#sometimes you just want to give your favourite character a single line you know

[izukuisbaby]

⊹˚.⋆ OUR FAVOURITE DILFS WITH A FAMOUS S/O - JUJUTSU KAISEN

℘. flora's notes : I've had this idea forever but I couldn't manage to write it UNTIL NOW. my idea was that reader is a model so it's kind of based on that, though you are free to be famous for whatever reason u want 💀

℘. send me a request ! : i would love to write this for other jjk characters (especially TOJI) but please give me ideas cuz i can't find anything :((

℘. gn, male, female reader 💓

m.list | comment and reblog if you enjoyed ! i am not posting at peek hours i would rly appreciate it if u could reblog w related tags 🥰

★ 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎

℘. he 100% stalked you on your socials and knew everything about you

℘. it's also very likely that he slid into your DMs shamelessly

℘. something cringe like : " what a pretty human in a pretty restaurant, we should go there together sometime 😏"

℘. but we all know this mf, he didn't stop at ONE DM

℘. no, his name is elegantly followed by "9+ messages" all of them being cringe pick up lines to beg you to go on a date with him 😍

℘. and you eventually agreed but it was mostly for him to leave you in peace

℘. he was convinced you'd fall for his charms and unfortunately, he was right... can't blame you I would too

℘. and since your first kiss - which was an officialization of your relationship to him - he would not shut up about it

℘. everytime y'all are out in public he makes it clear he's your boyfriend for the paparazzis

℘. gojo loves attention... so he LOVES paparazzis

℘. he thinks y'all are the most goal couple to exist and brags about it

℘. "y/n, can you imagine what other people must think of us : "the strongest and the most famous (your job of choice), they were meant to be"

℘. you have 100% your own ship name and fanpages, you're labeled as the "hot couple" who is edited on tik tok 24/7

℘. I don't think I insisted enough on how he BOASTS about dating you to whoever shows a spark of interest in his life

℘. the poor nanami hears about it every second of the day and is FED UP with it, but his last straw was when gojo was talking about you to a curse they were suppose to eliminate...

℘. he has you and him on a fun fair date as a wallpaper and purposely leaves his phone on during meetings so everyone can see he's dating you... and also to get yet another occasion to brag

⊹

★ 𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐈 𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎

℘. HE WOULD BE SO SUPPORTIVE

℘. he will attend all of your shows and interviews, always on the front row. sometimes walking for a show can be pretty stressful for you but seeing his angel face calms you down and gives you back your confidence in an instant <3

℘. ... he's very active on LinkedIn and he reposts your achievements/front pages with a professional yet sweet and admirative commentary

℘. he likes to go backstage before your shows so he can give you one last forehead kiss and compliment

℘. never hesitates to tell paparazzis to back off, he doesn't like his privacy invaded but he will gladly take pictures of you with a fan for them

℘. his favourite photo that he has everywhere is one a selfie you took before a show with a world renowned brand. you looked so stunning and confident, it never fails to make him smile when he looks at it

℘. i feel like he didn't really know you, just saw you from one or two front pages but it didn't click until you told him you were a (your job)

℘. i don't know why but i think you would have met on a dating app 😭 like nanami is tired of being single and he told gojo about it WHO OBVIOUSLY WAS KIN ON HELPING ! and he got to discover your personality first, which is the most precious part of you in his opinion

℘. because yes you ARE attractive but no one but him knows the part of you that is the most beautiful and he loves that

℘. i think he can't help but be a bit jealous that people simp over you so he would never refuse to take a cute picture for the world to see

℘. on your third date, he asked you to be his partner and gave you a ring as an officialization. since them, you've been wearing it as a lucky charm and you never take it off

© izukuisbaby. comments appreciated ! although do not modify, translate, copy, claim as your own or repost on any app/platform/social media (this applies to all of my content)

#jjk x reader #satoru gojo #gojo #gojo satoru #satoru #satoru x reader #gojo x reader #satoru gojo x reader #nanami #nanami kento #kento #kento x reader #gojo smut #nanami smut #gojo headcanons #nanami headcanons #jjk gojo #jjk nanami #gojo satoru x reader #kento nanami x reader #gojo satoru x y/n #kento nanami x y/n #nanami x y/n #gojo x y/n #gojo x reader fluff #nanami x reader fluff #gojo satoru x you #nanami x you #nanami kento x you

[a-writer-on-elm-street]

What Are We?

pairing: bo x gn!reader

summary: when bo starts to question your relationship, you're both forced to confront your feelings for one another

warnings: smut, oral sex (m receiving), angst (with a happy ending...sort of), soft bo (sort of), bo might also be slightly out of character

a/n: i apologise in advance for what you're about to read...cos this one kinda hurt

word count: 1171

"What are we?"

"What?" You rolled over to find Bo staring at you, his brows pulled together in concentration as he laid with his head propped up in his hand.

"What are we?" He asked again, a little more urgency in his tone now.

You pressed your lips together, taking a moment to think about his question.

The first time you'd met Bo, it was when you stumbled into town, having no prior knowledge to what usually went on here. Your shitty old car had broken down and Lester had been kind enough to give you a ride into town.

The second you saw him you knew you were in trouble. When he smiled, your heart skipped a beat and when he reached up to adjust the worn cap on his head, your skin seemed to come alight. You wanted him.

Bo wanted you too, except at first, it was in a different way.

It wasn't long before he was dragging you into his basement, your broken down car long forgotten at that point, and he kept you there for the next three weeks.

You should've hated him, or at the very least been scared of him. But maybe you were just fucked in the head, because you couldn't seem to find it in you to fear this man, despite everything he'd done to you. It was an odd feeling to say the least.

Now, you felt even more odd as you laid in bed with him, his fingers absent-mindedly stroking your arm like he hadn't previously been your kidnapper.

And he was asking you something you had never dreamed would ever come out of his mouth, because what were you? Lovers? Friends? Were you in a relationship?

"I don't know what we are." You finally answered, a feeling of sadness spreading in your chest as you took in his expression.

His usual scowl seemed to melt into a frown as he looked at you, something resembling disappointment in his eyes. "Well...how do you feel about me?"

You noticed him cringe slightly as he said that. Feelings weren't exactly his favourite thing to talk about.

You smiled, mostly from amusement, as you shifted closer to him in the bed. "I like you, is that what you wanna hear?"

He simply pressed his mouth into a line as he thought about it, all the while you were slowly moving closer to him, your fingers skating along his jaw as you leaned towards him.

But he was quick to stop you, his fingers curling around your wrist as he pried you off of him. "Don't."

And that single word was what sent your whole world off balance, because Bo was never like this. "Do you really care what we are to each other?"

He scoffed at you then, his signature scowl returning to his face. "No. I was just thinking about it, that's all. Don't mean I care."

He rolled over then, letting you stare at his back whilst you mulled over his question in your head. You'd always thought your relationship with him was strictly sexual, never involving anything more than casual feelings, but it seemed that that might not have been the case.

As much as you'd like to tell him that you two were merely just friends who had sex sometimes, you knew for a fact that wasn't true. For a few months now, you'd noticed your feelings becoming a little deeper than simply casual. You just couldn't figure out exactly what he meant to you.

You reached towards him then, gently running your fingers down his back.

He didn't react, he simply remained where he was, his back still to you as he kept silent.

"I love you, Bo." You finally said, your heart clenching in your chest at the words. "I have for a while."

He turned around then, the hard look on his face softening. "Yeah?"

You smiled. "Yeah."

Although you weren't entirely sure if that was the truth, you hoped it was.

Before anything else could be said between you, you reached a hand towards his face, pulling him towards you so you could press a tender kiss to his lips.

"Say it again." He mumbled as you began trailing your lips down his throat.

"I love you." You sighed into his skin, heat already beginning to pool between your thighs. "I love you."

You were practically chanting the words as you continued to make your way down his body, eventually pausing when you reached the hem of his shirt.

You cast a quick glance to him before pushing the dark material up his body, letting him remove the clothing completely as he lifted it over his head, discarding it somewhere on the floor.

"Fuck, I love you." You muttered again, your fingers already hooking underneath the waistband of his boxers, eagerly tugging them down his legs.

"I love you so much." You said again, your voice dripping with desperation as you wrapped a hand around his length, making his hips jerk off the bed slightly.

Bo let out a guttural moan when you finally closed your mouth over his tip, wasting no time in taking him further.

You loved when he let you take control like this, when he let you show him just how much you cared for him. And from the sounds spilling from his mouth right now, it seemed he loved it too.

You felt him slide his hand over the back of your head, his fingers tightly gripping onto your hair as you started to bob your head up and down on his cock.

And whilst you were enjoying the fact that it was you who was coaxing the desperate moans out of him, you also found it relieving that you didn't have to speak anymore, because you still didn't know if you actually loved him. But you wanted to.

You continued your movements over him, causing quiet moans to keep slipping from his mouth as he gripped the back of your head, and after a while you could tell he was close.

Tears were starting to burn your eyes and saliva was running down your chin, and you had never felt more alive than you did in this moment. So what if you didn't love him yet, he still managed to light your whole body on fire whenever you were together like this. That was what mattered to you.

"Oh fuck." You heard him groan, his grip on your hair becoming painful now as he started to thrust into your mouth. "That's it. Come on."

After a few more hard thrusts into your mouth, you finally felt him go rigid beneath you, his warm release spilling over your tongue. And once he was spent, you pulled off of him, swallowing hard as you crawled back up the bed.

You both laid side by side, not touching, the sound of heavy breathing filling the room. And then he said "I love you."

And you had never felt more broken.

[Main Masterlist] [Bo Masterlist]

#bo sinclair #bo sinclair smut #bo sinclair angst #bo sinclair x reader #bo sinclair x gn reader #bo sinclair oneshot #bo sinclair imagine #bo sinclair fanfic #bo sinclair x you #house of wax #house of wax 2005 #house of wax fanfic #house of wax fanfiction #house of wax smut #brian van holt

[ant1quarian]

More about Mirage

An original Sans, from Miragetale.

Mirage is, if anything, very, very deceptive. He’s intelligent and super observant– to the point he picks up on character quirks and tiny things you’ve done throughout your day based on the tiniest of body language.

He’ll know which side you slept on last night (if you sleep on your side) by the slight puffiness in that specific cheek. He’ll know if you didn’t get enough sleep.

And he’s really good at guessing even if he’s not entirely sure.

While he may be very deceptive, he’s also very charming. He’s caring and respectful; or at least seems to be.

His magic is… well, dangerous. It takes an incredibly strong will to be able to resist it for even a minute– it’s intoxicating and addicting, sweet in smell and gives off the same sort of vibe as something you want to eat but know it would kill you if you did.

He’s dangerous, plain and simple. He uses his abilities for devious things– and while his AU may come off as pleasant and calm (main reason he hasn’t met Dream), it’s actually pretty fucked.

It’s a nice society, built on an intricately woven web of lies with hidden deception strengthening the bonds. The “truth” is an incredibly slippery slope there, and whatever the Truth is will constantly be hidden from the public’s eye.

Mirage is an information collector. He is one of the singular people that know The Truth and can and will use that to manipulate others.

That being said, as a datemate, he is… surprisingly sweet.

His work is dangerous and forces him to keep many secrets, but that won’t stop him from being any less devoted.

The very fact you managed to catch his eyelight and stick around long enough to learn the subtleties of his mannerisms is a Big Thing.

The only way you would have found out he likes you romantically is purely by his Papyrus (Del, short for Delirium) pointed it out.

One of the biggest ways he makes it (at least a bit) obvious is by spending time with you. A lot of time. When he prefers to be with you than without you, then he’s fallen for you.

Once he fully explains how his magic works and the ways to resist it, you’ve got him hook, line and sinker.

He loves you, and he shows it. It���s just hard to pick up on sometimes. Two of his biggest love languages is Words of Affirmation and Quality time (giving). There’s something about not having to lie and constantly monitor every single little thing he says that he loves. And when he compliments you, genuinely, you can hear his tone change.

