#the writing is meh but it's fun!

[reggieblk]

i have NO idea which ones you’ve already answered ajdkshshdhdj but for the WIP game i would like to humbly inquire about the heart of the sea if you haven’t posted about it already 🙏🙏🙏

omg i am SO SORRY for the time it took for me to answer this ask!! work has been kicking my ass lol but thank you so much for asking! I'd be happy to talk about it <3

the heart of the sea is my pirate AU! The premise is that Harry is a pirate captain, and Tom is the Crown Prince of England; it's written from their dual POV. They meet when Harry is brought before Tom to be sentenced to death for his crimes and it's very much -- if not love, then -- obsession at first sight.

It includes a chase, a lot of found family, and I'd say it's a fast burn.

I haven't touched this one in a while despite having the plot entirely plotted out, but it's one of those wips where the initial idea is good but the execution is mediocre, so it could benefit from a rewrite at some point!

Here's a snippet I posted for a tag game a while ago of their first meeting : link

Here's a snippet from the chase portion of the fic as well :

They all broke off into groups, Harry going off on his own. When he left for the village, the Prince’s ship had been stationed further down the pier from theirs, devoid of any crewmates from the looks of it. He’d tried to get a better look, remaining discreet to avoid his own crewmates' merciless teasing, but he hadn’t seen anyone. 

So, maybe wandering off on his own was a decision made with the intent of catching a glimpse of the pretty Prince, no one had to know anyhow. 

He thought he’d go and give Suzie a visit, having not seen her in a couple of years. 

Walking into the bar though, he saw him. Leaning against the bar was the Prince, wearing distinctively pirate-esque attire, looking absolutely dashing. Harry’s heart rate spiked as he hovered in the doorway. He looked at the people hovering around the Prince but none were paying him any mind, too busy listening to the exchange between the Prince and the barmaid. 

Harry walked forward discreetly, leaning against a beam some feet away from the Prince. 

“A hundred doubloons,” Suzie was saying and Harry bit his cheek to not laugh, “that’s me last word.”

The Prince scoffed. “A hundred?” he repeated, fingers clenching against the wood.

“A bit much don’t you think, Suzie?” Harry interjected, advancing and leaning against the bar next to the Prince. He relished in everyone’s attention snapping to him, the Prince’s jaw dropping. 

“Harry Potter!” Suzie exclaimed, eyes wide. “My, I haven’t seen you in a while dear.”

“Aye,” Harry said, tearing his gaze away from the Prince, an amused grin on his features, “too long my darlin’, give us the usual, yeah?”

She nodded, smiling lightly, a pink blush decorating her cheeks.

“You!” a blonde man spat next to the Prince.

“You know this lot, Harry?” Suzie asked, setting a glass of rum in front of him. 

Harry grinned, turning to the Prince who looked shocked. “You could say that, now, how much do I owe you for this, love? Not a hundred I hope.”

Suzie shook her head, smiling. “Only one for that, although,” she added, leaning against the bar suggestively, “my offer still stands if you want it for free.”

Harry smiled warmly, turning back to her. “Aye you know me Suzie…”

She waved a hand in the air, masking her disappointment. “Married to the sea, I know, I know.”

“You know Suzie, lately I’ve been thinking I wouldn't mind a Prince,” he grinned, eyeing the man next to him who was still frozen in shock.

Suzie laughed. “A Prince? Good Lord, and where will you find yourself a Prince?”

Harry angled himself towards Tom, downing the last of his glass and smirking, watching as Tom’s eyes roamed over him. “Not far, I’m sure,” he murmured.

So suddenly Harry would have had no chance of expecting it, a dagger was at his throat and the Prince was pressing him into the bar, pressing the blade into his neck. Harry only grinned. The bar went silent, everyone stilling at the commotion. 

“Kill me here Tom and they’ll have your head on a stick before you can appreciate my death,” Harry murmured, holding the Prince’s waist in a bold move.

“You have something of mine,” the Prince sniped, digging the blade further into Harry’s throat. He’d never been more excited in his life. He made a delightful sight, eyes bright with adrenaline, cheeks flushed with anger, hands firm but delicate where he held onto Harry. 

“You’ve come a long way for a ring, love,” Harry murmured, looking up at the Prince through his eyelashes, relishing every reaction he got; his eyes flashing in anger, the blade digging further into his skin. Harry pinched his waist, just to see what would happen. His grin brightened as the Prince leant further into him. 

“I didn’t come for the ring,” the Prince spat, looking like he wanted nothing more than to slit Harry’s throat. 

“Another kiss then?” Harry asked cheekily, cocking his head to the side and licking his lips. He didn’t miss the way the Prince’s eyes flicked downwards, following the motion. 

“Harry, my boy! You seem to be in quite the predicament!”

Harry closed his eyes, groaning, clenching his jaw in annoyance.

Of course Dumbledore would ruin the best moment of his life.

“I’m busy old man!” he called, opening his eyes again. “You can just fuck off.”

Tom’s eyebrows raised, a faint look of amusement passing over him. Harry smiled at him, rolling his eyes, as if they were sharing a funny joke. 

“Can I buy you a drink?” Harry asked, turning his full attention back to Tom, hoping he was coming off as charming.

Tom scoffed. “You realise I’m going to kill you?” He made the sentiment clear by digging the blade further into Harry’s throat. 

Harry sighed before flipping their positions in a swift movement. The Prince’s eyes were wide as he was pressed into the bar. He attempted to fight back immediately but Harry only pressed his own knife into his throat, draping himself over the Prince in a way that was anything but appropriate.

“You know darlin’, it’s not that easy to kill me, a fair few people have had a go at it,” he said, smiling down at the Prince. Harry leant back, keeping the dagger in place, and took Tom’s left hand in his. He smiled, warmth blossoming in his chest. “My needle,” he murmured, passing a thumb over the thin band. 

The Prince hung his head back, baring his throat, and snatched his hand back. “I hate you,” he said through clenched teeth.

[crystalflygeo]

Heat haze ft Morax + fem!bunny adeptus!reader

cw/tags: heat/mating cycles, marathon sex, overstimulation, dirty talk, breeding kink, praise kink, creampie, sex toy, improper use of geo (lmao), Morax has a dragon penis, pet names, fucked stupid, reader calls Morax "My Lord" and Morax calls her "my child", power play??

notes: Pure self-indulgent filth <3 I love the concept of heats in general and though on applying that to adepti, then I remembered it's bunny year so why not... apparently there is a bunny in chinese mythology called the "Jade Rabbit" who serves the Moon Goddess soooo. Anyway. Breeding kink goes brrrrrr.

“M-my lord... I’m sorry I’m ah-” You gulp and try to breathe through your mouth, fingers clenching and unclenching trying to regain some semblance of stability. “I’m not feeling very… well”

Shameful. Lord Morax came to see you, probably talk about important matters regarding this year’s crops and yet-

“Is this your first heat alone?”

Your eyes widen and your cheeks burn, on instinct you look up panicked as your long ears stiffen in shock but just as quickly you avert your gaze, unable to look at him in the face at the revelation, and to avoid staring at his regal visage, fearful of your own reactions if you were to do so.

Oh he knows. He knows. Of course he knows. As much as you tried to suppress it your scent is probably dripping with want, especially when your thoughts were spiraling out of control mere minutes ago. Being an adeptus in heat is hard enough, but as a Jade Rabbit… it was especially hard on you.

You blink heavily, dumbly, your brain can’t keep up with all the emotions right now. You feel lightheaded but still manage to force out an answer. “N-No… no, I’m… used to it.”

Morax tilts his head and the light catches on his majestic antlers making them glow, and you find it impossible not to look “Of course.” He nods, still keeping immaculate composure. “But haven’t you found a mate yet?”

A mate. Your rabbit ears droop. Ever since you vowed to serve Lord Morax you never had time for such things, with the on-going war and protecting the humans, even as a non-combatant adeptus your duties were many. Agricultural care and development, medical support, logistics… you never had it in you to find a mate. You were devoted to your contract, and, to Lord Morax himself.

“I’m… I haven’t found the r-right one yet…” You mumble, hugging yourself and rubbing at your arm nervously in an attempt to mimic something.

“Oh my child, I’m sorry.” Morax approaches you and tentatively cups your cheek, fingers barely caressing your jaw, the touch is fleeting yet electric.

His hand is warm.

You unconsciously lean into the touch.

And he smells so good, so good.

“I could assist you, if you would allow it.”

You immediately flinch back at the words.

“W-what?!”

Morax simply blinks at you and crosses his arms, putting some distance between you two again. “I apologize if my advances are unwelcome.”

“No my lord it’s n-not that.” You can’t help but stare at his strong biceps, blackened skin accented by fine gold linings…

You try to control your breathing and think! Rationally!!

But still, you’re curious. What would it be like? To feel your God’s scent, your God’s touch, your God’s co-

You quickly shake your head. No, no! That’s indecent, scandalous! You’re not worthy, that’s…

“It’s okay, my child.”

The warm touch is back, hands placed at your shoulders, grounding you, stabilizing you. A shiver runs down your spine yet it doesn’t freeze you on the spot, rather it feels…

Tender.

You stare up at him and this time hold your gaze. He’s handsome and his eyes are the purest brightest molten gold you've ever seen, the bright diamond pupils mesmerizing.

You whine and rub your thighs together on instinct.

“My Lord… p-please…”

-----------------------------------------------------------

“Ha-aahh… f-faster, please my Lord please- Ah-! Faster!”

You’re reduced to a babbling, moaning, drooling mess as you lay on golden silk sheets. Head down ass up, your arms have long since given up supporting you and your thighs tremble as Morax rams into your dripping wet pussy over and over and over again.

He lets out a low chuckle “So tight…” He whispers, voice deep and raspy with sex haze, the scent of your heat spurring him on and causing his own illuminated beast features to manifest, such as his powerful tail undulating behind him. “You’re practically dripping all over the place, and yet you take me so well…” his breath stutters with another snap of his hips and all you can do is moan loudly, mind foggy with need.

“Oh…” You gasp. “Oh.”

Without pause, he’s slamming into you repeatedly, pulling you down on his perfect thick cock and fucking fast methodical thrusts into you wet hole, aiming for a certain spot that has you seeing stars once he finds it.

“Ah! Ah… Ah!” Your voice barely registers through your own lust-hazed mind. Tears prickling at the corner of your eyes from the rapid buildup in your lower abdomen. You’ve lost count of how many times you’ve already came, your juices coating your inner thighs and soiling the precious silken sheets. Not that he seems to mind. “O-Oh… Ohhhh. My Lord… M-Morax…”

You’re pretty sure your God has ruined you for anyone else. No mortal or immortal would ever be able to compare to his divine cock, deliciously thick and filling, the dragon shaft lined with small ridges that rub just right against your insides and so utterly big you swear you can feel a slight bump on your navel every time he bottoms out.

