no but i truly mean it when i say this is gonna be the angstiest year on taegularities so far bc looking at my long roomie jk wip im like.. 👁️👄👁️

why am i doing this to us

🍉🍙🥫

🍉 What character/story trope do you love

Ok I’m not just saying this to suck up to you but I really do love de-aging fics. I love it when you find out trauma simply through the act of a character acting like their younger self

Obviously Once More w/ Feeling by you (tiny_peach)

Chapter 5 of Five things learned about Tomioka Giyuu, and one thing forgotten by vexfulfolly

and the pint sized pillar au by @ghostbite0

🍙 What story (fanfiction or published work) had the biggest impact on you?

Going Postal and Crow Mail by Sciathan_file are some of my favorite works maybe ever (probably yes ever) they’re oc x Tomioka Giyuu but honestly work as reader inserts (that’s how I read them lol). It’s what inspired me to write my first ever long fic (even though I don’t really like the fic anymore, I finished it like 2 years ago) and also they reply to every single comment left on their works. Like seriously they will respond to every single point you make in a comment which is why I try to do the same with my works :)

🥫What's a scene you've really enjoyed working on?

This is a really hard one… obviously I enjoy writing anything to do w/ Giyuu (despite my fav character being Rengoku, but Giyuu is easier to project onto). I would say I enjoy writing smut the most? Not just bc it’s smut lol but I think exploring how a character would act during sex is really really interesting. For anyone who’s seen The Boys you’ll notice that the characters have sex in very different ways that line up w/ them as people!

Anyways I’m giving two examples, this is from Consumate (part of my Giyuu x Reader series)

There’s a cute little pout on his face as he tries to understand your nonsense. “Should I stop?” His fingers settle back together, giving your walls a chance to relax.

Distracted by his red face and slick lips it takes a few moments to create a proper response. “N-no! I wanna do this with you. It just feels like, like there’s fingers inside me.” You giggle again. Most of the shyness has been washed away, instead replaced by a mixture of pure admiration and desperateness.

(Side note but I love the phrase “cute little pout” and struggle not to overuse it in my fics lol)

and then this is from a current shinogiyuu wip where Tomioka gets turned into a woman

“I can’t seem to get it on.” The problem is immediately clear. Tomioka looks pretty, leaning back on the bed with a hand covering his chest. When she had given him the undergarments instructions had not been included. The bra was both too loose and too tight, handing oddly on his body. For what it’s worth the fabric does manage to cover the majority of his newfound breasts. That doesn’t cure his embarrassment however, a soft pink blush highlighting perfect cheekbones.

(Skipping some non-important in between stuff)

“Does that feel better?”

“It’s…tight.”

“Sorry, that’s just how it is. Now you know the horrors of womanhood.” Despite her light tone Tomioka nods solemnly.

Wilbur, Fundy, and Purpled were interviewed for this great article on the Dream SMP and the Minecraft community! Full article below the cut. 

"Minecraft" launched over a decade ago and the video game is as popular as ever. With over 126 million players worldwide, the voxel-based survival game drops adventurers into a world where they can craft, build, explore, destroy, and create to their heart's content. Aided by tools, blocks, and creativity, the simple sandbox world allows anyone on PC, console, or smartphone the chance to project their own feelings and creations directly into their virtual space.

"As long as you have the mind for it, you can really just do anything," 17-year-old "Minecraft" YouTuber Purpled, who has 700,000 subscribers, told Insider. "Because of how simple Minecraft is and how easy it is to build with it, you can create whatever you want."

In recent years, Microsoft's never-ending game has evolved into a tool for content creators to express themselves, leading to high-profile collaborations with some of YouTube's biggest personalities. By creating their own private "Minecraft" servers, creators have been able to craft ornate worlds and stories that they can explore in streams and videos, immersing fans in a cinematic-style universe.

Minecraft has a long history on YouTube

"Minecraft's" versatility has made it an incredibly popular game for content creators and influencers. In 2012, a change in YouTube's algorithm promoting watch time over video clicks led to a renaissance of "Let's Players" who recorded themselves reacting and playing their favorite games. "Minecraft" was one of the most successful, spawning some of the largest channels of the time like SkyDoesMinecraft (11.3 million subscribers) and Tobuscus (6.25 million subs).

Though the popularity of "Minecraft" remained fairly steady, content about the title waned a bit over the next decade either due to content fatigue or newer titles like "Fortnite" taking the spotlight. 2020 flipped the title back into the forefront, with both streamers and YouTubers capitalizing on the title's popularity.  

The biggest breakout star for "Minecraft" in the past few years is Dream, an expert, faceless player with a neon-green avatar with over 17 million YouTube subscribers. YouTube labeled him the second overall content creator of the year and his streams consistently pull in a quarter of a million people.

In May of 2020, Dream decided to create a small, private server for his friends to play around in. This SMP server, or "survival multiplayer," started off with only a handful of content creators being invited. Soon, the server would expand to over 30 members, bringing in millions of views from fans who chronicle every moment of the lore the creators eventually created.

Viewership on Twitch of "Minecraft" content went from 17 million hours watched in January 2020 to 74 million in January of 2021, according to data from analytics company Rainmaker.gg.  

How the Dream SMP grew from a private server with friends to a cultural milestone

Purpled has been playing "Minecraft" for the past eight years and is a high-ranking player in a multiplayer game mode called "Bed Wars." He had started talking to Dream in the summer of 2019, when the pair were both small, mutual fans.

"When the SMP was in its infancy, I just asked him if there was any room because he said how it's just for friends and if a friend wants to join, they can," Purpled said. "So I asked him, he said, 'Sure.' He sent me the IP and I was in."

The server was originally just a place to create and hangout, with no intention of creating an overarching story or plot.

Fundy, a 19-year-old Dutch YouTuber with 2.7 million subscribers joined when only a handful of other creators were on."I had talked to Dream on a few occasions, out-of-the-blue Dream sent me a message about a survival world that they had going on. It was very small at first," Fundy said. "I thought it could be a fun little side-project I could stream every now and then on Twitch, so I decided to join."

Fundy joined in the early days alongside Wilbur Soot, a 23-year-old YouTuber with 3.8 million subscribers. Soot, after attempting to create an "illegal potion shop" on the server, decided to establish a nation of non-Americans players called L'Manberg. Soot said he wrote a "treatment" for how the formation of his country would go, creating an official canon that fans could follow along with.

"I was invited into the Dream SMP near its inception but I only joined fully when I had an idea for building a country in 'Minecraft'," Soot said. "I write up a series of plot hooks and points that should tie together, however we improv dialogue and comedy throughout to take us from point to point."

These streams and pieces of content all had a canon that could be followed and consumed like a television show. L'Manberg eventually started a war against Dream for its independence, staging a rebellion chronicled in YouTube videos with millions of views.

These streams and videos aren't just randoms in "Minecraft" trying to defeat the end-game Ender Dragon — these are performers putting on a show that their fans can't miss. As the lore expanded, so did the rules needed to keep a sense of continuity and order. For example, each player only has three lives before they are removed and deleted from the server.

"It went from a casual survival game to a whole story-line filled with plots and twists," Fundy said. "Role-playing at this point is a key-feature of the Dream SMP, some parts are scripted, some parts are improv, and some parts are 'non-canon,' where it is just counted as a standard 'Minecraft' server."

