#when on ao3 i have no idea who is on my ao3 subscribe list other than the number of people

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

What fanfic do you wish you got more response on?

Hmm, there's a few one-shots I'm surprised didn't receive more reception than I expected but I'm not too bothered by it.

I would name Heard No More as one I'd love to receive more response on but in my experience, 1-5k one-shots tend to gain a lot of traction on tumblr over multi-chapter/10k+ fics.

Like I was happily surprised at the response Gibbous got on AO3 when I posted the most recent chapter, but then like. It's tumblr version only received like 5 notes. Part of that is because I didn't reblog it as much/add it to my pinned fic list, but even so.

My plans, however, with Heard No More is to finish the overall AU (By The Pricking of My Thumbs), edit it and then release it onto AO3 serially

[siriusleee]

i. hidden caches

Zombie Apocalypse AU | SIMON RILEY x f!READER

↳ SUMMARY: The world is trying to knit itself back together after fracturing apart. You're trying to put yourself back together with it; Simon Riley is just trying to stay alive. ↳ WORD COUNT: 2.2K ↳ TAGS: mentions of cannibalism, mentions of shooting things, mentions of dying. smut to come. canon typical violence to come. additional tags to come as the story progresses. female reader. no mentions of "your name". reader is given a nickname later on. nc-17. ↳ AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to the lovely anon who asked for a scene from an apocalypse au, and this idea was born. If you'd like to donate to my Ko-Fi (my bed frame broke this week and a new one was $200 I didn't have), I would appreciate it. ↳ TAG LIST: There will not be a tag list for this story, as Tumblr has issues with letting me tag people. To get notifications of updates, please subscribe on AO3 or turn on notifications for my blog.

additional chapters | ao3

The ending had come quicker than anyone expected. The epidemics and endemics and pandemics of the years past had given false confidence to everyone. We survived the last thing, the news reporters had said, gray building beneath their eyes, and we can survive this. Behind them images of towns being devoured played. 

Bodies can decompose in as little as nine days. The first to go is the soft tissue: the eyes, the tongue, the soft flesh of the cheeks. When bacteria and insects are introduced, the flesh breaks down faster. Bones take longer - sometimes years to fully wear away into the dust that collects underfoot. But these things - whatever turned them kept them covered in a thin layer of adipocere to protect them from the elements. They kept shuffling along long past the time when they should have reverted back to a primordial soup where they lay.

But they still decomposed. The trick was to stay ahead of them, away from the gnashing teeth that transmitted the virus, away from the hands and feet that never seemed to tire. So few people could. Whole towns and cities were decimated, felled beneath the hordes of horror that ambled slowly past, swallowed up by the feet that didn’t stop moving until they wore themselves down to stubs, which were them pulled forward by hands and knees that never tired. 

But yours did. The familiar path towards the north was more overgrown this year than in the past. For a few years, there had been wary companions, eyes that lingered until the snow and frost rolled in to freeze the Biters where they stood. But as the years wanned on the crowd grew smaller and smaller until you only caught hints of others moving north: horse prints, trash left behind, the occasional Biter left decomposing in the bushes. 

This year there was nothing. Either you had moved too early or there was no one left. The latter is too terrifying, so you push it away and think about whatever groups may wander through here after you.

The woods loom tall above you, the snow that fell earlier in the morning just barely dusting the branches above your head. None of it had reached the leaves that are too waterlogged from recent rains to crunch beneath your feet. A blister is rubbing itself raw at your ankle; you know that if you don’t stop to treat it, it will be unbearable tomorrow, but you brush the thought off. You need to reach the marker before nightfall.

The markers had appeared between one trip north and your trip back down. 

West Village - 20km

The first year it had appeared left the group you were with in a tizzy. The group had fractured down the middle. If all of you found each other, how hard was it to think that a larger group had finally banned together? Civilization needed to rebuild eventually.

You didn’t trust the shaky scrawl that printed the words, so you had been with the group that refused to go. The next year there was another marker tacked to the first.

Body snatchers. Beware.

It was amazing to you: how well rumors could start and spread without phones or the internet. For months, every person you and your group came across would give the same warning, and ask you all the same questions. Have you seen the body snatchers? Are you the body snatchers?

Humans turned cannabolids. Farms where people were forced to reproduce. Spits with babies roasting above the fire. You wanted to think that it was the stuff of fiction.

In the third year, there was another argument. The group cleaved in half again when the promise of civilization reared its head. Your group had divided again at the markers, disappearing into the thick woods. 

Almost no one survived the winter that year. You’d held the hands of all the dying and covered them under a thick blanket of snow before dividing their possessions up between the remainder of the group. In the end, there were just three of you. And when the winter rolled away you all broke apart, whatever ties that held you all together broken by the cold. 

The next year you were the only one in your camp. 

The markers had become a sort of prayer to you, that one day you’d meet someone else on the road - some scream and shout that there were others out there even if you were too wary to speak to them.

But it’s been two years - the crude paint of the West Village sign fading, the body snatchers warning falling to the earth unceremoniously. The wood started to rot. 

And you were utterly alone. Around you, the sound of nature getting ready for the winter fills in the ever-present silence that usually surrounds you. It’s been weeks since you’d last seen a person: a lone traveler moving in the opposite direction as you. And you’d hid from them, worried that they were the sort of feral people turned into when they were alone for too long - a body snatcher. Worried that you were that kind of feral. 

You know the markers when you approach them like your body’s memorized the number of steps it takes to reach them. Your chest thumps as you approach the spot where they should be nailed to a tree, growing taller into the air each year. Your boots falter against the wet leaves as you approach the place. 

The markers have been repainted. Or at least the West Village one has. This time it’s nailed to a post in the ground; you bend down to inspect the dirt around the post. It’s packed underneath a thick layer of loam - whoever put it up must have put it up much earlier in the year. The thought sends a shiver down your spine. You wonder if any members of your former group are still there. 

For half a second, you think about following the arrow, but before the thought can fully form in your head, you let your feet carry you forward on the path. Just ahead is the rest area you’ve always used. Your tree, one with branches high enough that the only things who can see you are the birds whose nests you disturb, erupts from the ground ahead of you.

You climb up like you were taught; throwing your rope onto the first branch you can physically reach and lash it to yourself. It’s more difficult to climb the tree with your pack and bow, but you don’t want to risk leaving it behind for anyone who may come through after you. When you reach the point where the rope reaches the tree, you pull yourself onto the branch. The blister on your ankle is screaming, but you don’t pause until your hammock is secure and your harness is wrapped around you. The cool wind cuts through the thin fabric of the hammock, but it’s not too cold as you peel back your socks to reveal an angry raw spot crawling across your ankle.

Too tired to do much more, you slide your other boot off, tying them together and then to your pack. The gentle sway of the trees makes your eyelids heavy, and you let yourself drift off into the first good night's sleep you’ve had in a while. 

