#they'll be 8 chapters in total

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Japan is Winning on Kisses & Other Alternate Realities

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

March 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Two Worlds (Thurs IQIYI) ep 3 of 10 - It would be great if we got the alternative romance with dead Kram from Tai’s perspective (JBL style.) Still I like this show. It’s a little bit like I Feel You Linger in the Air only with a love triangle. And while I'm not a fan of triangles as a general rule, I don’t mind it here because the set up is clever. Wayu and  ao are fun sides too. It sure is moving very quickly, which I like. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. But that’s normal for me with this kind of Thai drama. 

Deep Night (Thurs iQiyi) ep 4 of 8 - They are extremely sappy boyfriends. I love that mom has a secret gf. Could we please have more of them? The love triangle sides are ridiculous, but I do like that it’s all out in the open. I also like they are actually addressing the complicated parental dynamics of owning a sex club. Honestly, I think Khem should have to be a host too. Learn him the right way, girl!

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - It’s good, I like the fallout and them actually having to deal with crazy fans and past relationships. They’re so good at communicating it’s kind of a pleasure to watch them suffer through external pressures, because I have faith that they can make it through.

To Be Continued (Thai C3 Thailand grey) ep 6 of 8 - They are such cute puppy dads and so clearly meant to be together, the fact that they aren’t is just frustrating. The fight thing was stupid. And not a whole lot happened... plus singing. I’m getting fatigued with this one. 

1000 Years Old ep 7 of 12 - Did I miss something happening, or did nothing happen? 

Kiseki Chapter 2 (Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 6 - It’s so boring, there’s so much guitar playing, and it got weirdly voyeuristic (in a very much not sexy way). I’m totally out. DNF

Close Friend Season 3: Soju Bomb! (Weds iQIYI) ep 3 of 6 - I can’t tell if this is trying to be a BL Romancing the Stone, or a BL Hangover, or both. The problem with situational comedy is it must be both situational and comedic, not just option one. The problem with calling something BL, is that it must be BL. This show got 1 of 3 claims correct. 33% is not a passing grade. DNF 

Honestly, it's the HANDS with these two. They do beautiful beautiful things with their hands. If you're one of those hands-obsessed BLabies you should be watching LIBTSTA!

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues Youku YouTube & Viki) ep 6 of 11 - So the worst finally happened. The mountain of pain has fallen down upon us. And now, hopefully in the second half things get better for our boys. But what a rough ride. Normally, this is not my style of BL, but everyone is doing such a gorgeous job with it, I can’t fault it… except that it hurts. The red thread symbolism was elegantly done. I’d like to hope we get a reunion in the next one, but knowing this style of series they’re gonna draw it out. There's gonna be a more pain first.

Love is Better the Second Time Around AKA Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 4 of 6 - Those fuck me puppy dog eyes were perfectly executed. I would not have been able to resist either. Gosh they are so damn cute. This is a great show.

Jazz for Two (Korea Gaga/grey) eps 1-2 of 8 - This comes from the Shoulder to Cry On team so I'm scared, but this one is all actors* not idols so maybe they'll be braver. Boy howdy does it have a fantastic opening sequence. Also the lead is fucking adorable. Mr Broody McBroodypants is cute too. Korea sure loves “pretty but broken.” On the JBL end of the spectrum, is everyone in love with their siblings? That’s weird. The dining room scene was painful. All in all, it's good, I'm intrigued. Let's see how you go little show.

I stand absolutely corrected the lead is a member of NEWKIDD (in my defense I'd never heard of them until Build Up last month). I did recognize him from To My Star because at the time I thought he was too pretty to be only a side character.

AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 10 fin - Again there was overuse of previous footage and maudlin navel-gazing grief over something we knew was going to happen. So I didn’t really feel much emotional connection to the drama. 7 year time gap.? t was a cute reunion but the moral quandary never really got resolved. I don’t know how to rate this, I’m not sure I will ever watch it again, so that is a big mark against it.

There’s nothing objectively wrong with this BL except how upsetting it is because of the foundational pygmalion story - grown man falls in love with an android who is basically both his slave and, by maturity level, a child. Yet that premise is crystal clear from the get go, so we watch it eyes open. The actors are cute, the romance sweet, the physical chemistry on point (of course, it’s Taiwan) and yet I was left ultimately unsettled by the concept, content, and plot. 7/10 

My Strawberry Film (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - I'm so ready for this to be over, and for Gaga to have something good on. Soon please?

It's done, ready to binge, but I suck

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps

It's airing but...

Graduation Countdown (Taiwan YouTube) - It's too much to ask me to keep up with 2 minute verticals, I don't have that kind of TikTok endurance training. Waiting to binge.

A Secretly Love (Thai Sat WeTV grey) 10 eps - I watched the first ep but grey is too much work for this inferior of a show. I may pick up and binge if it gets distribution but for now, it gets a DNF from me. KimCop might have held this crap together but Kim without Cop? No thank you.

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

Tangential to the genre

There has been the occasional discussion on this topic here in this little corner of tumblr so I thought there might be a few intersted in this podcast: AmericanThaiGuy Ron Weaver on the Complicated Issue of Racism in Thailand (The Bangkok Podcast)

Thailand passed its Marriage Equality bill through the lower house. It's expected to pass the high house and get signed by the King, but that hasn't quite happened yet.

And MaxTul dropped a photo shoot.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting Soon

3/31 Only Boo! (Thai GMMTV YouTube) 12 eps - New main couple for GMMTV in an idol romance about a boy who dances good and a food stand vendor. Other side of the tracks grumpy/sunshine pair who fall deeply in love but, of course, baby boy idol can't date. Boyband but from GMMTV? Control your singing and I'm game.

3/31 The Next Prince (Thai ????) 12 eps - trailer. ZeeNew in a fantasy/historical set in a palace where Zee plays a knight and Nu a prince - YES PLEASE. (Apparently this is just the pilot, not the start of the actual show, see comments.)

4/1 Love is like a Cat (Korea ????) 12 eps - This completed filming Aug 2022(!) which means there have been serious problems with post-production. This is another of Silkwood's Korean+Thai colab projects. Mew Suppasit plays a rookie film star, called the Cat Prince (for his cold arrogance) who goes up against a charismatic puppyish animal daycare director (JM of JUST B). There is a side romance (love triangle?) with a veterinarian. Geonu of JUST B is also in the cast. Dual languages.

Hum, trash-watch-a-licious?

4/3 We Are (Thai GMMTV YouTube iQIYI) 12 eps - University ensemble BL featuring PondPhuwin, WinnySatang, AouBoom, MarcPawinPoon - basically the good kind of messy gay friendship group (so more My Engineer and less Only Friends). Looks a bit like the Kiss series but everyone is queer. I'm IN!

4/11 Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan ????) 10 eps - Kindly Ryota goes off to uni only to find his new roommate is his childhood bestie, Kazuhito. Kazuhito doesn’t have a girlfriend and Ryota tries to help him figure out why, they fall in love along the way. Same director as Old Fashion Cupcake.

4/11 Gray Shelter AKA Gray Currents (Korea ????) 4 eps - SooHyuk is only just surviving and reunites with YoonDae, an old friend. They end up living together. One of the leads is played by Choco of Choco Milk Shake.

4/18 At 25:00, in Alaska AKA 25 Ji, Akasaka de (Japan Gaga - may not be global) 10 eps - Yuki lands his first starring role in a BL drama alongside superstar Asami (previously his senior at uni). Said superstar suggests they form a sham relationship until filming concludes. As they actually begin to fall in love, the spotlight begins to burn.

Seriously? You're killing me with these titles, boys.

4/26 My Stand-In (Thai iQIYI) 12 eps - adaptation of Chinese novel "Professional Body Double" by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KP (not a recommendation IMHO - my biggest criticism of that show was the clashing directing styles). This one looks well complicated, lemme try: Joe is a stuntman for famous actor Tong. Joe falls in love with Ming but Ming sees Joe as nothing more than a Tong-replacement. After learning this horrible truth, Joe dies. Joe then wakes up in the body of another man also named Joe. He manages to rebuild the same life as before—with the same people eventually re-meeting Ming. Ming wants Joe back but Joe doesn't understand why. But Ming seems to know what's going on and wants to give him some kind of explanation.

I'm exhausted just trying to describe the plot.

Knock-Knock Boys (Thai WeTV) - 4 college friends conspire to help their friend lose his virginity. Familiar faces like Seng (yes, Billy's previous partner) and Best, news here.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

NOTE: It looks like one of my personal favorites of last year Unintentional Love Story is getting a spin off!

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Just these two, in my head, rent free. Thanks Japan!

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are too much work.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy. (With so many tags when does a weekly tumblr post become a newsletter? That is this week's philosophical question...)

#this week in bl #bl updates #AntiReset review #AntiReset #Anti-Reset #Two Worlds the series #To Be Continued the series #Deep Night the series #City of Stars #Unknown the series #Jazz for Two #Love is Better the Second Time Around #Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto #1000 Years Old #bl series review #upcoming bl #bl news #bl reviews #BL gossip #Thai BL #Japanese BL #live action yoi #Taiwanese BL #Koren BL #BL updates #BL starting soon #BL coming soon

[goldenhickeysandramen]

Wanted

These last few months we have been definitely spoiled... 

From the 1st of February, until the end of April, we've had 15 vlives from Jungkook and 8 vlives from Jimin. In total 23 vlives in 3 months. That's an average of almost 8 vlives per month. LOL

(I know, I know.. some of the JK’s vlives are in the same day... but all together have more than 3 hours total length... that's equivalent to several vlives of the rest of the members. ;))

Now it seems like a dream... 

We are half way through May and....

Let's see…

My positive side is that these two are finally aligned and both working hard. We don't know what Jimin is up to, but I'm optimistic that more music is coming. And of course, JK is totally into JJK1.

(my negative side keeps thinking about that last post of JK asking his stalker to shove the food up her ass. I hope he comes back soon, with his beautiful ponytail and the whole threat thing will be buried)

Before February I used to grieve thinking that there was nothing in the pipeline that would bring jikook back together in content.

After the last few months, I think I've learned that there are always plot twists, unexpected surprises, subtle gifts to their fans….

They know we're here, and while they're still with us, they'll surely come back from time to time.

There are a few months left to enjoy many things. I would advise everyone to try to live this in the best way possible.

Talking to a friend, I told her that BTS will keep putting their fans first, at least until this chapter is over.

Not for nothing Suga himself, who writes challenging lyrics and drinks on stage, and smokes in his MVs (to reflect the reality of his generation/age, not to set an example of anything), just recently said in an interview that they are all like "real brothers" and have been living these last 10 years together LOL…. any curious fans will know that in 2018, when they had some issues, many of them moved out to live on their own.

I mean, we're living, in my opinion, a sort of Chapter 1.5, with them discovering new facets of their independence (I loved NJ's interview for Vogue, and how he acknowledges the limited or isolated life they've lived until last year), but without crossing too many boundaries (and especially not changing too much certaing OT7 dynamics)

Couple this with the lack of ot7 content, this might not be the best of the chapters, imo. Not so for jikook, at least in our eyes. We are certainly far from the golden age of 2019.

But it is what it is… and as I said, better to enjoy it, not think too much about the dark parts of this fandom. Let's learn to respect each one of them and who they hang out with or don't hang out with. What they want to show us or what they want to keep to themselves. We are not in their shoes...

..and wait for whatever, because whatever will come… as Letter came.

#jikook #kookmin #jikook kookmin #mingguk #jikook kookmin jinkook jiminshiii jk #mingukkie #jimin and jungkook #Youtube

[meowunmeow]

UNDEAD UNLUCK CHAPTER 191 SPOILERS!!

It's just me commenting on it. And sharing panels.

WAAAAA I MISS THEM BEING TOGETHER SO MUCH I'M GONNA THROW UP

One side being (mostly) Under members and the other side being (mostly) Union members is a neat detail

Tatiana's and Top's eyes being covered because they haven't joined yet :((

Hmm but Bunny and Sadako are looking in this direction, huh...

I'm not acknowledging that bitch down there nuh uh

•••

Speak for yourself, I miss seeing his real mosaic c😭ck (idc the previous one was a clone)

•••

Rule of Time reveal! So that's Sick, Luck, Beast, Language, Change and Time so far. The fact it's depicted as an "old-timer" is a funny detail lol

•••

Rule of Weapons! So that 7 reveals in total

•••

This man impressed me so much each time gahdamn. This is what he's been up to for billions of years??

And what's that look on Apocalypse supposed to mean...

•••

SOUL REVEAL!! Kinda makes sense for them to be a leader, actually. And that's 8 reveals then.

•••

Lol the leader proving themself to be a leader but the others being selfish XD

Soul in the little chat bubbles look so cute

•••

Yeah that's right, they're gross. Who the hell even likes them 🙄🙄 I can't believe they have a level of dedication towards each other that-

AWW JULIA'S SO CUTE

•••

That's all my personal comments so far! Time for an extras section.

• Kinda weird the title is "Top Bull Sparx" but the guy himself isn't here 🤔🤔

• So that's only 2 unrevealed Rules left, the Nun and the Knight. I wonder what they'll be. The Nun one has been described as "reeking of blood and guts", which makes me assume they're Death. But what do nuns have to do with death?

• I couldn't add it due to image limit on the app but, in the panel where they all voted for themselves to go, you can see each of their personalities clearly. But I'm curious on the raw tho. I like the detail of Language referring to themself as "Lan".

That's all for now! Can't wait for Chapter 192 next week, obviously I'll post a reminder on that day <3

#undead unluck #undead unluck spoilers #undead unluck chapter 191 #anime-onlys and manga readers who haven't caught up be warned #meow reads

[meimi-haneoka]

Do you guys ever think about how many times CLAMP tiptoe around the word "death", in Clear Card? (you: what kind of question is that???)

Because it's an awful lot.

The actual verb 死ぬ (to die), the classical one, is never mentioned* to indicate "death", and I totally see the reasons why: mainly target and "world view" of the series (lord, if there's something I learned during these 8 years of observing the reactions from the JP fans is that the 世界観, the "world view" is EVERYTHING and if the authors dare doing something that goes against it, they won't forgive them. Especially for a series rooted deep in everybody's childhood).

* (Actually, it is used in chapter 43 in a funny skit with Kero, Suppy and Nakuru, where Kero says "I thought I would die!!!" because he's too embarrassed by the SyaoSaku scene he had to forcefully witness hidden in Sakura's bag 😂but it's a foolish scene)

I think the first time where they actually start to dangle it in our faces is in chapter 28, when they make Momo scream in panic: "If you rewind that far, the repercussions will be immesurable!!" and then Kaito confirming right after "Time magic shortens the caster's lifespan".

