#this isn’t a ‘’you can’t write stories about incest or rape or whatever’’ post

[fishyartist]

Oh ew an artist I followed was posting shit about how we need to be accommodating of sexualizing incest+children because “it’s fiction” bullshit get lost ☠️

[myslutwritings]

𓆩♡𓆪 Welcome to my blog 𓆩♡𓆪

Hello there:) my name is michelle and i’m 19 years old. i’ve been using tumblr for a long time now. I actually used to write but i stopped doing it awhile ago. however, i’ve decided to give it another try! I remember i stopped awhile ago because i wasn’t as passionate about it. plus, i wasn’t feeling so great and that was the very reason why i quit temporarily.

Currently, i am insanely hyperfixated on demon slayer! i’m mostly obsessed with the KNY demons so this blog is for my demon lovers/simps! i’ll be writing for only the demons because those are the ones i’m most passionate about. Don’t get me wrong, i adore all the characters endlessly but i can only see myself writing for the demons right now. So if that isn’t your preference then please kindly leave and don’t bother hating. As for my lovely demon lovers feel free to stay and send me requests in my inbox!

I’m still (sorta) new at this so my sincerest apologies if my writing/grammar is crappy in any shape or form!!

☆ Characters i will be writing for ☆

- Muzan kibutsuji

- Kokushibo

- Douma

- Akaza

- Hantengu clones (Sekido, Karaku, Aizetsu, & Urogi)

- Gyutaro

- Daki

- Enmu

- Lady tamayo

- Nakime

〖 Rules 〗

-okay so just going over some basic ground rules because this part is required.

-please do NOT spam my inbox! it’ll just stress me out further and only compel me to not wanna write anymore.

-i will not do ships! (ex; character x character) only x readers! (ex: character x s/o)

-i prefer to do preferences/imagines/headcanons but i’ll do short stories(one shots) as well! however, those take more time to write.

-i will write about the ideas that get submitted that i like the most. please don’t take this in the wrong way but i’m only writing for what i know how to write about if that makes sense?

-also, minors aren’t allowed to interact with my NSFW posts.

-PLEASE SPECIFY WHAT YOU WANT WHEN YOU REQUEST! and please specify whether you’d like it to be NSFW or SFW.

-if i haven’t done your request please do not take it to heart! i only write for what i know how to write for, you know? i hope that makes sense!

-I will do my best to complete every request i get! It takes me time to write because unfortunately life gets in the way but please do not mistaken me for giving up! I will get it done in my own time.

-writing is a hobby of mine. something i want to do to help me relax and feel comforted. i’m not too keen on making it feel like a chore or a job i hate. i will write for whatever i want and do whichever request i feel motivated to write for. thank you!

➤ what i’m comfortable writing;

NSFW/SFW (i won’t be doing NSFW for Daki)

Fluff/Angst (I love writing these)

Violence (i’m okay with this jus nothin’ too crazy💀)

Yandere!Characters (Then again just nothing TOO crazy)

Gore (this is demon slayer we’re talking ab so gore is okay obv)

self harm (for comfort purposes only! i won’t be glamorizing/romanticizing it)

Poly relationships (ex: character x character x reader)

I will write for fem, male, trans & GN reader! (i want everyone to feel included, plus it’s fun to write for all)

i’ll also write for child!reader but only platonically.

I will not write full-on smut fics. (simply because i’m terrible at it and i have zero motivation for it) But i can do spicy scenarios or NSFW headcanons!

➤ what i’m NOT comfortable writing;

Pedophilia/underaged/incest (obviously💀)

Non-con/rape/SA/grooming

Suicide (i can write fluff fics where it’s only suicidal thoughts and the characters help the reader but that’s about it.)

pregnancy/birth giving (nothing wrong w it js makes me uncomfortable)

Mother or Father reader. I’m not the best at writing domestic stories like that.

non-sexual Age regression. (nothing wrong with it, it’s just not what i prefer to write about)

necrophilia/foot fetishes/age-play/vore/any weird kinks in general. (you get what i’m saying?)

Daddy kink (i just can’t take it seriously lol)

Smut fics/stories for male!reader (I identify as a woman, so writing a full porn one-shot for a male reader would be a bit awkward in my opinion. But i can still do headcanons)

In conclusion i won’t be writing anything that’s offensive or highly controversial or flat out problematic! however, my writings will contain somewhat dark topics and that’s about all. but i won’t go overboard with anything. (i’m sure you understand)

Feel free to leave me requests though!! i am sooo desperate‼️ i don’t bite so don’t be scared lol

ANYWAYYY that’s about everything. bye-bye :))

[bigskydreaming]

Anyway, since its been awhile, friendly reminder that if you come at me with  ‘can’t believe you’re pro-censorship’ BS I absolutely WILL in fact bite your head off and ask that you brush up on your reading comprehension and/or find me a single post anywhere in which I’ve ever advocated for actual censorship. As I do not and will not ever consider censorship anything other than a band-aid that at best forces certain ideas or expressions of them undercover where they continue to proliferate unseen, and that’s not remotely ideal or good IMO.

My entire stance is simply one of CREATIVE RESPONSIBILITY, the idea that creators who willingly CHOOSE to partake in depictions of, conversations about and writing stories in which they explore mature, adult themes and experiences that real people live through and deal with in real life.... 

Like, owe it to everyone impacted by those themes or lived experiences to craft their stories respectfully and with an understanding that what’s complete fiction for some people isn’t as far removed from reality for others.

And similarly, rather than advocating censorship, I believe in fostering atmospheres or environments that ENCOURAGE critical analysis of complex topics as a form of creative accountability. So that readers whose only experience with certain topics DOES only come from fiction aren’t subject to being influenced JUST by uncritical depictions or views of those topics while critical viewpoints are silenced and condemned. 

Or so readers who DO have experience with certain topics like say, incest, but who aren’t in safe environments to educate themselves or heal other than via what they find written about those topics online, like, don’t just have their own worst fears or assumptions about themselves or their experiences VALIDATED by some dumbass fic writer with virtually no experience of their own and just a lot of opinions they pulled out of their ass, while again, every ‘critical’ view of popular sensationalized tropes is shouted down as being too controversial for daring to say that incest isn’t sexy, as an example.

So no, I’m not pro-censorship and if you ever think that after perusing some of my thoughts on these matters, I encourage you to go back to the beginning and try again, because that’s one hundred percent incorrect.

I am and always will be just staunchly ‘if you can’t talk respectfully about this stuff, and by talk respectfully about it I mean at least entertain the idea that people with critical commentary about your favorite tropes might have some points, actually,’ then I think you lack the maturity to be writing about those specific topics, let alone capitalizing on them or building platforms around them.  And people should be allowed and even encouraged to say so just as much as you’re allowed and encouraged to say whatever bullshit that misfired its way out your synapses and through your keyboard before being labeled a hot take.

tl;dr - If you’re a comic book fan for example and you talk a lot of shit about how disrespectful Devin Grayson’s handling of a storyline where Dick Grayson got raped was, only to then turn around and write twenty seven fics about that same character getting gangraped by villains while you wax rhapsodic about how you’re so naughty and going to hell whoopsie teehee, I don’t want to censor you or tell you that you can’t write that. I just want to say hey what’s it like being such a fucking hypocrite, is it fun, are you winning, like, whenever that happens to be relevant.

That’s all!

[delusion-of-negation]

top 10 (ish) ridiculous or annoying FAQs:

(click at your own discretion)

1) "kids today rely on others to do everything"

ah yes, damn those participation trophies! if it wasn't for them my hands wouldn't be fucked, and I wouldn't need people to write for me. but seriously, stop reading boomer comics, and go outside to meet some actual young people.

2) "sus that a non-american says mom"

yeah, because it's clearly the superior version, and I'm not too patriotic to concede a defeat.

3) "sweaty, the victims of abuse by catholics are real people, stop appropriating their pain just because you want to hate catholics; plus teachers abuse people just as often anyway"

so firstly, I don't hate anybody. and secondly, regarding the fact that victims really do exist, [insert "of course I know him, he's me" meme here]; although I don't often talk much about the abuse I went through or what my religious beliefs are. but, more importantly, statements like "survivors are people" can be phrased like "some people are survivors", and when you're unable to act according to the latter (like when you don't even consider that somebody might be one) then you display a failure to recognise the former - you're projecting; a survivor can't be appropriating their own pain, but you can be appropriating it to silence one. and thirdly, teachers do abuse - the problem isn't and has never been purely religion, rather that abuse is often done by somebody in a position of trust, power, and familiarity; and that the lack of a global minimum enables totally legal abuse on top of the illegal stuff. people with access and respect have more opportunity to abuse than those without, and that goes for teachers too. but, once again, you can be appropriating the pain of survivors to deflect and silence people. please remember this before you say that shit.

4) "get help/therapy"

way ahead of you - years ahead of you. but it's not magic - people who say this often act as if you'll start behaving differently overnight. not only are some things simply beyond the ability of talking therapy to completely rectify, it also takes time and has to be selective. you've got to pick your priorities, and that's definitely not whatever ship or joke you're mad at me about today. therapy is a slow, arduous process that can't guarantee results - it isn't "anti-recovery" to recognise that, it's honesty. while I've been in therapy for a long time, it is not necessarily going to change whatever you don't like about me - whether that's because it can't, because my focus now is on more important or urgent things, or because I don't want to change that.

5a) "tell your family you ship incest, see how that goes; normal people find it disgusting"

actually, some know, and they're fine with it. in fact, one prefers sibling pairings in fiction to all other dynamics because, to paraphrase, "it's a deeper level of messed up co-dependence". so unfortunately for you, my remaining family (by which I mean those not dead or cut out of my life after abuse and so forth) actually are able to distinguish between fiction and reality. plus, my reasoning for caring if they find it gross or not pertains only to recommending books and such - their opinions do not dictate my tastes.

5b) "don't sexualise/appropriate incestuous abuse" and "I bet you enjoyed being raped" and other attempts to upset me over 5a

firstly, as I've already said here, survivors can't be appropriating ourselves. in addition, you're not owed people's history or trauma - it's not okay to require people's personal information, or else you'll send anon hate and accusations of appropriation. secondly, I'm not sexualising our abuse (not just because I write horror, and so a lot of my writing is intended to be creepy, not sexy); these stories aren't about us, they're not us at all. entire dynamics/people (fictional or otherwise) aren't all going to be applicable to us or identical to us, just because they have something in common with us; they're not us and they're not accountable to us. thirdly, the fact that people send this stuff (attempting to trigger people's trauma over ships) is so much more worrying to me than somebody making our communal imaginary friends kiss. you're trying to hurt people. and finally, to the "I bet you enjoyed it" crowd (if you're at all serious): do you think you'd enjoy being in a real zombie apocalypse, alone, afraid, and really at risk of being eaten alive? a fictional scenario does not feel remotely the same as a real one. this isn't rocket science - things that look like you aren't you; fiction isn't reality; don't send anon hate. (edit: comparable "just leave me alone, I'm not hurting anyone" sentiments for yandere stuff, and anything else you decide I'm naughty for.)

6) "you'll be sent off to do manual labour once your communist revolution happens"

while I don't know why people think that I'm a communist, a dictatorial regime probably isn't going to want me to do manual labour. they're more likely to just shoot me; I'm useless and a liability. call me crazy, but something tells me that "ah yes, we shall give ze deranged cripple ze power tools" isn't the communist position.

7a) "they/them can't be singular pronouns"

yes they can, and they're used as such in both shakespeare and the bible. but you don't have to say this - I'm also okay with he/him, so you could've just used those and chilled out. also, do I look like somebody who views the rules of grammar as fully immutable and imperative?

7b) "enbies/aros/pan/etc aren't valid"

do you really think that you're going to change any hearts or minds by putting that in my ask box or under my funny maymays? chill out, it's not worth the effort - you could be planning a party (in minecraft) and having fun instead. it isn't worth my time to rant at everybody who's saying something isn't valid, updating how I'm explaining it as my opinions grow and general discourse around it evolves; I'm just who I am, somebody else is who they are - why bicker in presumptuous ways about if that's enough? it ultimately is valid, in my opinion, but that isn't an invitation to keep demanding that I debate. (edit: old posts of mine probably don't phrase things incredibly, on this or anything... I tried.)

8) "what are your politics?"

my politics are informed first and foremost by the knowledge that I'm not cut out to be some kind of leader - I don't want to be the guy who tells everyone else what to do, I just offer what seem to me like valid criticisms of how we are doing things now, and general pointers on the values and ethics that I would prefer to move towards. things like individual freedom, taking the most pacifist route where possible, trying not to give excessive power to small groups of people (governments or corporations), helping those in need even when they're not palatable, and letting me suck loads of dicks. but please refrain from decreeing me something - there's not enough information in what I said, so you'll just be filling in the blanks with assumptions. (edit: workplace democracy seems cool to me; benefits are good; fair fines and taxes; and the "sperm makes you loopy" saga: 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

9) "you're a narcissist"

no, I don't meet the diagnostic criteria. joking on the internet that you're hot doesn't make a person a narcissist. the fact that I've chosen to keep my actual self-esteem issues to myself is not proof that they don't exist - you're just not entitled to that information about me. but it's also not narcissism to really like how you look. (edit: don't throw labels around carelessly too.)

10a) "kin list?"

the fabric of the universe, a zombie, dionysus, maned wolf/arctic fox hybrid, a comedian, big gay, big rock, ambiguously partial insincerity. (edit: kin list may or may not be incomplete.)

