#heliocentric fic

[songofclarity]

Heliocentric ch 17 has been finished since Friday (!!!) but it's stuck in the tumultuous editing and clean-up stage 😅 I was hoping to get it out today for the anniversary... maybe very very late tonight!? Not that tomorrow would be bad... But it's coming!

I'm not giving up on finishing this fic even if I end up being the only one still reading it 💪

Update 10/4: Editing continues but it's looking much prettier 😂

#heliocentric fic

[star-strand]

heliocentric part 2 - o, to fantasize of having chosen some design with you

chapter 1: perfect, you're my poison

A chance encounter launches Gale and Julian into a whirlwind, prompting them to finally act on those feelings they have for each other. Whether either of them are ready to accept something real into their lives remains to be seen.

>>ao3<<

#the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana fanfic #julian x apprentice #and now for my many blog navigation tags #galeposting #juligale #heliocentric #starstrand fic #starstrand

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

~*~

1. Hello! Thank you for your hard work! Do you have any fics where Wen Qing goes back in time and tries to save everyone? Can be WQ or any other character pov. Thanks in advance!

Pocketful of Soul by Jenrose (T, 182k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BAMF MXY, MXY Lives, Genderfluid MXY, MXY Backstory, POV MXY, If At First You Don’t Succeed Try Try Again and Again and Again, Wangxian Speedrun, times three because time travel, Found Family, Genius MXY, Genius WWX, Not particularly JGY friendly, CQL-based) starting halfway into the story

With Surgical Precision by metisket (T, 20k, WQ & WN, WQ & WWX, WangXian, Time Travel, Families of Choice, sibling bonding through murder)

Heliocentric by Aki_no_hikari (T, 13k, Time Travel Fix-It, slight angst at the beginning, badass wq, Murder, dark!wq, although not as dark as she could be)

~*~

2. Wei Ying recovering / aftermath something/ people taking care of him - from

A) rape

B) heavy torture Preferably with Jiang family alive but not strictly wanted.

Thankyou. @whateverweilanlovechild​

2A)

feast and famine by luckymarrow (E, 49k, wangxian, rape/non-con, aftermath of gang rape, modern au, trauma, PTSD, medical procedures, rape recovery, non-consensual drug use, hurt/comfort, angst w/ happy ending, mind all the tags)

By the river by Anonymous (M, 51k, wangxian, heavy angst, hurt/comfort, misunderstandings, implied/referenced sexual assault, panic attacks, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, WIP)

secrets for the stars to keep by UchiHime (M, 38k, wangxian, JZX/WWX, JYL/JZX, implied/referenced rape/non-con, canon divergence, mpreg, hurt/comfort, not everyone dies au, recovery)

🧡 Heaven Has No Rage by flipfloppandas (M, 51k, WWX & YZY, JFM/YZY, implied wangxian, WWX/WC, WWX/others, rape/non-con, modern, hurt/comfort, protective YZY, good parent YZY, hospitals, medical procedures, vomiting, trauma)

Fangs of Desire by UseMyMuse (E, 39k, WangXian, XiCheng, XuanLi, MianQing, SongXiao, VampireJi, Halfling WWX, Hell Hound/Banshee WWX, modern magical world, Dubious Concent, sexual assault via vampire venom, venom addiction, Recovery, Magical War, Child neglect (mentioned), Attempted Murder, wwx is sold off, death of the Wen main branch, WWX/others (dub con))

Tainted by Purplemagic (T, 8k, wangxian, JYL & WWX & JC, rape/non-con, guilt, rape aftermath, dark lwj, hurt, panic attacks, trauma) not for wangxian lovers

The rites of a widower by sixstepsaway (E, 86k, wangxian, JC & WWX, rape/non-con, graphic depictions of violence, lack of communication, misunderstandings, angst w happy ending, fluff, past rape/non-con, past character death, past violence, rape recovery, trauma, nonsexually intimacy, past child abuse, JC & WWX reconciliation, alcohol abuse, sub LWJ, dom WWX, powerplay)

Leather Birds by FairyGardenCorgis (E, 23k, wangxian, rape/non-con, graphic depictions of violence, modern, prison au, PTSD, torture, angst, gangbang, military, prison camp)

总有一天; a place to hide (can’t find one near) by yiqie (E, 76k, WangXian, Modern AU, Pianist, Getting Together, Mental Health Issues, Suicide Attempt, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression, Hospitals, Overdosing, Eventual Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Additional Warnings In Author's Note) but it's suicide attempt recovery

2B)

and there was a new voice (which you slowly recognized as your own) by justdoityoufucker (M, 5k, wangxian, canon divergence, fall of lotus pier, pre-sunshot, amputation, injury recovery, graphic depictions of illness, self-reflection, families of choice, not Jiang friendly, not YZY friendly, physical abuse, love confessions, first kiss) Madam Yu cuts off WWX’s hand

Stars bring us apart (Stars pull us together) by Sixlayerhouse (sixlayerhouse) (E, 124k, WangXian, ChengSang, Hurt/Comfort, (Vaguely) Star Trek AU, Psychological Trauma, PTSD, Body modifications, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Recovery, married!wangxian) Space AU, JC and JYL are there

Shattered Mirrors by @/besanii most of the Jiangs aren’t alive though

a star called sun by thelastdboy (E, 120k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Heavy Angst, Self-Worth issues, Amputation, Situational Mutism, Slow burn, Angst with a happy ending)

~*~

3. Hey y’all!! Pretty sure I’ve asked this before but it’s been a bit so there are probably more fics out there!! Anyone know of good fics that explore Sizhui’s trauma either from the Jins or the Lans? Any age is fine! Thank you!!

~*~

4. Hi! IITMF some fics where A) The cultivation world experiences karma after killing WWX (whom may or may not remain dead)! I want to see them realise that they've done something terrible, not just experience something bad and blame it on WWX. B) The non-cultivators side with WWX, knowing him personally rather than believing in the lies being spread about YLP. C) I'd love to see some interaction between WWX and his other shidi and shimei! Mostly seeing their bonds of friendship and loyalty.

4B)

The Ballad of Hanguang-Jun and The Yiling Patriarch by Theladyofravenclaw (T, 40k, WangXian, ChengQing, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Burial Mounds Arc, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts,   Humor, kinda just crack, Misunderstandings, POV Outsider, Crack Treated Seriously)

In Exchange by FlautistsandPeonies (M, 8k, wangxian, major character death (WWX), The Power of Yiling Laozu Sexy) during burial mounds settlement days wy let a painter draw portraits of him in exchange for money. And this painter makes it his mission to correct the views people have of YLLZ after his death.

~*~

5. For the next itmf: genius wei wuxian, specifically academically acclaimed - like in a modern au, having works published in journals or generally, making a huge splash in the cultivation world.

To go along with my ask for genius wwx, specifically something along the lines of One Can Keep a Secret by H_Belle? @lovelyiknow​

The Greatest Swindle of All Time by Reviewer2 (M, 49k, wangxian, 3zun, SL/XXC, CSSR/WCZ, JYL/JZX, modern, getting together, BAMF WWX, oblivious WWX, genius WWX, male cinderella, musician LWJ, graduate student LWJ, class differences, poor WWX, rich LWJ, pining, soulmates, friends w benefits, one night stands, amnesiac LWJ, childhood sweethearts, single parent WWX, cat and mouse dynamics, angst w/ happy ending, versatile wangxian, getting back together, social commentary)

(no one else can) take me there by azurewaxwing (G, 3k, WangXian, Mixed Media, Academia, Getting Together, Modern with Magic)

💙 Su She Eats his Heart Out by KizuKatana (T, 16k, WangXian, 3rd person pov, implied offscreen wangxian sex)

~*~

6. Hello, hope this finds u well. For next ITMF, can I ask for fics with dark!LWJ & dark!WWX? Them being murder husbands, demons, psychos or some other twisted being that is crazy in love with each other? Thank you so much.

🧡 Rule Number One: Never get attached. by KizuKatana (E, 130k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O, Light Angst, Crime Boss LWJ, Rogue criminal genius WWX)

🧡 modus operandi by synonemous (E, 21k, WangXian, Modern AU, Serial killer WangXian, Eventual happy ending, WangXian's Canon Kinks, Smut)

🧡 in flagrante delicto by synonemous (E, 39k, WangXian, Modern AU, Serial killer WangXian, A/B/O, Mpreg, Smut, Wangxian's Canon Kinks, Modern Yi City arc, Angst with a happy ending)

You & Me Baby, We'll Eclipse The Sun Series by 2501987 (M/E, 130k, WangXian, XiCheng, MIND THE TAGS, Modern AU, Mafia, Murder husbands, Torture, Possessive Behavior, Blood and Violence, Older JC, Younger WWX, Hurt/Comfort, Dark)

~*~

7. INTMF some General!WWX being forced to marry LWJ.

After I Met You by Amandyalmonds (M, 32k, WIP, WangXian, Dragon LWJ, Fox Spirit WWX, Canon Divergence, Royalty, Slow Burn, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Madam Yu's A+ Parenting, Protective WQ, Protective LWJ, Unreliable Narrator WWX, Arranged Marriage) It's a work in progress and only has 7 chapters so far, but it's really good!

