#this whole asking for prompts thing is to make myself writing shorter things... keep fics brief... not 10k+....
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Human/Mer AU + Bioluminescent Siren Duke ; requested by @justwannabecat!
The human hadn’t been in his territory recently.
He wasn’t attached or anything, but Duke had started to look forward to seeing him around. It was equal parts exciting and terrifying to be under the curious, watchful eyes of a human who could so easily be dragged down into the depths.
He knows he shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be indulging this human’s curiosity, trying to lure him closer time after time. Holding the attention of any human is dangerous; Duke’s heard the stories plenty of time. He’s seen the damage humans can do even more.
There’s just something different about this human, who never dives too deep, who smiles at him and leaves little gifts in the tide pools tucked away from the rest of the beach, hidden from sight. Or rather, usually hidden from sight, since this human is the only one to go there.
It’s foolish, but Duke actually misses his human.
It’s not the first time he’d been gone for long stretches of time, but something feels off. There’s worry curling up at the base of his throat, making him swim to the surface more frequently. Steph had given him a look when she caught him, but didn’t say a word. She shouldn’t, really, when she’s been sneaking up to the surface for her own human friend, some small, dangerous human with dark hair and hands that speak more than a voice.
He’d seen her, just once, when he had gone up to splash water and his human then swim away.
Somehow, things felt easier back then. Like the horrors of the world couldn’t reach them among those tide pools.
It’s reached them now.
Duke’s not expecting to see his human when he swims up to the surface. He’s expecting another quiet night, an empty beach, a dark sky with only the moon casting its lonely light down onto him.
But when he swims up, his eyes go to a figure on the beach instantly.
Even from this distance, Duke knows: that’s his human.
He doesn’t think before he’s swimming over, pushing himself faster than he’s ever gone before. It’s low tide, so he can’t get as close as he wants and can’t reach most of the tide pools at all, but it gets him close enough. Human and merfolk vocal chords are different; he can speak in water, but can’t make more than a few hums in air, and humans can’t really do anything in water at all.
His human is sitting with his knees tucked into his chest on the beach. He’s hiding in his clothes, a hood pulled over his head, but he looks up when Duke drags himself onto the sand.
Duke can see bruises. Dried blood. A stray tear slipping out of his eyes.
He wants to ask what’s happened? But all that comes out is a low crooning noise.
His human laughs, a quiet, bitter noise that makes Duke’s chest tighten uncomfortably. “Hey,” he rasps in a low voice. “Been a while, hasn’t it? I hope you’ve had a better time than I did.”
Duke can’t reach his human. The distance between them isn’t great, but it’s too much. He’s already partially out of the water, hands sinking into the wet sand just out of reach of the waves, and he can’t get any farther out. He reaches a hand out, silently pleading for his human to come closer.
The move makes his human soften, some of the hard edge of tension in his body melt away. He gets up and walks into the water, then sits down next to Duke, taking his hand.
“I missed you,” he whispers.
If they were underwater, Duke would be able to say I missed you too. Don’t ever go away so long again. But his human is in no shape to go underwater right now, so Duke presses his hand against his lips and hums lightly.
They sit in silence for a moment, and Duke realizes that he’s never been this close to any human before. It doesn’t feel dangerous. It feels like relief, to finally have his human in his reach, safe from the rest of the world.
He gives him human another moment, then reaches out and carefully pushes his hood back. His human allows it, blinking at him slowly. Without the shadow of the hood, Duke can clearly see the bruise coloring his cheekbone and the cuts going down his temple to his jaw. His split lip is still red with blood, and what little of his throat isn’t hidden by his clothes reveals more bruises wrapped around the delicate column of his neck.
Duke ghosts his fingers over each of these injuries, hating how easily humans hurt each other. His human leans into the touch despite how it must hurt, something devastating in his expression.
Who hurt you comes out as a questioning trill. Somehow, it gets the point across.
“It’s alright,” his human says. “Really. I’m not even that hurt. It’s just been a long few months. We never talk much, so you wouldn’t know this, but I have to fight a lot of people. Perils of being a hero, you know?”
Duke knows about heroes. More specifically, he knows about mer heroes. He’s considered being one himself, but the currents shifted and he ended up more a loner, banding with the other rejects of the city to live in the fringes and help only those who wander out too far from the marginally safer waters within.
He hasn’t heard of any human heroes, but then again, he doesn’t know much about humans at all. Nothing beyond the stories all parents tell their children to scare them away from the surface, or the horror stories kids tell each other in the middle of the night when they want to scare each other.
He hums again to let his human know he’s listening. His human has such a nice voice. Why haven’t they done this before?
It’s always been a push and pull between them, carefully keeping their distance but always circling back to each other. Duke would let his human swim with him, and his human would let Duke sit safely on the other side of a tide pool, tossing sea shells back and forth between each other.
They don’t even know each other’s names.
He wishes, just for a moment, that he could go back in time and do things better. But he’s happy here with his human and he doesn’t want to lose this either.
He’ll just have to make the best of what he has. It’s how he’s always lived after his parents disappeared.
“This really isn’t that bad,” his human says, “I’ve taken worse hits before. It’s just that I couldn’t transform before the attack started, so now my human form is bruised too.”
…Human form? The more Duke hears, the more questions he has.
Duke hums at a lower octave, placing a hand over his human’s chest.
His human laughs lightly. “Yeah, I guess we’ve never really talked much about ourselves, did we? I’m human, don’t worry, just not all the time. I… actually, I died a few years ago. But I came back partially. So I’m also half dead still and I can transform into a ghost to fight threats. I’m a hero called Phantom. Actually, Danny Phantom since I was stupid enough to just give out my first name when I started out. In my defense, my brain was still a little fried.”
There is so much he wants to say to that. He tries, and makes a series of low hums and clicks in the back of his throat, staring at Danny (he finally got his human’s name!) incredulously.
“I promise I’m fine,” Danny continues. “It was just a bit rough. As soon as I get some time to recover, I’ll be good as new! And I really did miss you, you know. Didn’t even go home first, just come straight here.”
That’s honestly really sweet. Duke hums again, a lighter pitch, and takes hold of Danny’s wrist and tugs him towards deeper waters.
“What? You want me to go in?”
Duke nods, already shuffling his way back out of the sand.
He expects to look awkward during the process. What he most definitely doesn’t expect is for Danny to easily pick him up and walk them both into the ocean.
Listen. Duke is not a small mer. He’s big. He’s got a long, heavy tail and wide fins going down his back, his forearms, and the sides of his tail. It’s a struggle for him to fit into seaweed nests with his friends during the colder seasons, often left to balance on the edge with his tail hanging out. His friends struggle to pull him through the water with his weight. His parents weren’t able to hold him much after he started growing.
None of this matters to Danny, who acts as if Duke weights nothing at all.
To his great embarrassment, his fins flare in appreciation for Danny’s strength. He was not expecting a human to be so strong, but Duke’s not about to lie to himself and say it’s not attractive.
He trills to Danny, who laughs again, then falls into the water, taking them both under.
Duke doesn’t hesitate. He grabs hold of Danny and swims them further out. He stays close to the surface so Danny can rise for air as needed, but he makes no move to leave Duke’s side even after a few minutes.
He glances back, concerned, when he sees that Danny is watching him with dark eyes, not breathing at all despite being conscious.
Danny holds up a finger and closes his eyes. Two rings of light appear around his waist, then split apart and pass over his body. Instantly, Danny’s body becomes lighter, as if Duke’s hand is grasping at a current on the seabed. His hair turns white and his eyes glow from how bright of a green they are, but there’s something inhuman about his features now, something that makes him look different beyond just physical features.
Well. Danny did say he could transform.
Now that they’re underwater, Duke can finally speak. The first thing he asks is, “What was that?”
Danny grins at him. “That,” he says, speaking with ease as if he’s not underwater at all, “was my transformation. And this is my ghost form. Quite the look, isn’t it?”
“You can talk down here?! Also, hi, my name’s Duke. Since I never introduced myself.”
“Ghosts can do a lot of things,” Danny answers with a cheeky grin. “It’s nice to finally know your name. I’ve been calling you glowfish in my head this whole time.”
“Glowfish?”
“Yeah. Because you, you know,” Danny gestures vaguely at him, “Glow.”
Duke glances down at his back fins, which are indeed glowing. They flare a bit from embarrassment, which just makes the dots of light lining the fins more visible. He doesn’t glow a lot, keeping a tight hold of that ability, but sometimes it comes out anyways when he’s feeling especially happy.
And apparently, he’s always very happy around Danny.
It’s a good thing Danny doesn’t know what that means, because if anyone of his friends found out, they’d laugh at how obvious he’s being. Drawbacks of being somewhat bioluminescent: anyone familiar with mers who have this feature know exactly what the glow means.
“Right,” he says just a beat too late. “Well, now that we know each other’s names, can you tell me how you really feel? Those injuries didn’t look too good.”
“It’s fine, really! I take harder hits all the time.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
Danny doesn’t answer for a long moment, then sighs. “Yeah. It still hurts.”
“Stay with me for tonight,” he says. “You’ll be safe. You can rest and heal and I’ll keep you safe from anything that comes looking for you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I want to.”
Danny doesn’t put up much of a fight. He must be exhausted. “Yeah, alright. Take me away, Duke. You know, this is like those stories about sirens luring sailors down into the depths.”
“Well, I am a siren.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah. I take after my mom. She’s the one who taught me how to sing.”
“I guess it’s a good thing we’re friends so I don’t have to worry about being dragged down to my watery death.”
Duke snorts. “Good thing you’re already a ghost then. Not much I can do to you down here.”
He swims down, heading towards a small cavern in a sea rock that he’s claimed as his own, leading Danny into it. The light from his fins illuminates the entrance and the rocks within, a narrow passage that goes in for a few meters before opening up into a larger space full of carefully tended to seaweed and starfish decorating the walls.
There’s a nook tucked away in the back wall where he’s set up a seaweed bed, the plant braided together into something more solid. It’s big enough to fit his tail, which means it’s big enough for him and Danny.
“Here,” he says, helping Danny down. “Get some sleep. Then you can tell me about what happened in the morning and we’ll take it from there.”
“I’m glad you’re here Duke,” Danny whispers, curling up on his side. He holds Duke’s hand, twining their fingers together, and it’s as nice as it is strange to feel how cold Danny is in this form when he was so warm as a human.
“I’ll always be here for you. You just need to come back to me.”
Danny hums, but doesn’t answer. It’s alright; Duke’s used to his loved ones leaving. He knows he can’t make them stay. All he can do is hope they return one day.
It’s been a long time since he’s had anyone in his home. There’s a communal cave where his friends stay that he visits when he gets lonely, but this place used to be for his family. Now it’s just him.
Him and Danny.
The last time there was song in these walls, his mother was still around, singing him lullabies.
Looking down at Danny, curled up and so strangely fragile looking, Duke feels the song build up in his chest. It slips out in low, soft notes, an old melody passed down through generations of their family.
He sings Danny to sleep.
He sings and sings and sings until all his nightmares are soothed and dawn is almost upon them.
It’s all he can do, so Duke sings and hopes it’s enough to keep Danny close to him for just a little longer.
#ghostlights#dc x dp#dp x dc#dcxdp#dpxdc#dc x dp fic#prompt fill#my writing#once again hit by the need to go crazy with worldbuilding#hitting myself w a broom while writing this like KEEP IT SHORT. KEEP IT SHORT!!#this could so easily be 20k+.....#the worldbuilding.... i have Thoughts on mer society and underwater gotham and human/mer differences and so much more#duke's parents were captured by a human (the joker) to use in a fucked up traveling aquarium#danny's still a halfa and a hero but he's not w his parents. they're good parents they just fought the gov for his sake and got arrested#so he's w vlad in a coastal city while jazz is in college#other heroes are still around on land and are not mers so villains are still up there too. and danny had to fight them hence his injuries#he actually got captured a bit and taken to some evil underground gladiator ring he had to fight his way out of mostly in ghost form but#also as a human. and the whole time he just thought abt the only friend he has in this new city which is duke. a mer he visits when he can#there is just SO much i want to write for this but i have to hold myself back....#this whole asking for prompts thing is to make myself writing shorter things... keep fics brief... not 10k+....#anyways. thanks for the prompt!!#i went straight for the hurt/comfort lol
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I’ve been asking ppl cus im nosy. What’s your writing process like if any? Do u have a preferred place or time. Preferred device. Do u write rough drafts then edit or is it much more considered. How do u decide that an idea is worth fleshing out or pursuing if it looks like it’s plotty. Pls yap at length if u so wish — wiz
i love this question!! and would love to know other answers so if you want to reblog them i shall be on the lookout 👀.
i answered partly here so will just like build on that!!
the process is that i’ll have an idea and depending on how large it is write out some sort of outline. my preference for all planning in life is on paper so i have a little journal that ill write out some ideas in. kind of brainstorm / mind map style of just jotting down random ideas that come to mind.
however, with longer fics like my current post-as-i-go wip i have to do it digital bc so much changes and it’s too long (see pics in previous ask). that one i actually started planning in my notes app on a plane bc the idea had to come out of me someway and i was really excited about it. i then transferred it to a google doc and added onto my chapter per chapter outline (1st pic in previous ask). i felt like that was a bit overwhelming for understanding the overall plot so then i went and made a simple overview of the key plot points per chapter (the 2nd pic in previous ask) just so i felt like i had a better understanding of the goal per chapter.
now when i sit down to write a chapter ill get both the detailed notes and the main plot points and just write whatever i feel like in order to get to the goal of the chapter.
for shorter one shot fics i’ll either have no full outline or a one page idea list kind of thing. for instance, for worth the trouble i knew that it would start and end in the present time and then everything in between would be a flashback, but i didn’t know the flashbacks would be non chronological until i was writing it. same for the chewing gum aspect that ends up being quite an important part of the symbolism and that almost weaves the parts together, that wasn’t a *thing* until i was almost finished with the rough draft and i then went to add it in to previous scenes.
for my long fic i have to be a bit more calculated with the hidden messages/foreshadowing as i can’t go back and edit published chapters lmao so that is a little more thought out + i keep track of loose ends to tie together at some point.
editing is a bit of a harder one. for my long fic my overal editing is per chapter, but i do tend to go back and edit per section too. like right now I’m writing a texting scene and first i wrote the plain texting dialogue, then i went back to add the bits in between from characters’ pov. then i’ll read over it fully and edit where needed. finally when the whole chapter is done ill read over it and edit again, but at that point it’s mainly grammar and punctuation.
my main writing issues i’ve noticed so far is that i tend to switch tenses without realising so that’s something i look out for when editing. i also am always worried they don’t *do* enough so i like to think “hmm what action can i add in here to make them more human” when editing.
so far only worth the trouble has been beta read, the rest i do myself. if I’m stuck i will talk through a lot of it with my partner who will give me some ideas and just like help lmao (she’s also the one that beta read wtt!). but she’s not in the f1 fandom so it’s a little hard to have her beta read for characterisation and specific plot points so i do that myself. like when she beta read wtt she gave a few points of feedback that weren’t too relevant bc the average f1 fic reader would understand (like the significance of spa21, there is no need to explain it).
I’m a baby fic writer so a lot of my process will be redefined and refined as i go I’m sure.
as for deciding what to write, it’s really whatever captures my attention. the prompt for help me hold onto you is one i really liked and a trope i love reading myself. i was also ready to challenge myself to a longer plot fic and i was really excited about the idea so i just went for it! my main consideration is really just how excited i am for it.
i will say that i am currently really struggling with perfectionism / imposter syndrome. I’m having a hard time getting the words onto paper bc it feels like it’ll never be as good as my favourite authors anyway so what’s the point. (which is now also impacting the way i read fics bc it makes me sad that ill never write anything as good as what I’m reading lol)
i generally write on my laptop! in a google doc with grammarly activated and the word count on screen (which pisses me off bc i have to turn it back on after every refresh). i wrote my latest crafty!oscar on my phone (bc i was too excited to wait till i got to my laptop) but wouldn’t ever do that for anything much longer or plot-ier than that.
i fear this has gotten very long. i know u said yap away but …. i perhaps have yapped too close to the sun.
#really liked answering this :-) and the fic writer asks from the weekend too. so fun#she says as she still has unanswered asks from that game in her inbox#anyway#thanks wiz <3 a community gem as always#m answers#about me
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Birdie's Prompts Etiquette - Masterlist
Since I have been getting a lot of prompts lately, both on here as well as on Ao3, for which I am so thankful, I decided to re-make my original post on my writing limits and type the whole thing out in closer detail. No type of judgement of course🖤
Where should I leave you prompts?
I am taking prompts only on Tumblr. All prompts which are left in the comment section under one of my works on Ao3 will be in the future ignored and/or deleted.
My ask box is always open, and you can send me a prompt at any time, both anoymous as well as openly!
What type of prompts can I leave?
Please always state the fandom/pairing the prompt is for. If this isn't given, I am taking the liberty to decide for myself who I want to write about.
