Hello! Happy Sunday! Just dropping by with a writing question. How do you approach writing relationships? What are your favorite dynamics to write (in general or between specific characters)?

Happy uhhhh... well it is not "Sunday" but it was a Sunny Day-- Happy Sunny Day!

Thanks for the ask, Zac!

I've got two modes when it comes to writing relationships. If I know the plot before I know the characters, and the plot needs a romance (or several...) I think of what kinds of chemistry I want the romance to have: sexual tension, banter, sweet fluff, overly sappy (everyone else within a 10 mile radius is gagging), co-dependent disasters, partners in crime, hates everyone but each other etc. etc. and then I write characters who will behave that way around each other.

If I know the characters before the plot... I just try shipping different combinations of characters together and seeing if I like anything. Despite valiant attempts by me, a straight alloromantic woman, to make my female characters date the hot princes I created specifically so I could project onto their girlfriends, somehow my characters keep ending up either lesbian or aromantic (not all, but like if I had a nickel for every time my hot-prince fantasy was foiled by a fictional lesbian of my own creation...). A few times, even when characters turn out to be straight, they end up dating the person I specifically decided they would not date (generally for "that would be fucked up" reasons...)

In terms of favourite dynamics to write... for straight couples I seem to write a lot of "Cinderella" stories, where one character (not always the girl) is poor and in an abusive situation and the other is royalty or some equivalent. They meet on "neutral" ground, like both are students at the same university or where the royal is hiding their identity. They become friends (with benefits) and it is a nice reprieve for the poor character from their life. Eventually some hurt/comfort ensues, the poor character escapes their abuser, the institution of monarchy is questioned, and they live happily ever after. For queer characters I write a lot of slow burn friends to lovers and established relationships. All my relationships tend to be rife with banter and sexual tension, though my straights tend to get tension from rivals-to-lovers, forbidden love, or the "him? really? That asshole? WHY?" dynamic. My queer relationships tend to get their tension from yearning/pining and the dynamic where one character gets really flustered in the other's presence and the other knows it and is an insufferable flirt about it. IDK why my straight relationships are so different from everything else... it's probably has something to do with projecting a highly unlikely fantasy versus the kind of relationships that are more likely to arise organically.

Art can be such a snitch.

i think it would be sort of dangerous bc imo you never truly know what’s lurking in those places. like you need to be at least half prepared or have half information before trying to cross any ghost. we know Shane is actually insane and a literal demon could be breathing down his neck and he’d be like POSSESS ME YOU WIPY BITCH BASTARD! but snc aren’t like that. they sure are stupid but i doubt they want to cross certain boundaries or make spirits pissed/upset of provoke them more than they think it’s needed with those triggering objects

Well, I'm kind of hoping they stop with all this trigger object stuff now, given that they've pissed off two rounds of spirits in two videos in a row with this stuff, so...maybe going in and just investigating, without trigger objects, without inviting people to hang out with you, etc is the move.

Obviously is there is some kind of demonic thing going on, that would be different. But a run of the mill haunted location? It would be fun to watch the process play out backwards. Might help some skeptics feel better about the validity of their content.

Can You Imagine? X

A/N: So I cried... SO MUCH writing this chapter. Just, yeah. I hope I've made it clear enough in the chapter that this isn't the end of this story, but just in case I haven't, this is not the end! This is just a cap on part of it, and the rest? The rest will come. Skål.

Summary: Freydis was dead. At least, when she’d lost consciousness, she’d been sure she was. But now she has woken up in a cold, sterile environment, one she is certain is not Valhalla, and the world as she once knew it has changed. People now have strange abilities, some of them, and people they call ‘scientists’ are trying to give them to her. The bigger issue, though, is the fact they have also woken the very man who killed her. Ivar the Boneless lives again as well, in the same way Freydis does, and if they want to survive… she may have to learn to trust him again.

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Running Out of Time

Freydis’s heart wouldn’t stop aching as she walked through Kattegat. She could see the mountains fading in the distance, being replaced with nothing but darkness, like a black void. All this would be gone soon, and she could see that not one person in the town was paying attention. They all went about their lives, as if they wouldn’t vanish within the day. And by the time she even reached her longhouse, where her family would be, it was the afternoon. Their time was running out.

She sat and had a drink as she tried to decide how exactly she wanted to handle this. Ivar was out with Baldur, she had learned, and so it wasn’t as though she could just walk up to them and talk about it. Just one sign of her control slipping, now that she was undoing this all. But they were still in town, and would be home by dinner, so she knew they wouldn’t be taken in the border that was closing in.

Lagertha noticed the Queen sitting there alone, clearly bothered, and she sighed moving to sit beside her. “I can tell something is on your mind,” she said, looking at her with a small, encouraging smile. “Is there something you’d like to talk about?”

Freydis hadn’t been expecting Lagertha to sit and ask her if she wanted to talk, but Gods, did she. Maybe, in normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have chosen to speak to Lagertha, but then she thought about the fact that literally… none of what she saw just then was real. Lagertha would have been dead thousands of years ago, as well as every person in that town- save for herself and Ivar. Though, even then, it wasn’t as if the living Ivar would recall any of this.

So, she nodded, but asked, “Would you mind if we speak somewhere more private than this? I would rather not be overheard.” Again, not as though it would matter, in the end, but at least her last few hours in Kattegat could be peaceful. That would at least be worth something.

Lagertha gave a small nod, standing and waiting so that Freydis could lead the way. The younger woman led her back toward the room she shared with Ivar- the very one Lagertha had once shared with Ragnar- and as soon as they were alone she sat on her bed, and gave a deep sigh, the sort of sigh which would only come from someone who carried a deep pain in their very soul.

But she waited on Freydis to begin, knowing that this was likely something she couldn’t force out of her before she was ready to talk. Then again, Lagertha didn’t figure she would do that, anyway. She didn’t have to wait long, as Freydis finished her drink, sat the cup to the side, and leaned back on her hands.

“I am going to lose everything,” she told Lagertha, looking at her with a heartbroken smile. “My husband, my child, my people… The Seer has told me that by nightfall, it will be gone. I know I must tell Ivar, but how do I even begin? And what do I do about Baldur? He is so young, I cannot tell him, but I cannot let him go without saying goodbye to him. Lagertha…”

From the speed with which Freydis spoke, Lagertha could tell the poor woman was panicking. Her words were vague, bordering on cryptic, but that didn’t mean she needed any less help. In fact, if they were cryptic because of the Seer, she was likely to need more help than they knew.

“I… admit I do not understand exactly what you are struggling with,” Lagertha said. “But if you know you will lose these things, why do you not talk to your husband about it? Surely, you would stand a chance of saving your family and people if you did?”

Freydis shook her head. “This world will unravel,” she said. “I created it in grief, and it is time to let go, and let die what is already dead.” She gave a soft, bitter chuckle. “That is you, and Baldur, and Ivar… In order to set things right, I must let you all go. And then…”

She could tell Lagertha didn’t quite believe her. The Shieldmaiden’s face was skeptical at best, despite the world that was quite literally disappearing outside, slow as it was, and Freydis realized if she wanted any real help, she would have to make it happen. She lifted a hand and let her fingertips hover just over the side of Lagertha’s head,

Her purpose was to see if something was to show Lagertha the truth, even if it meant going into her mind herself, but she found that she was already all in the woman’s mind. Her magic was all twisted up in her, and Freydis’s eyes widened slightly. So the answer was not, then, to put her magic into Lagertha, but to pull it out.

For a brief moment, Lagertha’s eyes glowed as red as Freydis’s, the energy in her mind shifting before pulling out completely when Freydis removed her hand. The Shieldmaiden blinked a few times, giving Freydis a slightly confused look, and looking around the room. In her mind, she had known everything that was happening, but it had been as if she were in a daze. To wake now, and see that she hadn’t truly been so… She needed a moment.

Her eyes landed on the border which was slowly, slowly encroaching on Kattegat, and she stood and walked to the edge of the room, looking out the window so she could see it better- not that there was much to see. “This world will unravel…” she repeated softly, and let out a slow breath, before turning back to Freydis. “And you must somehow say goodbye to your husband and your son.” Even though Lagertha chuckled, Freydis could tell she felt for her. “I do not envy your position.”

“I would not either,” Freydis agreed. “And I wish I were not in it now, even if I am glad to have had the time with them I would not have had. But how do I even begin to…?”

“Your son, I do not think I would tell. He is young, and telling him may only frighten him. Even if he is aware, on a subconscious level, of what is happening here… Your magic in his mind will keep him from truly realizing it.”

“And the same is true of Ivar, you believe?” Freydis questioned, and earned a nod from Lagertha.

“If you tell him the truth and remove yourself from his mind, he will see all as clearly as I now do. As clearly as you do. We can all… feel you, to an extent. Our minds are just clouded enough with you that, though we know exactly what is happening around us, we react to it how you wish. We see it as you wish. Without you…”

“Without me, how is it you can do anything?” Freydis asked. “I have had control over this place, I don’t…”

“This is a dream you are choosing to wake from,” Lagertha pointed out. “The things you could not control were things you fear when you are awake- things such as losing your son and your husband. But when you pull yourself out of someone’s mind, you relinquish your control on them entirely. The world would still have been yours to control, but not the people inside it.”

“And so… my family?” Freydis prompted.

Lagertha offered her a sad smile. “You will have to choose what you wish to do,” she said. “I am afraid no one can make that decision for you.”

Freydis swallowed hard, and nodded. “You are right,” she said. “And…” She paused, sighing. “I will say goodnight to Baldur, when night comes. Ivar, I will tell the truth to, and… And I will say goodbye to him.”

Lagertha went to sit beside her again, a hand going to her shoulder. That seemed to break whatever dam Freydis had built in her chest, because she suddenly found herself holding Lagertha tightly, hot tears leaking from her eyes and sliding down her cheeks.

“You came here to live in what could have been,” Lagertha said, her voice soft and gentle. “You have seen that, and you know what was. It is time to return to what is, and see what will be.”

“I’m afraid,” Freydis confessed. “I don’t want to lose this. I want this life.”

Lagertha pulled back a bit, her hands coming to rest on Freydis’s shoulders. “Then you must fight for it,” she told her. “Fight for your husband, and one day, you will have a son, and you will have your family, Freydis. But you must fight.”

Freydis nodded a little, but asked, “How can I know if I have the ability to fight for this? This world exists when Ivar did not- when I lived, and our son lived. The Ivar I loved here, he is not the same, not the man changed by our son’s death…”

“This world, Freydis…” Lagertha began. “You built it from your grief.” Freydis again nodded, and so Lagertha smiled. “Grief is nothing more than love that does not die.”

Again, Freydis leaned forward to embrace Lagertha, a choked sob escaping her as Lagertha held her tight. “I will fight,” Freydis promised. “I will.”

