#going to go to war with tumblr's editor and that is a promise

[promptful]

Best Friends to Lovers Things:

big boi.

WARNINGS: Mentioned death.

Seeing them in a different way after a long time apart. 

Lingering looks.

Bed sharing, but only platonically. (Regretfully). 

Inside jokes. 

Late night [texts] 

Smiles that hurt. 

Always being each other’s +1 to any event. 

Forced proximity, that wouldn’t be such a problem if things weren’t changing between the two of you. 

Home cooked meals, made special by the other. 

Walking each other home from work. 

Falling asleep on the couch, intertwined. 

Fake-dating; either because you have to, (friends, family, a wedding, job) or because you two made an agreement when you were younger to get married. 

Having to vet the other’s SOs. 

Soft touches. A brush on the shoulder, across the waist, through the hair. 

Everyone knowing that, oh, it’s those two. 

People asking where’s the other if only one is present. 

Minted keys to each other’s apartment. 

^ (Bonus if it’s the only copy). 

Sleepovers because you're sick and they don’t want to leave.

Their parents always asking how you’re doing, and yours asking about them. 

Bets on your relationship. 

That kind of laughter that ends up like squeaking because you can’t hold it in anymore. 

Confessing your love in the worst ways. (In the middle of an argument, while in danger, in a drunken stupor, simply because you’re tired.) 

Using them as a seat, because that’s what you’re used to. 

Slow dancing. Totally platonic. 

Prom with one another. 

Spending sad anniversaries on the couch with buckets of chocolate, their arms curled around your shoulders. 

They only trust you with their problems. 

And you only have them to cry on. 

“Goodnight” and “Goodmorning” texts. 

“Did you get home safe?” texts. 

“If anything ever happens to you, call me.” 

Self-sacrificing behavior because neither of you can live without the other. 

Chiding the other while patching them up, inches away from their lips. 

When they throw themselves into danger, you’re there to pull them out. 

“Can’t sleep, come over?” 

Movie marathons. 

Hiding each other whenever you’re not supposed to be in their room, giggling.

“I can’t imagine being with anyone but you.” 

Petty jealousy. 

“Where are you?” 

Always sitting by each other in [school]. 

Fixing each other’s clothing; ESPECIALLY tying their ties, fingers brushing against their sternum. 

“I’ve wanted this forever.” 

Them being the only person who notices the small changes you make to either your appearance or house. 

Emergency contacts. 

Sleep-deprived nights because the other’s in the hospital. 

Platonic love proclamations, until they're not. 

An accidental kiss to the cheek that leaves both of you stunned. 

“I can’t keep going without telling you how I feel.” 

That awkward phase after you start dating where everything is new and you really don’t want to mess it up. 

“It’s just me.” 

The whole exaggeration about their dating. (E;g, we’ve been dating since I’ve known them.) 

“I didn’t know you loved me.” “I didn’t know you loved me.” 

Semi-protective behavior. 

Knuckle kisses that get progressively longer. 

Dreams shared in the darkness.

Working together—which means no productivity, basically. 

Playful arguments. 

Being able to resolve actual arguments because they both value the friendship too much.

“Take the bed.” “Not without you.” 

Stargazing, your head on their shoulder. 

Being there when things go bad with each other’s families. 

The “do you want to talk?” with pinched eyebrows. 

Knowing the exact shade of each other’s eyes from memory. 

Coffee trips in the middle of the day. 

Dropped off lunches. 

Random midnight snack runs. 

Nighttime road trips. 

A shared music taste and a bass that rocks the car, windows down. 

“Don’t replace me… please. I can’t lose you, too.” 

Straight-faced covering for them, even while they sneak out the backdoor behind you. 

Mutual shenanigans despite the consequences of said shenanigans. 

“Hey, what if we—” “No.” 

That first kiss that’s a tentative touch, then turns into a fervorous kiss, hands on shoulders, jaws, cheeks, squeezing their sides. 

Wanting to take their relationship slow. 

Each milestone meaning more than the last. 

Soft singing to put one another to sleep—perhaps a song that they’ve sang since childhood. 

Being ready to drop everything to go help them no matter what. 

Smiling when thinking about them [and being called out on it]. 

Objects that you have to get for them.

Board Game competition. 

Zipping up their dress, or tying their tie and fixing their cufflinks. 

Secret languages. 

“What are we?” “What do you want us to be?” 

Standing in front of them on the [train]. 

Memories that you can’t forget. 

Growing old with one another. 

Kids who they can’t decide which looks like who. 

The most outlandish anniversaries you can think of. 

“Happy That Time We Almost Died For the Second Time!” 

Communicating through simple expressions. 

And finally, the ability to trust utmost in one another. 

#writing prompt #story prompts #prompt #prompts #writing prompts #best friends to lovers #fanfiction prompts #fluff #going to go to war with tumblr's editor and that is a promise #prompt list #otp prompts #story prompt #writeblr #creative writing #dialogue prompts #dialogue prompt #p.

[daydreams-and-honeybees]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Was digging through my tumblr notifs and totally forgot I was tagged in this oops 😅

Thank you @fairytales-and-folklore for tagging me 🥰🥰

tagging @halcyonhue @sharksinflowercrowns @slightecho

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

20!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

106,520. I think that's pretty good!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Owl House. (specifically, Huntlow.) Although once upon a time I wrote Percy Jackson!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Green (Like Jealousy) my magnum opus

Blushes Bloom Like Flowers all fluff

What are the chances? human au!

'Pretty' : Day 6, Scars Huntlow Week!

Golden Hour: Day 5, First Kiss/Gardening Huntlow Week!

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

I do! I always appreciate when someone takes the time to write a comment. Whenever I enjoy a fic I always try to do the same, although I should be doing it more than I am lol.

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

I think A Very Royal Menace, And Her Poor Knight's Attempts to Not Lose His Job? I don't know if it's really angsty, but it was based on an idea that @sharksinflowercrowns had of a princess/knight au and I really ran with the pining. I don't really count it as angsty because it really is just like a snapshot of that story and they live happily ever after because I can't not have happy endings. Can't promise any official continuations but there ya go.

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

Again, I like always write happy endings, but I think Flapjacks in the Morning is the happiest because it's like, all fluff and good feelings and they eat pancakes at the end.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really, sometimes I get rather vague comments that I *think* are well-intentioned or complimentary but also are kind of...ominous. All appreciative tho!

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

Wouldn't you like to know? /s

In all seriousness, not sure if I will ever get to it (maybe that bug with bite me someday, who knows) but if I do it would be super sweet, fluffy and sappy (and spicy lol) because that's all I do lol.

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

I have not, I think the closest I'd get to something like that would be AU's of one story/setting that I would put another group of characters in, like a pacific rim AU or star wars, etc.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, not that I know of at least 😅

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

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

Not co-written, but I am the beta/editor for rachelrosemary’s fic The Kissing Project! and she has helped me with a bunch of mine as well!

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

Huntlow it's Huntlow.

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

Mm. Burning Sage. I was really ambitious when I started it but didn't plan it as well as I should have. It burnt me out too quickly and I don't think I will ever touch this high fantasy witch AU again, sorry. (But again, even with the angst it would have had a happy ending)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I am pretty good with characterization? I get a lot of comments about that at least! And I've gotten some compliments on my prose when experimenting with writing styles once upon a time

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I was never a writer really, so I think my phrasing can end up awkward or vague because it doesn't convey what I intended. Rachel has helped with that tremendously however! I also struggle with dialogue not infrequently.

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

I have not done this yet, but I would include it if needed. I am not fluent in any language other than English so I would probably resort to looking it up and doing my best to make sure it was accurate for like, a handful of lines if I needed to.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson! I had like two or three percabeth fics I posted on wattpad like, twelve years ago. I'm sure they are still there lol.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Hmmmm...right now I want I'll Be Falling, Without Caution to get some love so go read that! It's a cute post-canon oneshot focusing on Hunter and Willow getting ready to get back into flyer derby by practicing together ALOOONE and cuteness ensues. Super fluffy and mutual losering/pining.

I found this is in my drafts from weeks ago so you're all getting this now! ta-da!

#huntlow #toh #the owl house #willow park #hunter noceda #hunter toh #fanfiction #about me #shouting into the void #fanfic #fan writing #fanfic writers #fandom

[eviebane]

Hello!

First of all, happy new year and congrats on 1000 followers!

I just want to say I love your blog, and it's one of my favourite blogs on tumblr. You're a very important part of the GO fandom, so keep being you :). Your work is amazing; and I really love your video edits (I confess I haven't found the time to read your fanfics yet but it's definitely on my list, I promise).

I've been kind of wanting to try gifmaking for a while, and I read your posts about video editing/gifmaking. If it's not too much trouble, would you be willing to share a few more tips? (Doesn't have to be that detailed, just a few simple tricks for beginners).

Thank you and have a nice day/night!

Oh Anon, you're a sweetie. Thank you!! I'm so pleased that this blog can bring joy to others. All of you are so lovely, it makes everything so much more fun!

I'll share whatever wisdom I can but I'm still a bit of a newbie really; I've only used Davinci Resolve for about 6 months~ or so, so if anyone else has any other tips, please add!!

1) I would recommend Davinci Resolve to anyone who wants to get into video editing as it's free & quite similar to Vegas Pro (which I do have, but personally I prefer Davinci).

2) If you want to make GIFs, I'd recommend creating a project using the settings I use here, then saving it as your 'template' so every time you want to make a new GIF, you don't have to re-do your settings because it'll be saved on that project.

3) You can create multiple tracks - I use this for overlaying audio (and turning off video on that track), or for adding text or effects generators. This is what my War of Hearts edit looks like in DaVinci:

I used track 3 & 4 for text Track 2 for just audio (you can see I turned off video) Track 1 was my 'main' video & audio track Track A5 was my music

This is what The Book of Love looks like, you can see it was only 3 tracks (music, video, text)

4) The marker function. This is handy for leaving notes for yourself or sectioning things off while you work, but you can also render those markers to create 'chapters' automatically when you upload it to YouTube. Add a marker with the little blue button, then double click your market & name it. You can use different colours too.

When you render it, tick 'Chapters from Markers' and make sure the colour matches the markers you want to make into chapters, then export.

5) Get yourself some new fonts!! I downloaded free fonts from Google [link], installed them, restarted Davinci, and they were ready to use!

6) The 3rd tab. When you click on a clip, you'll get lots of options. PLAY WITH THEM. Just start changing settings & observe what it does. I cannot emphasis enough - just play with Davinci and see what happens. Don't aim to make it something, just aim to learn. Whack a clip down & start putting effects, zoom, cropping, etc on it.

You can colour the image on the 5th tab via colour wheels. Don't worry if it's silly! Again, just click around and see what happens! Here, I'll show you me playing with colours & effects:

honestly it looks like a meme with the text

7) Speaking of the 5th tab, I ONLY LEARNT THIS LAST WEEK WHICH IS EMBARRASING, but you can copy the colouring you've done to 1 clip onto other clips. Select the clips you want to colour, then scrollwheel click on the clip WITH the colourings you want.

8) Use your arrow keys on the keyboard (⬅️➡️⬇️⬆️) to move along your timeline. It's a lot easier to find the right frame, instead of using your mouse. Here's some basic keyboard shortcuts:

Cut: [Ctrl + X]

Copy: [Ctrl + C]

Undo: [Ctrl + Z]

Redo: [Ctrl + Shift + Z]

Paste: [Ctrl + V]

Select All: [Ctrl + A]

Play/pause [Space]

9) This seems obvious but I have lost hours of editing because I didn't do this. When you start a new project, SAVE IT (File>Save Project) as then it'll start autosaving the project.

10) I would heavily recommend watching some YouTube tutorials if you've never video edited before. I also started out with a pre-installed Windows 'Video Editor' (I think it's called Clipchamp now?) which is extremely basic, so it allowed me to learn without getting overwhelmed with all the bells and whistles that Davinci has. If DaVinci is too much right away, try something easier, but you might get frustrated as it's less control & options (only 1 track, limited colouring options, limited effects/transitions, can't view frame by frame, etc).

In summary: Play around with your editing software & see what happens. Watch edits, look at GIFs- observe how they edit as it might inspire you & help put some of your new skills/knowledge into context. If there's anything I can help with, just drop me a message! Good luck & happy editing ❤️

#video editing #good omens #ask #editing #edits #gifs

[alexa-santi-author]

This? This right here? Is the first BookBub deal I’ve been a part of since I started publishing in 2021. 🥹

There’s also something I want to say about my story in this anthology that’s specific for Tumblr. I took a big swing, because I’m a middle-aged white woman who wrote a Regency romance with a Black heroine who grew up enslaved before she escaped to England with her family.

I’m going to pause here so folks who aren’t interested in hearing the details can scroll on by.

Like I said, I knew it was going to be a big swing because I am (a) white and (b) middle-aged, and those are two factors that rightfully strike fear into the hearts of a lot of non-white people when women like me say we’re going to write about Black characters, including in a historical or fantasy setting.

But here’s what I did:

- I did a lot of seminars and webinars and classes in how not to fuck up when you’re writing characters of another identity. Two of the best ones: I was lucky enough to take an online class called Critical Lens with best-selling and award-winning Black romance author LaQuette, and that was hugely helpful for getting myself into the right mindset. I also took an intensive class from Writing the Other, who I also strongly recommend. They have great classes on a huge variety of topics. I did all of this several years before I wrote this story.

- I asked as many non-white people as I could about the story concept and got a consensus that it was not automatically offensive to have a heroine with that background as long as I watched my ass with the potentially offensive elements. She is never shown in America, only when she is in England, where her family has become comfortably middle class. The hero first met her when she and her family (parents and sister) successfully escaped to a British warship in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812 and were transported back to England, as were hundreds of other refugees escaping slavery during that war.

- It’s based in real history. In both the American Revolution and the War of 1812, enslaved people who were able to get to the British side and claim asylum were transported back to England as free people. In the negotiations to settle both wars, the Americans tried to demand the return of their “property” and were firmly shut down by the British. A reference to not just single individuals, but families, successfully escaping this way during the War of 1812 in the British naval dispatches is what sparked this idea.

- I hired a Black editor (Renita Lofton McKinney at ABookADay.biz) to do the developmental edit and make sure I didn’t screw anything up before it was finalized. Where most people mess up is they wait until the beta reader stage to get sensitivity notes, and that’s when it’s hardest to make changes. Get your sensitivity editor involved as early as possible so you don’t go down the wrong path.

- Hopefully this doesn’t make the story sound like a slog. I promise it’s light and fun even with the premise.

- Could I still have fucked this up and written something offensive even though I did my best not to? Yes, of course. It’s also an interracial romance, which some people will hate, so that’s another point where I could get myself in trouble. But I did put in a good faith effort of money and time to not fuck it up.

And if you’re still interested in the story after reading my whole Ted Talk, here’s a link.

https://books2read.com/abdu

#historical romantic fiction #historical romance #historical accuracy #interracial romance #interracial historical romance #self promo #self rec #occasional marketing post

[latibvles]

jarring realization that i haven't actually haven't done a proper introduction post — no time like the present I suppose?

Anyways you can refer to me as either Poet or Lexi ( or any variation of those two nicknames, Poe, Lex, etc. ). I am nineteen years old ( as of June 2021, because I will no doubt forget to update this as I age so please feel free to do that math ) and go by any pronouns ( although I must ask if we are not close, please stick to she / they ). I'm currently in college pursuing a degree in english, with hopes of being an editor in the future. I've been writing since I was eleven years old and like to think I've gotten pretty good at it. This is my first time posting any work on Tumblr, despite being a reader of stories on here for quite some time.

I am a self-proclaimed "war boy enjoyer" — so you can safely assume I've watched Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and a few different films. Haven't gotten around to Generation Kill quite yet. Outside of period pieces, I enjoy tolkienverse, animanga, and thai dramas primarily. I also play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and play a lot of video games ( and for all our sakes I am a Gemini, ENXP, and 8w7 ). I’ve got a puppy named Loki who likes to bite my hands to prevent me from writing, and I’m prone to impulse posting AUs at 3am because all of my friends are enablers (affectionate).

My pride and joy, my current focus work is Sad, Beautiful, Tragic, which you can read here on Tumblr and here on AO3. It’s sister work and some extra fun bits are also posted on my AO3. I’ve also got an OC Masterlist here featuring some OCs from my next work, With A Fighting Heart, which I am quite fond of. They’ve got their respective tags if you’d like to read about them too.

SOME USEFUL TAGS

" poet's think thoughts " — alternatively titled "the poet screams into the void and now you must all listen." this is first and foremost a place of safety and comfort, as my url suggests. also just

" poet's mail box " — anything from my inbox goes here including answers to games & writing challenges

" poe's pals " — anything from friends / mutuals goes here

" poet's notepad " — i try to update this fairly regularly with whatever drabbles / ficlets i’ve written which aren’t apart of the main fic

“ poet’s secret friends ” — my anon tag, for those of you who are a little too shy to say hello, but I love you anyway

“ hi pretty boy ” — gifsets of my favorite war boys ( so .. a lot of ron + dick + some snafu sprinkled in there too ) alternatively, for my favorite women — try “ hi pretty girl ”

SOME FIC RECS alternatively titled "what is getting Poet through the semester?" complete with AO3 / masterlist links (and their tumblrs, if I have it) — can also be found under #fic recs

The Names We Call Upon by TysMisadventures ; for my Dragon Age enjoyers. I am Elera's number one fan and also her wife. If Solas won't make a move I WILL! Also I love a good Modern AU.

A Garden In Bloom by Arlana ; it has Hanahaki and Medieval AU in Haikyuu. Also the first AO3 fic I ever read and life just hasn't been the same since. I love princes falling in love.

Fire on Fire by liebgotts-lovergirl ( @liebgotts-lovergirl ) ; I am going to war for Alix Martinelli. If she asked me to jump I would ask how high. I am her number one fan.

The Darkening Sky by MercuryGray ( @mercurygray ) ; If you see me crying over Annie Sutton in a public restroom no you don't. I'm cheering Joan Warren on with pom-poms whenever she does anything ever. I am her ride or die forever.

Barren Soul by softspeirs ( @softspeirs ) ; If Kat Gray has million numbers of fan i am one of them . if Kat Gray has ten fans i am one of them. if Kat Gray has only one fan that is me . if Kat Gray has no fans, that means i am dead . if world is against the Kat Gray, i am against the world.

as spring makes promises outside by shoshiwrites ( @shoshiwrites ) ; shoshi will write an au and I will think about it for the next month and a half and that’s not even a joke. anyways flower shops and joe toye and jo brandt will save 2022 and if you disagree argue with your momma.

#introductory post #poet’s think thoughts #band of brothers #fic recs #helpful links #poet’s intro

[hepaliensterekrecs]

Sterek AU Fic Rec

Special Instructions by @trilliath [G, 1.6k]

Human AU, Different First Meeting AU

The pizza place Stiles works at gets an odd prompt for their Special Instructions: Send your cutest delivery boy.

Nothing Like the Sun by @halffizzbin [T, 1.6k]

Human AU, Writer Derek, Fluff, Pining, Oblivious, Humor, First Kiss

“Your eyes, blue and bright / Like Mountain Frost Gatorade,” Stiles reads aloud, not bothering to contain his glee. “Now that is powerful stuff. Oh, but this next line is my favorite: Your skin, warm and soft / As an underbaked loaf of bread. Bread, Derek? Really?”

(Or, the one where Derek is a failtastic poet and Stiles is the editor who likes him anyway.)

Dammit, Gym by @aggybird [G, 1.8k]

Teacher AU, Human AU, Humor

Derek the gym teacher asks Stiles the music teacher for a favor.

