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spirk-trek · 2 days

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hii this is really random but i'm writting a paper on star trek fanfiction from the 60s/70s and i was wondering if there were any fics youd recommend? are there any like iconic, keystone fics that are really significant to the fandom? (i'm having a bit of trouble sourcing pre-internet fics)

Hi! I'll try to help the best I can but I am by no means an expert- in fact, many people who end up seeing this may have better/more information so I'll extend it to any of them to answer as well :)

Disclaimer: many of the following links contain nsfw content!!!

Here is page 1 and page 2 of what might be the first known k/s fanfic published in Grup fanzine (1974). Grup is credited as being the first Star Trek fanzine with adult content. This fic, A Fragment Out of Time by Diane Marchant was vague enough that it had to be clarified as k/s in a later edition, but the author did do so.

Spockanalia is always a good source for early fandom. It is the earliest and best preserved example of fanzine content (beginning in 1967 before the second season had even aired). I'd definitely say that makes it influential! So much more can be found on the internet archive and on fanlore. Copies of Spockanalia found their ways into the hands of many people involved in the show, including Roddenberry himself.

Gayle F is a prolific fanzine artist (one of my favorites) for k/s and is also influential to k/s writing. She was behind the Cosmic Fuck Series (yes really lol) which begins with Desert Heat (1976) in which Spock prematurely enters his second Pon Farr with only Jim available to him. This is the first mention (that I know of) of Spock's "double ridges" which are still a fanon element of his anatomy today (fanlore link here).

Alexis Fegan Black is another name to know, but is actually the pen name for author Della Van Hise. She did a lot of her work in the 80s and beyond, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but I think she's very influential. You may know about her licensed trek novel Killing Time (1982) because the first edition was recalled for being way too gay (changes between the two versions are best documented here imo).

Jenna Sinclair was very influential but again, a lot of her works came a little later than what you're looking for (note: ao3 does NOT have the correct dates, you'll need to find those separately).

A few more links to throw at you:

List of Star Trek Fanzines

List of Star Trek SLASH Fanzines

Captain's Log (1968)

The Crewman's Log (1967)

Spock's Showcase (1968)

Spock's Underground (1968-71)

The Sensuous Vulcan (slash zine, 1977)

Thrust (slash zine, 1978)

I hope all these links work and at least something I mentioned is helpful for you!! Good luck! I'd love to hear about your research if you're so inclined to share :)

#seriously followers feel free to help me out here i only scratched the surface #reference #research #star trek #early fandom #fandom history #k/s #the premise #spirk #star trek tos #star trek the original series #gayle f #della van hise #1960s #1970s #fanfiction #fiction #writing

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aquagirl1978 · 3 days

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I wanted to do something different for my follower celebration, and with the encouragement from some friends (you know who you are), I landed on this. I know Gift Exchanges are not a new or unique thing - they've had them for every game and even ones just for OCs - but there hasn't been one just for Villains. Yet.

What is a Gift Exchange? Those participating in this event agree to create a piece of fanwork (their choice of either fanfiction or fanart) and in exchange, they will receive fanwork (their choice of either fanfiction or fanart).

If you are interested in participating, please read this entire post and then fill out the Google form at the bottom. If you have any questions about this event or this form, please send me a DM or ask.

General Overview and Important Dates

Sign-ups for the event will take place until June 15. If you are interested in participating, please complete the Google form at the bottom of this post.

You will be notified via Tumblr or Discord by July 1 about the details of your assignment.

You will have from July 1 to August 15 to create your gift.

I will be conducting progress check-ins with each participant sometime around the mid-point of the event as well as closer towards the end. If you are unreachable by the mid-point check-in, you risk being removed from the event.

All gifts MUST be posted on August 15. If you have an issue meeting this deadline, please contact me immediately.

A masterlist of all gifts will be compiled and posted sometime after the event has closed.

Please note that because of the nature of this game, this event is open only to creators 18 years or older.

Rules for Posting Your Gift

Gifts MUST be posted on August 15- posting can begin at 12 Midnight GMT (I will make a post when you may start posting as we have creators all over the world). If you will be away that day, Tumblr has a schedule setting so you can create your post and schedule it for that day.

Fanfiction must be a minimum of 750 words. Fanart must be colored.

Tag your giftee and @aquagirl1978 in your post and include "#ikevil gift exchange" in the tags.

There are no requirements regarding banners - you may use one you made, the one posted in this post or don't use one at all.

