#This is the real reason there are so many unfinished AO3

[bogunicorn]

thoughts on what fandoms the da:i characters would be in

I will do this for you but ONLY if I amend it to "fandoms they would be annoying about" because it's funnier and otherwise I'm just assigning them shows they would be into and that's too subjective and less fun

One of them has to be a Homestuck and it's Sera, Sera is the Homestuck. Sera has a Trollsona that she doodles on everything, she would 100% absolutely try to dye herself gray using sharpies and vodka for a cosplay. She references it all the time and is annoying when you don't understand her jokes. She still tries to get people into it, but she considers Andrew Hussy a mortal enemy these days for Reasons.

Solas is a Song of Ice and Fire bitch. Not the show. The books. "But wait, Boggers!" you might say (if you know me well enough to call me "Boggers"), "What about LOTR? Why isn't Solas into LOTR?" And to that I say, he's definitely read it and is a nerd about it, but this is about fandom, and fandom to someone like a Reddit-addicted bitch like Solas is about theory crafting, debates, and politics, and ASoIaF being complex but unfinished really lends itself to the kind of deep internet toxicity that I think Solas would crave. Also he likes wolves.

Cole is a Supernatural Superfan. He has all the cheesy "join the hunt" merch because for a while it was his chief special interest and all he wanted was SPN stuff. He's kind of obsessed with Baby, specifically. His favorite episode was Baby and he has an AO3 account full of fic written from the car's perspective. He didn't cry in the finale until he saw the Impala under the canvas and he's been lowkey upset at Sam for doing that ever since.

Dorian is an old school Baldur's Gate fan. Like, BG1 and 2. He's played other RPGs of that era, those are just his favorites. What makes him an annoying fan is that he thinks complicated = good and looooooves to complain about how "simple" and "boring" current-era RPGs are. If you can't softblock yourself from all progress by making one mistake two hours into your playthrough, it's too easy. He's active in fandom spaces and is largely helpful, like he writes tips and guides and will answer newbie questions, but the price for his help is dealing with him being smug.

Leliana is a FromSoft fangirl and a Soulslike aficionado. Nightingale says git gud. She'll happily team up with you in co-op to get you through stuff if you ask, but she also explains mechanics and such like you should have known them already and thinks you're just not trying hard enough to listen, even though her advice is almost incomprehensible.

Cullen is an MCU fanboy. He fully believes they're the peak of cinema. He compares literally everything to an MCU movie, as he has seen all of them, multiple times, and thinks you're "thinking about it too much" if you criticize them in more than the most banal of ways. Usually it's fine, like, being excited for stuff is fine and enjoying mainstream things are fine, but you can only have so many "Thanos was a great villain" conversations with this dude before you go insane. Despite seeming incapable of critiquing the MCU, his criticisms of the DCEU are spot-on, sharp, and demonstrative of actually very impressive media analysis skills, but also coming from a starting point of "DC Bad, Marvel Good", so it's like, we could've had it aaaaaaaaall.

Cassandra is in the Bridgerton fandom. She read the original books and liked them, so she was one of the first people watching the show. Most of her fandom stuff happens on Facebook with other book fans. Watching the show with her is fun until the exact second she says "well, in the BOOKS" and then rattles off a list of the most inconsequential changes, distracting you from a pivotal moment in the show and forcing you to rewind. She is very pressed about the seasons going out of order from the books.

Varric is a Critical Role evangelist. He was there when it started, he's listened to everything. He's listened to other real play podcasts and shows, but CR is his favorite. That's not annoying in and of itself, what's annoying is that he will not stop trying to get you to watch it. If you even breathe in the direction of a DnD-related topic he tries to give you "advice on where to start" with CR. His friends put up with it because he's their Forever DM and they love him, but he sure does do a lot more obnoxious sound effects now than he used to and they're planning an intervention about it.

Josephine is a Disney Adult. She seems normal and then bam, you get blindsided by something insane, like that she owns every single Disney character Funko Pop, or that she's gone to DisneyWorld for vacation every year for the last decade, or you go over to her house for dinner and find Hidden Mickeys in her bathroom, or she's really intense about pin collecting and limited edition mouse ear headbands. You wonder when she has the time and energy to collect all this. And there's more of it every time you see her. But the thing is that she's pretty quiet about it as long as you don't poke the bear. You know that she's seen every one of the new remakes in theaters, but you don't dare ask her opinion about them. Her favorite princess is Cinderella and she tells you "the original dress was silver" with exactly the same amount of excited did-you-know energy every time.

I hate to break this to you all, but Iron Bull is a Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan fanboy. Yep. Yes he is. His toxic trait is that he shuts his brain off and just enjoys the gritty action sequences. He liked Batman v Superman. He bought the Snyder Cut. He thinks Nolan's Batman is the absolute best that franchise has ever been and ever could be. I'm sorry, it's heartbreaking but it's true. I know, I'm sad, too, we can hold each other.

Vivienne has been in the Anne Rice fandom under the same pseudonym for ever. She was one of the original fans and was much more active in fandom when she was much younger, but she made her fannish activities more and more private as she became more established in her career. You would honestly never know it meeting her IRL; at most, people come over for dinner parties and might notice that she owns every single Anne Rice book, but they're part of her overall book collection and don't really stand out. Secretly, though, she's been keeping up with the Anne Rice fandom under a pseudonym this whole time and goes to the more modern in-person events using her fake name. She might kill you if you ever connected her fandom activities to her real life in any way. She's also just, like, she's really bad at letting people be wrong about these books. Really, really, really bad. There are epic-length threads on old forums that are just her and one other similarly deranged person fighting about obscure Vampire Chronicles lore.

And finally, Blackwall is a Game of Thrones girlie. The show, not the books. He's one of those "I don't like fantasy but I like Game of Thrones" guys, and he thinks GoT is mold-breaking and special and better and grittier and more realistic than other fantasy and that's why he likes it. His most irritating fan trait is that he thought season 8 was good and that the ending was good and he likes to get into heated debates with other fans about it. However, he does not know what Reddit is, he only talks with other GoT-watchers in Facebook, which is why he and Solas haven't had the fight to end all friendships yet. Yet.

BONUS! Krem is into Star Wars and Scout Harding is a die-hard Trekkie, and they go to big cons and cosplay together. They're not annoying at all, I just wanted to mention it because I feel like that's in-character for them.

**also if you like this and think "i'm gonna give this fine person a follow because they're so funny about dragon age", i made a new DA sideblog at @skyholdstarbucks where i'd post anything similar to this in the future

#asks #bog post #dragon age #dai #i like doing these so if people have prompts send 'em #and i may get around to them #sera #blackwall #the iron bull #solas #cole #varric tethras #cassandra pentaghast #dorian pavus #vivienne de fer #josephine montilyet #cullen rutherford #leliana #krem aclassi #lace harding #da headcanons

[thegrimreaperisanerd]

hi :) binge read your de fic that you have posted on ao3 last night and really enjoyed all of it! excited to see any updates. was wondering if you have any rec for other fic youve read and enjoyed-- i am not god's bravest soldier and do not enjoy trudging through tags and was wondering if you had read anything yourself that you really enjoyed lolol

Hey, thanks so much!!! Sorry it's taken a couple days to answer this, I'm poor as shit and have two jobs now wah... capitilism...

I'm working on the next 46' chapter, It's about 70% complete and I generally let it sit for an evening once it's done then re-read it the next day to catch the vast majority of mistakes (I edit everything myself) so I'd say expect that in the coming days.

I have some thoughts! I... Have never been asked for fic recs before so I'm gonna list a bunch in no particular order that I enjoyed, and reasons why. I will note that I tend to enjoy meaty plot-based works over fluff, so that's what I'll be recommending. Anyway!

Paddling Out (THE REPEATER CORPSE CONUNDRUM) - @transhitman - So this is the first DE fic I read and it set the bar pretty fucking high. YOU'VE GOT: a very cool and insular setting (don't get me wrong I like fics where they travel around Revachol too, but there's something to be said for building a set and living in it for a while) YOU'VE GOT: extremely harrowing tension and pale-fuckery YOU'VE GOT: some genuinely beautiful, heartfelt moments (I don't want to spoil anything but "people don't need your permission to care about you" kinda undid me) YOU'VE ALSO GOT: Amazing art?! Always a bonus, I wish I could draw people lol

Have You Heard The News That You're Dead? - Wizardlover - Time Loop shenanigans hell yeah! Basic premise: Kim is *unable* to save Harry's life after he's shot at the tribunal, each time he dies he Reawakens in Martinaise on the first day and desperately has to try and find a way to either prevent the Tribunal entirely, or survive it. I think the major draw to this one is how well it's characterised and how well that lends to the major source of tension: trying to convince THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SKEPTIC that you *a man he 'has only just met'* is actually stuck in a time loop. Juicy shit.

The Case Of The Man Who Two-Thirds Wasn't There - @glisteningceruleaneyes - We got another case fic here, gang. This is one of those "they travel around Revachol" numbers I previously mentioned. A lot to love about this fic; the minor OCs are all loveable (or at least well-written, looking at you Mr. Bigot-All-Rounder), the elements of writing in the game's style (particularly use of Harry's 'to do' list that you find in the ledger, you don't see that as often!) are all fantastic. Also without spoiling too much I'm a sucker for hurt/ comfort :) I like when bad things happen to our specialist guy :) ALSO! alternating chapters, Kim vs Harry's perspectives contrast REALLY well! Just a super enjoyable read. - On that note I also wanna include a special mention: there's a podfic for this one and since I mentioned my two jobs, I've been listening to audiobooks at work (I'm a cleaner. It's very boring) and that was a fun change of pace!

The Emergent Causeway - hal_incandenza - Now you KNOW this one is good because it's the only *unfinished* fic I'm recommending. Again, We've got art! We've got a brand new (non-Revachol!) setting that still feels excellently Elysium! We got that excellent balance of humour and misery from the get go! EXCELLENT murder mystery so far, I am intrigued AND also there's a fucking puppy. Hell yeah. This one's from Kim's perspective and does a really good job of it, nothing like a man being begrudgingly sent on holiday and being somewhat relieved to have a corpse to deal with.

A Spilled Kaleidoscope - @spilledkaleidoscope - I'm actually recommending a series here. Real definition of "came for the art, stayed for the writing" I mostly have a soft spot because I got to watch a few "haha, what if-?" musing text posts become a series of written chapters and INCREDIBLE DRAWINGS HOLY SHIT. Like, you really just draw hands for fun, huh? This person made a pact with some sort of devil beasts to draw hands very good, at the bare minimum we can read their fiction.

Nothing To Lose But Our Chains - Lepak - I almost forgot this one and I honestly can't believe it because this is one of these ones that you need a cigarette afterwards. Good fucking god. This is probably the best fic I've ever read in terms of not shying away from the heavy themes that make Disco Elysium such a beautiful, moving game. It tackles a racism in many forms, particularly how people like Kim (in working for the RCM) and immigration laws do their part in upholding racist systems, despite the way it hurts him too. Of course, it's also excellently written with tense scenes and some real funny moments. A real good'un here.

The Catacomb Killer - SupposedToBeWriting - Give Harry more memory loss. Make him convinced he killed a kid. Make *Kim* convinced he killed a kid... Then the plot thickens. I won't lie I can't remember fuck all about this one because I was mostly drunk when I read it, but if it was good enough that I kept reading instead of smoking a spliff or something then it must have been excellent... I will re-read it when I have the time, lmao.

MURDER ON THE AIRWAVES - @randomisedmongoose - I'm just a really big fan of murder mysteries and gore. You show me somebody with brain matter pouring from their earholes and I'm like "yum yum, more of that please." I am a sucker for curious methods of murder and this one's good for that. Lots of trekking back and forth like in the game again. More ACAB - always good.

I did not mean to include this many...........................

Oh well. Here's my list, there are plenty of others I've enjoyed but these are just the ones that came to mind! Thanks again for reading my fic! Always makes me happy when people let me know they enjoy my writing :3

#hey if i tagged u in this and u don't want to be tagged then PLEASE lemme know and i'll remove u #likewise i dont know if everyone has tumblr so if u know somebody does ping this post their way and if they wanna be tagged let me know and #i'll do that #fic recs

[breannasfluff]

Oof this got way longer than I meant it to. um, i just want to preface this real quick- i dunno if you enjoy criticism on your fanfic? i hope that doesn't come across as rude or anything, i just know for a lot of people fanfic just isn't really the time or place for critique and that's obviously totally valid. i feel like i'm making a mess of this lmao. but basically feel free to just ignore this if you'd like. i just have some thoughts about ur work that i kinda wanted to share.

So i have a question about the eldritch au that's... not really constructive criticism only because the series isn't finished? Idk if that makes any sense but basically I was wondering if we'll get to see anyone other than the chain being freaked out by Wild? I ask because i was thinking after meeting Malon in Eldritch Ranch that like... everyone Wild's been introduced to *other* than the Chain seems to just be fine with him? Like, it was Sun, then it was Ravio, and now Malon... it's sort of starts to feel like the chain is just the only ones who have a problem with him?

And I mean, it's not like any of these characters being okay with Wild doesn't make sense or anything- Sun, obviously, has her own eldritch shit going on; Ravio is from a dark world; all the people in Wild's hyrule presumably are used to him (I'm also theorizing that the calamity was like... lightly corrupting, just enough to make the folks in wild's hyrule more resistant to his aura); even with Malon, I actually really like the idea of her, as proto-Malanya, also having her own sort of eldritch vibes.

I guess what I'm trying to get across is that it just feels a bit odd that literally every time the chain has introduced Wild to someone else that someone else has been All Good With The Eldritch Aura, Actually. BUT, because the series is still unfinished, I don't know if that's a purposeful thing or not yet. It's entirely possible that we will meet some other folks who get freaked out by wild, or it will turn out that maybe the chain actually are just particularly sensitive to wild's brand of Fuckery. maybe they're extra aware of it for hero's spirit reasons? Triforce reasons? i dunno! anyways i want to take this time to re-emphasize how much i enjoy eldritch malon. because, you know, Hell Fucking Yes. Many well wishes to u <3

You are correct, fanfic is not the place for critique! If you commissioned something from me and paid for it, you can critique it. If I post specifically asking for feedback on something, you can provide it.

Otherwise, I write for free. Pointing out flaws is not encouraging to writing. It's demoralizing, and doesn't make me want to continue posting.

As you noted, the people Eldritch Wild has met have all been eldritch in their own way, or Sun, who's got her own special thing. You can always write a fanwork if there's a specific scenario you want to see.