Lagertha soon released Freydis, and cupped her cheek in a way that spoke of the motherly affection Freydis had always missed. “It has been a privilege to know you,” she said. “And I believe in you.” The Shieldmaiden bent down and pressed a kiss to the Queen’s forehead, and the door to the Great Hall could be heard opening, Ivar’s laughter and Baldur’s delighted squeals echoing through the longhouse. “Goodbye, Queen Freydis.”

Freydis watched as she left the room, and Ivar was clearly confused as he entered the room with Baldur. She smiled up at her husband, who’s brows creased at the sight of her tearstained cheeks.

“Freydis,” he said. “What is it? What is wrong?”

“Nothing,” she replied immediately, wiping the tears away. “I am just… I am overwhelmed with joy at you being home. Both of you.”

Baldur giggled and Ivar let go of him, letting the boy waddle clumsily to his mother. Freydis laughed softly at his attempt and scooped him up into her arms, pressing her forehead to his. “You, my little heart,” she told him. “The heir to Kattegat. Hm?” When he nodded, grinning up at her, she said, “We must prepare you for the feast tonight, Prince Baldur. And then an early night. I have decided I want to train you to fight as I can, and I want to see what magic you have in your bones.”

She tickled the boy’s stomach and he began to laugh happily, squirming in her hold. “Mommy, no!” he said, but did not stop laughing.

In the end, Freydis didn’t have the heart to tell him. Ivar, however… Ivar, she had to tell.

While the feast was in full swing, she left Baldur with Lagertha, her eyes catching the darkness that had now come into the town- It would be on them before the end of the feast- and she took Ivar to speak privately in their chambers.

“Something is bothering you,” he said. “I noticed earlier, but I did not want to worry Baldur. What is it, my love, hm?”

Freydis looked up at Ivar, and she rested her hands against his chest. “I have to tell you something,” she said softly. “It is… I have only told Lagertha, and when you hear what it is, you will understand why you cannot tell anyone, either.”

Ivar’s brows creased with concern, and he nodded. “Tell me.”

Instead of doing as he asked, she lifted her hand, and did as she had to Lagertha, removing all traces of her magic from his mind, and removing him from her control. He blinked a few times, looking around the room, and his heart thudded in his chest when he saw the darkness growing ever closer. “Freydis…” he breathed.

She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, a small cry leaving her already. There was nothing to be said, because he knew. So he simply hushed her, and kissed the top of her head. “You have to fix this, don’t you?” he eventually asked, pulling back just enough that he could look down into her eyes. She nodded. “But… not here. Not for us.”

“No,” she said, and shook her head slightly.

The darkness was about to reach the longhouse, and so they returned to the Great Hall together to collect Baldur. Lagertha could see in Ivar’s eyes that he knew what was coming as he looked around, and let out a slow breath. He was saying a silent goodbye, knowing when he laid down that night, he would never wake again. His eyes met hers, and they shared a knowing look, before she stood and went to him.

“I would… entrust this place to you,” he began, “but I think there is no need.”

She shook her head. “There is no need,” she agreed. “Enjoy this night with your wife.”

Ivar nodded, and Lagertha stepped forward to embrace him. He allowed this, his eyes slipping shut for a moment, and when he stepped back he watched as the woman he’d once hated, but now had to thank for his own life, and the life of Baldur, embraced his wife and son one last time. Then, the royal family retreated from the Great Hall without so much as a word to the people of Kattegat.

Freydis laid Baldur down in his bed, and pulled the blankets up over him, tucking him into bed and kissing his head. Ivar even eased himself down to sit beside the boy, and Freydis swallowed hard as she looked at him, smiling up at her. “Mama?” he asked, and she smiled.

“Yes, my love?”

“Are you really gonna teach me the magic one day?”

She nodded, smiling at him. “Of course,” she whispered. “I’ll teach you whatever you like- anything you wish to learn.”

Baldur grinned up at her, and then turned onto his side to get comfortable so he could sleep. “I can’t wait to be strong like you,” he said, and she leaned down to kiss his head once more.

“Get some sleep,” she whispered. “You have an early day tomorrow.” He would not have a day tomorrow, she knew that, but she wanted him asleep before the darkness came. She didn’t know what it might feel like, to disappear in it, but she didn’t want him to feel it, if he didn’t have to.

He nodded, and Ivar also leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek. “I love you, Baldur,” he whispered softly. “You are the greatest joy in my life, you… and your mother.”

It was hard on him, Freydis could tell, to say goodbye to their son. She put her hand on his back and turned to kiss his shoulder.

“I love you too, Papa,” Baldur replied, and Freydis had to keep herself from breaking down once more. Instead, she whispered a final goodnight to her son, and stood, walking to the door with Ivar right beside her. He stepped out first, but paused when she stopped, turned around, and looked around the room again.

“Baldur?” she whispered into the room, and she could see her son’s head lift to look at her. She smiled adoringly at him, and said, “Thank you for choosing me to be your mother.” He simply smiled at her, not understanding the gravity of what she had said, and laid back down to sleep.

Freydis flicked her fingers, and her eyes glowed red for the briefest moment as Baldur fell asleep for the last time. Her heart broke as she closed the door, knowing as she and Ivar reached their own chambers that the darkness would have taken him by then.

It had very little further to go, and so she tried to turn out any of the lights in their chambers. The Great Hall had already gone silent, and she knew she and Ivar were the only ones who remained. But there was the sound of a candle being lit, and Ivar began to light a few more.

“I heard somewhere, it is considered bad luck to say goodbye in the dark,” he said, and she smiled.

“I have never heard that,” she told him. He chuckled halfheartedly.

“Then I will confess, I wanted to see you again before…” Before we say goodbye.

Freydis walked to Ivar and reached up to cup his cheek as he left his crutch abandoned to the side. His own hands came up to frame her face, and he smiled sadly at her. “You created this world because you grieved,” he said. “So we have been lost before?” She nodded. “And we have said goodbye before?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Then… I have faith,” he told her, and he didn’t have to finish his thoughts for her to know what he meant.

“We’ll say hello again.”

Freydis leaned up and kissed Ivar with every bit of the love she knew she still had for him now, with every bit of hope she now had for the future, and with every bit of regret she released for the past.

They were claimed by the dark.

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What Goes Bump in the Night - 7

PAIRING: Alpha!Sam x Omega!Reader WARNINGS: a/b/o dynamics, Victorian social dynamics, allusions to non-consent and dubious consent, dominance/submission, slow burn with eventual smut, suspense/horror/gore themes.

THIS WORK IS 18+ ONLY. DO NOT REPOST MY WORK ON ANY OTHER SITES.

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You’re woken by the sounds of yelling coming from downstairs. It takes several seconds to recall the events of the last twelve hours, and you raise a hand to your throat, feeling the bruises that have formed overnight. Swallowing is slightly less painful, thanks to the tea Sam’s made you drink, but your cheek aches terribly. 

Standing, you tiptoe slowly to the door, listening intently. John and Sam are yelling at each other.

“I don’t care what she did or didn’t do, you should have claimed the bitch the night you bought her! None of this would have happened if you put a mark on her! Now we’ve got a hunter dead and enough witnesses to bring you down for murder!”

Sam interjects, his voice loud and clear. “I wasn’t aware that Nick would even be here. I did my job as her Alpha to protect her, and I can’t claim her without her trust—”

“You don’t need her trust! Omegas are made to serve, not to be listened to. I already branded the bitch for you, do I have to knot her for you, too?” John’s voice echoes up the staircase, as if he knows you can hear and wants his words to hit home. “Your mother understood.”

“My mother never wanted me!” Sam bellows. “I was born because of your sick belief that an Omega is nothing but a breeder! She killed herself because of y—”

You hear the sound of glass hitting the floor, and then Dean yelling “dad, stop!” There’s a vague threat growled, from who, you can’t tell, and then the sound of the library door slamming. Footsteps echo on the stairs, and you quickly scamper away, walking around to the table where your tea from the night before sits cold. 

Sam enters just as you raise the cup to your lips. His cheeks are flushed, and his eyes have the same backlit glow as they always do when he’s ticked off. His demeanor changes in an instant the moment he sees you standing. 

“You should be in bed,” he says calmly.

You bow your head. “I woke up… heard you and your father fighting.”

Sam rubs his forehead, but doesn’t press the issue. He crosses the room quickly and pushes your hair away from your face. His eyes narrow at the sight of the purple bruises on your skin. “Christ…”

“I’m sorry for being a problem,” you say, your voice wavering as tears spring to your eyes. “I know I should have let you claim me, I never thought that it would cause all of this.”

“No.” Sam strokes your unharmed cheek with his thumb. “No, this was not your fault. Nick was always a dangerous, reckless man and it was only a matter of time before something did him in. He made his choices and paid the price for them. My father shouldn't have allowed him to come and I thought he was on a case in Greece.”

You sniff, looking timidly up at him. “So it was an accident?” 

He nods, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat. “Yes, it was an accident.”

He hugs you gently to his chest, one arm wrapped around your shoulders as he gently sways back and forth. You allow a few tears to escape before pulling back and gingerly wiping your eyes. Sam lets you go, watching solemnly as you sink into the chair and pull the cold tea towards you again.

“I’ll get breakfast,” Sam says, “and I’ll bring some more medicine for your bruises, it’ll help them heal faster.”

He leaves you sitting by the window and takes the steps quickly, heading down the hallway to the kitchen. Dean’s leaning against the counter, a chipped mug of coffee in one hand, the morning paper in the other.

“Anything in the papers?” Sam sets the tea kettle and cast iron pan on the stove and starts preparing a tray. There isn’t much to eat; with the events of the night before, no morning shopping has been done, and Sam can only find a few more slices of bacon, bread, and butter. 

“Nothing.” Dean’s answer is hard and clipped. “How’s Y/N?”

Sam tenses at the sound of your name coming from another Alpha’s mouth. “Hurt. Nick hit her a couple times, choked her, ripped her bloomers open.” He shakes his head.

“No broken bones?” Dean answers.

“No.”

Dean chuckles. “Not hurt enough to not claim, then.” He stiffens when Sam rounds on him, nothing but rage in his eyes. “Seriously, you need to put a goddamn mark on her. Dad’s pissed, and frankly, I am too. If Nick had a family, they’d be askin’ all sorts of questions and you’d probably go to prison for murder. You know what happens to Alphas in there?”

Sam growls. “She’s going to be in heat in a few days. I’ll claim her then, but she’s scared and hurt and I won’t take advantage of that.” He steps towards Dean, squaring his shoulders to assert his height and dominance. “And if you so much as sniff her, I swear to God—”

“Yeah, I know, you’ll cut my knot off.” Dean rolls his eyes and tosses the paper onto the small round table. “Just do whatever you can to get back on terms with dad, he’s not happy with you or her.”

