#actually you know what let’s scrap the story this is too complicated

[mimsynims]

Fool For Love

part 1

~~~

Author’s Note: I have barely been writing anything (I usually write for the Good Omens fandom) since I started playing BG3, but then a few days ago I felt compelled to start on *something* for this fandom that has completely taken over my mind. I usually post on AO3 but for some reason I wanted to post a first teaser-chapter here on Tumblr.

So here it is, my first (unbeta’d) venture into the BG3 fandom. I have no idea where this is going except that the endgame is a happy ending for Tav and Astarion.

~~~

Astarion x reader/Tav

Tags: (Mild?) angst, pining, pining while fucking

Summary: You thought knew what you were doing when you let Astarion into your bed. He doesn’t have feelings for you, and vice versa. Only… Now you do.

~~~

You watch him laugh as Shadowheart leans closer to whisper something in his ear, and the unwarranted jealousy that has your chest aching leaves a sour taste in your mouth. He may be sharing your bed now and then, but you have no right to him. For all you know, he might be spending his other nights with each and everyone in your camp. And that is his prerogative; pretty words aside, Astarion has never promised you anything other than fantastic sex.

A bitter smile tugs at the corner of your mouth. You are sure he thinks he has you wrapped around his finger. That he has convinced you that this means more to him than it actually does. The sigh leaves your lips before you can stop it, but it doesn’t really matter, because none of the others hear you, too busy listening to Gale regaling another story about his ex.

Annoyed with yourself you rise, an excuse prepared on your tongue in case anyone questions your departure from the merriment. The lie remains unspoken and you’re relieved when you can slink into the shadows unnoticed. Relieved, but also perhaps a bit sad. It’s funny, you’ve spent most of your life aiming for anonymity, to stay under the radar. The unexpected friendships you’ve made since the kidnapping has unravelled all of that. Have made you aware of the dark and empty space in your heart you’ve successfully ignored until now.

Except it isn’t empty anymore.

It happened gradually, and without your permission. A dashing pale rogue stealing your affection when you weren’t looking. Because yes, while you know that his only reason for talking his way into your bed was manipulation, he has unintentionally shown you glints of his real self during your time together. He’s a complicated mess, just like yourself, and you love him. Love everything about him, even though it hurts.

So maybe he has you wrapped around his finger after all, because if you had any sense, you would end this thing between you. You should, but you are a selfish being. One day Astarion will realise that he doesn’t need to use sex to feel safe with you, but until that day comes, you will greedily accept every scrap of attention he gives you.

“Pathetic.”

“Talking to yourself, darling? Or have you made another furry friend when I wasn’t looking?” Astarion gracefully — why is that even when he’s pleasantly drunk, the elf manages to appear graceful? — sits down next to you in the grass. “You already have three of them in the camp, surely that’s enough?”

“Three?” You try to gather your thoughts, but it’s difficult when he is this close to you. “Scratch, the owlbear cub, and…?”

“Halsin, of course.”

“Of course,” you repeat dumbly. True, the druid was in his bear form when you first met, but something in Astarion’s demeanour makes you suspect that that isn’t what he meant. Images of Astarion undressing Halsin floods your mind. Halsin is a handsome and powerful man, so it would make sense for Astarion to seduce him too. Just like he had with you.

“Why are we sitting here, by the way?” Astarion shifts to lean on one hand, his face tilted back to take in the full moon. “Wanted a more romantic setting than your tent this time, darling?”

Oh. So you are the chosen one for the night. You were certain it would be Shadowheart, considering.

“Are you alright, Tav?”

For a moment you let yourself believe that the hesitation you hear in his voice is founded on genuine concern. That he truly cares beyond the deep-seated need for self-preservation ingrained in him. But the illusion can only last so long. You know enough of his history not to hold his actions against him, but right now you’re not in a headspace to pretend that everything is fine. And yet, you try.

“Of course I am.” You hold back a flinch when you hear the acid lacing your words like a toxin. It gives too much away, so you do the only thing you can think of. Your hands are already grabbing fabric before you have finished your thought, pulling him closer before he has time to examine your statement too closely. Before he can figure out your lie.

The night air is cool against your skin, a stark contrast to the hot mouth claiming yours. You might regret it tomorrow, but right now, this is exactly what you need. In Astarion’s arms, you can forget everything but him and what he gives you. Around other people he can seem petty and cruel, but when he’s with you like this… this is different.

Or least that’s what you tell yourself. You cling to the illusion that this is special, and you succeed — until you feel yourself leaning your head to the side, offering your neck.

Astarion doesn’t ask it of you, he never does. It’s always you that wordlessly gives him what you believe is what he truly wants.

And this time it reminds you that deep down, this is just a transactional act for Astarion. Nothing else. He doesn’t care about you, not really.

After you’re both sated, you drift off to sleep without meaning to. It has been a taxing day, both physically and mentally, and the last thing you see is Astarion looking down at you with an indiscernible expression in his red eyes. Almost as if you’re a puzzle he can’t figure out. Except that doesn’t make any sense, because to you it feels like he saw right through you the first time you met.

Some time later, you’re vaguely aware of strong arms lifting you from the damp grass. You must’ve made some noise, because you feel a warm breath against your ear.

“Hush, my darling, you don’t want the others to wake up.”

Exhaustion drags you back under, and when you next wake up, you’re in your tent. Alone.

~~~

#astarion #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #bg3 fic #bg3 #bg3 fanfiction #fic wip #astarion ancunin #help im obsessed #I came for the bear but I stayed for the vampire

[monbons]

an ask game for writers to procrastinate working on your WIP(s)

thanks for tagging me @bookish-bogwitch, @thewholelemon, @cutestkilla, and @noblecorgi!

1. 🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s): Currently, living, breathing, and eating my one and only WIP: The Eternal Life of Baz Pitch. Also, I am probably retiring after this fic because I do not think I can top it!

2. 🍄Describe your WIP/one of your WIP(s) in the format of “___ + ___ =___” Addie LaRue + SnowBaz = so much pain and angst

3. 🌍What tags or warnings will one of your WIP(s) need if you intend to share it? Period-typical homophobia, Implied/referenced DV, Blood and Injury, Death... I mean truly the works. This is SnowBaz in the darkest possible timeline.

4. 🧭An alternative title to one of your WIP(s)? At one point, I joked with @thewholelemon about naming it "Baz Pitch's 300 Year Long Grope-Fest" but for obvious reasons that title would really do a disservice to this fic (although it is sort of true).

5. ⚠️Which WIP you're most likely to finish or update next? Now that I've created a posting schedule for The Eternal Life of Baz Pitch, I want to stick to it. While I'm "done" drafting, I am still making a few big revisions to the last six chapters. I've also been re-reading the first chapters for continuity issues that may have cropped up now that I know how this ends. Either way, I can see the finish line.

6. 💾What is your document of your WIP/ a WIP called? (not the stories actual title but what you’ve saved it as) It started out as "Addie LaRue Working Draft." Once the one doc got unwieldy and long, it spun out into multiple docs titled all sorts of things - mostly chapter numbers, but I do have one not as fun as it sounds doc called "Sex Playground." (ha!)

7. 🖍Post Any sentence(s) from your WIP. “Are you so naive as to think I cannot watch you whenever it pleases me, even if you cannot see me?”

8. ♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP. I actually have SEVERAL scenes I scrapped...like pages and pages! Largely this is because I have a whole document titled "Voice," which served as a sandbox of sorts where I could play with every possible combination of POV, tone, and style before committing to the final version you see in the story now. There's even a scene in there told first-person Niall! (Bonkers.)

I also have a whole ACTUAL scene I'd love to include as an answer to this question because it was well-written, but I cut it because it made the plot unnecessarily complicated, was frankly too close to the original plot of Addie, and would have made my ending impossible. It is also--sadly--too big a spoiler to include here, so let me give you a few sentences from "Sex Playground" that will not be making the cut:

“Stay.” Baz pushes his hand into the center of Simon’s chest, pressing him back into the mattress. “I want to look at you.” Simon gives Baz a filthy smile. He can look all he wants. 

9. 🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet? I really want to write a canon divergence where Simon successfully but somewhat accidentally reveals Baz is a vampire fifth year, so Baz and the whole Pitch family have to flee from the Mage. I already have the "everybody finds out" scene written and the scene where the Mage realizes the Pitch family is gone, so I guess I have started it. But, I also have no idea where it's going or what it's about, so I haven't really accomplished anything. If anyone has ideas or wants to be a partner-in-crime on this, give me a little shout!

10. 🤡How many WIPS are you actively working on? Literally just this one. Again, I am retiring after this fic! (Or at least taking a very well-deserved break.)

11. 🛠Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now? Absolutely 100% it is writing the smut. Having never written any on-page sex means I'm figuring it out as I go. Lots of frustrated growls from me (not nearly as frustrated from Simon).

12. ❤️Not a question, just a second Kudos to send. I know many of you have already posted, but tagging anyway since you've commented/liked past WIPsdays and such, in case you're interested in the behind the scenes!

@valeffelees, @roomwithanopenfire, @noblecorgi, @cutestkilla, @iamamythologicalcreature, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @youarenevertooold, @drowninginships, @emeryhall, @hushed-chorus, @rimeswithpurple, @aristocratic-otter, @larkral, @artsyunderstudy, @brilla-brilla-estrellita

#tag game #writers asks #the eternal life of baz pitch #carry on #i really wish i could share all the things but part of the joy of this story is the slow reveal #feel free to ask me again once it's all done!

[misc-obeyme]

I have so many thoughts. SO MANY THOUGHTS.

Spoilers for Lesson 20 under the cut.

From a storytelling standpoint, Lesson 20 was kind of underwhelming for me. It was kinda boring.

Everything is totally resolved and then we have a party? And MC is given the completely pointless title of Devilsitter? And the Celestial Realm is just like yeah okay see ya.

