#…. I should go there more but crossovers tend to be more up my alley in creepiness and jokes

[whipplefilter]

RE: the 'driver possession' idea, do you think that there's some form of crossover with the classic Clown Car gag, where a whole bunch of clowns emerge from a tiny car? Maybe that's why Lightning seems to have coulrophobia...

I haven't seen any of the new shorts, but I feel like that would fit in with the type of thing that tends to register as horror in the Cars universe: The headlight eyeball car in the parts bazaar back alley in Cars 2 is a different kind of mod, but not unrelated. And there's the Cars 1 steamroller bodyswap deleted scene. And the demolition derby folks occupy a "deviant" subculture that probably feels pretty counter to what cars are supposed to do (e.g. not wreck). I feel like this comes back to these fears of possession/multiple ghosts because of used parts, and what sorts of cognitive/ghostly dissonances might be part of having donor parts from a lot of different junkyard donors. Is there superstition around how much of another car's ghost can be passed along? Probably. There's no reason it should happen, it's just metal; but just like donor organs for people, I bet there have been some strange happenings documented.

The ironic part of this, tbh, is that in my headcanons, parts replacement is one of the reasons racing is such an extreme sport. Sure, you're not using junkyard parts, but as a racer you're going through intensive parts replacements all the time. If there exists a fear of ending up with too much ghost (or too many), it goes hand in hand with fear of losing hold of your own, too.

A normal car with have routine maintenance intervals, and will experience a transmission replacement or an engine rebuild in their lifetime maybe. It's a big life event. Meanwhile, racers are going through multiple engines a season, and all the other stuff (suspension, hoses, exhaust, etc.) is an every week thing. It's part of the job, and I imagine they think nothing of it most of the time, in the same way they don't think much of sending it into Turn 4 at a speed that does not even exist on most speedometers. But it surely takes a lot of mental fortitude to be able to do that week in and week out and not get weird.

It's an assumed risk, and one that is fairly remote in the scheme of things, but I think just like you can have a crash that's bad in just the wrong way, there's a random chance that this will catch up with you. (This is part of my theory on how car death works, re: Doc and Lynda. Wrecking hard and repeated race damage doesn't necessarily mean long-term or major effects down the road, but sometimes it does, and it's the unpredictability, the way these instances stay statistically insignificant, that makes them so dangerous.)

This comes up in my fanfic, Moonshine, and also in a fic called "Bug" I started in 2017 based on an ask I received, but never finished because it made me too sad, lol. Maybe one day. Sorry anon from 2017 whose ask I never answered! It's legit still in my askbox.

I opened up the Google Doc and actually really liked what was in there (even though I still think it's too sad), so here is one of the scenes:

--

If you were a lightning bug, flickering then vanishing in the thick of the South Carolina heat outside the race trailers, you might've heard this part. Lightning on the phone and Sally, thousands of miles away.

You're a lightning bug. You don't live long enough to know who Lightning is, or who he'd been. There aren't words for the lifetimes of cars in the language of insects. You don't know that he'd been moody as a newborn, or that he's just as moody now. Yes, even now--reformed and matured and finally, retired. He's just quieter about it. Usually.

You flicker.

Lightning bickers. 

"Well, I don't know," he responds, more emphatically than the situation requires. "I'm not a doctor. What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to say how you're feeling. A doctor can't do that part for you, Lightning," says Sally, without raising her voice to match his. Sally can raise hell with the best of them, but she's not trying to win this argument. She's trying to help.

"Not good! I dunno," says Lightning. And after that, he speaks only in variations on that theme. Not good. He doesn't know. He doesn't know.

It's a little odd. As a racer, Lightning's understanding of his body is significantly better than most.  Your average car couldn't reliably point out their own stub axle, but racecars are different, particularly when their crew chief was as mercilessly pedantic as Doc had been. They know when something's going.

"I don't know," says Lightning.

It's possible, little lightning bug, that there are no words for the lifetimes of cars in the language of cars, either.

A few weeks, as many races, multiple phone calls, and several dozen of Lightning's largely unnecessary apologies later, Sally and Lighting talk again. A new generation of lightning bugs--this time in Kentucky--flickers outside.

Lightning hasn't been sleeping. He looks like someone dragged him out of a pick and pull--albeit a very high-end one, Sally assures him.

"Are you in pain?" she asks him. Is that why?

No, he says, with a shake of his head. It's not very convincing, but he's also too tired to lie. He's really not in pain. Either that or--

"I don't know," he says.

He's annoyed when Sally asks him if he's talked to a doctor. Of course he has; he's not a baby. 

Well, sort of. He talked to an EMT at the infield care center, because actually he is a baby and he didn't know where else to go. The EMT could not advise, but started him up through a daisy chain of bureaucracy that got him an appointment with a specialist two months from now.

"Two months?" asks Sally. It seems like a long time. It is a long time. "Are you--"

"Yeah, whatever," says Lightning. "I'm fine, I guess." 

And race season summers always feel long, anyway. They won't see an off-weekend for months. This wait isn't gonna change anything.

"Get some sleep," Sally advises.

Lightning frowns. "I don't want to."

"See, you are a giant baby," Sally reminds him. "But you're my giant baby. Go to sleep! I love you."

Outside, you flicker. You're a lightning bug. In two months, you'll be dead.

#pixar cars #cars fandom #cars headcanons #asks

[in-tua-deep]

Are you into my hero academia? What about an AU or crossover with tua?

UHHHH I am technically, like, peripherally? I watched some seasons of the show like two or three years ago and since then have simply absorbed all content through osmosis, reading fanfiction that has canon events, and my sister telling me about the arcs of her fav characters lmao

so a crossover hmmm

First of all you'd have to like, establish whether bnha is an alternate universe or just The Future If No Apocalypse with quirks being traced back to the descendants of the kids born without mothers

So let's say it's that - the glowing baby was the "first quirk" but the truth is people had powers before that. But - well, the Umbrella Academy was obviously a marketing gimmick to those in the future! There were even comics based on them

In the future, you might find some of those comics in museum exhibits dedicated to depictions of powers in the pre-quirk era, but they're just fun depictions and much less popular than, oh, DC or MCU comics which are also in the exhibits!

End of s2 doesn't happen I guess in this au?? No sparrow academy at least lmao. So, the Umbrella Academy stop the apocalypse (again) and the Commission threat is? Neutralized? Whatever. They decide to jump back to the future

Five warns them that time travel is a crapshoot, that he has no fucking idea when they'll land beyond some nebulous "future" because Five can at least control the direction if not exactly how long

Also, Five is like. Super tired. Incredibly tired. Homeboy still has a healing gut wound, time traveled twice, has been jumping all over the place, gotten even more injured, experienced paradox psychosis, and managed to undo time all in the space of like, two weeks. There actually more than that but we don't have time to get into how fucking tired Five is from his ~Month of Hell

Like genuinely this is like putting someone almost delirious from lack of sleep in the driver's seat of a car and expecting to get to your destination in one piece

But hey, the siblings are like "do it uwu" and Five has sacrificed everything for them already so why not get behind the wheel again

So Five jumps them, and of course something goes wrong because Five has pushed his powers like a great big rubber band and honestly it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip and it snapped back to hit him

So here be the umbrella academy: spilled out into the future like a cup of bad coffee.

Five probably isn't in too good of shape tbh, like they're hundreds of years in the future (but hey at least confirmation of no apocalypse am I right) in a world full of superpowers and Five is like. bleeding from his ears and nose probably idk

Let's handwave a little bit - Reginald made them all polyglots so the squad all speak varying levels of Japanese. Allison is the best at it, Five is second best but tends to use more archaic words bc he had missions in Japan back when he was with the commission, and Klaus is third best.

(Ben is the worst bc he decided when he was 16-and-dead that he didn't have to do anything regarding lessons and maintenance and hasn't given a shit since - but also he's dead so)

So you have a bunch of weird adults with a bleeding child in like, an alley who have appeared from nowhere

so of course heroes get involved

Anyway, the squad get taken in and Five is conscious but like, barely? And he's not going to let himself get separated from his siblings again fuck-you-officer and there is a lot of confusion

anyway detective tsukauchi ends up getting involved and ends up having to hear this batshit story and be like "...truth." which sends all kinds of people scrambling because fucking time travel? Like yeah, it's been theorized to be a possible quirk but there's no recorded cases of any sort of time travel that is for more than 24 hours let alone hundreds of years

"I'm an adult." Five says sourly, "I just happened to be returned to my 13 year old body when I time traveled one time."

"True." Tsukauchi says, feeling his soul leave his body, but like. absently. the way he does when he's called in at 2am after getting off of work at midnight.

"I'm 58." Five says.

"Lie." Tsukauchi says, because this is a headcanon hill I will die on.

"I'm probably 58, but it was hard to keep track. I'm at least 50." Five corrects.

"True." Tsukauchi sighs like these six (seven? they keep referring to another sibling and Klaus said 'ghost' like that was fine and it registered as true and Tsukauchi is not nearly paid enough for this) are not giving him a migraine by just existing

on the bright side there's like, probably protocols in place for individuals who are Legally Chronologically Adults but thanks to quirks are Not Physically Or Not Mentally Adults with tests to determine if the individual needs a guardian or not

though i'm gonna be honest idk if Five would pass the test bc he literally cannot take care of himself at all, has never paid taxes or understands how to exist legally, and also his emotional maturity is stunted as all hell. also like. we don't actually know how much being in his thirteen-year-old body affects his mental state but yeAH Five is vibing

anyway Tsukauchi probably phones a friend on this bullshit because Time Travel Child alone is probably enough for the Hero Commission to be like "find a way to control and use it or nuke it from orbit" and that's not even touching whatever the fuck Klaus is doing (shit gets real once 'dead men tell no tales' stops being true) let ALONE Allison's whole deal

on the bright side like, at least Vanya isn't getting side-eyed that much bc Big Destructive Quirks aren't exactly unknown? if vanya wanted to i guess quirk suppressors exist for that until extensive training on how to control a super powerful quirk happens

Tsukauchi in the group chat: Aizawa please I am literally begging you to take this bullshit on

Aizawa: in this economy? with my class?

RatGod: lol we'll take them ;3c

Aizawa: no

Anyway they probably end up having to live at UA while Five insists on trying to get them home still and everyone else is like "oh hey we used to be child soldiers as well! (:" and Aizawa is like "i hate everything about this and everything about all of you but also like nedzu is making me interact with you so :/"

nedzu is out here vibing like "lol i just don't want the hero commission to get their little paws on these time traveling fuckers, i think you should make then teaching assistants or something"

honestly the siblings are probably like. figuring out how to function in the bnha universe and getting like, legally registered and stuff while Five ferally refuses bc that's like saying he's giving up on getting them home and he can do this

Recovery girl tries to heal him a little when he arrives and he passes out for two weeks like, immediately bc homeboy is running on fumes and spite at this point

also i think on principle it would be REALLY FUNNY if the squad got to tag along with the class bc like. Five is thirteen and the class are all 15. this does not sound like a large age gap. anyone who has interacted with teenagers know that the class would squint at Five and be like "who is this sassy lost middle schooler."

I feel like when I was a sophomore we were still like "freshman... babie" even though we were literally only one year older.

i think the difference between the umbrella academy and school kids would be pretty funny like. objectively the bnha kids are lowkey child soldiers?? like they're 15 and fighting villains but like, there's all this red tape and laws and stuff but,,, deku still be breaking his limbs in a child fighting ring against equally superpowered children for like. entertainment and sponsorships sooo

but also like Five would be like "oh cool when is the experimentation class"

"the what"

"you know, when your powers are pushed real hard by putting you in different terrible situations while your dad and sibling stand by with clipboards writing down the exact voltage it takes before you can't use your powers anymore when being electrocuted"

"hound dog's office is right there. therapy is available to you at any time. i need you to know this."

all might calls Luther "my boy" like one (1) time and Luther just breaks down crying probably because he is starved for positive attention

klaus and midnight get along like a literal house on fire, aizawa tried his best to keep them apart for as long as possible but god damn

(klaus: your name is shimura nana??

all might: immediately dies choking on blood)

i feel it absolutely necessary to point out that aizawa, present mic, and midnight are all like, 30? and the umbrella academy are all between 29-early 30s? they are PEERS but like. the umbrella academy are more chaotic due to childhood trauma

the umbrella academy probably get offered to like. also train to be heroes. i mean,, there HAS to be some sort of track for people who change careers right?? you don't have to cement your future as a hero when you're 15 i'm sure there must be something and the squad already have experience if they want to go be legal heroes

diego probably does at least?? diego just vibes honestly. diego gets momo to make knives during a team exercise and they just go feral on everyone else and it ends with diego highfiving momo and someone getting way to close to being stabbed for comfort

Five might just be. legally enrolled as an Actual Student? But also i think it's funny to picture the entire squad just. all in the back of the classroom with luther trying to fit into a high school desk as they take notes on the laws of The Future surrounding heroics

every word out of the umbrella academy's mouths just make everyone more concerned on principal but like, five and klaus are probably the worst offenders. Klaus just says whatever comes to mind with no filter and Five doesn't get what people would consider to be abnormal anymore like

Five: yeah our dad bought us when we were babies and experimented on us throughout our childhood in order to make an elite team of child soldiers superheroes, it happens

Todoroki: ...have you heard of quirk marriages?

izuku probably has an aneurism bc he's is the only person who might recognize them from the comics because you know ya boy extensively researched the idea of heroics in pre-quirk eras (batman was an inspiration alright???) and might dredge up a memory of a less popular comic series

Five: I can time travel but it is very hard, which is why we are hundreds of years in the future. And why I look like a child.

Kaminari: so are you a kid or not?

Five, serenely: whatever is most convenient for me at any given moment

Mina: hell yeah game the system

they have a brief lesson on astronomy and Luther raises his hand like "ooh! i was isolated on the moon for four years and did SO MUCH research" and then just gets up and starts infodumping like way too much information on the moon

Izuku sitting there like "damn if quirks hadn't popped up we could have achieved so much in terms of space travel. please tell me more giant man who lived in pre-quirk era."

Vanya finds out about the quirkless and is like "oh mood that genuinely sounds like my childhood, being ordinary in a house full of extraordinary people, and then i found out that i did have powers but only much later in life after i had already been emotionally scarred by the experience"

deku: vanya we have so much in common

iida and uraraka: concerned noises

aizawa: hound dog. therapy with hound dog for all of you.

there's probably some conflict with like, the hero commission wanting to get their hands on the time travelers?? but probably especially five and klaus as a) time travel and b) ghosts (the hc def has bodies they would like to stay buried)

five has a pavlovian reaction to anything with 'commission' in the name and hates them on site, probably plays into his age in order to become a ward of UA or something to protect him from the commission a little bit.