10b) "kin isn't valid/that's just being insane"

haven't we established that I'm deranged, and that sending stuff like this on anon is simply a waste of your precious time? besides, I do not care if it's invalid or insane - it's fun, I'm happy. (edit: see 7b for my opinion on sending me yet another ask with "that's invalid" in it; I'm not in the mood to discuss the nature of validity.)

bonus: "it gets better" and "trigger list?"

as I've said before, things just don't always get better for everyone - sometimes things can't be cured or even treated, sometimes they kill you; in some cases it could get better if not for a blockade or lack of time. the world is messy. it needs to be more normalised to reassure or comfort people without relying on saying that their issue will get better or be cured. it does suck to be this ill, but it also sucks to be made out to be a lazy pessimist, just because I have the audacity to not play along. and as for the trigger list, I don't like providing people with an easily accessed list of ways to hurt my feelings or harm me - upsetting me is supposed to be challenging, and thus rewarding. if you want a cheat sheet then you're out of luck, I'm afraid.

bonus #2: "FAQ stands for frequently asked questions, it doesn't need that s at the end!"

yeah, I know, I just enjoy chaos and disarray.

bonus #3 (edit): "what are your disabilities and how exactly are they incurable and/or deadly?"

again, I don't tell the internet everything about me, especially when it poses a risk, especially not as an easily accessible list for you to refer back to whenever you feel inclined to hurt my feelings. that is understandably a sore subject. (edit: that includes physical health issues btw.)

bonus #4 (edit): "so we shouldn't be critical?"

if it wasn't clear from my answer about politics or my post in general, you can have opinions about things, and you can voice that. it's just not realistic to exist at extremes: to think that you alone should dictate what exists in fiction, or to think that people shouldn't be expressing disdain or criticism of any calibur. say how you feel about things, that's fine, but it's also fine if people find that they don't value your input. plus we're all flawed, we can all be hypocritical from time to time, we all get bitchy, and we all make mistakes, or even knowingly fuck things up. that's important to keep in mind, whether we're talking about the one being criticised or the one doing the criticising - poor choices of words, imperfect tone, or contradictory ideas are inevitably going to happen occasionally.

congrats on reaching the end! if you have, at any point, said one of these to me, you owe a hug to your nearest loved one (once it's safe).

edit: might add more links/bonus points in the future when I think of things, but it's late now. (sorry for links where prior notes in the thread have my old url, that may get a tad confusing; also, not all links are my blog or my op, since it is to illustrate points/vibes, not to self-promo.)

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2020 Day 17: Hurt/Comfort & Whump

the time has come | @elizaeverafter

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1068 Main Tags/Warnings: no archive warnings apply, non-graphic pet death, angst with a happy ending, hopeful ending, established relationship, married castiel/dean winchester, emotional hurt/comfort Summary: The second Dean walked into their home, he should’ve picked up on the fact that something was wrong. Looking back on it, it was so silent that it was suffocating. There was an unnatural stillness, like their house knew something bad had happened and was trying not to involve itself.

Beautiful | @ialwayscomewhenyoucall

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1367 Main Tags/Warnings: human!cas, hurt/comfort, injured cas, first kiss Summary: “How long has he been sitting there?” Dean starts; he’d been watching Cas and hadn’t heard Sam behind him. “Five hours.” Dean practically spits out the words. “He won’t eat. He won’t move to a more comfortable chair. He won’t even take his damn pain pills. And he can’t tell me that doesn’t hurt, I know what a broken collar bone feels like. He’s just so--” ***** In which Cas, now fully human for several months, has been injured, and Dean has to Use His Words to comfort his friend.

Teardrops For You | @envydean

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1500 Main Tags/Warnings: Grief, Character Death, Established Relationship, Funerals, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Dean and Cas holding each other, Sadness, slight fluff, Angst, Car Accidents, Nightmares, Cuddling, Holding, Crying, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting Summary: The accident killed her and left Dean alive and emotionally broken. He's a disgrace. His best friend is dead and he can't even cry for her.

Soup & Syrup | @suckerfordeansfreckles

Rating: General Word Count: 1548 Main Tags/Warnings: best friends to lovers, getting together, sick Cas Summary: Cas started feeling sick two days ago, throat raw and hurting, every part of his body in pain as if he’ll burn up with fever any second. Then he had to cancel his and Dean's weekly study date in the library this afternoon, to stay home and take a quick nap that accidentally ended up four hours long and left him groggy and sweaty and weird. Dean has been sending him texts, five since he cancelled earlier, and as soon as Cas felt awake and present enough to respond, he called. This is where they are now, around 1 a.m. on a Saturday. He didn’t really stop to look at the clock before he called Dean, but — well. He was just hoping Dean would be awake, maybe out with friends. He was just hoping that maybe, maybe, Dean would come by and dote a little on him. Just because having his best friend around always makes him feel better. Not because he craves Dean’s presence, his palm on Cas’ forehead and his hands tucking him in beneath his blanket. Absolutely not.

The Admission | @deservetobesaved

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1720 Main Tags/Warnings: season 13, all the feelings Summary: Castiel finds out Dean threatened to kill Jack. He also finds out how broken Dean was when he died. So, naturally, he confronts him about it. A sort of fix-it coda, in or after 13x06.

Knowing | @unexpecteddreamz

Rating: General Word Count: 2013 Main Tags/Warnings: Castiel & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Demon Dean Summary: Of all the things Castiel might have expected to see, this was the last... It might well be the last thing he ever sees! Castiel is ""Always willing to bleed for the Winchesters"". Sam doesn't know how to fix what is broken. Dean is having nightmares. How did everything go so wrong so fast?

The Snow's Captives | SargentMom573 (AO3)

Rating: Mature Word Count: 2126 Main Tags/Warnings: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Sick Castiel, Caretaker Dean, Cabin Fic Summary: Dean was not going to make it alive down the mountain in a week’s time. Why? Because Cas was going to kill him, that’s why.

Skin Wars | @cr-noble-writes

Rating: General Word Count: 2319 Main Tags/Warnings: Angst, Artist!Dean, Model!Cas, body painting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cas protecting Dean from himself, shy!Dean, introvert!dean, Baby, graffiti artist!charlie, artist!Balthazar, art critic!Crowley, TV host!Anna, Skin Wars AU Summary: Dean, a traditionally trained artist, is competing for $100,000 in the reality body painting TV show, Skin Wars. He’s lucky enough to get paired with a friend as his model, Cas, for a particularly personal challenge. Dean feels his painting isn’t up to snuff, but what will the judges think?

Take Me Home | @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 2683 Main Tags/Warnings: Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Sexual Abuse, Non-con/Rape outside of Castiel/Dean Winchester, Hurt Dean Winchester, Protective Castiel, Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss, TW: Mentions of Non-con/Rape Summary: “I want to go home.” Dean let out, in a strangled voice. “Of course -” Cas reached for Dean’s hand, prepared to fly them away. Dean pulled away his hand, and rested his head backwards, against the seat. It seemed impossibly long before he finally asked. Unsure, as if somehow he still felt like Castiel could deny him anything. “Could you drive?”

Cold Comfort | @noiproksa

Rating: General Word Count: 3232 Main Tags/Warnings: Sharing Body Heat, Hypothermia, Huddling for Warmth, Cuddling & Snuggling, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Banter Summary: Dean and Cas are trapped in a room with temperatures well below zero. When even sharing vessel heat doesn’t seem to help anymore, they need to do whatever it takes to keep each other alive. (Intended as gen, but can be read as Destiel pre-slash.)

Exodus | @spnsmile

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 3365 Main Tags/Warnings: Explicit, noncon, hurt/ comfort Summary: Endverse!Dean comes back alive. He comes back to the camp to find he was gone for almost a month and that Castiel now serves a different captain. Like hell Dean Winchester will let that happen.

save that light | @specsofwings

Rating: Mature Word Count: 4779 Main Tags/Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Assassin Dean Winchester, Human Castiel, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Whump, Kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Blasphemy/Religious Imagery and Symbolism, Crucifixion, Major Character Injury, Heavy Angst, Angst With a Happy Ending, Trauma, Healthy Relationship, Hurt/Comfort Summary: He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive— Dean isn’t sure if it’s his brain, if he’s speaking aloud, if it’s Jody, next to him in the car, but he’s alive, Castiel is alive, and then there is darkness.

The Empty's Curse | @cloverhighfive

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 5380 Main Tags/Warnings: major character death, angst, fluff Summary: Dean is dying and there is no getting out of it this time. After a round of goodbyes from friends, Castiel takes Dean on one last ride.

Shiver | @nickelkeep

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 5714 Main Tags/Warnings: Modern with Magic, Witchcraft, Getting Back Together, Blizzards and Snowstorms, Car Accident, Snowed In, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, NSFW Summary: In desperate need of his journal to complete a spell, Dean braves a snowstorm to return to the cabin - and the man - left behind. Can a freak accident repair what's been damaged? Or will their lack of communication push Dean and Cas apart forever?

Six Feet Under Water | zaphodsgirl (AO3)

Rating: Mature Word Count: 7638 Main Tags/Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending Summary: This story is inspired by the amazing art of dragonpressgraphics, accompanied by this prompt: "Can be canon or AU (though Canon preferred - see below why) where Cas almost drowns and either Dean witnessed it or rescues him - would love a fic where Cas then has to deal with fear of drowning afterwards - maybe Dean too has nightmares about Cas drowning because of the same experience (bonus if references are made to season 6/7 where Cas walked into the water because of the Leviathans). Loads of angst more than okay as long as story has happy ending"

This Path Is Paved With Kitty Litter | @navajolovesdestiel

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 8392 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe, Grieving Castiel (Supernatural), Caring Dean Winchester, Veterinary Assistant Dean, Deanna The Kitten, Explicit Sexual Content Summary: The man moved from cage to cage, petting each cat in turn. Dean could hear his sigh from where he was standing. Dean walked over to him. The guy looked up at Dean and again, his eyes made Dean’s knees weak. “Hey, guy, you spend a lot of time with these cats. You thinking about adopting one?” The look on the guy’s face went from sad to stricken. “Uh… n-no, I’m… I’m just looking at them.” The look made Dean’s chest hurt.

After the Fallout | @cr-noble-writes

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 8832 Main Tags/Warnings: Post-Apocalypse, Post-Nuclear War, some body horror, Major Character Injuries, Nightmares, Mutants, Minor Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Smut, Angst, Conspiracy, top!dean, Bottom!Cas Summary: Its been years since the nuclear catastrophe that decimated the world. From the moment Dean Winchester stepped foot on the surface again, he’s been running from mutant creatures that want to kill him. When will it end?

I'm Thankful I get to Leave | @sheinthatfandom

Rating: Mature Word Count: 11079 Main Tags/Warnings: thanksgiving dinner, alternate universe- human, dysfunctional family, uncomfortable topics, red flags, emotional manipulation, emotional incest, homophobia, ableism, racism, bad parent mary, bad parent john, bobby used to be married to mary Summary: Screw you Columbus now we have to eat at Mary’s pretending to not be the Jerry Springer version of the Brady Bunch instead of getting ready for Christmas.

The Last Thing I Wanted | @nickelkeep

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 11492 Main Tags/Warnings: AU - Fantasy, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Whump, Prince!Dean, Concubine!Cas Summary: When Castiel is grievously wounded during an unsanctioned battle, it's all Prince Dean can do to make sure he lives the rest of his life comfortably. However, due to the archaic laws of Terra, Castiel is too lowborn to hold lands, deeds, or titles. What better way to solve an archaic problem than with a just-as-antiquated solution?

Healing an Angel | @noiproksa

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 12017 Main Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Castiel, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Team Free Will, Wing Grooming, Aftermath of Torture Summary: Cas has been captured by shapeshifters who have been torturing him for weeks. The aftermath is not pretty, but Dean will do anything to get his angel through this and get him to trust them again. To make matters worse, the mastermind behind Cas’ capture is still alive. Will they be able to keep him from coming after Cas again?

Cloned to Perfection | @fangirlingtodeath513

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 16298 Main Tags/Warnings: Castiel/Dean Winchester,Castiel (Supernatural),Dean Winchester,Sam Winchester,Bobby Singer,Charlie Bradbury,Cain (Supernatural),Alastair (Supernatural),John Winchester,Alternate Universe - Future,Marine Castiel (Supernatural),John Winchester Being an Asshole,Canon-Typical Violence,Human Experimentation,Government Experimentation,Genetic Engineering,Clones,Gun Violence,Shooting Guns,Fugitives,Hacking,Government Conspiracy,Blow Jobs,Come Swallowing,Interrogation,Truth Serum,Needles,Brief Mentions of Torture (Not TFW),Alternate Universe - No Monsters,Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss,Castiel/Dean Winchester First Time,Hand Jobs,Angst with a Happy Ending,Happy Ending,Minor Ellen Harvelle/Bobby Singer,Minor Charlie Bradbury/Jo Harvelle,Minor Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester Summary: For thirty years, Dean’s been in the dark about a bombshell of a family secret. When an AWOL soldier shows up on his doorstep in the middle of the night, he’s shoved into a world he had no idea existed. He never asked to be cloned. He never asked to have his genome edited to make him a super-soldier. He didn’t even know. Now his fate rests in the hands of a ragtag group—Castiel, the AWOL soldier sent as a warning by Sam and Dean’s father; Charlie, an ingenious hacker and Dean’s best friend; and his brother Sam, who’s also being chased by the government for the same reason. Can they pull the rug out from under the military general who’s after their father’s research, or will Sam and Dean be doomed to live the remainder of their lives being experimented on by the military?

