#this took a lot of courage to post aha

[thekingofwinterblog]

You have the most based takes on the Soul Eater series ever dude. The catharsis I felt when someone described exactly why I was irked with the ending, Maka's characterization later down the line, and several other plot points was amazing.

Ever since you mentioned how compelling the theme of bravery and fear is in the anime ending I've been thinking about it nonstop. I feel like bravery could also tie in with Maka's characterization in the manga with Soul and Spirit, in which she gains the courage to put trust in them (Soul in not abandoning her no matter what and Spirit in wielding him as a weapon confidently despite her grievances with him). Additionally, I feel it would've been an amazing payoff if she also INSPIRES courage to others, especially Crona.

Black*Star wanted to transcend the gods, so what bars Crona from having the courage to want a better life and free themself in the manga ending? Of course, they will face consequences, but that shouldn't stop them from wanting to be happy.

Going from your point in your previous post of how the climax of the story doesn't hinge on Soul much: Perhaps by Maka inspiring courage in Soul with his issues, he will in turn help her in inspiring courage in Crona to fight back. Hell, why not get the others to join in? While kinda corny, it ties into how friendship and camaraderie can help get someone out of a dark place (I'm kinda imagining it like the Homulily fight in Madoka Magica rebellion).

Whilst I'm here, could I ask for your thoughts on Maka's mom? Personally, I think she was very underutilized as a character but I'm curious as to your thoughts on her.

Also, do you think the phrase "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body" that's constantly repeated in the anime ties into any major revelations? I think it would've been a perfect callback for the anime but I don't recall having an "aha!" moment about it.

Anyways, sorry for rambling a lot and for taking up your inbox, but I was very inspired by your analysis hehe. Have a great day!

Having characters who never appear and yet define other characters is a very tricky business, and frankly i think Maka's mom is not handled well in the manga, but the anime staff gave it a shot of making something worthwhile out of her, and the similiarities and contrast between her and maka. It wasnt perfect, but at least it's something.

In regards to Maka's mom, i think the best course with her would be to confront the fact she'a probably not coming back head on sometime after the sand pit with crona, maybe have her and crona have a chat between doors, and the topic come up, and go from there.

Im actually going to have a post sorta going over this later, but the gist of it is that the postcard and the meaning behind it(that for all their differences and the fact maka does not understand her) Maka still loved her mom, and was able to draw strength from it, and their connection in spite of everything.

This moment could have been so much more impactful though, if you inserted Maka having some harsh truth realization about her mom... And then still have her send that card, and so have Maka's agonising over what it means be much more impactful and full of drama, and the realisation of the fact that even if she is never gonna see her again(and that maka sorta resents her for it), she still loves her mom. Having her accept the fact that she does not understand the message, and her mom's thoughts with it, but that in the end, it didnt matter, because what matters, was what maka took away from it.

That would have made it being framed so importantly in the ending credits worth it, and subsequently have Maka's mom be a much better character by fully exploring the broken aftermath of her and spirits divorce.

I actually think the motto is bunk, and thematically speaking, its this kind of thinking that created asura. "A sound soul resides in a sound mind in a sound body" is a motto that demands perfection, and if there is something Soul eater makes clear, its that perfection is mot aomething to strive for.

Chasing excelence in spite of flaws that often cannot be overcome is at the core of soul eater's themes. Maka, Soul, Liz, Patty, black star , are certainly not people who fit all these 3 catagories all at once.

In fact both of Maka's quotes to Asura at the end is about the opposite. The world is not perfect, and thats okay... So long as we have courage, we'll live in it despite all our flaws anyeay.

It does absolutely seem like something Shinigami-Sama would teach at his school though, cause this is asbolutely something that the personification of order would have as a motto.

[presleyhearted]

Yours Truly - author's note: before we begin

Hi! Before you begin reading, I would just like to say a few words if you don't mind.

Hi! I'm Rose. 

First and foremost, I would like to say thank you for being drawn to my book, enough to give it a chance. I truly am grateful for it. I am sure that you would love to start the story, however if you do not mind, I will say a few words before we commence into the world of 'Yours truly.' 

I have been an avid reader for a long time, which cultivated my desire to start writing my own stories. However, all of my writings have been seen by myself and only myself - until now. 

The world of writing and reading is a vast space, which I am sure you are aware of. In this case, Fanfiction. I have read numerous fan fictions growing up, and I still do - drifting through one fandom to the next. I am relatively new to the Elvis Presley fandom, my interest started when I watched the brilliant movie Elvis (2022).  I will warn you now that this is Fanfiction - so it is the line between reality and fantasy. Read cautiously and carefully. 

next

--

Warning: This story has occupied every corner of my mind for MONTHS, and it took a lot of courage to entertain the idea and plan it out, and now gift it to you. So I will not tolerate plagiarism, copyright infringement, stealing of intellectual property - reproducing this story on any platform in any way. It is a NO. I am sure that your hearts are pure and you will not do this, but if you do see my story on any other platform - please inform me and I will report it.  The only other platform this is posted on is my wattpad account : astralheart_

Disclaimer: As I have mentioned already; I am in no way, shape or form, portraying Elvis or any of the real people as who they actually were in real life. I do not know them personally. It is an Elvis fanfiction, please do not ignore the FICTION in that. I mentioned that I will be researching as I go along to sprinkle in some factual information, but this is not a biography. It is not cold, hard facts.

--

This story was conceptualised through a series of songs I've listened to, and dreams I've had. I first outlined the plot and the type of characters, and then I decided for this to be an Elvis fanfiction. Which was not an easy decision.  In simple words: the story is the canvas, I am the painter, I just needed a muse to make this story happen. 

I tend to be drawn to the unexpected, complex and incomprehensible books. The type of book that will make a reader pause for a second and think, before continuing to the next sentence. Therefore, this story will deliver both a sense of familiarity of simplicities, and the element of trying to fit the puzzle pieces together, but not quite being certain of it all. 

In other words, I aim for those reading to be very immersed into the story - to be excited, to be thrilled, to be curious. This is why I am writing this. 

What can you anticipate? 

I do not want to spoil too much because I do love surprises, and I'm sure you do too. But just to briefly summarise - This story is something I hold very close to my heart. That being said, I want you to feel a plethora of emotions - good and bad, joy and despair, wonder and wishful thinking,   love and heartbreak.

All at once. 

--

Okay, okay. I'll stop talking now aha - I apologise for the long message. It was necessary though. 

There is a series of songs that I think sets the mood for this story, I will post the Playlist next. 

Then after that

the story begins. 

So, with this note from me to you - I thank you once again and I am most wondrous to 

Welcome you to the world of 

Yours truly . 

@literally-just-elvis-fics

[event-horizon-x]

Tag Ten people you want to know better

Thanks @clyde-side for tagging me in this, it took me a bit longer to start then I was expecting aha.

Relationship Status: I’m dating currently long distance as my boyfriend is someone I went to high school with back in Maryland in the United States and I’m in South Australia currently. We have a very untraditional relationship as I’m Aro/Ace and we both have the same interests or close to it, lots of road trips in the plans aha.

Favorite Colour: I like the colours of the Southwest sandstone in some of the canyons like Valley of Fire and I really like Phtalo green (if you know the post that is my favorite cooler based colour) can’t really choose between the two all the time as it’s just how I’m feeling or where I want to be at the time.

Favorite Food: I like American BBQ ribs specifically with Old Bay (yeah I was indoctrinated into the Maryland culture because I apparently lived there too long aha). I also like milk chocolate with any type of nuts in it and also salmon and other fish and shellfish, I like meat more then chocolate aha.

Song Stuck in my Head: The World Ender by Lord Huron, it now will forever remind me of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park and the Southern section of the range where we went caving and camping in the middle of absolute nowhere which is exactly how I like it.

Last thing I Googled: A journal on People and Volcanoes as I am looking for one specific book I can buy as a hard copy or paper back as I pulled an article for an archaeology research project from it and I want to look into more of that through an Archaeology perspective. (If you don’t know already I am an Archaeology, Geology and Paleontology Student doing two bachelors at two different university’s and one double major which is Geology and Paleontology together, yeah I may be stupid but it’s fun aha).

Time: 12:30pm

Dream Trip: Exploring the African Rift Zone and the volcanoes formed and erupting from it via road trip. Or road tripping from the southern most tip of Argentina to the most northern section of Alaska, both are kind equal at this point. The more difficult or dangerous the trip to more I’m interested in it so hiking up some of those active erupting volcanoes on any continent is something I would do, also don’t do that without a guide as a tourist because bad things happen fast if you don’t do it properly or safely.

I hate that I’m too embarrassed to tag anyone as I don’t talk that much with people here, I want too but yeah I can never get the courage up to ask so feel free to message me or something as I actually enjoy talking although I don’t do it often.

[hi-im-scam-likely-blog]

Hi! I’m... Scam Likely.

Or rather, I’m the guy that played him. This isn’t a part of the ARG, sorry if this is disappointing but I wanted to tell everyone what this whole thing was. My name is Jeremy, I’m 19 and Scam Likely kept me alive for half a year of my life. I created Scam Likely along with my girlfriend and boyfriend at the time (now my wife and husband) as a silly joke that was partially a part of our dnd universe. He was just this ominous force that said scary things sometimes and we all loved him. Eventually, we made this blog to share him with the world. I ran the blog, and after @turing-tested made a small post about it, it blew up. People loved Scam! I decided to give him a real story. The details of that story are a little fuzzy now, admittedly, but if you want to ask me questions about him feel free! I have been continuously blown away by how much people love him, and I am dreadfully sorry I have to break the illusion and cannot continue him the way he deserves. Every piece of fanart is treasured and kept in my personal folders. Thank you all so so so much! It was this support and fun interaction that kept my spirits up while transitioning away from my abusive father. To everyone who interacted, watched and followed this small ARG, thank you!! Once again, I hope you aren’t too sad with this out of character post, but I thought he deserved some closure!! Scam, Mel, the cohosts and all the planned and never seen characters wish you all a big thank you, as well!! And finally- Goodbye, I’m Scam Likely! :)

[simonsrosebud]

the one where someone doesn’t know who kevin day is, pt. 3

part one two four five

kevin has a talk with them the next morning before practice.  or more of just him storming into the lounge and going off.  the four freshman are there, too, but he doesn’t quite care.

“dalton isn’t fucked up like the rest of us!  there’s a reason i didn’t want any of you meeting or even knowing about him and it’s not because i hadn’t fucking come out yet.  he’s not a fox, and he’s not even thea.  he’s not involved with exy, he doesn’t know about riko and me and the moriyama’s and the rest!  there’s a lot of shit he doesn’t know about yet and none of you had the right throwing it all out in the air last night just to have a fucking laugh.  tell me, was it funny?  was it fucking funny getting him shitfaced just to get some answers and take the piss?!”

dan stands, and kevin holds a hand out.  she looks to andrew, but his silence sides him with kevin.  “kevin, we were just trying to-“

“you have no excuses, dan.  none of you do.  you were trying to make a fool of me and my boyfriend for nothing.  and now, i have to go cure his curiosity of the things you all said.”  and he storms out.

wymack doesn’t stop him.  if anything, he looks mad at those left.  “the fuck did you do to him to make him skip practice?!  you realize that’s never happened so long as he’s lived, right?!  we don’t have protocol for the day kevin skips exy.”

meanwhile, dalton doesn’t actually have that many questions.  the numbing of alcohol for a face tattoo is understandable, especially knowing that kevin’s sober and therefore must have had a problem.  the cracker dust he asks about just because he doesn’t know what it is- he doesn’t like it, but trusts kevin that he’s done with it.  he’s seen the scar along kevin’s hand, he already assumed it was from a surgery.  the edgar allen thing was too vague for him to be curious about, but he does ask- not about, the father comment, but if he’s okay about it.  kevin tells him this much;  that he transferred from edgar allen to palmetto because he’d known for a few years that wymack was his father, and that he didn’t have the courage to tell him until last year.

kevin thanks the gods that dalton doesn’t ask about or seem to remember any mention of the yakuza.

they’re at kevin’s suite because he knows they’ll have a few hours by themselves with everyone at the stadium, but only an hour in there’s knocking on the door.  dalton has his lips on kevin’s- he’d just said how he likes having access to his “real smile”.  “gonna get it?”  kevin shakes his head.  the knocking starts again.

“come on, kevin!  we’re sorry!  just open up for a second!”

kevin knows dalton likes when he speaks french, so he sighs and kisses him before whispering, “i hate them all.”

dan is at his door with matt and allison in tow.  “what do you want?”

“to apologize.”  kevin raises his eyebrows.  “look, we take the piss a lot and you never seemed to be visibly affected by it, so we didn’t realize that last night was upsetting you until you left.”

“you said never have i ever seen kevin have a meltdown.  why do you think you’ve seen that?  because i’m a toddler?  you know what i’ve had my reasons.”  riko.  the moriyamas.

“i know.  look, we don’t want to give you excuses.  i-i don’t have an explanation.  you’ve always kind of let us take the piss without saying anything, and we took it too far, especially last night.  andrew looked like he wanted to kill nicky for the yakuza comment, but neil talked to him about it before we went to the stadium this morning,” she whispers the last part because she’s not stupid, and kevin huffs.

matt jumps in.  “we wanna make it up to you, man.  you’ve obviously hid him from us for a reason and we proved you right.”  kevin honestly wants to get back to dalton and he wants it to just be over with.  “bring him to the winter banquet, we’ll be nice.  if anyone says anything i’ll punch em.  neil will chew em out.”

kevin grimaces.  the ravens will be at the banquet.  it’s in just over a month, the second week of december.  he’ll have to tell dalton some things by then.  and he might have to say something to the public.

he doesn’t tell him anything.  not yet, at least.  he still has three weeks until the banquet- he hasn’t even asked dalton yet.  he starts to like away games a little more than before, though.  he gets dalton a little postcard from every new state they go to.  he tapes them all to one of the walls of his room.

he’s on the phone with dalton at an airport general store, even, when he gets interrupted by two girls.  he puts on his press smile before he even notices.  “hold on, d.”

he doesn’t love fan interactions.

when they leave, dalton asks him with amusement if he’s got fans now, and kevin kind of decides he should probably tell him some more about his life because jesus, does he have fans.  he needs to tell him about he and riko.  what they were, what they were to fans of exy, what kevin was to fans of exy.  what kevin was to riko- without involving the yakuza.

but he doesn’t, because dalton never brings up the topic of “fans” again.

he doesn’t tell him until a week later, when he wakes up from a nightmare.

dalton’s leaning over him, speaking, but all kevin sees is riko riko riko.  it takes all of two seconds for dalton to back off.

