#and i have that draft saved (i actually wrote quite a bit) and may revisit it at another point in time

[doctorbrown]

DOCTOBER '23 ⸺ 「 25 / 31 * CAFE 」

November 7, 1955

❝Alright,❞ Emmett says, holding up the bag in his hand, ❝this should be enough time-appropriate clothing for you to get you through the rest of the week. I would have given you something out of my closet, however—❞

Marty puffs out his cheeks, looking the much-younger iteration of his best friend up and down. ❝I know, Doc. I'd be swimming in anything you gave me out of there. Thanks, by the way. For buying this stuff for me. I didn't want to put you out or anything—❞

Emmett shakes his head. ❝Nonsense, Marty, it's no trouble. It's the least I can do.❞ The last thing the boy needed to add to his mounting pile of worries was clothing and lodgings and despite this being the result of the negligence of his future counterpart—how could I have allowed this to happen?—the fault seemed to ripple back through the timestream to fall solely on his shoulders.

Marty may have inadvertently jeopardised his existence, but it was his time machine that had sent him back here in the first place, perpetuating the entire situation.

❝Doc, you've already done so much for me. Or, uh, you will. Besides, I don't have a chance of getting back to the future without you.❞

Emmett checks the time on one of his wristwatches and presses his lips together in a tight line. 15:27. It's still early enough in the afternoon where they have plenty of time to start gathering more of the necessary supplies needed to finish the modifications to the time vehicle, but given Marty's rough arrival in this time period barely two days ago and the way he had collapsed on the couch in the early hours of the morning leaves him wondering if he would be up for any further running around.

There was still much to be done, but he didn't want to exhaust Marty further than was necessary and he still had to be conscious of his needs.

They had managed a small breakfast earlier that morning once Copernicus had decided to leave Marty in peace, but if his hunch was correct, Marty would need much more of a meal than the eggs and toast he'd whipped up to hold him over.

Perhaps their purchasing an additional meal would have some drastic effect on the diner's revenue, or prevent ingredients from being used as they were meant to be. Perhaps the ingredients would never have been used and simply gone bad.

Possibility brought with it uncertainty, but Marty's presence in this time period meant that he needed to be cared for just as he would have in his own time, and that meant the essentials: food, clothing, and so on. With things being the way they were, it was unavoidable that his presence should have some small effect on the timeline.

If they didn't go out for lunch now, he would spend that additional money at the grocery store. And since they were already out...

Emmett would simply have to hope this didn't all catch up with him for the worst in 1985.

❝It's three-thirty now; how do you feel about stopping for lunch, Marty? Lou's Cafe is just a block over and we still have plenty of time before Saturday.❞

Marty scrunches his face as he tries to pretend his stomach isn't growling at the thought of food. ❝Isn't this going to, I don't know, screw something up if we go there? Buying another meal that wasn't purchased before or something, changing the timeline?❞

Emmett sighs and Marty gives him a look when he doesn't even take a couple seconds to think over his answer. ❝Such things are unavoidable; you need to eat.❞

When Marty starts to rub anxiously at the back of his neck, Emmett's brows furrow. Even after two days, it was becoming apparent that this was one of the boy's tells; that he would often touch the back of his neck or run a hand through his hair when he was nervous or withholding information.

❝Did something happen here, too, Marty?❞

His awkward laugh says it all.

❝Well, uh, this is where I first ended up when I got into town because I saw they had a phone. That's how I found you; you're in the phonebook. Spelled your name wrong, too. Oh, and this is where I first met my dad—by accident!—and—anyway, the guy in there, he also thought I was with the Coast Guard and, uh, let's just say things got a little...awkward.❞

He doesn't need Marty to fill in the gaps; he can already imagine the future boy's far-forward slang and mannerisms garnering weird looks from the people of Hill Valley.

❝Don't worry about that,❞ Emmett says, and Marty throws a curious look up at him. ❝I have an idea.❞

❝You're the doc, Doc,❞ Marty acquiesces after barely a moment, placing a level of trust in Emmett that is both foreign, yet oddly comforting. ❝Then let's go; I'm starving.❞

#doctober 2023 #&; a great idea can change the world 「 hc 」 #i originally started writing this scene set in '89 where marty's come to doc and he's stressed about wedding stuff #and they're sitting in a cafe chatting #and i have that draft saved (i actually wrote quite a bit) and may revisit it at another point in time #but i simply liked the idea of setting this in the fifties and the awkwardness of marty being like oh yeah so this happened

[mal-likes-biscuits]

Series Behind the Scenes (Diablo: Amor Aeternus)

I wanted to share some of the fun hidden eggs/did you know/lore reference/extra stuff that appears throughout the series, but I didn’t have a chance to mention as I posted.

