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thegeminisage · 2 years

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hey! i checked your writing masterpost and didn't see anything about this, so i thought i'd ask-a friend of mine and i are interested in writing a fic together, but both of us have previously only wrote stuff by ourselves. do you have any tips on writing collaborative work?

HIIII this is such a good question wow <3 i hope u don’t mind if i just throw out a bullet-point list as stuff comes to me instead of putting it in a more organized order!! obviously everyone is different especially wrt creative stuff so take it with a grain of salt but cowriting @cambionverse 11 yrs (holy shit) with my beloved @callowyn leads me to give u the following advice:

USE GOOGLE DOCS. like yeah fuck google or whatever always keep personal backups yadda yadda but i cannot stress enough how helpful it is to literally be able to see each other cursor’s in real time when you’re speaking about a particular section. it’s also fun to watch each other work, sometimes lovingly, sometimes lovingly but also with loving antagonism. there have been times when i’ve written faster bc i knew cally was watching and if i stopped typing she’d get bored or type dick emojis into the paragraph or something because she is <3 a menace

write down everything. the older and busier you get the truer this is. i can’t tell you how many times cally and i have decided on a plan of action only to forget it by next week’s writing meetup, and then be RELIEVED to discover a set of notes (or baffled when it turns out the notes were too vague to be useful). google helps with this bc you can leave notes all over the place. make as many notes as you can. no much thing as too many. make outlines. make an entirely new doc to take notes on what you talked about. save chat logs, if you’re not using something that saves them automatically. you will thank yourselves later.

the triangle my beloved. if you’ve been through the writing masterpost you may have seen this bad boy. i did not invent this, but i do live by it! idk it seems like really great advice. the nice thing about cowriting is that sometimes you can shore each other up on the “knowledge” point (knowing what you’re doing) because you can brainstorm together, but your projects can stall if you’re not matching each other in “enthusiasm” (commonly misinterpreted as “inspiration,” blegh, don’t get me started) and “time” (time to work separately AND TOGETHER, which busy adults sadly do not often have ASK HOW I KNOW or maybe don’t actually it’s so tragic that we’re always so busy). (”time” can sometimes also mean “spoons” or “energy” for people who are mentally ill or work demanding jobs.) some people write better solo and trading things back and forth some people write better when they hang out in the doc together so they can’t goof off but if one of you doesn’t want to work on it because they aren’t excited or can’t work on it due to time constraints the other one of you can’t pick up all the slack by themself. like with any collaboration you will sometimes need to be very patient with each other and very honest with each other (in a nice way!) so nobody is stringing anybody else along. if you can’t or don’t feel like doing something, just say so, and be nice about it when your friend can’t or doesn’t feel like doing something either. remember, you’re friends before you’re cowriters.

decide on who gets what workload. cally and i are very lucky to have complementing skillsets - i’m pretty good at laying down a first draft quickly, but i absolutely despise editing. she’s slower on the first draft, but she edits wonderfully and likes doing it much better. everyone will be different. sometimes she drafts scenes i’m not really excited about and i edit scenes she’s tired of looking at. maybe you’re better at porn but your friend is better at angst. maybe you’re good at dialogue but your friend likes to write action scenes. it’s good at have a rough plan going in, but don’t feel weird or bad about altering it as you see fit. especially if there’s like, only stuff left that one of you is “supposed” to do - the other can jump in and help finish up. on that note...

keep a checklist? this sounds weird but it’s been very helpful for cally and i when we unfortunately go a long time between writing sessions. at the top of the doc is just a little bullet pointed list like this one full of things like “fix the plothole in this particular scene” or “take a character out of that scene” or “rewrite this part” or “make that part sexier” or whatever. it helps keep track of where you are and what you’re doing because it can get chaotic with even just two people in the doc.

WRITE IN ORDER (or something). speaking of chaos!! so, a fun story that will haunt me until the end of my days is how in envesseled there’s this guy aaron birch who we introduced in i think the second chapter. but because we wrote some of the scenes before we actually GOT to the second chapter and because both of us were doing things separately, we wrote every time he came up in the narrative like it was the first one. “aaron birch, who claire and ben had met in the grand canyon on an angel hunt” was an explanation that showed up not once, not twice, but SIX TIMES. ironing out those mentions to make them consistent was a nightmare, because we had to read through like 50k to find them all, highlight them, and then edit the scenes around them to make sure what we got was the mostly-final product. i know not everybody CAN write in order, not everybody likes to, but when you’re cowriting, ESPECIALLY for longer fics, you need to do SOMETHING to check for consistency and make sure you don’t have two totally separate ideas about where the exposition’s supposed to go, even if it’s just a chronological readthru now & then. the sooner you catch errors such at plotholes and exposition snafus the less horrific they will be to fix.

decide on a process. so, this is my process, which you don’t need to read, but in general it goes brainstorming, outlining, reoutlining, blocking, drafting, editing. some people start with writing, some people start with inspiration boards, whatever. if you two have a different process from each other, deciding which order to do things in might be tricky - maybe you can get on voice chat and work on the inspiration board while your more outline-loving friend takes down notes for the brainstorming file or something. but you won’t start without a plan. if you’re like me you may even find satisfaction in writing it down step by step so you can cross it off. first inspiration pictures. then an outline. then doing this bit, while my friend does that one. you get the idea. don’t go overboard or anything, though - the point is to help you get started, not just put it off with productive procrastination forever because you aren’t sure how to do it.

just fuckin go for it & have fun!! as with anything, the more you cowrite with your friend the better you will get at it. there may be kinks (hah) at first and mistakes will be made but eventually you will settle into a pattern. (the longer the fic is, the more time you have to get this down pat.) and of course, fic writing is done for free, for fun, and so is hanging out with friends. so make sure you’re having a blast doing both cuz that’s the entire point!!!!!

this is pretty unorganized but i HOPE IT HELPED. good luck to both of you, i bet you’re gonna ace it <3

[fic advice masterpost]

#anonymous #liz loves writing #liz answers asks

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years

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hi yes im still alive

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST--

HAVING A MOMENT TO PROCESS ALL THE LORE AND STORY CHAPTER 6 JUST DROPPED ON US, I CAN BARELY WRITE

AHHHHHHH, I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS 😭 kjdbbaufbiafafvoaybo LEMME PUT ON MY THINKING CAP AND THROW SOME STUFF OUT ASDYUBUASDLI;AGVUOQIB;VI You’ll understand why I used Leona’s face here even though it’s Idia and Ortho’s chapter after you read my thoughts--

***Chapter 6 (and other main story) spoilers below the cut!***

Okay, just to keep it simple, I’ll try to keep things in chronological order!

First is a bullet point list of my thoughts on chapter 6 so far, then all my questions and theories (mostly a biggish theory on Ace) are at the end of the post.

Expectation: Idia cowering in his room, Vil and Rook busting down his door using Epel as a battering ram, dead Ortho theory confirmed

Reality: SWAT TEAM RAID ON NRC, DORM LEADERS (sans Kalim) AND JAMIL GET KIDNAPPED

Admittedly, I’m disappointed to see that the injury Grim inflicted to MC was basically just a cat scratch and nothing more. I thought it would be a lot more impactful if MC had to deal with juggling the realization that Grim has betrayed their friendship and trust while also on the verge of death (or at least while being severely injured)... And given how MC reacted to the attack at the end of chapter 5, I would think whatever struck them was much more substantial than just a cat scratch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say either the script got scrubbed by Disney, or the intent was that MC was still woozy from VDC / OB Vil, MC felt so betrayed that it shook them emotionally, or that MC was just that weak by default that they can’t defend themselves against cat claws.

Hey, Ramshackle’s finally getting renovated! Proceeds to immediately get destroyed again--

I feel like????????? They tried to retroactively explain why Neige won to try and mitigate the uproar over how VDC ended. There’s some dialogue between the VDC group about how they didn’t perform at their peak because of having just walked out of dealing with OB Vil, and how Neige’s fans were going to vote for him anyway because they resonated with his background. Honestly, I think they should have moved on from that sore spot instead of bringing it up again, even if how chapter 5 ended didn’t personally bother me.

BOOM, HERE COME THE TWST TERMINATORS--

NOT GONNA LIE, THOSE STYX GUYS LOOK HOT SO COOL

AAAAAAND IT’S KIDNAPPING MONTAGE TIME, KIDS

JOABSFHUPAUABDBADB CALM DOWN, RIDDLE??????? YOU’RE GOING TO COMMIT ARSON IN BROAD DAYLIGHT--

Okay, I know this chapter’s focused on Ignihyde and Grim, but the standout part to me (so far) has been the scene where Leona’s being kidnapped. Historically, Leona has not been a character that I like (excluding that one time I had to pretend to like him for a game). I feel like he’s one massive missed opportunity (he didn’t show up much in chapter 2, he’s pretty similar backstory-wise to his Disney counterpart compared to the other Dorm Leaders, he didn’t seem to learn anything or become a better person even a LITTLE after chapter 2, etc.). I’m not a fan of his lazy and arrogant attitude either (even if it is justified by his backstory). But here? THIS IS THE LEONA I ACTUALLY LIKE AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF.

LIKE????? I CAN’T DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW MUCH I LIKE THIS SCENE???? Yeah, we have Leona fighting STYX at first, but as soon as he realizes who they are, he wises up and surrenders because he knows better than to resist arrest. AND NOT ONLY THAT, but he uses King’s Roar in a smart way--to turn the falling greenhouse glass panes into sand so they don’t hurt anyone nearby (namely him and Ruggie).

And after he turns himself in????? LEONA TELLS RUGGIE TO TAKE CARE OF SAVANACLAW FOR HIM!!! THIS is what a real leader would do. He looks after himself and his people, but he knows when to surrender, AND he leaves his “kingdom” (the dorm) in good hands while he’s away. THIS is the Leona I want to see.

AJBDUASHPFBUABFIABIYFBIPFAAFIAF I ALSO REALLY LIKE HIS SASS WHEN HE JUST THROWS HIS HANDS UP AND ASDBIASBIABAIODDAYOFAIPPADAIDB SAYS “I’ll go with you, but be careful while escorting me, okay? Despite my looks, I'm a precious prince. I’ll get sick/dizzy if you drive recklessly.” SARCASTIC SASSY SMARTASS??????? IF YOU HAD MORE LINES LIKE THIS, I’D LIKE YOU MORE

I love how Azul’s still talking about capitalism/how he can profit from Idia (apparently the Shrouds are like the TWST equivalent of Google??????) as he’s being escorted away by the agents?????? IF I WERE HIM, I’D BE PISSED OFF THAT THEY INTERRUPTED MY BOARD GAME????? At least let the man finish first--

Damn, everyone’s being tasered???????? And apparently all the STYX agents are equipped with anti-magic plates? I guess Bind the Heart can just eat shit then--

Lilia’s ringtone is cute, period.

CROWLEY CALLED STYX TO CAPTURE GRIM???? GRIM IS OFFICIALLY A SCP THAT NEEDS TO BE CONTAINED????

WAIT WHAT CROWLEY’S BEING KIDNAPPED TOO??????? Oh well, the school is probably safer in Trein’s hands anyway--

askhlbfbilhidbabbidasb RIDDLE WAKES UP POST KIDNAPPING AND HE’S USING LEONA AS A LAP PILLOW?????!

How does it feel to be held in a room against your will, Jamil? Yeah, don’t like a taste of your own medicine, do you?

OH HI IDIA, NICE YZMA MAD SCIENTIST GETUP YOU GOT THERE

Wait, what????? THAT’S IT?????? SERIOUSLY???????

MAN.

I have so many questions??????? Specifically about STYX and what they do, and how the Shrouds are tied into all of it.

So they say STYX is a specialized unit called in to quell serious Overblot cases. And if Crowley called them to deal with Grim... well, bad times ahead for Grim. STYX has also been studying Overblot for a long time, which is why (I think?) they captured Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil, and Vil.

There’s been some allusions made between Grim and Stitch in a lot of fan art and fan theories I’ve seen, since their struggles have some parallels: that being them struggling to decide if they are “good” or “bad”. I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of the TWST writing team, but regardless, it’s a really good concept that plays into the themes of TWST itself. There’s no good, there’s no evil, no black and white--most of the characters we see may be BASED on villains, but that doesn’t MAKE them villains. They are good, and bad, in their own ways--and now Grim is dealing with that crisis as he fights to keep his sanity and avoid completely succumbing to Overblot.

Though Idia seems to be involved with STYX’s research, it doesn’t sound like he personally gave the order to retrieve those test subjects (or at the very least, he’s not happy about roughing up the test subjects), it sounds like the orders came from other people in the organization. His parents, perhaps?

They mention briefly that Idia’s parents are asking him to “come home”, so it must be for something urgent. Are they worried about his safety? But Idia’s lines at the end of chapter 5 lead me to think he is estranged from his family, since he straight up rejected a job offer linked to them (Olympus Corp is owned by the Jupiter family, and the Shrouds are a branch family of Jupier), and says something like “I’m not welcome anywhere”. Has Idia done something to disgrace him from the rest of the family? Or is it more of a self imposed/self inflicted statement, given that he always says he’s “cursed” and acts like he’s guilty of something that deserves scorn?

Why is Idia participating in STYX research, even if it means experimenting on his fellow students (and fellow board game enthusiast Azul)? People are speculating that he wants to use blots to fully revive Ortho (if dead Ortho theory is true), or that Idia actually has heroic intentions (he wants to know more about blots to prevent OBing from happening?), but at this point??? Literally anything could happen?!

In future parts, I’m guessing Pomefiore, MC, and Adeuce will team up to break Jamil and the Dorm Leaders (except Malleus, Malleus got left out again www) out? And HOPEFULLY we get to see Rook’s Unique Magic or at least more screen time, since I feel like he got so little in chapter 5... Another thing I’d like to see is Ace and/or Epel getting their Unique Magic, or at least starting to develop it. It’s really mostly Ace I want more details for.

A theory I’ve been holding onto for a long time is that Deuce getting his UM will spur Ace on to become jealous (since he has always seen Deuce as an idiot/”lesser” than him), and that will cause a rift in the friendship, or for Ace to throw himself into a dangerous situation to prove himself (he has done it before with Riddle)... and has his ass rescued again. This would make Ace even angrier, since he feels like everyone is treating him like a little kid or rubbing it in that he isn’t “as good” as they are. I don’t know where it would go from there (I’m sure TWST would get creative), but ultimately it would culminate in Ace making amends with everyone and rushing in to save them from either Grim or Idia OB.

I don’t think Ace would discover his UM in a similar manner as Deuce (Deuce had to embrace his own stubbornness and straightforwardness, but as the term “Unique” Magic implies, the way a magic develops and manifests is “unique” to the user). While Deuce has to learn to accept his own way of thinking, I believe Ace is already sure of his own way of thinking and has totally accepted it. I think what Ace has to deal with instead is coming to terms with his fickleness. We’ve seen him time and time again treating his loved ones kind of callously, from constantly bullying MC, Grim, and Deuce to ghosting his own girlfriend and flaking on people when they are counting on him to do a task.

The issue with Ace isn’t that he isn’t aware, it’s that he is aware and he seems to think this behavior is totally okay. He demonstrates little to no remorse in what he does and says, and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequences either (how many times does he get punished by Riddle, yet he keeps doing the same dumb things over and over?). Ace appears to operate under the mindset of always being in the right, or (if he’s in the wrong), he won’t really acknowledge it, or he will wave it off as “no big deal”--and I think that’s his greatest weakness.

In the scenario I described earlier, I mentioned that Ace’s jealousy will cause a wedge between him and his friends, and I think this will play into him realizing the error of his ways. When he has finally driven away all of the people that supported him, what will he have left? Nothing. Then maybe Ace suddenly finds himself relating to Idia, or to Grim, who have Overblotted and are in a similar emotional state as he is. Confused and lonely... and that energizes him to pitch in again, even if all he has is wind magic up his sleeve. Everyone could be shocked that Ace has returned, and in that moment, he could finally realize his true potential and unlock his Unique Magic!

