#Y’all don’t know but this comic originally WAS my old a!au it was my comic that was my big passion project n stuff it was a big deal

[snackugaki]

.... i have been so normal about wanting to draw tactical!Venus and tactical!Jennika.

hey. HEY. y’all need to go check out @donathan ‘s artwork, and if you are the proper age, go throw some money into their patreon for some... some real, real good art. 👀👀👀 ...but do not if you are a minor, that shit ain’t for you.

some IDW TMNT comic spoilers... and.... I guess... Next Mutation ssspoilers? I know some of you kids haven’t turtled up and watched my beloved childhood iteration yet.

alright, so, y’know, completely normal expenditure of my energy and skillset, amirite? big big thanks to @/donathan for allowing me to play around in their AU’s aesthetic because I have severe, terminal VenusAndJennikaDeserveEverythingoccocal SoIWillManifestItMyselfitis.

and tbh, all y’all’s fics have been, mwah, chef’s kiss. but SOME of you put LORE. delicious, tasty, appetite-inducing lore.

and i am nothing but the littlest hoebag for lore.

okay so, quick rundown for those who both A) are immune to spoilers B) also do not know Venus or Jennika’s origins-- bulletpoint time~!

So Venus de Milo, the “girl turtle”, the “fifth turtle” (not counting April’s extremely brief stint as a white-bandana’d turtle in the Archie comics run) was introduced in 1997′s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

An episode of “The Toys That Made Us” touched upon Venus’ creation so idk it’ll cover what I won’t deign to acknowledge.

her backtory is interesting (just her show was a trashfire /affectionate)

Master Splinter’s frolicking around in the dreamscape where all the cool enlightened old people hang out away from teenagers, right?

but oh no! dragon lord, a bad dude with a widow’s peak to rival Vegeta Dragonball’s widow’s peak; is there too! stomping around, ruining shit!

Splinter’s dreamscape buddy Chung I warns Splinter to stay out of the dreamscape ‘cuz Dragon Lord’s around

And like in true old people fashion, just ignores his friend’s admonition and tries to investigate himself

bad choice, womp womp

Splinter gets trussed up and rendered “stuck” in the dreamscape

cue the catalyst for Venus to make the 10+ flight from China to the U.S

don’t worry about what the boys were doing, just literal surfing in sewer grey water, breaking their little turtle skulls on cinderblocks, and picking fights in warehouses with Foot clan goons

tl;dr Venus still has Sixth Ranger mode on, so naturally she whoops all of their asses in the dark, ties them up (like how some of y’all enjoy writing Leo does huhu nudgenudge winkwink)

venusistheoriginalshibarienthusiastandteadrinkerfightme

and then, y’know, it’s still the 90s and children’s television so blah blah the usual “oH My gOd a GiRL tURTle???/?? AWoooOOogaaa ga ga ga” 

it’s.... I mean, i’m 38 so it no longer strikes me as bad as just really fucking embarrassing... for them. to be written saying. fuck, at least they didn’t make her bandana color pink.

so fast forward to Venus teaching them to dreamwalk so they can go rescue Splinter from Dragon Lord’s clutches in the dreamscape.

unfortunately, Dragon Lord offscreen murders Chung I so Venus is narratively anchorless post-rescue, so she’s invited to stay with them. thus ensues wacky hijinks with their new pal, Venus Boom Boom de Milo.

I glossed over the urge to write a cumulative review of Next Mutation. Just, take my word as the target demographic of the show during the last gasps of 90s Turtlemania that TNM was a trashfire overall but... y’know... if you ever needed a palette cleanser after some grimdark or angsty TMNT content, give TNM a whirl. The slapstick was intentional and The Point in the show. Venus’ circumstances for coming was as serious as it would get.

... Also, yes, they made them not related in TNM, preteen snackugaki didn’t clock why because I watched a lot of wuxia as a kid so brotherhood is a term beyond blood ties to me (and if I’m being honest, martial brotherhood is fkkn metal) and later I heard tell that it was to lure more girls into the franchise with both a girl turtle and romance options. which idk whatevs man. 

I also have to clear that, actually no, Donatello and Venus did not fight EVERY episode. Donatello, despite sprinkling a little too much barely disguised snobbery, did defer to Venus’ expertise in “the supernatural” when the situation called for it, and Venus would commend Donnie on his scientific ingenuity. They even teamed up skillsets to create surveillance drones! She essentially casted Calm Emotions on him while he tried to hack the controls of the Astro Megaship back for the In Space Rangers. They breached the divide between STEM and Humanities! They only had one “real fight" near the end of the season-- because Donnie was playing his containment breach elevator mid trash copyright strike immune proto-EDM too loud while she was trying to meditate. and that’s just being bad roommates tbh.

...christ I know it’s gonna come up too, but also NO, there was not constant advances made toward Venus during the show. At most was Mikey pulling his ol’ “I work out every day~!” schtick for like 2 episodes of the 5 spent to introduce Venus. And then after? A shipper’s desert, you’d have to dig and peer behind like 8 curtains for any viable fodder. 

...OKAY NOW FOR JENNIKA’S ORIGINS: Jennika is an IDW character specifically so, naturally why she isn’t in (or would’ve been, AHEM) a lot of iterations yet (or at all, COUGH) (but to continue in honesty there’s a lot of legal tape to cut through since Jennika is IDW’s while TMNT overall is Nick’s) Introduced as a Foot Assassin, her place in the Foot Clan shifts when Splinter takes over from Shredder (Saki), eventually she forms actual bonds with both the turtles and Splinter to where it’s implied she also saw him as an important figure to her if not an outright surrogate father figure. And because TMNT is mess and drama the other 50% of the time, Karai takes over the Foot from Splinter and shenanigans compounded by Karai’s then-current machinations for the Foot-- results in Jennika getting shanked in the stomach by Karai during a clandestine meeting to resolve clan rivalry. She’s losing blood fast, Donnie works to save her and it’s Leo who volunteers for blood transfusion to keep her stable mid-transit. 

SURPRISE!

Leo’s blood mutates Jennika into a mutant turtle. And then Casey ghosts/dumps her. My poor daughter. She has a real rough time of it before fully integrating with the boys. Raph falls in with Old Hob, gets hoodwinked, and now they live in Mutant Town. Jennika slowly finds herself again, as a mutant turtle, a Splinter clan ninja, a girlfriend, a guitarist in a band she started, a sister in a found family, and a constable to a very little town.

okay! we’re all marginally informed about my two wonderfull daughters, Venus and Jennika~!

so if I can indulge further, I’m going to use my cognizance and make it everyone’s problem because I have beem quietly foaming with ideas for bg lore for tactical!J&V, more bullet points!

ok so, donathan mentioned a bit about their tac! Leo and Donnie being the snipers, Mikey and Raph spotting for them while also being demolitions and heavy ordinance specialists respectively

I would think, then for Vee and Jen, they’d be classified as close quarters combat specialists, complicated extraction? compromised area? call them to clean up and clear out~

give or take “magic” being a thing used in donathan’s AU, or anyone’s AU of this AU, Vee would probably be a close combat specialist along with Jen.

Vee, I feel, would, barring a ...”tactical fan”, (even though in TNM it was just her fists and her little wizard components but her toy came with a fan so.) probably use batons, Jen in lieu of her tekagi-shuko would... most likely use tactical karambit. not that large of a leap really.

for my personal lulz, Vee and Jen are... accurate, height-wise. Raph gets to be the biggest brother since alligator snapping turtles are, in fact, the largest motherfucking freshwater turtles on the north american continent. no getting around it.

my Vee in all Rise AUs is a softshell since the messy hanzi used to write her first given name, Mei Pieh Chi (美鱉气) has the hanzi that’s most commonly translated as softshell turtle (鱉). eh ‘di wow talaga

snacku what do you mean ‘accurate’???? tl;dr female turtles are usually the larger ones in most species.

and listen, I love and I mean LOVE, how some of y’all have written the tac!boys, mwah; but god I’m a professional turtle bully. I need to see them get dunked on. for nutritional value. and if it comes to it, I will provide that food for myself. brb laughing at eventually drawing Venus just offhandedly tossing Donnie into the air to skeet shoot his ass for fun brings me the greatest joy.

they absolutely dote on Mikey, as is the natural order of things. 

and even tho I stated TNM Donnie and Venus got along in the show, and depending on the existence of magic in this AU; I just really love dichotomous rivalries (in as much “science” and “magic” exist as a dichotomy, much less as “diametrically oppose” fields-- just, opposites man. i’m a simple girl with simple trope needs)

Vee’s arms (and legs) are absolutely covered in burns, scars, and missing flesh divots, just as close to swiss cheese limbs as you can be

Jen and Donnie debate tracks that go into their joint “On Our Way To Commit Murder” playlist

if Vee’s tactical look seem very familiar, and you’re wondering if-- yes, you’re correct. and you can “call her ms. de milo if ya nasty”

Vee was actually pretty calm and rational in TNM... but for this AU, she can be a little unhinged, as a well-deserved treat. (and ‘cuz that specific anime unhinged facial expression is fun as fuck to draw, which is my treat)

#giving me cognizance was a mistake #letting me learn to draw was another #I love Venus and Jennika #a HEALTHY amount I'd say #totally healthy & normal #:) #fuckin' turtles man #3 months into this new year #and it's turtles all the way back #this is why I trained for visdev #just chewing on things absently #and wondering how things would work In This World #figuring out how to fit something into an environment #a context #a situation #is my enrichment activity #not unlike #giving tigers huge slabs of meat in 3 feet of ice on a hot day #just sitting there gnawing away #until I get to the meat of it #both literally and figuratively #it's like a puzzle #that you can design the pieces themselves #but have I updated my visdev portfolio? #HAHAHA NO #TOO BUSY DRAWING FKKN TURTLES MAN #h elp #i listened to so many baddie playlists drawing this #i needa start a fight #get this extra energy out of my system

[duckprintspress]

Created Works Round-Up: January 2024

Duck Prints Press’s monthly “created works round-ups” are our opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all. Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

cruel forgiveness by Cedar McCafferty-Svec / @diroxy

art || transformers || m/m || idw rodimus prime/armada megatron || teen & up || no major warnings apply || complete

summary: Digital drawing of IDW Rodimus and Armada Megatron based off a scene from a roleplay server on dreamwidth. Megatron is faking his own death and making Rodimus watch.

other tags: self harm, canon mashup, based on roleplay

TUMBLR - LINK

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Stay by Smehur / @smehur

art || baldur's gate 3 || m/m || astarion/tav || mature || no major warnings apply || complete

TUMBLR - TWITTER

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Astarion by Smehur / @smehur

art || baldur's gate 3 || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || complete

summary: This started as a silly colored pencil doodle and ended up my best drawing so far. Anyway, I love him.

TUMBLR - TWITTER

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Self Help & Writing Advice by Tris Lawrence / @tryslora

blog post || original work || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 781 || complete

summary: I don’t like self-help books. Which means I often don’t like writing advice books.

Which sucks because I really want to like both of them. I am positive there are things I could learn from them.

TUMBLR - PILLOWFORT - LINK

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ND Creative: Time, Focus, Organization by Tris Lawrence / @tryslora

blog post, nd creative series || original work || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 957 || complete

summary: Time, focus, and organization can be complicated things as an ND creative.

TUMBLR - PILLOWFORT - LINK

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Things I Thought Were Mine by enchantedsleeper / @iffeelscouldkill

fiction || fence comics || m/m || nicholas cox/seiji katayama || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 9,235 || complete

summary: Nicholas, Seiji, and the King's Row team are invited by Jesse Coste to join him at an exclusive summer retreat for elite fencers at the Coste residence. Surrounded by reminders of the life he could have had, and with Jesse determined to pick up where he and Seiji left off, can Nicholas survive the week without some closely-held secrets bubbling to the surface?

other tags: Canon divergence AU, hurt/comfort

AO3

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a dream or two (away from you) by enchantedsleeper / @iffeelscouldkill

fiction || fence comics || m/m || aiden kane/harvard lee || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 8,845 || complete

summary: Everyone knows that magic isn't real. Never mind that Aiden, crown prince of Feldhaven, has been having strange dreams from a young age in which he meets and plays with a young boy from a far-away kingdom.