LONG post: content after the break! (Also, series spoilers. In case that’s not obvious.)

In All Things Light and Dark

Water imagery: all the Aspects have an element associated with them. Wisdom/Death is water/ice, per their arcane spells and the domain itself (Pools of Wisdom). Malthael returns to life in a spot that reminds him of the Pools.

Biscuits are the first food Malthael ever eats. He likes them afterwards because they remind him of the warm compassion he was shown. This carries on into later stories, where he has an obvious preference for baking, but also a lingering soft spot for biscuits in particular.

Fallen angels carry with them some sort of lingering power. One of Mal’s most important but not really mentioned ones is that he can speak/read all languages. It’s about 50% practice and 50% magic. He just knows what things mean.

I probably should have had ice manifest on his hands in the church instead of the arcane glow. However, I also wanted to underscore the difference between his base element/person and the Reaper.

The blades themselves aren’t the cause/fix of his memory loss. He’s suppressing things due to a) an extremely painful death and b) his mortal brain trying to reconcile things with his previously immortal/corrupted soul. His taking up the blades and recovering the past through combat is purely symbolic.

Things Malthael does in the year before Tyrael finds him: scribe, translator, and at-no-pay demon cull-er. He spends his entire savings to buy Talm the farm sickles. 

Tyrael and the companions probably overreact when they see Malthael, thinking he is a Reaper. But he also is super grungy looking and his clothing is all tattered. He’s been sleeping on the streets when he hasn’t been working at the church. He doesn’t look that far off from a corrupted Reaper.

The reason there’s a punisher in Salvos, and a demon swell in general, is because (you may have guessed it) another angel Fell near there, and is now living there. You see undead when Tyrael falls and his angelic power causes chaos. Any remaining Reapers come out of their fugue state and gravitate towards the lingering essence of their master...who is not really impressed to see them.

This does get mentioned elsewhere, but yes: they all drink the mead. They all get extremely drunk. Malthael and Tyrael get dragged into the farmer’s hand-to-hand just for fun fight and end up smacking the snot out of each other for catharsis.

Arcane & Apples

This story came about because I wanted to write a fun one-shot about how Tristram would appear to an outsider.

Also, I felt bad there was a lack of scholarly characters in the series after Cain dies and wanted to bring someone else in.

Farah was originally meant to be an Archivist (based on the April Fool’s content in the game) before I canned that idea, because I have plans for that later that are very different.

Osseus’ name was one he took when he became a proper necromancer. It derives from “ossuary”, or a place where the dead are kept (bones only).

Farah had a cat for most of her life in Caldeum, but she was currently without one or she would have likely brought it with. You see a few cat references from her throughout the series.

Aya and Tyrael were more than a little hoping that Malthael would strike up a conversation with Farah. They were just dodging around the topic most of the time.

Aya almost barfs when Farah sniffs one of Malthael’s journals. She says she doesn’t know where it’s been, but she has ideas from what she’s seen.

Originally Osseus was going to be Xul, until I learned that Xul was the Diablo 2 necromancer. Part of this carried over to my description of Osseus having a rather charming voice, which is more like Xul and less like the actual Diablo 3 necromancer. I’m chalking it up to artistic variance.

The unreadable scrolls about scroll-crafting are going to be important in Series 2.

The prophetic line from Farah’s dream about Malthael ("This man walks the crossroads. One path leads to ruin. The other, survival.") is meant to read as applying to the survival of the Nephalem (or himself), but it also applies to his decision about the Arch in Act 4.

Farah reacting to the tone of Malthael’s voice (beyond just basic surprise) was added in after several edit rounds, when the characters decided they had this Love thing going on in later stories. Still, I wanted to keep it relatively understated.

The "Aya, would you explain mortal courtship?” line was in the very first draft and was meant to be a humorous throw-away line, but, you know. He still doesn’t understand mortal courtship.

A Light in the Darkness

Most of the first scene was added in the final edit draft, because I wanted to up the banter between all of them.

Lyndon and Malthael pretty much subside by insulting each other, like the not-quite-brothers they seem to be. Tyrael is mostly relieved it’s not him dealing with it anymore.

