An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Here’s the series page!
And this is a perfect gif for the series ❤️
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Peter Solarz
KIROKAZE
we're not kids anymore.
🪼
taylor price
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shark vs the universe

blake kathryn
Jules of Nature

if i look back, i am lost
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH

Product Placement
Cosmic Funnies
d e v o n
No title available

titsay
One Nice Bug Per Day
seen from Ecuador
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@inwoundedhands
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Here’s the series page!
And this is a perfect gif for the series ❤️
i'll tend to the flames (you can worship the ashes)
Summary:
Lauren had been brought up to care about others, and she did. She cared when someone fell and skinned their knee. She cared when she someone was pushed down. She cared when the 7/15 massacre blared across their TV screen and marked the beginning of the end. She cared even when her parents ushered her and her brother away from the ugly results for the next four years.
She cared, she cared, she cared.
Pity the weak, her mind would whisper. (And you'll never be strong.) Andreas would answer. After enough devastation and death, Lauren relented. She tried to be ruthless, and Andreas approved, and she grew strong, strong enough to protect Andy and the family she had built for them with the Underground.
But she still cared. And now, it might be the death of her.
--
The careful grip that Lauren has had on her mind is slipping amidst the onslaught of violence and fear as a full-scale war hovers on the horizon, endangering everything she cares about. Revelations of revivals, hidden safe havens, and the discovery of a weapon so powerful, it could undo reality itself all threaten to crush her as she struggles to keep her family alive.
Her entire family.
--
Epilogue is up!
Here is the promised Clarice fanart, and the reveal of the final installment:
i'll tend to the flames (you can worship the ashes)
COMING SOON TO AO3
Is leaving kudos on fanfics not common courtesy anymore?
Something I've noticed on AO3 in the last two years is the lack of kudos and comments left on fanfics.
Fanfics have an increasing number of hits, but their kudos and comments remain minimal.
I understand that leaving comments is daunting, but kudos is the easiest thing you can do to show support and appreciation for an author.
Part of me wants to blame BookTok and the commercialized consumption of books.
Readers are more demanding and impatient for content, but they're quick to move on once a book is published. It's a constant demand for 'More, more, more' without appreciating and/or supporting authors. And these readers are now getting into fanfic.
I don't want to complain because it's not productive. But if you're new and getting into fanfic: Support writers.
Support means leaving kudos on AO3, and if you're able, leaving a comment. It's simple courtesy.
It’s weird. I used to get email alerts every day and now it’s almost nothing.
I don’t want to sound entitled or like I’m complaining. I’m just baffled as to what changed. Are my fic really worth kudos? Does anyone reading them actually like what they’ve read? I don’t get comments after I finish posting—did they like the ending?
I don’t know.
It's demoralising for newer writers especially. I have multiple friends who have written great fics, but have gotten next to nothing back from their readers - and silence doesn't feel very good. No wonder so many of them have given up posting their stories. Why bother creating when silence is your reward?
I think these kinds of posts should be boosted far and wide. There's an "etiquette" to interacting with fanworks on AO3 and people often don't know, because they think in social media terms. Why "like" someone's 5 year old photo? That's creepy, after all.
But AO3 isn't social media, it's an archive and it's perfectly acceptable to kudos/comment on old works, or small fandoms, or to comment on every single thing an author posts and on every new update. Unfortunately, unless one is active in fandom communities on tumblr or reddit, or has writer friends, they'll hardly ever come across the unwritten "rules" about giving kudos, leaving comments or when/how to provide constructive criticism. And they'll just default to "social media behavior". I know I did, before I learned better.
I've been in this space for about 2 years now and the difference in how I interacted with ao3 writers at first, as compared to now, is stark! I've gone from radio silence to pretty much leaving kudos to almost everything I read, and I comment most of the time (though that is dependent on whether I follow a series' updates regularly or whether I batch-read chapters - even readers take a hiatus sometimes).
