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demoiselledefortune · 3 years

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Post canon sangcheng fic recs for @runespoor7

(wooohoo that’s only 25 fics haha)

Silence by inberin

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17441771

a conversation in the snow.

Wonderfully nuanced characterisation. It hints at whole relationship and dynamic with a lot of delicacy.

Windrose by offlight

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18997546

Nie Huaisang is forced into a coma to stop his qi deviation. Jiang Cheng is tasked with waking him up.

There’s a lot of intriguing dreamscapes in this one, and I love Jiang Cheng (and in the background Wei Wuxian)’s desperation and obstinacy.

All the innocence we give by shamiran

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864910

Learning to renavigate the ground between them is easier than Nie HuaiSang expects. It's also harder than he could have imagined.

Just a sweet story.

Taste the wine off your lips by ExNihiIo

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20129245

A light pat lands against his back, and a cup of water is pushed in front of his face. “Not even Zi Shi, and you’re already tipsy?,” asks a teasing voice, while a thin hand puts down the cup. Jiang Cheng coughs a little more, shaking his head, and sends a dirty look at his host. “I am not tipsy.” “Hm, and yet your cheeks are all red. What would your disciples think, if they saw you in this state?” “They’d think about running away while they can. I can break legs more easily than I can drink alcohol.” A smile curves the edges of Nie Huaisang’s mouth, and he closes his fan with a curt jerk, sitting across the table. He’s wearing lighter clothes, Jiang Cheng notices, compared to the ones he had during the Discussion Conference. Where those had been tight and rigid against his body, these now fall softly on him, the large sleeves sweeping delicately as Nie Huaisang moves to pour himself a cup.

I like the melancholy tone of this one.

The light of autumn: you will not be spared by crooows

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19901467/chapters/47138221

Nie Huaisang arrives a week early for the conference which will be held in Yunmeng to discuss the position of chief cultivator.

[Title is from a poem called "October" by Louise Glück!]

A bit funny, a bit melancholy

You can run but you can’t hide by ThirtySixSaveFiles

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21119297

Nie Huaisang has noticed something about the way Jiang Cheng takes compliments; Nie Huaisang has a theory, and he intends to test it out.

Just Huaisang figuring out Jiang Cheng has a praise kink. Established pairing.

Evening Bloom by dragonofeternal

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20958518

Jiang Cheng is spry and lithe well into his twilight years, living well off Wei Wuxian's stolen youth; Nie Huaisang's golden core, on the other hand, has always been poor- he blacks his hair with ink and dyes, hides the pudge of indolence and the wrinkles of age behind the latest fashions and the finest fans. Perhaps for their peers, finding the space to be vulnerable came easy, but for them it's taken this long to maybe think of letting someone in.

I have a big weakness for stories about old people falling in love and this is one delivers very sweetly.

Four Days in Lanling by Halotolerant

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21722695/chapters/51817036

Nie Huaisang looks at him. ‘You are confusing me, Clan Leader Jiang, perhaps I misunderstand, but…’

‘You didn’t misunderstand. You don’t misunderstand. You understand all of it.’ For six months Jiang Cheng has been mulling this over, and now with Nie Huaisang in front of him he can’t figure out if he most wants to knock him down or kneel at his feet. What he does is try and breathe. Clench his hands at his sides. ‘And now I am going to ask you to do something for me. You have to do something for me. You have to help Jin Ling.’

Ok so perhaps it’s misrepresentating to call this a post canon fic since most of the action is mid-13-years-of-WWX-death but the fairly important framing part is post canon. Also it’s one of the best sangcheng fic out there and a must read.

Shadow eternal by rynleaf

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23162944/chapters/55439032

“You want me to distract the Chief Cultivator from the Annual Cultivation Conference, so you and other sect leaders can… what. Sign contracts without adult supervision?”

“If Jiang-zongzhu is amenable,” Sect Leader Ouyang repeats with a nod.

Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose. The pressure he felt building behind his eyes all morning is swiftly coalescing into a bitch of a headache. “Just what do you all think I’m capable of?”

Sect Leader Ouyang bows with a cheerful smile. “We have utmost faith in Sandu Shengshou’s abilities.”

In which a night hunt ends in disaster, Jiang Cheng catches a glimpse of Nie Huaisang's heart, and feelings are discussed after a certain fashion.

One that’s between sweet and angsty.

The way is shut, and we cannot go back by saltedpin

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23592523

One month since Guanyin Temple, and some people are coping better than others (or not).

This one is a mostly sad and bitter take on Jiang Cheng reacting to Nie Huaisang’s plot (and being very drunk).

Living memory by ghosthouses

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24827980

Once Jin Guangyao has left, he gives himself two indulgences. The first, a day to scream in his rooms made soundproof with a talisman. The second, a physical list written in code, to keep his older self, who will have let the pain dull with time, accountable for what must be done.

It has only two commandments:

He will die.

and

He will know.

Nie Huaisang puts it in his sleeve with the intention of keeping it with him at all times, to be added to but never reduced, a living memory of his task.

This and its prequel which you should also read is quite short but probably one of my favorite depictions of their dynamic (and probably one I find most plausible).

What’s Left of us by cangse-sanren

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24979081

“Well,” Huaisang tries hesitantly, “both of us seem to have a rather fraught relationship with things like older brothers and the concept of betrayal. And regret,” he adds as an afterthought. "Perhaps you just understand me more than most."

Yet another that dwells into Jiang Cheng reacting to Nie Huaisang’s plan. I really like that take although it’s barely shippy (and quite short).

Descending by lightningwaltz

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25296595

“I want to… to not be embarrassed.”

“To not be embarrassed during what?”

“During sex.” There. Jiang Cheng can say it. “In general. Also with you right now.”

“Very good.”

“When did you become so authoritative?” Jiang Cheng wants to sound irked, but can’t quite manage anything beyond nervous curiosity.

Very interesting fic and in many ways unusual. I’d say it’s hypnosis kink, but it’s much more character driven than that. With a context of established FWB arrangement between Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang.

Tell him that I miss our little talks by xiaolongbaobei

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25232023

the post-canon fic where Jiang Cheng becomes the Chief Cultivator, realizes that it's not too late to fall in love and learns to ask for what he wants

Longish fic exploring Jiang Cheng as Chief cultivator working with Nie Huaisang and slowly falling in love with him. I adore this one, and not only because I love fics that explore the idea of Jiang Cheng as chief cultivator.

Blind for Love by manamune

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25760272

Jiang Cheng is poisoned with an aphrodisiac and needs to orgasm repeatedly in order to flush it from his system.

The first person he thinks of going to for help is Nie Huaisang, who does what any good friend would do: he shoves his three decades worth of feelings for Jiang Cheng deep into the recesses of his mind, locks them up so he can pretend they don’t exist, and then fucks him so hard that he passes out.

Mostly a long smutty piece, but with a lot of fun character bits along the way.

A Tight-Knit Family by aldalin

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25500481/chapters/61862899

“Jing Ling, we need to talk.”

Jin Ling has too many uncles, and he’s about to get another.

Sect Leader Jiang announces his marriage to Sect Leader Nie.

A fairly different take, more focused on Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian reacting to Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang’s relationship.

A trip to Qinghe by Scorpiwriting

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26974741

An unexpected hunt forces Jiang Cheng to leave the Lotus Pier a bit earlier than he had anticipated, so he decides to send Jin Ling to Qinghe, for the sake of not sending him back to Lanling so soon: it turns into a learning experience for the young sect leader, who gets to peek into the life of the Headshaker.

or.

Jin Ling learns that not everything people say is true and that perhaps there is some merit to art. He also learns that loneliness is a dark beast and that his uncle should definitely do something about it.

Another one more focused on Jin Ling’s reaction to it. Honestly more of a gen piece about Jin Ling and Nie Huaisang, but an interesting one.

Silver bracelets on their wrists by mercurious

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25797715

“Can’t I find excuses to visit an old friend?”

Ok so this one is a bit fucked up in interesting ways. It combines Chief Cultivator Jiang Cheng and explicit longing about Wei Wuxian, and BDSM as catharsis. It’s a fascinating piece.

Welcome to love by amphigoric

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22412866/chapters/53549794

Desire, Jiang Cheng learned, flourished even in love’s absence. It surged hot and fast through his veins at the sight of Nie Huaisang’s spread thighs, marks still lingering from the last rendezvous they had. He felt it burning through his chest as Huaisang raked lines down his back, breaths coming in short, desperate gasps: “Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Wanyin, please, please.”

It’s a little bit clumsy at times, but also very passionate and intense in a way I still find compelling. Featuring a lot of self sabotaging Jiang Cheng.

When your stitch comes loose by heyninja

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27868454/chapters/68234434

Sometimes people see you for who you really are. Sometimes because you let them. Sometimes whether you like it or not.

A triptych of collisions between Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng.

Only the last part is post canon but it’s the most important part, isn’t it?

Peel your heart like a pomegranate by Izumi_silverleaf

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29458974

"It's an extraordinary feeling when parts of your body are touched for the first time. I'm thinking of the sensations from sex and surgery."

Sometimes you just need to read a very hot guro fic. It’s a weird fic but it’s a cool one.

If you give a Nie a cushion by LesbianLazerOwl

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29470236

Prompt: Long enough After Canon that everyone's mostly okay these days, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang get drunk and wind up comparing masturbation habits; each is aghast at how the other spends their personal time.

Funny and hot

To Distraction by isozyme

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27763816

It’s the third night of Yunmeng’s kite festival celebrations. Nie Huaisang has come visiting, eager to partake in the food, the arts, and Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng wants to forget. Nie Huaisang has some new lube and wants to see if he can put his whole fist in somebody’s ass.

Established pairing in which Nie Huaisang fists Jiang Cheng. It’s hot.

Safe in Your arms by Dragon_scribe

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30070503/chapters/74058315

In the aftermath of a night hunt gone (very) wrong, Jiang Cheng wakes up to find himself in the Unclean Realm. As he recovers from his injuries, he and Nie Huaisang grow closer and as time passes, their friendship begins to shift to something more.

Very sweet/sappy and hurt/comfort orientated, with a small bit of reconciliation dimension too.

#mo dao zu shi #sangcheng #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #fic recs

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mithrilwren · 3 years

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CR Fic Recs!

I did this last year, so I figured I might as well do it again! I haven’t read nearly as many fics in 2020 as I did in 2019, but I think I’ve made up for it by getting better at remembering to bookmark the ones I liked, haha. Without further ado, and in vaguely chronological order, here are some of the fics that stood out to me during this wild and crazy year!

never to touch (and never to keep) by cerealmilk. Jester finds out about Beau’s crush, and Beau handles it... exactly as well as you’d expect. A great mix of Beaujester angst and ultimate catharsis.

icarus to your certainty by @essektheylyss. Shadowgast, but in spaaaceeeeee. Which sounds kinda silly on paper, but this fic will break your heart if you let it. It’s a wonderful character study wrapped in a gorgeous AU, with some of the most interesting worldbuilding I’ve seen in a long while.

For the Girl in the Garden by @winterling42. Here’s another AU - this time, the Hunger Games! I’ve seen similar AUs come and go in other fandoms, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one that captures the emotional energy of the situation quite like this. I’ve enjoyed every installment of this series, but this Beaujester centric snippet is still probably my favourite.

The Barest Moment by @gnimmish. Oh, the pining. A short Beauyasha fic with the perfect amount of hesitance, uncertainty, and love mixed in.

How to struggle gracefully by @sky-scribbles. The M9 get invited to dinner with the Thelyss household, and find out a bit more about Essek’s relationship with his mother. Let’s be real, I’d read any iteration of this premise, but this particular telling hits all the right angsty, ouchy, punch-you-in-the-stomach beats.

just don’t lie to me by @capitola. I’m always a sucker for introspective Nott/Veth stories, and this is no exception. In this Widobrave piece, still-a-goblin Nott contemplates what she might have missed out on by lying to Caleb about her age, and it’s just... so good.

rational animals by @the-littlest-goblin. I’m generally not a fan of post-canon fics, but my god, even if you aren’t, make an exception for this one. Its non-linear narrative weaves such a compelling tale about Caleb and Essek’s complicated relationship post campaign, told in snippets of interactions and brief moments of calm amidst the chaos of two turbulent lives. It is utterly believable, and now one of my favourite Shadowgast fics of all time.

#critical role #cr fic recs #beaujester #beauyasha #shadowgast #widobrave

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staytiny-present · 3 years

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Ateez Coraline!au

DUDE I’M DONE WITH SCHOOL WHICH MEANS I CAN WRITE MORE YAYYYY!

anyway, this is meant to be a little headcanon thing for a series i’ve been planning that is, obviously, based on the movie coraline. it’ll be a reader insert for you to enjoy as well :) this is basically a “ateez as characters in coraline,” but my plan is to still make them unique to the story. i hope you like this!

warnings: this does not match at all swearing, angsty situations, borderline crack (you’ll see), i think i make one sex joke, allusions to depression - PLEASE take caution when you read yunho’s part. i don’t think i go into any specifics, but his gets serious that i just want you to be aware

Reader’s backstory: you’ve lived with your grandmother who owns the pink palace apartments since you were a teenager so you can help her out as she gets older. the pink palace isn’t the most well-known, but it’s gotten a pretty negative rap since the disappearance of your best friend in high school. it’s hard living there still, but you know your grandma needs the support. you know nearly all of the ins and outs of the place, and all of the tenants adore both you and your grandma

Wooyoung and Yeosang ~ Spink and Forcible

tell me i’m wrong

that’s right you can’t

they’ve been friends for years and bicker and tease each other like they’re married and still love and support each other? yeah

wooyoung and yeosang are childhood friends

they mostly did dance in high school but they were also in theater, and they were kinda well known for being The Best™

they were recruited to join a lot of teams and a lot of colleges wanted them because they were just??? amazing??? how tf??