There’s a small suggestion that people have been beaking at Farah for her being kind to Malthael, and this is true; he’s not making that part up. But they try and not whisper about it if he’s around because he would end them. He finds out anyway.

Lyndon isn’t bugging him for that reason, he really just likes pushing his buttons and doesn’t have anything against Farah or them all getting along.

Unlike Osseus, Zaira never changed her name. It’s hers. It’s who she is. That pretty much sums her up.

Zaira happened because I wanted to write a morally grey/lesser evil human character who was nonetheless on the side of good. Sort of like Malthael when he’s the Reaper.

Zaira’s unhealthy fixation that Lyndon mentions has been mentioned on this blog a few times and implied in the story. She is obsessed with learning more about the Reaper of Westmarch, and admires him greatly. Also, had a really weird infatuation with his power, which is what led to her and Osseus breaking up.

Chith never got far enough to even talk about adopting a new necromancer name.

Chith was named by my husband, when I asked him to come up with a name for a necromancer. He thought it was for Zaira’s character, who we’d chatted about in concept awhile earlier. Nope.

The book lady really has no idea she just called the oldest being in creation “young man” until after it happens.

The book lady is also important and is going to be reappearing later in Series 2.

The bit with Malthael arguing with the Reaper part of him (mentally) during the big gem-fight was added in much later, as part of a sweep I did across the series to build up that conflict for his character, as well as establish the level of PTSD flashbacks he experiences.

Born of Night & Beams of Light

This was originally meant to be the second large story in the series, and come fairly closely after “In All Things Light and Dark”.

The idea for the Archshards happened way before Diablo: Immortals and the Worldstone Shards were announced (my reaction to that probably makes more sense now).

I had planned on making Imperius the antagonist for this story from the beginning, based on his character development in Diablo 3.

Originally, the Prime Evil was going to take more complete control of Imperius, and his form was going to reflect that. But I didn’t think a character as strong as Imperius would give in that much, and that a lot of his behaviour would be due to his own issues and not the influence of the Hells.

The “charger” Tyrael rides in the opening chapters is a reference to Tyrael’s Charger from Heroes of the Storm.

I had notes for the scene in Salvos with Malthael drafted while I was writing “In All Things Light and Dark” because I knew he was going to be revisiting Death.

Talm and his family were originally slated to die in Salvos, but I thought Malthael bringing them back alive would actually have a more positive impact on his character, plot-wise. I wanted him to draw on Death out of  responsibility instead of despair.

Malthael’s Death abilities (while mortal) are inspired by the frost magic he uses in Reaper of Souls, as well as by some of the magic the necromancers use in the game series. His Wisdom Aspect form is mostly intellectual abilities (scrying with the Chalice, languages, etc.); his Death Aspect is mage-ish.

The “mental connection” Malthael and Farah use is inspired directly by what Tyrael does with Leah in Diablo 3 in terms of imparting memories and feelings. The mortal angels seem to be at least partially psychic.

A lot of Aya’s character development in the series was inspired by me wanting to write a) a more HUMAN Nephalem and b) how a Nephalem would handle having imposter syndrome. (Since the Nephalem in the game are essentially unflappable.) It is a slight departure from the game characterization, but also my attempt to bring some realism to an overpowered character class.

Originally, Auriel wasn’t supposed to recognize/learn it was Malthael stealing the Chalice until after it was all done, to show that she was willing to help the humans specifically. But the scene ended up being very emotional and affecting and I left it as I wrote it, with her finding out his identity right away.

Auriel’s fate was somewhat undetermined, but I knew she would oppose Imperius. When Chith came about as a character, I decided to have her become mortal instead of dying because I wanted to be able to write a student-mentor relationship between them.

Itherael was plotted to die from very early in the series planning, due to the nature of the Prophecy of the End of Days. Unfortunately, for everyone who is a fan of them.

Auriel’s mortality is one of the more self-indulgent items I wrote into the series, mostly because that could have gone so many different ways.

I really wanted to explore Chalad’ar’s uses, particularly since it seems to be so powerful but isn’t really explained much even in Storm of Light. There’s a lot of suggested functionality, intentional or accidental, with how the user can interact with what they are studying.

Farah helping Malthael with the scrying was a relatively late addition to the story and didn’t appear until I began to write the scene.

Farah’s Nephalem abilities actually extend beyond the Sight, but aren’t fully developed yet -- though they are hinted at when she is able to tolerate Chalad’ar better than some of the others. This will be developed more in Series 2.

