Hello this is my fic blog, because I don't want my irl people following me to know I try to write.
Header by Vanessa Kelley (vkelleyart), used with permission.
Hello! My AO3 is here and my S&C is here. I used to post on FF, but now I mainly post here and on AO3 (and S&C again, apparently!!). I have too many works to put them in this post, but here are the biggest ones, with the ones in italics being one chapter only:
Glee
Klaine
This Charming Man (15K, T, 2014)
These Walls Are Really Talkative (15K, T, 2015)
Anyway series (23K, G - T, 2016)
It’s about time (19K, G, 2017)
All the pretty things that we could be (70K, G, 2018 - 2019)
Myosotis series (112K, G - T, 2019 - 2020)
Mendacious (27K, T, 2021)
I’d cry a river just for you (30K, T, 2021)
Barking Up The Wrong Bakery (8.7K, T, 2022)
Ebb & Flow (29K, G, 2022)
aap noot mies (8.2K, G, 2022)
Ljubim te series (WIP, T, 2022 - ?)
So Much Better (12K, T, 2022)
The Class Menagerie (5K, T, 2023)
A beautiful day in the neighbourhood (6K, T, 2023)
Ever After (30K, T, 2024)
Brittana
I’m still alive and I’m still getting love (20K, G, 2017)
Gen
Dancin’ on that bamboo ceiling (series of standalone fics, G, 2023 - ?)
Check, Please!
Midnight confessions (15K, T, 2018)
Times are hard for dreamers (4.5K, G, 2018)
All shall know the wonder (12K, T, 2020)
The Zimbits Update series (21K, G - T, 2016 - 2022)
Center Ice (5.8K, T, 2023)
Simon Snow Series
The will (6.3K, G, 2018)
Mr. Grimm-Pitch and Mr. Snow, In The Library, With a Snog (2.8K, G, 2021)
Paradiso series (166K, T, 2021 - 2022)
The Naked Truth (15K, T, 2022)
Call Me Maybe (12K, T, 2022, written with aralias)
Time After Time (18K, T, 2022)
A Grimm Christmas (5.3K, G, 2022)
There’s nothing ironic about show choir (14K, T, 2022)
make a fire out of this flame (17K, T, 2023)
Just Some Guy (15K, T, 2024)
A Time and Place (3.5K, T, 2026)
Whoniverse
A rip in time (68K, G, 2017 - 2022)
The Sarah Jane Adventures Extended Universe (WIP, T, 2023 - ?)
Something so funny about rereading one's own unfinished fics. Like wow this is pretty good! Almost as if was written exactly according to what I personally like in fact! Someone should finish it!
it's literally the evilest thing in the world to finally have time to write but then be tired. like wow you're telling me these two hours before going to bed are completely free but my brain is just Not Feeling It? fuck off
I was going to plant them in my balcony planter, because I tried to grow lavender in there from an older pot, but I couldn't salvage it. OR COULD I? I was about to remove the remains of the lavender when I saw new plants have sprouted. So my myosotis will have to go elsewhere.
Summary: Five years after establishing the Exodan Cultural Education Collective, Eyas tells the Fleet who inspired her to do so.
Notes: I finished Record of a Spaceborn Few YESTERDAY and I was in tears and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. There is so much to say about this book, but one of the many passages that hit hard was how Isabel felt sad during Sawyer's funeral about how people talked about him. I imagine that Eyas shares the sentiment, and that she would like to set the record straight. That's this fic. Enjoy. And I am off reading the fourth book.
AO3
--
Feed source: Fleeting Fables - Your Update On What's Going On At The Fleet! (Public Entertainment Feed/Ensk)
Item name: Interview with Eyas Parata of the Exodan Cultural Education Collective
Host: Mimi Li
Encryption: 0
Translation path: 0
Transcription: [vid:text]
Node identifier: 2310-483-38, Isabel Itoh
--
Mimi Li: Welcome back to today's Prolific Exodans segment, where I, Mimi Li, interview Exodans about their work. Today I am joined by Eyas Parata, caretaker, and one of the creators of the ECEC, the Exodan Cultural Education Collective. Welcome M Parata, and thank you for being here.
Eyas Parata: Thank you for having me.