The fan communities have risen up and made their voices heard

Over the next few months, the lore and world would continue to grow and so would the fan base. Hundreds of thousands of viewers would tune in for these streams, trying to keep up with the lore and content. To help catalog the story, a network of fans established themselves as lore keepers, documenting each moment for those that had to miss a stream.  

The "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" account on Twitter has established itself as one of the most popular locations to find all this content and lore on social media. Starting in December 2020, the account has grown to over 147,000 users with just a team of seven administrators, ages 14-17, in different locations around the world, posting updates and stream notifications for fans. "Minecraft" is a game that appeals to all ages, but the audience for this content tends to skew younger, with 41 percent of Twitch's user base being 16 to 24, according to GlobalWebIndex.

"You can tell they're all friends and it's a lot more lighthearted in general and it shows," mod on the "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" Twitter account eclaire said over chat app Discord. "When it's not lore you see them actually having good chemistry and it really pulls you in because it almost feels like being pulled into a friend group."

User SamHQ first started the fan account with a couple of friends from high school but the group quickly expanded after the account tweeted that they needed more fans of certain streamers to join. She is online and runs the account "24/7" but "it's just like answering a text."

"When I started the account I knew lots of people who couldn't catch up because of work or school," SamHQ said. "So I gathered friends to help and now people rely on us when someone's streaming or to catch up with the lore when they can't watch."

For the fans that run the update account, keeping up with the Dream SMP isn't dissimilar to following the Marvel Cinematic Universe or a long-running television show. Characters come and go, but the improv and roleplay stay.

"The Dream SMP did something really special — taking an original idea, creating new things that have never been seen on 'Minecraft' and incorporating them with humor and characters that you can become easily attached with," mod NotAlex said.

Though other SMP roleplay servers, like EarthSMP and SMPLive, have been created over the years, none have been as successful or popular as the Dream SMP.

Finding a fan base on the Dream SMP can lead to major growth.

For the performers on the server, addressing fans and their responses comes with the territory.

"The Dream SMP viewers are very important to the Dream SMP, and the fact that they openly speak their mind about how a certain stream went only helps the streamers improve," Fundy said. "It's basically an instant review of what was liked and what wasn't."

Like most major fandoms with a young audience, fanfiction of these streamers has popped up online. Dozens of Dream fics and drawings exist online, some going a bit far and putting underage characters together. Dream responded on Twitter to those "ships," writing that they shouldn't "ship creators that are uncomfortable with it, and especially not minors."

The Dream stans, or the super fans, also tend to be very vocal online about the SMP. Hashtags on Twitter like #dreamnotfound and #dreamfanart consistently break-through to the trending page, confusing those who have no idea this world exists. The most ferocious of stans sometimes overstep the boundary between polite disagreement and outright harassment. This vocal minority has sent death threats and waves of harassment at those who criticize or disagree with their favorite content creators.  

The growth and future of these channels is in large part due to the Dream SMP server

The popularity of Dream SMP has helped grow the content creators that take part in it. Since joining the server, Purpled is gaining three times as many subscribers a month on YouTube and has been introduced to an entirely new fan base. His streams used to pull in 3,000 viewers but now his average is closer to 35,000 to 40,000 viewers.

"Some people think of them as obsessive or stalker fans, but those are people that really like to talk about certain creators and really get invested in things," Purpled said. "And it's really nice because they care a lot more and connect more with the creator than the content."

These creators understand the power of the fan base and know that they come for the content.

"I think the Dream SMP is popular thanks to the brilliant creators and funny improv moments," Soot said. "I think we'll be seeing the emergence of a huge wave of roleplay-centric gaming communities."

When I read your works, I always think: "How does she do it?" You know I love your fics with all my heart and I'd like to ask, if you don't mind, how do you usually plan the process of writing your long fics? Do you know in advance what the ending of your fic will be? Once you mentioned that it took you 2 years to write the first draft of "Sideways". Do you get tired of this amount of work while writing? What inspires you to keep writing?

You also mentioned that you wrote the first draft of “Burning Barriers” in four months. I think it's a hell of a fast speed for such a complex story. It seems to me that self-discipline plays an important role here, doesn't it?

What a wonderful surprise to find this in my inbox!  Thank you for the fun ask.  I love talking about writing as you probably know.  It’s always interesting to discusses processes.  Also, it means so much to me that you appreciate my writing that much and want to know more about it!

Do I know the ending?  I won’t write a story unless I know the ending.  Endings make or break stories to me.  I may enjoy a book series right up to the conclusion, but if the ending is unsatisfying or feels contrived then it changes how I see the whole story.  I wouldn’t recommend the story.  One of my biggest issues with bad endings is when they feel emotionally manipulative.  I read the whole story upset over these two characters who couldn’t be together because of X, but now it’s the ending, and X isn’t such a big deal after all.  Then why did I waste 100 k words worrying about X when all along the writer knew, in the end, it was no big deal?

The same goes with a story about a character choosing between two incompatible options.  If the conclusion is the character can have both, have their cake and eat it too, then there better be something extraordinarily clever or well-arranged to make me feel like that’s not just a cheap out.  Again, I feel like I wasted my time and emotions worrying about what the author knew all along was a non-issue.  Endings, to me, require real sacrifices, real decisions, and problems that need to be solved head-on.  It has to be solved by the protagonist and has to gratify my emotional investment not invalidate it. 

When it comes to the process of writing, I consider what will make the most satisfying ending.  I try to identify the barriers to that ending feeling the best it can feel.  While writing the story, I address those barriers.  By the time the ending arrives, I want it to feel like the story had lead up to a natural and satisfying conclusion.  

I don’t outline my stories, but I know the steps along the way.  The character wants to achieve X, and that’s what the story is about.  The character will do A which leads to B which leads to C which leads to the ending involving X.  Along with the main plot, there are subplot, the most important usually being the OTP’s relationship. Where should the conclusion to that subplot fall in relationship to the main storyline?  To have an effective romance, for me, the progression of plot and character relationship are interrelated, one affecting the other.  In that way, the progression of the subplot aligns with the structure I’ve already decided for the main plot.

“Sideways” took me about two years, but in that time, I also wrote “Eighteen Years and Five Months” (10k), “The Favorite” (2.5k), “About Horizon” (30k), and “About Mars” (66k).  So, probably six months of those two years were writing and posting others stories.  It was important to have that break and have something to share with the fandom when I couldn’t share my main work.  “Sideways” also had the advantage of a lot of storylines too, which provided variety and opportunity for a break.  There are essentially four: paragon timeline current, paragon timeline past, renegade timeline current, and renegade timeline past.  I could switch between them when I got frustrated or run down with the other storyline. 

What inspires me to write is the intrinsic joy I get from writing itself, but also the anticipation of someone’s reaction when reading it.  I look forward to the day I get to share the story with others.  I wonder what people will think of different parts.  I’m sure all writers must think that way while working on a story.  For me, it’s just a lot further into the future with a project the size of “Sideways” to actually realize that reward.  