Below goes for all my followers:

Things you can let me know: I forgot the link to ao3 at the end of the tumblr post. What you like about the story. You made fanart and want to share it. You'd like to give me a million dollars.

Things you do not need to share: Critique, constructive criticism, or things you disagree with. If you don't like it, please don't read it.

#asks #writing fanfic #fanfic critique

[suzyq31]

20 Questions Game

Thanks for the tag @nodirectionhome-ao3 and @practicecourts

How many works do you have on AO3? Currently at 17

2. What's your total A03 words count? 696,804

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now just Harry Potter

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Maybe Tomorrow: Post War. Harry and Hermione are renovating Potter Manor over Christmas then wake up into a different life. (almost finished!)

Iris: My first story, and the bane of my existence. Hermione flees after the war, five years later she's dragged back in by a dangerous situations. Follows my series Seasons. Hidden child trope, angst fest, long as hell and on hiatus. H/Hr

It Had To Be You: Post war, completed, steamy romcom with some loose inspiration from the film When Harry Met Sally. Co-written with @bettertoflee

Found: A spin off of Iris, and another alternate ending to Seasons. Never thought I would write an OC protagonist, but here we are!

My next highest kudos is another Harmony, but that's boring so going with my highest rated Jily fic which is Plans. It's also more Sirius & Lily focused, takes place right after Harry's born.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try my best! Sometimes I can forget if I'm distracted/dealing with real life stuff. But I am SO grateful for people who take the time to let me know they've read my work.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angtiest ending?

For now probably Spring or Winter in my Seasons Series.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Well seeing as how I struggle to finish anything...I guess the ones that are complete which is It Had To Be You and Home.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yes, so far only in Harmony. It's a huge reason I don't participate in the fandom much and why I moderate comments. Most of it has been concentrated on my stories Iris and Found, but I've also received rude comments on other works including It Had To Be You (which got some very incel type comments, and is the main reason I only allow registered users and block instantly).

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

Yes, mostly reluctantly as I still get uncomfortable writing it, but some stories feel incomplete without some. Love reading it though! Not sure what kind means? Like M or E? I would say my smut is relatively tame. I've only written one E rated fic, which was co-written haha.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Nope, can't imagine I ever would.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No idea! People have asked me, but haven't seen them.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes! Working on my second collaboration with @bettertoflee. And my story Iris gets so much support from my beta Green_Eyes that it feels like she may as well be a co-writer!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? I've shipped both my fave HP ships since around 2001 when I was a child and they haven't changed even with the dreaded epilogue for Harry and Hermione (I take Unlike a Sister as canon and breathe easier for it), or you know canon for James and Lily (which is why AU is so fun!)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ideally I'd like to finish all of them. If I didn't have such a strong editor/beta reader for Iris it would likely stay unfinished. I REALLY struggle with endings at the best of times and that story has a variety of factors that make it difficult for me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm very hard on myself, so its hard to think of positives. I do think I'm creative, and as someone with ADHD I often think outside the box. I think I have a good ear for dialogue. I've also received compliments on my descriptions/scene writing, as well as for conveying emotions. The thing I do love best about writing is seeing the growth year by year, story by story.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting, getting stuck after the midway point. ADHD brain always wanting to jump to something new. Spelling/Grammar from years of French Immersion. Wordy, though REALLY have worked on this and I do so much slashing and cutting in my editing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

No strong opinion unless it's constant.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably Harry Potter as a child. Although me and a friend wrote a That 70s Show script and posted it on fanfic.net back in middle school haha.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

This is a hard one. I am really proud of Maybe Tomorrow, I put a lot of my heart into it and it's actually complete except for some edits and additional scenes I'm contemplating.

I also really enjoyed writing Plans. And I'm proud of this short micro where I managed to stay under 1000 words!

I think this has made the rounds already! At least for Jily. But will tag;

@bettertoflee @myst867 @glitterwitch1 @riverwriter @runawayminds @annonymouslyblonde

#fanfic writing

[skalidra]

Fic Writers Showcase Game

@there-must-be-a-lock tagged me!

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason.

~~

First fic published on Ao3: That would be The Other Side of the Mirror, an Earth-3 continuity mess with a JayDick main pair, featuring Roy as a 3rd PoV. First chapter was posted in September, 2014, currently 200k, 20 chapters , and as of yet unfinished, though I think as it stands it ends on a decently hopeful note. I do still recall the main plot points of where it goes, and would like to finish it someday.

Last fic published: I posted the first chapter of Five Finger Discount just yesterday, which is the 5th piece in my Worth Counting series, an alpha!Slade/alpha!Jason series exploring a variety of kinks but with a focus on non-formal dom/sub vibes, competence/strength kink, and mostly-play fighting. (The last finished story was Shifting Into Fourth which is the 4th piece of that same series, so, I'm a little bit on a theme here.)

Fandom/ship I only wrote once: I uh. I wrote Hamilton/Jefferson/Madison room-where-it-happens porn. For the Hamilton musical. It's called Do Whatever It Takes and I think it is still the thing that makes me feel the most sinfully dirty of all the things I've ever written. So there's that.

I also have Let's Be Clear, which is my only fic set anywhere in the MCU, and is a Daredevil oneshot of an asexual!Wesley being invited to join a Fisk/Vanessa relationship, as I vibed real hard with Wesley as a character and never really got over his unfortunate demise.

(Honorable mention to my four stories that are technically fandoms of their own, but all fall under the 'DCU' umbrella, being for the Arkham games, two shows in the CW Arrowverse, and the Teen Titans cartoon.)

Favorite fic in most popular fandom/ship: This is a little hard to quantify. Technically 'DCU (Comics)' comes in at 93k in stories, which would make JayDick the most popular pairing, which makes my favorite story Captain's Privileges. It's a Star Trek mirror!verse fusion with Captain!Dick and Engineer!Jason and so many unhealthy relationships everywhere, and I love it.

However! 'DCU (Comics)' is a very broad umbrella and it's not really fair to say it's my biggest fandom, since the slice I belong to is much smaller. Which means the more accurate winner is Voltron, at 85k stories. I technically have a Klance story but given that it is a big poly clusterfuck dark!fic I really have to actually give this to the second most popular pairing by stat, Sheith. Out of those, I think my favorite is I'm Not That Man, which was an early false-memories/brainwashed!Shiro fic set just before the wormhole split them all up.

Fic I wish more people read: An Extra Shot, hands down. Come read my gen, Wilson-family-focused exploration of what happens if Adeline dies during the attack on Joey! Come read Slade Wilson being forced into confronting the fact that he is a terrible dad and also now a widowed dad of three kids! Come read Billy trying his best to bludgeon all the terrible communicators of this family into actually working things out! READ THIS. THERE'S A SEQUEL IN PROGRESS. IT'S GOOD I SWEAR.

Fic that was hardest to write: I think the award for this has to go to Me, Not Her, a CaptainPan/CaptainSwan piece which I was apparently so frustrated with at some point that I straight up deleted the file. Four years later (no I am not kidding) I had the vague memory of it. Some sketchy thing I could maybe expand, now that I was having thoughts about OUaT again. I pull it out of the (then eternal) trash of Google Drive. It is five thousand words long and needs no more than pretty basic editing and a little padding at the end to round it off. I don't know what the hell was happening with me when I deleted it, but wow, lesson learned.

Fic that popped out fully-formed: I don't recall any that were explicitly like this, but I also don't tend to write like, neat little packaged stories all that often. If I'm writing oneshots they're usually for events. So my best answer to this is probably Fucking Androids? It's a Reed900 relationship origin story that blazed its way out of me during NaNoWriMo one year, named entirely for the sex pun and then in the end absolutely refusing to have any sex in it, so it won that fight. I remember at least most of it coming really, really easy.

Fic I'm proud of: Pulling out a weird little one, here. I'm going to say Take a Ride. It's a JayDick, Gotham City Garage story that I wrote for Firefright's birthday one year, and on reread I actually still really, really like it? It's just a neat apocalyptic-desert vibe relationship building thing, set in the criminally under-explored and rushed GCG world, and I really like how I put Dick together in this one. I recommend it.

~~

Not tagging anyone specific, but if anyone would like to do this as well, feel free!

#Tag Games #Writing #Fanfiction

[dontcallmebree]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks @voylitscope for tagging me! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

59! That's more than I thought, honestly.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

490,425. Damn that's so close to half a million. (I need to whip out a short 10k real quick.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Stucky.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Up Close and Personal

You Like What's in My Head

Not Technically A Bromance

A Blessing I Ain't Tryna Lose

You Like the Way I Look

Two series make multiple appearances here. Can't say I'm surprised, honestly. For a long time my top 5 was all from a single series.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to all of them! Mainly because all I ever want to do after sharing something is to talk about what happens with the characters, so I always jump at the chance to talk with fellow Stucky fans! Another reason of course is also because people are very nice and have actively taken time out of their day to read something I wrote and I wanna say thanks cause it means a lot < 3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Okay I scrolled through my works and was really tickled by the fact that my angsty endings were either because the main character dies (1, 2, 3) or because the main character doesn't die (1, 2, 3) (just dead inside). So pick your poison I guess.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think it might be Winter Weddings and Blushing Brides. That fic just has the fluffiest of fluff endings.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not really? My works feature explicit sex scenes and all but I've yet to write a pwp. It's too hard I think.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No. I think go too far into AUs for this. Would be fun though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I'm too weird about the writing process and showing anyone (even a co-writer) any unfinished work to do this I think. It seems very scary.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Stucky, of course.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Sooo many wips in my drafts. Maybe part 3 to the never met a man like you before series? I do wanna finish that one day though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hmmm maybe character work? That's always my go to answer to this.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Yikes. Run on sentences? Is that too easy of an answer? Do I really have to look into my soul for this?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'm not sure what thoughts anyone might have on this. Is this a controversial thing? Many languages exist. Human (and non-human) characters speak them. I can't imagine taking issue with this fact of life reflected in fiction.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Uhhh I don't even know. Must've been in some friend's notebook back in grade school before we even knew what a fandom was.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

There are a few that come to mind, but A Man After Midnight just has a very special place in my heart. I think it just has everything I love to read and write about. A complicated history, a somewhat unbalanced dynamic, white collar crime, narrative twists, and an alternate universe.

I'm not sure who has and hasn't done this but tagging if interested! @sparkagrace @gfawkesphoenixchokingonashes @between-a-ship-and-a-hard-place @skarabrae-stone @somanywords

#tag game #thanks for thinking of me Saša!

[calamity-aims]

20 questions!

thanks for the tags @gaeasun @saltsanford @purgetrooperfox <3 love you guys

How many works do you have on AO3?

75

What’s your total AO3 word count?

238,592 (ooh I'mma celebrate when I hit a quarter million)

What fandoms do you write for?

mostly Star Wars! I wrote fic for some other fandoms early on but we don't talk about those

What are your top five fics by kudos?

your heartbeat's a countdown - crack fic in which the Jedi know the clones are a trap and try to avoid them at all costs

Necessary - a whumpy Voltron Klance fic I wrote after the first season (before the show went to hell)

their days are darker - in which Wolffe doesn't know how to drop anything and Fox is having the worst two days of his life

the broken-hearted rang their steeple bells - tropey Witcher kinkmeme fill that for some baffling reason has tons of kudos

exploitation, hesitation - short oneshot in which Fox assumes General Kenobi is just like his natborn superior officers and reacts accordingly

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to reply to every single one (unless it was just emojis) but then I fell off and now I feel bad :( I read them all though! and they are so treasured! one day I will make it through the backlog

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ooh see despite writing a lot of angst, I almost always write happy endings, so maybe I'll take no gold, I'll take no silver (please read the tags on that one). maybe spit some blood at the camera is pretty sad too, actually

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

all of them!! yayyyy! even if it's not spelled out, I usually resolve things because that's the world I want to live in! every fic is a fix-it fic

Do you get hate on fics?

not really, mostly just people asking when I'm going to finish, although I have seen people complaining that my version of Fox/Corries is banal and overdone which like yeah. I agree. but my brain won't let me move on.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

hell yeah I do! I don't know what "what kind" means - I write characters fucking, never x reader and rarely OCs; and it's usually somewhat kinky because I just can't not

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've written a few fusions/AUs - elysium is as far as to is a Gladiator AU, everyone wants a double feature is a Pacific Rim AU, and more human than human is a Bladerunner AU. but I've never done a straight-up crossover, although there are a few bouncing around in my brain (namely, the GAR joins the Decepticons and another where Boromir meets Rex and falls in love)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yeah I've had real problems with people plagiarizing fics, from lifting whole sections of dialogue to copying really specific scenes

Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but one got a podfic

Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yeah I cowrote hold me like a grudge and sometimes a parrot talks (unfinished) with the fabulous @postapocalyptic-cryptic!

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

oh man. I love Quinlan/Fox to death. but I will admit that I was Stucky trash from the very beginning.

What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ooh there's a lot. Mace/Fox fic, sometimes a parrot talks, deaged Corries, chroma...

What are your writing strengths?

hm. I don't know. I think I'm good at characterization and dialogue?

What are your writing weaknesses?

fukcin plot beyond "there is hurt and then there is comfort". and also explaining more about people's emotions, like, I know what they're feeling but I need to tell other people

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I just use google translate, I'm sorry

First fandom you wrote for?

oh boy oh fuck. The first fandom I ever wrote for was Phantom of the Opera when I was in eighth grade. go ahead and laugh

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

uhhh. aaa? um. probably unexplain the unforgivable, but I also really liked how a once and future sun turned out

no pressure tags for @postapocalyptic-cryptic @meerlichtz @milfmisspiggy @catboydogma @jaigeye

#calamity answers #calamity writing

[random-mailbox]

Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 32 - Dreams

Dreams have always been part of Sailor Moon story, no matter which iteration you are a fan of. Dreams of the past and dreams of the princess have helped move the story forward and give our favorite duo motivation. In these stories dreams play a bigger part of the plot. 

As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).

Only In My Dreams - Crystal Saturn

Serena’s dream world and real world collide, spilling out and getting noticed by Darien (and Andrew), who try their best to help, as she fights her own demons. 

Lucid - @floraone

Mamoru and Usagi have been dreaming of each other for years now, going from not-quite-friends to someone they cannot imagine spending their life without. Even if Mamoru is convinced he is going crazy and this is all a hallucination. Leave it to Usagi to try to bridge their dream-world with reality. 