ML: Well, let's get straight into it. We are here to talk about the ECEC, which will soon celebrate its 5th standard as a collective. Congratulations.
EP: Thank you. We at the ECEC are very pleased.
ML: For the few unaware, the ECEC was created to promote the Fleet's customs to people coming to the Fleet. They offer workshops and other activities. The ECEC started out on the Asteria, but by now it's grown to every homesteader and it has even reached other parts of the Galactic Commons. M, could you tell us what inspired you to create the ECEC?
EP: Of course. Ever since the Humans became part of the GC, people have been leaving the Fleet to live planetside. This has not gone unnoticed. Over the past standards, many emigration resource centres that offered classes for Exodans who wished to live elsewhere in the GC popped up around the Fleet. But I also noticed that people came back. People were willing to take up Exodan professions and fill the empty homes in hexes. But we didn't accomodate them.
ML: Could you explain that part a bit more?
EP: [sigh] We've all heard about those "annoying young grounders or spacers" who come to the Fleet to reconnect with their lost heritage, right? Except they are very invasive and disrespectful of Exodan culture and ways.
ML: Oh yeah, I know what you mean. They come in, eat our food, live between our walls, and don't do anything for the rest of the Fleet. But you saw past that! Did you just wake up one day and realise that this wasn't fair?
EP: No. I did not. The thing that started all of this was the murder of Sawyer Gursky.
ML: [surprised] Really?
EP: By now some people may know that I was his caretaker, but what many do not know is that I actually met M Gursky before his death. He was walking around the Centre and when he spoke to me, it was clear what he was: an annoying young grounder who had no clue what I was doing. He even asked if I sold the compost!
ML: No!
EP: Yes. That's how ignorant he was of Exodan life. Except... he was different. He approached me because he wanted to help, even though he did not understand what I was doing. He wanted to learn. But no one taught him. He'd gone to find a job and declined sanitation work, because he didn't know how Exodans value sanitation work. Now, we spoke for five minutes, and I wasn't very kind to him. After all, he just asked me if I sold Human remains, which insulted my work. But I realised that he wanted to learn, so I told him why they gave him sanitation work, and what it meant to Exodan culture. I advised him to go back to the job office and ask for it. He was shocked, but so utterly thankful that I told him. He indeed went back and entered the sanitation lottery.
ML: He did?
EP: I only know because he sent a message to my scrib, to once again thank me for the advice. He said that after he did that, he met someone who offered a salvaging job, and he took it, since these people seemed to be the only other ones willing to show him how Exodan culture works. We all know how that worked out for him. The next time I saw him, he was dead and lying on my worktable. I asked to be his caretaker since I recognised him from the photos of the scene of the crime. He trusted me once, so I hoped he'd trust me with this as well.
ML: ... That's- Wow. I- Sawyer Gursky's death has been discussed at length many times, but I never- I didn't... know this.
EP: And that's what bothered me. After his death, Sawyer wasn't Sawyer anymore. He wasn't Human anymore. No, he was an argument. Once people found out he had been employed by an illegal salvage crew, the public opinion turned on him within a tenday. His death was no longer a tragedy. Some even said he deserved it. He was nothing more than an outsider trying to steal from us. People used him to argue for tighter immigration rules. Or they used him to confirm their beliefs about young annoying grounders. People had murdered him and thrown him out as if were scrap, but instead of sympathy, he got negativity. No one came for him. I remember the Archivist and I being lost during the lay-in, because no one came to mourn him except us and the Archivist's wife, until, luckily, the teen who told patrol about the crime came in. But we were all strangers. In fact, the Archivist told that boy that he was, at that moment, the closest to being M Gursky's friend.
ML: That's... Wow.
EP: [silent for a while]
ML: [waits respectfully]
EP: ... I never sent a message back to Sawyer. I read his when I received it, and I thought it was nice, but I had only spoken to the man for five minutes. So after I read it, it was out of sight, out of mind. I had never expected to hear from him again. Sometimes I still wonder if I had replied to him, if I had invited him into my life, if I had showed him Exodan life more, then he'd still be alive. But I didn't. No one did. And that led to people taking advantage of him. I know people put the blame on him for taking this job, but I don't think he even knew it was illegal, even when it didn't follow protocol. Because how could he know? He didn't know the protocol.