It goes from his normal voice (smooth and deep) to considerably softer, warmer, and quieter.

One of his favourite things to do is come up behind you, wrap his arms around your waist and murmur a, “g’mornin’ beautiful” into your shoulder if you’re in the kitchen when he wakes up.

Other silly things he likes to do randomly is impersonate Classic Sans. He does this regularly– snatching up Classic’s clothes and wearing them as he goes about Classic’s day.

He’ll turn up to Classic’s work and imagine the confusion when there are two Classics in the same room.

How is he capable of doing this, you wonder? They are mirror images, if you ignore the different body languages. Classic would never be able to impersonate Mirage, though. His world is far too complex and Classic’s facade, quite simply, just isn’t good enough.

He’d get called out almost immediately.

Sometimes Mirage gets tempted to commit crimes when he’s impersonating Classic, but decides against it– only because he finds it more entertaining to toy around with Classic.

( If you’re Mirage’s significant other, it’s pretty obvious he’s acting as Sans. He winks with his right eye when he doesn’t trust someone, and winks with his left when he does– which is completely backwards when it comes to Classic. There’s also the whole SOUL connection that definitely tips you off. )

@sleepyhoneybees, as you requested :]

#He genuinely perplexes Classic's Papyrus #And every other Sans and Papyrus AU out there #undertale fandom #sans x reader #Mirage Sans x Reader #Miragetale #Undertale au #Sans au #Headcanons

[ailendolin]

Grace - The Epilogue

Title: Grace [AO3]

Characters: Thomas, Alison, Mike, Baby Cooper, the Ghosts, the Plague Ghosts

Summary: “Mike and I are going to have a baby.”

Baby Cooper’s arrival at Button Houses changes many things, and all for the better - at least at first. Or as Mary once said: babies can see ghosts sometimes but usually only up until they can walk.

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - Epilogue

————

A/N 1: This was written before series 5 so there are no spoilers in it.

A/N 2: I want to use this opportunity to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been following this story for over a year now! Your support means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy the epilogue!

————

Grace

The Epilogue

Grace Katherine Cooper has always known she’s just an ordinary girl living a very special life.

She knows that to an outsider, it looks like it’s just her, her mum and her dad living in an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere, trying to make ends meet by hosting dinner parties, weddings, birthdays and every other kind of celebration one can imagine. Her whole, she’s heard people saying things like, “Oh that poor girl, growing up so isolated,” or, “That child must be so terribly lonely on her own in that big, empty house.” They think she doesn’t hear what they whisper about her and her family behind her back but she does. It’s never really bothered Grace, though. On the contrary – most of the time, it makes her giggle and she has to bite her lip to hide it. Oh, if only they knew …

She’s not surprised people think her childhood is lonely but considering she’s never felt alone for even a second in her life, she finds the pitying looks on everyone’s faces when her mum and dad take her into town more than a little amusing. She may not have any siblings by blood but she has a ghostly sister who likes singing songs with her in the pantry and more than a dozen crazy aunts and uncles who play games with her whenever she gets bored and are the best at making her smile even when she feels like screaming and throwing something against a wall.

She also has Thomas.

Grace knows she shouldn’t have favourites but he is her godfather so she thinks that makes loving him just a little more than the others okay. Her mum reassures her that it is, and that the other ghosts don’t mind her keeping his doll in her bed while theirs sit on the shelf above it, watching over her; or that a large amount of the paintings lining her bedroom walls feature him.

Her mum made those paintings for her over the years and Grace loves every single one of them dearly. Every time she looks at them, she can see herself growing up more loved than most people will ever be in their entire lives. The fact that the ghosts always stay the same in the pictures has often brought her comfort, especially when nightmares about losing her parents startle her awake in the middle of the night. The ghosts are as much a constant in her life as the sun, moon and stars are, and even though she can’t see them like her mum can, Grace knows they are there. She can see it in the flicker of the lamp on her bedside table when she reads and feel it in the gentle touch of fingers on the tip of her nose when she daydreams instead of doing her homework. She can hear it in the faint echoes of an old nursery rhyme ringing through the hallways and smell it in the smoke hanging invisible in the air. The ghosts are always there, always present, and as long as they are, Grace knows she will never have to be afraid of being alone.

That doesn’t mean her life is always easy, though.

The other children don’t understand. They humoured her at first, back in nursery school when they were still young enough to believe in imaginary friends and find the idea of having a ghost family exciting. With the start of primary school that changed. They stopped believing in ghosts, and Grace suddenly found herself being told to stop being childish and grow up. She refused because she was not being childish – her ghosts were real! – and it broke her young heart when slowly, all her friends turned away from her. Only Julie and Emmett stayed, and she was grateful beyond words they still wanted to come over to play hide and seek with her and Kitty in the garden. A part of her knew even back then that they were the best living friends she’ll probably ever have – possibly the only ones, too – and she swore to herself that she would hold onto them as tightly as she could and for as long as they’d let her.

As she grows older, Grace stops telling people about the ghosts. She’s not embarrassed but she’s so tired of everyone calling her and her mum crazy. It makes her blood boil every time until one day, her anger spills over and she punches Kevin McMillan in his smug, little face for saying she’s a witch and should be burned at the stake. Her parents are not happy about it and neither is Grace if she’s being honest. It doesn’t really make her feel better and it solves nothing so the next time someone says something awful to her, she decides to walk away. She has Julie and Emmett who think it’s so cool when Robin makes the lights flicker and Jemima sings for them, and that’s enough.

No, Grace thinks to herself when she hangs up a photograph of the three of them on her wall in-between the paintings of the ghosts. It’s more than enough. It’s all she needs.

Not only do Julie and Emmett accept that the ghosts are real and a huge part of her life, they’re also almost as desperate to communicate with them as she is. While Julian is able to use the laptop – something that often comes in handy when Grace’s mum is not around to translate what the ghosts are saying – his typing is still so terribly slow after all these years that it’s exhausting to have a lengthy conversation that way. So together with Julie and Emmett, Grace tries to find new ways of talking to the ghosts.

Their first idea is inspired by those programmable buttons for dogs and involves an old Ouija board they find in the basement and a lot of little lamps. Julie, being the technical genius she is, somehow attaches one of them to every letter on the board while Grace and Emmett cheer her on and offer her snacks throughout the process. Once she’s done and sure every single lamp works, they go off to find Robin to give the board its first test run.

Robin takes to it like a fish to water.

It only takes him a few tries to figure out how to turn on the different lamps and Grace is absolutely delighted to have her first conversation with him that doesn’t rely on her mum being in the room and repeating what he says or Robin making the lights flicker in Morse Code to get a message across.

(Her mum once told her how proud Pat and the Captain were that she took their recommendation to heart and spent her first summer holiday learning Morse Code. It made the headaches her efforts gave her more than worth it.)

Being her father’s daughter, there comes a point in her life when Grace looks up ghost-hunting devices on the internet, just on the off-chance that one of them might actually work for one of the ghosts she hasn’t been able to talk to directly yet. So when her twelfth birthday comes around, she asks her parents for ghost-hunting equipment rather than conventional presents.

“Oh honey, we already tried that,” her mum tells her with an apologetic look after she has scanned the list Grace has handed her.

“Yeah, we had a bunch of ghost-hunters with all sorts of tools here once. None of them worked,” her dad adds.

Then they pause and share a look that gives Grace hope. “Although the ghosts were boycotting the whole thing at the time so …”

A few days later, just in time for her birthday, two ghost-hunting devices get delivered to their doorstep. Her mum and dad put little bows on them and Grace almost squeals in delight when she sees them waiting for her when she comes home from school. By the time Julie and Emmett arrive an hour later, she’s read the instructions twice and set up the devices in the drawing room, ready and eager to try them out.

“The ghosts are here,” her mum says and then pauses to look at the empty air behind the chessboard. After a moment, she rolls her eyes and adds, “Yes, I’ll tell her that you’re here too. Grace, the villagers want you to know they’re here as well and very excited about the whole thing.”

It warms Grace’s heart.

“Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work, though,” her dad cautions just as they’re about to try out the first device: an SLS – Structured Light Sensor – camera which is supposed to make the ghosts visible on a screen in the form of stick figures and give them all an idea of where they are in the room. “It’s a long shot.”

Grace smiles up at him. “I know, Dad. I just want to give it a try. Just in case”

With that, she turns on the device. Despite her dad’s warning, she feels a rush of disappointment when no stick figure appears on the screen. She waves the SLS around the room, even turns around in a circle to make sure she doesn’t miss anything, but the result is the same: screen remains woefully empty.

“Yeah, it’s really a shame,” her mum says in reply to something the ghosts must have said. She’s looking at the fireplace and, figuring it’s worth a try, Grace points the camera in that direction.

Nothing happens.

Hating how upset she feels despite having always known this was a long shot, she is about to turn off the SLS when suddenly, something pops up in the corner of the screen. Her eyes widen in disbelief as she looks up at the empty wall next to the door to the library and back down at the device. Next to her, Julie and Emmett start jumping in excitement.

“Oh my god, it’s working!” Julie says breathlessly.

“Is that Humphrey?” Emmett adds with a tilt of his head.

Grace laughs, giddy and full of relief. “It is!”

Her mum turns to them with a look of surprise. “How did you know?”

They grin and point at the stick figure on the screen. “It’s got no head!”  

Apparently, Humphrey’s head doesn’t find that as funny as they do.

They experiment a little. Her mum asks Thomas to place Humphrey’s head on its body and the moment head and body reunite, the stick figure gains a head as well. But when the head is on its own, it doesn’t show up on the SLS at all, no matter how close Grace gets to it with the device.

Meanwhile, Emmett is furiously scribbling down every little detail of what they learn in the little notebook he always carries around with him when he visits. He’s been recording everything ghosts-related for years now and Grace would be lying if she said she doesn’t find that a little endearing. Apparently, the Captain, Pat and Lady Button approve of his meticulous note keeping. Humphrey on the other hand – the head, that is – seems to be a tad annoyed that the record now shows that only his body can be seen on its own.

“He says it’s unfair and – yeah, no, I’m not going to repeat that,” her mum glowers at the piano.

Julie chuckles and sits down near Humphrey.

“Don’t worry,” she tells him with a smile. Grace can’t help but smile as well because she knows what’s coming. Humphrey’s always been Julie’s favourite. “We still love you, Humphrey.”

There is a beat of silence before her mum says, “Humphrey says thank you.”

The second device they try out is an Ovilus – a small tool with a dictionary mode that’s supposed to allow ghosts to talk to the livings. It’s apparently similar to the spirit box but less annoying – Emmett’s words, not Grace’s.

“This better work,” her dad mutters when he hands the Ovilus to Grace. “That thing cost a small fortune.”

Like with the SLS camera, nothing happens at first when she turns it on. But before disappointment can settle in once more, her mum raises her voice and says, “Not all at once, guys! Please! One at a time.”

Grace assumes the ghosts are quieting down because her mum lets out a relieved sigh and starts calling out their names one by one. She starts with Lady Button, then the Captain, and when it’s finally Thomas’s turn, Grace feels her heart swell with hope. She’s been wanting to talk to him her whole life and this could be her chance. Thomas is an orator, after all; a poet. It would make perfect sense for a device like the Ovilus to work for him.

But nothing happens.  

Her mum moves on to Robin, and Grace mentally kicks herself for forgetting about the first ghosts rule – that logic cannot be applied to the ghosts’ existence and abilities. There is no rhyme or reason to what they can or can’t do. It’s completely unpredictable and in moments like this, Grace really, really hates that that’s how it is.

Looking down at the device in her hand, she wonders if Thomas feels as disappointed as she does right now. She would be ecstatic to talk to any of them, of course, but ever since her mum and dad explained to her why she doesn’t have a brother or sister, she’s been desperate to tell Thomas how sorry she is that she caused him so much pain all those years ago. She knows he never blamed her for that but she still wants to tell him personally without her mum having to be there to speak for him.

