#also quick edits on spelling and grammar | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hayatheauthor · 8 months

Text

Everything You Need To Know Before Editing Your Manuscript

Finishing your manuscript is a big accomplishment, but that’s only the start of your writing journey. Now that you have a manuscript to work with it’s time to start your editing process and perfect your story. Editing might sound easy enough, but it involves a lot more than just correcting your SPAG.

If you’re a new author unsure about how to start editing your manuscript, here’s everything you need to know, from a self-published author.

Self-Editing: The First Step

Editing your own work can be both challenging and rewarding. When you take on the role of a self-editor, you gain a deeper understanding of your writing and the opportunity to refine it to its fullest potential. Self-editing helps ensure you cut down on noticeable mistakes before sending it out to an actual editor so that you can receive more productive feedback.

I would honestly hate having to pay someone just for them to tell me ‘you misspelt xyz’ which is something I could have caught with a quick read-through. Once you’ve finished your manuscript here’s how you can start off with some self-editing:

1. Take a Break Before You Start

After completing your initial draft, it's crucial to distance yourself from your work. Give it some time to breathe. This break can be a few days or even weeks, depending on your schedule. When you return to your manuscript, you'll approach it with a fresh perspective.

2. Read Your Manuscript Aloud

One of the most effective self-editing techniques is reading your work aloud. This process helps you identify awkward sentences, pacing issues, and grammatical errors that might go unnoticed when reading silently. It also allows you to hear the flow of your writing and the nuances of your character's voices.

3. Focus on SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar)

Before delving into more complex edits, address SPAG issues. Look out for common mistakes such as typos, subject-verb agreement errors, and misused punctuation. Utilize grammar and spell-check tools, but don't rely solely on them.

4. Assess Overall Structure and Flow

Consider the broader structure of your manuscript. Does the plot progression make sense? Are there any plot holes or inconsistencies? Verify that your story flows smoothly from beginning to end. Ensure that transitions between scenes and chapters are seamless.

5. Dive into Character Development

Characters are the heart of your story. Analyze each character's arc, motivations, and growth throughout the narrative. Ensure that their actions and dialogue are consistent with their personalities and the story's themes.

6. Refine Your Writing Style

Pay attention to your writing style and voice. Is it consistent throughout the manuscript? Make sure your unique voice shines through, and refine your prose to eliminate unnecessary repetition or verbosity.

7. Trim Excessively Long Sentences

Long, convoluted sentences can confuse readers and disrupt the flow of your narrative. Identify and break down lengthy sentences into more manageable segments.

8. Seek Feedback

Consider sharing your work with beta readers or critique partners at this stage. Fresh perspectives can uncover blind spots and provide valuable insights for improvement.

Remember that self-editing is an iterative process. After completing these initial rounds of edits, repeat the process as necessary until you're satisfied with the manuscript's quality

Types of Editing

When editing their manuscript authors often direct their focus to the way things are written and then call it a day. However, SPAG corrections are only the start of your editing process. Unsure of other ways to better your manuscript? Here are some types of editing I think every author should consider when self-editing:

SPAG Editing (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar)

SPAG editing, often considered the foundation of all editing, involves meticulously combing through your manuscript to correct spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. This stage is essential for ensuring the clarity and professionalism of your writing.

Tips for Effective SPAG Editing

Use Spell-Checkers Wisely: While spell-check tools can catch many errors, they're not foolproof. Pay close attention to context; for instance, "their" and "there" are both valid words but have distinct meanings.

Proofread Carefully: Rely on your eyes and proofread your work systematically. Reading backward, from the end to the beginning, can help you catch spelling errors.

Punctuation Matters: Proper punctuation enhances clarity. Study punctuation rules, including the use of commas, semicolons, and quotation marks.

Avoid Homophone Confusion: Homophones, such as "your" and "you're" or "its" and "it's," can trip up even experienced writers. Double-check these tricky pairs.

Consistency is Key: Be consistent in your use of tense, style, and formatting throughout your manuscript.

Consider a Style Guide: Depending on your project, adhere to a specific style guide like AP Style, Chicago Manual of Style, or your publisher's guidelines.

Line Editing

Line editing is where the magic of storytelling truly begins to shine. This stage of editing goes beyond correcting surface-level errors and focuses on enhancing the overall writing style, clarity, and impact of your prose.

Tips for Effective Line Editing

Sentence Structure: Evaluate sentence length and structure. Vary sentence lengths to maintain reader interest. Look for run-on sentences and fragments.

Word Choice: Opt for strong, precise verbs and nouns. Eliminate unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. Avoid clichés and overused expressions.

Consistency in Tone: Ensure the tone of your writing remains consistent throughout the manuscript. Be aware of shifts in tone that may disrupt the reader's experience.

Show, Don't Tell: Replace telling phrases with descriptive scenes and actions to immerse readers in your story. For example, instead of saying "She was nervous," show her trembling hands or racing heart.

Dialogue Polishing: Make sure your characters' dialogue sounds authentic and serves the story. Remove redundancies and refine conversations to convey subtext effectively.

Eliminate Repetition: Identify and eliminate unnecessary repetition, both within sentences and across paragraphs.

Read for Rhythm: Pay attention to the rhythm of your writing. Read your sentences aloud to ensure they flow smoothly and have a pleasing cadence.

Example: Line Editing in Action

Before: "He walked slowly into the dark room, and it was filled with an eerie silence."

After Line Editing: "He tiptoed into the dark room, which echoed with an eerie silence."

Line editing transforms a plain sentence into a more evocative and engaging one.

Plot and Structure Editing

Plot and structure editing is where the big picture of your manuscript comes into focus. It involves assessing the overall narrative flow, character arcs, and thematic coherence of your story. This stage ensures that your readers will be captivated by your tale from beginning to end.

Tips for Effective Plot and Structure Editing

Plot Evaluation: Review your plot to identify any inconsistencies, gaps, or unresolved subplots. Ensure that your story has a clear and engaging trajectory.

Character Arcs: Analyze the development of your characters. Verify that they experience growth, change, or transformation throughout the story. Characters should face challenges and evolve as a result.

Pacing: Assess the pacing of your narrative. Balance action scenes with moments of reflection. Avoid overly slow or rushed sections that may disengage readers.

Transitions: Ensure smooth transitions between scenes and chapters. Use transitional elements like hooks, cliffhangers, or thematic connections to maintain reader interest.

Foreshadowing: Check for effective foreshadowing to create anticipation and intrigue. Ensure that events and revelations are set up in advance to make them more satisfying for readers.

Climax and Resolution: The climax should deliver on the story's promises and conflicts. The resolution should tie up loose ends while leaving room for reader interpretation.

Character Development Editing

Character development editing is the key to creating characters that readers will connect with, empathize with, and remember long after they've finished your book. This type of editing focuses on making your characters three-dimensional and integral to your story.

Tips for Effective Character Development Editing

Character Profiles: Create detailed character profiles that include physical attributes, personality traits, backgrounds, motivations, and flaws. Refer to these profiles as you edit to ensure consistency.

Character Arcs: Analyze each character's journey throughout the story. Ensure that they experience growth, change, or development in response to the plot's events.

Dialogue Authenticity: Pay attention to character dialogue. Each character should have a distinct voice and speaking style that aligns with their personality.

Internal Conflict: Explore each character's internal conflicts, desires, and fears. These internal struggles add depth to their characterization.

External Conflict: Consider how characters interact with one another and their external conflicts. Ensure that their actions and decisions are in line with their personalities.

Consistency: Maintain consistency in character behavior, beliefs, and values throughout the story. Avoid abrupt character shifts unless they are well-motivated and explained.

Style and Voice Editing

Style and voice editing is the stage where your writing truly becomes distinctive and memorable. It involves refining your unique writing style and ensuring that your narrative voice shines through consistently.

Tips for Effective Style and Voice Editing

Identify Your Writing Style: Reflect on your writing style. Are you descriptive and poetic, or concise and direct? Understand your natural tendencies.

Consistency is Key: Ensure that your writing style remains consistent throughout the manuscript. Abrupt shifts in style can be jarring to readers.

Narrative Voice: Identify your narrative voice. Is it first-person, third-person limited, or omniscient? Make sure your chosen narrative perspective aligns with the story's needs.

Character Voices: Pay attention to the unique voices of your characters. Each character should have a distinct way of speaking and thinking, contributing to the overall narrative texture.

Finding a Professional Editor

Writing a book is a deeply personal journey, but when it comes to the final steps of polishing your manuscript, it's essential to bring in a fresh perspective. This is where a professional editor comes in. They can help transform your work from good to outstanding, ensuring that it's ready to captivate readers. In this section, we'll explore how to find the right editor for your project.

When to Consider Hiring a Professional Editor

While self-editing and feedback from beta readers and critique partners are valuable, there comes a point when seeking professional editing assistance is crucial. Here are some key indicators that it's time to hire a professional editor:

After Self-Editing: Once you've gone through multiple rounds of self-editing and received feedback from beta readers, it's time to consider professional editing. You've taken your manuscript as far as you can on your own.

Before Publishing: Professional editing is essential if you plan to publish your work, whether traditionally or through self-publishing. It ensures your manuscript is in top shape, ready to impress agents, publishers, or readers.

For Complex Projects: If your project is particularly complex or requires specialized knowledge (e.g., technical writing, academic papers, historical accuracy), a professional editor with expertise in that area may be necessary.

Types of Professional Editing Services

Professional editors offer various types of editing services, each addressing different aspects of your manuscript. Here's an overview of the most common types:

Developmental Editing: This type of editing focuses on the big picture. Developmental editors help you shape your story, refine your characters, and ensure your plot flows smoothly.

Line Editing: Line editors dive into the nuances of your writing. They focus on improving sentence structure, style, and narrative flow, making your prose shine.

Copyediting: Copyeditors are meticulous about grammar, spelling, punctuation, and consistency in style and formatting. They ensure your manuscript is error-free and conforms to industry standards.

Proofreading: The final stage of editing, proofreading checks for typos, formatting errors, and minor issues that may have been missed in earlier rounds of editing.

How to Choose the Right Editor

Finding the right professional editor is a crucial step in your publishing journey. Here's how to make the best choice:

Research: Look for editors with experience in your genre. Explore their portfolios and read client testimonials. A track record of successful projects is a good sign.

Sample Edit: Many editors offer a sample edit or consultation. Use this opportunity to assess their compatibility with your manuscript. Check if their editing style aligns with your vision.

Communication: Clear and effective communication with your editor is paramount. They should understand your manuscript's genre, themes, and your specific goals for the project.

Budget: Get quotes from multiple editors and consider your budget. Editing can be an investment, but it's essential to find a balance between quality and cost.

Contracts: Before starting the editing process, sign a clear contract that outlines the scope of work, deadlines, fees, and any additional services. A well-defined agreement protects both you and the editor.

Choosing the right professional editor is a partnership that can significantly impact the quality of your manuscript. Take your time, do your research, and find someone who truly understands your work.

Editing Tools and Software

In the digital age, writers have access to a wealth of editing tools and software that can significantly simplify the editing process. These tools not only help catch grammar and spelling errors but also provide valuable insights into your writing style.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly is a widely recognized and user-friendly tool that checks your writing for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style errors. It provides real-time suggestions as you write in various platforms, including web browsers, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs. Grammarly's premium version offers more advanced features like style improvements and plagiarism checks.

2. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is an all-in-one writing assistant that goes beyond simple grammar checks. It offers in-depth reports on readability, overused words, style issues, and more. The tool integrates with popular word processors and even has a Scrivener plugin for authors who use this writing software.

3. Hemingway Editor

Named after the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway, this tool helps you simplify your writing. Hemingway Editor highlights complex sentences, common writing errors, and suggests alternatives to improve readability. It's particularly useful for authors aiming for clear and concise prose.

4. Scrivener

Scrivener is a comprehensive writing and editing software designed for authors. It provides a flexible workspace to organize your manuscript, research materials, and notes. While Scrivener isn't an editing tool in the traditional sense, its robust features can streamline your editing process.

5. Google Docs

Google Docs is a versatile cloud-based platform for collaborative writing and editing. It offers real-time collaboration, commenting, and revision history tracking. Authors can easily share their work with beta readers, critique partners, or professional editors.

6. AutoCrit

AutoCrit specializes in helping authors improve their fiction writing. It analyzes your manuscript for issues like pacing, dialogue, and repetition. It provides recommendations to enhance your storytelling and writing style.

7. Hemingway App

Similar to Hemingway Editor, the Hemingway App identifies complex sentences, adverbs, and passive voice in your writing. It offers immediate feedback to help you simplify and clarify your prose.

8. Evernote

Evernote is a powerful note-taking and organizational tool. While not an editing tool per se, it's indispensable for keeping track of ideas, research, and notes during the writing and editing process.

9. Reedsy Book Editor

Reedsy Book Editor is an online tool that helps authors format their manuscripts for publishing. It's especially handy for self-publishing authors looking to create professional-looking ebooks.

Common Editing Mistakes to Avoid

Editing is a critical step in the writing process, but it's essential to be aware of common editing mistakes that can hinder your progress. By recognizing and addressing these errors, you can refine your editing process and elevate the quality of your manuscript. Let's explore some of the most prevalent editing pitfalls and how to avoid them.

1. Editing Too Soon

One of the most common mistakes writers make is editing their work too soon after finishing the first draft. While the enthusiasm to refine your manuscript is commendable, it's crucial to give your writing some distance. Take a break before diving into the editing process. This allows you to return to your work with fresh eyes and a more critical perspective.

2. Neglecting the Big Picture

Focusing solely on grammar and spelling (SPAG editing) during your initial editing rounds is a mistake. While these aspects are vital, it's equally important to assess the overall structure, plot, character development, and style of your manuscript. Neglecting the big picture can result in a polished but fundamentally flawed story.

3. Overediting

Yes, you read that right—overediting can be a problem. Constantly revising your manuscript without a clear plan can lead to a never-ending editing cycle. Strive for a balance between thorough editing and knowing when your work is ready to be shared or submitted.

4. Ignoring Feedback

If you've enlisted beta readers or critique partners, their feedback is invaluable. However, it's a mistake to ignore or dismiss their insights. Be open to constructive criticism and use it to refine your work. Remember that not every suggestion needs to be implemented, but each one should be considered thoughtfully.

5. Relying Solely on Editing Software

While editing tools and software are powerful aids, they are not infallible. Relying solely on automated editing tools without human oversight can result in errors going unnoticed. Always use these tools as supplements to your own editing process, not replacements.

6. Rushing the Final Proofread

Proofreading is the last line of defense before publishing. Rushing this step can lead to embarrassing typos and errors slipping through. Take your time to meticulously proofread your work or consider hiring a professional proofreader for the final polish.

7. Neglecting Style Consistency

Consistency in style, tone, and formatting is vital, especially in longer works. Neglecting these aspects can create a disjointed reading experience. Create a style guide or checklist to maintain consistency throughout your manuscript.

8. Dismissing Your Gut Feeling

Sometimes, you might receive feedback or advice that conflicts with your vision for your manuscript. While it's essential to be open to suggestions, don't dismiss your gut feeling entirely. Ultimately, it's your story, and your voice should shine through.

9. Not Celebrating Progress

Finally, don't forget to celebrate your editing milestones. Writing and editing can be long and challenging processes. Take moments to acknowledge your accomplishments and keep the motivation flowing.

Beta Readers and Critique Partners

I want to finally end this blog post by talking about beta readers and critique partners. While some people might argue they shouldn’t be mentioned in an editing blog I think it’s important to also include them.

As an author, it's easy to become deeply immersed in your work, making it challenging to spot its flaws and areas for improvement. This is where beta readers and critique partners come in—a fresh set of eyes and perspectives to help you refine your manuscript.

Why Beta Readers and Critique Partners Matter

Objective Feedback: Beta readers and critique partners offer an objective viewpoint on your work. They can identify issues you might have missed due to your familiarity with the story.

Diverse Insights: Different readers bring unique experiences and preferences to your manuscript. This diversity of perspectives can highlight both strengths and weaknesses in your writing.

Identifying Weaknesses: Beta readers and critique partners can pinpoint areas that might not be immediately apparent to you. Whether it's character inconsistencies, plot holes, or pacing issues, their feedback is invaluable.

Tips for Working with Beta Readers and Critique Partners

Select the Right Readers: Choose beta readers or critique partners who have an interest in your genre and can provide constructive feedback. A mix of avid readers and writers can offer diverse insights.

Clear Guidelines: Provide clear guidelines or questions for your readers to focus on while reading your manuscript. This can help you receive specific and actionable feedback tailored to your needs.

Consider Diversity: Seek feedback from a diverse group of readers to get a range of perspectives and opinions. Different backgrounds and tastes can lead to well-rounded feedback.

Be Open to Criticism: Be prepared to receive both positive and negative feedback. Constructive criticism is essential for growth, and it's a sign that your beta readers care about helping you improve.

Take Your Time: Don't rush the feedback process. Give your readers ample time to read and provide their insights. Rushing can lead to incomplete or superficial feedback.

Ask for Specifics: Encourage your beta readers or critique partners to provide examples and specifics in their feedback. This makes it easier for you to understand and address their suggestions.

I hope this blog on Everything You Need To Know Before Editing Your Manuscript will help you in your writing journey. Be sure to comment any tips of your own to help your fellow authors prosper, and follow my blog for new blog updates every Monday and Thursday.

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?

Are you an author looking for writing tips and tricks to better your manuscript? Or do you want to learn about how to get a literary agent, get published and properly market your book? Consider checking out the rest of Haya’s book blog where I post writing and publishing tips for authors every Monday and Thursday! And don’t forget to head over to my TikTok and Instagram profiles @hayatheauthor to learn more about my WIP and writing journey!