“I’m not worried about it.” Sam turns back to the stove. “The minute he sees a claim on Y/N’s neck it’ll be one less thing for him to piss about.”

***

Three days later, you wake up with a fever and cramping in your lower belly. When you move, you can feel slick pooling between your thighs. It’s your heat, not in full swing, but surely well on its way. Sam stirs behind you, woken by you rolling out of his hold, and his eyes snap open the moment he catches the scent of your heat. 

“Omega,” he says, his voice hoarse with sleep as he reaches out for you, “Christ, you smell good.”

You scramble away from him towards the edge of the bed. “Don’t.”

Sam grunts and ruts his hips into the mattress, his nostrils flaring. “You’re in heat.”

You whimper and press a hand against your lower belly as another cramp wracks your body. “Please, Sam, no.”

He issues another predatory growl before sitting up and pushing the covers off his hips. His cock is hard, tinted light red, and you can see the dark flesh of his knot at the base. You haven’t touched him since the day he’d first made you service him, and the primal drive inside of you is begging to touch him again.

“Where are you going?”

“Bathroom,” he answers stiffly, “unless you want me to relieve myself here.”

Your cheeks burn as you bring your knees up to your chest. Sam vanishes into the bathroom and closes the door. You curl into yourself, hoping against hope that Sam’s able to keep his urges at bay until you’re ready for him.

***

Sam stays with you all day long, only leaving to make tea and lunch when your stomach finally growls. You manage sleep through most of it, only waking up during particularly painful waves of cramps. 

Soon after the sun sets, however, you can tell that Sam’s getting antsy, and your Omega’s soft pleads have become violent screams to be satiated. 

You’ve just emerged from a cold bath to find him pacing in front of the bed, rubbing a hand over the front of his linen pants. 

“Alpha?”

He turns at the sound of your meek voice. “Yes?”

You swallow thickly. “I… I think I might need you now.”

His stony expression relaxes into a soft smile. He meets you halfway, reaching up to cup your face. There’s still faint traces of your injuries there, but they pale in the lamplight. He towers over you, his presence strong and dominating, but his touches are feather light. 

Suddenly, before he can make any other moves, he breaks out into a short burst of laughter.

“What is it?” You furrow your brow, wondering if you’ve still got soap on your face. “Is something wrong?”

He shakes his head. “In all the time you’ve been here, I’ve never kissed you.”

Your cheeks flush warm. “Is there a reason why?”

Sam chuckles. “Just never thought you wanted me to.” His thumbs stroke your cheeks. “Would you like me to now?”

You take a shaky breath and press your palms against his chest. “Yes.”

Sam lowers his head, bending slightly to meet you as you stretch up on your toes. He nuzzles your cheek with the tip of his nose, giving a gentle nudge until you tip your head back. 

His lips are warm and soft on yours, and your knees nearly give out when the feeling sends a warm wave of heat between your thighs. Slowly, the two of you find a rhythm, and it’s only when you reach up to rub your fingers over Sam’s shoulders that he pulls away, scooping his hands under your bare thighs and lifting you off the ground. He crosses to the bed in three long strides and crawls onto it, laying you down underneath him.

“Do you want me?” he asks, hovering over you. “Do you want me inside you?”

Driven by your heat, you nod quickly. “Yes, Alpha, I want you.”

Sam darts his tongue over his lower lip and leans back, undoing the tie of his pants and shoving them off. His cock bounces between his legs, harder than ever and flushed with arousal. The tip leaks with beads of clear fluid, and Sam swipes a finger over it, emitting a soft grunt. 

“I’m going to make you feel so good.” He shifts so that when he lies down, his head rests perfectly between your thighs. You shiver as he trails kisses down the insides of your thighs and growls at the scent of your cunt. 

The first drag of his tongue through your folds makes you arch up off the bed with a soft whimper. Heat floods through you when Sam wraps his lips around the most sensitive part of you, and he slings his forearms over your hips, holding you still. Your fingers twist in the sheets as he holds you down, working your sex with expert precision. 

“Sam,” you whine his name when his hands slide up to cup your breasts, massaging the soft mounds. He only replies with a growl and quick swirl of his tongue. The sounds coming from between your legs are downright obscene, wet sucks and kisses that echo in the large room. Just when you think you can’t take it anymore, he pulls back, lips glistening with your slick.

“Such a sweet little cunt,” he murmurs, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “But I want you cumming on my cock this first time.”

He pushes your legs back, spreading you open so he can notch the thick tip of his length at your entrance. You whimper when he lowers his hips, slowly pressing between your folds. There’s a resistance that burns when he pushes past it, and you scream when he sinks in to the root, his pelvis coming nearly flush with yours. It hurts, and you wonder if he’ll split you open. You’re made to take an Alpha by nature, but if you’d thought Sam was big in your hand, it’s nothing compared to what he feels like inside you. 

“Shh,” Sam soothes you with soft kisses and strokes of his thumbs on your cheeks. “It’ll stop hurting in a minute.” He presses a warm kiss to your lips, moaning at the sound of your desperate sob when he throbs inside you.

You grit your teeth and dig the tips of your fingers into Sam’s back as the burning stretch fades. Your thighs relax around his hips, and he looks deep into your eyes, breathing heavily. “Sam… Alpha…”

He presses the tip of his nose against yours. “I’ve got you.”

He braces his hands over your shoulders, holding himself over you as he rolls his hips back. You feel him moving, a hot, thick, wet slide as he pulls out. His thrust back in is long, but powerful enough to make your entire body jolt. He lets out a loud grunt as he slowly falls into a rhythm, in, out, in, out, in, out, until you’re gasping and squeezing his sides with your knees. The pain from just minutes before has become warm bursts of pleasure that make you writhe and arch as Sam drives his cock deep into you with rough, passionate thrusts. 

With a huff, he shoves a hand down between your bodies and rubs the sweet nub that makes every bit of you tingle, and this time he doesn’t muffle your gasping cry. He wants the entire house to hear what he’s doing to you. 

“You want it harder?” he asks, his voice deep and breathy. When you nod, he plants his knees into the mattress and roughly bucks his hips, making his cock nearly punch into your pussy. You toss your head back, mouth stretched into a wide O as pleasure builds between your legs, making you pulse and clench uncontrollably.

“That’s it,” Sam urges, “let it out, sweetheart, let me hear you.”

He quickens his fingers, and something inside of you breaks. Heat ravages your body, making you shake violently as gasps and moans fly from your lips. It’s like nothing you’ve felt before, and for a brief second you feel like you might faint. 

It’s over almost as quickly as it began, and Sam pauses when you let out a strangled cough. As soon as your breathing returns to normal, you feel your chest tighten up. Tears fill your eyes, but this time, Sam smiles when they slide from the corners of your eyes and drip into your hairline. 

“That’s my girl,” he praises, “you’re squeezing me so tight… that your first one?”

You shudder as an aftershock flows through you. “Wh-what? First one?”

“That was your first orgasm, sweetheart.” He chuckles and kisses both of your cheeks. “You like it?”

You nod weakly and rub your fists over your eyes. “It was intense.”

Sam hums and rocks his hips forward. “Your next one will be better.”

He presses a heated kiss to your throat and pulls out. You let him flip you onto your hands and knees, and when he skims a palm up the dip of your spine, you arch your back to present for him.

“Mmm,” he runs his thumbs down the cleft of your ass, spreading your pussy lips. “You have the prettiest little cunt.”

He slides back into you with a throaty groan. One hand spreads out between your shoulder blades, the other thudding onto the mattress by your head. His hips snap against your ass, and you shudder under the force. He’s growing rough, and you feel his restraint beginning to dissolve. 

“Oh, God,” you choke on your gasp as Sam shoves your hair off your shoulder, exposing bare skin. “Oh, fuck, Sam…”

The grunt that leaves Sam’s throat is loud and feral. He grabs your waist with both hands, holding you up as he pounds even harder. Your body jerks with the motion of his thrusts, and all you can do is hold onto the covers and let your moans and cries and whimpers come free.

Sam only makes it a few minutes before you feel the knot near the base of his shaft growing. He curls over you, wrapping his arms underneath your body to hold you still. He’s nearly crushing you against the bed, and the heat combined with the punishing rhythm of his cock inside you is enough to drive you closer to the edge of another climax.

“Alpha,” you take a shuddering gasp of air when he reaches for your hand, gripping it tightly in his own, “please…”

“I’m almost there.” Sam presses his lips to your shoulder and slides his other hand down between your legs. He rubs quick circles on your clit that make you arch up with a cry. “I’m gonna knot you. Spread your legs wider, lemme get deeper…”

He shoves the entire girth of his knot into you with a vicious thrust. It’s not painful, but you can feel the weight of him throbbing hard as he falls over the edge. Hot bursts of his seed fill your womb, the final trigger to make you join him in ecstasy with a wail of his title.

The feeling of his teeth snapping into your shoulder makes you scream. It’s agonizing, and you fight hard against it, sobbing wildly as your body continues to climax despite the pain. Sam growls at the taste of your blood on his tongue and bucks his hips against your ass. He’s overcome by the instinct to mark you as his, and it’s only when the haze of his orgasm washes over him and he draws his teeth from your neck that he seems to realize that you’re in distress.

“Omega?” He holds himself up, turning your head to the side so that you can see him. “Omega, open your eyes. Open your eyes, sweetheart.”

You let out a gasping sob and let your eyes flutter open. Through the foggy tears, you can see Sam’s face contorted in a mixture of post-coital bliss and worry. There’s blood on his lips, and he swipes his tongue over them to clear the drops away.

“It hurts,” you whimper, giving into your sobs and burying your face in the pillow. “It really hurts, make it stop.”

“Shhh…” he presses a soft kiss to your temple and grips your hand harder. “It’s okay… was I too rough?”

You swallow, then nod. “A little.”

Sam inwardly curses himself. “Of course… you were a virgin, love, it won't be like that next time. I promise.” 

You sniff and allow him to wrap his arms around you in a protective embrace. “When will it stop hurting?”

Carefully, so that his knot doesn’t pull, Sam rolls onto his side, pulling your limp, trembling body with him. “In a bit. I’ll get some ice and ointment, we can bandage it up.”

Sam holds you until his knot goes down enough for him to pull free. Reaching for his pants, he pulls them on as a stream of his seed flows from your swollen cunt and onto the thick blanket. There’s a little blood on your inner thighs, and he makes a note to give you the night to heal. Your heat should repair the minor injuries soon enough. 

“I’ll be back soon,” he whispers, leaning over to kiss you as he ties the linen belt around his hips. “Don’t move, you need to heal.”

***

Sam returns ten minutes later with a tray of ice, a chalice of water, bandages, and sterile ointment. You’re sitting up, legs apart, examining the mess—a combination of both yours and Sam’s climaxes tinged with faint traces of blood.

“Are you okay?” Sam sets the tray on the bedside table and hands you the glass of water. 