so yeah they earned a lot of recognition in high school that honestly got them really famous from when they were 16 onward

it’s been a few years since then and so the hype around them has definitely died down but we’ll get to that

they are currently still working on stuff in regards to dancing and acting

they’re technically in college too, but they do online classes so they can stay at home and work on their shows

wooyoung is the idealist while yeosang is the realist

like i said, they act like an old married couple always bickering and fighting but they really do love each other

ride or die best friends dude

it’s just that they say they’ll do certain things or are planning things soon and it just… doesn’t happen

that’s mostly idealist woo talking before yeosang can reign him in

so for years it’s been a lot of empty promises of new work that many people just stopped expecting things from them

and because of that they’ve past their peak and are basically just in limbo before they are actually able to make/perform their next show or something like that

they rent the basement apartment of the pink palace, and they’ve technically lived in there the longest actually

growing up, both of their families lived there so that was how they met and became the best of friends :)

they didn’t want to leave either but they had to for a couple years

but at least they stayed together :)

their families moved back when the boys were about a year into high school just because the old woman who owns the place is a gem and the city had a great school for them to go to

while they were living there though a boy around their age went missing, and it basically convinced their families that they should move out

wooyoung and yeosang were very adamant about staying, so their families told them you’re either moving away with us or finding a way to pay for the apartment yourselves

so the next day wooyoung and yeosang went out and found themselves some jobs so that they could

it upset their parents sure, but they were also kinda proud that they took so much initiative about this - they knew they would succeed in life

it also factored into why grandma let them stay because she knew the same thing

the sweet woman even said she would help them out from time to time :(

then cue the next 3-4 years where woo and yeo are making a bunch of money with their dances teams and performing in shows

they’ve gotten a good amount of money over the years that they’ve been able to renovate the basement so that it’s really nice

now they have posters of their “golden years” (as wooyoung says) from high school and their first years of college all around their place

they have a dog and have been seriously considering getting more because he’s getting kind of old :(

they don’t really get out much bc they are constantly trying to plan and work on their shows, but it’s fine because there’s nothing really close to the pink palace :/ the closest city where they went to school is quite the commute

but because of all this - the empty promises, the lack of activity, the radio silence - no one really takes them seriously anymore, and really people just stopped believing in them

it’s a major factor in their motivation and work ethic, but they try their hardest not to let it deter them from what they want to do in life

Mingi, San, and Jongho ~ The Amazing Bobinsky

trust me here ok?

mingi, san, and jongho start their own circus right out of high school

hear me out

the boys all went to high school together, but jongho is a year younger than them so they all graduated at different times

however they had a lot of classes together because they didn’t really care much about school and it reflected on their academics

so they were put in a lot of lower classes together that they all did well in, they just didn’t care about school

their circus started out as a joke honestly

it was probably edgy teen jongho who was like “ugh i hate school i should just drop out and join the circus”

and it became a running joke between them like haha yeah let’s join the circus, who would we all be tho?

mingi and san were both very adamant that jongho would be the strongman what with all his fruit breaking endeavors and the buff buff arms dude

san did martial arts and liked dancing and was very flexible so he was like ayy i’ll be the acrobat

it took them a while to decide what mingi would be because they were like “huh well what about the lion tamer?” “you know how much of a fraidy cat he is?” “ok well what about a trapeze artist?” “he’s a great dancer and flexible sure, but would he ever be able to have that kind of coordination?” “ok fine then what about a clown?” “fuck you guys”

they chose sword swallower mostly because like??? how does it work?? idk mingi should find out

and yeah for a while it was a running joke between all of them like yeah we’re gonna drop out of school and join the circus lol

but then come mingi and san’s senior year and they were like… hang on

could… could we actually do this? it sounds fun as hell

it went as far as them all researching circuses in their spare time and income and how to go about joining one

and it ended with them not wanting to live the lifestyle of a traveling circus

sure it sounded cool as fuck, but while they were somewhat willing to live with those conditions, they weren’t willing enough

so the next best thing for them would be to start their own circus

of course, how do you tell your parents that what you want to be when you grow up is a circus performer?

the answer: you don’t

whenever they were asked things likes “oh what do you want to do in college?” they all just kinda passed it off as they didn’t know, but in reality they didn’t really have any desire to go to college

you don’t need a degree to start a circus, so they didn’t really want to

once mingi and san graduated, they immediately started looking for affordable apartments where they could do their thing - start their circus

in all honesty they started looking before they graduated too, partially since they would be moving out after hs but also because they just felt better about not living with their parents

they had seen the pink palace in the newspaper a lot with a vacant attic apartment, and basically since they found out about it they were sold on it

a weird place in the middle of nowhere run by a woman who doesn’t mind housing younger people? perfect

they actually met her before they graduated so they could see about renting the apartment sooner or later

grandma all but told them it was there’s once she met the boys, and she understands that when they are finally able to start living there they will be pretty tight on money, so she doesn’t even make them pay the down payment - she does that herself and holds the apartment for them

because let’s face it: the pink palace isn’t very big,, it already has a good amount of people living there,,, how many people are actually gonna consider moving to the middle of nowhere to actually live there?

plus she likes these three boys, so she wants to help them as much as she can

so yeah once mingi and san graduate, they are basically ready to move into the pink palace

but this is technically after that boy went missing and after the case turned cold, so grandma doesn’t want to rent to anyone new

but she already assured the boys that the attic was theirs, and she’s not about to break that promise

so before giving the boys the keys she gives them the lowdown of what’s been going on and what will happen in the future

they know the boy went missing, but she explains to them all that happened and that it gives the pink palace a bad rap (even though she hardly cares about that), so she wouldn’t normally be doing something like this but they will be the last people she lets rent from her

and they don’t completely understand because they have no idea what this has been doing to the poor old woman, but they understand enough and are grateful for her that she’s still letting them live there

they decide then that it would be better for jongho to start living with them now even before he’s graduated just so it’s less of a change for grandma in the future

which jongho is totally okay with because he honestly would rather live with them anyway

but uh yeah mingi, san, and jongho are the last ones to start renting at the pink palace for a long while

they split rent three ways so that it’s less burdensome on them, and they all have jobs so that they can afford it

mingi and san work full time while jongho has a part time job while he finishes school

but full time they are all preparing and planning their circus!!

takes a lot of throat training for mingi 😏 since he is literally putting swords down his throat, and he started this basically right when they decided their circus was going to be real

san and jongho have advantages because they already have some skill in their areas, but that doesn’t mean they don’t train

san still takes martial arts and dance, and he’s even signed up for gymnastics to help him with his flexibility

jongho basically spends all of his spare times working out (mostly lifting weights) so that he can really be strong

but also jongho has a thing for rats/mice and is like “hey,, why don’t we use them for something so that it’s not just us?”

and the boys lowkey are like wtf dude why but then again who are they to shut down his ideas when they are literally starting a circus?

so they’re like fine but that’s on you to decide how to do that and to plan the act

jongho: yessss ratssss

also jongho: NO they’re not RATS they’re MICE these are MICE THANK YOU

this is the “jumping mice” aspect of the coraline movie with bobinsky just fyi

a lot of jongho’s time in school is spent in the science and psychology departments talking to teachers about animals (specifically rats/mice) and how to train and work with them

the teachers are all kinda like… what? but also they are just happy that jongho is interested in something enough to come to the teachers and ask questions and apply himself

lmao it’s not for school tho

so he learns a lot of this information at school and honestly this might be the only thing he learns at school because soon enough he’s graduating with a bunch of knowledge on how to work with and train animals

once out of high school he starts working full time too so that money and rent is even easier

all of their extra money that isn’t toward rent and bills and groceries go to their circus

they hardly ever buy new clothes unless it’s something for their circus

also the boys had to go to grandma to ask if they could house mice in their apartment, and while it was a hard no (unless they were trained and wouldn’t cause trouble), jongho still smuggled them in

grandma knows about it too (bc she knows everything that goes on for the most part lmao) but she doesn’t say anything because they don’t cause trouble and she likes the boys

the day one of them gets loose and starts terrorizing and infesting the pink palace is the day she intervenes and tells them to get rid of them

but jongho is actually really good at training the mice so it’s fine

my point surrounding all of this is to say that mingi, san, and jongho are in the long and arduous stage of their lives and their circus of planning and preparing everything

they only make so much money and have so many resources that setting up their circus and doing everything to prepare is going to take a long time before they can actually open and show people what they’ve been working on

they’ve been doing it for a few years now and they’ve still hardly made a dent

they have to train and perfect their acts sure, but they also have to do all of the logistical stuff like advertising, selling tickets, finding venues, paying for safety and legal stuff, etc.

and these boys are only in their early 20s, so it’s gonna take a while before they can actually open their circus

but they are determined and passionate, so if this is what they have to do then they will happily do it

Yunho ~ The Ghost Children

oh god this is gonna start getting serious i’m sorry

in case you can’t tell, yunho is the boy that goes missing from the pink palace

he and his family lived in the pink palace from when he was pretty young until he was in high school

he was also really good friends with wooyoung and yeosang because they were all the same age

however he was... not happy

he always worked his ass off dancing because that’s what he wanted to do, but it meant his grades in school tanked

this would obviously be worrying to some parents, and his gave him an ultimatum

either get your grades up and start taking school seriously, or you’re not going to be allowed to continue your dance lessons

the answer was clear to yunho, so he told his dance teacher that he would be taking a break for a bit so he can focus on school

everything was fine until he realized his parents had zero intentions of letting him go back anyway

he didn’t understand,, his grades were getting better so why couldn’t he go back?

to put it plainly, his parents said this:

“what kind of career could you make out of dance? you’ll never succeed”

it was crushing

it was then that yunho realized that his own parents didn’t care about what he wanted and was passionate about

he didn’t think they ever would either, so he just sort of... stopped believing in them

it wasn’t all bad because he had his closest friends and grandma (who treated him like her own grandson)

but he had some pretty bad days that made the happy and energetic boy almost completely unrecognizable

he would look at wooyoung and yeosang and see how successful they were despite still being in school

he would see how their talent was rightfully recognized and sought after

and he would get down on himself, thinking how he wanted the same thing but fearing no one would see him

that’s why he worked hard at everything he did, why his motivation plummeted, and why he nearly wore himself out before even graduating

but one day he started acting strange

everyone noticed how a switch seemed to flip in him

that excited glimmer was back in his eyes, and no one knew why

don’t get me wrong, everyone was so happy to see the smiley yunho was back, but everyone wanted to know what happened

but he hardly made any sense when he told them

he supposedly found a place in the pink palace where he could do what he wanted, but whenever he tried showing anyone he couldn’t? the door was bricked up

everyone started thinking he made it up, that the stress was finally getting to him and he dreamt up a place like this so he wouldn’t lose his mind

that glimmer was gone again, and he stopped trying to talk to people

in fact, he closed himself off from everyone

the day he went missing was the scariest day for everyone in the pink palace

everyone was devastated, but it completely changed his parents

grandma advised them to move out while the police investigated, but they refused despite how hard it was

but after a year the case became cold

no one could find yunho nor could anyone figure out what happened to him

he just disappeared without a trace

his parents still tried to stay though because they needed to find out what happened to their son

but they couldn’t. no one could

it wasn’t long before they too found it best that they move out of the pink palace

it was just too painful

that was the last time grandma ever rented to anyone new, so the apartment became completely vacant for years

even after they left, no one was able to figure out what happened to yunho

Seonghwa ~ The Black Cat

geomeun goyangi nero nero nero

uhhhh yeah seonghwa’s a cat lmao

he’s not owned by anyone and doesn’t have a collar or anything

he’s a stray that has been around for a while

he showed up pretty soon after yunho started distancing himself from people, but not soon enough for people to think that he’s an omen or something

and he’s not exactly

idk really how to explain it so i won’t lmao

he just sort of became the pink palace’s cat???

grandma takes responsibility for him though and makes sure he’s fed and has a place to rest and play if he ever feels like it

which is nice and all but he doesn’t?? do any of those things?

he comes and goes a lot sure,,, no one really knows where he goes but they know he’ll be back

but when he hangs out around the pink palace? he just... wanders?

it’s hard to explain but it’s almost like he is surveying the domain, like he’s searching for something wrong

he’s a weird cat

not only that though, but he doesn’t eat? or sleep? at all???

at least no one ever sees him sleeping or eating

he’s always getting into shit tho, like he’s always there when you don’t want him to be

there have been many times wooyoung has kicked him out of the apartment because the dogs hate him

mingi and san also try to keep him out because of jongho and his rats mice, but honestly jongho is pretty cool with him

because he doesn’t do anything to the mice? he literally just sits there and watches with wide and curious eyes

sure jongho worries about hwa one day stealing one of his mice for grandma to see so that she can make him get rid of them or kick them out but that’s not going to happen right?

hwa is chill tho, so jongho is chill

the cat would follow yunho around a lot, and a lot of times they were seen curled up together

yunho would be taking a nap the poor boy but hwa wouldn’t

he would just be there to comfort him :(

honestly he liked yunho and his best friend the most and everyone could tell jongho was a close second tho

they all came to start calling him mars instead of The Cat™ since they didn’t know his name

they still call him The Cat™ when he pisses them off but i digress

despite how fucking weird he is though, everyone at the pink palace basically loves him

he’s just Their Cat™ ok?

sure he might be annoying and shifty, or he might be haunted, or he might even be immortal

he’s a really weird cat dude

but he’s part of the family,, they gotta love him

Hongjoong ~ Coraline

curtesy of inception era hongjoong

so joong is our main man here

at first he had no relation to the pink palace whatsoever,, he had never even heard of it

he lived with a friend in a fairly large city before and it was fine and all but WOW was it expensive

and it was honestly very stifling to hongjoong,,, he couldn’t really do everything he wanted to do there

he found the pink palace by accident

he was searching up affordable apartments to live in places that have good weather and conditions for gardening

let me explain though

hongjoong is in his downward stretch of college for a journalism degree, but he’s taking online classes with his move so that he can focus on that and working

he wants to work in gardening and writing, but he also really just wants to make stuff

his realistic plan is to work in journalism and write for like a gardening magazine or journal while gardening as a “side project” or something (like coraline’s parents do)

did somebody say florist joong? because i did

the dream job though would be to work in song writing or fashion or something artistic like that

he likes painting and making/customizing clothes so he would like to be able to make a career out of that

his goal is to eventually make his own business or store where he makes and sells affordable and sustainable clothes and accessories

he’s going for a degree in journalism with a minor in business, but he has been struggling with both so he has been debating dropping business

arguably it would be better for him to stick with business but most people in his life have told him he’s better in journalism and so he keeps at that mostly

he feels unfulfilled - he wants to plant a garden, he wants to make and alter clothes customly, he wants to make music

but he isn’t able to do any of that because what are the odds any of that ends up working as a career?

it might work for a little while but in the future he would technically be a small business, and maintaining a small business is difficult

at least with writing and working for a magazine/journal is stable

however it’s not what he’s most passionate about, thus he finds it hard to have motivation to work

he feels like a zombie going through his days the same as the last, just trying to get through school before he gets a 9-5 job that he’ll hate within a year (if that) doing something he doesn’t want to do

but hey, that’s adult life, isn’t it?

he doesn’t like to complain and feels guilty when he is ungrateful for his circumstances because he knows plenty of people (his parents included) that went down this route who ended up fine, which means he will too

the one person who always told him to go after what he wanted was his mom even though she technically “settled” in life

holy shit did i digress

but yeah in his search for an affordable place to live with good weather, there wasn’t a lot

but he also wanted a drastic change from what he was used to, and that was the pink palace

it was practically in the middle of nowhere, and the pictures (while pretty dull) showed potential for a great garden

it was perfect

however

it was a hard no from grandma when he called about possibly renting, so he wasn’t expecting her to call him back at all

grandma didn’t want to risk anything because of what happened with yunho

but with some convincing, she realized that she couldn’t keep holding on

while what happened was horrible, there was nothing that could be done as sad as it was

so she called hongjoong back about when the best time to come look at the pink palace would be

and the rest is history

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fanfoolishness · 3 years

Text

Interview with a Fic Writer

Tagged by @novantinuum, thank you!