You keen and whine when his strong clawed hands pull at your hips. Seems like your legs are also giving up on you so he holds you in place instead. And you love it. His musky scent. His smooth deep voice. His unfaltering stamina.

The Prime of the Adepti. A strong and virile dragon.

And he chose to mate you.

Suddenly you feel him drape over your back, his larger frame practically caging you, pressing against you until his chest meets your sweaty back and you feel his ragged breath against your neck, scenting you and your heat pheromones before sharp fangs graze your tender skin.

You moan and your pussy clamps down on him. You are so close….

“You feel amazing.” He growls. “So good... s-so good for me.”

You buck your hips up to him, clumsily meeting his thrusts as your small fluffy tail twitches. “Nnngh!”

You feel him bite at your shoulder and the sharp jolt of pain is enough to send you spiraling into another climax, moaning high-pitched and gripping him tighter inside you even as he fucked into your slick warmth. Despite the orgasm he shows no signs of slowing down, so neither do you, as the unbearable heat continues to burn inside you, an itch you can’t quite scratch. His hands reach out for your skin, caressing your soft breasts and marveling at how beautifully they fit into his hands. He rubs circles into one of your nipples before pinching it lightly and is rewarded with another high keen and a spasm around his cock.

“P-Please… please… I need it. Please-” You pant, voice laced with desperation, your nails digging into the bedsheets.

“What do you want?” Morax asks, nosing at your neck and lapping at the reddened bite mark he branded into your skin. “Tell me what you need, little one.”

“Breed me!” You choke out “F-Fill me up Lord Morax, I need you to… fuck m-me full, pleasepleaseplease-”

And how could he deny such a sweet plea? Morax redoubles his efforts, panting with exertion and pushing harder, faster, deeper. Shrill little gasps escaping you as your mind goes blank from the pleasure.

“Hah- I’ll breed you properly… mhh… fill you up.” He pants, his pace getting sloppier, his tail trashing wildly, you feel him twitch inside you. “You’re all mine. Mine to take… to fuck, to own, to breed-”

Morax’s breath hitches and he lets out a choked groan, spilling his load inside you in thick creamy spurts as you keen and squirm under him, too fucked stupid for words. You coo happily as the heat under your skin finally abates and you feel full, so full of his seed.

His grip loosens as his hips gradually slow down, head hung low as he catches his breath, his cock occasionally twitching inside you until it eventually softens. He gently pulls out admiring the way your pussy clenches on him, the way your legs shake, weakly trying to lock him there, keep him inside you. The drag and pull of his thick cockhead over your sensitive insides making you keen and whimper from its abuse until your pliant body falls onto the sheets, whining pitifully when you feel his slick seed dribble out of your swollen pussy. You try to close your legs and weakly paw at your core.

No, no, no… it’s supposed to stay inside. Lord Morax’s precious cum-

You squeak as you feel something smooth and solid press against your pussy lips.

“Shhh my dear, shhh.” He coos at you, deep voice soothing your frazzled nerves. “This is just a little something to keep it in, to keep you full.” He pushes gently, working what you now realize was a cor lapis plug into your body. You made another whimpering noise as your lips parted for the toy he’d created for you. Red, puffy pussy folds spread open as they did for his cock, taking the tip before he worked the rest until it finally sunk in, lewdly resting against your opening, a glittering orange gemstone keeping you full. “There, nice and snug, do you like it?”

Your only answer is a little chirp, your eyes half-lidded as your body relaxes.  

“Such a good little bunny. You were so good to me my child, so good.” You smile drowsily at the praise, cooing at him as his hand pets your hair and scratches your fuzzy ear. He kisses at your shoulder and starts softly massaging your aching limbs “You were beautiful. You did so well, you took me so perfectly…”

You lean into his touch, curling up to his body, both of you still damp with sweat and other fluids. Resting for now until another wave of neediness hits you.

You both knew your heat would last at least other 4 days…

You idly wonder if by the end of the week you would be honored with carrying his offspring.

[soyboywenzie]

anyways…

[xx0yeet-everything0xx]

i gotta admit i do have a lipollo draft rn. have had it for a while. it’s short it’s a mortal au but it’s there i guess.

[daisywords]

bet y'all didn't know that, like any cliche writeblr, I too have a vampire romance wip

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August (halfway progress update!)

Okay technically it's the 16th (lol, 17th by the time this is done) so a little over halfway actually, but still I thought since I haven't had anything finished to post the past few days this would be a fun alternative!

I've been going a little nuts (affectionate) over @augustwritingchallenge's AU-gust prompts list this year so August has been a wild ride (about 40k words of one, in fact. so far.) but seeing as I will get attached to even the jokiest of AU ideas instantly, I've completed* a whopping 5 whole fics of 16, lol. Considering the shortest of those is over 3k and the longest is over 12k, I think the problem with not finishing these in a timely manner is entirely on my verbose foolish thick skull, haha, but I'm still having a blast with it.

Here is my ao3 series where I'm posting!

And a rundown / progress report / quick teaser of all the AUs including those I've yet to finish, if anyone's interested:

(*by "completed" I should note two of the already posted fics are basically assuredly going to be continued past the challenge, but let's say "completed enough to post and be on theme")

1. Canon Divergence - complete - 4.5k words ("For the Murder of Mr. Wrong" link)

Mia POV, gen. What if Dahlia succeeded in poisoning Phoenix and framed Doug Swallow instead (and then Mia defended him in court)? Basically a 3-1 rewrite. Fun Fact: I only came up with this AU because before I even remembered AU-gust existed at all, I'd come up with like 4 totally separate AUs in which I poison Phoenix in various ways With Real Consequences because it amuses me, lol, but he survives all those other ones and I eventually realized I hadn't even considered straight up killing him off yet so I figured I should try it at least once, haha.

2. Colorless - complete 1st chapter - 3.2k words ("Grey Matters" link)

Phoenix POV (for 1st ch --prob alternating after), wrightworth. "You can't see color until the first time you touch your soulmate"-soulmate AU. 1st chapter is their first meeting as kids (skipping the class trial itself). Fun Fact(s): I really love a color soulmate AU! Big fan of the "only see the color of their eyes" type of one too but uhhh on top of that working better for things that have wild anime eye colors, you could not pay me enough to try to figure out what the HELL is going on with Ace Attorney eye colors at any given time lmfao. (Also--spoilers for what i haven't written yet but hey if you're here you earned it--this IS one of my very many "teehee what if i poison Phoenix just a smidge as a treat for me" fics. NOT my fault the man ATE GLASS. That's on him.)

3. Dark Academia - complete "1st chapter" - 4.4k words ("The Spirit of the Laws of Magic" link)

Mia POV, lanamia. Magical boarding school setting featuring corruption and missing-student conspiracies and a most likely overthought system of magic with hierarchies and prejudices in societal views of academic/formulaic vs folk/innate magic. Fun Fact: I really thought for SURE i was going to skip this day entirely, lol. (foolish.) I don't think i've actually ever personally read anything "dark academia", technically--so if this doesn't read EXACTLY that way, there you go, but i did my best. I also then thought I could live with keeping this vague but I accidentally thought about it too long so... plus at least two people on top of myself at this point have expressed interest in more of this and so I have some semi-concrete Plans™ now.

4. Zombie Apocalypse - conceptualized (but not started)

Concept: probably gen and Phoenix POV, but also because I'm me and they're them, at least a little bit wrightworth even if it isn't necessarily explicit in any meaningful way bc they are Not Normal about each other lol. A little sketchy on how much of an "AU" this counts for, since it could probably be argued to be canon compliant somehow, but basically just: Universe where they make a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-type Steel Samurai reboot movie thing (featuring, you guessed it, zombies), and Miles comes over and forces Phoenix to watch it with him just to have someone to bitch about it at, and then during that time Maya blows her way into Phoenix's apartment as well with the exact same intentions except her "day job" isn't quite as time-sensitive-strict so she's already finished watching it earlier and knows all the spoilers. Honestly a good chance Phoenix and Pearl (who came with Maya) end up hiding out in the kitchen together to let Maya and Miles rile each other up in front of the TV, but I'm never exactly sure where they'll take me once I wind them up and set them loose on the page, so who knows. I also hadn't necessarily determined the exact time frame yet but for it to make sense as a reboot-type movie/special episode/whatever it probably should be 7yg-or-later so Trucy may or may not be there as well. (That said, in my struggles to complete an actually short one-shot, I probably shouldn't even include Pearl let alone Trucy, lol.) Fun Fact: I also thought I'd skip this day bc I'm not the biggest zombie guy in the world, and to be fair, I managed to do Way Less with it than the dark academia prompt so, yippie?

5. Chess Players - incomplete (currently 3k word WIP)

Miles POV, wrightworth. Miles is a chess grandmaster and back in Japanifornia for the upcoming world cup tournament, but his greatest challenge is actually to FINALLY best Franziska in their annual who-can-get-the-best-Christmas-gift competition. Luckily, he just so happened to hear of an artist who makes bespoke chess sets, so the plan is to get a custom board made for Franziska without her finding out. The plan is not to get trapped in a weird art collective labyrinth with some model-photographer named Cindy who keeps hitting on him but also happens to be protective of the artist he's there to see because "she and her boyfriend kinda-sorta owe him big time", but this is what he gets for coming here without doing any extra research into the artist besides seeing his work and hearing only "his name is White, or, eh, something like that, you know how those artist types are" from Mr. Amano. (AU where we replace law with chess and no I don't think Phoenix could necessarily hack it in the top-world-grandmasters-level of chess tournaments HOWEVER have you considered he DID go to art school so what if he just tries selling custom chess sets until somehow that reconnects him with Miles. Is that somehow a more insane plan than studying law? Maybe. Did Manfred still shoot Gregory but now it was over fucking chess? Maybe. Idk. But I did let Greg live this time at least!) Fun Fact: we can all DEFINITIVELY blame my lovely, terrible, very wonderful friend Ben (shameless friend plug! she's an outstanding writer and has some AA fics of her own too!! @kindlystrawberry on tumblr!!) for making a total joke about "well what about au where they make chess pieces instead" while i lamented not knowing enough about chess to write an actual match and spawning this ENTIRE concept. It is her fault. 100%. She is the guilty party. (I want to finish this one VERY BADLY. Save me.)

EVIDENCE!!!!! Guilty.