My description of the Chalice use/scrying was written before I read “Storm of Light” and ended up being surprisingly close to canon. I had to change very little.

All the various Nephalem classes from Diablo 2 and 3 are represented in the final battle, though not all are named characters. Some of the unnamed Nephalem will be appearing in Series 2 as “new” characters.

The final battle takes place somewhere in the Fields of Misery.

The “Death Knells” described by Chith are a reference to Auriel’s Heroes of the Storm ability that lets her see the “souls” of the dead in order to resurrect them with her ult. This idea will be expanded on in Series 2.

None of the end-battle deaths were planned ahead of time except for Imperius. I let the battle write itself fairly organically and saw what came out of it.

Malthael sees as much in the Caverns of Terror as Tyrael does. Imperius is correct when he says he is thinking about Farah: one of the visions he has is of her telling him that he has disappointed her (which, thanks to some of the mind-to-mind conversations they have had, he does not believe).

The arcane abilities that Aya unleashes on Imperius at the end of the fight are a reference to the wizard’s archon mode in the game. And like in the game, they are taxing and have a cool-down period.

We don’t see Kormac return as one of the souls that Malthael works with, because he is “ready to die” and at peace with how he goes out. It’s in many ways the ideal death he wanted to have as a warrior.

In the original outline I did for the series, Malthael was scripted to die at the end, ensuring Imperius could be defeated. I had a change of heart as his character developed throughout the series, and his redemption occurred in very different ways than I had planned.

Lyndon saving Malthael from death was not scripted at all, but when I started writing that part, it came about naturally. I went back and built up stuff with the two of them for the entire rest of the story to set it up, character-wise.

Malthael is meant to be the “brother” that Lyndon actually manages to save, vs. the one that he didn’t.

The bit with Farah waiting at the water is an accidental but direct mirror/echo of the opening story, where Malthael washes up on the lakeshore. More overt references to this were added in after the draft was completed.

There’s a lot of unwritten material that happens during the Epilogue, including lots of conversations between the characters, patching up, the wake/celebration, etc. This may be material I write and refer back to later, but I didn’t want to include it in the Epilogue because there is so much of it.

I hadn’t actually planned on getting Tyrael and Aya together until I wrote the Epilogue and it just sort of happened. Again, lots of additions/tweaks went into the story earlier to help set it up more overtly.

Malthael hasn’t actually been sitting on that bench for that long. He doesn’t specify when he leaves Farah to go back home.

Tales from Tristram

I wrote “Echoes” about 3 times partially, and scrapped each version, because I thought the chapter kept backtracking on Malthael and Farah’s character development from “Arcane & Apples”. The published version is the 4th attempt.

“Echoes” is also the first time we see Malthael’s PTSD manifest from his POV, post-memory recovery.

"Echoes” also gives the details of him working through the PTSD after fighting himself in Act 1, including some subtle references to the very annoying inner (anxiety) monologue he has.

“Night of Souls” was me writing a Halloween story and accidentally stumbling on pivotal character development for pretty much everyone.

Malthael’s comments in “NoS” about Wisdom angels stargazing is related to the description of the Pools. Even when they are pure they are said to show Balance, and I assume if you went high up enough in the Heavens you would eventually see the stars. It’s an interesting visual balance between light and darkness and very fitting of his role.

Malthael arguing with himself while sitting at the bonfire in “NoS” is an example of how he handles his anxiety when he’s in better control of it; the devil’s advocate voice is a lot more nuanced, and he’s more than able to tell it to be quiet.

“Justice and Wisdom Walk into a Bar” was the original plot idea behind “A Light in the Darkness”. Zaera-d was telling me a story about their DnD group burning down a tavern and I thought it was something the Tristram gang would do. Only they ended up not doing that in Act 3.

The above chapter was also the only real time in the series that Tyrael and Malthael’s sexualities get mentioned directly (though Lyndon hints at Malthael’s in Act 3); I really had to balance it being a humorous scene without actually making fun Tyrael because that was 100% not my intent.

#diablo: amor aeternus #my writing #behind the scenes material #long post #some fun stuff for you to read #a little insight into the stories #i'm sure there's stuff i'm missing #but this is a sample of some of my notes and related things

[binary5tar]

I would love~ to know more about 'sugar daddy suga' and 'yoonkookmin rough'. But, also, ALL of them. So, whatever you feel like! 💕💜

Thank you so much for asking!!! I’m kinda long winded, sorry. I definitely won’t be offended if you don’t read all this.