(this makes nedzu Five's legal guardian. aizawa has his resignation papers all prepped in a drawer marked 'in case of emergency' but let's be real, if nedzu wants to take over the world aizawa should probably be on the rat-bear's side of things :/)

five: ah, i do recall the inhumane experimentation that we were subjected to

nedzu, who was experimented on: haha same hat! want me to dig up the location of reginald hargreeves's remains so you can spit on them?

klaus: nah no worries we dumped them out in the courtyard unceremoniously like, a while back. how long ago varies for each of us because of time travel!

luther: you said hound dog's office was down the hall and to the right?

on the bright side, Luther probably feels like. way less self conscious about his body, partially bc of his fighting and all that in the 60s but also bc !! now he genuinely doesn't feel like a freak. no one even gives him a second glance. one of the teachers looks like a slab of cement with a face. gang orca looks Like That. there is literally a student with an entire bird head and goth aesthetic. Luther does not stick out at all

allison and shinso bond over having "villainous" voice-based quirks

allison and shinso having worn muzzles at some point in their youth as punishment 🤝

aizawa probably helps train vanya as well with the whole, being able to erase a world ending quirk safely thing he's got going on which makes for a very nice safety net

i don't think vanya would want to be a hero at the end of things though. maybe the assistant teacher in the music class or something?? all vanya wants is to be able to not end the world

i feel like as time goes by, five brings up trying to get home less and less. part of that is because like,,, genuinely what do they have to go back to?? Allison has Claire, but like. I'm 100% sure the first thing she did in the future was try track down Claire's records and found out Claire was like. fine. became an adult, had a family, probably became the ancestor of the first "quirked" kids who officially popped up after light baby. had a good life, died at an old age etc. etc.

they start settling into the bnha world with like, "we can always hop aboard the five express into where the fuck ever" as a plan Z if things go completely pear shaped (again)

i'mma be real, five himself doesn't give a fuck as long as there is a) no apocalypse and b) his family is alive. Like that's it. His bar is so incredibly low and yet his life keeps fucking trying to limbo under it

i just think it would be funny to have like, Five trying to get along with his "peers" and make friends while the siblings do the same but like, in the staff room

also think it would be funny for five to just walk into the staff room and get coffee occasionally.

a teacher: why is a student in here -

Five, sipping coffee: i'm an adult

nedzu like "what kind of guardian would i be if i didn't teach my new son all the tunnels around ua so he can pop out wherever"

five like "hey new dad can i put stashes of supplies all around ua of weapons, money, food, and other assorted things that might be useful if one needed to fight or make a run for it" and nedzu is like "haha just put your list of what supplies you want in your go bags on my desk and i'll critique it later!"

anyway a bnha/tua crossover would be incredibly chaotic but probably very funny

#long post #far tua long #tua bnha crossover #what kind of disaster is this #there are so many characters in bnha to even consider #there is no more apocalypse so five either chills the fuck out or his paranoia ramps up to an eleven #or both! #five teleporting into nedzu's office like: hey i wrote a 52 page potential contingency plan for if x happens #and nedzu is like 'wonderful!' and gives it back to five the next day with corrections and critiques in red ink #klaus ben and ghost!nana get along like a house on fire even if she keeps telling klaus that he's too skinny #ben: klaus is an absolute fucking idiot with zero braincells #nana nodding sagely while looking at all might: ah yes i know the exact type #diego and snipe become absolute bros like ride or die because why not #luther gets positive reinforcement and goes to therapy #also thirteen listens patiently to luther infodumping about space because i think that would be nice #five is either like 'i'm only thirteen uwu' or 'i'm fifty eight' and there is nothing in between - only what is most convenient #i feel like kaminari and mina vibe with five's brand of chaos #iida doesn't know whether to murder five for being a gremlin and disobeying so many rules or to be respectful bc five is technically old #aizawa is SO TIRED y'all #aizawa thinks vanya is going to be the good hargreeves but PSYCHE all the hargreeves are equally chaotic in different ways #five calls nedzu 'dad' for the sole reason that it makes every teacher and/or hero in earshot cringe in automatic fear #klaus also calls nedzu dad because he just thinks it's funny #five and nedzu have similar coping mechanisms so they vibe but nedzu also vibes with klaus's sense of chaotic humor #five gets talked into healthier coping mechanisms by way of 'keeping his cover' or 'preventing the hc from getting their hands on you' #aka five is not allowed to drink alcohol #five HAS gone to midnight and been like 'hey teach knock me the fuck out my brain is working overdrive and i need to not be awake anymore'

[msjr0119]

The Greatest Show

This Is Me

A new series- all chapters are based on each song from ‘The Greatest Showman’

Characters belong to Pixelberry except MC - Amber Smith-Beaumont- this chapter also includes a Perfect Match/TRR crossover

Warnings: Swearing, sarcasm 😉, smut

Tags - using combined tagged list, if you want to be removed/added please let me know 👍🏼

@annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bbrandy2002 @butindeed @bascmve01 @drakewalker04 @pedudley @captain-kingliamsqueen @duchessemersynwalker @insideamirage @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @kozabaji @texaskitten30 @ibldw-main @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @dangerouseggseagleartisan @gnatbrain @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @addictedtodrakefanfic @angi15h @liamxs-world @rafasgirl23415 @notoriouscs @yukinagato2012 @dcbbw @qammh-blog @nz1091 @beardedoafdonutwagon @cordonianroyalty @custaroonie @seriouslybadchoices @rainbowsinthestorm @princess-geek @jared2612 @desiree-0816

******

Amber ran to her room, wanting to ignore Madeleines malicious attitude- she couldn’t help but wonder if they were lies. When her mother moved away once she reached 18, she often spoke about people in Cordonia- one being the Beaumont’s but the other being Jackson, now known as Jackson Walker- Drakes father.

“Do you miss Cordonia?”

“I miss our family especially Barthelemy. I was also close to a handsome man called Jackson- he was the main kings guard. He was very nice- supportive with anyone, a family man. I heard that he tragically died leaving behind his wife and two children. Amber. I will never stop you from seeing your family. I know the Beaumont’s come here, but if you ever want to go back- that is your choice.”

“No thank you. If the other nobles are like Bertrand, my ass is staying right here in New York.”

Picking up the landline in her room, she dialled the number that she had memorised over the years.

“Hello?”

“Amber! How are you?”

“I need to come home soon. I need answers about my life. Answers about my father.”

“Why?”

“Because I think I’ve slept my brother. Please. I’ll let you know when I’m returning.”

Hanging up she laid back in bed, her mind running overtime. Hearing the knocking at the door- the familiar voices, she remained silent. Ignoring them, she felt rude- but right now she just wanted to be on her own.

Waking up the next morning Amber wanted to believe that last night was just some awful nightmare - seeing the sunshine through the window, she decided to make herself a cup of coffee and sit on the balcony. Opening the doors, she felt that cool Lythikos air. Sparking up the cigarette, she took a long drag.

“Morning. So you’re a social smoker too?”

“Jesus Drake! What are you doing up? Yes I am, when the occasion calls for it - just don’t tell Bertrand.”

“Well that’s what people tend to do in the morning- get up. Hmm, I can’t promise that I won’t tell him.” Turning around to finally face him, she admired his body. Noticing her gawking, and the ash falling off her cig in slow motion- he needed to gain her attention.

“Amber! You’re going to inform Bertrand that you smoke yourself if you burn yourself.”

Shit. Standing up, he walked over to the edge of his balcony.

“Are you okay? We all came up to see you, but you must have been asleep.”

“I’m fine.” Providing him with a half hearted smile, she looked down towards the floor not wanting to elaborate the conversation. “Amber there’s something you should know.”

“Drake, I already know.”

“I don’t think you do. I’m coming over to your room.”

“I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it or Madeleine. Just go and put some clothes on you’re making me feel cold.” Drake walked back into his room, she was feeling relieved but also slightly disappointed. Before she knew it, he was climbing over the ledge.

“Drake! You’re going to break your neck!”

“Are you going to let me in if I knock on your door?”

“No.”

“Well then, I guess I’m risking breaking my neck.” Amber stood up wondering if he was bluffing, her heart was jumping out of her chest. What would the news headlines be?

Secret love child has affair with her half brother, then is the reasoning behind his sudden death.

Winking at her as he landed on her balcony, she felt as if she could breathe again.

“See. No broken neck. But if I did break it it would be your fault.”

“Oh really? I told you that I didn’t want to talk.”

“Stop being stubborn. Madeleine lied. Your father isn’t who you think he is, but he isn’t my father.”

“How do you know that?”

“Your Uncle Barthelemy is your father. Maxwell hasn’t told Bertrand yet.”

“What? I need to go.”

“Maxwell isn’t here, if that’s where you was going. He’s gone back to Ramsford.”

“Fuck.”

“I’m so sorry. Barthelemy should have been honest with everyone.”

“That’s not the problem....” Drake looked at her puzzled. “If Bertrand and Maxwell suddenly die, Ramsford is mine. Oh god. I can’t be noble. I can’t be a Duchess.” Drake burst out laughing, she reminded him so much of him.

“It’s not funny Drake!”

“Sorry but it is. Maxwell is like an alley cat- he has a hundred lives, I wouldn’t worry too much. Besides you’d be the most beautiful Duchess in Cordonia.” Shit, I want him. Now that he’s told me the truth. We’re not related. Phew! Stop gawking at him Amber.

“I think Olivia would disagree. At least my title would be higher than miss broken nose barbie.”

“Olivia is going to be Queen, she won’t care about the Duchess status any longer. You need to get ready, we’re all due out on the ice in an hour.”

“Great.” She said with a lack of enthusiasm.

“What’s up can’t you skate?”

“Babe, I’d skate circles around you. I’m like a professional figure skater. Don’t believe me you’ll have to come and watch.”

“Any other talents you’d like to confess?”

“Plenty. Apart from showering.”

“Well it’s not hard to have a shower.”

“But I may need some help scrubbing my back.”

“You’ll have to ask someone else. You told me to get dressed remember.”

“That’s a shame. See ya around Drake.” Walking into the bathroom, she purposely left the door open. Drake gulped as he saw her naked, natural instinct led him to follow her.

“Is the water warm enough?”

“Not quite. I thought you was going.”

“I thought you needed help, scrubbing your back.”

“I do. But I think you’re slightly overdressed Mr Walker.” Stepping into the shower, the water was cascading down Ambers body. Feeling his eyes watching her, she wondered what he was thinking. Washing her hair, her eyes closed as she rinsed off the shampoo, before rubbing the shower gel over her body in a seductive manner. Opening her eyes, she turned to see Drake slip off his clothes, and boxers before joining her. Taking the shower gel, he rubbed it in to her back- feeling his erection against her she sighed. Turning to face him, the droplets that did nothing but accentuate his strong frame, glistened down his arms and trickle down his chest. Placing her hands around his neck, she kissed him on the lips. It started as an innocent gentle kiss, before becoming passionate. Their lips melted into one- his tongue slid across her bottom lip, her mouth opened slightly- giving him permission to enter it into her mouth. Their tongues battled against each other as if their life depended on it. His arms gripped around her waist tighter, as he pressed her against the wall. Feeling his hard cock in between her parted legs, she knew she couldn’t hold off any longer. Drake placed kisses along every inch of her body, before sucking and licking one nipple, whilst his other hand squeezed her bottom. “Oh Drake...” hearing her moan his name, he lightly traced her entrance with his fingers before inserting them. His fingers moved rhythmically inside her whilst his thumb circled her clit. Increasing his speed as he pumped her, she couldn’t contain the pleasure. “Enjoying that baby?” “Yes, but it’s your turn now.” Before he knew it, Amber removed his fingers from her, bending down she grabbed his dick and guided it towards her mouth. A moan escaped his lips immediately, leaning himself against the wall, he closed his eyes. “Amber, you.... you’re amazing baby.” Fluttering her eyelashes, she traced her tongue along his long length. Her lips formed a tight grip around the tip of him, taking him deeper with each movement. Drake tangled his calloused hands in her hair, before encouraging her to stop. “I want you Amber, you’re so beautiful.” “I’m all yours handsome.” Guiding his cock towards her entrance; he kissed her. “Turn around, and bend over.” Amber did as he said, before thrusting into her in one movement. Feeling her walls tighten against him, he loved feeling her. Placing his palms flat against the shower wall for extra support, he increased his speed, he loved their instant connection- eventually spilling his hot seed into her. Removing his penis- Amber stood up, turning to face him. They both smiled at each other, holding each other whilst their eyes locked. Sharing one last kiss, they both got out of the shower. Drake towel dried Amber.

“You’re a bad influence, you know that Beaumont?”

“It’s Smith- Beaumont.” She winked at him whilst smirking.

“Whatever, beautiful. Come on, you’ve delayed us enough.”

“Ditto!” Placing a kiss on his cheek, Drake had never felt more happy than this moment in time.

*****

Drake arrived at the frozen lake, usually he wasn’t interested in this activity when they came to Lythikos- however he couldn’t prevent looking at Amber skating. She wasn’t lying when she said she could skate.

“Pick ya jaw up Walker.”

“She told me she could skate, I thought she was lying. She’s really good.”

“Is this the first time in Lythikos that you may actually join in? I mean you’re smiling. I don’t think that any of us have seen you smile this much.” Liam joined in winding the situation up.

“I smile.”

“Barely. Why don’t you go to her for some lessons?”

“No it’s fine. I’m enjoying watching someone outshine Olivia. Besides I’ve spent time with her today.”

“When?” Leo and Liam both asked in unison.

“Just before we came here. I jumped onto her balcony. We talked....”

“And.....” Leo was eager for some new court gossip.

“We had a shower.”

“You mean you had sex in the shower. Jesus Drake. What is this girl doing to you? You’re like a whole new man.”

“Oh this is interesting.”

“What do you want?” The men all snapped at Madeleine. Kiara shortly following behind.

“Both commoners sleeping together, sounds about right. I wonder what would happen if this news was to leak? How could you do that to Kiki, Drake?” Leo noticed Kiara’s face drop, he could see the heartache she was going through. He knew Drake had been honest with her, not leading her on in any way, but Madeleine wasn’t helping the situation.

“How’s the nose? Because I’ll gladly finish Ambers job off!” Leo snapped at his ex fiancée, he hated her with a passion.

“Oh darling. You love me really. You did choose me after all, before you decided to go awol. If your brother had any sense he would pick me too.”

“Heh you wish Countess. I’m going to join Olivia and Amber. You coming Li? Drake?”

They all gathered on the lake, Olivia was annoyed with Amber- secretly wishing she could skate like she did.

“So you weren’t lying then.” Drake said, as he skated up towards her- placing his arms around her waist.

“Why would I lie about that? What is she doing here?”

“Just ignore her. She’s already started. She overheard me talking to Liam and Leo. They all know we’ve slept together. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t want to know how she responded. She’s horrible. I hate her. Leo had a lucky escape.”

“That he did. I wanted to ask you before, what did Olivia leave us for a surprise?” Smirking at him, she knew his eyes would widen.

“How about you come to my room when we get back to the palace later? And you’ll see. We can Netflix and chill.” Drake laughed, knowing that he was the one who explained to her what that phrase meant. Feeling his cock get harder thinking about it, he couldn’t wait to leave Lythikos.

“It’s a date! I’ll bring whiskey too. Amber, I... I’m starting to fa....”

“Bonjour! Lady Amber I’m impressed with your skating skills. Fantastique.”

“Thank you Lady Kiara.. I can teach you if you’d like?” Drake shot her a look, Amber responded by shrugging her shoulders.

“Merci, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it. If Lady Hana Lee had of joined the social season you’d both be in competition.”

“Maybe. Myself and my best friend Riley always go skating back home. Daniel our other friend always falls over. It’s funny. But the offers still there Lady Kiara. Drake, I’ll see you later. I’m going to talk to princes.” Don’t you dare fucking leave me Amber! Walking away, she laughed at Drake feeling awkward.

“How many times have you slept with her? What does she have that I don’t?”

“For a start she doesn’t constantly speak in a different language all the time. We’ve slept together more than once Kiara, not that it’s any of your business. You need to move on. I’m not interested, I’ve always been honest with you.”

“When she goes back to New York, Maybe you could think about us?” Drake shook his head. “Goodbye Kiara, I’ll see you back at the palace.”

*****

Everyone arrived back at the palace, they were all exhausted after ice skating and skiing. Much to Ambers disappointment, an impromptu ball had been arranged by King Constantine before his favourite event took place the following morning- The Royal regatta.

Drake knocked on Ambers door an hour before the ball was due to take place.

“Hey. You look handsome in your suit.”

“Why aren’t you dressed? I’m surprised Maxwell hasn’t dragged you down to the boutique yet.”

“I’ve got plenty of dresses. He’s still at Ramsford with Bertrand anyway. I want to show you something. Come in.” Drake walked in as Amber locked the door, she asked him to sit on the bed whilst she got dressed in the bathroom.

“Drake Walker? Are you ready?”

“Ready for what? Whatever you’ll wear you’ll look gorgeous.”

“Close your eyes.” Drake did as she asked, hearing her near him- he was intrigued as to why she asked him to do it.

“Open them.”

“Holy shit!” Amber was wearing a silky baby doll lingerie, the bralette showing off her assets- whilst the loose fitting skirt provided easy access for roaming hands.

“What do you think? Liv is one kinky bitch isn’t she?”

“You are going to have to take that off, because if not we aren’t going to make it to the ball.”

“Well we have just under an hour. I’m yours if you want me.”

“You’re killing me here Amber! I can’t resist you.”

“Don’t then. What did you want to say before Kiara interrupted us by the way?”

“I’m starting to fall for you. And you wearing this... god. I’m starting to like Olivia. Come here.” Amber straddled him, feeling his erection rub against her.

“Shall I put Netflix on?” She winked at him. “I’m starting to fall for you too.”

After sleeping with each other again, they both quickly got dressed for the ball. “Would you like to be announced into the ballroom together? Fuck what anyone thinks.”

“I’d love to.” Linking arms, they both walked towards the ballroom. God I’m one lucky bastard having her in my arms.

Sir Drake Walker, Lady Amber Smith-Beaumont

*****

Bastien stood in the corner, people watching. Noticing Drake and Amber together, his usual stern expression changed into a soft smile. Jackson always spoke fondly of Ambers mom to him, and Bastien knew that Jackson would approve of the blossoming romance between the two of them. He was knocked out of his people watching trance, when another guard tapped him on the shoulder.

