#not just through fics but also our conversations on here and on discord

[footprintsinthesxnd]

Good Girl

So this has been the long awaited ‘Kinky Ron’ fic requested by @ronsparky which sparked the whole creation of the discord chat with @malarkgirlypop. It is finally here and will most likely be in two parts of people want to see what happens. I’m sorry this fic took so long Jess but I hope you like it. Warnings: sexual images, swearing, Winters being awkward, kinky Ron, themes of war

Bastogne had been cold but Haguenau wasn’t much better. The wind bit fiercely at her face, freezing the tip of her nose and chapping her lips as she marched, head down, hands balled into fists. She couldn’t believe it. How was it when something went wrong it always seemed to be her damn fault? It’s not like Easy was her company, she was just a Corporal for Christ's sake but for some reason known only to God, Ronald Speirs had it in for her and regardless of the situation he would call her for a little chat.

Her boots sounded loudly up the corridor, snow and mud flaking off on the rotten wooden floor. First Sergeant Lipton greeted her with a small smile from beneath his mountain of blankets, his voice weak and shaky as he told her to take a seat.

“Just stay calm, Y/n. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems.

“That’s easy for you to say, Sir,” Y/n reminded him of the last time Speirs had called her to his office and Lipton had nearly lost his head to a flying plate.

Heavy footfall from the left caused Y/n to stand, her hand swiftly saluting the three offices as they entered the room. Winters and Nixon nodded at her before heading out, still deep in their conversation and leaving her with Speirs who looked as though he was about to blow his top.

“Y/l/n, with me. NOW!” Y/n trailed along like a dejected puppy, her head hanging low as she waited for the onslaught that was to come. Speirs slammed the heavy, oak door behind her but she didn’t jump. This exact situation had happened enough times that it barely phased her anymore.

“Corporal, why do you think I’ve called you here?” Speirs asked, leaning against the desk in the centre of the room. He had his overcoat off and the sleeves of his jumper rolled up, revealing the bulging veins of his arms as he glared at her.

“No, Sir,” Y/n replied innocently and she noticed the very subtle change in his eyes. She was in for it now.

“Well funny enough I didn’t expect to find one of the finest medics in the company having a snowball fight with some of the replacements. We’re in a war zone for fuck sake. You’ve been through Bastogne, I’d have thought you could have been trusted, could have been relied on but…”

“Sir, it was just for a few minutes. We were back from the line by our billet. The boys are homesick, Sir.”

“HOMESICK. FUCKING HOMESICK! How long has it been since you’ve seen home, Corporal,” he demanded, his eyes wild and his jaw shaking with the effort to not explode.

“Nearly two years, Sir,” she muttered, toeing her boot into the floor.

“And how long has it been for them? Two weeks? If anyone should be homesick it’s us. The Toccoa men. The men who have been through hell and back and are still fighting. I rely on you to set a good example and if I can’t trust a medic. Well, who the hell can I trust?”

Y/n picked at the cuff of her frayed uniform, “will that be all, Sir?”

“Yes, you may go.”

Y/n saluted the Lieutenant before heading to the door, she was pulling it closed behind her when Speirs spoke. “Do you want a drink?”

“I’m sorry, Sir?” Y/n raised an eyebrow as she peaked around the edge of the door.

“A drink? I managed to find some half-decent whiskey that Captain Nixon had yet to drink. Would you like a glass?”

Y/n wasn’t sure what to say, she wanted to get the hell away from his harsh glare as soon as possible but she was also curious. Why did he suddenly want to have a drink with her? For all Y/n knew he couldn’t stand the sight of her.

“Ummm, alright. Thank you, Sir.”

Y/n took a seat on the dark, leather sofa to the left of the desk, cautiously on the edge in case she was mistaken and needed to make a run from an angry Lieutenant.

“Here,” Speirs hesitantly passed her a glass of the amber liquid and she took it gratefully, the alcohol burning her throat pleasantly as it slipped down. She hadn’t had good alcohol since the celebration when Easy received their jump wings. The rest of the time it had been lukewarm, foamy beer.

“So, how are you holding up?” Speirs watched her from afar, his dark eyes boring into her as he waited.

“I’m fine. Thank you, Sir.” How else was she supposed to reply? She couldn’t exactly tell him how much she hated the God-awful hell hole and could wait to be back somewhere that was warm and allowed her to feel her limbs once more.

“Good. That’s good.” Speirs swirled the orange liquid around his glass, having not taken a drink yet and instead glared at the liquid as if someone gave him a sour aftertaste without consuming it.

“Sir, is there something you wanted to discuss?” Y/n wanted answers, there were only so many times she could avoid his eye contact and swallow nervously.

“Not especially. I just… wanted some company.” Speirs admitted, turning to look out of the window onto the deserted streets below. Y/n sat very still, her eyes tracing over his frame, strong shoulders tensed, large hands leaning splayed against the window frame.

“I can feel you watching me,” Speirs spoke in a hushed tone but Y/n knew he heard her small intake of breath. “I always know when you're watching me.”

“Sir, I…”

“Don’t deny it. I watch you too, you know. I watch when you stock supplies, I watch you when you throw back your head and your eyes crease as you laugh. I watch you more than you realise.”

By this point, Speirs had turned to face her and Y/n didn’t know whether to be flattered or terrified as the lieutenant approached her.

“Sir?” Y/n couldn’t help the unsteadiness of her voice and her eyes grew wider as he knelt before her, his hands tracing up her thigh.

“We can’t deny ourselves of human touch, Corporal. Desires of the flesh”

“Lieutenant Speirs…Sir… I,” Y/n gasped as his hand slipped up further under her jacket, fumbling with the belt that secured her trousers. With his body hovering over her, Y/n couldn’t remember how to breathe, the air entered her lungs in short, sharp gasps as she felt his fingers travelling along the soft flesh of her stomach.

“Please,” she whispered, feeling completely pathetic but no longer able to care. “Please just touch me.”

“Oh Darling, I thought you’d never ask.”

Y/n wasn’t sure what happened next, the order of events was a blur but soon enough she was moaning into Ron’s neck, her hips rolling in time with the rhythm of his fingers against her clit. She withered beneath him, nails wracking down his clothed back but Ron didn’t seem to notice. The knot in Y/n’s stomach was tightening and she could feel her thighs beginning to shake with the effort of controlling herself from reeling off a string of profanities when the door flung open.

“Speirs, could you…” Lieutenant Winters stood frozen in the doorway, the apple in his hand long forgotten and his cheeks blushed the colour of the hair on his head. He gulped and Y/n felt herself trying to clamp her legs shut and move away from Ron but the grip he had on her hips was firm and unwavering.

“Yes, Major Winters?” Speirs asked as if he wasn’t seconds away from giving Y/n the orgasm of her life.

“I’ll come back at another time,” Winters shook his head avoiding eye contact with Y/n and pulling the door closed softly behind him. Y/n felt herself let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and glared up at Ron who was just smiling smugly at her.

“Ron, I swear to God…”

“Now, now or I’ll forget to play nice,” Ron winked at her and Y/n thought she could fall apart just from that one action. Her mouth snapped shut and Ron snickered, “That’s what I thought. Good girl.”

Tags: @iceman-kazansky @yeahcurrahhe-e @lieutenant-speirs @sharpshootershifty @liberteuniteegalite @msmercury84 @mayhem24-7forever @blvestxr @dustyjumpwjngs @theflyingfin @jump-wings @kafka-ohdear @kmc1989 @mads-weasley @docroesmorphine @liptonsbabe @lena-basilone @sweetxvanixlla @hesbuckcompton-baby @ronsparky @allthingsimagines @whollyjoly @bucky32557038ww2 @panzershrike-pretz @xxluckystrike @malarkgirlypop

#ronald speirs x reader #band of brothers #ronald speirs #hbo war imagine #hbowar #ron speirs #Leuitenant Speirs #kinky Ron

[lucidfairies]

hi 🫡

. yes that is me embarrassing the shit outta myself (I actually sent that to a handful of girls)

i. for those of you who may not know, i'm maya. i'm 18, i'm typically a masculine presenting lesbian and I happen to be a she/her. I also am unfortunately asexual

• everyone meat riding rn about why I read and write so much smut as an asexual, I would love for you to know that I'm fighting a losing battle with hypersexuality! that is all I will be sharing on that matter thank you. •

ii. I'm proficient at finding people's instas whether they wanna be found or not!! if this relates to you, you may want to hmu.

iii. um I'm single if that wasn't clear from the kicker.

iv. I have severe Audhd and I have OCD but I don't really count that because you can't really tell it's there. I'm a POTS and scoliosis survivor

(can u tell idk what the hell I'm doing)

v. I will drop my socials if you so want them but I would prefer u DM me cuz I don't need my public insta in tumblr comments tbh (I have insta, tiktok, discord, snap, so on so forth)

vi. I'm still in high school LMAOOO pls I'm not less than eighteen guys don't worry but I aspire to be in the military but I'm taking a gap year

vii. I've been writing since like third grade but over quarantine my parents kinda banished me to our basement and I was doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing but now I'm sorta good at writing !!

viii. fics are kinda a side gig, I do write real shit here and there but there's genuinely no point so idk why I do it

ix. I'm what people like to call a whore except I don't fuck around I just talk to like nine people at once (hop off my dick rn)

x. I'm hilariously funny if you ever wanna strike up a conversation

xi. I'm down for ANY conversations. you wanna talk about what kinks some random bitch has based on their appearance? let's talk about it. wanna tell me about the sex you had last night? I'll go get a snack. I don't get triggered by really anything so if u need an outlet, I'm right here bb

xii. I actually have a massive gyatt

xiii. I can curl a lot of lbs and um I can bench some too and I guess do leg stuff (gym girlies rise)

xiv. I'm Jewish but not like Jewish my fam just is, I am probably one of the furthest things from religion and I don't hugely support organized religion (my fav way to describe it is being Jew-ish)

xv. I am a leftist through and through (pro choice, pro science, pro gays, Black lives matter, stop Asian hate, in case you needed clarification on that one) and I avoid knowingly being friends with Republicans at all costs

xvi. I am pro Palestine, nothing anyone will say or do could change my stance on that one.

