it just kinda happened

caroline. I write fics and cry over one direction. in my free time, I'm a librarian.

[caroscuro]

here is a masterpost of all of my fics in chronological order of publication

✨ I roll and I roll, ‘til I change my luck

explicit | 8,295 words

“They’re not my best pictures.”

“I wouldn’t say that, I think you look quite good being manhandled by a bigger man.”

Louis chokes on his sip of hot chocolate, feeling it burn its way down his throat. He coughs a few times and then clears his throat. “I’m sorry?!”

“You heard me. You should do it more often, it might make you more humble. Maybe you’ll learn to respect people.” Or Louis is a bored, rich kid whose latest stunt got him arrested and forced to attend a fundraiser at an ice rink, Zayn is his unlucky partner in crime, Harry is the cute hospital volunteer who is having none of his attitude, Niall is the worst DJ in the world, and Liam is Leslie Knope.

✨ lead me out on the moonlight floor

explicit | 12,758 words

In all honesty, Harry was long forgotten, cast aside by a dimpled stranger and too much champagne. He was almost glad, now, that Harry hadn’t come, because he wouldn’t have met this stranger, this tall man who could make his heart flutter with a single glance.

Victorian!AU where Louis is a wealthy lord throwing a masquerade ball for his birthday and Harry is a toymaker who’s only confident when he’s wearing a mask.

✨ electing strange perfections

explicit | 10 chapters | 84,757 words

Back for the summer from university, 19-year-old Louis is faced with a massive problem: their new gardener is quite possibly the most gorgeous man he’s ever met. Over the course of the summer, Louis and a 25-year-old Harry will learn that love can be found where you least expect it.

✨ scintillating

explicit | 23 chapters | 263,706 words

When Harry and Louis meet in Disney World during their family’s holiday, it’s love at first sight. Back in England, they fight against the distance to stay together, to make it work. When Harry signs up for The X-Factor, though, the precarious balance they’ve built is compromised.

Or the one where they fall in love, Harry wins the X-Factor, and everything goes to hell.

✨ taken by the wind

teen and up | 12,040 words

When he decided to move to London with his sister, Harry thought he would finally get to learn how to control his magic. He couldn’t possibly have predicted that he would fall for her neighbour.

Or the one where Harry is a clumsy witch and Louis is making everything worse just by existing.

✨ signs and wonders

explicit | 29,005 words

On the surface, it looks like Louis Tomlinson has the perfect life; after all, he has the whole package: a white picket fence house (well, his doesn’t technically have a white picket fence, but work with him), a wife, a daughter and a dog. He has it all and he’s not even 30, yet.

On the surface, he could be the happiest man in the world.

The thing is, he never wanted this life. There was this boy, see, this Harry Styles, whose arrival made Louis question everything he thought he knew about himself. Before Louis could pursue it, though, before he could be brave and ask the boy out, one moment of bad luck on prom night, one single lapse of judgment, shaped his life in a way he never would have chosen. Between doing the right thing or turning into his own absent father, he knew what he had to do, even if it meant burying his dreams under the weight of a premature adulthood.

That is, until he receives an invitation for his school’s ten year reunion and sees that Harry will attend.

Could it be his second chance at happiness? At what cost?

✨ fondre ton absence

teens and up | 41,315 words

Harry had never really given much thought to the future. He preferred to let life steer him forward and to follow in the footsteps of Louis, his best friend from as far as his memory went, his lover, his everything. Louis knew better than he did what was good for him.

It changed drastically when Louis was ripped away from him, drafted and sent to the front to fight in a war that Harry had always been sure would never reach him. Too young and too sickly to follow, Harry was left on his own for the first time in his life.

When he thought things could not possibly get worse, Louis went missing at the Somme and was declared dead. While everyone buried and mourned him, Harry never moved on. If Louis were dead, he was sure that he would know it. Their lives were too entwined, he would know if half of his heart had died.

Determined to find Louis, Harry did everything he could in his quest to be reunited with him, except prepare for the state Louis might be in.

He did not prepare for the harsh truth he would have to face: was love possible without memories?

