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pebblysand · 3 years

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[may '21] - the life update no one asked for (and some quick links)

Hello team! How are you? What a month it has been! But: we have had some proper sun, the days are getting longer, I have gin&tonic with me to give me fuel to write this and it is now the 30th of april - yay! I know I'm bending the rules of these monthly posts a bit there, by writing the may post by anticipation but I really want to focus on 'proper' writing this weekend, so I hope that you will forgive me :).

But, first, some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :

to read my fics [links to the hinny ficfest fics: one ; two ; three]

to read my original work

fic recs [new additions]

proper blog/site [that I never update but maybe one day I’ll bother]

[NOTE: i am currently accepting prompts for short ficlets on the hp fandom if you fancy. my ask box is open :).]

Everything else, under the cut (contains: ETAs for current WIPs - say, if you’re waiting for chapter 8 of castles, for instance... -, reading lists, and life update)

Currently, I’m writing:

**Castles [HP - post-war canon]**

links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi

This is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT the priority for the coming days. We are having a bank holiday here in Ireland on Monday and the main objective now is to get the first draft of next chapter done. I have the outlines (both general and particular) and have - maybe - around 15% of the actual chapter done. Due to external factors (more on that below), I've had quite a hard time finding the time and energy to actually focus on this over the past few weeks which is why I kind of booked out this weekend to Get Shit Done. Hopefully, it works. ETA for next chapter: 30th May.

**R O A R series**

Harry&Hermione one-shot [ETA: July probably]

An original horror/thriller story [ETA: this is the next thing (after castles chap 8 on the agenda. Considering the ETA for chapter 8 of castles, we're probably looking at beginning of June for this.]

Something to fill this silk prompt [ETA: TBD]

That Peaky Blinders fic I started and never finished [ETA: TBD]

** Hinny Ficfest **

I am very happy to announce that I'll have not one but two short stories coming out for the upcoming hinny ficfest. I obviously can't talk about them too much on here but here's what I can tell you.

- the first one will be called: [like fire in the rain] and answers to prompt 78 - "truth or dare". It's a short three sentence story (a format I used to enjoy but haven't done on tumblr in aaaaages) that's a bit angsty (you know me) and is set within the 'sunlit days' in year 6.

- the second one, I'm not too sure of the title yet, but right now I'm thinking of a line from a song by passenger called 'holes': [she said the wolf's just a puppy and the door's double-locked (so what'd you gotta worry me for?)]. this is (loosely) inspired by prompt 27 (Molly finding out about Ginny/Harry) the summer after the war, but has kind of grown into a what-if-castles-wasn't-my-headcanon kind of fic. It's currently just shy of 3,000 words. I'm considering posting it on AO3/FF as well by the time it comes out on here but I'm not sure. We'll see.

They're both fully written but need a bit of polish but will definitely be ready by the 10th :).

Currently, I’m reading:

Calypso by David Sedaris: I've finished this! It was absolutely lovely - would highly recommend if you're looking for a nice, non-fiction read. I'd probably give it four stars. Not magnificent but definitely worth a read.

I’ve started re-reading the Divergent series because I have the attention span of a five year old atm. -- Update: yeah, still there. I don't think I've picked this up recently.

I've also started Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly. I really loved her thriller He Said/She Said so thought I'd give it a try. For now, it's fine but I've found it sort of hard to get into it if I'm honest.

I’m still labouring through Troubled Blood, the JKR/RobertGalbraith book (ugh), but I have made significant progress on this. I'm on page 789 so almost at the end. I cannot wait to be finished with it. On top of everything else, it's just way too long. And, that's coming from someone whose favourite HP book is OOTP.

In other news:

I have to say, this month's been a bit of a struggle. Not in terms of mental health but just a lot of things happening at once. I had my exams at the start of the month, obviously, then I went home to France. Then, Ireland decided to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine so I had to change my tickets, come back early to avoid it. Then, the day before I left, my mother had a stroke. I just - I don't want to dwell on this too much. It's over, now, she's fine, has (from what the MRI showed) very little damage to her brain. She's at home and living her best life. Frankly, she's a bit of a miracle. This being said, I can't explain to you the stress and anxiety and heartache of last few weeks, and of not knowing what to do. Of not being able to fly home, having to be in Ireland because I was starting a new job and couldn't afford the hotel quarantine; it was just a lot. I think I didn't even have words to put on it at the time, which is why I didn't write about it before. It's easier now, now that it's over. In the thick of it, I didn't know where to start.

Now, I also didn't want to mention this because I don't mean it as a sob story. I just feel like I should explain why I haven't been the best at putting content out, lately. For that first week after it happened, when we were waiting for the medical exams to come through, I had to start a new job, pretend to be 'happy to be here' and 'excited' like everything was fine and that alone kind of sucked all the energy out of me. I was texting her every half hour at the same time, anxiously waiting for a reply. She lives alone, you see, and she's the only family I have left. I feel bad about not being able to write, but it's been hard. I just couldn't focus. On top of that, while the new job is interesting (and it pays money, yaaaay!), it's just a new routine to get back into, so I've also been feeling very tired.

Additionally, the extrovert in me has been begging to see more of her mates, lately. The weather has been really nice and I'm so eager to go out that I have struggled to keep my resolutions of 'no, I'm staying in and writing tonight.' I used to get plenty of social interactions at work, back in the day, but now that I'm fully remote, all I want to do on my days off is see people (especially with the easing of restrictions in Ireland). I feel like overall, it's fair, though. Introverts have struggled in our society for years, now, it's fair that we, extroverts, during the pandemic, bear more of the burden. It's just that this sudden return of my social life has also not truly catered to much writing time, haha. Hopefully, May will be more stable.

I am feeling better, now. Mum is doing good, the results of her MRI were very positive and the only real thing that's changed is that she says she's 'exhausted' which I guess can be expected after a stroke, haha. She's a warrior and I love her. This week, I've been feeling finally more able to focus and with the bank holiday, I really hope to get some proper writing done. I just need to escape in the magic of HP again, haha.

Anyways, sorry for this rather grim update. I suppose I also want to be honest and say that it's not always rainbows and butterflies. Here's to May, though. Hopefully, it'll treat us better :).

#writing #life update

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queenofthelanternfish · 4 years

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Disclaimer: I am once again posting my gf @anesther‘s lovely fics to my account in order for it to have some chance of showing up in the tags. Definitely read it, it’s steamy!!!

AN: A much longer chapter, and it probably wasn’t smart with my hands but here we go!

Title: Interfaces

Characters: Entrapta, Hordak, featuring quite a few characters

Pairing: Entrapdak, implied Catradora and future Scorpfuma

Rating: M (smut found its way in)

AO3 is for better times.

Party

“You are cordially invited to a party held at Bright Moon by Queen Glimmer,” Entrapta reads, holding up the invitation. She looks at her communicator, “Why would you send out an invitation if you’re going to call us directly?”

“I got excited!” Glimmer says. “It’s been a while since we had a proper celebration of any sort, and I feel this is a good way to bring everyone together for a little bit.”

“Did you not host an event a few months ago?” Hordak asks over Entrapta’s shoulder.

“No, that was a picnic. Which you two didn’t come to,” Glimmer pouts, crossing her arms.

“Sorry, but we really were too busy to go,” Entrapta says, scratching her cheek. “We will be able to go to your party though!”

“Really?!” Squealing, Glimmer points at the two of them, winking. “I’ll see you two at eight sharp. And you don’t need to dress too fancy, it’s semi-formal!”

