There is this very talented Instagram artist who makes very interesting ST AU on fantasy, one of them has werewolves, and I was like 'this... but instead make everyone be able to transform into whatever their spirit animal is' so here we are! She drew the scene 'plant your feet' between Billy and Steve, and their werewolf forms are sort of like in the background? Idk, it looks cool. So I'm recreating that, but with this concept AU. @safk-art
Billy: Lion
Steve: Lion
Dustin: Lion
Max: Tigress(Golden Tabby/Strawberry, red hair is a recessive gene/rare so... golden tabby tigress)
Lucas: Tiger(pseudo melanistic black)
Will: Clouded Leopard
Mike: Leopard
I chose the animals based on personality + looks
Trying out TW so... TW: Teenage violence, a lot of animal comparison(?)
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(No one's pov)
It was downright infuriating this world they lived in. Everyone was some type of circus freak. Some time along their primate evolution into humans, something horribly wrong happened. History is still trying to define it, to explain it. Their best guess is that what happened to the few select primates that eventually turned modern humans, also occured into select individuals of most species, most because some didn't get to live long enough for the change to happen, or they didn't exist as a genom entirely for said event, and so, they mingled with humans, resulting into offsprings that dominated the world and surprassed other species far more easily. Anywho, most hybrids were characteristic to their local fauna and flora of region, but as humans began to deal in slaves, and migration more and more, that rule didn't apply as much. Take as an example the lovely USA. Europeans, African-Americans, Asians, almost everyoen migrated here at some point, sooner or later, so, the hybrids that inhabited this country the size of a whole damn continent. Now, the beauty of these hybrid is that depending on their lovely little scale, they had abilities, or not. Some could turn into said animal they had traits of, others simply had the traits but not the ability to morph. Regardless of this difference, everyone was in the end an animal, right?
So imagine what it's like for a teenager, right? Not only are they pumped full of hormones, but they can literally claw each other's eyes out or poison one another with more than just mere words, but actual fangs. A fun little world they live in, right?
If kids weren't mean enough in this world, the whole hybrid bit just amplified it, and the moment they hit their teenagehood? Watch them tear each other up on who's better, stronger, faster, sharper, smarter, and whatever the hell not. But felines, felines are so interesting. Now, in most animal species, it's the same old, same old; there is someone who dominates over the others, and when another wants to have whatever that one has, well, it gets ugly, and someone either dies or backs away. Of course, when it comes to the high school hierarchy, no one has to die. This isn't the wild west after all! Some step to the side, let the world go on, they take a break, maybe, or retreat by being forced.
Steve has long renounced his 'crown'. King Steve, they called him, a fitting name for a lion hybrid, especially with that hair, almost like a lion's gorgeous mane, huh? But it didn't matter that Steve gave up on that title and position before Billy came into the picture. Things are never that simple with the human mind. The pride, the ego, the need to exert force to prove yourself as better than others, that's something that any and almost every animal does at some point, one way or another.
Billy didn't have to go through a fight, didn't have to bare his teeth, get his knuckles bloodied, or worse. He simmered under the surface for a fight. Not because 'that's the way of things', but more because he had to prove something. He had to show he was better, stronger, faster, more agile, not for 'territory', not for 'mates', and sure as hell not for an 'audience'. Sure, you could argue it was just for 'The hell of it,' but that's not really what drives someone like Billy Hargrove, right?
His stepsister was a tigress. Tigers, more powerful than lions, more resilient, living more solitary than lions, but if you think about it, lions and house cats are the weirdos of the genome that stick together in groups. Maybe that's why, while Billy soaked up the attention and popularity, she was withholding herself, being cautious and wary of those who tried to be her friends, but... she eventually caved, may that be out of necessity or the crippling loneliness and agression coursing through her blood, with the promise of leading her onto a path to self destruction like those who were consuming themselves and everyone around themselves back in her home.
Lions stay in groups, and Steve found himself caretaking for a group of young children. It was surreal to think about how they even met, the circumstances of it, the danger, the threats that pinned them together, because if they didn't work together, they for sure wouldn't be alive by this point. But old enemies don't die that easily, and what had brought them together for the first time returned. Lions stayed in prides, and right now, these kids were his pride. Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Max. Will was... elsewhere, for everyone's safety, for everyone involved in this entire mess, but what do you do when trouble comes knocking at your door?
