#technically there's nothing shippy but what the hell

[nighttimeebony]

A collection of my thoughts, reactions, predictions and whatnot that I had and wrote down while I was reading The Sea of Monsters. So spoilers for that under the cut.

EDIT: part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5

Ah, I just now realized that Percy’s sword, Riptide, is another nod to his Poseidon heritage

Where the hell was this kind of school when I was Percy’s age? You don’t get grades, and you just get to blow shit up in science class?? I fucking wish

Tyson kind of reminds me of some of the special ed kids I knew in elementary school. Or kids with low-functioning autism. That’s probably what Percy figured, too, since he didn’t know that Tyson was a cyclops at first. Percy is such a sweetheart, and he does his best to treat Tyson kindly and to protect him from bullies. And he does it not to feel better about himself but because he wants Tyson to feel better. And he doesn’t just protect Tyson and leave him alone afterwards and hope he doesn’t talk to him. He genuinely considers Tyson to be one of his friends and he cares about him. I just. I love this kid.

Ah, yes. Tantalus. I remember you. Your son had sex with Percy’s dad.

I like that whenever Percy sees Grover in a wedding dress, he says nothing about the fact that Grover is a boy wearing a dress, he’s just like, “bro, that does not fit you at all, you need a size 9 at least before we can call it kosher”. I love these kids.

I like Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf. I imagine that they're a couple, because it would be a cute reference to the fact that Aphrodite and Hephaestus are technically married. In a very crack shippy kind of way.

I just now realized that the name of Luke's sword (Backbiter) was foreshadowing for his inevitable betrayal. Backbiter is a term used to describe someone untrustworthy, or used to describe a traitor. It’s basically a synonym for “backstabber”. The trickster Norse god Loki is actually frequently referred to with the epithet Backbiter. It could also be a reference to the fact that Hermes is not only a trickster god, but also the god of liars and thieves, which would make sense considering that Luke is a son of Hermes.

Holy shit, Luke is trying to Voldemort this shit!

“‘Percy,’ Annabeth said, trying to keep her cool, ‘we’re going to Polyphemus’s island! Polyphemus is an S-i-k… a C-y-k…” She stamped her foot in frustration. As smart as she was, Annabeth was dyslexic, too. We could’ve been there all night while she tried to spell Cyclops.” I love this book.

Percy’s like, a donut shop in the middle of nowhere is a little weird, but donuts aren’t all that high on my list of threats to worry about. Percy, last book you were almost murdered by Medusa at a diner. I think you should know by now that free food is sketchy as hell when you’re you.

“‘I DON’T CARE WHAT IT SAID!’ Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. ‘You will succeed. And if you don’t…’ He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched.” Oh, baby…

I think Clarisse should swear. She deserves it.

Annabeth talking about weaving and Athena’s skill with weaving specifically makes me wonder if we’re ever going to meet or get some other mention/reference to Arachne.

“‘But…’ Annabeth’s voice sounded hurt. ‘What’s wrong with my hair?’” Annabeth saying this broke my heart, but then I remembered that she’s going to be Black in that new live action series, and thinking about this scene with that context in mind hurt me even more considering how Black kids are often shamed and punished for their natural hair texture. I’m just imagining little Annabeth getting made fun of by other kids for her hair and teachers punishing her for being “dirty” or “ungroomed”, and then thinking about the way this cunt is manipulating Annabeth to feel like she’s lesser than because of it. That new live series Disney+ is making better not mess this up.

Holy shit, did C.C. also invent the concept of Instagram?? Why is she obliterating these thirteen-year-olds’ self-esteem???

Oh, because she’s a witch. Yup, Circe, that checks out

Amelia Earheart was a half-blood? I love that. Also, yes! Thank you for mentioning Atalanta, I adore her! She’s one of my favorite characters in Greek mytho-history.

Also, Blackbeard being a son of Ares makes way too much sense

Percy being good at sailing is amazing. Finding that one interest that’s very niche and obscure that’s almost useless in modern society and nailing the hell out of it is very neurodivergent of him and I’m so proud of him for that

“I looked over, expecting to see Annabeth, but the girl wasn’t Annabeth. She wore punk-style clothes with silver chains on her wrists. She had spiky black hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes, and a spray of freckles across her nose. She looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure why.” Wait. Is that Thalia?

"'But… you're still getting married?' Grover sounded hurt." Grover, baby, he was going to kill you. This is not about you not being hot enough for him.

Annabeth calling herself Nobody to get Polyphemus's attention—I remember that myth; I read it in elementary school. I thought it was hysterical. It still is. Also Annabeth's burn game is on point.I didn’t know that that hero was Odysseus specifically, but now that I do, it makes a lot more sense.

By the way, isn’t Odysseus related to Poseidon? I can’t remember, but I could swear that Odysseus was a grandson of Poseidon… (two Google searches later). Nope, it was Hermes. He’s a grandson of Hermes, which, yeah, that makes more sense than Poseidon.

"'Not a traitor,' Tyson said. 'And you are not my kind.'" YES, BABY!!

Percabeth. Just Percabeth. I love these children and I love them together.

Percy is one of the best protagonists ever. When Polyphemus was crying and asking Percy not to kill him, Percy spared him. Not because Polyphemus didn't deserve to die, but because Percy didn't want to kill him and felt bad for him. He sympathizes with Clarisse when she's upset, even though she's insulting him and Annabeth is angry with her. He remembers the way Ares had treated her on the boat, and instead of yelling back at her, he treats her with kindness and patience. He lets her complete her quest and have the glory that comes with it, because Percy doesn’t care about getting recognized by the camp for what he did—he just wants the camp to be saved, and as long as the Fleece is delivered to do that, he doesn’t care how. I just. I love him so much. He's such a sweet kid.

I love that Annabeth is the bloodthirsty, petty one between her and Percy.

Holy shit, Tyson's watch thing!! Damn, Tyson!

Percy proudly calling Tyson his baby brother is everything to me.

I love that at this point in the story, Percy is only 13 and has canonically been wanted by the police on two separate occasions.

HOLY SHIT!!!!! THALIA'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!! I AM READY TO LOVE HER!!!!!!!!

#pjo #pjo spoilers #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson the sea of monsters #pjo tyson #percy jackson and the sea of monsters #the sea of monsters #annabeth chase #grover underwood #pjo polyphemus #pjo clarisse #pjo thalia

[captainskyson]

AO3 Q&A

Saw this from @talldecafcappuccino a while back and saved it for later, mucho life happened and I forgot about it, then just found it again in my drafts and thought “hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a Tumblr q&a post. Why not.”

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

132

2. What’s your current Ao3 word count?

1,803,382

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

On Ao3, 7 - but I can think of 3 more off the top of my head that never saw the light of the Internet. A handful are just one-offs, too. But the full list I can think of, most-prolific to least, is: Agents of SHIELD, Buffy, The Blacklist, Harry Potter, The Man in the High Castle, Longmire, CSI, MCU, Ted Lasso.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

GH-325 (Agents of SHIELD) - my first baby! I hadn’t finished, due to show circumstances and becoming a bit disillusioned to writing for it (the show, not the ship), but I refuse to give it up. It’s still a wip, just in long hiatus. Too many people have supported this one over the years for me to give it up… despite the apologetically loooong hiatus.

I Need A Bad Idea (BtVS) - my true baby; this fic is a beast. It’s ridiculous. When I first surpassed GH-325 word count numbers I wondered what the hell I was doing - now well beyond, I just roll with the chaos. I deeply appreciate the love on this one because I’d still be doing this nonsense even without it - so it’s very encouraging to have it. ❤️

Sweet Nothings (The Blacklist) - to be honest, I’m just now discovering this is my #3 kudos’d fic. A pleasant surprise! This one was pure fun to write, and I’m more than pleased to give Lizzington shippers something positive to indulge in, considering… everything.

A Cover Is Not The Book (BtVS) - one of my earlier BG fics. A fully light-hearted story which I know can be rare for these two haha.

Secrets and Surprises (Agents of SHIELD/MCU) - my indulgent attempt at writing a Tony Stark-Daisy Johnson friendship - FUN. Also, of course, Lola is a main feature. 😍🚘

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not.

I try to! Even if it’s just a thank you - I really do appreciate every single comment on a story and I like to try and show that. Sometimes I accidentally miss some, but yeah usually I do my best to respond.

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

I don’t do angst very well. I’ve been told otherwise (😅) but I’m just a sucker for my happy (or at least hopeful) endings. Two of my Buffy fics, Shrike and Beloved, are pretty angsty UNTIL the end… lol.

7. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not as a habit. Technically a few of my AoS fics could count as crossovers, even though I’m firmly of the belief that SHIELD *is* just as canon as the rest of the MCU (Or it was??? I lost track of the plot after season 6.) A number of years ago I wrote a Buffy/MCU crossover fic that just makes me laugh now… it’s a little nuts, as it spawned from a weird dream I had haha. It was actually also my first Ao3 posting for my beloved ship…

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Oh yes. The most hateful comments tend to spawn elsewhere, but I’ve had two or three silly-gooses forget that they have a ‘back’ button on their Ao3 browser. 99.9% of the time Ao3 is a lovely community though. But I also tend to live in smaller corners of fandoms, we keep to ourselves. 🤙

9. Do you write smut?

Does one make lemonade out of lemons? 🤣 🍋🍋🍋

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yessss - Lemon Giles! I am deeply proud of this collab. It was one of the most magical writing experiences of my life. Two people, a shared Google doc, opposite time zones and a chaotic level of shippy feels 😂 It was so much fun.

12. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Oof magoof. This is a tough one. My knee-jerk reaction is to go BG, as that’s definitely been the most affecting ship in my life (as far as real-life friendships and relationships made and heroes met and goals inspired etc). But Grissom-Sara from CSI: Las Vegas has been close to my heart for an even longer time. I also deeply adore Longmire-Vic… it’s not often a tv show follows the books (sort of), and/or canonizes your otp. At least, not when it’s any of *my* otps hahaha.

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

If my memory serves, I first wrote for CSI, but I first posted online for Harry Potter. On Ao3 specifically, my first posted fic was for Agents of SHIELD.

14. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Oh dang it, I cannot pick one answer here. I have different reasons for favourites: “Shrike”, because a friend and I actually had that one printed and bound (for funsies and a gift to a fellow friend, not for dough) and my copy ended up read and signed by someone I adore. The Infinite, because Coulson-Mace was a ship fandom of like, five (bless you), and I’ve never felt Mama-Bear about a ship before, but those boys are just… so much to me. Plus, working on that story had helped me mourn a sudden real-life death of someone close to me. “I Need A Bad Idea” is my favourite in regards to the amount of work I put into that one. It’s so satisfying when all the research and brainstorms and notes come together into a ready-to-post chapter.

#q and a #ask skyson #ao3 #fanfiction #writing #shippy ships

[thecourtjester12]

Asks FAQ page!!!

This page will explain rules for asks and what can be asked and some other potentially questions y'all may have! More may be added as they become needed!!!

Rules for Asks

NO NSFW content, please keep all asks SFW, I may, MAY occasionally be open to slightly suggestive asks nothing extreme tho, generally just...not comfy with NSFW anything, so no explicit NSFW asks please

Please no swearing/cussing or insulting phrases/words, I'm not a big fan of such language and would appreciate it if you didn't use such things in asks, (I admit I use Bloody a lot and...technically swearing...but...most people in North America don't...see it as swearing) tho feel free to be creative and use silly words instead ex. darn, shoot, stars, fiddlesticks, fudge, funk, you get the idea. I'll allow a pass to words like bloody, stupid, hell.

No spamming please, multiple asks are more then ok but if I don't get back to your ask quickly I may be busy/working on it/overwhelmed/stuck on rest so pleaseeeeeeee, please, please be patient with me

No racist, homophobic, transphobic, a-phobic, ableist, content or anything that could be hurtful to others please!!!

Also no p*dophiles, groomers, discourse, SA, drug-usage, harassment, Pro-ship, etc, none of that stuff, pleaseeee DNI.

What kind of things can you ask?

You can ask for sneak peaks and progress on wips writing or drawing and I MAY give a sneak peak or tell ya without showing depending on spoilers

Ask what I'm currently working on

Ask questions about my Au's!

Au questions can be anything about the characters, (Smoon, glams, the stars, handlers/managers, etc) world building, easter eggs, etc, some may be written answers some may be given doods or considered too...spoilery to answer! But questions will NOT be answered by the charas unless specifically listed (such as lil mini comics of chara interactions within canon or mayhaps holiday based things that may be an alt pocket uni outside canon)

Suggestive asks are...fine, but keep it SFW nothing explicit pleaseeee, also these may take longer to answer (depends on my current level of comfort with that kinda thing, sometimes fine, sometimes NOPE) and will be tagged #cwsuggestive

Ask me questions, just keep em SFW please!!! (may not answer if it's too personal tho)

If you want to ask the chara's directly I have an ask Series for JDCAU Sun and Moon on my A03 and unless it says asks are closed, always need more asks for that lil series! :3 Link to that: Ask Smooooooooonnnnnnnnn

Is fanart/fanfics/gifts based on/inspired by your Au's ok?

Yes! I am ABSOLUTELY ok with fanart of my Au's and stories, same goes for fanfics/gift fics of my Au's just please, please, PLEASE tag me (and for A03 tag my A03 under the inspired by thingy pls) and tag using the Au tag and #courtjesterfanart or #courjesterfanfic Just PLEASE keep it SFW, no NSFW or Suggestive content, and pleaseeeee no shippy stuff for charas i list as aroace and/or platonic in their dynamics >~<

But I would LOVE to see what y'all make!!!!

Would you do NSFW content?

No. I'm not comfy with NSFW stuff, even suggestive stuff is very....iffy. So stuff like NSFW and general explicit content be it drawings or writing is just...not for me. I have to take Life drawing classes and that is...enough suffering usually T^T

So once again PLEASE no NSFW asks or fanart or fanfics/giftfics based on my au's please!!!

What pronouns do you use/what gendered terms are you ok with?

They/them, She/her AND Ey/em/eir! Feel free to use them interchangeably, and I'm cool with feminine gendered terms (just...not ma'am pls...ick) and I LOVEEEEE gender neutral terms, If i ever end up having any nieces/nephews/niblings imma be their Aunkle Jester!!! >: D

Please no Masc terms, I'm not a man and don't feel comfy being called one

And side note I use words like cute, pretty, handsome, charming and even beautiful neutrally, like, gender doesn't matter anyone can be ANY of these things!!! (Of course I won't use a term if it makes someone uncomfy to be called it >-<)

Go to asks!

Question the Jester!

#faq page #asks #about asks #rules #fnaf daycare au #send me asks #please #i would love that #just sfw pls

[demiace-wen-ning]

Modern headcanon: Xiao Xingchen adopts every stray cat. The house in which he lives with Song Lan, Xue Yang and A-Qing is full of pet food and toys. The others have tried to call interventions but he cannot be stopped.

His three favourites consists of a small light-eyed calico who has a habit of stealing food, a scarred tabby who Xue Yang swears has rabies and only behaves for Xiao Xingchen and a Maltese cat who does nothing but stare judgementally all day.

Song Lan is particularly adverse towards having so many pets but, one day, with school having ended early, A-Qing came home only to find him sleeping on the couch with all the cats curled on top of him. The price for her silence is a portion of his paycheck every month.

#ajsskk this is dumb bit whatever #xiao xingchen #xue yang #song lan #a-qing #songxuexiao #technically there's nothing shippy but what the hell #mdzs #the untamed #mo dao zu shi

[coffeesuperhero]

leverage fic recs

So, I needed a better organizational system than my AO3 bookmarks (boy do I miss delicious!), so I’m just going to start a post for myself here and reblog it occasionally as I add to it. Most (all?) of these are OT3 fics, because I am who I am and I read what I read. If you want non-OT3 fic recs, I am not your person. Probably you have read these, but if you haven’t, what are you waiting for! 

Gen: 

01. The Fake Geek Boy Job, by shinealightonme.  It’s casefic at a fan convention and Eliot has to cosplay. In spandex. Go read it and enjoy yourself, already. 

Beautiful shippy fic (everyone is together/small moments/slice of life): 

01. The Three Rings Job, by HugeAlienPie.  Sophie POV. The OT3 at Nate and Sophie’s wedding, where Nate and Sophie are not aware that there is now an OT3. It’s soft. And so sweet you could serve it as dessert. And it has the best boat name for a Nate and Sophie boat in the world. 

02. hacker/hitter/thief/home, by AtlantisRises.  A collection of short OT3 fics that hit you just right in the feels, in the best way. 

03. Nothing’s Exactly What We Need, by BabylonsFall. The OT3, on vacation. 

Everybody is together and also there’s a con: 

01. Covenants, Conditions, & Restrictions, by page_runner.  We love a good long fic where the OT3 help an old lady and con an HOA, because HOA’s are the worst. This fic also gives me deeply hurt feelings about the team having to leave Portland, which I know in my heart is probably the Way of Things, but which I will never write myself because heartbreak. But this deals with that reality so beautifully, and it’s a good con, too. 

Getting together OT3:  01. just want you close, by biblionerd07.  Eliot-POV, post-rundown, man am I a sucker for Eliot-POV stories where Parker and Hardison just...love the hell out of him, and this is just a lovely, careful, sweet version of that. 

02. international small arms traffic blues, by ftmsteverogers.  Eliot POV, character study + get together fic. Makes you very sad for Eliot, and then happier for Eliot. And I’m a sucker for anytime someone has to call Sophie for advice. 

03. So Come On, Avalanche, by elysiumwaits.  It is Eliot POV snowed-in at a cabin OT3 getting together fic, so idk what more you need to know to read it. 

04. Rings a Bell, by venilia.  Eliot wakes up with amnesia and thinks he’s married to Hardison and also has a Parker, it’s silly and sweet. 

05. The Thunderous Roll of a Tropical Sea (the moonlit memory I can’t seem to lose), by phnelt. **content notes: canon-typical violence + Mature! grown and sexy content ahoy!** I have classified this as a “getting together” story, because ultimately that is what happens, but it’s probably more like “eliot getting his shit together, and now they’re all together,” which is my favorite flavor of OT3 getting together fic, anyway. It starts out a little sad, because gasp! They were together but they split up!! But it has a happy ending. It also has fake marrieds, my favorite trope of all time. Eliot feeding Hardison strawberries and playing with his fake husband on a beach while Parker watches? Please. 

06. Happy Meal, by @leiascully Listen, I admit that I am biased, because my wife wrote this for me, but it is this really hilarious flirting-over-the-comms-pre-OT3-sort-of-getting-together story, and I laughed, and it was great, so you should enjoy it, too. 

07. Oklahoma’s Next Top Model, by Hedgehog-O-Brien (Roshwen).  Hardison POV. This fic has the greatest tag of all time, which is: “Title not entirely accurate bc Eliot's clearly a bottom but who cares“ and I knew I was in good hands solely on that basis before I read a word of the fic. Tbh I put this in this “getting together” category because I feel like it’s heavily implied at the end that there’s a getting together situation happening, but like, that’s not why you read this fic. You read this fic for the ridiculously over the top OT3 photoshoot of your wildest dreams. You will laugh. You will be entertained. Enjoy!

08. Fifty Fake Dates, by calico_fiction. WIP, Hardison POV. nb: This hasn’t been updated in a minute but a) I too have WIPs that take a long-ass time between updates, if this updated in ten years I would still be excited to read it and b) the chapter that’s up is such a delight to me that I really think it’s worth a read even if this is all of this story the author wants to post. It’s a great Hardison POV with some delicious pining and fake Hardison/Eliot dating, which is my jam. 

09. For Real, by BurningTea. It’s hard to do an accidental marriage in this canon, but this fic did that! Hardison’s technical expertise goes a bit awry and everybody has to have....a talk. About feelings. 

Hurt/comfort: 

01. Dig Deep, by BurningTea.  Eliot has to dig his own grave and climb into it. It hurts a lot!!!! And then it’s comforting. So, exactly what it says on the tin. Good character observations and nicely written, hurts exactly right and comforts exactly right, too. 