✨ the sanctity of patience

teens and up | 22,521 words

When young Lord Harry was chosen by King Louis of Bavaria to become his husband and prince consort, Harry thought all of his dreams had come through. His illusions came crashing down when he understood it meant living in isolation in the alpine castle of Neuschwanstein with a husband who turned out to be far from what he had hoped for.

His illusions vanished, Harry will have learn to appreciate what has and even, perhaps, fall in love with his imperfect husband and his castle.

✨ tempests of dust

explicit | 30,797 words

Louis lived an ordinary life, albeit in an extraordinary place. His family, alongside many others, were mandated to maintain the fortress of Bourbon-l’Archambault, one of the many castles belonging to the crown of France. It was thankless work, but it was a roof over their heads and a quiet, steady life. For all that he knew, the Crown had forgotten Bourbon-l’Archambault even existed, which suited him quite well.

That was until the Dauphin, Prince Harry, came to stay for a summer and decided that he would experience the life of a peasant, for his own personal growth, without any regards to how it would affect others. After a summer spent together, the thought of parting ways was too much to bear and they struck a deal: Louis would pretend to be a duke at the court of Versailles for a season: if after three months, he was miserable, Harry would let him return to his former life without making a fuss.

Did they really think it would be that simple?

✨ i can’t hurt you anymore

mature | 666 words

There was a boy who lived in the closet of Harry’s new house. Louis, he was called, and he was there when Harry’s family moved in, watching timidly as Harry unpacked his boxes, and when Harry asked if he wanted to help, he said he could not touch anything.

I’m Louis, he said, and we can be friends and I will never leave you if you promise to be with me forever.

[caroscuro]

as in olden days, a christmas fic by @scrunchyharry

Château Frontenac hotel, Christmas 1925.

When his father insisted the entire family spend Christmas abroad in one of his new investments, Harry dreaded the prospect of spending weeks in the biting Canadian cold, so far away from the roaring excitement of his London life. As he crossed half of the world to be buried under a thick blanket of snow, he never imagined he would meet a charming bellhop who would do his best to keep him warm.

coming this christmas

[caroscuro]

i can’t hurt you anymore by @scrunchyharry​​ a @1dtrickortreatfest​​ fic read archive warnings and tags | 666 words

There was a boy who lived in the closet of Harry’s new house. Louis, he was called, and he was there when Harry’s family moved in, watching timidly as Harry unpacked his boxes, and when Harry asked if he wanted to help, he said he could not touch anything.

I’m Louis, he said, and we can be friends and I will never leave you if you promise to be with me forever.

[caroscuro]

i can’t hurt you anymore by @scrunchyharry​ a @1dtrickortreatfest​ fic

There was a boy who lived in the closet of Harry’s new house. Louis, he was called, and he was there when Harry’s family moved in, watching timidly as Harry unpacked his boxes, and when Harry asked if he wanted to help, he said he could not touch anything.

I’m Louis, he said, and we can be friends and I will never leave you if you promise to be with me forever.

[caroscuro]

RIP WIP: if you see this post, respond with a snippet of a fic you (sadly) won’t be completing.

So, this inspired me to go through my google drive and unearth this fic that I’ll most likely never finish. I haven’t touched it since March 2014, so, you know. I might as well have not written it myself.

meet this 1950s, Oxbridge, shy librarian worker meets bad boy AU that almost was. the title of this google doc was “kill your darlings - library sexcapades”, so you can see where my mind was. I was in library school, I’d just gone to see Kill Your Darlings in theatres, it was so predictable, really. reading through it earlier, I realize that I used many of the underlying ideas I had for this fic in fondre ton absence, which I first started only two months after I abandoned this one (and I only posted it in 2019, I know.)

I abandoned it because, if I remember correctly, it was only my second ever historical AU (the first one wasn’t in this fandom, it’s a glee fic, if you bully me enough I can provide a link) and I really, really struggled with it, not only with keeping it free of anachronisms, but also relevant to 1950s British culture rather than American culture, which I am more familiar with as a Canadian. I vividly remember panicking when I couldn’t figure out if Brits went bowling in the 1950s, or even now???? we had different problems in ye olde days before the pandemic, hm?

now, of course, I’ve come to love the pain of researching historical AUs, it’s literally the only thing I’ll write, but 6 years ago was a different story. also, I’m not in grad school anymore, so I have more free time. this helped a lot with fleshing out my fics, this whole “no longer being in university” thing (that I say while being 5 years out of university and now only posting a single fic per year).

anyway. enough from me. here’s the fic. it’s 6500 words long and stops abruptly.