How many works do you have on AO3?

242 works. The actual fuck??? Wow, me. Of course, this does span about 9 years, so I guess that's not that insane?

What’s your total word count on AO3

549,737! But that averages out to only 2271 words per story, haha. You got me! I think I have less than 10 fics that have more than 1 chapter. I love one-shots, what can I say?

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Oh, you want to get into this? All right. We'll get into this:

The X-Files, proto-fandom, ur-fandom, first OTP ever... yeah, 15-year-old me went. WILD. Many horrible Mulder/Scully stories, and some Doggett/Scully and character study stories as well. Mostly not very good, but with occasional flashes of decent writing. Really had a difficult time writing romantic feelings between 30+ year-olds given a) I did not date in high school and b) was 17 and not an emotionally stunted FBI agent.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - not a huge volume of stories, but definitely some very angsty Spuffy and Spike tales.

Harry Potter - just one published fic (Lupin grieving Sirius), and one with Snape and Harry having a heart to heart I could never quite get right.

Then came the dark times (vet school) where I was exhausted and hard at work for a few years and I thought, horribly, I might have outgrown fandom. Thank god for...

X-Men First Class and the undying love of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr! I'd never fallen for a slash ship before but my god I fell hard for this one and wrote my first fandom smut and my first real AU (mutants with zombies) that I never finished.

Then.... let's see...

Quantum Leap drabbles!

Two Avatar the Last Airbender fics!

Agents of SHIELD fics, mostly focused on Coulson and FitzSimmons, and super angsty.

Bioshock Infinite sads (god I love writing the sad bad dad)!

And then the juggernauts of Mass Effect (my longest fic to date with 30 chapters!) and Dragon Age, which were endlessly productive and are still productive given the variety of different protagonists you can create, different choices, and different relationships to canon characters. I'm still working on a Hawke/Varric fic in the back of my mind here.

There's one random Gravity Falls fic (wish I could have got a little more obsessed with it, or gotten into it while it aired) of Stan sads, and one tiny Avengers ficlet of a sad Tony and Peter.

There's one Wheel of Time fic! Dammit I wanted Rand and Tam to reunite so much sooner than they did.

40-odd Steven Universe fics! So many SU fics!

One random Schitt's Creek fic of David and Patrick!

And finally, The Mandalorian, with 47 fics. Phew!!!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. The Invitation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin finds himself in dreams that seem realer than real, reminding him of his loss, but he begins to find a sense of hope again. A promise is kept.

2. The Outstretched Hand, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin is a man of action, but sometimes, the quiet finds its way in. Din reckons with the aftermath of the events of Chapter 14, the Tragedy. (My very first Mando fic!)

3. Not the Sentimental Type, Steven Universe. Priyanka Maheswaran has long prided herself on keeping her emotions in check. But a mother's love can only grow, and sometimes it expands to people she never anticipated. Like the Universe boy.

4. Translation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin was a man of few words, but many languages. Some might have thought the Child had no language at all. Din Djarin and the Child grow to understand each other.

5. Full Disclosure, Steven Universe. Just as the world begins to recover from Spinel's attack, Steven starts having nightmares. The more he ignores his fears, the worse they become, until he's left with no other choice but to ask for help. (My thoughts on what would drive Steven Universe Future, and I wasn't far off.)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I really try to! Even sometimes years later if I realize I've missed some. I appreciate each and every one, and have definitely made friendships through comments <3

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, hell... I'm too lazy to link these but if anyone wants to read them let me know or find them on my AO3!

A Stopped Clock from Bioshock Infinite has Booker DeWitt ravaged by Korsakoff's amnesia from his long-standing alcoholism. Is Columbia real or imagined? Hard to say.

The Viscount's Way shows Varric Tethras having become his parent, and a cruel, hard viscount of Kirkwall.

Songs in the Key of Red shows how Cullen fared under the dark future in Redcliffe in DAI, and they write happy endings, don't they? shows what happened to Varric. Both horribly depressing in different ways!

Two by Two, Hands of Blue shows a not unexpected end to lyrium addiction :( Poor Cullen, he got a lot of angsty developments, didn't he?

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever written?

Never really got into crossovers or AUs. Just... meh for me!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, I don't think so.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Charles/Erik, Shepard/Garrus, Shepard/Liara, Shepard/Tali, a mess of different f/f femShep drabbles, and most of my Dragon Age pairings have gotten sexytimes. On the other hand I helped start the NoRomo Mando tag for the Mandalorian to help find non-pairing Mandalorian content. Depends on the pairing and the fandom, for sure.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope, thank goodness!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so! There used to be a Spanish-language wiki linking to some of my old X-Files stories XD

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but friends and I definitely will beta each others' things to help with sticky points.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

ALL-TIME? Just, why? So many ships I loved in years past turned out to have pretty damn problematic elements I didn't see at the time, so it's hard to say... Mulder/Scully actually has a ton of issues, Buffy/Spike obviously has issues... so maybe Hawke/Varric (except not canon!) or Garrus/Shepard or Brosca/Alistair.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Still need to finish my Hawke/Varric fic for after Adamant! I have 3 chapters written that I haven't posted. Maybe posting them will help inspire me....

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and POV writing from different characters; I feel fantastic writing Steven and Greg, though totally at sea trying to write from Connie's POV, randomly. But I think my dialogue and emotional beats are what people tend to tune in for. When I do write romance, it's usually very sweet and silly and pulled from life. I also love writing nature scenes and settings to help establish mood. Mood and emotion and catharsis are my bread and butter, and I like my poetic prose.

What are your writing weaknesses?

What the hell is a long, well-thought-out plot? Like what even is that???? My longest fic with 30 chapters is basically "Shepard has PTSD and hangs out with her crew. They have some funerals." THAT'S IT. How the heck people actually come up with plot that ties into the lore of a fandom I genuinely have no idea and it's the biggest thing that's held me back from finishing original work. I can come up with a setting and characters and then trying to make them do stuff that's more than just talking to other characters and deepening their relationships with them... how the fuck???

I also definitely have 10-20 words that I am in constant danger of reusing like every other paragraph, LOL!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't speak any other languages so I always avoid it as much as possible. I've seen people describe sign differently in fics and picked one way to depict it that made sense to me for Grogu, but that's about it.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files, of course!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Towards Another Day, the tale of how Cullen went from being a templar in Kirkwall to commander of the Inquisition, is definitely up there.

Reverberations is one of my rare multi-chaptered fics and one of my favorite for the catharsis at the end. It makes me tear up every time. 5 times Din and Grogu encounter the Dark Side, and one time they find the Light.

Either a world for the birds (Steven develops a closer relationship with his Uncle Andy, learning birdwatching along the way) or on the subject of rocks (Steven and Jasper finally reach a peace) might take the prize for favorite SU fic.

Tagging (if you’re super bored and would like a fun thing to do) fellow writers:

@lastwordbeforetheend, @runrundoyourstuff, @honestlyhufflepuff, @art3mys, and @fake-starwars-fan if you would like to play!

#fandom #writing #on writing #fanfiction #damn look at me go #memes

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lys-lilac · 3 years

Text

The Realization of Importance

Part (3/3)

Let’s end it.

A/N: This is to say that all the characters and the main story line belong to Voltage Inc. Only the fictional story is a work of mine, as well the fictional characters, Hana, Touma and Akari. Also this story is based on dream event, because I had this as a dream many days ago. It might be a little different from the usual genre, a little more angsty, so this little girl wants to know your honest opinions about the work. Be honest and do let me know what you think. But, if it feels a little bit dreamy or weird, you can discontinue reading from here.

Part 1 II Part 2

Part 3/3

Hana: ?!

Standing behind me was none other the man I loved the most, Kasumi. But, why is he here? His face is looking as cool as a cucumber. And, is he smiling? I hurriedly get up from my seat.

Hana: Kas- Err, I mean Chief Kasumi! What are you doing here?

Kasumi: Listening to your conversation.

Hana: ...I- Well, I am not MC.

Turning my head where I put the hairpin to his side, I show him my ‘recognition symbol’ or whatever.

Hana: I am Hana, the new resident.

Kasumi: I know that.

Hana: ?

Why? Just as I am trying to focus on my work, why does he drop such lines? What work has he with me? I rack my brains for a possibility.

Hana: Oh, are you here to talk with Touma?

Tucking on my white coat and holding me like a scared child, Touma slowly ducks his head to the side. I knew that Kasumi loved children, like he played pictionary with Sora that time. So I decide to give it a try.

Hana: Touma, he is the head of EICU, Dr. Kasumi. You can talk to him. He really is good person. Oh yeah, we might play pictionary together!

Kasumi: ...

Probably not expecting the response, Kasumi’s eyes go wide. Did I say something wrong? Wait, don’t say me... This event has already happened here already. If that’s the case, I might be in knee deep water right now.

Hana: I thought that Touma might like to draw, since he is good at gardening and sightseeing, so I asked. That’s it.

Kasumi: Touma, I know you can do it. And as she said, we can play pictionary anytime you want. But, I have a request to make.

Touma: What is it?

Kasumi: Can I accompany you to the visit to your garden?

Hana: What?!

Okay. I seriously need to check my mental health now. Am I really in my senses? What in the world did I hear just now?

Hana: But, we shouldn’t trouble you. After all, your schedules might be packed. And what about Dr. MC?

Kasumi: She has a lot of study to do. Besides, I want to see how this resident handles the case.

So it was just as a mentor... I see. Although I would have felt pangs in my heart at this time, I feel relieved, although I don’t know why.

Touma: I would be happy to!

After finishing our drinks, I drop Touma to his bed, and go towards the CSD (Cardiovascular Surgery Department). But, Dr. Kasumi is following me. I was sure that was not the case at first, as both CSD and EICU were in the same direction. But, instead of turning to the opposite side in the fork, he turns in my direction. WHAT IS GOING ON?! Oh god, stop, my heart...

Hana: Dr. Kasumi, I need to ask something. Do you have any work at the CSD? I can help you out with the menial tasks, if you ask.

Kasumi: ...

The silent intimidation! His dark prince cape never slides from him!

Kasumi: I need you to meet me in the outside in the evening. I have something to discuss with you.

...aand, there he goes, not listening to me. And, why the heck is he calling me to join him in the evening? The more I try to clear out my mind, the more it becomes tangled with his words. Guess I have no choice left. Maybe it’s something related to Touma?

Hana: ...Alright.

[Evening: Seimei Medical University Porch]

As I am sitting on the bench after completing the post OP rounds of some patients, a chilled can of coffee hits my cheek.

Kasumi: Here.

Holding two cans of coffee in his hands, he gives me one, and takes a seat beside me. Surprisingly, it’s my favorite flavor, mocha.

Hana: So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?

Kasumi: ...

Gazing at the children playing at a distance, he remains silent.

Hana: Dr. Kasumi, I am not a psychic that I can read your mind by telepathy. You have got to say something.

This time also, the response is nothing. Giving up, I look up at the sky, which is painted with a hue of orange and yellow. Gradually, the Sun sets, leaving a pinkish violet band spread in the horizon.

Hana: Look, Dr. Kasumi, the Belt of Venus! Now, you have to say the reas-

What leaves my mouth leaves me surprised. Clasping my mouth with my hand in order to shut it, I slowly move my fingers around the coffee can.

Kasumi: MC.

Hana: Dr. MC? What happened to her? Is she busy today?

Kasumi: You are MC, right? And that name ‘Hana’ is just a false one. Am I wrong?

Hana: You are getting it all wrong, Dr. Kasumi. Look at this hairpin, I am the new resident, not MC...

Kasumi: And what if I say that the hairpin you are wearing is the one you bought when you went to the zoo with me?

I can’t even dare to say a word. What exactly am I supposed to say? That “I am MC, I don’t know what’s going on here” ? I try to push another excuse.

Hana: This hairpin is common here! I think that Dr. MC may also have one at her home. Look, Dr. Kasumi, you might need some rest as you may be overexerting yourself. I will go and inform Dr. Kyogoku, okay?

As I get up from the bench, a sudden grab of my arm makes me stop.

Hana: ?

Kasumi: At least let me justify why I think of you as the MC.

Why those pure eyes? Was his pull not enough? Those eyes are my weakness, and I can’t resist his words.

Hana: Ok, I will listen to you.

Kasumi: Until yesterday, I was unsure myself that which one of you was my MC. The way you said that you are a new resident, all of us had no choice but to believe it as the truth. But when I saw you talking with Touma, that made me clear of your identity. Because my MC is a little childish, likes to get acquainted with patients, and...

Hana: and?

Kasumi: No wonder where you are, I can always recognize you.

His fingers intertwine with mine, and as I am about to reply, Kyogoku comes from the building.

Kyogoku: Kasumi, we have got hold of her true identity.

Without any delay and without loosening his hand, he drags me with him, and we all leave for the EICU. My mind which had turned to mess after all the things he said, was not working at all, so I stay silent to know the truth.

[Evening: Seimei University EICU]

There was she, Dr. MC. All the other doctors were also there. But, why were people from Metro Police Department standing there? And that to, handcuffing her? What the heck was going on while I was outside? Just as I was thinking, a police speaks up.

Police 1: Finally, this miscreant got caught.

Police 2: We are sorry for all the trouble she caused. We will make sure she gets the ‘reward’ for what she had done.

Police 3: Thank you for the help doctors! No wonder you all are jewels! Now, give us the permission to leave.

What the WHAT?! No one was in shock as me. She, A MISCREANT? So, inso and dreaming were not the reason?

Hosho: I am glad to see our MC back!

Takado: Oh, and how foolish of us to think that the silent impostor was this idiot. Never in life.

Ekuni: She didn’t even falter when we threw jokes on her.

Matsunaga: And here I thought, we are going to get two talented doctors... Although I am happy that you are the only precious girl of the EICU.

Kyogoku: Butthead, now you know who you are right?

{A/N: Now, Hana is the actual MC, so no need to use the fake name, otherwise who knows what will Kasumi think of me... ^^;)

MC: God, can anyone please explain what is going on... I might just pass out from the overdose of information.