He can't explain it, but he isn't concerned - until years later, when an eighteen-year-old Aiden is suddenly introduced to the new Captain of the Guard: Harvard Lee. The boy from his dreams.

other tags: mediaeval fantasy AU, slightly handwavey dream magic, friends to lovers

TUMBLR - AO3

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You Make Sense of the Devil by Hermit / @hermit-writes

fiction || mcu, criminal minds || m/m, f/m, poly (multiple genders) || james "bucky" barnes/emily prentiss, james "bucky" barnes/steve rogers || mature || rape/non-con || 15,772 || complete

summary: A ghost from the BAU past reappears and drags up unfinished business for Aaron Hotchner. The ripples are enough to call back missing team members and spread well beyond the circle of his influence.

other tags: Timeline What Timeline, MCU fusion, Criminal Minds fusion, liberties were taken with the legal system, Case Fic, No One Is Okay, canon typical trauma, Past Rape/Non-con, Flashback, discussion of trauma, Implied Polycule

AO3

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A Godsdamn Kraken by Smehur / @smehur

fiction || baldur's gate 3 || m/m || astarion/tav || mature || no major warnings apply || 7,760 || complete

summary: Astarion and Tav met before the events of the game - and immediately got in trouble.

AO3

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Tremble by Tal / @thatgirlonstage

fiction || link click || m/m || cheng xiaoshi/lu guang || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 2,096 || complete

summary: Cheng Xiaoshi has a bad time in a photo. Lu Guang is there in the aftermath.

other tags: Hurt/Comfort

AO3

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Phase Shift by Terra P. Waters / @pterawaters

fiction || original work || platonic or familial, f/m || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 99,500 || ongoing series

summary: Despite being a self-professed science geek, high school freshman Camilla Mitchell has had a secret imaginary friend for years. It comes as quite a shock when said friend, Emma, accidentally drags her into a dimension full of hostile telepathic creatures. Cam’s friends, her brother, Oliver, and her mother, Kathryn, work furiously to solve her disappearance and bring her home. Other members of their small Minnesota town disappear, one after the other, including Lizzy Becker’s best friend, who is ripped from her arms. Lizzy badgers loner Oliver into working with her to rescue their missing loved ones. They discover a bridge between the two worlds—a bridge that allows the hostile creatures from Cam’s newly-discovered dimension into ours. If there’s a bridge, there’s a way to rescue the people taken. Right?

other tags: Tags: science fiction, alternate dimensions, teen characters, friendship, bisexual main character (minor references), lesbian character, nonbinary character, aliens; Content warnings: disordered eating, emetophobia, child abuse mention, homophobic bullying, teen characters in danger, gun violence, physical violence, abduction

TUMBLR - PILLOWFORT - LINK

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The Last Drop Cafe by Terra P. Waters / @pterawaters

fiction || stranger things || poly (multiple genders) || jonathan byers/chrissy cunningham/steve harrington/nancy wheeler || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 77,500 || complete

summary: Nancy Wheeler is in her last year of college, about to graduate with her journalism degree. She's just working as a barista at The Last Drop Cafe until she can find a real journalism job. She loves her boyfriend, Jonathan, though there's been some tension lately, and she's not quite sure how long the relationship is going to last. At least she lives above the coffee shop, which makes rolling out of bed at five in the morning to go to work slightly more tolerable. Her upstairs neighbors, Steve and Chrissy, are newlyweds eager to start their family. When a case of sleep deprivation and mistaken identity ties the two couples together, things quickly get complicated. But maybe complicated is just what Nancy was looking for.

other tags: Coffee Shop AU, College AU, Mistaken Identity, Polyamory, Somnophilia, Accidental Non-con, Unplanned Pregnancy, Birth, Hospitals

AO3

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Phase Shift by Terra P. Waters / @pterawaters

fiction || original work || platonic or familial, f/m, f/nb || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 99,500 || complete

summary: Despite being a self-professed science geek, high school freshman Camilla Mitchell has had a secret imaginary friend for years. It comes as quite a shock when said friend, Emma, accidentally drags her into a dimension full of hostile telepathic creatures. Cam’s friends, her brother, Oliver, and her mother, Kathryn, work furiously to solve her disappearance and bring her home. Other members of their small Minnesota town disappear, one after the other, including Lizzy Becker’s best friend, who is ripped from her arms. Lizzy badgers loner Oliver into working with her to rescue their missing loved ones. They discover a bridge between the two worlds—a bridge that allows the hostile creatures from Cam’s newly-discovered dimension into ours. If there’s a bridge, there’s a way to rescue the people taken. Right?

other tags: Science Fiction, Horror, Aliens, Teen characters, Alternate dimensions, Friendship, LGBTQ+ characters, Hearing Impaired Character, Eating Disorder, Child Abuse, Gun Violence, Kidnapping, Teenaged Characters in Peril, Minor Character Death

TUMBLR - LINK

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Prayers of Descent by unforth / @unforth

fiction || tian guan ci fu || m/m || hua cheng/xie lian || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 1,648 || complete

summary: After 800 years in the Heavenly Court, Xie Lian receives a prayer with a simple request: "can I see you, your highness, just one more time?"

other tags: Canon Divergence, Jun Wu/Xie Lian

AO3

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#duck prints press #created work's round up #creator's spotlight

[ko-the-kreator]

Who’s all in your AU? I saw the comic and Arthur, the king looks like the ink demon. The fact that all the AUs still have the original Bendy is getting old

Okay, so all of this happens in the realm/huge city of In Between

The place is divided into caste/class systems:

•Pomps

•Workers

•Slums

•Wanderer’s

There is also Different Cities and places

•Devils Keep is the most talked about

•Hell’s Gate where Arthur lives in Demose Manor

•Slum Street, where everyone who had committed the least amount of sin live or those who didn’t work to keep going.

There are so many—if I could get the Google Doc to work I would just post the link to my blog so that y’all can read it for yourselves but I am still happy to entertain the questions because this AU makes me happy.

——

Bernard Dell’ichiostro: content, sarcastic, majority of the time he is quiet, keeps to himself; the loner MC#1 he owns and runs Sin City, a bar in The Devils Keep very large and booming city.

Aspen Neidermeyer: MC #2; deemed as “Penny” by friends. Generous, kind, sharing, helpful. Loving. Oblivious. A girl who smiles and laughs way too much, and is way too happy to blend in with the world around her now. However, behind her bright eyes, innocence and selfless nature, hides something unbeknown to Bernard and the friends she’s made along the way.

Mr. Benne Arthur Demose: his personality is based on a lemon with anger issues and pumped full of “I don’t give a shit I’ll do what I want.” He may resemble Bendy, but I assure you, he isn’t. His body and being is comprised of souls and other people he had made deals with.

They talk to him and have minds (and mouths ) of their own. They argue with him constantly about changing his ways. You can clearly tell on how that’s going.

Azazel and Beelz: Two supercharged nephalems who treat Bernard like their dad because he practically raised them. They resemble false angels Beelz being the more logical and sane one while Azazel is more erratic and unstable. The two keep each other in line.

Uncle Bee’Bo Sr. : Clinically insane, rattles on about the human world seeping into the In Between.

While we all know that Aspen had accidentally interrupted a soul deal gone wrong and chased the men who were battering a young lady (or what she assumed were human men) into the void.

She ends up passed out and awakening in the world of In Between.

Uncle Bee’Bo is a crazy ole’ bean. Who really likes to taunt his nephew and thinks that Aspen is an angel, the way this demon uncle rambles is beyond me.

There is the Butcher Gang, but composed of demons and monsters alike.

There’s Hell’s Angels that Bernard was apart of and has trampled stampled on his back. They’re really mean. And Bernard isn’t the same human man turned large demon that he used to be. He’s calmed down a bunch. No more murderous sprees for him. Oh no. He wants to stay home, maybe go on a walk.

There is A lot of things here. A lot of major and minor characters. I promise once the Google Doc works again I’ll post it.

#batim au #batim shitpost #bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the ink machine #bendy #batdr shitpost #batim ask blog #batim #batdr au #batdr oc #bernard answers

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

So uh.... played legends and now I can’t escape

#Started a rewrite/reboot of my old Pokémon comic with my friend and now it’s taken all my brain spsce #Space* #The reboot is very good so far me and holo have been working on it non stop for the past few weeks it’s been stupidly fun #I’m sad to see a!au gone but I’m more happy that Pokémon/my old comic was what look it’s place #Plus a!au isn’t going away it’s just gonna be on a bit of a break #I think of it like it’s getting put on the bench in sports so Pokémon comic gets some time to shine again #Y’all don’t know but this comic originally WAS my old a!au it was my comic that was my big passion project n stuff it was a big deal #But the main difference is a!au has much better written #And my Pokémon comic was only known by a few of my friends whereas a!au has a much larger audience #And the old comic was one of my real early stories so rebooting and rewriting it has been amazing #I’m not revealing much other then me and holo plan to start script/actual work on the comic in summer Bc we’ve written it surprisingly fast #And we’ve made a blog prepared for it where we will both mod it #It’s my comic yes but holo has attributed SO much good writing and characters for it #They are a lot better at capturing the feel of the Pokémon series so they’ve been a huge help #So yeah that was a basic update on where I’ve been I’ve just been spending the last three or so weeks working on Pokémon au concept art #I’m excited for y’all to see it when we start posting it! #I originally planned to finish a!au first then do Pokémon comic buuuut I’ve decided to start work on it now while the hyperfixation is here #Rather then do it later when I’m potentially burnt out from Pokémon youknow? #Plus the timing of summer coming soon will be good too #BUT IM VERY EXCITED TO WORK ON IT BC NOW IGOT MORE COMIC WRITING EXPERIENCE FROM A #-A!AU AND IM HYPED YALL WILL GET TO SEE SOME OF MY OG BLORBOS

[justlightlysedated]

20 Questions

20 questions, writer's edition, I was tagged by @lambourngb 😊❤❤

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

71! 70 for roswell and one for vagrant queen

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

468, 583!!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

not entirely sure tbh, but let's count now:

timkon, bandom, glee, specifically pukurt, but some other ships too, merlin, doctor who, torchwood, teen wolf, agents of shield, runaways, the old guard, vagrant queen, and obviously, roswell new mexico

i think there might be more, but i don’t remember rn

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

the cost of greatness, which i cowrote with marlo

a cure i know that soothes the soul (does so impossibly), the first pwp i wrote for this fandom lol

the person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger, which i wrote for marlo

for better or for worse (til death do us part), which i also cowrote with marlo lol

it might be your wound but they’re my sutures, which i also wrote for marlo

so the pattern im sensing here is that my most popular fics were written with/for marlo which sounds about right lol

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i am not sure tbh, i write some pretty angsty one shots and longer fics, but i TRY to at least give a slightly hopeful ending, tho now that i’m thinking about it, i think the angstiest thing i’ve written was that prompt fill based on the song, for island fires and family, i remember SOBBING the entire time that i wrote it (there is miluca in that one), but ALSO there is the fic i wrote in reaction to the season one finale, which also made me cry, which was called, we both know how this story ends

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

once again i’m not sure, like i said before, i try to give my fics hopeful endings if they’re really angsty, and i love me some hurt/comfort, but i’m not entirely known for writing happy, fluffy fics, tho i do TRY sometimes for certain people

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

yes!! i do love me some crossovers, and i guess i would have to say the malex, sort of doctor who au, i’m technically still writing for tove

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

yes??? but i’m not sure if i could classify it, like i’ll write pretty much anything within reason and if it doesn’t squick me out

9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

okay, so like don’t hate me, but no, i rarely, if ever respond to comments, i just don’t know what to say at all, like i’m the type of person that really wants every single message to be unique and special, but there are only so many ways to thank someone for reading your fic, so i just tend to post things and then thank everyone for reading afterwards, if there is someone that shows up often on my notifications, or if someone asks me a specific question pertaining to the story, then i will answer, i also answer back if i wrote the fic for someone and they left a comment, and if i’m sent an ask on here about something that i wrote, but i am simultaneously the world's most shy and confident person ever, when it comes to my writing, so i’m so sorry

this doesnt mean that i dont appreciate every comment that i get because i really do, im just super shy and awkward and i may write good-ish, but i do NOT have the same way with words in person