It does take a certain level of self-discipline.  I think above anything for my own writing process there’s heavy reliance on delayed gratification.  What I’m posting now I wrote years ago.  I waited a long time to share the story.  I’ve wondered for a really long time what a reader’s reaction will be to a scene.  Before I post, the only person who has ever read those words on the screen is me.  Suddenly, being able to share that with another person (or people) is meaningful.  It’s something I’ve looked forward to for a very long time.  In that way, for me, I think self-discipline and the ability to delay gratification are key elements in completing a large project.

Thank you for the ask!  It means so much to me that you’re interested in my stories and curious to know the background.  It’s incredibly flattering! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about something I enjoy.

Goals & A Backwards Glance

Writing Edition

I know NYE is usually reserved for looking ahead at what new things the coming year will bring. But I always like looking back, too. Perspective is always a good thing, and what I’ve found is that things almost always look and feel different with a little space in between. So this is basically my little look back at some of the things I’ve written this year, and a hopeful list of the things I want to accomplish in the new year.

Writing Goals for 2021:

Finish ISY and Simplify. These two were the first two series that I started writing on this blog and they’re still unfinished. I know what happens in both of them, and I have for a long while now. I think the main reason that they’re still in limbo is because my writing has changed quite a lot since I started both of them. I’ve also worked with those (and other) characters a lot more since I started them, and so I feel like a lot of the things that I wrote for both that version of Billy and Logan don’t quite fit the way that I see them now- because I think I have a much deeper understanding of them both as characters now than I did a year and a half (that’s embarrassing) ago. My main concern is making sure that they don’t feel disjointed in terms of the storytelling- I know they’re disjointed insofar as time between updates but...  nothing I can do about that now except close the books on both of ‘em. 2 more sections for Logan, probably about 4 or 5 for Billy. So if you’ve been waiting on either of these stories to finish, I’m very sorry. I have actually been creepin in the ISY document lately so look for that in the coming week 

Find John’s Voice again. I had it, plotted out pretty much the entire storyline for LFtM&D, and then completely lost both his voice and my confidence in my ability to convincingly write the story that I want to write. He’s just such a precious cherub and I want to make sure that if I write him, I do him and all his charm and whimsy justice. So getting him back on track is a must. 

Complete an entire series before posting it. I’ve tried this in the past and have only managed to hold back like two chapters at a time. I’m working on something new for Billy though, and I really want to make sure that I take my time with it. While I know I’m hard on myself when it comes to writing, I tend to be even more critical when it comes to my interpretation of Billy (hence ISY and my hang ups with it.) And I really want to make sure that there’s nothing I’ll wish I had done differently by the time I’m posting the final chapter. It’s a few thousand words in now, and I’ve already made some major changes so I’m glad I am sticking to this method. 

Branch out with my writing. I started writing something for a different fandom... like... 5 minutes ago. I want to finish it, see where it takes me, and hopefully have the guts to post it here. 

Non-fic related projects. The last few years I have been focusing a lot of my attention on writing fanfic over original pieces. I regret absolutely nothing because doing that helped me out of a years-long wordless drought. I have learned so much in the last few years about my style and the things that are important to me when I write, so I think now that I feel like I found my feet again, it would be a good time for me to revisit my non-fic related projects. A few need complete overhauls and some need to just be junk-drawered while others have been patiently waiting to jump from my notes to a real, live google doc of their own. I’m in no way done with fic writing. On the contrary, I actually have a ton of fic ideas that I still  want to get to. But I want to split my time and attention towards both branches of my writing, because I’m ready to take the steps that I need to to advance this from a hobby into something more. 

2020 Writing at a Glance: 

Series finished: Jigsaw, The Jilted Tourist, 

Series continued from 2019: Too Good to be True, I See You, Simplify, Passing Through, See You in New York, Made Man, Our Time

New Series in 2020: Core Drive, In the Arms of the Ocean, Let’s Face the Music & Dance, The Last Dream 

Favorite New Series: Core Drive (Logan)

Favorite One Shot: Luckenbach, Texas (Ryan)

Favorite Request Result: Lonely Stranger (Ryan) 

Biggest challenge: Navigating the storyline for Core Drive. It’s built on flashbacks and dreams and inner thoughts, so keeping it all straight enough when it’s not really meant to be linear can be a challenge. 

Most proud of: The OCs I created for In the Arms of the Ocean. Vash, Sereia, Coralia and Cheepimeek make me smile just thinking about them. I’ll be really sad to start fucking up their world in the next part of that story.  

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope that this keeps me accountable for the things that I want to accomplish with my writing. If you’ve read this list please feel free to call me out and help keep me on the path towards completing it. 

And if you’re one of the people that have been reading my stories, thank you. Those words always feel insignificant whenever I say them, but I truly am grateful for anyone who has ever interacted with my writing in any way shape or form. Sharing my stories with you makes it far more fun to write them. 

And on a final note, I won’t beat a dead horse and talk about how shittastic this last year has been for a lot of people. But what I will say is that I hope this next trip around the sun brings a lot more light and happiness to everyone. Happy New Year, guys, we made it through another one. 

** I have something planned to post tomorrow that will hopefully start the year off on a positive note, so if you love Ryan Brenner and you know it clap your hands...and check your notifications tomorrow ;) 

Disclaimer: I endeavor to make my fics as non-descriptive as possible, because I think seeing yourself in writing is one of the most important things as possible. Therefore, I don’t really have a picture in my head of what Nora looks like. I chose a photo/model based off of the few descriptors of her that are in the story (hair, eye color, moderate info on body shape) but this is in no way the only person Nora could look like. If the Nora in your head looks different, I love that! In fact, send me who Nora looks like to you. All the Noras are loved and welcome in this space, no matter their size, shape, color, ability, or background. <3 I also altered this to make sense for Nora, since she’s a student still!

VOGUE’S STUDENT SERIES: NORA TATE

1. Are you working on any current projects in your career or for fun you want to talk about? I’m still in school, but I’m starting to plan out my senior thesis right now and it’s really exciting. The current plan is to explore Gender & Sexuality in East Germany in the 1970s--I’m diving into the research right now and loving it so far!

2. What is your biggest dream? Honestly, I have no clue. I think it would be to be happy in my life, no matter where it takes me. I have a billion different careers that interest me, but I have a feeling I’ll land somewhere in the start-up world, because I love fast-paced environments. 

3. Do you have a favorite place to travel to? My heart belongs in Germany, where I studied abroad. I’d go back in a snap. 

4. What is the coolest thing you have ever done? I definitely haven’t done it yet, but so far, travel. It’s my favorite thing in the world and I can’t wait to do more of it! I’m planning to do a big Italy trip for graduation with my boyfriend and our friends. 

5. Who are you closest to in the world? My best friend, Maddy. She’s the best human being in the world. 

6. What is one product you cannot live without? My bra. I hate that answer, but it’s true.

7. Is there a film/book/show you always recommend to others? There’s this movie called Like Crazy that is the most beautiful and heartbreaking love story of all time. Everyone needs to see it in order to understand love, I think.

8. What is the hardest obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it? I had a really horrible ending of a relationship in high school that has definitely left some scars. My ability to trust and let go with people has been particularly affected, and it’s only been recently that it’s been getting better. 

9. Close your eyes. What is the most peaceful/comforting place you can picture? Describe it. My boyfriend’s bed--god this is so not interesting, I’m so sorry. It’s just that he has the best bed in the world, and even though it’s in a frat house, it’s one of my favorite places on Earth. I could stay in that bed for days. 