Seriously, Diavolo? Everybody knows you just made that up. Also why did they have to give him that goofy hat? I think this would've been a little more impactful if he'd been in demon form, you know? Anyway...

It felt like we went through all of that for a whole lot of nothing.

It also feels like they want to tell a more complicated story and that's why this whole separate app situation began. But then they were like well we wanna keep some of the overall vibe, so it still has to have seasons and the first one still has to be twenty lessons. Like they should've just scrapped that and let the story play out how needs to. Because I felt like they were just putting filler in there so that they could extend the Nightbringer part of the story into the next season.

All that aside, though, there were things I did enjoy about the lesson, mostly involving the usual character shenanigans.

Sometimes it really feels like Simeon is just always on the outside, longing to be part of this family. He loves them so much he's willing to sacrifice his own standing to help them, but he also knows he's not part of them. We already knew this of course, considering he does exactly that in the OG to make sure MC gets to stay with them. I just feel like Simeon is so selfless. And it's kind of heartbreaking? I just want to hug him.

And oh, my sweet precious Barbatos... if you choose him to escort you, he says some amazing things.

YES. TAKE ME. I'M READY.

Is this the fancy butler way of saying I love you? Don't misunderstand, I am so soft for sweet kisses to the back of someone's hand, but if you think that's gonna cut it, sir, I really need you to try harder.

What can I say, I just want Barbatos to profess his undying love. I want him to break his butler persona and spill his heart out. I want him to actually tell us exactly how he feels and what he's been through and how hard it must have been to live the way he has for so long with the power of time and space at his fingertips. Ugh. Okay, sorry I'm getting off track here. We already know I could probably write another couple of essays about Barbatos aside from the one I've already written lol.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Solomon in this lesson, too...

I thought this was an interesting reaction from him when MC asks him to be the brothers' ally. Like yeah, obviously not against the human world, but this was about keeping the brothers in the Devildom? I'm trying not to read too much into it since it could just be that they wanted to make it seem like MC was the one who convinced everybody and stuff. Like okay whatever!

But truly the best Solomon moment was if MC chooses him to give them the "special emblem."

SOLOMON. My stupid wizard loving heart can't take it when you say stuff like this!

And then the forehead kiss, I was just like this is so soft and sweet I'm losing my miiiiind.

What can I say about it other than it was great? Of course I went back and chose all the options. Having Diavolo or Lucifer give you the emblem is pretty sweet, too. But there is just something next level about it being Solomon because of the whole master/apprentice thing, but also because he's the only one who knows what you're really going through. I just really love him, okay?

Lastly, I have to say I was a bit surprised with Mephisto in this lesson... he's starting to grow on me.

Mephisto! I'm pretty sure that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!

For once, I agreed with him. Also, if it was actually me, I'd be like your arguments are pointless because my last dance is going to be with Thirteen.

I was expecting a little more after the end credits, but it was just a repeat of those weird Nightbringer lines from one of the earlier lessons... I can't remember which one it was. I was really expecting Nightbringer to make a final appearance, but nope.

The hard lesson completely blew my mind, though. I have to make a separate post just for that.

In the end, this lesson had some good parts, but it definitely just felt like filler because they needed to end the season. We're not getting any real answers until next season, apparently. I swear if I have to wait for a season three for some decent answers, I will be flipping tables.

Of course, I'm really just here for the hot anime characters so... I'll just go back to simping as soon as I'm done table flipping lol.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me nightbringer spoilers #obey me nightbringer lesson 20 #obey me nightbringer lesson 20 spoilers #obey me diavolo #obey me simeon #obey me solomon #obey me barbatos #obey me mephistopheles #obey me thirteen #misc lesson recap #misc rambles

[shelli-gator]

Engines as humans, 'projections' and such

Engines will always be the best form to me, and what I'm most interested in reading, I also love thinking about engines being able to project themselves as humans somehow. Or like, go between forms (but always leaving their engine forms behind). And this, along with transformation, is my next favorite thing. Not only because this opens up avenues for story and shenanigans off the confines of the rails, but it's also interesting to think how the engines and the people around them relate to an ability like that, and how it might not be so fun and breezy. For instance, I think certain engines don't like to do it at all. James is the first one that comes to mind. James ties so much of his self-worth to what he looks like, what he's doing, and how he's being perceived by the world. Looking like anything but Sodor's splendid red engine would be distressing, and it would take work for him to come to relate to this new look. To accept that it's still him, still splendid AND, most importantly, recognizable. And even then, I think he'd still see his engine-self as the superior form. And that's okay! To me that's so damn interesting, seeing the journey of him learning to be comfortable outside of his red paint, his technicoloured dreamcoat. And that could also be used as a tool to help him extend his self-satisfaction beyond his appearance, to what he was made to be, what he is, and the things that he rejects about himself.

Duck is another engine who I think would not take to projecting himself. It's simply not the Great Western WayTM. And he's satisfied with what he is. Not only that, but as an engine, he knows how a railway works. He knows how to be an engine. He's comfortable and confident in what he knows, and all the routine that comes with it. He can forego taking part in festivities because watching it means he doesn't have to engage in it, with the things he doesn't know. He knows no other way of being, and he doesn't really WANT to know. The only exception is the time he wanted to sail, and perhaps that's more to do with wanting to see beyond the horizon, and less so much doing the thing. And as far as projecting goes, I like to think they can't go too far from their engine selves. Certainly not beyond the horizon, anyway. Even if that wasn't the case, you can still long for the things you don't really have the motivation, courage, or inclination to do. But also, how would the railway itself relate to this? It's interesting to think how other railways, like the LNER, L&YR, might relate to that. Do railways that more frequently scrap engines prefer them not doing that, to avoid seeing them as anything more than machines, tools that can be thrown away? Or, do they see opportunity, to cut down on the cost of manpower when you can have an engine simply firing themselves. Or is that just not the Proper Way.

Anyway, just wanted to go off about that. Because while I love them being both human and engine, I don't think it's as easy as just "Wow we're human now we can do anything let's go ride the Ferris wheel!" There's more nuance than that! Even if you're X, and you've thought of being Y, actually becoming that comes with complications and things you'd never even thought of, because you couldn't have known the full scope of Y.

#ttte humanized #ttte #thomas and friends #ttte james #ttte duck #ttte headcanon #shelli speaks #james the red engine #duck the great western engine #rws #writing something about james along these lines when i'm not working #i love them your honour #i wish trains were real #trains are the superior form anyway

[wonderinc-sonic]

Hey! Been loving all your writing, especially your aus and the way you explore them. A question for your post-cyber virus au, how has it affected other robots we know? For ex-eggman robots, how are Gemerl and Belle? Or even Orbot, Cubot, and Sage? Fascinated by this world you've set up. (Bonus: what species would each be in biological body?)

Heya! Thank you so so much for the ask and kind words!

Sorry for slow reply, it was well and truly bedtime for me. But I have been ruminating on this like all night...

Gemerl:

Toying with writing a quick story on this but: Gemerl was affected by the recall, and before they understood what was going on became quite violent with Cream and Vanilla. They were able to restrain him long enough to get him to the lab, so he now has a mobian body. He feels terrible about that.

All their DNA splicing is based on Gerald's research, but because it was very slapdash, they all have a heavy dose of Shadow's genetic material and blood. He's something of a universal donor and then some (cure for all diseases), so it makes a good base, but the heroes really tried to make them all bodies they would like, and not a bunch of Shadow clones, which would also be quite traumatic for him. In Gemerl's case, cream gave her fur and bone marrow and stuff to make him a body. Which makes him feel worse, but she's recovered well and was happy to do it. He's a rabbit now, with some stripes, and is learning to use his ears to fly, and forgive himself for not protecting his family.

Belle:

Okay things are a bit strange for Belle, as they are for Surge, Kit and even Silver; not Robots, but using some mechanical enhancements for their core function. Belle was affected, but her body unlike most things Eggman built had no Jet Engine or means of flight, so she couldn't get to him quickly and disappear. However, she was very complicated to repair, and basically out of her head. I think she was one of the last to get a new form, because they could contain her without hurting themselves, so they could take a bit of time to help her out and had learned everything they learned from the others. She is actually now a human; they took the time to find a person who was like her willing to help (that person is Hope Kintobor, if you'd all let me!). At the time where Omega is months into his body, Belle is being made right now. They'll be able to help her more, and have managed to preserve her body, but she may request it destroyed because it seems to be only a matter of time before Eggman gets a hold of them all. She was aware something was happening before she lost control of herself, which will help her deal with it, but it's a lot of grief for her - she's really feeling the accident of her 'birth'.

Orbot and Cubot:

This is tough. It's possible they had been scrapped by then, since new iterations of Eggman tend to result in new lackeys. Everything on Scrapnik Island was carnage, it got raised, lots flew back to Eggman just to be torched for parts, and those that didn't went feral and destroyed themselves. I hope for their sake they weren't there.

If they were still by his side, they are fine, but now they've lost any free will, so they'll never leave. They may be the answer to developing resistant code, though, because knowing them they won't stay confined for long.

If they were free already and managed to get some help before they flew up to the big EggCarrier in the sky, however; they'd be bees. They weren't dangerous, so like Belle they were kept, sorta imprisoned, until Tails and gang had dealt with the violent friends. Nobody knows them very well, so nobody was advocating for what they'd want in a mobian body like Rouge and Shadow did for Omega (Big and Strong) And Amy did for Metal (like Neo). But everybody knows they are small, and can fly, so they thought insects, and Charmy was down for helping out. Jewel would also be willing, so they could be beetles too. I like both bees and beetles, and the idea of those two just bumbling along their new life together, not even turning back to fight Eggman. They just live. Go enjoy the world. Rest on beaches, play games.