With that, the communicator is turned off. Entrapta returns to her mechanics, welding a piece of metal together. She asks, not looking at him, “You don’t mind going, right?”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be a waste of an evening. Besides,” Hordak touches her shoulder. “You would encourage me to attend.”

Entrapta flips up her mask, “That I would!”

The dining hall, even for a semi-formal party, seems to be packed with people.

Hordak walks down the steps with Entrapta, staring straight ahead. Entrapta, meanwhile, has her gaze darting everywhere, paying attention to the decorations and individuals.

“Entrapta! Hordak!”

They turn, Glimmer teleporting right in front of them. Entrapta smiles, “Hi!”

“Hello,” Hordak nods.

Glimmer appraises the two of them, “You two are looking good. Love the pantsuit and dress combo.”

“Thanks!” Entrapta looks down at her outfit. “I’ve had this for a while, but I never needed to go out to a party before.”

“Well, be sure to mingle! Refreshments are at the table,” Glimmer tells them.

Hordak watches her walk away. Dusting off imaginary debris from his dress, he glances at the balloons and string occupying every corner of the vicinity.

Entrapta grins up at him, “Do you want to get a drink?”

“Why not,” Hordak replies. Entrapta shuffles on her hair, staying at his eye level. “I thought this was supposed to be semi-formal.”

“Truthfully, I don’t know if what we’re wearing counts, but Glimmer seemed to be pleased with our choices,” Entrapta says. Reaching the table, she leans down, hands folded together. “Ooh, tiny cupcakes!”

Taking a plateful of sweets, Entrapta and Hordak walk over to one of the standing tables.

“Entrapta! There you are!”

She turns, swallowing her sip of soda. She smiles, “Hey, Bow!”

He grins at her, “I thought that was you. Hordak, how’ve you been?”

“Well, thank you. And yourself?”

“I’ve been doing okay. I’ve been helping my dads with their library, for right now, in order to make sure that they have their records on Etherian wars and the First Ones updated.”

“Has it really been taking a long time?” Entrapta asks, holding up her plate.

Taking an offered treat, Bow bites into a cookie, “Amazingly, yes, since the majority of our contents are mislabeled.”

“Have you been making any new inventions?”

“I’m glad you asked, Hordak!” Bow says, ecstatic. “Look, I brought all these new types of arrows, and some technology Glimmer calls Spy Stuff.”

Entrapta lifts an arrow with a strand of hair, sipping her drink, “What’s in this one?”

“It’s one of my explosion arrows!”

“Don’t you have one of those?” Hordak asks. “I remember having that blow up in my face.”

Bow gives a sheepish grin, “I’m still sorry about that.” At Hordak’s offhanded wave, he continues. “And no, this one explodes but it releases smaller pods that also explode. It’s a kinda diversion arrow, I guess.”

“I say this because if you change around the compounds in your arrow, you will be able to produce a more effective explosion that spreads out a fire.”

“It’ll take down anyone!” Entrapta laughs.

Bow mulls over their answers, “Hmm, that would be useful if we needed it again.”

“You could use it for prescribed burning,” Hordak suggests. “Right,” Entrapta agrees, turning to Bow. “Isn’t there an area Perfuma needs to clear away in her kingdom?”

“That sounds like a good idea! I’ll begin tweaking after,” Bow says. “What about you two?”

Together, they begin to discuss the latest inventions they’ve been working on for the past several months. Entrapta and Bow add a layer of zeal to Hordak’s calm demeanor that is relaxing for the three of them. Hordak finds himself at ease, despite knowing that there are folks staring at them, or, more rather, himself. Despite the length of time gone by, Hordak isn’t oblivious to the wary gazes from some of the other guests.

“Hey, if it isn’t the best inventors on Etheria in their little clique!” Glimmer says, appearing in a dazzle of stardust. “How’s it going?”

Bow and Entrapta grin at her, “Going great!”

“Hordak?”

The three of them turn to him, expectant.

“Uh… I’m having a fun time?” Hordak says, intelligently.

“Really?” Glimmer asks, leaning forward to him. “You mean it?”

Hordak gives a thumbs-up.

“Yay!” Glimmer and Bow cheer, feeling accomplished.

“He wouldn’t lie,” Entrapta says to the pair, draining the last drops of her drink. “We are having loads of fun. This is quite the party you set up.”

“I got everyone here, and some of the other princesses showed up too,” Glimmer informs them. She glances behind the three. “Oh, Mom! Dad! Come here.”

Hordak’s ear twitches as he looks at her parents, former enemies and fairly tenuous allies. While Glimmer has taken to him well, Angella and Micah are staring at him with neutral interest. In truth, he feels the same about the previous king and queen.

“Everyone is enjoying themselves!” Glimmer announces, hands on her hips.

“I am glad to hear that this is going well,” Angella says, choosing her words carefully. She looks at Hordak, “Are you finding the festivities to your liking?”

“Yes, thank you,” Hordak says, standing upright. He gives a low, respectful bow, “I appreciate being invited to your home.”

Micah and Angella glance at each other, then their shoulders grow lax.

Micah gives a small smile, “That is good to hear.”

Glancing at Glimmer, Angella steps up to him. She extends her hand, “Thank you for coming. If I may ask, would you care to accompany me to the dance floor? I would enjoy the exercise.”

Keeping his surprise to himself, Hordak looks at Entrapta, who gives an encouraging motion.

Staring at them, Glimmer returns to her conversation with the rest of her friends.

Hands pressed together, Angella spins with Hordak in place. Wings tucked firmly behind her, she steps to the side, “I have heard from Glimmer that you have been helpful in restoring Etheria. Is the progress going well?”

“It has been,” Hordak answers, lacing their fingers together. He gently twirls her body, her footfalls light. He raises a brow, “I know you couldn’t have asked me to join you unless you wanted something from me.”

“What would that be?”

“To interrogate me.”

“I wouldn’t use the word interrogate,” Angella says to him, twisting on the ball of her foot. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she stares at him, “I would use the word ‘threaten,’ if needed.”

“A waste of time, Your Majesty,” Hordak replies, voice low. “I have no malicious intent toward your daughter or kingdom. She asked me to be here.”

“I know,” Angella tells him. “She has allowed bygones to be bygones. And while I have seen that you are not up to your old ways, I wanted to discuss things with you privately. We haven’t been able to talk alone in all this time.”

“I understand the concern, however, I don’t find it prudent or wise to insinuate that I’m biding my time to destroy your planet.”

“A person can never be too sure.”

“If I had ill will towards your people, I wouldn’t have joined the Rebellion in the final battle,” Hordak says, tone clipped.

Angella throws a delicate glare at his direction, “Be that as it may, I wanted to be certain that you aren’t going to harm us in the future. Can we trust you?” At one point in time, they couldn’t have. But he has changed, gone through a metamorphosis that he never expected to undergo. The time spent on Etheria, not as a warlord, but as an individual, showed him how many wasted years he had spent in the name of vengeance and bloodlust. His lack in valuing other lifeforms stemmed from believing that no one had value, least of all himself. He was born to destroy, and that was the end of it.

“I do not expect you to forgive me, or even trust me,” Hordak replies, slowly. “But I promised someone I care about that we would live differently, treat others better. I trust her above all else. And I trust myself to amend what damage I have done.”

