#ttb ask

[thingsthatbleedfic]

Some questions for you all or whoever wants to answer: Have you ever thought about side stories or spin-offs here? And what kind of writing do you enjoy most (action scenes, reveals, etc)?

Hi beachpie!! Thank you for this ask! We all had something to say! @kkachis said: 1. yes we have. mostly in the form of improbable crossovers because TTB alex and danny are the main iterations of these characters in our brains and we love making our blorbos meet each other 2. for me i like choreographing action and writing horror scenes the best @artistfingers said: i like to write silly dialogue and shenanigans and, anything revolving around lying, half-truths, concealed identities… you name it. when characters are on different pages and when the reader knows or suspects something a character doesn't… when the narrative conceals nuances of a character's understanding… i love that shit. i guess my favorite writing is very character-based and personal. with TTB i've also had a ton of fun practicing action and very literary styles too!

As for me (@ghostly-cabbage) : 1. In the main story of TTB? Not so much. Mostly because it's going to be such a monster of a fic that, honestly? Everything that we want to touch on and explore we probably will! I won't say never tho 👀. Adding onto what kkachis said, we totally also think and talk about OTHER crossovers asdfghj. For a period of time we went absolutely insane on discord with @abrielarnold about a Danny and Alex crossover with Lockwood & Co. Recently, we even ping-ponged some hilarious crack type stuff of TTB! Danny, Alex and Yassen crossover with Generator Rex. It never fails to be SO much fun. 2. My favorite stuff to write is ovbs the horror stuff but more than that, I love quiet heartfelt moments between characters. Is the scene soft and melancholic? Gentle and bitter sweet? I am THERE. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE to write altered mind states. Be it from dissociation, panic/flashbacks, drugs, doesn't matter. Anything that gives me an excuse to fuck with the literary style? I want to do it.

[zzztlk]

Got any speedpaints? I'm really curious about your creative process, it's really good!

Not really I'm so soo all over the place with my process so I haven't really gotten around to making much stuff about it but I'll pull out one of those auto speed paints from procreate for old time sake (⚠️ flash warning ⚠️ )

[ghostly-cabbage]

reading the alex rider books is just like

alex: yassen is my greatest enemy. my arch nemesis. he has almost killed me so many times. i’m fighting for my life out here

yassen: i keep running into this kid while on jobs and tbh he doesn’t ruin that much for me, i still get paid, but my coworkers want him dead bc he’s an smart arse that keeps insulting them and it’s getting harder to hold them back. PLEASE go home and have a normal childhood

also

alex: my greatest foil, the one i keep coming to blows with, i must defeat him before he destroys the world

yassen: *showing up in two books as the hired assassin not actually doing any world domination, just trying to do his job* what

NO but literally!!!!! Yassen is absolutely the “What’s with this sassy lost child” OPM meme.

Alex: YOU!!

Yassen: .....It is 1 PM. Shouldn’t you be in school 

He’s just a guy trying to do his job but ofc fate has other things in store for him. AKA fucking putting the child of his mentor DIRECTLY into his path.

It’s simultaneously SO FUNNY and so emotionally compromising how Yassen was straight up ordered to kill Alex and outright refuses to. But then in book 4 was also like “Anyway, here’s the bull pit. Have fun.”

oh, book!Yassen. What a guy.

[moonscape]

i love seeing other people's pmd ocs so much but it's hard for me to comprehend the same being said about mine

[timegears-moved]

dylan in sincerity :3

exploding him in my mind

[imminent-danger-came]

watching you go insane on a new piece of media is highly entertaining (i'm also going insane alongside your reblogs dw)

The cannibalism loser lesbians got to you too huh

[almayver]

Oh my god alma. I did the same thing? I have seriously force fed tick tick boom to all my friends. My favourite song has always been boho days but i do love see her smile too. OMG IM SO EXCITED TO SEE ANOTHER TTB ENTHUSIAST OMGGGGGGG

HI YES I WILL TALK ABOUT TICK TICK BOOM. It's a serious problem. It became one of my favorite musicals in like 2016? And when the trailer came out I became a problem. That was the only thing I would talk about. I have watched the movie at least 6 times and I always cry.

And not only did I make all my friends watch it I demanded that they told me when they watched it so I could send them a 5 minute long voice note explaining EVERYTHING. Every easter egg, every reference, why the dinner scene is one of the most important moments in modern cinema. I was ANNOYING

Also gods Boho Days. Boho Days was always so important to me because it came as a little bonus on the OG cast recording right? And it was the first time I ever heard Jonathan. And buddy when it started playing in the trailer I legally signed over my soul to that movie.