I've had authors reply that they pushed out an extra chapter because of a kind comment I made, or that I made them laugh/smile/grin. I've subscribed to "dead" fics only to find out (via automated notification and to my absolute delight) that their writers came back months or years after hiatus. Every interaction mattered, in a small insignificant way, but it always felt to me that it mattered more than my standard upvote, like, retweet, because fics themselves (usually) matter more to their authors than a hasty vacation pic on one's social media does. Fics take time and effort, they take commitment, they take something personal from us every time.
Be generous, people. This isn't social media, kudos are not a "seal of approval" that you need to carefully curate. Nice and/or thoughtful comments make someone's day. Be generous and I guarantee that you won't regret it.
Here is some fanart of the most recent chapter of ruthlessness!
For the upcoming poll, I was thinking about posting fanart, with requests from ya'll, so give me some ideas! What do you all want to see?
Go check out the last two chapters of ruthlessness (is mercy upon ourselves). All we are waiting on now is the epilogue, which will be coming this weekend, along with the playlist for this fic and when I will release the name of the last installment of the wounded hands series!
Also, here is some art.
Check out the newest chapter of ruthlessness (is mercy upon ourselves) and get context for this blurb of an animation!
NEW CHAPTER! NEW CHAPTER! NEW CHAPTER!
See below, me anxiously waiting for you guy's reaction to the new chapter:
Newest Chapter Up!
More Fenris, More Frosts, More Mystery! Tune in on AO3
See below: Live footage of my getting up off my ass to write the end of this story.
Lauren’s repressed… everything is going to be addressed in my Lauren runs away Au so help me GOD.
Link???
Idc what anyone says, Lauren should’ve gotten her own haircut and/or change in outfit/design in season 2. Andy got to bleach his hair when he went all “inner circle”ly but when Lauren deals with her little brother following someone they barely know (no hate to Lorna, I love her) she doesn’t get a change in outfits? Huh? She got to go apeshit but she didn’t get to change her hair or outfit? Anyways I’m imagining her with a spiderverse Gwen Stacy haircut.
Honestly, they were broketh. Andy got a new wardrobe and haircut because they had money and resources, while Lauren and Co. were lucky that their landlord was not kicking them out every time there was a noise disturbance.
The point about Lorna is so real. Love her, but she and Andy barely interacted before they left. He was just riding the wave of mutant supremacy at the end of season one, in my head.
I love The Gifted. Great and underrated but with the exception of Caitlin the Struckers are the Least Interesting characters in that whole show
Lovingly, what the show did to their potential is criminal, but having Caitlin as a fav and dismissing the others is crazy to me.
The whole Fenris dynamic is insanely interesting on the surface, but delving into it, the mystery surrounding them is part of the draw of the whole show for me, especially in conjunction with the disappearance of both the X-men and the Brotherhood on 7/15. The whole show surrounds the next generation dealing with the consequences of the previous generation without any of their guidance. Fenris is an extreme example of this, especially since their history begins to encroach on their lives.
But then, personally, Caitlin is not a fav of mine, so this is just my two-sense. Glad to see people still talking about the gifted.
UHG! The pain of joining a fandom years after it was canceled!
I had had The Gifted on my to-watch list for ages, and when I found out Percy was in it, I finally moved it to the top of the list, and now I'm stuck. Damn Fox for canceling it! I was dying to know if Lauren and Andy realized that the balance of light and dark that was needed to fully control Fenris was for both of them to be evenly balanced in the middle together, not on the ends against each other! GAH!
OK, I know this is just my headcannon, but it's based on the balancing act Lauren and Andy were doing all through Season 2. When one moved to an extreme, the other moved to counterbalance it (Andy dark, Lauren light). When one moved towards the middle, the other moved towards the middle (Lauren going darker, Andy going lighter) , always maintaining equilibrium. There was SO much potential here!
ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US-
We love to see new fans!
Here's a snippet of the newest chapter of ruthlessness!
Greetings all! I'm in a kind of writing rut, so I decided to give it a sneak peek now that I can feel it fading.