She’s so lost in her thoughts that she doesn’t notice her mum moving on to Pat until the device in her hand suddenly pipes up with a surprisingly enthusiastic, “Hello!”

Grace almost drops it in shock.

“Pat?” she asks, breathlessly.

“Oh goodness gracious!” the Ovilus says. “Hello Grace!”

There are tears in her eyes when she looks up at her parents.

“It’s working! It’s working!” she chokes out, stuck somewhere between laughing and crying.

She has her first ever conversation with Pat that day. It’s a little stilted – the Ovilus is far from perfect – but it works and that’s all that matters in that moment.

To everyone’s surprise, Pat is not the only ghost it works for. When they go through the rest of them, just to be sure, the device suddenly crackles to life again when it’s Jean’s turn.

“Hello dear,” it says and this time, Grace does cry.

It’s the best day of her life, and she’s so glad her mum and dad bought the tools on the off-chance that they would work and gave her and the ghosts another way to talk to each other. She can’t imagine a better birthday present.

That night, when she gets ready for bed she does so with a huge smile on her face. Her mum is already waiting in her room when she comes out of the bathroom, and even though she can’t see him, Grace knows Thomas is there as well. She may be twelve now but she’ll never be too old for his stories – that much she swore to herself a long time ago. Tonight’s tale is all about birthdays – of course it is – and Grace can’t help but giggle when her mum starts to sing a quirky Happy birthday at you that is so weird it fits perfectly into the universe Thomas has created for her over a decade ago.

When the story ends, she gives her mum a kiss goodnight and asks Thomas to stay a moment longer. Her mum nods at her and gently closes the door on her way out. Taking a deep breath, she addresses the empty air at the foot of her bed where she knows Thomas likes to perch. “I’m sorry none of the devices worked for you. I was hoping at least one would but I suppose it’s a miracle they worked at all.”

She imagines the sound of a soft sigh and sad brown eyes looking down at the bloody cuff of an otherwise pristine white shirt.

“It still sucks, though,” she continues quietly, and the heavy silence in the room seems to agree with her. Still, she wouldn’t be her parents’ daughter if she gave up so easily. “Maybe we just haven’t found the right tool yet. We’ll keep trying, Thomas. I promise.”

Her eyes stray to the painting of him that hangs opposite her bed, the one in which he is smiling a little bashfully. It’s her favourite, along with the regal one her mum made years before she’d been born, and she hopes her words make him smile a little like that right now.

————

In the following months, her parents do their best to help her keep her promise but no matter which ghost-hunting device they try, none of them works for Thomas. Grace has always considered herself an optimist but when a year goes by and her thirteenth birthday comes and goes without her having found a way to talk to Thomas, she begins to lose hope that it’s ever going to happen. She tries to make her peace with that. It’s all she can do at that point – accept that it just isn’t meant to be.

Then, a week into the new year, Julie remarks with a thoughtful look, “Maybe the right tool just hasn’t been invented yet?”

Her brother raises his eyebrow at her. “And I suppose we’ll be the ones who’ll build it?”

Julie snorts. “We? God, no. But I’m going to have a crack at it.”

And she does. Almost every week, she comes up with a new idea that’s both ingenious and insane, and even though none of them end up working in the end, Grace is grateful beyond words that she has friends who are willing to pour their hearts and souls into helping her talk to a ghost. Not to mention a dad who is more than happy to help them tinker around and build crazy things from scratch. It makes her feel a little better in the face of all this disappointment.

“You know,” her mum begins one evening after another failed attempt that involved their toaster and an old radio her dad found in the basement. Grace can already tell from her tone that she’s not going to like what she’s about to say. “Thomas says it’s okay if you want to focus on something else for a while. You and your friends have been trying to build something for over a year now – maybe it’s time to give it a little rest?”

Grace was right: she does not like this at all.

“I promised him I would keep trying,” she says stubbornly.

“I know,” her mum sighs and looks to her left where Thomas is presumably standing. “But he doesn’t want your life to revolve around him. There’s so much more to it, and he’s missing watching you play the piano and compose songs.”

Grace hasn’t even noticed but she knows in her heart that Thomas is right: she has been neglecting her hobbies. Even though she tries, she can’t even remember the last time she sat down and turned her feelings into verses and melodies. Her fingers start to itch for a pen and the smooth texture of old piano keys under her hands, and she suddenly finds herself missing Emmett’s thoughtful suggestions to her lyrics and the peaceful look on Julie’s face when she listens to a particularly goosebump-inducing chord progression.

Knowing Thomas was there for it all and found as much joy in it as she did, makes it a little easier to agree to put a hold on ghost-hunting devices for a while.

“All right,” she says softly before she looks up at where she thinks Thomas is standing. “But I’m not giving up completely.”

She can tell from her mum’s reaction that Thomas is smiling.

————

Julie and Emmett are more than a little surprised when Grace tells them about it the next time they see each other.

“But it’s been so much fun!” Julie whines, her eyes pleading with her not to give it up.

In the end, they compromise: once a week on Saturdays, Julie gets to spend the afternoon tinkering in the shed under the observation of Grace’s dad while Grace and Emmett pour over verses and music notes in front of the fire in the drawing room. Sometimes, when Emmett brings his violin along, they move over to the piano and practise together for an hour or two, and Grace has to admit that it feels good to play music with her best friend again. She can’t know for sure, of course, but she likes to think that Thomas is sitting next to her by the piano on those afternoons, clapping his hands with pride when they finish a song and smiling encouragingly whenever her fingers stumble on the keys. Every now and then, she glances over to her left at the empty air next to her, and there’s always that feeling of regret tugging at her heart in those moments because she knows it’s all just in her head and that she will never get to actually see him smile at her.

Or so she thought.

Winter is in full force by the end of February when she realises something feels different. Grace can’t quite put her finger on what it is exactly until she goes to the bathroom that afternoon and sees the specks of blood on her underwear. It takes her a moment to realise what that means, and when she does, she calls for her mum with barely controlled panic.

She should have known her mum wouldn’t come to her aid alone.

“Mary says, and I quote: Oh, she be a woman now,” her mum tells her with a grin as she hands her a fresh pair of underpants and a pad through the crack of the bathroom door.

Grace shuts the door in her face with a groan.

She doesn’t want to be a woman – she���s not ready to be a grown-up yet and she certainly doesn’t feel like one. It’s weird to think that, theoretically, she could have a baby now. A real, living human child.

Yeah no, definitely not, Grace thinks with a shudder as she washes her hands.

When she has calmed down enough to go downstairs, Robin’s Ouija board is blinking like crazy in the drawing room. She feels a gentle pressure on her shoulders and lets Julian guide her to it. C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S Robin spells out. Grace feels her face flush but before she can do more than grow beet red from embarrassment, Julian steers her towards the Ovilus.

“Hello!” Pat says the moment she turns on the device. “Mary told – what happened!”

The tone of the Ovilus changes slightly, indicating that Jean has taken over. “If you have – questions about – we are here for you.”

Grace glances over at her mum, mortified. “Do they all know?”

Her mum nods, unable to hide her amusement. “More or less. Jemima is asking what’s going on.”

No way is Grace going to explain that to her ghostly friend. Judging by the way her mum’s expression slowly turns into one of horror, she doesn’t seem to have to. “Oh no, Julian, don’t you dare–“

In the end, it’s  Lady Button who ends up explaining periods to Jemima Grace honestly doesn’t know if that’s better or worse. What she does know, however, is that this is one of those rare moments when she doesn’t envy her mum her gift at all. The last thing she needs is hearing Lady Button talk about the birds and the bees and the others oversharing their own thoughts on the matter at every opportunity. The day had been traumatising enough already.

When she goes to bed that night, her dad is there to tuck her in. Grace is a little surprised to see him instead of her mum but it feels nice to have him pull up the blankets around her shoulders for once and press a kiss to her forehead.

“How are you holding up, kiddo?” he asks with a gentle smile that iputs her frayed nerves at ease.

“Okay, I guess? It’s just … weird. I don’t feel any different but I am, aren’t I?”

Her dad’s smile softens. “You’re growing up, love. That doesn’t mean you haveto be a grown up right now, or that you have to feel like one. It’s okay to still be a child.” His eyes twinkle when he adds, “And you know you’ll always be my baby girl, no matter what.”

“Even when I’m sixty and my hair is going grey?” Grace asks softly.

“Even then,” her dad reassures her.

His words manage to soothe the tightly coiled thing full of worry and fear that’s been sitting heavily on her chest all day. Chuckling wetly, Grace flings herself into his arms and buries her head in his chest. There’s no safer place in the world than in her dad’s arms, and when he kisses the top of her head, she closes her eyes and smiles against his shirt. “Love you, dad.”

“I love you too, Gracie,” he whispers against her hair and tightens his hold.

When they pull back, Grace can’t help feeling a little embarrassed but her dad knows how to deal with that too: he ruffles her hair, messes up the carefully made braids and Grace squirms out of his arm, all the while laughing.

He grins but lets her go. There’s a moment of quiet as she catches her breath before she asks, rather timidly, “Will Mum and Thomas come to say goodnight?”

Her dad’s face softens. “Of course they will. They wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

But he also tells her that today threw Thomas a little, and that her mum is talking to him about it right now; that change like this is difficult for him, and her growing up feels just a bit too much like she is slipping through his fingers again. Grace would think that’s absurd – after all, nothing’s really changed; she’s still the same person she was when she woke up that morning – if she didn’t know how impossible it is for him and the others to hold onto the people they care about. Life, inevitably, passes them by. What feels like an eternity to her is just a blip in time for them. Seeing her grow older – being reminded of how much time has passed and that she’s not that little baby they all cooed over anymore – must be both heart-breaking and terrifying for them, doomed as they are to watch it happen while they stay the same.

There’s the soft sound of a throat being cleared and when Grace looks over to the door, she finds her mum holding up a hot water bottle. “Ready for your bedtime story?”

Grace smiles and scoots over so her mum can join them on the bed. She wonders what kind of story Thomas will tell her today as she settles down, and is not disappointed when it turns out to be a childhood tale about one of the Elders. It’s full of love, understanding and acceptance, and all about how different one’s life can be after meeting the right person.

Grace knows she already has the right people in her life – her parents, the ghosts and, of course, Julie and Emmett. She was fortunate enough to meet them all very early and can’t imagine ever needing anyone else to be happy.

“I love you,” she says when the story is over and Thomas and her parents say goodnight.

Her mum and dad share a smile. “We love you too, sweetheart.”

“And so does Thomas,” her mum adds with a soft look towards the foot of the bed. “He bids you goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Grace whispers and curls around the hot water bottle. Just before she closes her eyes, she catches a glimpse of warm brown eyes and a soft, melancholic smile. Her dad turns off the light and she shakes her head. She must be more tired than she thought if her mind is playing tricks on her like that.

————

It’s still dark outside when she wakes up the next morning. There’s only the thinnest line of pale blue light on the horizon, heralding the arrival of a wintry sunrise that makes Grace wish spring would hurry up and allow the world to burst back into colour again. She’s so tired of icy skies and snow-covered landscapes.

Since it’s a Sunday, she takes her time getting ready. By the time she heads downstairs for breakfast, the sun is already beginning to tentatively peak over the horizon in the distance, making the fields glitter with frost and snow in the weak light. A deer is grazing in the cold morning air and Grace briefly hopes Uncle Barclay isn’t out and about with his shotgun again. Not because the deer would be in danger – according to her dad, Uncle Barclay has been famously missing his targets for years now – but because she knows the sound would upset Thomas and she doesn’t want that.

“Morning Mum, morning Dad,” she mumbles around a yawn as she enters the kitchen. She plops down onto her chair and reaches for her glass of orange juice.  

Her parents exchange a fond, amused look.

“Sleep well?” her dad asks as he hands her a plate with toast and omelette.

“Like a baby,” Grace tells him truthfully. She looks over at her mum. “Thanks again for the hot water bottle. It really helped.”

Her mum smiles. “You’re welcome, love.”