Nailed It by @aggybird [T, 2.1k]

Different First Meeting AU, Humor, Deputy Derek, Still Werewolves

Deputy Derek Hale bought a fixer-upper, but he's pretty bad at fixing, so he hires a snarky carpenter to help him out.

more under the cut

You Had Me At Latte Batman by Hatteress @goddammitstacey [T, 2.1k]

Coffee Shop AU, Writer Stiles, Oblivious

The one where Derek’s a barista who accidentally woos Stiles with latte art.

Put That Wolf Back Where It Came From (or so help me!) by Jerakeen @jerakeenc [T, 2.8k]

Monsters Inc AU, Crack

"There there, you poor monster, you."

Something’s Telling Me to Leave but I Won’t by starswalkbackward @officiallallorona [T, 3.2k]

Human AU, Different First Meeting AU, Deputy Derek, Humor

In 2nd grade, Nicki Welch told Stiles Stilinski that his plaid shirt and Spiderman graphic tee looked stupid. He responded by looking pointedly at her stomach and saying that bloodsucking hookworms were inside about 700 million people.

She cried for two hours, and Ms. Briar made him go to the quiet chair. “One day, your mouth is really going to get you into trouble!” she’d scolded with a wagging finger.

Stiles contemplates those words as his dad’s new deputy hauls him into the station.

He’s still totally going to blame Scott for the situation, though.

dust off your highest hopes by takeittothestars @alphaass [T, 3.9k]

Human AU

For this prompt from Niamh:

"Yes I know we all love the pretend-boyfriends trope but why aren’t there 100 more stories of Derek or Stiles pretending to be someone else’s pretend boyfriend and the other getting really fucking jealous about it - because one-night-stands are one thing but seeing someone they’ve been in denial about crushing on act all affectionate and boyfriendly with someone they’re comfortable around is a new brand of hell.

Like Erica taking Derek to her high school reunion as a little fuck-you to all the idiots who never noticed her, or Lydia recruiting Stiles to some smart people convention still stuck in the Dark Ages and only taking men’s research seriously, so she uses the most convenient boy in her life as a gateway to get in there and shame all the closed-minded assholes.

Like of course it’s all pretend but they’re a little TOO good at acting it out and then whoever isn’t in on it is at the hotel bar angrily ordering ice cream sundaes and looking for someone to hit on to take their mind off it and failing miserably.

WHY ISNT THERE MORE?"

Everybody Make a Scene by skoosiepants @pantstomatch [G, 4.5k]

Neighbors AU, Alive Hales AU, Still Werewolves

Stiles starts out with three jack-o-lanterns in front of their modest little pack house, but when he sees Derek staple-gunning orange lights around the entire front of their porch, he comes home with a six foot dinosaur skeleton with glowing red eyes.

No one actually hangs Halloween lights unless they’re going to war.

Or-

Stiles and Derek have some kind of unspoken Halloween decorating competition that also involves baked goods and flirting.

Void ab initio by Leslie_Knope @leslieknopeismyshiningstar [E, 4.6k]

Human AU, Fluff, Smut

Tumblr prompt: “We were best friends in middle school and promised (signed a contract and all) if neither of us were in a relationship when we turn 30, we’d marry each other. You moved 5 years later and I haven’t seen you since but you just reached out on my 30th birthday to find out if I’m single. Minors can’t be held to contracts but puberty hit you like a truck and I just broke up with my long term boyfriend a month ago so what the hell I might as well catch up with you.”

A Single Magic Bullet by The Feels Whale @miscellea [G, 4.7]

College AU, Magic AU, Werewolves Are Known AU, Magic Stiles

It’s Stiles last week before graduation and it seems like everything is going wrong. Between Scott finding True Love, werewolf kidnapping rings, sadistic professors, and his final projects, it’s not like Stiles doesn’t have plenty on his plate… but he’s a Stilinski and Stilinskis deal with it. Fortunately there’s a new lycanthrope on campus who seems amenable to pulling his bacon out of the fire.

(Now if only Stiles could figure out why he keeps waking up with his window open, that would be just peachy.)

too long to the weekend by DizzyRedhead @dizzy-redhead [E, 5.3k]

College AU, Werewolves Are Known AU, Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Smut

When Derek agreed to show Stiles around Berkeley, he was thinking of Stiles at fifteen, his childhood friend, the son of his mother's best friend.

He was not prepared for Stiles, all grown up.

be my dar(jee)ling by takeittothestars @alphaass [M, 5.4k]

Tea Shop AU, Human AU, Derek POV, Humor, Fluff

‘You alright there? Need any help?’ someone from behind him says, and Derek startles badly from where he’s been judging the tea (Cardamom with ginger for Sherlock Holmes? And almonds for Jack Harkness? Really?). The person laughs when he knocks over a few tins, and Derek knows that laugh. Sure enough, he looks up as he puts Moriartea back on the shelf and it’s Stiles fucking Stilinski, #24 on the lacrosse team and captain of Derek’s heart since he dropped Cora off at a game once, the cutest, hottest thing on the planet since – since – since ever, if Derek’s honest with himself.

-

A tea shop AU in which Derek is an editor, Stiles works in a tea shop, both are dumb, and there is tea. For this prompt

Game On by stilinskisparkles @stileshale [T, 6.4k]

College AU, Oblivious, Pining, Nerd Stiles, Jock Derek

Derek first sees him from across the quad four days into fall semester. He’s sitting on one of the long benches, a marker pen in his mouth, grinning at something the kid lounging on the bench beside him is saying. When he laughs properly he pulls the pen out and throws his head back, his neck a long, lean line Derek is entranced by. He flicks the page in his book and highlights something, tossing the cap up in the air and catching it with his teeth.

Simple Math by lizzstomania [G, 6.7k]

Human AU, College AU, Coffee Shop AU, Angst, Fluff

"It's just math, Derek. It's me and you; it’s not rocket science and it's not Shakespeare. It's basic arithmetic and you, for some ungodly reason, never bothered to learn to add."

Sideways and Slantways and Longways and Backways by @hologramophone [T, 7.8k]

Human AU, Office AU, Fluff, Pining, Repression

“I called you a slave-driver!” Stiles cried hysterically. “I called you an ogre! I stole all the blue paperclips!”

Derek raised an eyebrow at him.

“That’s company property!” he shouted, waving his arms madly in distress.

Derek ran a hand over his face. “It’s not theft if the vice president of the company gives you permission.”

(Otherwise known as the Elevator AU)

(im)Perfect System by theroguesgambit @halekingsourwolf [T, 7.9k]

Soulmate AU, Alive Hales AU, Misunderstandings, Fluff, Angst

Stiles has always felt pretty lucky about his soul mark. After all, how many conversations tend to start with “This is private property”?

(Apparently more than you'd think.)

In the Next Room series by twentysomething [E, 7.9k]

Cis Girl Stiles AU, Still Werewolves

"But for some reason, when Stiles sees Derek talking to Lydia, the two of them painfully good-looking, all she can think about is that her hair is in a messy ponytail and there's pizza sauce on the hem of her t-shirt. It's not like she wants to go on a montage out of a '90s teen film and come out like Rachel Leigh Cook on a staircase, but Stiles maybe thinks she doesn't want to look like the homeless one in the pack."

CSI: Beacon Hills by Jerakeen @jerakeenc [T, 8.2k]

Different First Meeting AU, CSI AU, Still Werewolves, Deputy Derek, Hurt/Comfort, Mates, Protective Derek, Oblivious Stiles

Back when Stiles was in high school Beacon Hills didn't have a crime lab, because they simply didn't need one. Those were the days.

Dog’s Best Friends by otter [G, 8.9k]

Different First Meeting AU, Fluff

Other people might have found the name of the place off-putting. Stiles didn’t. He was actually relieved, when Scott handed him a business card that said “HALEHOUNDS” across the top, because clearly, if anybody could recognize and understand the evil that lurked within his dog’s fluffy precious body, it was these people.

covalent bonds series by @halffizzbin [E, 9.2k]

(All in) High School AU, Human AU, Alive Hales AU, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Jock Stiles, Nerd Derek

Awkward Nerd Derek has been crushing on Handsome Jock Stiles since forever—so getting paired with him on a Chemistry project is definitely the best/worst thing that's ever happened to him.

Love Runs Wild by @devildoll [E, 9.5k]

P/rnstar AU, Still Werewolves, Possessive, Marking, Neckz ‘n Throats

"You've got a hickey on the back of your neck!" A Neckz 'n Throats story.

Last Lovesong of a Dying Lemon by wldnst [M, 10.4k]

Human AU, Mechanic Derek

Stiles' Jeep keeps breaking down. Derek is a mechanic.

Putting the F-U-N in Funeral by apocryphal @the-apocrypha [T, 10.8k]

Human AU, Alive Hales AU, Bakery AU, Fluff, Humor

"Hale & Daughters Funeral Home," Derek says dully.

"Oh ho! And which daughter are you?"

Derek casts his eyes up to the ceiling. It's going to be one of those calls.

(In which Derek is a bored secretary, Stiles is a baker who may or may not have ulterior motives, and there are entirely too many macaroons.)

Unmapped by Jerakeen @jerakeenc [E, 11.4k]

Sentinels AU, Soul Bond, Hurt/Comfort

Stiles can never leave a good mystery alone.

Chances Are… series by @relanafanel [T, 11.6k]

Human AU, Alive Hales AU, Bets

“What kind of bet did you lose that you have to go out with this?” the guy asked, gesturing to himself.

“First person to flirt with me,” Derek grumbled.

even a bad cup of coffee (is better than no coffee at all) by @vlieger [E, 13.5k]

College AU, Coffee Shop AU, Different First Meeting AU, Werewolf Reveal

AU where Derek and Laura stay in New York and open a coffee shop after the fire, and Stiles meets them when he moves there for college.

First Impressions Are Overrated by Leslie_Knope @leslieknopeismyshiningstar [T, 14.6k]

Different First Meeting AU, Kid Fic, POV Stiles, Single Parent Derek, Werewolf Reveal, Fluff

In Stiles’ defense, he didn’t deliberately ram his grocery cart into the (evidently precarious) pyramid of oranges.

Around the Bend by lupinus, uraneia [E, 14.9k]

Alive Hales AU, Different First Meeting AU, Gym AU, Fluff, Crack, First Time, Misunderstandings

The first time Derek catches sight of the new yoga instructor, Stiles is in the middle of showing a class how to do downward-facing dog. Derek walks into a wall.

Things don’t exactly improve from there.

Derek can't stop staring at Stiles, the bendy new yoga instructor at his family's gym. Stiles thinks Derek's a repressed homophobe who hates Stiles for making him want the D. They fall in love.

Fireman Derek’s Crazy Pie [Cheeseburger Baby] by owlpostagain @thegloryof [T, 17.7k]

College AU, Human AU, Everyone Lives AU, Bakery AU, Fluff, Oblivious, Fireman Derek

“He can't blame me for the fact that I live in a building full of people united in the singular effort to ogle Hot Fireman as often as humanly possible."

Laura laughs, loud and echoing in the empty restaurant.

"Hot firemen can make a girl do crazy things," she agrees, nodding towards her brother's name on the menu. "Derek won't let me date anyone from his company, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the eye candy."

"Send them my way," Stiles suggests, finally loading up a forkful of pie. "Apparently I'm incompetent enough that I need to be babysat at all times, because it would be cheaper than dispatching a truck every time I try to use a kitchen appliance."

Binomial Coefficients by @devildoll [T, 20.8k]

(All in) High School AU, Nerd Stiles, Jock Derek

In which brainy freshman Stiles Stilinski wants star quarterback Derek Hale to join the math team, AKA math nerds in love.

In Which Stiles is Secretly Magic series by apocryphal @the-apocrypha [T, 27.6k]

(All in) High School AU, Alive Hales AU, Magic Stiles

All Stiles wants from life is to learn to control his magic, keep his grades up, and not die horribly while saving Beacon Hills from supernatural threats. It's all going pretty well until Derek Hale, werewolf extraordinaire, has to go and ask him on a date. That asshole.

DILF by twentysomething [E, 30.9k]

Human AU, Kid Fic, Single Parent Derek, Teacher Stiles

"Today is Scott's first day of kindergarten and Derek is terrified."

Murder, He Wrote by @mklutz [E, 31.7k]

Human AU, Alive Hales AU, Deputy Derek, Murder Mystery, Writer Stiles

And that was how Stiles accidentally became a New York Times bestselling author.

Losers by stilinkskisparkles @stileshale [E, 34.2k]

College AU, Oblivious

Where Derek is new to college, eager to spend his time learning, and Stiles is everything he didn't want in a room mate. He's loud, he's into sports, and he keeps trying to make Derek do things.

Or, the one where Derek falls for a jock, Erica will cut you if you disturb her studying, and Jackson is a closeted romantic who pretends to hate everything.

My Taco Sparkles by @butyoureyessaidyes [T, 36.9k]

Human AU, Office AU, Alive Laura, Hurt/Comfort

The first time he sees Stiles Stilinski, the kid’s on his hands and knees in Derek’s office.

--

Or the one where Derek has to battle corporate espionage, meddling family members, clothing turned choking hazards, and inappropriate feelings for his obscenely attractive new intern.

When You’re Close I Feel the Sparks by Leslie_Knope @leslieknopeismyshiningstar [M, 39.7k]

(All in) High School AU, Alive Hales AU, Magic Stiles, Emissary Stiles, BAMF Stiles, Friends to Lovers, Werewolf Reveal

The guy is hot as hell, sure—leather jacket and glasses, Jesus, be still Stiles' poor, bisexual, beating heart—but more importantly, it must really suck being new on the first day of senior year.

“We’re adopting him,” he decides, tugging Scott and Kira by the elbow in that direction. “Let’s go.”

Exactly Like You by Jerakeen @jerakeenc [M, 70.5k]

A/B/O AU, Pride & Prejudice Fusion, Werewolves Are Known, Pack Fic, Soul Bond, Magic Stiles

“It was Jackson’s idea,” Lydia explains, looking perfectly serious while standing in front of a March Madness bracket of Beacon Hills’ eligible bachelors.

Jackson looks smug. “It only makes sense.”

Stiles meets Isaac’s eyes over the heads of all the crazy people in the room. Isaac shrugs with a slight wince. “’Tis the season.”

play it again series by @metisket [T, 74.7k]

Everyone Lives AU, Magic Stiles

In which Stiles goes along with one of Derek’s plans and ends up in an alternate universe as a result. He should’ve known better. He did know better, actually, and that means he has no one to blame but himself.

“Laura wants to lure the kid in with food and kindness and make a pet of him, like a feral cat. Derek wants to have him arrested for stalking. They’re at an impasse. (And the rest of the family is staying emphatically out of it in a way that suggests bets have been placed.)”

Gravity’s Got Nothing on You by @zosofi [E, 84k]

Alive Hales AU, Fake Relationship, Humor, Romance, Crack, Magic Stiles

“Three weeks,” Derek says.

“Still don’t want to,” Stiles says.

“I’ll pay you,” Derek says, and that… that has Stiles interested. Alf’s Antique’s may be a great job, but it’s not a high-paying job, and half of Stiles’s tuition is coming from financial aid, so…

“How much,” Stiles asks, “are we talking here? Because I know your family, dude. And it’ll be kind of awkward after.“

“My family thinks you’re some sort of fucking gift to the world,” Derek seethes, like he’s jealous, “they’ll probably be pissed at me when we break it off, so don’t worry about that. Five hundred bucks.”

“A thousand,” Stiles says, because screw ethics. Also, the Hale family is loaded. Derek can deal.

The Boy and the Beast by Dira Sudis @dsudis [M, 116.7k]

Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Pack Fic, Wolf Derek, Slow Burn

In which events in Beacon Hills go rather differently from the start, and a Beauty and the Beast (ish) story ensues. (Scott is not a teacup and no one sings about their feelings.)

#sterek #sterek fic #sterek fic rec #stiles x derek #derek x stiles #sterek reclist #sterek au #derek stiles #stiles derek #reclist #au #alternate universe

[pl-panda]

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 18

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 18

----------

The akuma of the day turned out to be the editor-in-chief of the tabloid that tried to spin a story about Damian and Allegra. It might’ve had something to do with the fact that the Mayor’s office, Kane Industries, and Wayne Enterprises were going after his newspaper for libel and slander. The Printer was defeated by Pink Tigress, who was working with extreme prejudice that day. Ladybug arrived just in time to purify the akuma. 

After it was all sorted out, the group retreated to Wayne Manor, where they met Chloé waiting for them. 

“Good. You’re here. Now it’s time to plan a counter-attack.” 

“What?” Marinette asked, surprised.

“Counter-attack on Erica and Lila. They practically declared war with that stunt!” Chloé raved on.

“Huh?” Damian was equally confused.

“Apparently, ‘The Printer’ was paid a rather large sum to have this article published without checking credibility. He did these things before.” She explained.

“So they actually started to play dirty?” The bluenette asked

“They didn’t!” Tim ran inside the cave, panting. “How in a hundred treadmills can you run so fast?!” He stared at the blonde.

“Puh-lease! I just used a short-cut.” She huffed. “One could think you accuse me of… physical training.” She made a disgusted face, but she was smirking. 

“Tt. So did they attack us or not?” Damian scowled and started to sharpen his sword. Where he got the sword from was not important at that moment. Everyone long since gave up on trying to track all his hidden weapon stashes. 

“They couldn’t. Neither has that amount of money. I traced it to a foreign account registered on Emma Rose Blake.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she stumbled back as if the name slapped her. “ Adrien… ” she whispered.

“What!?” Damian was on his feet in an instant.

Sabine grasped her dagger before her expression turned soft and she walked to hug her daughter. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re not alone.”

“I… Adrien snuck out once. He wanted to watch that movie that starred his mother.  Solitude. ”

“I remember! That one threw a wrench in my search for a while.” Tim beamed.

“We stumbled upon each other and he took me with him…” She remembered and blushed lightly. “I only saw the intro, but from what I found out on the internet, his mother was the lead. Her character’s name was Emma. Rose. Blake.” She told each word separately, making sure they got the message.

“So that bastard thought he could get the two of you to break up?” Chloé asked. “Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! The two of you are the sweetest, most loyal couple in the whole of Gotham. And besides, the blasted spell wouldn’t let anything like that happen. We’ve seen the effects.”

“Tt. It does work both ways.” Damian’s face was twisted in a scowl. “And I reserve my right to skin the cat and feed him to sharks. I’m sure Penguin will let me borrow some.” 

“I’m… not sure if you’re joking…” Tim stared at his brother, worried about his sanity.

“I’m not.” The youngest Wayne cut him off. “That flea-ridden alley-cat is intruding on my bond. My marriage. The league… It’s the single most sacred relation for the members of the league. For me.” He grabbed Marinette’s hand. “And he will suffer for trying to separate us.”

For a moment, Marinette stared at him, taken by surprise by his revelation. Then, she cuddled into his side.

“I’m not leaving.”

“I know.”

“Also,” Chloé decided to interrupt the cute moment, “you’re trending.” She showed them a video.

Marinette and Damian were standing on the table in the cafeteria, holding hands.

“...I trust Damian with my life. I’m his and he’s mine!” She declared. There was steel determination in her eyes, but also flame that burned bright.

“I’m hers and she’s mine.” Damian echoed. He had an identical expression on his face. They raised their joint hands before turning to one another and sharing a quick kiss. In the background, many people cooed at the romanticism of the scene. Then, a black butterfly sneaked through the window. Marinette looked at it and grasped it from the air. When she opened her hand, it was a mess. 

“Not today, Hawkass Junior.” She seethed. Then, like a queen she was, she and two blondes by her side left the place among applause. 

“Someone recorded it?!” She started blushing profoundly. Damian’s cheeks were also red. 

“Tt. Who did that?” 