Simple One-Word Prompts
Longer formulated requests
Anything in between
What type of content are you willing to write?
Definitely:
T-M rated content
M/M Pairings
Angst, Creepy Fluff, Fluff, Slice of Life, Romance, Hurt/Comfort etc.
Fandoms I am currently writing for on Ao3.
Maybe:
E rated content
M/F Pairings
Whump and general triggering/dark content
Smut
Topics requiring these Archive Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, major character death, rape/non-con
Fandoms I haven't written for before
No:
F/F Pairings
Gen-Category Fics
Underage
Crack Fics
Glorified or fetishized unhealthy/abusive (canon) relationships. Yes, some of the couples I write for a questionable, but I am always aware of the dark nature of their relationships. I probably won't write whole-hearted, sweet "UwU, they are so cute together"-content for these type of ships, unless I go full AU.
What can I expect from you?
Any form of a Drabble (simple, double, triple, collection etc.)
A shorter Ficlet
A Oneshot
What should I keep in mind?
I am not taking any Long-Fic requests currently
I take the liberty to decide for myself which prompts I want to write about, and I sadly cannot promise you, that your prompt will be filled
You are free to send me several prompts, but please do not hand in the same prompt multiple times - I can assure you, I got it the first time around
Please remember the human 🖤
In case you are not sure about something, you can always leave me a prompt, and whether or not I answer it depends on how comfortable I am with the topic/fandom etc. Or just message me privately! I won’t judge you either way!
Thank you so much for all your interest and prompts, they really do mean a lot!
-- Birdie 🖤🦇
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Writing Prompts list 1 (Miscellaneous but mainly hurt/comfort)
Okay so I made this and another one that will be up soon for you guys so that while you're waiting for the taken for granted fic part 2 and other stuff you can request this with any hq character you want!!!
Format of asking with example:
HQ character name: Ushijima
Timeskip: Yes or no
Prompt number: 1, 56 and 64
One line in which you explain angst or fluff
RULES:
No more than three prompts per request.
DIALOGUE PROMPTS
MISCELLANEOUS (Meaning I dont know how to categorise them and Its 2 am and I lost my patience tho knowing me its probabs all fluffy protective angst)
(Some are obviously romantic and fluffy so i’ll mark them with a 💜 but the rest are here and there kind of thing)
“I’m worried about you”
“I meant it when I said I would protect you”
“I’m not stepping aside until you back up”
“It’s too cold for you to come out here without a jacket on”
“I’ll go see what the noise was”
“Stay on the phone with me”
“Promise me you’ll be safe”
“I don’t feel comfortable with you going there on your own”
“They did what to you?”
“I won’t let you go through something like that again”
“I’m not perfect, but I’m trying my hardest to do everything to keep you safe”
“Do you even see how pale you are?”
“No you’re not fine. you need help!”
“I’m going to fix you right up okay?”
“I can’t stand seeing you in so much pain”
“I need to clean you up first”
“There’s so much blood”
“As cute as you are when sick and needy get better now please” 💜
“Nothing’s gonna happen to me with you taking care of me right?”
“Don’t ever leave my sight again”
“Where are you going? Its not safe right now”
“You’re scared of that aren’t you? I told you so”
“Don’t touch them... don’t you dare touch them”
“It’s cute that you tried to protect me and all that but you’re like a foot shorter than me you know?” 💜
“I will always step in between you and something like that”
“No don’t do that it’s not safe”
“I’ll drive you but please please don’t go like this”
“Wait let me walk you home”
“I’m not gonna let you put up with that”
“Stay behind me”
“I love you of course I’m going to defend you like that”
“Are you planning to stay glued to my side this whole evening?” 💜
“I’m coming to get you... dont you dare move”
“You don’t actually expect me to just let you go do you?”
“I’m not leaving this place without you”
“It’s your fault for expecting me to take this seriously” 💜
“You’re sleeping with me tonight”💜
“You’re cute when you’re angry”💜
“I never said I don’t think about you” 💜
“Say the words and I’m yours” 💜
“Would it kill you to relax?”
“Thats the problem! you don’t think you deserve something so you ruin it”
“I don’t want your apology”
“You’ve never hurt me ever...(before)”
“I let you down”
“Fuck what everybody else thinks”
“This is quite possibly the last thing I had wanted to be doing tonight”
“Do not touch that... I’m warning you”
“Get your ass over here before I drag you here myself”
“I think it’s adorable how easily you blush” 💜
“I just want to take care of you” 💜
“Don’t tell me not to worry because I’m going to do that anyway” 💜
“If you’re so cold why didn’t you say something?”
“Wait this was a bad idea, now my face is like a tomato” 💜
“They are too good for me... don’t ya think?” 💜
“God you’re so precious” 💜
“Whenever I kiss your cheek you light up like the red light on the police car” 💜
“If I kiss you once I will do it a hundred more times... i’m warning you” 💜
“I’ve learned that you telling me to ‘shut up’ is really just you saying ‘stop making me blush’“ 💜
“I don’t care that you’re sick...In fact you need more cuddles now than ever” 💜
“Tell me I’m cute or I’ll tickle you” 💜
“I love you you insolent cockroach so shut up and let me love you!” 💜
“The best way you could possibly cheer me up is to give me some space”
“I’m sad and I’m going to keep being sad until you hug me” 💜
“I’m sorry... I must have been a really awful person to you for you to think I would do that to you”
“Tell me about your day sweetheart, let me make it better” 💜
“It’s not up for discussion, you’re my date” 💜
“Baby please shut the fuck up... said with love and care” 💜
“Nothing is wrong with you”
“Tell me what’s wrong? please please please tell me whats wrong”
“If you don’t want to keep standing may I suggest sitting in my lap? Much recommended. Great comfort quality” 💜
“You’re being cute and sweet. It’s making me want to kiss you” 💜
“I can’t help it, you’re fun to mess with” 💜
“Please don’t shut me out”
“I can’t believe you haven’t noticed, I’m screaming for someone to notice, to help me, and yet no one does”
“Is it that hard to ask for help?”
“We’re on the same team why the hell are you hiding things from me?”
“OMG is that why you’ve been wearing that sweater so goddam much”
“You’re okay?? Really you're okay? cause this doesn’t fucking look like it”
“Try to eat something please”
“I’ll protect you... they’ll never touch you again”
“Your ability to distract me is unmatched” 💜
“You promised me... you promised me you wouldn’t be reckless”
“I feel like I’m going to love you for a very long time” 💜
“As long as we dont separate in the crowd I’ll be fine”
“You told me you were okay... you promised me you were okay”
“How does anyone expect me to deal with this?”
“Hush now, It’s alright. you’re not alone” 💜
“I love you even when you’re sleepless, annoying and frustrated or rather frustrating” 💜
“You’re my baby, and i’ll be damned if anyone tries to say otherwise” 💜
“My future has you in it. Everything else is just a bonus” 💜
“If you think I’m not sleeping on your chest/boobs all night you’re wrong” 💜
“Are you ashamed of me?”
“I might’ve just lost the only good thing to have happened to me”
“Just one more chance please I’ll do anything”
“Well you're not allowed to leave me ever okay please promise promise never”
“I’m sorry I won’t do it again”
“Can you keep holding my hand please”
“Let me hug you” 💜
“You always duck away when you smile... please let me see you” 💜
“Like I expected you're much comfier than my pillow” 💜
“You came back?”
“I promised you this didn’t I”
“I love you a lot more than you will ever believe” 💜
“Quit smiling at me, I cant stop messing up my sentences when you look at me like that” 💜
“Wait dont pull away not yet” 💜
“I’ll feel better if you let me walk you home” 💜
“If I do this you have to promise to kiss me” 💜
“It’s my turn to use, my turn to hurt someone else instead of being hurt...”
“Im like 99% sure this is illegal”
“This is my favourite day ever” 💜
“I’m not moving. Your lap is comfy” 💜
“You’re my new pillow” 💜
“Please dont make me answer that”
“Did you just hiss at me”
“Its 6 in the morning. You are not having vodka”
“What was I supposed to do? the kids they ambushed me” 💜
“You dont know what you do to me do you?” 💜
“I just want you to be safe. Thats all Ive ever wanted for you”
“I love you.. I do but I need you to go away because you’re really bloody distracting and I really have to pass this test tomorrow okay?” 💜
“You weren’t there... why weren’t you there?”
“I’m going to die and I’m going to die with an absolute idiot”
“Lie to me please I’m begging you lie to me. Make me feel whole again”
“What am in your life? Because as of lately I feel as though I have been nothing to you”
“Fight me you stuffy bitch? Come o whatch’ya gonna do? you're just a stuff toy nothing more nothing less” 💜
“you're about as intimidating as a Chihuahua” 💜
“Come back to bed” 💜
“No I’m supposed to be making you feel good” 💜
“Hey god I dont know if you're up there or listening but please please make this work out... this one has to be it, the one that stick okay?” 💜 (This would be brilliant with atsumu)
“My friends keep telling me to fix this...tell me how to fix it” 💜 (This as well)
“I don’t remember a fight or any reason for a break up so why?”
“Give me one reason... any reason at all to fall out of love with you please”
“Quit trying to fix me when you need to fix yourself”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you trusted me?
“What you did was stupid, reckless and dumb and exactly why I can’t leave you alone”
“I dont want to do this without you”
“Im sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me”
“Did you do this to yourself?”
“You know you try to hide it even though I can see right through you right?”
“Theres something you’re not telling me”
“Whats wrong with you? what the hell happened back there and I told you to stay by my side”
“No I dont want to say goodbye not when I just got you back”💜
“You think its funny but its not. That hurts a lot”
“I’ll always love you but trust is a different question entirely”
“I dont want to live without you but that doesn’t mean I cant... dont make me prove it”
“I’d give up so much for just one more chance”
“I need to go fix what I had with them”
“I want an answer and I’m not leaving without one”
“I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending they're you”
“ And what happens if I do this”
“You make me want things I can’t have”
“When you love someone you just dont stop... its not a switch you can flick on and off... ever even when everyone around you roll their eyes and call you crazy... especially then” 💜
“I cant be your secret... not anymore”
“Don’t you dare tell me to give up on you and us like you, me and what we had didn’t mean anything cause I’ll do anything.. go to the ends of the earth and burn world and people down but giving up on this is the one thing I can’t do”
“I’m allowed to be obsessed with you Im your spouse” 💜
.
Part 2 will be up soon!
Consider donating to my Ko-Fi: Ko-fi.com/justmywriting1313 :)
#prompt list#dialogue prompt#HQ WRITING#HQ fics#hq imagines#hq headcanons#hq angst#hq fluff#haikyuu fandom#haikyuu fic#haikyuu prompts#angst prompt#fluff prompts#hurt/comfort#hurt/comfort prompts#haikyuu angst#haikyuu fluff#haikyuu x reader#haikyuu x you#haikyuu x plus size reader#obey me!#obey me fic#obey me x reader#obey me prompts#obey me prompt list#obey me fanfic#obey me angst#obey me fluff#obey me writing
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Dreambur - Pirate AU fic requested by @peppsta
Using the sentence “You’re too distracting with your handsome face and… your… everything!” (Took a bit of creative liberty to make it work)
I am happy with how this turned out. I've been a bit too critical of my writing lately but I generally like this one. Peppsta I hope this fits what you had in mind with the prompt! :)
I hope you all enjoy!
-
Wilbur laughed, joyous, as the wind hit his face. The open sea was such a wonderful place! His love of its wonders and mysteries and melodies was endless. He was a traveling musician, a quite successful one at that. His music was known all across the world and many lords and kings requested his presence to perform at their castles. That’s what he was doing now, headed back to England, summoned by his Majesty’s request to perform at the annual ball.
“Mr. Soot please get down from there!” The Captain’s orders barked hastily at him had him turning with a grin. He was standing up on the bowspirit of the ship and the Captain of the vessel was standing just behind him, hands on his hip and a growing annoyance in his eyes.
Wilbur relented, his boots hitting the bed with a thud as he hopped down to stand beside the Captain. He fixed the older man with an innocent look and a charming smile, “I do apologize Captain. I love the sea so much that I sometimes cannot help myself.”
The Captain regarded him with a knowing look and sighed, “Just please refrain from doing it in the future. It makes the crew nervous. None of us want to report to his Majesty that his requested musician fell overboard.”
“Of course Captain!” Wilbur saluted, mockingly.
The Captain opened his mouth, no doubt to reprimand the action, but was stopped by a frantic call from above.
“Captain! Captain! Skull and crossbones on the horizon!”
The Captain whirled into action, turning full circle to run to the helm. Curious, Wilbur followed closely.
“Pirates?” He asked, excitedly but none around him seemed to share his enthusiasm.
The Captain shot him a sharp look, wordlessly taking the spyglass that was handed to him. He looked through it, curses falling from his lips.
“It’s the bloody Speedrunner!” The Captain announced, turning for the wheel. He started to bark orders. Raise the sails, all hands on deck. “Mr. Soot below deck!” was the Captain’s last order.
Wilbur protested but the Captain cut him off. “Sir, whether you like it or not, you are under my command until you reach shore and you will do as I say and I’m telling you to go below deck.”
Wilbur was escorted below deck, not before he got a peak at the fastly approaching vessel. The light vibrant green sails of the ship stood in stark contrast to the jolly roger waving above them. ‘Tacky’ Wilbur thought as he was ushered below deck.
-
Try as she might, the merchant vessel was no match for the speed of the pirate ship. The Captain gritted his teeth as soon, his crew and his ship was completely taken over by the ragtag group of pirates.
“Dream,” The Captain gritted out with annoyance, heedless of the gun and cutlasses that were pointed at him and his crew. Dream usually never spilt blood during his raids and the Captain had been at sea long enough, had met with the pirate in these exact situations enough times, to know that the show of aggression was all bluff.
The Pirate Captain wasn’t much. He was tall and slim and didn’t even look or dress like a Captain. He wore dirty ragged clothes, a lime green bandana tied around his head to keep his dirty blond hair pulled back. He also wore a mask over the lover portion of his face, hiding all but his emerald green eyes from view. No one had ever seen his face and if they had, rumors had it they never lived to tell about it.
The Captain had no intention of doing that. He just watched the cocky pirate as he sauntered up to him.
“Sparklez!” Dream greeted happily, throwing his hands out, “what a surprise that we ran into each other again while you were transporting goods!”
Captain Sparklez pinched the bridge of his nose, insisting tiredly, “Just get what you came to get and leave”
Dream was grinning under his mask as he laughed, “Glad we have an understanding Captain,” he turned to a couple of his crew, “Alright boys, you heard the Captain, go see what’s below deck for the taking!”
A couple of the crew, a slightly shorter man with dark hair and a white headband tied around his head, a thin man with glasses and wearing a black, red trimmed, cloak, and another pirate that appeared to be in a full reindeer costume, headed below deck.
Captain Sparklez hoped they didn’t discover Wilbur but his hopes were dashed when muffled shouting sounded from below.
“What the hell?” Dream demanded, going to the stairs to call down, “Everything okay!”
“Look what we found!” Came the replying yell moments before the pirates were reappearing and dragging Wilbur with them. “He was trying to hide behind the salmon.”
Wilbur was pushed before the pirate captain. Wilbur looked up with wide eyes. Dark brown met emerald green. Both seem to freeze.
“Got something you wanna tell us Captain Sparklez?” The pirate in the black cloak asked, suspiciously. He glanced at Wilbur then his own Captain, who was still frozen.
“The boy is headed to Britian. He’s but a musician who hired me to ferry him.” Captain Sparklez answered hastily. He also was looking at Wilbur and Dream. “He is an innocent bystander in all of this.”
The pirate opened his mouth, possibly to ask more questions but he was cut off by his Captain.
‘Who are you?” Dream asked Wilbur, his voice soft and held none of the cockiness it had before.
Both crews, pirate and merchant, looked at the two with raised eyebrows and some with shocked expressions.
“Wilbur. Wilbur Soot.” Wilbur answered earnestly and Captain Sparklez facepalmed and muttered, “Boy, don’t engage with the pirate.”
“Why?” Wilbur asked, glancing at Sparklez, “He’s interesting.”
Laughter erupted from Dream. “Yeah Sparklez,” He said, his voice playful and teasing as he looked at the merchant ship’s Captain, “I’m interesting.”
“Please don’t feed his ego.” One of the pirates, a man dressed in light blue with a pair of goggles covering his eyes, warned in exasperation and Dream whirled around to face him.
“Oh shut up George, he can feed my ego as much as he wants to.” Dream demanded though the grin was evident in his voice. George just rolled his eyes at his Captain. Dream turned back, winking at Wilbur, who’s cheeks colored pink.
“So Mr. Soot, you do music?” Dream asked, conversationally as he leant against the mast of the ship.
“Dream, what about the cargo?” The pirate with the white headband asked and Dream waved him off with an order, “Start loading it on the Speedrunner obviously.”
“Dumbass,” the pirate muttered before motioning to a few of the crew and they disappeared below deck.