6. Reality Show - incomplete (currently 700 word WIP)

Phoenix (& Franziska) POV(s), background wrightworth wedding planning going on as set up but it's also definitely just one of my many excuses to set Phoenix and Franziska up as bitchy worsties who can't admit they enjoy each other's company and will cut you down if you suggest it as such. So far I've only written the quote "set-up" section which is in Phoenix's POV, but that was SUPPOSED to be like 5 paragraphs and cut away and then lead into my actual plan for the main body, which was to be in Franz's instead, so. This is very similar to the zombie one in that it's them watching reality tv instead of being contestants on a show (I don't personally like or watch a lot of reality tv so my creative well was somewhat dry on how to make that work) and then I accidentally thought about Phoenix and Franziska watching something just to judge and tear apart the decisions of every person on it and that was too fun to not consider further, haha. Basically the plan is just they get left alone together and don't know what to do with that and end up wine-drunk and making fun of some reality dating show of some kind and Miles and Trucy come back to them losing it together over something stupid and are like "......uh. what's happening." Fun Facts: I really love the thought experiment of Franziska somehow discovering how often Phoenix's internal dialogue/reads on situations and especially people can be So Bitchy And Judgey despite his affable complexion, and her unfortunately finding his opinions to SOMETIMES be somehow slightly okay. Moderately correct, even--occasionally. I know the section she follows you-as-Phoenix around in T&T is really not long at ALL, but I adore it. There's something about it that so badly makes me want to force them into proximity more (to both their chagrin, I'm sure).

7. Farm/Ranch - complete - 12k words ("Two Little Dickey Byrdes" link)

Gumshoe POV, gumbyrde (tho i still think dickeybyrde is a funnier ship name). 5+1 things--except more like maybe 7-or-8+1 to be honest--so it's more: over 5 times Dick and Maggey sit on a wall together and 1 time they find someone else there instead. AKA: Dick runs his family's small farm (think fantasy farm like in a farming sim or maybe horse girl novel type of thing that has nothing to do with what a real farm is like lol don't worry about it) and Maggey starts working at the next farm over as the latest of her many odd jobs. Fun Fact: oh god this one got so far away from me. it was not supposed to be this long lmao. it's literally the elaborate set-up to a very silly Nursery-Rhyme-I-Didn't-Even-Know-About-Prior-To-This -based punchline!?! still, i was pleasantly surprised by how happy i was with this once it was done... two sittings and about 16 total hours later. haha).

8. Nomad - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Apollo (or possibly Klavier) POV, klapollo. Sort of Jove-Thalassa swap adjacent, but basically: AU where Jove survives the Khura'in fire but loses his memories for [contrived convince sake reasons]. (And also possibly loses some or all of his eyesight just to really go for the parallels?) Therefore: Jove and Apollo stay with Dhurke and Nahyuta and the Defiant Dragons for a time, while Jove recovers, but eventually they leave and head out on their own, just the two of them, and do the traveling musician thing, both because it's dangerous in Khura'in and Dhurke already canonically didn't want Apollo to get caught up in it and potentially get hurt to begin with and because with a functioning actual parent Apollo doesn't need to be taken in by him--and also Jove from what little we know seems like he prefers to be on the move and was already a world traveler anyhow, so even amnesiac maybe he gets a little antsy stuck in one place too long. And so like amnesiac Thalassa, Jove thusly becoming a renowned mysterious musician--and then Apollo, sweet tone deaf Apollo, becoming the sonager of all time (like a momager but...you get it) because he's not that into music but he IS into arguing for better conditions/making deals (contracts!! international legalese!! woohoo!!) with venues and promoters and stuff. And then--oops dang Lamioir still exists and now they have a meet-cute (2 electric bugaloo) (but by then it's later enough Trucy still exists because it will be a cold day in hell when I don't find a way to make her work) and they do music collabs or join up to form a group or whatever and OOPS this means now that Apollo and Jove are with Lamioir when The Gavinners / Klavier specifically meet her and get her to come to do the Guitar's Serenade concert eventually. And Apollo and Klavier ofc thusly also have a meet-cute and then talk and bond etc etc. AND THEN the au STOPS THERE and I DON'T think about how without Apollo Phoenix is totally getting convicted of Zak's murder because there's no way that trial works out as well for him with some other attorney and I also don't think about how reasonable it would then be that maybe Trucy ends up helping Valant with his work setting up the trick for the concert afterward on account of the one father in prison and the other being dead and having left behind a notarized confession clearing Valant's name of suspicion, etc. AND I DEFINITELY do not think about how i could then still so easily get everyone in one place at the concert for Turnabout Serenade and/or any possible funny Sibling (And Thalassa) Reveal that could happen i dont i dont i do not--

9. Accidental Baby Acquisition - conceptualized (not started)

Gen, possibly my weakest / least defined idea on this list, but basically: Phoenix kind of already lives this in canon, lol (insomuch as an 8yo counts as a baby) so I thought, well, how to take it a different direction, then? And I thought, I don't usually go for a Phoenix Fey kind of au because I personally really love the relationships he has with all the Feys as-is in canon and so it's not quite as funny to me as, say, a Miles Fey AU where like Misty and Gregory are married, or any of the ones in that bent, because I'm sorry but that's just SO funny (and sad, but mostly funny) any way you slice it--plus his NAME is RIGHT THERE mia-miles-maya he FITS--anyhow, that completely aside, there are just a lot of reasons I really love the platonic relationships the Feys already have with Phoenix and I don't think it NEEDS to be made specifically familial to still be so very important, y'know? BUT. That said. AU where Phoenix is idk abandoned as a baby or maybe his parents die young or something and it's like a Thing to leave babies at temples or churches or whatever, right? So like--Phoenix adopted by the Feys AU but only because the more i considered it the more i thought it would be WILD for him to literally know Maya her entire life, and it's fascinating to me to consider a Maya who ISN'T basically left all alone to her own devices (and Morgan's) and who has someone absolutely in her corner in the village the entire time even after Mia leaves (who isn't a baby when Mia leaves, love you tho Pearls), AND also and perhaps more importantly, the ships-passing-in-the-night-ness of a scene where, like: Morgan does something sketchy or whatever and Phoenix wants to keep Mia updated but for whatever reason decides to go down to the city and actually tell her in person and so he's waiting outside the courthouse or something (possibly part of or perhaps Most Of the reason he goes in person is because he knows her first courtroom trial is that day and he wants to see her + hear how it went) and when he gets there she's in a heated argument with some asshole in a fancy over-embellished jacket and once that guy leaves Phoenix is like "Sheesh, what's his problem?" You know???? And maybe he really would never even know!!!! Bc he grew up in Kurain!!!! And has no reason to care!!! About some random prosecutor who was mean to Mia!! Aaaah!!! So that, and on top of that, Diego would be there too ofc at that point, and I feel like he would ALSO be quite a funny interaction in this scenario. ("Wow, someone's popular, kitten, you have all sorts of guys waiting on a chance to talk to you, heh?" "Uh.--I'm sorry, WHAT did you just call her")

10. Enemies-to-Allies - incomplete (currently 370 word WIP)

Ema POV, faraskye. Cyberpunk AU where Lana is still under Gant's thumb and Ema, with no other way to stay close to her and getting rejected from any of the sorts of jobs she really wants to do, decides to just join the security force (or cyber police or w/e I decide to call it) and is tasked with hunting down the Yatagarasu, guerilla hacker supreme who is threatening the sanctity of the capitalist overlords. Except Ema's squad gets ambushed and she's captured and tied to a pole, and with her useless fop partner seemingly not coming to rescue her (if he even noticed her absence), she does some quick cost-benefit analysis and decides she didn't really like that job anyway and maybe there's another way she can get her sister back in her life. So she breaks free of her own handcuffs (which she definitely didn't modify into incidental ineffectiveness she's still testing for bugs) and helps fix the "Little Thief" device her captor seems to have broken despite how obviously valuable and impressive the tech is, and they eventually come to something of an agreement. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and all that. Either Ema as the hardware-engineer one and Kay as the software-programming one as the two sides of the tech coin, or else Kay can just be like doing the physical sneaking kind of spy stuff only--or maybe she knows a little about software but not so much she's a pro the way she is with infiltration and such. Possibly toying with the idea Kay herself is just completely an android, but if not, I think she has some cybernetic cyborg things going on regardless. Possibly from or inspired by her father? I also like the idea that Gant did something maybe more drastic with regards to having dirt on Ema to get Lana to do his bidding--like maybe Ema has a whole cybernetic hand because instead of just her handprint on a leather jacket, Gant has some sicko jar with her entire hand in it in his office safe, or something. I don't know why this would be useful to him but it is certainly an image. I also find it funny if Miss Fingerprint Powder Enthusiast doesn't actually have any fingerprints of her own anymore somehow in this AU, lol.

11. Retail Worker - complete - 6.7k words ("The Bake Anything Boulangerie" link)

Apollo POV, gen. Phoenix gets a job at a bakery instead of the Borscht Bowl Club during the 7 year gap, and Apollo happens to stumble across it and ends up meeting the Wrights while he's still in high school. He becomes a regular at the bakery and is already close to them by the time "Shadi Smith's" murder comes around. And also, yes, sibling reveal right away--at least as soon as Phoenix realizes and can reveal it. As a treat. (Other reveals, though, I might put poor Apollo through on a delayed basis. Also as a treat, lmao, just not one for him.) Fun Fact: I'm being redundant bc this is also in my a/n, but, Baker Phoenix lives rent-free in my brain because Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright was in fact the very first Ace Attorney game I ever played, technically, and Maya and Phoenix semi-brainwashed in that bakery was literally one of my first impressions of them. ........followed immediately by starting a let's play of Justice for All (which i watched through the first case, after which I was like oKAY fine maybe i DO need more context here, i should probably figure out what the actual first game is, and went back to start the series properly at the beginning hahaha). What do you MEAN i have a disproportionate fascination with amnesiac Phoenix, even if I have yet to finish and publish one of my myriad AUs that utilize stupid, unrealistic, plot convenient re-temporary amnesia?? Hm???? Idk what you're talking about. Also everyone who complains about 2-1 is wrong lmao it's objectively (okay subjectively is what i'm saying yes BUT objectively) such a funny place to start without knowing broad plot strokes, it's great. I both knew so much and absolutely shit-all nothing about Maya after PLvPW and 2-1, LMAO. god.