Hot (nsfw, 18+, Mature, grown and sexy content for grown and sexy adults): 

01. Don’t Come Late, by @leiascully.  It’s just...the OT3, having really hot sex. That’s it, that’s the review. (The writing is delightful and there’s like, funny stuff in with the sexy stuff, which is real life and always nice to see, you know?) 

02. Take the Leap, by Penknife.  Hardison POV, first time OT3 threesome/verbal domination. The characterization in this is just **chef’s kiss** perfection. Funny, and hot. My favorite combo. 

03. The Post-Rundown Job, by DelektorskiChick.  Eliot POV, demi-Parker, mostly Eliot/Hardison but Parker’s participating in her own way. I’m a sucker for some good sexy post-injury care and this is right after Rundown, so it checks that box big time. 

04. In Sync, by monsoon_moon. Eliot POV, first time OT3some. 

Character studies: 

01. Dawning, by @darkfinch. Eliot POV, mind all the warnings.  This (read with its sequel, a WIP linked below) is probably one of my favorite Leverage pieces in existence? It is just the most beautiful, dark, horrible look at Eliot-works-for-Moreau you could hope for, except that also there’s a sequel called Reverberate, and that is also perfect and intense and really digs into what’s happening in Eliot’s mind and life during s3 after Nate drops the “we’re going after Moreau” bombshell. Both of these stories are painfully perfect and believable and real and I love them with my whole heart. The story structure and writing on both of those pieces is just excellent and the characterization is pitch perfect, and along with the stress and trauma you really get some just fantastic character moments. Idky you’re reading my review instead of the story tbh go read that, thanks!

02. Ten Prides in Portland, by @leiascully.  I put this as a character study because it is one? It’s about queer shit, and learning to be part of a community of queer people, and learning that you can be a mentor and a role model for other queer people even if you don’t have your own stuff figured out. I am extremely biased because this is my wife and I got to watch this story grow into existence every day, but I think it’s a really beautiful look at the queer community broadly, all the people who fit under the umbrella, and belonging. It’s sweet and funny and beautiful, and I really needed to feel like I was at Pride this year, and this helped. 

03. Different, by @leiascully. Hardison POV. Honestly this just made me want to go find baby Hardison and hug him for a really long time. 

04. The Twine and the Things We Bind, by @darkfinch.  WIP, H/C, big on the H. Parker and Hardison taking care of an extremely fractious, extremely injured Eliot Spencer is my jam.com forever and this is all of that with beautiful characterization and writing. Also some of the best action scenes I’ve read in a while. I do not write action At All and this does it SO WELL. 

05. A Kiss for Luck, by AlannaOfRoses.  Parker POV. A good look into Parker’s thoughts on luck during the Rundown Job/feelsy flashbacks. 

OC/Outsider POV: 

01. Let’s Go Steal a Protege, by @innytoes. WIP.  Gosh I adore this. It’s found family shenanigans from an outside-the-OT3 perspective. Jamie, the main POV OC (nonbinary rep!!), is a fucking delight of a human and their interactions with the super!married OT3 are all incredible. It is sweet and funny and sometimes sad but almost always in a happy tears kind of way, because it’s about finding a family. And there are so many genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this fic that I reread it a lot lately or think of it when I need something to lift my spirits. (There is a bit in chapter six with some thrift store purchases that I just absolutely lose my shit at every time.) I very badly want this story to just be canon tbh. Petition for that. 

AU’s

01. The Out of This World Job (Or, Per Furtum Ad Astra), by pathera.  It’s a job, but it’s IN SPACE. Parker, Hardison, & Eliot find a spaceship; shenanigans ensue. Beautifully in character, some poignant character moments, awesome writing, and just a really vivid world. 

02. Plastic Pearls, by BabylonsFall.  Kidfic! Various POV. Parker and Hardison move in across the hall from single-dad Eliot. I adore this, it is sweet and soft and everything you could hope for in a story where Eliot is raising a smol Molly. 

#leverage #Team Leverage OT3 #fic rec #really gotta tag my shit better #RIP del.icio.us you were the best bookmark system

[sandalaris]

WIP Title Game

Tagged by @youbecool @alwaysupatnight and @fortysevenswrites Thank you all so much! I

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Some are repeats because of how I do my writing, but here we go! (under a cut because there’s a lot of them)

1A - the document I use to edit the latest chapter of multi-fics I am working on, currently A Lesson in Navigation’s next chapter

A Lesson in Navigation - holds all future chapters/scenes/snippets/notes for my WIP

A SethKate Community - fusion fic! the FDtD characters are now a study group at a community college… also has some scenes for the reverse

ALiN Alternate Scene - deleted scenes for A Lesson in Navigation

ALiN Pieces to reignite - I got writers block a while back and so just started randomly writing whatever came to mind for SethKate

ALiN Seth’s POV - what is says on the title

All The Little Pieces notes - because that sucker got complicated and I kept forgetting where people were at

Andy x Lauren - an in-pieces drabble/fic for the show Gifted exploring Andy and Lauren’s mental connection and what all it means. Kinda shippy

Baby, We’re a Cliche part 2 - sequel to a Sterek AU fic

Biscuit Teacher - from the kdrama Biscuit Teacher and Star Candy. I really wanted Bo Ri to find out that Hyun Woo lied about Tae In wanting her there and then have them break up sooner, probably won’t ever be finished but I’m glad I wrote it

Chapter something - I’m shortening this list because I technically have Chapter 26, Chapter 27 and Chapter 29 and this vaugly named Chapter something all as separate document for All the Little Pieces (the main document was getting too long)

Document1 - creatively named. SethKate, inspired by the tumblr post about someone’s grandparents meeting with their grandpa tried to rob their grandma

Document2 - a rough scene from a Community fic

Document3 - has two scenes from two different FDtD fics that I need to put back where they go

DW - a Doctor Who AU where nothing is alien and everything is fae

FDtD Fire Us - post-apocalypse SethKate fic based strongly on the Fire-Us series (or rather the set up for that world and the disease that killed almost everyone). Seth and Richie find a set of siblings squatting in one of their safe houses… except they shouldn’t exist.

FDtD Seth Kate Richie - probably Gen fic where Seth and Richie are Kate’s imaginary friends… until they aren’t

FDtD Touching With Intention - a post-series Kate-centric fic about her taking her healing into her own hands, background SethKate

FDtD - a shit ton of random snippets and fic ideas that are all firmly on the backburner until I either get the overwhelming urge to finish them, delete them, or post them as chapters in my never to be finished fic (mostly SethKate). Including scenes from: Zombie AU, dark Amaru/Brasa (+Kate) fic on those six months between season 2 and 3, cursed!Kate is stuck in an alternate reality dreamstate and the Gecko brothers have to go in to get her out, and superpowered S1 AU (featuring precog!Richie, Scott can “do the math,” Kate can make people tell the truth, Freddie’s not sayin what he can do… yet, and Seth the badass normal one)

 Good Bad Kinda Fairytale - FDtD inspired by the Kinda Fairytale series where people are born either Good or Bad. SethKate featuring oblivious!Kate and pissed off!Seth.

Leverage!Life With Derek - Derek/Casey fic where the McDonalds and the Venturis are each a crime family that decide to start helping people with their skills

Lydia and Peter - an exploration of the connection between Peter and Lydia from Teen Wolf

MacGyver weirdness - what it says on the title, :P

Mr. and Mrs. Smith AU - actually just lightly inspired by the movie. SethKate. After a year of marriage, Seth, a semi-retired master theif who never told his wife how he got the money, begins to suspect that Kate is also some kind of wanted criminal… she’s not, but he’s not the only one to make that mistake and now people are shooting at them.

Murdered by Pirates is Good - a Richie/Kisa Princess Bride inspired fic where Kisa is telling Scott and Kate her story

Murdered by Pirates is Good 2- the SethKate sequel or possible alongside fic

(another set of multidocuments that are technically all the same) Nano 2, Nano Edit Numero Uno, Nano - all various edited stages of the Community/FDtD crossover where Jeff is Seth’s lawyer

Random Rumbelle - what it says in the title, lol.

Rene x Trevor - probably another fic I won’t finish, but Rene’s reaction to finding out that “Trevor” is actually a traveler in her boyfriend’s dead body

SethKate - my attempt to write smut for the first time, post-season one with kinda-a-werewolf-but-not-really!Seth

Shin x ET - The Lonley God kdrama fic where Shin struggles with not kissing his newly found bride

Spark Stiles - a semi-dark Sterek fic where Stiles climbs his way out of hell to get revenge for Scott’s murder

Sterek - two Stiles/Derek fic ideas that are on the backburner for now

Sterek SS inspired Part Two- the sequel to Intervening Process (We’ve Got This)

Stolen Kisses of an Ill-Begotten Age - Jeff/Annie post-Debate fic where Jeff gets to finally talk to someone about how Annie knocked him on his ass with one kiss

The Salt of Man - Life with Derek, Derek/Casey post-apocalypitic fic

Tumblr - the SethKate sequel to the drabble of Kate finding a drunk and high Seth and running her fingers through his hair…. that’s actually pretty much done, I should post it

Untitled tumblr drabble - a Richie/Dakota kissing prompt from @alwaysupatnight

Untitled tumblr drabble 2 - a SethKate kissing prompt from @yossariandawn

Waiting - a Criminal Minds fic involving none of the main characters, lol

What the Hell - a Big Bang Theory AU where Penny ends up Sheldon’s roommate and Leonard moves across the hall

wtf - a collection of The Umbrella Academy scenes involving Five dealing with second puberty, Diego and Vanya bonding during their teen years, and a slight AU where when they jump back to 2019 with ghost!Ben something to goes wrong, or right, and now Ben’s alive!…. and in his fourteen year old body

#fic lists #asked and answered #that's a long list #sterek #sethkate #richie x kisa #jeff x annie #tua

[ckret2]

Anon from PDA review, still too scared to come off anon: You said in one of your posts that you think part of the reason Alastor acts the way he does is because he’s depressed—lacking in focus and doing things purely out of boredom. Can you expand on that a little bit? Why is he depressed? I’m writing a fanfic (my first in six years) and I’m trying to figure out his motivations for joining the Happy Hotel, if he’s not motivated by power (according to one of the recent streams). Love your work.

I actually have two different answers to this, and which answer applies kind of depends on which post you saw me mention depression in, lmao. 

If it was this one or this one, where I’m specifically talking about my angsty ship-centric fics, then the reason he’s depressed is because he ran out on a partner and a lifestyle that made him happier than anything else he’s done in Hell ever has, he knows that he threw that away and hasn’t found anything better, he’s also aware of the fact that he ruined his partner’s life and lives with that guilt, and he now looks at the future as an endless eternity of “nothing that will ever be as good at what you had and threw away,” and he keeps all those emotions bottled up so he doesn’t have any friends or support system in place to help him process those emotions and move on healthily. But that’s the fanfic-specific answer.

If it was this one or this one, then the reason he’s depressed is because I have ADHD. And this answer is the long one, so let me stick it under a cut if tumblr is willing to cooperate with me. C’mon, tumblr.

Let me copy/paste a chunk from one of those posts:

Besides Alastor’s spectacular Asexuelle Panique™ face, the other single line that made me latch onto him was “Why does anyone do anything? Sheer! Absolute! Boredom!”

There are some very specific character types that I’m an absolute sucker for, and one of them is: extremely powerful character, at the top of their game, unstoppable and uncontrollable and unmatched, a loner who likes it that way, BUT they’re bored as hell, either because they’ve met all their goals or because they don’t know how to set any—

—and the boredom is eating them up inside, it’s driving them slowly mad, the sheer tedium of trying to fill one day after another with nothing to do is weighing down on them, if depression is usually compared to a heavy rain then this depression is like an endless empty waiting room, or depression like solitary confinement, or depression like an unmoving sun shining on an infinite flat desert, the depression of a completely empty hollow life leveled flat by infinite interminable boredom, a boredom they would do ANYTHING to get rid of, a boredom that’s like a withdrawal, a boredom that makes your hands shake and your pulse quicken with desperate need for the drug to stave off the withdrawal symptoms, but god, you don’t even know what the drug IS, you just know you NEED it, some form of stimulation, ANY stimulation, you’re going mad in this empty desert with your hands trembling and the withdrawal clouding your mind—

Have I mentioned that I have ADHD? Did you know that untreated ADHD can result in depression specifically due to chronic mental understimulation?

I keep telling myself “bruh, don’t headcanon Alastor as having ADHD, you don’t even headcanon that he has any other traits that line up with ADHD symptoms,” but like. That one line. “Sheer! Absolute! Boredom!” I felt that in my very bones.

There is desperation in that man. There is desperation in him that speaks to me like nothing else does. 

I like to explore that desperate despairing boredom. I like to force them through that understimulation withdrawal, drive them to do stupid wild desperate things to try to get the stimulation they need. And then, when I’m feeling nice, I like to help them find a cure.

Usually I imagine the cure is “dude, you’re such a loner that you’ve cut yourself off from the rest of the human race, you have NO human connections, even when you’re technically interacting with other people you’re still completely emotionally isolated inside your own shell. Make some goddamn friends and start to care about other people and their lives and you’ll find that the act of having other people exist in your world who matter to you will give you that stimulation you’re desperately missing.”

Because these desperately bored characters are also desperately emotionally isolated. And they might be happy/content in their isolation—but they’re not doing anything to cure their own understimulation like that.

Whenever it comes up in a conversation I’m in that Alastor might have depression, my first instinct is to point at the “boredom” line. But I think it can be easy to misinterpret that as “I think he’s bored because he has depression,” when really it’s “I think he’s depressed because he has boredom.”

Now, as I mentioned above, I don’t think Alastor actually has ADHD. Willing to be persuaded, but not feeling it currently. But, consider this:

Alastor is going to exist forever (barring a lucky shot from an exterminator) and he’s powerful enough to get and do anything he wants. He doesn’t have a full-time job. He doesn’t have any ambitions that we know of—we’ve been told he hasn’t pursued an overlord position despite his power because it doesn’t interest him. He doesn’t have any known hobbies or causes he cares about to fill his time; he seems to just wander around Hell at random, and he’s free enough he can spontaneously jump onto somebody’s massive hotel project. To our knowledge, the only goal he’s pursuing is personal entertainment. He’s got at least a few people in hell he’s on friendly terms with, but we don’t know if he’s emotionally close to any of them; they might have emotionally shallow relationships, he might have nobody whose lives he’s emotionally invested in.

He has an infinite amount of time and nothing to fill it.

He’s absolutely in understimulation hell.

He’s in a perfect position to sink into an endless whirlpool of boredom and drown in it.

... So, typically, if I’m writing Alastor, usually it’s gonna be in one of the aforementioned angsty shippy fics, and my two different answers kind of mingle. (“He’s depressed because he’s bored, but also he’s bored because he threw away a satisfying lifestyle that served as a full-time job, but also losing that relationship in and of itself is a source of depression, but also the slump he went into after losing that relationship has helped prevent him from finding other emotionally-satisfying ways to spend his time which contributes to the constant understimulation...”)

But answer #2 stands alone as my general answer for canon Alastor. If he isn’t currently depressed, then oh boy, he’s half a step away from tumbling in, and I think he knows it.

#anonymous #ask #headcanons #alastor #hazbin hotel #about my writing

[risingsouls]

Conversations: 3

[Part 3 of what should def just be called my self-indulgent and soon to be shippier bs. The shippy isn’t REALLY there yet but the chemicals are reacting, as they say.]

“I have another question.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Vegeta eyed Nabooru from across the campfire, usual frown twitching a touch lower. The flames danced in her gold eyes. Had it not been for the dinosaur steak roasting over the fire, the offered view of the flame’s glow illuminating her against the early night sky might have been pleasant. “Well, go on. I’ve indulged you every other time, why should now be any different?”

The Gerudo reached out to turn her dinner for an even roast. Considering their last encounter, how the train of conversation intensified to a point that felt as though the slightest movement would trigger violence, she almost didn’t expect him to let her follow through. A whole week passed before he returned to the wasteland for a spar and, while she tried not to dwell on it, to accept that she pushed too far and overstayed her welcome, or, harder to swallow he didn’t consider her a worthy sparring partner any more, it had bothered her more than she cared to admit aloud or to herself. When she hit the low point of considering finding him herself or showing up at his place of residence--a tidbit of information she picked up at the tournament if she couldn’t sense him--she threw herself into her own training. A good long span of survival training without the use of her ki helped clear her head and consider ways to move forward with her growth on her own once more.

“This one might be personal.” She snorted at the raised eyebrow he gave her and amended, “In a different way. Like about your body sort of personal.”

“What?” His expression morphed into a scowl. Heat soared into his cheeks and he glanced away to keep her from noticing it. “What the hell would you need to ask about my body?!”

It took a second too long for her to realize why her words caused such an indignant reaction in the prince. “W-wait! No, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m not--!” she sputtered, trying to regain ground. “Ugh, I’ll just ask. You and Nappa are both Saiyans, but he has a tail and you don’t. Did you have a tail at some point, too?”

Vegeta felt the blush flee from his face and his heart rate slowly returning to normal, but her inquiry did nothing to quell his sour expression. He turned it back on her. “Of course I had a tail. All Saiyans are born with them.”

Had. Considering the tidbits of his past she knew, she feared the worst. Frieza was obviously a racist bastard that feared his kind. Had he taken it? If so, why hadn’t he lobbed Nappa’s off? A warning? Another sort of message? Nabooru pulled the steak from the fire and extended it to him. A peace offering, a silent apology. A way to cool him off and keep talking if only for her own curiosity. “What happened to it, then? Or is yours special and invisible?”

Snatching the proffered meat, sharp canines tore into it. He ignored the burns to his tongue and the roof of his mouth as he chewed. “Got cut off,” he rumbled around the bite before taking another.

Nabooru failed to stop her eyelids from lowering and the corners of her lips dipping downward in an unamused frown. Rolling her eyes, she popped up to her feet and strode over to the carcass a few meters away from their camp. “Should I ask you how or why?” She considered summoning a ki sword but instead pulled one of her dual blades from her hip, if only to strike back by annoying him as he was her. When he found her earlier that afternoon training with her trusty blades--the weight welcome in her hands, the technique of wielding them so embedded in her muscle memory she lost no time delving into her old routines and toying with new ones--he had made it plain he didn’t care for such weapons. She brought it down in a swift arc, slicing another steak from the beast’s tail. Noting that he was halfway through the one in his hands, she hacked off another for insurance. “Or would I be wasting my breath?”

Though the rage from that particular day had long since dulled to a weak summer thunderstorm when given half a thought, Vegeta avoided considering it. A successful endeavor so long as his mind cooperated and no one reminded him of it. The day his life was upended and flipped upside down, never to return to a proper orientation even after all these years. His whole understanding of himself, his place in the universe, his strength and prowess as a warrior...all of it ripped to shreds and uncertain. Sometimes, it all still felt like an extended nightmare and he would wake up in his pod on some new planet to conquer with Nappa and Raditz at his side. Such moments were fewer and further between these days, but he once more found himself on precarious footing with no clear goal for himself. No clear desires. A murky identity despite his best efforts to conceal just how lost he felt through declarations of his princely status to a dead race.

Their last conversation had reminded him of it and, as he tended to do when he needed to feel like he was accomplishing something and forget the world around him, he trained day and night until exhaustion forced him to rest. Then he awoke a fee meager hours later and did it again. He lost at least a week this time, if the last message Nabooru sent and he replied to and her off-handed comment earlier was any indication.

"A fat man cut it off," he began between bites of meat. He swallowed, watching her prepare the next steak on the spit. "Never saw him again after. Best for him because I'd have killed him if I did."

An empty threat, likely. He had promised the others there that day the same fate but failed to enact any of them. A waste of energy, he told himself. But deep down, he simply knew it was a death wish when he still tailed Kakarot in power. And though back then he wished and sometimes still considered if he would have been better off sharing the same fate as his people, obliterated to space dust to forever float among the cosmos and join them in Hell, his fire to reclaim his honor and place as the most powerful Saiyan kept him alive.

Nabooru knew her follow up question was predictable, but if he found it annoying, he could easily amend it by filling in the proper details without prompt. "A random fat man just cut off your tail?" she asked, tone devoid of humor despite the image parading through her mind. "Seems rather random."