xvii. I have a cat + dog

xviii. I don't get cold like ever cuz I ski in like 10° weather all winter

xix. I have Duolingo and if u wanna beef it out w a quest then I am definitely down for that because I will beat you (I'm learning Hawaiian and Hebrew)

xx. I'm fluent in German and speak it at home w the fam and I know some Spanish + French

xxi. juice boxes > anything

xxii. some more pics of me will follow whenever I stfu

xxiii. I stand at a whopping six feet tall but I swear I have short person energy

xxiv. if your snap score is more that 300k we can't be friends I'm sorry (mine is 100k suck my c o c k)

xxv. in my personal opinion I have huge dick energy but you're welcome to put me in my place (I'm a switch and I'll cook for you)

xxvi. best position is doggy but I can be persuaded into something different

xxvii. CUNT

xxviii. uhhhh I'm from the East Coast of America so l operate in EST time

anyway y'all here are some for faceless pics that are guaranteed to make u cream (see, hilarious)

god it's giving faggot 😓

anyway it was nice getting to talk about myself for a long time 🫡 feel free to make numerous comments about my life in the comments

sayonara sistas

[mrghostrat]

ok gamers lets Interact

(answering asks) (bc i get self conscious abt spamming the dash)

@goblin-named-sam: oh my goddd that would be SO RAD!!! i would love to see this, you have my full permission! (and same re: reading everything out loud omg i do that too htphfpt)

also my bestie is the same with human AUs so i completely get it, and am so pleased & proud my work can be considered so in character to bypass that worry. i agree that the 6,000 years of pining, as well as their separation from the rest of humanity, is a massively integral part of what makes aziraphale and crowley. but imo their lil everyday interactions are just as important, like their flow of conversation and all the temptation vs resistance.

so as long as human AUs recreate that dynamic in some way, they can be sooo fun to read. and then you unlock a whole new range of stories for when you get tired of the same/similar End Of The World narrative. it's hard to get it right, especially when writing a completely different medium like twitch chats and discord messages, but soooo rewarding when it lands 😭🙏 thank you again.

@froggyliciouz: thank you so much holy shit!!

Anonymous: i live for this. ur sustaining me. every time i open my inbox and look at this message, more of my age lines disappear

Anonymous: thank you for telling me so! 🥹

Anonymous: dying over all the ppl rereading it even when it's just come out!!!! so freaking flattering i can't even describe <3

Anonymous: it's lil messages like these that i worry im gonna be annoying if i publish them all to my dash but they bring me SO MUCH LFIE i love every single one kiss kiss thank you for messaging me 🥺

Anonymous: oh how naive i was to think that all this positive reinforcement wouldn't make me keep writing at such a desperate speed 😂

Anonymous: I SWEAR I REPLIED TO THIS ONE... well i hope the cards turned out well! i am 100% here for dangling my fic like carrot and string to get you through chores and tasks >B) phase 2 of the plan is getting us all on a healthy sleep schedule

Anonymous: all hail the stream worm 🙇🪱🙇 and you can thank all the tasty comments people are leaving (and asks like this!!) for making me doubly feral about getting new updates out. must--please--the worms--

Anonymous: AYYY THERE YOU ARE I'M SO PROUD OF YOU 🎉 thank you so much for comin on back and sharing such lovely thoughts about my work 😭💛

Anonymous: ty for reading!! so many fics have done the students' reaction to their relationship better than i ever could 💛 but i love it when they're in total shock and maybe don't even believe it at first 😂 adam would definitely think crowley is pranking them at first (but it would also be so sweet if they all started being a little more personable with aziraphale — i imagine that after the trip, they already would, since they got to see this fun snarky side of him. but even moreso once they realise he's their favourite teacher's husband)

@quinnie28: thank you soooo muchhh for recommending it!! some of my favourite all time fics were sent to me by my bestie. very honoured to be read by someone who doesn't usually read wips <333

Anonymous: he'll always be our lil meow meow

Anonymous: I'm so happy i could bring you a lil joy 🥹 lots of love to you

#anonymous #ask a rat

[lovebugs-and-snakecharmers]

LBSC Sprint Challenge February 2024

The LBSC Sprint Challenge is now open for writers and artists!

We did things a little differently this month and asked our discord members for Valentine's related prompts, so you get a few extra prompts this month! If you're not feeling the Valentine's vibe, the Wildcard option is always available.

The prompts are:

1. Flower Delivery boy Luka getting an address wrong. Which means the girl who answered the door might just be available. 2. Tom decides to drop some hints to Luka that Marinette is single and Valentine’s Day is coming up. And everyone knows that the best way to a man’s brain is through pastries decorated with not so subtle hints. 3. Florist!Mari- the heat in her shop has gone out, and it's Soo cold. Luka makes a delivery of something that has to be refrigerated. 4. Sabine, seeing Luka and Mari dancing around each other (and maybe seeing Tom fail to get the two together) decides to take matters into her own hands and what better excuse to have Luka around than needing an extra pair of hands at the bakery with the valentines rush coming up? 5. The people of Paris are shocked to discover Ladybug doesn’t like Valentine’s Day. People have plenty of theories, but Luka’s pretty sure he knows the reason why. 6. There's ALWAYS an akuma on Valentine's Day. 7. Conversation Hearts 8. Marinette makes an apron with a conversation heart pattern. Luka takes the 'kiss me' heart very seriously. 9. After all the roses from Chat Noir, Marinette's a little...indifferent to the traditional Valentine's flower. Luka has to get inventive. 10. Kwamis give dating advice with… mixed results 11. Marinette loves soulmate stories and believes in true love. Lately, she's feeling down and starts to give up on the whole idea. Luka tries to put together or act out a Soulmate story/AU in real life to help her feel better/special. 12. Luka trying to work up the nerve to smooch Marinette. Attempts to ask by giving her the "KISS ME" conversation heart. Marinette, distracted by something else: "Ewwwwwww." 13. Luka and Marinette are both doing valentines deliveries and get trapped/stuck in an elevator together 14. Wildcard - pick any previous challenge prompt, or play LBSC Smooch Roulette to generate a prompt!

You have until Wednesday, February 28 to complete your 3 15-minute sprints/45 minute art sprint and post the results. Once you’ve completed the sprints, you have 24 hours to edit (which can include some new writing to smooth transitions and make it feel complete, and whatever work you feel appropriate to get your art to a state you consider ‘finished’).

Please note you may sprint in the language of your choice, and you can either translate the final fic before posting, post it in the original language, or both as you choose. You can join us on the LBSC discord or sprint on your own! Just be sure to tag @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers in your final post so we will see it and reblog it. The rest of the rules can be found here under the cut.

Rules!

We’ll post a beginning and end date to the challenge, and a prompt.

Writers, If you choose to participate in the event, write for that prompt in up to three 15 minute sprints. No writing outside the sprints until you have completed all three! After the 3 sprints are complete, you have 24 hours to edit (which can include some new writing to smooth transitions, etc). You can also choose to break that 45 minutes up differently if you find a different split works better for you.  After those 24 hours, post what you’ve got. Tag your posts with @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers so we can reblog it to the LBSC blog. If you post your work on AO3 or somewhere other than Tumblr, you can leave a link in our ask box or in the appropriate discord channel so we can be sure to promote it. After the designated challenge end date, we’ll compile a listing of the submissions and post it to the LBSC blog.

Feel free to sprint in whatever language is most comfortable to you! You can post it in your own language or translate it before posting, or both!

Artists, you have 45 minutes to sketch and 24 hours to do any cleanup or coloring you’d like to complete. You can split your 45 minutes up however you like, or not at all. There’s no requirements on your finished piece, just aim for whatever goal seems challenging but achievable to you.  Tag your posts with @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers so we can reblog it to the LBSC blog. If you post your work on Instagram or somewhere other than Tumblr, you can leave a link in our ask box or in the appropriate discord channel so we can be sure to promote it. After the designated challenge end date, we’ll compile a listing of the submissions and post it to the LBSC blog.

If you’re wavering as to whether or not you think you can accomplish anything in 45 minutes, we really encourage you to give the challenge a try. You may be surprised what you can do! Feel free to join us in the discord linked above so we can encourage and cheer you on.

Obviously, this has to run a bit on the honor system and we won’t be tracking your times, but please do your best to honor the spirit of the challenge! If your sprint fic becomes an Entire Thing (these things happen sometimes) and you want to continue it, feel free! However, please still post whatever you’ve got after your 3 sprints with the tag. No fair busting out a fully polished fic or art without showing us what it looked like at the challenge stage!

We want to keep this a positive space and event! This does NOT mean that you can’t write or draw anything critical of a character or episode, but it isn’t the space for character bashing or hate either. Please keep the characters in character and save the more speculative work for another time. NSFW sprint works are permitted but must be tagged appropriately (please use “NSFW LBSC sprint challenge” for easy filtering on the blog) and with appropriate warnings.  (More FAQ about the process here)

This is a Lukanette blog and a Lukanette event, so while Lukanette does not need to be the main ship, it needs to at least be included or referenced and considered endgame (in other words, they don’t have to be together by the end of your work, but the intent is that they’re headed in that direction). The decision about what qualifies for reblog rests solely with the LBSC moderators. If a piece hasn’t been reblogged within a couple of days, either the mods felt the piece didn’t meet the criteria or it was simply missed; you are welcome to reach out in the asks to inquire which. There are plenty of other spaces out there for other ships and OT3s, and people are welcome to use the challenge rules and prompts to write for their own ships! They just won’t be reblogged to the LBSC blog, and we ask that you please not use the event tag (a modified form is fine - “InsertAlternateShipName sprint challenge” instead of “LBSC sprint challenge,” for example).

Happy sprinting!

#lbsc sprint challenge #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #luka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #pro lukamari #lukanette event

[ryuichirou]

The mystery of the Ortho smut fic: the plot thickens

Since we’ve gotten a couple of asks about this topic, I’ll put all of them in one post.

