Precursor to the idea that will eventually turn to Reflection of You but set in the past and centered on Blueberry Milk & Healer Cookie instead
Initial Idea:
In which Pure Vanilla Cookie makes a friend and somehow saves the world along the way (but not really, it turned angsty at the end)
Outline
- PV-Healer runs for his life after getting ambushed in the forest by monsters. He blindly falls into a body of water and resurfaces at a fountain in the Blueberry Yogurt Academy ... except not really cause he travelled back in time to centuries ago (not that he knows)
- BM (pre-corrupt SM) was reflecting on the stresses of being an academic educator demigod until someone falls into the fountain from the sky. He is understandably concerned as he fishes the cookie out of the fountain
- PV is blind and was running for his life until five minutes ago, so of course he perceives this as a threat and socks BM in the face. They calm down, talk it out and nerd out together... eventually. PV somehow gets himself a job in this conversation
- PV is introduced to other staff and gets to listen to a lecture that is awfully familiar (it mirrors one of the lectures he had attended school). Other profs are skeptical of PV because he came out of nowhere and is highkey getting special treatment from BM. PV proves himself as a teacher to dissuade the doubts
- BM is delighted cause PV's teaching philosophy is exactly his own. PV appreciates BM's passion for Knowledge, more rampant nerdery
- PV teaches a class and BM discovers that his healing is very advanced and not really been seen before. BM starts growing suspicious of who exactly PV is
- PV has an identity crisis cause everything feels so familiar but so many things are oddly outdated. He reflects on his feelings about BM
- PV has an off day and he accompanies BM in going through his usual routine. He's surprised at the stacked schedule and feels an odd sense of camaraderie cause he remembers the feeling of being so busy. BM is chill about it cause it's his job and literal purpose of existence, but PV can see that he's slowly running himself down
- PV decides to do something nice for BM and drags him away for a respite. They have a nice fun time together.
- Mid term exams roll in and BM helps PV design the exam cause he's been teaching the Healing class before PV subs in. Intense bonding ensues. PV remembers more things
- Mid term exam day a bunch of students get caught teaching. BM is very disappointed and upset. PV helps him get over it and help design a punishment for the students
- Afterwards BM confesses that he's been feeling jaded lately and PV is a godsend. They have a conversation about Knowledge and academic integrity and blabla. Convo ends in PV passing out cause something BM said triggered all his memories to return
- PV wakes up feverish with all his memories and the first thing he sees is BM, who he now knows to be the historical founder of his almamater. He immediately panicks over fucking up the timeline and spirals. BM calms him down and they talk about timeline fuckery. PV doesn't want to admit to his status as a hero in his timeline, but his avoidance indirectly tells BM that he can't keep PV around
- BM consults with the Light of Truth and confirms that PV can't stay, so he starts working on something to send him back to his timeline.
- PV feels guilty for lying about being a nobody to BM, so he works harder in establishing healing magic theory to be as comprehensive as possible while looking for his eventual replacement. BM notices and he's now the one encouraging PV to relax. They enjoy each other's company, but both know separation is at hand.
- One day another problem comes up and it's an established scholar who is discovered to have lied about their research findings. BM is very upset and in his anger, he gives out a very disproportionate punishment. PV catches the tail end of it and BM immediately regrets giving such harsh punishment
- BM talks about his ideology of Truth again and PV is very hhhngh cause it sound so much like his own and there's the matter about their soul jam. BM is sure that PV is his successor in the future, but as he's an immortal, he also kind of wonders how exactly the succession happened
- BM retracts the disproportionate punishment and sentences the scholar to go study and reflect again. PV is reminded of a legend about the Fount of Knowledge and realises that he changed the timeline cause the scholar's extreme punishment was a very popular folktale in the future
- PV tries to go back on his earlier words cause he fears the consequences of changing the timeline. BM catches him on his lie and confronts him about his true identity as BM's successor. PV relents and confesses that he doesn't know about BM cause in the future a lot was lost in an ancient great war that went undocumented. He goes into detail about the differences. BM is crushed cause so much was lost in the future. He asks about his other friends, and the knowledge is also new to PV. BM says it won't look good to change the punishment again, so they don't do that. He asks PV for some time alone to reflect
- BM consults the LoT (Light of Truth) again about his fate in the future. LoT says some foreshadowing about Burning Spice's fall and corruption because his very nature is contradictory and he'll go crazy over it. It also reminds BM on the value of kindness
- BM goes back to work a little distraught and it is made worse by the amount of cheaters and cookies trying to dupe him for their own gain. PV is there to help reign in his temper and suggest a break. Thus they take a one week break and BM wants to show PV the wonders of the ancient world, so they set off for Mystic Flour's pagoda
- When they get there, they discover that the pagoda is at war. They're forced to fight through the crowd to piece together the reason for the chaos. Once they discover the cookies are killing each other over their wishes, BM gets so angry on MF's behalf that he singlehandedly stops the fighting and carves a warpath through the Pagoda
- In the Pagoda, they meet Haetae who is comforting MF.. who is panicking horribly cause nobody is listening to her pleas to stop fighting. PV rushes to comfort and heal the attendants in the Pagoda who's been protecting MF. BM gets angrier seeing his friend's tears and unleashes his wrath on MF's followers
- MF stops him just before smiting could be done. They argue cause she thinks he has no right to discipline her followers. He thinks she's letting them walk all over her and is reminded of the rottenness of some of his own following. PV breaks their fight and gets them to talk nicely.
- MF shares her problem. PV is the main speaker and comforter, but she's 100% convinced that the solution is to cultivate her power further so she could grant more wishes faster. PV thinks that's unfair to her and BM calls bullshit. MF and BM fight again and this time, PV fails to break the fight. MF kicks them out of her Pagoda
- BM returns angry and PV tries his best to comfort, but his raging temper proves to be too much cause now he starts a fight with PV. PV is upset and leaves to give him space. BM has a breakdown with the LoT.
- The next day, BM returns to work exhausted. A cookie comes with the news that that one cookie scholar hasn't learned their lesson. BM's temper reignites and he sentences that cookie to an even harsher punishment. He finds that he doesn't even regret it anymore.