He Can't Sleep | @pray4jensen

Rating: Mature Word Count: 18970 Main Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Marriage, Domestic, Case Fic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Summary: He’s done soaping up Cas’ hair. He grabs the sponge at his side and starts to scrub at Cas’ skin, up along his arms, his neck, down his chest. When he runs it up his legs, to his thighs, Cas shudders and then there’s a hand cupping Dean’s cheek, cold and dripping water and soap, and Dean falters, looks at him for the first time. “Will you sleep with me?” Cas says. “Tonight?” Dean swallows. He says yes.

One Last Time | @confusedcasishere

Rating: Mature Word Count: 27370 Main Tags/Warnings: Sex Worker Dean Winchester, Dom/Sub, Dom Castiel/ Sub Dean Winchester, Lawyer Castiel, Top Castiel/ Bottom Dean Winchester, Porn With Plot Summary: After some convincing, Castiel agrees to try out a sex club. He’s nervous and looking for any excuse to back out, until he stumbles across a photo of a beautiful sub with captivating green eyes. Cas has to have him.

Highway to Hell (WIP) | @tucuxia

Rating: Mature Word Count: 31551 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Gabriel Has a Crush on Sam Winchester, Alpha Sam Winchester/Omega Gabriel, Alpha Balthazar/Omega Crowley, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Dean's life hasn't been great, Biker Castiel, Biker Sam Winchester Summary: Castiel, who shares leadership of the Hells Angels biker gang with his two older alpha brothers, finds out that a rival gang has been encroaching on their territory. During a tense meeting with the Devil's Blood gang in Lawrence, KS, he becomes the owner of a scared, broken young omega named Dean. Having forgotten how to speak after a decade under Azazel's cruel ownership, can the young omega learn to trust his new family, and maybe reconnect with the one he lost?

I Choose You (WIP) | @baby-in-a-trenchcoat7

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 43284 Main Tags/Warnings: Fluff, Destiel, Slight Smut, High School Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester Summary: High School AU. Castiel Novak has a dirty dream about the captain of the baseball team, Dean Winchester. Dean has a dirty dream about the nerdy Novak boy who hangs around the art room a lot. Castiel becomes Dean’s tutor, and the two soon learn that keeping their relationship platonic is harder than they thought. As their relationship develops, the two have to fight to overcome their problems while doing everything they can to stay together. Rated Explicit for sexual scenes.

Emergence | @ellis-park

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 58862 Main Tags/Warnings: Canon fic, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, amnesia, graphic depictions of violence Summary: Something’s been missing from Dean’s life for the past three years, a void left after a hunt gone terribly wrong. He often feels a sense of longing with no discernible cause, a need to talk to someone who isn’t there. A call from an acquaintance leads Dean to James Novak, a man who disappeared more than a decade ago, and suddenly Dean gets the feeling he’s found what he’s been missing. But James isn’t really James — he’s the angel Castiel, who’s wanted by angels, demons and hunters alike. And he may be at the center of the storm that wrecked Dean’s life all those years ago.

Forbidden Fruit (WIP) | @amyoatmeal

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 95427 Main Tags/Warnings: professor student au, stripper au, age difference, top!castiel/bottom!dean, unrequited castiel/balthazar, unrequited dean winchester/aaron bass, dean winchester & charlie bradbury, threats of noncon/sexual abuse, threats of violence, mentions of past trauma/abuse, angst Summary: Castiel Novak is a respectable, if not a little boring professor at his university. He lives a comfortable, financially stable life with his cat in his modestly-sized apartment. It would appear he has everything he needs, including an over-eager friend and colleague, but when fate tempts him with a seemingly familiar new student by the name of Dean Winchester, Castiel's comfortable life threatens to get turned on its head and things start to get a little juicy.

Stay With Me, Sweetheart | @a-mandala-rose

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 108710 Main Tags/Warnings: Dean/Cas, Dean/Lisa, Past Dean/Others, Past Cas/Others, Kid Fic, Serious Major Character Injury, Car Accident, PTSD/Panic Attacks, House Fires, Past Minor Canonical Character Death, Minor OC Death, Past Emotional Abuse, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Referenced Top Dean/Bottom Cas, Explicit Top Cas/Bottom Dean Summary: “Alright Cas, here comes the hard part. We’re gonna get you out of here, but we’ve gotta take the roof off and while we do that, we’re gonna have to cover you with a sheet to protect you from the glass. I’ll be right here though. I’m not going anywhere.” As he starts to drift away, he suddenly feels the press of Dean’s forehead against his own through the rough fabric and hears that warm, sunlit voice murmer quietly in his ear, too low to be overheard by the firefighters currently working to remove the SUV’s roof, “Stay with me, Sweetheart.” A single moment's distraction ends with a serious car accident that leaves Castiel trapped in his vehicle. Fortunately for him, fire fighter Dean Winchester is there, never leaving Castiel's side as the rest of his company work to free him from the mangled remains of his SUV. When the two meet again in the ICU, Castiel finds himself just as drawn to and comforted by the handsome fireman as he was during his accident. Dean is certainly attractive, but single father Castiel doesn't have time or space in his life for a romantic relationship. Then again, there's no harm in making a new friend, is there?

[reddiefic-anon12]

TW for sexual assault, CSA, rape, incest and murder.

I don’t know how to start this but I am 99% sure that my fic is currently in the middle of some tumblr drama. The fic isn’t named (so I won’t name it either) but there aren’t many fics like this one so I can pretty confidently say that it’s mine.

Firstly I want to apologise to anyone who has gotten upset/trigged if they read my fic. This was never my intention which is why my fic is tagged heavily with anything I could think of. But truly, to anyone who was hurt by my fic I am sorry.

I am also not going to talk about the sever becuase I wasn’t in it. I don’t know what happened aside from the screenshots. From the looks of it, an accident happened and it was dealt with. 

I didn’t even know that my fic was apart of this drama. I only follow one person involved in anyway with this drama so it was a shock to log on this morning and see that people are getting hate for reading my fic. 

This is the part that confuses me the most. @liamannt and @creamykaspbrak didn’t write this fic and the screenshots I saw didn’t show them glorifying or hyping my fic. One message called it disgusting, which yeah, it is. I understand that people can’t send me hate on here but you could have directed the hate towards my comment section instead of to innocent people? 

I’ve also seen the post which is discussing my fic. Hate it if you want, that doesn’t bother me especially given the dark subject matter but don’t lie about me to justify it. One quote that I saw it “a fic which was based around the sexual exploitation of toddlers by their parents. This was not a fic about recovery or trauma, it was written for sexual pleasure detailing the abuse of the children.” And yes, the sexual assault of both R*chie and Ed*ie (censoring so this doesn’t come up in searches) is a central part of the story. It’s about the abuse - sexual and emotional - that they suffer at the hands of M*ggie and W*nt. 

I’d even argue that the fic isn’t about recovery becuase it’s not happy! They don’t recover after all this. R, especially in later chapters, is worse than his parents. That’s the point. It’s about a child being raised in an extremely awful environment and what happens to him, his relationships with his friends and family and with E. 

But this fic is not for sexual pleasure. It is not written to be enjoyed. It’s supposed to be a dark, scary and uncomfortable story. It’s also not glorifying the abuse of the kids. One of the ways this is achieved is by writing it in R’s (and occasionally E’s) POV. He sees nothing wrong with it becuase of how he’s been raised, E sees nothing wrong with it because M*ggie emotionally manipulates him into seeing nothing wrong with what they do. The abuse is also not detailed, in fact R glosses over it a lot becuase he’s a child and doesn’t understand

A lot of the comments I get, especially earlier on when R wasn’t as aware of his situation and thus narrated it in a such a way, discussed how they disliked S*nia more than the Toz*ers because her abuse is much more obvious to a child-minded R and therefore the audience becuase of how it’s written. Even though S*nia is no where near as bad as the Toz*ers who are literally serial killers raised R and E to be like them. Again, that’s the point. Because R doesn’t like S*nia so the audience gets a negative view of her becuase it’s from his POV. Again, this fic is a horror. 

The purpose is to make you uncomfortable BECAUSE you side with R. 

This story is a psychological story, meant to be scary and make you sick to read (and write) told through an unreliable narrator who doesn’t see things as bad - sexual assault, both being the victim and abuser, and murder - while the reader does see those things as bad. 

The tumblr user who wrote this post might have gotten that if she had read it, as she said in her post: “I did not read this work.”

Another user said “The fic in question is a heinous rape fic where parents have sexual relationships with toddlers. That fic is NOT about navigating or exploring trauma. It’s straight up csa porn. I read the first chapter or maybe two, to see if it was about something other than sexy child rape, and it’s not! And guess what! I didn’t tell anyone about it or advertise it in any way because it’s disgusting.”

We’ve already discussed the first part - it is about exploring trauma and abuse but it is not about recovery. The sexual parts aren’t detailed, more often than not they’re referenced (not every time - there are more detailed scenes-, especially when it’s just R and E even as kids). 

And no one is meant to see this as sexual, and from my comments no one does. @bimmyshrug discusses the fic and is practically perfect in her analysis of how I wanted it to come across. Whether you agree or not is a different matter.

But again, they say they only read 2 chapters in (at most) and the first two chapters features no CSA. Murder and abuse, yes. Which would justify the disgusting comment but don’t call my fic ‘sexy child rape’ just because you don’t like it. 

(the fic also has 21 chapters now and will finish with 24 so I don’t see why people are making such point-blank statements with one or two chapters worth of info) 

Reading and enjoying a story with dark material doesn’t mean you condone that material. We’re a fandom based on a book about child murder but none of us support murdering children. 

This is a long post but I’m going to sum it up now. If you don’t like my story or even hate it; that is fine, understandable and I don’t mind nor care. Send hate to me if you want on this blog. But stop sending hate/lying/making up rumours/whatever against other people just becuase they read it/shared it. 

(I don’t know how I’d prove that I’m the author but I can if needed.)

[futurepresentashes]

Mobile Rules

     - Mundane -

I know this is long but it’s for my own sanity, and a lot of it is very common stuff. But hello! I’m Col/Spades. I’m 28, enby (no pronoun preference), ace, and disabled, and I’ve been writing for over a decade! I’m introverted and can be shy, but I do try to reach out and interact when I can. Don’t be afraid to talk to me/ask about anything, be it a thread, ship, or really anything else. Discord available to mutuals on request.

All icons, banners, etc have been capped and edited by me. Absolutely do not use them without my express permission. Don’t know why you would, but hey, covering bases.

As a note, I tend to use ‘hun’ ‘dear’ ‘sweetheart’ and other terms a lot. I’ll check your rules for anything about it, but if not, don’t be afraid to let me know when we talk, or remind me if I forget (I have a poor memory, so it’s definitely not on purpose if I do!)

Onto the good stuff!

     - General -

1. Information used is a blend of movieverse, some comic influences, and headcanons (Please check About) but is majority movie-based as that’s what I’m familiar with.

 I am, however, open to writing with comic characters and other members of general Marvel media. I’ll be building on certain aspects to make an interpretation that follows Cable’s story in the movie, while also hopefully being fun and interesting to interact with. Please be patient with me.

2. Godmoding, meta playing, etc are not tolerated.

3. Ships and verses are independent of each other unless discussed with all parties.

4. Askbox is always open with anon turned on, feel free to send whatever you’d like in.

5. Memes are great as ice breaks, and there is no timeline on them, send in any whenever you want to. However, I am not a meme resource. If you don’t want/can’t think of what to send in, reblog from the source.

6. Formatting on my posts is very basic, including edits and icons, but I don’t require that from my partners, so no worries.

7. Replies will generally be in 3rd person and I can tend towards the longer para replies, but I believe in quality over quantity, so don’t feel like you have to match longer posts. I don’t want you to feel exhausted by our thread, and will generally find a happy medium.

8. Darker plots/themes don’t bother me, and I currently tag triggers with “tag tw”. I currently tag alcohol, drugs, nsfw (tagged as both ‘fpansfw’ and 'nsfw’), blood, and gore. If you need anything at all added, let me know.

That being said, I will not be writing anything that includes things like incest, rape, pedophilia, etc.

9. Please do not reblog or add replies to threads you’re not involved in unless you have cleared it with both myself and my partner first. I don’t mind personals following so long as they follow that rule.

10. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, sexism, ableism, etc will not be tolerated on my blog. This is non-negotiable.

11. Duplicates are rare for me to follow, but I have no issue with interacting in banter or other small fun stuff.

12. I don’t reblog or reference real world issues on this blog. I have other socials for that.

- Following and Unfollowing -

1. I am not a follow-for-follow, but I do check out everyone that follows me. Even if I don’t follow, I do rp with non-mutuals. Shipping, however, is reserved for mutuals.

2. I love OCs, but please have an accessible About and Rules page, otherwise I may not follow back.

3. I reserve the right to follow and unfollow at will. Reasons will generally fall under excessive negativity/guilt-trippy posts, lack of interest/interactions (if I no longer am interest, or if I feel like I’m the only one driving interactions), or lack of actual rps/only posting aesthetics. There can be other reasons, but those are the most common.

4. If I’m breaking a mutual following, I’ll softblock. If you refollow me down the road, I’ll consider if I want to interact again, but that is up to my decision alone. However, if you try to give me grief about unfollowing, you will be blocked outright.

5. Lastly, all of this goes for you, too. I am not someone who expects that a follow is forever. If you don’t like my content anymore, don’t think we’re meshing well, or just don’t want to follow anymore, go for it. Could be 2 minutes could be 2 years.

