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rollercoasterwords · 11 months

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why are you invalidating people’s real concerns in this fandom? you’re naive if you think that “the fandom” doesn’t have opinions they all agree with that become popular. sure people have their own opinions, but honestly that’s very rare and not seen. you and i both could list popular headcanons in the fandom that people mostly take as canon. remus and sirius have turned into a straight couple, especially with the headcanon that sirius is now a girl. as a woman myself i love sirius as a girl but i hate how the fandom treats feminine sirius. sirius doesn’t have any depth anymore besides being remus’ love interest and sirius is always in the wrong and sirius is always the bad guy - just like society always blames women for everything and men always get a pass. literally look at the fanart. remus’ disabilities have been completely erased. remus is drawn as this huge super manly guy towering over little dainty feminine sirius. in fanfics remus is verbally abusive to sirius bc oh he’s a man and has anger issues. remus is a slut who everyone was in love with but eventually settles down with sirius. these are all stereotypes. idk why you’re trying to tell people this isn’t a thing in the fandom when it literally is.

assuming this is about the two anons i responded to two days ago, one of which was saying they did not like my particular characterization of r+s in a fic and asking me to rewrite it and the other of which was responding to it. both of my responses were focused around saying that my characterization didn't even fit the dynamic being complained about and saying the terms in which that complaint was being stated were odd in the first place (assuming one character being shorter than another automatically makes them feminine, calling a gay relationship heteronormative, asking to making a non-canon-compliant fic more canon compliant, etc). if someone has a real concern with my specific fic that is not premised in gender essentialism then i have yet to hear it; otherwise, i'm not sure how you want me to "validate" that concern unless you are also asking me to rewrite my fic. in which case, the answer is still no lol

and i genuinely do not think "the fandom" is monolith in which everyone agrees on everything; calling me naive is not going to change my mind. i agree that there are popular hcs, sure, but even those are not monolithic in their application and can be filtered and avoided--i know this because there are many popular hcs that i filter and avoid to the point that they are virtually nonexistent in my fandom space. i suggest others do the same with hcs they dislike because i genuinely think that's the best way to approach fandom: curate your space for your own peace of mind.

your experiences with fandom are not singular and are not representative of everyone's. from where i'm sitting, writing sirius as a girl is not a super popular hc--i've seen the hc from time to time, but overwhelmingly i've seen it in the context of r/s femslash, not people writing them as a straight couple. and even then, i still mostly see r/s written as gay men in the vast majority of fics i read and like...posts the people i follow make on tumblr.com. i don't use other platforms to interact w marauders content nor do i stray outside my small circle of mutuals' posts, so if this is some mega-popular hc elsewhere i am simply unaware. from the actual fics posted on ao3, though, gay r/s still seems to be dominating the wolfstar fandom. and to then say that sirius has no personality past being a love interest and always being blamed for everything--again, this is genuinely not something i see. i have never read a fic where sirius is a one dimensional love interest or where it's just sirius-bashing; i'm sure they exist out there somewhere, but i have not found them to make up a majority. maybe i've gotten lucky and miraculously managed to avoid the numerous fanfics where sirius is this caricature you're describing, but personally i think it's more likely that this is an extreme representation of the way people write the character. if you'd like to send me some of the many fics where this is happening to illustrate what you mean, though, feel free.

remus's canonical disability is lycanthropy. that has not been erased in any of the fics i've read that are set in the magical universe. in every non-magical au i've read, he has been written as a disabled character as well. there are plenty of people in this fandom who are not erasing disability as an aspect of his character. if you're not able to find those fics i would be happy to recommend some, and i'm sure others would as well.

i have not seen the fanart you're referring to where remus is drawn as a super manly guy towering over dainty feminine sirius. i'm sure it exists out there, but most of the fanart i personally see doesn't portray them that way--it is definitely not the only way these characters are drawn.

none of the fanfics i've read have had anything that i would characterize as verbal abuse between remus and sirius. nor have they had remus as "a slut," (not crazy about your tone here, tbh) though he is sexually active in some fics i've read with people other than sirius. personally i don't mind characterizations where the two have had or do have sex with other people before getting together. in fact, i prefer it to fics where they only ever sleep with each other, as it more accurately reflects my own experiences w the world (ie, most people are not virgins until "settling down" with one person etc).

all of the things you're describing here can be stereotypes, sure. but i personally have not seen an overwhelming number of fics characterizing r + s this way. i'm not saying it doesn't exist; i'm saying that i have curated my own space to avoid any such one-dimensional portrayals and encouraging others to do the same, because there are tons of people who are not writing the characters this way. "the fandom" is not a monolith, and if you feel like there are certain hcs that are super popular it's possible you've become stuck in a feedback loop where you're seeing them over and over again when in other parts of the fandom they are virtually nonexistent (case in point: i was blissfully unaware of all of this discourse until i started getting these asks). personally, i find it more useful to just block and unfollow people who are posting stuff i don't like, because i don't really see a way to try and police what people are or aren't allowed to write about when it comes to gender in fanfic that doesn't eventually devolve back into gender essentialism. if the concern is that you're noticing what appears to be a certain standard of femininity or masculinity elevated over others, then i personally find it more helpful to have conversations breaking down gender roles + gender essentialism more broadly (as opposed to sending people anonymous messages about how everyone is writing sirius too feminine and remus too masculine), which is something i already do pretty frequently on my blog.

this is the only ask about this whole discourse i'm going to answer; any complaints that "the fandom" as a whole is doing something are not something i'm interested in entertaining because the fandom isn't a monolith and 90% of the time the complaint in question is not even something i'm seeing based on how i've curated my space. i really don't know what to tell you beyond that--if there are things bothering you about what you're seeing in your fandom spaces, coming into my askbox is not going to fix it and will most likely just end with me blocking you, because i have better things to do with my time than deal with other people's discourse.

#ask

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illumiera · 8 months

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Hello, it's my turn to take a slide into your inbox with questions from the writer's asks! 💖

33, 35, 13, 70, 40!

from this 📖 ask game! 📖

ee, thank you so much for the ask, Gigi! 💖

13. what's a common writing tip you almost always follow?

here's where I give almost the exact same answer you did, and that's "write for yourself." when I started writing i fear no fate, I didn't think I'd have any readers besides the odd one or two, and I did expect to post it to a resounding silence or responses from people who didn't like the way I portrayed my characters—but ultimately, it was a story that was downright clawing its way out of me, so I resolved that I had to tell it all the same!

it's a very freeing thing, to think of how many similar ideas there are in the world and yet each author brings their own uniqueness to whatever tale they tell, so why not let your story speak for you? if your heart wants a certain thing to happen, why on earth not let it? 😼

33. do you want to be published some day?

I go back and forth on this one! I know the road to publishing can be a hassle and a half, and there will almost certainly be rejections to deal with, but I have the rough outline of an original story and some characters I'm rather fond of, even if they need more development. it's something to consider in the future, but for now, I love my fanfic playground!

35. what is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

for me, one thing I try to keep in mind with my villains is that they should have motivation for what they're doing. as fun as a character who's just evil for the hell of it can be, I like to consider what made them into the villain they are, what they want, how they plan to get it, and how the hero/heroes stand in their way. i fear no fate has a good few antagonists (several of whom we haven't properly met yet 👀) with varying motivations from knowledge and power, to keeping the world as it is, to fixing the world, to plain ol' revenge, and all of them have convinced themselves that they're doing the right thing!

40. if someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

ANYTHING AT ALL WOULD, AND DOES, MAKE ME GRIN, CRY, AND DANCE HAPPILY ABOUT THE PLACE FOR THE NEXT TWELVE BUSINESS DAYS, THEN REPEATEDLY COME BACK TO LOOK AT IT AND RESTART THE WHOLE PROCESS—

ahem. that said, if someone were to make fanart, I'd love to see something from that scene in chapter two where Miraak and Elentari are in the tent (h-o-l-d-i-n-g-h-a-n-d-s 👀), or something of their fight in chapter three, or of course, that kiss at the end of chapter four! or maybe even Ellie in full silvery Dragon Aspect standing up to Mora in chapter four, Miraak braiding his hair into the old Atmoran style for 'freedom' from the end of chapter six! 🥰

70. when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

in fandom spaces, I'm generally very enthusiastic about it, especially when fellow writer friends and I can ramble about our blorbos and plots together! outside of those spaces, though, I'm more of a private sort—but a few of my IRL friends who read fic themselves know that I write and, without any details, ask me how it's going and tell me about their writing endeavours. the mortifying ordeal of Showing Another Person Your Writing, huh?

(if they ever found my stuff, I'd be like, "okay, buckle up, buddy, next time I see you, you're receiving a one-hour long presentation about this story, don't worry about why all the exits will be barred, it's fine—")

#ask game #writing #i fear no fate (for you are my fate)

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subzeroiceskater · 8 months

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Yuletide 2023

Hey, Subzero Ice Skater here, thanks for reading this and considering writing for me. It’s my second time doing Yuletide but first time doing a letter. I am still feeling my way back through fanfiction; right now I feel I could be up to just about anything, if written with love, confidence, and good will. However, it’s probably more difficult to write without some idea of who you’re writing for. It’s easier to edit down a mountain of words than coming in fresh at a white blank page.

I know Yuletide is the small fandom exchange but I’ve never really been part of an overly huge fandom, especially one that had me wanting to read its fic or having a huge amount of fic at all. I felt like I never got to experience through beginners’ fanfic tropes that I read other fans all the time. Mostly the fluffy stuff: the five things plus one, the fake dating, the coffee/bookshop/library AUs, sickfic, whatever a wingfic is–the tried, true and usually shippy–it’d be fun to finally get to read that. I think that’s what I’m mostly looking for–something really fun, probably fluffy. That kind of fic is probably more fitting if keeping to the lower, relaxing end of Yuletide.

But on the flipside, I love the more serious kind of fics: character studies, stories with a touch of wistfulness, maybe horror; where characters learn fundamental truths about life and are forever changed, or something is slowly revealed about the world around them. Atmospheric pieces. I’m a big fan of those English Western literary short stories–stories with a twist, either happy or not.

I think if unsure, it’s probably best to go with a happy or hopeful ending. Or if it’s that puts the character(s) through the wringer, something that ends with powerful catharsis. I think if you hit on a hit on an idea and you’re confident with your skill, I’d say go for it.

Stuff I like:

Women being cool

World History

the Arctic

Acknowledgement/presence of Indigenous people/history/practices especially in spaces usually believed to be the province of Western/white people (eg in the history of the Arctic)

Astronomy

unusual formats (example: epistolary format)

unusual POVs (stories told from an outsider’s or an NPC’s experience)

connecting themes like flower or plant or animal symbolism, flower languages or objects that can reveal something their character

passages of time (a day-in-the-life, four seasons in a year, birth to death, first and last times)

literary AUs (one time I saw somebody request a Gawain and the Green Knight AU for Mega Man and I just fell so in love with doing something like that) (even cooler if it’s something that’s not from the familiar Western literary canons, say Latin American, South East Asian, Arctic literature, as long as you’re up for it.)

Bisexual characters

Gender non-conforming characters

Time travel/Time loops/Temporal Fish Out of Water/ Time Travel shenanigans in general.

If you’re really confident, playing with meta, like a self-aware narrator or the narrative coming alive.

Crossovers with stuff I like! I think I’m supposed to say I’m opting-in. If you’re familiar with more than one of my fandoms, especially the ones requested here, and somehow work out a way where my favorite characters meet/interact/even just help each other from the sidelines, I bet that could be very cool.

For the robot characters, going “let us contemplate our humanity”

Happy/ fun/ awkward sex with lots of laughter.

Parallel plots that combine at the end.

Vignettes.

Culture/personality crashes

Crack treated seriously

Puns

Holiday/Christmas fic (doesn’t have to be, obviously)

My tolerance for violence is fairly high, but I’m going to stick to Violence-For-Rule-Of-Cool-Sexy-or-Funny. If they get permanently injured or just for the duration of the story, I want stuff that makes them look hot or cool, like scars or eye patches or crutches. I’m also more than okay with topics like suicidal thoughts or ideation. I’d actually welcome it especially if it’s in service of catharsis. Whatever their bodies can stay broken but their spirit don’t, at least, not at the very end.

DO NOT WANTS: Scat Watersports Omegaverse Readerfic (First or second person POV is okay if playing around with unusual or unreliable narrators)

Art and treats are welcomed. If you give any art based on any characters requested here, I’m probably going to cry. ;___; If you’re a visual artist, I’d love to see you use new techniques or whatever you’ve always to do as practice. Use me as your guinea pig!