“hey, hey, it’s me, it’s dalton.  you’re safe, you’re in my apartment.  no one else is here, i promise.”

kevin’s breathing so hard, dalton flicks the lamp on and he just crumbles.  he sits up and presses his hands over his eyes, “i’m sorry.”

“can i touch you?” he nods.  dalton’s sitting at his side, cross legged, and gently pulls kevin’s hands off his eyes.  “you don’t have to be sorry.  i know there’s shit in here,” he lightly lifts his hands to hold kevin’s face and taps his temple with a finger, “i don’t need to know what it is, just know you don’t have to apologize for it, and know you’re safe.”

kevin nods and twists to hug him.  and dalton wraps his arms securely around kevin’s back.  he presses a kiss to the top of his head and mumbles “c’mere” to prompt kevin into climbing into his lap.

dalton slides his fingers through kevin’s hair and it’s just so soothing, it nearly puts him to sleep.  and when dalton lays back down kevin stays wrapped around him with his cheek pressed to his chest.

when kevin wakes up it’s to find they’ve switched positions overnight.  dalton’s got his arm lazily draped over kevin’s waist, almost holding him close like a pillow.  his ankle is thrown over kevin’s, and his head is pressed into the back of kevin’s neck.

kevin doesn’t want to move.  in fact, he stays so still so as to not wake dalton, that when he stirs kevin just shushes him and pulls dalton’s arm back around him.  he holds his hand close to his chest.

dalton’s not stupid.  he knows kevin’s awake and nuzzles himself closer.  “you like being cuddled.”

“you’re the one doing it, not me.”  but he definitely tilts further into the pillow to expose his neck when dalton starts kissing up the side.

“you like being the little spoon.”  and pushes himself up over kevin.  “you like when you’re on the bottom, kev.” he kisses him deep into the mattress despite morning breath, and noses down his neck.  “i like it.”

kevin tugs at dalton’s hair.  “and what… what about it?”

ahaha.  aha.  sex.

anyway.

he tells dalton everything afterwards.  he leaves out the yakuza part, and the fact of neil’s past, because that’s another monster.  but he tells him the rest.  who his mother is and why he’s such a big deal in the exy world;  why he really left edgar allen and came to the foxes;  the tattoo that’s buried under his chess piece and what it meant.  what his relationship with riko was really like, and everything about their past and the abuse he endured.

and he fills him in on what triggers him because of that: small pitch black rooms, confined spaces without an easy way out, holding his hand too tight, the mention of riko moriyama, a lot of other things.

and dalton stays. 

so kevin asks him to the banquet.  when he says yes, he asks wymack for help arranging an interview.  there are enough people and press lingering outside the exy banquets, and he’d like to hold his boyfriend’s hand on the way in this year.

it’s scheduled to be live the morning before the banquet.  it’s with sophie silletti for espn college exy, and she posts about it as soon as it’s booked.

kevin sits with her.  it’s nothing like kathy ferdinand.  they talk strictly about exy and eventually, with his pre-approved questions, she brings up thea’s team’s most recent game.  “and forgive me if i’m wrong, but you and thea muldani split recently, yes?”

kevin nods.  “back in may, i’d say.  we’re still friendly, i have the utmost respect towards her.  in the end it just didn’t work out.”  i haven’t talked to her in months.

sophie nods.  “everything happens for a reason, i’d like to think.”

“of course.  it wouldn’t have led me elsewhere.”

“is that hinting at something?  i feel we don’t normally talk about this, but does kevin day have someone new in his love life?”  

kevin palms are sweating.  he hopes his face isn’t red with nerves.  “i do, actually.  i won’t say anything about him for his own privacy” i don’t want the public’s prying eyes “but we’ve been together for a bit, now.”

sophie is grinning, she feigns surprise.  “i heard you say him, did i not?  anything else to tell us?”

he keeps his smile easy, but he can feel the worry in the back of his head telling himself they can see right through it.  “if you’re asking, then sure.  i’m a bisexual man, so yes, my partner is also a man.  this is the first time i’ve ever announced it to the public, actually.”  as if that wasn’t the whole point of today.

“at least your fangirls can keep their hopes up, then, yeah?  still got a 50/50 shot!  and i’ve got to say, i feel honored you trusted me and my show with a milestone like this.  coming out certainly is a big deal, or at least nerve wracking!  how do you feel?” she laughs.  “is it like a weight lifted from your shoulders?”

“i was never too stressed about it.”  lies.  “some will hate, sure, but my job is the game.  if my fans are true then this won’t change that.  speaking of,” and then it’s back to exy.

wymack drives them back to palmetto, and when they’re close enough he says, “i’m proud of you for doing that.”

“thanks.”

“where am i dropping you off?”

kevin knows andrew and neil probably watched the interview, and he doesn’t feel like dealing with whatever they’ve got to say about it.  so wymack drops him at dalton’s who hugs him as soon as he opens the door.

“you watched?”

“of course.”  he kisses his cheek.

all posts/updates relating to this au can be found in the “OC: dalton miller” tag!

extra content

[tortilla-of-courage]

Yeah, kind of insane that the Adoption AU started with a 3am Taco Bell run.

I do actually have a few one shots already written for this AU! There's the Taco Bell story, the time Sky got arrested, the time Twilight got shot, a funny story I wrote based on real events with Twi, Wars and Wind trying to cook, and something based on that one picture of the boys playing the floor is lava by cherypaii(? I think that's the url?). And I have a half finished fic about Lullaby reacting to Time's increase in kids I call "Lullaby reacts to Time's Batman-Level Adoption Bullshit", and a half finished fic introducing Wild's twin. So if anyone is interested in reading some of the fun bits for the AU, since I'm still writing for the plot part (although this conversation has given me inspiration and motivation to write the bit where they find Twi after he was kidnapped, so,) then I'd be happy to post them.

And since you mentioned hoping more info would magically appear, consider this magic.

Midna is a mafia princess, and her family immigrated to get away from it. Zant is her cousin, and his parents followed to make sure Midna's parents didn't embarrass the family. She briefly had to move away after the incident where Twi got shot, but she's back before the plot happens.

Twi and Time both have their face markings in this AU. Time had his tattooed on after the FD incident as a reminder of what he's capable of and what he's lost (considering this plot beat's connection to his family and the Order), for better or worse. Twilight was gifted his by Midna after he fought Zant to try and protect her and Dusk from Zant. The markings are traditional Twili tattoos, painted on with some kind of something that acts as a mix of tattoing and henna, and have to be earned. Twilight's represent courage, boldness and sacrifice.

Warriors has a whole plot I've done nothing with involving Cia being, well, creepy as all get out. Basically I read somewhere that a victim of abuse is more likely to end up in other abusive relationships when looking at how Warriors' bio parents being abusive would effect him and then I remembered Cia and decided to be mean to him.

The underground hospital that took care of Wild after the wreck is called the Shrine of Resurrection because I thought that was a cool way to connect that.

I had this stupid idea once that Midna writes purposefully terrible fanfic and a few people suspected she wrote 'My Immortal' for a while, and when she comes back everyone is like "The Chaos Corner guy's brother is dating the lady who wrote My Immortal???" and Midna decides to set the record straight by doing a small livestream on like, Instagram or something where she explains she's actually dating Dusk. She's reapplying Twi's markings as she says this, and is basically in his lap. Twilight spends the whole thing looking like he wants the floor to swallow him.

Rottla is informed by a therapist that she should try and do something since her kids don't feel safe (which, considering Time got stabbed in their living room, not feeling safe is understandable), and decides the best way to fix this is to teach them how to fight. Time and Lullaby are both black belts in several martial arts and can use most weapons well as a result. To Rottla's credit, this does actually work.

The sorority Warriors befriends is made up of the fairies I saved in his game. Because I love those fairies. They're my favorite part of his game. Also, Proxi is here.

Navi lives! She's rescued by the Order, like how the rest of Deku's kids were. She plays the role of a Great Fairy for the order. Her fairies are actually Warriors' sorority. And Tatl, actually.

Saria is a strong contender to become leader of the Order eventually.

Majora is here and I can't tell based on my outline if I have Time kill Majora or not. So, Time potentially kills a man.

Wind has a boat with an old radio connected to a lighthouse where an old man lives. This old man is Daphnese Nohanssen, but Wind always calls him Red. They talk a lot, and Daphnese is glad he has someone who will talk to him because he is very lonely.

Wild has a motorbike (Master Cycle) that it is honestly a miracle he hasn't wrecked yet. He breaks himself but never the bike. Wars has an older car that he's put some elbow grease in and you'd never know it wasn't new. Twilight has a beat up old pickup truck everyone is just waiting to die, but it hasn't yet. This is impressive, considering Twi does drag racing.

Also, Warriors has a tendency to get in fist fights, and between them and Legend (who is never arrested for the same thing twice), Time happens to be on a first name basis with most of the police in the city. The chief has his number on speed dial for when he needs to go pick up a kid.

Wild's friends are all alive and they love him. Flora is laser focused on helping him with his memory issues. And feeding him weird things. For science.

Wild's twin, Knight, is mute. He speaks in sign. He's also a bit blindsided by how chaotic the house is, but he fits in very well. They buy a roomba that Knight tapes a knife to and blames Wild.

At some point I'll write the fic where someone modifies a nerf gun and things escalate until Time shows up with one of those machine gun nerf guns hooked up to a car battery (a modification he did with help from Sheik and Ruto). Who needs depth perception who you can shoot 60 darts per second? It's chaos and when Malon gets back from a trip she takes this week she finds the house in disarray and a hockey puck in the wall. Clean up takes three days, and they are still finding nerf darts in weird places.

This is off the top of my head. I am certain I am missing something.

Forgive the weird formatting, I don't know what happened there.

-Attllhak

honestly i’d love if you ever posted any of the one shots you have already - and i think i saw one or two other people say they wanted to read the story too in the post where you explained most of the plot, so i’m not alone on this aha

Can i say i love how you somehow connected a lot of their games’ original details and made them make sense in a modern setting???? like it can be a hard thing to accomplish but with wat you just told us here it sounds like you did it amazingly and it makes me all the more excited to see what other connections there are!!! 

[cursebreaker-lilith]

HC List #4-Wands

Wand HC’s! Mostly focused on the wood since there’s more variety than with the cores.

Also if you have any suggestions for Ismelda, Skye, or Murphy please tell me, because I don’t have their characterizations down as well and I’m not 100% sold on my choices for them!

Rowan

Hornbeam “with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised.”   Unicorn hair

I had a lot of trouble with Rowan. I considered, duh, rowan wood, and I believe the former head writer said Rowan had a rowan wand, but I think hornbeam fits. Rowan has a clear ‘vision’ and goals with which to get it, so it seems fitting.

Ben

Black walnut “If the witch or wizard is unable or unwilling to be honest with themselves or others, the wand often fails to perform adequately and must be matched with a new owner if it is to regain its former prowess. Paired with a sincere, self-aware owner, however, it becomes one of the most loyal and impressive wands of all, with a particular flair in all kinds of charmwork.” Phoenix feather

This is sort of inspired by someone who had done a wand wood post then deleted it :’) Anyways, there’s the good at charms bit (Ben’s specialty) but also it just fits Ben’s narrative. He is not someone honest with himself and that affects how he lives his life hugely, so a wand that reflects this problem makes sense. Then a phoenix feather core, because again, Ben’s problem is he has a lot of talent but is held back by himself. If he were to shake off his fears, i think itd be a good match .

Penny

Alder “not stubborn or obstinate, but often helpful, considerate and most likeable.” “whence comes its reputation for being suitable only for the most advanced witches and wizards.” Unicorn hair

Saw the first quote and was immediately like Penny! Then saw the second quote and knew it was Penny’s wand wood. Unicorn because she’s pure .

Merula

Red oak “You will often hear the ignorant say that red oak is an infallible sign of its owner’s hot temper. In fact, the true match for a red oak wand is possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand.” Dragon heartstring

She fits that first part. hot temper, a good dueler, fast reactions, all very Merula. And she pairs it with dragon heartstring for extra power and ease to do darker spells.

Bill

Poplar “‘If you seek integrity, search first among the poplars,’ was a great maxim of my grandfather, Gerbold Ollivander, and my own experience of poplar wands and their owners tallies exactly with his. Here is a wand to rely upon, of consistency, strength and uniform power, always happiest when working with a witch or wizard of clear moral vision.” Dragon heartstring

It’s like Penny, I saw the description and immediately went Bill! Literally everything about that description fits Bill very well. Dragon heartstring, as its considered to do more powerful spells. As for some hc’s, I feel he’s one of the few Weasley’s to get his own wand just because he’s the oldest so he kind of gets everything new.

Tulip

Dogwood “Dogwood wands are quirky and mischievous; they have playful natures and insist upon partners who can provide them with scope for excitement and fun.” “when paired with a suitably clever and ingenious witch or wizard, can produce dazzling enchantments.” Dragon heartstring

I wavered between giving dogwood to Tonks and sycamore to Tulip but in the end I put dogwood for Tulip because I saw “clever and ingenious” and immediately thought of Tulip over Tonks (not that Tonks isn’t clever, but Tulip is more proud of her cleverness). Plus I thought of a wand much more known for mischief would delight her in rebelling against her parents. (I know the former head writer said her wand is meant to be cherry wood and a hand me down from her grandmother, but I like Tulip having her own wand. Fits with her sense of independence better.)