     - Shipping -

The main point here is I ship with chemistry. So long as we discuss it enough and understand what we want to develop- good and bad- I’m down. I really enjoy building ships, but I’m also horrendous at reading signals, so I apologize if you try to test the waters and it seems like I’m ignoring that. I’m not trying to, I’m just dense.

Given DP2’s shaky grasp on who Cable’s wife is, I am acting with the headcanon that he and Hope are some time post New Liberty, and when he chooses to stay in the past, he does so with previous contingencies in place to keep Hope safe with trusted friend(s) (set up prior just in case he died or disappeared). Hopefully, DP3 will have more of an answer as to who she is since I can’t for the life of me figure it out.

However, if I’ve told you no after we’ve discussed it, please do not try to force a ship. If I do feel like you’re trying to force a ship on me I will talk to you about it. If you don’t back off, I’ll likely stop interactions. That being said, trying to fluster or embarrass Cable, or having a jokey one-sided deal are all allowed and I don’t consider those force shipping.

As I said above, just ask! Worst case is I gently say no or wait for our characters to interact more to see how I feel about it.

As for smut I will write smut, though it’s not the purpose of this blog. But, nsfw will only be written with 20+ muns and muses. Cable himself isn’t likely to be interested if the muse is younger than mid-late twenties

[epicstuckyficrecs]

How To Tag Stucky Fics Part 3: Additional Tags

The Additional Tags are probably the hardest to fill out, but also the most important! All of the other fields are pretty straightforward when it comes to what you need to put in, but here? It’s the Wild West! You can pretty much write as much or as little as you want, but those tags are really gonna be the ones that will let potential readers know what is in your fic. In fact, they’re probably as important as your summary 

If you want an easy reminder of what to tag for, keep in mind the W’s: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE? 

Under a read more because this is long!

Who

Character traits

We’ve already settled which characters are appearing in your fic, now it’s time to tell us more about WHO they are. This can include:

Physical traits

Personality traits

Jobs

Sexuality and other sex-related stuff

Religion

Nationality 

Disabilities and mental illnesses

Fantasy creatures: vampire, werewolf, angel and demon… you get the gist.

MCU specific stuff

etc.

In my opinion, these tags are useful if the characteristic in question is something that is memorable, important with regards to the plot, something that defines the character in your story specifically, or something that differs from canon. I don’t really need to know that your fic contains some Shy Bucky Barnes if it’s not somewhat important to the story; you probably don’t need to tag for “British Peggy Carter” since thats just the default canon, but you could tag “American Peggy Carter” if she’s American in your AU!

I’ve mentioned a lot of them in my Comprehensive List of Stucky Tags post, but it’s not actually a complete list! If you want to know all of the canon tags existing for a specific character: go on AO3 and click on the Search tab on top of the page > Tags > Enter the character’s name > Select “Freeform” in the list > Click “canonical”. 

And besides, if you can’t find a canonical tag for what you want, you can always invent one! Just remember: if you wanna create a freeform tag for a character, please make sure to use the characters’ LAST NAME too, in order to help tag wranglers! For example: if you want to tag for Steve having black hair, you should write something like “Steve Rogers has black hair”, and not just “Steve has black hair”, because at the moment there are 279 canonical “Steve” character tags so… who knows which Steve you’re talking about? XD

As for some things specific to the MCU, again, I’ve listed a lot of them in my Comprehensive List of Stucky Tags post, but I would tag especially anything that differs from canon, for example, “Steve Rogers as the Winter Soldier” or “Bucky Barnes as Captain America”. You can check out the post if you wanna have an idea of the canonical tags that already exist, but once again, you can always create your own tags and let the wranglers deal with it! :P Just make sure to use the characters’ last name in your tag.

Another tip: if there’s a dichotomy in the character roles or attributes, or opposite roles/positions between the characters, I would make sure to tag them both! For example: 

Don’t just tag “Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics”: also tag Alpha Bucky Barnes, Omega Steve Rogers, or vice-versa

Don’t just tag “BDSM”: also tag Dom Steve Rogers, Sub Bucky Barnes, or vice-versa

Don’t just tag “Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons”: also tag Angel Steve Rogers, Demon Bucky Barnes, or vice-versa

etc.

Relationships

Why am I talking about relationships again, you say? Haven’t we covered that in Part 2 of the series? Yes I did. But here’s a little reminder of what I said then:

“Any side pairings/friendships can go in the Additional Tags field (for example: Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov or Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes Friendship).”

So there’s a few types of relationships that you can consider here: 

Friendships: you can decide wether you want to mention the friendship in the Relationships field, in the Additional Tags field, or both. That’s your choice!

Past relationships, minor/side relationships: I personally would put them only in the Additional Tags field (NOT in the Relationship field), and here’s why: 

Putting “past” or “minor” or “side” or whatever else qualifier in front of your ship in the Relationships field makes it a non-canonical tag (only the Additional tags can be non-canonical, or “freeform”. Like I’ve said in Part 2: try to only use canonical tags for the Fandom, Relationship, and Characters fields). That means that your tag is gonna be made a synonym of a canon tag. For example: the non-canonical “(Past) Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers” tag that a few people have used is a synonym of the canon “Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers” tag. That means that those past Peggy/Steve fics appear in the Steve/Peggy tag. Are people looking for Steggy fics likely to want to read past Steggy fics? You tell me...

If you’re tagging with the canon tag, but the couple is only a side/minor pairing, it might annoy people who are looking for fics in that tag and keep seeing fics that are not about their ship. This is especially true if the ship is less popular in the fandom.

So TLDR in my opinion: tag your main couple (if you’re writing a romance) or your main friendship/platonic relationship (if you’re writing a Gen fic) in the Relationship field, and tag everything else in the Additional Tags field.

POV

You can specify from which POV your fic is written from. Personally, I would pay attention to this mostly if your POV differs from the classic “3rd person” Steve or Bucky POV. Some existing tags tags to give you an idea:

POV Steve Rogers

POV Bucky Barnes

POV Sam Wilson or POV Natasha Romanov, etc.

POV Outsider or POV Original Character

POV First Person or POV Second Person

POV Alternating

POV Multiple  

What

This is pretty self-explanatory, but you want to tell your readers what’s in your story! What’s happening? What’s the plot about? What are some specific subjects/themes your story contains?

Genres

When I think about genres, I always picture the FF.net categories lol XD. But it’s actually a good way to look at it!Here’s a few examples on AO3:

Action/Adventure

Angst

Character Study

Crack

Crimes and Criminals

Crossovers & Fandom Fusions

Family

Fluff

Friendship

Humor

Hurt/Comfort

Love

Mystery

Pining

Porn

Romance

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sexual content

Smut

I wouldn’t say these are the most essential tags, but they can give your readers a general idea of the tone/content of your story.

Relationship

On top of that, we want to know what kind of relationship your ship has in this fic! What are they to each other? What’s their progression? Here’s a few examples:

Boss/Employee Relationship

Break Up

Childhood Friends

Enemies to Friends to Lovers

Established Relationship

Fake/Pretend Relationship

Friends to Lovers

Friends With Benefits

Getting Together

Long-Distance Relationship

Strangers to Lovers

Triggers

It can be hard to know what to tag with regards to triggers. I’d say better safe than sorry, and be open to suggestions and comments from your readers, especially with triggers. 

Here’s a few examples to give you an idea what to tag for, which are taken from this great triggers list, but I definitely suggest you take a look at this post and bookmark it for whenever you need to tag your fics!

Violence:

Death: main/minor character death, animal death, child death...

Suicide: suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, suicidal “insert character name”, ... 

Abuse: child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, emotionnal abuse, gaslighting... 

Assault

Torture

Kidnapping

Stalking

Sex:

Rape/Sexual assault/Non con

Dub con

Incest

Specific sex acts: like @kiragecko says in the post I linked: “some people search for, others want to avoid”. 

Specify if your characters are being Safe Sane and Consensual or not when engaging in kinky sex.

Health:

Drugs and/or Alcohol

Food

Illnesses (physical or mental)

Pregnancy: mpreg, miscariage

Self-harm

Panic attacks, PTSD, dissociation

Phobias: 

Any phobias that your character(s) have and are specifically mentioned/depicted in your fic

Common phobias: spiders, clowns, hospitals...

Gross content:

Gore

Bodily fluids

Smut

I’ve said it above in the triggers section, but you can tag sexual acts appearing in your story as a way to both attract readers who are looking for them and help readers who want to avoid them. 

If your story has a lot of smut, you might be reluctant to tagging all of them in fear of making your tag list very long. I would always at least indicate in your tags that there’s Sexual Content in your fic; then, you could do like I’ve suggested with the Warnings and add something like “more info about specific sexual acts in the author’s note” to your tags, and make a detailed list of sexual acts in your authors’ note.

Here’s a few generic tags about smut, and here’s a link to all the different canon “sex” tags (350 at the moment!)

Angst and Fluff and Smut

Angst and Porn

Emotional Porn

Eventual Smut

Fluff and Smut

Identity Porn

Mild Sexual Content 

Mild Smut 

No Smut 

Non-Graphic Smut 

Porn with Feelings 

Porn With Plot

Sexual Tension

Unresolved Sexual Tension 

When

MCU

In my post about Stucky tags, I made a list of a lot of tags regarding the MCU movies. Not all of them of course, this list was mainly focused on movies where Stucky would appear, but you get the gist. We want to know WHEN in the MCU your fic is happening.

I’m not gonna list every single MCU movie and all of their tags, but basically you have a few options:

Pre-movie

Movie

Movie mid/end credit scenes

Post-movie

Movie compliant

Not Movie compliant

Canon divergence

Canon divergence - post movie

Some movies also have specific tags for their trailers. I would recommend using the trailer tag if you are indeed writing your fic based on the trailer of a movie that isn’t out yet (you could also add the movie’s specific “spoiler” tag too while you’re at it!) in order for people to be able to avoid spoilers if they want to.

Moreover, in the case of movies that are canonically happening in another time, you could also add the relevant tags if it’s pertinent! (for example, with The First Avenger: 1930s or World War II). You can also refer to events that happened within the MCU (example: Battle of New York (Marvel)).

Alternate Universe

Whatever era or time your fic is happening in, there’s probably a tag for that! There’s a tag for every decade of the 20th century and pretty much every century too. Is it a Victorian, Ancient Rome, or a Future fic? 

But even if it’s just a simple Alternate Universe - Modern Setting with No Powers … there are tags for that too! :P 

If there’s a specific historical/fictional event that your story is centered around, you could tag it too! For example: PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, World War I, 2008 United States Presidential Election, Battle of Hogwarts, 75th Hunger Games, etc.

Don’t forget your holidays! Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, to name a few...

Where

Self-explanatory again, but where is your story taking place? :P Again, maybe not the most important tag category to consider, but I would use it especially if the story is taking place in a specific/unusual place for the canon or your ship. See examples below!

MCU

Avengers Tower

Avengers Compound

Red Room (Marvel)

Sanctum Sanctorum (Marvel) 

Wakanda (Marvel)

Asgard (Marvel)

Alternate universe

(Reminder: There’s sooooooooooo many different Alternate Universe tags!)

If your AU is taking place in a different country/city, you can mention it! You could either go with the AU tag or just the tag for the place itself. For example: Alternate Universe - Canada or Canada. 

But it can also be even more precise than that! Stuck in a cabin during a snowstorm? There’s Cabin Fic! Steve and Bucky are men of the Night’s Watch? Maybe tag Castle Black! You get the gist ;) 

And lastly...

Format

(inspired by this post from @salt-of-the-ao3 on tumblr)

If your fic has a specific format, you can specify it! Here’s a few suggestions:

Drabble

Epistolary

Songfic

Poetry

Reader-Insert 

And I think that’s it folks! All you need to know to tag your fics the best you can! :)

See Part 1: A Comprehensive List of Stucky Tags here!

See Part 2: Rating, Warnings, Fandoms, Relationships & Characters here!

You can also access a handy bullet-point checklist that summarizes these posts on Google Docs here! 

[bigskydreaming]

Writing Commissions

I’m opening up writing commissions to help pay for my ongoing medical expenses, health insurance and living costs while I’m limited in the kind of work I can do. Due to mobility issues I’m forced to work from home until I can get the surgery I’m working towards, and writing on the internet is one of the few things I can still do and do well, so capitalism says monetize that shit and here I am!

I’m open to both fanfics and original fiction (either your OCs or something you’ve seen me talk about on my blog). 

The rate I’m asking is one cent per word, and consider a donation for the time and labor spent on your commission, so there’s no exchange of rights or anything of the sort. Your original characters are yours, I’m just putting them in various scenarios or narratives of your choosing if that’s the request you make. Similarly, my original characters are mine, I’m just writing a story to your specifications with them, ditto with any fandoms and their assorted characters.

I won’t be asking for payment until I’ve completed your commission, but I do ask that you have the money ready when you commission me, in case I’m able to complete yours before my own expected timetable. My energy levels vary day to day and I have to shuffle things around in accordance to what jobs will get me closest to paying the bills I have to pay most immediately, so I never want to go past a deadline I’ve given someone who’s already paid - but similarly, there are times when I overestimate the time a project will take me.

I can take payment via paypal, ko-fi or venmo, and will provide the links at the bottom of this post. If anyone feels like helping me out with much needed donations for content I’ve already written or just because, I’m definitely thankful! They are enormously helpful and much appreciated.

I will ask at the time of commission if you’re looking for a complete work or are fine with it being part of an ongoing work that others can add commissions on to later. If you commission me to update one of my older fics, given that I write chapters that go up to 10K in length, I’m happy to write whatever length you’re commissioning and just post it to my blog if you’ve only commissioned one POV section, for instance. Then update the actual fics themselves once an entire chapter is finished.