Rockman | Mega Man Classic

Tundra Man, Bounce Man, Block Man, Impact Man

Tundra Man as the fic focus–the story is about him, features him in a major way, or about somebody/something else but from his POV. Bounce Man, Block Man, Impact Man could appear as POV/major/supporting/background/mentioned characters.

I’m completely normal about Tundra Man. He’s my favorite Mega Man character and I fell in love with him at first sight and I’m absolutely pretty much always ravenous for anything more about him. I’m not weird. I think he’s gorgeous and his backstory is cool and moved me. Imagine being built for one thing, completely falling in love with another, and giving absolutely everything about yourself to your chosen art?

Tundra’s past– I’d love to see exploration of his past life: his daily and implied solitary life and work as an arctic robot, how or when exactly he was inspired by figure skating on television, or how he balanced his work and his newfound passion for skating before the events of the game. All the decisions he had to make when he was modifying himself. As a polar exploration robot, where did he go? As land development robot, what did he do? The fact that he could even decide to modify himself, when apparently, all the robots don’t have true free will, is so endlessly fascinating to me–what does that imply about Mega Man’s world and its robots? And it’s never revealed how he looked with tougher-exterior, so what did he look like? Does it matter to him? Does miss being stronger? Was the price worth it?

Tundra’s future– Or maybe skip a bit to his future–Tundra gets rebuilt after the events of Mega Man 11, and he decides to pursue a career in figure skating. What’s that like? I’ve seen a (way too) few interpretations of how Tundra would tackle that and I’d just love more. What is competitive figure skating like for robots? Would somebody like him be able to just do that? Does he face any obstacles or objections from his creators? Does he face any backlash from what he did to the city and city museum? Did you know in his original Japanese profile, it’s said he was inspired specifically by ice dancing? A sport that is a totally different beast than singles ice skating? What if he originally did want to do ice dancing? What other challenges or opportunities or culture clashes would a solitary ice robot who spent years in the Arctic encounter when thrusted into a highly competitive, highly publicized, seemingly glamorous world of competitive ice skating? How would someone like him, a robot who had to do self-modifications, actually compete against actual sports robots simply built for skating and nothing else? Is he unique or severely underqualified? Are there even such a thing as professional robot ice skaters or was he watching a human ice skating competition? Does he get support from Cossack Labs or Dr. Light or does he get punished for going against his original design. And another thing, what is up with him being built by Cossack Labs but him showing up with Dr. Light’s lab at the beginning of Mega Man 11–what is the story there, is he a reverse Beat–

Tundra and the Arctic – Sorry, I’m but I’m totally normal about Tundra. This one is about a tundra AU–despite being called Tundra Man, neither his stage (which mostly takes place in a museum), nor his current passions (figure skating) nor his original purpose (polar exploration or development) seem to reflect the tundra much. I think it’d be easy to write Tundra as completely abandoning his original purpose for skating but I’d like to headcanon where he still cares a lot for the tundra and the welfare of the Arctic as a whole. There are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions about the Arctic and I’d love to see that as a reflection of the man himself. It’s not always eternal ice–the tundra is a biome that supports life and people all year around, and have for thousands of years. There’s spring, summer, fall, and winter in the Arctic tundra. Maybe something like a fisher king situation where the landscape reflects his state of mind or where he is in life, maybe it’s just symbolic. Maybe it’s literal since he’s a powerful robot made for land development. Maybe it’s magic realism. His purpose being about land development in Arctic brings up interesting implications but it’s really addressed in canon. There was even a joke about how people never getting to see his performance as bad global warming. Climate change is still a thing in their world when Chill Man is described to be made to stop the glaciers from melting. How does Tundra himself deal with climate change in his world when land development in the Arctic usually mean using up its resources and hastening global warming. Does he feel guilty? Does he ignore it? Does he work with anti-global warming robots like Chill Man or does he clash against them? Is pursuing his passions selfish in light of this?

Tundra people & animals! –I understand if topics like global warming and climate change can get too depressing so if you can just focus on Tundra loving and caring about the tundra. I’d love to see Tundra being cute with tundra animals, whether robots like his stage’s Ice Swans or biological like the huskies, seals and bears mentioned in his profile. Maybe he got so good with modifying robots because he was in charge of repairs for the animal ones. Maybe the living animals ended up watching him because he was in charge of tracking them first. If there are any original human characters featured, I’d love there to be Indigenous Arctic people. I really dislike the story and perception of the Arctic being so overwhelmingly white and mostly about Western colonization, with little thought of the Indigenous people who lived there for thousands of years, seeing them as nothing more than ancient history. Again, I understand that topics could be depressing, and maybe rather be avoided, but there’s no need to get heavy on it, either. I'd just like to see Indigenous people being presented in Mega Man’s world just as much as any other nation. Like, if there’s scientist, citizens, travelers, entrepreneurs, or what have you, and it takes place in the Arctic (or even not), it’d be cool if background characters could be native or at the very least, not overwhelmingly white.

Bounce Man – Bouncy is adorable and cute; thinking about him makes me want to cry. He has my favorite stage music of the game! If I could request longfic of my faves I would. I’m mostly interested in a Tundra-focused fic so for any appearance by Bouncy, I’d like it to be on support for him. It’s easy to dismiss such a happy-go-lucky character described as having childlike innocence as having no depth or unable to feel any “real” emotions but I’d love a serious take on him, while still keeping his upbeat attitude. A sort of “crack taken seriously” but robot bouncing form. I wanna see him seriously played against Tundra, they’ve got some good parallels going on.

Bounce was also transformed from his original purpose, but unlike Tundra, it wasn’t his choice. Also unlike Tundra, who WANTS people to know who he is and what he does, Bounce is already established as a household name (with his own brand of exercise–Hopxercise) and beloved by people (well, kids). Bounce Man was transformed from something with underground utility (crash test dummies aren’t known for public appeal) to something that brings a lot of people joy (an adorable, probably profitable, athletic mascot). I’ve always felt there was some horror to make something self-aware crash test dummy that’s made just for the sole purpose of dying over and over again. And then he gets turned into a funny clown fitness instructor. There’s definitely a story there, feel–a horror, maybe the consequences of capitalism and fitness culture or something.

Is Tundra jealous of Bounce’s appeal? Does he try to leverage his relationship with Bounce Man somehow? How do they react to each other? Does Bounce not notice since he’s too happy-go-lucky? Or he does notice but he just does not care? Bounce is basically a fitness coach so does Bounce use his expertise to help out Tundra achieve his figure skating dreams? How would robot-to-robot exercise work anyway?

Ship/Sexfic: Sex with Mega Man robots! How does it go down?

I don’t have a favorite Tundra ship but I’d love to see a take on a Tundra x Bounce pairing. It doesn’t have to involve sex, since I’m more than happy with them as friends or lovers but non-humanoid robots don’t get as much play with the fandom, especially not with sex, and I’d love for someone else to try it with Bounce. Bounce is a big moving weight ball with long stretchy arms and more than thick enough fingers. Plus, Bounce is basically a clown robot in charge of a gym with lots of access to exercise equipment and utilities. Plenty of opportunity to stretch all kinds of things. Considering Bounce’s personality, I’m looking for something funny than straight up hot, but I’m sure there’s plenty of opportunities for funny and/or heartwarming sex.

Block Man and Impact Man – I nominated them because I’d nominate all the MM11 robot masters if I could. I love them all but Block and Impact are slightly less popular since they’re more of the less humanoid of the robots and they’re my favorites after Tundra and Bounce. I adore that Block’s a huge history nerd with an ambitious heart to build like ancients and that Impact’s basically four people (he’s three robots who consider himself brothers and could change control or split depending on the situation, that’s so cool and how does that work? How does he feel?) I especially love that they’re canonically drinking buddies and I headcanon them as ride and die brothers-in-arms. You don’t have to include them fic but it’d be nice if they could be supporting characters, can make a background appearance, mentioned somewhere, or help influence the plot in some way. Some ideas: they have to help fix or build something for Tundra and/or Bounce. Maybe something goes wrong with Boing-Boing Park. Maybe there’s a secret plan to help build a training ice rink for Tundra. Maybe the two invite Bounce and Tundra on their drinking trips and they talk about love, life and ancient history (both personal and real world). Maybe it’s just as cute as the four robots just hanging out in the Arctic and building snowmen, snow pyramids and enjoying each other’s company.

Other Mega Man 11 Robot Masters are more than welcome to show up. As is pretty much any associated characters like Rock and Roll and Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. If you can throw in the Cossacks somewhere and explore their dynamics somewhere, I would immediately meet my expiration date out of happiness.

Fandom DNW:

Bounce having a childish and naive means he’s treated as a literal child. If Tundra, Impact and Block are considered adults in robot years then should Bounce. Please treat Bounce as an adult that happens to act childish and not a literal kid.

Tundra being dismissive or not caring about the Arctic.

Advance Wars

Jess, Jake, Colin, Worldbuilding

Jess x Jake as a ship, Colin as a major/supporting/background/mentioned character, Worldbuilding that features all three or any of Advance Wars characters.

There’s Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp out there but I’d like to stick with the canon of the original three games (Olaf’s defected from Orange Star, Eagle being surprised at being beaten by a girl, Cosmo/Macro/Omega Land existing as separate continents, their appearances (not a fan of Jess’s redesign specifically) etc). It might be a mess, canon-wise, but it was the mess I fell in love with.

I’m starving for Jess x Jake. Just give me something anything, I’ll be so grateful aaaah. From the fluffiest fluff to heaviest military fic! I’m also very normal about Jess x Jake. I love them both individually and together; Jess GreenEarth is my everything and I think Jake’s so fun, but for this, I’d like them to be treated as a set and shipped, shipped, shipped together like an overnight package. For something that has some canonical basis (they have a Tag Power in Advance Wars: Dual Strike), there’s absolutely nothing for them. I’m a multishipper and also like them with other people but, in my heart of hearts, they’re the OTP. I think for most people, they don’t ping off with shippy vibes, especially compared with their possible tags or interactions in the games – Javier is outwardly romantic towards Jess, it’s very hard to not see Sasha’s interactions as romance and Jake is clearly devoted to Rachel. I’ve heard that a relationship is more like mentorship than romantic and I agree–and that’s why I think they’re so good together. The relationship that’s sweet, solid, dependable, sweet, and maybe more than a little silliness.

Colin - Colin’s actually my favorite male character. He’s just this proper little gentleman who shows hints of inexperience. He’s very booksmart with military tactics but still so very impressionable, especially to those he admires, and I don’t think that would change when he grows up. He’s just so mature in some ways and totally inexperienced in others. I’d like him to make an appearance somehow and help the couple along–maybe he’d like some lessons from Jess, maybe he’s curious why his sister Sasha is so taken with Jake; maybe his Power of Money could help kickstart whatever scenarios happen with Jake and Jess.

Or you could flip my last request–Colin as the possible focus or POV of the story while JakexJess happens in the background. Maybe Colin doesn’t quite recognize what’s happening, or maybe he does and he somehow helps them get together in his own quiet Colin way. Jess mentoring Colin as well–they’re both from so different social backgrounds but they also both have this studious, honor student approach to the military. How much are they different, how much are they alike? A Jess and Colin friendship would be precious to me.

I’d love it if all three of them are featured equally somehow (anthology??? Baton pass story telling?) but I don’t mind if the focus is not equal, because I do love all of them so much.

I’ve been into flower languages lately and Jess’s favorite thing is apparently dandelions. What could Jake’s and Colin’s favorite flowers be? What does this say about their characters? Is it meaningful to their life or does it remind them of a certain period of time in their life? A person maybe. Maybe their home countries.

Jake and Jess geeking about tanks and machinery would be so good.

So in the game, they don’t really do well in snow. Maybe they get stuck in a blizzard and get snowed in some place and very sexy, sexy shenanigans happen. I’m all in for Jake x Jess smut. My only preference would be Jess femdom. Maybe Jess could be a mentor for Jake in more ways than one.

Jake and Jess are ride-and-die for each other. By this I mean, literally. Maybe not sexually, but that could be funny, too. In a similar idea, they use their Tag Power together but it somehow translates to them actually playing “heavy metal”. Full on ridiculous, unleashing their full potential means re-enacting the scenes from Mad Max Fury Road, Flame Guitar style.

They keep spending all their time working, fighting and unconsciously finding all the reasons to spend time with each other, completely unaware they’re already in love with each other.