“I… I uh… yeah.” Wilbur muttered, “I’m actually on my way right now to perform for his Majestic at the castle.”
Dream whistled, impressed, “You’re Mr. Popular then aren’t you?”
Wilbur laughed softly, shaking his head. His brown curls bouncing on top of his head, “Something like that”
“What are some of your songs? Perhaps I’ve heard some of them?” Dream questioned. A crash was heard and his attention snapped to his crew and the box of produce that was now spilling out over the deck, hollering, “Hey be careful with the goods. We need those!”
“Sorry Captain.”
Dream turned back to Wilbur, “Sorry. Go ahead.”
“Let’s see there’s Jubilee Line, Since I Saw Vienna, Soft Boy, Saline Solution, Maybe I was Boring.”
“I’ve heard that one!” Dream exclaimed, eyes shining, “Maybe I was Boring. It was being sung in one of the pirate owned taverns. The guy singing it was trying to pass it off as one of his own but he didn’t look smart enough to come up with something so beautiful.”
“Yes well, as I’m sure you are well aware, there are thieves in every trade I’m afraid,” Wilbur sighed before he seemed to catch the last part of the sentence, “Wait you think my song is beautiful?”
“That’s not the only thing I think is beautiful,” Dream’s voice dropped as he reached up and closed the space between them. They were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Callahan was standing to the side, he looked apologetic.
“I do not mean to alarm anyone and I certainly hate to break up whatever is transpiring between the two of you, Captain but there is a ship on the horizon. Looks like the Navy.”
Wilbur was left at the mast as Dream stepped quickly to the side of the ship and took the spyglass from George. He looked through it, muttering out a curse before barking, “Everyone back to the ship!”
His crew reached instantly.
“What about this ship?” the pirate in the white headband asked almost eagerly as he headed for the ropes that connected the two ships together, “You said we could start sinking them.”
“What?!” Sparklez’s outraged voice rose up as panicked murmurs rose up from the crew. Wilbur’s breath caught in his throat.
“Not this one,” Dream said, his voice steeled with finality. Emerald eyes met dark brown once more, “Today this ship was saved by a distracting handsome face and everything else. So long for now and Mr. Soot? I’m sure you and I will meet again in the future”
Dream gave a little salute before joining his crew and soon the Speedrunner was just a speck in the distance as the Naval ship approached.
Wilbur stood at the bow of the ship, watching as the pirate ship disappeared in the distance. A soft smile on his lips and his whole body was warmed. The pirate captain certainly was charming wasn’t he.
“Charming?” Sparklez repeated with alarm as the Naval ship pulled up alongside them and Wilbur realized that he must’ve uttered the sentence out loud. A hand fell on his shoulder and the Captain leaned down to speak quietly, a warning, “Son let me tell you something, no matter how ‘charming’ he may be, at the end of the day he’s a pirate and you need to stay well away from him. He’s dangerous, not only in general, but also to your career.”
Wilbur tried to heed Captain Sparklez warning but he couldn’t get his mind off the oddly charming pirate. He hoped that Dream was being sincere when he said they would meet each other again because he was looking forward to it.
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It be June 3rd now, and would you look at that, the second of my prompts is already up! Who’d a thunk it? Anyway, as successfully guessed by the lovely @torahime here is 5 + 1! And as by the nature of this trope in general, this one ended up long. Like crazy loooooooong. (Also I’m a moron who didn’t understand what the prompt meant for like a week. I kept trying to figure out what the hell the number six had to do with anything, and when I finally googled it out of desperation, all I saw were the words ‘five times’ in the first link and I immediately felt ashamed of myself. I should have known. Why didn’t I know?)
Anyways, you can read the long-ass fic in question at ao3 over here: Do You Ever Wonder What Could Have Been? You can also read this one under the cut, but considering the length I wouldn’t recommend it asdhaskdjh The next one should be much shorter due to the fact that like the first one, I blanked for ideas completely lol.
Do You Ever Wonder What Could Have Been?
Trope: 5 + 1
Fandom: Until Dawn
Characters: Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley, Josh Washington (all the other kids also make an appearance but due to them only having like one scene and a single line each I’m not tagging them)
Words: 12733
Rating: Teen (though I think I’m being pretty damn generous with that rating tbh)
Authors Notes: Yes you’re reading that word count right. Almost thirteen thousand words. Don’t ask how I managed to write this in 5 days, I have no fucking idea. Just take this fic about two nerds being morons in love and mutually pining over each other for six. fucking. years.
Chris is fourteen and so goddamn tired of this stupid crush on his best friend. It's been a whole year now since he met her, and he hates that this stupid, silly, little, crush of his hasn't abated at all. He doesn't even know why he likes her in the first place! It's just Ashley after all, there is absolutely no reason to feel this tongue-tied around his best friend. It's Ash: with her braces, arms always full books (when her head wasn't buried in one that is), stringy red hair, wide green eyes, who sometimes snorts when he tells a joke, freckles that dot her nose and shoulders and—
Okay, he was maybe getting a little side-tracked here. The point was, there was 100% absolutely no reason to feel this way about her. In fact, he bets this was all Josh's fault in the first place! Yeah! That was it! None of this would be happening if Josh hadn't basically kidnapped Ashley from her true home in the library and forced him to meet her!
...But then he wouldn't have met her. And stupid crush aside, she is pretty much the only girl he knows who laughs at all his jokes and helps him with his English homework sometimes. He likes knowing her and likes being her friend even more, he just doesn't like liking her. And maybe that was it? Maybe he just likes Ashley cause she's the only girl who willingly hangs out with him and Josh, and isn't Josh's sisters.
And that's what he's going to prove today once and for all. He heard from Josh that Hannah was absolutely adamant that everyone was going to play spin-the-bottle at her and Beth's birthday party in a couple of days. And that everyone meant not only the people that the twins invited for said party, but also the people that Josh invited over (ie: Chris and Ash) so he would have some company during the twins big b-day bash. Chris was going to find Ashley and explain that losing their first kiss over a game like spin-the-bottle was just so not cool, and that maybe kissing each other first would just be a way better and smarter idea of doing things. And once he kissed her he would finally realize that yup, Ash was just one of the guys and that was so fucking gross and they were totally never ever going to do that again.
Perfect idea. Fool proof even. No way that this was totally going to backfire into his face. Absolutely none at all!
So when he finds Ashley sitting and reading under her usual tree just outside of the school, he is so sure of the success of his ingenious plan that he brings it up right away.
"I think we should kiss before Hannah and Beth's party."
See! Right away! Straight to the point. He has got this shit in the bag baby!
Ashley looks up at him, clearly a little startled from reading her book and squints at him. "Huh? Chris? Is that you?" For a second he's a little confused about how Ash doesn't even recognize him, but then he quickly realizes that he's probably got the sun directly at his back so she can't see him clearly and he awkwardly shuffles to the left a little so she can see him better. "Oh! Hey Chris, what was that you said earlier? I got so absorbed that I didn't really hear a thing you said, sorry." While she doesn't close her book, she does give an embarrassed little laugh that makes his stomach flip-flop just a little and starts to weaken at the cracks of his once fool-proof plan.
He finds himself messing with the strap on his bookbag as he tries to ignore the butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. 'Um, I asked if you were going to the twins' birthday party this weekend." Okay, falling a little behind schedule now, but it's fine. No problem.
"I mean, I wasn't exactly invited, but yeah. A whole night of graphic horror movies to drown out the sounds of screaming pre-teens. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night." The absolute dryness of her tone has Chris smiling.
"Oh come on Ash, it's not gonna be that bad."
"Our choices are either to hang out with a bunch of kids who have basically never talked to us ever, or watch Josh's disgusting horror movies Chris."
"Well, I mean, when you put it that way...actually, no. The screaming pre-teens sound like a safer bet honestly." The little snort of laughter she lets out only has Chris pushing the butterflies down harder. God, he is going to be so glad when those stupid things finally leave him alone. "And well, from what Josh said, it sounds like horror isn't the only thing planned for that evening."
"It isn't? You mean he's actually opening up to other movie genre options? Shocking. I truly never thought I would see the day."
"Ha, I wish. Nah, I was, um, talking about what the girls—well, what Hannah wanted to play. Actually." Great. And now he's starting to blush. Really keeping with the rails of his plan there!
"What Hannah...? Oh! You're, uh, talking about the spin-the-bottle game." Ashley brings her lower lip into her mouth and pushes some hair behind her ear. "Yeah, Josh mentioned something about that."
Perfect, one less thing he had to explain. That would speed things up immensely. "Honestly, between you and me? I think it's a stupid idea."
Ashley nods her head vigorously in agreement. "I know right! I mean, who wants to kiss some stranger over a bottle of all things? Can you imagine losing your first kiss to some person who probably doesn't have a single idea who you are in the first place? God that would be awful." Oh man, things are lining up right for him! Ashley's even on the same page and this next part is going to be so easy— "That's why I asked Josh if I could kiss him first instead when he told me a couple of days ago."
Wait. Waitwaitwait wait . She already asked Josh?! "Oh, wow. You were, uh, really thinking ahead there huh?" God, he could feel every ounce of determination he had slowly deflating out of his body. There was no way he could ask her now, absolutely no way! Ashley was gonna think that Chris wanted to kiss her—or worse, liked her! And okay he kind of did, but this was supposed to prove the exact opposite. That this was just stupid hormones and puberty really messing with his life and not something else.
"Of course, there was absolutely no way I was gonna have my first kiss with some popular buttface who was just gonna make fun of me behind my back afterwards. Better to have it with Josh, who would also make fun of me, but at least it would be to my face." Ashley starts to return to her book, flipping a page but stops halfway through. "Wait. Were you going to ask me the same thing?" She sounds a little unsure and a little of something else he can't place right now because he's too busy trying not to panic.
"What? No! God no! Of-of course not!" Oh god, was his voice seriously choosing to crack now? He really, really hoped that the shade being cast from the tree was enough to hide how red his face was. He needed to get out of here and quick .
"I-I-I mean, it's not like it was good or anything—"
"Think I should probably go now anyway."
"It was, like, really wet and-and-and like so bad. Super awkward honestly."
"Lots of things to do. Lots and lots of things to do in fact!"
"I mean, we could still, uh, k-k-kiss? If you want to...?"
"Nope!" Chris was honestly looking everywhere except at Ashley right now, which was fine because she was currently in the middle of trying to hide behind her book. "There's absolutely no reason to do that. Because, because... I already kissed Josh too!"
"...you did?"
"Yup! Totally did. Just came over to see what you had planned to do about it actually. And because you're so much smarter than me, you had totally already done the same thing. So no reason for me to still bother you after all! None whatsoever! So I'll just let you get back to your book. And the battle between the uh, vampire and the, um, cowboy? Riveting stuff I bet."
"Um, yeah. But—"
"I'll just, uh, see you tomorrow then, I guess. Bye!"
Chris thinks he catches a wave of disappointment flash across her face when she returns his farewell, but he's already basically fled half away across the yard to find Josh so he doesn't think about it too much. And it turns out that Ashley is right, kissing Josh is wet and pretty fucking awful in the end. Which should only prove his idea that kissing her would have been just as bad and awkward.
So why does he feel like it would have actually been the complete opposite?
"I'm going to fail."
Ashley rolled her eyes as she struggled not to laugh. "Oh my god, you're not gonna fail Chris."
Chris didn't even deign to raise his head from where he had face-planted it into the open book only moments before, letting his words come out muffled and flat. "I am Ash. I am going to bomb this exam so hard that they're gonna make me repeat ninth grade."
Ashley groaned, but it was more of an attempt to hide her amusement than out of any exasperation, as she tried to lift Chris back into a sitting position and wasn't laid out prostrated over the table. "Okay first of all, get your dumb face out of that book. Ms. Norman is not gonna be happy with either of us if she discovers your drool all over the pages of the only half-decent copy of Lord of the Flies that the school library has." Once she finally has finally managed to prop Chris into a halfway decent sitting position, she moves the book closer to her in case he decides to try smashing his face into it again. "Second of all, I'm pretty sure that the school's not going to make you repeat the grade just because you failed English, your grades in everything else are high enough that they'll definitely pass you. That, and there is no way that the teachers would let Josh move on to high school of all things without supervision."
"...That is a scarily good point."
"And thirdly, there is absolutely no way I would be able to get through the next four years of school with you in my grade," she teases him with a poke in the arm. "I mean can you imagine? Having to go to class everyday knowing you're going to be there with me? I can't think of anything more terrifying honestly."
Chris gives a startled laugh. "Gee, thanks Ash. Really appreciate that vote of confidence. Making my self-esteem soar over here. And also, I for one can think of something way more terrifying."
"Really?" Ashley says as she crosses her arms across her chest and levels him with a disbelieving look. "Well go on then, try me. Cause I can promise you that there is absolutely nothing more terrifying—"
"Me and Josh in the same grade as you."
Ashley just blanches. "Oh god. You're right. That is so much worse and the idea of this even happening is now going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life."
"Oh please, it wouldn't be that bad."
"It would. It so would. And to prevent this we need to double down on you studying for your English final so that this cataclysmic event never occurs."
It's Chris's turn to roll his eyes as he slumps down even further into his seat. "That's what I was doing earlier until you stopped me."
"What? Planting your face into the middle of the book?"
"Exactly. Decided to try out a new method cause the other one wasn't certainly working. Learning by osmosis."
Ashley shoves her face into the palms of her hands to try and stop her giggles. It didn't work, not by a long shot, but it at least smothered them a bit. "You can't just read a book by trying to absorb it into your skin, that's not how things work at all!"
"And how would you know that Ash? Have you ever even tried?" Chris scoffs.
"Of course I haven't you dork! I haven't tried because that's not even possible!"
"Um, sounds to me like someone just isn't open to new ideas."
"Oh my god. Can we please get back to studying and making sure you don't fail. I for one would really like to get back to that." Ashley starts to put the copy of the book back between the middle of them where they can both read it easily. "Okay, so chapter eight is where the divide between the boys finally reaches a boiling point after seeing the 'monster' on the mountain in the last chapter. They argue over whether Ralph should still be left in charge and Jack leaves in a huff."
Chris groaned as he tossed his glasses onto the table so he could throw his arm over his eyes. "Starting to think that Jack has the right idea here." he grumbled.
Ashley ignored him. "Some of the other boys follow after him and form their own tribe with Jack as its chief further down the beach. As a group, the hunters then fall into a savage frenzy when they go hunting and kill a sow, with Roger dealing the killing blow."
"By driving his spear into the thing’s ass," Chris helpfully supplied.
Ashley sighed. "Yes, by doing that. Good to know you're at least remembering some things, but do you remember what happened next?"
Though she couldn't see with Chris's arm in the way, she knew that he was narrowing his eyes in concentration. "Ummm, they... eat the pig?"
Ashley groaned and fought very hard against the impulse to smack her forehead into the center of the table. " Chris . "
"What? Do they not eat the thing? I mean, why even hunt it if they're not gonna eat it?"
"Chris, what they do next is the lead up for what is often considered the most important scene in the entire book! How can you not remember?!"
"I don't know Ash! Kind of think I was distracted by the whole 'shoving a spear into a sow's anus' part!"
"They leave its head on a stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast! This is what creates the Lord of the Flies that Simon sees later that night!"
"Oh right, that. Yeah that sounds a little familiar now that you mention it."
"A little—" Ashley stops fighting against the earlier urge and places her heavy head into her hands in despair. "You literally had to read this book last month! How could you have forgotten so much already?"
Chris groans and drapes himself over the back of his chair. "This is hopeless Ash. I appreciate the help I really do, but I think it's time we face the inevitable and just take a page out of this book."
"What, I stick your head on a pike and be done with you?"
The snort that Chris makes in surprise is enough to bring a tired smile to Ashley's face. "Leaving you to deal with Josh alone? Ha, you wouldn't. Nah, I was talking about just making an offering to the exam gods out there. Think they'll be the best bet I have to pass this shitty ass final."
Ashley removes her head from her hands to give him a withering look. "If we're going that route, you want a kiss for good luck too? Probably work just as well as those gods of yours."
There's an awkward pause, and at first Ashley can't figure out why but then the words finally hit her. She feels her face start to burn and she places her head back into her hands so she doesn't have to look at Chris anymore. Oh god, she can't believe she just said that. Why would she even say that in the first place?! It's a damn good thing that Chris isn't wearing his glasses right now, the heat from her face alone is making her feel like she's about to combust as it is, and him seeing that would probably push her over that physical boundary.
"I-I mean, if you think it will help..." Chris sounds almost bashful when he says it and Ashley snaps her head to him in shock.
"I—" Ashley isn't quite sure what she's trying to say, and is interrupted when her phone buzzes with an incoming text message. She immediately jumps up from her chair and starts grabbing at her things. "Oh man, that's probably my mom here to pick me up. I should really get going."
"Uh, yeah. Yeah! No reason for me to stay if you aren't so I guess I should head out too." Chris starts picking up his stuff too, putting his glasses back onto his face as he shoves his books into his bag.
