#nara's dresden phase

[narastories]

a low-quality gif set because I had this idea for a while and today for some reason I couldn't get it out of my head

[image description: a gifset of a scene from the movie Hellraiser (2022) with a quote overlaid on it. In the scene, Goran Višnjić is playing Roland Voight, talking and smiling. The quote is from the book Small Favor by Jim Butcher from the Dresden Files series. The text reads: "It was the kind of smile you see at country clubs and in boardrooms and on crocodiles. /end id]

#I'm not a gif maker so it isn't perfect #but I wanted to see this quote with this scene #it makes me happy lol #small favor #dresden files #goran višnjić #hellraiser 2022 #I'm also terrible at IDs but i'm trying #nara's dresden phase #denarian brainrot #nicodemus archleone

[narastories]

On a slightly similar topic to my previous post, it amuses me to no end that:

A. Drakul spent two minutes talking to Harry and went: yeah, no, I'd rather kill him. Not even going to give him a join-up-or-die offer, because I can't stand the way he talks back.

B. Meanwhile Nicodemus spent years coming back, time and time again going out of his way to get Harry on his side. Even after multiple mutual murder attempts he just smugly rolls his eyes, talks through the nonsense that comes out of Harry's mouth, and goes: yes, I will take one more round with Dresden, thank you. Like, I'm sorry but that's a kink lol

#they haven't parted on good terms #but you can bet that man will be back for more eventually #dresden files shitpost #nicodemus archleone #denarian brainrot #nara's dresden phase #dresden files #I might have made a similar post before but oh well #I'm not normal about nic we all know that

[narastories]

today I'm thinking about that time when Nicodemus offered a jewelry box to Harry, and Harry, bless him just snarked and acted like it was a marriage proposal

#they are so criminally underrated together #to nic may I suggest: #1. divorcing your wife first #2. taking harry on a few dates #3. maybe going dow on one knee? #I bet those steps would increase his chances :P #dresden files shitpost #nara's dresden phase #harry dresden/nicodemus archleone #nicodemus archleone #denarian brainrot #dresden files #harry dresden

[narastories]

apropos of nothing - reasons why Harry and Nicodemus make me personally insane:

that time when Harry is like "I know he hasn't been trying to hurt me (otherwise I would have been really hurt by now), he just pinned me to the wall". Dude. My dear dude. "He could squash me on the wall like a bug but he was mindful of my human squishyness and just pinned me to it with his body" is such a normal heterosexual behavior between enemies. Seriously.

Nic "I'm going to grab this almost seven-foot-tall giant brat by his hair as often as I can so he pays attention to me". I know Harry cuts his hair way too infrequently but the visual of that... What are your fingers doing there Nic, hm??

Harry "he's so dangerous I know I shouldn't piss him off by mouthing back or putting him through solid objects..." *proceeds to do exactly just that*

Nic in between mutual murder and or choking attempts "Let me feed you breakfast. Coffee? Doughnuts? Spend a week with me!" Doing what? Kinky BDSM sex? Because you're really giving off courting vibes here Nic with the whole "I'm going to take you apart but promise I'm good with aftercare let me prove it by feeding you" bit

I am so normal about them, for real

#harry dresden/nicodemus archleone #denarian brainrot #nara's dresden phase #I'm back on my bullshit #always #harry x nic #nicodemus archleone

[narastories]

When your idiotic, shape-shifter, mob boss of a boyfriend gets caught in a storm.

[image description: a hand-drawn image made with colored pencils of a tiger being dried indoors, in front of a fireplace with a fluffy towel. Only one of the person's hands is showing. He has a bracelet on. The tiger has green eyes.]

Please enjoy the silliest little drawing for the first prompt in the #dresdendrawtober and also the first (and likely only) piece of fan content of mine that can be tagged wizardbaron.

#I know I'm a day late #and I'm not promising to do something every day #but here we are #I think tigers are adorable #dresden files #nara's dresden phase #dresdendrawtober #harry dresden #john marcone #I turned him into a big pathetic wet kitty what about it #wizardbaron

[narastories]

You know... I have really high hopes of finding out sometime in the future what this little jab was all about. With Kincaid's former employer being Starborn and the two of them looking like they were about to rip each other's throats out... the backstory here must be juicy.