106 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 2 months

Note

What benefits does trad publishing even really give anymore? The knowledge that you're expected to do your own aggressive marketing gives me hives as an introvert. I'm guessing that's where that almost incestuous circle-marketing comes from, where trad authors keep posting about heaps of random books by other trad authors almost daily. The quality of editing has gone to shits. Spelling errors. The grammar doesn't get fixed. Blatant errors. No quality control. If I ask a friend or even just do it myself I'd probably still end up with less errors by the end. Shit pay, and month long waits, and even then it's not a done deal. Deadlines, which you have to keep up with while doing your own marketing and starving from the tiny pay you got. Unless you obviously have a big enough name to just say you need extra time. I guess you get a cover and the physical book options, but I know at least 5 reasonably affordable online places that turn your novels into physical books. I also know that there are tons of small indie artists with a great portfolio one could commission for a book cover. Even the prestige of having a publishing house feature you doesn't seem as great with all the stress. And what about how quick your book might get pulled from the physicals if you don't make enough sales?

They can place the book in locations you're never going to get your selfpub book into. If you do start to take off, they can do a lot for you.

To me, it boils down to: do you see this book doing well at Target and the other non-bookstore places most Americans actually buy books nowadays, or do you see it as more niche than that?

41 notes · View notes

sageandlily · 7 months

Text

September 2023 Favourite Reads (Ateez edition)

🍁 Hi! September suprisingly ended quite fast and here are my fanfic recs that i have been spend reading for last month. I wish that both the stories and the writers (who are amazing, beautiful and talented!) gets more recognition and appreciation. Speaking of appreciation, i wanted to apologize to the writers for rarely engaging in the fic (reblog/comment) bcs quite frankly, i'm a bit shy to reaching out but started from now, i'll try my best to engage with you all😁🧡.

🍁Also if you have any fics recs or wanted to promote your own story then don't be shy to interact with this post (reblog/reply/whatever you want)!

(sorry for the grammar error, english is my 3rd language so sometimes my brain was a bit fuzzy on how some sentences supposed to be written😵‍💫)

The Crown Prince (San x reader) by @atxxzist

As a sucker for kingdom and fantasy story setting, this one immediately caught me by just the summary.

Room With A View (Yeosang x reader) by @stayteezdreams

This fic just radiates warmth and i wish somebody would throw me a letter in paper plane 🥹

Butterflies (🔞Mingi x reader) by @hwaslayer

This is just so homey and super cute. Also, i believe that Mingi in real life would act like that towards his daughter (if he decided to have one)

The Champion (San x reader) by @daybreakx

Ateez x Harry Potter fic?? please sign me up real quick! bcs without a blink, i'd read it. Also, slytherin San as triwizard champions?? pheww😮‍💨

Inception *on going* (🔞Poly!OT8 Ateez x reader) by @remedyx

I was so immersed by the story to the point that i created a moodboard for the worldbuilding. Any kingdom based story with dragon in it will always catch my attention quickly. Please check this one out!

Wonderwall *on going* (🔞Poly!OT8 Ateez x reader) by @atzfilm

The author is one of my fav ateez fanfic author here in tumblr so when i saw that they wrote a new story, i immediately check it out and ofc i'm in love with the way the story was written. Can't wait for the new chapter update! (also Soobin😭)

Siren's Spell *on going* (🔞Wooyoung x reader) by @spooo00oky

I accidentally found this fic in my for you page and i got hooked. I love how every character was written and how easy it is to get immersed in the worldbuilding. I love Wooyoung so much and i can't wait to see how their story continue

Project D (🔞Hongjoong x reader, Yunho x reader) by @setsugekka

If you like street racer, bad boy, rollercoater dynamic between reader and both men?? then please read this one. I have no words to describe it but it was sooo good! must read!

Stay (🔞Yeosang x reader) by @sorryimananti-romantic

Archer Yeosang?? princess reader?? count me in immediately!! i just love the dynamic between them. This fic genuinely made me feel a lot of emotions and now i wish i could encounter Yeosang while i'm out in the wood irl

Thank you for checking this post and i hope that i could make post like this every month until 2023 end. See you🧡

#ateez fic recs #ateez fic #ateez fanfic #ateez imagines #ateez x reader #ateez au recs #ateez x y/n #ateez headcanons #sageandlily fic recs

142 notes · View notes

leafs-lover · 11 months

Note

y/n and Freddie in btpdg is one of my favorite couples to ready about. have you thought of doing a blurb or something where Freddie comes home from a roadie and wakes y/n up in a ✨spicy✨ way? like, maybe when ollie was a baby because sleep is precious when they have 4 little monsters.

Series Masterlist

This is set before YN and Fred have had conversations about getting together but it’s painfully obvious they both want it so like figure it out already? You also don’t have to have read the entire fic to make sense of it, this is a stand alone piece

Warnings: swearing, smut (fingering and p in v), a slight dominance link, I didn’t proofread or edit so if you see any spelling/ grammar mistakes keep them to yourself

Fred’s least favourite thing was leaving.

Ollie learned what the duffle bag meant and would whine every time he saw it, you of course knew what it meant and would also whine about it. Only difference was he could reason with you. He’d always promise you a date once he returned and you’d always prop yourself on your tippy toes, wrap your arms around his neck and pull his face down, growling “why wait?”

Oliver was walking and talking, a handful with every step, leave him alone for more than a minute and every toy was thrown across the living room, or he would have the pantry open tossing boxes onto the floor. He kept you on your toes and you both felt uneasy leaving him even if only for a few minutes. So you would wait, but that doesn’t mean you’d make it easy on him. You would constantly send pictures, snapchats, answering his FaceTimes while wearing practically nothing. You knew exactly what you were doing and it drove him crazy.

Typically the Pens would fly the team back early in the morning after a road trip and since giving Fred a key you tended to wake up and find the living room full of laughter, Oliver wearing only a diaper as he terrorized the couch cushions.

This particular road trip ended in Philly and it was a very quick flight home. The team ventured back to Pittsburgh after the game and Fred set out for your apartment. He made good time, it was near midnight and the roads were empty.

Not a single light was on, not even the blue glow from a TV to alert him to your presence. It’s quiet, but not an eery quiet, it’s peaceful.

Fred drops his bag by the door and sets his keys in the bowl. His jacket is left on the rack and he starts to unbutton his dress shirt as he walks down the dark hallway. He stops at Oliver’s room and half expects the crib to be empty meaning a night with a sprawling toddler who kicks him seventeen times in the ribcage, but as the light from the hall filters in Fred catches a glimpse of the red locks on his tiny body. Like every night he spends with Oliver, Fred walks over to the side of the crib and takes a second to just watch his son. There is something about watching a baby sleep perfectly and peacefully that makes his heart swell - he doesn’t know how he went this long without it. He gently whispers goodnight and places a kiss to his cheek, then leaves the door as he found it - open a crack - before venturing toward you.

There is a copy of The Whispers cracked open on the mattress beside you, a cup of cold herbal tea lingers on the bedside table. The blankets are down low past your hips and one leg is kicked out - evidence you got hot at some point - your perky nipples protrude through the thin white cotton shirt you wore to sleep. The desire for baby number two throbs in his pants, if only that topic wouldn’t send you running Fred could bring it up.

He throws his pants over a chair, folds his shirt and places it on the seat and slips out of his socks. He grabs your “bookmark” from the night stand and lets his finger trace over the worn edges for a moment. It’s not an actual bookmark, but a picture taken moments after Oliver was born. Fred knew you were using a picture, but Oliver was almost one before he knew what the picture was, and that was the moment he knew there was a chance you’d come back to him. Because it’s not a picture of just you and Oliver, it’s one of the three of you. Sweat clings in your hairline, trapping baby hairs to your forehead, both of you have puffy red eyes from crying with the biggest smiles imaginable plastered to your faces, only thing is Fred is staring at Oliver and you are looking up at him. Even with the emotions of that moment, he can see there is more to the look you are giving him. You’re not staring at the father of your son, you are staring at the man you love. Fred is so happy he noticed that glimmer in your eyes and decided to wait you out, because he catches you looking at him like that countless times a day (even though you won’t admit it anytime soon). Fred smiles, like he does every time he sees this photo, and sets it inside the book, then curls up beside you.

He knows he should let you sleep, you have a very energetic toddler that loves to keep you on your toes, but that shirt is just a little to see-through and a little too tight and you sent one too many messages.

He starts slow.

His hand on your stomach and lips on your jaw. It’s soft, a kiss that goes unnoticed.

His calloused hand ventures up, finding one of those perfect breasts you spent a week tormenting him with and he begins to massage it, tweaking and tugging at your nipple. A sleepy sigh catches in your throat but Fred can tell it’s going to take more.

His touch is light as his hand drops, under the elastic band of his boxers you decided to sleep in. The pressure starts off gentle, slow circles being pressed against your heat. His lips trail along your jaw, over to the sweet spot on your neck. Instead of kissing he starts to suck, harder and harder, letting his teeth sink in. When he doesn’t earn the response he desperately seeks, two fingers toy at your entrance, coating themselves in your arousal.

“Hi baby,” Fred murmurs when you finally start to stir.

“Hi,” you mumble back, involuntarily tilting your head to the side, giving him more space to work with. “I missed you.”

“I know you did.” His fingers slip inside as far as they can go. Your eyes dart open.

“Shit baby.” Your legs kick out and back arches as he thrusts his digits back inside.

“You knew what you were doing with all those pictures you sent.” He chastises, thrusting his fingers back inside once again. “Knew what it was doing to me.”

“Of course I did.” Your voice is becoming strangled, the pressure starting to build.

“Then what did you expect?”

Fred shoves his boxers down your thighs and you feel his cock, rock hard and leaking excitement all over your hip. With a few more thrusts to get you wet and ready, Fred replaces his fingers with his member, and you both moan in unison.

“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” He probes, shunting you up the bed with one deep thrust. “What you wanted huh?” He punctuates with another thrust.

“I always want you.” You whimper, knowing he is waiting for a response.

Your fingers tremble when they feel the hard muscles of his back. You always loved his body and he’s always loved yours. Beads of sweat cascade down your neck and Fred smiles, his second favourite thing to lick.

“Only me right?”

He doesn’t mean it as a question, at least not in this moment. There will be a time for the hard questions, a conversation where he will make you admit to what you’ve been feeling (because he has zero doubt and knows you just need a nudge). This question is more about dominance, a reminder, because him practically prodding your cervix doesn’t do that.

“As if there could be anyone else.”

Fred hooks your left leg over his hip and finally brings his lips to yours. His mustache tickles your upper lip and his tongue works its way into your mouth. It’s sloppy, frantic, full of heat. Every time he presses his tongue in further your nails scratch along his back. And after every firm and direct thrust hits that spot deep inside, your moan gets caught in his mouth.

“You look so good with my cock inside you.” Fred grunts, punctuating his words with another thrust.

“You feel so good inside me.”

“Gonna feel even better with my cum dripping out of you.” Fred smirks as one hand snakes between your bodies and rubs at your clit. It suddenly becomes very difficult to concentrate on what he is saying. You can see his lips moving and can only imagine the filth spewing out.

You writhe beneath him as your pleasure reaches it’s peak. Your nails dig deep into the thickest part of his bicep and with one more punctuated thurst you come undone, warmth spilling around his cock. Fred’s cocky grin only grows even as his thrusts are sloppy and shallow, and just as your body relaxes Fred spills everything deep inside your cunt.

It takes a bit for your hearts to steady, it always does, Fred’s version of a “quickie” often leaves you feeling like you ran 5k.

Fred looks down at you, brown eyes clouded with lust and passion and leans back in, replacing the heated and heavy kisses with a soft one, full of warmth.

“Elskede.” He smiles sweetly, his cock soft inside you.

“Hmm.”

“Tease me like that again and I won’t wake you up as nicely next time.”

“No idea what you’re talking about,” you shrug him off, a hint of insolence in your voice. His cock twitches. You being bratty always did turn him on.

Taglist: If you are in this list you have expressed interest in the series, either through likes/reblogs or by asking. If you would like to be removed or added to the list send me an ask:

@mandypants95 @c-tangerinene @puccbunni @hockeyinaussie @hockeypuckspost @0kikina0 @sixmapleleafs @hockeyunitsyunits @localcalumhoe @starswin @je-ne-regrette-rien @mollybirk @daniellepulice72 @callsign-denmark

82 notes · View notes

arumin-arureruto · 1 year

Note

Can you do some Yandere/Obsessed Eren x Y/n head canons? I litterally cant find any, anywhere, Thanks!

Love you stories btw!!

yes sweetheart thank you for your support ❤️ I really need to get back on posting here y’all I have so much fun when I do

also sorry it's not really that much of a hc but more of a drabble, however you made me realize I really enjoy writing stalkers so maybe I'll be writing more wink wink.

Yandere Eren x Y/n

cw: obsessive behavior, female bodied reader, mention of female masturbation, male masturbation, stalking. wc: 1.5k not grammar/spell checked, not edited, just a word vomit.

You walked with quick steps towards your dorm, night time is never safe for women who are out and about alone.

With both earbuds in and your brain lost in thought it wasn’t surprising that you couldn’t detect the bright green eyes that watched you as you strutted across campus. Following your every move.

Those eyes moved from your face all the way down to your legs, noting the way your hips swayed from side to side and the way your breasts moved in the tight shirt you always seemed to be wearing.

“What an idiot” Eren muttered to himself. You were so unaware of the world around you, anyone could take advantage of you, which is why Eren needed to be there to protect you.

It’s not like he likes you or anything. He just needs to always be with you otherwise you’ll fall prey to stranger’s tricks.

It starts with making sure you get home okay. He follows behind you from a safe distance, looking at his phone and occasionally looking up at you to make sure you’re still okay.

While you’re walking a breeze blows and a couple of your papers fall to the floor, naturally you bend over to pick them up. That’s when eren looks up. The short skirt you wore provided no coverage of your ass that was now facing up.

Eren continued walking, he needed to get a closer look. Without thinking he quickly snapped a couple pictures of your practically bare ass. It’s like you were begging for someone to come up behind you and fuck you until you cried.

He snapped back to reality after realized he had passed you. It’s not like he liked you or anything, he’s a guy, it’s normal for him to feel like this after seeing a girl with her ass almost out in public.

A couple days after he finally gathered the courage. He would go into your dorm while you were in class. He thanked the gods for you not having a roommate and for your dorm to be in a very isolated hall where few passed by. And that you were stupid enough to leave a key under the welcome mat.

He looked over your desk, cluttered with notes, pencils, a tub of lotion, make up brushes and more. Pictures filled your wall, he recognized some faces as being some girls he always saw you with around campus. But there was one he didn't recognize. It was a guy, and from the looks of it you two were close.

Who is this? Not a relative that's for sure, you didn't look related at all. A boyfriend? From the way you were positioned in the picture it definitely seemed that way, with the way his hand was squeezing your hip and your hand was grazing his chest. Eren would have to put a stop to this, this guy wasn't good enough for you, he didn't deserve you.

Eren's knuckle turned white from the strength he was putting into balling up his hands, but this anger didn't prevent him from seeing a speck of pink on your bed. A little piece of lace meant to be used as underwear.

he walked over to your bed and picked it up, feeling the flimsy material in his hand. You're such a slut, you wouldn't be wearing these things unless you wanted someone to see them. You wanted attention so badly it was pathetic.

Eren could almost picture it. You wearing this little piece of lace under a skirt and bending over to pick up something you "accidentally" dropped. Making your ass and the outline of your pussy visible to all those behind you.

The thought of that sent a shot of energy right to Eren's cock, which now felt uncomfortable against his jeans.

He checked the clock, he had another 40 minutes before your class was over. He got an idea.

He unbuckled his seatbelt, lowered his pants and sat down on your bed. He put his hand on his cock already leaking with precum and started slowly stroking it. It wasn't before long that he started rubbing your lacy underwear up and down on his dick.

He imagined that instead of your underwear that it was your hand stroking him.

It wasn't before long that he started feeling like he was about to cum. That's when he got another brilliant idea. He moved and picked up the tub of lotion, taking off the lid he continued jerking himself off with your underwear until he reached his climax. cumming in your tub of lotion.

The thought of his cum being rubbed up and down your arms and legs excited him. Until he remembered the mysterious boy in your picture. He pulled up his pants and stuffed your panties in his pocket. He would find a way to get rid of that filth for you. For better or for worse.

Going into your dorm became a regular thing for him. He made a copy of the key under the mat just in case you gained half a brain and realized how stupid of an idea that was.

He would paw through your underwear drawer (where he found a couple naughty items, god you were an actual whore), check your desk, jerk himself off with your underwear on your bed (sometimes he would prefer rubbing himself against your sheets and pillow) and collect a few trophies, panties, a bra, one time he felt confident enough to take one of your flannels.

His routine stayed about the same until one day he scored a jackpot. You had left your laptop unlocked and open on your desk. He had one hour and 20 minutes until your class was over, and you usually stopped at a coffeeshop to pick up a drink giving him more than enough time to snoop.

Your phone was synced to your laptop, giving him access to almost your entire life. He checked social media, pictures, contacts, and then he got to your texts.

Nothing out of the ordinary, texts to your family, some friends, coworkers, then he got to your texts with someone named Henry. The guy from the picture. He wasn't your boyfriend, it was more of a situationship. He also didn't attend the same university as you, he was someone from your hometown about 2 hours away. He had decided to stay there while you moved.

From the texts it seemed like you hadn't met up with him in almost a month and were planning to soon. After a bit more scrolling he came across pictures and videos, so many pictures and videos, even some screen recorded facetime calls.

Everything Eren had assumed about you was right. The lace panties and bras, the sex toys, you truly were a whore. Almost all these videos consisted of you stuffing your pussy with your fingers, rubbing your clit while you moaned, riding your pillow.

The pictures had you in your skimpy underwear, sometimes fully nude. There were pictures of you with your legs spread, and your pussy out on display. Pictures of your hands on your bare tits hanging.

Eren was speechless, you were showing your body to this guy. He didn’t deserve you, the only person that should’ve ever gotten to see these was Eren. He felt disgusted not by you, but by how easily you gave these up.

He quickly selected all of them and airdropped them to himself. He got a brilliant idea. He found a way to end this little thing going on between you and picture boy. But first he needed to deal with the rock hard bulge in his pants. He had one hour left before you got out of class.

He quickly pulled down his pants and started stroking himself again, he decided to watch the video of you riding the pillow. He watched as you humped your pillow like a dog in heat, your moans filled his ears and made him ever harder. He could almost imagine how your sensitive clit felt with the friction. He jerked off about 4 more times, each time to a different picture or video.