Can I request my gift be with my OC? Yes! I encourage you to request your gifts to include your OCs, if you have one. There is space on the form for you to describe your OC and even include a link to any posts you wish to share about them to help better assist your creator in making your gift.

What if I'm not comfortable writing for someone's OC? That's understandable - it's not always easy to write for another's OC. There is a section on the form that you can check off that says you'd prefer not to write for OCs and I will try my best to honor everyone's requests.

I want to participate, but I am worried about being paired with certain people. From my experience hosting and participating in exchanges, the best way to avoid any conflicts such as this is to be open about this on the initial form. I don't want to pair anyone with someone they are uncomfortable with for any reason. Maybe someone has you blocked or you have someone blocked. Maybe you don't like someone's writing or artwork and would not wish to receive a gift from them. It doesn't matter the reason. There is a question on the form - anyone's names you enter in there, you will not be paired with. The only one seeing these forms is me. If anything happens once the event has started and you received your giftee information, simply DM me and we can work something out.

Everything sounds great, how can I participate? Simply complete this Google form by June 15 and you will be added to the event.

As always, my ask box and DMs are open to any and all questions.

Happy creating!

#ikevil gift exchange #ikemen series #ikemen villains #ikevil #gift exchange #ikevil fanfic #ikevil fanart #ikemen fanart #otome #otome games #otome fanfic #otome fanart

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queer-ragnelle · 2 days

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Hi! I was wondering if you had any advice on how to craft a well-written, compelling Arthurian OC that isn't obnoxious or out of place but is still unique. I recognize the difficulty in doing so with so many different source texts (I'm most familiar with Le Morte, so that's usually my go-to) and the vast list of already existing characters. I'm just curious about your thoughts on the matter, since you're an author and also very knowledgeable about Arthuriana 💖

Hello there!

This is a tough question to answer! I think it's important to note that everyone will have a different opinion on this, but that shouldn't alter you writing your story how you want to. Some think adding any characters at all is too big of a change, while others write a full cast of original characters and then Merlin shows up randomly and makes the story "Arthurian."

I'm going to say something controversial.

Every Arthurian character is an OC.

Even King Arthur himself is an OC.

I'm going to elaborate on this quite a bit, as it's very important to me. But the TL;DR is that reading more will definitely help you conceptualize the boundaries of what's possible. Le Morte d'Arthur is a great start, but there's so much out there, both medieval and modern, that'll undoubtedly aid in your Arthuriana writing journey! :^)

While I do say things like "I love Arthurian OCs" as a means to convey that I view everyone's new creations as valid and interesting, I actually don't believe in a strong differentiation between Chretien de Troyes' Sir Lancelot or Marie of France's Sir Lanval and what you or I are writing today. We're participating in a tradition which can, at times, necessitate the creation of a new character or repurposing of an existing one. I think as soon as you create a character for your Arthurian story, they're an Arthurian character. Some refer to Lancelot or Galahad as "French OCs" or call Knight of the Cart or the Vulgate "fanfiction" as a means to degrade it's validity. Some seem to have an arbitrary timeline on which the full body of Arthurian works is measured, and the more recently something was written, the less authentic it becomes. I think they're wrong. I believe that whether or not we enjoy an installment in the ever expanding Arthurian tradition is irrelevant; it's all equally entitled to a measure of respect, even the new characters. No character or story is lesser than another by virtue of its age or language of origin or target audience or medium. I disdain the excess of scrutiny put upon certain arbitrary groupings of Arthurian tradition. Each story is full of original characters and building on the foundations of what came before. That's the nature of creative influence. Whether or not Arthur was a real person at some point in history is moot. The guy in the Mabinogion or the Vulgate or Le Morte d'Arthur or BBC Merlin is a character. He's a tool to tell a story. Such as your creation will be! Your brand new Arthurian character stands equally with all the rest who preceded them. :^)

Now, it can be helpful to distinguish between a medieval character and a modern one, sure, as they may represent different things depending on what point in history (or part of the world) they were created in. But Arthuriana isn't a franchise one must obtain express permission to contribute to, and it doesn't have a "canon," so therefore differentiating a character as "other" can be counter productive when developing a story. I don't believe Sir Robin from Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975) or Brian from The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-1957) are any less valuable as characters, even if they do draw on traits of existing Arthurian motifs in order to commentate on them or otherwise expand. In fact I think they're great characters and serve their narrative roles beautifully. One simple and one complex. I recommend watching those to see how it's done well and that may help you develop your own characters. But I'll delve into it a bit here to illustrate what I mean.