Once Upon A Dream / Nightmares  - @kasienda

This set of stories is probably one of my favorites in the whole fandom for many reasons. One is that dreams play a huge part of the plot in both of these, Mamoru’s psychometry is written super well and, as far as I am concerned, her version of break-up in Nightmares is probably the only one I will accept where Mamoru is not being a complete jackass, with them taking the time to find their way to each other. 

No matter how many times I'm reborn, I'll fall in love with you again - lunarblossoms

Both Usagi and Mamoru have been dreaming. But this dream feels different, it’s leaving both of them unsettled and unable to shake it. That is until they run into each other in front of Crown and the world around them shifts. 

Somniloquy - @ninjettetwitch

This one is a fun little lemon of Usagi waking up Mamoru with talking in her sleep. Specifically talking about Mamoru. And Tuxedo Mask? And King Endymion?

Dream Girl -@idesofnovember

Dreams of Silver Millennium have always trickled in and have been getting more pronounced over the years. Except all of a sudden Mamoru’s dreams are not just of balls or dying - they are of more intimate sides of Serenity and Endymion’s relationship and he is having hard time reconciling it with his everyday life. 

Snippets: Chapter 7: Nightmares - @uglygreenjacket

This one-shot is dealing with the effects that battles (this one specifically with Pharaoh 90) are having on Usagi and the never ending nightmares she is having to endure.

---

That's it for this week. Next Monday we will cover "Friends" as the theme. So expect cute little one-shots about not just Usagi and Mamoru but also the extended Senshi family.

Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:

Week 1 - Groundhog Day

Week 2 - Established Relationships

Week 3 - Sex Positivity

Week 4 - Unfinished Stories

Week 5 - Darker Stories

Week 6 - Potions 🧪

Week 7 - Reveals

Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃

Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions

Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU

Week 11 - In-Progress Fics

Week 12 - Mutual Pining

Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers

Week 14 - Slow Burn

Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!

Week 16 - Christmas Part 2

Week 17 - New Years

Week 18 - High School AU

Week 19 - Slice of Life

Week 20 - Coffee shop AU

Week 21 - Huddle for Warmth

Week 22 - Friends to Lovers

Week 23 - ❤️Valentines Day❤️

Week 24 - Do a Grouch a Favour Day (or Cheer Up Fics)

Week 25 - Soulmate AU

Week 26 - Amnesia Fics (and resources)

Week 27 - 🍀St Patrick's Day🍀

Week 28 - Fix it Fics

Week 29 - Prompt: Mug

Week 30 - Flowers

Week 31 - Traditions

#sailor moon #usagi x mamoru #fic rec #fic list #dreams #nightmare

[mayarab]

20 Questions

tagged by @artemis-devotee.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 9 works on several levels of finished on AO3;

I also had an FFdotnet account with a couple fics and I wrote stuff I mostly only shared with friends back in elementary school.

2. What’s your total AO3 words count?

17,379

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Inuyasha is and will always be my main fandom. On AO3, I have one chapter of a Frozen fic that I might go back to eventually.

I have written for Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura and Harry Potter, though these are not posted anywhere online that I know of.

And I have since distanced myself from Harry Potter for obvious reasons (terfs can go die mad)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All from Inuyasha and I'm not surprised since these are the most recent and the ones I've actually talked about within the fandom ^^

Before You Came Back

Snow

Kagome's Power

Caught in a Wave

Before I Came Back

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Usually not, because I won't add anything to the conversation besides a "thank you" and I forget as soon as I tab out of the email XD

But if it's a long one, I absolutetly do respond!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

None yet? I do have ideas, and I do love angst, but I usually give the characters at least on ok ending. Also most of my fics are unfinished as of now.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

So far, Kagome's Power, Before You Came Back / Before I Came Back are tied as they are all super angst with a happy ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

None that I have seen thank you very much

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes, none are posted though. I'm starting to explore this side of writing so look forward to smutty fics in the cards =D

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have a few crossover ideas, but none are written yet

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know? Please don't steal, it's free! There's no reason to steal!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, I don't know. IF YOU TRANSLATE MY STUFF PLZ LET ME KNOW SO I CAN CRY HAPPY TEARS WITH YOU!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I've collabed with artists, but never another writer. That'd be cool to do one day.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I'm InuKag trash and I shall not apologize

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Look. LOOK. I'M GONNA FINISH IT OK? (it isn't even posted yet, I'm outlining it)

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character work and worldbuilding. These are the things I LOOOOOVEEE

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Fight scenes. WHY DO I LOVE SHOUNEN? WHY?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I mean, I'm a Brazilian writer writing in english, so either write it in the language (and make it accurate if it's a real-world language so it's an easter egg for fans) if the point is that the pov character doesn't understand it, or just say it was said in said language if the pov character understands it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Sailor Moon, Harry Potter and Inuyasha are tied for these, because I honestly can't remember what was my actual first fic

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

So far, I LOOOVE Kagome's Power and reread it often.

Anyone can do this if they want, but I'm tagging @wind-on-the-panes, @razdazberry and @anisaanisa

#tag game #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #inuyasha fanfic #writeblr #writers of tumblr #brart #brartist #my writing #brwriter #naiveheart

[more-better-words]

20 Writer Questions

Tagged by @mytardisisparked. Aw, thank you ☺️

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

52!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

546,530. And it ever increases! (to be fair, a full third of that is one fic <.<)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At tthe moment, the Star Trek: Enterprise brainrot continues to be extremely real. But if you look over my fandoms list, there's a diversity of very niche and obscure properties!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Far and away, the four fics that make up my ENT series Built to Last, though not in order lol

What We Build Here

For the Duration

From the Ground Up

The Place We Call Home

And then Lay Down the Beat, which is a Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency joint.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Heck yeah! I am massive ho for comments and love to respond to them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have an allergy to angst - I read and write fic because I love the characters and want them to be happy, so about the worst I can manage is bittersweet. So probably What We Build Here, but ONLY because I knew it would have a followup and everything would be okay!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them! The fic's not over til the happy ending gets here!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Never on AO3, but I have gotten some rude anons here on tumblr in the past.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Kinda. 😄 I've written some M rated Trip/T'Pol that is inevitably very vanilla and very sweet.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't - I don't think my brain's wired right for crossovers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in the manner that this question is asking, but I do consider the AI scrapping stuff to be theft and I'm not cool about it.

Stealing this answer from @mytardisisparked, because yeah

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Years ago I worked on a massive Baldur's Gate 2 AU with a friend that was a lot of fun. Never did publish any of it, which is a shame.

In my more modern writing era, no, though I have been the grateful recipient of a lot of ideas and positive feedback from some very wonderful people (most especially my beloved @pajamasecrets, but also @candiedsumire, @deadheaddaisy, @followersarepeopletoo, and a host of others)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Every ship i've ever written is my favorite!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably the sequel to In a Strange Land. That one just...*sigh*

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, definitely. I can sit there and have characters chat endlessly and be happy as can be.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

All the parts around the dialogue 😅

I struggle a lot with plotting. The answer to the question "what happens next?" makes me break out in a cold sweat.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

As it's never really been an issue for me…none, really.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If someone dug up my old LJ (and I won't tell you where to look), they'd find some extremely middling (and unfinished) Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

That changes depending on the weather, the phase of the moon, or the barometric pressure. I love them all for different reasons. 😁

Tagging anybody who want to play along!

#fun with tag games #fic #writer stuff

[agentplutonium]

20 Questions For Fic Writers Game

I got tagged by the ever talented @mr-laveau, thank you veauifer for that! I love games like this actually

I think I'm gonna tag @maxpaulll because you hate tag games and I think it's funny, and also @dizzy-n-busy even though I know you don't have a lot on ao3 at the moment (I just like telling people you also write fics on top of doing cool artwork/lh), also anyone else who wants to do this can! (do it. you don't need my permission. this is a threat. /lh)

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

41. I have no social life.

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

168,758. Again, have no social life.

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I write for Redacted Audio and NeXus. We don't talk about my past fandoms /j

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Welp. Let's get into this.

#1 is Natural Enemies an unfinished spider!deku x Rody Soul multi-chap fic.

#2 is Dances in the Morning a Matchablossom (Kojiro Nanjo (Joe) x Cherry Blossom (Kaoru Sakurayashiki) one shot.

#3 is Infinity another Matchablossom one shot.

#4 is Paranoia an emotional hurt/comfort Denki & Sero one shot.

#5 is Symphony yet another Matchablossom one shot.

I will not explain anything.

5 - Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love getting comments and I usually respond as soon as I get the email (because if I don't, I will forget they are there-)

6 - What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhhh one sec I have to remind myself of what I wrote. OKAY SO I think the closest contender (I don't write angsty fics) would be The Mission a Kaminari/Shinsou fic. Or possibly even Oh, Captain, Let's Make a Deal which was something i wrote for a fandom event. The only other thing I can think of is an Imp!Milo fic where he loses Sweetheart and basically becomes the same shell that Asher is, but that one is unpublished. I don't really write angst-ending fics, I'm more start with angst and end happily. OH BUT WAS I WRONG (i was looking for examples for another question) I forgot about Space Between an Imp!Freelancer/Vindemiator fic. Oh my god, it’s not my best but fuck does it hurt.

7 -What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oooo okay so top contenders are Four Years, Not Forever a Sero/Todoroki fic, or once again Dances in the Morning or Infinity. Those last two are in my top five for a reason.

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

I. Don't think so. If I did I don't remember. I think there was one whole comment where someone fucking pulled out one word of the fic and said "it ruined the fic" for them and "they had a hard time continuing" which i won't even get into cause it was like a one-time thing. It was a rediculous comment in context anyway.

9 - Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't, I want to, unsure if I'll ever post it though.

10 - Do you write crossovers?

No? I definitely don't now but I think I've gotten close in the past.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

There was one offer, but I don't think it ever went anywhere.

13 - Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Technically yes, but it fell through. Would consider co-writing with someone though, depending on who they were/what the fic was.

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

As of right now Milo/Sweetheart, but I go through favourite ships faster than I go through fandoms so I never have a real answer for this question.

15 - What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, probably Eddie... The Love of My Life, or my All I Want series, just because I'm not in those fandoms anymore. I also have plenty of fics in my fic graveyard of a gdocs.

16 - What are your writing strengths?

I'd say my strengths are dialogue/describing non-sexual intimacy. Maybe my world-building? technically? uhhh that's all I can think of actually.

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

Longer fics/keeping up with multi chaps (again, Eddie... The Love of My Life and Like Real People Do my beloveds I'm so sorry), MY FUCKING COMMAS if you read ANY of my fics I bet you there's way to many commas in it I have a problem, ummm I'd say any descriptive violence, I really wanna work on that. That's all that's coming to mind but I bet there's more.

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I am not against it, but I have not tried it (that I can remember). I wouldn't mind though I just would be VERY meticulous about how it's written.

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

Off the record? Harry Potter or Percy Jackson (shivers in wattpad days) but if we're looking at my AO3 it would be BNHA with I'm Here (yet another unfinished multi-chap)

20 - Favorite fic you've written?

Oh god, I don't even know. All my fics are my babies. If I had to pick from my published ones I would probably go with Promise Me, Please (I Promise) which is an Imp!Milo/Sweetheart fic of mine that I wrote a year ago. But I am currently working on one that might surpass that, but only time can tell.

ANYWAY I'm supposed to be working on finals but this was fun! I have way too much free time on my hands at all times, and it shows in my writing. I'm gonna go hide in a hole now.

#plutonium_rambles #plutonium_askgames

[augustmourn]

Twenty Questions for a Fic Writer

Tagged by @hearthouses and @ladyculebras!

How many works do you have on ao3?

162.

What's your total ao3 word count?

557,449 words.

What fandoms do you write for?

I tend to bounce from fandom to fandom and don't generally return to older ones, so the fandoms I've written for in the past I may not write much or at all in the future. I've written the most works for IT Movies, followed by Star Wars, but more recently I've been writing for The Locked Tomb and Danganronpa. All for the Game is probably my longest-standing fandom I can easily dip back into. I also have a bunch of other fandoms I've tried out writing once or twice for exchanges.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Unexpected - 1,192 kudos. Bojack Horseman, Bojack/Mr. Peanutbutter. Fake dating/accidental marriage. For a long time it was the most kudosed fic in the fandom but has now been surpassed by a couple of megacrossovers. I'm pretty proud of this one--I love any fic where I get to stretch my comedy muscles and I've been told it does pretty well at hitting the canon tone.

you know what they say about assumptions - 865 kudos. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Anakin/Padme/Obi-Wan. Modern AU. Maybe the only modern AU I've ever written? I think it's just had a long time to compile kudos.

Into the Dark - 716 kudos. IT Movies, Richie/Eddie. Time loop.

The Kids Are Alright - 670 kudos. IT Movies, Richie/Eddie. Teen years getting together fic, the only explicit rated fic on this list.

Lights Will Guide You Home - 632 kudos. Star Wars, attempt at plot, eternally unfinished WIP that I started when I was sixteen. I do sometimes think about orphaning it.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to. I try to. But I ended up with a backlog that I can never get through and now I mostly just go in bursts and respond to everything on a couple recent fics and leave it at that.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This feels hard to determine! I've written a lot of stories and it's hard to remember all of them, lol. I'm excluding noncon because that's too easy. Scorp's suggestion for this one was quiet birds in circled flight, which is an IT fic where Richie commits suicide. the kind of love (i've been dreaming of) is a Raven Cycle resurrected-and-came-back-wrong fic. an eye for an eye is an All For The Game gore fic where Neil gets his eye taken out and everything is terrible.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Unexpected is an accidental-marriage-turns-real fic that is pretty fluffy. real love is a heart attack is an arranged-marriage-turns-sexy fic. Maybe that's a theme. (Realizing as I go through my fics that I rarely write endings that are really nice or really bad. Usually somewhere in the middle.)

Do you get hate on fics?

I wrote a werewolf porn fic where some people got really mad about the wolf sex in the comments. Other than that, just some unrequested concrit a couple of times.

Do you write smut?

All the time. My nano story from last month ending up gen was the biggest shock of my life.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Never have, and I don't know if I ever will. They just don't really appeal to me for some reason.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I think it happened in IT fandom, but by the time I went to look into it it was gone already.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! One of my All for the Game fics was translated into Russian.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Never done it. If I did so, I'd definitely want to ask someone who speaks the language to look it over for me.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I think I'm too much of a control freak and also slightly uncertain how it would work.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Whatever I'm currently obsessed with eclipses everything, so I don't know if I have all-timers, but Neil/Riko from All for the Game eats my brain all the time.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Anything from prior fandoms, really. But I can't think of any examples right now. I have a million little bits and pieces floating around in my google drive, but I'm not really thinking about them anymore.