Before she can say anything else, Kitty bursts through the wall with an excited, “Alison! Have you looked outside yet? It snowed again last night! Can you ask Grace if we can make snow angels together later? Please? It was so much fun last time!”

“Sure we can,” Grace absentmindedly says around a mouthful of toast before she starts digging into her omelette.

She only notices something’s wrong when her dad gives her a very confused look. “Can do what?”

Grace blinks. She looks up from her plate, looks at her dad, then at her mum and finally at the young woman in the pretty pink dress who is staring at her with wide eyes full of wonder. “Kitty?”

“Oh gosh!” Kitty exclaims and promptly turns around to run from the room.

Grace stares after her, not quite convinced she isn’t still lying in her bed, dreaming, when her mum whispers in a tone of wonder, “Did you just … see her?”

Grace is unable to tear her eyes away from the empty space where Kitty just stood. “I think so?”

There’s a tense moment of silence as it slowly sinks in what that means. Then her dad groans. “And we’re back to me being the only one who can’t see ghosts. Great.”

He says it so dramatically that Grace can’t help but laugh. Even to her own ears it sounds a little hysterical. She wonders if that’s what going into shock feels like.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” her mum says with a meaningful look towards her that Grace doesn’t understand at first. She didn’t fall out of any windows or down any stairs and cracked her head open, didn’t have any near-death experiences in the last 24 hours at all, let alone in the thirteen years before. It just doesn’t make sense. She shouldn’t be able to see the ghosts. Nothing has changed since yesterday except–

Oh, Grace thinks and places a hand over her cramping stomach. “Do you think–?”

“What else could it be?” her mum asks.

Her dad glances between them. “All right, time out. Since when does getting your period mean you can see ghosts?”

“It doesn’t, not normally.” Her mum glances at her with a curious look on her face. “But she’s not a normal kid, is she, Mike? She’s my kid. What if my gift is in her genes?”

“And puberty triggered it?” her dad asks sceptically.

Her mum holds up her hands and shrugs. “Do you have a better explanation?”

Grace can tell by the look on her dad’s face that he has not. She hasn’t either. What her mum says makes sense, in a our lives are so weird already so why shouldn’t this be possible too? kind of way. And it’s that thought, that moment of realisation that nothing is truly impossible in this house that makes the whole thing truly, undeniably sink in. She saw Kitty. She can see ghosts!

Before any excitement has a chance to bubble over, doubts creep into her mind. Because can she, actually? Can she see ghosts, plural, or is it perhaps just Kitty she can see? Not that that would be disappointing – far from it. It would be so much more than she’d ever thought possible but Grace needs to know.

Omelette and toast forgotten, she stands up from the table so abruptly she startles her parents. “We need to find the ghosts. I need to–”

“I know,” her mum says and stands up too. With a sigh that sounds more amused than resigned, her dad follows them out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

They haven’t even reached the drawing room yet when she starts to hear them: a cacophony of voices, all talking over each other, with Kitty’s rising above them all, insisting, “I swear it! She saw me! She looked right at me and she talked to me!”

Grace stops just shy of the door and lets it all wash over her: the Captain’s voice, less stern than she remembers; Pat’s desperate attempts to calm everyone down; Robin’s rough half-sentences as he tells Kitty she must be wrong because he’s been around long enough to know something like this doesn’t happen; Julian’s call for order that sounds just like her mum’s impression of him and makes her smile; Mary’s old way of talking that turns singulars into plurals in the most peculiar ways; Humphrey’s cautious optimism that Jemima tentatively agrees with; Fanny’s sceptical huffs as she joins forces with Robin and tries to be the voice of reason; and finally the villagers’ excited voices that become so entangled Grace has no hope of making out who’s who.

“I can hear them,” she whispers in relief. She looks up at her mum and doesn’t care when a tear drops down her face. “Mum, I can hear all of them.”

It’s the best feeling in the world, and the only thing that could possibly top it would be being able to see them too. So Grace takes a deep breath and slowly opens the door. All the beloved faces she knows from her mum’s paintings turn to look at her at once. The ghosts seem to hold their breaths – unnecessary but so endearing – as she lets her gaze roam over them. She soaks up every little detail, every hesitant and hopeful smile in stunned silence until finally Pat steps forward and gives her a tentative wave. “Hello, Grace.”

The dam breaks. Grace laughs and lets the tears well over. The room blurs around her and so do the ghosts but she can see them stepping closer, surrounding her like they have all her life except now they’re not just pictures on her walls. They’re real – beautifully, undeniably real. Some of them are crying along with her and reaching out their hands as if to comfort her, and it feels like coming home in the most perfect way Grace could have possibly imagined.

“Hi,” she manages to choke out and laughs again when a chorus of hi’s and hello’s greets her in answer.

“See? I told you I didn’t make it up,” Kitty says with a triumphant grin before she turns to Grace and claps her hands excitedly. “Oh, I’m so glad we finally get to talk to each other! I have so much to tell you!”

Her words remind Grace of all the things she’s been dying to tell the ghosts herself, and one ghost in particular. She lets her eyes wander over them, desperate to find brown curls and warm brown eyes among the sea of the familiar faces. Her heart sinks when she realises he’s not there.

“Where is Thomas?” she asks. The question comes out trembling and her worry only grows when the ghosts go silent and look at each other. In that moment, she knows exactly how her mother felt all those years ago when Thomas vanished without trace. The mere thought that he could be gone before she could see him again, that she’s missed her chance, that he’s–

“Didn’t he say he wanted to watch the sunrise this morning?” Nigel pipes up suddenly, and the rush of relief Grace feels at his words makes her knees feel so weak she has to hold onto the nearest chair for a moment. She looks out of the window, sees the warm glow of the sun stretching over the grounds that are as familiar to her as the house, and wonders if he’ll be at the lake or the well.

She doesn’t stop to ask. Without thinking about what she’s doing, she turns around and runs out of the house. Her breath freezes in the cold morning air; she’s only wearing her slippers and didn’t stop to grab her coat but Grace barely notices. She’s running across the lawn as fast as she can, the frozen grass and snow cracking under her feet, and when a look into the walled garden reveals an empty well, she changes course and heads straight for the lake without stopping to catch her breath.

Her heart is pounding in her chest when it finally comes into view. She slows down and blinks against the sun. It takes her eyes a moment to adjust to the glare but suddenly, between one blink and the next, she can make out a dark silhouette against the bright orange glow.

“Thomas,” she breathes and feels a smile tugging at her lips.

Sunlight is shining through the wound that took his life, making him look more ethereal and ghost-like than her mum’s paintings ever managed to convey. He stands perfectly still, his breath turning to mist in the morning air in front of him with every slow exhale, and Grace wishes he would turn around so she could see his face. So she calls out his name, louder this time, and picks up her pace. As she runs across the frozen meadow towards him, she feels as close to a soldier returning from war to her loved one as she probably ever will, and when he finally – finally – turns to look at her, she could have wept with happiness.

Thomas’s eyes widen a fraction before a frown full of worry replaces the surprise on that gentle, loving face she knows so well. “Grace! What are you doing out here? Goodness me, you don’t even have proper shoes on!”

Grace can tell by the helpless look he casts behind her that he hasn’t realised yet that she can see him. He is hoping for her mum to appear and fix whatever is wrong, and that more than anything makes her heart ache. Because despite it all he is still talking to her as if she never lost the ability to see him, as if she can still talk back. Grace had no idea and the realisation that he never gave that up, not even after all these years, makes her steps falter in the snow.

“Alison?” Thomas shouts and begins to scan the field behind her with increasing urgency. “Alison! Damn your eyes, where are you? Alison! Something’s wrong with Grace!”

His fear, worry and love for her come together in a crescendo of emotion that makes his voice hitch and tremble. He is so clearly torn between staying with her and finding her mum that Grace feels more tears well up in her eyes. Thomas looks at her in alarm.

“Gracie, please. I – I don’t know how to help you. I physically can’t.”

He sounds so distraught that she finally manages to swallow around the lump in her throat.

“It’s all right, Thomas. Nothing’s wrong with me. Quite the opposite, actually.” Thomas freezes. He looks as if he’s seen a ghost and the irony of that isn’t lost on Grace. She gives him a shy, little wave. “It’s good to see you.”

His face goes slack. For a heartbeat or two, he’s just staring at her, completely still. Then he whispers brokenly, “Grace?”

Her name hangs in the air between them, as fragile as the frost under her feet. Warmly, Grace smiles up at him. “Hello, Thomas.”

Thomas lets out the softest, “Oh,” she has ever heard, full of wonder, hope and disbelief.

Behind her, Grace can hear her mum and dad running across the field towards them but she doesn’t turn around, doesn’t look away from Thomas who keeps opening and closing his mouth as if he wants to say a thousand things but can’t find the right words. His hands are trembling at his sides and a moment later, his face crumples. Without warning, his shoulders begin to shake and he sinks down into the fresh snow. He hides his face in his hands, unable to stifle his emotions. The sound he makes is so awfully raw that Grace falls to her knees beside him, helplessly. “Thomas.”

There is a blur of movement next to her and then Jean is at Thomas’s side. She wraps an arm around his shoulders, holds him tight and together in a way Grace cannot and never will, not even with her newfound power. Thomas is crying in earnest now, and one by one the other ghosts join him on the ground. They don’t just surround him with their presence; they surround him with their love. It’s both beautiful and heart-breaking to watch, and Grace wonders if that’s how it was when they found him all those years ago too.

Something heavy lands on her shoulder. She glances up at her mum and dad, grateful for the warm winter coat they’re bundling her up in but even more grateful for the hug that follows. Looking back at Thomas, she hears his broken sobs, sees the way he buries his face in Jean’s shoulder and thinks this is the first time she truly understands what losing her did to him all those years ago. Right now, he isn’t the elegant poet from the portrait on her bedroom wall or the silly storyteller from her bedtime ritual. He is a young, broken man who has just gotten back a piece of his heart he’d thought forever lost.

“Thomas,” she says again. “Look at me? Please?”

He sucks in a ragged breath and slowly raises his head, unable to say no to her. His eyes are shining with tears, and his silent, desperate plea of Please let this be real feels as loud as if he had shouted it.

Grace smiles at him through her own tears. “I’m here. I promise, I’m here and I can see you.”

“She really can, mate,” Pat says softly.

“Praise be,” Mary adds with a smile.

Thomas sniffs and wipes his face on the bloody cuff of his shirt. “How is that even possible?”

“Long story,” Grace says. “I’ll explain it all later.”

“Okay,” he whispers and takes another shaking breath. “I never gave up hope – you have to know that, Gracie – but I didn’t think–“ He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. Biting his lip, he does his best to pull himself together before he continues in that soft voice Grace remembers from her earliest memories, “I love you so much. More than words can say. I’ve never stopped, not even when–”

He breaks off again and Grace wishes so badly she could hold him like the ghosts can.

“I know,” she promises him instead. “I’ve always known. And I love you too. I’m just sorry it took me so long to tell you.”

He smiles and shakes his head even as his breath hitches. “You’ve told me in plenty of ways, Grace; every single day.”

That may be true but Grace knows he needed to hear it anyway and probably would again. That is okay, though – they have all the time in the world now.

What an incredible thought.

————

That night, after her mum and dad have tucked her in and kissed her goodnight, they leave her bedroom with matching smiles on their faces. It’s the first time in twelve years that her mum doesn’t stay for Storytime, and Grace is so giddy with excitement she almost feels like a toddler again. She might be thirteen years old now but Storytime with Thomas is one of her earliest and fondest memories and she’s been waiting to hear him – actually, physically hear him – tell her another story for over a decade now. Even though she spent the whole day talking and laughing with the ghosts, it feels a little surreal that the moment is finally here and Grace pinches herself just to make sure she isn’t dreaming.

She’s not.

Reassured, she takes a deep breath and glances towards the foot of her bed. Thomas is sitting exactly where she always imagined he’d be, perched on the very edge of the mattress. He is quiet – a little too quiet, Grace thinks – as he stares down at his hands in his lap. His fingers are restlessly worrying the bloody cuff of his shirt, making him look nervous, as if he’s not quite sure what he’s supposed to do now that she can see him.