Sir Robin carries the coat of arms of a chicken, he's a cowardly knight followed around by a troupe of musicians that sing songs about all of his exploits. That is, the things he's run away from. Rather than use an existing Arthurian character and degrading them, Monty Python developed Sir Robin in order to tell their joke.

The flipside is Brian, a bona fide kitchen boy, who attaches himself to Sir Lancelot and desires to squire for him. Brian's narrative purpose is to deconstruct the nobility in a way that Gareth Beaumains, whom Brian is plainly inspired by, could not. Brian begins as a true serf forced to endear himself to Sir Lancelot to elevate his station. Merlin forges papers of nobility to convince King Arthur that Brian is worthy of this privilege. Even after that, Brian must face the brutality of his fellows while living in the barracks with them, as they don't take kindly to a "smelly kitchen boy" in their midst, plotting to get Brian to incriminate himself as a thief and get evicted from Camelot by Sir Kay. This role is incongruous with Gareth as Sir Gawain's brother, who was always noble, always a prince, and merely cloaked himself in the guise of poverty to prove a point. Gareth could return to the comforts of wealth whenever it suited him and his reason for going stealth was to intentionally distance himself from that privilege. The character Brian exists in order to commentate on the injustice of the upper class's oppression and dehumanization of the lower class in a way Gareth, or even Tor, could not, as they are of noble blood, even if it came by way of reveal. That's why Brian is a great addition to the Arthurian tradition.

Really, it comes down to treating the creation of your new Arthurian character like you would developing one for any other work, one entirely separate from the tradition. If they're a good character, they're a good character! Try not to get hung up too much on whether or not they're going to mesh well with the rest of the cast. For centuries, writers have transformed historical figures into Arthurian characters. (See: King Mark of Kernow better known as the Cuckhold King from the Prose Tristan, Owain mab Urien better known as Sir Yvain from Knight of the Lion by Chretien de Troyes, Saint Derfel better known as Derfel Gadarn from The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell, etc.)

Speaking of Prose Tristan, would anyone consider Sir Dinadan an OC? Or Sir Palomides? They're characters added to a story drawing from a much, much older tradition, and I think they enrich the story. I feel likewise about the many Perceval Continuations, including the German Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which adds a half brother named Sir Feirefiz, or names Chretien's anonymous haughty maiden Orgeluse. What about Sir Aglovale's son Moriaen in the Dutch tradition? Amurfina in German Diu Krone by Heinrich von dem Türlin? Morgan le Fay's daughter Puzella Gaia in Italian La Tavola Ritonda? Not to mention the countless Middle English additions. The Green Knight and his wife? Dame Ragnelle and Sir Gromer? Or how about everyone's favorite Savage Damsel, Lynette of Castle Perilous? Is she not a late-era addition to the tradition courtesy of the man, the myth, the legend, Sir Thomas Malory himself? And then here comes Tennyson, who read Le Morte d'Arthur, and got to the end of dear Gareth Beaumains' story and had the same reaction we all did: "What the hell? He marries her sister?" And then he went about changing that in Idylls of the King. Speaking of Lynette, what's up with her niece Laurel? She's just a name on a page, the vast majority of retellings choose to ignore her, even if they do keep Lynette and Lyonesse. Laurel can scarcely be called a character, after all. She doesn't even have dialogue. So as I've gone out of my way to make her a prominent, fully developed character, with her own culture and back story and motivations, does that make her an OC of mine? And Henry Newbolt who included Laurel in his play Mordred: A Tragedy. And Sarah Zettel, who wrote from Laurel's point of view in Camelot's Blood. We did all the work, but we threw an Arthurian name on the character, so therefore, she isn't ours? But if we changed her name, she would be? Who gets to decide?

All of the Arthurian characters belong to all of us. That's the beauty of writing in a long-standing tradition, which exists apart from all other forms of writing. We have complete creative liberty to do what we want and refer to it how we want and no person or corporation or anyone can dictate otherwise. The intellectual property of Arthuriana belongs to the people. So invent a brand new wife for Gawain, and well, you're only the millionth author to do it! Just make sure she's an interesting character and that's literally the only requirement. Can't wait to meet her. (And all others you create!)

Have a great day!

#arthurian legend #arthurian legends #arthuriana #arthurian mythology #arthurian literature #writing #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writeblr #ask #merilles

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writingquestionsanswered · 12 hours

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I am in a pickle with writing. I do fanfiction and put out a few duds, aware they weren't exactly my best work so not severely disappointed when they failed to perform. Then I spent months on a longer more involved work that I thought was better. It also failed to perform. This time my confidence was shattered. I took time off writing to recover but now I just don't know how to get back at it. My ideas feel either stale or too big and typing is like pulling teeth.

