immajustwriteoverhere

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Episode VIII: Triumph of The Soldier

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Unrest! While in the midst of battle, JEDI MASTER OBI-WAN KENOBI and COMMANDER CODY were sent FIFTY YEARS into the future. After sensing two FORCE users, Obi-Wan and Cody save REY, FINN and POE DAMERON from the sinister FIRST ORDER. They are then taken to meet GENERAL LEIA ORGANA of the RESISTANCE to aide in their fight for freedom.

Obi-Wan takes it upon himself to teach the young Jedi how to use the Force. Meanwhile, Cody aides in training the Resistance fighters. The two prove to be valuable assets to the Resistance.

The Sith Lord KYLO REN is displeased with the Resistance’s sudden strength. He vows to take down the LAST OF THE JEDI and all they love once and for all. His plans are soon foiled when another foe challenges his abilities…

Created for @codywanweek​ Day 4: Time Travel

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #obiwan would beat kylos ass #the moment he finds out who the twins are and then who kylo is his hair turns completely grey #cody isnt far behind #i was looking for the fic #but there was none :( #be the fanfic you wish to see in the world ig

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Supreme Archangel Aziraphale and Duke of Hell Crowley.

This piece was a commission for @moonyinpisces's fanfiction "how do we turn on the light?" on Ao3! Had such a blast working on this!

#good omens #aziraphale #aj crowley #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #ineffable idiots

[immajustwriteoverhere]

timkon kiss inspired by the latest chapter of buy back the secrets by the one and only fer sundiscus

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Fic / Art Masterlist

Figured it was finally time to give in and make one of these. Links will all be under the cut with pared down summaries to prevent this thing from being a monster on people's dash. Probably just going to leave them in the order they were posted just to make it easier to update as I go.

Standalone Fics:

Traveling Song - Star Wars, Din Djarin/OC, M Din Djarin gets to know his sometimes-ally a little better, and ends up a lot over his head. Jedi Lineage Shenanigan Collection - Star Wars, T A collection of mostly unrelated and out of order one or two-shots revolving around Jedi, their families, and the nonsense they all get up to. Tren's Xenoanatomy - Star Trek, Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy, T Jim likes to watch trashy television to cope when he's had a bad day. Bones has some opinions on the medical accuracies of one of his favorite shows. They maybe hook up about it. Foelu - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody/Waxer/Boil/Rex/Helix, E As the only one of his kind in the Order and perhaps only the third in its history, almost all of what they know about Obi-Wan's people is limited what they've been able to observe as he's grown up. When his implant expires and wartime shortages make it impossible to get their hands on a replacement, Obi-Wan learns about something else his body can do--for better or worse. On The Caretaking And Debauching Of Your Senior Field Medic - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Helix, E When his CMO is benched with an injury and his SFM becomes even more overworked and irate than usual, Obi-Wan Kenobi takes things into his own hands. Killing Time - Star Wars, Bo-Katan/Fennec, E Fennec Shand finds herself trapped in a vault with Bo-Katan Kryze for several hours after they both break in with the intent of stealing the same artifact. Fennec suggests a way to pass the time. Electricity Blew - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody/Waxer/Boil/Helix, E The core of the 212th's officership falls into bed with their Jedi general, and learn some very interesting things about Force users in the process. home (is where you build it) - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Cody, Obi-Wan & Quinlan, E Obi-Wan Kenobi is a state away and halfway through his master's degree when his sort-of father dies unexpectedly, leaving Obi-Wan's two adopted siblings with no other family to take care of them and Obi-Wan short on options that don't involve him having to move back to a childhood home that he only visits twice a year for a reason. But with a best friend willing to make the move and help shoulder some of the burden with him, and an opening teaching a subject (or two) he loves at the same high school he went to himself, and a very handsome volunteer firefighter just across the street, maybe...maybe it won't be all that bad.

Series:

Order 63 (2022) - Codywan

Monday - Middle Earth AU, art & fic Obi-Wan forgets about certain cultural traditions when she returns to the Shire with Cody after three years at war. She Plays Bass - Band AU, art & fic Up-and-coming rockstar Cody Fett is touring with well-established Obi-Wan Kenobi for the first time, and may have developed an extraordinarily predictable crush--much to the amusement of her bandmate, Fox. When the tour's booking agent messes up their hotel reservations, it leaves Cody in something of an interesting predicament--and in much closer quarters with Obi-Wan than intended. Wednesday - Star Trek AU, art Captain Obi-Wan Kenobi and her First Officer, Commander Cody, stumble upon strange flora on an away mission. This is nothing new, and neither is Obi-Wan's ill-advised urge to touch it. Cody fondly wonders if perhaps her Captain was not promoted to command simply to distance her from the scientific field where she started. Thursday - Sports / Roller Derby AU, art What's a little friendly competition between girlfriends, anyway? Friday - No O66 / Jedi!Cody AU, art A warm, cozy morning in the Jedi Temple, and a playful battle for the shared kettle.