12. Animagus Wings (Joker) - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Miles POV, wrightworth. Angel/Demon AU, except I'm playing super fast and loose with the rules on that because all my knowledge of Christian-mythos comes from firstly and unknowingly the Chronicles of Narnia and more recently and cognizantly Lucifer (Netflix) and Good Omens. I know that's probably more or less what we're all doing with this kind of AU but still, I'm not even sure I want to refer to Heaven and Hell here, I'm kinda on the fence about maybe just keeping it all very vague? I also accidentally semi-worldbuilt more than i intended incidentally on account of "But Then How-Why Names If Angelic Creatures?" Format-wise it would semi-follow gomens s1 where it's hopping through some meetings between long stretches but also a kind of pre- and post- Fall type of thing? And potentially à la Lucifer becoming, like, these are My Mortal Humans and i will be Spending Time With Them, screw you celestial duties, I'm making my own Free Will, etc. And i mean i guess Lucifer is also a crime procedural lmao maybe they still solve crimes in the end too. Fun Fact: I didn't want to do the original prompt for several reasons, and sure fuck jkr is one of them but even before I knew about her I still wasn't really the biggest hp person in the first place? So i wouldn't know/don't remember at all the way it works without having to do the specific research and i...don't want to haha. Hence. And I know the prompt seems to be using it loosely / might just be borrowing the word and not actually referencing hp specifically but tbh either way human-animal shifter things just in general I can be somewhat picky about haha. (Okay okay plus full disclosure the ONLY idea I have for this sort of thing actually ties into my day-3-dark-academia-extended-au-verse and i COULD make my life simpler by just connecting the two days but Heh who would I be if I simplified things for myself... *sigh*) All that to say: I saw "wings" on the wild card list and I thought, ooh, well that's still sort of a related concept! Let's tag that one in! So it's still kind of day 12 prompt-adjacent, if you squint.

13. Found Footage - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Video Transcript POV? Is that a thing? Possibly capped by a little Phoenix POV (but i don't want that to get too long), wrightworth. Larry's new girlfriend of the month bakes weed brownies and Larry does not realize this and swings by the Wrights' apartment to beg some kind of help off Phoenix and forgets the whole tray there somehow (because it's Larry) and they leave to deal with Larry's thing and by the time they figure the brownies out, in some twist of fate Miles and Trucy have been hanging out (last minute babysitter/adult supervision? but she's at the very very least 14 or 15 here and most likely older, and Nick clearly isn't the most strict about like uhhh supervision in general lol sooo idk. he's helping her with a project or smth. it doesn't really actually matter; he's THERE, that's the important thing.) The point I'm very clearly getting at is they accidentally get incredibly high (not dangerously so because I'm not going that far haha but also, neither of them has actually been high before, so they are Affected) before Phoenix finds out what was in the brownies and tries to warn Trucy and hurry home to like, dispose of them or at least put a warning label on them or whatever, but he is too late lol. By a lot. Definitely an underage drugs tag on this bad boy because it's definitely sometime 18-or-earlier for Trucy, let alone 21. (idk about other places but as a Californian I can tell you Japanifornia "LA" could theoretically have it legalized at 21 for anyone (like alcohol) and 18 with Dr's permission--which Trucy definitely does not have in this AU lol.) Basically, Phoenix grabs Trucy's phone to get photo evidence so he can let them never live this down (after making sure they're okay lmao), but he ofc doesn't get technology so he doesn't realize he leaves the phone still recording when Trucy asks him for something / needs his help, so the recording just keeps going and captures a lot of tomfoolery and eventually some inebriated-to-Extremely-sober Feelings-Adjacent confessions (or maybe more like allusions). Idk, this was actually a fic I thought of before August and wanted to use as an excuse to try a Weird Format for fun, but then i saw this was a prompt on the list and...well. Fun Fact: Cannabis was legalized in California on November 8, 2016 (the first election I could vote in!!! ......uh, rip. lol. but yeah babey I helped legalize weed at least!! gotta remember the positives), which means it was legal right in time for Miles' case(s) / Turnabout Goodbyes!!! Yay!! I mean, I suppose that's genuinely seriously one way to try to mitigate nightmares and manage insomnia--not that I think Miles Edgeworth would ever deign stoop so low as to use an aid to manage his severe PTSD and trauma symptoms, psshaw, who do you take him for? (Get these people some help lol. They all need so much therapy.)

14. Princes & Princesses - conceptualized (not started)

So I've been reading a lot (a LOT) of isekai and/or revenge reincarnation romance fantasy manhwas lately (like, oh, too many, hahaha. they're quite good and they're VERY popular in webcomics at the moment.) Soooo. Soft pitch: Apollo already gets slapped into so many wild backstories he's constantly trying to dodge in an effort to be just a Normal Guy, he's honestly, like, the PERFECT protagonist for one of these lmao. And tell me Kristoph doesn't make a perfect "Upstanding Duke" kind of persona, and Klavier couldn't be the "wild rake" younger brother no one expects much from, and all I'm saying is it wouldn't be that hard to contrive a reason Apollo tries to get Klavier to agree to a contract marriage the way all these stories go, lol. And also, something something, Apollo from the "real world" is an orphan/has an absent family (also like so many of these manhwa protagonists, lol) but then he gets to actually have one in his second life!! I'm such a sucker for that shit. Slightly harder pitch, and the reason I did not let myself actually start writing anything (...yet): so what if the actual plot of the "original romance novel" Apollo is familiar with from the "real world (Earth)" is actually about the slightly older generation and something something instead of admiring Phoenix as a defense attorney, it's just that he instead was Apollo's favorite "love interest" character (not, like, for himself, just the one he most liked to read about) in every way except what a blithering idiot he became when the author had him fall for the female lead--but BEFORE that, he's a cool information guild leader guy who seems like he's trying to work toward some way to improve conditions for commoners in the kingdom (but abruptly there are no more mentions of this after he gets involved with the lead, which is annoying). Aaaand... I guess what I'm saying is, Dahlia is the original female lead because she REALLY fits the whole White Lotus trope, and I'm thinking Klavier is the original male lead because A) hilarious, B) fits in with the idea there's more going on in the ACTUAL world Apollo ends up in that is written in such a way as to make things seem different in the novel (like, that Dahlia and Klavier are actually as nice as they seem and that the terrible things that happen around them are just the trials and tribulations of being main characters and not anything they're directly involved in). And Apollo, the character in the novel Apollo, is an adopted prince of Khura'in, but he's the sickly younger prince and of course not actually of the royal bloodline (and also a man, considering Khura'in is matrilineal), so Rayfa and Nahyuta are the ones the public and other nobles actually know and care about and deal with. But wait! As it so turns out, The Wright Anything Information Guild (I feel like the actual guild name CAN'T have their freaking name on it front and center lol but you get the idea) happens to know some other things that aren't really expanded on in the original novel, and might be key to preventing Apollo's death so he doesn't follow the path of the original story, and also idk maybe Apollo and Trucy are half-fae or something like that and instead of like Aw Yay Bracelet in this AU it's more of a secret Iron Shackle Tool That Will Hurt I Mean Totally-Definitely-Help Us Later (still, in a way, passed down to him by Thalassa, but more as, like... she's kind of a secret hostage and does not manage to hide pregnancy number one so Apollo's now also a secret hostage, but she manages to escape so they don't know about Trucy, only she didn't tell Apollo basically anything to "keep him as safe as possible" or w/e, and......) Well, anyway. It got away from me before I even really wrote anything, that's all.

15. Secretly Alien - unfinished (currently 2.6k WIP)

Trucy POV, gen. Apollo gets sick of very consistently always losing the card games they play at the Wright Anything Agency (usually and in the specific instance the fic starts, Bullshit/BS) and in a stroke of inspiration somehow ropes everyone into playing Among Us instead. ("What! It's still a game of trying to lie/trick everyone else--like you like!--but I actually stand a freaking chance, so we're playing this or I'm going home.") Yes. This is my Among Us AU. Hi. They play Among Us. I'm justifying this one as prime AU territory however because A) Among Us has to exist in this universe, and even more pressingly, B) I found a way to force Phoenix to have--for at least a period of time if not moving forward in perpetuity--an actual smartphone instead of a Nokia-type brick cellphone. Which even under the wild but somehow plausible considering Ace Attorney circumstances I contrived, is just automatically a complete AU lmao. Fun Fact: I am so mad this one wasn't just totally finished day-of, lol. Why I ever thought I could give myself run of an entire WAA 4-person conversation and NOT get instantly derailed is beyond me. (And I want to get the prosecutors there, too?? Someone take the characters away from me.) Anyway. No, I have not written ANY of the actual Among Us part yet. Sigh. Also I haven't personally played amogus since like, 2021? maybe? And I know (now) that it's been pretty updated since then, but, ehhh, I'm just gonna run off like, lockdown-era amogus rules and vibes, lol. If I can get to the game part.

16 - Hobby Drama - conceptualized

I'm going to go out of order this time to say: Fun Fact: I have ALWAYS wanted to write a Reddit-style fic!!! I absolutely love them and I've read some REALLY, really good ones, so I've always wanted to try my hand at it. So theoretically this is the perfect time to make that a reality and write a r/HobbyDrama subreddit fic, buuut I got stuck before starting because I'm torn on two possible routes to take it (I can easily foresee myself caving and just doing both lol). - Option 1: Steel Samurai fandom discourse, always a fun/funny thing to think about, definitely would enjoy having Maya and Miles post some stuff for that. - Option 2: courtroom law fandom discourse, because come ON, how are those galleries ALWAYS SO FULL. The little wiggling rabba-rabba onlookers have GOT to have investment in this shit. And why WOULDN'T they, honestly. I've seen those trials and I have, in fact, spent a Lot of time thinking about them, not that any posts I've made lately would reflect that in any way or anything. Like I know it's hard to tell, but if I can be invested in the Lawyers Fandom, who's to say the people in the courtrooms aren't????? And I LOVE an outsider POV fic actually, I think they're so fun. So anyway. Reddit fic. You will be mine. Just as soon as I can hone my energy

And, what the hell, since it's so late now by the time I complete this "Heh This'll Be So Quick To Throw Together" post, I'll include today's, too:

17 - Flower Shop - conceptualized (at work earlier today. lol)

AU where Daddy Hawthorne is like, 97% less shitty. And the Hawthornes have a flower shop instead of like a gemstone industry or whatever. And he takes both Dahlia and Iris with him instead of dumping one of his daughters at a fucking secluded mountain temple and seemingly forgetting about her forever. On second thought, maybe what I actually mean is he's like 999% less shitty, lmfao. Anyway, Iris POV, but Dahlia (while not a "nice" person by any stretch) is not pushed to such extremes or nearly as desperate as canon, so Valerie lives, Terry Fawles lives, Doug Swallow lives, and Dahlia gets to live a good life overall--because as much fun as I love using her as a villain, she's really such a product of the absolute worst circumstances and I really do find her interesting so I've been kind of wanting to explore her in a less cartoonishly evil light, haha. (Don't get me wrong, I do love the cartoonishly evil light too, but I like spicing things up sometimes.) Like, she does (more) normal teen rebellion things ("Look at my inappropriately older boyfriend, Dad" "I'm going to talk my way out of speeding tickets and petty shoplifting as a bid for attention" etc.) and she still totally orders Iris around and Iris still totally does whatever she asks very much to her own detriment and has to learn to break away and be her own person. Fun Fact: I have a very passionate love for Iris/Adrian Andrews. Is that. Um. Is that a ship anyone else has ever considered before? Is that just me? I'm not sure but very possibly I'll just make this a rarepair fic as a treat, for me alone, teehee. (Like... it's about the becoming the master of your own destiny it's about breaking out of codependent cycles it's about how I genuinely honestly think they'd be each other's type and have chemistry even though they've obviously never interacted lmao... idk what to tell you.)