For something a little more serious and realistic, they’re in an established relationship but having some trouble navigating a long distance relationship between Green Earth and Orange Star. They’re also from totally different countries and upbringing (roughly speaking Germany and the USA). They might get a little strained but they’re still determined to work it out and have their happy ending together.

Colin, for some reason, buys out an amusement park and for some reason, Jess and Jake decided they HAVE to test out all the rides–no one asked them to, but they just felt it was their duty, you know. What no, it wasn’t an excuse to act out a date. There’a war going on and they’re two very serious, very adult, military personnel; not two teenagers in love. Now watch them break the speed limit on these bumper cars.

Actually, Colin buys/does something and Jess/Jake deals with it in their own way.

They all end up in Blue Moon’s equivalent of the Arctic Russia somehow, say on a mission, and they experience what the Arctic have to offer (northern lights, harsh winters, polar bears???)

Jake is taken aback by Jess even bringing up hot springs. Maybe he was just way too distracted by the image of her + hot springs. How distracted could he get when those hot springs joke become real.

Missing scenes between or during one of the game's missions. A take on their final convo before the last battle.

I also adore the Allied Nations a lot and I’d really love it if they could show up. Not necessary but it’d be so good to have fic with screen time for Sasha, Grimm, Sensei, Javier and my beautiful sweet girl, Rachel, especially the old timers. They’re not very popular but I love them so much. I also love the Bolt Guard so if you need some villains for your story for any reason, I’d love to see them.

Advance Wars (Worldbuilding)

If you could feature female infantry soldiers or officers as being a normal part of the military that’d make me so happy. I don’t mind appropriate enough sexism since that was a part of the original games (or even some racism as a result of historical fighting between countries) but Wars World is mostly chill so I’d like to keep the representation positive and progressive level. This is a world where female COs are the norm so it’d be nice if the rest of its military mostly reflect this. If you want to tackle a more realistic then, especially in service of a more serious fic take, then okay, but it's more fluffy and lighthearted then let the world reflect this, too.

Maybe you want to take on a particular worldbuilding, well, fine, I wanna read your meta, but there seems to be this desire to make Advance Wars gritty and realistic and “make it make sense!” when I really do prefer the cartoon wars world. Yes, this is a world where children, teens and grandpas fight in the army with superpowers, but don’t try to justify with realism, just go with it! I don’t mind poking fun with the silliness of the world but at the end of the day, I just want any roasting and exploring to be done with genuine love, and not embarrassment.

Fandom DNW: I love memes and stupid jokes but please, no “What’s an airport again” gag or any references to it. Nothing else in Advance Wars fanfic will immediately and negatively take me out than that.

Please don’t overly feminize Jess especially in some attempt to correct her gender expression or shove into traditional strict gender roles. She’s fairly in butch and gender non-comforming in appearance and in character. But please don’t go the other way and make her into an unemotional, unsmiling, uncaring men or people hater. I’m really not fond of the Re-Boot Camp redesign. It’s implied she worked her way up against sexism, I’m okay with some of that being present or getting believably sick of it. She’s been described in her Japanese profile as an otokomasari, but while she doesn’t get along with Eagle and she says she doesn’t quite “get” people like with battles, she shown also very kind and friendly towards Jake, Javier and Drake, and she’s mentioned to be popular with her troops which definitely has men it, too. Please think of her with a strong, knowing, gentle smile.

Another Eden

Riica, Zilva, Toova, Another Eden Worldbuilding

Gen fic focusing Zilva and Riica, not necessarily together; optional Toova appearing as a major/supporting/background/mentioned character, Worldbuilding is optional

She’s a work android who’s a little WHACKy*, he’s a gentleman soldier who loves writing letters to his wife–together they fight crime! Well, not exactly. There are dozens of dozens of characters in Another Eden, and so many times, places, stories that I honestly don’t know where to begin. However, these two are my favorite characters and while they didn’t have direct interactions, I’d love fic or art about them. Maybe they go on a time travel adventure together, solving problems like delivering lost letters, or finding lost cats. Maybe one of them gets in trouble and the other helps them out like Riica breaks down and only Zilva is around to help or Zilva seems really sad one day and Riica misunderstands the situation but ends up cheering him out anyway. They don’t even have to be together or at all; I’d be happy with a split up story or scenes that may or may not be connected at the end.

*her weapon type is hammer

I really like them because they’re both odd ducks in their way even in their own team/game–even as a pretty adorable gothic lolita character, Riica’s the only visibly “robot” like playable character–almost all non-human like girls look more like conventional humans. Zilva is the only visibly old man playable in the game. They’re both cool but I like how they stand out from the other playable characters.

Zilva is one of the few characters with the art personality. Along with the letter writing, I think it'd be wonderful to see him make art and use that to help people in some way. Art probably meant visual art but what if he’s particularly well-versed in the art of writing? Calligraphy and the like. If you want to speculate what exactly happened to his wife and how this still exactly drives him, please do.

I just think Riica is adorable and very funny. Her off-kilter personality and robotic manner could make for some fun situations and interactions.

We’ve got a character from the present times, a character from the far future, and bringing up a character from antiquity, here's Toova.

By the time Aldo and the gang meet her, she’s already about three thousand years old; she’s implied she might be able to survive way into Riica’s time, over twenty thousand years, easy. Even though Zilva looks older and Riica’s a machine, she’s probably the most mature and “together” of the three. It might be hard to juggle between three viewpoints, I’m okay with her being a supporting character or even just a cameo. She could be one asking help or the one they turn for advice. She might never show up at all but her presence can be felt in the background or through letters. I want to imagine all of Aldo’s traveling companions end up as friends. Maybe Toova and Zilva could end up talking about Toova’s Orphia and Zilva’s wife.

Worldbuilding: Again, the settings of Another Eden encompassed so many eras, places and even timelines, it’d be hard to pick to focus on. If you’ve got any ideas for something to focus on, I’d love to read it. I’ll be honest, I’ve probably forgotten a huge chunk of background lore since there’s so much of it and I play every so often but if you want to write something particular, go for it.

I think since AE is so big on time travel, I’d like to see it treated as a theme in general. Like, a story that’s about the past, present and future. Maybe it’s literal as them hopping from era to era in an attempt to right something that was wrong. Maybe it’s as low stakes as finding a lost cat or delivering a forgotten letter. They must be aware of Aldo’s time traveling adventures so it’d be possible if the story could incorporate stuff like time loops or playing with time travel tropes in general. It could be present in the story itself like presenting a non-linear narrative or a story going backwards, or sidewards.

If possible I want the focus split between Riica and Zilva, and a huge side helping of Toova, but I don’t mind the rest of the cast or even original characters making an appearance and helping out with the story.

Fandom-specific DNW:

I know it’s something that happens in canon but please no jokes about how Toova is self-conscious about how old she is. The whole “haha obviously beautiful women are still so superficial about their ages and looks” joke is so tiresome to me. I don’t imagine Zilva could ever be that rude but I don’t like Riica or any other character commenting and Toova overreacting. Discussions or comments about aging, growing, or mortality are fine. Even other jokes or gags about it are fine, just no “it’s rude to ask a woman her real age” gags.

No smut or ship requests for this fandom. Background couples/shipping are okay if you wanna bring in other characters and their relationships. Non-canon ships are okay to appear if you have them.

Thanks for getting this far. I’m looking forward to reading the story that only you can tell.

“It's not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn't be the audience. They would be the artists. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need.”- Alan Moore

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zu-is-here · 2 years

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Ok, so...this one might be weird one XD

So yeah, TW about sexual topics

I've been in fandom for a long time, so of course I saw a... Lot of not kid friendly stuff here. Well, some of the best fics on AO3 about Undertale still are the ones with smut in it XD you know, you get in expecting some nice lemon and get some large, really amazing story with it. What can be better???

The problem is, with how much LGBTQ+ were getting bigger those past few... Years(?) I started wondering, if there is maybe some name for it.

Like, it feels different, when you are reading about characters you like, and some random people (real life videos included)

And the worst thing, I think it doesn't match under fictosexualizm, because... Well, it's not attraction to character in this sense? It's not about xReader, when you are supposed to get in role of the guy doing it, but about how those characters interact, this sweet angst you can understand, or just cuddles, or just them doing the thing.

Like, shiping them and them getting together make you riled up? Dunno if I explained it well XD

Maybe there's no name for it. Maybe it's just shiping on higher level. But it got me thinking, cuz... It's hard to tell if it's just me, or others feel similar way. Like, there are people who see themselves in Cross's "skin" or something, so I can see they also enjoyed the story, but can't tell if it's because they made Cross the reader, just liked the story, or also are screaming in their pillow when those two dumbasses talk things out so ship become cannon in story XD

Maybe I got a bit off the topic, well. In short:

Is this weird to get so excited about some fictional characters getting together and making kids, and are there others who feel the same way?

(ps. Why is TUMBLR sexymen voting happening on Twitter??? )

These topics are actually really important, thank you for the ask! ★

A great fic is always the lucky find for the reader, but when it comes to sharing with a wider audience, you realize you can't separate (amazing) safe scenes from (not less amazing) unsafe ones—it comes with it, and that's the paradox :')

But such works are strong in that they raise important—yeah, far from safe yet not always adult—topics to show and to teach something.

(I'm not sure if I understood you correctly after that but here are several options!)

1. If you mean xReader (or Y/n, when you as a character) & Self-insert (when the creator puts themselves/their OCs in), these both are part of the fiction for those who enjoy it╰(*´︶`*)╯

2. If you mean OOC (when a character doesn't act like they should in canon), that's a thin line cause sticking to canon may be hard, especially for those who don't know the character well or want them to act differently (*´∀｀*)

That's where your own experience may take place: many creators put a part of themselves into the characters and create stories based on their real life or dreams. That, actually, is what fiction is also for ☆

3. If you mean getting into the characters & their story while reading it as if you're a part of it, empathize them & worrying about their relationships, that's absolutely fine! ♡

When you're reading, it's hard to be an outside observer—you try on their personalities or endow them with your own traits anyway, and you worry about them as if they were real people, or you lead them through real life difficulties you experienced/are afraid to experience...

(P. S. That's what confused me too! :'D But I guess the reason is that we can't make polls here :')

UPD:

Oh! ☆ Again, there's nothing wrong in enjoying and being happy for the fictional characters you like╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

#updated #hope this helps! <3 #ask #tip

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cescalr · 10 months

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hello dearest! <3 for the ask game:

how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

How long is your longest fic?

What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

Hey mate <3

1; So, as someone who is currently studying creative writing at university, the lack of community.... I guess, response fanfic tends to get these days (beyond a very appreciated Loved this!!!!!11!1!1 which of course <3 thank you random commenter person. but also. what about it did you love.) isn't as - er, frustrating as it could otherwise be, since I get feedback on my writing from professional academics on assignments and such. Basicaly - I actually really miss FFN calling it 'reviews' instead of comments, because that encouraged people to actually... tell me things. And not just spam letters. And i love the letter spamming! keysmashes are nice :) But i always remember the comments that talk about the fic more than the ones that just flatter me. Like, yes, flattery will get you quite far opposed to popular aphorisms, but er I'd also like to know if my sentence structure flows nicely. That would be useful. I like getting feedback as much as support, the lack of the former can be a bit awkward though because it means I don't know what I need to change to improve my work. As someone who wants to storytell just like, in general, outside of fanfic, that's kind of important! Support is great. Love support. Would also love feedback if people were willing to give it <3.

Oh!!!!!!!! Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay. So. I don't know if saying you and viv would be cheating or not (or count as nepotism? hey besties <3 <3 <3 hehe) sooooo you guys are honourable mentions <3 but okay, so - in absolutely no particular order, and nowhere near all the people i could rec;

Ꝥ. esama | Archive of Our Own !!! hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 281 works of impeccable quality and substantial wordcount, you'd be remiss in saying Esama was anything but prolific, especially given those cover roughly 66 fandoms, give or take Ao3's consideration of things like Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts as separate media franchises......... hmmm. Anyway. Really really great author. Go check out their works!! trust me. They'll have at least 1 thing you'll enjoy. My personal favourites are all assassins creed fics, but they have hp and mcu fics, too bestie so yk. Specifically i recommend Wizards IN SPACE - I mean, it is quite literally called Wizards. IN SPACE. what is not to love about that premise? The writing is A* tier, to boot. <3 esama is basically the reason I write fanfic. Give 'em a look-see; they're also here on tumblr, as @/esamastation :). Good to give a follow - they're much more consistent at posting when they make new fic/chapters on their tumblr than I've ever been on mine, lol.