By nature of having brought less than Chris to help him study, Ashley finishes cleaning first but doesn't leave right away. Chris had said it was fine after all. And sure, maybe he was just desperate for anything that will help him pass his final, but he said it would be fine. So steeling herself, Ashley leans down and leaves a quick but chaste kiss on Chris's cheek.
"For luck!" She manages to squeak out as she all but runs out the doors of the library to the school's entrance where her mom will be waiting for her, too scared to even look back.
Chris should have known that something was up the moment Josh brought it up: 'Hey, how about you and Ash hang out at my house this weekend instead?' Innocent sounding sure, but he really, really should have known better. Josh never pushed for hang outs at his place, it had always been an agreed upon rule that Hannah and Beth got their place, while Josh preferred to host their get togethers and his and Ash's own houses. It was just the thing that was done and everyone had been more than happy with how it was. Had it been any other time, Chris would like to think that he would have totally seen right through Josh's plan and offered up his place instead.
But Josh's parents were almost never around either, and that meant staying up late and talking and goofing around without parents warning them to go to sleep. Which most importantly meant staying up late and talking to Ashley, because that hadn't been a thing that the three of them had been able to do a whole lot recently. It was still so weird not seeing Ash around in the school halls, not being able to hang out at lunch, and not meeting up after school all the time. It felt like there was something huge missing and it bothered him (just as much as it bothered Josh, not that he would ever say anything about it). The two of them wandering the hallowed halls of high school while she was still stuck back in their middle school just felt so wrong .
So when Josh had brought up a weekend hang out, Chris (and Ashley) had accepted right away. Which, judging from the fact that Josh had somehow managed to weasel the two of them into playing a game of Truth or Dare with him, had been a huge mistake.
"Well, well, well. It seems the time has come. So let's get on with it shall we?" Josh rubbed his hands gleefully together in the dim light of the bedroom (for atmosphere he had claimed) as the three of them sat in a circle. A seemingly innocuous plate of cookies sitting in the middle of them, and knowing better then to trust Josh, both Chris and Ash had been eyeing the cookies warily for the past few minutes. Not that Josh seemed to notice or care of course. "Seeing as I'm the one who set up elegant little ritual—"
"You forced us into playing a stupid game dude, there's nothing elegant or ritualistic about it."
Josh ignored him, unsurprisingly. "I'll go first of course. So Ash, truth or dare?"
"What are the cookies for Josh?" Ashley asked nervously as she continued to eye the plate instead of answering him.
"That's not important. And anyways, it's my turn Ash. So I'll ask again: truth or dare Ashley?"
Ashley raised her eyes from the plate to transfer her nervous and mistrustful stare to him. "...truth," she answered slowly.
"Oh ho ho! So truth it is! Well then Ash, tell me: have you got any secrets you've been dying to share with us?"
Chris could immediately tell that the question had hit a sore spot on some sort, shoulders locked and her body stiff. "You know I'm not gonna answer that one. Pass."
Josh shook his head, a devious smile on his lips. "Nope. Nuh uh Miss Brown. That's not how this game works. If you're gonna pass then I'm gonna have to ask that you take a cookie in return."
"...I'm sorry, what? "
He waved a hand down towards the plate of cookies. "These, my dearest chums, are the fabled Truth or Dare cookies. Anytime one of us refuses to act out what is asked of us, we must then take a cookie in penance."
At first, Ashley doesn't move. She continues to dart her eyes suspiciously between Josh and the plate of cookies, but eventually slowly does reach out and hesitantly grab a chocolate cookie from the plate. She holds it up closer to her face to investigate it further, and Chris watches as all the tension she had stored up just evaporates from her as she physically deflates. "Oh my god, are you actually being serious right now Josh? ‘Dare’ brand cookies? Really? Why in the world are you trying to be so ominous when you went with a pun as lame as using Dare cookies in a game of truth or dare?"
"Wait, really?" Chris reaches out to grab one for himself but Josh smacks his hand away with a grin.
"So sorry Cochise, but these are only for if you refuse. And trust me, you don't want to refuse." Josh turns back to Ashley. "Oh, and don't eat that just yet."
In response, she just shrugs and leans back, but keeps the chocolate crème filled cookie in her hand as she looks between Chris and Josh. "It's my turn now, right? Okay, so—"
Josh cuts her off. "Nope, still mine. Now, Chris—"
"What? That's not how this stupid game works Josh!"
Josh waves her off. "You didn't answer my question Ash, or eat the cookie, so it's still my turn."
"But you just told me not to eat the stupid thing!"
Josh ignores her as he keeps his attention squarely on Chris. Who, to his own shame, has begun squirming in his seat in dread of what's going to come. "Well, Chris: truth or dare?"
Chris tosses the options over in his head. Both are terrible obviously, but playing this game with Josh of all people never ends well, so he decides to go with his gut instead. "Dare."
"Ooooh, feeling a little gutsy are we? That's fine, I can work with that. I dare you to... return the favour and do one thing you've been thinking about alllllllll summer."
Personally, Chris is finding it a miracle that he hasn't reached over and tried to strangle Josh yet, but he has a feeling that has more to do with the fact that he's trying not to shrivel up on the floor and die than out of any mercy. Even though Josh for some reason worded it in a really convoluted way, he just literally dared him to kiss Ash. It was so obvious that he was frankly amazed that Ashley hadn't figured it out yet.
Because of course he still thought about that kiss for good luck that Ash had given him in the library. He thought about it nearly all the damn time! Hell, Chris was pretty sure that the reason he had even passed his final even a little bit was because of the kiss. Not because it was good luck or anything, but because whenever a question appeared on the exam that asked about the themes or some shit about Lord of the Flies, he kept getting sent back into that library where Ashley had been drilling the same stuff into him just before she had kissed his cheek.
And there is absolutely no way that he's gonna kiss Ash in Josh's bedroom. No way in hell. Especially not when it's gonna reveal that he had been thinking about what was more than likely a super innocent and helpful gesture on her part.
So glaring at Josh, Chris reaches forward and without a word grabs a vanilla cookie. And for some strange reason, this only causes Josh's smile to widen. "I see, so that's what you both went with huh? Anyways, I think it's about time you take your 'reward' and chow down!"
Exchanging a confused look with Ashley, Chris nonetheless shrugs and pops the entire thing into his mouth and bites down.
And realizes in a horrifying instant that this is not a vanilla cookie.
There's a flash of light that blinds him for a second, and when the spots clear he sees Josh holding a camera and laughing his ass off.
"What the—? Is this fucking mayo dude?!" And it must be, because this is not what a vanilla cookie should ever taste like. While the cookie portion itself is okay if not a little soft, the crème is way too oily and eggy to be anything but mayo. Josh doesn't answer his question right away, but that's from a combo of laughing way too hard and being distracted by Ash trying not to retch in the middle of the bedroom floor.
"Oh my god! You put soy sauce in a cookie?! What is wrong with you Josh?!" She's up in a second and rushing to the garbage can near Josh's desk, and Chris is quick to join her in trying to spit everything out. "I'm never going to get this salt out of my mouth! Why would you even do that?!"
"Cause it's fucking hilarious that's why!" Josh is still laughing as he takes a look at the picture he took on the camera, and starts laughing harder. "Oh fucking hell, this was glorious. Oh wasting those two questions just for this picture was so worth it. Best decision I could have made!
"Now you two get your asses back over here! I spent hours on these cookies after all, and I am not letting them go to waste. We've got hours my friends, and so many questions and dares to get through."
Chris shares a look with Ashley over the garbage bin, both of them now obviously wondering if keeping their own secret had been worth having to eat those cookies, and if they still would have passed their turn knowing what exactly laid in store for them. While he certainly couldn't say a thing about her, Chris wasn't so sure if not kissing Ash and enduring all the fallout that would have resulted in was worth the terrible combination of vanilla and mayo in his mouth. He supposed he would never know, it was too late to simply retract his pass after all.
And well, he really didn't want to kiss Ash when she had just been tricked into eating a bunch of soy sauce.
You know, Ashley kind of figured that once she entered high school all of these stupid games would be done with. Surely high schoolers were too mature and too old to be playing childish games like spin-the-bottle or seven minutes in heaven? And yeah, obviously Chris and Josh weren't, but that was them and they were in a class all their own. But Hannah? And Sam and Beth? She would have thought that they were way too cool to be playing spin-the-bottle of all things, especially Beth.
And yet, here Ashley was: squeezed in between Matt and Sam as Matt spun the bottle around on the now extremely sticky hardwood floor. She wasn't stupid, she knew the entire reason the game was even being played in the first place; Hannah had been making eyes at Mike all through the evening and well into the game after all. She just didn't think that anyone else would have been stupid enough to go along with the game when Hannah suggested it.
(Ashley knew very well why she had reluctantly agreed to play, she just didn't know why anyone else did.)
Though to be fair, it didn't seem like the game was gonna last much longer anyway. Emily and Jess had started scrolling through their phones ages ago, showing each other whatever was on the other's screen every few minutes and the two of them laughing. Mike had been tapping a really off-rhythm beat on his jeans with the straw from his can of soda and staring into space, while Hannah stared lovesick at him . Beth was starting to doze on Sam's shoulder, not that either seemed too concerned about it, and Sam was nervously eyeing all the spilt pop and chips around them that they were gonna have to clean up before they went to bed. Unsurprisingly, Chris was also scrolling through his phone, snickering every now and then as Ashley felt her phone buzz in the pocket of her hoodie whenever he sent whatever it was that he found funny to her and Josh. Josh meanwhile, had joined Matt in building a rather shaky—if not impressive—tower out of discarded plastic cups, straws, and paper plates.
Ashley yawned behind her hand as the bottle slowed it's spin. She had been ready to drop out of the game a round or two back, but hadn't yet because she didn't want to deal with the others teasing her on being a sore loser who backs down the moment the bottle didn't land on the person she wanted it to. Which would lead to Chris asking who it was even though everyone else already knew who because it was glaringly obvious to everyone except him. The sound of the bottle stopping its spin managed to get everyone's attention as they looked at the neck of the bottle pointed squarely at Mike.
Everyone made the expected ' oooooooh ' and wolf whistles that everyone always did in this game, though quieter than they might have usually. Bob and Melinda were sleeping upstairs after all, and the last thing any of them wanted to do was wake them up and have them discover that despite it being nearly three in the morning, that the ten of them were still awake as the snow storm raged outside the lodge. Nonetheless, Matt and Mike both rolled their eyes and leaned over Josh who sat in the middle of them with a groan. Mike also didn't hesitate to take Matt's face into his hands and just plant one firmly on his mouth with no fanfare, other than the continued wolf whistles of course, and the two of them settled back down to their previous antics.
With that done, Ashley stared down nervously at the bottle. Once again, she felt the words stick in her throat. It would just be so easy to say "Oh man you guys, it's really late, I should really just go to bed" but let them die without a fight as she swallowed nervously and gave the bottle a hard flick. She knew exactly why she let the words die, and it wasn't solely because of what the others would say, though that was certainly a large part of it. No, it was because of the same glimmer of hope that sparked in her everytime it was her turn at this stupid game. That maybe this would be the time that the bottle would land on Chris, that she would finally get that kiss she's wanted for three years now.
She watches the bottle spin around the group, slowing its motion every full spin, and she notices that Chris has turned his attention away from his phone to watch it almost as nervously as she is. Which should probably make her question just why Chris is as just as invested on who it's gonna land on as she is, but she's kind of distracted right now by the fact that her heart is rapidly picking up pace in direct contrast to how much slower the bottle is getting. And feels it stop almost entirely when the bottle begins its last revolution and she knows. She knows . It's finally gonna land on Chris. All these years of playing this stupid, stupid game and it's finally happening.
Ashley's eyes shoot up to meet Chris's over the bottle, but that's also when the lodge suddenly plunges into darkness just before the bottle stops on him.
Immediately, the others are screaming next to her and the tower of cups and plates fall with a soft clatter.
"Oh my god! What the fuck was that?!"
"Holy fuck! Can you guys see anything?"
"Of course we can't see anything Michael!"
"It's probably just the storm you guys. Settle down."
"Can you guys please quiet down? My parents are sleeping and they're gonna kill us if they find out we're still awake."
Ashley isn't yelling though, because she's too busy screaming internally. There is no way that this is actually happening right now. There is no goddamn way. The bottle finally lands on Chris and the power goes out? Because of some stupid storm? She wanted to scream. She has half a mind to reach out and hold the bottle in place so there's proof of this when the power comes on, or to just jump over the distance and kiss Chris anyway. She knows exactly where he is after all, and he must have seen it land on him. He must have, right? It's that little second of uncertainty that decides for her, there's a sound as someone gets up and the flat 'thunk' as they accidentally kick the bottle across the room.
"Shit. My bad. You guys stay here, I'll go and check out the back-up generator in the basement. You coming, Cochise?"
Ashley can hear Chris awkwardly and quickly getting to his feet. "Um, y-yeah. Right behind you, bro."
The two of them walk away leaving Ashley to sit on the floor about to scream from the frustration of it all. And she does scream that it is, though not from almost having the perfect excuse to kiss Chris, but from someone touching her shoulder.
"Sorry, sorry!" Sam apologizes. "You were so quiet Ashley that I got nervous. I know that you're scared of the dark and I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Oh, yeah. That's right. She was so preoccupied with the dark ruining what was almost going to be the highlight of her entire year , that she kind of forgot that it was, well, dark now. And once that realization hits her, so too does the fear that she's sitting in absolute darkness and can't see a single thing other than the lights being cast from everyone’s phones. That she has no idea what else—or who else—is out there. She frantically reaches out and wraps up Sam's arm in her own for a physical reminder that there is someone else she trusts in the darkness with her.
"Wait, you're scared of the dark Ash? Shit. Here, just give me a second." From next to her, Matt rustles in his jacket pocket and brings out his phone, turning it on and casting light around the room, and reflecting off the plastic bottle that Josh had accidentally kicked to the other side of the room. "Hope this helps a bit."
Ashley lets out a breath and a small smile. "Yeah, it does. Thanks Matt."
"No problem. Hey, I think I may have a funny video saved on here somewhere. Pretty sure I downloaded it so just give me a moment." He finds the video quickly enough, and while Ashley doesn't find it particularly as funny as he clearly did, she does appreciate the effort anyway.
Thankfully for everyone, the lights come back on soon enough. Though whether from the power coming back or the back-up generator activating, she isn't sure. It is enough to convince everyone that maybe it's time for bed though, and no one asks about her spin and who it landed on, which Ashley is both insulted for and thankful of in equal measure. Sam unfortunately reminds everyone of the mess they've all made of the great room though, and that they should all clean it up before Bob and Melinda wake up and find it, which Hannah and Beth eagerly echo, and so does Josh when he makes his way back up from the basement with scowling Chris in tow.
Thankfully, between the ten of them, the clean up takes very little time and they're all on their way back to their own rooms in record time, even if Ashley was too embarrassed to even look at Chris now. God, she couldn't believe that she had seriously considered jumping him! And for what? Just because some bottle told her to? Oh man, she never would have been able to live that down. She still spends more time then needed to get ready in the bathroom, and then laying in bed with her lamp on in the hopes that maybe Chris will knock on her door to confront her about the spin and ask for that kiss.
While the fact that he doesn't make an appearance doesn't surprise her, it's still a little depressing.
Chris is going to kill Josh. He is going to kill him . And he means it this time. Years spent watching Josh's horror shit and listening to Ash go on and on about her mystery novels should have given him a real edge actually. He can murder Josh violently in the way that the weirdo would probably like to go and then Ash can help him get rid of the body so that no one will ever know it was him. Easy.
You know, assuming Ashley is still gonna want to even associate with him after this.
"You feeling okay, Chris? You're starting to look a little red... and surly."
"Yup, I'm fine. Just peachy in fact." Chris takes another swig of the punch that has somehow not been spiked yet, and tries to plaster a smile on his face for her only to once again start looking over her shoulder. Not that there's anything interesting over her shoulder of course, unless one finds a group of football seniors trying to play a game of chicken in the middle of the dance hall interesting, but it's easier than looking straight at her. Not because she looks terrible of course—good god is that not the reason—but because she is way too fucking gorgeous for him to handle right now.
When Chris had decided to invite her to his and Josh's grad thing, it had just been a way for all three of them to hang out and enjoy their last year of high school together. School rules dictated after all that for some stupid reason, graduates weren't allowed to invite anyone who wasn't in school anymore so Ash wasn't going to be able to ask them to hers next year. Which was complete and utter bullshit of course, but that was beside the point. It was supposed to be a fun night... and then Chris's parents found out. And being the complete pain in the asses they are, they insisted that if Ash was going to this party with them, and it was a formal party, then they needed to make this proper. So against his wishes and leaving Chris wanting to die, they went and found out what colour of dress Ash was going to be wearing and got him not only a matching tie but a fucking corsage to go with it! The only thing that had made all of that even a little better, was that they had forced Josh to go along with it so at least he wouldn't be alone.