ML: [hums in understanding]
EP: After the funeral, that's what kept me up. We always scoff at outsiders. Exodans resources for Exodan problems, and only Exodans understand that! But people are leaving. Exodan culture is fading. This only made more conservative Exodans bog down on their distain for outsiders. And as a result, we dismiss the Humans who do want to come to the Fleet, who want to become Exodan, who want to learn our ways. But no one teaches them, so they fail, and then we can continue to scoff at the stupid outsiders who think they know better. They don't. They don't know anything. So I thought: "Let's teach them!"
ML: You wanted to help the other Sawyers out there.
EP: [nods] And they are out there. There is a reason we have existed for five standards. Others want to learn Ensk, want to learn Exodan work, want to come here. That's what Sawyer Gursky made me realise.
ML: Your work has gotten a lot of praise, but there are still Exodans who don't approve. They believe that only true Exodans should live on the Fleet. Immigrants, from Humans, either with Exodan ancestry or not, to other sapient species should not be part of the Fleet.
EP: I know. And I also know I won't change their minds. People may see this segment and say, "Hey, yes, but Sawyer Gursky still did a wrong thing!" and that is true. I know I am basing this entire story about Sawyer on a five minute conversation, a scrib message, and the testimonies of the people who killed him. Maybe Sawyer Gursky truly was an outside grifter. But we will never know, because the only one who could tell us got killed, probably because he didn't know better, and that is wrong. And again, reality has shown us that even if Sawyer wasn't honest, others are. Ever since the ECEC has started giving workshops, more and more people in the GC have considered the Fleet as a possible home. That also makes me believe even more that Sawyer was honest, because others have shown that our perception of grounders was wrong.
ML: And in turn, it has also shown others in the GC that they were wrong too. Our culture is not backwards or stupid. Our ways have merit and deserve respect. Other species have started to understand us too.
EP: True. One of my first students was an Aeluon trader who wanted to respect Exodans, since Exodans have made efforts to make xyr comfortable. Xe wanted to do the same.
ML: Yes, my collegue from the GC Showcase segment recently interviewed a Quelin who changed xyr views after attending one of the workshops at Port Coriol. A Quelin. A Quelin! Never thought I'd see the day. When my parents watched the segment, they nearly shat themselves- Or- Uh, I mean... er.. sorry, mom, dad... for saying... that.
EP: [laughs] Let's just say that they were shocked.
ML: They were shocked!
EP: I may be biased, but I think the work that ECEC does benefits everyone in the GC.
ML: Oh, I agree, M! I have read the testimonies of people who have attended your workshops, and it's touching to hear how people say they finally found a place where they belong, or how people met their spouses at the ECEC, or how even younger Exodans appreciate and value their culture more.
EP: Yes, even Exodans born and raised on the Fleet are welcome as students or, of course, as volunteers. We are always looking for passionate Exodans who want to help newcomers find their footing. We recently had a trip to the Asteria Archives where M Itoh, the head Archivist, gave a tour.
ML: People just... want to try something new.
EP: [stays silent]
ML: [waits patiently]
EP: [still silent, looking wistful]
ML: Uhm, M Parata?
EP: S-Sorry. Yeah. You're right.
ML: Did I say something wrong?
EP: No, no! It's just- That's what Sawyer Gursky told me as well at the Centre. He wanted to try something new. And even now, five standards later, whenever a student tells me that's why they joined our classes... I can't really explain it.
ML: You don't have to. I think I get it.
EP: I wish he had succeeded, but we cannot reverse time. All I can wish for now is that no one follows the road he unwittingly took. That's what the ECEC is for. For everyone who wants to try something new... to be given the option to do so.
ML: That's- That's a beautiful way to put it. M Parata, I wish I could ask you more, but our time is up. Thank you so, so much for coming in to talk about your work.
EP: It was a pleasure.
ML: Yes. Yes it was. The Exodan Cultural Exchange Collective will publicly celebrate its 5th anniversary in seven tendays at the technical school at the Central Plaza. Entrance is free and everyone is welcome. Other smaller celebrations are also being held at ECEC facilities all throughout the GC. Please check the Public Events feeds on your scrib for more information. If you are still debating whether or not you should go, then think about trying something new.