“Sorry to disturb you, but someone is here demanding to see you and Lady Amber. “

“Is it important? Have you done a security check on this person?”

“No. They said you know of them.”

“Okay, take my place.” Bastien walked out of the ballroom, noticing the man he shook his head smiling.

“What are you doing here?”

“Bast, long time no see. I’m here on business. I need to see Amber Smith- Beaumont.”

*****

Drake left Amber, to go and talk to the men. Kissing her on the cheek, she blushed. “Sneak into my room later, bring that sexy underwear.” “Of course Sir Walker. Only for your eyes.”

Amber spoke to Olivia, before being interrupted by the three witches.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the court whore!” Madeleine snapped, Olivia jumped- becoming panic stricken, paranoid that Maddy was referring to her.

“What do you want? I’ll accept all of your insults Countess. So do carry on. When the sharpest words wanna cut me down. I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out. I am brave, I am bruised. I am who I'm meant to be, this is me. I’m not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me.”

“You think you’re so clever don’t you amber. We don’t want you here. None of us. You’ll soon break down. You need to hide away. Runaway. You don’t belong here. You’re just a freak. A love child.”

“Technically I do belong here! I’m a Beaumont. I’ll be heir to Ramsford if anything happens to my brothers.”

“You’re a slut, like your mother was!” Madeleine screamed, gaining attention from all the guests.

“Another round of bullets hits my skin. Well, fire away 'cause today, I won't let the shame sink in. My mother may have been a ‘slut’, but you don’t know her. Or my father for that matter. You do know they married each other right? Oh no silly me, you didn’t know that gossip did you Maddy?”

“Madeleine leave her alone now!”

“Suddenly the Duchess pipes up, shall we spill your little secret whilst we are at it? You’re both sluts. Neither of you will be queen.” Olivia’s heart began to race ten to the dozen.

“Madeleine enough!” Regina interrupted the women, providing sorrow in her eyes towards Amber and Olivia.

“You are making a scene. Carry on and I will escort you out!”

“Don’t worry your Majesty. I’m leaving anyway. Come on girls.” Amber turned to face Liv, smirking. “High five to my fellow ‘slut’ Olivia.”

“Shut up! She’s just jealous Amber, ignore her.”

“Lady Amber, May I have a word in private please?” Bastien escorted Amber out of the ballroom. Liam, Leo and Drake followed- wondering what was happening.

“Amber, it’s so nice to finally meet you. You are a very hard woman to find.”

“Who are you?”

“I am a private detective. A friend of yours from New York is very concerned about your whereabouts. As far as I can see, you are doing just fine and this has been a waste a time.”

“Who is this friend? What is your name?” Assuming it was Daniel who was concerned about her- she felt guilty not communicating with him before throwing her SIM card away. Beginning to panic, Bastien placed a comforting arm on her shoulder- providing reassurance that she was safe.

“Brett is worried about you. My name is Nazario. Damien Nazario.” Amber began to panic with the mention of his name. Damien noticed fear form in her eyes, she had forgotten all about Brett whilst she was with Drake- now she was wondering if she was in danger.

“Amber. I knew he was full of bullshit when he hired me. I did my research using your surname, and it led me here. Let’s call this a vacation rather than work.”

“He’s going to come after me isn’t he?”

“Not if I can help it. I’ll say I couldn’t find you. I don’t care about the pay packet. I spoke to your friends Daniel and Riley. They confirmed my suspicions about him. From what I’ve heard, he’s an abuser. My dear old friend Bast says you are safe here, you have got family and friends here.”

“As well as enemies. Are Daniel and Riley okay? He hasn’t hurt them has he?”

“No. Riley was very helpful. She is a wonderful young lady. A true friend. She said if he touched her she would and I quote ‘knock him out’. They are worried about you too, maybe give them a call. Riley explained to me how she would travel the world looking for you.”

“Is everything okay?” Liam finally spoke after the men watched the interaction from a distance.

“Ah Prince Liam, it’s so nice to see you again. Not that you knew I was following you in New York.” Damien said, before laughing with Bastien. “When Leo abdicated, the two of you visited the states and refused for Bastien to accompany you, he contacted me to follow the two of you.”

“So you were the mysterious person following us around. I guess it was father who did this to us, and you wonder why I abdicated Li.”

“Yes, the apparent goody two shoes prince had your bad influence rubbed on to him Leo.” Damien smirked.

“What do you mean? He was with me the whole time?”

“That’s what you think. He stayed in New York for a few days, staying in a hotel, sneaking out on dates with a commoner. They even went to the Statue of Liberty late at night. I knew the two of you could never be together Liam, but I could see you cared for each other. The way you both looked at each other, you could have been more secretive if you ask me.”

“Woah Li, you sly dog. What was her name?” Liam remained silent thinking about the one who got away. Ever since he was younger, he knew he had to marry someone with some nobility. But his time in New York, he had fallen in love with the stranger. Leaving her made his heart sink, deep down he did love Olivia too. Once the contact with the stranger abruptly stopped, he had grown to the fact that Olivia would be his Queen. Keeping to the promises- the Million Dreams, that he had originally made with the Duchess.

“Can I borrow someone’s phone please? To ring my friends.” Amber interrupted, Drake held onto to waist and offered her his phone.

“Do you even know their numbers?”

“Yes, they are my best friends. My only friends.” Drake smiled as she dialled the first number. Amber couldn’t hear properly due to the bad line- putting it on loud speaker, she hoped that they would answer.

“Hello?”

“Hey babe.”

“Amber! Where the hell are you? Brett is looking for you! He’s hired a private detective, I saw him at Liberty the other day, with a blonde in his arms. I was ready to kill him....”

“Brooks calm down. I don’t care about him. I split up with him the other day.”

“You did what? Well why the hell has he hired a private detective?”

“Riley, I honestly don’t know?” Brooks, Riley. It’s her, she’s friends with Amber. Shit.

Riley was covering for her friends Daniel and Amber at work. Amber was in hospital after suffering abuse from her boyfriend- again. Daniel had a date. He practically begged Riley to cover for him, practically crying. Agreeing to do the shift, she was grateful that the bar was quiet. Sat on the bar, scrutinising through her social media- she jumped as the doors open. The man with the piercing blue eyes walked over towards her, she smiled softly at him as she jumped off the bar.

“Hi, what can I get ya?” Liam couldn’t focus, his mouth was open but the words didn’t want to escape from his mouth.

“Hello? Are you okay?” Riley waved her hands in front of the stranger.

“Hello. Sorry. Could I have a scotch please?”

“Sure. Coming up.” She paused. “So you’re not from around here.”

“No. I live in a small Mediterranean country. I was visiting with my brother who has moved away. I told him I was going home, but I’ve fallen in love with the city. I’m not ready to go home just yet there’s so much more to see. I did want to visit the Statue of Liberty”

“I see. Well once you visit New York, you do fall in love with it. Unless your a New Yorker born and bred. It gets a bit tedious after a while. I can show you around if you want? Take you to see her?”

“You’d do that for me? You don’t know me.”

“My friends have ditched me. Well one has. The other one is in hospital yet again, her boyfriends an arsehole. I have no other plans. My names Riley. But at times my friends call me by my surname Brooks.”

“Nice to meet you. My names Liam. Liam Rhys.” As promised Riley called in some favours, and took him to the Statue of Liberty after she had closed up the bar.

“So what do you think?”

“Magnificent. I’ve heard that art has a meaning because of what it makes the viewer feel.....” Riley was in awe of how Liam spoke so freely. “And right now, looking at this view with you, I feel like anything is possible. Thank you for this moment, Riley. This feeling.. this means so much more to me than you could ever know.”

“Liam.....” Riley locked eyes with his, matching baby blues. Liam pulled her closer to him, tilting her chin upwards he gently kissed her on the lips.

Coming out of his trance, he noticed Amber was still on the phone to Riley. Not knowing what had got in to him, he snatched the phone out of her hand.

“Riley!”

“Who the fuck is this? Put Amber back on.”

“It’s me, Liam.”

#trr #trr fanfic #trr the greatest show #amber smith-beaumont #drake walker #liam rhys #leo rhys #olivia nevrakis #trr madeleine #trr kiara #trr bastien #trr regina #drake x amber #drake x mc #liam x riley #riley brooks #damien nazario #perfect match choices #perfect match x trr

[ayanna-wild]

Not From Around Here

Word Count: 1772

Pairings: Lucifer Morningstar x reader

Warnings: angst, mild language

A/N: Request from @veromiku3, enjoy! Requests and Tag List are open! Crossover fic, Supernatural and Lucifer.

Masterlist

Summary: He might not have been the devil you knew but he was the devil regardless. Your brothers are less then thrilled to have even needed to ask for his help. So you getting close to him, well that was just a time bomb waiting to happen.

............................................................

Pain.

It was the first thing you felt when you woke up. You could practically feel the bruises forming on your ribs and you struggled to sit up. You looked around, trying to remember what had happened, or at the very least, where you were. You looked around the dark alley, seeing nothing familiar. Weren't you just in a warehouse? Like getting a bucket of cold water thrown in your face it all rushed back to you. The witch, the hunt, the spell, your brothers. That presented you with another problem. Where was Sam and Dean?

You painfully stood, looking around in a slight panic. When your eyes landed on them, at the other end of the alley you sighed in relief. You hurried over to them, checking their pulses. They were alive.

"Come on boys, time to wake up." You muttered inspecting the cut over Sam's eye.

You held your breath as you waited for them to show any signs of waking. When they didn't your panic began to grow, you were so distracted you hadn't noticed the man approaching you from behind.

"Are you alright darling?"

Your instincts kicked in and you spun around, gun ready and face cold. The man raised an eyebrow and stared at your gun. You took a moment to look at him. He was a handsome man with black hair, and dressed in a very expensive looking suit. He didn't look scared or even worried, in fact he looked almost entertained?

"Is that how you greet everyone? That's not very good manners." He said.

You narrowed your eyes at him, and spared a quick glance at your still unconscious brothers. The man followed your graze and his smile fell slightly. He took a step forward and your attention was immediately back on him. You pulled the hammer back on your gun.

"I'm not going to hurt you, or your currently unconscious friends. Maybe I can help." He offered.

You hesitated but realized there would be no way for you to get your brothers out of here by yourself so you agreed. He took you up to a penthouse where with the help of a few other men laid your brothers on his couch. Apparently he was a nightclub owner and you had woken in the alley directly beside his club.

"So tell me my dear, do you and your friends tend to hang out in alleyways regularly? If so that's a dreadfully boring thing to do, I'm sure the three of you could find something more entertaining to do."

You turned your attention of the bruise forming in Dean's wrist to him. You raised an eyebrow, this man was a bit eccentric.

"They're not my friends they're my brothers, and we were not there for the fun of it. A case went bad, I don't know how we got there." You said.

"Case? Are you police?"

You shrugged, accepting the drink he offered you.

"Sometimes."

He looked like he wanted to say something but you decided to change the subject.

"So is this what you do in your free time? Go around helping random people you find in alleys?"

He smirked and took a drink of his whiskey.

"When there's beautiful women involved, absolutely."

You scoffed slightly but still returned his smile.

"I'm Y/N by the way, Y/N Winchester."

"Lucifer, Morningstar, it is certainly very nice to meet you Y/N."

Fear made your heart almost stop and you pulled your gun out again, taking a step back.

"What are you doing here Lucifer? I thought you were in the cage." You hissed.

"Cage? What are you talking about?" He looked confused.

You frowned but kept your gun trained on him.

"Whose meat suit are you wearing this time?"

Lucifer looked increasingly more confused which in turn only confused you.

"Meat suit? I assure you darling this body is entirely my own."

A theory slowly began to form in your mind and you lowered your gun slightly.

"And you have no idea who I am? Who Dean is? Who Sam is?"

"Afraid not, this is the first I've seen if you three, and trust me, I would certainly remember meeting you." Lucifer smirked.

"That doesn't change the fact that you're the devil! That you're evil!" You snapped.

Lucifer's smile disappeared, and he took a step forward eyes flashing red.

"I punish evil, I'm not evil. I'm not the monster you silly little humans paint me out to be!" He shouted.

Your instincts told you to shot him, even though you knew it would do very little. However, your finger fell away from the trigger and you lowered your gun.

"That's much different from the Lucifer I know."

And so you filled him in, coming to the conclusion that you were in fact, in a different universe. As a matter of fact you spent the last two hours talking with the handsome devil, swapping stories and passing the time. It was no surprise that you never heard your brothers wake up. You hadn't even been in the same room, you had been showering after Lucifer offered to let you use his shower.

"Y/N?" Dean called.

Lucifer had been at his bar, fixing himself a drink when he heard your brothers sit up.

"Oh good you're awake. I was beginning to wonder if the two of you would sleep the day away." Lucifer said.

"Who are you?" Dean demanded standing up.

"Well I'm-"

"Where's Y/N?" Sam asked.

Lucifer opened his mouth to answer but Dean cut him off.

"Where's our sister."

Lucifer let out an exasperated sign and rolled his eyes.

"If you would let me get a word in I will gladly tell you two. My name is Lucifer Morningstar, you're in my penthouse, and your darling sister is taking a shower."

You heard the shots that rang out through the penthouse followed by a noise of glass breaking. You hurried from the bathroom, slipping your shirt on. Sam and Dean were awake and reloading their guns while Lucifer inspected the many holes he now had in his shirt.

"Honestly there's no call for that, this was my favorite suit."

Dean and Sam raised their guns and you quickly ran in between the three of them.

"Wait! Don't shot him again!"

"Y/N move! That guy is the fucking devil!" Dean said.

"I know."

"If you know then get away from him!"

"He's not like our Lucifer!"

Hearing that their expressions went from murderous to skeptical. You filled them in on what had happened. The witch sending the three of you to an alternate universe. Lucifer finding the three of you. Him agreeing to help you find a way home, and everything you had learned while they were unconscious.

"I don't care if he's not the same Lucifer, he's still the devil, and he's still evil." Sam warned.

"Are you sure they're your brothers Y/N, they don't sound a thing like you." Lucifer said sarcastically referring to the fact that you had basically said the same thing.

"You can't blame them, our Lucifer possessed Sam and tried to kill Dean. Of course, they're going to be a little apprehensive of you."

"My shirt would say their more than a little." Lucifer scoffed.

Dean pulled you away from him, and him and Sam stood in front of you, protectively.

"We don't need his help. We'll find our own way home." Dean snapped.

You shrugged Sam's hand off your shoulder, glaring at your brothers.

"Right and how are we going to do that? Did you have friends here? No?"

Dean fell silent and Lucifer smirked making Sam and Dean glare at him.

"Your sister is certainly a spirited one isn't she?"

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because Dean grabbed his shirt.

"Touch her, and we'll pluck the feathers right off your wings." He growled.

You rolled your eyes and looked at Sam, who was watching Lucifer with a panicked look in his eyes. Your expression softened and you placed a hand on his arm.

"It's not him Sammy."

"But it's still Lucifer, we can't trust him." Sam muttered.

You shrugged and looked towards Dean and Lucifer who were still arguing.

"No one said we had to trust him Sam, but we still need his help."

"I know. Good luck convincing Dean though."

Apparently you needed more than luck. You had been stuck there for nearly three weeks and although you were slowly making progress, you still worried you may never get home. Your brothers, well they were still less than happy to see how close you have gotten to Lucifer. In fact, they tried to avoid him altogether, and when they couldn't, in normally ended with them unloading their guns into his chest. You had to admit most of the time it was Lucifer seeing how long it would take for him to get under their skin.

"All I'm saying is we should get what we need and get as far away from him as possible."

You sipped your whiskey, watching your brothers try to make a plan. You didn't offer much input and only half listened. You excused yourself for some air and walked out onto the balcony. You stared at the lights of the city, watching the cars drive by on the street below. You heard someone's shoes hit the floor as they walked up behind you.

"Just give me a minute, I'll help you guys brainstorm." You sighed.

"Oh and what are the hunters brainstorming about? Ways to kill the devil? Because I think they may be running out of bullets."

You smiled slightly, and turned your head to look at Lucifer whenever he walked over to stand beside you.

"I thought you were Sam or Dean."

He looked offended and you laughed.

"Don't compare me to those two neanderthals."

"You mean my brothers right?"

You raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of your drink. Lucifer looked panicked as if he was worried that actually upset you.

"Well I didn't mean-"

"I'm joking Lucifer, I call them a lot of things" You laughed.

"Her favorite is calling us girl scouts." Dean muttered walking by.

You flipped Dean off making him chuckle. Lucifer noticed how your smile quickly faded and you looked back out at the city.

"Are you alright darling?"

"Reasonably worried I guess."