But then Josh had showed up not wearing his stupid tie and without the fucking flowers. And despite Chris's repeated protests that he didn't want to do the whole matching thing, especially if Josh wasn't doing it, his parents still made him do it anyway, saying all the while that 'it would make Ashley happy, you do want to make Ashley happy don't you?' And now here he was, sitting with Ashley at their table while she wore his stupid flowers on her wrist and his tie matched her green dress.
He hated how fucking obvious his crush was s0 much.
"...It's because of what everyone's been saying isn't it?"
At the dejected tone of her voice, Chris immediately snaps his full attention to her, leaving his glass of punch forgotten as he flaps his hands around in an effort to not reach out and grab at her hand. "What? No! God no! That isn't it I swear!"
Ashley sighs sadly as she looks glumly down at her lap. "It's fine Chris. I can understand if it's making you uncomfortable."
Chris takes one of his ineffectually flapping hands and makes to run it through his hair, before remembering the amount of gel he had put in it before coming and rubs at his eyes beneath his glasses. "I'm serious Ash, that's not it. I was honestly just thinking about the different ways I'm going to murder Josh when he gets back."
She laughs a little at that, and turns to look out into the direction of the buffet table, as though she'll be able to see Josh coming back with their food through the literal sea of people. "He has been gone a while hasn't he? He left like twenty minutes ago and he still isn't back. Do you think he even went to the buffet table in the first place?"
"He better have. Him coming back with food is probably about the only thing that's going to stop me from murdering him honestly."
Ashley laughs a little louder, and when she pushes a stray strand of hair that had come undone from her simply styled updo, Chris catches the while flowers on her wrist and feels his stomach flip pleasantly. "Any particular reason you want to kill Josh this time?"
"I mean, I have plenty but let's just be honest with ourselves here: do either of us ever need a reason to wanna kill Josh, Ash?"
And there it is, the surprised snort he was waiting for and that just made this entire evening a little more bearable. "God, you're not wrong." She follows his eye line to the corsage on her wrist and just like that all levity to the situation is gone as she hides her hands back in her lap under the table. "...you're sure that you're okay with what everyone is saying though?" she asks a little nervously.
Honestly? No, he isn't. Ever since the three of them walked into the party, everyone they had talked to right away had noticed the matching colours and the corsage and all comments had been the same. 'Fucking knew that there was something going on between you two' and 'Hey, it's about fucking time' or 'Always knew that you two would be good together'. It had been bad enough realizing that apparently almost everyone he had ever spoken to even a little bit had known of his super obvious feelings for his best friend, but the absolute worst thing had been the pained but polite smile that Ash had forced onto her face every single time.
"Honestly, I'm never going to see most of these people ever again once I graduate." He's avoiding the question, and he knows that she knows that he's avoiding the question. "But you're probably gonna have to deal with people brining this stupid thing up for the entire next year. Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's not like this is something I don't deal with already." She says it with a little shrug and smile, but Chris can feel his heart sink anyway. How long has she had to deal with the bullshit that his stupid crush has caused her, and why had she never told him? It's way too late to try and fix things, but he can at least hopefully try and stop any further comments from coming, so he lets his fingers fly to his tie and starts to frantically undo it. "...What are you doing Chris?"
"Wondering why on earth I let my parents talk me into this. This is obviously making you uncomfortable and I should have taken this stupid thing off ages ago." His fingers keep catching on the knot and he lets out a fairly explicit curse under his breath.
Ashley's eyes go wide with realization. "Oh!" She instantly flips over her wrist and starts fumbling at the clasp of the corsage with her other hand and Chris finds that his heart has somehow managed to travel all the way from the bottom of his stomach straight into his throat. Abandoning his only partially undone tie, he lays his hand on hers to stop her.
"You don't have to do that." She's staring at their hands in wide-eyed shock, and his breath catches. "Not if you don't want to, that is. It-it looks good on you."
"Okay," she whispers softly, eyes still wide as her fingers leave her wrist, "I can leave it on."
"Only if you want to though." When the hell did his mouth get so dry?!
"I do," she looks up to him when she says it, and the earnestness of her smile bowls him over. "I really, really do." In an effort to try and distract himself from her smile, he starts fumbling at his tie once again and he catches her eyes flickering to it. Ashley's smile somehow only brightens as she laughs at him. "Here. Let me give you a hand with that."
She scoots her chair closer to him and he removes his hands from his tie so she can take over. The two of them say nothing as she places all of her attention on continuing to loosen the knot, while Chris tries his absolute hardest not to swallow...or breathe...or do anything at all really, as he just stares down at her in awe.
Once the knot is finally undone, Ashley slowly pulls the entire length of fabric from his neck and places it on the table, before putting her hands back where they were so she can carefully smooth out his shirt collar. And when she looks back up at him with a smile, he can feel the entire world stop as they just stare at each other and Chris slowly starts to close the infinitesimally small distance between them. And he's probably just imagining things, but he thinks that she's doing the same thing as well.
"Jesus Christ, sorry it took so long you guys. Line for the fucking food was longer then you would believe!"
The two of them fly apart so fiercely, that Chris's entire chair manages to tip over backwards and send him to the ground with a loud clatter. He can feel everyone's eyes on them and the murmurs that follow, and he hopes that they're mistaking the redness of his face for the embarrassment of falling out of his chair. Yeah, that's a story that's going to make the rounds before he graduates for sure.
"Shit, you okay bro?" From his spot on the floor, Chris watches Josh place a couple of plates absolutely piled high in food on the table and reach down to help him up with a laugh. "Oh hey, I see you finally decided to take off that stupid tie too. Surprised it took you this long honestly."
Chris accepts Josh's hand up. "Yup, me too." He hopes and prays that Josh just thinks that the absolutely breathless and stunted quality to his words is that he's just a little winded from the fall. Once he gets his chair back up and sits back down, he grabs at the tie to shove it in his pocket. He notices that Ashley is refusing to look at him as she digs out a couple of sandwiches from the miscellaneous pile of food, even as she fiddles with the strap of flowers on her wrist for the rest of the meal.
He's exceptionally thrilled to note that she does keep the corsage on the rest of the night though.
Five times. That's how many times her phone has gone off in her pocket. Five. Times. And every single time Ashley lets out a sigh of relief when the buzzing finally stops, it goes off again only seconds later. And checking the caller id the first couple of times only showed that it was Josh calling her. Normally Ashley liked to think that she would have answered her phone if it was literally anyone else, but this was Josh. He called for every little thing after all; from letting her know that he saw a super big dog on the way home from classes to informing her that he was out of chips and if Ash could pick some up on her way to meet them from her job then that would really just be swell. And considering that he and Chris were supposed to meet her and grab a bite to eat together while she was on her lunch break, he was probably just calling to let her know that they had just left, and to make a milestone out of every block closer the two of them got so she could greet them with all the pomp and circumstance he likely thought he deserved.
Though to be fair she probably would have answered her phone after the third ring, if only to tell him off, but Jared had been giving her a stink eye from his office pretty much since she had arrived so she hadn't.
So she let it buzz...and buzz...and buzz. Until finally, her phone stopped yet again and she tensed her shoulders ready for the next round of vibrations to start. But there was nothing. Nothing but blissful silence coming from her pocket and she let out a huge sigh of relief as Ashley got back to work shelving some of the new stock, letting Kyrstin and Curtis deal with the short line of customers that had begun to form as they bought their books and whatever little trinkets littered the entire front of the store.
She hoped Chris and Josh got here soon, she was overdue for her lunch break and the smells coming out of the nearby food court were calling her name. Particularly the chinese place, she had been craving them for the last week at least . Plus, Jared had been raking her over coals about how her availability was going to drop dramatically once she started college in the next couple of weeks, and one of the creepy regulars had followed her around the store for-freaking- ever (she's pretty sure he had been staring at her ass the whole time too honestly) until Curtis had basically shoved her into the back room to let her escape while he covered for her. And surprise surprise, Jared hadn't been too thrilled about her 'abandoning her post' and yelled at her about that too.
Whoever said that working in a bookstore was a lazy job where she got to read books in her free time was a dirty, rotten liar. It was hell on earth and she was going to slowly tear the fingernails off whoever it was that said it (even though she had a sinking feeling it had probably be Ashley herself that said it back when she romanticized working in bookstores when she was, like, ten ). God, she really really needed that Chinese if she had any plans of surviving the last four hours of her shift.
The phone at the front desk behind her begins to ring, but a quick backwards glance has her realizing that with poor Curtis trying to deal with an older woman who is adamant that the book he's trying to sell her is the wrong one because she is 'positive that the book had a light purple cover and this one is lavender, that is two different colours and I want the right book now ' and Kyrstin being forced to deal with the rest of the line herself, that Ashley's the one who's going to have to answer the phone. With a groan of resignation (she hated answering the phone at work but Jared was in a horrendous enough mood as it was), she stood up and made her way over, repeating the greeting she was going to have to say over and over in her head so she (hopefully) wouldn't mess it up. And taking a deep breath, and repeating the greeting once more in her head, she forced a smile to her face as she picked up the handset.
"Hi! Thanks for calling—"
"Fucking finally Ash."
In an instant, Ashley could feel every ounce of nervous energy violently expel from her body as she nearly doubled over with another groan, this one entirely of exhaustion. She took quick glance over her shoulder, but Jared seemed to busy with another phone call in his office thankfully. "What are you doing Josh?!" she whispered angrily, "I'm at work right now you moron!"
"Uh yeah, I know. Why do you think I called you using this number?"
Ashley gave Kyrstin an apologetic and pained smile when she looked at her curiously, who responded with a good-natured shake of her head and a laugh under her breath as she turned to help the next customer. "Well, you didn't have to call here."
"Kinda did, Ash. You kept ignoring me."
"I was ignoring your calls you butt, you could have just texted me instead you know."
"Hmmm, no. Anyways I tried calling to tell you that Chris and I might not be able to meet up with you for lunch."
Ashley felt disappointment flood her entire being. "Oh. I see. But you really could have just—"
"We're at the hospital while Chris gets some x-rays done."
Immediately any disappointment fled her body as Ashley all but collapsed on the counter for support as her legs gave out on her. "Is he okay?! Oh god, is he okay Josh?!"
There's a pause on the phone and all Ashley can hear is her own blood pounding in her ears. He has to be okay. He has to be, he just has to be!
"I dunno, it was a pretty gnarly fall. Don't know if he'll ever truly recover, there was a lot of screaming after all."
Ashley doesn't even respond as she slams down the phone and turns to Kyrstin and Curtis who are looking at her in shock as her entire world falls to pieces around her. "I-I have to go. Chris is... Chris is..." she can't get anymore out with how it feels like someone is ripping her heart out of her chest. "Josh said he's in the hospital and...and..."
Curtis nods quickly as he runs to the staff room, and Kyrstin just starts shoving her towards the door as they all ignore the customers who are standing around awkwardly. "Go. We got this."
Ashley turns her head towards Jared's office. "But I gotta—and, and I need to grab my stuff—
"Nope. You go. Curtis and I will figure something out, and Becks arrives for her shift in another half hour. We can manage just fine until then. You just get out of here right now."
Ashley doesn't try to fight anymore than that, not with how hard she's fighting to hold back breaking down in the middle of the store after all. Curtis meets her at the entrance with her bag and shoves it into her arms. "Do you need me to call you a taxi, or give you a ride, or anything? Kyrstin can drag Jared out of his cave if she's gotta." Next to him, Kyrstin nods furiously in agreement.
Ashley has never loved anyone as much as she loves her coworkers in this instant. "No, my-my mom gave me the car for today."
With that little bit of approval, and a random customer shouting ‘I hope he's okay hun!’ at her, the two of them shove Ashley into the mall itself and the very instant she crosses that threshold she takes off running, shoving her way through people and nearly falling down the stairs in her effort to get to the parking lot as quickly as she can. She is so, so glad that her mom basically forced the car on her today instead of letting her take the bus as originally planned, she doesn't know how she would have lasted if she'd had to wait for a taxi to arrive and pick her up.
As it is, once she's finally (and somehow safely) managed to arrive at the hospital and found a spot to park, she's nonplussed about the fact that she didn't leave any imprints in the steering wheel from how hard she had been gripping it the whole drive over. She fumbles with the clasp on her seatbelt with shaking hands, almost bursting into tears about that fact alone, but she eventually manages to free herself and basically throws herself out of the car, only remembering to lock the door behind her when she's about halfway to the hospital doors.
The moment she bursts into the waiting room, Josh is sitting there waiting for her. He looks up at her in surprise as she hurries towards him, then down at his phone and back up at her again as he gives a low whistle. "Shit Ash, how many laws did you break to get here that fast?"
She ignores him. "What happened?! How is he?! Just tell me he's okay! Please, please tell me he's okay!"
"I mean, I suppose he's as fine as he could be considering the circumstances." He seems to sense that she's about ready to scream at him so he quickly follows up with "He's on the second floor, in room 272 if you want to see him."
Ashley doesn't even bother to thank him as she bolts to the nearby elevator, frantically pushing the 'Call Elevator' button nonstop until the door opens and then doing the same thing to the second floor button as it carries her up. Her eyes are burning in an effort to hold back her tears but she can tell that the dam is about to burst any second, especially with how long this elevator is taking to move. She doesn't even wait for the doors to open fully, squeezing through them the moment they're wide enough and accosting some poor nurse until he points her down the correct hall. She hurries the rest of the way, staring at every number on the wall until she finds room 272. And then she stops, her hand on the door knob as she braces herself for whatever she's going to find. Chris lying in bed, covered in blood and bandages with a heart monitor beeping next to him, just broken and shattered beyond all repair. With a choked back sob she opens the door—
and finds Chris sitting on the bed looking up at the ceiling bored to tears with a splint wrapped around his pinky and ring finger on his right hand.
"Finally! I thought you would never get here, so if we could just get this over with—" he looks over at her standing in the doorway shell shocked and still in her work uniform and jumps to his feet. "A-Ash?! What the hell are you doing here— Wait, did you just come here straight from work?! "
"You're okay?" Ashley hates how small her voice comes out, "You're really okay?"
"What? Yeah, why wouldn't I be? Who told you—"
Spell broken, Ashley’s bag falls from her shoulder to the ground with a small clatter and she dives towards Chris, wrapping him in a tight hug. "Oh thank god. Oh thank god. " Chris starts to return the hug, likely more than a little confused about what's going on, but she's already moved so her hands are on either side of his face as she tugs him down to her level so she can get a better look at him. Twisting and turning his head this way and that as she looks for any bruises or cuts. "Josh told me that there had been an accident and—"
"Ash!" Chris interrupts her by taking her wrists in his hands—though he winces at the pain that likely forms as a result of doing so—and speaks as calmly and reassuringly to her as he can. "Ash, it's okay. I'm fine . I promise. I just tripped earlier that's all."
Ashley takes in the sight of the scuffed up palms of his hands, and the holes in the knees of his jeans that certainly hadn't been there before, and knows that Chris is telling the truth. Though it doesn't explain the splint on his hand.
"Okay, and I might have broken my finger doing so."
Ashley just stands there so dumbfounded and relieved in equal measure, that she blurts out "Josh said that there had been screaming."
To her surprise, Chris only gives an embarrassed groan as he stares at an area just over her shoulder "God, Josh is never gonna let me live that down is he? Okay, so my finger may not have been the only thing that broke..." Confused, mainly because except for the bandaged finger and ripped jeans he seems perfectly okay, Ashley looks over her shoulder and follows his eyes to his phone laying on the counter just behind her. The screen completely shattered to hell and back with no promise of life anywhere on it. Just the dead, black screen reflecting the ceiling above on its cracked surface
"Wait," Ashley starts to feel the relieved giggles try to break free as her nerves finally settle, "are you telling me that you broke your finger but you were more worried about your phone? "
Chris sputters as he starts to wave his splinted finger infront of her face. "I mean obviously! This doesn't cost me any money to fix Ash; that's what health care's for! But my phone? Do you know how expensive that thing's going to be to replace? How many paychecks I'm going to have to put towards it? All the money I saved up this summer for school: gone! All because of a stupid little sidewalk curb!"
Ashley can't help it, she starts laughing uncontrollably as she collapses into a nearby chair with her head in her hands. "Oh, I am going to kill Josh when I see him, kill him! And then Jared's gonna kill me for bailing at work and not telling him! God, and I just left in the middle of a rush too! Remind me to buy Kyrstin and Curtis a cake or flowers or something as an apology. Oh my god ."
"You just ditched work? Ash!" Chris falls back onto the bed as he laughs with her. "Why would you even do that in the first place?!"
"Josh told me that you were in the hospital getting x-rays! What was I supposed to think?"
Chris rubs at his eyes beneath his glasses. "I asked him to let you know that we were probably gonna be a little late for lunch while I waited to get my cast! Fucking hell, I'm so sorry."
"Am I interrupting anything or..."