(Maybe that’s too specific, but that’s a scenario that I’ve had playing in my head for a long time!)

... Buuuuut given that Ace has gotten little to no spotlight so far in chapter 6, I’m not sure if they’ll lean into him developing his UM yet (unless they pull a chapter 5 and really start addressing Ace in the latter half of the chapter like they did with Deuce). Seeing as chapter 6 is dealing with a lot of heavy topics (death, Grim lore, Overblot lore), I’m thinking maybe the TWST team will push off Ace’s UM development to chapter 7???? The only way I can see it happening in chapter 6 is if the chapter is SUPER long, or if the writing is REALLY good or really bad.

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! I’m so excited for the rest of chapter 6... I hope that we don’t have to wait too long for it!

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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Kizuna drama CD: Detail spotting and nuance analysis

02 involved displaying its group dynamic through mundane interactions and wacky hijinks, and the circumstances of an eight-year block of time between Kizuna and 02, plus the fact that Hikari and Takeru operate separately from the others due to the movie’s circumstances, mean that the drama CD centering around the group is actually our most reliable source of info regarding how they’re doing at this time and how their group dynamic is going. Much like 02 itself, getting a lot of this nuance requires reading between the lines, so let’s take a closer look!

Since this is a drama CD and not animated material, I’ll be going through this in bullet points instead of screenshots.

The fact that the drama CD itself deliberately uses the same format as a 02 episode carries a very strong implication that, unlike their seniors who are going through an existential crisis about how much of their childhood experiences they can bring with them into adulthood, the 02 group is still roughly able to recreate the same atmosphere they had eight years ago. Noticeably, the ending song chosen for this is the first ED (Tomorrow My Wind Will Blow), the more lighthearted one used for the first half, before a lot of really emotionally vicious things started happening to them.

The phrase “it’s been a while” and variants thereof come up between this group a lot within this drama CD (and once in the movie itself, from Hawkmon to the others). Look closely at the circumstances of this drama CD and how everyone seems to be very intimately aware of each other’s situations, and the fact that this story obviously takes place only a short time before the movie itself -- so it really hasn’t been a very long time at all, but apparently even that much is considered a “long time” for them. (It also seems like they’re going out of their way to make sure they’re still keeping in regular contact even when they can’t actually meet up.)

Daisuke says, very clearly, that Iori was the one he intended to approach “first” because he was so busy -- but he’s shown walking in with Takeru, meaning that the two of them are on very good terms now and seem to have been hanging out independently.

Daisuke wanted his plan to be a “surprise” reveal to the others, and the actual practical purpose of his plan (it being a career study trip for him) seems to have been very low on the priority list to the point it takes the CD’s entire half-hour runtime for him to finally bring it up. Before then, he’d been cheerfully fantasizing about all the fun things he’d get to do with them, and it even says a lot that he’d also wanted to discuss this at a karaoke bar of all things, so, really, in his head, “hanging out with friends and having fun with them” is the actual priority (especially since there’s basically no reason he needs to have the others on his ramen research trip, he just wants them there because he does).

The fact that the boys have to sneak in the Digimon to avoid getting extra charges means that society will now recognize them as patrons to be regularly charged.

Daisuke is asked by Iori which people he intends to bring to his trip, which implies that the 02 group isn’t technically an exclusive club or anything...but then Daisuke proceeds to list off the 02 group by name, implying that this group does indeed have a particularly elevated level of importance to him.

Look carefully at the nuances surrounding whom Daisuke wants to invite to his trip: he wanted to invite the seniors as well, but resigned himself to the fact it’d probably be impossible because they were too busy...only for the others to point out that the rest of the 02 group is also busy, but everyone is confident that they’ll make it work, and Daisuke wants them there to the point of listing them by name. So in other words, Daisuke likes everyone and would like everyone around in the ideal situation, but when push comes to shove, the rest of the 02 group is whom he really wants to have around, and said group can be reliably counted on to do whatever it takes to make it work.

The way everyone casually describes each other's circumstances (and in specific detail, not just generally describing what they're up to) says a lot; Armadimon's still talking with Hawkmon about Miyako (meaning Miyako and Iori are still regularly in contact), Takeru's up-to-date with Ken's life to the point of knowing his upcoming schedule, Daisuke's fully aware of how busy Iori is, and, later, the one to affectionately greet Hawkmon is none other than Wormmon, who, back in 02, used to only really be close with Ken himself and V-mon. You can see that everyone’s still constantly involved in each other’s lives, including their own partners being up-to-date on each other (compare the more distant relationship their seniors are portrayed with in the movie itself, both with each other and with their partners), and you can also see that Ken and Wormmon have fully integrated themselves into the group to the point it’s a completely casual affair (Iori, the one who infamously had the longest and most drawn-out process in accepting Ken, is the one to personally ask him about his preferences).

That said, note that Takeru and Iori still seem to be on surname basis with Ken, even despite obviously being much closer with him than they were before; unfortunately, it seems that having been on surname basis with him so long in 02 became a habit, leaving Daisuke and Miyako as the only ones currently known to have switched to given name basis with him.

It’s interesting that Ken, not Daisuke, is the one explicitly stated to be keeping up with soccer to the point of having schedule commitments, whereas no mention of this whatsoever is made with Daisuke, and it’s entirely possible that Daisuke actually quit playing it in an organized fashion. This is, however, consistent with their personalities, in that Ken would likely want to keep up with organized extracurricular hobbies, whereas Daisuke may enjoy soccer as a hobby, but not enough to continue committing to a high-level team. (Remember that Daisuke took a while to get a regular position even back in elementary school; as much as he liked the sport, he also wasn’t particularly outstanding at it, and especially not in comparison to Taichi, Sora, or Ken.)

Miyako leaving for Spain seems to have been a recent thing, since it has to actively be brought up in conversation as a reminder (and Daisuke seemed to initially have not taken into account that she wouldn’t be easily able to join the trip in that case, since the issue of the D-3 hadn’t come up yet). When she shows up later in person, everyone’s shocked, as if it’s unnerving for her to be back in Japan already.

Daisuke still seems to have a thing for Hikari, but note that this doesn’t really go beyond “wanting to hang out with Hikari a lot”. Also, he says this in plain view of Takeru without bringing him up at all, and Takeru himself has nothing to say about it (not even awkward laughter), meaning that he really has no object in this whatsoever.

It’s interesting to see that Armadimon, who used to have to ask about how human society works quite often in 02, is now well-versed enough in Japanese culture to be really passionate about it.

As usual, Iori does not mince words (when it's about Nagoya specialty food, at least).

Also as usual, Ken is surprisingly academic about his interests and a huge nerd.

Note Takeru's awkward "I don't really want to insult you, but also, that's weird" reaction to Ken’s speech about the hot springs -- very classic Takeru, not quite being honest for the sake of keeping the peace and awkwardly trying to be nice about it -- in contrast to Daisuke, who just honestly goes straight for the commentary. That said, regardless of how unusual of a hobby everyone around him clearly finds it, note how they all still decide to accommodate it anyway and support his interest in it.

Hypocritically, V-mon calls Daisuke out for being “embarrassing” regarding his fixation on Hikari, only to suddenly get caught off-guard by Tailmon shortly after...

Hikari's behavior has the most clear-cut contrast from herself in 02, consisting of her very assertively stating what she wants, for herself -- very important because her problems in 02 revolved around her compulsively being unable to voice her own thoughts if it meant putting a burden on others. Here, Hikari gets argumentative about what she, personally, wants to do. Given that she doesn’t quite act like this in front of her seniors in the course of the movie, and is depicted as being particularly in-sync with Miyako here -- and given how Miyako was instrumental in reaching out to her during the events of 02 -- it’s pretty easy to see how Hikari became able to assert herself like this.

Similarly, much like how Tailmon was portrayed as lightening up a bit between Adventure and 02 thanks to her new, happier life, here, she seems to be exactly on the same page as Hikari in terms of wanting to fight people for something materialistic.

Hawkmon says that it's "only natural" for them to show up whenever this group is getting together, and, indeed, Miyako was technically uninvited because everyone thought she was busy in Spain -- but was clearly in contact with them (or at least Hikari) to know that this meeting was happening. (There’s probably a group chat.)

This is implied to be the first time the 02 group has seriously considered using D-3 gate exploitation to visit each other and to travel. The group had already made use of this exploitation during 02 itself (to have Palmon delivered to New York back in 02 episode 38 and to meet up in the Digital World), but it is true that they hadn’t been necessarily using it even when it arguably would be more convenient than Tokyo transportation and Imperialdramon. So in other words, for the last eight years, through all the meetups they seem to have been having with each other (and remember, Ken lived in Tamachi, not Odaiba, at the time of 02, and there’s no guarantee that nobody in the Odaiba neighborhood didn’t move at some point), they were perfectly fine with using the inconvenience of Tokyo transportation to meet each other, or to meet up in the Digital World instead -- but then Miyako found herself in another country, and decided that she wasn't going to stand for being separated from the others for too long.

As usual, Hawkmon still has to be Miyako’s concerned minder when she’s on the verge of going out of control.

Miyako had already been implied to be in Barcelona thanks to the scenery outside her window and the movie end credits, but her speech about Spain drives it in even further with the Gaudí references.

Despite Spain being possibly the one of the worst possible options for what's later revealed to be Daisuke's motive for this trip (ramen research), it seems that Miyako baiting him with mention of the soccer league was enough to get him momentarily distracted (and also indicates that Daisuke still clearly has an active interest in soccer even if he may not be regularly playing anymore).

Speaking of which, it’s pretty obvious that Miyako knew exactly what to bait Daisuke with in order to do this.

Takeru, the group's resident moderator, is of course the one to step in and prevent Tailmon and Armadimon from wreaking too much havoc (Daisuke is mostly just slightly intimidated) -- but you might also notice that he's otherwise not saying anything about the group's chaotic antics, and in fact is guilty of enabling them even further...

Daisuke continues to have his penchant for pointing out the elephant in the room -- he's exactly right, how is Wormmon supposed to put on skis?

It is, of course, only natural that Miyako would be sensitive to knowing about currency exchange and the use of American dollars in the Digital World, given that she presumably hasn't forgotten the Digitamamon incident from 02 episode 14.

For the first time in 19 real-life years, we finally learn what Daisuke’s original motive for wanting to get into ramen making was: in true Daisuke fashion, he himself has no idea (but he just really likes ramen).

Daisuke "credits" his friends for giving him insightful advice and helpful resources in thinking about his career and future plans, but, as it turns out, everyone else wasn't thinking nearly as much of it -- either they hardly remember it, or it wasn't actually supposed to mean anything insightful. It's obviously not to say that they're not fully supportive of him (the events of this drama CD blatantly indicate otherwise), but rather that Daisuke attributes everything important and helpful in his life to his friends to ridiculous degrees, even when it's something completely ordinary like a train ticket that anyone should know about.

As always, Daisuke is very realistically aware of his own limitations, admitting freely that he was actually lacking in experience and insight to follow his dream (especially since he took the "advice" from his friends very, very seriously).

Note how quickly everyone changes their tune and immediately decides to unequivocally support Daisuke the moment they realize there's actually a very important reason to him that he wants to go on this trip.

Also note that when Hikari compliments Daisuke, Daisuke is completely at a loss -- yet again, Daisuke's been so busy rolling around for Hikari's approval that he hasn't accounted for what to do when he actually gets it.

Daisuke picking New York, of all locations, as his stop to research ramen certainly explains why Ken has to ask "why ramen?" during the movie itself -- as this drama CD indicates, and as per the events of 02 episode 50, he absolutely knows why Daisuke would want to get ramen, but ramen in New York, which isn't exactly the cultural center of ramen making, is a different story.

The fact that this was a planned multi-day trip also explains why the group changes clothes and is in New York for multiple days over the course of the movie (because they probably had a hotel, too). It also further contextualizes the likely reason Miyako felt like dealing with Menoa’s request was too much work -- she wanted to be on this trip instead -- and says a lot about how she’ll dump a request on her seniors when it’s too much hassle for her, but accept that same request back if it’s something she gets to do with her friends.

Takeru and Hikari are explicitly stated to be scheduled to join the trip on the second day, meaning that them operating separately from the quartet during the events of the movie was sheer scheduling circumstance -- and since we find out in the movie that Takeru was the one to inform Yamato about Daisuke's whereabouts, this CD here clarifies that Takeru has this knowledge because he himself was set to be on this trip (and would have been, if the events of the movie hadn't gotten in the way).

Probably the most interesting take-home from this narrative is how absurdly close the 02 group is portrayed as, and in very, very stark contrast to their seniors in the movie itself -- who are said to be drifting apart as they all find their individual paths. Here, the 02 group is the opposite; while they do seem to have their own goals (Hikari and Daisuke are outright identified as having some of the clearest ones), it’s obvious that those goals are secondary to being able to hang out with and support each other (in other words, they still have those goals, but they’re much lower priorities for them). This is consistent with how these dynamics were portrayed back in 02, since the Adventure group had been portrayed as being prone to drifting apart as early as Our War Game!, whereas the 02 group was built from the ground up as needing each other’s mutual support much more deeply -- it’s just that, now that they’re all much older, this distinction in group dynamic is much more prominent.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #detail spotting #shihameta

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crossroadsfossil · 3 years

Text

106 degrees

Summary:

Here’s a fun science fact: Birds consistently run at a higher temperature than humans do. It tends to range between 99 degrees fahrenheit up to 112 degrees. Hawks’ own body temperature tends to self-regulate around 106 degrees.

This is important when you get caught in an autumn rainstorm with a villian you don’t really trust.

Also known as 5 times Hawks falls asleep on Dabi

Prompt: For something fluffier, how about Hawks can't stop falling asleep on Dabi because of how hot he runs. Dabi constantly has an arm full of bird and has no clue what to do

Bonus if they still didn’t trust each other the first time it happened

A03 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31366130

Here’s a fun science fact: Birds consistently run at a higher temperature than humans do. It tends to range between 99 degrees Fahrenheit up to 112 degrees. Hawks’ own body temperature tends to self-regulate around 106 degrees.

It’s something he and Rumi discuss often, if only because Rumi liked to snuggle up to him and comments on it constantly. She has no room to talk since she also runs at a higher temperature. Granted, it’s not much higher than your usual human baseline. She runs about a hundred or a hundred and one, depending on the season.

Needless to say, Hawks is a very popular patrol partner in the winter. Add in his feathers (which are amazing insulation, despite not being meant for it) and the large fluffy jacket he’s never without, and it’s not surprising that he’s almost never alone in the cooler weather, even if most of his companions can’t keep up with him once he gets going.

Neither his feathers nor his jacket are doing him any good right now, as soaked through as they are. His day had gone from bad (a long day topped off with a meeting Dabi ‘forgot’ to tell him about) to worse (an incoming cold front) to absolutely terrible (a storm that was preceding the cold front, resulting in rain, sleet, snow, or all three since this was Japan after all).

As soon as the sky opened up, Hawks insisted they take shelter. He’d herded Dabi towards the closest abandoned warehouse. He ignored the expression Dabi sported as he broke in. He didn’t care what the villain thought or how entertained he was by the action. He was a practical man and it was abandoned. Besides, if he didn’t get out of the wind and rain, he was at serious risk of going into torpor. The gear he was wearing today wasn’t meant for repelling water and it was about as much use as an icepack in winter.

There were a list of things he didn’t want to happen around Dabi, and going into torpor was fairly high up on that list, alongside bullet points such as ‘getting drunk’, ‘getting high’ and ‘running into another hero’. The best Hawks could expect from Dabi was for the villain to light his feathers on fire. At worst, he figured Dabi wouldn’t be the only burnt nugget around after he was finished with Hawks.

“Hey birdie, I’m not opposed to a show but take me out for dinner first.” Dabi said, watching as Hawks shrugged out of his coat and feathers in one fluid movement, catching his jacket before it fell off completely. He let his feathers fall to the ground with a disgusting splat. Laundering those would be less of a hassle than laundering his jacket. He draped his jacket over a nearby box in the vain hope that it might dry a little. It probably wouldn’t, but who knows. Maybe if he annoys Dabi enough, the fire-quirk user might raise the temperature in the warehouse by a few degrees.