After the 5th time he couldn’t do it anymore. His legs were shaking and his hair has fallen out of its bun, damp with sweat. This entire time he has been releasing himself into one of your panties, which was now soaked with his cum. He pocketed and left.

When he got home he rushed to his computer. He knew what he had to do, and while it was almost painful for him to do it Eren told himself it was for your own good.

He made a fake account and posted all these videos that showed your face to your college’s graduating class facebook group, making sure to include your name. In less than one hour it had gained over 500 interactions, some people shaming you, some wondering who would be sick enough to do this, and some cheering on whoever it was that posted this.

Shortly after it was taken down for violating community guidelines, but the damage had been done. You were officially a public outcast. He felt bad but now he had made sure that you would never be speaking to picture guy again, and even better, that you would’ve lost any friends you had made. It was the perfect opportunity for him to swoop in and save you.

#aot smut #aot imagines #aot headcanons #aot x reader #eren x reader #aot eren #snk eren #eren jeager #eren yeager #yelena snk #eren x you #eren smut #attack on titan #attack on titan headcanons #attack on titan smut

184 notes · View notes

dearlawdimasimp · 2 years

Text

As universes collides

Pairings: Moon Knight system(Marc/Steven/Jake) x sorcerer!Reader x Khonshu

Word count: holee shit its 9k words people💀

Warnings: grammar, cussing, !SPOILERS FOR MoM!, possibly inaccurate depictions of DID(please tell me in the comments if i did so that i can edit this), possibly wrong Spanish words used(again please correct me in the comments), possibly ooc marvel characters, NOT BETA READ, lengthy fic(if i missed any please let me know!!)

Summary: Hey, just re-read your stories with Sorcerer!Reader with the Moon Bois and Khonshu, I absolutely love them! So I saw you were looking for ideas, and I remembered an idea I had a while back when MoM came out regarding this exact same pairing. If you’re willing to write it that is.

So regarding Wanda’s attack on Kamar-taj, the reader is called to defend the temple. The reader prepares to leave, and while trying to explain what’s happening to the boys, mentions the Scarlet Witch. Now, lets assume Khonshu knows a little about the Scarlet Witch and her chaos magic. So when the reader tells them that they're going to be defending the temple against her, he tells her not to go, in fear that they will die. The reader of course declines his request, and Marc/Steven/Jake get into an argument with the reader about going (“the world and the multiverse are in danger” blah blah blah “you shouldn’t have to risk your life” blah blah blah “there’s a child’s life on the line” blah blah blah- you get it). Long story short, the reader ends up going after the argument (or however you want it to end up). In the end, the reader (hopefully) survives, whether it surviving in the rubble, or traveling with Strange and America through the multiverse. And they reunite with Marc/Steven/Jake and Khonshu.

Let me know what you think about this and if you’re willing to write it. Hopefully it gave you some inspiration!

A/N: hi hello sorry for the long wait but the fic is finally here!! hope you guys love this and i hope this meets @jupitersmoon167 and everybody else's expectations😥 i used dear jupiter's idea and added my own twist to it! hope you guys love this just as much as i do🤧💞if things aren't exactly the same with the movie, im so sorry-i wrote this based on what i remembered💞GIFS USED NOT MINE

Something shifted.

A shiver ran through your spine, through your whole body.

You inhale sharply, brows furrowing at the uneasy feeling.

"You felt it too, dearest?"

Asked your human sized moon god beside you, who's wearing a white polo rolled up to his elbow and white slacks, his arm laying across your now tense shoulder. You feel him gently squeeze you, coaxing you to relax your tight muscles.

You are currently in the Moon boys' flat, watching a movie to relax since today was a time where you and all of the system have their day off on the same day, with all three of them co-existing with you and a human sized Khonshu.

They are currently in separate bodies, thanks to a spell that allowed them to be out of the headspace for a period of time, all wearing comfy home clothes, and are now looking at you too. Worry, curiosity, and confusion met your troubled gaze.

"We– we felt it too…Like, something.. something bad."

Steven, who's wearing his blue sweatshirt and gray pjs, voices out his and his alters' thoughts, Marc– who's wearing his blue t-shirt and pants– nods once and looks at Jake–who's wearing his white long sleeves and black pjs– who also nods, eyes full of thoughts as he keeps his firm yet gentle gaze on you, confirming Steven's statement.

You look up to Khonshu, who stood up from his seat on the couch and looked out the window.

"Should.. should we be worried–"

His question dies on his tongue as a portal opens in the middle of your room. You're quick to your feet and change into your sorcerer robes as you walk in front of the moon knight system and towards the opening portal, knowing who might be behind it.. and their purpose.

The trio stood up as they watched an Asian man walk through the sparkling circle. Jake quickly puts himself in front of his alters, ready to protect in case anyone thinks of hurting them.

"We need your help, Master," Wong utters your name breathlessly, "I'm sorry for interrupting your day off but, the Scarlet Witch, is planning to attack Kamar-taj and we are in dire need of every single sorcerer to protect it." The portal closes behind him.

Before you are able to utter a single word, Khonshu repeats,

"The Scarlet Witch?"

A thunderous boom echoing in the room, his tone all but gentle, and crosses the room to stand by your side, now looming down on you and Wong as he returns to his godly size, his clothes now shifted back to gauzed wrappings.

"The wielder of Chaos Magic?"

You tilt your head up to him, "You know them?" You glance at the Sorcerer Supreme, who was not a single bit intimidated by the god's presence (you figured he wouldn't be as this man might've seen worse than a tall, bird skull headed god so it wasn't a surprise to you), who nods to answer Khonshu's question.

The god's head moves to you as he looks at you, his thoughts undecipherable to you. His body language was rigid, which could either mean he doesn't trust the sorcerer in front of you or something else entirely different.

You look back to his hollowed sockets as you wait for his answer.

He bobs his head and kneels in one knee to be on your eye level, "I know little but I know enough. You are not going to face her, little sorcerer."

Ah, so it was something else entirely different.

Even though his tone suggests no room for argument, you huff at his demands in disbelief.

"Khonshu, the Sorcerer Supreme needs every single sorcerer to be present, which means that this Scarlet Witch is very dangerous and is a danger to our wo–"

"Which should give you more reason not to go! It is unsafe! They are dangerous, like you've said. Let the others handle it!"

You were about to argue back but a question pops up into your head, you turn to Wong, "Wait– why is this.. quote unquote Scarlet Witch attacking the Kamar-taj in the first place?"

You hear the god sigh beside you and mumble, "You do not need that information–"

"A child that has the power to traverse across universes is in the temple and the Scarlet Witch intends to take her power all to herself." Wong answers, his eyes pleading to you as he spoke.

Your eyebrows shot up in worry, "No–" a British voice spoke behind you in slight tremor.

The sorcerer supreme puts his hand on your shoulder.

"Please, pick your choice wisely. We'll be waiting for you."

You place your hand above his and nod, he gives you a tight smile as he removes his hand. He glances at the trio behind you and bids them goodbye with a bow of his head, as well as to the Egyptian moon god. He opens a portal and enters it, with an expecting glance of his shoulder the bright orange circle closes with a sharp hush.

A heavy silence falls in the flat.

A click of a tongue breaks it and Marc speaks, "Right, no. The bird is right. No way in hell you are going to K- Kamar- Kamar.. tash–"

You heard Khonshu huff at the name Marc had called him and rise from his kneeling position.

"Kamar-Taj." "Kamar-Taj" Steven and Khonshu correct him.

"Yes, that- thank you Steven, Khonshu-"

"Marc, a child's life is in danger!" You say his name in exasperation as you step one foot to the front, "Our universe and other universes are in danger! I can't just let this witch do–"

"Mi muñeca, por favor," Jake intervenes, his face covered by his hand as he pinches the bridge of his nose, "There are cientos de otros magos, lots of other sorcerers, around the world, ¿sî?" He drops his hand with a sigh.

You nod, "Yes! But–"

"Then you, our amado hechicero, don't need to be there." The mustached Latino reaches out to your hand and grasps it, squeezing it lightly as his eyes desperately look around your face and cups it with his other hand, heavy it lays on your cheek as he whispers, "Por favor, mi amor."

"Please, love. Think about it." Steven speaks up behind Jake, worry also etched on his face as he approaches the two of you. "If Khonshu, a god who doesn't think twice in committing violence, does not want you to fight then I'd also have to say no on this one. We can't risk losing you, darling.." His voice cracks a little, the thought of not being able to see you again is possibly plaguing his mind.

Tears well up on your eyes as you glance back and forth between Jake and Steven then to Marc, whose eyes are all but soft as he had already made up his decision.

You sigh and lean to Jake's hand that is on your cheek, you take it from your face and kiss his palm. You turn to your Stevie and offer your hand to him, to which he hastily holds, and gently pull him to you. He lets you. Jake removes his hand from your cheek to let Steven wrap his arms around you, he's muttering pleas in your ear as you plant a long kiss on his temple.

"So you're not going, sweetheart?"

You look up to your other boyfriend who is now looking a little relieved and hopeful, slowly approaching you three with a hopeful gaze. You glance up to your godly lover, who's been silently waiting as he watches you interact with your human boyfriends, leaning against a bookshelf with arms crossed.

You turn your gaze to Marc, who's looking at you expectantly, you give a last kiss on Steven's cheek before letting go of the Brit and approached the American. You smile tearfully as you hold his face with your palm, his stubble rough under your skin. Standing on your tip-toes, you kiss his cheek gingerly.

Jake, coming to an understanding of your whole motive, mutters hoarsely, "No.."

The other people in the room seemed to understand what you were trying to do and they all simultaneously spoke out their disagreement.

"No, baby– Come on!" "Absolutely not!" "Darling, please no."

You lower yourself back on the floor and look up to Marc, his brows are raised in the middle as he grasps your wrist as he tries to keep you in place.

"I'm sorry." You whisper, to him and to all of your lovers, a lone tear escaping your eyes as you caress his cheekbones with your thumbs.

Khonshu briskly walks towards you, planning to stop your plans but you were quick.

You close your eyes and let the flow of magic surrounding the flat disappear.

Marc's hands left your wrists and his stubbled jaw sliding away from your palms, you opened your eyes to see him stumbling back and away from you, the surge of magic when his alters returned back to their headspace possibly left him disoriented.

You feel a cool breeze go down past your shoulder. Looking over you see Khonshu, he's back to his ghost-like state, unable to interact with anything surrounding him.

He looks up at you, you feel his and Marc's(and possibly the rest of the system's) burning glare drilling into your skull.

You hold back a sob.

"This is for all of you, my loves. Please, I hope you understand."

You look back and forth to Marc and Khonshu, who's regaining his balance and the latter desperately trying to get a hold of you as he yells for you to stop, even though he knows with this form he won't be able to do so he still continues to reach out to your form.

You open a portal to the temple, with a sharp intake of breath you quickly enter it. Tears continue to fall down your cheek, a smile that doesn't hold any joy pulls your lips as you croak out, "I'll see you around, my boys. This isn't a goodbye."

You immediately let the portal close before any of them crossed it. The last thing you saw was Marc, with Jake and Steven possibly co-fronting with him, hastily running to the orange circle as Khonshu fell on his knees, seemingly defeated.

I promise.

~🌑~

Falling through different realities, with one of them being a world that is made up of paint, as you try to keep a powerful kid away from a power hungry witch in a star shaped portal was definitely not on your bucket list.

But here you are, thrown into a new world where everything is unfamiliar and very green.

"You two… saved me.." Chavez says between her breaths as you and Strange try to regain yours.

"I hope so.." The cloaked man groans as he stands up, while you cover your mouth and run to the nearest corner as you feel bile shot up to your throat, spilling the food you had earlier this morning.

You hear America sheepishly apologize, "It's a normal reaction..! Just.. let it all out.."

You give her a thumbs up, your guts continue to spill out.

You hear the teen ask if the other sorcerer have had experience with multiversal travelling, the man in question smugly answers that they have, making you scoff at his lie as you wipe your mouth with your sleeve.

You were about to tell Chavez the truth but Stephen's upset stomach beat you to it.

"You were saying, Strange?" You jest as you walk towards the duo, groaning at the after taste on your tongue after that spill fest.

"Shut up–"

You hum low in your throat as you look around you, tuning out Stephen's vomiting noises because if you won't you might vomit again so instead you survey your surroundings properly.

"What is this place? A utopic version of our universe??"

You let the question hang in the air as you walk over to the ledge, looking down at the busy streets with wonder and curiosity.

"It seems so.." America answers behind you.

~🌒~

"They go on red?" Asks the baffled former Sorcerer Supreme beside the teen.

"Amazing observation." You quip as you wearily look around, Jake and Marc's tendency to look for any signs of danger once in an unfamiliar setting rubbing off on you.

With yours and Stephen's sling ring lost, and with Chavez struggling to control her power, you were left with finding help in this universe's Stephen and you. Since apparently there is only one Chavez in the multiverse.

"Rule number one of multiversal travel. You don't know anything."

Stephen huffs at your comment and waits for the traffic light to turn green, and crosses the street, you follow alongside him.

"Right, so what's rule number two–"

You feel the hairs on your nape stand up, someone is watching you. You look around with furrowed brows, trying to pinpoint where and who it's coming from.

But Strange's tug on your elbow made you stop your hunt, "Where is she?" the sorcerer worriedly asks and you could only stare at him in confusion, blinking your eyes, you were about to answer his question with another question but then you realize who he's talking about.

You look around you and find that the girl you two are supposed to protect is missing beside you. Your breathing quickens as the worst possible scenarios run through your mind until a hand lays on your shoulder.

You turn to see the girl herself with a food on hand, you roughly exhale through your mouth as you rub your face with your hand.

"Rule number two, find food. Preferably pizza. Pizza balls!"

Pizza.. balls? What? You stare the rolled up pizza on the red bowl, huh, never thought that would be a thing. But then again, everyone in this world is wearing clothes in varying shades of black and white only so you really should have expected less (not like you don't like the color, it's just.. a little unsettling considering the colorful stores and surroundings, and it's new to you).

"How'd you pay for that?"

"It's free–"

You catch up beside the girl, "Free? There's free food here?"

"Well, food's free in most universes actually." She states with a shrug, "It's more of how you guys pay for it."

Your lips form an 'o' as you nod, taking in the interesting information, "That's cool."

"Yea–"

"Hey! You didn't pay for that!"

You three stop in your tracks and face the old man, who seems to be the seller of the pizza rolls.

"Crap.." Muttered the teen, "Maybe it's not free here.."

You gave the teen an exasperated look, while she returns it with an innocent one as she munches on the unpaid food.

"Relax, Mr. "Papap", she's just a kid-"

"Relax yourself there, Doctor Strange." Snides the old man with a slight chuckle as if mocking the sorcerer while he reaches for the cloak of Levitation. "Where'd you get this cape from anyway–"

"It's not a cape-"

"It's a cloak actually," you sigh and step up to the old man. "How about you let him go-"

"Huh, feels authentic–" Mr. "Papa"? Papap? comments as he examines the fabric.

"I'll pay for it, okay, just, let my friend go–" You were reaching for your wallet when you felt his hand grasp your robes tightly.

A rush of harsh wind suddenly sweeps the sidewalk you are on, forcing the man holding you to release your clothes to cover his face from the sudden gust.

You shiver at the breeze. It felt familiar…

"You two are thieves! You two took this from the Strange museum, didn't cha?"

"Strange Museum?"

"You two are takers!" The man snatches the mustard from his stand, "Why don't you take some of thi-"

Needless to say, that man is going to continuously beat himself up for the next three weeks.

"What happened to Rule number one, hm?" You tease the girl as you lightly bump your shoulder to hers, while resuming your trek to find this world's Dr. Strange.

America could only roll her eyes at your jest as she silently chuckled while Stephen chortled under his breath.

~🌓~

Lucky for you, you don't drink tea.

Unluckily for you, you were bribed with a cold chocolate drink.

Which led to you and your party of three encased in a strong glass– carbonated glass, was it? You weren't really listening.

You have opted on focusing on your breathing instead, enclosed spaces and you are not exactly besties.

America, seeming to have noticed your struggle, tries to get Stephen and Christine's attention. But you call out to her, stopping her actions, "It's– it's okay kid. Let them have their moment. I'll be fine."

Your voice wobbles as you swallow your saliva. Inhale, exhale.

Anything else seems to be muddled as you keep your focus on your breathing.

Inhale, exhale.

A hiss of the opening of your sealed doors interrupts your meditation short. You look around only to see… are those ultron bots?! Behind the sorcerer that poisoned you.

You scowl at him as you are pulled out of the glass cage. You struggled on their grip and ready to strike but Stephen held your arm, stopping you from whatever you were planning to do.

You look up to him, his brows low in worry as he asks, "Are you okay?"

Knowing you were on the verge of a panic attack just a minute ago, there should be no point in lying, but you are in an enemy's hold. So you nod your head, looking away from the concerned greyish-green eyes and let the bots tug you away from the blue-robbed sorcerer.

You cast a glance at America, "We'll be back, don't worry." You comfort her as much as you can.

The teen could do nothing but nod, pressing her palms flat on the glass as she watches you and Stephen being dragged away from the holding room, hope and dread flashing on her face.

~🌔~

Okay, don't mess with the silent guy then.

You blink away the images presented in your mind, cautiously bouncing your gaze from member to member of this.. Illuminati council.

Confusion draws your brows taut, "Okay– so if this is all about him then why the fuck am I here?"

"Etiquette, huh?"

You glare at Stephen, his low-blow of a jest referencing your comments to his sassy answers to the council earlier.

"This is not all about him," The bald man on the high-tech wheelchair roughly says your name, "as we've stated a while ago, if you were listening–"

Oh yeah, you totally weren't.

"The more you spend time in our universe, the more you endanger your and our home."

Your eyebrows twitch up in understanding.

"But, it is also because you, my dear, have also made a significant impact on this universe. Namely, communication to other worldly beings in this universe."

A new set of events is once again transferred and played in your mind, while you and Stephen watch it play out like a movie.

