it closed out such an incredibly important series (or sequel-series) for me meant I devoured it in one day and did cry multiple times. The Raven Cycle is my favorite book series, Maggie is my favorite author, and Ronan is my ultimate favorite character, so the conclusion to his story has to be at the top of this list

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraquib-absolutely FANTASTIC collection of narrative essays. Touching, thought-provoking, interesting, engaging, and the Fall Out Boy one made me cry. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys music and also everyone in general.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett-I love Discworld and I'm really enjoying making my way through the City Watch books!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo-wonderfully crafted world, interesting characters, and there's a heist!!!!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune-funky children, magic stuff, found family, middle-aged gay romance... NICE

honorable mention: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, which I enjoyed more than I anticipated. I probably won't read it again so I did get rid of it when my family did our big huge cleaning/de-cluttering, but if anyone wants a nice fun ya romance to read, I'd suggest this one!

other honorable mention: I think We're Gonna Be Okay by Nina LaCour was a 2020 read, but it might have been 2019. Either way, I really enjoyed that one too

Send me Top 5

[wantedbythegrammarpolice]

Tell me abt gotg >:)

SO… it’s about this bisexual idiot named Peter Quill/Star-Lord(my fav mcu character and also Hawkeye) stealing a powerful weapon called an infinity stone specifically the power stone and then Thanos “loans” his daughters Gamora and Nebula to a butthurt member of the blue man group Ronan the accuser then on this planet called Xandar a Broker and Peter are having a discussion about the weapon which we’ll call the orb and the broker finds out that Peter stole the orb from Ronan so Peter gets kicked out of the Brokers shop where he sees Gamora and this talking raccoon and a talking tree named Rocket(the raccoon) and Groot(the tree) and they’re bounty hunters find Peters bounty which is 40,000 units(which is the space money) Gamora grabs the orb from Peter and then Peter, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot are put in the most secure prison in the entire galaxy the Kyln when Peter sees on of the guards using his Walkman and he gets electrocuted and then he meets Drax the destroyer who is taking revenge on any Ronan supporters because Ronan killed his Wife and Daughter so he’s like really mad and then Peter, Drax, Rocket, Groot, and Gamora are making a plan to escape and what they need to escape is a arm band from a guard, a prosthetic leg except not really, and a battery so they get all the things and Drax comes with them and then their in this cockpit thing and the glass is cracking and they turn off the artificial gravity and they just barely escape but when the guardians galaxy go to retrieve their stuff but Peter can’t find his Walkman so he tells the guardians where his ship is and goes back into the Kyln to go get his Walkman and he finds it he kills the guy gets his Walkman goes back on the ship and surprise surprise Drax and Gamora are trying to kill each other and Peter doesn’t like that so he yells at them and Rocket starts taking apart the ship so he can make bombs and Peter doesn’t like that and now they’re off to Knowhere when they arrive on Knowhere they have to wait for the guy they need to sell it to so they go into a bar and Rocket and Drax get drunk and start a fight and then they meet this very creepy dude named the Collecter and he’s like really creepy and wants Groots corpse for his shop and he opens the orb and we see the power stone and then the Collecter’s worker touches the stone and it causes this really cool explosion and then Drax calls Ronan so that he can get his revenge and gets chucked in some like acid and Groot saves Drax and with Peter and Gamora they are getting threatened by the Ravengers a group of space pirates that kidnapped Peter when he was 8 so Peter makes a joke and they all laugh and decide that they will help defeat Ronan and Peter sends a message to the nova corps that he is 100% a dick and eventually they corner Ronan and what happens is Peter says “dance off bro you and me” and proceeds to dance and disract Ronan and then Peter grabs the stone and destroys Ronan and the guardians of the galaxy are formed the end

TL;DR: I love Peter Quill