"Missing home?"

You shrugged, finishing off the rest of your drink.

"If it's any consolation, I wouldn't be opposed to you staying around a bit longer." Lucifer said.

He refused to look at you and you smiled at him.

"I just might."

............................................................................

Tag List: @we-are-all-alittle-strange-here @adira-secrets @gingernarwal @beththedemonhunter @lifeshortbro @im-just-along-for-the-ride @cuddly-cat-in-a-trench-coat @veromiku3

#lucifer morningstar x reader #lucifer netflix #lucifer morningstar imagine #lucifer x reader #lucifer morningstar #luciferonfox #lucifer morningstar x you #lucifer morningstar one shot #supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #crossover

[heartfeltheart]

Alchemy: Magic Vs. Science

Chapters: 3/25 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter Rating: T Relationships: Edward/Winry, Lan Fan/Ling, and May/Alphonse. Primary Characters: Edward Elric, Severus Snape Additional Tags: Crossover, Teacher!Edward, BrOtp Edward/Severus. Sassy beyond measure. Series: Part 1 of 9. Summary: Magic and Science, are they the same or are they completely different? It just takes one person to point out all up and downs. Along with breaking the stereotypes that come up with being a wizard, alchemist and most of all being human. Thank you, @amynchan! D/C: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist. Discord: La Red(Mesh Mash of… stuff.): https://discord.gg/KYjmVAb Alchemy Series: https://discord.gg/DejEYNJ

“English and Edward’s accented voice.” “Amestrian or another foreign language.” “Written notes.” ‘Thoughts.’ First Name: Informal Last Name: Formal (Or used to annoy others)

"Dis is amazing..." Edward said in total awe the moment the bricks moved away to show Diagon Alley. He quickly looked over his shoulder to see Severus giving him an amused look. "Hov is dis place been able to keep out of the public eye?"

Severus started to walk forward in a seemingly random direction and signaled for Edward to follow him. "The entire place is charmed, no muggle is able to see it."

Edward pointed at himself. "And I?"

"Another theory, for another time." Severus replied quietly, he weaved through the witches and wizards. Edward followed him while looking around the area trying to take everything in. So many questions swam through his mind Edward wanted to ask Severus but he held back.

The last thing they both needed is someone listening in to them and talk to the wrong people. Even if Edward has full permission from that crazy headmaster to teach at his magical school, he didn't want to make any enemies...yet. There were a lot of kids and teens running about with their parents. All of them had a list in hand, chatting endlessly about the upcoming school year. Edward couldn't help but smile bitterly, he never went to a traditional school per say, he did go to a small school with Alphonse and Winry before his mother died. After that, Granny home-schooled them after Edward got into far too many fights.

"A knut for your thought?" Severus murmured glancing back at Edward who has a distant look in his eyes.

"Are a lot of deze kids go to Hogwarts?" Edward asked offhandedly, pointing at the kids running around Diagon Alley.

Severus glanced around the area before he nodded. "It is that time of year when they come out here to buy their supplies for the upcoming school year."

"...By do I have the feeling I am already regretting dis." Edward sighed raising his arms in defeat.

"You and I both." Severus replied as he walked into Flourish and Blotts. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, Elric. We do not need any unwanted attention."

Edward only rolled his eyes as he followed Severus, in his own pace. Glancing around the bookstore, he took note that the place was filled with more students along with their parents. All of them were in a hurry trying to get their books and find themselves out of the chaos. "Dis place...is rather chaotic."

"You don't even know the half of it." Severus sighed to himself, heading towards the back of the bookstore, where fortunately seemed to be empty except for a couple of random teens or older adults. Not giving any of them a single glance, the both of them walked passes them. The students were giving Severus nervous looks or quickly shuffled away in fear. "It should be over here...Here it is."

Severus stopped in front of a certain bookcase and signaled Edward towards it. "This section has all the alchemy books in this place."

With a grin, Edward started to glance through the titles and recognizing a few from the other bookshop he previously visited. He pulled out a book and began to get lost in the book. Seeing this, Severus turned around and headed out leaving Edward in his own world.

-.-

"Not good enough."

"Total trash."

"This will only get someone killed."

"...This guy is an idiot..."

"This one is...oddly decent."

Edward sat crossed legged on the floor in front of the bookcase with a large book in hand. Multiple piles of books scattered all around him, the piles were all coordinated by decent, okay, nope and just plain trash. There was a small tiny pile of good books, which only compromised three books our of well over several dozens of books he scoured through the area around his current spot.

Edward randomly picked out another book from the shelf and flipped it open on a random page. "This is actually good enough to be used."

Edward grinned as he read the book. He flipped through the pages, he landed on the dedication page. Whose names he saw written there made his blood freeze.

In the loving memory of my wife, Trisha.

To my sons, Edward, and Alphonse...I hope this book gets to you both.

Snapping the book closed, Edward turned the book around to see the spine of the said book. His eyes narrowed at the name of the author of the book.

Von Hoheheim.

Grudgingly, Edward placed the book in a different pile. Personal use. Even if his father was a shitty one, the man is still his father. Even though Edward still hold a deep hatred towards the guy...

"Whoa...look at this?"

"Who would take out this many books?"

"Who knows, George."

"Why don't we found out, Fred?"

"Lead the way, dear brother."

Edward blinked slowly as he heard those voices. It was obvious they were male, ten or eleven, and by their tone, it sounded like they are siblings. Slowly, Edward took a peek over the 'nope' pile of books. He came eye to eye with a two pairs of brown eyes, brown stared into gold. "Hello."

The two pairs of brown eyes widened in a realization that they got caught spying. With a loud oomph, the twins accidentally stumbled forward. They accidentally spilled over the pile of books.

Edward stared at the boys taken in their full appearance. Twins, they were identical twins, they were wearing worn but well taken care of clothes. Hand-me-downs perhaps? They were almost identical. He watched the twins scrambled up and began to take note of their differences. The one on the left had an extra freckle right under his left eye. The other has a bigger nose, hardly noticeable unless you take note of it. "Do you need zomething?"

One of the boys quickly looked around trying to find something to say that would not get in trouble with the stranger. "Alchemy! We were looking for alchemy books."

"Really?" Edward asked in false bewilderment, he inwardly chuckled at the horrible excuse. "Vell, how about dis..."

-.-

The sight that Snape came to see was Elric chatting away with two boys, Weasley's by the looks of it. They were chatting about alchemy while putting away books, each Weasley was holding a small pile of books while listening to Edward with such eager eyes. They took in Elric words about alchemy, they even seemed eager about it.

Snape waited until the last book was put away until he made his presence known. "Did you find everything that you needed, Elric?"

When Snape appeared, the twins paled at the sight of the man. Recalling what their brothers had told them about said man.

"Ah Zefferus, der you are." Elric grinned, not even taking note of the tense atmosphere around his perhaps future students. He saw that the Potions Master carrying a pile of books in his arms. "Done vith your shopping?"

"Done with yours?" Snape remarked, seeing Elric's own pile of books. He took a single glance at the twins, his lips curled back in a fashion he could only do. "Ah, Weasleys... Here I thought we could finally get a bre-"

Snape was cut off as Elric pilled his own books over the professor books. This resulted with the Head of Slytherin view being obscured by said books. "Elric..."

Elric ignored him as he took the books from Fred and George, who all had grins of mirth's, piled them on top of the rest of the book on Snape's arm. "Vu tvo are koing to pe first years, ja?"

"Yeah, we have three-"

"Older brothers and two of-"

"They are going to be at Hog-"

"Warts with us."

Elric's eyes pin pong between Fred and George as they spoke for one and for the other, finishing off each other sentences. He raised his hand to stop them from talking, as they began to get off topic. "Huge family, older broders, one younger broder and zisder. Pranks?"

Elric stared into the twins eyes, almost glaringly. He then pointed at one of them. "Fred..." Then he pointed at the other one. "George."

Fred and George stared at him in bewilderment, he actually guessed accurately right. Not even their own mother could get their names right more than half of the time.

"As much as I enchoy a prank effery once and a file...No pranks in my class." Elric shook a finger at the boys, talking in a reprimanding voice. "Dey tend to get you killed..."

The twins paled at how easy the golden eye teen spoke those last words. It was as if he could care less about it too.

Elric then grinned at the twins and ruffled their hair. "Nov come on, it is time to pay. Come on, Zefferus."

"About time..." Snape growled under his breath, he glanced over the stack of books in his hands. "Now come on..."

Elric only grinned and laughed as he followed him, he signaled for the Weasley twins to follow him. "Do not mind him, he is just being immature."

Snape huffed out but did not respond to the comment.

"Before I forget..." Elric looked down at the twins, brows furrowed. "Do you tvo need help getding your school books? You tvo helped me, I help you in return."

"You are on a limited budget, Elric." Snape said low in a tone, to the Elric wanting to get out of the current situation he was currently in.

"Den I vill uze my perzonal funds then...if I could do dat?" Elric muttered the last part to himself wondering if he could transfer the money he has accumulated for his work in the military. "Could I transfer money from my perzonal account and turned it into..."

Elric trailed off not fully knowing what else to say as he is not familiar with this worlds system works.

Snape took a quick glance at the Weasley twins, they were confused by Elric's words and his own confusion of the Wizarding World. The Potion’s Professor mentally debated if he should stop this conversation as it would lead to unwanted attention but...Seeing as the youth is probably going to make it a point on who he is and what he is not later on...

"We...could have that arranged." Snape said slowly, wondering just how much money the other has. As Elric had told him he was in the military but did not mention what was his ranking or payroll. "How much...?"

Elric quickly scanned through his pockets to quickly take out his notebook and a pencil. He quickly wrote down a number and showed it to Snape. "Vill dis be enough to get me through the year?"

Snape took one quick glance...then another...and another. His eyes widen at the amount on the paper. "In what currency is that in?"

"In bounds. I changed it ven I came to dis country." Elric said feeling unsure if the amount he wrote down is enough. "Vill it be enough?"

"Is this your entire savings?" Snape felt his mouth dry at the sheer amount that Elric presented.

"Just about..." Edward moved his head side to side as he thought it over. "Three months vorth of bay."

'He could buy ¾'s of Diagon Alley with that amount.' Snape thought to do the math in his head. He cleared his throat in trying to clear his mind. "It is more than enough. We'll head to Gringotts after this..."

"Vat is Grinkotts?"

"Are you a muggle?" Fred and George asked, no longer able to hold in their curiosity.

-.-

Mrs. Molly Weasley looked all over the bookstore frantically pulling her two youngest along with her. She looked over every crook and cranny trying to find the twins. One moment they were in her sight and then...they disappeared in their typical fashion only known to troublemakers. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue but Molly mind is on overdrive that day.

Four of her children are going to be attending Hogwarts and this year, money is extremely tight. Charlie and Percy were placed into advanced classes and they require new texts books and the twins, albeit they could reuse other books the other boys had gotten previous years, the required new textbooks are out of the families price range. It is not her year...

Molly ignored her youngest son complaints as she pulled them along with her. Even with Charlie and Percy looking for the twins too, it seemed like they were having the same trouble as her. The twins were nowhere to be found...panic is finally setting in.

"Fred! George! Boys, where are you!" Molly called out, no longer able to hold it in any longer. She took a turn and quickly headed back to the front of the store hoping that she just missed them. "When I get my hands on them."

"Mum, we found them." Percy called out running towards his mother in a frenzy. Molly stopped mid-step and quickly headed towards Percy's direction.

"Where are they, are they are alright? I knew this sort of thing would have happened." Molly prattled on as Percy led her through the shop. "We still need to buy your and your brother's books, among several other things."

"About that...Fred and George already got their books. They already paid for the books."

"How...?"

-.-

"He's going to be the new Professor at Hogwarts."

"He's going to teach Alchemy."

"We saw him looking through books."

"About Alchemy."

"The guy looked like he's Bill's age."

"I wonder if we could get into his class."

"Remember what he said, he gets to pick his students."

"Do you think he might?"

"Pick us? He said he might consider it."

"Fred...George...Do you even know if he actually is a professor." Charlie asked, feeling that a headache is coming in. Out of all the things the twins had done...

"That professor was with him. Nap?"

"Professor Snape?" Charlie asked feeling his blood run cold for a bit. "This guy was with Professor Snape? Getting books?"

"Yeah him, he was with Mr. Elric."

"Mr. Elric needed books for his class.

"We helped him and in turn."

"He bought our books for the year." Fred and George finished, each boy holding a pile of books in their arms. "And a couple of other books too, about alchemy."

Charlie stared at them wondering if he should be glad or angry at this point. Glad that his brothers don't have to worry about their books, as the book list that year is by far pricier compared to other years. Anger at that fact it was a handout, now th-

"I hope we make it into his class."

"Only if we study the books he got us."

"He also bought your other books?" Charlie asked he extended his arm out towards the boys. "Let me see."

Fred and George glanced at each other wondering if they should. Seeing how tense their older brother was, they quietly complied. The each took out four different books from their own pile and handed one to Charlie.

Charlie took the book and scanned it when he saw the tag price on the book his eyes nearly popped out of his head. That single book had to cost about the same as the average cost of a seventh year's book list. When he opened the book, Charlie couldn't make head or tails about it. He flipped the book to show it to the twins. "Do you know what this is?"

"That's a peripodic table...I think?" George's nose scrunched as he attempted to say out the word.

"Periodic table." Fred corrected him.

"Yeah that. It's a table of all the elements."

"Mr. Elric said that learning this would help us understand Alchemy." Both boys continued on in unison. "If we study it, he might consider allowing us to get into the class."

Charlie watched as his brothers spoke to each other excitedly about the subject in hand. The only times he ever saw the twins with that sparkle in their eyes when they talk about their pranks or play quidditch. Let alone something that has to be school reacted. Then again...anger persist.

Charlie was one of many that petitioned for the elective to be open the upcoming school year. Here are the twins... ending up meeting the teacher. The said teacher seemed to already teach them a couple of things on the subject, already received praised along with getting books paid. "And he just paid for your books? This must have cost him a fortune."

Fred and George paused, they looked at each other uneasily. The conversed nonverbally trying to figure out what they should say to their older brother. With a nod of determination, they figured out what to say.

"Mr. Elric is from another country." Fred started off.

"He works for their government." George continued off.

"During his time there, he hardly spent any of his money."

"From Mr. Nape." "It's Snape." "...Mr. Snape's reaction from the number Mr. Elric gave him made it seem like he was rich or something."

"Why did this...Mr. Elric buy your books? All your required books?"

"He said that since we helped him, he helps us." They said trying to figure out what that meant. "We tried to tell him to not to but..."

"It was rather..."

"Difficult trying to get him not to buy our books."

"He wouldn't take no for answer."

"The way he wanted us to repay him is by-"

"Studying and getting good grades."

"That's it?" Charlie asked taken aback.

"That's it."

-.-

"Doze two are the right age to start learning about alchemy." Elric said as he watched Snape shrink all the books and putting them into his suitcase. Once it was said and done, Elric closed the suitcase with a puzzled look as he picked it back up. "You haffe to tell me hov dat...spell vorks."

"Here I thought you would have an episode?" Snape replied dryly at Edward words.

Elric only shrugged, he turned around taking a good like of the area. "Vere to next?"

"Gringgots."

-.-

One hour later...

Snape resisted the urge to groan in annoyance as he watched Elric speak Amestrian to the goblin that is helping the blonde set up his own vault. The moment that Elric found out that he goblin, Kavex, spoke Amestrian, that was the main language they spoke making Snape feel left out.

"I never had any use of it until recently. I got by with what I had on hand." Elric said as he filled out the required paper. "I mostly spent it on...medical bills."

"You've accumulated a fair amount over the years of your military service..." Kavex said looking through a couple of documents. "How long will you be staying, if I could ask you of that?"

"At the most a year." Elric responded without a second thought. "I have other affairs back home...but who knows...I might come back."

"And everything here will be the same." Kavex nodded, he held out his hand towards Elric's direction. "I need your blood and signature to complete the vault."

"It won't be used or stored away...right?" Elric asked hesitantly.

"It will be the binding contract that will allow only you to access the vault." Kavex said, he pulled out a giant tome and slid it over toward Elric. "This is our laws if you wish to look through it before he finalizes anything. It's written in Amestrian."

Elric slid the book closer to him and began to read it, ignoring Snape's look of disbelief that he gave him.

