For your drabble day at work a little prompt - sing!
100 Word Ficlets ✨
Hello Bella! Took me a minute, but I was inspired yesterday and it was perfect for this prompt <3
Just a little taste of something I'm working on...
lineman
His headlights cut through the pitch-black darkness of a vast highway, and for a while, there's barely another soul in sight. It's the kind of lonely void that could drive a Trucker mad. If it weren't for Jake crooning over the radio, that is.
Their routes won't align this time. Bradley's got a trailer swap waiting for him at the depot, and Jake's already on his way back south.
It's been Wichita Lineman ever since Jake passed the city an hour or so ago. In the orange glow of his dash, to an audience of one, Bradley softly sings along.
Thank you so much for this prompt @shealwaysreads!
I have to ask about your oceans 11 au - tell me literally anything you want about it, I am LOCKED IN
Hi Bella!! a teeny spoiler is that the reason Bradley was put away was due to Jake’s brother — trying to figure out just how he had to take the fall there, but it was a setup that Jake wasn’t involved in but felt conflicted about the whole thing.
So that got Bradley behind bars and resulted in them not speaking for years
Nixie darling I am here to ask ALL about the Doom AU from your wip meme list please and thank yoooou! ❤️
@shealwaysreads Hello Bella!!
My beloved Doom (2005)! One of my absolute favorite movies of all time lol So this AU is going to mostly follow the plot of the movie, with some obvious twists!
Here we'll have Bradley as Sam, the doctor on Olduvai, along with Callie and Bob. While Jake will be in the role of Reaper, with the rest of the Daggers as members of the team and security. I haven't decided on wo will be my Sarge yet XD
Now you're probably asking yourself, but Nixie Sam and Reaper are twins in the movie! And you're right, they were! But in this AU, Jake and Bradley are going to have been childhood best friends, turned high school sweet hearts, turned bitterly divorced but still so deeply in love with each, to reconciling years later while fighting monsters! Who doesn't want that?!
hello! hope this isn’t too vague but i’m looking for a fic where draco didn’t speak after the war? i think it might’ve been inspired by a photo of a neck tattoo that said “enjoy the silence” or something?? i might also be completely making that up soz
don’t remember much at all except that it was on the shorter side, and i think him and harry met at a bar? thank u mods i love u!! xx
We believe you are looking for Enjoy the Slience by @shealwaysreads (3k, M)
Don’t forget to bookmark, leave kudos and comments!
Draco didn’t bother trying to hide the satisfied curl of his lips; Harry was jealous, and it fed the dark little fire in Draco’s heart that delighted in knowing he had somehow found his way into the centre of Harry’s attention. He’d wanted this since before Hogwarts, and then he’d got it and—like a fucking idiot—had convinced himself he couldn’t have it.
Together Like This by @shealwaysreads (drarry, E, 3k)
Malfoy was still pale, his skin milk-white. But now, he had the faintest trace of freckles across his cheekbones. His hair was still fair, silver-blonde and bright as a new Sickle. But his eyebrows, and his eyelashes, were dark now; framing his eyes with dramatic sweeps and arches of black. A charcoal sketch on white vellum, bold and delicate. And his eyes. His eyes were different now, too. Shockingly so.
Ocean Eyes by @shealwaysreads
There is such beautiful description in this. I like the idea behind it and it is executed well.
I'm thrilled to have @shealwaysreads in the library today! I've followed her for a long time and am always delighted by her posts on my dash. She has excellent taste, and has picked an incredible fic to share with us. Without further ado, I'll let Bella take over!
I did a slightly ridiculous gasp and wiggle when the lovely @thedrarrylibrarian reached out to ask me to share a fic rec for their brilliant Happy Hour, and was beyond delighted to be chosen to open the new year with a story I loved.
I haven’t actually been able to read much fic over the last year, except for short pieces, which has really crystallised for me how much I really do love short fic. The skill, choices, focus, and subtle characterisation that’s so necessary for a fantastic short read is intense, and I find myself endlessly full of admiration for writers who can take on that challenge and create something beautiful.
Contretemps by @moonflower-rose is one of those brilliant stories—written for @hd-erised it was the last fic I read in 2022 and it was everything I hoped for, so I thought it would be the perfect story to share with everyone to kick off 2023!
Contretemps by @moonflower-rose (8,488 words, rated T)
Draco Malfoy has been living like a model citizen. If only he could convince Potter.
In less than 10k Rosie manages to create such a full feeling world, with brilliant cameos from Ron and Hermione, brief but sharp and defined OCs, and a Pansy I adore beyond measure (a running theme in her work, do check out her back-catalogue and ready yourself for falling in love), along with a delicious Harry—dimpled, earnest, and transparent (or so Draco thinks), and a Draco pov that is positively sparkling (if slightly misguided).
Just the opening two lines shows you so much about Rosie’s deft world building, and fantastic sense of humour. By the third paragraph (full of brilliant characterisation) you are completely in-world, immersed in the tale she’s woven, and ready to be delighted.
I sat and highlighted a ream of quotes from the fic, and then realised I was essentially sharing every single bit of it. So I’ve given myself a stern talking to and settled on just one, which made me laugh out loud and captures perfectly Draco and Harry’s dynamic at the beginning of the fic:
“Draco imagined wrapping his fingers around Potter’s throat. Sometimes he even imagined strangling him. Sometimes.”
Draco’s perspective, and Harry’s characterisation, make the misunderstanding and miscommunication work so perfectly, so believably, that along with the urge to give them both a gentle slap I also found myself grinning away while they fumbled.
Rosie’s fics always leave me bone-deep satisfied. She has that innate talent and well-honed skill to spin a world full of characters that feel so real you could reach out and hug them, and to guide you gently along emotional journeys to a resolution that leaves your heart warm and light every time. Short, or long, her stories are rich and generous, full of subtly crafted details that build a world (Contretemps is full of these—Hermione’s recent laws, Draco’s pirating choices, the queue outside Harry’s office) and even moments of sadness are leavened and balanced by the absolute gift she has for humour in her writing.
Every fic of hers has made my day better, has lifted me up and set me on my way with a smile.
A special note: Rosie always undoes me with her food descriptions, and by undo I mean ‘wake up my appetite but ONLY AND SPECIFICALLY for what she has just laid down in words before me. I have once and will likely again actually gone and bought what she’s written about simply to sate my fic-induced hunger. If you’re anything like me you will find yourself reaching for a snack about halfway through this fic, and find yourself desperately wanting meringues and apricots.
I’ll stop myself there, before I spend the next thousand words singing the praises of this fic and @moonflower-rose’s writing, and hope that you all click the link and read Contretemps. I guarantee it will make your day if you do!
Thank you so much to @thedrarrylibrarian for inviting me to be a part of Happy Hour, and for all of your brilliant recs. As a Library Person™ it just brings me so much joy to be part of this project and the gift it is to the Drarry fandom.
Happy 2023 everyone, I hope it’s a beautiful one, filled with fic and art! ❤️
Thank you once more, to @shealwaysreads for joining us today! Be sure to check out her own writing on her AO3!
❤️ As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment! ❤️