Sage:

Has the worst luck! Imagine she just got a robot body, and then this happens! Kidding slightly, this happens years down the line. She's probably already no longer Daddy's Favourite, considering the rate at which Eggman throws away toys. I have this idea she was looking for Metal Sonic, so she may have been taken in to the lab by Amy. Sage isn't so dangerous with a phyaical form, and her brain was really useful for finding out what happened in their brains, as her internal systems are so introspective they can use her to diagnose. She also may be very useful for regaining control of the technology actually, but that means Eggman wants her back, and there's some fighting over it. So, she's hiding out, I think - probably being taken care of by someone trustworthy, but not under Eggman's radar, with a form he wouldn't expect. She's actually quite happy to help, having taken several forms before: she's a Bird, I imagined something small like a robin.

Surge, Kit and Silver:

Mentioning these guys because they're also in trouble: Surge and Kit have machines built into their bodies by Starline, who was ripping off Eggman, so their brains are being partially overrided. Their friends tried to help, but they are missing, and the Diamond Cutters are looking for them.

Silver intended to come back in time and tell everyone, but when he went to that future his cuffs and shoes broke - they are more like Shadow's shoes than his limiter rings, so they started going haywire, and he had to take them off to travel back, and ended up half blowing himself up on the landing, and missed it - he turned up a bit late, after Metal and Omega had already been switched off for safety. He blames himself a lot, and worse he can't use his PK properly to fight: he's got inhibitor rings for now, but they don't channel and control, just dampen, but if he takes them off he's too strong and hurts people and himself. Still, always trying to make the best of things, he's trying really really hard to help without using his powers, and nobody blames him but himself!

Tails is using Silver's cuffs as a challenge to see what he can make that will be resistant, because they're a comparatively low stakes experiment, so every month or so he's got new shoes and bangles to try. Some of them just immediately catch fire, some made him sick, some tried to take him to Eggman, but Silver is very happy to try all of them while they're figuring out what they can make that's resistant.

The really big problem the heroes have is that they literally can't touch Eggman: he has all modes of flight, and is just up there, vibing, untouchable. He even has the Ark at his disposal, and just points it at them sometimes to make everyone think the world's ending. Angel Island is still floating but without a Chaos Emerald you can't get there, and the Babylon's ship is docked because although it didn't run to Eggman like their boards did, he basically shot them out the sky because he didn't want them up there. Similarly, he's constantly attacking Angel Island, both for the M.E. but also because he wants to rule the sky. Everyone is trying to convince Knuckles to land for his own safety, but he hasn't given in yet.

Whew! And that's what you missed on Glee! A lot of these are things I have thought about writing, but put a pin in for one reason or another, so it feels great to put them out there! Sorry for the total lore dump Squig!

#im such a chill person i swear! #wonderincs #cybervirus au #i guess i dont think i have a tag for it! #squiggl3 #thanks for the ask! ❤️ #ask

[danpuff-ao3]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💙

Oooh, thanks for passing this to me, Lizzy! 😄 Let's see....100 fics, how to choose 5? 🤔 Well all know #1 already, don't we? 😂 So I'll take a leaf out of Lizzy's book and do a countdown to 1!

5.) A Matter of Time

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 3,686. Written for Snarry Adopt-a-Prompt 2022. Features reverse chronology and alternating POVs! Also: ambiguous/open ending (my love!) It feels like the Snarry of my youth, that angsty and spicy student/teacher, and some good old fashioned tragedy! I really feel like I pulled the thing off with this one! (What is said "thing"? Who knows.) Also, not to pat myself on the back but...that final line? Ouch.

4.) Cruel Summer

Harry/Sirius. Rated: E. Words: 5,445. Minor Harry/Severus. Written for HP Chan Fest 2022-2023. Features gorgeous art by @mrviran. It's a fic I've had floating around my noggin' for a few years but finally felt the call to write for Chan Fest! Our two beloved, troubled boys (Harry and Sirius) live together post PoA, and sees them through plenty of dysfunction, manipulation, and other problematic content 🤭 They have a very complicated (and angsty!) connection and I am so so pleased with how it came out! It's very bit as spicy, sad, and twisted as I'd hoped!

3.) The Curse of Anteros

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 52,566. Written for Snarry Bang 2023. Inspired by an episode of Charmed called "Magic Hour" (which itself was inspired by a movie called Ladyhawke). This is another idea I've long wanted to write, but never knew how to write it until now. Curses, fairytales, magical animals, true love!! Begins with student/teacher and carries on through time to old men Snarry!!!! This fic really grew way out of control and I'm so glad it did. It feels like...a "proper" story, if that makes sense? Actual plot! Novel length! Who am I even???? Anyway I'm stupidly proud of this one. Also: ART BY MRVILLAIN AGAIN, MY BELOVED TEAMMATE, I'M OBSESSED. Like...idk I'm blown away. Which sounds bad cuz this is my story, but I don't care. This is genuinely a story that not only was I so pumped to create, but one that I'd have LOVED to read as a reader! Had someone else written this I'd have lost my mind reading it. I hate saying that, it sounds so arrogant, but I don't care, I'm losing my mind over this one. I wrote it in like 2 weeks!!!! This fic POURED out of me! And I love it!

2.) Collateral Damage

Draco/Ron. Rated: E. Words: 16,071. Written for Ron-Draco Fest 2021. The first draft of this got to like 10k before I had to scrap it and start totally over. Somehow the original opening kept winding down the wrong path. So finally after fighting with it for way too long (and only 2 weeks to go until it was due), I gave it up and tried again. Decided: "hey, let's open with porn and see what happens." Well...That worked. That did it. All I needed was to open with a BJ for magic to happen, who knew? I ended up with a story I was super jazzed about, and to my great surprise (and pleasure!) others loved it, too!!

1.) Contempt | Devotion

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 20,400 | 25,843. Written for Snarry-a-Thon 2022 and 2023. This one's cheating a bit since it's technically 2 fics, but it's also the same story in different POVs so...it kinda counts, right? Also I know people have told me they liked Devotion more but I can't help but admit that Contempt itself still holds the top spot in my heart! And while I think say The Curse of Anteros is a better overall story, I don't think any fic ever will top Contempt. I mean, never say never, but Contempt is the story of dreams. It's my heart and soul. It's the Snarry I've always wanted to write. The story, the dynamic, the characterizations, everything. It's everything I've wanted in a Snarry since I first began reading Snarry 20 years ago. Like...I have no words to express just how meaningful this work is to me. This is literally the culmination of all of my Snarry feels. I dragged this story out of my gut. I pulled it out of my skin and wrote it in my blood. That's how connected I am to this work. (Wow that sounds really dramatic but also...true.)

Genuinely I was so cared people would hate it, but I wrote it anyway because I needed it and I loved it. I'm very glad to say that plenty of others love it with me! And this is another one @mrviran offered love to in the form of a podfic! (Plus cover art!) I'm fully obsessed with the podfic (AND ART!) and I get all teary eyed when I think about it, that my dear friend worked so hard to bring more life to my baby. 🥹

Kinda funny how my favorite works (and what i consider some of my best works) were all for fests. Fests really do inspire me, even if they make me want to pull my hair out. 😂

Also is it cheating to give honorary mentions to Lover Boy at Play, In My Veins (In My Blood), Orange Blossoms, Teardrop in Your Palm, and Black Skies? 👀

#self recs #snarry #dron #sirry #favorites #top 5 #self love #positivity post

[silver-tangent]

Hot take: the actual plot of the sequel trilogy isn’t bad, they were just executed so poorly…

Palpatine had a secret plan to be reincarnated through cloning, and Sith sorcery? The books did it. People liked the books.

Luke is fearful his nephew has too much Anakin in him, and almost kills him, causing his nephew to feel betrayed and join the dark side? Sounds absolutely dumb when you don’t tell the audience that there’s a Sith out there… but Palpatine was secretly alive. He gave Anakin and other Jedi false prophecies for decades. It’s absolutely believable that Luke, not knowing there are any Sith out there, could be deceived by the dark side clouding his judgement, and could be manipulated (through the force) to kill his nephew, but is strong enough to resist at the last second, but Kylo Ren wakes up and sees him and it’s too late… that’s not a betrayal of Luke’s character, it’s in line with Palpatine’s MO and could have been a major hint of who was pulling the strings… IF THEY MADE IT CLEAR IN THE MOVIES THAT LUKE WAS BEING MANIPULATED.

Luke becomes a flawed old man who goes into hiding? Not the future we want for him, but it could have been a great story if we got more substance.

There are only a few changes that could have redeemed the movies even a little bit.

Reveal Palpatine in the second movie, giving symmetry to the plot twist model presented with Empire Strikes Back, and giving a whole final movie of time to explain how he did what he did, instead of one line in the last 90 minutes.

Leia sacrifices herself at the end of Last Jedi instead of Amilyn Holdo, an Admiral we barely know and are much less attached to. Carrie Fisher died during filming. We all expected Leia to die, but that’s not an expectation to subvert, it’s a respectful send-off. Leia should have been the sacrifice to save her brother.

Luke’s death should be more substantial than a force projection. He could die, but probably in a fight with Sidious at the end of movie 2 or climax of movie 3.

Reylo was terribly executed. You would have to completely rewrite all of their scenes together and write more of them if you want it to exist… it was bad… It was unnecessary. We don’t need a romance.

Instead of Kylo’s redemption being to heal Rey and die, and Rey taking the name Skywalker… let Rey die in the final battle. Kylo’s redemption is the defeat of Sidious… Kylo Ren would then have to face the extremely awkward and complicated task of returning to the rebellion with Rey’s corpse, and convincing them he’s a good guy. That’s a lot of character development to work through, even if we only get snippets of it.

Kylo is Ben Skywalker. He is the Skywalker who rises.