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not really?? if i have i don’t remember it, usually i’m the one who talks the worse about my own writing

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, the only kurtbastian fic i’ve ever written was translated into russian

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

yep!! as y’all probably saw from my top five fics up there somewhere, marlo @bestillmyslashyheart is basically my fic writing soulmate, we just really click when it comes to writing

14. What's your all time favourite ship? to write for?

atm it’s malex, which is more than obvious, BUT before they hijacked my brain and made their home within my neurons, it was skimmons!!! i wrote fic for them for YEARS, even after i stopped watching aos

15. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i’m just gonna talk about fics that i’ve posted and haven’t updated and not any of the hundreds of wips that have never seen the light of day, my original witch au tbh, i just, roswell made maria and isobel somehow related, and just made me really uncomfortable with the ship, which is the main reason that i’m not gonna finish the fic if i’m being perfectly honest, there is ALSO that au i had where michael’s daughter from the future comes back to the past and she had been raised by alex, because of reasons that are petty, probably my space opera au as well, and only because i just want to write other things MORE

16. What are your writing strengths?

i think i’m good at describing things, especially kisses, i LOVE writing kisses, it’s one of my favorite things, that and my fight scenes are two of the things i pride myself the most on

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue, sometimes i feel the characters are ridiculously out of character, but then i don’t care because sometimes in canon characters are also ridiculously out of characters, also describing things, because sometimes i just feel like scenes don’t flow right, i am definitely a comma whore, and use dashes and hyphens in places they definitely shouldn’t be used, run-on sentences are my best friends, also english isn't my first language, so, sometimes the way i phrase things just come out wrong

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

tbh completely honest, i follow the nora sakavic method where you just write the dialogue in english like, “hey there love,” they said in perfect french, and i only break this rule if i actually know the language because just translating straight from english always makes things sound stilted and weird

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

dc comics, i wrote several timkon fics which i posted on livejournal

20. What's your favourite fic you've written?

oh, i know that love is all about the wind, how it can hold me up and kill me in the end (still i loved it), no specific reason why, i just love it with my entire heart!!

and that's it!! im not gonna tag anyone cause I saw that most ppl were already tagged, but if you want to do this just say that I tagged you!!

#thank you for tagging me!! this was super fun!!

[orangeoctopi7]

8 Things I’m proud of from 2020 (In no particular order)

@rum-and-shattered-dreams tagged me to do the thing like three days ago, but I’ve been busy with work and, uh... *playtime on Stardew Valley ticks over another few hours* ... working on my next fic for Stanuary, yeah!

The thing I’m most proud of that I did in 2020 is keep up a weekly update schedule for like five months! Of course, I was unemployed for that whole time, so I basically made fic writing my job. It was fun, and it kinda made me want to be a full time writer... buuuuut I don’t wanna deal with publishers and deadlines and having to find my own health insurance, and I really like my new job, so I don’t think I actually want that whole lifestyle.

1- The Good Ol’ Days.

I just realized I completed an entire 9 chapter fic this year! It feels like all my fic ideas are either really short or really long, so I’m glad this one turned out manageable. Of course, I’ve got a sequel in the works, so we’ll see how that goes...

2- A Tale of Two Secrets

I’d been wanting to write a fic about my headcanon that Shermie is a time traveler for a while, so I was very happy to finally get it written and out there.

3- Say What You Mean to Say

This is probably my favorite fic I’ve done all year! I like it a lot because I think it’s the most original concept I’ve done, not based on another person’s AU idea and not directly paralleling the show. I also enjoy it because I get to purposefully avoid and even lampshade some common fandom pet-peeves I have.

4- This Comic.

I also did a comic/illustration of Chapter 4 of Say What you Mean to Say, which is quite impressive considering I don’t consider myself an Art Person. I like to doodle, but I don’t know anything about form or composition or all that stuff, so I’m quite happy with how this comic came out.

5- With Great Power Comes Yada yada yada

I actually started this fic back in January of 2019, but I posted 4 new chapters this year! This one has become kinda more difficult to write as I’m not getting as much inspiration for this story compared to the others, and I just don’t feel as comfortable writing Mystery Trio as I do other AUs for whatever reason. Still, I DO have an ending in mind for it, and I hope to reach that ending this year!

6- Man of Wax

This was just a fun little One-shot. The inspiration just kinda hit me out of the blue while I was re-watching Gravity Falls back near the beginning of quarantine, shortly after I lost my old job.  

7- Oh yeah I did a bunch of Mario art this year.

Is it weird that seeing the Sonic movie inspired me to do a bunch of Mario art? Because it did. I just really love Mario, guys.

8- I posted Monster Falls art for the first time this year too.

This was also, I think, the most popular thing I posted this year.

Tagging @digikate813​, @anistarrose​, @optimistic-violinist​, and anybody else who want to do this. (Also no pressure to do this guys I know y’all are probably busy)

#Ask me the things #My Writing #My Art

[spaceyantique]

five’s a crowd [the beatles x reader] part two

series summary: You’re two seconds away from strangling John, three from a total breakdown over midterms. Paul won’t stop using up all the hot water in the mornings and George is determined to beat him there one way or another, godammit. Ringo doesn’t deserve this clusterfuck. And you all live together in a shitty, shitty apartment.

modern beatles x reader au (with some developing george x reader)

notes: not sure if y’all are aware of @kalypsichor​ (if you follow this blog you should be lmao) but she created the first part of this masterpiece late one night, and this mess of writing followed. so this is our first collab! fitting that it’s a crackfic. it’s gonna go back and forth by chapter and it’ll live on both of our masterlists.

originally inspired by this post :)

warnings: literal pure crack, almost no plot. bad characterization of the bug boys, swearing

 part one | part three | part four

masterlist

Being packed into Paul’s tiny car with three obnoxious boys is already not the ideal way to start your morning. Said shitty stick-shift car stalling every eight seconds on top of that morning being during your midterms week is even worse. Being en route to the hospital with one of the three boys in tears and the other two at each other's throats is just the fucking cherry-on-fucking-top. 

“Just use the CLUTCH, for God’s sake, John!”

“ExcUSE me, I don’t see YOU helping!” John snarls at George, who glares right back from the passenger seat.

“It’s not MY fault you can’t fucking-”

“‘M doing fine!” John protests as the car whines, but George continues over him. 

“-not MY fucking fault you can’t drive stick!”

“Well-” John splutters. “You can’t either!”

With a loud, metallic creak, the car jerks to a stop, and Ringo whimpers, still clutching his swollen wrist to his chest. You rub his back and stare balefully at the boys in the front seat, still shouting at each other as John rams the gas pedal.

“Why are you even fucking driving? You can’t see!” George waves his hand aggressively in front of John’s face, and John, in all his crackhead energy, snaps at his fingers with his teeth. George withdraws his hand with a horrified look and pulls himself to the absolute furthest he can be from John while staying in his seat.

The rest of the ride to the hospital is mostly silent, punctuated by poor Ringo’s sniffles and John cursing wildly with each lurch and grumble of Paul’s pathetically old car.

---

You’re all quite a sight when you stumble into Urgent Care. Ringo, with his bed-hair and likely broken wrist and red-striped pyjamas. George, wearing a scowl and a white button-down that’s soaked to his skin because he didn’t have time to dry off before you all rushed out the door. John, with a bloody nose, not from George punching him (though it got close), but from his face colliding with the steering wheel when he shifted gears too quickly and the car stopped suddenly. And you, in sweatpants and a messy bun and clutching your textbook like a velociraptor. 

After nearly a quarter of an hour in the waiting room, a nurse calls Ringo to see the doctor. He smiles weakly at you as you hand him a tissue before disappearing into the exam rooms.

“It’s all Paul’s fault,” George says dryly after a few minutes of silence. Good lord, here we go. You look up from the open textbook on your lap at him. He’s still scowling at the floor. His dark eyes lend him an aura of mystery, and his cheekbones look spectacular under his curly, still-damp hair, and the soaked white button-down is more see-through now than white over his biceps and shoulders, and- 

You try to tear your eyes away to answer him, but you really do have no self-restraint, so your useless brain just supplies a supremely intelligent “huh?” 

Fucking genius.

“It is. If he hadn’t used up all my fucking water, I wouldn’t have come out of the bathroom. And I wouldn’t have been standing there for so long if John-”

“Watch it, poodle boy,” John growls through the paper towel he’s clutching to his nose. In twenty minutes of reading, you’re hardly three pages through your chapter (the correct unit this time, you checked). You sigh, resigning yourself to a solid C on the midterm. Anyway, C’s get degrees, right?

“It’s true,” George argues in a half-whisper. “You were being such an arse that I stayed there longer to listen to your shit. I KNOW you knew that Paul knew that-” 

“I didn’t know SHIT, Geo!” John exclaims, and a middle-aged woman from across the lobby gives him the dirtiest look you’ve seen since you binged Keeping Up With the Kardashians in a weak moment during last year’s finals. George fixes him with an equally withering glare, and you’re glued to his cheekbones again, fucking hell. 

John makes a pissy face and throws his hands up, and God, how long does it take to choke someone out? It can’t be too long, can it?

Ringo would probably be sad if you killed John, your brain tells you, and fuck you, brain, but it’s right.

“Well,” you say, making an effort to not murder John. “At least we know Paul’s very clean.”

A tiny smile breaks George’s face and in only a few seconds, the three of you are giggling uncontrollably in the waiting room of your local A&E. 

“Oh, fuck,” John says, because his nose has started bleeding again, but you can’t stop laughing.

Ringo’s very confused when he emerges only a minute later to see his friends sitting on the floor in the Urgent Care lobby, crying of laughter, but you all attempt to contain yourselves and sign his wrist cast. It’s a pretty, light blue. 

“It matches your eyes,” you tell him, and he beams at you. George’s smile drops a little at the one you return to Ringo, but you’re too busy making your signature as fancy as possible to see it. 

You all bundle into Paul’s shitty car once again, this time with John driving and Ringo in shotgun.

It isn’t until you’re nearly home that you check the time to see it’s nearly two in the afternoon. As the four of you pull into the alley beside your apartment building, you realize with mounting horror that Paul must be home from class by now, completely unaware of the car-full of boys on their way to beat his arse.

“He must be back by now,” George mutters, peering out the window at your second-floor apartment with all the controlled rage of a fucking comic book supervillain. “I’m gonna throttle that clean bastard.”

God help that poor boy, you think.

#beatles x reader #beatles fanfic #five’s a crowd #george harrison x reader #john lennon x reader #ringo starr x reader #paul mccartney x reader #oops still no paul #modern au #college au

[thecreelhouse]

take care of yourself

paring: Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: you’ve been through enough shit to believe self care is building your walls high and keeping everyone out. The Universe has no problem challenging that, though. (Or: the flower shop/soulmate AU comfort fic nobody asked for)

Word count: 4,656

Warnings: mentions of past abuse (emotional/mental/physical), PTSD, language, angst

A/N: it finally happened, I wrote a reader insert fic for once! lol. I’ve been going through a rough patch with old trauma, and this is an absolute self indulgent comfort fic buuuuuut I hope whoever reads it enjoys it. Originally it was me writing out some shit to just get it out, but then it turned to a flower shop AU, and somehow ended as a soulmate AU....? Messy, but oh well lol. if you’re an abuse survivor, pls know your pain is valid but your healing is so, so very important. 💜 title is from the song ‘take care of yourself’ by the childlike empress

Build your walls up high and strong, tall and mighty. No ladder or set of stairs could reach the top. Not even the most stubborn and determined can make their way in. Make yourself more stubborn than those around you. Leave first before you’re left in the dust.

You’ve lived this way for years. It’s lonely. It’s quiet. It has its own kind of hurt, but it’s pain in your control.