Confidence Shattered by Under Performing Stories

I'm not sure whether these three duds stories and one more involved story are your entire body of work, or whether you mean that you're a seasoned fan-fiction writer with lots of stories and positive feedback, but you also have a few duds and this more involved work that also under performed.

It matters, because if you're a more seasoned fan-fiction writer with a large body of work behind you, and you're saying those three duds didn't bother you but this more involved work does, I'd say not to be discouraged because more involved works are a whole different beast, and your first one isn't going to be your best one. But keep at it, because your next involved work will be even better.

If, on the other hand, the few duds and the more involved work are your whole body of work, you haven't done enough yet to lose hope. Writing is a craft, after all, and you can't write a few stories (no matter how involved) and hope to be doing work that's good enough to do really well. (And, the caveat here is that yes... some people can write one story and it's their best work, but most of us don't have that natural talent.) So, here again I'd say don't be discouraged, because honing any craft takes time and practice. You may even want to find a critique partner or utilize beta readers so you can get some feedback and know where you need to improve.

As for the confidence and motivation, those will come back. Your confidence will rebuild as you realize you were holding yourself to unreasonably high expectations, and as you're able to credit yourself with the time and effort you've put in and the growth you've already done. The motivation will build as your confidence heals, too.

Some things that might help: write for yourself for a little while. Do some story prompts and write some fan-fiction or short stories. See if you can find some beta readers or a critique partner who is familiar with the source material and see if they'd be willing to read your stories and offer feedback about what works and what doesn't. You might also try reading the feedback/reviews of others' stories to see if you can see parallels with your writing, and maybe get an idea of where you could improve things.

Also, have a look at my Motivation master list, as it has some posts that deal with self-doubt, building confidence, and rekindling motivation. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

#wqaadvice

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silverfoxizzy · 11 months

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Quick question if Hosonaga were in a fantasy isekai anime what type of beastkin would he be

#asking for... a friend #who may or may not be working on a fanfiction #hosonaga's role is pretty minor but i aaked anyway #dgs #tgaa #the great ace attorney #dai gyakuten saiban #satoru hosonaga

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scorpi14 · 2 months

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The more I think about it, the more I realize the thai bl industry is just using fanfic logic.

Oh, you ship these 2? Love their dynamic and chemistry?

Here's a royalty au

In this one, they're both students. Academic rivals, best friends, jock x nerd, we got it all for you

How about black cat x golden retriever?

Everybody loves a childhood friends to lovers plot

Now we'll do an office au. Boss x employee or enemies to lovers take your pick

Like. It's literally fanfic logic for our favorite canon couples, and honestly I kinda respect them for that

#as much as i think it can be limiting and unfair to the actors who may want a change up i also get it?#like yes i want to see my favorite actors play different characters across each other over and over again #because i love fanfiction #and i love them and how they work together #fortpeat #zeenunew #netjames #rip #thai bl

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pendragonsclotpole · 3 months

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sometimes i think i’ve found all the best fic rec lists and collections on ao3 and then i find a fic in a fandom i never read (most recently a sheldon/penny from tbbt) which is part of a collection (usually with some sort of generic name like ‘fics that keep me up at night’ or ‘fics to be loved and reread’) and they have hundreds of works listed in my usual fandoms which i have never read and i realize

i know nothing

i have read nothing

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superconductivebean · 9 months

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#674: why's wright dutch

another wright post, it is 1:55am my time and im vibin', so

My girl is dutch/faroese because I cant spell English marine terminology, all Russian words for this came from Dutch during 16, 17 and 18th centuries (and apparently, dutch natives' grammar oopsies sometimes are very similar to those of russian natives); faroese, because when I was presented the life rpg choice for paganism, I chose norse over celtic and am fascinated by the Faroe islands since idk. Not to mention faroese legends include bits about frisian settlers!

tagging @gufu-vire @thriftstorebabayaga and @boxdstars

#днявочка #днявочка: hlegacy #днявочка: фандомное #eng tag #damn wright #working on wright's character is a deep research trench ngl this woman doesn't exist BUT SHE RAVENCLAWS ME #i could make my life far far easier but noooooo i chose to be a research cravenclaw will i ever stop reading stuff #at this point i can speak a little dutch and sing along eivor #“how come you know so many languages and things?”#“may i indulge you for a moment and talk about aesop sharp fanfiction. a LIFE CHANGING experience truly.”#although at this point idk anymore who impressed more knowledge and all on my brains him or her

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idontevenuse-thissite · 6 months

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"Killing curse green eyes" is a description that should be reserved for a Harry that is an alarmingly few amount of steps away from using said curse.