It’s utterly endearing.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Grace says quietly, hoping it will put him at ease.

Thomas glances up and the look of surprise on his face makes her heart ache. “Really?”

She nods. “Mum did a good job but your voice … I still remember it from all those years ago. It’s probably the most soothing thing I’ve ever heard.”

He swallows hard and looks back down at his hands. “I feared you were only indulging me all this time.”

“Never,” Grace says fiercely. She patiently waits until he looks at her again, and when he does, she offers him a soft smile. “Will you tell me a bedtime story, Thomas?”

As the stars twinkle in the endless sky outside, Thomas begins to spin a tale of a lonely clown who only ever wanted to make people laugh. There is cake-stealing involved, and a war, and Grace can’t help but giggle when the clown ends up at a children’s birthday party and Thomas acts out all the silly faces and funny noises he makes.

Growing up, she thinks when the story ends and Thomas softly bids her goodnight, isn’t so bad after all.

#thomas thorne #alison cooper #mike cooper #bbc ghosts #bbc ghosts fanfic #my fic #bbc ghosts babyfic

[unnaaasayu]

How they show their adoration for you ⎯ Pyro (pt 2)

Alt title: How they express their love for you Cw: (GENDERBENT) using He/Him for characters, No gender specified for reader, briefly edited so there will be some mistakes! Characters:M!Chevreuse, M!Xiangling, M!Xinyan, M!Yanfei

Chevreuse

Intimidating and strict in his line of duty as captain but has a laidback slob side to him when he's off duty, a major contrast to his personality but it's endearing nonetheless, especially when he goes looking for you to offer a share of his snacks.

Although he is fairly busy with his job, he does try to make up for it by spending time with you ⎯ in his own words: you're the charge he needs to get back to work and do an even better job. If you ever mentioned this is to ... Anyone, people from work or someone who knows him (citizens), they would absolutely not believe a single word you're saying. Him? The captain being loveable and cute? No way...

It would also be worth mentioning how he'd also be the type to buy you things, mostly food but ideally it's something that comes from the heart and the stomach. Growing up it was hard for him to get food, let alone have a proper living condition, when he had to salvage everything he finds for himself ⎯ so just let him do this one thing for you. It might be as pricey as what other couples usually get for each other, but with this? It's definitely worth his wild to spend his money on.

Xiangling

Chef of the renowning restaurant in liyue that his dad owns, while also earning himself a rep too due to his adventurous dishes. He brightly known for his passionate personality too, always wanting to find something to inspire him to create a new, delicious dish for the restaurant ⎯ even if it's a bit absurd!

A special way he likes to show his love is obvious through the stomach, he loves making food and he'll gladly cook you something up too any day. It can be one of your favourites, something you've been craving or on the more rarer occasions... Lets you eat a test dish he's been experimenting with (nothing inherently dangerous but it always ends up tasting good in the end anyways.)

He also would be very into gift giving too though, asking Guoba to help deliver a gift to you when he's too busy to do so himself and always (jokingly) ask Guoba to put a good word for him in too while he does that. And even though you don't understand what Guoba is saying half the time, with how excitingly he waves his little arms around and makes gestures... You get the idea of what he's saying and laugh at how both him and Xiangling were such an odd, but cute bunch.

Xinyan

A lively rock n' roll rockstar who, just like his performance on stage, has a passionate outlook on life and wants to shake the whole of Teyvet with it from his music.

He isn't exactly busy, in fact, has a lot of freetime on his hand to do whatever so he usually uses it to practise the cords on his guitar or, be with you. Which comes off as a bit silly now that he mentions it to you, but it's all out of goodwill.

Sometimes when he's having a hardtime trying to compose a new song for his performances, or just in general, he'd make something up on the spot about you ⎯ the genre switching from intense, hardcore rock and roll to soft relaxing strums and hums as he looks at the sunset and is yet again, reminded of you.

Yanfei

The half adepti lawyer who's always scouting and solving issues with his law based knowledge that's (somewhat) limited to how he interacts with people; only talking business and work so intently that it's almost frightening to the normal crowd, but he pays them no mind nor even spares them any attention ⎯ in fact he's more keen on knowing how you feel towards him.

Putting aside all the businesses he works on, he's actually a really friendly and sociable guy to get along with, expressing the same amount of curiosity and amusement like any other person would. However, it seems as though he's a bit more clingy? Or at least a bit more forward and insistent on wanting to spend time with you, sometimes even getting flustered when you point out his behaviour.

And mentioning this again how he's always busy, it's rare for him to spare just a single day without mentioning his work since he likes to be kept busy ⎯ even when he's on break, there's always something work related mentioned from him. So for one, it's definitely surprising when he chooses to go out on a whim, on his own volition, to not do work for once and instead be with you. How strange, right?

#Genshin x reader #Genshin impact x reader #Genshin Chevreuse x reader #Chevreuse x reader #M!Chevreuse x reader #Chevreuse #Genshin Xiangling x reader #Xiangling x reader #M!Xiangling x reader #Xiangling #Genshin Xinyan x reader #Xinyan x reader #M!Xinyan x reader #Xinyan #Genshin Yanfei x reader #Yanfei x reader #M!Yanfei x reader #Yanfei

[24-hourpartypeople]

I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE S1: I mean, this is not just peak Alan, this is peak comedy. Every other line is a great joke if not a memorable quote yet it all still works in depicting Alan as a three dimensional character and not just a punching bag. It's all slightly exaggerated but gives back a sense of realness because the Alan universe is so perfectly crafted. What's really fascinating is that almost everything you get is from Alan's interacting with other people, but there's a strong underlyining sense of loneliness throughout and that's what makes you sympathetic towards the character. Yes he's opportunistic and arrogant but at times you want him to shut up not because he's annoying but because he's burying himself. Just cringe comedy played perfectly. I also absolutely love how you get comedy out of his little obsessions and pedantry, that's maybe my favourite definying trait of Steve's stuff.

Talking of Steve, he's unreal here. I've said it before but he has the incredible ability to go big while still playing on the subtleties, be it a face expression, the timing of inflection of a phrase or a small gesture. It's quite fitting that one of the most iconic moments of the series has him not speaking a single word. He's completely mastered the character by this point and there's nothing that's off limits for him. But what sticks out is that he's also able to bring the pathos and emotions when needed. Despair, childlike happiness, fear, awkwardness, disgust, it's all perfectly conveyed and even if it's for a laugh there's still another hidden message getting across.

It's very hard to pick a favourite moments but there's 3 quotes that I want to single out because I think in a way they're also either brilliant observations or great character detail.

"Yes, it's an extender". Because as I said I have a soft spot for all these mundane obsessions and they're an integral part of Alan's psyche, he gets worked over all these small, irrelevant things in a way that probably wears people out, or just confuses them. But the reality is, we all sometimes get overexcited about stupid things that bring some comfort to our lives, and your kitchen table being an extender is certainly a plausible candidate for that. It's like when you go to the supermarket and there's a discount on soap or when you come home and your flatmate has already put the bins out. The joys of life.

"At the end of the day you will pay the price if you're a fussy eater". That whole scene is fantastic and works on two level imo. The obvious one is the casual display of ignorance and racism. As the little englander that he is, even without being particularly engaged politically, Alan just looks down on irish people and doesn't even realise that all of his perceptions are based on old, reheashed stereotypes. But then I think the scene also captures something I believe we've all experienced. When you're out for dinner with a group, and there's someone you don't quite know. And that someone will say the most outrageous things without a worry because in his mind the possibilities that he's talking out of his arse, and that the other people sat at the table may not agree with his point of view, just don't exist.

"I just hate the general public". Again, in context, this works because it's just Alan refusing to admit his own defeat and instead blaming someone else, in this case everyone and no one in particular because he can't quite pin down the crowd that was at the event but he still feels they're inferior to him. But it's also such a great line to have come out of a guy that works as a tv presenter, especially a traditional one. He puts on this smiling face and pretends that the audience of the show are this kind of massive extended family when in front of the camera. He works with a different set of guests every time. He talks with executives, producers, collegues, members of crew. His whole career is based on pretending that what he's doing affects the public and keeps them company. And being successful and getting big viewing figures means you're popular with the everymen (and women) down in Bolton or something. Yet he *hates* the general public. Fantastic.

#steve coogan #alan partridge #i'm alan partridge

[severeweatheralert]

Things I learned while writing two novel-length fics in the space of nine months

Or, advice I hope might be of someone use to someone out there, but all brains are different so YMMV. Ironically, this is probably the longest tumblr post I've ever written. Do let me know if you got something out of it!

Planning

You don't need to know every single plot detail at the start. It DOES really help to know roughly where you're going, plotwise and thematically, so it feels less like you're running straight into the great unknown and more like you're headed to some destination. Even if you don't quite know how you're going to get there, yet.

You don't need to know every single character detail, either. Favourite song? Favourite food? I couldn't name my own, let alone my characters'. What is important is a general idea of what makes them tick. What do they want? Why are they here? How do they think? (and if you do introduce details, save them in a notes file someplace, so you can easily find them later).

Outlines are great. Outlines are not the law. If you come up with something that works better than the thing you'd originally planned? Change it.

Scene setting

Remember that you're writing fic, not a movie script. That means you don't have an effects team to pay and you can make the entire environment do whatever you want. Forest fire on the horizon to match your characters' mood? Do it.

Trust that your readers' imagination works. You don't need to describe every single detail to set a scene effectively. Just pick out a few that give off the mood you want, and leave it at that. (Setting dependent, of course- a scifi setting will need more description than a classroom or a hospital room, where most people will have been in their life at least once). This goes for character descriptions too.

Sprinkle scene descriptors through the dialogue/action instead of starting with a whole paragraph of exposition. You'll pull people in quicker.

Research: if you're setting your fic in an existing place, it helps to do (some) research and incorporate that in the work. Simple things like incorporating the name of an existing retail chain or a highway makes your setting feel a lot more real. Google Maps is great if you're writing in a country you've never been to. Just hop on streetview.

Drafting

If you're trying and failing (multiple times) to write a scene, ask yourself if there might be a pacing reason for that. Is the scene necessary at all? Are you trying to start too early in the scene? What are you trying to establish with it, and could that maybe happen elsewhere in the story?

If you get stuck on a phrase/name you haven't picked/word you can't think of/detail you haven't yet researched: put something like [NAME] in brackets. Then keep going. You can come back to it later and you don't need to disrupt your writing flow.

Turn grammar and spell check off. Run a spell check when editing but don't get haunted by the little red line while drafting. A lot of the time its suggestions are bad anyway.

When writing dialogue-heavy scenes, it's sometimes nice to get the actual dialogue out of the way first, then come back later and add actions or descriptions in between to pace the dialogue.

Sometimes you'll have to draft a scene multiple times before it feels right. This is painful, but ultimately okay.

Feel like you should write but don't really want to? I like to set a timer for like 20-30 minutes, give it a go, and if I'm not into it by the time it goes off I'll go do something else.

Editing

Let a section sit for at least a day before going back in to edit. Give your brain some time to forget some of it. You can still draft the next bit in this time!

Sometimes it helps to set the text to a different font or to paste it into a different text editor. Trick your brain into thinking you haven't seen it before, basically. If you're brave, you can even use the editor of whatever website you're posting to.

This is when you run the spell check. But remember: you're allowed to mess with grammar and use words that the spell check says don't exist. "He deadpanned" is a perfectly understandable dialogue tag, for example.

Use a thesaurus! I like powerthesaurus.org because it has a dark mode. The main thing to remember is that you're using it to find synonyms that may fit your meaning/the mood better, not to find more complex words. Especially useful if you find yourself using the same word over and over in a section.

Practical things

Brainstorming on paper works WAY better for my brain than brainstorming digitally, for reasons unknown. Plus you get the fullfillment of using up a notebook.

Have a scraps folder for deleted scenes. Don't actually delete them! You can scrap them for good lines later.

