Derek Zakari | Writing

Queer. Disabled. Actor. Writer. Director. Comedian.

[derekzakari]

Steter Week 2026: Bleeding Edge

Steter Week: Day 1 - Sunday

Genre: Synthwave

Vibes: futuristic dystopia, contract killers

Everyone said it was a dirty bomb. Afterward, the world split into the places people could still live and the ravaged cityscapes of the Burn Zones, where humans rarely survived and only some supernatural creatures could stay for long. Stiles and Peter make their living in what remains between them, crossing broken roads, scavenging the ruins, and taking contracts no one else can finish. The Nogitsune left Stiles changed, his mind carved into pathways that let him survive what this world asks of him and bury the worst of it somewhere cold and distant. Usually. Between jobs, he and Peter have built a life in the quiet moments: tending bruises, washing blood from each other’s skin, and caring for one another in a world with very little softness left. But some blood doesn’t wash away as easily as it should. And their next contract carries a name Stiles never expected to hear again.

Water sluiced off into the drain, dark red. Crimson, Stiles thought.

Stiles watched as it brightened into a cherry hue.

Minutes passed as he continued watching the water shift through various shades until it was bubblegum pink, the same color as Erica’s favorite gum.

The door opened, and feet entered his field of vision as the color kept shifting, turning lighter and lighter.

A bearded kiss feathered across his shoulders to his neck.

“You were exquisite,” Peter murmured. “The way your bat split open that woman’s skull—”

Stiles tilted his head to give Peter more room as he hummed.

“Just a thing of beauty,” Peter whispered against the shell of Stiles’s ear.

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[sicktember]

It’s time…

Sicktember 2026 Prompts:

1. Crash Out

2. Worried sick

3. Forced to care for a rival

4. Medical restraints

5. “Stop whining, you’re fine,” (They’re not fine)

6. Doctor visit

7. Sick on a date

8. “I can’t keep anything down,”

9. Sick in a snowstorm

10. “Stop getting out of bed!”

11. Wrapped in blankets

12. Sick in front of a partner for the first time

13. A usually shy pet begins to curl up to the sick character more

14. Infected wound

15. Rehab after a severe illness

16. Sick while camping

17. Caregiver burn out

18. Character gets spoiled by their caregiver

19. “I can’t afford to go to the doctor,”

20. Parenting while sick

21. Gaunt face

22. Carnival food poisoning

23. X-Ray

24. “My boss won’t let me take a sick day.”

25. Out of medicine

26. “I just want my parent (s),”

27. Work from home day

28. Dizzy

29. “You made the soup wrong!”

30. Mental health day

Alt Prompts:

1. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me!” (Loves being dotted on)

2. Pillow fort

3. “I’m bored.” “You wouldn’t be bored if you took a damn nap,”

4. Flowers

5. Tucked into bed

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 12 - Where We Fit

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Jackson, Isaac & Stiles are Brothers

The car ride home was quiet. Just a deep, heavy quiet that meant the day had used each of them entirely.

Scott hovered by the TV, chewing his lip. “Muffins fixes everything,” he whispered to the room.

He clicked the remote.

A chime. Bright color. Cheerful voices.

Stiles screamed, bolted upright, scrambled off the couch, and ran. Fast as his legs would carry him. A kitchen cabinet banged shut.

Scott’s mouth fell open as he watched Stiles disappear.

Melissa reached the hall at a run, the Sheriff close behind her. Jackson came back in a few strides, water still running in the bathroom behind him where he’d started a bath for Stiles.

Scott spun around, already horrified. “I’m sorry!”

“What happened?” Melissa asked.

“I didn’t mean to! I thought Muffins would help!”

“Where is he?” Jackson asked.

The Sheriff glanced at Jackson and nodded. “Check the usual places.”

Read Chapter 12 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

The Littlest Argent: Chapter 12 - Saved In the Margins

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Stiles is an Argent

“This wasn’t a rescue. It was a rewrite,” Danny said quietly, but the silence after was louder.

