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onlydrawnbad · 4 months

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Do you ever read 570,000+ word, 130+ chapter fanfics that were started nearly 8 years ago and have current year updates, and as you get to the end of certain chapters along the way, you keep going "wow, I would have hated to be here in 201x and have to wait for THAT cliffhanger, those poor readers, those sad, desperate historical souls" and you're just so glad for yourself because you know you don't have to stop until chapter 139, and you arrogantly assume that's probably just extended epilogues or something (because you were previously conditioned by another fic to believe that), so everything will be fine?

Only to get to chapter 139 and SCREAM OUT LOUD because you jinxed yourself right into THE NEWEST WAVE OF CLIMATIC PLOT CHAPTERS WHERE ALL THE SHIT IS GOING DOWN and now you, too, have become the reader you felt such pity for?

Wait, you don't?

THEN GO OVER THERE AND DO WHAT I DID SO I DON'T HAVE TO BE ALONE IN MY HUBRIS. It comes with art. So. Much. Wonderful. Comic. Art.

I would like to stress (as I have done before) that I have never played this game. Not once. I had never even heard of it originally. Yet this is now the second absolutely massive Sans x reader/OC fic I have read in this fandom. Everything I know about Undertale, I learned because one day on a whim I decided to read a 480,000+ word, 170+ chapter fanfic because I liked the way @tricktster used words on some tumblr post (don't ask me which one, I've forgotten). I have re-read that fic at least once a year, if not more, for multiple years in a row because it's like a favorite book to me now.

If anyone needs me, I'll be comfort-reading it, again.

And then probably going back and re-reading JoAT, because oh my god that fic. I'm just so in love with it for a million reasons.

(Yes, it took me this long to see there was another glorious treasure in plain sight under @capnhanbers despite following @mod2amaryllis and it's just really embarrassing to be confronted by that kind of obliviousness, okay? Can I blame it on how, multiple times now over the years, I've gone months and months without looking at this app unless it notified me of something specific?)

I swear, I have never read fic in any other fandom where it was this easy to immerse myself in it with nothing more than some light googling along the way (the first time with CoBC), and the googling was just because I'm me and I like to know all the things. In both cases, you don't have to come to the table with anything other than an interest in supernatural-elements stories (monsters, magic, etc) and a love for snappy dialogue and funny (dad) jokes and HEART-WRENCHING FEELS and watching the author having a life journey in the notes.

(And yes, sure, an open mind about a skeleton monster and a human having magical sex, but if you know you're in a rated fic about monsters and humans, you must know that's going to be a thing.)

#undertale #fanwork #jack of all trades #joat #chill or be chilled #cobc #sans x reader #sans x oc #me: leaving reviews on ao3 gives me anxiety because i don't want to sound stupid #also me: just wrote this long ass post with actual people tagged in it #i'm aware it may seem odd to love things that include dicks made of magic #but i think at this point in my life i'm more than fine with that being my odd #BESIDES YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND #THESE FICS ARE SO FUCKING GOOD OKAY #I LAUGH I CRY I SCREAM I LIVE I DIE I COME BACK OVER AND OVER #i would legit pay actual money for these two fics as bound books #like actual sexy sexy hardbacks to put on display in my home #what? these? these are my magical monsterfucker books and i love them like classics please admire the holographic foil #blue holo foil for cobc #gold holo foil for joat #why am i rambling in the tags like this?

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blutopaz15 · 10 months

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rayllum week 2023

prompt: flowers

rated t, 2k

He probably doesn’t remember, and honestly…it’s okay.

She doesn’t blame him.

She’d decided that this morning, after the toppled pile of books and the rushed apology she’d woken up to.

“Sorry, Rayla! And, uh…morning!”

Callum’s steps had stuttered towards her, and even with sleep crusties and too much sunlight in her eyes, she’d still gotten a little swoony over that dorky-cute smile flashed in her direction, the bedhead he hadn’t even sorted out yet, that over-eager enthusiasm all over his everything…but then he’d turned away instead of coming closer. He’d jumped right back into sorting the books that he and Kazi had clearly been pulling off the shelves for at least an hour or two already, and she couldn’t deny she’d been a little disappointed—

“This pile’s for Aaravos, that one’s for the coins, and…let’s start a Sky magic stack, just because.”