- PV couldn't stop him cause he was teaching a class. BM spirals and PV snaps him out of it. PV shares part of his own experience holding the same position in the past and they reaffirm both of their own ideals with each other's help.
- Then they receive news that BS has gone rogue and started a rampage of destruction. BM realises that this is the catalyst event that'll change everything. He knows he gotta get PV home ASAP before things go shit, but he's pretty sure he won't survive w/o someone else to ground him
- LoT reveals that BSpice is corrupting and once one falls, the others are soon to follow. BM spirals mentally but puts on a show to cover it. PV is concerned
- Final exams roll out on the same day BM finishes the magic circle to send PV home. He catches someone trying to steal the final exam's answer sheets and grounds the entire grade responsible. News arrive that BS has destroyed his own territory and citizens are requesting the other Virtues' help. BM plasters a fake attitude to cope and amends his orders to cancelling finals and sending everyone home cause he and the staff will need to go and assist containing BS' rampage
- They pack. BM tells PV he can't come cause this'll be a major historical battle and corners him to the magic circle that'll send him home. PV argues cause at this point he cares more about BM than potentially fucking up the timeline more. BM disagrees and makes PV promise that he'll stop his future self, cause he'll undoubtedly follow in BS' footsteps. PV gets no chance to respond cause BM wipes both of their memories and sends him back.
- END tragedy, epilogue is post canon Shadow Milk defeat and PV recovers both of their past-future memories. Happy ending? Who KNOWS
Extra:
I ended up scrapping this idea because I didn't like how the ending literally changed nothing. The extra memories could be a potential source of conflict, but that'd make it so I'd have to write up an entire sequel to get to the good parts and I wasn't looking to write a duology based on these cookies.
Though.. I did end up doing that kind of. Some ideas I had from this outline still stayed in a lot of works in the Diverged Paths series, with the exception of Knowledge ex Machina
Hello! And welcome to my next bullet point fic; my take on a Fëanor lives plot! To no one’s surprise; Beleriand is on fire.
The Balrog that would have dealt Fëanáro a mortal blow instead takes an arrow to the eye, forcing a crack in the press of fire demons wide enough for Nelyafinwë to reach in and pull him out
Fëanáro is full of fire and wrath still, but his body shakes from pain and blood loss, vision swimming at the edges, hand cramped around his sword. It’s almost like coming out of a creative fugue; tired and hungry and disoriented, and he thinks, reflexively, ah, where’s a fortifying cup of spiced wine when you need it?
But there is only ash, and pain, and his faithful sons carrying him away from what he feels, from what he knows, would have been the death of him
His wounds are many but he will live; his will is too strong
Barely has he been tended to, and settled in his tent, when the message comes; that Morgoth has sent an emissary, claiming parley and teasing about surrendering the Silmarils
It sounds too good to be true, and so it must be a trap
Nonetheless, Nelyafinwë begs leave to go
“Of course, Morgoth is lying,” he says, eyes alight with his own inner flame. “But don’t you see? He will send more than he promises and so a credible force will be moving outside Angamando. Are we to let them roam free, unchallenged? I mean to crush them, and so convey our contempt at this thinly veiled trick!”
This is true enough enough that it persuades Fëanáro to let him go, despite faint misgivings
Later, of course, they learn they should not have. All who went with Nelyafinwë have been slain, the bodies desecrated and arranged in cruel parody. The only one missing from them is Nelyafinwë himself
Fëanáro truly thought he had known anger before, when his father was slain
It is nothing compared to knowing his son may yet live, but who knows in what condition?
Fëanáro has been up to the Gates of Angamando just that very day, and his memory is impeccable. There is no forcing those doors open with what siege supplies they’ve cobbled together so far
So far
Fëanáro will change that
The Mithrim Sindar are welcoming, numbers decimated as they are from Morgoth’s initial flood of his monstrous forces, and the mountains of Hísilómë are rich in metal ores
They can make something great here; it is only a matter of time
Time the Enemy seems keen not to grant them
it seems Fëanáro can dedicate his forces to building, or wiping out the enemy, not both at once. How aggravating
There seems to be a roaming raiding party just close enough to concern them every other day
Eventually, enough is enough; Fëanáro puts Kanafinwë and Turkafinwë in charge of a cavalry force with a significant number of the remaining horses, and commands them to keep Hísilómë clear as far as they can safely roam
They are not his most useful sons for building fortifications anyhow
Under Morifinwë’s baleful and exacting directions, the possible foundations for a great fortress are mapped out; it is misty, and often rainy inside the shelter of these mountains that trap cold and wet wind from the west and north, not especially favorable building conditions when their only source of illumination comes from starlight
How the Mithrim Sindar eke out an existence in such darkness is a wonder that merits studying
Fëanáro glares down at a map; there are few eastern entrances into Hísilómë, the main one is what the locals call Eithel Sirion, the headwaters of a river. If any eastern pass shall be the greatest concern it will be one with a water source
“Does any claim the great grassy plains that encircle Angamando outside the Wethrin?” He asks of Aewendir, the surviving Lord of the MIthrim Sindar
Not that they use the word ‘Lord’ exactly. Lathron, he is called, ‘listener, hearer,’ a pun on both his function; to hear his people out that he may resolve their troubles; and the fact visibility is often terrible by the lake on account of all the mists
“No,” Aewendir says dryly. “And don’t let anyone blow smoke up your ass otherwise. We’re the only folk crazy enough to live so close to the shadow of Angband, and reviled are we for it by the southern king and his court.” He spits on the ground. “And yet it is our word the southerners rely on for news of Angband’s movements when orcs are abroad.”
Fëanáro is growing very fond of Aewendir; he has a steady practicality about him that puts him in mind of Nerdanel, and a bitterly amused yet philosophical way of looking at the world that both intrigues and disconcerts
“We shall build at Eithel Sirion then.”