"Your version of yourself here had a beautiful union with the God of the Moon from the Egyptian Pantheon and his avatar. It paved the way to intergalactic partnerships, both in business as well as, yes, in romantic context."

You watch in awe as you see yourself, dressed in a sparkling, long sleeve, sweetheart neckline, white dress that dragged behind you walked down the aisle.

With your, no, other you's Moon boys, all in separate bodies wearing white suits that are accented with black in different styles for each of them, and your–their–god in his white suited glory, standing beside the trio in his human size, all watching you with happy tears(except the bird skull headed being, but hey, who knows, maybe the pigeon is crying buckets of unseeable tears.)

The scene calls your tears to resurface once more–could today be any more emotional!!– as you remember how you left your Marc, Steven, Jake and Khonshu in your own universe.

The scene shifts again, this time, different corporations, businesses and weddings play out like pages being flipped quickly. Moments of those events cramped in a single minute before it halts.

Another prestigious event that called for a union between realms. The species that is uniting with this universe's human council is unfamiliar to you. They were, well, otherworldly in nature with their varrying skin color palette and average size.

"All was going well, until–"

A loud bang! rang throughout the area, startling you and your sorcerer friend who's been quiet the whole time.

You look around amidst the running and panicking crowd, who was shot? Why did someone shoot? What-

Questions that ran through your mind disperse by your loud gasp. You see yourself being cradled in the arms of other you's spouse while their godly lover made an unprecedented red solar eclipse, commanding the winds to havoc the place as he roars in rage.

Your other self being cradled by the Moon Knight system, whose head is blown to bits.

"– a horrible accident happened."

Tears now freely stream down your cheeks as you kneel in place.

Seeing how your lovers both human and god, weep and mourn for you. How they grasped your coffin so tightly and snapped at the pallbearers trying to do their job, squeezes your heart. You never ever ever want to see them in pain. Especially if you're the one inflicting it.

A grating noise low on your throat goes past your trembling lips as you try to inhale air back into your system, your hand immediately flying up to not let another sound escape from your mouth.

You didn't know when you had stopped breathing but your lack of oxygen has made you a heaving mess on the gray tiled floor.

"Stop. Stop! Come on, this is hurting them!!"

The movie fades away like uncovering a treasure that was buried deep under the sand, dusting away the illusion to reveal the reality.

"Breathe for me," You hear a baritone voice say your name above you as you feel yourself being wrapped around one's arms and something on the top of your head.

You take deep breaths but every time you an ugly sob squeaks out your throat.

"It's okay. They're well in our universe. They're probably waiting for your return and you will return to them safely."

As the baritone voiced fella keeps on comforting you, another voice speaks up,

"This led to lots of series of events, mainly, our Khonshu, Marc, Steven and Jake, hunting down who shot our very own version of you." A feminine yet firm voice.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Another female voice speaks, this time British in accent,

"And, their hunt wasn't entirely… reasonable. They killed every single person who they suspected, even when they were not guilty. This forced us to take action and…"

Breathe in…

Swallowing, you slowly leave Stephen's comforting embrace, who you've just realized is the baritoned fella.

"And what?" You breathe out through your trembling lips as you peered at the Illuminati people through the blur of your tears.

"We have to imprison them to ensure the safety of the people."

You glance over to the far left, the man sitting there has answered your question in a hushed manner but still loud enough for you to hear.

"This–" Breathe in, breathe out. "This did not answer my question a while ago. Why am I here?!"

"Because they've escaped the moment you two arrived."

Your glare softens, before morphing into something horrified as you come into a realization.

"You've made me a bait." You whisper to the air, hastily standing up to your feet–

"It is for everyone's–"

Sound alarms blast through the speakers, the building shakes and vibrates as something, or someone breaks into the facility.

The weight of everything comes back to you, like a splash of a cold bucket of water.

Wanda. Scarlet Witch. The kid!!

You watch the live footage of the former avenger tearing through the army of robots that tried to hold her back from reaching the core of the facility, either dismantling them or blasting them into nothing.

The orders of Captain Carter fell on deaf ears as you kept your eyes on the static feed, somehow everything seemed to be silent and you could only hear your breathing, even as the facility alarm blairs around the room

Breathe in… Breathe out.

A call of your name and Stephen's made you turn your attention back to the present.

"When you escape this chamber, you must find America Chavez, and you, my dear." The professor gestures to you, "You must find your spouses, bring them to where you would deem them to be safe and… away from taking more innocent lives."

"For short, sealing them behind bars." You rasp out, bitterness leaves your dry lips as you blankly stare at the bald man in a wheelchair.

"If you'd like." Was his only statement, disregarding the Sorcerer Supreme protests and your perplexed glare as he wheels himself out of the room, leaving you, Stephen Strange and Mordo in the room.

You walk to the door, Ignoring Mordo's warnings. You press your palms flat on its surface.

You glance down at your cuffs. If only you were not bound you could blast this fucker open and be on your pursuit in finding your– well, your other self's but also technically your– lovers.

You groan in defeat as you knock your forehead on the barrier with a small thump. With a sigh you glance back to the two, who's in a heated argument. About what, you know nothing of.

Your eyes scan the room, maybe there's another way out.

A loud cry interrupts your thinking session–it was getting nowhere anyways–as Mordo jumps from the elevated slab with a sword in hand. You look down to Stephen, who only winked at your way–the sly bastard–before blocking the pissed sorcerer's attack with his cuffs.

Oh.

You let them spar, watching on the sidelines as you wait for the perfect time to interfere.

When Stephen gets knocked back to the wall, you take the chance and run towards Mordo, using your momentum you slam him to the wall and knock your head to his, effectively breaking his nose.

You hiss at the pain starting to form on your forehead. A swing from your opponent's sword nearly cuts your face off but you were quick to back away and block the other slash of Mordo's sword with your cuffs, copying Dr. Strange's previous moves just a few moments ago, successfully breaking you free from your restraints.

Mordo realizes this and he looks up at you wide eyed,

"Checkmate, bitch."

~🌕~

Running down the halls of this blandly painted place as you try to find your way back to America, you hear Stephen call out to you.

"What!?" You breathlessly questioned the sorcerer who's catching up behind you.

"Shouldn't you be finding your–well other you's–spouse..?" He stops your running as he holds your elbow.

The same draft that disturbed the sidewalk awhile ago permeates the empty hallway.

"I don't need to. I was only trying to find you a way out before I go." You said softly to the baritoned man.

"Go. Find America. I'll catch up to you– Don't worry about me." You cut off his unsaid concerned question.

"I'm in safe hands." You smiled up at Stephen and tapped the back of his hand that held you, "I'll be there before you know it."

He nods and gives a last scan around the hallway and you, before sprinting to find the teen.

The wind, seeming to be stronger now than before, pushes you to the hallway opposite to where Strange ran into. Abiding to its request you scurry down the hallway. You were suddenly pushed behind a pillar, expecting impact, you yelped and covered your face with both of your arms.

But the pain didn't come.

Instead, you were met with a soft embrace.

Startled at the stranger's boldness, you tried to push them away from you but a familiar, yet raspy, voice made you freeze.

"Hey, it's okay baby. It's okay, it's me, it's us."

You look up and see the face of your human lovers, only that.. it wasn't them. They looked… malnourished.. Familiar dark eyes who looked like they haven't had a moment to have a small nap glances back to you, his stubble now grown into a full beard peppered with white hairs as well as his curls, now long and is hastily pulled into a half ponytail. He's wearing a greyish white long sleeve and pants, right..they escaped from prison at your arrival.

"You.. you do know I'm not–"

"Yes, love, we know but–" Steven's soft and tearful gaze holds yours, his hands clambers up to your face as he took a sharp breath in, "–we," He swallows "–we couldn't waste the chance to see you again, darling–" His croaky voice is cut off by a sob and pulls you to a crushing hug.

You let him hug you like there's no tomorrow, wrapping your arms around his neck, you turn your head and plant a longing kiss on his temple.

The action made the man's knees give out, a heart-wrenching sob loud on your ears as you let him pull you down with him.

Curses and prayers in Spanish break the atmosphere, you let out a wet chuckle, missing your own moon boys as you hold their other version in your arms.

"Nuestro querido hechicero, te echamos mucho de menos." The Latino's trembling voice and vice grip on your robes had you in tears–again–now too.

You sniffle, you look around the room and notice that you all are in some kind of an abandoned chamber of the building. You didn't examine much more of it as you closed your eyes, letting you and them have their moment.

Another rush of wind blows your form, you open your eyes to see Khonshu, standing behind his avatar in his godly gauzed glory.

"Khon.."

"Beloved.."

The god falls to his knees and he places his hand on the side of your face.

"Why are you here? Did our other version fail to do their job? To protect you from all harm?"

The god growled as he asked, you can hear the wrappings on his other hand grow taut and splinter as he grips his staff tightly. The man gingerly pulls you away from him but keeps his hands on your sides, letting the rough hand of the god slide away from your face.

You chuckle, lacking any mirth, as you look between the two, "More like I succeeded in being an asshole." You scrunch your nose as you sniffle, rubbing it with the knuckle of your forefinger and glance down to your lap.

"I… may or may not have removed a spell–spells–that helps them to communicate with me properly. I uh.. removed it at the last second so that they'd be… stupefied of the situation.. and give me time to… leave them.."

You quietly explained to them, holding your gaze down on your fingers as you played with it, rubbing and squeezing each phalange to distract yourself from your current predicament.

His hands left your side as he places it on top of yours, stopping you, and engulfs it with his large, calloused ones.

"You've always liked to put yourself in front of danger, sweetheart."

Marc croakily comments, you can hear his smile through his worn out voice. You laugh a little, remembering your Marc's same use of phrase when you came home with cuts and bruises.

"Which sadly led us to this predicament.." Khonshu adds with a mournful sigh, moving to your side and also places his inhumanly large hands below yours, cupping it and squeezing gingerly.

That made you look up, Marc meets your thoughtful yet confused gaze.

"What do you mean?" You inquire, tilting your head slightly to the side in curiosity.

This salt and pepper look that time has given them, is making things inside you do flips but obviously now's not the time to ogle.

"You save me–us–from that blast, darling."

Oh….oh

We were supposed to be the target, and.. well.. I think you know the rest…"

Steven casts his puffy eyes down, possibly reminiscing the moment you–their you–died.

You reach out to his face, his beard tickling your palms as you thumb his cheekbones. "Hey–" Your sentence halts at the shaking of the building.

Snapping you back to what you're supposed to be doing, you glance back and forth between them as you swallow.

Marc– wait, that gaze–Jake nods and Khonshu releases your hand. They stand up from their position, "You must go now, beloved. I may have been able to stop time for a minute, any longer could have caused an incursion."

He did what– Incusrs–oh shit.

"Okay, amazing–the stopping time thing I mean–" you grunt as you let them pull you up from the floor, "–uncool to the incursion part." You sniffle again as you dust your knees off.

You hear the Latino's distinct chortle making you smirk, your bad humor never fails to make them laugh, even in a different universe, good to know. You smile at that. Another shake disturbs the moment.

You groan internally.

You look around the room as you try to find the exit, but Jake beats you to it. He grasps your hand, his black and white tactical suit–the very same your own Jake uses–engulfs his form as he pulls you and runs to the wall across the room.

You close your eyes bracing for impact, "You don't trust us, ¿mí amor?" Jake's modulated teasing coaxes you to open them and see that you are now on an entirely different side of the building, possibly its underside as it looks like you're in a tunnel.

"You can teleport?!"

"Why, can't your Moon Knight not?" The tactical gear shifts into a three-piece suit, the muffled posh accent asks, curiosity shining through his moonlit eyes.

"No!"

You hear him laugh as he pulls you, again, to run down the leaking tunnel. You hear multiple footsteps behind you, looking over your shoulder you see familiar faces.

"Wait– Steven!" You call out to the avatar and stopped in your tracks, "America!! Stephen!! Christine!!" You greeted them with a wide smile, relieved to find them alive. They greeted you back but in a horrified and hurried manner.

"Don't stop running! She's tailing right behind them!!"

True to Khonshu's words, you see the Scarlet Witch limping just behind them. You hear the familiar sound of clothes shifting before you are once again pulled to run, this time by Marc.

The trio catches up to you. You were about to cast a spell but you were hurled to Moon Knight's shoulder, a squeak leaves past your mouth at the sudden move. "Marc!!" You say as you lightly hit his caped back.

"Sorry sweetheart, can't risk it!!" He says as he runs past the trio.

"I hate you–" "No, you don't." "Yeah, no, I don't."

"I'm sorry to break your guys' moment but who is this?!" Christine asks between breaths while running beside Stephen–the sorcerer–behind Marc.

"The Moon Knight!!" America answers her before you could, excitedly if you may add.

"You've got yourself a multiversal fan, Marc."

"I'll sign their shirt later."

As Christine closes the last barrier, you all catch your breath. Marc finally puts you down, his mask unfurling from his face to show his worried gaze. He cups your cheek in both hands, you lay your on top of his.

A silent agreement was made.

"Please, be careful out there." You whisper as you lean to his weary hand.

"We will."

"Keep this look, I love it on you." You smirk and kiss their palm, noting that the other two are co-fronting as their suits are clashing together, making a beautiful mix of ceremonial, tactical, and prim and proper.

"Noted." They cheekily replied, Jake's signature smirk morphing with Marc's low voice and Steven's shy eyes.

You look over to the moon god, huffing you sprint to his form and hug his torso, missing your moon god. You feel him return the hug, and a warm surge of magic flows through you.

You escape his embrace as you look up to him with wide eyes.

"A small blessing to protect you from that witch's magic."

You gaped at him, your god wasn't able to do so because you didn't give him a chance. You hug him again, mumbling thank you's to his stomach.

"You know we could use that blessing as well." Stephen chides, you chuckle at your friend's comment.

"I'm afraid only those who worship me can receive my blessing, Stephen Strange."

The Egyptian god lets you go. You hear the sorcerer scoff in disbelief at the god's response.

You glance back and forth between your Moon Knight and his god.

"Go. Now, please."

They nodded and disappeared from your very eyes. You gulp and face the closed off end of the tunnel. Waiting for the inevitable.

But a white-suited fella with glowing eyes materializes in front of you and steals a kiss on your cheek with a hurried, "Goodbye love! Our autograph will have to be moved on a later date," and disappears once again.

Gods you don't deserve these men.

Your fawning over for your lovers is cut short as a shrill voice echoes across the tunnel.

Since when did this became a fucking horror movie?!

~🌖~

You landed gracefully on your feet as you hopped off from the door after Christine, standing back up, your eyes wandered around the interior of the place.

"This is the gap junction, the place between universes."

You hum at the red head's words, distracted at the colorful space and floating rubbles, before you lock your gaze at the shining blue book.

"The book of Vishanti." You mumble in adoration.

You approach the stand as Stephen walks up the stairs. You hold your breath as he grasps it in his hand, expecting a trap to drop itself on your party.

As Stephen dislodges the book from its holder, and no traps emerging, you sigh in relief, chuckling as you glance back to the teen and Christine, victory seems to be on your side now.

Something caught your eye behind the teen but you brushed it off.

Once your brain caught up to what you saw you did a double take, yet it was too late.

"AMERICA–"

You really shouldn't have jinxed it.

America shrieks as she grasps her hair, being pulled back by the Scarlet Witch.

You jump in front of Christine as you shoot a fiery beam at the rogue magic wielder, Stephen doing the same.

You see her struggle from both of you's attacks. Good.

But she pushed through. Damnit.

You grunt as you feel yourself being physically pushed back by the intensity of the clash between eldritch and chaos magic.

The red chaos magic pulses and pulses until it reaches you, breaking yours and Stephen's spell and flinging you both, You groan as your back hits the floor.

A sizzle of something burning made you snap your head up to its source.

The book of Vishanti.. it's.. gone.. Eaten by the red fiery flames.

Your only hope in defeating the Scarlet Witch. Gone. Reduced to ashes.

You look up at Strange as you sit up, despair in both your eyes as it meets. A gasp tears from your throat as you feel something burning wrap itself around your form, red mist lifting you up from the ground, alongside Christine and Stephen.

A guttural growl vibrates low on your throat as you try to escape her grasp, even if you knew it was futile.

But, you fell on your butt as you wiggled out of the witch's grasp. You flinched at the contact but quickly recovered as you stood up.

Panting, you look at her and your arms in shock. Shimmering white lines appeared in places where the chaos magic touched you.

Khonshu's Blessing!

You prayed to your god as you thanked him before blasting Maximoff off America.

Your face twisting to something sinister, she was able to block your attack but it distracted her enough to drop your colleague and friends. Summoning a whip on your other hand, you flick it and let it wrap around America's form and tug her to you.

"It's okay kid! I got you!"

The witch is faster though. She was able to have her hold again on the teen and it has now become a human tug of war.

The former Sorcerer Supreme casts a stronger spell.

It was her turn to be pushed back by the forces of your magic.

Yours and Stephen's eldritch magic now winning against her chaos magic. Your yellow beams become brighter as you walk forward, summoning more ropes in on your other hand to grasp America and pull her to you. The red mist becomes shorter as it fights against yours, and weaker around America's form as you tug her to safety.

You hear Wanda scream on top of her lungs and her chaos magic explodes and wrecks the place. Pushing you off your balance and effectively severs your focus as you're hurled back to a pillar.

Your head hits the concrete slab, black covers your vision.

~🌗~

Cold. Very fucking cold is the first thing that you noticed as you came back to consciousness.

You woke up with a gasp. A pulsing pain on your skull made you moan silently in pain.

The cold hard thing on your face slowly registers in your brain that you are laying face down and front on the ground.

Blinking and shaking your head, you take your time in pushing yourself up from the freezing concrete, you hope Khonshu's blessing has protected your brain from concussion.

"Dreamwalking, you hypocrite!!"

You took a sharp intake of breath through your clenched teeth in hearing Maximoff's voice. Right, shit. You've thought it has ended when you passed out.

Grunting, you stumble up to your feet and face the ongoing fight. Scarlet Witch fighting… who or what the hell is that?!

Nevermind that, if that…thing is fighting against her then it or they might be on your side.