Have him stripped, bathed, and brought to my tent by KizuKatana (E, 29k, WangXian, Dark LWJ, A/B/O, Huli-Jing wwx, powerplay/powerdynamic, dubcon (due to power dynamics), Overstimulation, Edging, Biting, Scenting, Possessiveness, LWJ Has a Big Dick, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, Dragon LWJ/Fox WWX, Emperor LWJ, civilian (sort of) captive (also sort of) WWX, dragon sex magic, Not traditional Chinese emperor history fully alternate reality of immortal creatures)

~*~

8. Hello 👋🏻 iitmf some timetravel wangxian fics where WWX isn't the one that goes back in the past, and the who does travel to the past isn't looking to kill him.

There are a couple different constellations of people going back in The Same Moon Shines series by Sami. The first one (and subsequent 35 parts of the series) are when wwx goes back alone, but then comes JC and LWJ going back, then one with JYL, then LWJ alone and JC alone. All of these are fantastic!

With Surgical Precision by metisket (T, 20k, WQ & WN, WQ & WWX, WangXian, Time Travel, Families of Choice, sibling bonding through murder) (link in #1)

Lynchpin by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 103k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Time Travel, Fix-It, Lynchpin [PODFIC] by Opalsong, [PODFIC] Lynchpin by Gwogobo)

~*~

9. I’m in the Mood for a Fic like 'The Proposal'. I want to see the pining between WangXian and another person in love with either of them. I prefer fictions with no cheating between WangXian. Can you please suggest some if there's any? @paraffin22

It’s Over Isn’t It by Theladyofravenclaw (T, 68k, WangXian, LWJ/OMC, Oblivious WWX, Jealous WWX, One-Sided Attraction, Canon Divergence, it says Lan Zhan and another character but it’s all one sided, we got a love triangle baby, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort)

roots in my dreamland by lananshi (noekkin) (E, 51k, WangXian, Minor WWX/OC, Case Fic, Post-Canon, Feelings, Marriage, Curses, Parenthood, they have a son, Anal Sex, First Time, Kissing, Angst and Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts) maybe??

~*~

10. Hi! I'm in the mood for wangxian fic where instead if wei ying dies and resurrected, I want it to be Lan Zhan but not role reversal. Like Yiling Patriach! Wei Ying survive but the Great Hanguang-jun did not.

Just wanted to know in situation like this, how Wei Ying would grieve Lan Zhan? Will he has the same reaction as the one in the original?

Can help please? @nakashimaminoru

Your Light by StellaMozzarella (T, 18k, wangxian, LSZ & WWX, major character death, sorta temporary character death)

Over the Rotted Bridge by vailkagami (T, 314k, WangXian, Temporary Character Death, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, LWJ dies, Wei Wuxian doesn’t die, neither do (most of) the  wens, JYL also lives, Original Character(s), outside pov, YLLZ WWX,  Canon Divergence, CQL Verse, Illustrated, Grief/Mourning, Non-Consensual  Resurrection, mute LWJ, Hurt LWJ, Slow Burn, canonical death of a child  (mentioned), Survivor Guilt, PTSD) okay for #10 on the iitmf I'd recommend "Your Light" by StellaMozzarella and "Over the Rotted Bridge" by vailkagami, both on ao3. HOWEVER, I haven't actually read either; they're on my to-read list, so I can't say how accurately they match what OP's looking for.

Turnabout and Start Again by runningondreams (T, 34k, WIP, WangXian, Temporary Character Death, Role Reversal, Soulmates, Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Suicide, Imprisonment, Violence, Minor Character Death, Mild Gore, Pining, Identity Issues, Getting Together, Happy Ending) WIP that hasn't been updated in a while but SO GOOD it still lives in my head rent free, even years later. Role reversal in that LWJ is the one to die and be resurrected, but basically everything pre-time skip is the same, WWX is very much YLLZ

~*~

11. Itmf any fics where wwx escapes burial mounds but stays on the downlow with his demonic cultivation etc. And everyone thinks he's dead. Meanwhile Lan zhan is a publicly acknowledged widow, and wwx doesn't realize he and lz ever got married. Any fics with this vibe?

~*~

12. In the mood for soft ABO fics. Like those that can have smut in them but the focus would be in other stuff.

Alliance AU by Ilona22 (E, 17k, wangxian, ABO, arranged marriage, intersex omegas, canon Jiang family dynamics, not JC friendly, matchmaking, night hunts)

Woven fates by apathyinreverie (T, 20k, wangxian, ABO, alpha LWJ, omega WWX, fix-it, fluff, family, romance, mates)

And the world's alright with me by so_shhy (E, 12k, wangxian, modern, ABO, fluff, mpreg, unplanned pregnancy, getting together, pining)

Yours Shamelessly by kmichee (E, 35k, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Alpha/Alpha pairing, Alpha WWX, Alpha LWJ, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Knotting, Scenting, Discrimination, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, letter writing, Courtship, Swordfighting, Epistolary)

Achievement Unlocked 🔓 by UseMyMuse (E, 49k, WIP, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Transmigration, Crack, Sassy System, Canonical Character Death, Reincarnation/Transmigration, Bamf wwx, mild to major violence briefly mentioned, Mild/brief mentions of torture, Kidnapping, Accidental Child Acquisition)

travellers' rest by lazulisong (G, 474, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Omegaverse, Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Scent Marking)

sacrifice by quillifer (E, 9k, WangXian, light pain kink, Heat/rut, A/B/O Dynamics, light mythology insp, canon setting au, Slight Dirty Talk, very minor pregnancy kink, Bottom LWJ, Top WWX, Omega LWJ, Beta WWX) kind of soft

this mattress is a desert island by bbyminmaki (E, 19k, wangxian, ABO, no sunshot au, mating cycles/heat, nesting, omega WWX, alpha LWJ, getting together, scenting, pining, friends to lovers)

~*~

13. Hi! I was wondering there were any wangxian fics of Mo Xuanyu watching the events of MDZS play out, sort of as a ghost outside of his body but no one can see him? I saw a post about the premise and can't seem to find a fic like it.

born under unlucky stars by RoseThorne (M, 1k, WangXian, Canonical Character Death, Ghosts, Souls, Implied/Referenced Sex, Brotherly Love, Anger, Spells & Enchantments, MXY Deserves Better, Revenge, POV Third Person, POV MXY)

~*~

14. For the next IMTF I’m looking for lwj pov fics that are throw-your-phone, way too cute, disgustingly fluffy; any rating is welcome!

at first sight of the sun by sunflowersfield (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, coworkers, fluff, neurodiversity, falling in love, getting together, Happy Ending, first dates, first kiss, hurt/Comfort)

Ride or Die by lemonlush & naqaashi (M, 4k, wangxian, modern, attempted kidnapping, corporate espionage, fluff, motorcycles, kidnapping, leather, crack treated seriously, humor)

Confessions of a (Dumbass) Pop Idol by lemonlush with art by Neeska (T, 8k, WangXian, Modern AU, Pop Idol AU, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Crack, Eventual Romance, Diary/Journal, Mojo’s Post)

Cake it Easy by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot) (G, 2k, WangXian, Modern AU, Meet-Cute, First Meetings, Bakery, Love at First Sight, Fluff) 

Professor Lan, Babysitter Extraordinaire by Eleanor_Fenyx (G, 4k, wangxian, fluff, single parent WWX, professor LWJ, mature student WWX) 

back for you by detectorist (E, 8k, wangxian, modern, established relationship, long-distance relationship, kissing, handjobs, miscommunication, fluff, intimacy, pining)

Like Lilies and Dragons by lorelaiart (T, 5k, wangxian, modern, artist WWX, first meetings, meet-cute, fluff)

Somebody With Whom to Dance by failedcharismacheck (T, 2k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, slow dancing, friends to lovers, fluff)

beep! goes his heart by wearing_tearing (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, fluff, roommates, hurt WWX, single parent LWJ, friends to lovers, heartbeats)

underwater you're almost free by yuer (vintageblueskies) (T, 4k, wangxian, modern, established relationship, fluff, light angst, depression, gratuituos hand kissing)

Actions over words by like_a_bird_that_flew (E, 5k, wangxian, modern, highschool au, getting together, teen romance, horny teenagers, making out, first kiss, pining, resolved sexual tension, fluff & snut, first time)

the clear bowl by appledtea (T, 6k, wangxian, modern, fluff, crack treated seriously, fluff)

~*~

15. Hi, do you have recommendations of post-canon fic with BAMF!WWX? For example, someone attacks LWJ/LS/Cloud Reccess and WWX goes full Yiling Laozu ? Thank you. Your blog is great!

green flame, black flute, red ribbon by Fleetling (T, 3k, Pre-WangXian, LJY POV, Hurt/Comfort)

T O A D by cuttlefeeeeeeeeesh (M, 5k, WIP, WangXian, postcanon, toad-related violence, wwx's usual self-sacrificing habits, Body Horror, wangxian fighting together, the toad is just vibing, Slime, Battle Aftercare, canon-typical corpses, wwx learning he is loved, Badass YLLZ)

the field meets the wood by astronicht (T, 7k, WangXian, BAMF WWX, slight whump, Ritualistic Self Harm, Canon Era, Tang Dynasty style, Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, salt economics, Post-Canon, [Podfic] the field meets the wood by semperfiona_podfic (semperfiona), [podfic] the field meets the wood by jellyfishfire)

~*~

16. Hi! I'm looking for some type of dystopian vibe fic for an iitmf? Wangxian ofc, maybe something post-apocalyptic or dystopian like hunger games or divergent? Anyways thabk you!

