#edit added that last line because that's actually one of my fav

[etherealstar-writes]

I WANNA BE YOURS | LIONESSES X READER | PT 9

pairings: lionesses x reader

summary: in which you're accidentally added to a random group chat, not knowing they're all actually famous footballers, and obliviously end up having many of them competing for your love and attention.

part: nine

part one here

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

You were seated on the couch with your best friend, Dani, in her apartment with bowls of snacks stacked in front of you guys. Dani was the one currently obsessed with the women football since England was hosting the Euros, and would be the one spamming you with edits.

She'd begged you to come tonight to watch the quarter finals with her with England versing Spain. And you'd finally given in, hoping to finally get cultured and then flex off to the group chat that you finally knew the names of more players other than just Lucy Bronze.

And so here you were, your eyes glued on the tv screen as the National Anthem had ended and the match was about to start. Your eyebrows had furrowed in confusion when the line-ups had been displayed for a few seconds before the kick-off whistle was blown. The last names of the Lionesses were somehow familiar, but before you could dwell on it more, it went away.

"Okay so," Dani began, pointing to the different players as the match began. "The blonde one with the number 8 on her back is Leah Williamson, my personal fav, and the captain of the team."

You nodded along.

Leah Williamson. Seems familiar.

"And then the one in goals is Mary Earps. There's Lucy Bronze with the number 2 on her back and Mille Bright next to Leah with number 6. Over there running is Keira Walsh and she has 4 on her back."

Your eyebrows furrowed again when you heard the name Earps and Bright, but decided to ignore it.

"Right there is Lauren Hemp with 11 next to Fran Kirby who's 14, and that one is Rachel Daly with number 3 on her back."

Nahhh, it couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Leah, Earps, Bright, Kie, Lauren, and now Daly?

"Oh, and that's Stanway with the ball. She just passed it to Meado!"

Hold on.

Your eyes widened. "Meado?"

"Yeah, Beth Mead. We call her Meado." Dani nodded, glancing at you and saw that you had a shocked look on your face. "You good?"

"Wait, so would Stanway's first name be Georgia by any chance?" You questioned.

"Yeah, you guessed it right!" Dani laughed. "It looks like my edits are helping."

You forced a smile on your face and nodded along, but internally you were screaming. You grabbed your phone and googled all the players on the football squad including the subs, noticing the resemblance to all the names on the group chat.

Leah Williamson. Georgia Stanway. Ella Toone. Alessia Russo. Beth Mead. Lotte Wubben-Moy. Niamh Charles. Lucy Bronze. Mary Earps. And it went on. Some had only spoken once but you had seen their name.

While Dani was focused on the game, you were lost in your own thoughts. It all seemed like a big joke right now.

The times they'd be in the gym and would be training together. The photos they would send on the chat where they were in what you now realised were their football kits, and the football games they would pass off as a bit of fun. And the fact that Lucy Bronze had commented your post.

It all made sense when you thought about it.

These past few months you'd been chatting with them, you'd thought you had gotten to "know" them better, but really you knew practically nothing because they'd continued to hide about who they were and would change the topic when you did try to bring it up, all while knowing basically everything about you.

And suddenly, you felt very stupid and very played, as well as kinda betrayed.

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

liked by danisterling and 140 others

yourusername: me raiding all of dani's snacks while trying to understand football. england national football team or national diving team? who knows 🤷‍♀️ is it coming home lionesses?

danisterling: it's coming homeeeee ↳ yourusername: let's hope so

laniangelo: maybe you'll get lucky and another of them will see this post and you can finally become a wag ↳ yourusername: new fear: unlocked

chasejackson: looking flawless l/n 😩 ↳ yourusername i know 😌

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

THE NATIONAL DIVING TEAM

the imposter well done on the match girls! you guys played great loved the goals toone and stanway

elton

thank you so much y/n!

stairway ahh thank you y/n really appreciate it wait .... HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT ITS US

neev oh no

the imposter have fun messing around with someone else and hiding your identities from them! xx

the imposter left

meado what were you guys expecting? you were literally going to be on tv playing football she was bound to see and find out soon you should've told her sooner

stairway we messed up didn't we?

willybum yeah

neev we gotta fix this

the REAL karate kid how she probably hates us

elton i got an idea

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

leahwilliamsonn started following yourusername alessiarusso99 started following yourusername ellatoone started following yourusername stanwaygeorgia started following yourusername niamhcharles17 started following yourusername lottewubbenmoy started following yourusername lucybronze started following yourusername 1maryearps started following yourusername and more started following yourusername

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

part ten here

#lionesses x reader #engwnt x reader #engwnt #lionesses #leah williamson x reader #alessia russo x reader #ella toone x reader #niamh charles x reader #georgia stanway x reader #woso x reader #woso imagine #woso #woso fanfics

[violixs]

is that even a question mae !! i will read everything you write no matter how ia i am i wilk TRACK DOWN EACH WORK OF YOURS AND I WILL ESP ENJOY READING YOUR LONGER FICS !!! but my school breaks up at the end of may !! only 3 weeks of school left and the thought of that makes me wanna bawl.. i actually really enjoy school and the thought of not seeing the same teachers and people next year makes me sulk.. agh i just hate the thought of an ending in general.. in books..writings..a school year WAHH IM GONNA MAKE MYSELF SAD !! going to have to make the most of the time left in this school year :( i have recently been getting into more jpop and adding vietnamese songs to my playlist but my non fluent self can not comprehend the words fast enough LMAOA but i’ve been listening to more ballad songs ?? i guess is the word like slow sentimental ones.. esp k drama osts have been putting me in my feels esp with the all these romantic lyrics but i think my current fav song is to my youth by bol4 the lyrics are so 💔💔 everything about the song I DEF RECOMMEND THE THE THE MINHO WRITING AHHH i feel like my feed back is a little repetitive but I WILL NEVER STOP TELLING YOU RHAT I ADORE YOUR WRITING !! the way u describe everything so realistically and how love isn’t something dramatic and sparkly u instantly know.. and how gentle the reader is with lino !! AND FHE ANGST AT THE HEAD WAHH WSP WHEN LINO CUDDLES CLOSER TO THE READER AND THEY FALL ASLEEP ah hyun and lino i just wanna both give them a big hug and tell them they’re both more than good enough in both fics ARGHSJA ANS FHE LAST LINE ?? PARAGRAPH??? ITS SO PERFECT MAE KSZJJSBW

sjdhhs i’m glad u will still read the long ones… i think i was just v discouraged bc i know the plot i’ve reread and edited it a bajillion times and now bc it feels so.. familiar and not new i am scared other ppl will feel that way but?? they’ve never seen it so?? it should be fine!!!!

AND IN MAY??? u lucky thing rn i still have a good 9-10 weeks of school left :,) i am literally counting down the days because 5 weeks till exams and then a week of that and hopefully for the last 3-4 weeks we get rest :,) i understand what u mean tho like not seeing the same people is SAD u miss a lot of ppl too :( but it just means u have to make the most of the rest of the year u still have!!! but the jpop and vietnamese music omg… if u pick up some words does that mean u speak vietnamese or japanese?? even if it’s not fluent the fact u can recognise some words is so cool so if u have any more music recs lmk !!! i put on the to my youth one rn and i can tell i will listen again… i love ost type ballady songs they’re always so <3 stardust love song by jihyo is rlly rly good if u haven’t already heard it!! it’s. a little slower but god it’s so pretty…

and hshsha do not worry abt feedback being repetitive i literally feel like a little kid being rewarded for good school work or something it makes me so happy everytime… BUT SO TRJE JUSTICE FOR HYUNHO IN THE VIOLIX UNIVERSE i need to write fluff for them because it’s just :,) sad at this point </3 my poor babies omg. anyway!!!!!! how was ur day or week or just. since the last time i talked to u. HOW R U

#.asks #.nat (＾∇＾) #this song is so lovely

[navramanan]

Loved beyond evil for the "your family could have died but you still have to eat" and the "we might fight with each other but when the enemy messes with us we become one" and the "will you be alright?" and the "do wenches deserve to be murdered?" and the "there's things that can't be left for law to handle" and the "you knew i did this and you chose to not tell anyone" and the "even if you were gonna land in a fiery pit you have to eat" and the "let's go inside" and the "you don't need to be successful, as long as you eat well, sleep well and not hurt anyone you're good enough"

#the found family the loyalty the trust the i care for you so eat well sleep well poop well #seoul town boy found himself a family in a miserable town #seoul town boyyyyy met people that care for him invite him over for meals tell him to not skip his meals help him out when he asks #seoul town boyyyyyy 🎶🎶 #beyond evil #nesi rants #edit added that last line because that's actually one of my fav #but now this has 2 reblogs already if this version dies i'll be damned 💔

[jacobseedz]

Care pt.1

Professor Snape x Student!Reader

1340 words lol

Been feeling kinda shitty for the past months, so I thought I’d write something w my fav Prof :))) Hope you enjoy it, and I beforehand apologise for any errors, english is not my first language. I’M SORRY IF SEV IS SOOO OUT OF CHARACTER DKDKDK NOT EDITED SO IM REALLY SORRY BOUT THE ERRORS DKDJ LOVE YALL

Part 2   Part 3

Another bad, unproductive day. Nothing seemed to be quite alright for a long time. Nobody noticed your mood lately, but it was nothing new, you were used to it. Your parents were too busy, working for the Ministry of Magic. Your friends had their own problems, and the teachers? Why would they even give a damn..

You laid in bed for about twenty minutes, staring pointlessly at the ceiling. There were no classes to attend, it was Christmas after all. Everyone from your dormitory had left Hogwarts to spend the holidays with their family. Only you stayed behind, your parents wouldn't be home, so there was no point in leaving.

Looking to your left, you saw Jinx, your pet bat hanging upside down, soundlessly asleep. At least she could sleep with no care in the world. 

Deciding to roam around, you got up, maybe you'd stop for food in the kitchens. The kitchen elves were particularly fond of you, and always gave you a small snack or some sweets. As long as you were nice to the elves, they were happy to give food out.

With a sigh, you throw off the soft blanket. Your grandma gave it to you before passing away. It was a birthday gift.

Upon the last memory of her, tears welled up in your eyes, which you quickly wiped away. She was your biggest supporter, teacher, and the only close family... until death came for her. And that was the breaking line.. You felt stupid, crying and walking down the hall, where everyone could see. Even though it was nearly nighttime, and half of the students who stayed were probably in their dormitories by now. However, the ghosts were always around, some taunting you, some playing tricks, and some being indifferent. 

The closer the kitchen got, the faster you started wiping the tears away. Finally, able to breathe properly, you put on a small smile, and entered the area. Two elves greeted with warm smiles. They never said a word to you, not that it was a problem. Without a word, just a wink one of them gave you a long bar of chocolate, skittles and a bottle of chocolate milk. 

"Thank you.." you whispered. You left with a wave, still smiling softly. Now you just had to find a place to sit down.

Two more turns, and you found yourself before the staircase leading to the dungeons. It was one of your favourite places. Whenever you felt sad or just exhausted with life you came there. Sometimes you managed to cross paths with your professor, however you prayed to Dumbledore that he was already down there. It would've been an embarrassment if he'd see you in such state.

Munching on your treats, tears began flowing down again. This year was just so terrible for you. Your grandma passed away, your grades got worse, you parents were always working and your friends just stopped caring.

Loud footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Before you could wipe your face, Professor Snape came into view, a nasty scowl on his face. Upon seeing you, his expression changed, it softened a little bit. 

Since he started teaching you, he saw great potential, not once did you make a mistake in brewing a potion or on a test. You were always the first one to give it back, or answer a tricky question on many lessons. He liked your passion about potions, always approaching it with delicacy and great precision. 

And you never spoke any ill words about him, quite on the contrary, you defended him handful of times. And it warmed his cold heart, making him put down the tough layers he built around himself, just for you. On free periods, you came to his classroom, offering your help in arranging the cupboard or preparing for his next lesson, like bringing important jars and such. 

Students noticed how you became the only favourite student, always going soft on you, never giving a snarky comment, only small praises, sometimes even a smirk, although barely noticable for others. 

"OH.. Professor-" you started, getting up. Your cheeks heat up, embarrassment washing over you. 

"Come along, Y/N." he spoke quietly, going down the stairs, towards his office. 

Not wasting much time, you walked behind him. Vision still blurred from the tears, you took careful steps, afraid you'd fall and break your bones. 

You didn't know if you should curse Dumbledore or actually thank him. Maybe Snape's company would actually cheer you up, or worsen your mood. 

"Alohomora..." he muttered, letting you in first with a small nod. 

You went further in, sitting down on the couch near the fireplace,and opposite Snape's armchair. It was like a ritual, most of your holidays you spent there. Severus would always make tea for both of you, and sit down by the fireplace. Some days were in comfortable silence, just enjoying each others company, and on some days you'd make small talk, or discuss many topics. But it never felt forced.

"Green tea, as always I presume?" he questioned, raising a brow. 

"Yes, that would be lovely, thank you." 

He nodded, turning the kettle on. You smiled, it was nice to have someone show a little bit interest in your well-being.

"How are the first years?" you asked, staring into the fire, pushing your hands out trying to warm them.

"Horrid. Not one brat knew what I would get if I added root of Asphodel to an infusion of wormwood.." he exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

"HA! Easy. Draught of Living Death." you shouted triumphantly.

"Precisely. Well done." he praised, smirking. You looked down, blushing madly. He knew it would lighten your mood a little bit.

"It couldn't be that bad though? I heard Jack got better in potions.."

Severus let out an annoyed sigh. "He just made the potion explode. Instead of cutting the Sopophorus bean while making Felix Felicis , he should've smashed it, brings out the juice more. Damn dunderhead .."

"Oof, well, next time I see him, I'll tutor him a little bit."

Severus handed you the tea, sitting on the armchair, taking a sip of his own one. You handed him the other half of the chocolate bar.

"Don't bother... How are your parents?"

You offered a weak smile. "Good, busy as always, but working for the Ministry is like that, so what can I say."

"How have you been lately, professor?" you questioned, looking into his eyes.

"I've told you many times before, call me Severus." he gave a small smile, making your heart melt instantly. "Good, although the holidays aren't my favourite, I prefer that muggle tradition called Halloween."

"Oh Merlin! Me too! Especially when the elves make pumpkin pasties and delicious cranberry punch." your laugh was like a beautiful melody to the dark-haired man.

"Ah, yes. Though the idea of scaring those isolent brats is just too tempting to pass." he smirked.

He frowned quickly. It threw you off a bit.

"I've noticed your grades getting worse. Minerva approached me before the christmas break. She worries about you, as do the other teachers. And I." he said softly. "You were always a top student. What changed?"

Tears welled up in your eyes for the milionth time. The teachers actually care? Professor McGonagall even came to Severus?

So lost in your thoughts you didn't realise Severus sat beside you, his worried gaze on you.

"I'm sorry.." you managed to whisper, before heavy sobs took over your body.