You accept the glass and down a large gulp. “Sore. I had to sit up and I couldn’t stop… there’s so much—”

Sam shakes his head and lifts a corner of the comforter. “Don’t worry. It’s old, I was planning on getting rid of it anyway.”

You stumble to the bathroom to rinse what’s left of the mess from your body. When you return, Sam’s pulled the comforter from the bed and has set a small stack of folded blankets at the bottom. He instructs you to hold a cool cloth between your legs. It helps with the ache, and when he sets about cleaning and wrapping the claim bite in white bandages, you start to feel the difference. Sam’s claim makes you feel larger than life. His touch sparks a warmth that’s never been there before, and when he presses a soft kiss to your cheek, you instinctively grab his wrist, desperate to never let him go. 

“I need to put this away, ‘mega,” he whispers.

“Leave it,” you reply, pulling him close. “Come to bed.”

Sam chuckles and unfolds one of the blankets, draping it over you as you lie back. He follows, turning out the lamp and snuggling up by your side. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” he says quietly. “I’ve never claimed an Omega before, I thought it might hurt, but…”

“I forgive you.” You graze your lips over his chin. “Just hold me.”

Sam slings an arm over your waist and kisses your cheek. “All right, ‘mega. Sleep well.”

***

Three days later, your heat finally fades. Sam’s knotted you several times since that first time, taking great care to make every single moment nothing but pleasure. He makes you cum with his mouth and fingers when your heat sends a flare through your body, and by the end of those three days, you’re exhausted and spent and don’t allow him to touch you. But Sam’s all right with that. He’s mated and claimed you, and as with your connection to him, he knows he’ll be satisfied simply by snuggling you until you fall asleep.

Sam leaves you sleeping and dresses in his linen pants. He doesn’t bother putting a shirt on; it’s just his father and brother in the house, and if they’ve been home, they’ve surely heard the rutting coming from his bedroom at one point or another.

John and Dean are talking over the morning paper when Sam strides in, a steaming cup of tea in one hand. Dean whistles at his brothers disheveled appearance, and John raises an approving eyebrow.

“Are you done?” he asks somewhat sarcastically.

Sam nods. “She’s sleeping.”

“And you claimed her?”

Again, Sam bobs his head shortly. “Yes, sir.”

For the first time in a very long while, John smiles at his youngest son. “Good.”

My Hospital Bag and Birth Plan!

I’ve had my hospital bag packed for weeks and now I’m going to share what I’ve packed to take to the hospital with me. I packed my bag at 30 weeks as I was I worried I might go into premature labour but thankfully my two little girls are still safely baking away in there. I took me a while to pack my bags, especially as I was packing for two tiny humans as well. They’ve been in our bedroom, by the door ready to go when needed. So here we go! P.S This is going to be a long post!

For me:

.My birth plan

.Two old nightdresses

.Going home outfit

.Several pairs of thick socks

.Slippers and flip flops

.Nursing and sports bras

.Pyjamas

.Johnsons Nursing pads

.Old dressing gown

.Cotton and disposable briefs

.Maternity pads from mothercare, you can’t just wear regular pads after giving birth, all sorts of fluids come out of there, you need maternity pads, which are huge, like nappies!

.Toiletries - toothpaste, toothbrush, hair brush, hair ties, avent nipple cream, Palmers Cocoa stretch mark cream, body wash, old towels, old flannel, soap and moisturising cream.

.Book, Harley’s labour was long and I got very bored so this time I’m taking a book.

.My pillow, plus an old pillow case.

.Phone plus phone charger

.iPad

For The Babies

.Four body vests for each baby

.Four babygrows/sleepsuits for each baby

.Going home outfit for each baby

.Two pairs of mitts

.Hats

.Two pairs of socks and pair of booties for each baby

.1 Blanket and 1 swaddler for each baby

.Pram suit

.Pacifier case with two pacifiers in, my prefrences for newborns are Heava and  Natursutten

.Lots of nappies

.Baby wipies

.Carseats

.Diaper cream

.Body lotion

For Sean

.Change of clothes

.Toothbrush

.Money for car park

.Book

.Phone

.Camera

Misc

.Lots of drinks and snacks

.Straws as its very difficult to sip normally whilst in labour!

.iPod and headphones, to listen to music during labour

.Announcement cards

My Birth Plan

Here’s a brief outline of my birth plan as the real thing is pretty detailed!

Where Will I Give Birth? - I will be giving birth in the maternity ward of our local hospital.

Who Will Be My Birth Partner? - Sean will be my birth partner and he will be there with me the whole time.

Who Else Will Be In The Room? - My Midwife and my obstetrician.

Will I Have Pain Relief? - Yes I plan to use gas and air.

What Birthing Equipment Will I Use? - I intend to use a birthing ball and a birthing stool

Will I Stay Active During Labour? - Yes I intend to move around during labour, as it can help the progress of labour.

What Positions Will I Use During Labour? - I will be in bed with my back propped up during labour or kneeling on all fours.

What Skin-To-Skin Contact Will I Have With My Babies?- I would like my babies to placed straight on my chest.

What If Intervention Is Needed? - I will allow any intervention needed, including; episiotomy, vaccum delivery, forceps and emergency C-Section.

What Fetal Monitoring Will I Have? - The babies heartbeats will be checked every 15 minutes.

How Will I Deliver The Placenta? - I will have an injection that helps the womb contract.

How Will I Feed My Babies? - I will breastfeed the twins as I have breastfed all of my babies.

Who Will Cut The Cords? - Sean will cut the cords.

Will I Allow Interventions To Speed Up Labour? - I haven’t decided. I’d like to see how I feel on the day and then decide.

What Happens If My Babies Need Special Care While I’m Recovering? - Sean will go with them and my mum will probably come in to sit with me.

Phew that was a long post!

Hope these babies make an appearance soon!

Love,

make it work, make it sweet - a fitzsimmons fic

Written for the anon that requested fs + I did the dishes. 

Summary: When Jemma hopes to surprise Fitz for his birthday with something special, things don’t quite go according to plan. (Sci-Ops Era/established relationship)

Read below or on AO3!

~

With her grocery sacks cutting into her arm as she trekked up to the fourth floor of her apartment complex, Jemma cursed herself for forgetting the reusable bags she’d left hanging on the pantry door. Luckily, that was the only mishap she’d encountered since embarking on her day’s plans. With Fitz out for the day, it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of their small but still fully functional kitchen in their shared flat to make him something special. They usually didn’t go crazy on birthdays, but he’d taken her to the local arboretum the afternoon of her birthday last year, and with him being 23 days older than her, it gave her almost an entire year to prepare something spectacular for his day of celebration. But even with plenty of time to prepare, it didn’t make the task of surprising him any easier.  

Unfortunately, she wasn’t necessarily the best at thinking up surprises for her boyfriend ever since they’d established that Fitz was much more talented in the realm of romantic gestures. Preparing something special for someone who would be pleased with just about anything was a difficult task to narrow down, so it took a great deal of brainstorming before she settled on the perfect gift. She knew buying him something extravagant wasn’t an option since they were trying to keep their possessions as minimal as possible in their cramped flat. And she knew a surprise party would likely spook him more than anything else, him often preferring to spend time alone with her rather than with a large crowd of people.

It was only when they were invited to a colleague’s birthday party in the summer did she suddenly come up with a plan as they came across the subject of birthday cakes.

“It’s good,” Jemma uttered through a mouthful of vanilla cake as they hid in a corner of the loud and overly crowded patio. “Could be better.”

At her side, Fitz shook his head. “Jemma, are you really judging the cake? It’s sweet, it’s got loads of icing, and it’s free.” Poking his fork into her slice, he stole a bite before she brought her plate closer to her chest protectively.

“Yes, but it’s so boring,” she explained, not impressed by the simple vanilla sheet cake that easily fed a crowd but wasn’t up to her standards for desserts. “You only get one birthday a year, so you might as well make a cake that’s just as special.”

Fitz shrugged. “Well, it’s just a cake. I can’t even remember the last time I had a birthday cake like this.”

Putting down her fork, Jemma tilted her head. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“Oh. Well, it’s not like I’ve never had a birthday cake,” he told her. “I had ones when I was really little, but once it was just the two of us, my mum would always take me to this bakery down the street to get a slice there.”

“Ah,” Jemma replied plainly.

“I didn’t mind,” he said, shrugging. “I think she always hated having so much leftover, and I didn’t want her to go to the trouble of making one, anyway.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Upon learning this fact, Jemma instantly felt horrible for not thinking to make him a cake in the past. With their last few years spent at the Academy and now at Sci-Ops together, their schedules were so incredibly busy that they usually settled for store-bought cupcakes on birthdays, the single candles giving them just enough light to make wishes for the next year they were to spend at each other’s side. Now, all Jemma could think about was making up for lost time and what would hopefully be a delighted look on Fitz's face when she ultimately presented him with his freshly baked cake.

Once she learned that Fitz’s mum would be in town for his birthday, Jemma suggested that he should spend the day with her, and then the three of them could all meet up for dinner afterwards, giving Jemma time to prepare his gift in secret. Based on her skill level, she calculated precisely how much time she needed to bake and decorate the cake in time for it to be ready for dessert that night. A small white lie about having lunch with Daisy allowed her to leave their flat in the morning without question (but not before giving Fitz his first birthday present of the day, which—based on her observation—he seemed to enjoy tremendously).

Of course, instead of meeting Daisy, Jemma hopped over to the supermarket to collect fresh ingredients, wanting nothing short of the best for Fitz’s soon to be glorious birthday cake. With all the proper pieces purchased and arriving home just in time, she felt her plans were going off without a hitch. That was until she swung open the flat door and stumbled inside, letting out a loud gasp at the sight in front of her.

The countertops were nearly spotless, the dishes were laying in their rack to dry, but the most alarming sight before her with her boyfriend with a bottle of all-purpose cleaner in hand and a thin layer of sweat coating the back of his neck.

“Oh!” Jemma exclaimed, forgetting to ease the door shut, so the loud slam sent Fitz turning around at the noise.

“Hey, Jemma. You’re back early,” he said happily.  

“Fitz. You’re… you’re here,” she said, unable to move from her shock.

“Yeah, did you go shopping?” he asked. He gestured toward the fridge. “We’re low on milk, I think.”

Slowly, Jemma tried to lower the grocery sacks without losing her grip to hide them behind her back. “Yeah. Wha-what are you doing here?”

Fitz chuckled lightly, resuming his work of scrubbing down a corner of their kitchen island. “I’d like to ask you the same question,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “since you said you were meeting Daisy for lunch.”  

“I had…errands to run first,” she answered before clearing her throat. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Aren’t you happy that I’m cleaning?”

“Not today, I’m not. Aren’t you supposed to be spending the day with your mum?”