What are your writing strengths?

I love writing smut. Apparently I'm good at dialogue, although I find it painful a lot of the time. When I try for comedy, it tends to land. And I love writing horror and I'm always delighted when people tell me I've genuinely disturbed them, lol.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm terrible at plot. It's really hard for me to think of things to happen, which seems like an insane problem for a writer to have, but it's true. And I'm not great at doing any kind of heavy editing. 80% of what I type the first time stays on the page.

First fandom you wrote for?

Hunger Games, when I was 11/12.

Favorite fic you've written?

Oh, man, I think I have a recency bias, but Crashing is definitely the fic I'm proudest of. It's 72k and almost five times as long as the previous longest story I'd ever finished. It was a huge accomplishment and I'm still so happy I did it.

Tagging anyone who wants to do it!

#talking to myself #meme #writing

[ghostlyhabato]

I haven't posted anything here in well over a hot minute, but putting short unfinished/outdated work here feels easier than putting in on ao3 like its 'official' so. Just tossing old things out to share, but many of them i am NOT still working on so only the start of something or an idea.

This is a BNHA/Danny Phantom crossover ft Pariah for Reasons. i started it impulsively. if i continue on this I'd probably rewrite almost this whole thing.

~10K words, vague discussion or mention of death/possible abuse of a minor (danny's home life, standard Fenton's are Not Great Parents), medical trauma, ect. Everyone except Danny might be a bit OOC, especially the BNHA cast in this. Pariah just had secret character development/backstory.

Danny’s luck had to be the worst in the world. Or, in… both worlds?

If this wasn’t some other-world, he had a lot of questions for Clockwork. Because he was also definitely not anywhere in even the first two decades of the 2000’s. The Japanese news here (that he could somehow understand?) said it was 2148. Currently, he was hiding in a half-built building in a seedy part of what he’d found out was probably Tokyo. That’s what he heard people calling it, and it looked close enough to pictures Dani had sent him, but… well, he was pretty sure his Tokyo wasn’t filled with mutants and superheroes. 

When Danny had seen them all, he’d almost stopped hiding. Not immediately, he was having whiplash too hard, but he thought about it. Nobody really blinked when people looked weird or did weird things, or at least not when the heroes did it. And they were real heroes, and the people liked them. They cheered!

Well, they cheered for the heroes. When Danny tried to help, they seemed more confused. The crowds didn’t know his name, but they did shout encouragement. At least up until the heroes tried to bring him down.

Which was, like, totally stupid! Danny had helped them take down a villain way faster than they could have without his powers. But apparently a ‘kid’, or anyone for that matter, shouldn’t use their ‘quirk’ without a license.

Local ghost menace in one world, common illegal vigilante in another. He just couldn’t get a break.

Danny huffed thinking about it, slurping on his cup of noodles he’d taken from a convenience store. He felt bad about it, but he’d learned enough about capitalism from Sam’s latest social-justice binge to know how to minimize the damage he’d do to anyone actually vulnerable. No mom-and-pop stores, only chains; don’t get caught (obvious); take mass stocked items, and take as little as possible from one place. One missed soup can was a miscount or a minor problem. Five cans and half a dozen other necessities was too obvious.

Speaking of obvious. He had to get moving again. Danny groaned as he stood up, feeling the lack of a good bed in his back. He’d been here almost two weeks already, and he couldn’t find a way back. Didn’t help that they had some scarf ninja guy trying to catch him, apparently.

Danny had passed by the guy a couple times and managed not to get caught. Apparently the guy can turn off quirks by looking at people. Distractions in the form of villains and civilians had let Danny skate by, but he had to be careful. ‘Eraserhead’, as stupid as his name was, was not a joke. Danny had just gotten lucky not to be spotted while invisible- either that, or Eraser’s power didn’t work if he didn’t actually see Danny. Hopefully it was the latter. He had a feeling it was not. His luck wouldn’t last much longer.

He shoved his small amount of supplies in his bag- all stolen or paid for with previously stolen money(Taken from caught pickpockets). Blanket, some food, different clothes, and lots of hats and masks. His ghost form was not quite a good enough disguise here. The people hunting him in Tokyo actually had brain cells, apparently.

He had to move spots in the middle of the night. The last time he hadn’t, someone had almost walked in on his sleeping spot. Danny wasn’t sure if it was Eraser, but…

At least Tokyo was big. Giant, really, compared to tiny little Amity. There were all these different districts- prefectures- but he had no idea what was where yet. Being able to read Japanese somehow did not make the map any less confusing.

Danny tried to pick out the landmarks yet again as he reached altitude. Shrines, certain towers, lights, residential areas- it was still a mess in his head. Getting dumped here by a random portal didn’t help. The panic of that day made it hard to remember where it was, and running from heroes probably took him far from where he started. The place it appeared probably would be the best place to-

Several hundred feet above the city, his ghost sense went off. Danny froze in the air.

There was a ghost nearby.

The usual adrenaline spike was mixed with an intense flood of relief. It’d been a while since he was excited to be interrupted by a ghost. Maybe it was Clockwork to get him, or a portal on its own or- hell, he’d be happy to see Skulker at this point. He’d be happy to see Vlad. That thought almost made him pause, but he was getting kinda tired of being on the run all alone. Anyone would be better than no one.

His ghost sense brought him to an open field behind what looked like giant gymnasiums. In the dead of night, the glow of ectoplasm and an aura was like signal lights. There were already two dummies smoking by the time Danny got close enough to realize… he did recognize the ghost. In the worst way possible. He suddenly wished it had been Vlad.

Danny floated down behind the ghost, then dropped his invisibility at the same time he filled his hands with ectoplasm. “What are you doing here?”

The man in front of him turned around. He looked a little different than Danny remembered- his previously wild hair was tamed into a loose (still large) braid, he was wearing less medieval armor and more… workout clothes? A tank-top and fucking sweatpants. The realization actually made Danny’s brain buffer for a second trying to reconcile the idea of the tyrant Ghost King in sweatpants.

Pariah Dark stared at him almost as much as Danny stared back. “...you…” He said slowly with a frown. “You’re… the boy that bested me.”

“Danny Phantom,” Danny snapped, going back on the defensive. 

“Phantom. Right, sorry I didn’t learn your name in the middle of trying to kill each other.” Pariah didn’t seem all that phased. He kept an eye on Danny as he walked over to a nearby table with a bottle and towels.

Danny followed at a distance. “Answer the question. What the hell are you doing here?! You’re supposed to still be in the sarcophagus!”

“Hm. You must not keep very good tabs on your enemies,” Pariah muttered, before taking a drink from the bottle. He glanced at Danny. “I don’t know how long it has been for you, but I have been here a few years.”

“What?” Danny said.

“So, really, I should be the one asking what you are doing here,” Pariah said, crossing his arms as he faced Danny. “In closed school grounds. Only students and faculty are allowed.”

Danny frowned at him. “Aren’t you a little old to be a student?”

“... you better be joking, child.”

Danny huffed and shook his head, raising his fists again. “Whatever! Were you the one that dragged me here?! Or- or you must know how to get back! You must have been looking-”

“Why would I go looking to return to a place where I am the most hated being in the realms?” Pariah said suddenly. “I have found a place here. There’s… there’s no reason for me to go back.” There was an undercurrent of something to his words, but Danny couldn’t care less.

“You have to!” Danny yelled, throwing his arms down like a spoiled child. “I can’t be stuck here! It’s been two weeks, and I haven’t been able to sleep in an actual bed. I’m a hero, and people like heroes here, but somehow I’m illegal? Still?! I’ve got some guy named after a fucking pencil pun chasing me, I’m exhausted, I haven’t had a decent meal in forever, and I have to go home!”

Pariah sighed, dropping his arms. “I can’t help you return, child, but-”

Danny growled and shot a blast that Pariah easily blocked with a shield. “Shut up! You- you did something, you have to have. Random portals don’t just toss me to other worlds, and if this was just the future, Clockwork would have left me something-” Pariah’s eyes went wide, but Danny didn’t care. “So- so you have to be involved!” 

Danny approached, tears in his eyes now- god, was he really that desperate? He hadn’t talked to anyone seriously since coming here, and now it felt like it wouldn’t stop. “You tried to take over the Zone, you tried to kill me, you- you have to do something about this, or- or-”

Danny took a breath to bite back a sob, and suddenly the tightness in his chest wasn’t tears. He turned human and dropped to the ground. He blacked out before his head hit the ground.

“...Excellent timing as always, Eraser.”

Aizawa hurried out of the treeline, hair floating down as he stopped using Erasure. “What just happened? I only tried to erase his quirk-”

“Well, he’s a half ghost.” Pariah knelt at the boy’s side. “So you only maybe half-killed him.”

“...what.”

When Danny woke up, there was a worrying noise to his side. A regular, very slow beeping. It suddenly got faster as Danny shot up in the hospital bed.

The room was small and white and clean and there was a IV in his arm that he tried to phase out- It didn’t. His arm didn’t go intangible. Now that he looked, he was handcuffed to the bed, too. Why couldn’t he- he couldn’t use his powers, he was caught, no, nonono-

A large hand grabbed his as Danny reached for the IV. “Don’t be stupid, boy. That is there to help you.”

Danny jerked away from Pariah and looked over at the ghost sitting beside him. He wasn’t quite as large as Danny remembered, here- maybe that had just been his memory. He wasn’t wearing sweats, but now had on a more fitting tunic-looking shirt.

“Where am I?” Danny asked immediately. “What did you do to me? Why can’t I use my powers?” He tried to push himself up, but Pariah put a hand on his shoulder and easily made him lie back down.

“Oh, lie down, child. Didn’t you tell me last we spoke how exhausted you are?” He sighed, and it was disconcerting how calm he realized Pariah was. “If you hurt yourself in bed, Recovery Girl will only make you stay here longer.”

“R-Recovery girl…?”

“Ah, he’s awake!” Danny jumped at the new voice. A small old woman with a weird pink visor walked up to his bedside. “You were supposed to come get me when he woke up.”

“It was only moments ago,” Pariah said. “I had to keep him from ripping out the IV first.”

Danny had to guess this was Recovery Girl, although the name didn’t quite fit. She tsked and frowned at Danny now, and pointed at him. “Don’t you go doing that now! When you were brought in, you were badly dehydrated and malnourished! That IV there is your quickest way to get cleared by me to get out of that bed, do you understand?”

“I-I-” Danny stuttered, core fluttering in anxiety. “You- you’re not- you’re not going to take blood or-” He swallowed. “E-experiment?”

Both Recovery Girl and Pariah gave him worried looks. “Why on Earth do you think we’d do something like that?” Recovery Girl said. “I might have to do blood work if you were sick, but you’ve just neglected to take care of yourself recently. Just rest, and eat all the food you’re given, and I think you should be fine in a day or two.” Danny let out a breath he’d been holding, and the heart machine started to slow. She huffed and glanced at the handcuffs. “I can’t say what Eraser’s conditions are, but Pariah at least has put in a good word.”

“He…?” Danny looked at Pariah. “Then that- when I passed out, you didn’t-?”

“That wasn’t me, child,” Pariah said simply. “Eraser must have followed you here, since he is a teacher, and found us while we spoke. I don’t think any of us expected how his power would affect you.”

Danny felt his blood slow. “Does that… not happen to everyone?” The adults shook their heads. “Oh. I- am I…” He pulled at the handcuff. “U-under arrest…?”

“You should be.”

Another new face stood at the door. His long black hair and scarf hid most of his face, except his intense eyes glaring at him. Danny had only really seen him in passing, but he recognized the scarf. Eraserhead.

Danny shrunk back into the bed, accidentally making the chain clink as he tried to pull his hands over his chest.

“You already half-killed the boy, no need to scare him,” Pariah said. He almost sounded like he was being… sarcastic?

The glare turned on Pariah. “You’re the one who keeps saying that- He’s fine. He’s awake, isn’t he?” Eraser stepped up to the end of the bed and crossed his arms. “So. Danny Phantom. You’re the vigilante that’s been giving me the run around the past two weeks.” Something in his glare changed. “Are you really just a child?”

That was enough to have Danny glare back just a bit. “I’m not a child, I’m, like, almost sixteen!”

Pariah huffed and leaned back in his chair. “Really? Hm. How old were you when we fought?”

Danny scowled at him, not holding back. “...Fourteen. You got your ass kicked by a fourteen-year-old, so shut up.”

Pariah just rolled his eyes.

“Why did you fight a fourteen-year-old?” Eraser muttered.

“I think we’ve talked about this before,” Pariah said. “I can explain more later.”

“Great,” Danny muttered. “So. What’s happening now?” His anger died, just a little, as he looked at Eraser. “Am- Am I? Under arrest, I mean.”

“Like I said, you should be.” Eraser frowned, and Danny flinched with each following accusation. “Using your quirk without a license is highly illegal, especially using them to be an untrained vigilante. You could have gotten yourself or others hurt interfering with hero work. Not to mention, I know you’ve been stealing or breaking into various places for supplies and shelter. Maybe you didn’t hurt anyone, but that is still no excuse.”

Pariah cleared his throat. “But.”

“...But.” Eraser sighed heavily and dropped his arms. “Pariah has told me you come from the same place as him. Meaning you have nowhere to go, no support system, and you’re apparently missing the same… special nutrient requirements. You’re also an unaccompanied minor with no idea of the laws surrounding quirks. Given that…” He gave Danny a calculating look. “If you agree not to break the law anymore… you won’t be punished. My contacts with the police have agreed to absolve your crimes as long as you have a responsible guardian. We have some options for you while you are here.”

Danny didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath again, and let it out in one go. “Oh. O- yeah, okay. I can do that. I… didn’t really want to steal or anything. So that- yeah, that works.” he paused. “Uh… ‘we’?”

Eraser nodded at Pariah. “The principal of the school, the police chief, Pariah, and I.”

“Why is Pariah involved?” Danny muttered, shooting the man a glare.

“I told you I work here, boy,” Pariah said. “I am also the only being here even remotely similar to you, and we come from the same world. And I’m not a child. Of course I would be consulted.”

Danny scowled. “But- but you’re-” He looked at Eraser and pointed at Pariah. “Do you even know what he did where I’m from? He’s tried to kill a bunch of people! And take over the- the world! And-”

“Just because we fought once does not mean you know my whole story, Phantom,” Pariah interrupted.