The cold man instantly took you into his warm embrance, caressing your soft hair, rocking you back and forth. Who would've thought that a man like Severus Snape would ever hug someone and try to make their every problem dissapear, because he cares so deeply. You really wreaked your way into his heart, that actually lied existed, but under many layers of thick walls.

"Shhh. It's alright. We're here, I'll help you as much as I can, and so will others. Don't worry." he promised. 

You pushed your head into the crook of his neck, hugging him as tightly as he was you.

"Thank you.."

#severus snape #severus snape x reader #professor snape x reader #professor snape x student reader #snape x reader #snape x student reader #ss x reader #snape x you #fluff #harry potter #minerva mcgonagall #harry potter universe #hogwarts

[clementineesotsm]

THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH EP 13, My Appreciation and How It Made Me Feel

We started this episode with Lady Noh story on how she came to Corea. Lady Noh’s face when she knows that the war end ugly was so sad. The scroring they insert here is suitable to the situation 💯.

She has the old edition of kim sowol poems thats kind of explained, at least to me, why they use her voice everytime the poems shows up.

I admit it, PM Koo fooled me with her sad face. I thought she was in love. But no, it was all greed and ambition. But i have to admit it, this words of hers was satisfying and one of the best lines the series has

PM Koo “I liked being next to you. That was where i could see you the best. But you say that it is not my place. What should i do now? Will i be able to see you better if i stood in opposition to you?”

Gon “Stop, PM Koo, if you crossed the line any further-“

PM Koo “i started at the bottom and climbed up all the way here toward the king. But since you’ve had it all from birth, love is all it takes to move you. What will my heart beat for now, pyeha? I dont think it’ll be for honesty and loyalty.”

WOW! Very honest and raw. I loved it.

Also i loved how they made the thunder came just after see ended her words, good timing. Added to the tension. Showing to Pyeha that she already did crossed the line that far.

JTE met PM Koo on the way, and exposed her. PM scars also shown in front of JTE. JTE running to inform Gon, so now Gon is knowing the fact PM is crossing to Korea

Gon is going to NFS to investigate why is this scars keep showing. Actually at this point im guessing that the scars shown up only to people which their counterparts are dead, murdered or else. Because JTE dont have it, KSJ, JY also dont have. LR loyal minion from Corea dont have before, lately he has it after his counterpart is dead.

Moving on to my fav part now. Im actually really worried that someone try to kill JES 😭 my heart beating so fast, until ....

Another satisfying scene was when we see PM met LR. Both interesting villain and could make a beautiful couple. Their mind was connected to each other no need to explain thing to each other 😅 i also loved how they play with so many different camera angle just for this short scene. Made it more satisfying.

And move on to the scene where we saw the shoes then move to PM Koo while she said

“You’re the one who chose where i should go in these heels, pyeha”

I love the camera movements, the words, the music!

Another revelation we got is about KSJ mom. She was asking Lady Noh to meet Gon and speak to him directly. This words of her was well made (kudos to the writer):

“I saw you with my son, KSJ. It was the last photo that LR gave to me. And with it, i received the poison. So i gambled. I drank the poison instead of poisoning you. If i died, i’d be paying for my sins, and if i lived, i’d talk to you in person like this. Its shameless of me, but im asking you to decide the fate of my son. He didn’t do anything wrong, please protect my son, Pyeha”

Its also heartbreaking to see Gon actually thinking to do the request if you saw his face gesture changed, the beginning he is a bit angry, at the end he sigh-ing. He is the one who almost been killed but the killer ask him to do a favor. What a cruel world

Then we moved to Luna in Korea met JTE father. I really cannot hate this woman, why? Is it because of her face resemblance to JTE who i loved a lot, or is it because she lives unfortunately or because her being soft around this dad figures 🥺🥺 i guess if im in a parallel world i’ll will be kind to people that are counterparts of my family or friends no matter their personality 😅 no matter if they try to kill me.

Also can we give standing applause for KGE acting ? This girl deserve a daesang!

Then we got a glimpse of JY actually already located Gons mom doppelgänger while tailing KSJ mom. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone

JTE made it to locate LR gate to Corea but Gon said its dangerous because when they crossed the gate times stops for hours. But this information still important for Gon later on episode 16 😎 you know i love this couple because they communicate to each other. They way the comfort each other making me soft. Also i love how JTE role in this whole series is really important, she is the symbol of hope. The kind of strong woman with a satisfying personality. Why i said she is the symbol of hope, because she is a believer with the analogy of her tirelessly seeding the magic plant in room between 1 and 0. It seems impossible, but if you believe and try, who knows? This is i think a symbol of hope and hope is an important thing to have during dark times. Thats what keeps you going.

Also we got a bit of an insight from Gon which still pretty much assumptions that “if theres a time axis in there as a space axis, then it’ll be possible” he just didn’t know what the rules yet. And that is really in line with probability theory, one of the variable to measure it is random experiment, which is a physical situation whose outcome cannot be predicted until it is observed. So please dont complain on why the rules is not clear yet.

I loved the writers because she seems to be consistent connected this all with mathematical aspect, eventhough its subtle. You just need to read between the lines. And thats what i love a lot 💕

Everyone is back now and JTE already knew Luna is also here and take her place.

I will ended this first page with JY and KSJ speaking. I loved KSJ words here omg! And JY being petty, i don’t understand. I know he just being overprotective but come on. Even KSJ understand Gon and JTE situation

Preach!

To be continue..

#the king eternal monarch #tkem #lee min ho #kim go eun #woo do hwan #jung eun chae #kim kyung nam #lee jung jin #kim eun sook #kdrama

[mego42]

tumblr has decided @medievalraven isn’t allowed to send me asks anymore but LOOPHOLE!! there’s always messages. Nice try tumblr.

1. What is one of your biggest beefs with spellcheck?

It’s less spellcheck and more Grammarly. I have the Chrome extension turned on so it’ll do basic spelling and grammar editing in my docs and it’s generally great but the robots also really, really, really don’t grasp context sometimes. It also straight-up does not understand the difference between weather and whether and it drives me nuts because I also do not fully understand it and have to quadruple check every time it calls me out. 

13. What are you trying to make fanon through sheer force of will via your writing?

LITERALLY EVERY HEADCANON I HAVE ABOUT MICK IS RIGHT AND TRUE AND I WILL PHYSICALLY FIGHT A SHOW WRITER OVER MY VERSION. I WAS HERE FIRST, YOU FOLLOW MY LEAD. 

Also, all your (my) favs are queer/bi. I am not entertaining any rebuttals or naysaying at this time or any other. I don’t particularly care if y’all pick it up as widely acknowledged canon, I know I’m right and will judge accordingly. 

21. What’s a writerly tic/habit of yours you like?

I stg I just answered this but it turns out it is a slightly different version of the question and it took me three tries to understand the difference. This is definitely the fault of the question and not my own reading comprehension. Who came up with these asks anyway?????

ANYWAY. Writerly habits, um, idk, I guess that I’m doing it and not letting myself quit? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about writing and even trying writing but I’ve never pushed myself to actually see it through quite like I’ve been doing the last few months. And while I def pushed myself a little hard and kind of burnt out a bit, I’m also not letting myself give up even though there have been a number of times I’ve really, really wanted to. I try really hard to make myself do something every day, even if it’s as minimal as rereading part of a draft and tweaking sentences or adding a line to an outline, just to keep my head in the game to some degree and I particularly like that trick bc it keeps my attention span from not entirely moving on as it’s wont to do.

23. Do you think you refer to characters by name enough? Too much? Both?? Neither???

Ahahahaha def not enough. On more than one occasion I have gone back and realized a rough draft only includes like, one instance of a character’s name and then a billion pronouns.

25. Any words you HATE?

I feel like there are a lot but I can’t think of any of them right now so really how much do I hate them? Def chillax, that’s like, the worst word that’s ever been invented. I’m not particularly fond of the word flesh unless it’s like, a horror context. I think that’s more of my thing, what’s the context you’re using the word in? That makes all the difference in the world. Except chillax. That word is always terrible. 

what sensible writing asks!!!

#idfk what writerly habits i really have #messy google drive? #a billion outline and notes docs? #horrible posture? #13 different thesauruses bookmarked? #what even are writer habits? #i dont do anything cool like handwrite #or write drunk #well most of the time anyway #sensible writing asks #ask me stuff

[asleepinawell]

End Of The Year Writing Roundup

artists do their end of the year posts with highlights from each month and, since i had a really productive writing year, i wanted to do something similar for my writing

As a note, I talk about how much I wrote quite a bit because I’m very proud of the amount of content I produced, BUT I do not in any way, shape, or form think that quantity = quality or that writers who put out a lot of content are better. I judge my own writing pretty harshly to myself and a lot of my best writing is actually shorter pieces. Good to keep in mind!

Highlights of 2019:

--I broke one million words posted on ao3! (posted ever, not 1 mil in 2019 that would be nuts). 916,677 of those words were shoot fics.

--The ao3 stats list me having written 389,262 words this year, but that is inaccurate. The stat includes the full word count for every fic I added to, even if most of it was written a different year. I was too lazy to figure out exact numbers but I think it was probably closer to 280k. That’s a lot!

--Machina (a fantasy au) was the longest thing I wrote (only 3 chapters were from 2018) though sadly I did not finish it this year as I’d hoped (an unfortunate amount of vampire smut was written instead oops)

--The Lighthouse Keeper was almost definitely my favorite piece I worked on this year. I wrote it in a 2-day hyperfocused haze and I was super pleased with how it turned out. Also learned a ton of cool but probably useless facts about lighthouses. Through Dark Waters was my next fav. They have a very similar aesthetic in some ways.

Jan-March: 11 chapters of Machina

April-June: Through Dark Waters (my poi dishonored au) + 1 more chapter of Machina

July-August: Force Outcasts (my poi star wars au), Disentanglement one-shot, a chapter of Feedback Loops, The Lighthouse Keeper (lovecrafty gothic fic)

Sept-Nov : 6 more chapters of Machina, a chapter of Feedback Loops, Once Bitten Twice Gay (the first of the vampire fics)

Dec: A fic for shoot secret santa, and FOUR more vampire fics

Conclusions:

I wrote a lot of E-rated content this year wow what happened

I got fond of writing shorter (under 20k other than one exception) fics in full before posting them which is a departure from how I usually write

I started using reference materials a lot more while writing. Mostly in the form of finding pictures of places, clothes, weapons, aesthetics to help me internalize a mood or describe something better

In 2020 one of my goals is actually to write less and read more. I tend to stop reading (and doing anything else) when I’m writing a lot and when I go back and crack open a book it’s like feeling my mind stretch and wake up. I strongly believe that reading is one of the best ways to get good at writing and also my reading backlog is terrifying

Maybe also I will finally revisit Neon and Dust in 2020 

I was trying to find some favorite lines I wrote but most of them make no sense out of context. nonetheless, they are almost all humor of some sort. This one may really be my favorite though:

So it’s been a great writing year and I want to say thank you to everyone who read/liked/reblogged/commented/kudoed! Here’s links to the fics I wrote this year:

Machina - shoot fantasy au (almost done i swear) Through Dark Waters - poi dishonored au Force Outcasts - poi star wars au Disentanglement - one-shot fic about root and identity Homecomings - chapter of feedback loops of shoot enthusiastically welcoming each other home Touch - chapter of feedback loops that’s basically just about how gay root’s last braincell is The Lighthouse Keeper - new england gothic/lovecrafty poi au  Winter Mystery - cute one-shot for secret santa Shoot Vampire AU - series of fics with shaw as a vampire

As a side note to this, since I also do content-creation in the form of gifs and edits:

96 poi gifsets in 2019!!!!! what the FUCK

34 poi edit stills

6 poi crack posts

A smattering of gifsets for other fandoms i’m too lazy to hunt them down

The great mystery of why I’m always exhausted is becoming clearer!

#ty for indulging this moment of self-reflection and shameless self-promotion #mp #my writing #personal #the gifset number feels too high and i kind of want to double check but i'm worried it's right and i'll be even more bewildered

[marcarella-pizza]

Colouring/ Shading/ Lighting for Digital art

HI! Hello~ I’m here and I have a teeny tiny tutorial for you today (courtesy of dear Melito who actually wants my help??? I’m??? Blessed??? I realise that there’s a lot of you who have no clue who the fuck this person I’m referring to is, oh well, not my problem — ur missing out on hella great cake.)

So I have a timelapse of everything (below, duh, in case you can’t scroll) and I’m also gonna make comments on it cus ya know, these vids are only a minute long and thirty fucking megabytes like Jesus Christ.

So without further ado-do!

Should I have added music? Probably??? Ehhh the deathly silence can comfort you. (Wow what a mood.)

The Run Down:

Is rundown one word or two??

When colouring, I break it up into three main steps: base, line and “Hiding All My Fuck Ups”

(First) Base

I’ve never made it to first base... or any base

When colouring, use a non translucent brush to colour in everything. As in, so it’s completely solid??? Where’s my English today?

For every different colour, put it on another layer! I tend to do the skin colour first. You can go over lines that will be covered with another colour... did that make sense?

That’s it, I just felt the need to have three steps at least.

Line

As in... line art.

What I do is I lock my layer — that means when I try to add colour, colour will only be applied to the area that’s been drawn on.

I usually colour pick the colour I used for the base, and the line looks very pale when done (I do this with a non translucent brush too)

I then adjust the layer with lineart so the colour looks darker and more saturated. For my program (Medibang) I go Filter > Hue > Max out the saturation and lower the brightness > save. Sometimes I may do it again if it’s not dark enough.

If you can’t edit the colour then there’s another way! Duplicate your lineart > select the layer on top > change blending/ layer type to “Multiply” (it multiples the colour... duh)

If THAT doesn’t work I have one last suggestion before I sadly admit idk — duplicate line art > select top layer > colour the entire think a dark colour or black > lower the opacity

Line art done! (This time I wanted six steps — 6 is my fav number)

“Hiding All My Fuck Ups”

I rely on this too much okay?

I can actually further split this into two; shading and “I’m Kidding Myself” — let’s begin!

Shading

To shade, I work from bottom layer up!

What you’re gonna do, is select your bottom colour, (or any really but ORDER HELPS) and lock the layer.

Why? That way it’s easier to colour without going over the lines! (Your building on the foundation you set essentially)

With a semi translucent brush (FYI, translucent brushes are thinks like “blur” or “smudge” that purely affect what’s there and do not add anything) I use the watercolour brush set at 15-20% opacity.

I’ll eyedrop the base colour that I’m shading, and with the colour wheel, tru and find a darker version of that. NOTE: when looking for a darker colour, I don’t go to the black, I try and find a more saturated colour OR a darker HUE — black is a curse, I don’t ever use pure black or pure white — give your work the colour it deserves UwU

With the watercolour brush, I literally run the darker colour over all lines that indicate a shade (imagine a light somewhere and what that light touches is what you mainly focus on)

For clothes, I follow the creases I’ve drawn

For hair, I tru to imagine the hair in three main shapes and run the colour over the perimeters of those

Then it’s time to blend! I usually just eye drop the base colour again for this, and trace (lightly, our tablets have pressure sensitivity — same going for steps 1-8) the line that divides the light from the dark, adding a middle ground since the watercolour brush is only semi transparent.