Keep reading

[caroscuro]

tempests of dust by @scrunchyharry​ 30797 words. no archives warnings apply. explicit. art by @neon–diamonds​ written for the @onedirectionbigbang​

Louis lived an ordinary life, albeit in an extraordinary place. His family, alongside many others, were mandated to maintain the fortress of Bourbon-l’Archambault, one of the many castles belonging to the crown of France. It was thankless work, but it was a roof over their heads and a quiet, steady life. For all that he knew, the Crown had forgotten Bourbon-l’Archambault even existed, which suited him quite well.

That was until the Dauphin, Prince Harry, came to stay for a summer and decided that he would experience the life of a peasant, for his own personal growth, without any regards to how it would affect others. After a summer spent together, the thought of parting ways was too much to bear and they struck a deal: Louis would pretend to be a duke at the court of Versailles for a season: if after three months, he was miserable, Harry would let him return to his former life without making a fuss.

Did they really think it would be that simple?

[scrunchyharrywrites]

taken by the wind by lightofathousandstars

When he decided to move to London with his sister, Harry thought he would finally get to learn how to control his magic. He couldn’t possibly have predicted that he would fall for her neighbour.

Or the one where Harry is a clumsy witch and Louis is making everything worse just by existing.

[caroscuro]

the sanctity of patience, by scrunchyharry 22,521 words. no archives warnings apply. pg-13. written for @larryabroad prompt: Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany picture: my own

When young Lord Harry was chosen by King Louis of Bavaria to become his husband and prince consort, Harry thought all of his dreams had come through. His illusions came crashing down when he understood it meant living in isolation in the alpine castle of Neuschwanstein with a husband who turned out to be far from what he had hoped for.

His illusions vanished, Harry will have learn to appreciate what has and even, perhaps, fall in love with his imperfect husband and his castle.

[caroscuro]

fondre ton absence, by scrunchyharry
 41,314 words. no archives warnings apply. pg-13. 
a @onedirectionbigbang.

artwork by @whenthebodiesspeak.
 beta’d and britpicked by @brokenheartsgoupthere.

Harry had never really given much thought to the future. He preferred to let life steer him forward and to follow in the footsteps of Louis, his best friend from as far as his memory went, his lover, his everything. Louis knew better than he did what was good for him.

It changed drastically when Louis was ripped away from him, drafted and sent to the front to fight in a war that Harry had always been sure would never reach him. Too young and too sickly to follow, Harry was left on his own for the first time in his life.

When he thought things could not possibly get worse, Louis went missing at the Somme and was declared dead. While everyone buried and mourned him, Harry never moved on. If Louis were dead, he was sure that he would know it. Their lives were too entwined, he would know if half of his heart had died. Determined to find Louis, Harry did everything he could in his quest to be reunited with him, except prepare for the state Louis might be in.

He did not prepare for the harsh truth he would have to face: was love possible without memories?

[caroscuro]

fondre ton absence, by scrunchyharry. with art by @whenthebodiesspeak​

Harry had never really given much thought to the future. He preferred to let life steer him forward and to follow in the footsteps of Louis, his best friend from as far as his memory went, his lover, his everything. Louis knew better than he did what was good for him.

It changed drastically when Louis was ripped away from him, drafted and sent to the front to fight in a war that Harry had always been sure would never reach him. Too young and too sickly to follow, Harry was left on his own for the first time in his life.

When he thought things could not possibly get worse, Louis went missing at the Somme and was declared dead. While everyone buried and mourned him, Harry never moved on. If Louis were dead, he was sure that he would know it. Their lives were too entwined, he would know if half of his heart had died.

Determined to find Louis, Harry did everything he could in his quest to be reunited with him, except prepare for the state Louis might be in.

He did not prepare for the harsh truth he would have to face: was love possible without memories?

a @onedirectionbigbang, coming April 15th. subscribe here to receive a notification when it posts.