Angella lifts an eyebrow, then her gaze softens, staring at nothing. She whispers, “When I lost my husband, I hated you. I hated you more than words could express. Then I felt… numb. So numb I couldn’t bring myself to fight you. As if all life in me had been leached out. I felt this ache in my chest every waking moment. That hatred of you became apathy. I wanted you gone, but at times it felt...” Angella’s voice fades for a moment.

“It felt as though I simply wanted it to be over. In the worst part of me, I wanted you to win, to win and end my suffering. I failed my husband, so what good was I to lead, if I couldn’t protect those close to me? I wanted to be with my beloved, and if it meant giving up my kingdom… I didn’t care. And now I feel as though I have to make up for that, by ensuring your loyalty has changed, because, in those moments of weakness, my loyalty to my people and daughter didn’t matter.”

“I…” Hordak glances at the ground. Then he directs his gaze at her, not breaking eye contact. “I’m sorry. I truly am sorry for the pain I caused you. And more so, knowing now what it means to lose someone you care for.”

Angella looks at Hordak, allowing herself to pirouette around him, “You do?”

“I never had a person I cherished before. I never thought someone would want to be with me. I had… formed these ideas in my mind, that maybe things could fall into place now, and she would be in them. When I believed she had betrayed me, I barely held my composure together. There was rage in me. And I became more determined to destroy all of you. As wrong as it was, it made sense at the time. It wasn’t simply about conquering another nation, but to hurt people because I wanted others to understand my anger. Then, when I thought she had died…” Hordak’s gaze flickers to the side, before turning back to Angella.

“I thought that was it. For a brief moment, I didn’t care if I won or lost. I wanted to die. But then, all that time I spent, it would be for nothing. So I pushed myself to go on, because then, the little I had left, perhaps it would ease the realization that I failed her.”

Angella pauses in her movements, eyeing her previous foe. He meets her gaze, quiet.

Neither of them are open people. They prefer to keep their insecurities and worries at bay, by either neglecting their emotions or engaging in destructive ones. They once led the opposing sides of a war, growing fractured as years came and went. She had been afraid of him for the harm he wrought, and he had been afraid of her for the victories she continued to gain.

He knows, and she does too, that there doesn’t have to be forgiveness to move forward. Perhaps not now, if ever. But resentment is breeding ground for corpses. So she will give him tolerance, and he will prove that that is enough for her to do.

They stand as the music peters out to silence. The applause doesn’t break their concentration.

Angella gives a curtsy, smiling gently, “Thank you. The dance was illuminating.”

Hordak bows, “Likewise, Your Majesty.”

She walks away to Micah, and he walks toward Entrapta, lost love reconciled.

Hordak finds that their little group has increased. Angella and Micah bid them goodbye after their dance, while Perfuma and Scorpia had joined up with them. The four of them slam their fists onto the table, “Chug! Chug! Chug!” Hordak raises a brow as Glimmer tosses her head back, gulping down her beverage. When she puts it on the table, she holds up her pointer finger. Waiting. Then lets out an enormous belch.

“Ooh, Glimmer wins,” Entrapta announces, clapping.

Bow snaps his fingers, “Aw, darn. I thought I had that one.”

Scorpia slaps his back, “I’m sure there are lots of other things you can beat her at.”

“Like what?”

Hordak stands beside them, “You keep your dignity. Is that not better than a… whatever that was?”

“It’s called a burping contest—” explains Glimmer.

“—Disgusting—”

“—And I won, so there.”

Perfuma giggles, leaning onto Scorpia, “Maybe we should see what else we can play.”

Bow hears a sound from behind. Seahawk stands flexing his muscles on a table, Mermista’s face in her palm.

“Glim, we should probably get him,” Bow informs her.

“Ugh, I thought he’d behave. Excuse us.”

Scorpia looks at Hordak, “We saw you dancing with Queen Angella. I didn’t know you could dance.”

Hordak shrugs, “It doesn’t seem overly difficult.”

“Man, it’s been a while since we hung out. Not that we ever did, but it’s kinda weird you’re not my boss anymore.”

“It’s still hard to believe we don’t have to fight anymore,” says Perfuma. “Which is wonderful, conflict always disturbs my energy flow.”

“Ooh, what kind of energy flow?” Entrapta queries, grabbing her recorder.

As they talk, Hordak allows himself to relax. The conversation with Angella, while not terrible, tired him a little.

“Hey, Hordak.”

He looks over his shoulder, “Hello, Catra.”

His once Force Captain sidles up to them, “What are you guys doing?”

“Perfuma is telling me about her energy flow!” Entrapta says.

Catra smirks, “That sounds interesting.”

“Very much!”

Catra looks up, “Hi, Scorpia.”

She nods, “Hi, Catra. You, uh, look good.”

“Thanks.”

Perfuma and Entrapta glance back and forth between them, with Hordak appearing disinterested.

“Whew, sorry, we’re late!” Adora yells, coming up to the group. She glances around, “Where are Bow and Glimmer?”

“They went to go stop the singing pirate from dancing on the table,” Hordak informs her.

“I should go help too. Catra, I’ll be back,” Adora bounds away, telling Seahawk to mind his manners.

Clearing her throat, Scorpia smiles at Catra, “How’s everything?”

“It’s been good. Adora and I have been great.”

“That’s nice, I’m glad you’re doing good.”

“Yeah, it’s good.”

“It is good, yeah.”

Entrapta and Hordak exchange glances.

Perfuma, sensing the odd tension, takes Scorpia’s claw, “Oh, I forgot I wanted to show you this dance move Mermista taught us. Can I?”

Scorpia nods, “Sure! Let’s boogie down!”

Catra sighs as they walk away. Scratching her chin, she says, “I didn’t know they were dating.”

“They’re not,” Entrapta interjects, swinging her legs in her seat. “I think you made it too awkward to be here.”

Catra frowns, “Thanks, Entrapta.”

“You’re welcome!”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Catra turns to Hordak, “You’re quiet as usual.”

“There is nothing to discuss, ergo, I am quiet.”

Dragging a chair over, she sits on it. Taking a cupcake off Entrapta’s plate, she wrinkles her nose, “I never understood the appeal of sugary desserts.”

Entrapta shakes her head, hand on her heart, That is so sad.” She perks up, “Do you want me to see if I can alter your tongue’s ability to perceive sweets?”

“Not today.”

Glimmer, Bow and Adora come up to them, having finally wrangled Seahawk off his ‘stage’ and onto the dance floor.

“I’m parched,” Glimmer says. “I’m going to get another soda.”

“Just don’t burp anymore,” Hordak teases.

“Har har,” Glimmer sticks her tongue out at him.

“What?” Adora asks.

“Entrapta, do you want a refill?”

“Yes, please!”

With a quick teleport, Glimmer takes off and comes back. Tired of being still, they all head to dance in the center of the room. Entrapta and Hordak watch from the sidelines, much better observers than participants.

“You okay?” Entrapta asks, touching his shoulder with a lock of hair.

“Yes, the evening is proving to be tiring, is all.” “When we get back to the lair, we’ll go right to bed.”

Hordak leans on his palm, finding the idea vastly more tempting than anything, “That sounds pleasant.”

Entrapta looks at the dance floor, then back to Hordak. She smiles, “You were really dancing out there.”

“It’s not difficult. It’s simple side motions much of the time.”

“Can I have the next dance?” she asks.

“Of course you can,” Hordak answers. Smirking at her, he leans toward her, murmuring, “I can do a lot more than dance too, you know.”

Slowly, a wide grin spreads across her face, “Do you want to find a room?”