For adding blush to skin: create new layer above skin layer > set to multiply, again, if you can’t do this then you follow same steps as before with line art) > using an Airbrush like brush (soft, no sharp edges, kind blurred), colour the skin areas that need blush.

Skin areas that need blush; areas with LOTS of blood vessels (head... the OTHER head...) areas with thinner skin (elbows, knuckles, knees)

If your skin layer was on the bottom, your blush will only appear on top of the skin and not the other layers!

Just be careful about the areas outside the drawing — you may need to do some tiny erasing

Finally, merge all the colours together. Sometimes different layer types don’t like to merge together without screwing up your other layers, to avoid simply merge them one at a time from bottom up.

As in, second last one and last one merged together, then the one above that merged with the last one — merge everything with the last one... AM I MAKING SENSE?!

I’ll usually merge the lineart with the colour too — I just didn’t here for some reason

“I’m Kidding Myself”

Here we add stuff that hides flaws and merges the character with a background if you have one!

I use three types of layers for this, if your program doesn’t use these then see if they have similar functioning ones (I’m always experimenting so this isn’t set in stone) if your program has nothing then... this will be a little harder, you’re gonna have to do this by hand somehow.

I use these kinds of blending layers; Multiply, Overlay and Add

First I prevent getting the colour on anything BUT the character; magic wand tool > select the empty space > hold ctrl/shift and keep tapping to add or remove areas > invert if you need in order for the art piece to be selected

You can see this when my background when blue, I’m basically highlighting my art of Yuri

Colour this entire space on a new layer. The colour I use doesn’t change here on out (except in the video I do cus I lose the colour but that’s aside the point). When choosing a colour, consider the colour of light — I use human colours??? Colours you find on a person essentially.

As a general rule of thumb; for every new thing, new layer, it gets a little harder here. I also use a semi translucent (watercolour) brush again for everything!

Now we have a silhouette of Yuri — I set this to multiply, it’s essentially like a highlighter marker pen but darker?? This is so that I may adjust the entire colour to fit the lighting colour

New layer (NL), I set to Overlay. Overlay is like multiply except bright! Remember what I did when shading? Yep, rinse and repeat! Afterwards, adjust the layer’s opacity setting so that it fits better with the image.

I’ll also make the brush really tiny and go over hey areas to highlight such as the edge of the nose, chin and jaw — I’ll also add shine to the eyes.

NL, set to Add. I only ever use this layer if I want to achieve “blinding lights” sort of looks. So when the lighting is immense, I have a white background, or the background is incredibly bright.

I use add layer scarcely, to blemish any lines and make it look more refined. I’ll also adjust opacity if need be.

NL, I’ll use the airbrush set too REALLY BIG (1000 usually) and if I have a background, will try and add light to it by making this layer multiply too. I’ll add darkness in the side or corner of the background etc.

NL do the same thing with Add except also make a point for where the light is coming from.

NL, I’ll use a mix of Add and Overlay to add sparkles, fragments, light spots etc depending on image type of need be

Using a Fluffy pastel brush (it’s textured) I also use pure white. This is the only time I ever do.

I’ll add reflection to eyes, jaw and nose. For hair, I’ll pick out a few strands of hair where it’s darker and throw in some loose lines. Clothes are rarely outlined and only where light touch. I use this limitedly.

Ctrl + D ;) to deselect the lasso tool — I don’t usually merge the layers after this because it’s usually too messy and I’m done anyway so I save it, however you CAN put them all in a FOLDER if need be. (I have a few in my vid, the entire thing is in a folder tbh)

Voila! That’s it!

I hope this has been of some help or use! And that this makes SOME sense... I’m absolute shit at explaining everything...

This was incredibly fun to do tho and I spent two hours typing this all! Wow!

Okay thanks for reading! (Hope this helped Melitooooooo, don’t forget the wedding cake ~ v/ important part of marriage you know)

#art #digital art #yoi #yuri plisetsky #art tutorial #tutorial #colouring tutorial #how to colour #colour and shading #how to draw

[takatofan]

For the first time, I just got done watching Digimon Tamers, subbed, and I really wanted to talk about it. I know I don’t have many people following me but I wanted to talk about this anyway, just put my thoughts out there. (Don’t expect major dub bashing, because I’ll always love my dub, but I may point a couple things I don’t like.) Note: I will always use Dub names out of habit/it’s what I know best.

The dub has a special place in my heart. It was one of only two anime's that I ever got up on Saturday morning for as a kid. (I didn’t get the WB in my area, so I couldn’t watch Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! as it aired.) I was an outcast in school, and Tamers made me so many friends online, a friend I even called once a week for a few years, and a few years later, a boyfriend, who I’m still with. (I didn’t get into Digimon until a month before Tamers came out, and I didn’t get connected with the fandom until then.)

But all these years, I wanted to eventually see the sub. I had been aware of some edits, but even besides those, I always wanted to see my favorite anime the way it was intended to be seen. But first they weren’t available, and by the time they were, I got to a point where it was harder for me to focus on subs. But I finally watched it.

I will always prefer my dub, but watching the original was just fascinating. First off it amazes me how quiet the sub is. The dub usually filled it with something - In earlier seasons a joke, but in Tamers while it could be a joke, it was also quite often exposition.

I knew the sub would have less random jokes, but I wasn’t prepared for just how reserved and polite the kids were. The thing that got me the most was, in ep 21, when Leomon first appears, when Juri tells Takato that Leomon is her partner, and Takato says congratulations, and Leomon in the dub says “Now hold on...” In the dub, Takato replied a - NOT sarcastic, but funny, serious/intimidated “Sir yes sir...” But in the sub, Leomon says “Wait a second” and what does sub Takato reply to hold on? .... “I will.” ..... That... is just a level of politeness I was not expecting. If someone asked me to wait a second, I would either not say anything and wait, or maaaybe say ‘okay’, or ‘what?’. But to SAY “I will (wait a second)?” I just XD. I’m all for polite but that's too much XD.

Since the dub leaves all the references to them being in Japan, I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t leave in Henry being half Chinese. They left in the Chinese Zodiac and something about Hong Kong later in the show, I wonder if the dub just thought that wasn’t important, or what? And I mean, it really doesn’t change anything to me, but it’s interesting. (If you’re curious the conversation was just changed to how good Guilmon and Terriermon were getting along, and the fight that just happened with Rika) The tone was more serious, which I expected to a point, but I wasn’t expecting this level. Terriermon was a perfect angel compared to the dub. Dub terriermon is a big selling point of my enjoyment, but even so, it was interesting to see how reserved he was.

I had known of changes and things for years, like the rooster was serious and in the dub it was THE DEVAH!!!!! but actually kinda creeped me out in the sub. I’m glad the dub made it more humorous.

Interesting thing I noticed even before watching the sub, was that they cut less stuff out than previous seasons. While Adventure and 02 cut out any references to guns and cigarettes, both made its way in Tamers. In ep 19 or 20, Impmon gets a gun pulled on him by a cop, and it wasn’t edited. I wouldn’t think adding the line “Should I tell him I don’t have any ammo?” would have made leaving it in okay compared to adventure and 02? So it’s interesting. In ep 8, a guy is trying to light a cigarette before Impmon appears to try and light it, and while trying to light it was cut, when we see impmon and the guy, you can still see the cigarette in his hand. Meanwhile twice in later eps we see Yamaki’s apartment and we see a huge ash tray filled with butts. Surprised that wasn’t edited.

My biggest surprise for something being edited came with episode 23. I had always heard that part of hypnos collapsing was edited, which makes sense, since this aired just a couple months after 9/11, but what I didn’t expect was the end to have a 20-30 second scene of just the tamers + Kazu and Kenta, on a blue background, running with determination. Wasn’t a big thing or a big deal, but it was interesting. Not sure it wasn’t shown.

One thing I think the Dub added to it that it got right, IMO (Though I don’t think it was planned ahead of time) : When Leomon died, and when Juri’s mom died, Fate was mentioned, but the dub, in both instances instead said: “A part of (them) will always be with you”, and to me that was more powerful, especially when Juri’s mom died, and she ran around the hospital in the memory saying “WHERE?! WHERE IS THE PART THAT’S WITH ME?!” Looking for it. And then, that was called back in the last couple eps, when Grani sacrificed himself to give Gallantmon wings, and Takato said “A part of you will always be with us.��� - where as in the sub there wasn’t a reference to fate. It was just a really good recurring theme, to me.

There were a couple things that I was curious about watching the sub. Namely, if Calumon knew about his power all along and the dub messed it up, and how they were going to get back from the digital world.

With Calumon, the first time Takato asks him, in the dub, what Takato asks comes out wrong and Calumon gets offended. In the sub, it seems more like he knows what Takato’s talking about but doesn’t want to talk about, but as the show goes on, it seems more that he really didn’t know.

As for the digital world... in the dub, Ryo tells them he can take them home, but they have to go through another world first, then Shibumi tells them they have to go to the highest plane of the digital world, where the four sovereign are. But then neither of those things ever come into play, and they just have to wait for the arc. I was really curious if the dub screwed this up, or if the writers just didn’t know what they were doing. The verdict? ... I think the dub was confused - I don’t think they understood what was being said. I didn’t get it at first either. When Ryo said it, he, Kazu, Kenta, and Rika, were all in the giant clock. Kazu says “Do you know how to get out of here?” and he says “Yes, but we have to go through another area.” - I’m not even completely sure I have this straight as I type this (and I just rewatched the sub scene) but I think what it was, is sub Kazu was asking how to get out of the clock, but just “Out of here” and the dub took that as “Out of the digital world”, in which Ryo said, “Yes, but we have to go through another world first.”. With Shibumi in ep 32... that one I do blame the dub, going home was kind of inserted into the conversation about getting to the sovereign out of nowhere.

I’m sure there are other things I would have commented on. I wish I took notes while I was watching. (I watched it slowly with my bf over the last 2 months.) But over all, watching the sub was a very interesting experience, but I will always love my dub. Also even when it was new, I liked the darker aspects that the dub left in, but I’m not sure I would have liked a faithful translation at the age I watched it. I need my Mona Marshall Terriermon jokes, my Steve Blum innocent Guilmon, and most of the dumb jokes.

Ending this with random: A few of my fav dub jokes:

Random man: “It’s just a toupee...” Random Woman: “Yes but you wear it on your chest...” Guilmon: You’re ear is tickling my foot. Terriermon: You’re foot is tickling my ear. Calumon: ....I wanna tickle something!

Terriermon: If I was a big red Dinosaur looking for fun I’d go.... .... .... ... OH WHO KNOW’S WHERE HE’D GO, DINOSAURS ARE WEIRD!!!!!!

(Guardramon was GOLD in the dub.)

Kazu: Two sad girls.... I haven’t even started dating yet.... and I’ve got to deal with two sad girls.... Guardramon: Once you start dating I’m sure you’ll make MANY girls sad!!!!

Kazu: Where’d Suzie go?

Guardramon: She flew away! Kazu: SHE FLEW AWAY?! BUT HOW?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING HER!!!! Guardramon: I was! I watched the whole thing!

Many others, but I’ll stop there. :) Sorry for my rant, if you read, I hope you enjoyed. :)

#Digimon #Digimon Tamers

[sheliesshattered]

Fic meme

I was tagged by @primarybufferpanel​ -- thank you darling, this was a ton of fun to do!

This got a bit long, so I’ll put the people I’m tagging here at the top:  @claraaoswald​, @ambitious-witch​, @someillplanetreigns​, and @junoinferno​, if you feel like playing!

My AO3, my old non-updating fanfiction.net

Fandoms I’ve made fanworks for: Oh lord. I’m only going to count fanfiction that has actually been posted, but if I tried to count up every fandom that I’d started writing for and left unfinished fragments languishing on various harddrives and googledocs over the years, it’d be at least double this list. I have two pseuds on AO3, with the fics roughly organized by fandoms that I post about on this Tumblr account (sheliesshattered) and fandoms that pre-date my time on Tumblr that I don’t post about very much (glasscannon). Putting all the fandoms together in one alphabetized list:

Black Sails - 5 Doctor Who - 8 Firefly/Serenity - 1 Game of Thrones - 1 The Hobbit - 1 The Hunger Games - 1 Iron Man - 2 Law & Order: Criminal Intent - 1 Mad Max - 2 Once Upon A Time - 1 Poldark - 3 Star Wars - 3 Twilight - 7 The West Wing - 1

Number of fics: 38, including a big unfinished epic that I never moved over from ff.n, and don’t plan to unless I finish it someday.

Fics I spent more time on: I’m not even quite sure how to measure this. I’m a slow writer, and a single story can easily hold my attention for years at a time, or be something I return to when there isn’t a newer fandom temporarily consuming me. I don’t tend to keep track of how many hours I put into a fanfic, though. The unfinished epic I mentioned is probably near the top of that list, and was a huge part of my life from 2009 to 2013. Other contenders would be the All Hands series (written with PBP!), and Truth Universally Acknowledged, particularly if you include all the massive world-building that went into that one. 

But really probably the one I’ve poured the most hours into, between research and writing, is a Doctor Who epic that hasn’t yet seen the light of day, called Home The Long Way ‘Round. Because I have such a habit of starting long stories and then not finishing them, I’m making myself get that one completely done before I post any of it to AO3, so I don’t have anything to show for it yet, but I’ve put a ton of time into it over the last five years or so. Hopefully someday I’ll actually get to share it. :)

Fics I spent less time on: Like I said, I’m a very slow writer, so any time I can turn out a story in a matter of days I’m just absolutely shocked. I wrote The Message over the course of about 24 hours, which is probably the fastest I’ve ever finished anything in my life ever, lol.

Longest fic: The All Hands series is sitting at 126,800 words, and PBP and I have more finished for it that we’re hoping to post soon-ish. The unfinished epic made it to almost 119,000 words before I ran out of steam. Truth Universally Acknowledged racked up about 54,000 words before my co-writer and I took a break from it, and probably triple that in world-building bibles and timelines, etc. On the works-in-progress side of things, Home The Long Way ‘Round is sitting at about 40,000 words currently and only about a third of the way done, and the For As Long As We Get series is at 21,000 words between what I’ve posted and what I’m still working on, and will definitely continue to grow.

Shortest story: 10 Seconds, at 208 words. Also one of the very first fanfics I ever finished and posted online.

Most hits: Truth Universally Acknowledged, by like a factor of 20 vs anything else I have on AO3. It’s the only time I’ve written for the main pairing in an active fandom (tho my purview in the co-writing was more on the secondary pairing), and that translated to a stupidly large number of hits. Fanfiction.net doesn’t count hits the same way, but the unfinished epic is sitting at about 3500 favs.

Most kudos: Setting The Stuns’ls, the first in the All Hands series -- which is SHOCKING considering that’s a tiny rowboat of a fandom, for a non-canon background pairing that has literally about 30 seconds of shared screentime, and the two romantic leads don’t so much as kiss over the course of 94,000 words (longing looks, significant hand-touches, mutual pining, definitely, but kissing, not so much).