#So I may have gotten dragged down into #Harry potter #fanfiction #It just kind of happened... I mean I know exactly how #Usually I would do some kind of media analysis but I haven't actually consumed the source material #Still kinda working on the my student spirit one but it's been thrown into the pile a bit.#I may talk about my preferences in harry potter fanfic though. What I find interesting and such #That would in a sense be more general tropes I think. Not necessarily Harry Potter.#I would say though. Would love to read some of the scenes of fake Moody teaching illegal magic to kids.#Like imagine a terrorist who silently escaped prison became a chemistry teacher and showed the kids how to build bombs #and somehow was like the next best chemistry teacher they've had as the position keep getting replaced every year #That's the best analogy I can come up with. I just think it's hilarious and I would've liked to see more of it.#I imagine he would so try to teach the seven year Slytherins all three unforgivables if I got the chance to #And if he could get away with it he would so put the kids under the crutio for a bit as well #saying something along the lines of “They have to know what it feels like for real. Know how debilitating it really is.”#I don't think he'd get away with it. But he would probably try to see he could. test the waters with the staff a bit #I guess that's all about the canon though #I found a wonderful youtube video talking about Draco that I really liked as well. Popular fandom reception of him is...#He's kind of a spoiled ignorant bigot. People tend to forget that because #he regretted his empty words when the weight of them and reality backslapped him across the face.

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ichigofixthisshit · 2 months

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I don't quite remember which writer it was that said they write someting and then proceed to put it away in a drawer for a year , read it once and then rewrite the entire thing based soley on what they can remember.

Well. Im not gonna lie that method has proven to be more effective than we anticipated it being as unintentional as ut was to put it on pause for so long.

Still, id like to use this to let anyone intrested know - we are back. We are writing.

#fanfiction #bleach #crossover fic #ichigo fix this shit #ao3 #why is writing so hard #we're back baby #well more or less as much as our current work schedule and university allows us to be #i may or may not be writing this as i am from my way home from work but i do have a week off next week so we hope for the best #taika waititi #it was taika waititi who said that

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pinkestmenace · 4 months

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I was looking for a list of Jambandran words in Dutch, but it looks like it's nowhere to be found. Now, it just so happens I recently (finally) bought Star Allies.

Guess I'll compile it myself then! ଘ( ✧⁠ᴗ✧⁠)φ__

#jambandran #jamba language #somebody has to do it #it's honest work #translation #vertaling #I may be the only one who cares about creating resources for Dutch Kirby fanfiction #but that won't stop me

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waugh-bao · 5 months

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Because you don’t have enough fics going on, I’m going to request another one. I saw Charlie’s quote: “Mick's not good on his own problems, but he's very good at other people's. He's been wonderful over the years. I don't mean I ring him up every week and say 'the tap doesn't work', but he's fantastic."

I’d like to request a fic where Charlie does call up Mick because the tap doesn’t work. I think the idea of Charlie turning to Mick for plumbing help is very funny and cute.

#you’re totally free to ask for fics whenever you like!#it just may take me a while to get to them #because PhD programs are perpetual hell #i hope this is okay!#the rolling stones #charlie watts #mick jagger #dave green #shirley watts #old married band #fanfic #fanfiction #my stuff #(also. for the person who requested the Mick/Charlie story this summer. I promise I’m still working on it. normally I can get fics done in #one draft. but that one has been fighting me/re-written like 6 times. less b/c I don’t like the idea than b/c I like it so much I want #it to live up to the prompt)

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quietwingsinthesky · 1 year

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Gabriel and Loki? Gabriel new to the world, just having left Heaven.

For you. and only for you. I will ignore the fact that I do not like the retcon that made loki a separate character and not just Gabriel’s trickster alias. Let’s do this.

|| AO3 || DW || FFNet || PF || SW || WC: 94

He takes you under his wing, (ha!) and he’s got a wealth of knowledge to slip into your hands when you’re least expecting it. He’s a trickster god, and he deals in lessons even when he’s trying his best to be straightforward for you, thinking an angel might not pick up his ways so quickly. (There’s a dozen gods who might have fostered you this way, but you chose him, yes, and you pretend you don’t know why, like the sharp way he smiles and his conspiratorial voice don’t remind you of anyone else.)