Tonks

Sycamore “The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities.” “As may be deduced, the sycamore’s ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous,” Unicorn hair

Like with Tulip above, both could fit either girl, but certain words made me choose these woods. for Tonks, it was the use of “curious” and “adventure.” Tulip rebels to break rules, but Tonks just likes fun and adventure, so this felt a better fit.

Barnaby

English oak “A wand for good times and bad, this is a friend as loyal as the wizard who deserves it. Wands of English oak demand partners of strength, courage and fidelity. Less well-known is the propensity for owners of English oak wands to have powerful intuition, and, often, an affinity with the magic of the natural world, with the creatures and plants that are necessary to wizardkind for both magic and pleasure.” Dragon heartstring

Another one where I instantly put the wood to a character. With perhaps the exception of the “intuition” bit, every part just screams Barnaby. Loyal? Yes. Strong? Yup. Courageous? Deffo. Loyal again? Mhm. Affinity for natural world? Totally. And dragon heartstring for extra power.

Ismelda

Yew “Yew wands are among the rarer kinds, and their ideal matches are likewise unusual, and occasionally notorious. The wand of yew is reputed to endow its possessor with the power of life and death, which might, of course, be said of all wands; and yet yew retains a particularly dark and fearsome reputation in the spheres of duelling and all curses.” Unicorn hair

I had a lot of trouble with Ismelda. This probably isn’t what i’ll settle on tbh but it’s good enough. It’s sort of like her. Has a dark reputation but is much lighter on the inside.

Charlie

Ash “Those witches and wizards best suited to ash wands are not, in my experience, lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. However, the brash or over-confident witch or wizard, who often insists on trying wands of this prestigious wood, will be disappointed by its effects. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous, but never crass or arrogant.” Unicorn hair

Charlie does have a canon wand for this period, which is Ron’s wand. Probably coincidentally, but the ash tree description fits him well, so I do like to think that the second wand he gets after he graduates was also ash. And a hc note, I like to think the wand Ron had was also a hand me down to Charlie. No way that wand got that bad in only 7 years, even if Charlie is a bit rough and tumble. Plus if it was a personal wand, why would he give it away? So, yea, he graduated, got enough money for a new wand and Ron received his old one.

Andre

Spruce “The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce. However, when a spruce wand meets its match – which, in my experience, is a bold spell-caster with a good sense of humour – it becomes a superb helper, intensely loyal to their owners and capable of producing particularly flamboyant and dramatic effects.” Unicorn hair

I had a hard time with Andre, but this called to me best with him. I thought adjectives like ‘bold’ ‘good sense of humour’ ‘flamboyant’ all fit well with him.

Jae

Redwood “redwood wands are not themselves lucky, but are strongly attracted to witches and wizards who already possess the admirable ability to fall on their feet, to make the right choice, to snatch advantage from catastrophe.” Dragon heartstring

I struggled a lot with Jae unable to decide if I wanted him to have Redwood or Fir. He always had dragon heartstring, but I couldn’t decide on a wood type. I liked them for pretty much the same reason in that both have an emphasis on coming out on top despite the odds which I think fits Jae. Anyways, I eventually picked redwood because I just liked the description in regards to Jae better aha.

Badeea

Walnut “Highly intelligent witches and wizards ought to be offered a walnut wand for trial first, because in nine cases out of ten, the two will find in each other their ideal mate. Walnut wands are often found in the hands of magical innovators and inventors; this is a handsome wood possessed of unusual versatility and adaptability.” Unicorn hair

I had another one originally, but “innovators and inventors” just fits Badeea much better than what I originally had. Not much else to say.

Liz

Apple “They are powerful and best suited to an owner of high aims and ideals, as this wood mixes poorly with Dark magic. It is said that the possessor of an apple wand will be well-loved and long-lived, and I have often noticed that customers of great personal charm find their perfect match in an applewood wand. An unusual ability to converse with other magical beings in their native tongues is often found among apple wand owners” Unicorn hair

One I took from that post mentioned above as I was rather stuck on Liz. But I do feel it fits. Liz is a Slytherin but is against the idea that Slytherin = dark, so that bit fits, plus she’s all about the magical beings and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was good at speaking mermish and such.

Diego

Red oak ”In fact, the true match for a red oak wand is possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand. Less common than English oak, I have found that its ideal master is light of touch, quick-witted and adaptable, often the creator of distinctive, trademark spells, and a good man or woman to have beside one in a fight. Red oak wands are, in my opinion, among the most handsome.” Unicorn hair

So this is the same as Merula, but I feel he fits the second half of the description while she fits the first. A dueler, quick witted, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a distinctive spell, and I’m sure he agrees that his wand is as handsome as him. He however has a unicorn core as hes much lighter and nicer than Merula.

Talbott

Chestnut “The wand of chestnut is attracted to witches and wizards who are skilled tamers of magical beasts, those who possess great gifts in Herbology, and those who are natural fliers.” Phoenix feather

There was another I considered entirely bc it had like “mysterious loner” in it, but honestly this one sentence screamed Talbott to me. Like, he’s mentioned being great at comc, loves herbology and is one of the best in the class, and I would definitely say he’s a natural flier lol Now with chestnut wands, they change a lot depending on the core. But the description mentions only unicorn hair and dragon heartstring alongside specific descriptions, while the one above is standalone. So I’m assuming its meant to go with phoenix feather, which I would’ve given him anyways. Bird core for a bird boy.

Chiara

Willow “Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it.”  Dragon heartstring 

It took me a while to decide between willow or hawthorn, both of which mentioned healing and insecruties. Eventually I decided on willow entirely because it’s a paler wood and fits her whole silvery aesthetic.

Bea

Fir “There is no doubt that this wood, coming as it does from the most resilient of trees, produces wands that demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners, and that they are poor tools in the hands of the changeable and indecisive.” Phoenix feather

While Bea has a big change, I wouldn’t call her changeable considering she’s sticking with her new style and outlook. And I would call her a survivor. Poor girl’s survived a lot already and she’s only 12. : (((

Skye

Spruce “which produces wands that are ill-matched with cautious or nervous natures, and become positively dangerous in fumbling fingers. The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce.” Dragon heartstring

I used this for Andre, but I feel it fits Skye too. She’s very brash and confident (or appears that way) so I feel she would have that firm hand needed.

Murphy

Ebony ”Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider” Unicorn hair

Murphy is very open about how he is who he is, so even though he isn’t an outsider, I feel he has that “courage to be themselves” bit down.

Orion

Beech “The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant.” Unicorn hair

Yet another one where I read one sentence and was like oh that’s them. 

[cornerstonc]

1, 3, 10 for the writing asks :D

Fic Meta | Accepting

Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

oh l o r d i'm working on. a number of different WIPs tbh lies down they're all tcr-related atm tho. but if i narrowed them down to those which i intend to Finish and most likely publish at some point, we end up with uhhh. five?? five fics lies down

this is going to be a long ramble isn't it let me just preemptively throw down a readmore i'm so sorry

a condensed history of natori's career in the kingdom of cats

aka the 'young natori and cat king meet and Hate Each Other' fic jfifeoa honestly just an excuse for me to write out my headcanons on how they met, their early relationship, natori's family, and the cat king's childhood/family/Issues lmao. the third chapter is so close to being Done, but the fourth and fifth are. Not. so once that third chapter is posted, i'm not sure how long the wait for the next two will be rip

my favorite thing about it is probably just. idk, getting to explore those headcanons i'm attached to, aha. also getting to write natori in a lot of different ways i don't normally get to Here is fun

playin possum

a much shorter post-canon fic in which the cat king comes down with a cold and makes it everyone else's problem. it's. well. Not Particularly Close to being finished, but i at least have an idea of where it's going rip

my favorite thing is that it gave me the opportunity to write natori uttering the line 'sire, if you make me hand-feed your own cold medicine, it will not be as sensuous as you're clearly expecting it to be' jfieoa

have courage and be bold

an excuse plot involving yuki's wedding attire and natori's sewing skills which exists only bc i wanted to write them interacting with each other rip

it's somewhat close to being done. there's little patches here and there which need to be filled in, and the ending is still eluding me lmao. my favorite thing tho is honestly just getting to write for yuki and delve into my own ideas about her, aha, especially after canon wraps up. also love the idea of natori (and probably natoru, too) sharing embarrassing baby stories about lune with her

the willow bud processional

or 'the cat king tries to teach natori how to dance while natori tells him a fairy tale and the self-indulgence levels inherent in that plotline alone blew away the ozone layer'

i've actually posted this one before on my fic blog, but it was unfinished. i posted it anyway bc i was So Tired of looking at it, i just wanted to sort of wash my hands of it rip now it's been some time and i've been looking at it again like. 'u know maybe i have the motivation to finish this now that i'm not Sick Of It'

the ruins

wheezes okay last one the fic i keep bringing up which basically amounts to 'i wonder how much suffering i can dump on my favorite character before i feel bad.' the answer is A Fuckn Lot. natori being kept alive after what's for all intents and purposes a coup bc one particular noble took a not easy to define interest in him. it's ended up way frickn longer than i intended it to but i've had a lot of. well. maybe not fun, exactly, but Something Positive while writing it despite its bleak tone oof

it's inching closer to being finished rip my favorite thing about it is without a doubt getting to indulge not only in my love for Despair but also getting to write natori reacting in ways which i hope are maybe. somewhat surprising considering his usual demeanor and such, aha he literally gets into what amounts to a physical fight in this fic ok that's kind of hilariously unfitting

What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

there’s some ideas i have that fall under this category tbh-- that one idea i’ve brought up involving a groundhog day loop, where haru figures out she’s been living the cat kingdom day over and over again and can’t remember Why. she and the bureau, when she eventually gets them involved again, come to the conclusion it’s the cat king’s doing, and that he’s doing it to get his own way (tho they also find that conclusion kind of odd, considering he didn’t seem particularly broken up about how it all went down by the end of it)

of course. as i’m so. Wont to do rip the ultimate reveal would be that it was natori who had been behind the time loop, bc i have this story idea nicknamed ‘tfw u realize how things worked out in canon was the good end’

the basic idea is that natori was offered the opportunity to redo That Particular Day in order to alleviate some of the damage, but his efforts caused an even worse ending to the fiasco, and so now he’s been redoing it over and over again trying to get it Back On The Right Track. more than likely whatever creature gave him the original opportunity knew this would happen

bc i love the groundhog day loop trope to pieces, and i also love a good skirting too close to the despair event horizon fjioaef

i also have this random desire to write baron interacting with natori in that one ‘organized crime dark comedy’ idea i brought up once, where yuki is the cat king’s daughter and lune is the hapless ditz who fell in love with her, got all mixed up in the family business, and now is in too deep and not digging it lmao mostly bc i just have this vivid Idea of natori being just. profoundly two-faced in a conversation with someone who can send that polite, ambiguous energy right back at him lmao (bc i had the thought that, much like canon, natori is the one technically running everything. but in this case, it’s a good deal more Sinister, and his meticulously crafted bearing is quite brittle and wan in the right light)

How would you describe your writing process?

lies down scattered and capricious are two words which come to mind i'm too laid-back and lack the discipline to write on a legit schedule or when i'm not Feeling It, and my attention can sometimes flit from one WIP to the next in just a matter of half an hour (if not less rip)

it's also frustratingly easy for me to get burned out on an idea or a fic, which is part of the reason i usually have so many different WIPs going on at once orz

[dracosaurusrex]

Thank you!

Recently, I’ve reached a 100 followers! I’m so grateful and humbled for the support that I’ve been given by far. I started this blog purely out of intent to binge read Draco fics, so when I released Notebook for the first time, I didn’t expect such an overwhelming response! Mind you that I haven’t written anything fictional since I was like...14? (I was into k-pop at the time, and my writing was hella cringy back then.) Nevertheless, writing these has been a means to help me discover what grounds me--to help me gain courage to put myself out there unapologetically, even if it is only for a little bit.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an event to celebrate (your girl is occupied with finals prep atm), however I wanted to take this moment and reflect on things I’ve learned throughout this experience by far. If you continue reading this, I sincerely hope that it may resonate with you regardless of whether you’re a writer or a reader:

1) It’s okay to let go and not have a plan sometimes

This is coming from a girl who practically has the next five years planned out. If I’m being completely transparent with you all, I’ll tell you now that the most difficult moments of my life happened because I tried so hard to control my circumstances and became disappointed when things didn’t go my way. The reality is that we all need moments to be free and allow ourselves to grow with the flow of things. In terms of writing, I find that the more I try to insert control over a story or a mere scenario, the characters and the development in their environments suffer. It’s been a goal of mine to find balance between constructing and simply writing what I “observe”. If one overpowers the other, the story gets strained. Yoko Ogawa explains this perfectly: “I just peeked into their world and took notes from what they were doing...I see a bridge from that item to the next scene, or I see a rainbow that I have to climb over to move to the next scene”  *chef’s kiss* I love that woman smh.

2) I feel that it’s important to honor the flops and to honor the efforts you give.