Most bookmarks: Truth Universally Acknowledged, by a long shot.

Fic you want to rewrite or expand: I don’t tend to edit a story once it’s been posted, beyond correcting a typo or adding a missed word. Once it’s published, it’s finished and I don’t change it significantly. I do have quite a few (so, so many) unfinished stories that I would love to finish up at some point.

Total words combined: Counting only published fics, including the unfinished epic (and a companion piece for it) that lives only on ff.n, I’m currently at 376,542 words total.

Fav fic you wrote: How can you make me choose between my children like this, honestly?? Siiiigh. I’m with PBP, whatever I’m working on currently is usually my favorite. I’m having a ton of fun with For As Long As We Get, and can’t wait to publish the next part of that, hopefully sometime this month. I’m incredibly proud of All Hands, and that occupied such a specific time in my life that I’ll always think of it fondly. I’m exceptionally happy with the character voices and use of language in both Breathe Again and Upon This Rock Will I Break Myself, Until It Shows Me Your Beloved Face, and tend to feel like they don’t get enough love vs how much I love them. But my one true favorite is and will always be Home The Long Way ‘Round, and hopefully I’ll actually be able to finish it and post it someday.

Share a bit of your WIP or idea if you have anything planned: Again, how can I possibly choose just one?? Even just within the Doctor Who fandom, I currently have more than half a dozen stories actively in progress. But since I’ve talked it up so much without being able to link to it at all, and just declared it my all-time fav, I’m going to break one of my own rules and post the whole first chapter (eek!) of Home The Long Way��‘Round behind a read more:

Chapter 1: Orange Dreams

The sound of the wind is whispering in your head Can you feel it coming back? Through the warmth, through the cold, keep running ‘til we’re there. We're coming home now, we’re coming home now. —Home, Dotan

 The winds shrieked and howled around her. Clara had never been in a tornado, but she imagined it would feel like this to stand in the eye of one. She could see gusts lifting the tops off the sand dunes in shimmering ribbons, gold against the orange sky. The waves of airborne sand dissipated a few feet from her, leaving only a jagged grittiness in the air.

A woman with long blonde hair was yelling at her, her words ripped away by the wind.

“Tell me again!” Clara called back to her. “Tell me how to find home!”

“It’s just physics!” the other woman shouted, taking a step closer; they were nearly the same height. “No information can ever be lost! Start from zero, and run the math! We’ll be waiting on the other end of that equation!”

There was something Clara desperately wanted to tell this woman who looked at her with kindness behind the steel of her eyes, but in that moment, the words wouldn’t come.

“Look!” someone yelled behind Clara, and though she didn’t want to take her eyes off her, she instinctively looked up, following the line of the other person’s arm up into the gathering storm-whipped dusk. There, silhouetted against the last of the light, was the unmistakable blue boxy shape of the Doctor’s TARDIS, spinning quickly as it flew away—

Clara jerked awake, her heart hammering against her ribs, already sitting up and pulling off her sleep mask before she realised what had woken her was the sound of the TARDIS materialising in the sitting room of her flat. She took a moment to catch her breath, trying to hold onto the details of the dream. In the other room, the TARDIS’s familiar wheezing and groaning came to a stop with a soft thud, followed by the squeak of the door.

“Doctor?” Clara called, not bothering to hide the sleep nor the annoyance in her voice.

He poked his head around her bedroom doorframe, grey hair awry and his most innocent expression plastered on — which meant he knew he was waking her and felt at least marginally bad about it. “Hello, Clara. It’s Wednesday,” he said pleasantly, by way of explanation.

“Is it?” she asked, deadpan.

“Technically.”

“You do know that I have to work today, don’t you?”

“Not for another six hours. So come on, up-and-at-‘em, plenty of time to go out and save the universe and still be back in time for your morning coffee. I’ve an adventure that simply won’t keep, so come on!”

His excitement was infectious, as he must have known it would be, but Clara clung to her annoyance a little longer, mostly for show. “You have a time machine: everything can keep,” she replied, but waved him off before he could launch into a lecture on all the ways that statement was false, at least from a temporal physics standpoint. He lectured anyway, hovering outside her bedroom door as she dressed, though Clara expected it was mostly to keep himself from pacing in anticipation. She followed more than half of it, and worried a bit over how often she let him babble on about the minutiae of time travel these days.

By the time the universe had been set to rights — or at least one small blue world, home to a race of sentient seahorses, that had been facing imminent extinction in the form of a rogue exoplanet — she had nearly forgotten her unsettling, vivid dream.

--

Given the recent events on Skaro, Clara was unsurprised when bits of her experiences there began to filter into her dreams. Truthfully, she had expected to dream of it more often than she did, but in the weeks that followed, more nights than not her sleeping mind instead conjured up the strange orange landscape. She revisited that screaming sandstorm so often it became almost comforting, and before long, other dreams joined it. 

Clara was leaned against a railing on a high balcony, overlooking a large city coming alight as dusk crept on, a rusty sunset that stretched the width of the horizon bathing the world in amber. The woman with the serious eyes and long, straight blonde hair stood beside her, in the middle of a conversation, as happened so frequently in dreams.

“Alright, but what about the last stage?” Clara asked, elbows resting next to hers on the railing. “That bit depends on us actively doing something, and you know we can’t rely on my knowledge. I can’t take any of the engineering or navigation with me, so it’ll be down to him.”

“And he loves a good puzzle,” the other woman said confidently, flicking her hair over her shoulder with a twitch of her head. “He’ll want to find us. He’ll figure it out.”

“Before I die of old age? Are you sure? My mother was one of his professors at the Academy, I’ve seen his test scores. I think we need a fail-safe.”

“He did graduate,” she pointed out reasonably.

“He passed his exams with a fifty-one percent on his second attempt! No, we can’t assume he’ll have all the baseline information to even consider such a solution, much less actually accomplish the maths. We have to find some way to hide it with me,” Clara said. “Or in his TARDIS.”

The woman was silent for a long moment, her mouth set in a thoughtful line. On the distant horizon, the sun had finished its slow descent, but below them the city was coming to life, the light not so much fading as changing sources, becoming ever so slightly more golden.

“By that point in the timeline,” the blonde woman said, speaking slowly, still thinking it through, “you’ll have been exposed to his timestream and to the crack in the universe, so some of your memories will probably start leaking through. If we structure the extraction the right way, we might be able to embed a particular thought or moment into your consciousness before you go into the Schism.”

“What’d you have in mind?” Clara asked, turning her head to look at her.

“This conversation?” she suggested, laughing, her broad smile transforming her face. “No, a phrase would be cleaner, I think.”

“‘Run the math, you idiot boy’?” Clara suggested, also giggling.

“Oh yes, that’d go over well! No, if you want him to do something, call him clever. Works every time!” she laughed, leaning her shoulder into Clara’s.

“The horrid thing is that I know the temporal physics for this is part of my mother’s coursework,” Clara groaned. “If he hadn’t slept through so many of her classes, this would be a non-issue!”

“Ah, but a Doctor who was always responsible? What a boring universe that would be!”

Above them, the stars were beginning to come out, though the glare of the city obscured them. Through the haze of the dream, Clara couldn’t find any constellations she recognised. “You don’t have to tell me,” she said. “I was the one who helped him steal that box in the first place.”

“And if he could take half a moment to remember that,” the blonde woman said seriously, “he might realise the role of his TARDIS in all of this, and start to think of the solution that way.”

“‘Run the math, you—”

“Clever.”

“—boy, and remember when you met me’?”

The other woman nodded, considering. “That could do it. Your chronodeterminate conjugation won’t work until you come into contact with at least a little regeneration energy. Assuming you choose regeneration on Trenzalore, it might start kicking in then, in plenty of time for the last stage.”

“Run the math, you clever boy, and remember when you met me,” Clara whispered up to the distant stars, cradling her chin on her arms against the railing.

The woman mimicked her position, the golden light of the city and the silver light of the stars catching in her long pale hair. “It’s just physics,” she murmured back. “Start from zero and run the math. I’ll be waiting at the other end of that equation. We’ll all be waiting.”

--

As unsettling as they were, at least the orange-tinged dreams were better than nightmares of Daleks, of being locked in the Dalek casing, unable to convince the Doctor that it was her, it was her, she wasn’t a Dalek, she wasn’t a Dalek! Dreams of the Doctor peering at her down an eyestock, this face or the last, or any of the others buried deep in her subconscious, hearing her but not knowing her, seeing her but not saving her.

Clara grasped for that orange sky, let it carry her away in bronze sandstorms, golden cities slowly coming to life, and starlight caught in tawny hair.

--

Monday morning third period found her Year 10 students taking an essay exam while Clara doodled on a scrap piece of paper, trying to pull images and phrases out of the orange haze that had taken up residence in her slumbering hours since Skaro. There were bits that tugged at her memory, like a song she couldn’t quite place but whose tune was intensely familiar.

She’d written Run the math, you clever boy, and remember when you met me across the top of the page, and her eyes strayed to it every few seconds. The phrase had stayed with her after she woke, and had been on the tip of her tongue ever since, as though it was a message she was meant to deliver. Below it she’d rewritten the phrase, but crossed out six words: Run the math, you clever boy, and remember when you met me.

It was too close for comfort to the phrase that had, in retrospect, changed her life, sent her on her current course. The Maitlands’ mnemonic for their wifi password, which she’d said out loud during that first phone conversation with the Doctor, had caught his attention somehow, and it wasn’t until she jumped into his timestream that she understood. It was the last thing she’d said to him before sacrificing herself to save him. Every fragment of her scattered through his timestream had said it to him at some point as well, the words reverberating endlessly up and down his timeline.

Why her dreams would dredge it up now, and in such a strange context, Clara had no idea. They didn’t feel like random images, but more like memory-dreams, like the bits of echo lives that filtered through to her sleeping mind from time to time. It had to mean something.

Half way down the scrap paper she’d written: It’s just physics. Start from zero and run the math. Below this was the very helpful ??? and Clara idly traced over the question marks again. Physics was still a foreign language to her, despite how much the Doctor prattled on about it at times. She could bring this to him, she mused, but what was it, really? Her subconscious doing backflips in the wake of Skaro, that was all. No grand mystery to solve, no universe-altering secret code, just her. She wouldn’t bother the Doctor with this quite yet.

Besides, she was certain she could tease this apart on her own, follow the clues to their logical conclusion without his assistance. The dreams were insistent, and felt familiar, but Clara was sure she’d never dreamed of the blonde woman and the orange sky prior to Skaro. That was the next clue, then, and she jotted it down on her scrap paper. Something had changed after Skaro, something that caused her subconscious mind to dredge up these particular buried memories. 

She needed more information. Dreams about her echo lives were always stronger when she was aboard the TARDIS travelling in the Vortex, sharper and easier to remember. Maybe these orange dreams would be, too. And maybe the TARDIS itself would have some answers for her.

--

Of course, she didn’t sleep aboard the TARDIS very often, with her insistence on returning home for a week of Real Life in between their Wednesday trips. But the Doctor was never adverse to her sticking around longer than she’d planned, and in the end it didn’t take much to convince him: 

“I’ve a staff meeting at work that I’m dreading,” Clara told him on that next Wednesday, when they returned to the TARDIS after their latest outing. “So what do you say I have a little kip and then we squeeze in another adventure before you take me back to face my workday?”

She thought for a moment that the Doctor might question the change in their routine, but he seemed thrilled about the idea. When he announced that he had some tinkering with the engines he’d been putting off that should keep him occupied while she slept, Clara made an excuse to linger in the console room — “just going to finish reading this chapter, then off to bed” — until after he’d gone. Once he’d disappeared down the corridor and around a corner, she quietly set aside her book, then slipped out of her armchair and down the stairs towards the console. The rotors hummed overhead, and somehow Clara knew the TARDIS was aware of her, and was curious to see what she would do.

Carefully clearing her thoughts, she made her way over to the telepathic circuits, pushed up her sleeves, and slid her hands into the strange interface. Focus was the key, she knew, and she was nothing if not focused. She closed her eyes and held two very specific thoughts in her mind: the sand-whipped orange sky in her dreams, and the clear question, Where, please?

She hoped the please would help.

It was a long quiet moment with the circuits warmly cradling Clara’s fingers, and then something on the console beeped. Her eyes flew open and she carefully extracted her hands from the telepathic interface before pulling the monitor down to eye level.

Gallifrey the screen read in English, below an image of a startlingly red-orange planet. Immediately prior to the Time Lock.

Clara felt her heart thud painfully against her ribs as she read the brief text again. She’d been dreaming of Gallifrey? She knew she’d had an echo life on Gallifrey, but she remembered that interaction with the Doctor, and it happened indoors. She had never before dreamt of the Gallifreyan sky. Had it been buried somewhere in her subconscious with the rest of her memories of that life? Why surface now?

More confused than ever, she clicked the screen back to the desktop, unreadable Circular Gallifreyan floating idly across the display. Perhaps she should bring this up with the Doctor — it was his home world, after all. But the whole point of this had been to dream while they were in the Vortex, and if she didn’t get a move on, he’d be ready for their next adventure before she’d even managed to fall asleep. She could talk with him about it later. 

And if things worked tonight as she hoped they would, maybe she would even have a bit more information to bring to him when she did.

--

“Fire suppressant in Pod Four!” 

The frantic call was quickly overwhelmed by the sound of the requested suppressant dispensing from the ceiling. When it ended, the speaker, dressed in the dark red uniform of a technician, brushed soot and foam off his shirt. 

“It hates me, that one,” he said, nodding at the unassuming gray cylinder in the open pod in front of him. It was devoid of features, even its doors invisible now in the wake of the fire, two meters tall and one meter in diameter, just like all the other patients in the workshop. But somehow it did seem to be glowering at him.

“And it always will, stop wasting your time,” his coworker said flippantly. He was perched in front of a console on the other side of the room, deep in his own repairs. “Just get the Impossible Girl to do it, she’ll have it eating out of her hand by lunchtime.”

Their conversation occurred in the time it took Clara to enter the large oblong workshop and make her way to the far end where the two were working. “I heard that,” she said seriously, earning a guilty-looking jump from the man who had spoken most recently. She continued over to Pod Four and leaned against the outer casing, arms folded over her uniformed chest, one booted ankle crossed over the other. “What did you do now?” she demanded of the first technician.

He looked at her with wide eyes, more out of genuine fear than mock innocence, in her estimation. “I just told it—”

“You what?” she snapped, in a tone she usually reserved for misbehaving students.

He wilted a little but started again “…I told it to—”

“Told it?”

“…to give me access to the logs,” he mumbled, dropping her gaze.

“Told it to give you access to the logs?” she asked, voice harsh. “Well first off, Number Four here prefers male pronouns, respecting that might put you on better footing. And secondly, as with all TARDISes, you’ll get a lot further if you ask rather than tell.”

Behind her, the other tech scoffed. “They’re machines, we shouldn’t have to baby them like that. An access request is an access request.”