It’s related to these two asks, by the way. I hope all the mentioned Anons find each other… Although I’m not sure if it’s possible + I’m now confused about just how many Anons we have in this particular conversation lol but hey, at least all of you are here!

Anonymous asked:

To answer the Ortho smut fic anon unfortunately no it wasn't your fic but from what I saw it was typed on discord and not ao3 so thankfully (?) it also wasn't your fic

But now I want to read an Ortho smut fic 😔

Just posting this one :)

Anonymous asked:

the anon who wrote ortho x reader smut and, yes, there is a huge lack of actual ortho x reader orz i feed from the four pixiv artists who draw yuu x ortho together with an app that translates pictures and shroudcest because Ortho looks so yummy. half of what you find in ortho x reader is him being a matchmaker for Idia, and i don't dislike Idia but oh god the flanderization. let the boy kiss his brother or kiss both his brother and me, fandom ;w; didn't he become his own person in book 6

btw all my ortho x reader is written with sharing Ortho with Idia in mind. i just can't believe in a world where Idia didn't touch the shota robot if not his flesh brother.

It really is sad that Ortho’s entire role just ends up being “someone who is a support team on the background”. Just like you said, he is his own person, and even if we don’t go to the smut territory, it’s interesting how no one seems to be interested in playing around with how he could act in a romantic setting.

(yaaay, Shroudcest found its way into the yuuships lol; I also feel like I know at least one pixiv artist that you’re talking about)

Anonymous asked:

In response to previous anon’s mention of Ortho x reader smut, I’m in the middle of Ao3’s first every Ortho x Vil fic (yeah you guessed it, it’s the OruVil/VilOrtho shipper 🤖👑).

If you want a link (as it’s a bit of a monster fic) I’ll gladly share with you and all the Ortho fans out there.

Time to combine our fangirling/fanboying and give him much deserved love!!

Yaaay, OruVil shipper Anon, hi! Please keep doing what you’re doing, this ship needs to exist on Ao3, it just has to. I’m not sure how we’ll handle this entire conversation from now on, it’s a bit chaotic, but you can still share your fic!

Anonymous asked:

I'm so disappointed I went looking through the Ortho x reader tag out of curiosity and it's all platonic

You’re in good company, Anon. I hope the situation changes soon lol

#replies

[ufo-ikawa]

hi, this is me ari.

you’ll have seen that i deactivated my accounts, both my main and my personal. i ran away from everything as fast as i could which was cowardly, and i don’t expect forgiveness at all, but this is an attempt at exposing everything. please share with everyone who read the fics and/or interacted with me.

in november 2021, i opened up ufo-ikawa. i had originally started with writing my own works, because i just wanted to write and join a fandom i really liked— then it snowballed. i have always felt my own writing was bad, and could never live up to others so i did what any pathetic person would do. i stole works from people who’s writing i admired and wanted to be like. (i also had another blog onigiri-mia which was deactivated due to death threats i was receiving daily regarding old drama, and stolen works were also posted there). instead of gaining inspiration, and reaching out to the writers themselves for any meaninful conversations on how to learn to write, i stole them, rewrote them and claimed them as my own.

and as i did, i slowly started to believe in everything i was saying or doing. i did it so much i felt like i was performing an act whenever i did and convinced myself that it was right. in real life, i am just a person who wanted attention so bad, to be liked so bad, to be part of something that i did one of the worst things just to gain it. i guess in a way, identity theft, and then plagiarism.

which i know is absolutely wrong of me. i have also reached out to the creators separately and said my apologies, except for nine3rds who i have been unable to message. i can’t make them accept any apologies and i take 100% accountability, and it doesn’t lessen any guilt i have now that the truth is out or all the wrongs i did, but i thought that was the first step.

the second step is owning up to it and cutting through all the bullshit lies i’ve told myself. this year, one of my goals was to achieve something good for myself. idk about you, but i truly do believe in karma. i will of course get it no doubt, because of all the bad i’ve put out, but i’m also hoping that by being honest and righting my wrongs that even if i’m at rock bottom right now, i can still start somehow. not relevant but something i just wanted to say.

i just wanted to apologise to everyone who i’ve talked to here personally or formed close friendships with. it’s hard to believe me, but just know that when we were talking about our lives that was all real and not fake. i am still just a person, a shitty one at that, but those irl experiences and thoughts i talked about were real. I’m genuinely so sorry for deceiving you in some way. i will never interact again, i will stay off of this site for good, and i will also never try to write and post anything again, so i hope u get some peace of mind out of that. i’ve tried to apologise as best as i could to the close friends i made on discord— i have also disabled that account to let them see, and will eventually be deleting it. thank you for talking to me and making me laugh and just listening to me, even if i didn’t deserve it.

if you’re angry at me and resent me, i completely understand and will not try to speak further. i’ve tried my best to explain it all above, but i won’t open my asks because i hope this post explains it all enough. you can say anything you’d like under this post if it helps.

i’ve deactivated my account but i know the fics stay there so please delete any reblogs and unlike any fic. i am genuinely sorry for deceiving everybody for selfish reasons (that absolutely do not excuse anything). i have a lot of work to put into myself to try and fix things, but i hope this is a start.

now for the most imporant part, i wanted to link the original writers’ work. they are all incredible, and if you liked what i stole then of course you will like them even better as the original. please give them the love they rightfully deserve but please also respect their rules on who interacts:

AO3 lovelanguages

AO3 softbeoms

AO3 nine3rds

that’s all i have to say. thank you, and please share.

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu x y/n #oikawa x reader #osamu x reader #atsumu x reader #kita x reader #iwaizumi x reader #jujustsu kaisen x reader #jjk x reader #gojo x reader #geto x reader #jjk headcanons

[iwillrememberyoumarathon]

Bangel fans, we want to hear from you! During the run-up to the IWRY Fic Marathon in November, we’ll be getting to know each other through our Meet the Fandom series. Answer the questions here to join in.

What is your name?

Kairos

Where do you hang out?

Discord, Tumblr @kairosimperative, Dreamwidth, deviantArt, Ao3

Do you create any fan works?

Fanfiction and the occasional attempt at traditional art. I've also done a couple vids, a long long time ago.

Funniest Bangel/Buffyverse moment?

Angel slipping on the floor where they were mopping is classic.

What Buffyverse opinion would have you chased through the village with pitchforks?

I prefer the retconned "AN-jel-us" pronunciation to "an-JEL-us."

Share a headcanon you have about Bangel or the Buffyverse?

The claddagh was a wedding ring. Buffy didn't know it, but Angel did, and he considered himself her husband until death did them part.

How would you have given Buffy and Angel their Happily Ever After?

It wouldn't take much! Just a Shanshu timed so that Buffy isn't too old to get the most out of their remaining years together. And maybe an enlightening conversation between them.

Last fic you read?

A super-secret beta job for IWRY!

Slay, Lay, Obey - Giles, Professor Walsh, Willy the Snitch?

Slay Walsh

Lay with Giles  

Obey Willy (I know he's just gonna make me do crime with him but he'll probably give me a cut)

Fill in the quiz so the fandom can meet you!

#meetthefandom #iwryficmarathon2023 #bangel #buffy x angel

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories

#the witcher #the witcher netflix #geralt #yennefer #jaskier #geraskier #yennskier #yengilla #yennaia #yennefer x tissaia #yenralt #merihart #witcher comment crawl

[pebblysand]

WELCOME BACK TO THE PAGE PALS PROJECT! AS A REMINDER, THE "PAGE PALS" PROJECT IS A GROUP RE-READ OF CASTLES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE READ THIS POST HERE.

THIS WEEK, WE'RE DOING CHAPTER 2. BELOW, YOU'LL FIND MY THOUGHTS AS A CONVERSATION STARTER. FEEL FREE TO SEND IN ASKS IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS/THOUGHTS, AND TO JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION.

HANDY LINKS/INFO:

chapter: ii. out of ash (ashes twirl)

wordcount: 10, 476

playlist: notes here

castles FAQ: here

.

g e n e r a l t h o u g h t s:

for a very long time, this chapter used to be my favourite, and i still hold it in very high regard. i don't know what it is about it, it just feels like ✨vibes✨. it's both incredibly funny at times, and incredibly sad, and i feel like it really exhibits that awkward post-war happy/sad balance that is so important to castles. even if it's no longer my favourite cause i'm not quite sure which is my favourite anymore, i still think chapter 2 has some of my best writing in this fic. i'll go through a few chosen bits below but i feel like it has that general sense of messiness and melancholy that i really like in the early days of this story.

just like with chapter 1, you might notice a few changes i've made along the way, depending on when you read it last. again, i don't think it's anything major but if you do notice, you'll see that i didn't actually delete anything, just moved things around a bit. i think it flows better that way. i also added some stuff - i'm curious to see if you'll spot it. let me know!

having said that, omg, i'd forgot how SLOW the pacing is in this chapter. don't get me wrong, i think it needs to be slow for the purposes of telling the story, but it's very much like: this is them leaving the hotel, this is them having breakfast, this is them testifying - it is very step by step lol. i worry about my pacing in the later chapters, sometimes, but i clearly forgot about this one lol.

g i n n y:

Generally, reading this just this morning, I couldn't help but feel this raw sense of panic in Ginny, throughout this chapter. I think obviously, it's something that only really makes sense and becomes apparent on re-read, but there's this way you really feel how fucking terrified she is that Harry will find out. I hate to say this, but the way she acts with him, that summer, is almost reminiscent of her "relationship" with Amycus, actually. She is watching his every move, everything he says, everything she says, trying to make sure he doesn't find out. And, I don't think the pretending and the lying comes easy to her, I think it basically tears her apart, but those are skills that she "learnt" with Amycus. Being cued into his every emotion, expertly toying that line between saying too much and too little. She is almost manipulating him, into thinking they have this connection, and that them not talking is the Right thing for them, and it's not really her fault, it's how fear has wired her to function, but I find it chilling.

h i g h l i g h t s:

A year later, roses bloom once again in the gardens of Ottery St Catchpole and Harry’s still holding her. Some things in life never change, he muses, although, of course, everything else has changed. They’ve both fought in a war that should never have been theirs and one of her brothers has died, leaving the start of the summer to mend itself without them, trapped in a combative attempt to shovel the little hope it has left down their throats. When Harry caresses Ginny’s skin, the summer of ‘98, she’s naked next to him, the both of them tucked in her small, twin bed at The Burrow. They try to be quiet (always, despite the silencing charms they cast) but they each have a side, now, an oddly domestic habit, and after they have sex, Harry often lies with her body wrapped around him, so close that he’s never quite sure where her limbs start and where his end. Her bed’s pushed up against her window - along the skin of his left arm, he feels the morning dew build as the night chill leaves the air; it trickles down the single-glazed glass. They watch the sun rise together - early mornings and milky skies.