I am a perfectionist, and I often doubt my writing before and after I post it. There have been plenty of times where I cringe when I write as well haha. With that being said, I try to post without expectation of how other’s will react. At the same time, I can’t deny the fact that I also post with hopes of a good response. It’s a normal reaction. When a chapter or a fic flops and the sense of failure occupies me, the first natural feeling is discouragement, followed by the tendency to compare myself to other big-name writers. However, I’ve learned that, similar to life, these instances are platforms for growth! It’s cheesy to say, but think about it: Artists give a piece of themselves every time they create. Outcomes are uncertain, but within the process, you’ve allowed yourself to explore foreign grounds and take the risk to express yourself. That’s freaking beautiful regardless of whether success or failure results. I feel this way about Palace, an angst oneshot I wrote a while back. I was uncertain, because the feelings and reactions of Y/N were so...raw. It was something that I don’t usually see being written about in the mainstream. Furthermore, it was a genre that I couldn’t completely wrap my mind around, and I struggled a lot writing it. Nevertheless, I wanted to challenge myself and tried writing something people can relate to. When it didn’t do well, I doubted my abilities and practically shoved its existence away. However, just recently I received a comment telling me how she could relate to the fic, and when I read it over, I realized that it wasn’t so bad after all. It gave me courage. The person I was when writing was just a girl coming to terms with her growth. Furthermore, beyond the number of likes and reblogs, it felt reassuring to know it reached someone--that anyone who gives it a chance can read it and take away whatever they want, whether they let you know or not. That was such a humbling experience and I’m so grateful.

3) To express is to have courage and be brave

Lol. Spill whats on your mind and dance around with it as if no one is watching. Life and writing is exactly that. At least that’s what I’ve come to learn in my experiences--to keep my ambitions close but my passions even closer. Reach for whatever you can and own it. Embrace the ups and downs that come along with it and thrive. Like all art, when it comes down to it, it belongs to yourself. Sharing my work with you all has taught me that, and there aren’t enough words to thank you for being with me and allowing me to do so.

I hate getting in my feels, and this post has a lot of that already aha. But in all seriousness, thank you. These are the main things I’ve learnt so far, and I have no doubt that there’ll be more in the future. Perhaps by then I’d actually have time to host an event haha.

[princesscas]

I have the same anxiety about posting smut too. I’m on the ace spectrum (somewhere between ace and demi) and I too am sex positive as long as it doesn’t involve me. Though I’ve been writing fics since highschool it literally took me till last year to muster the courage to actually post anything higher than M rating because I don’t have real hand experience and it is anxiety inducing. But like... people’s responses were super helpful and validating? Like just cause you don’t have any interest in experiencing it doesn’t mean your writing can’t be phenomenal. 💙 Writing smut from an asexual perspective can actually be more I dunno— eye opening?— that being you can take the logistics of what you know about it and add that extra layer of feeling and emotions that a lot of fics don’t really focus on because that’s not what was thought of when they were written. Maybe that’s just me though.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this exactly but I just wanted to say you’re not alone in your line of thinking and you’re still super valid and fantastic. My advice is to just go for it and keep keep doing it, you’ll only gain confidence the more you write and post and get feedback. It’s a liberating experience writing and actually posting out of your comfort zone, not because it’s the best thing ever written, but because you did it. (I hope this made sense and wasn’t just me rambling incoherently because it’s 2:30am oops)

This was such a good read, thank you!!! I think I’ve gained a little bit of confidence to start posting explicit rated stuff (okay I did once but it’s like..lowlowlooow-key- and it was crack lol) because seriously, this helps omg, a ton!! 

You made perfect since and...I think you might’ve just made my day??? Like, this is exactly what I needed to hear. Heck, I’ve got some writing inspiration now aha.  Thank you again!! :D 

[thesunnyshow]

Name: Alison O’Brien

Writing Blog URL(s): @httpangelicjimin

What fandom(s) do you write for?: BTS, although I wouldn’t mind writing for other groups. Often, I have other idols that make cameos in my stories.

Age: 21

Nationality: Portuguese + French

Languages: Portuguese + French + English + Spanish

Star Sign: Leo

MBTI: ENFJ

Favorite color: pastel blue

Favorite food: pizza no doubt 

Favorite movie: I’m gonna have to be a sucker and say monster’s inc. bc who doesn’t love Pixar

Favorite ice cream flavor: I’d say coffee, tho I love a good ol’ chocolate ice cream

Favorite animal: wolf, it’s my spirit animal 

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?: Coffee, for sure. Iced coffee or mocha

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Ever since I was little I always wanted to be a singer but I guess I’m too shy for that ahah so I’d either say writing or advertising.

Go-to karaoke song: Break My Heart by Dua Lipa

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?: The ability to change shape at will.

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?: The Victorian Era sounds brilliant to me. I would be a sucker for the dresses. Although, I also would’ve loved to be able to live in the ’20s. Great Gatsby made me dream countless times of all the amazing parties, with jazz playing in the background. The fashion was impeccable, and of course, to be alive at the same time as F. Scott Fitzgerald. I could even run into him at one of those glamorous parties. 

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?: I don’t think I would. Life has taught me some valuable lessons along the way but I was happy. Even when surrounded by those who didn’t have the best intentions in mind. If I had known all that I know now, I wouldn’t have lived as freely and carelessly as I did. I cherish those memories, even if they weren’t the best for me.

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?: Alright so… that’s a weird one. And what makes it weirder is that people have made that same question with me; it was either one horse-sized me, or 100 me-sized horses. Huh… I do have some background with chickens chasing after me, so I’d go with the 100 chicken-sized horses.

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?: I would 100% be the sucker that falls for the bad boy… ah… how I miss the high school bad boys.

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?: I don’t. Although I have no problem getting lost in those amazing universes where such creatures exist. 

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?: I absolutely love mango-flavored things but I cannot eat mango. Just the texture of the fruit…. Yuck. 

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?: I write everything. So far, in the 2 years, I’ve been writing, I have experienced a little bit of everything. I think writing all those genres are important to complement the story. 

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?: I never wrote anything that was mxm but I am ok with that. Besides, I have two stories out with an OC and the others are mostly with female readers, mostly because I write thinking about me with a member or one of my friends.

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr?: I was already using Tumblr to read other people’s work. When the thought of starting my own writing blog came to mind, it seemed the most logical option to use. I have only recently learned about AO3 so… yeah, Tumblr seemed the most “at reach” app.

When did you post your first piece?: The first thing I wrote was called Wonder and was posted on a private blog. I started writing it a couple of days after Euphoria by Jungkook BTS came out.

What inspires you to write?: Everyday situations are always a good base for me. I like to write moments that I have gone through. Besides that, I find inspiration on movies and tv shows and some Pinterest albums. Sometimes it’s just a random thought that comes to mind ehe

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?: I’d say college/high school aus. I did a collab with another writer from a college au and it was a lot of fun. Additionally, I have some wips I am meaning to work on and will soon be presented on my blog! 

What do you hope your readers take away from your work?: I think that I wanted them to feel okay. Life can get pretty hard and reading, for me, has always been like a getaway. So, whenever I write, I hope that I can distract my readers from whatever is happening in the real world. 

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?: Whenever I’m struggling in life, it’s almost as if I lose my ability to write. I get really stressed, especially when I set deadlines. I try my hardest to push through. I believe that writing, even if it’s not to our liking, is better than doing nothing. I try to read more, to sleep better, and to seek inspiration. 

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?: I don’t think I have a “most successful” work. I am pretty recent to Tumblr and am still growing bit by bit. As for my favorite, I’d probably say Dr. Love. It started out as a fun Valentine’s Day fanfic and I have some good stuff outlined.

Who is your favorite person to write about?: As I said, I love to find inspiration in my friends. Getting the feedback and how much they enjoyed reading what I wrote really is a heartwarming feeling. 

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?: I don’t think they are so different. Because when writing fanfiction, you’re not obliged to go 100% with the idol’s personality you’re writing. You have the freedom to marvel around in the worlds you create and make them do whatever you feel like would work best. So sometimes, it can be just like creating a whole new character from scratch. 

What do you think makes a good story?: There’s a lot of things that are needed to make a good story. I mostly value the storyline. I don’t like it when things are rushed and prefer to read something others may find unnecessary but get more context. I love the small little details about characters that make me relate and emphasize with them. Also, a plot twist. I love to read stories that completely blow my mind and catch me off guard. Creativity is everything.

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?: Why not? I don’t have a problem with giving different names to my characters as long as the story stays the same.

What is your writing process like?: I prefer to write at night. But, as I said before, sometimes there’s just an urge to write and I have to grab my laptop, or even the pull out the notes on my phone and type out some words for the story I’m currently working on. I try to create a coherent storyline as well. Plus, I have an amazing beta reader that always helps me with the plot and hears my ideas and complements them. 

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?: I love the typical “good girl falls for bad guy” trope. I don’t care if it’s cliché, I just love it. Although, I hate those where the girl is portraited as weak and as if she would ever be completely happy and fulfilled if the guy is by her side; as if she’s helpless without him. Girl power you know? Aha

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?: It means A LOT. I think there’s no better feeling than receiving a piece of feedback, despite how small it might be. There’s always room for improvement and just the simple fact to know that someone took the time to read my work and found it interesting enough to send me their thoughts, I really cherish it.

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?: I believe that my growth for the past months I’ve been on Tumblr could be due to how active I am. I always try to engage with the people I follow and even when I’m not posting my works, I try to be around. I have big dreams for my blog and hope to one day have a large audience to read my stories, but for now, I am happy with the ones by my side already.

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?: Yes. A lot of people think that fanfic writers are mostly horny/crazy teens that are obsessed with some famous wannabe that couldn’t even care less for their existence. I think that’s one of the biggest issues with how society sees us. But I consider those to be amongst older people (perhaps 40+yo). 

Do you think art can be a medium for change?: Of course. Art is one of the most personal ways of showing emotions, I believe. Being brave enough to show with the world your creations takes courage and I admire those who do it proudly. Art can be interpreted in so many ways; it overcomes all the barriers that there might be. 

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?: The feeling can get to me sometimes but I immediately shut that down. There was a time when I was forcing myself to write things I didn’t appreciate or that didn’t follow my storyline just to make others happy and I had to give up on those projects quickly because it was driving me insane. I strongly believe that if we don’t write what we are passionate about, it will either come out sloppy or we will hate it. Writing what we like, even if some might consider it bad, is what we should do.

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?: I don’t think so. Although, I don’t receive as much feedback as I’d like to, so I’m not certain. 

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?: Only my boyfriend does and he’s totally cool with it ehe

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?: A big big thank you! I am so happy to have you here and I hope you can take some time to read over my works ehe I am always open to talk if anyone needs~ 

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?: Just do it!!! I know there are so many great writers out there and you might feel like you would bring nothing to the game but that’s not true. You don’t need to be scared ok? It will be alright. Just give it a chance. There was a time where I was scared too and now I have made so many great friends and meet so many great people through my writing. You can make it too! 

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?: No. 

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?: Yess!! I have made so many friends thanks to Tumblr! I mostly have to thank the amazing people of @bangtan-headquarters for accepting me into their network and making me part of their discord server. I’m not going to be @/ing everyone but I know I have made friends whom I will forever keep in my heart uwu 

Pick a quote to end your interview with: “Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” - Les Brown 

[juminsmysticmc]

mc has a younger sister but they don't get along and she has a crush on mc's s/o. sorry for my bad english lol. rfa + minor trio

RFA + Minor Trio with a Mc who’s sister has a crush for them 

Yuhuuu! congratulations to myself who after a life time finally could update all her own ideas and post them! Yep, updating requests took so long because I had some own stuff I wanted to post first…But now enough talking and here you are! BTW, feel free to write me, I’m pretty bored these days T.T I miss you guys ;;

Jumin 

Family, something that for your husband was highly valued. 

And so it was something normal that at the weekends you guys would have a family day. 

Every Saturday at your mom’s place and every Sunday a fancy dinner with Jumin’s Dad and his new girlfriends. 

It was something that Jumin Han enjoyed a lot. 

Yes, Jumin Han. 

Not you. 

Not Mc Han. 

For you the weekend was the worst time in the week. 

Well, the dinner dates you had with him and his dad were good, you enjoyed them too but meeting a certain person at your mom’s place made your heart beat quicker. 

Although, not in a positive way. 

You just hated to see the face of the woman who took so many things from you, your sister. 

Yes, it was indeed sad to have such feelings towards the own sister but you just couldn’t prevent to hate her. 

Whatever you loved in your childhood, she was the one who snapped it away. 

Your capability for instruments? She wanted to do something like that too and since she was so bad at it your parents asked you to give up to sponsor her music lessons instead of yours. 

Your hobby? She began to love it too. 

Your taste in certain things? Of course she copied. 

It was always like this and there was no way that this would ever change. 

But taking away your husband was a bit too much. 

Even through she had a crush on Jumin, he was your husband. 

You hated the sight how she stroked his arm while smiling sweetly and how Jumin smiled back! 

Of course he thought of her as a sister and a sister wouldn’t flirt with him. 

And so the dork of your husband just ignored her flirting. 

But at some point it was too much. 

It seemed as if she was married to him, not you.  

You got up and slammed your plate on the table, destroying the porcelain plate. 

,,ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!’’ you yelled, gaining a surprising look from Jumin. 

,,Take my capability, my hobby and my taste but please don’t touch my husband!’’ you screamed, feeling your throat becoming sore. 

Your sister abruptly got up, blushing in a deep red and mumbling something you simply couldn’t or didn’t want to understand. 

With her leaving the room you left too, followed by your husband who still didn’t understand. 

,,Why did you do that? She didn’t do anything, my love….’’ he said, trying to understand your feelings. 

,,AHA?! REALLY?!’’ you asked him getting angrier. 

,,Stroking your arm and whispering into your ear is something a sister-in-law would do?!’’ you hissed. 

At this point you decided to show him that this wasn’t a proper relationship. 

You told your father-in-law that due to a argument you would flirt with him and so you did, noticing that Jumin didn’t enjoy your behavior. 

,,Mc! You know what I think of my father in these….topics!’’ he snapped. 

You nodded at your husband. 

,,You know about your father and I know about my sister!’’ and with this Jumin realized that perhaps you were right. 

Maybe it wasn’t the best decision, maybe it even wasn’t a good decision at all but for the time being both of you agreed on stopping meeting your family, at least your sister. 

Zen 

You disliked your sister’s behavior. 

You just couldn’t stand how she did things, how she behaved back then, when both of you were still living below a roof. 