Thank God You Introduced Me To Your Sister - RexObi

Thank God You Introduced Me To Your Sister - Sapphic Modern AU, fic Rex is feeling underappreciated in her relationship with her best-friends-with-benefits. Good thing his very attractive older sister's back in town on break from school, huh? Thank God For You - Sapphic AU, fic It's Rex's turn to take care of Obi-Wan.

SubObi Week (2022) (also contains Obi-Wan Omegaverse)

Day One - Jangobi, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's suppressants fail for the first time in his life as he's en-route to Kamino to investigate the attempt on Senator Amidala's life. Fortunately for him, there happens to be an Alpha available in the facility. Unfortunately for him, that Alpha is Jango Fett. Day Three - ObiMaul, Sith AU, art Day Four - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Jango Fetts's intelligence provides the Republic with better footing at the start of the war. It is not the only thing he's left Obi-Wan with. Day Five - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's pussy saves the galaxy. It just…takes a roundabout sort of path to get there. Also known as Obi-Wan Kenobi Gets To Have The Beginnings Of His Happy Ending, As A Treat. Day Six - Codywan, Omegaverse AU, fic Obi-Wan Kenobi's happy ending continues, just with a brief intermission as an old acquaintance resurfaces. Day Seven - Jangobi, art Some Jetii just look so pretty with a hand around their throat. Day Eight - Bail/Obi/Breha, art Bail and Breha Organa are unable to conceive on their own. They approach their dear friend Obi-Wan for a specific kind of assistance. He is more than happy to help.

Year of the OTP - Spirk

On Social Maturity Across Species - fic The Enterprise crew are sent to negotiate a new planet joining the Federation. Unfortunately for the Captain and First Officer, the people of Ektros IV don’t consider unattached individuals to be full-fledged adults and will not meet with Jim at the negotiation table unless he can prove his marital status. On Automatic Adrenal Responses - fic The crew of the Enterprise are sent to investigate reports of a rogue scientist developing illegal chemical weapons. Commander Spock becomes an inadvertent test subject. Spending All Our Time (Trying To Get Back Home Again) - fic In which the events of Beyond never take place, and Jim takes the Admiralty job. He manages to survive behind a desk for about a year before the need to be out there once more becomes too much for him to bear. But how will his old crew take his return to his post as Captain of the Enterprise?

They Told Me I Couldn't Bag A Jedi (And I Took That Personally)

Like A Puzzle - Codywan, fic The beginning of Marshall Commander Cody's Slut Era [Affectionate]™ You Think I Wouldn't? - CodyQuin, fic Marshall Commander Cody's Slut Era [Affectionate]™ Continues. A Fast And Dedicated Learner - Cody/Luminara/Shaak/Depa, fic Cody is invited to give batting for the other team a try. Still Got It - Cody/Mace, fic Cody decides to take some initiative as part of his Slut Era, only sort of because his brother basically dared him. Expanding Horizons - Cody/Obi/Kit, fic Cody's Slut Era™ Is Equal Opportunity

Art:

AO3 Postings

Too Spicy For Tumblr - Art

Tumblr Postings

Fox Day Merry Christmas Hardcase Ides of March Padmé Ari Sketch Commander Cody Phase Knives Awful Little Carnivore Baby's Second Paleoart Stewjoni Wooley Bird Perserverence Window (gift for @lttrsfrmlnrrgby) Major Bent ObiMaul Hockey AU Foelu Art - Obi's Robe, Baby Kai-Tal, Obi's Pregnancy Outfit (gift for @lttrsfrmlnrrgby), Cody Civilian Clothes, Obi-Wan Halloween - Ms. Frizzle She Plays Bass Art - Kissing On Stage, Goofing Off Backstage (gift for @goddammitjim) Butch Lesbian Codywan (gift for @meebles) Leera Rain Day Barrisoka Fic Writer/Podcaster AU Codywan Monsterfucker Christmas Codywan Dinosaur AU (co-created with @meebles) - Kissing on Boga, Boga 'Grooming' Obi-Wan, Kissing on the Bucking Parasaurolophus Curvy Lady Painting 2024 Clone Pin-Up Calendar - January, February, March, April Nautolan!Obi-Wan (gift for @meebles) Coday Art - Coruscant, Cody With A Steel Chair, Kamino, Civilian Clothes, AU Shaak Ti/Luminara Wound Tending Codywan Mermaid AU Kiss (gift for @meebles) Kesett Art (gift for @lothcatthree) Codywan Lift & Carry Kiss Cloud/Barret CodyQuin Art (gift for @lothcatthree) Expression Requests - Sleepy Quin, Laughing Shaak (De-Twinkified) Shibari Obi-Wan ObiBail Art McKirk Art Werewolf AU Girlies - Sleeping on the Couch Sugar Baby Fox Cody In A Gown

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Fandom 101: The Origin of the Citrus Scale

A guest post by Aeryn Jemariel Knox. (@jemariel)

Ah, the citrus scale. It’s like a cryptid roaming the edges of modern fandom communities. Long-tenured veterans speak of it with affectionate mockery while newcomers google curiously. A relic from a bygone fandom era, the citrus scale saw a brief resurgence in 2018 during the Tumblr porn ban, suggested as a way to avoid the new bot censors trawling for posts with the NSFW tag—though never, I think, in seriousness. 

That may have been jocular and short-lived, but it does point to the reasons why the citrus scale was created in the first place. Certain fandom activities have always had to fly under the radar to one degree or another. Whether you’re trying to evade legal action or simply avoid deletion based on explicit content, a certain level of obfuscation is sometimes worthwhile.

It’s not hard to find the generally agreed-upon definitions of the citrus scale’s levels. According to Fanlore, KnowYourMeme, and others, this is more or less the “official” citrus scale:

Orange: Light stuff, kissing, nothing below the waist or under the clothes. 

Lime: Groping, implied sex without details, fade-to-black, no intercourse or intimate contact.

Lemon: Sex, in full detailed glory. Woo-hoo! Regardless of the actual acts performed, if you can tell who had an orgasm (or, perhaps, had an orgasm denied), how, and where, it’s a lemon.

Grapefruit: We’ll get into this later.

But these tidy categories are clear thanks to the benefit of hindsight. In the Wild West of the early internet, it was not so easy to pin down exactly what you might be getting into based on which term was used.

At its origin, the citrus scale wasn’t a scale at all. It has its roots in hentai (and was always more popular in anime fandoms), stemming from a specific early hentai film by the title of Cream Lemon (1984). Hentai being what it is, this led to certain subculture communities referring to any story with explicit sexual content as a “Lemon.” And for a while, that was the extent of it. Then came fanfiction.net purging explicit content (2002), Livejournal suffering Strikethru (2007), and other events that pushed burgeoning fandom communities out of their growing hubs and back into smaller, isolated communities centered on a single fandom or pairing. In the relatively sparse early ’00’s internet, anybody could spin up an Angelfire website, pass the link around to their friends, and get a reasonable amount of traffic.  Websites devoted to the works of a single author or small group were common.

I mention this to describe the landscape in which fandom lexicons grew and evolved in the early-mid 2000s. Each pocket community had its own rules, lingo, and expectations; venturing outside of your home pocket could lead to some pretty major miscommunications. 

“Lemon” was established early and its definition has hardly shifted. It means that the labeled content (art, fic, mood board, etc.) includes sex. Intercourse, bumping uglies, etc. However, some yaoi fandom niches used it specifically to mean gay sex of the male variety. In some communities, “lime” developed as a corresponding term for feminine gay sex, while other communities brought it up with the usage that eventually “stuck,” “not quite a lemon.” Given that lemon and lime often go hand in hand when discussing actual flavors, the fact that we had some divergent term evolution is not surprising. But coming in from a different pocket of fandom and seeing “lime,” thinking you’ll be reading semi-softcore sexual tension and instead being confronted with graphic sapphic antics? Bit of a shock, I’m sure.