I LOVE THIS PARAGRAPH SO MUCH. idk, jokes aside, i think it's one of my favourite things i've ever written. there's a flow to it i really like and i adore the end of "early mornings and milky skies". and i think it's the beginning of this motif that sort of comes back in chapter 17 where the two of them are always touching, comfortable in bed. the chill of early summer mornings and OH I LOVE IT.

'I'm not a Healer, Harry.'

so, this is actually a line i added in reaction to a) the people in my comments being mad that ginny wasn't weeding secrets out of harry and that being "ooc", and b) a conversation i later had with @btelling. i think there's this misconception in fandom about ginny being a "healer". this idea that she's almost harry's therapist after the war, the only one that can get him talking, etc. and i think firstly, there's very little evidence of that in canon. ginny asks for explanations, often, but she very rarely ever gets them. and secondly, there's this general view of women as healers in general, tending to "sick" men and making them better, which i don't particularly enjoy. so, i guess that was me reacting to all of this.

They barely swallow any food. For the other two’s sakes, Harry tries to hide the knot in his stomach, can tell that Hermione is anxious enough for the three of them - she keeps tapping an annoying rhythm against the table with the tips of her fingers, doesn’t even seem to realise she’s doing it. Her make-up is minimal, the varnish on her nails a plain but shiny transparent. His mind drifts back to Ginny again, how she always painted her nails in bright colours in school, reds and oranges, and golds, performed complicated charm work on them so that it would stick. ‘If I don’t, it always chips with Quidditch.’

i noticed this on a previous re-read but, i don't think i wrote this intentionally but i love the way harry is so infatuated with ginny in this. like, i think this is one of the moments where the fact that he totally idealises her and is very teenage-infatuated-crazy-about-a-girl really shines through. he literally looks at hermione's nails and is like: oh and by the way GINNY does her nails like this. it's so silly but it really shows how obsessed he is with her, but also how shallow it kind of is. he thinks it's deep, because when you're that age you think you're so deep, but it's actually not.

‘When we get there, it’ll be like the craziest circus you’ve ever been to,’ he speaks, quick, before he runs out of words. There is an urgency to the things that he needs to tell them both, ones that they don’t necessarily want to hear. ‘It’ll be dozens and dozens of people standing in a crowd, clapping and screaming, and wanting a piece of you. They’ll want to thank you, insult you, ask you questions, tell you personal stuff about themselves. They don’t mean anything bad by it, they just don’t really realise you’re a person. The press will be there, too, and they will be flashing their cameras just about five inches from your face to try and get a good shot,’ he adds, raising his hand close to his own cheek, showing them the distance. ‘They’ll want to touch you, have you sign stuff, and they’ll keep talking at you from the moment you step out of that fireplace to the moment you get into the lift. We’ll have an escort of Aurors to try and hold them back but I honestly doubt that they’ll be able to do much. It’ll feel like you’re in the longest tunnel you’ve ever been through and you can’t see the exit. At least, wear that scarf over your head, it’ll hide your face and your eyes from the cameras, protect you a bit. Ron, you can use the hood at the back of your robes.’

i think honestly, this is one of my favourite harry moments in the whole fic. i can't possibly tell you how much time i spent on this paragraph, back then. i see it as one of those post-war moments where harry actually does start growing into his own skin and also where you start being faced with the reality of the post-war world. there's this sort of "bubble," i think, throughout chapters 1&2 where they're all very removed from the outside and inside their little burrow bubble, and that obviously bursts big time, with the commission. there's something very brutal about the way harry speaks that day, and i think it really fits.

‘Why were we never kids?’

ah, another castles classic line people quote all the time. yuuup. 💔

That evening, the both of them eat Pad Thai takeaway and sit on the floor in front of the muted hotel telly. They laugh at funny Hogwarts stories of Romilda Vane and crazy things that Harry remembers Luna saying. They drain a few cans of bitter and wait for Ron to come home.

i've always loved this moment loads because it's 1) harry-and-hermione-my-babies!!!! but also 2) it has these trio-codependency vibes that are very present in the early chapters of feeling lost when the three of them aren't together. the way they "wait for Ron to come home" breaks my little heart for them.

Love in its million different forms, the way Dumbledore preached it. Harry loves Hermione the way he loves Ron, like the boy who introduced him to chocolate frogs and the girl who cried in the loo and faced a troll.

again, trio vibes. love, love, love.

l a s t l y:

okay, so i love, love, love the rest of this chapter but also i'm having a hard time articulating precise thoughts so i'll leave it at that for now. please do not hesitate to send me asks if there's anything else you'd like me to comment on, though. very excited to hear your thoughts.

#castles #chapter 2

[mi6-cafe]

April is Poetry Month!

This April, we challenge you to create poetry related to Bond OR to recommend poems that you associate with Bond characters! Keep in mind that song lyrics can also be poetry. Remember to tag your poetry post with #mi6cafechallenge and @mi6-cafe so we can find and reblog.

Quarterly Theme: Epistolary

Between each equinox we have a different overarching theme. This season's theme is epistolary! Epistolary is a story told through any genre of written communication: DMs, letters, emails, memos, receipts, social media posts, text messages, and even sticky notes! We challenge you to create a Bond epistolary. If you don’t feel like writing 007’s diary (“Love interest killed. Again.”), one easy format to use is sticky notes: maybe a conversation is had across a character’s desk? Or maybe there's a series of text messages between characters.

All you have to do is make a post, use the tag #Quarterly Theme, and include @mi6-cafe so that it shows up in our activity feed. Our next quarterly theme will arrive on the summer equinox.

The Saturday Cafe: April 6th and April 20th.

Come join us in the fandom Slack as we write, draw, sprint, plot, brainstorm, cheerlead, and generally have a good time trying to get things done together. If you’d like an invite to the Slack, go ahead and message @castillon02 or @spiritofcamelot!

Long Fic Readalong, Saturdays at 9pm ET

Join us in the Discord while we read a fic together. The group just finished reading their last selection and is picking a new one.

We’d love to see you there. You are welcome to listen if you don’t or can’t read aloud!     When: Saturdays at 9pm eastern/6pm Pacific. Where: We’ll be reading on discord in the readalongs channel. (Invite to discord here)

Please join us to read, to just hang out and listen, and to generally enjoy a good story together!

Weekly events:

WIP Wednesday: You can post an excerpt of your WIP on our post or make your own post and mention the @mi6-cafe. Either way it’s a fun way to show people what you’re working on, Bond fandom or otherwise.

Weekly Bond movies: Hosted by womble every Sunday at 8am Pacific time, join us in Discord to watch one of the Bond movies. Keep an eye on the watch party calendar linked below for updates.

Want to host your own event in the Discord or elsewhere? Let us know about it so we can add it to the calendars!

Calendars

Watch Party Calendar MI6 Cafe Calendar   If you need help adding these calendars to your personal one, check out this post.

#Monthly post

[etherrreal]

guess who just finished a kenma x reader fic and will hopefully be posting it this week 👀 here's a little sneak peek! -Luna

update: it’s out! “would you be mine(craft)?” is out for you to read :)

As you stand there with the cupboards open, you glance at the clock on the microwave—still off by an hour from when the time changed—and wonder if anyone’s in the Minecraft realm at the moment. Probably Kenma.

You grab the first bag of chips you see and head to your bedroom, getting comfortable in front of your computer so you can boot up Minecraft. You’re in the game for maybe a minute before you hear the Discord chime, a message waiting for you from Kenma.

ken-ma dick fit in your mouth:: 💻📞🗣️? call me by y/n:: …are you asking me to get in the voice channel?? ken-ma dick fit in your mouth:: 👍 call me by y/n:: bet call me by y/n:: also, whoever changed your username is a funny guy 😉 ken-ma dick fit in your mouth:: 🖕

With an evil chuckle, you pull out your headset and plop it on your head, switching channels and waiting patiently for Kenma to join. Shocking to no one, it takes only a few moments for his name to pop up.

“Yo, what’s up?”

“Hey,” he greets, his character popping up in front of yours and crouching, throwing down bread in front of you. “How’d your date go?” 

“It went absolutely terrible!” You attempt to joke about it, but the bitterness seeps through. “He was an okay dude, but there was absolutely no chemistry, whatsoever. It was like having a meeting with a coworker.” 

“What is that, like, the third failed date this month?” 

“Oh god, please don’t say that out loud. It makes me feel bad,” you say with a lighthearted chuckle. 

“Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Sometimes I just wonder if it’s me, ya know? Like, am I the problem, or is it the type of guys that I’m going after?” You pause your mining, pondering all the failed dates, and if there’s some kind of common denominator between them all. Or maybe that common denominator is you? 

Kenma makes a noise of disagreement, saying nothing more as he continues breaking down lines of cobbled deep slate, pausing to mumble ‘zombie’ as he shoots him dead, the little jingle of EXP loud in your ears. 

“Anyway, enough about my depressing dating life. How’s yours? Did you end up asking out that one girl you were telling me about?” 

He lets out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. She had a boyfriend.”

“Oof. That had to suck. Sorry, man. Looks like we’re both striking out lately.”

Usually, he’d hum in acknowledgment, like he tends to do when there’s nothing else he can add to the conversation, but still wants you to know you’ve been heard. Instead, you notice there’s an odd silence, like he’s planning on adding something more.