(Enjoyed it? Any interaction is welcomed. You can even support me on Ko-Fi <3)

#fic: spn #ask #fic: gabriel spn #fic: loki spn #he may have a tag. ONCE.#again with the second person POV! why Gabriel!!!#I mean he is my special little guy. my meow meow. but why. I don’t know how my writing brain works.#it just gives me the words. I am only the one who types them #fanfiction #prompt fic #fic: genfic #fic: second person #fic: gabriel & loki #fic: pre-canon #fic: g #fic: <100

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only-in-december · 10 months

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Y'know, being in my brain 24/7 is a wild experience. Especially when it comes to fandom related stuff. Because like. On the one hand, I'm rewriting/editing all my Danny Phantom fics so I can reupload them, but better. On the other, I'm still working on my SG1 AU. But also, I want to keep writing the three different Star Trek fics that I have going right now. Plus, I'm reading LOTR and just really want to read that. And I also am starting to get back into Doctor Who again??? Because y'know. THe rest of that wasn't quite enough for me. I'm going to drive myself insane with all of this. I might as well fall back into the Les Mis fandom too! (I won't though. Don't worry.)

#stargate sg1 #danny phantom #star trek #lotr #someone please help me #i need all the fics that live in my head to just be written #so that i can read them #and not have to worry about disappointing readers by accidentally disappearing for months at a time #doctor who #les miserables #i forgot to mention the amount of 'bones' fanfiction i've been reading lately #i may cry #(but not really please don't worry about me)#also i feel like i should explain that it's mainly a wild experience because i jump around between all of these things at once #like #i sit down and start typing up one fic #then almost immediatly i have to jump over because i need to work on a different fic #but oh wait #that other one needs work #but no i should really start on that one that i've been thinking about for a while now #and there's that other thing i was gonna work on too #but i digress #sorry for rambling in the tags #i just needed to get this out of my system #i'm good now

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aenramsden · 2 years

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So my friend made me watch Jennifer’s Body on Friday. I immediately went looking for a particular type of fic I wanted to see; post-canon Needy seen from the outside by someone not in the know (because I am a slut for external PoVs). I failed to find any such fics on AO3.

It is now Sunday afternoon. This happened somewhere in the intervening time in two or three mad bursts of inspiration.

Enjoy, y’all.

If you meet the devil on the road (beware she doesn’t kill you)

(A truck driver on a Nebraskan highway meets a hitchhiker going his way.)

Joey had picked her up from the side of the I-80 at ten to seven; a lone girl walking alongside the double-barrelled stretch of asphalt and concrete as it cut through featureless fields and curved around low hills crowned with trees. It was almost eight now, and he was regretting his decision to pull over. He’d stopped because she’d looked hot - yeah, fine, he admitted it; he’d been thinking with his dick. But any thought of scoring had been left behind forty miles ago. Something about her made his skin crawl.

It wasn’t anything concrete. Nothing he could point to. Outwardly, she was just a girl; pretty and alone and probably barely legal. Blonde hair hung loose around her shoulders, a hairclip held her bangs back from one side of her face. The other half - the half on his side - fell down past her eye, hiding her expression from him when he glanced over. Her clothes were creased and worn; grubby jeans and a tank top that didn’t quite cover her belly, a dirty grey hoodie tied around her waist and battered sneakers spotted with mud and stains put up on the dash. A pendant hid in her cleavage, the chain tarnished, the pendant on the end impossible to see without craning his neck to look down her shirt in a way she couldn’t miss.

Joey might have let his eyes wander anyway, when he’d let her into the cab. Now, the back of his neck prickled at the thought of trying.

“So, uh, where you headed?” he asked. “West, you said?”

“Mmm.” Not a talkative one, this chick. He’d gone through half a dozen pick-up lines before the creep factor had started to settle in, and twice as many icebreakers since. None of them had managed to get her to glance away from the window, where trees whipped past under the last anaemic rays of twilight. His headlights lit the road in front of them in stark white, but shadows shifted in the gathering dark beyond their reach. Joey kept his attention on the road. He’d had more than one deer jump out and get splattered across the highway by his truck on this route, and roadkill always made his stomach turn.

“You, uh, you lose your last ride or somethin’?” he tried. She’d been forty miles out of Omaha City when he’d seen her, just walking along the side of the drainage ditch beside the freeway with her hands in her pockets as night started to fall. Fucking creepy, looking back. In hindsight, that should have been a warning sign. “You were pretty far outta town when I picked you up.”

Hazel eyes flicked over to him behind lank blonde hair. Her mouth twitched in what was either a smile or a sneer.