[caroscuro]

fondre ton absence, by scrunchyharry. with art by @whenthebodiesspeak

41k words. a @onedirectionbigbang, coming soon.

The Military Service Act 1916, the poster read, applies to unmarried men who, on August 15th, 1915, were 18 of age or over and who will not be 41 years of age on March 2nd, 1916.  ALL MEN (not excepted or exempted), between the above ages who, on November 2nd, 1915, were Unmarried or Widowers without any Child dependent on them will, on Thursday, March 2nd, 1916 be deemed to be enlisted for the period of the war. 

The poster was weather-beaten, confirming to Harry that it had been up there for more than a month, already. It had been a month since Louis had been drafted and no one thought about telling him. Because he knew that they all knew; every adult in his life had come to the village at least once in the past month, they were wont to have seen that poster. Harry, housebound as he was in the winter, had been kept blissfully ignorant of the fact that his—that Louis was— He felt his throat constrict and his breath shorten as what the poster was telling him started to sink in. 

Louis was 19. 

Louis had been enlisted. Louis was going to war.

[numberonefrancisforeststan]

“i really liked your post!”

Thanks How About You Reblog It :)

[numberonefrancisforeststan]

just in case you’re wondering what i’m talking about:

13%, 21%, a whooping 30%, 15%, 21% again. and those are the stories that do well.

it’s almost like tumblr has a reblog button you could USE

LIKE IT? REBLOG IT!

it’s not fucking difficult.

[numberonefrancisforeststan]

also i love how i gotta make these posts practically every time after i publish something.

look, i don’t give a fuck about money. i’m writing fic for fun. if you wanna throw a billion dollars at me, sure, you do you.

but literally all i want, all we all want, is for our stuff to be acknowledged. spread. REBLOGGED. 

because obviously you read it and liked it, right?

so now all you have to do is hit that little button. it looks a little like this

and then that’s that. 

or, on ao3, you write “i really liked this! thank you for sharing!”. and that’s that.

it takes absolutely ZERO EFFORT, and it makes you happy (because you liked what you just read) and it makes us happy (because our work can get potentially more readers), and everyone is happy.

and instead, there’s likes all around. 

and likes are a little like seeing someone having their arms full with things and they drop their keys and you walk past and say “hey dude, i hope that works out for you!”

writers spend hours, even days and weeks or months on fics, pouring ourselves into it, forgoing sleep and food sometimes just to finish something because we hope you’ll like it.

and we get a litte ❤️ for our troubles and that’s it.

and especially when you get statistics like above - 42 likes and 9 reblogs - it feels like a kick to the face. 

if every writer only wrote for themselves (”as you’re supposed to do uwu”), there wouldn’t be a single fic out there, because we’d keep all the fics. but we write for our audience too, hoping we’ll hear back, hoping people will spread our fics, “hey, look at this cool thing i read!”.

and that doesn’t happen.

so you start thinking “hey, maybe i shouldn’t publish this. it’s bad anyways, right? and it doesn’t make a difference if i do. it’s not like anyone cares.”

how many thousands and thousands of words for your favorite ship do you think are out there, saved on hard drives by authors who’ve given up wishing to publish their things, because “nobody cares.”

reblogging and commenting seems to be at an all time low at the moment. and you know what happens when you, the supplier, feel like there’s no demand out there? 

you stop supplying.

because nobody cares enough to want to share it.

“thoughts and prayers with your fic! it was so good!” that’s what the like button means, to make an extreme comparison here.

and honestly, i don’t understand why.

reblog. your. writers. it’s all we ask for.

[ashaftermidnight-deactivated201]

No writers or artists are trying to sound “whiny” by asking for this. It’s literally how our work gets any recognition since we’re not doing it for money. If you’d like to make a writer’s day or an artist’s day, please consider reblogging works that you love. I promise you will put a smile on their face. <3 <3 <3

[faficowrimo]

Every chapter. Every one shot. Every drabble. Every ficlet. Whether it’s on a personal website, a blog, or an archive. Whether you’ve read it a hundred times before or you’re reading it for the first time. Whether the fic was posted years ago or minutes ago. Whether you sign your name or leave your thoughts anonymously. Whether your comment is paragraphs in length or a few short words. Comment on every fanfic you read and enjoy in the month of January.