It’s yet more work to keep roving orc bands at bay, but the fortress must be built if Fëanáro is to have the facilities to devise siege weapons capable of cracking Angamando
The mountains are generous with stone, and the Land of Echoes with wood, but the constant attacks are tedious and slow things down
His Ñoldor are split three ways now; the wandering cavalry under Kanafinwë and Turkafinwë, the builders at Eithel Sirion under Morifinwë, and the rest on the western lake shore with Curufinwë, Telufinwë, and Pityafinwë directing necessary domestic efforts
It’s all a finely oiled machine just barely balanced on a knife’s edge, the slightest upset--!
Fëanáro goes over the numbers again and again, but there’s really no help for it. If only Nelyafinwë had not gone to--
But there is no help for it so they make do. They will get through this if Fëanáro has to will it into truth
One year slips by before he knows it, and a messenger from Angamando is on their doorstep once more
The fact it is a Maia is all that keeps Fëanáro from having it slain on the spot, but that is as far as he can deduce of its identity, its fána so twisted and befouled there’s no telling what it started as
It holds an iron chest in its hands
“One year has the rightful King of Arda held the Crown Prince an esteemed guest in his home,” the being rasps through torn lips and blackened teeth. “But all good guests must leave eventually to stay a good guest. His Majesty offers your son back to you, Finwion, if you but agree to forget your Oath, depart Beleriand, and never return to darken His Majesty’s doorstep. What shall it be, Ñoldorán; your son or your jewels?”
For a shameful moment, Fëanáro’s conviction wavers. Could it truly be that easy--?
But no
Morgoth’s last offer to surrender what he stole was a lie. It was a lie then, and it is a lie now
Fëanáro will not be fooled.
He will drive open the Gates of Angamando and rescue his son himself, and whatever miseries he has suffered will be inflicted on Morgoth fivefold! Tenfold!
“Úmaia you are, and Úvala I name your thrall-keeping master!” Fëanáro scoffs. “Slink back to your hole and tell him to stuff his false offers back behind his teeth where they belong!”
The being laughs, a horrible scraping croak that’s half a wheeze. “Very well, Finwion. A souvenir to tide you over then. A token of His Majesty’s consideration.”
The chest is tipped open and a wealth of loose red hair, vividly bright even in the light of the Fëanorian Lamps, spills out upon the ground like a bloodstain half tossed by the wind
It reeks of blood too
The breath catches in his throat. All that hair, Nelyafinwë’s pride and joy. It didn’t seem real to see it bereft of his son, to see it tossed carelessly on the ground where-- where anyone could trample it
He feels numb
The anger is too strong, there are too many directions he wants to shove it at once
Behind him, Telufinwë lets out a cry and looses an arrow into the Úmaia’s mangled torso
Fëanáro reorients. Draws his sword and shoves it through the being’s throat and cleaves its head clean off. There’s an eruption of fouled power upon its death, but it must be the weakest in Morgoth’s enthrallment for it barely rocks him on his heels
“Pay what it said no mind,” he tells his sons, the lot of them wet eyed and reaching for the hair on the ground. “The Enemy is a liar, dishonorable, and a cheat. Even if we agreed to the deal, Nelyo would only be returned to us dead. The only way to get him back is to wrest him from the pits ourselves!”
So what if after getting messed around with and thrown through time and space Ingo and Akari are immortal?
It's not obvious at first especially with Ingo because they have no idea how old he really is, and everyone just thinks Akari is ageing really well. They both still have amnesia so it's not like they have any better of an idea how old they are than anyone else
But eventually it gets to the point where it's like "you definitely should have aged by now" and they just... haven't.
Like Liam is a full blown adult with grandkids and here they are looking exactly the same and absolutely everyone has noticed that it's weird
So they hang around Hisui a while longer but once they've figured out that they're immortal it gets kind of uncomfortable and so after a while they decide to leave
They adventure all around the world together for a hundred years or so, and Ingo takes up scrapbooking because he already lost his memories once and he wants to make sure he has a record of the things and people that matter to him so that can't happen again
Then Ingo decides he wants to settle down somewhere and not need to worry about living in a village as an immortal that'll kinda freak people out and just hide.
So he goes to Unova and finds himself a cave. Because Ingo likes caves. He's always liked caves. There's something nice about big dark underground tunnel systems, and he can navigate them easily and they just feel safe to him.
And every couple decades he leaves the cave and he meets people and makes friends and every now and then those friends will send their kids or grandkids up the mountain to say hi to him, and he keeps scrapbooking
Then one day a trainer gets lost on the mountain and stumbles across the cave and at first they spot silver eyes looking at them from across the cave and think it's inhabited by a pokémon of some kind then a lantern gets lit and... isn't that the missing Subway Boss?
And they're like "...Ingo?"
And Ingo's just like "Yes?" completly casual because he doesn't think it's weird that they know his name, they're probably just the decendent of one of his friends or something
And they're like "I think you need to come with me"
So they get him out and they get the authorities involved and someone calls Emmet and everyone gets ready to solve this mystery and find out why Ingo dissapeared while Ingo is just confused.
The authorities are like "Can you tell us why you were in the cave?"
And he's like "I live in the cave. I have lived in the cave for the past 198 years 2 months and 13 days"
And they're like 'well, this guy is completely crazy but maybe we can piece together something out of his story to figure out what actually happened' so they go "okay, what can you tell us about life in the cave"
So Ingo starts telling them about how he found the cave, all the historical figures he's met while living in the cave, all the times he's left the cave, and everyone who's come to visit him in the cave, and it's absolutely insane
But then he pulls out his scrapbooks, and they look up the history of these people and check their biographies/journals/whathaveyou, and his story is corroborated every step of the way
And they're just kinda forced to accept that Ingo has been in a cave for the past 200 years. Somehow.
They can't even be like 'must be a differnt Ingo' because the entire time he's been talking in train terms and gesturing and he's still in his freaking subway uniform (very very worn and patched)
Tldr: Ingo went missing for six months and when he reappeared it had been 200-400 years he had amnesia and he'd shaped history
Emmet is gonna need a lot of hugs to deal with this one.
And an emergency trip to meet Ho-oh or something so he can be immortal too.
Nobody tell him Ingo’s still not sure what a train is.