Give John Boyega the role that he and the fanbase was promised. Give Finn a story and a lightsaber. Tell us more about him, don’t just scrap almost all of his key moments.

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #star wars spoilers #kylo ren

[monstersandmaw]

Male werewolf x female character (Gabe & Odessa) - Part Ten (sfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined the ‘Gabe & Odessa hype train’ lately! A lot of you arrived after the immensely talented @snowkissedmonsters​ did some truly adorable fan art for this, and I’m still not over that (I had it as my phone background for ages).

Anyway, here’s Chapter Ten, and I’m sorry I left you on that cliffhanger for so long. Mermay story is taking on a life of its own and is stupdendously long and  a bit over-complicated, so I might scrap it and rewrite it, or slog on through and see what happens. *shrug*

Here’s a sweet werewolf lad in the meantime.

Part One (sfw), Part Two (sfw), Part Three (sfw), Part Four (sfw), Part Five (sfw), Part Six (sfw) Part Seven (sfw), Part Eight (sfw), Part Nine (sfw) 

Gabe blinked. “You want me to shift?”

For a moment she couldn’t respond. After the evening she’d had, this was all utterly surreal. And yet, staring at him and now knowing that Wolf and Gabe were the same person, it was obvious. Blindingly so. The little gestures, the steady eyes, the quiet breaths, the particular way he held her… It couldn’t be anything else.

“No,” she said at last. “No, you don’t need to. I know it’s you.”

The breath Gabe had been holding escaped in a rush and he sagged, actually staggering half a step backwards and scrubbing his hand over his face. “Shit,” he hissed. “You were never supposed to see me like that at all, let alone find out who I was.” He went still again and looked at her. “You're not freaked out?”

With a hollow bark of laughter, Odessa turned way and went to the fridge to grab a beer. She’d earned a fucking drink after the night she’d had so far.

On a whim, she held the bottle out to him as an offering, figuring he probably deserved one too. Carefully, he approached and took it from her, retreating to the other side of the room while she got herself another one. “Not gonna lie, Gabe. This is weird. I feel like I’ve hit my head or something.”

“I can leave if you want,” he said, making no move to open his beer.

“No,” she said quietly as she straightened from a stoop and closed the fridge door.

The immediacy of her response made something go quiet in him, and he nodded just a little. His eyes were intense as he regarded her.

“You don’t need to go,” she said again. “Is… Is it ok if I ask you about it?”

“Sure,” he said with a slightly wild harmonic in his voice, as though he couldn’t believe any of this was happening either, and was just rolling with it until everything worked out. He twisted the cap off his beer and drank deeply. He looked like he was bracing for an interrogation.

“What…?” she began, but immediately trailed off, unable even to voice the rest of it. It just sounded nuts, even in her own head.

“Werewolf,” he said, meeting her gaze. His eyes flared an unnatural gold, as though illuminated from within, and her own went wide. “Thought I’d just get that out there from the start.”

“Werewolf.” Odessa sank down onto the arm of the sofa and washed the word down with a swig of beer. “And you’re the only…” She couldn’t say it. “The only one out here?”

He nodded. “Yes. You have to go two hundred miles in any direction before you come into another shifter’s territory. It’s not all mine; there aren’t that many of us to fill it.”

“Your family? Are they…?”

“Also werewolves.”

“In the city?” she frowned. “I can’t imagine that’s a good place for…”

He shrugged. “You can find us all over the world, if you know what to look for. My family first settled there centuries ago and never left the area. The city grew up around them, and they thrived.”

“But not you.” It wasn’t a question, and he inclined his head in that wry and familiar way she knew from both Gabe and Wolf. Seeing the two overlap like that almost made her dizzy.

“No,” he agreed. “I never liked the city. Moved away when I was eighteen.”

“So you were… born a… a werewolf?” She felt foolish for asking questions like that, but until it sank in that this was all really happening, she figured she would just ask whatever crossed her mind.

“Yes,” he said, and took another swig of beer before going on. “A person can be turned with a bite, but it’s not always successful. It’s as likely to kill them as it is to take. Most werewolves are born.”

When she didn’t speak for a long while, and instead just sat boring a hole into the floorboards with her glazed-over gaze, Gabe took a step towards her. “Odessa?”

She twitched. “Mmm?”

The way he was looking at her suggested he might have said her name a couple of times already. “You… alright?”

She snorted and raised her bottle to her lips. After holding his concerned stare for a long few breaths, she whispered, “Is this real?”

With a kind smile, he nodded. “Yes.”

“When I said this place was magical, I didn’t expect…” she broke off with a bitter laugh and drank again.

“I understand if… if you want to head back to the city early,” he said, voice hitching. “Or…” he swallowed and grimaced. “Or if you’d rather I stayed away now.”

She let his words sink in and then rose.

He watched her get to her feet but didn’t move.

Odessa set her beer down on the dining table as she passed it and approached him, and he continued to watch with a steady look in his eyes that was more reminiscent than ever of Thunder’s golden stare. “No, Gabe,” she said softly, and put her palms on his chest before sliding them up to his shoulders. “You’re still the same person you were this morning.”

“You’ve had a shock,” he rasped, “Even before all… this. With Jake, I mean… You —”

Silently, Odessa blessed him for being so considerate, and as he read the reflection of her thoughts in her expression, it surprised him to silence.

With a smile, she reached up with one hand to cup his sharp jaw, Gabe’s short, salt-and-pepper beard surprisingly soft against her palm, and she raised herself up on tiptoes. She pressed her lips against his in a chaste but heartfelt kiss, and felt him smile just a tiny bit against her mouth.

When she dropped back and looked up at him, he looked winded and a little dazed.

“I’m glad its you, Gabe,” she said. “And you know, you’re really pretty as a wolf. That silver in your hair looks good in Wolf’s coat.” She briefly raked her fingertips through his short beard for emphasis before running them behind his ears and down his neck.

Gabe’s smile turned blinding, dimples in both cheeks, and he shook his head just a little. Behind the natural tan in his cheeks though, his skin still carried a lingering pallor. “I… I wanted to tell you the moment I met you,” he said, voice husky and rough with emotion. “I’ve never had that happen to me, Odessa. Not that I meet many new people way out here, but… I’ve wanted you to know what I am right from the start. And when we were walking, and you were…” he choked a little, his eyes glassy and oddly tearful. “The way you look at this place, Odessa… Oh I don’t know,” he growled, eyes flaring suddenly gold again. “It’s like you’re looking around you at this place and…”

“Like it’s home?” she said, and he shot her an incisive look.

“Yeah,” he sighed.

“Because it does feel like home, Gabe,” she said with her hands back on his chest again, as much to buttress herself up as simply to keep touching him. “I can’t explain it, but when I drove into Pinewatch for the first time last week, it felt like coming home. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I know I can’t go back to the city forever. I —” At the mention of her life there, she suddenly remembered her phone and frowned, reluctantly leaving him to cross to the abandoned rucksack at the door and kneeling to fish her phone out of a pocket. When she saw the screen littered with missed calls, texts, and three voicemails from Emma, her heart dropped and she hissed a curse under her breath.

“Odessa? Everything alright?” he asked, and she rose from her crouch and sighed.

Waggling her phone a little, she said, “It’s my friend Emma. I…” and as she opened the thread of messages and scrolled back, she found out how Jake knew where she was. “I should call her,” she said, already tapping the icon.

“I can step out…?”

She shook her head and shot him a weak grin. “You could probably hear it all from out there anyway, right?”

With a tiny little smile, he nodded shyly and sat down on the sofa while she paced and waited for Emma to pick up.

“Odessa?” Emma squawked the moment she answered. “Oh my god, are you ok? I got home from my shift and Mike told me that Jake had been round asking questions about where you were… I freaked out when he told me —”

“I’m fine, Em,” she said.

“Jake didn’t…?”

“Oh no, Jake did,” she said with a cold edge to her humour, and from the sofa she heard a soft growl. She glanced over at Gabe, but he wasn’t looking at her. His knuckles were white around the beer bottle in his hand and she was surprised the thick glass hadn’t cracked under the force of his grip. “Bastard drove all the way out here. But I’ve made some friends, and Jake was no match for them.”

“Gabe?” Emma asked in the tone of voice all friends use when the name of a potential love interest comes up. “The hiking guy you texted me about?”

She nodded to herself and chuckled, cheeks flushing. “Yeah. Jake hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of competing with Gabe, and he knew it. Went running back home with his tail between his legs after calling me a few choice names.”

“Bastard. Odessa, I’m so sorry. I thought Mike knew what a shit Jake had been to you, but he swears he had no idea. He feels awful. I showed him the photos you sent the other day and I told him about the cabin, but all I said was that you were there to get some space after a breakup. Mike was here looking after the cats this morning for me, so when Jake called by to ask if I knew where you were — said there was some issue about a joint bank account — he just told him what he knew.”

“Jake’s a deceitful fucking shit,” Odessa spat, pacing the floorboards and scrunching one hand through her thick, wild hair. “I didn’t think he had it in him to use your new boyfriend against us.”

“You’re alright though?” Emma asked.

“Yeah. And more glad than ever that we didn’t open up a joint account,” she added wryly. “Doubt there’d be anything left in it…”

“You’re still going to stay up there? You need me to come up?”

She smiled and shook her head again, dark curls bouncing all over the place. “No, I’m good, thanks. Gabe’s staying with me for now, and I don’t think Jake’s that persistent. I don’t know why he thought stalking me all the way here would win me back though.”

“Ok. Text or call if you need anything, and —” she paused and mumbled something in response to a more distant voice on her end, “— Mike said to say he’s sorry again.”

