#this fic takes me forever to write because i have to jam so much lore into it
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Beneath the Blue Moon - Chapter 9
Gibbous
Oh hi. Happy 2024. Yes, I'm still working on this. Let's play sad lore retrospective with Jaina for a bit.
4643 Words
Read it on Ao3!
Do you know the ache, how the bitterness tastes to me?
It makes my heart run cold
But when I hear your name I get lost in the memory
Of the kingdom that we built before
Vereesa Windrunner, unlike her sisters, was petite and always put-together, lacking that air of wildness about her. But, that certainly didn’t mean she had any less of a temper.
Her shrill query of, “You agreed to what?” could be heard throughout the vaunted halls of Proudmoore Keep, and certainly so in the Lord Admiral’s chambers.
“Vereesa, please,” Jaina offered, all the more tired of being the continued voice of reason. “You haven’t let me finish explaining.”
“And you haven’t listened to anything I’ve told you about her,” Vereesa went on.
She paced before the great hearth, having abandoned the seat besides Jaina’s and in front of a roaring fire that sought to stave off the chill of yet another dreary day in Boralus. The rocks glass and the two fingers of good Kul Tiran whiskey within it lay untouched on the armrest of the empty leather armchair, not having been allowed to serve its purpose of tempering this conversation.
Vereesa herself was still clad in the regalia of the Ranger General, though not of Silvermoon or any place at all. Her Silver Covenant were homeless in that regard, so small in number, so scattered in a world where their people had suddenly split into three peoples within a matter of a decade. A blink of an eye for an elf.
Jaina had given little thought to how jarring that might be. Until now, at least.
And it was even more jarring to consider a fourth people among those that were once High Elves--the undead ones.
“That corpse is not my sister,” Vereesa went on in emphasis of this. “I’ve told you myself what I saw when Alleria and I attempted to reunite with her. And now you want to meet her alone?”
Jaina had not intended to share this fact, but it seemed wrong not to. She had assumed that Vereesa came calling to discuss the nature of this new ceasefire, and had been informed as to much of the goings on regarding it. But now, seeing her tread a trench into the floorboards, Jaina wasn’t sure her worry came from ignorance or a greater wisdom.
The third Windrunner sister to be called any sort of General had been on a mission to scout deep in the interior of Zandalar, in a desert region known as Vol’dun. She’d only arrived back in Boralus that morning, and apparently had been quite confused at her troops being recalled from enemy territory due to a ceasefire agreement.
And to say she was incensed about Jaina’s plan to meet with Sylvanas that evening was an understatement.
“Things have changed,” was all Jaina could offer to that.
Because she still wasn’t sure what had changed. Mechanically, yes, Sylvanas had the whole of her soul back and it had changed her dramatically. She’d stolen herself back from death, and in doing so had brought an army of winged skeletons upon the newly combined forces of the Horde and Alliance. She had warned them. She had explained for the whole of the Alliance to hear.
But it still didn’t quite register. Even as Jaina watched those newly blue eyes track her across the deck of the joined ships, before, during, and after the battle against the things she had named Mawsworn. Even as Jaina reached out to her, touching skin that was as cold as she’d thought it to be, and reeling from the feedback loop caused by their renewed soulmate bond, she didn’t understand it all.
It had been easier to say to herself that Sylvanas was dead. Her soulmate was gone. The woman who walked the world in her place was indeed a cruel apparition, a taunting symbol of failure, a banshee wailing for a loss she could no longer comprehend.
The reality, it seemed, was far more complicated. And Jaina felt she deserved a chance to know it. That was why she agreed to speak to her, to attempt this understanding.
Or at least that was how she rationalized it to herself.
Explaining that to the short, burning fuse that was Sylvanas’ younger sister, however, was another matter.
At least it wasn’t the older one.
“And you believe her? You believe what she of all people is telling you?” Vereesa accosted, still making laps around the fireplace.
Now that was a tougher question to answer. The glowing mark on Jaina’s hand told her the obvious, and should have made it as simple as that. But it wasn’t. It never would be.
“You have to understand--” Jaina started, though she didn’t herself.
“She was going to have Alleria and I killed!” Vereesa reminded her.
Jaina knew her version of the story well enough. Her old friend had come to her the night before Teldrassil had burned with a tearful confession. A tale of three sisters, none of whom seemed to be able to see eye to eye, meeting with a common goal to rid their ancestral home of the undead. Or, well, the undead not in control of their actions, as it were.
Vereesa had only wanted some measure of peace, some closure from this meeting. What she got instead was a view of the true faces of her elder sisters, or so she claimed, and a fear of both of them. With tears staining the silvery memorial mark of her own great loss so plain on her face, she had told Jaina she felt both were lost to her.
The accusations of attempted murder had come from a sighting of Dark Rangers, bows drawing and waiting, and Sylvanas’ hand signal to call them off of those shots.
Jaina wasn’t about to make excuses for that. No, Sylvanas would have to explain herself, to her sisters, her soulmate, and anyone else who might care to listen.
Her silence was perhaps what finally made Vereesa stop pacing. She looked up from her feet beneath a curtain of silvery hair to find Jaina starting back at her, and stopped dead in her tracks.
“I’m worried for you, you know,” Vereesa said, hands coming to rest behind her back, shoulders straight as she collected herself. Still every bit as militant as her sisters despite it all. “With what I’ve heard--I can’t imagine how you must feel. If Rhonin were to…”
Ah yes, the great river between them that was Rhonin. Rhonin, who was instrumental in all of this, really. Rhonin, who had worked with Jaina in Dalaran when she was still an apprentice. Rhonin, who managed to finally introduce Jaina to his mysterious elven wife and soulmate, who was usually too busy or too distant to make it to social gatherings in the city of mages. Rhonin, who grinned along with Vereesa as she shook Jaina’s casting hand, turned it over, still held in her own, and remarked that she’d seen that mark before, or at least one strikingly similar, and that she knew someone Jaina just had to meet as soon as she possibly could.