Tag List Below:

Permanent Tag List: @runestarchild @princesskitomi @fanfictionpromptsblog @souleateralicestein @vixen-uchiha @okami-knight @legendaryneckjudgestudent @weird-homosapien @justafanwarrior @vivilakitty @ravennightingaleandavatempus @if-you-give-a-chat-a-cookie @moonwatcher04 @darkshadowguardian @two-faced-biatch @kris-pines04 @mewwitch @edwardhatori @kuroko26 @tall-and-angry   @bloody-no-kissu @crazylittlemunchkin @tbehartoo @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @melicmusicmagic

#Alchemy Series #Chapter 3 #HP #FMA #Crossover #Au #HP/FMA #magic vs. science

[pearwaldorf]

fanwork roundup 2019

LIST OF FANWORKS NSFW is denoted with an asterisk. All Good Omens is Aziraphale/Crowley unless noted. the last witness before the wave hits (Good Omens, gen) can you feel my heart beat fast (I want it to last, need you by my side) (Good Omens) *well you laughed baby it's okay (it's buzzcut season anyway) (Good Omens) take care to leave a trace (KOTOR 2; Jedi Exile/everybody, Jedi Exile/Visas Marr) of some other man's belief (Good Omens, gen) I've got this feeling, so appealing, for us to get together and sing (Good Omens, gen) [archive-locked work] (RPF) I knew that sullen hall (Good Omens/Dragon Age: Inquisition crossover) *we gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves (The Last Jedi; Finn/Poe/Rey/Rose) healing spirit (Good Omens) [archive-locked work] (RPF) better than anything else that I've tried (Good Omens) gotta blame it on the goose (Good Omens/Untitled Goose Game crossover) *don't know you super well but you might be the same as me (Good Omens) sleeping at last (Good Omens) *don't need a crown to know that I'm a queen (Good Omens) *just let me try (and I will be good to you) - an Anthonavery RPF (Slow Show) *I can make you boil up baby, let it simmer (Slow Show) an instrument of thy vision (Rise of Skywalker; Finn) Tumblr ficlets I also did two challenges this year: Ineffable Fictober and Drabbletober. TOTAL WORD COUNT 

62423!!! By fandom: Good Omens: 36697 Star Wars: 7421 RPF: 5808 KOTOR 2: 2505 Dragon Age: Inquisition: 1105 Everything else (Critical Role, MCU, Hannibal, Mass Effect): 8887

OVERALL THOUGHTS 

Oh god it was so good to get my words back, and not only that, surpass my word count for my previous best year. The past two years have been super fucking bad for writing, and to be able to write with ease and joy againi feels like a marvelous gift, and I am grateful. And copypasta from last year, because it seems worth repeating: If, despite everything, you were able to produce work this year, congratulations. And if you couldn't, that's okay too. Next year will hopefully be better. 

PERSONAL BEST/FAVORITE I really do feel like I leveled up as a writer this year. The words were good and they came easily. I branched out a lot this year: RPF, really strange metafic, things that should be fic but the thing it's fic of doesn't actually exist. I had a lot of fun writing all of it. 

MOST UNDERAPPRECIATED (IMO) 

I feel like everything was appreciated the right amount. I would have loved more people to have seen I knew that sullen hall, but niche crossovers are hard to attract attention.

MOST POPULAR

well you laughed baby it's okay, aka the hair-pulling fic. People really seemed to like it an almost disproportionate amount to its length and quality. Maybe it was exactly what fandom wanted at the time. Also somebody tried to plagiarize it so I guess that must mean they liked it a lot. :P 

STORY WITH THE SEXIEST MOMENT Don't need a crown to know that I'm a queen. I like stories where characters know they're a snack and aren't afraid to show it off.

MOST FUN STORY TO WRITE 

Gotta blame it on the goose, for sure. It's so silly.

STORY THAT SHIFTED MY OWN PERCEPTION OF A CHARACTER

I knew that sullen hall. I never spent a whole lot of time with Blackwall, so it was interesting to get into his head for a bit. And in the course of writing the story, I had to think about things that he and Aziraphale would have in common, and it was useful character work for both of them.

HARDEST 

Of some other man's belief was a strange, recalcitrant story where I never really knew where I was going with it. All I know is it wanted to be written very very badly.  

BIGGEST SURPRISE/S 

The fake RPF I did for the Slow Show universe. The everything I wrote in the Slow Show universe. But it was great fun, and the Warlock Party House is a wonderful group of people. 

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT  

I wanted to get out a vid this year, but I don't think that's going to happen. 

MOST UNINTENTIONALLY TELLING STORY 

Like I say every year, all my shit is out in the open.  

FAVOURITE LINES/SCENES

Occasionally, as she is drifting off, she feels something shift in her awareness of him, like the brush of a hand on a curtain.(from we gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves) “Jesus fucking christ, angel. You can’t just say things like that.” “Leave that poor boy out of this. Now tell me, do you like the red or the black better?” (from Ineffable Fictober prompt "anything you like") He reached up to grab the other man’s hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing. Come for me, he tried to communicate with his touch. Flood me with your release. (from just let me try. I was writing it intentionally badly but sometimes I'm not sure people got that 😆) 

LINES/SCENES YOU’D CHANGE 

I try not to think about it because then I'll want to change them and then I'll never stop fiddling. 

TOP FIVE SCENES YOU WISH WOULD BE ILLUSTRATED

The alley scene in can you feel my heart beat fast Nanny, Warlock, and Aziraphale at the concert in I've got this feeling Crowley tending Aziraphale's hands in healing spirit This chapter (wings) from Ineffable Fictober Crowley chasing after the goose 

2020 WRITING AMBITIONS

As always, a look at last year's:

(Creative) Survival is still a laudable ambition. I will endeavor to produce as much as I can creatively, and hopefully exceed this year's incredibly pathetic word count. I haven't made a vid in a while, and I have a new NLE (VEGAS Pro 15) to take for a spin. Art is also part of resistance, and integrating it more into my life will be good. 

I think I did pretty well with the first two. Didn't make a vid, but I'm starting on one now. Good Omens was more important to me this year than I realized. Coming off Endgame, I needed something to feel excited about, and Good Omens is a very enthusiastic fandom. It also got me through the lead-up and release of Rise of Skywalker. For a while I was deeply suspicious a shoe was going to drop re: how much fun I was having in GO fandom because it felt too easy. People weren't wanking the day away (or I could avoid those that were) and they were so happy to love on the characters. And then I realized no, that's actually how it should feel to be in a fandom community. So I guess that's one of the things I'm going to do next year: prioritize joy, especially when it comes to fandom. I've never been exactly bad at writing whatever the fuck I want, but that is something I should continue to do. I would like to write something long with at least a modicum of plot. I am bad at both of these things, and it would be nice to prove to myself I can if I wanted to. I am going to try and make two vids next year and see if I can learn Vegas 15 and maybe another NLE. I also want to get a captioning/transcription guide up for fans who want to make their vids more accessible, as somebody asked about it.

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #long post for ts #fanwork roundup

[hcrofraid]

Rules:

HALLO THERE! Here’s my rules! They’re a bit long, but hopefully you can push through ‘em and we can get a chance at interaction!

1. Themes might vary with this blog. Although I’m typically SFW, I might touch upon dark topics here and there.

Things will be tagged! I’ll try my best, anyways. If you want something in particular tagged, please let me know. The format I use for tagging is, for example, tw: swearing.

I don’t have any triggers but I do ask you tag all of your NSFW content.

That said, I won’t do anything NSFW - gore is okay, though.

I’m of age.

2. I‘m a little selective, but otherwise - I’m open to canon, au, crossover, and original characters! As long as their muns rp literately/write para.

If it’s a crossover, I have to know the fandom and be at least a little bit confident with it. This is so I’m able to work with you, our thread and have muse for it.

Absolutely no godmodding. It ain’t fun, fam. If you’re not sure what this term means, do look it up. This includes powerplaying, metagaming, and other things of that nature. This applies especially in fights if they happen (I’m chance-based and hope that you are too). 

I can be picky with OCs. But rest assured, if you’ve followed me/interacted with my promo, I’ll always give your pages a read.

Please don’t be offended if I don’t want to interact with you (and please don’t try to guilt me into doing so!). 

As for following back, I usually take a week tops to do so - but if you’ve hit up my promo, I go through that eventually.

As I’ve said, I’m selective and as a result mutuals do take priority - but I don’t have to be following you for you to interact with me. It just means I’m more likely to interact with you if you’re a mutual.

3. Please don’t rush me for starters or responses.

PLEASE understand that I have blogs galore and my muse tends to fluctuate; this can mean I’m everywhere at once and can end up neglecting a blog or two. It’s nothing personal; you know how muses are! Additionally, life happens to be a thing.

Please note the mun deals with anxiety and depression - this might affect how frequently she roleplays.

Chances are, I’ve probably has seen that bit of interactivity and just haven’t gotten around to responding yet.

My roleplaying style being para/multi-para, I may take a while to respond. I hoard drafts like a dragon - it’s really just the motivation to write and ship those out.

Just a reminder I hoard all your asks too, even weeks later. If I don’t respond to it, I’m either keeping it for a rainy day, or just can’t find the muse/interest for it currently. If it’s been a month or two though, just assume it wasn’t working for me unless I’ve informed you otherwise.

4. Shippings? Heck yeah I’m down for the fluffy content, as long as they’re of similar age to my boio.

If I don’t happen to be interested, don’t force anything on my character.

I do not ship incestuous ships. Do NOT follow/interact if you do.

Sontails will not be happening on this blog either, sorry.

The ship has to have chemistry; I’m generally shipping trash, but if they don’t click, they don’t click, sorry.

This is a multi-ship blog, meaning there will be more than one ship without them conflicting with eachother.

If you want to ship and I already have a ship of your choosing going with a duplicate, please don’t hesitate to hmu! My ships aren’t exclusive and each character/relationship portrayal is unique to me!

Relationships are eternal until you deem otherwise.

5. Whilst I am of age, I’m not aiming for sexual content on this blog (and will not be dealing with fetishes). That stuff makes me uncomfortable, and I typically don’t recommend pulling it with my character if you’re interacting with me. Nonetheless, should it arise, I will tag it appropriately. Also, Tails is a child. So no.

6. About reblogs…

I am not a meme source, and reblogs clog up my activity. Please reblog any memes you find on this blog from their SOURCE. The exception to this rule is if there is no source; go ahead.

I don’t feel comfortable with Personals reblogging my IC or OOC posts, so please don’t do that. If I put something in the fandom tags for whatever reason (bar promos), you’re free to, though.

Please don’t reblog my art unless I’ve drawn it specifically for you or said you can. I either have that as do not reblog for a reason, or I am planning to post it on my art blog at some point.

A few times is fine, as it happens, but repeatedly breaking these rules will result in me soft blocking you.

I try to participate in reblog karma as much as I can, but always reblog from the source/a meme source.

If a post or ask is for you, you’re free to reblog it to save it though - but only if you’re an rp blog!

7. I’m a para / multi-para blog, novella if I’m adventurous and have time. Whilst I may roleplay crack threads with shorter responses, this does not apply to all threads I write. This means:

I write my replies as detailed as I can muster.

Short responses (such as one-liners) in more serious threads where I’ve written a decent deal can instantly kill my muse for that thread.

Whilst I’d prefer for partners to at least somewhat match my length, it’s entirely up to you - just try your best and make sure you give me enough to work with. ♡

If my muse happens to go nuts out of nowhere - like, overboard - don’t stress too much about matching them.

If para roleplays aren’t your alley, I’m unlikely to roleplay with you. It’s nothing personal; it’s just finding muse for one-liner threads is incredibly difficult unless it’s dash shenanigans. Anything else outside that is fine, though - we can still have fun outside of proper threads.

If you need further context on the AU, the link to it’s tag is here! Otherwise just ask me!

Tails’ AU is one I’m very proud of and very attached to, so please don’t force your headcanons about him on me. If you’re unsure how certain events play out in the context of his universe, don’t hesitate to ask me about them!

That said, anything that might take place on this blog obviously isn’t canon to the AU itself; I just like writing for this boio and it helps me develop his character. It’s all hypothetical.

Additionally! Don’t worry too much if the headcanoned relationships between Tails and other muses don’t match yours. Those are mostly just guidelines for how Tails would USUALLY interact with your muse. I’m open to altering these relationships to better fit our threads! Don’t ever feel restricted to what I put down; it’s mostly just for context purposes because, well, Tails is absent. I’m an IM away for plotting.

8. Threads typically happen naturally with me, but if you’re looking for interaction opportunities:

I’ll have a permanent starter call somewhere for you to hit up; honestly though, if you’re a mutual? Pls feel free to hit it up.

Starter memes are the BEST way to interact me because they just yeet a prompt at my face and really help me write starters. If you see me reblog one, send one!

If there’s a verse you’re interested in, please specify.

If you want to turn an ask into a thread, go ahead!

I may not roleplay with every starter I am given - I’ll do a ‘background check’ if you’re a new blog on the block. If I don’t feel your writing style/length works with mine, I might not respond. Apologies. ;__;

Please don’t write para / novella starters up for me unless we’ve discussed something, sent something, or I’ve liked a starter call. I really don’t want to leave people hanging if I’m not interested.

IMs are open to mutuals, if you want to do any in-depth plotting.

I also have Discord! If you’re mutuals with me, feel free to ask for it!

9. Guidelines on mains and relationships:

If we’re mutuals and we interact a lot, you’re welcome to ask me if I’d like to be your main!

Please note that MAINS fall into two categories; one pertaining to Tails’ initial universe, and those pertaining to alternates. Although the latter is plenty, for clarity’s sake, there would be one alternate Tails might default to.

Please don’t be offended if I deny, though; I typically want to pick those I trust to be my mains as well as people I can comfortably write with.

Not limited to them! I roleplay with duplicates galore so don’t be afraid to hit me up if you want to interact!

Pre-established relationships are a-okay in my book; if you have an idea for a relationship between our muses we can work towards, hit me up! I reblog those pre-established relationship memes every so often too. Romantic relationships link back to the shipping guidelines.

Also, friendship/family/rivalry relationships are EXTREMELY valid to me. GIMME’ ALL THE PRECIOUS BONDING CONTENT PLS. THIS BOY NEEDS FRIENDS.

10. If you have any issues, please let me know and hopefully we can resolve it!

Mun is actually super nice, so don’t be afraid to hit her up!

I am absolutely terrible with IMs and sometimes even Discord. I either respond quickly or days later, depends on my mood. Social anxiety tends to interfere with this - but honestly, if you’ve sent something, I’ve likely read it and just haven’t gotten around to it yet! It’s nothing personal; trust me! I just need a social breather every now and again.

Please leave me out of drama; I’m here to have a good time, as is everyone else, and it pains me to see people arguing.

11. It’s easier with a clean dash for me, so I’m more likely to follow people who:

Trim their posts.

Have rules and about pages! I always read those before interacting or following!

If you don’t have either of those, I’m likely not to follow you - so make sure that you do!

12. On threads…

If you’re not interested in a thread anymore, and would like to drop it, please let me know! I’d feel terrible if we’re both not having fun with it or if partners feel overwhelmed with the amount of threads we have.

Honestly, unless I let you know, our threads have no expiry date - so no need to worry about me dropping them without telling you. I can just be quite slow sometimes.

13. Mun does not equal muse! Anything Tails might say does not reflect on how I think unless I explicitly say so.

14. Know that if I follow you, I WANT to interact with you.

I literally couldn’t care less about follower counts. I care about YOU guys and our interactions.

15. If you’re OKAY with threads being set in Tails’ universe (and acting as his inverse counterparts), please like / reply to this post! It just lets me know I’m A-OK to shoot you asks pertaining to it, rather than the usual alternate shenanigans.

16. These rules may be subject to change.

Please like this post if you’ve read the rules! You don’t have to, but it’s of personal reassurance to me if you have.

#|| rules.

[paulisweeabootrash]

Bad Crossover Idea: Other Familias

So Season 2 of Danmachi just ended.  It’s still pretty good, though not as good as the first (or the spinoff).  It seemed to me like they rushed through too many story arcs without developing them fully, and my wife, who reads the light novels, confirmed this.  She said they made odd choices of what to keep vs. cut in adapting it, and that they really could’ve extended the Apollo and Ishtar arcs enough to fill out the season but instead carelessly created continuity errors and left certain characters insufficiently developed.  But we’re still both having fun watching it, and will continue with Season 3 next year.  Where we expect to complain some more.

I have a nagging and somewhat ridiculous problem with the premise, though.  It’s one I’ve had all throughout watching previous installments of the Danmachi franchise.  It’s one that pops up in other settings that blend mythologies.  I can’t stop imagining how other deities not included would appear and interact in the setting, and asking kind of stupid hypothetical questions.  “Does Vesta count as a different goddess from Hestia?” or “Man, they should have Tammuz show up (as a god, not some human in her Familia) and endorse the whole harem angle the show keeps flirting with by being in a happy open relationship with Ishtar.” or “Since this clearly doesn’t take place on Earth, do real people who were deified exist in this setting?” That sort of thing.