As far as fandoms go, my primary ones are Teen Wolf, X-Men and the Batfamily, though I have a strong familiarity with most Marvel and DC characters and too many other fandoms to list. Just ask me via asks or message and I’ll let you know if its a fandom or character I believe I can do justice to.

My only firm rules are I won’t write any ships that are inherently abusive, incestuous or between an adult and a minor. I will write teenage characters in a relationship, but not having sex on the page. Similarly, I have no problem writing characters who have sexual assault or abuse stemming trauma, but I won’t write the acts themselves on the page - my focus in those areas is in writing recovery.

Other than that, my one big fandom related rule for stuff I write is I won’t write any character bashing. Even if its of characters I myself don’t like. I have characters I hate intensely and have nothing positive to say about, but in those cases, I would rather just not include them in a fic than bash them as to me, the latter just feels like sabotaging my own story. Its counter productive to me. 

There are a lot of characters I don’t like that I’m capable of writing well, even by the standards of fans of those characters, because I just challenge myself to write them in a way that appeals to me as well. But I freely admit there are characters I can’t do this with or just have no desire to do this with, and if you ask about commissioning for one of those, I’ll just say I’m not the right writer for that character.

Also feel free to check with me where I would stand on a redemption arc or positive slant to characters portrayed as antagonists. For instance, in a Teen Wolf fic, Peter will always be an antagonist as I write him. I’m not going to try and redeem Kylo Ren. But just because Marvel portrayed Ava as the antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp doesn’t mean I agree. Stuff like that. Something like Scott/Theo in Teen Wolf, I’ll write in the form of cat-and-mouse kinda dynamics, spy versus spy kind of themes where the point of the story isn’t Relationship Goals. But I’m not the writer you’re looking for to write them as a healthy, happy couple in a post-canon story.

Lastly, I will write NSFW content if I can tell from your blog that you’re over eighteen. I will never write rape, incest, pedophilia or underage characters in a sexual or erotic framing, no matter how much money you offer, so please don’t. I’m open to considering anything between two adult characters in an informed and consensual scenario, and if its a character, pairing, context or kink I’m not comfortable with or can’t invest myself in writing, I’ll simply say I’m not the right writer for that and ask if there’s anything else you’re looking for. Any NSFW commissions will be emailed to you privately, rather than posted publicly. I’m also perfectly okay with keeping even SFW commissions private or at least anonymous if that’s your preference. 

I believe that’s everything relevant, at least that I can think of, but please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any other questions I haven’t covered here.

https://www.paypal.me/bigskydreaming

https://ko-fi.com/kalenp

venmo: @Kalen-ODonnell

Thank you so much for any help, donations, commissions or just signal boosting this!

[lostinthewinterwood]

Chocolate Box Letter 2020

Dear Chocolatier…

  Thank you for writing for me!  I hope you find inspiration, if you need it, somewhere in this letter, but either way, good luck with your writing!

(some of the prompts are… rambly and disjointed; the lengths vary wildly, but dw I love them all.  I hope the rambly ones still make sense; this letter is uhhh almost 3k and my brain is Tired.)

General DNWs:

Rape/non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death*; smut/graphic sex scenes; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; graphic depictions of deliberate and methodical self-harm**; graphic depictions of suicide;  gore; heavy gender dysphoria; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; full setting AUs (canon-divergence, even significant canon-divergence, is fine); graphic eye trauma; graphic and/or permanent hand trauma (unless the setting can provide a more-or-less fully functional prosthetic or equivalent); issuefic.

*exceptions noted below.

**I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated.

  General Likes:

I like family/friendship stories, things that play with canon in interesting ways, honestly… a lot of things.  I don’t know. articulating things I like is hard.

I’m an absolute sucker for identity porn/secret/mistaken identity drama, as well as non-sexualized/non-fetishized crossdressing (either direction, and especially if for plot-relevant disguise purposes!) and if you combine them, well, I’ll be a very happy camper.

Other things I like include wriggling into canon and exploring something left unexplored by said canon, what-if stories featuring some sort of canon divergence, and plotty fic, if you want to write something long enough for that to be relevant.

  Order of fandoms:

·        Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

·        Super Powereds – Drew Hayes

·        Tortall – Tamora Pierce

·        Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)

·        The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)

·        Frozen (Disney Movies)

·        Little Women (2019)

·        Original Prompts

·        Crossovers

    Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy)

So uh I may be having a slight case of Feels™ over these two, though tbh I’m not entirely sure what those feelings are exactly.  I don’t know what exactly I’d most want, though I’d be interested in explorations of their evolving emotions in relation to each other, especially through Kylo Ren/Ben’s whole death/rebirth thing.  What-ifs are another thing; what if, say, Ben didn’t die?  What happens, then, since they’d have to actually deal with what he’s done?  Feel free to retcon the kiss (which I thought was rather devoid of chemistry; in general their dynamic came across to me more as weirdly sibling-ish, especially after the Death Star duel) to a hug or something, if you want.

If you want to go to a lighter place, I can also see all sorts of shenanigans emerging after they discover their Force-teleportation skills.

Also feel free to retcon Rey’s parentage, if that is where your heart takes you: might she be Luke’s secret child?  Leia’s?  A descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi and, say, Satine Kryze?

Apart from that I’d prefer no full-setting AUs; canon divergence is fine, and if you go that route you can pick a divergence point as far back as you want.

Feel free to include whatever other characters are necessary for the story you want to tell.

(And also do keep in mind that you can absolutely cut off someone’s hand here, or for the Star Wars crossover farther down; in this franchise it is a goddamn motif.)

    Super Powereds – Drew Hayes

Adam Riley & George Russel | Relentless Steel (Super Powereds)

I’m utterly fascinated by the relationship these two have; the interplay of Adam’s… vendetta, maybe?  I’m not sure what the right word for it is… and the fact that George also serves him as a mentor/almost-parental, in some ways, figure.  And, you know, that Adam (maybe) kills him.  We don’t actually see that; for all we know he made a different choice.

Consider this an exception to my “non-canonical MCD” DNW, since it’s deliberately ambiguous in canon; you can kill George, if that’s where your muse takes you.

  Alice Adair | Legacy & Vince Reynolds | Jack of All (Super Powereds)

Their friendship/cousin relationship is Wholesome and I love it.  Any point in the timeline, post-canon, all of it is Good and Welcome.  Do they form a legacy children/villains’ kids club? They’re secret cousins; untangling the mess that is the past; so much juicy juicy stuff to work with!!

  Phillip Adair | Globe & Charles Adair | Alchemist (Super Powereds)

Brother vs brother! O the drama! But also, they grew up together; they were once best friends; and Charles grew hard and it all fell apart—give me their childhood, maybe, or HCP years or young heroes before Shelby’s powers grew too much for her, or lean into the tragedy of what comes later…

    Tortall – Tamora Pierce

Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper & Varice Kingsford (Tortall)

Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper & Varice Kingsford & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe (Tortall)

Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe & Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper (Tortall)

Varice Kingsford & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe (Tortall)

I love these kids, okay?  And I wish they could all just… be okay.  But of course they won’t be; we already know what becomes of them, after all.

There’s a lot to explore here, with these three in their varying combinations of course.  Right now I’m most interested in the pre-Wild Magic timeline—what was Varice and Ozorne’s dynamic before Arram came along? what little snippets of things happen offscreen during the timeline of Tempests and Slaughter? how does Arram gain his black robe; how does Ozorne feel about that? Varice? how does Numair end up in exile, and how do the others feel about that whole affair?—but really I’d also be interested in something set during or around the time of Emperor Mage, from any of their POVs.  We get all the story there from Daine, who is great! but she doesn’t know the history between the three of them, not intimately as they do, and I’d love any of their emotional reactions to being together again under such strained circumstances, so many years after everything fell apart.

  Numair Salmalín & Myles of Olau (Tortall)

He was on a mission, was he not, when he became that hawk at the beginning of Wild Magic?  (please ignore if I am Wrong there.)  So how did they meet?  Why did Numair become an agent?  All sorts of questions, here…

  Prince Stiloit Tasikhe & Varice Kingsford (Tortall - Pierce)

Stiloit seems so… calm, and level-headed, especially when compared with Ozorne who is not.  And he clearly finds Varice interesting, and her company valuable.  So maybe tell me something about that—what does he think of her?  She of him?  What if, perhaps, he didn’t die when he does?

  Keladry of Mindelan & Nealan of Queenscove (Tortall)

They have a BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP and also ye gods when I reread First Test at like 19 (having first read it at 10) I was struck by how very, very fifteen Neal is in that book and it’s hilarious.  But more seriously—Neal’s PoV on things would be fantastic, since we only see him through Kel’s eyes and he doesn’t let her see everything about himself.

  Keladry of Mindelan & Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak (Tortall - Pierce)

What a beautiful mentorship relationship, I love them.  Also, how does Raoul feel about this open girl page?  Who’s so determined, and has such potential in how she could become more, in an area he knows about (that being military command)—how does he feel about her, living her best life; how does he contextualize it in his intimate knowledge that Alanna could not do what she is doing—and yet it was Alanna, with her deception, who allowed this to be.

  Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau & Numair Salmalín

The renowned lady knight-healer-mage and the black robe on the run from Carthak! How did they meet, anyway?  They’re something like the same age, I think, or at least he’s no more than ten years her junior.

  Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau & Thom of Trebond (Tortall - Pierce)

My poor Important Destiny Twins… Look I just, I want some content with poor Thom, right?  I’d rather here that we set the story before his death, or that we make it an AU where he gets to live.

    Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)

Shadowsan & Hideo (Carmen Sandiego 2019)

There’s… so little of this stated or shown overtly, really, but I’m fascinated.  I can’t get over it.  Just tell me about the brothers, please.

    The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)

Runaan/Ethari & Rayla (The Dragon Prince)

Family fluff!  Or angst!  Or turn round and give them a reunion!  All depends on where in the timeline you pick, really.

(there’s a fic on ao3 with the tag “this fanfiction written by the ETHARI LOOK IN THE FUCKING WATER gang” and honestly that is just such a mood.)

  Amaya & Sarai (The Dragon Prince)

…I don’t have much to say here really, just that I love me some sibling dynamics.

  Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince)

A king by birthright, a prince only by adoption, who by age/maturity would probably be better-suited to ruling… look idk just, bros okay???

Maybe something when they were younger, or canon-era, or… idk I love them.

  Callum & Ezran & Rayla (The Dragon Prince)

Friendship! Angst! The gang’s all here!  If you want you can include rayllum but for this prompt at least I’d rather it be lowkey.

  Claudia & Soren (The Dragon Prince)

I am heartbroken over these kids and just—I need more content with them.  Even if it makes me sad.

  Callum & King Harrow (The Dragon Prince)

There are a lot of complicated feelings I have about them—how clearly Harrow loves his stepson, and how even after more than a decade, Callum still isn’t quite comfortable with his stepfather.

    Frozen (Disney Movies)

Agnarr/Iduna (Frozen)

How did they get together?  Why does Iduna stay with Agnarr; why doesn’t she just go home?  How does that revelation conversation go—when does it happen?  How do they come to decide to block Elsa’s powers; when/how do they decide to sail for Ahtohallan?

  Kristoff & Ryder Nattura (Frozen)

Reindeer bros!!  What did Kristoff do while Anna and Elsa were off doing the plot stuff?  Does he go with the Northuldra?  I love the dynamic between these two; it’s adorable and there’s so painfully little of it.

  Yelena & Mattias (Frozen)

So clearly they know each other, right? It’s been thirty-four years, and they clearly have some sort of sniping thing going on but they don’t seem to be actively antagonistic towards each other.  How do they feel about each other, really? How have they interacted in the past?  Is there anything there?  What about after Mattias goes back to Arendelle?

  Anna & Elsa (Frozen)

There is just.  There’s a profound tragedy here—they’re best of friends till they’re five and eight or so, then they don’t interact for thirteen years, they have three years together, and then they go off together to the Enchanted Forest and Elsa doesn’t come back to live in Arendelle, while Anna must return… I don’t know.  Tell me about that, maybe.  Or give me sweet fluff about them as children.  Or something.

  Anna/Kristoff (Frozen)

They’re adorable and I love them and I really just want more.  Maybe something from between the movies—how do they navigate forming a relationship, when he was raised by trolls and she’s been so isolated?

    Little Women (2019)

Amy March/Theodore Laurence (Little Women 2019)

…I don’t know, they’re cute, Laurie is a disaster, I love seeing Amy grow up, I hunger for moar content with them.

  Beth March & Mr. Laurence (Little Women 2019)

This has a lot of potential for cute/sad father/daughter dynamics, I think!  And I’d love more of it.

  Friedrich Bhaer & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Friedrich Bhaer/Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

I just want cute content with Jo and her dynamic with this man who actually respects her and her writing okay?  Maybe something like, I don’t know, navigation of boundaries around Jo’s writing and his criticism thereof… I don’t know.  Have fun with them.  And I really don’t care if it’s shipfic or not.

  Theodore "Laurie" Laurence & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Theodore Laurence & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Laurie is still a disaster but I love him anyway, and their friendship is sweet, and I need more content™.

    Original Prompts

In general: I’m not super picky about how shippy the shipfic gets; most of the ship prompts here would, I think, work as well for gen, excepting the suitor and the princess (which is not to say I’m asking that it be gen, obviously I’m not, but if your muse takes you that direction then go for it).  Likes I put up top still apply down here.