Kyogoku: Apparently, she was a die-hard fan of Kasumi, or whatever it may be, and was super jealous of you. So she arranged all of this. Went through a plastic surgery to look exactly like you, changed your documents by adding a false name, just to take your place.

MC: Then, how you all figured it out?

Hosho: It was Kasumi who first told us that something was weird.

Takado: That how the office, which is a place of damn banters, was as silent as the sea. Although it was peaceful, it felt wrong.

Ekuni: She didn’t know her own schedule of scrub ins, and didn’t lash us out.

Matsunaga: And most importantly, I was not satisfied her response when I asked her to join me during breaks.

Kasumi: We all are aware of your behavior and your nature, so it was not long till we figured it out.

Kasumi: MC?

Ha... haha, my life. I will not hesitate to say that it is more intense than what happens in mangas. One can do this much only for jealousy?

MC: Thank god, thank god you all remember me. Here I thought I was in a parallel world and no one recognised me.

The doctors could sometimes lead me to release smoke from my ears out of fury, but nonetheless, they cared for me, and that’s what of value to me the most.

[Some days later: Touma’s garden]

{A/N: Again, a random picture}

Touma’s surgery is a success. On the day of the surgery, Kasumi volunteered to accompany me in it, as his schedule was open for the morning. The good thing is that he can still walk and talk, although now in wheelchair for some days of recovery. Me and Kasumi, to fulfill our promise to Touma, were leaded to Touma’s garden on the day we paid a home visit to him.

Can I say that the place is paradise? Tulips, lilies, hydrangeas, pansies, daffodils and all the varieties are lined in rows. Adjoining to it is the fruit garden, and beside it is the vegetable one. Huh, did I even know how to plant a sapling when I was of his age? Answer: no.

As I was appreciating the beauty sitting on the cool grass, a small flower is tucked into my hair. It is a Syringa Vulgaris. In other words, a small lilac.

Touma: This looks pretty on you.

MC: Oh, thank you Touma.

But, just after that, a flower crown is placed on my head.

Kasumi: And I think this looks even prettier.

MC: ...

My cheeks flare up crimson. Aww, just how cute are these two, adoring me like that! I can just float in the sky out of happiness,

MC: Thank you.

MC: Oh, but I wanted to ask something.

Kasumi: Sure.

MC: If you realized that I was the original piece, then why didn’t you recognize me in the office?

Kasumi: That’s because the other you submitted your reports just before you came. Did you notice that when you were about to submit the papers in your hand, it was not the original but only blank papers?

MC: ...No! Now that I think about it, I was so heartbroken at that time, that I didn’t even glance at it. And probably, she might have done it when I was in post OP rounds, and my documents were all laying on the table. Ah, the headache I felt there might be due to her making me unconscious using chloroform, because I found myself in the closet. God! And here I was thinking that I fainted due to overwork!! That chick, grrr...

Kasumi: Pfft, as expected.

MC: Don’t laugh at me! Well, how did you find the clue then? Even I was confused of my own identity. Didn’t your thoughts waver?

Kasumi: I got the first hint by the hairpin you had. I was pretty sure that it was the same one that you bought when we went to the zoo, and that you always kept it in your bag. But when I asked the other you about this, she just made excuses that she had left it at home. Further, you mentioned about Sora and also exclaimed when the Belt of Venus appeared, so my confirmation was strengthened.

MC: A prodigy you are, aren’t you?

Kasumi: No.

MC: Huh?

Kasumi: No matter which different identity you own, or wherever you may be, I can always recognize you, because you are the most important person to me in my life.

Seeing my blank face, he chuckles and a soft touch lands on my lips, like a feather fluttering on my skin.

MC: The same goes for me too. I can always recognize you anywhere, because you are the one I love the most.

As I see the dandelions dancing in the wind, the flowers, fruits and vegetables bathed with sunlight, and the smile of Kasumi, which I yearn the most, I realize something. That I am important to him and so is Kasumi to me. No matter whatever may come, I will always stay by his side, and support him with all my heart.

END.

{Author’s trivia: I actually woke up just after the scene where Kasumi realizes that she is his MC. So, I just added the after plot, to complete it.}

That’s it! I am telling you, I was myself feeling butterflies when writing the end part. So I am sure, the story will appeal you just like it appealed to me. Pure nature of Kasumi, dipped in honey felt words. But gahh, it felt so dramatic, the police and all... Let me know what you think. If any requests, feel free to drop it in the suggestion bowl. Have a good day ahead, and give your best everyday, just like our dark prince!

~Lys

#romance md #romance md: always on call #rmd #toshiki kasumi #kasumi toshiki #sentaro kyogoku #munechika takado #tetsuya hosho #kaede ekuni #eiichi matsunaga #voltage inc #love 365 #100恋+#100シーンの恋+#hana #touma #akari #fictional work #lys's writings

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ickle-ronniekins · 3 years

Text

thank you for the tag my lovely friend @wand3ringr0s3. this looks like fun! :)

Which of your fics…

…did you think would get a bigger reaction/audience than it got?

tongue tied with my freddie boy.. it did get a big reaction, but i have other fics that got bigger reactions than this and it’s surprised me.

…got a better reaction than you expected?

silent confessions, i believe, is my most popular fic at the moment. i’m happy that i was able to include both fred and george in this while ultimately it is a george x reader fic. normally i find that fred x reader stories do better overall, so i was super excited to see all the love that george got for this one!

…is your funniest?

i honestly dunno if i have a funny fic? i don’t necessarily find myself to be a good writer when it comes to writing comedy. the one i think of when i think of being ‘funny’ is the fake dating story, breaking the rules, with fred. i do quite like the way i established their friendship and i enjoyed writing their sarcastic banter with one another! though i don’t necessarily know if it’s funny, lol.

…is your darkest/angstiest?

FOR SURE it’s forgiveness, i mean the entire idea of the reader being engaged to fred before he dies, and then feeling immense, heart-wrenching guilt when she falls for george after they take solace in the fact that they have one another to lean on is just really dark and confusing. it was very difficult to navigate in order to make it a storyline people would be able to accept. i was very afraid everyone would be like “she’s just sleeping with his brother because she can’t have him!” but i really wanted to establish the baseline of their friendship and how through coping with fred’s death and their own feelings, they rediscovered one another in a different way and ultimately fell in love. there were a lot of dark themes within it -- of course, fred’s death being the main factor. there was anxiety, depression, detachment, lust....just a whole lot of angsty things in there.

…is your absolute favorite?

that’s really difficult -- for a while it was forgiveness, and then after that it was silent confessions, i think partially because i did get such an overwhelming amount of love on the both of them. however, when i think about it, the one i come back to time and time again is the my absolute favorite person series with george, a three part series where the reader and george are in love with one another since very young ages but never admit it to one another and ultimately end up with other people. it took me a really long time to write, especially because there were so many intricate details i wanted in there that needed to ultimately match up in order to give the story that extra bit of emotion. by far my favorite. ever. i’m really happy with the way my writing, plot structure, relationships and character development ended up with that story.

…is your least favorite?

oh my god there are too many to choose from honestly? LOL. honestly any of my old ones from my first masterlist... they were just rubbish. i don’t even know how else to describe them, quite honestly. i don’t even want to link any because i’m so embarrassed HAHA. pls don’t go to my masterlist and read the old ones. pls just don’t. i cringe.

…was the easiest to write?

the switch with fred! i thought it was going to be difficult, having to differentiate in my writing that fred and george were pretending to be one another, but i actually thought it flowed quite nicely. i’m happy with how it turned out, and the prompt was so cute! it’s definitely one of my favorites, i think.

…was the hardest to write?

OH MY GOD. the easiest question. both of my george soulmate aus proved so difficult to write. the first one was clarity which was a soulmate au involving journals and writing back and forth with your soulmate but being unable to reveal your identity due to the war. i was so worried people were going to think it was a stupid idea and i legitimately rewrote the ending like six different times, it took me a solid week to write or something. insane. and my most recent george soulmate au, the one i was meant to find, was super difficult to write in the sense that there were a lot of details i needed to pay very close attention to in order for the story to unfold the way i wanted it too. also rewrote this ending like ten different times. i couldn’t decide whether i wanted the reader to leave with george when they peaced outta hogwarts, or reunited with him years later. SO DIFFICULT JREOHGLIEKSD UGH

…has your favorite line/exchange/paragraph? (share it)

there’s actually a lot of small things throughout my stories that i’m pleased with, and it’s difficult to pick just one. but there are a few paragraphs from one story in particular that come to mind. it’s a pretty big part, so i’ll cut it down a bit. writing forgiveness was a process, and one i’m thankful for. i was very pleased with the way i was able to incorporate their past into the present and have it tie their relationship together. my favorite little bit from it has to be this part:

“He felt nerves like he’d never felt in his life, but he didn’t let on. He didn’t want you to see, because you didn’t know. Nobody did. Nobody knew that George had been madly in love with you since before you and Fred had gotten together. Not even Fred knew. And being the gentleman that he is, George never said a word to his twin, or to anyone, when you two began dating. And when you’d decided to move in together, he helped you unpack things in your new home with his brother. And when you and Fred ran to him to tell him you were engaged, he swallowed his pride and held you both in his arms, ready to celebrate. And when Fred died, George promised himself he’d do everything in his power to keep his brother’s fiancé happy and safe. So, if you wanted him to stay now, he shouldn’t feel guilty about that, right?” oof

…have you re-read the most?

okay, i am kind of embarrassed to admit that i do reread my writing, but it’s for the purpose of weeding out structure that i like, that i dislike, writing styles i’d like to try again or that i’d like to avoid, specific phrases i’d like to save for the future, phrases i definitely don’t want to use again, things of the like. i’ve probably reread my absolute favorite person the most, because i’m proud of the intricate details of the interwoven underlying plots and themes i was able to incorporate and i feel my writing is very strong there.

…would you recommend to someone reading your work for the first time?

AHHHHHH THIS IS SO HARD. i’m going to do what haley did and break it down by category. i don’t write smut, just FYI! but stories marked with an * have a lil bit of ~heat~ to them

angst - can’t help falling in love with you [george], wildflowers [fred series], forgiveness [fred/george], empty [fred/george], on rainy days [george]

fluff - sunkissed* [george], temptations [george], chemical reaction [george], the riot* [fred], tangled up [fred], placing bets [george], in every lifetime [fred], cosmic destiny [fred]

tagging all of my lovelies! @theweasleysredhair @harrysweasleys @starlightweasley @valwritesx @pit-and-the-pen @writesowhatnext and i’m blanking because i totally suck but anyone else who wants to do this!

#shameless self promotion #erica blogs #fic recs

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relishredshoes · 3 years

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Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello Lariope and welcome to Behind the Quill, it is a pleasure to talk with you.

Many of our group’s members requested you as an interview subject, but amongst more than a dozen stories in the HP universe you are probably best known for Killing Time, Second Life, and Advanced Contemporary Potion Making.

Okay, let’s jump right in. What's the story behind your pen name?

So, there's a really common plant in my area called Monkey Grass. Most people use it as landscaping filler. I thought it was pretty and asked someone who had some what it was called. She told me that it's technical name is Liriope, which I heard as Lariope. This was around the time that book 6 was released, and it struck me as a very witchy name, particularly as JKR likes flower names. Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most? Wow. Probably Neville. I'm certainly not as brainy or as confident as Hermione, not as out-there as Luna, not as athletic as Ginny. I'm less angsty than Harry and less apt to charge off in my own direction. And I am certainly not as thoughtless as Ron, not as strict as McGonagall, not as dark as Snape. And if you've read Second Life, you know my feelings about Dumbledore! But I was someone who took some time to come into my own. Often bumbling or nervous, but when my back is to the wall, brave and honorable. So I'm going with Neville. Do you have a favourite genre to read? (not in fic, just in general)

I love fiction, but honestly, other than Harry Potter, I don't read fantasy! I tend to like "domestic" fiction, as in Anne Tyler, and literary fiction. I also really love Stephen King, oddly enough. Do you have a favourite "classic" novel?

By classic do you mean like, the literary canon, or just not fanfiction? My top five favorite novels are, in no particular order, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, It by Stephen King, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, The Temple of Gold by William Goldman, and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I'm not big into the classics, which is weird for an English major to say. At what age did you start writing?

I've been writing all my life. The first time I saw Stand by Me at 11 years old, I rewrote it with a new ending because I could not bear the death of Chris Chambers. I think I've always been interested in working with other people's texts. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I loved Harry Potter so intensely. I came to it as an adult at a particularly lonely time in my life. When book 6 was released I read it all in one gulp, and then felt kind of despondent when it was over. I thought of the good old rule of the internet, that if it exists, there is porn of it, so I went looking for what I called "Potterotica," figuring that it would give me an opportunity to read more about the characters I loved. I didn't yet have a concept of fanfiction, let alone fanfiction that wasn't erotica! As I read, I had the persistent feeling that I hadn't yet found exactly the story I was looking for. I kept feeling that I would do this or that differently. Then after the release of book 7, I was tormented by the fate of Snape. I really felt I needed to save him. That I couldn't relax until he'd had some love in his life before his death. I didn't have the sense yet that I could change his fate, only that I needed him to have happiness and love before he died. I have a Master's Degree in fiction writing, so I decided to just give it a try. My first story was terrible!!! It was called If Memory Serves and was archived only on the Restricted Section. But it definitely forced me to reawaken some skills, and whetted my appetite. What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works?

Hm. I'm not sure how to answer this question. I know that one of the things that I respond most strongly to in fic is a feeling of inevitability--that regardless of how or when, these characters had unfinished business with each other. I hate to use the word destined... but that feeling that there were many points in canon where something minor could have changed which would have changed everything and brought two characters together--and that that could have happened at any point, in any number of ways. I like very much when canon is reimagined or reinterpreted to make that relationship deeper--like reimagining the scene where Snape insults Hermione's teeth to have a totally different meaning in the context of their relationship. I think I am remembering Somigliana's The Traveller being particularly gratifying in that way. Obviously I play with canon a lot in my own work. I like for fanfiction to feel "real" as in, possible in a canonical context. What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter?

Almost none! I've been fannish all my life, but Harry Potter was the first experience I ever had of "fandoms," that is to say, community built around a narrative. I usually just freaked out over things in private. After HP, I tried very hard to get into the Sherlock fandom, because I had a dear friend from the SS/HG community who was into it, but in the end, I could just never become invested in quite the way I had with Harry Potter. Subsequently, I had children, so I mostly support their fannishness now. If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon?

I wish Snape could live. I really do. He had a lot left to learn and a lot left to give to the world beyond the sacrifice of his own life to the cause. There are certain things I have ultimately accepted as head canon, as far as pieces of fanon are concerned. Honestly, they are so ingrained that I'm having trouble thinking of any! Sometimes when I watch the movies with my kids, I think, but wait, what about?... oh yeah, I forgot that wasn't canon. Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet?