Always giving you ways to get into trouble or hurting you with her words. 

You just couldn’t stand her even through you really loved her. 

Back then when you and Zen became a couple you simply forgot that your sister always had a crush on Zen, one of her favorite idols. 

Now that the two of you were about to meet your family you got reminded again and you hated the thought to meet her. 

Indeed, your hate and fears weren’t in vain. 

The whole time while you were somewhere else talking to your relatives your sister flirted with your Zenny, making it evidently that she had a crush on him. 

You hated it. 

But for the whole family you tried to hold back. 

Although you were about to explode when your sister grabbed his hand, begging for something. 

You observed him from afar. 

As soon as she had his hand Zen looked for you, his helpless eyes looked for yours. 

In that very moment you knew that Zen didn’t know if he could be rude to her or not due to the situation. 

,,OI!’’ you yelled from where you were standing. 

You immediately approached and pushed her away.

You were about to kill her with your glare. 

,,Aren’t you ashamed?! You dare do flirt here with my boyfriend?! Are you fucking serious?!’’ 

Your sister just chuckled, smiling at Zen afterwards. 

,,He didn’t seem to dislike it. Perhaps he even wanted to-‚‘’ 

,,No.’’ Zen said firmly before she could end her sentence. 

,,I wanted to be nice to you but now I know that it’s impossible. I only love Mc and I will love only her forever.’’ Zen said, making you blush even through this wasn’t the best moment. 

With that both of you left hand in hand, being watched by everyone in the room. 

As soon as both of you were outside he took your hands and kissed your cheeks which were getting wet from the tears you shed.

,,Jagiya, I’m sorry for the situation…’’ he mumbled. 

With a nod you explained him that it was okay. 

,,We weren’t in the best relationship anyway…I just didn’t imagine she could do something like this….’’ after a few more tears Zen and you finally got on his bike on your way home to at least enjoy your evening. 

Yoosung 

Today was a happy day for you. 

It was the first time that Yoosung and you would meet your parents after both of you became a couple. 

,,My sister is also studying to become a vet but to be honest I don’t know in which year she is or if she dropped it. We don’t get along…..it doesn’t mean that you can’t talk to her….I just wanted to tell you.’’ you told him while both of you sat in the car, your eyes always on the road. 

Yoosung nodded and agreed to you.  

He wondered if there was a reason for the both of you to not get along but he didn’t want to ask you now. 

Both of you didn’t even get out of the car when suddendly a brown haired girl ran towards you, smiling brightly at Yoosung as if he was the king hmself. 

,,Yoosung-Sunbae! You here? Such a beautiful surprise!’’ she exclaimed, ignoring you perfectly. 

,,Oh, hi. I’m sorry…I actually recognize you but I don’t know your name…’’ he mumbled, blushing a bit and looking at you. 

You sighed and told him that this was your sister. 

Before you however could tell her that Yoosung was your boyfriend she took his arm and giggled with him.  

,,So mean, Sunbae! I greet you every morning!’’

With that she tried to make him follow her into the house where you overheard your brother asking her, if this was her boyfriend. 

,,Well…’’ she mumbled. 

Your heart dropped. 

You loved her but the hate towards her was always much bigger than the love. 

Perhaps you were just disappointed ever since your mother died.

,,How dare you?!’’ you yelled at her, throwing your bag on the floor. 

,,I’m not even in and you already make me regret it!’’ 

,,Sorry, I’m actually Mc’s boyfriend. I don’t know why she grabbed my arm….’’ Yoosung said, trying to get rid of your sister’s grip. 

,,What?! You snapped away my crush?!’’ she whined, making you look like the bad one again. 

It was always so. 

If she wanted to get something or to even ask for something, she always said ,,Mc wanted to have it. She wanted to know and persuaded me to ask….’’. 

It was never her fault but always yours. 

,,Mom! Did you hear her?!’’ she whined, looking at your step mother. 

You thought you misheard her. 

,,Did you just call her ,,Mom’’?’’ you asked her, tearing up at the sight of the woman who looked at you with apologetic eyes. 

,,It was indeed a mistake to come here again. Yoosung, I will go now….’’ you whispered with a trembling voice. 

,,Mc! I will come with you! I’m your boyfriend, not…hers!’’ Yoosung said, not even feeling bad that he actually hurt your sister’s feelings. 

As soon as both of you were outside you had to stop for a moment to breath again. 

Your heart felt heavy and your head was spinning. 

,,Mc, do you want to tell me?’’ Yoosung asked you. 

After you nodded you told him. You told him about your beautiful mother who died while giving birth to your sister. 

Of course you never stopped loving her. A mother died for her children, not because of them after all but the fact that she never recognized your mother as her mother made you feel pain in your heart. 

That’s why you just couldn’t stand her.  

Yoosung nodded, understanding your feelings. 

,,I’m sorry that it turned out like that…I love only you…’’ he assured you and took your hand, making you feel better immediately.

Jaehee 

Your situation was similar to Jaehee’s. 

You father died after a long illness and your mother died in an accident and so you and your sister were sent to other relatives. 

Your sister and you came to grow different due to your relatives behavior who liked her better than you and abused you. 

It wasn’t like you hated your sister because of this. 

It was simple - you were disappointed that back then.

Your sister didn’t do anything and just enjoyed the situation. 

A few years later both of you grew older but you still didn’t get along very well. 

But she still knew about you and Jaehee’s coffee shop and so she often came and visited you. 

You didn’t know that she just came because Jaehee was actually her crush. 

At some point she gathered all her courage and confessed to her. 

When you overheard your sister your anxiety grew, was it possible that Jaehee could leave you? 

That like everyone else she could begin to love your sister more than you? 

You stayed silent at first but when Jaehee stayed silent too you began to sob, letting hiccups out. 

Your friend turned around and smiled at you. 

,,I’m sorry. I already have someone I like and I think that she just somehow confessed to me too…’’

Saeyoung 

,,I mean, couldn’t she fall in love with Saeran?!’’ you hissed while your fiancé was driving to your families’ place while Saeran sat in the back, rolling his eyes. 

,,Well, she does have a good taste….’’ Saeyoung teased you when you told him that your sister had a crush for him. 

,,I think you’re over reacting…’’ the red haired boy behind you mumbled, trying to not gain your mean look. 

,,No, I know her…’’ you although responded and pouted for the rest of the drive. 

To be honest Saeyoung thought the same too. 

He didn’t think that your sister had a crush for him. 

But oh dear, he was so wrong. 

Your sister was one of the girls who could fall in love with someone in just a few minutes and feel annoyed in the next moment again. 

And that’s why you somehow couldn’t stand her. 

Because of her you already lost so many people and people’s trust. 

As soon as you arrived you felt that your presence was too much. 

You were right, just a few seconds later your sister approached you and sightly pushed you away to hug your beloved man. 

You looked at it once, twice and thirdly but at some point you were about to explode. 

And somehing happened that night. 

,,Aren’t you ashamed?!’’ you heard someone who was none else than your soon to be brother-in-law. 

He was protecting his older brother who tried to get rid of your disrespectful sister. 

She was clearly flirting with Saeyoung but he being he ignored everything. 

But his brother wasn’t the same. 

,,Your sister is about to get married and you behave like that?!’’ he asked her again, making her blush. 

Saeyoung finally realized everything and searched for you while he tried to get away from her strong grip. 

,,I….have a crush for him…I can’t change that…..’’ your sister tried to explain. 

,,You can change something!’’ you hissed. 

,,For example you could hold yourself back!’’ you said as example. 

,,I’m sorry. I don’t like you.’’ Saeyoung said apologetic and hugged you. 

The three of you decided to go home after this, you couldn’t stand your families’ bad mouthing about snapping away your sister’s crush - even through you knew him first.  

But this wasn’t important, you had your red haired twins as family and didn’t need more!

Saeran 

,,I-I simply can’t imagine it….’’ Saeran mumbled when you told him your thoughts. 

The both of you and the RFA were on a party and your sister would attend the party too. 

You didn’t have much contact with her, you simply couldn’t get along with her, there was no specififc reason. 

But now that you noticed her blushing whenever she saw Saeran you had a reason to dislike her a bit more. 

,,Saeran, you’re so innocent…..’’ Zen laughed who also noticed your sister’s flirting. 

Saeran decided to prove that he wasn’t an incompetent boy and wanted to show you that he only loved you. 

As soon as your sister approached him, trying to hug him, your boyfriend pushed her away. 

,,Sorry, I don’t know what you intend to do but I like your sister and I don’t want to hurt her feelings by hugging her or showing you any affection.’’ he firmly said. 

Your sister looked at you and then turned her eyes to Saeran. 

Before she stepped away she mumbled something that neither of you could understand. 

But you were really happy and proud at your boyfriend and showed him how grateful you were. 

Jihyun 

Finally the time came when you were able to let Jihyun meet your parents. 

Although, you didn’t expect your older sister from Japan to be there too. 

Everyone in the family knew that both of you simply didn’t get along. 

At first both of you only argued but after some time you both just ignored each other. 

But today you simply couldn’t ignore her. 

Her blushed cheeks whenever your boyfriend smiled, her red ears when Jihyun passed her the salt….. 

You hated it. You hated it so much, the fact that she understood art so well, that she actually owned a museum and that she was so fond of him. 

That she didn’t even hide her love for him, you simply hated it. 

The detail which made you snap was when she told him, that in her opinion she was more appropriate for him than you. 

Her evil smile afterwards, it showed pure hate. 

You were about to tear up, to slap her, to do anything at her. 

But then Jihyun got up. 

An odd smile was on his lips and then he began to talk. 

,,You may know a lot about art and may know my work but your sister knows far more than that. She knows my flaws, my fears and strenghts. Your sister was by my side even through it was hard. 

We overcame a lot of straits and….I love her. So, no. I don’t think you would fit to me at all.’’ 

Jihyun sat down again and looked at the sauce.

,,But….do you want more?’’ he asked her and showed her the sauce your mother did. 

,,NO?!’’ she hissed and quickly walked toward the exit. 

,,How….?’’

,,Jumin once did it when a boy bullied us and said that he was more fitted for our seats.’’ 

,,W-What?! Jumin explained a boy why the seats were better for the both of you?’’ you asked him again, holding back a laughter. 

Vanderwood 

Everyone knew that you and Vanderwood had a special bond so none from the RFA was really concerned for the both of you when you told them that you would go out to meet your family. 

And indeed, there wasn’t anything to worry about. 

Well, except for the fact that before eating your boyfriend polished his silverware, yours and your plates. 

But he was really educated. 

He even helped your mother to tidy up - or better your mother tried to help him. 

But it was okay for you, you couldn’t stop it anyway. 

Even through you and your sister didn’t get along you thought that the good taste in men was still in the DNA. 

She immediately began to send SnapChats about Vanderwood to her best friends. 

Of course you noticed. 

You didn’t knew what to do, she was still 15 after all and you were almost ten years older. 

But your patient stopped when she began to hug him from behind and play with him. 

She didn’t just touch your boyfriend but she practically played with a total stranger! 

Luckily Vanderwood was intelligent enough to stop her right away, pushing her from his back and scolding her. 

,,You’re dirtying my uniform and your dignity!’’ 

And so your sister’s first crush ended up being her first rejected love.  

MASTERLIST 1

MASTERLIST 2

MASTERLIST 3

28.08.2019// 18:00 MEST

Tagged:

@foreversunshine-love @giulia2372 @sailormoonrocks666

@widya345 @remiliadacalde @sailormoonrocks666 @r-f-a-journalists

[newmayhem]

Reading and ranking the entire Den of Shadows series

Check out my other Den of Shadows reviews HERE.

After a year such as this one, I wanted to close it out with something fun so I spent the past month marathoning the entire Den of Shadows series- rereading the original quartet and then reading for the first time the new TDOS books. I was originally going to post reviews/reactions for each book, but that got too cumbersome. Instead, I’m doing one big post of my personal ranking so I can discuss each book and talk about the series as a whole.

Spoilers for the entire Den of Shadows series below.

Personal Ranking

I based it on several different criteria but mainly: 1) How much I enjoyed it, 2) Writing/storytelling quality, 3) If there was anything glaringly ‘problematic’ (which I’ve found is usually a big factor in how much I enjoyed it), 4) How it fits in context of the entire series.

9. Shattered Mirror It hurts to put this one last on my list because Shattered Mirror was my intro to The Den of Shadows and to ahar’s work. Reading this again as an adult was frustrating because I can see why I loved it the first time around and how most of that doesn’t hold up today. Sarah was a great main character who deserved so much better than the ending she got. It was just wall to wall rape culture and misogyny. I hated Christopher and how he was a creepy pedophilic stalker framed as a romantic hero, I hated how Nikolas got some copout backstory so he would look like a good guy even though he beat a girl to death for rejecting his brother, and I hated how Nissa was enabling both of them. I really hated that this was meant to be a racism/prejudice metaphor because that doesn’t work out when the ‘oppressed’ group does actually harm innocent people. Aside from that, I felt like the pacing was really off- the events unfold over the course of a little over a week and we’re supposed to believe that after hanging out with them twice Sarah’s developed a bond with these vampires strong enough to override the prejudice she’s been raised with since birth (and that Christopher’s in love with her). And then there’s that whole anti-climax when it turns out that the ‘villain’ was Kaleo all along, but instead of having the book end there, there’s another 20 pages where we have to watch Sarah get attacked and changed against her will and then have it framed as a happy ending. I did like that she decided to not stay with Christopher in the end, though.