命を削る indeed means "to shorten one's lifespan", and what else does that mean, if not that he's killing himself little by little, by using time magic? Sure, magicians have a longer lifespan, but...

Another instance where they make us "sniff" the smell of death but they don't serve the actual meal is in chapter 33, when Kaito goes out in the garden to counter the attack coming from the Association. He condescendingly says 力不足と己の身が滅ぶのを恐れて, mocking them for not including time magic in their collective attack because they're afraid their power won't be enough and they'll literally wreck their bodies in the process. Kaito doesn't straight up say "they're afraid to die", but the verb 滅ぶ means "to perish, to be ruined, to be destroyed" and we all saw what effects time magic had on Kaito's body. He's basically calling them p*ssies, yes.

And excuse me, but the most apparent one....when Kaito (or the Clan) says multiple times "Her soul will break", should Akiho write on herself more power than her body can sustain....isn't that just a very generous way to avoid saying "Akiho WILL DIE" to not scare the young readers away? Because, think about it...if her soul breaks...what is left of her? What is left of Akiho, as we know her? Yes, just a shell, a corpse for use and consumption of the Association/Clan, exactly.

And what to say about the scene of chapter 41 when Nadeshiko is trying to mom-talk Kaito into reason and the guy answers "I guess it's because I'm getting closer to become the same kind of entity as you", meaning, a ghost??? Hence, he's basically saying "I'm about to die"? I always snicker when I read that part because I'm like "OH COME ON, CLAMP, MAKE HIM SAY THE WORD" 😂

Another instance where the characters dance around the concept of death is in chapter 51, when Momo gets to have this very mom-son talk with Kaito (yes, exactly, Kaito set into motion several mother figures throughout the story - Lilie, Momo, Nadeshiko herself - that should tell you SOMETHING). Momo is trying to make him understand that he's literally betted his life away when he made the contract with her, so that should give him an idea of how important this mission is to him, and for whom he's doing this for. She says "When you made the contract with me, you revealed your true name. We could say I hold your heart as magician in the palm of my hand". Here Momo is basically already mentioning the concept I've been saying time and time again when Kaito revealed his true name to Akiho in chapter 80: in CLAMP works, revealing your true name to someone is like placing the most vulnerable part of yourself in their hands. The "imagery" Momo suggests here is actually pretty disturbing: the word 心臓 (heart) is the one commonly used to indicate the actual organ, more than "heart as core of the emotions", and so what she's suggesting is that at any moment, without notice, she might close that hand and crush his heart, basically killing him. Of course Momo would never do that, but she wants to remind him of what damned situation he's put himself in, how far he went for the person he still isn't ready to recognize at this point of the story.

I think the closer they went to say the "forbidden word" was when Lilie in chapter 72 explained to Sakura the extent of her premonitory dreams: "I know things that will happen shortly ahead...things way far ahead in the future...and even things that will happen when I'll be gone".

Another instance where they TOTALLY dance around the real situation (that is, Kaito should've been dead-dead-dead by then) is in chapter 80 when Eriol explains to Akiho what Kaito had been doing: I'm not sure if it's Eriol who sugarcoated it in his speech, or Akiho herself while recounting it to Sakura, but she says "He messed with lots (of dangerous magic), so his condition wasn't supposed to be that good", another polite way to say "he should've been dead by now". In fact, what's keeping him alive is literally the fact that the pocket watch (and therefore, his time) is frozen for now.

And sometimes I wonder if the "unhappiness" or "grief" that Yelan foresaw for Sakura, in the eventuality she couldn't gain control of her own powers, included....death too....NAAAAAAAHHHH

(well, I mean, who didn't think of THAT when they made Kaito say that he could see Nadeshiko because he was close to dying?? Well knowing that Sakura could suddenly see her too?? they did that on purpose jfc)

#card captor sakura #ccsakura #clear card arc #just very randomly musing about stuff #I've been keeping tabs of how many times they've danced around the concept of death in this arc #and it's surprisingly a lot #lmao I feel like Barbie asking THAT question while they're dancing in the movie #but fear not cause even like this the arc never crosses the line #it's like saying well it's time for children to get accustomed with the concept and we'll gradually start to introduce it #gently very gently #but it's useless to keep avoiding it forever #I mean we got someone who was literally throwing his life away as one of the main characters and themes in this arc #sooo...

[bardic-inspo]

Writer Interview

Tagged by the wonderful @electricshoebox 💜💜💜 Thank you, friendo!!

Tagging forward @vixstarria, @littlejuicebox, @ravnloft if you'd like to do this, too. No worries if not! 💜

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

16 (and counting!)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

351,099

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Red Heart indicates smut included somewhere in the fic (or will be included in future chapters)❤️

All are Fallout 4 fics except the last two, which are Baldur's Gate 3.

Bring the Gasoline (MacCready x Sole Survivor Longfic❤️)

No Rest for the Wicked (MacCready x Deacon X Sole OT3)

We Never Go Anywhere Nice (MacCready x Deacon x Sole OT3)

Worried Sick (MacCready x Deacon x Sole OT3)

Midnight Chimes (Astarion x Cursed!Tav longfic❤️)

Honorable Mention: Blood in the Mortar (Ascended Astarion x Vampire Bride Tav❤️❤️❤️)

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

Yes! I'm sometimes (very) fashionably late in doing so. But it's really important to me for a number of reasons. I don't ever want anyone who takes the time to read/comment to feel like I take that for granted (I absolutely don't). It is so incredibly motivating to know there's someone out there enjoying what I'm writing. I want any/all commenters to know I just appreciate them so much.

I've also stumbled into friendships through commenting back and forth on fics before, which was wonderful and unexpected and just opened a new dimension of fandom/community for me. Compliments are wonderful, but I mostly share my writing because I want to feel connected to that sense of community and enjoy that mutual love of whatever universe sprouted the fics in the first place. Responding back to comments makes me feel more in tune with all of that.

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

I tend to follow a "more hurt more comfort" motto, so most of the angst I write is followed up by comfort (or at least, a comforting note at the end).

I'm gonna say Warm Bodies. It's an angsty Fallout 4 smut fic featuring Deacon x MacCready x Sole Survivor in an established (somewhat domestic) OT3. A close call with death rattles them and they have emotional sex about it. Although there's a lot of comfort with the angst, the ending note is slightly melancholy. It implies that either a) a pretty significant lifestyle change is in order for all of them, which goes against the grain of their characters or b) they'll have more close calls until, one day, it's really too close, and they lose each other for good.

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

I almost always go for a happy/hopeful ending. It's hard to pick one, but it's probably gotta be one my fluffy domestic MacCready x Deacon x SoSu oneshots, Hungry Hearts. Ends with a big happy family moment.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not yet, at least. I did once thoroughly outline and started drafting an AU that was basically the plot of Casino Royale with Deacon as Bond and MacCready as Vesper and other Fallout universe characters (like Mr. House) inserted in. I don't see myself going back to finish that one at this point.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nah. I think I'm too small fry for that in terms of my audience size/reach and that's just fine with me. I'm cool tending this cozy little campfire over here.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yeah! I mostly enjoy writing smut with a ton of feelings/history to it, (Warm Bodies is a super emotional comfort sex OT3 fic; Blood in the Mortar is an evil power couple with an established dynamic relishing in some power play and spicy use of their telepathic bond). But I've also dabbled in some kink exploration in Follow Suit, which plays a little bit with dom/sub dynamics and very light bondage.

I'm really looking forward to writing upcoming smut scenes for Midnight Chimes. Astarion's relationship with sex is such a huge part of his arc, and I'm looking forward to writing the smut scenes in a way that shows his own individual progression with that, and also how his relationship with Naomi deepens/changes over time.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also not to my knowledge.

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

Nope! I am so feast or famine with my writing process/preferences, I don't think I would make a great writing partner at this point. Maybe someday!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Ahh that's tough. It's really going to be, whichever is at the forefront of my mind at the moment. Currently, that's Astarion x Tav (especially my own Tav, who I'm doing a lot OC work/development for). But MacCready x Sole (Natasha) feel like, nostalgic, warm and fuzzy friends to me. I think my heart will always get soft when I think of them together (and with Deacon!).

Really, any ships I used to be more fixated on are just dormant and still have a space in my head/heart.

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

I could very well come full circle and feel the pull to deep dive into Fallout again (especially if the TV show turns out to be good, or if they release a new single-player game in the series), but the only further Fallout 4 fic I see myself finishing at this point is Bring the Gasoline (most likely by hermit drafting the rest of it and waiting to share further until I'm done). I think the amount of ideas I had, unfortunately, outmatched my motivation/hyperfixation on that universe. I had a lot of ideas for fics showing the actual OT3 relationship "negotiation" that I've had vivid daydreams about, and lots of wild notes for, but I don't have plans to pick up again at this point.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I get a lot of positive feedback on my action scenes. Also a lot of feedback that my writing is really vivid/visceral/immersive. I think I'm good at putting the reader in the character's shoes/in the heat of a moment, and wrapping them into the character's thoughts/feelings right off the bat. I also feel like character work, generally, is a strong suit of mine (character voice, mannerisms, individuality).

Something that has been really touching to hear is how well people respond to my OCs. I've done a lot of work to make unique/compelling/flawed original characters that readers can get invested in. I am still absolutely floored by some of comments I've gotten re: Natasha (my Sole Survivor). And although Naomi (Tav) is a newer character in my arsenal, I've gotten to play with some alternate (evil) versions of her, and folks seem to be intrigued by both.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Echoing Riss on the crutch words and phrases. I do have some editing steps I use to try to mitigate this. In the past, I've also had a bad habit of transposing/mingling words from different fantasy universes (mirelurk vs. mudcrab; Storm Coast vs. Sword Coast) without even realizing I'm doing it. I'm hyperconscious about that, now.

I also struggle to be concise. I made a commitment to work more on this this year, and in doing so, am trying to strike a balance with it. Ideally, if I have a lot of words, there should be a certain density of ideas/information being shared. So, if a fic gets long because it's packing a lot of punch that way, I don't want to cut it off unless it's too much to share at once. If it's long just because I'm being wordy, well, maybe that comes down to self-confidence, and me needing to let my words stand on their own without so much hedging/propping up.

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

I've experimented with this (and now cringe about it in retrospect), but hey, I think it takes some trial and error to figure out what works. My general preference is to write the lines in the language being used for the bulk of the fic, but then add a phrase like "X character said in Elvish" after. I think the less the writer knows of the other language themselves, the more they should err away from writing a lot in it. I think short phrases or single words in a different language can also be to great effect (as long as they're properly researched/understood).

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Warrior Cats as a kid loose on the internet 😺

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I want to write some Shadowheart/Karlach smut! I'm a little intimidated as I've yet to add F/F to my smut fic punch card, and I wanna get a free sub but I think they have so much angsty sweet potential and I already have a little outline for it!

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Bring the Gasoline will always be my baby. It's my first real fic, and the thing that got me through a lot of ups and downs. I poured so much of myself into it.

But for now, I have to go with Blood in the Mortar. I just had an absolute blast writing it. It gave me confidence back in a way I really needed. It made me feel like I'd grown in skills I'd been working on for a while (particularly with writing dialogue and smut, and character work in general). I got to write villains, really for the first time, and was surprised I had so much fun with it. It was the perfect blend of challenge and getting back into my element, and writing/sharing it felt really uplifting. Felt like letting my hair down, hehe.

#megh fights the page #my writing #writing memes #fallout fanficition #bg3 fanfiction

[ameliagiovanna0]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you @sisterofficerlucychen ilu 💕

How many works do you have on Ao3?

13

2. What is your total Ao3 word count?

22,129

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Rookie and Chicago PD

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I Guess I'm Still Learnin' (How To Talk To Girls)

Feel Your Kiss On Me

I Kinda Might Sorta Like Love You A Little Bit

When I Taste Tequila

Forever Feels Like This

5. Do you respond to comments?

I definitely try to. I used to be a lot better about it. But I absolutely read every single one

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't think any of them? I don't really do angst 😅 If I had to pick, I'd say Giants simply because the ✨situation ✨wasn't resolved

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I Guess I'm Still Learnin' (How To Talk To Girls) is hella fluffy and it just has happy vibes. The ending for You Guys Got Married is just warm and fuzzy for me because I wrote it exactly how I wanted it to happen on screen

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope! I've never gotten any negative comments. Everyone has been so kind 🥰

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I've tried, but I'm very bad at it lol. I've definitely written my fair share of allusions to something more spicy, but that's about it. I'd love to give it a better shot one of these days

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

no, it's not really my thing. I'm not really a huge fan of reading them either

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I once had a scene stolen almost word for word, but not an entire fic. I hasn't thrilled about it, but I chose to take it to mean that I did well writing the scene 😂

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

no, but that would be pretty cool!