“Last guy got gropey,” she said shortly. “I ditched him.”

The suffocating silence descended again, and Joey fumbled with the radio to get away from it. It crackled to life, and the dying chords of some unrecognisable generic pop song faded away to an announcer.

“And now we’ve got a tribute to a band of legends taken from us before their time,” the guy said, his voice crackling with static. “A group of young heroes whose gruesome murder is still unsolved one month on, with the suspect still at large. Low Shoulder, this one’s for you; god rest your souls. Here’s Through The Trees.”

Before it even finished the opening bar, the girl snarled and smashed a fist into the radio, killing the music and leaving a jagged crack through the plastic display. A drop of blood swelled on her knuckle, and she sucked it off absently, tongue flicking out.

“Hey!” Joey barked, forgetting his discomfort in the heat of the damage to his truck. “What the fuck, bitch?”

She turned to glare at him, and her eyes caught the headlights of an approaching car coming the other way. For a second, they looked [i]yellow[/i] of all the fuckin’ things, and the shadows stretched over her cheeks to paint a yawning maw. He swore and jerked away from her, yanking on the steering wheel as he flinched. The truck swerved, for a moment scraping along the guardrail with an ear-splitting shriek-

He yanked the wheel back the other way, terror screaming at him, and braked down to twenty. Heart hammering in his ears, he gripped the wheel with white knuckles and waited for his breathing to settle, throwing wary glances at the passenger sitting placidly beside him.

She hadn’t even raised an eyebrow at the near-crash. Just settled back down into a slouch with her feet up on the dash and her attention turned outward to the woods beyond the window.

“I fucking hate that song,” she said, her tone level and venomous. “And they were creeps. Good riddance.”

“Whoa, hey, they got murdered, y’know! What’ve you got against Low Shoulder, anyway?” The words came out before he could catch himself and earned him a contemptuous sneer. Then her eyes went distant. The corner of her mouth twitched upward. A smile like a lizard’s. Or a rattlesnake’s.

“Let’s just say I’ve got a chip on my shoulder when it comes to those assholes,” she said. Her lopsided smirk was twisted and stretched a little too far for comfort, a clingfilm wrap of humour over something dark and fucked-up and ugly that echoed in her tone.

Joey swallowed, at a loss for what to do. He’d been seeing things; had to have been. Just headlights and shadows. It hadn’t been real. But still, all the anger was gone, and any desire to get in her face had gone with it. He just wanted her out of his cab now. He wanted her gone - hell, he wanted to be gone himself, because he could already tell she was going to linger here like a bad smell. It felt like there was a stench to her that would cling.

It hadn’t been there when he’d stopped to pick her up. He’d been tired and missing his girlfriend and she’d looked hot and smelled like perfume and sex when she swung herself into the passenger seat beside him. But at some point she’d stopped paying attention to him and the glamour had worn off. The unease had started building. And with it had come the stench, wafting into his hindbrain without bothering to go through his nostrils on the way.

It took him back in time to when he was fourteen years old, tagging along on a hunting trip with his dad and uncle. To when they’d found a deer carcass that some wild boar or cougar had killed, half eaten by predators and scavengers and even other deer, its ribs standing out from the gory viscera inside it. It’d been the first time he’d seen death like that, and he’d thrown up at the smell.

This girl made him think of that deer. His nose couldn’t smell it, but his brain could. The reek of blood and rotting flesh.

“Where you gettin’ off, anyway?” he ventured, taking one shaky hand off the wheel to fumble around in the door pocket for the ginger sweets. Maybe they’d help with the rising anxious nausea. He wasn’t motion sick, but wanting to hurl was wanting to hurl, right?

The girl didn’t look away from the dark window and the trees flashing past. “You can drop me off at Paxton,” she said, level and bored. As if she hadn’t smashed up his radio in a fit of rage ten seconds ago.

“Paxton?” Joey’s brow wrinkled, incredulous. “Paxton’s a fuckin’ nowhere-town! It’s barely on the map!” Hell, he only knew it because he stopped there for coffee sometimes on his route up and down the I-80. Then again, did he care, if it meant she was getting off?

For some reason, his outburst seemed to amuse the girl. She snorted, rolling her head to look at him through her lashes.

“Yeah,” she drawled. “Not the first shitty little town in the middle of nowhere I’ve been to. Won’t be the last, either. I’ve got... friends there.”

“Friends, huh?” Joey didn’t buy it, but like hell he was gonna call her on it. “Cool, cool.”