Eraser glanced between them. “I have heard of some of Pariah’s past, yes. But we have come to some agreements. As far as I’ve known him, he has not been as monstrous as you see him. Not perfect, but not awful. I believe in giving people a chance to speak with their actions, and Pariah’s actions have proven trustworthy, so far.”

“‘So far’,” Danny muttered, glaring.

Pariah stood up. “Perhaps we should give him some time. I can understand why you’d hate me as you do, and you were fairly distraught the other night. The main fact for now is that nobody is going to hurt you, but you need rest.”

“If you try to leave, don’t,” Eraser said darkly. “You won’t get far.”

Danny frowned. “What, cuz you’ll be around?”

“Well, yes. But you should probably be more scared of what will happen if Recovery Girl finds you trying to get out of bed rest.”

“...uh.” Danny glanced over to the office door where Recovery Girl had disappeared. “...Okay?”

Pariah gave a small laugh, and once again Danny’s brain short-circuited. “I have no doubt he will learn. If nothing else, you are stubborn.” He nodded to Danny before heading out.

“I’ll be checking in,” Eraser said. “When you feel a little better, we’ll probably have a meeting with everyone about your options moving forward.”

“Okay. Um, thanks… E-Eraserhead?” God, that felt stupid to say out loud. “That’s your name, right?”

Eraser nodded once. “It is. Some teachers and other heroes call me Eraser. In school, though, students call me Aizawa-sensei.” He turned to leave. “There’s a good chance you’re going to be going to school here, too, until we find you a way home. So you can call me that.”

“Uh, okay, Aizawa-sensei,” Danny said hesitantly. He knew like half a thing about Japanese from Sam trying to show them anime. Didn’t ‘sensei’ mean teacher or something? 

Wait. 

“Wait- you’re making me go to school?!”

But Aizawa was already gone.

Danny thought they’d been joking about fearing Recovery Girl’s ire. He quickly was proven wrong. It only took her finding him trying to stand and stretch while still handcuffed to the bed to put him in the red with her. The only other grandmother-ish figure he knew was Ida Manson, but Sam’s bubbie hadn’t ever turned a glare like that on Danny before. Then again, he’d never really given her a reason to.

Safe to say, he was much more hesitant to go against Recovery Girl’s medical orders after that. (Or, he was much more careful not to be noticed. She usually noticed.)

If it wasn’t for being literally handcuffed to the bed, he probably wouldn’t have been cleared by Recovery Girl after only three days.

“Didn’t Aizawa-sensei say I wasn’t under arrest?” Danny grumbled as the handcuff finally came off. “Why didn’t he take this off back then?”

“It was suggested you’d run off alone again if you didn’t.” Recovery Girl harrumphed as he stood up. “Considering how many times I had to force you back in bed even then, I’m not surprised.”

Danny frowned. “Wait, who’d suggest that?”

“Is he ready?”

The two turned to see Pariah waiting in the doorway. The pointed look Recovery girl gave him made him put the pieces together, and he scowled.

“If he doesn’t push himself, he’ll be fine.” She waved a hand as she turned away. “Go on then.”

 Danny didn’t move. “Why are you here?”

Pariah just gave him an unimpressed look. “The principal and the others want to talk, now that Recovery Girl has cleared you from bed rest. I came to get you.”

“Could just give me directions, you know. Or a map.” Danny ducked around him out the door and started down the hall.

“You’re already going the wrong way.”

Danny scowled and turned on his heel. He didn’t look at Pariah as the larger ghost stayed even with him.

“Besides that,” Pariah continued. “Like I said before- I am the only other being from our world here. I will most likely be consulted on most matters regarding how you will be helped.”

“Only 'cuz you lied to them,” Danny muttered.

Pariah rolled his eyes. “I get the feeling there were a lot of untrue stories about me even before I awoke that first time. You do not know the truth of my tale, Phantom, just as I do not know yours.”

Danny snorted. “Oh yeah? What part don’t I know? The part where you terrorized everyone and staged a violent takeover? Or the part where you were literally so shitty, several people had to put you in time out the first time?” He shot him a glare. “Or, I skipped this, the part where you ripped my town off the map and threw it into the Ghost Zone for a day! You sent a skeleton army to attack people!”

Pariah just looked ahead and sighed with a vague frown. “Maybe at another time I could tell you, if you do not choose to try to fight my every word.” He slowed at a door, making Danny double back. “For now, could you try to be civil? The people here do want to assist you if they can. Do not judge them for my actions.”

His hand waited on the door handle, so he was obviously waiting for a reply. Danny huffed and crossed his arms. “I mean… fine, but I can still judge why they want to trust you.”

“...I suppose that is the best we can do for now.” Pariah shook his head before opening the door and waving Danny in.

Inside was a table set up with documents. On one side, two men who looked like they were in law enforcement were sitting. Aizawa sat opposite them, and Pariah took the remaining chair there. There was one chair obviously for Danny, and opposite him was…

A white… bear… rat… dog…. Creature? In a little suit and tie. It smiled as Danny stared.

“Hello!” the creature said in a cheery voice. “You are Danny Phantom, then? I am the principal of UA Academy, Principal Nezu! You’ve met Aizawa-san, and this is detective Tsukauchi and his partner detective Tanua.”

Danny blinked. “Uh…. oh… kay?” He was still processing. Thinking about it, there was a non-zero number of sentient ghosts who were less human looking than Nezu. That was probably what helped him stop staring and finally sit down. (His chair was right next to Pariah. Ew.)

“Er, actually-” He hesitated as everyone looked at him. He swallowed. “Phantom is… is what I go as when I’m a ghost? Like my superhero name- I-I’m not always in ghost mode. My last name is actually Fenton.”

“You chose a hero name?” Tsukauchi asked.

Danny shrugged. “Uh, well, nobody knew I was a ghost back home. And my parents are- well.” He knew his parents being ghost hunters was weird and possibly traumatizing to him. It was also not important right now and he didn’t need these guys trying to get him in therapy or something. “They don’t like ghosts, so I couldn’t exactly go around being called my normal name when I was flying around town fighting other ghosts, ya know?”

The three humans gave him worried looks.

“That actually brings up what we wanted to start with today, Fenton-kun!” Nezu said, seemingly unaffected. “Pariah has told us what he can of where you come from, but as you are probably aware, there are large gaps in his knowledge as well. We’d like to start with asking you basic questions about your life, if that’s alright. Beginning with where you are from, originally.”

Danny gave Pariah a suspicious look. Pariah gave him a look back that practically said, ‘yeah, I talked about you. What are you gonna do about it?’ At least, that’s how Danny read it.

“Sure, I guess,” Danny mumbled. It already felt weird enough to be upfront about not being totally human, but that cat was way out of the bag. And also kind of unimportant in this place? Nezu certainly wasn’t human. Still, Danny found himself fidgeting and rubbing his neck before speaking. “Um, well- I’m not sure what the geography situation is here. I mean, Japan and Tokyo exist back home, so…? Anyway, I’m from Amity Park, Illinois, in the US.” He made a face. “Er, also, it was only 2012 last time I checked.”

Everyone looked a little surprised at that, even Pariah.

“You are aware the year is 2148 here, yes?” Aizawa said.

Danny nodded. “I mean, yeah. I read the news in the two weeks I was hobo-ing around.”

“Your Japanese is very good, for an American teenager,” Tanuma said. “Especially one from over a hundred years ago.”

Danny stopped. “Wait- uh. I’m- okay, this must be some magic nonsense, cuz I have not been speaking, let alone hearing, Japanese this whole time.” He shrugged. “I mean, I think I could tell when I first got here it was weird? And I’m sure if I tried to write in Japanese it wouldn’t work, but, uh-” He frowned and looked at Pariah. “Dude, you’d be farther back in time than I was, you shouldn’t know future-modern Japanese either.”

“I simply took it as part of the transition into this world,” Pariah said. “It just made things easier, so I was not keen on investigating it too closely.”

“So that is not part of your quirk, for sure?” Nezu asked. “Could it be a ghost aspect you were not aware of? Just so we are all clear.”

“No?” Danny said with another heavy shrug. “I dunno, man, I’m still catching up on ghost magic and biology sh- stuff. I know ghosts can speak and understand most dead languages? That’s about it.”

Pariah nodded. “That is the only general rule about languages ghosts have, yes.”

Nezu hummed and put his hands- paws together.

“You-” Tsukauchi cleared his throat awkwardly. “I realize this may be a sensitive subject, so please feel free to turn down this line of questioning. You said you are ‘catching up’ on ghost information- you’re still young then, even in those terms? Can I ask how…?”

“You are right,” Pariah said suddenly. He gave Tsukauchi a hard look. “That is a sensitive topic. One does not just discuss such things with strangers.”

Danny waved a hand. “I mean… I don’t think that’s exactly what he was asking, but, uh, yeah. I’m not gonna talk about, uh, how I died, if that’s what you meant.”

Tsukauchi held up a hand, quickly shaking his head. “No, no, of course not. I completely understand.”

“If you are uncomfortable with any of our questions, please tell us, Fenton-kun,” Nezu said.

“...yeah.” Danny nodded absently. “Er, well, I think what you were asking was how long I’ve been- I mean, I’m still half human but I uh… I’ve been half ghost for almost two and a half years, now.”

The worried looks that passed around the table, even hidden as they were, made Danny’s stomach clench. He slid down in his seat without thinking about it. This much attention, from adults, from adults that weren’t ghosts, was really weird. Especially with how formal it felt.

Pariah was the one exception, but even he gave Danny an inscrutable look. His attention just made Danny annoyed, though. He glared back.

“How long have you been doing hero work back home?” Aizawa asked quietly.

Danny shrugged again. “Almost just as long. The fighting died down sort of recently cuz I set up truces with a lot of ghosts. They used to cause a lot of trouble cuz before that a stable portal between the Ghost Zone and the human world was really rare, so a lot of people just didn’t know how to hold themselves back or something, and I was protecting the town by tossing them back through the portal. Now it’s not so bad. Sometimes people don’t know the rules, but allies or ghosts in on the truce can usually set them straight without me, since they know it’d cause them trouble too. There are some ghosts that come specifically to bother me, though.” He grinned. “But I’m pretty strong.” He shot Pariah a look. “Stronger than when I whooped your ass too, by the way.”

“I would suspect so, from such a young ghost,” Pariah said.

“Wait, you two fought?” Tsukauchi cut in, frowning at Pariah. “You fought a child?! And lost?”

Danny frowned back. “Yeah- I thought you said you told them what you knew?”

“I told Eraser and Nezu-san,” Pariah said.

Tsukauchi looked between them, then at Nezu. “Is it really appropriate-”

“Pariah has informed us of the context around their altercation,” Nezu said easily. “And he also asked for some privacy in the matter. But I assure you, we believe that there is currently no danger posed for anyone in interacting.”

Tsukauchi sat back with some hesitation.

Danny rolled his eyes as obviously as possible. “I’m not scared of him, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He wasn’t going to point out he had the ecto-skeleton last time, because he was totally strong enough to beat Pariah without it now. Totally. Probably. ...Maybe.

His skill at denial was certifiably top-tier at least.

"Anyway," Aizawa said, apparently getting them back on track. "You won't be doing any of that while you're here. For one, the only ghosts here are in this room and for two, you're a minor. Even students have to earn hero permits to work as licensed pro heroes. Vigilantes are illegal."

Danny made a face, but didn't argue. He didn't want to have to deal with whatever Aizawa's power had done to him again.

"I'm sure Eraser has told you," Tanuma said, "but we're going to drop all charges against you up til now because of your… unique situation. However, any future charges will be addressed as usual if it comes up. Understood?"

"Y… yeah," Danny muttered. It didn't sit right, though. Being told he wasn't allowed to help protect people. He stopped himself from saying something with a huff, despite everything.

"Is there a problem, Fenton-kun?" Nezu asked, and he… he did sound genuinely concerned.

Danny shifted uncomfortably. "N- not really. I just uh. Might need reminders." He laughed uneasily. "Ya know, when you get used to running towards the screaming, it's kind of hard to stop." That got him a variety of looks around the table. "I uh. I'm used to helping. Back home, nobody-" He huffed again. "Some people tried to help. But they were either… not great at it, or they thought ghosts were… inhuman. Less than animals. So they-" He smirked, so he didn't break. "They didn't just toss them back home with a kick in the pants, ya know?"

Most of the worried looks were aimed at him, be he saw them glance at Pariah. Not that he would know any of this, the asshole barely gave humans half a thought before, as far as Danny saw.

Pariah seemed to have all his attention on him, though.

Aizawa sighed eventually. "They say the best heroes react on instinct. That you can't train for that kind of thing." He didn't sound very happy about it in this case. "Just… try to remember there are pros taking care of everything here, alright?"

Danny gave a noncommittal humm and shifted in his seat, a hand going to his chest.

"What is your obsession, boy?"

They all looked at Pariah at his sudden question.

"What?" Tsukauchi said.

"What's it to you?" Danny shot back, glaring at him.

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

Danny and Pariah just stared (or glared) at the other.

Nezu cleared his throat. "Pariah?"

Pariah was quiet for a moment. "His obsession." He didn't take his eyes off Danny. "Also known as a focus, or a reason. Every ghost has one. It's the center of their being. So, what is yours, boy?"

Danny snorted. "Didn't tell anyone yours? What is it anyway? Conquest? Domination?"

Pariah sighed.

"Fenton-kun." The boy jumped at Nezu's calm voice. "Is it common to tell others your obsession, as a ghost?"

"It- uh…" Danny shrugged. "I mean, it's not asked a lot. Usually you can kinda get the gist just by meeting them. Or they just tell you- hell, that's how Skulker introduces himself, 'the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter'." He snorted. "He's not, technically I probably am, but that's his thing."

"Do you have 'thing', then?" Aizawa asked. "You did say you're only half ghost."

Danny shrugged again. "I mean, I think so, since without an obsession you don't have a ghost. Even little non sentient blob ghosts have an obsession to, like, eat or something. Frostbite thinks it might just be easier for me to ignore or I like to have more than one I switch between, since humans are really flexible compared to ghosts with that sort of thing."

"Frostbite?" Nezu questioned.

"Oh- right-" Danny sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I'm not used to talking about stuff with people who don't already… know. Frostbite is kinda like my ghost doctor. He and his people in the Far Frozen are really good doctors for ghosts and I have an ice core like they do too, so he helped me figure out more about my biology." He paused and smirked. "Especially since they love me after I locked this asshole back up when we first met."