—but she really couldn’t begrudge him that.

There were plenty of more important things to worry about besides her birthday, after all.

Anyway, she’d only mentioned it…what? Once? When they’d been sleep-deprived on the back of that ambler, pretending like they were listening to each other’s answers to five-, then twenty-questions, rather than just staring at each other’s lips, hardly keeping from kissing again?

But then, he’d mentioned it once too, on the road back to the Nexus, wondering aloud if—

If they’d be back to Katolis in time for their birthdays.

Even if he does remember…nothing is just about what she deserves anyway, as far as birthdays with Callum go, Rayla resolves when the morning passes without a word about it.

She spends the day stewing like that—excusing herself when Callum’s dumb, adorable face makes the regret too much to handle, trying to distract herself with patrolling and target practice, avoiding the reproachful looks from Amaya she’s been getting since they’d gotten here yesterday that she knows she deserves but really, really doesn’t need.

It’s dusk when she heads back inside, but research stretches on until nightfall, and she spends the difference talking herself out of the downward spiral that’d convinced her Callum was too hurt still to even bring up birthdays, let alone have any interest in acknowledging hers. Her head stops spinning—finally—once she and Stella retreat to their little corner of the abandoned Bookery, though.

Judging by the height of the pile that Callum had stacked there beside his bedroll—Sky magic books, she guesses—he’s been busy…and that’s all the reassurance she needs.

He just…doesn’t realize it’s her birthday, she tells herself again, like she had this morning. Clearly, he just has—they just have—a lot going on.

With the moon new, it’s dark enough that even she strains and squints to read the spines of the books, wondering to herself as she looks at the stack if she should tell him or not.…until familiar footsteps bring some firelight to their little not-quite camp.

“You have quite a collection going here, mage,” she chuckles, kneeling by his books, the light letting her confirm that, yes, this whole pile was Callum’s personal Sky magic stack. “Think you might need to send a few of these home to—oh.”

…and she doesn’t need to tell him, apparently, if the fistful of flowers and the smile on his face mean what she thinks they mean.

“It’s your birthday,” Callum starts, setting down the lantern to free a hand to hold out…and she exhales.

She thinks she hides the tingling wave of calm that comes with Callum reaching for her and knows she hides the relieved tears that prickle—just a bit—in her eyes, easily blinking them away before she even puts her hand in his.

“It is,” she says, just a hint of a snicker in her answer. Rayla smiles as she leans into his warm steady hand to stand…and that’s almost familiar again—the brief shows of support, the fleeting moments of comfort, the gentle reminders that he’s there for her. She almost leaves her hand there, covered completely by his, her thumb drifting to his wrist…but lingering like that was uncertain territory still since she’d been back. She remembers how surprised he’d been at her head on his shoulder and how stiff he’d been the whole time on her shadowpaw…so she pulls away and points to the flowers in his other hand instead, each bloom the same vibrant red. “What are these?”

“Uh…orchids, I think?” He examines them himself, peering down at the little bouquet held between them then tilting them to her, holding them out til the soft petals brush her hand. “I guess Sunfire elves do a lot of flowers, so when I told Kazi I needed a gift for you…”

“You told them?” she asks, fingertips brushing his as she takes the flowers by the stems, knowing no one else would’ve had a reason to know about her birthday if Callum didn’t mention it, wondering if anyone else had known all day.

“Just them. I asked them to keep it to themself.” Callum explains, haste in his voice, and Rayla looks up from fiddling with a leaf, realizing that her doubt might have read as displeasure. “You were…quiet this morning, so I thought maybe that was best?”