Her grin was a bone-white flash in the evening gloom. “From online. They’re into some niche stuff you can only find in a few places. I like to meet people in the community and chat.”

Some ancient, primal instinct, long-buried at the back of Joey’s mind since he’d grown out of childhood nightmares, curled up in his hindbrain and screamed at the way she said that last word.

“Yeah. Yeah, cool. Good to know.” He did the math in his head. Fuck. Another two or three hours in the cab with her. His foot pressed down further on the gas. It was worth the risk of a ticket if it’d get him to Paxton sooner. “Hey, uh, you choose the music then, how ‘bout that?”

“Don’t feel like it,” she drawled, flexing her hand. He couldn’t see any more blood from where she’d punched the radio. Must’ve been a shallow cut. “I prefer the silence.”

“I, uh. I’d prefer to have something on,” he tried desperately.

“Ain’t that a kicker.” No sympathy whatsoever. He might as well have been a drowning rat for all she cared.

The miles rolled past. The hours wore on. She didn’t speak, and Joey kept his mouth shut. The stench of dead things thickened, and her breathing rasped in his ears, but he didn’t take his eyes off the road. Two more hours, he told himself. Ninety minutes. Another sixty miles. Half an hour to go. The time felt like it dragged past and flew at once. Things swam in the corners of his vision, out beyond the light of his headlamps. A long-haired guy with star necklace and a guitar neck embedded in his throat, staring blankly from beside a roadsign, gone when he double-took. A manscaped asshole with a bowie knife hilt-deep in his chest, glimpsed for a second in the wing mirror before the shadows swallowed him. A pale boy in a waterlogged tux, his neck a ruined mess, seen through the trees staring earnestly at Miss Creep.

And a girl. She showed up more than once, the girl. Blazing hot. Black hair, gorgeous face, fantastic body. And blood. So much blood. She was drenched in it; her hair, her shirt, her shorts. And most of all, in the middle of her chest, a great sodden stain so dark it was black under the streetlights. She was sitting on top of a truck that passed him going the other way, she was flagging down a hitchhiker on the other side of the road, she was lying posed on the guardrail like a camgirl, playing with her lip. Never in the light. Never where he could see her. Always just a quick flash in the corner of his eye, appearing as the line between his high beams and the shadows off to his side swept by.

By the time the sign for Paxton glared bright white light back at him from the high-vis paint, Joey was a quivering mass of nerves and his teeth ached from how he’d been grinding them. He wanted nothing more than to get out of the stinking cab, find someplace brightly-lit and loud and preferably full of booze and park himself there until sunrise. Except that would involve staying in the same town as Spooky, and no fucking way was he doing that. No, on second thought he’d put as many miles as he could between them and maybe stop in at a church to pray to Jesus or something. But right after that, first big city he went through, the brightly-lit bar was happening.

“H-here’s your stop,” he forced out through a jaw that had almost locked up stiff from how hard he’d been clenching it. “Good, uh. Good luck with your friends.”

She looked at him with that same lizard-like, stretched-out smile.

“I’m looking forward to seeing them, yeah.” Again, that trick of the light that made hazel eyes look yellow. “Who knows?” she added playfully. “They might get lucky too.”

He watched her walk off with a sigh of relief and felt like a pussy for it as he drove away. By the time he changed onto the I-76, he was second-guessing himself. What had she really done, anyway? Been quiet, not as talkative as he’d been expecting? Glared at him a couple times? Shown a flash of temper and split her knuckle on the radio at a song she didn’t like? He’d psyched himself out, that was all. The hallucinations and shit, just a result of a bad kebab, not enough sleep and some jumping at shadows. She’d just been a girl. Just an ordinary girl.

A week later, he heard the news out of Paxton. Six dead. Members of an occult club at the local high school. Brutalised and torn apart, their remains left strewn all over a riverbank in the woods. Last seen on footage from a camera trap, hustling a teenage girl through the trees down near the South Platte river where they’d been found.

Joey looked at the girl in the photo and recognised her face.

Just an ordinary girl.

He wondered how many dead would be following her next time someone stopped to give her a ride.

#jennifer's body #if you meet the devil on the road (beware she doesn't kill you)#horror #post-canon #fanfiction #be careful who you pick up from the side of the road #some of them might be a li'l demonic #needy's just fine don't worry #she may or may not have worked out how to use succubus glamour #at least until she stops bothering to maintain it #those demon vibes are getting a bit intense though #that's just kinda what happens when you keep murdering satan cultists who download murder rituals from the internet #my writing #fandom

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