EP: [a surprised smile appears on her face]
ML: This was today's Prolific Exodans segment, where I, Mimi Li, interview Exodans about their work. Thank you for watching and till next time!
Continuing my streak of posting every Wednesday this month (by which I mean not really writing all week and then scrambling to get a scene into a google doc on Wednesday evenings). Here's more All's Fair:
As one of the students was brushing past them, he paused and looked at Kurt. “Oh my god, that brooch is incredible,” he said, looking at Kurt’s lapel. “Where did you get that?”
Kurt smiled, pleasantly surprised. “Thank you!” he said, reaching up to touch the hippo head he’d added as a personal touch to his otherwise standard uniform. “I found it at a flea market last year, along with an incredible vintage jacket. It was coming apart at the seams so I got it for cheap and fixed it up so it looked like new.”
Kurt worried for a moment that he was rambling to this stranger, but the boy’s narrow face seemed alight with interest. “That’s amazing,” he said. “Have you ever thought about joining the Dalton Drama Club? I’m VP, and we’d love a talented costumer like yourself on our team.”
Kurt’s cheeks warmed. “I would love to, honestly - I’m just already so busy with coursework and the Warblers. Maybe next year, though.”
“You totally should,” the boy insisted. “I’m Devin, by the way. Let me give you my number - if you have any questions or want to talk about it over the summer just hit me up.”
Kurt happily introduced himself and exchanged numbers with Devin before saying goodbye. They’d nearly reached the register by then, and Sebastian pulled out a $20 bill to pay for both of their snacks.
“Thanks,” Kurt said to him as they walked out.
“Whatever,” Sebastian muttered. Once they’d gotten back in his car, Sebastian turned to him and said, “no one’s going to believe we’re dating if you openly fawn over other guys like that.”
Kurt scoffed. “I was not fawning, I was just being nice. Figures that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Sebastian shook his head. “He was laying it on thick and you were into it.”
I am trying to have an attitude about this story that extant is better than perfect. I could spend ages quibbling over phrasing and pacing and characterization, and maybe that would make a "better" fic...but it also lessens the possibility that I'll actually get the whole thing on paper, instead of it being a series of vague ideas in my head. So, will this be my best writing ever? No. But I'm hoping to stay motivated to at least do the writing and complete this story even if it doesn't live up to my highest hopes.
It's not Sunday, but I did make this bespoke banner for a reason. Thank you @artsyunderstudy and @confusedbiqueer for the tags.
I am still on my Persona bullshit, although I haven't written much since I am still playing Pokopia.
Anyway, the middle sentence will not make the final cut, for obvious reasons:
“… How did you become a Wild Card? I thought Yaldabaoth only bestowed it to me and Akechi, and his Wild Card abilities are intentionally faulty.”
“None of these words are in the Bible.”
“What.”
As another Tumblr proverb says, "He wouldn't fucking say that", but this is truly how I keep thinking about this specific scene. It just shows how the Tumblr lexicon seeps into everything I do. Although, funnily enough, Yaldaboath MAY be in the Bible, but my lack of theological knowledge of early Judaism and Christianity prevents me from saying this for sure.
Anyway, here's the actual dialogue:
“… How did you become a Wild Card? I thought Yaldabaoth only bestowed it to me and Akechi, and his Wild Card abilities are intentionally faulty.”
“None of what you just said means anything to me.”
Ren’s explanation doesn’t help much. It is all so different from Makoto’s experiences with S.E.E.S and the Dark Hour.
Thank you so much everyone who tagged me this morning, I love seeing things so active and so of course I want to join in. The problem is that everything I have for Monsters is so context dependent and spoilery, so I don't know how much fun it is to read. But I got a lot of comments on this portion of my draft from betas that these descriptions were pretty. I think I may have been born to write about the woods.
Here is far more than six sentences.
The journey here was strange—there’s no other word for it.