Ƿ. For someone else who is also here on tumblr (and may or may not count as nepotism. I don't actually know the definition of nepotism. Hi tumblr mutual of mine, lol!) Is freddieslater | Archive of Our Own. I will read almost anything they write for fandoms I know, and have read things for fandoms I don't know one even small thing about just because they wrote it. RJ's style is just superb, and their ability to write fic you can completely understand even if you don't know the fandom is really grand. Good glee & TVD fic is hard to find, lemme tell ya that right now, and theirs is superb! Remus is also here on tumblr, under the same username :). Hence. You know. Being mutuals and all.

Ł. This is a curveball. Something to throw you off your game. I'm going to recommend an FFN author who only recently migrated to Ao3 that writes solely SI fics. Yeah. That's what I'm doing. Some of the first fics I remember fully reading all the way through were this guy's work, so I think it's only fair to give him a shout. Soleneus | FanFiction. I haven't read all his fics for reasons that should make themselves... very clear upon looking at his account, but the fics I have read, namely the Fallout and Mass Effect series plus the Worm fic (a franchise i actually know nothing about; some kind of grimdark superhero thing I think - prior knowledge was not stated as necessary, and I read way too much fic for things I've never seen. Bestie why am I telling you this like you don't already know that?) are genuinely really well done series and some of the best examples of how to get an SI/OC fic to work without being all mary sue and shit. [or marty stu, in this case, I suppose?]. I'm going to be frank and say not every rec for an author I give recs all their works - I'd avoid his HP stuff because his view on the series is diametrically opposed to mine, for example. But that doesn't mean that what is there isn't worth at least a gander. I'm of a mind that you should give fic a chance even if the summary or whatever sounds strange; this might come from the fact I first started reading fic on things like FFN and Twisting The Hellmouth, which didn't have filterable tags and people would just straight up lie in the four-characters-allowed-here section so more people would find their fic, so.... I've ended up reading a lot of stuff I wouldn't recommend. But you find things that come from a different perspective than your own to a franchise you love, and that can be interesting! My views on the worlds of ME and Fallout are vastly different from his, but his fics for them are far better than anything I could ever write for them. His worldbuilding is seriously solid stuff, and honestly his characters are pretty good. SIs get a bad rep, I think, because of things like the shitty reincarnated as harry potter or whatever and just be an asshole for 40 chapters trope, but it can be done properly, and Sol achieves that. I really enjoyed the Fallout and Mass Effect series when I read them, 'bout... half a decade ago lmao, but still - those would be the ones I'd say to take a look-see at.

3. Hm. I actually think it would be in that order; Characters drive the story for me. Their emotions and thoughts and things all drive the action - but, then, that's just standard story structure (according to my Novel module lecturer, anyway). My style specifically is.... interrogative? I like Putting People In Situations and Making Them Do Bad Things For Fun And Profit [Angsty Entertainment]. I can go chapters without dialogue, though I love writing it, because writing gives you the unique ability to see right into the character's thoughts, unlike in things like film where that's more difficult (or awkward - just look at the narrated version of Blade Runner, lmao). You can, I guess, wallow. My writing style is brooding alksdjf;alskdfj;alskdfj; god. I can't escape the vampire allegations /joke. Er. Hm. I like fun things :) Like making my blorbos suffer :) But they'll be happy in the end so it's okay :). Also - I write romance, sure, but I tend to use romance as a way to look into the characters involved. It's sort of more a tool than the main draw, which is why my steo never gets anywhere close to dating alsdkjf;alksdfj;asdf oh well.

4. My longest fic is For What It's Worth. This should not be a surprise, given it's a rewrite of HP5 -> 7. It is currently 91 ,527k, with the wip next (and fucking final, jeez) chapter has about 3, 517k words atm, but that's nowhere near how many it's going to have. Harry's not even left Privet Drive yet! It's still early summer!! Also, If you count the side stories, 100, 576k is the wordcount for the series - so that boosts the collective count to 104,093. So. This fic is long enough on it's own, but it's over 100k when the in-continuity and arguably-part-of-the-fic side stories are included. Oof. (Nowhere near all that long a fic in comparison to many of the things I read, though. Read a 2 mil word star wars fic once. Very good fic! I don't remember what it's called.)

5. I write in the order I write; sometimes I write chronologically, start of fic to end of fic. Sometimes I write a scene and then find where It goes much later on - that happened in Keeping This; the fic got piecemealed together over a course of. A While. And one of the scenes sort of... towards the middle? I wrote way before it showed up. You can see this in my Journey Across the Dimensions WIP ficlet collection fic (that i really should separate out and make an actual series, instead of one of those fuckawful fic collection fics. I am the problem). But most fics I just write in order. FWIW's first two chapters - 32k words before the edit, down to 29k - were done in a single session on one Sunday. Like, 10am to 4pm or something like that. I don't remember that was in 2018!!! I can't remember that far back!!!! I have the brain of a forgetful goldfish!!! A sieve a cat got it's claws on!!!

Thanks for the ask bestie <3 <3 <3

#ask game #is this a long post? hm.#long post #<3

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aimmyarrowshigh · 1 year

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4, 7, and 19 for the deep fic asks please.

4. what fic of your own do you read for comfort?

Let's Give Ourselves Promises Of Our Unending, lately, is one that I reread, but I'll reread most of my own stuff tbh. I write fic that I want to read, and given the number of weird rarepairs I write, the pickings are usually slim outside of rereading my own stuff. I don't write popular fic, but I do write fic that is (for the most part) what I want it to be, so.

7. how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

I do get really cranky when people don't give feedback on stuff that they specifically asked for, but that's just me having different expectations than cultural norms for fandom, I think. Like, I filled a couple of Treats for Yuletide 2021 (to get myself qualified to enter Yuletide 2022) and the person for whom they were written never kudo'd or commented, and that kind of made me cranky. Like, it's a niche rarepair in a rare fandom and it's over 1,000 words long and it's not bad! Just kudo it if you're the reason it was written! I try really hard to respond in SOME way to anything that someone @'s me on that's for me, whether they podfic a drabble or make art or put something on a reclist or whatever, because I just... I feel like everything everyone puts online is an affection/attention bid, and there's not a reason not to give affection to someone who did something nice and positive in a bid for affection. IDK.

I also definitely have a bad habit of comparing my own fic stats to other people's/other fics', especially fics that I think suck or are by people I think suck, even though that's SUCH A BAD HABIT DO NOT DO IT. It's addictive but deadly. DO NOT START IF YOU DON'T ALREADY DO IT.

Like, I talk a big game about how everything I write is for myself -- and of course it is on some level because I'm not going to write something I abjectly hate or something just because someone asked -- but of course I want other people to like my stuff, and The Dream is to write something that sticks with people and becomes a fandom classic. But I've accepted that that just isn't the kind of writer I am bc it's not the kind of ideas I have, so. /shrug

19. If you could write an ideal fic, what would it include?

I think if I could write the perfect story, it would have a well-balanced and exciting Actual Plot, which is my weakest point in writing, that allowed the main pairing to each have their own growth arc as people separate from each other AND together as a pairing, and the sexy parts would come naturally from the plot and those arcs. But I feel like that's just me saying "it would be a good fic"?

#fanfiction ask meme #fandom #fanfiction #my fic

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slasherrabbitmadness · 3 years

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I have to say, I thank everyone for the support during the last 4 months!

I initially started this blog to test my writing abilities. Despite the randoms from the last 2 weeks telling me I suck and 'get the characters' wrong, no doubt sent over by an art accounts call-out post. I'd say the slew of compliments over the last months say otherwise in terms of writing.

Writing has been immensely fun. Rewarding even! I really didn't expect my fics to do so well. I also wondered if long fics would be appreciated in a fandom that mostly does fun headcanons (I used to write them and vigorously read them, so not throwing any shade, they are fun reads)

To my surprise (and yeah, no duh I wasn't the only long fics writer) long fics were appreciated! It was also a pleasant surprise to see many start to get a lot of notes in a short amount of time! that was incredible!

I'd dabble in writing here and there but never took it too seriously. So the fact I was doing so well at this warmed my heart.

To people, please let writers write what they want. They don't have to write for whatever gender they don't want to. They really don't lol

About my post losing my cool. Yeah, I did lose my cool. I was getting harassed for weeks from legit randoms asking me to do male reader.

Look, I NEVER said writing for male reader was wrong. It's wrong for people to ask me because I just don't want to write it. I never clogged the tags with my fics in the male reader tag.

I couldn't do slasher x male reader justice. I think it's funny though that my words of "Tag me in Male reader stuff so I can reblog it if you male a DILF slashers fic" went conveniently ignored lol I guess because it didn't fit the narrative some went for.

I've said multiple times, "I'd love for someone to write a DILF Bo x Male Reader" and encouraged it, never got a tag for it to reblog :(

Death threats to whoever is never justified for the fics they write or won't write.

I find it alarming those in the fandom for men who murder (in Billy's case it's heavily implied he R*ped that girl they found outside and he did terrible things to his sister) people, are shocked and flabbergasted when people write fics corresponding to these attributes (killing, voyeurism, stalking, JAY WALKING, holding people hostage) that these characters have.

"Yeah, but she (she being me) deserves it (being told to choke) for writing rape fics"

Gosh, what pleasant people we have in the fandom/s You also can't turn around and go "She does deserve to get told to choke...BUT THAT'S HOW I FEEL! Don't get upset at ME!"

People, telling someone to choke over fiction is incredibly heedless and ill-manured.

This person was young, so I'm sure more growing up is to be had. Past 18, age isn't an excuse to dismiss alarming comments, that said, we are always growing as people. Do we say terrible things when we were young and in haste? yes, do we regret it when we are older, most people do.

--------

About mid-August, I just wasn't feeling fic writing anymore. I kept going, hoping it would continue to make me happy again. The last few fics I wrote I did genuinely enjoy writing, especially Professor Brahms, and Librarian Brahms did well too!

I totally understand if AUs are not everyone's cup of tea, I get it. That said, I encourage the other writers to experiment with AUs.

Oh, and Yes, DILF Bo will always be the TOP AU, always. It just really suits Bo lol

I will apologize for being upset over 'lack of engagement' that wasn't cool of me. I 100% get why people are shy! Writers do like the engagement, but I get why some don't engage. I get that way too with the blogs I followed and loved. Don't ever feel pressured to interact with a writer if you feel uncomfortable. Sorry if I made anyone feel that way. Engage with your favourite authors on your own time when you are ready.

...okay I will say if you do end up reblogging a fic, just add some nice tags, even an "I loved this" is enough of a morsel to a writer lol

To the nice comment in my inbox, I got before I rightfully turned off my inbox, thank you! I am glad you enjoyed Professor Brahms and that it hit just the right spot for you.

Please respect writers and their preferences in terms of what they write and how. Writers do tag their shit properly. They do, we all see them do it lol don't all of a sudden act like Polyphemus.

Again, thank you to all who have been kind. Be kind to each other. Bullying those out of the fandom for online brownie points serves no purpose, you just end up getting anons coming to you, thinking you'll 'fight the good cause' again and start more drama.

I have no clue what the future holds in terms of...well...whatever lol But I'll be posting my fics to ao3, where writing preferences and subject matter don't attract crazies from my understanding.

I am sorry I deleted most of my fics from here. Again, they'll be posted to ao3 in due time (when I get an account)

I hope everyone has a great Halloween! You celebrate Channukah, Christmas...whatever, have a good one!

This has been a fun way to test my abilities (I didn't mean to quote Itachi) and I am very grateful that many liked my writing and I hope my fics in some way brought you comfort and brought all the good levels of horny.

Thank you, everyone, again, who has been kind and for all the support.

To my Besties (you all) Love ya!

#Thank you #Rabbit speaks #Slasher Rabbit #Will I come back?#Maybe #Also writing in second perspective was getting limiting #For me #that's not a diss to anyone who does #I mean shit it's what I was doing #seriously though #thank you for the support to those who do #Be kind in the end #Write what makes YOU happy #Also just because the slashers are dark #you don't have to make the fic dark #just readers please don't be shocked when a fic is dark lol #I wish I had more to say #Bye Besties

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fireemblems24 · 3 years

Text

Ao3 Ship Thoughts

To sate my desire to read Three Houses fan fiction and jump in on the shipping comments that have upticked recently, I decided to see what ships were the most popular on Ao3.

Some of it's exactly what I expected, and one in particular is just . . . what, why?