The bitter cold wakes you up, the wind moving your hammock back and forth gently. The darkness spins above you, clouds backlit by the moon. Not for the first time you think about how easy it used to be, curled up with another warm body beneath the thick blankets - how easy it was to switch on the percolator in the morning and wrap your hands around a warm cup of coffee, how easy -

You press the heel of your hands into your eyes and try to press away the thoughts that are racing through your brain. Remembering the before drives people crazy; you’ve seen how it can eat people up and you refuse to let it eat at you. So you pull your thermal blanket closer around yourself and try to get some sleep.

But the sun rises earlier than you expected and extra sleep never comes. 

It doesn’t take long for you to pack what little you have back in your pack and descend back down. At the bottom you dig out the little bit of jerky you still have saved from the summer months; it’s disgusting, but it’s enough to push you forward to the next place. 

You walk the entire time with your bow in your hand, waiting for some animal to run out in front of you and meet its mark, but the forest is silent today as you push towards the next stop in your journey north, a small nameless village secluded away from the rest of civilization - just good enough to sleep in for the night. 

The sun has just started to sink below the treeline when the village finally springs into view. The blister on your ankle has popped, and you think you can feel blood rushing into your sock, but you don’t dare stop and check; you don’t want the scent of fresh blood to attract any Biters that may be hidden away for now. Your fingers cramp around the bow and your stomach growls. You’d picked a smooth rock up from the ground hours earlier and popped it into your mouth to try and trick yourself into thinking you were eating something, but it hadn’t worked. If anything it made your hunger worse.

There was salvation coming - on your second year coming through here you’d snuck off from the group and buried a cache. Each year you did your best not to touch it unless it was to refill something inside of it, but this year you knew you’d have to empty it. 

You crunch over tire tracks that crisscross over each other on the main road into the village; they’re dry enough that you know whoever managed to scrape up enough gas to drive in and out was gone, but the thought of someone driving up on you made you nervous, and make your steps quicken. If people were driving through here then you needed to be gone before sunlight tomorrow. 

Weary, you push yourself towards the back half of the village to a little two-story you know well. It had been the same house your group, and then yourself, slept in each year on your way to the north camp; in the back, beneath an overturned chair that was slowly rotting with time, your little cache was stored. 

You shoulder your way through the half-rotted back gate and freeze. The chair is tossed to the side, rusted parts puzzle pieced across the ground. And directly where your cache had been buried is a hole, smoothed over from time and rain. 

You could cry if you had any water left in you to cry. So instead you walk numbly into the house - habit making you click the lock on the door even though it’s long since stopped working. The same thick dust that was here last year is still across the floor, so thick your steps don’t even disturb it. You pass through the living area and up the steps. On the landing, you don’t pause - to the left of you is the nursery that’s always been empty. The first few times you’d stopped here the sight of the broken-down white crib and sage walls made something ache inside of you, and you’d learned not to look. It’s better to just let things alone and try to stifle your imagination.

The attic ladder swings down with ease and you test your weight on the rungs before climbing up - any broken bones and you may as well just shoot yourself where you lay. It creaks ominously beneath you but keeps as you clamber through the hole. You let yourself collapse on the floor beside the ladder after pulling it up, and wrapping a rope around the ladder to keep anyone from pulling it down in the night. All at once, hunger and exhaustion pull you down towards the floor. 

You’ll have to shoot something tomorrow and check the well for fresh water. There are still to many miles before you make it north enough to be safe for the winter, and you won’t make it without water and food. 

You try to distract yourself from the cramping of hunger and how little water is left in your jug by peeling your boots off. As you’d thought, the blister had split and bled, but thankfully your sock had caught most of it. 

You clean up the best you can in the dusty light filtering in from the little window that looks out the back garden and wonder who could have known the cache was there. An old group member who spotted you checking it in the past? Or was it a lucky guess, someone who came through after you and spotted the freshly disturbed dirt and came to the right inference?

You try to tell yourself it doesn’t matter as you pull your thermal blanket from your pack and lay down, but you can’t quite convince yourself of that lie. 

[pluckyredhead]

hi! i'm new to comics and i got in through reading your fics and wayne family adventures. i've since started reading more of the mainstream verse and i realized that most comic fans consider wfa to be totally fanon. you're one of the few i saw that disagrees. would you mind elaborating a lil on why? i'm too new to really form an opinion either way but i'd like to know your's!

(also yes i really did stalk your blog back years worth of posts i'm sorry! 😭😭)

Aw I love this! Welcome!

So I think it's really important to be clear on definitions here:

Canon means it's part of an official text. It's literally in a comic (or book or movie or other property) published or licensed by DC.

Fanon means it's made up by fans. That doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it comes from fandom and is not part of the official text.

Wayne Family Adventures is an official licensed comic by DC, so by definition, it cannot be fanon. That doesn't mean everyone has to like it, but it's not a fan comic. It's an official DC product. It's not fanon.

Now, WFA isn't part of the main DCU canon. It takes place in a separate universe. The Jason in Batman #138 and the Jason in WFA are not the same and they are having very different experiences. (And I'm sure the Jason in WFA would be grateful if he knew.)

But that's no different than a comic that takes place in an alternate universe, like Dark Knights of Steel or DCeased, or a movie like Blue Beetle or a show like My Adventures with Superman. They all take place in their own universes, but all of those universes are canon. None of them are fanon.

What I think most people mean when they say WFA is fanon is that WFA draws on tropes and characterizations that are popular in fandom. Which...yes, absolutely. This is on purpose, and honestly, it pisses me off when people complain about it. (Not you, anon! Your question was lovely, you just triggered my unskippable cut scene of dialogue. Sorry lol.)

Wayne Family Adventures is probably the single best idea DC has had in the 20 years I've been reading comics. (The second best was the kids and YA graphic novel lines.)

I just checked, and WFA has 1.3 MILLION subscribers. That's more than every floppy comic starring Batman sells in a month, combined. It's more than literally any superhero comic has sold in decades - in this century! The combined strips have over A HUNDRED MILLION VIEWS. That is bonkerstown. That is a readership like DC hasn't seen since the 1970s. That is unparalleled success, and it's introducing characters like Kate Kane and Duke Thomas to a whole new audience.

Now, WFA was clearly designed to appeal to Batfans who were active on social media and fanfic sites like AO3 and Wattpad, and Webtoon readers. The readership of Webtoon is mostly young and female. Fandom as a whole is mostly female. The writer of WFA is female.

And maybe I'm not being fair here, but when I see people dismiss WFA as "just fanon," I always catch a whiff of "It's not a real Batman comic. It's a girl comic for girls."

I have spent the past 20 years begging DC (and Marvel, DC is not alone in this) to see women as a viable audience - as their largest potential growth audience! I have watched in dumbfounded frustration as they ignored the juggernaut success of Raina Telgemeier and Ngozi Ukazu and Alice Oseman running rings around the NY Times bestseller list and counted a 50k shipment here and there as a resounding triumph. I have literally seen them throw out survey responses from women because "those women had an agenda." (This is a true story. 2011 was rough, y'all.)

