#I have identified a recurring theme in my drabbles

[newpathwrites]

Mandomera Week 2022 - Day 3

Prompts: Stargazing/Insecure

Note: This one-shot takes place in my A New Creed Universe and was written for Mandomera Week 2022.  It sort of feels like two different drabbles pasted together… I did my best :-)

No warnings.

Read my Din/Omera backstory here.

Word count: ~900 words

AO3: NewPath3432

————————————————————

“That very bright one… there…” Omera questioned, pointing at the night sky as she leaned further into Din’s side.  “Do you know what star that is?  I’ve never been able to figure it out.”

Din reluctantly tore his eyes from her moonlit face to look up at the stars.  “Uhhh… I’m not sure…”. He paused as if in thought before adding quickly, “Hold on.  I’ll be right back.”

 Omera missed his warmth at her side immediately as he left her to head back into the hut, but true to his word, he returned within moments, fitting one of his previously discarded vambraces back onto his forearm.  He gestured to her as he sat down, pointing to a button on his wrist.  “Hit this one.”

 “I’m not going to set the hut on fire or blow anything up, right?”  She smiled in jest, though absolutely half-serious in her inquiry.

 “No… that's the other side.”  He grinned at her wide-eyed expression before reassuring her gently.  “Don’t worry - it’s safe.”

 She looked away from him and took hold of his forearm before carefully pressing the designated button, flinching a bit in anticipation as she did so.

 But, as promised, no fire burst forth from his wrist, and no explosions ensued…  Instead, Omera was met with a shimmering, holographic display.  It was almost like a work of art - reproductions of the stars as seen from any planet in the galaxy.  Din fiddled with it a bit, putting in Sorgan’s coordinates, and finally, a rough facsimile of their own night sky, labeled in galactic basic, appeared before them.

 “Dank farrik, Din… Your vambraces can do all that?”  Omera examined the images with incredulity.  “I’d forgotten that this sort of technology exists.  We have no need for it out here.”

 Honestly, Din had never thought much about that - how incredible it was that he held maps of the entire galaxy quite literally in the palm of his hand.  He turned to watch her face again as she swiped through the images and compared them to the stars above, enchanted by their beauty.  “Yeah… I suppose it is pretty amazing.”

 They spent quite some time like that, Omera laid back on Din’s torso, lazily flipping through the maps on his vambrace as she stargazed, asking him what he knew of the planets she could identify.

 While of course Din told her briefly of each planet’s climate and life forms, she noted a recurring theme that she hadn’t quite expected.  What he spoke of at greatest length and with the most enthusiasm was actually the people…. It turned out her lover was a bit of an amateur linguist and a student of culture.

 And everywhere he’d traveled, he’d not only learned from these people - he’d befriended them… helped them… respected their ways and earned the same in turn… much as he’d done right here in Sorgan all that time ago.  

 Without speaking, Omera flipped off the maps and pulled his vambrace gently from his forearm, placing it on the porch behind them.  She turned in his arms as he looked at her questioningly before bringing her lips to his briefly and murmuring, “You’re a good man, Din.”

 He stiffened a moment before shaking his head.  “You shouldn’t… I’m not… I’m not a good man… I need you to understand that… before I disappoint you…”. While Din had made a point in recent years to atone for his past errors, the nature of the galaxy was that true goodness was a nearly impossible goal.  He felt more like the lesser of many evils - but an evil all the same.  

 Omera knew his worst transgressions… that was true.  But still, he considered himself just barely good enough to be worthy of her affection, and any day now, she might realize he wasn’t.  Din was not insecure about many things… but this - losing her - was one of his greatest fears.

 But then she looked down as if she was shamed and shook her head solemnly.  “No, Din… Don’t put that on yourself.”  She faltered and looked up to meet his gaze, placing a hand to his chest and taking a deep breath as if in preparation.  “There’s a lot I haven’t told you… about my life before Sorgan… I want you to know… when I’m ready…”

 He didn’t respond, except to lay his hand over hers where it lay against his heart, a gesture of comfort.  Omera continued, “If you knew I’d done really terrible things in my past… would it change how you feel about me now?”

 “No.”  His answer was definitive, leaving no room for any other interpretation.  “The person I know now strives to be good… I wouldn’t fault you for your past decisions.  You did what you had to do - the Empire put us all in that position.”

 She looked at him pointedly.  Oh, he’d just proved her point, hadn’t he?  