❤️ A Corpse Called By Name by jaemyun (Not rated, 60k, wangxian, angst w/ happy ending, zombie apocalypse, zombie WWX, yunmeng trio)

The Hanging Tree Series by chatonnerie (T, 41k, WangXian, Hunger Games AU, Blood, Minor Character Death, The Beginning, Reaping, Interviews, sickness, Recovery, Soft WangXian, mild torture)

~*~

17. hiya!! are there any fics where the juniors accidentally meet yllz? thnk u!

Four Parts Honey and One Part Vinegar by masked (T, 13k, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Junior Quartet, Fluff, Humor, Time Travel, 5+1 Things, Jealous Wèi Yīng, the Impeccable Trust between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, POV Outsider)

This Is Not The Senior Wei We Know! by SilverBells (T, 12k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time travel, Light Angst, Post-Canon, YL WWX, Burial Mounds days, Juniors travel back in time)

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what  you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack,  whatever - it’s all good!***

#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic recs #i'm in the mood for a fic #the untamed #wangxian fic search #wangxianficfinder #long post

[fruitdaze]

writing patterns meme

i was tagged by @crimsonrainseekingflower! thank you!

rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

When Lu Bixing went into the bathroom to wash up, Lin Jingheng was sitting on the sofa and going through reports. (slow motion, no sound)

Vasya awoke with the sunrise, with the rosy blush beginning to creep between the snow-covered branches of the spruce-tree under which they had made their camp. (if not, winter)

The best and worst day of Gu Mang’s life was spent on the outskirts of Chonghua, first beneath a blood-red sunset and then beneath the dusty ceiling of an inn room, and his favorite person was beside him for all of it. (the drains of heaven)

It was the third month of his bedside vigil, and Wen Kexing was a ghost. (the soft animal)

It was two nights after the jailbreak, and Wen Kexing was a little drunk. (losing all my senses every night)

The pond was warm, like a thousand sunbeams landing on Cheng Qian at once. (portrait of gravity)

“Listen, I’m going to need your honest opinion.” (heliocentric)

Contrary to popular and wildly exaggerated lore, Wei Wuxian was a human. (i kneel into a dream)

When Cheng Qian woke up, Yan Zhengming was sitting on the side of their bed. (low tide)

It starts, as many things in Shang Qinghua’s life these days tend to do, with something that he himself had written. (like real people do)

takeaways:

not a fan of opening with dialogue! 9/10 here are prose!

a lot of these sentences are extremely similar in structure: "x and y," or "when x happened, y was happening," or a simple statement of fact. "wwx is human (QUESTION MARK??)" is my favorite among them.

i love... descriptive prose.... looking at nos. 2 and 3 especially

my fandoms have been all over the place for the past 1.5-ish years. however: priest pairings stay winning

you can see in real time my transition from writing in present tense to writing in past tense. wow

i haven't been online much in the past few weeks and i have no idea who has/has not already done this. if you would like to, please consider yourself tagged by me!!!

#rtxt #ficposting

[astrophysicistnotastronaut]

Headcanon Htuesday... again

ok ok I’m really excited about this one. Get this: Italian nobility Regulus x greek James. TELL ME THIS IS NOT EXACTLY RIGHT.  Ik lots of fics do the whole French thing but no, bc Italian is so much more accurate? Keep in mind I have no authority on this as I am neither Greek nor Italian but sTILL? I love it already. 

OKOK AND THEN (this sort of has nothing to do with the above): The Blacks are descended from the famous Galileo Galilei right (no idea if he actually has descendants irl but anyway), and kind of ignore him bc he was a v controversial figure back in the day BUT Regulus is especially inspired by him for some reason. So then the whole regulus-falling-in-love-with-james thing happens and he comes out to his family, and is shunned etc etc (bc they are awful ppl) and he just loves Galileo even more bc JUST LIKE HIM Galileo was rejected from society for his heliocentric model of the universe... do you see where I’m going with this?? JAMES IS THE SUN. and regulus’ universe revolves around the sun??? I’m going to cry?? brb I have to go write a fic. 

#THE PARALELLS #I CAN'T #jegulus #James potter #regulus black #marauders #dead gay wizards #sirius black #Remus Lupin #wolfstar #Galileo is so regulus coded #ao3 #fanfiction #headcanon #greek James x Italian regulus #I love #James' family is so chaotic compared to the blacks #this is canon I've decided #harry potter #ok I have to actually go and do my Italian homework now

[jonesyjonesyjonesy]

Wildflowers (pt. xiv.i)

a john paul jones x fem!oc fic

summary: Julia Morgan knew nannying for three girls who had recently lost their mother would come with many challenges. But she never thought their father, the enigmatic musician John Paul Jones, would be causing her the most trouble. And while Julia is not in the business of saving broken men, her tenderness might be meant for more than little girls and wildflowers.

table of contents │ previous chapter

masterlist│ko-fi

notes: tropes, tropes, and more tropes

a/n:  Text editor be damned. The girls need Julia Morgan. Part one of two. As a reminder, the tag list is opened. 🥰

pt. xiv.i, wild rose

"I’ve been watching and I just know, Julia. I just know that you are not alone in this."

The corner of my eye twitched. The band of the falsies Pat had given me kept dipping below my lash line. A tear started forming in my right eye.

“Bloody hell,” I spat and ripped them from the crepe skin of my lids. The release of the glue was a tiny piece of heaven.

I didn’t have the heart to toss them overboard and instead set them on the handrail. They looked like angry black caterpillars that were curling up, waiting to die.

A solemn summer breeze glanced over the lake and gave me goosebumps I rubbed my forearms for warmth. Wished I had a cigarette to accompany me. I had my sea legs by now and I undulated with the delicate waves of the current. But I was done with it. The romanticism I had built up from watching the boats trembling with people and music was kaput. I wanted to go back to the dock.

I coughed deeply once more, marijuana still scratching at my lungs. My head throbbed from too much alcohol. Hangover even before getting into bed. Getting old, Julia. I grabbed onto the rail, framing my little lash caterpillars between my hands, and looked out at the mountains ghosting over the glinting, winking water.

This night that had started out so promising was now miserable and here I was alone on the aft deck while up above people danced up above and inside –

I didn’t want to think about inside. She’d had her hand on the inside of his thigh last I’d looked. And he’d been so taken with her touch, whispering in her ear and making her laugh. Without my eyes, I’m sure it would make it easier for him to unwind just as I’d encouraged the night before. If I had stayed, he would have been slightly abashed and withholding and I could have stayed snug between Robert and –

“There you are.”

I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s hard not to when I think about it.

Where to start, where to start…I guess it’s inevitability. That’s the word. Like how the planets orbit the sun. It was inevitable in that heliocentric way. Around, around, around. Inevitable, inevitable, inevitable. 

Although the night before I had refuted Pat’s (and Robert’s and Mr. Grant’s) impression of what was happening between John and I, I cherished that it was known. They saw, felt a potential. That night, rather than hopelessly reach across the bed, I clutched the question in my palm and dangerously imagined the next night. I had to wonder if anyone had bothered to say anything to him about me. I didn’t know habits of infatuation from the male perspective, but from what I could tell, it seemed men never said anything to each other unless it was coded in nods and coughs. Was he being told that there was an obvious quality about us? Did he feel an inevitable feeling about us? Or was he literal when he called me friend? Was our affection for one another deeply entrenched in his tragic desperation for connection?

The day of was a warm and lazy. Room service breakfast, basking on the great lawn, wasting the day away. The exact way to spend a life.

There were moments all throughout the day of that inevitable feeling tucked in pockets. A glance, a shared laugh, his accidental grazing of my hand with his which made us both hold our arms tighter to our sides. The way we intonated Tamara’s name in the same way when she was being indolent. The look we shared after that seemed like neither of us wanted the other to see. Am I making sense? These things feel universal and yet so impossible to put into words.

Inevitable, inevitable, inevitable.

Inevitable like in the goodbye John gave toward the end of dinner before he went upstairs to get ready. “Well,” he let a telling, paternal sigh to stand. “I’m off.” The girls all moaned as he stood and gave each one a kiss to the crown of the head. “Don’t be too upset, you’ll have an extra special night tonight.”

“A surprise? Is there a surprise?” Kiera eagerly asked, shooting up in her chair like a flagpole.

John leaned over her, one hand to the back of the chair and the other on the table. “Julia’s going out tonight. So…”

“I’m in charge?” Tamara smiled and batted her eyelashes.

John scrunched his nose and pinched her chin playfully. “You wish. No, you’ll get some visitors tonight I think you’ll quite enjoy.” He turned to look at me with a sneaking smile. “You want to tell them or should I?”

I smiled back although my thoughts garbled together when my eyes met his. “You can, if you like.”

He rolled his head back to the girls and grinned. “Or do you a have guess?”

Jacinda’s eyes flickered easily, quickly. “Pat and Bonzo?”

Kiera looked to her sisters, her mouth agape and smiling. 

John shrugged. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”

“Will they bring a surprise?” Kiera asked.

“Kiera,” Tamara tutted with a roll of her eyes. “They’re the surprise.”

Kiera frowned. “People aren’t a surprise. Presents are a surprise. That’s a surprise, daddy,” she said instructionally.

“You’re spoiled. And I love you dearly,” he replied with a saccharine tone and leaned in to give her a thick, wet kiss on the cheek.

“Where are you going, Julia?” Jacinda asked me.

I hesitated before replying, “I’m going to go watch your father perform tonight.”

The corner of her mouth turned up and her eyes glinted curiously. If I didn’t know better, I would have told her exactly what I said to Pat the night before: “I know what you’re thinking and no.”