You see America being held up by the chaos magic on top of a slab– "America!!"

Making various hand signs, you cast a spell to break her free from its grasp. Magical circular runes appear before you, you pull your arm back and watch as the orange sparkling circles separate in bands and the red mist disperse from the teen's wrists and ankles.

You twist your wrists and push your hands to the front, softening her landing on the slab as it becomes foam in nature momentarily by your spell.

Dropping your stance, you run to her side and place your hand on her forehead, scanning her form up and down you ask worriedly, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Please tell me you're okay–"

"I'm fine." America pants as she looks down on the slab–now very soft and squishy to touch–as you pull her up and off it.

The sharp wailing from the ongoing fight in front of the–you just noticed–Darkhold Castle made both of your heads turn.

What looks to be dementors circle themselves around Maximoff. Wong standing on the front edge of the place–since when did he get here?– and a zombie looking sorcerer holding her hand out to where the Scarlet Witch is struggling in keeping the dementor things away from her.

You swear you've seen that zombie somewhere.

You two watch as the zombie ally uses the dementors as a cage and brings them over to Wong. He casts a spell to keep them locked in, he's struggling to keep it there.

"Stay here." You ordered the teen and squeezed her bicep lightly before running to assist Wong.

You do the same hand gestures Wong used and strengthened the magic capsule.

"Nice of you to join the party."

Comments Wong with a grunt, you chuckle tightly as you try to keep your hand steady.

"You know I wouldn't miss it for the world–"

The witch is still able to reach her arm out of the magical cage you and Wong have put her in.

Wong notices this and yells to the zombie ally "She's still breaking free!!"

"Hold her!!" Yelled the zombie back.

"Strange!!"

The zombie is.. Strange?? Well that explains why he looks oddly fucking familiar–

"Take America's power–"

"No!" You intervene, looking back and forth between the Asian man and the corpse in aggravation. "There must be an–"

The spell you and Wong are using is breaking–

"There's no other way!!" The sorcerer supreme pants, despair painted all over his face as he glances at you then back to Stephen.

You hiss as your muscles strains in keeping the spell up.

"No. This is the only way." You hear Stephen rasp.

The witch breaks free and her force once again flings you across the room, this time you were ready to use a spell to stop yourself from hitting the wall and lunged yourself back to her.

Not expecting the attack, she wasn't able to counter and you were able to tackle her to the ground.

She groans as her back hits the ground, you roll to the side and prepare to cast another spell.

Before you could, she hits you with her red mist square on the torso and pushed you back to the stairs. Whatever spell she used didn't affect you, you could see the confusion in her eyes as she looked down on her glowing hands then back to you.

"Thank you Khonshu–"

She flings another spell, what you thought towards you and so you raised your forearm and formed a shield, but hearing a hoarse pained yelp beside you, you were wrong.

You drop your shield and see your zombie friend's arm being toasted to ash.

As you are about to use your magic on Maximoff, America beats you to it as her fist meets the other female's face, punching her square on the jaw.

Blue tinted magic erupted from that punch and multiple star-shaped portals formed behind the witch.

"YES!! AMERICA FUCKING KICK HER ASS!!"

You couldn't help but cheer for the teen. You hear a gritty chuckle behind you, you look over to your half-fried zombie friend.

"I have a lot of questions.."

"Save them for later." He replies as he tries to sit up. You walk over to his side and help him with that.

"Might forget it." You whine, pulling him up to the stairs.

"Then don't forget it."

"Even in death you're still sassy as fuck." You grumble as you scrunch your nose. "You smell!" You lightly push his rotting arm with your palm.

"I don't exactly think dead people have hygiene." He rolled his misty sunken eyes and turned his attention back to the fight.

He sees the teen about to approach the raging witch, "Don't!"

The teen stops and turns to him and you.

"Not yet."

America nods, she looks up at you and you give her a small unsure yet reassuring smile.

You watch as Wanda drops to her knees, as her other version approaches her and gingerly cups her face. Her other version says something to her that you couldn't hear.

America pushes the portal away from the Scarlet Witch and closes it. Leaving her kneeling on the snow-covered ground.

She suddenly rose from her feet and brought herself on the slab.

The castle, unstable from the fight, shakes violently. You stable yourself on the hexagonal–back to its original hardened state–slab.

America runs to you and Stephen, "What now?" She asks, panting as she looks between you and the animated corpse beside you.

"Get out of here." Stephen rasps out an order, "All three of you–"

"What about you?!" You ask, clueless of Stephen's predicament.

"We'll find him, don't worry. Come on!" The teen takes your hand and brings you to the front, you look back to Stephen then to Wanda.

"Hey." You called out to the girl in maroon, feeling as if you had to have something to say to her even though you have nothing in mind.

The teen stops in her tracks, Wanda looks at you with glossy eyes, you rack your brain whatever you wanted to say to her and settle on, "Do the right thing, please."

She casts her eyes down and nods. America tugs you again and you two cross the blue portal, Wong already waiting for you on the other side.

The last thing you saw was Wanda raising her glowing hands before the portal closed.

Exhaling deeply you turn to the teen and the sorcerer supreme beside you.

America latches her arms around your neck, making you stumble back a few steps from the sudden hug attack. You chuckle and return the embrace, rocking her side to side.

"Thank you."

"I didn't even do much, kid." You tell her as she pulls herself off, "Stephen is the one that you should thank." You give her a small smile, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"You still saved me and it means a lot to me."

She gratefully grins at you, eyes shimmering in childish joy before hugging you again.

You bite your lip as you try not to cry, this kid is so sweet.

You glance at Wong, he only watches you both with a tired smile on his face. You wanted to offer your hand and bring him in for a group hug but the man isn't exactly a hugger.

You look around the place, you're back in Kamar-taj. The temple is crumbling and surrounded by its debris.

"Well this needs one hell of a repair."

Your comment earns a groan and small giggle.

~🌘~

After taking Stephen back to your universe–only then you knew that he was dreamwalking–repair work and burying the brave sorcerers took place. You helped around a bit while anxiously thinking of your boys back in London.

Possibly sensing your anxiety, the former sorcerer supreme approaches you after you move a debris out of the way.

"Here." He takes your wrist and places a sling ring on your open palm.

"Wha–" You look up to him in confusion. It's good to see his not rotting face.

"Go home. We'll take it from here." Stephen smiles down at you and pats your bicep. He was about to walk away but you stopped him with a hug, expressing your gratitude through actions. Unlike the current sorcerer supreme, this man might act like he is not a hugger when in reality it's obviously the exact opposite.

"Okay, no need for that." He groans above you, you only chuckle, you feel him return the hug eventually and you grin widely.

"You're a softie, admit it."

"Shut up and just go." He gently pries you off him, you let him push you away, unwrapping your arms from his torso.

"Good to see you alive and fresh, Stephen."

"Don't make me take back the sling ring."

~🌑~

Taking a deep breath you open a portal right outside the door of the boys' flat. You nibble your lower lip. You feel your heart hammer inside your chest, the portal closing behind you after you enter it.

"okay, okay, okay–" You whisper, bracing yourself as you raise your fist, ready to rap on the door but it swung open before your knuckle met the wood.

You lock eyes with red, puffy ones. Seeing their glossy eyes, you remember the Earth-838's moon knight system and their pain.

You gulp, unsure of who's fronting at the moment you greet them with a soft and timid, "Hey.." as you drop your hand beside you and pinch the skin of your middle finger with the nail of your thumb.

"I'm so–" You were pulled inside the room before you could continue and arms wrapped around you. Tears gather in your eyes as the feeling of safety and home hits your senses. Sniffling you wrap your own around his and grip the fabric of his blue sweater tightly, burying your face on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry." You croak out to his shirt, inhaling through your mouth, you sob and repeat the phrase over and over again. You hate seeing them hurt and being the one who inflicted it, but you had a job to do. One that would not only save the world but most importantly them.

"I had to–" "We know sweetheart, we know, we're sorry too."

Gasping for air, you feel yourself being pulled down by gravity, your knees having given out on you as the fatigue from running, casting spells, running again and crying crashes on you like a boulder was dropped on you. He lets you bring them down with you on the floor.

"Dearest," Khonshu calls your name, soft and hurt. You look up from your human boyfriend's shoulder and see your godly sitting on his calves, trying to grasp your hand.

As it phased through, you pull yourself away slightly from the moon knight system's embrace and cast the spells you had used earlier.

Marc's fellow alters materialize in the room with you and Khonshu can once again interact with the mortal plane.

You were immediately tackled with hugs, both human and god,

"Please, don't do that again." Steven mutters on your neck.

"I won't, I promise I won't." In a trembling whisper, you swore with your life.

"God–why do you like to put yourself in front of danger." Marc grumbles on your chest. You chuckle, remembering the many times he had said the same thing, as well as 838Marc.

"I myself have no clue, Spector." The bird god murmurs above as he places his beak on top of your head.

"I don't think he's talking to you, bird." Steven deadpans as he nuzzles on your neck.

Jake chuckles, his mustache tickling the other side of your neck as he had made himself home there, and remarks, "I don't think our hombre will ever realize that."

The rest of you laugh aside from the god above you as he grumbles cusses in an ancient language.

~🌙~

AHHHJSHHSHS THANK YOU FOR READING THISJAHHSHSHS

Hope you guys enjoyed that, bc i enjoyed writing this freakishly long fic 🤧💞💞

if anyone has suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments i accept constructive criticsm!💞💕

Taglist: @m4nd0l0r @rosaren2498 @rosequinn121 @missdragon-1 @johnny-simpfinger(Oscar Isaac gif owner)

884 notes · View notes

spiritofhyena · 1 year

Text

Black salt / witches' salt

WARNING: do NOT mix it up with the edible black salt for kitchen use. They are both called “black salt” but one is salt with activated charcoal or salt from a volcanic area that can be used in cooking, the other is a mix of salt, ashes, and other non-edible things used as a protection or banishing spell. I personally use it as a halfway between warding/protection and banishing as I add things usually associated with banishing.

I tried to search up the origin of the “witches’ salt” but I didn’t find anything solid (but also I made only a couple of quick searches on google because I was crunching time as I did this either before/after work or sometimes during slow moments at work) so, my best guess would be that its origin might be derived from the use of salt in many folkloric traditions as a protection or to purify, mixed a bit with a concept similar to the "witches' bottle", but I digress.

Disclaimer again: I wrote most of this during work time and edited it afterwards so I can't guarantee the form and grammar used.

I first made black salt after a couple of quick searches for protection and banishing spells that could help me in my practice, as I first started I was a bit of an idiot (to quote Set) and didn't keep anything to protect myself around when doing divination and other things.

With time I noticed that it's a good all-around protection and also, with a couple of tweaks, could be perfect to also banish in a "bounce back to sender" way.

There are different recipes on the Internet and among witchy communities but they mostly differ for some ingredients added (or not added) and I believe all would work… but surely, IMHO, if you tailor them to your needs it would be more effective.

This is what I made for myself, and I'll also include the "return to sender" version.

Tools you’ll need:

a jar with a lid to store it

mortar & pestle (not mandatory: I don’t have one so I use a tiny ceramic casserole and one of those wooden pestles for cocktails bc that’s what I had at home… use whatever could do the job)

a candle in the colour you associate with protection and warding

Ingredients:

salt (duh-)

ashes (either incense ashes, firepit ashes/charcoal, soot or you could also use activated charcoal)

eggshells powder

black pepper

rosemary

bay leaves

sage (kitchen kind is perfect!)

whatever herb you associate with protection

Process:

Honestly, you should do this however it feels right for you. You could cast a circle, call the elements or whatever. I don’t do that because it’s not part of my practice. You don’t even need to cleanse or anything if you don’t feel it’s necessary: it’ll work anyway.

Light the candle (ofc if you think it’s needed) and put the ingredients in the mortar, a little bit at a time, to grind them a bit and most importantly mix all of them. Focus on your intention, if you feel you need to recite something to enchant it then do it. Mix all the ingredients, I usually start with salt, add eggshell powder, all the other ingredients and then another bit of salt at the end to “close” everything.

If you want to give it a little “boost” you could write on a bay leaf “I am protected” or the like and then burn it (do it in a fireproof container! bay leaves are nasty burners and like to pop a lot!) to “activate” it and mix it to the rest of the ingredients.

When everything is all mixed, then you can pour it into the jar and close it. It’s up to you if you want to seal the lid with some wax or not. I do not do it because if I decide to redo it I can open it and clean the jar more easily before preparing the new black salt.

Again, it’s up to you if you want to charge it under the moonlight/sunlight or in some other way: do what you feel that's right to do.

And that’s it! Congrats you made black salt that will protect your space!

For the return-to-sender version:

add more pepper

slap also some paprika or better some chilli pepper powder

also put there some garlic

you can add other ingredients you associate with banishing

add a bay leaf (or also a piece of paper) with the intention written on it like “the harm/malicious intent is returned to who cast it” or whatever you feel right

complete!

#hyena's notes #witches' salt #black salt #witchcraft #spell jar #protection spell jar #warding spell #witchblr #spells #magic

75 notes · View notes

notmasonpines · 1 year

Text

Building a Canon-Compliant, Consistent and Comprehensive Scheme for Constructing Glyph Combos

Tl;dr: Yes, I did cram as much alliteration into that title as possible. Anyway, I set out to create my own system for making glyphs from scratch, using the basic concepts we’re shown in the show, here is my thought process all laid down along with the results. Since this has expanded over time to become a monstrous dissertation, the layout for this will be Basic Concepts, where all the basic concepts from the show are listed as the foundation for this system, followed by Basic Vocabulary, where the words for the glyph ‘language’ are made up, proceeded by Grammar Rules, where I think up the rules of the system and use what I’ve got so far to analyse the simpler combo glyphs made by Luz and co. The penultimate section is Shortcuts and Misc. Stuff, where I take a look at Philip’s WIP glyphs (seen at the start of Them’s the Breaks, Kid), attempt to figure out what they could mean in this system to yield the canon effects, and work in the miscellaneous stuff that appears on them. And lastly Conclusion, where I use this system to build a glyph combo from scratch for a spell that appears in the show.

Also, here's an Imgur album for every illustration coming up in this post.

I’ve gone pretty deep into this, so if something that I think makes perfect sense makes absolutely no sense to you, please comment and ask for clarification or something. Also, if you know of another system someone made for this, I couldn't find it, so I'd love to see those as well.

Quick note before I begin: This literal essay is not me attempting to figure out how the actual system within the show works. To be honest, I don’t even think there is a fully worked-out system behind the scenes. Glyph combos were highly underutilised in the show, especially compared to single-glyph usage, so there wouldn’t be much point in building an entire system of rules for constructing them if you’d only need to use it in a few instances. Instead I think the crew simply put together some glyphs that intuitively felt like they’d work for the few glyph combos we do get, and then added some extra doodads for each to hint at the existence of a complex ruleset that would allow for four glyphs to reproduce every possible spell.

So yeah, I’m not setting out to make a system that perfectly explains every glyph combo we see, especially the advanced ones Philip uses (it feels weird to say Belos is using glyphs, dunno why). You certainly won’t see me crying in bed after this if what I come up with doesn’t fit perfectly with everything. Instead I’ll be taking the basic concepts the show has laid out for us, take some aspects/cues from the show’s glyph combos, and build a system with that for my own needs (I’m writing a crossover with Harry Potter and I want to have a consistent system for turning HP spells into glyph combos). Though I will at least attempt to budge things around to have the simpler glyph combos work out with whatever I come up with, and I’ll also see how closely I get the more complicated combos once that’s done. If things do happen to work out, then consider me a happy guy.

(Edit from me after having written everything out, about a day later: I did actually manage to read all the glyph combos from the show and get a meaning that corresponds to what happens in canon, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Except the teleportation glyph. I’m not even going to attempt reading it so I don’t actually know if that one would work with this system or not. But hey, here’s a nice prospect to look forward to if you attempt reading what has become a dissertation lol: some actual decent results).

Update: I removed the redundant secondary elements from the 2- and 3-mergers and added more useful ones.

Basic Concepts

Let’s list the basic concepts we can use from observing the show first.

a.1) There exist four basic glyphs, each with an elemental meaning: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. Though I’d like to say that Life is a more accurate descriptor for Plant, just that plants are the easiest living things to imagine and grow when using it (And growing sentient things might be a bit iffy).

a.2) There also is a fifth sorta glyph that I'll call a Null glyph, which has a glyph border but no symbol inside. Philip used it in his most complex glyphs and Luz used it in her mist generating glyph.

I think a glyph that has no meaning on its own can be quite useful as a building block, either when a glyph is needed somewhere but you don’t want to use any of the actual glyphs, as a way to indicate absence, or as a place to input external variables (Interesting fact, on the golden glyph bubble thing Luz conjured as a Titan-hybrid there are five connected glyphs evenly spread out over it. You can see Light, Plant, and Fire most of the time, with Ice visible below as one of the two obstructed glyphs later, leaving the final one as Null if the trend of no repeats continues).

b) Glyphs can have small variations to their symbols, changing their effects slightly. Glyphs can also have a single or double border.

c) While size determines the power behind a glyph’s effect, intent also plays a large role, primarily in how and when a glyph activates, where/on what it generates its effect, and what shape and direction its effect has.

d.1) Glyphs can also have secondary meanings, which are related to their element. The only examples we get are Power, Colour and Reflection for the Light glyph (from the notes near the start of Echoes of the Past), though judging by the question marks they weren’t sure if those were the right words either, and Reflection fits less with Light and more with Ice imo.

d.2) We also know which meaning a glyph has ‘diffs 4 placement’, whatever that means.

e.1) Glyphs can be chained together into closed circuits, which can technically be any shape (rectangular in Luz’s neon shop sign) but are preferably circular. This allows for glyphs to be activated simultaneously.

e.2) Chaining multiples of the same basic glyph together allows for multiple separate instances of the same element to be summoned simultaneously.

e.3) Putting two different glyphs in a circuit can yield a new, merged, secondary element (like Doodle God or Little Alchemy or whatever floated your boat back then), the only known example from the show being Mist from Fire and Ice.

e.4) The basic glyphs are always drawn in the same orientation within glyph combos, with one known exception that I’ll ignore because it occurs in the teleportation glyph.

f.1) Glyphs are like a language that describe what you want the ambient magic to do, with the basic glyphs being the words and circuits being the sentences, though this seems distinct from how circuits function from e.2. This also seems to be closer to a natural language than something like a coding language, as there’s an actual being that you talk to which casts the magic for you (I’m assuming that using glyphs communicates telepathically with a subconscious part of Papa Titan’s soul, since it stops working once his soul isn’t there anymore to respond and use his magic in the way the glyphs instruct him to. I’m also saying his subconscious because having him consciously hear and act on magic instructions would be hell).

f.2) Context clues, synonyms, metaphors and subtext thus play a role in reading glyphs, as they do with natural languages. Though with intent added to the mix to disambiguate, though you can't just press a single glyph and expect your intent to do everything (God, wouldn’t it be nice if sending intent along with what you say was a thing we could do. So many avoided miscommunications).

f.3) Glyphs overlapping will cause confusion and glitches in the language, like overlaying text or saying words at the same time.

g) With these 4(/5) basic glyphs, chaining glyphs in circuits, and whatever rules, secondary elements from merging, and secondary meanings of glyphs exist, you can reproduce any spell a Boiling Isles witch can cast.