She laughed. “It’s fine; tell him it’s ok. What happened between me and Jake was before you two really got serious. I guess I should thank you for not being a gossip…”

Emma snorted and sounded relieved, and they finished with Odessa promising to check in a bit more, and Emma promising to flay the sorry hide off Jake’s back if she ever saw him again.

“I like her,” Gabe said as Odessa set her phone down on the dining table and came over to the sofa to join him.

She smiled. “Your hearing really is that good, huh?” she said and flopped down onto the cushions beside him, folding her legs up underneath her. Gabe looked at her, glancing at her oddly-pretzelled legs, and she snorted. “Never been able to use any piece of furniture properly.”

Gabe, by contrast, was sitting with his legs slightly apart, one arm on the far arm rest, and his back against the sofa cushions.

“It’s sweet,” he said, and she reacted by laying her head against his shoulder. After a heartbeat’s pause, he looped his arm carefully around her shoulders and pressed his nose against the crown of her head. He breathed in the scent of her and she wondered what else he got beyond the slightly woodsy scent of shampoo that wafted towards her nose whenever her hair brushed her shoulders.

Thinking about his enhanced senses reminded her of the wolfdogs, and she inhaled sharply and sat up. Only Gabe’s quick reactions saved him from being headbutted in the face. “What about the dogs?” she asked. “Won’t they be wondering where you are? Did everything go ok with Axel at the vet?”

Gabe’s chuckle was deep and amused, and he shook his head. “Yeah, he was fine. Tala always looks after him, and I fed them all at home before I left for the store tonight. They won’t miss me.”

Another thought occurred to her and she asked tentatively, “Do you… shift around them?” The word felt odd on her tongue, and the concept of Gabe being able to change into a different shape altogether rested just beyond her full comprehension.

He nodded. “Yeah. They love running together.”

With a sigh, she sank back down against him. “I bet that’s nice.”

“It’s not a true pack, but yeah, they’re family.”

“I’ve never been a runner,” she huffed, glancing down at her legs. “Obviously. Hiking is fine, but the moment I have to move out of a brisk walk…” she shuddered ostentatiously and he rumbled a laugh. “The park near my apartment is always full of joggers. Some people have dogs with them, so I can see how it might be fun, but it’s just… not for me.” Something melancholy and full of regret drifted across her chest and she sighed. “Jake used to hint I should work out more. Especially towards the end.”

At the mention of her ex’ name, Gabe growled openly, and it wasn’t a human sound at all; low-frequency and resonant and utterly animalistic, and he looked away, cheeks flushing, but the sound took a while to die in his throat.

To her surprise, instead of wanting to back away or run screaming from the cabin, heat flared through her whole body in a way it had rarely done before, and she bit her lips together in a futile attempt at staving off a blush.

Either he heard her heartbeat quicken or he detected some other indication of her arousal that she didn’t want to dwell on, because he looked back at her with a curious and amused quirk of his mouth and eyebrows. Naturally, that made her blush even more and she mumbled, “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say a word,” he said, and she hid her face in her hands.

“You didn’t have to,” she said, laughing and tipping her head back to lounge against his body. She breathed in the scent of him and nuzzled her cheek briefly against the fabric of his shirt. The solid muscles of his chest relaxed just a fraction beneath her. “God I’m tired,” she sighed. “And hungry. The whole reason I went out tonight at all was because I wanted something shitty and salty after my hike and there was nothing in the cupboards.”

“We could have the pizzas I got?” he said. “Definitely high on the sodium content.”

“I’ve already stolen your evening, Gabe,” she said flatly. “I’m not stealing your food as well.”

“We were going to have Italian tomorrow. We could have it tonight instead.”

And just like that, he made it easy again.

___

Next chapter --->

I hope you’ll consider reblogging as well as leaving a like, and if you’re excited about it, you can always let me know with a comment and/or an ask. Take care, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.

| Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar)

#gabe & odessa #werewolf #male werewolf #werewolf fiction #exophilia #monster lover #monster boyfriend #werewolf lover #werewolves #werewolf romance #monster romance

[binch-i-might-be]

So, I have a bit of a complicated question about Thin Ice ‘Verse. (Sorry if you have already answered it!)

So, how different is history, exactly? You say that Laurens and Hamilton stayed together, and that he never even got close to marrying Eliza. Does Hamilton still do the same things he did in real history? Did Washington? What did Laurens do? How did people not get suspicious of Hamilton and Laurens? Did Eliza still do the same things she did in real history? (Minus the stuff with trying to preserve Hamilton’s legacy or whatever) did Eliza ever get married? Did she have children? If so, did any of them die in a duel like Philip or do any of the other things the real Ham kids did? Did anyone preserve Hamilton’s letters? Did Hamilton still die dueling Burr? If not, why?

Sorry if you don’t feel like answering or this is spoilers, but I just had to ask. I’m obsessed with your writing and want to know everything lol

hi!! oh I love when you guys send me questions, especially when they're so in depth because it's just like. omg someone cares about my funny little universe.......

I have touched on some of this in the past already and some answers are actually somewhat of a spoiler for the series, but I'll answer what I can!!

okay, let's start from the top: John and Alex do indeed stay together! Alex finishes his law degree after the war, and he does become secretary of treasury later on due to Gwash's incessant bullying (he was bullied into presidency so now Alex has to suffer with him lmao)

(I will probably not get into it too much in the series tho. I'm not really interested in the politics, and while I might mention their positions as president/secretary, I won't go into it in depth!)

regarding John's future, I think I've actually stated in text what will happen with him :) it was not very subtle (at least I don't think it was) but no one has pointed anything out yet as far as I remember. this also plays into why no one gets suspicious about Two Known Bachelors TM living in semi close quarters together!

alright, time to break my silence on Eliza askjfhaskjhfk

I don't know if you've read the reincarnation au, but in there I've stated that her and Alex didn't really know each other at all and only met a few times. but I've also stated that this is not what I had originally planned for her in the main series, but I was reluctant to reference something I never even so much as mentioned

my Original Vision was introducing her in the second part of Green Eyes which I had to scrap as I barely managed to finish the first part on its own. it wasn't crucial to the story and I wanted to move the plot forward because I was really excited for everything planned for after Green Eyes, so I left it out (for now)

my plan was to have Eliza and Alex meet at a ball and hit it off. this entire part would have been from John's pov, as the first part was entirely from Alex's, and would have involved some delicious delicious angst about John considering Alex's bisexuality and yet again convincing himself he won't be able to give him the life he deserves. that he would be happier with a wife he wouldn't have to live in secret with.

meanwhile Alex and Eliza are just bonding in the background over both being bisexual and also being in love with certified Fools lmao

in the Thin Ice main series, they end up being life long friends! she does get married, and she marries down as she did in history/the musical, probably has a couple kids too. none of them meet their end by duel though, and truth be told, I'm not overly invested in most of the real Ham kids, so I don't know a lot about them

does anyone preserve Hamilton's letters? yeah! Jack's kids :) I think most of his things would fall to them after his death, and they did have great relationships with both him and John, so they would certainly care to preserve his and their shared legacy.

nope! he does not die by Burr. their relationship in this verse is not exactly..... over the top friendly, but they're on good enough terms. my Alex does care about his reputation and legacy, but he's not had to fight for it as hard as musical Ham had, so he's just. a bit more chill. he does fight, he's petty, he gets into arguments in the press, but he's not as obsessive about it as either musical or real Ham. mans just vibing basically!

thank you for the questions! I do always love to ramble on about it, so I'm very happy to get asks like this :))

#hehe :) #i've done some clunky foreshadowing about what john will end up doing! but yeah no one has said anything. i assumed it was too obvious tbh #thin ice 'verse #ask #anon

[ellephlox]

Hello!! I hope you’re doing well, love 💕💖♥️ I’m just popping in to remind you how much I love your writing and your stories! I feel like I’ve only known your work for the last month and a half or so, but you really skyrocketed right up the list to one of my absolute favorite writers on here!! Your work is so powerful, I don’t even have words to describe it. But I wanted to ask - do you have a masterlist? If not you should definitely consider making one! Idk about everyone else, but personally I’d want to be sure I’d read every scrap of text you’d ever written 😅🥰 I’d also love to be sure I’ve included all your works in my Rec lists! They’re just too good not to share!!!

GUESS WHO FINALLY JUST MADE A MASTERLIST

Actually though it was so complicated and bless the people who have written step-by-step guides online for people like me who struggle with technology. Literally it took me a solid twenty minutes just to link my masterlist in my bio description thing. So please let me know if there are any issues with it and I can try fixing it!!

Also, just wanted to say thank you so much — I'm so sorry because I know you submitted this AGES ago but it really does mean a lot to me. I seriously can't even believe sometimes that there are actually other people out there who read what I've written. Maybe we've even passed on the street before, or live in the same area; it's kind of crazy to me that anyone could have read these.

So thank you so much for saying that, it truly just made my day 💕

[forerussake]

rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

i was tagged by the wonderful @thedaughterofshadows tnx!!! <3

i’m tagging: @aredhel-of-doylkien @scaredysap @psychic-waffles @phantomhydeoftheopera @youngks-smile @cute-rocks @stupid-lemon-eater @pangzi @enjaami @omaenanimonoda @lynne-monstr @morifiinwe @elenothar if you feel like it. idk if yall all write xD

unfortunately mine is also going to be very boring, bc the file names of my WIP files are generally just the fandom name + character name + WIP or sth along those lines. also my WIP files (several ones for different fandoms) sadly contain many things I started such a long time ago that i do not think I will ever go back to them, for the simple reason that my writing has evolved and the styles would not fit together anymore, but here goes nothing :D putting it under a read more bc it got long...

1. DMBJ gnc Wu Xie fic : pretty much what it says on the tin. post-tltr wu xie exploring some gender stuff he wasn’t ready for before

2. Cheng Xinyan fic : Guardian, obviously. This one is set after the scene where sw gets soaked kneeling in the rain to get the annoying doctor to fix zyl’s eyes. sw goes to see his old uni buddy afterwards bc he needs some tlc. the whole thing is an exploration of their relationship and shared history, as well as sw’s emotional state in the present. 