A more dramatic example is the rating level of “Grapefruit,” which occupies two completely different ends of the scale. In some circles, grapefruit was defined as “less intense than lime,” G or PG-rated stories that were more soft or cute than sexy. In other circles, it was used to mean the exact opposite. Kinkier than kink, smuttier than smut, grapefruit art and fic was where you went to have your eyebrows singed off. Some communities were even more specific, using grapefruit for stories featuring non-consensual sex. This was where darkfic lived – in modern day parlance, your “Dead Dove, Do Not Eat” works. To say that this usage difference caused some disagreements would be putting it mildly.

Nobody really worried about orange. Orange just existed, not bothering anybody.

When these terms were coined, the internet was not an assumed aspect of everybody’s daily life the way it is today. There was no Tumblr, no Facebook, no social media to speak of. There were no large repositories of internet lore and knowledge such as Urban Dictionary or KnowYourMeme. It was a playground. And what do you do on a playground? You make friends! The citrus scale, like so many fandom tropes and concepts, was defined by groups of friends that created them ad hoc to meet their own needs at the time. No one could have predicted that it would become so much a fandom history that it’d be enshrined, nor that I would be writing a blog post about it two decades later. From the common source of lemon, people extrapolated what the rest of the scale might look like, and there was no authority to tell them they were wrong. (Except other fans. That hasn’t changed.)

In conclusion, it’s best not to take the citrus scale too seriously. At best, it’s a cheeky way to avoid censors who try to bar a community from engaging with explicit works, but it’s also varied to a fault and open to interpretation. If you and your community have come up with a use for it that suits your needs, then congratulations: you’re part of a fandom tradition stretching back to the roots of the internet. Just don’t try and tell anybody else that they’re wrong. You might start a flame war.

References:

Prokopetz: Orange and Grapefruit

She’s Got Plans: What is the Citrus Scale in Fanfiction?

Unwinnable: Lemon and Lime

Past Fandom 101 Posts:

Everything About A/B/O Dynamics You Wanted to Know (but were Afraid to Ask)

How to Diversify Your To-Be-Read Pile

Recognizing AI Generated Images, Danmei Edition

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Can I please request some mando'a endearments/nicknames?

Hey, I just wanna apologize for the delay to answering this !! And also, just as a forewarning, this list is nowhere near exhaustive, just bc of the sheer … flexibility of mando’a to accommodate personal needs. Since this question is also a little general, I’ll go into the more popular endearments, and then a few suggested constructions you can use.

Before I get started though, I just wanted to note that mando’a is funny as a language in that … many, many words can be used as affectionate terms, depending on who says what to who. So words that may have literal meanings (say, for example, night sky, or mountain, or sea) can also be used as terms of endearment, especially if ner, my, is placed in front.

Endearment is, often, more than just the terms we have at our disposal from a predefined list, and what may be used to express affection and endearment from one person might be offensive and insulting from another. It, like most things, depends on context and delivery.

Consider these words and how, in different contexts, they might be used to present affection, or as nicknames:

atin’la — tough

ca’tra — night sky

cerar — mountain

sarad — flower

Anyway, that said, I’m gonna start with the basics and further down we’ll move on to more complex terms. This is also cut for length.

Just the list to expect w/ explanations:

‘ika — diminutive suffix and its (appropriate) uses

burc’ya — friend

vod — sibling, companion, friend

cyar / cyar’ika — beloved

riduur — partner, spouse

kar’ta — heart

mesh’la — beautiful, handsome

meshurok — gemstone

riye — favor, good turn

runi — soul

sarad — flower

an’edee — all bite

n’edeemi — no bite

kair’ta — [my] desperate heart

Jango-specific endearments towards his clone sons (if you’re curious)

edit:: and there’s a follow-up post to further clarify

Keep reading

#mando'a #don't mind me #just doing some light research

[immajustwriteoverhere]

I finally published the project for my dice roll scarf that went viral last month. If you love dice games, you'll enjoy knitting this pattern.

The color work in this project is determined by an algorithm, a set of rules that determine the final outcome. There isn't an exact set of instructions for this project. Instead, the knitter uses four 10-sided dice or a random number generator to pick the length of the colorwork in each row. 

The result is a staggered stripe sequence along the edge of the shawl. There are trillions of unique outcomes, so no two projects turn out exactly alike. The pattern uses about 500 yards of yarn in total, but the amount of each color that you'll need is randomly determined. Before publishing, I wanted to find out the minimum and maximum amount of each color required to make the project and the probability of each outcome.

The knowledge needed to calculate the yardage was a bit beyond my skill level, but my friend Mary W. Martin helped me gather this info. I used an online probability calculator to find out the probability of each unique stitch count. The results are slightly different depending on whether you use four 10-sided dice (blue) or pick a random number (yellow), but 99% of all possible results fall within a very small range. 