Rhonin, who had died with one last spell on his lips, protecting Jaina with that final incantation. Rhonin, whose ghost was a silvery mark on Vereesa’s cheek for her tears to well in, a constant reminder of loss. Rhonin, who would never stalk the world as an undead abomination for thirteen years, only to come back fully to himself out of the blue and blaze that mark alight again with wild accusations about the cruel nature of death, and paranoia about some cosmic Jailer that were apparently all proving true.
Jaina watched the words fall from Vereesa’s lips, unspoken. Her understanding too, came in silence. If somehow, someway, the same had happened with Rhonin, she would go. She would meet him. She would ask her questions. Even if he had done it all. Even if he had burned Teldrassil, and had his Rangers’ bows trained at his own family. She would go.
Jaina lifted her own rocks glass, draining the remainder of the contents. Two fingers of good Kul Tiran whiskey weren’t going to help her, or help this, but they certainly couldn’t hurt it.
“I’m worried about me too, Vereesa,” she started, setting her glass down and reaching for Vereesa’s to hold it out to her in one of many of this week’s peace offerings. “But I have to go to her. I have to know. Now please, sit down and talk to me about it.”
---
Jaina wondered at whose bright idea it was to build a city on what was essentially a graveyard of a battle where it seemed no one really won.
But, it had been hers. All of it. The city, the battle, the losses. The look in her father’s eyes as she sat idly by, betraying him with inaction. The panic in Rhonin’s as he shoved her through the portal, away from the destruction that would mark the end of the brief existence of the city she’d named Theramore.
And now it was nothing but a ruin, so poisoned with an excess of arcane that even she couldn’t venture far into its remains. Instead, Jaina waited on a rise overlooking the destruction of her own ambitions. She waited to be destroyed again, perhaps.
Those early days in Kalimdor were like fever dream to her still. Bright and hazy and punctuated with the roiling current of emotions she kept at bay with work and duty. After all, one couldn’t get lost in mourning one’s soulmate if one was too busy trying to keep the survivors of multiple ruined nations fed and sheltered in a strange land, right?
As awful as it was, that would have been easier. The finality of knowing that Sylvanas was gone and there was nothing she could do about it was easier to accept. People died. Wars ruined everything. It was simply a fact of life in Azeroth, one Jaina had already known well in her parent’s mourning of Derek.
But she remembered too, and vividly so, the day she found out that her situation wasn’t so clear cut or perhaps so final.
Jaina looked across the debris at the remains of her tower, once a place bustling with people she’d never see again, and memories so evocative they clung to the very stones, crumbled and toppled though they were.
The news had come in a missive from Stormwind, a report of Alliance forces who had held out in Lordaeron, attempting to reclaim the capital of the infested nation from the undead. It was a letter meant to inform of military failure, nothing more. It seemed that Grand Marshall Garithos was poised to retake the city from the demons and undead who controlled it, but had been betrayed by the free undead he allied with at the last moments. Leading them, along with the effort to betray Garithos? Sylvanas Windrunner, of course--now a banshee, but apparently still as cunning as she had been in life, and very much opposed to giving control of the city back to the living.
Jaina could remember the moment she read that name. She could remember the polished wood of her desk, the warmth of the fire crackling in her hearth and the smell of its smoke. Wet wood from the marshlands always gave off much in the way of smoke. She could remember hearing Pained shuffle outside the door to her chambers, booted feet on stone. She could remember the tears that welled in her eyes, the confusion at which she looked through them to her hand, and saw the mark on it was still silver. But the name was there.
Sylvanas Windrunner still existed, in some part, but not any that was meant to love her. And this, Jaina knew even then, was far worse than her just being gone.
She’d searched for every scrap of news from Lordaeron thereafter. Anything she could hear or find or send someone to know on her behalf. From the rumors of sailors--though no Kul Tirans would dock at her port--or the tall tales of neutral goblin merchants; all were equal in value to her, as the truth came in so few trickles those days.
But that truth rang the same every time. Sylvanas Windrunner was out there, undead and angry, rightfully so, but in the wrong way. She fought to keep the living out of Lordaeron. She would eventually come to ally with the Horde. She would be central to bringing the newly dubbed Blood Elves in with her and her Forsaken undead.
And Jaina was always left to wonder what might have happened if, instead of hanging on to scraps of news from others, she had reached out herself.
Though Sylvanas hadn’t reached out for her either.
Their separation across the continents was quite symbolic, really. They would not meet again until the Undercity was attacked. Even then, it was a pained look across the room, one that Sylvanas refused to acknowledge. From then on, Jaina would do the same for her.
That had told Jaina what she already knew. Her love was dead. Their bond was a thing of the past. There was nothing there to be saved, no threads to sew together again.
It seemed as though everything of hers was doomed to end in such bitter emptiness. No, that wasn’t the right word. Just as it was with Theramore here, silent save for the hum of excess arcane and the distant crash of waves, as no birds could brave the damaging magic of the area--Jaina was always left staring out over a ruin of her failures, and they would not look back.
No wonder she didn’t know what to do now that blue eyes stared back at her with a longing she had long since banished in herself.
The sun was setting behind the mountains that separated the wetlands of Dustwallow marsh from the high plains of the Barrens. It painted the waters of the swamp and sea alike a glowing orange--a strange contrast to the pulsing purple of arcane that still clouded the ruins. Jaina herself had taken part in the calculations, along with her fellow members of the Kirin Tor at the time, and she knew exactly how long it would be this way. Centuries was the answer. Far longer than the brief existence of her sanctuary city. This refuge of refugees would be a glowing, dangerous ruin long after any that remembered it as anything else were gone.
A hole in her heart. Another scar upon a world already scarred so deeply, so violently, so quickly.