I need dead silence to compose, because I hear the words in my head as I write and I can't be distracted from them. But I often pick pieces of music that I listen to obsessively in my downtime when I'm writing a story, that I think of as sort of like theme songs. Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova was one for Second Life. Table for Glasses by Jimmy Eat World still calls up Dark Santiago for me. What are your favourite fanfictions of all time?

Oooh. Ok. So I read a lot of Drarry, and I pretty much love everything that Sara's Girl has ever written. Somigliana's work--the Traveller was amazing. All the Best and Brightest Creatures by Wordstrings (Sherlock). I also really loved greywash's Sherlock fic. There was an SSHG that has been long since removed that was called Dear January--I still think of it. I loved all the epics of my particular time in the SSHG fandom. Mia Madwyn, Subversa, Loten. Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process?

Definitely a plotter. I kept pages and pages of working notes and planning points as I was writing Second Life. I always began a chapter with a working document of where I thought the chapter was going, as well as a reread of that portion of canon. Points of discovery along the way still happened all the time--I'd be in the midst of something I had planned when all of a sudden I'd see some point of connection I hadn't even thought of, and something would open up bigger than I had thought it would be. I remember in particular the end of the Bathilda Bagshot chapter of Second Life, when Snape is running toward James and Lily's house and feeling like time is doubling back on itself--I didn't see that parallel until I was in it. I think you always have to have room to surprise yourself, even in the thick of your planning. That sense of discovery affects the reader's journey through your work. What is your writing genre of choice?

Haha, fanfiction is my writing genre of choice. No, I wrote short stories when I was pursuing my degree in fiction, which is kind of hilarious now, as I became sort of known for my long-windedness. Why say 100 words when 10,000 would do? I grew to love the novel during my time in fanfiction. It would be hard to imagine turning back to a shorter form now. But who knows. I always tell myself that once the children are grown I will get back to writing. I was beginning a sort of cross between fantasy and domestic fiction when I had children and I still think the idea has legs. Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why?

Oh, different ones for different reasons. I think Dark Santiago is the most structurally tight and sound thing I've ever done. Second Life is like a miracle that it even happened, that I was able to control such a behemoth and bring it home. I was terrified the whole way. And weirdly, there's a drabble series that is called The Sins of Severus Snape that I am still really proud of. I think of those like linked poems. A real exercise in being concise for someone who likes to sprawl all over the page. Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it?

I think I've pretty much covered those questions in all my ramblings. I knew the general structure, I was happily surprised along the way, and I learned to write novels from writing fanfiction, Second Life in particular. How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write?

There's not a lot of personal parts of the story to me in Second Life. I mean, every character is drawn from me, in a way, just because they come into being informed with my way of looking at and understanding the world and other people. But there isn't a lot in there that echoes my experience. Advanced Contemporary Potion Making was personal, and I think you can feel that in the story. It takes the biggest step away from canon. It wasn't hard to write, but it was hard to live. And now, as I look back, I have a different perspective on my life and on the story itself than I did at the time that I wrote it. What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing?

Oh man, Stephen King is all over my writing. I don't think I've ever written a sex scene that didn't have a grain of that scene in the sewers of It inside it. Not because of the child thing--I know that skeeves people out about that scene--but because in it, Beverly discovers the power of sex--sex as a force, a life-giving force, something with teeth. I think that idea shows up a lot in Second Life. I like fiction in which you are very much inside the character's heads, and I think that's apparent in my writing. I think I got that initially from Stephen King, who leaps around inside his different character's heads sometimes in the same paragraph! I also think the theme of unending loyalty, the power of friendship, the triumph of good over evil--those are very Kingian themes that I recognized in Potter and then carried into my own writing. Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction?

Yes. That wasn't always the case. During the time that I was active in the fandom, I was a young elementary school teacher, and I dreaded anyone finding out that I wrote sex scenes with children's book characters. I was very private about my fanfic then, and even a few of my closest real life people did not know. My parents still do not know. My children are teenagers now and into fanfiction in their own right; they know I wrote it, but they don't know my ship or my pen name. My husband has read most of Second Life. I recently started a new job, and during one of those "get to know you" games, I was asked to share something that other people wouldn't guess about me. I said that I had once been a fanfiction writer. How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"?

Mmm. I wrote the stories I wanted to read. Do you know what I mean? I wrote things because that's how I wanted to see them, how I wished they were, and I wrote to my own preferences. But writing in real time, for people who were actually reading and responding--that was crucial to the process. My biggest fear during the writing of Second Life was that I wouldn't finish it, or that I would lose control of it and it would become crap. "Breaking the story," I used to say, and I was terrified of breaking the story. But the fact that there were people experiencing it with me and waiting for it, reacting to it, and giving insightful feedback--that helped keep me very focused and motivated. I never wrote something because I thought it would be appealing to others, but I was so gratified that what I wrote did appeal to others. How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media?

I had a LiveJournal and although I was not a frequent poster, I read my friends list every day during that time. I read what everyone else was reading and talked about the stories and themes that everyone else was talking about. I made a number very close friends during that time--other authors, people who were reading my stories and commenting. We talked on the phone frequently, and I had a team of beta readers. I went to conventions. I participated in the ss/hg exchange. A lot of those people were my audience, were reading my stories. And many of them became my good friends. I had a policy to answer all reviews when I was writing Second Life, and I did that until I was unable to do it anymore. When I had multiple stories it got much harder. That community changed a lot toward the end of my time in it. People were leaving LiveJournal, and Tumblr was on the rise, which felt like a much bigger pond. AO3 was replacing the smaller archives on which I had really grown as a writer. And once the movies were over and there was no more "fresh canon," people started to drift away. I do think that I might have lasted longer if that tight knit community had stayed in place. It played a big role in my commitment to my work and continued enthusiasm. As a side note, one of the friends I made in the SS/HG community is still my best friend. She is the "aunt" to my children, and we still talk on the phone weekly and visit at least yearly. What is the best advice you've received about writing?

If you want to write, then write. Make a routine. Write a certain number of words a day. Read them out loud to yourself. You'll hear your own bad habits and improve them.

What do you do when you hit writer's block?

If I'm already in a project, I will force myself to write a certain number of words per day. I will hold a scene that I'm longing to write out in front of myself like a carrot. Like, if you write this transition part that feels yucky and like you are stuck in it, then you can write the big reunion scene that you know is coming. If I'm not in a project... well, then I don't get through it. I just don't start a new project. If I need to write a story, as I did during graduate school or during the ss/hg exchange--I would do this thing one of my professors suggested--pick three headlines, words or ideas that have interested you over time and force them into the same story. Dark Santiago was that way. I had the prompt of fortune telling. I added an idea about the way magic works for muggleborns and the ocean town where I was living. Voila: Dark Santiago. Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing?

I'm sure it has in ways I can't even see. I remember once talking to a friend on the phone about Second Life as I was writing it, and she pointed out that the fact that I'm a Quaker was informing the story--like my own perspective on war and the horrors of violence were bleeding into the the kind of philosophy of Second Life. Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser?

I don't. I wish I did! I often miss my time in fandom, the spirit of creativity and community, all those ideas just bubbling out in every direction. Any words of encouragement to other writers?

I don't believe that the end goal of fanfiction is to become a published writer, just as I don't think every guitarist has to have the goal of selling out a stadium, or every golfer has to want to compete in the Masters. I think you can love a thing without making it your livelihood. You become a "real" author the minute someone else reads a story that you wrote. Many of you reading this right now are people who made me an author. It is, as Stephen King once wrote, a kind of telepathy. I thought of something once, in 2008, in the southeast of the US, and you can read it right now wherever you are, and experience the thoughts and feelings I was dreaming up then. It's a wonderful gift, writing. And working among people who are dedicated to improving their craft and talking about stories and ideas--that is just the very best ground for making something that makes YOU proud. Thanks so much for giving us your time.

Thank you! I am really honored to be asked

#fanfiction #fanfic #ss/hg #snamione #writing

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pies-writes-and-more · 3 years

Text

catch in the dark

Word Count: 1,879

Warnings: angsty feels, unrequited love, an ending that might hurt you a bit, mentions of characters drinking alcohol - all assumed to be of legal age!

Pairing: Sugawara Koushi x Fem!Reader

A/N: as usual because they’re amazing, thank you to @satan-ruler-of-hells and @thisnoodlewritesao3 for reading this for me before and letting me know your thoughts! I appreciate you both so very much <3 Also, I’m sorry for the sad feels guy haha that’s just how we’re feeling today. Inspired by: Catch in the Dark by Passenger

Haikyuu Masterlist

Your name flashed on Sugawara’s phone screen and he immediately gave a small smile. He wished he could hear from you more often, but that smile slowly turned sad, because he knew that you only called him when you were broken.

“Are you alright?” He asked softly after hearing your small “Hi” from the other end.

There was a pause but you just sighed and your voice weakly got out, “I know you’ve got work soon. But can you leave your front door open again?”

He told you okay, because it was okay. This had happened a few times before and he always wanted to be there for you. But he hated that this was the only time he would see you. When your heart was at its lowest, your eyes fragile, dull, no more sparkle that he used to see.

Suga closed his front door, leaving it unlocked just as you asked. And as he walked his way to work, he wondered if he really was as dumb as everyone thought. Everyone always told him that his love for you was toxic, that it wasn’t a good friendship to only be called when you needed him to console you. But wasn’t that what friends were for?

It was his fault for falling for you anyways. For letting you run away with his heart and disappear with it, only to get your own broken and return to him.

By the time he got home, you were on his couch, curled up in some old pjs you kept at his place and a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. Your eyes focused on the old reruns playing on the TV, barely even noticing him come in.

“Are you alright?” He asked, the words feeling like a mantra - something that was always repeated when he saw you.

“I wish I knew what it was like to be hopeful,” you told him softly and Suga could tell that you’d been crying. Your voice crackled with tears and heartbreak and he wanted nothing more than to wrap you up in his arms. “I’ve always been hopeless at hoping... always really bad at coping with this kind of stuff.”

Suga never knew if his words made a difference, but he pulled out some ice cream from his freezer and climbed into the couch with you, holding your hand and gently rubbing your back as you cried over and over again.

“Maybe I’m just not worth being loved,” you joked after you had finally shed your last few tears for the day. Your laugh sounded so genuine, it made Suga’s eyebrows furrow. You were laughing as if you were really joking. How was he going to tell you that you were worth ten times the love that you’ve chased? That you were the sole holder of his heart and that he would give his life just to see you smile for the rest of your days.

“Why don’t you just confess to her already?” Asahi had asked earlier today when Suga told the guys that you were back at his place.

Suga smiled sadly, looking down at the work in his hands, “She’s never wanted me. It’s always someone else.” He thought for a moment and glanced out the window as he realized how difficult it was to love you. Loving you was like playing catch in the dark, unsure of where you were and unsure if you knew he had thrown something at you. Unsure if you would ever return or if you ever would throw something back. Suga had known since the first moment he had met you that he wasn’t even in the realm of your love life. He was a tear drop in an ocean of flames.

It was Wednesday but Suga knew that it didn’t matter. He pulled out the alcohol and poured you a drink, watching you greedily swallow it down, as if the burn in your throat would make you forget the burn in your heart.

“Men suck,” you mumbled quietly after a few shots, burying your head into your arms. Your watched the liquor in the bottle swirl around as you poured yourself another shot, sighing softly.

“I know,” Suga told you gently, brushing your hair from your face so he could see your eyes. He loved your eyes. He loved how you seemed to carry the whole universe in them, how looking in them was like an adventure.

“Why don’t they ever stay? Why do men always leave?” You seethed in anger, gripping your glass just a bit too tightly. “It’s always the man that leaves.”

Suga’s words were like a broken record, words you had known far too well because it was everything that your other friends said too, “You’re perfect, Y/N. Men come and go but don’t you blame yourself. They’re just trash,” he told you softly. But maybe you would never know just how much he meant it. You were perfect to Sugawara Koushi.

You just shook your head in response, huffing, “So perfect I haven’t had a stable relationship since high school. I’m so tired of putting my heart out here and getting no where,” you grumbled, banging your head against the table with a pout. Suga winced as you hurt yourself, pulling you up from the hard surface and checking your face for any redness.

“Just got to wait for the right man,” he told you softly, holding your face in his hands and just watching your eyes. How a guy could turn you away he would never understand. He didn’t get why the men you always met up with turned out to be assholes, why you always seemed to be attracted to red flags and toxic behaviours.

“I don’t even think a right man exists,” you murmured, eyes fluttering shut as the alcohol slowly started to take its sleeping potion effect on you.

Suga gave a small smile and laughed out gently, “Probably not,” as if he wasn’t wishing he was your right man. He helped you out of the chair you were practically slipping out of, letting you lean on him while he helped you to his room.

Suga’s apartment was small and only had one bedroom, so every time you came with another broken heart, wanting to be consoled and wishing you could forget whoever you just spent your emotions on, Suga would give you his bed, tuck you into his covers, and take the floor.

Today was no different. He tucked you in, noticing how late it was getting. You were both probably going to be hungover tomorrow and he considered calling in sick for work tomorrow. He pulled his spare pillow and blanket onto the ground with him, sighing as he stared up at the ceiling.

“You’re going to have to tell her eventually,” Daichi had told him, tired of watching one of his best friends take a back seat in his romance life because of someone who only used his heart for comfort.

“If I do, I might lose her,” Suga insisted quietly. “I’d rather stay here in the darkness, waiting for the fact that she might, than lose her forever.”

He was being pathetic, Suga knew this. He shook his head clear of his drunk thoughts, wondering what would happen if he confessed to you now and blamed it on the alcohol. Then he could see how you would take it. Would you be happy? Could you have been waiting for it? Or maybe you’d ignore him from now on, avoid talking to him... your friendship was everything to him, even if he was your designated breakup friend. Even if it was only sometimes, Suga liked having you around. And he didn’t want to give that up for a maybe she likes me back.

“Suga?” You whispered, his eyes shooting over to your direction in surprise. He had thought you had fallen asleep already.

“What is it, darling?” He asked gently, shifting on his side so he could face you.

You gave him a tipsy smile, eyes closed and a slur in your words, “If we’re both single by the time we’re 40, let’s just get married okay?”

Suga’s heart hurt a little hearing those words, “Sure, love,” he told you, even linking pinkies with you when you begged for a pinky promise. He watched how happy you seemed with his promise, flopping back into his bed and mumbling something else about how men sucked. He did, Suga knew they did. But he wished he could show you that sometimes, there were a few guys out there that didn’t suck all that much.