“Change of plans,” Fitz explained as he continued to scrub at the countertop. “Got a call saying her flight’s running late, so she’s coming in tomorrow instead. Which is actually better, because now I have more time to make sure the flat is in order, so she doesn’t think we live like slobs.” He looked up, raising his hands. “Not that we do, of course, but you know. Don’t want her to worry. Anyway, I did the dishes, laundry’s almost done.”

“Oh,” Jemma replied softly. “Right, okay.”

“I didn’t text you because I didn’t want you to cancel on Daisy for my sake.”

Nodding, Jemma inched one of the grocery sacks higher on her arm, still struggling with its weight.

“Here,” Fitz said, putting down the cleaner and rushing forward. “I got it.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay,” she insisted, quickly pulling the bags away as he reached forward to keep the ingredients a secret. But her swift movement resulted in yet another mishap of the day as the thin plastic of one of the grocery sacks tore open from the bottom.

Before Jemma had time to react, the contents went tumbling to the floor, the sacks of flour and sugar landing with a heavy thump but luckily staying mostly intact. Tragically, the jug of milk and the jar of rainbow sprinkles were not as lucky.

“Oh, no, no, no!” Jemma cried as she trailed after the rolling jar, the sugary morsels now decorating a good portion of their kitchen floor. As she struggled, muttering a few expletives to herself, Fitz got to his knees to collect the other fallen ingredients while he took paper towels to the growing puddle under the milk jug.

“Well, so much for the milk. And wow, that… is a lot of sprinkles,” he said through a laugh.

“Ugh, this is a disaster,” Jemma whispered as she tried to collect the sprinkles into a pile, hanging her head so Fitz couldn’t see her expression.

It was happening again, she thought to herself painfully. No matter how meticulous she was in her preparations, her attempts at being romantic were somehow always falling apart, and without warning, a lump started to form in her throat as her eyes filled with tears.

“It’s okay, I’ll clean it up,” Fitz told her before getting to his feet and searching for their broom and dustpan.

“Thank you,” Jemma replied, giving up her attempts to collect the sprinkles to lean against the bottom cupboards of the kitchen in defeat. “I just… I had plans all set and stone, and they only work if you’re out of the flat all day.”

“What sort of plans?” Fitz asked from the other side of the kitchen.

Through a deep sigh, Jemma shook her head. “Nothing, it’s…” She paused, sniffling and wiping under her eyelid. “It’s nothing. I’ll make it work. Somehow.”

“Well, do you want me to leave?” Fitz asked while he started to sweep the floor. But once he got around the island and found Jemma leaning against the cupboard, he froze. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

Looking up, she gave him a weak smile. “How is it so easy for you?”

“What?”

“To be romantic,” she said quietly.

At her words, Fitz tilted his head, giving her a sympathetic look.

“You always… take me by surprise and everything is always so unbelievably perfect,” Jemma explained. “I, on the other hand, am always running into trouble. First it was the holiday that didn’t work out because of Weaver’s last minute project, then there was that astrophysics lecture that I was going to surprise you with, but then you had already bought us tickets. And now I can’t even get your bloody birthday present right.” Shaking her head, she pressed a hand to her forehead.

As she expected, Fitz balanced the broom against the counter before he made his way to her side on the floor. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he urged her to turn towards him. “Come here,” he whispered.

WIthout a word, Jemma sunk her head to his shoulder and curled into him, swinging her legs over his to settle in his lap. “I’m sorry,” she said after a few moments, wiping the few tears away and letting herself laugh for the first time as she took in the mess that was their kitchen and her current state. “I’m just being silly.”

“No, you’re not,” Fitz assured her, moving a stray hair that had fallen in front of her face. “I’m sorry I ruined your plans.”

“It’s not your fault. It was an accident.” Letting out a small sigh, she shrugged. “But still. I don’t understand how it always goes so well for you every time. I try to plan something nice for you and it always seems to burst into flames.”

It was his turn to laugh, which Jemma found annoyingly adorable considering her state of mind. After, when he looked at her with a more serious expression, she waited for him to explain.

“Did you know…” he finally said, “that for every seemingly perfect date or gift, there are probably about three failures in-between?”

Jemma scrunched up her face. “What do you mean?”

“Do you really think that the time we stayed in during that crazy thunderstorm with Chinese take away and that Austen movie marathon—that was plan A?” He let out another chuckle before he continued. “That was supposed to be a picnic in the afternoon and then stargazing at night. Turns out I vastly misjudged the weather patterns that day, along with my skill in making sandwiches that even come close to yours.”

“Aw, but that was a good night,” Jemma assured him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

“It really was,” he agreed. “And then those flowers I got you after you passed your final Academy exams? Those were purchased because the dwarf prototype I was originally working on may or may not have exploded in the lab.”

With widened eyes, Jemma looked back up at him. “Oh, God. You never told me that,” she said, astonished.  

“Well, the miscalculation helped us finish the project in the end, so I didn’t feel the need to inform you about that bit,” Fitz admitted through a half shrug.

Jemma let out a faint laugh.

“But see?” he said, poking her playfully in the side. “What you think is perfect and effortless is actually a great deal of throwing things together on my end, and that’s okay. ”

She nodded, already feeling immensely better about her soiled surprise.

“Whatever you end up doing,” Fitz went on, “even if it’s not exactly what you originally planned, I’ll always love it because it’s from you.”

“I know,” Jemma said, her voice low. “I just wanted things to go right this time.”

“Alright, spill,” Fitz said in a lighter tone. “What were you planning?”

Pulling back to look at him fully in the eye, Jemma sighed. “I was going to bake you a cake,” she finally confessed, her voice as small as the smile growing on her face.

It took a moment for Fitz to respond, but then his eyes turned bright. “Really?”

“Yes, I know it doesn’t sound that exciting, but wasn’t just any cake,” she gushed. “It was going to be this beautiful, magnificent, delicious cake. And it was going to have six layers—”

“Six?!”

“Yes, and sprinkles, and a chocolate drizzle, and I was going to surprise you and your mum when we all got back from dinner.”

“Jemma, that…” Fitz shook his head in disbelief. “That sounds amazing.”

“I just wanted to do something special for a change.” Taking hold of his hand, she looked down at her lap.

“You still can,” he told her reassuringly, rubbing her back. “But now you can have my help.”

“But it was supposed to be a surprise,” Jemma replied, pouting.

“Okay, then, how about I help you with the baking part, and then I’ll leave the decorating up to you?” he offered.

Jemma thought for a moment before she pursed her lips, nodding. “That does sound like a good idea. An assistant would make things a lot easier.”

“Assistant?”

Rolling her eyes dramatically, Jemma shook her head. “Alright, fine. Partner. But be honest, Fitz, how much baking have you done in your life?”

“I’ve done enough,” he answered, looking a bit insulted by her question, but smiling nonetheless. “And it’s just science, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and good judgement.”

“And fun, I’m hoping. Plus, with an expert at my side, I’m sure I’ll learn just fine.”

“Yes, you will,” she told him happily. After giving him a small peck on his cheek, not a trace of disappointment left within her, Jemma got to her feet and pulled Fitz up. “Right, then. Let’s get to work.”

~

It took nearly five hours, but eventually, the two of them sunk heavily onto the sofa before cutting into what Jemma thought was one of her most brilliant creations to date. After Fitz went out to replace the spilled milk and rainbow sprinkles, they set about a routine of weighing, mixing, pouring, and then finally watching the cakes rise in the oven as they transformed before their eyes. As they’d agreed, Fitz stayed in the living room while Jemma got about icing and decorating the cake. And when, at last, it was finished and she presented it to him proudly—all six layers of soft and springy sponge towered up high with rich buttercream—Fitz seemed lost for words.

At the moment, they’d already polished off two slices and were now sharing a third, Jemma’s legs draped over Fitz’s lap as they balanced the plate between them.

“It really is spectacular,” Fitz told her, patting her knee.  

“Thank you,” Jemma replied lovingly.  

“And you technically made me three cakes,” he pointed out.  

“Well, I didn’t know which one you would like best, so I thought… Neapolitan. Felt like the safest route.”

“It’s bloody delicious is what it is,” he mumbled through a mouthful of the strawberry layer.

Once the third slice was demolished and they were left with only crumbs, Fitz took Jemma’s hand and pulled her closer to his side.

“You did well. Very romantic, indeed,” he told her, his lips pressed to her forehead.  

“Good,” she said into his neck. “And maybe... this can be the first of many special cakes in the future?” She looked up with a raised brow in a hopeful expression.

She saw something shift behind his eyes then, as if a new thought was entering his brain at that precise moment. She liked to think it was the same one running through her mind as well, a future filled with many more special occasions made brighter with the addition of delicious desserts, and maybe even one where the cake was the centerpiece of a grand celebration, an occasion much more memorable than any birthday.

Eventually, he nodded, his smile growing wider as he leaned in. “Yeah, that sounds nice,” he whispered before capturing her in a soft kiss, the taste of his lips just as sweet as his words, the sugary treat they’d just devoured, and what turned out to be quite the romantic night after all.

~

🎂

See the cake Jemma baked here (from Cupcake Jemma! 💫)

Super duper WIPy doodle of Sugis after a conversation / artfart about Fayth/Primals in one of the discord servers.

Granted it’s not canon, my personal headcanon along with a lot of other WoLs I RP with is that they are all in fact some sort of primal manifestation.

And honestly I realllllly like Anima from X. Not only because of her design, but the lore behind her as well. Most people expect Ifrit because of her personality, but like people have pointed out in the past, Sug does well to hide the pain she carries with her. Which has been a driving plot point in her growth as a person for a few arcs now.