Entrapta drags her mouth along the crook of his neck, breath hot on his pulse.

Hordak’s head tips back, gripping her thighs with his hands. Guiding her hips, she slides onto him. He breathes out when he feels familiar warmth, wet and soft.

Moaning, Entrapta begins to gyrate her hips. Her shirt is unbuttoned, revealing the curve of her breasts. Her fingers dig into his abdomen, gliding them along dark skin. Her hair wraps around his wrists, keeping them at her waist. His thumbs stroke her sides, laying still as she rocks her frame against him.

Breathing out, his eyes shut tight, relishing the feel of her body, strong and secure. Hordak allows his body to loosen, forgetting the world outside this room. Her moans drown out all other sound, the scent of her removing all thought.

All thought except getting caught.

Entrapta grins down at him, and she allows her binding to relax. His hands skim over to her breasts, massaging her nipples through the shirt. Groaning, her back arches, sinking further onto him.

Hordak hisses between gritted teeth, tempted to buck his hips. Her grip tightens, noticing his pelvis shift upward.

She bends low, brushing her mouth over his. His head inches forward, and she inches away. Teasing. Mocking.

Daring.

He thrusts up, causing her to cry out in pleasure.

They glance at the door, and they grin.

Quickening their pace, Entrapta pushes her hips down onto him, the two moving in an easy rhythm.

Panting, Hordak caresses the top of her thighs with his nails, sending shivers throughout her body. She releases one of his hands, and it glides along her frame to her clit. His thumb rubs it slow and gentle, even as she pumps her hips in fast motions on his cock.

Sweat forming on their skin, the two do all they can to make the other scream, all while attempting to be discreet. Entrapta thrusts her body down, Hordak bites his lower lip. Hordak rubs her clit harder, Entrapta covers her mouth with the back of her hand.

Her walls clench around his cock, the sound of their bodies slapping onto one another driving his mind wild. Remembering the talk he had earlier, and he’s all the more glad she’s alive. He reaches up to touch her cheek, throat tight.

Entrapta slows for a moment. She stares down at him, gaze loving. Pressing her hand against his, they don’t say anything. Glad they don’t have to miss each other anymore.

The movements pick up faster than before, trying to make up for lost time, the past mistakes made to stand in the way of what’s happening. Soon, they forget all that. Ministrations become more hurried, and they forget to be completely quiet, allowing their moans to deepen, gaining a little more volume.

Bodies hot, Entrapta and Hordak come together, muscles tensing, then easing. They glance at the door.

Entrapta and Hordak grin at each other, laughing quietly in the dark.

“Hope everyone had fun!” Glimmer shouts at guests disbanding. She turns to Hordak and Entrapta, “And it was nice of you to join us on the dance floor near the end.”

Entrapta beams at her host, “It was a lot of fun! And the food was delicious.”

Hordak bows his head, “It proved to be an entertaining night.”

“Well, don’t forget your party favors,” Bow tells them, handing each a small bag. “Don’t be strangers.”

“Seriously, you’re welcome at Bright Moon anytime,” Glimmer tells them.

Entrapta smiles, Hordak smirking beside her. Bidding farewell, the two wait until they’re well out of earshot before bursting into evil cackles.

“I wonder what they’re laughing about,” Adora says.

Glimmer shrugs, “I don’t know. I'm more wondering why I got a weird feeling again.”

#entrapdak #entrapta #hordak #spop #shera

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sirsapling · 4 years

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IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS

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top 3 cities you want to visit: Toronto, again. Colorado (I know its a state not a city I just want to visit ashes AND GET SNOW). And I would like to go back to Italy again. (I also want to visit, just, all of my fandom friends but I don't want to drop all their locations lol)

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white chocolate - yay or nay?: Love it, love it, love it.

favourite board game: God Save The Queens- A board game about Bees I invented with 3 other people at University last year for a project.

how many countries have you been to: 10, I have been very luckily graced with the ability to travel to Europe with school a lot.

(Wales, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, America [Florida, Boston, New York], Spain, Portugal, Italy, and finally Canada.)

favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Anything indoors I might usually feel guilty about doing when its sunny. Tv or games particularly

favorite holiday: Christmas. I am a Christmas slut, call me festive sapling I LOVE Christmas.

pen or pencil: Pen. I once bought 7 in lisbon at the same time bc they were perfect and I didn't want to run out.

favourite kind of soup: Cupasoup Chicken noodle, I don't really like soups tbh, I like broths, and gravy type things I make too much of and eat like a soup (like golden Currys or korma sauces)

your typical order at a cafe or coffee shop: Caramel Frappucino or an iced Mocha. If I'm gonna pay a fuck tonne for coffee I'm gonna get a drinkable dessert.

favorite ride at an amusement park: Any slow rides that show you shit, like spaceship earth at EPCOT. I’m not really a speed dude.

the color of your sneakers: RED, red shoes are the shit folks, a good pair of red converse goes with everything.

favorite pbs show (or little kids show if you didn’t have pbs): Uh I used to watch pokemon then winnie the pooh every single night. But little little kids show I used to watch a show called 64 zoo lane with my grandma so I have fond memories

Rules: name your favorite female characters from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people.

Tagged by the wonderful @ashes0909

Natasha Romanov - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Carol Danvers - Marvel 616

Janet Van Dyne - Marvel Ultimates

Izumi Curtis - Full Metal Alchemist

Martha Jones - Doctor Who

Garnet - Steven Universe (if she doesn't count bc, space rock, Connie)

Rosa Diaz - Brooklyn 99

Ann Perkins - Parks and Rec

Princess Caroline - Bojack Horseman

Pam Poovey - Archer

LOOK I know there was a lot of cheating here, but I don't have non marvel fandoms really, and I have a hard time remembering a lot of the TV I enjoyed.

Rules: Share your top 10 AO3 additional tags. Tagged by the mysterious @nigmuff

look I don't know if I have enough tags to make this a justified representation, but the ones shown are v much on brand.

Fanfic trope meme

I was tagged by the delightful @capnstars and @crownofstardustandbone

slowburn or love at first sight // fake dating or !!!secret dating!!! // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt/comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut AND fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high school romance or !!!!middle-aged romance!!! // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi or magic au // body swap or genderbend // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane

Look guys, I’m boring. I like domestic 30-40 year olds in secret relationships. We knew this.

And now buckle the fuck down folks because I'm about to answer 50 questions about me no one is gonna stick around and read.

tagged by @bardingbeedle the only person who would put up with reading this much about me.

What is the colour of your hairbrush?

I have a buzz cut, I don't have a hair brush anymore.

Are you typically too warm or too cold?

Too warm. I have been warmer than most people my whole life, and I often need to sleep with a fan on.

What were you doing 45 minutes ago?

Working on a sketch for an MTH fill (update from the end of this: I have spent an hour doing this fuckin thing)

What is your favourite candy bar?

Bounty. My favourite candy is Reese’s Pieces but I like a bounty. Or like, and chocolate without fruit in it tbh.

Have you ever been to a professional sports event?

Yes, one of my parents referees Championship Football here in the UK. I have been to a few of his games. I also went to the London 2012 Paralympic closing ceremony, if that counts.

What is the last thing you said out loud?

‘Oh, this will last me a few days’ I was talking to my mother about 1/2 a can of pringles, I was lying.

What is your favourite ice cream?

Vanilla. I am boring. But the best ice cream i’ve had was a cream/milk flavoured gelato in Florence, that shit slapped. I also like cheap strawberry ice cream when no one is trying to put strawberry bits in it.