“Ha. Ha. Not everyone has a fire quirk, asshole.” Hawks replied, giving what remained of his wings a shake to get as much of the water out. A quick look around the warehouse revealed it wasn’t as secure as he had thought, with great gaping holes in several of the walls. He shivered as the wind blew through them and started looking for anywhere that would provide a barrier between himself and the wind. He watched enviously for a moment as Dabi rolled his shoulders and began steaming slightly, burning the moisture out of his clothes and coat.

He spotted a pile of boxes, with several piled up on three sides to make a small nook and started to walk towards it.

“So, what do you have for me?” He asked, sitting down and scooting until he hit the back ‘wall’ of boxes.

Dabi shrugged. “Nothing. Just wanted to see if you’d come.” He replied.

Hawks stared at him, not quite believing what he just heard. Dabi’s growing grin cemented the fact that he had not, in fact, misheard.

“You’re an asshole. You seriously just called me out here on a whim? I’ve got better things to do, Dabi.”

“What, rescue people? In this weather? I think not.” Dabi said, slinking towards Hawks. Instead of taking a seat on the box directly in front of him, Dabi decided that the best place to sit was practically in Hawks’ lap. He shoved the hero over and leaned against one of the boxes that made up a makeshift wall and smiled at Hawks, daring him to do anything about it.

“Dick. So what now? Are you going to suggest we play Shiritori or I-Spy to pass the time? Since you invited me out for a playdate, we might as well.”

“That is not what I did.”

“You did it on a whim. It sounds like either a playdate or you miiiiiiiiiissed meeee.” Hawks said in a sing-song tone, delighting in the way it made Dabi’s face scrunch up in irritation.

“We could play ‘how many burnt feathers does it take to get to the crispy chicken center’.” Dabi held up a palm, a blue flame flickering to life in the center of it. Hawks looked between the flame and Dabi’s face and, very pointedly, brought his hands up to warm them.

“Thanks. My fingers were getting cold.”

Dabi huffed and closed his fist, snuffing the fire out.

--------------------------

When the bird actually showed up in the storm, Dabi wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He certainly wasn’t expecting the hero to stick around, let alone break into a building. Especially not the way he had. In the split second between Hawks looking at the door and breaking in, he’d assumed the hero would use a feather to lock-pick it. It seemed like something the hero would do- sufficiently flashy enough and sounded like the sort of party trick the pigeon would learn. Instead, Hawks had pulled out one of his larger feathers, slid it into the bend of the padlock and twisted it, using the feather like a lever and cracking the lock off with brute strength.

He wouldn’t say it intrigued him, but it was damn close. There were still things about the bird he didn’t know and he was still half-convinced the hero was a spy, but shit like that definitely made him question that assumption.

The hero also annoyed the ever-loving hell out of him. More than Toga or Twice did, so he was hoping the bird would slip up and he’d have an excuse to roast the number two hero.

The storm outside had rolled in completely, throwing the warehouse into almost complete darkness. He and Hawks had stopped sniping at each other almost half an hour ago, the warehouse filled with the sound of screaming winds and hammering rain. He was pretty sure this was a new record for Hawks. If he gave a shit, he’d say something about being impressed. He didn’t give a shit and he was more interested in figuring out what the fuck was making that weird noise. It kept disturbing the quiet of the warehouse; it was almost a peeping squeak, like a chain swinging in the wind, but far more organic.

He lit up one of his palms, peering out into the darkness to see if he could spot the noise. All it did was make the shadows worse and throw the hero into an eerie light. The hero was sitting with his eyes closed, and as Dabi watched, about every third exhale the bird would shiver slightly and let out that peeping noise.

Was that… Hawks’ version of a snore?

Pretty ballsy of the hero to fall asleep next to him. Ballsy and stupid as hell. Slowly, he brought his hand closer to the bird, intent on setting at least one wing on fire.

Gold eyes blinked open, unfocused. Dabi froze, waiting for the bird to react.

Hawks did, but not in a way Dabi had been expecting.

“Fucking hell-” Dabi spat as Hawks leaned against him.

The bird was freezing.

It was like getting hit by a wet washcloth that had been sitting in a freezer, and within moments he could feel the water seeping through his clothes. The bird was freezing and soaking wet.

Then the bird shivered again, almost cuddling into Dabi’s arms. Hawks’ eyes had closed again and it left Dabi with an armful of bird and no good idea how to handle this or how to feel about it.

Logically, Hawks was probably seeking out the warmth, and hell, maybe he was like Spinner. Spinner hated the cold and was about as tolerant of it as Dabi was of the heat. Guess that might explain the sleepy-thing. Spinner mentioned something about torpor once. Dabi hadn’t been listening because Spinner was goddamn annoying.

He brought his legs up, shifting Hawks so that he was sitting sideways and half on Dabi’s lap. One of his hands came up and, against his better judgement, settled on the remaining plumage Hawks had left on his wings. They looked comically small like this, and he had been wondering about how they felt.

Right now, they felt wet and cold.

He tsked and slowly heated his hand up, combing his hand through the feathers.

Slowly, they went from feeling like wet paper to delightfully smooth and soft.

---------------------------

Normally, Hawks enjoyed waking up. He had a nice bed and decadent sheets. He usually woke with the sun, and despite having an early shift, that still usually left him with an hour he could spend just basking in the delight of a nice bed. If he left the shades open, he could do so in a puddle of sunlight.

His bed didn’t feel right this morning. Too lumpy and for a moment he tried to recall if he had brought anyone home the night before. There was a hand combing through his hair, so there was a very distinct possibility that he had left the warehouse the night before and-

His eyes flew open at the thought.

He didn’t remember leaving the warehouse and-

“Chill your tits, bird brain. Just me.” Dabi said, giving a light tug on a lock of Hawks’ hair. He ignored the pleasant way it sent shivers down his spine.

“What the fuck.”

“Yeah. That was my thought too. Lemme guess- you go into torpor?” Dabi asked.

“Do I even need to answer that right now?” Hawks’ shoulders slumped and he groaned.

Fantastic. He did exactly the thing he hadn’t wanted to do. Dabi let out a soft huff, almost a laugh but not quite. Hawks leaned back, feeling an arm against his back and keeping him from going too far. Dabi didn’t look peeved, and that raised his hackles. His eye narrowed as he tried to figure out what happened.

“What?”

“You did something.” Hawks stated, running through a checklist in his mind. He didn’t feel any burns. Nothing smelled like ash. The only real change from before he went into torpor was his hair and wings were fully dry and his clothes felt, well, not dry but not sopping wet anymore.

Oh.

OH.

Dabi noticed the grin on Hawks’ face, and started spluttering. “You were just-”

“You preened meeee.” Hawks sang, laughing at the affronted expression on Dabi’s face.

“I did not. You were dripping everywhere.”

“Uh-huh. And that included drying my wings… why?”

“....Because they were there. So shoot me if I wanted to know if you had greasy bird feathers.”

“Nope. That the same reason you decided to sweetly comb through my hair? I mean, really Dabi. If you wanted to play with my hair and wings that much, you could have at least gotten me dinner first.” Hawks teased, stifling a laugh as Dabi’s expression went from affronted to a grouchy embarrassment, before then actually lifting Hawks up and dumping him on the ground.

One- Damn. Hawks’ wasn’t heavy but he was mostly muscle so. Damn.

Two- He was just laughing harder now. To think that Dabi got shy about being caught playing with hair. He got to his feet, trying to brush the dust from his pants before giving it up as a lost cause.

“Well Hotstuff, thanks for the preen and playing heating pad. Guess we did get to know each other a little better tonight.”

Dabi flipped him off, sliding off the crates and making his way towards the door they came in through.

“Dabi?” Hawks called out. To his surprise, Dabi stopped, turning to look at him, dubiously waiting for the rest of his question. “For the next meeting, can I play with your hair?”

A moment later he was scrambling away from the fireball Dabi sent his way, despite knowing that it wasn’t a true attack and Dabi was only trying to get him to stop talking and hide his frazzled expression. Hawks watched Dabi make a beeline out the door, wheezing on his laughter as he gathered up his jacket and feathers.

Teasing Dabi was going to be so much fun.

#bnha fic #dabihawks #dabihawks fic #my fic

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sephyathredon-writing · 3 years

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Whumptober preparation

((Really quick, I just wanted to share with you guys my method for doing prep work for Whumptober. Before the month actually starts, I usually dedicate most of September to making sure I’m ready to go for October instead of thinking up the prompts off the top of my head (which is perfectly okay to do, but for a big event like this I like to find ways to keep organized). I hope this helps someone with their planning!

First thing I do is go to the Whumptober post and copy/paste the entire written prompts section (which should be past the ‘read more’ under the picture with the prompts) into a doc. Last year I just wrote it all out by hand, but I figured I’d make it easier this time

Then you just add a bullet point after the prompts (I like to use dashes, but that’s just me. A space between the dash and the first word gives that nice bullet point effect.) And then I put ideas for what I’m going to write about

Usually I put anything as simple as say “Coffee shop Clack AU” to a long paragraph string of words like “Link gets into a fight and then this happens, and then that happens, then he gets hurt, then a friend saves him.” and so on. Tacking on random thoughts at the end like “I would like this to contain torture”, “I’d like this to be more hurt than comfort”, “This is more hurt than comfort” works too. Anything to help you get your thoughts together.

I bold my first choice for the fic I’m doing but also italicize some other ideas I like in the same section and would be up to doing if I just can’t get the first option to work right.

Example.

If it’s an alternative prompt, I’ll cross out the prompt that’s under that number and put the alternative prompt there. Here’s an example from last year.

The formatting is different because I didn’t copy/paste the prompts last year.

For ideas, Tumblr randomly recommended to me the BadThingsHappenBingo blog and they have a list of whump tropes that I am def going to use for my prompts.

I also love to have music on while I think of ideas. It doesn’t have to be music that you would play while writing a whump scenario. Video game music in particular helps me to think up ideas.

Once I have a majority of the overall ideas figured out, then I try to get down the details. For me, I’ve found that I write overall better stories if I have an outline before I start writing, so I’ve decided to make an outline for each prompt with this format.

You can also add a “Whumpy Tropes” section to keep track of what tropes your fic will contain.

Anyway, I know this is a lot of work, so feel free to disregard it. I really just wanted to share it to see if It could help others in the way that I know it will help me!

#Whumptober #Whumptober 2021

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kaibacorpbros · 4 years

Text

Stalling

"And again," there was an air of exasperation to Kaiba's words, but he didn't skip a beat after they were spoken. Before Aigami could as much as say a sarcastic 'brilliant' they were already barreling down the street in this alien dimension. Though, given that the people chasing them were just tooling around with guns out in the open like it was normal may have been an indicator of that state of this dimension.

"Maybe you should really start considering bringing a weapon to dimensions like these!"

"I can trip you right now, you know that?" Kaiba snapped. "If I had gotten a heads up of 'aggressive locals' I would have considered it--"

As they rounded a corner and cut through some alleyways they were soon met with a barricaded fence too high to jump, all the while the shouting was getting closer.

A holographic timer flashed in front of Kaiba's eye. They needed more time. These people wouldn't let them get out of this situation with cards.

"How tall are you?" Diva asked.

"Is this really the time?"

With a scathing glance, the ex-plana stepped up to the barrier. The blockage was approximately...

"Lock your fingers and boost me up and I'll pull you up once I'm there."

"Absolutely not--" Flashlights started to round the corner and Kaiba hissed.

"You'd better not run off," Kaiba put his back to the obstacle and locked his fingers to form a step.

But right as he'd managed to loft Diva over their pursuers caught up. He didn't know what they were saying, and he made a mental note to work on translators for some dimensions, but it wasn't at the top of his priorities at the moment. He froze, showing there was nothing in his hands. At the very least they didn't look too organized. A cobbled-together gang or something? But still, Kaiba said nothing, just in case it could be interpreted as a threat.

Where had Diva gone? Was he still on the other side? Kaiba hadn't heard him run off... or maybe he managed to keep quiet. Or gotten grabbed on the other side. Or more likely, he bailed.

These people were eying his tech, likely for parts. Seto needed that to get home. But he can do nothing when too many of them have a clear shot on him. They figured the duel gazer must be some sort of communication and decided to take that from him first, yet never saying anything.

"I need that but I can give you something else--"

That was the wrong thing to say, going by the bruise that was undoubtedly forming on his head from a blow.

Right, all bets off, he didn't even know if these people could understand him. And left to his own devices he needed to get out of here before his technology became damaged to a point where it couldn't be reversed, or he ended up with a bullet in him. If he could just... get one of their weapons. If he could hold the one closest to him hostage he may have a--

--And then Diva seemed to almost drop out of the sky, hitting one of their attackers in the side of his head with a pipe. Kaiba took the gap the distraction gave him and disarmed one of the other one closest to him and knocking him out with the butt of the gun. By the time he was down, Diva had taken care of his buddy all before a single shot could go off.

"Nice stick," Kaiba said with a roll of his eyes as he picked the duel gazer off one of the now unconscious people.

"'Thanks, Diva, what wonderful improvisation skills' is what you mean by that, right?"

"Yeah, sure. Not like I thought you ditched me or anything. Just be glad you didn't hit them hard enough to draw blood. Where'd you--"

"That roof," he said with a nod toward the neighboring building, "It was easy to climb up on the other side, bunch of junk piled up. I ran with a crew of kids on the streets for quite a while. You pick things up." Yet instead of keeping the weapon he wiped off any fingerprints and laid it on the ground. "Though I dislike such means. They're primitive," Diva sounded as if he were about to say more, but decided this wasn't the best time.

"A bit more time that's all we need. We have to get out of sight though."

And with that, they took off once more. However, their pursuers weren't done. As they turned the fourth corner they were met with more people drawing weapons at them.

"How annoying," Diva muttered.

The leader barked some question at the two that they didn't understand as they bided for time.

"Now that's quite a loaded question. Seriously, it would take all day to answer."

Of course, there was truth to what Kaiba was saying, but really it was all just to buy a few more moments. They just needed about twenty more seconds and they could make another dimension slide.

"I can confirm. But I assure you that this is all one big misunderstanding," Diva added.

Of what, they didn't know. Only that they had shown up and not too long later they were being chased after. Kaiba wasn't sure whether these people wanted to kill them or mug them or both, but he didn't want to find out. They just needed a bit more time. The CEO glances at the timer on the duel gazer's HUD.

Ten seconds.

"But give me the chance to explain and I'm sure we can work this out." Never mind that they had left a group of these people unconscious in an alleyway.

Zero. The duel disk flared to life.

And thankfully, not too long later they appeared back in Kaiba Corp. The machine spat them out and hit with a wall of vertigo, like getting a sledgehammer to the head. They both collapsed on the floor.

"Red dimension," Kaiba gasped out between his exhaustion of doing jumps in quick succession. They were both dizzy, panting, and fatigued. and Kaiba could already feel a headache coming on. He'd pay dearly soon for this one.

"Definitely a red dimension," Aigami added.

But Kaiba didn't move his arm to add the new filter to his ever-growing list of dimensions. He was too tired and was blinking as if it would help clear the black spots in his vision.

"I expect a pay raise for all the life-threatening worlds."

"I don't even pay you," Kaiba snapped. Not directly anyway. The financial security for Diva's siblings and a place to live was it. The ex-Plana better not actually be trying to win a salary.

"Fine then, if I die while on one of these field trips, I expect the life insurance to pay out generously."

"I shall speak to Isono to see what can be arranged in the event of your untimely, horrible, and gruesome death." At this rate, Kaiba would find a way to ensure it was just that.

"Can you move your arm? Your stupid tech is jabbing my side."

"No."

Perhaps it was from recovering from the adrenaline rush, or maybe the timing, or the completely neutral voice Diva had said it in. But neither of them could keep a straight face from it. Seto didn’t quite laugh with him, but he didn’t hide his smirk in the slightest.