Clara turned her head to pin him with an icy glare. “Some days I cannot believe I let you work here,” she told him bluntly. “They aren’t just machines, as you very well know. Yes, there’s hardware we need to be able to work with, but that’s nothing more than a radio, at some level — only instead of radio waves, we’re using oswin waves to talk to pan-dimensional beings so large, they can’t have a physical form in this dimension. Who, with a little extra energy, can take us and an infinite amount of folded space to nearly any point in spacetime. Just think about the massive intelligences that speak to us through each of those machines!

“But more to the point,” she said, turning back to the tech still covered in soot, “you have to understand their viewpoint of the universe, and their understanding of time. A Time Lord telling a TARDIS what to do is akin to creating a fixed point in spacetime. It’s in their nature to want to avoid fixed points. Ask instead, let him find his own way ‘round to it.”

Before the beleaguered technician could reply, there came a polite knocking from the far end of the room, and Clara turned to see a soldier standing in the doorway of the workshop, looking a little out of his depth. “Sorry to interrupt, but I have a message for—” he paused to glance down at the datapad in his hand, “for the Oswin. From the Lady President. Top priority.”

Clara was moving towards him before he’d finished speaking, curious and concerned, her attention focused on the message in his hands. But the dream faded out before she reached him, her mind moving on to something more abstract, more difficult to hold on to.

When she woke in her bed aboard the TARDIS, she stared at the ceiling with fond frustration. “If that was your attempt at help,” she whispered to the ship, “then I do not understand the message.”

--

It still wasn’t enough to bring to the Doctor, she decided later that day, watching him spin around the console room in the afterglow of a successful adventure, people saved, the universe bettered. So she was dreaming of Gallifrey, what of it? Many of the details in that last dream matched up with what she remembered of her interaction with the Doctor in that life. And while he occasionally enjoyed comparing memories of all the times her echoes had met him, she’d found he wasn’t especially keen on discussing the one in which she’d helped him steal the TARDIS and leave Gallifrey. Susan continued to be a point of pain for the Doctor, all these centuries later, and Clara understood him well enough to know better than to pick at that particular scab.

Still. That phrase was on a loop in her head: run the math, you clever boy, and remember when you met me. The emphasis on their meeting hadn’t been part of the original phrase, and now she was dreaming of the life in which they’d met face to face for the first time, from the Doctor’s perspective. Clearly they would have to discuss it at some point. 

Eventually, but not yet.

#long post #about me #my writing #like seriously all of it #fanfiction #fandom life #AO3 #Home The Long Way 'Round #For As Long As We Get #All Hands #Truth Universally Acknowledged #et al #if you read that chapter let me know what you think! #❤️

[darkpoisonouslove]

For the send title Griffin Heat of the moment Long live the queen Three of my fav one shots! Took some thinking to narrow it down!

I am so sorry this took so long, but life got in the way. I had a terrible night on Saturday and really wasn’t in the state of mind to write this yesterday. Also, tumblr ate my response the other day and I’m still mad about it. So it’s been a fun couple of days. Here’s to hoping this answer will cheer us both up!

“Griffin”:

1. I wrote this when I was on vacation but it took me a while to edit it before I could post it. It was a spontaneous idea that I was so excited to start writing that I stayed up late for it (pretty sure I went to bed at, like, 3:30am because of this).

2. As I’ve mentioned before, it was inspired by “I Fell in Love with the Devil” by Avril Lavigne (damn, I love the song and the video) and my own thought process while I was listening to it. My brain just went “Hey, how cool do you think it will be if Griffin tried to summon the devil aka Valtor and then fell in love with him but it had a tragic ending bc it’s them obvs?” And I went “Yeah, I think that would be pretty cool.” So I just went with it but since I wanted it to keep the winx-verse feeling even despite it being an AU, I decided that Valtor would be known as the all-powerful Dark Dragon which is sort of an equivalent to the devil but not quite. He has all the knowledge on magic and is prone to wrecking havoc everywhere he goes, but minus the ruling hell thing. He’s not ruling anything, he was trapped. Because we needed a summoning ritual in this. Who doesn’t love summoning rituals?

3. Speaking of which, I don’t know how I made those up, but I’m really glad I did. The obsidian idea just came to me but when I did some research, what do you know? It was perfect. And I also managed to tie it in with the Obsidian dimension. I love doing AUs because it gives me so many opportunities to play around with canon details and put them in a new perspective and mold them until they fit this new universe I’ve come up with. It’s my favorite part of writing AUs. The hair thing I know from my mom, a book I read (”A Discovery of Witches”, I think) and internet confirmed. And the tears I just thought would add to the aesthetic and provide some insight into Griffin’s head.

4. I chose the title “Griffin” because this fic mainly deals with the essence of Griffin, with what makes her who she is. Also, I did some research on griffins and they are supposed to be protectors so that also fit in super nicely. I am very proud with the version of Griffin I’ve built in this fic. There is so much anger and desperation in her but that in no way changes the fact that she is actually a good person. Which is why this: “She was strong enough to be a protector. Even with her pain. Even with her rage. Even with her darkness.” is my favorite quote from the fic. I was in a dark place at the time I wrote this and it was important for me to remember that.

5. I also love how Valtor turned out in this fic. He’s mysterious and clearly dangerous but also alluring enough for Griffin to ignore the warning signs. And while it’s clear that he was using her, it isn’t clear what he feels about her. He does feel about her. Maybe not love but he certainly feels a lot about her. She was the only one who managed to summon him (aka rescue him) from Omega so he is intrigued by her powers as well as by the interaction of light and dark within her soul. That is the reason why I have considered writing a companion piece to this fic that is from Valtor’s point of view (there certainly is enough unexplored material on that timeline (I only gave the beginning and ending (is it?) of that relationship)), but I’ve discarded the idea as many times as I have entertained it (until now?). I really have other more pressing things that need taking care of rn but I might reconsider it again when I have more time (will a moment like that ever come?) since I had some new thoughts about it now.

“Heat of the Moment”:

1. This was actually the third Winx Club fanfic I wrote but I posted it as the second one since chapter one of “Warmth of Rage, Cold of Love” wasn’t edited yet at the time.

2. It was actually written at the same day as “Fire and Ice” but it took me a lot of time to get it up on FFN because I didn’t want to post it at first. It was veering on smut so I wasn’t sure how people would react to it. Which is why it makes me so happy to hear that you love that story so much, considering all the doubts I had around it (it was also the first time I was writing about them in the past and we didn’t see anything of their interactions back then on the show so it was pretty much a shot in the dark there).

3. Do you know that amazing moment when you want to write something steamy but you’re not comfortable with smut in this particular situation for whatever reason? This fic is the embodiment of that. Which is why it ended up as dry humping. That’s always my go-to thing in a situation like that. Not actual sex, but you get all the intimacy of sex in it. It’s a win-win (and also hot).

4. I probably would’ve gotten discouraged and would’ve quit writing for the Winx fandom after I posted that one because it didn’t get any attention in weeks. The thing that actually kept me going and not just motivated, but excited me to keep writing for Winx was @her-majesty-wears-jeans‘ review.

5. The whole fic is constructed the way it is because I’m convinced that Valtor loved messing with Griffin in every way possible and that it always set off a competition of wills between the two of them.

“Long Live the Queen”:

1. I was bursting with creative energy and just didn’t know what to work on (not for a lack of ideas but because none of those I already had sparked my interest (I think I had idea-fatigue for all of the wips I already had). So I just picked song lyrics and wrote a fic. How do I do this? It certainly is a mystery to me.

2. So it was all total chance there. I was listening to music on YouTube and when the song ended, the suggestions showed up. One of them was a lyric video for Halsey’s “Young God” (which is totally their story in the past, I mean, come on!) and the thumbnail had the lyric “I’m the king and you’re the queen”. So I just took that and rolled with it.

3. I didn’t think it a big deal because I honestly wasn’t planning on posting the thing. I was frustrated with myself that day and was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be good anyway. And then what do you know? It was good. It was better than good. I actually loved the result. So I decided to post it after all.

4. That last paragraph was on the line until the last moment I posted it. I only added it on the last round of edits and wasn’t really sure about it. I almost deleted it a few times, but, ultimately, I decided to leave it be.

5. I had some random thoughts about what happened after Griffin took the crown. Since it will get so out of control with the length if I try to write this (and I really don’t have the time for that), I’ll just write them out here. In short because I forgot some details that were kind of important. Also, angst alert.

Griffin and Valtor start ruling Domino and Griffin’s worries prove to be true. Valtor is… well, not that he’s not listening to her but in a situation that needs improvisation, he always makes the wrong move. He’s listening to her, he’s just not listening to common sense. He’s angry and powerful and it’s not a good combination.

On top of that, Faragonda shows up at the Domino palace to look for Griffin because she is convinced that Valtor is mind-controlling her. Griffin barely manages to convince Valtor not to hurt Faragonda. He’s suspicious of her because he thinks she’s come to gather intel, but Griffin tells him that Faragonda is there because she’s worried about her.

They form a sort of flimsy truce that allows Faragonda to come visit Griffin so that she won’t be so lonely. And if she spills anything about Valtor and Griffin (not just about their plans, but in general) to anyone at all, Valtor will make sure she regrets it. Griffin is still unhappy, though, and after overhearing (whether accidentally or not so much) one of her conversations with Faragonda, Valtor understands how much the whole thing is weighing down on her conscience.

So after one last very tender night with her, he lets her go. He can’t run away with her because that will put her in danger since the Council will want his head. So he’ll stay on Domino and limit the destruction as much as possible, but he wants her to go with Faragonda. They can tell the Council that she was under his spell and that was why she was acting the way she was. They’ve seen enough of what his mark on people can do so that won’t be hard to believe. And it was Faragonda who saved her from it with some fairy dust.

Griffin doesn’t want to leave him, but she does because she can’t take any more of what he’s doing. Faragonda hides her in Alfea where a few weeks later Griffin finds out she’s pregnant. It turns out Faragonda knew all along (Valtor told her when he called her to escort Griffin to Alfea and gave her a letter for Griffin because he knew that if Griffin knew she was pregnant with his daughter, she would never leave his side). The letter tells her under no circumstances to tell anyone that the baby is his daughter. She is supposed to pretend that that is the heiress of Domino who was born just before Valtor attacked and that he’d been keeping her hibernated (which is why she hasn’t aged and is still a newborn) until they found her. It took them months to get her out of that state which would give Griffin the time to give birth to the baby. And the real heiress of Domino is stuck on Earth with her way back to the magical dimension severed by Valtor’s spell. And it will remain so as long as the Dark Dragon Fire is burning.

So Darcy grows in Alfea, pretending that she is a fairy her whole life. And her power of illusions helps her keep up the charade with Griffin and Faragonda guiding her through the discovery of her magic and helping her understand both light and dark magic so that she can pretend to be a fairy and learn how to control her actual powers. And a little bit of glamor helps hide the family resemblance between her and Griffin. She knows the truth about herself and her father but she keeps all of that hidden like her mother insists.

When she turns sixteen, Valtor appears to tell her she is to take the throne of Domino, defeat him and “claim her birthright”. He gives them a part of the embers the Ancestral Witches used to make him and tells them that that is the evidence of his defeat they are to present to the Council. And he will disappear for he can’t stay with them, no matter how much he wants to. It will put them both at risk if anyone discovers the ruse.

Griffin sees how much of his body mass is missing and follows him to learn what he’s done and where he found the ember. Valtor tells her that he cut off his wings in demon form and made them return to their original form. However, that also had consequences for his human form and he’s dying. He’s pretty sure what he did messed with his internal organs and he doesn’t have much more to live. But he doesn’t regret anything if it means that Darcy will finally be safe and happy. And once she builds her reputation and convinces everyone she’s not a threat, she’ll be able to drop the disguise.

Griffin knows that will never be the case. She’s seen clearly all these years to differ from him. They can never drop the pretense for the Council will be after them immediately. And with Valtor dying in her arms, she’s not sure if Darcy can protect herself. She’s never used the full potential of her Dragon Fire and Griffin fears it is too late for her to do it. She fears that having to pretend to be someone else her whole life has destroyed who Darcy actually was. And she fears that it is all her fault. Because she took that crown when she shouldn’t have. When she knew it was the wrong choice.

So after Valtor is dead, Griffin sets out to find out how to bring the actual heiress of Domino back to the magical dimension in hopes that if the two kinds of fire mix and both girls learn to control them, the Council will not hunt down her daughter. A perfect mix of light and darkness is her only exit. But can she be sure that she can achieve it now when she couldn’t years ago and that was what set off the whole chain of events?

So this was longer than I expected but I like how it turned out. Except for the insane levels of angst which I’m pretty sure we’re all used to, but that still doesn’t make them any less painful. Anyway, hope this makes up for the delay!

#ask #silverdragonstarlight #griffin #heat of the moment #long live the queen #griffin x valtor #winx darcy

[yborjen]

THE MANDALORIAN: CHAPTERS 9 - The Return

First, if you have not yet watched The Clone Wars animated series, or Star Wars Rebels, stop now, go to Disney+ and just knock it out it.

This story is a love letter to Dave Filoni’s years of dedicated work with Master George Lucas. Jon Fav is amazing, he’s an icon and a visionary (and I envision him as Paz in this story), but The Mandalorian would not exist but for the world that Dave executed from George’s vision.

Second, this is a completed story, that is being edited and posted a chapter at a time. Comments are appreciated but the plot is fairly set.

Third, this is pure FAN FICTION. I have no affiliation with anyone living or dead who has any role in the Star Wars universe. Or Disney. Or anything. I’m a fan only.

The story built up in my head over the first series of The Mandalorian and I could not wait for the second series, so I wrote it just for fun.

Enjoy.

******************************************************************

CHAPTER 9: THE RETURN

The Mandalorian set his course and the ship surged as the familiar hypnotic streaks of hyperspace flowed into view. He always felt relief each time they entered hyperspace even though he never really trusted anywhere was safe. Even since the threat on Nevarro was destroyed he still felt uneasy, partly because he was still not completely healed, in more ways than one.

His body ached, in every direction. He prided himself on quick recoveries, and near indestructibility. But his brush with death a week ago had broken down many of his ideas of who he thought he was. He had faced for the first time in his life that his mortality was catching up to him, sooner rather than later. And that meant something now that he had a Child who needed him. He remembered his father figure going through the same process. And as the older man slowed down, he had watched with pride as Din found himself coming up as the most impressive fighter in the Death Watch corps. Well, him and Paz, of course.

His training fights with Paz were legendary in their Clan. Clan Vizsla prided themselves in keeping the strongest Foundlings. And Din, while physically smaller, was faster and smarter to match Paz’ brute force. They built a friendship and respect over the years, and when their mother was executed and their father died in the conflict they were hunted and forced to flee by their Clan in order to preserve the future, and Paz left Mandalore with Din until they found the Tribe.

His heart ached. The Tribe was now gone, and so was Paz. They had fought over Din’s bounty hunter activities, Paz never approved of the questionable moral code of killing people who did not deserve death. Din asserted that anyone who runs is guilty. In hindsight, Paz could not have been more right. They had reconciled with Din reclaiming his honor in Paz’ eyes the night he rescued the Child. His guilt at the following destruction of the Tribe, however, weighed heavier than even his new mission.