In terms of settings, I especially like high fantasy, space fantasy, or, if relevant, Classic Superhero City Setting, but I’m open to just about anything.

I’m also not tremendously picky about the genders of the characters involved; if it isn’t stated within the prompt, go wild, but please do stick to standard English pronouns; I have a lot of difficulty reading things with neopronouns.

Most of these pairings are prompts in and of themselves, but I’ll add in some bits of commentary for each one.

  Disgraced Vampire Queen Moonlighting As A Barista/Exhausted Vampire Hunter In Search Of Caffeine

Okay, so I just think this has great potential for absolute hilarity, and identity shenanigans aplenty.

  Dragon & Human Child (Original Work)

I love dragons.  I love playing with dragon-lore, though here I’d appreciate it being a relationship wherein the dragon is not evil, at least not to the child.

  Female Crossdressing General/Female Crossdressing Enemy General (Original Work)

So uh from my general likes, it should be… fairly obvious what called to me here lmao.  But there’s such potential here!  The drama!  Do they know each others’ real gender?  Do they know that they’re on opposing sides?  How does this romance across the battlefield work?  Is it even across the battlefield—are they at war, or just generally enemies?

  Female Failed Chosen One & Female New Chosen One

Such delicious depths to delve here… why did the first one fail?  What’s her relationship with her successor?  What have they been chosen for?  The setup of this makes me think that the failed chosen one is an adult of some age that’s distinctly older than the new one, who I’ve been imagining as an older child or young adult, but you should follow your muse there.

  Female Ship's Captain & Grumpy Stowaway Orphan Rebel

What kind of ship are they on, anyway?  Sailing ship?  Spaceship?  What’s the orphan rebelling against—an Evil Empire?  The Man?  Something else?

  Female Suitor Sent As An Insult To Ruling Monarchs/Princess Uninterested In Male Suitors

This seems like… I don’t know, there’s just such potential for dancing around each other and Misunderstandings™ about what’s going on.  Is this the princess’s Gay Awakening?  Has she known for a while why she’s not into the male suitors?  Why was this female suitor selected for the insult?

  Injured Male Superhero/Male Supervillain Who Saves His Life

I love superhero identity shenanigans, and ambiguous morals, and I’d love to dive into the emotional turmoil that results from this rescue decision—why does the supervillain do it?  How does the hero feel about being saved by his enemy?

  Musician/Dancer with magical powers (Original Work)

Another trope I love that I didn’t mention before is magic music and magical arts in general, so this here is right up my alley.

  Portal Fantasy Protagonist & Their Mentor In A Trade Useful In Both Worlds (Original Work)

…Look, idk man this is just sweet and wholesome and I Want.

  Retired Male Superhero/Male Supervillain Who Keeps Seeking Him Out Because He Misses Him

Is this not just the plot of Megamind?  In all seriousness, though, I feel about the same here as I do in the injury situation; I love me some hero/villain dynamics in general.

  Witch & Witch's Apprentice

Mentor and student!  Always a fun time.  I’m picturing this as some pseudo-historical or straight alternate-world setting more than modern, but follow your muse here.

  Wounded Werewolf/Female Apprentice Witch who Begrudgingly Rescues him (OW)

Honestly I feel like the dynamic here will probably scratch the same itch that the hero/villain pairings do.  Clearly I have a Type.

    Crossovers

Oliver Queen (DC's Arrowverse) & Matt Murdock (Daredevil(TV))

Local Vigilante Man With Many Issues Meets Counterpart From Another Universe would be the headline here, probably.  I don’t know.  I think they’d be fun to bounce off each other.

For reference though I haven’t watched all of either show: I’ve seen the first four seasons of Arrow in their entirety and some of what comes later, and I’ve seen the first two seasons of Daredevil.  You can reference later events, I’m not currently really following either show and am not particularly worried about spoilers, but without some degree of context I’ll be fairly lost.

  Shmi Skywalker (SWPT) & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SWST)

How do these two meet?  Is it time travel nonsense?  Shmi as a Force ghost?  Both of them in the afterlife?  And if it’s before Ben’s redemption but after his Fall, I do rather hope she’s Disappointed™ in him.

  Vince Reynolds | Jack of All (Super Powereds) & Midoriya Izuku (My Hero Academia)

Look.  Look.  All I have ever wanted since I started watching My Hero Academia (which… I haven’t seen much of, but don’t worry about spoilers I legitimately do not care) is to see Vince meet with the character who I immediately internally dubbed tiny green Vince.  How did this happen? Frankly I neither know nor care.  I just want to see it happen.

Thank you for writing me fic!!

[ibwhellospring]

Hello Spring Writing Event FAQ

I’ve decided to compile a list of questions I’ve seen on the main post, and others I could think about, so should anyone have a doubt it can be explained in one place. If your question/s isn’t/aren’t answered here, by all means ask me (here or over at my main @itsbuckysworld​), and I’ll do my best to answer you and include the question in this list.

READ THESE BEFORE ASKING PLEASE. 

I can’t begin the event on May 1st.

Absolutely no problem. I myself, the supposed “host”, will be out of the country and busy come May, but I’ll try to write in advance or just catch up/continue when I come back/am able to resume. You can do so as well if you want or just join whenever you can. 

I can’t do continuous days.

Neither can I! it’s not a race to see who keeps up with things the most or finishes first. It’s an exercise to practice writing and work out the creative muscles. Do it at your own pace, pick back up where you left off and have fun. 

 What if I can’t complete the challenge?

Well, for starters this isn’t a challenge. There isn’t a time limit or a prize. You can’t fail or succeed at this event. If you do 1 prompt or all 31 that’s fine and either way I’m grateful to you for participating.

Where do I sign up?

There’s no sign up. Just go ahead and do ya thang following the prompt of whatever day you’re on.

How do I tag it for you to find/reblog? What’s the tag for this event?

Tag your pieces using #IBW: Hello Spring 2019 and make sure it’s in the first five tags so it shows up when I search it. If you want, tag this blog (this one, not my main please) in your piece directly. Another tag to help you keep track of what day and maybe even make it easier for people to find on your blog, should you want to use it: is #ibwhellospringdayx replacing the x with the day of the prompt the piece is for. 

How long should it be?

These are short stories just to go quickly and serve as a creative exercise so 450 words. You can always do more but you HAVE to use the read more feature.

What else should be there?

I’d recommend the usual. The pairing of the piece if needed, the category of the writing with it’s proper warnings should it need any and the day and prompt that it fills. If you want you can follow this template. 

Is it just prose or can it be poems or headcannons etc?

You can write however your heart desires. Full paragraphs, AU’s, in a TFLN (texts from last night) format, Headcanon format or whatever you want

Is smut allowed?

Yes, but do mark it as explicit, put a read more feature no matter how long or short the piece is. Rape, abuse, non-consensual will be ignored.

Is it fictional characters only?

Yes, it’s fictional character only in the sense that I’m not recommending writing for the real person that plays the part. For example writing about Chris Evans. Write, instead, about any of his characters.

No, it’s not fictional characters only in the sense that OC’s are 100% welcome. If you want to use these prompts to help character development for your own pieces of fiction, go right ahead.

Are ships welcomed?

Yes they are but pedophilia and incest will be ignored and reported. If you have characters that are family and/or underage, write only platonic fiction for them. Also I’m on the fence about pieces that age up a character, so I might reserve the right to reblog them or not.

Can I add photos/gifs to my piece?

Yes, give credit to the owner if it’s not your piece of media, and if it’s explicit it has to be under a read more cut. 

I don’t write, can i draw instead?

I know this is called a WRITING EVENT, and was intended as so but fuck it, who am I to stop you from making fan art if any of my prompts inspired you to do so. God that’d make me cry of joy. BE CREATIVE! use this to help yourself out of a creative funk or whatever you need. 

Can I post on other websites?

Yes, but I beg of you that you post the piece in full here on tumblr. After all this is a tumblr event and this is where I’ll be giving updates and keeping an eye on stuff. 

Does my piece HAVE to have the word in it?

No. Your piece can be inspired by the word of the prompt. Only dialogue prompts should be directly on the piece, and you can alter them like for example separating them with pauses, or laughter or babbling from your character whatever you want. Just have it be there in essence.

What do you mean by first/last kiss?

You can write either a first kiss or a last kiss or about both. Same with good/bad luck. 

Can I post two pieces in the one day?

I’d recommend you don’t. Part of the fun of this is creating/having daily content. 

Can I write one piece for two prompts?

I’d recommend you don’t. Part of the idea is that you have to create or imagine something for each word, that’s the sorta challenge-y part of this. It can be easy to select all the words that relate and get them done with in one sitting but that’s not the point of this. While two prompts can be related (in a part one and part two and so on if needed, kinda manner) please don’t kill two birds with one stone, that’s not what this is for. 

Can my pieces be related to each other then?

Yup, if and however you want, you can relate them.

You’re a marvel blog, is this event Marvel only?

Not at all, it’s open to all and any fandom.

Will you reblog everything?

No. I am only one human and can only spot and read so much, besides I’m not in every fandom so you might write about characters I know nothing about, and while sure I can reblog it and give feedback on the writing itself, it’s not going to be of much help or much impact. 

If your question isn’t answered above, drop by any of my asks (here and/or over at @itsbuckysworld) and let me know so I can answer you and add it to this list.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

do I want to do this? do I really want to do this? oh god, I’m doing it.

@gameofthronesrenlyxlorasforever replied to your post “I got a question about Daenerys and Irri...”

GRRM definitely meant the consent between Dany and Irri to be iffy.

Considering GRRM’s words about things like the iffy consent of the book version of the Jaime/Cersei altar sex scene, not to mention the many issues with F&B, I do not believe we have any guaranteed understanding of what GRRM meant regarding the consent in these scenes. Based on the conversation Irri has with Dany, it’s possible that he may consider it fully consensual and not iffy in any way. He hasn’t said, we don’t know. But either way, I was analyzing the actual text, not the author’s intent.

I think it’s super realistic that Dany, that almost anyone, would have a sexual relationship with someone who has a handmaid-type role in her life.

Is it? You think? Although the realism of the relationship wasn’t the question, there are many bedmaids in ASOIAF and other ladies-in-waiting where the relationships are entirely platonic. The example of Princess Rhaena Targaryen and her favorites is somewhat of a notable exception in what has been related so far.

(Also, distinction of terms in ASOIAF: a handmaid or handmaiden is a servant; a bedmaid or lady in waiting or companion is generally nobleborn. Westeros doesn’t appear to have roles like a “gentlewoman of the stool” -- emptying chamberpots is a role for lowborn servants only.)

I haven’t researched this but I’m sure many highborn ladies in the past had sex with their handmaids. They probably didn’t think of it as real sex, though.

If you haven’t researched this, how are you sure? There are rumors and more than rumors about some historical ladies’ companions and favorites (see the recent movie The Favourite for an example), of course, and with the erasure of  women’s history and sexuality (and non-het sexuality in particular) it’s hard to be certain, but “many” in the sense of “almost anyone would” is very probably an exaggeration. But they did think of same-sex sexual relationships as “real sex”; not necessarily consequential or always taboo, though.

I think if the consent wasn’t a bit iffy, the situation would feel too saccharine, too unrealistic.

😬 I... um. Um. There are many ways to write realistic and consensual sex scenes that are not saccharine.

Knowing the world she lives in, looking at her own marriage, Dany can’t really have a nuanced concept of consent anyway.

I... um. No. This is not necessarily true. Also it’s not Dany’s concept of consent that’s being considered, it’s the reader’s view of the situation.

I’m not sure if you’re trying to defend Dany here or defend GRRM or what, but it’s irrelevant to the content of my post. Did you read it? Or did you only read the question and then go off on your own mental journey?

Btw, I’m so tired of applying 2019 “woke” attitudes to a work that’s depicting a medieval-type world. It’s ridiculous, being bothered things in a medieval-ish story that people wouldn’t have questioned in the real world until very recently. If Dany was a character in a book that takes place in our world in 2019, that would be a completely different thing. She’s not. The world of ASOIAF is more brutal than ours. Yet, in our world, marital rape wasn’t a question of legality until practically now.

Seriously, I’m as liberal as it gets, but I wouldn’t like these books if the characters had our modern views. It wouldn’t make any sense for any of them to have our ideas about relationships and power dynamics.

ffs.

(a) Fuck moral relativism. I do not give a flying good goddamn whether marital rape was illegal or not in history. It was still rape, whether legally recognized as such or not. Just like slavery was evil and a crime even before it was made illegal. If you disagree with me on this point, you should probably get the fuck off my blog.

(b) This isn’t a discussion of history; this is a discussion of fiction written by a modern author within the past 20 years. ASOIAF is not history. It’s not even our world. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s a text that was created by a man born in the US in 1948 and whose modern-day views are thoroughly infused in the work as well as his understandings and misunderstandings of history.

(c) The morals and views of consent are ours. The reader’s. Analysis of the text, our concerns about and critiques of the text, are not required to remain solely within the world of the story. We can use the mores of the fictional world to inform our understanding and analysis and critiques, but they are not dependent on them. (for example: Targaryens do not have a problem with incest and understanding that is important to our understanding of character interactions, but if a reader’s mores result in their inability to accept such relationships, that is a perfectly acceptable form of analysis. See also underage relationships, dubious consent, marital rape, slavery, etc. Note also that the reader does not have to necessarily conform to their society’s or their own personal mores, preferring to view fiction as fiction, or choosing to hold inconsistent standards, or whatever they prefer, and those are also perfectly acceptable forms of analysis.)