It was an interesting little tangent, but not hugely important to the actual knitting pattern. I can, however, confidently say there is a >99.9% chance that you'll need a 2nd skein of the main color. If you want to know more about the math, you should check out my project notes on Ravelry. 

The thick and thin striped colorwork is created with a super simple "long stitch" technique. The pattern looks great in fluffy mohair or contrasting colors of basic wool and the instructions include some basic tips for substituting yarns or changing the gauge.

Finished Size: 18 x 68” (46 x 172 cm) rectangular wrap.

Yarn: Approx. 315 yards (288 m) of MC and approx. 264 yards (241 m) of CC. Yardage may vary, see notes on yardage below and yardage chart in photos.

• Main Color (2 skeins) - JMR Studio Worsted Weight Mohair, 245 yards (225 m) per 4 oz; 78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon.

• Contrast Color (1 skein each, both yarns held together) - JMR Studio Fingering Weight Mohair, 320 yards (293 m) per 100g; 63% Silk, 23% Kid Mohair, 11% Nylon, 3% Polyester Held with Lavender Lune Yarn Co. Suri Alpaca, 328 yards (300 m) per 50g; 74% Suri Alpaca, 26% Silk.

Yardage: The amount of each color used for this pattern fluctuates based on the random numbers used to determine the stitch pattern. MC uses approx. 233 to 315 yards (213 to 288m) and CC uses approx. 182 to 264 yards (166 to 241m). 99% of possible results fall within a much smaller range. The Yardage Chart shows the distribution of all potential yardage outcomes.

Needles: Size 8 (5 mm) straight needles, or size needed to obtain gauge. NOTE: Straight needles work best with long stitches. Circular needles with a thin cord allow the long stitches to tighten and stretch, making them harder to manipulate.

Gauge: 12 sts x 14 rows = 4 x 4” (10 x 10 cm) square in pattern.

Other Materials: 10 sided die or random number generator, stitch marker, scale, tapestry needle.

Generating numbers: In my sample, I used four ten-sided dice (D10) to choose a number between 4 and 40 sts. If you don't have dice, you can use an online app like RANDOM.org to generate your numbers. If you follow this link, you'll get a list of 63 integers between 4 and 40. NOTE: Each time you visit the link or refresh the page, the list changes. You can also just choose numbers as you knit.

Pattern is available on my website and on Ravelry.

[immajustwriteoverhere]

#crack treated seriously: a certified silly goose #you wish everyone could chill out and find some fucking whimsy! #this tracks really hard

[immajustwriteoverhere]

A concept in my head that been rolling around a lot:

Hanahaki, but instead of it being triggered by unrequited love, it's triggered because all the love you have for a person turns inwards because you're too afraid to show it.

So it kills you, not because someone doesn't love you back, but because you don't let it out and all that love you have stored, that could grow into something beautiful, turns on you and turns your insides beautiful.

Love is growth, and without any place for it to grow outside, it grows in. If you confess, reciprocated or not, the disease goes away because it's no longer trapped. It gives self-destruction a new meaning.

[immajustwriteoverhere]

I was today years old when I learned that when you type “otp: true” in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship

[immajustwriteoverhere]

Any time somebody argues that you should avoid the use of obvious pop culture references and current slang in prose fiction in order to avoid "dating" the text, I'm reminded that our primary evidence for when several of Shakespeare's plays were written is that their dialogue quotes specific pieces of contemporary popular media, and that there's strong evidence many of the words he's credited by modern authorities with inventing are literally just contemporary youth slang. Like, if it's good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for me, buddy!

[immajustwriteoverhere]

The “oh I could definitely write this fanfic in under 5000 words and it really wouldn’t take me that long” voice in your head is actually the devil speaking

[immajustwriteoverhere]

There’s something very nice about remembering fics you read years ago. Maybe you remember the plot perfectly, maybe the rest of the fic is only a blur aside from a handful of vivid scenes, but you remember the way it made you feel. And sometimes you dredge up the memory - the premise or a favourite scene or a few lines that stayed with you -  and your heart aches a little bit, the way it does when you think about books you enjoyed as a child.

To all the fanfiction writers out there: your work is beautiful and meaningful and it leaves an impact. I promise.