“Claude.” Chloé smiled. “But that’s not the important part.”

“Then what is?” Sabine asked. “Also, I want a copy of that video.” In response, her phone vibrated.

“Maman?!” Marinette moaned.

“The ‘Not today, Hawkass Junior’ is breaking the records on Twitter and Tumblr.” She smiled. “You’ve become a sort of a hero today. MDC is now  the  designer. Jagged Stone went live and he spent five minutes doing nothing but praise you!”

“Only five minutes?” Damian asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Penny found him and dragged him by the ear from the screen. After that, it was only Fang posing before the camera.”

“That’s… That’s Jagged alright…” Mari giggled. 

Damian only huffed. 

Chloé’s phone vibrated and she opened the link. She laughed for a good two minutes before she was able to speak. “Mayor Kane... just declared... ‘Not today, Hawkass Jr.’ to be the official motto... of the campaign against his terror.” 

“Can I make an MDC shirt with this?” The designer beamed. “I know! I’ll make a pillow! No! A…”

“You can make an entire collection, sweetie.” Sabine was grinning. “You’re the hero both in and out of the suit.” She cooed. “And you’re so cute! I’m totally sending this video to Sandra! And uncle Cheng! He’ll love it!”

“Maman!” Marinette moaned again, but she was smiling. She had people that wouldn’t abandon her. 

--------

Two days later it was finally Saturday, which meant a bit of freedom from the kids at school. In hindsight, Marinette preferred it when she was not that popular. Of course, Chloé did what Chloé did best and worked her crowd control magic. She wasn’t constantly accosted at school. At least not by most. Maps made her into a personal hero of sorts.

Now though, it was Saturday, which served as an excuse to stay late in bed, spend the whole day with Damian before spending the evening watching cheesy movies with Chloé and her mom. It would be a perfect Saturday. 

She got dressed in her favorite red dress, making sure to wrap the rope dart under the sash. It wouldn’t do to leave home without any means of self-defense. Not in Gotham at any rate. Her hair fell down her back and curled slightly. On her left wrist, she put a small gold bracelet with a single pearl. It was light and didn’t attract too much attention, but made her whole outfit stand out slightly. She paired it with high stockings and black ballet shoes with silver ribbons. After a thought, she picked a black glossy leather wristlet. Damian promised they would be going somewhere special. 

When she got downstairs, he was already waiting, dressed in a semi-formal outfit. His suit was of course MDC original. He had dark trousers, a white shirt with the topmost two buttons open and a jacket with sleeves rolled to his elbows. All in all, it gave a bit of a roguish vibe, different from what he wore on most occasions. Marinette made sure he wore nothing but her creations. He tried to protest that it was too much work, or at least pay her something for it. She threatened she would forbid him from paying for anything for her. Damian made a mistake, arguing that she was living under his roof. Her response was to start calculating rent. He relented and allowed her to dress him up to her heart’s desire.

“Hello, Habibti.” He smiled at her. 

“Damian! Will you tell me where  we are going?” She hugged him. 

“Not yet.” He said mysteriously. “We’re going somewhere special and I want to surprise you.”

“Daaaamiiii!” She tried again but to no avail.

“Tt. You hang out with Maps too much.” 

“She’s cool.” 

“She’s irritating.”

“That’s just because you’re not willing to give her a chance.”

“She thinks I’m Batman.” He huffed.

“Curious why.” Marinette retorted, smirking. “I’m sure the fact Robin led her for a gift hunt had nothing to do with it, am I right?”

“Tt. I admit nothing.” He tried, but a small smile made its way on his face. Curses! Why did she make him so mushy? 

“I knew there was a heart somewhere deep inside.” She continued, smirking triumphantly.

“Don’t be ridiculous. All people have hearts.”

“Even Erica?”

“She’s not a person. She is just walking irritation.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Marinette said. They were walking down the road, bantering to and fro.

They arrived at the gate, where a sports car was waiting for them. Damian took the driver’s seat and pointed her to the shotgun. The car radio was playing the song they danced to during their dance-off. It was full of life and brought back some fond memories. 

“Can I know where we are going now?” She begged. 

“Not. Yet.” He said with a confident smirk. “You’ll love it though.”

“Fine.” She relented and remained in her seat. Marinette decided to focus on the sights outside the window. 

They were driving through the city. She saw that the mayor wasted no time and ‘Not today, Hawkass jr.’ indeed became a city-wide slogan for the campaign about positive thinking. Marinette had a not-so-small suspicion that Chloé and Allegra had something to do with it. She wouldn’t put it past them to artificially boost the popularity until it exploded. Not that she complained that much. If it helped stop more akumas, she was all for it in fact.

Finally, the car pulled in front of the Gotham City History Museum. Or at least Marinette thought it was the museum, from the angle she couldn’t be sure. Before they got out, Damian handed her a blindfold. 

“You’re joking?” She stared at him. “It’s a museum.”

“How did… Nevermind. I have a surprise for you.”

“Why would… No way!” She connected the dots. “But… But we didn’t do that much!”

Damian looked at her with a mixture of amazement and mirth. “I’m surprised Bourgeois didn’t share the news with you.”

“She was too busy hanging out with Cass yesterday.” She then got a pensive expression. “The two of them hit off better than I thought.” 

“True. I’m disappointed with Cassandra, but alas.”

“No, you are not. You’re happy that she’s making friends.” Marinette countered with a smile. 

“You have no proof.” He dropped the blindfold and got out. “Come on or we’ll miss it.”

In response, Marinette put on her sunglasses and also got out. On both walls of the museum, there were giant posters of Ladybug and Black Cat in their heroic poses. He was standing straight on the dark background, with both hands on the baton that served him as a cane. He was looking left, toward the Ladybug poster. He looked serious and a bit intimidating. Ladybug on the other hand was smiling and overlooking all the passers-by. They’ve used her new suit, for which she was eternally grateful. Marinette would probably burn in shame if they decided to stick with the original. 

Inside, Damian led her through the entrance, showing the tickets. They went straight to the Superhero hall, which previously was called just Bat-hall. Marinette was feeling a whirlwind of emotions. She remembered the statue unveiling back in Paris, but it was after months of activity. Here, Gotham accepted two more heroes after a few weeks. Granted, Hawkmoth jr. was much more persistent and his akumas more destructive (plus they had even worse fashion sense), but Marinette still didn’t consider herself special enough.

Reporters from various newspapers crowded around the podium on which stood Mayor Kane. Allegra was by her side. When the young blonde spotted them, she winked at them and smirked. Marinette waved to her in response while Damian guided her toward the front row. He was a Wayne. He didn’t settle for anything else.

The ceremony was lovely and Mayor Kane spoke kindly about the new heroes. Not once she broached the subject of their age. The statue itself was tall, with all three Miraculous users standing side by side, Ladybug in the center, and slightly forward. After that was done and the mayor answered some questions, Damian prodded her slightly and the two snuck out unnoticed. He led her toward the back and onto the stairs that led to the rooftop and the couple was away from the prying eyes. They walked up and opened another set of doors that led them outside. 

The day was a bit chilly, but several heaters placed on the rooftop made it feel perfect for how they were dressed. In the center, there was a blanket with a picnic basket and a small heat-isolated container next to it. 

“Damian!” Marinette giggled when he hugged her from behind and nuzzled into her neck. 

“A surprise.” He whispered. 

“But… How… Why… And on the rooftop?” She gave him a questioning look.

“Heaters needed a power source.” He answered before leading her to the blanket. “And it was closest to the previous attraction.” 

When they sat, cuddled together, the boy pulled a small box of strawberries. Marinette immediately snatched it from him and tasted it first. She practically melted at the taste. Seeing the look of betrayal on his face, she smirked and picked another. 

“No.” He protested when she put it before his mouth.

“Come on Dami. A plane needs to land.” She kept smirking. Damian tried to keep his dignity, but ultimately he gave up and allowed her to feed him. “See? It wasn’t that hard.” 

“Not a word of this to anyone.” He grumbled. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Okay… Only Chloé and Allegra.” She giggled at the horrified look on her husband’s face. 

Deciding to change the subject as fast as possible, Damian asked “Did you like the statue?”

His wife beamed. “It was amazing. I showed you the one in Paris. I mean that one is okay too, but this was actually much better! It acknowledges not only me but all three of us. We are a team and I want us to be represented as such. And did you notice that they actually replicated the tail behind you fluttering?”

“It was indeed adequate work.” He replied, reserved as usual. 

They sat in peace for a bit more, with Marinette occasionally feeding Damian a strawberry. They didn’t really need to speak, instead just enjoying the monotonous sound of cars before the museum and relaxing with each other’s embrace. 

Feeling a bit mischievous, Marinette tapped Damian’s shoulder and made him turn to look at her. As soon as their eyes met, she leaned and fed him another strawberry. Except this time instead of holding it with her hand, she was holding half of it in her mouth. This, of course, led to two of them kissing. Both of their lips tasted like strawberries. 

It wasn’t a long or passionate kiss, but it was still full of love. 

When they broke, Damian had a funny expression on his face and Marinette giggled. He shrugged and pulled a thermos from the container, pouring both of them a cup of hot chocolate each (together with marshmallows). 

Damian regaled her of some of the tales about his great detective skills and how often he saved the day. She kept giggling and pointing out obvious mistakes, to which he huffed good-naturedly. He tried to stay away from subjects related to the League of Assassins and his childhood, but Marinette coaxed some stories out of him, careful not to prod too much. She respected his decision to leave it behind, but at the same time, she wanted to understand him. In the end, they just laid on the blanket cuddled together, with all the sweets consumed. 

“Damian… I love you.” She nuzzled into the crook of his neck. 

“Yes. You told me that at the airport. And several times after.” His logical brain responded before emotions took reins and he continued. “I love you too.”

“But I feel like it was always in response to something you said. I wanted to tell you that from myself. I love you.” She cuddled closer to him and he hugged her. 

“ Habibti, ” he whispered.

“ Mon chéri, ” she answered. 

After some more cuddling and looking at how the evening sun slowly set behind the monumental towers of central Gotham, Damian finally untangled himself from Marinette and got up. He helped her on her feet and turned the heaters off. 

“It’s time to go. We have two more places to visit.” He informed her and led her down to the museum proper. They snuck out of the staircase and joined one of the trips unnoticed, before leaving the building and avoiding anyone seeing them. It was fun to do teenage things sometimes. 

-----------

Their next stop was a small Italian restaurant that was out of the way and mostly empty. Damian had a table reserved there and made sure to pick one that was out of the way, in the corner that overlooked the whole place. What Marinette didn’t know was that he paid to have the tables next to them kept empty. 

They settled on a vegetarian lasagne with grilled swiss cheddar, spinach, and ricotta. Marinette wasn’t a vegetarian herself but after their little picnic, they wouldn’t fit two separate dishes. She enjoyed the tastes Damian introduced her to since they met each other. Especially (to Plagg’s delight and Tikki’s mirth), she loved the various cheeses that he exposed her to. While she sometimes still ate meat, it happened more and more seldom. Alfred’s cooking was on par with her uncle’s. 

Their discussion was much lighter now that they weren’t entirely alone. She smiled when he accidentally referenced Game of Thrones. He tried to deny it but in the end, he had to confess or people would think he knew what a ‘meme’ was. That was humiliation beyond what he could survive.

“...I’m just saying that if it’s a bit strange that Allegra and Claude always disappear together.” She finished her speech. 

“Tt. As if my cousin would lower herself to dating the clown.” He huffed. 

“I didn’t say they’re dating. It’s just that for at least two weeks now they kept slipping away.” 

“You’re imagining things, Habibti.” He dismissed her concern. 

“Okay, but what about Felix and Jon? They also run aw… ay…” She suddenly froze when a large group of people pushed their way into the restaurant. On the front, Lila and Alya were guiding them right to where the couple was sitting. 

Marinette heard Damian curse under his breath before suddenly everything was enveloped by thick, black smoke. She felt someone grab her wrist and pull her into a nearby door. They found themselves in the kitchen, Damian leading her between working cooks. Marinette saw how he pulled a phone from his pocket and texted the restaurant owner. He also paid double for the trouble with the smoke bomb. Luckily, the owner apparently understood the need for a quick getaway. The class on the other hand would be in for a rude awakening.

“That was close…” Marinette sighed in relief. 

“Tt. I should’ve challenged them to a duel for interrupting us.” Her husband scowled. 

“I told you no killing.”

“They would survive… probably.”

“Still. Now, where is that secret birthday party supposed to be?” She had a hard time keeping a straight face when he choked on his own saliva and stared at her with wide eyes. 

“It was Claude?” He asked harshly. 

“Of course not. Did you really think I would forget my birthday?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“You did forget Christmas.” He pointed out. This time, it was Damian’s turn to try and not show any reaction to how she started spluttering. 

“That… I… But… It… We… It was something completely different!” She finally shouted. 

“Whatever you say, Habibti. As for the party… Let’s go. They should be ready by now.” 

------

Chloé was running around the club they rented for the evening. She was doing at least seven things at once, but that wasn’t important. She needed the party to be perfect. She already made sure that all guests were in place and she was now fixing some of the decorations that were not to her liking. She had trouble balancing all the things she was holding and placing them one by one. Then, someone took the weight from her.

“Maybe I can help?”

“Thank you Maribear…” Then, Chloé’s brain registered. “Maribear!?”

“Surprise!” The bluenette cheered.

“How?!” The blonde jumped back, startled. 

“Tt. She blackmailed me.” Damian grumbled from behind his wife.

“Um… With what exactly?” Tim walked from his hiding place. The rest of the guests followed through. 

“Now. It wouldn’t be effective blackmail if I told you, right?” Mari turned and looked at him with a smirk on her face. 

“True. Happy birthday, sweetie!” Sabine was suddenly behind her daughter, Chloé, and Damian. She managed to startle all three of them. 

“Maman! Don’t scare us like that!”

“Payback’s nice.” Her mother and Chloé responded at the same time. 

“They got you there, Angel.” Damian decided to repay her for the blackmail. 

“Hey! You’re supposed to take my side!” She giggled. “Besides, it’s my birthday.”

“I’ll try to remember next time.”

With that, the party started.

-------

Masterlist // Next

#not today #hawkass jr. #maribat #maribat au #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #Damian Wayne #Damian al Ghul #damienette #maridami #marinette dupain cheng #marinette x damian #arranged marriage AU #batman #BatFam #League of Assassins #Miraculous!Sabine #Assassin!Sabine #sabine cheng

[lions-arch-chronicle]

Issue 5

Mild Spoiler Warnings for LWS5

Image ID under the cut

Title: Breaking the Ice Legion: A New Terror Story: In the latest updates from the charr civil war reports have been coming in that negotiations have come to an absolute standstill. There has been a breakdown of all negotiations after the reported capture of Steel Warband member and second in command to Centurion Steelcatcher, Cinder Steeltemper, who has not been seen since and according to intelligence is to be considered MIA. Imperator Bangar Ruinbringer has also not been seen in the recent weeks, unverified sources claim that the former Blood Legion Imperator was last seen forging farther north. Reports also state that a new enemy has been spotted recently, a before unseen form of icebrood. The Jormag corrupted icebrood who have been referring to themselves as the Ice Legion have been rising from the ranks of Dominion all under Ruinbringer’s command. The United Legions, after gaining control of the southern portion of Drizzlewood Coast, will be looking to push beyond Wolf’s Crossing Bridge up into what is being called the Frost Citadel the main stronghold of the Dominion and Ice Legion. While on the surface this appears to be an advantage to the United Legions this could pose greater risks than ever as the farther north the legions push the closer they get to the looming threat that is the elder dragon Jormag. No comment has been made from the Legion Imperators within the United Legions about the risks that this advancement into enemy territory may entail but with an elder dragon involved nothing is certain.

Title: Introducing skritt fashion reviews

Story: Skritt was told by boss editor lady to seek help from others in writing of fashion column. So Skritt has come to paper reading people to ask for you to send us photos of your shiny shiny outfits. The shinier the better! Skritt will then give a full review of the outfit, the shiny pieces of armor that nice photo people are wearing, and the dyes that they have used. Boss Courica has said that even if the dyes are shiny that we can’t drink them, which skritt thinks is unfair. If you would like skritt to review your best shinies submit the outfit in our submission box. Uh, wherever that is, editor lady didn’t tell me where but skritt hopes that  people will find them so we can see all the pretty pretty outfits.Editor’s Note:  Outfit submissions can be shared via our tumblr page at https://lions-arch-chronicle.tumblr.com/submitWe promise that Kuritata will have very in depth reviews of outfits (we hope).

Title: An Icy Olive Branch from the Icebrood?

Story: Reports have arrived from reporters Truthseeker and Teekay that a group of seemingly peaceful  icebrood were spotted in Hoelbrak within the Great Lodge yesterday. The group was surprisingly peaceful similar to their Svanir counterparts that live within Hoelbrak. The icebrood  crowd was peaceful and even willing to give quotes to reporters on the scene. Truthseeker was able to get a very short interview with Svana Dragonbane who when questioned about the dragons and their opinions on them said, “Once, I thought the dragons were a blight. But now I see that Jormag is here to protect us. Ice fortifies, ice protects.” The group departed shortly afterwards toward Frostgorge Sound where there have been common sightings of the Claw of Jormag.

Title: An unbiased travel review of Divinity’s Reach from a Charr

Story: Divinity’s Reach is easily the best city in all of Tyria! The city is easily the most gorgeous with the best infrastructure. The locals are the most elegant and beautiful of all the Tyrians.The city is huge with plenty of shopping opportunities. If you don’t want to spend money you can always craft it yourself at the Dwayna Low Road crafting stations. The most beautiful and just Queen Jennah also resides in the city. The Central Plaza is one of the most beautiful places in the city, just second to the Queen’s throne room. The city is also one of the safest, with Shining Blade members posted throughout. All in all, if you are thinking about visiting Divinity’s Reach I highly recommend it! Plenty of luxury to be had! Editor’s Note: Kittyblog was asked if this review was unbiased as she grew up in Divinity’s Reach, despite being a charr. Her statement was that this was her unbiased opinion but in the interest of fairness we would like to point out her very strong conflict of interest despite how confusing it may be for a travel reporter to have said biases.

Title: The Boasting Hall, Quail on Quail

Story: I know you’ve heard it before but Ascalonian Quail are the best birds in all of Tyria! They are the superior bird due to many things. The first being their beautiful head ornament! It is perfect! You wish you had such a beautiful headpiece! They also lay the cutest little eggs! They are perfect for an egg salad or scrambled eggs OR even hatching more quail! Obviously hatching them and making more is the superior choice of those but all are great! Some quail can even lay an egg a day! Imagine the quail army you could have in a short amount of time!  It’d be an army superior to any other animals in Tyria i’m sure!  Quail also travel in small flocks and when spooked they majestically burst forward with power and speed to take to the skies(for a moment.) You would be blessed to see such a beautiful display of feathers and power! The Quail’s call is also amazing! Just listen to the male as he calls to his flock! It’s glorious and powerful! Also have you ever seen a small baby quail? It’s amazing! So small and fluffy and perfect for cuddling and carrying with you anywhere you go! If you haven’t seen a baby quail I highly suggest you change that right this moment! Adopt your own Ascalonian Quail today! They are the superior bird of Tyria and deserve all the love and attention we can give them! Editor’s Note: This may hopefully be the last opinion article we do on the birds of Tyria. If anyone at all no matter what the subject is would like to also participate in some non bird related opinions that they would like to share we would absolutely love to hear them. But we also won’t say no to more bird related content if that’s what our readers would like to see. Just please, maybe just a little less bird content. 