“We’re busy,” she nods. That’d been the right move, she thinks, even if she’d spent the day assuming the worst, and she squashes the urge to touch him as extra assurance that he’d done the right thing. A big deal about her birthday after what she’d done to him on his, would’ve been…not great. Her eyes fall back to the flowers, and she shuffles her weight to her other foot. “Plus, everyone’s kind of very not happy with me so—”

Rayla stops when his hand slips into hers, lifting her head and finding Callum staring at her sweet and sincere as ever—

“I’m happy with you,” he says, eyes half-lidded, smile sideways.

He’s leaning in, she thinks, paralyzed in place, knowing her mouth is hanging open, knowing she’s looking at his lips…but then the sideways smile there breaks to a wide grin and he repeats himself, squeezing her hand tight enough to snap her out of it.

“And it’s your birthday!” Callum exclaims, and then—

He starts singing, with his own special…Callum-ness that she’s sure isn’t actually a part of the Katolis birthday song.

Right out the gate, she has to bite her lip to stifle her laughter down to a giggle at the silly, dumb dance moves he’s clearly just making up to make her smile, and she almost loses it at the dramatic flourish he adds to the third birthday. Too quickly, the song is over, though, and she’s about to teasingly clap for him—

—but then his lips are on her cheek.

It takes longer than she cares to admit for her to grasp that it’d just been the wishes and kisses and laughter and love he’d just sung about that’d made him kiss her, and she covers the spot where his lips had been in the meantime, not quite knowing what else to do. There was no point in hiding her wide eyes or flushed cheeks, obviously, she realizes, especially seeing how satisfied Callum seemed with her response to his little performance.

“That…that was the—”

“Katolis birthday song,” Callum nods, grinning, and takes the flowers from her hands, leaving them on a table before cheerily pulling her to a spot without books underfoot, “and there’s a dance I’m supposed to learn, right?”

…and her pounding heart falls.

“Callum—” she starts, the words in her letter as fresh as the night she’d written them—for the both of them, apparently—and she swallows thickly, reminded again of all it had—how she had—ruined between them.

Callum shakes his head before she can say more, though, eyes soft and reassuring, and—

—it’s…okay, apparently.

“We’re not missing any more birthdays, alright?” he says, more unbothered than she can understand, easily putting a stop to the spiral she’d spent the day on with a final squeeze before he drops her hands and gestures to the open space around them.

It just takes a blink and a breath, and she follows suit, moving forward.

“Okay, well,” she starts, looking around, considering where to begin. “It works better with more people, but—”

“I can go get the others if you want?” Callum asks with a shrug, a thumb pointed over his shoulder…and she shakes her head in immediate answer, uninterested in spending her birthday with anyone but him.

“No, no, just—uh…just us is fine.” Showing him is obviously the answer, so Rayla presses on his shoulders to switch their spots. “The birthday elf—uhh, person—is supposed to be in the middle, and you kind of dance around them, so…belated birthday dance to demonstrate?”

Her proposition comes with an apologetic smile—she’d meant to make it back to the castle in time for his 17th—and he nods, everything about his answer soft, silent forgiveness.

She spends her first round humming music she hasn’t heard in ages, the second naming the steps as she goes, the third telling him the counts.

By her fourth, she hardly even blushes when the chain of turns at the end of the dance brings them nose-to-nose, close enough to kiss, which was kind of the point when your lover was a part of the dance, but…

She shouldn’t…so she doesn’t.

“Okay,” he says as she comes in close again. “I think I’ve got it.”

“Yeah?” She grins at the head-rush of his breath on her cheek before smoothly spinning away…except that she can’t, because Callum’s caught her hands again and uses her momentum to take her place.

“Eh…mostly?” he shrugs, before drawing a dramatic breath and setting himself up like she had at the start, his leg outstretched at something like the angle she’d shown him. She counts while he copies her, his memory accurate…even if the execution is a little off.

Really, though, considering the swaying in place that Katolis called dancing she’d seen those couple of weeks in the castle…he does pretty great, she thinks, tickled at him so attentive to learning something so familiar to her.

He starts that last series of turns that she knows will bring him in close, and she knows she shouldn’t kiss him kiss him…but he’d gotten her cheek earlier, hadn’t he?