#small favor #dresden files #nicodemus archleone #I'm back on my bullshit #denarian brainrot #nara's dresden phase

[narastories]

so the twelve months slider has been on 50% for ages now and I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be like the pt/bg situation where he sets out to write one book and ends up with two? instead of twelve months we're going to get "six months" and "another six months" 😝

#I'm not complaining #I'm just impatient lol #and you know if you add words but your word count goal changes... #it would make sense why the percentage doesn't #ofc it can also be writer's block boo #dresden files #nara's dresden phase #twelve months loading

[narastories]

what we can have

I want to say ‘this is a weird one’ but let’s face it: when have I ever written something that’s not?

That said… this is: a) a crossover b) wizardbaron

Fandom: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, The Fetch Phillips Archives Series - Luke Arnold Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Harry Dresden/Johnny Marcone, Thurston Niles/Fetch Phillips Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, POV Alternating, POV First Person, POV Third Person, Marcone POV, Fetch POV, in terms of the Dresden Files it's set after Fool Moon, in the FPA universe after OFITF, pining Wizardbaron, established Philes, because I said so, somehow Philes ended up being the emotionally more mature couple in this which is hilarious, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Fae & Fairies, Niles & Marcone bromance, Fluff

Summary:

John Marcone has a bad start of his day when he manages to get his favorite wizard to help him, only for them to be transported to a different city. Fetch Phillips also faces trouble when a self-proclaimed wizard and a trigger-happy mafia boss enter his café unexpectedly.

The story of four men grappling with the unpredictable nature of magic and their impractical crushes.

Read on AO3

To answer a few questions you might have in advance:

Can I read this if I haven’t read the Dresden Files?

Yes, totally! There are a few minor spoilers from book 1 & 2 but nothing big. If you are familiar with the general premise of the Dresden Files, you should be fine.

Can I read this if I haven’t read the Fetch Phillips Archives?

Technically, yes, but from the FPA perspective, this takes place after the third book, and there are some pretty significant spoilers alluded to. If you have no intention of reading the FPA or don’t care about the spoilers, you should be fine. However, I think if you like the Dresden Files, you should really give the Fetch Phillips Archives a go, and maybe save this fic after you read the first three books ;)

Nara you never seemed like a huge Wizardbaron fan, how come you wrote this ship? Can we expect more Harry x Marcone fics in the future?

GODS I HOPE NOT

I’m sorry for being so antagonistic about this. I have a real love/hate relationship with Marcone and this ship.

I get everything I ever wanted from enjoying Harry/Nic and Fetch/Niles. The reason why this fic ended up being Harry/Marcone is because they are much closer in vibe to Fetch/Niles, and I thought Marcone and Niles would get along pretty well. These ships and characters mirrored each other nicely so Marcone fit my idea better.

If I could have gotten away with making this Harry/Nic I would have, believe me.

I will always respect Wizardbaron enjoyers as the backbone of the DF fandom. And I also liked the idea of writing something that they could realistically enjoy without having to descend into the rarepair hell with me lol

I have no intention of writing more wizardbaron tho, sorry. Although as all fanfic writers know we have limited control of what we end up writing, am I right?

Also I re-listened to Even Hand while editing, and I highly recommend the audiobook version of that if you’re far enough into the DF series. It’s narrated by Mr. Author himself (btw I don’t know why I always call him that but you know, I think I’d better stick to Fae rules and don’t call him by his name on a fanfic lmao) and he clearly had so much fun with it. Certain implications for future theories aside it’s also one of the good parts with Marcone.

Anyway, if you read all that ramble i love you hope you enjoy the fic <3

#my fic #dresden files #fetch phillips archives #harry dresden #gentleman john marcone #fetch phillips #thurston niles #wizardbaron #philes #nara's dresden phase

[narastories]

I can't believe I've written a novel-length fic with a rarepair who in the grand scheme of things barely interact in canon *again*. What is wrong with me?

#don't answer that #you guys are not ready for this #time for fine editing and finishing touches #nara's dresden phase #rarepair shipper problems

[narastories]

Ortega: "We are much alike. "

Harry: *standing there in a single, borrowed pair of boxers with ducks on them, having set something on fire and now getting ready to raise the dead in a fit of rage* "Oh yeah?"

#this seriously goes for all bad guys who ever said they were similar #you mean impulsive and idiotic? #are you sure? #dresden files shitpost #nara's dresden phase

[narastories]

ramblings about writing longfic

So as you probably know by now I've been busy writing a chunky little fic over the summer. I wanted to look at the statistics of the process and ramble a little.

We got permission from Bob (@dresdenfilesbigbang) for a little vagueposting, although I don't think this post will even count because I'm not going to talk about the fic, I'm just going to use the process as an example to make a few points.