And all of a sudden, they gave us a comic actually catering to women and young people and fandom, and they put it on the most popular, current, modern platform for comics availably - and it's brilliant. It's smart and funny and stunningly drawn and every episode makes clever, inventive use of the scrolling format. They FINALLY gave us a girl comic for girls, and it's a masterpiece.

And yes, it riffs on fanon concepts. It also has its roots firmly in mainstream DCU canon. It references deep cuts. CRC Payne and StarBite know their shit. Jason Todd being a bookworm may be a fanon staple, but he does plenty of reading - including Jane Austen - in the 100% canon mainstream DCU comics.

It's not going to be for everything, because nothing is. It's completely fine if you don't like WFA. No one has to read it or enjoy it. If you're into Batman for the darkness and the crime and the ongoing plotlines and the angst, WFA won't be for you, and that's totally fine!

But to finally, finally be valued as a reader by DC, to have them do something smart and innovative and so, so well executed, and have the exact people they made it for dismiss it out of hand because Bruce has a "World's Okayest Dad" mug or whatever? Yeah, that chafes.

[tswaney17]

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

@elriel-month | Once Upon a Dream

I'm so excited to share this Tangled retelling fic. It came to me last minute and I'm still in shock I managed to bust this one out. 😅 This story is heavily inspired by two songs, "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" and "Cassandra" both by Taylor Swift. I recommend listening to them to get the full experience of this fic. 💗

My fanfic account: @tswaney17fics​​​

My ao3 account: tswaney17

Please let me know what you think about this update. I love getting your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome. 💕

Trigger warnings: Some minor descriptions of violence

Word Count: 7,053

This fic will be posted on AO3 only. Read the beginning below or click here to head to AO3.

Azriel buckled his weapons belt over his hips, tightening the straps around his thick thigh that contained the legendary dagger at his side. It was his preferred method to kill the monsters he was paid to end. Though he carried a few other daggers and a long sword strapped down the center of his spine, they weren’t Truthteller.

They weren’t the dagger that stories were told about around village fires.

They weren’t the dagger children pretended to wield when they played knights and dragons and thieves.

His lips curled up at the thought of them using wooden swords and declaring themselves knights of the kingdom. Slashing the toy as if they held his blade in their small hands. The idea was completely absurd.

Because Azriel was no knight.

He traveled from village to village, kingdom to kingdom, taking coins from the townsfolks or the royals themselves to slay whatever beast was terrorizing them. Using the knife believed to have magic embedded within the very blade to always strike true. The only magical thing people dared to accept in this world.

The stories he could tell would cower most people, but not a single monster had ever given him pause.

Until today.

Until he was called upon to slay the sorceress who retired to a tall tower in the woods. Azriel wasn’t too familiar with sorceresses or the power they possessed. But the coin offered by the town was too good to pass up.