Kenma clears his throat, and you hear him shift his headset. “When I told Kuroo, he said that we should just go out to put each other out of our misery.” 

#kenma x reader #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #kenma kozume x reader #kozume kenma x reader #kenma imagines #kenma kozume #hq x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyuu!! x reader #haikyuu #luna speaks #our writing #etherrreal updates

[hyperbolicreverie]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

Why would you make me choose between my children like that? Anyways, here we go, in no particular order: 1. Losing Time (You Can't Go Home Again) -- It's still not finished, but I've had such a good time writing this story. I wanted to tell a story where the Trafalgar family got the amount of focus I think they deserve given how important they are to their son, and it's just been a treat to turn them into fully-realized characters.

2. Threnody for the Living -- Brook and Law were not a pair I thought too much of until I started writing this, and then the potential parallels and themes hit me over the head like a sack of cement. Plus I always love seeing Brook treated seriously and not just as comic relief.

3. Territorial Disputes (Gifts, Unexpected) -- Came about from a discord conversation about the hypothetical hilarity of the amount of power the Straw Hats unknowingly have at their disposal. Law just gets to be the person to suffer from that. Was a treat to write, I giggled the entire way through.

4. A Toast, to the Health of the Captain -- Also prompted by a discord conversation, this one is a combination of wanting one of your favorite characters to be happy and healthy, and also wanting to tease them incessantly about their obliviousness.

5. We Set Our Wishes Upon Her Waters -- Bit of a cheat, since there are multiple fics in this series, but I love writing this AU, and getting to personify whole oceans and their relationships with people through them. I'm not done with this series, either--there will be more fics eventually.

I don't know who I can tag who hasn't already seen this, so have at it, whomever wants to!

#rev speaks #my writing #ask meme

[imaginatorcreates]

Hold On, If Love Is The Answer, You're Home

09 May 2023 — 11 May 2023

Summary: The Neighborhood is beloved by each other, especially by a little necromancer. How far will he go for them?

Word Count: ~5.1k words

TW: Talks of death and corpses, and a mild bit of blood. This fanfic is based on a horror project, so just be warned overall.

Author's Note: The hyperfixation that this project has on me is strong. I chugged this out in 2 days. This is a Fantasy AU that was inspired by Discord chats about D&D and Welcome Home's cast. The cast are all living, breathing, bleeding creatures here.

Yes, the title is from "Touch" by Daft Punk. Yes, I listened to cottagecore playlists while making this. This is now my longest fic to date.

I'd also like to thank @/isleofair for helping me edit this! Your comments will forever feed my soul.

If there was one thing that was clear among the large adventuring party, filled with all sorts of beings from different lineages and backgrounds, it was that they stuck together through thick and thin. Despite everyone’s differences, they all somehow melded together into a coherent and admirable group. The Neighborhood, they called themselves. Certainly, they acted like good neighbors would, bound together like a family.

When they entered a town, eyes always swiveled towards the party. Whispers floated around and through them as people wondered about them. Where were they from? How did they meet each other? How many of them, hypothetically, were willing to stay behind for another? Conversations related to the latter topic usually died down when the flash of a metal ring around two of the party’s fingers became visible or when a quick peck on the cheek was exchanged, but they would almost always start up again when eyes became locked onto a voluminous blue pompadour.

There was something about that being with the pompadour. Maybe it was his perpetual half-lidded eyes, covered in eyeshadow that feathered outwards into his skin. Maybe it was his easy-going grin, one that seemed to always be on his face as he walked among his party members. Maybe it was his short stature, making him seem so much more precious. Maybe it was the way he interacted with his neighbors, going along with them as they talked with him, with nothing but a quick yelp as he was dragged along to explore.

This time, the party had walked into town for a quick shopping trip, but had instead gotten dragged into the festivities. After hearing from the citizens that they had to stay over for the big bonfire at the end of the day, The Neighborhood decided to book a few rooms at a local inn, if only to celebrate with the town (and for a moment of relaxation for themselves).

“Wally! Look at this!”

Wally looked up from his spellbook, its pages more so covered in doodles and artistic renditions of how to cast spells rather than written notes like most others might expect. He felt a hand gently place something on his head. His field of vision became smaller as the object atop his head shifted. A giggle rang in his ears as he blinked in confusion.

“D’aww! It suits you!”

Wally closed his spellbook and fixed the wide-brimmed hat so he could properly see. His eyes locked with Julie’s, a big grin painted on the taller horned girl’s face. “Really neighbor?” he asked, his voice soft and monotonous.

Julie rapidly nodded her head and shook her hands in excitement. “Yeah! Doesn’t our wizard need a hat fitting for his profession?” She reached over and adjusted the hat for Wally, balancing it so it wouldn’t fall yet not ruin his pompadour. “Now you look like a real wizard!”

“Oh, I see.” He rolled his eyes upwards as far as they would go in an attempt to look at the hat atop his head, but to no avail. “Was I not a real wizard before this hat?”

“Nooooo,” Julie said in a sing-song tune. “But you look more wizardly now! Oh! I have to find Frank and Eddie now! I found some things for their anniversary!” The sorcerer gave Wally a big hug before she ran off into the crowd, the occasional shriek from others being the only indicator that she was halfway to throwing caution to the wind.

Wally watched her retreat for a minute before removing the hat — Oh! It had a pointy top! And were those silver stars on the dark fabric too? — and placing it back on the stand. He looked around the crowd before slowly walking in a random direction. Maybe he’d run into some of his neighbors like he did with Julie.

He had already seen Howdy haggling the prices down on certain supplies that “were overpriced as hell!” He had almost never heard the quad-armed neighbor sound so irritated, and a soft smile quirked at the corners of his mouth. It wasn’t as if Howdy couldn’t just steal the supplies away, but he instead chose to pay fairly. “From one businessman to another, I endorse being civil about it,” he said when Sally asked him one day.

Poppy, on the other hand, easily accepted the prices given to her for healing potions. The easily-frightened avian of The Neighborhood said that after she collected enough healing supplies, she would be in the inn’s kitchen helping out with baking. “If there’s something that helps me relax a little, it’s when my feathers are covered in flour and the smell of freshly baked goods are coming from the oven.” Wally certainly found the baking process delightful to watch, and could feel the anxiety that normally radiated off their cleric fade away as careful measurements turned into a delectable dessert.

If he remembered correctly, Sally was also in the inn. The goal of the little star of a performer was to write out the script for her next big play, which was the party’s free pass to staying in the inn if it was well-received. She had wanted to share the story of their latest adventure, as fully embellished as she possibly could; laying out the characters and the setting, bringing it to life first on paper, then with her neighbors the next morning. She was originally conflicted about it, as she wished to explore the bustling market with the others. However, the promise of licking the mixing spoons and getting first dibs on the baked goods seemed to convince her to stay. At how quickly her quill flew over parchment at that agreement, Wally couldn’t help but think that she was probably already done by now and keeping Poppy company.

Frank and Eddie were most likely browsing the market together. It was a bit of a surprise when outsiders first laid eyes upon the married couple. Frank with his perpetual frown, furrowed unibrow, and almost endless knowledge on Lepidoptera, was happily married to Eddie? Eddie, who always seemed to have a polite smile on his face and had trouble remembering certain things? It could be hard to believe at first. But the soft looks, gentle kisses, and quiet understanding between the couple was undeniable. Eddie had all the power in his body to easily down a fully armored person, but also had the gentleness of a butterfly as he folded spare parchment into complex shapes for his neighbors. Frank’s exterior could be described as spiky as the thorns he could conjure from the ground, yet out of everyone, Julie was the one who first romped freely through it without a care in the world.

“Hey buddy!” a deep voice lazily called out.

Wally shook himself out of his thoughts and craned his neck upward. His grin widened and his pace quickened. After a few bumps into others, he was considered close enough for his bestest friend Barnaby to reach out, slip his large hands under his armpits, and gently throw the wizard into the air before wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug.

“Barnaby! Hello my friend,” Wally said as he rested his cheek against the other’s shoulder. It was damp, and a familiar wet dog scent entered Wally’s nose. “Oh, neighbor. What happened to you?”

Barnaby chuckled and shrugged with minimum movement so as not to disturb the party’s wizard so much. “Oh, just got caught in the butt end of a joke. ‘M not hurt Walls, promise.” He pressed his short snout against Wally’s shoulder and let out a throaty rumble of content.

Wally nuzzled into Barnaby’s shoulder at this show of affection. His grin softened when he saw how fast Barnaby's tail was wagging. It took everything in him to not drop his spellbook on the ground. He willed his fingers to stay curled tight around the spine, willed his grip to not go limp like the rest of him every time he was embraced in a hug.

“How have you been? Did you find anything nice?”

“Oh, not really.” Wally's tone might’ve reflected discontent over this situation from how monotonous it sounded, but the pair had been friends for long enough that Barnaby could read his friend easily. The combination of a sigh and the willing lean into the hug (however that may be like for the smallest being) led to there being no need to worry.

“Ahh, it’s alright buddy.” Barnaby released Wally from his tight hug and set him back on his feet. “I found a joke book written by an up-and-coming comedian here. Some of the jokes are pretty funny.” A grin slid onto his face and an eyebrow quirked upwards as he asked, “Do you wanna hear a few?”

Wally nodded. “I always love hearing your jokes Barnaby. They’re the most.” He slowly started to make his way back to the inn, the setting sun causing their shadows to elongate on the cobblestone ground. The canine neighbor walked alongside him and started to share some of the jokes he’s picked up, with the shorter of the pair giving a faltered laugh after each of them. His eyes showed more of what he shouldn't fully express though. They furrowed slightly as he processed the punchlines, then lit up as understanding hit. He made sure his shoulders shook to show that his laughter was genuine, and for the funnier jokes, he added the action of closing his eyes.

Wally was at home with each and every one of his neighbors. He loved how each of them came together and formed not just an adventuring party, but a family. He watched each interaction made with each other with close eye contact, his dark eyes following them carefully. He would give up the world if it meant that they could all stay like this. Happy. Together. A family.