This time, I've used NaNoWriMo to track my word count, and that is the first thing. If you are motivated by tracking your word count, this is your reminder that besides being a yearly event, it is also a great tool that you can use all year around. Plus, you can create a project with any time length or word count, not just 50k in one month. I actually started off with 20k as the word count, since that was the minimum for the Big Bang, but ehm... well, it soon became clear that 20k is not going to be enough lol Point is, you can also update your goal as you go and it doesn't mess up anything in the slightest.

And I guess November is coming up if you want to do NaNo "proper". I did that once, and it was great to just see that I could. But honestly, 1600 words a day is way too much for me and I don't see the point. I would rather write 50k words over 3 months and push myself less. With the NaNo pace if you miss a day it really puts you behind, and that is just plain stressful.

Which brings me to my second point. If you look at this graph, your first thought might be "oh that looks so linear and disciplined" ...

(Well, okay your first thought may be "why the heck doesn't it start from zero?" I've written 5k before the start date, okay? It was a sort of "proof of concept" to see if this story was going to work out. And it's not like it was cheating, I've still written way too much lol)

And you know, you kind of would be right, I've neatly stayed above that dotted line, sure.

But then you look at my daily word count graph, and it looks like this:

(Again, ignore the anomaly of the first day please lol)

What I'm trying to say is this: if you write often enough, over a long enough period of time, it will look like consistent progress.

You don't have to write every day if it doesn't work for you. You really don't.

And I think it's nice to just pay attention to your process if you decide to start a bigger project because it will give you valuable info about how you work. And it will make writing the next longfic or bigger writing project easier.

My first multichapter work on AO3 is still unfinished at the 75%-85% point mark. I was posting it as I wrote and then I hit that point which now I know is critical for me. Now I know that when I'm 3/4 done with a fic of this size I usually want to go in and move things around, have a little crisis, and generally that I just go back and forth between writing and editing a lot. And because of that, posting as I write is a really bad idea for me.

So I guess the most crucial thing you can learn is how you write, and then everything will become a little easier.

Also, since this is a Big Bang fic with a deadline, it will drop all chapters at once which is something I haven't done before. Very exciting. (To me at least. To other people probably not, because of the tiny nature of the rarepair. But that never stopped me, has it?)

#nara's dresden phase #rambing about writing #dresden files big bang #hopefully a little motivating

[narastories]

[image description: a line drawing with some watercolor depicting a skull with mismatched purple eyes and a bow on top of its head. There is a text bubble on top: Where is my Mom?]

In my head, Bonnie's eyes are purple like Lasciel's.

Which one of her parents she means by "Mom" here is up for interpretation. Her grasp on human gender roles is a little shaky still.

2. Skull

#back with some more silliness #this time made with my cheap little watercolor pen #and some paper that really did not appreciate the waterboarding lol #bonea #yes the eye light thing has been very much inspired by the way alpha's eyes are in pgr which in turn I believe has been inspired by brs #so there is that lol #dresdendrawtober #nara's dresden phase

[narastories]

heart worth the trouble

It's here, the not-so-secret project I've been working on for the past months!!

This Dresden Files Big Bang event, while small, was super fun for me. I feel like this amount of time with a deadline was perfect for this project and I don't think this idea ever would have seen the light of day if it wasn't for this event. But since I was forced to commit to a plotbunny and given a not-stressful but still tight deadline, I ended up writing waaay more words than I thought I would (or should have, frankly).

A big thanks to all fandom friends and Bob @dresdenfilesbigbang for making this summer so much fun <3 This is what fandom really is about for me xx

Chapters: 14/14 Fandom: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher Rating: Explicit Relationships: Harry Dresden/Paolo Ortega Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Power Dynamics, Toxic Relationships, Mildly Dubious Consent, Canon-Typical Violence, Vampire Venom, Divorce, Minor Character Death, Enemies to Lovers, Vampire Romance, Happy Ending, Fluff and Crack, Hurt/Comfort, Book 5: Death Masks, spoilers for, Book 12: Changes, Red Court of Vampires (Dresden Files), Worldbuilding (more comprehensive tags on AO3, please heed them!)

Summary:

As usual, it all starts with Harry having a horrible day. A Red Court Duke is out to get his blood and he can’t even fight the guy because he fails to secure a second for the duel. While trying to weasel out of getting killed by the Archive for breaking the rules, Harry finds that Ortega is more agreeable than he thought. From desperation, he strikes a deal with him.

Harry thinks he can apply the ancient logic of divide and conquer to weaken the Red Court from the inside. Except Ortega is nothing like he expected and Harry gets a little more than he bargained for, with a side order of learning how to be polite.