“You’ve got it,” she nods after her lips leave his soft face, stomach fluttering at finding him almost as surprised and flushed as she’d been, then moves on just as quickly as he had. “Then usually you do it again—it’s supposed to be eighteen times for an eighteenth birthday—but kind of…rotate around? If there’s more than one dancer, that is.”

“Eighteen Moonshadow Birthday Dances, coming right up!” Callum says, determinedly setting up for another round. The steps flow, one into the next, a little better this second time, and she tells him so as he starts spinning in towards her again…but he pouts in answer instead of giving her another melty smile like the first time. “What…no kiss this time?”

And no way was she going to pass up that invitation.

Of course, she appeases him before grinning and sending him on his way, singing the tune now—on to a third, and fourth, and fifth repetition—each finished with her lips pressed to his cheek.

By his eighteenth time through, he has the pattern down pat. He hums along with her, even, and, of course, finishes the turns with his beaming face tilted to the side, welcoming her kiss like she’d worried he never would again.

…and she wonders about that last wish she’d had for Callum’s fifteenth birthday.

He’s done dancing now, and still just as close, still reaching for her.

“Happy birthday,” he says, leaning in again…and she’s just as still and speechless as before.

Her eyes flutter, her tongue wets her lips, her breath falls on his cheek, and he crashes into her, his arms locked around her waist, his heartbeat against her chest—

…his hug warm and tight and close.

…and that’s okay too.

#rayllum #rayllum fanfic #rayllum week 2023 #rayllum's bad vibes rodeo #the dragon prince #mild s5 trailer spoilers #aka happy birthday rayla!!!#there mayyyyy or may not be a follow up to come <3 #also theres a wholeeeeee lot of s5 speculation that i tried to get across without just dumping it all #might put this on ao3 but idk what the title is so #*shrug*

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solradguy · 7 months

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Sol/Ky always confuses me. I understand how it works on a technical level, and I understand the base roots from which it ground itself in (rivalry m/m romance is well established). I think what always gets me about it is that I always thought that the majority of their relationship that they genuinely didn’t like each other.

It makes my brain staticky.

Anyway though, I can’t imagine Sol saying lover guy in a positive manner. Just thinking about it makes me feel like he’s being insulting towards anyone who he bestows it upon. Just call me an incel, Sol. I know that’s what you mean.

Oh yeah. Canon Sol and Ky, before Strive, would run out into traffic before doing something as familiar as hugging the other haha They LOATHED each other. Well, I think maybe Sol was just annoyed by Ky since Ky was this young punkass trying to be "righteous" and Ky was maybe a bit more antagonistic because Sol kept breaking rules (like stealing Fireseal) and was grating to be around for everyone, which then amped up to Sol also being antagonist towards Ky. They're both at fault. In any case, there was a small undercurrent of respect between them over the others' accomplishments and combat abilities, but overall it was like trying to mix oil and water. Utterly incompatible personalities. They're amicable now, but if circumstances played out differently I think it wouldn't have been outside the realm of possibility that one may have ended up actually killing the other.

That said, the ship likely became THEE m/m romance in Guilty Gear because Big Gruff Alt-Fashion Guy and Small Well-Kept Posh Man, on top of the rivalry thing as you said, is all some people need to ship characters together haha Guilty Gear's lore in general wasn't very deep until Overture dropped either, which left their relationship an open playground for fanworks. I can see how it took off and if the canon is removed from the equation I can see the appeal too, in a way. The canon makes it too uncomfortable for me though, and I think the deep layers of their rivalry makes their relationship more interesting than it would be as a romantic one.

They hate each other, but they respect each other, but they can't stand each other, but Ky trusts Sol enough to raise his kid, but Sol respects Ky in return enough to actually do it. Putting them into a mutually romantic relationship changes all of that. Of course Sol would look after Sin for Ky if he loves Ky, of course Ky would trust him to that degree if him and Sol had hooked up. You know?