The Dark Portal had opened when Jaina was three years old. She was busy chasing seagulls on the docks of Boralus then, and had no concept of the changes it would bring to her life. She had no idea how it would bring cities to topple, or dragonfire to rend rifts in the very land, or a giant sword to pierce its heart. She had no idea then, a little blur of blonde hair and energy, that she would never know a life of peace because of it.
And even now that another tentative peace was on the table, and a scar waiting to potentially be healed, she was too wary to trust either.
“You were just another ruin for me,” Jaina said to nothing and no one, for that was all that was left of Theramore.
And the person she’d truly meant the words for hadn’t arrived yet.
Once, in her tower here, Kinndy had touched her mark, sliding tiny fingers over the silvery skin. Gnomes were like elves, and honestly most of Azeroth’s longer-lived races, in their deep respect for the binding of soulmates. Kinndy was young, her own mark still dull and untested--neither bereft of her chance to meet the one she was meant to love, nor yet ready to.
Still she had understood.
“You don’t have to act like nothing’s wrong all the time, you know?” she’d told Jaina that evening, alone with her in the tower.
What had spurred the comment was anyone’s guess. Jaina couldn’t remember the context. Maybe she’d looked especially tired that day. Maybe she’d let herself doze into the spell tome they were going over together. Maybe she’d let the distance she felt from herself catch up to her eyes.
“What do you mean?” had been her question.
Kinndy had patted the silver skin of her hand, the dull shine of the moon. “You have to be sad. I mean, I know you are. It’s okay to be sad sometimes, especially when you have reason to be.”
Reason after reason after reason would pile onto Jaina. She attracted them like a magnet did iron. Like honey for flies. And now the bright spark of a girl and her pink pigtails and goofy little smile were another thing for Jaina to mourn. Another memory she felt could never be given the justice it deserved.
Tears, even, that Jaina could not shed. For if she cried for Kinndy, then it was wrong she didn’t cry for Pained. For Rhonin. For papa. For the soldiers that had looked to her as their hero, their savior. For the kind vendor that always tossed an apple at her from his cart, and wouldn’t take no for an answer when she tried to pay for it.
Tears she couldn’t even reserve for Theramore, lest they should belong to the people who died in the effort to stop Archimonde in the battle to save this very continent. Even before that, for those who died in the wake of Arthas and his arrogance. Years after that, for those who died with Horde axes in their backs and blood red banners shoved into their skulls. For the Sunreavers she’d slaughtered in her rage at the Purge of Dalaran. For those people on both sides she’d failed during her inaction at the Legion’s invasion, still so deep in that anger that it drove her, for once, to simply do nothing.
What she’d told Kinndy that day had remained true, even after all this time.
“I am sad,” Jaina had said once. “But just because I’m not crying about it doesn’t mean I’m not sad. Life has to go on, even when we lose people in it. It’s our duty to them to carry on. So yes, I’m still very sad, I suppose. But I carry on.”
Jaina Proudmoore always carried on, even as the world crumbled around her, bit by bit. It was the only thing she had left to do.
Her resolve to continue that settled in, only to be shaken by the sound of distant wingbeats, heavy and solitary.
The whiskey she’d downed in her efforts to temper Vereesa did nothing to prepare her for the arrival of her older sister. Sylvanas was a distant speck in the sky, seated atop a giant bat, flying in from the north, from Orgrimmar.
How dramatic. She couldn’t have just had someone portal her in, like a civilized person, could she?
Though Jaina supposed she might have wanted her own time to think, as such a flight might afford. Orgrimmar was not that far to the north, and the bat was fast in its approach. A small measure of time alone was likely as much a luxury for Sylvanas as it was for Jaina. She could not begrudge her for wanting it.
But yes, the bat was very dramatic. Even as the creature landed--sending swirls of dust into the air with one last lazy flap of wings that seemed both too heavy and too small to keep such a creature aloft--there was no lack of drama about it.
Not even in the way that Sylvanas hopped from its back, landing on the ground with graceful ease, then took one step forward, and stopped.
She was about a hundred feet off toward the north, away from the edge of the cliff. Close enough where Jaina could still meet the searching blue of her eyes. The face that was both different and too similar to how it had been in life, now that it wasn’t set in an angry scowl.
No, she looked on in question. She was asking permission, but lacking for the words.
Sylvanas didn’t know what to say to her.
“You might as well come here,” was what Jaina told her for her silence.
In life and in death, there was no doubting Sylvanas was an incredibly beautiful woman. Jaina had not spared her a glance in these thirteen years and the handful of times within them that they’d been in the same room. Her once-lover was a fleeting shadow on the edge of her vision, a ghost in eyes purposely darted away from an abomination that should not be. But now, looking upon her again, really looking, for the second time in as many days, there was no denying she was still beautiful. A beautiful woman from a beautiful family born of a beautiful people.
Not the same way that her sisters were, though. Not rugged and honed as Alleria was, like savage power of the tooth and fang of a great beast. Not petite, organized, and spritely as Vereesa was, her pixie nose up-turned further even in her anger that afternoon, a child’s toy marching in her pacing. No, Sylvanas was in-between them, just as she had been in birth. Neither feral nor fae, yet a little of both. Tall for an elf, but just a hair shorter than Jaina, though she’d say they were of a height if asked. Or she did, back when she laughed and joked with her Rangers.
Back when that skin was golden, dotted with errant freckles from the eternal summer sun of Quel’thalas. Now it was ashen, almost purple in hue. And cold. She had been so cold when Jaina touched her.
But she was still beautiful. In a different way, perhaps. Militant in her march toward Jaina, in her purple armor and its silver skulls. In the wine color of her cape, floating behind her in the wind and the dust that still hadn’t settled from her landing. In the creaking leather of the rest of her kit, clean and shining, no longer splattered with gore and broken feathers from battle.
Such a formal gait could mean only one thing. Jaina felt it loop back from Sylvanas in an anxious, chest-deep confirmation.
She was nervous.