“Why does Julia get to watch you and we don’t? That’s not fair,” Kiera pouted.

“Oh, you’d be bored to tears,” he said, gaze falling to his feet. Then, as if the devil ran his finger down his spine, he lifted his head and looked to me with a smirk. “Very boring stuff.” It was only a brief look, but long enough to send a flicker of feeling through my belly.

“Plus, much too late for little ones to be about,” I added.

John laughed, “Yes, there are too many unsettling and spooky characters around past your bedtime.” His eyes darted to his watch. “Alright, now I’ve got to be off. You all better be asleep by the time we’re back tonight, alright?”

A chorus of affirmatives from the girls.

“And I’ll see you later,” he said to me, drifting away from the table with slow feet.

“Yes, I’ll be one of the crowd. Holding a lighter maybe. Isn’t that what people do?” I teased.

John blushed on my behalf and chuckled, “Oh, Julia, you have much to learn.” He turned to go but stopped short and looked back at me once more. “Let tonight be the start of your real education.”

I returned his blush with a deeper shade of crimson. I had done the studying in the studio with him, listening to his records and his playing, hearing him talk about people and concepts I didn’t know. Or was our time together the studying and the night ahead the education?

The girls and I finished up our dinner, including a rather splendid dessert of ice cream sundaes (I’d have to apologize to Pat and Bonzo for the inevitable sugar high). By the time we returned to the suite, John was long gone, save the fresh scent of his aftershave wafting out from his bedroom. God, I was so used to him and his being, his presence. Only natural, considering I lived in his house and took care of his girls. It added to that inevitable feeling. It would just be so easy to pivot into something deeper than friendship. No worrying if the children would like me, no worrying that I wouldn’t be ready for the responsibility of motherhood.

And this is where I had to grab the emergency brake. This felt deranged. What was yesterday a crush was now a full-fledged life plan. I had to wind it back. Put my head down. Focus on what was in front of me and that was bath time, which ran extra-long that night. I hid my anxious, flying thoughts behind the cover of Where the Red Fern Grows while the girls listened with rapt attention as bubbles popped around them. Once they all resembled raisins rather than little girls, I sent them off to their room to put on their pajamas so I could disappear to change.

I had laid out the dress hours ago, tenderly, spread across the bed as if the woman wearing it had disapparated suddenly. The long, white dress, printed with lively poppies, purple bellflowers, and fern leaves, looked exactly like what someone in Montreux shouldwear. A partial wooden-buttoned bodice and tie at the waist. Almost tropical. I had bought the dress specifically for the trip, although it was more of an aspirational garment, something that I didn’t expect to pull out, but would be nice for an impromptu dinner or an evening walk alone along the waterfront.

As I did the ritualistic contortion, bending my arms around my back for the zipper, I started to question if the dress I had thought was so lovely in the shop window was at all fit for the night. I seemed to stick out like a sore thumb wherever I went. I thought of myself as a smart dresser, not necessarily stylish. I cared for my clothes and cared that they suited my figure, but I no longer obsessed over trends as I did as a younger woman. Here, the crowd of musicians and their sycophants dressed in trends that were exponential of what you would see on Carnaby. With so many people saying “look at me”, no one was at all unique.

7pm on the dot, the Bonhams and Robert arrived. Bonzo was markedly grumpy until he was greeted with a thrill of cheers and kisses from the girls and was unceremoniously ushered into a card game. That left me with Pat and Robert, both of whom shuffled me with eagerness into my room. 

“That’s just a smashing little thing, don’t you think?” Pat said, pulling up the skirt of my dress and admiring the fabric draped over her hand.

“It looks lovely,” Robert replied as if it were consolation. “But have you got anything shorter?”

I balked, “Shorter? No.” 

“Damn,” he grunted. “You see, John’s the type to check the boot of the car before the headlights, if you catch my meaning,” he said and pulled the skirt so it tightened around my backside.

Pat thwapped his hand away from the dress. “Oh, stop that.”

“I’m just saying, if you know where the eye will go, it’s something to capitalize on,” he said with a shrug and cheeky smile before plopping down on the end of the bed and spreading his legs out long.

“Don’t listen to him,” she said and put her hands up in front of my chest. “It makes your tits look great and that’ll be more than enough.”

I had to laugh at their comedy routine. “You’re being awfully presumptive about all this,” I said.

“About what, darlin’?” Robert asked, picking at his nails.

“That…you know,” I began sheepishly. “I don’t know what you all are seeing, but inside of it, it’s just a comfortable friendly sort of thing.”

Robert and Pat stared back at me like I was a child saying they hadn’t broken a teacup even though the handle was still between their fingers.

“And I work for him. So this – what you’re implying or trying to do through…the dress and the…it’s really all appreciated, but it’s altogether inappropriate,” I said with firm finality.

They blinked and then burst into laughter. I screwed my lips together to keep the pinprick of embarrassment from welling in my eyes.

“You’re so precious, Julia,” Pat gushed. “Just precious.”

“Show us the shoes now,” Robert demanded from his throne on the bed.

I tried to ignore their reaction and showed them the woven leather heels that seemed satisfactory, even though Robert remarked that they looked ginormous when I held them up. “Don’t talk about that, I’m sensitive,” I said dryly before clipping them on.

And then it was off to the vanity, which clearly had been on Pat’s mind. She plopped a large makeup case adorned with golden threaded elephants down and began to unload every little thing in her bag of tricks. Robert got up and came behind me, running his hand through my hair. “What are you thinking?”

“Well, I was just –“ I began.

“Just a slight curl, a little spray,” Pat rattled off.

“You’ve got to go big with the hair,” Robert replied.

I stared at my reflection, rendered speechless. The two of them squabbled over my hair as if I wasn’t there, just a form for them to style. It felt ridiculous to be prodded and preened by their fingers, evaluating the pros and cons of what hairstyle would suit the evening. 

“Don’t worry, Julia. You’re in very good hands. You just need to sit and let me do my work, alright?” Pat said in her sweet way that now felt rather condescending given the moment.

“I just prefer something not too flashy, you know, I don’t want –“

I was silenced by Pat’s hands running over my face with some sort of balm or cream that had a sharp and unnatural floral scent. It was abundantly clear that I would not have a say in what was happening to me, so I kept my mouth shut and let them take over. As the saying goes, idle hands are the devil’s playthings, and it became too easy to let my love-addled brain turn to anxieties of the evening.

Meanwhile, Pat worked and Robert commented endlessly. Brushes and fingers, creams and powders, the heat of a curling iron at the back of my neck. I watched the mirror out of the corner of my eye in terror at what was becoming of my face and my hair. Glimpses of big, thick curls weighed down with product and shocks of frosted orange on my eyelid. I must have been paling pitifully because they kept arguing over if they should add more rouge. 

After what felt like a lifetime of this torture, Pat spoke up. “Close your eyes.”

Her fingers drifted into my eyeline, holding the wispy lashes that would plague me later in the night. “No, no, no,” I held up a hand. “I haven’t worn those since the 60s, please.”

“Oh, come on, they’ll look nice,” she retorted, making no move of retreat.

“Everyone wears them,” Robert added. “And Pat puts them on perfectly, you won’t be getting that lazy eye look.”

“Shut up, Rob.”

I dodged left. “No, please, I don’t want them on.” Then right. “I don’t want to look all done up.” I shot up off the tufted stool and backed away from the pair. “I just want to look like me and I don’t wear those.” For the first time, I saw myself directly in the mirror and almost burst into tears. Pat had done a formidable job, but I hated it. I looked so young. I felt transported almost immediately to the time of my life that was just knee socks and wet knickers, when being bold and outlandish was my currency and despite all the risks I was taking, I felt so safe. Right up until I wasn’t. My reflection was just a little girl. I didn’t want to look like a girl tonight.

I grabbed at a lock of my hair and heard it crunch in my hand. “This is ridiculous. I look…ridiculous.”

“You look fantastic! What are you on about?” Robert said with brash enthusiasm. “You’ll be right up there with the best of them, Julie.”

“I’m not looking to be best in show,” I said, my breath quickening. “I don’t do this sort of thing. I feel like a fish in a fur coat.” I lunged for my hairbrush and began undoing the thick strains of curls. “I’m sorry, I know you worked so long, but this is just too much. I look like too much.”

Robert tried to retrieve the brush from me. “You’re spoiling it!”

“Rob, leave her alone,” Pat interjected and guided him toward the door. “Go wait outside, will you?”

They had a quiet conversation in the doorway that I ignored as I paced around the room, tugging on the crunchy curls with the brush. I had about half of my head done, curls softened as much as they could, when Pat spoke up. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” 

“Julia…”

“You’ve all made this such a big thing and it wasn’t. It wasn’t anything, Pat,” I replied tersely and returned to the vanity. I began working on a curl that had become extremely knotted. “And now I have to appease it unless I want Mr. Grant to eat my kidneys for breakfast tomorrow.”

“Oh dear,” she muttered and came up behind me.

I worked tirelessly on the hair, not minding the pain it was bringing to my scalp, until I felt her hand on my shoulder. The tension in my back melted and I dropped my hands into my lap.

“This is supposed to be fun,” she said apologetically. “And if it’s not then –“

“I’m nervous,” I blurted. “I’m so bloody nervous I feel like I’m going to be sick.”

A sympathetic smile crept onto her lips.