Read More

~~~~~

Remember, sharing is caring! Please reblog if you liked the fic. It helps spread my work and I truly appreciate it. 💕

While I have moved most of my fics to AO3 only, I am still going to utilize a tag list here on Tumblr. This as a permanent solution and may change in the future. For notifications, you can follow and subscribe to my fanfic account where I will be reblogging updates and snippets only. You can also find me on ao3. If you would like to be added to my tag list, please leave a comment on this post.

My fanfic account: @tswaney17fics​

My ao3 account: tswaney17

Taglist: 

@nikethestatue

@reverie-tales

@123moiaussi

@duskwhisperer

@zdenkah

@nyxreads

@shedoessoshedoes

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Some tags seem to not want to link, which could be related to your visibility settings. Sorry about that!

[stjohnstarling]

do you have any basic pointers for writers who might want to try out doing a serialised story online but have no idea where to start?

I'm hesitant to give too much general advice because every situation is specific - what you should do depends on what you're writing, your goals with your book, and where you're at with regards to community, connections, and followers. There isn't a lot of one-size-fits-all advice I can give that isn't me making up scenarios and speculating about them. That being said I can point you towards a couple platforms.

I serialize my novels via a newsletter hosted on Substack, though I have VERY mixed feelings about Substack as a platform. I am a fan of newsletters in general though. They have some significant benefits - for instance you can download and keep your subscriber list, so you don't have the problem of being trapped on any individual platform. They're free below certain subscriber thresholds, however most services do cost money once you get a large enough audience, they can be a bit involved to set up, and you have to do the heavy lifting of getting people to subscribe. Off the top of my head, newsletter hosts include: Beehiiv, Buttondown, Ghost, Substack, Mailchimp, GoDaddy, and ConvertKit, but there’s loads more out there.

I am aware of Wattpad, Ream, RoyalRoad, and Radish as serial platforms but have not explored them and cannot speak to how they work. Some of those cater to specific kinds of books. Wattpad is the biggest and most general one.

If you consider your book broadly "fannish" you can serialize it on AO3 (it's a grey area, I would read that page before deciding.)

You can also always host it on your own website and link to there from whatever social media you use. I'm less familiar with web hosts though. (Neocities is popular but you'd have to want to play with HTML. If you don't want to do that, maybe Wordpress?)

I hear a lot of people talking about feeling abandoned and ignored when making the jump from fanfiction to original writing. So, breaking my own rule immediately, (you can see I'm making an assumption here based on this being Tumblr) one piece of advice I'll give is that if you're starting from scratch BUT you're in a fandom, writing something original that still appeals to other fans is a good way of bridging the gap between fanfiction and original writing - e.g. if you're into OFMD and you write an original novel about gay pirates, you're a Good Omens fan and you write a novel about angels and demons, etc.

Oops that ended up super long. Followers let me know if there are any platforms I missed!

[corvuscorona]

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

[anincompletelist]

happy rwrb thanksgiving! :D

in honor of how ridiculously grateful I am for the space and community this fandom has brought to my life, I wanted to create something to give back in the lead up to thanksgiving!

below the cut you'll find an (incomplete) list of ways that you can support the writers and artists that continue to give us such wonderful content. <3

+

firstly, of course, you can support casey + the crew by streaming the film or buying the book!

ways to support writers/fics:

(on ao3) ☆ subscribe to the author ☆ leave kudos ☆ leave a comment ☆ bookmark + add a nice comment in the bookmarkers tags (they're public!) ☆ check the recent works for the fandom to find some lesser known works + subscribe to the pairing for notifications ☆ if you don't like/agree with something or don't have something nice to say, kindly press the back button ☆ this is a good source for other ao3 related support! ☆ this is a good source for learning how to compose comments on ao3!

(on tumblr) ☆ reblog the author's fic posts ☆ leave nice comments in the tags ☆ send a nice ask/anon about their work ☆ create a fic rec list ☆ comment underneath the post ☆ follow their blog for updates/etc. ☆ follow the tags you're interested in to stay updated on the latest works ☆ once again, if you don't have anything nice to say, you can always choose not to interact with the content! be kind!

ways to support artists/artwork:

☆ purchase from their shops (if they have one!) ☆ commission them (if they accept custom orders!) ☆ 'buy them a coffee' / donate to their ko-fi (if applicable) ☆ reblog/retweet/share their art on whatever platform they post on (but do NOT repost/remove watermark/etc.) ☆ reach out to the artist to find out how you can best support them ☆ follow their accounts to stay updated when they post new pieces! ☆ talk about what you liked in the tags or in a comment/message ☆ if you don't like the art/etc., kindly scroll past!

self-promo:

☆ reblog/re-share your own art/writing to make sure it reaches different time zones and demographics ☆ make sure you're tagging your fics and art accordingly to reach your target audience ☆ interact with your readers/viewers for more engagement ☆ get involved in tag games etc. here on tumblr ☆ join (or create!) fests and challenges that you and other writers/artists can take part in ☆ support others in return & be kind!

--

feel free to reblog and add your own ideas if I missed any! there are a million ways to show appreciation, but this is a good start!

no matter why you're here -- whether you're an author, an artist, any other kind of creator, or someone who enjoys the art created by them, publicly or privately, you play such an important role and are actively making this space an uplifting, inspiring community to be a part of. thank you, and continue to create, support, and be kind to one another! :D

I hope you're all having a lovely week, and happy early thanksgiving!

-- anincompletelist / sarah

[tandy-angel]

💐 quotev refugee & professional sillyposter

hi there :3 i'm mars short for marshall & i like nicknames (among other things) ! my prns are they/them :3 i'm queer and have some gender in between the spectrum idk. currently in limbo since i haven't thought about it in a while haha

i'm tandy-angel or some variation thereof on most anything just hmu if you're interested in following on other platforms not listed below ^_^

i'm a fairly low-effort hellenic practicioner and modern witch who sometimes believes they used to be an angel. i love culture and religion and i'm currently reading the bible and learning tagalog. i have a moderate understanding of written spanish but do not believe i could hold a verbal conversation. i'm working on it

i have a lot of interests. i love all things beautiful and even those that aren't. i love humanity and romanticize everything! so yeah. i have a lot of interests. i'll link a post below outlining them all <3

more useless info below the cut but please follow & interact if any of this interests you :D i have no idea how to use tumblr despite having had one for years. my gf is coaching me so please be kind >_< anyway. hmu ♡ i'm nice i love talking to people i'll be here. like subscribe & follow thanks. mwah! xo, mars

⭐️ reference to tags i use [ official taglist ]

#hehe :3 things i like. more vague than #mecore

#mecore things i relate to. fairly obvious

#ray speaks truth a raypost i've reblogged and agree with. also obvious imo

#raycore things i think my gf might relate to/things that relate to him

#i love my southern gf idk. more specific gf tag, things that relate to him being southern or things that just make me feel particularly affectionate

#witchery on main fairly self explanatory. i usually post witch things on @mars-witchery

#check misc my "check and sort later" tag

#misc is anything non-fandom related. fandoms will be tagged as such

🔮 other socials

tandyangel2 / ao3 (i use this when i have something to publish that i am pleased with. very rare)

tandyangel / fanfiction (no longer active, yet sometimes i dream of going back ;___;)

tandy_angel2 / twt (also no longer active. have a few good memories from that era though) (edit: i will be heading back + revamping soon. re: quotev death)

tandyangel / pokefarm (i'm here only sometimes. read: barely ever)

mostly on quotev (no longer, since quotev death) & instagram with a personal account. hmu if you want it if we're friends, mutuals, or have interacted once. barely here on tumblr but it's a cute space so i wanna be on more. we'll see

🌷 other links

• interests

• carrd

• side blogs

long story short ! ★

✿ mars, they/them. queer + neurodiv

✿ taken, 1r1p. aroace bi lesbian

✿ likes music. psych + cs major