[junipernight]

Ayyyy, now this is a challenge I can get behind :D

[anistarrose]

Normally I don’t like bringing this up, but: Tumblr is making it increasingly difficult for writers and artists to get their posts to show up in tags and searches, meaning that our fics and art are being exposed to fewer people. 

Yes, it’s still possible to get posts to show up, but in the case of the search function, it’s only if they have no links - not even links to other Tumblr posts. For people like me who include links to other chapters in my fic so readers can get caught up on chapters they might miss, this is a huge problem. I basically have no choice but to include those links, or else I would make things massively inconvenient for my readers.

So why am I telling everyone this? Because this means reblogs are becoming more and more important to creators. With posts so difficult to find in searches and tags, reblogs are one of the few other ways for people to find new artists or writers.

You’re under no obligation to reblog my stuff, of course, but I want to put it out there why reblogs are so important to those of us who write/draw/create content.

(Also: While I’ve personally verified the stuff that’s going on with searches, I have no clue what’s going on with tags. Some of my stuff is showing up there, some isn’t, seemingly with little correlation to the links included. So tags might not be quite as strict, but they do seem to be less consistent.)

[scrunchyharrywrites]

taken by the wind by lightofathousandstars

When he decided to move to London with his sister, Harry thought he would finally get to learn how to control his magic. He couldn’t possibly have predicted that he would fall for her neighbour.

Or the one where Harry is a clumsy witch and Louis is making everything worse just by existing.

[scrunchyharrywrites]

When you see this, post a snippet of your WIP

Harry kicked off the ground and pedalled away, accompanied by Daisy’s bell-like giggles and laughing to himself as he imagined the look on Charlotte’s face when she would discover the twins’ surprise. He knew and loved those girls as much as his own sister, having seen them grow up into feisty young women, driven by the same nervous energy than Louis.

Louis. Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis. The name bounced around the inside of Harry’s head, putting a smile on his face and making his heart flutter. Louis, who spent his days giving a hand to a distant neighbour whose only son had enrolled before the winter, leaving him alone to tend to his livestock, before coming home and helping his own family. Louis, who flitted here and there, offering help and support to families ravaged by the war, never stopping to take a second for himself. Louis, who had been part of Harry’s life as far back as his memory would go, always one step ahead of him and grinning as he waited for Harry to catch up. Louis, whose life was intricately intertwined with Harry’s to the point where he couldn’t tell where his own ended and where Louis’ began. He smiled fondly and quickened his pace, thinking that he might be able to catch him on the road before he got home from supper and enjoy a few minutes away from indiscreet eyes.

The Tomlinsons’ house was the last one between his own house and the village and for the next ten minutes, Harry had nothing but his thoughts and open fields to keep him company.  The road was uneven and muddy under the wheels of his bicycle, sodden and destroyed by the winter and forcing him to pay close attention to where he was going unless he wanted to get his front wheel stuck in a hole and end up lying flat on his stomach in the mud. It had happened before. Louis loved to remind him at least once a month.

[caroscuro]

signs and wonders by scrunchyharry

On the surface, it looks like Louis Tomlinson has the perfect life; after all, he has the whole package: a white picket fence house (well, his doesn’t technically have a white picket fence, but work with him), a wife, a daughter and a dog. He has it all and he’s not even 30, yet.

On the surface, he could be the happiest man in the world.

The thing is, he never wanted this life. There was this boy, see, this Harry Styles, whose arrival made Louis question everything he thought he knew about himself. Before Louis could pursue it, though, before he could be brave and ask the boy out, one moment of bad luck on prom night, one single lapse of judgment, shaped his life in a way he never would have chosen. Between doing the right thing or turning into his own absent father, he knew what he had to do, even if it meant burying his dreams under the weight of a premature adulthood.

That is, until he receives an invitation for his school’s ten year reunion and sees that Harry will attend.

Could it be his second chance at happiness? At what cost?

the amazing moodboard was made by @suddenclarityharry​, who was a dream to work with.

a big thank you to @greenblueandniamtoo​ for beta’ing and helping me hide the fact that I’m not a native English speaker.

written for round 1 of the @onedirectionbigbang​