He’d done as Blue told him and taken the western fork of the river. An otherworldly green moss blanketed the trees along the steady stream. Spotted mushrooms capped in gold and red peppered the shore. Where the deep wood had been steeped in shadow, the winding path along the water’s edge was bright in spite of the thickness of the canopy. The sun spilled through semi-transparent leaves, highlighting every vein. Even when the sky split open and began to storm, it only served to make the landscape shimmer, like iridescent minerals in the stone.
The thunder roared louder than anything in Simon’s head or heart, and somehow he found stillness.
As he’d laid at the foot of a sprawling oak, pillowed against moss-covered roots, Simon stared up at the space between trees. Rain pattered against the hood of his cloak and flickered white in the pale light of the wisps. And through it all, the grass below him stayed lush. The moss stayed green. Simon woke to the smell of petrichor and wildflower and with his heart, for the first time in years, a little less heavy.
Was this place too vast—too alive—for his rot to take hold?
He’d swallowed down the hope.
He spits it to the ground now, to where his cursed magick once more eats at the grass beneath his boots.
The arc for this final leg of older Simon's journey was so tricky because it's almost completely psychological. But I feel solid about where it's landed thanks to good feedback. So much of this story is about the consequence of unprocessed grief and he's finally ... at least starting to process.
I have tentatively set myself a deadline of May 3 to start posting chapters again. I would love to finally have this out in the world.
It's been a WHILE since the last Six Sentences Sunday
It's been so long since I've formally shared my writing that I didn't remember where my banner was hahaha. Thank you to everyone who has tagged me when they share their works, I do read and watch them, I just suck at replying
This year (and last) has been difficult, mostly because I've been dealing with post-graduation life and figuring out who I was outside of school. I'm very lucky and very privileged really, so I don't have to worry about a lot of things yet, but I'm still very much anxious all of the time, dreading my future. Oh, to be a 20yo freaking out about not knowing what to do with their life. Fun.
Writing has been difficult ever since fucking 2024, but it's also been a personal challenge. About a few weeks, almost a month ago, I realized I liked writing, hahaha. I realized I actually enjoy it and that I actually am good at it (at least *I* absolutely adore everything I've ever written, even if I cringe at this some times). So, that was a shocker for me (not for those I've told this to apparently hahaha).
I'm finally writing something for myself that it might turn into something some day, even if I just print it out and never get it published or anything, but I'm finally working on it, after having the idea for 3 years, and I'm happy about it, and proud. Let's see how that goes.
AND I'M WRITING PORN, YIPPEE!!!! (I'm never doing a multi chaptered smut-centered fic again, it's exhausting and I think very repetitive).
I noticed some people in the fandom got into the "10 days to 1k" fest and I thought it would be an amazing idea to write that way. I'm on day 7, and I've written so much for the last chapter of my EGF fic (it's on the 7k wording and I'm still not done making them come). After I finish this one, I'll caught up with all my other unfinished fics. I will finish them!!!!!
So, here's some six sentences I wrote today
“For future references, I won’t be able to orgasm this much again.” I chuckle with him, his teeth brushing mine. “You’re the true vampire, huh. With your strong legs and body that handles round after round. Next time, I’m only coming once. Did you know you could come that many times in a row?"
Poor Simon. And other six sentences I wrote yesterday too, because those were too few.
Nothing was going according to plan, not even Baz. It was one of those days when he was not that much of an arsehole to me, and I couldn’t bear it; if there was something I could count on Baz to be, was mean and superior, and he was failing at it.
On purpose, I poked the bear until it exploded. We were in our room, and he had me pinned down against my own closet, his forearm sticking into my chest (he’s so bony), and the only reason he hadn’t hit me yet was because of the Anathema.
“Apparently being nice to you doesn’t work. It’s like you want me to be mean to you,” he snarled that time.
Horny Simon, never change, we love you
Tags and all of that under the cut<3
Thank you for tagging me: @forabeatofadrum @artsyunderstudy @leithillustration @monbons @thewholelemon (you people are legends and the reason the fandom is alive istg)
Now tagging: @fiend-for-culture @fatalfangirl @rimeswithpurple @drowninginships @cutestkilla
Realizing that my queue is empty because the last post on this blog is last's week's WIP Wednesday, oops!