AND THATS MY AU-GUST UPDATE POST!!!

If you made it this far, take a sprinkle of my undying affection, and may you be blessed with AU inspiration if you so desire it!! (If you do not desire it, hopefully you are not cursed with it. I do not take refunds if you are. Sorry.)

Wish me luck with completing some more fics soon!!! Unfortunately weekends are actually my least free time because I work the most and the earliest hours so I have less time and am more tired, but also on Wednesday I'm leaving for a family vacation, which will either be the BEST thing to happen in regards to AU-gust or the WORST thing lmfao. If nothing else I have 2 flights, and I actually Love writing on an airplane, so fingers crossed for it being Good. <3

EDIT: Now with part 2 for the rest of the month here!

[nicojoe]

I, for one, do not think it’s a coincidence that the director of Ghosted was like “hey, let’s make the internet happy and bring on Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie to cameo in this Chris Evans spy movie” and then, for good measure, said “and lets also bring on one half of the greatest gay couple in action movie history”

[raifuujin]

It's been more than 20 years and for some reason I feel that Gosho hasn't given Kaiao any development, how can more than 20 years pass and Aoko dynamics, relationship and feelings remain the same? At this point I feel like Gosho is just going to make them date because "they already liked each other" they remain in the same status quo

Hey, if we go by DC romance progress, they've been going too fast. We've already had suspicion of identity chapters, and that didn't happen until more than 400 chapters in DC. /j

Since heists have taken over any character development recently, I don't even know if Kaito and Aoko will even get any romantic progress. Maybe the actual identity confrontation will happen down the line, since that's thief drama, but atm, it really wouldn't surprise me if they only ask each other on a real date at the very end of the manga.

Like. I'm sure Gosho would love to make MK a love drama as well, but he writes MK so rarely, and usually as hype for something Kid related in other media. So the MK stories tend to be heavy on drama that can only take place at Kid heists. (To the point that the new chapters just. Use Kid as the plot device to show off a new character. Even Hakuba's never gotten so much 'look at this character being a detective' treatment in MK.)

-sighs- I just feel bad for MK as a series at this point. I like the characters, I like the general story idea, but. It's been going down a very steep hill with Gosho wanting things exciting, but not wanting any real progress in. Anything. But unlike old MK, the new stories aren't even nice standalone setpieces of story, they're... mundane. They could be high stakes, if you purely look at the scenarios on paper, but. We all know nothing's gonna happen to Kid. Nothing even happens to him when the actual bad guys show up, much less one-time antagonists.

We need actual character focus and development, not heist drama. Badly. Not even romance, though that'd be a nice change. Just any character expansion of our limited cast of characters. Gosho wants big, all the time, meaningless big stuff, when small would be so nice.

[viarayy01-blog]

Inside The Heart - Chapter 2

viarayy01 - previous chapter here

Even with the twelve hours of rest he had gotten, Evan still groaned when he was woken by someone shaking his shoulder. He swiped away at the hand that gripped his arm and pulled the covers completely over his head. It only took a second for the cool air to hit him once again.

“Five more minutes.” He mumbled. He pulled his legs to his chest and reached at the bottom of his bed for his blanket.

Whoever was in his room groaned and tugged Evans reaching arm until he flipped around to face them.

“Evan. You gotta get up. Dads calling for you.” 

Without another word Evan sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes. Looking up at the perpetrator of his sleep, he instantly recoiled. Micheal.

“Seriously. I would hurry down if you don't want to get a scolding.” Said his older brother with a tang of British accent. Evan nodded cautiously and watched Micheal leave his bedroom. Mike slowly closed the door and yelled something to their father from the top of the stairs.

He stared at his closed door for a few seconds before blinking and jumping off of his mattress. The clock next to his bed read 6:45. If he got ready quick enough, he could rush to school in time to meet up with Cassidy before the bell rang–

Ah. Cassidy.

Evan combed through his hair with a sigh and pushed his slippers on. Facing his closet, he pulled out a loose sweater that had two light gray lines on the elbow of the sleeves. He tossed on the shirt, chose a pair of pants, and washed his face in the bathroom he shared with his sister. Makeup and various other skincare products crowded her side of the sink.

He pushed a few things away from his side and fiddled with his hair in the mirror. The bathroom light made his swollen eyebags look incredibly unappealing, but he tried his best not to focus on them. Finally satisfied with his appearance, he grabbed his messenger bag from his bedside and flew down the stairs as quickly as possible.

“Good morning, Evan.” Said his father, William Afton, from behind the sink. “There's a piece of toast on the island for you. Micheal made it while you were busy wasting your time up there. Try to hurry up in the future. Your lucky Micheal was in a good enough mood to make you anything.” He gestured to Micheal, who was sitting on the couch with his own piece of extremely burnt toast.

Evan nodded at him and pulled the food off of the paper towel Micheal had laid it on. “One time thing. Jam is on the table.” Micheal said to him between bites. 

“Oh. Thanks.” He replied. William turned off the sink behind him and wiped his hands on a towel.

“Micheal, have you seen Elizabeth this morning? There were an obscene amount of dishes in the sink when I woke up. Seems like she was in a rush.” William called as he slipped on his coat. Well, that explained the mess in the bathroom. Micheal moved into the kitchen and emptied the crumbs from his plate into the sink.

“She left early for school.” He waved around the butter knife he had used for his food. “Club stuff or something.” 

Evan sat on one of the barstools and splattered grape jam on the bread. “I…I remember her mentioning that she likes to leave early to hang out with her friends at the gas station..” He said quietly. William stopped wrestling with his coat and clenched his jaw.

Micheal stopped scrubbing his plate and flicked his head around. His eyes shot open and he chewed on his lip. Evan shook his head and furrowed his brows. Did he miss something or…?

“That godforsaken girl. Well. I'm going to have to tell her something about that afterschool. Cant have her wasting time like that, or even worse, wasting her money getting into trouble. If she's not going to do anything academic in the mornings, she's not going to be going out anywhere for fun either.” William replied gruffly. He twirled his keys on his index finger and opened the garage door. “Goodbye, boys.” He didn't wait for their response before slamming it shut. Evan and Micheal stood silently until they heard his car pull out of the driveway.

Micheal shoved his plate into the open dishwasher and kicked it shut. “You just had to go and open your mouth Ev.” He sighed. Evan drew back from his seat. 

“What?” 

Micheal leaned against the counter and rubbed his face.

“I said , you just had to say something to get Liz in trouble. You and I both know that she's not studying in the mornings when she leaves early. Or hell, that she's studying ever. She's going out to screw around with guys or something. And now father knows. She's gonna kill you. Better yet, he's going to kill you for lying when she weasels her way out of it!” He laughed. Evan swallowed the lump in his throat.

“I- I didn't know he’d get upset!” He threw his hands in the air. The paper thin relationship he had with Elizabeth was already on the verge of tearing. “Maybe he will forget. Maybe she really was out studying! I really didn't mean to.” Evan cursed himself as tears began to trickle onto the marble. Micheal nervously flung off the counter and looked downwards at his brother.

“Hey, I'm not mad, it's fine. Just keep your mouth shut next time alright? Last thing I need is dad finding out what I do after school, too. Okay? Everyones on edge already with mom gone. Elizabeth really doesn't need another thing harboring on her mind.” 

Evan immediately met his brother's gaze, wanting to move as far away from this conversation and his tears as possible. “Okay. I'm really sorry.” Micheal gave him a thankful look and snatched the half eaten bread from Evans hands.

“You better go if you don't want to be late. I gotta go anyway. Someones gotta warn Liz that she's in deep shit when dad gets home.” He groaned. “Scram.” Evan did as he was told and left the house without another word. 

The cool air hit his face as he ran down the sidewalk and through his neighborhood. He was thankful that he had stopped crying, it was never something he really had control over. 

He was also thankful for Micheals shockingly good mood. If he had something like that a few months prior, his brother would have left him with more than just tears. 

It was almost too good to be true. 

Almost. 

Hopefully things at school would go over a lot smoother than home…

– – – – – 

Unfortunately for Evan, the only thing that was smoother at school than at home was the plastic texture of the bathroom floors against his face. Cool, sticky, and crawling with germs. 

His head rang amongst the laughter of the kids who had sent him falling to the ground, some recurring bullies from his time at middle school. He didn't really know any of them, not anymore anyway. It had been a few months since the bullies had stopped targeting him. Right around the same time that Micheal had stopped sending Evan to bed with enough nightmares to paralyze him. The only one he truly recognized as he crawled off of the floor was Fritz, a kid who not too long ago had been a good acquaintance of his.

Well, maybe a bit more than not too long ago. Give or take five ish years.

Somehow, they looked the exact same, like time had never touched them as they grew into secondary school. Their hair color was similar to Elizabeth’s but slightly lighter. One of their eyes was a blinding light blue and the other was a chocolate brown.

“Fritz, he's staring at you.” One of the other boys snickered. Evan wiped his face and tried to move away from the group. Fritz lunged out and grabbed his arm before he could get away. “Yeah. He’s always had a problem with staring, haven't you, Afton?” They sneered before shoving Evan into one of the bathroom doors. “You really haven't changed, crybaby.” 

Evan squirmed around and tried to break free, but to no avail. “I- I haven't even done anything to you guys! Please just let me go!” 

The room erupted with laughter and Fritz dug their nails into Evans arms. “Exactly. Without Cassidy here to protect you, we figured you might need a reminder of what you really are.” Without another word, they motioned behind them and the tallest boy in the group, one with straight black hair, walked forward and gave Evan a swift punch to the gut. He doubled over as Fritz released him from the wall. Tears poured out of his eyes for the second time that day with no sign of stopping. He buried his face into his knees and prayed they would just kill him.

Fritz stood over Evan and glared down at him. 

“Really.” They laughed. “You are still the same weak and worthless little wuss that your brother tried to kill all those years ago.” He leaned down and pushed Evan over with his shoe. “Don’t forget that. Otherwise we might have to give you another reminder, and I really don't know if your stomach could take another punch like that—“ Fritz continued, only to be interrupted by the bathroom door flinging open. Evan peered around Fritz to see who had been unfortunate enough to walk in at this exact moment. The only thing he managed to catch before someone started screaming were neon blue sneakers slamming upwards into one of the bullies legs. 