You’ve lived this way for years, and you swore you’d never let anyone take advantage of you ever again. Once vulnerable, soft, welcoming, now stoic, cold, distant; you wouldn’t feel it was necessary to stay this way if people weren’t so cruel.

If you never open up, they can’t use your secrets against you. If you keep to yourself, they can’t get under your skin. If you weren’t so foolish, so quick to trust others, you could enjoy human connection without a second thought. Now, it’s second nature to keep your defenses up, and keep them up strong.

With that comes anger, defaulted towards everyone and everything, and it doesn’t give anyone new a true chance. If that means you’re safe in the end, then that’s just fine. Maybe you are cold, maybe you are bitter, but you’re nowhere near as bad as the monster that drove you here.

You’ve lived this way for years, because it’s better than being gaslit on a regular basis. Safer than a hand around your throat, just manipulating you to stay. The pain of being lonely is a dull sting compared to the pain of your first time being stolen from you, forced to become someone else’s gain, someone else’s object.

You’ve lived this way for years, why stop now?

Why let someone have the opportunity to tear you down? Rip you apart? In the end, most people just have selfish motives, and if they don’t, they’re hard to come by. Why waste your life looking for someone worth your time?

So yeah, it’s lonely. It’s lonely as fuck. It hurts. It’s a comfortable pain that soothes you to sleep every night. It’s a wound that never heals, but at least you’re the only one disturbing it.

When you moved, you just wanted to get the fuck away from anything and everything tied to him. You wanted to destroy all links, burn all bridges; nothing was safe anymore, nothing was pure anymore. You up and left because no matter how hard you tried, someone was always waiting around the corner of your next chapter in life, eager to apologize on his behalf.

“He had it hard, you know.” And “his sister abused him, he didn’t know any better. Never got proper help.” followed by, “he’s trying, he’s changing, give him another chance.”

If manipulating someone to stay under dangerous circumstances is “trying and changing”, you wanted no fucking part in that mess. You knew better. He should know better.

So you left. You packed up and left the little bit of good sprinkled throughout town behind, because it wasn’t worth running into him one more time. Wasn’t worth glancing over your shoulder in fear anymore. You knew he was powerless once you left him, but it never calmed the storm of anxieties constantly brewing within you, the “what ifs” keeping you awake at night.

Hundreds of miles from home, you stopped in a small town. Hawkins, Indiana. Quiet. Quaint. Small towns may be frustrating in the sense that everyone knows everyone, but at least it’s a fresh start, practically off the grid compared to home.

You flowed your life into the surroundings of Hawkins quite easily; a small apartment downtown with easy to find parking, a job at a flower shop a block away, working with what you loved, and you picked up as many hours as you could, keeping busy, keeping to yourself. It’s what you always did best. Friendly at work, friendly when necessary to strangers, but you never let anyone in. It’s what you simply did best.

For a few months, you kept to your daily routine. Lonely, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary for you. You called home when necessary, just to reach out and let your parents know you’re still alive, doing just fine. Things were simple, and that was just fine. It gave you more down time to focus on yourself, focus on healing, however you saw fit.

One day, though, the focus stopped short. The perfect, mundane balance you had, went off the rails in just a quick, few minute exchange. Everything you had worked so hard to protect was screaming at you to tear the walls away.

It was a normal, Thursday evening at the shop. Quiet, watering the plants as needed, the chime above the front door tore you from your safe bubble. You switched gears, getting ready to use your pleasant “retail” voice, when your eyes fell on two boys, and your balance began to unsteady itself. One was older than the other; the younger boy looked to be in his early teens, and the older boy was much closer to your age, hanging somewhere near or in his 20-somethings.

It wasn’t the boys walking in that threw you off, it was specifically locking eyes with the older boy, forgetting to breathe for a quick second. Forgetting how to move, how to act; the cold shield you kept up at all times was begging to be let down, just over some handsome, idiot stranger. Something felt like a magnetic pull towards him, but only for a moment.

Fighting through the daze, you asked, “Can I help y’all?”

The younger boy, with messy curls flowing from under a hat and gaps in his toothy grin, immediately walked up to you. “My girlfriend is visiting, and I want to surprise her with flowers, but I don’t know what her favorite flower is, and I can’t just ask her-“

“I mean, you can, you know.” You interjected, smiling at how panicked he seemed.

“That’s what I told him!” The older boy added, walking closer. “He didn’t want to listen.”

“Yeah, Steve, because your girl advice has been proven to be shit.” The younger boy mumbled back, rolling his eyes. The older boy’s face grew red.

“Hey! Even she-“ Steve gestured to you, pausing for a moment, hoping you’d introduce yourself, or he’d find a name tag, something. “- um, sorry-“

“Y/N,” You replied, unsure how to feel in this situation. His eyes searched yours for a moment too long, and you felt exposed.

“Thank you- see, Dustin. Even Y/N agrees with my advice. Maybe I don’t always have shitty girl advice.” Steve finished his argument with Dustin.

You wanted to laugh at how ridiculous they were being, how it was giving you some comic relief to a bland, boring day... but laughing meant being friendly, and being friendly was only reserved for short conversations and interactions. You felt like you could easily fall into a conversation with these two, and that was the last thing you needed right now. Trusting anyone was the last of your concerns anymore.

“Well, there’s no real wrong choice, in my opinion. Just, don’t get white lilies, or something. Those are usually for loss and sorrow, better for funerals.” You offered, sticking strictly to business. “If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I have to get back to watering some of these plants now.”

Without waiting for a reply, you walked off across the room with the watering can, hoping they’d be quick and out of here soon. A few minutes passed, and you could hear them frantically whispering to one another across the shop, not exactly clear about what, until you did hear a clear “go talk to her!” from Dustin to Steve. You felt yourself stiffen up, not wanting to be disturbed, not wanting things to grow awkward.

Sure enough, the Universe truly loves to work against you, and a few moments later Steve found his way closer to you, clearing his throat to catch your attention. You turned from the plants you were focused on.

“Yes?”

“Uh... hi.”

“.... hi?” You replied, brow raised. “Did you need something?”

“N-no, I just- are you new here?” Steve asked, tripping over his words, hands fumbling out of nervousness. “Sorry, this is weird. I just haven’t seen you around before... and I-“

“I moved somewhat recently,” you replied, keeping things vague. “What’s it to you?”

Steve’s face fell, flustered and unable to reply to that. “N-nothing. Sorry.”

With that, he walked back over to his friend. You felt bad for being short and cold, but the last thing you needed in this town were friends. The last thing you needed was some cute, nervous guy working for your trust.

A few more minutes passed in silence, aside from more awkward whispers from the two boys, and suddenly Dustin shouted out, “Thanks, Y/N! Have a good day!” before pulling Steve behind him out the door.

You were left in confusion, wondering if your attitude scared them off, and felt bad. You just couldn’t let anyone in, even with a little bit of innocent small talk. Steve probably meant well, but you didn’t want to take the risk of finding out.

The next few days went on with your regular customers, an elderly man wanting to surprise his wife with some nice flowers, just because. A mother creating a lovely bouquet to give her daughter after her dance recital that night. A call for a funeral arrangement was what shook you to your core, though.

You’ve had them before, you’ve made them before. You were the only other employee aside from your boss who was skilled in making them. You loved doing what you could to help ease the pain of loss, but it hurt hard this time, hearing the young woman lost her life to an abusive, turbulent relationship. It sent chills up your spine. She was just a bit younger than you, still close enough to relate, though. The man was taken in by authorities, thankfully, but it still had an end no parent wants to hear of their child. No friend or family member wants to ever hear they’ve lost someone to a selfish monster.

Your heart hurt for the woman, and hurt because it’s a situation you were once in. It could’ve been you, and was a sharp reminder why you couldn’t trust anyone.

Working on the floral arrangement late Saturday night, you had the shop to yourself, trying to stay tuned into your handiwork. The funeral was the next morning, and you refused to clock out until the arrangement was perfect. It wouldn’t bring this poor girl back, wouldn’t turn back time, but if it could help honor her life, then you were doing something right.

The familiar chime of the small door bell sounded off, and you didn’t turn around to face the customer. “We’re not doing any custom orders tonight, and we’re technically closed, so make your decisions quickly, please.”

“Oh. Shit, sorry, Y/N, didn’t even realize-“

You spun around at the sound of your name to see Steve, awkwardly standing just beyond the doormat.

“Why are you here?” It came out colder than you wanted it to. You needed it to be cold, though, right?

You watched Steve wince at your attitude before responding. “I- I just wanted to apologize for the other night, when Dustin and I were in here. If we made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”

He wasn’t wrong, you were uncomfortable, but how would he know that off the bat? He was just being friendly, and you were the one shutting yourself off.

“S’fine.” You replied quickly before turning back to your work, busying yourself once more. “I have to keep working...”

You trailed off, wanting to tell him he had to go, but a part inside of you screamed stay, stay, stay.

Steve sighed. “Yeah, of course. Sorry, again, Y/N. See you around.”

The doorbell chimed once more, and you glanced down at your hands, crushing a few lilies subconsciously. Sighing and throwing them onto the table, you walked over to the door and locked it.

“It’s safer this way.” You reassured yourself. “It’s just for the best.”

A few more days passed, and Dustin came back in. You couldn’t be as cold towards him, he was only a kid.

“Hey, what’s up?” You asked as he crossed the room to the counter.

“I’m sorry if we bothered you last week-“

“Dustin, it’s fine, really. Steve came in the other night. You guys weren’t bothering me at all.” You tried reassuring him, but he still wore guilt on his face.

“I really do need flowers, though. And I asked Suzie what her favorites are!” Dustin said, with a growing smile. It made a smile of your own begin to grow.

“And did she tell you?”

“Yep! Sunflowers! Never woulda’ guessed on my own.” He replied.

“Proud of you, kid. Glad you asked.” You began gathering some fresh cut sunflowers into a brown craft paper bouquet. “When’s she visiting?”

As you handed him the flowers, he answered. “Tomorrow! I’m gonna’ show her around town, maybe we’ll stop in and say hi, if that’s ok?”

“Of course it’s okay, door’s always open.”

“Great!” After paying, Dustin began to walk towards the door, stopping to turn back your way. “Do you like sunflowers too?”

Brow raised at the question, you answered without thinking much into it. “They’re nice, but I like wildflowers more myself.”

“Good to know, thanks, bye!” And with that, he rushed out of the shop, leaving you confused once again.

The question didn’t make sense until the next day, when Dustin stopped in with Suzie, and a nervous Steve trailing behind the both of them, hands behind his back.

Arms crossed and brows furrowed, you said hello to the younger teens before directing your attention back to Steve. “Wasn’t expecting you here.”

“Yeah- I’m their ride for the day.” Steve nervously chuckled, shifting his weight back and forth between his feet.

“Whatcha’ got there? Behind your back?” You questioned, curious but nervous. Steve’s face flushed red before he pulled a small bunch of wildflowers from behind his back, handing them to you. Your eyes grew wide, trailing down to the roots of the flowers, clearly sticking out, freshly yanked from the ground.

“Um- uh- Dustin mentioned you like wildflowers, and I wasn’t sure what kinds, so we picked a bunch for you.”

“He picked them, I just delivered the information.” Dustin corrected, and Steve elbowed him, pulling a smile out of you.

“Thank you.” You said, feeling your expression soften on its own, and with that, Steve hesitantly let a smile grow. “I’m going to clean these up and put them in water. You can come with, if you want.”

Your own words surprised you, wondering when you became okay with any friendliness with a guy your age. But you didn’t fight it, continuing off to the back of the store, with Steve following behind, leaving Dustin and Suzie on their own in the shop among the flowers.

Steve watched curiously as you cut the dirt-covered roots from the ends of the flowers, giving them fresh ends to drink from. Your eyes darted up to his. “You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

Steve’s eyes grew wide once you began to speak. “I- I wanted to. I still feel bad for upsetting you the other night. I really meant no harm, I swear.”

Sighing, you set the flowers down gently on a counter, leaning against it and looking towards him before speaking again. “You did nothing wrong. I’m just a fucking mess, and don’t let anyone close to me anymore. You couldn’t have known.”