And with that out of the way, let’s get started.

Basic Vocabulary

First things first, a vocabulary of only four words (a.1) is far too little to make a decent system out of, so it’s a good thing we have point d.1 to take from. Sadly we’re seriously lacking in any confirmed secondary meanings to have a decent vocabulary, so I’ll already have to resort to thinking up my own. See below what I've come up with.

For the four basic glyphs I added four sets of pairs of secondary meanings. To add my own twist and to make things feel more cohesive, each meaning is paired up with an opposite, colour-coded here with the glyph it’s paired up with. Three sets of pairs are paired up with meanings from one of the three other glyphs, and the fourth set is a pair of opposites from the same glyph.

And since this acts as a language (f.1) we should also add in the ability to use word types. In this case, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. From the word types, pronouns aren’t needed, and prepositions and conjunctions can be figured out through context or some indicator. So, for each meaning we can add the noun, verb, adjective and adverb variations where it’s possible in the above. And let’s also add the ability to use close synonyms when needed (f.2). Like Evolve being interchangeable with Change or Transform as a verb. Or the noun version of Obscure, Obscurity, being interchangeable with Secret. The intent of the user and context can be what decides which synonym is used (c).

Speaking of, we also need a way to indicate which form of word is being used for each glyph, so let’s bring in point b for this.

Let’s have the standard design of the glyph symbols indicate a noun, and the variant design of the symbols can indicate a verb (changing direction of diagonal stripes for Light, the kite to triangle for Ice, and the dot to small circle for Plant and Fire), and I’ll also add a use for the double border, which I’ll call the ad-der, since I’ll have it change the noun design into its adjective meaning and the verb design into the adverb version (it would’ve fit better if nouns were called jectives, or adjectives were called adnouns, but we can’t have everything). This probably won't perfectly match up, especially since some glyphs have more alternate designs, but that's a concession I'll make.

Also, just ignore how the secondary meanings in the first table aren’t all in noun form, I just put in what type of word fit best, but assume that the noun version applies to the standard design.

Now we have a small vocabulary built up, but from first glance it’s still missing a bunch of useful words that we’ll want this language to have to describe every spell (g), and only using words related to one of the elements will always keep this limited, even if you add more.

So let’s pull in point e.3 and see what words we can come up with when merging the four elements. Once again this will require coming up with things from scratch, since the only confirmed case is Fire and Ice into Mist. See my confusing attempt at a table below.

Since using multiples of the same glyph just allows for getting multiples of the same effect (e.2) I kept those combinations out. And since I want as extensive a vocabulary as possible, let’s allow for the order of combining elements to be important as well.

With the only instance of merging elements being with two, I’ll take the opportunity and make three-mergings possible as well, see my further confusing attempt below.

I once again added a restriction of not allowing multiples of the same element in a merging, to at least somewhat restrict the extent of this (since I don’t like leaving blanks).

As you can see, there aren’t as many traditional elements in these combinations, and a lot of abstract stuff, which does make things feel quite similar to the secondary meanings I already defined. But as I said before, you couldn’t get these abstract concepts just from associated meanings of one basic element, and there are a few new elemental things here too.

I also attempted going up one more time by using all four basic glyphs in mergings, trying to figure out combos between the 3-mergers and the final unused element, as well as pairing up 2-mergers with the ones coming from the two other unused elements, but those combinations had no decent solutions that I could come up with, so I’m keeping it to this.

Side-note, playing Doodle God when your base set has only one of the traditional elements (Fire) is actually pretty annoying and restrictive. Like, what useful, distinctive natural element can you come up with by combining Ice with Plant or Light, or Fire with Plant? Coal isn’t exactly a useful element to have in this vocabulary.

Either way, with that all done, we have built up a decent vocabulary. Now we can start setting up some basic ‘grammar’ rules and see how to put these words together.

Grammar Rules

Let’s start with figuring out how we can indicate which secondary meaning a glyph has. All we know is that secondary meaning ‘diffs 4 placement’ (d.2). As I see it, there are only two possible interpretations. Either it means the placement of one glyph relative to the others decides meaning, which would get far too complex as a basis to build rules on (And just imagine, in the case of a small combo of five glyphs you’d already have twenty total relative positions to take into account, i.e. twenty possible different meanings).

So with that option discarded, the one remaining is that the specific position of a glyph on one of those circles/circuits is what determines meaning, like the circuit being divided into equal sectors (eight in this case, since I have eight secondary meanings per glyph). This can explain why all glyphs are typically drawn in the same direction, so the general orientation of an entire construction is set and the location of a glyph is easy to determine from a glance. It also explains why circuits are preferably drawn as circles rather than something like rectangles, since on a circle divided into equal sectors it’s much easier to spot which sector/angle a glyph is in, compared to using a rectangle or some other weird shape.

And since we have very little examples of glyph combos in the show, let alone explicit confirmation of which placement would be which meaning, let’s once again assign the placements ourselves, though with some reference towards the simple glyph combos we see in the show. See my attempt at making a usable diagram below.

As another twist to add something more interesting, I have the pairs of opposite meanings sitting on opposite ends of the circle.

In this way, a glyph without a circuit is simply its elemental meaning, but when you want a secondary meaning, you can indicate which one you want by putting the associated basic glyph on the specific sector of the circle (f.2), more specifically centred exactly on one of the cardinals or the diagonals, meaning top, right, bottom-left etc. (a neat consequence from using eight secondary meanings, and another reason for me to not expand that specific vocabulary). See an example below.

So now let’s get to the meat and potatoes, how a basic glyph combo is set up.

The first observation is that glyph combos almost always have some glyph at the centre. This central focus or anchor seems to determine what element is used in the spell, or how the spell is expressed, similar to being the core word of a sentence. For example, the Light glyph in both the invisibility spell and safety hover bends light in the first case, and emits a soft glow when active in the second.

For Fire, Philip’s teleportation glyph emits a pillar of flame when activated.

As a side-note, we also see from Philip’s later glyphs that, in my interpretation, a secondary meaning can also be used as a focus/anchor (Fire on bottom-left for water fountain (Motion) and Plant on bottom-left for monster arm (Evolve/Change)). I’ll get to them later, but merged elements can also be used as the central point. A Null glyph can also be a central glyph, and doesn’t have to be drawn since context excludes any other option of being the centre instead (f.2).

I also think that, in general, Ice and Plant glyphs will enact a spell more gradually, while Light and Fire glyphs will do so quickly/almost instantaneously. Also, Plant and Fire glyphs make a spell grow over time, while Ice and Light glyphs don’t. But that’s just an idle thought.

To make actual sentences with other words, however, we also need to add further descriptors on what this central/anchored word should do. This is where the glyph circuits come in, forming concentric circles centred on the central glyph. All glyphs and their corresponding meanings on this circle are direct descriptors for the central glyph that apply at the same time (e.1). Let’s call these descriptor circuits.

One quick note, with this setup we can run into the problem of needing two different glyphs to be at the same location, causing an overlap (f.3). To avoid this, let’s add the ability to draw a circle tangent to this point, keep one of the two glyphs on the tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’, and move the other to somewhere else on the circle. See illustration below. Let’s call it a spacer circle/circuit. In the case of three or even all four glyphs overlapping, all can go somewhere on the circle. The position of the glyphs on this circuit doesn’t matter, but at least one should be off-grid, i.e. not centred on cardinals or diagonals (to clear up distinction issues later).

We also see from the teleport glyph that you can have multiple descriptor circuits all concentrically surrounding the central glyph. In the case of a second circuit, I’ll take it as meaning that the glyph combination it encircles can already count as its own nested spell, and this second circuit applies to the entirety of the enclosed spell. The reading order for this would thus be from centre to edge. I also think each added layer of circuit to the central focus produces a spell that can technically function on its own, even if it might be too unwieldy or useless or have dangerous side-effects without further description.

But what if there’s a nested spell that’s separate from the one already built up from the central glyph, an entire spell that needs to be applied to the main spell along with other descriptors in the same circuit? In that case we could attach a different glyph combo, like a nested sub descriptor circuit (subcircuit for short), onto one or more of the main descriptor circuits (if more exist). This subcircuit has the same rules as the main circuit, except it may not have a central glyph if it matches that of the main one, and might only work on other spells. In short, it's like a subroutine (if we’re pulling in coding language).

To also distinguish it from the previous spacer circle, let’s specify that a subcircuit has a glyph on an intersection point with other circuits, an ‘intersecting glyph’, rather than on a tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’. We can also use this by saying that the glyphs on a subcircuit that occupy an intersection with another circle indicate that the subcircuit applies to those other circles. In order to line things up, you’d have to play with the size and location of the circle in relation to the main circle. Though you’d also have to keep in mind that glyphs on an intersection could have multiple meanings with their different placements for each of the different circles, which may be unwanted. To combat that, let’s add a rule that a glyph on an intersection always applies its meaning only to the more nested or otherwise smallest circle of the intersection, unless specified otherwise (we’ll get back to that later), and if there’s no other way you could use a Null glyph to add a connection (a.2).

With the main descriptor circuits, subcircuits, and spacer circuits, there’s only one more that is needed to make sure every bit of the vocabulary can be applied.

To add the merged/secondary elements from before, let’s add a merger circuit, which has the two or three elements you want to merge to form the secondary element, and let’s have them all equally spaced, reading the order of elements from left-most and moving clockwise.

To make sure this can be distinct from the sub- and spacer circuits, let’s say that, unlike the prior two, it has both a glyph only on an intersection point (or multiple) and at least one of the glyphs on a merger circuit is off-grid. In the case of 2-mergers that’d have to be both, and for 3-mergers you’re guaranteed to have at least one off-grid anyway (The joys of matching up a circle divided into equal threes with a circle divided into equal eighths). So now a subcircuit only has an intersecting glyph (or more) and all glyphs on the grid, spacer circuits only have a tangent glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid, and merger circuits only have an intersecting glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid.

This actually leaves open another useful combination, a circuit with only a tangent glyph (or more) and all glyphs on-grid. Let’s call this last combination a specification circuit, which adds extra descriptors onto only the glyph at the tangent point. It’s not a spell on its own, but adds adjectives and adverbs to the noun or verb it’s tangent to the other circuit with.

As a quick overview for some visualisation, here’s a glyph spell I put together, containing each of the circuits I’ve mentioned above, and with glyphs randomly thrown in. Though this was just set up for explanation purposes, let’s also try an attempt at reading said glyph with the rules I’ve set up and see if anything reasonable pops up (and keep your look-up diagrams with you. Can’t believe I made actual look-up diagrams).

Surprisingly, though maybe it’s just me spotting patterns in nothing, this isn’t complete gibberish, and I’d interpret this spell as being something that connects memories that are in danger of being absorbed by someone else to light balls, but also using it to order them and move them around, as long as the subject is aware of it happening. Sounds a bit like a mindscape defence against mind-reading. So yeah, that’s the basics out of the way.

Let’s see how this works out with the basic glyph combos in the show.

Invisibility glyph:

Lightened (centre, adjective) coloured (top-left, adjective) transparency (bottom-right, noun) order (bottom-left, noun) → Subject becomes lightened by coloured transparency through order → Invisibility through camouflage. Side-note, the bottom-left glyph can be absent and the glyph still works, as seen in its first instance. But I think the ‘order’ allows for multiple to be camouflaged by the one glyph.

Safety hover glyph:

Light (centre, noun) stillness (top-right, noun) movement (bottom-left, noun) → Use light on movement to make stillness → Stop subject’s movement instantly.

Snow/Command glyph (copyright, Lilith):

Null (centre, not drawn, surrounding circle isn’t a merger circuit (repeats of Ice) so isn’t acting as central glyph, meaning the empty space is an implied Null glyph) power (top, adjective) weakness (bottom, noun) preserved (left, adjective) removed (right, adjective) → The external object touching the centre is removed, this process is powered through weakness, yet the object is preserved → Break down this object through sheer power but keep the debris (In the case of the ice blob, break it down and powder it into snow)

So that turned out pretty well (Though I did already say I ordered the diagram with secondary glyph meanings to at least make sense of the basic glyphs).

Let’s go one final step further and see what we can use from what Philip eventually used in his glyphs.

Shortcuts and Miscellaneous Stuff

Let’s add one more concept to this entire system before that though.

h) Condense and simplify glyphs as much as possible.

Obviously, for usability it’s always best to find a way to get the same spell/effect with a glyph that’s easier to draw. And since this system is like a language, it’s like saying there are multiple ways of saying the same thing, with some faster to say than others.

But more than that, it’s also like shortening actual sentences with contractions, abbreviations, and finding that one specific obscure word in the Thesaurus that you previously had to use several words for to describe. For example, if you have multiple non-concentric circuits you could attempt orientating them to have multiple instances of the same glyphs overlap and work from there.

Another thing that was mentioned a while back was how glyphs on intersections only apply to the smaller circuit, unless specified. Well, let’s say this can be specified by drawing a straight line from the intersection glyph to the central glyph of the bigger circle, indicating it contributes simultaneously to both circles with two separate meanings.

This way of using straight lines to show a glyph is pulling double- or triple-duty can also be applied to drawing a line between two glyphs on the same circuit. This would make use of the previously discarded concept for how glyph meanings are ‘diff 4 placement’, indicating that the connected glyphs also have additional meanings based on their relative placement to one another.

For example, let’s take Philip’s petrification glyph.

Petrification glyph:

Iced (centre, adjective) removed (right, adjective) [Change (relative bottom-left, noun)] preserved (left, adjective) organism (bottom, noun) [Stilled (relative top-right, adjective) inorganic (relative top, adjective)] → Organism is removed but preserved, by having changed the stilled organism into something inorganic.

That already works amazingly on its own, though there’s also this funky plant glyph that’s unconnected to a circle but still connected to other glyphs by straight lines.

Something that hasn’t been tackled yet is how to actually use the primary meaning of the basic glyphs outside of being the central focus, because there’s no other place in the current rules for the basic glyphs to apply their elemental meaning on anything. So let’s make it so that a basic glyph that’s disconnected from a circle still has primary meaning, and is applied to other glyphs with straight lines. In this case that would add that iced life is preserved.

…This obviously doesn’t work too well since in canon the petrification is permanent and kills the petrified person, but I’ll gladly hop onto the convenient lifeboat that is the context of this glyph being incomplete. I’d say Philip was originally experimenting with a way of turning someone into stone as a defensive spell, but a) didn’t know how to express stone yet, and b) didn’t want it to be permanent, since that would be pretty iffy unless he already has all the power over the Boiling Isles and nobody attempting to question him for killing people. So this original glyph just turned the subject ‘inorganic’, which is apparently just some weak dust, so the preserving of life to make it reversible is pretty useless here anyway. Clearly not complete yet. In the completed, proper petrification glyph, the small Plant glyph with the two connections would be gone to make it irreversible, and a merger circle of Fire and Plant (Earth) with the two glyphs intersecting with another, appropriately sized merger circle with Ice as the third glyph (Hard), bringing a total circuit for (Hard Earth = Stone).

Either way, let’s add elemental modification to the toolkit.

Let’s go to the other three of Philip’s WIP glyphs and try to make sense of them, plus whatever extra features were added. First up, water fountain.

Water fountain glyph:

Sever (centre (top-left), verb (there’s no real noun for ‘sever’, and no double border so all that’s left is verb)) tangible (top-left, adjective) still (top-right, adjective) transparent (bottom-right, adjective). We also have some funky spiral lines connecting the three to the central point. My current translation would be ‘sever something here that’s tangible, still, and transparent’. My guess is that my boi Phil was trying to make a glyph that could isolate groundwater and get it out of the ground, probably for survival purposes since groundwater would be drinkable compared to the Boiling Sea and Rain (Luz assumes the glyph is meant to make a water fountain, but that’s just what she sees the glyph doing, not what its intended use is). Obviously he didn’t know how to properly express ‘groundwater’ at this point, or thought it was too bulky to write down that way, and went with a vague description of ‘tangible but transparent and still (not moving in the ground)’ instead. I think the spiralling lines here are supposed to provide a direction for the motion (there’s no motion glyph in here, i.e. Fire bottom-left, but severing water from the ground would probably push it up and give it some motion regardless, so the lines help direct it). It would make sense, since just bringing water straight up would make it fall back down on the ground, so you need a little trajectory to have it land in a gathering bowl next to the glyph. That said, let’s add motion lines.

Next up, monster arm:

The new feature here is a partial circle segment capped off by two fire glyphs. The first thing that comes to mind for me is that this is supposed to be an abbreviation for when you have to draw the same glyph on neighbouring locations of the circuit. So instead you only draw the correct glyph at the ends of the sequence and let the line imply the rest of the meanings involved. In this case: Evolution/Change (centre (bottom-left), noun) Protect Decay Weak Motion Hurt Sever Deception (right-to-top (clockwise), nouns), and on a second circuit ring, Evolution (bottom-left, noun). My current thoughts are that the ground or whatever sits at the central circle undergoes a change into something that can protect, move, hurt, sever, and deceive. And whatever that thing becomes is then told to continue evolving/changing/adapting.