------

A gasp. Air got sucked into his lungs. Out. In. Out. Breathing was so hard. Shouldn’t it be natural? It certainly felt natural if Wally thought about it. But the more he thought about how natural breathing should come to him, the more difficult it became. It was as if his lungs were stuffed with cotton.

Where was he? The ground was cold and hard. He willed his limbs to move, slowly awakening as if they had come out of a deep slumber. They were numb, and moving them felt foreign, as if he didn’t have full control over them. Wally slowly got up, checking his belongings as he did. He still had his spellbook, as well as his traveling backpack. Catching his appearance in a mirror, he felt his heart skip a few beats at the state of his appearance. His perfectly styled pompadour was halfway to falling over, his hair already leaning over and threatening to cover half his face. His eyeshadow was smudged and were those dark circles under his eyes? He inwardly grimaced, his smile not faltering just yet, save for the corners turning downwards.

He fixed his red ascot as an attempt to ground himself as he muttered, “Where are your neighbors? Find them first. They’ve seen you like this, even worse than this.”

He turned his head around to fully take in his surroundings. He seemed to be inside someone’s house. The walls were painted bright red, black and white accents protruding through the almost garish color choice. A large, almost equally red plush chair sat in the middle of the room Wally was in. Next to the chair was a table that reached up to the armrests, and on the table was a red contraption that he never saw before. It was roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a round dial on the front. Atop it, a curved shape lay in a cradle with a coiled cord that connected it with the base.

The wizard looked around him. Where was the exit? He glanced at the window with yellow panes in the shape of a cross. Outside it was pitch black. Oh. It was probably nighttime then. Was this a special room the inn gave them in exchange for Sally’s performance? He could still remember the little star’s flushed face as the crowd gave a standing ovation.

But, wait. That didn’t make sense now, did it? The performance was in the morning, so why give a luxurious yet tacky-colored room before that fact?

As Wally slowly made his way to the window to try to take a closer peek outside, he felt his shoe catch on a loose floorboard. He yelped as he tried to regain his balance. He ended up taking a few feeble, panicked steps towards the plush chair, to which he felt the floorboards shift beneath his feet and confirmed his destination was in fact, the chair.

He fell onto the chair, his back hitting the backrest roughly and one of his hands knocking onto the side table. Not a moment had passed before — 

Ring! Ring!

The contraption was ringing.

Ring! Ring!

Wally didn’t know what to do. He reached for the ringing device, then paused in midair. What would happen if he touched it, much less picked it up? He’s had his fair share of magical items end up being cursed or otherwise having unwanted side-effects. What if this was another one of those?

Ring! Ring!

It kept ringing.

Ring! Ring!

It wouldn’t stop until he did something about it, wouldn’t it?

Ring! Ring!

His throat felt dry. A heavy pit started to form in his stomach. Why was he hesitating so badly?

Ring! Ring!

A sharp, unseen object pierced through his hand. He cried out in surprise, then hissed in pain as he felt something like string wrap around his wrist. It forced his hand down, forced his fingers to curl around the curved part of the contraption, forced him to pick it up and bring it close to his ear and mouth.

The ringing stopped.

His breathing still felt heavy.

“Hel – ” He paused. Swallowed. Then, he tried again. “Hello?”

A pause.

Then, a voice on the other end. “Hello.”

The voice was smooth and deep, with creaks and thumps throughout the room almost accentuating it. Wally unconsciously curled inwards as the hairs on the back of his neck rose. The pit in his stomach grew heavier. It felt as if someone was watching him. If only some of his neighbors were here! While he wasn’t as much of a glass cannon as someone might make him out to be, it was undeniable that it was easier to land a hit on him if he didn’t give his full attention to a fight.

“Where am I?” he asked. He hoped that whoever was potentially watching didn’t see how his smile wavered, nor hear how his voice wavered.

“You died on my land.”

Wally’s heart nearly stopped right there. His hand gripped the talking device tighter, and his other hand curled into a tight fist. His eyes darted around the room, looking for any indication that this was a dream. He didn’t dream very often, for sleeping was a tough thing for him. He still remembered the first time he had to explain to the other neighbors that him murmuring “I’m sleeping, I’m sleeping” was to help him achieve sleep. Insomnia was never a good thing, especially when it would last for what felt like forever.

“Oh. Ha ha ha. That’s a funny joke.” It had to be a joke, right?

Clearly the being on the other end didn’t find this to be a laughing situation, as the strings around his wrist tightened. He cried out in surprise, but bit his tongue to prevent himself from crying out further. He mustn’t show weakness, even when the invisible strings around his wrist dug deep into his skin, drawing blood. As he felt the crimson liquid start to run down his arm, soaking into his clothes, he exclaimed, “Okay, okay! So, what if I’m dead? What about my neighbors?”

The strings stopped digging into his skin, but he could still feel them there. Waiting for him to misbehave again. A pause on the other end. “You all died on my land. Fifty years ago, you all died on my land.”

“That’s…not true, right?” Wally nervously chuckled. “We always make it out alive. Injured, cranky, tired. But alive.”

“Delusional fool,” the being on the other end spat. “How confused are you to believe your own lies? Must I show you undeniable proof?”

It didn’t wait for Wally’s answer. Before him, the floorboards flipped onto each other, parting and making way for a hole to appear. A putrid stench rose from the hole. Wally was deeply familiar with it, being a necromancer. Something was dead and rotting in there. Normally, it wouldn’t bother him. But the ominous way that the being spoke made his stomach churn, a cold sweat breaking out across his body.

Something — no, someone — rose from the hole in the room. It was humanoid, large. Wearing clothes fit for a jokester who could easily pummel someone with their bare fists. Light blue, slightly curly fur.

Their head detached from their neck, rising alongside the body.

Wally’s smile dropped.

“BARNABY!”

Wally leapt out of the chair to reach towards his best friend, ignoring the way the strings dug into his skin. This was a bad dream, was it? It was only a bad dream, right?

His fingers brushed against Barnaby’s arm. It was cold.

His head spun. He felt nauseous. His knees buckled under the revelation setting in. Another sharp piercing through his other hand, more strings around his wrist. Wally felt himself being lifted up by the strings around his wrists, yet he had no energy in him to fight back. His mouth was contorted into a deep, forlorn frown. The ground blurred, but he rapidly blinked it away. No. He mustn’t show weakness here. Not now.

He was alive. Somehow. He was talking to someone. He was The Neighborhood’s necromancer! He could revive them all! That thought wormed its way into his mind and burrowed itself deep. It grew roots so ingrained within him that if someone were to try to remove it from his mind, one might as well be removing his entire brain.

“I can bring them back,” he whispered. The idea slipped past his lips and into the air. It sounded viable now. “I can bring my neighbors back. I can bring them back!” He thrashed against the strings, ignoring the pain and the blood. “I can bring them back!” He stared at Barnaby’s cloudy eyes, his own wide eyes with feverish energy. A smile wormed its way back onto his face. “I can bring you back, Barns. I can bring you all back.”

The room shook. The floorboards rattled and the walls creaked. Windows and doors opened and slammed shut. The voice from the end of the device laughed loudly, echoing through the room. It sounded closer, not restrained to the device. It sounded like it came from everything, everywhere, all at once.

��AH HA HA! What a delusion you live under!” the voice sneered. “This could be an illusion I’m showing you! Didn’t you hear me? You’ve been dead for 50 years!”

“Then why am I awake, talking to you?” Wally asked back. His voice was strangely calm. Gone was his initial panic, instead replaced with resolve for his goal. He tilted his head. “I would be dead too.”

The voice paused, as if contemplating what to share with the wizard. “The combination of your party’s magic, combined with the natural enhancer of my land, prevented your bodies from rotting normally. It prevented you from being found. It prevented your souls from departing. It prevented me from contacting what was left of you. It took fifty damn years before the magic had faded enough for me to contact any of you.” A slam of a door enunciated the being’s frustration.

Wally mused this over, then looked around the room. “So, my friend’s bodies are still relatively well preserved, correct?”

A creak. Wally hummed and asked, “So I could revive them. Then we would move off your land, and we won’t bother you again. How does that sound?”

“Your bodies and magic have already infected my lands. There’s no point in your offer.”

Wally’s smile dropped at the edges before rising back up. He wasn’t going to lose his second chance at life, at seeing his friends’ wishes come true. They died all too soon for that. They were all still so young. “Then you join us in our adventure. You become part of our neighborhood. You become our neighbor. You are welcomed here, you are home.” If he had inadvertently given this being a name, no one had to know but himself. He widened his hands as if offering a handshake. He widened his smile, put on as much charm that he had in his disheveled appearance.

One minute of silence lapsed into five. Five turned into ten. Wally’s smile started to drop, and his fingers slowly curled inwards. “Please. I’m begging you.”

Another minute of silence passed before he felt his feet touch the floor, then the strings around his wrists relaxed until he didn’t feel them anymore. He rubbed the thin cuts and wished that Poppy were here to heal them.

“I’ll allow it. However, you must hold up your end of the deal. I’ll join your little party, until you die again. And you won’t die again in the same way you died before, oh no.” This time, a more visible string formed and wrapped around Wally’s neck. It tightened, yet didn’t raise him off the floor. Just a threat. “Your magic will be supplemented by my own, but there’s a time limit on how long it’ll last. Slowly, your friends will rot again. It’ll be your job to make sure they’re unaware of that, for only you will be aware that you’ve died for 50 years.”

To be burned by such knowledge made Wally’s head hurt, or maybe he was getting tired. After all, he had woken up from a 50-year slumber.

But for his friends, he agreed. “Deal.”

The string around his neck disappeared, and Barnaby's body was lowered back into the floor, the floorboards flipping over the hole. “Deal. Never forget this,” the being said.

Wally felt his stomach drop, his head spun. He dropped to the ground and struggled to keep his eyes open. Between heavy blinks, he saw the room disappear, black fading over the red. The floor became colder and foreign. The last thing he remembered was staring at the window as a large black eye shook and stared at him, red running down its lower pane.