“Still, I’m sorry I invaded your space without asking or- I don’t know-“

“Steve.” You crossed your arms, narrowing your eyes at him. “It’s not your fault, really. I’m sorry I came off so cold.”

“I understand, though. And don’t feel pressured to like, be friendly with me, or whatever...” Steve trailed off, struggling to find the right words. “I just wanted to at least let it be known that... I dunno.... it’s okay, I guess.”

Smirking at his attempt, you moved back to the flowers, grabbing an empty vase and filling it with water. “It isn’t. It won’t be, unless I keep my distance from people. But I appreciate your sincerity.”

“Not everyone is bad, you know.” He mumbled. “I’m not just saying that to kiss my own ass, I mean it, there are good people out there, you know.”

Feeling your grip tighten around the flowers, you caught yourself before crushing them, placing them in the vase safely. “You don’t know that. You wouldn’t know that.”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t know?” He countered, unaware of the push it caused on you.

“Why are you so fixated on changing my view, huh?” You snapped, spinning back to face him. “You think you can just come along and fix that? Fix me?”

“No, I never said that.” Steve replied, frustrated. “I don’t know you. Don’t know a thing about you. But I just- forget it.”

“What? Say it.”

Looking away, Steve mumbled, “You don’t have to isolate yourself to feel safe. I know what it’s like, okay? It fucking sucks.”

“Bullshit you know anything about that. You don’t know me, don’t assume shit.”

“Who moves to Hawkins willingly?! You’re running from something or someone-“ at that, your face fell, and he paused, searching your eyes. “You’re right, I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t be nosy and get involved, but I know what that pain feels like, and it fucking hurts. I just wanted to try and show you that you’re not alone.”

You held yourself and emotions back as he searched your eyes once more before walking away, and you let him. A few moments passed before you heard the bell chime over the door, and you were fully alone, just like you always wanted.

You’ve lived this way for years, why stop now? Why stop ever?

For a moment, a sliver of time, you felt seen, felt understood, valid in your pain. For a moment, you didn’t feel so alone, and you pushed that away.

Weeks passed, and neither Steve nor Dustin came back into the shop since. You almost missed them, almost missed how you felt a little less lonely when they were around, even if you barely knew them. Not knowing where Steve lived, worked, or anything, you just had to patiently wait, and hope either would return, and you could mend the barely built bridge you instantly burned down.

It wasn’t until one night just before closing, a girl your age came into the shop, heading straight for the counter you stood behind.

“Hi, can I-“

“This is from Steve.” The girl interrupted you, handing a VHS tape over. “Just... watch it, okay? Give him another chance, before I go insane hearing that dingus whine about how he fucked things up.”

Leaving you speechless, she left the store. You glanced at the tape, seeing it was just a plain black VHS tape, with a piece of masking tape on the side, written on it was “for Y/N”, causing your stomach to flip a little.

Curious as to what could be on it, you rushed to clean and close up the shop, running down the block back home. Immediately after getting inside your apartment, you tossed the tape into the VCR, and hit play, settling on the floor in front of your TV.

Grain flooded the screen for a moment, before a clear picture appeared, of Steve, struggling to hold the camera up on his own, panicking, trying to find a sturdy surface to set it on. You felt a smile tug at your lips at the sight of his clumsiness.

“Uh... hi. Hi, Y/N. This is probably weird, and you’re probably sick of me annoying the shit out of you-“ Steve ran his hands through his hair nervously, before looking back into the camera. “I- I don’t want anything from you. I don’t want to upset or bother you or invade your space- and you’re right. I don’t know what it’s like, not how you do, but I want to understand... and I want you to know you’re not alone-“

“Yeah! What he said!” Dustin barged into the room, and Steve rolled his eyes, shoving the younger boy back out before continuing. “See, even Dustin cares.”

You found yourself giggling at their antics.

“I don’t want to fix anything- I just- you’re not alone, alright? Even if you don’t want to be friends, just give other people a chance, yeah? I don’t know what you went through, don’t know what you survived, but you’re not the only one who’s fought off monsters... you don’t have to do it alone.”

You felt tears at the edge of your eyes, urging to break. Wiping them away, you saw the tape cut to a scene outside, in the woods, with Steve pointing out different wildflowers along a trail.

A group of kids wandered in and out of the shot, occasionally making silly faces at the camera, or teasing Steve as he filmed.

“This for your girlfriend?” One mocked, and he sighed behind the camera.

“Shut it, Wheeler, she’s not my girlfriend.” Steve mumbled, embarrassed. It rose more laughter out of your chest.

“Steve, that footage is going to be awful. Do you even know how to hold that thing?” Dustin teased, trying to reach for the camera before it was jerked away. Dustin eventually got a hold of it, pointing it towards Steve, who smiled sheepishly at the lens, and waved.

“I’ll tell her since you won’t-“ Dustin started off, and Steve reached for the camera before Dustin ran ahead with it. “- we miss you, Y/N. We hope you’re okay. Steve is worried about you, and just wanted you to know you’re always welcome to hang out with us.”

“Dustin, give me that back, you shithead!” Steve yelled off in the distance, and Dustin sped up again, bulky camera still on his shoulder.

“Gotta go! If you want to bother Steve sometime, he works at Family Video!” Dustin rattled off, then continued with Steve’s home address, before yelling a quick goodbye, ending the tape there. The static and grain of the tracking filled back into the TV’s screen and sound.

Amused, you couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous the video was, just like the day they came into the shop. You knew nothing about them, they knew nothing about you, but there was something telling you deep down, maybe it’d be okay to knock some height off the walls for once. Maybe you didn’t have to be so lonely, didn’t have to fight your monsters off on your own.

It was late, so you knew Steve wasn’t at work, and you figured it couldn’t hurt to try him at home. Jumping in your car, you drove off to the address Dustin snuck into the end of the tape. When you pulled up outside Steve’s house, you began to doubt yourself, wondering why the hell you’re in front of this stranger’s house.

There was a pull, though. You’ve felt it before, you felt it now, and it was hard to ignore. How could you when curiosity towered over your fear? The invisible pull grabbed tight, and led you up the steps and to the front door, and didn’t let you think twice about ringing the doorbell. You hoped you weren’t waking anyone at this hour.

The door swung open, revealing a sleepy Steve in sweats, rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to the light above the door.

“What’re you doing here?” He asked, and you instantly felt guilty for bothering him at this hour.

“I.... I don’t have a fucking clue, honestly.” You replied, confused at things yourself. Dropping your voice to a whisper, you asked, “Did I wake you up?”

Steve shook his head, “Just been a long day.”

“Someone dropped the tape off earlier. The one you made.” You didn’t want to hesitate anymore on this. “Why did you do that?”

Steve shrugged, moving aside so you could step inside, and not carry this conversation on his front steps. “This is gonna sound crazy, but since we’ve met, I’ve had this... this... thing?”

“A pull?”

“Exactly th- wait, how do you know?”

“I feel it too. I don’t know how, or why, but it’s there, and I can’t keep ignoring it.” You breathed. “People terrify me, but I don’t know what keeps bringing me back to you, Steve.”

“I see wildflowers everywhere I go, now. I see them and immediately picture the joy they bring you, and I don’t understand what the fuck is going on, but it can’t just be coincidence.” He mumbled, running his hands over his face. “I want to give you space, but something keeps telling me to look out for you, to check up on you, make sure you’re alright. That sounds insane, probably.”

Slowly, you could feel the walls crumble down some more. “It’s not as insane as it sounds... because I’m not okay, and haven’t been for some time.”

“God, fuck, so much fucked up shit has happened here in the past few years, that this doesn’t even shock me.” Steve spoke, realizing this was just another bizarre thing happening in Hawkins once more. ”There’s a connection, somehow. With us.”

“Maybe I was just meant to end up here. You even asked me who willingly moves here, and I only did because it felt right. No other way to describe it.” You mumble, realizing how wild this sounded. “The night you came in, when I was working late, something in me wanted so badly to ask you to stay.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Jaw tightening, you answered. “Because I’m not supposed to be like this. Like that. Clingy, needy, dependent. I’ve been on my own for so long, I don’t know what is safe or not anymore.”

“You’re allowed to be needy, you know. We’re only human. You don’t have to fight your battles alone.”

“And what if they scare you off?”

“They won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t, but why can’t I try anyway?” Steve sighed, head spinning in circles over this. “You feel it, I feel it, why are we holding back?”

“Because I’m terrified.” Your voice cracked as it flowed out. “I have to take care of myself, and that means keeping my distance.”

“Or it just means you need to try and trust others again.” He pleaded, knowing something deeper lied beneath the surface. “Let me help you.”

Seconds that felt like hours passed before you nodded your head, covering your eyes with your hands as you began to cry. Cautious, Steve reached out to you, pulling you into a hug that felt comforting. It felt familiar. It felt like home.

“You’re allowed to take care of yourself, you know. You’re allowed to go through your feelings with someone by your side. You don’t have to do this alone.”

A peace settled within you as his words hit your ears, and it brewed a bit of courage within you too. “Neither do you, Steve.”

You weren’t sure what lied ahead, how things would unfold. You weren’t sure how the Universe connected you two together; whether romantic or just platonic, you were soulmates in some sense. In a way, you gravitated towards one another, and letting your walls down didn’t seem so frightening for once.

You owed it to your fragile, younger, naive past self back home to get through the rest of this life with love, light and hope, and allow others to help along the way. You owed it to your past, present, and future selves, to take care. Take care of yourself.

#steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington au #steve harrington fanfic #stranger things x you #stranger things x reader #flower shop au #soulmate au #take care of yourself #my fics

[ppgrewritten]

Probably should have made a pinned/explanation post sooner so uh here lol

Uh this is a bit old and cringe so im unpinning it lol

💝What caused me to make a Ppg reimagining?

I’m a og Ppg fan it was literally my childhood, I watched the entire original series, I ate the movie up like candy all the time, I got any Ppg merch I found at stores, I watched any ppgz content I could get my grubby child hands on on yt, loved the art style of the 2014 special even if it wasn’t the best story wise, enjoyed the 2016 show despite it being hecka cringe lol in general I adore powerpuff girls

Then CW came around and-

Yeah that made me mad

Here let me just *uses my actual knowledge of the original shows lore and all the reboots and of the fan base and makes a good reboot accordingly*

There.

💙Is this a continuation?

No, it’s more like an au if anything

I never did like that so many reboots recently just are continuations rather than reimaginings so I’m changing things up a bit

Nothing too drastic though-

Think if a little bit of ppgzs lore was mixed up with the og shows lore?

Like some good examples is that the girls don’t know they were made in a lab (though they find out later on) ,bunny is created by professor not the girls, the ppnkgs are included + are not from an alternate universe like they are in the comics etc

I’ve just changed some things a little, mostly to add to the story and make things more cohesive is all

💚What kind of vibe is this gonna give off? Comedic? Action? What?

I would say I’m leaning a bit more towards fluff/angst? If you’ve seen my other content I have a knack for having a equal kindof balance of fluff and angst in my stories so same thing here

So yes there will be some comedy and angsty action stuff but also some more slice of life family dynamics and character arcs and stuff

basically just if it was a contained story rather than episodic? I guess if that makes sense?

💜Is this based on any specific iteration? (sobs I can’t get the html to make it purple)(DANG IT NOW THE OTHER ONES COLORS GOT REMOVED ASFKHPB)

Yes and no

I’m using the original show as a main base on what to do

BUT

I’m also including small little things from the other iterations too (ex: the girls probably have a magical girl secret identity ppgz style thing going on with them being powerpuff girls, I based bunny’s backstory on some elements from bliss’s backstory, etc) this is also reflected in the characters designs as when you look at them you can see little elements from the original + from ppgz + from 2016 all kinda rolled together

But like I said I’m just going to use the original as my main inspo :)

I would love any ideas y’all have as the story is still a work in progress and any asks you have I would love to hear!