Okay so I decided to do them all, but I put it on a reblog of my original post that should be a couple posts below this one. But I’ll also talk about those two a little here.

For Sugar daddy suga this is what I wrote below:

My current baby, age gap Taegi. It’s only an outline right now. Since I never finish anything, I’m trying a new tactic of outlining the whole thing with bullet points that way I know where I’m going and get the satisfaction of crossing them off. The general plot is Yoongi is a successful producer who doesn’t have time for romance or traditional dating so basically he pays people to date him. Tae is an aspiring model who could use a little extra cash. They get together, fall in love, resist it, eventually give in and live happily ever after. I really want the whole sugar daddy thing to be healthy and reasonable and not gross though. I’m trying to include a lot of details with consent and Yoongi not pressuring people and only hiring people who wouldn’t be financially dependent on sleeping with him. We’ll see how it goes though...

I’m really excited about this one. I’ve been daydreaming it for the past week or so and the outlining is helping me daydream productively. I’ll think about new scenes instead of just focusing on the same one over and over. I’ve also got a bunch of pictures saved as inspiration, which I don’t do often and feels like a good sign. I had a rough past couple of days so I haven’t made any progress on it since then but I’m determined to get back to it!

For the yoonkookmin rough:

This one is old but I haven’t let go of it. Rough in this case doesn’t mean rough draft. >.> It’s kinda dark, HIGHLY under negotiated kink. Established yoonmin have a fling with the new intern in the office, JK. Jimin is jealous and blackmails JK into quitting but he can’t because he’s the only income in the household and this is his first real job. (Jimin doesn’t know that to start but he is still not a good guy at the beginning of the fic because of his own past.) When Yoongi finds out Jimin blackmailed JK he breaks up with him. Jimin is devastated, gets some therapy, meets JK later and they all get together. I only really have up until JK gets blackmailed written. This has been one of those fics I revisit in hopes of making progress and just stare at the screen for hours -_- So maybe someday it’ll get done 

I want to finish this one but I’ve almost lost hope. I wrote the smut in the beginning aaaaages ago and then can’t figure out how to write the plot. I’ve thought about finding a way to recycle the smut because I really like it! But its got so specific things in it that really only fit with this plot... (Jimin taking dirty pictures to use against JK later... I said he wasn’t a good guy!) So I dunno where this one stands.

And just for fun a semi nsfw jikook snippet below. (Again with the warning of under negotiated kink. Jimin’s a bit forceful before he really has full permission.) I may have actually posted this snippet before but I’m kinda proud of what I have so far. I just need more to have enough to publish!

Jimin stopped. “Look, I know you wanna fuck my boyfriend.”

Jungkook blinked. “I- What? That’s not-” he stammered.

Jimin shrugged. “It’s okay. He’s hot, I know. And he was all over you tonight.”

“But I wouldn’t-He-I mean you were-” Jungkook’s cheeks burned.

“Jungkook, relax, I’m not mad,” Jimin lied. “I told him to.”

Jungkook stopped stammering abruptly. “What?”

“I told him to hit on you. I said he could. See, we talked about it, him and I,” as Jimin spoke he stepped closer, Jungkook retreated but Jimin continued. “You’re hot. We both think so. Christ the whole office, even the straight old men, think so. You’ve got them wrapped around your little finger.” Jimin wiggled his own small finger at him. “But I’m on to you. I know what you want, what you need…” Jungkook’s back hit the wall and Jimin slammed his left hand against it, caging him in. “...is to be put in your place.” Jungkook licked his lips nervously drawing Jimin’s eyes to them, cherry red and glistening. “Isn’t that right?”

Jimin could see the rapid rise and fall of Jungkook’s chest. Despite Jungkook being a few inches taller, Jimin stared him down. After a pause, Jungkook nodded quickly.

Jimin leaned in and gripped Jungkook’s hip bruisingly tight. He jumped. “Say it,” Jimin hissed.

“Yes,” Jungkook whispered.

“Good boy.”

Jimin kissed him then, more teeth and tongue than anything. Jimin’s fingers tangled in the hair at the back of Jungkook’s head, pulling and holding him in place. Jungkook moaned into it, the sweet sound hitting Jimin in the gut like a baseball bat. 

He hadn’t meant to kiss Jungkook. He hadn’t exactly cleared it with Yoongi but since Jungkook would be in their bed at some point tonight if Jimin had his way it didn’t seem like that big of a breach in trust.

#daegu-flowjob