------

When Wally awoke, it took everything in him to not immediately throw up. Everything around him smelled like death and rot. He untied his ascot from around his neck, cleaned it with a quick spell, then cast another spell to make it smell like Poppy’s apple pie as he tied it around his nose and mouth. Cinnamon, apples, and warm pie crust filled his nose as he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

Fifty years.

He and his neighbors were dead for fifty years.

And only he should know of it.

He steeled his nerves and slowly got up. He had his spellbook, he had the help of the being. He just needed to trust in his magic. It was dark outside. Perfect. If he did this quickly enough, he should have enough time to revive them before the sun rose. It wasn’t as if he needed sleep anyways, his mind was too loud right now.

Julie. She needed to find her sisters again and see how they were all doing. She had three of them, right?

Sally. She still needed to have a play fit to perform for the galaxy. Something only fitting for a star like her.

Howdy. He needed to have enough funds to replace his destroyed shop. Then, he needed to send extras back to his very large family.

Poppy. She was looking for her cousin, right? She had mentioned him a few times as she baked, a sad smile etched on her face.

Eddie. He wanted to remember where he was from. He knew his mother was waiting for him, but where?

Frank. His greatest dream was to document a rare butterfly he’d heard about as a myth since he was a child. To prove it was real.

Barnaby. Ever since his mother died, it was as if his jokes were an attempt to connect to her again. He said she’d always loved and laughed at his jokes. So, his wish was to make the best joke ever, enough to make her spirit laugh from the afterlife.

And Wally’s wish? He just wanted more time with his neighbors. The time he already had didn’t feel like enough. He loved them all too much for their adventures to end so suddenly. He didn’t even have enough time to blow them all goodbye kisses.

He gently pulled his friends closer together, every one of them cold beneath his hands. Every one of them preserved unnaturally by magic, but nonetheless putrid-smelling. He occasionally retouched on his ascot when his mind couldn’t numb the sensation or when the smell of happiness started to fade away. His mouth tasted like metal, so somewhere in the process of preparing for his biggest spell he had bitten his cheek or tongue.

He took out his paintbrush, opened his book, and channeled his magic through it. It flowed from the bristles like paint, and he painted the magic circle exactly like in his notes. The complex insignia was next. The spell listed several rare and expensive materials for a singular resurrection spell for a singular being, but would it work with all of them?

He had to try.

Wally stepped into the middle of the magic circle, surrounded by his neighbors, his friends, his family. As he continued to paint his magic into reality, he started to chant the spell. It was long, and a singular mistake could result in tragedy. A few minutes into the casting process, his magic circle suddenly surged with extra power. His eyes widened but he didn’t falter.

More magic, more chants. Something felt as if it gripped his heart and squeezed it like a stress ball. He gasped in shock but he had to recover quickly. His throat was becoming dry, but he couldn’t stop now. Magic continued to flow from his brush, the strokes becoming wider and sharper.

His friends’ bodies were reverting back to their normal selves. Gone were their grave wounds, their limbs were being stitched back together. He could even see a bit of color in their cheeks. His grin widened. It was working!

Almost as if the being that was lending him its power sensed his excitement, his heart clenched again. Something dark was crawling up his body. Cold, thick, liquid. It edged around his eyes before digging itself behind his eyelids, behind his eyes.

It hurt. It hurt so badly. It was like lemon juice was being poured in. He wanted to stop and cry and tear whatever this was out. But to lose concentration of the spell?

Never.

At the crescendo of the spell, his friends’ bodies started to rise. He rose as well. He was reviving all of them. He would do it.

Then, it was over. He painted the last symbol, said the last word. Their bodies slowly floated down, the insignia and magic circle disappeared, and the second his feet touched the ground, all the extra magic that had flowed through him temporarily left him. His body, starved for energy, started to shut down.

Perhaps he should do this more often. It would certainly cure his insomnia. “Ha ha ha,” he whispered. Before his eyes closed, he remembered his neighbors stirring, a hand pressed against his forehead, and a cry of “He’s burning up!”

------

According to Poppy, he had used so much magic that he contracted a magic-induced fever for a week. Magic-induced fevers were a tricky thing, as the use of healing spells only seemed to aggravate them, especially in the beginning days. So each neighbor had to wait for their wizard to naturally break the fever.

“Oh honey,” she murmured between his waking moments, “it’s okay. I don’t know what you did, but shhh. Focus on healing up, okay?” A handkerchief dabbed at his eyes and cheeks. Was he crying? He couldn’t remember the last time he did.

When his fever finally broke, and he could handle walking around without looking as if he would tip over if he took one too many steps, The Neighborhood packed their things and set up to travel to their next big town.

Wally was quiet on their first few days of traveling. He smiled and nodded and laughed when his neighbors talked with him, but speaking actual words was difficult for a bit. It was as if the excess of magic he had to use had chased away his voice. Or maybe it was the shock of seeing, hearing, feeling, his neighbors around him again. Alive. Happy.

Unaware.

He couldn’t let them know. He could never let them know.

When he started to speak again, Barnaby was the first one to give him one of his bone-crushing hugs. Wally remained as limp as ever in them, but he nuzzled into them harder than before.

“Missed hearing you buddy,” Barnaby whispered to him.

Another thing that bothered Wally was that his eyes hurt. They starved for things. In private, he found that if he stared at something for long enough with the intent to consume it, almost comical bite marks appeared in the object and that craving was reduced. He could also blink to initiate the eating process, but blinking scared him. In the dark of the night, if he widened his eyes enough, yellow crosses appeared in them.

“Hello Home,” he whispered, when his neighbors were fast asleep and snoring. “We’re forgotten Home. It’s as if we never existed for 50 years. I don’t think they remember that either.” He picked up an apple that he had bought earlier that day. He stared at it, and bite marks appeared in the flesh. “Do you see our adventures? I hope that you enjoy what we do Home.”

In his head, he heard a creak, like a door swinging on its hinges.

“That’s good, I think.”

Wally placed the apple core down and curled up to sleep. He closed his eyes, and murmured “I’m sleeping, I’m sleeping, I’m sleeping” until his consciousness faded away.

He had his neighbors back. He had a new neighbor. And he would cherish them for as long as he could.

Until death did them apart.

#Ima Writes #writing #my writing #original writing #welcome home #welcome home puppet show #welcome home the cast #tw: horror #tw: death #tw: corpses #tw: blood

[kazoosandfannypacks]

"Wishing it Wasn't" by kazoosandfannypacks

Chapter 1/18: The Most Dangerous Bluff Pairing: CaptainSwan Rating: Teen (for gun usage in later chapters) Word Count: (1K/19.5K) Summary: Season 2 Canon Divergence: When Neal tells Emma he has a fiancée, she claims to have a new boyfriend of her own, and blurts out the first fairytale name she can think of: Captain Hook. Killian agrees to this ruse, but when feelings grow between the two, will the con be more than they can handle? Chapter Summary: After meeting Neal again and finding out he has a fiancée, she claims to have a new boyfriend of her own, and, upon inquiry, gives the first storybook name that comes into her mind. Unfortunately for her, that name is Captain Hook, but as soon as she remembers her ex's personal family history with him, she realizes this opportunity is too good to pass up. Tags: season 2, canon divergence, gun violence in later chapters, angst with a happy ending, fake dating, mild character death, mildly anti neal Author's notes: When I first came up with this fic, I didn't expect to ever finish it, or even get it past the first few chapters. I then made the mistake of telling a certain discord server about it, and they encouraged me to finish it. Anyways, without further ado, here's the captain swan s2 fake dating au! Taglist: @zahara @kmomof4 @jonesfandomfanatic @booksteaandtoomuchtv @jrob64 @tiganasummertree @anmylica @teamhook @undercaffinatednightmare @gingerchangeling @lonelyspectator @caught-in-the-filter @ultraluckycatnd @cs-rylie @pirateprincessofpizza [if you'd like to be added to or removed from this list, hmu in my dms or askbox!]

Also on Ao3!

 Cars and taxis inched by in the usual hubbub of New York traffic- but Emma hardly noticed them as she stood on a sidewalk, talking to a man who she'd never wanted to see again- until she was called upon to track him down in New York.

 Discovering that her ex was Rumplestitskin's son was quite the shock, but she was handling it like a pro, just like she handled everything else life threw at her.

 "Emma, there's something else you need to know." Neal said. 

 "What's that?" Emma asked. She was already surprised enough that Neal had decided to come back to Storybrooke to be with his father and his son- especially after abandoning both before. What more could he say now? 

 "I, I can't stay in Storybrooke forever." He said. "I have a life here- a job, an apartment, a fianceé."

 "A fianceé?" Emma thought. "It figures that he would've moved on already, found someone else. Why should I care?"

 "That's nice." Emma said. "I'm really happy for you." She was thankful Neal didn't have her superpower.

 "So there's no hard feelings?" Neal asked. "No jealousy or trying to steal me back or rivalry or any of that?"

 "Of course not." And she even faked a laugh as she faked her next sentence, "I have a boyfriend too."

 As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them, but she couldn't take it back without looking like an even bigger fool.

 "Oh," Neal said, looking down at his shoes, "that's nice."

 Emma smiled a little. "Yeah, he's a really great guy."

 "Can't wait to meet him." Neal said. "Does he live in Storybrooke too?"

 "Yeah," she said, because the best way to lie is to stick with the first thing your brain says, so there's no suspicious pauses in the conversation.

 "So he's from the Enchanted Forest too?"

 "Yeah." 

"Who was he in my worl- our world?"

 Emma tried to think of a guy in Storybrooke who she wasn't related to, and blurted out the first fairytale name she thought of. "Captain Hook."

Several curse words ran through her mind. Why hadn't she said "Pinocchio" or "Mad Hatter" or even "The Huntsman" or something?

 "Captain Hook?" Neal asked. He blinked a few times in disbelief, then ran his fingers along the bridge of his nose. "You're dating Captain Hook?"

 "Is that a problem?" Emma asked.

 "Is that a problem?" Neal repeated, then smiled. "I don't mind at all that the mother of my child is dating the same pirate my own mother ran away with. Doesn't bother me at all."