"It wasn't." Her steely gaze pinned him to the spot, full lips thinned and an eyebrow lifted. A chuckle rumbled in his chest, and he could imagine--almost feel--the missing appendage in question flicking in idle arcs of amusement. He finished the last bit of meat slow, relishing the taste and her mounting frustration over the game he played. "Our tails are what allow us to transform into the mighty Oozaru. He cut it off to return me to my normal form.”

“Another transformation? Like your Super Saiyan thing?”

“No, not exactly. During full moons, Saiyans transform into giant apes capable of leveling planets. Hence why our talents were in demand for someone like Frieza and his family.” He wiped his mouth with his arm. “Plenty of us could do it without the transformation, but using the Oozaru form was typically faster and more difficult for enemies to strike down.”

Nabooru whistled low, fascinated by the idea. She leaned forward and twisted the meat to the other side. “Mm, so then cutting off your tail was actually strategic of this mystery fat man?”

“You give him more credit than he deserves,” the Saiyan huffed. “Kakarot and his friends got lucky the first time I touched down on this damn planet. The clown was dead to rights, and had those idiots not shown up to our battle…” He trailed off, unsure of how that would change his fate and certain she could fill in the blanks herself. Where would he be now had he destroyed Kakarot and his friends that day? Still serving Frieza? Ruler of his own empire like his father promised him? Dead?

She opened her mouth to respond, pointing out that technically Goku hadn’t defeated him that day exactly by that detailing, but reconsidered. Another sore spot that, if she understood right, sparked his rivalry with the other Saiyan. His need to surpass him and defeat him in battle. She could understand that; she wouldn’t care for such an outcome either, and would crave a proper rematch. She suspected the blow to his pride ran deeper than just the need for a rematch, however. Like her, his warrior status was intrinsically tied to his identity, and the loss to Goku had shaken that, the reverberations of which he still obviously battled with.

“Why is it that I’m the one always answering questions, anyway?” Nabooru glanced up from the flames at her company. His muscular arms were folded over his broad chest, and he watched her with narrowed eyes. She blinked, and when he didn’t amend his inquiry, she replied, “Because you’ve never really asked me anything?” She lifted a shoulder. “I never talked much about myself because I figured you weren’t interested. I didn’t think you would like such a breach our quasi-master-student relationship or really care to listen.”

“And all of your questions didn’t do that already?” He sneered when all she offered was another shrug in response. He had no one to blame but himself on that front. If he really took offense to her interrogations, he could have ignored her. But the ease of conversing with her lulled him into blathering on about his past. And, if he wanted to know more about her in turn, a possibility he tried to deny due to its futility, he had no reason to doubt she would answer in kind. Her being a warrior as passionate as he was about improving herself had piqued his curiosity at her tournament, and her final words that all but ended their tense conversation a week before haunted him, further prodding the desire to uncover her past. His reasonably cynical mind deemed it pointless, an effort to form an unnecessary bond, and, until outwardly admitting it moments ago, he had conveyed such a mindset to her successfully by not partaking in asking her his own questions. But a part of him he could not pin down--simple curiosity? Loneliness? Hope of finding someone who could even remotely relate to him in more than basic ways and that didn’t annoy him too much?--begged him to ask similar questions to those she asked him and learn more. With his outburst, he had little choice but to follow through.

Another huff blown out through his nose. “Fine. You said you didn’t get to kill your Frieza. Who was your Frieza?”

Nabooru hid her surprise in his follow through by casting her gaze to the steak and turning it slowly. Habit and buried bitterness made her want to question his sincerity in asking: did he really want to know, or was he just trying to get back at her for all of her inquiries? She didn’t usually share her experience with anyone, and most were too caught up in themselves or completely unaware that she and her people hailed from a different planet and would never think to ask such questions. She kept most at arm’s length outside of the Gerudo to not only shield her emotions but to, perhaps, better cope with the past and the loose ends she left behind. It’s success felt questionable most days. 

“He was the King of Hyrule,” she said, deciding at length that Vegeta wasn’t the type to bring something up if he wasn’t genuinely curious. “Well, really the monarchy of Hyrule. Perhaps the whole country in its own way.” Gold eyes flicked up to him, assessing. “It’s...a long story. It would take a bit to help you underst--”

“Try me.” A challenge issued out of both his undeniable interest in her tale and annoyance that she tried to deflect his question when he answered all of hers (nevermind that it took some coaxing on her part). “You and I seem to have little more than time, so get to explaining. Not so fun being on the other side, is it?”

She chewed her lip and pulled the meat from the fire. She turned it over, once, twice, then handed it over to Vegeta instead. “Well...as I’m sure you guessed, the king and his people were not very fond of mine. Decades of friction from how we fought the longest and hardest in the Civil War, and likely could have won if our supplies and numbers had held up. In the end, we surrendered and joined the other nations in signing a treaty of unity, but the spoils were tactically skewed against us. It offered a semblance of peace, ensured our sovereignty as long as we played by their rules. It did not, however, help us secure better lives for ourselves in expanding outside of the desert for farmland nor did it open up the trade that had been restricted. Though they blocked every request, despite our people dying from the war draining our supplies and a desert not being the most hospitable home, we did our best to find ways to survive while trying to play their games of diplomacy and peace. It was hard not to see it as an orchestrated, slow strangling and punishment for our near success in the war.”

Nabooru paused, the next portion of her story lodging a lump in her throat and igniting a furious flame in her belly. She still struggled to talk about certain bits, the memories painful and the feelings of shame stilling her tongue. Perhaps another time she would illuminate Ganondorf’s role and her betrayal in more detail. For now, she could work around it for the most part.

“Our king...he lost patience with them and staged a coup on his own. He was captured before he could get too far and...imprisoned, likely to be executed. It only fueled the hatred Hyrule had for us, as well as their fear because they assumed we would pick up where he left off.” She stabbed the spit through the remaining stake with unnecessary ferocity. “Whole groups, including people of the court called for our complete eradication. It was considered radical at first, niche groups popping up here and there, but it quickly gained traction, and the king nor his lackeys ever denounced it all, despite the peace treaty and our insistence to uphold it. I had taken over as leader and tried everything I could to convince them, to stave off the growing violence and once more try to save my people and give them a sustainable life. To play their game like they wanted. It did no good. I was laughed out of every meeting.

“Back home, we were split. We were all angry, desperate, and many called for war, even though we could never win with hardly the supplies to sustain ourselves in peacetime and being horribly outnumbered by the rest of Hyrule. Others suggested we take our chances with the desert before they storm our gates.” She swallowed, staring into the fire, reminded of the torches they bore and how it glinted off their steel as they swarmed their home. “We didn’t get the chance to make the decision. Soldiers and civilians alike stormed the fortress en masse. We fought as long as we could, but we had to make the decision to flee into the desert. Only those that made it here survived.”

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Tears of mourning, of shame as a warrior who was forced to flee rather than face her attackers and die a warrior’s death or come out victorious with the King’s head on a pike. No matter how reasonable, no matter how she had helped save at least some of her people and helped them flourish in another home, it felt cowardly. Unfinished business never set well with her, but, at the same time, she wasn’t entirely sure that, given the chance, she would go through with making the dreams of storming Hyrule and leveling it with her newfound power a reality any more. The fleeting satisfaction it would bring didn’t feel worth it.

Somewhere during her story, her fingers had woven into her ponytail to glide through the crimson tresses. She snatched her hand out of them as if they had burned her and burrowed both hands into the space between her crisscrossed legs. “While I took down plenty of those who attacked us, I didn’t get to kill the king or his court or anyone else who wished me and my people dead. That’s why I said what I did. I understand that yearning for...well, I don't know what to call it. Justice? Revenge? Closure?”

Vegeta had slowed the pace of his eating as she spoke, nibbling on the hunk of meat rather than tearing chunks from it. Many of her people were killed out of fear of their might and potential--as warriors and in what they might do--and they were forced to flee because of it. He could easily see why his own history resonated with her, the parallels uncanny. And she was their leader for a time, a fact he could have guessed at considering the others still seemed to turn to her for guidance, likely out of habit, and the way she carried herself among them. They both understood the pain of failure, of helplessness to change anything due to lacking power or sway to do so. She at least didn't grow to resent the survivors of her kind, or shove them away because they were weaker or deemed useless. She had the chance to learn to be a proper leader. His only guidance in that department was Frieza. 

He grit his teeth; he hated when he realized just how similar to that bastard he had been. How many of his habits and practices he picked up unintentionally just to survive.

“All three, I suppose,” he mumbled at last, choosing to stare at the meat in his hands than make eye contact. “Maybe someone else got vengeance for you and your race.”

His words didn’t make her feel better, but she suspected they weren’t meant to. “Mm, somehow I doubt it. People like that always live longer than they deserve to.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and turned her steak. “You still wish it was you, then?”

Vegeta popped the last bite in his mouth and chewed it slowly. He didn’t miss the bitter hope in her tone. Her gaze finding his despite his best efforts to avoid it. For what, though? Someone to understand? For someone who was anything but “normal” to validate the hollowness of a vendetta not claimed? 

“It should have been me. But the universe thought Kakarot had a better stake to the claim than me.” He didn’t mention his own son cutting Frieza to pieces like he was nothing and, to add salt to the wound, did it as a Syper Saiyan as well. “But...yes. I suppose I do. Not so vehemently as after the fact, but I will still say he was mine to kill after all the shit he put me through. After all he took from me.”

Nabooru remained silent for a while, offering only a nod of agreement in answer, the crackle of the fire and the howl of a coyote in the distance the only sounds. Though the ache remained, they had both figured out how to manage. Perhaps not in the healthiest of ways but maybe they could help each other with that. The thought surprised her; did she really expect this sparring arrangement and conversing like this to be long term with no real indication that it would continue even the next day? Once more she had to contend with her potential want for his company, not just anyone’s. A confusing revelation, since the last decade or more of her life had been spent consciously avoiding creating such bonds and pretending she didn’t want them outside of the few Gerudo she had already established them with. 

"Hey."

The Saiyan returned his attention from a lizard scaling a nearby rock to the woman with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

Nabooru bit her lip, a smile tugging her lips. "Want to spar? The night is young."

He stared at her, confusion still present on his features. "What about your food? You need to eat or you won't have the energy to make it worth my time."

"What are you my mother or just scared?" She rose to her feet and smoothed out her pants, kicking sand onto the fire. "If you really want to play that game, you obviously need to get more sleep. I could see the bags under your eyes from a mile away." 

"Scared of what? You maybe landing a decent hit?" He scoffed and rose to his feet. He didn't care to be nagged about his extra erratic sleeping patterns of late, and the prospect of a spar sounded more enticing than delving into their bloody pasts and regrets for much longer. 

She stepped toward him and rested her hands on her hips. "So, are you going to fight me or what?"

He smirked, feet leaving the sand. "If you're so eager to get beaten,, then let's go. We're burning moonlight."

#// vegeta ♅ #:: nabooru ☀ #i hope this doesn't post twice #tumblr is shittign the bed

[kob131]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/dl1jsm/cj_black0s_rewrite/

So who wants to see another shitty rewrite?

Okay, let's start with the big change of v6 first, Adam's ending. I'm scratching him dying here as I have bigger plans for him for Atlas. But what I change exactly is what occurs in his battle against Yang & Blake upon Yang entering the fray & how it would alter things.

Instead of Yang barely reacting to finally coming face to face with the man that ran through & broke her, there's an actual mental reaction here, but it's not fear...but absolute rage. Her fear of Adam is gone, but in its place is an inferno of hatred towards the man before her.

So Yang didn’t learn her lesson from her dad about controlling her anger and we don’t have the payoff for the numerous times Yangs temper fucked her over.

He broke the show IN THE EXACT SAME WAY he bitches the creators do...and this is suppose to be better. *slow claps*.

She no longer panics or fears the thought of him, but trembles at the thought of doing even worse to him than he committed to her & Blake, & with him here now & attacking Blake once again, Yang slips & goes full berserker on Adam.

So now Yang’s being sadistic. Out of fucking nowhere as she hasn’t even displayed this kind of behavior before this and the build up is about her being SCARED. So we have an OOC moment serving nothing for the character, in fact COMPRIMISING her character as Yang never showed this aspect of herself and it paints her in a negative light. For...what? ‘My self insert survives’? 

Cool, tell me about how Blake and Yang fight the patriarchy next since we’re doing cringy fanfiction bullshit.

But though she is fighting with incredible ferocity, speed & timing, she's not thinking or planning at all.

‘timing’

‘not thinking or planning at all.’

So CJ bitches the show retconned Aura by being technical about the word ‘passive’ and yet technically you need to THINK or PLAN to have good timing like that.

She's acting like a wild unhinged animal & both Adam & Blake notices this as Adam uses it to his advantage to slowly start tipping the fight in his favor as he blocks Yang's hits & sends the power right back to her.

Again, acting like the thing she was suppose to have GOTTEN OVER. In fact, worse because Yang never acted like an animal and now she is? When her build up was suppose to be about keeping her cool?

Hm, I believe the man you parrot Vexed Viewer has something for this. What was it...? Oh yeah- Stupid for the sake of the plot.

All the while, Blake is trying desperately to get Yang to stop & listen to her & calm down, but nothing gets through to Yang which eventually results in Blake barely managing to move Yang out of a fatal attack & then finally get through to her as she takes her hand & tells her to please stop & calm down as she doesn't want to lose anyone that she cares about, especially to Adam & that she'll always be here for Yang & will always have her back until the end no matter what & even starts crying.

Still fucking stupid while also being technically as shippy as the original fight so far. You know, that thing you screech about all the time.

Also why isn’t Blake helping Yang? All she did was try to calm Yang down and not try to fight with her? You never said that Yang was fighting in a way that prevented Blake from helping and she knows that Adam won’t stop so playing disruption to disable Adam is the logical choice.

And also- Why is Adam allowing this to happen? Critics bitch the villains do stupid shit and yet you CJ, someone who groups himself in with them, seem to be ignoring that. There was talking in the original but A. This would take more time than anything else in the fight to say and B. it was still bitched out.

Hearing & seeing this finally gets through to Yang as she sends a few shots at the feet of an approaching Adam & now with a clear mind, thanks Blake & tells her she'll always be there for her too from here on out. And from there the fight continues as it does in the show & the 2 win in the end.

So instead of the struggle coming from Adam’s own power and skill, along with displaying how far Yang had come from her last encounter with Adam by showing her more defensive style in the fight and ending with Adam’s own anger and rashness getting the better of him- We get something that you could uber pandering to Bumbleby shippers while proclaiming ‘POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!’.

Nice standards you have CJ ‘Hypocrite’ Black.

However, just when Adam's about to make that final struggle, Atlas personnel arrive on the scene(also on the Mech's location) to provide backup & arrest everyone. However upon seeing Adam, they all immediately panic & try to apprehend the dangerous terrorist but in their rush, provide Adam with a hostage & enough time to escape into the woods & later outside of Argus which is later swarmed by Grimm, better helping his escape. Now having been defeated twice (both in mission & combat) by Blake & her friends, Adam is utterly spouting with rage & hate...so much so that he's sensed by Cinder.

So Yang and Blake do nothing to stop him. Congrats *slow claps.*

Also, Adam is by your own admission spouting with rage and hate...THE SHIT GRIMM ARE ATTRACTED TO. How the FUCK are the Grimm of things helping him escape and not giving everyone a living trail to follow as they logically rush after him? What, did you ACTUALLY retcon the Grimm or just ignore it for your plot?

Also how the hell would Cinder sense him? She’d be in an airship and he’d be on the ground. Unless Adam just so happens to be seen out of all the shit on the ground by Cinder (while displaying CLEAR mental instability)- She’d miss him. 

Seeing the woman who pulled him into all this in the first place, Adam lashes out at Cinder. But with him being tired, without aura & injured, the maiden easily swats him away. She brings up how the 2 are planning on following Ruby to Atlas to kill her & this piques Adam's interest as he asks to accompany them as he explains he too wants to kill someone in RWBY & with him knowing a guy in Atlas who could help them make all their goals easier, it's a win-win.

So Adam just cares solely about Blake here. He’s perfectly fine with teaming up with a human that YOU BELIEVE he hates with a passion. 

Effectively, you MADE Adam the same thing you say he was turned into.

So stealing an airship from Argus & using Neo & Adam to act as soldiers delivering the dangerous criminal Adam Taurus to face justice in Atlas, the 3 make their way into the kingdom. As part of the plan, once Adam gets transferred to other soldiers, he quickly disposes of them & escapes as he then reveals their newest ally, leader of the WF Atlas branch...Banesaw.

Who immediately shoots him dead hearing about how he tried to blow up his own men and would be IMMENSELY disgusted with the man for his own personal vendetta endangering his cause...even though Adam wouldn’t care since you NEVER built him up as returning to the WF and the show definitively displayed that part of him was over now.

Also, how the fuck wouldn’t they just see through this shit?

With this loyal & powerful man of Adam Taurus who now leads the most dangerous branch of the WF on their side along with Watts & Tyrian eventually coming into contact with the Atlas branch & Cinder & deciding to work together, team CABN (pronounced Cain or Cabin) is ready...

Where Watts and Tyrian kill everyone because Cinder is a traitor out for her own ends (hence why she AVOIDED them in the actual show) and Adam’s long since dead because to think that a leader of the WF wouldn’t have heard about Haven is to make me believe he’s an idiot. 

Also can’t fit into Volume 7 because you can’t cut anything due to everything being important to the build up of the plot.

Also left out Watts and Tyrian out of the team name. You added them in despite not FITTING IN.

Also you didn’t build up Banesaw so by your standards with Blake’s parents and Illa, he’s a retcon.

Also if this branch is so dangerous why wasn’t THE HIGH LEADER OF THE WHITE FANG STATIONED THERE? You know, Sienna being stationed in Mistral would imply that’s the most fortified place there is for the WF to protect their leader?

Gee, it’s almost like CJ Black doesn’t CARE about good writing and is just pissy his fanfiction didn’t become real.

‘B-but this is from 9 months ago-’

And as previous posts about him will show- CJ hasn’t changed.

NO ONE doing these rewrites care about good writing. Because THAT’D require actually paying attention to the damn show thus seeing what stuff built up to. Not, you know, making up delusions about the show to fit their narrative.

Mark my words, his RWBY0 rewrite will tank and burn. 