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

Not really. @lady-rhaesnow beta read You Guys Got Married and offered some suggestions after I pestered her lol. I would love to cowrite something. I'm going to quote Ivy and say holler at me if you want to 😁

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Upstead was the reason I joined tumblr and started writing fics to begin with, and they'll always be my first love. Booth and Brennan were my first ever ship, so they hold a special place in my heart. However, Chenford has my whole heart at the moment ☺

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I Guess I'm Still Learnin' (How To Talk To Girls)

I've been working on a third chapter off and on for months. I just can't figure out how to make it work the way I want it to. I just don't have the inspiration for it

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotions, I guess? I think I'm pretty good at writing how a character feels and how their emotions affect them

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

descriptors. I suck at describing body language and movement

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done a sentence or two, but that's it. I took four years of French in high school, and when someone says "it gets lost in translation," they're definitely right. I used Google Translate for those few sentences, and Google Translate sucks are nuances, so I'm afraid that I wouldn't get my point across properly. If I knew the language better, I'd be all for it

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Chicago PD, specifically Upstead ☺

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

DON'T MAKE ME PICK BETWEEN MY BABIES I'm going to say Feel Your Kiss On Me or When I Taste Tequila. Idk I just really like them. I feel like they're really true to the characters, and I love the fluff and humor in them

Tagging @sylvies-chen @headlightsatmidnight @silverskull @fighterkimburgess @justmypartner no pressure 💕

#tag game #ivy tag #the rookie #chenford #chenford fic #lucy chen #tim bradford #chicago pd #upstead #jay halstead #hailey upton #ameliagiovanna writes

[sluttypatrickstar]

i have suffered. i have received unspeakable brain trauma. i have read sentences that i simply cannot unread. that's right, it's time for my chaotic review of verity by colleen hoover!

now i wrote an actual, proper review of this book that used paragraphs and real grammar, but this is tumblr. you're getting the bullet points, you're getting the sweary words, you're getting the dissolution of my sanity.

there's a lot of graphic and disturbing content in this book, so if you're bothered by that kind of thing, it might be best not to read.

the plot:

so our narrator, lowen ashleiggghghghg, is hired by this guy jeremy crawford to finish his wife verity's thriller book series bcus verity was in a car accident and is now profoundly disabled (can't move, can't talk, needs regular care, etc.)

she needs verity's notes and somehow ends up living in verity's house so she can spend literally all day going through verity's office. the only believable part of this is that a writer could be so disorganised that you'd need full days to try and go through all of their stuff

for some context, jeremy is apparently brooding (though i see like, 0 evidence of this) over his wife's accident as well as the deaths of his twin daughters chastin and harper

in verity's office, lowen finds a manuscript that looks like it's verity's autobiography

verity's autobiography starts as overly detailed jeremy smut and oh my fucking god i mean overly detailed i wish i could GOUGE my fucking EYES out this is just BAD PORN this book is like 90% porn 10% no-plot

anyway as this autobiography goes on, lowen is like. holy shit. verity is cuckoo bananas. she is OBSESSED with jeremy. she does that patrick star thing of "what do you when i'm at work all day?" "wait for you to get back :(". she wants to be jezza's ONLY focus and resents her daughters for taking his focus away

like, she tries to plan out her pregnancy so that she'll gain as little weight as possible, but then she finds out they're twins and she's like omg im RUINED and tries to miscarry and abort them

after they're born, she has a premonition of her daughter harper killing her other daughter, chastin (the only daughter she likes, verity fucking hates her kids but randomly starts loving chastin). chastin does in fact die of anaphylactic shock when she's around 8 and verity blames harper

jeremy won't fuck verity because he's so sad about his daughter's death, and verity is not having this, but through some twisted logic she's like maybe he'll be all out of grief if another daughter dies! so she kills harper and stages it as a canoe accident

back to lowen, she's reading this autobiography at an absolute snail's pace (like 1 short chapter a day) while also living with Hot Dad Jeremy (she's into him, especially after reading all that Jeremy Porn), this is most of the book tbh . a series of weird things happen that convince her that verity is faking her disability

lowen is also 100% convinced that verity is PURE FUCKING EVIL from this autobiography

fast forward, jeremy and lowen hook up (surprised pikachu face)

and yes, verity was faking being disabled, where is her OSCAR for that METHOD ACTING that fooled the HOSPITAL the NURSES for MONTHS!!! she didnt even flinch when lowen tried to startle her by literally throwing something across the room. daniel day-lewis is SHAKING

lowen shows jeremy the autobiography and jeremy starts choking verity

lowen is like, stop! they'll know u did it! think of ur son, he'll be fatherless!

actually you should kill him by making her puke instead so they'll think she just aspirated on her own vomit ;)

so jeremy does that instead because that's totally the most sensible option to do in this particular scenario

7 month timeskip and all is great because EVIL verity is DEAD and now lowen and jeremy can be together forever and they even have a new baby on the way bcus jeremy came inside her no condom and apparently every woman in this book is insanely fertile and gets pregnant on the first try

TWIST TIME!!!

they go back to verity and jeremy's house to finish clearing out their stuff

but... lowen finds a note in verity's room...

verity claims that the autobiography was just a writing example to help her write from an antagonistic perspective (her thriller series is notably written from the villain's POV)

jeremy found the autobiography and tried to choke verity to death, but when that failed, he set up her car accident, after which verity decided she had to fake being disabled so she could run away with their living son crew and eventually explain everything

but this plan is an F bcus shes fuckin dead now isnt she

so much effort and for WHAT

the book leaves us with the fucking stupid dry ass cliché question of: WHICH WAS THE REAL VERITY? WHAT WERE THE LIES? WAS THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY REAL OR NOT? and actually i dont give a flying fuck i was just glad to be done

my thoughts

the characters in the book make the most ridiculous and nonsensical decisions and trust me i can say that for sure bcus i have never made a good decision in my life

in the opening chapters, lowen witnesses a car accident & is splattered with blood on the way to her publisher meeting

she encounters jeremy (tho she doesnt know who he is yet) and he takes her to the men's bathroom of a coffee shop to get cleaned up

lowen tAKES HER SHIRT OFF IN FRONT OF THIS ABSOLUTE STRANGER

i am trying to ignore this red flag maybe shes just confident

jeremy proceeds to lock the door to the men's bathroom so that no one else can come in, and lowen finds this comforting! how chivalrous of mr sexy man jeremy!

WHAT THE FUCK LOWEN? HOW IS THIS COMFORTING? I'D BE FUCKING. I'D BE PANICKING SO BAD I'D BE OUT THE DOOR

later in the book we find out that lowen has a chronic sleepwalking problem and can even open inside locks when she's sleepwalking

she broke her wrist sleepwalking when she was a kid so it's not really safe for her to be able to get out and about while sleepwalking

jeremy offers to install a lock on the outside of lowen's bedroom door, so that she can't leave her bedroom without him opening the outside lock for her

instead of finding this FUCKING TERRIFYING

she's Thrilled by his generosity! wow! isn;t jeremy so kind and thoughtful?

lowen! LOWEN!!! GIRL!!!!!!!!!

lucky for her jeremy is apparently a nice guy so jeremy's fucking weird actions are glossed over and theyre so nice arent they... haha...

dude i wanna know what the fuck jeremy has that women are literally OBSESSED with him. hes so bland. he has no personality. he's a cardboard cutout of a man but apparently he has good dick idk

lowen is so besotted with jeremy that she doesnt think it's bad that he tried to kill his wife twice and then succeeded on the third try

no! it's actually so sweet because it proves how much of a dedicated father he is! he thinks verity killed harper so by killing her he's just being such a good and protective dad haha! murder is okay

there was also just way too much sex in this book like i said it before but truly i cannot encapsulate how much of this book was sex. and in case u were wondering about the quality of the sex, 50 shades author EL james is in the acknowledgements of this book.

how are people giving this book 5 stars? it's fucking. it's laughably bad. the plot is so stupid. the characters are boring. no-one makes a single good decision. jeremy is white bread. it's like, really really bad. i really need to know if the straights giving this book 5 stars need help, therapy, or jesus. if u do, please blink SOS in morse code, i will come and get u.

everyone who has a superiority complex because they've never read a single CoHo book is correct . u guys are doing great

#rant review #anti colleen hoover #anti coho

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

Even though I'm aware that Alicent knows that Babey's babies are true-born and all that, I still want her to try and check their hair out of habit, ya get me? Like, Alicent would know that the kid's are Daemon's but she would still feel the urge to check because it's a) habitual at this point and she's used to tormenting women who have recently given birth and b) she's aware that their Daemon's but she's still holding onto an irrational hope that they'll have brown hair due to their miniscule Arryn blood and she can claim bastardy, because at this point Babey has a male heir and Alicent's left grasping at straws.

Babey nesting and worrying if her kid's would like her preparations for them is soooooooooo cute but also comedy-gold; like, dude, they don't know WTF is going on, all they care about is your tit-milk (well, Daemon cares about that too, lets be honest).

Will Babey feed her kids herself or get a wet-nursee? (Haha, wet. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))Babey is so sweet herself and I enjoyed the icky-vibes when Daemon mentioned he remembered how she looked as a new-born. Gosh darn, Aelys was a grumpy kid; my infant in fanfic, you've been born a princess, appreciate your privilege? Rich people, amirite? lol, jk,jk. Daemon is gonna be his daughter's slave I can already tell. 1000% obsessed. And Rhaenar is the quintessential mummy's-boy; nothing could convince me otherwise. Like Babey is going to dote on that kid. The first time he gets an injury in the training yard she will be HYSTERICAL and she'll kiss his boo-boo and everything.

Thanks for the new chapter!!!!

Aaaaaah, thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked!

For reasons, Alicent isn’t going to be seeing any of the babies Babey and Daemon have until we get to around Episode 8 timeline or equivalent (which I’ve ACTUALLY figured out is still about 9 years between Episodes 7 and 8, no idea where I got 5-6 years from; plenty of time for that brood to multiply hehe 😉). Mostly being that, without a GOOD few years for that burning rage to simmer down to a healthy resentment, Daemon would just kill her on sight, lol. But there will be no worries on the legitimacy front, haha - I imagine a collection of platinum-haired snotrags with Daemon’s nose or chin or sneer or penchant for saying “cunt!” just milling about, making it abundantly clear that there can only be one daddy in the mix, you know? Alicent will take one look at ‘em and be like “damn, they Daemon’s, alright!”

And yes, Babey being all nest-y was adorable, but the tit-milk is all that’s on those three’s mind right about now (I’m totally including Daemon in that, horny bastard). I’m thinking there might be a wet nurse hired to make sure the babies are getting enough milk, but Babey’s going to want to do the brunt of it, I believe! Aelys is opening THIS chapter as a grumpy-bum too, she has ‘tude and she does not give a fuck. Rhaenar is a sweet boi. And it is VERY tempting to go full-on Daddy’s Girl, Mummy’s Boy with them, but I am going to do my level best to balance it out as much as I can - they’re both their kids, you know? And I think there’s reasons for them to form a unique bond with each. But I’ll ABSOLUTELY be leaning into the Daemon-and-Aelys-Chaos-Twins-TM thing at intervals, because the idea of a toddler princess just wreaking havoc while the Rogue Prince strolls on by like “terribly sorry, we’re working on changing that behaviour with her lol” is TOO FUNNY to resist! Babey is going to be suuuuuper anxious as a mummy, lol - Daemon’s idea of teaching is drop ‘em in the water, they’ll either float or die.

Thank you so much for reading the latest chap!

#fanfiction comments

[jonquilyst]

246. Chapter 8, Episode 27

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate 💖

This is the last episode of Chapter 8!! The Runaway will be taking a break for a few weeks, since I need some time to plan Chapter 9 and (hopefully) rebuild a buffer. Thank you all for reading!!

Previous | Story Page | Next

Transcript:

(Pink text = Megyn)

(Orange text = Barry)

(Purple text = Robin)

*Several hours go by. Megyn and Eva spend time together in Eva's room while Barry (Eva's dad) prepares dinner*

Barry (to Robin while cooking): Do you think a teaspoon of garlic is enough?

Robin: Do whatever you want, hun. They'll eat it up.

*After the dinner is finished cooking, Eva and Megyn exit Eva's bedroom and enter the kitchen/dining area. Megyn glances over at Barry*

Barry: Megyn! It's so good to see you again. Heard you were having a little boy trouble, yes?

Megyn: You could say that... I just needed to get away for a bit.

Barry: Totally get it. That kind of stuff happens to most of us, but we're glad to help you in any way we can.

Barry: For now though, I made some grilled cheese for dinner. There's plenty for everyone, so feel free to take seconds.

Barry: Everything will be fine. You're right where you need to be. Let's take our minds off of the situation and tell us what you've been up to since you were last here, alright?

#sims 4 #sims 4 story #ts4 #ts4 story #simblr #sims story #sims blog #sims storytelling #The Runaway #Megyn Rodham #Eva Chu #Robin Chu #Barry Chu

[pebblysand]

i haven't done this in a while. i used to be very intent on getting these extended a/n-s over the line at the same time as the chapter, which then ended up taking too much time. however, having recently seen the lovely @whinlatter do them for her own fic (also whose template i'm entirely plagiarising, sorry), it's inspired me to do this again. forgive my lateness.

acknowledgements: i would like to extend my most sincere thanks to @turanga4, @welsh-green, @whinlatter, @btelling, @ala-baguette, @greenhousethree, @uncontainedhybrid and everyone else on discord. you have allowed me to vent about All The Things, to pretty much use all of you as sounding boards for this chapter, and have answered my strange questions about air conditioning and automatic vehicles. truly, this chapter would not have been possible without you.

wordcount: let's not talk about it.

soundtrack: i feel like there was a just lots of music for this chapter. there are obviously all of the songs that are mentioned in universe: my name is, californication, here with me, wannabe (oh, the music of the 90s) and the oh-so-amazing bongo bong song which, i have discovered, never actually charted in the US (a crime, as far as i'm concerned). but also a lot songs that i listened to on loop at different times while writing this. caravane and young as the morning, old as the sea (two absolutely gorgeous travel songs), iris (the first-dance song of every wedding ever before ed sheeran took over), the seer's tower - jamie cullum's cover (idk how to describe this song. the cover is so beautiful and creepy at the same time. it's one of my favourite jamie cullum covers), what they'll say about us (an incredibly sad but beautiful love song - idk it's just #vibes), it's called: freefall (a tiktok cover i actually fucking love - love the singer as well, she's the same person who sings labour - and which i totally plagiarised in-text), and what is love? (which i also plagiarised lol). they are all on the castles playlist.

what is this chapter about? sex. love. the intersection of.

this is long and spoilery, so putting it behind the cut.

genesis:

i've honestly rarely been scared by the white blank page as much as i was before starting to write this chapter. i think this was due to a number of things: taking three months off writing (and wondering if i'd be able to pull it off again - i always worry, for some reason), but also this idea that this chapter was such a big ... aeroplane that i needed to land. i remember talking about it on discord a few weeks back, this idea that i'd built up so much, with this story, that i'd set up so much, and now having to deliver something that would be realistic, true to the spirit of castles (#sexandfunerals), but also fun and loving and healing. whilst, as i've said before, this story isn't about a relationship (i know a lot of you would like it to be, but i'm sorry, this is not about harry and ginny), it is a relationship that is obviously important. to the plot, to the characters, to the picture of the post-war world i'm trying to build. to me, doing justice to that relationship is essential in order to also do justice to the other elements of the story (the politics, the friendships, the feminism, the rebuilding of life, really). i've always seen love and romance as a part of life, and therefore as a part of fiction. and, i think i just wanted to treat it with the reverence it deserves.

as a result, i quickly made the decision that this chapter was going to be "just" about harry and ginny. the reason for that is three-fold:

first, narratively speaking, i wanted chapter sixteen (and, no, the fact that 8x2=16 is not a coincidence) to be a direct response to chapter eight. they both intervene as the beginnings of a new act (act two for chap 8, act three for chap 16), and exist in a place that's kind of outside of the "normal" time and space continuum of the fic. chapter eight is technically set in january '99, but it's really set in... ginny's letters. reality almost fades in favour of ginny's words and tale, making the chapter feel like it's almost happening right there and then. the actual reality of what is going on as harry is reading the letters is almost non-existent. it's a bit the same with sixteen. sixteen is an interlude, away from "reality" (london, the politics, everything). and, that's what i wanted it to be. i wanted it to be both the exact same, but also the exact opposite of chapter eight. and, i obviously wanted it to deal with the events of chapter eight, but in a tender, healing way. i had a whole conversation about this with @celestemagnoliathewriter on the podcast where we discussed how, in my opinion, once you deal with these very sensitive issues (non-con, SA, rape, etc.) in a work, you sort of owe it to your reader, too, to show that journey and to show what consensual sex can look like, too. and that, to me, was also the way this chapter was framed as a response to chapter eight. i wanted it to be about sex - but in a positive way.

secondly (and, obviously, this is very self-serving) - harry and ginny aren't the main focus of this story. their relationship is part of it, but not all of it. as i've said above, this is #shippygen territory. therefore, i unfortunately can't spend All My Time on this. so, in a purely technical sense, it felt more "efficient" to me to spend an entire chapter dedicated to them, get most of the rebuilding and relationship admin "done" in one chapter so that i could move on to other things. this obviously does not mean that there will be no romance/relationship stuff in the other chapters moving forward (there's tonnes) but it means that i've laid the ground work, you know? and although this chapter is 22k (sorry) i think it would have taken me a lot more time and energy to lay that same groundwork efficiently, had i not dedicated an entire chapter to it.

lastly, i think there was also a bit of me that was like: i want to write romance. which i know is strange. most of you don't know me as a writer of romance, but i also am. before HP, my entire "trade" was basically shippy fics. i enjoy it, i find it fun, and so i wanted to write it.