The jokes about shipping them are funny because they hate each other so much. There's so much negative energy between them that it loops back around to being mildly homoerotic, and if they saw their relationship from an outside perspective and realized that that's how it looked, they'd lose their collective shit most gloriously. But actual, honest, homoerotic love between them? There's no way it's any deeper than the kinds of jokes long-term platonic friends make towards each other

#asks #Yeah yeah the gay as hell official art I know. Daisuke's talked about drawing art based on fandom ships at least twice #And I think that might be what was going on with those turbo gay Sol and Ky pieces #Daisuke straight up uses the Japanese fandom term for character ships for two illustrations in Artworks GGX 2007 #One is a Venom and Chipp piece and the other is Axl and Jam #Sol/Ky was MASSIVE. It's STILL massive*. There is NO WAY he heard about the 2 people shipping Venom/Chipp and not Sol/Ky #*It is by FAR the biggest ship on ao3 for Guilty Gear. 'Biggest' as in 'the size of all other ships combined'#I may not be a fan of genuine Sol/Ky shipping but to deny its impact on the fandom/series is ignoring a part of its history as a whole #Anyway thank you for coming to my TED Talk on this accursed little thing rofl

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the-hilda-librarians-wife · 4 months

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Happy New Year!!

*pops grape juice bottle* woooo we’ve made it, guys!

2023 was such a nice year in the fandom, in my opinion. There was s3 and that was a banger, but I feel like the stuff we were up to ourselves over here was amazing too. I got to talk more with some of my mutuals who I hadn’t been as close to before, and lovely people keep coming to this corner of the internet!! We had our first sketchbook event and are currently preparing for a general Hilda Appreciation Week, I feel like this is all amazing considering the size of this community.

Just wanted to thank everyone who’s been here for the ride as well! It’s certainly always more fun when you have people to be insane with you. I just. Get very touched thinking about the amount of support in this fandom and how we creatively fuel each other.

Anyway, just wanted to write this post as a thank you. I hope you’re having a lovely end of the year, and may 2024 be even better 💜

(I do have one small writing update to add, though! The first months of the year will probably be relatively devoid of new content from me. This for two reasons. One is that I churned out so many fics this year that I feel like even the people who like my writing are having a hard time catching up (I don’t know how this happened either-), and the other is that I’ll be using my free time to get ahead on preparing my content for the rest of the year! I won’t completely stop or anything (Hilda Appreciation Week will see to that), just wanted to leave this noted so no one things I’ve Vanished from the fic writing scene or anything. I’m just preparing my next attack. Anyways that was it happy new year!!)

#also saying it to force myself to take a breather from posting GEJDHJDHD #cause otherwise I’ll just post the ones that are ready asap and run out of prepared content lol #also! didn’t want to say this in the post bc I was afraid of coming across as self centered?? idk??#but the people who read my tags will probably find it fun: I was checking my ao3 stats for the year and I posted 18 new fics!!#also posted just over 180k words in total. it’s my second biggest word count in a year #second only to 2020. for obvious reasons #and I’m soooo happy with what I wrote too. I feel like I’m finally beginning to like my own writing. excited to see how I can improve #also I finally played with writing things outside of my usual sketchbook formula!! dipped my toes in Raven Scientist *and* created an OC #it was really nice to try out these things and be pleased with the results!!#2023 really was the year to get silly goofy with writing and love it #if all goes according to plan 2024 will be decided into a ‘tying up some loose ends’ era #and a ‘write what you know and I’m a flipping nerd’ era #may college have mercy on me. and May my inspiration not leave me please :’)))#wife speaks

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rosesradio · 5 months

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#pjo #for me personally if i include Percy & Annabeth i intend to use the book versions—#1.) because in CE i already described percy as his book version & 2.) i’m writing fic for the books & i’m unsure what the show will change #but that being said i’m open to writing their show appearance just for fun because i imagine ao3 may come up with a new fandom tag #also im sure everyone on tumblr will hopefully be cool & normal but any hate speech & my foot is gonna be in your ass & not in a fun way #anyways #percy jackson #annabeth chase #rose’s polls

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hallucinateonpaperspines · 2 months

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What if Ashlyn meets RiD Decepticons in the future? Time travel or not, I can imagine how she could mess with them all. No Cons be safe from Ashlyn... maybe except minicons

Steeljaw will learn how terrifying humans can be, just like TFP Decepticons already learned :)

Steeljaw will be having a flipping crisis. It's inevitable.