Nervous as she had been the first time Jaina met her. Before she could feel the echo of her tension. She’d read it on her face then. The subtle twitch of long ears. The straining of a striking jawline.
Jaina too, had been nervous, but the feeling had washed away when she’d seen how beautiful the elf who shared her soul mark was. How lucky she was to have her.
And now, ruin for ruin, white hair and bags beneath her eyes, staring out over the closing distance at this pallid, undead version of that nervous woman she’d first met not so long ago, Jaina could not help but think that perhaps undeath didn’t suit anyone so much as it did Sylvanas Windrunner. She was a beautiful ghost. A ruin, but at least one that was striking to behold.
“I had it in my head that you wouldn’t come,” was what Sylvanas finally found the courage to say as she came within arm’s length of Jaina, then stopped again. “That I would fly around and not see you and give up for the dark. But you came.”
“I said I would.”
Truth be told, the resolve to follow through on her word had taken another two fingers of good Kul Tiran whiskey after Vereesa had left. It had taken the tears of Sylvanas’ younger sister, and an unasked for pep talk from her mother that Jaina was already trying to forget. It had taken an hour of staring out over the ruins of Theramore, deciding to stay--deciding that she too was a thing broken, and that a chance to be mended in some small way, was worth taking, even if it was difficult.
Sylvanas reached out a hand, absent its gauntlet. A hand with a wrist beneath it that glowed a brilliant blue in the shape of a moon beset with snowflakes. Yes, Jaina had decided the pattern was snowflakes. She had to have something of it for herself.
She snatched it back. She looked at Jaina, herself a painting of foreign colors. No longer gold, but fiery orange from the setting sun, lavender in her bloodless skin, and blue eyes, not grey.
Changed, scarred, another creature so ruined by Azeroth’s slow spiral, but still beautiful.
“I’m sorry,” was the second thing Sylvanas said to her, as they stood alone on the cliffs over what was once Theramore.
“For what?”
The words sounded so accusatory. Perhaps they should have. For the mana bomb Sylvanas might have stopped from destroying this place. For Teldrassil. For dying. For still being here, despite dying. For dying again after that. She should be sorry.
But Jaina hadn’t meant them like that. She didn’t know how she meant them. Maybe just to know. Maybe just to reconcile the feelings that roiled over their bond. A boiling sense of shame, bubbling up in the throat. A longing that hurt as it gripped the chest. A fear, a subtle thing weighing heavy in the pit of the stomach.
“Everything,” was Sylvanas’ answer.
But that would not be enough. Jaina wasn’t certain what could or would be. There was no apologizing, really. If anything, Azeroth owed them both apologies. Perhaps Medivh for opening the portal. Perhaps Gul’dan for building it. Perhaps Sargeras, for the legion. Perhaps Azshara, for making him aware of this world and its treasures in the first place.
Still, Sylvanas wanted to talk. She wanted to give an apology. She felt so much and so deeply that it bled into Jaina like a dye leeching into wash water. It stained her black.
“I don’t think you came here to list the things you should be sorry for,” Jaina told her.
Sylvanas had not. Perhaps she’d had a plan for what she’d wanted to say. How she’d wanted to say it. When and where. Jaina, it seemed, threw a wrench into these.
Sylvanas reached out again, and let her hand fall empty again.
“I can start, if you like,” she offered.
Jaina didn’t want that. She didn’t wanted a bulleted list, much as she loved organizing such things. She didn’t need boxes checked. She wanted so much from this conversation, but knew she might not get any of it.
Mostly, she wanted to understand why she felt guilty for not reaching for that empty hand. She wanted to know if Sylvanas felt that from her. If she had an answer for it.
Jaina wanted anything to make sense. She was comfortable with ruin and devastation. She knew them well. She understood them. She was an expert at working through grief.
What she didn’t know how to do, though, was rebuild.
“I don’t need that from you,” she told Sylvanas. “But I do want to know what it is you wanted to tell me. Why it is you wanted to meet.”
Jaina supposed she owed it to herself. For Theramore. For Teldrassil. For the sword in the side of Azeroth. For the grief she didn’t have time to feel. For whatever reason. She supposed she owed it to Sylvanas too. Not an apology, as there was no apologizing to be done.
No, she owed her a chance. She owed herself a chance. A chance to do something different, for once. A chance to take the ruins apart brick by brick, and build them up into a new tower.
#sylvanas windrunner#jaina proudmoore#sylvaina#fanfic#beneath the blue moon#this fic takes me forever to write because i have to jam so much lore into it#but that's also fun sometimes#hopefully chapter 10 soon
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answering a bunch of things under the read more.
No, sorry, I know of the game itself but am unfamiliar with the lore and the fandom.
Sorry. I’ve seen a playthrough of one of the games forever ago but it’s not really my jam.
Yeah! Back in the day, Red vs Blue was my jam. I can’t say I’m familiar with any of the newer stuff once they actually started doing their own animation, but if you want something from the original old silly universe then I would be comfortable with that. Sheila is a queen and I would fight Caboose for her.
My first experience with a Kevin Smith movie was seeing Clerks 2 in movie theaters and I did not get the hype then. I think the Jay and Silent Bob characters are fun but otherwise I am not really a fan of his work.
SAD!!!! Honestly, though, I spent so much time on Luna so sad to see what happened to it. A lot of great works were lost. I will forever miss you strangely sexually-charged Valtiel fic. F
I’m genuinely not sure if this was meant to be a request or if you were just telling me in general about the tall dark and handsome dudes in the Gargoyles cartoon but you’re right. Lowkey had a crush on Goliath.
Hey anon! Glad you’re enjoying the blog and sorry for any issues you might have experienced. Honestly, it is impossible for me to say whether the request sent or not because, whether you meant two days or two weeks, I get multiple requests so without any further details there’s no real way of me knowing which one is yours. Still, if you’re nervous it didn’t get through for any reason, you are more than welcome to resend it. If I got the original then there is no problem and I can just delete one of the duplicates.