Your promise stuck in his head all night while he tossed and turned. It didn’t matter that it was some drunk promise, Suga finally convinced himself. Because you would never want him anyways. He was used to taking a back seat, being a last resort. He was okay with it, really, he told himself as he squeezed his eyes shut to try and keep any tears at bay. He just wanted you to be happy, even if that didn’t include him.

But what if...

What if he told you he loved you? What if you gave him a teary eyed laugh and shoved his shoulder back, scoffing. What if you’d say, “Took you long enough, idiot.”

What if he kissed you, tasted what that chapstick of yours tasted like? What if he held you in his arms and promised to try and mend the broken pieces that others had left behind? What if he was the reason behind your smile, what if he got to wake up to seeing your sparkling eyes every morning, what if he got to see that face you made when you were really concentrated or when you were talking about all the things you were passionate about?

And what if you loved him back? What if you had been waiting for him to confess this whole time? What if there was a fairy tale ending to this story?

What if there was a future for you two?

All of the what if’s remained in Suga’s head from the time he closed his eyes to sleep to the time he woke up. Maybe... just maybe... it was worth to tell you because what if you two could be happy together?

Suga’s eyes blinked opened slowly as he made up his mind. He wanted to tell you how much he loved you, that it had always been you and that he wouldn’t leave you like every other guy had.

He glanced at the alarm clock glowing in his room, the one that read 5:15AM. It was now or never. He wanted to tell you.

Suga shifted to sit up, rubbing sleep from his eyes with one hand and trying to make sure his face was presentable. He was ready. If you two could be happy, it would be worth it right? He turned and reached for your arm in the bed, wanting to feel your warm skin under his fingertips.

Only for his fingers to find empty sheets instead.

“It’s always the man that leaves”, you had said. But this time, you had left him without any warning.

And just as fast as he got his hopes up, they fell.

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@al0ehas @aurumk @devilkittymusic @thisnoodlewritesao3 @satan-ruler-of-hells @trashy-simp @jeppiet @lucyheartfilias-wife @darkvadeeer @haikyuutothetop @wolfishwriting @livy384

#sugawara koushi x reader #sugawara x y/n #sugawara x you #sugawara x reader #sugawara koushi #hq sugawara #haikyuu x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#hq angst #pieswrites #sugawara angst #sugawara

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amygdalagustd · 4 years

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Ooh if you're comfortable sharing any, what are some of your favorite fanfics? (If not that's ok, I don't often share mine with people, haha)

I would love to talk about my favorite fanfics! I would definitely NOT talk about my favorite fanfics anywhere else lmao but tumblr is my oversharing space anyway 🤷‍♀️. One thing you should know though is that I like angsty fanfics (with a happy ending). I read some dark stuff. So it might not be your cup of tea, and that's okay!

Now we have that out of the way, lets talk my all time favorite fanfic that I would die for:

It's gets worse before it gets better by Captainmentalstability.

Summary:

After dying at a much too young age, Kim Namjoon is a guardian angel. Now he is faced with the prospect of saving three young lives - Kim Taehyung, Min Yoongi and Jeon Jungkook - by taking on a human form and keeping them safe. But as time goes on, he grows fonder of each of them than he ever expected to, and the line between right and wrong starts blurring little by little as he watches their relationships change.

Kim Taehyung, abused by his father from a young age.

Jeon Jungkook, used to being used and discarded.

Min Yoongi, lost and hopeless, ready for his life to end.

And the only thing Namjoon knows for sure, is that the four of them need each other.

This story. Omg. This story will never stop amazing me. It's sooooo well written. The writer is so freaking good at expressing the emotions of the characters and really making you feel them. They aproach serious themes in such a respectful and real way and I really appreciate that. personally I love this fic because I relate to some (or a lot OOPS) of it and it made me understand myself a little better. I've never read anything that evoked that many emotions in me, honestly. Sometimes I go back to it just to read that one part where that one character expresses that one thing because I have a hard time finding words for what I myself am feeling. It just feels so real and good and sjsnjekkeek yeah. I love it a lot. It made me cry. But I love it a lot.

Dark stuff aside, it's also really amazing to see all the characters bound and come together and form friendships. I came here for the angst, but I definitely stayed for the healing and growing :'). I'm so freaking overprotective over these characters okay I would consider murder if anyone came close to them. Reading this for the first time involved a lot of throwing my phone away in ANGER because they were getting hurt or making a stupid decision AGAIN but it also involved a lot of smiling at my phone because omg look at them BOUNDING and TRYING and I AM SO PROUD OF THEM. Also namjoon in this story is the wisest man on the planet and I would 100% take life advice from him. Sometimes I'm going through a rough time and I'm literally thinking "what would Guardian! Namjoon say?". I'm not kidding. This fanfic did that. I am currently rereading it so I have a lot of feelings about it as you can tell.

This story is part of a series so if you like this one you are in for a treat because there are literally 3 more.

Another amazing story is:

Home is (this house and the people in it) by Fruitily.

Summary:

"Okay,” namjoon says slowly, “you can’t just drag strangers home with you because they tell you their name.”

"we didn’t kidnap him. he is here very much of his own volition,” taehyung pipes in. he slaps at jeon jungkook’s shoulder. the boy looks sort of pained, and yoongi can’t blame him. “we met him at a street corner, near jimin’s work. it was raining, and he didn’t have an umbrella, and he was looking kind of lost, so we asked him to come with us.”

"And you just went with them? two strangers? them?” namjoon stresses, and jimin and taehyung look kind of uncertain, like they’re not sure whether they were just insulted.

Jungkook merely shrugs.

"You end up doing all kinds of shit,” he says, and yoongi perks up at the sound of his voice, “when you live out of your car.”

or: jungkook stays for a night, and then ends up staying a lot longer.

Idk if you can see the overarching theme of found family peaking through but omg I love found family stories so much. Yes please give me a group of friends finding a home in each other and helping each other.

This story isn't as dark as the other one by far! It's been a while since I read it but I mosly just remember a warm feeling in my heart. It's so sweet and nice. It's really a found family story to it's core. There is just a lot of love and warmth and silliness in this story. Also a lot of flustered yoongi. Which is always one of the best things ever.

Also, all of the stories by this writer are amazing!! Really if you just want to smile and Idk be attacked by the sudden need to fall in love with someone, reat fruitily's stories.

Sadly this story isn't finished but a lot of the other ones are!

Than there is also:

The songbird and the sea by maia_archives

Summary:

In a world where dominance of the sea is an endless battle between pirates and mariners, Park Jimin is content living in his little village on a small, uninteresting island by the eastern mainland. He wants nothing to do with the bloodshed of good and evil, the heartless killing of both innocents and condemned, the constant establishment and disruption of order. What he wants is peace, to live his life in the same town he was born in, to spend his days in the beautiful forest, and to use the powers of his Blessed Rune to nurture the home he loves so dearly.

But when his island is attacked by pirates, Jimin will have no other choice than to do as they command and leave all thoughts of peace behind in favor of boarding the Agust, a pirate ship captained by the infamous Min Yoongi, Black Fox of the East.

When I first read the summary I wasn't really gonna read it because I never read fantasy but I was intrigued by the fact that it has over 5000 comments. This story has something I generally do not like, and that is the fact that yoongi is a giant asshole in the beginning. Seriously. The man is RUDE and MEAN and unnecessarily violent and cranky. I don't like it when people portray yoongi that way. I do genuinely love this story though and it was my all time favorite for a while! The story telling is amazing. The word building is amazing. I really fell in love with the univere as a whole and I became super invested in it. It just feels really alive. If the premise makes you go "uhhhh what?" I woud really advice you to just give it a a chance. Yoongi will redeem himself later in the story. If you are really sensitive to characters being assholes/getting forgiven maybe this one isn't for you. But otherwise: it's just really good. I would be capable of writing fanfiction about this fanfiction, I'm not kidding. Definitely a story that made me super excited and always curious about what was gonna happen next. I was completely obsessed with it for a while and literally made fan art for it :')

Those are really my favorites tbh. I also really liked blue sided baepsae's by nicowememoney and Scripturient27 but for some ungodly reason I never finished it? I feel like it would definitely be on this list if I had.

Summary:

The employees of Bangtan Time Travel agency—Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook—just want their billion won. And their clients, Jimin and Taehyung, want to see Big Bang. Simple, right? Except their time machine breaks and they end up in a crazy dystopian future with:

- a terrifying hoverboarder with a heart-shaped mouth and a shady hot stranger with really wide shoulders;

- a hoverboard tournament they HAVE to win (except none of them really know how to hoverboard); and

- emotions they can't seem to make sense of (read: love)

[Featuring star-crossed lovers Namjin, we-don’t-like-each-other Yoonseok, sickeningly in love Vmin and a very confused Jungkook who falls in love with a badass female bartender who looks a little too much like his work sunbae Yoongi.]

As I said I never finished this story so I can't really talk about the whole thing but from what I remember it's just really fun and different and interesting. Also they keep describing hoseok as this super cool leather jacket hoverboard guy and that is just a really nice thing to look at in your head.

And that's it! Just as a final note, fanfic is kinda personal? I like a specific kind of story and if you don't like that kind of story that's all okay! If anyone reads any of these feel free to come yell at me because I have been yelling about them in my head for 2 years. I would seriously be capable of writing a book about It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better. Which is low key what I'm doing here.

Thank you for asking!

#anon #THIS BECAME LONGER THAN EXPECTED #I had fun writing about these so thank you so much for asking!

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artificialqueens · 5 years

Text

English Love Affair (Scyvie) - Ashley

A/N: The princess of America’s biggest hotel chain, Scarlet hatches a plan to escape from her fame for just a few hours. And then she meets Yvie, the roving reporter who will do anything to keep her job, including lying her way through the longest day she’s ever experienced.

Hope yous like this, my first every Scyvie so a bit scared haha - a modern day Roman Holiday AU (title taken from a 5sos song lol) Thanks so so so so much to @artificialmeggie for beta-ing she is a ledge. Lots of love Ashley xoxox

It took all of two minutes for Scarlet to collapse on her bed after she entered her suite, letting out a moan of exhaustion as her face hit the pillow.

There she was in one of the world’s most global cities, the London skyline dancing by her window, stuck in the four walls of her parent’s new hotel.

“Scarlet,” her mother tutted in her direction. Despite being face-deep in pillows, Scarlet knew she was shaking her head. “You only posted six stories tonight! We are counting on you to help us open here, we need the younger generation on board. I am expecting a lot more enthusiasm on your behalf tomorrow.”

Scarlet wondered whether she should just go and make a sex tape to make her parents mad, figuring in the end that knowing her luck it would only end off benefiting the pair. Maybe a drug binge? Or worse, she could be caught staying in a Hilton!

She couldn’t help but admit she often thrived on the knowledge that the world knew her, that they wanted her, feeling a rush of confidence every time she strutted a walkway and heard her name being called, endorphins rising with every click of a camera. Nonetheless, she longed for the world just the same way, to walk on the streets and be the people who called after her, to visit a market and eat street food.

Just one day where she wasn’t the princess of the Flazé empire and just a girl with wide eyes and a big beating heart.

“I am too unwell to do anything tomorrow.” She threw a hand over her forehead; the drama queen she had always been from a young age, an angsty teenager stuck in the body of a twenty-something-year-old.

“Well then we shall call a doctor immediately because your schedule is tight.” Her mother turned to an assistant, her commanding stare having the women running out of the room without even the click of her fingers. “We have a press conference at eight, a shoot straight after…”

Scarlet zoned out of her mother’s words, trying to pretend her long list of responsibilities for the following day was of no significance to her whatsoever.

“I do not need a doctor.” Scarlet’s dramatics heightened, the days of jetting around the world, remaining prim and proper catching up on her. “I just need to sleep!”

With that Scarlet heard the scoff of her mother’s throat and the slamming of the door, feeling sorry for the assistant on the other end of the conversation that would soon occur.

***

“I like it Yvie, I really do.” Nina tapped her false nails across the wooden desk, clearly searching for the right words to let her employee down gently.

Yvie didn’t even bother building herself up, she was ready for the punch.

“But it isn’t us and I think you know that.”

There it was. Nina was right, she did know, but it didn’t sting any less.

“It’s real life Nina, it’s what you see when you walk down the streets,” Yvie said, rehashing a point she knew she had made a billion times already and was not yet ready to compromise on.

“If people want to know what’s on the streets they can go out and look at them.” Nina shook a sympathetic head to the girl. “They want to read about the rich and famous, the life that they don’t have themselves. I’m going to be real with you, Yvie, you’re a good writer, a really good writer, and so many girls like you would kill for a job here, but you’re skating on thin ice. This is a gossip tabloid and we write gossip.”

“I know.” Yvie winced at her words, thinking back to the cold shower she had that morning, the water added to her milk to make it last, “I promise I want to be here, I’ll try.”

“I want this for you too, Yvie.” She placed a mothering hand over her employee’s own, “Look, there’s a new Flazé just opened off Westminster and the family arrived in London yesterday. They have a daughter, Scarlet, she has 10 million followers on Instagram and drama seems to follow where she goes. I was gonna give this to Kahanna but I’ll give you a chance, I need dirt on this girl.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Yvie responded dutifully, not usually one to compromise on her morals, but the thought of being jobless in a city where a £5 pint was considered cheap making her shudder.

“There’s a press conference at eight tomorrow, get yourself home and rested for it.” Nina smiled at the girl as she watched her exhale a breath held for far too long.

“Thank you, thank you so much.” She fumbled for her bag and was out of the office within minutes, ready to get home and find out everything she could overnight about Instagram’s latest piece of royalty.

***

Scarlet knew she didn’t have long till the drowsiness of the sleeping pills would hit her - she had to move fast.

Padding her feet silently on the cold marble floor of her suite, she grabbed the first pair of ballet flats that she saw, a pair her New York Fashion Week feet had never worn outside the comfort of her own home, wherever home was that day. Wearing nothing but her nightdress, she peered out of the eyehole on her door, finding herself at no avail when noticing the two “assistants” placed on watch duty outside of her door.

Swinging it open, she conjured up every ounce of Southern charm that her body could secrete, her inner damsel-in-distress bursting out into the open.

“Help!” she grabbed one of their lapels. “There’s a man on my balcony.”

Their instincts acting over logic in just the way Scarlet had hoped, the pair looked at each other and sprinted into the suite, leaving Scarlet with just the right amount of time to slip down the corridor and down the hidden maid’s stairwell, praising whatever lord would listen that her parent’s hotels were simply carbon copies of each other in new locations, a floor plan that she knew like the freckles on her arms.

Within minutes she had made it to the bottom floor, out of the maid’s quarters and to a fire exit. She could almost taste the smoke-filled air and river salt that lay above her. The dirty, dirty taste of freedom.