And just to rub salt in the wound Seto was about to disconnect the disk from his arm and perhaps leave it there just to spite the ex-Plana. He turned to do so, only for them to have both moved at the same time. Kaiba to remove the duel disk, and Diva to get up.

They were far too close to each other now.

It caused them both to freeze, and Seto didn't know what to make of it. Surely it was getting late into the afternoon going by the sun shining through the test room's windows, didn't Diva have school projects to get to? Seto wasn't counting the seconds, but certainly, this was longer than would be considered normal?

Yet still, neither broke the eye contact.

"I think I want to kiss you."

With that barely audible admission, Diva slowly got closer. And Seto was too confused to know what to think. He remained frozen in place as Diva inched closer to close the distance between them, giving Seto time to object. He didn't, and Diva planted a slow, light kiss on his lips.

It was such a blur that the CEO couldn't properly comprehend if he even recuperated in any fashion, or remained like a statue.

Silence still stretches between them, and he can tell the ex-Plana is scrutinizing what he just did. His face remains neutral for a moment longer, before he's scrambling to get up.

And by the time Seto has as well, Diva is already out the door, his footsteps echoing down the hall.

#(do not reblog)#(god ive had this sitting forever and kept redoing biTS but ugh here it is now taking a lot of inspo from dw NGL)#(anyway there we go they finally kiss <3)#(tho i still feel pretty meh about it rip)#make the impossible possible | seto 💜 diva | indioragod #KC files [Lore]#legacy [drabbles]#big bro [seto]#cubic emperor [Diva]

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amysubmits · 5 years

Text

Unlocking

For a long time I’ve said things like...

I need domestic discipline (or punishment) to be a big part of my D/s.

I need a firm hand.

I need consistent discipline.

And similar variations of the same core point.

While a firm hand is definitely a need of mine, I’m not so sure anymore that it’s my deepest need. What I’ve recently realized that my deepest need isn’t actually discipline. Instead, it is the need to know that he is in charge. By ‘know it’ I mean for it to be unmistakably true, without any doubts. Not just to intellectually understand that we’ve agreed he’s wearing the pants, not just to see him take the lead on some things, but to truly know deep in my bones that he is in charge of me, and of our relationship.

For me, for whatever reason, it seems that the “know in my bones that he is in charge” need must be met through domestic discipline which is why it’s so easy for me to view the two needs of mine as one in the same.

When I have rules and no doubt about being held to them, no doubt that I won’t get away with acting out, it provides a deep level of safety and security. That sense of security from Domestic Discipline unlocks me in the sense that it enables me to trust in our D/s deeper, it erases the insecurities in my noisy, anxious mind. That deep confidence in our dynamic allows me to recognize, to feel, and to believe in the more subtle, but far more frequent, little interactions in our relationship that are also D/s. It lets my submissive heart out of its cage so that it can absorb so many of the “smaller” things. Things like...

The way @cynicaldom tells me I should take meds for my headache.

The way he asks me to bring him a drink.

The way he told me to leave a phone charger in my purse.

The way I keep his sock drawer organized the way he likes.

The way I do silly dances to make him smile.

The way he decides our financial priorities.

The way he pauses at the end of grocery shopping, just before we go to the checkout lane to ask me if I’m sure I got enough “me foods”.

The way I cut his hair.

The way I ask before wandering away from him in the store.

The way I sometimes climb into his lap for me, but yet can feel his body relaxing in response.

The way I try to cook foods to his preferences.

The way he packs me "me foods” just in case I get hungry while we’re out.

The way I tell him my likes and dislikes, hopes, wishes, concerns or areas of confusion, but still having him decide what we do.

The way he looks at me with a warm sparkle in his eye when he watches my mood shift as he wraps his hand around my neck, or after I’ve said something he thought was adorable, or after I tell him how much I appreciate him, or after I stand up a little dizzy after a spanking. The fact that the look is the same in all of these situations and so many more.

The way he reaches his hand out for mine in the parking lot or in crowds.

The way he does his best to encourage me to believe in myself more.

The way he sleeps closest to the door.

The way I run my fingers through his chest hair while cuddling.

Many of these “small” interactions could be 100% vanilla in another relationship. They could be “just” kindness or “just” being nice, or “just” affection. Or just as easily, they could be 100% D/s in another relationship without DD. Yet, I can feel our power exchange through them because of the intentions behind them, and because having DD in place enables me to trust in our dynamic enough to let go and feel it. And while these things may seem small, the power exchange that I feel from them can be BIG sometimes. However, for me, they only feel big when we have DD solidly in place.

In vanilla to D/s relationships, it seems common for new Dominants to struggle with the disciplinary side of D/s more than other aspects. It can seem harsh to punish the person you love when you don’t fully understand how much it means to them. Of course society teaches us that it’s not how loving partners are ‘supposed to’ interact. CD wrote about how hearing me cry was really hard early on. In some ways it seemed to feel contradictory to his natural inclinations to take care of me and protect me. I suspect that for many D-types, it’s easy for them to trust that they are leading a relationship without punishment. I think for CD, he knew that I’d do what I could to try to listen to him and let him make decisions. So doesn’t that mean he’s in charge? Of course it does! But this isn’t about “doing enough” to actually be in charge, it’s about interacting in the right ways for my DD-focused submissive brain to feel it. I think CD and I got lucky that we sort of stumbled into consistency with our DD and then seeing how big of an impact that had on the rest of our D/s. I think him ‘unlocking me’ through consistent discipline is what helped to unlock more of his needs as my Dominant. Seeing me let go, seeing me get more open and vulnerable, secure and happy, is what made him more confident in his own Dominance as a result of seeing it’s a positive impact on me.

It led us to see how when we have rules and consistent consequences we can feel our D/s in truly anything that I do to serve him, to support his leadership, to trust him, to look to him, to love him. And in anything he does to guide me, protect me, watch over me, lead me, serve me, and love me. That bulleted list above is just a tiny snippet of examples of how we feel our D/s sometimes. It doesn’t mean that these interactions are always overflowing with feelings of D/s, they aren’t, but they can be sometimes, when we are both ‘in the moment’ and being intentional with each other, we can feel D/s in the smallest of ways. Many of those types of behaviors existed “before we were D/s” and yet I didn’t see them very clearly...or didn’t feel them as strongly as I do now, because my heart was still locked in a cage that needed DD to let it out. I needed DD to give me the confidence in our relationship style so that I could let more submission out, to let myself fully relax into my place in our relationship.

#writing #sccwriting #domestic discipline #taken in hand #d/s #24/7 D/s

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dlamp-dictator · 4 years

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Allen Rambles about Code of Brawl

Man... remind me to never talk about having a future Rambling in the works, it’ll instantly fall into draft-hell. But anyway, I’ve been meaning to talk about Arknights in depth for a while now, but I’ve never had much drive to actually finish the damn draft of my initial thoughts a few months ago. I couldn’t tell you why, I just lost the drive to finish the thing. However, with Code of Brawl coming to a close and my thoughts on the event still lingering I think I can use it as jumping off point to actually talk about the game.

That said, here’s the synopsis.

Arknights is a Tower Defense game for the PC mobile devices placed in the world of Terra, where an infectious disease known as Oripathy ravages the land, slowly turning people to minerals in a slow and painful process. You play as the Doctor, an amnesiac military commander of the Rhodes Island pharmaceutical company who fights against the Infected radicals known as the Reunion.

That’s about as far as I can go in a single paragraph for main story, but Code of Brawl instead focuses on the eccentric adventures of Pengiun Logistics, side faction of the game that’s a seemingly innocent delivery company with quite the ragtag group in it, consisting of the happy-go-lucky gunner Exusiai, the cold and dismissive swordswoman Texas, the excitable and energetic Sora, and the business-savvy Croissant. All led by the charismatic and multi-talented Emperor. However, as their new intern Bison comes into the fold the group is caught in a series of gang wars and organized crime trying to snuff out the company.

And unlike Fire Emblem Three Houses, that really is the basic plot without me sarcastically building anything up. With that all said, I think I can move on and talk about...

The Story

The story of Code of Brawl honestly has the best and worst of Arknights writing. I think having a story that focused on a group outside of Rhodes Island was for the better. For all the lore blurbs and archive notes we get, I think Code of Brawl proves just how little Rhodes Island is involved with the world of Terra at large despite it’s apparent reputation as a weird and quirky company with some terrifyingly powerful Operators and lofty ambitions. And while I’m still only on Chapter 4 since I’m grinding out some E2 before moving on, Rhodes Island really does more reacting to random Reunion plans than anything proactive with their goals of curing Oripathy. They feel more like a counter military force to Reunion, and a barely effective on at that given the point of the story I’m at. Code of Brawl, being focused on another group with a more direct conflict and villains, feels a lot more cohesive and interesting, as Penguin Logistics’s goal is to just get Bison through his first day and take out whatever force is harassing them this week.

Penguin Logistics as a whole is a rather interesting bunch of ruffians and seeing them is gallivant around Lungmen trading blows and bullets with gangsters is a joy to read and see. Seeing some of the inner workings of Lungmen society, seeing a bit of the underbelly, as well as getting to see the cast just have more casual interactions with each other is great. We learn that Sora really is just gay for Texas, and the all of Penguin Logistics has only 3 function braincells with Texas having one and Mostima having the other two. We get to see that Sora has probably beaten someone to death with her microphone at some point given how willing she is to bar fight. A lot of fun stuff.

And then... there’s Mostima.

Look, I like this story, I really do, but Mostima really didn’t need to be here as far as the story is concerned. All she does plot-wise is rile up Exusiai, drop some cryptic advice for Bison, shows she knows more powerful than she leads on, and is a bit of a deus ex machina for the end of the plot, and not even by that much. You could had replaced her with Chen, Swire, Hoshigumi, ShiraYuki, or anyone else that would logically be in Lungmen at the time. Hell, ShiraYuki knowing everything a being cryptic about it would at least be in character for her.

And that’s not to knock Mostima. I actually pulled her in my last ten-pull (didn’t get Waii Fu though, and I’m still salty about that), she’s a pretty good and damn near god-tier once you get her to E2 if some of the guides on her are to be believed, though her kit is a little niche for an AoE caster of her cost. However, as far as the story is concerned she shows a serious issue with Arknights as a whole. That’s its constant need to have half of their characters be mysterious.

Mysterious Characters

So, just to give an example, here is a list of characters in Arknights with a Mysterious Past™. These are characters that either have their archive notes explicitly state their past is unknown, or characters who’s past is implied but but deliberately kept unconfirmed.

With that said...

Mostima

Myrtle

Cuora

Skadi

Specter

Shining

Siege

Projekt Red

Specter

Blue Poison

Lappland

Texas (?)

ShiraYuki

AMIYA

Okay, I’m cheating a little with Texas since she has enough of her past implied, but it’s still technically a mystery as far as the specifics go. But you see my point, right? A lot of characters have a Mysterious Past™, which is a nice shorthand to not go into depth about writing their background. Now, you don’t need to give twenty paragraphs on their backstory, but something would be nice. Keeping things a mystery might be nice for the theory-crafters, but for me it’s annoy as hell to see so many character, so many high-rated that really just have their skills and design to go off of, especially with most the cast overall having a pretty simple background to them that are interesting when you read through the lore blurbs and think about it. Breeze is a former noble that wanted to do more good in the world than throwing money at a problem. Liskarm is a protective friend that joined Rhodes Island to make sure the problematic Franka integrated without problems. Frostleaf is a child soldier that wants to do some good in the world after becoming Infected. Kroos, Beagle, and Fang joined Rhodes Island after getting kicked out of their old jobs. You don’t need to be flashy, but giving answers isn’t an admission of lacking creativity. The hints might be nice for the analysts, but the fans would likely want some answers.

Again, Mostima isn’t a problem, and a lot characters in that list do have some concrete hints about their past. Texas and Lappland are likely a former mafia heiresses and old rivals. Shining was likely a highly skilled mercenary before realizing she could do more good in the world with a healing staff instead of a sword. Siege is likely apart of Londinium royalty, but was either exiled or ran due to political turmoil. But that’s the issue, likely isn’t confirmed. Mostima being a powerful character with a mysterious past just feels like a cop out to me. It’s not bad, but she’s a symptom of what some of the issues of Arknights story is. I’m not asking for AFK Arena-levels of lore, just... an explanation here or there would be nice.

But anyway that’s my main issue, moving on.

General Gushing

Despite that large critique I have, there’s a lot I love about this story. For simplicity sake, because I’m tired of all the editing, I’ll put it into list form:

Penguin Logistics in general was just a joy to see. Watching them in action and just how laissez-faire they are is hilarious, especially when paired with the straightforward and reserved Bison freaking out over the wackiness.

Speaking of, Bison made for a very good straight man to balance out all the wild antics of PL. He really kept things from getting too crazy by at least questioning the zaniness, and the point when he finally stops caring and just charges in with a crazy plan of his own just gave me the giddiest of smiles.

Given how they discuss it, PL apparently trade blows with criminals and thugs on a daily basis, and since they’re just a delivery company this implies they likely deliver drugs or other hot cargo the mafia and gangs want... and given Emperor’s personality, that wouldn’t shock me.

Emperor in general is a delight of a character. He’s about as charismatic and wild as his aesthetic makes him look. I would legit whale for him if he ever become an operator.

Learning a little bit about Lungmen culture was fun as well, as little of it as we see. It’s my personal headcanon now that the mafia and general thugs of Lungmen don’t mess with civilians because they’re either a sleeper agent under the Rat King’s protection or they might be a kung fu master in plain clothes like Waai Fu.

Waai Fu and Texas fist fighting in the streets of Lungmen is just hilarious and awesome. I honestly don’t know what that says about either of them. Texas is holding her own against a martial artist with over 10 years of experience barehanded, meanwhile Waai Fu is holding her own against what lore blurbs have implied is the former heiress/hitman of a mafia. All the while drunkards and Texas’s coworkers are egging them on. This is the dumb content I live for.

Save for some of the absolute bullshit of the challenge maps, I found the actual game content to be pretty fair and interesting. The Bullies required good defender placement, a lot of the ranged units focused on targeting the helpful buildings that buffed your characters and increased the operator deployment count, and maps themselves had a few clever chokepoints to work with... At least until they started spamming Fanatics.

Bison actually has a pretty solid kit for a free Operator. He buffs a lot of adjacent units, has a no real weakness, his tools don’t feel niche like Grani or Celycon, overall a great unit. Once I finish E2-ing all my main Operators I might build him next.

While I have issues with her as a story element, Mostima is a 6-star that has instant utility once you promote her to E2, much like Chen and Siege. This is something I’m relieved to say as a lot of my 6-stars aren’t worth much until you E2 them and I’m still trying to E2 some of my easier units like Cuora and Gavial for Chapter 5 and CC.

That’s really all I have to say on that front. So to close things off...

For the Future

Like I always say in these Ramblings, I don’t like the idea of people prattling on about being able to “fix” or “rewrite” something has already been made. It always comes across as both arrogant and ignorant to me. However, I think it’s completely fair to make requests and suggestions for the future. ‘

That said, I'd like to continue seeing side stories without Rhodes Island’s involvement. Both to see other factions in their natural element and because, frankly, Rhodes Island always feels a little out of place when involved in other stories, or at least more of a distraction than a good element if chapter 2 and 3 are anything to go by. I think a Black Steel side story would be nice. Jessica, Franka, Liskarm, and Vanille getting into shenanigans in Columbia or something sounds like a fun time. Maybe have the leader/high commander of the organization as a new operator and they’re a really powerful Supporter than can buff the party, like a 6-star version of Sora or something that gives operators insane ASPD buffs... I don’t know, something like that anyway. Ideally something a little less wordy than Code of Brawl at least.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Next time... I’ll talk about something else. Maybe discuss a manga or something.

See you all later.

#arknights #your dictator is speaking

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magnoliawhetstone · 4 years

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h e a d c a n o n s, pt. 1

( tw: mentions of eating disorder )

When Lia is drunk/ tipsy she likes to act our favorite movie scenes—even if she’s alone. Most recently was the titanic scene (where she also got her knee suck in the balcony). She can quote all of the legally blonde courtroom scene and definitely knows the mean girls Christmas dance as well.