Pariah just sighed again, sitting back to cross his arms.

"Child, please."

"I'll stop when it stops being funny. Or when you stop deserving it. So, never."

Nezu coughed lightly. Danny at least made an effort to tone down his smile. “Well, if you do have one or more than one ‘focus’, what would they be?”

And there went any smile he had. “Oh. Er…” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling heat rise in his cheeks. Everyone was looking at him, and from Pariah’s expectant look, he’d probably figured it out. “Uh. Well, space and astronomy stuff might be… my secondary one…”

“And your primary focus?” Aizawa said.

Danny sunk down in his chair, not looking at them. His face was definitely red. “Probably… prmbmle….”

“What was that, Fenton-kun?” Nezu said, leaning forward.

He heaved a sigh, and said clearly, “Protecting people…”

The other adults stared, but Pariah huffed what could have been a laugh. “Of course. No wonder.” He shook his head with a smirk as Aizawa rubbed his eyes and Tsukauchi heaved a sigh.

Nezu just smiled. “That’s a very… heroic focus.”

Danny just shrugged. “Not that I can control it. Didn’t know about it when I was, er, forming, so it just sort of… happened.”

Tsukauchi sat forward and nodded at Pariah. “What is- a focus? Obsession? Whatever we want to call it. How does that affect a ghost?”

Pariah looked between him, Danny, and Nezu. “As we both said, a focus is just that- the focus of a ghost’s afterlife. Something their entire nature revolves around. Following one’s focus leads to health and stability, or power if done in excess. Outright avoiding or going against a focus is…” He frowned at Danny. “...ill-advised. At best it can lead to stress and fatigue. At worst, it can lead to frenzy, aggression, and- eventually- a spirit’s end. Especially when a spirit is not in the realms, following your focus is a key part of staying sane and healthy.”

Tsukauchi glanced at Danny and cocked an eyebrow.

“Uh… yeah, that’s about what I know, actually.” Danny shrugged.

Aizawa put his arm on the table and leaned his head against his head. “So what I’m hearing is, we have an untrained, unlicensed teenager with the equivalent to an overpowered quirk who has to be a hero for his own safety?”

Danny grimaced. “Safety is probably… not the best word. I, uh, do get hurt back home pretty often.”

Aizawa waved a finger at him. “And that is not helping your case here, Fenton-kun.”

“I think this is a wonderful opportunity, then!” Everyone turned to look at Nezu, who simply smiled. “There is no reason for young Fenton-kun to fight or get hurt recklessly here, and we are the top hero academia in Japan for a reason. If anyone is equipped to handle his unique needs, I believe it is us. It wouldn’t be the first time students came to the school with some kind of hero experience. Fenton-kun, you said your parents were not aware of your vigilantism at home?”

Danny sat up. “Oh. Er, no. I mean, they taught us how to defend ourselves with their inventions, and my mom’s a black belt- she tried to teach us some basics, it’s probably the only reason I got a full month into fighting before I broke my hand punching Skulker-” He stopped and shook his head. The humans exchanged some looks, but he ignored them. “But- but no, they don’t know.”

“And you worked alone?”

“Y-er.” Danny’s hand found it’s way to the back of his neck again. “Uh. I mean… sort of? I was the only one actually fighting anyone, but my friends Sam and Tucker knew and helped provide cover or distractions sometimes, or carried spare equipment. My sister Jazz found out and tried to help, but…” he shuddered. “She’s not allowed to use the ranged equipment around us anymore. She got my mom’s reflexes, but my dad’s aim- couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, ya know?”

Tsukauchi suddenly covered his face with his hand. Danny just smiled nervously, not sure what he said to make this worse.

“So…” Tanuma said slowly. “Your parents keep weapons in the house? That you have access to?”

“Well… yeah? I don’t-” Danny’s ‘the rest of the world is clueless about ghosts/the Fentons’ brain cell suddenly burst from the grave. “Oh- oh my god, wait, that is not as bad as that sounds!”

“That sounds pretty bad,” Tsukauchi said. “Especially if they haven’t figured out what you’re doing when you borrow equipment, which is what it sounds like.”

“I- well-” He laughed, high and shaky. “Yeah! I guess that would sound pretty bad, and would make them suspicious, if… they knew… we were taking stuff…”

Aizawa just had his head in his hands at this point.

Danny waved his hands wildly. “Look, they- there’s a lot of ghost stuff going on and they- they’re ghost scientists, of course they’re distracted trying to do something! And- listen, I’m going to tell them eventually, I just need the right time and- and okay, I mean that does get harder when they think Phantom is the one stealing equipment.” He dropped his hands a fraction. “Which, I guess they- they don’t really just ‘think’ that if they’re… technically right…”

The table was silent.

“Child.” Pariah sighed. “I was raised in a warrior culture, but even I can tell there are several issues with your family by the day’s standards, if all this is true.”

“Even without quirk laws, I think that’s pretty obvious neglect,” Tsukauchi muttered into his hand. “Not to mention…” he looked at Danny, and Danny’s panic skyrocketed at the clear worry. “You said they’re ghost scientists?”

He swallowed hard, shaking hands suddenly very, very still. “U-um. S- sort of.” His heart jumped to his throat while his core was a heavy block in his gut. Why was he panicking so hard? They already knew his secret. And they couldn’t do anything to his parents, so- so why did them looking so worried suddenly hit him so hard? 

“Sort of?” Tanuma was closest to him on that side, and turned his chair to face Danny better. “Fenton-kun, what exactly do your parents do?”

God, he couldn’t look at them, couldn’t bear what they thought of his parents. That’s all it was, the gut-instinct to years of being bullied for what his parents did, being judged for how they acted, 

Being hunted for what he was-

A hand reached out, and he jerked back, the chair moving with a metallic screech.

Tanuma froze, that too-soft tone to his voice. “Danny-kun. Just breathe. You’re alright, you’re safe. Nobody here is going to hurt you, and nothing we talk about has to leave this room unless you want it to.”

He sucked in a breath through his teeth, holding himself, not quite looking at Tanuma. From the side, he saw a puff of breath come from the detective, and belatedly noticed how cold the room had gotten. A bit of frost even touched the metal arms of his chair. He forced his jaw open and took a gulp of air, held it, and blew out what ended up being a fine frosty mist that settled on the table in front of him.

In, hold, then out. “Good.” Again, little brother.

The next breath didn’t litter the tabletop with ice crystals, and he managed to relax his grip on his arms in the third. Nobody moved while he forced his core to stop freezing everything.

His voice still shook. “They, um. They’re inventors. They make a bunch of ghost-related stuff- blasters, wrist ways, shields, containment…they patent them, and sell them to the town and government for defense. Even after the town accepted ghosts as real, they’re called crazy. The only experts in town, but crazy.” He swallowed again. “But, uh… they like to call themselves ghost hunters.”

There was a muffled swear from Aizawa. Evan Pariah looked a bit surprised.

“Ghost hunters?” Tanuma said. “What- why?”

“Because ghosts are just evil ectoplasmic impressions of post-human consciousness. Obviously.” The smirk and sarcasm he tried for ended up a grimace and squeak. His vision blurred and- “Dammit, sorry…” He wiped at his eyes quickly, trying to turn away. The table was blessedly quiet while Danny got ahold of his tears.

Aizawa was looking at him- they were all looking at him, really- when he seemed to settle. “Is that what they think of Phantom?”

Danny could only shrug, blankly staring at the puddle now on the table. “If it’s not Phantom, then they’re saying it about all the others. They don’t think ghosts are- are people, really. They say ghosts don’t have emotions besides anger, that they can’t feel pain, that they’re worse than animals-”

Pariah interrupted with a scoff. “I’d ask why you bother protecting them if not for your focus. But your efforts sound like they’d be better suited elsewhere.”

“They’re my parents!” Danny snapped, eyes flashing green as he shot Pariah a glare.

“It does not sound that they act like it.”

Danny shot to his feet and was stopped by Tanuma putting his arm between the two ghosts. The rest of the room was tense, save Pariah, calmly staring back.

“I think it would be best for you to withhold any further comments about the Fentons, Pariah.” Nezu also seemed calm, but it was hard for most to read him in the first place.

Regardless, Pariah simply hummed agreement and broke the staring match. 

Nobody pointed out that, technically, both of them were right. From the way Danny glared holes into the table as he sat back down, he knew it too.

Tanuma put a hand on the table, grabbing everyone's attention. "Given that it's only Fenton-kun here, and all the rest of this context, I think we can table the discussion of his home life if or until it becomes relevant. The only other thing I think should be taken from this is, well…" He looked at Danny and gave him a nervous smile, and tried to keep his tone light. "No offense, but you might do well with therapy?"

That got a dark snort of laughter from Danny. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. My sister is going into psychology, and she never shuts up about it. That's not really an option."

"Perhaps not when you were at home," Tsukauchi said with a nod. "But would you consider it while you are here? While we don't know how long that might be, it could be helpful both in the short and long term. We would be able to give necessary context and ensure the utmost confidentiality."

"All staff are going to be at least somewhat aware of your situation," Nezu added. "So if you wish to go to the school counselor-"

"No."

The table went quiet, until Danny realized he was shaking again, and slowly took a breath. "N- I… I tried school counseling once. She… nearly killed half the school." He huffed, not a laugh but he smirked humorless. "Well, probably would have ended up being the whole school, but… anyway, she was a ghost that fed on people's misery. Said mine was the best…" He shook his head. "Anyway, the point is, if I try to go to therapy, or especially a school counselor, I- I'd…"

"We understand," Tsukauchi said gently. "You do not have to go, it was simply something we suggested without context."

Nezu nodded and put his paws together. "I am sure [Name] would also be willing to meet you in a non-office or non-therapy setting, with supervision, if that would help ease any fears. Such a meeting would not have to necessarily lead to treatment afterwards, but simply for your peace of mind."

Danny made a face, but shrugged. "Maybe…"

“I can make a note of it and ask you again later?”

Danny just shrugged again, and Nezu nodded and wrote something down.

“While we’re health-adjacent,” Aizawa said. “Do you know if or how your vitals or health might be different from average, Fenton-kun?”

“Oh- uh, yeah, actually.” He laughed once, slowly relaxing. “Once Jazz found out I had a ghost doctor, she made them run me through the gauntlet and figure that all out. The obvious you probably already noticed? My pulse rests at like, 30? I don’t have to breathe quite as much, especially when I sleep- freaked my friends out the first time we had a sleepover after. Still need air, though!” He rubbed at his throat and winced. “Uh, temperature about 80 degrees-”

“Celsius?” Tanuma gasped.

Danny blinked. “Oh- uh, fahrenheit? That’s like,” -he ran the quick and dirty formula in his head- “Twenty five, twenty six celsius? Yeah, I-” he laughed. “I’m ice, not fire. Eighty celsius anything would probably kill me. Or- well anyone, that’s like over a hundred- no, two hundred fahrenheit?”

He heard Tsukauchi mutter something about ‘Americans’, which Danny agreed with on principle.

“Yeah, so, that. I wear out in the heat but below-freezing temps aren’t that bad, even while I’m human. Uh, for everything else, we couldn’t be exact because there’s only three halfa’s ever- one of them has never been to the Far Frozen despite my best efforts, and the other is a fruitloop that would and should be shot on sight because, as I said, he’s a fruitloop.”

“Meaning?”

“He’s batshit crazy and basically a stereotypical supervillain.” Danny paused. “Wait, stereotypes are probably different here, huh…?”

“So you don’t have answers about any specific health requirements?” Tanuma said.

“Oh- uh, Frostbite made some educated guesses?” Danny grimaced again. “I, uh… was probably a little malnourished even before I got here. Being a teenager mixed with constant activity and adrenaline, and ghost cores burn through energy crazy fast. So, I’m, uh. Always hungry. Never got a calorie count, wasn’t worth it, but more than I was getting. That, and more ‘healthy’ ectoplasm in my diet- he ended up just making me supplements, since it was too much trouble to get and keep ghost food around.”

Most of them seemed to be writing something down, except Pariah. He just looked at Danny. “I’d hope your obsession was at least being fulfilled then?”

Danny couldn’t help but shoot him a glare. “Yeah, that wasn’t an issue.”

“Allergies or reactions?” Tsukauchi prompted.

“Er… no? Not specifically for me, just- you know, general ghost things.” He waved a hand at Pariah, unwilling to admit him being there saved some explanation. “I can withstand some things a little better than normal ghosts, and some things less. Same with human stuff. Like-” He paused, only long enough to remember they couldn’t do anything about it anyway. “Well, probably won’t come up, but I can’t get drunk on normal alcohol. Then ghost alcohol knocks me off my ass.”

Pariah snorted at that, but the other adults sans Nezu gave him looks ranging from shock to concern. “Why do you know that?”

“Nobody told me what was in what at a Saturnalia Truce party, ‘cause different standard drinking ages over time and culture. My friend Dora had to lock me in my room at her castle so I didn’t keep drinking. I’m strictly and publically BYOB for Zone parties now.” He made a face. “Which wouldn't be so bad if everyone stopped making jokes about ‘don’t let the baby drink’ every time anything festive happens.”

Pariah, the bastard, kept laughing. Danny kicked him in the shin. “Shut up!”

“Anything…” Tanuma sighed and put his head in his hand. “Anything that might be more relevant?”

“Uh… I typically need, like, a lot of aspirin for it to work? I’d guess that goes for medicine in general, but I also have a pretty great healing factor most of the time, so.”

“What’s your healing factor like?”

“Eh, healed a broken ulna in like… a week and a half, one time? Stitches heal in a day or two.”

Tsukauchi and Aizawa rubbed their eyes this time, clearly exasperated.

“...what?”

“You’re just like the problem child, aren’t you?” Aizawa muttered, seemingly to himself.

“Er- who’s the problem child?”

The other adults looked confused, but Aizawa just sighed in a way that was kind of familiar to Danny.

“Is advanced hearing one of your abilities, Fenton-kun?” Nezu said casually.

Danny shrugged one shoulder. “Er- kind of a general ghost thing, but yeah.”

“Right,” Aizawa huffed, and gave Danny an exhausted but focused look. “Since we’re on that, tell us about your quirk- or your power, as Americans call them.”

“Yeah, uh- power? Singular?”