I haven’t watched or seen it, so as of now I would not write for it. However, it looks interesting enough so I might try watching it sometime in the future. If I like it then I could potentially write for it in the future.
Not really anymore. Trippin’ Balls was in its peak back when I was still writing on Lunaescence and I hadn’t even heard of Tumblr. I’d take requests from people in the reviews and so on. But now that I have a Tumblr and requests are open in general it feels kind of silly to continue taking requests for that specific old series when you can just ask me to write for anyone right here. Though this did remind me that I had a piece on the Ginyu Force that I never uploaded to AO3 (I think I posted it somewhere on this blog but for whatever reason never uploaded it to the actual story on AO3) so I will do that and make it the final update.
You are so motherfuckin real for this 😎✊ Theo fuckers unite!!!!
I am so fuckin sorry fam because I know the pain of being in a small fandom that is desperate for content but I have literally never heard of this in my life. I hope one day an artist you really admire starts posting stuff for you to enjoy 🙏
I’m gonna be real with you, I have never watched a Nintendo Direct in my life. I did hear about them finally announcing the sequel to Breath of the Wild though and if Sidon is in it I will never shut up about it.
Doctor Who is already on my list of series I don’t write for. I have a feeling if I had a normal exposure to Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I would enjoy it, however, the only times I ever caught it on TV the absolute worst/darkest episodes were on. One was an episode where Buffy was in a psych ward because they were doing a whole thing where her life as a vampire slayer was all in her head or some shit. And the other episode I saw had a vampire that ate skin and he would skin his victims alive and I remember him using his sharp nail to cut a slice of skin off his victim and it fucked me up. So, yeah, I never wanted to watch Buffy atter that lol. So no Buffy either.
Eh, probably not. I mean, I watched the first season on Netflix and I enjoyed it but it also didn’t stick with me enough for me to remember anyone’s names. So unless another season releases where it is easily accessible for me to watch it and I am SUPER into it then probably not anytime soon.
You are so real for this. Like, Borderlands is a very dated series but I genuinely enjoyed playing 1 and 2 a couple years ago and I love Claptrap. I felt so bad when no one else came to his party. I will always go to Claptrap’s parties. he is my homie.
I never heard of this and when I went to look it up I was expecting some kind of animated movie or something but it was literally a movie starring Tom Hanks?????? Like, I’m not shocked that you are recommending it as a good movie I was just genuinely so shocked to have a movie with a big star like him completely slip under my radar.
Nah, sorry. I vaguely remember this show running on adult swim for a small amount of time but I never watched it.
Yeah, I mean, I still write stuff for Dragon Ball and Piccolo. I never stopped. It’s just what people are requesting. You are more than welcome to send a Piccolo request my way. But also you guys must understand I have been so explicitly clear in the past about how I headcannon that Namekians don’t have junk so if every request I get is about Piccolo banging the reader with his big meaty cock then I am probably going to feel less inspired to write that since it is just not how I picture him.
I haven’t watched it but he seems hot as far as furries go. But I would probably have to see the movie to get the full context to understand WHY he is so hot because apparently, against all odds, this movie is really good? Or so I’ve heard.
Hard to keep track since I get new requests every day and not everything in my inbox is strictly a request but as of right now my inbox is showing about 177 messages. So, nothing too wild. But I’m also not forcing myself to answer every request if I don’t want to either so right now the numbers are constantly fluctuating and mean nothing.
To be honest, while I have fondness for the old game, I haven’t really paid attention to Overwatch since they dropped the hamster as a character and I stopped actually playing it even earlier. As far as I’m concerned, it stopped being a fun game when you could no longer have a team of all Winstons.
I used to watch it but not religiously or anything. And, honestly, I have no plans of watching it or giving it any support in the future in light of the recent news about Justin Roiland’s domestic abuse charges.
I haven’t but maybe now I will because I am digging butch dino lady.
Sorry, but no. I have browsed past it before in an fye but have never actually watched it.
Okay, so!!!! I think I have watched the first 2 seasons of the show and I would be willing to write my little pony friendship is magic. HOWEVER! No NSFW. And honestly if I write it then it would probably be a shitpost.
I did try it out a long time ago and as a whole I have a lot of mixed feelings because some of the writing is genuinely very good but frankly none of that excuses the overly sexual depictions and drawings of characters who are meant to be children and it is such a shame that this LGBT+ friendly game with some very hot buff furry characters also feels comfortable enough drawing kids with bulges in their pants.
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for the blb fic rec meme: 6 7 8 9?
I'm going to assume this means “fic written during this era” rather than specifically “fic about this era”... either way I'm going to have some pretty obvious answers here I think
6. my favorite fic from the discipline era
Gotta go with @mossy-kit's classic (The Pitcher Must) Throw the Ball for being one of the Dot fics of all time! If you like my Dot fics but haven't read any of Kit’s, you're seriously missing out, because we've always been on the same wavelength with Dot and their writing is absolutely fantastic! I remember reading it for the first time and being absolutely blown away that not only had someone written almost 6k about Dot, it was amazing and so much in line with how I saw them. So of course it (and all their subsequent Dot fics) emotionally destroyed me in the best possible way!