Fritz quickly turned around at the sudden noise, his fists already clenched. “What the hell—?” They said. 

Evan clawed at his chest and managed to get a better angle from the floor.

Standing far shorter than the other boys in the bathroom was Gregory, bending his knee back and forth as his sneakers slid on the linoleum. “Think I pulled a muscle doing that. Did the job, though.” He grinned. Evan glanced at the still wincing bully Gregory had kicked to the ground. He guessed it was the same one who had screamed. The tallest kid pulled the injured boy away from the center of the room and leaned him against the wall. 

“Gregory! Stay outta this, you don’t even know him!” Fritz yelled, shuffling slightly backwards and away from him. 

“Yeah, but I do know you, Fritz. And I also know that your one incident away from landing yourself in the principal's office. So my best advice to you is to get outta my way. I don’t really think you wanna risk getting kicked out of this school.” Gregory sneered. He looked way more pleased with himself than frightened, a reaction that Evan deemed completely unreasonable in this situation. 

Even with his oddly shaped cowlick, Gregory barely stood above the height of a fourth grader, a trait that Fritz and the other bullies did not possess. From an outsider's point of view, this fight would’ve end in a blink. 

Still, when Gregory stepped closer to Fritz, they moved away. When Gregory raised his fist and shoved it against Fritz’s face, the other bullies stood back to watch. When Gregory pulled Evan off the floor and supported him out the door, they let him go. 

No fight. No backlash. 

They just watched him leave. 

“You alright? Looks like Nathan gave you a really nasty punch back there.” Gregory said as he helped Evan sit on one of the outdoor benches. Voices flooded the outside tables. He had almost forgotten it was still lunch. 

“Yeah. It’s fine. Not the worst i’ve been punched.” Evan wiped his eyes and plastered on a reassuring smile. Gregory quirked his eyebrow but didn’t inquire about it further. 

“So, your name's Evan right? Cassidy’s friend?” He asked. Evan nodded. “I figured. I heard them mention her name outside the door and figured she wasn’t here today.” Evan nodded again.

“She had something to take care of. Probably why they decided that today would be the day to give me a good punch.” He grimaced. He knew that Cassidy was good at keeping bullies away, but he didn’t realize that she was the only thing between him and permanent chest pain. Gregory laughed a bit and sat across from him on the adjacent bench. 

“Sounds like something Fritz would do.”  He hummed.

They sat in silence for a moment, only the sounds of the lunchroom and classrooms echoing around them before Evan cleared his throat. 

“Th-thanks, by the way. You didn’t have to do that for me back there.” Evan mumbled. He chewed the inside of his cheek. 

Gregory shook his head and crossed his legs. “Are you kidding? Thank you for letting me beat the shit out of Fritz Figueroa. I’ve been wanting to do that for forever!” He laughed.

“Plus, I’ve been wanting to get to know you for a bit. You seem like a really cool kid, Ev.” Gregory said, completely nonchalant. His amber eyes blinked patiently at the frozen boy across from him. Evan held his breath and let his own eyes open wide. 

Nobody had ever said something like that to him before. 

Before he could open his mouth to respond, the lunch bell rang and the outdoor area they were sitting in slowly drained of people. 

Gregory tugged at Evans arm and pulled him off of the wooden bench. “C'mon! Let's get to class. English next, right?” He asked. 

“Y-yeah. English.” He stuttered. Gregory let another infectious smile break out and pulled Evan into the school. 

— — — — — 

For the first time ever in his life, Evan was wishing that he had been bullied sooner. 

There was no word to describe how easily Gregory clicked with him and how quickly they fell into conversation. It was almost a little scary to Evan. He didn’t know that he could ever be friends with anyone other than Cassidy. 

Classes flew by like nothing and Gregory did everything he could to pair up with Evan in every single period. Really . Every single class. 

By the end of the day, Evan felt like a million bucks. He liked that Gregory could make him feel less alone. He liked having someone who wanted to be friends with him. 

It made everything fade away. 

“No really. I mean it.” Gregory said confidently. “You should come hang out afterschool.”

They were sitting in the art room where they had spent their last period. Gregory was perched on one of the open windowsills’ and Evan was in his assigned seat. 

Evans' eyes popped out of his head and he opened his mouth. “W-what?” Had he really heard that correctly? 

Gregory took in his expression and burst out into laughter. 

“Wow. I kinda knew that Cassidy had severed you from the rest of the world but I didn't know it was this bad.” He continued laughing. Evan flinched at the mention of Cassidy’s name but tried to fake a smile. Gregory flipped his hair back and out of his face, catching Evans' eye.

“Oh shit. Sorry.” He reached for his face. “I shouldn’t have said that.” He laced his fingers against his backpack strap. “Cassie says I don't know when to shut up. Actually, I'm pretty sure everybody in my family says that.” He chuckled.

“Cassie’s in your family?” Evan rested his arm on his desk. He knew that adoption was pretty common nowadays but had no idea that Cassie was one of those kids. 

Gregory’s eyebrows shot up and he leaned against the classroom window. “Oh! No. Well not traditionally anyway. Metaphorical family. Like, she’s always hanging out with me and my dad’s so I just consider her part of it. Found family or whatever.” He waved his hands around to abbreviate. “Like a family friend who you call uncle or cousin. If that makes sense.”

Immediately Evans' mind wandered to his Uncle Henry, and his “cousins” Charlie and Sammy. “That makes sense. I call my dad’s business partner Uncle just because of how long they’ve known each other. I don't see him much anymore since he moved, but I get what you mean.” Gregory clapped his hands together and pointed at him.

“Yeah! Exactly! Majority of my family is actually like that.” He continued. The air conditioning kicked on and a light breeze ruffled his hair. “My aunt’s Chica and Roxane are married, and of course there's my dads, but my Uncle Monty and Uncle Eclipse are not blood related at all. Everyone just grew up together and ended up sticking like glue throughout college. Forming my weird, but somehow cohesive, family.” He sighed. 

Evan stared at him dumbfounded. Ignoring the very strange names all of the adults in Gregory’s life possessed, he had never heard of a group of people quite like how Gregory described his family. Nobody was blood related? Everyone just stayed together because they were that great of friends? It sounded so unreal. It sounded too good to be true.

It sounded nothing like his family.

Gregory nodded and bounced off the window.

“Anywho, you up for a little after school fun? You’ll get to meet my aunts if you tag along.” He said enticingly. Evan rubbed his hand up and down his sleeve. 

“Are you sure? I don't want to be in the way.” He still wasn’t convinced that Gregory hasn’t been doing this as an elaborate act to make Evan look like a complete idiot. It was one thing to hang out at school. It was another to hang out afterwards, too. 

But it only took a second for Gregory to meet his gaze. “Dude. Of course I'm sure. You’ve had a pretty awful day, I think you deserve to have a break from it all. A break with your super cool new friend, Moi.” He laughed. 

Gregory offered him a hand and smiled as brightly as he could. 

And for once, Evan smiled right back. 

[stories-by-rie]

how to feel excited about my own projects again

[bidokja]

as a fellow orv fan i think you have good taste. what is this damn reincarnation you speak of............

damn reincarnation—officially titled "my blasted reincarnated life" but who the fuck is gonna take that seriously. not me!—is a manhwa about hamel, one of the heroes who saved the world from the demon kings, but who tragically died just before the party could kill all of them. in hamel's final moments, vermouth—the strongest of the heroes—promises to kill the rest of the demon kings no matter what. hamel then reincarnates as the descendant of vermouth to find the world at peace as they'd all hoped...except the final few demon kings are still around. despite their promise, vermouth struck a deal with them instead of finishing them off.

just why did this happen? did vermouth betray him, or were there other reasons? are the demon kings really to be trusted? why did he reincarnate as vermouth's descendant? what happened to his former companions? what did they have to say about all this? are any of them still alive? who can he trust? just what is he meant to do?

this is what damn reincarnation is about. basically, i like it because of two reasons. one, the writing is well done. it's paced well, with plenty of room for characters to grow, for events to be set up and revealed, etc. low low bar but it solidly clears it which is more than i can say for plent of other similar series. and two...oh my god fucking finally a reincarnation series where the reincarnation bit is vitally relevant for the entire rest of the plot, not just a Get Strong Quick scheme that's never actually plot relevant aside from maybe an identity crisis angst chapter. like. it is a Get Strong Quick scheme too dgmw, I'm not saying damn reincarnation is a masterpiece or reinventing the wheel or anything, but it's just really engaging and fun to read.

[safyresky]

Scrimbly Jacqueline 19/20: I gave her a cloak. bitches love cloaks! (i'm bitches)

I also drew her staff! She has one, too :)

This nearly became Sorceress-Warlock Jacqueline from THIS AU. Didn't feel like drawing that fit tho so it's just regular canon Jacqueline, lol. (but picturing the scars and the eye patch she doesn't actually need but wears for the aesthetic was a FUN mental image at the beginning of the week! then the horrors persisted and I went WHO HAS THE SPOONS. NOT ME)

Drawing the whooshy cloak was fun. Colouring it was even MORE fun. I was going CRAZY last night trying to find a post I made where I described Jacqueline's staff?? I COULDN'T FUCKING FIND IT AND I S2G I READ IT THE OTHER DAY. LIKE EARLIER THIS WEEK. So hopefully my visual memory served me WELL and I don't find the post and go FUCKING EH at a later date, lol.

this scrimbly was very much a scrimbly lol. I think it took me like 10 minutes to doodle. I'm having a LOW ENERGY WEEK. Feelin burnt out af and dreading the weekend! Woo! Almost DIDN'T scrimbly! Thinking this week's little down spin is gonna push back Frostmas crossposting which is SUPER RUDE bc like. THE AESTHETIC. UPDATING ON THE UNLUCKY DAY. BOO!

RIGHT. DANI RANTS ASIDE, WANT SOME CS LORE/FACTS? BC I GOT SOME! WOO:

All four Frosts would pass the warlock test--the question is, do they fully embrace it? Fino does. Fiera does but like, second to the summer sprite training. Jack learns what's useful/what he wants/needs to. Jacqueline was FINE not warlocking, she's good with the snow, BUT Jack keeps nagging her to at LEAST take the test and when she passes it he's like c'mon. c'mon. warlock training. you know you want tooo I could teach youuuuu

She holds off for a VERY long time then gets schemey brain a couple of centuries down the line and goes for it. It's spoilery and I do want to keep this one close to my chest, BUT:

Essentially she learns that she has something someone needs/wants back and she can only do that by getting into the Warlock training! She uses this to try and bring two estranged people closer and when it doesn't go well she hits Jack up after hours and is like "so my plan is going. hmm. bad. let's start warlock training?" and Jack's like YEAH LET'S FUCKING GOOOO bc A) he told her so. B) he;s been wanting to get her started with the warlock biz for YEARS! AND out of ALL THE TEACHERS SHE'S COMING TO HIM (well. unofficially) and C) he is also enjoying the tea from her little scheme and about the two people in question, lol.