(below, a few individual points i thought i could talk about, in no particular order)

the american roadtrip:

as explained above, when i started to think about what the rebuilding of H&G's relationship would look like (which obviously happens throughout act 2 but really materialises in this chapter) i came to this conclusion that i wanted to have this chapter be a little bit of an interlude "outside" of normal life. and, as i've also said this before, my favourite niche sub-genre of post-war fics are fics that include travel. i mean, what can i say? i'm a traveler, i love going places to explore. i'm on a plane at least once a month. and, i've always had a soft spot for stories where harry "fucks off" and goes travelling somewhere, with or without ginny, to heal. for the record, here is a selection of my favourites:

the grown up driver by pocketfullof ; venn diagrams of one circle by aceofdiamonds ; warm front by flagpoles ; maps to the stars' homes by lizbee ; beauty lays behind the hills by meliebee

and so, obviously, when it was time to create this chapter in my head, the idea of a road trip came very naturally to me. i was like: i need them to focus on "them", i need them away... let's take them away, you know? i'd always sort of dreamed of writing one of those travel fics, and so it was so, so nice to realise that castles itself was going to give me the opportunity to do that. super self-indulgent, but oh, so enjoyable. it came at the cost of a little "suspension of disbelief" (sure, they're going to drive a car even though they can apparate ; sure, harry can just fuck off from his job for two months ; and sure, the fact that Quidditch season starts just at the end of september when i need it to is a total coincidence lol) but you know, who cares? i hope you did suspend your disbelief, lol.

now, on the choice of the US: i feel like the US is obviously the quintessential "road trip" destination, but i did consider others. i also toyed with australia for a while, south africa, canada and argentina. i ended up ruling out the first three pretty quickly because a) i've never been to australia or south africa and b) i have been to canada but never driven there. as you now know from our research episode on the podcast, anything that requires me to do extensive amounts of research is an automatic no (lol), so. the only one that really held some ground against the US was argentina because i love the country so much, we did drive around quite a lot when i was there, and i felt like there was a lot of potential for magical worldbuilding. but my issue was a) i went to argentina in early 2020 so i felt like the country was probably very different from what it would have looked like in 98 (coming back to our #idontwannadoresearch issue) and b) i would have kind of needed to change the timing of the trip if i wanted them to go in summer. i really considered this, i felt like there wouldn't be that much difference in having them go away over christmas rather than july/august/sep, and i feel like flying over Mount Fitz Roy or Perito Moreno rather than the Grand Canyon would have been equally spectacular, so the research part was really what did it for me in the end. i've just been to the US so much. i lived there for a year. i also have a lot of friends there who i can ask stuff to about the late 90s if i need to. it was just... easier. H&G will go to argentina for their twentieth anniversary or something lol.

now this being said, dearest americans, i hope you forgive me for... roasting your country a bit? in good spirit, i promise. i love the US. the US is just... funny, you know? what's with the aircon everywhere? and omg the state of your roads. buffalo is a shithole, i will not apologise for that, i have been there too many times. it was just so much fun to write this from harry and ginny's perspective, build in some little quirks they would have noticed. the trelawney bean joke. that and the line "This is the late 90s - there’s still something sort of “aspirational” about it." will never not make me laugh. what the fuck is happening to this country right now? do you need a hug? it was also fun to wonder what magical life would look like there. i think what i built is very inspired by what i could find on pottermore, although i did sort of pick and choose what i liked. and also fuck, the grand canyon is literally the most beautiful place on earth.

lastly, sorry to all of the areas i didn't mention. i initially wanted to get them to loop around but of their own accord, they decided to go at a really slow pace so i decided to scratch the north west and the south east. i really wanted them to drive down the coast from seattle to LA, but alas. they'll come back later, i promise lol.

harry and ginny:

i think, honestly, all i have to say about them is in the chapter (and, if it's not, it'll surely be in my asks, lol). my babies. i think what i really wanted this chapter to be was like: them, talking. face to face, not through letters. just existing together. joking around. confessing things. arguing, sometimes (as we all probably must). in light of the many comments i've received over the last 48 hours (for which i cannot thank you enough), it seems that that was achieved. obviously, castles is also very much about sex and so i wanted this chapter to be about them rebuilding that, too. harry has this strange mental block, of course, which is him being terrified of basically being "like" Amycus and forcing her into something she doesn't want and also fearing that she actually doesn't want them to be together. it's hard to believe someone who's lied to you in the past, regardless of their reasons. it's hard to be told "yes, you did make me think of him" and build past that. i also really want this to be a callback to last summer where, as harry says himself:

Last summer, everything was difficult but the sex was always the one thing that worked, between them, and now everything is better but every time his hands are on her skin, he freezes. He wants to slam the car into a tree like that will shock him into living.

i wanted this chapter to not only show the struggles, but them actually working through the struggles. communicating. and, i don't know if you've noticed, every time they do "argue," they sort of get better at it. at first, they have this fight about bodycount (see below for more on that) where neither of them is actually a) talking about what they're really talking about, b) saying what they want to say and c) talking about what they should be talking about. then, slowly, carefully, they communicate better and better to the point that when they "fight" inside the car before grand canyon, it's not really a "fight" and more of a reflection on how to solve a very practical problem.

@gardenroses1 said something in her comment this morning which really intrigued me and is something i genuinely didn't plan for or notice: every time H&G fight, they do it following some sort of "external" intervention. either the press (prior to the bodycount fight) or the millers family (prior to the "i want to believe you" fight). it's true, was totally unintentional, but also feels super interesting and goes to what i felt in my gut prior to this chapter: that they needed to go away to truly focus on rebuilding this. again, i feel like their foundations are strong enough, now, that when the outside world attacks them again, they will know how to respond better. but, i thought this was a very good point to note!

the line:

He wonders if girls just get better at reading people because their lives depend on it. 

this was quoted back to me a few times in my comments and so i thought i should maybe talk about it a bit. or at least, acknowledge it. i actually don't particularly like that line, i tried many times to phrase it better, gave up and almost deleted it, verifying once again this strange phenomenon that @btelling and i have recently identified where, whenever we seem to think like a line is too on the nose and almost delete it, it becomes the line that everyone loves, lol.

i mean, this reflects what it says on the tin, right? if castles is one thing, it's the place for me to push my feminist agenda (lol) so there you go. smashing the patriarchy one line at a time.

on "bodycount":

if you were following this tumblr last summer, you will remember this: i used to get a lot of asks about ginny's sex life. stuff like: wouldn't harry be mocked because ginny slept around? and: wouldn't harry feel insecure about ginny sleeping around? and even once: what's ginny's bodycount? (if you don't believe me, look through here). often (though not always) these were formulated quite rudely (which actually led me to implement the politeness policy) and i must admit, i wasn't always super nice, myself, answering these. i think they just sort of puzzled me. given the themes of this fic, i tend to think of my audience as liberal, feminist women in their 20s & 30s, which made it all the more shocking to get questions from people who were clearly not part of that demographic. the way the concept of "loose women" and "bodycount" is inherently tied with the control of women's sexuality by the patriarchy should be news to no one, reading this. and, i mean, on the one hand, sure, these were legit questions given the society we live in, but not ones i would necessarily expect to be asked, you know? i think especially the bodycount one really surprised me.

the first iteration of this chapter included the whole issue of sex (i.e. harry not wanting to "force" her, etc.) but the bodycount talk was actually a later addition. i don't know where it came from. i remember i was actually writing a whole bunch of conversations that were to occur before the road trip (and ended up being moved around into the road trip for the most part) and harry and ginny just started ... talking about it. it was very sweet and cute and him basically telling her he didn't care. i kind of liked it and sent it to @btelling as a sort of "look what my anons make me write" thing but then i was like: wait a minute, i think there's potential for more here. i remembered there was this idea that stemmed from the anons i was getting that was like: harry will be insecure about her sleeping around and i was like: i mean, maybe, but what about her though? because for a girl who's barely 18 and still probably very much affected by patriarchal ideas, having been through what she's been through, it's like: well, what is he going to think about me, right? and, she kind of asks him what he thinks in chapter 14 and he's like a) telling her he doesn't care/mind and b) that he is a bit insecure, too, which i think alleviates her concerns a bit until, well, he doesn't seem to want to sleep with her, right? and she's like: wait, were you lying? and, i think for ginny as well, she sort of wants it to be about that because if it's not that, it's the fact that she "slept" with amycus that's putting him off, which is much more serious and traumatic for her.

as i said above, i loved writing that fight in the hotel room. i realised that the cute and sweet conversation i has originally written could be turned into an argument very easily by just changing the tone, which definitely was a good sign. and having harry snap: i didn't ask the next day was so enjoyable. he thinks he's saying the right thing by saying he doesn't care, but that's not what she wants to hear. she wants him to care, because for her it's a part of her that isn't "perfect" and she wants him to know about it and accept it, rather than ignore it. and getting to resolve that misunderstanding was just so satisfying.

lastly, i've had comments telling me 28 wasn't a lot. she's barely 18. this happened over the span of 3 months-ish. i don't care if it's a lot or not a lot and the fact that people have an opinion about that is just fucking gross.

ah, the patriarchy 🙄.

miscellaneous:

you have @btelling and @turanga4 to thank for the fact that i kept R&H's wedding. this chapter was so long, i genuinely considered deleting the first 5k. i also considered doing two chapters (one for the wedding and one for the road trip) but those would have been annoyingly uneven. i hope you enjoyed lol.

the flight over grand canyon was almost a flight over the Great Lakes. initially, it was grand canyon. then, that felt like too much time as i was going north then south so i changed it and decided to have them sleep together right after the upper peninsula (which, by the way, not making the trip upstate when i lived in michigan is my biggest regret - this was just me getting to go there by proxy). but then, when i got to that point, idk, it didn't ... work? and, when i'd made the change, although the great lakes region is gorgeous, i was super upset to not get the grand canyon sights, so i changed it back. i think it was just better in terms of scenery and timing in the end.

speaking of the grand canyon.... i used chatGPT to describe it LOL. or, at least get inspo on how to describe it. as we know, i'm not very visual so while i have been there, it's always difficult for me to describe the grandiosity of something. so i prompted chatGPT to describe the grand canyon at night to me in a "romantic" way and TA-DA. honestly, i only took a couple of sentences from the few paragraphs it gave me, but it was just good to get the juices going. i thought i'd mention it cause i don't think all AI is evil.

if you've listened to the podcast episode on romance, you'll notice a few references to the ep (When he opens his eyes again, their palms let go of each other and they stumble, landing inside their motel room. A rough transition between the grandiose and the mundane, and a bed that protests loudly whenever they move, and carpet that reeks like centuries-old cigarettes.) i was editing the ep whilst editing castles so i thought it was fun to play with the discussion @copper-dust and i had had a little bit.

i think H&G will go on one annual trip per year now. just somewhere. they deserve it lol.

aaand, that's it for me. this was way longer than i thought it would be lol.

if you have any questions, let me know ❤️

#castles #chapter 16

[rosie-b]

20 questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for tagging me @aidanchaser! 🩷

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

27 fics.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

201,097! (Wow, the last time I checked it was closer to 100k lol)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only Miraculous Ladybug so far!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

From most to least kudos, they are:

1. "Camembert" and Other Magic Words 2. Stealing Freedom 3. A Catching Sickness 4. Married in Black (know that she loves you back 5. A Blessed Curse

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

I try to respond to every comment I get, though I'm slow in my responses sometimes. I value getting comments, so responding to them is a way I show my gratitude!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write angsty endings; I've never really liked them! That said, home is where the fight is leaves our heroes in a pretty precarious situation, though it's implied that they'll win in the end.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

*stares at my wall of HEA fics and asks them to answer for me*

The Overheating of Adrien's Brain, maybe? Adrien's pretty happy in that one!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never gotten any serious hate, no. A couple of demanding fans and people who forgot to read the tags, but beyond that, nothing! (May it stay like that forever 🙏)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope! I don't read or write smut. It makes me uncomfortable, but it's fine for others to enjoy, of course!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't write crossovers; my brainrot is caused purely by Miraculous Ladybug, so there's no need! I enjoy reading other people's crossovers occasionally though.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of! I don't think any of mine have ever gotten popular enough for that lol

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! But it would be cool if it happened someday.

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

No, honestly I don't know how that function even works on AO3.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

The lovesquare! I've been a fan of many media and ships that could have dragged me into fandom, but none of them were powerful enough until I came across Miraculous Ladybug. I went from 0 to 100 pretty fast after that lol

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Growing Fangs. (But I will finish it someday!!!!) I have so much lore for it in my head but it's so hard to connect to the published chapters, which are set a decade before the actual plot. Why I did this to myself I will never know!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've gotten compliments on my dialogue, characterization, and overall writing style, which is nice!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Imagery my beloathed!! I don't quite have aphantasia, but it's hard for me to picture stuff in my head, so trying to write good descriptions is always a challenge for me. The words are words all right, but do they form a picture in someone's head? I can never tell.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think as long as it feels natural and has a translation in the notes or at the end of the fic, it's fine!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Miraculous Ladybug! My first true obssession 🥰

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

All of them?