When Lia bakes, she has this small habit of humming or singing when she does so. Interestingly enough, for how involved baking is, she’d done it for so long she’s relatively good at shutting her brain down for a while when she does it. Or, at least, it takes all her energy to bake instead of overthink. It’s why she stress bakes so frequently and it’s also why she hums/sings when she does it. It’s mindless and she’d be embarrassed if anyone heard it–but she doesn’t always realize she’s doing it.

Surprisingly, while Lia’s favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, her favorite movie is Love Actually. She can quote most of the movie–as she can with most things she loves–and her favorite scene is when Hugh Grant dances to “Jump (For My Love)” by the Pointed Sisters. This is another scene she sometimes recreates when drunk.

Lia is not the biggest fan of Harry Potter. She doesn’t even know what house she’s in (its Ravenclaw but she can’t remember that). She never got into the series, never found it to be that interesting–magic didn’t quench her thirst the way some other books did…

Yes, that’s right. Magnolia Barnes was absolutely a Twi-Hard. You could not pull her away from these books–it was even worse since, at age 18, you’d think she would have had better taste. But no, she was #TeamJacob all the way. And yes, she did go see the movies when they came out. And yes, she did cry at the end. Don’t judge her.

Lia loves watching home renovation shows, though she literally has no reason to watch the show. She’s never had to do a home reno in her life. But she likes to imagine a day when she would–she thinks she’d be quite good at it. Sometimes about being able to use her hands in a meaningful way strikes her as soothing–its why she likes baking so much. She doesn’t have proof she’d be good at it, but she has a feeling she’d be pretty good with her hands if she can make delicate pastries so well.

Lia loves college football. Like absolutely adores it. Big Clemson gal, Tiger Rag is her jam. She remembered spending fall weekends at their Lake Keowee home so they could easily drive over to Clemson and go to a home game. Hates the Gamecocks with a passion. Rivalry weekend was her favorite time of year growing up–it was so full of excitement and energy. In fact, the most heated you might ever see Lia out of an argument is walking a Clemson football game. And yes she knows exactly what’s going on down on the field and if you ask her one more time if she’s sure–she will throw a piece of pie in your face.

Speaking of Clemson, Lia wanted to go there for college–get her degree in English. But she also had high dreams to be the baton twirler on the field–the one who dots the i with whatever family they’re celebrating that day in the pregame ceremony? Yeah, she wanted that. She thought that maybe she could mix the two worlds of hers, her two areas of interest–but no, that was never to be the case.

Lia grew up going to State fairs every summer–but never an amusement or theme park. She has never been to a planetarium, and her first trip to an Aquarium was with Beckett. Her first trip to a Zoo was with Ryder. So sure she’s ridden some rides, but it’s never been like most people have. It’s her dream to go to DisneyWorld one day and somehow, someway, stay in the Cinderella Suite. she’s watched enough youtube videos to know that not one gets to stay there but contest winners and celebrities, but still–a girl can dream.

While her peers took their vacations in Paris, Nice, Monaco and Italy, Lia’s father preferred north–like Amsterdam. Which, to be fair, was really very nice and Lia liked going. She even had a friend, Tess, who she’d hang out with when they would go on holiday as they called it. Tess was cool–she was into collecting model trains and really liked to read also. But then Tess’s parents sent her to boarding school after they had found out that she had been chatting with people online that she shouldn’t have been. Lia thought that sounded awfully harsh and hoped her parents would never do something like that to her. (Oh, irony)

When she’s sick, she doesn’t want chicken noodle soup, she wants wonton soup. Why? She doesn’t know, but she’s never liked chicken noodle soup. She thinks its the mushy carrots and celery. But wonton soup is essentially the same thing, but with a wonton and better flavor. She likes hers with spinach.

If toast is cut diagonal, she can’t eat it. Vertical squad for the win.

Big Bon Appetit fan. The quickest way to make her smile is to make her watch an episode of “one of everything” or “gourmet makes”. she might have a small crush on alex delany but we don’t talk about that.

Lia believe in aliens but not ghosts. She’s not big on conspiracy theories either–but she might be tempted by the stories at Denver Intentional Airport. She just can’t accept that humans are the only living things in the universe. That’s a lot for her–but she doesn’t go actively searching for them. Ghosts, on the other hand–she just never believed in them. Why would anyone want to haunt someone? Seemed like a weird power play to her. And no, despite what some people at the Malnati think, the moon is not made of cheese.

Lia is obsessed with spreadsheets. If you asked her what the dorkiest thing about her was–she’d tell you it was her planner and spreadsheets. She has a spreadsheet for probably every aspect of her life. her planner–which is really a bullet journal–is how she keeps track of things when she can’t get on her computer, but she has one for chores, her books, work, her bucket list, hell–even a bachelorette watch party she had a few years ago. She loves being organized.

Office supplies are her kryptonite. She absolutely loves blank notebooks and pens. She has a favorite pen for different things. Pentel RSVP RT Retractable Ball Point in black for everyday items, Staedleter fine tips felt pens for her bullet journal, sharpie pens for when she wants her notes to stand out, Zebra Mildliner for headers in her bullet journal or giving the pages shape. She is incredible persnickety on who can borrow what pen, and even keeps less important pens in her pencil bag just to lend out. And under very few circumstances will you ever see Magnolia Barnes using a pencil unless she has been required too. She hates the darn things.

Lia doesn’t swear–her mother taught her ladies don’t swear and while she doesn’t believe language as a gatekeeper for femininity anymore, the expectation still holds. So if you do hear her use a curse word, something is very very wrong.

Go to coffee order, you ask? Easy. Grande White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha with Blonde Espresso and Almondmilk and yes whipped cream. Sometimes she’ll get it with Raspberry instead. If its iced, it’s a tall and no whipped cream. However, she can also be bought over with a Venti Iced Guava Tea Lemonade with 8 pumps sweetener.

Lia has seen the Chatworth House–the house used as Pemberly in the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. While its not her all time favorite movie, she sure loves it still and begged her parents to take her one summer. They relented and it was everything she had dreamed of seeing.

It’s well known that Lia cannot dance–she often tells people she can only line dance and Viennese Walz, and the former only happens when she’s tipsy on PBRs.

Lia loves sleeping with windows open because she can’t sleep in silence. The white noise of the city helps relax her and and makes her sleep easier.

However, she must read in silence–any noise will distract her and she gets relatively grumpy if anyone interrupts her reading. She also adores reading by a window. She likes the way the natural lights illuminates the pages.

Words are some of Lia’s favorite things–she thinks they’re magic. So loves the way they sound and likes to think about the way they feel in her mouth and how they roll off the tongue. She does her best to take her time when speaking too–because if words are so important, its better to get them right the first time. (Although perhaps she would learn that getting it right may not always be nearly as important as saying something at all).

(tw: eating disorder) Not many people know this, but after the book incident, Lia has begun to go to therapy. Her counselor, Tonya, has been helping her try to work through what things are Lia and what things are Lia’s mother. They haven’t gotten to the eating disorder conversation yet–and Lia dreads it. because Lia has never used the term out loud–in fact, the only time it was ever spoken was by the doctor the night of the incident. She has never named it and technically never claimed it out loud–though she knows its true in her heart.

Lia hates pickles. Don’t know why, but she thinks they are gross. Also parmesan cheese.

Magnolia loves horses–perhaps not the extend of others, but she had grown up riding them and when she rode them, she always sensed a freedom that was just out of reach at home. Perhaps that was because who was always riding wit her, but she doesn’t like to dive deep into that. It complicates things (that maybe needed to be complicated, just sayin’). Leaving her childhood horse Butternut was like leaving a pet (something the Barnes did not have as Lia grew up). Butternut and her went on a lot of adventures together, usually along side Buttersquash and Jack. It was good squad.

Lia’ favorite dessert is Mrs. Whetstone’s peach cobbler–and she has pour her life’s work into recreating it since she never asked for the recipe before she left. Every time she tries, she feels like she gets a little closer, but its never quite right. But it does remind her of home and its one of those memories she loves dearly. Anyone who asks her, though, what her favorite dessert is, she’ll say cheesecake because nothing even compares in her mind to that cobbler and she doesn’t want something to try to do something that will never reach what she expects. And she does love cheesecake.

Favorite flavor of yogurt? Chobani Raspberry Lemonade. Its only available in the summertime, but boy is it worth the wait.

#tw eating disorder #[[homecoming queen?; headcannons]]#if any of these spur plots lmk!!!

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walkingshcdow-a · 4 years

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Longtime follower, big time fan! I love your writing and I wanted to know what you would suggest or have any tips or recommend about how to start writing a book? I want to (and have a bit of an idea) but I don't know where to begin?? Thank you!!

I want to start this ask, first with thanks and then with a disclaimer. Firstly, thank you so much for following me and for reading/enjoying my stuff! I really appreciate it and it makes me feel very warm-and-fuzzy to know that someone on the other end of the internet reached out to me and thought highly enough of my writing to ask for advice. Secondly, I am a writing teacher. I teach high school creative writing and have degrees in English and Secondary English Education. I have written numerous short stories and one day hope to get a PhD in English or an MFA in creative writing. On the one hand, I am Supremely Qualified to answer your question. On the other, I’m... not. I am not a published author (yet) and most of my writing energy goes towards roleplay and fanfiction. The longest finished work I’ve created as an adult is my “Wooden Overcoats” fanfiction “The Greatest Undertaking”, which doesn’t “officially” crack novel length (50,000 words, give or take). When you say you seek advice on writing advice, I’m going to tell you something I’d never tell my students: you don’t have to take my advice. If something else works better for you (this part I do usually tell them), do that. I am not and no writer is the font of all writing knowledge. Anyone who says they are is trying to sell you something, usually, a book on how to write, written by an author you’ve never read or heard of.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way... let’s talk about what helps me in hopes that some of it helps you!

Don’t be afraid to start. People will make you feel like your idea isn’t worth pursuing. Most of them are doing it on accident and would be horrified to know that their thoughtless comments are holding you back. For years, I did not write characters who had parents because when I was eleven, my mom read a fanfiction I wrote and the main character was critical of her parents and my mom asked me, “Is this how you feel?” If a circumstance hit too close to home, I didn’t write it even if my mom wasn’t going to read it. Thankfully, I’m past that. People won’t be the only thing that will hold you back. Time, fear of failure, impostor syndrome... all sorts of insidious things will give you excuses not to start. Do not let them win.

Some form of pre-planning is extremely useful! It’s not necessary. Most of my short stories have never been outlined. I just sit at the keyboard and type until I have a short story and then I edit later. But for my longer stories, I find an outline keeps me organized and on track. Currently, I’m writing a story called “Catch and Release”. “Catch and Release” has two separate outlines (I kept the original, even though I scrapped at least half of it), both about five pages long. The outlines, for me, include character summaries (who is this character, what did they do in the last story- “The Greatest Undertaking” - that is relevant, what is their goal now, how do they perceive themselves/others, how do others perceive them, what other details are important), and chapter summaries with bullet-point lists of what plot points and emotional beats need to happen in each chapter. I did this in Google Docs because it means I can access it anywhere (and often do) and so I can use the strikethrough function to cross off plot points and emotional beats I’ve hit in writing. This keeps me on track when I take breaks from writing. I haven’t worked on the writing since a little over a week ago, since real life has picked up. I opened Chapter Nine the other day and was like, “Why did I start with Sid Marlowe?” I checked my outline and remembered exactly where I left off. It’s nice. I wasn’t as thorough with “The Greatest Undertaking” and there was a point where I took a month-long hiatus from working on it (I was teaching remotely from a different city because of the pandemic) and when I picked up “The Greatest Undertaking”, I thought to myself “What would have made writing easier for me?” Your outline doesn’t have to be as detailed as mine. It could be more detailed. Just create a guidebook for yourself in case you get stuck or have to take a break from your work.

Speaking of preplanning... Brainstorm! Keep a list of your ideas for future fics/stories/etc. Write little plot summaries to refer to later. I like to you the “[Somebody] wanted [goal], but [obstacle], so [climax], then [ending].” model when I’m too busy to write a detailed summary. I’d also recommend looking at and utilizing traditional outlines, like Freytag’s pyramid or the “four-act structure” a professor suggested to me at a Shakespeare conference if you want to push back against traditional storytelling that allows for a longer focus on the resolution/consequences as the characters establish a new normal. Something. Anything to make you know what ideas you have and what shape they might take. Pictures can be helpful!

Even though preplanning is useful, don’t get married to your outline. If you love your outline too much, you might spend all your time working on it instead of the story or you might not give yourself the flexibility you need and deserve to write the story of your dreams. I realized when I was writing “Catch and Release” that I needed the latitude to add in a scene between Chapman and Calliope and to have Chapman and Antigone interact at least once in the series, since they didn’t in “The Greatest Undertaking”. I was able to edit the outline easily enough to add a whole chapter (Chapter Nine, which I’m working on). I might have to add up to three more chapters to hit all of my bullet points and I know my ending has changed from the first outline. That’s okay! As long as I keep writing and preserve the emotional beats, I’ll be content. Some people would hate this edit-as-you-go approach and insist upon sticking to the outline. If that works for you, great. But I’m not going to commit myself to subplots that don’t serve the narrative.

Decide if you’re a plot-driven or character-driven writer (or, rather, if your piece is plot-driven or character-driven). I’ve put so much emphasis on outlining plot in this thing because I’m character-driven. I am constantly thinking about “but why are they like that?” and “What motivates character X? What is their payoff if they act?” I think in terms of character relationships. This is great! Super helpful! But when it comes to getting my characters do things... I need to outline a plot otherwise they will sit around and talk about their feelings for 30,000 words and nothing will happen. I compensate by making sure my characters have goals outside their intimate relationships, other interests/hobbies/struggles, and lots of things to do. In “Catch and Release”, I had to think of an event that would allow my characters to act out their feelings, rather than think about them privately. If you’re more plot-driven, you will need to make character outlines to keep track of why your characters are doing things that they do and to keep them somewhat consistent in how they behave. People in real life are sometimes inconsistent. In fiction, readers are more likely to notice “out of character” behavior... especially if it isn’t tied to an important motivator. You might need to make character arcs instead of a plot event list. And that’s okay! Do what you need to do to make sure that whether you’re plot- or character-driven, the two tie nicely together.

Practice writing and read a lot. There are two ways to become a better writer. The first is my favorite: write a lot. In between short story projects and novella/novel-length fics, I write my RP characters here. I experiment with style and voice and character development here all the time. This is my “take a break from writing” writing corner, lol. It’s made me a lot better and the partners with whom I write make me better. It keeps me in continual practice with both story craft and mechanics. The second way to improve as a writer is to read a lot. I’m going to say something my colleagues would probably hate: watching TV and listening to podcasts counts as reading, too. Study how the author or writers craft the book/episode/movie you’re consuming. Look at the dialogue and plot structure. Imitate the parts you like, mix and match pieces of media, use one author’s style to tackle another’s subject material. Decide what you think is good writing and what you think isn’t. I’m having my students do an activity from the book called “No Plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month. It asks writers to list all their favorite tropes, conventions, stylistic choices, etc. and all their least favorites and then to only include things they listed as favorites and to avoid writing about things they hate. Writing is a self-betterment activity, but you don’t get better by punishing yourself. You want to enjoy writing, right? Don’t “write what you know”. Write what you know, what you love, and what you want to know more about! Imitating writers you admire is a good thing for both original and fanfiction. Practice, practice, practice!