7. my favorite fic from the grand siesta
I know I mention this literally every time I’m recing things but the things we take off for each other truly is the Talkers fic of all time and really does embody Grand Siesta Fic. We did lore jams for all our players at the time and I think this fic was largely born out of that, and in turn ended up influencing further lore! All these beautifully poignant snapshots of how our players are starting to fit together, becoming a team, a family… it's just so very important to me and I love it so much always and forever
8. my favorite fic from the expansion era
@bread--quest's i'm a match, you're kerosene is such a great expansion fic bc it's got that vibe of everything being chaotic and confusing and scary, but also community and friendship and people holding on to each other so they can get through it together!!! The Parker-Reader-Wyatt friendship is such a delight and I love their dynamic in this au so dearly
9. my favorite fic from post-season 24
well not to rec you your own fic but the answer to this is undeniably where the light won't find you and I can't answer otherwise because I just love it so much! The Vault interpretation is just so fascinating and the character dynamics are just. aaaaaaahhhhhhh… Hewitt and Sosa and my beloved York I love them so much I love this fic so much
#these got increasingly incoherent I think. and I'm just getting started. oh boy#not that I'm complaining though I love fic recs I love asks thank you!!!#waveridden#answering moistly#fic rec
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4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?
oooooh this is actually a really fun question because im in the process of planning out the details for the biggest plot bunny ive been carrying for YEARS that i only just recently decided i wanted to actually do something with! the reason i havent written it for so long was bc it is so intimidatingly complex that itll take me forever to write and i didnt want to start something like that back when id only write like once a month at Best, but now that im getting into the groove of writing regularly im like fuck it imma give it a shot even if i dont end up finishing it itll be worth Something i guess.
the plotbun is a fic premise of an mc that travels across universes, from medieval high fantasy type universes to cyberpunk dystopian type universes and everything and anything in between. what makes it even more complex is that beyond the individual worldbuilding for MULTIPLE worlds, in many of them the mc existed in already, so by travelling across dimensions to ones they already had a life in, the two instances of themselves fuse, so they retain the memory and knowledge of both lifetimes but become one body, and cant stay in both realms at once anymore. that's.... the extremely short version, but i have been fleshing out the details lately and it gets incredibly intricate LOL i have an entire glossary im writing with all this lore and ive barely started.
its gonna be one hell of a longfic like at LEAST a few hundred thousand words, another multifandom polycule bc such is my Brand and multiple universes just means the polycule can get even bigger than ever before (as if a 15 person polycule wasnt already insane enough... i kind of have problems i think) as they span across dimensions but also multiple instances of the same person and its just. lord its so convoluted but i am having SO much fun with it bc this universe in its barest bones has been my go-to daydream universe for years now to explain all my individual daydream universes lolololol
anyway its not coming anytime soon bc its still very very early in the planning stages and will be one MONSTER of a jam-packed story, but do stay tuned for that!! the placeholder title rn that i might actually stick with is within the rift. theres a loooootta juicy stuff comin.
writer ask game!
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okay so: fic recs
So this is gonna be really long and rambling (I'm sure), but we start with the basics.
If you're only ever going to read one and only one fanfic in your entire life you have to read Increments of Longing. It's a Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner fanfic, but it's AU enough and so well written, that you probably do not actually need to know anything about Warcraft or World of Warcraft and the respective lore and backstory to enjoy it. Just look at it like a very good fantasy novel about an arranged marriage. [...]“But you would tell me what you want?” Sylvanas asked in a voice that was far too controlled to be truly nonchalant."[...] I could not even tell you why, but this line there from the second chapter? It gives me feels (and I could not even tell you what exactly I'm feeling, but yeah).
Anyway, read it (I've read it twice now)!
Okay, from the same author I also whole-heartedly recommend you search the mountain. Which is another Jaina/Sylvanas story, again AU, with Jaina being Drust. You do not necessarily need background info - there even is a map of Kul Tiras included - but you'd probably benefit from it. Particularly the early chapters, when you get to know Arthur, made me laugh and giggle quite a bit, even though the story itself is - since it's about the Drust and a civil war - a bit of a horror story/military fiction crossover I'd say. Good read.
And my kinda guilty pleasure (also from the same author) is no end in sight. It's a story about Suramar (and healing). And when I started playing WoW towards the end of Legion, shortly before the Argus patch, I absolutely fell in love with that region/city and the Nightborne - probably because I wasn't stuck on the repetitive content of it for forever lol. So this story about Thalyssra and Jaina and the other Nightborne NPCs is awesome. I was actually considering to also write about Jaina/Thalyssra, simply because just imagine the insane magic those two could do when working together (I mean they kinda do in Nazjatar), but knowing me, this will probably never get past the conception stage.
Inevitability is also absolutely amazing (it's another - you probably guessed it - Jaina/Sylvanas AU, with both of them being professors - considering I've been working in academics for the last 15 years that's kinda my jam). And I have a lot of thoughts about it, which for the sake of not boring people to death I'm gonna abbreviate (but well I'm ready to talk people to death if they are interested). One: I'd love to meet this Sylvanas. Two: I'd never have the guts to talk to her, but I'd totally want her to take me home lol (and I'm not even sure I'm gay). Three: life at universities around here is very different from - I'm assuming - the US.
(Also if you're into AUs, go check Fearless - which features witches and ghosts and is fun.)
Okay, so now we're coming to how I actually fell into the whole Jaina/Sylvanas thing. It's because of Daugthers of Sea and Snow. Which is a Frozen/WoW crossover featuring Jaina/Elsa I found by looking through Frozen Fanfics when I was bored around the time Frozen 2 came out and then completely forgot - it was still work in progress then; I found the still open tab in my browser like four to three weeks ago, saw it was finished now and devoured the whole thing. And while I was there, I looked at the other things that author had written - and that's how I stumbled upon Jaina/Sylvanas, like two years late. Which is probably kinda ironic, since I played BFA a lot (mythic raiding beginning with Uldir), loving the Storyline in Kul Tiras and being absolutely enamoured with Jaina especially after her Warbringers vid (I still sometimes humm the song) - and liked Sylvanas since Warcraft III. Sometimes life is weird.
So and after that I jumped down this particular rabbit hole while doing a thrilling backflip. There is an assortment of other stories that I very much enjoyed.
A Touch of Arcane - the first fix of political marriage AU for Jaina and Sylvanas that I got (I think it was actually the first Jaina/Sylvanas fic I read period). And boy did I get hooked to that.
Along the same lines but different are Worth the Trouble and Two Rooms.
If you're into AUs for that pairring, you'll find a lot of intereseting ones from the Author katofthenorth. The one about diving is really cute.