(Eventually Ingo's like "Would you like to meet my immortal niece?" and when they do someone takes one look at her and just goes "That's Champion Dawn")
Day (279/100) of my #infinitedaysofwriting @the-wip-project
Awesome, so now we just have to re-arrange our plot list into some semblance of order, add anything missing and remove anything extraneous, and boom! We have a plot outline, organized into scenes.
Villains: mayhem
Mulligan: shoot frances
Villains: in prison/institute
Cletus, Shriek: love you/getting moved to another institute convo
Title Card
Eddie & V: movies/games
Eddie & Mulligan: "he wants to talk to you" call
Venom: hunger (out of chocolate)
Mrs Chen's out too.
Friends =/= food intro
Settle on sushi (expensive, not satisfying, dead [non-nutritious]) and fries (doesn’t have any of the stuff V needs)
Eddie & Cletus: demands convo
Venom: sensory seeking behaviour
Eddie: hush V while trying to work
Eddie: be in a hurry
V&Eddie: stop mugger
Venom: hungry (rebuffed)
Eddie, Anne & Dan: Marriage Convo
Eddie: drive recklessly
Venom: save them
Eddie & V: jealousy convo
Friends =/= food reinforcement Re: Dan
Villains: pine for eachother (jealousy/pining resonance)
V: try to do something nice for Eddie (backfires)
Eddie & Venom: breakfast scene
Eddie: experience sensory overload
Eddie: be in a hurry, drive recklessly
Cletus: recount backstory
Venom: like the sound of the mayhem
Cletus: wants message delivered to Frances
Venom: likens to wanting to fight for Anne
Venom: hunger (forbidden to leave apartment)
Venom: Sensory seeking behaviour
Venom: violate boundaries (go for a joyride)
Eddie: experience violated boundaries and consequences for V's actions (callback to Anne in 1st movie)
Eddie & Venom: breakup fight
Venom: breakup aftermath, bad decision
Venom: party hard
Venom: "coming out" and being persecuted euphemisms
Venom: do party drugs
Venom: experience sensory overload
Venom: break down and discuss Eddie & bad hosts with drunk girls in bathroom while hiding in bathroom from overload
Venom: miss Eddie for practical reasons
Partygoers: suggest finding a better partner
Venom: find a better host
Eddie: breakup aftermath, bad decision
Eddie: do productive writing
Chickens: have needs
Eddie: head to Mrs Chen's for chicken advice
Eddie: see someone in trouble along the way, get roughed up trying to help someone
Eddie & Mrs Chen: do business
Mrs Chen: chickens=venom re:needs
Venom: break Cletus out
Mulligan: call Eddie re: breakout
Eddie: try to do Venom-style investigation without Venom
Eddie: miss V for practical reasons
Eddie: get arrested for B&E
Eddie: call on a friend
Anne: girlboss, practice law
Eddie: get relationship advice
Anne: getting Eddie out will take time
Eddie: experience consequences
Eddie: experience sensory deprivation
Eddie: sensory seeking behaviour
Eddie: miss Venom for emotional reasons
Cletus & Venom: joyride
Cletus: rescue Frances & other inmates
Villains: party hard, cause mayhem
Cletus: experience minor setback
Cletus & Carnage: sensory seeking behaviour
Cletus: eats a "friend"
Venom: Friends=/=Food
Venom & Cletus: breakup fight
Venom: experience violated boundaries
Carnage: born
Venom: experience consequences
Venom: get stranded with dying host
Venom: call on a friend
Carnage & Cletus: introductions, insta-bond 100% match
Frances: Jealous
Cletus: proposes to Frances (carnage can come too)
Villains: plan wedding guests
Dan: be helpful and unflappable
Venom: explain panic & call for help
Dan: patch someone up (temp host)
Venom: miss Eddie for emotional reasons
Venom: get relationship advice
Dan: Liken Eddie to chickens re: needs
Dan: confirm that he and Anne will still be their friends, Eddie or no
Venom: forgive Dan & let go of Anne
Villains: burst into police station
Carnage: gets hit by Scream's sonics
Carnage: experience sensory overload
Cletus: mediate Carnage & Shriek
Mulligan: get kidnapped
Carnage: smells Eddie
Villains: 2 for 1, kidnap Eddie too
Leave Anne alive, tell her to get word to V
Dan gets call from Anne
Dan & Venom: meet Anne and Mrs Chen at Church
Anne is better host: She-venom
She-Venom downs chocolate & chicken & tots from Mrs Chen
She-Venom: enter church
Villains: have hostages
Carnage: explain motivation re: venom
Frances: explain motivation re: mulligan
Cletus: explain motivation re: Eddie
Carnage, Shriek, Cletus: start marriage
She-Venom: Objects
Venom: wishes to bond with Eddie instead of Anne for this wedding
Venom & Eddie: notice the villains are unsynched
Eddie & Venom: Needs/wants talk while fighting villains
Eddie & Venom: Get the upper hand
Villain: Grab a hostage
Eddie & Venom: Lose the upper hand
Shriek: turn the tables on Carnage
Carnage: experience sensory overload
Shriek: fight Carnage for Cletus
Villains: Breakup fight
Priest: the villains are like chickens
Everyone:???
Priest: They will peck their own flockmates to death at the hint of blood
Everyone: ????
Priest: I grew up on a farm
Venom & Eddie: Win fight
Cletus: complain to Eddie that he just wanted to be his friend
Venom: Friends =/= food payoff "Friends are not food. … You, however"
Cletus: Get eaten
Fight Wrap-Up
Eddie & Venom: escape before cops get there
Mulligan: buy them some time
Credits Roll
Mid-Credits Scene:
Eddie & Venom unpacking heavy-duty stim toys while discussing their plan to go on a vacation and have some "them" time to figure things out
Venom: mention that they have some time now foodwise, since they glutted while in cletus
Eddie: verbally accept that he's going to have to compromise some on the foood thing.
Venom: verbally accept that Eddie needs quiet time sometimes, and mention some options for what it could do/who it could bond with in the meantime
(Or this could be like a list of options on a whiteboard in the bg.)
End--credits scene:
Spider-man sees Venom break Cletus out of prison on cameras, then Eddie escaping from the Church aftermath
End Credits
Heads up: I'm probably going to stop with the outline, but if anyone wants to take it and make an actual fic, or a modified version of the movie script, or anything like that, be my guest! I'd love to see it, I just have too many wips already to actually get into the fic part. :)
Any other suggestions on things to change in this outline?