Set goals for yourself. I have an app called Habitica to help with my to-do lists. I have three things that are writing-related on it right now: “Respond to writing prompt” (habit), “Work on creative project” (daily), and “Finish Catch and Release” (singular event). On Habitica, you rank the level of ease for each thing. “Respond to writing prompt” is “easy”. It can be a prompt here, working on a chapter of “Catch and Release”, or doing a separate writing prompt. “Work on creative project” is “medium” and can be any of the above... plus outlining or another artistic expression, because sometimes I forget to branch out. I can’t check “Catch and Release” off my list until I finish the actual story and that’s ranked as “difficult”. I get a different amount of points for doing the things I need to do and I lose points for not doing them. I also (unofficially) have a goal that all of my chapters must be between 2000 and 5000 words. There’s no formal system for that one. Either way, these keep me motivated to keep writing. Find a system of accountability for yourself. Some people do well if they reward themselves (I don’t. There’s nothing I want enough to work for except things that have intrinsic rewards, like... I get to keep my job if I do my job. Telling me that is more motivating than telling me I’ll get ice cream for finishing my lesson plans. I can get ice cream even if I don’t. I’m an adult with a modest amount of disposable income or I’ll decide I don’t want ice cream. The only times I’ve done this self-denial tactic and seen results I also dehydrated and deprived myself of sleep. I do not recommend that in the slightest). Others thrive on working competitively against friends, the clock, or themselves. Still others accomplish their goals only by having external people hold them accountable. I will admit: I sometimes need a shove from a friend which is why...

Enlist friends to get opinions from. I have the world’s best group chat on Discord. All three of them are writing partners here and familiar with my fandom (”Wooden Overcoats” in this instance; though at least two of them are familiar with “Phantom of the Opera”/Susan Kay’s “Phantom” and I’ve forced the whole group to know about my original characters). Each of them has a different perspective so I can ask their thoughts and brainstorm with them, throw ideas at them, etc. or just ask them to make sure I’m writing once a week or so. I have other friends who know nothing about my fandom or my stories but who are willing to listen objectively to look for plot holes. And then I have friends who are content to know I’m writing and never ask for more info. Writing is such a solitary activity that it’s important to find support and community where you can!

Believe in yourself. You can have all the support in the world, but you have to remind yourself that your story is worth telling and that no one can tell it quite like you can. Get writing!

I wish you the absolute best of luck on your writing endeavors! If you ever want to talk or follow up, I’d love to hear how it’s going! Take care!

#;;signifying nothing | {personal}#;;told by an idiot | {out of character}#x. asks #((I am so flattered!!!!))#((Thank you anon!!!!))#((I hope your writing project goes well!!))#((If you have other questions or updates on your work hmu!)))#Anonymous

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jamesashtonisbae · 4 years

Text

She Sets the City on Fire Part 1

Word Count: 1453

Pairing: Logan x MC; Colt x MC

Book: Ride or Die

Rating: M

Warnings: Swearing - J. Cole lyrics

Summary: Aleigha is a good girl gone bad. She’s going to try to keep both parts of herself.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, Pixelberry studios does!

Author’s Note: This flew off my fingers and is one of my favorite ideas I’ve had. I love good girl gone bad Aleigha. Ingrid starts as the narrator briefly, but MC will be the narrator for almost all the rest.

Tagging: @desiree-0816 because she is my ROD encourager. Also @brightpinkpeppercorn and @princessstellaris because 100 years ago (June or July) when I wrote a Logan x MC fic they were so kind to comment and ask to be put on a tag list!

Songs: Middle Child, Miss America, Motiv8 by J. Cole

Ingrid

“Where are you going?” Ingrid asked as Aleigha as she flat-ironed her hair one last time. Ingrid took in her roommate’s zebra Yeezy Boost’s, prison orange pants with a cutout where she could see Aleigha’s black lace panties, black bandeau showing severe underboob, and thick orange choker.

“Out,” Aleigha said as she applied some nude lipstick.

“What on earth are you wearing? You look like a traffic cone,” Ingrid shoved a bite of takeout into her mouth.

“A hot traffic cone?” Aleigha stuck out her tongue as she touched up her mascara.

More like a hot mess, Ingrid thought. Out loud she said, “You’ll have no shortage of guys who want to fuck you, that’s for sure.”

“Good. That means they’ll underestimate me.”

“Aleigha, where are you going?” Ingrid insisted. Who was Aleigha talking about that would underestimate her? Ingrid never knew what Aleigha was talking about, but especially not when she was being so cryptic.

“Out.”

Ingrid blew out an exasperated breath at her roommate. All throughout the summer, Aleigha would take off for hours upon end, and she had no idea where she went. Whenever Ingrid would text her, she would get a ‘Message Not Delivered’ response. But, as long as Aleigha kept her side of the room clean and didn’t wake her up when she came home late, Ingrid didn’t really care where Aleigha was going and what she was doing with her time.

Maybe she should have cared a little more.

Aleigha

Aleigha left her dorm in what she knew was the most revealing outfit she could possibly have worn. It had taken her months to find the underground racing connections in Boston, but with a well-placed bet on the MLB All-Star game, she won one name.

With that one name, she had been able to prove she was a damn good driver. She outsmarted more experienced drivers, outpaced faster cars, and took down whole crews. Tonight was her first night attending an actual sideshow since LA. It was her first night competing as the solo driver ever.

She got into her firetruck red car, and batted, in order, the dice hanging from her rearview window, the sparkplug necklace next to it, and the cactus ornament on her dash. After one last glance, she put LA out of her mind.

Every day she thought about getting a new paint job. She knew it wouldn’t change anything about anyone finding her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d dyed her hair blonde, she’d gotten blue-colored contacts, she’d gotten a phoenix sleeve tattoo. But changing her car was something she wasn’t ready to do.

She flicked on her stereo, turning up J. Cole’s The Fall Off album, losing herself in the beat and the poetry. She loved driving in races, the precision, the strategy, the adrenaline all made her feel alive. Aleigha was a student, always studying the best outcomes and the best means to the desire end. And so, she was well-suited to racing. But, she loved letting go and just driving for fun. Like right now.

10 minutes later, she pulled up at the location. As she got out and stood out in front of her car, she knew that all her hard work had paid off. Not to get into Langston, instead, to get into this sideshow. She was finally home.

After a couple hours of interacting with people, talking about her car and her experience in Boston, trying to get anyone to take her on their crew, the races finally started. She had made it into the second to last one, the headliner was some out of towner everyone referred to as “The Troublemaker”. The irony of that being Logan’s nickname for her was not lost on her, but when she asked what he drove, she was told he drove some model she’d never heard of, not a Devore GT.

“Why do you care, Babe? It’s not him you’ll be going home with at the end of the night,” a burly man in a wifebeater said, leaning down toward her.

Internally, she cringed, but externally, she winked and said, “I know I’ll need some consoling if the Troublemaker beats me tonight. You’ll be on the list, big guy.”

He grinned, a big toothless grin, and finally walked away. She shuddered, then got into her car to drive it up to the start. As she fiddled with her radio, trying to get the volume on the right number, her playlist in the right order, and her ornaments in the right position, she heard other cars pull up next to her. Deciding to ignore them, she looked up at the girl holding the flag and wearing the same outfit she was, basically, and waited for the signal.

I’m counting my bullets

I’m loading my clips

I’m writing down names

I’m making a list

I’m checking it twice and I’m getting ‘em hit

The real ones been dyin’

The fake ones is lit

This game is off balance

I’m back on my shit

The Bentley is dirty

My sneakers is dirty

But that’s how I like it

She took in a deep breath, and then the flag went down. In an instant she had thrown her car into gear and jumped to a fast start. She maneuvered out in front of her competitors and was flying down the track.

Even if it was a bit flawed, her strategy was start ahead and stay ahead. She knew her car was not as fast as others, so sometimes she wouldn’t be able to win with that strategy, but if she fooled people into thinking she couldn’t maintain it and she did, she’d be fine. She banked on everyone underestimating her and thinking she was naïve. So she leaned into it a lot.

And the fact that she timed her playlist to the track she was driving required her to start ahead and stay ahead.

A glance in her rearview told her a car was keeping up right behind her. She knew that trying to block out this one car would probably mean that someone else would pass her. So she let him pull alongside her. She didn’t dare look, but she knew it had to be The Troublemaker.

They stayed that way around curves and corners and past the halfway mark and all the way to the final straightaway. She knew he was going to be very precise when he turned on his NOS, so she would have to be on her A game.

She held until she knew she heard her cue to release.

Fuck the man, Uncle Sam I won’t sell your crack

I won’t fight your wars, I won’t wear your hat

I’mma pass your classes, I’mma learn your craft

I’mma fuck your daughters, I’mma burn your flag

As soon as she heard it, she released the valve. She shot out in front of the person next to her and knew he had done it a second too late. She knew she had won. All she had to do was hold her car straight.

When she crossed the line a few moments ahead of the other driver, she sighed in relief. It was nice to have beaten someone who was pretty renowned at her first sideshow. She grinned and cranked her music, listening to her last few bars.

Too many times I swallowed my pride

I'm crackin' a smile, I'm dyin' inside

My demons are close, I'm tryin' to hide

I'm poppin' a pill, I'm feelin' alive

She was lost in the lyrics when she heard a knock on her window. Looking out, she saw the sideshow organizer looking in at her.

“You getting out,” he glanced down at his list and read her name, “Lennon St. James?”

“Yes. One second,” she turned to her glovebox and pulled out an orange hat, just to cover herself a little more and make herself even less recognizable.

She walked over to claim her prize money, getting second looks from all the people who had spoken to her earlier and told her they didn’t have room for her in their crew. A couple of men whistled at her still, but now looked like they had a healthy fear of her.

Aleigha took the cash the organizer held out to her, then turned to head back to her car. She was bumped by whoever the second-place finisher was on his way to get the cash on her way back. It knocked her off center and she fell to the ground, disgusted.

“Hey!” she shouted, glancing up into a familiar pair of chocolate brown eyes.

“You know, there are easier ways to get my attention.”

“Lo…” she breathed out.

“Hey Troublemaker.”

#pixelberry choices #choices ride or die #choices rod #logan x mc #ride or die fanfic #ride or die au #pixelberry rod #pb rod #ride or die a bad boy romance

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

Text

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 24/?

Role-reversed!AU (Song[Xiao]Xue): “Love at First Sight”

[villain!SL/investigator!XY]

[title is from a Kylie Minogue’ song and from nowhere else fight me]

[so. me is embarrassed to say this but. the idea comes from an Italian movie of the late 90’s.]

[which is to say that: (1) Italian comedies are rarely my thing bc they are (pardon my French, I don’t feel like switch to Italian rn) problematique most of the times; (2) it’s been 10 or so years since I last saw this particular movie and even if at the time I liked it I was probably sixteen at the time so... not the best judge also my memory is shit for actual plot points; (3) internalized homophobia runs in the Italian film industry; (4) it deals with criminal gangs and, even if the movie makes fun of them, it is still a sore topic in my country so... I’m not gonna go in detail for this ficlet. it is, in fact, just a prompt; (5) also there is a cop character and... well, I changed it into a private investigator bc fuck it; (6) ignore me, I’m emotional tonight.]

Married off. Him. To a lovely girl, for sure, but with a penchant for pickpocketing and letting her mouth run at the most inconvenient of times. The wedding is in six months. Song Lan has to laugh at that.

But Mother has been almost too complacent with him for the longest time, allowing him to play his games and get it on with too many women for him to care to keep track of. He may or may not have disrespected some of them and their powerful families in the past for being a serial womanizer. There’s a logic behind it, of course, but since his eye surgery he cannot seem to remember what that could have possibly been at the time.

The worst of all being that he doesn’t remember why he ever found women attractive in the first place. People of the Baixue Clan tried to cheer him up to no avail for months. They took him to brothels, called in his favorite rent-girls, tipped them extra, brought him out of town on vacation to distract him, but... nothing.

He feels like crying sometimes. He’s done. Broken. Nobody will ever take him seriously anymore now that he’s nothing but his mommy’s boy. Forget for a minute that his mother is keeping the entire Yi City in check by enforcing her law on other clans. Let alone that her word has ruled over rascals and rogue hotheads for decades just by letting them hear her name. BaoShan Sanren would have not forgiven him for turning down the daughter of a competing family, that’s for sure.

Sometimes Song Lan looks down at himself, dressed in ridiculously flashy buttondowns open at the collar, with black jackets and fitting trousers, embezzled shoes on his long feet... and he wants to shriek. He hates everything about himself and he doesn’t know where to start. He doesn’t recognize himself anymore, almost as if his mind had changed about everything he believed to know.

At least he can see again. That should be enough, right?

It should have seen it fucking coming, Xue Yang knows this much.

A bullet to the heart would have hurt him less, but it’s been a year since his husband’s death and he’s done. He’s fucking done. Throwing himself away like that, recklessly accepting new cases one after the other just because. He’s got nothing to come home for anyway.

But as he disinfects the slash of a dagger on his shoulder, he wonders if there’s more to life than this. A dirty bathroom where he and his husband used to shave in the morning together before work. A stuffy apartment filled with unwanted memories. Mold on the ceiling, laughter rising to the sky every night before Xiao XingChen died. Before everything else left with him.

Xue Yang flinches when the alcohol stings badly on the cut and he chugs some vodka down for good measure as he prepares to stitch the gaping wound back together. The flame scorches the needle until it becomes almost white and he wonders, not for the first time, how it would feel to just... stop. He cried so much he doesn’t have tears left anymore.

The last time he saw his husband’s beautiful face it was at the morgue, where a dispassionate woman in white had asked him to confirm his identity. She asked him if he had formally agreed to put his husband’s name on the list of organ donors. He refused in the beginning... and then thought about it. About what his righteous husband would have wanted him to do.

Letting go of him –of any part of him, really– so soon tore him apart.

Since there was nothing left of Xiao XingChen, it was just right for not a single thing of Xue Yang to be left in his wake as well.

Well, aside from the pain. But that was to be expected after all.

He had never deserved anything but pain in his life.

Fuck that. Fuck that shit.

Mother asked him to look for a mole in the group, but he found a mere nobody snooping around in their area instead. Searching for what, he doesn’t know. But, as he crowds the other man in a dark alley behind the secret entry of their club, Song Lan cannot help himself from staring.

The laundromat from where their regular patrons usually enter to play is open 24/7, the flickering light coming from its open door casting just... the loveliest shadows on the younger man’s face. He’s shorter, much shorter than him. Possibly in his early thirties. Dressed nicely with a gun pointed at Song Lan... but he doesn’t care.

It’s almost as if something has fallen back in its original place and Song Lan is filled with elation. He has never felt more relieved or happy in his life. It feels like a second chance at life, an opportunity he doesn’t want to let slide through his fingers this time around.

He grasps the other man’s hand holding the gun and directs it upwards in a swift move. A bullet cuts through the air as he pushes the shorter man up to the laundromat window, neon lights dancing on Song Lan’s face. Soon people from the club will rush to his aid, knowing full well that he’s out looking for a snitch. He doesn’t have time, so he takes a good look at the person at his mercy.

He knows him.

And he falls in love, immediately.

The shot still rings in his ear, the gun burning in his outstretched hand, now caught in a vicious grasp. Xue Yang flinches as he looks up and gets ready to defend himself. He was just following a useless son of a bitch lying to his wife about not playing cards and losing all of their money. He would have never thought it would turn so bad so soon. Usually he gets away quickly enough, running for his life as usual...

...but this is different.

His gaze meets Xiao XingChen’s eyes and he freezes on the spot. He would recognize them anywhere, the same glassy quality to them, the same softness around them. Nothing makes sense anymore.

Because the one in front of him looks nothing like his husband.

And yet he knows him.

He knows what it feels to be looked with fondness and longing by one Xiao XingChen.

Fuck, he missed that.

He missed that so much.

[additional nonsense under the cut, bc. I am me]

[the original movie is a comedy, but I saw this post while I was writing the prompt and now it’s a fucking urban-noir kind of deal baby!]

[am I procrastinating another ficlet (slowly turning into a 20k monster bc I’m stupid) by writing this prompt instead? no. what are you talking about?]

[i wanted SL to have a family, but I had no idea what the people at the Temple would have looked like or acted around him, so I imagined BaoShan Sanren hoarding children as she goes (which is canon anyway) but she’s a villain in this bc I’m an asshole.]

[SL is the only one of her children to have an actual father, hence he’s the only one with a last name different from Sanren (which I know is a title but let. me. live. *kissy face* :* :* :* many thanks.]