Stories not yet finished that I thoroughly enjoyed so far (most of them political marriage AUs - lol I'm a sucker for those okay, it's not my fault!):
Ink and Honor is amazing. I came for Jaina/Sylvanas, but I love the Thalyssra/Vereesa storyline just as much - it's sooooo cute, like even Genn ships them ^^.
threads of silk.
climb the walls.
Measure of the world. They aren't married (yet, it's a possibility though I'd guess and I haven't even reached the end of the so far posted chapters yet, but enjoyable read nonetheless).
The Lighthouse. Amazing AU, I love the idea - and it's not political marriage! I cannot wait for the next chapters.
I've dug too many holes into this thawing ground. This story gave me a lot of feels too.
Honorary mentions for stories that I'm assuming might never be finished, but are amazing reads.
Shot in the Dark. Fuck that is awesome! Secret agents and spies - okay technically snipers, but it's the feeling that counts, right? (and Tyrande in a suit is a nice bonus).
Trust in Me. Sylvanas as Jainas bodyguard AU.
Okay so... I still have like 250 tabs or something ridiculous open in my browser (that's not overstating it, it's fact, in fact I might be understating it at this point and it could already be 300) and I haven't obviously read all the amazing Jaina/Sylvanas fanfics out there yet, particularly short ones or one shots or series might have gotten lost, since I usually filter for high wordcounts only. So, if anyone feels stuff is missing, it does not mean I didn't like it, it could be I've just not read it yet.
And now for something completely different.
I want to point towards one of the coolest crossover stories/series I've ever read: Felicitas. Which is an Arrow/Highlander/Raven crossover that imagines Felicity as an ancient immortal. And it's just soooooo good, I've been following it for years. (That being said, I never watched Arrow past season 2 and I probably never will considering what I know about how the story of the show continues, I've been burned once with Bering and Wells, I'm not going there again. But that's totally fine, because Felicitas also only goes as far as Season 2.)
And then there's still waters and quiet men. I'm not even sure what to say about it. The sheer lunacy and the insane escalation present in this story should not have amused me as much as it did I think, but I remember laughing tears when reading this, because while it's actually really sad that some people might find this kind of behaviour of male characters in fiction normal, it was abso-fucking-lutely hilarious in my opinion. (That said, I've probably only read it halfway, but still, it's hilarious! Well if you have the same maybe weird sense of humor I have anyway.)
New Beginnings is a FemShep/Liara crossover with Stargate SG-1. So it's combining my favourite TV show with my favourite Videogame of all time. And it's brilliant.
So yeah that's my fic recs for the time being. If you just want a tl;dr, go read Increments of Longing. (I just cannot stress enough how amazing that story is.)
I'm only tagging Jaina/Sylvanas since most fics are about them.
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Hmmmmm... Zhan Tiri?
What I love about them: okay, there’s a lot, but i’ll try to be brief. for one thing, i absolutely love the zhan tiri lore in the show. it’s super open-ended and full of such interesting pieces, and it’s fun to kind of sort through all of it and develop different theories and stories. i also love how ziti was depicted as this eldritch god figure through the legends shared the first two seasons, only for the show to subvert expectations and introduce ziti as the enchanted girl. i spend so much time thinking about reconciling what we see of zhan tiri in season 3 with the rest of the established lore, and it’s really fun to think about
i also just love baby gremlin ziti, and how her demeanor changes over season 3 from a sweet, composed, somewhat-innocent looking little girl when she’s trying to win over cassandra’s trust, to becoming downright feral by the time cassandra’s revenge comes around. she’s just so petty and dramatic, and she’s such a fun villain to watch
(i also can’t talk about zhan tiri and not mention destinies fulfilled; that entire fic was motivated 100% by my desire to see ziti’s character more fleshed out and to explore more of her dynamic of cassandra in early season 3, and how that dynamic changes over time with that extra depth to her character. this story is what i wanted their dynamic in canon to be sO BADLY)
tl;dr: I Just Think She’s Neat
What I hate about them: i did not enjoy her final demon form in the end of PEEV; the design was such a let down, after all of the build up through the entire show.
i am also forever upset that we didn’t get more depth to her character in canon, beyond the the snippets of established lore and handful of interactions we see with her and cassandra. i really wanted her motivation to be more nuanced and have more depth than just “i want the drops because Power, and i want to destroy corona because Demanitus”. it’s frustrating because all of the pieces were there to make her such a compelling villain and they just...didn’t do anything with it
and i remember reading a thing or two about how the writers shied away from giving zhan tiri any depth / clear motivations because they were afraid it would take away from the cassandra & rapunzel storyline that was at the center of the show, and i could see how it would, but still. it would have been fun to see some more depth
Favorite Moment/Quote:
she has so many great lines accompanied by even greater facial expressions, but i think what takes the cake for me is:
“Oh Cassandra; so predictable. Have you learned nothing from me? No matter how formidable an obstacle, everything has its weakness. And I have a gift for finding it.” *twirls with acid and falls through floor*
honorary mention; every scene involving ziti and her boomerang. you have no idea how much i love the fact that the weapon of choice of an ancient, powerful demon is a fucking boomerang dfghgfds, it Kills Me
What I would like to see more focus on: i want to see more stuff focused on her character, and on her background!! zhan tiri is such a central part of the lore on this show, and i’m continually upset that there isn’t more content trying to unpack all of it / more content treating her as a real, fleshed out character instead of just a cardboard cutout villain. i want to see ziti interacting with the disciples! i want to know more about her history with the great tree! and given that canon established that demanitus is an unreliable narrator (re: omitting the fact that he partnered with ziti for this quest), what was the actual story there?? how much truth is there to the legends?? there’s a lot to unpack, and i want to know!!