Cryptotrader EP 17: Richard Branson & Mike Novogratz on Bitcoin and Crypto

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Cryptotrader EP 17: Richard Branson & Mike Novogratz on Bitcoin and Crypto

Crypto trader is proudly brought to you by element a full-service investment bank for the digital token capital markets Welcome to this week’s edition of crypto China stole the world’s only televised cryptocurrency investment show this week We’re coming to you live from our Johannesburg studios. Where we’ve got a live studio audience with us These are the guy from the Johannesburg chapter of the YPO organization these are the wipie our crypto gasps gasps welcome to our studio Great to have you and please feel free not to interrupt me at any time So speaking of crypto we had a manic week on the crypto markets We had a metallic pewter and tweeting about heroin and child porn in the same tweet We had the alt market cap running to an all-time high we had Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash Running against each other this week And we had the feud between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash also running at an all-time high this week, Brian Kelly Are you a Bitcoin man, or you have Bitcoin cash, man? I intend to look at Bitcoin at this point as the monetary base? currency background so to me Bitcoin is the monetary base and Bitcoin cash is something like m1 or the Transactional currency so no reason for the big a feud at all sir Brian Why do you think there is a feud with all that’s it? This is not just a monetary revolution? This is a social revolution so people have a lot of emotions around this a lot of people have put a lot of Volunteer hours to get these currencies to where they are and they’re very attached and that’s and that’s a good thing um So I think that the human element is coming into it But if we take a step back from that and just say okay, you know What are the use cases for all of these crypto currencies and you see you know what there is a role for each of these Currencies from corn cache Circuit Court Bryan the ultimate is at all-time highs a year Do you feel like the alt market is at all-time highs? No, you know.It’s funny You mention that read because it does not feel like that at all Look even some of what I would call it the big cap alt something like a Z hash Something like that You know it’s still below its all-time highs so I think a part of that is I believe The way they’re calculating it has something to do with Bitcoin cash is considered part of the alt market and that Expansion and market cap is out But it certainly does not feel like An etherium as well right etherium is not at all time highs either That’s basically traded sideways for the last six months So it was gonna take those kind of big cat balls to get going before we feel like we’re in a bull market for alts So speaking of big big cap oats.What are your favorite big cap oats at the moment? Ah so right now single favorites on the privacy corn so Manero. See cache – to some extent although That’s had a bit of a run here so to me I think those are the big ones for the next month or so. I you know they’re again There are use cases for these do if you’re a major financial organization, and you want to send money Do you really want the whole world to see how much you’re sending and to where you’re sending it So I think there is a case-to-case for these privacy coins in this ecosystem Brian there were stories that came out yesterday that China may be with or increasing the power Costs to the Chinese Bitcoin miners. What’s your feeling on the others rumors confirmed? It’s hard to get an actual confirmation when you’re talking about news from China Ah, but it does sound like there’s going to be some kind of crackdown might be too strong of a word, but effectively that Chinese miners have been getting a Essentially free energy a very low-cost energy, which is the excess energy that the the energy company in the Sichuan? Province didn’t need It looks like that might be coming to an end So maybe crackdown is that the right word maybe ban isn’t the right word, but certainly a squeeze on the profits coming from China? But in general you know listen.I’m all for a more centralized mining a big So I think in the long run. It’s healthy perfect coin to have it diversified across the globe Brian I cos a little bit out of favor at the moment. Are you looking at any icy O’s that are coming up? Oh the one that I did last year that is going to be coming out in December as cosmos and to me That’s a really exciting one because not only do you have the ability to create smart contracts like you do with aetherium? But they have their inter blockchain protocol, which basically effectively makes any blockchain infinitely scalable So anybody can spin up a hub on the cosmos Blockchain and that hub can represent any coin in the ecosystem so to me This is an essential building block for the digital economy, so cosmos is the one where the guy’s paid much earlier this year And it’s only actually listening towards the end of this year Brian your fund the fund that you manage.How’s your fund? That’s It’s been a good year. We’re up a little over 2000 percent for the year So we picked a pretty good year to start a crypto hot billionaires buying Bitcoin yep I was looking for billionaires Who are out there buying Bitcoin and I bumped into Sir Richard Branson who agreed to give me an interview on the world’s first televised Cryptocurrency investment show here’s what he said So the blockchain has given rise to a whole new wave of entrepreneurs in fact It’s like a whole new way of doing business, and it’s a place for Mavericks So who better to speak to about this kind of entrepreneurship than Sir Richard Branson so Richard Branson we met earlier And I couldn’t shake your hand, but I will shake your head now You’ve obviously heard of crypto trade it’s the world’s first cryptocurrency investment sure it’s an honor to have you on You’re a big believer in the blockchain and TOD the blockchain is gonna change the world Can you give us some insight as to what it is about the blockchain that that attracts you to it.Well I think blockchain is very smart I Have to admit that I invested in early on and And the reason I invested in it was the amount of different uses that could be put to I bred Hernando de Soto’s books Ananda DeSoto argues that Unless you can actually have you interest in your home it’s very difficult for you to start a business or or create or have any wealth created blockchain have gone to presidents of Egypt and other countries and said you know we could we could register every single house in your country the 90% of your the houses that the people don’t actually own they just built the houses on random bits of land we can give them home ownership, and you can then create a a revolution of Businesses and people being able to start businesses from scratch So when you look at blockchain blockchain actually gives rise to doing business in a very decentralized way I think for the first time in history We can really big big businesses in a collaborative way with people that maybe never even meet each other Now you’re all about business and having fun and letting people wear what they want to work How do you think that businesses will work when sometimes the the operators of the business never meet face to face? I think it’ll make businesses more efficient fortunately, I think airlines are still going to be needed and People are going to need to sort of jump jump on a plane and actually come and socialize with each other as well so, but at least they know in the background that the Blockchain is doing doing the job in An efficient way that you guys investigating the blockchain and trying to apply it in your businesses I think different virgin businesses are Looking at it in different ways and and so they should be You know we have Virgin Money.Which is a bank in the UK? They’re definitely looking at blockchain and in discussions to see how they can use it But we also you know we we also invest in in cyber currencies as well so You know so you know We’re investors in Bitcoin and aetherium and some of some of those other currencies So you were interviewed on Bloomberg a while back? And you at the time you spoke about how positive you were about Bitcoin, and how well it’s working Do you believe that Bitcoin is working as a currency or do you believe Bitcoin is more a store of value? I think I think for some people Bitcoins used as a currency for other for others. It’s Just a place where they can You know tuck tuck away some of their network In the same way they might talk to tuck it away in gold or silver in The last few years, they would have done a lot better to attacted away in Bitcoin But we’ll have to see what happens in the years to come What is your prediction about what happens in these crypto in this Bitcoin in a theory or market at the moment? They’re not regulated and so most governments.Don’t recognize them as currencies and commodities Do you think that you know you’ve threatened big corporations before but do you think that? Bitcoin in etherium certain governments, and and how do you think governments are going to respond? I? don’t think Bitcoin and etherium threaten governments any more than than cash threatens governments or Or credit cards certain governments. I mean. It’s just it’s a different form of currency and I think sensible governments should welcome it And sensible governments. I think do welcome it. I mean you know when when when America confiscated some bitcoins from somebody and You know they they immediately cashed them in and took the cash they didn’t confiscate them and and destroy them So I think you know I think I think these currencies have now generally been accepted by governments They probably should have held on to the bitcoins and not and not sold them so quickly that probably made with a lot more in The same way that Gordon Brown when he sold Britain’s gold should have held on to that as well so Yeah, I think but you’re right the American government lost a lot of money by cashing it in and not holding on to it So you spoke earlier about entrepreneurship, and you spoken if earlier about giving people loans? Maybe the best start to start entrepreneurships now no doubt you’re familiar with the ico mechanism or the crowd funding mechanism for for raising capital Do you not think that’s maybe a better way of raising capital than? Asking for loans or asking governments to create loans you’ve opened yourself up to a whole world of potential investors through issuing tokens on your business Yeah, I think it’s an it’s an excellent idea an excellent way of people getting loans if they can You know persuade boosts why the crowd to invest in whatever they’re doing and And I think should be encouraged and obviously yeah people who put money into these things have to accept that they may lose it as well as you know makes the money, but You know, but I think you know I think I think it’s already really good a really good way forward Are you investing in any other cryptocurrencies as a group or any other blockchain related ventures? The thing with virgin is it’s involved in so many different businesses not quite sure what everybody’s doing these days But but all I can say within the big picture of things is I’m a great believer in blockchain and and And actually Bitcoin, and you know I think there are absolute geniuses behind These you know these products and I wish the real guy that you know invented Bitcoin would step forward, and you know be interviewed.I mean or anyway, I would urge him when it well in his deathbed to at least leave behind a book about how his brain works because He’s an absolute genius and well now that I’ve interviewed Richard Branson. I mean if it only makes sense that he comes next because wherever you are whoever you are come along and be interviewed but Yeah, it’s just it’s just mind-boggling what he achieved and when did you discover Bitcoin? When was the first time you heard about it? And I’m very lucky because I live on an island in the Caribbean and I and some of the most interesting people in the world Come and visit and they teach me And so it’s almost definitely Propping up the bar on Necker Island that I first discovered Bitcoin Makiura hedge fund manager turned into crypto man. Tell me how that happened when I was at fortress one of my partners called me and asked me to look into this thing called Bitcoin and Having spent my life as a speculator really trading currencies and commodities and equity indices.I I quickly looked and and Figured you know what this is an amazing technology that there were a lot of anarchists and anti-government people libertarians that it was going to appeal to originally and That the Chinese were starting to buy it and so it was literally just those simple three ideas That I said hey this thing is gonna go higher And so when we first bought it back in 2013 Was trading around 103 or $95 we bought Bitcoin, and it was a little bit of a lark I said we’ll buy it we think it’ll go up. We think it’s pretty interesting and I quickly called a friend who was unemployed at the time or underemployed I should say and Asked him to look into it in two weeks later He called me back, and he said this is gonna change the world and so because of his enthusiasm We bought more. It was still roughly a hundred dollars and started digging in and You know like a lot of things in life once you start making money at something you start looking closer at more closely at at looking deeper into it and and To be fair it was a very exciting time went right from a hundred to a thousand And I said that was said it’s gonna go back down And they kind of drifted back down And kind of went dead for two years you remember You know up until fifteen Bitcoin it kind of sideways the theory mining is started and it was a little bit of just good luck that I left fortress or I Sometimes like to say fortress left me I met a guy one of my college roommates was one of the founders of aetherium I went over to his office I was allowed by the energy in it and so I plunged myself Full bore into it ever since Michael.You’re a Bitcoin man, or a Bitcoin cash, man. I’m a Bitcoin man coin literally has the mantra and the Use case of storoe value and right now People are buying this as an alternative to gold as a starting point you think about each of these coins As its own decentralized ecosystem with the sentient decentralized use case The Bitcoin use cases store a value or money I don’t think Bitcoin will be used as money anytime real soon in developing the developed world a lipe works really good in China Apple pay and other payment systems work fine demo here in the US but as a store of value where This unbelievable networking effect is taking place I think it’s gonna be very powerful so Mike you did a talk at the ethereal conference in San Francisco And you spoke about the fact that the herd is coming in other words I think what you mean to say was it the institutions and all the money is gonna start flowing into crypto What gives you that idea? We’re somewhat uniquely positioned in between a 25 year institutional career and this really dynamic young Exciting crypto community and so here at galaxy That’s what we’re trying to position ourselves at I know a lot of people in the big institutions.I mean this week I was at one of the biggest banks in the world and I spoke to their 15 most senior people Giving them a tutorial on on crypto and Bitcoin They’re all looking at how they get involved just last night Square Which is one of the big payment systems here in the US and globally? Announced that they’re gonna allow people to buy and sell Bitcoin on the square platform, which is a monster deal? And so I think you’re gonna see PayPal and venmo follow and as more more institutions make access to the crypto ecosystem easier You know the the viral effects continue to happen So today we hit a new all-time high of two hundred and twenty billion dollars in crypto if I were to ask you to speculate Because you’re a speculator at heart Speculate from you on the number at the end of 2018 You know 800 billion a trillion so you think there’s still 5x in the the crypto market between on in AI have a More than 20% of my net worth invested in crypto across various assets B.We’re building out What we hope to be you know one of the largest institutional merchant banks in the space We’re doing a hedge fund That’s gonna trade the liquid part of it an advisory business and ICO business a venture business a hard money lending business And so we literally are hiring two to three people a week right now Taking a real bet that the market cap goes up And I told the guys on the team I said listen if in two years the market cap is here or lower We’re gonna look foolish, and if the market cap is a trillion or two trillion or five trillion.We’re gonna look really smart Remember in 1999 the Nasdaq market cap got to six trillion before we had a correction The battle between Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin and have no doubt. It’s a huge battle if you post something on Twitter That’s for Bitcoin cash boy-oh-boy will those Bitcoin guys come and get you so vortex Why do you guys feel that it’s a battle between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash, what’s the drive? Yeah? It’s kind of crazy, right? It’s really interesting You know a lot of people are actually calling big Bitcoin cash and attack and you know there are reasons for that while it may Not have been created as an attack of course It would definitely was like a tool used as an attack against Bitcoin And there is you know a number of reasons for that right they seem to have taken the name the logo the website They’ve taken some of the hash power away and no It’s really interesting even if Peter are risen right the chief scientist That was a Bitcoin unlimited presumably Bitcoin cash That says one of their main objectives was to take cash power away from Bitcoin to drive off the network congestion So it’s uh Yeah, it’s a bit of a battle out there But I don’t understand something and maybe you can give me clarity once and for all So if you look at blockchain blockchain gives you the option to follow a chain until you’re not so happy with what the chain is doing and then what you do is you split the chain and you take your Supporters with you, but in the process nobody actually loses because we all got one for one Bitcoin cash for our Bitcoin So shouldn’t you? Bitcoin cash to succeed because then you’ll have a Bitcoin that’s valued at seven thousand US dollars today And then you’ll have a Bitcoin cash that’s valued at one thousand three hundred dollars Which is a lot better off than where you were a week ago? Sure, right And so I definitely encourage people who don’t want to gamble right people who don’t want the least amount of risk to just keep all The forks right we want to just keep them all and so that that definitely is an interesting dynamic for for investors to be able to say that they’re going to have Crypto dividends right coming coming to them so that is a definitely an interesting prospect However like I say Vic When cash is a tool right and so Bitcoin cash are was used as a weapon of attack against Bitcoin? for a little while there again trying to steal the hash power away trying to steal the name the logo and the brand and I’m all for innovation I love innovation I hope that everybody creates a bunch of forks right and who doesn’t love free money But the problem of course is when the fork is not friendly right when it is used to attack the original chain And that’s where things are I start having problems stop.Why do you say the fork was not friendly? I don’t get it Just just explain to me the non friendly part of the fork, so just briefly um Essentially what was happening here is that they installed something called an EDA Which is that which allow us the the actual? Difficulty adjustment of the the chain itself to to to very and what happens was they essentially gained it so then it would be more profitable Will so they pump the price right in addition to this they pump the price to make the miners come over to the Bitcoin cash chain to incentivize them to do that because the miners will just go wherever is most profitable and So in that regard they actually ended up taking around thirty percent of the hash power from Bitcoin while simultaneously running a really huge internet wide social media defamation campaign against Bitcoin That you’re using a lot of terms yet, so first of all if you look at the first part of your statement That’s competition my friend.You know as a business you God, and you recruit suppliers Which are the miners and you do that by giving them high incentives to join your network which is by giving them more Bitcoin cash? What’s wrong with it? But you don’t go and take their name in their logo and their website and then run huge defamation campaigns against them, right Okay, now. I’m gonna talk to you about defamation okay How do you feel that the Bitcoin cash guys have defined Bitcoin the biggest thing really is the the social media campaign? That’s kind of going around internet the internet and Twitter slack Telegram I’m seeing reports of pretty much every single social media platform at this point being used by various paid individuals to actually Try to convince people that Bitcoin cash is the only Bitcoin is the original Bitcoin and that of course is? You got Bitcoin Bitcoin has the name Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash has a different name Bitcoin cash It’s like Lara and Lara Lee you know it’s like a different name I mean, I mean it just sounds ludicrous, but what’s it? You don’t have much more time.I want to ask you another question What’s wrong with eight megabyte blocks? Why not let’s let’s let’s scale Bitcoin Let’s have eight megabyte blocks And then you know what we can do we can put lightning or off chain solutions on to eight megabyte blocks And then we can really have this monster What’s wrong with it and there has been a? Large amount of research done on larger blocks and basically what the research comes out to is that when we go over four megabytes size We start to see nodes Drop off across the world due to bandwidth issues due to latency issues so that the blocks can’t actually propagate fast enough across the planet And what this does is it ends up further? Centralizing the currency and that’s the whole point of Bitcoin right as a decentralized censorship resistant money that is not in control of any government or corporation and so when you start taking away the chipping away at those properties it starts to the Original audience here that there really wants the censorship resistant money starts Starts attacking you and so really that’s the biggest thing is that these these blocks.There’s no actual proof that Increasing the block size is actually good for the Bitcoin or even safe and so there are much more Better ways much more clever and better ways to optimize that we want to do instead of a big heavy-handed approach by only Sticking only changing one number in a hard fork if we’re gonna do a hard fork We are going to do some amazing things We want to put all sorts of stuff in there and not just increase a number be honest with me my friend Are you still holding the Bitcoin cash that you got when when when the folks split? But be honest no now. I’ll be honest with you ran absolutely no.I am remember I really believe that crypto that I really believe in speech I believe that money is speech and I believe that crypto is free speech and so you really have to execute on your beliefs you Have to take a stand and really uh you know Otherwise you’re just gonna be on the sidelines and for me Taking a stand was selling my be cash as soon as I humanly possibly could The battle between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash we heard the Bitcoin side of the of the coin And now I’ve got someone who’s wearing a bit, bch. Please shirt. I can see trouble happening Roger Jake Thanks for joining us all the way from Tokyo nice shirt So the Bitcoin clan say that Bitcoin cash has hijacked Bitcoin by using the name how do you respond to it? I don’t think anyone owns the name dick winch it’s a free market process And I think the coin cash is just as much a claim To being Bitcoin as outlining Satoshi nakamoto’s white paper as Bitcoin core does what’s the big issue with increasing block sizes? I have no idea really it’s quite baffling.I think ultimately it comes down to control over the protocol Soon some more of the reasons might sound more tinfoil hat territory People talk about block stream and their sidechain products so explain to me What happened this weekend the price of Bitcoin cash went from? $600 before the weekend to the high of somewhere around two thousand seven hundred dollars and then came back down to one thousand two hundred Dollars and that happened in about 48 hours. It was money heading for the exits out of Bitcoin For the first couple months that Bitcoin cash existed you could see There wasn’t much of a correlation between the two prices They kind of tracked each other right, but this past weekend you saw that money was bleeding out of BTC Directly in the Bitcoin cash.They were inversely correlated I think people were panicking they were realizing the problems the Bitcoin chain is facing and Bitcoin cash is looking like a good safe alternative right now So I agree with you about the process being inversely proportional on the weekend But if I look now the Bitcoin cash price is stable at around $1,300 and the Bitcoin price is back up over $7,000 Don’t we all win because I’ve still got my Bitcoin enough to love my pet corn cash So don’t we all win when this happens? Yeah? That’s great? It doesn’t have to be a perpetual battle between the Bitcoin core folks and the Bitcoin cash folks so the Bitcoin guys who on the show a bit earlier said that you guys are cursing miners by giving miners an Unfair or a very high reward for mining your product, and then it’s artificial. How do you respond? There’s nothing unfair about it? We actually do pay higher than the base block reward But all of that money comes from the insanely high transaction fees that the users are paying So really it’s the users. Who are unfairly subsidizing the miners and Actually as a mining pool.We keep some portion of the mining fees for ourselves We make profit. We’re not paying people off. We’re running a business Okay, last question for you my friend like the the claims that the Bitcoin guys have against the Bitcoin cash guys is that Bitcoin cash? Is actually centralized they claim that you have a CEO and that you’re not in the true spirit of blockchain or Bitcoin a truly? Decentralized organization the two systems are virtually identical I mean if Bitcoin cash worked from the same codebase as Bitcoin did As for the CEO claim, I don’t know if you read Rick balcony’s documents, but it was total satire and a lot of the people Bashing it very obviously did not read it If they say it’s centralized I would like to see them point out by what metric they’re saying that Okay, you know what I’m gonna. Do I’m gonna buy a set of boxing gloves, and I’m gonna invite you into the studio And I’m gonna have a Bitcoin guy here, and I’m gonna have a Bitcoin cash guy here And I’m gonna let you guys box it out in the studio in the coming future Jake Thanks for joining me look forward to seeing you again soon my friend that’s all we have time for here today a big round of applause to our in-studio guests from the johannesburg chapter of the young presidents organization I Hope I’ve been able to answer all your crypto related questions if you do have crypto related questions No matter where you are in the world You can get me on twitter at crypto Mandarin, and I’ll be available to answer all your crypto related questions You can also follow my Twitter for live feeds from trade conferences blockchain events around the world until next week my friends trade Crypto trader is proudly brought to you by element the full-service investment bank for the digital token capital markets