(d) “I’m as liberal as it gets” and “those SJWs shouldn’t shove their ‘woke’ attitudes into my books!” is um, just a bit of cognitive dissonance, just sayin’.

Again, I don’t know if you’re trying to defend Dany (I think I did a pretty darn good job of it myself) or what, or defend GRRM (nobody was saying he was a bad person for including this plot point) or what. But... seriously. 😒 Seriously.

[burningboredom]

ABOUT FOR MOBILE USERS

I AM A FICTIONAL CHARACTER CREATED BY @cathper​

I'm Derek, I'm a transmale who lives in a shitty little town somewhere in washington. I am a bit abrasive. I'm 20 years old, I'm a Korean-Latino dude. I'm queer because I don't know what else to label myself as and I don't care enough to keep looking. I have a lot of scars/burns on my person and otherwise I'm pretty able-bodied. I don't ever know what to write in these things but whatever I like fire. Please read my DNFI/BYF and if you are competent actually follow it.

DNFI (dont interact or follow)

Exclusies/ppl who rag on “mogai genders” or whatever

transmed/truscum/terfs/etc

incest/rape/assault apologists or fetishists you are disgusting

Hate kinnies (I aint a kin but w/e they’re literally doing nothing wrong)

Think you can’t self dx

You believe they/them he/him lesbians and/or She/her gays aren’t real because you’re an idiot

support pewdiepie

are racist and refuse to listen to poc

thinspo blog or have a thinspo blog

fat shamer/body shamer

A pedophile (I ain’t going to use your shitty frilly words to describe you bc guess what you’re a pedophile if you use them <3)

Force people to reclaim slurs OR are dicks to people who have reclaimed said slurs

think cringeculture is real

use ableist language

If you’re not sure ask

BYF:

I get in fights with random people a lot, don’t like it? don’t follow me.

I’m not going to let you try and justify Justine and Sylphs relationship in the Rose of Death series.

I post a lot about Fires as well as drugs, they’ll have trigger warnings but be safe.

I try to tag whatever but tbh I don’t have a lot of space in my mind to tag everything

Misgender me and I’ll kill you

I won’t hesitate to use harsh words

I freak out a lot my vent tag is “In the flames”.

My normal talk tag is “Rage.txt”

My potentially triggering content i reblog is tagged 'Fangs.gif' (For drugs/blood/any other triggering content)

This isn’t my NSFW blog so don’t expect nsfw/smut but I will tag nudity and anything suggestive.

IF WE’RE MUTUALS PLEASE TAG:

Sexual Abuse, Hospitals, the song Problem by Ariana Grande and any covers of it (Lyrics included), the words ‘psychotic/psycho’ directed as an insult, the song Love Story by Taylor Swift (Only audio), Cocaine, Heroine (only in serious conversation), Animal deaths and or harm, The show ‘That 70’s show’, The game ‘Halo’ (any of them, screenshots/Videos. Talking abt it is fine.)

Use catchall tag: DEREK DON’T LOOK

[mswyrr]

tinygrumpshaw replied to your post “Honestly though… a bunch of Neo-Puritans who are not only happy about...”

these are the same people that think ao3 is a fraud out there to cash in the big money /eyeroll

I don’t get it! They start out saying they’re against “pedo shit” and I’m like... well, okay, whatever, I’m fine not writing sexual content in my fics or headcanons for anyone under 18. It’s cool.

But they they say ships like that one ship with the two guys where one is 18 and the other is 25 is “pedophilia” and I’m like... no, it’s not. It’s age gap romance. That’s not pedophilia. Words mean things. But they say it over and over again so many times, like it’s true, and use such a harsh, stigmatizing accusation against other shippers. Just to win a ship war???

And then they come for fictional incest between adults as if it’s is just as bad as “pedo shit” and I am like... what??? What possible objection can you have to that? It’s not real. It’s a story.

And yet there’s a popular post going around right now that says:

tumblr STILL promotes pedophilic content. in their “year in review 2018″ thing, many of the “top ships” listed were pedophilic (like sheith) or incestuous (like thorki). this is disgusting. 

That’s literally not true! That’s the M/M ship between the 18 year old and the 25 year old and an incest ship between adult mythological figures.

And then they jump on women for having rape fantasies and liking those! Demanding to hear “receipts” on their trauma. And once some women do explain their very personal trauma then the antis say “you should go see a doctor, not read fic, you’re re-truamatizing yourself!”

Women get to be kinky. They don’t owe anyone an explanation for their kinky fictional fantasies or their kinky consensual irl behavior. They certainly don’t owe anyone details of incredibly painful, personal trauma.

Of course that thinking bleeds over into ships with no canon rape or abuse in a romantic relationship or with stuff that’s highly interpretable and they treat it like it’s a ship about characters where one has canonically raped the other. Which itself would not be “wrong.” Distasteful isn’t wrong, squicky isn’t wrong. The only thing that’s deserving of a moral judgment is something that directly causes harm to a real person.

It’s mindbending.

Watching them side with the PTB people hurting other users--real people making their living or enjoying themselves in ethical ways here that they can’t elsewhere accessing content that they enjoy and validates them or whatever-- has really cemented how out of whack their “moral” system is.

[skeleton-richard]

Recently there’s been a spate of posts about people being anti-Ao3 and criticising its so-called support of taboo subjects in fanwork. I find this both weirdly fascinating and worrying, considering the growth of the anti movement or whatever you want to call it and its misunderstandings of literature and law. 

A while back I posted my concerns on anti culture and how it promotes a skewed sense of morality and promotes an unhealthy obsession with whatever it is you’re against-- running a blog dedicated to how awful a particular ship or fandom is can’t  be beneficial to your emotional wellbeing. I want to add my concern about the anti-Ao3 sentiment and its connection to real life. Here’re my thoughts on the situation.

First, I think that most people who are against Ao3 probably have their hearts more or less in the right place, meaning they honestly think they’re doing the right thing and that Ao3 is bad on moral grounds. Not that I agree with them. They’re coming from a sheltered, entitled position, thinking that everything has to be protected and safe and that other people are responsible for their wellbeing. This is not true by a long shot. Also, some people criticising this mindset have said things like Ao3′s detractors are homophobic/queerphobic etc., this is also untrue from what I’ve seen. It’s primarily people who don’t understand Ao3′s purpose or any of the other things I discuss below.

The opposition to Ao3 is grounded in that it hosts explicit works including things like rape, incest, pedophila/underage, and whatever else a person might not like. These are not censored by the site, ergo they are supporting that kind of material and protecting its creators. This is compounded by it being accessible by minors. People have gone so far to say that Ao3 was created to protect authors of explicit fiction.

Yes and no. I don’t have to go into a lesson on the history of Ao3 or fandom, you can find those easily online, but long story short, Ao3 was created to protect the rights of creators, whoever they may be and from whatever opposition. This includes fics including explicit material (which could mean vanilla PWP as well as lemon), queer themes like slash, and the existence of fanwork in general, which has been a touchy legal topic-- something based off the work of someone else who makes money. So Ao3 exists so that you can post your G-rated fic without it being threatened by a creator who doesn’t like fanwork. And so the archive admins can’t take down your fic if they don’t like your ship. It exists to protect the rights of the fans, not only the rights of the writer who wrote a gross fic you don’t like but also my rights and yours as well.

This brings us to who has the right to censor/challenge/ban material anyway. Every year the ALA promotes Banned Books Week (find out about it here). If you look at the list of books that are commonly challenged and banned, you will probably see your favorites-- like Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? Shel Silverstein? On there. Two of my favorite high school books, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Separate Peace are often targets. Some criteria make sense-- the violence in The Hunger Games, racist language in To Kill a Mockingbird-- others don’t-- whoever said Fahrenheit 451 promotes book burning obviously didn’t read the damn book. People censor literature for every conceivable reason, and these people are not all Tumblr’s favorite Southern Baptists. They’re usually well-meaning people (more or less) who misunderstood the book or are doing it because think of the children. It doesn’t mean they’re doing the right thing, but they think they are (which is what I think most antis are). However, who gets to decide you can’t read something and why? Censorship becomes arbitrary, a matter of what I think is good or bad rather than what others might. 

Attacking Ao3′s hosting of explicit fics ends up like this. Who gets to decide what’s good or bad content? Some things are obvious but others aren’t, and that’s where things get tricky.

I’ve seen many people bring up real world non-fanwork literature (or what we in the library business call “books”) and point out that antis ignore that the library is filled with objectionable content. They totally do. This has been weakly argued against, with antis saying “But there’s a difference! Those books aren’t like icky fanfiction to jack off to rape!” Listen, kid. There’s no difference because fiction is a form of entertainment and people wrote sick twisted shit before the invention of the internet and before fandom culture as we know it. Shit gets published physically that’s as bad as fanfiction. It happens. 

Ao3 has something that the books at the library don’t, however, which is content warnings and a tagging system. This is easily filterable (especially with the recent addition of the “exclude” option) and requires authors to label their writing so the reader has some idea of what they’re getting into. A fic marked E is not going to be safe to read to my eight year old cousin (who I also would not read The Book of the Dun Cow to, despite it being one of my favorite books, because I know what’s in it via experience). As to accessibility by minors, Ao3 requires you to confirm your age before you access a fic that’s rated M or E-- you have to be a legal adult in your country, and if you agree while still being a minor, you’ve forfeited any right to complain about what you were exposed to because you willingly broke the law. And because of tags, a fic can warn you about what’s specifically to come-- If you don’t like the fic I wrote that involved underage marriage, pregnancy, and multiple child deaths, you can’t blame me for you seeing it because I warned you (also, blame history, because that particular fic references historical events). 

There is always going to be material that will upset you. I’ve seen fics that have very much upset me, but I cannot dwell on them and have chosen to avoid them because I can. You however cannot attribute this to one source and you cannot ignore the safeguards that are in place. In fact, it’s really not a good to campaign against something that hosts adult content while still using Tumblr, which has almost no functioning safeguards and hosts even more kinds of content than Ao3, which is primarily text. This is not the place to make such an argument and it certainly isn’t a place a minor should be if they’re concerned about what they’re exposed to. 

[5typesoftrash]

Inhibitions - Chapter 3

Author: quicksilvermalec Artist: starfleetcadet1 Rating: M for swearing, mature themes, and minor sexual content Pairings: Sastiel, Castiel/Ezekiel, Castiel/Crowley Warnings: Rape/Non-Con (mentioned) Brief Tags: Angst, Pining, Drug Use, Minor Character Death Summary: So Castiel isn't the most - moral? Conventional? Call it what you like - attorney, but fuck if he isn't one of the best in the state of California. He's gone up against lawyers from all over and only lost a handful of cases in twenty years. So when a young up-and-comer beat him in a case he should have bagged, of course he was interested. But he wasn't expecting this.

[longer tags, link to art post, and fic under the cut]

Extended Tags: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No supernatural, Alternate Universe - No Angels, Alternate Universe, lawyer AU, Lawyer Sam Winchester, Lawyer Castiel, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied Sexual Content, minor explicit sexual content, Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Minor Character Death, Offscreen character death, Getting Together, Getting Back Together, Falling In Love, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, First Kiss, First Time, breaking up, Breaking Up & Making Up, Betrayal, Misunderstandings, Miscommunication, Grief, Trauma, Negative Religious Experiences, Religious Sam Winchester, Mentions of Corrective Rape, Gay Castiel, Pansexual Sam Winchester, Pansexual Gabriel, Black Lives Matter, Protests, Pining, Mutual Pining, Age Difference, Widowed Castiel, Sad Castiel, Hurt Castiel, Endverse Castiel - Freeform, Sad Sam Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Good Brother Gabriel, Protective Gabriel, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, POV Castiel, Castiel is a Novak (Supernatural), this story is all over the fuckin place, kind of a wild ride with plenty of twists, enjoy!!

Have a link to the art and you can read this story on AO3 as well! 🧡

~~

“He did fucking what?” Lucifer exclaims in hilarious incredulity when his brother explains the situation. He wears a shocked, excited grin on his handsome features. Castiel wants to knock his perfect teeth in.

“He rejected my offer,” Castiel repeats. “He didn’t want to be a part of this firm unless we could guarantee that he would continue representing protest clients who would continue to not be charged for his services.”

“He’s a better person than any of us,” Gabriel snorts. “He’s probably a better person than any other lawyer who’s ever lived.”

“Fuck all of you,” Castiel mutters.

“You really wanted him to take the job, didn’t you Castiel?” Michael asks, not unkindly. The tone is what catches Castiel’s attention; it’s very rare that Michael is soft or gentle.

“Yes, I did,” the younger lawyer replies candidly. “I very much believe that he would be an incredible asset to us—”

“But that isn’t why you wanted him to take the job,” Michael murmurs. “Something about this is personal for you.”

Castiel sighs and flops into his chair. He is quiet for a long moment, then says, “he reminds me of Ezekiel.”

The room is silent.

Finally, Gabriel speaks. “Why’s that?”

“I’m not sure,” Castiel laughs. “But there’s something about him that feels like… a second chance.”

“He would want that for you,” Michael offers. “I know he would.”

Lucifer is quiet, but even he seems sympathetic. Lucifer, who is often sociopathic, unfeeling, cruel, and outright horrible to everyone. Even he recognizes the significance of what Castiel is saying.

“What should I do?” Castiel asks, his voice breaking. He internally curses himself out. He hasn’t been vulnerable like this with his brothers in a decade and a half. Why is he doing it now?