10. What is your favorite type of weather? Definitely rainy. I love cuddling up in a big blanket and reading a book or just scrolling through Wikipedia for hours while it’s pouring rain. It’s also a great excuse to listen to depressing music, which I’m always trying to find an excuse to do. 

thank you @theothermanfic​ for tagging me in this!!!! love u + ur fics so much xoxo

Rules: Make a Vogue magazine cover of your tagged character, answer the interview questions below from their point of view, and tag some characters/authors you would love to see answer next! Don’t be afraid to double tag authors with other characters from other fics.

I loved this idea that Van had on hers so I’ll add it here: Since a lot of my fav writers do reader insert MC, I’m gonna add a little addendum and tag some Harry characters for GQ! (So same idea, just GQ magazine instead of Vogue)

I tag (and sorry if you’ve already been tagged!!!): @meetmeinfleetwood @bfharry​ @smokeinherperfume​ @theasstour​ @stellarboystyles​ @hsogolden @majorharry @detroitkiwis xoxo love y’all!

To read Nora’s story, read TEMPTATION here!

ps i loved this one

(rereading bookmarks edition part 2)

(part 1)

i’ve been rereading stories from my bookmarks as a comfort thing. i’m getting real deep in there to stuff i haven’t (re)read for years, and damn do i have good taste. the ones i’ve read recently that you should, too:

(under the cut so i’m not that asshole that makes you scroll past an endless post)

Best Laid Plans by Persephoneshadow

Things are going well for Dean: he's landed the biggest design job of his architectural career and is about to get final approval on the project despite how difficult the development company, personified by Castiel Novak, has made it. It's not bad for a moody omega...except things are also going terribly for Dean because he has to get in a plane and fly to a meeting, and course ends up in heat a few hours before. Luckily, Castiel is there to help and both men discover the good that can come when nothing goes quite as intended.

i don’t know why i’m such a ho for stories where dean thinks cas hates him, but cas secretly adores him and is just a little “rusty” on his “people skills.” i’m also a ho for stories where dean is a gd skilled genius but his dumb ass still thinks his work sucks and/or anything good is due to other people instead of himself. and also, heat boning. 

Confessions of a Cam Boy by MsCaptainWinchester (rons_pigwidgeon)

Dean runs a cam show to pay his way through marketing school, but he's about to start an internship that he doesn't know will change his life. Watching Dean's show is Castiel's favorite way to wind down after a stressful day at Sandover Bridge & Iron. When Cas comes to work one day and finds his favorite cam boy setting coffee on his desk, he is completely thrown. Will Dean finish his internship without knowing his favorite viewer is his new boss, or will he be able to see through Cas' non-existent poker face and figure it out?

omg poor cas is soooo awkward and dean is weirded out about how much his new boss seems to dislike him and then it’s super sexy >:) 

For Science by shiphitsthefan

“Think of it like an experiment," says Dean. "You’re testing a hypothesis as to whether or not a desirable response can be achieved through the stimulation of the anus via the application of a willing volunteer’s muscular hydrostat.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually trying to use the scientific method to talk me into letting you lick my asshole?”

everyone is such adorable nerds in this one. it’s a fic about rimming, but it’s also about love and discovering yourself and acceptance. it explores cas’s realization through his connection with dean that he’s not straight up ace but more grey/demi - and that doesn’t mean he was “faking” being ace up until he met dean. 

Friends with Benefits with Tentacles by andimeantittosting (Saylee)

Dean's never been embarrassed about his porn collection before, but that was before he found Cas holding his prized copy of Sweet Princess Asuka and the Tentacles of Pleasure. Dean finds himself sweating bullets—because this is Cas, sweet, nerdy Cas. Cas, his friend. Cas, his roommate. Cas, his—only slightly out-of-control—crush.

Cas, with his big, blue eyes and muscular arms and perpetual sex hair.

Cas, with his tentacles.

The last thing he expects is for Cas to suggest they experiment together.

there are not enough tentacle fics out there and i 100000% approve of this addition to the tag. i love that dean is out there legitimately studying porn, and the tentacles are obviously super fun, and there were parts where my heart hurt so bad, all around a damn fine fic. 

Grown-Ups Making Grown-Up Choices by Carrieosity

Dean is a grown-ass man - he can take perfectly good care of himself, thank you very much. Except that sometimes the easier or more fun choices aren't always the right or best ones, and, all right, maybe thinking ahead and working the long game isn't his strongest suit. It's fine! He's fine.

When he meets Castiel, he realizes that flying by the seat of his pants may not be the best way to attract the super-serious (gorgeous, funny, genius) Alpha. Dean's shrink has been telling him he needs to start making "grown-up choices," and if that's what he has to think about in order to make Cas fall for him, then he'll give it a whirl.

i LOVE this fic (series). i feel so hard for dean feeling like he’s too old for his life to still be a mess, but i also felt sad for him that he thought he had to make all these hardcore changes - basically turn himself into a different person - to be worthy of cas’s attentions. i fucking adore cas in this, and i nearly cried just thinking about all the damn peppers they eat, and i want to read it again right now. 

If I Run by Anonymous

"Dean Winchester is a red-blooded American male. He lifts all the things. He aims for functional strength. He counts his macros and makes fun of curlbros. He is not a member of the Tarahumara tribe and he will not read Born to Run, no matter how many times Sam tells him to, because Starting Strength is the only book Dean will ever fucking need."

***

Wherein a friendly competition with the mysterious ThursdaysAngel turns into a sexy selfie-trading spree that motivates Dean Winchester to train for his first marathon.

i really really love this fic and reread it pretty often tbh. it only became “anonymous” pretty recently and i’m so curious about why!! regardless, this fic is a really great time!!! 

It's Always More Than Once (Before It Takes) by squeemonster

The first time it happens, it's because of boredom. Or, at least that's what Dean tells himself to justify it. Boredom and Dean Winchester are a dangerous combination, especially when you factor in beer, a raging libido, and laziness.

dean: my dudes, is it gay to do sexy stuff with your male bff? cuz i’m totally straight. but also, having sex with my male bff. 

I Wanna Get Outside (Of Me) by emwebb17

Dean is a novice in the dom/sub world asked by his employer as a desperate last resort to be a sub for his recluse of a brother, Castiel. Castiel is a diagnosed OCD suffering from PTSD and agoraphobia, mysophobia, and dystychiphobia. Needless to say—he’s a mess who hasn’t stepped out of his home in literally seven years. The only times Gabriel can see traces of the way his brother used to be is when he feels in control—specifically when he has control over a sub. However, due to his idiosyncrasies and paranoia, keeping a sub around has been impossible. Enter Dean, who’s not a very traditional submissive, to try his hand at subbing for the hermit.

you know how sometimes you read a fic, and it takes ages to get yourself out of that world? even though you’re finished, you’re still right there with him? this is one of those fics. i reread it a couple weeks ago and fell asleep thinking about it last night. i cry a lot reading this one. 

Living in Agony by ChasingRabbits

Dean Winchester's life is... well, it's not great. He's a gym teacher, he's in his thirties, and he can't seem to keep any part of his life straight. When the aftermath of a one-night stand goes awry, Dean is dragged kicking and screaming out of his cozy little closet and into the harsh light of reality.