I have a lot of fun writing my crack fics, like Erinnerungn't and A Catching Sickness. I also really enjoyed writing "Camembert" and Other Magic Words and A Blessed Curse, and puzzling out True Blue's plot has been a lot of fun!

Thanks again for the tag! 💕

I will no-pressure tag @mostmagical @lady-de-mon-coeur @miabrown007 @wackus-bonkus-maximus and @coffeebanana!

#tag game #rosie-b writing

[phantom-of-the-501st]

Episode 8 Thoughts on That Scene

Spoilers for TBB

I just wanna touch on something from this episode that touches on some things I've seen people say that I don't necessarily agree with.

(This is not me hating on their opinions btw, I just have different thoughts).

Up until this point, I've seen a few people saying that the only reason Echo stayed with the Batch this long was because of Omega. Now don't get me wrong, it's definitely a massive part of that decision, but I don't agree with the idea that it's the only reason.

I think something we all need to understand is that Echo's choice to join Rex isn't an easy one, just like the choice to join the Batch wasn't. Echo deeply cares about all of his brothers and it took a lot for him to make the choice to walk away from that. I think a good example of this is at the beginning of the episode when Echo says that without the Batch he would still be trapped on Skako Minor. He looks over at them at this point and I think part of it is him thinking about just how much he owes these people. They saved his life. He can't just leave them behind when they have helped him so much.

And I don't want to make it sound like Echo only stayed out of guilt. Like I said earlier, he still cares about his brothers. But it definitely played a hand in his decision. There's probably a part of him that feels bad about leaving, but ultimately he has to make the decision that is best for himself.

And I also think that that's an interesting thing for Echo. He has always been about helping other people, and yes, his decision to join Rex is heavily based on the fact that he wants to help others, but this decision is also for him. It's where he feels like he needs to be.

And clearly he's spoken to the Batch about this as well. He didn't just drop it on all of them last minute. At some point he told them he was going to stay with Rex and they were all supportive of that. They understand that this is what Echo needs in the same way they understood his need to leave the 501st. I think leaving becomes slightly easier for Echo when he knows that the guys don't resent him for it. He has their support and that makes it easier because they don't make it seem like he owes them for anything. I think it's also why Echo left the 501st in the first place. Because Rex let him know that he respected his decision. It's that support that takes out the guilt element. He knows that his brothers will respect his choice.

And back to the point that I touched on at the beginning, it isn't an easy decision. He doesn't want to leave his brothers behind but it's a case of doing what he believes is best. It's evident in his facial expressions that he's going to miss them. He will always be there for his brothers when he needs them and he will always love them.

Something that stood out to me was when he said "it was where I was needed" in response to Omega asking why he stayed with the Batch. Was. Past tense. Echo goes where he believes he needs to go. Does this mean he thinks he doesn't have a place with the squad anymore? No. He even tells Omega he'll be back. But there are other people who need him right now. That chapter of his life is closed but he will return. As much as it hurts, I totally respect Echo's decision to stay with Rex and so do the Batch. He loves his brother's deeply but right now their goals don't overlap. They'll meet again when the time is right.

I am slightly intrigued by what Hunter said though. "Remember what I said." At first I thought this might be something to do with a conversation that he had with Echo that we didn't see, and that may still be the case. But I saw someone on Twitter (I'm sorry, I don't remember who it was) comparing that scene to TCW season 7. "If you feel like you don't fit in with them, find us." I don't know if that's the line Hunter was referring to, but it's possible? Echo made the choice to stay with Rex because that feels like the place where he belongs right now. But Hunter's letting him know that if he gets to the point where he feels like that isn't the right place for him anymore, he can always come back to the squad.

Now I don't know if that is what he's talking about, or if he did say something else to Echo, but I think it's another thing that has made Echo feel more comfortable with that decision. He hasn't lost his connection to the Batch. They will always be willing to let him back. They won't hate him for the choice he made.

Echo is still their brother.

And ultimately that's the little push Echo needed. He stayed with them because he cares about Omega. He stayed with them because he cares about his brothers. He stayed with them because that was where his place was.

But as soon as that changed, he felt a level of guilt about considering leaving. He didn't want to just walk away when he owes them so much. But the moment they reassure him that they respect his choice, that's when he goes. Because they don't hate him. They never will. He's their brother and they want what's best for him in the same way he wants what's best for them. And when he feels the time is right to return, they'll welcome him back with open arms.

Ultimately, Echo's decision is a complex one. It was never just as simple as staying for Omega. He wanted to stay for all of them.

But right now, this is the right choice for Echo.

[Wow, these posts always end up longer than I plan. Did it get repetitive in places? I'm not sure but I have a lot of thoughts and feelings I want to get down. Some things have sat with me for a while, some came to me while I was writing this but yeah, I hope I got my point across.]

#it's the right decision #doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like a bitch though 😭 #star wars #the bad batch season 2 spoilers #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch #echo #arc trooper echo #ct 1409 #tbb echo

[lamaenthel]

Tivaevae | Chapter Nine: The Needle

Still struggling to emotionally recover from Master Obi-Wan's deception, Ahsoka discovers in the aftermath that twelve-year-old Boba Fett has been locked up among adults in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. After convincing Chancellor Palpatine to grant him a pardon, she manages to secure his release on the condition that she serve as his legal guardian. Now, with the help of Master Plo and the Wolfpack, she vows to help him track down what family he has left.

| AO3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |

Fandom: Star Wars Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Plo Koon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Kanan Jarrus, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CC-1119 | Appo, Dexter Jettster, FLO | WA-7 (Star Wars), Shaak Ti, ARC Commander Blitz (Star Wars), CT-6922 | Dogma, Original Clone Trooper Character(s) (Star Wars), CC-3636 | Wolffe, Clone Trooper Sinker (Star Wars), Clone Trooper Comet (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody, CT-5597 | Jesse, CT-4860 | Boost, Aurra Sing, Tobias Beckett, Null-11 | Ordo Skirata, Kal Skirata, Original Mandalorian Characters (Star Wars), Original Droid Characters (Star Wars), Original Jedi Character(s) (Star Wars) Total Word Count: 123,000 Chapter Word Count: 8,690 Chapter Summary: Boba and Ahsoka come home, Rex and Cody have a discussion about what to do regarding Ahsoka, and Ahsoka discovers a traitor in the barracks.

Boba gave the turbolaser cannons one last, wistful look. "Shame we didn't get to actually use them."

Ahsoka helped hoist Boba's rucksack up onto his shoulders. He hoped the twenty kilos of beskar plates didn't yank him backwards once she let go. "Use what?" she asked.

"The cannons. You should have let me shoot the weather matrix." Boba squeaked once Ahsoka let go of her share of the weight. He adjusted the ruck and rolled his shoulders.

Ahsoka snickered. "I'm pretty sure we're in enough trouble as is for threatening to do it."

"I thought Koon smoothed it over with the Council," Boba said, trying not to wheeze. Beskar was fucking heavy.

"He gave his report to Master Windu." Ahsoka made a face. "I received… several messages about it from my Master. We'll see."

"Have we remembered everything?" Plo asked them as they joined him in the airlock.

Ahsoka shrugged. "I couldn't find the robes that I wore on Geonosis anywhere."

"I have them. I will repair the sleeve for you tonight." Plo lowered the docking ramp. "I must report back to the Temple, and I have some business to attend to first, but I will have it done by morning."

"What kind of business?" Boba asked before he could stop himself.

"Jedi business." Plo patted him on the head.

"If you're too busy I can ask Master Kenobi to fix it. His stitchwork is a lot neater than mine or Anakin's." Ahsoka said it casually and picked at her cuticles.

Boba raised an eyebrow and resisted the urge to remind her that she wasn't talking to the old fart.

"That is an excellent idea." Plo's face crinkled up in a smile. He fished out the bundle of her ruined robes from his satchel and handed them over.

She tucked them into her own bag. "See you in the morning, then?" She hugged Master Plo goodbye.

"Bright and early." Plo squeezed her one last time, then winked at Boba. "Remember, young man, no burning the barracks down."

Boba rolled his eyes. "Whatever." Robert's head stuck out from under his arm and the tooka doll was being strangled in the zipped-up top of his rucksack. "Where is everyone?" he asked, looking around after Plo had reboarded The Babasta.

"Well–" Ahsoka checked her chrono. "It's just after 1900. They'll have all headed out to the bars by now. This place is dead when they've got any sort of shore leave, they like to milk it." She guided him towards the interior. "Let's lock up the beskar'gam in Rex's office, then we can head out and grab some food."

"In your jammies?" Boba asked, eyeing the red linen sleeping robe she wore like a tunic over her gray leggings. With long sleeves and a tie enclosure at the waist, it looked more or less like the same Jedi osik she had started the trip wearing, but thinner and a lot shorter.

"Everything's covered up," she replied. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"You got your own ride?" Boba asked stiffly, readjusting the heavy strap.

"My Master messaged a few minutes ago to say that he'll be here as soon as his strategy meeting is over with." She pushed him forward a little when he tilted backwards on the short ramp leading to the interior. "How's Biscuit Baron sound?"

"Sweet," Boba squeaked. He staggered down the hall and did his best impression of a human that didn't need oxygen. Ahsoka patiently guided him towards Tiarek's office, unlocked the door, and flicked on the lights.

"We'll close it up in the locker," Ahsoka said, helping slide the sack from his shoulders. Boba held his composure for a few more seconds before he let out a long, shuddering breath, dropped his shebs on Tiarek's rack, then gave up the fight and started panting from the exertion.

Ahsoka snickered and secured the locker after entering in the twenty-digit passcode and dropping the bag inside. "Do you think someone will steal them?" Boba panted.

She scrunched her nose up in amusement. "Nobody would steal them, but the odds of someone borrowing them to take a few holopics in is pretty high." She pinged something on her commlink. "Oh, good, Rex is still here. Let's go say hi."

Boba's anxiety returned and hit him like a speederbus. He never should have shown her the holopics, he knew that, but it just… it had felt like the right thing to do, and Dad had taught him to never ignore his gut when it spoke that strongly to him.

"What's the matter?" she asked, frowning.

"Are you going to tell him what I said?" Boba asked, nervously fidgeting with Robert's claws.

"I planned on talking about it with him, yes." Her eyes darted around his head for a few seconds, like she was tracking an insect, then she took a seat next to him. "Why does that make you nervous?" she asked gently.

"Every time I try, he argues with me over it. He was so sure that it never happened that he even had me doubting it." Boba sighed. "I don't know. Maybe you should just leave it alone."

"Is that what you want, or are you afraid of what might happen if I do?" she asked softly.

"Fuck, I don't know. I never should have said anything, I just…" Boba trailed off miserably.

"You just want your brother back," Ahsoka finished for him. "That's why you were so upset about the lockbox going missing, right?"

Boba nodded. "Maybe the holopics will be enough." He doubted it. Tiarek would find some way to rationalize it, or just flat out deny that it was him. If he had the art they made, or the journal that Mama had left behind, maybe he would have at least accepted it instead of flat denying everything. "I just wish it never happened. That there was just some Force osik that could undo it."

"Tell me about it." Ahsoka said wryly. "Unfortunately, that's not how the Force works. I wish it did, trust me. I know what it's like to wish that you could just go back to before the bad thing happened, but you can't. You just have to keep going forward and not look back." She went misty eyed and distant for a few moments, then she bumped his shoulder and smiled. "If it eases your mind, I'm not going to bring it up to Rex just yet. He deserves to know, but I need to meditate about it before I can make the decision on how to approach it with him." Her stomach growled loudly. "And maybe eat a nerfburger or six," she added with a snicker, and he huffed a little laugh in return. "It looks like Rex is in the officer's lounge. You remember where that is, right?"

Boba scooted forward off of the mattress with Robert under his arm and scowled, repeating yourememberwherethatis? in a whiny voice under his breath.

Her face went oddly vacant for a second and she clapped a hand over the back of her neck.

"What?" Boba asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just a chill," she assured him, then put him in a headlock.

"Oi!" Boba squawked.

"Come on, Bo'ika, race you to the turbo-lift," Ahsoka teased, dragging him out into the hall. "And no throwing elbows this time."

Boba twisted out of her loose grip. "You need a head start?" he asked innocently, eyeing the hallway for obstacles. If he was going to beat her and her long fucking legs, he was going to need an advantage.

"Do you?" Ahsoka taunted back. She backed up to the end of the hallway and crouched down into a starting squat, planting her heel against the wall. "Ready?"

Boba mimicked her, smirking. "On three?"

"One," she began, tilting her rump towards the ceiling.

"Two." Boba grinned fiercely and vibrated with anticipation.

"Three!" They both shoved off the wall and sprinted towards the turbo-lift. A shiny happened to wander out of the first-floor fresher at the exactly the wrong moment… for Ahsoka, at least. Boba hip-checked her towards the trooper and ran for it, cackling like a po'ackster.

"Boba!" Ahsoka shrieked. He heard a kerfuffle and a frantic apology, then he tripped over his own feet as she scampered past him on all fours like a giant orange tooka. He landed hard and slid a few feet, wheezing with laughter.

Ahsoka reached the elevator first and spun on her heels, spread her legs out like a spider, then started skittering back towards Boba.

"Oh, fuck off!" he shrieked, laughing hysterically. He tried to push up to his feet and run but didn't make it before Ahsoka reached him and started tickling him, laughing devilishly.

"N-n-n-n-" Boba gasped, still laughing but not because it was funny. He hated being tickled. Ordo used to pin him down and do it until he would struggle for air or wet himself, whatever happened first. Ahsoka immediately stopped and backed away so he could breathe.

"You good, vod'ika?" she asked, tilting her head.

Boba nodded after a few seconds and caught his breath.

"Come on." Ahsoka grabbed his hands and dragged him on his back to the turbo-lift. She spared a glance for the shiny still at the end of the hall, frozen at their antics. "Welcome to the 501st!" she called to him with a wave, then summoned Robert to her hand and closed the doors with a mad giggle.

Rex leaned back and looked at the black line he'd just poked into Cody's skin with a critical eye.