Honestly, this situation will be even funnier if it’s a time-travel version. I can't go into too much detail for spoiler reasons, but Ashlyn Moore would have done several exploits that have left major ripple effects in the timeline. And then comes past Miss Moore, who is not quite that unhinged yet and fully unaware of anything except some TV show knowledge. She is going to be very, very confused.

When Starscream arrives, armor upgrades and all, and proceeds to cry at the sight of her?

The mini cons that were hunted to be used as a super weapon, why is the eagle calling her Origin?

WTF is MECH doing?!???

Ah, Soundwave is sticking with the original design… not all bad then.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN M IS ON EARTH?!?!?

Ohhhhh, hey Knockout! …. Whose that other con in the distance?

… why is everyone giving up on the deception hunters, and hunting her?

MAKESHIFT IS ALIVE?!?!??!?

Is Earth still getting invaded? Is that a thing? Please, let Decepticons subtly integrate themselves and control the government so they can blacklist Autobots and brainwash the populace... no she is not being sarcastic.

... Why is Doctor Morocco calling her madam?

...

The Vehicons have a union now?

#ao3 author #ao3 #tfp #transformers prime #of timelines and trolleys #ashlyn moore (oc)#what if #the AU may change #but the confusion remains the same #At least she's not hearing voices anymore #Steeljaw is also out of the loop #he's giving these big monologues and Ash is not impressed #and then comes the decepticon allies he's trying to convince #and its the freaking human their focusing on #he's so done

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fountainpenguin · 9 months

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"He has more than nine lives, so he picks himself up and keeps climbing for the prize... again."

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Summary: If Cody's wheelchair falls off the Dock of Shame into the lake and only Chris and Heather are around, does anyone care?

"Sunk Too Deep"

Read on dA || Read on FFN || Read on AO3

[ Warning for canon bear mauling injuries ]

Originally posted on dA - July 8th, 2015! Happy 8 years!

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Well, I'm not planning to repost all my Total Drama 'fics on AO3, but "Sunk Too Deep" was always the fan-favorite of my gallery, so I want to add it for preservation reasons <3

Apparently the OG has 19.3k views, and I know they're inflated by dA's weird search system but... dang. Congrats to 2015 me.

If there are other favorites people would be interested in me porting over to AO3, let me know! :)

(First 1000 words under the cut)

I dragged Cody's wheelchair to the confessional instead of pushing it. The rubber wheels snagged in the untrimmed grass and sometimes made the whole thing tip onto one side, but I'd stopped caring. I had more than enough time to kill tonight. Leshawna had holed herself up in the bathrooms with Beth and Lindsay for the last hour, scrubbing out the paintball splatters until their skin turned red and lumpy. When I'd last checked, she'd been about to start on their hair.

"Well, here we are, dork." I righted Cody's chair again and parked it outside the confessional door. "You really think you're up for this?"

Cody nodded. He said something too, but the words died out behind his mask of bandages. I hoped that if he made any attempt to get me eliminated from the island tonight, Chris would drop his vote on the grounds that it was unintelligible.

"Courtney, are you still in there?" I gave the outhouse a swift kick, regretting it instantly when splinters jabbed my uncovered toes. "Your team didn't even lose the challenge. What could you possibly need to go on about for half an hour straight?"

"Okay, Heather, one minute! Just let me wrap up. What was I saying again? I was saying something. Oh, and I had to stare up his nostrils for twenty minutes as we struggled back to camp. And he made me walk backwards. I fell into the stream! Twice! And his pits reeked like sweaty socks dunked in split pea soup and left to molder. But that wasn't even the worst of it. Not three minutes in, he said to me…"

I sat down against the wall and emptied my shoes of pebbles as Courtney's complaints trailed into background noise. Wearing high-heel wedges to camp? Definitely not among the top ten decisions I'd ever made in my life. I should have expected Chris would lie about the five-star resort. Cody made muffled noises for a few minutes, and when I finally looked around for him, his chair had edged several meters down the slope. He fell over when one wheel sunk into uneven ground. I entertained myself by watching him squirm beneath his seatbelt, visible only by strips of gauze and tufts of brown hair. When he twisted just right, I could make out the purple around his swollen eye too.