Especially for longform work, keep notes. Things like repeated lines, relevant plot details, things you want to incorporate in future chapters: keep them somewhere where you can find them.

For writer's block: sometimes you need to let a story simmer for a bit. I like going for hikes or chewing on my plot in the shower.

I like having two WIPs with vastly different moods at the same time. One in posting stages, one in drafting stages. That way if I don't want to work on a very moody WIP, I can switch to the other and still get something done.

If you're writing longform work: you'll improve over time. Try to resist the urge to go back and edit the first chapters once they start grating at your perfectionism. Especially if you've already posted them.

Don't write the whole thing in one document if it's longer than ~10k. I like SmartEdit Writer to organize my fics. It's free.

Uploading

I'd recommend having a few chapters' backlog before you start posting. This way you a) know you like the fic enough to keep working on it for more than one chapter; b) have some backlog in case writer's block strikes or life gets in the way of writing; c) can go back and edit in foreshadowing or edit out plotholes as you discover them.

If you have (and want to give) a lot of content warnings, keep a list while you're writing the chapter, so you don't have to figure it out last minute before uploading.

Your works' stats (kudos/hits/subs/comments) say nothing about the quality of your work. This one is hard to internalize.

#writing #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #writing advice #writing tips #mine #writeblr #creative writing #writing advice with lang #this is very personal obviously #long post

[queseraone]

Do all the ones you haven't gotten yet 😂🥰❤️ ilysm

OMG YOU BRAT

1. Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely? Um, probably my Linstead multi-chapter (I think you're familiar hahahaha), mostly because I had no plan in place and it became a total mess. So I guess I would rewrite it by... not writing it at all? Oh! But seriously I kind of wish I could go back and re-write this one. It was my first foray into writing for Chenford, and I've been thinking about a bunch lately for some reason (I think because it's vaguely related to another idea I have). I wish I'd kept it entirely canon compliant.

3. How would you describe your writing style? Lately? Nonexistent.

4. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them? Original characters are TERRIFYING to me. There's a reason I write fanfic and not original fiction, coming up with characters (especially well-rounded, relatable ones that people like) feels impossible. So I just... don't. (To the point that I researched the names of every single referenced member of Metro so I could use actual character names and not make any up. I have the list if anyone's interested 😜)

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies? I find this question confusing. I never want to use MCD, but it shouldn't ever apply since I have no intention to write it. What a cop out of an answer, but I don't understanddddd. OH! I sometimes wish I could exclude relevant tags for the surprise factor.

6. What's your ratio for rating your works? What does this mean? Oh wait, I think it means in terms of T vs M vs E? Sex brings it to M, and porn is E?

7. Your favourite ao3 tag. Lately? Established relationship or missing moment.

8. How slow is a slow burn? So slow that they spend most of the story dancing around their feelings and only get together near the very end.

12. If you write in more than one language, what's the difference? Strictly English over here.

13. Rate your worldbuilding skills from 1 to 10. Uh... 1 or 2? Because I don't build worlds, I play in existing ones created by the show?

16. Are one-shots really underrated? Wait are they underrated??? WHY?? I LOVE a one-shot. Whether it's 500, 2000, or 10K words, I love being able to sit down and enjoy and fully fleshed out story from start to finish.

17. Past or present tense? Why? I used to write in past tense, but I think reading more present tense influenced me to do the same, and now I prefer present.

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

“No!” she practically shouts at him. She takes a moment to school herself, exhaling slowly. “I mean, Tim, I say this with love, but if you don’t give me some fucking space, I will kill you.”

20. Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you? Many. Though it usually bites me in the ass because I end up stuck on something, and then something else, etc. So clearly it doesn't work all that well. But I think (unless I was on a total roll, which sometimes happens) I'd be stifled if I focused on only one thing. Plus ideas tend to multiply.

21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret? No, not really. I don't typically write anything super long though.

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again? I DON'T KNOW BUT I LOVE MY IDIOTS!!!!

24. Thoughts on flashbacks/flashforwards. Not really a fan, especially if they're super long. A couple of lines here or there are a-okay with me, but when you're italicizing half a chapter? Pass.

25. Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go? As in, with a multi-chapter? I clearly suck at that, so I think I'd only ever do another if I wrote the whole thing in advance (or at least had a VERY clear plan in place)

27. Do you agree that one shouldn't start a story with a piece of dialogue? Nope, strongly disagree. Sometimes it just works to jump right in without preamble.

28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing? Not really, but I'll take any advice you want to throw at me, because I am soooooo stuck.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't. Well right now, every single one. Because I CAN'T WRITE 😩. Oh, but my Contractor Jay fic counts I guess? *Sigh* 10K words of nothing. IT HAUNTS ME

32. Do you have a word/expression that you always use in your writing? Fuck. And murmur. I looooove murmur, it's my favourite.

33. Give your writing a compliment. 😩 I... can... idk dude, I can't right now. How do you compliment something that doesn't exist?!?!?!? I'm going with my fallback -- I'm decent(ish) with words themselves, but ideas are my struggle.

34. Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you? Do I sound like an ass if I say no? 😬 I write as a creative outlet, that's all.

35. Thoughts on writing challenges/contests. Contests, no thanks, I don't like the idea of pitting writers against each other (assuming that's what that means???). I'm all about celebrating other writers. Challenges, like #chenfordweek? YES, I wrote more that week that I had in ages, I apparently do well when there's a fire under my ass.

36. How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of? I ask you? 😅 And when I try by myself, I follow your lead of Taylor Swift lyrics. Fave of the ones I've managed to do on my own? I like this one best I think?

38. "This never happened" fix-it fics or "this happened but" fix-it fics?

As long as you fix it, I'm happy! (Yes Suz, I mean you specifically here)

39. Wildest AU scenario you have written? I've only written one, so I guess that's it -- paging Dr. Jay Halstead. I don't think any of the AU ideas I've played around with are particularly wild.

40. Write a 9-word fic. What the fuck is this question?!!? Tim Bradford loves Lucy Chen forever and ever. Amen. Nine words does not a fic make.

Thanks-ish, I love you and I hate you for this 💖

#fanfic writing asks #asked and answered #nancyddrew

[sky-fire-forever]

For the ao3 ask game..

🏜️🧩🥤

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Kinda stealing this answer from @scarlettrust who said something similar, but when people point out individual lines that they like? I eat that shit up. I also just love genuine breakdowns and analysis of my work. People notice themes or parallels that I don't even intend sometimes and I LOVE that stuff. I just love when people tell me how my stuff impacts them

Or comments that tell me something I've written is something they reread. Something about that is incredibly touching to me.

But like. Any comment makes my heart happy as long as it's not nitpicking my work tbh

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

This one is hard because it depends on what mood I'm in. Generally speaking, I'm pretty picky, but I can't describe like. In What Way. Vibes, really. If I feel like the characterization is off in a specific way that I don't like, I'll probably click off. Usually if the characters are Too Emotionally Intelligent tbh. I dunno how to describe what I mean, but if I think they're too transparently author inserts, I'll click off. Which is something I always worry about when I'm writing.

But just because I don't like something doesn't mean others won't! Write whatever you like and don't give a shit about other people.

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

For OFMD:

@izzyspussy hands down. His fics are great and make me feral and I love his characterization just... so much. Especially the way he writes the Ed/Izzy dynamic. Also just has... incredible ideas that I want to tear my teeth into

lovedhands on ao3 is another good one. I eat their shit up and I'm kinda obsessed with how they're able to write so much and how it's all so good.

@carrymelikeimcute writes some really, really good stuff too. Obsessed with the way they write Stede and Izzy tbh

For the Penumbra Podcast I've always gotta shout out @prydon who has written probably my favorite fics in the fandom. Her way of writing is incredible and she captures emotions so well. I also just think she's so creative and her ideas and the way she weaves things together in her fics are amazing

Also @blue-mood-blue who knows how to write angst in a way that scratches my brain

And like so many others, but my brain is too exhausted right now to name more, especially since I haven't actually read fic for tpp in ages.

If you like Avatar the Last Airbender, I gotta recommend @lovelyelbowleech whose fic War Games I've been reading for months

And of course there are so many other fics and authors that I adore, but can't name all of them. Every single fic writer in the universe is doing an amazing service and I appreciate them

#dennis answers #thank you for the ask!! this was fun

[tathrin]

✏ 🐺 ⚠ 📚 please! :D

Answers for this LotR ask-game.

✏ rewrites: here's a pencil, which ONE thing in the novels/films are you changing?

Oh gods, just one? Ughhh that's hard. Okay, even stretching the definition of "one thing" to the utmost limit to be an entire character subplot...I'm still torn between Give Arwen An Actual Coherent Plotline (which I think would do the best thing to fix for the movies) and Show Legolas And Gimli's Friendship Arc (because that's at least something that just gets largely overlooked-and-glossed-over with the occasional flicker of lip-service paid to it at random rather than being an absolute cluster-fuck of incoherent half-assed thoughts that stumble all over themselves without any actual fucking resolution/explanation like the Arwen Stuff). Much as I would personally like to see the latter, I think if I were actually given the chance to change one thing, then it would be the Arwen Situation just because that's such a fucking MESS and it really needs fixed.

If we're going with literally just one single thing, then: Denethor burns to death on the pyre instead of running like three fucking miles to the end of the city what the fuck.

🐺 GROND GROND GROND: which of the battles is your favourite to watch? is there a combat scene in particular that you enjoy?

The Battle of Helm's Deep. As much as it bothers me that the elves are there without any plausible explanation, and especially that they just fucking disappear from the entire plot as soon as it's over, it also looks so damn good to watch! And my irritation is mitigated by the GRIN that I absolutely cannot stop from breaking out over my features every single time I hear "that is no orc-horn!" and see the look on Théoden's face when Haldir walks in (and the smug little grin on Legolas's face too because let's face it, he doesn't get to be a little shit in the movies the way he is in the books and that is a crime) as well as by the absolute fucking BEAUTY of that battle itself, not least of all the heart-wrenching scene where Haldir dies. THAT MUSIC OH MY FUCKING GODS AM I RIGHT!? Gods, even when you're watching it as critically as possible and picking-out the bits where cause/effect break-down and narrative order was shuffled in ways that don't make logistical sense and picking up on the minute little errors and inconsistencies...it's still so damn fucking good.

(btw I know I cannot be the only one who noticed, but since it seems that many of the little details that the early movie-fandom used to talk over obsessively in the 2000s have fallen out of common knowledge in more recent years...who else desperately wants to see the footage of the cut where it's Legolas who hauls Gimli out of the water after the wall is breached, rather than Aragorn? Because it's Legolas's hand that actually pulls him up, but then the footage cuts to Aragorn helping Gimli away...but it was Legolas whose hand pulls him out of the water, Legolas who yeeted himself down the stairs on an orc-shield to get to Gimli, so why don't we get to see the rest of that!?)

PJ, the Extended Editions are godsends don't get me wrong...but could we have ALL the deleted footage sometime? Pretty pretty please with elevensies on top?

⚠ fucking buckleberry ferry: from the clip of Dom and Billy discussing the one swear word they could theoretically get by censors, which line would you change?

I honestly don't know, because I don't know that that would actually do anything to add to the weight of things? But a very soft, "oh fuck" when Théoden sees the Nazgûl flying towards him, perhaps!

📚 boxset: how were you first introduced to Middle Earth?

My little brother actually read them first, and he made me read them. I think I was in eighth grade? Give or take a year or two.

Our mom had a collection of "classic novels" that she'd gotten from some kind of book-club some years back, so we had copies of all four books on the "fancy shelves" in the living room next to all the "real literature" and boring biographies and stuff, so I read nice pretty leatherbound editions first, with lovely maps and illustrations, and I think that added to the "weight" of the story in a way, because none of my other fantasy/sci-fi books ever merited such treatment so it made them feel special.