Ao3 is probably the closest you'll get to truly determining which ships are the most popular, or at least have the highest number of passionate fans. So I was curious to see who the top ships were. Here's the ones listed, in order:

Sylvain/Felix

Dimitri/Byleth

Edelgard/Byleth

Ferdinand/Hubert

Claude/Byleth

Dimitri/Felix

Dimitri/Claude

Felix/Annette

Caspar/Linhardt

Hilda/Marrianne

If I exclude the Byleth ships, Dimitri/Dedue, Byleth/Seteth, and Ingrid/Sylvain take up the three missing spots.

Byleth's Ships

I'm shocked. Really, truly shocked that Byleth/Lord is popular. Never wouldn't guessed. I am, of course, being sarcastic. If someone asked me to list who I think would show up in the top 10 most popular ships, the first three I'd list would be Byleth/Lord.

What I find more interesting is that Byleth/Seteth is the fourth option for Byleth. AO3 writers, I officially bow to your taste. It pleases me quite a bit that, if you're not going with one of the main lords, you all want Seteth. This I can agree with.

As for the Byleth/Lord ships, I feel kind of mixed on them. Every lord interacts with characters who have more depth than Byleth, but I still get the appeal. I'm going to deep dive into all of the lords relationships with Byleth later, but here's a quick summary.

Edelgard/Byleth is shoved down your throat so hard it's nearly impossible to ship Edelgard with someone else and even shortchanges her potential to have deep, non-romantic relationships because Edelgard puts Byleth on a pedestal that no one else can reach by her own dialogue.

Byleth's character arc works well alongside Dimitri's. While the relationship is pushed and fanservice-y scenes exist, the game leaves enough breathing room to see Byleth as a mentor/therapist/teacher figure, and Dimitri has no shortage of deep, meaningful relationships with others should you not want to do the whole self-insert thing. It's a good balance.

Claude and Byleth are the opposite of Edelgard and Byleth. They read almost more like friends than lovers. It's a breath of fresh air, honestly. Claude/Byleth seems like the healthiest possible romance for Byleth/lord because the lord in question here doesn't seem as dependent. That said, it lacks lacks romance and shipping fuel. I may complain about fanservice, but the Byleth/Claude dynamic does show why scenes of holding hands in the rain and teasing about badly drawn images might actually come in handy.

Edelgard's Ships

I'm not surprised, at all, that Edelgard has no popular ships outside of Byleth. Dialogue consistently shortchanges Edelgard's relationships with others by having her verbally, repeatedly put Byleth into a special "other" that no one else can reach for her.

Though, I guess I'm a bit surprised at the extreme lack of Edelgard/Hubert. I feel these two have a lot of shipping fuel and their supports left things unresolved. I've come across the sentiment in fandom many times that ship where things are tied off nicely with a bow leave less to explore and aren't as interesting, so I am bummed out no one seems interested in fleshing out Hubert/Edelgard more.

The outlook for Edelgard fanfic and me seems pretty limited. I don't like Edelgard/Byleth for various reasons beyond this scope of this post. I was kind of hoping there were some Edelgard/Hubert or Edelgard/Dorothea character study stuff that could help me get past how much Byleth gets in the way of Edelgard's character growth, but it seems fanfic writers only want to write about her and Byleth, which is a bummer.

On that note, I'm also surprised but also glad that Dimitri/Edelgard isn't a big thing. I thought it might be because tragedy of childhood friends turned enemies by events out of their control is popular. These two seem wildly incompatible though, so I'm glad people seem to agree.

Claude's Ships

Ok. Claude/Byleth. Expected. I'm feel positively towards the ship since they seem mostly good for each other even if it's not getting my heart all fluttering.

I'm surprised there's no Claude/Petra or Claude/Hilda. Those two are my personal favorites for him. I would've given Claude/Petra the edge given how they can uniquely relate to each other, but Hilda's scene in CF really gave Petra a run for her money. Even more so that Petra and Claude have obligations to two different nations and Hilda has no such complication.

But whattttt???? Claude/Dimitri? It's in the top 10?? More people ship Dimitri with Claude than Dedue?? I thought lord/lord might be popular, but I honestly thought Dimitri/Edelgard would take it, not Claude/Dimitri. They never really talk. So I'm a bit confused about this one. Though, intrigued by the idea.

Can I take a wild guess this partly stems from Claude having no real other viable M/M ships outside of M!Byleth and fics that plays up the chapter I'm about to play in AM (Dimitri saving Claude) or "what ifs" VW routes where Dimitri doesn't . . . you know.

I am really curious about this dynamic though. Because I like Claude - a lot. He's a character I want to get attached to. From experience, the fastest way for me to like a character is to give them a significant relationship I enjoy with a character I already love and the new character gets absorbed by proxy. So, fans, please, tell me more about this Dimitri/Claude. I am curious.

Dimitri's Ships

I am as unsurprised by Dimitri's being one of the biggest repeat offenders on here as I am by Edelgard being Byleth or bust. If Edelgard is written to fanservice the player by making the self-insert her one and only, Dimitri is fanservicing the player by being a shipping magnet. The writers knew what they were doing and who they were trying to appeal to with these two characters.

Dimitri/Byleth is a given. The game plays up the romance angle, but it's not at the expense of Dimitri's other relationships.

What I'm more interested in, though, is Felix/Dimitri. Between angsty CF stories, post-AM slow-burns, or fleshing out missing scenes from their shared childhood, there's just a lot to work with and a rich context to use their relationship - spun romantically - to explore each character. Felix and Dimitri's relationship is layered, complicated, heart breaking, and potentially healing. The fact they're two incredibly attractive guys doesn't hurt its popularity either, I'm sure. I'm not surprised it ranked that highly.

Claude/Dimitri surprises me. If two lords were going to get on this list together, I would've put bets on Edelgard/Dimitri. Since Claude and Dimitri's relationship is fairly unexplored, I'm really interested to see more about what exactly this is about. Don't get me wrong. I figured people would pair two main characters who are that good looking together, I just didn't think it would rank that high.

I am, slightly sad, that Dimitri/Dedue isn't a bit higher, but happy it seems to have some steam. I get it though. Dedue's not as flashy as some of the others on the shipping list and their relationship is so full of fluff by their A support it lacks the angst Felix/Dimitri and Dimitri/Byleth can draw out nor is as much of a play around with "what ifs" as Claude/Dimitri is.

Non-Lords/Main Characters Ships:

This list, more than anything else, shows AO3's penchant for writing M/M and F/F works for better or worse. Whether this phenomena stems from lack of representation, fetishizing by the fanbase, deeply ingrained gender roles making fictional M/F ships either less appealing to many fanfic writers, or M/F romances often getting assumed leading to less substantial writing compared to friendships - I don't know. Probably all of it.

There are a few surprises here for me. Felix/Sylvain is that popular? I figured they'd make the top 10, but #1 is surprising. Though, looking through the first page of the tag, it's true Felix/Sylvain have fics just for them, but it also seems like a common pairing in Dimitri/Byleth and Dimitri/Claude fics. It's the same story with Caspar/Linhardt, who I honestly didn't expect to see. They had a fair number of their own fics, but it seems many CF fics put them together rather than focus solely on them. Felix/Annette also balances being the main focus and an adjunct pairing. Marianne/Hilda seemed to have less fics where they took center stage and more they were one of many ships listed.

Ferdinand/Hubert having a lot of fics isn't surprising. I don't really care too much for it personally, but I can see the appeal of it.

I'm surprised Catherin/Shamir is nowhere in sight. Likewise, Rhea is absolutely nowhere. Kind of sad by the lack of adult characters in general. Especially Rhea. I think it's a pretty big sign of how the writing's treated her that such an important character is totally absent in this list.

Not surprised at all to see Felix also get so many ships. He, like Dimitri, seems designed on purpose to ship with many characters. I do really wish Dorothea and Seteth would get more attention though.

What do you guys think? Anything that surprised you? How do you feel about any of these ships and there popularity or lack thereof? Are there characters/pairings you wish got more attention? Any popular ships you despise (spill that tea)?

#fire emblem three houses #fe3h #fe16 #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #claude von reigen #tagged them because I want to get people who ship Claude and Dimitri to see this and talk to me about that

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wlwcarries · 3 years

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i'm becoming more and more convinced that charlie's dms are real. i’m going to give you guys the evidence there is so far, for you all to make your own conclusions. personally, as much as i hate to say it, i think the dms are real.

i want to preface this by saying that i hoped as much as everyone else that the screenshots were fake. i honestly debated even posting about it at this point because everyone seems to have made their peace that they’re fabricated and moved on, and i don’t want to start or rehash anything. i promise you, i hated making this post as much as you guys are probably going to hate reading this. but i feel like we as a fandom deserve to know and address the truth, and choosing to ignore this will only do more harm than good.

there are two tiktoks showing proof of the messages: here and here

it’s pretty clear imo that charlie sent those messages in that group chat. there’s publicly available information proving a lot of what i’m going to talk about, but i’m not going to expose anyone especially since a lot of the people involved are minors. if you want to talk more about it, feel free to dm me but i’m not going to post anything publicly beyond those tiktoks.

so yeah. charlie talked about smut in a group chat with at least one confirmed minor as far as we know. in the screenshot you can see that someone explained what smut was to him, and then he continued on talking about the explicit fic.

i know that a lot of us on here, myself included, love to harp on l*lex shippers, and while the racism involved with the ship should by no means pushed aside that's also not my biggest concern at the moment. a lot of these people are young teenage girls and there’s a clear power imbalance involved. they’re fans, and he’s an adult man who they look up to. yes, they shouldn’t have sent the fic to him in the first place, but charlie’s an adult and should have known better than to encourage this. this is on him. he really can’t see that interacting and talking about sexually explicit material with minors isn’t alright??? is he that scared of his fans turning on him if he doesn’t act like he’s their close personal friend???

he needs to realize that he’s not going to lose his fanbase if he establishes boundaries with them. honestly, there’s more of a chance that he’ll lose them if he doesn’t establish boundaries. other people said this better than me (i’d like to link chloe @willexx’s post here which makes a lot of really important points regarding this as well as discussing madi, and this post by @reggieshairflip which goes really in depth into a lot of great points), but this is really concerning.

i also went on twitter last night to see what people were saying on there, and i’m beyond words. the majority of the commentary seems to be along the lines of “protect charlie from the smut!!”

y’all. charlie isn’t the one who needs protecting. regardless of the legal situation, if he wants to read fanfic he’s gonna find ways to read it. he’s a grown man, he’ll be fine. that’s so far removed from the actual point, i don’t know how else to explain it. charlie will be fine. we don’t have to be worried about him.

maybe people should focus on the fact that he’s talking about smut in a group chat with minors on it? like first off, don't be in a group chat with fans of your show, but especially don't talk about smut with minors, what the fuck. and the fact that he doesn’t even seem to realize the issues with what he’s doing is troubling in and of itself.

charlie has been involved in various other groupchats with fans for a while (this isn’t a new thing by any means), and i will admit that most of those interactions thus far have been innocent and harmless. regardless, the fact that he’s in group chats with fans at all worries me. these people are largely young, teenaged girls who idolize charlie--they’ve practically developed a parasocial relationship with him, and that’s not healthy in the slightest.

he’s not their “bestie,” he’s a celebrity. he keeps up with the innocent and harmless things, and encourages them, but doesn’t establish boundaries--and that’s what leads to people thinking that doing more is okay because he hasn’t said otherwise. people meeting him at the airport at 2am, fans showing up to owen’s house at midnight and then charlie entertaining them. that’s what this kind of behavior leads to, and i fear that it will inevitably lead to much worse in the future. i’m not trying to take blame away from the people who did these things--fans have to respect boundaries, set or not--but as a public figure charlie has a responsibility to set clear lines.

the point of this post is absolutely not to “cancel” him or anything. that wouldn’t be productive at all, and one of my favorite things about the jatp fandom on tumblr is our ability to have actually constructive conversations about things like this. this is tumblr, and i know i’m basically speaking to an echo chamber here-- but i feel this is important enough that it has to be said, even if nobody outside of this site will probably see it.

he needs to be held accountable and made to realize that what he’s doing isn’t okay. i get that this is his first experience being at the center of a large fandom like this, and i understand that he’s probably really excited about all the fans and wants to connect with them as much as possible. but he would do well to take notes from jeremy (and hell, madi, and she’s sixteen and didn’t have any prior acting experience at all), and engage in a healthy, responsible way like they do. i’m not going to speak about owen because i don’t really have much info or knowledge about how he interacts, but this potentially extends to him as well.

this is a really complicated and messy situation, and i get that. feel free to share your thoughts, but please be respectful. sending love to all of you guys rn 💜💜💜

EDIT: TO CLARIFY. i have seen this post making the rounds on twitter. i’m okay with that as long as it’s not a screenshot and the post is directly linked HOWEVER charlie did not straight up send smut to that group chat. they sent him the title, and he looked the fic up and sent the link in the group chat to clarify it was the one they were talking about. he was informed that it was smut, but it wasn’t just him sending the fic unprovoked. everything i said above still applies, he should not have engaged or encouraged the conversation but please don’t spread false information.

