TYSM for the tags @redaresss & @sunny374940! Red, I loved loved loveddddd your spooky sexy snippet!! And Sunny's excellent WIP Wednesday post featured a bit from the modern 'Yellow Bike' AU we're working on with @lycheecatee, so I decided to follow suit and feature another slice of Ayla & her Evil Ex Elek.
These two idiots are terrible your honor!! 😂
"Shortcake! What a fucking surprise."
She walked up to where Elek stood in the ring, rolling her eyes at that idiotic nickname. He'd apparently been calling her by it ever since Neve took some of Ayla's baking into the office a few months back.
They were scraping Elek's last opponent off the floor while his next victim got ready behind him, and he'd folded his arms to lean against the ropes while he waited. He shot Ayla a cocky grin when she grabbed hold of one and hoisted herself up to kiss him on the cheek.
"Nice moves, sugar."
Ayla made to hop back down, but Elek grabbed her waist, stopping her. A weirdly impressive feat considering he still had those stupid gloves on. She wobbled off balance, but he steadied her in his arms, pulling her dangerously close.
"Thanks, sweetheart. Nice to see you again."
She smirked. Ayla could see each bead of sweat dripping down that chest of his, and when she looked up into his chocolate eyes, she found a ridiculous amount of heat behind them.
…Along with a bit of blood on his cheek.
Andraste's tits.
"I've been asking about you," he murmured, pulling her closer.
"Yeah, I've heard."
Elek made a ridiculous mock pouty face. "Come on, we had a nice time, didn't we?"
Ayla's mind quickly thumbed through all the little things she still remembered about that night that fucking proved just how nice a time she had. "'Course," she purred, her eyes catching on his lips. "But I don't do repeats. Nothing personal, sugar."
"Hmm. Well, shit. That sort of puts me in a bind," he said, giving her a wicked smirk. "Because I sure as hell would like to have a repeat of that night with you, Shortcake."
He leaned so close their lips nearly touched. "But only if you let me buy you a drink first."
Damn him.
There was no fucking way she was going to let him do that.
…But her breath had gotten hilariously ragged, and it felt like her heart was going to damn near burst out of her chest.
"Don't push your luck, handsome." Ayla gave him a teasing glare.
"Why don't you think about it, yeah?"
She snickered. "Sure. I'll think about it. Let's see if your ass is even still standing by the end of the night first."
Her eyes flew open wide in surprise when he kissed her cheek and suddenly released her, forcing Ayla to grab onto the ropes to keep herself from toppling over.
"You're as sweet as that cake of yours, Ayla," he said, giving her another stupid wink. Elek popped his mouthguard back in, and the bell rang, so she looked around for somewhere with a nice view, when she nearly toppled over again thanks to her crazy-ass roommate.
"What the fuck are you doing, missy?" Queenie hissed, dragging her away from the ring.
"Getting laid??" Ayla muttered. "The fuck's the matter with you? Did one of your cockroaches get stuck in your bra again or something?"
Queenie gave her a mighty pissy look and put a hand on her hip. "Knock it off. You know Valentina and Seymour are at home." She narrowed her eyes at Elek back in the ring. "He's trouble, Lala. Look at 'em. It's practically radiating off his smug wanker face."
"But Queenieeeeee," Ayla whined. "That's part of why he's so hot!!"
She snickered. "Dammit, you're hopeless."
^An A+ doodle from the lovely Rose, featuring the founding members of the "BOYCOTT ELEK" club, Queenie & Neve. Drawn in a rage after reading a later chapter I'm working on (sry babe) 🥲😂😈
Gently taggin' pals below to show us your WIPs if you got 'em! Work has been kicking my ass lately but I am still here and feasting upon all your delicious offerings, just a bit slower than normal. ILY!!! 💕
Happy Wednesday, y'all! TYSM for the tags @serensama @jenn2d2 @lemondelighted @woundedsoul12 @zennihilation @tevivinter @redaresss! Always love seeing what y'all are up to!! 💕
Ohohoho please bear with me as I cackle with glee and share my first-ever attempt at an Elek POV!! 🫣 (lol didn't mean to ryhme there)
Yes, (un??)fortunately Ayla meets Elek early on in the Modern AU fic I'm working on with @sunny374940 & @lycheecatee, before Em is even a little twinkle in her eye. 🥲
And while that might be bad news for her (we don't call him Evil Ex Elek for nothing y'all), it's frankly GREAT news for Neve's fellow lawyer and amateur boxer on the side, Elek. Who finds himself getting a bit hung up on the goblin queen after she crashes his law firm's First Day party with her roomie Queenie, leading to Ayla x Elek's meet-cute and one night stand.