The door opened. Courtney stepped out, her tan face flushed a deep pink that I could see even in the twilight. Between that and the way her fingernails were stuck in the wood, I took a wild guess and concluded that if I hadn't called for her to get out, she would have stayed in the outhouse listing slights against Duncan all night.

"There. It's all yours. Happy voting, Heather." A frown shot across her face. "Are you okay? Your eye is all red and puffy. That one, right there." She wrenched her nails from the door so she could point, in case I didn't know which one she meant. "And you still have paint in your hair."

I placed the back of one palm against my eye. "Yeah, well, I can't deny that I'm impressed with Leshawna's aim. Who knew those shampoo bottles could squirt all the way from the sinks to the door? I thought for sure that enormous backside of hers would knock her off balance."

A tiny smile twitched at one end of Courtney's mouth. "That's not very funny," she started to say, and then her eyes strayed past my shoulder. "Hey, is that Cody? He could be hurt!"

"Not more than he is already," I said, but Courtney bolted past me anyway. She pulled him from the ground, checked to be sure he was securely buckled in, and then turned a few puzzled circles.

"He's with me." I got to my feet and stretched. "Chris still wants him to make his vote tonight. Or give a valiant and hilarious try, anyway. I volunteered to keep him out of trouble."

Cody spat something beneath his bandages, shooting me a razor-edged glare as Courtney pushed him back up the slope.

"What's your problem, bear-bait? It's not my fault you fell down. That can't have hurt worse than your mauling."

Cody made a fair attempt at shaking his head.

Courtney pulled Cody's chair inside the confessional, even climbing on top of the toilet seat so she could ease him into position. His elbow knocked the camera from its straps on the door. I picked it up, silently cursing myself for not grabbing the opportunity to deliver my vote and take off while Courtney had been rescuing him. I was not looking forward to dragging him out of there.

"There. Nice and snug." Courtney squeezed around Cody's chair and stood back to admire her handiwork. "I'll leave you to it then. Good-bye, Cody. You never would have made it to the finals anyway, but it's awful to see you go out like this. Get well soon." She gave him a very gentle hug around the neck brace before heading off towards the Bass cabin. Cody made strangled noises like he was trying to call after her.

I furrowed my brow. Wait a minute.

I took my hand from the door and it swung shut behind me. "Are you- ? … Oh. Oh. You can still speak, can't you? Well, duh, of course you can still speak. I heard you trying for an hour. Er… do you want those off now?"

Cody rolled his eyes. A fly landed on his nose and started to rub its forelegs together.

In hindsight, the question was stupid. I don't know why I'd assumed that a bandaged face had left him without a working tongue. But I had. So it wasn't really the question that was stupid, it was me. At that thought, I bit hard into my lower lip.

"Here." I flicked out my nails. The gauze was tied in the back, so I twisted myself awkwardly behind his chair. A few slits, a couple of tugs, and I lifted the strips away and wrapped them around my wrist. Cody started coughing. Heaving. Breathing. I slipped off the toilet seat, expecting that his first words were going to be, "That's a relief," or "Sweet, sweet air," or something else along those lines. Even, "Thanks, Heather". But instead, he surprised me.

"Dude, why did Courtney tell me good-bye? We haven't even had the elimination ceremony yet."

I pushed open the confessional door, righting the camera as it swayed again. "Maybe because she knows you just rendered yourself useless in all upcoming challenges and it's clear that- Aaugh!"

I'd made the mistake of turning around, putting myself nose-to-nose with Cody's unbandaged face for the first time. Cody blinked at me for a moment, sending a fly on his eyelid into the air, then lowered his gaze to his lap.

"That bad, huh?"