Enter: Castiel Novak, the new history teacher, who knows full well that life gets crappy when you don't allow yourself to live it in the way it needs to be lived.

there aren’t a lot of stories that deal with themes of mental illness, and a lot of them read like an episode of degrassi where everything wraps up in 30min to never be discussed again. this story is honest in that there’s no easy out. there’s medication and therapy and supportive people, but that’s not always enough. it’s a story about how you don’t have to be mentally ill to be fucked up, and while people can’t fix each other, they can help each other. content note: references to a pre-story suicide attempt. 

Oddly Shaped Empty by jemariel

Dean grew up thinking -- knowing -- he'd be an alpha.

Until he failed to present. As a beta, he has no mating cycle, no noticeable pheromones, none of the physical markers that are so important in a world of alphas and omegas. He's out of place. How is he supposed to navigate his relationships and find love when he doesn't fit into the neatly-defined boxes he's used to?

By the time he meets his new roommate, Castiel, he's more or less given up on finding a mate. He wears his secondary gender like a chip on his shoulder. But you never know what the future holds, who will come into your life, and how they might change it forever.....

Queer themes, finding identity, reconciling the past, and a whole lot of smut.

y’all know @jemariel is a gd genius, but i’m particularly obsessed with their fics that use abo to explore queer identify & experiences. i hold my breath reading most of this fic and also cry. 

Steal my Breath by Sincestiel

“Tighter, Dean, please,” Cas urges throwing his head back to rest on Dean’s shoulder. Dean squeezes. He doesn’t know why Cas wants this or even what the appeal is, but he always comes harder when he’s struggling to breathe.

what’s on the tin. a quick lil breathplay fic that is thoroughly enjoyable. 

Unsolicited by Dangerousnotbroken

In which Dean Winchester gets an unsolicited dick pic from an unknown sender which is both totally not disappointing in that it's a really nice dick pic, and incredibly disappointing in that it's clearly a downloaded picture of his favorite porn star.

There's absolutely no way it's actually this porn star sending it to him, right?

Right?

this is a destiel classic and i feel like anyone who isn’t new here has probably read it. but here’s your reminder that this is a great fic and you should (re)read it. 

Wordplay by Dangerousnotbroken @dangerousnotbroken​

“I don’t understand why talking dirty is such a big deal for you humans,” Cas complains, apropos of nothing.

it’s a “cas learning about sex” and also dirty talk, which are both things i’m really into!! and DNB is a genius so that’s even better. 

if you enjoy these fics (and you should), please give the writer some love via kudos and/or comments. <3

ps - as always, if i didn’t tag the writer and you know their tumblr, please tag in the comments. i don’t think there’s a writer alive who wouldn’t be happy to be on a rec list. :)

Hi, i'm curious... Can you share some of your favourite fics? What kind of stuff do you like to read?

Interesting ask; since you didn’t specify a particular fandom, I’m assuming you just mean my favorite fics in general? Of all time? Or were you looking for more recent fics? Let me know if this wasn’t what you were looking for.

Hmmm…

Well, my absolutely undisputed favorite fanfic of all time is Twigcollins’ signal to noise series, particularly the short fic “Death Takes a Holiday.” I could go into a massive analysis about what makes this series stand out to me so much, but I’ll just keep it short and say that this particular story is what I think of whenever someone asks me what my writing goals are. Everything I want to capture as a writer–wit, charm, vulnerability, grace, evocative imagery, silliness, seriousness–is all encapsulated beautifully in this series and in this short fic especially.

Some other greats that come to mind from the past are:

Quillslinger’s Deceitful Above All Things

Zeff N Company’s Gunmetal

Cygna_Hime’s i don’t need you (to worry for me)

Resmiranda’s Tales From the House of the Moon

Glassamilk’s Gutters

Nuitnovember’s Sign a New Agreement With Itunes

suncityblues’ If There Is Light (but this one appears to have been deleted, RIP)

Legete’s the sirens and the thunder

And there are probably many, many others but my memory is garbage for medical reasons and I never thought to keep a list of all my very favorites across multiple fandoms, so some great fics are probably consigned to oblivion in my search history forever. If I think of more I guess I’ll come back and add them. XD

Looking back at these fics, I think I’d say that my “type” is really aesthetically oriented, atmospheric fics. I tend to prefer strong non-romance-related plots over fics that are entirely about a ship (or, if they are only about a ship, the fics need to be genre savvy and creative in their use of tropes), and I tend to prefer canon, canon divergent, or at least canon adjacent fics over entirely AU fics. I think the “emotion” of a story is almost more important to me than the pairing or even sometimes the actual beats of the plot itself–if the writing quality is high and the storytelling is compelling, I can fall in love with a fic even if I would never have read that ship or type of plot otherwise. I like stories with melancholy vibes and even sometimes tragic endings, although I feel like stories have to earn their tragedies for such endings to be worth it. In short, I like “pretty” stories with clear, strong writing voices.

There are also certain tropes I like to read a lot. In particular, I really love Outsider POV fics and stories that look at characters’ behaviors and situations from different perspectives. I love almost scientific-tinged fics where a character–perhaps one of a different species like an alien or other worldly being–makes observations about a “normal” character and is confused and amazed by the differences. Gold. I’m a huge sucker for accidental baby acquisition, especially when it’s male characters who are uniquely unsuited to parenting who get stuck with children for both the comedy and heartwarming factors… Found family is A++… Villain redemption and reorientation into normal life stories get me EVERY TIME… Crack-treated seriously is a special interest of mine. Like, fics that take absolutely bizarre or absurd plotlines and treat them realistically and with deep thought are flawlessss. Speaking of crack, I have a soft spot for well-written rare pair fics; there are so many fun interactions that never get explored by a majority of fan writers… World-building and fics with careful action to background details are so nice!! And a special guilty pleasure: while I tend to prefer canon-based stories, I do really like dragon AUs because I really like dragons in general…

On the other hand, there are some tropes that can completely turn me off a story in seconds. Probably biggest pet peeve is fics where characters drink, do drugs, or even just smoke “for the aesthetic.” Drunk fics often feel like an excuse to write OOC to me, drugs aren’t cool kids, and like… do the people who write cigarette smoking into their fics know how absolutely unsexy it is in real life? I feel like cigarettes in fics are a 50/50 toss-up between real-life smoker authors who are projecting their habits onto their characters and authors who have never smoked a cigarette in their lives and just think it looks cool/sexy/edgy. There’s an annoying correlation between villain characters and cigarette smoking in fics and I’m just like… :/// Love triangles and will-they-or-won’t-they plot lines tend to exhaust me… Gratuitous smut without a logical plot for said smut, such as two characters who have absolutely no build up to their attraction suddenly deciding they want to fuck is just like... “Sure, Jan” to me.