Lucas approached Max, but Billy disagreed about it. Why? Was it because of Neil? A sickening sense of wishing to protect this 'bitchy' stepsister of his while he tore through her like his old man dug into him once upon a time when he was just as defenseless? To help her avoid his direct wrath? Was it simply because he had it out against the young boy who was just as freakish as her? Technically, both were 'defects', genetically unusual individuals of their genome. Or maybe it was because he could see it, sense it, feel it. They were hybrids, were they not? They could smell the shift in the air, literally. And Lucas? Well, he did happen to have a lion friend, Dustin. Not that Billy could be able to tell Dustin from Steve when we talk about 'scents'. The animal part sure is useful in a hybrid, but the human one downplays many of the animal's abilities or sensitivities, leaving some to be hybrids just for show rather than the practicality that their ancestors relied on once long ago.
Max left, snuck out, and for that? Billy was the one punished. Lions lived in groups; the males patrolled the territory, fought off threats, while lionesses took care of the cubs and of hunting. Imagine how well that went in their match, make a broken little family. Tigers didn't even know their cubs; the females raised them solely on their own. And here? Well, here, Billy pulled the shortstick and got forced to be accountable and responsible for the little girl. Why? Maybe because Neil wanted to put the bother of caring for another mouth onto someone else. Maybe because he wanted to show Susan that he can handle it, and she can make sure she stays pretty for him, because someone else's got it covered for her kid. That, or their paranoia was through the roof. They moved from California suddenly, an escape, not a thought-out plan. Someone wanted to get away from their ex-spouse and revoke their right to child visits, hm? Didn't matter what the reason was, no one said it aloud, so the kids were left pinning it on each other instead of turning to their parents.
So here was Billy, in front of some stranger's house after he flirted with what could be described as a cougar lioness, watching as Steve himself walked out of the home.
The dialogue was short-lived because soon enough came the fight that Billy had been longing for. A harsh push, Steve didn't fall to the ground; he held his ground. "Look at that! Took my advice, did ya, Harrington?" He asked with a smirk, the adrenaline, the thrill of it, the transgression of everything wrong about him that was fuel for his violent tendencies, was doing its desired effect.
Billy launched at him; the short distance made it impossible for any real effect of impact from lack of momentum, but enough to be a threatening and intimidating move, while Steve's hands came up to hold his and counterattack his strength. "Playing tough, Harrington? Don't go holding back on me!" That sickening, sickening mad man grin was sprawled all over his face, showing teeth and fangs alike, and Steve? Baring his teeth, not from satisfaction like him, not for a brazen display either, but from effort, because whether he wanted to believe it or not, the guy in front of him had far more strength than he did, and it was a losing fight as long as he didn't have a strategy, and given he never fought before? He had none. But Billy? Oh, he had a few under his belt, all came with bloodied fists and just maybe a few bloodied claws. We're not talking about the shape of a denture or bite force, that's a story left for special occasions, and now might as well be one.
Billy kicked his foot swiftly while bringing his arms to himself and knocking his head against Steve. The entire motion happened too quickly for the second boy to process it. The moment he lost his balance his grip on Billy tightened, he was going to bring the californian teenager down with him had he not acted, but Billy's been through rodeos like this before, hence why he used it to pull the Hawkins High ex-king towards himself to give him a blunt force hit to thoroughly get him to let go from disorientating pain that mixed quite beutifully with the confusion causing a stunning effect on the other boy that gave Billy the upper ground.
He went inside the house, and his target was clear. He couldn't hurt Max, didn't matter how angry he got, didn't matter how furious he was, he couldn't touch her. Maybe it was because, despite how much she irked him, he remembered someone hitting him all the same when he was much weaker and defenseless. Or maybe it was simply because Neil would have his head for it. Who cares? Luca was now the unfortunate target since Steve went out too quickly for Billy's taste, and he had just opened up his appetite without a buffet, so scraps would have to be savoured like a delicacy.