8. Midnight Predator I was actually surprised by how much I liked this one because I didn’t remember anything from it at all except for like, two scenes and some character names. It felt more mature in writing style, thematic content, and aesthetics. I also liked that we got a main character who was a little older and that the world was, for the most part, very removed from the human world. It was a good way to close out the original quartet in that it touched on a lot of the themes that had been explored in the books previous. That said, I had a lot of problems with how the issue of slavery was handled and also with how victim-blamey the moral of the story turned out to be. It just didn’t sit right with me that at no point did anyone bring up the idea of, you know, ending slavery at Midnight, which Jaguar had all the power to do. I hate that we were supposed to be sympathetic towards Jaguar and treat him like a good guy because he doesn’t abuse his slaves (for reasons that center on him) like everyone else does when he easily could just...not own slaves. Tying in with the victim blaming stuff, it felt like we were supposed to be satisfied with Turquoise freeing herself but being ok with letting slavery continue. And the big character arc that leads to her getting revenge on Daryl was framed as her ‘not letting herself be a victim anymore’, which is an objectively terrible take on this issue. Aside from that, I also had issues with the pacing here. We were promised a story about Midnight and a mission to assassinate Jeshickah, but all of that goes out the window in an anti-climax about two thirds of the way through the book (and two days into the timeline), and then the rest is a plodding montage leading to a very abrupt end. I also didn’t like how Daryl was supposed to be the real villain of the story but was also portrayed as a snivelling idiot that no one liked anyway, because that lessened the impact of Turquoise finally getting up the courage to kill him.

7. Demon In My View This was a good followup to ITFOTN in that it struck a balance between being standalone and having ties to the previous book. That said, I found the tone to be surprisingly more immature. I mainly didn’t like how the main character and the antagonist were handled. Jessica, while being a great reader insert/power fantasy, wasn’t very interesting because she didn’t go through any character development or have to sacrifice anything, but still got everything she wanted in the end. Fala was too much of a buttmonkey and her motives were too weak to be taken seriously. It also didn’t sit right with me that she’s the only canonical woc so far and she’s being portrayed as this incompetent cartoon villain even though objectively, like, she does have a point. But I do love the introduction of my favorite underappreciated side character, the ultimate MVP: Caryn Smoke!

6. Token of Darkness This book had a lot going against it, mainly in that it’s the most disconnected from the other TDOS books in terms of not only characters and setting, but also with introducing beings that hadn’t been mentioned before (in text, at least). I think especially as one of the new TDOS books, it would’ve helped to at least offhandedly namedrop some people/events/places. My second problem with this book was that everything felt very underdeveloped. I loved the new characters that were introduced, but I was disappointed that we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know them. I would’ve liked to see Cooper actually start training under Ryan, I would’ve liked to learn more about the LeCoire family and what it means to be a sorcerer. I also just wanted more Delilah because she’s such a fascinating character (I loved her reckless and unapologetic ambition). Kind of like ITFOTN, I felt like this lacked an Act 2. I think the story should’ve started earlier so we could see more of the investigation part of it, so we can get all the characters together earlier and have them working together (while Delilah has her hidden agenda on the side) to figure this out and build towards that climax. Even with the pacing and development problems, this is higher on the list because I just really enjoyed it- it was light and fun and I hope we get a chance to see these characters again.

5. Poison Tree This was something that I really wanted out of a new TDOS book- it delved deeper into parts of the world that had been mentioned before- the Bruja Guilds, SingleEarth, the Mistari, and all of that serves to set the scene for Promises to Keep. The concept was this cool deconstructed/reconstructed whodunnit story. It was more complicated than the typical TDOS plot, so I appreciate the ambition. That said, the execution wasn’t great- I often had to pause and go back in order to keep the facts straight and figure out who knows what, which was distracting. Another reason why this didn’t rank higher was that for some reason, I didn’t connect as much with these characters as I have in other books. The pacing was odd, I didn’t like that it came to a point where everyone had figured the main part of the mystery out, but instead of going directly to the climax, it took a detour into relationship drama, which slowed down the momentum. I think it would’ve made more sense to put Sarik and Alysia into a situation where they were forced to work together (rather than that brief but drawn out thing with Sarik and Christian). There would’ve been more tension, conflict, and forward momentum, and because they’re the two leads that were supposed to be focused on, it would’ve felt less like a detour.

4. Persistence of Memory This was a very good return to TDOS. It feels very familiar in how the new characters fit into the world. It struck a good balance between introducing new characters and having them coexist with concepts and characters that we’ve heard of before. I felt the same spark while reading this as I felt when I first read the original quartet. Like, this entirely new book made me feel nostalgic, and that’s not to be underestimated. I really loved the two protagonists and I was very invested in both of their stories. I particularly loved Shevaun because her struggle with her fear of becoming human again is one that we don’t often see in vampire fiction. I also think both she and Adjila are the perfect embodiment of beings who’ve been around for centuries and just don’t have the same morals and boundaries that humans do. I don’t normally read these books for the romance, but both canon ships here were really well done and believable, and also paralleled each other in an interesting way. And I loved the oddly wholesome focus on found/chosen family. Also, this gets extra points for everyone dunking on Alexander every time he’s mentioned.

I didn’t rank this higher because I wished Erin was more involved in figuring out what was going on with her. I didn’t really like that after a certain point, it felt like Sassy took over as protagonist. Still, I really enjoyed it, the ending was very satisfying (I loved that it was a straight up happy/optimistic ending instead of a bittersweet or abrupt one like most of the TDOS endings had been so far).

3. Promises to Keep This was a bold ending to the series. It took a lot of guts to basically blow up the world that you spent nearly 20 years creating and I admire that. It was a really engaging story that truly showed the full extent of what ahar was capable of as a writer at that time and the full extent of what a TDOS book could be. I think this time ahar really nailed the pacing (which was something that had always been a bit shaky in the past). We got to spend enough time with Jay and get to know him (it was a good choice to have the protagonist be a character we’ve met before but could still get to know more). I liked seeing everything we’ve learned from all the previous books come together and come into play. And I especially loved that our MVP Caryn got the HEA she deserves. The little epilogues at the end were fun to read (only, I’m mad we didn’t hear anything about Risika. Especially because she does get mentioned (and we finally know that 1) she found out about what happened to her mom, and 2) she and Kaleo have active, ongoing beef over it)). It really felt like a finale, but at the same time, it felt like a new beginning and I can’t wait for new books in this post-Promises world.

This could’ve ranked higher, but I did have a problem with Brina. In terms of personality, etc., I loved her and she was fun to get to know, but I can’t get past the whole slave owner thing and how that aspect of her was handled. I wished that her character arc was more about realizing that enslaving people is objectively bad rather than having her keep pointing out Jay’s incidental hypocrisy as if it weren’t a false equivalence. Her happy ending just felt a little unearned- the only real ‘penance’ she performed wrt being a slave owner was a tacked-on apology during the ritual and a sentence about how she freed her own slaves (again, no mention of whether or not all slavery has ended), and even though she was turned human, it’s not framed as a great or permanent loss, and on top of that she also gets witch powers.

2. In The Forests of the Night I admit, this ranking is mostly based on nostalgia...but it’s still a very solid book to kick off the series, set the vibes, and introduce us to this world and what kind of series this will be. It’s not the best of the series in terms of writing quality, plot, or scope, but of the original quartet, I think ITFOTN holds up the best. For a YA book of that era, especially one written by someone of its own target demographic, this felt very mature. It wasn’t trying to talk down to its audience and that meant a lot to me. It showed me that YA could be dramatic without being overwrought, serious without being an ‘issues’ book. It tackled questions of identity, morality, faith, power, and freedom, all framed within a fast-paced revenge story. Most of all, Risika is such an interesting, complicated character and her journey was both relatable and entertaining. Of all the endings in this series, the ending of ITFOTN was the most satisfying for me in that the main character had to change and sacrifice, and in the end she got what she truly deserved even if it wasn’t entirely happy. My only complaint is that we don’t see more of Risika throughout the series, especially when there’s clearly more to her story.

1. All Just Glass The TDOS books are fine as standalones and it’s cool that each one makes it feel like whoever you’re reading about is just a small part of a bigger world, but All Just Glass shows how good it can be when we go deeper into a particular story and give it more time to develop. That said, I don’t think it would’ve been as good as it was if it was written right after Shattered Mirror. There’s a very clear improvement in writing quality and storytelling that can only come from 10 years of experience.

While it didn’t fix all the problems I had with SM (mainly, I would’ve preferred it if Sarah didn’t go back to the Ravenas in the end), AJG made a great choice in shifting to a different, more cohesive theme and illustrating it across a compelling ensemble cast. It cleverly plays on our expectations of the Vida line that were based on the limited scope of SM in order to show that contrary to what we’ve seen previously, this is actually an institution that’s in decline. The Vidas aren’t this great power ruling over the rest of the Macht witches- they’re actually these fundamentalist/extremist outliers who are on the fringes clinging to the ‘old ways’ while everyone else kind of does what they want and their decline is directly related to their obsessive adherence to tradition at all costs. What’s so great about this is that it’s not just a sequel, it’s a subversion of SM that also sets the tone of the new TDOS series in anticipation of the inevitable end.

General Notes

I loved reading these all back to back and watching ahar grow as a writer, watching the world unfold right before my eyes.

It was interesting to see the difference between the two series. I found most of the books in the new series to be generally more engaging because they’re based around a central mystery (What’s the connection between Erin and Shevaun? Who is Samantha? Who attacked SingleEarth? Who’s the shapeshifter?). I also liked that rather than shy away from mentioning technology and trying to pretend that it doesn’t exist or that we’re still in the early 2000s, ahar really leaned into it and in doing so, made the stories feel more realistic.

The original quartet was very aesthetically cohesive, it was a series of vignettes that purely aimed to explore a particular piece of the world. The new series, however, felt cohesive in that each of the books is building towards the end and showing a piece of the puzzle that sets the scene for PtK (PoM gives us more about the Tristes, ToD gives us the elementals, AJG and PT are about groups that are on the decline with their fates based on whether or not they choose to align with the rising power of SingleEarth).

On kind of a petty note, I wanted to mention how much I hate all the new covers (both for the new TDOS series and for the re-release of the original quartet) and I was really disappointed in how low-effort the marketing was for the new series. Even just reading the synopsis for PT and PtK was painful because they seemed slapped together at the last minute like no one cared. I think it was a real missed opportunity to draw in a new audience because they were coming out just as the YA boom, particularly in vampire fiction, was happening.

The biggest takeaway I got from this marathon is a huge respect and appreciation for this extensive world and cast of characters that ahar built (and then had the courage to entirely upend). I know mainstream attention isn’t everything, but I just really hope ahar gets their flowers because this is a great (and highly influential) body of work that’s so different and even ahead of its time.

Anyway, that’s my take on the series. I might make this re-read an annual thing because this was fun. Also, as I was reading, I made sure to note factual info about the world and the characters, so I’ll be making new additions/edits to the reference materials soon.

[ais-n]

2| and where is the trauma? both hsin and boyd were severely sexually abused. and emilio's illness is always treated as a joke. look Ais, your series has done me so much good between the bad it did. i found i'm gay lmao and i'm grateful for that. i'm grateful that you wrote this ok. but there are things that were offensive, and maybe it was unconscious, since i doubt you wanted to be racist or write a mlm relationship but more like hetero. i wish i could just enjoy the books but my heart breaks

3| idk what the one who questioned that could possibly mean between all the things but thats what i mean. i appreciate you a lot. i hope this didn’t make you feel worse or whatever. but some people really did end up hurt badly after reading icos and im one of them. with all respect, and hope that i didnt disturb you much, farewell.

++++++++++++

Aha I just realized I can put both 2nd and 3rd asks in one! Which is good because, again, the gay comment makes me laugh out loud XD As I said in the other post, thank you again for reaching out, for explaining your concerns, and for the courage you no doubt had to bring forth in order to do so.

I’m getting right into the answers in this one although I will probably ask more questions for clarification on some of the points, as I did on the first one, to make sure I’m not misunderstanding or misinterpreting anything.

More below the cut! :)

EMILIO’S ILLNESS

I’m really sorry but I wasn’t sure what you meant by that. Which illness? How is it treated as a joke? Could you clarify? 

TRAUMA

So this I thought was super interesting that you felt there was no representation of trauma in ICoS, or I assume you also mean its aftereffects. That’s actually one of the few points I feel pretty confident saying the series does portray a lot of, both in some cases the experience of it and in other cases the repercussions. 

One of the reasons both of them are so severely dysfunctional individually and together is because of trauma.

I don’t want to muddy up this post with a huge tangent but someone had asked a few years ago about the result of the Aleixo mission on Boyd, if he was diagnosed with anything, and so on. If you’re interested, I wrote a long ass reply about the psychological effect of sex trafficking on survivors/victims and talked about some of the things you see Boyd do that are a bit reflective of that. More info at https://aisness.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/boyd-aleixo-psychology/

I think there probably would be more information on all this by now, or at least I certainly hope there would be, but at the time of writing Fade that was the sort of research that was available. 

Although, full disclosure, I don’t tend to write characters looking up the DSM symptoms for this or that; I write what feels right for them psychologically, mentally, emotionally, and oftentimes later look it up and realize they would have likely been diagnosed with this or that thing or they could be displaying traits of this or that.

At any rate, with Boyd, his trauma started early on, and pretty much everything about him is a reflection of that in some form. I don’t see trauma as specific to sexual assault; it’s most certainly a result of that but also of many other things. Boyd dealt with a lot of neglect and/or emotional abuse as a child, he was bullied by his peers, and generally speaking it was difficult for him to feel like he belonged anywhere. He was very often judged by others, often negatively, for things completely outside of his control, like his parents, their jobs, his home, the amount of money his family had, his looks, etc. 