Regardless, I have at least one more post in this series: my initial re-write burst from right after I woke up, mentioned at the start of this all. I haven't looked at it since starting to write all this up, so we get to see what I've improved on or forgotten about since then.
he’s a dilf ok there’s no way I’m going to avoid saying that because thinking about dilfs is literally what inspired this
happy father’s day am i right
(edit: I wrote this on father’s day, prompting the somewhat irreverent yet appropriate joke given the circumstances)
anyways zuko is very business-y
definitely a boss/manager of some kind
type of guy that wears a suit every day
sokka is a plucky grad student in his mid-late 20′s
i’m thinking sokka might be an intern for zuko/zuko’s business
i’m not sure about the employee/boss dynamic yet but we’ll see
sokka is definitely the one to initiate all flirting and coming on to each other
and the entire time zuko is just very flustered and somewhat confused
i’m going to write this is in zuko-centric narration because writing as Bewildered Dilf sounds like so much fucking fun to me
in the beginning zuko thinks the entire thing is just a bribe of sorts, like sokka is just doing it to get on his good side for a raise or better position or something
he has a hard time accepting that someone as young and full of life like sokka could truly be interested in someone with so much baggage like himself
eventually he realizes that sokka is only in it for well… him
zuko is a great boyfriend and is always spoiling sokka
sokka gets a long great with zuko’s kid and they just have a wonderful soft relationship
i just love them so much
zuko deserves so much more than he thinks he does and sokka is the perfect person to give it to him
I’m definitely going to flesh this out into a full fic so please let me know if you want to be tagged when I post it!!
He tends to work very late into the night by virtue of forgetting to stop, and also tends to ignore such necessities as food and sometimes sleep unless something breaks his focus.
Grantaire’s unofficially become the person who hangs out at Enjolras’s place, both to remind him to eat and for him to bounce ideas off of.
Grantaire brings his guitar. It’s no trouble, really, lets him work on songs softly while Enjolras works and it’s nice to be somewhere other than his own apartment when he’s playing.
Enjolras didn’t consciously get used to the quiet picking in the background, didn’t even think he noticed it, until it stopped one day.
He didn’t say anything.
Grantaire half-apologized, something about “probably driving you insane” and “not even music.”
He didn’t bring his guitar the next time, and Enjolras couldn’t get a word written down.
“Hey, Grantaire?” he ended up asking. “D’you... mind bringing the guitar back tomorrow?”
He worked a lot better then, softly strummed chords from the couch, and when he finished for the night (by Grantaire’s mandate, he’d been planning on staying up longer) he joined him on the couch and leaned close.
Grantaire tried to teach him something simple, but he found he’d rather just sit and listen, leaned on his shoulder.
Decided to write some bulletpoint fic, let me know what you think/if I should continue! 💕
“Don’t you ever get lonely?” Nicky asked, digging in his pack for a chocolate bar. To their left, the cliff dropped away precipitously, sheer granite cliffs like sentinels at the end of the world.
Neil stared at Nicky. “No,” he said.
“What, never?”
Neil looked out across the sweeping vista of mountains before them. A speck that could have been a hawk or a raven or a sparrow spun against the sky, too small and distant to judge. He’d stood in the middle of busy cities; he’d gone to school with hundreds; he’d even tried out for a track and field team once. He’d been surrounded by people, and he had been so ferociously lonely it had been like a knife in his chest.
“No,” he said, because he didn’t know how to explain—didn’t even want to, really. He’d felt more alone back in the so-called real world than he’d ever felt in the wilderness, miles from any other person. When there was no one around, there was no one to miss.
~~~The Long-Distance Hiker AU (A Bullet Point Fic)~~~
So after Neil’s mom died he kinda of ghosted around for a while and eventually ended up in a small hiking town in California
He met a bunch of thru hikers and figured, hey, my dad probably won’t find me if I’ve fucked off into the wilderness
So he starts hiking
And pretty soon he realizes it’s the best thing he could imagine
He spends all summer in the mountains and when winter rolls around he finds a temporary job in a skiing town working in a second hand gear shop
He’s an ultralighter in the most accidental sense possible
His gear is weird and cobbled together and his shoes are held together with dental floss
He sleeps under a tarp with a down blanket and a thin foam mat and he’ll eat the same shit day in day out without even registering it while he covers frankly obscene distances every single day
It basically gives Kevin an ulcer
Kevin’s an ultralighter, but in the stuck up, rich bitch way; his gear is probably worth thousands of dollars and he’ll lecture anyone who listens about ripstop nylon and is super snobby and elitist about who is a so-called “real” thru hiker (hint: anyone who doesn’t do it his way isn’t a real thru hiker)
(don’t worry he’ll get smacked around a little by people like Dan and stop being such a little bitch about it but he grew up rich so even though it might’ve been shit living with Riko he really doesn’t always take into consideration the context of how much fucking money gear costs when he’s preaching about ultralighting)
(yes I’m taking out my dislike for pretentious rich ultralighters on him, okay, but the difference is he’ll have character growth versus the people I met are probably still being preachy and self-important to this day)
Andrew’s like the exact opposite
His pack weighs like seventy pounds and he’ll pull a six-inch knife (a gross misuse of smart gear weight management) at anyone who comments
He has a completely contained single person tent that’s big enough to sit up in and a four-inch inflatable mattress
His sleeping bag is rated to like -20 even when he’s hiking in the summer
Nicky swears he once saw him pull a full-sized chocolate cake out of his backpack three days down the trail and everyone says that’s stupid and made up but secretly think its totally true
Andrew likes to hike alone but somehow he’s never more than a day away from Aaron and Nicky and when he keeps showing up near them it gets harder and harder to pretend like he doesn’t actually care about them
Nobody says anything, obviously, but Nicky gets a little teary when he starts to notice the pattern
It was Nicky’s idea; in this universe Erik got him into hiking when he was in Germany so he got the cousins into it as a bonding exercise and then it turned out it was the best family activity they had ever found
This is several years after they graduated and they’ve scrounged together enough time and money to hike the Pacific Crest Trail
Now the upperclassmen:
So Stephanie Walker is a trail angel: one of those people who lives near a long trail and provides snacks and rides and somewhere to stay and basically helps out anyone who comes by with whatever’s going on; she’s pulled a lot of people out of frankly dangerous situations and she’s not afraid of anything the trail has to offer