I dropped the brush onto the vanity and curled over onto my fists. “I don’t want this. This feeling. I just don’t want it anymore.” This was ostensibly the first time I had admitted to someone that I was feeling something for John beyond what was acceptable. An untenable, complicated, and illicit feeling. 

Pat’s hand drifted down my back. She nudged herself onto the lip of the stool beside me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Julia.”

I looked up and found her looking right back at me in the mirror.

“If you don’t want to have them, then don’t go tonight.”

“What?”

“Don’t go. You don’t want to feel the things you’re feeling, don’t go.”

I looked at her incredulously. “I can’t do that.”

“You could,” she replied. Then, her lips curled up into a mischievous smile. “You just don’t want to.”

I let out a limp laugh. She was good at seeing right through me. “I don’t want to look foolish. I already feel so foolish.”

Pat didn’t reply at first. She grabbed the brush and began to work out the curls in my hair again. “Julia, I wouldn’t be here egging this on if I thought you were going to look foolish.” She separated the pieces of my hair into relaxed curls easily with her nails. “I know you feel like you’re sitting on your heels just watching everyone because you’re the outsider. But what you don’t know is that I feel the exact same way. I think most of us do when we’re around the lot of them. I watch and I listen just like you do.” She sighed and reached for a clean eye shadow brush. Gingerly, she pushed the brush into the crease of my eye and began to buff out the orange. “The only difference is…I know them much better than you do. Their mannerisms and habits. I’ve learned over the years how to read them.” The eyeshadow miraculously diffused into a color resembling the golden light of afternoon. “And you need to hear me when I say this.” She gripped my shoulders and locked her eyes in mine through the mirror. “You listening?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been watching and I just know, Julia. I just know that you are not alone in this,” Pat said. “I see the way he looks at you.”

I flushed desperately. “Pat, please.”

“I know, it sounds like fluff, but listen to me. I wouldn’t just say it to stoke your ego. This is too…this is too big for that. I know that. We all know that. I mean…we all know how huge this is for him,” she said, despondency inching into her voice. “I’m not going to play games when I know how important this all is.”

I touched one of her hands and leaned my head against hers. 

Pat smiled, almost shyly. “And I’m sorry I made you look like a tart.”

“Not a tart, Pat, no!” I cried, enveloped in laughter.

“Well, the look on your face made it seem like I’d tarted you up completely!”

The two of us laughed ourselves silly and, once it abated, I conceded to the lashes now that the “tartiness” had been tamed. And I had to admit, she was right about them. They really pulled the look together and gave my eyes an allure that couldn’t be quite captured with mascara. The final touch was the lipstick. We agreed upon a dark terra cotta that added striking contour to the cupid’s bow of my lips. With a final fluff of my hair, Pat helped me to my feet and admired what had become of the past sloppy hour.

Pat clapped her hands together and squealed, “Oh, the girls will just die.”

Upon walking into the living room, the intense card game was only broken up by Robert’s cry of, “Wow, look at you!” The girls dropped their cards and gasped delightedly. “I’ve got to say, I had my doubts, ‘specially after that outburst, but you look just –“

“Winsome,” Bonzo finished.

“Winsome?” Robert repeated. 

“Yeah. Means pretty,” he replied as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.    

Kiera and Jacinda approached me, both touching the skirt of my dress and admiring it. “You look like a fairy,” Kiera said. “Like you sleep in a flower.”

“No, you look like the flower itself,” Jacinda argued.

“I’ll take both and then some,” I replied, leaning down and kissing each of them on the cheeks. “Be good tonight.”

Even Tamara, who was usually not one to offer a compliment unprompted, shyly added, “You look very pretty, Julia,” and that sent me over the moon.

“Thank god you came when you did,” Robert said, getting to his feet. “I was just about to get conned out of my ascot.”

I eyed Bonzo. “You better not be running a card table here. They’re too young for gambling.”

Bonzo gave me a toothy grin. “No card table, promise. Cross my heart.”

“Don’t listen to him. He’s got his fingers crossed behind his back,” Robert said, lithely dodging Bonzo’s hand going for his crotch. “Oooo…too slow.”

I gave Pat a pleading look and she nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Boo…no fun at all,” her husband replied.

Robert bounded over to me with an eager smile. “You ready then, Ms. Morgan?”

“Yes, let me just grab my –“ Pat appeared at my side with my ivory beaded purse. “Oh, thank you.”

“You have fun and you don’t worry a pin about us, right, John love?”

Kiera had already made her way over to Bonzo, climbing over him to reach the pile of cards on the side table. “Yes, hurry back!” he grimaced.

“Don’t hurry back. Don’t for god’s sake,” Pat amended.

I smiled at her the way I would at Auntie Gin. With an uninhibited amount of adoration. She had mothered me as I had needed right in that moment. And now she had to let me go. “You come get me if anything goes wrong, won’t you?”

“Nothing will go wrong,” Pat waved me off.

“But I mean it, if anything –“

She started to scurry us out of the suite. “Go, go, go. Girls, say goodnight to Julia!”

“Goodnight, Julia!” the girls said in unison.

Robert and I were forced out the door by Pat. She paused, pretty eyes narrowing. “And good luck.”

I didn’t have time to respond before the door clapped shut in my face and Robert tucked his arm under mine. “Come on, love. We’ve got somewhere to be.”

Robert calmed my nerves immensly on the way over to the casino. Everything I said could be turned into a tongue-in-cheek joke and, for better or worse, he was doing a bang-up job of making me feel gorgeous. By the time we made our way into the venue, I held my head high amongst the overly-trendy crowd.

The concert, or jam as John called it, was being held in one of the smaller spaces. It was much more casual than I had anticpated, with cabaret style tables populating the space and a very lively bar scene in the back. The stage at the front was crammed with gear; a few men milled about double checking cords and microphones. And there was a distinct smell of patchouli and tahitian vanilla wafting about, heightened by the inescapable humidity of bodies in Swiss summer.

Moreso than ever, I realized the unrivaled power of Zeppelin. It was not just a word, but an aura. An aura that was hard to miss when it was embodied in the towering, golden-haired banshee, Robert Plant. We were borne quickly to a more secluded section for the artists and shown to a primely located table toward the front. Even amongst his peers, eyes followed him as if he was untouchable.

“Y’find this suitable, then?” Robert asked as he pulled a chair out for me.

“Me? I mean, it’s perfect.” We had the best view of the entire stage, set up and back from the crowd and all the way to the front of the VIP section.

He shrugged. “It’s alright.”

“Never good enough when you get the best, is it?” I murmured, taking a seat.

Robert didn’t respond; he was making eye contact with someone across the room, gesturing with his hand toward the table in a back and forth motion. I tried to follow his gaze but didn’t see anyone of note, but was distracted by the knot of anticipation in my stomach. There is something so special about the time before a show begins. All the instruments full of potential energy, the audience abuzz and waiting. At any moment, your idle chatter and drinking could be interrupted, exchanged for a musical catharsis.

“I want you to keep an open mind tonight, Julie,” Robert murmured in my ear as he settled into the seat beside me. 

I glanced at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“This is the bird then?”

Our table had been flanked by a stocky, beared fellow who carried a glass in either hand. His eyes were squarely on me, but the question was for Robert, as if I were a sort of specimen being observed in a lab.

“Richard, Julia,” Robert said as means of introduction. “Julia, Ricardo.”

“Hello,” I greeted timidly.

Richard’s blank look transformed into a knowing smile. “It’s a pleasure,” he said with a nod and set the drinks down in front of us. “Heard you’re a fan of the green fairy.”

I frowned until I caught his meaning and looked at the drink in front of me. A chartreuse, bubbling liquid in a champagne coupe. “You’re trying to get me knackered?”

“Best way to be under the circumstances,” Richard replied.

“Richard’s our tour manager,” Robert explained. “Responsible for most all the knackering.”

“Oh, brilliant.”

Richard laughed gruffly and crouched down at the edge of our table. “Well, it’s nice to meet you finally. Heard a lot about you.”

I looked to Robert and shook my head. “That’s what everyone keeps saying and it’s starting to –“

“Oh, hush, Julia. It’s a compliment,” Robert admonished me.

“Depends on who you’re hearing it from,” I said with pursed lips.

“Just good things,” Richard shrugged, eyes shifting every which way. “Good, pure things. Promise. Listen, after the show, head out to the docks. There’s going to be a yacht taking off right after the show, s’not gonna wait except for Maria and her crew.”

Robert nodded. “Got it.”

“You better be there,” Richard said to me with sharpness. “Alright? S’not an invitation. S’a requirement. No running off or tucking in early.”

I looked to Robert to see if I should laugh.

“Hey, cool it, alright?” Robert warned. “You’re scaring her.”

Richard seemed almost affronted. “I’m not scaring her. Am I scaring you?”

“I’m just not used to the way you all communicate,” I answered, trying not to let the nervousness permeate my voice.

“See?” Richard grinned. “Not scaring her. Not at all. Alright! I’ll be around if you need anything.” He stood up and jerked his finger toward the back. “Over there.”

Robert sighed. “Thanks, Richard.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied and looked at me again. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yes,” I smiled and, as soon as he was out of earshot, added, “if I value my life.”

Robert laughed and put his arm around the back of my chair. “He means well.”

“And I thought Peter was bad…” I grumbled.

“It’s his job to keep us happy,” he replied, swilling his drink quickly. “By any means necessary.”

I swallowed. “Sounds like people who cross you end up with a bounty on their head.”

He snorted. “Yes, you could say that.”