Canonically, Ayla doesn't do serious relationships at all until she meets Emmrich. As a Warden, she just doesn't feel like they're an option or worth her time. And Modern AU Ayla is very much the same. Which of course just makes Elek want to pin her down even more. And after being nothing more than a casual fling for a few months, he finally wears her down into taking a stab at something more serious with him.
But as Sunny put it, "He had no idea what he was asking for."
Elek made a satisfied sigh as he leaned back against the headboard. He wasn't sure what the hell had gotten into her, but his Shortcake was in rare form tonight. A snicker slipped out of him, and he shook his head.
…Guess you could pretty much say that about any night Ayla slept over.
Which was more and more often now, thank the fucking Maker. He'd had just about all he could take of those run-ins with Tabris during his morning piss.
Elek grabbed the pillows they'd knocked onto the floor and tossed them back into place with a shudder. Honestly, he had no fucking clue what he'd ever done to make Ayla's roommate so pissy with him all the damn time, but he definitely didn't need to be the recipient of those glares she and Gallus loved to give him over breakfast. His lips twitched up into a smirk.
If you could even call that disgusting coffee Gallus makes, 'breakfast'.
Nope—he didn't miss any of that shit one bit. Give him his Shortcake, a nice good fuck in his own bed, and a fresh cup from that new top-of-the-line espresso maker he'd picked up from Nugstone—and he was a happy man.
Elek swiped the remote for the blinds off his nightstand and flipped them over to blackout mode before taking an embarrassing amount of time adjusting the pillows on Ayla's side of the bed. Even though she'd definitely end up wrapped around him with her head hogging half his own damn pillow by the end of the night. He caught himself smiling.
As if he'd have it any other way.
Although Elek was pretty annoyed when he realized just how much he'd started to miss Ayla on the nights she spent back at her place. Way more than he should.
Sure, they were together now—finally—but he'd had girlfriends before.
And being with them never felt like this.
He wasn't used to being some pathetic simp who didn't enjoy a night to himself now and then, and Elek couldn't say he really cared for the feeling all that much. Of course, he liked Ayla (a whole damn lot, actually), and he counted himself lucky as hell she was his. But whatever they had between them was a lot more…
Well, whatever the fuck it was seemed to have lodged itself in a pretty inconvenient place inside of him. 'Cause it felt much harder to let off the gas even though he felt himself hurtling off the deep end, like the pedal was stuck on his fucking Bugatti.
And he was heading straight for the edge of a cliff.
Gently taggin' pals below to show us your WIPs if you got 'em! 💕 In the meantime, please enjoy my fav take from Rose regarding Elek so far:
"I like him but also there’s that lingering feeling of dickheadery afoot" -LycheeCatee🌹
TYSM for the tags @necromanticsoul, @sorcerousadventurer, @woundedsoul12, @kogarashi-art, @sandcastlekings, & @redaresss! As always, I loved seeing what y'all have been cookin' up! 💕
This is a silly little scene from the yet-to-be-posted Modern (Shithead) AU I've been brewing in my caldron with @sunny374940 & @lycheecatee. It's from Ayla x Emmrich's meet-cute at Davrin's bar, where Inquisitor Tal & his husband Bull set them up (without telling them). So they only just met.
Poor Em. 🔥
"What are those, exactly?" he asked Tal.
"Oooh! Spicy fries!??"
Emmrich felt a small hand on his shoulder, announcing the arrival of a delighted—and gloriously sweaty—Ayla.
"Can I have some? Pleaseeee?"
"Yep. Got Davrin to make them extra spicy, too."
"Yesssss," she hissed, excitedly pumping her fist in the air.
Ayla looked around for a chair and cursed under her breath. "Ya'll took all the seats!" Emmrich's stomach flipped when her eyes landed on him and her lips curled into a smirk. "Is this one taken, sugar?" she asked, gesturing towards his lap.
"Oh—" he sputtered, clearing his throat. "Not at all. Please, it's yours, dear."
Ayla sat down in his lap, once again enveloping him in the delicate scent of orange blossoms as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Mr. Scientist. You're so damn sweet; I'm awfully tempted to take a bite," she teased, breezily turning her attention back to Tal's offering as if she hadn't just turned him into a useless puddle on the floor.