But then I thought of something more specific: what about gods as depicted in other anime?  What kind of crossovers could we get?  Here’s where that bad idea went.

Yato Familia (Noragami).  Down a disreputable alley, above the entrance to a storefront widely assumed to be vacant, is a sign bearing a squiggle barely-recognizable as a snake and a hand-written suspiciously-specific promise to not kill prospective clients.  Once, this was a place to procure assassins, but now it subsists on the mixture of odd jobs and barely-planned dungeon excursions.  Most people in Orario thought it shut down completely long ago, but it just hangs on, the Blockbuster or Howard Johnson’s of Familias.  Those who know it is still around wonder how; unlike Hestia, Yato has not gained followers or made any splash of local fame.  Occasionally, a member of the Familia will come forward with an improved design for the sign, but Yato insists on keeping his own, which he seems to truly believe is well-drawn, and it’s unclear whether he realizes he needs to get customers to get money to actually buy things, not just as offerings.

Quetzalcoatl Familia (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid).  Far from that snake sign is a much more reputable one.  Outside the walls, on a major road out of the city, there is a complex of greenhouses where seedlings of exotic plants are grown, and a warehouse of agricultural tools.  The gardeners tending to the plant nursery and the craftsmen who make the tools are all members of the Quetzelcoatl Familia, which advertises itself with an unmistakable statue of a feathered snake in an art style utterly alien even to the diverse population of Orario.  All the Goddess wants to do is sell plants and tools and maybe some intro-level magic to the farmers in the region, but members of her Familia are on edge when she’s out on the sales floor herself.  Not because of what she thinks counts as appropriate work attire -- Orarians are used to that sort of thing, courtesy of the local Amazon population -- but because of her gift for coming off as... too helpful and too interested in customers she decides need her.

Sadao Familia (The Devil is a Part-Timer).  Greenhouses and art styles are not the only novelties brought to this world that the gods learned about elsewhere.  There’s also exotic cooking.  A new restaurant opened across the street from the Hostess of Fertility, and its owner, Satan Sadao, arrogantly proclaimed that he was in a rivalry with the Hostess and that his Familia will someday dominate the continent, if not the world, using recipes he claims to have learned in another world.  Gods with knowledge of certain other world inhabited by humans whisper among themselves comparisons to a sort of warlord of business who built an empire of similar restaurants, but most are just plain confused at what he thinks he’s going to accomplish here.  But far from putting the Hostess out of business, it’s turning the area into Orario’s “restaurant row”, a destination for hungry adventurers.  Although not technically a god, Sadao certainly likes to pretend to be one.  The Guild wants to shut him down as a nuisance, but they grudgingly acknowledge his restaurant is good for the local economy.  The gods want to shut him down as an imposter god, but they grudgingly acknowledge that this “fast food” he sells is tasty.

Ho-oh Familia (Pokémon).  Look, the gods can’t all be winners, and this one stands out because it is unable to successfully communicate with the beings of the Lower World.  Yes, it is too a god.  Are you going to tell it otherwise?  The other gods sure don’t want to.  Few actually get to meet Ho-oh, and although some people report feeling relieved or even blessed after leaving it offerings, this may be just due to no longer being on guard due to, y’know, the giant phoenix.  Even fewer get to meet members of the Ho-oh Familia.  Nobody, in fact.  Although some volunteers do show up to maintain its pagoda, nobody has yet formally joined, citing difficulty understanding its distinctly-not-speech vocalizations.  Not to mention a healthy fear of being set on fire.

Haruhi Familia (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya).  No.  Shhh.  No.  Per the Guild, there is no such Familia, and if there hypothetically were, the Goddess should not be made aware of it.  Don’t ask why.  Just trust them, it’s important.

#weeaboo trash #not a review #Danmachi #Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? #Noragami #The Devil Is a Part Timer #Pokemon #The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya #extremely stupid ideas #crossover

[rpbetter]

Hi Vespertine. Can you offer some advice on how to RP a character that a lot of people think I shouldn't be RPing? I've wanted to RP Hans Landa for years, I like how cunning he is and how he could react to other ideals, how he could grow, especially in modern settings where he would stick out a lot. But I'm afraid because of how people react to muses like him. How do I build up confidence? How do I keep RPing if people bother or threaten to report me? Would people even RP with me? Thank you.

Alright, first thing, I've apologized on the blog already, apologized to people before you, but like I keep saying: it's really important to specifically apologize to individuals when we do something lame like I have. I did not intend to leave the blog unattended for months, but I did. This is an important question, it's right up the alley of why I created this blog, and I left you hanging. I'm deeply sorry, and I hope that my serious delay did not cause you any further worries or to give up on your character/RP!

Okay, we can proceed now!

I'll confess, I seriously spaced on who Hans Landa was for a moment there, but quickly remembered upon Googling! He was an interesting character, and I love that movie! However, I definitely see why you're worried, Anon.

Up until the last decade, taking up a character who was villainous, yes, even a Nazi, was a mark of creative gumption. Almost everyone had a verse for their muse that today would get them anon hate, callouts, reported, and so on. You know what? We had far less drama then. So, I'm not at all in the camp of demonizing your choices, or anyone else's. I saw what worked for a more peaceful RPC for decades and I've seen what is a total nightmare on tumblr.

Unfortunately, it is a total nightmare. So, let's see what you might be looking at, what your options are.

Firstly, you have the right idea; this is a character that appeals to you creatively, and that's really all that should matter. You've got ideas, you want to see your muse grow and change through interactions, and that's very much what the whole RPC needs to be a little more interested in.

I think, based on that alone, you would find people who wanted to write with you. There are quite a few muns out there dying for more interesting interactions with muses who have been taken up because the other mun really wants to write and develop them. Especially in the multi-para and novella communities. It's a bit of bane over there, the way the majority of muses are picked purely to satisfy a fleeting interest in a fandom. They don't come across as the characters they are in canon, are never given the opportunity to develop uniquely, they just exist to fulfill the mun's intense interest that will be gone soon. That works wonderfully and happily for some, but there really are a lot of muns out there who are interested in different approaches.

I will also say that most longer multi-para and novella RPers are less supportive of callout culture and content policing. When the very way that you enjoy RP is easily considered problematic on the grounds that you take it too seriously because you're invested in it, you tend to be against labeling others and giving them a hard time. That portion of the RPC, additionally, tends to be made up of older adults. The RPC kind of despises anyone over 25 who is still RPing, and I think a decent part of that is...this. We don't usually go in on equating fiction to reality, thinking that muse=mun, or that "problematic" material needs to be driven into the darkest void for communal safety. A great deal of that is because we lived through multiple fandom experiences being obliterated by these sorts of ideas, we know this is all detrimental to the community, and are more interested in a live and let live mentality even if we are disturbed by someone's muse or writing topics.

You may wish to specifically seek out RPers who are serious veterans (around for 10+ years), multi-para to novella writers, and/or have things in their rules that imply toleration and support for dark topics, villain muses, etc. (I know I have it in my rules that minors shouldn't interact with this blog due both its content and my age, but I can't exactly verify that with an anonymous message! So, Anon, please be aware I am giving this advice as though you are legally an adult.) Seek out muns who have muses that could also be considered "problematic" or who interact with muses who could be.

Remain away from anyone participating in or supportive of callout culture and purity policing. I know that can be difficult and limiting, and it is also not a 100% safe bet that you will be avoiding problems, but at least you'll know right off that these are not your people. That includes the ever-present callouts that claim the poster "never does this," that the mun being called out is just that much of a danger, and/or those dealing in the major callout-laden muns in your corner of the community. You might agree that one or two of those muns is a legitimate problem, but it's too likely that these people are going to feel like you are too.

Know that you will, inevitably, be called worse than just a "villain apologist." I write a muse that I wanted to write for years as well, and refrained from writing for so long because of the fandom's ideas about them. However, I have never been so happy with any muse choice, it's worth it to me to have some random hatefulness sometimes. I know I'm not a horrible person, the people who matter to me on and offline know that I am not, it doesn't actually matter what someone on tumblr thinks. It doesn't matter what they think about you either, they don't know you and won't give you the opportunity to be known, so pfft to them!

It can still be a little disheartening to hear some of the especially hateful things. While my muse isn't like Hans, the comparison to that is often made. There are a lot of assumptions about my personal character, race, gender, political affiliation, and so on. I'm just going to say it: if you don't think you can handle someone randomly attacking you and labeling you as "actually a Nazi," a genocide supporter, school shooter, "white cishet republican," and so on, do not subject yourself to this. Just write with friends you know are on your side or write some fic where there is some distance and control.

I do not believe, after reviewing them again, that you would be violating tumblr's TOS by writing this muse. You would not be promoting racism, harm to others, or misleading information. Nor would you be harassing anyone. Does that mean no one will try to report you? No, unfortunately. I've gotten reported for politely disagreeing on a post and asking a question! The important thing is that nothing will happen.

I would still make it very clear that this character might be offensive to some. Seriously, I would say, "In the interest of sensitivity, please note that this muse might be offensive to some - do not interact if imagery or topics associated with historical Nazis will be triggering for you. Hans Landa is from the film 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds." Pop that into the top of a pinned post, your rules, and your blog's header statement.

Because even if tumblr wasn't a mess, it's still the most responsible thing to do to treat this sensitively. It is a sensitive matter! People should have every opportunity to be aware and make the best choice for them to interact or not.

People almost certainly will threaten to report and block. Particularly when you are still looking for writing partners and having to expose yourself to more of the community in order to do so. It'll get so much better when you start finding them, though, I promise! Once you find a good mun or two, you've kind of unlocked a pocket of potential. Those people who are more accepting, reasonable, and interested in writing and characters are naturally going to be interacting with other like-minded muns.

Finding a good base of partners might take you some time, but the good news is, the whole process will help you build up the confidence to keep writing. It helps you get in touch with both writing and the muse, what is really important to you as an RPer, and is what isn't. It feels shitty at the time, but in the end, it builds a lot of confidence in yourself, and when you pull confidence from within you, you're never totally without it again!

When you're looking for those people (I'd additionally suggest historical RPers, if there is any existent community for the movie still, and branching out to fandoms that have "problematic" characters in them that you could do crossovers with in modern settings etc.), you can still be writing and developing your muse. Write up headcanons, fleshout the character's backstory, make multiple verses so that you have many options ready to go, do some one-shots.

A great way to do that is to find memes or traditional writing questions specifically for character development, but don't wait for someone to ask you! Go down the meme/list, pick some questions that spark your interest, and base your HC posts on them. Answer questions you immediately have answers to, answer the really hard ones you have no clue about. You don't know until you develop it, after all!

It helps with confidence so much to feel confident about your writing and comfortable with the character. It'll also help non-judgemental RPers who come across your blog or want to follow you back to see your writing and interest in the muse. I know that there are muses I was not interested in from their canon, but seeing the mun's love for them and how they had uniquely developed them, I had to interact!

When you do receive the almost inevitable anon hate, I'm going to suggest something a bit radical here; the idea of not feeding the trolls doesn't always work. That's predicated upon people not already receiving a reward for sending that hate to you. You can't starve what has already eaten lunch! I've found that demonstrating that they're not getting to you is more effective, in all, incredibly controversial honesty.

Put in your rules that anon hate will be addressed only with something like...a gif of a rabbit, a random fact, or a link to a song you recommend. Then, you do exactly that. You get a message calling you derogatory things, but instead of deleting it or going off about it in a way they can just use, you respond with a picture of a bunny cleaning its ears. Block the anon after.

This, again, in all honesty, is a confidence booster. Sometimes, building confidence is about projecting it first. You are projecting an aura of non-hostile confidence that you're not any of those negative things in reality, nor is your life ruined by people who haven't anything better to do with their own lives than bother you as performative "activism" online. It's alright if it really does bother you at first! Eventually, it won't. Eventually, you'll be left in peace with the reasonable muns you've found.

You will find them! There are still muns out there who feel like the most important factors in RP are engaging muses and writing, and how the mun is truly conducting themselves. If that mun is a genuinely decent person who isn't starting problems, harassing people, forcing anything on anyone, that's what matters! Just put your muse out there in a thoughtful way around people who are interested in writing. Be respectful of the sensitive nature of the subject, tag liberally and correctly.

No matter what tumblr's RPC says, you do have the right to write any muse or topic you so desire. People also have the right to not interact, of course, but since you're concerned about it (and truly, the person who is most likely to be made uncomfortable on here), I highly doubt you'll be trying to force interactions or anything.

Unfortunately, when you write any, even vaguely, problematic muse here, you are held to higher standards. You are obliged to be ten times nicer in the face of hatefulness, to be more aware of tagging and other warnings, and so on. It's kind of a practice in acceptance, and it can be frustrating. Again, if the muse is worth it to you, it'll be fine. Just know that you'll need to not be reactive to nastiness, very responsible in how you present yourself in all ways, and that it still won't be enough for some people. And know that's alright as well! They're making a choice to be hostile without knowing you or employing the adult maturity to just not interact with you, not you.

I know it's very easy to say "don't let people get to you." Perhaps especially from someone who will openly say in the tumblr RPC in 2021 that it's 100% fine to write a Nazi muse lol but please know that my confidence was not naturally occurring. It was developed across years of nonsense, and much of it offline, in person. So, I'm not flippantly advising you to have a level of fortitude out of nowhere! I'm honestly telling you that it is a process, but I think that if you want something bad enough to stick to it through the hardest part of it, you kind of expedite that process. It makes it a bit easier if you're still enjoying yourself!

So, on that note, my additional advice is to have another muse or other hobby you can enjoy during the difficult patches, or even slow times before you establish a good group of writing partners. Do things that will keep you feeling positive and motivated to write. That looks different for everyone, but I'm certain you have something. If that does happen to be another muse, or muses, I would strongly suggest you keep it to yourself that you are the mun of this one until you get rolling. While you have exactly nothing to be ashamed of, don't tempt ruining your fun on the other blog(s) until you are established on the new one and confident about it.

If you ever need to vent or further advice, I'm not going to vanish or anything again! Drop by any time you need to, Anon. Sometimes it goes a long way knowing that even a single person out there supports you!

I hope this helped a little, and I do support you! I think you've got this!

#vespertine #answered #anonymous #rp advice #tumblr rpc #nazi mention cw #villain muses

[imaginethatalena]

#34: Batfam x Reader

Thanks @crazyfreckledginger for requesting! I���m sorry that the ending kind of sucks, but I hope you like the rest of it. My brother is a big Transformers fan so he helped me out with the Transformers part. I hope you like it ❤

Request Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3: Tell me if you have enough of my requests (hey don't blame me blame the anon who asked you if you write for Transfomers) So it's another crossover and the reader has scarlet witch powers and gets badly injured whist on patrol (she moves around alot but patrols the cities she goes to). She is found unconscious by the batboys and brought to the cave. They stitch her up and when she wakes up, Bruce asks her a few questions because he has suspiscons on what she is. She doesn't tell them much and says that she has to leave now. Bruce stops her and says that she is in danger and that they will protect her but she declines and leave rapidly. Bruce orders the boys to get her back whilst he does some research on her. The boys 'stalk' her and discover that she can really defend herself after being ambushed by a villain (idk Bane?) because he wants to use her. Then a group of police cars arrive and are shooting at her and the boys are about to step in when a group of sports cars, motocycles and vans arrive and the police car transform in decepticons and the autobots transform and fight them. After the fight, Jazz finds the boys snooping and brings them to the group. The reader recognises them but doesn't say anything. Ratchet says his line in the movie (it's something like "The boys pheromon levels suggests they want to mate with Y/N" and it become awkward but the other autobots become very protective? I dunno how to end it lol! I'm really sorry this is long!!

“God dammit!” You cussed when you saw the amount of blood coming out of your leg. You had just barely made it out of a battle with a particularly violent mugger, and you had gotten very badly injured. You thought that your telepathy and telekinesis powers would give you an edge over such a low risk criminal, but this one had a big knife and good aim. The person you were saving had gotten away, which meant it was time for you to leave and assess the damage.

You were getting lightheaded and you fought to stay conscious, realizing that the blood loss was worse than you thought. You had to stay conscious long enough to alert someone to where you were.

“Help!” you shouted into the night. You had been wandering the northeastern cities of the United States for a couple weeks now, and every single one had had at least one vigilante on duty the nights you were there. Tonight you had come to Gotham, and you knew there was an entire family of vigilantes here. You hoped one of them would hear you.