What I think makes this glyph a failed WIP is that, though the segment already excludes Chaos (top-right), which would be pretty detrimental for a construct you want to order around, it does still include Weak and Decay (bottom and bottom-right), which makes the monster arm physically weak, prone to damage and slowly breaking down over time, as demonstrated in the episode. But Philip didn’t want to let go of using the segment to draw only two Fire glyphs instead of five either, as further breaking up the segment would isolate the Fire glyph on the right, which would separate the glyph from the system and turn it into a separate one that happens to occupy the same space, and a full circuit would require drawing five glyphs too). I think a good solution that Philip probably used in the completed version would be to use the Null glyph to further exclude the meanings that aren’t desired while keeping the full line segment intact.

Definitely useful to simplify the drawing process, so let’s add sequence segments as well.

Last of the WIP glyphs: the tornado glyph, which is the only one that actually works decently, on a small scale anyway, and saved for last for good reason.

We now have some sort of combination of circle segments positioned in layers, and direct line connections with both disconnected and connected element glyphs, as well as straight radial lines coming from the central glyph.

Since these Fire glyphs are on actual circular segments, let’s begin simply with the normal secondary meanings.

Tornado glyph: Icy (centre, adjective) Emitted (bottom-left, adjective) Sever (top-left, verb) Protection (right, noun) Weakness (bottom, noun).

Alright, so it took a while, but if I really want to make sense of this I’ll have to budge some parts of the word type indicators in the right direction. In this case, the bottom glyph will be changed to the adjective version, and the right glyph turned into its verb version.

To start with, as a circle segment, the line trajectory is only associated with Fire, and with the radial line segments in the bottom-left and bottom-right we’ll add those meanings as well. And the connection to the bottom-left Light glyph means something as well. So we now have Emitted (Light, bottom-left) Movement (Fire, bottom-left) Weak (Fire, bottom) Decays (Fire, bottom-right), so ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays’. It’s also connected to the circle segment one layer deeper, which has Protect (Fire, right) Decay (Fire, bottom-right). So we have ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays, but is protected from decay’. Since the line segment connects the outer circuit line (with the Light glyph) to the central glyph, and the outer glyphs apply to the inner ones, we also add some directionality. So now it becomes ‘an emitted, weak movement that decays as it moves inwards, but is protected from slowing down in total’. That’s probably just me budging everything, but that sounds like how the movement within a vortex of air behaves.

Lastly, the top circle segment has Sever (Fire, top-left) and Chaos (Fire, top-right), and has no connection between the outside circuit and the central glyph. So I’d say ‘sever chaos’ i.e. counteract the chaotic movement of the already existing air, and thus making it organised when it begins moving. Altogether, this glyph describes an ‘emitted, uniform motion that decays as it goes inwards but remains stable overall’. It might’ve been a bit wonky to get here, but none of the rules I’ve made have been contradicted yet and it actually got a decently accurate reading out of it.

Conclusion (plus an attempt to make a glyph from scratch for an existing spell)

So yeah, that’s literally all there is, and I think I got a cohesive system together that fits all the concepts I listed at the start, even if it’s certainly got a lot of cogs, but that’s to be expected when your system is described as a language.

Technically I could also cover Philip’s Teleportation glyph or the unlocking glyph Belos used to enter the Grimwalker area in the Skull, but that’s a) too much effort and probably doesn’t match up with my meanings for the former, but it can be left up as an exercise to the reader. And b) the additional rules the latter glyph could imply would probably be far too complex and unnecessary for this post, or for making glyphs altogether. We gotta keep in mind that that glyph is from someone who’s been experimenting and drawing for 400 years, so the previous simplifications/tricks I covered in the last section would be far more amplified and complex.

Either way, with that all finished up, let’s use it to build a glyph from scratch that mimics a complex spell we see used in canon but doesn’t have a glyph counterpart.

For this, I’ll use the ‘quick-step’ spell we see Eda and Lilith use, where they turn into flame and quickly move elsewhere, reappearing at the end. Hunter does something similar with Flapjack, but there it’s done with light.

So, the central component of this entire spell will be moving. And the descriptor circuit for that movement will be something like ‘[move] a person quickly along a path’. ‘Quickly’ here can be made with a merger circuit. Then, if I want to recreate the spell accurately, the path needs to be specified to be somewhat short, so you can’t just use it to teleport somewhere far away. This can easily be done by specifying that it has to be visible for the caster before they cast it, using a specification circuit.

The next component will be the turning the person into fire. This sounds like a spell on its own, even if it’s pretty deadly, so it’ll be a nested spell that links to the main circuit through a subcircuit. The subcircuit will then be something like ‘change person into fire’. Since this spell is still very much deadly on its own, it’ll also need its own specifier saying that the person should be preserved during the change, for protection.

Lastly, it still needs a way to reverse this change from fire back to person once the spell has reached the end of the connection. In this case, ‘Reverse’ and ‘Ending’ can both be made from merger circuits.

Now we just need to add all those circuits together, making sure each type of circle has the right border glyphs and glyph positioning (tangent or intersecting, on-grid or off-grid), and lastly the condition of ‘reverse transformation spell at end of trajectory’ needs to be properly linked up.

And with that we get the final Quick-Step glyph below.

Some additional notes. The top circuit didn’t technically have to go at the top-right, but it did need to intersect with the main circuit through one of its glyphs. The only other place where it wouldn’t have overlapped with the main circuit’s glyphs would’ve been in the top-left, with the merger circuit for ‘Fast/Quick’ needing to rotate down on the main circuit a bit to accommodate. But in that case the series of connected circuits for the ‘reverse at end of trajectory’ would’ve been impossible to draw compactly. Either they’d go straight over the main circuit, or going around the circuit would require giant circles.

And then there’s also the inside line segments of the subcircuit. I haven’t established the rules for how those would work, and I’m playing it a bit loose there, but basically the places where the circles jump down in layer (shorter radius) is where the glyphs on the outside ring slot in. If the segment had jumped down a layer where a glyph from the outside hadn’t been connected into it, then it would’ve been the corresponding definition for the Fire glyph at the start of the circuit. The reading order here is also from the Fire glyph towards the centre. And lastly, the outside circuit of the spell ‘organism change inorganic’ does need disambiguation, since it could also be read as ‘inorganic change organism’. The direction of how the inside circuit approaches the middle helps disambiguate that, giving it a defined reading order, which is then read in reverse once the ‘Reverse’ circuit comes into play.

And…wow, I think that’s all. I’ve spent an entire day typing this out (plus way too many days of experimenting with things and coming up with some rules), and few people will probably see this, but damn that was satisfying to write out.

For those of you who read all the way to the end, or God forbid actually took the time to take it all in, thank you very much!

…I’m going to bed.

#the owl house #owl house #glyphs #glyph magic #theory #analysis #discussion #toh #owl house theory #glyph combos

57 notes · View notes

cobwebcorner · 4 months

Note

If you don't mind me asking, how do you plan/structure your fics? Do you have an outline you stick to faithfully, or do you let the characters go where they want to go? How do you maintain a consistent plot over multiple stories while keeping them independent? How do you keep track of all the things going on in a single story, and how they interact? Your fics are always really well planned out and have tons of plot threads running through and I'm really curious as to what method you use to handle it.

Also in a similar writing advice vein, how do you maintain characterization, and even showcase it, in the middle of such plot-heavy stories? Most stories I read are either character-driven or plot driven, but yours address both yet also have them tie so well together and I just? Am really curious as to how you do it I guess.

Baby writer here struggling with plot, would absolutely appreciate any advice you could give.

sorry this took me a while to reply, the askbox didn't eat it it just took me time to get all my thoughts down coherently.

Plotting stories is a subject about which whole books have been written, and I don't pretend that I can cover everything in a single post, or even that I have that much useful advice. I can talk about how I approach it, but it might not work for everyone.

In Nano terms I'm what you'd call a 'plantser' -- half planning, half by the seat of my pants. Another metaphor I've seen used is a gardener growing plants up a trellis. I know where my series as a whole is heading, I have a few landmarks plotted out along an extremely bare bones outline, and I try to nudge my characters along the route as organically as possible. Full, detailed outlines just don't work for me because I get bored if everything is nailed down.

Usually I have a central idea/scene in mind when I start a fic, and then I get ideas for other scenes, and I get those down, and then it's all just filling in the middle bits. Outlining is mostly used in two situations: 1. for working out choreography in more complicated bits (like action scenes) 2. for quickly preserving my ideas when I don't have the time to sit down and write a scene out. All my outlines are really quick and dirty too. Here, I'll show you an excerpt of the outline for MaM:

An encounter of the BOW variety? “He gave it wings. Of course, he gave it wings.” “What is this guy's deal?” “I don't know, his parents had the poor taste to name him 'Angelus,' and things spiraled from there.” find angelus's bedroom Leon reads his diary Wesker is incredulous “Snooping's a bad habit,” he admitted. Why? I just want to understand. Even if it does nothing for you? so curious, leon

yeah that's how I outline. Half the time I don't have complete thoughts, just keywords to remind me of things and scraps of dialog.

I do not have a system of organization for keeping track of things. My fics manage the level of polish they have because of--wait for it, this is going to send everyone screaming--EDITING. Yup. This is the boon of writing a story before posting it: I can go back and change things as much as I want! I can even write things out of order! (I usually write things out of order) I reread what I have written so far a lot, making notes on elements I forgot about, dangling threads or plot holes to resolve, and spelling/grammar mistakes to fix. I also reread the series as a whole periodically, not to help with planning, but just because I like my own writing (I write for myself after all).

As far as characterization goes, I've already written a post with broad advice about characterization. For me at this point, it's like. I run Leon.exe and Wesker.exe on the meat computer that is my brain, dump them into a little maze, and write down what they do. I know that's not terribly helpful.

Sometimes I keep notes as I go along about where people's relationships are with each other, their power dynamics (for MaM I had a little scale to tell me who was "on top" at any given point), and if a scene is really struggling along I plot out what each character wants at that moment. I might even write a version of the scene just for myself from a different character's pov so I know their side. Sometimes I find the scene works better from the other pov and dump the original version! (this happened with chris, jill, and leon in the bar)

Basically, I try to keep in mind that every character in a room is their own human, with their own thoughts and internal world and motivations. It's useful to know all the potential conflicts between characters in every conversation. It's also important not to forget about your side characters. If they still have a reason to involve themselves with the plot, or they're still in the room, you should mention them and what they're doing now and then.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Here's an old blog post by jim butcher (author of the dresden files) which helped me a little back in the day, specifically with getting over the middle bits: https://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/1865.html?nojs=1

And let me also point you in the direction of the writing excuses podcast, which is run by brandon sanderson (author of the mistborn series) and several other published writers. I haven't listened to all of it myself but sanderson's a good writer and what I have listened to is interesting.

#writing advice #verb answers

12 notes · View notes

secondhandsorrows · 4 months

Text

Drafting in 3 Parts

Just popping through to share a tidbit of advice I’d learned from a writer friend some years ago that helps break down the drafting process of storytelling and into perspective. It’s something that’s really stuck with me the more I get into drafting, and has really helped to put the whole, large-scale process into simple terms that makes the drafting stage seem a lot less… you know, frightening.

It is broken down into three parts:

1. Make it work.

2. Make it right.

3. Make it good.

Sounds easy, right? Well, I thought so, too. In fact, that’s the whole drafting, editing, and revising process right there, plain as day. In this post, I will walk you through how I understand these steps and utilize them in my own writing, so that you too could incorporate them into your own processes in a way that works for you.

Let’s begin!

Step One: Make it Work

So what’s actually in this so-called “work” stage?

It’s exactly as the word suggests, but in two ways simultaneously. You do the work by putting the words on paper, while also making sure the story works. This doesn’t mean just grammar or spelling… This means alloting some care and effort to keeping the pace and avoiding any large-scale plot holes that would otherwise derail your entire story, which, of course, makes it harder to keep going.

It’s not going to be good at first — we’ll get to that in step three. And it sure won’t be pretty. But this is the drafting stage… all you gotta do is show up and do the work.

Step Two: Make it Right

This is where things get a little tricky. It’s easy to confuse this step with the previous step, as both blend the lines a little of having the story make sense.

So what does this all entail?

Well, a few things. Make it right can be attributed to the editing process, be it line-by-line grammar edits, syntax, word choice, and structure. Maybe storywise there’s a few descriptions that need tweaking, some inconsistencies needing a quick fix… what ever you can catch as you read through. Is the POV the right choice for the kind of story you’re telling? Does this character have a clear arc that gets fully wrapped up at the end? Speaking of which, are all those little subplots — or any other loose ends — tied up? Would it help to add a flashback, or get rid of that scene that goes nowhere altogether? Any places where you can show, not tell, or vice versa?

In short, this all boils down to make the story you’re trying to tell right: not only to you, but to the reader as well.

Step Three: Make it Good

What consitutes a “good” story? Engaging characters, an immersive setting, solid themes and arcs, a gripping plot… we can go on forever. It’s a lot to keep track of, and it’s easy to lose sight of one thing in the grand scheme of writing. But the story has to be good.

There, I said it!

Come on, we were all thinking it. It’s clear that not everyone is going to like your story, and that’s a fact. As a writer, you not only want to be sure that the story is good in your eyes, but to that of the readers’, as well, for they are the ones you are going to keep engaged and waiting for your next release. You’re going to open their minds to new things, new ideas… that’s how you build a platform as a writer. What’s going to hold them back is poor pacing, underdeveloped characters, awkward dialogue, predictability, etc. Most if not all of these are what can make or break the story you’re trying to tell.

But, in the end, this is your story: your own work of art. Have fun with it! Passion works in tandem with creativity: it’s there in your style and prose, your deep explorations of underlying themes and overarching ideas that you love to write about, the characters you’ve come up with that stick with you. There’s a reason why you wanted to tell this story— keep that in mind as you write. No one can tell or write your story quite like you can.

#fiction #writing tips #writing advice #writing tips and tricks #writing inspiration #creative inspiration #writerscommunity #rough draft #first draft

16 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 11 months

Note

With all this talk about AI, the one perspective that appears missing from the discussion is that of someone who actually uses AI writing tools in production of their fanfic. So here I am, stepping in to provide my (anonymous) two cents.

I've been using a generative AI program especially made for creative writers for several months now. Initially, I had a lot of the same reservations I'm hearing form others, but I was curious about the tech and wanted to try it for myself. I quickly discovered that it's insanely useful, and I truly believe it has improved my writing.

I also believe these tools will become commonplace among creative writers in the near future. In fact, I've heard that generative AI is coming to a writing software near you (MS Word to be exact), and I suspect that that once more people have actually tried it, use of AI will begin to seem no more remarkable than the use of spelling or grammar checkers does now.

In the meantime, as you can see, I am staying anon, and there is absolutely no way I would tag my fanfic as AI assisted given the current environment. People are very quick to make assumptions about what a statement like that means, and are all too hasty in reaching for their pitchforks.

As far as I can tell, the main concern seems to be that Ao3 will be flooded with 'bad' fanfic as a result of AI use. But 'bad' fanfic has been a thing for as long as I've been in fandom (decades, at this point), and in my experience, human beings are perfectly capable of writing poorly without any help from machines. Readers are, as always, advised to curate their own reading experience. The 'back' button works the same as it always did, and someone's possible use of AI changes nothing about that.

But the general assumption that AI input automatically leads to 'bad' writing seems rather short-sighted. Yes, obviously if someone were to go to ChatGPT and tell it to write them a fanfic in 'x' fandon about 'x' pairing, the output would be bland, generic and probably a bit rambling. AIs are not great storytellers; they can't maintain narrative logic.

If this hypothetical person then copy-pasted the unedited output directly onto Ao3 and called it a story, the result would most likely qualify as 'bad' fanfic. Whether it would be worse than a story the same person might have written on their own is debatable. Our hypothetical protagonist obviously decided that the output was good enough as it was, and chose to post it without bothering to edit, which suggests (at least to me) that they would have similar standards about a story they'd written without an AI.

Since the above seems to be the scenario everyone has in mind when talking about "AI fic," I would like to point out that what I just described is not the only way to use AI in one's writing. My own use is more akin to using an online thesaurus; a very powerful thesaurus that can make suggestions for things like phrasings, descriptions, dialogue, and so on. The key there is that it makes suggestions.

My AI assistant is smart enough to 'read' the scene I'm working on and tailor its suggestions to the mood, style and context of what I'm writing. But it's still my story. The AI doesn't write it for me. I'm the one who sifts through those suggestions, takes the bits that work, and shapes them into useful text. Sometimes the AI comes up with amazing things. I wasn't kidding when I said it's improved my writing - and my rewriting. It knocks me out of those mental ruts we writers tend to get into, coming up with descriptions and turns of phrase that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

But it's still just a tool, and at the end of the day, I'm still the writer. The words that end up on the page do so because I chose them. Those writerly choices are what make the story mine, regardless of where the words might have originated from. And whether they came from my brain or the AI, they are still subject to the same standards of rewriting, editing and proofing.

So no, I don't think I'm going to be tagging my fic with an AI disclosure statement any time soon. Not until the current moral panic dies down to the point where people don't read that and automatically assume it means 'copy-pasted from ChatGPT.' And for anyone who's curious about AI... I suggest you try it for yourself. Play around a little and find out what it's about before making judgments. I think you'll find it's a tool like any other - and just like any tool, it can be used well or it can be used badly. That's entirely in the hands of the human being using it - which is one thing that hasn't changed, and never should.

Yeah, I fail to see any major issue with more sucky fanfic getting posted. That's just the default for big fic archives.

The actual problem problems we're seeing are with paid markets with open submissions that get flooded beyond what staff can handle and big corporations replacing humans they already try not to pay.

The main potential issue I see with other uses of AI is that it may end up with samey suggestions, but it's hard to know how much that's 1. a thing and 2. an actual issue when writing genre stuff that often sounds samey on purpose and where that's a desirable characteristic.