Emmrich found he was suddenly holding his breath, very keenly aware of every single bit of his thigh underneath that lovely behind of hers, a damnable snicker escaping Queenie, presumably at the expression he was wearing because of it.
...All of which likely explained his extraordinary lapse in judgement when faced with the question Ayla asked next.
"Spicy fry?"
She turned to flirtatiously feed him one, and Emmrich's idiot, lust-drunk brain took far too long to catch up to the rest of him. Meaning he took it from her eagerly, already chewing and swallowing it before realizing he had made a terrible error.
But realize he did. As the entire inside of his mouth immediately burst into flames, scorching his lips, tongue—even the blasted roof of his mouth.
He coughed. First softly, then violently, Ayla's beautiful blue eyes widening in concern.
"You okay there, handsome?"
"Never better," he croaked.
You know the drill. Ploppin' the taglist below the cut! Show us all what you've got cookin' please if you're so inclined!!
Nightlife mogul Strife is back, with an all-new hotspot that answers the question, "What if the dance floor was a FOREST?"
This place has everything: Rainbow Veilbubble lights. Exploding ancient elven artifacts. TREES. The latest trance hits from DJ Bellara. Too many mirrors (but not where you'd expect there to be mirrors). Leg Log—
"…Leg Log??"
Yeah. It's that thing where you have a log, but it's got a bunch of legs sticking out of it!
Gorgeous art of HRH Queenie, Rook, & Ayla + Fadestagram spoof by @lycheecatee 💕
Yeah, I'm inflicting Arlathan Nightclub on y'all. Apropos of absolutely nothing. 'Cause you NEED to see Rose's beautiful art. 🔥
I also figured maybe this could be a fun peek into our 'process' (LOLLL) over here at Chaos Labs Productions™️ because sometimes an entire scene (or whole-ass night club) is spontaneously born out of a single, solitary Pinterest pin.
^a comment I made that Sunny has since dubbed 'the Chaos Lab official motto'
So unleash your little bat brain and come join me for this deep dive into the beautifully unhinged minds of @sunny374940, @lycheecatee, & myself and how we (completely unintentionally) got here.
The Art 🔥
One day, Rose and I were sharing fun Pinterest outfit ideas back and forth, for the yet to be published Modern AU that currently goes by several different aliases atm, depending on the day/vibe: Yellow Bike AU, Idiot AU, or Shithead AU (affectionate).
We were specifically looking for fun lewks roommates Queenie and Ayla would wear at one of their infamous house-parties. And once we found that sheer glitter top, we knew Rook was definitely attending too.
Then literally just a few days later, Rose surprised Sunny and I with thissssss! 😭💕🔥
Like ????? LOOK AT ITTTTT. It's everythingggg!!
I'm still speechless tbh lol. They're just so perfect.
The outfits?! Absolutely on point. Queenie's robe and cell phone case? Excellent. The added detail of the light glinting off Rook's nipple piercing?? Incredible. Ayla's cup size?!? She is CACKLING in delight, y'all. 🤣🤣🤣
The Clerb 🪩
This AU already has a Honky Tonk bar (The Hootananny, owned by Holden), and a dive bar (The Aerie, owned by Davrin and a callback to his bar of the same name in my silly Nugflix holiday special). But Ayla really insisted that they needed a place to properly dance, and one day the idea for Arlathan just popped into my head.
I was also inspired by a few ideas I crowdsourced for my silly Stefan SNL parody above (h/t @zennihilation for the mirror bit & for reminding me about the infamous Leg Log)!!!
So then I found some pins to sorta convey my vision, and it's exactly what you'd expect - a psychedelic forest fever dream. 🙂↕️🤣
And then of course y'all know I made a playlist lol.
Eventually we spun out on the idea, imagining just what the heck it would be like for these chaos goblins to go out to the club together. And now we have several scenes in the works along with this glorious text exchange that incorporates all of the insanity we cooked up above.
FIN.
Lmao thanks for coming along on that journey with me y'all!
It also got me so curious: What are all of y'alls' writing/creative processes like? Do you make playlists? Pinterest boards? What are your go-to brainstorming methods? I'd love to know!! Please share in the comments if you're so inclined!
Tagging friends below to share the crazy, and of course Rose's gorgeous art! 💕