The two of them turn to see a doctor looking up at them with an upturned brow, and holding what Ashley assumes (and hopes) to be the materials needed for Chris's cast. "This is Chris Hartley's room correct?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. That's me."
The doctor nods, and walks towards Chris, but stops in front of the chair Ashley is sitting in. "I'm sorry, but I will be needing that chair sweetheart." With a squeak of apology, Ashley jumps out the chair and moves back by the door so fast that she's almost certain that she had managed to teleport over there, almost tripping over her forgotten bag in the process. Red-faced, she picks it back up and goes to leave (and possibly strangle Josh violently) but is stopped by the same doctor as she sits down in the chair with a chuckle, shaking her head. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to. It'll only take a couple of minutes to get this cast on and then he'll be free to leave with you."
Now even more red-faced (if that was even possible), Ashley just slowly shuffles over to the table where Chris's (broken) phone and wallet is, nervously fidgeting with the strap of her bag as she waits for Chris to get the cast on. Taking Chris's hand in her own, the doctor—Dr. Klorens her name tag reads—scowls at the now slightly bent fingers in the splint, which Chris only gives a sheepish shrug and smile to, and sighs as she unwraps his fingers so she can reset the splint. And Ashley blanches at the deep, dark bruises that spread all the way from the middle of his pinky to nearly halfway down his palm that she had completely failed to notice earlier before those are once again lost.
And as promised, once the Dr. Klorens has put the cotton sleeve over his hand and trimmed it to the desired length, it only takes her another couple of minutes to wrap starting from the center of his forearm and all the way up to the center of his palm and then finally finishing with his splinted fingers. As the three of them wait for the fibreglass material to dry, Dr. Klorens goes over the do's and don'ts of cast care, which Ashley takes serious note of because she knows that Chris won't. Especially the 'do NOT get the cast wet' part, he's gonna forget about that one the moment Josh tries to bait him into another water gun fight.
"Alright, I think that's about it. Just come back in three weeks so we can do another x-ray to check and make sure that the bone's all healed up before we remove it. Just let someone know that you're done with the room when you leave, and remember to check out at the front desk." She gathers up her supplies and makes to leave, but stops to look over her shoulder at them with an amused smile on her face. "Oh, and if you two take the stairs, just make sure that you're careful. I know that we're in a hospital already, but I don't think any of us want to deal with any more tripping instances. Especially if they result in another broken bone." After waiting for Chris and Ashley to meekly agree to be careful, she finally leaves the two of them alone once again.
"Welp, that's it for my summer. 'Fraid I'm nothing but a cripple now."
Sighing, Ashley turns to Chris with a tired smile. "You are not a cripple, oh my god. You have a broken finger, you didn't lose the entire arm you dork."
Incensed, Chris waves his cast at her. "Um, do you not see this thing Ash? I may as well have. I've lost the use of two of my fingers now! Two! And on my right hand to boot. I can't hold a controller to play games with, I can't type, I can't text. What am I supposed to do Ash if I can't hold a single thing in my dominant hand anymore?"
"I'm sure you'll manage," she dryly responds. "Now come on, let's get out of here. I have to figure out how in the world I'm going to explain this to Jared so he doesn't fire me."
"Pretty sure that you should just let him if you ask me."
Ashley groans in agreement, but says "It's only another couple of weeks until college starts. Just hoping I can hold out until then, I need the money after all."
Chris lets out a resigned breath but then starts eyeing her work apron. "You got a sharpie in there?"
"Um, I think so. Why?"
"Uh, so you can sign my cast, duh. You missed out when I broke my arm when I was like nine, so you can be the first to get your name on this one."
"Trying to weasel my autograph out of me huh?" Ashley asks even as she digs through one of her pockets to pull out the sharpie in question, and joins Chris to sit next to him on the bed.
Chris laughs. "Damn, you figured out my devious plan. Thing’s gonna be worth a fortune when you make it onto the bestsellers list one day. Gonna be fighting off all sorts of crazed and fanatic fans."
Ashley shakes her head as she chuckles and writes her name on his arm, but pauses when she caps the pen. Seeing her name on his cast suddenly pulls everything back into vivid clarity, and she remembers the panic she had felt when she had thought—when she had believed —that she had nearly lost him. That this was it, that he was here one day and gone the next, and she hadn't even told him how much he meant to her. How important he was to her. She watches as a drop of water splashes down onto the cast and she finds herself wondering if there's a leak in a room upstairs.
"What the—Ash? Are you crying?"
"Huh?" She wipes her eyes, and a surprised but weak laugh escapes when her hand comes away wet. "Oh, I guess I am. Sorry about that, you're supposed to keep the cast dry and here I am crying—"
Chris places his left hand on her cheek to help wipe away some of her tears. "Oh fuck, I really freaked you out didn't I? Fucking hell. I'm—"
"Do you promise not to hate me?"
The look Chris gives her is nothing short of bamboozled. "Hate you? Ash, what's going on with you?"
"Do you promise not to hate me? Please Chris, I really, really need you to promise me this. Please . Do you promise not to hate me?" She’s fully aware that she’s practically begging right now, silent tears flowing down her cheeks, but if it gets Chris to promise then she’ll gladly throw away her pride for this one thing.
"Yeah, I-I promise. Will you just—"
Ashley doesn't give him anytime to finish his sentence before she's squeezing her eyes shut and she surges up to kiss him. She doesn't want to see his expression, not when all she wants is just to remember everything else that is happening. Remember the feel of his lips before he pulls away, and the warmth of his hand on her cheek. In fact, she spends so much time trying to memorize what she is sure is only going to be a single shared kiss, that it takes her a few seconds longer than she would like to admit to realize that Chris's hand isn't on her cheek anymore, it's moved to the back of her neck so he can kiss her back . The shock of which is enough for her to break the kiss and stare at him with wide eyes.
"Wh—" that's all she can get out before Chris is pulling her back in for a second kiss, and this time she lets her eyelids flutter close as she completely melts into, throwing her arms around his neck to hold him closer.
Ashley's not sure how long they stay like that—could have been an eternity, could have only been a couple of seconds—before they're both pulling back with their faces flushed and giggling like morons.
"Wow," Chris says after a moment, "I don't know what made you think I could hate you after that , but wow . If I had known that this would be the reaction I get, I would have broken my finger years ago."
There's something about the way he says it that has Ashley's heart beating even faster. "How long?" she demands breathlessly, "Tell how long ago?"
Somehow, Chris manages to flush even deeper. "I dunno, like... six? I guess?"
Six years. He'd had a crush on her for six years and she'd had no idea. The moment the realization hits her she starts laughing. "I knew you were trying to ask me for a kiss back in seventh grade! I should have just chased you down and given you one anyway!"
This time, it's Chris who starts laughing at the realization. "Wait, you liked me too?! Then that kiss, back in the library...?"
"You still remember that?!"
"Remember it? Ash, that stupid little cheek kiss is the only reason I passed that final I'm sure! Hell, why else do you think Josh dared me to kiss you in truth and dare?"
"What? No he didn't!"
Chris shakes his head as he moves his hand from her neck to around her waist. "He did! He told me to 'return the favour' and all I had been thinking about that summer was kissing you back. Fucking hell, I almost killed him when he pulled me away to get that generator working that winter in the lodge."
"Oh my god, I almost jumped across the floor to you that night when the power went out after the bottle landed on you."
"You didn't!"
Chris sounded so scandalized at the idea that Ashley presses her forehead to his as her smile widens, which only causes his own to widen in turn. "I did! But then Josh pulled you away and I just completely lost my nerve." She starts laughing at the next memory. "Oh god, I kept my lamp on in my room after that hoping you would stop by if you thought I was still awake."
The answering gape in shock was all she needed before she broke into more giggles. "I saw that! I don't know how long I hovered outside your door trying to work up the courage to knock before talking myself out of it. I think I just convinced myself that the outage had freaked you out badly enough that you needed the extra light to get to sleep."
Once the giggles started to lessen, the smiles on their faces did so as well, softening to something warmer and infinitely more cozy. "I almost kissed you, you know," Ashley confessed shyly. "Back at your grad party."
"Yeah, I-I almost kissed you too. And, just so you know, I wasn't lying then. The flowers looked really really good on you."
"That's good to hear," she admits as she leans in closer, her lips brushing his so lightly it's almost a caress, "I kept them, after all."
Nothing more is said as Chris closes the distance between them again to kiss her, and even though she knows that they really should get back downstairs, she doesn't try to stop it.
They have a long six years to make up for after all.
#my writing#pride month prompt challenge#until dawn#chris hartley#ashley brown#josh washington#chrashley#ignore the weirdly long and frankly unimaginative titles so far#i throw these into an ao3 and tumblr draft at like 2am to post the next morning#so my brain isn't exactly what i would call imaginative lol#or working in general asjkdhasdh#and yes it possible to break your finger in such a way that you need a full on arm cast for it to heal#i would know
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(I would usually just drop you a dm but I want everyone to know I love your writing so here is a fanfic writer friday ask lol)
I really love all your little prompt fics and I especially love how you squeeze a whole setting into only 1-2k words. What's your process when writing shorts? To you usually go around thinking about what you will write for a while, or do you just write whatever comes to mind when an idea first strikes you?
What are your top writing tips for fanfic writers?
😆😆 I mean, I'm super into compliments so you won't hear me objecting lolol! And also: thank you!! 💕
So for the shorter fics I might sit on a prompt for a while until I get a spark of an idea and then after that it's usually just a one day/over a couple hours type thing where I write whatever pops into my head. In all honesty they're usually more like writing exercises for when the longer fic I'm working on stalls and I'm trying to assure myself that I'm not a hack that has lost all ability to write.
In general I can write and edit approx 2k in a day before I start to feel like words have lost all meaning so that's why they're usually that length (also why most of my chapters are that length, too). Anything more and I need to make it a multi day endeavor. Since I'm usually cheating on another fic by writing them in the first place, I try to avoid that unless I'm super exhausted and worried to keep going will mean a ton of spelling/grammar errors, since I don't really use betas very often.
A writing tip that I've discovered during this foray into fic writing is... when I feel like im getting frustrated enough that I start to fall into "what am I doing/ I'm the worst writer ever/how did I ever think I was good at this when I'm actually terrible" negative self-talk it's usually time to sleep. Since time can be tricky to come by my instinct is to muscle through my fatigue, but my writing will always ALWAYS come out easier and BETTER, my ideas will connect more efficiently, after I've slept. If sleep is too much to ask for, if I really don't have the time for that, a shower will do in a pinch.
***
Anyone else wanna play? The ask box is open
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Announcement
Alrighty, then. This post has been a long time coming so lets get right into it.
After much deliberation, I've decided not to push the self destruct button. I thought about it. Oh, when I say I was SO damn close to deleting this entire blog and all my fics right along with it. I'm frustrated and angry with myself, and I can't exactly say I'm doing well atm, but I know when things start to get better I'll want to write again, in earnest, and then I'd have to start over from scratch. Egg all over my face. Clown shit. We don't know her.
BUT. I think its clear to any and all that this is not working. It's just not. I expect too much of myself, for starters. And when it feels like others expect a certain level of performance from me that I just can't nail consistently due to my own ineptitude, my brain powers off. Is it some kind of executive dysfunction? Is it a fear of failing? A fear of success? Plain old anxiety? Who knows! I certainly don't. Whatever it is, it's hanging over my head like a guillotine. I'm beyond stressed and barely staying afloat irl, but then when I turn towards what should be a fun and therapeutic outlet all I see are expectations.
"When will you post the next chapter" on works that I WANT to finish but yet fear putting out a subpar product for and disappointing people.
"Will you write a follow up piece" for works that I WANT to expand on but don't know how to in a way that will make everyone else happy, let alone myself.
"Are you working on my request" for WIPs I have partially drafted and yet no way of knowing if that person - or anyone! - will even enjoy it.
I honestly feel guilty working on my own ideas instead of the multiple prompts in my inbox. I'm pretty sure that's part of my malfunction with my Ogun fic and others like it that are close to being done but remain unfinished simply because I'm thinking about what everyone else wants. It'd be one thing if I could just churn out content without a second thought but I can't. Like, it genuinely upsets me thinking that people are stuck in limbo waiting because I'm too chicken shit to just go with the flow instead of obsessing over every single line of text to the point of nausea, all for the sake of putting out "quality" content. I feel bad. I want to enjoy the writing process again, just like I did when I first got back into it with OsoSan. I shouldn't have started taking requests if I wasn't going to deliver, I know, and I sincerely apologize for my lack of foresight but it is what it is. I can't change the past. But what I CAN do is start fresh. So, long story short, there are going to be some changes coming to this blog.
A total revamp. I'm going to do an overhaul on the whole thing so don't be surprised when it starts to look different. I'm going to work primarily on navigation and organization, and try to tidy up a bit.
I'm turning off anon. Both because people looking to have a go with writers aren't so brave when that's no longer an option and also because I want to get as far away from those expectations as possible. I wont be reading or responding to comments on AO3 anymore for that same reason. I love you guys, and you're more than welcome to talk to me in DM's if you're more comfortable that way, but the long list of asks wanting to know wtf I'm doing in my spare time if not writing this or that is doing more harm than good.
I'm getting rid of the requests page and also purging any that I haven't already started working on - hopefully once I get into a better groove I'll actually be able to finish them, because I genuinely would like to. I really am sorry to everyone who's been waiting for their request to be fulfilled but I'm clearly not talented or confident enough to juggle my own ideas with someone else's. Maybe at some point in the future, when I'm a better writer, I'll start taking them again and we can all be happy.
And finally, I'm going to start experimenting with my writing method. As in, you're probably going to see shorter, less obsessively curated pieces popping up on my page that may not always be sexual in nature. I just really need to buckle down and work on this - all of it - and I'm determined to improve my skills even if it kills me. I have the urge to write every single day but it's hard when I'm the way I am and I've backed myself into a corner like this. I need to learn how to stop overthinking everything and just DO it. I know my productivity would increase and, with it, so would the overall quality of my work so I'm going to be focusing on different areas that need improvement. Not everything I put out will be good but that's part of the process, right? Right.
I totally understand if I lose followers for any of the above reasons, or even just personal ones, so don't hesitate to do so if you feel like you can't jive with this blog anymore. I appreciate you taking the time to read all this and I hope you understand my reasons for needing to do a reset on this page. This is exactly why I didn't want to start taking commissions and I would once again like to apologize to anyone I've let down.
P.S. I've had this distinct feeling that certain people in the writing community are not happy with me for a while now and although I'm not entirely sure what I've done wrong, I would still like to issue a formal apology for any toes I might have stepped on. That was never my intention. I can't claim to be a saint by any stretch of the imagination, but I have no ill will towards anyone. If its about the patreon I subscribed to and then left a month later, it had nothing to do with the author in question. I just belatedly realized I had more money coming out of my account than I could handle at the time and yes that weighs heavy on my shoulders. If its about the way I suddenly disappear in private chats, that's also something that shouldn't be taken personally. I genuinely have a hard time keeping up conversations with people, and I feel like a bother more often than not. If it's about the discords I join and then never participate in, see the above. If its about the way I fangirl or enthusiastically support some writers but not others, I never meant any harm by it. I just can't conceivably read everything that comes across my dash and, yes, my favorites are prioritized. Either way, whatever the grievances may be, anon will remain on until I start the revamp process some time tomorrow night so if whoever wants to air out their problems go for it. I probably wont post them but I will read them and try to learn from them, so have at it.
#small text so as to not take up so much room on people's dashes#personal#dumb bitch shit#I've already added a carrd to my bio so its easier to locate my age and such#I'd like to do a bit more with it but its late so : /#anyway I hope everyone's having a fine evening
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Okay okay so I'm STILL mind-blown over KOTF because I'm currently looking down the barrel of a long fic that I want to write but I'm like how am I going to do this so, for you, what was the hardest part of writing such a long fic? What parts came easiest to you? What unexpected challenges did you come across while writing it that you may not come across in a shorter fic or one-shot?
Love you, my friend!!! 💕
Spoilers for Keeper of the Force below
Hi Katie! Thanks for the ask; I'm really excited to talk about this stuff :)
Okay, so for me, the hardest part of writing KOTF was probably writing specific scenes that were well out of my comfort zone. I had to write a good amount of action sequences, which is definitely something I still struggle with, even now. I also struggled with writing scenes with more than three characters, just because it was so complicated to keep track of what each character was doing, saying, and thinking (even if the POV character doesn't really know about the latter). So yeah, I'd say the most difficult parts came down to writing things I haven't really tried writing before.
The easiest part, much to my own surprise, was the ending—specifically, the last two or three chapters. Maybe it's recency bias, maybe it's the sprint bot, maybe it's the fact that I thought about the ending of this story for literally years, but it all came together so beautifully. I also really enjoyed writing the whump and angst, as I always do xD and the suspense was surprisingly really fun to write as well! It kinda makes me want to write a more suspense-heavy story one day, but we'll see ;)
Unexpected challenges! Whoo boy. Okay, so we're gonna dig deep into spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled for exactly what happens in this fic, look away now and don't click below.