Lucas fought back, did the only thing he could do when being forced into a wall without escape, with a threat bigger than yourself staring down at you with such intensity you fear for your life. He aimed low, hard. But he missed. Nonetheless, Billy moved, but the gesture itself was taken as it was. It didn't matter that he was picking on a kid half his size, didn't matter that the boy was probably scared half out of his mind and forced into a position no child ever should be in. All he was seeing was the reason his night was ruined. Max left no doubt for this little prick. It didn't matter that Neil was the one who hurt him, didn't matter that Neil had those absurd rules set in place, didn't matter that Lucas had absolutely nothing to do with him. Billy had everything to do with this little boy because, in his eyes, he was the only viable target in this entire situation that he could take his anger out on in a justifiable manner. Rotten world, ain't it? Filled with rotten folks and poisoned ones, but you can't make the difference between them, now, can you? And in the end, does it matter which is rotten and poisoned when they often tend to have an effect alike?
"You're dead." "No, you are!"
A sickening laugh rippled through the air, almost like a roar of satisfaction, a showcase of hunger that went beyond bloodlust and thirst that went beyond desperation.
The words that follow, they meant nothing, they were close to nothing, because that look in Billy's eyes as he was downright shut down from the very fight he was hoping to get was close to pitiful.
Punches were thrown, claws were unleashed, flesh was torn, cries engulfed the little once peaceful home, but it hasn't been peaceful in a very long time, has it? Tears broke, not just from pain, but from fear and remorse.
There he was, a total stranger, defending them, all of them, taking care of them, protecting them, protecting her, from someone that was supposed to be protecting her, but supposed to isn't something that ever stopped the nature of humans or animals alike, reason wasn't something either were known for, right?
Blood coated in a beautiful glimmer, the wooden floor below, tears mixed in, a statement of sacrifice that went beyond words and actions could comprehend for the soul itself was bleeding now, and while one bled, another poured its excess venom out.
A sharp, small vein of liquid with the help of a tiny needle, that's all it took for the scary monster to collapse, for the fierce lion to weaken.
Little tigress had fangs and claws; she's grown them new, and now it was time to test them, and test them she did.
Neither lion came out victorious; each was defeated, each a statement of weakness far beyond what they could comprehend, words that their being could never spell, for they did not know them. Billy didn't get his grand win, Steve protected the kids, but he'd need stitches. Lucas tested out his bravery, and Max tested out her bite. The older ones failed, but the younger ones were showing a promising path ahead of them, because they've witnessed both the violence and the outcome of what it meant to get a taste of something you shouldn't indulge in, with the undeniable outcome of shaping the essence they will one day give forth.
"in the books, viserys loved alicent, so of course he'd want aegon as heir. it's natural for a man to want a long-awaited son from a woman he loves on the throne after him."
vissy t, in both canons, seeing his clearly non-valyrian-looking probably-bastard grandson from his daughter: "anyway, one day it is your throne, kiddo."
These two were always together. They're like Siamese twins. How could anyone even think of separating them?!? Even as ambassadors, they were supposed to be together! Luke should have gone to Winterfell with Jace, to experience the cringe from the front row as his brother negotiated terribly (flirtatiously) with Cregan Stark. Luke should have gone crazy with horror as he watched his older brother gradually get cornered against a huge, icy wall!!! After that, Luke himself would have flown to Aemond, demanding that he gouge out his eyes
at the end of the day, does the reader insert tag still belong to readers, or is it just a front for some OC writers to use it?
Honestly, it doesn’t even make sense to browse that tag on AO3 anymore, it’s completely flooded.
i have a theory that even if readers created a new tag just for themselves, those writers would still take it over, because they can’t stand seeing something that belongs to us.
just a reminder that doing this goes against AO3’s rules (Misleading or inaccurate tagging, Tag misuse, Rating misclassification, Improper categorization, Content affecting search and filtering etc)
You can Report if you see it
an image my moot sent to me:
YOURE THE ONE USING THE TAGS IM CRYINGGGG THEY THINK THE TAG IS FOR THEM, that’s literally what the tag means and now i can’t read something about the person who’s reading?? (ME/US??)😭
Saying anything but admitting they’re wrong, it’s against AO3 rules, and that’s it. This kind of writer spends more time making excuses than owning up to their mistake
Can everyone who reads this PLEASE reblog it?!?!? Libraries literally saved my life as a child!
Being abused at home, bullied at school and lost in the world, the library and all the books I could escape to the most amazing worlds, kept me alive!