"You fucked it up, didn't you?" Cody drawled, his voice muffled from being face-down on the sofa.

"I never fuck it up, shabuir." Rex flicked his brother's ear and started the second run on the angular sunburst he was forever adding to on Cody's back. He was going to run out of room soon; he was already out to Cody's shoulders and the vain little baby didn't want him poking his shebs like he would with a proper Mando sal'gam.

"I'm surprised you let the boys out tonight, given that you're shipping out tomorrow."

"We don't leave until midday." Rex dipped his needle into the pot of black ink and adjusted his knees on the ground next to Cody.

"Still."

"If they're still hungover by the time we get to Goran then that's on them." Rex wiped away excess ink and kept poking. He'd come a long way from hiding in Cody's tube at night with steel filaments and ink balls stolen from the practice range, both of them practicing patterns that they'd seen on their Mandalorian trainers on each other until late into the night.

Cody chuckled. "What're you going to do with Boba?"

Rex shrugged. "That's up to Ahsoka. She's his guardian."

"Speaking of which…" Cody glanced at Rex and waited for him to say something, and when he didn't he let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't like sitting on this, vod'ika."

"I believe Skywalker," Rex said firmly. He had to. He couldn't go into battle beside a man he didn't trust, so he had made his decision and would stick with it until it bit him in the shebs and everything went to hell.

"So do I. The di'kut doesn't know his own strength, it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be reported," Cody retorted.

"If Ahsoka wanted it reported then nothing could stop her from shutting up about it, we both know that." Rex wiped more ink away. "I'm going to have a chat with her about it when she gets back and we'll go from there."

"So she can convince you to let Skywalker off the hook?" Cody asked sharply. "Even if it was unquestionably an accident, that doesn't mean it should be swept under the rug and you know it."

"I'm not going to throw my general to the shabla akul because his hand malfunctioned!" Rex exclaimed. "Since the kid is the one who this affects, the kid is who decides what happens next, 'lek? You already gave your word."

"Ugh." Cody buried his glaring face in his folded elbow. "Shabla dalgaan."

"Ni cuy shabla dalgaan?" Rex raised an eyebrow and pointed to his chest, offended. "Ni salgorani gar shabla shebs bal ni cuy shabla dalgaan? Ke'haa'tayli at troan'tay, ori'vod."

"Gar ne'salgorani ner shebs, vod'ika, bal meh bev tigaanur ner shebs ni ven'shuku gar cere."

Rex rolled his eyes and continued poking. "Then you'd have to get Bly to do this," he reminded his brother. "And after what you did to his cheeks, I don't think it'll look half as nice as how I do it."

"I gave him what he wanted," Cody said into his elbow.

"I can't believe you did that to your own batchmate." Rex wiped his line and gathered more ink.

"I gave him exactly what he asked for, bev'kovid!" Cody exclaimed, offended.

"As his vod it was your job to talk him out of two giant shabla golden tickets on his cheeks, Codes!" Rex said loudly. "Jesse wanted his cog dead center and I ignored him and did it on the side so he didn't look like a di'kut."

"Ke'pirimpir gaht tay'briik," Cody scoffed.

"Nayc gar." Rex poked his brother's ass cheek with the dull end of the needle and snickered evilly as he jumped and yelped, looking at his shebs with paranoid eyes.

"Little shit," Cody sniffed and laid back down. "You want me to do yours after this?"

"Might as well while we've got the time." Rex finished off the last diamond, completing the diamond-dash dadita spelling of Ponds along the underside of a sun ray. "Ni suc'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc," he said quietly, wiping away the last of the ink.

"Ni partayli, gar darasuum," Cody finished. "Ponds."

"Ponds." Rex lifted his beer from the floor and took a sip. "Now," he said, carefully placing the bottle on the floor where he wouldn't knock it over, "I can squeeze either Waxer or Apex in before I get to the edge, or you can man up and let me start a new one on your–"

"Stop!" Cody whined, smacking the hand with the needle in it away from his shebs.

"Stubborn chakaar," Rex snickered under his breath.

There was a gasp from the doorway. "Language, Captain!" Ahsoka said, pressing a dramatic hand to her heart. She was dressed in her short red sleeping robe instead of her normal Jedi robes and had Boba right behind her, his oversized rancor plushie tucked tight under one arm.

Rex put his needle down with a grin and opened his arms. Boba crossed the room in two strides and wrapped his arms around Rex's neck. "Su cuy'gar," he murmured in Boba's ear, and got to his feet still holding him. "Well done, Boba. Very well done."

Boba's cheek warmed up where it pressed against his own. "Your vod'ika is insane," he mumbled back.

"I could have told you that," Rex chuckled, meeting Ahsoka's big blue eyes. "Should have warned you about it, actually."

"Rude," Ahsoka said with a smile. She leaned down to touch foreheads with Cody. "Are we good, vod?" she asked him quietly.

Cody's face softened. "Of course we are, Os'ika," he reassured her, using her to pull himself to his seat.

Rex threw him a questioning look over Boba's head, and Cody meaningfully looked at her arm.

"Alright, enough of this mushy shit," Boba mumbled, pushing away to look at Cody. "Let me see your sal'gam."

Cody snickered and released Ahsoka, who immediately walked into Rex's arms for her own hug.

"Hi, vod'ika," Rex said fondly.

"Ori'vod," Ahsoka said back, purring happily.

"Heard you ran into some trouble on Geonosis," Rex said. He rubbed the root of her rear lek and made her purr rev up like a luxury speeder engine.

"Yeah, we–" she went stiff in his arms and leaned back, her eyes narrow and suspicious. A muscle in her jaw twitched.

Rex raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"There's something on your face," she mumbled after a few seconds of consternated silence. Her lek thumped with an irritated thwack! against her back, stripes so dark that they looked nearly black even in fluorescent lighting.

Rex swiped at his cheek, confused. "Should I go wash?" he asked, bewildered. Had he rubbed against something in the market that she didn't like? Was it that tooka that had tried to come home with him and Skywalker, or maybe some of that soup was–

Ahsoka yanked his head down and buried her nose in the meat of his cheek. She snuffled him like a hound trying to catch a scent then growled, sounding eerily like Grizzer when someone got too close to his slop bowl, with a primal undertone that sent his hair standing straight up.

"Littl'un?" Rex asked faintly. Behind her, Boba and Cody exchanged confused looks.

"Come here," Ahsoka said darkly, then started furiously rubbing her soft lek against his cheek.

"Easy kid, easy," he chuckled, holding her back a little so she didn't knock him over.

"Hold still," she snapped, still bunting her head all over him and purring like a territorial tooka.

Rex barely restrained himself from giggling when she migrated to a ticklish spot on his neck. "What's got you in a mood?"

Ahsoka growled instead of answering and moved onto his right cheek.

"Alright, alright, that's enough." He gently pushed her away from his head after a few more seconds of rubbing. She crossed her arms and pouted. "Hey," he said, chuffing her under her chin. "We need to have a talk, you and I."

Her eyes shot up and lost their attitude. "About what?" she asked warily.

Rex reached out and gently squeezed her left bicep, watching her closely for a reaction.

"Oh." She took a deep, huffy breath and turned accusing eyes on Cody.

Cody met them unapologetically and finished his beer without blinking.

"Step out with me." Rex pulled her gently towards the door and closed it for the illusion of privacy, knowing full well that Boba and Cody were already pressed up against the vent.

"Listen, I don't know what Cody told you–" she began.

"He told me something different than what the General said,'' Rex cut her off, fixing her with his best stern ori'vod look. "I'll give you a chance to tell me your side of all of this, then we'll go from there."

Ahsoka's lips thinned. "I could just order you to drop it, you know," she grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Don't you dare." Rex mirrored her.

She heaved a deep sigh. "It was an accident. His mech–" she shivered and clapped her hand over the back of her neck, looking around with a frown.

Rex narrowed his eyes. "Don't try to get out of answering with some made-up Force nonsense right now, vod'ika."

"I'm not," she replied, annoyed. Her rear lek thumped again. "I sensed something for the first time in your office. I just felt it again. It's like I'm being watched."

Rex frowned. "Klem, come in," he said into his commlink.

"Yes, Captain?" the gate guard replied immediately.

"Anyone come into the barracks tonight that wasn't a clone?"

"Just Commander Tano and the runt, Sir. General Koon was here for a few moments but left right away."

Ahsoka rubbed her arms like she was cold. "Something's not right," she said, looking at the door to the officer's lounge worriedly.

"Don't let anyone in or out other than troopers," Rex ordered Klem, then closed the channel. His eyes locked onto a trooper at the end of the hall. "Private!" he barked.

The trooper stopped short and stood at attention. Rex jerked his head for him to approach.

"Have you seen anyone enter the barracks in the last few hours that wasn't a clone?" Rex asked once the shiny was close.

"No, Sir!" The trooper clicked his heels together.

Rex nodded. "Keep an eye on the entr–"

"What's your name, Private?" Ahsoka interrupted.

"Falin, Ma'am," he immediately responded.

Ahsoka's hand shot up to her neck again. "Bucket off, Falin," she ordered.

Falin's visor turned to Rex, who narrowed his eyes; didn't he know who he was talking to? "As Commander Tano ordered, Private Falin," Rex reiterated, crossing his arms.

"Yes, Sir." The clone reached up to his helmet with his left hand, slowly, then his right darted to his holster and drew in Ahsoka's direction. Rex immediately shoved her to the side and took the bolt directly to his unarmed chest–

Ahsoka caught Rex before he hit the ground, instantly out cold from the blue stunner bolt. She gently lowered him and kept his head from hitting the tile. "Cody, k'akaan'jori!" she bellowed, taking off in a sprint. The shiny was already at the end of the hall, halfway through the emergency staircase door.

Ahsoka felt her brain slow down and speed up at the same time, blocking out any stimulus other than her prey. She locked on to his naturally red aura like a beacon, tracking him through the floors with a hunter's focus, even as he got out of what her normal range of Empathy allowed. Following a tingle down her spine, she ripped off a vent cover with the Force and slid into the ventilation shaft beside the turbo-lift, taking a more direct route to the ground floor. She hit the ground hard on her heels and bounced forward, straight through the closet door and in front of him.

She didn't bother ordering him to stop, she spun in a high rear kick and clotheslined him with her leg. The way his helmet popped off and the squeak of surprise he let out would have been comical if the shabuir hadn't just shot Rex.

The surge of hormonal rage she was fighting off after smelling an unknown Togruta female's scent mark on Rex's cheek didn't help her mood either.

She kicked the clone's blaster away – and he was a clone, though the lines around his eyes said he hadn't been shiny for a while – and put him in a headlock, seething and spitting with anger. "Who the hell do you think you are?" she snarled, squeezing his neck just hard enough to not break it. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

The clone, quickly turning purple, shot a jet of fire from his wrist. She let go just in time to duck and felt the flames heat the air above her montrals. She rolled and shot her leg out as she regained her feet, going for a sweep that he barely jumped over.

Ahsoka looked up just in time to catch the clone's returning punch and turn it away, bringing her long leg up in a wheel kick with the same motion. It connected and he went stumbling forward. She used the Force to shove him onto his face, but almost as if he had anticipated it he used the momentum to roll and pop back up to his feet. He shot a length of whipcord at her to bind her arms to her sides and ran for it.

"Zisiyeni," she snarled. She awkwardly pulled her sabers into her hands and cut the whipcord, but by the time she'd freed herself he had already made it to the line of speederbikes near the entrance of the hangar. "Oh no you don't," she growled. She pulled on the Force and leapt. The clone gunned the thrusters and she landed in the exact spot he had been in only moments before. She kicked the neighboring speederbike to life and jetted out of the hangar after him into the nighttime traffic.

The clone shot south through three lanes of traffic and down a half-dozen levels. Her speederbike whined as Ahsoka strained the repulsors. As she brought it up to level, the clone's bike in front of her made a small sparking pop and shuddered.

Ahsoka realized that in their rush, they'd both hopped onto the bikes in the maintenance lineup. Her repulsors were solid, just noisier than a nest full of narchlings, but it appeared by the lavender smoke and constant popping that the clone was riding a speederbike with a tibanna leak. He was going down quickly, and she wasn't going to let him get away into the undercity if she could help it, not after shooting her kriffing Rex.

The clone's bike sputtered three more times and then he started slowly dropping, and even over her whining repulsors Ahsoka could hear him cursing up a streak that would make Boba blush. She sped up with renewed fire in her blood. A first-gen clone disguised as a shiny in her barracks armed with Mandalorian gadgets like a flamethrower and whipcord? She had an idea of who was slowly crashing down in front of her, or what at least. Her brain was putting the pieces together rapidly even as she wove in and out of rush-hour traffic, collecting honks like they were Monomoko badges, too used to having to rapidly plot out a plan of attack while under fire to not multitask.

She'd wager every stupid, overpriced couch that Padmé had ever bought that there was a Null on that speederbike.

Another tingle on the back of her neck told her to draw her saber just in time to deflect a concussion round from a far-off rooftop. She batted it away but the vibration of the bolt blasted her saber clean out of her hand and sent it flying into the undercity below.

"Oh, you are dead!" she snarled, straining the thrusters to get ahead of the clone. She jackknifed and drew her shoto at the same time, slicing downward as he sped below her speederbike. She disabled his rear repulsors completely with the blow. He dropped like a rock and skidded to a sparking stop on top of a Quarren buffet. Ahsoka dove, then turned to get ahead of him. She spun to face him and ducked immediately to avoid a grapple to the face. It hit the seat behind her and the clone came flying along the rope feet first, hitting her in the chest and knocking out both her wind and her shebs from her seat right as they both cleared the edge of the roof.

Ahsoka fell, and fell, and she watched the clone's aura go staticky-gray with fear-dismay-regret as she went. She gasped for air that her spasming diaphragm couldn't pull in, and when she clipped a speeder three lanes down with her foot she was sent into a disorienting spin. She tried not to panic, but the inability to breathe while spinning and falling at terminal velocity robbed her of the ability to center herself. Honking speeders swerved around her falling body and she still couldn't stop spinning or even breathe and she was falling faster and faster and she was going to–

A warm, familiar presence covered her skin like a tingling blanket and calmed her panic. The Force cradled her, slowed her flailing spin, then flipped her over so she could see where she was going. Newly-centered, she focused on the turquoise and white speeder below her and carefully aimed for the passenger seat. She grabbed Anakin's outstretched hand and let him yank her to safety.

"Hello, Snips," he said pleasantly. He held up the saber that had been blasted out of her hand with a bemused look.