Title: A true omnivore: I ate like the Commander for a day

Story: What’s the secret to finding the best food Tyria has to offer? According to the famous Pact Commander… try it all. Including, no offense to the honorable Commander, some items I would not strictly classify as edible. To be fair, I did ask for out of the way recommendations, and I certainly got them! Some stops on our tour were fairly respectable, the Meatoberfest in Diessa Plateau, for example, was utterly delightful, but things quickly went in a questionable direction. We tried some Orrian sea urchin, and I have to admit it was enjoyable, if a tad bit salty. Next was coffee with bloodstone, which packed a punch so powerful that I was afraid my soul may have left my body. I think my skeleton may still be suffering the aftershocks and I would recommend avoiding all foods laced with bloodstone dust. After that was enchanted clam bait, inedibly slimy and unappetizing seeing as I am not a clam. Then I was handed something that came from a can and claimed to be flank steak. It tasted more like the faint memory of meat bestowed upon insulation foam. I politely declined when the Commander suggested we consume a clay based Grawl paint to, “Imbue ourselves with its essence.” And suggested we try something more conventional. I was pleased that our next stop was Rata Sum… until I was offered a bag of cat food. With all due respect… I hope the Commander sticks to fighting the elder dragons.

#Lions Arch Chronicle #LAC #GW2 #Guild Wars 2 #Jormag Meetup #guild wars 2 fashion

[ohemgeeitscoley]

Ben Solo is the recently assigned editor for Rey Johnson’s book about star-crossed lovers in space when the world is turned upside down and stay home orders are issued. Ben and Rey begin working together over Zoom and their relationship grows.

Or, an and they were zoomates fic.

Based on this Tumblr post. 

The one I have been waiting for (Part One of Two)

Fandom: Star Wars

Pairing: Rey/Ben Solo (Reylo)

Note: This was going to be a really, really short one shot. It turned into a 12k two-shot. Whoops. This is pure fluff. 

As always, the biggest thank you to @andyouweremine for being the world’s best beta and friend. Seriously, thank you for all of your cheerleading and input and for convincing me that one more scene never hurt anyone. You’re the absolute best.

Read below or on AO3.

From: Leia Organa-Solo <[email protected]> To: Benjamin Solo <[email protected]> Subject: Quarantine assignments 

Ben,

Unfortunately with everything going on right now, I've decided that we are going to close the office and have everyone work from home. I know you were looking forward to the big welcome lunch I had planned. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule in a few weeks once the risk of spreading COVID-19 lessens.

In the meantime, I am going to assign you to Rey Johnson. She is working on a new novel with a goal of having the first draft submitted by May 30. I'm attaching her contact information and what she has sent over so far. Please coordinate with Rey to schedule an introduction meeting. 

Warm regards,

Mom

Leia Organa-Solo CEO Rebel Publishing, LLC

From: Benjamin Solo <[email protected]> To: Leia Organa-Solo <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Quarantine assignments

Leia:

I am deeply saddened that the welcome lunch you coordinated over my many, many vocal objections to has been cancelled. I suppose we will have to plan another inner-office get together wherein I can find a way to embarrass and let you down. I'm greatly looking forward to the opportunity.

On that note, was it really necessary to use my full name in my email address? Was Ben already taken? I am fairly certain as my mother you are aware that you are the only person who ever calls me Benjamin. Would it be possible to have IT change this before tomorrow? 

I think closing the office is the right decision. Social distancing is quite important now more than ever. I'm assuming this means that Saturday dinners will also be postponed?

I'll look over what you sent and reach out to Ms. Johnson. I'm looking forward to working with her. 

Sincerely, 

Ben Solo Editor Rebel Publishing, LLC

From: Leia Organa-Solo <[email protected]> To: Benjamin Solo <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Quarantine assignments

Benjamin:

I distinctly remember writing Benjamin down on your birth certificate. I'm unaware of any name change order being in your personnel file. The email stays.

The lunch has not been cancelled, it has been postponed. Despite your assertions, you will not embarrass or let me down in any get together. However, I make no such promises. Seeing as how I'll be trapped at home with your father for the foreseeable future, maybe I'll finally have time to find some of those old pictures of you. I've been meaning to redecorate my office.

It does appear that Saturday dinners will need to be postponed. However, I am working with Chewie and Luke to see if we can perhaps get them set up to attend virtual dinners. I'll keep you updated.

Warm regards,

Mom

Leia Organa-Solo CEO Rebel Publishing, LLC

-----

Ben sighed, pushing his hands under his glasses as he rubbed at the corners of his eyes. It wasn’t that he necessarily thought that agreeing to go work at his mom’s publishing company was going to be the easiest of transitions, but he also hadn’t been prepared for his name to be on the list of things they would argue about. 

It only made sense, then, that it was one of the first things. 

He considered sending another email, pushing the issue. But he knew better than to think it was an argument he was going to win. And, honestly, he was hopeful that if he didn’t respond maybe she’d never again think about coordinating, or asking him to coordinate, a virtual Saturday dinner. 

Instead, Ben opened the contact card his mom had sent for Rey, and got to work.

From:  Benjamin Solo <[email protected]>  To: Rey Johnson <[email protected]> Subject: Introduction Meeting

Good evening Ms. Johnson:

I’m the assigned editor for your next book. Leia has already provided your initial pitch, character sketches, and outline. However, I usually prefer to talk with an author prior to reading these materials. I have found in the past that going into these conversations without any preconceived ideas based on the initial workups leads to a more organic understanding of the material. As such, I’d love to have the chance to talk with you about your book prior to looking over the material.

Given the increased concerns of spreading the virus, Leia has closed the office and has asked that we conduct all of our work from home. Please let me know what your availability is tomorrow or the next day so that I can coordinate the conference. I am just transitioning to Rebel Publishing, so my calendar is currently fairly open.

Of course, if you’d rather me read through the materials and start the process that way, just let me know. 

I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Ben Solo Editor Rebel Publishing, LLC

From: Rey Johnson <[email protected]>  To: Benjamin Solo <[email protected]>  Subject: RE: Introduction Meeting

Mr. Solo,

Leia let me know today that we would be working together. I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts. I’d love the opportunity to talk with you prior to you reviewing the materials that have been previously sent. This is a different approach than my previous editors have taken, but I am intrigued by your theory. 

With that said, given the recent orders to stay home, my schedule is very flexible. I usually try to block out specific times to focus on writing so that I can turn off notifications and limit distractions. With the times I had previously blocked out for tomorrow, I could make an 11:00 am work? If that doesn’t work, just let me know what does and I’m sure I’ll be able to make that work.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Sincerely,

Rey Johnson

-----

Rey was the first one in the Zoom meeting the next morning. She fidgeted with her web camera, adjusting the angle until the image on the screen blocked out most of her messy apartment. She spent a few minutes pushing things out of the way before sitting back down and waiting for Ben to appear. 

She glanced down at the clock on her computer screen, sighing at the time. The meeting wasn’t supposed to start for another five minutes. Being early had never been one of her defining characteristics, but she also hadn’t had any real human interaction in days. 

The day the stay home order had been issued by the Governor, Rey had planned on meeting up with Poe and Finn for drinks. They had been on her for days to avoid slipping into a writer isolation. Poe had a lot of experience in knowing just how easily Rey could spiral when she was writing, hiding away from the world for days at a time. It had always just been easier for Rey to stay in when she was writing. Easier to stay focused on what kept her paid and fed and a roof over her head. 

She didn’t have to worry about getting too distracted and forgetting where she left off or what she had planned for another scene if she just stayed home. Poe liked to remind her that she was ridiculous and that going out also was what provided her with actual inspiration to write.

There was a balance, she was sure. She just hadn’t achieved it yet. Then the stay home issue was ordered and Rey found herself wishing that she had listened to Poe sooner. 

Not that was going to tell him that.

The computer dinged when Ben joined the meeting room. The image was fuzzy at first, Rey could really only make out that he had dark hair and rather broad shoulders. In fact, he looked rather… large, his body taking up most of the space that she could see. The image cleared and Rey took in the rest of his features, the sharp nose and pouty lips. 

He was definitely attractive. Which was not what she needed to be thinking about at the moment.

“Good morning, Mr. Solo,” Rey said, smiling politely as she held her hand up in a tiny, awkward wave.

“I would say Mr. Solo is my father,” he responded, shaking his head slightly. “But he also hates being called that.” 

“Right, so, Benjamin then?”

“No, no, no, no,” Ben grimaced, as if the word personally offended him. “Ben. Just Ben.”

“Okay, just Ben,” Rey laughed softly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Ms. John-”

“Rey,” she interrupted him with a grin. 

“Well, Rey, tell me about your book.”

Rey took a deep breath before, running her teeth over her bottom lip before she began. She started by attempting to introduce the main characters, Kira and Kylo, and their backstories, but she was easily distracted with certain points of plot that felt so imperative to interrupt and explain.

By the time she finished, she wasn't really sure what information she had shared or left out.  But she was fairly positive that she had failed to hit all of the main plot points.

Rey waited for Ben to say something. She knew that he had told her that he found it beneficial to hear about the story in an organic way, but the longer the silence stretched, the more she wished she had spent more time preparing last night to explain to him the story and the characters in at least a logical way.

“So they are connected?” He finally asked. “What was the word you used?”

“A dyad,” Rey answered. “Soulmates, really.”

“Star-crossed lovers fighting on opposite sides of a galactic war," Ben paused, jotting something down on a piece of paper next to his computer. "Doomed from the start?"

"Hardly," Rey snorted. "It won't be easy, but I fully plan on a happily ever after ending for them."

"Really?" Ben seemed surprised. "That's unusual for star-crossed couples."

"Your words," Rey reminded him, "I said they were soulmates."

"That you did," Ben conceded. "I just assumed since they are fighting for different things that one would fall."

"But they aren't."

"What?" 

"Fighting for different things," Rey clarified. "It seems that way, at first. But really, they are both fighting for a place in the world. For a family. For a balance that they are being told can't exist."

"It sounds like quite a world," Ben noted. "I'm excited to see you build it."

"Yeah," Rey looked away from the screen, staring at the knick knacks that filled up the shelf across from her. "It's a little scary actually, creating a world this complex."

"That's what I'm here for."

"Right," Rey smiled at him. "Well, I'm glad I have you."

Rey thought that maybe Ben was blushing, even though logically she knew that it was more likely just a shadow or reflection from his computer. Either way, she liked the way it made him look.

"So, same time next week?" Ben asked. "I'll go over everything Leia sent me. Now that I know what I'm getting into, I think my notes will be a lot better."

"Yeah, same time next week," Rey glanced down at the notes on her desk. "Should I send you things throughout the week as I'm working? Or save it for next week?"

"For now I say save it for next week. I have a lot of material to get started with."

"Sounds good."

"It was nice meeting you, Rey." Ben held one hand up in an awkward wave.

"Yeah, you too, Ben."

-----

From: Rey Johnson <[email protected]>  To: Benjamin Solo <[email protected]>  Subject: Earlier meeting?

Hi Ben:

I know that we have a meeting scheduled in four days, but I was just wondering if you might be available earlier than that? I’m having a bit of difficulty with the corner I think I’ve written myself into, and I am hoping that a fresh pair of eyes might help me find my way out. I understand if you want to keep the meeting as scheduled, I know you haven’t had a lot of time to go through the materials that had already been submitted, but I’d really appreciate any insight.

I hope you are staying inside and staying healthy!

-Rey.

------

Rey groaned, rereading the email she had sent Ben. It wasn’t necessarily a bad email, it was actually lightyears better than the first draft she had written at 2 am. Which went something like ‘Hi Ben, as it turns out despite my years of believing otherwise, I need human interaction and your face is the only face I’ve seen in a week and I’m slowly losing my mind. I sang to my plants. I’ve never written this much in my life, I’ve started reading the dialogue out loud because I’m no longer sure what human conversations sound like. So, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could we move up our meeting? I’m a little worried I’m becoming an insane person. I swear I’m not normally this weird. Quarantine life.’

She, thankfully, pressed the delete button instead of the send button. The other three drafts were slightly more professional, but all with the same undertone of her being slightly desperate for any conversation that didn’t involve her voicing both sides. She had tried facetiming Poe, but he and Finn had been keeping each other plenty busy. Which really, she should have expected.

Logically she knew that she could reach out to either one of them anyways, or Rose, or any of her other friends and just tell them that she was potentially on the verge of a self-isolation mental breakdown and they would be there for her.

But that was a showing of vulnerability that despite years of therapy Rey wasn’t comfortable with demonstrating.  And so she emailed Ben instead.

It wasn’t like it was a complete lie. She had written more than usual and she was at a point in the story that she would appreciate some feedback at this point. 

Kira and Kylo were at a turning point in the story. Their connection had been steadily growing stronger and more frequent, forcing them to face each other. Now was the time for them to come together and join each other or for them to pull away and keep fighting against each other. 

It wasn't a terrible idea for her to get some feedback and opinions before moving forward full speed. Her reaching out to Ben for an earlier meeting had nothing to do with her ever increasing thoughts about how he was rather attractive and his smile was rather enticing and that she wanted to see it again. 

At least, she was fairly confident that wasn’t the main reason.

She glanced at the sent email one last time before closing out of her email tab. Only fifteen minutes had passed since she sent the email and she already felt regret settling over her nerves. 

It was going to be a long day waiting for him to reply.

-----

In hindsight, Ben probably should have found it strange that he had not received a single company email in over 24 hours. Especially since Leia had a habit of sending him personal messages to his work email. Despite him reminding her numerous times that she had his personal email, and his cell phone, and, really, at least four other ways of contacting him.

A part of him knew that Leia did it because she genuinely enjoyed reminding herself that he came back to her company, that he came home. He also knew her well enough to know that the larger reason was because she also genuinely enjoyed annoying him. And Leia had to know that he would find knowing that her personal assistant had access to all of her emails about whether or not he was interested in attending a virtual dinner, if he had enough food in his apartment or if he would like her to make an instacart order for him, and that Han had been cleaning out the garage to make more room for his ‘quarantine projects’ and found boxes of his old toys and baby blankets and she was just wondering if he perhaps wanted her to bring the belongings home so that he could come get them, you know, for the future.

So, he should have known that something wasn’t working, but he had been distracted going through Rey’s materials, making notes of his questions and of his proposed edits. She was a fantastic writer. The world she had built was fresh and lively, jumping off of the pages in clear images and descriptions. She had provided extremely detailed character sketches for most of the characters, but he hadn’t found that he had to read through them or refer to them to understand any of the characters or to analyze any of the choices the characters had made simply because she wrote them so well.

It was very impressive.

He had finished going through the materials that Leia had sent him in two days. He was working his way through them again, going slower and providing more detailed notes and able to ask more pointed questions given the knowledge of where the story was heading. Still, he found himself wishing that he had told Rey to send over more work. 

He noticed his phone light up on the corner of his couch. He picked it up, glancing at the message icon showing that he had four messages from his mother and… 48 unread emails.

Mom: Servers are back up at the office.

Mom: Sorry for the onslaught of emails you are probably going to start getting in five minutes.

Mom: I didn’t realize at first that they weren’t going through.

Mom:  It’s possible 75% of them could have been text messages.

Ben: The server was down at the office?

Mom: You didn’t notice that you have received no emails in the last day?

Ben: I guess not. 

Mom: That’s an unusual thing for you to not notice.

Mom: What have you been doing?

Ben: Going through the materials you sent over for Rey’s book. 

Mom: Ah.

Mom: That makes sense then. 

Ben sighed, closing the messaging app to start going through the emails from his mother.

They were exactly what he had expected them to be. A few emails from HR and IT that were sent company wide about how to submit hours when working from home, a reminder to sign up for direct deposit if you hadn’t already, and a few guided walkthroughs on common computer and technology issues. His mother’s emails focused more on whether or not he had all of the ingredients for the Risotto she wanted to make for dinner on Saturday. Followed by an email with the receipt. And another email that went to him, Luke, and Chewie, wondering why it was too much to ask them all to make the same meal as her so that the virtual dinner felt like an actual dinner and not a happenstance of people meeting at the same time.

He almost missed the email from Rey.

 -----

From:  Benjamin Solo <[email protected]>  To: Rey Johnson <[email protected]>  Subject: RE: Earlier meeting?

Dear Rey,

I’m truly sorry for my delay in responding to your email. I was just informed that the server at the office went down, which affected our email host and I am just now getting this message.

I would love to go over this with you sooner than we had planned. I have already reviewed the materials you had previously sent, so I believe I will be of much more use in hopefully helping you figure out where you want to go next. I do find it hard to believe that you’ve written yourself into a corner, you seem to have a great grasp on the characters and the story you want to tell.

I’d hate for any future requests to be severely delayed due to technological issues beyond our control. My cell phone number is 917-555-3298. 

I am available whenever. I suppose that’s the upside to a quarantine.

I look forward to receiving the materials and discussing them with you.

Ben

Benjamin Solo Editor Rebel Publishing, LLC

-----

Ben: I think it’s abusing your power as owner of a company to go through and change your employee’s email signatures without consent.

Mom: I have no idea what you are talking about.

Mom: Benjamin

------

929-555-4593: Hi Ben. This is Rey. I just got your email and figured I’d send you a message so you have my number. I sent over what I’ve been working on. I’m also free whenever. So, just tell me when and I’ll be there.

Rey Johnson: Thanks again for agreeing to meet up with me earlier than planned. I appreciate it. 

-------

Rey threw on a blazer over the red tank top she had been wearing for the last two days when she got the Zoom invite from Ben. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror to the side of her desk, double checking to make sure she didn’t have dried mascara on her cheeks and that her hair looked moderately presentable.

She clicked on the link in the email and---

Oh

Ben wore glasses. Ben wore glasses and Rey was not at all prepared for how he looked wearing them. Really, it didn’t seem quite fair that something as innocuous as glasses managed to make him go skyrocketing up from ‘fairly attractive’ to ‘how inappropriate would it be to initiate sexting with her new editor that she had maybe spent a grand total of twenty minutes communicating with’ in her mind. 

Rey really, really needed the stay home order lifted. Clearly, she was worse off than she thought.

“Hey,” Ben greeted her. “How are you surviving the stay home order?”

“Oh great. Some might even say I’ve been thriving,” Rey rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she laughed. “At least I’ve been able to get a lot of writing done.”

“I would say,” Ben ran his hand through his hair, and Rey could hear him clicking open something on his computer. “I’m not going to lie, I’ve only skimmed through everything you sent over today. So, depending on what has you stuck, I’m not positive this will be a very productive meeting.”

“The part I think I’m stuck at?” Rey opened the word document on her computer, her eyes narrowing in confusion. “You mean it isn’t obvious?”

“I guess, no?” Ben responded, and Rey can tell from the way he’s focusing on his computer screen that he must be going through the document again. “I just assumed you were stuck on what to do after Kira took Kylo’s hand? But that didn’t make much sense either because you have such a clear plan for the story.”

“Kira doesn’t take Kylo’s hand.”

Ben glanced up to the camera, his mouth slightly open. “What?”

“Kira doesn’t take Kylo’s hand,” Rey repeated, lifting her shoulders in a small shrug. “At least not yet.”

“What do you mean she doesn’t take his hand yet?” Ben asked, and Rey has to bite down on her lip to keep herself from laughing at how insulted he sounded. “You’ve spent the last eight chapters building their relationship for her to take his hand.”

“That doesn’t mean that this is the right moment,” Rey pointed out. “I’m not sure it’s the right moment.”

“Okay,” Ben leaned back in his chair, lifting his hands to rest behind his head. “I guess I’m going to need you to explain to me what you think the right moment will be then.”

“That might take awhile,” Rey admitted. “I don’t know that I even know the answer to that.” 

“That’s okay,” Ben said with an encouraging smile. “I have plenty of time.”