✿ i hate queer discourse count me OUT

✿ i'm a romantic i love everything else

✿ i'm friendly i promise please hmu

[glygriffe]

Summer Fic Recs

I'm busy with writer's block on my WIP and being an artist in my first Big Bang, so I haven't read much lately. It is surprising how doing nothing and waiting around can detract from reading time.

Instead of making a monthly list of 3 fics, I've decided to make a summer list. Have a good read, y'all!

Supernatural

One Little Word: Wanting a friend to be at peace is too vague a sentiment for his spell to work. Sam has to figure out what he really wants. And Rowena is there to help. By @posingasme (Sam, Rowena)

Fly with me: I read the first chapter of this fic as a stand-alone some time ago, then got sucked in all the love the characters have for each other in the expanded version of this parkour universe by @posingasme. (Castiel x Sam)

Memorial: With Castiel losing his memory in the Men of Letters bunker, the angst is strong with this story by @posingasme (Sam x Castiel, Dean)

(a bit of a Posing as Me festival, this summer, ain't it?)

I Promised: Dean always keeps his promises. A different take on hunter's life by @deanwinchesterswitch on AO3 (Dean x Reader)

To See the Future Past: When Dean went universe hopping in The Winchesters, he left a definitive impression on his parents. A story by UnderstatedCactus on AO3. (older prequel John, Mary)

Beyond Death: What happens when Dean dies and becomes Death himself? A wonderful multichapter story by @bobwess on AO3, set after the finale of the show. Most of our beloved characters are in there. Go subscribe to that fic!

Separate Showers: a piece of Men of letters bunker’s domestic fluff (Sam x Reader) by @samsexualdeancurious

Iron Chef: A Stanford Era heartfelt story about Dean's loneliness by @agenthellcat (No pairing)

An Idiot's Guide to a Successful Love Confession in Two Words or Less: A wonderful in-character (and sexy) love confession from Dean by @winchester-reload on AO3. With beautiful art and Led Zeppelin song suggestions as a bonus. (Dean x Castiel)

Other Fandoms or Original Works

The Sandwich Story: Hobbes is talking less and less... Or is it Calvin who is changing? A wonderful story about childhood by Meredith on AO3 (Calvin & Hobbes)

Untitled: @ilikegaypeople73 started to write drabbles inspired by fellow Tumblr users. What a fun idea! Here is one based on Deadly Essence whispers (No pairing)

[tarysande]

So this is related to The Aurora Project but I realize it can also be more broad: are there places besides Amazon you can recommend for buying eBooks? My experience with eBooks up until this point has mostly been stuff I've gotten from The Gutenberg Project or Ao3. I like using the .epub format, and would prefer to continue to do so.

My issue is that I'd like to support the author the best I can but I don't have a lot of money. My library doesn't have the book yet, and I'm already planning on requesting it. But since this is more your wheelhouse, I was wondering what you would suggest for The Aurora Project, in case they don't get it in right away. I'd like to help, but yeah, don't have a lot of money.

So, one of the (many) strangleholds Amazon has over the self-publishing market is the lure of Kindle Unlimited. Basically, if you promise not to sell your ebook anywhere else, you can include it in the Kindle Unlimited program. The benefit there is that anyone who subscribes to Kindle Unlimited can read the book for "free"--and the author gets paid for every page read, rather than just the lump sum per unit of book sold. And authors don't get dinged for returns. (Which happens a distressing amount at Amazon.)

I don't know the specific math, but one of my successful self-publishing clients tells me Kindle Unlimited makes a huge financial difference for her. Which, of course, means self-pub authors stay loyal to Amazon, and Amazon keeps making money off them.

Side note: The royalties Amazon pays are much higher than those in traditional publishing. Although one must keep in mind that traditional publishers pay lower royalties to authors because they are footing the entire production/editorial/marketing/etc. bill; the self-publishing author has to pay for all those things out of pocket. Even if Amazon only makes 30% on each sale, they don't really have overhead or anything. They make 30% to host the platform through which an author distributes.

Which is all a long way of saying that, for now at least, Paul has decided to sell The Aurora Project only on Amazon. I have no idea whether libraries/bookstores are able to nab copies.

Please don't put yourself in any financial hardship over it! If he ever puts it on sale, I'll let you know. I know I'm going to encourage him to do that in the weeks before the second book comes out. :)

If you don't know about it, you might want to look into BookBub, by the way. You tell BookBub what genres you like, and it sends a daily email with links to heavily discounted books in those genres. I don't think I've ever seen a book more expensive than 2.99 or maybe the very occasional 3.99, and they are OFTEN .99/1.99/FREE. I've found so many amazing books through BookBub over the last few years--lots of authors put books on sale when they're about to release a new one. You don't need to buy from Amazon, either; BookBub always lists other retailers (Apple Books, Kobo, etc.) if the books are available there.

[thefanficwriterscraft]

Loved this week’s new episode! I’m definitely guilty of putting short fics (<1k words) into a singular story instead of a series (though it’s all the same ship/universe). I’ve actually been struggling with the idea of continuing to do this or not but get caught up with 2 things:

1. The thought of having them ALL as individual stories on my page stresses me out from an organizational standpoint. And

2. I wish AO3 had a way to split a work, because I don’t want to lose the comments attached to each chapter/fic by deleting and reposting since I didn’t have the foresight to originally post them as separate entities. (Though with this option then you also run the risk of spamming everyone who’s subscribed to you on ao3).

And I guess also adding on to this and the ao3 improvements mentioned, I’d love if there was a way for an author to highlight their favorite works, because otherwise if you have an author who writes a lot of short works, they add up and things get buried 150 fics deep.

Sorry for the massive drop in the inbox 😅 This has been something on my mind for awhile and the episode just brought it all back. Thanks for all the work you put into the podcast!

Thank you so much, and our apologies for the delayed response as I (pebblysand) was on holidays. So glad you enjoyed the discussion!

Regarding your first point, I can't help/relate, because I think honestly, the opposite would stress me out haha! Having all of my one-shots bundled as one instead of individual stories would drive me nuts! I would feel that is disorganised 😅.

Having said that, I want to be clear that I do think it is legit to do this in some circumstances. For example, from 2015 to 2018, I wrote a bunch of three sentence stories in different fandoms, ships, etc. as a writing exercise. I mostly posted them on their own on tumblr, but ended up bundling them when I uploaded them to AO3 years later. I bundled up together in one fic all the ones that were for the same fandom (so there was one big fic for TGW, and one for silk), then created a series to link them together. The TGW "fic" had multiple ships so I created one chapter for each ship, which I tried to indicate as clearly as I could in the summary.

I think the same thing applies if you're writing multiple short-ish (less than 3k) one-shots in the same pairing/ship/universe. Like: if, say, you're writing post-war Dramione, you have a vision for that universe and all of your one-shots are coherent with that universe and with each other. But again, I do think it's important to consider the fact that it may cause people to rec your work less. Because they might like one story but not the others, and so instead of reccing one chapter, they might just rec nothing at all.

I think it depends on your comfort level for this. For me regarding my own series what comes in threes, I didn't care because a) I published these on AO3 years after I published them on tumblr, and it was more about archiving them than promoting the work, as these stories were very old and I wasn't writing in these fandoms anymore, and b) both of these were in fandoms where reccing isn't the main way people find fanfic. I've mentioned this on the pod before but there is a massive difference in the way people find fics in big fandoms that are too massive to search (tags, rec lists, bookmarks, etc.) and small fandoms where you can just refresh the front page each day and find stuff. TGW and silk are small enough that I knew anyone reading fanfiction for these would be trolling the front page, and thus see the fic as it was published and be able to decide for themselves if they wanted to take a look or not.