3. Guardian fic - A hand within a hand (holding light) : i’m working on chapter 6 atm. fic is an exploration of various oc povs of sw throughout the guardian timeline. the current chapter follows my oc chen anjing, who is a dixingren single mother living in haixing with her young son, who both have a history with hei pao shi that takes a lot of effort to get past. 

4. Student Shen Wei fic : this one might get scrapped bc the intended plot is very similar to what i ended up doing in chapter 4 of the fic above this one, only with prof. Zhou in place of my oc :/

5. MDZS murder mystery : i have every intention of getting to this one one day but damn if it isn’t too complicated for me. it’s a murder mystery fic surrounding the death of a young boy in a village on the border between lanling and qinghe. lan xichen, jiang cheng and a bunch of ocs set out to solve the murder, and in the process they unearth a bunch of lxc’s old trauma he thought he’d worked through. the whole thing is told in flashback, from the post-canon perspective of nie huaisang who is the only one still alive who knows what actually happened those days and what lxc and jc did not manage to figure out.

6. SHL modern au : a ballet/dancer au of word of honour. not much to say about it honestly.

7. Immovable rock x desert dust fic : QZGS fic also known as the immovable rock amnesia fic. tells a story about a weird forest, an eldritch being with immense power, and the avatars who get caught in the web of fate.

8. Life Extinguisher fic : QZGS fic, about what would happen if someone devised a weapon that could fry LE’s mechanical box in battle. so basically LE getting electrocuted. great fun xD

9. Vaccaria x Troubling rain fic : an exploration of vaccaria’s power as the magician and the reason he wears his eyepatch. (hint: there’s chaos in his soul that only good pk can calm)

10. Shishen bond fic : YYM-DOE fic, explores the nature of the shishen bond, and what it actually entails to give a spirit guardian an order, especially one they do not want to follow. set post-canon, focuses on snow hound’s recovery after the serpent battle.

11. Tryptich WIP : YYM-DOE fic, also known as the Metaphorical Serpent Modern AU. it’s a modern au centred around killing stone. the basic premise is that the serpent of the movie is not a real entity but rather a metaphor for our personal demons. it’s a very heavy story about the mental health of all its characters that loosely follows canon, in which qingming is not a yin yang master but a psychiatrist, and the shishen are not qingming’s spirit guardians but his patients.

12. YYM fanfic - what’s in a name? : fic exploring the meaning behind the various shishen’s names.

13. LotR the disadvantages of kingship : Thranduil takes up the crown after his father’s death, in the middle of a raging war. this one is so old, it’s probably the first fic i ever started writing, because it literally came to me in a dream when i was 13, and it never got finished. bc i was 13.

14. the time before time : a Silm fanfic that chronicles (pun intended) the time before time. from the birth of the ainur in the timeless halls up until the creation of arda. probably the second fic i ever tried to write. didn’t go anywhere even though i had like 11 chapters planned.

15. Feanor wip : about fëanor’s mental state after the burning of the ships

16. ecthelion wip : about the crossing of the ice, the founding of gondolin, and how ecthelion became the lord of the fountain.

17. And miles to go (before i sleep) : fic about finarfin’s return. i would love to finish this bc it was important to me, but i cannot say for sure i ever will.

18. celebrimbor wip : about celebrimbor disowning (i guess) his father after doriath.

19. fingolfin wip : from the start of dagor bragollach until his duel with and death at the hands of morgoth, told from both his and fingon’s perspective.

#tagged #writing #my writing

[elalmadelmar]

So idk if this is any big groundbreaking revelation, but I was musing to myself about the way that some people are so utterly dead set against harm reduction or about steps in the right direction that don't serve 100% of all their goals.

It occurred to me that the thing is, when you feel that you are powerless to make any changes, you find that you're freed from having to answer how you would achieve your goals. You can look up at the people in power and say "You should be delivering my goal of [fill in the blank]" and when they answer with the logistical challenges of doing so, that's read as a dodge or an excuse.

But as you gain power and the ability to make changes, either as a person or as a movement, you start having to figure out how things will get done. You gain the ability to get some shit done, but not all of it, and not singlehandedly. You have resources, but not infinite ones; you have some agreement with like-minded individuals, but you're not all marching in lockstep unity. In order to achieve Goal E, you will need to figure out or address logistical questions A, B, C, and D. And those may spawn additional complications that then have to be resolved. You will likely find that ideas that looked good on paper actually work pretty poorly once implemented, and need to go back and revise or scrap them altogether and seek a different solution.

That's true! They do! As a moral issue, as a society, every person deserves to live in a home. That's a very easy stance to take. But what does that mean? What qualifies as housing? If we're going to push for that to be provided, we have to know what we're trying to provide.

Sitting in a position where you can't do anything, it's very easy to make a statement on absolute moral principles. Let's take one I strongly agree with: "Everyone deserves housing."

When I think about what kind of housing every single person in our society should have, I think of a physically and psychologically safe environment with adequate space, storage, and equipment and environmental controls to see to a decent level of comfort.

So now we've got some traits that our universal housing needs to have. But notice that all those traits are still vaguely defined! You can't build a house if the only instructions you give the builders are what I outlined above.

So now you go into the weeds of what constitutes adequate space, what constitutes physical safety, what constitutes psychological safety, what kind of environmental controls are necessary, what kind of appliances are required.

And then you run into the added complication that not everyone needs the same things! A young person just starting out in life doesn't need the same kind of home that an able-bodied family of five does, and that family of five needs a different kind of home from a couple with no children but some notable physical challenges, and they likely need a different kind of home from someone who has no physical challenges but faces significant mental/emotional challenges that make keeping up a house difficult.

People need to be offered not just housing, but housing that meets their needs. A family of five can't live in a one-bedroom apartment; Grandma with two hip replacements can't manage a three-story house. A full-time wheelchair user needs a fully wheelchair-accessible home; someone with different mobility challenges may want a home where most of what they need in a day can be reached without getting out of bed, making things too narrow to maneuver a wheelchair.

And that's just building specifications I'm getting into; once all these homes are built and everyone is moved in, there are ongoing challenges with maintenance, repairs, and upkeep that will pose thorny questions. If this housing is provided by the state, does the state then have an ongoing obligation to provide upkeep? Does the state retain an interest in the housing, or is it entirely in the resident's power to do what they want with it? What if they do things that are harmful and destructive to other people's residences within the building?

None of this should be taken as me saying that "Everyone deserves housing" is a wrong or invalid stance - as I said, I strongly believe it! But there are a shit-ton of questions that have to be addressed to bridge the gap between the ethical statement and any possible on-the-ground implementation thereof. Even if every person who could foreseeably have any power to implement this moral stance as public policy decided one day that they were going to do so, those logistical questions would have to be addressed and constructive answers found. Research would have to be done to figure out how much housing needs to be built. How much excess housing would be necessary to make sure that if someone needs to move, they can - a 1:1 ratio of housing to households would mean that every family move would be a complicated sequence of musical chairs, and no one could form a new household until someone else died. Ground would have to be broken, building would physically have to take place. The sheer logistics of getting everyone who doesn't currently have one into a safe and solid home would be staggering.

I'm saying this not to say it can't be done, but rather to say that every major social problem is incredibly complex when you actually step up to address it. People are complicated, and societies are complications multiplied by complications. None of our big problems have simple roots, and none of them have simple solutions.

#eadm originals #musing #long post

[beacon-lamp]

watching mainstream media trying to wrap their head around the popularity of the dreamSMP is so funny. because it’s like. so fucking popular that you Cannot Deny its impact on youtube, twitch, and, to an extent, twitter or the implications it has on the minecraft gaming live-streaming community as a whole.

but the people who have to write the articles barely know what a mine craft ess em pee is, much less one that revolves around roleplay. i just imagine someone gets assigned to do an article, thinking it’ll be a quick piece about Dream and his Friends they can churn out in a few days. only to find that there’s a whole fucking Storyline behind it they have to figure out how to Briefly Summarize in a short news article.

#so they’re just like kids? playing pretend? on a minecraft server? and hundreds of thousands of people watch them Live? #yeah you know like dungeons and dragons? #i swear to god you’re just making words up now #so it’s called the DreamSMP bc the story revolves around Dream the speed runner? #no actually the story first starts off revolving around this kid named tommyinnit and some guy names wilbur #ok well how long have they been doing this for? #not even a year #so they have like a battle or something? #yeah the half of the first season revolves around an independence war #i’m sorry what? season? #yeah they’re on season three now i believe #actually you know what let’s scrap the story this is too complicated #oh no wait till you hear about the nuclear weapons and animal crossing roleplay #stop talking please #and there’s this inescapable prison and a God #what about that wilbur fella he sounded interesting #oh no he died a while ago he’s an amnesiatic ghost #nvm forget i asked pls stop #yeah his dad stabbed him to death pretty sure that was the season one finale #i hate you never speak to me again

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 24 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Arguing

After enjoying a tense  afternoon with Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian comes home to enjoy a tense evening with Jiang Cheng. He pauses in the doorway as he takes in Jiang Cheng’s mood and decides which metaphorical mask he will put on to interact with his shidi. As someone who grew up with explosive people, I find this routine very familiar. 

Wei Wuxian is always carefully playing a role as he interacts with the people in his life. Clearly he has read the classic sociology text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and is using it as a how-to guide. We see him do this same calculation over and over, in which he reacts internally to a situation, comes to a decision about what persona to inhabit, and then dons that persona. It’s a typical abuse survival tactic and...it is exhausting. 