Anyway, enjoy the scrimble! Next week is some prohibition fun ft. Winter, I THINK. I'll have to check my notes 🤔🤔🤔

(and yes the heart clasp and pink in the staff are bc Dite)

[gothamcityneedsme]

ok. I feel pretty good in saying that I don't feel good about FLED until around the middle-ish of chapter 3. But that was out of necessity. The first three chapters are already 18k words, and it's a LOT of set up for the time loop premise. Even back when I was starting it in 2018, I knew I was rushing the beginning and trying to condense it as much as I could so I could move on.

The place I wanted to go was the stage right before Flynn is kidnapped, and then TO that point, because Flynn getting kidnapped is the real point of rising action.

I won't consider editing/rewriting FLED (and tbh actually editing FLED was always on my radar, I was writing it in part planning to use it to practice editing) until the story is finished. So obviously not on my docket right now.

Anyways. There are only a few scenes in the early part that I think are pretty strongly defined and that I wouldn't touch much--the scene with Lucifer in chapter 2, and the second half of Nanashi and Flynn's conversation in chapter 3. The first half needs some work, it is burdened down by the utter clunk that the rest of chapter 1-2 are as well.

Getting rid of that clunk though would require a lot of restructuring, although I already have ideas on how I'd do it, but as I said, it would extend the word count by a LOT, even though I would also be removing a lot of parts, I would be largely restructuring them into the new context. Touching the same themes in different ways. etc.

It's interesting to think about and revisit. I am considering trying to get the next chapter out, so I'm revisiting it as a whole to remember where I was.

Just, whew. I wouldn't say it 'gets good' until that halfway-ish point in chapter 3. Chapter 4 on though I'm confident I'll be fairly happy with even now, because that was when I finally wasn't rushing and only working on setup--that's where the story actually is, lol.

[anawrites3]

For @poiverine 🥰 I know I'm a little late but I'm still thinking about shameless Slade you drew for this au and well... this just happened 🤗💕

Sladick royal au;

part 6, inspired by polv's amazing art;

You are not to display your feelings for each other with anyone around you. You are to stay close to your spouse throughout any social event but not to touch their bare hand, in matters different than greeting each other or dancing. Physical contact is intimate and other people must not have any insight on it. Any form of displaying your affections publicly is scandalous and humiliating for both sides.

Those were the rules. Dick knew all of them by heart, taught by Gotham's best tutors since the moment he came to live with Bruce – he spent years and years learning everything he could, to be a proper prince and not shame Bruce in any way by doing something stupid out of unawareness. And those, those particular rules were the most important, as not following them would shame his name so greatly that if it ever happened, Dick wouldn't be able to look anyone in the eye for the rest of his life. Not to even mention the disgrace it would bring Bruce.

Children are allowed any physical touch they need. Holding their hand, hugging, kissing their cheeks and forehead is allowed even with other people around you. You are allowed to display your feelings towards the members of your family in public, such as holding their bare hand and even hugging them briefly. Any possible suitor and later a spouse does not have those privileges towards you. Any possible intimate contact between you and your spouse is to happen when you are alone, in the privacy of your chambers.

No matter what Dick knew earlier, no matter what his parents taught him, those were the rules Dick must follow now, regardless of anything else. It was confusing and weird at first, to change his whole worldview so abruptly like that but it didn't take Dick long to learn and understand. Besides, learning that you can't display your affections openly was barely anything huge, compared with what Dick had to go through when his parents were killed.

Bruce helped him understand the rules. Helped him with everything and anything, really. With Bruce’s aid, Dick was able to see how displaying your affections, being intimate with your beloved was something to treasure, a moment meant to be adored and cherished by the two of you. It was a beautiful show of feelings and no one else should be a witness to it.

Dick himself never saw anyone break those rules but he heard enough of such cases. People, especially nobles, loved to talk – Dick knew that better than anyone because he was the one people talked about a lot. One of their favorite activities was gossiping about people who broke the rules and thanks to that he knew perfectly well how they treated those who were stupid or careless enough to do it. It was utterly unacceptable for Gotham's society, scandalous. It brought dishonor, made people look and openly point their fingers at you to laugh.

It was a sin in its own category.

Dick was always extremely careful to follow all the rules, like a proper prince he was. He made sure to wear gloves whenever his suitors greeted him with a kiss on the palm, was certain to never stand too close to them during any events. The further thing he ever did was let Roy press a kiss to his cheek when the prince came to tell him that he was leaving for his journey, and then another one to the palm of his bare hand but even then they were alone in the library. Dick was intent to never break those rules, to follow them for the rest of his life.

And then Slade Wilson came, barged really, into his life.

Slade, who grabbed his bare hand and brought it to his lips whenever he wanted, like it was something as natural as breathing to him. Slade, who wrapped his arm around Dick's waist and pressed him against his side as if Dick was... as if Dick was some whore he could parade around with. Slade, who... w-who leaned down and... and kissed him, right on the lips, with everyone around to see it happen.

Every time Slade did it, Dick could feel shame and humiliation burning in his chest painfully like a real fire would. Every time, Dick forced himself to stay still and just breathe, to let Slade do what he wished. He was sure the man just toyed with him, waiting for the moment he'll finally snap. Oh, how he wanted to loathe this man. How he wanted to hate Slade, for he took Dick away from his home, from his family, away from everything he knew. How he wanted to hate Slade for doing whatever he wanted with him, humiliating Dick day and day again. But he couldn't. He couldn't allow himself to do that.

Because Dick wouldn't be able to live like that, standing by the side of someone he loathed for the rest of his life. It would destroy him, like locking in a cage would do to a bird, and Dick wasn't going to give up like this. Even if Slade decided to humiliate them both by acting that way and breaking the rules, even if he treated Dick like nothing more than a plaything he wanted to show everyone around. No matter what Slade decided to throw at him, Dick intended to take every blow with dignity, as much as it was possible.

Dick chose this himself. He agreed to Slade's demands, agreed to marry him and live by his side in Defiance, aware of what it can bring. Aware of what Slade might choose to do with him. All to stop the war that was terrorizing them all for far too long. And Dick didn't regret doing it, not really. He couldn't regret saving all those lives, innocent lives that could've been lost in a pointless fight if he refused. Even if he had to sacrifice himself for it. Even if he has to endure all those painful humiliations. It was a small price to save thousands of their soldiers.

If his betrothed had been someone else, Dick would've been able to voice his objection right away. He would make it clear that he's not going to stand for being treated like that, that he won't allow Slade to touch him with all those people around, or even at all. But with becoming Slade's husband he will lose all his rights, all his privileges. He won't be Gotham's crown prince anymore, no, he'll become King Wilson's royal consort instead. Slade will have all the power over him, everything Dick will own will belong truly to Slade, everything he'll be allowed to do or have only because Slade'll agree to it. And Dick... Dick was simply too afraid to anger Slade by denying him, too afraid to see what punishment would await him for it. Would Slade forbid him writing to his family, forbid him visiting them? Would he lock Dick up, put him into a golden cage, and come see him only when he wished to be in his consort's company? Would he simply kill him and start the war again?

Dick didn't want to find out.

Because Slade Wilson was a cruel man. Dick didn't know him very well, in fact he only ever met him a few times before, during galas or other celebrations, but he didn't have to to know that fact. It was common knowledge, in fact. Everyone knew the tale about how Slade became Defiance's king, how he fought his way to the throne, brutally killing every person that got in his way. It wasn't how it happened in Gotham, with Bruce getting the crown from his father, who got it from his own father. No, Slade wasn't even of royal blood. Before he started ruling the country he was a mercenary – and the best one their world heard about at that. It's because of that, because of his merits, he received the lordship in the first place and became a figure on Defiance's court.

Because Slade didn't shy away from war and battle, always ready to fight whenever someone was willing to pay him handsomely for his effort. And now, when he left the mantle to take on the crown instead, he was still willing to battle everyone, to protect his country and make it thrive.

Bruce respected Slade because he would have to be a fool not to. Slade wasn't just a brute force, he was also a genius strategist whose plan always succeeded. He was a man feared by all, even those most powerful. A monster, able to kill with just a twitch of his hand.

Dick knew that all and he was well aware what he was getting into when he agreed to the letter where Slade demanded him in turn to end the war. He was aware why Bruce was so against the sheer idea of it. But Dick knew what his answer will be the moment he read the letter for the very first time. No matter how much he hated doing it, he wasn't going to let his people suffer from the war when he had a certain way to stop all the fighting.

Even if he had to suffer instead.

Sitting by the window in the chambers Slade had prepared for him for the time of his visit in Defiance, Dick remembered suddenly how whenever they were alone, Bruce never called Slade a king. 'Wilson', sometimes he even referred to him as 'Lord Wilson' but never as a king. In Bruce's eyes Wilson wasn't a proper ruler – he was a brute, a barbarian that cared only about himself and did whatever he wanted to do.

Dick huffed a humorless laugh at the thought. Perhaps that's why Slade was so shameless and didn't even care about breaking the rules.

/ / / / /

Then, Dick started to learn Defiance's culture properly.

He was going to live in Slade's country and so he preferred to know the rules and general manners that applied there. Slowly but surely he became more acquainted with Defiance's customs, with the way its people lived and thought – he gained the knowledge from every source possible, whether it was from the books in the royal library or simply from talking with people in the court.

One of the first things he learned was that... no one here cared if you kissed your spouse in a room full of people. Well, that one he actually learned before getting to any books; meeting Apollo and Midnighter was interesting and maybe even a bit... traumatizing at first for him. It was all so much different from what Dick knew that the idea alone almost made him dizzy. To think that displaying his affections in public didn't sow disgust all around, that people actually encouraged it and cheered when you did... it was a lot to take in, no matter how long Dick thought about it.

Almost all his life, all those years he spent in Gotham by Bruce's side, he was teached that showing affection openly was like a crime. That's what he believed was right and he followed those rules naturally, even after arriving in Slade's country. He just... well, he just assumed that the rules in Defiance were the same as in any other country he visited before, because they all applied in Star, in Jump, even in Atlantis as well. That made Dick even more eager to learn about Defiance's customs, because it was so much different from everything Dick knew.

But it also made Dick look at Slade differently. It made him realize that the man wasn't trying to humiliate him with his affections, he did it because his people took pride in showing off their beloved ones. And while Dick was certain that Slade did take some sick kind of pleasure from all his blushing, stuttering and hitched breaths, it wasn't exactly entirely ill-natured. It was probably what Slade was raised with and for him it was absolutely natural so he kissed Dick without a second thought, even if it made Dick want to crawl into the ground at times.