He was starting to feel bad for exhausting the man. “Typically, here, people only have one quirk. Sometimes certain individuals can appear to have more than one, but really it’s just a dual-purpose use of a single quirk. For the purposes of registry and school, you will be registered with one quirk.”

Wow. That… “That’s… going to be… kind of impossible?”

“It may just limit what powers you may use publicly,” Pariah said.

“Why don’t you just tell us what you can do, and we can go from there?” Nezua added with a smile.

“Okaaay…” Danny held up his hand and began listing off on his fingers. “So, there’s the basic ghost stuff: flying, intangibility, invisibility, enhanced strength, hearing, and durability… oh and overshadowing but- I- I don’t use that one anymore, really.”

Tsukauchi looked like he really didn’t want to ask. “Overshadowing?”

“I believe he means possession,” Pariah answered instead.

“Right, right, of course…”

“I don’t use it anymore,” Danny said again, not looking at them. “Unless it’s to stop someone else overshadowing someone, but that’s it.” He shook his head and continued. “Then there’s ecto-manipulation- ectoblasts, rays, shields- can’t really make anything complicated with shields, but I never trained for that. Personally, I’m an ice core, so ice creation and control- thank Frostbite I’m not freezing everyone and everything around me anymore. I can sense ghosts, and that usually shows up as seeing my breath because of my core. I can duplicate myself, but not… consistently?”

Pariah raised an eyebrow, but Danny shot him a glare. He just smirked and didn’t say anything.

Danny sucked in a breath. “And, um, my ghostly wail. It’s like a scream, but it’s my most powerful attack- and most destructive. I’ve taken out buildings with it before, and it usually forces me to transform back after, so it’s a last-ditch thing.”

“‘Transform back’?” Nezu said.

“Oh! I, uh, have a separate form- my ghost form? I guess that’d be a power- it’s how nobody in town knew I was Phantom. But I can’t hold it forever- if I run out of energy or pass out or go to sleep, I transform back to my human form. My ecto-signature is weaker in human form, which makes it harder to notice or track me, but I also have a harder time using my powers without transforming.”

“How does this transformation work, exactly?” Nezu asked, leaning forward with his paws together. “Is It destructive or painful?”

“N- no? And, I don’t know? I just sort of-” Danny made a motion to his chest. “Like… pull my core forward? Mentally, I mean- it doesn’t feel bad, and it’s just really bright. And I can like, partially transform?” He let his eyes go green, but he was sure they’d seen that earlier when he was freaking out.

“In that case, would you be willing to show us now?”

“I- uh- sure?” And then suddenly they were all looking at him, and he never felt more self-conscious. Transforming was so normal for him usually, but having an audience like this was different. He pushed himself forward in his chair, but didn’t stand, fidgeting with his shirt. “Uh…”

He didn’t mean to be stalling, but Aizawa and Tsukauchi shared a look, and that just made him pull his shoulders in-

There was a rap on the table. “Phantom.”

Danny’s gaze locked onto Pariah with his challenging tone. When he noticed the unimpressed look Pariah was giving him, it ticked him off.

He transformed almost without thinking, his core already humming in defiance to the challenge he only then heard from Pariah’s core. Pariah smirked again, and the sound from his core shifted to smug satisfaction before quieting.

It took Danny a second of sitting there- facing Pariah, half ready to stand and fight- before he registered what had just happened. He did get up then. “You did that on purpose!”

“You were overthinking it,” Pariah said simply. “I gather that you usually shift to challenge an opponent, so I gave you the appearance of one.”

“I- You- asshole!” It was obvious there wasn’t going to actually be a fight, so he crossed his arms and fell back in his seat. Not pouting over how easily he was played. Obviously.

The other adults in the room were either giving him curious looks or hiding their own amusement. Tsukauchi in particular peered at him before turning to Aizawa. “Do we know if your quick interacts as normal with Fenton-chan’s… ghostliness? Does it react like a transformation quirk, so he’d just transform back?”

Aizawa scowled at him. “...yes, but more than that. Last time, he immediately passed out, and we had to take him straight to Recovery Girl.”

“That was you?!”

Tsukauchi responded like Danny hadn’t spoken. “Are we sure that reaction wasn’t just from malnutrition or exhaustion?”

“Are we suggesting we play with his health to test it?”

“Er.” Tsukauchi sat back. “Right- no, obviously not.”

“Eraser’s quirk forces another quirk to completely deactivate,” Pariah said. “All of Phantom’s powers are tied to his core- since that would be what Eraser’s quick targets, it would temporarily shut down the core itself.”

“Which is … bad,” Tsukauchi said, barely not making it a question.

Pariah huffed. “A ghost’s core is like all human internal organs in one- so since Phantom needs his core to survive as any other would, yes. That’s bad.”

Tanuma looked at Danny. “Er, do you? Need it to survive, I mean.”

Danny swallowed, and the whole room got ten degrees colder. “Yeah. I… Yeah. That’s- That’s not up for debate. Trying to remove it would kill me.” He shuddered. “Just… don’t ask me how I know that.”

Tanuma held up his hands. “Yes, of course! I didn’t mean to come off like that. I just wanted to make sure we all understood.”

The temperature ticked up a couple degrees. Danny nodded, and they moved on.

“Onto more immediate, short-term plans,” Nezu said without missing a beat. “We had discussed options for where and with whom you will be staying while you are here, Fenton-kun.” Danny couldn't help a worried glance in Pariah’s direction. “While you share much common ground, we’ve all agreed it would not be a good idea to have you stay with Pariah-san, so don’t worry about that.”

Danny tried not to make it too obvious how much he relaxed at that.

“Aizawa-san is both qualified as a stand-in guardian for minors in unforeseen circumstances, and an experienced underground pro-hero. He has a spare room kept for situations not unlike these, and has offered to house you until such time as we make other arrangements.” Nezu smiled at him. “That is, if you have no complaints with that arrangement, Fenton-kun.”

“I… don’t think I do?” Danny looked at Aizawa, and felt bad again. “I mean, as long as realizing I’m an absolute disaster hasn’t changed your mind?”

Aizawa stared at him. “...as long as you can figure out how to follow rules, I think we’ll be fine.”

“Uh. I’ll do my best.”

“That’s the spirit!” Nezu said happily. “Which leads us to schooling. We do not know how long you will be here, but we would like to keep you abreast with your peers. Were you in school back home, Fenton-kun?”

Oh great. They had mentioned that, hadn’t they? “Y… yeah? I um… was almost flunking out, but yeah.”

“What grade were you in?”

“Tenth? Er, second year of high school, if- I don’t know how school works in Japan.”

Nezu simply nodded. “Here, high school is three years long, and begins usually when the student is 15 or 16. So then you would be in the same grade as the UA first years. Depending on testing, we would like you to go to school here, given that both Aizawa-san and Pariah-san are staff, and we are the leading heroics academy in Japan.”

Danny had to shake his head. “Wait- hold on- you have superhero school here?! That’s what this is?! That’s-” His mouth went dry as his brain registered what Nezu said. ‘Depending on testing’, ‘We would like-’. He tried not to deflate too much. “That… sounds awesome. I- I don’t think I’ll be able to pass whatever testing you need, though. So what then?”

Nezu tilted his head and gave Danny an odd look, though he still smiled. “In the event you are not capable of attending UA, we will place you in a different high school or home schooling appropriate to your needs. I don’t think that will be necessary, however.”

“Yeah, well…” Danny sighed. “You haven’t seen my grades.”

“You wouldn’t be taking these tests today,” Aizawa said. “That’d just be unfair, given your health and the stress of relocation. If all goes well, you’d come back in two weeks, which would give you time to study if needed.”

“We would also not expect exactly the same standard of scores as usual, given your situation. Namely in history or English, which would be substituted for individual Japanese instruction wherever you are placed.”

Danny couldn’t help slip a bit of a smile at his first thought. “I think if I fail history, I’d be grounded when I get home.”

“Why do you say that?”

He covered his mouth with a hand. “Just- inside joke, sorry.”

While everyone else seemed willing to roll their eyes and let it slide, Pariah shot him a look. Not one that Danny could really even parse before he schooled his features, but he noticed anyway. He still felt hyper-aware of Pariah’s presence, but especially when he had weird reactions like that.

He didn’t get a chance to say anything, though, because now Tsukauchi was looking at him weird.

“Didn’t you say that form takes energy to sustain? You don’t need to hold it just because we didn’t tell you to change back.”

“Oh.” Danny blinked and looked down at his gloved hands. “Er- I guess I just didn’t notice? Sorry.” He changed back quickly, feeling gravity reassert itself on him. “It’s not like I have to spend energy to hold it, it’s more like a light switch? And it’s just as comfortable really. My human form is just… like the power-saver on your phone. I switch back automatically when I’m too far in the red.”

"So you're saying it feels natural to you?" Nezu said.

"I mean… yeah. My powers aren't something I have, it's something I am." He paused, and remembered the phrase Jazz kept repeating. "Human or ghost, I'm always Danny. And that means I'm always both."

Nezu smiled and nodded like he'd just passed some secret test.

Tsukauchi cleared his throat politely. "I think that brings us to the last thing we need to discuss. Namely, trying to find a way to get you back home."

Already, a put was opening in his stomach. Danny nodded and tried to breathe deeply.

"You might be aware, but before this, no effort was made to find a way back to your world." Tsukauchi glanced at Pariah. "Simply efforts to make it possible for a ghost to live here safely. So, while we may be starting from square one in getting you back home, Pariah has done most of the hard work that will keep you safe and healthy here while we explore our options."

"You mentioned a portal earlier," Aizawa said. "A… 'stable portal from the Ghost Zone'?"

Danny nodded. "Oh, yeah- uh, there's always been natural portals, but they are hard to track and dont stay open long. My parents built a big stable portal a couple years ago- it's not the only one, but the guy who built the other two knew to either hide them or built better defenses to keep ghost from just… coming in." He made a face. "And you know, I didn't know anything or anyone back then, so when ghosts started coming through and causing trouble, I didn't know what else to do besides just… toss them back in and try to keep the door closed."

All of them looked like they wanted to say something about it, but Aizawa pushed forward. "So then, it's theoretically possible to build a portal to the ghost realm. If that was done here, there is a nonzero chance of it working, and a nonzero chance that it would open somewhere home-adjacent."

Danny nodded. "Sounds like that'd be the first thing to try, yeah. I could probably help with making that, too. I'm not the inventor my parents are, or a computer fiend like my friend Tucker, but I did grow up around this stuff and use it daily. Not to mention, I'm probably the only one that knows even some of the details of how ectoplasm works as an element or chemical, since Dark-Ages Mcgee here skipped a few hundred years of science class." He grinned as Pariah gave him a tired glare.

"You're a menace."

"Aw, how'd you guess my middle name?"

"Would that be safe?" Aizawa cut in.

Danny blinked back to the table. "What?"

Aizawa was trying hard not to glare at him. "Would it be safe for you to be involved if a portal was to be built? Both physically and mentally."

He opened his mouth to immediately wave it off, but paused as his core tinged at the idea of the portal, dark and dead, a hole in the wall-

"Um-" Danny coughed. "Well. I… get the feeling the safety measures would be a lot more strict with you guys?" No switches inside the portal, he'd make sure of that. "S-so, yeah, all good. Wouldn't even get to that point until all the plans are built and testing was done to make sure physics here isn't too different in some weird tiny way, anyway."

He must have paused too long, because nobody looked convinced.

"Look, if you don't let me help, I'd probably go crazy worrying about it and break in to double check everything anyway."

"If that's your intent, you really shouldn't tell us that," Tsukauchi said with a sigh.

Danny just shrugged. "If it gets you to include me, it won't happen anyway. I don't like to lie and sneak around if I'm not basically forced into it. And you knowing what I'll do in either situation just gives you full accountability for your choice, so you can't really come back and be mad at me for doing what I said I would do if you locked me out."

"That's a fair argument for your intent, I suppose!" Nezu said, which caught Danny off guard by tone alone.

"Oh. Um… thanks? I think?"

"We will have to research and discuss that situation privately with the professionals of the field," Tsukauchi muttered, writing several things down. "For now…" He glanced at the others. "If there's no disagreement, it might be helpful for you to write down anything you remember of the other portals you know about, so that we are able to find engineers and scientists most closely experienced with the necessary areas of research."

"Oh, yeah, totally. If you give me enough paper, I could probably recreate a chunk of the blueprints, honestly."

The detectives looked a bit surprised by that, but the others either expected it or hid the emotion by now.

"It sounds like we have a plan of action!" Nezu said, and clapped his paws together. "Unless there is anything you would like to add, Fenton-kun?" He paused for Danny to shake his head. "Then I think we can wrap up our meeting for today. After all, you and Aizawa-san still need time to gather some basic necessities, and from what I hear, you could use a good night's sleep outside of our infirmary."

Danny gave him a weak smile, and tried not to shudder at the memory-sensation of the IV. "Y-yes, please."

Aizawa took that as a cue to stand. "Let's go, Fenton."

Danny stood, but hesitated as the others stayed put.

"We just need to discuss legal logistics and documents, don't mind us," Tanuma said with a smile.

"Okay…" He gave Pariah a serious look before moving to follow Aizawa. He didn't want to stick around the man, but having everyone else trust him wasn't going to ever make sense.

#i don't know if i want to tag this either of the fandoms #its not very good/consistent/edited #but i said id post something sO

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP list, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Ok so… this is where we get into just how utterly chaotic my creative process is, but not in a way that results in oodles of files that have creative interesting names - quite the opposite in fact.

You see… I have currently have 16 files and the titles are:

Moonrat Moonrat 2 Moonrat 3 Moonrat 4 … all the way up to the current Moonrat 16

The reason for this is that I don't actually separate different stories into individual files until they end up on Ao3. It's all just one long running thing all squished together with a few spaces between 'chunks' that sometimes, but not always, end up being separate stories and/or chapters. And I'm a packrat (pack-moonrat?) and never throw anything away so if something is cut out it's usually shoved in a free spot at the bottom of everything else to be used in something else later.

When Google docs starts taking too long to load and spazzes on me with lag, that's when I start a new file.

Because my first drafts end up looking more like free-verse poetry than stories, with usually only between 1 and 5 words on a line, either in bits of un-attributed dialogue or point form ideas, it often goes on for a ridiculous number of pages, so these tend to be large documents. I also am really really bad at titles. Except in very rare situations, everything comes out as untitled brain vomit and then is titled very close to the end (sometimes mid Ao3 post when I realize 'oh yes, titles are a thing - oops') long after I've turned it into actual sentences with real grammar and such.