[I offer Lan QiRen as a tribute for fatherhood, even if I know SL’s surname is written like “mist”, while the Lan Sect is named after the character for “blue”. but let me dream.]

[also I just like the idea of SL’s auntie or big sister being WWX’s mother for no other reason that this is a silly prompt and I need to fill these additional notes with something vaguely resembling a plot.]

[if you want another role-reversed!au check this other (wangxian) prompt of mine. then check all the others and have fun.]

[in the movie there was a scene where the widower runs on a horse to save the man he (begrudgingly) has come to care about from his wedding.]

[for the majority if not the entirety of the movie the widower sees something of his dead wife in the criminal (who received the wife’s eyes through transplant) and denies any attraction to him until the end... even if he runs away with him.]

[the criminal has changed since the transplant and became somewhat a decent person. in the end he runs away with the widower.]

[I wanted actual romance, not plausible deniability, thanks. hence this stupid prompt someone might like, maybe.]

[if you write something based on this prompt (the most angsty or hurt/comfort-y the better, but also fluff or *coughs*smut*coughs* is good) send me an ask. I want to read it! :D]

ok now I go back to my 20k-and-counting monster fic. bye!!

#songxuexiao #songxue #xiaoxue #mdzs #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #cql #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #mdzs/au: modern #mdzs/au: noir #mdzs/au: role-reversed

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buckthegrump · 5 years

Text

Hands of Fate - 5

Summary: You have a secret. It’s a secret that you’ve been able to keep hidden from the world for years (with the help of one other person). But after a run-in with a group of HYDRA agents, you find yourself at the Avengers compound. And it’s proving harder and harder to keep your secret especially with one particularly observant supersoldier who doesn’t seem to trust you.

Word Count: 1832

Warnings: Some violence, angst (kind of), swearing

Pairing: Bucky x Fem!Reader (Eventually)

A/n: if you want to be added to the tag list send me an ask, please. Previous parts on my masterlist

The day that the team was supposed to come back came and went. You kept bothering Bucky to see if you should be worried but he didn’t seem to be so you shrugged it off, for maybe a few hours before you would find him again.

“What is your problem?” Bucky asked annoyed.

Because despite the fact that you’d been hanging around him more recently it was more in a creepy sense than anything else. You hadn’t really spoken to him since you healed him.

“Nothing,” you lied.

Bucky crossed his arms and waited for you to try again.

“I’m just worried about the team is all,” you answered and his previously hard face softened.

“They’ll be fine, and if they need help they’ll let me know,” Bucky got in your face and started studying you, “But if they do call me that means you’re not allowed to leave. You have to stay here until someone comes back.”

“I can protect myself,” you grumbled.

“Oh yes, the bullet wound I got shows me just how capable you are of taking care of yourself,” he rolled his eyes.

You flipped him the bird which made him laugh. It was a sound you couldn’t recall hearing before. You would never say it out loud but you liked it. It made you smile.

A few hours after that interaction the different groups of the team returned in 10 minute-increments.

They all looked like they’d gotten the shit beat out of them.

“What happened to you?” You asked Steve who stopped in front of you while everyone else slowly wandered down the hall to their rooms.

“HYDRA is a bit bigger than we thought,” Steve said as he rubbed his forehead.

“So I’m still stuck here.”

Steve gave you a sympathetic look, “Sorry, Y/n.”

You shrugged and he placed his hand on your shoulder.

“Cap,” Sam called and both you and Steve turned to him, “We have a debrief that we have to do.”

“I’ll see ya later then,” Steve said to you.

“Actually,” Sam said, “Fury wants her there too.”

“Why?” You asked.

“He didn’t say,” Sam said before disappearing.

Steve gave you a look and led you to the conference room. The entire team including Bucky was there. Nick was standing at the head of the table with his typical I’m-disappointed-in-all-of-you-for-various-reasons look. A look that you knew all too well but that never stopped you from not caring.

You and Steve sat in the two empty chairs placing you next to Natasha and directly across from Bucky who was staring at you. It wasn’t the usual glare he always gave you. No, this time it looked like he was studying you.

His gaze was unwavering and you squirmed uncomfortably.

“So,” Fury called all the attention in the room to him, but you could still feel Bucky’s eyes on you, “this week not only did we learn that HYDRA is stronger and bigger than we thought. But we also learned that Y/n has a death wish.”

Everyone’s attention turned to you and you glared at Bucky.

“What happened?” Tony asked.

“Someone went back to her old apartment because she ‘needed something’,” Bucky said.

“That was kind of a reckless move, Y/n,” Natasha said.

“I never claimed to be smart,” you told them, “I’m a certified dumbass that you left unattended.”

“We left you with Bucky,” Steve said.

“Which is the only reason she’s alive,” Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Well, at least I’m not the organization that let a terrorist group grow right under my nose,” you mutter under your breath.

“I heard that,” Fury accused.

You looked at him and shrugged.

“They are the ones that attacked me,” you pointed out.

“They attacked me,” Bucky corrected.

“No, they shot you, but they were after me,” you said.

“Well, if we’re blaming who let them get as big as they got maybe we should go all the way back to Cap,” Tony speculated.

“I thought I had when I put that plane in the water,” Steve quipped, “But I guess all my efforts were thrown out when someone found the tesseract but not me.”

“Oh so now we’re going to blame dead people?” Natasha asked sounding more offended than she should, considering she had no stakes in this.

After that everyone started arguing over who’s fault it was that HYDRA was still around. Wanda had tried to point out that this fight was useless, but then someone insulted her in some way or another and then she was all in shouting things in both English and Russain.

Nick was silently standing at the front of the room and when you turned to him with a smug expression on his face he only shook his head.

The fighting continued until F.R.I.D.A.Y. interrupted letting everyone know that Secretary of State Ross was on his way up.

“Why is he coming?” Tony asked.

“Did you fuck something else up?” Sam accused.

“Such hostility,” you commented with a smirk and Fury glared at you. You looked back to the group and then back to Fury only to find that he’d slipped out of the room.

A moment later an old white man in a suit strutted in.

“Secretary Ross, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Tony asked.

Ross looked at you then to Tony, “Who’s this?”

“Noneya,” you said and Tony coughed.

“Is that a first or last name?” Ross asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” you told him and he gave you a look.

“What are you doing here?” Steve asked.

“This,” Ross slammed a giant stack of papers onto the table and everyone looked at it.

“What’s ‘this’?” Steve slid the document over to him and opened it.

“The Sokovia accords,” Ross said, “When you sign it you are agreeing to have your missions dictated by the UN. So if there’s a situation in any country the UN ambassadors will vote on whether or not to send you in.”

“What happens if we don’t sign?” Tony asked.

“If you refuse to sign, you will be forced into retirement or you will be labeled as a fugitive,” Ross said, “I’ll give you time to think it over.”

Steve was still reading the document when Ross walked out the door. The rest of the team was already talking about what they should do and what the ramifications would be.

“Can I see?” You whispered to Steve and he positioned himself that you could also read the document.

You fiddled with the compass pendant while you read the document. You barely registered the babble going on around you. You were more worried about what this would mean for the powered people that weren’t part of any superhero group.

“Rogers,” Tony said and both you and Steve looked up at him, “What’s your take?”

Steve shook his head, “It just seems odd. Why now?”

You pulled the document so it was right in front of you and read a subsection at the bottom of the page you were on.

“Well, I think we should think about it and regroup later and talk about it,” Tony said and everyone agreed and walked out of the room.

You stayed behind and continued to read. Most of the legal garden you didn’t understand but there were a few key elements that you did. It made your stomach twist and you really didn’t want to be around for when this was put into effect.

“Why are you still in here?” You turned to see Bucky leaning against the doorjamb.

“I was just reading this,” you told him turning back to the paperwork.

He surprised you by sitting in the chair next to you.

“Why are you so worried about it?” He asked.

“Because this is the US government we’re talking about, sooner or later every law they make comes around to bite the little people in the ass,” you lie seamlessly.

“And what did you find?” He asked pulling the document to him.

“A bunch of legal shit that I didn’t understand,” you said, “Also it said that any and all powered people will register on a database that would include name, date of birth, power, and their current residence.”

“Why did that catch your eye?” He asked making eye contact with you.

Although, this time his gaze was soft and curious instead of hard and judgemental. It was throwing you off and you reminded of just how attractive the man sitting next to you was.

“Making people register? Didn’t the Nazi’s do that?”

“And this would come back around to bite the little people in the ass?” Bucky asked genuinely curious.

“With the US government? Yes, because if they can get the powered people to do it what’s to stop them from making the Muslims do it? Or any other minority that they might marginalize in the future?”

Bucky turned the chair so his whole body was facing you. He was studying your face. You could feel your heartbeat accelerate under his gaze and hoped that he couldn’t hear it with his superhuman hearing.

“That’s a good point,” he said.

“Thank you?” You said unsure of why he was suddenly being nice.

“Do you know?” He asked in a hushed tone.

“Know what?” You mimicked his tone.

He stared you down again and you just looked at him confused.

“Never mind it’s nothing I just-,” he paused and walked towards the door, “I thought my gunshot wound healed faster than normal, but I could’ve not been paying attention.”

“Oh ok,” you said and that seemed to be all he needed because he left the room after that.

Once the door closed behind him you let out a sigh.

“‘I’m not that stupid’ you said,” Fury’s voice came out of nowhere and scared the living shit out of you, “‘they won’t find out’ you said. And yet somehow here we are and Bucky knows.”

You turned to see Fury who was, ironically, furious. His eye was popping out of his head.

“Careful Fury or you’ll lose your remaining eye,” you said and he looked about ready to explode.

“Y/n,” he warned.

“Calm down, if anything he suspects and even then he thinks that I don’t know and it's only the healing power so it’s fine. Besides if these fools choose to sign the accords then I’m out of here.”

Fury put his head in his hand and waved you off.

“You give me anxiety,” he muttered.

“Where the fuck were you hiding?” You asked suddenly aware that he popped out of nowhere.

He looked at you mischievously, “Don’t worry about it.”

That night you couldn’t get yourself to sleep. Steve’s question rattled around in your mind. ‘Why now?’ It was a good question and you felt like the answer was so close but you couldn’t find it.

Until it was 2am and you sat up in your bed.

“Ross is with HYDRA,” you whispered into the night.

#Bucky Barnes x Reader #Bucky Barnes Fic #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky imagine #bucky barnes imagine

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desparikon · 5 years

Text

Murdoc/MacGyver fluff (+ bonus Murdoc/Bozer)

I knew I wouldn’t commit to any Flufftober prompt lists, but I still wanted to post something, so here are a few ficlets/misfires/small-things-that-probably-won’t-turn-into-actual-fics.

First up is a gift for @murdocsmacattack:

Murdoc stretched out on the couch, letting his muscles relax. He already felt calmer, and he’d been in MacGyver’s house for maybe ten minutes. Great decision, extending his trip so he could force their paths to collide.

How could he be wrong when his heart’s pull to Angus is this strong? They belong together. Keeping them apart left their lives incomplete and unnecessarily painful. Why couldn’t the world understand that? He would always be part of Angus’ life. They were inseparable now, nosy friends and “The Law” be damned.

"What're you doing here?" Mac took a few hesitant steps into his living room.

The waiting, loneliness, near misses. They’d all paid off tenfold. He'd dropped in on a half-naked Angus. No shirt, just PJ pants. Murdoc always had an appreciation for the beauty that is Angus MacGyver. Perfect mind, perfect body, but he’d outdone perfection this time.

MacGyver had been working out. His abs were smoothly defined, with a visible six pack. And his arms. Oh fuck. His arms were huge. God. Murdoc needed to touch them, feel the strength. There were so many things MacGyver could do to him. Give him a hug, hold him, maybe even carry him, punch him--

Or Angus could hold him down with them. If he started a fight, Angus would be willing to use force. Let MacGyver get the upper hand, then pretend to tire himself out. Angus would think he’d won, but the real winner would be Murdoc, as Angus restrained his arms and pressed that hard body against him...

"Hey!" A blush started to spread across Mac’s cheeks despite his glare; Murdoc's ogling hadn’t been subtle at all.

Murdoc blinked. "Hmm?"

Oh. Right, yeah, he wasn’t looking at a screen this time. Angus could actually see him.

"Why're you in my house?"

"Because I wanted to see you."

He didn’t look convinced, so Murdoc changed the subject before he accidentally said something sappy in reassurance.

"I was going to ask what you've been doing with yourself, but obviously. Like damn, there’s no way to ignore your immaculately toned arms! You belong in an art museum. A perfectly sculpted marble statue!”

“I’m not all that. You say stuff like that because you’ve built a fantasy of me. Some ideal that I’m never going to live up to. Then I’ll disappoint you, so you’ll have an excuse...” Mac sighed as he pulled his arms across himself and let his gaze drop. “You should know by now what’s wrong with me. That I’m not a work of art.” Murdoc followed his line of sight down to where he was letting his fingers brush over a spot on his chest.

Ah, yes. His bullet wound scar. Lots of emotional baggage attached to that one. But this wasn’t just about that. He’d apparently caught Angus on a bad day, and while he didn’t mind being an outlet for Angus’ feelings, Murdoc was probably better at the physical side of comfort.

“Let me make you feel better.” Mac didn’t hesitate to cross the room and lay his hand in Murdoc’s offered one.

Murdoc smiled as he pressed a few kisses to the back of Mac’s hand. “Well, I think you’re perfect the way you are. You know you’ll always be the masterpiece in my art museum.”

A small smile appeared on Mac’s face. “You don’t know when to quit. I feel like you’re about to pull out a bad pick-up line, saying something sappy like that.”

“I can set a mood.” Murdoc broke out his most charming grin. “If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?”

Murdoc planned to use Mac’s laughter as distraction to pull him down onto the couch, but he reacted too quickly and pulled his hand free, grabbing Murdoc’s wrist instead. He instinctively pulled his arm back, giving Mac momentum to flatten him back into the couch and straddle him. He pulled Murdoc’s arms above his head and ran his hands along them, firmly pinning them down when Murdoc tested his hold.

"Does this set the mood?" Murdoc fought back a moan as Mac emphasized the question by squeezing his wrists.

That little smirk was going to kill him.

"Oh, definitely."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I want to take a shower with you!” Mac playfully bumped against Murdoc as they walked down the hallway to his bedroom. “I’m gonna be lonely!”

“Should’ve thought about that before you pushed me into that bottomless mud pit.”

“Mud puddle. And I didn’t push you. You just lost your balance. Suddenly.”

“After-- Nevermind. Point is, now it’s dry, and it’s stuck to my skin, and it’s itchy.” He gestured toward his bed. “Why don’t you go make yourself at home on my bed? I know how much it appeals to your inner puppy.”

Mac couldn’t deny that. There’s something irresistible about a huge bed that begs him to roll around on it while rubbing his face on the soft blanket.

The sound of the bathroom door shutting caused Mac to whip his head around. “Hey!!” He rushed to the bathroom door and tried to turn the handle, even though he knew it’d be locked. “That’s cheating!”

“It’s not my fault you’re desperate to get into my bed.”

As he turned back, he noticed that Murdoc had forgotten his towel and clothes on the bed. Judging by the muffled groaning coming through the door, Murdoc had just come to the same realization.

"Ohhhh no! Who forgot this stuff on the bed?"

“Come on, MacGyver!”

“Oh my god! Are those--” Mac went over to the bed and picked up the pants Murdoc had laid out. “The best lounge pants ever! I love these! And they’re still warm from the dryer!” He kicked off his jeans and put them on, sighing happily at how well they fit. Why were Murdoc’s clothes always so comfy?

“These are mine now. Too bad for you, the dryer’s downstairs.”

“You think I won’t walk around naked in my own house?”

"Is it me, or is it a little hot in here? I’m gonna go turn the thermostat down, like, 10 degrees, and put this stuff back in the dryer, but don’t worry, I’ll be waiting right outside the door for you!”

It’d be great. Murdoc wouldn’t be able to dry off, so he’d be dripping water everywhere, with Mac hanging off him while he tried to get dressed—because how was Mac supposed to resist a naked Murdoc?