[halflingdeath]

✩ (sorry I had to do it! we can discuss it if you like)

Disagreements:

Who is more likely to raise their voice? Tomi Who threatens to leave but never actually does? Tomi Who actually keeps their word and leaves? I can’t see either or them walking out on each other - not for very long, anyways, and when they come back to each other it’s tears and apologies Who trashes the house? Tomi Do either of them get physical? NEVER How often do they argue/disagree? Rith keeps Tomi in check whenever he tries to steal or lie or pull a fast one on folks, so I can see those arguments short-lived before Tomi gives up the ghost and plays by the rules. “Can’t blame a bloke for tryin’, eh?” Who is the first to apologise? Surprisingly Tomi, he gets it in his head after a while that maybe Rith is too good for him. If he doesn’t treat her the way she deserves to be treated, he might lose her for good - so he apologizes before Rith wises up and walks away

Sex:

Who is on top? Rith I think, Tomi’s more likely to cede control to her Who is on the bottom? Tomi’s absolutely a bottom Who has the strangest desires? Tomi Any kinks? “Oh no! Don’t arrest me, miss! I’ll do anythin’!” “Hmm... anything, you say?” Who’s dominant in bed? Rith Is head ever in the equation? Rith is one of those rare cases where he absolutely would give head if she wanted it instead of claiming to be too tired, and on the other side he’d 110% be down to get a BJ If so, who is better at performing it? Rith Ever had sex in public? Nope Who moans the most? Rith probably Who leaves the most marks? Tomi Who screams the loudest? 'Tough Guy’ Tomi :P Who is the more experienced of the two? I’m banking on Tomi Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’? Definitely make love Rough or soft? They’ll start out soft but Tomi will want it more rough and ragged towards the end How long do they usually last? I can see it lasting 45 minutes to an hour, especially if Tomi focuses on her for a while Is protection used? The question is, do they want protection? o: Does it ever get boring? I don’t think so Where is the strangest place they’d have sex? I’m not sure if Rith allowed it but I can imagine Tomi trying to convince her to let them fuck in a temple

Family:

Do your muses plan on having children/or have children? With Rith? I can see him wanting to settle down and have kids at some point. If it were anyone else, he’d say no If so, how many children do your muses want/have? At least one Who is the favorite parent? Tomi Who is the authoritative parent? Rith Who is more likely to allow the children to have a day off school? Tomi Who lets the children indulge in sweets and junk food when the other isn’t around? Tomi, but saying “shh! Don’t let mum know or she’ll have my arse, aye?” Who turns up to extra curricular activities to support their children? Rith and Tomi. Rith is the supportive parent and Tomi brings the enthusiasm Who goes to parent teacher interviews? Rith, because if Tomi goes then the teacher might lower their standards for the kiddo XD Who changes the diapers? Tomi Who gets up in the middle of the night to feed the baby? Rith Who spends the most time with the children? Tomi, often enough that he’s considered “the other ragamuffin” she looks after xD Who packs their lunch boxes? Rith Who gives their children ‘the talk’? Tomi would give their teen the standard “that’s the way babies get made, don’t know much about changes and hormones but here’s some handy advice--” “Tomi don’t tell them about that stuff!” Who cleans up after the kids? Team effort Who worries the most? Rith Who are the children more likely to learn their first swear word from? TOMI

Affection:

Who likes to cuddle? Rith Who is the little spoon? Most of the time Tomi Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places? TOMI Who struggles to keep their hands to themself?  Tomi How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable? I’m not sure o: Who gives the most kisses? Rith What is their favourite non-sexual activity? Probably trying to make each other laugh or listen to each other Where is their favourite place to cuddle? I’m not sure, I can see Tomi being up for anywhere Who is more likely to playfully grope the other? Tomi, only to get surprised if Rith decides to reciprocate :P How often do they get time to themselves? Probably not terribly often if Rith is stuck in the temple, or meeting with Nasher, and if Tomi’s off trying to build an off-brand thieves guild :P

Sleeping:

Who snores? Tomi If both do, who snores the loudest? Tomi Do they share a bed or sleep separately? They would likely share a bed I think If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart? Cozy up Who talks in their sleep? Tomi What do they wear to bed? Either pajamas, night shirts, or nothing Are either of your muses insomniacs? Since Rith’s an elf and technically doesn’t need sleep, would she count? Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside? Nope Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side? They’re probably a tangled mess of limbs at some point, especially if Tomi holds on to her like a Koala :P Who wakes up with bed hair? Elven hair is usually immaculate, which leaves Tomi with the messy hair Who wakes up first? Rith Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other? Tomi tries to prepare breakfast in bed. Rith might eat it just to be nice, but even the toast is beyond recognition XD What is their favourite sleeping position? I can totally see Tomi being the jetpack XD Who hogs the sheets? Tomi Do they set an alarm each night? Can a television be found in their bedroom? Who has nightmares? Is it possible for elves to have nightmares? If anyone does, I’m thinking it’s Rith. Of course she’d have nightmares with the things she saw Who has ridiculous dreams? Tomi Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed? Tomi Who makes the bed? Rith What time is bed time? Any time Any routines/rituals before bed? Maintenance and hygiene, maybe faith stuff for Rith Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up? Tomi

Work:

Who is the busiest? Rith, by far Who rakes in the highest income? Tomi, though he may not come by it honestly 100% of the time Are any of your muses unemployed? I don’t think so Who takes the most sick days? Neither Who is more likely to turn up late to work? Neither Who sucks up to their boss? Does Rith count as Tomi’s boss? :P What are their jobs? Tomi’s a hired mercenary and Rith’s a hero for Neverwinter Who stresses the most? Rith Do your muses enjoy or despise their careers/occupations? I can see Rith’s job weighing heavily on her, while Tomi’s off gallivanting after her being like “Hells yeah! I love this part!” Are your muses financially stable? Yes

Home:

Who does the washing? Tomi Who takes out the trash? Rith Who does the ironing? Who does the cooking? Rith Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying? Tomi Who is messier? Tomi Who leaves the toilet roll empty? Tomi Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor? Tomi Who forgets to flush the toilet? NEITHER Who is the prankster around the house? Tomi Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere? Who mows the lawn? Who answers the telephone? Who does the vacuuming? Who does the groceries? Both Who takes the longest to shower? Rith Who spends the most time in the bathroom? Tomi’s gotta get that hair just right somehow

Miscellaneous:

Is money a problem? Nope - (Tomi winks) How many cars do they own? Do they own their home or do they rent? Own Do they live near the coast or deep in the countryside? Coast Do they live in the city or in the country? City at first but I can see them retiring to the country Do they enjoy their surroundings? Tomi makes wherever he is a home, so it would be up to Rith to find somewhere she enjoys for them both to settle down What’s their song? I’m going by Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros :P Otherwise it would be Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds. (I really need to find more shippy-type songs) What do they do when they’re away from each other? Tomi boasts to whoever would listen about his girl back home and I can imagine Rith would be doing the best she can until she comes back to him Where did they first meet? The temple of Tyr in Neverwinter’s city core How did they first meet? Rith was in search for a henchman and Tomi stepped up - after she offered up a satisfactory sum of money, anyways Who spends the most money when out shopping? Rith, since Tomi’s more likely to find ways to get a ‘discount’ Who’s more likely to flash their assets? Tomi, out of a compulsion to brag Who finds it amusing when the other trips over? Tomi would have a giggle while helping her up. “Doin’ awright there, miss Rith? Or should I call you Linu?” Any mental issues? Tomi’s a kleptomaniac, and I can see Rith maybe eventually developing PTSD or depression if she doesn’t already have them? But that’s something I don’t know Who’s terrified of bugs? Rith maybe? Who kills the spiders around the house? Tomi, with a slingshot Their favourite place? Wherever they’re together and not being chased by terrifying monsters :P Who pays the bills? Rith Do they have any fears for their future? Plenty of fears, I think. I can see Carefree Tomi’s attitude sobering up a little more as he commits and accepts responsibility, because Rith shouldn’t be dealing with apprehension for what may come all by herself Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner? Rith, because Tomi would end up surprising Rith with a burnt dinner Who uses up all of the hot water? Rith? Who’s the tallest? Definitely Rith Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other? Tomi Who wanders around in their underwear? Tomi Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio? Tomi What do they tease each other about? Tomi would tease Rith about her goody two-shoes attitude, where I can see Rith poking fun at Tomi’s inflated ego XD Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times? Not sure o: Do they have mutual friends? Of course! Who crushed first? Tomi was probably head over heels rather quickly, at least by Chapter 2. He can’t help it, she’s a pretty elven miss and she tolerates him longer than most do! Any alcohol or substance related problems? None, I think? Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am? Tomi, but he won’t make a habit of it if it upsets Rith Who swears the most? TOMI

#neverwinterforgottenhero #((Let me know if I should change anything!))

[miss-m-calling]

Rare Pairs 2020 letter

Canons requested: American Gods (TV), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Starred Up, Witchblade (TV),  킹덤 Kingdom (Netflix)

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with.

Without further ado…

Requests:

American Gods (TV)

Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

I ship it. Yes I do. They had me at “gimme-my-coin-dead-wife”-flicks-him-into-wall. The snarky road trip was the best thing I never knew I wanted until it happened, and I adored every second of it, not to mention the upped shippiness in S2. They’re both such assholes and so fascinating, even if they start to mellow toward each other a bit, and all the gods/magic/resurrection stuff swirling around them begs to be explored further. Also I love love love how their dynamic is about equal parts spikiness, pathos, and humor (they’re funny! and the canon doesn’t shy away from putting them in ludicrous situations), and it weaves seamlessly between those three. Plus she’s half his size yet can and does beat him up with literally one finger, and then there’s the angst of he having killed her, feeling really guilty about it, and then bringing her back. And the way that their New Orleans adventure makes clear they have feelings for each other (S1 was more one-sided Sweeney -> Laura) but neither wants to admit it. And and and… yeah, I just love them. Canon-specific DNWs: Sweeney dying/staying dead (at least permanently), Laura as Essie’s reincarnation/descendant or a reincarnation/whatever of Sweeney’s wife from back when he was a king in old Ireland (or a lot of focus on those relationships), either Laura or Sweeney as an inanimate corpse in a smut scenario

My prompts are a combo of prompts I had after I binged S1 and others I added throughout S2. Even if some of this is addressed or hinted at in canon, feel free to diverge – canon divergences and canon-adjacent stories are my jam!

-Please give me either missing scenes from the road trip (if you can work in a divergence, that’s great - for example, I like Salim, but if you want to have him boot Sweeney and Laura to the curb and go off on his own, or Sweeney to boost his taxi before Salim catches them, or whatever else to have those two alone, go for it!), or a divergence from either season (instead of going to Ostara, they go where? to see whom? about getting Laura resurrected. Or things go down differently in New Orleans, or Cairo, or anywhere else) or something about these two post-canon.

-Laura discovers (how? you decide!) that Sweeney gave her back the coin after their accident – whatever happens next, some punching may be involved. (If nothing else, Mama-Ji mentions that the coin is now in Laura’s heart, and we saw Sweeney place it on her ribcage after the accident, whereas it was originally in her gut like she’d swallowed it. Laura might ask herself how the hell it moved.)

-Wednesday’s big war finally comes, and “don’t you dare die on me [again], you asshole” is a line either Sweeney or Laura (or both) might say to each other.

-Laura asked “What does Wednesday have to lose?” and the answer is…? (Yes, give me that sweet poetic justice. One possibility, though not remotely the only one, but as of S2E3 Laura is technically a god-killer...) Or later when she straight-up says she’s going to kill Wednesday, but is warned to bring power with her when she does, how does that work? How else might she damage Wednesday or ruin his plans, just in case she can’t actually kill him?

-At the end of S2, Laura hoists Sweeney’s dead body over her shoulders and strides off, seemingly leaving Cairo, Shadow, and all of it behind. Tell me what happens then – does she use Baron Samedi’s potion to bring him back, and whose is the blood filled with love she uses (does she still bleed? You could get creative here, worldbuilding is also my jam)? Does her/his coin play a part – and how come the coin still “powers” Laura despite Sweeney’s death? Does she bring him back another way, maybe figuring out how to keep herself around and be able to give Sweeney back his coin? Does he come back like she did, more undead than alive, or does his godhead, however depleted, help with that? That still leaves Laura to be fully resurrected too… Or does something completely out of left field happen – surprise me!

-Possible divergences from “Treasure of the Sun”: Sweeney manages to kill Wednesday, and then Laura rolls up, and then…? Or Laura rolls up and makes like Mama-Ji told her – destroys some motherfuckers? Or Sweeney gets killed temporarily but Laura brings him back, or brings herself back, or does something else with the Baron’s potion, and is Sweeney’s blood the one filled with love, or can we interpret voodoo spells in a non-literal way? Or what happens with Gungnir hidden in Sweeney’s hoard? And definitely how do they deal with each other once they meet up in Cairo, given how they parted in New Orleans (I don’t know what hurt more to watch: Laura deflecting at the diner, or Sweeney rambling drunkenly about her when Shadow finds him, or later on telling Shadow with such desperate sincerity to keep her away from Wednesday)?

-Or how about a wild divergence from the last several episodes? Sweeney and Laura manage to settle their differences (ahem, more fucking, on this plane of reality, might help) and don’t part ways before leaving NOLA. Or they roll up in Cairo separately but at the same time, and confront Wednesday together, and neither of them die (or die more, in her case). Or they’re there together when the police nearly raid the house. Or they have Wednesday (the ultimate cause of Laura’s death) and Ibis (a death deity) and Bilquis (a love/death/life deity) on hand, surely they can concoct some kind of resurrection thingamajig for Laura, and if they have to twist some divine arms then so be it. Or or or…?

-Wednesday told that luckless cop that Sweeney had been against the big gods’ war from the start, and while Wednesday lies, what if Sweeney decided much sooner to say to hell with Grimnir and his war and his having Sweeney kill random people? I’m guessing Sweeney too drank three glasses of mead so he can’t back out without dire consequence – but he does have a fierce, dead woman in his corner.

-They go to some as-yet-unnamed old god (feel free to bring in whatever mythology you want) in order to bring Laura back to life. Between Sweeney’s mouth and temper, and Laura’s mouth and temper, it doesn’t go well. Now one or both of them are in big magical trouble with a pissed-off deity and have to get themselves/each other out of it. Speaking of other deities, I really enjoyed their brief canon interactions with Ostara, Anansi, and Mama-Ji, and I’d like to see more of that, especially Ostara’s polite yet over-it attitude, Anansi very obvious over-it attitude and his dramatic flair, or Mama-Ji being one of the few capable of giving Laura pause.

-All the petty, ridiculous ways in which Sweeney’s bad luck manifests itself make me laugh (can’t help it, won’t even try), and I’m down for more variations on that theme.

-Sweeney and Laura fighting together, like they did on Mr. Town’s train of torture. Whether it’s a bar fight of their own making, or the big gods’ war they find themselves embroiled in, or something else entirely.

-Things happen and Laura finds herself in the position to throw Sweeney under the bus but also help/save him, and while he knows it’s only karma (he did kill her way back when), he can still be pissed off about it – how do they navigate this?

-Related to that, the Baron said: “In death is her true love, but she betrays him also.” If that meant Sweeney, or can mean Sweeney in the future (I don’t like destiny-wills-it stories, and they’re definitely not there yet, but they could maybe get there at some future point, and even then It Would Be Complicated), was the betrayal Laura rejecting him after the loa ‘fuck them,’ or is it something that hasn’t happened yet, and if so, what?

-Laura gets fully alive again, but traces of her (un)dead state remain – what are they, how does she cope, what price did she/he/they have to pay for her resurrection, and how does their relationship change? I’d especially be curious how it would work if they’re already a sorta-maybe-item and then she’s alive again and it’s weird in a new way.

-For reasons I’ll leave up to you, Sweeney and Laura have to stay put in a single place for a while and end up essentially cohabiting, regardless of what their relationship is at that point. Take “cohabiting” as literally or as creatively as you want – in any case, I’m sure it will be marvelously disastrous and amazing. If the place they have to stay happens to be NOLA, all the better, I find everything about that city fascinating. Or, if you wanted to use book canon, Laura and Sweeney (rather than Shadow) are the ones who have to spend time living in Lakeside and deal with its creepy Norman Rockwell-ness and with Hinzelmann.

-Slight or major AU from the opening of “The Ways of the Dead”: Laura has hitchhiked with Sweeney instead of going off in a huff with Wednesday, or she otherwise gets to New Orleans sooner, and she and Sweeney tear up the town together. Gimme bar fights, carnival shenanigans, all the food and drink porn, backstage craziness with the Christian rock band (Sweeney seems to have a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck when Laura finds him)… Maybe they even cross the paths of some loa and it doesn’t get all angsty (for what it’s worth, I think the reason the sex magic didn’t bring Laura back to life was because she couldn’t accept the truth(s) revealed during the astral-plane sex and just ask Sweeney to prick his finger for the potion – instead she defaults straight to “this is all Wednesday’s evil plan” the morning after – not because the loa fucked them over). They were actually getting along nicely in those first couple of scenes in NOLA, only ribbing each other a little while still being their grouchy selves, before they got to Le Coq Noir. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some more of that.

-AU from the end of “The Ways of the Dead”: they still have their big fight (which was amazing as well as painful) or some variation thereof, but they don’t split up. (Maybe the reason is as mundane as Sweeney refusing to get left behind or they have a shared ride out of town, or maybe the more time passes the less Sweeney can afford to be far from his coin – or maybe the coin needs him close by to work at full capacity.) And then what?

-All the old gods hide their true appearance to an extent. A situation arises in which Laura sees Sweeney’s true, or at least old, self (I’m thinking of his surprise!poignant monologue about when he used to be a king, and him in full Celtic warrior mode in the S2 flashbacks). Or Wednesday’s war ends in victory, meaning the old gods again get belief, worship, and sacrifices. How does Laura, the ultimate skeptic even when she’s on the other side of the mirror, react? How does this new knowledge and new reality change her opinion of/attitude to Sweeney? Or to flip that around, if Sweeney were again relevant and believed-in, would that actually change his bad attitude and fix his issues (my guess is it would be complicated)? On that note, Sweeney’s decline from Lugh to king to leprechaun was more sketched in than really explored in canon, ditto I didn’t really get why he couldn’t seem to remember his own history except in snatches (the curse that made him a bird/madman of the woods?) – I’d love to see more about it and his (not) dealing with it, or with a reversal of that decline. Eorann told him long ago to adapt and change with the times – but what does that mean after humpteen centuries in a rut and becoming used to always feeling angry and unappreciated?

-The power of names, since they never use each other’s in canon: for all his “dead wifeing,” there comes a time when Sweeney (has to) call her by her actual name, and that’s a tricky moment for them to navigate. Or, Mad Sweeney is not his actual name, and true names have great magical power and so must be kept secret; Laura discovers or learns his name, from someone else or from himself; what does she do with that knowledge? Or, Sweeney gets to say “cunt” in a situation (sexual or otherwise) where, not only does Laura not peel his lips from his gums, but she finds that she can’t object, even though she knows that he knows that he’s getting away with it.

-So far in canon, it’s pretty clear that Sweeney has a lot of complicated but sincere feelings for Laura. Laura is still pretty focused on Shadow (or rather her idealized vision of Shadow and what their relationship might yet be), whom she seems to equate with her own lost-maybe-to-be-regained life, although that’s starting to change at the end of S2. For one thing, she’s starting to soften toward Sweeney as she realizes he’s doing things for her that are not all about getting his coin back (and her sparring match with Wednesday in “Muninn” as well as Shadow refusing to be called puppy anymore in “Moon Shadow” may finally force her to accept that her relationship with Shadow died alongside her and Robbie on that road in Indiana). Not to mention the shared truth revealed in “The Ways of the Dead” (bullshit was that just Laura’s truth!) and how Laura flips out rather than deal with it and Sweeney can’t spit out that it mattered to him either, or how obviously cut up she is about Sweeney’s death despite refusing to admit it. Tell me the story of how Laura stumbles her way to feeling – and acknowledging that she feels – more complex, maybe kinder or softer, really annoying for her blunt-force-trauma-personality things about Sweeney and about the notion that her dynamic with him is different from the way she tended to use men for her convenience without really letting them in in the past. Also I’m pretty sure that even if they can admit they feel the same – or sorta in the same ballpark – about each other, their relationship would still run on a lot of conflict, and I would so be here for it.

-On that note: in “Munnin” it also becomes clear that Laura has, without realizing it herself, started to rely on Sweeney. The “I trusted you” line made me think, whoa she’s too furious to catch herself doing it but this is huge for Laura, and the fact that she goes off with Wednesday (!) basically because she’s mad at Sweeney because she thinks he’s prioritizing his debt to Wednesday over her… Yeah, I would like to see that explored some more and/or to see Laura and Sweeney get to a point where they trust each other and rely on each other, and know it and accept it, however difficult the getting there and being there may be for them.

-Sweeney has this intense need to see himself as a brave person and someone worthy of the world’s respect – but his past and his long experience as just a leprechaun have chipped away at that. Add the guilt of having been the instrument of Laura’s death and then all the pesky feelings he develops for her, and it’s a lot. Obviously his final actions in S2 are his trying to reclaim that courage and nobility of old (also to spite Wednesday, who’s messed both him and Laura up), but I would love to read about his character development under different circumstances, where Laura is there all the way, as opposed to them parting ways and meeting up again multiple times like in canon.

-And since I’m on the subject of Laura, you know how she’s not actually an abrasive bitch all the time to everyone? And when she is, the people on the receiving end of it sometimes richly deserve it, or very occasionally they push back (ILU, Mama-Ji!), and anyway it’s refreshing to see a female character who defaults to confrontational and doesn’t bother flirting and accommodating others for the sake of social harmony? As much as I enjoy watching her rip into people (ahem, Sweeney), I also love it when she acts differently, like her genuine interest in getting to know Salim and her joy in seeing him again in S2, or her running passive-aggressive battle of wills with Wednesday. Her beginning to feel sympathy for Sweeney and her anger and disappointment when she feels let down by him are a part of that, and I’d love to see all that explored more. Nuance! Give me all the nuance and seeming contradictions in both Laura and Sweeney’s characters!