Danny’s eyes lit up. “Even more interesting? All of this is doctored.”

“How can you tell?” the Sheriff said with skepticism, pointing at one of the reports.

Danny grinned proudly. “I found some of the original copies. Well, cached versions of what I think were the originals. Someone doctored the files, but forgot the shadow copies.”

The Sheriff squinted at the teen. “Do I want to know how?”

Danny chuckled. “Nope.” Then he composed himself. “Okay. You know when you delete a file, it’s not really gone? Anything created digitally also has a temporary, backup, or shadow file that we don’t knowingly make.”

Scott huffed. “I mean, yeah. Trash can icon, hit delete, poof. Gone.”

Danny gave him the most deadpan look imaginable. “That’s like throwing a file cabinet into a closet and calling it incinerated.”

Danny took a moment, then rephrased. “Okay. It’s like when you delete a photo on your phone, it stays in ‘Recently Deleted’ for 30 days. Computers do that too. Just… without the countdown. The files wait there. Hoping no one checks.”

Peter snorted. “And what? No one checked?”

Danny beamed. “That’s the thing. They did. They nuked every file.”

“Then how did you find it?” the Sheriff asked.

“Because they scrubbed the kitchen but forgot the crumbs in the couch. And I know where the couch is.” Danny leaned in, proud. When no one understood his metaphor he sighed and explained again. “I scanned the places where deleted stuff likes to hide. Like a ghost folder full of receipts you thought you shredded. Everything leaves a mark,” Danny muttered. “Even the stuff they think they deleted. Shadow copies. Residual junk. Probably created without their knowledge. And they were good. Someone knew what they were doing. Lucky for us, humans are fallible and stuff like this, you can actually learn more from what’s missing.”

The Sheriff nodded. “Okay. What’s missing?”

Read Chapter 12 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 11 - Untangling the Quiet

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Jackson, Isaac & Stiles are Brothers

Stiles’ hands twitched. His breath hitched. The choices were too many. The freedom was terrifying. Stiles’ voice was so small when he finally looked back at the blank paper. “I dunno how.” Morell smiled and adjusted quickly. “What if you draw me your old room? Show me what it looked like?” Direction. That worked.

Jackson sat on the therapy couch, arms folded tight across his chest.

Morell watched him calmly from the chair opposite.

“You’re seventeen,” she said. “And responsible for two boys.”

Jackson didn’t answer, just shrugged.

Morell watched him, calm, steady. “How did that start, Jackson? Did someone tell you that you had to do it… or did it happen organically, because you were all each other had?”

His eyes flicked to the box of crayons still sitting on the low table. The papers Stiles had drawn on were still there. They were filled with dark shapes and hard edges.

He looked back at Morell.

“Why don’t I get to draw?”

She smiled gently. “Do you want to?”

“No.”

She leaned back slightly. “Okay. But I can’t help if you don’t talk.”

Jackson shifted forward, arms uncrossing. He dropped his elbows to his knees and rubbed at his temple.

“I don’t know how to do any of this.”

Morell didn’t respond right away. She watched him carefully then asked, “Why don’t we start with the panic attack?”

Read Chapter 11 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

The Codex of Echoes and Flesh

The Record of Teeth and Shadows

A Teen Wolf Codex/Bestiary

The hunters kept bestiaries. In Beacon Hills, we keep a Codex. Written in fragments, family memory, and ink that does not always agree with itself. This Codex is meant to feel like something you're not supposed to have, half historical, half haunted. You are holding it now anyway.