Regarding your second point though, I feel you! I haven't talked about it on the podcast but I've been going through a similar struggle of my own with my long work. Castles has three very clear "acts" that are around 100k each. I didn't anticipate this early on and posted all three acts in one fic, and am now very stressed/nervous that it's making this fic too long for people to read. I would love to be able to retroactively split it, but I also, like you, don't want to lose the comments. I really wish there was a way to do this! 😫

And to your third point, I very much agree. I don't have that problem as I mostly write longer pieces but yeah, I get you!

Thanks again for your kind words and for taking the time to write to us! It's amazing to know our little podcast isn't just going out and falling into the ether, and that people are listening!

[siriusleee]

iv. antibiotics

Zombie Apocalypse AU | SIMON RILEY x f!READER

↳ SUMMARY: The world is trying to knit itself back together after fracturing apart. You're trying to put yourself back together with it; Simon Riley is just trying to stay alive. ↳ WORD COUNT: 2.6K ↳ TAGS: mentions of cannibalism, mentions of shooting things, mentions of dying. smut to come. canon typical violence to come. additional tags to come as the story progresses. female reader. no mentions of "your name". reader is given a nickname later on. nc-17. fandom-blind friendy. ↳ AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to the lovely anon who asked for a scene from an apocalypse au, and this idea was born. If you'd like to donate to my Ko-Fi, I would appreciate it. ↳ TAG LIST: There will not be a tag list for this story, as Tumblr has issues with letting me tag people. To get notifications of updates, please subscribe on AO3 or turn on notifications for my blog.

additional chapters | ao3

Ghost forces you to crawl up the side of the ravine ahead of him - it’s grueling and painful. Your nails are nearly ripped from their beds when you finally claw your way from the mud and roots, Ghost boosting himself up behind you with a grunt. You collapse onto the ground, the pain in your body compounding with each breath that you take. Ghost’s hands grasp at the back of your filthy shirt, pulling you to your feet. You don’t think that you can move anymore - your muscles are threatening to seize -  but Ghost pushes you forward, forcing you to take one step after the other. The walk back to the cabin is long; you didn’t think that you’d run this far, and by the time the two of you make it back to the cabin, Ghost nearly has to carry you in by the elbow. When the two of you crash through the cabin door, you can’t keep your feet underneath you anymore. You fall to your knees, pain lancing through your kneecaps and wrists that catch your body weight against the wooden floors. Ghost drags you towards the small couch you’d been on just hours before waiting for your chance to escape. He sets you down roughly onto the broken-down cushions, one hand holding both of your wrists with one of his own. He bends down to be level with you, mud splattering the bit of skin that you can see, his brown eyes like two pieces of flint. “If you try to run again,” he says, voice even and low, “I will let them capture you and I won’t come to save you.” You nod wordlessly, and the lines around his eyes harden before he speaks again. “We leave in just a few hours; you should try to sleep some.” You didn’t think you would sleep, but the sound of slamming jogs you from a thick twilight you didn’t know you’d fallen into. Ghost stands at the table, rifle slung over his shoulder, pack on his back. On the table, your bow lies with one arrow across it. His message is loud and clear: you get one shot if you try to kill him. You’d better be successful with it. You unfold yourself from the small couch, mud and dirt falling from you in a shower. It takes so much of what’s in you to move forward, towards the table. Your pack sits where you left it yesterday, and when you pick it up, shoulder screaming, you notice the extra weight from your canteen. It sloshes heavily as you slide your stiff arms through the straps. Ghost must have filled it last night. The idea that he filled your canteen for you itches at a level of annoyance you try not to pay attention to as you take up your bow.

The two of you don’t speak to each other as you fall in line behind Ghost, your bow held like you were taught: loose enough that your muscles don’t cramp, but tight enough that you’re ready to go at any moment. The forest stays slumbering as the two of you traverse beneath the treetops. As the sun rises, the sounds of birds tittering fill the forest. The sun has barely moved in the sky before you have to stop, feet faltering beneath you. Ghost pauses just head, head turned slightly towards you as you lean against the rough bark of one of the trees. “Sorry I just-” you try to wet your lips, but your tongue is like sandpaper. “I just need a moment.” Your heart feels like it’s going to burst from your throat; with trembling fingers, you pull your canteen to your lips. When you drink, water dribbles down your chin and onto your shirt; you wipe it away with a freezing hand. Ghost doesn’t turn toward you, his own hands wrapped around his rifle. By the time you’re able to move again, you can feel his impatience rolling off of him in waves, but he keeps his mouth shut. “Where are we going?” You ask, the stretch of silence unnerving you. Your throat is still raw, still sore from the sudden increase in speaking you’ve been doing over the past two days. It’s a wonder to you: that you even still know how to speak after so long of silence. “You’ll see when we get there.” It’s a maddening response, your fingers flex around your bow weakly, but you keep in step with him. You’d made a game of it after a while, trying to line each of your steps with his so that if anyone follows they’ll think it was just one of you. You needed something to keep you distracted. The walk is torture, heat creeping through your body, each injury still so incredibly painful. The forest floor inclines upwards, pulling at each of the bones in your body with sharp little wires, threatening to pull you down into the dirt — more than once your feet falter beneath you. The incline grows too rough, and a wave of nausea rolls over your body. There’s not even a second to ask Ghost to stop before you’re heaving, bent in half. There’s nothing in your stomach but bile, and a bit of water - you leave it in a puddle on the forest floor. “You alright?” Ghosts asks, irritation coloring his voice. You nod, spitting on the ground to try and get the acrid taste of stomach acid out of your mouth. “Just - tired.” You don’t want to admit to him how you feel, worried that if you do he’ll leave you here to the mercy of the Biters and Mother Nature. One arrow is going to get you nowhere, you need a real chance to fight before you try and run again.

The razor wire is the first thing you see, rising heavily in the distance. You slow, trying to make out the shape of the walls, the jut of the towering buildings in the distance. Backlight by the struggling moon, the shapes are familiar enough to tug at memories buried deep.

“Is this a military base?” You ask, exhausted. Ghost’s steps hadn’t stopped once after the farmhouse shrunk behind the two of you. Neither of you had spoken in the intermediate time. 

Ghost doesn’t answer you, just slings his rifle onto his shoulders and steps into the clearing. You hesitate; a flash catches your eye and they’re immediately drawn to one of the sniper towers. You can just make out the shape of a person there, but it’s hard to see anything other than their form in the darkness.

“Are you coming?”

Ghost’s voice pulls you out of your thoughts, and you step towards him, palms suddenly sweaty. 

A million questions are rattling around inside your brain, and each of them is replaced by another as the sound of rattling chains and metal fills the air. Materializing in the night forest, a gate three times as tall as you appear like a fairy house. The hunk iron and chain link pull open just enough for one man to squeeze through, the barrels of guns pointed out in the space. 

Ghost lifts his hand in a familiar greeting; the barrels don’t fall, but turn to you. Ghost says something, but you can’t hear him over your thoughts. He slips through the gate, and for half a second you panic that they’ll slam it shut behind him and leave you outside. 

But it stays open just long enough for you to slip through. Rough hands grab at you, pulling the bow from your hand, shoving you in a circle as you try to make out individual faces, pulling roughly at your clothes. Ghost’s voice barks out orders - you try to turn towards the sound of him, but a fire erupts at the base of your skull and midnight settles around you.

Soft fingers trace the curve of your hip; in the early morning light you can’t make out his face, but you recognize the planes of him beneath your fingertips. You’d know him anywhere, every mole and scar memorized until you could draw them from memory.

“Are you awake yet?”

His voice is easy in the early morning - sweeter than he usually sounds. You can’t help the smile that sketches itself onto your face as you turn away from the bright light streaming in through the window. 

“Been awake.”

His fingers tangle in the soft downy hair at the base of your hair, pulling your head back gently until your neck is exposed. The warmth of his breath dances at the pulse point beneath your jaw, and you jump. His chuckle rumbles through his chest and into yours.