-Sweeney and Laura get drunk and wake up married. Or some sex and/or blood resurrection spell results in basically an unbreakable marriage bond, whether it also secures resurrection or not. Or marrying the dead keeps them (sorta) alive. Or being married makes it possible for them to share magical/supernatural abilities. They’re both pissed about it, but secretly having to make it work may not be the worst thing that’s ever happened...

-My perfect AG spinoff would basically be Sweeney and Laura tooling around America, looking to get her resurrected (whether they succeed or not is up to you), stealing ever more ridiculous vehicles, arguing/fighting and having those pesky moments where vulnerability and genuineness creep in – and fucking. So yessiree I’d be down for porn, including “it’s technically necrophilia/zombiesex” porn, including a canon-divergent first time, or their second time, or all the later times after they had their first time in NOLA in canon.

-If you wanted to throw in some worldbuilding, maybe something exploring living death. Magical bargains. What kind of favor did Sweeney do for Ostara that would be worth her bringing someone back to life as repayment? What other powers might Sweeney have – or have left from when he was Lugh? How long can a dead wife keep going before she’s “soup”? What other superhuman abilities might dead!Laura have? Can the dead do magic? What even are the rules governing and the limits of different beings’ magical abilities? For example, why can’t Sweeney just take his coin back, or why does Laura gain super-strength as part of her undead package deal? Is the hoard in the same space as the behind-the-scenes accessed through the merry-go-round, or it’s a different place? Why does the coin seem to start to “run down” the longer Laura has it? Why did Wednesday need Laura to kill Argus when he killed Vulcan himself just fine? What happens with Gungnir now it’s in the hoard – can only Sweeney get to it, has it been transformed somehow (it’s now the treasure of the sun), etc.?

If it helps your inspiration, you can find some of my meta and lots of tag-burbling about these two here. I have read the book though I remember it only in bits and pieces, and while I prefer the show characters and the fact that they get thrown together, you can use or riff on book material if you want, though I’d prefer a story that isn’t just a retread of the book. With reference to one of my DNWs, for this canon, describing Laura’s physical decay is totally fine. Also, Shadow/Laura don’t interest me except as a part of Laura’s backstory (so if your story wants to include Laura figuring out or having already figured out that pinning all her hopes on Shadow to make everything right is unrealistic, unfair, and not how it works – by all means, go for it!), and Shadow/Sweeney interest me not at all.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV)

Lenny Bruce/Miriam “Midge” Maisel/Susie Myerson

Lenny Bruce/Miriam “Midge” Maisel & Miriam “Midge” Maisel/Susie Myerson

I’m here for Midge’s adventures in the intoxicating, foul-mouthed, and often-frustrating world of comedy, so her dynamic with Susie and Lenny is where it’s at. I just love the interactions between these three, and between every pair combination among them: Midge and Susie bantering and swearing and tits-upping even when they irritate each other, Midge and Lenny bringing the pathos as well as the humor, and Lenny and Susie both being hardened old pros with still a little glimmer of starry eyes. I am good with either V-shaped triad/poly or hey, Susie (whom I absolutely read as gay) might find a way to be good with a full-on triangle… And as much as I like the comedy inherent in the characters, I also love that they’re all three, each in their own way, messed up people and dysfunctional to various degrees. So yeah, I just want Midge to hand the kids over to her parents, ditch Joel once and for all, marry (interpret that as literally or as loosely as you want) both Susie and Lenny, and for the three of them to ride off into the sunset to make comedy history. Canon-specific DNWs: anything above M rating, pairing any two as a / couple with the third as a & hanger-on, and while Lenny can still be his RL messed-up, drugged-up self – albeit the gentler version the show gives us – it would be good if he didn’t kick the bucket a handful of years down the line.

Most of these prompts are from before S3 dropped – feel free to work with canon or diverge however you see fit, I am all caught up now:

-Does Susie manage them both? Does Midge open for Lenny on tour? Does he open for her??? Or they become equal stars on the comedy circuit?

-Maybe Lenny joins Shy Baldwin’s tour, or they run into him while touring Europe or the US, or after Shy fires Midge, Midge and Susie cobble together a Midge-only tour of America and keep crossing Lenny’s own touring path, and they all tool around, and yes I would love as much period detail and geography porn as you can throw at me. And while Lenny and Midge have seen the world, Susie hasn’t – her reaction to different foods, languages, customs, landscapes would be spectacular to witness. Especially if “different” is someplace as close to New York as Jersey or Connecticut, or someplace as far away and different as, say, Japan.

-If they do go to Europe, somehow or other they also tour the Soviet Bloc. Cue culture clashes, getting followed (or thinking they’re being followed) by the secret police, getting hammered on vodka and herring and pickles, and then when they get back to the States, the Feds grill them. It’s all dead serious, and Midge and Lenny refuse to take it as seriously as they should, while Susie is trying but the whole thing is really pissing her off…

-Lenny’s burned out, and Midge is just getting started. This dissonance may or may not find some sort of resolution. One thing’s for sure: Susie has limited patience for both Lenny’s depression and Midge’s need to make everything pretty.

-Instead of going to Joel for a no-way-is-that-closure fling after the Steve Allen Show taping, Midge goes to have a drink or seven with the two people who have, in their own ways, always been there for her and never let her down.

-Midge goes on TV again, this time as the star: longer set, prime time slot, dressing room, the works. She’s dying of nerves. Lenny and Susie coach her through it.

-More radio work to make ends meet in between gigs: hilaribad period ads, hilaribad radio drama, running all over town to be on time, getting paid in all kinds of dubious merch…

-Midge and Susie head out west to make it big and stay with Lenny once they’re in Los Angeles, and it’s marvelous (ha ha) and disastrous in equal measure.

-More of Susie being the hypercompetent manager we saw especially in S3! (And please don’t dwell on her gambling problem, I was not a fan.)

-They all three get drunk, maybe with a hint of sadness if it’s the holidays (you can ignore my DNW about holidays, but please let that be just the background, not the lynchpin of the story) or someone’s birthday, and there’s a bar fight, running from the cops, eating greasy food at ass o’clock, and possibly kissing, not necessarily in that order.

-One or two or all three of them get arrested/have court appearances all over America and have to bail each other out, or find someone to bail them all out, or secure legal counsel – you get the drift. Or all three of them are trying to explain to a single lawyer what happened, talking over each other, the two pros not being able to resist landing zingers and Susie not being far behind, and the lawyer just getting more and more confused.

-They get in trouble some other way – offended patrons, surly management, shitty hotels, tour bus breaks down in the middle of Wyoming – and have to have each other’s backs because no one else will.

-Three-person road trip or tour, and only Susie knows how to drive. So Midge decides to learn, right then and there. And Lenny… Lenny may or may not be too lazy/hungover/lying about not knowing how. There’s supposed to be a rotation so everyone gets to stretch out on the back seat for equal lengths of time, but you know the system doesn’t work too well in practice. Also, they play games in the car to while away the time, and they do it their own way of course: I spy, cows on my side, yellow car, never have I ever, 20 questions, or riffing on whatever’s playing on the radio…

-They sit down to watch the moon landing (you can move it up a bit so it’s not happening a whole decade after S2) – by which I mean, Midge is all gung-ho about the moon landing, and Lenny and Susie are like whatever – and things don’t quite go to plan, but a good time is eventually had by all.

-It’s Yom Kippur again, and Midge wants to do the whole production: synagogue, breaking fast, the lot. Lenny and Susie would rather eat glass. Midge gets her way, of course. Does she decide to bring Susie and Lenny home to meet – or meet properly – her parents??? I bet Abe and Rose’s reactions would be something to see. (This too is an exception to my DNW about holiday settings – I just want stuff to get as crazy as it did the two times we saw Yom Kippur celebrated on the show, and for everything to still somehow turn out relatively OK.)

-Midge and Lenny have cheered each other up when the going got extra rough. I want for Susie to be especially down in the dumps – maybe her boozehound of a mother died and Susie took it worse than she does in canon, maybe some asshole told her she’s a shit manager and got her right in her insecurities – and Midge to rope Lenny into trying to cheer her up. And for Susie to fight them every step of the way but still be glad they care enough to try.

-Inspired by Susie’s brother looking just like her, by which I mean she and he and their sister look nothing alike, and by Lenny’s “she’s my mother” quip about Midge at the TV studio and then his “let me introduce my wife or maybe my sister” in Miami – Midge, Susie, and Lenny pretend to all be blood relatives, or mafiosi, or spies, or something else they’re not, while out in public, say in a restaurant. Just to be assholes and see how long they can keep it going before they break character or people figure them out, or call the cops, or something. There’s totally a bet on who corpses and breaks character first. Or, nice hotels ca. 1960 weren’t very big on letting unmarried couples, let alone threesomes stay in rooms together – pretending to be family might make that easier; forgetting what they’re meant to be to each other, or mixing up their backstories might make it harder. Or they’re just trying to save money by only getting one room, there’s only one free room in the hotel, or any other screwball reason you can invent.

-Lenny and Midge do a (comeback) tour of the Borscht Belt, and all the Steiner Mountain Resort guests (especially the gossipy old hens from the beauty salon) and staff go to see them – and heckle.

-Stuff happens and they end up performing at some hole in the wall place where no one knows who they are (or no one believes it’s really those people they’ve seen on TV) – tough crowd, but a good workout for the two comics, and if Susie gets to threaten to rip off someone’s head, all the better.

-Lenny and Midge honing their routines – and maybe developing a double act – and Susie being all “oh my fucking god, what the fuck!!! … They’re actually good. I’m so proud.”

-Sharing a bed with two other people is an ongoing project: who sleeps (or refuses to sleep) in the middle? Who gets up during the night and why? Who starfishes across most of the bed? Who snores, and how does this get handled? If alcohol or pot have happened, how does that affect the sleeping arrangements? Also, Susie and Lenny witness and react to Midge’s beauty routine, ‘nuff said. Or, for various reasons one person after another ends up decamping to another room/bed/couch, but it doesn’t help them get much sleep or even stay there very long (this is inspired by my love of Shirley Jackson and her short story/humorous essay “The Night We All Had Grippe”).

Starred Up (2013 movie)

Oliver Baumer/Eric Love

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell - yowza!

For this canon, my dubcon DNW does not apply.

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Role reversal: Oliver as the con (jittery, shut off, sticking out like a sore thumb in prison with all his fancy learning, yet no pushover) and Eric as the newbie counselor (kid from the wrong side of the tracks made good? Youthful hoodlum turned around his life, now trying to help others via tough love and lots of swearing and maybe a bit of manipulation when called for?)

Witchblade (TV) Sara Pezzini/Danny Woo

I used to love this show back in the day, and loved it again in all its hokey gloriousness when I rewatched it recently. Sara figuring things out and being a principled badass, but maybe out of her depth with the Witchblade, and her dynamic with Danny, whether he's a ghost or alive, it’s all catnip to me. Sara is not extremely quippy, she has a job to do dammit! and don’t look at her vulnerable side, just don’t look at it!, and I love that about her (she’s much harsher in S1, after Danny’s death, than in S2); ditto that Danny is somewhat softer than she is, but still can hold his own thanksverymuch (well, when the plot doesn’t require him to get nabbed by bad guys) and has a bit of a deadpan snarker side too. I’d love something that plays around with their canon dynamic from either season, or uses canon as just a starting point. Some of my prompts lean dark or horror-y, so don’t be shy about going there; I’d also enjoy a story in which the Witchblade itself ends up not being very significant (say, they start to investigate a possibly mystical case and then nope, plain murder). Canon-specific DNW: Irons and any version of Nottingham appearing (you can mention them if you need to).

Prompts:

-The Witchblade is more parasitic than symbiotic, and instead of Sara learning to control it, its feeding on Sara affects her more and more over time. Or, the visions and dreams ramp up into full-blown paranoia and/or disassociation. The Witchblade's POV, maybe (it is sentient)? Asking for help is the hardest thing for someone like Sara, but what are (more than) friends for? I’d also enjoy a dubcon scenario (exception to blanket DNW) where Sara really shouldn’t be having sex when her head is all messed up by the Witchblade’s influence, but... well... they do. The Witchblade canonically enjoys violence and bloodshed perpetrated by its wearers, so it stands to reason that it might lower other inhibitions too.

-Witchblade v. mythological monsters. In S1, even with everything else that's going on, Sara absolutely scoffs at the possibility of vampires. So of course I want: Witchblade v. vampires! The scarier and more feral, the better. Or, it's implied that the Witchblade was forged from a meteorite, so it's basically an eldritch artefact from outer space. Yes, please lean all the way into the Lovecraftian tropes! (The moon is turning red, the Old Ones are back, it’s the end of the world as we know it, but Sara’s got her partner by her side.) Or something from Chinese mythology, so Danny can kick extra ass. Or, for a silly take on Chinese culture: Sara and Danny in the world of Big Trouble in Little China, another old fave of mine, the entire plot of which revolves around… a woman with green eyes and an unwanted connection to the supernatural.

-The Witchblade has a reputation for abandoning its wearers just when they need it the most. True to form, it slips off of Sara’s fist, leaving her and Danny to save themselves with good old-fashioned guns, fisticuffs, martial arts, and of course having each other’s back.

-More of the psychedelic-ness in many of Sara’s fight scenes, where now she’s a woman in a leather jacket with a gauntlet on her arm, now she’s a knight in armor! Now her opponent is human, now he’s a wolf-shaped spirit of evil and hatred! Playing around with the characters’ senses and perceptions – yes!

-Instead of seeing only Danny and needing him to play intermediary for Sara to talk to other ghosts, the Witchblade makes Sara see ghosts all over the place, and it's getting to her. Ghost!Danny may or may not help with that. Or, ghost!Danny is basically always around, whether Sara can see him or not. He manifests when Sara is masturbating, and you can't really feel guilty if the ghost of your dead partner whom you’ve always had a thing for helps you out, and anyway you’re probably going crazy and none of this is real, so it doesn’t count anyway... right?

-Case fic/stakeouts and banter. Flirting to pass the long and stressful days at work. Quick and guilty sex because Danny's married. Slow and intense sex if handwave he's not married but “oh noes we’re partners, we shouldn’t be doing this, but somehow we keep doing it anyway.” Hooking up in the car. I've always headcanoned that they had a thing pre-canon which ended for Reasons, but they both kinda wish it hadn't, hence the hand kissing, and the “I can’t even touch you,” and the coffee bringing/stealing, etc. So feel free to play around with that.

-Undercover as married, undercover as a gangster and his moll (LOL at Sara as a moll, or have Sara as the gangster and Danny as her lieutenant/enforcer/arm candy), undercover as “they think we’re fucking, better fake it real good for the people listening in, oops shit got real fast, careful don’t say each other’s real name or you’ll blow your cover.”

-More timey-wimey shenanigans with the Witchblade. Maybe it allows Sara to manipulate time more than once. Maybe she starts doing it way too often, throwing the continuum out of whack (something non-linear would be very interesting). Maybe she and/or Danny remember some or all of what happened in S1. Something about all the multiverse versions of them, possibly splitting off from a dramatic moment. Time loops and feelings are a combustible mix.

-Apart from the super obvious shippiness, what I like about S1 especially is how Sara rolls with the weirdness the Witchblade has brought into her life, instead of reaching for rational explanations. More of that (I can't think of a better way to put it), and double extra brownie points if alive!Danny figures out at least some of what's going on with Sara's bracelet and somehow gets in on the action. Maybe a Danny saves the day divergence? Or how about a loophole that allows a man close to the Witchblade's wearer to wield it temporarily, but There Is a Price to Pay.

킹덤 Kingdom (Netflix)

Prince Lee Chang/Seo-bi

I fell so hard for this show. So hard! The beautiful production values, the wonderful cast, how the characters develop, how the show slowly but surely unfolds one reveal after another and packs so much into two short seasons, all the period detail, the genuinely tense action scenes, the moments of humor and intense emotion, the intertwining of political intrigue and zomg! really scary zombies, how the zombie outbreak works on multiple levels both literal and metaphorical…

I love the brave, kind-hearted, but sheltered prince, whose whole life has been so privileged yet shadowed by the possibility of death if he loses his position as heir, learning what it means to actually rule and lead people, to protect them and be protected by them in turn. And I love Seo-bi the fearless, dedicated, selfless physician, who notices things and figures things out regardless of whether this annoys the people in power. I love how instantly and fiercely loyal she is to him (not just because he’s the crown prince, but because she’s seen how brave and altruistic he can be) and how he immediately takes her advice and experience seriously despite her being a woman and a commoner in this super-hierarchical setting. Also, I love most of the cast (not a huge fan of Chancellor Cho, but he is an effective antagonist), and would be delighted to see any of them in fic too. Especially the loyal and funny and badass Mu-yeong (he was loyal, despite the Haewon Cho clan’s blackmail, and if you want to diverge from canon so he lives, I would not mind that at all), the even more badass and wounded and snarky Yeong-sin (or is that “Yeong-sin”???), Chang’s sparky, exiled uncle several times removed, and the terrifying and frankly unhinged young queen are my favorites. I even have a soft spot for that mostly-useless coward Cho Beom-pal, but really, they’re all great and I would love reading about them too, or just about the prince and the lady physician – whatever works!

Finally, before I get to prompts, I know a bit about the Joseon period, but we’re talking the bits and pieces I remember from a college class, and what I’ve read on Wikipedia and picked up from this and other Korean movies and shows. I know a bit more about some of the cultural background, like the Confucian values, the social stratification and feudal system, the gender segregation among the aristocracy, the wars with Japan, but again – my knowledge is limited. So if you want to teach me stuff about Joseon, go for it! If you want to invent or handwave stuff, as long as it fits the canon’s mood and broad cultural parameters, go for it! And if you want to treat me to some worldbuilding, period detail of any kind, and/or costume porn, definitely go for it. Canon-specific DNW: anything above M rating for sex (violence is fine).

Prompts:

Zombie fighting anything! Learning to survive in a society that’s rapidly breaking down, having to transcend their habitual social roles and challenging each other, anything! Maybe one of them teaches the other to hunt, or to make herbal medicines, or to fight with a sword, or heck, to cook or clean dirty clothes. (FYI I wrote most of these prompts before I was quite done with S2, and the time-skip took me totally by surprise. So while my prompts ignore Chang renouncing the throne, I’d also be down for the untold adventures of the former prince and his traveling companions, as Chang learns how to be just regular folks and they pursue clues about the resurrection flower, or for your take on what happens in S3. Use whatever works for you in my prompts in any way you want!)

Figuring out how the zombie infection continues to evolve and/or working together to find a cure beyond dunking the infected in water – whether that means to destroy large numbers of the undead, or to develop an antidote, or to cure and bring back those afflicted. One plot detail that really struck me: more experimenting with zombies, like Chancellor Cho started to do, might also hold the key to a cure?

Political intrigue anything! Having to fight zombies and/or factions at court with both friends and unexpected allies (not gonna lie, I would have loved to have seen the young queen unleashed on some zombies, even if that did not make her the prince and Seo-bi’s ally).

More road trip/survival/battle goodness – maybe Seo-bi offers Lee Chang some advice while they’re navigating their new situation, or she witnesses him developing his leadership muscles, and it brings them closer together than before. Or maybe a moment of humor, relaxation, or quiet affection on the road or in between zombie-slaying, especially if it catches them both a bit by surprise. Or one of them gets a non-zombifying injury (nothing too gruesome or life-threatening, please!) and the other one has to care for them – extra points if Seo-bi is injured and the prince kind of bumbles through the most basic things so she has to talk him through her own treatment. Or nightmares/being triggered by something, like we saw both Chang and Seo-bi react at the sounds of zombies growling and people screaming in S2E5.