I tasted my drink carefully, the anisey wormwood striking my tongue and hardening my jaw. “Don’t get me drunk.”

“Just enough to loosen you up, Julie Andrews.”

It was at that moment the stagelights shifted brighter while the house lights dimmed. There was a relative calming hush as the group of ragtag musicians filled the stage. I immediately straightened up in my seat and leaned forward. As if he was trying to hide in others’ shadows, there was John, crossing over to the bass guitar sitting on a stand at the edge of the stage. With his every movement, I noticed something new in him. The stagelights brought out the cherry undertones of his lucious hair, showed off different contours of his figure I hadn’t seen, gave him a clear confidence. While his stageclothes were rather tame compared to those hanging in the studio closet, they suited the occasion well: a yellow floral shirt with bishop sleeves, blue bell bottoms, a pair of sensible brown platforms (as oxymoronic as it sounds).

I drank in his every motion as if I was thirsting in the desert and he was water. John pulled the strap of the bass over his head, was distracted by another musician and looked over his shoulder with a laugh, and put his pick between his teeth to turn one of the tuners. Once he was done, he gave a look around, took a breath, and began to pluck out a woozy, cheerful set of notes.  

God, he was so fucking dear to me up there.

I’d been so consumed in watching him, that I hadn’t even noticed the lady of the hour, Maria Muldaur, move to the front of the stage and begin her song. “Well, I tried to run my game. She said, ‘Man, that’s the same old thing that you’ve played before…’”

Her plangeant croon captured the attention of the room. The olive-skinned woman exuded ease and glowed in her rainbow wrap top. And though her bounty of dark curls adorned with a red flower were demurely seductive to the audience, my eyes were constantly enraptured by the slick and inconspicuous bassist in the back corner.

“Play something sweet…something mellow…Play something I can sink my teeth in like Jello…”

I couldn’t get my heart to stop racing. This was an education. The feeling of music pulsing and winding, right there in front of me letting my brain turn off from the world and just thrive in an aural imagination.

As they moved into the second song, Robert touched my shoulder. “Relax, Julia.”

I was sitting stock straight, hands encircling my drink, and a stupid little smile on my face. I knew John couldn’t see me, probably wasn’t even looking for me. But I hoped he could feel me. I was sending everything I had across the room to him. I relaxed into Robert’s hand and smiled sheepishly at him.

“Midnight at the oasis…”

Robert needled his finger into my waist and I laughed.

“Send your camel to bed….”

“Send!” Robert and I whispered to each other in unison. 

I didn’t have much to compare it to, having never been to a concert where the main attraction to me was the bass guitarist, but I was enthralled watching John. He was focused and precise at every turn. His watchful eyes I had grown so accustomed to scanned the band as if it was his obligation. And every now and then, he let the fun he was having show on his lips in a smile, wondering at the surprising gifts the other musicians were giving him. I watched with wide of eyes as possible so it would be singed in my memory forever. 

“Look at you. All starry-eyed.”

“I’m not starry-eyed.”

Robert wrapped a curl of my hair around his finger. “Yes you are. Glimmering.” He didn’t take his eyes off me, watching me watch the stage. “You know, it’s just John.”

I was in so deep I could have stamped on his foot for that remark. “And I’m just Julia.”

He tsked me. “No, no, listen, listen. Like I was saying earlier. You need to keep an open mind.”

“You propositioning me?” I asked.

Robert furrowed his brow, affronted. “Me? No.”

“Because I know you’re married,” I replied, yanking the lock of my hair off his finger. I’d done plenty of research since my humiliation with Jimmy.

“I said no, didn’t I?” he said with a well-humored smile popping back on his face. “’sides, would never do that to John.” His eyes narrowed. “Or, I should say, I wouldn’t do that to John in circumstances such as these.”

I guffawed. “You’re terrible.”

“All I’m saying is that you should keep your options open, love. You never know where the night can take you. You’ve got eyes on you already.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the section. “No, you’ve got eyes on you.”

Robert shook his head vaguely, curls bobbling. “Right over there, Emerson, Lake, or Palmer has got his eyes on you. I can never remember which is which. And over there –“

“I’m not interested.” 

He leaned in closer, whispering in my ear, “You’ve been cooped up all this time with only one man like Adam and Eve and you don’t know the possibility beyond the Garden of Eden.”

“I don’t know the possibility in the Garden of Eden, either,” I remarked.

He raised an eyebrow, perpetual smirk twisting up to the side. “That’s true. That’s fair.”

“And ifwe’re to continue this comparison, you seem to be the snake,” I replied.

Robert sucked in his lower lip and stiffled a laugh. “I could make so many jokes right now and I’m holding my tongue because I’m a gentleman.”

I smacked his arm. “You’re anything but.”

“I try, at least give me that credit.”

I quietly watched John another few moments, my heart swollen and throbbing. “I don’t want to keep an open mind,” I said to Robert. Plainly, clearly. With no hesitiaton. Opening my ribcage and exposing my heart. “I know what I want.”

Robert’s eyebrows jumped as he took in what I said. He saw it now. “I understand what you mean. I know that feeling.”   

The rest of the performance our back and forth was warm and well-humored. My glass seemed to be conspicuously full of champagne every time I reached for it. Whether that was the work of Richard or a trick of the mind, I still can’t pin down.

“You’ve been such a great crowd tonight,” Maria announced after a particularly rousing number complemented by brass and a swinging cadence. “It’s been just a dream to be here. Another round of applause for the band!”

The audience followed her instructions wildly and heartily.

“I mean…I’ve been around the block before but…” she leaned toward the audience and held her hand over her mouth as if it was a secret. “These guys are the real deal!”

Polite chuckles echoed around the room.

“Special thanks to Mr. John Paul Jones of the Led Zeppelin who came through on a whim last night when I called his hotel room completely gassed out of my mind,” she said with a gesture to John who seemed to sink further into shadow for his unassuming bow of the head. 

Robert let out a whoop. “Thatta boy Stanley!” (I decided not to ask).

John eyes darted our way, squinting, most likely unable to see past the footlights.

“Mr. Jones. Oh, Mr. Jones...” she drawled. “Mr. Jones is responsible for our next selection.”

The pianist started a distant, tinkling tune.

Maria looked over her shoulder at John briefly. “He’s not too happy about it, though.”

John rolled his eyes and slunk into his corner as the audience laughed.

“This is for a girl I used to know in Connecticut. Or Vermont. One of those.”

Suddenly my brain attuned to the song plunking out of the piano. A descending jangle that I knew incredibly well. I thought my ears must being playing tricks on me.

Maria adjusted the mic and let it rip. “Bill…I love you so, I always will…”

“He hates this song,” I muttered in disbelief.

“Hm?”

I couldn’t keep from beaming. “He – John, he really hates this song.”

Robert cocked his head. “You look awfully happy about it.”

“And in your voice I hear a choir of carousels…”

‘Wedding Bell Blues’ – probably Laura Nyro’s most famous tune. Lyrically trite, musically uncomplicated. Maria sang it in her own way, lilting and light, not with the same bristling gusto, but it was still…perfect. I could have keeled over and died right there and felt like I had lived a full, beautiful life. Despite his loathe for the song, John played it adeptly and lithely as he had everything else, perhaps with a little more humor behind the eyes. The song, for everyone to hear, was a secret just for us. I couldn’t be alone in this.

“Is this one for you?” Robert asked softly in my ear.

I felt a swell of emotion in my chest. If I had uttered one word, I would have burst into tears.

“Oh, Julie Andrews, look at you,” he cooed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “You sweet girl.”

Sweet, naïve girl. I was desperate to look like a woman in the mirror and yet I hadn’t felt this young and “starry-eyed” in years. There might as well have been no audience, no singer, not a single other musician.

This song was for me. The song, this whole night. All mine.

I had to take my chance.

to be continued...

✨ For more of my writing, visit my masterlist. ✨

tag list:  @jimmys-zeppelin, @calico-skiess, @kari-12-10, @grxtsch, @edal-weis, @ritacaroline, @kyunisixx, @salixfragilis, @rogerfuckintaylor, @rebel-without-a-zeppelin, @jimmypages, @dollyvandal, @cassiana-it, @pinkleder, @angiesasadboy, @faisonsunreve, @sastrugie (always open for additions 💋)

#john paul jones #julia morgancore #wildflowers #robert plant #john bonham #pat bonham #richard cole #led zeppelin

[jowritesfanfiction]

Copernicus

Fandom: Back to the Future

Ships: N/A

Rating: General

Summary: Emmett's new friend comes one rainy day, as all important things tend to happen. What other things could these two possibly do?

CW: Brief implication of a dog's death.

You can also read the fic here!

Five years went by before Emmett met his next companion. One rainy night– as all important things tend to occur– this dog appeared to Emmett. The little puppy just sat at the scientist’s doorstep, barking to be heard by anyone. 

Unfortunately, Emmett was out scavenging for materials for a new clock he planned to make—a new project he started. When he did arrive home, he was greeted with a surprise.

“Great Scott!” Emmett cried, “How long have you been out here in the cold for?”

The puppy whimpered a response. 

“It’s alright, you can come inside and we’ll get you dried off.”

Upon opening the door, the dog scurried into the house and crashed into a wall. It shook its head and panted, looking up at Emmett. 

“You alright, there?” he asked the dog. The dog cocked its head. “I’ll be in the other room working if you need me.”

The dog wagged its tail and padded around the room, examining the different objects. The dog would occasionally scratch itself behind the ears.