Nipping at the tender flesh of his neck, his hands trace down until he’s gripping your forearm. You try to pull away, to reach up and touch him, but his grip grows bruising. You try to pull away, but his nails dig into your arm, stinging until you feel tears start at the corner of your eye. 

“What are you doing?” Panic starts to color your voice as you struggle to get away. He doesn’t answer, twisting the tender flesh of your arm harder until you scream.

The rawness of your throat wakes you up. There’s a rush in your ears as you fight against whatever is holding you down. The world spins around you, a nauseating swirl of brown and gray - faintly you hear someone shouting at you; your fist connects with the hard outline of a jaw before you’re pinned down.

It takes seconds, hours - maybe days - for the room to stop spinning around you, and the voices become clear. 

Squinting against the bright light shining down on your face, you can make out the face of an older woman, her hair cropped close to her scalp and an ugly red mark blossoming against her cheek. She’s talking to you slowly, but it’s still difficult to make out the words; you can tell by the expression on her face that she’s getting tired of repeating herself.

“Do you remember your name?”

You turn away from the light, expecting to see someone else at your side holding you down. But it’s her hands pinning your arms to your side with a strength that doesn’t fully match the wrinkles on her forehead.

Ungluing your tongue from the roof of your mouth, you speak - faintly remembering the name you told Ghost. 

“Dove. My name’s Dove.”

The set of her tongue against her teeth tells you that she’s not happy with you, but you can’t bring yourself to care around the sledgehammer pounding behind your eyes. Her grip loosens by a centimeter. 

“I need you to calm down or I’ll have to restrain you again.”

She speaks with the kind of smooth authority that tells you she’s not afraid to pin you down again, that there’s no worries about who would win if she tried.

You nod painfully - it feels like the movement will shatter your spine if you move too fast. The woman retracts her hands, one moving underneath your shoulder to help you sit up. You grit your teeth together to keep from throwing up on her feet or screaming in her face. 

When the world rights itself around you, you take a second to look around. Despite the darkness and the ambient dingyness, you can tell you’re in some sort of medical treatment. The corners of each of the beds are tucked in with meticulous hospital corners and empty IV stands are lined up mechanically against the wall. Beside the bed you’re sitting on is a little metal tray with a manual blood pressure cuff on it. The only light in the room blazes above you.

The woman stands in front of you, arms crossed on her chest. 

“I’m Doc,” she states, pulling a little stool over with her foot, and sitting down carefully on it. The wheel squeaks horribly. “You were in rough shape - do you remember how you got that way?”

The image of a skeleton mask floats in your vision; you press the heels of your palm into your eyes to try and press it away.

“Ghost.” His name sits like a stone at the tip of your tongue.

Doc chuckles, picking up the blood pressure cuff from the little table. 

“You’re not the sorriest-looking person he’s ever dragged in here if that makes you feel better.”

On instinct, you extend your arm so she can slip the cuff around your arm. The little needle jumps with each pulse of the bulb; you watch it like you know what it’s supposed to say. When it’s almost too painful to bear, she releases the pressure and when it’s back to 0 she pulls it off of your arm depositing it back onto the table.

“Well you’ve got a cracked rib for sure, and probably a few other fractures based on the bruising. And you’re malnourished. There’s an infection creeping up your calf muscle; Ghost seemed to have walked you half to death.”

You think of how you threw up on the trail, how each step seemed to feel like a march towards death.

“You could say that.”

She sighs, wiping her hands against her pants. “Well you’re going to be down for a while don’t over-exert yourself. I’ll have the mess hall notified to give you one and a half portions for a few weeks until you don’t look like a walking skeleton and you’ll have to report here each day for your antibiotics.”

You nod your head like you understand what she’s saying. The thought of antibiotics is so foreign to you, so odd in contrast to the world you knew outside. There’s a look in her eye you can’t discern, and you don’t try as she pushes herself to a standing position, the little wheeled stool rolling away behind her.

“Come on. Let’s get you something to eat.”

[dc-said-bi-robin-rights]

As the resdent Rose Wilson lover do you have any fic recs centered on her, would love any recommendations.

First of all, I’m honored to be called that ahejjshs but I think that title goes to @roseworth before it does me tbh.

Check out their work on tumblr if you don’t mind having to read it, y’know, on tumblr.

Second of all, I had an entire list with dozens of links and short synopsis for each one… and it got deleted when I clicked off tumblr to answer a text (actually heartbroken rn tbh) so I’m gonna save the both of us some time and say that the general Rose tag, even coupled with Slade parent tags (good parent, bad parent, A+++ parenting etc) will just give you batfam fics in which Rose makes an appearance (yes, even the ones with her fucking dad, a lot of batfam stans love making Slade adopt one of the batboys for reasons I genuinely cannot comprehend and having Rose and Joey just be like… there).

Most Rose-centric fics are actually shipping fics, for better or worse.

The Mia Dearden x Rose Wilson tag is mostly written by a single author who writes a pretty good Rose, so just go there and check the author with by far the most fics out with the Rose filter if you want good Rose fics. Same goes for the author of most Tara x Rose fics.

TW: the author for the Tara x Rose fics subscribes to the “Slade isn’t just an emotionally incestous parent like canon would have you believe, he actually molested Rose” which is, like, a completely valid interpretation but might be triggering for some.

Other than that, most of the stuff on the cassie x rose tag is good, though some do lean too far into the hate sex aspect. I personally prefer it lead to something, but hey, that’s just my taste.

The Dick & Rose tag is also pretty good (though mostly Dick-centric) and, begrudgingly, I have to admit that the Dick/Rose tag is as well even though just the idea of the pairing makes me frown (he’s her mentor, he trained her while she a teenager, he’s her brother’s peer and also lover, just ews all around).

Avoid the Jayrose tag. Even if you ship them (which I do not, for the record). It’s just bad.

Rose & Eddie and Rose/Eddie is also pretty good.

There’s one Tim/Rose fic I like and not just because it’s actually like, a full length fic instead of just a oneshot: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17352176/chapters/40827815

Anything written by this author (and there is a lot) about Rose tends to be good though perhaps in need of a good editor sometimes.

I’m gonna be honest, the only Cass/Rose fic I can remember liking is @roseworth fic (one of the few they have on ao3 as well as tumblr) even though the idea of the pair is one I very much like and that’s because no one gets them like I do because fanworks water down Cassandra too much in general.

And of course there’s the dozen or so fics I’ve written for Rose here on tumblr.

Happy I could be of help!

[blackbird-brewster]

Friday Fic Recs

Okay, it's not actually Friday but the holidays really threw off my weekly routine and I'm doing my best. So we'll just pretend it's still Friday, yeah? I haven't read a lot lately due to an eye injury, but luckily that's healing now.

What I've Read:

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 5639+ (Ongoing WIP)

Authur: sunshineandguns (@cargopantsprentiss)

Why I Love It: I don't usually partake in a lot of fluffy Jemily fics, but these little glimpses at soft Jemily moments truly make me happy. The newest update 'fireworks' was so wholesome and was a beautiful fic to read to start off 2023! Perhaps, I will read more soft Jemily this year? We'll see!

What I'm Writing:

I started 2023 with a handful of ongoing projects that I'm hoping to work on/finish up in the coming months.

Criminal Minds, JJ/Tara, WC: 55,440+ (WIP)

Update: After somehow cranking out a whopping 13k+ chapter on New Year's Eve, this fic has surpassed 50k!? Wild, considering it's five chapters long so far. I know there's at least one more chapter, but depending on what happens in Ch 6, who knows how much will come after that. Either way, this is my main WIP currently and I really love it.

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 23,428+ (WIP)