This is why I think his leaving to be alone for a while in Episode 50 is a good thing. Being alone isn’t better than being with someone else, usually, but for Wei Wuxian, who is (by Episode 50) assured of love but not sure where he belongs in his own life, being by himself for a while is going to be the best thing for him. He can learn how to just be a person, instead of constantly trying to mold himself to fit everyone around him. 

For the current tense situation, Jiang Cheng is polishing his sword, which, incidentally, is slang (in English, not necessarily in Chinese) for masturbating. Which makes their conversation about how frequently it needs doing kind of a hoot. “One time a month should do,” per Wei Wuxian. 

Jiang Cheng yells at Wei Wuxian--fairly, really--for being drunk all the time and not working on clan tasks. Then he responds to a hug attempt by shoving Wei Wuxian and knocking him down. JC asks WW if he’s too drunk to manage his spiritual power. Now, we know that he doesn’t have any spiritual power to manage, and that’s the main point of this interaction. But it also shows us something else about their dynamic. 

This was just a quick hit, and when it takes WWX out, JC asks why he isn’t responding with spiritual power.  Which means that apparently *every* time Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian a shove or a shoulder check, or strikes him--like he’s been doing constantly since Episode 3--he’s putting spiritual power behind it. That’s...really harsh. 

Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to fight back, and Wei Wuxian can’t; this is a big part of why their relationship breaks down. Casual blows loaded with spiritual power are part of their vocabulary, and Wei Wuxian can’t speak that language any more, even for basic defense. He’s literally not safe having simple interactions with Jiang Cheng now, because he’s secretly disabled, and Jiang Cheng is casually injuring him whenever he gets too close. 

(more after the cut!)

This time Wei Wuxian has had enough, and raises Chenqing to Jiang Cheng, who immediately backs off. Jiang Cheng has seen that thing in action, not just on the battlefield, but in a small room full of whatever remained of Wen Chao when they were done with him. He takes this as a serious threat, and backs off, disturbed and puzzled and hurt.

Jiang Cheng thinks the change in Wei Wuxian is coming from apathy, not from disability, and so he misunderstands it over and over.  Think of a friend saying “whatever, I’m sick of arguing with you, do what you want.”  Jiang Cheng is very ready to feel rejected, and not at all ready to look at Wei Wuxian’s behavior and try to actually understand it. 

Crying Over You

Wei Wuxian bails and goes to see Jiang Yanli in the ancestral hall, where she is polishing a name plaque. I turned the gamma way up to see whose it is and...I dunno. This character might be 江 (Jiang), I guess?

Jiang Yanli is the only one of the trio who knows how to mourn properly, in that she is taking some time to sit and be sad. Mourning the dead--both ritually and just in the emotional sense--is as important a part of reclaiming Lotus Pier as the training of disciples and having good times on the lake.

She asks him about his fight with Jiang Cheng and he says he’s used to fighting with him. Jiang Yanli asks him if he’s tired of living there, and Wei Wuxian deflects and deflects, saying “it’s my home, where else would I go?” and that if Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted him he would still be begging in the streets. He says “no matter what happens, I won’t leave Lotus Pier,” which is not an answer to her question.

It’s also not true. Like so many of his promises, it’s an expression of his wishes, with no space for the surprises real life is made of. He promises her that he won’t be reckless again, and asks her not to be mad at him. She says she can’t be mad at him, and then they share a flashback about Jiang Fengmian finding him on the street. This is a story, not a memory; Wei Wuxian can’t remember but he remembers her telling him about it. Jiang Yanli wasn’t there, in the moment. So this is her telling the story as it was told to her, probably by Jiang Fengmian. 

Flashback Time

In the flashback, picky salad-hating Wei Ying is out on the street, looking for food in a cartload of pretty okay scraps. I mean, yeah, skip the tomatoes, but most of the greens look fine.  

He’s found and fed by Jiang Fengmian, who recognizes him and decides to take him in. 

Within a couple of episodes, we will see Wei Wuxian paying this favor forward, saving someone he finds starving on the street. Just like Jiang Fengmian, he's going to upset and disrupt his family in order to help someone for whom he feels a deep connection.

During this flashback we get a look at Jiang Fengmian’s sword, and it is a beauty. 

What is Love

As the flashback ends, Wei Wuxian is smiling, hearing Jiang Yanli tell this touching story of starvation and orphanhood. She tells him he was born with a smiling face, and that he never minds much about sorrowful things; no matter how bad the situation is, he is always happy. Way to reinforce that metaphorical mask he’s wearing over his deep, deep despair, sis!

They talk a bit about Jiang Cheng’s bad temper.  Then Jiang Yanli says now that her parents are gone, they three are the closest in the world, and he responds by putting his head down on her knee and theatrically saying he’s hungry. But he’s crying for real, and so is she.

Then he decides to ask her why people fall in love, basically, and claims that he does not have anyone in his heart. He says there’s no need to like a person that much, that it’s like “haltering your own neck,” according to Netflix. Let’s have a look at that figurative language for a second, and what’s missing from the Neflix translation. 

What he says is (as near as my qhanzi.com skills can make out) “這不就是自己給自己脖子上套犁拴韁吗” which Google tells me means "Isn't this just putting a plow on my neck with a rein?" The part of the image that’s missing from Netflix subs is the plow, and the hard labor and animal servitude involved in pulling a plow. This isn’t a pro-romance image.

He’s clearly thinking about Lan Wangji when he lies about having no-one in his heart, but right now the yoke that he wants to escape has nothing to do with Lan Wangji. The person he’s harnessed to in a team, the person who he labors with, the person he wants to escape, is Jiang Cheng.  What’s chafing his neck is the promise he made, to stay and serve as one half of a pair, when he can no longer pull his weight. 

Busted

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he is hanging around outside the shrine, listening to the conversation. Wei Wuxian busts him, pointing out not that eavesdropping is bad, but that it’s bad for grownups. Jiang Cheng points out that he’s the master of Lotus Pier so he’s allowed to go anywhere he wants.

(I love how he looks framed by this giant lotus behind him)

We Wuxian has another of those moments where he assesses the best approach to Jiang Cheng before responding. 

Then he picks a fake fight with him about soup.  Yanli comes out and tells them both to grow up, saying that JC is losing his demeanor as clan leader. He jokingly fixes his already-perfect robe ad they all have a chuckle.

Then Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian of his promise for the millionth time, and Jiang Yanli goes to make soup for the millionth time. As soon as the boys see that she’s gone, the smiles drop right off of their faces. They’re both performing their typical relationship dynamic for Jiang Yanli.

Being Reasonable

The brothers repair to the main hall, and stand behind the lotus throne looking out of this complicated wall/doorway thingy, while they talk about Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. 

Jiang Cheng is being mature and sensible here, trying to give Jiang Yanli what she wants and also explaining very, very basic political stuff to Wei Wuxian, who is too caught up in his hate boner for JZX to want to think about the bigger picture. He also thinks that Jin Guangyao is a nicer person, but Jiang Cheng says that nice doesn’t matter.  

Wei Wuxian is getting a full head of steam going about what a jerk JZX is, when Jiang Cheng makes him actually stop and think, by pointing out that it’s not for them to forgive or not forgive Jin Zixuan’s past behavior; it’s up to Yanli.

Wei Wuxian sees the reasoning in this, and starts to say he can’t understand why Yanli chose to like this person, but then he stops himself and goes through a rapid series of thoughtful, uncomfortable expressions. 

Perhaps he’s realizing that he himself has chosen to like an infamously stuck-up, fancy cultivator, albeit one with no soup-related character deficits.

Library Time

The stuck-up cultivator in question is currently in the Cloud Recesses library, where he has snuck into the forbidden books room, against his uncle’s express command, for the purpose of helping Wei Wuxian. The forbidden books room is an entire basement floor of the library; it probably has more books than the not-forbidden part of the library, since the main floor needs space for the restrooms, circulation desk, and copy machines.

(Did OP photoshop the Wangxian-in-the-Library porn picture onto Lan Wangjis’ book? She did.)

A couple of other Lans come along and see the main door unlocked. The lock is a big fish that probably uses magic for locking; it definitely doesn’t use a key. One of them steps in the doorway, glances back and forth without walking through, and does not check the secret door to the forbidden vault. Gosh, how did Su She and/or Jin Guangyao  ever manage to steal secrets from this highly secure location, wow.

Lan Wangji hears the Lan disciple on guard duty say “don’t tell Hanguang Jun about this!’ and has a series of microexpressions that might indicate some kind of feeling about simultaneously being a rule breaker and a rule enforcer.  

Boat Time

We end with an idyllic scene on the lake in Lotus pier, where a new batch of disciples is harvesting lotuses and learning the opposite of boat safety. 

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are having a good time, and seem utterly carefree; both of them are good at living in the moment, or faking it. 

Wei Wuxian thinks, in voiceover, that it seems that it’s not so hard to go back to the old days. Uh...ok.

Except he’s hiding a massive secret and these replacement kids are not the same juniors he used to hang out with, and he can’t actually teach them cultivation, since he has no socially-acceptable magic power, and everything is about to go to shit in the next episode. But you gotta take your joy where you can, I guess. 

Note: There are a lot of questionable effects in The Untamed, but there are also beautiful scenes like this one, which looks like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Compare with the BTS below and you can see what a good job the VFX team did in bringing this lake to life. 

#the untamed #cql #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs

[shemarmooresfedora]

hi baby congratulations on 300!!!🥳 i’m so glad to be here ! 💗🤍💗🤍✨⭐️

you know i’m obsessed w ur fics so, i am gently begging you to write something w prompts “can i paint your nails” “i’m going to steal this from you” and “people don’t compliment you enough” (sorry i forgot the numbers :( ) pleeeease? 🥺🥺

(sorry if it’s too much) thanks, i love u <3

It’s a Love Story

Summary: It’s senior skip day and you’re determined to pull your best friend of 10 years (and secret crush) out of his comfort zone.