It takes A LOT, A LOT to convince me to read a coffee shop, floral shop, or soulmate AU. Absolutely nothing against anyone who writes them, and I know they can be done very well, but as much as I agree with that one post here on tumblr about the two cakes, I still feel like there’s a such thing as too much cake, sometimes. XD I crave diversity in AUs, like where are the “I got hired at Hooters but I’m a dude” AUs? My “I’m a bouncer… at Costco” AUs? “My family bought a snowcone truck and now I’m forced to shave ice all summer” AUs? The “I work at a pawn shop and people keep trying to sell me really weird shit” AUs? The “I mow lawns for a living and your yard looks like hot garbage but you keep insisting you don’t need my services” AU? “I got in trouble with the law and was assigned to clean up the streets near your work as community service” AUs? I feel like there’s a lot of comfort in using a tried and true AU structure, but the most memorable AUs for me tend to be those which do things totally differently from anything I’ve seen before.

All of this makes me sound like I’m really picky but the truth is that when I get free time, I just read basically everything that’s available. I’m that “goes through the AO3 tag… then goes through the AO3 tag again with lower standards” type readers. If the summary and tags look even remotely interesting to me, I’ll definitely give it at least a shot. My tolerance range, even for things like bad grammar and OOC is really pretty high, especially for rare pairs… T____T

Currently I’ve been reading mostly BNHA fics. aloneintherain’s history has its eyes on you was very nice, and I’ve recc’d juurensha’s stuff before but their ShinIida collection is charming. I recently caught up with Ohmytheon’s Reconfigure and it is the embodiment of all my special interests so I’m especially excited to see where it goes.

Uh… I hope that answers the question???

Please send me fic recs that match my obscure personal tastes; I’ll love you forever.

Writing Meme

I was tagged by the incandescent talents of @connorshero and @kentuckybarnes 🖤🖤🖤 I adore you both a lot of alots.

This got so long, I'm so sorry – but this was such a great meme to think on. Thanks loves!

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Q: What is your coffee order?

Mostly a flat white, sometimes a piccolo, and these days a dirty chai (which is a chai latte with a super shot of coffee).

Q: What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

Kayaked through the glacial fiords in New Zealand (skip Milford Sound and go to Doubtful Sound!)

Drove around Iceland and hiked an hour across a black sand beach to check out a 1970s US Navy plane wreckage.

Ate enough dumplings for four people.

See Daft Punk's Alive tour.

Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?

I don't really have a mentor? If we're talking inspiration – lately it's been @tropicalcap for always being there with so many great ideas to talk over, @barnesrogersvstheworld being the sole reason why I started writing again to begin with, @kentuckybarnes for having the consistency in talent and content I can only to strive for.

Plus all these other insanely talented writers like @sweetboybucky @dreamwritesimagines @bitsandbobsandstuff @sgtjbuccky @silentwalrus1 @cesperanza @girlbookwrm @galwednesday @whirlybirbs @beckzorz etc etc etc.

Q: What has been your most memorable writing project?

Tender, which is a Stucky x Reader fic based in Wakanda – and my Tiny Love Story project where I try to write ficlets with 100 words or less.

Q: What does your writing path look like, from the earliest days until now?

I've been word-vomitting since I was 8, literally Babysitters' Club fanfic, because I'm really showing my age now. Then I moved onto Final Fantasy VIII fanfic, Buffy, and Uncharted – and now I'm just eyeball-deep in SteveBucky and will probably never leave.

I did my degrees in journalism and writing, wrote professionally for government, not-for-profit, ad agencies, and still do freelance work here and there. I've been mulling over joining this writers' group in my area, but I'm too afraid to commit and they're all so talented – also it's a whole different kind of fear and experience sharing your writing with real people vs. sharing it online.

One day, I will publish the YA novel of my dreams – just you wait, John Green. No more manic pixie teen girls/boys or catch-all ethnic friends!!!

Q: What is your favorite part about writing?

Releasing it into the wild, so I can stop thinking about it.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

HAH.

I work full-time and play house with my husband full-time. I write on my phone while I'm waiting for my train or food or queuing up. My husband does jiu-jitsu every few days and sometimes works late at the hospital, so those times I get a handful of hours to myself to write – which I never do and just sit there watching reruns of Buffy or Charmed.

Q: What does your writing process look like?

Trash. I never write in order and sometimes I try to plan, but it always ends up a whole-ass mess.

Here's a snippet of my (non-spoiler) attempts at planning for 'Long Black' and that Steve series I'm still trying to avoid writing.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?

Write, even if it reads terribly to start with. Leave it, then come back to it, and keep coming back to it however long it takes to make sure YOU are happy with it. If you have to fester over something, let yourself fester – but put a time limit on it and don't let it consume you.

Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

Internet points mean nothing. They don't pay my mortgage, they don't fix my relationships, they don't contribute to my overall happiness unless I choose to let it – and the moment I do is a black hole of despair, which has never good for me.

Writing is important to me, yes, but it's a hobby – it doesn't mean anyone reading my work should ever be held to ransom for comments and Likes and whatever. My trash is free and so my readers' time is also free – they make time out of their lives to read my things? That's honestly all I could ever ask for. I find value in so many other things and people and life, not just writing. If I walked away from this blog tomorrow, it wouldn't be the end of the world – but I won't, because I like writing too damn much!!!

Also the lesson I'm always teaching myself is welcoming feedback – rip my work apart please, tell me where I can improve or make it better or believable or truest.

Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to start writing?

Write for yourself. Write what you want to read. Find value in your writing before you go searching for other people's definitions of value. If you love writing, make time for it. Write a lot and all the time and find a good beta or reader who can give you harsh, constructive feedback that will push you, because that's the only way your writing will ever get better. And read lots!

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I tag... uh, whoever wants to do this 🖤

Interview with Hazeleyedleto

Your URL:

Hazeleyedleto: https://hazeleyedleto.tumblr.com

Echelon Fiction (fanfic account): https://echelonfiction.tumblr.com

Your name: Monique

Link to your Masterlist: https://echelonfiction.tumblr.com/mystores What was your first experience with 30 Seconds to Mars? The Kill, when I was an 18-year-old, how amazing was your first time seeing the Kill? Your Favorite Mars song? Attack Has anything ever happened to you solely because of being a 30STM fan? I met my best friend <3 What is your favorite thing about the fandom? Your least favorite? Fav: no matter what I know there is always going to be a place where I fit in, I’ve never had that before Least: The bitches who think they're better than other bitches, and the daddy kink Is there any advice you would give to someone who is new to the fandom? We’re obsessive, protective but not all that bad, the bad eggs are few and far between but they are loud, try to ignore them How long have you been writing? 18 years. Why did you start writing? (Either in general or for Mars specifically) When I was 12, I had so much stationary that I didn’t know what to do with so I started one story. . . then another then another. Still, have too much stationary but am a writer so its okay Do you write for other fandoms? If so, which ones? Depends, I Like writing the Linkin Park guys and Bucky Barnes, but whatever inspires me really Do you share everything you write? If not, is there a reason why? Hmm, no. I only really share mars stuff, my non- fanfic stuff will be turned in to novels and my non-mars related stuff I don’t really have a platform to do so on. Have you written things that aren't fanfic? If so, could you tell us about those works? Many, my writing is 50/50 fanfic vs Fiction. My latest novel that I finished a couple of weeks ago ended about 85k words is about angels and demons and a prophecy that will either unite or destroy them all Of all your works, which is your favorite and why? Iridescent – (mentioned in above question) because it’s the novel that took over my whole life and kept me hostage until I wrote it from beginning to end rendering me with Stockholm syndrome to the point that I still miss them Stand Tall, They’ll Break Your Heart – first novel I ever finished. and Bright Lights – I’ve never had such a positive response from anything I’ve ever written and get yelled at because I don’t update often enough Is there one that was particularly difficult to write? Why? They’re all difficult to write. I write very emotionally driven novels, they can be draining as I take on the characters at such a personal level that I live what they tell me in a way, I’m crazy, ignore me. What is the ideal writing environment for you? At your desk? Quiet? Music? Anywhere anytime, I usually write sitting on my bed, but can literally write anywhere in any environment. Prefer loud music and a comfy place for my butt What type of fanfic are you most comfortable writing (drama, fluff, angst, drabbles, series, etc.) Mushy series filled with drama What is your favorite fanfic trope? I don’t know what that is but I THINK my answer is dramatic chicks being involved with music or rock bands Is there any trope or subject that you won't write? Daddy kink? Are there any special tools that you use when creating or writing your story? My fingers!? My stories are often inspired by songs or video clips or something like that J Do you write your story in order or do you jump around and then string it together at the end? Sometimes, especially with fanfictions. Like with Bright Lights (my biggest Mars fanfic) I have four future versions, but the reason I do that is to better understand them in the ‘bright lights’ version. Do you outline, or do a great deal of prep work or do you 'fly by the seat of your pants'? Up until my novels Attack and Iridescent I ALWAYS prided myself about being a pantser, but I really enjoyed being a planner for those two novels. How do you usually get your inspiration? Music and Video clips, sometimes dreams and other places. Do you have ideas on the drawing board or in progress currently that you haven't shared yet? Yeah, Beautiful Disaster, my bff would kill me if I wrote it though, but I have another one in the holster I am thinking about starting April 1st If you have an unpublished work in progress, please pick two to three sentences and share them without context. “Armani,” Stephanie smiled, “I trust you are well?” Mike looked between the two Angels as the embraced in a slight hug and a kiss in the cheek. Stephanie stepping back between him and Chester. “Of course,” Armani smiled. “I’m betting this isn’t a social call?” the other angel asked. “No, Armani, this is Chester and Mike,” she said pointing to the demon who owned the names. “I’ve come to make a request,” Stephanie said looking to Armani from under her eyebrows, trying to gauge her reaction. Her face was poised, it always was, but the mood in the room changed, it was now tension filled. Armani was no fool, she knew this angel was standing before her with two demons. “You will need to-” “I am a direct crown descendant ” Stephanie said. “You are also standing her with two demons,” “And you are breaking the rules,” “yeah but” “If I was willing I could turn you into ash, right now,” Stephanie pointed out. “and I would be in the right,” she told. Armani held her gaze. “now, are you going to follow the rules and grant me my appearance for request, or am I going to have to take care of things another way?” Stephanie’s lips curl upward Armani’s lip curled downward as she turned slightly. Do you like requests? Would you like more or less of them? I haven’t had any, but would be happy to take them. Is there an upcoming project from you that you are excited about? Why, and what can you share about it? I can’t wait to edit and Publish Iridescent The best piece of writing advice you've ever received? Can never pick just one Put your butt in a chair and your hands on the keyboard and something will happiness. Writer's block is just an excuse, write anything even the crap, it can always be changed later And, Aim to write every day, even just for 15mins per day, get in that habit and you will find you self-finding 5 mins or 10 mins slots more often then you realise The worst piece of writing advice you've ever received? I don’t know. Wasn’t important, was it? What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting to write fanfic? Give it ago, see how if feels, you don’t have to share it, just try. Three (stories, series, scenes, etc) written by others that you really like or that inspire you? Closer – partcually Tomo in this story, even though the whole story is fucking amazing and Black Fuel and Bikes @fyeahproudglambert Provihitofics had a story about camping, it was great she doesn’t fic no more tho

Are any of your characters closer to being “you” than others? Any reason in particular? Hmmmmm, yes I guess. The characters are all like different parts of me, Phoebe is an angry psycho which is a part I never get to express often, but there are parts of her that are not like me. Same with Helena being independent to some extent.

One thing about me is I like to find things I have in common with people, if I look hard enough, it could become obsessive.

Are any of your characters based on someone you know? Hmm a lot of my male characters look like rock stars if that counts. Are any of your plots based on something that happened to you? No, but one day Favorite font for writing? Don’t have one Do you have a 'day job'? If so, what? I am a student studying Bachelor of Social Science (psychology) with hopes to get good enough scores to get into Psychology. I am Also an Author and a qualified Mental health peer worker. Do you consider yourself a reader outside of fanfic? Yup, Your favorite book? Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Your favorite things to do when you're not writing? What does ‘not writing’ mean? .  . . nah I like to watch Safari live, see my niece and nephew, explore the wild and hate on frogs The strangest thing you've ever eaten? My brothers used to make me eat grass stalks, oh oh CAVIAR I got told it wasn’t Caviar, it was freaking caviar Looks at @Fyeahproudglambert Two truths and a lie? I hate frogs, I’ve never met my best friend, I love the feel of fallen out hair Five albums you'd want if stranded on a desert island? Cant I just take my Spotify? I actually don’t think I can answer this? I don’t just listen to albums all the way through, . .  . This is war (plus attack and the kill) LLFD Breakaway kelly Clarkson Hybrid theory A thousand suns Something surprising about you? I have a really good memory And I usually come off as pretentious and up myself, because I am highly critical of things and probably way too opinionated, but I am actually a really nice, loyal and caring person who just wants to do good and help as many people as I can Favorite food to enjoy while watching Netflix? Anything, maybe a packet of sea salt chippies. Favorite way to spend a Saturday night? Writing Blankets Tucked or Untucked? Right side untucked, left side tucked Do you have any pets? Would you like to tell us about them? Dog, Ella - She shares my birthday, Sasha – not my dog, my brother's dog but I grew up with her and am temporarily looking after her, Cats: Ollie, Angel, Sully. I got Ollie first (After my cat Joel died) and then my brother got Angel (she was being mistreated somewhere else) Ollie and Angel bonded n such a human love type way, and we decided they could not be separated, so I got Angel too, guess what though, 9 month old cats can have babies, Angel had three Kittens, Lucky, Sully and Heat, my brother kept heat, I kept sully and Lucky went to a loving home J Musicals, yes or no? If yes, what movie/show would you like to see made into a musical? No, thank you Tell us a joke. Mars fans who hate and bitch on everything the band does Are there any particular battles or struggles in your life you'd like to tell us about? Hmm, I mean I am an open book with the things I have been through, and am happy to talk about them at any time, there are many things from abuse, abandonment, isolation, major depression, self-harm, suicidal ideology, my brother was recently in a coma ,my mother’s cancer journey, my heart issues, social phobia, PTSD, horderism and crippling self-doubt and anxiety, to tell the short story. While some things still plague me, I find all of it also drives me to make my life better, and t do the best I can every day. Life struggles are hard, but they also enrich me to not only help people in my ‘day job’ but to help me write richer stories. Anything you'd like to add? You guys are doing a great job. When I started Echelon fiction, this is kinda what I wanted it to be but I never had the drive to pull it off, I love how innovative you guys are being and changing things up getting your followers involved, its really cool! Good job, keep going

This is a companion post for my Hannibal fic What The Water Gave Me which is, as far as I know, the only fanfic ever to need a companion post about flood hydrology. On Saturday, May 14, 2011, while Hannibal was shopping in the French Market, the Corps of Engineers opened one quarter of the gates on the Morganza Spillway and flooded about 4,600 square miles of south Louisiana. In places the flooding reached 25 feet. This was in addition to the previous opening of the Bonnet Carré spillway Sgt. Germaine Grant mentioned in chapter 2, which flooded a stretch of land between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. You might even remember Sgt. Grant telling Jack and Hannibal that they were in a record breaking drought at the time. How, you may be asking. Why? You should be asking. It's insane. The Why is such a big deal it might have actually started the Great Depression, reversed the main political parties of the US, reshaped the racial demographics of America's cities and created a musical genre.