[immajustwriteoverhere]

regional differences

“oh hey,” she said, “it’s a really touristy area, but since you’re gonna be passing through anyway, you might as well stop by pier 29, see the dragons. also, there’s a—”

“hold on,” i said. “i knew your city had mountains, but. dragons? uh, actual living dragons?”

“dude, it’s not a big deal. they’re there all the time. of course they’re majestic and everything, but they’re loud and cranky and mostly they lie around eating garbage. now and then the city council will talk about trying to make them roost somewhere else, but—”

“dragons,” i repeated. i knew it was making me sound like a rube, but it was a lot to take in. “you live in a city that has dragons.”

“no, it’s cool, we used to go see them when i was a little kid. it’s worth doing. but that whole area is mostly dragon-themed gift shops, and the commercialization is kind of a bummer. also, sometimes a dragon will melt somebody’s car and it’s a whole problem.”

“fairytale-style, giant scaly fire-breathing dragons.”

“honestly, i forget other cities don’t have them?” she said. “there’s a few other sites on the west coast where they gather. portland calls them wyverns, but that’s a portland thing.”

“chicago’s got, like, bunnies and songbirds,” i told her, “but otherwise it’s just your typical vermin. pigeons, rats, sphinxes—”

“sphinxes? what the hell.”

“oh, yeah, they nest in the el tunnels. sometimes a fucking sphinx will flap down out of nowhere, bring the whole train to a halt until the front car answers a riddle.”

“that sounds exciting,” she said.

“it’s the worst. your train winds up being twenty minutes late, and you just have to hang out hoping somebody up there read their mythology. there’s supposed to be a program where the conductors get trained in riddling, but i don’t know. rahm emmanuel keeps saying it’s not a budget priority.”

“huh,” she said. “guess the grass is always greener and all that. but on some level, it’s nice to remember that even with all these big box stores, the country still has some variety left in it.”

“yeah, did you know that in rhode island they call water fountains ‘bubblers’?” i said.

“whoa, seriously?”

“i read it somewhere. crazy, right?”

“crazy.”

[immajustwriteoverhere]

At 7:36 AM on a Tuesday, Draco stumbles out of her personal Floo. It sounds like he tumbles out, and Hermione gasps as she whirls around to face the hearth in her kitchen. He’s bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. She’s never seen him look less put together.

“Draco. What’s wrong?” There’s a wild look in his eyes as he straightens, staring at her in a way that makes her feel more vulnerable than when he had her skirt hitched up around her waist seconds after he placed a silencing charm on the door to her office yesterday. She’s grown used to his touch, his taste, his presence in her life in stolen moments. But a wake-up call is outside the protocol of their trysts.

Not to mention that his face is currently whiter than the white blonde of his hair.

“What happened?” she asks when he continues to stare at her with wide gray eyes instead of answering her question. “What’s wrong?”

His hand shakes as he raises it to run it through his hair. “The tapestry,” he finally rasps. “The bloody fucking tapestry.”

“The…?” Hermione frowns as she watches his Adam's apple bob with the force of his swallow. He runs his hand through his hair again, and she thinks to herself that he looks spider-webbed, seconds away from shattering with the force of a breeze. “Here. Come sit.”

Draco’s hand still shakes in hers when she takes it, but he lets her lead him to one of the stools at her counter. He stares at some spot over her shoulder, almost despondent in his panic, until she presses her palm against his cheek. She ignores the voice in the back of her mind that questions why this feels like the most intimate way she’s ever touched him.

His eyes have that same wild quality when he stares back at her. “What happened to the tapestry?”

Rubbing a hand over his face, he mumbles something to himself that sounds like Didn’t think this part through. His hand covers his eyes for several long seconds before he finally lets it drop away. But then his eyes roam her body like he’s searching for an answer, and she wishes he’d cover his eyes again instead.

It catches her off guard when he asks, “How do you feel?”

“How do I feel?” she repeats, sounding daft even in her own ears.

“Do you feel… normal?”

Draco’s eyes scan her body again, and she crosses her arms over her chest to lessen that feeling of being laid bare before him. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“Is there something you need to tell me?” He shifts directions as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. And Hermione feels exasperated.

“Draco, what the hell are you getting at?” she sighs.

He falls silent again, but at least this time he holds her gaze. Another swallow, another bob. Another shaking hand through his hair. And then his voice a thin rasp again when he says, “You appeared on my family tapestry.”