So yeah as you can see I'm so normal about ttb. I don't listen to it every birthday or anything

In all seriousness I'm here any time someone wants to talk about this show. My beloved

[edsbacktattoo]

i just rb’ed “the tolling bells” but I wanted to pop in also and say THANK YOU for writing such a beautiful story 😭💜😭💜😭 i’ve been crying on and off for the past two days reading it, and i’m just so glad i stumbled across it. your writing is exquisite, thank you for sharing this gift with the world 💜

WWAAAAGGGGGGHHH!!!!!

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! i’m so glad you enjoyed the fic, and i’m so sorry for all the tears 🥹 thank you for reading it and taking the time to come and tell me you loved it, that means a lot to me

in any life 💕

[artistfingers]

finally got around to listening to the first alex rider book. (he's just a little guy! a children! no guns for alex-can't-keep-an-alias-casually-says-whatever-he-wants rider. friend to all. curious gremlin creature that goes adventuring whether the adventure wants him or not) bad things are going to happen to him. i can sense it.

alex rider, darling of my heart! light of my life! he is literally so stupid

"bad things are going to happen to him" nahhhhhh he's going to be fine! there is absolutely no trauma at all in store for him! i promise! :>

[septembersghost]

what addictive stardust does baz put in his movies

[thingsthatbleedfic]

how much of alex rider would you recommend someone read/watch to get the full experience of the fic? i know you've said you're making it understandable to people who haven't read/watched it, but i personally like knowing some backstory before reading fanfics! (apologies if this has been asked before!)

Hi! Thanks so much for this ask and sorry for the delay in answering! We are using a blended canon of the books and show (mostly bc the show is only in its second season so far) But we're also playing just as fast and loose with AR canon as we are the DP canon. That being said, our recommendation is to watch the AR show! (It's free to watch with ads). Even if you only watch a few episodes, it's really great to establish the tone that this fic is set in. (I would personally encourage you watch the entirety of the show becuase it's really just so well done and the three of us agree that it's... honestly better than the books. merely because of its more serious and darker tone. The books were written in the 00s-10s for kids and the show is adapting it in a way that reflects that they understand that their audience are all adults now.) Books wise, if you want to know more about Yassen, (one of the main characters of the fic) we ARE keeping Yassen's canon backstory; Russian Roulette, the Yassen origin solo novel, is a really great read and will give you TONS of context. Yassen is unfortunatly not a HUGE part of the AR book canon. He only shows up like 3-4 times in two of the books and then haunts the narrative for the remianing majority.

[zzztlk]

ok so we know nat and regan's pronouns, but what about rabel??? he deserves a pronoun

Rabel may have all the pronouns as a little treat... I usually refer to him with he/him bc why not there aren't a lot of he/hims in zzztlk land but in canon he always refers to himself as the person he's possessing and since that's also the only person who he can speak directly to, by technicality he uses mirror pronouns.

[ghostly-cabbage]

Hi and congrats on 1k!

For a request, I’d love if the fellas from TTB had some fun bonding time together over a mundane activity (watching a shitty ghost hunting show, baking a complicated recipe, the horrible game known as Monopoly, etc.)

Thank you so much for sending this request!!! I loved this prompt so much you have no idea. I care them so many. I set this more or less in the timeframe that we’re in currently (which was harder than you’d think). But, as the story goes on requests like this will be more and more fun, trust me ;) Anyway! I hope you like!

"Cuppa?" Danny asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. You know, like a cup-a tea?" Alex says, dragging Danny down the empty hall to the hotel breakfast lounge. "No offence, but you American's have shit tea."

Danny snorts. "Wouldn't know. I'm more of a coffee person to be honest."

Alex looks at Danny and the dark circles under his eyes. "You know, coulda guessed."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Alex holds his hands up but can't bite back his smirk. "Nothin'. Nothin'."

The hotel dining room is half full. People are milling about with plates, scooping out one-tone scrambled eggs and mini-sausages onto plates. There's someone scrolling on their phone, standing next to the waffle maker that reads 2:14 and counting down, looking bored. Across the room the bulky TV mounted on the wall plays the news.

Alex side-steps someone on their way away from the counter, making a beeline for the beverages and coffee dispensers. There's a small wire rack with tea boxes. Calm Chamomile, Soothing Mint, Earl Grey, English Breakfast. He's not familiar with any of the brands.

"You've really never put milk in your tea?" he asks plucking two paper cups from a tower next to a hot water dispenser.