Okay.
So, I did plan out a lot of the major plot points ahead of time, including what ultimately happens to Obi-Wan. I was really scared of actually writing it though, especially when I was posting and getting comments for the first half-ish of the fic. For a while, I was on the fence about it, and I really wasn't expecting to have that internal conflict. I even thought of alternate ideas for what could happen to Obi-Wan, but in the end, I stuck to what I originally planned.
And I think that was the right choice because I'm a believer in going with your gut, and I think it made the story and its ending a much more powerful one. Or at least I hope it did?
I guess what I'm saying is that facing internal conflict about the ending of a story doesn't really happen with shorter fic, but it definitely can happen for longer stories, especially if you're like me and posting it as you write (which uh. is risky but here I am LOL).
Hmmmm, so my favorite part to write? Oh my goodness, I'm not even sure I can choose. There's just so much that I really, genuinely enjoyed writing from this fic. I will agree with you that Chapter 18 is definitely up there, just because I finally had the chance to actually reveal what was actually happening, and to allow Anakin and Obi-Wan to have their closure.
I also really enjoyed writing the last scene of Chapter 17! Before writing that scene, I was legitimately terrified of actually writing it, just because it felt so abstract and weird, but it was such a fun thing to write, and I think it came together really well!
And Chapter 15 as a whole is probably one of my favorites too, especially that ending. I think I was screaming while writing it. Honestly, it's all a blur, but. yeah. Man, do I love that chapter.
And even the epilogue, I just—ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Okay, so yeah, as you can see above, I literally cannot choose a favorite LOL.
Anyways, writing this fic was such a joy and a journey from start to finish. I enjoyed the whole process—from the very beginning, with me just writing a random Whumptober prompt, then coming up with a background and adding more and more, until there's a literal AU with all these things that came from my imagination.
And I mean, a part of me was so scared because I was like "I have literally no idea how I'm gonna write any of this, but I am gonna try like hell to do it." And it worked out, I grew so much as a writer through it all, and I am immensely proud of this story (and honestly a bit in awe of myself, because like. I wrote this????? What??????)
So yeah! I rambled a lot here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that writing a long fic can be a rewarding experience! It definitely requires a lot of planning and thinking ahead of time. One of the things I wanted to do with KOTF in particular was really challenge myself as a writer—so I would suggest thinking about what you want to accomplish when writing your long fic.
Like: what's the point of your story? Not just the theme, moral of the story, etc. but for you, as the writer, what do you want to get out of this experience?
Also, when I was in the planning stages for KOTF, I had a lot of stream-of-consciousness blurbs throughout my document, a whole bunch of reference links, lists, timelines, and I think I even ended up drawing a diagram somewhere (but I have no idea where it went oof). So if you have like any potential ideas/thoughts/etc for your story, just get it down on paper somewhere! You can always come back to it and remove it or change it later on.
Okay, I rambled a lot more than I intended to, but uh. yeah! I guess I had a lot of thoughts about writing KOTF and it all came out right now. Hopefully it makes sense.
Thanks so much for the ask, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about writing long fic! This goes for anyone who wants to know more about how I write, if that sort of thing interests you :)
(ask me anything about KOTF)
#kotf#keeper of the force#so basically i can't and won't shut up about this story and honestly i love that about me xD#i honestly can write an essay about kotf. or like multiple essays - one for each chapter#like a director's cut thing where i go into each scene and talk about what it was like to write that scene LOL#each scene has a story#anyways this was so much fun to answer so thank you!#i love reflecting on kotf#:')))))
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Just a question cause I'm curious!! :)
Do you have a writing process?? Like do you plot or just get an idea and jot it down.
This is a great question! I’m so glad you asked.
For shorter projects, like one-shots, I usually just write on a whim. I’ll hear a song or see a prompt, write a blurb at the top of my google doc, and work on it from beginning to end until it gets done. A lot of the time I’ll just leave it at a random point and come back to it whenever I feel inspired.
For longer projects though, like multi-chapter fics or multi-part series like Till Forever Falls Apart, I plan things out meticulously. I’ll get the initial idea and write down a blurb at the top of the page like with any other work, but then I start to write down a play-by-play of what I want to happen in that chapter/fic.
By the time I actually start writing for a long series or multi-chapter fic, each part in the series/chapter has its own doc and its own bulleted list with everything I need to include. I’ll also have revised the lists as a whole several times before I write to make sure I have continuity between the chapters (what time of year it is, how much time has passed, things the characters have/haven’t experienced yet)
Then, I write! A lot of the time I open up another doc for the actual writing so things don’t get cluttered and I can get an accurate word count without highlighting stuff. I also let myself get a little more loosey-goosey when I actually write and tend to strike things/add things to the list, but I need the structure to keep things straight and to make sure I don’t run the whole series into a ditch lol.
I hope that makes sense! Thank you so much for asking (also I love your writing, your Peter is perfect, I send you all the love!!!!!)
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~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))
Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):
3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)
I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.
Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.
…should I share those six hundred words…?
………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.
But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)
The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.
Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)
So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.
And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!
6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.
Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!
9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.
At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.
Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).
I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.
12. Do you want your writing to be famous?
Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?
Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.
Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.
And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.
18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!
Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.
Although…
It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?
21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?
That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.
Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!
24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?
I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.
25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—
The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.
Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.
I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).
Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P
Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!
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L, W, and G for the fanfic asks 💕💕
hiii Mel thanks for the asks!
L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
.....*nervously side-eyes the chapter i’ve been working on and revising for months* hEH. h E H.
ok all jokes aside, it depends on what i’m writing! When I was younger and wrote stuff primarily for myself (and not to post), I made little edits to pieces CONSTANTLY. re-reading and editing stuff was a part of the fun for me! Now, I still do that with longer pieces (like, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”...I read and re-read those chapters a LOT before they get posted, and after my beta reads them, I go over them one more time and make final edits as I format it on AO3!). With shorter stuff, though, like the prompts I started doing a couple weeks ago, I’ll read over them a few times and go “yup, I think that’s good!” and then post ‘em! I don’t feel as pressured with that kind of stuff.
W: do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?
I think general prompts! One word prompts or little scenario prompts that could be applied to any number of characters/fandoms are fun because you as the writer get to decide how the characters you’re writing would act/respond! It’s also so cool to see how various authors interpret the same prompts differently! One of my favorite things about events like Love Square Fluff Week is seeing so many different interpretations of the same prompts with the same characters! It’s super cool. (I am all for more specific prompts serving as springboards of inspiration, though! i’ve had a wip in the works based off a post @pixarpnflover made for awhile now, lol...gotta finish that)
G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
ASLKDJSLAKJD MEL I THINK YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS ONE.
Ok, so, like, as far as one-shots go, I usually just write those from start to finish. With my multichap fic (can’t speak on multichaps in general because this is one of the only ones i’ve ever written and the only one i’ve ever posted, lol), I planned out the general story structure from start to finish...but I’ve also liked writing everything with the ending in mind and working in parallels and nods throughout the fic to things that I only knew about because I already had some of the ending worked out! I actually wrote the first draft of a part of the ending before I even posted the first chapter 😅. It’s changed a lot since then, but the general vibe is still there! And having it written out already has helped me a lot (and has been super helpful now that i’m actually writing the ending! lol)
(plus...adding to the ending of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” motivated me to keep writing it because like....the end is my favorite part of the whole fic, loll)
THANKS FOR THE ASKS MEL!!!!
Fanfiction/writing asks
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Yungblud Fan Fic - Finding Love Is Better Than Finding A Gold Mine
The Trees’ October 2020 Writing ChallengeDay 7/31
Prompt: Dragon (barely applies but oh well)
Word-count: 1500 words
Content Warnings: none
Summary: As all his friends move on with their lives, Dom's feeling lonely...but maybe he's found someone he can be lonely with.
A/N: So, just as to let everyone know how little I plan this shit out, I wrote a dragon-inspired story about MGK because it was what came to mind when I got the prompt for 'gold', and then five days later I got a prompt for 'dragon'. Clearly I need to learn to look forward a little more...but since I'm back on the subject, enjoy a sort-of sequel to Not All That Glitters Is Gold.
Dom smiled as Colson proudly introduced his human to the assembled group of dragons. He was about two seconds away from picking the small woman up and showing her off like a trophy, but she didn’t seem to mind. Dom didn’t think he would either; the way the Colson looked at her said it all - he adored his human. It shone from him like the sun: obvious to anyone who so much as glanced at the couple.
Dom was overjoyed for his friend…but he was also envious.
Everyone he knew was settling down, finding partners and having hatchlings, and Dom just…wasn’t.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t looking: he really, really was! It was just hard to find someone that wanted him. Humans were scared of him because he was a dragon, and dragons thought he was just…well, weird. Which was fair; Dom was weird for a dragon, given that he spent more time in his human form than he did in his scales, but he didn’t see why that bothered so many people. It made him feel good, and it wasn’t like he hurting anyone else!
He was just doing what made him happy, but apparently that made him incredibly unappealing to other living beings. Sure, Tom, Adam, and Colson had never minded, and they were all great friends, but none of them were romantically interested in Dom, and Dom wasn’t romantically interested in any of them - at least not seriously, especially since they all found partners. It was more than a little depressing, although he didn’t have time to dwell on it, not with the way the whole cave had just fallen silent.
A tall figure had paused in the entrance of the cave, shrouded in a black cloak that covered her from the top of her head down to her ankles, leaving only her bare feet exposed. Not that anyone needed to see any more than that.
They already knew who she was.
“It's the Messenger.”
“What does she want here?”
“Shh!”
The whispers died down as the Messenger looked around the cave, curling her lip in distaste as she took in the crowd that Colson had invited…and obviously finding them all lacking.
It wasn’t new; the Messenger was an odd member of the magical community. She was a neutral figure: the only one trusted to communicate and mediate between different supernatural groups, which meant that she didn’t have any enemies - but she didn’t have any friends either. It was a lonely job, and from what little he knew about Messengers, they often went one of two ways: retreating into themselves, or becoming…hostile. The current Messenger had gone down the second path.
And, apparently, she was feeling particularly hostile tonight.
“Well, quite a glittering crowd you’ve invited today, Baker. Dragons, the Fey, some were-animals, and - oh, how quaint: even the rabble.” She sneered at the small group of witches gathered in the corner, before turning back to Colson: “I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation.”
Colson glared at the witch: “You weren't wanted.”
“Not wan- oh!” the Messenger clasped a hand over her heart, mockingly pretending to be upset: “Oh dear…what an awkward situation. I had hoped it was merely due to some oversight…well, in that event, I'd best be on my way.”
Dom could see where this was going - and tried to smooth it over before anything kicked off: “You're not offended, Messenger?”
“Why, no, of course not.” she smirked.
Dom could tell she wasn’t lying…but something about her smirk didn’t ring true with Dom. When she swept out of the cave, ignoring the gathered beings watching her leave, Dom followed her out into the night.
He knew it had to be lonely having no friends. Dom was lonely, and he had loads of friends - he just couldn’t find a partner. The Messenger had no partner and no friends and now people were refusing to invite her to things even out of politeness, as was custom.
She had to be lonely…he’d bet half his hoard on it, if the speed she was moving away from the party was any indication.
For a woman on bare feet, she moved through the forest with ease. Even with eyes that allowed him to see well in semi-darkness like the moonlight night around him, between the swiftness she moved through the trees and the long black cloak she wore, Dom struggled to keep up with her. It was only thanks to sheer determination that Dom managed to stay on her trail. Determination, and a sudden certainty that nobody should be feel lonely in a world full of people. Not her, not him, nobody.
And he was going to fix that - at least for the Messenger and himself. As soon as he caught up with her.
Which she is not making easy for me.
She really wasn’t…until all of a sudden she was, coming to a dead stop a few feet in front of him: “Why are you following me?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Of course I’m okay.”
Dom knew he probably shouldn’t poke the metaphorical bear…but he’d come this far, so he wasn’t going to back down now: “You sure? I mean…I thought you might be a bit lonely.”
Nothing in the Messenger’s body language changed, but the air around them suddenly felt charged, just like it did before lightning was about to strike - though when she spoke, the Messenger’s voice was icily calm: “And why would you think that?”
“Because I am.”
Slowly, the electric feeling in the air faded.
The Messenger’s body language relaxed…and then slumped, like she was suddenly carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Dom knew better than to push - at least not anymore than he already had - but seeing an infamously powerful woman look so defeated, even through the shroud of her cloak, was sadden. He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he didn’t dare. He wouldn’t touch anyone without their permission, but especially not witches like the Messenger, who could flatten him with one spell.
At least not until he saw her shoulders shudder in an unmistakable sob.
Dom didn’t think, he just wrapped the Messenger into a hug. Up close and personal, she was a lot shorter than she appeared, short enough that he could tuck her head under his chin when he wrapped his arms around her.
He was honestly worried about her…smiting him of something for a few seconds, but instead she buried her face in his neck, and stayed there mutely. She was shuddering, but Dom couldn’t hear anything, or feel any wetness soaking into his shirt, the Messenger just silently cried into his shoulder until she was done.
“Better?” Dom asked, allowing her to pull away to gather herself.
The Messenger didn’t answer, just shrugged slightly: “Honestly, I don’t know what came over me. I apologise.”
“Nah, you don’t have to apologise.” Dom reassured: “We all have bad days.”
“Yourself included, apparently.”
“Yeah, myself included.”
Slowly, as if she wasn’t sure of herself, the Messenger reached up and pushed her hood back, revealing the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Even with puffy red eyes, her wary expression, and the darkness obscuring the true colour of her hair and eyes, the Messenger was still stunning.
“You seem nice.” she mused: “I don’t understand why you’re lonely.”
“All my friends are settling down with partners, having hatchlings, moving on with their lives…and I’m not.” Dom explained, trying to keep his tone light, but not quite pulling it off: “It’s not as bad as having no friends, I know, but…”
“But at least having no friends would make you used to the loneliness. Sometimes it better not knowing what you’re missing…”
Dom didn’t know about that…but he supposed it didn’t matter too much; the Messenger had a friend now: “Well, neither of us have to be lonely now. We have each other.”
The Messenger looked at him for a few seconds, with eyes that seemed to be able to see right into his soul, but Dom didn’t flinch.
He wanted to be her friend - if that meant he had to deal with a few unsettling stares, then so be it.
“You’re a dragon.”
It wasn’t a question, but Dom answered it anyway: “I am.”
The Messenger nodded: “Dragons don’t start drama. You just sit on your gold mines and keep yourselves to yourselves.”
“Doesn’t make us bad friends.” Dom pointed out.
The Messenger smiled: “Far from it. I think I’d like to be friends with you, Dominic.”
Dom grinned, happiness bubbling in his chest – and the boiling over when she leaned up to press a kiss against his cheek.
“Maybe we can try the getting together thing too.” she whispered to him: “I think dragons might be good at that too…or, at least, you might be.”
#The Trees Writes#The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge#Yungblud fanfic#Yungblud fan fiction#Dominic Harrison fanfic#Dominic Harrison fan fiction
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For the ask post.
Number 6 and 10.
Hi, nonnie!
6. What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?
Already answered this one here, but I won't miss a chance to answer again, hah. I'd say the second one that comes to mind is Void's confession, from LitA's fifteenth chapter. That whole bit was super hard and took lots of rewrites, but I'm absolutely proud of how it turned out ^^ (You can read it here, y’all)
10. What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?
This is such a good question. I definitely want to shift to writing more shorter fics, one-shots and the likes. I will definitely still be writing my Beauty and the Beast AU and the Angsty AU, but I will leave them for when I'm in the mood, so no more hyper-focusing on one thing like with LitA, so I don't put pressure on them (and myself). Aside from that, I have ideas for few multi-chaptered fics, but I don't want to make them longer than 20-30k, so they don't take up too much time and I can publish one thing or another every once in a while ^^ Aaand I'd like to try writing some more prompts too, just really short things I can whip out in a day or two, that'd be lovely to keep my mind going and jog my creativity ^^
Thank you for sending an ask, nonnie!
From this Ask Game.
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So I recently did an AMA over on the Fair Game Effect discord server, and it was a whole mess of fun! I loved being able to get the chance to chat about the creative process that goes on behind the scenes, so I wanted to be able to share the answers with the rest of you ♥
I do tend to get kind of wordy for some of these answers, so to save your dash, find out a bit more about my writing process under the cut!
Keep in mind that there are mild SPOILERS up to the latest chapter of And The Reason Comes, if you haven’t caught up!
Question: I absolutely love the cadence of your writing, especially the slow way you unravel emotions. Was there something particular about the relationship between Qrow and Clover that you felt lends itself to this style of writing? Can you talk a bit about how you decide which emotional bits get more attention, and how you decide the depth to which you describe those emotions? That’s 2 questions, sorry.