MMMMM. A GOOD BOOK 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND. Good plot. Good characters. Keeps you guessing for the grand most of it. There were parts I think could have been improved (I wish the Belsnickles had more of a relationship- Makwa and Wipi and Nipi seemed close enough, but none of them were really developed at all, just sort of filled out the flock. I found it a little disappointing that after 100 years with them Vernon had no real attachment, even denied, to them, or even to Isabel. Only 50 years with her, but you’d think even if there were irreconcilable differences between him and the Shawnee Squad, the two of them would have at least had a tight bond, but all of them felt. Really disconnected, which I think was a shame and a waste. Also we literally never followed up on that scrap of a thread re: Jesse’s blood ties to Loki. Which I mean. Loki was the knock-up god, coulda given Zeus a run for his money in regards to bastard children, but even a throwaway line about it I think could’ve wrapped up that dangling thread.), but for the most part it was a good, strong, solid book and I genuinely enjoyed it. I loved all the characters, I genuinely worried for them, and more than once found myself reading far beyond the time or pages I allotted for myself- this is the first book I’ve felt compelled to keep reading off the bus in a long while.

I’m just. I’m so endeared and the epilogue got me good. It got me real good.

Happy WBW! It feels like I haven't done this in a while so here's some questions:

What are popular drinks in your world? (Could be either alcoholic or soft drinks).

What is a common form of entertainment in your world?

What is the most interesting weapon you've made up?