#ppg #ppg rewritten

[in-tua-deep]

Umbrella academy Pokémon AU? Each sibling has an affinity to a legendary maybe?

okay you have made me curious enough to explore this in between my monumental task of scanning in Every Family Photo in the house 

so i’m thinking this is a universe where all these children are just. Found. No parents, nothing, because I want to avoid implications. But the point is that these children are blessed by a legendary, sort of. They’re not pokemon, but they’re not really human either because humans aren’t supposed to have powers like pokemon, right? They’re kind of like human shaped pokemon really

Anyway Reginald collects the kids and squirms through on a technicality because technically the kids aren’t human so he can train them like a pokemon team. And so begins the Umbrella Academy! Which is a team of six because that’s the max number of pokemon on a team of course, sorry Vanya you have to stay behind in the box manor

i’m using this page as a reference because i will freely admit i’m behind on legendaries and sub-legendaries and mythical pokemon and also i don’t really know the difference between those three categories

Luther: 

Zamazenta: Shields the others, durability from steel form, fighter. Has second form which could symbolize Luther going from ‘regular’ human appearance to enhanced form that he is ashamed of as it’s less human.

Terrakion: My guy is built like a brick wall and is strong enough to destroy a castle wall in like, one blow. I love and support them.

Lunala: this one is just me being an asshole because Lunala is known as “the beast that calls the moon” and Luther’s relationship to the moon is a big old thing right there

Diego:

Palkia: this is because Palkia has the ability to warp space which is. Pretty much Diego’s power in the show right? Warps space to that his knives always hit? Also explains Diego’s fight on sight rivalry with Five if Five is Dialga’s lmao Luther stops him from yeeting himself at Five like, at least twice in the show that I remember off the top of my head

Zacian: this is literally just because it’s got a sword and Diego’s power is sharp pointy things so

Virizion: They have knife horns on their head. Knife horns. That’s all.

Allison:

Azelf: Azelf is the bringer of willpower and Allison’s whole thing is overriding that, which Azelf has been shown to be able to do.

Jirachi: her reality powers could be explained by managing to tap into wishes, though Jirachi’s wishes can’t create objects.

Klaus: 

Mew: okay if we’re gently looking at comics Klaus as well then the ability to levitate and be a tiny little shit is absolutely perfect and also makes sense with Reginald’s insistence of Klaus’s incredible potential?? Let me be valid. Also, lives at the tree of life right? Opposite of life is death so that could tie in I guess??????

Yveltal: stealing life energy is as close as I could find to an actual death related legendary I’ll be honest.

Darkrai: he’s nightmares but I mean Klaus has a lot of those so. Seriously where is the pokemon god of the dead like the closest i can find are the legendary beasts because they literally died in a tower (that’s dark)

Five:

Dialga: the obvious choice because Dialga is literally like the time god. Since Dialga lives in another dimension I figure they just kind of scoop Five up and steal him? And so Five is stuck in Dialga’s dimension while he’s trying to both master his powers and get home. While having to deal with his overprotective pokemon dad. Also feeds into his ability to rile Diego up with like one word if Diego is Palkia’s

Celebi: able to travel through time and exist simultaneously through time so a stellar choice for obvious reasons. However, Celebi could also be the one who rescues Five from Dialga’s realm since Celebi can sense if something is a temporal anomaly and return them to their timeline sO that’s a possibility. Shared custody?

Xerneas: look Xerneas has the power to share eternal life and it would neatly explain why Five is just. An eternal thirteen-year-old like he is in the comics so there’s that. He would be so salty about it, too. Five just. turns into a tree for seventeen years after using his powers too much lmao can you imagine?? The tree in the courtyard is actually five surprise bitches

Ben:

Giratina: travels and controls dimensions besides those of time and space which could totally explain his ability to access whatever weird tentacle dimension exists in his stomach?? There we go Ben there is a gate to the distortion world

Deoxys: the closest I could get to a weird tentacle legendary honestly??

Yveltal: stealing life energy and then going to sleep is probably about as scary as tentacles right?? look there’s a distinct lack of weird tentacle legendaries it’s a problem

Vanya:

Meloetta: for that musical tie in yo. Also bulbapedia says that Meloetta is capable of becoming invisible and if that’s not a metaphor for Vanya’s childhood I don’t know what is.

Arceus: i mean. If anyone could end the world in one blow it’s probably the original pokemon god, right?

I’m personally liking Terrakion for Luther, Palkia for Diego, Azelf for Allison, Mew for Klaus, Dialga for Five, Giratina for Ben, and Meloetta for Vanya but there are several i like and also if there are ones y’all want to argue for or throw into the ring let me know! I definitely don’t proclaim to be the most knowledgeable person about pokemon

(especially legendaries which i lost track of years ago rip)

Ben, staring at his hands: If Giratina is my parent. Does that mean arceus is my… grandparent? Is god my grandparent, guys?

just shenanigans

Klaus: yeah i died but mom bailed me out of the afterlife

Luther: mo - you mean mew?

Klaus: oh yeah, mew. lol i dunno how they knew but they highfived me and yeeted me back to life. they have tiny baby hands i love them

Ben: i don’t know what the fuck mew is legend of and at this point i’m too afraid to ask

#ask me #anonymous #tua au #the umbrella academy #tua pokemon au #pokemon au #they're the legendaries kids y'all #sort of #luther hargreeves #allison hargreeves #diego hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #ben hagreeves #number five #five hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #vanya is giving me so much trouble #klaus was a tricky bastard as well #celebi is five's weird time sibling who bails him out and helps him sneak of of dialga's house #reginald is just a really weird pokemon trainer #who collects rare pokemon #and what is rarer than a bunch of human shaped pokemon #i keep mispelling giratina as girantina #they're all technically baby gods???? #little baby demigods #i mean latias and latios can shapeshift into human form so #i'm valid

[shadowsong26fic]

Some Stuff

Not a proper Coming Attractions post, that’ll come out on the first Monday of the month as always, but...a more general update on some projects (and also possibly looking for input?)

Basically, I’ve accepted the inevitable, that I’ve fallen back into ATLA in a big way. I haven’t actually rewatched the series yet, because my roommate was doing so and I kept popping in and out and I didn’t want to confuse myself by trying to do a straight rewatch while she was doing hers, but I have reread a bunch of old fanfic/RP logs, and have some plots I kind of want to work with again? Either as fulltext or as an AU Outline. Behind the cut are some more details, as well as seeking Opinions on which, if any, I should actually work on.

I am also Determined to not fall out of SW as this is going on, lol. More details about that behind the cut, as well.

(Also, I’ve talked about some of the stuff listed here on my writing discord, which feel free to come stop by and hang out! It’s basically an extension of this tumblr, only a little more interactive. Find us here!)

Star Wars Stuff:

I plan to take next weekend to bang out at minimum the next Precipice chapter, and possibly the next two (though I’ll stagger posting if I do manage to get both done). And then try and give myself a more active schedule to get the next parts of the series out.

I’m also working on a dragonshifters AU, which I’m enjoying a lot. I think OFLAM may be relegated to the back burner for a while, though I’ll probably kick it up again if I end up doing it for SWBB next year (unless I tease out enough of a Plot for dragonshifters to do that instead, lol). I’ve talked about some of the worldbuilding on my writing discord, too.

I also still owe some meme responses from way back, which I do intend to get to at some point I promise <.<

And I haven’t forgotten some other extant projects--Devoted!verse, the Ventress outline, Bail Unfucks the Timeline, Distaff, etc.--but they’re pretty back-burnered for the time being. If something Sparks in any of those, I’ll probably dive into it, but for now I’m not actively working on them in the way I am on dragonshifters and Precipice.

AtLA Stuff:

So, there’s sort of...four or five projects spinning around in my head right now, lol. One of which, if I do it, would not work as an outline so it would be fulltext. It’s canon-compliant, for the most part.

...well, I should interrupt myself here to say the following: I haven’t read a lot of the comics or tie-in novels, and my familiarity with more recent Word of God is limited. I’m basically operating out of canon defined as “it’s in the original show or WoG I’m specifically aware of, drawing in stuff from other sources as it appeals to me but otherwise ignoring it.” Where WoG contradicts itself (i.e., the timeline for Lu Ten’s death),I go with whatever answer I prefer.

In terms of worldbuilding details added in Korra--ehhhhh, it’s sort of held a little higher than the comics, etc. (in that, if I remember it, unless it Josses something I really, really liked/was foundational to something I’m doing, I’ll probably include it); but most likely whatever I’m doing will go AU enough during the first series for a lot of the other detail work/character-specific stuff to not matter.

Anyway! Back to the fun stuff.

There’s one story I’m playing with that’s not going to work as an AU outline. Depending on exactly what I focus on, there’s a couple different fulltext fics buried in it, and I’m not sure which I’d work on (or if I’d braid the two of them together). Basically, it deals with the siege of Ba Sing Se and Lu Ten’s death, and some of the fallout from that, focusing on an OC of mine and her daughter. I found a short fic I wrote for a challenge back in the day that ties into this concept, which is at the very end of this post. If I work on this, I’d probably change the names of the two relevant OCs and possibly how she gets her memory back (it was written specifically for a “what happened in the rest of the world when Zhao captured Tui” challenge; guess how many of them were Hama-related), but. Anyway, building on either the Siege portion of the story (which has a lot of West Side Story on its soundtrack in my head lol), or focusing on what she does after she remembers him. Or both! Both is also good.

The rest of the options are mostly Zuko-centric canon-divergence fics.

First option, Airbender!Zuko. This occurs because The Spirits Said So; he’s gotten very good at fake firebending using airbending. Probably to the point where he’s so deep in denial that he can’t even see the pyramids anymore, to stretch that analogy to the breaking point, lol. Basically, not much changes until the north pole, but there’s some ways for it to go from there...

Second option, Avatar Zuko. This one has been floating around in my head more lately. Reading old RP logs, my partner and I played through a bunch of different variants on how this all worked, but the one in my head right now is basically--a few months before he’s banished, they’re at Ember Island or something and he’s out on the ocean/fishing or something. Sudden storm, he stops the boat from capsizing through panicked waterbending. No other witnesses, for whatever reason. He initially decides he imagined it, something else must have happened. Except then, when he’s in the palace infirmary after getting his face melted, he does it again. At that point, he basically decides that his options here are “get turned into a weapon and kill A Lot of people, or get disappeared into some dark hole somewhere where I can’t cause any problems.” Neither of those is particularly attractive, so he decides to run away. He doesn’t know what his long-term plan is at this moment--if he’ll use the comet to regain favor/save his nation based on the context he’s operating under right now, or do something else. But he has about three and a half years before then. He figures he’ll spend a year at the Western Air Temple, looking for texts/mosaics/something to get him at least vaguely airbending; then go to the North Pole to learn waterbending for a year, then spend a year in the Earth Kingdom to learn earthbending. Planning, for the last two, to present himself as mixed and while he has a lot of his Fire Nation father’s features, he inherited bending from his other parent (or grandparent, when he goes to the North Pole). For those of you familiar with my original fic, this will also include the first iteration of a prominent secondary character from Feredar/The Farglass Cycle. Mostly so Zuko has someone to talk to at the WAT XD. 

Third and fourth options are a bit more nebulous, and both break off during the Ba Sing Se arc. First option, Zuko gets injured during the stampede when Aang moves the zoo (this will probably draw in at least one of my BSS OCs because I am pathologically incapable of not creating OCs, lol). Second option, Zuko leaves his mask behind in Lake Laogai, which means Aang will know he’s in the city. Not sure where either of those would go from that point but there’s some Significant Differences there, lol.

...anyway, that’s where things stand now. Which, if any, are y’all interested in seeing?

As promised, the clip from the Lu Ten story, originally written for a challenge back in...yeesh 2010 XD. Again, this is canon-compliant at least up until Iroh and Zuko arrive in BSS, and I’d possibly change the names and/or how she gets her memories back.