#again feel free to message me if you want to talk about it more/if you want further proof #but i'm not about to drop links publicly so please don't ask me to or come into my ask box with that kind of stuff #not sure if this post will show up in the tags bc of the links so i'm trusting y'all to spread this #charlie gillespie #jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fandom #jatp discourse #luke patterson #mine #willex #juke #julie molina #alex mercer #reggie peters #owen joyner #jeremy shada #madison reyes

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neonnoir-ao3 · 3 years

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Some Words of Comfort.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people (especially those who have read spoilers/are actively searching for leaked content) lament about their future reactions to the deaths of our beloved characters in-game.

We all knew this was inevitable, and that them living was not an option for the plot of the game, but the time has finally come to face it head-on.

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I understand that someone outside this community might be like “it’s just a game”, but I know it’s way more than that to many: the concept of a female villain that, to many, can be seen as sympathizable and even endearing, is a bit of a new concept— especially on such a large scale as this instance.

In addition, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have become a bit of a comfort item for some (with an emphasis on sapphics/wlw, from what I’ve seen personally) in the form of a large, protective, and caring hypothetical partner, or even just a maternal character one can appreciate simply because of her love for her children. Regardless, most of us are here due to some desire for comfort.

Take my own story with this community, for example:

(tws for death, covid, suicide, and general medical emergencies)

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Frankly, 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have ruined me. I lost two men who were the only two positive father figures I’ve ever had. The last of the two tested positive for covid and deteriorated within days, to the point where less than a week after testing positive, my family was making the choice to pull the plug. This all occurred days before Christmas and my birthday. On the first day of the spring semester, having not had the time to properly mourn my grandfather, my mother is in the ER for multiple days with an internal infection that doctors said likely would have turned septic if she had waited to come in any longer. This led to three surgeries throughout the next few months. (Oh, and one of my relatives quite literally dropped dead on that first day of class, too). I am also estranged from one of my parents, and they have been trying to contact my family: they have multiple untreated mental illnesses (severe NPD, bipolar, and more) and they are extremely aggressive in that state of mind and they are agitated extremely easily. That only brings more stress, along with resurfacing trauma and related emotions. Every moment of every day has been a struggle. So much so that I failed half of my classes voluntarily simply because I couldn't do them anymore.

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t expect to be here right now. I expected that the pain of simply moving forward would have finally overridden my fears of death and that I would have already ended my suffering by now.

Then, in late January, I saw something trending on Twitter. About a new female villain in an upcoming horror game. And it went from there.

As cheesy as it sounds, this fandom and its content seriously saved my life. In the darkest of days, I’ve come to this tag for comfort. The oddest way I found said comfort was through those who were attracted to Alcina aesthetically. I have extremely long-term trauma related to being bullied and being the victim of a hybrid catfishing/'Oreo Game' on early social media by peers in middle school to the point where I do not think of myself as being able to be loved, let alone being worthy of it. Finding this community not only provided a great form of escapism (and opened a door into a fantasy world where I could imagine my own person vampire milf gf), but also gained a little bit of self-esteem (as many of you know, I share a lot of visual qualities with Alcina. -yes, I'm still kinda freaked out about it-) via seeing people where features/attributes like mine were actively praised and desired rather than insulted and pushed away like they have been until now.

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(okay sorry that kinda turned into a trauma dump but I needed to emphasize the fact that this community has seriously helped me during a really dark point in my life, and I know I can't be the only one with that sort of experience)

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What I’m trying to get across here is that, like many others, this community and its content have been comforting and therapeutic, and it really is more than just a game to us. It’s entertaining and even a form of escapism in these extremely trying times. We all have some degree of PTSD from surviving a literal mass plague— and this is something we're using as a method of coping. a distraction. a coping mechanism.

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With that being said, here are some ways to hopefully assist in lessening the emotional stress:

(please note that I am not a mental health professional and these may not be healthy coping mechanisms for everyone.)

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Understand that it’s just a game.

I know, this sounds completely counterintuitive, but it’s more or less about keeping your level of immersion down. Personally, I can’t do scary shit in general: I have to listen to music on low volume while watching dark ARG vids at night or when I’m alone because I get too into it, and then my paranoia kicks in. Sometimes just pausing for a moment and grounding yourself/reminding yourself that this is a video game: a jumble of code and 3D rendering that doesn’t have to affect your views/headcanons if you don’t want it to. Did your favorite character just get slaughtered? Nope, that 3D rendering of them just got un-alived, that’s all.

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Ignorance is Bliss/We are the Captain Now

Simple: Capcom can’t even pronounce Dimitrescu right, or even acknowledge the way it’s correctly said in Romanian culture itself. How can you trust them to give you a perfect canon? That’s the thing: with that logic, you can’t. What they say is true means little (if anything, for that matter) to your headcanons and preexisting ideas of the Dimitrescus. In short: fuck ‘em.

I’m currently seeking a double major in pop culture, and one of the cool things I’ve learned so far is affirmational vs transformational fandom. Affirmational is where official canon is seen as the law of the land, and followed to a T. Transformational is seen as much more inviting for audiences, allowing them to bend canon as they wish to fit their own creations. This fandom is obviously transformational, so take that game canon, rip it up, and get back to whatever you were doing.

Capcom’s canon is not the end-all, be-all. Far from it, actually.

Want to still acknowledge canon? Godmod your way out of it.

Character A died? It’d be a shame if they emerged from the rubble they 'died in' a few hours later, very beaten but alive nonetheless... how awful would it be if they sulked away, nursed their wounds, and continued to live... (/s)

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Ignore it completely.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there w be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the in any way. Stay with the version in your head that makes you happy.

Get Creative!

If you're into creating fanart, writing fics, or even just posting a list of headcanons, take some advice from the late Carrie Fisher: "Take your broken heart, and make it into art". Make the fluff oneshot of your dreams! Draw the fanart you've been wanting to! dump lighthearted headcanons into the tags! Not only will it cheer you up, but sharing it with the community will spread the love!

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I know a lot of people are struggling with this emotionally (especially with the pandemic making entertainment like this even more important sources of escapism and coping mechanisms) and I hope that, at the very least, I was able to help comfort one person who reads this.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there will be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the flowers that bloom after major wildfires: after a period of loss, some beautiful can still come of it.

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💙

#tall vampire lady #lady alcina #lady dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #castle dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #dimitrescu daughters #dimitrescu family #dimitrescu sisters #cassandra dimitrescu #countess dimitrescu #house dimitrescu #resident evil #re: village #resident evil village #resident evil: village

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starstruckkittensweets · 2 years

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“Snowfall” (Levi x Mia)

Summary: Levi and Mia have spent so many winters together. Mia hopes they’ll be able to live through so many more.

For Christmas this year, I decided to revisit my story A Wolf with Wings and write a little drabble for Levi and my OC Mia! So this is for the lovely @levi-supreme’s Happy Birthday Levi collab to celebrate our favorite captain’s special day! I highly suggest checking out the rest of the works on the collab masterlist - you’ll find fics, art, headcanons, and everything having to do with Levi. Thank you, Rei, for letting me be a part of such an awesome event!

I tried to make this fic an easy read, so even those who haven’t read my AWWW story would be able to follow along (so you don’t have to slog through 400k words if you don’t want to haha). But there are definitely some references to past events of the story, so be warned for slight spoilers if you haven’t read it yet. So think of this fic as a few bonus scenes from AWWW. Also, the very end deals with some post-Season 3/pre-Season 4 content, but nothing too major is revealed outside of canon. I hope you guys enjoy!

Fandom: Attack on Titan Pairing: Levi x Mia (OC) Words: 6.7k

Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW content (minors please DNI), slight Season 4 spoilers, canon-typical violence, mentions of death and grief, eventual smut, oral sex (male receiving), vaginal sex, fingering, light dom/sub dynamics

The first winter we spent together was innocent.

He stood at the edge of the meadow beside the castle, overlooking the two horses grazing in the field as the moon glimmered down on him. He scrunched up his nose at the sight of his own frosty breath, and I nearly laughed when he attempted to swat it away.

“It’s just your own breath.” I hugged my jacket closer to my chest, snuggling deeper into my seat on the old wooden fence. Edel snorted and flicked his tail at my voice, and the unnamed mare beside him followed suit. “Nothing to be scared of.”

“I’m not scared.”

But his words came out faster than either of us had expected. In a way, I felt a little sorry for him. No wonder he was so spooked by the cold weather—he had spent nearly his entire life underground.

I shrugged my shoulders and stared ahead; it was easier to look at the two horses in the field rather than the man standing beside me. But the silence between us was eating at me, and eventually, I found myself speaking again, through the chatter of my teeth.

“Just wait until it starts snowing. You’ll be seeing your breath a lot more then. But it’s nice.” I planted my feet up on the wooden railing of the fence, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’ll like the snow, I think.”

There was a beat of silence. The horses grunted softly as their noses brushed each other’s. And then—

“…Snow?”

I gave him my best smile, all the while ignoring the heat rising in my cheeks. Oh well, at least I’m not that cold anymore. “Yeah, snow. It’s kind of like rain, but not as…wet. It’s too cold for rain to fall, so it comes down in fat fluffy flakes instead. And when they pile up onto each other on the ground, you can even play in it and kick it up.”

I must’ve sounded so stupid, blabbering on about snow of all things, like I was five years old again. But he was still looking at me with that scrunched-up face, so I continued to talk. It was starting to warm me up, anyway.

“It’s a little like frozen rain, now that I think about it. It’s so cold sometimes when it rains that the raindrops freeze before they touch the ground. But it doesn’t hurt when they fall. They’re actually really soft and gentle! But sometimes it snows too much, and it’s hard to go outside for a few days because it piles up against the doors and windows. But don’t worry, that only happens every few years or so down here! Snow can be actually pretty tame down here, especially in Shiganshina. We never really got any snowstorms back then, actually. Most of them happen in the northern districts, just past the capital. Like Orvud District and Utopia District? They get pretty bad winters up there. Especially in Fuerth, too. From what I’ve heard, the snow doesn’t start melting until the beginning of April over there!”

He could’ve told me to shut up at any point, to wave me off and sneer that he didn’t want to hear my voice anymore. And I would’ve let him, knowing how wary he still was, even though it had been months since he’d joined the Scouts. But he did nothing of the sort. Instead he just stared at me, leaning against the old wooden fence, his mouth quirked up in interest. He actually seemed genuinely curious about what I had to say.

But then his eyebrows began to knit together. “Melting?”

“Oh, yeah. When the weather gets warmer, it starts to melt. It turns back into water and disappears into the ground. It makes the ground all muddy, but I think it’s worth it when the weather’s so warm!”

He hummed softly, before shifting himself against the fence. With both elbows propped up on the wood, he stretched out his legs and gave me a sideways glance.

“And what does this snow actually look like?”

Something above his shoulder suddenly caught my eye. It landed on the sleeve of his jacket, just above the Survey Corps emblem. Another one lander right on his head, a stark white against his smooth black tresses.

I smiled and pointed upward. “Like that.”

He glanced up at the sky—and looking back on it now, I should’ve called Moblit out in the middle of the night to sketch the look on his face for me. It was a sight I never wanted to forget.

Soft white flakes began fluttering down from the thick clouds above. An endless storm of white, with too many flakes to count. Levi’s eyes flickered back and forth, from side to side, as if he was trying to commit every single one of them to memory.

His jaw was slack, his lips parted in the wintry air. His nose was still scrunched up, his breath coming out in short, gentle puffs. Then he stretched a hand out to catch a flake in his hand—and simply stared at the skin of his palm when it disappeared in his grasp.

He only glanced up at me when I cleared my throat, and when he did, his lips were set in a tight line. As though he was angry at me for interrupting his little moment.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

He stared back down at his palm, just in time to see another snowflake melt away. But then he shook out his hand and stuffed it back into his pocket, his gray eyes darting to the frozen ground below.

“…Too cold.”

I held back my laugh and only nodded. “You’re right. We should head back inside. Don’t want the horses to freeze, right?”