117 notes · View notes

walkawaytall · 1 month

Note

Any of these for the self rec ask game?

21. I feel like this shifts sometimes, but my typical answer will be mentioned under 23, so I’ll say A Tolerable Sort of Hell. It’s short — under 1000 words — but there’s a lot packed into it and I really like how it turned out.

22. Okay, hear me out: I don’t hate Spiral Together; I actually like most of it. But I feel like the kiss is too intense for the tone of the fic. And that’s because it was originally intended for something else, and I pulled it from that without altering it heavily, and ended up sticking it in Spiral Together, and have felt a little weird about it ever since, and it makes me cringe every time I read it. But I promised myself when I started writing fics that I would not go back and make edits to posted fics outside of grammar/spelling/punctuation corrections (because otherwise I would still be editing the first fic I posted, I’m sure), and I’ve stuck to that, so…it’s fine. It’s fine! But it’s not great.

23. Oh, Brief Shadow no doubt.

“You sure you’re adopted?” he asks when she finishes telling him about her father’s cunning strategizing and his undying love for his family, about her mother’s quick wit and stubborn kindness. “They sound just like you.”

Never getting over that.

24. I think Hearthstide? Like, I am very proud of my other multichapters, but this one was the most thoroughly planned of the three (to be fair, it is also the shortest multichapter by far), and I really, really like how it turned out.

Fic self recs!

#star wars fanfiction #star wars fanfic #fanfic writer asks #self rec asks

6 notes · View notes

hargrove-keeping-it-stranger · 2 years

Text

Watch The Hair!

Billy Hargrove x Reader

Warnings: My blog is 18+ but 18+ after the cut off line for this one,wrap it before ya tap it,going from 0-100 😉, cursing,bad grammar and spelling 🤦‍♀️😂

a/n: Hey guys so this is my 1st piece for this blog! This has the potential of becoming a series depending on how you all like it. I’m so excited to write for Billy! I love this character but i will be writing for other characters if you guys want me to. Requests are open!

P.S. Please check out the edit at the end closely for clues of the potential part 2 😊 also idk why the spacing got weird so please ignore it 😅

Word count: 3531 (4ish pages)

Y/n stood in the bathroom in Billy’s house brushing out her y/h/c hair, looking in the mirror. On the vanity top, y/n had laid out scissors,a comb,some gloves and some highlight coloring. She made sure all the knots and tangles were out and that the brush could run smoothly through without pulling her hair. Once she was satisfied, She walked over to the shower and flipped the nozzle up before leaning over and sticking her head under the warm water to soak her hair. While her eyes were closed, The devilish grin of the one and only Billy Hargrove grew as he leaned against the door frame watching y/n wet her hair. The opportunity was too perfect. Billy quickly took several step towards y/n and gave her a quick slap on the ass. Well maybe that wasn’t the greatest plan because y/n jumped, flipping her wet hair back and slapping Billy in the face with it. Upon turning around, y/n’s hands flew to her face covering her mouth so that her little snicker can’t be seen by the tall blonde standing in front of her with his eyes still closed and a face full of water,dripping down his face onto his shirt. “B, I am sooo sorry!” y/n smirked a little before grabbing a nearby towel off a hook close by and patting Billy’s face off. He finally opened his eyes and y/n got lost in the deep sapphire orbs staring back at her. Billy grabbed her waist and started laughing. “That really backfired on me,huh?” He smirked, running his fingers through y/n’s wet hair. Y/n pecked his lips before wiggling out of Billy's grasp and going back to her position at the sink. “ What was I supposed to do,babe? I had no idea you were home so i wasn’t expecting anyone to touch my ass” y/n giggled as she started brushing out her hair again and separating her part to the left side of her head. Billy nodded, leaning on the wall behind y/n, watching her in the mirror “Probably should of texted you that i was gonna be home early,” Billy admitted,” y/n, what the fuck are you doing?”Billy asked, sort of panicking as y/n took a comb and scissors to her hair. “Making Cookies. What the fuck does it look like I’m doing, William?” y/n laughed as she combed out a section of hair and held the comb about an inch from the bottom before cutting across the comb. Billy watched, biting his lip before he finally spoke. “You’re lucky you have sharp scissors in your hand right now, dollface. That kind of sass may have gotten you in trouble otherwise.” Billy’s eyes getting a shade darker as y/n looked at his reflection in the mirror. “I’ll have to make up for it later, pretty boy.” y/n smirked and winked at him through the mirror, knowing he was watching her as she continued to cut her hair.

Billy stood and watched the whole time y/n cut,dyed,washed and dried her hair. He watched her as if she were his favorite show. Every move she made had him enchanted and when she was finally done, she tossed her freshly colored hair over her shoulder and turned towards Billy “How do I look?” y/n asked as Billy smiled and walked up to y/n and kissed her nose lightly. “ I had no idea you knew how to do all those hairdresser things. It was really sexy to watch and your hair looks absolutely stunning.” Billy slips his fingers through y/n’s highlighted y/h/c hair. Y/N all of a sudden started smiling and jumping in excitement. “Oh my God! Billy!! Can I do your hair?” Y/n asked before she starts running her hands through Billy’s famous blonde curls. Billy whined and shook his head. “I don’t know, baby. I really like these curls. Plus what would you pull on later if you cut ‘em off?” Billy smirks before kissing y/n’s lips. y/n laughed into the kiss and ran her hands through the long curly locks. “I promise I’ll still have plenty to grab at when I’m through with you.” y/n winks, pressing her lips to Billy’s. “Well, What are you thinking of doing then, Sweets?” Billy asked, kind of starting to feel ok about maybe changing up the mullet. “ Nope! If I’m gonna do it, you’re just gonna have to wait and be surprised.” y/n teased as Billy groaned. “I trust you but babe I can't sit still for shit. You know that.” Billy complained. Y/n patted his chest before pushing off his chest and running into the kitchen. Billy just stood in the bathroom confused before he heard something heavy being moved in the kitchen.Well someone was trying to move something. Billy ran out into the kitchen and saw y/n trying to move a tall bar chair from the kitchen island. Billy shook his head before running over and picking up the chair,taking it from y/n. “Put it in the bathroom please?” y/n cheered as she followed Billy into the bathroom. Billy set the seat in front of the mirror and looked at y/n. “Ok Ok! I trust you! Let’s see what you can do, babygirl.” Billy winks at y/n before he sits in the chair, taking in his mullet in the mirror for the last time. Y/n grabbed a brush and some conditioner spray before spraying his entire mullet with the detangler conditioner. Y/n started to brush out the curls and Billy pulled away. “Watch the hair,babe!” Billy said as more of a reflex than an actual warning about his hair. “B! I’ve gotta brush out all the curls if this is gonna work.” Y/n informed Nilly as the biggest pout formed on his face. “It fucking hurts tho!” Billy complained as y/n smirked to herself. Y/n made her way around Billy and stood in front of him. She grabbed his chin and pecked his lips “Don't be so dramatic. Wouldn’t want anyone to see through that tough guy act.” y/n teased. Billy just rolled his eyes at her sassiness.

“You know what B? I totally forgot your shirt got soaked earlier! I’m so sorry I forgot!” Y/n bit her lip as she grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it up and over his head. BIlly threw the tshirt somewhere, his eyes focused on y/n and what she was planning. Y/n straddled his lap in the chair as she leaned down and kissed his lips again before she started brushing his hair again while sitting on his lap. Billy closed his eyes and rested his hands on y/n’s hips. Y/n brushed out the curls as gently as she could, pulling strands of hair to the side so that she could reach every strand without getting up. Billy sat contently as y/n finished brushing out his last fluffy curl. “See that wasn’t too bad,baby,right?” y/n asked as she put a hand on his cheek. Billy hummed softly as he opened his eyes and pecked her lips. “The fact that you used sitting on my lap and grinding that sweet little ass on me every time you moved as a distraction made the brush not bad at all.” Billy smiled up at y//n “We are definitely gonna need to take this new haircut on a test ride later, Sweets.” Billy grinned as he placed his hand on y/n’s neck and kissed her lips hard. Y/n giggled into the kiss and grabbed onto Billy curls one last time. They both pulled apart for air and y/n traced down Billy’s bare chest before getting off his lap. “Go wet your hair” y/n instructed as she reached into a bag she kept in the bathroom closet and pulled out buzzers and a clip on guard. “Whatever you say, doll” Billy said, getting up from the chair and putting on the shower to stick his head under. Once he had wet his whole head, he turned around and sat back in his seat again. “What the fuck are these?!” Billy asked while he lifted up the buzzers that y/n had put up on the counter. “Nothing babe! They just help cut off some hair a little quicker.” y/n explained before taking the buzzers out of Billy’s hands before he had a panic attack just because they looked too scary. “Just promise me you aren’t shaving me bald, sweetheart. I’ll literally have a nervous breakdown.” Billy said as he wiped his face anxiously with his hands. “Baby, I promise on my heart, I will not shave you bald.Ever. I also vow that if anyone does ever shave your head, I will hunt them down and give them hell myself.’ y/n promised as she held up her hand with the scouts honor hand signal, or at least she thinks that's what it is.

Billy took a deep breath as y/n started to brush through his wild locks again and moved some hair around. Y/n took the chair and spun it around so Billy couldn’t see himself in the mirror anymore. “Hey! What gives?” Billy protested but stayed glued to his seat. “The rest is gonna be a surprise.” y/n winked at him before grabbing her phone from the sink and playing Rock you like a Hurricane by the Scorpions to calm Billy’s nerves. Billy seemed to relax as he closed his eyes once again. Y/n got to work on the mop of hair she had sorted every way she wanted it. She put the guide onto the buzzers and started on the sides as she hummed along to the rock music playing in the background. Once she finished up the sides and faded the cut hair into the hair she left long on top, she grabbed a comb and scissors to shorten the long hair on top of Billy’s head. Y/n grabbed her phone and took pictures quietly of the front and back of Billy’s new do while Billy still had his eyes closed and hummed along to Live Wire by Motley Crue. Y/n ran her hair through Billy’s hair a few more times, making it look a bit more messy and not as clean cut. It was almost completely dry when y/n turned off the music on her phone and stood in front of Billy. “Ok baby! Are you ready to see your hair?” y/n asked,wiggling her eyebrows at Billy as he opened his eyes. Billy let out a nervous laugh and smiled up at you “I won’t lie, I’m super nervous but I can tell by the look on your face that you love it so yes. I’m ready,Sweetcheeks!” Billy announced proudly as he smacked your ass once again. y/n just laughed and rolled her eyes as she turned the chair around towards the mirror.

Billy stood up so fast as he looked at himself in the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair. “Soooo? What do you think?” y/n asked as she grabbed onto Billy’s bicep,waiting for a response. “I think you fucking killed it, Babygirl!!! I fucking love it!!” Billy laughed excitedly as he pulled y/n into his chest. “ I’m glad you like it,babes! Still long enough to run my fingers through.” y/n moved a hand to Billy’s hair and ran her finger through as Billy closed his eyes for a moment. This was his comfort. Head scratches or playing with his hair just relaxed him more than anything else. He was almost like a giant puppy dog when it came to his behavior. Yeah, he would have moments that he didn’t know how to handle things so he just loses it but he also had moments where all he needed was a cuddle and someone to talk through shit with. Y/n was probably the only person on planet earth that would describe her tough guy popular boyfriend as a puppy dog but she didn’t care. To her, he was and that’s what mattered. “I think my hairdresser deserves some Starbucks.” Billy smirks as he opened his eyes, y/n still playing with his hair. “White Mocha Iced Coffee with cold foam and chocolate drizzle!?” y/n just about yelled in Billy’s face while pulling her hands out of his hair as he laughed at her. “Whatever your heart desires,Love” Billy said as he pecked her nose and pulled the Camaro keys out of his back pocket. Y/n just about ran to the front door and put her shoes on, waiting for Billy to catch up. Billy comes out of the bathroom laughing at his hyper girlfriend, suddenly regretting his offer to put more caffeine in her system. “Easy there, Doll. I gotta go put on a shirt and you, my love, need to sweep the mullet off the floor before my parents lose their shit about the mess we made.” Billy explained as he put the chair they used back in its place in the kitchen and grabbed the broom from a nearby closet for y/n to clean up all the cut off mullet pieces that are now mixed in with her hair from earlier. “I’m on it!” Y/n took the broom from Billy and starts sweeping up the bathroom while Billy runs upstairs and grabs a white button up shirt that he only buttons up a little less than halfway. When he returns down stairs, y/n is scooping up all the hair and dumping it into the trash barrel.

——————————————————————————

“Perfect timing! I just..” y/n stopped talking as soon as her eyes landed on Billy. His new hair flowed into waves as it was completely dry now and the white button up he had on exposed most of his chest. “Holy shit! You look super hot right now. Like you’re usually hot but like I mean well more hot than.”y/n rambled as Billy walked over to her and kissed her lips to stop her rambling. y/n kissed him back, running her hand up his now exposed neck. Billy pushed y/n back onto the sink, before grabbing her ass with both hands and picking her up onto the sink. Y/n’s hands dragged down Billy’s neck to his chest where she couldn’t help but run her nails down his tanned muscular skin. Billy moaned into the kiss as the couple pulled apart just because they needed air. Billy rested his forehead against y/n’s and pecked her nose quickly. “I’ll give you the choice,dollface. I can fuck you right here or i can carry you up to my bed.”Billy whispers,sending Achilles down y/n’s spine “Right here” y/n said breathlessly as she pulled Billy back into her and kissed him again. Billy skillfully bit her bottom lip, making her open her mouth with a gasp, giving Billy the perfect opportunity to dart his tongue into her mouth. His tongue wrestled with hers as y/n unbuttoned his shirt and grabbed his belt buckle. BIlly pulled away from her lips and quickly pulled off y/n’s shirt before moving his lips to her neck, where he left sloppy kisses before deciding on a spot to nibble at as y/n started to undo Billy’s belt. Billy’s hands traveled down to the top of y/n’s leggings and pulled at the tops. Billy took his lips off y/n’s and slid off his jeans and boxers in one swift movement before pulling off y/n’s leggings and underwear off in one pull. “I told you the sass from earlier would get back to you eventually” Billy teased as he crashed his lips into y/n’s again and rocked her back slightly before hooking her legs over his arms.

He teasingly rubbed his tip against her clit and she moaned into his mouth, allowing him once again to push his tongue into her mouth and explore every inch of it. Billy laughed into the kiss as y/n tried to move her hips closer to his but couldn’t because Billy had her legs. “Please,babe. I’m sorry I was so sassy earlier. You know I like to mess with you. Please just..” y/n moaned as Billy licked up her neck. “You are forgiven, Darlin’. You’re such a good girl for me.” Billy said, pecking her lips and nuzzling into her neck. Billy slowly pushed the tip of his cock into her waiting hole. She was dripping for him. After putting in his tip just a little he stopped moving and nibbled at a spot on her neck. y/n groaned and started wiggling her hips for some sort of friction but the way Billy held her legs wouldn’t let her grind backwards onto him or rub her thighs together. She groaned at his love bites before mumbling “Baby please! I know you’re trying to punish me for earlier but I really want my Starbucks.” Once those words left y/n’s mouth, Billy sat up and looked her straight in the eye. She could see his eyes darken with lust and anger as he put his hand around her neck, squeezing just a little bit. “Oh you did not just say you wanted to get this over with so we can go get your fucking coffee,did you? Did I hear you wrong?” Billy asked as he glared into y/n’s eyes. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, Baby, I promise. You know I love you. You know how much i love that dick. Please just fuck me!” y/n pleaded as Billy’s hand around her neck squeezed just a little every so often making her back arch just from the pressure. This man knew what she liked and he was damn good at it. Billy crashed his lips into hers before grinning wide “I got you,Sweets” Billy smirked as he thrusted into you in one quick movement, still holding your legs over his arms. Billy crashed his lips into y/n’s once again, wanting every point of contact he could possibly have. Y/n snaked her arms around his neck as he continued to thrust into her. Y/n moaned into his lips as Billy hit every spot perfectly. Billy took that as his signal, so he threw one of her legs up over his shoulder without losing pace. Y/n screeched at the new angle, finally pulling away from Billy's lips. He licked his swollen lips as him and y/n kept eye contact. He started thrusting harder and with every thrust he got deeper and deeper. y/n looked at him with her mouth hanging open “Yes baby yes I’m.. baby..” y/n could barely form a sentence as Billy continues to push his hips up into her. “Come on, dollface, I got you. Give it up,Love.’ Billy said sweetly as he dropped her legs down and hugged her close to him as he continued to pump into her. His pace began to get sloppy and slow as he threw his head back,moaning. “Okay baby, Together now!” Billy instructed as y/n squeezed around his dick as she hit her high which sent Billy hurdling over the edge. They both stayed where they were breathing heavily as the looked at each other. Eyes full of admiration and love.

“You wanna go get your Starbucks now baby?” Billy cooed as he pulled out of y/n and grabbed a Wahhabism cloth to wet in the sink for her. “I’m gonna need a minute, B” y/n breathed out, still trying to catch her breath. Billy helped y/n clean herself up and get dressed again before he cleaned himself up and got dressed again. He stopped in front of the mirror to fix his hair and y/n couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think I saw you mess with the mullet this much. Someone knows he looks smoking hot with his new do.” y/n taunted as she finally stood up on wobbly legs and walked to the kitchen to grab water. Billy laughed before following after her and grabbing a black jacket off the coat rack and handing his jean jacket to y/n. “Starbucks here we come! Take this jacket, Sweets. It's a little cold out.” Y/n grabbed the jacket and headed out the door to Billy’s gorgeous Camaro. She climbed into the passenger seat and Billy soon got in on the drivers side and started the engine. The rev of that engine was one of her favorite sounds and it will never get old. Billy skillfully pulled out of the driveway before announcing “Starbucks here we come!” followed by him turning the stereo up loud and putting the sunglasses from his dashboard on his face.

#billy stranger things #billy hargrove one shot #billy hargrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove imagines #billy hargrove fluff #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove smut #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove x y/n #billy hargrove x you #stranger things one shot #stranger things imagine #stranger things #billyhargroveedit #requests open

182 notes · View notes