-----

They ended up talking for over two hours. By the end of the call, Rey at least had a better idea of the different paths she could take Kira and Kylo down. Even if she still didn't know which one she would choose.

But they also talked about other things besides the book and Rey's struggles with where the characters should go. Rey discovered that Ben was also sheltering in place by himself. She was pretty amused when Ben didn’t immediately end the video call when she started discussing the finer points of being ordered to stay in, like what Netflix show he was binge watching and whether or not he had enough toilet paper to last.

She was oddly unsurprised when he refused to discuss his toilet paper situation with her and when he said that he didn’t watch a lot of TV and wasn’t planning on binge watching anything. Rey gave him a week before he caved on that.

It was nice. 

Rey’s mood had significantly improved half way through the conversation. She had forgotten just how wonderful it was to talk to someone else. It also didn’t hurt that Ben Solo wasn’t exactly hard to look at for two hours. It wasn't even the obvious physical features that Rey found herself thinking about hours later, although she was certainly going to be thinking about them for a while. But Ben had a certain way of moving and mannerisms that only added to them. 

Getting to know someone over a video call was interesting. Rey kept waiting for the normal wave of must look away to hit her like it would if they had been face to face. Staring at someone the entire time you were together wasn't normal.

If they had been in person, Rey would have felt uncomfortable with the amount of time she had spent just staring at him. Noticing the way his hands dwarfed the size of his coffee cup and the way he talked with his hands when he was particularly passionate about whatever he was saying.

She particularly liked how his face was open when she said something he disagreed with, the way he would narrow his eyes and shake his head, but waited until she was done to raise his counterpoints. There was something about the way that he was just himself that was refreshing. 

He listened intently, scribbling down notes when she talked about the story. Even when she started mentioning shows that he should watch, if he were to get really desperate, and he pretended to be uninterested, Rey was fairly positive she saw him write them down as well. 

They set up another meeting in two days, and Rey was determined to have at least made a decision on whether or not Kira was going to take Kylo’s hand by then.  She had to admit that Ben had made a convincing argument as to why it was the right moment for the characters to move forward together. 

Rey sat down at her writing desk, opening up the current version of her project, and began writing.

#reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo fanfiction #reylo fic #reylo au #and they were zoommates #my fic

[the-schwayest-batman-around]

Commissions Open

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and this year has been more than a little crazy. However, I figure to help make the year a little easier and help out for some future plans, I’m going to be reopening commissions. 

There will be 5 slots. I don’t want to overwhelm myself and I don’t want to suddenly keep a lot of people waiting in case my job situation does change. This will first come/first serve. I will only be accepting stuff via ask or tumblr messenger. That means no anons. I need to actually communicate with anyone interested in commissions.

Details Under the Read More:

Headcanons (Examples): These will cost $10.00 as a base fee. With headcanons, I try to go in depth with the concept you wish to discuss. This won’t really feature an POV of the character in question. Their point of view can be explored but it generally is done in my perspective. The $10 will buy you the first 1,500 words completely free of charge with an extra dollar for every 100 words. The word count will be rounded up if it’s over 50.

Drabbles (Example): The cost will be $15.00 as a base fee. As opposed to the head canons, the POV will now be focused solely on the character you wish to focus on. Have you wanted to see the character in a school setting? Maybe fighting crime? Perhaps doing something mundane or magical? Maybe doing some complicated fighting? I will be happy to do it. Like before, the $15 will buy the first 1,500 words, with an extra dollar for everyone 100 words. The word count will be rounded up if it’s over 50.

Character/Story Consultation: Do you require an editor or second opinion on your work of latest creation? At $10.00 for a character and $20.00 for a fan fic (per chapter), I will schedule a time with you over tumblr, discord, or google to go over your desired work of fiction or character. 

Extra Costs:

Brand New Verse: If you wish me to write about a headcanon or drabble that does not exist in any media, this will cost an extra $5.00 if I accept to do this. I’m literally breaking brand new ideas and won’t try to half ass anything. This will also add another 500 words. Examples of this may include: “What sort of Pokemon lineup would Vox Machina of Critical Role have”, “What types of benders would the cast of Sailor Moon be”, or “Who would win the Hunger Games from the cast of Batman Beyond?”.

NSFW: I can accept and write NSFW, but I have full reign to also deny those requests. I do not wish to write incest, no pedophilia, and nothing illegal. This will also add another 500 words to your story. This will also cost a $5.00 charge on this.

Original Character: If you want to include an original character of your choosing into the story, I can. I will require samples and this will cost an additional $5.00 as I’m working with something a tad unfamiliar. I may also be asking you a little more often about certain actions or choices said original character might do.

General Questions:

I wish to buy multiple headcanons/drabbles from you? Can this all count as one slot?

For the time being, no. I don’t want to be unfair to you or any other potential customer so in this case, one commission equals one slot. If I finish up all the slots and wish to continue this, I may change this rule.

Can I only commission Batman Beyond from you? What if I want a headcanon or drabble about something else?

I’m happy to accommodate! I have a ton of experience in several different fandoms and I’m happy to take a stab at something if you’d like to.

What fandoms are you interested in writing?

The absolutely easiest ones I can write about as a setting or with characters would be the following: DC Comics, DCAU (DC Animated Universe), Young Justice, Marvel, MCU, Marvel Exiles, Marvel 2099, Pokemon, Digimon, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Naruto, One Piece, Persona, BNHA/MHA/Hero Academia, American McGee’s Alice, TMNT, Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Critical Role, Avatar: TLA/LOK, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Steven Universe, Kamen Rider, Game of Thrones, Invader Zim, The Hunger Games, The Promised Neverland, and a few odds and ends here. If you have any concerns or want to check with a fandom I may be familiar with, please don’t hesitate to ask.

If you aren’t familiar with a fandom but I’d like you to write it, will you?

It ultimately depends, but I will certainly try my best. I’ll generally read or watch as much as I can of the fandom to get a better understanding. If there’s a big learning curve (examples being watching say Supernatural or Dr. Who’s mega arcs), I may have to decline. I want to give you the best product I can and not half ass any of my work.

Will you accept any request?

No. If I feel like something is too difficult to write (EX: I’m unaware of the fandom, I’m too uncomfortable to write the material, etc) I will say no and ask if we could find a middle ground or a potential second option. If that’s impossible, then I will deny the request.

Can you do freebies?

I have to decline from doing freebies at this time.

Can you write about my original character and a canon character?

Sure. As stated earlier, I will be asking for references as much as possible if I’m totally unfamiliar with a character of your creation.

How and when do I pay for commissions?

We can sum it with these quick steps:

1) Following the requests and any questions, I will calculate the cost and email you an invoice. The invoice must be paid in full in order to proceed.

2) During said process, I will begin work immediately on your request. If the word count will go over the requested amount, I will notify you and give you the option to take a shortened story ato your desired word count or we can renegotiate to allow more words and a secondary invoice will be made. Once again, no progress will be done until the invoice is paid.

3) Once all invoices are paid, I will deliver the product to you via tumblr or via email.

What is your turnaround rate for writing?

This ultimately depends on how many commissions I have lined up as well. I do have a 50+ hour work week but I am eager to work on your story when I have time. I try to at least complete a project in 1 to 2 weeks upon beginning. If I need additional time, I will notify you of this. 

Can I do anything with the story afterwards?

Absolutely. You paid for the drabble/headcanon. You can post it anywhere you’d like. Depending on how I feel about certain headcanons or drabbles and if I can post it on my blog or Ao3, I will absolutely do so.

I suddenly had an idea and wanted to change my SFW story to be NSFW or vice versa. Can this be done?

I will only allow up to 2 major changes like this. If you wish to add something, the additional charges will be done to the final payment. As stated above, I will not release the product until payment is complete. If you wish to remove charges, I will not refund you. However, I will attempt to increase the word count to make this a fairly even trade.

What would constitute a major change?

As mentioned above, changing the format of the story from SFW to NSFW or vice versa. Also included would be wishing to add new original characters. Things such as “character goes to a picnic when we agreed upon a restaurant” or requests in a similar vein would not count as a major change.

What if I have more than 2 major changes for the fic?

I’ll ask that you request a new commission.

Can I simply donate to you?

You may if you wish!

I don’t have any money but do wish to support you. How may I do that?

Reblog and spread the word! This will only be for a limited time.

Why should I buy a commissions?

I have a little over 20 years of writing experience in several formats and fandoms. Aside from what you can find on the blog, I have assisted in creating unique battle scripts and plots for my own original projects and writing partners. I have created several unique plots with several praising the quality of work and creativity on display. 

#commissions #writing commissions #Headcanon #drabbles #fan fic #fan fic comissions #Pokemon #pocket monsters #Digimon #Digital Monsters #Critical Role #Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #DnD #D&D #D & D #Harry Potter #DC #DC Comics #Batman #Batman Beyond #DCAU #DC Animated #DC Animated Universe #BTAS #Batman the Animated Series #Batman The Adventure Continues #Young Justice #YJ #Marvel

[thoseindarkness]

DtD News Nov 2020

Thank you to anyone who came back for this nonsense. For brevity I have an announcement that I want to make up front. I didn't have room for it last month so I pushed it back, but I can't anymore. I had to make one major revision to the published story. I want people to know about it.

This is the TLDR version. I tell a more in-depth story at the end.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The summary: I had a bad outline walking into writing Mistrust Goes Both Ways. I ran into a problem mid-story. Instead of stopping and taking the time I needed, I challenged myself to creatively solve my way out of my problems. I re-started with about half of what I'd written, published Mistrust Goes Both Ways, and restarting my outline with high hopes.  I was proud of myself for rising to the challenge.

Despite my best efforts, it didn't work out. In the end, I had to scrap my outline. I was able to structure the end I was going for and spent the end of 2019 trying to link the first two stories to the ending I wanted. It wasn't working. Then TRoS. Then COVID. Here we are. In June, I started experimenting with scrapping Mistrust and restarting from Read Between.

Mistrust Goes Both Ways will not be part of the finished story when I'm done. I know some of you love it. I love it. I have no intention of taking it down. I might, for a short time, when I'm posting the final story. I'll let you know if that happens and it will go back up afterward. I don't have specifics as there's no point planning for it now.

For right now, nothing is changing on my AO3 account. Feel free to read and comment to your hearts content. I promise it will stay up forever to remind me that some mistakes are worth sharing with others. I learned good lessons from this mistake. It stays.

That being said I think I owe you an actual update on the progress of this story.

WHAT THE HELL I DID THIS MONTH

After my first update I needed to re-integrate with Reylo friends. Funnily enough, that pulled me into another fic. I've been working on that between following this election. Now that it's called I can get back to writing. I tried a couple of times since I voted on Oct 30th, but I knew it wasn't what I wanted to be thinking about.

Thankfully, I've also begun doing more social/political essays lately. I'm not sure what overall form or shape those may take and I haven't published any. Still, I was creative and I did plenty of writing. Interestingly, all this political focus is good for Deceive the Deceiver. Spinning and listening to conspiracy theories is a big part of weaving a world like this one. A great deal comes from my thoughts and perceptions of the real world.

WHERE DTD IS

As of right now I am in the process of first drafting the entire story with Read Between as the starting point. That is, every one of the short stories in the series. What I'm doing is somewhere between a history, an outline and random scene writing. All of these elements are currently strung together in one long, continuous, chronological, first draft. It's everything from the history before Read Between (which starts in the 1930's), all the way to the final scene of DtD.

I'm taking all the good ideas I've created in the last couple of years and re-organizing them into a first pass. It's the skeleton and some of the meat now. I'm slowly building out now that I have a blank-er slate. It's about choosing what works and what doesn't.

I call it accordion writing. It just gets bigger and bigger. This outline will later level up into the first full story drafts for each part. I've got so much history when I finish this I might… I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't want to give too many clues away.

Another interesting thing that's happened recently is I've started pulling bits of other fic ideas that I’m just not gonna finish. A big chuck of the history I stole from a modern/academia AU where Ben and Rey are history students specializing in the ancient Jedi religion. Another was a complication between characters came from a canon story where I wanted to paint the relationship with a new layer. We'll see if I can pull that off.

I spent a lot of time prior to this year focusing on the heroes but my villains hadn't gotten much love. Filling in the history has given me a chance to flesh out the villains. All their moves and countermoves, woven through the bits I already have, are spinning a pretty tapestry. Oh, the villains are so much fun to write!

This other fic came together in the same sort of accordion fashion and it's been fun working through the kinks in the process now that I've seen some of the weak points on a scale like DtD. I think I've mentioned, but this is a writing experiment for me and I'm most invested now in improving my process and clue-threading with DtD. This other fic is helping me test it on a smaller scale.

Not that this needs to get any longer, I'm just going to throw pretense out the window and go with complete vanity. If you don't give a wet shit about my life (and I don't blame you) you have reached the end of your journey. I hope to see you next month. If not, then I leave you with this parting:

May we meet again in our next fandom, through mutes and not as rival shippers.

The following is the ridiculous story of my ups and downs with Deceive the Deceiver. I figure if I explain to you how much I'm invested in this story some of you will stop worrying that I'm going to abandon it. Trust me. I'm not.

This tale stretches from NANOWRIMO 2018 and the prompt that started it, through the ups and downs of 2019 and 2020, to the writing of last month's letter. Buckle up. I love bumpy rides.

DtD: from NANO '17 to COVID-19

This story truly starts in December 2017 when I drenched the seat beneath me during Last Jedi. I'm a TLJ shipper. I got caught on the thirst train. It hit a time when writing was becoming a really big part of my life. I've been writing since I was a kid. I stopped for a while and came back to it. It's a long story. Ultimately, I'd started writing a lot a few years earlier. A mix of fic and originals but I was running into problems so I start reading a bunch of books to get better. TLJ lit the fires. NO joke TLJ came out on the 15th. I have pages of writing from the 20th.

2018 was Reylo year! I was already on Tumblr for my previous fandom (Batman comics). I found Reylo AU week which is in August. I submitted a story for that. It was the first fic I published for Reylo. Fast-forward August to November. I'm in the Writing Den on Discord and someone throws out this spy prompt. People start running with. Throwing ideas around. One of those was the snuggie in Mistrust! I have that conversation saved and story spots for each crazy thing they threw out. Finally, I said I'd do it!

Mind you, this is November 2nd. Nano has just started and the event is about "turning off your internal editor." This prompt consumed me. I was trying to keep up with SpaceWaffleHouseTM that first year. I did, btw. We both crested 100,000. It was my first Nano. Word count is not my problem. Organizing my crazy ambitious ideas is my problem. Some of that 100k was other stories, like Custard which I wrote half of in November and the other half Jan/Feb 2019. Most of it… probably 80k of it… was DtD.

Read Between the Lies is currently 33,710. I wrote at least 20k of that during that first Nano, as well as outlines and scenes for what I thought would be the starting point. I remember wanting to write Read Between to "get into their headspace" by writing their first meeting. I didn't think it would become a whole story. I was just going with it then. Any idea that came to mind.

I took December 2019 off for a few reasons. Some personal. Some burnout. I'm one of those people that can use writing to relieve stress, but I was so exhausted from that month-long writing sprint. By the last week I was dragging to get the final four or five thousand words to hit 100k.

Also, what I had by the end (no internal editor) was a bird nest of ideas that had too many beginnings, not enough middles, and endings to go around. I knew one thing right away: I knew I had more than one story. There were so many fun ideas. I figured, what the hell. I knew another thing right away: the prompt was at the end of the story. Like, the very end. Like, the last short story. Or the second to last short story, at the earliest. That hasn't changed. Ever. That's just where it ended up.

Between January and April of 2019 I touched DtD a few times. I kept coming back to it, reading through it, trying to untangle it. I made new notes on the stories. Expanded ideas. Tried to structure it. I figured out a bunch of good notes, but no real substance. The hardest thing was figuring out where to start! Did I:

(1) Start shortly before the prompt with Ben/Rey's relationship established and fill the story with the history?

(2) Start a lot earlier and build Ben/Rey's relationship from the beginning I'd written in Read Between?

If I'm being honest, Read Between was a lot better than I thought it would be and I didn't want to get rid of it. For a while I was thinking of publishing it last as a "prequel" if people liked the series.

Funny enough, the turning point happened May fourth weekend 2019…

In the week leading up, I was struggling through another story and decided to take a break for the weekend. I'd start writing again on Sunday when I met with my writing group. I met them through Nano. We used to meet at Panera. Now they meet on Discord. They mostly sprint though and I'm not a sprinter. I miss Panera. Anyway.

May 4th was a Sunday (look it up). I gave myself a writing break for the weekend and marathoned Star fucking Wars. It was nerd weekend. I was going to nerd out. I wore exclusively SW gear all weekend. I remember it well. It was the start of something fucking magical in my life.

Have I mentioned recently I really love this story. Trust me I will fucking finish it. Oh my god the demons won't leave until I do. Get them out of my head…

I had a pretty rockstar weekend. I believe the reason I skipped the PT that weekend was because I'd watched it the month before or so. Right after finishing the Clone Wars animated series (which is awesome and I strongly recommend both it and Rebels). I skipped them and SOLO.

Starting with R1, I went through in chronological order. I stopped at RotJ. I was with my family on Saturday and they were playing RotJ in the living room during the party. We talked about my marathon. My mom came over to my apartment after. We watched RoTJ properly. Then Force Awakens. It was too late by then to watch TLJ. I know I went straight to bed after my mom left on Saturday night.

Somewhere during or right after TFA I started thinking about Deceive the Deceiver. I don't remember what sparked it. I went to bed thinking about DtD. I know this with 100% certainty because I woke up thinking about again on Sunday and I thought it was quite odd.

I dream about this story in a way I have only dreamt about a precious few. Technicolor folks. It keeps me up at night.

I went to my writing group with (a) no plan for what to write, (b) a gordian knot that I had yet to untangle, (c) a sudden urge to re-read it. I opened my notes and read DtD through all our sprints. I read most of it during that writing session. We go about three hours.

That night I had Game of Thrones at my parent's. It was the (spoiler alert) episode where Arya kills the Night King. I remember because two minutes into the episode my brother's car broken down a few blocks from our apartment and we had to go help him. Derailed the whole night (this is foreshadowing).

Side note: I live with my younger brother and he's the best roommate I've ever had in my 35 years of life. Love you, Mo!

The episode was recording so we ran out. Had to leave the car in a parking lot. Someone had already helped him push it out of a puddle but my brother was soaked to mid-calf and the engine was shot. We dropped him off at home and I rode back to my Momma's crib to watch GoT. It was only the beginning of a wild night.

I went to bed late. I had to get up a few hours early to deal with the car before work started for either of us. I guess we were both hoping to avoid taking the day off. That wasn't going to happen. I drove home but I couldn't sleep. That crazy episode and the fact that my brain was already on fire with DtD.

I spent the wee hours finishing my re-read through the rough draft of Read Between the Lies. It saw my starting place. I started writing. I wrote through waiting in a parking lot, for the tow truck, in my car, at 6 am, with no sleep. I did a voice recording as I drove from the parking lot to the mechanic where the driver was taking my brother's car. I thought about it the whole way back. I sat on the sofa a wrote some more when we got home. I went to bed at 11 am and I'd written 10k more words for Read Between the Lies.

Somewhere between the chaos of May 5th and the official publish date on June 5th, Read Between got written. I know it didn't take too long. I remember sending it off to beta (by my amazing beta team on 1 & 2: Em, Jen, and Sai) and immediately pivoting to my outline. I slapped that together far too hastily and kept moving. I was going on holiday in the UK (I'm American and I'm ashamed) in early August so I planned on trying to publish Part 2 when I got back. At the very least I wanted it ready for beta.