 And just like that, his insecurity melted away.  He still feared the reckoning that might come for him one day - his past atrocities returning to serve him the punishment he deserved.  But it wouldn’t be by her hand… Omera would not leave him… And likewise, he wouldn’t abandon her when the time came to speak on her own past crimes.

 “We’re both being better… making it right where we can… together…”  She looked at him with the silent question in her eyes - Din wasn’t the only one feeling insecure.

 He brought his forehead to hers, hand at his chest squeezing her fingers more tightly in reassurance.

 “Together.”

#mandomeraweek2022 #din djarin x omera #mandomera #din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian fanfiction #newpath3432

[gretchensinister]

Nightcrawler

Wishbones walking

Where did you come from, where will you go?

Fresno, Fresno

Wobbling, wandering

I’m wondering, wondering

“10 Videos We Still Can’t Explain”

That’s where I saw you first

That stately wishbone sway

I quaked in fear at the sight of your spare white curves

Why, wishbones, why?

Well, if you were true, what else?

Now I’ve wiled away some weary years

And the fear doesn’t come when I say:

If you are true, what else?

What else?

What else?

And I wish and wish with all my bones

That the answer is: all my friends and even me

***

For Weirdtober Day 29: Cryptid of your Choice

#weirdtober #weirdtober2020 #drabble #an October of true drabbles #I have identified a recurring theme in my drabbles

[necronatural]

my knowledge of founders “fan culture/works” (or whatever the hell its called) is peripheral at best, so your occasional rants about it are super incomprehensible and also highly entertaining. I have to admit that Im intrigued. if you dont mind, could you explain the “taxonomy” of it all? in other words, my curiosity has overcome me; what the fuck is going on?

Ok im relatively new lets see if I can break it down. The progenitor of the wave is Blackkat, who wrote fics about Tobirama. Most tropes have a highly identifiable progenitor.

1. The Tulpa: a recurring theme is usually Tobirama trying to be as emotionless as possible to better do his job, not acknowledging how emotional his heart truly is. Also he's a deranged inventor who loves to draw up new concepts. Turn in Such Humanity and Count Your Blessings is this, condensed.

2. Woobie Tobirama: Hashirama is not paying attention to Tobirama's repression, giving people who understand it better (like Madara, Madatobi is the dominant ship) access. This mutates into "Bad Brother Hashirama", where Hashirama either resents Tobirama for his personality or is scared of him and neglects/abuses him, sending Tobirama into the Uchiha's protective arms. See: break your ankle in a cave copypasta. Overall "Tobirama goes to the Uchiha's house" is the most common trope you'll find and most fics strive to put Tobirama in the Uchiha's house

3. Kids. Canonically Tobirama is just normal about children (note: something wrong with him so it's striking he is normal with them) so obviously its wildly popular for him to adopt or mentor them and he has a caretaker's impulse. Kagami is often pulled into this, #1 child for Tobirama to be nice to. He's not Tobirama's student but people act like he is

4. Sex pest Izuna. Tends to crop up if the fic isn't lovey dovey. I think its a distinct trope where he isn't just sexually liberal (this is funny and I'm fine with this) but specifically is sexual at inappropriate times and often as his sole personality trait. I wish for world clean. Worth mentioning this guy is viewed as a dom top, baby are you sure?

5. Soulmates. Just soulmates. They're everywhere. Ubiquitous. Can't spit without hitting one.

6. A/B/O. Likewise 😞

7. Arranged Marriage. Look if there's a fic trope where 2 people are forced to be intimate with/acknowledge/not kill one another you bet your ass that it's a trend

8. Wife hunts. Kill me.

9. Darkfic. I full stop block these posts when I see them. Appears to exclusively be, as a "trend", Super Sexual Sadism Bros Madara and Izuna and the sexual sadism Madara solo joint.

10. Uchiha flailing: ok this isn't a trope but there's a trend of...like, if the Uchiha flail or there is a comment on how they tend to flail NO EXCEPTION the characterization is them acting like a middle schooler. Anastasia from 50 Shades corny obliviousness. Why.......?