I would walk to the library, and spend all day, from 10 am to 9 pm reading there!! I got special awards for how many books I read, I wrote little blurbs on why i loved the books (probably why I love to BETA and do ARCs)
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Just hit the green arrows and the reblog!!!
As a 50 year old woman, the library offers me so much. Digital art pads to borrow, 3D printing, book clubs that are face to face (yeah, the introvert likes face to face because a moderator will stomp on anyone getting snarky)
New books in LARGE PRINT! I’m visually challenged and as much as I love my kindle, The feel of a real book in my hands will always be a beloved feeling!
Our library also has quarterly books sales of almost free books!! For 5$USD we get in a day early and can buy as many as we want. Anyone else has to wait and there is a limit for the first 2 days.
Also many, many libraries have inter library loan(it may be called something different). This means if they don’t have the item you want, they can get it for you. This may include photocopy/pdf of articles. This can also include along with books and DVDs, microfilm/fiche which is also a huge resource. Check around for libraries that are listed as depositories if you want to look at government documents.
Remember that many colleges and universities have open stacks for the public. You will likely have to pay a membership fee but you will get to stuff.
The library was one of my favorite places to go as a kid and I still live to go and just. Sit and read. Or do homework. The university I’m at has a massive 8-story one I love to just wonder around in~ Great places
I used to wander about the fiction section in my local library, and choose books with the most interesting titles - I discovered two amazing authors that way
If you feel disconnected from your local community & want to find ways to get involved, seriously consider spending some time at the library. Go to some events! Organize a reading group!
Would you be interested if I were to open up and set up a commission system? There's been anything from head-canon, short stories, long stories, and even sets of multiple plots for the character(s). I already have a rough-around-the-edges plan as to what my offers would include, but first I need to know if you lot would like the idea of it
Because I don't want to commit illegalities, whatever I write won't be fanfiction, that remains for the public. What I will write are OC's for people, tropes, head cannons/cannons for their character and a view into my future projects (aka probably trying to raise funds to one day be able to publish my own works)
-OC building(background, personality, name, etc. depending on what you need for your story/plot)
-Story building (something to fit in your dope OC's who you haven't made a world for yet)
-Bonuses: depending on the package, comission, time it takes, price, etc. there will be a bonus in the form of a fanfic request that will be published publicly
If I get that far I'm also thinking of doing stuff like loyalty gifts but I first have to start somewhere and see if I have anyone at all for that to begin with.
I will begin constructing the packages, prices and more in detail specifications and post them sometime in November.
Things S!Reader said at the small council meetings
(Since I know you enjoy a sharp-tongued S!Reader @sins-of-the-dragons)
S!Reader: walking into the small council room, all dramatic. To whom it may concern, the only time you're allowed to call me a whore is if you call me a literature whore
Corlys: chokes on his wine
Baela: first-hand disbelief
Jacaerys: suddenly knows over 10 prayers in High Valyrian to recite in his mind
Rhaenyra: baffled to hear prfonaities first thing in the morning -??? Why... does this concern us?
S!Reader: equally glaring at all of the lords, I overheard some of our lovely lords question the actual purpose of Prince Jacaerys bringing me here to your court, that is all, my queen.
The lords: all nervously sweating or awkwardly coughing/looking away
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S!Reader after the lords mentioned Daemon for the 175935647th time that month: I have never met the King Regent but if I will be disputed to hear his name one more time I may just start praying that he will not return to us just to force the lot of you to stop being weak little sheep and come up with concrete ideas with the resources we have at hand instead of relying for a greater power than you to come and fix it all. Are you lords of your houses or maidens to be rescued???
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S!Reader walking into the council room with a wine cup, taking occasional sips.
One very unfortunately stupid lord: May we know why you're enjoying a beverage in this meeting?
S!Reader: staring right into the lord's soul. This is my cup of tea for the day, and the reason why I don't jump across this table to straighten out the wrinkles on your face with a hot iron rod, like how the maids and servants take care of the wrinkles in our clothes
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S!Reader: I'm starting to believe I was a jester in my previous life. I mean, it is the only logical explanation as to why I haven't lost my sanity at jokes such as yourselves, my lords.
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Each time S!Reader gets slightly wilder, Jacaerys gives his mother a pleading look to let it pass and to forgive their representative of the north. Little does he know these moments are some of the few things that manage to take off some tension from Rhaenyra's shoulders in these hard war times