Also some to admit, around the middle of 2019 I was fatigued with the fandom. We were hitting a lull. I was psyching myself up for the end and the exit. I was trying to clean house. I wanted to push out unfinished fics. To make them work. There was a lot of that mood from me in 2019. I was trying to make everything work. It's why Read Between came out, and that was a good thing. It's also why Mistrust came out, and that was a bad thing.

With that mentality looming, tough outline in hand, I started writing Mistrust before the end of May. I hit my snag sometime during the period I was publishing Read Between because by the time it was all done I knew I wasn't going to have a finished story by the time I left for London. I would figure it out when I got back. I picked up another project to distracted me from my problems for a little while. That is going to be an original if it's anything. One day…

At some point after I got back I started focusing heavily on problem solving. I had two stories already and a number of plot threads I had to resolve. I have heavy, heavy, heavy notes from September to December of 2019. Lots of possible ways to run this story. It sucks that a lot of that stuff isn't going to make it, but I'm recycling shit every day and I learned so much about the characters/story in that four month period. It really shaped the finished product in an important way.

This period is where I started to look at the bigger structure and how I was going to solve specific plot problems in each short story to bring the whole together. That focus on the different parts is important because it was the last thing on my mind when TRoS happened.

December 20th (the release date) is my birthday. My ass drove up to one of those Reylo-only screenings and I was surrounded by amazing people as I watched a movie that ruined my 35th birthday. Thankfully, I spent it in incomparable company. Thank you to all the hosts and super special thanks to Jen. Not only was she a DtD beta on both, she invited me. Thank you love! You are the reason I still remember that trip with joy.

Side note: I no longer hate TRoS. I've made my peace with it. I'm a far happier person now.

Needless to say, the only Reyloing I did in January of this year was venting frustration. Then I took a few weeks away from the fandom. I'd done my purging into the void. I knew other people still needed the space to vent but I had to get away. Once the toxin is out I couldn't let it back in.

What occurred starting in February of 2020 was a series of situations in which, every time I logged into Twitter I was faced with the kind of vitriol in the fandom that I don't need in my life. Some of it was still TRoS stuff, even as late as May. I'm not judging, I'm just saying, with the world on fire (literally), I didn't need it.

I don't think I have to explain why I've avoided social media like the plague since early this year. I live in America. If you heard anything about our recent President I don't have to explain any further what this year has been like. That has been par for course all over the world.

So here's my secret to happiness. I don't fux with the trolls. Do not engage. Sometimes that means radio silence. I'm breaking that silence because I want you to know 2020 has not destroyed DtD. It's only leveled shit up.

I have pretty much been working on this story consistently since March of this year. I go back and forth with reading, history, documentaries. I'm learning to wield many new weapons. They take time to settle in. DtD is the de-stressor I go to in between the real shit.

Sometime in June I was screwing around with the order of the parts. I had worked out the end but I was trying to bridge the gap between the ending I was certain I needed to get to and the two beginning stories I'd already published. I couldn't bridge the gap. It had been a year since I published Read Between and it wasn't working. Then I had an epiphany.

What if I got rid of Mistrust? Read Between is a pretty blank slate. I didn't want to re-write it and I still don't. I have no intention of getting rid of Part 1. I may clean it up and add some stuff at the very last minute, but it will be right before the new stuff drops as a pre-cursor to the flood of subsequent stories. I may add a few new clues or alter a scene or two, but I have plenty of room to move with it exactly the way it is.

What does that mean for Mistrust Goes Both Ways? To make a long story short, there was no good way for me to continue with what I'd published and still write the story in my head. I'm sure there are cool places to take the existing story, but that's not what I'm trying to do. In truth, I should have left 1 and not published 2 when I hit a snag. Lesson learned.

In June I basically threw Mistrust out and asked myself, "Now what?" I have months of great ideas rife for reshuffling and no restrictions on how to bridge the gap from 1 to the ending I wanted. But the end had shifted.

That brings us up to speed. The last thing I did before taking a much needed break was get through 90% of the history in my accordion outline/draft. I poured the foundation that was missing. I walked away in early October and let it set. I'm going to button up this other fic I'm working on and then go back to DtD and check the foundation I laid.

I'm very confident that not only will it hold, but that with fresh eyes and the fun side stories I've had the chance to lay to rest, I will finally be able to start building the finished products on top of it.

IN CONCLUSION

I'm still as excited as I've ever been for this story. It frustrates me all the time, but that means the medicine for my soul is working its magic. Change it painful, but pain is transformative. I've embrace changed. That ache is just a sign the muscles are getting stronger. Growing pains. As I learn to live with them in my family, my country, and my job, I find that life's lesson's often end up reflecting in every place in our life if we but open our eyes to look.

Growing pains exist in my writing process too. They are as transformative in this corner of my life as they are in every other. They have revealed as much about me as a person in my writing as they have in my politics. They have taught me how to compromise with my family as I learn to compromise with my characters. As I consider how people treat each other I am reminded that struggles in understanding our fictional counterparts may shine a light on our struggles to understand our truer selves.

Take care of yourselves. Once you've got that covered, if you can, take care of each other. Feel free to poke me and say hi. If not, until next month.

Fari.

#deceive the deceiver #reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo fan fiction #modern au #spy au #fan fic #fan fiction

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, September 3

The Sunnydale Herald is currently looking for a few more good editors! Contributing to The Herald is a great way to get your Buffyverse on! For more information, send us an ask (on Tumblr) or send a message (on Livejournal or Dreamwidth) to rahirah. (See our profile page.)

Government M(e)n: It was an experiment. The Initiative represented the Government's interests in not only controlling the otherworldly menace, but harnessing its power for our own military purposes. The considered opinion of this counsel is that this experiment has failed....It was only through the actions of the deserter and a group of civilian insurrectionists that...our losses were not total. I trust the irony of that is not lost on any of us. Maggie Walsh's vision...was brilliant, but ultimately unsupportable. The demons cannot be harnessed, cannot be controlled....It is therefore our recommendation that this project be terminated and all records concerning it expunged. Our soldiers'll be debriefed. Standard confidentiality clause. We will monitor the civilians and usual measures prepared should they try to go public.

~~"Primeval," S4E21, Buffy the Vampire Slayer~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

"Glasses and Debts" (Ethan, Giles; FRT) by Diary

"Sleight of Hand & Twist of Fate" (AU; BtVS/AtS; Spike/Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Angel, Faith, Giles, Gunn, Fred, Wes, Lorne, William; FRT) by derekmaliknurse

"Rock the Cradle" (Buffy/Spike; FRMA) by MissLuci NOT A BABY FIC

"Crash Two or Three Times (Learn from Your Mistakes)" (Tara/Willow; FRT) by potidaea

[Chaptered Fiction]

The Season of Grace Coming out of the Void, Chapters 1-2/4 (Alt-canon fix-it; Angel/Buffy, Oracles, Giles, Willow, Xander; FRMA) by calenlily

Seeing Red, Chapter 1/4 (BtVS/HP/LOTR/GOT, et al.; NR) by LadyJesus

Living Arrangements (Arrangements II), "DAY 21 AH" (7/?) - (Buffy/Spike, et al.; FRM) by ChryshCn

Promise Me, "Epilogue: I'll Walk with You, My Love" (25/25) - (Buffy/Spike, et al.; FRT) by Lucky_19 COMPLETE!

And the Wind Began to Howl, Chapters 1-19/? (Giles/OFC, all Scooby Gang; FRT) by PhantombMoll

Crack-R-Us, "Hide and Seek" (3/?) - (BtVS/Smallville/Southern Vampire Mysteries; Buffy-centric; FRMA) by Deesse

Star Wars and Buffy Are Non-mixy, Chapters 1-202/? (BtVS/SW; Buffy, Andrew, et al.; FRM) by Sharie

Death Is but the Next Great Adventure, Chapter 1/? (BtVS/HP AU; Buffy-centric; FRM) by Sharie

XANDER LAVELLE WIZARD, Chapters 1-5/? (BtVS/HP; Xander-centric; FRMA) by Oddshot

A Not Quite Perfect Fit, Chapters 1-8/8 (BtVS/Other; FRT) by Manchester COMPLETE!

Teen Slayer: Welcome to the Nemetom, Chapters 1-51/? (BtVS/Teen Wolf; Buffy-centric; FRM) by Kittykitkat

Seeing Clearly, Chapters 1-142/? (Multi-fandom; Buffy, Dawn, et al.; FRT) by JoeB

Little Harmonic Labyrinth, Chapters 1-7/? (BtVS/AtS/ST:Voyager; Buffy, Illyria, et al.; FRT) by EnergyBeing

The Sound of Her Voice, "Underfunded" (5/?) - (Spike/Buffy; ) by myrabethfanfic

Rating Info

Fiction Rating Key Here

"NR" = "Not Rated"

Authors' given ratings usually trusted, but "general audiences" and "K" or "K+" are increased to "FRT" because of original BtVS/AtS series' ratings. Occasional stronger ratings given when chance glances show they're needed. The "F-bomb" requires FRMA, no matter how it's used. Graphic depictions of violence and/or child sexual abuse deferred to next day's editor for private life reasons. Thanks for understanding. :-)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: She's a bada**, don't you think so? (Buffy in Top 7 Strong Fem Chars) shared by Soft_Plastic2808 in Buffy Rules

Photo: Tony Head's going away party (SMG also pictured; WORKSAFE) by PurePotential6 in Buffy Rules

Humor: That’s one way to get an invite (Vamp humor) by BeBa420 in Buffy Rules

Craft Photo: As people really liked my coffin pin board.... (Buffy's grave marker pin board) by LeatwerpennCAD in Buffy Rules

Video: Those Cordelia moments gotta love em by deductivesherlock in Buffy Rules

Artwork: 6 Headers, 6 Icons (Buffy/Angel; WORKSAFE) by misstaramaclay

Video: Knock-knock joke from Buffy (Scooby Gang, Giles, Buffybot) by Drew Garske

Still: James Marsters, Ryan Sands, and Kevin Weisman promo for Marvel's Runaways (WORKSAFE) tweeted by jamie_marsters

Document: Dragon Con Quick-start Guide (Check Classics Schedule to catch reshowing of James Marsters panels now thru Sep 7 2020!) (PDF) tweeted by jamie_marsters

Podcast: 116 RVS: Dagney Kerr (college roommate Kathy) by ReVisiting Sunnydale

Artwork: Just in time for Halloween my little ghouls and ghosts! (Spike sketch) by @PatrickBallest on Twitter

[Reviews & Recaps]

Doing a rewatch, trying to rank the scariest demons by ohheyitskt in Buffy Rules

Anthony Stewart Head appreciation post by Willdon231 in Buffy Rules

Watching "Surprise" for the zillionth time and having my heart broken again like the masochist I am by AmeliaPond_T4R4 in Buffy Rules

SMG was 19 playing 16 when the show began--a lot better than most teen dramas.... by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

The Body by IceCreamToiletPaper in Buffy Rules

Alright, I finished the show (BtVS) by Ohm_B in Buffy Rules

Nightmares Season 1 episode by Willdon231 in Buffy Rules

Tara and Willow couldn't be bothered to get jobs if they were planning on bringing Buffy back? by Willdon231 in Buffy Rules

Cordelia by deductivesherlock in Buffy Rules

My God, Willow in S6! by Willdon231 in Buffy Rules

VIDEO: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode 12: "Prophecy Girl" (RECAP/REVIEW) by JustDaggers

PODCAST: "First Date"/"Get It Done" by btvsmmpnetwork

PODCAST: 127. "The Gift" (S5.22) by Lani Diane Rich, Noelle LaCroix

PODCAST: "Beauty and the Beasts," S3 E4 by Buffy and the Art of Story (Lisa M. Lilly)

[ISO/Recs]

More Links Than a Bag of Sausages rec list by petzipellepingo

ISO: "The Book of William" and any other fics by Lizerrrbeathan, and "A New Dawn, A New Day" by Gwennie by JengaC in the Spuffy Realm

[Community Announcements]

Ladies' Bingo 2020-2021 (Round 8) Information by purplecat

Nominations are now open for Shipoween! by shipoweenmod

Buffyverse Character Tournament Round Two! by martinezz29 in Buffy Rules

"I Will Remember You" Marathon 2019 Writer Spotlight until November 2020! by iwillrememberyoumarathon

[Fandom Discussions]

Discussion of 3.01 "Hearthrob" - Aired 9/24/2001 (WB-US), Reply by Mr Trick

Discussion of 3.02 "That Vision Thing" - Aired 10/1/2011 (WB-US), Reply by Mr Trick

"Was Gunn's old gang going to join up with Holtz?" Reply by Sweet Dreamer

Evil Dead and Buffy Comparisons by burrunjor

Discussion of 3.05 "Fredless" - Aired 10/22/2001 (WB-US), Reply by Mr Trick

Discussion of 3.06 "Billy" - Aired 10/29/2001 (WB-US), Reply by Mr Trick

I don't get Cangel by Gnomie192

One thing I'm annoyed about this series by ZoobieEmi in Angel Rules

Dawn loose end by TypicalPsychology6 in Buffy Rules

Have your perceptions of episodes changed over time? by Weezlecheesle in Buffy Rules

Darla coming back to life makes a messed-up family tree by RickOShay25 in Angel Rules

Opinions on Season 7(?) by Diccy123 in Buffy Rules

How did critics rate each season of (BtVS) when it was airing? by Diccy123 in Buffy Rules

(BtVS) and (AtS) show lovers (i.e., fans of both shows) by echopsocky in Buffy Rules

Alright, I’m on the last episode of (BtVS) by Ohm_B (NEW VIEWER! NO SPOILERS PLEASE) in Buffy Rules

POLL: Favorite Buffy Location (link in post) by cinaddict in Buffy Rules

What are the greatest durability feats shown by Slayers in the comics...? by Teenageboy18 in Buffy Comics

Would there have been an 8th (TV) season if SMG was up for it? by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Is it fair to say Spike is more popular among fans than...other popular characters? by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Did Cordelia have a purpose or story arc in season 3? by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Which act of Angel's disturbed you most? by milkstatue in Buffy Rules

Do you think Xander should have died/left town? by TypicalPsychology6 in Buffy Rules

Can I read the Buffy comics without watching Angel? by SarcasticGayBitch in Buffy Rules

"Smashed" and Buffy with Angelus by Passion211089 in Buffy Rules

Need some advice (watching BtVS with friend who lost mother) by MyNameisBrian88 in Buffy Rules

Vamps Don't Breathe by lamar2016 in Buffy Rules

Xander's the Zeppo by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Spike's "Crazy" rants... by DeepBreath220 in Buffy Rules

Where is Sunnydale? by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Options for afterwards? by anonymousdoes in Buffy Rules

Principal Snyder, what a great character! Show some love for him by KevTravels in Buffy Rules

Moments where you sided with a big bad? by nerdywholovesreading in Buffy Rules

POLL: Favorite Holiday-themed episode by MyNameisBrian88 in Buffy Rules

Wesley in "Deep Down" by TypicalPsychology6 in Angel Rules

Have you ever felt embarrased for any character? by TypicalPsychology6 in Buffy Rules

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Buffy is now on Canadian Amazon Prime! by CenturionDC in Buffy Rules

Buffy Spin-off Angel Heads to All4 and E4 (September 18, 2020) by Huw Fullerton at radiotimes.com/li>

Happy birthday, Clare Kramer (Glorificus)! by @jamie_marsters on Twitter

Binging Buffy: Once more with disappointment in season 6 by Samantha Highfill at Entertainment Weekly

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#angel the series #ats #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #fan art #fan fiction #meta

[stylesprimes]

overheated - a nom de plume drabble (repost)

THIS IS NOT NEW WRITING

hi friends! tumblr took down this ~spicy nom de plume drabble i posted way back in the day (like in 2015), and i have received a couple of requests to repost it, so here it is!   

“I swear to god, I’m going to make a fucking checklist, I’m going to do it,” I groaned to Sawyer over the phone, staying where I was, splayed out on the bed in front of the fan.

There was a trail of clothes and accessories I’d left that started near the front door of the house—a pair of sandals kicked to approximately where they were supposed to be, sunglasses on the table by the foyer, a tank top haphazardly thrown over one of the kitchen chairs, and finally at the bottom of the stairs, a pain of jean shorts.

Subsequently, I was in just a triangle bra and a pair of black spandex shorts that I’d pulled on precisely because they showed as much skin as possible. It was forty degrees that day in Los Angeles, and the air conditioning at Harry’s place had decided to break on that day of all days. Even the promise of a generous tip from Harry had only been able to get the repairmen in as early as tomorrow, so I had stripped to keep cool when I’d arrived home earlier.

I knew I could’ve sought refuge from the heat—and I had, lurking for a few hours in an air-conditioned coffee shop in the morning, and Harry and I had an invitation to crash at Jeff’s that night. However, getting on the phone with my editor and complaining loudly about the progress of Book III was something I certainly couldn’t do in public, and I didn’t want to impose on Jeff any more than necessary.

“As your editor, I can only advise you to do that. Saves me a lot of work, if I’m being honest,” Sawyer quipped from the other end.

“There’s so many loose ends to be wrapped up, I’m never going to be able to do it,” I continued on, laying on my side so the oscillating fan I’d set up by the bed could provide a breeze that brushed across as much of my skin as possible. From upstairs, I heard the sound of the doors opening and closing, but even Harry’s arrival wasn’t enough to get me to move from my place in front of the fan. He’d find me—he always did.

“Stop whining and make that list. If you were here, I’d offer you my glitter pens and patterned paper, but you are very much on the other side of the country,” Sawyer said, patient like she always was when I was at war with my work.

I was tempted to throw her arm over her face in frustration, but that would interfere with the fan. “One, even if I did have paper, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Two, it is way too hot to move to get said paper.”

“You are such a whiner. You live in Los Angeles, which, believe it or not, is in the desert. It gets hot.”

I groaned, my face digging into her phone, wedged between the pillow and my ear, wishing I was in London or Vancouver, where the heat was never so scorching.  

“Don’t you have a pool or something you can hide in?” Sawyer asked.

“Nope. Drought is so bad that we haven’t filled the pool this summer. But the Azoffs have a great pool that we can go over and use whenever.”

Sawyer made a ‘hmm’ sound like she always did when she had an idea. “Then you should make this list, and then go over and use the pool. The heat is making you cranky.”

The door to the room opened, and I turned my head to see Harry standing with my shorts and tank top in his hand—the look on his face suggested that he’d kind of been expecting to find me naked and in some compromising position and was currently a bit disappointed.

I registered the look (and that he was wearing white jeans with a colourful, elaborate patterned top), but just gave him a smile and a quick wave, getting back to the conversation. “Wrapping up November’s shit is making me cranky.”

“Come on, Ceece. Give me one problem and we’ll work from there,” Sawyer prompted.

I barely registered the movement of the bed behind me as I tried to wrack my brain. “The whole Persephone thing. I have no idea how I’m supposed to deal with her last interaction with November,” I said, turning my head up as I felt a pair of lips, shockingly cool, press against my shoulder. I wasn’t one to deny Harry a welcome back kiss, so I turned my head to meet Harry’s lips that were already waiting there expectantly, missing what Sawyer was saying and lips coming away tasting of the iced coffee he’d been drinking.

“Sorry, I missed that. What were you saying?” I asked, fully intending on getting back to the conversation. I felt Harry settling on the bed behind me, but as long as he didn’t interrupt my breeze, I didn’t mind. He already knew every plot twist of Book III inside and out.

“It should have something to do with Nevada, right? Maybe set it in a place that was significant to him?” Sawyer suggested, I nodding along even when I felt Harry’s hands trailing along the outside of my leg. It was so light it almost tickled, but it was the kind of almost that left an impression in its wake.

“Uh, yeah. That would work. She could be wearing a flower in her hair, like one of the flowers he gave her—shit, what kind was it?” I asked. Behind me, Harry was still messing around, craning down so he could press his lips to where my neck met my shoulder.