What I would like to see less focus on: please, i’m begging, less focus on ziti used solely as an angst generator/cardboard cutout villain. she can still be evil and have characterization that’s more than a teaspoon deep
Favorite pairing with: okay. so i know that the common answer is ziti/demanitus but...my thoughts on whether or not this pairing works is based completely on how it’s handled. i hate this pairing when it’s used to drive a “woman scorned” narrative for ziti, but i can kind of jam with the idea of ziti and demanitus kind of recognizing each other as Equals while in pursuit of the drops, then kind of falling in love with the idea of the other but not quite pursuing a relationship, before it all goes to hell and they become bitter enemies. i think if handled right, there’s some interesting stories that could be told with that pairing
also writing destinies fulfilled put the idea of cass/ziti into my head and now it won’t leave
Favorite friendship: cassandra! (re: destinies fulfilled). i wanted their “friendship” in canon to be genuine so badly D:
NOTP: i recently learned about momtiri, and i super do not like the idea of zhan tiri/quirin. the idea of that pairing made my head spin just a little bit.
Favorite headcanon: oh god, i have so many headcanons for her that i forget what’s canon and what isn’t tbh
my favorite headcanon is that zhan tiri never says anything that’s false. sure, she is INSANELY manipulative, and she’s big on withholding information/lying by omission/twisting her words around, but she never says anything that is untrue
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Hello, you have been identified as An Awesome Fic Writer™. Congrats, you rock! So that all of your readers can shower you with some extra love today, please tell us your favourite five stories of yours and why you like them and then send this to another five fic authors you think deserve this title!
okay I hate talking about my own writing because it’s... it’s just eh BUT I’ve been sent this like three different times in the last few weeks so [insert I GUESS! meme]:
5. a lonely hopeyoung justice | spitfire | 1930s au | T | 12kShe is barely sixteen when her world comes crashing down. When her family holds little to their name, and around them, the market burns. When her friends come and go, trying to get by on what little remains of their country. When she falls in love, and it is her biggest mistake—one she never regrets.
God, this is like, the ONE and only thing I’m proud of from my time in the young justice fandom. The rest of my fics were mediocre at best, but this. THIS FIC. I loved it. And as someone who doesn’t really like period dramas, or things set in the past unless they’re like, medieval past, it was pretty big for me. It was my baby, it made people cry, and it was the only time anyone’s ever made me art for something I wrote!! And all the research that went into it was a lot of fun.
4. open the doorteen wolf | thiam | season 7 | M | 35k ongoingAfter the war, things settle in Beacon Hills, and Liam is left to watch over the town with the help of his two best friends, a former hunter-turned-ally, and a grumpy chimera. Then, someone from his past surfaces, bringing along a group of supernaturals they are wholly unprepared for. A week later, five dead residents come back to life, completely unharmed.
This is the only thing on this list that’s still a WIP being posted, but with good reason. I LIVE and breathe excitement for this fic. I went pretty hard into celtic lore for the Big Bad in what is essentially a season 7 fic with the puppy pack, werecats, and the dead brought back to life and I cannot wait for all the twists and turns I have planned. If there’s one fic I have that I’d ask anyone to take a chance on and read, it’s probably this one.
3. three steps from the ledgeteen wolf | thiam | batman au | M | 20kThere’s something afoot in Beacon City, and Scott and Liam must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious new vigilante by the name of Red Hood, who just might be someone from Batman’s past and who seems very interested in his Boy Wonder. Subsequently, old wounds reopen and ancient, once buried memories come into the light, making Liam question everything Scott has taught him. Or, an Under the Red Hood au absolutely no one asked for.
Listen, the batfamily from DC comics is my bread and butter. It’s my jam, okay? There’s so many interesting characters and personalities and they match up SO WELL with characters from teen wolf that I really couldn’t help myself. I love writing superheroes, I love throwing references to canon into fics, and I will never be over how perfect Liam and Theo are as Tim and Jason, especially the arc I took inspo from for this fic. I love this au so SO much, and I’m definitely not done with it yet.
2. just too good to be trueteen wolf | thiam | high school au | T | 56kLiam has the worst luck when it comes to girls. Things just keep crashing and burning. Mason tries to convince him that maybe it’s time to come out, to date a guy instead, but his best friend won’t hear it. So he and Corey decide to find him the ultimate date, someone who’s exactly his type—snarky, tendency to punch people, and tough enough to put up with their volatile friend. Bad boy Theo Raeken is the perfect fit, despite his murky past and caustic personality. And the fact that he won’t do it for free. What could go wrong?
God. GOD. This is the biggest fic I’ve ever written. It started out as a tiny little thing for the romcom day for Thiam movie week but it mutated into this monster that I will love and cherish forever. It’s one of the best things to ever come out of me, and is probably going to hold that title for a long time. Honestly not sure I’mma ever top this. It was so much fun to write, because 10 Things I hate About You was practically made for these idiots, and it’s one of my favourite movies of all time. It was soft, and slow, and it grew as big as it did because writing the friendships between Liam/Mason/Corey as well as Morey with Theo, and Theo and Tracy was a DELIGHT. It’s also the first time I wrote Tara, and Tracy, and is absolutely to blame for my undying love of them both. Oops?
1. take it all awaydc comics | damisteph | timeskip au | M | 30kIt was a mistake—this thing they were doing. It was dangerous and stupid, and they both knew that. But it wasn’t something you could walk away from without consequences, without broken hearts and promises. Without someone vowing to do anything they could to make the pain go away—even if it meant losing everything.
I mean, I said DC/Batfamily was my thing. It shouldn’t really be surprising that the absolute best thing I’ve ever written is a fic for that fandom. My original monster baby, that grew beyond what I had planned for it. I don’t even know what to say, because it’s a fic I enjoyed every minute of. I’d love to go back into that universe, or back to damisteph, because I really did love them. I still do. And writing crime-fighting, ordinary vigilantes with no powers but tons of personal issues in Gotham was a fucking delight.
And that’s it! End credits, close curtain. Nothing else to see here. Those are my top five and I’ve got nothing else. Goodbyeeee
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