His heart also had new holes where friends were now gone. They had given their lives so that his aching body could continue to safeguard the Child. Every time he felt he might lose his temper, he heard Kuiil in his mind reminding him to reinforce with patience. And every time he took off his helm and looked at the mirror, he thought about what IG-11 had seen with his synthetic eyes. Had he seen what Din now saw? These days he barely recognized the man he was before he met the Child.

His head ached and his brow furrowed as he continued to second guess the course he had laid in the navigation. The Armorer had said she knew of old tales of battles between the Mandalorians and the Child’s kind — the Jedi. His only lead then was to find those tales. He had to return to Mandalore. He had not returned since the Purge, and for the past ten years had been so focused on survival that he never even considered looking back. Now, with mind, body  and heart still recovering from the battle on Nevarro, he was about to reopen old wounds.

A soft beep on the comm caught his eye and made his heart jump with more of the same uneasy feeling that had been nagging him. He turned back to the ops station and found the Child asleep in the seat with the Mythosaur skull still in his mouth, covered in drool. Then he turned back to the console and pressed the blinking button.

A ghostly holoprojection of Cara Dune appeared and Din found he was holding his breath as he stared at her face.

“Hey Mando — checking in on you as planned. This week Greef and I have confirmed the few remaining Imps are on the run, but I will feel better once the new militia has cleared every building in the city. Once that’s done we will check in with the Jawas and start cleaning up this place. Greef is setting up the Cantina as his base of operation, so contact us there at this signal. You should see him. You’d think he was already Mayor, General, and Senator of Nevarro.” She could not contain a chuckle. “Listen, do me a favor and give yourself a quick medscan. It will put me at ease to know you’re physically capable to take care of the Kid, OK? As agreed, I expect a response within two days, even just an acknowledgement with your code if that’s all you can do. If you fail to respond we are coming after you. Stay safe, buddy.”

Cara had a small smile on her lips then dropped her eyes as she reached down to close the comm channel message, and Mando felt a slight clench in his stomach when her image fizzled out. He pushed down that feeling and turned back to the Child who was now soundly snoring and the Mythosaur skull was hanging out of his mouth.

Din gritted his teeth and took in a sharp breath to avoid making any sounds as the pain caused a tear to form in the corner of his eye. He knew if he stood up his message would be more convincing. His last medscan was less than encouraging, he was healing, but not nearly as quickly as he had hoped. From the blast and fall he had multiple fractures of his ribs, vertebrae and torn sacral ligaments, and fluid on his bruised lungs. IG-11 had healed his skull fracture and subarachnoid bleed from the fall but the concussion was still affecting him daily. And he also had a healing torn rotator cuff from his stunt on the TIE fighter.

His first stop after they left Nevarro was to acquire some bacta so he could start infusions. It took every ounce of his infusions to keep healing fast enough to convince the Child he did not need to intervene. IG was right about his wounds healing in a matter of hours, but there were just so many wounds that the hours kept adding up… and there wasn’t a chance he would ever tell Dune any of that.

He caught his breath again as he straightened up and then composed himself and pressed the comm button.

“Dune, good to hear from you, and that Greef is already setting himself up as the new emperor. Medscan is improving. We have a new heading. I will send encoded coordinates so you can monitor our progress. Please confirm the Armorer is safe and if any others of the Tribe —have returned.” His voice wavered as a shock of pain jolted through his ribs. “The Kid is asleep, so I’ll keep this short. Djarin, out.” He reached for the comm button and closed the channel quickly before catching himself on the console and taking long, slow breaths.

He looked at the hyperspace navigation timer, he had just enough time for a quick infusion. He had to get it started before the kid woke up. He moved carefully down the ladder leaving the cockpit door open so he could hear any movement. The quiet snores were reassuring. He had to stop a couple of times to catch his breath, but his focus was unwavering. His kit came with an infusion port which made his hookup simple, so he just had to remove his armor and expose his shin where the port was drilled into his bone. 

Once the line was set in place he decided to lay back on his sleep cot just for a few minutes.

******************************************************

He woke with a start, but there was a warm spot at his side were the Child had clearly moved to sleep with him and he was snoring again. He looked up at the bacta bag and found it was empty and he was actually feeling less pain around his head, shoulder and ribs. He flexed his abdominal muscles and self-corrected as he groaned to sit up — there was less pain.

The Child immediately stirred and yawned loudly. He looked up at Din and sleepily blinked then chirped with a questioning tone.

“I’m feeling better, kid. Thanks for keeping me company.” He picked up the bag and showed it to the Child. “See? This will help fix me up.”

The Child cocked his head slightly, as if unconvinced.

“Tough audience. Come on, let’s check on our course.” He gingerly moved himself off the sleep bench and then tucked the Child into his arm with the bad shoulder and with the other pulled himself up just high enough up the ladder to deposit the Child up on the command deck, then climbed up the rest of the way with both arms.

Every time, the kid made a beeline to the controls and Din had enough practice to stay just far enough ahead of him to scoop him up and deposit him back into his seat before he could drop them out of hyperspace into a black hole. The Child whined with a squeaky pout but admitted defeat again.

Din checked the timer and found they had just under ten minutes left in hyperspace. Then he noticed he had another message. He frowned. And his finger actually shook just a little as he reached for the blinking button.

The ghostly image of Cara Dune appeared again, “This message is for the Kid. Hey Kid, please do me a favor and tell your father to try putting on a brave face for someone who isn’t an idiot. Miss you Kid. Take care of him for me. I’ll report back on the Armorer when I have made contact.”

She disappeared, and this time her image was not smiling. Din’s head bowed slightly. He should have waited to reply after the infusion.

Then he looked up at the Child who was returning his gaze. “We’ve got each other’s backs, Kid. We are going to be OK.”

The Child giggled and reached a small three claw hand toward him. Din reached out with his finger and the Child grabbed it and squeezed.

The hyperdrive now started beeping, they were approaching their destination. Din set the Child back in his seat and then turned to the controls. With years of experience he eased the Razor Crest out of hyperspace just early enough to avoid alerting of the old Outer Defense perimeter. He had heard that it was back in force and he did not want to start off this encounter with a fight.

He flipped his universal local transmission switch, “Outer Defense, Outer Defense, this is Razor Crest requesting permission to approach.”

No response.

“Outer Defense, Outer Defense, do you copy?”

Another long beat, Din’s heart began to quicken.

“This is the Outer Defense, please repeat your sign,” the deep voice on the other end sounded suspicious.

Din sighed relief, but also pursed his lips. His ship should be known to the Outer Defense database. They were no doubt scanning him to confirm — it was the ship Paz and he had taken off Mandalore.

“This is the Razor Crest. Repeat, the Razor Crest.”

There was another short pause. “Clan Vizsla celebrates your return Paz.”

Din swallowed hard, “Negative, Outer Defense control, this is Din Djarin. My brother Paz — his location is unknown.”

There was another heavy silence. “Din Djarin, Clan Vizsla celebrates your return. The foundlings are the future. Proceed to the Vizsla Landing and report to your Clan for the Rebuilding. Welcome home.”

Mixed emotions filled Din hearing these words, but all he said was, “Acknowledged.”

Coordinates were sent for his heading, and he did not recognize it. The Vizsla compound was no doubt destroyed in the Purge. Din put the Razor Crest on autopilot and then reached back to pick up the Child so he could see everything on their approach to his new home.

“See this Kid? This is your new adopted home. Mandalore.”

The Child looked all around with wide eyes as they passed the Outer Defense in the meteor belt and made their way towards the brown planet with swirling white clouds. As they moved closer, patches of green were visible surrounding interconnected small lakes of blue below. It looked like a small part of the eco-system was reasserting itself. He desperately wished that Paz was there with him to see the planet slowly coming back to life.

The ship moved into orbit and then began the gentle descent to the ruins of the Capital city, Sundari. He recognized many destroyed landmarks, many historic locations lost to future generations. They passed the old palace of the Prime Minister and the Representatives which looked like it was being rebuilt. The square of statues, however, which previously held colossi of Mandalorian history was now full of rubble.

The other thing he noticed as they moved closer to the large squares was he could see hundreds of people, some with helmets, but mostly without. He knew that the Way was not widely observed, and mostly within the military, but it still felt jarring to him to see so many Mandalorians without helms. Living normal lives. His entire life since the Clone Wars had been about survival and protecting the safety of others. His life was the Way, but life went on outside the Way. And that was as it should be; it was what he should be fighting for.

Then he realized that the ship was aimed toward the old headquarters of the Chancellor of Defense. He smiled to himself. Clan Vizsla had come home. The Death Watch was the highest level Defense Squadron of Mandalore before they split from the pacifist government. He was happy they had been restored to their honorable mission.

The Razor Crest set down on the first landing pad and Din started shutting down all systems. The Child, however, could not contain his excitement and immediately jumped down from his seat on Din’s lap and started toward the ladder.

“Wait! KID!” Din shouted as he quickly flipped switches  in order. Then he rushed after the Child and found him in the sleeping bunk retrieving his blue blanket and his silver ball. Din had to laugh and sighed with relief.

“I’m ready to settle in for a while too, but let’s take this one step at a time ok?” He put the ball and blanket down again on the bed, picked up the Child set him down on the ground, and then squatted down to his level.

“We have a mission. We need to find your people. And we need to find out if we have a place here if our mission to find your people fails. These people are our kin, but they respect strength.” He smiled to himself. “Who am I kidding, We know you have plenty of that.”

The Child looked at him thoughtfully, and then lifted up his arms. Din picked him up again and they touched foreheads and then looked at each other. 

“Be brave, be careful, and stick with me, ok?” 

The look the Child gave almost looked like a small smirk, and he got the distinct impression he was thinking, I’m always brave. He couldn’t help but suspect the Child was starting to understand him.

“Let’s go.” He put the Child down again, and then lowered the ship’s outer door.

******************************************************

By the time the door lowered down completely there was a greeting party already arriving on a speeder. They all wore Clan Vizsla armor, and several ancient Clan helmets, but no individuals that he specifically recognized. That did not surprise him because the Clan previously numbered in the thousands and stretched across multiple settlements. Din started to walk down the ramp and he could hear the Child walking next to him.

The female at the head of the party stepped down from the speeder and waited for them to approach her. Din walked slowly to accommodate for smaller legs and feet.

Din stopped just in front of the female and then eased down on one knee and bowed over his knee.

“Din Djarin, Foundling of Clan Vizsla. I’m reporting home because I have — a new Clan Vizsla Foundling. I also must report that Paz Vizsla is currently — missing. He was lost on Nevarro when former Imperials attacked, but the Tribe reports that he may have escaped off-world.”

The female stepped forward and reached down to Din’s pauldron and ran her fingers over his sigil. Then placed a hand on top of Din’s helmet.

“Din Djarin, House Vizsla rejoices in your return. Clan Vizsla’s losses were among the heaviest. Clan Wren was nearly decimated. And Clan Saxon has failed to make restitution. The Foundlings are the future. Rise, Din Djarin.”

Din looked up and stood before her, and gestured to the Child standing by his leg.

“This is my Foundling. He did not have any identification when I found him.  He does not yet understand the Way. We come before you seeking his acceptance in the Clan, and for him to be named.”

The female nods, “Of course. What significance is the sigil?”

Din nodded back. “The Child and I fought the Mudhorn together. He used his mind to hold the Mudhorn back long enough for me to kill it. He saved my life, and then I saved him from the Empire.”

The entire party on the speeder now turned their helmets towards the Child. He looked back at them with large black eyes and squeaked, but then he puffed up his chest a little proudly. Din was happy his smile was hidden by his helm.

The female looked back at Din and nodded again. “We will find an appropriate name for this impressive show of strength from one so small.” She cocked her head. “Do you intend to train him?”

Din shook his head, “The Foundling is in my care but he would not survive the training. I must find his own kind, or find someone who can train him to use his powers — as a Jedi.”

Every person on the pad froze at the mention of that Order. Din could barely comprehend how he had never heard of them before if so many Mandalorians knew of them. The female had frozen as well but now recovered her composure.

“Come, let us discuss this mission in more detail — inside.”

She turned and stepped back onto the speeder. Din motioned for the Child to follow, then Din was the last to board. The whole ride inside the structure he could feel the eyes of the entire party on him and he could feel the Child next to him inching closer to him nervously. But Din was proud he stood his ground and did not cower or hide under his cape.

The speeder stopped inside the compound at a grand door with high arches that once held stained glass. Four of the Mandalorians stepped out and took posts next to this door. Then the female stepped off and led the way through the door and down a stately hallway for Din and the Child to follow. She did not walk slowly, so Din picked up the Child and he rode on his shoulder. Din walked a little slower as he looked around and hid his stiff joints from the others. The female stopped outside a large office and waited for them to walk inside.

Once inside two others of the entourage stopped to stand guard and she closed the doors and turned to face them. Her helmet had accents of gold and white, and the eyes came out to a wider point compared to the Armorer. She was taller, as tall as Paz, and carried all of the authority expected in his Clan.

“Din Djarin, I am Zaral Vizsla. I am Paz Vizsla’s cousin — and yours. Your father, my mother’s younger brother, as you know, died during the Purge. Your father saved many Foundlings, you are among only four to complete the training, and you are the only one to return after the Purge.”

Din felt his legs going slightly weak as the weight of this information set in.

“Then... you do not know of Paz’s whereabouts?”

Zaral shook her head. “He has not yet returned. You were the last to see him alive.”

“I was not. The leader of the Tribe on Nevarro, the Armorer, she saw him when the Imperials attacked. He was last seen during the assault. He was among many that disappeared and were assumed escaped — or captured.” He finished quietly. To be captured would mean death.

Zaral nodded. “We must make contact with the Armorer then. We must continue to bring our sisters and brothers home.”

Din nodded, “The Tribe as you know has no communication equipment, to prevent detection. But I have people on Nevarro that may contact her directly.”

Zaral nodded, and she then turned toward the volumes of data on the shelves behind her desk and walked around behind it.

“Today, however, I’m afraid we must face an unpleasant task before we can celebrate the naming of your Foundling. We must address the issue of his apparent power in the Force.”

“The Force?” Din said.

“It is the name of the power this Foundling has a connection to. It is how he lifted a Mudhorn that was ten thousand times his weight,” Zaral replied.

“He also stopped a fire trooper’s weapon. And he healed a Mynock venom wound.”

Zaral now looked up from the data console and stood. “This Child has done all of these things?”

Din nodded, and the Child chirped in response.

Zaral stood astounded. “I have only heard legends of Jedi with such powers. Even the few left that have met our Clan cannot do all of these things, with years of training.”

Din was now also stunned. “But — what does that mean for him?”

Zaral shook her head. “I do not know.” She beckoned for him to move closer to the desk.

A symbol appeared on the holodisplay, one that he did not recognize. “This is the symbol of the Jedi. They were an Order of sorcerers that began untold eons ago, the Order trained those with a strong connection to the Force to use their power to protect freedom in the Galaxy from those who would dominate others.