What was the last thing you had to drink?

Dinner. A spinach, banana, summer fruits and coconut yoghurt smoothie (with extra raspberries). Its my nightly dinner to cheat more veg into my body.

Do you like your wallet?

Very much. It’s about 7-8 years old, it is faded to hell but it has spiderman and a pony ride stony pin

What was the last thing you ate?

See above smoothie comment, but if that doesn't count, a sugar free mint polo.

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend?

Nope. I don't buy as many clothes as I want to, bc mens clothes in larger sizes are hard to find or expensive here.

The last sporting event you watched?

F1, I don't keep up but I watch a little with my dad every now and then.

What is your favourite flavour of popcorn?

BUTTER. They don't really have it here, and I don't go to movies much when in the states. But @festiveferret introduced me to it when we saw Ant-man and the Wasp, and much like poutine and Tim Hortons, I still crave it.

Who is the last person you sent a text message to?

My dad.

Ever go camping?

Yes, I was a Scout. I have done enough camping to not want to do more, it was fun when I wasn't organising it.

Do you take vitamins?

Yes, but not as often as I should, and as much as my mother bothers me too.

Do you go to church every Sunday?

Nope, not even when I considered myself christian. I go only go to church for other peoples events, and I’m an agnostic now.

Do you have a tan?

I cannot tan. I just can't, I burn lobster red in 5 minutes outside without literal sun cream for BABIES

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza?

Chinese food, It was easily what taught me to like more foods also, I don't eat tomato so I can't have most pizza. I love a good garlic base/bechamel, but you can't really get that here easily (yes yes I could make my own but that ruins half the point of pizza)

Do you drink your soda with a straw?

I don't drink carbonated drinks, because its like drinking pain. The fuck is wrong with all of you.

What colour socks do you usually wear?

Various colours, but I consider red on the left, blue on the right, my lucky socks. No I don't know why, but I take all exams and interviews wearing them. It’s just a thing.

Do you ever drive above the speed limit?

I don't drive, but if I did, No. Theres a lot of questionable laws out there but Traffic laws aren't one of them.

What terrifies you?

Pfft, most things from spiders to rollercoasters. But more seriously, Being shouted at. Shout at me and I start hyperventilating, its a thing. Also not knowing if someone is mad at me. I’m not good at reading people,

Look to your left, what do you see?

The wallet shown earlier, and the sugar free polos mentioned after that.

What chore do you hate?

Vacuuming. It makes everything in my body hurt. I would rather clean toilets.

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent?

@s-hylor

What’s your favourite soda?

See above. I do not like your pain liquid. Apple juice for life.

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thrus?

Either delivery or kiosk, I don't like talking to people where possible, I often need tweaks I don't want to have to remember to repeat.

Who’s the last person you talked to?

@downeyhills

Favourite cut of beef?

I don't generally eat beef, lamb, or most red meats. I love crispy chilly beef, but as anyone can point out its bc your generally don't feel the texture of the beef.

Last song you listened to?

Everybody Wants to Rule the World | Tears for Fears | Pomplamoose

I’m on a Pomplamoose kick, and I also just love this song anyway.

Last book you read?

Understanding Comics (The invisible Art) - Scott McCloud

Favourite day of the week?

Friday nights. The weekend is ahead and @loraneldin and I take to wrangling our beloved usual suspects through another week of Ults Book Club.

Can you say the alphabet backwards?

I can barely say it forwards.

How do you like your coffee?

With milk and sugar, or ultimately, in a Caramel Frappuccino bc I'm a bitch like that.

Favourite pair of shoes?

I have walking boots that don't make my flat ass feet feel like they’re dying. OR my black and green crocs (Fight me, they’re useful).

The time you normally go to sleep?

9-10 is what I'm working on, but I fluctuate depending on if I'm working on something or not.

The time you normally get up?

5-6 If I have a choice in the matter, but often 7-8 if I didn't get to bed at the right time. I’m more about getting the right hours in for my diet than time specifically.

What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets?

Sunset is the prettiest, but I like to be awake to see the sun rise.

How many blankets on your bed?

One big thick comforter, because that's the uk standard, and I get too hot otherwise.

Describe your kitchen plates

Two types, big wide white ones with a navy blue rim. They are so large I never use them, and little Navy saucer plates I use a lot.

Do you have a favourite alcoholic beverage?

I don't drink, so no. I drink apple juice or Shirley temples when I'm in pubs/bars

Do you play cards?

Sometimes, I like to teach people to play Old Maid. It’s the monopoly of card games.

What colour is your car?

Again, I do not drive.

Can you change a tire?

I am aware I just said I don't have a car, but I do know how to change a tire. Everyone should go learn its pretty simple.

Favourite job you’ve ever had?

I have only had one job really and two job experience jobs. I did experience in a school library for a week and that was v fun and chill. I did all the jobs they had prepared for me in 2 days so I alphabetically reorganised their fiction section for the rest of the week. I LIKE ORDERING.

How did you get your biggest scar?

I no longer have a gallbladder, so I have 3 scars across my torso from that, the biggest right in the middle of my ribs. Non surgical wise I have matching scars on my knees from ripping holes in them when tripping. I have weak ankles and also I got both of those at different times.

What did you do today that made someone else happy?

I gave my spare animal crossing Iguanodon skull to a wicked artist I follow on twitter so he could complete his dino park.

#text post #tagged in #wow long post #wow x2 #tag memes

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vernonfielding · 4 years

Text

The lies, the secrets

Story No. 3 of my Season 7 Countdown Project! Also: I’m still taking prompts for future missing scene fics.

Summary: “My time undercover in the mafia was actually kind of lame. I mean, I wanted it to be badass, but I'm good at computers, so I mostly just helped them switch over from AOL.”

The story of how Jake became the mafia’s IT guy. Takes place during Undercover. (Read on AO3.)

What he doesn’t tell any of them, after he’s back, is that going undercover with the mafia is mostly just- really lonely.

Jake spends most of the first week alone in the crappy one-bedroom the FBI hooked him up with in Bushwick, waiting for one of the Ianuccis to get in touch. At night he lies awake on his mattress on the floor, mustard-yellow streetlight glaring through the grimy bedroom windows, and thinks that he’s already failed his assignment, that he couldn’t pass himself off as a disgraced cop for even one night. (The irony does not escape him.)

Then a guy calls Jake’s burner at 3 in the afternoon on the sixth day, and he introduces himself as Derek and says he’s downstairs. It’s now or never. Jakes takes a deep breath and blows it out hard, then steels himself and heads down. By the end of the week, he’s got a pierced ear and a gold-chain necklace and a cigar burn on the back of his neck, just below the collar of his new silk shirt. Years ago, before he’d gotten into the Academy, Jake had thought about getting a tattoo (“yippee ki yay” in calligraphy, very classy) in that spot and he’s grateful now that Gina talked him out of it. The burn was an initiation, and it didn’t hurt as much as he’d thought it would, but the scab is itchy and sometimes when he thinks of the smell of it he gets a little nauseated.

Leo Iannuci sends him out with Derek on a couple of jobs – mostly picking up cash from people they’re extorting from, but sometimes they’re the ones making the threats and Jake hates that part, hates it so much. Derek’s a nice guy, an Academy dropout who seems to shed his tough-guy attitude with his velour jacket every time they leave a bodega or laundromat or some other business where he’s had to smack someone around. Derek always does the hitting, never makes Jake do it, and Jake can’t decide if it’s because he likes the violence or if he just senses that Jake really, really doesn’t.