Almost immediately, Lauren began to fall. Her eyes were still closed, and what she heard made her keep them clenched shut.
A cacophony of different noises assaulted her. The song continued, the piano pulses seeming to match up with the sound of hoofbeats, barely decipherable over a child’s cries.
Flashes of light began filtering through her vision, and she realized that her eyes weren’t closed at all. It was just darkness all around her. The flashes began to become more frequent, bringing scenes of color that burned into her retinas.
At first, she saw herself holding Andy when he finally left the NICU. She marveled as the quiet child breathed deeply, slumber smoothing out the plains of the baby’s face. Slowly, as Lauren watched, Andy awoke, and when he opened his mouth, a deafening cry escaped him. Darkness overtook the scene. Lauren was no longer watching as she held Andy, only watching as Andy was taken from her arms, crying. She watched as her younger self, only slightly past age three, reached for him, her cries accompanying Andy’s.
The scene changed.
She saw a man at an altar, and a woman clutching at her stomach.
She saw great flashes of red and gold and white as she felt the feeling of strength overcoming not only her but the entire room, exploding in a cascade of pure power.
She saw a mother cradling two bundles, tears streaming as they were removed from her hands.
The scenes began to change, as Lauren fell deeper into the void, the sounds of hoofbeats and a child crying still accompanying the music.
She saw two children running alongside each other, skipping over rocks that shone like stars amid an expansive pool of water. The rocks seemed to glow brightly, a kaleidoscope of color, when the children landed on them and they disappeared entirely as the children passed them.
Everything changed when one of the children stumbled.Â
“You’re in danger, little wolf.” A voice came to her somewhere from the back of her mind.
As the child fell, the crying became wailing, and the light began to dull, leaving the fallen child in darkness that seemed all-encompassing. The other child kept going, seemingly unaware.
As they got farther apart, the crying got louder. It became wailing then screaming. The ground began to shake, the water becoming disturbed. As if it was raining, thousands of droplets hit the water. The hoof beats were thundering, matching the staccato of the hiccuping breaths of the crying child. Then there was no sound, there was no light, and they were alone in the dark.
Then a light broke through the dark, bright and brilliant and warm. Golden.
“You’re not ready to see this.” That same voice came. She vaguely recognized it as Andreas’s.
The fallen child reached toward it, letting the warmth and light travel up their arm, racing up as it spread through their body. The child began laughing, a light tinkling sound, and contentment spread through the air, surging through even Lauren. Happy tears flowed down her cheeks, the detachment of the emotion leaving Lauren feeling like she was in someone else’s body.Â
“It is too soon, you need to open your eyes.” Andreas directed, but Lauren’s body was no longer her own.
The light shifted, the gold accompanied by white and specks of red. Surges of power jolted through the child, straightening their limbs as they began to stand. The child studied their hands, flexing their fingers, watching as the light danced around their fingertips.
Then the light reached their heart.
“Open your eyes!”
Pain like no other flooded Lauren’s body as she watched the child convulse, the light growing brighter and brighter as the darkness was burnt away. Everything was burnt away, including the child, including Lauren-
“GET OUT!”
New chapters coming on the 30th!
The fun of making art for a really dead fandom ✨
Gotta make your own content around these parts
for the character ask game - what is something that the fandom does in regards to lauren strucker that you despise
I’ve seen so many people water her down to just a part of Fenris and Andy’s sister. I’ve also seen so many people just zero in on Andy (which is fine, I understand having favorites) and just completely forget about Lauren and water her down for the sake of making Andy OP.
[From this ask game]
Lauren Strucker being anything else but feral is crazy to me
"We are yours. Why would you hurt us?" -Lauren, Ch. 10 of ruthlessness (is mercy upon ourselves)
Ch. 10: Live in the Dark is up! We learn about Fenris, discover information about Rachel Summers, meet new characters, and explore Fenris' capabilities. All of which is leading up to the next chapter: the mission.
Well, I finally wrote this scene. Head over to ch. 9 of ruthlessness!