Hey dude I don’t even know if you check this blog anymore but I’ve been sick as a dog for two days and have blown through almost all of the scrap metal universe and it’s the only thing keeping me from going kinda crazy - thanks for gifting us with this adorable wonderful ‘verse.
You’re a fantastic writer and I adoreeeee the way you handle dialogue. Also you write Merle and Daryl so well. 👏👏👏 thanks for keeping me company while sick via Caryl 🫶
just checked my inbox for the first time in a very long time, so my apologies for not seeing this until now, but thank you! i'm glad people are still getting joy out of that dumb little universe i accidentally devoted years of my life to like an insane person. you're very lovely ❤️
Hi! I’ve been reading one of your Caryl fics, where you wrote that you’re removing one of your other fics from AO3 and 9L (I think it had ‘undertaker’ in the title or something similar). Pleaseeee don’t tell me it’s too late to read this? (It’s ok if it is obviously, it’s just that I love your writing and want to read everything you’ve written 😭)
hey! you sent this to me over a month ago, i apologize for not seeing it sooner. i don't check this blog that often. i did remove "romancing the undertaker," because i was experimenting with self-publishing and flipped it 50 shades style as practice, and legally i couldn't have both up at the same time. but! i can still give ppl the document, so if you (or anyone else) are interested in reading the og "romancing the undertaker" just lmk and i'll send you a copy. i recommend dming me instead of sending me an ask, because i am more likely to see it
also, thank you! i appreciate the kind words! sorry again for not seeing this for 84 years!
a new chapter of "diy steps to serenity" in MY 2025? it's more likely than you might think!
not just a new chapter, actually, but the final chapter! look, i completed a project, and it only took me *mumblemumble* years!
mega shoutout to @thegratefulsouth for inspiring me to revisit my wips by basically lovebombing me by going through my entire backlog of caryl fics and leaving novel-length comments on every chapter (if you were wondering if you can emotionally manipulate a writer into finishing a project, even if it's not your intention, the answer is yes, and it's by showering them in validation #lifehack)
here is your link to the story, and your three final out of context images to get you hype!
thanks for tagging along for the ride. i love this dumb story, love that YOU love this dumb story, and might revisit it in oneshot form down the road. until then, tho, 🫡
I kinda gave up ready Caryl fanfic during the great kerplooey of the first incarnation of the spin-off. However, today i decided to reread Jumper Cables and i just keep laughing and feeling so much and Daryl only just met Picatso and i remember how much i love your writing and i’ve decided its the exception to my no FF rule. I can’t wait to reread the whole series! Much love and thanks to you and Duolingo bless you always and forever ¯\_(ツ)_/
i actually just reread jumper cables a few days ago and almost walked into the ocean at the amount of typos and inconsistencies in that thing due to having written it in a manic haze with no editing (and also apparently i didn't know the difference between sit/set and lay/lie in 2018), BUT! this is a v nice message and i am v happy to hear that my words give you enjoyment. praise be to our lord and savior the duolingo owl, enjoy my self-indulgent nonsense and please ignore the typos and inconsistencies 😘
look, i updated "an unfinished memory"! read it here
i usually have a drawing accompanying this, but it's been so long since i've practiced drawing that i decided not to embarrass myself, plus i'm dying to share this story with y'all. if you still read this fic, may the lord bestow great blessings upon you. i will hopefully update it much more frequently than once every two years
i have been Swamped with full-time freelance writing and a full-time job on top of it, and you guys have been so so so patient with me going months and months and months without updating anything, so i decided to give you little sneak-peeks at the next “diy steps to serenity” and “an unfinished memory” chapters to prove to you that i do actually have content, it’s just been sitting idle as i’ve been forced to write less-fun things for money :(
i’m going to have a break in my work writing obligations here v v v soon, and updating these fics will be my vacation before the next obligations begin, and i am extremely hype
snippets under the cut:
DIY Steps to Serenity Excerpt:
The next thing she registered were forms being thrust at her, demanding her signature, as if she had any capacity to read. She mumbled the answers to questions about her birthdate and address, and scribbled her name poorly where they told her to on a tablet. Then, all of a sudden, a nurse was wiping the crook of her elbow down with an alcohol swab, and she forced herself out of her fog of suffering.
"No no no, wait," she said, trying to angle away.
"They gotta give you an IV to put you under for surgery, baby," Daryl said, his fingers brushing her hair back off her forehead. Carol shook her head vehemently.
"I can't," she insisted, eyes wide with fear.
"I know but you don't got a choice, honey, it'll be okay. Everythin's okay." Evidently, he'd regained his mantra from somewhere, but Carol still wasn't convinced.
"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. We're going to push some Dilaudid through to help control the pain while we wait to take you back for anesthesia," Leopard Print Scrubs said, thinking that Carol's fear was with the surgery, and not with the small syringe of clear liquid that she was preparing to push directly into her veins. She looked to Daryl helplessly, who simply shook his head.
"You got no choice," he repeated. Through the pain and fright and flood of confusion, Carol tried to think of an alternative. What did they used to do before pain medication? Maybe they could get her some whiskey and a big rock to bite down on. Not ideal, but she was so close to her twelve-month chip, which she didn't realize until that moment was something she actually gave a shit about.
"I'm just gonna flush your IV with some saline, and then we'll get that medicine in you and get you feeling better, you poor thing," Leopard Print Scrubs said. With her free hand, Carol reached for Daryl. He took it without hesitation.
"I won't be sober," she whispered to him through tears that she wasn't sure were new or had been falling since she'd arrived.
"But you'll be alive."
//
An Unfinished Memory Excerpt:
“Come now, don’t be like that,” Merle said. He came around and sat next to Daryl on the couch. He smelled like cigarettes and the cheap perfume of whichever girl he’d been cozying up with at the bar the night before. “If you need help lookin’ like a fine, upstandin’ citizen then I’ll do my damndest, but first you gotta be straight with me.”
“Straight with you about what?” Daryl didn’t look at his brother, opting instead to fiddle with his drawing, which was now just a crinkly ball in his hands. Pity, he thought, he’d liked that one well enough to have kept it, if Merle hadn’t ruined it. Whatever, he could always just draw it again.
“Carol. What’s goin’ on between the two of you? And don’t come at me with that ‘we’re just friends’ bullshit.”
“Well we are, so I dunno what the fuck else you want me to say.”
“The truth. You know everyone who goes through the Roadhouse all call her your girl, and she ain’t never denied it.”
“You know that was just so them guys would stop puttin’ moves on her when she was just doin’ her damn job.”
“Yeah, but that was months ago. You’d think by now the truth woulda come out, but if anythin’, with the way you two cozy up with each other when you’re together at the diner, y’all only reinforce it.”
“Good, then they’ll keep leavin’ her be.” Daryl pointedly did not address the “cozy up” comment.
“You know that ain’t my point.”
“Then what is it?” Daryl knew he was being purposefully obtuse, and he knew Merle knew it too, but he refused to give his brother the satisfaction of dignifying his taunts with a response.
But then Merle said, “She’d be good for you, you know? A girl like her. If you was with her I’d support it. Hell, I’d more than support it. I’d be over the damn moon.”
Daryl let his hands still, the staticky crumpling sound of the paper finally ceasing. He tossed the ball onto the table and leaned back on the uncomfortable couch, the structure of the thing hitting him at all kinds of unpleasant angles where the cushion was worn away. He stared headlong at the television in front of him. It wasn’t on, but the alternative was looking at his brother, and he didn’t think he could say what he was about to say and meet another person’s eye at the same time.
He said, so quietly he could hardly hear it himself, “Maybe I would be, too.”