***

“Vanj, I need to be up at eight tomorrow,” Yvie pleaded down the phone as she made her way through the now darkened streets, gripping her bag tightly whilst searching for a cigarette in her purse.

Despite living there since her first year of uni, she never would get used to the sheer volume of people that lurked the streets at night, the antithesis to her Northern town. Wherever she went there were people, people like her racing home after a late stay at the office, people in short skirts and clicking heels ready to drink away their problems, people exchanging whatever they could in hushed voices on almost every corner.

“Just don’t go to sleep,” her friend pleaded in her usually gravel filled tone. Yvie often wondered whether the girl had fallen out of the womb yelling and hadn’t stopped till the age of thirteen.

“Next time,” Yvie responded, wishing she was out drinking instead of dealing with the fact that tomorrow she may not have a job. “Ring Silky.”

As often as Yvie found herself unaccustomed to the London lifestyle, nothing filled her with more dread than the thought of leaving the city. The thought of packing up her bags, jumping on the next train and returning home with nothing to her name but the remnants of broken dreams strewn in a suitcase.

She could miss one night of Vanessa’s pisshead shenanigans if it meant keeping her job, paying her rent, and delaying her inevitable failure as a writer.

“You owe me,” Vanessa grunted, Yvie vividly picturing her crumpled up face on the other end of the line.

“I paid your entry last week so don’t even.” Yvie shook her head before bidding goodbye to her friend and continuing her journey home.

Or at least that what she had planned to do.

She didn’t know what it was that turned her head to the left, what made her catch her eye on the pale girl clad only in a nightie, passed out on a wooden bench.

“So…happy…” she heard the girl slur.

Not passed out then; she re-evaluated the situation, just bordering on paralytic.

“Hey,” she tapped the girl’s shoulder. “Wake up.”

“Thank you.” She turned to face Yvie, accidentally over-rotating and throwing herself off the bench altogether before Yvie could so much as reach out a hand.

“Ouch,” she stated almost nonchalantly, her eyes only half-open but still allowing Yvie to make out their light blue, a startling contrast to her auburn hair and pale complexion.

“Get up.” Yvie held a hand out to the stranger, feeling a sudden need to protect her, the thought of leaving her in such a state resting uneasily in her mind.

Rolling her eyes more at herself than the girl now in a vertical position, Yvie swore under her breath; of course she’d find herself bringing home a stray cat, almost annoyed at her morals and wishing she was more of a shitty person so that she could leave the girl alone without having to worry about her, the way she knew many of the other people around her would have, and probably already had done.

“Is this a reaction?” The girl gripped Yvie’s arm for balance, her bitter cold hands almost refreshing.

Yvie almost chuckled at the girl’s inability to speak sense coupled with an American accent that she hadn’t expected. I hope I’m not this bad when I’m drunk, she thought to herself, knowing fine well that she was worse.

“Come on chemistry lady, I’ll find you a bed.”

***

“Who are you, and where am I?” Scarlet held a frying pan above the waking girl, only then realising that she should have picked a better weapon.

“Woah.” The girl raised her hands in the air and gave Scarlet a look of utter bewilderment, crawling back on the floor. “You’re in my bloody flat with my frying pan!”

“Did you keep me captive here?” Scarlet ignored the girl’s angry face, stories of models and socialites who were kidnapped on holiday flashing through her mind. “Who is paying you? How much money do you want?”

“Captive!” The girl rose to her feet, her eyes almost firing dark red lasers at Scarlet, clearly not afraid of her or her weapon of choice. “I found you passed out on a bench in the middle of the city; god, I’ll let you get molested next time.”

“Oh.” Scarlet lowered the pan, remembering the sleeping pills she had taken, remembering the way she ran down the streets after leaving the hotel. “This is your home?”

“Yes.” Yvie stared her down. “And don’t even bother making any comments about how tiny it is, how the kitchen and the living area dare to be in the same room or how my toilet chain doesn’t flush properly because I had enough of that all night!”

Sudden flashes of rolling around the floor, laughing as she realised the bedroom she was in was the only one in existence started to come back to her like polaroids developing in the light.

“Sorry.” She winced at the thought of her own words, “I’d taken some sleeping pills…”

But the girl didn’t even respond to her, instead simply opening her mouth wide and streaming off a string of profanities that made Scarlet giggle. Grabbing a bag and shoving whatever was nearby in it, Scarlet watched as the girl attempted to smooth her hair down whilst juggling a set of keys, a look of utter panic on her face.

“Out.” She motioned to Scarlet, the door to the apartment open to a dingy looking hallway.

“I’m not going out, I haven’t even showered!” Scarlet panicked at the thought of a paparazzo catching her in a nightie, hair thick with grease - not the scandal she had been hoping for.

“Well, I was supposed to be somewhere two hours ago, so you’re out or you’re locked in.” Yvie wasted no time trying to reason with the girl, shaking her head as she simply stood there doe-eyed and open-mouthed. “Guess it’s locked in.”

“I don’t even know your name,” Scarlet cried out, her mind bypassing the mess she was in as the girl was about to slam her door.

“Yvie,” she shouted from the hallway, not bothering to ask Scarlet her own.

***

“So.” Nina clapped both hands together with a chipper smile as she stood above Yvie’s desk, either not noticing her dishevelled state or being too kind to mention it - most likely the latter.

Her boss’s face looking at her expectantly, Yvie’s brain went into full-on panic mode, beginning to blurt out every lie she could about the press conference.

“…and then the daughter started to hint at business ventures of her own.”

Looking up she noticed that Nina’s face had turned from chipper to sullen in the time she had spoken, spinning around like the mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t fire you right now.” She sighed, Yvie wishing she would shout at her rather than look so sad - her heart breaking inside at the thought of disappointing her boss, the thought that she had coasted her way through the job instead of giving it her all like she should have.

She bowed her head in silence.

“This is an article from Buzzfeed.” Nina plopped her phone on the table for Yvie to see, the title reading ‘Starlet Scarlet MIA from Flazé Conference: Mystery Illness?’

“This is the type of drama I wanted you to be investigating, Yvie, you should have been there, I put my neck on the line for you.”

Even though Yvie knew deep down she couldn’t blame anyone but herself, she couldn’t help but find herself angry at the insufferable girl she had stayed up looking after the night before, angrier even at the stupid heiress for not showing up to her own press conference and exposing Yvie’s lie.

Grabbing the phone from the table she began to scroll down the article, figuring she might as well take a look at the girl for good measure before boxing up her favourite mug and saying goodbye to her friends.

“Holy shit.” Her mouth moved without her brain comprehending the fact that she was swearing in front of her boss, ex-boss, maybe?

“Yvie?”

“I have a reason.” She let out a laugh with both perplexity and irony. “This girl is in my flat.”

***

“How dare you lock me in your home?” The rage Scarlet had built for the past few hours spilled out of her body before Yvie could even place her keys on the shelf.

“How was I to know you wouldn’t steal anything?” Yvie shrugged a shoulder, finding humour in Scarlet’s distress. “I wasn’t wrong!”

“I have no other clothes.” She looked down at the leggings and jumper she had borrowed from Yvie’s wardrobe, breathing a sigh of relief that the other girl didn’t seem to know who she was. “I will pay you back.”

“With the money in your nightie?” Yvie laughed and Scarlet couldn’t help but join in too, finding something so infectious in the way she bellowed like an ogre brewing a stew.

“I’m sorry.” She looked down at her hands - suddenly feeling bad when putting things in the other girl’s perspective, understanding her anger that morning; she was Goldilocks barging into the bears’ home and ruining everything. “I’m a bit lost right now.”

“I think America is somewhere over there.” Yvie pointed to her side, making Scarlet giggle like a schoolgirl once again. “What’s your name?”

Shit.

She hadn’t thought of this part.

“Stacey,” she blurted, thinking of one of the women she had seen on a panel show as she had flicked through Yvie’s channels earlier that day.

“Stacey,” Yvie repeated, pulling a face that Scarlet couldn’t quite decipher.

Standing up from the couch with the fear of overstaying her welcome or being discovered, Scarlet addressed the girl once more. “Would you be able to direct me to an ATM so I can repay you for your clothes and catch a taxi to Covent Garden?”

“I can take you to Covent Garden myself.”

“Oh no, I will be fine.” Scarlet’s natural instinct to run away from anything and everything in her life kicking in. “Just the ATM.”

Little did she know that Yvie would be stopped by nothing to wander the streets of Camden by her side.

***

“Vanj, I need a solid.” Yvie held her heart out to her friend over the line, her voice cracking as she began to make her way through the underground, in a complete role reversal to the conversation that they had the night before.

“What? I’m hanging!”

“What a way to greet a friend who has always been at your beck and call.”

“Last time I checked, you were the one owing me favours.” The girl seemed to have livened up on the phone, returning to her usual hyper self within a few minutes of waking up, surpassing the initial grogginess of the morning after.

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need this. I’ll get you a Maccy’s breakfast, just meet me with your oyster and camera.”

“Fine, but it better be a double.”

Yvie grinned with glee at her friend’s agreement, the cogs of her plan all starting to churn into place.

***

“Yvie, that is borderline stalking.”

And Vanessa was supposed to be the friend who supported her bad decisions.

“It’s my job, Vanj. And I’m just gonna approach her and ask again. I’m not going to force her with me.”

“But you want me to peer around corners and take photos for you!”

“It’s fine; I’ll just have this back.” Yvie plucked the McMuffin straight from her friend’s mouth like she was taking a dummy from a baby.

“You win this time.” Vanessa snatched her breakfast back with a triumphant grin, Yvie already turning on the ball of her foot and making her way back into the underground before another bite could be taken.

Rolling her eyes at her friend, Vanessa began to quicken her pace, legs doing double the work, as one of Yvie’s amazonian steps covered two of hers.

“Is she fit?” She practically shouted, garnering stares from the rest of the public and making Yvie stop in her tracks, opening her mouth to speak but closing it again before words could come out.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

***

“Higher.” Scarlet watched as he lifted his scissors further up her hair, taking in the man’s pained expression as she jostled him to cut more and more off, eventually grabbing the scissors herself and holding them in line at the bottom of her neck.

“All off!” he gasped, clearly triggered by her decision to get rid of the locks that had eaten up so much money through treatments, stylists, and products.

“Like Audrey Hepburn in the 50s,” she squealed.

“Well, I do owe you a duty of care to tell you that, in my professional opinion, you will not suit it and this is all your doing.”

Turning to grin at him, Scarlet imagined this is what being on the top of a roller coaster felt like, smiling before the tumult of the big drop.

“All off!”

***

Yvie felt a wave of stupidity as she scanned the streets of the busy area for the redhead, knowing that she could well be anywhere between the hustle and bustle of street performers and market stalls.

She didn’t dare stop anyone in fear of getting her purse stolen or worse, simply stopping every few minutes to listen for that overseas drawl whining about something.

In reality, it didn’t take too long.

“No, you can’t.” Yvie heard the familiar voice and soon saw Scarlet through the window of a salon, feeling grateful that the girl she was trailing around London to find just so happened to think she was the star of a 1950s drama film.

“Is everything all right?” Yvie popped her head in the doorway, trying her very hardest not to startle the other girl or further trip her short fuse.

“No.” Scarlet gave the man a heinous look before even registering that it was Yvie in the doorway.

“I thought I ought to make sure you had everything under control out here by yourself,” Yvie explained away her being there, making dead eye contact with the other girl and almost feeling an exchange of energy between them.

“I’m not a child,” Scarlet whined, proving the utter antithesis to her point. “This man is trying to take my photo without my permission.”

“I just wanted to post her hair on my Instagram, it looks really good.” He turned to Yvie and raised a brow as in to say ‘What is with this crazy American lady?’

Yvie threw her two arms in a shrug back at him, trying to think of a way around the situation.

She couldn’t act too defensive on Scarlet’s behalf, she didn’t want her to know the truth. She couldn’t let him take the photo, then the rest of the city would be on Scarlet’s trail and Yvie would miss her exclusive. Besides, she kind of felt a small warmth toward the girl, despite her outlandish antics. Yvie could tell that inside there was just a vulnerable person who wanted a taste of freedom.

“Just take it from the back, without her face in the mirror.” She looked from the hairdresser to Scarlet, trying to come up with a clear compromise. “Sorry, Stacey here has a bit of a psycho ex, doesn’t do the whole social media thing.”

The lies started to slip off her tongue without falter. Festering themselves in layers upon layers, a complex beehive she would have to try to manage.

“Fine.” He agreed reluctantly.

Yvie couldn’t help but feel his pain, for Scarlet did look beautiful, the short style really showing the sharpness of her cheekbones, the playfulness in her smile.

“I can survive on my own, you know?” The girl gave Yvie a side-eye that could have sliced through the biggest of tensions.

“Maybe you can,” Yvie teased the girl, “maybe you can’t. Either way, I can’t help but admit I kind of want to show you around London.”

This part wasn’t a lie.

“Do you know where we can get ice cream?” Scarlet looked longingly outside, the summer atmosphere filling every inch of the air around them.

“You bet I do.”

And with that they were off, walking the streets together, hands only centimetres away from touching.

***

“I think we should just get in one of those black cabs.” Panic rose in Scarlet’s mind as they began their descent down what seemed like the steepest escalator she had ever seen in her life.

“Are you joking?” Yvie shook her head at the girl, pushing her body onto the right side to let people past.

“I’ve never been on a subway before, this is scary.” She reached for one of the cigarettes she had purchased first after leaving Yvie’s apartment that morning, deciding she would need at least ten to calm her nerves in the station, maybe 11. Following Yvie’s lead, she was surprised at how well she managed to navigate her way through the mounds of people, barely even taking a second glance as to what platform they needed to be on.

“How come people don’t walk into you!” She caught up with her guide, only just managing to escape the mangle of bodies that pushed her in every which way.

“Look straight ahead at where you want to be, never down, never to the side, people will just move.”

“People here aren’t very friendly,” Scarlet responded, knowing full well that she probably wouldn’t have given someone the same respect on the street a few days ago.

“It took me a while to get used to as well, back at home you say hello to every man and his dog whether you know them or not.”

“When did you move here?” Scarlet asked as they waited for their tube to come.

“I came for uni but stayed after, there are more jobs around here and I kinda like the fast movement of the city.”

Before Scarlet could ask where she worked, a young man was running towards her with a whistle in his hand and a stern look on his face.

“No smoking.” He grabbed the cigarette from Scarlet’s hand despite the fact that she had not yet lit it. “You’re not getting on.”

“Hey.” Yvie tried to reason with him before her lady in shining armour came to save the day.

“Brock!” She heard Vanessa’s voice before she even saw her, almost forgetting she had asked her to trail them and take photographs. “Long time no see! How do you know my friend Yvie?”