Either way, he’s grateful, and he has to keep himself from feeling too much fondness for Derek just because he protects Jake from the dirty work. Jake’s gotten that talk from the FBI: It’s natural to think you’re making friends, making connections, they’d said. But you’re not. Don’t ever forget that. Jake is always, always on his own.

About a month in, Jake is at Leo’s penthouse in Flushing, reeking of cologne that one of the Sals had doused him in while another Sal held him down, when Leo swears loudly and slaps the side of his computer, a rickety old desktop with a fan that sounds like it’s working triple-time.

“Motherfucker, it won’t let me fucking update!” Leo slams his fist down on top of the harddrive.

Jake looks around the room but everyone else suddenly seems to have important business on their phones, so he approaches Leo and says, “What’s the problem?”

Leo snarls at the computer. “I had to add some new clients to the ledger and now this son of a bitch won’t save the changes.”

Le’s “clients” could mean extortion victims or dirty cops or assassins-for-hire or any or all of the above. Jake hasn’t seen the ledger yet – he wasn’t actually sure there was one before this moment.

“You want some help?” he says, casually.

Leo finally turns his glare to Jake, staring him down long enough that Jake has to fight to keep from shifting on his feet and curling his hands into fists. “You any good with this shit?” Leo says.

Jake shrugs. “Yeah, I know computers.”

“All right, have at it,” Leo says, and gets up from the desk.

Jake sits, and Leo grips his shoulders, sudden and fast, fingers digging hard enough to bruise. And then just as suddenly he’s let go. He stays behind Jake, though, watching him click through open windows to find the source of the problem. It doesn’t take long.

“You’re using AOL,” Jake says. His voice sounds a little strangled to his own ears.

“Yeah, I guess,” Leo says. “So what?”

“So that’s your problem,” Jake says.

Jake’s definitely not an expert at computers, but he’s always had an affinity for the basics and it only takes him a few minutes to fix the immediate problem – an outdated file type that the desktop won’t recognize anymore. Jake saves the document, which, infuriatingly, is a table someone made in Microsoft Works. It’s so horrifically formatted that Jake can’t help but imagine the devastating stroke that Amy would suffer if she even knew it existed. She would seriously start bleeding out of her eyes.

Later that night, Jake smokes his first full cigar and convinces Leo to let him move all of their documents to a Google drive. By the end of his first full month undercover, Jake’s become the mob’s IT guy. It’s exactly as dope as it sounds. (It’s not remotely dope.)

+++

It takes him a couple of weeks to transfer everything to the cloud; he has to carefully rebuild all of the ledgers in proper spreadsheets. Leo assigns one of the Sals to keep an eye on him, but after the first hour Sal gets bored and retires to the couch to play Kwazy Cupcakes on his phone (the sound effects touch off a profound homesickness that Jake tries his best to ignore). So Jake has no trouble copying the ledgers onto a thumb drive that he later passes on to his handler. It’s almost all the evidence they need. Then it’s just a matter of waiting for the FBI to get its teams in place, to mark the right time and place to take down the biggest targets.

Jake does a few more jobs with Derek, and he just misses getting sent on a drug run that ends in a shootout and two of Iannuci’s guys in the hospital (Jake was back at Leo’s penthouse trying to figure out why his computer suddenly refused to talk to his printer). He knows he’s dodging literal bullets, but that doesn’t mean he sleeps well at night, or that his nervous system doesn’t light up like a Christmas tree every time someone racks a gun near him (which is pretty much all the time – mafia guys love cleaning their weapons).

Jake ends up giving a seminar to half a dozen Iannuci men (plus two women) on file encryption and two-step authentication and he feels a little guilty for teaching the mob how to evade hackers – some of whom will surely be cops – but weirdly, he’s starting to get bored, and he figures none of them are going to remember any of his lessons anyway.

The night before Marco and Angie’s wedding, Jake gets super drunk with a bunch of the guys and he sings “The Longest Time” with Derek, slopping rye whiskey all over their polyester shirts. The next day Jake’s going home. But that night, for the first time in 62 days, he forgets to be lonely.

End Notes:

Title is from Feed the Beast (Bash Brothers).

I know there is a lot of mafia-Jake fic, and that this take is not like the others. But I always thought Jake’s comment to Pimento about what he really did undercover was interesting and worth exploring. I don’t think it means the job wasn’t dangerous or super stressful for Jake, though my version is probably less so than some of the more violent takes some writers have offered (which are just as valid!).

I couldn’t decide if this story should be considered a missing scene for Undercover or Adrian Pimento. It fit better here for obvious reasons, but the revelation is in the later episode. But really, it doesn’t actually matter.

My darling beta @fezzle wisely pointed out that Jake the Computer Wizard doesn’t exactly fit with what we learn about him in Ticking Clocks. My solution/answer to this is that Jake is actually pretty good with day-to-day computer stuff (there’s quite a bit of evidence of this in canon – or at least, evidence that he’s not BAD with computers), but hacking-level stuff is way over his head. That’s why he starts Ticking Clocks full of bluster with the so-called security expert and then eventually has to admit he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Unfortunately, what he actually says is “I don’t know anything about computers.” That could be the writers just forgetting their own canon, but I choose to believe that it actually fits just fine with Jake’s “I’m good at computers” in Adrian Pimento. It’s all about context!

#b99 fic #b99 season 7 countdown project #missing scene #undercover #jake peralta #mafia jake

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terresdebrume · 5 years

Text

Unlock the writing well

Tomorrow is the last day of my Khmer New Year holidays!

I did not do as much cleaning as I thought I would, but considering what I did clean is still clean almost a week later, I’m taking it as a win anyway. Maybe I can start by trying to keep one room clean in the long term and then extend it to the rest of the flat? We’ll see. I have a feeling it’s going to depend a lot on what work is like this session anyway, in that last session was pretty hardcore on me.

It’s a little frightening because the conditions in my contract are pretty easy going compared to other offers I’ve seen, but they are still frankly too much for me...and, I’m having two double-level classes with the kinds and frankly, I have no idea how that’s going to go. Oh well. No need to work myself into a panic about it now, it’s already making it difficult enough to sleep x)

On the more positive side: I am roughly fifty percent done with the second draft of my SuperBat Big Bang fic!

So far it stands at about 40k words, and I think the final product should be around 80-90k long, though probably not more than that. (I did, at one point, think it might turn out to be 100k long, but I’ll be honest and say I’m not sad it looks to be a little bit shorter).

There are still things I’d like to touch up, bits and ends I want to add to enrich the story and make some transitions smoother, but let’s be real, I’m not sure I’ll have the strength for it in the end. Though I do have until June and I’ll be able to discuss it with my artist(s) once I know who they are (no later than the 18th of April, the mail said, which would make it the 19th at the latest for me). Overall, though there are a couple of scenes I’m a little dissatisfied by, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve produced in the past...uh...three weeks. Holly molly, I’m a little impressed at myself, here.

I’m also starting to wonder if and how I’ll cross post the story on platforms beside AO3—more specifically Dreamwidth and LJ, because, well, 80k (or more) is a bit of a monstrous size. The closest I have to that is Once more, with kissing, my big Digimon fic which is only 40k and already took… *goes to check* eight DW posts, plus the masterpost of links. Which would mean the SBB fic would require no less than sixteen entries, plus masterpost, which sounds just a little bit humongous. Not that I wouldn’t do it, but still. That’s a lot. So, I guess more thinking will be required.