“Angus!” Mac knew from the whine that he’d won.

“I want a hand massage.”

“What?”

“You thought I was asleep that time, but I wasn’t.”

“Fine.”

“And I get to pet your hair! So. Fluffyyy~”

“You’re killing me, Angus.”

“I’m just acting as dramatic as you do.”

Murdoc opened the bathroom door and pointed toward Mac’s legs as he moved past him to get to his bed. “Take my pants off.”

“Gladly!”

Mac tackled Murdoc from behind, knocking him to the floor. Murdoc squirmed under him, trying to pry Mac’s hands from around his waist, where they were starting to unbuckle his belt.

"That’s not what I meant, and you know it!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bozer hummed as he finished winding the last light strand around his arm, and placed it onto the driveway next to the other rolls. The sun’s heat was made comfortable by the light breeze. When the weather was nice like this, he didn't mind that he’d spent the day untangling a box of lights.

And really, the worst part of decorating was yet to come: getting up on the roof, being careful to not fall off and die while hanging the lights. It'd be worth it though. Mac and he enjoyed the aesthetic of Halloween lights, and he couldn't wait to surprise Mac with a decorated house. Plus, the soft glow of holiday lights seemed to make everyone happy.

Now that all the strands were organized, he could better see what designs had been in the box of "Mystery Assorted Halloween Lights" he'd gotten for cheap. Pumpkins, black wire bats, ghosts, friendly-looking spiders, icicle style lights with whimsical skeletons. Those were Bozer's favorite. They'd definitely be going above the front door.

As he began lining up the piles in the order that he wanted to hang them, his back made contact with something. Furrowing his brow, he turned to look. He wasn't even close to the basketball hoop…

"Hey, Bozer."

Of course. Murdoc has the uncanny ability to detect when someone's having a good day. Then he’d ruin it because how dare people enjoy life.

Bozer rolled his eyes at Murdoc's self-satisfied smile. "Can't you ever greet people like normal?"

"You bumped into me before I could yell boo."

Bozer huffed and he turned his attention back to the lights. "Look, I didn't untangle all these lights just to have you murder me five minutes after. You better be ready for me to come back as a ghost and haunt you."

"Why does everyone assume I only appear to commit murder? I'm visiting."

Bozer debated whether to admit that he was home alone. If Murdoc knew Mac was gone, he might leave since flirting with Mac is his main entertainment, but it could also convince him to get on with whatever he'd planned, which didn’t bode well for anyone except Murdoc.

"Well, you'll have to cut your visit short. Mac's busy."

"I know he's not here."

A rush of fear ran through Bozer’s veins. How long had Murdoc been watching?

He crossed his arms, hoping to feign confidence. "Then...?"

"I’m visiting you, Wilt. You looked lonely. Figured you could use some company as you make your house all festive."

“No way. You’ll decide to make things “fun” and knock the ladder over, and then I’ll fall 500 feet to my death.”

“What if I said I’d get on the roof for you?”

“...Really?”

Bozer’s excitement must’ve been contagious because Murdoc’s smile lacked malice as he shrugged. “Sure.”

“I’ll get the ladder!” Bozer headed into the garage before Murdoc changed his mind. He saw a blur of movement in his peripheral vision and turned in time to see Murdoc launch himself up from the nearby raised planter, run up the house, \then pull himself onto the roof. Murdoc lived for the dramatics, but did he have to make it look so graceful?

And why did he have to parade around on the roof like a model owning a catwalk? Tall and confident. He knew he looked good. Although, maybe Murdoc wasn’t doing it on purpose. Mac wasn’t around to impress. Surely Murdoc didn’t like Bozer enough to want to impress him, right? No, Murdoc probably just enjoyed being up high so he could pretend to be a king overlooking his kingdom.

“Halloween!!!” Bozer bounced along the front of the house, amazed that all the lights worked. They were going to look fantastic when the sun set! “See! Even you aren’t immune to Halloween spirit. It’s chaotic. Just like you.”

When he looked up, Murdoc wasn’t standing there anymore. He’d moved to the part of the roof above the driveway, apparently considering it an acceptable spot to jump down to.

“NO!” Bozer ran over, frantically waving his arms. “You can’t jump off there! You’ll splat on the concrete!”

Murdoc’s mischievous smirk made Bozer nervous, and he unconsciously took a few steps back.

“Not if I land on you.”

“You’re not using me as a landing pad! Besides, you could probably still break something!” Murdoc didn’t look deterred. Risking injury usually didn’t, but it’s not like the situation was urgent. If he was going to be stupid and not wait for Bozer to get the ladder, then he’d have no one but himself to blame when he got hurt.

...But Bozer knew he’d feel bad if Murdoc got hurt. He sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

Murdoc’s face lit up. “You’re going to let me tackle you?”

“If it’s between that and you getting hurt, then yeah.”

Murdoc studied Bozer, his head cocked slightly. After a few moments, he walked to the side of the house, and carefully lowered himself before dropping the remaining few feet. He strolled over to stand by Bozer.

“Crazy,” Bozer mumbled.

“I try!” Now that he’d gotten some distance, Murdoc could better admire the lights. “I like it.”

“You did a good job.” Bozer hesitated before throwing his arms around Murdoc, trapping him in a sideways hug. “Thanks, Murdoc.”

#macgyver #mine

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jennycalendar · 6 years

Text

regarding honor and honesty in the workplace (34/43)

read it on ao3!

i CANNOT believe we’ve reached this point oh my Gosh. only 9 chapters left????????? what????? i’m gonna cry

from the personal diary of Faith Calendar:

Tara’s take on love is that it’s a complicated, messy thing. She says her dad loved her a bunch, but he just didn’t show it, and she always gets this almost frightened look on her face whenever someone brings up brothers—whatever’s up with her family, it’s pretty clear that they didn’t treat her the way she deserved.

My take on love has always been pretty simple: you don’t hurt someone you love. End of story. Thing is, though, the way I see Mom and Giles freaking out around each other all the time? Pretty clear neither of them figured that part out just yet.

Jenny looked at them, and then she ran. She was certain she was crying very hard by now, and that someone would follow her, and that her running out of the house in tears would frighten the girls beyond belief, but the first two facts flitted through her mind as innocuously as the list of items she had been intending to purchase at the grocery store. The last one, however, stuck, and upon reaching the foyer she took a sharp right turn into Rupert’s study, which was a catastrophic mistake.

Rupert’s study, during the various times Jenny had read or researched or just settled in for a good nap in his very comfortable desk chair, had always been impeccably, perfectly organized, with files in multicolored folders and those folders in neatly labeled boxes. Entering his study, Jenny was met with a study that looked like it had been hit by a hurricane, complete with a corkboard in the middle of the room and various documents pinned haphazardly around it. In the very center of the corkboard was Lilah’s face from her LinkedIn profile, smiling confidently at the camera.

Jenny looked at this corkboard, and at Lilah’s face, and just sort of sunk down to the floor of the office, hearing her own sobbing with a strange sense of disconnection. The panicked car ride had left her a complete wreck— and, exacerbated by the fact that she hadn’t once let herself cry since Rupert had been shot, all she could really do now was cry. It was like a whole bunch of emotions were being let loose.

She felt Rupert’s hands on her face. “Jenny,” he was saying, sounding terrified. “Jenny, what is it, what’s wrong?”

“You are so fucking stupid,” Jenny sobbed, only it came out garbled and mostly incomprehensible, and then she moved forward and buried her face in his shoulder. Rupert held her tightly, stroking her hair, and she tried to get herself to stop crying, but—it really wasn’t working, this close to him. Crying into his shoulder was really nice, comfortably comforting, and his arms around her were familiar and warm. “Absolute idiocy,” she managed, almost a term of endearment, and raised her head.

Sitting next to her, still with one arm holding her awkwardly close, Rupert reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, dabbing at Jenny’s face. Jenny leaned into his touch. “I’m sorry,” he said helplessly. “I am. I just—couldn’t bear seeing you so distraught, and so constantly.”

“So your solution was to try and blackmail my ex into making up with me?”

“Just—listen, please,” said Rupert, his hand shaking as he pocketed his handkerchief again. Jenny pulled back all the way to look at him, fury beginning to overwhelm the panic he’d just put her through, and he swallowed hard as he looked at her. “Every time you got a call, or, or a text, from Cordelia, from a potential client, from someone you wanted to help, you looked like you had just been slapped in the face. Detective work is something that means the world to you, and—and Lilah took that from you. I couldn’t sit by and watch your integrity continue to be compromised when you were clearly so miserable about it.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’d do something as fucking ridiculous as what you just tried to do,” said Jenny flatly. “Telling Lilah you’d do something that might get you shot again, all for the sake of trying to get her to talk to me?”

Rupert reached up, removing his glasses to polish them with the still-damp handkerchief. His eyes were on the lenses as he said quietly, “I did it because it’s quite clear you’re in love with her.”

The statement took Jenny completely by surprise. “What?”

Rupert looked up very slowly, as if it was causing him actual, physical pain to say what he did next. “You’ve been a complete wreck since she shot me,” he said quietly. “I’ve honestly never seen you like this. It’s as though you’ve been made uncomfortably aware of intense romantic feelings you cannot possibly act upon—”

“For you,” said Jenny.

The glasses all but slipped out of Rupert’s hands.

“For you,” said Jenny again, clumsily, and because she couldn’t think of anything else she could possibly say.

Rupert looked at her as though he thought he’d misheard—almost as though he was terrified he might have misheard.

“I don’t expect you to love me back or anything,” said Jenny. “It just—happened, okay? I’m sorry. I figured it out at the gala and I haven’t been dealing with it well. But I can’t have you getting yourself killed because you think I’m in love with someone who isn’t you, so—so I think I have to tell you that I’m in love with you, even if it means that—”

Rupert kissed her.

This. Was shockingly intense, and a kind of unrestrained passion that Jenny had had no idea Rupert was capable of. Tucking his glasses into his jacket pocket, he pulled Jenny fully into his arms, kissing her like he never, never wanted to stop kissing her. It was as though the only thing that mattered to him was her—and suddenly pieces were falling into place, just as they had at the gala. Rupert moving in front of the bullet without a moment’s hesitation. Rupert saying that he liked the way things were between just them, that it’d take a truly special person for him to date again, that he was in love with the job, that he valued the job, that he couldn’t lose the job—

Jenny pulled back, intending to ask—something, she wasn’t sure what, but Rupert leaned back in and kissed her again, a series of short, soft, lingering kisses that made it difficult for her to think. She kissed him solidly back, then rested her forehead pointedly against his to break the kiss, and that’s when she realized that she could feel him shaking. “Rupert?” she managed, breathless.

“I have been in love with you,” said Rupert, in a small, dizzy voice, “for nearly three years.” Then, “I may need a moment.”

“I’m sorry,” said Jenny, and managed a weak smile. “This whole mess really ismy fault.”

“Yes, all right,” said Rupert, and looked up at her with a dazed, unrestrained grin the likes of which Jenny had really never seen on his face before. She laughed, a little exhausted, and rested her head against his shoulder. “I do, um, have a few clarifying questions?”

“Yes, you’re an idiot, no, I don’t love Lilah, yes, I am absolutely in love with you,” said Jenny, who was stunned at how much she was smiling. “You know, I feel like neither of us are really processing this right now, so maybe we should have a follow-up chat a little later?”

“Oh, completely,” agreed Rupert, and wound an arm around Jenny’s waist, gently pulling them both up. Finding herself facing him, Jenny tilted her head up expectantly, and felt a butterfly-dizzy rush when Rupert kissed her again. “We should, um, get some rest.”

“Is Lilah still here?”

“She left before I went after you,” said Rupert, his smile wavering. “She doesn’t seem too pleased—”

“I’m dealing with that later,” said Jenny with an ambiguous wave of her hand, nearly clocking Rupert in the side of the head. She laughed, halfway to an apology, and he took her hand in his and kissed the knuckles. “I love you!” she said instead, breathless.

“I love you too,” said Rupert. “Do you want to go take a nap upstairs?”

“Yes,” said Jenny.

Jenny woke up because someone was banging very hard on the door. Exhausted, she curled into Rupert, and found herself thoroughly annoyed when he pulled away. “Just—stay there,” he said, running a hand through her hair, and pulled himself up and out of bed. Jenny, irritated, sat up to see what the hell all the ruckus was about, and found herself looking at Buffy and Faith, both of them standing outside the door with nervous, half-hopeful expressions.

“We heard crying,” said Faith, “and then we saw you guys go upstairs?”

“We’re napping,” said Rupert with an amusing amount of dignity. “If you like, you can nap with us, but your mother and I need our sleep. Thank you.” He tried to shut the door, but Buffy wedged her foot in the doorway. “For the love of—”

“Is Jenny okay?” Buffy asked. “She was so not okay when we were driving back to see what happened.”

“Jenny’s fine,” said Jenny. “Jenny needs more sleep, it’s been a long day, come back to bed.” This part was mostly directed at Rupert, who cast a thoroughly amused look over his shoulder before turning back to the girls. Really, Jenny thought, she’d honestly never seen him this happy. “Hold on,” she said aloud. “Three years of just—keeping your feelings on the down-low?”

“Very nearly,” said Rupert, and his smile widened.

“I barely made it three weeks,” said Jenny incredulously.

“Yes, well, you’re a bit better at solving mysteries than keeping your own life mysterious,” said Rupert, turning from the door to look at Jenny—well, exactly how he always looked at Jenny, minus the shyness. “Honest to a fault, at least about the most important things. It’s rather why I love you.”

Jenny bit her lip and smiled.

“Hold on,” said Buffy loudly, a slow, amazed grin spreading across her face. “Are you two—”

“Undefined,” said Rupert.

“Nebulous,” said Jenny.

“Really, truly none of your business,” Rupert added on.

Buffy and Faith exchanged truly giddy looks. “Oh, obviously,” said Buffy, eyes darting delightedly between Rupert and Jenny. “We wouldn’t want to intrude—”

“We really are just napping,” said Rupert matter-of-factly.

“For now,” said Jenny. Rupert shot her a That Really Doesn’t Help look, and she made a face at him in return.

“Holy shit, Mom, this is nauseating,” said Faith, who was grinning too much to be really convincing. “Are you guys gonna be flirting all over the place now?”

“No,” said Rupert.

“Yes,” said Jenny.

“You’re being very unhelpful,” said Rupert, and crossed the room to sit down next to Jenny on the bed. She turned her head to smile at him, and he caught her face in his hands and gave her a quick, light kiss.

There was a very loud shriek from the doorway, and Jenny and Rupert pulled apart to see that Dawn, who had just showed up, looked positively over the moon. “I knew it!” she shouted. “I knew it! I mean, Dad wasn’t subtle at all but Jenny! You guys—you’re finally—”

“Can you girls perhaps celebrate our love downstairs?” said Rupert, who looked tired but still quite happy. “Jenny and I have both been through quite a lot recently.”

“I wanna nap here too, as it happens,” said Buffy, and pushed past Dawn and Faith to settle herself in next to Jenny. “You two look super cozy and this is basically the best day ever—so,” and she snuggled into Jenny’s side, humming contentedly when Jenny raised an arm to pull Buffy a little closer in.

“Napping does sound good,” Faith agreed, tugging Dawn along with her to lie down next to Buffy. Dawn tugged herself free of Faith’s hand, clambering over pretty much everyone until she was lying next to Rupert.

“This bed is too small,” said Buffy.

“Shh,” said Rupert, and closed his eyes.

Were she a little more awake and a little less wrung-out, Jenny would be dizzily, hungrily taking in the absolute and total happiness she was feeling in that moment. But a lot had happened in a very short amount of time, and all she really wanted to do was rest and recalibrate, so she moved closer to Rupert and settled into his arms. Being this close to him, without nerves or reservation—it was new and familiar all at once.

I just want things to go back to the way they were, she’d said, and they had. Rupert and Jenny had always had a family together, and they had always been in love.

#fic #regarding honor and honesty in the workplace #can y'all b proud of me for not dropping spoilers about this fic?#i Wanted to. real bad

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