An Wei sat by the window, holding her little girl and watching the sky. Today had been one of Huai's bad days, so An Wei had her hand resting lightly on her daughter's neck, counting her heartbeats. The doctors had told her, back when Huai was a baby and they'd figured out what was wrong with her, to hope for seven years--but only to hope, not to count on them. So An Wei took special care to always, always watch. She never regretted her child, no. Occasionally, she wished she had never met Huai's father, but...well, she couldn't remember much about him, other than the kind golden eyes (false kindness?) that had taken her in so completely during the Siege. She didn't think about him very much. It was too painful--and dangerous. Above and beyond the dangers in thinking about the War That Was No War, her own father had... Well, he hadn't been pleased. She didn't remember the argument, but her uncle wouldn't have brought her to the Lower Ring midwife who had cared for her during her pregnancy if she hadn't needed to hide. Despite all of her vigilance, it was her own heart that skipped a beat when the moonlight filtering in through her window turned an eerie, dull red. She gasped and clutched her daughter a little tighter, praying that Huai would sleep until this went away, so it wouldn't frighten her. That is, assuming it would go away. She shivered and shifted Huai so the little girl was facing away from the window and watched in horror as the bloody moon failed to return to normal. "Please..." she whispered. "Please be normal when she wakes..." As if in response to her desperate pleading, the moon flared silver again after a half hour. But she barely had a moment to relax before it winked out completely. An Wei jumped and stifled a scream. "Don't be afraid of the dark, this'll light your way home." She jumped again. There was no one here in the room with her and Huai, but she could have sworn... The moon blinked back into existence and a pretty girl with long white hair rode in on one of its beams. An Wei stared up at her, still frightened, pulling her daughter away from the girl as best she could. The moon-girl bent down and kissed An Wei's forehead. "Remember now," she murmured, then faded out of sight. ** "Don't be afraid of the dark." He smiles and makes a little light in his palm, carefully transferring it to a bundle of sticks. "This will light your way home." ** She studies the hairpiece he wears in his topknot, turning it over and over in her hands. "There's something you should know about me, too. About my family." ** "We can make this work, Itsu." He's determined, hopeful, his golden eyes shining. "We'll talk to my father. He'll understand. We'll make it work. Meet me here, at the usual time." "I trust you." ** She waits and waits and waits, until long past dark, but he doesn't come. ** She hates speaking with her guardian, but she's scared and has nowhere else to go. "Please, help me," she finishes quietly. He nods. "I'll keep you safe, Highness. You and your child. I promise." ** The light spins around and around and around, and she forgets her name, forgets her lover, and in her place is An Wei, a young woman trained as a scribe, seduced by a nameless Fire soldier, rather than... ** Itsu let out a little sobbing breath. Huai shifted in her arms. "Mommy?" she whispered, still half-asleep. "It's okay, baby, everything's okay. Go back to sleep." "'Kay." Huai closed her golden eyes again and her breathing evened out as much as it ever did. Itsu held her daughter close. Twice over a princess, at the worst possible time, born with a broken heart. No wonder Long Feng hid us so deep.

[to clarify--Itsu is Kuei’s sister. I forget how I set the relative ages, but assuming, as seems to be the case in flashbacks, that Lu Ten is about 10 years older than Zuko, he’d be somewhere between twenty and twenty-two when he died, depending on which date you believe; Kuei is around the same age (possibly a year or two younger?) and Itsu within two years of them.]

#shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes atla #feedback greatly appreciated #miscellania

[swannkings]

Do I want to wade into the murky waters of Ye Old Fanfic Vs Original Fic wars? Yes.

I don’t know who amongst Twitter or Tumblr needs to hear this, but your edgy as fuck takes on whether fanfiction has value or not aren’t new or enlightened. I tend not to get public with my takes on writing, because I was there 10+ years ago doing this exact thing on Quizilla & Mibba, and an individual’s medium of writing and impetus is their own damn business. Any and all writing has value. Sometimes it’s meant for personal indulgence or for small communities or friend groups, other times it has to pass muster for professional publication (which is a whole other shit bag of contention) or mass public consumption.

These arguments (they are never discussions) are also exhausting and pointless. Nobody wins these things.

I agree that Cassandra Claire/Clare and E.L. James are poor examples of professional writers having begun their careers in fanfiction. But, I’d also point out that actual literary agents and publishing houses signed and printed them, and professional editors did at least skim over their works. The authors aren’t the only ones to get blame for shit writing. And let’s not forget Anne Rice, infamously unfriendly toward fanfiction, chucked professional editors out of her equation altogether because she didn’t like them having opinions on her work.

Not all writers want to be published nor want fame.

It does seem to baffle when those words enter the ears of pretentious writers, readers, and others who don’t write at all. Some people write because it’s fun, like a hobby. Sometimes those people, who write for fun, will edit their work and sometimes they let it go as is because it’s just for catharsis.

My big personal project is to track down all digital and hard copies of my writing and catalogue them. I’ve been doing it for 10 years now. I’ve been writing and sharing my writings for the last 18 years. I have a hard copy of the very first major piece of fiction I wrote (a Lord of the Rings fanfic from 2002/2003) and a hard copy of the last piece of fiction I worked on (an AU fic for a Japanese otome game) and a hard copy of my first original novel (a urban gothic from 2017). There is an absolute difference in my writing from age 11 to age 28. And looking at my catalogue of writing, most of it is fanfiction. Do I have original works in there? Yes. Are they good? I think they are, and my friend thinks they are, but whether or not those works are up to snuff for a book deal—that’s up to an agent I haven’t sought out.

Improvements to my writing can be attributed to age (I’ll be 29 in a little over a week), to a university education (a BA in Performance Art from a STEM based offshoot of a way more prestigious school is the most I could afford after 3 years of community college), and alternating writing fanfiction online with a built-in audience/community and sharing original works online (where they got much less attention) and with writing groups/friends.

The truest rule of any endeavor is: you get better with practice.

Does fanfiction enable bad habits? Sure, but so does being educated at an Ivy League school. There’s no shame in acknowledging our own shortcomings. I mean, fuck though, I’d take overusing the phrase “carded his fingers” or inexperienced writers with funky grammar over being a snob with a Linguistics degree and a podcast.

What makes me, an unknown writer, a maybe valuable voice in this here shitkicking?

Because I’ve been doing this for half of my life and because I love stories. I’m an advocate for education and reading, and libraries and accessible information. I’m all for kids (anyone really) picking up comics or graphic novels, or reading fanfiction or webcomics, reading whatever genre or medium floats their boat if it means they’re engaging their minds and imaginations. This extends to film and video games and podcasts and audiobooks too because not everyone has the same level of literacy or ability to physically read or stay engaged with written text.

I don’t have a lot of experience in many things, and I am by no means a fabulous writer, but I am old enough to recognize an old argument and threadbare talking points coming from the mouths of unhappy people.

But is there really merit to writing fanfiction? Yes.

It’s a great way for people new to writing to learn how and practice creating engaging narratives.

It’s a great way for young writers to deconstruct their favorite worlds and characters in order to better understand both the creation of fiction and the types of fiction they enjoy writing. (Heads up: published literary fiction also uses tropes and archetypes)

Fanfiction has a built-in audience. This is perfect for any writers who a) are unsure of their abilities and wish to get feedback, b) wish to remain anonymous for various reasons such as being made to feel embarrassed for writing fanfiction but want a modicum of acknowledgment, c) have rich and engaging lives and just want to share some raunchy fantasies because they most certainly aren’t alone, and d) simply enjoy writing things that make others happy.

Have you seen the goddamned news? Let people have some silly little pleasures.

But what about... you know... brain rot?

That’s a real thing. Twitter has it too (have the last 5 years shown us nothing?) And have you met A Dude From Film School?

Let’s be clear: age doesn’t negate brain rot, neither does only writing original fiction. Young people who are Extremely Online, y’all can have brain rot too, it isn’t just Fandom Olds or your Uncle on Facebook.

You should never let your age dictate whether you are able to engage in fandom or fanfiction, but absolutely should in the ways you engage. Not every piece of fic is meant for you to read and not everyone has to praise the things you write, not even your friends.

For the record: writing tropes, even squicky ones, isn’t brain rot. Not believing fandom is racist or gate keeps is though.

The big take away...

Listen.

If you are a writer who primarily writes fanfiction and you want to someday be a published author of real live books, you do need to create original works and engage with writers outside of AO3, Tumblr, Wattpad, or whatever site is still hosting fic when you read this. It’s imperative you see other parts of the creative world. Stretch your wings, experience other ways of doing. Allow yourself to grow beyond what you know.

There is no guarantee you’ll have a career in writing. There is no guarantee your magnum opus will get you a publishing deal, or will even make it out of the slush pile. Writing to a career endgame can be just as detrimental as writing to a trend.

None of this is even getting into the gate keeping that exists in publishing already and only allows in diverse voices when it’s profitable, making fanfiction and online communities all the more important to marginalized creatives.

It’s perfectly alright to just write because you like writing, and it’s perfectly alright if you like playing in other people’s sandboxes. No one but you gets to place value on your hobbies or take merit from you for not writing like you have a MFA in Creative Writin. Writing a 100k Slow Burn fic takes just as much dedication as writing a 60k original novel, they just stretch different muscles.

#fanfiction #writing #will i regret this?

[hhemeraa-a]

Ever since S.tarf.ighter ended, I’ve been thinking about making a post about it, but I’m also so exhausted from everything that I haven’t really been sure on where to start. 

If you’re new around here, even if you’re fairly old around here, you may or may not have known, but Myles, Troy, and Nicholas were all originally OCs I created for the SF fandom. I wrote an 87 page fan fiction practically rewriting / filling out background lore for the comic since the author didn’t really seem to want to do that (it’s still on AO3 and no I will not link it, the writing is terrible), but as the fandom continued to be... a fandom and Hamlet continued to come out with more pages, I locked up my original canon and set it to the way side because I had lost a lot of motivation for it.  Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love my original canon lore and I could talk about space and aliens and black holes for hours, but the community really did a number on me. 

Which is where my ‘Default’ AU came in so I could continue to write my boyos. It’s also why Nicholas is always dead and why his blog is canon divergent to the umpteenth power. I have always wanted to get back into my canon lore, but each time Hamlet updated that damn comic with more and more bullshit that had nothing to do with nothing, I just sobbed over my baby dramatically. 

I’ve been thinking about since the comic ended with... still no answers, that I would still hold onto my original lore and that I want to get it back onto the blog. Since most of y’all don’t bother going through my AUs anyway, I’m sure another long winded post about some things I made ages ago that will now be refined to exclude the canon it was originally based on, will just be another post sjkndgksjdg 

POINT IS. For those who know, I’m bringing it back. For those who don’t, keep your eyes peeled. 

#;; Sy's thighs save lives (ooc) #y'all I used to be so invested in my original canon #that I refused to write in AUs #it took me a year before I even considered an AU #sjkndgsdg #and now I'm like 'ugh my original lore? idk...' #but I miss all my robot and alien and space blogs #they all disappeared #everyone has fantasy werewolves and bunny people #which is fun and all don't get me wrong #but the whole reason I even started on this hell site #was for my space boyos #;;w;; I miss them

[incandescent-creativity]

20 Questions Tag

tagged by @homesteadchronicles !

OKAY SO

I accidentally answered all of the ones Jake answered, before I saw he left questions for me at the end, and I didn’t want to waste all that time, so

This was originally a 10 Question tag, and I’m putting his questions first, but there’s 10 more below the cut because I say so.

1. When you find a book at the store, what about it makes you decide to buy it or put it back on the shelf?

Well, if it’s a book in a series or by an author I know and like, I’m going to get that. I barely look at the premise of new Stephen King books anymore.

But other than that, if the inside flap sounds like a good story, and if the first page sounds like something I can read and enjoy.

2. What would your book’s ideal cover look like, should you have access to any artist you’d want and any resources you would need to make it a reality?

I’ve already made mock covers, you can find them on the title slides of my comic sans presentations, so I guess they’d just look like those, but nicer?

Although, tbh, I’m a bigger fan of these SOLE fan covers by @writeouswriter. I think they capture the themes of the story better, and I might play around with remaking the SOLE cover soon, inspired by their work!