Her blood freezes in her veins. She has no idea what that means, and she’s certain she knows what he just said at the same time. But her brain refuses to accept that interpretation. “I- what?”

“Granger, you are now on the Malfoy family tapestry. Which could mean that when you got me drunk on firewhisky last Friday, I married you and managed to forget.” Her stomach flips at the easy way the word married rolls off his tongue, but something in her mind screams at him to stop there.

Marriage. Period. Full stop. As far as this train of thought goes.

But instead, he levels his gaze with hers again as a muscle twitches in his jaw. “But there would be a line connecting your name to mine. Not an empty circle with an hourglass beneath both our names.”

His eyes drop from hers to stare solidly at her middle. She rushes to cross her arms there, to hide it from his view. “That’s impossible.”

But even as she says the words, she hears the lack of sincerity. Impossible would mean she hadn’t been the one to kiss him first. Impossible would mean she hadn’t invited him back to hers that first time, telling herself the next morning that she had been a little too drunk when she hadn’t drunk at all. Impossible would mean he was still just her coworker, not someone who had traced every part of her with his hands.

It was very possible.

“You’ve been a bitch,” he adds, interrupting her thoughts.

“I have not!” She takes a step back to create distance. Her hand itches to slap him. He must sense it because his lip twitches despite the lack of color that remains in his face.

“You were all pissy with me last week when you misplaced your notes on the vampyr rights’ bill.” He waves a hand lazily towards her. “You’re pissy right now.”

“You called me a bitch!” she says, aghast. What had ever made her think it was a good idea to sleep with this man? And then to keep returning at various times for the last three months?

“Yesterday, my hand barely grazed your tit, and you flinched.” He cards a hand through his hair again. It looks unkempt now, and Draco Malfoy never looks unkempt. Neither of them. Neither of them ever looks unkempt because they are calculated and careful and intentional in everything they do.

Except for when she kissed him on an impulse after their co-authored legislation for the protection of centaurs passed.

Hermione has to fight the urge to raise her hand to her own breast to see if it’s still just as tender.

“Well, it’s impossible.” She sounds more sure of herself as she shakes her head and raises her chin. “I’m taking a potion.”

This time, his lip does more than twitch. It’s a sad kind of smirk he wears, and her hand itches again to slap it off his face. “Which would be canceled out by the antidote you took when you had that skin reaction to the asphodel.”

She had held her breath, waiting for him to point out all the potential flaws in her brewing her own contraceptive potion. But the way he takes his Double Mastery of Potions knowledge and easily points out the way her potions would counteract one another leaves her feeling faint.

Hermione feels the color leave her own face. But her stubborn resistance grows a reciprocal amount.

“Well, this is ridiculous,” she mutters as she storms across the room to her discarded wand on the counter. She turns back around to find that Draco is standing again, gripping the counter as if it’s a life raft. She waves her wand and mutters the detection charm, determined to prove him wrong.

And instead, a tiny gold light appears above her abdomen. Flickering like a rapid heartbeat.

Her knees buckle as her whole world upends. But Draco just stares at it with wide eyes, his expression a mixture of fear and awe as he whispers, “Well, fuck me.”

#dramione #draco malfoy #hermione granger #dramione drabble

[immajustwriteoverhere]

You ever read fanfic so god tier you have to wait for real life to load back in so you spend half the day doing tasks with that dead look in your eye, replaying all your favorite moments?

[immajustwriteoverhere]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere

What is it, and why you should read it.

(Art by purple)

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere is a currently updating webserial by author Lurina. It's one of my favorite things I've read in a long while and I'd like to convince you all to give it a chance.

My elevator pitch is this: A time-loop murder mystery directly inspired by Umineko, with a lot of similar vibes to the Locked Tomb Trilogy - partially due to it's meditations on grief and mortality and partially due to it's far-future magical sci-fi world where we follow a fucked up lesbian necromancer on a task she is determined to see through to the end. A deeply complex, unique, and believable world that plays hosts to one of the best interpersonal dynamics I've read.

In a future so far-flung that it is past the heat death of the universe, humanity has constructed a new society that is post-scarcity but not post-stratification. Utsushikome of Fusai is one amongst a class of prodigious young medical arcanists (essentially grad students) who are invited to visit a recently legitimized conclave of top-of-the-line researchers studying immortality. Accompanying Su is her best friend Ran, a fellow arcanist. Over the course of the novel we begin to slowly unravel exactly what ulterior motives have brought them to this conclave and how events in their childhoods and years of working toward their shared goal has warped their relationship into what we now see. This relationship is the crown jewel of Flower's narrative, and getting to peel back the layers of it as you read is a delight.