So Renee finds herself and her faith while living this life of meeting new hikers every day and it’s almost inevitable that she starts to hike and find solace in the wilderness
Allison is one of those Wild types: she’s done some hiking (much to her parents’ chagrin) but she’s never done a thru trail or even much overnighting before, but she’s ready to throw herself into it and doesn’t care how dirty she gets
She totally carries a tiny spa package though
The other women are very skeptical because they take pride in being free from societies expectations and make up and shaving but they come around after Allison pulls it out one time when they’re seven days into a ten day section and gives them face masks and they all have a little pedicure pampering session (so, so needed when your feet are being beaten and bruised by hard terrain all day)
She has a lot of new, expensive gear and is super touchy about people trying to help her (because a beautiful woman absolutely gets people trying to “help” all the time and it’s infuriating and condescending) but she learns to accept help from her closest friends
She was showing off near the beginning of the trail drinking with a bunch of guys and probably got too sloshed trying to act tough (alcohol hits you waaaay harder at high elevations dude, if you’re not expecting it you can get Fucked Up really fast)
It’s Seth who realizes things are getting out of control and pulls her out before the guys can do anything shitty which is how their friendship and eventually their relationship gets started
They piss everyone off with their constant breaking up and getting back together on the trail, sometimes hiking together for days and then splitting up and going to hike with other people but they find a lot of healing out there in the woods
Seth’s mom is totally dismissive and condescending of his hiking, she thinks it’s a stupid waste of time, but she thinks everything he does is a stupid waste of time so at least when he’s out there without cell service he has an excuse to not respond to her
Now Dan
Dan’s trailer trash, right
She’s got no fucking cash but she has this dream in her head to hike the PCT and she’s going to fucking well do it
Her gear is probably most similar to Neil’s except where his is a mess of weird priorities and held together by spit and twine
Hers is meticulously planned
It’s cheap, some of it’s over forty years old, but it’s hers
It’s probably the only stuff in the world that’s actually hers
She accumulated it over about four years, hitting all the second-hand gear events, saving up every penny, packing and repacking and writing everything out in great detail until David Wymack got wind of her plans at a gear event
He’s one of those guys who hiked the PCT thirty years ago back before anyone knew what it was except instead of feeling superior about that it means he knows exactly how much impact experiencing the wilderness can have for disenfranchised people
He approaches Dan and offers to sponsor her hike
She’s resistant at first; she planned this hike, she got all the stuff together, she was going to do it without anyone’s help
But he comes back and says he just wants her to write about her experiences and publish it on his website
He’ll pay her for the work, of course
And she wavers and finally caves because this will move her plans up by about two years if she can make money while she’s hiking instead of having to hoard up enough cash to take six whole months off
Her blog posts are a huge hit
She doesn’t preach about how the mountains saved her, or get too metaphorical about hiking or anything like that
She just talks about the real, raw experience of hiking
The friendships, the trials, the triumphs
The infuriating people whose mental image of the hiking community doesn’t include poor black girls who grew up in a trailer park, who say she’s an inspiration like they actually mean something else
She talks about the days that she flies up the mountains and the days that she can barely drag herself out of her tent and the day she realizes that Allison and Renee, these women she thought could not be more different from her, are the best friends she’s ever had in the world
And she’s takes fucking amazing pictures
She’s also very determined not to have a trail romance
That’s stupid and cliché
Look that guy Matt might be hot but she’s not interested
He’s clearly working through some stuff and she’s not here to be some guys savior or whatever
So Matt then
His mom helped him get sober a couple years ago and he’s been struggling with it ever since
She got him into hiking as an outlet and a healthy hobby and he took to it like a fish to water
He’s got legs for days and he doesn’t mind carrying a heavy pack, he can hike for hours without stopping
(The fact that he’s faster than her pisses Dan off a bit, but sometimes you gotta accept that you’ve got short legs and just hike your own hike, there aren’t any prizes for speed)
He relapsed again a couple months before his hike started and he and Randy weren’t even sure if he was going to be able to do it but he’s damned well going to try
So anyway
Pretty much everyone is trying to actually hike the PCT except Neil
He drives everyone bonkers
His motivation isn’t really about the trail so much as staying out in the wilderness where there are no gangsters to murder you
So he just does whatever he wants and keeps showing up at random points
He’s technically got one of the thru hiker permits but he frequently goes off on side trails not on the PCT and ends up hiding out in the woods so rangers won’t find him
He’ll just hitchhike straight through boring sections or anywhere that you pass through too many towns where he’d rather not be remembered
He keeps coming back to the PCT but it’s more like it’s a rough guideline of where to go than an actual route he’s taking
He’s got his natural colouring back because who’s dying their hair or wearing fucking contacts on the trail?
But also
Who would ever associate a runaway mafia kid with a guy with overgrown hair and a stained t-shirt who’s sitting serenely on a mountain pass in a photo on David Wymack’s website?
Nobody
That’s right kids, Nathan doesn’t have a role in this one because he doesn’t find Neil
Maybe he gets killed in a shoot out or something and some other gangster steps up and takes over, and in the shuffle Neil’s just kinda forgotten
Maybe he finds out months later and he just stares at the computer in shock because he should have known, shouldn’t he? He should have felt it when his father died
He should have realized that he was free
That happens later though
Who fucking cares what Riko’s doing honestly
Kevin has somehow attached himself to Andrew and is driving him up the wall with advice to improve his hiking/base weight/distance/etc and he sees this guy (Neil) who regularly covers like thirty or forty miles a day (obscene!) and is like YES this guy is my people!
Except when he starts talking to Neil he realizes he’s this total weirdo who doesn’t even have a cook set he just eats cold food (a common enough thing among ultralighters, but not like this. Oh god, not like this)
Neil’s just sitting there gnawing on a pack of uncooked ramen like a fucking animal
And he’s not! Even! Hiking! Properly!