We have seen Seo-bi insist on staying loyal to the prince, and Lee Chang rely on her repeatedly to the exclusion of all his other people – give me a situation in which he has to make clear his own loyalty to her, as a part of both his becoming a better leader and as a step in advancing their relationship. Or, there comes a time when Seo-bi really pushes against the rules of what someone like she can and cannot say or do to/around a crown prince – we’ve seen Lee Chang refuse to stand on his dignity to the point where so many of his interactions with commoners would end in the commoners’ death, but I imagine even he has his limits, and that kind of clash can only drive this dynamic forward!

Canon divergence in which Seo-bi gets sent to the capital and assigned to be the personal physician to the petulant, frustrated prince we meet at the start of the show (handwave the gender segregation and impropriety). She knows her place, but she also does not suffer fools or male nonsense. Sparks fly, social conventions get tested, zombies may or may not happen, and a new mutual understanding is born.

Canon divergence from the scene in S2E2 when Seo-bi finagles her way to being allowed to see the prince and he instructs her to resurrect Ahn Hyeon – what if instead of that, they came up with another plan of escape? Or maybe Lee Chang sending Seo-bi to spy on the queen goes a different way than in canon? And really, anything that requires those two to pass secret messages while grabbing each other’s hands and staring intently into each other’s eyes is A++ with me!

One theme which emerges gradually, and I really loved, is people having to compromise their principles to survive and ensure the safety of those they feel loyal and/or obliged to: Ahn Hyeon agreeing to turn the sick villagers into zombies, dear Mu-yeong having been a spy but also protecting the prince all along, Seo-bi resurrecting Ahn Hyeon, Lee Chang instructing her to do it as well as his thousand-yard-stare after having to finish off what’s left of his father… I’d love to see more such compromises, how their consequences ripple out, and the emotional fallout.

In addition to zombies, other magical and/or supernatural events and creatures start to appear in Joseon. If you want to bring in something from Buddhist mythology or Korean folklore, please do, and any and all worldbuilding would be awesome.

Post-canon something in which Lee Chang is king, possibly of only a part of the country (maybe a zombie-free enclave, or a part he won in a civil war against the Cho clan or a cadet branch of his family), and Seo-bi is there as his advisor, physician, and unofficial chancellor. Gimme policymaking to deal with the lingering zombie issue, and assassination plots, and servants/guards/ladies in waiting gossiping like it’s their real job, and all the palace intrigue!

Kind of related to the previous: even as a “spare” prince, Lee Chang can’t marry a commoner. Would he ever think to offer Seo-bi to become his concubine? I don’t think she’d go for it, and he might realize it, but maybe I’m wrong! Or maybe being intensely platonic/sublimating at each other is as good as it gets for them, and they’re kind of okay with that. Or they get married in secret and have to be very careful not to let slip anything by word on gesture in public, or not to let Seo-bi get pregnant. Or, y’know, one day or night on the road or in a fortified town, in between scavenging for supplies and fighting zombies, they decide to bone just because their lives are weird enough now to forget about propriety and all that jazz for an hour.

Role reversal: Seo-bi is the sheltered, willful princess fearful for her position (especially since she’s a woman as well as the daughter of a concubine only) and Lee Chang is the proper yet willful provincial physician. Do they meet as in canon, or under different circumstances (maybe she must flee the court to escape assassins, accusations of treason, or an arranged marriage, with or without bonus zombies)? How would their dynamic be complicated (and made awesome of course!) by the gender reversal? Also, burning question: does Princess Seo-bi already know how to fight (because she forced Mu-yeong to teach her back at court, of course), or does she have to learn once zombies/brigands/insurrection/whatever happen? And does Physician Lee Chang know one end of a musket or sword from another, or does he need rescuing at some point?

I realize that some of these prompts could work as well (better?) as a no-zombies AU, and that’s fine if you want to take it in that direction. Just so we’re clear. :-)

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, competence, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

 DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, kinks, incest, underage, genderswap/genderbent characters, xeno, non-/dub-con, torture and abuse (this and non-/dub-con can be mentioned if the story needs it, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it), dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore/blood and come are fine), toilet humor, character bashing, issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons, unrequested ships, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (meaning my requested characters being or staying dead by story’s end - Laura Moon can remain undead), serious illness or injury, pregnancy and children, holiday or wedding setting/theme, secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job, reference to RL current events, 1st/2nd person POV, unrequested crossovers or fusions, AUs which have nothing to do with canon

#dear author letter #rare pairs 2020

[comradesummers]

Carry That Weight

Hey, so I uh, wrote a thing. I’m not sure it turned out that great, because I’m not much of a fic writer. But I’ve been obsessed with this idea since I saw that gifset of that trailer for season 6 where Willow says that Buffy told her in high school that she would die young. And I haven’t seen anyone write that scene, so I figured somebody had to. So here it is: Buffy and Willow talking about the Slayer mortality rate. Shippy if you squint. Hope it’s not terrible.

ao3 link

Willow was rather surprised when Buffy came to visit that night. Not because she had climbed up her bedroom window at two in the morning while bleeding openly through the side of her shirt. Buffy didn’t like to go home when she got hurt on patrol, and she usually came to either Willow or Giles to help patch her up. But considering everything, Willow thought Buffy would have probably gone to Giles that night. She’d been spending most of her time with him lately, which made sense, Giles needed someone right now. But Willow had been missing Buffy. Giles wasn’t the only one who lost Ms. Calendar, and Willow could have used her best friend too. 

Not that she said that to Buffy. She wasn’t about to make her friend feel guilty for comforting the person who needed it the most. Still, after they had bandaged the quickly healing wound, and they were both lying in Willow’s bed together, she couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t you go to Giles?”

Buffy was looking at her quizzically and suddenly Willow realized what that had sounded like. “I mean, not that I’m not glad that you came to me. You’re always welcome here, of course. Mi casa es tu casa, obviously. I just meant,” Willow let out a breath before continuing, “You’ve been going to Giles’s a lot lately with … everything,” Willow’s voice shook a little and Buffy looked away. “I just thought you would’ve gone to him.”

Buffy shrugged. “I didn’t want to worry him,” she said quietly, still not meeting Willow’s eyes.

“Yeah, I get that,” Willow was frustrated to find that her voice was still wavering on the verge of emotion.

A pained expression crossed Buffy’s face. “God, now I’m worrying you aren’t I?” She moved to sit up, clearly still in pain. “I’m sorry, I’ll go.”

“No!” Willow nearly shouted. “You’re not worrying me, okay. It’s just been a long week.”

Buffy looked at her oddly for a moment, before, to Willow’s shock, she started giggling. “A long week,” she said, still laughing as she slowly leaned back against Willow’s pillow again. “That’s one way to put it.”

Willow still didn’t find any of this very funny, but Buffy’s laughter was infectious, just like the rest of her, and Willow found herself laughing along with her. It was strange, really. It felt like it had been a lifetime since Willow had anything to laugh about. She didn’t really have anything to laugh about now, but it still didn’t surprise her that Buffy had been the one to bring it out of her. Buffy had a way of making her feel, and to feel brighter than almost anything else.

When their giggles finally subsided, Buffy met Willow’s eyes, her expression somber once again. “So,” she said, trying and failing to sound chipper. “How are you doing, with, y’know … everything?”

Willow sighed and shook her head. “Not great.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

Willow looked over at her friend, who looked so tired and so sad, and she thought for a moment that maybe she shouldn’t say anything else. Buffy didn’t need to deal with Willow’s pain on top of Giles’s and her own. But Willow needed to talk to someone who understood what she felt. Xander and Oz, even Cordelia, tried to be sympathetic, but none of them had had much of a relationship with Ms. Calendar, not like Willow had, and for better or worse, not like Buffy had. And certainly she couldn’t talk to Giles - only Buffy seemed to be able to do that. And even if she could talk to him, Willow still didn’t think she’d be able to really say what she felt. He was the one who loved her, and Willow knew that her grief was nothing compared to his.

She had to talk to Buffy, she realized, or she wouldn’t be able to talk at all. “It’s just,” she began, her voice once again shakier than she would have liked. “There have been people I cared about who have died before. I mean, classmates, and Jesse, of course, but I didn’t know him for that long, and he was always more Xander’s friend than mine.” She looked over at Buffy who was staring at her attentively, her expression unreadable. “But Ms. Calendar,” Willow sighed. “She was one of us. She was a part of the gang. And she was teaching me about computers and technopagan stuff. It’s just different. It feels different this time.” Willow paused, not really knowing what else to say.

“I get it,” Buffy said. “It’s different when it’s someone who’s a part of your life.”

“Yeah.”

Buffy met her eyes, her expression as serious as Willow had ever seen it. “You know it’s going to happen again, right? With me?”

Willow didn’t know what she had expected Buffy to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. “What do you mean?”

Buffy looked determined as she continued. “I mean you’re going to outlive me,” she said confidently, as if she was just stating a fact. “And I just want you to be prepared for that.”

For a moment, Willow was completely at a loss for what to say or feel or think. When she finally regained some composure, she realized that she was angry. “What the hell are you talking about, Buffy? Why would you even say something like that?”

“Because it’s true,” Buffy said, sounding resigned more than anything else. “The oldest slayer on record was like, 25. Most slayers don’t make it past 20. I mean, technically I didn’t make it past 16, and next time I probably won’t be revived by convenient CPR, y’know? It’s just how it is.”

Of course Willow knew this. She had known it since Buffy died the first time. But there was still a part of her, deep down, that believed Buffy was special. She believed that Buffy would somehow manage to survive regardless, that she would do what no slayer had done before. She had already survived death, and if that wasn’t a sign, Willow didn’t know what was. And until that very moment, Willow had been convinced that Buffy believed that too. But apparently she didn’t. She thought she was going to die, soon, and she seemed all too accepting of it.

“But,” Willow wanted to come up with some sort of a solution. Something that would prove Buffy wrong. She was good at that. But she just couldn’t think of an argument. “But that’s not fair!”

At that, any trace of the controlled resignation that Buffy had exhibited during her confession seemed to disintegrate entirely, and Willow found herself a little relieved at that. 

“Of course it’s not fair,” Buffy said, her voice was quiet but hard. “When has any of this ever been fair? Is it fair that Ms. Calendar died? Or Jesse? Or the other kids? Or Dr. Gregory?” Is it fair that Angel turned evil, or that Merrick-” Buffy’s voice cracked, and she stopped herself, and swallowed. “It’s never been fair, Will,” her voice was almost a whisper. “That’s just how it is.”

“Why are you saying this to me?” Willow found that she was crying.

Buffy, inexplicably, smiled and wiped a tear away from Willow’s face. “I just want you to be prepared. For when it happens. I don’t want you to be surprised or anything. Cuz, y’know, that sucks.”

Willow shook her head and Wiped her tears again, until she finally stopped crying. Buffy didn’t say anything, seemingly content to end the exchange there. But Willow was still angry. She had no intention of losing Buffy any time soon. She had already lost too many people. But not Buffy. Buffy was something else. She wasn’t going to die.

“You’re not dying,” Willow said once she was sure she wasn’t crying anymore. “I’m not going to let you.”

Buffy smiled at that. “That’s sweet, Will,” she said. “But it’s not really up to you.”

It stung a little, whenever Buffy said something like that. Willow knew that she didn’t have the power that Buffy did, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything. She was good with computers, and now that Ms. Calendar was … well, now that was more useful than ever. But even she had to admit that hacking skills wouldn’t really save Buffy in a battle. But Willow couldn’t do nothing either. Not after this.

She had a thought, then. Something she would have to look into. She would once Buffy left. She wasn’t sure if her friend would approve. 

They laid on Willow’s bed silently for a few moments. Buffy said nothing as Willow turned the idea over in her head. She was deep in thought when Buffy finally broke the silence. “Willow,” she said, startling her out of her focus. “Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, anything.”

“When I die-”

“You won’t,” Willow interrupted.

“Ok, but if I do,” Buffy said. “Could you tell my mom about everything? I mean slaying and all that. I know I’m not supposed to, and Giles probably wouldn’t approve.” Her voice was small, and she looked as vulnerable as Willow had seen her. “But I just, I don’t want to die and have her still think I’m some sort of criminal.”

Willow touched her friend’s arm. “Your mom doesn’t think that.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said, looking entirely unconvinced. “But could you tell her anyway.”

Willow wanted to say no. She didn’t want to think of hypotheticals. What she would say. What she would do. Because it wasn’t happening. Willow refused to accept it. And she was about to say as much, when she met her friend’s eyes, and she was looking at her so desperately. Willow wondered if this is why Buffy had come to her, and told her these things. Because she wanted to make sure someone would promise her this. Willow wished she hadn’t. She didn’t want that responsibility.

“Okay,” she forced herself to say. “I promise. As long as you promise to try really hard to not die.”

Buffy looked at her so gratefully, and Willow knew she had made the right decision, as much as she hated it. “Yeah,” Buffy said, sounding relieved. “You’ve got yourself a deal. Let’s shake on it.” She held out her pinky.

Willow smiled as she held out her own. She knew this was Buffy’s way of lightening the mood, and it was kind of working. They shook pinkies, and Willow did feel a little better.

Buffy echoed the sentiment. “It doesn’t hurt that much anymore,” she said, gesturing towards the wound at her side. She sat up on the bed, much easier than she had before. Then she stood up.  “I should get going.”

Usually this was when they exchanged friendly and enthusiastic goodbyes. But after the conversation they just had, it felt out of place. “See you tomorrow,” Willow said it almost like it was a command.

Buffy nodded as she walked over to the window. She opened it before she turned back to face Willow. “Thank you,” she said, sounding, to Willow’s surprise, as though she was on the brink of tears.

Before Willow could say anything else, Buffy had already climbed out the window leaving Willow alone once again.

Willow wiped away the last of her own tears, and walked over to her desk, where she kept Ms. Calendar’s lesson plans. Only they weren’t only lesson plans. There were notes in there about magic, and spells. When Willow had first seen them, she had been terrified and fascinated all at once. But it had felt wrong to go through Ms. Calendar’s things for anything she didn’t absolutely need. It wasn’t her place.

Willow knew it was her place now. She had no doubt Ms. Calendar would approve of what she was doing now. Other slayers may not have lived for very long, but other slayers didn’t have Willow on their sides. And maybe right now, she didn’t have the power to help Buffy. But she could get that power. 

And she would make damn sure Buffy would live to celebrate her 80th birthday, no matter what it took.

#buffy summers #willow rosenberg #buffalow #fic #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer

[laufire]

You don't have to do this at all but I'm intrigued by your "favourites" tags and I was wondering if you'd break them down?

No problem! I think I remembered them all (but since I keep adding new ones, then forgetting again about them, who knows lol).

favourites: a straight line

Okay, so this is kind of a hard one because it’s mostly a… ~vibe thing. It’s from a quote by Person of Interest –specifically, The Machine telling Shaw that Root loved her because “if we were shapes, you were an arrow, a straight line”, and I just… loved it. So it goes to character that had that sort of… clear-sighted, straightforward something, that cut through the bullshit.

favourites: birds of a feather

From the saying “birds of a feather flock together”. It’s basically used for my ships where the members reflect and parallel each other (especially when it’s a case where fandom convention classifies them as “opposites”).

favourites: cute married couples

Self-explanatory, I think, tho by virtue of the fandoms I frequent lately I haven’t used it much xD

favourites: fucked up families

Also self-explanatory. And much more used!

favourites: god save us from the queen

Named after the trope. Look, fandom. I know why it’s Problematique. But I just love Evol, Power Hungry Queens! (in modern ‘verses it can apply to women with political power in general –i.e., I would totally use this tag for Mellie Grant okay). And I’m not gonna deny a big part of it is the #aesthetics xDD

favourites: head witch in charge

Powerful witches/other magic-type users in general. Comes from the acronym Head Bitch in Charge.

favourites: i am the law

It comes from Buffy’s speech in s7. It goes from that type of characters that take all that “I am the ONLY one”/”if I don’t try to save the world who will” responsability (sometimes, in a frankly egocentric/self-important way lol, but I like that *shrugs*).

favourites: i can fix that

This one comes from Sam The Onion Man in Holes, though it’s morphed into something quite different in my tag system lol. It’s… somewhat tied to the previous one? In that I apply it to characters that have some sort of… control issues/that need to action/intervention in their enviroment. I guess the difference is that I associate this tag with characters that are in a precarious position? Idk.

favourites: i see you

Cato says this to Noah in Underground; I use it for somewhat-antagonistic dynamics where one character sees through the reputation/façade of the other one, basically (sometimes it’s with a ~shippier spirit than others lol).

favourites: immortal exes

Self-explanatory, and one of my fave shippy tropes in existence.

favourites: like father like daughter

For my favourite father/daughter dynamics.

favourites: living large

I love it when my faves like the finer things in live. There’s nothing wrong with liking nice things lol.

favourites: love at first bite

It’s the title of a film I have yet to watch (a comedy where Dracula has to move out of Transylvania). But the quote fits perfectly with my adored blood-sharing/vampire ships, so –tho this is one of the few I often forget to use lol.

favourites: love is the drug

Title taken from a song. For those ships that can’t stay away from each other, despite how ill-advised it might be.

favourites: machiavelli’s alumni

Tag for political savvy people/situations.

favourites: mamma who bore me

Song from the musical Spring Awakening. It’s become short of a catch-them-all for mother characters, but the song/main intent was about controlling/overprotective ones lol.

favourites: mirror mirror on the wall

This is one of my newest ones and I’ve barely used it/edited old posts with it yet. It’s for my very narrow type of fave femslash dynamics lol: aka older/younger women (though there’s ships without the age difference that I’ll likely use it with) ships with lots of parallels motifs that have probably tried to kill each other at least once.

favourites: monster women

Because I love them, and the stories about them.

favourites: my foe beheld it shine

From William Blake’s A Poison Tree, a super dramatic poem about enemies lol. Perfect for enemy ships.

ETA - favourites: persephone’s revenge

One of them is Hades; one of them is Persephone and they’re at Hades’ mercy. I want Persephone to get even xD

favourites: pinocchio stories

Named after the trope; tag for all my artificial intelligence/robots feelings (no, I do not care to explore why the hell I almost always relate to robot characters, leave me alone xDD).

favourites: rags to riches

I will always root for social climbers and gold diggers on principle and this is the tag for that :P

favourites: romantic tragedies

For when what I love about a ship is their angst lol.

ETA - favourites: samson and delilah

One of the members is setting out to destroying and manipulating the other

favourites: smash the system

Inspired by that Hulk “SMASH THE PATRIARCHY” twitter. For characters/stories that seek to tear down the status quo.

favourites: soul siblings

For my fave siblings relationships.

ETA - favourites: sun and shadow

Great for light vs. dark dichotomies, especially in characters. Think Lizzie and (dark!)Josie, Buffy and Faith, Chuck and Amara.

favourites: that fucker

For my Problematic Faves, cold MOFOs, villains and the like.

favourites: the hashtag blessed crowd

My faves are being self-obsessed.

favourites: the masquerade

Another brand new one. It’s inspired by the trope “The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life”, and it’s for my ships with Identity Porn Shenanigans.

favourites: the powah of lurve

For ships that overpower everything hehe.

favourites: the walking dead

Because I love resurrection/comes back wrong/ghosts stories.

ETA - favourites: the wordsmith

Tag I inaugurated for those characters that can get out of anything and create everything out of nothing with only their words.

favourites: the world is my canvas

For characters that mark the rules of a ‘verse and control narratives, and the world around them (aka: one of the main power fantasy tags xD).

favourites: three’s company

For OT3s (potentially OT+ in general).

favourites: to die like this; with a last kiss

From Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Face to Face (aka, the Batman Returns BatCat song). I wanted a tag that err… expressed how sometimes I’m into how the members of my ships try (and even succeed!) to kill each other?… it’s majorly fucked-up, foh sure, but I do believe shit like that ~enhances the shipping experience even when it troubles us shippers (and often, because it troubles us shippers, sooo).

favourites: to fall another moment into your gravity

From Sara Bareilles’s Gravity. I love it when my OTPs have broken up and are bitter af about it, yet can’t help but feel drawn to each other, and it’s the perfect song/quote for it.

favourites: vultures in lurve

I knew I had to have heard that expression before because I think vultures are Good™ lmao, and it’s apparently the title of some book. Either way, I kind of like how it sounds, and it’s my tag for when assholes are OTT in love with each other and enjoy being assholes together (pausing for moments where they’re super tender ofc), a la Unholy Matrimony trope.

favourites: you raise sons

Another brand new, barely used one. It comes from the quote “You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.”. For father-son type relationships.

favourites: you’ve got the love

From the Florence + the Machine song. For those amazing, fulfilling ships where the characters bring the most and the best from each other *-*.