A compilation of Hale oral tradition, tribal teachings, hunter archives, and druidic notes

[Neat hand in careful ink, faint at the margin: The old name was fine] [Sardonic ink beneath, heavier strokes: Teeth and shadows are what remains when flesh burns.] [Faint, uneven ink, as though bled through from no hand at all: A record of teeth and shadows, carried whether you name it or not] [Neat hand again, softer this time: Teeth and shadows it is, I guess] [Sardonic ink at the corner: a smiley face doodled with sharp fangs]

Preface I: Dr. Alan Deaton

“Knowledge is the first tether. Before you fear, before you fight, you must know what breathes beside you. Some walk in flesh, others only in memory, but all leave echoes. My family carried fragments of older ways across the ocean, enough to teach me reverence for balance. The Karuk taught me how to read the land and use what grows from it, mountain ash among them. From the Hales I learned their memory, from the hunters their distortions. This record is incomplete. Perhaps it always will be. Each page is only a fragment of a larger rhythm.” — Dr. Alan Deaton

Preface I Addendum #1: Dr. Alan Deaton

“The tiers are not hierarchies of power, but of presence. Tier I walks beside us, Tier II crosses thresholds, Tier III waits in myth or memory. They are only categories to remind us how close or far a thing might stand.” — Dr. Alan Deaton

[Blunt handwriting pressed hard into the page: Close or far makes no difference when it's trying to kill you] [Sardonic ink beneath: Or when you're trying to kill it.] [Neat hand in careful ink: Will you two stop treating this like a chalkboard? It's supposed to be a record!]

Preface I Addendum #2: Dr. Alan Deaton

“This remains both a record and a reminder: presence matters more than power, and memory more than argument.” — Dr. Alan Deaton

Preface II: Danny Mahealani

“Deaton says druids are intermediaries. That is not me. Where I come from, we would call it being a kilo, someone who watches, measures, and reads the signs. Back home it meant stars, weather, omens. Here it's servers, archives, ley lines, and wolves. Different tools, same role. Deaton saw it first, the Sheriff kept me out of the system, and now I keep the record. Someone has to.” — Danny

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

The Littlest Argent: Chapter 11 - The First Rhythm That Held Him

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Stiles is an Argent

The dream always started the same...

But it never lasted.

It frayed, softly at first. Quietly. Then sharply.

The forest darkened. The shadows grew fangs and claws. Trees leaned inward.

Branches split into windows that should never have been there, revealing an inferno pulsing behind the glass.

He turned to run back. To find the others. But they were gone.

Laughter. Footsteps. All vanished.

The air changed. It pressed against him now. It screamed something he couldn’t understand. Dense. Wrong. Alone.

That’s when he felt it.

Not a sound.

Not a shape.

Just the sudden sharp plummet of a heartbeat that goes unanswered.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

Each hit like a jolt through his bones, staggering him, making his breath catch.

Something inside cracked.

Deep. Quiet. Pain.

A hollowing. A silence that stretched. Then howled.

Read Chapter 11 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 10 - Starfish Dreams

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Jackson, Isaac & Stiles are Brothers

The house breathed. Isaac didn’t. He lingered, sitting at the table at a loss. When no one gave him a job, he turned to the room for direction. When it gave him none, he gave himself a job. He cleared plates. Ran hot water. Started washing. He’s not sure what prompted him to do that, but it felt like tidying up their old room. So he did it. It felt safe, normal, and something he knew how to do. The Sheriff returned and stopped, startled by Isaac. “You don’t have to do that.” Isaac nodded. “I know.” The Sheriff took up a towel, “How about you wash, I dry?”

Jackson blinked awake in the dark. He slowly extricated himself from Stiles and eased out of the bed. He really hadn’t meant to fall asleep and now the darkness through the window said it was late. Isaac wasn’t in their room, so Jackson padded to the living room looking for him.

Isaac was asleep on the couch, breath even, shoulders finally unwound and relaxed.

Jackson frowned at himself. He hadn’t meant to leave Isaac to his own devices.

He touched Isaac’s shoulder. “Hey. Bed.”

Isaac startled, then focused. “Wha—?”

“Go sleep in the room,” Jackson said.

“I’m okay,” Isaac protested quietly.

Jackson sighed and spoke through his yawn. “He wants you. Says I snore.”