“You can’t even remember what you wrote?” Sawyer guffawed.

My memory may have been a bit better if my mind wasn’t quickly being taken over by the sensation of Harry’s lips trailing between my shoulder blades and fingers skimming over my waist. “In—in my defence, that was all the way back in Vitiate.” I stumbled over the words as Harry’s cold lips brushed along my jaw, just under my ear.

Sawyer continued to rattle off suggestions as I stuck an arm out behind myself to try and swat Harry away, but instead he just moved lower on my spine, grabbing my arm so I couldn’t hit him.

“Yeah, I guess that wouldn’t be ah—bad,” I said, trying to pull my arm away from Harry, because I was a professional having a professional conversation, but he was holding fast to my wrist as he kissed back up my spine, each press chipping away my professionalism bit by bit.

I could already feel the heat begin to coil in the pit of my stomach, but, fuck, I needed to finish this conversation with Sawyer, not to mention it was really way too hot to be fooling around. Or, at least that’s what I told myself as Harry used his spare hand to brush the stray hairs on my neck that had escaped from my bun, fingers leaving goosebumps in their wake.

“You see, there’s one more thing add to your list. I can even write the to do-list for you and get it couriered out there. Everything looks less scary in glitter pen, trust me,” Sawyer said.

I would have rejected the offer of glitter pen, but all Sawyer heard in response was a gasp on the other end. Harry was softly pressing kisses to the side of my neck, the sensitive skin making every touch of his lips a shock that was going straight between my thighs.

Sawyer took it as an annoyed scoff. “Fine, no glitter pen, then. Do you want me to make you a checklist, though?”

“I’m not sure about that?” I was struggling now as Harry went for the more sensitive spots on my neck, lips, teeth and tongue delicate. The light touches forced me to curl my hand into a fist, biting my lip to hold back a contented sigh, my head already tilting into the pillow to give him better access.

The moment Harry had gone for my neck, I’d stopped trying to push him away.  But, dammit, I was going to at least finish up this phone call.

“Why wouldn’t you want that?”

I had to pause for a moment before answering, because Harry was running his hand along the swell of my ass while his mouth was still at my neck, hand dipping down as he lightly traced one finger along the seam of the shorts I was wearing. It sent a pulse through my body, one that had me involuntarily arching into his touch. “It wouldn’t make—make sense.”

“You’re the one not making sense, Ceece.”

Knowing that he’d almost broken me, Harry kept his hands where they were, blowing a stream of air softly against the shell of my ear. “Harry—” I giggled, trying to get him to cut it out, because I had work to attend to.

Sawyer was quick to let out an indignant screech on the other end of the phone. “Are you two serious right now? Again?”

This had maybe happened on more than one occasion, which was why I’d been so determined to get to the end of the call, but Harry was muffling his own laughter on the back of my shoulder, his hand now resting just below my bellybutton and just above where I wanted it to be.  

I sat up, pulling away from Harry’s grasp as held the phone to my ear. “Sawyer, I’m sorry, blame him, he’s being a dick,” I said with a glare in Harry’s direction, because I was pretty sure he was thinking with nothing but his dick.  

“I’m hanging up,” Saywer announced loudly enough that Harry heard, a smirk stretching on his face.  

“Thank you, Sawyer, I owe you one,” he all but drawled, trying to lean toward the phone, but I stopped him with a hand against his chest, unamused.

“You owe me more than one, Mr. Henry Horny,” Sawyer quipped before the phone beeped, indicating she’d hung up.

Harry was already laughing, the kind of loud cackle-like one that had him laying back on the bed as he chuckled throatily, hands resting on his stomach and pushing up his shirt so I could see the laurel tattoos on his hips. That provided me with the perfect opportunity to crawl over and straddle his waist, tossing my phone to the other side of the bed, which put an end to Harry’s laughter as he saw me staring daggers at him.

“I’m sorry,” he started, cautious, bringing his hands up to the pillows with an air of innocence, “but when I come home to a trail of clothes, I—”

Harry never finished his sentence because I was leaning down to shut him up with my mouth, no longer caring that it was really too hot to be doing this or that he had interrupted my call. With his teasing touches, he’d worked me up and up and now that my call was over I felt like I was going to combust if I didn’t get some form of release soon.

There was no sweet or gentle lead in—I wasted no time as I dipped my tongue into his mouth, one hand gripping his shirt, the other his hair, perfect to tug on and pull my fingers through now that it was so long, nearly brushing his shoulders. Harry let me take control, a low, happy moan vibrating his his throat as his hands moved to cover my ass, pressing me down to him. I was giving him exactly what he’d wanted, but this was too good to resist just to prove a point.

My thighs were already sticky with sweat when Harry dragged his hands down , the fan not doing much as the two of us pressed our bodies together. I didn’t mind the proximity, despite the heat, needing it after he’d gotten me so worked up. I kissed him deeply, letting out little breathy gasps of my own as he kneaded the flesh just below my ass, rocking me against his stomach.

When his hands went to my waist to try and pull me lower so I could grind against his groin, I resisted, pulling back and biting his lip. He was the one who’d started this, but I wasn’t going to let him call the shots so easily. Harry caught on, one hand moving back to my ass and the other to the back of my head, leading me back to his mouth, lips soft and sending waves of warming throughout my body.

Harry let me have my way for a while, letting me kiss him, our tongues pushing against each other and the roaming of our hands becoming less and less gentle.

I was the first to pull away, sitting up to admire the swollen pink of Harry’s lips and the way his hooded gaze slowly dipping from my eyes, to my lips, and then to my chest. I didn’t let him look for too long before I was crawling back down, dragging my mouth across his neck before I kissed this skin of his chest, just where his shirt ended. It was clear how Harry’s breathing picked up as I took my time undoing the buttons of his heavily patterned blue and red shirt, kissing the skin between the swallows, letting my breath drift over the butterfly on the centre of his chest, before my lips were brushing the fine hair that was between the laurels on his v-lines after the last button had been undone.

I smirked against his skin as he tensed and I made my way back up to his neck, ignoring the last button I hadn’t undone—the one on his white jeans.

“Leigh,” he whined, shifting his hips. “You’re not playing fair.”  

I let my teeth scrape across his neck, though I knew I shouldn’t be leaving marks, because he had a show in a couple of days. “You weren’t playing fair when I was on the phone, either,” I said in a sing song tone, enjoying the way his hand on my waist tightened every time I brought my mouth to his neck. Two could play dirty with the neck kissing.

However, I was impatient, and if I let myself linger at his neck for too long I was sure I would mark him up, and so I sat up, Harry licking his lips as he watched me brushing my hands over the bulge in his jeans before popping the button.

Except I tugged on them and they barely moved. This was a pretty normal situation, but up until this point things had been so intense and full of want between us, and I’d just accidentally scooted Harry down the bed a couple of inches, moving him more than I’d move his jeans, really. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him, my hands still grasping the sides of his pants.

“Don’t blame me, blame the heat,” Harry pouted, a complete one-eighty from before—he’d been panting my name and now he was grumpy that I wasn’t taking his pants off quickly enough.

I took my fingers out of his belt loops so I couple try and muffle my laughter, Harry hot and flushed and ridiculous as he grumbled and peeled off his pants himself, taking his briefs along at the same time. I was busy admiring the view of his lower half, and so I was taken off guard when Harry came and pushed me down on the bed, muffing what was left of my laughter with his mouth.

My control was over in one movement, Harry’s bare torso sticking to mine in the heat, one hand slipping behind my back to undo the clasp of my bra before he pulled the fabric out from between them. I didn’t mind, because as Harry moved down my chest the look in his eyes said he wasn’t in the mood to tease, and I was proven right when he cupped a hand over my centre, his other mouth seeking my nipple as I threw my head back.

I was already aching for it, and I could feel Harry smiling against the underside of my breast as I tugged on his hair, pulling him down to where his hand was.

“Now who’s the impatient one?” Harry commented as he swiftly pulled down my shorts as well, tossing them off the bed.

“You’re one to talk, you’re the one who started this all,” I said, moving up so I could lean back against the pillows as Harry took a moment to take one of the elastics he always had around his wrist and throw his hair up into a bun.

“Why do you always sound so angry that I started this all?” Harry muttered, almost more to himself than me as he got himself comfortable on his elbows in between my legs, pushing one of them to the side for better access.

My body was suddenly humming with anticipation, my centre already wet as Harry raked his eyes down it. Now really was not to time to explain to him that just because my editor was also my best friend, it didn’t mean he could come onto me when we were talking shop, but any thoughts of that flew out of my head as Harry licked up in one broad stroke.

“Shit, yes,” I moaned, one of my hands dropping down to grasp at his shoulder, because I needed something to hold onto and Harry’s hair wasn’t an option. Pulling it out of the bun in weather like this was especially unfair, when he already hand his head between my thighs and I was already covered in a thin layer of sweat, and I wasn’t even close to coming yet.

But Harry was determined to change that, the plush heat of his mouth pressed up against me sending me towards the edge more quickly than I thought possible. My toes were curling as his tongue circled teasingly around my entrance, my chest heaving as Harry dragged his tongue up to my clit and I pushed my hips against him. He was good, always so good at this, but this was all so long and drawn out, like I’d been waiting forever for this, and now that it was happening it was impossible to pretend like every swipe of his tongue was driving me mad.

I whined when Harry brought his finger up, sliding it easily into my wetness, bring his lips back as he pumped it in and out a few times, waiting until I was grinding my hips down on his hand before putting in two and place his mouth back on my centre. I wasn’t just glowing, I was sweating, unable to keep my body still as Harry crooked his fingers and it built up and up, my eyes squeezing shut because it was all too much.

I came with a raw cry, Harry unrelenting with his lips and fingers as he worked me through it, a hand coming to press against my stomach because of the way I was squirming underneath his touch. Emerging out of it, I kept my eyes closed, running my hands back up my sternum, feeling the sweat there but not caring because of who relaxed and loose and utterly content I felt, like I could just melt into the bed.

“That was good, yeah?” Harry asked, coming up beside me, running his hand up the same path that mine had just taken.

I opened my eyes to turn my head to look at him, lips wet and shiny even though he’d probably already wiped his face with the back of his hand. He looked smug, but flushed himself, sweat already beading at his temples as he looked to me for feedback.

I was pretty sure from my boneless state on the bed he could tell I was more than satisfied, but I still humoured him, managing to mutter “You’re the fucking greatest.”

As always, Harry lit up at that, ignoring the heat that was caused by our bodies pressing together to press a quick kiss to my mouth. I could feel him against my thigh, so I reached down to take him in my hand, Harry biting reflexively at my neck as I gathered the wetness at his tip as spread it down, though he didn’t need much to be hard and ready for me.  

“You’re also the—fuck—the fucking greatest,” he parroted back, unable to do much more than that as I thumbed the head, feeling the way his abs tensed against me with teach stroke.

Harry moved his hand back to my centre and began to slowly move two fingers up and down, and it wasn’t long before the two of us were both panting, both from our hands and from the heat.

“If you don’t get in me soon, I’m gonna pass out from the heat,” I muttered against the salty skin of Harry’s neck, his body only half draped over me already causing me to overheat.

“Do you need a water break?” Harry asked, smirking, dipping his fingers inside and making me squirm underneath him.

“Get a condom, otherwise the only way you’ll be able to cool off is with a cool shower,” I threatened, and Harry got the memo, leaning away from me to grab one. I still had to at least maintain that I was kind of mad at him for the stunt he’d pulled during the call.

My head shot up when I felt Harry grasping my ankle and pull me towards where he was standing the edge of the bed. His California King bed was raised high off the ground, hitting the tops of his thighs.  “What are you doing?”

I trusted Harry implicitly, so I didn’t resist as he brought one of my legs to rest up against his shoulder. “’S too hot to have you on top of me or me on top of you,” he said, voice in a low tone that emerged when he got like this, eyes drinking me in as he moved to place my other leg over his shoulder, so my hips were just at the edge of the bed.

My arousal spiked even before Harry’s hands were grasping my hips, lifting them off the bed and lining me up with him before he slammed into me, brushing against my spot on the first stroke, and I knew I was in the trouble.

It was the best sort of trouble, as my hands uselessly grasped at the sheets and I tossed my head, Harry maintaining all the control as he thrust into me. From my position I had the perfect view of the sweat trickling down his neck and over his chest tattoos, brow furrowed in concentration, could see the way his ringed fingers dug into my hips as he rocked into me again and again.  

Harry liked to usually have his hands all over me, but he needed to keep his hands on my hips. It was overwhelming in a entirely different way, winding me up more quickly than I thought possible as I moaned out his name over and over again. I brought one of my hands up to clutch at my own breast as I rushed closer closer closer, Harry’s rhythm unrelenting as his thighs hit my ass with every thrust.

This angle let him hit deep and hard, my body burning from heat and arousal, teetering on the torturous edge that I could never quite seem to get over without some pressure on my clit. Harry must have been able to tell how close I was, my gasps with each thrust increasing in pitch, but it was then that he chose to stop, pulling out and dropping me back onto the bed.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, resisting the urge to put my own hand between my legs and finish myself off, because I was so hot and sticky I didn’t know how much longer I could take it.  

I expected Harry to find my frustration amusing, but instead he stared down at me, pupils wide and his chest heaving, glistening with sweat. When he looked at me like that, I knew he was nowhere finished with me, and heat surged through me, replacing the frustration I’d previously felt.

“Turn around, Leigh,” he said. I knew it was more a request than a command, but the way he said it turned me on even more as I slipped my feet onto the floor, legs shaking underneath me, but Harry was quick to grasp my waist as I turned around and rested my elbows on the bed.

Harry was slow this time, my back arching to adjust the angle as he slid in inch by inch, the new angle filling me just as much but in a different way. As soon as Harry started moving against, the coil in the pit of my stomach was back, tightening and tightening and driving me crazy.

This wasn’t one of our usual positions, but it minimized the amount of skin to skin contact we had. I reached behind me to grasp at Harry’s hip and I could feel how slick his skin was, my hand slipping as I rocked back against him and took control of the pace.

His hands were on my ass, nothing teasing about any movement as he quickly brought me back to where I’d been before, his breath getting heavy behind me as mine did the same.

I started gasping his name over and over, my mind too overwhelmed to do much else, and Harry understood, skin sticking to mine as he leaned over and slid his fingers over my clit. With a couple of quick, firm circles I was crying out, Harry’s hand on my waist the only thing keeping me from collapsing as wave over wave pulsed through me. Maybe it was the heat or maybe Harry was just that good, but my orgasm went on and on, thrumming through me powerfully.

It was hard to focus on not going limp as Harry’s thrusts became erratic behind me as I came back down, grip on my waist tightening as he came undone himself, gasping out “Leigh” over and over again.

He finally stilled, the only sound in our room our shaky breathing and the fan going behind us as Harry ran one of his hands over my back in a soothing gesture, where my shoulders were shaking from holding my weight. After he pulled out, I only had the energy to crawl up the bed, and dump my sweaty body on the mattress, sighing in relief once I felt the fan’s breeze on me, breezing over my stomach and face.

A few moments later, my body bounced off the mattress as Harry flopped down beside me on his back, his bun haphazard at best, skin shiny with sweat and cheeks flushed. He crawled his fingers toward me and picked up my hand, the most innocent gesture either of us done in the past few minutes. It was also the only way I wanted to touch Harry right now, every other part of my body overheated and overworked, but I was glad for the touch all the same.

“Still—mad at you—” I managed to say between breaths, but I was too hot to consider even moving to hit him to emphasize the point, instead just relishing in the breeze of the fan.

“Mad enough to—not join me in the shower?” Harry asked, and there was a certain satisfaction in hearing that he was as breathless as I was.

“I would say yes, but—we really should conserve water.”

#ndp drabble #harry styles smut #figured i might as well throw that in there #i just skimmed this and man what a missed opportunity for some dirty talk #anyway! #here you go anon! #any new followers who may not have known: yes i used to write fic lmao

[hforhonesty]

Book Review #1 | Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

“Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.” [official synopsis of the book]

Full title: “Carry On: The rise and Fall of Simon Snow.”

Or, as I often refer to it, the death of me.

I can already hear my friend A. complaining that I read this book at least twice a year – which is odd, I get it, but I also can't help it. She says that I'm obsessed with it...

... She’s right. But there's a reason if the motto of my brand new blog is "H for Honesty", so I promise that I won't let my obsession take over the review. Scout's honor!

Anyway, we have to straighten some things out before we settle down to work, since I know that there are people out there who are not appealed by this book because of its similiarities with the Harry Potter Saga.

The Chosen One and the prophecy themes, the analogies between characters such as Penelope Bunch and Hermione Granger, the Drarry vibes, the English school of magic...

So if you want to complain about these similiarities, then stop reading, watching tv shows and movies or even breathing because, guess what?, it's literally impossible not to be influenced by others, especially if you are a writer.

I think that inspiration is good; it means that you've reached the heart of your readers and left a permanent mark on it. As a wanna-be writer I can only aspire to do such a great thing as inspiring someone to the point that they want to share their own stories.

Speaking of Rainbow Rowell being inspired by Jk Rowling, well, it doesn't mean that she plagiarised her work – far from it. Rainbow's World of Mages is something fresh, modern, unexplored. It has cliches just like any other great story, but instead of running in circles it goes beyond them.

This is why the first character I want to introduce is Agatha Wellbelove, who’s supposed to play the role of the protagonist’s love interest. I’m gonna be honest with you guys – I didin’t like her at first, like not at all.

It’s hard to explain without spoiling the book but I’ll try my best, alright?

Agatha is the only daughter of one of the richest and most important families of the world of mages. Her father is a doctor and her mother is very invested in the social part of their community, hence the charity works such as having poor, orphan Simon stay at their house during Christmas break.

Beautiful, popular, kind. She had to be all these things for her whole life because everything had already been set up for her. Even her relationship with Simon was inevitable. I know it’s silly but think of Shrek: like Fiona, she had to play the role of the damsel in distress locked in the highest tower of the castle, awaiting for her knight in his shiny armour... only to be his reward at the end of the story, when the magical war is over... if he manages to survive.

But Agatha is more than that.

“Lucy disappeared?” I say.

“Worse,” Mum says. “She ran away. From magic. Can you imagine?”

“Yes,” I say, then, “no.”

She wants to spend time with her normal friends, go to a normal school, be a normal person without the burden of magic on her shoulders. But she can’t, of course, because everyone would think that she’s insane, so she’s stuck in a world where she doesn’t belong.

Magic is a religion.

But there’s no such thing as not believing – or only going through the motions on Easter and Christmas. Your whole life has to revolve around magic all the time. If you’re born with magic, you’re stuck with it, and you’re stuck with other magicians, and you’re stuck with wars that never end because people don’t even know when they started.

I honestly didn’t understand her character at first, because c’mon, if someone came to me and told me that I could attend Hogwarts/Watford and have magical powers if I wanted, I wouldn’t even hesitate to answer hell, yeah. But this is another matter, ofc.

The point is that Rainbow Rowell’s characters are what I’d like (and dare) to define «the apotheosis of relatability». They are not just fictional characters. When they think, when they talk, when they act... they seem extremely human in my head, they seem to bloody exist, as if they weren’t made of paper...

I think that this effect is mostly due the fact that the book was written in first person singular. Yeah, I know that most people avoid this type of point of view like the plague, but believe me when I say that Carry on is 100% worth it.

Every chapter mirrors the thoughts of the main characters, from Simon’s to the Mage’s, and is shaped by them. For instance:

When Simon is talking, his words are articulated in short and/or mostly broken sentences.

He doesn’t reply – he must still be working up to a bluster.