People of Defiance simply loved to display their affections in public, loved to proudly show everyone around just how happy their beloved ones made them. At least that's what the books said. It was... it was actually kind of nice, in theory.

...that still didn't make actually doing it, letting Slade do it, any easier. Slade's touch, his easy kisses that happened with other people around still made him want to jerk away from his grip as humiliation burned into him; still made his heart thump painfully against his ribcage while he blushed so hard that even his neck and shoulders turned red. It didn't matter if people around them clapped and smiled, it'll take Dick a really long time to actually get used to it.

But he had time to do it, didn't he? After all, he'll spend the rest of his life by Slade's side. And it was... it was better to know all that and just be embarrassed over the affections, than to feel the shame and horror of breaking the rules that in reality weren't even there. It was much better that way and Dick will get used to it one day.

[Masterlist of the au]

He was just glad Bruce didn't have to see any of it.

//

Thank you for reading!! 💕 Hope you liked it 👉👈

[writing-forever]

I wrote this in like two days this is the fastest I’ve ever written this many words.

Based on this art by @ayz0

Next

Moon shook his head as he came out of rest mode. He was in parts and service, the higher ups had said that having two robots in one body was impractical, it was also causing glitches. So they were separating him from Sun. He had tried to stop them, as had sun. But in the end he was only a robot. He wasn’t allowed to have an opinion. They had been separated anyway. Moon pressed his hands to his face. It was silent now. In his head. Before sun had always been talking. Never a moment of peace. He used to complain about that. Now he missed it.

Moon felt someone touch his shoulder. He shrugged them off. He was busy being sad.

“Oh com’on you big baby, stop pouting and give me a hug!”

SUN!?! Moon whipped his head around hitting sun in the face with the end of his hat in the process. He sat there for a second taking in Sun’s appearance. Sun just smiled at him before pulling him into a hug. Moon hugged him back, laughing at the absurdity of even this simple action. He belatedly realized that he had never actually hugged sun before. It just wasn’t possible when they were both in the same body. Moon relaxed in Sun’s arms, he smiled when he noticed that he fit in them perfectly.

Sun pulled away and held moon at arms length. “Look at you moony you have your own body now!” He grabbed moons face. “And you can make expressions too! Like me!” Sun made a face in order to prove his point.

Moon pushed suns hand away feigning annoyance. “Yeah they really outdid themselves with our new bodies didn’t they?”

“They sure did especially with bodies this small!”

“What?!” Moon looked at Sun confused. “What do you mean small??!”

Sun gestured to the room around them. “Have you not noticed that the room seems much bigger than it usually is? We are literally standing on the maintenance table.”

Moon hadn’t noticed. He looked around with wide eyes. Sun was right, the room did seem a lot bigger. Carefully he walked to the edge of the maintenance table. That was quite a ways down. The table that once reached to just below his waist was now at least twice his height. He stepped back from the edge and turned to Sun. “Why are we small?!” He asked. He really hoped he wasn’t stuck like this forever.

Sun just giggled. A typical Sun reaction to his suffering. “I think the tech said something about a prototype body, and that it’d be easier to get the virus out of your system if you weren’t constantly trying to kill them.” Sun put quotation marks around the word prototype.

Moon hummed. Well that was rude. It wasn’t like he would actually kill anybody. He just wanted to scare them a bit.

It didn’t matter now. He was certain that at barely two feet tall he wouldn’t be scaring anybody.

He heard someone clear their throat behind him and both he and Sun turned to see who it was.

Moon took a few steps backward when he saw.

It was their star but, they were so much bigger than when he last saw them. He was pretty sure he was plushie size to them now.

“Ok that was a really cute reunion and I’m sorry to interrupt, but I still need to give moon a maintenance check. “ they said.

Moon looked at at them and took a few more steps backward.

They frowned at him and held out their hand. “Com’on moonbeam I need to make sure you’re working correctly.”

Moon shook his head and they reached across the table to grab him. Moon tried to step back, out of reach, but he hadn’t realized that he was at the edge of the table. He gasped as his foot hit empty air and prepared himself to hit the floor. But then there were hands around his waist and moon let out a startled yelp as they lifted him up and sat him down at the edge of the table closest to them.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the odd dizziness that came with being moved that quickly. His Star tsked at him and he looked up at them. They had a frown on their face that seemed to be directed at him. Probably because he had tried to run away.

“Please cooperate with me moonbean, I know you hate maintenance but the sooner we start the sooner you can be done.”

Moon nodded sheepishly and his Star held out their hand to him again. He set his hand in theirs, marveling at the fact that their hand fully engulfed his own. It used to be the other way around. His Star manipulated his hand for a moment making sure everything was working as it should and not getting stuck. When they were done they moved onto his other hand and then his arms and legs. This part was mostly normal it happened every time moon had a maintenance check. He didn’t really like it, but he didn’t hate it either.

“Ok I’m done, open your stomach hatch for me please.” His Star rapped a knuckle on his middle. This was the part he really hated. It felt so weird to have fingers messing around with his insides. He wished he didn’t have to do it. Nevertheless he opened his stomach hatch, preparing himself mentally.

His Star crouched down and stuck their fingers in his hatch. He tried to keep still as they checked his wires and gears making sure nothing was misaligned or loose.

He lit out a squeak as they touched a sensitive spot near his side. He looked up to see if they had heard him and was met with a face that looked like they wanted to coo at him. Moon crossed his arms and huffed. “Not a word.”

His Star nodded. “That wire is loose though so try not to squirm while I fix it.”

Moon nodded and braced himself as his Star stuck their fingers back in his hatch. He tensed when they touched the loose wire and was unable to stop himself from letting out a breathy giggle.

His Star made a sympathetic face. “Don’t worry I’m almost done. I don’t like being tickled either.”

Moon nodded and managed to not let out anymore embarrassing sounds.

When his Star was done they closed his hatch before picking him up under his armpits and setting him on his feet. Moon took a few steps back when he was set down, pointing at his Star accusingly. “Don’t just pick me up like that, it feels weird.” He grumbled.

His Star laughed. “Like you guys didn’t do that all the time in you’re old body. Besides,”

They turned and picked up sun like a baby. Sun snuggled into them. “Sun seems to like it.”

Moon crossed his arms. “Well that’s because he’s sun. Of course he likes it. He’s also probably been awake longer than me. I’m still getting used to being small.” Moon huffed.

His Star set sun back down on the maintenance table. “Ok I’m sorry for picking you up without asking.” They paused. “But you might have to get used to it. My boss wants me to take you guys to my house while you’re in these bodies. It’s a lot easier for some kid to break you like this and they don’t want to risk it.”

Sun gasped. “But what about the daycare?! What will happen to all the kids!?” Sun fidgeted with his hands, sending a pleading look at their handler.

“Sorry sunny, they’re closing the daycare for a bit. But it’ll be fine. I sure the kids will find somewhere else to go in the meantime. And they’ll be really excited to see you when the daycare opens again.”

Sun frowned, pondering this new information. “I guess we don’t really have a choice do we?”

Moon stepped over to sun and held out his arms. Sun hugged him tight and buried his face in moons shoulder. “Don’t worry sunny, it’ll be ok. I’m sure the kids will be fine.” Moon spoke gently, in the kind of voice he used to soothe children for nap time. Sun pulled away and and wiped at his face. He couldn’t actually cry but he had seen children do that, and it seemed to help so moon didn’t say anything about it.

“I-I’m ok.” Sun said shakily. “The daycare is gonna open up again, right?” Sun looked to their Star.

“Of course it will. It’s not even gonna be closed for too long. Only a couple of weeks.” They assured him.

Sun nodded. “I’m sorry for getting so emotional, I just really want the kids to be ok.” He smiled softly up at their Star.

“aww it’s ok sunny. I know you love the kids. But they’ll be fine for a few weeks. Besides now I get you guys all to myself.” They grinned.

Sun laughed. “Yeah I guess you do.” Sun’s face lit up as he remembered something. “Oh my, we’re going to your house right? I’ve never been outside the pizzaplex before! How does you house look? Is it really big!?”

Their Star laughed at Sun’s enthusiasm. “It’s not too big, but it should be plenty of space for you two. It’s kinda cozy if I do say so myself.” They said with a proud smirk. “Oh, speaking of my house, my shift is almost over we need to get going.” They looked over Sun and Moon for a moment. “The pizzaplex is full right now so if you guys want to walk you have to hold my hands, otherwise I’ll have to carry you ok?”

Moon made a face. So far he did not like being small. But he guessed it was better than being carried. Sun however had a different opinion. “I’m ok with being carried! I wouldn’t want to get hurt on the floor! Safety is always my number one priority! How about you moony?”

Moon huffed. “I’ll pass. I’d rather walk.”

“Ok well now that that’s decided, moon I’ll get you down from there so you can walk.” Their Star said , reaching for moon.

Moon shook his head. “I can get down on my own,” He said stiffly.

Their Star raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m sure you could. But I don’t want to risk it.” They said. “Please stop making this harder for me I need to clock out.”

Moon grumbled but complied. He stepped forward and their Star grabbed him around the waist and set him on the floor. This was even weirder than when he was on the table. Their Star was so tall now, he only reached to just above their knees. Moon shook his head. He could think about it later.

Their Star picked up sun and held him against their hip before reaching down to hold moons hand. Moon reluctantly put his hand in theirs. He felt like a small child.

Once their Star was holding his hand they led him out of parts and service and into the main lobby of the pizzaplex.

They had been right it was full. Moon cowered closer to their Star as they picked their way through the crowd. He looked up at sun who was being held safely in their arms. He was looking around at all the lights and people.

He had never been allowed outside the daycare so he was understandably amazed by all the chaos. Moon thought it was pretty cool too. He had only ever been out of the daycare at night when the pizzaplex was empty. It was kind of weird seeing it filled with people.

Unfortunately he couldn’t appreciate it as much as sunny, he was too busy dodging around people and trying not to get squished.

Eventually they made their way to the exit and walked through the parking lot until they got to their Star’s car. They let go of moons hand for a moment to unlock the door before setting sun in the backseat and turning to moon. “Can you get up there by yourself or do you need help?” They asked

Moon scoffed. “It’s not that high.” He said, before climbing into the backseat next to sun.

Their Star shut the door and climbed into the drivers seat. “Buckle up guys. Safety first.” Sun and moon did as they were told and their Star pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward their house.

[writersdrug]

All ya spam likers - I see you, I appreciate you, and I love like you back (I love every single one of you more than the organic gummy vitamins from my local market that taste so fucking good)