You’ll never finish the trail if you hike like this!
Neil just gives him a blank look
He’s got no interest on getting on some “verified” list of people who hiked the PCT, he just likes hiking
Andrew likes him
I mean obviously he despises him what the hell is with that janky ass setup but also he’s so unconventional and unapologetic how could Andrew not be into that?
They’re the kind of people who give wilderness rescue personnel grey hair, but for completely opposite reasons
Neil keeps running into them because even though he covers so much ground every day, his meandering route means he doesn’t actually move down the trail very fast
They’ll be like wait weren’t you like a week ahead of us and he’s like oh yeah I heard about this cool waterfall and took a sixty mile side trail to visit it and nearly ran into a momma bear with two cubs, it was awesome
And they all start to grow on him, and each other, almost accidentally
Look none of them are out there romanticizing the trail as some kind of magical place where the problems of the real world disappear and the people are somehow more pure and true or whatever
People are people and they bring their issues wherever they go
But there is a paring down
When your daily concerns are just mileage and shoes and food and weather, a lot of other stuff fades into the background
And well the truth is a lot of people are on those trails to work through stuff
And they find each other
Gradually, without even really noticing
They team up in June, groups of three or four with crampons and ice axes to get over the Sierra’s.
Neil was planning to just do side hikes and wait for the snow to melt—he isn’t so reckless he wants to go over the ice alone, but Kevin insists he join them and for the first time he hikes in a group with Kevin and the cousins all together.
It’s weird
He’s not used to people talking to him when he’s hiking and he frequently doesn’t respond and it’s not because he’s being rude he’s just so focussed on what he’s doing and what’s around him that he literally doesn’t hear them
And then
Nicky slips
It’s not his fault, they did nearly everything right (Kevin may be a pretentious ass, but he does know his shit) but sometimes shit just happens for no reason
And they’re at the edge of the ice sheet so Nicky’s just untying himself from the rope that links them together, he’s not even moving, and the snow beneath him shifts and he doesn’t even have time to scream before he’s hurtling down the snow below the trail towards the cliff at the bottom of the ice sheet
Neil doesn’t even hesitate
He dives after him, ice axe in one hand like a fucking gladiator and gets his arm wrapped around Nicky’s waist
He slams the ice axe into the snow and it drags behind them, and it looks like it’s not going to catch, and the edge is getting closer and closer—
Until the axe catches something, and Nicky and Neil lurch to a halt, clinging to each other, hanging off of Neil’s one arm and the axe.
Neil looks up and sees Andrew, Aaron and Kevin in various places on the slope above them, their axes dug in and long gouge marks in the snow beneath their heels, strung together by a ropeline that’s still attached to Neil’s waist
That rope is probably the only thing that slowed them down enough that Neil could stop them without ripping his arm clean off
It’s hardly a by-the-book rescue, and in fact it was pretty stupid, but they’re okay, they’re okay, that’s all that matters
That night they light a fire down by a lake and Nicky cries on Aaron’s shoulder and Andrew keeps clenching his fists because he’s never felt so helpless in his life and it was Neil that jumped, not him
He knows that he was at the far end of the line and he would’ve made it worse if he had, but doing nothing while Neil risked his life to save Nicky
They don’t really talk about it
But you kind of can’t help being friends after that
And even after they’re out of the high mountains and back on solid trails Neil keeps tabs on them
And Nicky befriends the others and without even meaning to they start to develop a sort of loose trail family vibe
They’re not hiking together all the time like some of the groups they meet, but they check on each other all the time and wait up in resupply villages and bond over firepits and shitty hot chocolate mixes and swap tips on how to keep the butt-chafing at bay
Neil sticks to the outskirts, mostly, but he starts to open up a little, in fits and spurts, tiny non-specific things that wouldn’t even register to most people but that this particular group knows means more than that
He’s slowing down, too, sometimes hiking entire days with people and covering half his usual distance even when there’s no cliffs or glaciers threatening him
He likes hiking with Andrew the most, though
Because neither of them are big talkers when they’re hiking and Andrew’s pack might be absurdly heavy but he’s got legs the size of tree trunks and endurance to match, so he might not be fast but he can outwalk half the people on the trail by sheer relentlessness
They both like to camp up high, near treeline (so Neil can set up his tarp) and in the places that it’s legal they’ll start a small fire and Andrew will loan Neil his pot so he can actually cook his fucking ramen for once and sometimes they’ll watch the Milky Way rise and share secrets under the open sky, not looking at each other so they don’t break the illusion, and sometimes they won’t say anything at all but it’s okay, because they’re saying nothing together.
It’s nice
It’s maybe more than nice
The summer draws to a close and Neil is starting to realize that he doesn’t want it to
He never wants the hiking season to end but this time it’s different
This summer has been perfect
And he knows deep in his bones that once they leave the trail things will change
The others have lives to return to, and Neil…
The trail is all he has
And if he’s barely hiking alone at all these days, well, who’s going to call him out on it?
The others like having him around because he stops them from getting too fixated on the Trail to see the trail
He still takes side trips but now sometimes people will come along and he’ll stand at the base of a canyon staring up at the glossy white walls and Dan will snap a photo for her blog and smile, because the PCT is just a line on a map, but the hike is all of them; together
He’s hiking with Andrew in September when a storm hits, this time vicious
Neil huddles under his tarp in resignation
Storms suck, he always gets wet, no matter how much he lowers the tarp, but he’s used to it; he just waits it out
But it’s just getting worse
Hail lashing at the tarp and pummelling the ground and maybe for once he regrets camping so high up
And Andrew has to shout to be heard but finally Neil realizes he’s offering to let Neil come into his tent
You’re going fucking freeze, just get in here
Neil goes
It’s weird
It’s instantly weird
The tent is not built for two people, so they’re both sitting cross legged with their heads ducked to not press against the roof
The storms probably not going to let up soon, Andrew says
Yeah, Neil says.