11. Spare Tire Izuna: no one knows wtf to do with him btw. Overall trends as irritable, more active and autonomous, mirrors Madara's opinions but is honest about it. He's a plot device guy unless he's being a dom top or is in love with touka. Not even in a ship sense sometimes him being in love with touka is a background crush so he has something to do. He's not a piece of meat...hes a person... with feelings... [Insane]

There's also microtrends caused by people filling out ideas from drabble collections, a core part of the ecosystem. I think I saw a wild strain of guide/sentinel from this. G/S AUs are irresistible to me I'll always read them

#asks #not liking madatobi means if i dont vibe with a fic i just leave. ive opened chapter 1 of many things.

[silenceofthecookies]

600 followers event!

We’re at 600! Thank you all so much for your support, I truly feel so happy to see so that so many people like what I do here. I asked you all a few days ago what you liked for an event, and the opions were kind of torn between matchups and a mystery event... so why not both? 

There are 15 spots in total: 5 headcanons, 5 drabbles and 5 matchups. The theme for the mystery prompts are my recurring daydreams! All of them are very fluffy UwU

FOR HEADCANONS: You’re allowed to pick up to 3 characters. Some of these headcanons have been written before, so feel free to send me up to 6 characters in the order you like them, most liked first. I’ll pick the first 3 characters I see that these headcanons have not been written for before. All headcanons will be genderneutral.

FOR DRABBLES: You’re allowed to pick one character for these. I will take no additional details apart from maybe the gender of the reader. Please keep in mind that if I see no reason to mention the gender, I will leave it genderneutral. 

FOR MATCHUPS: Please keep in mind that your matchup and the information you share with me will be published. The match I pick for you may not be your favourite character, as I will simply pick the character I feel suits you best. If you are uncomfortable with either of these things, please, do not sign up for a matchup. Information I need for sure: Your gender, gender you want for your match, your characteristics, likes and dislikes, favourites, fears, no-go’s,... anything you’re willing to share. Don’t be afraid to send me a lot of information. The more, the better. For inspiration you can check the information from this matchup. Feel free to send me an ask to reserve your spot and send your information in pm afterwards. If you are sending on anon, please pick a name to identify yourself as. 

Headcanons prompts: 

Apple

Cherry

Orange

Pear

Peach

Drabble prompts: 

Rose

Lily

Windflower

Tulip

Pansy

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, ALL FANDOMS I WRITE FOR ARE OK! 

The event starts at 05/02 at 19.00 CET, but people who have an early pass are allowed to send in their entries already now! To keep it fair though, only 3 entries per category are allowed to be taken with free passes, so 3 matchups, 3 drabbles and 3 headcanons. Shoot me a pm before you send in your request so I can confirm if it’s ok! 

#600 followers event #not open yet #unless you have a free pass

[titleknown]

Three Fictional Products

Ahoy ahoy, trying not to be late again this time; I’m doing something relatively unusual for my Saturday Night Writing, not as much a drabble as profiles of three products that never existed; but potentially could have.

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages now, but texecutive dysfunction does as it will, and I’ll do it now by gum! These products can be freely used as one sees fit, no strings attached, though credit me; Thomas F. Johnson if you use ‘em in a work. I’d love to see these weird brands show up as recurring themes

So, without futher ado, tonight’s writing is brought to you by the Pink Wind vaccuum, Blue Moon Soda and Circus Cosmetics, after the break!

Pink Breeze- Fidelio as a vaccuum making company was always an unfortunate case. Their cutting edge use of cyclone filters years before Dyson was hampered by numerous manufacturing difficulties and cost-cutting measures and gimmicks to make them consumer accessible that; more often than not; hampered their overall efficiency as cleaning devices and rendered them prone to breaking; though they were supposedly quite efficient if you could get the damn things to work.

And yet, they still squeaked along for years, managing to sell for a shocking amount for a company with only one model of vaccuum still on the market. But, then, there's the one. Known as the "Pink Breeze," it was meant to be a smaller model of cylander vaccuum meant for dusting fragile items, with a soft; adjustable tip on the nozzle; a dial to alter the level of suction and a rounded; curvy shiny pink configuration meant to resemble an item of furniture. Now, while it was possibly better suited for the task thanks to its use of the company's cyclonic filters, most people didn't see the point of such a specialized product. But, for all its qualities; they were high sellers amongst a male demographic, particularly unmarried; single men.

Yes, all of its factors ended up making the vaccuum accidentally perfect for dick-sucking. Unlike other sex toys, it was buyable in mainstream outlets; with only moderate scruitny from the outside world.