Neither of us said anything else, as we led our horses back to the stables and tucked them in for the night. I passed a spare horse blanket over to Levi, so he could use it to keep his black mare warm. It took some time, considering the two of us were a little on the shorter side, but we managed to wrap it around her and fasten it in place. She gave a soft huff as a thank you as Levi latched up her stall for the night. I did the same with Edel, but not before pressing a kiss to the little white star on his forehead.

It was still snowing when we started our walk back to the castle. Already a thin layer of white was sprinkled on the frozen grass, the blades crunching beneath our boots with every step. Levi’s mouth was no longer open, but his eyes held that same mesmerized look.

“If we’re lucky,” I said, holding the castle door open for him, “it’ll snow through the night. The whole ground might be covered by morning!”

He only grunted and shook his head—but as he passed me through the threshold, I could’ve sworn I saw the ghost of a smile splayed across his lips. But it was gone before I could blink, leaving me wondering if I’d really seen anything at all.

Of course, I only smiled and closed the castle door behind me, the heavy thud of the latch echoing through the empty halls.

The second winter we spent together was bitter.

Nothing had gone right, even from the beginning of the season. From the rampant famine and disease, and to the pitiful operation to reclaim Wall Maria, everything seemed helpless and unforgiving. Not even the news of Anna’s pregnancy could lift the dead weight I was feeling in my chest. While I was happy for my friend, the news wasn’t enough to lessen the pain.

At the very end of the season, I had taken a trip to Trost. I came back to base not even a week later, exhausted and depressed—and a motherless soldier.

An orphan.

The word swirled around in my mind as I sat in Edel’s stall, with my back against the bars of the gate. The silver gelding could always sense when I wasn’t feeling my best; every few minutes he would bump his huge nose against my shoulder, as if he was checking to make sure I was okay. I savored the warmth of his head against my skin. Although we only had a few more weeks before spring, this winter felt as though it would last forever.

Edel suddenly jerked his head upwards. The sound of footsteps echoed through the empty barn. The only ones in here with me were the other horses—the rest of the Scouts had gone to sleep hours ago. I had even left Hanji snoring loudly in her bed, making sure she was definitely asleep, before I slipped out of the girls’ barracks for the night.

So then… Who’s still up at this time of night?

My chest tightened at the sight of Levi, leaning against the side of the stall, with a hand wrapped around the bars of the gate. Out of habit, I straightened myself up and dusted myself off. I knew exactly how much he hated messes, having been on the receiving end of his annoyance for far too long.

But he only shook his head, before glancing down at the latch of the gate. “You alone out here?”

“…Yeah.”

He hummed softly. “It’s too cold to be out here. Get back inside, or you’ll freeze your ass off. And I don’t want to tuck you into bed again.”

The memory of him carrying me in from Edel’s stall and dropping me off with Hanji at the girls’ barracks was almost enough to make me blush. Almost.

I shrugged and gave Edel another kiss on his forehead, before stepping out of the stall and closing the gate behind me. All the while, I could feel Levi’s eyes on me, practically burning holes into my back.

Wordlessly, the two of us stepped out of the barn and into the freezing night. I wrapped my arms around my chest, cursing myself for not bringing at least a decent coat with me when I left the barracks.

Then again, I hadn’t been paying much attention to the weather these past few days. The frostbitten grass, the looming gray skies, the heavy clouds that lingered every hour of the day—none of it seemed to register with me. Not even the cold, sharp tang of the wind around me.

I just felt…numb.

“Wait.”

I froze in my tracks at Levi’s voice, and before I knew it, his hand was curled around my wrist, as he began to drag me away from the girls’ barracks. I didn’t protest when I saw he was leading me toward the castle instead. I simply stayed silent and allowed him to whisk me away.

Through the heavy doors, up the stairs, and into the highest floor of the castle. He pushed open another door, and suddenly we were on the rooftop, overlooking the entire base from the peak of the castle.

“Look.”

I quirked my eyebrow at him. What did he want to bring me here for, anyway? What was I supposed to look at? Nothing up here was new to me; I had seen this view of the base countless times already.

But then he rolled his eyes and jerked his chin upwards. “Just look, brat.”

I followed his gaze, just in time to feel something wet splatter onto my nose.

A snowflake, I realized, and my throat began to close up.

Tiny white flakes were drifting from the clouds, scattering over the base below. They were different than the snowflakes that had fallen earlier in the winter. Those had brought blizzards with them—icy winds that kept us shivering in the barracks, and heaps of snow that nearly locked the castle doors for weeks.

But these flakes were gentle. Softer, as though each flake pressing a kiss to my skin. At that moment I knew, that this would be the final snowfall of the season.

I stared up at the clouds above—and against the black skies, filled with snow clouds, I could make out a single star, glimmering like the moon itself.

My cheeks froze with tears at the sight, and I didn’t wipe them away until Levi led me back to the girls’ barracks, with his hand firmly on my shoulder.

The third winter we spent together was bittersweet.

I stared up at the ceiling of my assigned room, hands twisted into the sheets below. Every few minutes, I found myself tossing and turning, before flopping my head back down on the pillow. Hanji’s bear snores filled my ears, but they weren’t the cause of my restless state.

Instead, all I could think about was Levi, all alone in that shitty hospital room.

Four days had passed since the two of us were stranded on our most recent expedition beyond the Walls. Two days had passed since I was split up from Levi, forced to return to Utopia District without him. And not twenty-four hours had passed since he mysteriously arrived at Wall Rose through the gates of the district. Bloodied and bruised, the Garrison soldiers had rushed him to the general hospital, where he thankfully awoke a few hours later. I had stayed at his side for as long as I could—until visiting hours were over, and I was forced to retreat to the Garrison’s headquarters building, stationed in the heart of the district.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him. A thousand questions lingered on my lips, swirled around in my head. How had he survived out there on his own in that freezing weather? How did he manage to kill the Titans chasing after him with a gash in his side? Did he eat anything while he was out there by himself? He didn’t look too bad, apart from the injury on his side. But still, I worried for him.

Finally, I pushed myself out of bed and tiptoed around the room, sliding my feet into the pair of boots beside the door. I grabbed an extra jacket and my scarf, as well, before stepping outside and closing the door behind me. Luckily, Hanji didn’t even make a sound.

The halls of the Garrison headquarters were thankfully empty, save for a few soldiers standing on guard for the night. But most of them didn’t bat an eye as I moved past them. Just hours earlier, Gate Lieutenant Brigitte Morris had placed me under Garrison watch in fear I would lash out and leave the district to look for Levi on my own. But now that he had returned safe and sound, none of them seemed to be concerned with me. It was as though they knew I wouldn’t try anything funny, now that he was within the boundaries of the district.

The cold air nipped at my fingers the moment I stepped outside. I pulled my scarf closer to my neck before stuffing my hands in my pockets. The streets were quiet, with only a casual couple or two holding hands, heading in from a night at the tavern. I didn’t pay them any mind, though. It was a quick walk to the hospital, anyway.

The main door was thankfully unlocked, but I knew I couldn’t just barge into Levi’s room unannounced. The girl at the front desk rubbed at her temples the moment she saw me. I nearly snickered at that; she must’ve recognized me as the annoying girl from the Scouts—the one who wouldn’t shut up about her fellow soldier, lost in the snow.

“I assume you’re here for the captain, right?” I nodded, my nails digging into my palms within my pockets. The girl sighed before picking up a stack of papers from the desk. “I’m really not supposed to let you in past visiting hours… But I guess it’s alright, just this one time.”

I could tell she wanted to say more. Something along the lines of, “You know, he did just get back today.” Or maybe, “You guys act like a couple, are you dating or are you married?” By the way Levi and I acted around each other, I couldn’t exactly blame anyone for having those suspicions.

The thing is, I had no idea what we were right now. I liked him, he liked me. The two of us had nearly kissed on multiple occasions. We had held each other in the dead of night just two days ago, miles away from the rest of civilization, shrouded in the memories of our pasts and promises to keep each other close. And yet, we still couldn’t find it in ourselves to openly commit to a relationship.

How fucking pathetic.

Nevertheless, I gave the girl a grateful nod and practically raced down the hall, straight to Levi’s assigned room. It only took three light knocks on the door, before a raspy “Come in” filled my ears.

I stepped inside and locked the door behind me. Levi was still lying in bed, with a hand pressed against his bandaged side. His hair was frayed with sleep, his eyes dull and lidded. A small candle rested beside him on the nightstand, its flame flickering softly in the darkness.

A weak smirk stretched across his face. “Can’t sleep?”

“…Not really. What about you?”

He made that little tch sound with his lips, before rolling his shoulders further into the pillows propped up behind him. “What do you think?”

My chest deflated a little at his words. Of course he didn’t. Right now, he was the same as me—unable to close his eyes without seeing the memories of the past few days. And as sad as it was, neither of us could be apart from each other. At least, not right now. Not just yet.

I kicked off the boots, mindful not to get mud anywhere on the floor near his bed, and slid my jacket off my shoulders. As I stepped towards the bed, he opened his arm (the one that wasn’t pressed against his side) and beckoned me closer. I sank down on the bed beside him, tucking my head beneath his chin and stretching my hand along his chest.

Memories began to pool beneath my eyelids: of the two of us in this exact same position, in that abandoned cabin beyond Utopia District, as the blizzard raged on just beyond those four wooden walls. Of Levi allowing me to stitch up his side, even though he griped the entire time, because he knew all I wanted was for him to be safe. Of him spilling a handful of secrets to me about his past, over two bottles of wine that burned my throat, before pressing his face to my chest and holding me close to his body. Of myself brushing his bangs away from his forehead, humming a tune my mother had taught me, before waking up to find myself wrapped up in his arms, with our coats draped over us as makeshift blankets.

Levi’s chest heaved with a sigh as he spoke: “Sometimes I think you’re more trouble than you’re worth, brat.”

I couldn’t help but snicker, as I tickled the skin below his collarbone. “Really? Well, sometimes I think the same thing about you.”

He didn’t have an answer for that, but the agreement was mutual: the two of us were stuck with each other, whether we liked it or not.

My eyes flickered over to the window beside the bed, to the panes tinted with frost and the sight of the sky looming over us from above. But something else caught my eye—a soft storm of snowflakes, raining down from the clouds.

Another snowfall. You would think that, after seeing so much snow these past few days, the sight alone would make me sick. And in some ways, I did feel a little sick.

But at that moment, I couldn’t care less. I simply tightened my arm around him, with his strong heart beating against my palm, as the two of us watched the snowfall from the darkened window, lost in each other’s warmth.

The fourth winter we spent together was magical.

This year marked the first I knew about Levi’s birthday on Christmas, and I was determined to make the most of the day with the man I loved.

A day spent in Ahorne, the little town just a few miles away from the Survey Corps base, losing ourselves in spontaneous shopping and sightseeing, a tasteful dinner at a friendly tavern, and childish snowball fights in the square, as the neighboring children laughed and pointed their fingers at us.

At night we headed back to the base, and after Hanji had practically dragged us into the mess hall for a little celebration, the two of us retreated to Levi’s office, our arms full of presents from our fellow soldiers.

Words were exchanged. Tears were shed. And finally, with my birthday present to him laying across his desk, and his Christmas gift to me resting right beside it, the two of us fell into a rhythm we knew so well—splayed out on his bed with the door locked behind us.

His hands were firm against my hips, dragging the hem of my shirt up and over my head, and tossing it in some unknown corner of the room. I followed suit, tugging his own shirt off of his shoulders, before turning to the button of his pants. He raised an eyebrow as I wriggled myself out of his grasp, before settling myself at the foot of his bed, pulling his legs to hang over the edge on either side of me.

“Levi,” my cheeks filled with heat at the tone of my voice, as I slid his pants down to his ankles, “do you want me?”

He gave me a quizzical look, cheeks dusted with a light pink shade. Sweat was already starting to gather at his brow, his dark bangs sticking to his forehead.

He was usually the one who asked that question. Always checking in on me, to make sure this was what I wanted. But tonight wasn’t about me. It was about this man, Levi, right in front of me. Tonight was his special night; he wasn’t a captain of the Survey Corps, or a former thug from the Underground City, or even Humanity’s Strongest Soldier. He was just Levi, the man I fell in love with—and the man I would devote my heart to, a thousand times over.

“Of course I do,” his answer was breathless as he swiped his fingers through my hair.

I pulled his boxers off and dropped them to the floor, before taking his half-hard cock in my hands. I gave him a smile, as my tongue dipped out to taste the tip, which was already flushed and beading with precum.

“That’s good.” He moaned as I swirled my tongue around him, giving his shaft a few slow strokes. “Because I want you, too. And I want to take care of you—so let me, please.”