But it also made me leery of reading them tbh, because I'd spent my whole youth being told that the books I liked were crappy books that just Could Not Compare to the Worthwhile Literature that real readers liked (and which were, imo, usually shit). So I'd actually ignored LotR my whole life because it was on the Fancy Book Shelf so I assumed they were also crap. But my brother insisted that I suck-it-up and read them anyway, and that I had to read all of them and not just The Hobbit and call it a day (he knows what a stubborn, contrary person I am, and that it was A: going to take several thousand words for me to give them a fair chance and also B: the Hobbit alone wasn't going to blow me away) and I was reluctant, but he persisted and I did and oh boy was he right. Then like one or two years later, we found out they were making movies so of course we had to re-read them so we'd be ready and I think we both read them at least a dozen times between then and the release of Fellowship, to the point where mom eventually bought us each our own paperback copies so keep us from pestering each other lmao.

(The Silm took a while. I had to literally trap myself on a train freshman year of college with nothing else to do in order to get through that one the first time shhhh.)

#lotr movies #middle earth asks #lord of the rings #me #arwen #legolas #gimli

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

hey girl heyyyy

For the ask game:

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

hi babes 💕

send me some writer asks!

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

uhhh outlining because i'm trying to get this stupid fic done, but the last line was levi saying: "Got a bunch of new recruits. Might as well put them to work." feel free to get creative over what that means ;)

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

ma'am are you trying to bait the anon hate 😭 hmm, idk if this is an opinion per se because i might just be straight up wrong LMAO i'm sure it's been chatted about and is said otherwise in the manga/anime and i missed it bc i'm a dumdum but i hc that levi knew that he was ackerman? maybe never confirmed that there was something special with the bloodline and that what he didn't know was that he was a blood relative to kenny upon hearing that ackerman was also kenny's last name. i need to dig through the manga to refresh because it's been a minute anyway i could ramble about this more on my logic but i think it might end up being an incoherent essay lmaooooo

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

boy am i STRUGGLING with this rn probably the whole "write for yourself" mantra and write things with little to no intention of publishing, but ALSO writing can mean anything! it can mean jotting down a trope that caught your eye (i have many drafts that just say "idk maybe a high school au with tutor levi or something"), writing a single line that you want to use at some point occasionally i'll go thru these little things that i jot down and when i feel that even slight sense of motivation, i have something to go off! and then of course that it's ok to have a block. our best work comes from when we're REALLY into it and riding off the hyperfixation. i know sometimes it feels like it'll never come back, but it will (even if its not in the form that we were hoping/expecting :3)

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

tbh probably the ";ALSKDF;LAKSDF;LKJ" type because that's the vibe i'm always going for 😂

#please dont send me hate 😭 #kat chats #ask games #moots #moots.peach

[twotangledsisters]

Forgive me if I’ve asked you this before but what’s your favorite headcanon about each of the tts gang?

First off, apologies for taking so long to answer! I don't have a cool excuse I just saw it while out, though I'd remember to answer later and... didn't.

But super cool question so let's get into it!

Rapunzel

For Rapunzel, I surprisingly can't think of too much, I'm sure I'll think of a million things after pressing post, but I'm going with one I included in a recent chapter because I think it's adorable:

The flowers in Rapunzel's hair are picked from the garden every morning by Eugene for her.

Eugene would pick flowers for her early on because, you give flowers to your girlfriend, Rapunzel would accept the little bucket with a smile, but not knowing to put them in a vase like any normal girl she'd go straight to the mirror and add them to her hair. A constant reminder of Eugene.

And he'd of course pick her fresh one's every single morning because if his girlfriend wants flowers in her hair she's going to have the very best.

Eugene

My fave is one you've probably all seen but will forever warm my heart. It was by guiltyhipster and @dannybird22 on tumblr though the first, I looked it up and they don't seem to have a blog anymore.

In fact, because it only seems to be around in image form, it took me a while to find but here it is:

It's so sweet.

And the idea that neither remember and it's just a coincidence would make it all the sweeter in my mind!

(I also headcanon in my fics Eugene didn't stay put in one kingdom's orphanage and kept running away and ending up in new ones so that would allow for this to be possible still).

Cassandra

There are so many good headcanons with Cass because there is so much left unsaid about her (who's her dad? why did Gothel have a kid? How did she get Owl?). Choosing just one, choosing a favourite is very hard.

But my fave headcanon (which is huge spoilers for many of my fics because I use and reuse it a lot, but I won't be saying which fics because a few have other ideas) is that she's at least half magic.

Let me explain, we know she's Gothel's daughter. But Gothel is literally pure sundrop magic at this point, that's why she dies when Rap's hair gets cut. So any child produces by Gothel is unlikely fully human.

I don't think she can use these powers in the way Raps does, I think it just kinda sits in her blood completely inactive.

This also explains why she can grab and use the moonstone magic without it trying to kill her.

Lance

That the day he got caught and sent to prison he sacrificed himself so Eugene could escape (probably without Eugene realizing that what he'd done), because Lance is the bestest big brother ever and for as many jokes as he makes I just know he'd do anything to protect his friends/family and their happiness.

Where does the tts gang end....? I'm just gonna keep going... sorry?

Arianna

Probably my fave characters!

She's a huge animal lover. Before Frederic she kept a bunch of pets but when she became queen and didn't have the time to give them the attention they deserved, she stopped getting new pets.

I mean she has two dogs a horse and a bird in her royal portrait!

She's also clearly into weapons as she has several (something I definitely dig into deep later in my fic).

Frederic

I think Frederic was probably raised in "royal isolation", that is to say, he had tutors and teachers preparing him for his future duty, there were servants and such, but he didn't really get to hang out with other kids his age, because of that he sometimes struggled with understanding other's emotions and comes of as awkward at times.

Captain of the Guard

So, in Eugene vs Cassandra, I was always really struck by Cass' explanation of how Cap raised her, specifically the line: "how to earn my keep". I don't doubt Cap loved her, but I do believe growing up with the Captain as her father was more discipline than nurturing. Especially because of where she came from.

I think Cap probably wouldn't let her get away with bad behaviour or attitude, not because he wanted to be strict or pushy, but because he was scared of the king and queen and how people would treat the daughter of the princess' kidnapper.

I think he did what he thought was best for her. But I think ultimately it backfired.

I could probably go on with every single character who ever made an appearance but, I've been writing for a while now, so hope you enjoy some of these!

#tts #rta #tts headcanon #rta headcanon #tangled the series #captain of the guard #queen arianna of corona #king frederic of corona #eugene fitzherbert #rapunzel #tts cassandra #lance strongbow

[just-here-for-iolaus]

Hercules and the Amazon Women

Okay, now that I own all of HTLJ, XWP and YH (including the movies) I decided it's time to watch everything.

I watched "Hercules and the Amazon Women" for the first time ever earlier this week and it was just... wild.

I don't know what I expected, really, but since I'm most familiar with Young Hercules, and a little bit of Xena, there was a lot that surprised me. (I will also say, I was afraid of Kevin Sorbo as a kid so I didn't really watch HTLJ much when it was on TV, and I have forgotten most of what I did watch. What I know about the show is... Hercules and Iolaus are buddies who travel around and things happen? And afaik they are single with random flings with women.)

I have so many thoughts.

First of all: We see Zeus??

He's just straight up a character in the movie, with lines, and telling Hercules he's his favourite son, and definitely wanting to bang Alcmene.

To say this left me in shock is an understatement. Don't get me wrong, his character was actually a delight (even when he was being a piece of shit) but like, coming from having watched a portion of Young Hercules, where Zeus is notably absent, it's a bit of a shock to the system to have him just fucking around and casually telling Hercules how much he likes him, etc. (Because on YH, Hercules is trying desperately to win his father's approval.)

(But also Zeus wtf tell your wife to stop trying to kill your kid?)

Also: Iolaus is getting married?

Okay, so, again, I don't know much about the plot of HTLJ but I do know that Iolaus goes around with Hercules and I'm like 99% sure that he has some romantic interests?

But anyway they're super cute together and in love ♥♥♥

So, my first thought was "well, they sure are foreshadowing that Iolaus might die going on this trip, but since I know he's in the TV show, it must be his wife that dies, and that's why he's single in the show".

Which brings me to: IOLAUS FUCKING DIES??

He just straight up dies. Like a third of the way into the movie. And is not part of the plot after that. He just is dead. I kept waiting for them to like, cut back to him having actually survived and healing up someplace, and coming to help Herc at a crucial moment. But alas.

Hercules turns into a baby at one point in the movie.

I just thought that part was weird. Even if the candle shows someone their past, idk why it would change their body at the same time.

Also... what was the point of this???

She is trying to show him how he is a dick, but if she doesn't think he can change, and she plans to kill him anyway.... what was the point of trying to show him the error of his ways? It's a waste of her time.

"What if I tried to change?" "You can't change. You're a man."

This was poorly thought out. Especially since she says "It's not my intention that you should suffer needlessly. It's not a female trait." Like, okay, sure. What the fuck are you doing then? I don't get her motivation for doing all of this.

Hercules refuses to carry a weapon.

This surprised me because I guess I just forgot about this, or maybe it's only a thing in HTLJ and not YH? I swear Hercules sometimes carries weapons in YH?

IDK I was just shocked by it. I'm curious to see if this remains consistent. He kind of mocks Iolaus for having a weapon, but like, Iolaus would have died (earlier) without his sword to cut the rope off his neck, just saying. And Hercules doesn't refuse to use weapons. He's happy to take weapons off people and use them, he just refuses to carry weapons, which... he's got demigod super strength. If anything it would tire him less than it does Iolaus. I don't get the logic behind it tbh.

While we're on the topic of weird Hercules philosophy:

Hercules thinks nobody should worship the gods.

I get where he's coming from, since he's a demigod and he's met the gods and they're dicks and all... Though, this being the first movie, the audience wouldn't know that, so I guess I'm giving him a lot of benefit of the doubt here. But, the issue I have with this isn't so much that he doesn't have respect for the gods, but that he tells other people not to.

This is just privilege, my guy. It's easy enough for him to shrug off the gods, but the people whose shrine he's destroying aren't demigods, and when they piss off the gods, there are dire consquences (as we see when multiple people die in this movie because Hera's pissed). It's so irresponsible for him to advocate that people anger the gods when they have no recourse if the gods attack them.

(Ironically, this is something they kinda explore in YH, but that whole show is retcon so I'll give them a pass on that.)

I guess Hercules thinks people are better off dead than worshipping gods, idk.

Hercules thinks men should be hard and unchanging like stone.

We see him being taught this by some fighting teacher of his as a kid. I want to say this is one of the beliefs that changes in him during the movie, but since I've now seen the second movie and he tells this same shit to some people in that movie, I'm inclined to think he still believes it by the end of this movie and it's antithetical to the theme of this movie so it just feels weird.

Hercules is an open misogynist.

I... This was the theme of the movie. It was a cringey, heavy-handed story about how everyone is wrong when they're sexist, and this movie is like the first Hercules media, so they wouldn't have the YH plot stuff to draw from, but it feels really weird having seen a bunch of YH stuff where he meets Amazon women and respects women (Kora, Lilith, etc.) in his daily life and considers them trusted friends... and then see him be so openly hostile toward women and disparage them as needing to be protected because they're weak, and telling Iolaus to get out of the kitchen because only women belong there... It was rough.

He learns better by the end of the movie, I guess.

Is Hercules Ace/Aro/Gay?

This is sort of a weird tangent, because I feel like Young Hercules (at least in the tv show) is shown to be interested in women. But I didn't really buy Kevin Sorbo's acting when he "falls" for the Amazon queen. I didn't feel like they had any chemistry, whereas I totally bought the friendship between him and Iolaus.

Herc talks with Iolaus about him getting married and basically doesn't seem to understand why Iolaus would want to marry a wife who can't cook well, tend his clothes, or tend the animals well. When Iolaus says she's beautiful, Herc is basically like "what does that matter", and then Iolaus says he's in love and he doesn't expect Herc to get it, and Hercules is kinda like "well I sure don't get why my friend wants this, but I guess it's his life".

Iolaus suggests that Herc will find a woman one day and understand and Herc says "Me? Never."