Even the products' legendary shoddiness was little issue, as they were cheap thanks to said cost-cutting measures and most of that fanbase were seemingly okay with shelling out for another model. The CEO; however; was oblivious to the reasons for its cult popularity; only seeing the sales figures. And given his legendary stubbornness and tendency towards conservativism, nobody really wanted to tell him.

The R&D team did; however; secretly take that into account when designing other; secondary products in that line to capitalize on its success; though they enjoyed markedly less thereof; and the product's legendarily-sexualized mascot also known as Pink Breeze was notoriously designed as a joke by the marketing team to see how much implications in that regard they could get away with. The answer was; apparently; "All of it."

Which ended up spawning a fetish art subculture of "Vac-Girls," but that's a whole other story.

The company declined though; as even such an evergreen product can only get one so far in the face of their numerous other failures; and the final death-knell that convinced the owners to sell while they were still viable was the bizarre hovercraft-like vaccum model given the name "Sentinel" but notoriously known as "Old Cat-Eater" and "The Executioner's Hood."

But that's a story for another time.

Blue Moon- Legendary soda-developers the Breulen Brothers; one a flavor scientist and another a product designer, are responsible for some of the greatest "cult hits" amongst soft drinks; whether it be the "DIY" Squash Soda or the enigmatic "Liquid Gold" flavoring agent, but one of their less acclaimed projects was the melatonin-based "Blue Moon" soda, with the blueberry flavoring.

The basic idea was, if there are caffinated sodas meant to keep you awake, why not a soda with a similarly-mild sleep aid to help you go to bed? From there the blueberry flavoring and iconic Man-In-The-Moon logo followed. But, there was a problem. The FDA didn't and still does not allow for the usage of melatonin in items marked as "beverages"

However, the marketing team did get around this in multiple ways. Namely; marketing it as a "suppliment," which just so happened to be advertised like a soda; given its own dispenser adjacent to the other drinks; packaged with other sodas; but carefully worded and advertised so that technically they were not selling it as a soda. Of course, the Brothers did not intend this, intending to market it as a separate item; both to avoid possible adverse combinations with other caffinated beverages and also to establish it as its own "thing," a ritual akin to a nightly equivalent of coffee.

It worked for a shockingly long while too; attracting just the right amount of attention to sell well while still skirting legality. Helped it was damned tasty too. And then the news stories started. Specifically, news stories of various car crashes and accidents induced by the sorts of behaviors that happen when one consumes a beverage that makes one sleepy combined with beverages that make one wide awake.

And, like that, the Brothers were thrown under the bus, despite it not being their idea. The charges were dropped, but their careers were never quite the same.

Of course, there was an "accidental" leak of the product's formula; coincidentally on the same week the Brothers left the company for greener pastures; so there is a small but dedicated following that does make its own "homebrew" of the stuff, so it can be found if one knows where to look.

Circus Cosmetics- The label is somewhat inaccurate, as the cosmetics (Ranging from highlighter to mascara to lipstick to even nail polish) come under a number of different names; sold in low-end stores for cheap prices in low-income areas. They're known by that name due to the largest outbreak of their product under that branding in the Detroit area being under that brand; though other prominent names for it have been reported as Harleqin; Big Top; and Scaramouche

They cause bleaching of the skin; swelling and reddening of the lips; nasal tissue; around the eyes; and of the vocal cords and airways, leaving the victims gasping for air with a distinctive honking noise and causing hallucinations due to deprivation of oxygen not severe enough to kill but severe enough to alter brain activity; resulting in erratic behavior during the affliction and often leaving the victims with permanent skin damage and scarring after recovery. The causes have been identified as likely due to either some bacterial agent often found in samples thereof or a common chemical agent in them; though it has been speculated that it may be due to the interaction of both.

The reason for their continued circulation; despite the numerous outbreaks; is that the FDA is unable to regulate the company that produces it due to it having so many shell subsidiaries that it is impossible to find the "true" producers of such things, though many suspect it is also considered low priority due to the impoverished areas in which these products are found. Multiple fringe religious organizations have been found as donors to these shells through other shells; which has troubling implications.

-As a final word, a lot of these product areas are ones in which I am not truly specialized, so if I have evoked a “THAT IS NOT HOW -X- WORKS!” reaction for those more knowlegable in the subject than me, please contact me and tell me how I can spiff it up!-

#fictional products #fictional product #soda #melatonin #makeup #cosmetics #body horror #weird fiction #THE LIBRARIAN OF BABEL SPEAKS HER WISH BEFORE GOD