Isaac’s mouth twitched, pleased in a way he did not say out loud. Jackson did snore. He pushed up on an elbow and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay.”

He padded down the hall and nudged the door open.

Stiles was starfished across the bed. Out. One arm flung high. Tail draped over the middle. He did not move.

Isaac stood there, the truth settling in. “You liar,” he whispered into the room, but without heat.

He turned to head back out, ready to swap, ready to insist.

A whimper from the bed stopped him.

Isaac relented. Stiles hated sleeping alone on his own cot in their old room. So, he slid under the edge of the blanket, careful of the starfish. The tail twitched, then hooked across his hip like a sleepy yes. Isaac was out a heartbeat later.

Read Chapter 10 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

The Littlest Argent: Chapter 10 - Mischief Managed

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Stiles is an Argent

Hours later, Derek was half-woken by a soft voice calling out into the dim glow of the television. “Mischief?” He blinked. Stiles was still out cold beside him, thumb pressed to his mouth. Claudia, Stiles’ mom, stood just inside the door. “Managed,” Derek whispered.

A phantom voice echoed in the back of his mind, high-pitched, delighted. A squeal of laughter chasing a name.

“Delek!”

That’s when the memory hit him, that tiny voice suddenly clearer than ever before.

“Delek!”

Derek had stretched out on his bed. He had heard the crunch of fabric as small hands tugged at the hanging edge of the bedspread. The insistent yank had reminded him of their old fat cat, Tiger, who used to scramble up the side of the bed, butt jiggling with determination as he barely made it over the edge. Another tug and a tiny grunt of frustration followed.

“’Elp!”

Derek smiled and leaned over the side to grab little Mieczysław under the arms and hoist him onto the bed. He was so small back then, more limbs that flailed about than coordination, and a face that lit up like a sparkler.

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[betsmusings]

As Pride Month comes to an end, I just want to remind you that July is Disability Pride Month and there's a flag and everything!

Charcoal Grey: Mourning for people who have died due to ableist violence, abuse, suicide, and illness

Red Stripe: Physical disabilities

Gold Stripe: Neurodiversity

Blue Stripe: Emotional and psychiatric disabilities

Green Stripe: Sensory disabilities

White Stripe: Undiagnosed and invisible disabilities

[justcallmedom31]

[derekzakari]

Accurate.

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 9 - Freedom's Cost

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Jackson, Isaac & Stiles are Brothers

Isaac turned to Derek and said quietly, “Let him go.” Boyd glanced to Derek, who nodded. Boyd’s arms released. Jackson sagged to the ground instantly, curling in on himself, hands in his hair. “I didn’t mean to—I didn’t—”

Jackson didn’t remember walking outside.

One second, he was with Isaac.

The next — air. Cold, sharp, biting wind.

His knees almost buckled as his feet stumbled down the few steps leading into the clinic. Breath hitching in fast, shallow gulps. Vision tunneled. The world spun.

Too loud. Too bright. Too much.

His chest caved in, and he pressed his hand to his chest, trying to remember how to breathe. Was he having a heart attack?

But he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see.

Couldn’t think past it, just this jagged, roaring edge where his mind was breaking open.

Read Chapter 9 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 8 - The Visit

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Jackson, Isaac & Stiles are Brothers

Stiles burst into the main room like a spark had been lit under him. He didn’t wait, didn’t ask permission. He just ran. “Izzy, Izzy, Izzy!” Isaac, upright and unhooked from the IV from last night, barely had time to register it before Stiles collided with him at full speed and there were arms around his waist. “Oof!”

Stiles hesitated. He eyed the door Deaton had walked through then Scott who was bouncing with excitement, his grin the brightest thing in the room. He turned back to Isaac who was smiling hopefully, then nodded, slow and cautious.

Isaac shifted him gently, keeping his arms snug as they walked toward the kennel area. Scott skipped ahead like this was a field trip.

“They’re not all puppies,” he explained breathlessly. “But I call them puppies because they’re dogs and I like the word puppy better than ‘adult rescue companions with minor trauma.’ That’s what Deaton calls them.”