Halfway through completing the latest clock, Emmett realized he had the wrong sized escapement piece. Upon getting up to fetch the right piece, Emmett noticed the sudden silence from outside the room. Worried something might have happened to the dog, Emmett waltzed into the room where he left the puppy, only to find it empty.

“Where’d you go?” he asked, looking under the rug. Emmett clicked his tongue and whistled, “C’mere, boy!”

At the third round of whistling and calling, the puppy came padding down the hall from another room toward Emmett with something in its mouth.

“Hey! That’s just what I needed!” Emmett exclaimed, seeing what was in the dog’s mouth, “Can I have that?”

The dog plopped on the ground and opened its mouth to let the escapement roll out and toward Emmett. 

“Thanks for the help, boy.” Emmett praised the dog, walking back to his Clockroom.

The puppy bolted up and followed Emmett and plopped itself under the table. Emmett sat at the table and began working on a new solar system themed clock. 

“If you’re going to stay here, you might as well have a name.” Emmett said, noticing his companion. 

Emmett looked down at the dog and back at his heliocentric clock. That was when the name for his new friend hit him—Copernicus! 

“Perfect!” Emmett exclaimed, standing up a little too fast and knocking some things over. Copernicus dutifully picked up a piece off the floor and brought it to Emmett. 

“Thank you, Copernicus. What a good boy! That’s the minute hand you have.”

Emmett continued to work on his clock. Whenever something were to roll off the table and onto the floor—which happened regularly because of Emmett’s haphazard style of laying his tools out—Copernicus was there to retrieve it. Emmett would then take the item, wipe it on his shirt, and say “Thank you, Copernicus. That’s the hour hand.” or “That’s the dial.”. 

Emmett’s training worked out. In a little over two years, Copernicus was able to differentiate the different tools Emmett requested in a perfect success rate–assuming Emmett asked for the right tool the first time. 

Emmett appreciated Copernicus’s help. It was a wonder that the dog was able to understand him at all. 

If only Emmett could understand Copernicus, too…

“That’s it!” yelled Emmett, slamming down his tools, “I’ll figure out how to understand you, Copernicus!”

Copernicus whipped his head toward Emmett. 

“No more tools, today, boy. We’re going to start working on a new project!” 

The new Dog Reading Machine turned out to be a fluke. If only Emmett had figured that out before attempting it 97 times. The machine did work somewhat well on humans, though, and that gave Emmett some hope. 

“If this works out, do you think they’d put me in the books with Newton and Tesla?” Emmett wondered.

Copernicus barked, dropping the wrench on the ground.

“Right.” Emmett reached for the wrench. “Thank you, Copernicus.” 

Emmett’s hope for the Mind Reading Machine was starting to dwindle. The machine hardly worked, and when it did, it wasn’t how he wanted it to. He was able to read some things, but it always ended up being wrong. 

There was his first test, Roger White, the mailman. The machine read that the mailman was thinking about milk bottles, but it turned out that the mailman was lactose intolerant.

“Would you mind wearing this…again…?” Emmett asked, holding out the mind-reading machine. 

“Emmett, this is the third week in a row you have sent yourself a letter in order to get me to wear that darned thing.” Roger responded. “I’m not doing it anymore!”

“Right, sorry.” Emmett mumbled.

Roger grumbled a reply and left. 

With the number of tests dropping to zero, Emmett began scrambling to find solutions. He tried hiring people to test the machine for him, but no one wanted to work for the estranged scientist, so Emmett turned back to Copernicus. 

The Mind Reading Machine hadn’t improved since then and started its slow decline into disuse. And Copernicus was there for it all. He supported Emmett up until the machine fell from its measly glory and into just a compilation of parts.

“That’s it!” Emmett yelled, “I’ve had it with this damn thing!”

Copernicus barked. 

“It hasn’t worked and it never will!” 

Emmett deconstructed the entire machine. With Copernicus’s help, the two sorted parts into Broken and Usable. After all that, Emmett turned back to his hobby of making clocks.

Time, Emmett decided, was much easier than minds.

As he worked on clocks, Emmett’s mind began to think about different inventions. Practical inventions like an automatic dog-feeder became thoughts and ideas as Emmett worked on clocks. But his favorite ideas were the ones every scientist before him said were impossible. 

One idea stuck with him: Albert Einstein’s theory of time travel. 

“What if we could create a smaller wormhole?” Emmett pondered. He continued to sit at the table, pondering the possibility of his proposition. It would take a hell of a lot of power to do it though. Just how much power?

As Emmett pondered away, Copernicus patiently sat with him. Copernicus had no problems with Emmett’s sudden lack of clock-making throughout the day. He became used to Emmett not interacting and made up for it by resting his chin on Emmett’s leg.

Copernicus was there on November 5, 1955 when Emmett slipped and fell in his bathroom. Dutifully, Copernicus sat and licked Emmett, making sure he was alive. 

When Emmett woke up, his mind hit him with the revelation as to the key to time travel. 

“Copernicus!” Emmett cried, jolting up too quickly. His head began to swirl. 

Copernicus gently grabbed Emmett’s coat and stood firm. 

Emmett grabbed Copernicus and slowly sat himself down. “I think I’ve figured out time travel!”

Copernicus gave a celebratory bark.

With Copernicus’s help, Emmett was able to start working through theories of time travel. He spent hours at the Hill Valley Library looking through previous scientists and their theories for time travel, attempting to work out the plausible way it could work scientifically. 

Copernicus, not being allowed in the library, sat patiently for Emmett to find the reference materials he needed. Copernicus never showed that he didn’t like sitting outside the library. In fact, he was more indignant that he accompanied Emmett at each outing, but Emmett didn’t mind at all. 

One day at the library, a small boy came up to Emmett while he was researching. 

“Excuse me.” the small boy tapped Emmett’s arm.

“What?!” Emmett jumped, startled.

“I think your dog’s sleeping outside.” 

“Sleeping?”

“I was gonna go pet him, but I saw he wasn’t moving, and I didn’t wanna wake him up.”

Emmett peered outside to find Copernicus curled up in the grass.

“Do dogs sleep outside?” the boy asked.

“Sometimes.” Emmett answered, heading toward Copernicus.

“So he’s okay?”

Emmett didn’t answer. He knelt down and examined his companion.

“Can I pet him?”

“No.” Emmett said.

“Will I wake him up?”

“Yes. He wouldn’t like that.” Emmett lied, picking up his friend one last time.

#doc emmett brown #doc brown #copernicus the dog #copernicus #bttf fic #bttf #back to the future #fanfic writing #fanfic #fanfiction #original fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3fic #ao3 #fic: doc’s dogs

[ao3feed-jaydick]

Day 5: Chalk

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/38619360

by Heliocentric

Dick wasn't necessarily a forgetful person. In fact, none of the Bats were. But there were some things that just slip his mind.

And so, the Chalkboard of Reminders came into existence.

Words: 805, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 5 of Daily Stories Charli Writes to Stay Happy Instead of Going to Therapy

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Minor appearances of the Batfamily

Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

Additional Tags: Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, just a tiny little bit but i tagged the fic as teen just in case, it's all fluff tbh gave myself a tooth ache

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/38619360

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #jaydick #dcu

[100and1fics]

my card for Gen Bingo Round 25.

Priceless / Musee des Beaux Arts / Oxygen Theory of Combustion / Noble Gases / Beautiful

Fundamental Particles / Newton's Laws of Motion / Photo-synthesis / Heliocentrism / The Love Feast

Funeral Blues / Episode Tags and Missing Scenes / Wild Card / Character Study / The Unknown Citizen

Five Things / Plays and Scripts / Kishotenketsu (Plot Without Conflict) / For the Time Being / Ambiguous

That Moment (incident / chapter / episode) in detail / Epistolary fic: Emails, letters etc. / Second person narration / Precious Five / When I'm 64: Future

#reference

[songofclarity]

Still working on chapter 17 and the 2022 whumptober prompts have been announced...

#misc #the start of this chapter just isn't doing what i want it to do! #which means i need to axe that part #will the rest make sense without that section tho #will the build-up still have the right impact #i really want this section to work tho #writing is hard #but i haven't given up ;; #heliocentric fic

[star-strand]

heliocentric part 1 - daisy, iris, sun

chapter 2: maybe i'll find some magic

After his strange encounters the night before, Gale tries and fails to have a normal day.

>>ao3<<

#the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana mc #the arcana apprentice #starstrand fic #starstrand #galeposting #juligale #heliocentric

[kitsune1818]

For the 3rd day of @wen-ruohan-events restraint.

I really like to draw wrh (and nmj). Based on chapter 12 of @songofclarity Heliocentric.

“I like having you like this,” Wen RuoHan whispered with a hot breath on his ear.

Nie MingJue resisted turning his head away from where it rested on Wen RuoHan’s shoulder. To struggle would only lead Wen RuoHan on a chase that Nie MingJue had no chance of escaping.

Gentle wrh is more scary than angry wrh, there is this... chilling feel every time scenes like this come up. There is also the implicit despair, unwanted vulnerability and helplessness of nmj situation that just shakes me up. And recently there is something more added, something slithering its way in softly, silently, little by little, that has me on the border of my seat, because one person can only take so much before being twisted into something else.

An excelent fic that i love very, very much.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wrhdays2021 #wen ruohan #nie mingjue #ruojue #wrh #nmj #inspired by fic #heliocentric fic

[fruitdaze]

25 and 1 for the Weird Questions for Writers ask meme !