"Hi, Skyguy," Ahsoka panted. She took her saber back, a little embarrassed. "You're late."

"Yeah, well, you know–"

"Couldn't find a speeder you liked?" she couldn't help but joke.

"Actually, I was getting you Quasar." He shook a plastic cup full of creamy pink tea with orange balls at the bottom. "Hibiscus with triple cream and meiloorun boba. You're welcome."

Ahsoka snickered and took a sip. "You're the best, Master."

"I know." Anakin swerved below a blinking speederbus and sped under the line of traffic stopped at the light. "So who are we chasing?"

"A clone. He identified himself as Falin, but I doubt that's his real name. He was creeping around the barracks disguised as a shiny." A wave of anger rose up hot and bitter in Ahsoka's chest. "He shot Rex when I told him to take his bucket off."

"He shot Rex?" Anakin's aura flared white with staticky fear.

"Stunner bolt. He's okay."

Anakin sighed with blue relief. "You think this clone was after Boba?" he asked, narrowly avoiding rear-ending a police droid.

The clone got off on the exit to Coco Town. Ahsoka cursed under her breath. "I'm not sure, but I can't think of any other reason he'd be there."

Anakin reached over her and fastened her seatbelt without taking his eyes off of traffic, then did a barrel roll through four levels of packed speeders and shot down the center of a descension tunnel. "Uh, Master?" Ahsoka asked, confused. "Isn't this the opposite direction? He's going to get away!"

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Watch and learn, Padawan," he said, somehow managing to sound exasperated and smug at the same time, then leveled out and reversed into a maintenance tunnel. Without any traffic to worry about, he gunned the thrusters and throttled up until the needle topped out at 200/kmh while still in reverse. He picked up his own drink – something iced that smelled like chocolate and kokanini – and slurped it loudly.

Ahsoka chewed her boba and took a moment to subtly examine him while she had a chance; though his aura had lightened to a vivid orange with excitement-anticipation, there was a yellow-violet line of guilt-shame like a bruise along the edge. He was still affected by what he'd done to her. His eyes shone and his energy was manic, borderline feral. He was practically vibrating like a pent-up racing fathier and it didn't have anything to do with the caf; she felt his desire to protect her, to redeem himself, to prove that she could trust him again echoing across their bond.

Anakin finished his drink, tossed it over the edge, shot his arm out over her chest to stop her from bruising herself on her seatbelt, then braked hard. He shot up forty levels in five seconds and practically broke the sound barrier leaving the ascension tunnel, then flew back into traffic behind the clone close enough for her to see the blue relief battle it out with the red anger and chartreuse annoyance in his aura.

The clone was… grateful that he hadn't killed her? Ahsoka was surprised, to say the least.

"You ready?" Anakin asked loudly. He was gaining on the clone quickly now that he wasn't hobbled by the civilian traffic of the main drag. A speederbike with lame repulsors was no match for an engine rebuilt by a podracing gearhead whose only real hobby was making things go way faster than they needed to.

Ahsoka undid her seatbelt, crouched on the seat, and readied her saber with a nod.

"I'll be right behind you!" Anakin yelled. He slid underneath the speederbike and popped up a few inches in front of it. Ahsoka immediately leapt for the clone with her saber ignited and jammed it into the repulsors before he could so much as say papurgaat. The speederbike started sputtering and jerking, and the clone struggled to keep his stolen speederbike from going into a tailspin. Ahsoka did a backflip off the seat, pushing off extra hard to lessen his control.

The bike came to a spinning crash into an alley two blocks west of where she landed. She sprinted towards the smoke with a curse, hoping that Anakin had blocked off whatever exit he could. A dizzying sense of deja-vu hit her like a cold winter wind off the mountains when she turned the corner, and after she slid into the alley–

No. No.

It was the alley that Obi-Wan had pretended to die in. The crates were still toppled over, the pavement still dark where his blood had pooled. That was where she had held him after he crashed through the crates like a meteor. She'd gently turned him over, carefully minding his neck and back in case he had damaged his spinal cord, Obi-Wan's eyes are shut tight like he had been bracing himself for the fall. His beautiful, glacial-blue aura like the sky above the mountains is gone. His heart is silent, his chest doesn't move, her leggings are sticky and warm with blood. "Please," she whispers. "P-please Bobi, open your eyes, open your… no, no, no, please no, Bobi please–" People approach and whisper amongst themselves. Someone approaches her from the side and quickly retreats when she bares her fangs at them. Frantic footsteps echo through the alley, Anakin comes skidding to a halt seconds later. "How is he?" he asks, his aura blinding white with sheer panic. She looks up at him, unable to say it out loud and make it true, barely able to see Anakin's face through her tears.

The Force screamed a warning through her fugue just in time for her to dodge the clone's swing. She cartwheeled to the side and dodged his leg sweep, then jumped at him with a flying roundhouse kick. He ducked underneath it and shoved her away from him.

She grabbed for her sabers and found only air at her sides. The clone smirked at her and held up the belt he'd managed to rip off, then chucked it into the dumpster behind him.

Shabuir. Ahsoka dropped down into a Fáng Shìlóng stance, turning her toes out and straightening her back before bringing her hands up. The clone smirked at her and sank into Echani.

Ahsoka eyed the remaining blaster at his waist and briefly wondered why he wasn't using it before blocking his first strike; a hard, straight-armed punch to the face that would have broken her nose had it connected. Ducking the next three strikes that whistled in the air around her montrals, she eased out of Fáng Shìlóng and switched to match his Echani. She elbowed the clone in the gut, dropped, then turned on her knees to try and throw him over her shoulder the same way she did Blitz, but instead of letting her get an arm around his neck he rolled into the toss and then threw her forward with his considerable strength. She crashed into the crates and rolled to a stop face-first on the dark stain.

Please Bobi, open your eyes…

The scent of Obi-Wan's blood had her brain in the same spinning, panicked state that it was that night. The clone kicked her in the stomach with his plastoid boot and sent her rolling to the side in a tumbled heap. He straddled her waist, pinning her with his heavy weight, then raised a fist. With no other recourse, she protected her face with her arms and turned to the one move she wasn't allowed to use during sparring; she slammed a knee up between his legs as hard as she could and scrambled the gett'se behind his codpiece. His aura flashed neon orange with shock-anger and he rolled off of her, swearing a blue streak of Mando'a under his breath.

Ahsoka struggled to her feet and hopped backwards a bit, dragging the knee that was still tingling from smacking into plastoid. "Enough!" she snarled, holding her hands up to summon her sabers.

The clone panted and shook his head, his face sweaty and bright red from exertion and pain, and struck at her chest with his elbow before her weapons reached her. She caught his elbow with her palms and pushed outwards, following with a high kick that missed his chin by a hairsbreadth. He feinted forward, her punch went wide, and he pinned her arms at her sides in a wampa hug.

"Get off of me!" she snarled. She headbutted him, used the wall to walk up and over his head to break the hold, then kneed him hard in the spine. The blow sent him stumbling forward, only for him to turn and kick her in the chest and propel her towards the opposite wall.

She smashed into it hard and saw stars, the fatty padding of her rear lek the only thing saving her skull from being cracked open. He took advantage of her daze by dragging her to the ground and pinning her again. He brought a fist up to finish her off and went still; his eyes bugged out of his head and he clawed at his throat. He rose up in the air with lips quickly going blue and was dragged off of her like he had an invisible noose around his neck, plastoid boots scraping helplessly at the concrete.

Anakin stood at the opposite end of the alley with an outstretched hand, his aura a tornado of ivory terror spinning with ribbons of crimson fury and teal protection, all surrounded by a hungry, creeping darkness that Ahsoka recognized all too well. He dragged the clone towards him by the throat and watched him struggle for air with dark, wild eyes.

Ahsoka scrambled to her feet and stumbled towards Anakin. "Master," she called, then screwed her eyes shut as the alley tilted around her. Her head felt like someone had taken a hydrospanner to the back of it. "Master, we… we need him alive." She projected weak green calm and the smell of rain on the desert wind as best as she could manage with her head spinning, praying it would be enough to blow away the terrifying, sticky darkness that she had worked so hard to glean away from him before.

Anakin didn't answer her, too lost in his rage. He recognized the alley, too. It was distracting him like it had her, making it too hard to focus on control. He was panicking from what he'd seen, a clone twice her size pinning her to the ground, about to knock her lights out. His hand tightened and the clone's aura went glowing white with fear-pain.

"Anakin!" Ahsoka yelled, but it was no good; he was too far gone, his aura spinning too violently to accept the pitiful calm she projected at him. She braced herself against the wall and took a deep breath, trying to center herself as best she could before she gleaned it off and brought her Master back to his right mind.

I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. Ahsoka let her aura flow outwards and folded it around Anakin's, drenching him with peace like a spring thunderstorm. The shadow slipped and slid unnaturally around the edges of their joined aura, hungrily sniffing the fresh blood coming from wounds in the heart newly reopened. His grief-rage-guilt hit her with the force of a crashing starfighter, almost throwing her to the ground with its intensity. She box breathed and controlled the spin of the storm around them.

There is no emotion, there is peace. Ahsoka reached out to the darkness and wrapped it around her fists like spiderwebs, tearing the black away from where it choked Anakin's bright red. She had gleaned it away before, she could do it again. She opened herself up to the Cosmic Force, listened to it roar in her montrals like river rapids before going suddenly silent, and let it scour away the darkness surrounding them both.

"Easy, Skyguy," she whispered. "Let him go. You did it. You saved me. You can let him go now."

Something clicked in him, lightened just like it had the night he had broken her arm; it sent the hungry shadow fleeing and lucidity returned to Anakin's eyes. He immediately let the clone fall to the ground and stumbled backwards, wallowing in pale yellow shock-distress at what he'd almost done.

She detangled their auras gently and slid down the wall, as exhausted as if she'd just done a twelve-mile ruck in a blizzard.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin ran to her side and skidded to a stop, dropping to the ground in front of her. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you? How bad–"

"I'm okay." Ahsoka pulled herself together and gave him a wan smile before eyeing the limp body of the clone. He was still alive, thankfully. Anakin hadn't… he hadn't.

Anakin nodded and swallowed hard, looking sick. "Let's get going." He slung her arm around his neck and helped her walk back to his speeder, dragging the clone's unconscious body behind them with the Force.

The clone had no tattoos or unique scars, no holotags, not even an identification chip in his wrist. Rex had been conscious for a whole five minutes by the time they returned to the barracks but he wasted no time in helping Cody and Anakin tie him up in a chair in the officer's lounge.

Poor Boba was shaking like an aktipan that lived in a rich woman's purse, his aura trembling and pale violet with shock-guilt. Ahsoka held him on the couch, rubbing his back soothingly and willing her headache to go away.

"I'm sorry," he said for the fiftieth time. "I should have helped. I–"

"You stayed safe. That's all I care about." Ahsoka pressed her forehead against his.

"We have any stims in here?" Anakin barked, throwing open the cabinets of the kitchenette like he expected them to be stored next to the caf concentrate and ration bars. His aura was a tightly-controlled ball of deep red anger-frustration and a little yellow embarrassment, and his mech hand kept clenching with the desire to hit something.

Rex shook his head. "Should be a pack of 'em in my office, Sir." He made for the door. "I'll–"

"I'll get them," Ahsoka offered. Rex still looked a bit unsteady; she'd been stunned enough times during dance practice to know exactly how fuzzy his head was. "Where are they?"

"The top shelf of my locker." Rex nodded at her gratefully.

Ahsoka kissed Boba's cheek. "Stay here, vod'ika," she murmured into his ear before standing.

Rex and Cody both froze and turned to her with staticky-white shock rippling around them.

"You're not actually surprised, right?" she asked them wryly over her shoulder, leaving before they had a chance to respond.

The barracks were still almost empty of troopers and nobody stopped her on the way to Rex's office. She unlocked the door, stepped inside, and stopped dead.

The locker was open. The rucksack, the beskar'gam, even the tooka doll was gone.

She didn't need to call Inspector Divo to help her solve this mystery. There was only one person who could have taken it; or rather, there was only one person who would have ordered it taken.

Kal shabuirla Skirata.

Ahsoka snatched the box of stims and marched to the stairwell, her brain working faster than her feet. Obviously the clone had led her away from the barracks so the armor would be easy pickings. The only thing she wanted to know, though, was which one of Skirata's little angels of death was currently tied up in the officer's lounge, and how badly Skirata wanted him back. Had he intended to be caught, or was he just trying to keep her as far away from the barracks for as long as possible?

She was still glad she had stopped Anakin from killing him if for no other reason than that they now had leverage to get the beskar'gam back. She slid the door to the lounge open with the Force, removed a stim from the box, and jammed it into the clone's neck without a word. A chorus of protesting shouts sprang out from the men in the room.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin yanked her away from the clone with a bolt of teal concern. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Waking him up." She tossed the box on the table. She was spitting mad, nearly vibrating with it, her lek smacking against her back like a drum. She pushed Anakin's arm down and slapped the clone's cheek. "Hey. Eyes open, shabuir."

"Ahsoka!" Rex exclaimed, shoving himself between her and the tied-up man.

The clone's eyes opened into slits and he worked his jaw. Cody, still shirtless with a large, clear burn bandage over his new ink immediately drew on the clone and held steady, ready to stun him.

"What's going on?" Anakin asked harshly. "You were fine a minute ago, what happened to make you so angry?"

"Where is it?" she spat at the clone. She shoved past Rex and slapped him again, leaving a pink handprint on his cheek. "Where the hell is it?"

Rex yanked her back and held her in a wampa hug.

"Ow," the clone said mildly. His red aura sharpened and hardened into a box around him, keeping any emotions he had guarded and hidden.

"It's gone," Ahsoka snapped, trying and failing to push past Rex. "Someone took Boba's beskar'gam while this sleemo was leading us on a snipe hunt around Coruscant, and he's going to tell us what happened or I'm going to gut him like a Rokarian dirt-fish!"

"What?" Boba was crouched on the couch with Robert under one arm, puppy-eyed and rolling with violet grief-shock that quickly blushed into red anger. "He… he…" Boba got to his feet, trembling with all of the emotions rioting across his aura, and threw Robert behind him. "Tion'vaii ner beskar'gam, gar ne'tom'osik?" he demanded, eyes shining and fists clenched at his sides.

The clone slowly dragged his eyes over to Boba. "Jate, Bob'ika," he drawled. "Ner gett'se shi'jii dayngaanir?"