Snow blusters like no one else. But! I mean! Um! It’s just! It’s no wonder he can never spit out a spell.

When he’s thinking, the pages are filled with long and elaborated phrases, which can be seen especially in the first chapters of the book;

Baz, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. He comes up with the most complex sentences when he’s speaking, while his thoughts are often interrupted by the use of round brakets, which is undoubtedly of my favourite features of his chapters.

So even though he seems this cool and charming and extremely confident and super duper talented and handsome magician, this is just his façade. In reality, he’s the type of guy who would rather be alone during meals because he’s too self-conscious and doesn’t want his family to see the fangs that come through when he’s eating.

It’s no secret that Baz is very secretive when it comes to his feelings or anything that concerns his private sphere, as he always weighs his words before he speaks up. But when the crosstalk is between him and Simon, there’s literally nothing in the world that Baz loves more than teasing him.

“I know what you are,” I snarled.

His eyes locked onto mine. “Your roommate?”

I shook my head and squeezed the hilt of my sword.

Baz stepped into my reach. “Tell me,” he spat.

I couldn’t.

“Tell me, Snow.” He stepped even closer. “What am I?”

I growled again and raised the blade an inch. “Vampire! I shouted. He must have felt the force of my breath on his face.

He started giggling. “Really? You think I’m a vampire? Well, Aleister Crowley, what are you going to do about that?”

I love the dynamics between Baz and Simon because their relationship is so genuine and thriving, absolutely compelling. You can see the deep impact that they have on each other from page one. Yes, they are roommates (oh my god, they are roommates), but they are enemies too, so they don’t really know how to deal with each other beyond their rivalry, especially when they have to team up against a common enemy.

These dynamics are way funnier when you consider that they concern a third character too. Yes, this is the moment I introduce you to the person that was recently hospitalized due to severe back pains caused by the burden of carrying Simon Snow’s bullshit on her shoulders from day one: Penelope Bunce.

She told me later that her parents had told her to steer clear of me at school. “My mum said that nobody really knew where you came from. And that you might be dangerous.”

“Why didn’t you listen to her?” I asked.

“Because nobody knew where you came from, Simon! And you might be dangerous!”

“You have the worst survival instincts.”

“Also, I felt sorry for you,” she said. “You were holding your hand backwards.”

As you can see, I love Penny. She’s clever, she’s talented, she’s this amazing young woman who is not afraid to walk with you toward eternal damnation or help you hide a corpse or do both at the same time. Because she’s all that – and more than that. She’s everything.

Penny is the kind of person who, right after you say that “curiosity killed the cat”, would rejoin that “satisfaction brought it back”. She is exactly the character that I needed as a role model during both my childhood and my adolescence: stubborn, curious, terribly ambitious... For some time I had been convinced that these were negative traits, but it’s mostly thanks to Penny that I’ve started to realise that they are good qualities instead.

I see a lot of myself in Penelope, and I could never thank Rainbow Rowell enough for creating her characters.

I could never thank Rainbow enough for writing about this amazing world and sharing it with us. And I will never stop thanking her for deciding to give us a sequel, Wayward son.

In the meanwhile, thank you. Yes, you: the person reading this review. I hope you enjoyed it! If so, follow me for new pieces :)

With love,

M.C.

P.S. I apologise for the inappropriate use of the editor but it appears that tumblr hates me.

P.P.S. My friend A. says hi – and wants you to know that the only reason she can stand the Mage is because his name is David... you know, like David Dobrik. I can’t even.

#carryon #carry on #simon snow #baz pitch #rainbow rowell #rainbowrowell #world of mages #waywardson #penny bunce #the mage #magic #review #spoiler free #snowbaz #chosen one #fantasy #lgbtq #drarry #harry potter #hogwarts

[delirious-comfort]

Cissamione Fic Recs

COMPLETED

@rubikanon‘s Extinction.

Post-war adventure across the British countryside, Hermione accidentally falls in love with Narcissa Malfoy, classified missions and intrigue and dementors oh my, Ron isn't a jerk (what! unheard of!), slow burn romance with a Serious Plot.

Marvelous story. Highly recommended. Rubik is excellent at world building. 

@menzosarres‘ Glass Silence

In another world, Hermione Granger never attended Hogwarts. Orphaned at age three, she grew up supporting her low-income adoptive family who hadn't the means to pay for her education. Desperation and a chance encounter lead her into the employ of the three Black sisters. She finds herself caught in their deadly web, helplessly waiting to see who will reach her first. H/B, H/N, H/A.

So not entirely Cissamione, but still incredibly worth it. It’s Bellamione endgame, but still tells the story of Hermione with Andromeda and Narcissa. If you want the Cissamione ending, go here right after chapter 22. (But if you want to experience the entire thing, read all of the chapters because they’re extraordinary.

Rattlesoft’s Love in the Eye of a Storm 

After the war, Narcissa Malfoy spends all of her time holed up in Malfoy Manor. Growing more and more dissatisfied, she takes a holiday to a mysterious island that promises no contact with the outside world. There, she encounters someone else in similar circumstances and a threat straight from her nightmares.

This one has a slight horror tag and it’s not wrong to have that tag.

In Progress

@naralanis‘ Perhaps

Hermione Granger, Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, gets a new co-worker: Narcissa Black.

I know an entire discord sever that’s entirely gaga over this story ;)

@intheinkpot‘s From Heads Unworthy

Unable to destroy Nagini, Harry dies at the Battle of Hogwarts. Hermione saves Narcissa from Voldemort's wrath, and now it's up to them to figure out how to destroy the snake and bring Voldemort down. Told as a series of drabbles and one shots.

Look. He killed Harry and I’m still not over it. 

@rubikanon‘s Prada Kedavra

Narcissa Black is editor-in-chief of Blacklist, the premier fashion magazine for British witches, in need of a new second assistant. She's tried hiring the stylish, airheaded pureblood girls and always ends up disappointed. Maybe it's time to take a chance on the smart, slouchy mudblood.

Glorious title. Glorious story.

SoaringJe’s Fractal Perspectives (I dunno which Tumblr you are *hides)

What must it be like, to be surrounded by your peers and kinsmen, to hear only their interpretation, to know only one side of a story...

What must it be like, if that changed...

A+ on the title and a very promising start!

There’s quite a few stories that I haven’t read due to my unwillingness to read stories with certain tags, but that are quite popular so it’s well worth to go through ao3/ff.net to find other stories. 

I know @shadowdianne has written some great one shots for Cissamione which you can find here.

And I’m probably missing out on a lot of other stories but my brain isn’t functioning fully so don’t be offended if you’ve written Cissamione and I haven’t added you. Just reblog this and add your story to it?

And to @siakb if you ever decide you want to read Bellamione, I can rec you those too, but so can @yaminoendo who will probably do a much better job! 

#cissamione #I feel like I'm missing at least 20 stories #but I can't think of them #sorry #I tried

[nandalorian]

So. I wasn’t going to post about Roswell, but now I am, so buckle up because this is going to be a long one.

A lot of people on Tumblr, Twitter, and the wider internet have, over the last few days, very intelligently posed criticisms of Roswell’s representation of POCs and queer characters in the context of Malex. While I have to be upfront about the fact that the problematic writing has made me apprehensive of seeing the show through to its next season, I’ve been pretty quiet on that front as I gather my thoughts and figure out what I need to say. As a white woman, I am upset and dismayed by the token and tone-deaf representation, but I feel like that’s not mine to speak to when there are a lot of people of colour in this fandom who can and should take this opportunity to explain, criticize, and educate the rest of us on how the show has failed and how it must do better. In that regard the most worthwhile contribution I can make is to listen and amplify those voices and their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and insights about the negative and at best lazy representation of people of colour on the show.

But as a bisexual woman and a professional writer and editor, I am in a position to criticize the queer representation from a political and social standpoint, but also a creative one. I am going to break this post up into two parts because there’s a lot I want to address about two separate issues, and I think the waters will get muddied if I try to combine it into one post. So let’s talk about Malex first, which is the subject about which, oddly enough, I feel the most calm. Depressed af, but mostly calm.

More under the cut.

A lot of people have already written about Malex or Tweeted Carina and the production team far more eloquently than I can manage, but the thing is, while I do have issues I’ll get into in a sec, I... actually think they have done a good job of writing Michael as a bisexual man and Alex as a gay one. That isn’t a popular opinion at the moment, but hear me out, because I have a lot more to say on the subject of bisexuality that doesn’t concern Michael Guerin. The show’s struggle isn’t entirely that their politics are bad. I do think the intentions are mostly good--mostly--but what I want to speak to is the breakdown between intentions and how those intentions translate to the screen through the medium of writing, direction, and the actors’ performances.

I don’t want to dismiss or disregard anyone who feels differently since that view is also totally valid and a lot of people have raised very fine points to that end. This is just my interpretation, so take it with a grain of salt and feel free to disregard or not. But my take is we can’t boil down the show’s issues to saying oh it’s biphobic or homophobic where Michael and Alex are concerned. I don’t think it is, not inherently.

The show’s struggle is that the writing is often so sloppy, rushed, and disjointed that it’s impossible to tell whether they don’t fully understand what positive queer representation is and what it isn’t, or if they just don’t know how to do it justice on TV. Perhaps it’s a combination of both, and right now I’m not writing off either possibility.

But I’m inclined to think it’s the latter. To be clear: the Malex/Maria triangle is shitty writing because love triangles frequently are, and they’re really, really difficult, if not impossible, to get right. The reason I think so many of us are up in arms about it is because the show rushed and stumbled its way through a 30-second supercut of Alex and Michael’s relationship from the word go, just enough to get us hooked before abandoning it for something else.

We’re pissed because it’s like they got us addicted to black tar heroin and then took away our fix just as the night sweats and shaky hands started to kick in, and at this point my life since episode 1x11 has been like a bad Trainspotting withdrawal montage. I don’t think they have intentionally baited us, although that is what it feels like. It’s taken a lot of angst and going back and forth on my part to arrive at this conclusion, and I will say I still waffle about it some days. But bad writing is bad because it pulls unintentionally negative reactions from people due to being misunderstood, or from creating all these wild implications the writers didn’t necessarily intend or realize were present in the final product.

The fact that Carina has to take to Twitter to explain each episode to viewers shows the quality of the writing or lack thereof. If it were stronger, she wouldn’t have to do that, but the show suffers from chronic exposition, incredibly bad pacing, and an overreliance on plot devices to advance the story rather than gradual and necessary character development. Sorry if that’s harsh, but the editor part of my brain sometimes wants to weep during episodes of Roswell. Oftentimes a bunch of shit will happen in an episode that doesn’t even progress the story, leaving us or the characters at exactly the same place they started off.

In short, everything happens too much. The characters feel like they have no agency because they are always reacting to one thing after another every episode, not even a second for them to breathe and be and let us see who they really are when the world isn’t on fire. And that’s all the characters, not just Alex and Michael, although arguably we have a bit more insight into the primary characters like the Pod Squad and Liz. But really, everything suffers as a result. The characters seem thin or underdeveloped and the sense of urgency, tension, and risk disappears even from theoretically high-stakes scenes like a live shooter at a hospital because we don’t get to see who the characters are in their normal lives. We don’t fully know what’s important to them before the next explosion happens.  

Adversity is a helpful writing tool because it can show us who characters are under a certain set of high-pressure circumstances, but boredom and normalcy is just as important for character development. You can’t tear down what we don’t know exists. Star Wars: A New Hope wouldn’t have been half as effective if we hadn’t seen Luke Skywalker in his day-to-day life before that simple life was upended and he got the call to adventure. The first stage of the hero’s journey is necessarily the boring part because we can’t cross from the known to the unknown world without seeing what the known world is.

We never really… get that with Roswell. Not even for a second. So of course we feel cheated of bisexual or gay representation in the show because we never actually get to see Michael and Alex in any kind of sustained relationship, healthy or not. It’s just conflict conflict conflict with a bit of sex and longing gazes thrown in, followed by more conflict and then the relationship ending in favour for a new one. All hat, no cattle. (Literally.)

With Michael we get to see some of his routine and him being himself with his family, etc., and a lot of that has to do with the incredible performances Michael Vlamis delivers week after week, although even then, that suffers. Rather than start us off slow and building relationships from the ground up, the season begins in conflict, so that it has the effect of it seeming like the town of Roswell has been vacant for 10 years and everyone moved back in the same day and started catching up on each other’s lives after a decade apart. You don’t get the sense that anyone really talks to each other, even though most of them have been living in the same place their whole lives. Every single relationship, from Isobel and Michael, Max and Michael, Max and Isobel, even Maria and Michael, could have been strengthened if they’d taken more time to lay that groundwork ahead of the conflict. Especially Maria and Michael! Imagine how much better this season would have worked if they’d had an existing relationship, friendship, or flirtation before Alex got back. By this point we’d be nodding and probably going, “Okay, I get it. I might not like it, but I get it.”

Alex by comparison is a total cypher where his background and his day-to-day life is concerned. We know almost nothing about him outside of his history of abuse, his tragic backstory with Michael, and his role in helping to uncover the mystery about the fourth alien. Yes, we’ve gotten to see that he is blunt and fiercely loyal to his friends, and he has serious issues with needing to be in control, which are all valid from a character development standpoint. I have come to desperately crave any and all scenes with him and Kyle because that seems to be when we get the most significant moments of character insight like that wonderful “I’m talking about a conversation, not a war” moment. But how much else do we know or understand about him that is canon, not fans’ headcanon?

Furthermore, the lack of context and representation around Alex’s disability as a veteran, amputee, and potentially as a PTSD-sufferer is really dangerous and feels like tokenism. The way they’ve written the existence of his injury feels inconsistent, and while showing his residual limb during a love scene was significant, they ruined any goodwill we might have developed toward them for that by simply never engaging with his disability again. Same with the fact that he is of Indigenous heritage, which we know FROM A TWEET but which the show has never actually engaged with explicitly, in a move taken straight from the J.K. Rowling Book of Bogus Representation. We don’t quite have enough information to know yet whether this is tokenism or bad writing, in Alex’s case, although I sincerely hope it isn’t the former. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, though, my hopes aren’t high, because it kind of feels like the writers want credit for representation when they haven’t actually done the legwork (yet?).

Maria suffers a similar lack of character development, and what started off promising when we got great scenes with her, Liz, and Alex and then met Mimi has quickly deteriorated to her being nothing more than Michael’s new love interest. As a woman of colour, that is lazy and shitty on multiple levels, and I just about hit the ceiling in 1x11 when they not only showed a black woman being drugged and her body used against her will--could you be more tone-deaf to those implications?!--but had two white women (Jenna and Isobel) accusing Maria of being a murderer to another WOC (Liz). Maria’s very thin character development in the latter half of the season has had the dual effect of making us feel like we’ve been cheated out of a relationship we have gotten attached to but haven’t been given time to fully appreciate or understand (Malex) and thrust into a new one that feels weak, arbitrary, and rote by comparison.

I actually don’t object to the idea of Michael and Maria as a couple. They have great chemistry. But I do object to the lack of development they’ve given us on either front, either Michael/Maria or doing serious justice to Malex as a ship. To think all of that could’ve been solved if the writers had slowed down the show’s pacing and actually given themselves and the characters time to breathe and get to know each other, and us them.

What I feel a lot of straight/white/cis/able-bodied writers don’t seem to understand is that representation takes care. It’s great to say you’re going to write a diverse show and have lots of representation, but it’s for naught if you don’t also understand that you can’t write diversity in the same way you’d write a character coming from a place of privilege, be it racial, socioeconomic, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. Part of that privilege is having a lot of generally positive understanding and assumptions about those characters already built in, especially from your viewers who share that privilege. Writing diversity takes WORK, a lot of attention to detail, sensitivity, and most of all the ability to listen. It takes a lot of consultation with people who have those experiences and know what they’re talking about, because the experiences, assumptions, and biases of nondiverse writers just can’t fully capture what minorities know and live every day of their lives. To do otherwise is how we arrive at whitesplaining, mansplaining, straightsplaining, etc. If you’re a white/straight/cis/able-bodied person and think you’ve done enough to positively represent your diverse characters, that probably means you need to do more. It’s not for you to judge how much is “enough.” That’s for your consultants and, most importantly, your viewers. And if those people are telling you you’ve missed the mark, the next best thing you can do is stfu and listen to them and try to learn how to do better, not get defensive or start patting yourself on the back for everything else you’ve done.

I think those principles can be applied to all the representation on the show, including that of POCs, the differently abled, and the queer characters. I think the writers have done enough with Michael and Alex as queer characters on their own, but they’ve missed the mark on doing enough with them together. Because--and I know this will come as a shock--part of writing queer characters is also giving us well fleshed-out queer relationships. They started off down that road, but at some point the road abruptly ended and left us as viewers feeling stranded in the middle of a desert. That’s uneven writing that results in a feeling of uneven representation, and as far as viewers are concerned, it amounts to the same thing.

Carina’s attempts to explain why they’ve done nothing wrong to viewers via Twitter and social media is sheer intentional fallacy. And while we’re at it, I’ve spent a lot of this season wanting to take Twitter away from her and throw a copy of “The Death of the Author” at her head instead. It’s not enough, Carina. What you intended isn’t enough if it’s not there on the page or visible to us on the show. As a writer she should understand that, but instead she is getting defensive of her abilities as a screenwriter and showrunner when fans pipe up to say whatever she intended isn’t translating properly. We aren’t seeing that representation, which means the writers need to do more than what they think is “enough.”

Add into that a rushed, arbitrary love triangle with an underdeveloped black female character and an underdeveloped gay POC with a disability, especially when those two characters are also best friends whose relationship is severely threatened as a result, and there’s no wonder why viewers are up in arms about this. I don’t think the love triangle makes Michael seem like an indecisive or promiscuous bisexual--and anyway, since when is being promiscuous a bad thing. It just makes him and Maria seem careless of Alex’s feelings and like Alex is the victim, which they could have avoided by taking their time with the characters/relationships, especially the vulnerable ones, or by avoiding such a lazy and unnecessarily dramatic trope in the first place, or at the very least establishing the characters and their relationships enough that our current situation felt more organic.

So really this kind of leaves us at an impasse, I think, as fans. I think people ought to keep speaking up to Carina if they think that will help, but I think it’s also important for us to be able to separate bad politics from bad writing, or at least be able to engage with them as separate things that occasionally (or frequently) overlap with disastrous consequences. I’m sure there are a lot of people who will disagree with this utterly, and that’s fine. Could be I’m totally wrong, and I am aware that I’m probably giving the writers too much credit about what they may or may not have intended.

But with regards to Alex and Michael, maybe it will help to understand what’s happening from this standpoint and tailor our approach accordingly. We really can’t take it upon ourselves to make demands upon the show in terms of what story they want to tell, but we can certainly complain when they aren’t telling that story effectively or when it alienates viewers, especially on points of diversity and representation.

But I don’t know. It could be the only way to make ourselves heard, to tell the writers when they are and aren’t doing “enough,” is to vote with our time, attention, and viewership, whether that means continuing to watch the show or stopping altogether. And that’s kind of a bummer, because there was a lot of potential. But if the quality of the storytelling is unable to make heard the voices and experiences it ought to, especially with such a receptive, enthusiastic audience, then maybe it’s time we start looking for other shows that do a better job, or better yet, continue to keep telling and creating our own.

Those are just my thoughts. Please feel free to discuss with me in the comments or via DM, because I’m still talking through this stuff and welcome the conversation and any alternate or opposing viewpoints.

I’ll be back in a bit to share a second post with my far less forgiving thoughts about Roswell’s representation of queer female sexuality, because that one’s a doozy and the gloves come off. Sorry not sorry in advance.

#roswell new mexico #malex #alex manes #michael guerin #meta #biphobia #representation