Deaton rolled his eyes but stayed quiet letting Scott lead the way into the kennel area.

Once inside, Scott immediately started pointing at cages like a tour guide with far too much enthusiasm. “That one’s Teddy — he thinks he’s a cat. That one’s June — she always rolls over for tummy rubs. That one pees when she’s excited. That one bites—” his face swiveled back serious, “—don’t pet that one.”

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

The Littlest Argent: Chapter 9 - Not That Kind of Netflix and Chill

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Stiles is an Argent

Cora stepped back. “I’m Cora by the way.” Stiles lifted a brow. That was blunt. “Okay?” “But...you knew that already. Knew I wasn’t Laura,” she said, it wasn't a question, but a fact.

Cora growled. “So you do know about the fire.”

Stiles nodded. “I knew it happened. I researched this place a lot over the years.”

Cora made a note to ask about that when Stiles added, “There’s a lot of news stories about it online.”

Cora snorted. “Okay, then how about the fact that it killed the Sheriff’s wife and son.”

Stiles nodded. “Yeah, he told me.”

Cora seethed. “They were human, just like some of my family were…”

Stiles loudly interjected. “Then it wasn’t us.”

Cora blinked at Stiles, completely aghast. “Prove it.”

“I’m not doing homework for you.” Stiles laughed.

Cora snarled as she pressed her face into Stiles’ space. “I’m not asking you to.”

Stiles froze. He took a deep breath before he slowly stated, “We don’t kill humans.”

Cora snorted in disbelief. “Right.”

“We have a Code!” he snapped, fists clenched at his sides.

Cora scoffed. “You can’t be this stupid!”

Cora snatched the plate before it toppled over as Stiles stood and yelled back. “It’s all I have!”

Read Chapter 9 on AO3

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

I JUST WANNA READ A FIC I BOOKMARKED!

[derekzakari]

The Littlest Argent: Chapter 8 - Little Wolf

Teen Wolf | Alternate Universe | Stiles is an Argent

Peter turned to look out the door towards where the little Argent sat behind a locked door. “So, did the Argent’s send a wolf into the den? Or did a wolf find his way back?”

Isaac shook his head as he turned to Derek. “Because Zevik means Little Wolf.”

The Sheriff scowled at the curly haired teen. “What do you mean, Isaac?”

Isaac twirled on the Sheriff. “It’s Hebrew. Look…” Isaac grabbed a blank piece of paper and wrote across it as he explained. “Ze’ev means wolf,” he said, circling that part of the name. “And the ‘-ik’? It’s like… I don’t know, when you make something sound smaller or cuter, like a nickname for a kid or something.” Isaac struggled to find the right words.

Lydia cut in, “Diminutive.”

Isaac blinked. “I don’t know what that means.”

Lydia sighed. “It’s a way to change a word using a suffix.” When Isaac continued to stare blankly at Lydia she rolled her eyes. “Like turning ‘dog’ into ‘doggy,’ or ‘John’ into ‘Johnny.’”

Isaac’s face lit up. “Yes! Exactly! Like how my aunt used to call me Izzykins.”

Peter snorted. “That explains so much.”

Isaac scowled. “You want to go, Grandpa?”

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]

[derekzakari]

Project STIL-E5: Chapter 7 - Pancake Manifesto

A minute later, the Sheriff returned. “No sign of him.” Jackson exhaled hard. “He does this. He’s good at hiding.” The Sheriff gave a tired, parental kind of smirk. “Oh, that’s going to be fun.”

The smell of food drifted down the hall like a rope pulling from the other end.

Jackson kept his voice low. “You smell that?”

Stiles didn’t answer, but his nose twitched.

“Scott says it’s food… pancakes,” Jackson murmured.

Scott nodded sagely from the floor. “It’s very food.”

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[operating on spite and goblin instincts. If you enjoyed this, you may leave an offering]