“Help!” you shouted again, but this time your voice was much softer. You lost consciousness moments later, just as a dark silhouette appeared in your vision.

“Over here!” Dick shouted to his brothers, leaping to the ground with the grace of his acrobatic training. Damian dropped down with the help of his grappling hook while Jason sped around the corner into the alley on his motorcycle, Tim sitting behind him.

“Shit,” Jason said. Dick was crouched next to you, checking your pulse. “Is she alive?”

“Yeah, but she’s bleeding pretty badly.”

“We need to get her to the hospital,” Tim said.

“Are we going to just ignore how she’s dressed?” Damian asked, pointing to your outfit. It was obvious you were a vigilante of some sort. “What if she has an identity to hide? We can’t risk that.”

“We’ll get her to Alfred, then,” Dick said. He scooped you up from the ground and went over to Jason. “Tim, get off. Let Jason take her.”

Once Jason was sure you weren’t going to fall off his motorcycle, he sped out of the alley and into the city. His brothers would catch up. Getting you medical help was the priority.

You awoke to a tugging sensation in your leg and you opened your eyes to see a high stone ceiling above you. You raised your head to look around and saw you were surrounded by six unfamiliar people.

Startled, you sat up and pulled your leg away from whoever was holding it, feeling a sharp pain as your skin stretched around the half done stitches.

“Ow!” You clutched your leg and cast your nervous gaze around. “Who the hell are you?”

Four of the people were young men, the oldest looking to be in his twenties and the youngest to be around eleven. They all backed away as soon as they saw you were panicked, but the older man at your side gave you a chastising look.

“My dear, you’ll have to allow me to finish the stitches before you can move around,” he said, his kind voice accented by a British upbringing.

You reluctantly gave him back your leg under the hard suspicious gaze of the final person, a tall man who appeared to be the father of the four boys.

“Who are you?” he asked you.

“I asked you first,” was your reply, but you didn’t need an answer. Aside from the old man tending to your leg, you recognized each of them from their superhero suits. This was the Batfamily. Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Robin all shared the same curious look, but Batman’s was cold and careful.

“Who are you?” he asked again, his voice firm, and you thought it would be best not to fight him and just answer his questions.

“I’m Y/N,” you said. “I’m kind of a vigilante, but I don’t have a home, so I just drift from city to city and do what I can while I’m there.”

“What kind of vigilante?” he probed. “Do you have any special abilities?”

“No,” you lied. “I’m just a fighter trying to do some good.”

“When we brought you here, we were followed by a few cars,” Nightwing said. “We lost them fairly easily, but we wanted to know if you knew anything about them.”

“I don’t.” You were just full of lies tonight, but they didn’t need to know everything about you all at once. You didn’t trust them.

“We believe you’re in danger,” Batman told you as the old man finished up your stitches and started wrapping your leg. “I think you should stay here until we learn more about the people following you.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” you said, getting to your feet and looking for the exit. “I have to get going.”

“Wait.” Nightwing put a hand to your arm, but you quickly pulled away. Realizing that teleportation was the only way you were going to get away, you opened a portal beneath your feet and slipped away before they could stop you.

“Go after her,” Bruce ordered his sons, already at the Batcomputer. “I knew there was something off about her. I might have a lead.”

“What are we waiting for?” Jason asked, already revving the engine of his bike. Bruce had managed to get a tracer on you, and they were all ready to follow you back to downtown Gotham.

“Hey, Jason,” Roy said, climbing off his bike when the four boys showed up. “Why did you call for me?”

“I thought we could use your help on this one,” Jason said as they continued to search for you. When they found you, they were surprised at what they saw.

“Forget it, Bane!” you were shouting at the man attacking you, a hulking figure with green veins highighted on his unnaturally bulging muscles. “I’m not going to join your stupid secret society!”

“Your power is wasted saving the lives of ungrateful civilians,” he told you as he fought against your power, manifested as a golden glow that kept him away from you. “If you will not join us willingly, I will take you by force!”

“Good luck with that,” you said, and opened a portal beneath his feet. “Have fun in Arkham, asshole.”

The Batboys couldn’t do anything except stare at you in awe. You had gone toe to toe against Bane, a Rogue that even Batman had failed to defeat, and won with little to no effort. They were about to speak when a number of police cars and vans sped over to you and surrounded you. Instead of policemen exiting the cars, the cars all began to transform into robots that stood hundreds of feet taller than you. Soon after, a silver sports car, a yellow Camaro, an ambulance, and a pickup truck arrived and also transformed.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Dick asked.

“What the hell is going on?” Jason gasped. Roy stood next to him in stunned silence.

“This is impossible,” Tim said.

“Duck!” Damian shouted. The robots had begun to fight, and the collateral damage of their battle was enormous. Parked cars were smashed, sparks flew in every direction, and the robotic shouting coming from what was supposed to be their mouths was deafening. Eventually the boys could see the majority of the robots chasing away a few of their brethren.

“You Decepticons should know better than to challenge the Autobots!” one of them shouted, presumably an Autobot towards the retreating Decepticons.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” one of the four remaining robots asked, the one that had previously been an ambulance. “You’re injured.”

“I’m fine, Ratchet,” you told the robot. “It was just a couple stitches. Where’s Optimus?”

“He’s with Sam right now. Who fixed you up?” another robot, the one that had been a silver sports car, asked you.

“I was picked up by the Batfamily, Jazz,” you said. “But don’t worry. They don’t know about you.”

“Are you sure about that?” John Cena’s voice came from the yellow robot.

“Since when did you start quoting vines, Bumblebee?” you asked with an amused smile. “And yeah, I am. Why?”

“Because you were followed.” The boys heard a deep robotic voice above them, and they were all grabbed by the last robot. It was surprisingly fast for its size, and there was no escape once he had dropped them to the ground near you.

“Shall I kill them?” it asked, revealing cannons in its arms pointed straight at them. The boys began to panic, Dick and Tim pleading with the robots while Jason, Roy, and Damian shouted meaningless threats.

“They’re the ones who helped me, Ironhide,” you said, rolling your eyes. “They’re fine.”

“What are you?” Tim asked in wonder when Ironhide put his canons away.

“We’re the Transformers,” Ratchet told him. “Are you the Batfamily Y/N told us about?”

“Yeah, we are,” Jason said. “You guys were the cars that tried to follow us.”

“We thought you were kidnapping our friend,” Jazz said defensively. “Of course we’re going to search for her.”

“Pardon me, but I’ve scanned these boys, and their pheromone levels suggest they want to mate with Y/N,” Ratchet said. “I don’t believe they would mean to harm her if they---”

“Listen here,” Ironhide’s cannons came back. “If you’re all thinking about mating with Y/N right now, you better be prepared for the consequences. Right, Bee?” The yellow autobot’s face was covered by a combat mask and he readied his own guns.

“Guys, guys!” you shouted, stepping in front of the boys. “Calm down! It’s fine! I barely know them!”

You turned to the boys with a serious look.

“No one is supposed to know about them,” you said. “Can you keep our secret?”

Dick, Jason, Roy, Tim, and Damian all nodded. They weren’t sure how to feel about your robot friends, but at least now they knew you were safe.

#batfamily imagines #batfamily imagine #batfam imagine #batfam imagines #batfamily x reader #batfam x reader #transformers #imagine #request #transformers imagine #transformers imagines #dc comics #dc comics imagine #dc comics imagines #the batfamily

[crasherfly]

Weekly Update

Nothing to report.

I had a big ol’ ripper of a rant, but it was pretty much everything I’d already said in therapy. Y’all don’t gotta take that on. So I’m gonna let it lie where it ought- with a professional.

I’ll just say I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I miss everyone a lot and I hope we can game together soon.

Video Games

Holy smokes did I play some games or did I play some GAMES. (I played some games). Gonna do my best to recap everything I did below. 

Crusader Kings 3 (PC)

Crusader Kings 3 is a grand strategy game about facilitating a royal line in the medieval world and leading it to ever greater heights of fame and power. Eventually, you’ll see your humble bloodline climb to the highest echelons of the lite.

Crusader Kings 3 is a grand strategy game about overseeing a perpetual house fire of family turmoil in the medieval world and watching over the course of hours and days as it burns itself straight to the ground.

Both of these things are equally true. And shockingly, both are equally fun.

I played about 30 hours of this game over Thanksgiving break. And although my first royal family was more of the house fire variety, I can’t deny that my experience was memorable and deeply enjoyable.

In Crusader Kings 3 you play as a king- not a kingdom, but the actual ruler. You have stats and abilities and traits, and the decisions you make throughout your reign affect them in dramatic ways. You also oversee an entire family of individuals who you can similarly affect with your actions. 

While the game itself also has traditional strategy concepts such as war and economy, the real meat and bones are in the simply click to choose narrative bubbles that pop up throughout your playthrough. Will you attend the ball, or slink away into the night? Will you charge the rampart or let your knights serve as your shield? Will you marry the unskilled heir of a powerful ally, or commoner with the brilliant stewardship abilities? Every decision ensures that your playthrough will be nothing like anyone else’s.

It is a complex and robust system, demanding you take on an encyclopedia’s worth of terms and vocabulary to fully understand what is happening. Everything- and I mean EVERYTHING- has a stat modifier attached to it. War is unforgiving and often devastating, and economic buildup is fragile and requires immense patience. This is a slow experience, to be sure, one that makes games like Civ or even Endless Space seem lightning paced in comparison.

There aren’t many folks I could recommend this game to. The few I know who have tried it have given up after a couple hours, discouraged by the obtuse volume of systems and intricacies that I won’t even pretend to have a full grasp of as of this writing.

But what I will say is that it is rare for a strategy game to be so accepting of ignorance and mistakes- and if you’re willing to give Crusader Kings 3 the time to open up, it will reward you. 

My first king after the starter king died at 33, half-insane, wounded and tortured to death after an ill-fated war against a neighboring county who happened to be best buds with the King of England- a much, much stronger kingdom than I. But I kept going, and by the time I’d hit the 5th and 6th kings in my succession, my rulers were regularly living well past 55 years of age, occasionally winning wars, but more importantly, staying out of unnecessary ones, and making plenty of gold for kingdom improvements.

Granted, this all came crashing down after an opportunistic neighbor declared war on me as I was in the midst of my own expansion. They captured an incredibly valuable county from me, and my kingdom never recovered. I watched as my territory disappeared claim by claim until at last my army of less than 100 was wiped out, my last city captured, and my bloodline swiftly ended via jailing and executions.

But...it was a thrilling end to over 200 years of royal drama, and I was immediately plotting how I’d do better next game.

Hitman 2 (PS4)

So when I said I played some GAMES, I mostly meant I got deep into a couple of games that require a lot of investment and focus. I’ve put in over 150 hours with Hitman 1 and 2 combined. I maxed out the mastery level of every mission in the first game- twice, so I could unlock the old equipment for the new game- and have been working my way through total mastery on the second game ever since.

If someone were to ask me what I think the best game of the PS4/XBONE gen is, I’d say, without hesitation, Hitman. It’s rare to find a game that is so rewarding of your time, so dedicated to presenting you with a thoughtful and clever world as this. Every level is a perfect puzzle. Every solution is both humorous and karmic and deeply satisfying. The rewards are many and you earn them often enough to keep you coming back. There are more side-contracts than I could ever possibly play. There’s even a co-op mode that I haven’t touched, not to mention the custom contracts. There’s even more than that, but if I go on I’ll start to sound like a back of box summary.

I finally finished the Isle of Sgail this week. A massive, sprawling castle with multiple layers of security and triggered events, it took FOREVER to learn. In fact, it was so massive that I gave up on it several times before finally resolving to finish it.

Now, I’m a deeply obsessive Hitman player. I don’t move on from a level until I’ve maxed out its mastery rating and unlocked all of its items for my inventory. But had I not wanted to do that? I could have moved forward at any time. And that’s the joy of Hitman. It doesn’t force you to stick around longer than you’d want to. If you want to play every single hit the same way, you can! If you want to just walk into every single level, shoot your target in the head, and leave- it might be a bit tricky, but it isn’t impossible, and you could do that and conceivably play every single level in the course of maybe a week.

But if you want to take your time and really memorize these brilliant layouts over the course of weeks, months, or in my case- years? You can do that too. Either way can be the right way to enjoy Hitman. 

I’m guessing these games will go on sale a few more times before 3 drops. If you can pick up 2′s premium edition, which includes 1, I’d highly recommend it. It is rare that you will find a title with so much pure single player content. Years worth, if you want it.

Depending on how the devs handle inventory and progress crossover for 3, I’ll have a big decision to make on what console I choose to play. I couldn’t care less where the story is going, but then, has anyone ever? These games have been an absolute joy to play, and that’s what matters.

Also...a Bond game from the same devs?

Sign me up!

Link’s Awakening (Switch) 

I always told myself I’d never pay full price for this. Because Nintendo’s gonna Nintendo, I had to wait a full year before I could catch any sort of break on this price. 

Eventually picked up Link’s Awakening and so far it’s pretty much been exactly what I expected. My muscle memory carried me through 2 dungeons in less than 90 minutes. The visuals were gorgeous, the music delightful, and my continual nostalgic recall at times overwhelming. This really is the same game we all played on our Gameboys, brought back to life for a new gen.

There’s nothing new here to go over. However, if you have a child or a partner who didn’t grow up with this? I’d recommend picking it up for them. Link’s Awakening has always been one of the least intimidating and most accessible Zelda games out there, and this reboot (or remaster? idk!) is an absolute charmer.

Premium Bowling (Oculus Quest 2)

So it’s come to this. Bowling. The more things have changed since the Wii, the more they stay the same. Bowling is still the most satisfying motion activity you can do, it seems.

Premium Bowling is exactly what it sounds like- a game about bowling. You have a few different alleys to choose and no shortage of pin set ups. The added ability to track not just your hand motions but your steps is really cool- and I like to hope my actual bowling form has improved as I play this. I get a good light workout in and the ball and pins tend to behave the way I feel like they should.

Not much else to say here. The price tag is a bit steep for a bowling experience, but far as I can tell this seems to be the main, if not only, one out there, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, even as I have to admit the announcer bugs the daylights out of me.

Anime

Folks- I did the damn thing. I got out there and I watched some anime! FINALLY.

I don’t know what I keep avoiding this stuff. There are so many good and interesting stories out there at my fingertips, and I just keep ignoring them to go watch wrestling or bet on Spriteclub. It’s awful!

Well, no more. This week, I got to catch up on some stories. Here’s what I got so far.

Note: For titles I haven’t written about previously, I’ll provide a short summary. For others, not so much. For my more critical thoughts- my experiences are my own and not a judgement of others. Maybe you loved one series or hated another. That’s totally fine! Everyone should love what they love without reservation. As always, I love hearing about what you love. If you think I missed something, or just want to share something about your experience that really made an anime click? Hit me up! Also, I am ALWAYS taking recommendations- and I will almost always follow up if I give something you send my way a shot :)

Fire Force

Fire Force’s season 2 is finally, after what feels like an eternity, winding down. It’s still a gorgeous show and certainly one of the most on-brand shonen out there. It’s also, for me, one of the most uneven.

Season 2 has been all over the damn place this year, introducing countless characters and following no small number of random threads before finally coming back to Shinra and the 8th’s mission to determine the cause of human combustion. 

The past couple of eps in particular have been brutal, with actual character death and mutilation taking a front seat- things I was not necessarily expecting from a fairly gung-ho shonen.

I still enjoy the world that Fire Force has built. It’s an undeniably cool aesthetic. I’ll be curious to see what, if any, cliff-hangers the writers leave us as the heroes close in on the evil Evangelist.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Speaking of shonens, this particular title about a possessed teenager with a death sentence has really come into its own in its first season. Its lore is absolutely lovely, and the more I learn about curses and those who hunt them, the more I want to know.

I’ll spare the rundown on what this show’s about- I’ve gone over it in previous blogs. Suffice to say those who are after a more mature shonen with a darker plot will dig this one a lot.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

A young adventurer named Bell becomes an adventurer- not to kill monsters or earn glory, but to find true love. Eventually, he finds it, but not in the way he expects. After getting cornered by a monster way above his level, he is rescued by a beautiful warrior named Ais. The story follows Bell’s quest to get stronger so that he can impress Ais- and stand with confidence amongst other adventurers.

Only watched the first ep of this. It was charming, well animated. I hear it’s picked up a lot of steam in its third season. I don’t know that I can say the hook really grabbed me, but it’s a very cute show.