He stood a little shell shocked, his eyes turning soft like a puppy dog as he tried to take all of Vanessa in.

“I, er-” he tried to respond but was cut off before he could go any further.

“There’s a boat party down the canal tonight, Brock, you should totally come.”

“Yeah, I would love to.” He reached out for Vanessa’s hand but didn’t get the chance to touch it as she began to pull away.

“Here’s the tube, see ya!” she cried in her gravelly voice, grabbing Yvie and Scarlet with an arm each and essentially forcing them through the doors.

“When did you sleep with a tube guard?” Yvie questioned, not even putting it past her friend when she thought about it further.

“Long story.” She brushed her friend off. “Are you not gonna introduce me to your friend?”

Making a mental note to give her a smack on the arm later for the way she emphasised the word friend, Yvie placed a hand on Scarlet’s back. “This is Stacey.”

“Tory?” Vanessa mouthed to Yvie jokingly, raising an eyebrow.

“American.” Yvie laughed in response before turning to Scarlet, “Sorry about her sense of humour, this is Vanjie.”

“Vanjie.” Scarlet repeated, the pair of them chuckling at the way she spat the nickname like a tongue twister. “Thanks for not getting me kicked out of the tube station!”

“It’s no bother.” She responded, giving Scarlet a seat on the tube. “Now how do you fancy a boat party tonight, Stacey?”

***

“What about this one?” Scarlet held a dress to her new-found friends.

Despite being deemed talentless by fifty percent of the media, she knew that her eye for fashion was notably better than the average girls. Whether looking through a Marc Jacobs collection or strolling the aisles of the British discount store she had immediately found love for, she knew fashion.

“That doesn’t really seem like your style?” Yvie examined it closer, surprised at the heiress choosing a black v-neck stretch fabric number from Primark.

“Ugh, no.” Scarlet looked down at the dress. “For you!”

“Well it certainly isn’t my style.” Her eyes nearly popped out of her head, garnering a laugh from Vanessa.

“Too bad.” Scarlet smiled, forcing it in the other girl’s hands. “You’re trying it on.”

“One.” Yvie held a finger to her. “We are here for you. And two, these changing rooms might as well be a stop on the way to hell.”

Picking up a dress in her signature red, Scarlet turned to face Yvie, a devilish grin plastered across her face.

“Well, we better hurry up or we’ll miss the train.”

Yvie didn’t even try to hide her laugh. Although she had started her time with the star thinking she was arrogant and too caught up in her own fantasy, it was little moments like this throughout the day that showed her that despite all her dramatics, Scarlet was just as funny and down to earth as anyone else on the planet. She was just as gritty as Yvie herself, only she smoothed over her edges much better.

“You look beautiful,” Scarlet simply stated as Yvie pulled back the curtain - no screeching, no theatrics, the way she was feeling just rolling off her tongue.

“It’s too revealing,” Yvie responded.

“Can I remind you of your arse last Halloween?” Vanjie chirped from her spot next to Scarlet.

“Oh my god, you have boobs!” Scarlet played a fake gasp, looking around the changing rooms, “Everyone, this girl has boobs!”

Yvie’s face flushed a perplex colour resembling something like a beetroot. “Shut the fuck up.”

“If you let me buy it for you.”

“No,” Yvie replied, folding her arms with her usual stubbornness that Scarlet had seemed to meet several times despite only knowing each other for a mere day.

“EVERYONE, YV-”

“Fine.”

“Yay!” Scarlet beamed, her infectious smile bright like a kid in Hamleys. “Time for accessories!”

For the first time in her life, Yvie had no issue being dragged around the post-apocalyptic war cavern disguised as a shop. In fact, she could have watched Scarlet getting excited about scrunchies and Tic-Tacs and sponges shaped like fruit all day.

***

“Don’t be having too much.” Yvie rested a steady hand on the glass in Scarlet’s hand. “I don’t want to have to come and find you from a park bench.”

“I’m fine.” The girl smiled in response. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Are you having a good time?”

Scarlet wondered if she meant at the party or just in general. The answer was the same either way. “Of course.”

“Come with me.” Yvie held out her hand almost naturally.

Scarlet did need to be asked twice.

***

“I can’t remember the last time I saw the stars for real. It’s weird, they used to be there all the time when I was a kid and I never paid them any attention.”

“Global warming’s a bitch.” Yvie laughed, her head falling on the other girl’s shoulder.

Neither of them made any effort to move.

“Maybe I should stay here for good.”

“Maybe you should.” Yvie looked at her, really looked at her.

And at that moment she didn’t care about the job, or the money, Scarlet’s fame, the fact that Vanjie was probably taking pictures of them whilst running away from her tube guard.

She wanted to find the nearest clock and punch it so that this day could go on forever.

If only it were Groundhog Day and she could wake up again late to work with a raging ginger holding a frying pan to her head.

“I ran away.” Scarlet looked to Yvie, a blanket of seriousness washing over her face for the first time all day. “It was just meant to be for a few hours but here we are. I just feel like my parents… They have this perfect vision of me in their heads, but it just isn’t me.”

“Here we are.” Yvie repeated, shocking even herself about how much one day could change everything.

Before Yvie knew what she was doing, her lips were on Scarlet’s.

She tasted of cheap drink and raspberries.

Her hand ran delicately through the short tendrils of curls that sat by her neck.

Normally Yvie was a tough lover, everything about passionate grabbing and giving.

But she held Scarlet like she was papier-mache that could crumble in her hands.

Scarlet placed an arm on her back, moving it lower and lower until it reached Yvie’s curve.

“We’re on the roof of a boat.” Yvie giggled looking around her, praying to god that Vanessa was too preoccupied with tube guy to be documenting this specific moment.

“Well, we can just wait then.” Scarlet pulled away.

The thing Yvie liked most about Scarlet’s mischievous grin was that it consisted of more than her mouth. Her eyes, her cheeks, her nose - they were all smirking and winding her up like a jack in the box ready to take flight at any second.

“Yeah, fuck it,” she responded, pulling the other girl in closer, tighter. Their bodies a perfect yin and yang, slotting together like pieces of one fucked up jigsaw.

Scarlet’s hands explored her body like she was discovering America, running her nails right from Yvie’s shoulders to her thighs, making circle after circle on her back.

Yvie deepened the kiss, pushing Scarlet down gently so she was practically on top of her - a beautiful face staring up at her longingly between her very own two hands.

Scarlet’s hands travelled back down to her thighs, making her way under the dress.

The fucking dress.

“Fuck, Scarlet.” She beamed at the girl, nothing and no one else on her mind but the girl with the freckles on her cheeks and her hands, her hands on Yvie’s thighs.

And then they weren’t.

And the silly grin, the carefree smile, the excitement in her eyes all faded.

Yvie watched as the moment caught Scarlet’s attention, watched as the realisation hit her brain of what was off, watched as she put the pieces together of the puzzle in her mind and pulled the ones apart in real life.

“You know who I am?” Scarlet looked at her and Yvie didn’t dare look back, bowing her head so she couldn’t see the mascara stained tear that slipped from the other girl’s eye.

“You’ve known all along. God, I’m an idiot.” She started to laugh in an unnerving way, the way that you laughed when the only other option was to cry, to really cry. “That’s why you took me home last night, you didn’t want to make sure I was safe!”

“No.” Yvie shook her head at the girl, forcing herself to make eye contact, forcing herself to face the reality of her actions, something she had always skipped over and run away from. “That’s not true, I promise.”

“What about the rest of it?” She was shouting now, waving her hands in the air. “What about when you came and found me in the market? What about when you bought me an ice cream? What about when you picked me up after I stumbled by the fountain? What about when you kissed me?”

“I’m sorry.” She reached forward to grab the other girl’s hand, but it was too late.

“Just for once, I thought someone was interested in me for me. What do you want? A picture on my story? You got a SoundCloud you want looking at?”

“I work for a magazine.” Yvie winced at her own words, knowing it was time to tell the truth.

Her words went straight into Scarlet’s body like Yvie had fired them from a gun.

“I hope it was worth it, putting up with me for the day.” Scarlet started to get mad at herself as well as Yvie, how could she slip up so badly. Big mistake, she told herself, fucking huge.

“It wasn’t like that,” Yvie tried, knowing there were no words in the Oxford dictionary that she could use to explain right then.

Knowing there was no way to show Scarlet that watching her running around Primark was the most exciting thing she’d done in years.

Knowing there was no way to tell her that she was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, filters and Photoshop aside.

Knowing it wasn’t possible to make Scarlet feel how awful she felt that this is how they met.

Knowing there was no chance in hell that the only good thing that happened to her since leaving University was going to stick around.

Now, who was supposed to be the dramatic one?

“What’s it about?” Scarlet asked. “No, I really wanna know.”

“Please, don’t.”

“Scarlet’s Big Breakdown: Is she giving 2007 Britney a run for her money?”

“No.” Yvie reached out again.

“‘My parents don’t understand me!’ Daughter of Flazé owners runs away.”

Yvie’s eyes were so fogged with tears that she could only make out the other girl’s outline - she didn’t even realise she had been crying.

“Or better yet, Victoria’s newest Angel has a secret of her own. Scarlet’s big gay getaway!”

Before Yvie could respond, Scarlet had unstrapped a heel and thrown in her direction, missing her completely and making a satisfying plop as it dipped into the water below.

“I deserved that.” She went to turn to the other girl, but she was already gone.

***

“I hear our princess has returned to her castle.” Nina looked up excitedly at Yvie as she entered her office. “You got a story for me?”

I have so many stories, Yvie thought to herself.

The story of how she realised that it was no use trying to live her life if it wasn’t something she was passionate about.

The story of how one day and one lady changed the way her mind saw the people of today.

The story of the best kiss she’d ever had.

And worst of all the story of her first real heartbreak.

“No,” she responded determinedly, “I don’t.”

“Yvie.” Nina looked at her with more pity than anger. “That would have been the biggest story of the month. You know what I have to do.”

“Yes,” Yvie responded, an uncanny sense of relief and happiness filling her at the thought of being sacked.

If there was one thing she had learned that week it was that she needed a fresh start.

“I wish you luck.” Nina pulled her into a big hug, “I really hope you get to write about something you care about someday, kidda.”

“Me too.” Yvie nodded as she pulled away, the image of a red-haired girl dancing on top of every brain cell in her head.

***

“Thank you for your concern,” Scarlet answered the inevitable question, reeling off the preplanned answer her mother had drilled into her brain. “The past few weeks of travelling and catering to the public really seemed to catch up on me, but I feel much better now, sending all my thanks to the great doctors of London who helped aid a better recovery.”

Somewhere in between the scrawling pens and hushed whispers she heard a chuckle.

An odd laugh that she would recognise in a heartbeat, it belonging to an even odder girl sat in the back row of the conference, no notebook in hand, no recorder being fiddled with. Just a laugh.

The questions and answers flooded by like an out of body experience, her mouth speaking all sorts about new beds, her next modelling gig, her mother’s influence whilst her mind stayed on Yvie - not raising her hand, not asking a question - just sitting there, her wide eyes gripped on Scarlet’s every word, biting at the dry skin on her lips.

Scarlet didn’t know what compelled her to end the conference in such a way, for she had spent the past few days being furious at the other girl, blocking and unblocking her on every form of social media, screaming into her pillow at just the image of her face. But she did it anyway.

“I’d like to invite reporters to stay behind and mingle in our bar, feel free to ask me some more personal questions if necessary.” She glanced at the back of the room, making eye contact with the girl who had plagued both her thoughts and dreams ever since she stepped off that boat.

They did not speak straight away; first Scarlet faked smiles and gave handshakes, taking photos with anyone who wanted, but once they did cross paths, Scarlet felt again that buzz of energy that she could in no way deny.

“I’m not very good with words,” Yvie started. “Sometimes I can be a bit uncompromising and I don’t want to make this worse.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re gonna sing to me.” Scarlet rolled her eyes sarcastically, thinking back to the moment she had murdered a Donna Summer song whilst getting ready for the party, Yvie throwing a cushion at her head in response.

“I thought I’d give you these.” She handed an envelope over. “I’m gonna head back North I think. As much as I love it here I think this city has brought out some of the worst traits in me and you showed me that, Scarlet, so thank you.”

And she was gone with the burst of the air-con.

Scarlet did not know what to expect in the envelope but it hadn’t been the pictures.

Yvie holding her hand out to her when she fell over.

The pair of them on the tube, Scarlet’s head in the clouds and Yvie looking at her with a look that she’d only ever seen in 1950s romance films.

The grin on her own face as they stood by the river Thames, a grumpy Yvie stood waiting for her, ready for her Italians.

And finally, the two of them dancing together on the boat, hand in hand, only focused on each other like there was no one else in the world never mind the floor surrounding them.

She turned it over, the Sharpied scrawl bringing a tear to her eye she didn’t even bother to try to fight.

“My dearest Scarlet. I am sorry. So so sorry. I’m not writing the article. I just wanted you to know that other than my initial intentions, none of it was a lie, you gave me the best couple of days I didn’t even know I could have around here. Go take the world by storm, your own way. Yours, Yvie (the girl who kept you captive) xx”

***

“Yvie.” She heard Scarlet’s voice call her name, quickly trying to wipe her snotty nose on her sleeve and pretend she hadn’t started bawling the second she left the hotel.

“I never thanked you for showing me around London.” She pathetically attempted to catch her breath before giving in and pulling Yvie into a kiss.

What she had thought before was a lie, this was the best kiss of her life. All while she had tears and phlegm on her sleeve, how romantic.

“So, thank you.” Scarlet nodded awkwardly, Yvie starting to laugh at how one of the biggest socialites in America could be anything close to awkward. “And sorry for throwing my shoe at you.”

“I think that I deserved it.” Yvie chuckled. “But you need better aim.”

“Maybe I missed on purpose.” Scarlet raised an eyebrow at the girl - there was that smile again, Yvie took a mental picture that she would keep forever.

“So,” she filled the air.

“So,” Scarlet responded.

“If you ever find yourself back in the UK…” Yvie knew she should be feeling sad about the goodbye but couldn’t help but feel happy about the time they had shared.

“And yourself in New York.”

“I’ll make sure to scan every bench I see.” Yvie let out a chuckle, pulling the girl into one final embrace.

“And I’ll make sure to find you just the same.”

“See you later.” Yvie smiled, something inside telling her that she would, that this wouldn’t be the last time she crossed paths with Scarlet. “My chemistry lady.”

She didn’t try to explain the comment to Scarlet’s confused face, only giving her hand one last squeeze before the pair of them both walked their separate ways, each ready to open a new page and live their lives how they wanted.

#rpdr fanfiction #scarlet envy #yvie oddly #scyvie #ashley #lesbian au #tw mention of potential assault #concrit welcome #submission

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