Update: I know I announced back in October that I'd be updating and finishing TCAU (after seven years on hiatus) and I finally had the motivation to rewrite another chapter! So this is now re-written/updated through Ch 8!! Guess I better start planning how to finish this, since I only had 10 chapters originally posted from 2015! I'm really looking forward to giving readers an ending to this fic, I know SO many of you have stayed subscribed over all these years...so please know this is entirely for you!

ICYMI: New Fics and Updates

Criminal Minds, JJ/Tara/Emily, (Ongoing Series)

Update: This behind-the-scenes look at [Fooled Around (and Fell in Love)] just got upgraded to explicit with the addition of the non-censored version of a fanart commission drawn by the ever-so-talented @artcake! Check out this new piece of art inspired by the threesome at the end of [Part 2] as well as the rest of the extras in this series.

Criminal Minds, JJ/Tara, WC: 55,440+

Update: Chapter 5 is posted! Like mentioned above, this was the longest chapter to-date, due to how much needed to happen in it. Like Chapter 4, it's a bit emotional and since it's over 13k, I recommend taking breaks while reading it. Don't say I didn't warn you that it's full of feels!

Criminal Minds, JJ/Emily, WC: 11,830

Update: This holiday AU was SO much fun to write and I was absolutely flabbergasted when @cargopantsprentiss drew this incredible [Movie Poster] for it!! I've added the fanart to the fic (with permission). Please go show Rosie some love on the original post!!

Criminal Minds, JJ/Tara, Tara/Rebecca, WC: 4389+ (WIP)

Update: This is a new shorter multi-chap that I started recently! I think it'll be about three chapters and yes, there will be eventual smut. I just really loved the idea of weaving some Jara angst into the reveal that Tara has a gf in CME. Then before chapter one was even done, Rebecca ruined my plans! So I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!

Other Recommendations:

Past Friday Fic Recs: [Friday Fic Recs - Tumblr] || [CM Fic Recs - AO3 Collection]

Rec Lists: [JJ/Emily] || [Tara/Emily] || [CM Femslash]

My Fics: [Jemily] || [Temily] || [All]

[baelonthebrave]

well i loved your stories but i won’t subscribe you anymore because of how you behave when someone doesn’t praise your fic to the sky. so what YOU think that just because YOU write your fics are the best? luckily among all of those people who write fics about aemond there are many people who don’t behave like children whining about someone not loving it. they are more self aware than you and don’t think they are the greatest writer ever just because they published 1 story. well as someone who were in many fandoms and wrote a couple of fics let me enlighten you how it is like when you public something on AO3 or here on Tumblr. there will always be those who don’t like it and by saying some nonsense you just prove you are an immature person whose arrogance clouded her vision. do you have any idea how many times people try to public their writings how hard it is for those more ambitious who want to have their writings published? how many times for example Rowling was told no? and even when the book isn’t as popular as Harry Potter or Game of Thrones success is through the hard work and showing it to others and they will tell what you do right and wrong. and you think just because you public on the internet you are the best and every word which isn’t praise is wrong? as i said i took you for better person i misjudged you and it turned out you are just immature person who isn’t ready to public on internet because every critic word you take as child who lost his favourite toy. But as someone wise said if you want to know a person character observe how they behave when someone doesn’t agree with them. we all love to hear only praise it feeds our ego but world is not a place where everyone will like you and your fics. i could only hope you will learn that not the hardest way but unfortunately for you no one likes arrogant people who expect only praise. i am sorry i took you for far better human being i won’t repeat that mistake anymore.

dkdjfjdjf cool no problem 🫡 as I have said multiple times, I’m very grateful for people who give me constructive criticism. that’s part of why I love fanfic: because you get to take advice and ideas AS you’re writing, improving the story as you go. It’s a collaborative effort with your readers and it has helped me grow so much as a writer and I am very grateful for every last person who gives me thoughtful, constructive feedback.

but if all these anons have been the same person (which I think they have) then the one calling the story bland and saying it collapsed was just… mean-spirited and unhelpful?? It doesn’t read like you want to help me be a better writer, it reads like you are angry the story didn’t go the way YOU wanted it to and my character didn’t fit YOUR very narrow definition of what a “strong woman” should be. It reeked of entitlement to my time and energy for something you get for free. If someone sent me a message saying ‘hey I thought the setup of the story was great but I think you could work on how to pull things together, this is how I would do it…’ that’s one thing, and I fucking WISH someone would send me an ask like that because I WANT to get better. Writing is a skill that I’m in the infancy of learning. But “I thought it sucked and it was boring” isn’t constructive criticism. I don’t know what lessons you want me to take away from that. I also don’t know what qualifications you have to tell me how to be a better writer. if you came off anon and I could read some of YOUR writing, I’d have a better idea of whether you’re worth listening to. If I got handed a list of revisions tomorrow by JKR or GRRM or tumblr users whose writing I really enjoy (aemonds-sapphire or aemonds-war-crime would be 2 good examples) I would fucking drop everything and study it ‘til I’d learned from every word. but alas that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon!

and that one last night was just deeply offensive. I have people I love who have struggled to have children, have had emergency c-sections, have lost children, suffered miscarriages etc. so yeh it did touch the bone when you suggested that women who can’t have a big brood of children are “weak” or somehow less than. Again, I don’t understand what writing lessons I’m supposed to take from that and I will NOT be changing my values or my belief that there is no one RIGHT way to be a woman anytime soon.

so yeh, if you’re a writer yourself, please by all means send me a list of how you would have pulled the themes, characters, plot points together better. Or honestly please write it yourself and send me a link, I’d love to read it and see a different ending to the story.

[igarbagecannoteven]

Hi Megs!! It’s so cute that u set this ask list over a year ago!! If u still wanna tame asks id love to know 1, 7, 9 & 17 pls ♥️

hiya annie! i *am* pretty cute thanks for noticing 😌 skdjflksjd anyhow thx for sending these in!

.1. what fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (in other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?) ooo good question! i think i'd probably suggest what if i'm weak (and i need you tonight?) just bc i think it's pretty structurally similar to most of my other fics (relatively short, takes place over the course of one scene, dialogue heavy, small cast, pretty specific au) plus i just really love it!

7. any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of? i really love the world that fear the fever takes place in! i've always had lots of thoughts about how our modern world would look if werewolves and vampires just happened to be a part of it while still preserving the lack of control that is featured in a lot of werewolf/vampire stories and i think i represented it rather well in a relatively short fic. i love it so much that i'm really hoping to return to this world with a longer sequel fic at some point or another, but we'll see how long that will take 😅

9. how do you find new fic to read? usually i go to the fandom tag and just start filtering out things like crazy (like ships, tags, ratings, etc that i don't like) and then i normally sort them either by word count or by title and start jumping around the search that way (i really try not to fall into the recency bias that's seen in a lot of fandoms and a helpful way to do that is to sort it not by date and not by kudos or bookmarks or whatever so that way the less popular fics get a fighting chance lol) i also read fics by people i'm subscribed to on ao3 and sometimes ones that are recommended to me

17. what highly specific au do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it? i mean, i love writing ridiculous aus that appeal to very few people, especially my weird half crack, half really gritty cassette futurist sci-fi au that will be getting more installments as per the unpopular demand, but there are some other pretty out there ideas that i'm dying to write! i have an almost finished arrival (2016) cashton au that is uh. super depressing and weird but is going to be so, so good when i'm done with it i swear lol. i would also commit crimes for a well done hotel california songfic au; i've got some loose ideas in my head (that would include a baby blue songfic prequel) but i don't think it'll ever actually get done so instead i'll just have to daydream about it 😔

ask me questions for fic writers!