 She'd forgotten he had a personal connection like that with Hook- this bluff might prove better than she'd expected.

 "Glad to hear it." Emma echoed his previous sentiment. "No hard feelings, right? No jealousy? Trying to steal me back? Rivalry?"

 "Of course not." Neal said, seemingly unbothered by her rebuff. "I'm glad you've found someone who makes you happy."

"Yeah, you too." Emma smiled sadly. She didn't know what felt worse, the fact that she hadn't found that happiness yet, or the fact that she was lying when she was glad for Neal's happiness- or the fact that she knew that when Neal said he was glad she was happy without him, he wasn't lying.

 "Well, I guess I'll be seeing him when we get to Storybrooke." Neal said.

 "Oh, yeah." Emma said, having forgotten entirely that now she'd have to, you know act the part. "That's not going to be awkward for you, is it?"

 "Of course not." Neal said. "As long as it wouldn't be awkward for you if Tamara came to Storybrooke with us."

 "Tamara?"

 "My fianceé." Neal smiled. "I didn't want to invite her because I felt it'd be a little awkward for you, but since there clearly won't be any jealousy or tension, I see no reason why she can't join us."

 "The more the merrier." Emma lied.

 Emma had told Neal that Henry was unaware of her "relationship" with Hook, that she'd been intending to tell him about it on the way home from this trip to New York, but the double whammy of meeting his birth dad and finding out about a potential stepdad might be a lot for him, and Neal agreed, so he kept his mouth shut about the whole thing all the way back. When they arrived in town, she sent Gold and Henry to give Neal and Tamara a tour of Storybrooke, while she set out to look for the Captain- unfortunately for her though, she ran into her mom first.

 "Emma!" Before she saw Mary Margaret or even heard where her voice was coming from, Emma found herself wrapped in a hug from her.

 "Oh, uh, hi, mom?" she said.

 "How was New York?"

 "I called you, like, eighty three times while I was there." Emma said. "I found out Baelfire was Henry's father, we brought him and his fiancee to Storybrooke…" she saw Mary Margaret's face fall as she mentioned Tamara. "Are you disappointed?" Emma asked.

 "In what?" Mary Margaret asked.

 "That the father of your grandson is engaged to someone else?"

 "Why would I be…?"

 Emma saw through her lies. "Look, mom, maybe fairy tales are neat, cut and clean, but whether or not we come from them, our stories are still messy." Emma bit her lip and decided to change the topic. "Speaking of 'messy,' is our friend from the Enchanted Forest still in the hospital?"

 Mary Margaret rolled her eyes. "Hook is doing fine. After he got out, he unleashed Cora's giant- who has now befriended us and is one of the dwarves- and we haven't seen him much since. Why?"

 "It's a long story." Emma said, not even trying to consider how a giant became one of the dwarves. "Any idea where he is now?"

 "Probably hanging about near the mayor's office." Mary Margaret said. "He's been working with Regina and Cora."

 "Alright." Emma started to walk in that direction, but her mom called her back.

 "Where are you going?"

 "Long story." Emma said.

#once upon a time fanficton #cs fanfic #captain swan #killian jones #emma swan #once upon a time #ouat #season 2 #canon divergence #gun violence in later chapters #angst with a happy ending #fake dating #mild character death #mildly anti neal

[duochromium]

thought i’d make an “ongoing projects list” for the few who are gonna go to my profile and read this so here is the december 11 2023 deer fanfic status report, ordered from highest priority to lowest priority, where for once i actually go into detail about the wip projects of mine

-

first on our list is a fanfic i started on saturday night, ‘The Ferryman’. it’s a short oneshot focusing on Eiki, Komachi, and their boss/worker dynamic and also what their life actually is like over in higan. the premise is just eiki joining komachi on break to go skip stones and talk and they eventually just start talking about how they actually view the other, friendship development heartfelt moment etc etc (it is NOT yuri. i would NEVER write about women falling in love)

it’s the first in a series of unconnected oneshots where i write about characters i’ve never studied before (credits to riguren for the idea). it’s not gonna have much going on and all of the works in the series will probably be really light hearted. i’m most likely doing Satori next since the one time i’ve written her seriously she was just Grumpy because i haven’t studied her before. anyways this oneshot series is going to contain zero romance because i want to explore more non-romantic relationships but dw more homosexuality coming soon

ferryman is currently 1,022 words

-

second in my priority list is a fic I started all the way back in late July. this one is OLD old. the title is, i shit you not,

‘You know the song by Phil Collins, "In the Air of the Night" about that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drownin' but didn't, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?’

it fits in the ao3 title character limit. i’ve checked. the title has literally no connection to the story itself. it’s a line from Eminem - Stan. i’ll get to how i came up with it later.

so the actual premise is flandre is bored so sakuya takes her on a night walk, then the two creeps meet the grassroots trio (wakasagihime, sekibanki, and kagerou if yall dk) and it’s basically just flandre having no social skills and the grassroots being absolutely terrified of these two widely known and feared people in gensokyo who are actually much politer than they ever could have expected. it also contains a yukkuri joke that i am considering writing out because it didn’t land well

as for how i got to the name, here is a message i sent to my friend on discord three days after starting it:

so my thought process was basically:

“ok well maybe call it night walk”

“nah too boring. maybe something that describes a specific aspect?”

“oh I could call it ‘in the air of the night’ which is some phrase I heard somewhere”

“hey where did I hear that phrase”

“oh yeah an Eminem lyric”

“Fuck it. Title it the original Eminem lyric.”

hilarious yes i know. in the air of the night is currently 2,488 words (I ONLY PICKED IT BACK UP RECENTLY FORGIVE ME)

-

third up is that elusive “Experimental Oneshot” i’ve been talking about in my notes for the past two months. it is called “They Beat The Shit Out of Each Other at The End” for obvious reasons. it’s basically just a crackship except they’re friends instead of lovers

so our first protagonist is reimu. she’s really lonely and sad so she gets even more lonely and sad and also way too drunk and lies on her front porch all night crying because what else do you do

our second protagonist is cirno. she’s walking through the forest at like 2am alone because she wants to challenge reimu to a rematch. and also because she’s a dumbass

the two meet and through cirno’s stubbornness and reimu’s drunkenness the two are locked in a stalemate on reimu’s front porch which eventually leads to actual conversation and before you know it they’re actually starting to enjoy each other’s company

eventually day breaks and cirno still wants that fight so it happens and the entire second half of the fic, the fight, is just a really long “hmm rumia ex? what if there was cirno ex where she was just ice goku” joke and she kind of kicks reimu’s shit in. it’s gonna be great and she is not going to respect spell card rules at all

currently 2,778 words

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numba four is uhh. actually this one is probably above the night walk one so consider it second place it’s modern technology chapter 4. sanae and reimu and marisa play a game of monopoly together and get really fucking mad. that’s the entire premise. only 701 words so far i know that is nothing but i have NOT been on my a game lately. gonna be peak though i swear it

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and that is all, actually! i also have many unstarted ideas, i might do a sequel to this post tomorrow where i talk about those

thank you for reading (no tags this one is only 4 my loyal followers)

[inquisimer]

Oooh, 5, 8, 7, and 24 for the love your fandom asks! c:

thank you for the ask friend <3

spread some positivity with a "love your fandom" ask!

5. something you see in fics a lot and love

Multiple PCs!! I love when people write "all origins" fics, or double Hawke AUs, or have all the possible Inquisitors show up during DAI. Or when people bring potential PCs from previous games (that weren't actually the HoF or Hawke) and have them show up in later instances! I was just rereading a fic earlier where Cadash is a lyrium smuggler, Trevelyan is a Templar with the Inquisition, etc, an dI love that sort of thing.

7. your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

Oh man oh man oh man, I always struggle to identify "tropes" that I like to write 😂 I suppose canon divergence, is that a trope? I also like enemies/idiots to lovers and Not Actually Unrequited Love

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

Platonic ships!! Genfic my beloved 😭💖😭 romance is all well and good, but friendships and non-romantic relationships (my Sibling Bias™️, augh) are just so so so precious to me. Especially in games like DA where the world is constantly ending, what else do you have during the apocalypse besides the people around you? 🥺

24. how has fandom positively impacted your life?

In entirely immeasurable ways😭💖💖 Most of the people I count among my closest friends, I've met via the DA fandom in the past two years. They've supported me and hyped me and helped me face insecurities and self-directed negativity that I never thought I would get through. With them I've found acceptance and community and love that makes me want to crush the distance between us. Speaking of community, that's the other positive impact I've found in fandom! The DA community is alive and well and full of bright and brilliant people. I love the mutual hype, the crazy fan theories, the feeding frenzy that starts every time we get even a scrap of DA4 news. And writing exchanges! What a fun thing to participate in. At the time that I picked up DAI, we were mid-pandemic and I had just moved back home from college and socializing was either nonexistent for safety or hard to find. I'm a true introvert and often at peace with just my own company, but even for me it was a lonely and isolating time. The Tumblr and especially Discord communities I've found here have connected me to Other People more than I've felt since living in college dorms years ago. A lot of that is due to a friend I made by commenting on her fic on ao3 - without her as my guide, I probably would have been too scared to step into the communities that I love so dearly now, or even into the roles I play within those communities. I might not even be posting writing, which is insane! And our first conversation was about, like, the proper way to use hyphens when writing dialogue lol. Anyway the POINT of that is: find your guide! Comment on fics, reblog things with nice tags, reply to posts when you smile and think "wow that's cool" and say that! Accept the awkward first messages of friendship and you'll find a bridge to wonderful places within fandom. Community is what you make of it - if you never talk to anyone, they won't talk to you. But if you reach out and talk to people, in one form or another, there are so many positive, uplifting communities out there to join and enjoy <3 (sorry to proselytize, I just 😭😭 I love it here)

#SORRY that last one got long but I started thinking about it and god this fandom has meant so much to me I can't even really articulate #how different my life would be if I hadn't joined dadwc #if blue hadn't scooped me up out of her comments and folded me into good spaces #I would be in a much worse place mentally and I can't measure how much that is worth to me #ask game #dragon age #fandom positivity #long post