Boba's face and aura went white and he took a step back. "Ordo?" he whispered, horrified.

Everyone turned to look at the tied up clone. "I should've known," Rex said grimly, backing up with Ahsoka in his arms. His aura was fogged with bright turquoise protection-wariness. "What's going on, Ordo?"

A muscle worked in Anakin's jaw. "Ordo's the captain of the commando squad you told me about on the way here?" he asked Ahsoka quietly, to which she nodded.

"You were a decoy?" Cody asked, frowning severely. His aura went chartreuse with annoyance. "Seems beneath you, Captain."

Ordo rolled his shoulders. "I follow orders, Cody, you know that." He frowned. "Where's your shirt?"

"And did your orders include kicking my Padawan off a rooftop?" Anakin asked, soft and dangerous. He walked forward with a straight back, drawing up to his full height. "Beating her face in?"

"You led us to that alley on purpose, didn't you?" Ahsoka snapped, trying to get out of Rex's very firm hold again.

"I figured I'd need the advantage," Ordo shrugged. "Take it as a compliment. Sorry about the roof, though. That was bad timing on my part."

"Ke'epa osik," Ahsoka said contemptuously.

"Enough, vod'ika." Rex physically turned her towards the couch, where Boba sat frozen and silent like a newborn kybuck in the grass, and gave her a little push.

She swallowed her rage, sat next to Boba, and tucked him under her arm. "It's okay," she murmured into his ear, sending little green bubbles of calm to his aura. "Ni ven'kyramu ad kebbur. I'll rip his throat out if he tries anything."

Ordo raised an eyebrow. "Why would I hurt him?" he asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.

"Why'd you hurt him any other time?" Ahsoka snapped, a growl coloring her tone.

"Because he was being a brat?" Ordo's eyes flicked between her and Boba. "Boba's always been a spoiled kih'osik. Someone needed to keep his head from getting too big."

"Fuck off!" Ahsoka and Boba snapped in unison.

Anakin tilted his head at Ordo. The air around him felt charged, staticky, like lightning about to strike. "I would like to know why you thought you could put hands on my Padawan and walk away with them still attached," he said quietly.

Ordo met his eyes, wary, but more curious than afraid. "She got me good a few times. You should be proud."

"Oh I am. I am very, very proud of her." Anakin said silkily, leaning down. "So answer my question."

Ahsoka's commlink started flashing with an incoming holocall. She looked at Anakin, who nodded at her before she accepted it. A hologram of a plain man in his fifties wearing gold-painted Mandalorian armor popped up on her wrist.

"Ahsoka Tano." The hologram nodded. "Kal Skirata. Pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure's all yours, I assure you," Ahsoka snapped. "Where is Boba's beskar'gam? What game are you playing?"

Skirata chuckled. "It's safe. I presume my boy is as well?"

"He won't be if I don't get a very good reason for your attack on my Padawan and Captain tonight," Anakin snapped, striding forward to get into visual range.

"General Skywalker. Your reputation precedes you." Kal crossed his arms. "I'd rather have this chat in person. Why don't you all come down to the fairgrounds? It's Weequay Independence Week, the place is hopping tonight."

Ahsoka translated it: Lots of civilians, neutral zone. "When?" she asked harshly.

"As soon as you can. Bring my boy, and yours. He's a good shot, I bet he can win you a stuffed bantha while we talk."

Ahsoka looked at Anakin again, who pursed his lips and nodded. "If you try anything funny, you'll regret it," he promised.

"No funny business, I swear." Kal laughed again. "See you soon, ad'ika." He closed the channel before Ahsoka could.

Rex immediately started dialing a frequency on his own commlink. "Jesse, how drunk are you right now?" he asked over the loud music.

"Just getting started, Cap– hey, di'kutla, watch where you're going–"

"Grab everyone who's still walking in a straight line and get down to the fairgrounds." Rex paused, then quirked the corner of his mouth. "Someone tried to kill Ahsoka tonight. I–"

"WHAT?!" Jesse shrieked. "Kix! Where the hell is Tup, go grab him and Fi– I don't care if she's here, we need to go, now! Rex, we're leaving. Tell us where to meet you."

"One way to motivate him," Anakin said, biting down his laughter as Rex gave Jesse directions.

"Clearly." Ahsoka rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was still resisting the urge to smack Ordo, who looked far too blase about the situation for her liking. Gleaning took a toll on her. She'd have what she could only describe as an emotional hangover for at least a day. She took Anakin's mech hand and squeezed it.

It was worth it.

"You're sure about this?" Anakin asked her quietly.

She nodded and pulled Boba close to her with her other arm. "Absolutely." She gently rubbed her lek over the top of Boba's head. "We're going to get it back if I have to ransom Ordo back one limb at a time," she murmured.

Ordo raised an eyebrow. "I'd prefer you didn't," he said.

"Not up to you." Ahsoka met Cody's eyes. He raised his blaster with a smirk.

Notes:

MANDOA TRANSLATIONS Sal'gam*: tattoo (lit color+skin) Atawai'la*: kindness Shabla dalgaan: fucking bitch Ni cuy shabla dalgaan? Ni salgorani gar shabla ass bal ni cuy shabla dalgaan? Ke'haa'tayli at troan'tay, vod: I'm a fucking bitch? I'm tattooing your fucking ass and I'm a fucking bitch? Go look in the mirror, bro Gar ne'salgorani ner shebs, vod'ika, bal meh bev tigaanur ner shebs ni ven'shuku gar cere: You're not tattooing my ass, little brother, and if that needle touches my ass I will break your fingers Ke'pirimpir gaht tay'briik: Go piss up a rope Nayc gar: No you Os'ika: Little shit (affectionate), a pun on Ahsoka's normal diminutive of Ahs'ika Ka'akaan'jori: Sound the alarm! Papurgaat: lit. 'fruit,' in this context it's like "before he could say diddly" Shabla bev'kovid: Fucking dickhead Tion'vaii ner beskar'gam, gar ne'tom'osik?: Where is my armor, you piece of shit? Ner gett'se shi'jii dayngaanir: Your balls finally drop? Ke'epa osik: Eat shit Kih'osik: Little shit (not affectionate) TOYDARIAN TRANSLATIONS Zisiyeni: Damn it OTHER NOTES Gleaning: Empathically sharing another person's emotions and releasing them to the Force Po'ackster: A hyena-like creature native to Jedha, known for its wide grin and hysterical laughter-like bark Aktipan: that wee little elephant creature from the Fifth Element. I've been obsessed with him for 20 years you're goddamn right he's crossing over to the SW verse

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @soliloquy-of-nemo Dividers: @saradika-graphics

#star wars #star wars fanfic #tivaevae #lamaenthel #ahsoka tano #boba fett #captain rex #plo koon #commander wolffe #arc trooper fives #arc trooper jesse #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #tcw #clone troopers #starwarsficnetwork #star wars tcw #mandalorian #jedi #my writing #dngg

[mtdthoughts]

Connections to Kristof's Book of Lies #8 (Migi & Dali Observation)

Click here to return to the top of this thread.

The connection this time is very glaring, and is what got me reading Kristof's three books and what started this whole thread in the first place.

*Heavy* spoilers from both series plus the short sequel manga are discussed.

More than two years after Migi and Dali officially became part of the Sonoyama household, the twins are now 15/16, as Dali sets off for school, while Migi stays behind in Origon Village to pursue artistic passions. Though they've been with each other for so long, they are ready to lead their own lives, and they know that they'll always remain in each other's hearts. This is what Migi claims as Dali's train departs.

Nonetheless, I'm sure that they still miss each other, and this was explored in the sequel manga, where Migi writes a letter to Dali after not hearing from him for months. Funnily enough, right before Dali receives the letter, he is seen reading The Proof.

It was thanks to this little easter egg that I began reading these books for myself, and now I am more confident in my own understanding of Migi & Dali. :)

Anyway, these events most certainly parallel those that happen in Kristof's books.

At the end of The Notebook, when the twins Lucas and Claus are 15 years old, Claus crosses the border, leaving behind Lucas at their hometown. They were trying to test themselves, claiming that they needed to learn to live without each other, which is consistent with the previous exercises they've done in denying themselves love (see Connection #1).

As a result, they both lived many sad, lonely, and loveless years without seeing or hearing from each other, not even writing letters to each other because they needed complete silence and total separation. It wasn't until the twins reached middle age when Claus finally returned in The Proof, though Lucas has disappeared.

The twins' separation here definitely parallels Migi and Dali's separation, though the natures of their tests are different. While Lucas and Claus try to prove that they can become strong enough to endure a lifetime of solitude and total separation, Migi and Dali try to prove that their bond will endure and that they will always remain connected as they forge their own paths.

Furthermore, Migi and Dali go against the test that Lucas and Claus conducted through Migi's letter to Dali and Dali's phone call to Migi, highlighting how they were able to overcome their tragic past and solitude through opening up to others (including each other).

Then, in The Third Lie, it's revealed that Lucas completely fabricated the events of The Notebook and The Proof, and that he invented a twin brother named Claus to cope with his separation from his actual twin brother Klaus (yes, with a K) when they were 4 years old. This does make me wonder what implications there are for Migi & Dali. Maybe one of the twins wasn't actually real. Well, I don't want to think about this because it's kind of sad to think about...

Anyway, after around 45 years of separation, Lucas (under the alias of Claus) finally finds Klaus, though Klaus denies Lucas, likely stemming from resentment towards Lucas because of the miserable life he suffered, and because his mother seemed to only love Lucas. Because of this, Lucas, having nothing and no one left, unfortunately follows Mathias' cue and commits suicide by throwing himself under a train. Klaus, who similarly has almost no one left except for his elderly mother, also plans on throwing himself under the train after he dies, finally rejoining his brother in death.

Thus, the train becomes a symbol that means something totally different in each story. In Migi & Dali, the train is a vehicle for hope, change, and new chapters in life (i.e. "life apart"), while in the Book of Lies Trilogy, the train symbolizes misery, death, and nothingness (i.e. "death together"). This highlights the differences in the directions that the stories went, once again emphasizing the importance of Migi and Dali's journey in finding love.

#migi and dali #migi to dali #observation

[imminentinertia]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@ghostcat3000 tagged me. Thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

188,069

3. What fandoms do you write for?

None. Um. I've written for SKAM and back in the day HP, I have a couple of outlines for KinnPorsche, but in practice I don't actually write now...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

run down till the rain delights you

I like my sugar with coffee and cream (wtf)

But the prettiest sight to see

And up to the head

Bloody fucking sodding shit

All SKAM, all Evak. I'm not counting the actual no. 5, Knuter på tråden, because that was a communal Scandi effort where I wrote 2 short ones of 38 chapters.

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

I do. I think it's only polite to say thank you somehow when people have made the effort to comment. I can understand that massively popular writers in enormous fandoms don't, but me puttering about, sometimes even in Norwegian? Yeah, I respond.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's a (true) drabble. It's Evak. It's here. I'm fairly certain @champagneleftie will never forgive me.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I don't really do sad endings, at the worst they'll be a little ambiguous.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Fuck yeah. I don't really know what to say about what kind - hopefully the hot and not embarrassing kind.

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

Don't write them, hardly ever read them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. Fucking Wattpad assholes. It's been a true joy to see those accounts banned after reporting the thefts.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not counting the ones I've translated myself (sometimes with lots of help from darling @mynameisnotthepoint) from Norwegian to English, who knows. I've been asked for permission several times, and I okay it and ask for a link to the finished translation, and then it's *crickets*, so probably not.

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

Yes, with @himmelskys (Rake veien) and @vesperthine (run down till the rain delights you and the roll of the harbour wake).

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

That has to be Even/Isak, although Jaeyoung/Sangwoo and Vegas/Pete own parts of my soul.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a supernatural being Evak hibernating on my drive, but...

16. What are your writing strengths?

I do dialogue really well, complete with interruptions and repeats and various other little ways humans talk. Also I'm pretty good at steering clear of exposition and putting effort into showing, not telling.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot. I'm completely shit at plotting something. I'm great at world-building, but that doesn't really help. I keep to snapshot scenes, mostly.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't. I may put something in italics and drop a word or phrase into it to show that it's in a different language than the one the characters speak, but in general dialogue (and phrases!) in another language only serves to jar the reader and I very much don't want that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Er, if I don't count snippets I came up with pre-LJ it was HP.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Eventyr (SKAM, Evak, fairytale AU, English, by all means read if you like). I'm ridiculously pleased with how I managed to make Even not-human in it.

Do I dare to tag someone? Probably not, but if you read this and write fic I'd like to see your answers.

#fic writer meme

[ninja-guy-yo]

Mixed feelings on the idea of the ninja being replaced, or a next-gen series. There's still stories that could be told with them as main characters, but how much is there that can really be done at this point?

Zane meeting Echo Zane or learning more about Dr. Julien, Jay finding out why his bio parents left him, Kai getting a season where he does.. something, etc. But the writers drag their feet getting around to answering stuff like that. It took 13 seasons to find out who Cole's mom was, 8 seasons to find out where the First Spinjitzu Master came from, Zane has had a whole brother for 7 seasons and they still haven't met in the actual timeline. Is another 10+ seasons for the chance, the possibility, we'll learn more about the main characters' backstories or that they'll develop in some way really worth it? Ninjago refreshes every few years in order to be more accessible for new fans, which is what they're doing by ending the current show. It'd make more sense to go forward than answer old questions that newer kids wouldn't have.

The ninja have all peaked development-wise at this point. Where else can they go? It's not impossible but I don't think it's something the writers are interested in doing. They mostly replay the beats over and over again. Zane being the Ice Emperor was an opportunity to give him something new to struggle with and overcome, but they never did anything serious with it, and the Ice Chapter wasn't even really about him. It'd be a shame if he just never had a real arc again, but there's no guarantee that he ever would have gotten one anyway!

There's not really anything a time-skip would change about them. The ninja have always been vague late-teens that function more or less the same as if they were in the 20s, and LEGO's probably going to want to keep them young as long as they're protagonists.

If the next Ninjago show is going to be different enough to justify it being a separate show and not a continuation like WildBrain's Ninjago was to WilFilm's Masters of Spinjitzu, then a new cast would be the best way to do it. New characters, new personalities, with new arcs, and the old ninja could be there in mentor roles (or gone, however Crystalized will end). On the other hand, maybe I'm totally wrong and the United Islands of Ninjago or something will shake things up in some way that can't be predicted. The "Ninjago is ending" stuff is gonna look silly if it turns out the new show is more of the same

#ninjago #ninjago 2023 #my posts