This is the watershed of the Mississippi River. Every bit of water that flows from every bright spot on that map, from rain, drains, toilets, crop irrigation, whatever, eventually makes its way, like the world's grossest funnel, down, more or less, to a single point at Red River Landing, Louisiana, where the Red River meets the rest. Not too south from there, the Atchafalaya river splits away from the Mississippi. Over the last few hundred million years, the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi have wiggled all over the place, as rivers do, and at any given time, which one was the major outlet to the sea has changed. Rivers do a lot of predictable but unpredictable things, but the most predictable thing they do is seek the lowest ground and the easiest path. If there isn't an easy path the river will make one.

In 1927, due to heavy rains all over the watershed, the Mississippi River flooded 27,000 square miles up to 30 feet and displaced well over 600,000 people, mostly in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Monetary damages were equivalent to about one third of the entire Federal Budget at the time, or, in modern dollars, over a trillion dollars. Crop failures were huge, driving up food prices nationwide. Let me repeat that. 630,000 internally displaced refugees within the US, within the last century. Did you learn about that in school? I took 2 Louisiana History at two different schools, then took three American History classes at a college in the flood zone, and I learned about this because I googled a Randy Newman song in 2005.

200,000 of the displaced people were poor black people from mostly rural areas, most of them one generation removed from slavery. Most of these folks had little to nothing to use to relocate or to live on, so they were herded into refugee camps where they were stuck with nowhere to go and minimal supplies until the water started to recede months later. Racial tensions were sky high, and the racial disparity in aid, rescue and support was extremely clear. As soon as the water was low enough, tens of thousands of displaced black families joined what we now call The Great Migration - they didn't have a home to go back to, so they went to the big cities, both in the south and, for the first time, up north. Anybody you can think of from the classic Chicago blues scene? Probably ended up there after being displaced by this one event. Mahalia Jackson, who I spotlit last chapter, moved to Chicago at this time as a victim of The Great Betrayal (man, the 1920s were Great, huh?)

President Coolidge put Herbert Hoover in charge of managing the camps, where he made a whole lot of promises and ended up president. When he didn’t fulfill any of his promises to the black refugees, the entire black voting block swung, more or less permanently, to the Democrats. Huey P. Long rose to power in Louisiana on a wave of socialist populism and probably would have been president a decade later if he hadn’t been assassinated in the middle of the capitol building. If you don’t know about the Kingfish, look him up, because holy fuck our country was almost really, really different. As for the Great Betrayal I mentioned?

Wealthy (white) businessmen in New Orleans arranged to dynamite a levee in Caernarvon, Louisiana, flooding areas of St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish where tens of thousands of (poorer) people lived and worked. Reconstructions have shown this was pointless and New Orleans would have been fine, because so many levees had already breached in other locations. Basically no one was ever consulted or  compensated for loss of property and livelihood. So it's no wonder that, during and after Hurricane Katrina, there was widespread belief that the flood protections had actually been deliberately sabotaged to flood the lower 9th ward and save downtown. People remember when you fuck them over and they never trust you again. Every school I've ever attended would have been underwater during the 1927 flood, but I never  learned anything about this, or about how we've stopped that from ever happening again. Sit tight, it's nuts. Prior to 1927 levees were local projects and they were largely homemade by non-engineers. Surely one big pile of dirt is the same as another, right? But levee construction is an art and a science. Alluvial dirt wants to settle; the ground is wet and it wants to move. After the shitshow of the Great Floods, the federal government created the world's largest flood control project. This is what federal governments are for. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, those unsung superheroes, planned and built a carefully planned and, one hopes, carefully maintained series of interconnected levees, dams, floodgates, spillways, canals and wetlands stretching across that whole area in the top image, but mostly along the Missouri, Ohio, Red, and Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. It's known as the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T) The Lower Mississippi and the Atchafalaya Basin in particular got a complete makeover.

We'll start at the very bottom, because it's simplest. The Bonnet Carré spillway was built 12 miles west of New Orleans to divert the Mississippi around the city in case of very high water. This spillway controls what was a natural flood route for as long as we've been keeping records and is opened on a fairly regular basis - every decade or so. This was one of the first parts of the MR&T completed, just four years after the flood. It's a mile and a half long and runs alongside of the river. When it opens, a channel about six miles long is flooded, dumping the river directly into Lake Pontchartrain and the surrounding marshlands to save the more populated areas. Lake Pontchartrain is huge (home of the longest bridge in the world!) and it has a wide opening to the Gulf of Mexico, so it can basically absorb as much water as we could possibly throw at it.  Upriver a bit, things are a little more complicated. I'm not going to go super in-depth. There are numerous control structures connecting the Atchafalaya and Mississippi. The biggest and the one most relevant to our story is the Morganza Spillway, located in Pointe Coupee Parish, upriver from Baton Rouge. If the water gets too high, it will overtop and undermine levees, and the force of moving water becomes so great that it would just shred the other existing control structures, even if they are wide open to let the most possible water through. There needs to be another emergency safety valve to take pressure off the system. The Morganza Spillway is about a mile long, and when it's wide open it lets 600,000 cubic feet of water through per second. That's about half the flow of the entire Mississsippi river at moderate flood stage, passing through one man-made structure, under the control of a handful of human beings.

So in the worst possible flooding scenarios, as happened in 1927, in 1973, and in 2011, the ACoE opens a little gap in the weir. They've never opened it all the way - max capacity has never been tested. This is a projection map from 2011 for what the flooding would look like with the system running at one quarter of total capacity (which is the scenario that ended up happening). Because yeah, people live in those areas! The area's also farmed for timber and drilled for oil. There isn't much commercial fishing - that mostly happens in the Gulf - but there's fish farming, including crawfish ponds. Mostly it's protected or semi-protected wetlands occasionally dotted with camps. I'm not sure if that word is in common usage with the same meaning elsewhere, so just in case, a camp is a (usually but not always cheap or rustic) house or structure not intended for full-time residence, where one can stay for access to water or hunting. You actually have to get a lot of surveying and permissions to build anything anywhere on any body of water in south Louisiana, because the balance of flood control and wetland preservation is so important and precarious, so most of the places in this area will have been grandfathered in rather than freshly built. The Morganza Spillway has been opened twice, once in the 70s and once during this fic. There is a huge, eight parish long and wide river moving over land that's been dry or swampy and only sparsely inhabited for 45 years. Think of all the things it might pick up on the way to sea?