My nails brushed against the meat of his thighs as I bobbed my head against him. His moans were simply beautiful—soft whines and little gasps that left his shoulders trembling. His thighs began to quake as I wrapped my lips around the head and began to suck. And when I glanced back up at his face, his fist was held tight against his mouth, his cheeks a deep crimson hue.

“Love you,” I mumbled, as a string of saliva slid from my mouth. “I love you so fucking much.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little bit proud of myself. Usually he was the talkative one during sex, snickering at the sounds I made and savoring the sight of my body writhing beneath his own. But he had given me the reins for a change, and I was determined to make the most of it. Especially for the end of his special day.

His other hand came to wrap itself around the back of my head, encouraging me to take him deeper down my throat. I moaned around his dick, jerking him off with one hand, while the other traveled down between my thighs. I slid my fingers through the hem of my pants and beneath my panties—and already I could feel myself getting wet. I took him even deeper into my mouth, while simultaneously slipping a finger into myself.

“Mia,” his voice was soft and husky, as he tilted my head so he could stare into my eyes, “fuck, Mia…”

I pulled away momentarily, gasping as I slid another finger inside. “I’m here.” I bucked against the heel of my hand, desperate for a bit of friction against my burning clit. “Let me make you cum, Levi.”

In the end, I think it was the sound of his name that did him in. he practically yanked me back down on his cock, growling as I bobbed my head around his length. With what I couldn’t fit in my mouth, I ran my hand up and down in quick, fluid motions. All the while, I circled my clit with my thumb, pumping two fingers and stretching myself out.

He groaned against his fist, thighs shaking around my head, as he finished inside my mouth. His cum was hot and salty, trickling down my throat and staining my tongue. But it wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. In fact, after all this time, I kind of liked it. And when I straightened myself up, with two fingers still pressed inside of me, I made a show of licking my lips and cleaning up every last drop.

Levi grabbed me then, pulling myself onto his body and yanking at the belt around my waist. He was still hard, almost desperate to sink himself inside of me. As I shimmied out of my panties, he took my hand in his own—and immediately wrapped his lips around the two fingers that had been inside of me. He moaned softly at the taste, before pulling me in for a messy kiss.

But then he cupped my dripping sex in his hand, before hiking my thighs up towards his chest. The command was simple, and one I had heard many times before: Sit on my face like a good girl. But I shook my head at him, taking his wrists in my hands and pressing a kiss to his temple.

“Not now. Maybe later, but not now. Tonight, I’m going to be the one to take care of you. Is that okay with you?”

His silver eyes twinkled in the flickering candlelight. He gave me another kiss, hot and sloppy and desperate, before pressing me down onto his cock. The two of us hissed at the stretch, and on instinct, I found his hand on the mattress and laced our fingers together.

I set a steady pace for the two of us, rocking my hips back and forth, and raking my nails down his rigid chest. His free hand kneaded at my ass, tugging me closer to him, while his other hand squeezed mine even tighter. He stiffened when I scooped my hips, his head falling back against the mattress, his lips parted and his eyes glazed.

I couldn’t help but smile, before I leaned down to kiss him again.

You’re mine. The words were silent between us. And I’m yours. Until my dying day, and even after that.

My breath hitched in my throat as my clit rubbed against his stomach. At his firm nod, I loosened my grip and placed both hands on his chest, my thrusts much more aggressive than before.

A soft whine filled my ears as he grabbed at my hips, helping me move against his cock at a faster pace. “Good girl, Mia. That’s what I like to see.”

I stared into his eyes, face flushed and chest heaving, as I bounced myself up and down on his cock. For a moment, I thought back to the first night he had taken me, when I had gazed down at him from this exact position, feeling as though I had the world in the palms of my hands.

And in a way, I did. He was my whole world, and at least for tonight, I had him all to myself.

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. My clit throbbed beneath his thumb, as he circled it and whispered soft praises into the darkness. It was hard to keep quiet, to be considerate of the other soldiers sleeping within the castle walls at this time of night. I knew for certain that if Hanji or Mike heard either of us now, neither of them would be able to let it go.

But everything just felt so fucking right—his body beneath mine, the heat of his hands on my hips, the pleasant stretch of his cock—I was intoxicated with him, scent and sight and sound and everything else in between.

My thighs were beginning to burn from exhaustion, as my chest continued to heave. But before I could even slow my pace to catch my breath, he scooped me up in his arms and threw me against the mattress, planting a fierce kiss on my lips as he hooked my leg around his hips. He slid himself into me again, his damp bangs tickling my face with every thrust.

I stretched my fingers out, scraping the backs of his muscular shoulders with my nails. The shift in angle sent me over the edge in no time, whimpering his name against his hot lips, the taste of salt flooding my tongue. He reached his own peak a few moments later, moaning the word Mia into the crook of my neck as he spilled himself inside of me. I hooked one arm around his neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses to his cheek, his temple, wherever I could reach as I rode out my high.

His skin was hot and sticky as he pulled away from me, before propping himself on his elbow and brushing my hair from my face. With my chest still heaving, I stuck out my bottom lip at him, fingertips tracing the edge of his jaw.

“…What?”

“You’re no fair. I said tonight would be my night to take care of you. You never listen, do you?”

He only scoffed and rolled his eyes, before leaning down to cradle me in his arms. “I listen just as much as you listen to me. Besides, weren’t you insisting today is my special day? If that’s the case, I’ll fuck you in any way I see fit.”

I laughed and shook my head, raking my fingers through his sweaty black locks. “Oh, will you, now?”

“Yes.” With that, he took both my wrists in his hands and held them above my head, all the while pressing his thigh in between my legs. I squirmed beneath him when I felt his cock start to twitch, resting heavily between our stomachs. “And I’ll do it again. Just watch me.”

He leaned down to kiss my neck, sliding himself in between my thighs once more. My head lolled to the side, my back arching into his chest—but then my eyes snapped open, and I started to smile.

He raised an eyebrow at me as he took his cock in his hand. “What is it?”

“Look—it’s snowing again.”

The two of us had been too caught up in our lovemaking to notice the light snowfall that had started just outside the window of his bedroom. Fat flakes drifted down from above, staining the window and painting the glass with frost.

But then his hand came around my chin, bringing my eyes back to his with a firm but gentle tug.

“Eyes on me, sweetheart.” My face flushed at the pet name—even more so when he pressed the tip of his cock to my sex, still dripping with his cum. “I want you to look at me when I fuck you tonight.”

So I did. All night long, my eyes never left his. Only when we were finished and dozing off in his bed did I look out the window again—and I smiled when I saw that the snow was still falling.

The fifth winter was soft. The sixth winter was unforgiving. And the seventh winter…well, it was different. Even now, I can’t help but shake my head and smile when I think of it.

Seven winters. I had been blessed with seven winters with the man at my side. It was almost too much to fathom—too much to be thankful for.

And yet, I wanted even more. As selfish as it was, I wanted another seven winters with this man—and perhaps even more, if life was kind to me.

The windows of the little house were tinted with frost. It was snowing outside—the first snowfall of the season. Light and feathery, falling to the ground in gentle puffs. The grass below was starting to crunch beneath our boots—it would be nice stepping on snow for a change, instead of dried grass and dead leaves.

The door swung open, and a gust of cold wind flooded inside. I curled my hands around my teacup, hiding my face behind the brim as Levi stepped into the house, knocking his boots on the side of the doorframe. He grimaced at the snowflakes that dribbled off, before shutting the door and abandoning his boots at the doorway altogether. Then he shrugged off his jacket, rubbed his hands together, and made his way to the table, where I nudged a second cup of tea in his direction.

“Still watching the shitty snow?”

“It’s not shitty.” I rolled my eyes as I sipped my tea, shivering as he plopped down on the bench beside me. “I think it’s beautiful. How are the horses out there?”

He took a drink before answering, with a light shrug of his shoulders. “Fine. I put their blankets on before I left. They should be fine out there, though. Made sure to give them fresh hay so they don’t bitch and moan later.”

I giggled, leaning into his outstretched arm and nuzzling into his neck. “You’re so sweet, Levi.”

“Fuck off.”

The two of us fell into a comfortable silence, watching the snow fall just outside the frosty window. The sun had gone down hours ago, so it was just the two of us in this little cabin in the middle of nowhere. Well, the two of us, and Edel and Mischa, of course. Couldn’t forget about them.

“So, how long do you think it’ll take Hanji to notice we’re gone?”

“Oh, I’d say she already knows. It’s not like she’ll be the one to complain about it.” Levi scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Fucking bastards. They can survive for a week or so without us.”

I snickered and sipped my tea again. Of course, the higher-ups could last a couple weeks without two measly Scouts. Hanji was always begging us to get away from the base for a little bit and spend some “quality time” together, but it was always a little difficult to do that during the warmer weather, thanks to our expeditions and constant trips to Mitras. Now with the nights growing colder and the snowstorms starting, the two of us had decided to leave in the middle of the night, for a little winter getaway somewhere in the wilderness. At least we wouldn’t be missing too much while we were gone—and I knew Hanji would understand. She always did when it came to our relationship.

Levi had chosen this place—it was the same cabin we had lived in earlier in the summer, when we were on the run from the Military Police. I never asked him why he had chosen this place—but now, with two cups of tea in me already, and halfway through my third, I decided to ask him about it:

“What made you pick this place, anyway?”

He was silent for a while, and for a moment I thought maybe I’d said the wrong thing. But then he squeezed my hand in his own, pressing his lips to my temple.

“You remember what I told you here, back then?”

I remembered, all right. I remembered standing at the sink in the kitchen, just a few feet away from this table, washing the dishes from dinner as the kids hurried off to bed. I remembered Levi lingering behind me, silently judging me for my cleaning skills, knowing that he was the one who had taught me how to properly clean a plate (or so he thought). I remembered the way he stood beside me, reaching into the sink and grabbing my soapy hand, not minding the mess one bit.

“When this is all over, I’ll get you a proper ring. And…if you still want kids…”

My hand fluttered down to my stomach. The mere thought of carrying Levi’s child, of becoming Mia Rose Ackerman someday down the line… It almost brought me to tears right then and there.

But then he was holding me, arms wrapped around my waist and pulling my back into his chest. I leaned in and tilted my head, lips brushing against his own. The two cups of tea rested on the table, still steaming but nearly forgotten.

“I remember.” I smiled against his mouth, brushing his cheek with the backs of my fingers. “Will we have a nice little ceremony that day?”

“We’ll have whatever you want, brat.”

I didn’t want much—just our families and a few close friends to witness our marriage vows. “Do you want a boy or a girl first?”

“First?” I laughed out loud at the look he gave me. “How many fucking kids are you planning on having?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t you remember that night a couple years ago, when I told you I wanted seven kids?”

“Seven?! You’re still on about that? Tch, you’re a real fucking pain in my ass, you know…”

“Hey, you didn’t answer me yet!”

But he silenced me with a kiss, sweet and passionate against my lips. He pressed the palm of my hand against the side of his face, snuggling into my touch as his eyes fluttered shut.

“I’ll be happy with whatever we have, sweetheart.”

My eyes began to burn with unshed tears. Levi noticed at once, and his thumb came to rest at my cheekbone, ready to dry them away when they fell. And when they did, I pushed his hand away, shifting in my seat completely to face him head-on.

“Thank you, Levi.” Before he could answer, I took his face in my hands and pulled him in for a kiss, soft and slow. “I love you.”

He huffed before wrapping his arms around me, pulling me into his chest. “Love you too, brat. Now come on, it’s getting late.”

Despite the growing blizzard outside, the cabin was surprisingly warm. Even as the two of us cuddled into bed, with my head tucked beneath his chin and his arms around my waist, neither of us felt the slightest chill. I buried my face into his neck, but not before stealing one last glance at the snow outside.

“Goodnight, Levi.”

His chest rumbled as he lifted my hand up to his face, thumbing the silver ring that rested on the fourth finger. “Goodnight…Mrs. Ackerman.”

I giggled against the crook of his neck. “I like it. It has a nice ring to it.”

“Yeah, it does…”

The rest of the night passed by in silence, with the two of us holding each other beneath the blankets. Once in a while he would shift in my arms, just to snuggle further into the mattress, before settling once again. I stretched my fingers along his chest, and I smiled when I felt his heart beat against my fingertips.

He’s here. We’re both here.

And right now, that was all I needed.

The last thing I felt before I drifted off to sleep were his lips against my forehead, murmuring those three beautiful words against my skin, as the snow continued to fall beyond the cabin’s walls.

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