And though this is technically not one of those tags, I have to add #you WISH your faves could ever, which is basically my “this unpopular OTP is magnificent and fandom is jealous about it because their faves suck in comparison” tag xDD (btw, it’s curious how almost invariably, those ships include a WoC presented as The One…).

#nectareouswrites #fandom nonsense #shipping #me me me #talking to the void #my thoughts #thanks! #this was fun lol

[spinningsidetable]

The Odd Couple: 1/?

Pairing: Octavian/Leo (leotavian)

Genre/Warnings: Canon Compliant to a Point, Canon Parallel AU, Octavian Lives, Soulbond, Soulmates, Some Depictions of Violence and Injury

Rating: Teen and Up

Leo could open his eyes before he could breathe.

His lungs were still stitching themselves back together, air couldn't push its way inside yet. Leo could see the sky around him, he could see his flesh rebuilding itself; scars vanished as new skin replaced the burnt remains of the old. Finally, air rushed in and he could breathe again. Panic had nearly set in, feeling like it was divine punishment for all of his misdeeds to die so soon after living again. Part of him thought he likely deserved it. As soon as Leo was well and able he turned to look at his surroundings better. Leo had no idea where he was, the sky gave no hints, all he managed to figure out was he was on the back of Festus. Then another gasp of air took him by surprise, and Leo all but spun in place to look behind him. There, a slumped over frame of someone else. Leo was pretty sure his vocal chords had rebuilt themselves at that point, but he couldn’t speak. Who the hell? The frame lurched up, head tipping backwards; Leo watched in morbid fascination as skin and hair recovered muscle and bone. The person blinked, blinked pale eyes at Leo. And then promptly punched Leo in the nose. Leo jerked backwards with a loud yelp, bringing his hands up to hold at his face. Admittedly, Leo’d been punched in the face much harder, but even a toddler hitting you in the nose still hurt. “You scum!” The other figure yelped out, looking at Leo like he was the source of all problems. Actually, he might have been. Leo recognized this guy, the pissy weird Roman. He was still toting purple robes and armor, but they were tattered and burnt. “...You!” Leo said, pointing a finger. “You’re…that guy! Uh…” “Octavian!” The blond yelled. “My name is Octavian, and you attacked my city! You attack us, and then you kidnap me?!” “Okay, calm down Draco Malfoy,” Leo glared. It was a bit of an insult to the fictional character. “I didn’t kidnap anybody, okay? I’m as shocked to see you here as you are me. Actually, correction, I’m more surprised, I literally just died and came back to life. I was kind of hoping the first people I’d see were my friends or a pretty girl. Not…this.” Leo waved a hand at Octavian’s stupid face which was twisted in anger and confusion. “Then what happened? Huh? Answer me, Graecus!” Octavian was ordering Leo around like he was…well, a rich white boy with a sense of entitlement, so, yeah no, that made sense. “I,” Leo started slowly with extra exaggeration. “I, was in the process of committing non-suicide to blow the earth lady back to the dirt she came from. Everything I did was part of the plan. You here, are not.” Octavian’s expression dripped condescension. “The dirt isn’t where she came from, she is the earth, you plebeian.” “Oh my God,” Leo said flatly. “That is so not the issue right now, like... what the fuck, why are you on my dragon?” It seemed Octavian hadn’t taken the time to notice that yet, and looked down, and immediately went white…whiter in the face. Leo wasn’t certain if he just realized he had been recently blown to smithereens or the fact they were thousands of feet in the air. “I-…I was about to fire an onager at the Earth Mother and you…and,” his face twisted in confusion. “I think I got caught up in it somehow…” Leo had very little sympathy at this point. Well, less so. Which seemed hard to do. “So, let me get this straight, you tried to legitimately murder me, and... accidentally fucked yourself over?” “You declared war on Rome,” Octavian said like it explained everything, excused everything. “I was protecting my people, from you, from the Earth Mother. I feel no guilt in my actions.” “Bullshit, you were protecting your reputation - oh gods, it feels good to cuss, I’ve been holding this in since Hazel’s whole 1940s thing.” Leo paused in the middle speaking as realization kicked in. Admittedly, not the best time for his ADHD to rear back up. Octavian didn’t look amused. But, then again, Leo was pretty sure Octavian was unable to be amused. Except by suffering. “Swearing is the first resort of the last to succeed.” “Okay, I’m done with you, I have no idea why you’re here, I’m guessing the Physicians Cure did double duty somehow, so I’m just going to drop you on the first piece of land I see-“ Leo was cut off but two arms wrapping around his neck and pulling him backwards in his seat until he was arching off in pain. “You will do nothing of the sort, or I will personally hold you here until the air leaves your…your...” The grip began to slip, and Leo decided it was time for payback and lit himself on fire. Or, tried to.  Nothing happened. The arms went limp regardless. “What the fuck?” Leo coughed and rubbed at his throat, but Octavian wasn’t looking at him, but down at his hands. “I couldn’t do it…” Octavian stared down at his palms like they betrayed him. “What is wrong with me? I couldn’t hold you…” Leo stared at him for a minute, absentmindedly rubbing at his neck, before snapping out of his surprise and reaching over to smack the man in the side of the head. Octavian seemed to snap out of it, and grabbed Leo’s hand before he could do it again. And then The Thing happened. An electric current, or that’s what it sort of felt like, ran down Leo’s spine; Octavian seemed to be much the same way, because they pulled back from one another at the same time. That was weird, Leo thought with a frown, but chose to ignore it. He was just dead 5 minutes ago, he’d dealt with weirder. The astrolabe on Festus began to whir, due to Leo’s modifications of course (they’re not known for moving on their own) and Leo turned away from the towhead to check. They were over Ogygia, Leo realized with some glee. Then it hit him that he’d have to introduce Calypso to Octavian and it just got really strange in his brain. “We’re going down,” Leo said, adjusting himself in his seat. “If you strangle me again, I’ll burn your ass.” Even if he couldn’t, Leo was all about finding ways in the impossible. “Going down?” Octavian looked around nervously, but like he was pretending not to be. “This piece of junk can’t hold us-“ Leo held up a hand on fire. “Do not. Ever. Call him a piece of junk.” Octavian looked at him like he was sizing him up, “or what, scum?” “Or I remove yours,” Leo said smoothly, and that got the reaction he wanted. “Good boy.” Octavian turned red, and opened his mouth to likely yell or probably throw racial slurs, Leo had no idea, but Octavian seemed the type to vote red. “Festus, not you, you’re an asshole. Festus is a good boy. Come on, buddy, let’s go get her.” “Get who?” Octavian hissed, looking around like a woman was just randomly floating around. “What monsters have you been cohabiting with?” “Calypso,” Leo said, “my girlfriend. I think. Probably?” “Not the…actual Calypso, surely?” Octavian looked horrified by the very concept. “Who else?” Leo rolled his eyes. “She’s great, you’ll hate her. Which makes her great.”

“Who el- I’m not the actual Octavian! It isn’t a strange question!” “…There was an actual Octavian? Two people chose a name that stupid for a baby?” “Gaius Octavianus, later known as Augustus, ushered in the Pax Romana, expanded his empire-“ Leo realized his mistake, as Octavian continued talking until they reached the soils of Ogygia, no matter how many times Leo told him to shut up in every language he knew. Calypso was waiting on the shore as they touched down, and opened her mouth to say something to Leo, before noticing Octavian sliding off of Festus. “Who is this?” “Sea Witch, I am Octavian of New Rome, Augur, Centurion.” Octavian introduced himself, but did not endear himself, as her eyes narrowed slowly. “If you attempt to sing your bewitching tunes, seductress, I will be forced to send you back to the pits of Tartarus.” Calypso looked accusingly at Leo who shrugged helplessly at her. “Not part of my plan. I hate him too, trust me. He’s tried to kill me like, what?” Leo looked back at Octavian who looked like he sincerely considered the question. “At least 5 times,” Octavian nodded to himself. “Yes, roughly 5, though the majority were one long sustained effort that you avoided. Leo gestured at Octavian, looking at Calypso, while making a few rude hand gestures towards the Roman. “So, I say we ditch him and go?” But Calypso was looking at Leo oddly, and then back to Octavian. There was a frown on her face, and a deeply sad one in her eyes. “Uh...Caly? Babe? Sunshine?” Leo stepped closer, and reached his hand out to touch her shoulder, but she pulled away.

“…Calypso?” “I see, well, it figures…The same thing always happens…” Calypso crossed her arms and took a few steps backwards. She was closing herself off, Leo didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that. Leo looked at her packed gear behind her, and took a step towards it. “Don’t,” Calypso warned, her eyes closed like she was in pain. “I’m not coming with you.” Leo stared helplessly, blinking hard. “W-what are you talking about? I…Come on, look we…don’t need to date, we never have to do anything like that, but-“ “Leo, I appreciate that, I really do. I care about you, truly. But…,” The girl turned away, tear streaks began to run down her face. “I’m sorry. Please leave.”

Leo felt nearly hysterical, looking between her, and Octavian who seemed more disgusted than confused. “I don’t understand, I just want to help, did I do something wrong-“ “Your fate is not mine, Leo. It’s tied to another.” Calypso’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I understand I can leave with you, right this moment. I do, but…after so long… I want someone to come for me whose fate is my own. I know you don’t understand, but maybe someday you will. Please.” Leo’s shoulders sagged, but as he looked at her he realized he couldn’t change her mind. It was like Echo all over again, but worse. He didn’t want her to be trapped here any longer. He didn’t care if she never loved him, Leo just didn’t want her to have to be alone. “I’ll make sure the Gods free you,” Leo said finally, voice thick with emotion. “If you won’t come with me, I’ll make sure you can leave when you want to. I won’t forget you. I will never forget you, Calypso, I swear on that.” Calypso smiled, tears in her eyes, taking a few steps closer to him to wrap her arms around his frame, kissing him on the cheek. “Go live your life, Leo. We’ll meet again, I’m sure. Goodbye, for now.”

“Goodbye, sunshine.” Leo whispered against her hair, and kissed the side of her head. “For now.” It was a promise.

When they left, he flew away without looking back. Octavian was quiet, for all of about 10 minutes. “You dated a monster?” Octavian’s voice was full of judgement, and Leo wasn’t having it right now. Leo could keep a lot of things bottled up, but just hearing Octavian speak was like nails on a chalkboard. So, he turned around and grabbed the blond by the shirt, pulling him forward to headbutt the Centurion in his stupid face. But, stopped short, as Leo’s body stopped moving against his will and he was left with his face just inches from Octavian’s who looked similarly shocked and disturbed. Leo realized Octavian had raised his own hands to push Leo away, but were just resting on Leo’s shoulders. Leo snapped back, the extent of the problem beginning to dawn in horror. “What the…why couldn’t I hit you?”

“Same reason I couldn’t hurt you, I’m guessing.” Octavian muttered. “Something strange is happening. “ “So we….can’t hurt each other?” Leo changed his mind drastically, because at the moment, he was actually thrilled for a new problem for his brain to focus on. It saved him from having to think about Calypso.

“I hit you in the nose, and you hit me back” Octavian said curiously. “So it appears some is fine.” Leo frowned, tapping against the bronze back of Festus in thought. “Was it though? Or was it surprise and shock more than an actual wish to injure? Try hitting me again.” Octavian looked baffled but pleased with the request. “You’re asking me to punch you?” It was like Christmas for creepy faced Romans, from the tone in his voice. Leo rolled his eyes. “Just do it already, dillweed.”

Octavian pulled his fist back for the wind up, and threw it forward in what would have likely broken his nose if it had actually made contact. But, it didn’t. Octavian’s fist stopped a few inches from Leo’s face. Octavian glared at his own hand, and tried again, and again, until it just looked sad and silly. “Okay, stop hitting the sky, big Z might take offense.” Leo sighed. Octavian tried again, and then muttered something about it being J not Z, but Leo ignored him. “It's the Physicians Cure. That’s the only reasonable explanation. “ Leo said his thought process out loud, pulling a small journal out of his belt and began to write down what they were noticing. “The what? You mentioned it before, what is it?” Octavian asked with clear annoyance in his voice as he leaned over Leo’s shoulder to see what he was writing. “Don’t call me that.” “Then don’t act like one,” Leo shot back and kept writing. “The Physicians Cure was what brought me, and I’m assuming you, back to life. It should have only been enough for one singular life, and yet here we are. My guess is something relating to that is the reason we can’t purposely injure one another.” Octavian scoffed at the thought. “How did someone like you get your hands on something like that? The Gods would never truly smile on a Graecus-“ “I made a bargain with a few, including Apollo, so, you know. Shut up.” Leo mumbled, still making notes, and not even glancing at the blond behind him. Octavian leaned back, and crossed his arms. He was used to people in New Rome expressing dislike and disrespect towards him, but at the very least they feared him in some manner. Leo Valdez did not fear, respect, or seemingly care about his existence in general; never even bothering to learn his name before he fired on his city. Octavian had been on the Argo when Leo attacked, appraising the vehicle and assessing the likelihood for warfare. Leo Valdez paid him little regard, acting like Octavian was more a piece of gum on his shoe than well known Centurion who had served Camp Jupiter for 7 years. All Octavian ever wanted was to raise New Rome to true glory, but few saw his vision. He had almost been thankful to the Greeks, a war was a good way to inspire people, but then that seemingly backfired. “We have to cross the ocean,” Leo said after a moment of calculating. It wasn’t just their physical situation he was thinking about, it was their location. They had left the space around Ogygia, but their place in the world was still a mystery until now. They were about where Leo had shown up before in Greece, maybe Festus went there on purpose. “What?” Octavian frowned, his own train of thought being cut off. “What ocean?” “The ocean is a big body of sea water, the blue one with all the fish, ever heard of it?” Leo sighed, grabbing up the astrolabe and turning his back to Octavian. Octavian wished more than ever he could spear him through. “Mediterranean, then we cross the Atlantic.” Leo announced, before beginning to chew on the tip of a pen Octavian had no idea where came from. “But, I think we might want to avoid the Atlantic as much as possible. It was not super chill last time we went over it, and there were more people and better provisions. I need to reroute our course.” “So we go north, or go south?” Octavian asked after a moment to think about the situation, and Leo looked at him with a bit of surprise. “Well, there are only two reasonable paths if we’re currently in the Mediterranean. We go north, and cross the UK and Greenland, and cross into the Northwestern Passage from there before heading south towards New York.” Octavian held up two fingers. “Or, alternatively, we cross into Africa and head south towards the West Coast, before crossing the closest point towards Brazil, before heading north through the Caribbean.” Leo continued to stare at blankly. “What?” Octavian seemed offended, but then again he always did. “I’ve already graduated from University with honors. You think me stupid?” “You said it, not me.” Leo said, reappraising Octavian. Sure, he hated him, but Leo could use brains right now. “You’re right though. I would figure Africa is the safest bet. You’d probably not survive the northern temperatures this time of year. I might be able to make my own warmth, but you can't. Of course, heading east and crossing the Pacific is a possibility, but not a good one. We have no idea what kind of monsters are over there, not to mention a much much longer flight across open ocean.” Octavian wasn’t entirely sure how to take that. He wasn’t really expecting the other boy to think of his general well being. He certainly didn’t return the favor. If Octavian could shove him from the dragon and commandeer it, he would in a heartbeat. “Plus,” Leo mumbled. “I am…sort of not on good terms with a very mean snow lady and her brothers in Canada. Probably not the best place to cross.” Octavian nearly felt a bit disappointed, though not surprised. It was good information however, any enemy of Valdez was a friend of Octavian. “Fine, a journey West then. How long will this take, anyway? Not too dreadfully long, I’d hope.” Leo burst out laughing, and just shook his head without answering.  “Oh my gods…” “I’ll take that as 'significantly longer',” Octavian sighed. “I was eager to get away from you, can you blame me?” Leo snorted, but didn’t seem to disagree. “You’re not the first, no, so the sensation has worn off by now.” Leo readjusted himself, cracking his knuckles. ”Better buckle up. You should have been able to tell our speed by now, honor student, we’ll probably take at least a week, and that is a conservative guess. Festus is fast, but not airliner fast, which means if we don’t just go across the Sahara, it’ll take most of the day to reach Morocco. Plus, I’d recommend taking a pitstop for a day before actually crossing the Atlantic, to see if we can find anything usable. We’ll need to strap ourselves in, because crossing is going to take close to 24 hours, and sleep is going to not be an option. And, that’s just the general shit, I’m not including everything else that will without a doubt happen.”

“Everything else?” Octavian was honestly confused by the statement, and Leo looked over his shoulder and grinned evilly. “Not been out of the country, huh? You’re not in San Fran anymore, bub, there be monsters here like you’ve never seen.”

And there were. They’d spent a number of relatively quiet hours flying to reach land, happily uninterrupted hours, but as soon as they reached the port of Alexandria in Egypt, everything went to hell in a hand-basket. They found themselves clinging onto the dragon while making some rather intricate moves to dodge some weird sphinx like monstrosity that attacked them. It had multiple wings, multiple faces, and a good portion of it was lion. “Curses!” Octavian hissed. “I don’t have a weapon, give me a weapon!” “I thought you didn’t curse?” Leo laughed, and tossed a fireball at the thing, but it didn’t do much. “I don’t think I trust you that much. You have tried to kill me, what was it, you said 5 times?” “Yes, but I can’t now!” Octavian yelled in frustration. “Just give me something! Why does it look more Babylonian than Egyptian, it makes no sense!” Leo handed him a letter opener. If Octavian was the one with fire powers, Leo’s head would have likely gone up in flames with the strength of his glare. He threw it anyway, and it pierced the head of the monster, which fell to pieces of sand. Leo’s jaw dropped, and Octavian preened. “Shit, that was pretty cool. You throw knives?” Octavian nodded proudly, but felt a weird sensation as he watched Leo’s face turn into a smile. Embarrassment? No, surely not. “Okay, still hate you, but cool. I’m pretty sure Will can’t do that.” “Will?” Octavian frowned. “Who is that? Another jilted lover?” Leo’s face immediately turned to displeasure. “I’m 15 dude, I don’t have any lovers...jilted or otherwise. Will is one of the sons of Apollo, so, like…your half brother. But, Greek. So, like you, but infinitely better and less of a douche.” “Except he can’t throw knives?” Octavian called back with a smirk, and Leo quirked a brow in amusement or something else. “He’s a healer. I’ll take someone who helps people over one who destroys any day of the week, man.” “Your powers are the very epitome of destructive,” Octavian reminded him, and Leo looked away without responding. “I’m going to land, I need to repair Festus.” Leo sighed, patting on Festus and they began to descend into the outskirts of the busy African city. “No pithy comment?” Octavian said after they landed, and Leo shot him a look. “No snark? No general idiocy your people are so fond of?” “Wow,” Leo shook his head with a laugh, “if you say, ‘your people’ again…” “You’ll what?” Octavian challenged, stepping forward to cross the distance between them. They were both slim, but Octavian was older and taller by quite a bit. He stared down at Leo. “What will you do? You’re nothing.” A small breathy noise startled Octavian, who jerked back as Leo looked down at the ground and wiped at his face. “Oh, by the gods, are you crying?” Octavian stuttered out, horrified. He was not good with crying. “I…I didn’t, I mean...I-“ Leo looked up with a grin and completely tearless eyes, “gotcha.” Octavian opened and closed his mouth, and Leo patted him on the shoulder. “Word of advice? Anything you say to me? I’ve heard it already five times over, probably from my own family. That crying schtick? A trick I learned… at roughly age 9 to trick the nice foster families into giving me shit I wanted. And, my best friend is a daughter of Aphrodite, Venus, whatever. I’ve learned from the best.” Leo shoved a finger into Octavian’s chest, ignoring their size difference completely. “I may be nothing, but guess what? We’re both nothing.” Leo looked him straight in the eyes.  “And, my guess? That bothers you a hell of a lot more than it bothers me.” Octavian said nothing as Leo stepped around him and moved to start fixing Festus. Didn’t say a word until night had fallen. But, then it was dark out, and Octavian realized he was hungry.  Leo was still working on the bronze dragon, and hadn’t stopped. The dragon, with the stupidest name he’d ever heard, watched Octavian with some suspicion. Probably well warranted by now, having threatened his owner repeatedly.