Lol I am answering this sooooo late. I am so sorry my friend. But Happy Long Belated WBW all the same<3

What is a common form of entertainment in your world?

In WIPI there is a boardgame called "Coat of Arms" which is like four-way chess meets DnD. There are four sides, the object of the game is conquer the other three. Temporary alliances and secret alliances ensue. Each side is given stats for terrain, resources, population etc. and there are a series of accepted commands that can be strung together on each players turn. There are different versions of the game. Some are medieval siege warfare. Some have canons. Some have dragons. Some use spaceships and nukes. Games can last months and cheating is expected.

What is the most interesting weapon you've made up?

Not a weapon but a shield. A necklace with a pendant that projects an electromagnetic forcefield dome around the wearer's body. When something travelling above a certain speed hits the dome it will immediately disintegrate. It is meant to defend against bullets, the force of explosions, and flying shrapnel. It does not have any effect against slower attacks like darts, throwing knives, people throwing bricks, and good old fashioned punches. This is to stop the shield from disintegrating random objects the wearer will come into contact with like chairs, the floor, and other people. These shields are expensive to make so they are mostly worn by military officers and nobility to protect them from snipers. This is used in WIPIII.

What are popular drinks in your world?

I put this under the cut because 1. this answer is long enough, 2. Content Warning for dismemberment (due to hypothermia) and because the drink is kinda gross.

This comes from a paracosm (elaborate daydream) of mine which I like to mine for WIPI and WIPIII content - I don't know which WIP it will end up in, maybe both. Also, it's not really a common drink, just a weird one.

Moonshine cocktails with sterilized human body parts (toes, fingers, teeth) in them for decoration.

What the heck, Kate??

I know, I know. Some context:

The Empire of Segraeli was in the midst of a succession crisis and peace-talks between the two sides were being hosted by their long-time ally, Oshuada. Unfortunately things started getting tense and it looked like the conflict was about to boil over and become an international war. To ease the tensions, Lyrira, the Empress of Oshuada (who is about 20 years old but has been empress for ten years by now), decides the throw the most hedonistic, scandal-inducing Halloween party in history. She invites all the diplomats and political figures in attendance for the peace talks (representing eight major empires), and her hope is that they will either be distracted by the excitement of the ball, or so outraged that they will forget their initial anger long enough to calm down so the peace-talks can resume. It works.

All the body parts were sourced ethically (believe it or not) from a bar in the remote part of the empire. The story goes that a hiker who frequented the bar lost his toe to hypothermia. As a joke, he got the toe sterilized and stuck it in his shot glass the next time he went to the bar. Somehow the tradition caught on, the hiker donated his toe to the bar, and drinking the toe-shot became an initiation ritual at the bar. Soon, more and more people were donating their amputated body parts and the bar became locally famous for the weird tradition. (and when a messenger from the Empress shows up one day and asks to borrow your body part collection (for generous compensation) you don't exactly say no.)

This is based off a real bar in Yukon, Canada by the way.

Thumbprint Tag

Rules: look back on your work, both past and present, finished and unfinished. What are five to ten narrative elements or tropes that continuously pop up in your work? Give a list of these things!

@on-noon don't mind if I jump on your open tag. I can get soooooo weirdly specific with this...

Oh yes, and I am going to carry on the open tag. Anyone that wants to join may.

Read More because oddly specific requires lots of words--

A female character from a very disadvantaged background (see political prisoner, indentured servant, peasant, enslaved person, poor etc.) who has an unlikely meet cute with someone (male) who turns out to be extremely privileged (see royalty, crazy rich etc.). They become friends. One day she has a really rough day, ends up sick, and he takes care of her (like makes her meals, rubs her shoulders, holds her hair when she throws up etc.). They don't end up dating until a while after this happens. If I had a nickel for every time this shows up in a story I'd have dollars by now.

Two or three female characters that my straight-ass spends years trying to ship with every palatable male character in the story to see if I can make them date. After years without success I finally realize that these characters are lesbians and they were made for each other. When their story arcs get finalized into canon they have an epic friends-to-lovers slow burn romance.

A main female character that, in hindsight, should have been my clue that I had ADHD. Re: talks too fast, says the most random shit, won't shut up, sits weirdly in chairs, really good in a crisis, always waving her hands when she talks, sensory issues galore, no eye contact, last minute queen, always has a song stuck in her head, can list 50 digits of pi but can't remember why the fuck she just walked into that room, and most importantly, me saying about this character, "I feel so relaxed when I write/daydream about her. It's like a release. Like, I can finally be myself and do all the things people think are annoying, but everyone in her life thinks she's funny and likes her energy." Like, you might as well have written MASKING ADHD directly across my forehead.

A monarchy that becomes a republic by the end of the story because I want to write about attractive princes and badass queens/empresses but I am also an anti-monarchist...

A character who was based off an irl friend that lost relevance in the story and got written out, only for me to eventually drift away from that friend or discover that they weren't the friend I thought they were.

Long rants about whatever topic I am learning about in uni at that time (assigned to a particular character for plot reasons). This week's rant was on Populism...

A couple that I decided could never be a couple because the power imbalance and political nonsense was too problematic, who ended up becoming a couple anyways because I have no self-control and them being together was just so *feels*. When all is finalized into canon, these couples get a glorious enemies-to-lovers slow burn that lasts several years and plenty of denial (in homage to my own feelings on the subject).

That moment when a character takes off their disguise and reveals that they are, in fact, a princess, goddess, secret agent etc. in order to save someone's life.

Idk what some of these say about me. idk if I want to know...

Happy WBW! It's after midnight and my baby won't go to sleep. Please tell me whether you've ever invented a language for a story. Would you like to?

Happy WBW my ancient moot! imagine having a child

Yes, I have invented several languages for two of my paracosms that I frog for novel WIPs.

One language, currently called Imaeri'i (though I might change that name when I frog it for WIPI), has a grammatical structure where the most important nouns are spoken first and every other word follows in descending order of significance. Words are also conjugated based of relationships of possession or superiority. You would never say, "the princess bowed to the queen," for example. It would always be something like, "the queen's, the princess's bow." Another cool feature of this language is that the writing system is diagonal. Each line starts in the bottom left corner and ends at the top right. Oh, and pauses are phonemes, and certain phonemes are modified to become more guttural when the speaker wants to use more unpleasant language. This language's difference between oh no, oh crud, oh crap, oh shit, and oh fuck, is just saying a'he at different levels of gutturalness. You can turn pretty much any word into an insult this way. For example, soro means commoner (neutral) but tz'ghro means commoner (derogatory), and wan means prosperity but ghw'n means greed. It's almost like a form of sarcasm.

Happy blorbo blursday (hopefully I got the right day)

Speaking of days, what's your blorbo's favourite holiday?

happy belated blorbo blursday to you too! (Blursday is technically thursday but I am pretty sure I sent you an ask at like 10pm last night and I am in the world's latest time zone, literally. What is time but a construct invented to sell clocks?)

The Kingdom of Osireth has a tradition of celebrating the first snowfall of every year with city-wide snowball fights. Ami and Iliri are both princesses (and later queens) of Oshireth, albeit more than 1000 years apart, and yes, they participate in the city-wide snowball fights (which get very competitive and often involve snow-forts, snow catapults, and other siege weapons).

do you have any tiny details about how your characters choose to accessorize?

hi anon, thanks for the ask!!

I. must. not. discuss. WIPVII. (even though I could answer this so easily. ahhhhh it's soooo hard! I literally have concept art for all the major characters, just to get their clothing right.)

Now, which other WIP could I actually answer this for... OH! Wait! I could answer this for Ami (WIPI... sort of).

Her gowns are extremely detailed, full of pearls, floral embroidery, and fringe, and her hair is often in elaborate braids. Amerinda is the OC I have drawn significantly more than any other and mostly in the margins of my class notes, so I have spent a lot of time on each of those doodles. They are full of little intricate details and fancy necklaces because drawing the same tiny circles over and over is calming for me.

Ami also has a signature amulet, a red-orange stone (called a fire diamond in this world because it omits its own light) half the size of her palm set into a chunky gold-chain necklace. It was given to her by her betrothed (they became childhood best friends who fell in love when they were teenagers) for her 13th birthday and was enchanted to always protect the intended wearer. Several months later, there was an assassination attempt on Ami's life. The arrow aimed at her chest hit the gemstone and did not pierce her skin.

In pretty much every drawing I have ever done of Ami she is wearing this necklace.

Happy STS! (i’m so late to this 😭😭)

Do you have a “favorite” WIP?

Which one of your characters is the most chaotic?

How do you get your story ideas?

BRUH it is 8:30pm on Saturday as I answer this. You are definitely not late.

Thanks for the ask!

My favourite WIP is WIPI. It is nowhere near the furthest along but between being the oldest WIP that I am still working on, the most ambitious of all my WIPs, the one that I think has the coolest worldbuilding and magic system, the one that I plan to shoehorn in a version of every single one of my favourite OCs, and the one that imagine as having the colour scheme of a barbie princess movie... yeah, it's my favourite.

My most chaotic character is Alex. She has a perfect memory, can redirect bullets and electricity through her body, and was trained to be a living weapon by a secret government child-spy program. She once commanded a secret spy base beneath the POW camp she was supposed to be imprisoned in (Hogan's Heroes style) and she convinced every single world government that aliens were invading for an April Fool's prank. And that's not even the half of it. She also blurts out the most random things, always has a song stuck in her head, talks way too fast and too much, forgets words constantly despite having a perfect memory, and never sits properly in chairs. She was a self-insert I created when I was 12 and... in hindsight... I should have realized I had ADHD a lot sooner.

As for how I get my story ideas... no idea? One day I just kinda have a thought. Then I go oh! that's cool! and then the thought keeps going. I just keep adding more stuff to make it cooler.

Happy WBW!

Which one of your worlds do you think has the highest crime rate?

What about the lowest crime rate?

What was the first world you ever created?

Happy WBW my friend!

For highest crime rate it honestly might be WIPVII. I mean the story takes place in an unruly woodland in the hills so full of crime no kingdom can conquer it.

For lowest crimes rates... hmmm. The thing is, I want to say WIPIII because the government surveillance is practically omniscient... but the entire plot of the story revolves around characters finding clever ways to revolt against the government anyways and eventually they succeed. So the crime rate is actually pretty high. For the rest of my WIPs, they either take place in our world or they are also about organized crime/overthrowing the government.

The first world I ever created? Do you mean of the ones I am still working on or like, ever. Because if we go back far enough, I was a child playing pretend and I don't think that counts. The first world that I think counts more as a WIP than playing pretend was WIPI sort of, though back the - before my standardized WIP naming system - I called it AoO. WIPI refers to the crazy ambitious version I am currently working on while WIPI sort of / AoO refers to the version I worked on between the ages of 8 and 13ish. The two versions are very different but I consider them the same project. WIPI is the result of AoO basically growing up with me.