“They grew in number and then began the discord. As with all organizations splinters began and some maintained a peaceful demeanor while others tended toward a warrior way of life. The warriors, however, became too enamored with their growing power and soon left the Order completely to grow as a new Order called the Sith. They cultivated their power in Darkness and waged war on the Jedi, nearly wiping them out. The Jedi power came from the Light and soon their numbers of recruits far surpassed the growth of the Darkness and they were victorious, destroying the Sith Temple at Moraband.

“Five thousand years ago, the Jedi Order established a Temple on Coruscant, and became advisors to a rising power that eventually became the Old Republic. But after three thousand years the Mandalore found a decline in that Republic was due to the philosophy of the Jedi, avoiding battle at all costs, and protecting weak leaders, and they came into conflict. Our weaponry was developed over millennia in order to manage battle with Jedi whose powers required no machines. We were victorious on many battle fields. Over a thousand years ago, Tarre Vizsla, a Mandalorian with an unrivaled connection to the Force, was allowed to train with the Jedi because his mother felt that the conflict must end. He became one of the fiercest warriors of the Jedi, and he created a weapon called the Dark Saber. But ultimately, due to politics on both sides, he was forced to choose. He refused to fight against his own people, and he left the Order, leading the Mandalorians against the Jedi to his death. His Dark Saber was brought back to the Jedi temple until it was stolen back by House Vizsla and used as a symbol to rule Mandalore.”

Zaral turned back to Din and the Child who still sat on his shoulder with his mouth open in awe. “This story is for you both to understand what you are facing on this quest. You see before you nearly ten thousand years of history, and three thousand years of conflict with Mandalore. However, I want you both to understand that does not mean there is no hope for your Clan to bring Mandalore into a stronger future. For a member of a Clan who has such powers to heal should have a name worthy of a Jedi.”

Din reached up to his shoulder and picked up the Child to set him on Zaral’s desk. She reached out and placed her hand on his head.

“I name you, Tarre-Haal, the second of House Vizsla to be a Jedi warrior — and the first Jedi healer.”

Din also put his hand on Tarre-Haal, who cooed, but did not move.

Din whispered, “Ni kyr'tayl gai sa’ad,” I know your name as my child.

Zaral replied, “Gai bal manda,” Name and soul.

When Zaral and Din removed their hands Tarre looked up at them, and Din saw in his eyes a look that said, I’ll make you proud.

Din looked back up at Zaral, “You agree then, I should take him back to the Jedi? How am I to find them? Are they still on Coruscant?”

Zaral shook her head, “The Order was destroyed by the Emperor at the end of the Clone Wars. The fugitive Jedi were hunted during the Age of the Empire, and very few remain. However, I heard that it was two Jedi who returned the Dark Saber to House Wren before the Purge, and it was Bo-Katan of House Kryze who used it to unite Mandalore to resist the Empire, but ultimately failed.”

Din had not heard of the final events on Mandalore. “So House Kryze was destroyed.”

Zaral nodded, “And Bo-Katan murdered. Her nephew, Kor-Kayan, was captured and presumed dead. When the Empire fell the Governor and the Imperial Security Bureau were finally driven from the planet. And we began to rebuild.”

Din leaned forward. “Who murdered Bo-Katan?”

Zaral looked back at Din, “Moff Gideon.”

Din suddenly felt his breath leave him, and had to brace his hands on the desk. Tarre-Haal walked over to his father and put one hand on his arm, slowly closing his eyes.

Suddenly, Din felt a warmth spreading from his arm to his injured shoulder and up further to his head and down to his lungs. When he realized what was happening, he reached over to Tarre and placed a hand over the tiny one on his arm.

“Stop, please, Tarre. You have done enough, you need your strength.” He gently pulled the tiny hand off his arm and Tarre looked up at him with his large black eyes. “Save your strength.”

Din looked back to Zaral. “I am injured because I fought and killed Moff Gideon on Nevarro. His forces are in retreat as we speak.”

Zaral nodded. “Your entire Clan will be told of this victory.”

Din stood up again and looked her in the eye. “I will also return to that fight, but first, I must find the two Jedi. I must speak with House Wren.”

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #fanfiction #din djarin #cara dune #the child #baby yoda #the armorer #paz vizla #greef karga #ahsoka tano #sabine wren #clone wars #star wars #star wars rebels #darksaber

[nalufever]

1,2,5,6,7,13,20,23,30,33,40,50,53 and 54 for the game for writers please! (Happy Holidays as well

Bless you, for sending an ask!

1. Favorite place to write.  I almost always plop myself on the desktop computer for writing. At odd times I make notes on paper or my phone - but for actual flowing words - I need the comfort of a full-size keyboard!

2. Favorite part of writing. LOL Um, reviews. Like a spoiled child, I NEED validation. Not even kidding. Feedback is my lifeblood. ;)

5. 📚 or authors that influenced your style the most.  MMM! I want to wield words like Terry Pratchett,  Douglas Adams, Isaac  Asimov, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffery!  The mastery of humour, wit, dialogue, and characterization; to this and more I aspire!

6. Favorite character you ever created.  A minor character who grew to have QUITE the impact on the story~ Mary the maid (from Into My Debt). She's got a lot going on. The more I used her to move the story along, the more her personality grew and developed. 

7. Favorite author.  From published works? So hard to choose! I've already mentioned the style influencers - they're my faves to read as well. Gonna add a few fanfic authors here! @impracticaldemon (she’s a good friend and frigging talented) @brokenbookaddict (from the Flash fandom ~ I love her content and masterful storytelling) @soprana-snap (always fab content) @snogfairy (polished and smart) @hidetheremote (smutty and passionate about writing) @petri808 (smutty and fun ^^) @caffeinewitchcraft (incredibly talented and awe-inspiring ~ it’s a good thing I’m a bit buzzed or I’d be too shy to add her to the list) Okay ~ that’s sufficient. Just know that there’s more I could add but for the constraints of time and space.

13. How do you deal with writers block?  Sometimes I switch to another project and sometimes I spend time with a new/old fandom! And lots of times, I give myself permission to come back to a WIP after watching some TV or reading or whatever real life wants me to deal with ~ ;)

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.  Fairy Tail (Natsu's Stars in Lucy's Sky):

"What about what I want?" Lucy couldn't stop her petulant words. "Desire like this is a two-way street." Her legs shifted to try to ease the ache newly awakened. "I have wants just like you do."

"I have every intention of giving you what you need--" Natsu rolled onto his side and threw a leg over Lucy's hip, panting his words, "It's up to you when and where. Keep on pushing and I'll claim you now. I can't resist."

23. Single or multi POV, and why?  Here's where I expose my ignorance. Lots of time I'm just writing and the POV shifts on its own. Most of the time I try to keep it single - but - there are times I fail!! Why? I'm trying to keep it clean/clear so the readers can follow easier.

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.  Goodness! Usually something in whatever I posted last! Or if it was from real life ~ or just SPEAKS to me. Okay, that jobs my memory! I'll have to hunt for it. From something ever so old, but, it fits the criteria!! Here we go! 

When Lucy was honest with herself, she knew Natsu was her choice; whether or not he would choose the same, was immaterial. He was the person she wanted and needed to become the happiest person she could be. She would pick him time and time again, no hesitation. Lucy dated less and less the more she understood her feelings for her team mate. It didn't matter to her how well a potential boyfriend seemed suited for her, Lucy was willing to wait - not settle for second best.

Natsu held his own understanding of his needs and wants. He didn't put it into something so pedestrian as words, he had gut feelings that guided his actions. When the slayer needed a snack, he'd head over to Lucy's place. If Natsu wanted someone to play a game, why, Lucy was always first choice. Play a prank? Lucy. Bath? Lucy's tub. Sleep? Lucy's bed. Relax? Lucy's bed with Lucy in it.

Natsu was content to live his life without vocalizing his goals. Lucy didn't need for Natsu to declare her importance to himself; it was enough the truths in their hearts could speak to each other. Days and weeks and months snowballed. The nightmares faded, new memories forged stronger bonds. Waking up limbs entangled, face to face, breaths mingling, it was effortless to close the gap to each other's lips and greet the day smiling.

All right - more than one line - but this, to me, felt like I was summing up their relationship in the best possible way.

33. Do you listen to 🎶 when you’re writing? Often music, anime ops and ends or instrumentals ~ never TV (because I'll stop writing)

40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?  More fanfic ~ I have a few ideas for original stories - but I'm still 'honing my craft' in the fanfic arena. *shrugs*

50. Weirdest story 💡 you’ve ever had.  I've had a few WEIRD prompts suggested to me (Wendy's ass growing gigantic and making Romeo lose his mind for one) ~ but, the oddest story I've written from my own brain would have to be a very short RWBY fic. I'm confident that It's the weirdest on account I received this comment: 'An interesting concept. Would be fun to watch develop. What sparked this particular crack to form in your mind?'

It's short, so here it is: (A Dance With Fists)

Mercury wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth and grinned. "That all you got, little girl?"

Batting her eyelashes, Yang tilted her head as she rubbed her knuckles on the neckline of her shirt. "Funny, I was just about to ask you the same question." Smirking, she raised both hands to inspect her nails. One hand was flesh and the other a cybernetic copy. "Without your little friend to mess with my mind you're gonna have to STEP up your game." Shifting her feet, the blonde added a sly dig, "That's if I didn't damage your fake leg too much already."

"Oi, and here I thought you weren't into manly men." Mercury sniggered, gave Yang a broad wink and a suggestive twist of his lips. "My third leg isn't fake, darling."

"Did you want the truth or something that will make you feel better?"

Mercury rushed Yang, they struggled. Each punch Yang landed was a solid blow, making him smile wider. Mercury savoured the pain; half mesmerized by her golden hair and the fire in her eyes. He was a sick man, he knew that. He couldn't think beyond this moment, grappling with this girl who hated him. Pain was pleasure and he wanted everything Yang could give him.

53. What does writing mean to you?  Writing is a chance for me to reach out and share some of my excitement in a fandom. Validation from reviews - appreciation from favs, follows - it means I get to leave an indelible mark on this world. Something I MADE touched people and can be discovered however later by fans when they search, looking to read about their OTP or fandom. It's immortality.

54. Any writing advice you want to share?  Write! Self-indulgent fics! Clichés! Original works! Talk to your internet friends and support them and they'll return the favour. Read books. Live life and when inspiration strikes - take that idea in a choke-hold and spew word vomit on your page. Take a few days and then edit with a vengeance. Ask your beta for help and listen. Whatever they have an issue with needs adjustment. Maybe the direction they think you ought to move, you don't have to agree with - but the base 'wrongness' is right. Keep working!

[sevargs]

27, 39, 44, and 49 please

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow? I’m the odd creature that actually does both? I have a note pad of barebones timeline. Things I want to see and when I want to see them. And periodically add ideas and where I think I may like them. But then often each segment that’s added is entirely dependent on how I feel the last one ended and the next one that comes can end up being something I never planned or in different order than I intended. Chapter 33 of when in Rome was originally meant to be chapter 29, but ended up pushed further and further back for these reasons. I’m a wild animal.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person? No one can tell, but I love the second person. I just don’t use it because no one else does lmao. I don’t use second person as a reader insert, but a literary mechanic. And I wrote Wounds/Traces/Scars back in my D.Gray-Man days in it and it was possibly one of my best works for its time. I think When in Rome has the edge on it in terms of building characters. The upset to the 3rd limited tense is the ability to alternate tenses as I see the need, and sometimes, I just want to explore someone’s head in a noninvasive way. So in a way. 3rd person is easy, 2nd person is the challenge. I should write a 2nd person fic for dragon ball some day.

44) What is the last line you wrote? (Keep editing in mind,)“Aw, come on you two, help me out, I’ll give you a get out of jail free card. For anything. Anything at all. Eh? Trunks?” He nudged, knowing that bargaining with Vegeta’s son might be more effective than with his own.

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about? Okay, this is literally going back to the damn Stone Age, but I remember it was a fic about Android 17 and someone’s OC also and Android? Named Nana? I think it was an old fan site back then because ffn was not actually around? I can’t recall much more. Despite my Hang up with Goku and Vegeta. And my obvious OBSESSION with Black and Zamasu, Android 17 has been my fav man since I first saw him. So back then my FanFiction.Net read choice were always him. I think it was the attitude and seeing that a less beefy man was still strong. So I read a lot of fanfiction, but that one always struck my memory. An OC. I even think I used anipike to find it.

[i-am-adlocked]

Tagged by @randombiochemist​. Ghad, you know I’m a sucker for these things.

NAME:  Allysa, pronounced as “Ol-is-a”, yeah like “All is a ___” A few years ago, I’d go out of my mind if other people found my name, but my pseudonym of “CA Hawkins” slowly seeped into Allysa D. 

I can’t say my last name because I am the only one in the world with this name with this surname. There’s about 20 people with my last name in my country alone and all of them are my relatives, but it’s seriously not that hard to find me. I’m a bit loud in the Internet nowadays.

NICKNAME: Allysa or Oli to my friends. “Gurl” to my sister. My second name to my relatives other than my sister.

GENDER: Biologically female, identifying as female.

STAR SIGN: Capricorn.

HEIGHT: 5′2 ½. That’s actually tall in my country. 

TIME: Right now, as I write this, it’s 9:27pm. I shall update when I finish this thing. Update, it is now 10:15pm and I shall click “Post.”

BIRTHDAY: Eight of January! I have the same birthday as Stephen Hawking and Elvis Presley, and when I was five, I had a crush on both (before I knew they were old men, shut up), and even so, I thought I would be both scientifically smart and artistically brilliant. Obviously, I was neither.

FAV BANDS; FAV SOLO ARTIST(S); SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD: Bands: Coldplay, Radiohead, IV of Spades, and more. Solo: Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Fleurie, and more. Stuck: Smokestacks by LAYLA.

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED: The Greatest Showman (which would have been the fifth time I watched it as well, but #NoRegrets).

LAST SHOW I WATCHED: Two nights ago, I binge-watched “Santa Clarita Diet.” Ghad, I love that show, and it made me hungry. Okay, that makes me sound like a psycho, but Sheila’s enthusiasm over eating made me crave for a burger.

WHEN DID I CREATE MY BLOG: I had a blog around 2011, when Sherlock just came out. Things were all gen but I was already shipping Adlock by then. By 2012 and Irene finally showed up, I shipped hard. By 2015, I had death threats for shipping Adlock so hard. As a 16-year-old, I deleted my blog, and made a Tumblr exclusively for Adlock on June 2, 2015 to show my haters, they ain’t gonna win against me.

LAST THING I GOOGLED: “Harry Potter sent to alternate universes abuse fic” shut up

DO I HAVE ANOTHER BLOG: For me alone, it would be theoneallysa.wordpress.com but I seldom use it and I think the last post was made last year. Co-blogs would be bucketlost.com where my older sister posts about what we did when we travelled around Europe (just the two of us). I was the photographer in this blog.

DO I GET ASKS: No. Or rather, very rarely. Like, once or twice a year.

WHY I CHOSE MY URL: To show my Adlock haters that I am not fazed by them hating my yacht. This is also to stand for my yacht and all the members in it who are being attacked. I will so fucking fight for yall gals, but I also won’t hesitate to put you back in line. I don’t want members of the yacht attacking others.