One-Punch Man

Saitama has a problem- he’s trained so hard that he’s now TOO strong, and can finish every fight with just one punch. He’s now bored and despondent, as the hobby he took up for fun now lacks the spark that he once felt before. Dealing with these feelings and seeking a challenge that shakes up his low-stakes, humdrum day to day life- that is the story we follow in One-Punch Man.

So I’ve read the manga for OPM. I loved it. I thought, and still think, its animation is superior to the anime. When I first tried OPM I couldn’t get past that, and I eventually gave up. 

I also thought that a lot of OPM stories had kind of a weird tone- it’s definitely a loner/outsider story, and a lot of the villains and antagonists that get set up are absolutely poking fun at the typical things you’d expect an angry loner story to poke fun at. I won’t get too into it, but when I first tried OPM that weird undercurrent really made it hard for me to get into it the way a lot of other guys I knew were.

A few years later, I’m giving it a shot again. And overall? 

I don’t hate it. 

I think I’m looking at the protagonist, Saitama, in a different light. His boredom, his lackluster deference and his blank stares all play to a place that I find more familiar than I’d like to admit.

But also- the animation is fine and I’m a dummy for giving it grief. And the music is just super rad as well. 

I think I’ll eventually finish OPM now that I have both more distance between the manga now and now that I’ve kinda settled down on what throws me off, content-wise, in a story. I’m going to give OPM the benefit of the doubt and keep watching. I’ll report back when I finish.

Mob Psycho 100

A lot of folks I know have ranted that Mob Psycho 100 is the best darn thing to happen to anime in ages. I guess the visuals, much as they did for One-Punch Man, sorta dissuaded me from seeing what all the hype was about.

And I guess they still kinda do. I...I guess Mob Psycho is pretty in its own way. It’s definitely not the visual aesthetic I go searching for in an anime, but I’m trying to do a better job of not judging that too harshly.

Anyway, Mob Psycho 100 is about a kid named Mob who acts as a powerful exorcist on behalf of his bumbling and powerless teacher. Together they take on demons as a for-hire service.

I feel like I’ve heard this show is hilarious? I don’t know. I didn’t find too much to chuckle about, but it was well-done and it certainly had no shortage of chaotic energy and visuals.

I’ll probably finish it, if only ‘cuz I’m mildly intrigued about just what so many others see in Mob as a protag, and ‘cuz I’m also curious what so many folks are drawing from the series as a whole. But so far, I haven’t found myself hooked.

No Guns Life

The main character has a gun for a head. Honestly? That was weird enough to make me pass over the thumbnail for months.

Recently though, I’ve been rewatching Solty Rei, and it got me in the mood for weird sci-fi noir stories. So I thought what the hell, I’ll give the gunhead a try.

I’m so, so glad I did.

Of all the titles I tried out this week, No Guns Life is the best. It is dark, brooding, gorgeous, but also knows when to have fun. 

In a future world where prosthetic replacement has been normalized- if not popularized, a mercenary named Juzo is handed a case by a desperate “Extended” (the term used for more advanced cyborgs) who asks him to look after a boy that was just rescued from a corporate lab. Juzo takes the case, and his life immediately becomes more complicated- and dangerous.

It’s a classic noir hook that feels both familiar yet fresh in thanks to the series’ inventive visuals and intricate lore. Further, the voice acting is just pure hard-boiled goodness, whether you watch it in English or the original Japanese.

Do yourself a favor and give the first episode a try. You might just love it.

The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited

An honest and earnest blue-collar detective is paired up with a new recruit at his precinct- a recruit who turns out to be the richest man on the planet!

That’s it. That’s the show. It is not trying to hide anything- that’s its premise and it’s sticking by it.

And a few times, I even laughed at its brazenness. 

At one point during a high speed chase, the millionaire successfully resolves the chase by...telling his butler to pay everyone to get out of the way- at “twice the market value”. Which. What even...

The Millionaire Detective’s power is literally that he is rich and can afford anything. When he accesses his balances, they are listed as “unlimited”. He buys everyone off. Pays for every damage he causes. He can make city utilities such as traffic lights and draw bridges do anything he likes. At one point, the Millionaire Detective stops a foreign dignitary in the middle of the street and buys the dignitary’s vehicle on the spot so he can continue his chase. It’s...well. It’s the logical conclusion of the series title. I’ll give it that much.

No idea if I’d finish this. It has some funny ideas. I like that the eps end with a balance sheet that tells you how much was spent. 

Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out

A loner in college is constantly shadowed and harassed by an indomitable girl named Uzaki who, true to the name of the series, wants to hang out.

I watched one ep of this show. I didn’t dislike it! I’m a sucker for low stakes slice of life comedies like this where the biggest conflict is whether or not the protag gets to go to the movies alone.

It’s not as clever as other slice of life anime I’ve seen, but it’s not abrasive. The namesake character Uzaki is a bit manic, and the loner is a bit of a bore, but there’s chemistry I could see following for a few more eps. I also just enjoy observing Japanese culture as it unfolds in stories like these. There’s so much to pick up in these kinds of stories, so I may continue on with it, if only out of curiosity. 

The Rising of Shield Hero

A guy gets transported to a world in dire need of heroes. Everyone who is brought to the world is assigned a weapon which they will use to save the kingdom. Our protagonist gets the Shield- considered the weakest assignment. Derided by his allies and cast out after no small number of misunderstandings, Rising of Shield Hero is the story of one man’s drive to do the right thing and save the kingdom that never wanted him in the first place.

This is my second try with Shield Hero. I gave up once before. But now...I’m giving Shield Hero another shot.

I tried this title about a year ago. I was really harsh on its opening ep’, which hinges on a false rape accusation and a typical loner outsider isekai protagonist. Its “best girl” is a character who is introduced by way of being literally purchased from a slaver. None of this was presented in an especially egregious or even disrespectful format, but at the time I was watching it, I just lacked patience for it.

But time is a funny thing. We grow, we re-evaluate, and we make ourselves open to change.

I think I’ve had time to chill out since my first experience with Shield Hero and not be so bothered by the particulars (that, and...well, my experience with Goblin Slayer really put some shit in perspective, ugh). Did I think some of ep 1 was unimaginative? Yes. But was any of it actually a dealbreaker? Nah.I know a lot of good folks who I trust that have really resonated with Shield Hero as it has unfolded. It’s worth giving it another try.

Shield Hero’s setting is beautiful and its characters are certainly drawn to create an emotional investment. We want to root for the the Shield Hero, because he is quietly determined and righteous. We want to protect Raphtalia be cause she is vulnerable and kind. We want to see the antagonists fail because they’re all huge jerks. This aint rocket science, but I’ll grant it is effective and I want to be a part of the ride like so many others are.

I’m going to keep working through this, if only because I know season 2 is a damn event in anime and I don’t want to miss out. I’ll let you know if things keep improving. I’ve done episode 2 thus far, and I liked it more than ep 1. So we’ll see if that trend keeps up.

[pynkhues]

Do you have any tips on how to write a story with multiple main characters? I'm currently trying to write a story that features six characters. Two of which are sort of a duo they are co workers/ friends. The rest of the characters don't really know each other yet however eventually they all come together. They are all important to the story. how can I make this not confusing for the readers?

Absolutely, anon! That sounds like a really cool premise – I love stories that sort of weave a bit as they come together, and having characters that seem like standalone threads only to braid them as the story goes on is a favourite narrative structure of mine. It’s also kind of good timing to ask, because my novel (which comes out in two weeks! Eek!) actually has three leads / three point of view characters, so this is definitely a headspace that I’ve been in quite a bit over the last twelve months (plus I’ve been lucky enough to work with a team of editors who really helped me grow and develop on that front!)

When we talk about writing multiple main characters, I think it becomes a conversation about balance. That might seem like an obvious answer, because of course we’re always balancing characters and storylines in a way that weights them appropriately, but I think it really goes beyond that to a balancing of tone, vocabulary, imagery and space.

These are things that ebb and flow between characters, but they’re also things that have the responsibility of grounding readers with the character they’re spending time with, on top of controlling the narrative tension which keeps your story moving, and your readers reading (or watching if what you’re writing is a screenplay or play!)

In that sense, I think the best way to talk about that balance is to talk about four different things, namely:

Who are your characters?

Story worlds (and where they crossover)

Voice

Pace, Tension & Narrative Structure

So, let’s start at the top.

Who are your characters?

Understanding who your characters are and how they fit into the narrative you’re telling is another one that feels probably obvious, but I think it’s an important one to break out because it really feeds into my next two points.

The basics of knowing who your characters are culminates in three questions.

What do they want?

What’s standing in their way, stopping them from getting what they want?

How will they overcome what’s standing in their way so that they can get what they want?

These three questions ultimately inform every aspect of your plot, but they also inform who your character is because there is a why behind each of them.

I’ve talked at length I think on here about the almighty Why? haha, but it really is pivotal to the ways in which we understand story and character. JK Rowling being a TERF and a terrible person aside, Harry Potter is really a great example of this, and I use it all the time when I’m teaching, because people generally know it and these three questions – and how the why? informs the character and the story – is really clear.

What does Harry want? Harry wants a family.

What’s standing in his way? Voldemort wanting to take over the wizarding world, killing his birth parents and threatening the new family he’s building.

How will he overcome it? Harry will be a hero, and overcome with the help of his created family.

In another world, this would be a classic hero’s journey – Harry hears the hero’s call, he fights the villain, he saves the day; but what Rowling does well is that she uses that why? to inform his character and ground us in the story. Harry never wants to save the wizarding world – he wants to save this scrap of family that he’s found in Hermione, Ron and the Weasley’s, and Hogwarts. The story follows traditional structure, but it roots itself not in a hero’s desire, but in a human one.

Harry’s just a boy who wants a family, and all his decisions are informed by that, but more importantly, Rowling makes narrative and structural decisions that feed that motivation.

The Dursley’s treat him badly; the mistreatment, neglect and abuse of that upbringing is juxtaposed against the embarrassment of riches he experiences not just at Hogwarts, but in the Wizarding World broadly; his father’s own created family is tangled; he connects to animals and fantastic creatures who are out of place because Harry himself has lived a life out of place, etc etc.

Even though it’s Harry who’s the protagonist and the only POV character in the books, you can still answer those three questions of all the supporting characters too, and that’s what you should be thinking about with your own story. Being able to answer those questions gives all your characters agency, it builds conflict (which I’ll come back to), and it helps you to build a distinctive world and voice for each of them.

Story worlds (and where they crossover)

We tend to think about story worlds pretty broadly, which I think is a detriment to storytelling. We each have our own distinct worlds and spaces that are ours and spaces that we’re not comfortable in and spaces that we’re only in with other people, or because we have to be, or because someone we love loves it.

Knowing what spaces are which for your characters is something I think really enriches stories overall and is going to help you to create associative spaces as you distinguish your major and minor characters from one another. It can also help you to create authentic conflict.

Just to jump back onto Harry Potter because it’s an easy example most people know – take Ron and Harry.

They’re mostly equals at Hogwarts, but not really anywhere else. Places like Diagon Alley make Ron feel uncomfortable because his family is poor and he lives on his brothers’ hand-me-downs, whereas for Harry, Diagon Alley, especially in the first few books, is a place of comfort because it signals a connection to his family, financial ease and a return to the world he considers home after spending time in a place he’s abused and neglected. Similarly, Ron loves his house – The Burrow – but is also embarrassed by it, whereas Harry loves it and yearns for it. It’s what he wished he had to come back to. Both these things create conflict for Ron and Harry at different stages of the book, and also fuel Harry's marrying into the family.

The Burrow is also written in a way that is distinctly characteristic of The Weasley’s. It’s loud and chaotic and cobbled together with what the family can afford, but it’s also full of charm and love in a way that makes it hard to confuse for any other location in the books. It is character informing space informing character in a beautiful little cycle.

Thinking about how space informs not only the primary character who engages with it, but what it can tell us about other characters who might not ever even go there is a great way of really distinguishing between them. Again, thinking of Harry Potter – compare the Weasley House to the Dursley House to Malfoy Manor to Grimmauld Place.

These are distinct settings that inform character and story and tone.

If it’s a shared space though too, think about the different ways characters interact with it.

In my novel, all the POV characters live in the same house, but where two of them are comfortable in it and roam it freely, one character is frequently featured in the overgrown garden or locked in her bedroom. She cuts herself or she exists on the outside of it, because she doesn’t feel connected to her family, and her brief moments of connection with her mother always happen in the backyard, because they can only really be together when her mother makes the effort to meet her where she’s at, not the other way around.

Voice

If we think about story worlds too broadly, we do the opposite, I think, with voice. There’s this tendency to think of voice as dialogue, or as internal monologue, when it is so much more than that. Voice is everything from vocabulary to gestures to what you notice and feel.

There’s a great horror movie called Hush which I always highly recommend, because it’s a two-hander with two characters, and the protagonist is deaf and the antagonist is not, and one of the great things this movie does is remove sound when we’re in the protagonist’s POV. That is a distinctive choice in terms of crafting her POV or ‘voice’ which settles us in her head and amplifies her conflict with the antagonist because she can't hear him.

It goes beyond that too though – what your characters pick up on, what’s important to them in setting, conflict, romantic scenes – is informed by their character and who they are, and becomes a distinctive part of their voice, and yours while you’re writing them.

A character who’s come from a poor background is going to notice the smells of expensive, gourmet food, and the way someone speaks or throws out references to holidays like they’re something everyone can take, versus a character from a wealthy background who’s probably not going to notice the smell of the food as much because they’re accustomed to it, but will notice – say – a place not having a maid or the size of someone’s living room or the fact that a bedframe is old or second hand.

We’re products of our experiences and those experiences inform not just the way we speak, but what we absorb or feel in a moment. Thinking about that in the context of your characters is going to help you to create really distinct voices for them that in turn help your readers pick up quickly on who they’re with and where they are. It’s also going to help create really distinct arcs for all six of your main characters, even the two that work together.

Generally speaking, I’d say things to consider are:

Age

Gender

Race

Class (particularly if it’s changed like Harry’s did)

Family and upbringing

Relationships (particularly friendship circles)

Travel they’ve done

Work

Where they live right now

What they eat

What they do for fun / what they enjoy

What they do because they have to / what they don’t enjoy

Pace, Tension & Narrative Structure

One of the pivotal things with storytelling is that the shape of it should feel consequential. To boil it down to its most basic meaning – something happens and so this happens, not and then this happens – the former is what creates flow and builds tension, whereas the latter jars and confuses. When you have multiple POV characters in temporarily silo’ed storylines, this can be trickier. You’re dealing with scenes that are often not immediately talking to each other, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but you need to find the balance in that.

If you have six completely unrelated storylines you need to find ways to connect them in ways that are going to prick the reader’s notice and create clean transitions. A character might drive to the beach while in the next scene a character swims in a lake for instance. We know that they’re separate and in different places, but the water connects them in a way that creates narrative flow.

It doesn’t even need to be that direct – two characters might be in the same place but at completely different times, a character might wear something blue and another might be repulsed by something blue, or it can be thematic juxtaposition. In my novel for instance, a character spends time connecting with a friend, before we have a scene with his sister who is completely alone.

These sorts of transitions create thematic clarity even if the narrative connection is still building. They also create tension which compels readers because they’re waiting for worlds to collide and feeling the impact of knowing these characters are close and the story is threading, even when it’s not quite yet.

Thinking about how transitions build tension feels like a whole other post, haha, but thinking about it in the context of balancing characters, building tone, and creating contrast is really important for managing big casts of characters.

Just before I finish up: a final note on headhopping

Be! Very! Wary! Of! Headhopping!

It’s one of the cardinal sins of writing really, and it’s when writers bounce between POVs in the one scene. You can have an omniscient voice, you can bounce around scene-to-scene, you can even have a handover mid-scene (although these are extremely hard to do), but you can’t do it flippantly or you will confuse your message and your readers.

If you are coming from a character’s POV, you need to stick with it and only hand it off in a responsible way. In my novel, I have my three POV characters, but I only headhop at scene transitions for instance. A lot of movies headhop through lingering shots on particular characters which then let them transition with them. If you’re an omniscient narrator, you need to do something similar. There’s a reason it’s called headhopping, and the reason is it makes the author look like they’re jumping between characters on one leg.

Don’t do it! Invest in a character for a scene or a chapter before switching POVs.

In conclusion

The best way to balance multiple protagonists is to understand them, and understand how their history informs them, and shapes their experiences of not just the world around them, but their experiences of others, of their conflicts, of their growth and their setbacks, and how that in turn builds your story.

I hope this is a help!

#writing advice #writing #i'm sorry this took me a few weeks to get to anon! #it's been wild #i also really do hope this is helpful #let me know if you have any questions #:-) #welcome to my ama