Anyway, because I’ve reached such a convenient point in the SBB story (and because I can be a bit anal about how my excel spreadsheets work) I don’t feel like working on it more today, but I also feel like writing a little, so I might try and pick up one of my Napollya fics in progress, see if I can work on that a little. Also prepare stuff for my classes, but that’s a different pickle, and mostly finishing things up, anyway. The point I’m trying to make here is that the SBB fic is about transitioning, and my Napollya fics are most likely going to have trans!Napoleon Solo because I can do this and I seem to have finally figured out what I wanted to say about this particular experience of mine. Yay!

Anyway, I’m glad I managed to find my writing footing again, to be honest. 2018 was a tiny years in terms of writing: less than 20k words published that year (though the AO3 stats count 80k because I updated an old multichapter and it counts the entire work). Considering I’d published 110k worth of fic in 2017, that was a bit of an abrupt decline, and not a funny year for my writerly soul. I guess I just needed to figure myself and what I wanted to say out, though, and quite possibly ride the waves of my coming out before I managed to focus on anything else.

I’m not sure where I’m going with these last two paragraphs, to be honest. This has turned more rambling than I thought it would, though in my defense I’m a little tired x)

TL;DR: I did a Big Write during my holidays and now I’m Smile.

#My Posts #Matt has a life #Shit from home #Matt writes #Superbat Big Bang

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thievinghippo · 5 years

Text

Fic Update: The Longest Distance (79/100)

Fandom: The Adventure Zone

Pairing: Barry Bluejeans/Lup Taaco

Rating: Teen

Summary: “Time is the longest distance between two places.” - Tennessee Williams. 100 cycles. 100 moments. How Barry and Lup’s relationship evolves over 100 years.

Chapter Summary: Magnus leads an expedition. Lup starts an important conversation. Barry’s not ready to listen.

(Read on Ao3!)

Cycle Seventy-Nine

“This is bullshit,” Lup says, flopping as dramatically as she can on the sofa. And she can flop with the best of them.

She looks over at Barry, who’s only got eyes for the quasmifier right now. He totally missed her flop. It was a damn good flop, too. Very dramatic. She’s got half a mind to get up and do it again when he looks up. “Yeah,” he says, putting the quasmifier on the table and finally looking at her. “This really is.”

“I had to use a match to start a fire yesterday,” Lup says, crossing her arms over her chest. “A match. What am I? A barbarian?”

She flicks her wrist, hoping to feel the familiar tickle of flames, but there’s nothing there. And it’s the same for the entire Starblaster crew.

This plane doesn’t have magic. At all. Even after three months, it’s really tripping her out.

“I kept hoping I could fix the quasmifier so we could run some tests-”

“But magic?” Lup asks, raising an eyebrow.

“But magic,” Barry says with a sigh as he stands up. “We’re lucky the ship-”

Lup’s off of the sofa in an instant and covering Barry’s mouth with both hands. “Don’t say it, don’t even think it.” That’s the last thing they need, something happening to the ship. Because no way in hell is this where the crew is ending up. No way.

There’s a knock on the doorway then and Magnus clears his throat. “You two still want to go hunting?”

The obvious answer is no. Well, that’s not true. The obvious answer is actually hells, no. But after last cycle and going through a lot of their supplies, even all of their health potions, Magnus wants them hunting and foraging as much as possible.

And without magic it sucks. Super duper sucks. Even using one of Magnus’s secondhand swords can’t make it better. Though Lup’s got to admit, she looks pretty damn sexy with a sword.

“Let’s go hunt,” Lup says, stretching her arms over her head. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“This is bullshit,” Lup says weakly, trying to snuggle up to Barry as close as possible. She wonders if she’s truly dying. She’s died before, of course. But the few times she has, it’s been quick. This is dying by degrees and she doesn’t like it.

Of course, there’s a way she wouldn’t have to die…

Lup turns the thought over in her head. She and Barry haven’t talked the whole lich thing through all that much, but they’ve agreed to research. And they have been. Over the last eighty years, they’ve totes got one of the best necromantic book collections probably ever assembled. Barry takes his shit seriously.

“Yeah,” Barry says, stroking her hair. “This really is.” His lips brush her temple and Lup lets out a sigh. “Lemme check the bleeding.”

It’s so unfair. If they had magic, she’d be healed already. Or even if they had a stupid potion. Instead, she’s gonna have to die in a cave. Ugh. Talk about undignified. But it’s her own fault, really. She’s the one who wanted to go exploring a bit after their hunt with Magnus.

And she’s the one who led them into a cave full of some kind of wild animals. They took out the animals, but not before the animals basically took out her.

All cause she wanted to make out with Barry. She’s not gonna tell him, though, cause then he’ll feel guilty and Lup never wants him to feel like that. At least the rest of the crew knows where they are, thanks to their Stone of Farspeech. But they also know that Lup’s probably not gonna be going back to the ship.

Well, guess she and Barry can talk about dying and not-dying now. Perfect time, really.

“I think we can put this experience under the pro-lich column,” Lup says softly. No one is around to hear them, but just talking about lichdom makes her want to keep her voice down for some reason.

“You want to talk about this now?” Barry asks, his grip on her hand becoming tighter.

“Hells, yeah. When better?” Lup says. She’s about to say more, but then she’s coughing. A violent cough that racks her entire body. After she wipes her hand over her mouth, there’s more blood than she’d like to see.

Barry holds out a skin of water for her and Lup can barely lift it to her lips. But the water tastes fresh and clean and cold. Right now, it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted in her life.

“So you want to make a list of pros and cons?” Barry asks. He’s holding her again and Lup decides it’s really not so bad, dying in the arms of the person you love. She’s died worse ways.

They all have.

“Something like that,” Lup says. Her words are slurring now. Well, at least there will hopefully be magic again when she wakes. This no magic bullshit is… bullshit.

“Loopy,” Barry says. Lup closes her eyes at the anguish in his voice.

“Did someone request a bandaid?”

Lup glances up at the sound of Merle’s voice and she wonders why there are two of them. The dwarf has a ridiculous look on his face as he saunters in the cave.

“Not enough, Merle,” Barry says, tensing up behind her. “But thanks.”

“Maybe this will help.”

Merle holds out a vial to her. Lup squints, not quite sure what she’s seeing. But that’s okay. She’s just gonna go to sleep and wake up again when there’s magic.

She’s so fucking tired.

“Holy shit, is that a health potion?” Barry asks, grabbing the vial out of Merle’s hand. “I thought we were out.”

Without any warning, Barry pushes Lup up into a sitting position. “The fuck?” Lup asks, wanting the world to stop spinning.

“Here, Loopy, drink this,” Barry says.

Lup never wants to deny him anything, so she’ll drink whatever he wants. Cause she loves him and he’ll never do anything to hurt her. Maybe it’ll help her go to sleep. That’d be something he’d do. Give her something to help.

She doesn’t have the strength to lift the vial and Barry quickly figures that out. He puts the vial next to her lips and the liquid starts to coat her throat. A familiar taste.

A couple of seconds later, Lup decides she’s not gonna kick the bucket this cycle. The skin on her stomach already is knitting itself back together. Yay for not bleeding out. Not bleeding out is the absolute best. “Thanks, Merle.”

“Found it under my bed,” Merle says with a grin. “Not sure how old it is, but who cares if it does the job, right?”