“Talk to him?” Balthazar suggests soberly. “Approach him as a friend. Make contact. Be honest and open and kind and see where it goes.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Castiel says bitterly.

“Try,” Gabriel tells him.

Castiel traces the sanded design on the surface of the polished wooden table with the tip of his finger. “Alright,” he concedes. “I’ll try.”

~~

Castiel waits four days to call Sam again. Sam picks up, seeming hesitant.

“Hello?”

Castiel sighs in relief that Sam answered at all. “Hi, Sam. It’s Castiel.”

“Yeah, Cas, I know. I have caller ID.”

Castiel cocks his head to one side as he considers what he’s going to say. “Alright, um… would you like to go somewhere together? To hang out, as friends, obviously? Get a drink or something?”

Sam is quiet for a moment, then says, “well—” On the other end, a rough male voice yells something at him. “Yeah, Dean, I fucking- Jesus Christ, yes, I got you beer when we went shopping. For the love of fuck, I’m on the phone!” There’s a brief rustling on the other end, then Sam clears his throat and says, “yes, I would like that a lot. I’ll try not to fangirl over you too hard.”

Castiel laughs quietly. “It’s alright, I don’t think I mind so much.”

“How’s Thursday night?” Sam asks.

Castiel grins. “Thursday would be perfect.”

“Then it’s a date,” Sam says in a cheesy tone of voice.

“It’s a date,” Castiel agrees, and hangs up the phone. He lays back on his couch, and then something occurs to him. His eyes fly open and he grabs his phone, texting Sam.

Did you call me Cas?

There’s a brief delay, but then Sam replies, Shit, yeah I did. Is that a problem?

No, Cas sends back. Not a problem at all. And then, I actually really like that.

Sure thing, Cas ;)

Cas.

Cas smiles as he lays back down. He can get used to that.

~~

It’s a date.

Those words follow Cas everywhere, taunting him. It’s terrifying how easily they get inside his head.

It’s a date.

Not a romantic date, but a date nonetheless. And Castiel is going on a date with Sam Winchester. The cute boy who owns his own firm. The brilliant lawyer he’s maybe a little bit pining after.

They’re going out together. For drinks. As friends. Cas was starting to think he didn’t get to make friends anymore.

The next several days drag on for so long Cas is starting to fear they’ll never end, and those words trail after him through them. They light his way like a lantern, spreading soft, warm light across the path ahead of him.

It’s a date.

It’s a date.

He shouldn’t be fixating on this like he is. He shouldn’t care so much. He shouldn’t be freaking the hell out over the fact that Sam said three totally innocent words.

And yet, alas, here is his, doing exactly that.

Ah, well. Sam will understand. He hopes.

He stews in his confused misery until Thursday morning, at which point he becomes hyperactive and anxious.

He spends the first three hours that he’s awake fussing over an outfit, then ends up not even wearing it to work. He can’t stop stimming on the bus ride, his leg bouncing wildly and his hand continuously flying through his hair. He smooths down his shirt several times as he walks into the firm to process paperwork and Lucifer laughs at him for being a nervous wreck.

“Fuck you,” is all he seems able to see to anybody, and he finds himself writing ‘Cas’ more often than ‘Castiel’ on his papers. He has to force himself to change it.

He is… quite magnificently boned.

~~

Sam calls him at four twenty-two pm to confirm the address and time that they’re meeting. They talk for half an hour after establishing those two pieces of information, not about anything in particular, although they do discover a shared love of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (And the obviously romantic bond between Steven Rogers and James Buchanan Barnes.)

Eventually, Castiel forces himself to hang up because Michael is giving him the patented Glare™ that means he’ll be in for a jolly good time getting yelled at once everyone else goes home.

He hopes he doesn’t miss his date.

~~

“You are displaying poor work ethic for our interns and younger employees and bandying about the idea that it’s okay to slack off and to do whatever you want during work hours!”

“And?” Cas says, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, come on, Michael, surely you have something else. You usually yell at me about at least five of my major flaws. You have no qualms about me going out with this man we’re trying to employ? You have nothing to say about my drug habit, perhaps?”

Michael lifts a disapproving extended index finger into Castiel’s face. “Do not test me, Castiel,” he warns. “You are already, as they say, on thin fucking ice with your brother and I. It would be a shame should you be forced to leave the company on grounds of misconduct.”

Cas snorts. “You wouldn’t dare,” he claims. “I am still the best lawyer in the state.”

“After Samuel Winchester, that is,” Michael replies. Cas scoffs and shakes his head.

“Sure,” he shoots back. “After Sam Winchester. Whom I need to meet in approximately thirty-two minutes. So if you wouldn’t mind voicing the rest of your complaints to my answering machine, I will see you later. Brother.”

He picks up his trench coat and shrugs it on as he pushes past his brother into the hallway to head down to his car.

~~

Michael does, in fact, voice several of his complaints to Castiel’s answering machine.

He knows because his phone rings multiple times as he’s driving to the bar, and when he steps out of his car, he has four new voicemails from Douchekavitch (Michael). He snorts and deletes them all.

He steps inside the bar and finds his new friend waving at him from across the room. He smiles and walks over to him.

“Hello, Sam,” he says quietly. Sam seems to light up.

“Hey, Cas,” he replies, grinning.

“What sinful delights shall we enjoy today?” Cas asks with a light laugh.

“Don’t mix drugs with alcohol,” Sam advises instantly.

“I’m a smart man, Sam. I wasn’t planning on it. What would you like to drink? I’m buying.”

“I can’t let you do that—” Sam says, but Cas holds up a hand.

“You are not in the best financial position, and I want to.”

Sam scoffs and shakes his head, sighing. “Alright, fine,” he replies. “You can pay. But I’m gonna have to buy you dinner sometime.”

“Oh?” Cas raises his eyebrows. “I suppose that’s a fair exchange. Now. What would you like to drink?”

~~

They get their drinks and talk for a while, mostly about stupid, frivolous things, but Cas finds that small talk is easy with Sam. It sort of comes naturally, in a way that it never really has before, not even with his own family. It’s quite amazing how he’s managed to become to comfortable with Sam, the way that they just seem to fall into place together.

“Wait—” Sam scoffs. “You’ve never seen Star Wars?”

Cas shakes his head. “I was very sheltered as a child, I have almost 20 years of pop culture from my own childhood to catch up on, plus the iconic things that were created before I was born.”

“That’s it,” Sam decides. “One of these days, you’re comin’ to my house, you’re gonna meet Dean, and the three of us are gonna marathon Star Wars. In the right order.”

“Oh, I’ve heard there is quite a bit of discourse surrounding this. What is, in fact, the right order?” Cas inquires, taking a sip of his margarita.

Sam chuckles as he starts to list them off. “Four, Five, Six – sorry, I’ll use names – Hope, Empire, Jedi, TFA, TLJ, I suppose you kind of have to watch Skywalker, even though it’s really not great, then Phantom, Attack, Revenge, and Rogue One.”

“Rogue One is… immediately before the first movie, yes? The original Star Wars, I mean?”

“Yeah,” Sam replies. “It explains how they got the Death Star plans that set the first movie in motion. I’m sorry, I’m kind of a nerd—”

“Do not apologize,” Cas replies instantly, looking at him in awe. “It’s amazing. All I have to show from my childhood is bibliophilia and a dedication to a religion that, as an openly gay man, I probably should have already abandoned.”

Sam shrugs. “I don’t know, I left the church when I came out, and that took strength of a sort, but it takes a different kind of strength to be able to say ‘this is who I am, and I care about Christianity – I’m assuming you’re talking about Christianity since you said you’re a bibliophile but I could be wrong – and I want to stay in this community.’ I think that’s beautiful.”

Cas chuckles, finishing off his drink and setting down his empty glass. “You were correct, I was talking about Christianity. So you are a fellow queer person of faith? Or,” he corrects himself, “I suppose, ex-queer person of faith?”

Sam nods. “Yeah, I’m pansexual, and I used to believe… so much, and so deeply, that God loved me, that God wanted me to be the best person that I could be, everything I did was motivated by my notion of God. And then when I came out… some people were less than kind to me, we’ll say. Honestly, that’s an understatement. I had a rough time. I—”

“Take your time, Sam,” Cas says gently. Sam takes a deep breath.

“When I came out,” he says slowly, “my pastor, Pastor Jim – who had all but adopted me as his son – told me that I would never be forgiven by God, pushed me away when I needed his support, and… sent me to a corrective facility. I was fourteen.”

Cas isn’t sure he wants to know the answer, but he feels the need to ask. “Which kind?” he whispers.

“If you’re asking whether I was forced to undergo corrective rape the answer’s yes,” Sam says, his voice low and clipped. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even be telling you this.”

“You can tell me anything,” Cas says, and surprises himself with how true it is. He wants Sam to trust him, on a deeper level than he’s cared about anyone else trusting him in a long time. He rests his hand, palm-up, on the table for Sam to take if he so desires. “I am your friend.”

Sam looks touched, and does actually take his hand. “Thank you, Castiel,” he murmurs. “That means a lot.”

“Of course, Sam,” Cas replies, smiling at him.

He goes home in high spirits, relishing in the feeling of having a new friend, one outside of his family.

He ignores the small tug in his heart, drawing him toward Sam like a magnet. That can be tabled for later.

~~

“Castiel?” Balthazar’s voice is cheery as he answers the phone. “What may I do you for, my darling?”

Cas laughs. “I have a question. When a boy you went out for drinks with – as friends – tells you that he is pansexual, spills one of his darkest secrets to you, offers to teach you about a culturally iconic series of movies, and insists on buying you dinner at some undefined date in the near future… does that mean that he’s interested in you?”

“Cas-ti-el!” Balthazar exclaims, pausing between each syllable. “Did you go out with Samuel Winchester?”

“Perhaps,” Cas replies, fighting a smile. “Do you have an answer for me?”

“I would say there is a very good chance that he is, yes. But be careful, Castiel. After what happened last time—”

“Yeah,” Cas sighs. “I know. I just… I really like him, Balthazar. He’s so kind, and thoughtful, and incredibly intelligent, and I really… really like him. I don’t know what I’m expected to do in this situation.”

“I just want you to be taken care of. If you think that Sam will take care of you, go for it. I’m not one to stop you. But if you think you’ll be hurt again… I can’t see you like you were after Ezekiel. I’m not sure anyone can go through that twice, and I don’t think any of us would be able to bear it. Watching you retreat back into yourself was the most profound pain I’ve felt in fifty-four years of life.”

Cas takes a deep breath. “And it’s taken me twenty years to open up again. I trust him, Balthazar. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“Alright, Cassie,” Balthazar replies. “But take care of yourself.”

“I will,” Cas promises quietly before hanging up the phone.

He rests his head against the wall, closing his eyes and exhaling slowly through his nose.

“I need to learn some fucking boundaries,” he mumbles to an empty room.

~~

“I am proud of you, Castiel.”

His father spoke those words to him once in his entire life, looking down at him after Cas renounced his family.

It was so fucked up, and remains to this day. Castiel stood up in the middle of dinner, exhausted of the constant verbal abuse he was put through and yelled at them all.

Michael!

You are an obnoxious, selfish, arrogant prick with no love for anything or anyone. Get your shit together.

Lucifer!

You walk through the world as if nothing can touch you because you hate the thought of anything touching you. You are racist and misogynistic and transphobic and you disgust me.

Gabriel…

You never stand up for me. I needed you, when I was young, and you wouldn’t stand up for me. Why won’t you stand up for me?

And you, Father.

You hurl words like knives at everyone you can reach. You seek to cut down, to hurt and scar. You want nothing more than to inflict pain. You’re a horror. A blight on this world. I despise you.

He had thrown down his napkin and turned toward the door to find his way blocked by his father’s larger, stronger body. His father had looked at him, calm and cold, stoic as a stone statue in that effectual way no one else could dream of affecting, and said, “I am proud of you, Castiel.”

Cas had scoffed in disgust and shoved past him out of the room, out of the house. He had sprinted through the dark, rainy streets until he found the gate. He had run, and he hadn’t stopped running. Sometimes he feels as though he is still running, despite having repaired relations to a workable standard with his siblings and despite his father’s recent demise.

Gabriel had caught up with him at eleven fifteen pm, had found him kneeling on the sidewalk outside of a twenty-four hour 7-Eleven, clutching a half-empty Slurpee® he bought with the twelve dollars and forty-three cents he had on him in cash in one hand and crying. Gabriel had sat down next to him, Castiel who was still just a scared, sixteen-year-old boy, and wrapped him in his arms, and whispered, “I am so sorry, little brother.”

Cas had buried his face in Gabriel’s shirt, wrapped his arms around his brother, and lost his drink. It went splattering across the concrete behind Gabriel, a puddle of blue icy slush seeping through the cracks, but neither of them could bring themselves to care.

“I am proud of you, Castiel.”

Gabriel said those words to Cas that same night, but he meant them entirely differently.

Castiel’s father was proud of him for finally proving that he was, in fact, a man – by his father’s standards, not his own. For releasing his anger in waves, flinging them at everyone around him rather than managing it in a healthy way as he’d been striving to do his entire life up to that point. Castiel’s father was proud of him because he’d finally found some small part of himself in Castiel’s cerulean blue eyes.

Gabriel was proud of his brother because he was strong. Gabriel was proud of him because he had found it somewhere inside of him to stand up to the three people he’s always been most afraid of and to say ‘I have standards for myself. I will not continue to be treated this way.’

Gabriel was proud of Castiel because he loved him.

That would always be a far greater gift than anything anyone else could conjure up.

Castiel would never forget that.

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