Like Umineko, Flower is a murder mystery that prevents itself with in-universe Rules that dictate the murders' parameters, meaning there's a lot to chew on for anyone who likes solving mysteries. For those that don't, like myself, Flower offers instead a richly developed world and plenty of open questions about the sociopolitical and metaphysical implications of its own worldbuilding.

Below the cut, I'll go into more detail about the series (without spoilers!) for those of you whose interest has been piqued.

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere is currently ongoing, updating every few weeks. It's several hundred thousand words, so if you're looking for something substantial to keep you entertained, you've got it. As you might expect from the length, the pacing is decently slow. I don't see this as a bad thing at all, because within this pacing Lurina dripfeeds the readers enough new and interesting information at a regular rate that it never feels like your time is being wasted. But if you can't handle slow burns, I wouldn't recommend this one for you.

If you enjoyed the Zero Escape series and liked that they stopped solving murder puzzles to infodump about fringe science, I think you'll get a lot out of Flower. Characters are frequently interrupting their life-or-death scenarios to have lofty, philosophical and political discussions. It's a ton of fun if you like reading characters argue.

'People have to sleep.' 'People have to work.' 'People have to die.' But those were just vague rules, phrasing I'd used because it had been easier in the context of that conversation. What really mattered, on the day-to-day level, was the idea that it was all for something. If someone invented a elixir that made people not to need to sleep, it would, in retrospect, recontextualize all nights everyone ever wasted sleeping as wastes of time. Not something that occurred for some inherent purpose, but whims of circumstance, a tragedy of when you happened to be born. If you accepted that all unfair things in the world could be removed, if only someone knew how - fatigue, labor, death - then to exist in the world we had now, with all its grotesque imperfections, was to know that you had been violated by fate.

Along those lines it's just got a sense of humor I really enjoy. Pretty dry and cavalier. It manages to keep the mood light without feeling like it's undermining it's own stakes. I'm particularly fond of Su's penchant for telling incredibly depressing suicide jokes that just Do Not Land.

The peer pressure cut into me like a hot knife. I hesitated a little, biting my lip. "Well, uh, okay. I'll just tell a quick one." I swallowed, my mind quickly scrambling. "Okay, so, there's a woman who runs a dispensary for second hand goods. She sees a man come in who's a regular customer. He's kind of a mess-- Has a big beard, a bad complexion. He buys a razor, and tells her he needs it to clean himself up, because he has a date." I could see that I now had Ophelia's attention and that Kam was looking pleased with herself, but Ran was watching me, too. I could see the look in her eyes. It screamed at me, with such vividity that it could be sold at an art gallery: You better not be telling a suicide joke right now, or we're going to have a talk. But it was too late. The wheels were already in motion.

As I mentioned up top, the relationship between Ran and Su is just one of my favorite interpersonal dynamics ever. Period. The author is playing some insanely complicated 5th dimensional yuri chess and I am absolutely here for it as someone who likes characters who are deeply devoted to each other in a way that is deeply deeply fraught. I cant emphasize enough how obsessed I am with what they have going on.

Additionally, as stated, the worldbuilding in Flower is top tier. The author clearly understands how every part of her world functions, which makes the moral quandaries and politics presented all the more impactful because they're very believable. It's hard to talk about Flower's world without spoiling too much of the specifics that get slowly revealed, but it doesn't fall back on any typical sci-fi standard fare and feels like a breath of fresh air amongst recycled and repetitive worldbuilding tropes.

A lot of really fun side characters. Strong voices for all of the supporting cast (♥♥Kamrusepa♥♥) and even though not every character gets their own arc, they all clearly have plenty of interiority. Once again, another thing that makes Flower feel very believable despite it's absurdities.

Autism

"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary with anyone?" She eyed him. "Anyone who seemed tense?" "Saoite, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but half of our class is so autistic that they constantly seem tense. You might as well ask me to find a specific turd in a sewer." "Just answer the question, please," she replied flatly.

Guys it's really good just trust me I don't want to spoil you for the more intricate plot beats but they're doing some crazy shit here. It's never a bad time to support an independent author's project. If you're sick of corporate mass-media and stuff needing to be marketable, getting into independent works owned and supported by individual creators is a great way to push back against that. I highly recommend it.