3. If you could rewrite one story - be it a book, game, movie, show, etc. - which would it be and why?

Two options:

One, the ending of Game of Thrones. I know that might be a cliche or expected answer, and I’m usually not one to critique works that I watch, but Jaime abandoning Brienne made literally no sense.

The other option is a book we’re reading for class: Phantoms, by Christian Kiefer. Inconsistent grammar, bad writing style, hardly any plot actually happening, fake deep sentences and weird descriptions... Ugh.

4. Have you ever given a story a second chance and liked it better the next time through? What caused your opinion to change?

Really, truly, changing the urban fantasy TREE Series to the high fantasy LORE Series was the best decision I’ve ever made. I went from feeling lukewarm about the story to feeling on fire, and it might be solely because of the opportunity to worldbuild so much.

5. What do you believe endears an audience to a character?

Relatability! A character has got to be relatable, at least in some capacity. That’s how you make good villains: you show that they are so far gone down whatever hole they’ve fallen into that they can’t be relatable anymore.

(Also what makes a good villain is making them just relatable and logical enough that you see where they came from. It’s a weird line that never appears in the first draft)

6. What kind of romances do you prefer to read about and/or watch unfold? (Soft and shy, hot and sexy, slow burn, enemies to lovers, etc.)

Soft and shy slowburn of best friends to lovers will get me EVERY TIME

Like do y’all remember Percy and Annabeth from Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series? That was the ULTIMATE romance of my childhood. I bet if I went back and read it, it would still hold up, too. Those two went to Tartarus and back with only each other. Peak Romance.

7. What type of AU’s are your guilty pleasures, be they for your stories or for others? (Modern, High School/University, Coffee Shop, Vampires, etc.)

I’ve never written a vampire story, but I think I’d like to try.

This was not the question, but I don’t really have any guilty pleasures! I write what I write and I write what I want and I hardly ever do AUs.

8. If only one age demographic would ever read your books, which would you choose and why?

“New Adult,” which I’m not even sure is a genre. Like, early 20 year olds.

9. If you could pay homage to one person in your life through your stories and/or characters, who would it be and why?

Probably myself?

These are my stories, and as much support as I’ve gotten from friends (and even the occasional family), at the end of the day, they’re most important to me, I’m the one who’s put the most work into them, and if I can represent and immortalize myself...

I think I’ll be happy.

10. If every reader walked away from your story having been changed in one significant way, what would you want it to be and why?

For the SOLE Project, I want readers to learn that isolating themselves will never solve anything, and will probably make things worse. Also, take action against climate change (but do it with other people).

For LiaHT, I want people to know it’s okay not to have all the answers, and be at peace with all parts of themselves.

For LORE, I want people to start treasuring the power of friendship and the power of hope.

---

SECOND BATCH

1. What are your character’s favorite foods or snacks?

Christian will snack on anything he can get his hands on. Nora likes cookies. Zach likes fruits and pastries, especially fruity pastries. Dr. Agau and Beth are (shockingly) very practical people: nuts, berries, cheese, handfuls of those... think of trail mix.

2. What playlists do you listen to when writing?

I use video game playlists! They’re usually wordless and motivating, which is nice. I like to use this playlist on Spotify, or this website (you can’t skip songs, but there’s also some weird metal and screaming songs on the playlist so like. Pick your poison).

3. Which OC is/was your favorite to create?

Dr. Agau is still my favorite, I think. She’s just so... I don’t know, in control? Obviously, she uses her control and power to abuse children, so she’s an awful person, but come on. Who doesn’t long for a sense of absolute control over circumstances in their life.

A close second are Ash and Zach. It’s fun to think of all the ways they balance each other and differ from each other, and the few areas they are similar in.

4. What is the first book you read that made you cry?

The only book that’s ever made me cry is the ending of Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman.

5. Do you hide any secrets in your books as a way of foreshadowing?

Not intentionally? The things I hide are mostly references to old drafts, like when Beth finds a body in Agau’s laboratories that’s named Kati (an old character who I cut out of the story).

6. What is the most difficult part of your writing process?

Starting.

Seriously, whether it’s starting a chapter, figuring out where to start the story as a whole, starting to resolve something, I just find beginnings... very difficult. I haven’t found a good formula for them yet.

7. Which of your characters would you like to meet or get to know irl?

I think Zach and I would get along fabulously! 

I also have trouble with Matt’s character, and Hans’s, so maybe I could get to know those boys a bit better.

8. Was there a situation in your writing that you took from your own life?

I don’t take exact situations as much as I take feelings. All the pieces of my writing that are Beth having panic attacks, of Zach not knowing where he’s going with his life, of Nora stressing over school... Our circumstances may be very different, but the feelings are usually pretty direct.

9. Do your characters have reoccurring symbolism in their dreams?

Weirdly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever written a dream sequence for a character. I’ve written a nightmare, but only one, in all of my writing.

Huh.

10. Which Hogwarts houses would you sort your characters into?

Slytherin: Dr. Agau, Beth, Ash, and Maluka

Ravenclaw: Michael

Hufflepuff: Hallie, Hans, Zach, Olufemi, Finnigan, Nora

Gryffindor: Christian, Matt

Apparently I have a type.

#tagged in #about me

[rocksinmuffin]

WILL I WON’T I MASTERLIST

Tired of having to browse through pages of posts just to figure out if I’ll write it?  Me too. I just spent hours putting it all together so you don’t have to!

The list is in alphabetical order for convenience and under the read more due to length.

EDIT: 3/9/2023 I am updating the fandoms to include a hyperlink to take you directly to the fandom tag. If you see a hyperlink in the list of fandoms I don’t write for, that’s because I wrote something before I officially decided to not take requests for a fandom. If there is no hyperlink for fandoms I do write it’s because i haven’t filled a request for that fandom yet.

I Will:

Aggretsuko

Alien (movie series)

Animal Crossing (no nsfw)

Animorphs

Archer

Beastars (up to season 2 of the anime)

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Bleach

Bob’s Burgers (no nsfw)

Borderlands (1 + 2)

Castlevania (Netflix series)

Camp Camp

Codename Kids Next Door

Cuphead

Danganronpa (no nsfw)

DC Universe (Don’t know much but I have some general knowledge)

Death Note

Detroit: Become Human (But if y’all give me 50 Connor requests I will move it to the Won’t list)

Disenchantment

Disney Movies (too many to list but if I’m familiar with it I’ll do it)

Dragon Age

Dragon Ball (original, dbz, xenoverse, gt, super, fighterz)

Fable (2 + 3)

Far Cry (5 + New Dawn)

Fallout (fo3, new vegas, fo4)

Fern Gully

Five Nights at Freddy’s (no nsfw, shitposts only, though honestly at this point i probably won’t write it just because I don’t really want to give more attention to the creator in light of not so recent events)

Freakazoid

Friday the 13th 

Full Metal Alchemist (2003 anime only)

Futurama

Gargoyles

Gravity Falls

Greggory Horror Show

Grim Adventures of Billy and Many

Hades (video game)

Halo (including the old original episodes of Red vs Blue)

Hatoful Boyfriend

Hellsing

Hellboy (1st 2 movies)

Homestuck (including Hiveswap + Friendsim)

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

Inside Job

Inuyasha

Invader Zim

Jackie Chan Adventures

Johnny Bravo

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Kill la Kill

Knives Out (both movies)

Labyrinth

Left 4 Dead

Legend of Zelda (ocarina of time, majora’s mask, breath of the wild)

Looney Tunes

Lost in Space (Netflix)

Mass Effect

Marvel (MCU universe, a little general knowledge here and there. Mostly Spider-Man and Venom)

Metroid

Mortal Kombat (only familiar with characters from Mortal Kombat 10)

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic (sfw only and probably mostly shitposts)

Mystic Messenger

Naruto

Night at the Museum

Nightmare Before Christmas

NiGHTS into Dreams

Nomad of Nowhere

Obey Me!

OFF

Okage Shadow King

OK KO

Original Scenarios (Example, reader insert x random monster/merman/orc, etc.)

Osmosis Jones

Ouran High School Host Club

Our Flag Means Death

Outlast

Overwatch

Panty and Stocking with Gaterbelt

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pokemon (games, first season of anime, pokemon mystery dungeon)

Portal

Powerpuff Girls

Predator (movie series)

Resident Evil Village (8 only. Maybe 7 if you guys don’t overload me with requests for Lucas Baker)

Rise of the Guardians

The Road to El Dorado

Saints Row (3 + 4)

Samurai Jack

Sgt. Frog

She Ra (Netflix version only)

Shovel Knight

Silent Hill (2+3)

Skyrim

Sonic the Hedgehog

Soul Eater

Spider-Man (including Venom, live action movies, into the spiderverse, cartoons/comics in general)

Stardew Valley

Star Wars

Superjail

Super Mario Series (no specific games, just in general)

Super Smash Bros

TAU

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (don’t know any particular series but in general)

Transformers (g1, beast wars, tfa, tfp, idw, bayverse movies, rid2015, rescue bots, bumblebee movie, cyberverse, earthspark)

Trollhunters

Trying Human

Twisted Wonderland (probably sfw only though will consider nsfw if you request characters who are over 18)

Undertale (Including some AUs and Deltarune)

The Venture Brothers

Villainous

Wander Over Yonder

Watchmen (movie only)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Xiaolin Showdown

Yu-Gi-Oh! (original series, no spin-offs)

Yu Yu Hauksho

 I Won’t:

The Adventure Zone

The Amazing World of Gumball

American McGee’s Alice

Arcana (mobile game)

Archie Comics

Arthur and the Invisibles

Assassin’s Creed

Assassination Classroom

Attack on Titan

Avatar the Last Airbender

Axis Powers Hetalia

Battlestar Galactica

Ben 10

Berserk

Biker Mice from Mars

Bionicle

The Boys

The Boy and the Beast

Boyfriend to Death

Brave Police J-Decker

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Captain Hook (2003 live action film)

CATS (the musical)

Carmen Sandiego

Chainsaw Man

Chaotic (the show and the card game)

Cookie Run

CountryHumans

Cowboy Bebop

Craig of the Creek

Creepypasta (like, I might do Slenderman because I was very into Marble Hornets back in the day but he is the exception)

Danny Phantom

Darkest Dungeon

Darksiders

Darkwing Duck

Deadman Wonderland

Devilman Crybaby

Devil May Cry

Digimon

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K / Saiki Kusou no Sai Nan

The Dishwasher Dead Samurai

Doctor Who

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

Dorohedoro

The Dragon Prince

Ducktales

Eddsworld

Encanto

The Evil Within

The Fate series (Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Grand Order etc.)

Final Fantasy Series

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

Future Card Buddyfight

Ghostbusters

Goblin Slayer

God of War

Godzilla

Golden Kamuy

Gorillaz

The Grinch

Gurren Lagann

Harry Potter (and all related spin-offs)

A Hat in Time

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Holllow Knight (might change but haven’t played it yet)

Horizon: zero Dawn

Hyper Light Drifter

iZombie

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Kid Cosmic

Kingdom Hearts

Kingsman

League of Legends

Legos (as in, any Lego-based TV show)

Lobotomy Corporation

Lord of the Rings

Lost Boys

Madness Combat

Mega Man

Mob Psycho 100

Moomin

My Hero Academia

Neon Genesis Evangelion

One Piece

One Punch Man

Over the Garden Wall

Owl House

Persona

Phineas and Ferb

Phoenix Wright

Rainbow Six

REAL PEOPLE

Regular Show

Resident Evil (any game that isn’t Resident Evil Village)

Rick and Morty

Riverdale

RWBY

SCP Foundation

Seven Deadly Sins

Shrek (all movies and shorts including spin-offs like Puss and Boots)

Slasher Movies (in general. like, i don’t do domestic stuff or the general slashers uwu shit but if I am familiar enough with a specific franchise I might be willing to write about a specific character but only if i can make them a bastard)

Starlight Express

Star Trek

Star vs the Forces of Evil

Steven Universe

Sword Art Online

Team Fortress 2

Thundercats

Tokyo Ghoul

Toriko

Trigun

Voltron

Warframe

Word Girl

Zero Escape

#will i won’t i #will i won't i masterlist #long post #rantsinmuffin