Meanwhile, Paolo Ortega is attempting to take care of the wizard-shaped problem that has gotten out of hand. He’s intrigued by the loyal, violent fool who started it all, but the war is inconvenient because he hasn’t planned it for at least another ten years.

He’s more than ready to kill Dresden, except this guy who tends to set things on fire is surprisingly tolerable. So he proposes an alternative, and ends up with way more than a tasty snack.

He might even accidentally learn what a healthy relationship looks like.

Read on AO3

Also check out the amazing art @badassbutterfly1987 made for it <3 (I'm so spoiled *.*) HERE

#my fic #dresden files big bang #nara's dresden phase #harry dresden #paolo ortega #harry dresden/paolo ortega

[narastories]

spring ice

I don't think you can realistically feel comfortable outside in a t-shirt in Chicago yet, but here *throws virtual Spring at you like confetti*

I haven't written them for like a year and a half, so I forgot that something just seems to happen in my brain when writing Harry/Nic fanfic. Where often the idea of the whole fic is completely batshit crazy in theory. Yet the finished result ends up being surprisingly polished.

I could spend so much time in this head-space. Ngl writing Harry/Nic is kind of my ideal writing experience. It's weird and I love it.

Fandom: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher Rating: Explicit Relationships: Nicodemus Archleone/Harry Dresden Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Book 17: Battle Ground, Casual clothes, Almost Meet-Cute, except you know they already tried to kill each other, this has so many random headcanons in it, made-up Outsider lore, Misunderstandings, Jealousy, yes jealous Nic is back, Smut, Anal Sex, Harry already likes anal play because I said so, he still has a teeny bit of a gay panic bc of course, we're talking about Harry, there is also, The Toxic Masculinity of the Winter Knight, Dirty Talk, Hair-pulling, and, Explicit Consent, to Harry's chagrin that he has to talk about these things, this is also kind of silly, hope that helps, good luck figuring out what kind of fic this is

Summary:

Spring arrives, and one afternoon Harry unexpectedly bumps into someone. He decides to start seeking answers to questions that have been bothering him.

"Still, as the morning air lost its bite, with it the grip of the Winter Mantle’s claws around my heart seemed to loosen as well. I found myself being able to focus on the good things in life again. Maybe, this was a perfect time to do something simple and pleasant. To live a little before gruesome death or ruthless survival were the only options."

Set after Battle Ground.

Read on AO3

#we are back #nicodemus archleone/harry dresden #harry x nic #harry dresden #nicodemus archleone #dresden files #nara's dresden phase #my fic #denarian brainrot

[narastories]

you know what, I do really like Paolo Ortega. He went on a talk show as this expert debunker of the supernatural while being a freaking vampire himself. Add to this his love-hate relationship with his wife and the fact that he also stands in line to add one Harry Dresden to his collection and you have a very fun character

#he's so underrated #and the way Harry describes him total DF sexyman material lmao #yes I've given in and started a re-listen of Death Masks #don't judge me #nara's dresden phase #dresden files #death masks #paolo ortega

[narastories]

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? ❄️ ⇢ what’s your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? 🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? It's a bit hazy because it's been quite a while ago lol But basically as a teenager I found myself on those roleplaying forums, where you have all your fantasy creatures and you mess around writing stories quite anonymously. Then, I found one that was like that but for the HP world. And it was there where I found out about the local "big" fanfiction site (again, filled mostly with HP stories, there is no escaping the influence of it, I'm just that generation lol)

❄️ ⇢ what’s your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? Uh... I have a hard time answering question because I would never give a prompt to another writer unless they asked for prompts. And even then I would try giving prompts that I think they would like to write rather than what I personally would like to read. (I just think it's kind of rude to try to make others write what you want them to write)

That said, obviously, it would be a dream come true if someone wrote something new with any of my beloved rarepairs that I didn't have to write lol And I also have quite a few ideas for longer fic that I just know I will probably never get to writing. But that's just how it is sometimes.

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate Hate is such a strong word :P Anyway, so Butters: - he was genuinely a fun character in the early books before his "level up" - he's a nerd, but brave AF. You know the way he overcomes his fears is pretty inspiring - I appreciate that he's quite accepting of different relationship dynamics: you know there is his own open relationship, and when he assures Harry he would be okay with him being gay

Thank you for the questions! xx

#dresden files #nara's dresden phase #tumblr ask game #ask game #if you happen to see this Pan #I'm so sorry #I used to like him xD