Andrew sighs
Lie down, he says, and Neil does, and Andrew lies down next to him, shoulder to shoulder
It barely works, only because neither of them are very big people
Neil’s pack is outside wrapped in his tarp and all he has is his damp down blanket but he’s not cold anymore, not with Andrew bundled up in his ridiculous sleeping bag right next to him
The storm rages for nearly two days and what passes between them in that tent, nobody knows
If they’re barely ever seen apart after it, well. You only see people so often on the trail. It could easily be a coincidence
And if Neil doesn’t even set his tarp up on rainy nights anymore, well. They never camp near other people anyway, so who’s to know?
In early October the snow blows in, blocking the route to the finish.
They drift around a resupply village for almost two weeks, waiting for the trail to reopen, but finally even Kevin accepts that it isn’t going to
After all of that, none of them are going to finish the trail
It’s a disappointment—of course it is. For most of them, the end of their trip is now a nondescript exit into a village, no fanfare, no closure; they didn’t even know they were done for days
Still, it’s not so bad
They’re all together
Allison suggests Vegas, but they all laugh it down; they wouldn’t even know how right now, bearded and hairy and ravenous as they are
They go to South Carolina instead
It’s not really even discussed that they’ll stay together, they just all go; Allison hosts them at her resort and they laugh at the incongruous weirdness of seeing each other in real clothes, and it’s different, but it’s also okay
They stay for another two weeks, and they don’t hike another fucking inch
We should try the Continental Divide Trail sometime, Dan says
Her blog is so popular now that she’s got sponsorships from more than just Wymack waiting for her
She could make a career out of hiking and blogging and doing gear reviews and it’s a dream she’d never even realized she wanted until she had it
And if she accidentally fucked up and ended up with a hot trail boyfriend? Well, nobody’s perfect
And he has a great butt
(she has photos of it on her blog, from when they jumped into a glacier lake naked back in August)
Everyone is jealous
How about that trek in Iceland? Matt suggests
Or the whats-it-called in New Zealand, Allison says
Oh, I bet there’s some good ones in Europe! Nicky says. You guys can all meet Erik!
And it’s going to be different, but it’s not going away, and Neil feels calm in a way he never has at the end of a hiking season before
Eventually everyone has to start making plans to return to their lives, and jobs, and Neil sneaks out to the back of the house to sit in crisp fall air and watch leaves spiral down out of the trees
Andrew follows him
They sit together, watching the moon rise over the hills, and when Andrew asks Neil to come home, Neil says yes
This isn't a whole fic or anything, just an au I make up purely to entertain myself. The au goes something like this:
Taking a cue from Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, there are other dimensions with doppelgangers in them. If two copies of the same soul are in the same dimension, it will destabilize the World Tree, and Bad Things will follow.
In a strange, fantasy land, the lord of Yuuei Castle has been betrayed by an ally, and his home is about to be overrun by enemies. In desperation, his wife -- a dragon who took the shape of a human to be with Toshinori -- begins seeking alternate worlds so that their unborn child, at least, will survive. After seven nights of trying to contact their souls' Echoes, Lord Toshinori and Lady Inko place a dormancy spell over their egg, and slip it through a crack in the worlds just before their enemies reach them.
[[MORE]]
Meanwhile there's a world where Inko never married -- or even met -- Hisashi. There is no Izuku in this dimension. Inko works with the sound crew for a news show, but has been relegated to Coffee Girl for the newscaster, who is very much A Diva and the bosses don't want to deal with her.
This Inko starts having dreams of a dying dragon telling her to save her child. This goes on for a full week.
Inko isn't the only person having these dreams. All Might is also having them. After the seventh day, the dragon egg makes it through the crack in the worlds. The resulting wave of energy destroys the lab it lands in. All Might is called to help clean up, and finds what he thinks is a huge green stone.
The moment he touches the egg, the dormancy spell recognizes him as the Echo of the hatchling's father, and dissipates. The scientists freak out when they realize the "rock" has a heartbeat (the paperwork will be a nightmare, even though they hadn't run any tests on it) and all but shove it into All Might's arms. Heroes know what to do with orphan babies, right?
The dreams keep coming, and All Might starts to recognize the egg in the dream as the rock he's got sitting in a cat bed under a sun lamp. (Gran Torino is appalled, demands he make it a proper nest). For three months he takes care of the egg and tries to figure out why he's so resistant to the idea of finding a family to adopt it.
Inko runs into Toshinori by chance as he's taking the egg to a sort of prenatal checkup. After a brief, humorous conversation regarding the sight of a giant muscly guy pushing an egg in a stroller, Inko accidentally lets slip something about the dreams.
They meet to discuss the dreams later, which eventually turns into them casually dating over the next month and a half. They're not in love or anything, but there's a bit of an attraction between them.
The news show Inko works at gets to interview All Might for the 10th anniversary of his debut in Japan. The diva reporter, having heard some rumors that Inko might be involved with a certain smiling hero, brings her along just to see if she can catch some kind of "forbidden romance" to do a story on. This idea is significantly derailed when Izuku hatches in the middle of the interview.
Inko is the first person Izuku sees upon hatching, so he assimilates her shade of hair and eyes. His ears are slightly pointed, and there are soft scales on his shoulders and back, but that's about the only visible cue that he has dragon heritage.
At the hospital, when a birth certificate is needed and someone asks All Might if they need to register the baby in the foster system, Inko panics and blurts out that she's raising the kid. At the same time as All Might.
On the spot, they spin some story about agreeing to coparent the baby, since All Might's job might make for an abbreviated paternity leave. As at least one of them has passed a parenting class, the social services leaves it be. As soon as everyone is out of the room, Inko and Toshinori panic. They're only casually dating, after all, and they're not sure they're ready to be parents. But here's this kid with their names on his certificate.
Inko moves into the employee apartments in Might Tower, two floors down from Toshinori's apartment, and she comes over to take care of the baby whenever he has to work. They're 100% making it up as they go. But despite stress and a few colorful arguments, there are upsides. The dragon dreams stop, for one. Izuku is a very chill baby, for another.
But meanwhile Inko's diva boss starts putting two and two together in regards to Inko taking maternity leave just after "All Might's foster-egg" hatches. And she really wants that scoop.