FOLLOWING: Oh I’m just following 217 people. Most of them Adlockers or Harry Potter blogs that post a lot of text post. I’m more of a text-post kind of gal, despite my usual posts of GIFsets and all that crap. I love metas or text posts with memes. There will be days that I will hoard a lot of Tumblrs for the hell of it.

FOLLOWERS: I feel like an arsehole for never thanking my 2,621 followers, but I just don’t know how to thank them without bursting in tears.

AVG HOURS OF SLEEP: About 3-4 hours of sleep. Both intentionally and naturally. I’ve had this sleeping pattern since I was about nine years old. I remember just lying in bed and getting restless because I can’t bloody sleep. Although, yesterday, I slept at 5pm and I woke up today at 12 noon. So that’s 19 hours of sleep. Go big or go home, that is my motto.

LUCKY NUMBER(S): I don’t know about luck, but I am fond of the number eight, six, and thirteen. In day-to-day life, or like visual patterns, I prefer three and five.

INSTRUMENT(S): Piano (self-studied, one-month with our glee club maestro, then self-study). Voice (two-year training, same maestro as above). Violin (two-days training before I got frustrated and my sister took it instead).

WHAT AM I WEARING: Right now? Er, brown shorts, silver shirt with elements of dull scarlet, and a dark scarlet jacket. Even though I’m at home, I do like matching clothes.

DREAM JOB: To be a good wife and mother. If you dare tell me I should be going out and get an actual job, then you have no idea how tiring being a housewife can be. Ask my mother. With future kids that will have MY bloodline? You bet my arse it’s going to be a full-time job. By then, I would have saved up a lot of money from working in a desk job whilst also performing in the theatre from time to time.

DREAM TRIP: You have no idea how much I want to go to Peru and just see a random llama. Before, I would say Paris and London, but my sister and I went to a Europe trip last year (we didn’t go to London btw) and it’s amazing and all but I want to go hiking next. Although, I also want to go to back to Rome, and visit Greece as well. My sister and I do back-packing, and just AirBnB. We always get mistaken as locals, especially since we learn the language before heading to a country.

FAV FOOD: Boi, my love for McDonald’s Cheese Burger and Fries right now. I’m craving. Also, Coca-Cola, oh boi.

NATIONALITY: YAH GURL BE WAVING MY PHILIPPINE FLAG RIGHT NOW YAH BOI

FAV SONG RIGHT NOW: Smokestacks by LAYLA.

SEXUALITY: I am still confused between asexual and bisexual. I don’t want to be touched and I hate physical contact because of my not-too happy childhood, but also I find both boys and girls beautiful, and if there are people I like, goddamn will I be flinging myself to them... Demisexual. I think I’m demisexual. 

HOGWARTS HOUSE: CAW CAW EAGLES YAH RAVENCLAW WOOPITY WOOP WOOP

FAV ANIMALS: EVERYTHING UNDER THE BIOLOGICAL FAMILY CANIDAE

DOG OR CAT PERSON: CANINE ALL THE WAY, my sister is too much of a feline lover.

BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH: A thick blanket as well as placing two pillows on top of me for added weight.

WHY YOU GOT A BLOG: I’ve been on Tumblr for years before I had an account, then I got fed-up so I made one in 2011. Then I made this one to fight haters of Adlock.

TOP (3) FAV CHARACTERS: Harry Potter. Sherlock Holmes. Leo Valdez.

NO. OF POSTS. 3,519. Mostly reblogs lmao.

POKEMON TEAM: I’m sorry. I don’t watch Pokemon because my older sister and older cousins (who were living with us at the time) didn’t let me watch TV when I was a kid so I just never bothered.

FAV COLOUR: I’d say Black but black is a hue, not a colour. In fact, it is the absence of colour so I ain’t saying black. I was a sucker for Glaucous in aesthetics and stuff, as well as Navy Blue. Nowadays, I have also taken a liking to red. It compliments my skin colour well, as well as my personality.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Er, a bit complicated.

LIPSTICK OR CHAPSTICK: They feel weird so neither. But if I had to choose, Chapstick cos my lips are so chapped, I can’t even.

LAST SONG I LISTENED TO: Smokestacks by LAYLA. I’m editing a vid.

TOP (3) SHOWS: Sherlock, Doctor Who, and Mythbusters.

TOP (3) SHIPS: Adlock (Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler) R11ver (River Song and the Eleventh Doctor) Leyna (Leo Valdez and Reyna Ramirez)

BOOKS I’M READING: I’ve been reading a lot of novel-length Harry Potter fics right now. I’ve related to Harry Potter a lot. Before, I always related to Sherlock, but finding out about his familial relationship, I found out I was more Mycroft (never good enough) and Eurus (crazy violent kid) than a Sherlock.

TAGGING: To anyone who wants to do this.

@musical-chick-13 @thank-you-for-being-with-me @antarktica @sentimentalgenius @addignisherlock 

#personal

[camsthisky]

Can you rec any stories?

Oh boy. You better strap in, because I have read a lot of fics. Most of these will probably be Dick Grayson centric, though, so just a fair warning. I’ve seen a couple people format fic recs like this, and I really like it. I hope it’s organized enough!

Of course, you can always go through my fic recs tag, too!

The Bonds that Tie by DawnsEternalLight Words: 59,507 (between 2 fics)Summary: A series exploring the Batfamily growing closer together.My Comments: Absolutely amazing and heart wrenching. The first fic in thisseries is finished, which is a lot more about Dick and Damian’s relationship,but the second is still ongoing, which is more about Jason and Tim. It’s a wonderfulseries!

To Pass Through This Night by DawnsEternalLightWords: 4,147Summary: When Dick was captured by the Syndicate he died, for a short period of time, but he still died. It’s a fact he kept from his closest friends and family to protect them. When Damian and Tim find out he has to face not only them, but the emotions he’s buried from the event.My Comments: It’s a forever evil fic. Like, you don’t even know how much Ilove this, especially because it involves the whole family’s feelings, not justDick’s.

Even When You’re Down by DawnsEternalLightWords: 4,628Summary: Jason is expecting pizza at his door, not a very sick Dick Grayson. When he can’t figure out what’s wrong with his brother he turns to the only person he can, Bruce.My Comments: Ahhh I love sickfics so much, and this one did not disappoint!Jason and Bruce coming together to care for Dick was amazing to read! To be honest, @preciousthingsareprecious​‘s fics are all amazing, and I’ve read so many of Dawn’s works. These are just my absolute favorites!

Stubborn by audreycritter Words: 20,359 (4/4)Summary: Dick is usually the one taking care of everyone else and he’s bad at asking for help.So bad, in fact, that he never even actually asks– but Jason shows up anyway.And then Dick returns the favor. And then they both do for Tim. And it’s just going to keep going from there.It’s probably Alfred’s fault. When your butler mom calls and says, “Go check on your brother,” you don’t argue. You just do it.My Comments: The first chapter absolutely killed me. It’s a sickfic, witheach chapter focusing on a different batkid. It’s so well written, and it’s oneof my all time favorites!

The Mechanics of a Hug by incogneat-oh Words: 4,154Summary: “So,” Tim ventures. “It's… what, a cuddle pollen?” Bruce just shrugs. “Something like that.” My Comments: It’s funny, it’s angsty, the dialogue is absolutelyamazing, and I would recommend this author’s fics (all of them, really) a thousand times over. This one is just my absolute favorite that I’ve read a bajillion times.

World’s Apart by Fernandidilly_yo Words: 37,169 (3/?)Summary: Dick’s world is falling apart. With all the heroes and Batman gone, the teen thinks this is the end, that is until Dick miraculously end up in an Alternet Universe where the world is whole and there’s a family waiting for him.My Comments: This is an AU that absolutely BREAKS MY HEART. There’s so much description and it’s such an amazing story. It has a lot of potential, and besides the occasional typos/spelling errors, it’s probably one of the best I’ve ever read. I’m looking forward to more!

Locked Away by AutumnHobbit Words: 3,021Summary: anonymous asked: would you consider writing dick being asked to empty jasons locker at school after jason dies?

“Uh, Wayne residence,” he said, cringing after the fact at how hoarse his voice sounded. He scrubbed a hand over his eyes in frustration.“Um, hello. Is, um….” the female voice trailed off hesitantly. “Is Mr. Wayne available at the moment?”“I’m afraid not,” Dick said, trying harder to channel his inner Alfred. “Can I take a message?”“…Yes,” the woman said. “It’s….well, it pertains to his son, Jason.”My Comments: THIS IS SO SAD. I still love it, because it shows a side of Dick that we don’t see often. We see Dick happy around his family, angry, frantic, but never this grieving boy mourning the loss of a brother, and it’s heartbreaking. There are a lot more quality fics by this author, as well.

there is a design, an alignment by irnanWords: 584Summary: Dick’s just had brain surgery. No wonder it hurts.My Comments: This is so sweet. But, of course, Bruce can only seem to show affection to his kids when they’re hurt or unconscious.

exactly how this grace thing works by irnanWords: 22,710Summary: Dick gets de-aged. You’d think this would be a routine thing.My Comments: Honestly, this is the fic that convinced me to stay in the fandom. It’s the fic that I will always aspire to write, quality wise. It’s an amazing piece about a de-aged Dick learning to accept the family that’s suddenly thrust onto him, and his family, in turn, learn things about him that they didn’t know before. The whole fic is amazing.

Who We Were by ZiZzyWords: 105,025 (33/?)Summary: When the Graysons fell their son went to his great-uncle to be trained as a Talon. Four years later he is rescued and taken to live at Wayne Manor. But, he is not the talkative boy he once was, in fact talking at all is a bit of a problem… A series of connected oneshots about how the Batfamily is formed when the older brother is not quite who he was meant to be.The timeline of each chapter is in the A/Ns.My Comments: It’s a little hard to get used to this fic, since most of them are read like one-shots in the same AU, but this fic destroyed me. Dick is so adorable, and he’s going through so much, and Bruce is so understanding. The last couple of chapters had me in tears.

Half Lost, Half Found by takadainmateWords: 23,632 (4/5)Summary: Driven underground, Batman fights to keep Nightwing alive. There is a fight. There’s always a fight.My Comments: I always recommend this story, but it’s amazing. There’s a lot of tension between Dick and Bruce, but they have to work together in order to survive. Sadly, this fic hasn’t been updated since 2013, but it’s only the last chapter that’s missing. It’s still a great story, even without it.

Family is a Crisis by LysicalWords: 4,172Summary: In their family there’s always some sort of crisis going on.“Probably a fashion crisis,” Jason muttered. “He probably dragged us all here so he could show off some chartreuse and fuchsia monstrosity.” “You aren’t making a new costume again, are you?” Damian added, nose wrinkling. “I thought we all agreed you were staying away from colors.”My Comments: This fic is hilarious.Seriously, as much as I wish Tim was in it, too, it is the perfect sequel to the one scene at the burger joint in Batman #16.

Grade School by KagSesshloveWords: 100,098 (13 fics)Summary:Imagine that Damian goes to a regular school full time. And has to do things that normal grade-schoolers have to do. This is his life now: pretending to be a normal 10 year old at school all for the sake of the public. But, honestly, the public would rather he not.My Comments: When I first found this fic, I think I started screaming at @stepichu to read it, too, I was so excited. I think I actually read it twice in one week? Please read this entire series. It’s hilarious and serious and just plain amazing. Sometimes the characterizations are a little exaggerated, but I still love it. It totally adds to the story! And the best part is that it was just completed!

the man with guns for eyes by 8swordWords: 22,056Summary: “Don’t blame him, little D. He gave me a choice.” “He always makes it a choice,” Damian mutters. “If you’re the one who makes the decision, it’s your fault if it’s the wrong one.” (Dick comes back from the dead.)My Comments: Hm. Okay, on the one hand I really like reading this fic, because the boys are all forced to talk to each other and try to work things out. On the other hand, sometimes this fic leaves me reeling. There’s a lot to get through in one sitting, and sometimes I have to break it up.

With Friends Like These by ChimaeraKittenWords: 4141Summary: How Artemis got to know both Dick Grayson and Robin before finding out they were the same person. My Comments: This is a YJ fic, but it’s really good. Like, I didn’t know I needed Artemis getting to know Dick Grayson so badly until I read this. There are also some other really good fics by @chimaerakitten​, but this one is one that I fell in love with.

Crowded Enough by CaraLeeWords: 18,744 (15/?)Summary: An AU built off of the titular line from the pilot episodes of Young Justice. Dick Grayson comes home from the events at CADMUS to the enjoyment of his various siblings, friends, and sibling-like people. Now extended: One chapter per episode of the first season. Plus a few extras.My Comments: I love this so much. Each chapter is gold.

Save You by ArsenicInYourPuddingWords: 6538 (4/4)Summary: The three times Wally West made sure Dick Grayson lived to fight another day, and the one time he didn’t have to.My Comments: Warnings for suicidal thoughts/actions. The bromance between Dick and Wally in this is amazing, and this fic got me through some tough times. The whole thing always has my crying by the end, no matter how many times I read it.

That’s just on ao3, and it’s getting really late, so I needed to shorten this a bit. I will say that you’re welcome to look through my bookmarks on ao3 and my story favs on ff.net if you’re looking for more. There are a lot of amazing fics out there that I didn’t mention. I probably will come back to update this sooner or later.

edit because I don’t know how I forgot these:

Interval of Shadow by CaramelMacheteWords: 41,403 (15/?)Summary: Nightwing, Robin and Red Robin take on Clayface. Nightwing does not emerge unscathed.Is this the end of Nightwing’s career? How will the rest of family react? Will Dick recover, and what should he do if he can’t?My Comments: My goodness, this fic is honest to god amazing. It shows the struggle Dick goes through and how his family scrambles to be there for him. The interactions between everyone is so spot on, and if you haven’t read this, read it. And then come scream at me or @caramelmachete about it.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by anon_nom_nomWords: 3,614Summary: Prompt from yj_anon_meme:Okay, so I always thought that the reason DCAU Dick turned into such a bitter little thing was because he only ever had Batman, and sometimes Batgirl, but he never had his Titans or his Wally or anything.So I would like so see something where Robin is starting to show early warning signs of this, maybe just frustration after a really bad night on the job in Gotham with Batman, and him actually having his team there to help him deal with it.In which Robin has a bad night, discusses poetry, and gets a massage.My Comments: This is a YJ fic that shows the struggle that Dick goes through as a partner of Batman, and I find it super realistic. It’s really fluffy with a hint of light angst, and all of the characters are spot on.

Fear by tristen84Words: 18,622 (6/6)Summary: While on a stake-out together, Robin and Kid Flash have a frightening run-in with Scarecrow. Dick-Wally friendship.My Comments: Another YJ fic. If you want Wally and Dick bromance, like, this is the fic. It’s a really good story, too, and it shows just how much both Dick and Wally care for each other. It’s a good read.

I’m probably still forgetting some, but these are all amazing, too, and please check them out!

#cam answers #anonymous #fic recs