Basic unfinished idea-chunks that are ongoing include, but are not limited to:

30-some pages of the first Dawning story that is still unfinished (I ended up realizing I would not finish the writing challenge in time if I continued the inordinately long Dawning story I had begun so I wrote "Dawning Oasis" instead and will finish this one some other time)

the Drifter on a special secret mission for Eris in the Sepulcher lost sector in the Throne World

Eris finding a renegade Hive chapel dedicated to her on the Moon

the last chapter(s) of "Dance with Vengeance" (this has since been posted)

several false starts based upon lyrics to other Crane Wives songs for that one writing challenge I did (as opposed to the completed one with sad Drifter having nightmares called "Ashes, Ashes")

oodles of random snippets of dialogue

Drifter teaching Eris to cook and/or cooking and/or Eris eating various dishes

various iterations of Eris exhibiting telepathy and/or non-normative vision that I have rejected from current projects for consistency reasons which may end up in other things later

more Immaru bullying like in "Visitation" and "Wind Chimes" (he knows what he did)

lots more nightmares because, when I'm not writing fanfiction, that's one of my narrative specialities

several false starts for the sequel/enactment of the private gambit match discussed in "Hide and Seek"

bits pertaining to and/or including/referencing that one bog slug

Per the rules above, you are invited to ask/message about any/all of these (or, quite frankly, anything else - I do not bite unless we both agree that I wish to bite you and you wish to be bitten).

I have never done a thing like this before, nor have I ever tagged anyone else on tumblr before, so here's hoping I did this correctly. I was tagged by: @flowers-of-io and I am tagging: @redbutterflies-blueeyes @synnthamonsugar @bbyfacedx and @annieruok94

I would love to tag more people but I actually have quite the serious disconnect between who people are on Ao3 and who people are on here and I am very easily confused. If you look at this and go "But why did you not tag me? Do you not love me?" The answer is: "No I just have no fucking clue what I'm doing. Please say hello and tell me who you are on Ao3 so I can include you if I ever do a thing like this again."

That is all.

#writing #ask game

[thesandsofelsweyr]

(Whumpy) WIP Wednesday

Here are 3 snippets from some stories I'm working on. If you see this post, consider yourself tagged (and be sure to tag me if you share your WIPs!)

From Chapter 3 of The Climb (ao3):

Jason stops dead, paralyzed by the fear that cuts through him like the Clown’s scalpel. That wasn’t the voice of another ghost. That was real. He’d been so lost in his delusions that he hadn’t heard the makeshift trap door creak open or the heavy boot-steps descending the unfinished concrete staircase, approaching him. The ringing in his ears grows louder, and his head hurts so much that he thinks he’s gonna pass out. Two bright beams of light pierce the darkness, falling on him, illuminating him like a deer in headlights, knocking the wind out of him like a punch to the gut.

“No…” His whimper catches in his throat. Any courage he had regained from facing certain death was sucked out of him and terror bubbled up in its place. How could he have been so careless? This is why I was left here to rot. This is why I was replaced. He should’ve known the Clown would never let him creep through these halls unprotected. He’d never let his prized plaything slip from his grip. You fucking dumbass. His partner would make him suffer for this.

He throws up a scrawny arm over his face to shield his stinging eyes from the flashlights that are pointed at him. His heart is galloping in his chest, racing toward that trap door that is now blocked by the pair of shadowy figures. He tightens his grip on the wall to keep himself from collapsing and begging these flesh-and-blood specters for mercy.

A really rough excerpt from probably the worst / most twisted moment of Jay's torture at the hands of Joker 🤡 (part of my Ruined series):

(cw: torture for the two snippets under the cut)

“Really, Jason. All this fuss over an ice pack?”

“Oh, the hammer? (chuckles) I just wanted to see your face.”

“Now you hold that there. Good. And let’s get these back on.”

“It’s ok, buddy. Your punishment is over. All is forgiven.”

“Calm down, little bird. Deep breaths. (Inhale , exhale.) Good. That’s my good boy.”

Strokes his sweat-soaked hair. 

“Kill me,” Jason begs through tears, through clenched teeth. “Kill me. Please. Sir. Kill me.”

“Nonsense. We still have work to do, partner.”

“Please,” he sobs, defeated. Can barely get the words out thru his clenched broken teeth. “It hurts so much.” (In a tiny voice)

“You’ll feel better soon, I promise. I’ll even let you rest for a few days before we resume our training. You’ll feel as good as new.”

He just sobs. There is nothing he can do or say. 

After the Clown leaves him: (eerie silence, like a tomb. Never felt so alone in his entire life.)

“Why?” He asks the man who he thought was his father. Sobs. “Why? It hurts. Please. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

From a ficlet tentatively titled "An Apple a Day" (another part of my Ruined series):

When the pliers clamp down around his front tooth, Jason shatters.

“Thank you sir! THANK YOU SIR!” he screams, a blood-sputtering scream, his words slurring around the cold, pitiless metal that’s shoved into his pried-open jaws. He prays that’s enough as he shakes like a puppy on the fourth of July. He gave the psycho what he wanted—he called the man “sir,” like some fucked up sex roleplay. 

Joker has been punishing him for running his mouth. Again. For laughing in his pasty white face when the Party City Clown informed him that he’d be calling the man “sir” from now on. “You can take your ‘sir’ and shove it up your fucking ass,” were his exact words. The old Jason may not have regretted those words. That boy probably would’ve thought this agony was worth it. But that boy’s gone now; murdered by a photo. Batman had bitched at him many times for running his mouth while on patrol. Probably yet another reason why Batman picked a new kid for the job, why the old, rejected kid now has eight throbbing holes in his swollen gums.

Warm, coppery blood dribbles from the corners of his mouth, coating his busted lower lip in crimson gore. His breath’s coming in frantic pants, on the edge of hyperventilating. His armored chest full of broken ribs heaves beneath the heavy braided ropes that bind him to the wooden chair, ropes that squeeze his lungs like a giant’s fist. Nailless fingers dig into the material of his gloved palms as he balls his fists behind his back. No more, he silently prays yet another useless prayer as tears roll down his scarred cheeks. Please no more…

He’s a dumbass for holding out so long. Ten teeth—at least—gone from his mouth now. Two from the fucking crowbar, eight from the Clown’s pliers. And for what? To impress the man who’d left him here to rot? The man he considered his father; his partner who picked a new kid rather than bother finding the old one.

The gloved fist twisted into his matted black hair tightens, tearing at his scalp, and wrenches his head back even further. “Be more specific,” Joker says casually, as if they were discussing the weather over a cup of coffee and not the eight bloody teeth scattered on the table in front of him.

“Thank you for…” His mind races in circles, groping through the immense pain for the right words. (through the pain that shattered his thoughts)

“I think the patient needs another extraction, Dr. J.”

Joker sighs. “Excellent diagnosis, Nurse.”

#my wips #my arkhamverse #series: ruined #jason todd #joker #harley quinn #robin #arkham knight #arkhamverse #arkham asylum #dcu #wip wednesday #jason todd whump #jason todd angst #whump #angst #dead dove: do not eat #fic: the climb #wip: death & resurrection

[ljf613]

20 Questions for Writers

I think I've done this one before, but it's been a while, so let's do it again! (Tagged by @pencilofawesomeness)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Officially, 71. (I also have a handful of fics that I've moved into the anonymous collection-- mostly unfinished WIPs I currently have no plan to return to.)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 231,362-- I'm so close to a quarter million words, hopefully I'll get there by the end of the year.

3. What fandoms do you write for? The majority of my posted fics are for Avatar: The Last Airbender (plus a few for Avatar: Legend of Korra), and I've written several fics for the Miraculous Ladybug and Fairy Tail fandoms. Currently, the fics I'm working on with the most regularity are for the How to Train Your Dragon and Once Upon a Time fandoms (A Better Version of Our Best and Not My Homeland Anymore, respectively). I've also written fics for numerous other fandoms, including Tales of Arcadia, Fullmetal Alchemist, Teen Wolf, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, The Familiar of Zero, and The Dragon Prince. And of course, I'm always thinking and plotting out new stories for fandoms I've yet to write for.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? —5. fifteen for a moment - 956 —4. I'm worse at what I do best - 959 —3. we all bend and break sometimes - 1,132 —2. you don't get what all this is about - 1,179 —1. nobody wants to pay the asking price - 1,286 These are all part of my ATLA we all want love/we all want honor series. As a matter of fact, my twenty-one most popular fics-- by a long shot-- are the twenty-one parts of the same series. (Even the least popular, war is not freedom, with 627 kudos, has over twice as many kudos as my most popular non-wawl/wawh fic.) (Part twenty-two, which I just posted this week after a two year hiatus, obviously hasn't gotten quite as much engagement yet, but at the rate the kudos have been coming in, it'll likely be on par with the others within six months, if not sooner.) My five most popular fics outside of this series are as follows: —5. “Can You Please Just Hold Me?” [ATLA] - 243 —4. Nonbender Zuko AU (Outline) [ATLA] - 259 —3. “Are You Jealous?” [ATLA] - 261 —2. i bled out tears (the only water in the desert) [FMA] - 265 —1. The Bells of Kardia Cathedral [Fairy Tail] - 286

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! I love responding to comments for the simple reason that I always want to talk about my stories, and who better to discuss them with than the people who love them enough to leave comments on them?

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh, unquestionably It's Winter Again (And I Can't Wait To See You) [ATLA]. I like writing open-ended stories, so sometimes I'll write oneshots with angsty but ultimately hopeful endings (that may or may not end up developing into full-fledged series). This story, however, was not left optimistically open-- it is just angsty and tragic and I LOVE it.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The happiest? Uh, just going by the completed fics… I want to say Something Like a Love Story [ATLA], which I think has one of the sweetest endings I've ever written, but even though the story itself has a happy ending, it is a pre-canon story about Hakoda and Kya, and anyone reading it knows how their story ended, so it really ends up feeling more bittersweet than anything else. So maybe Just Between Us (Did the Love Affair Maim You Too?) [ATLA]? It's a nice, solid hurt/comfort fic where I really made the characters work for their happy ending, so it does have a sweet, feel-good payoff. But there are three main characters in that story, and only two of them actually get a real happy ending, so maybe not. (Zuko and Toph are definitely living happily ever after, but Mai still has some more work to do before she can say the same.) I guess I've got to go with The Bells of Kardia Cathedral. That was a just a cute, fun little story full of humorous misunderstandings, but at the end of the day, everyone involved got their happy endings.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Honestly, no-- which is pleasantly surprising, considering that a lot of my stuff is kind of niche and involves unpopular and often Problematique ships.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? No, your local neighborhood prude over here is not about to write anything stemier than the occasional chaste makeout scene.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Yes, but I think about way more crossovers than I've ever actually written. The craziest one is probably a tie between Fairy Tail in NIFLHEIM [Fairy Tail x Shall We Date?: THE NIFLHEIM+] (for pure crackiness) and my untitled Miraculous Ladybug/Fullmetal Alchemist AU (for meshing two canons that had no business blending so well together).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not really-- there was an incident a while back where someone compiled all of the wawl/wawh series into a single fic, but they posted it privately, and I think they just wanted it all in one place for downloading purposes. In any case, I'm pretty sure it's gone now. (For those interested in having this series all together, it's in one piece on FFN.)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not as far as I know. But someone did make a podfic for this side of the sun!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nah. I've talked about collaborating with a few different writers over the years, but nothing has ever worked out. (Yet!)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Nathan and Haley from One Tree Hill. No question.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? The People They Once Were [ATLA/LOK]. This was the first Avatar-verse fic I ever wrote. For so long, I wanted to write something for this fandom, but I had absolutely zero ideas. (In fact, I initially watched LOK with the hope that it would give me some fic-writing fodder, which it did.) And then I finally had this idea, and I was so excited about it, but I didn't quite… know what to do with it. I probably won't ever come back to this one, but I am grateful to it for breaking that ice and allowing me to help me get into writing for this fandom (in which I've been quite prolific).

16. What are your writing strengths? Closing lines and action between dialogue. I try really hard to end everything just the right way, and I do my best to make sure the reader can follow what the characters are doing as they talk to each other. I also like to think I'm decent at writing emotional descriptions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Fighting scenes and visual descriptions. I have a hard enough time making sure I maintain a solid spatial awareness of what characters are doing where in a normal interaction. (Aphantasia, my beloathed.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I've done it before, sure. While reading fics in the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom, I noticed that several writers had used Hebrew as a stand-in for the Ishbalan language, and as I have some familiarity with the language (not that I have any real fluency, and I certainly couldn't carry on any more than a very simple conversation, but I can read it well enough, and am comfortable with its syntax and grammatical conventions), I decided I could use it, too. While writing my FMA fic, i bled out tears (the only water in the desert), I also interspersed a bit of Yiddish and Aramaic, as those languages mesh well with Hebrew. The whole thing was really fun! In general, while I'm not against writing dialogue in another language, I'm not well-versed enough in linguistics to invent my own, so it would have to be an actual real-world language, and I would have to have enough of an understanding of said language to be able to play around with it. (Lately, I've been thinking about writing a retelling of one of my favorite biblical stories, in which I would almost certainly use some amount of Hebrew dialogue.)

19. First fandom you wrote for? Well, I vaguely recall writing some proto-fanfiction in elementary school for assignments and stuff ("write about what you think happened to this character after the book was over"), and somewhere out there in the world is a binder with the outline (and a handful of scenes) of an elaborate Twilight fanfic I plotted out in middle school (complete with a vampire creation story!). But the first fandom I really wrote for was Familiar of Zero, back in 2015. This was still three years before I actually discovered fanfiction, but I finished all four seasons of the show in about a week and was struck with such a solid idea of what would happen directly following the final scene (probably some of those old school assignments sticking with me) that I had to write it down immediately. I did eventually post it (basically untouched) on AO3 as Hero's Return. The first fandom I actually posted for was Miraculous Ladybug, not long after discovering AO3. (The first fic I ever posted was A Miraculous Night.)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Oh, undoubtedly A Better Version of Our Best. I consider this story my magnum opus-- I love the family drama aspect, the parallel storylines spark such joy, and the worldbuilding and character development has been so interesting. I'm also experimenting with some new storytelling techniques and pacing strategies. I think it's really a culmination of everything I've ever learnt about writing and storytelling (so far!).

Tagging @lynzine and anyone else interested!

#my fanfics #thoughts #tagging game #shameless self plug #a better version of our best #we all want love #we all want honor #all queued up