If you look at the Mayo Clinic’s list of child abuse, Boyd falls pretty well under emotional abuse and a bit under neglect, and you can especially see the toll that had on his personality by reading the signs and symptoms of emotional abuse in particular:

Loss of self-confidence or self-esteem

Social withdrawal or a loss of interest or enthusiasm

Depression

Avoidance of certain situations, such as refusing to go to school or ride the bus

Desperately seeks affection

And general symptoms:

Withdrawal from friends or usual activities

Depression, anxiety or unusual fears, or a sudden loss of self-confidence

An apparent lack of supervision

Self-harm or attempts at suicide 

If you look at Complex PTSD, and in particular Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) you can see a lot of Hsin:

Attachment – “problems with relationship boundaries, lack of trust, social isolation, difficulty perceiving and responding to others’ emotional states”

Behavioural control – “problems with impulse control, aggression, pathological self-soothing, and sleep problems”

Dissociation – “amnesia, depersonalization, discrete states of consciousness with discrete memories, affect, and functioning, and impaired memory for state-based events”

I wouldn’t say Hsin dissociates quite that extensively but I feel like he does display some dissociative tendencies at times.

Boyd has some too, like

Self-concept – “fragmented and disconnected autobiographical narrative, disturbed body image, low self-esteem, excessive shame, and negative internal working models of self”.

I think in some ways you could argue they both display aspects of:

Affect or emotional regulation – “poor affect regulation, difficulty identifying and expressing emotions and internal states, and difficulties communicating needs, wants, and wishes”

When Boyd was little, he often wondered why other people were treated better than him - why, when he was getting perfect grades, he was going above and beyond whenever possible, when he was trying to be “a good boy” all the time, when he went out of his way to stay quiet and not bother anyone – why, despite all his attempts, other people were celebrate yet he was reviled, even if the people being celebrated were awful people doing awful things. He used to study other people relentlessly, trying to understand what it was about them that made them acceptable and what it was about him that made him not.

That’s why, despite being such an introvert, he’s good at blending in and going undercover; it’s why he can adjust to new situations and, in a way, act - because he always had to monitor and adjust himself his whole life just to feel seen and loved. His dad loved him on his own so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but with the trauma that came from the loss of his dad, and what happened with Lou, plus everything afterward, it really messed everything up.

Boyd was not a victim of childhood sexual abuse, but more of emotional abuse. Well, I guess, I should say for the most part he wasn’t.

Hsin was definitely a victim of childhood sexual abuse and probably physical abuse (that bit I can’t recall for sure). He was raped even as a small child, and that led into different aspects of his life. One reason, for example, he would go berserk and was seen by the Agency as unreliable in cases of him seeing sexual assault was because he saw, in some way, himself in those victims. It was probably his way of protecting people when he hadn’t been protected, himself. 

I can’t speak too much on Hsin’s specific mental health status or repercussions because I didn’t write him so I’m not fully in his mind, but I do know that sort of berserker aspect is part of what came from his sexual abuse and physical abuse and just generally how he grew up. If I recall correctly, a lot of that led into why he was so unstable and dangerous when Emilio first found him; why it took so long to get Hsin to find a way to deal with the violence and aggression and anger in him, in addition to everything else that would have happened regardless of that childhood trauma. Why, too, it was such a huge deal when Boyd was able to earn Hsin’s trust, because he had learned in his life to trust almost no one.

You can see some of the way they both display aspects of C-PTSD as adults as well in the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_post-traumatic_stress_disorder#Adults

I should be clear: I am NOT a psychiatrist or psychologist so I’m not suggesting that they would be specifically diagnosed with any of these disorders were they to get official diagnoses. However, the reason I bring it up is to show that a lot of the series reflects the way their coping mechanisms lead them to interact within themselves and with the outside world, all of which is often directly or indirectly tied to trauma.

Why is Boyd so terrified of anyone seeing him without his shirt in the beginning? Trauma. Why is he depressed? Trauma. Why is he suicidal? Trauma. Why does he go out of his way to avoid a certain block? Trauma. I would have to look at specific symptoms of different things but I would guess that you could also tie back some of his instability and his sometimes inconsistent reactions to trauma as well. Sometimes he does things or says things that may seem a bit reckless, or cold, or some other unexpected thing at that time - and a lot of times it’s probably in part related to how he learned to cope with things and what his levels of defensiveness are or his fears are at that moment. But he also has a complete inability to see the good in himself for a long time which also ties back, I would think, to some of the things he experienced growing up/previously.

Boyd is an incredibly unreliable narrator. He spends most of his narration thinking about how awful he is, how he should just die, how he isn’t doing a good enough job, and so forth. Yet, that fails to show the impact of some of his choices and decisions. Boyd was pretty much the first person to treat Hsin like a normal human being, to not see him as a surrogate of anything or anyone, to not have any ulterior motives or expectations of him (no matter how well-intentioned), and to truly gain his trust as a result. Yet, Boyd didn’t really see it that way. He didn’t see how important it was for Hsin that he ended up in his life; he didn’t get why Hsin was exasperated the times Boyd said he (Boyd) should just die, that there was no value to his life. He didn’t believe he could be loved so he couldn’t see it was even a possibility at first. Therefore, he spends a lot of his narration over the series belittling himself and downplaying any of his own achievements while simultaneously rewarding or acknowledging what others around him are doing. Not every moment of his narration, of course, but his default state of self is to think he sucks and others are probably better.

Conversely, Hsin is a confident narrator. He often doesn’t doubt himself, doesn’t care what other people think, and is very sure of himself in a lot of aspects like his physical prowess which, itself, is already above and beyond nearly everyone else. Yet he also learned not to trust or rely on anyone else in his life, so he’s incredibly suspicious of others because that’s how he had to learn to be. So, especially in the beginning of the series, in his narration he tends to be very factual about his own achievements and not shy away from acknowledging the things that are powerful about him (even if he doesn’t always see it as anything that special), while simultaneously seeking out anything untrustworthy, unreliable, incompetent, or unworthy about those around him. His narration tends to point out the flaws of those around him because he learned that if he doesn’t protect himself, he’s vulnerable, and when he’s vulnerable he gets hurt.

The result of that is, if you read their narrations straight as if it’s all perfectly reliable, Boyd seems even more unreliable and Hsin seems even more perfect than they actually are, because their default states of being overlap in a manner which magnifies the flaws in Boyd and the merits in Hsin. 

Both of them learned to be how they were because of how they were raised, what they went through, and more. Same as how they react to various things throughout the series.

I can’t more specifically comment on anything without knowing what in particular you were thinking of when commenting in the ask about trauma and sexual abuse. But I think generally speaking, they already start the series having learned coping mechanisms that work for them based on trauma they already individually experienced. Those coping mechanisms end up oftentimes being challenged and at times destroyed or reworked throughout the course of the series. That is what leads to a lot of their ups and downs as individuals and as a couple; why their story isn’t a straight arc going up but instead derails a lot. And why they both spend the entirety of the series coming to terms with who they are both internally and externally, and what that means for their relationship, and how they can find a way to grow as a person and a significant other. They both ultimately have to work on trust; Boyd has to learn to trust himself, Hsin has to learn to trust others, and they have to learn to trust each other.

The way people deal with trauma is not the same for everyone. Sexual abuse doesn’t result in the same reaction for all people. I’m not sure if maybe one of the things you were thinking is maybe about sexual abuse during the series itself? I already linked something that goes more in depth on Fade so I won’t touch on that book, and I really can’t speak for Hsin because he isn’t my character so I don’t want to misrepresent his thought process as hidden behind narration or actions at different points.

The only other thing I can think of that maybe you’re thinking about is Boyd’s valentine status, and how he doesn’t seem to have overtly strong reactions to anything until Fade. If that’s one aspect of what you were thinking about, part of that is just how Boyd deals with things. He tends to avoid things that are difficult for him or he has difficulty focusing on, and oftentimes shuts down emotionally. 

I think honestly he probably dissociated to some extent during a lot of things; kind of separated his body from his mind and felt like whatever happened, happened. For a lot of the time that he was a valentine early on, he had such little love for himself that regardless of how upsetting anything was, how little he wanted to do certain things, he felt on some level like he deserved it. Some things were probably a subconscious form of self-punishment for being born, for being who he is, for surviving when Lou didn’t, for surviving when his dad didn’t, for never being enough for his mother, for just plain existing. Then as time went on he grew to rely on Hsin and find strength in him. It’s also not like every mission he had was a valentine one, or even that every valentine has to end in anything physical. 

That’s why he was able to find ways of dealing with things in some form, even if he didn’t like it or was uncomfortable at times, until the Aleixo mission. He thought he knew how to handle things; he thought he had found apt coping mechanisms. But that mission tore that all apart and nearly destroyed him. His coping mechanisms didn’t work the way they had and now he had to find a new way to survive, and from there came a lot of his instability and more that you see in Fade and as I mention in that blog post.

But in short, I feel like the majority of the series ends up touching, indirectly or directly, on some form of trauma as experienced currently or in the past by one or more of the main characters, and their resulting actions then drive the plot. That is one thing we were very specific about doing: having the plot adjust to the characters rather than force the characters to adjust to the plot. That’s why Afterimage exists, actually; the original plan was sort of like 3/4 of Evenfall and then kind of jumping into aspects of Fade. But we realized at the end of Evenfall that certain things would occur which would then lead to Afterimage and Afterimage then led into aspects of Interludes, which then led into aspects of right before Fade, which then affected a huge part of Fade itself, which then informed 1/27. We didn’t set out to write a series specifically about trauma, it’s just sort of one of those things that happens if you take two characters who have been treated so cruelly or poorly for so much of their lives, and put them together as any sort of team - but especially a team that becomes a couple, and a couple that becomes all but married.

+ +

Regarding the other stuff, I haven’t had a chance yet to check if you answered my question about the hetero relationship comment, so I can’t comment on that until I know more of what you mean. But I would say that generally speaking, I don’t know that I believe it’s necessarily fair to label anything as strictly “hetero” vs “m/m” vs anything else for a relationship. That brings with it a lot of assumptions of what it means to be not only gay or LGBTQIA+, but also straight. It seems to suggest there is only a single way or a very strict set of ways for a cis male and a cis female to be together both in a relationship and to have sex, and I guess I don’t feel like that’s necessarily reflective of reality. People are very complex and so are their relationships, as well as their sex lives.

I’m not sure how specifically the series ended up hurting you but I’m very sorry you felt hurt by anything. That’s a terrible feeling to have to experience. I hope that in whatever way, however it may work best for you, you have the time and space to reflect and recover and rejuvenate. You, like everyone, deserve it.

And honestly, if that means you have to leave the series completely in your past, never to think about it again, if that’s what’s healthiest for you, I truly wish you are able to do so. Stories are there to connect with other people, to share our thoughts and sometimes help us work our way through our own while reading. No story is worth your mental health being put in question. If it is truly upsetting to you to think about the series, it is absolutely not worth your energy. You are more important than a story will ever be. Everyone is. And I say that despite how much I love and rely on stories to get me through life.

If part of your duress is you like aspects of the writing style but the series itself and its contents upset you, you could try reading some other stuff. I have some things I wrote solo that you can find on my AO3 if you want. But also you can find other writers entirely. Depending on what you’re looking for in a story, and the sort of topics you’ve learned work well for you or don’t work well for you, you should be able to find a ton of great series out there and great authors out there who will leave you with the happier aspects of your reaction to ICoS without anything more detrimental like it sounds happened for you with ICoS.

Regardless, I truly wish you the very best. As I said in the other one, please stay healthy and safe! And, if you’re in a place to manage it, stay happy as well :)

Brightest of blessings to you and yours, my friend!

[tkl-tee]

We’ve All Got Our Quirks (KiriBaku)

We’ve All Got Our Quirks (Kirishima x Bakugou from Boku no Hero Academia)

A/N: Hello and thank you so much for sending a prompt! Sorry this took so long rip. I need to say for future reference (and I’ve updated my bio) that I probably won’t write NSFW because I am confused about the new rules regarding NSFW content? So I am nervous to post anything like that aha.

So, this is SFW. Sorry for any confusion and thanks again for sending the prompt!

Disclaimer: This is a tickle fic.

Summary: Kirishima has something he’s been wanting to reveal to his boyfriend, Bakugou. When the perfect opportunity presents itself, Bakugou once again finds himself at his partner’s mercy. Kirishima confesses, Bakugou learns something new, and together they grow… and laugh!

Word Count: 1772

Kirishima was pretty comfortable with himself. He didn’t worry too much about his body or his clothes or his personality, and he sure didn’t worry about what his boyfriend Bakugou thought of him. He wasn’t cocky or arrogant, just comfortable. That being said, there was one thing nagging at him lately.

He was trying to work up the courage to tell Bakugou about a certain interest of his. He… liked tickling. Really, he loved it. He’d always known that there was something about it.

He enjoyed being tickled, but what he really craved was to be the one doing the teasing and drawing helpless laughs from his partner. He liked being the cause of his squirming and his special smile and his empty threats voiced around breathless giggles. These were sights and sounds saved only for him, and Kirishima craved them more often than he cared to admit.

He’d just recently discovered that Bakugou was ticklish, and he found himself taking advantage of every opportunity that presented itself: Pokes to Bakugou’s sides while they did homework; hugging the blond from behind and using both hands to dig into his stomach and sides; soft, tickly touches to his neck and collar bones when they made out; using his foot to tickle the other’s feet and legs when they laid down at night. It never seemed to be enough, however.

Part of him was nervous Bakugou would catch on to why he tickled him so often and part of him honestly hoped he would, just to get it out in the open. He’d been wanting to talk to Bakugou about it, to explain it. He was going to! He was just waiting for the right time and the right way to get it out.

He apparently wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The opportunity presented itself just a couple weeks after he had begun wrestling with himself about the whole thing. Bakugou’s parents had gone out of town so Kirishima was spending the weekend with him.

That first night they were sitting on the couch after dinner, telling each other about their days. Bakugou was reclining against the left side of the couch with his arm around Kirishima’s shoulders. Kirishima sat leaning against his side with his arm looped around his waist.

“-And that’s why that damn dragon lady said I had to stay home! Like it was my fault the dumb neighbor kid’s skateboard crashed into me…” Bakugou finished explaining that his mom got mad at him for breaking the skateboard, so he was made to stay home. Kirishima could only chuckle softly at him.