Also Hippolyta asks him about loving Iolaus: "Could you love a woman as you loved Iolaus?" "It's different with women."

This might just be to make the whole "Hercules doesn't respect women" point, but it's an interesting series of events/statements.

Lucy Lawless is in this movie!

Not as Xena, although she looks kinda like Xena, so when she showed up I mistakenly thought we might get a Xena origin story or something. I was mildly disappointed. (But look, so pretty!)

I got really upset when they killed Pithus, and it felt really unneeded and underplayed. It was around this point that I was starting to think maybe there would be some Zeus intervention to bring people back to life.

Before I move on to that, though, can I just say: The scene where Hercules carries Hippolyta's corpse into town... wouldn't everyone assume he killed her?

Last they knew she ran off to try to kill him, and when he comes back he doesn't explain anything right away. I guess they were all just okay with that since they wanted to all live peacefully in town together? IDK. It feels like the Amazon women were very easily swayed into living with the men again and just stopped caring about Hippolyta too quickly. (Not that I wanted them to be mad at Hercules, but... it just felt not very believable for people living in essentially cult conditions.)

Zeus did something!

I really liked that Hercules gave Zeus shit at the end, and talked him into reversing time for him. It's not how I thought they were gonna revive Iolaus, but it's good enough.

(I am told they planned to keep Iolaus dead but they liked Michael Hurst so much that they decided to revive him just in case. What an excellent call. ♥)

Okay, Hercules was actually likeable at the very very end of the movie. His enthusiasm to eat Ania's stew was actually cute.

I still don't really know how I feel about Kevin Sorbo Hercules yet.

Final thoughts:

I was surprised how much I liked both Zeus and Alcmene.

I was not surprised how much I loved Iolaus, and I look forward to more of him.

Also Ania is so cute, I'm scared about what happens.

The sexism theme was not handled that well/subtly but maybe for the time it wasn't that bad?

Hercules is characterized very differently than he is in YH. (And that's fine, I'm not holding it against this series, I understand why that would happen and I can separate the two.)

I don't think this movie will be one I watch over and over.

I'm really looking forward to watching more HTLJ and I'm honestly surprised how much I enjoyed this despite my complaints! ♥

#htlj spoilers #htlj #htlj movies #hercules and the amazon women #the great (re)watch

[cloudycleric]

helloooo big fan of your videos they give me so much motivation to make byler art 🫶🫶

question uno: how is filming of stranger things going?? it must be very exciting to be the new actor of will and meeting all the cast members :)

question deux: obv will is best boy but who are you other favourite characters? and also is there any character you dislike but is meant to be one of the good guys in the show?

last question number drie: do you think mike and will are going to get eachother christmas presents in season 5 because we know it’s christmas season and if so what presents do you think they’ll be??

also here is a lil quick drawing i made while watching ur vids of mike and will as the parrots that suit their personality in my opinion with mike as a quaker and will as a cockatiel

it is going wonderfully i think you bylers will be really happy for what season 5 has in store.

okay these are my favorite characters: will (obv) & mike, my #1 pookie bears. a lot of my friend dislike jonathan but i do not feel that way. jonathan is also a pookie bear with great music taste. i love joyce & hopper & they are very my parents coded. lucas & dustin obv they are pookies bears & i love them. nancy & steve, i like steve more than i like nancy, i don't have particularly strong feelings on nancy, idk why but i like her. robin is also cool but i think sometimes she kinda toes the line of being a little TOO campy or corny or just, netflix original /derogatory writing. but i love her & people cant say shit about it because guess what she is MY little netflix original pookie ok. max love max i didn't have an appreciation for her like i do now until s4 but i think that the writers wrote her so well & her problems are so complex & deep i find it really interesting. MURRAY! i love him, i want him to have a spin off PI show with joyce & hopper where they solve little mysteries i love murray he is so silly goofy i'm not gonna give him the title of pookie just cause i feel weird about that one. but he is hands down one of my favorite comic relief characters if not my favorite. argyle is my little stoner man i love him so much i love him! eleven OBVIOUSLY is a pookie & i love her so much & i want to give her some nice chocolate cookies & a warm glass of milk (even though drinking milk straight up is disgusting it's about the symbolism) & also a hug if she will let me just because shes been through so much & i hope that she gets better. also ERICA she is a POOKIE. i love her so much & i love how she is just so unapologetically herself all the time also she's funny as fuck & she knows it i just love her energy so i guess the answer to your question is that i love all of them & theres not a single character that ioh. i have one. that is arguably one of the "good guys" that i hate. i do not like kali. she parallels henry in a lot of different ways if you go back & watch season 2 like almost word for word & i don't like how she manipulated el into going & doing dangerous stuff with her, so yeah shes just not my cup of tea

I HOPE THEY GET PRESENTS FOR EACH OTHER because i think it says so much about a person & how they feel about you.

also i love your drawing so much & i would print it & put it in my room if that's okay but also im lazy & don't know where i would get it printed so sorry about that.

#asks #byler #byler tumblr

[neuxue]

A few days ago I finished my buddy read of the Riddle-master Trilogy, and I’m left unsure what to say. I finally got around to reading it, after your numerous recommendations in your wot liveblog and I guess I want to thank you(?). It felt like discovering a new favourite and I have the deepest gratitude towards your for making me know her words. Do you have any recommendations which book to follow up with?

Anon, you have made my day. Maybe my week. Possibly my month. I love being rewarded for pushing this trilogy on everyone at every opportunity because I think the people I know who have read it remain in the single digits and yet lines from it have haunted my waking hours since I read it well over a decade ago, so. I am delighted that you not only read it but loved it - you're very welcome for the rec, and also please talk to me about Riddlemaster any time.

As far as recommendations! My next favourite of McKillip's works is Alphabet of Thorn, which is a beautiful story about a girl, a library, an ancient powerful sorceror/king loyalty situation, and the concept of translation given vague sentience and less vague power. If you enjoyed her writing in Riddlemaster, give this one a try! I also have a particular soft spot for The Book of Atrix Wolfe for the way it plays with identity, agency, desperation and its consequences, and the particular grief of living with yourself. Or you could try any of her other works; you'll find she revisits certain themes that are found in Riddlemaster, and her prose is always lovely.

Outside of McKillip... I sort of struggle to recommend something as an 'if you liked Riddlemaster, try this next' because while I can think of stories that are similar to specific aspects of it, I don't think I've ever come across something that hits in precisely the same way.

Two that you've probably seen me talk about recently: if you liked music-as-power, watching a character become immensely powerful at the cost of something that was once an intrinsic part of their identity, and a love story that focuses on seeing and being seen for who you are, you could try 《魔道祖师》 / Mo Dao Zu Shi, usually referred to MDZS or The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation in its English translation (or its TV series adaptation 《陈情令》 / The Untamed). It's not the same vibe, but there are elements. Or, by the same author, 《天官赐福》 / TGCF / Heaven Official's Blessing, which has arguably fewer parallels but a slightly more similar vibe. Maybe. Still quite different but... hey, I liked both, and I feel like dissimilar as they are they sometimes hit some of the same things I want out of a reading experience.

Or, if part of what really did it for you with Riddlemaster was the exquisite agony of it all, and the infinitely fine line between love and betrayal, and the feeling of being held gently even as you were being stabbed in the heart, and you just want more of that no matter the genre or story it's in, you could take my hand and trust me and give something like Machineries of Empire, The Traitor Baru Cormorant (bonus points for lovely prose), possibly one of Robin Hobb's books, or maaaaybe even Doctrine of Labyrinths a try. Fair warning, all of those do feel darker (and Machineries of Empire in particular is weirder, though does have a fairly close Erlenstar parallel if you look for it), but for me they do hit some of those same deep-seated buttons in the id. Also for what it's worth, I know that Yoon Ha Lee (author of Machineries of Empire) has read and claimed to enjoy Riddlemaster; I think Seth Dickinson (author of The Traitor Baru Cormorant) might have as well, but I could be misremembering.

And if anyone else reading this has 'if you liked Riddlemaster, try ___' recs, please toss them anon's (and my!) way.

#I feel like I'm definitely forgetting some #the way I do anytime someone asks for recs and my mind goes immediately blank #but hopefully it's a start! #anyway thanks for this I really cannot describe how delighted I was to get this message! #asks #anon #recommendations #the riddle master trilogy

[thebindingofpillo]

I'm more and more curious about the four scrunklies, so here's my question: have Azazel and Apollyon been in a relationship with Mags and Judas in all their past lives, or at least tried to be? Or is this not always the case? Is this iterration a first for them?

THANK YOU for giving me an excuse to talk about my scrunklies, I have been vibrating with excitement since I’ve conceptualised this AU. This all started because my favorite dynamic in ships is character I like x other character I like. My favorite characters in the game are Magdalene, Judas, Azazel and Apollyon (he was also first tattoo lmao) so I just… mashed them together and hoped for the best. So if this ship seems incredibly random… it is. Sorry. Also I’m sappy as FUCK and love romance, so relationships between characters in general have always been important to me, I hope you’re ready for that.

ANYWAY for your question. Azazel has been at Judas and Magdalene’s side since their first life. Here’s Eden talking about it. After being cast out of hell (for reason I can’t spoil because his backstory is my favourite arc so far) and not wanting to go back to heaven, Azazel is now stuck on Earth forever. He could, technically go back to hell, but he despises basically every single demon down there so he’d rather steer clear of the place. As for heaven… he had a little bit of a falling out after the whole Watcher and Nephilim ordeal. We’ll get to that actually, that’s a pretty important part of his character. Anyway, Azazel has been kicking around for quite a while! And always manages to find his way back to his loved ones in every single life. I have another flashback planned for this life and how he met them (and Isaac basically being his wingman) but I have no idea where I could shove it in. I have too much stuff crammed inside my brain help ;-; also just a last nugget of information, Azazel has always been a poly-adjacent dude. Even in his Watcher days, he had a lot of spouses.

I still don’t know how exactly he manages to find them (maybe he could take advantage of Eden’s omniscience even if he hates them, or God is silently manipulating things a bit, or if he has ever failed at locating them sometimes, I’ll have to see) thing is, they’ve managed to be together since forever. Which is nice but also not, since he’s seen his loved ones die before him over and over (and taking note of Judas’s… tendency for self destruction, it’s even more tragic). He could leave them be (and oh BOY we’ll also get to that) but that would leave him completely alone. He loves them a lot. At least there’s the silver lining of finding them again once they get reborn… until they’ll get to heaven. But that won’t probably happen for a really long time.

As for Apollyon, this is his first time ever coming down on Earth! Due to his status of angel of destruction and harbinger of the final Revelation, he’s never really had anything to do in heaven. His purpose is still eons away from being fulfilled, and since he’s so Big and Important, even angels like Michael or Metatron tend to steer clear of him. Apollyon spent his days talking with God and idling away, waiting for the Apocalypse, until he grew bored enough to ask permission to go down on Earth to see what all the fuss was about. And so he did. At the time of the story he’s been on Earth for about… a year and a half? Two years? Only Judas, Maggy, Azazel and Isaac know of his existence (and maybe Eve too, since Maggy is her best friend. And maybe maybe Bethany but she’s only heard of him and never met him). At first Apollyon was incredibly awkward around them but eventually he figured out his feelings and eventually they got together. Azazel of course knew who he was, and was a bit wary of his presence, but he warmed up to him eventually. And now they’re a squad.

I’m honestly incredibly relieved that people don’t mind me cramming four people into a single thing lmao. Shipping is a sore subject for every single fandom (especially poly relationships apparently?) so I’ve consider myself very lucky people are okay with me doing my thing on my pile of trash. As I’ve said, relationships in general (platonic, romantic and whatnot) are very important to me, so they’ll probably play a major role in the comic itself. Also their ship name is hug of the void get it like maw of the void but it’s a hug get it get it /j

#hug of the void #reincarnation au (working title) #tboi reincarnation #ask tag #also sorry for putting like four links to very old stuff #but they’re important i swear