[Cnt'd on dA / FFN / AO3 - Links at top]

#Total Drama fanfic #Total Drama Island #Total Drama #td Heather #td Cody #ridwriting #Sunk Too Deep #'Of Ants and Cartoon Physics' & 'Borderline' might make it to AO3 and maybe 'You're Not Okay'#but that's mostly because cartoon physics pills were also canon in ''Come What May'' and I miss them </3 They are STUPID but I laugh #'Borderline' is good because I wrote it to hurt me specifically #apparently art #fic announcement

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laundrybiscuits · 1 year

Text

(come alive in the neon light tag)

Eddie’s gone when he wakes up in the morning. He doesn’t tell Robin about it. Eddie hasn’t said anything about not telling anyone or whatever, but it still feels like if Steve tries to put words to it, something’s going to break, and he doesn’t know if he can put it back together.

The next time he sees Eddie is awkward, no two ways about it. It feels like all the awkwardness that hasn’t really shown up from the last couple times they messed around is suddenly there, like it’s had time to wait and grow before popping up to yell surprise, dumbasses! You can’t look each other in the eye anymore!

It’s just them and Robin, thank god, because the brats would've sniffed something out like a bunch of bloodhounds, and he’d never hear the end of it. It’s bad enough that Eddie runs across them arguing about types of instant mac and cheese in the aisles of Melvald’s.

Eddie stops dead in his tracks, too obvious to be anything but weird.

“Hey, Eddie,” says Robin cautiously. She’s been trying to get Steve to tell her what happened. It’s really annoying. He hasn’t said anything much, so all she knows is that he’s been in kind of a funk after the movie night.

“Hey,” echoes Steve.

Eddie blinks at them, looking away almost immediately. “Um. Hey, guys.”

The silence that follows is huge and awful. In an unexpected show of tact, Robin says, “I, uh, forgot…to buy…tampons. Be right back, boys,” and takes off for the other side of the store.

“Hey,” says Steve again.

Eddie scrubs his hand over his eyes. “Dammit, Steve. It’s—I’m sorry, okay? You should’ve used a fucking pass on me. That’s what it’s there for. I know you didn’t want—I’m just, I’m sorry, man.”

“No, c’mon.” Steve puts his hands in his pocket so he doesn’t reach out. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Kinda think I do,” says Eddie, smiling in a way that doesn’t look happy. “Kinda think I really fucked this one up. I just…I should explain some stuff, I guess.”

“Okay?”

“Not—here. There’s only so long Buckley can pretend to quest for the perfect tampon. Come by mine later? Maybe around seven?” He glances up to look Steve in the face for maybe the first time in this whole conversation.

“Sure,” says Steve. His stomach feels like it’s twisting into a pretzel. “Around seven. See you then.”

He does reach out then, because Eddie's right here and there's all this space between them. He doesn't have a plan. He just wants there not to be space anymore.

Eddie says, "Pass," so quiet that Steve almost misses it. Steve lets his hand fall to his side.

Eddie nods in a weirdly formal way, turns on his heel, and leaves.

Robin smacks his shoulder. “What the hell was that, Steve!”

He hadn’t seen her coming up behind him at all. “Wait, did you actually get tampons?”

“I thought I might need an alibi if I got back too early! I didn’t know that neither of you would even fucking notice me. Oh my god that was so awkward. That was the most hideously awkward thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, holy shit. Will you please, please, please tell me what happened now?”

“I—” Steve stares at the empty space where Eddie'd been standing. “I will, okay, Rob? I’m going over to Eddie’s tonight, so. I’ll tell you afterwards. I promise.”

“You’d better,” she says. “And you’re paying for the mac and cheese, because you owe me for having to read every single box in the tampon aisle.”

#fic: come alive in the neon light #steddie #ten minutes of searching was insufficient for me to discover what mac n cheese was widely available in the late 1980s #but just know that Steve ends up getting the one that Robin likes best #anyway. this is short and transitional but sometimes that's just what scenes are.#I may just...put the rest of the fic up on AO3 when it's done #(dw I'll post here when I do)

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