“You shouldn’t talk about your mom like that… and I kinda feel bad for that kid! But hey, at least you get to be here with me now!” he replied happily, tilting his head back and smiling at the blond.

“Yeah…” Bakugou still seemed annoyed but there was a softer look on his face. Kirishima rolled his eyes and laid his head back against his chest, feeling it rise and fall as he breathed. His eyes began to droop and he yawned lazily.

“Hey, turn on the light, m’falling asleep” he mumbled, poking Bakugou in the side. The latter jumped slightly but said nothing as he leaned to the side and reached for the lamp. Kirishima smirked to himself and squeezed his still-vulnerable side once the light was on.

“Sh-shit, noo,” Bakugou squirmed, squeezing his arm back against his side.

“Mmm, I don’t think so. You’re all Mr. Grumpypants tonight,” Kirishima replied, sitting up to better squeeze up and down both of his sides. Bakugou started to squirm and push at Kirishima’s arms. Kirishima already felt a bit giddy at the other’s reactions.

“Eijirou, I swear to god- EIJI-HI-ROU” Kirishima had shoved his hands under Bakugous tank top and was now squeezing at his ribs. Restrained giggles began to fall from Bakugou’s lips as he shot up, attempting to push Kirishima away from him.

“Katsuki, it’s not good to swear! A true man is too honorable to do that!” he said in mock-irritation. The smile on his face did little to sell it. He adored the sound of Bakugou’s laughter and the sight of his uncharacteristic smile.

“Stohohop, you shihihiiiit” Kirishima was unrelenting as Bakugou attempted to pry his hands away. He shifted so that he was laying on Bakugou, pushing him back against the arm of the couch.

“Your words say stop but your laugh says keep going,” Kirishima teased, wiggling his eyebrows. He crawled his fingers up to tickle the upper parts of Bakugou’s ribs, back, and chest. The latter was now grasping at Kirishima’s arms and laughing freely.

“Fuhuhuck ohohohoff aHAHA” Bakugou’s laughter increased a bit in pitch and his eyes were squeezed shut. His face seemed happy and carefree, and Kirishima couldn’t help but blush at the beautiful, flustered, laughing mess beneath him.

He felt butterflies in his stomach as he thought about the fact that this was the most he’d properly tickled his boyfriend. His attack on Bakugou’s sides slowed as he flushed a bit in embarrassment.

This hesitation was enough for Bakugou to finally break free from Kirishima’s attack. He pushed him away enough that he was able to slide off the couch. He sat on the floor with his back against the couch, leaning his head back against the cushion.

Kirishima righted himself in the middle of the couch and sat criss-cross applesauce. They sat in silence for a few moments as Bakugou caught his breath and Kirishima collected his thoughts. Bakugou gave a final sigh and cleared his throat.

“Jesus, ever since you found out I was sensitive you’ve been a huge pain in the ass!” Bakugou said in his usual “angry” voice as he frowned up at Kirishima.

“Haha, yeah… sorry about that man,” he apologized, avoiding his boyfriend’s eyes. He was still a little embarrassed, and he understood if Bakugou was going to get mad at him.

“Tell me something embarrassing about yourself." Kirishima blinked a few times, confused. He turned his gaze towards Bakugou who was staring back at him.

“You heard me, Shitty Hair! It’s not fair that you know something embarrassing about me, so you have to tell me something too!” Bakugou explained, his tone almost threatening. Kirishima was used to that by now, though. He was, however, nervous about what was being asked of him.

“I-I, well I…” Kirishima stammered, trying to figure out how to respond. This could be the moment he was waiting for, he could lay everything out on the table right now. But he was still nervous what Bakugou would think of it.

“What is it? I know there’s something, just tell me! Or I’ll have to beat it out of you,” Bakugou said, holding up a tired fist. Kirishima scoffed and rolled his eyes. At least the mood wasn’t super serious right now… he was gonna go for it!

“Well… there is something, but…” he trailed off, still working up the courage to get it out. His heart rate increased slightly and he could feel his face turning a bit red.

“But, what?”

“I’m just nervous you’ll think it’s weird!” Kirishima replied, furrowing his brows and biting his lip. At this, Bakugou got up and moved to sit next to him on the couch, looking at him curiously.

“Of course you’re weird, but who gives a shit. I still put up with you, don’t I?” Kirishima lightly snorted at his. For a big jerk, Bakugou was pretty good at making him feel better.

“Okay, so… well, I’ve actually been wanting to say something about this. Actually it kind of has to do with, um- I know I’ve kinda been t-tickling you a lot, but it’s because I… like… it. Doing it. To you.” Kirishima groaned and put his face in his hands out of embarrassment. “I know, it’s weird!”

There was a pause that seemed a lot longer to Kirishima than it probably was, before Bakugou responded.

“That’s it? I thought you were going to say you were into cross-dressing or something,” Bakugou said nonchalantly, leaning back against the back of the couch. Kirishima thought over what was just said for a moment, before letting out a sigh of relief and punching Bakugou in the shoulder softly.

“So what if I was?” he said jokingly, a small smile on his face. “So you’re really okay with it? You’re not going to break up with me or anything?” Bakugou scoffed and rolled his eyes at that.

“I wouldn’t break up with you for such a shit reason. And I don’t think you’re a freak. Is it like, a thing?” Bakugou asked, not judgemental, just wondering.

“No! I mean, yeah? I don’t know, honestly. I’ve never really been in this position, so I’m still unsure about some things.” Kirishima answered honestly. Bakugou nodded, understood.

“That’s fine, and I’m fine with it,” Bakugou smirked as he continued. “But I’m not just going to let you tickle me all the time with no consequences.” Bakugou made a point to crack his knuckles. Kirishima returned the smirk and held up his hand, hardening his arm.

“You can try, but this might be a fight that I beat you in! Plus you’re waaay more sensitive than I am,” Kirishima grinned as Bakugou launched at him, knocking them off the couch.

Bakugou landed on top of Kirishima and straddled his waist, immediately digging into his stomach. Kirishima didn’t even hold back his laughter as he squirmed and pushed at Bakugou’s hands.

He allowed this to go on for a few moments before he used his quirk to harden his torso against the attack. He then focused his efforts on attacking Bakugou’s armpits.

“Thahahat’s buhullshihihihit!” Bakugou twisted and jerked as he attempted to both pin his arms against his sides and pull Kirishima’s hands away at the same time. Kirishima kept up the attack as he sat up, leaning close to Bakugou.

“All is fair in love in war,” he said with a teasing voice, before giving him a quick kiss. He then moved down and blew a raspberry where the blond’s neck met his shoulder’s. His laughter spiked for a moment as he attempted to scrunch his shoulder and the side of his head together.

“You son of ahahaHAHAHA” Kirishima had moved one hand down to squeeze Bakugou’s hip repeatedly while leaving one to tickle under his arm. He hardly resisted as Kirishima pushed him back and reversed their positions.

Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend filled with much laughter- primarily a hot-headed blond’s- and Kirishima couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

[ofheroesandvillains]

First Impressions - Bucky Barnes

Bucky Barnes/Fem!reader

Words: 1.5k (a super short one for once!) Warnings: None. I’ve posted something similar to this years ago, so if it seems familiar that’s why :) Summary: Bucky meets his girl’s parents for the first time.

(Gif not mine!)

When you’re done swimming please don’t forget to take the wine out of the freezer, I love you! 

Those were the final instructions you had given him before you went to pick your parents up from the airport. It was the first time he would be meeting the people that had given him the incredible woman he’d been dating for the past 6 months. No pressure.

The early morning had been spent cleaning your house - you wanted it all perfect for your parents after not seeing them for so long. You had reassured him that they were nice, friendly people and that he had nothing to worry about…and then you gave him a long list of things to do that made it seem like he definitely did have something to worry about.

“It’s okay, they’ll love you! Just be yourself…well, maybe not, I mean…be yourself, just maybe dial down the sarcasm…and don’t make any sex jokes, definitely no to the sex jokes. In fact, maybe don’t even mention sex, or touching, or…beds?”

He snorted. “Don’t mention beds? Damn, I was really looking forward to that conversation.”

“See that? That was the sarcasm I was talking about.” You looked at him pointedly, but couldn’t help but chuckle when he shot you that million dollar grin.

Their flight would be landing just after midday so Bucky has spent a few hours in the pool, enjoying the warm, sunny day and getting lost in his thoughts after putting his washing out to dry. His future in-laws (and hell yeah he was certain of that fact) were from Chicago, and if they were anything like their daughter, then Bucky was looking forward to meeting them. It would be nice to finally-

Oh no…

He cringed when he heard a shout come from over the fence. If there was one thing he didn’t like about your house, it was your neighbour. Your young, single, male neighbour who Bucky was convinced took any opportunity he could to interact with his girl. The only thing Bucky disliked more than him, was the annoying pug that he'd released into the backyard. The very same pug that would somehow ‘magically’ find its way into your backyard all the damn time. And if by some chance it did manage to stay in its own yard, it would never stop barking.

Bucky wasn’t stupid, he knew what the neighbour was trying to do. Every time the dog ended up in your yard, he would have an excuse to look over the fence and flirt with you. Sometimes the little pest would even steal things and carry them back home too! Ugh. He hated them both.

Not this time, pal. 

Bucky closed his eyes and sighed in irritation when he heard the familiar yapping. So much for relaxing before they arrive, he thought. With another dramatic sigh, Bucky paddled his inflatable donut to the steps of the pool, before getting out and drying off. It was nice having some time off from training and travelling with the team. 

Bucky didn’t get to see you as often as he would like, but he was working up the courage to change that. He’d been wanting to ask you to move in with him for a long time, but this was his first serious relationship and he didn’t know when it would be appropriate.

The timing felt right, it’d felt right for a while…but he didn’t want to freak you out, even if you were usually the calmest person he knew. You would say yes, he was almost 100% sure of it, but it was the ‘what if’ that made him hesitate.

But that wasn’t his concern at the moment. Instead, he took the wine out of the freezer and made his way upstairs for a shower. Usually you would stay at his place, so he didn’t keep too many of his things at your house…which was probably why he had completely forgotten to take a change of clothes with him into the bathroom. Earlier in the morning he’d washed all of the clothes he kept in his designated draw of your dresser and put them all out to dry in the warm sun.

He groaned at the thought of going back downstairs. With a towel hastily thrown around him, Bucky made his way outside and started gathering his clothes. It was all well and good…until he felt the towel being viciously ripped from around his hips. He dropped the pile of clothes with a startled yelp and quickly stomped on the edge of the towel to stop the little monster from getting away.

“Oh no you don’t!” Bucky growled.

The pug was practically foaming at the mouth as it growled right back, eyes bugging out and angry that Bucky was putting up a fight. It was no match for his strength, but the damn thing was so stubborn he could hear its paws scrapping against the large tiles in resistance. He could also hear the edges of the towel tearing, and the pug went stumbling back when it was finally ripped out of its mouth.

“Aha! Got it, you little mutt!” 

Bucky held the towel over his head in victory, that wide loveable grin on his face. The pug scampered away, and Bucky froze in his tracks when he turned and noticed the three new faces staring at him from the other side of the glass sliding door. His girlfriend’s jaw had all but hit the floor, and while that was usually the reaction he was going for when naked, the sight of the two people behind you had him quickly wrapping the towel back around his hips. He must have been 10 different shades of red when he realised that your parents, the ones he was meeting for the very first time, had seen him…all of him.

Bucky could have sworn that your mother’s startled gasp echoed throughout the whole neighbourhood, and then she was collapsing into the arms of the man beside her. Your dad cried out in panic, finally drawing your attention attention. You still didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that you’d just witnessed your man locked, butt-naked, in the most intense game of tug-of-war you’d seen to date.     

“Bucky…”

“Uhhh…I can explain?” He tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

Steve was never gonna let him live this one down.

“You know, that went a lot better than I thought it would. I think they like me.” 

Bucky smiled, looking awfully self-satisfied. You knew he was just glad that his little show hadn’t condemned him in the eyes of your parents. They were actually very cool people, he found out - that must have been where you got it from. They had even joked about the whole situation all night long.

“Yeah? I’d like you too if you showed up on my doorstep naked when we first met.” You joked, settling into bed beside him.

“Hey, you said not to mention sex, or touching, or beds…and I didn’t.” He smirked and pulled you into his arms, your head resting on his chest.

“Oh, I’m sorry that ‘don’t play naked tug-of-war with the neighbour’s pug’ wasn’t on the list, I’ll be sure to add it next time.” You laughed sweetly and pressed a kiss to his bare chest. 

“At least you gave Lawrence a good show…” You nodded your head in the direction of your neighbour’s house even though neither of you could see it. 

“He’s been asking me to set him up with a sexy superhero for months.” You raised your brows pointedly.

Bucky eyes widened.

“Wha-? You mean he’s…?”

You laughed at his bewildered expression. “Of course! Why else would he always send his dog over here? You know he named that thing ‘Barky’ to match your name, right?”

Bucky snorted, unable to hold back a laugh.

“And that is one of the many reasons you should move in with me.” He held his breath for a moment, not knowing where that came from. He hadn’t even thought about it since morning, but it was out there now.

“Oh I don’t think that’s such a good idea…” There was a teasing tone to your words that made him silently sigh in relief. You propped yourself up on his chest to look up at him. 

“My mom is already convinced that ‘that well-endowed boy’” he snorted, “will have me pregnant by the summer.” You added in a scandalous whisper. 

“She did not say that.” He laughed in astonishment.

“You have no idea…don’t worry, I told her you wouldn’t know how to use that thing even if you tried-ah!” Bucky quickly flipped you over, admiring the stunning smile he was graced with and cutting your laugh short with a kiss.

“Liar.” He whispered against your lips. “But if you need a little convincing, I’m all for a demonstration...” He cocked a brow, never one to back down from a challenge. You smiled.

“Mhm…consider it a reward for helping me pack tomorrow.”