“Do you have money?” Octavian fumbled about before just hitting himself and asking. Leo paused and looked up. “Why?”

“I want to go into town and get food and provisions, if you were intelligent, you would have realized that by now, but I suppose your people aren’t-“ Leo stood up and glared him down. “See, the thing that bugs me when you say that is I have no idea if you mean Greek demigods or if you mean Mexicans. But, knowing you, it’s probably both.”

Octavian tipped his chin up to sneer down at the shorter boy. “You think me so petty? You realize I served under Reyna, do you not?” “Yes,” Leo said without a moment of thinking about it. “You tried to overthrow her too, remember?” “I’m not racist,” Octavian ignored everything Leo said. It was true, after all. “I just think-“ “Nope,” Leo shook his head. “Nope, nuh uh, not happening, shut up and don’t finish that thought process. I’ll make you food, just stop talking.” Octavian paused, and glared silently, his feathers well ruffled by now. Leo sighed in relief, before sitting down on the sands, and pulling random items out of his belt. They surely couldn’t have all fit, so it was most likely enchanted. “I’m not racist,” Octavian said after a moment, and Leo looked at him like he was above to shove a fork through his eye, or would if he was able.  “The man my mother married was a legacy of Mars, from Senegal. My half siblings are mixed race. You may think you know me, but you don’t.” “That doesn’t mean you’re not racist,” Leo said, chin in his hand, appraising Octavian. “But, I’m tired of arguing. What do you want to eat? Any food allergies? I’m curious if I can poison you.” “No,” Octavian rolled his eyes, and Leo snickered. “That,” Leo pointed. “Is the first time I’ve ever seen you act like an actual teenager.” “…I’m 18, I am an adult.” He’d waited long for the day, after all. To finally be respected as an adult, instead of a child. “No, you’re one cat away from being a movie villain.” Leo crossed his legs. “Maybe, if you were an actual teenager, you’d be less obsessed with glory and honor and all that and learn to have fun for once. 18 going on 68, more like.” “I have fun, and I want…,” Octavian nodded to himself in thought. “Yes, I’d like tacos. They’re a fun food, yes?” “Tacos? Man, you’re practically Latino now. l was so very wrong about you, Herr Octavian!” Octavian narrowed his eyes, “you realize that just means Mister or sir, right?” “I actually had no idea, I just wanted to imply you’re a Nazi.” Leo said happily. “Calm your tuts, I’ll make something good.” “It’s no surprise,” Octavian sniffed derisively, dusting away some sand from his tattered robes. “I’d imagine your education doesn’t go above elementary school.” “You’d be correct,” Leo smiled, he was visibly less amused and more visibly perturbed. “That’s what happens when you’re orphaned.” He started to mix ingredients in a bowl that Octavian was also not sure where came from. It didn’t seem like it could have been pulled from anywhere. The Greek held the bowl, with his hand lit in flames to cook it. When it was done, Leo handed over a steaming plate. It smelled good.

“I made paella. You good?” Octavian nodded, assuming he was asking if Octavian found the meal choice acceptable, and took a bite. It was very good. “It’s sad,” Octavian said after he was finished eating, and Leo looked at him tiredly as he was eating. “You Greeks, you have no support for one another.” “Remind me to spit in your food next time,” Leo looked exhausted, and put down the food he was eating. “It seems to me that the Romans are the ones who don’t give a shit the second someone starts thinking for themselves.” “You have no long term support systems for demigods,” Octavian ignored Leo, waving a finger as though he was scolding a child. “You have no businesses, no real communities that I could see. You’re a summer camp, no more, no less. What do you do for the children that have been orphaned?” “I don’t know, wasn’t at camp very long, ask Percy.” Leo looked away, thinking. “Why do you care?” “You’re, as much as I hate to admit this, a better chef than I was expecting, especially with no real cooking instruments. In New Rome, we would support these talents. Maybe, you could open a restaurant, or shop of some nature. But, what will you there, once you’re older? I noticed there were no demigods over the age of 25 that I could see. Do you all die? Pretend to be human, and live a constantly thre-“ “I don’t know!” Leo cut him off, looking quite angry. “I have no idea, okay? I wasn’t expecting to live this long.” “That’s the problem,” Octavian didn’t stop his lecture, standing up to pace. “None of you have any foresight. You’re hotheaded, idiotic, disrespectful, chaotic-” “I’m going to bed,” Leo stood up abruptly and walked around to the other side of Festus. Octavian rolled his eyes before he could catch himself. “Think about my suggestions,” Octavian called over before laying back on the warm sands himself, like he was doing Leo a favor.

“Get bit by an asp and go Cleopatra yourself, asshat.” Leo grumbled from his side, annoyance clear in his voice.

Octavian waited a moment, before speaking. “…It was actually an Egyptian Cobra, not the European Aspis. In fact, it was likely neither, but rather a respectable concoction of poisons. You should read more. It is a common, but still unacceptable mistake that uneducated individuals make. Building a library would be the first step-” Leo tossed a wrench at him, but it missed. Octavian was awoken in the early morning light by a foot prodding him in the stomach, it didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t a great way to wake up either. “You rude-“ “Save it, we need to get going. A storm is coming, and I really don’t want to get stuck with you any longer than possible.” Octavian stood up gingerly, and eyed Leo, who noticed and exhaled sharply. “What?” “I need to brush my teeth.” Leo threw him a small bottle of mouth wash and a tooth brush, and while Octavian was mildly disgusted, it was better than nothing. He’d never had a cavity before, his teeth were in his opinion, flawless. He didn’t want to ruin that now.

They set off once again, but could see clouds in the distance. They were dark reds and beige and gray, with bright flashes of gold. “Beautiful,” Octavian breathed out, as the wind began whipping. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Yeah, well, it shouldn’t be there,” Leo eyed the same clouds with some trepidation. He hadn’t seen any weather forecasts in town that mentioned anything like it. “Another monster?” Octavian asked, and Leo tilted his head and bit a worrying lip. “I honestly don’t know…but, something tells me it isn’t that simple.” They flew until night fall, but managed to reach Morocco. The storm they saw had vanished once they left Egypt, which made Leo all the more paranoid. He hadn’t stopped fidgeting and tapping the entire way, and it was driving Octavian up the metaphorical wall. “Do you think there are others?” Leo asked in a rare moment of openness, looking like an actual uncertain 15 year old, in a way that bothered Octavian for some reason. “Other what?” “Gods,” Leo answered. “We have…Greeks, Romans…but, are there more than us?” “Egyptians, you mean?” Octavian was easily able to piece together the source of the boys discontent and pondered the question for a moment. “It’s plausible. There are Roman gods that are not versions of Greek. Greek, that have no dual Roman forms. If there are entirely separate deities in those situations, then it is likely that there are others.” Leo looked at him seriously for once, eyes searching his face, his posture. “Doesn’t that scare you?” “No,” Octavian answered honestly. “It doesn’t. Gods are not my concern; Rome is, my people are.” Leo shook his head and looked away, “aren’t we all?” “What?” Octavian asked, confused. This Graecus was more confounding than Jackson had been, who was simply like a fly that he wished to swat. “Demigods,” Leo said, looking back at him. “Don’t we have more in common than we have different? Aren’t we all your people then? Shouldn’t we support one another? Support systems, like you said. Communities.” “I-“ Octavian wasn’t sure how to reply. In fact, he was mostly taken back by the fact Leo had evidently given his suggestions some consideration the night before. Leo seemed to realize what Octavian was thinking, “you were right, maybe not how you meant, but ...it's true. As much as I really hate you.”

Octavian was very conflicted now. “We have no way to help each other, not really, not at Camp Half Blood. A satyr either gets us to camp when we’re young, or they don’t.” Leo swallowed hard, looking off into the distance.  “Before that, we’re just…with our human families, or alone. There are probably more of us alone, than not.” “Or in foster care,” Octavian added, remembering what Leo had said the previous day. The curly haired boy looked back at him and nodded. “In foster care, or worse,” Leo said. “It isn’t fair to us, or our parents, to be so vulnerable. How many mothers, fathers, siblings, have been killed…because we’re demigods? How many kids around the world?” “I don’t know,” Octavian answered after a moment. “I don’t know. If the numbers are similar world wide, then…thousands? Hundreds of thousands, even.”

“I don’t like that,” Leo said firmly. “You can go back to New Rome, deal with your people, but like I said. You’re right. I think we should have support. Or, in another generation, once me and all my friends are long dead, we’ll get another Luke.” “Luke?” Octavian echoed, he thought he had heard the name before but wasn’t sure where. “Luke Castellan, I wasn’t around then either, but he was the one who started the Titan war.” Leo explained, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “One guy thinks the Gods don’t care, that’s fine, but when 50, 100, hundreds do…” Octavian hadn’t really experienced this before, being told he was right while being told he was wrong, feeling vindicated and chastised. “R-Rome can,” Octavian started shakily, jutting out his chin once again in a shadow of his more prideful boasts. “We can…support others. But, under our ways.” Leo sighed, shaking his head and mumbling something under his breath. “That isn’t support, it’s oppression. Have you ever considered that you only think your ways are the right ways because you were born to it?”

“That sounded very Disney-esque of you,” Octavian deflected, and turned away. “I’m going to get firewood.” Leo looked at him wearily as he left. “You…don’t need to,” Leo said to himself, rolling his eyes and moving back to Festus. “I’m literally made of fire. Fucking asshole.” The next morning, they spent their time flying closer towards the Horn, until touching down outside a Senegalese market.  Octavian actually seemed rather happy for once with this particular pitstop. Like, actually happy and not sneery smirky “happy”. It was odd for Leo to witness. “You actually like your stepfather, don’t you?” Leo asked curiously, after Octavian got done speaking to a shop owner. “He’s preferable to my mother,” Octavian answered. “They’re both doctors, but his work actually matters.” “Is there a doctor who does meaningless work?” Leo asked, laughing in astonishment. “Like, what does that even mean?”

“It means she’s a psychologist,” Octavian said with a huff and crossed arms. “My stepfather is a neurosurgeon. He saves lives, she talks.” Leo stared at him like he saw something particularly disgusting on the floor of a mens bathroom, brows together and lips drawn back into a frown. “Doesn’t she, I don’t know, help people with mental health problems?” Octavian scoffed at the very concept, and Leo threw his arms up and walked away. Later, Octavian showed back up with bags full of herbs and spices and what looked like a headband. “Ladies appreciated my skill in speaking their language, and gave me gifts.” Leo rolled his eyes, and muttered something about them probably trying to get him to leave. “What are you doing?” “Trying to contact my friends,” Leo said, looking disappointingly into the fountain they had met back up at. The water gave nothing back to him. “I’ve been trying, but I haven’t been able to get through by any means. I even used a phone booth. Just static. Nothing in Alexandria, nothing in Morocco, nothing here either. “ Octavian walked over and sat next to him and looked into waters. “Let me try, I’m an augur. I have a more natural line to the Gods, than someone like yourself who spits in the face of our customs and rules.”

It didn’t work for him either. “I need a live chicken,” Octavian glared into the fountain. “And a ceremonial dagger.” “Nnnope,” Leo stood up, drying his hands off on his shirt. “No blood sacrifices, I put my foot down at blood sacrifices.” “You’re being unreasonable,” Octavian followed suit in standing, attempting to use his height as an advantage once again. “I guess that shouldn’t be surprising given your people-“Leo grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him hard into the fountain. It didn’t hurt, there was no injury or pain involves in the matter, but he was now soaking wet. So Octavian rushed up and grabbed the other boy and hauled him in with him. It was childish, but they ended up shoving and splashing and just generally making idiots of themselves until Octavian noticed Leo was laughing. That was not what Octavian had intended, he was planning on more of a near-drowning. Then, he noticed they were very close, and Leo’s palm was on his chest and his own hand was on Leo’s waist and everything froze. Octavian swallowed hard, and Leo met his eyes curiously. Big, dark brown eyes. “Hey, you boys,” someone called to them and Octavian thanked every deity he could name that he was saved before losing composure. “You need to stop,” a young woman said in English with an accent. “I’m apologize,” Octavian said back, in Wolof. She looked surprised, but smiled. “I don’t mind,” she said in her own language, “but some others here might not approve of two boys doing that together. I think young love is precious.” Octavian felt bile in his throat. He glanced over at Leo, who was brushing a curl of wet hair out of his eyes. The warm mid day light hit the water just right and reflected sunlight back onto Leo’s stomach and cheeks. His normally loose dirty off white tank top was wet and clinging and very nearly see through. The reflections of water looked like soft gold on his skin. “Oh no,” Octavian whispered, and got a weary look from his forced travel companion. He was 15, Octavian told himself. 15 and Greek. It was extremely unsightly, inappropriate, not to mention possibly illegal to harbor unfortunate emotional attachments to- “What? That stick almost fall out of your ass after having fun for 5 minutes?” Leo grinned toothily, and Octavian realized that he did in fact hate Leo Valdez. "No? What a shame."

#fanfiction #mypjofanfiction #pjo fanfic #hoo octavian #pjo Octavian #octavian #Leo Valdez #leotavian

[razberryyum]

A Gintama chapter a day keeps the ending away...Lesson 596

I was wondering if this was a dream or reality too....

MY 15 FAVORITE MOMENTS IN LESSON 596:

And thus, the Silver Soul Arc officially begins...the beginning of the end. (T_T)

1) I loved that the first person we see when we return to Earth is the planet’s most downtrodden loser, Madao. Kinda fitting, considering the beating that  Earth will soon be taking.

2) I had no idea what was going on at this point of the chapter, so naturally, when we were told Hasegawa had been under that thing for an hour just so he could get fish that fucking dollar out, I was almost livid. Seriously ashamed of him.

3) I remember feeling my stomach drop when I saw the title image and this subsequent moment almost made my heart stop for one quick second, I thought all those people were going to be wiped out...along with Madao in the next frames who was oblivious to the destruction. Thank the gods nothing like that happened, but man did a worse apocalypse flash by my eyes for that sec.

4) Talk about bite your damn tongue.

5) Otose feeling the same way I felt about Hasegawa and his stinky mouth. Lol.

6) I actually thought this was rather odd because technically the Amanto have been around all this time...hell, that’s why Kagura, Elizabeth, Hedoro, Catherine, and all the other Amantos we actually care about were on Earth. Although, it might just have been a translation error since Tama probably meant an army of Amantos rather than just general Amantos.

7) I just loved that these three were hanging out together. I mean, it’s normal for Kyuu-chan and Tae-chan to be together, but the addition of Tama-chan just made them a fierce trio.

8) And of course I loved that these two ladies were hanging out together as well. They make a really awesome dynamic duo.

9) I loved that everyone misses the Yorozuya, but I still wish they all invested in cellphones.

10) Seeing Hasegawa looking at the Yorozuya’s abode like that made me sad.

11) When I first saw these scenes, I was just thinking how gross he was for picking up the coins even though the Amanto spat on it. But now that I know why exactly he was scrounging any available money he can find, I love this moment and it makes me want to cry because of the lengths Hasegawa was debasing himself just to gather money for his cause.

12) Again, when I first saw this, I just thought it was odd, but now, my heart actually aches.

13) For a good solid minute, I totally loved Hasegawa. I still like him...most of the time...but I really loved him by the end of this chapter. Just seeing that pile of coins and the letter totally made my heart melt for him.

14) Ngl, I was worried those assholes would kick the kid’s dog more than anything so I was so relieved when Hasegawa appeared and protected him and the puppy.

15) I was so damn proud of Madao in this moment I wanted to hug him for once.

SHIPS TALLY:

Kyuubei x Otae: of course I have to count them whenever they’re together, that’s the only respectful thing to do for Kyuu-chan.

Tsukuyo x Sacchan: I think they’re adorable together and the idea of two rivals falling in love is of course completely romantic. I know they’re technically both still in love with Gintoki, but if neither of them get their man in the end, I’m all for them finding comfort in each other. 

Disclaimer: Gintama is not only about shipping. Gintama is hilarious, clever, exciting, poignant, heart-breaking, loving, brilliant, and just so freaking amazing.  It is only due to Sorachi-sama’s generosity that I can enjoy Gintama on yet another level, the shippy level, and I am forever grateful for that. GINTAMA IS LIFE AND LOVE.

8/25/2018

#Gintama #Gintama manga chap 596 #Silver Soul Arc #Hasegawa Madao Taizou #KyuuTae #TsuSa #Otose #Tama #Kyuubei #Otae #Tsukuyo #Sacchan #Amantos #THANK YOU Sorachi-sama #Life and Love

[cacchieressa]

@pearwaldorf did a meme and it looked fun so here it is:

First ship you ever read fic for: I think it was Willow/Xander. It was a long time ago.

First ship you ever wrote fic for: I'm only going to refer to stuff after I got into fandom and actually posted, so. Logan/Rogue. Do you realize that was EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO? My early Logan/Rogue fic would be starting college in September. What the hell.

Ship you write the most now: Huh. I don't write a lot of shipfic these days. I do have a few shippy works in progress I'd like to finish, and those are Obi-Wan/Satine, Obi-Wan/Anakin, and Anakin/Ahsoka (not all in the same story!), so there's that. I keep trying to write Finn/Rey and it comes out gen with hints of shippiness, so idk. I'd like to write a long slow burn Finn/Rey/Poe, but I haven't yet found the right angle of attack.

Ship you read the most now: In Star Wars, I read mostly gen with background canon ships? But I still do read Steve/Bucky, so probably that.

Newest ship: Debbie Ocean/Lou Miller! HEIST WIVES!

Rare ship you wanna read more of:  Anakin/Ahsoka. I understand why it's not particularly popular, but I still want it.

Your taboo ship: I don't think of things in those terms. Nick/Cassie from Push maybe? Simon/River?

They never met in canon ship: Steve Rogers/Diana of Themyscira! Crossover OTP! They would just be SO GOOD together. (I feel like I can put this here even though it's not technically what the question is asking for because they HAVE appeared in canon material together – there have been published Marvel/DC crossovers – but I can't recall them ever meeting in any of them.)

Your unexpected ship: They're all kind of unexpected. I mean, I have definite dynamics I like in pairings (insults as endearments! Friends to lovers!) but I'm often surprised when a pairing latches on and I get all invested in it (Dutch/Johnny!). I admit, I never expected other people to like Steve/Darcy (I don't know why I didn't; on the internet, you're never alone), but that worked out really well, at least in terms of people reading the stories I wrote for them. ;)

The ship you always forget to give love to: Coach/Mrs. Coach! I feel like I don't talk a lot about the canon het pairings I ship because I get what I need from canon.

Ship your OC with a canon character: I don't have OCs so no.

A ship you’re embarrassed to ship:  Oh come on, I wrote sekrit incest baby fic. More than once even. I am embarrassed by (almost) nothing.

Your most romantic ship: Steve/Bucky,  maybe? Till the end of the line! It's hard to top the lengths Steve will go for Bucky.

Your sexiest ship: Steve/Bucky/Natasha.

I realize as I read my answers that I always think doing these memes will be fun and then I am completely inarticulate all over the place while doing them.

Your most tragic ship: A large majority of my ships are tragic so I'm not sure how to quantify which is the MOST tragic. Steve/Bucky? Sirius/Remus? Anakin/Padme/Obi-Wan? Alexander/Hephaiston? Achilles/Patroclus? I am like a one-stop shop of tragic ships. Even Han/Leia ended tragically, which is not what I wanted out of life or fiction.

A ship you want more content for: Rey/Finn and Rey/Finn/Poe. Obi-Wan/Satine. Anakin/Ahsoka.

#random memes #i ship it