Pairing: High School Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader (but imagine Spencer is 18 so he is the normal high school senior age)

Content/Warnings: fluff, swearing, bullying

Word Count: 1.9k

A/N: this fic is very self-indulgent because my senior skip day was yesterday! :)

Masterlist



“Hey, Spence! Wait up,” you jogged down the hall to catch up with him.

“Hey, Y/N. How’d your math test go?” Spencer asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” you groaned, “Thank you for trying to tutor me last night but I think I’m a lost cause at this point. It’s too late in the school year to care.”

“Did you know that ‘senioritis’ can actually be categorized as situational depression? In 2009, 22% of colleges decided to revoke some admissions offers after students began to slack off at the end of their senior year,” Spencer stated.

“Oh, trust me, genius, I may not be as smart as you but I’m not dumb enough to lose my scholarship to UCLA. I did the math out and even if I completely bombed this unit test, I can still maintain my A average,” you replied.

“I never said you weren’t smart, I was just warning you. I don’t want you to lose your spot at your dream school,” Spencer explained, “People don’t compliment you enough for all the hard work you put in to get accepted there.”

“Well, thanks for looking out for me, Spence,” you smiled, taking a seat in the back corner of the classroom.

Spencer sat right in front of you and turned around in his seat, “Do you have any homework?”

“Nope. My study hall is wide open just as expected. The teachers are losing just as much steam as the students,” you grinned, unzipping your backpack and pulling out nail polish.

“Can I paint your nails?” you asked.

“Y/N, don’t you think I get made fun of enough?” he whispered back.

“Girls love when guys paint their nails and if any guys try to give you shit, I’ll personally kick their ass. I took a self-defense course but I’ll use those moves I learned however I see fit,” you said.

“Fine,” Spencer relented, extending his hand out to you.

Spencer was honestly sold once you said that girls love it. That must include you, right?

“It’s purple too. Your favorite color,” you smiled, shaking the bottle up and then beginning to paint his nails.

Spencer thought it was cute that you picked up on his habit of sticking your tongue out of the corner of your mouth when you were concentrating.

“Isn’t it pretty?” you beamed as you worked on the second coat of polish.

“Yeah,” Spencer replied, not looking at his nails but the girl directly in front of him.

You gently blew air on his nails to dry them, “All done!”

-

“Well, well, well if it isn’t the teacher’s pet?” Brad, the captain of the football team, smirked as Spencer passed through the hallways after his math team practice ended.

“Wow, nail polish? And to think you couldn’t become any more of a loser?” he sneered as the jocks began to encircle around Spencer.

“Spence, there you are! I’ve been looking for you all over. Let’s go, we’re going to be late,” you walked right into the crowd of boys, paying no mind to them and grabbing Spencer’s hand, pulling him towards the exit.

“Don’t look back,” you whispered.

“You know one day your little girlfriend there is going to realize what a pathetic nerd you are. I’ll be ready to show her what a real man is,” Brad called after you.

“Oh yes, Brad, a real man goes to community college to hang on to the scraps of his mediocre football career that is his only reminder of when he peaked in high school,” you laughed.

“Y/N, he’s going to kill me for that,” Spencer groaned after you exited the building.

“Relax, we have three days left and then we won’t ever have to see that dick again,” you assured him.

“We have four days left,” Spencer corrected you.

“No, three because we’re not going in tomorrow,” you walked into the diner and took your seat in your usual booth, “It’s senior skip day.”

When Spencer didn’t respond, you looked up from your menu, “Spencer Reid, please do not tell me you were going to go in on senior skip day.”

“Why would I want to miss school?”

“Because you already know everything they could possibly teach you and you can spend the whole day with your best friend instead?” you fluttered your eyelashes to persuade him.

“I don’t want to go to the beach with all the popular kids. I’ll get shoved in the sand,” Spencer grabbed some of the fries that the waitress dropped off for you and popped them into his mouth.

“That is why we are going all the way to Santa Monica. We’ll just get up a little earlier and drive a little further but then we won’t run into anyone from our school,” you proposed.

“Fine but you’re driving,” Spencer huffed.

“Well, I’m certainly not letting the guy drive who hasn’t driven since he got his license just to prove he could pass,” you giggled.

“Why do I need to drive when my next-door neighbor can be my personal chauffeur?” he grinned.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll pick you up at 7 on the dot tomorrow.”

-

You honked outside of Spencer’s house. He came scrambling out with a big canvas tote bag, a tan sweater, and lilac swim shorts that ended at his mid-thigh.

“Get in, loser. We’re going to the beach,” you rolled down the window.

Spencer furrowed his brow for a second before opening the door.

“It’s just a reference to a popular movie. I wasn’t actually calling you a loser,” you assured him.

“My mom made us blueberry muffins for the ride,” Spencer pulled a ziploc bag out of the tote.

“Oh that is so sweet of her! Please tell her I said thank you. She must have been having a good night then,” you smiled, accepting one of the muffins from Spencer.

“Yes, she has been having a good week overall,” Spencer affirmed.

“That’s so great to hear. Okay, we’re stopping for coffee but then we’ll get on the highway.”

The opening notes of Love Story by Taylor Swift began to play on the radio.

“Oh my god! Turn it up!” you screamed.

Spencer grinned and turned the volume knob up.

“Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone. I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run. You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess. It's a love story, baby, just say ‘yes’,” you sang.

-

You rolled down the windows as soon as you exited off the highway.

“Do you smell that, Spence?” you inhaled deeply, “Something about the salty air and sunshine just makes me feel alive.”

“You know it’s probably your increased exposure to the sunlight leading to an increase in vitamin D which can keep your energy levels up and enhance your mood,” Spencer stated.

“Well, whatever it is, I still love it,” you grinned.

You and Spencer made your way along the sandy coast. You parked in the beach parking lot and got out of the car, grabbing your mini cooler and chair.

Spencer grabbed the other chair and his tote and you headed down to the beach, walking a ways before settling on a spot in a less crowded area.

You took off your big t-shirt revealing your light blue bikini.

“Can we go in the water please?” you begged.

Spencer dug into his tote and tossed you a tube of sunscreen.

“Not until you put that on,” Spencer insisted.

“Fine,” you huffed.

“Sorry I don’t want you to be sunburnt for graduation,” he chuckled.

“Can you do my back?” you asked.

“I-um-yeah-yes I can do that,” Spencer scrambled to stand up from his beach chair.

His breath hitched in his throat as he applied the cool lotion to your back.

“All good,” he cleared his throat.

“Thanks, Spence! Do you need me to do your back or are you all set?” you asked.

“Nope, I’m all good. My mom did it before I left,” Spencer said.

“Can we go in the water now?” you pleaded.

Spencer gave a reluctant nod as you let out an excited squeal, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the tide.

You dove right into the cool waves, instantly relieving your body of the southern californian summer heat. Spencer was a bit more hesitant.

“It feels so good, Spence. Trust me,” you smoothed your wet hair back.

Spencer inhaled deeply and then sunk beneath the water as a wave passed by him.

“Yay! He’s actually having fun, people!” you cheered as he emerged from underneath the water.

Spencer playfully splashed water at you and you gasped.

“Oh Spencer Reid, you are so on,” you laughed, splashing water right back at him.

Spencer shielded it from his face with his hand and then started chasing after you. You shrieked in a giggle fit as he lifted you up in the water so you could no longer splash him.

“I surrender! I surrender!” you laughed along with him.

-

You and Spencer were walking on the basically deserted boardwalk by this time of night, licking your ice cream cones.

Spencer noticed you were shivering and pulled off his sweater, handing it to you.

“No, Spence. I can’t, then you’ll be cold,” you said.

“I really don’t mind,” Spencer insisted, wanting to have your scent on his sweater forever.

“Thank you,” you slipped it over your head, “I’m probably going to steal this from you because it’s super comfy.”

A reminder alert buzzed on your phone, “Oh shit. We have to sign up for tickets to go to prom by midnight,” you spoke.

Spencer shot you a guilty look.

“You’re not going?” you sighed defeatedly, trying your hardest not to tear up.

“Y/N, I don’t dance. I’ll make a fool of myself.”

“And I’ll be right by your side making a fool of myself too,” you urged, “Spence, it’s going to be no fun without you. I was going to ask you to officially be my date, you know? I had this whole complicated equation that I was going to have you solve and graph and the line spelled out ‘Prom?’. It’s stupid thinking back on it now, I won’t make you go.”

“I was going to ask you,” Spencer smiled softly, “but then I chickened out.”

“How about this? You give me one dance right now and then we’ll decide if we’re going or not,” you opened your phone and started playing Dancing by Mellow Fellow.

Spencer extended his hand and you accepted as he wrapped his other arm around your waist. You waltzed around the boardwalk in perfect sync as the neon lights from food stands and rides were shining down on you.

Spencer twirled you around and caught you in a dip. You let out a shaky exhale as you both stared into each other’s eyes.

“Can I kiss you?” he whispered.

“Please do. I’ve only been waiting 10 years for it since I moved in next door,” you smiled softly.

Spencer leaned down further and connected your lips. You pulled him even closer with your hands cupping his cheeks.

“I’ll go to prom with you under one condition,” he grinned, pulling away, “we go as boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Absolutely,” you beamed and stood on your tippy-toes to give him another kiss that was long overdue.

A/N: i took a note out of my dear friend @samuel-de-champagne-problems ‘s book by naming the title after a Taylor Swift song

taglist (just ask to be added or removed!): @samuel-de-champagne-problems @g0lden-cth @spencerreid9 @averyhotchner @coldlilheart @k-k0129 @ickleronniekinsemotionalrange @harrystylesandthegoobs @cmily @rem-ariiana

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