Danny stands at his shoulder. "No? Sounds kinda gross, dude."

"It's not, I promise. You're gonna have to trust me, yeah?" He shoots Danny a smile and reaches for the English breakfast tea.

Danny makes a soft noise, a scoff concealing amusement. For all of his apparent secrets, Danny is easy to read.

"Would you get the milk? 2%." Alex nods towards the mini fridge at the end of the counter, stocked with milks and single serving yogurts.

 Alex fills the cups with hot water, steam unfurling from within the cup. He tears the packaging on the tea and plops the bags into the water--tossing the garbage in the closest bin and snagging two stir sticks. Danny is walking back towards him when he picks the cups up and moves to a table with clear view of the exits.

 Danny sits across from him, setting down the small carton of milk.

"Now what?"

"Now, we wait."

Danny slouches back in his chair, hands tucked in the pockets of his hoodie. On the surface he looks lazy--unconcerned. But Alex can see how tense he is, eyes fliting away to track anyone that gets up or walks in. It's a strange sort of relief, knowing someone is else is watching for red flags. Before Yassen--Malagosto--Alex was used to being in the field alone... This isn't the field, but it might as well be, maybe in a way this is worse.

"'S it true to you have 'tea time' everyday?" Danny asks.

Alex snorts. "No. People have lives. But some people do I guess. Old people. It's nice on days off."

"Makes sense," Danny says before breaking into a yawn.

The urge tugs at the back of his jaw and before he can stop it, he's yawning too. His eyes water and he shakes his head. "Dude, stop, you're making me tired."

"It's not my fault you and Yassen wake up at the crack of dawn," Danny mutters, quiet enough to keep it between them.

Alex rolls his eyes. He wants to ask Danny if he's actually been sleeping or not but... Something makes him hold his tongue.

"Force of habit. I'm sure Yassen has had the same sleep schedule since he born." Huh. Now that he thinks about it, it's hard to think of Yassen as anything other than what he is--a dangerous Scorpia assassin. The idea that once Yassen was a kid that wanted to sleep in and avoid school is almost too absurd to entertain.

Unasked questions flicker across Danny's face, but in the end, he asks none of them. Probably best that way.

After a period of amiable silence, Alex's attention captured by morning highlight coverage of a world cup football match aired last night--he decides the tea has steeped long enough. He takes the bags out and puts them on top of a paper napkin. He pops the carton open.

Danny shifts forward, sitting up. "Tea time, innit?" Danny says with a shit-eating grin and the laziest attempt at a British accent Alex has ever heard.

"Hey," he says, sharp but fighting a smile, "if you're gonna be a dick, you don't get any."Danny laughs, small but genuine. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry." He gestures at the cups. "Continue."

Alex pours milk into the cups, watching it plume at the bottoms like mini explosions. He stirs them and then pushes Danny's cup towards him with a satisfied nod.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"No sugar?"

"You can, but then you miss out on the flavor of the tea itself, man."

 Danny lifts a skeptical eyebrow. "Thought you said American tea was shit?"

"Christ sake, just try it!"

Danny grabs the cup and brings it to his lips, blowing across the surface and dispersing the lingering steam. He takes a sip.

"Well?"

Danny hums, setting it back down. "Not bad. I know what'd make it better, though."

"What?"

Alex watches in horror as, from out of nowhere, Danny pulls out a small blue container of French vanilla coffee creamer.

"Oh, that's just blasphemous."

Danny's smile twists a bit evil as he pulls the seal and dumps the creamer in. And then a second, and a third.

"How many of those do you have? It's not even tea anymore, dude. You gotta stop."

"Sorry, I didn't even ask. You want some too?" He moves towards Alex's cup with a creamer at the ready and Alex yanks it away, twisting away from Danny in his chair.

"Don't you dare."

Danny snickers.

"Not everything has to have a metric fuck-ton of sugar." He lowers his voice, "American drinks are so sweet, I don't know how you stand it."

Danny picks up his cup and shrugs, taking a drink, eyes drifting away from Alex and out the window. "Stick around long enough, you'll get used to it."

[timegears-moved]

one of your ocs in the palette "figment"!

tell me who i'm supposed to be now

make me better

i can't stay halfway dead forever

bonus unovan zorua neoma i made for this even though she barely shows up on the fuckin thing

[misty-wisp]

hmmmm

bit bored today

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feel free to send stuff in

[thebeautifulfantastic]

2, 7 and 50! ♡

2. you ruined nirvana // mckenna grace

7. johnny can’t decide // andrew garfield (from "tick tick boom")

50. people watching // conan gray