“Dude, Greg Grimaldis could have spit in this potion and I would have drank it,” Lup says, wondering if either Barry or Merle understands just how profound that is. “But thanks for the assist.”

Merle’s down to only one Merle, which is a definite improvement to two Merle’s. She must be getting better.

“Let’s wait a bit before we get you back to the ship,” Barry says, sounding absolutely relieved. Which she gets. No Lup makes the Starblaster far less interesting. “Why don’t you nap a bit?”

And that’s why she loves this man. Because he knows what she wants before she wants it.

So she closes her eyes and doesn’t even mind that when she wakes up, she still won’t have magic. She’ll have Barry, at least, which is a pretty decent compromise.

#the adventure zone #the adventure zone: balance #barry bluejeans #lup taaco #blupjeans #hippo writes fanfiction #the longest distance

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naanima · 6 years

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Guardian fic - social media is love

@gixininja I couldn't get this out of my mind. This fic has not been edited, all mistakes are mine. I'll probably get it cleaned up if I ever decide to post it on ao3, but I literally wrote this on my mobile in under an hour. I just needed it out.

---

Everything started after the holiday-pirate-ghost-fiasco. Well, actually it truly started when Lin Jing was trying to enter his expense form for the month and found that the Chief charged SIC for "emotional trauma in the line of defense of humanity against cursed ghosts." Which was a lie, not the cursed ghosts or defending humanity, but the lie about it being work. Everybody knew it was a honeymoon for him and Professor Shen. They had the photos to prove it.

Lin Jing looked up from examining the expense forms as he felt a cold draft on the back of his neck. He looked around, making sure there was no sudden appearance of the black cloak variety. You can't be too careful, not with the way the professor can just randomly appear out of nowhere, and the chief seem to have a sixth sense when it came to him slacking off. It initially freaked him out a bit that the chief has shacked up with somebody that could squash all of them in 2 secs flat, but the professor was nice, and honestly all the best for anyone who can live with the chief and still wants to spend time with him during work hours.

But the point is that the chief has expensed SIC for the damn honeymoon, and Lin Jing has lost his bonus for the next two months because of a small mistake. It was not his fault that he couldn't get in direct contact with the chief to warn him about the cursed ghost pirates. The chief was the one who decided to turn his damn phone off so he could spend some 'alone time' with his 'wife' on the beach. As if he hasn't been updating them via his private Weibo account about what a great time he has been having with the professor.

Lin Jing sighed, he was already suffering from being a lonely-poor-technological-genius living in a work environment full of happy couples. Even Hong-jie is dating a toy boy on the side, after the whole pinning for years thing, Hong-jie has decided that she was a goddess amongst men and deserved all the attention she has been missing out on. Now he can't even buy the new VR headset he has been eyeing for half a year. Might as well call it a night.

As he is putting the expense forms away, his phone beeped at him. Looking at the notification Lin Jing swore, "Damn your happily married life." The newest photo the chief uploaded was a photo of a table covered with delicious home cooked food, and just at the corner a pale hand can be seen. The caption read "wife cooked a delicious meal. :) ♡ 😚🍷😍".

Life is so unfair, Lin Jing wished the boss would go back to posting every few months with links to paranormal weather patterns or weird blood spatter or something. Now, the chief updated his account about five times a day usually about how great his wife was with a photo of a ear, hands, food and just things the professor has said. It would be almost cute if it wasn't the chief. And Lin Jing is pretty sure if Professor Shen ever found out about the chief's habits of publicly posting everything great about him and their private life he would go all Black Cloak Envoy on the chief's ass.

Lin Jing paused, and smiled. It is always good being the technological genius.

....

"I'm not sure how this will help," Shen Wei said, looking at the screen with the Weibo registration page on it.

"I just thought it would help with the team collaboration part," said Lin Jing, "And you can even friend chief's account."

"Yun Lan has a Weibo account? He didn't mention it." Shen lifted his head to look at Lin Jing.

"Uh, probably because he is slightly embarrassed." Lin Jing really should have thought this through a bit more.

"Embarrassed." A slight raise of an eyebrow. Yeah, the chief was not embarrassed about anything. Definitely should have thought this one through a bit more carefully.

"Look, just see for yourself." Lin Jing brought up the chief's account.

She Wei began scrolling through the account, and the first photo was one of their kitchen counter, specifically of Shen Wei's forearm resting on the counter, and a cup of tea. The caption read, "💖 Best morning. Wife is ready for work. So smart. 💗". The photos that followed were of similar theme. Photos of Shen Wei's books (my wife is brilliant 💞), his shoulders (my wife is so strong 💪😘), his eyelashes (9 mm long😍), and a host of bits and pieces about Shen Wei and how great he was, and how much Zhao Yun Lan loved him. All the while not revealing who Shen Wei was, protecting his identity, their privacy, except anyone who knew them knew who he was talking about. Shen Wei could only sit there and keep on reading.

Lin Jing might have made a big mistake. Professor Shen is not saying anything, but he is looking at every photo and reading all the caption and tags. And Lin Jing only wanted to get the chief in a bit of trouble, a tiny bit embarrassed, not anything else. Oh gods, what if the professor gets to angry that he breaks up with the chief, his family's spirits. If that happens Lin Jing will be murdered. "It isn't all the bad. It's really only us - the team, and like, maybe one or two others. The chief is really protective. And I made sure that his account is locked down tight. And oh gods please don't break up with the chief, Black Cloak Envoy!" Lin Jing might have started to sound a bit breathy near the end there buy something needs to be said so that he can continue to breathe.

Shen Wei still had his back towards Lin Jing, looking at one of the earliest photo to appear that mentions Shen Wei in a round about way. It was a photo of the doorway to Shen Wei's office, and the caption read, "Sometime strangers can feel closer than those you have known for a lifetime. How strange."

The silence was getting painful, and Lin Jing have finally notices that the professor's ears were red. Oh gods, he is so angry he is going red. Before Lin Jing could beg for his life Shen Wei put him out of his misery.

"Can you create an account for me?"

----

Lin Jing has had a long night. Who would have thought a 10,000 years old being of unmentionable power is completely hopeless when it came to technology. Creating the account was easy but he kept on getting texts from the professor throughout the night asking about everything to do with Weibo and fucking filters. On the upside he hasn't been called in by the boss yet, and everyone seems to be focused on their life so maybe he dodged a bullet. Maybe the professor didn't say anything. Maybe he wanted an account because he was bored and not because he was thinking of embarrassing the boss. Maybe life will finally be fair for Lin Jing.

Just as he is going through his first email of the day his phone, and everyone else's phone beeped. Lin Jing looked at the notification in horror. "Little Ghost King would like to be your friend" without conscious thought Lin Jing clicked yes, and clicked on the account. There was already a single photo uploaded. It was artfully done, the lighting excellent, the colours balanced, and Lin Jing recognise that fucking filter. Sitting happily in the middle of the photo was a lollipop, wrapper gone. #love of my life #happiness. And below it, the first comment, Lord of Guardians (Zhao Yun Lan), "love of my life💖" and immediately below it, "Lin Jing, your end of the year bonus is halfed."

Lin Jing hated his lonely genius life. And he still needed to enter those damn expense forms.

.Fin.

OK, so, that's that. There's probably a tonne of mistakes but I needed to get this out before I lose steam. So, yay? Once again sorry about the mistakes. Will sort them out if I ever edit this. Hahaha.

#guardian #fanfic #fic #guardian fic #镇魂 #fluff

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