Thank you @forabeatofadrum for the tag! Here is a bit more of my Kurtbastian WIP All's Fair:
He dropped a textbook on the table with a thump and sat in the chair next to Kurt. “What’re you working on?”
“History paper,” Kurt said. “You?”
Sebastian pulled a notebook from his bag. “Chem homework.”
They didn’t exchange further words for a while, working side-by-side in surprisingly companionable silence. Kurt had filled a whole page with notes for his essay when Sebastian’s phone buzzed. Sebastian picked it up, typed something, and then set it back down. A moment later it vibrated again, loud against the hard wood surface of the table. Sebastian glanced at the screen and laughed softly before typing out a reply.
Kurt set his pen down. “Do you have to do that?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so touchy.”
“You could put it on silent. We’re in the library.”
The phone buzzed again.
“Who are you even texting?” Kurt asked in annoyance as Sebastian picked up the phone again.
“Oh, no one,” he replied, not looking up from the screen. “Just this guy in Columbus I hooked up with.”
Kurt’s mood turned ever worse. Not only was he distracted from his work, but he also felt a vague sense of disgust with Sebastian. It’s not like he was jealous of this person Sebastian was texting. Their relationship was purely for show, and Sebastian could do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted. But to refer to them as “no one” was just downright rude.
Tagging @aurumjank @tanhands @wowbright @special-bc-ur-part-of-it and anyone else who wants to share any writing!!
El WooWoo and thanks @artsyunderstudy for the Sunday tag and @that-disabled-princess for the Monday tag. Hm. Maybe I should've gotten a Tuesday tag.
(And Friday I'm in loooove!)
I have written stuff! First off, I wrote around 3k words of pure hatred about my least favourite Glee episode, so please clap since I had to think about that trainwreck. Then, to my surprise, I finally finished and posted (!) my Snowbaz fic Inhale my Richard, also known as A Time and Place. People who have read these SSS/WW posts may know that I struggled a lot with that fic for a myriad of reasons, but in the end it was mostly the goddamn ending that left me unsatisfied. Now it does have a proper ending and ya know what, it's good enough.
And lastly I have finally started actually writing down this Persona 3/Persona 5 Royal thing that I have been posting about. Thankfully @krisrix has been kind to help me out with Japanese honorifics. The only thing I am still not entirely sure of is whether to use honorifics in narration. I would've if it were written in first person POV (since Kris also consulted a friend about that), but this fic is in third person.
Luckily, Persona 5 does me a solid with this whole code name thing.
“Did you guys not use code names or anything?” Oracle asks.
Makoto shakes his head. They fought those Shadows with their full government names, literally, since they were all registered members of this supposed after-school club.
“So they didn’t call you anything?” Fox sounds like he doesn’t know if he should be impressed or baffled.
“Well,” Makoto starts, “my team called me Leader.”
It falls silent.
“Yeah, no, I ain’t calling you that,” Skull eventually says.
That’s fair. Besides, Joker is the leader of the Phantom Thieves and it’s clear everyone (save Crow) is very loyal to him.
“I do think it’s sweet to pay homage to your team,” Queen says, “So what about a name that is a reference, so to speak, to your work with S.E.E.S? … How about ‘Lunar’? You mentioned that the moon played a big role in your fight against Nyx.”
“It sounds kinda like Leader, so it works in two ways!” Noir points out and she sounds very excited about it.
They never use honorifics with the code names in the game, so yippie! All Metaverse scenes are "saved" so to speak. It also helps me with the issue that there are two characters named Makoto in this fic, since ya know I first played Persona 3 Reload and the protagonist's name defaulted to Makoto Yuki, so I chose that. Persona 5, of course, has Makoto Nijima, also known as Queen.
And now, the weather. I am once again sitting on my balcony. The sun is out, but it's not too hot for me (and my laptop). Unfortunately, it might rain tonight. @quizasvivamos @coffeegleek @caramelcoffeeaddict @raeny-day @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @bookish-bogwitch @confusedbiqueer @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @cutestkilla @wellbelesbian @facewithoutheart @shrekgogurt @bitbybitwrites @whatevertheweather @esilher @blackberrysummers @nightimedreamersghost @ivelovedhimthroughworse @thnxforknowingme (WooWoo!!!) @martsonmars