Cart: Thankyou so much!! The biggest part of writing these two really comes from the fact that they're both adults with a lot of stuff on their plates. They've had enough experience with life along the way to know a few things here and there. They don't tend to rush into things, unless it's a good fight, and there's a lot of mutual respect for space and trust and time, so it was all about expanding on what's already there. In canon, we were always shown that there was this soft sort of trust building up between the two of them, but it was never anything in great leaps and bounds.
Qrow's shown himself not to be the sort to blindly trust without reason, and how easily that can break, so going into Reason I always kinda knew it would be a slow drag of letting him work himself out around this new force in his life. Clover himself has shown that he's this quiet but gently reassuring presence in his life, and putting them together is like a match skirting the edge of kindling. They work so well together; they recognise there's something there, so it was just a matter of letting them fall into step over the course of the fic.
As for the second question, hoo man, that's kind of a mixed bag answer! It all really depends on the brainstorming process of what plot points I want to tackle, and in what order they fall onto the page. Sometimes it's also a matter of just letting the scene play out by letting the characters say what feels 'right' at the time (which can sometimes go INCREDIBLY against what I originally had planned). There was always going to be heavier scenes versus lighter ones, so it's a bit of a balancing act to know when to let them come up for air, or when to let them linger. Not just for them, but also for the audience.
That's... probably the biggest thing I keep in mind when writing the heavier emotional scenes. It's not just the characters going through it, but whoever's reading it, too.
As to the depth part, that's... something that depends on the rhythm of what's happening. If it's a scene of heavier realisation, sometimes shorter, punchier sentences help portray that (eg: Qrow's realisation of what home is to him in the latest chapter), but other times, it takes something meatier to help feel what they're feeling (eg: that first kiss and Qrow's subsequent reaction). It's that striking-a-balance feeling again, and finding what works best for the pacing of the scene, and it's something I always have fun writing.
Question: What parts of Reason do you enjoy the most so far?
Cart: can I just say i've adored writing the whole thing jkhdfk
Man, I... really don't know how to answer this one. I've enjoyed the entire process of the fic, because it's been such a fun ride of ups and downs. I adore writing these two together, so sometimes it's the little things that really tick all my boxes.
I do get a giant kick out of writing action scenes, so the sparring match and the canyon fight with the Nevermore were pure indulgence for me to go through. I love the tender, more simple moments, like the noodle shop, or any of the time spent with the girls. Getting to see them through some heavy emotional moments, like at the lookout, or at Clover's apartment. Being able to explore some characters and have fun with them along the way; I mean, writing Winter has been an absolute blast and I never thought she'd be as fun to write as she has been.
Honestly, though, it's just a treat to be able to write a scene where Qrow is genuinely happy, because it's something that's so very rarely shown, and being able to give that to him is just so good.
Question: What is your planning process like? Reason is such a big story, how much of it was planned at the start? Did you have all the major plot points decided then, or did some big ones strike you along the way?
Cart: Kind of fifty-fifty, actually! I had a few big story beats in mind before I started putting pen to paper, but a lot of smaller, in-between scenes generally fall into place somewhat organically along the way. There were always some things that I wanted to do from the outset, for example, the sparring match, the noodle shop, Clover's breakdown, and the Nevermore fight.
Along the way, ideas will pop out of the blue while I'm doing dishes or something, or if I've been stewing about how to connect certain points. Those usually get jotted down and shuffled or reworked depending on how the story is progressing. The usual process kinda looks like this:
It's just quick little snatches of notes, but the actual scenes get WAY more fleshed out as the chapter plays out. Some things don't make the cut, depending on pacing, or if it doesn't fit the flow of where a scene goes, or if it's just going to pad out the story too much (as you can see from the last note there, it's something that never made the cut in the restaurant, but it was a fun idea to play with).
Question:
In addition to
Reason
, you also wrote a series of fics for Fair Game Week! How was writing those different than writing for something long-form like
Reason
? And which FGW was your favourite to write :)?
Cart: I actually get a real kick out of writing shorter prompts, because it really helps keep myself better in a character's head, ie seeing how they react to different situations, knowing how they'd respond to something, that sort of thing. It's a good mental break to be able to sink my teeth into something shorter, and with a concise ending, rather than a bigger, ongoing project like Reason.
As to a favourite, man, I adore Feint because getting to go over the parts and pieces of Harbinger was amazing, though I really do have a soft spot for Sinew because writing a sick floppy bird getting cared for by Clover was just fun.
Question: It’s so lovely to hear about how much you’ve enjoyed writing Reason from your answers! Have you gotten stuck on any part, and if so, how did you work through that?
Cart: Oof, I have gotten stuck quite a few times along the way. Wrapping up the restaurant scene was a big one, and definitely when Ruby, Clover and Qrow left the canyon to return to Mantle. There's an upcoming scene with Winter that I had to revisit quite a few times, because of certain subtleties in phrasings or how she was speaking very carefully with someone without either of them saying too much that would cross a line. I still find myself getting stuck with Ironwood, but mainly because I still haven't gotten his voice right in my head.
Working through them, to me, is just a matter of pushing ahead with a scene, letting characters talk to one another, or letting them get their own thoughts out, because sometimes in doing that, it helps me stumble across something that leads into another scene. Or having a goal to work towards - another scene - and just finding a different way to connect the two.
Question: What inspired you to begin writing Reason?
Cart: Honestly? It was seeing Qrow taking the first real, productive steps into healing, and finding himself working alongside this positive parallel of a person, and reacting so wonderfully to it. After Clover's introduction, it was clear that he was going to be such a healing presence to Qrow, and watching Qrow open himself up to this man little by little was something that was wonderful to see.
It was because of that I really wanted to do something with this healing process, and help the two of them connect in a more solid, in-depth manner. It's honestly why them becoming a couple took so long to come around; I wanted the focus to be on their trust and connection first, and their relationship as a couple to come afterwards.
Question: If you don’t mind me asking (feel free to ignore if this would be too spoilery!), but going forward with Reason, are you planning on including any canon scenes from the show?
Cart: It's something I've been tossing up for a while, pretty much ever since I started writing it, to be honest. It's why the fic takes place in that little handwaved time pocket between their arrival in Atlas and the elections, because it gave me enough time to play around with something if I did include canon scenes.
Going forward... I'm not too sure! If I did, then many things would certainly change, but at the current pace of things, and with the loose ending I have in mind, it might be hard to wrangle in. But hey, maybe we'll see!
Question: You navigate through a lot of different emotional beats in Reason so deftly!! Do you have any strategies you use to keep everyone in character as you write?
Cart: Thankyou! A couple of things I always try and keep in the back of my mind when writing: does this sound like something they would say in canon? And is this something that the audience is going to find enjoyable?
Obviously, the characters change a little over the course of the story, so subtle changes will be there, but for the most part, I always stick to those two loose rules when I'm putting pen to paper. As an aside, Reason wasn't actually my first foray into writing these characters! I wrote just a few simple, throwaway scenes and snatches of conversation, just to get a feel for them and their voices before I really started writing the bigger stuff.
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I was tagged by @writing-with-melon I hope my answers aren’t complete waste or if time and if so I’m sorry and I love you
Rules: Answer ten 10 questions, ask 10, and tag 10 people
1. What song automatically plays in your head when you look out the window on a long drive?
i dont really have an answer for this. i think i just automatically think about any song ive been listening to recently or any song that has been stuck in my head.
2. Do you have some snacks nearby when you write?
well i live in a two story house so the kitchen is downstairs and im usually lazy busy so since i have a mini fridge upstairs i just usually get water to drink while im writing. its kinda hard to eat and write cuz i loose focus really easily so when i am writing i am writing! i am in the zone! but if i am a little hungry ill usually snack on candy like chocolate kinder joys i love them but they r so expensive or snack on chips but i get like salt on my fingers or i like cheetos so cheetos dust and that just gets everywhere and later my hands and keyboard kinda smell like fart.
3. What do you do to combat creative burnout?
so burnout happens to me a lot so to get inspiration i either read other stories or fanfics which gets my head gears turning or i admire a piece of art or photography or a song. whats so unique and satisfying with writing you can explore and go anywhere with it, hehehe erotic if you know what i mean lol jk there are no barriers with writing just your imagination. there is inspiration any where you go and id advise to never stop writing. even if its a few short sentences or paragraphs about anything even bird poop its still progression and your mind is working and your searching for words like its all good for you bby.
4. Do you use (or like to use) prompts?
i do ill put the link here. im thinking of changing it though to do something different.
5. What is your favorite place to write?
lol boring, i know but my room. my room is really bright in the mornings and comfortable and chill and i have a candle of the pandora ride in disney that smells like the ride so its all good and relaxing and super peaceful plus i have a picture of myself the age of like 9 on my desk idk why but it encourages me and makes me focus to make sure i never get that cringy again.
6. What is a hobby or yous that you usually don’t talk about?
well i like working out HAHAHAHAHA jk that was a joke...get it...cuz i much rather be eatingokillstop. but i really like to draw which i have a art page you can see it if you click here pls look at my failed attempts to be hip and cool with the cool kids and being artsy fartsy. another hobby is i really like to do makeup and nail art, nail art is really tough guys no joke if you do it like you got wizard powers are something. maybe its bc my nails are shorter than pete davidson and ariana grande’s relationship, alright im trying to stop i swear!
7. Do you play an instrument? Which one?
no i wish though. i always wanted to learn to either play the piano or electric guitar cuz H.E.R looks so cool doing it.
8. How do you feel about your handwriting?
it sucks dont even try me. my sister can barely read it like no wonder nobody wants to steal my signature heck they can’t even read it!
9. Can you tell us of a story that marked your development as a person? As a writer?
ok sit back guys, sniff a nice amount of crack and get ready for the most cringy moment of my life but also a time when i knew i was meant to be *inhale* a fanfic writer.
so it was elementary school, i think 3rd grade and for my writing assignment we were given a prompt of idk what the heck tbh i think it was like be outside the box and im like ok imma nail this cuz im a weird child and yeah so i got my papers and pencil and i went TO TOWN on this paper. so i wrote two stories. one short story with a picture to go with it and one long story that yeah i buried years ago. so my first story was about a farmer was about that farming life. he had chickens and dairy. so i cant remember if the cheese was spoiled but doesnt matter. anywho these cheese and a chicken were alive like they could talk in the story and i gave them faces, yikes. but the whole story was the farmer was a b*tch and he was trying to eat the chicken and cheese so they hatched a plan to get away from the farmer. they did it successfully and they ran away. yay happy ending my teacher actually liked that one me too and my school mates were thinking what they heck is this girl on i made a story about how me and justin bieber made cookies for Christmas you know. so then my other story i was more proud of this one cuz it was a tone of paper, sorry trees, and this story was about how a female hippo (girl i was all about plus size and thicker girls and no body shaming) and an male ostrich were kidnapped from their own habitats and taken to become circus animals. failed version of Madagascar hey mine was before the circus movie OK THEY STOLE IT FROM MEEEEE. so they get taken and are treated to harsh punishment and the animals can talk and i think its in the point of view of the male ostrich guy thing. they are in the circus and they start to have this relationship happening. love starts blossoming its all good. im happy with this cuz i believed in love at age of 8. they find a way thru a kick butt scene of the animals escaping and the hippo and ostrich are so in love that they run away together and they have half hippo half ostrich babies and i think i named the species hipstrich or like ostppo idk but i was so proud of this story and when my teacher read it she was worried about me lol i think she thought i might like mate these two animals like secretly idk but she was like it was ok and i was like what this is frickin William Shakespeare writing or like F. Scott Fitzgerald writing. nevertheless it taught me a lesson that nobody else needs to like what im writing the main point and only thing that matters is if your proud of it and you like it and i really did. i will remember that story forever and thats what made me want to be a writer. lol sorry that was a lot.
10. @emdop I’m going to use this great question: Explain one of your WIPs in the most ridiculous way possible.
wellllll im working on my peaky blinders oc story its a lot of drugs money killing weapons jewelry rich profanities like its the show but written from my stubby hands so my oc and whatever its great and so excited to show it to you guys.
MY QUESTIONS:
1. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START TUMBLR?
2. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING OF THIS WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
3. WHAT QUALITY IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE OUTFIT?
5. WHAT MAKES YOU SMILE?
6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG IN THE WHOLE WORLD?
7. IF YOU COULD VISIT A PLACE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
8. WHAT SHOW OR MOVIE UNIVERSE WOULD YOU WANT TO BE IN?
9. WHAT IS THE SCARIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE?
10. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE IN THIS WORLD THAN ANYTHING ELSE?
im tagging: @thatlittlered, @ardentmuse, @acciosnapes, @lotsoffandomimagines, @collecting-stories, @blog-of-a-multitude-of-fandoms, @naughtyneganjdm, @lenahellgizibe and two random followers @spiritsent, @sucker-for-my-fandoms
i was tagged by @writing-with-melon again ty btw, ps i felt so much pressure lol jk 😊
Rules: Answer 5 questions, Ask 5 questions, Tag 5 people.
1. What is your favorite book?
fifty shades of grey hahaha naw my favorite book is obv you all know this is series of unfortunate events but i never usually cry period and i never cry for books ever so when i read mrs. tom thumb by melanie benjamin, its the part when her sister minnie dies i cried so hard idk it was just emotional the wording the way she described her pain it was so beautiful written yet so sad and that was just amazing to me cuz im like this book made me feel things and im like wow i would love to write a book one day and make someone feel something whether it be sadness anger happiness annoyance anything they are having an emotion and that is super powerful to do that with just words. pls go check out that book its a good read. also im a fan of the greatest showman so i really enjoyed it. there are many other books tho that i thoroughly enjoy so much.
2. What piece that you’ve written are you most proud of?
oh my god ive always wanted to be asked this question hands down i am always proud of my platonic gender neutral tony stark fic called in·con·sol·a·ble window to me i wrote it so sad and i was feeling like depressed lol when i saw peter die in infinity war like i didnt know what to do with my life tbh but im so glad that @impetrichorny requested it tysm i just like how its not based on romance or fluff or happiness it is based on when you lose someone the nightmares and sadness you go through and that there is nothing nobody can do about it except just be there for that person so i really like writing angst and something that was out of the box. ive been thinking tho of doing a part two since the fate of all the characters has changed after endgame. who knows tho.
3. What is the last song that inspired you?
well for art it would have to good news by mac miller when i did that kobe bryant memorial on my art page. i dont want to give it away though but ill just say some very powerful womens music inspired my oc writing and making.
4. How do you feel about letting people read what you write?
at first i was scared cuz i thought i wrote like trash which that feeling kinda doesnt go away like some days i feel that way others i feel confident or it depends on the request it just depends but anyways i was always insecure about my writing so when i started writing it was more like lets see how this goes if not ill delete the whole page. im glad to say it went great but in the begging it was hard cuz i kept putting myself down but i learned to accept or just understand that you keep learning with writing you always learn knew things with writing how you can explain something better or you words get more intricate and people see the improvement and you do too thats why i applaud those who dont speak english that english isnt their first language. you are doing a tremendous job and keep practicing cuz you’re gonna make it to the top. ive also learned that some days are not my days and you can take time off when youre not feeling it when you have writers block. just recollect your juices sip some tea go to the beach relax your mind a little and take as long as you need to come back and give it your all. also comments and reblogs and likes a follows those meant so much to me and encouraged me. thats why i cant express it enough how much all those mean to writers, artist, photographers, anybody who is truly trying their hard in this area of social media. its makes a person happy smile and confident in their writing but first train your mind into loving what you make not what others thing. you have to be happy with the outcome that is what truly matters and what makes your writing the best. look at me getting philosophical.
5. Do you get distracted easily? If yes with what?
yes and with porn haha i get distracted easily like very easily homeschooling was really tough for me. music distracts me, netflix, the urge to watch david dobrik or unus annus or buzzfeed unsolved on youtube, heck my farts distract me. i gotta be like troy bolton i gotta get my HEAD IN THE GAME!
MY QUESTIONS:
1. IF YOU COULD BE NAMED SOMETHING ELSE, WHAT WOULD YOU BE NAMED?
2. WHAT PERSON INSPIRES YOU THE MOST?
3. IF YOU KNEW THE WORLD WAS ENDING TOMORROW WHAT WOULD YOU DO TODAY?
4. WHAT DO YOU OFTEN THINK ABOUT IN THE SHOWER?
5. WHATS YOUR WEIRD COMBINATION FOOD?
im tagging: @thatlittlered, @ardentmuse, @acciosnapes, @lotsoffandomimagines, @collecting-stories AND WHOEVER WANTS TO DO THIS IF YOU FOLLOW ME OR LIKE MY STORIES TAG ME ILL READ YOUR ANSWERS. HOPE I DID THIS RIGHT SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING MWUAH
#ask#@writing-with-melon#rambles#writing#tips on writing#unus annus#david dobrik#netflix#buzzfeed unsolved#peaky blinders oc#kobe bryant#mac miller#tony stark#peter parker#the greatest showman#tom thumb#troy bolton#zac efron
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