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

i've bounced around a little bit over the years but for the past 2 years or so i've written all of my fics in crimson pro, size 10! i definitely do care about what font i'm using and now i feel like i can't get into the Writing Mood unless i have my beloved crimson pro. but i can draft in the notes app using the default!

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

this is maybe more than a little relevant to the story, but in heliocentric when i have lu bixing buy matching pajamas for him and lin jingheng my foundational idea/working theory was that lbx LOVES couple outfits/tokens/symbols/etc and he's constantly trying to worm them into their relationship. like. why stop at rings. the pajamas are a private home thing but i definitely think he tries to do other things like match his pocket square to the color of ljh's socks (which he buys for ljh, because ljh believes socks should only come in black or white). in a world where they have pierced ears he is making each of them wear one half of an earring pair. there are fansites and fan accounts dedicated to connecting the dots and picking up on the matching details. sometimes ljh gets asked about it at military press conferences and it annoys him sooooo much, and This Stops Now! but then lbx looks at him one(1) time with puppy eyes and he's a goner again. commander lin suffers endless defeat, etc

→ weird questions for writers

#thank you for the ask!! and SORRY FOR ESSAY i'm in my revitalized lulin era <3 #inbox #ask games

[elsaclack]

Hi! I just read heliocentrism and I'M AN EMOTIONAL MESS. I love your writing so much!

FHASDLFKAJ UM WOW THAT’S?? MY WORST ONE I’M SCREAMING GOD THANK YOU????

#em answers #nice people #HELIOCENTRISM the fic that inspired sleepwalking in conjunction with phil egging me on #rip in pieces #Anonymous

[lavendead]

In honor of reaching 200 fics on my haikyuu fic rec list on here i’m gonna post the simplified version here. It’s gonna be in three parts cause it won’t all fit in one post and this list will not be spoiler free so keep that in mind. Here’s the first part:

Ships(In alphabetical order):

Akasuga:

captivating- https://archiveofourown.org/works/16755400

Caught in Timeless Love- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30683399

lucky corner store- https://archiveofourown.org/works/17912636

Asanoya:

Heatstroke- https://archiveofourown.org/works/24137113

Asasuga:

freaky friday- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26439451

Atsuhina:

Are you winning, Atsumu-San?- https://archiveofourown.org/works/32366317

Evidence in support of the theory of heliocentricity- https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924261 (this is probably my favorite)

Inarizaki!Hinata- https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818832

in gold daylight- https://archiveofourown.org/works/22957585

lumiere over me- https://archiveofourown.org/works/32363392

positions- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27448045

The theory of everything- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26657467

Timmy play your trumpet (let the people go berserk)- https://archiveofourown.org/works/24732475

what did i miss?- https://archiveofourown.org/works/32691553

You Could Be My Ever After- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30590462

Bokuaka:

baby blåhaj in the deep blue sea- https://archiveofourown.org/works/24601849

In another life- https://archiveofourown.org/works/5096105

Msby jackals here we go!- https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047196

Not by blood but by heart- https://archiveofourown.org/series/1929478

Shut up and dance- https://archiveofourown.org/works/3960604

Bokuatsu

If you were a wink, I’d be a nod- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30758036/chapters/75915866

Bokuosaaka

So tell me what we choose- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26696968/chapters/65120185

Bokuroodai:

All bets are off- https://archiveofourown.org/works/17332715

Daikuroo:

Pleasedatemesawamura.pptx- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297826

Sincerely, your close friend and sworn rival- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433165/chapters/72302595

We Could Be Everything- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23772889/chapters/57103885

Daisuga:

Heavenly Bodies- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30633701

Point break- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28363797

Swipe right- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26840308/chapters/6548458

Technical difficulties- https://archiveofourown.org/series/881355

Gen:

A catalogue or reminiscence- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26819557

A Study in Miya- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592876

An Unlikely Alliance- https://archiveofourown.org/works/31531142

break an egg!- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26083081

Coming Home, Taking Flight- https://archiveofourown.org/works/31025843/chapters/76640489

Danger Zone- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294326

Don’t talk to me or any of my 14 children ever again- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29143536/chapters/71547705

Enough- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28645206

Every Sunday Morning- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30096336

FAITH/FULL- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28176630

Fifteen Twenty Five- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26874613

Focus- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27744676

Haikyuu at Hogwarts- https://archiveofourown.org/series/952755

Half truths- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23272861

Heal our wings- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881858/chapters/70851954

Hinata Shouyou, Spider Handler- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173438

his smile, like mine- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28367400

How to get along with your enemies after being literally forced into it?- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211115/chapters/69129918

how to mend a broken heart- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122574

I’d Rather A Friend Than A Lover- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30141351

John Mulaney Voice: “We’re WELL Past That”- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315653

Just friends in a circle (they definitely aren’t sad)- https://archiveofourown.org/works/24287866 (kind of shobio)

Just How Fast The Night Changes- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29224029

laundry day- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28696281

Meet in the Middle- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920309

mirror- https://archiveofourown.org/works/11656542?view_adult=true

Miya Kids Set Your Plans On Fire- https://archiveofourown.org/works/32053993/chapters/79403821

Oh, Kuroo? He’s just...some guy- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29955621

one more time- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28789152

Orogenesis- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27230047

Reflections- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29246316

rice and nori and salt and brother- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26973457

sugawara’s and kiyoko’s friendship- https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149263

The Great Flower Heist- https://archiveofourown.org/works/32838634

The Steps Were Wet With Tears (Karasuno 7 Mysteries)- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23934250

the whole heart shrinks- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28431330

Ukai Keishin, but make him a parent to the Hinata siblings- https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698718

Used to be- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30406923

Watch me and my team (all year round we just chillin’)- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28691754

We will always find each other, even here (especially here)- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311068/chapters/66728530

‘We’re Twins After All’- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29260611

Who Am I?- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27148516

Wrecking Crew- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30319569

Hoshihina:

as long as you hold my hand- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006604

carry the flames- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30275469

catch up, latency- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26224456/chapters/63826174

Iwaoi:

kiss it better- https://archiveofourown.org/works/1739261

Kenhina:

5 Times Hinata Was Sort of Being Really Weird and 1 Time His Teammates Finally Got a Clue- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455990

according to youtube statistics- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29253687

Feel Good, Feel Special- https://archiveofourown.org/works/30373047/chapters/74878206

Finding Solace- https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058595/chapters/72239145

Game Face- https://archiveofourown.org/works/2551637

here comes the sun- https://archiveofourown.org/works/21671050

I’ve been waiting to smile- https://archiveofourown.org/works/4225026

oops.- https://archiveofourown.org/works/22661212

Sakanoshita Store and Visitors- https://archiveofourown.org/works/23415745

saudade- https://archiveofourown.org/works/28756557/chapters/70513836

The flowers at your feet, the sky at your fingertips- https://archiveofourown.org/works/1833553

Why me?- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29943591

you don’t know half of the things you do to me- https://archiveofourown.org/works/29897343/chapters/74475156

Oihina:

Hinata and Oikawas adventures in Rio- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27615595/chapters/67561510

#oh boy #that took so long and that’s only the first part #i gotta go through and link test it #alright y’all ready for all the ships i gotta tag #haikyuu #akasuga #asanoya #asasuga #atsuhina #bokuaka #bokuatsu #bokuosaaka #bokuroodai #daikuroo #daisuga #gen #hoshihina #iwaoi #kenhina #oihina #phew that was a lot of em #can y’all tell i like rare pairs? #fic recs #update i did a lot of link checking and tumblr crapped out on me #so i’m just gonna assume it’s fin #lmk if anything isn’t working please #since i literally can’t fit anything other than ship tags on the last post i’m gonna add additional info here #i might update it but it’s only gonna be every 50 or 100 fics or so #so don’t expect too much from me #anyway just because it’s mostly rarepairs doesn’t mean i don’t love the main ships

[eusuntgratie]

geraskier fic recs

for @pray-for-sound

ALL of @jaskie‘s witcher fic https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poe/pseuds/Poe/works?fandom_id=29890172 cold toes on the cold floor (with amazing podfic by @flowerparrish available) and precious, like silver (i podficced that one !) are two of my favorites but ack also anyway, here’s wonderwall and heliocentrism

My fave smutty Geraskier fic is Lock & Key by @sablier-bloque. 9k. Jaskier wears a chastity device to keep himself out of trouble. He gives Geralt the key. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406872/ 

you’re only brave in the moonlight (stay til sunrise) by SummerFrost, 29k, is a sweet roommates AU. sweet and funny with an austic coded Geralt and a hilarious Jaskier. https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742885 

you follow? [series] by @shortcrust. 4 works, 3600 words. twitter fic. Jaskier is a musician, Geralt is his grumpy husband who is often mistaken for his bodyguard. Sweet and hilarious. https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620703

okay since i don’t have many for you here’s a couple from my to-read list that I haven’t gotten to that look promising:

Just to Keep the World at Bay bc personal trainer Geralt in tiny shorts what more do we need to know? https://archiveofourown.org/works/31482353

This series is a kink club AU i’m dying to read but somehow still haven’t gotten to 😩 https://archiveofourown.org/series/1784710

Hmmm @jaskie and @behonesthowsmysinging might have more recs for you!

#geraskier #geraskier fic #geraskier fic recs #gracesficrecs #pray-for-sound #enjoyyyyyy #really though if anyone has fic recs focused on geralt's huge thighs would be forever grateful